Nigeria: Ants And A Cube Of Sugar

By Ray Ekpu  

The story is not one of an earthquake proportion but it seems to cause some excitement in high and low places. And what is the story? That former President Goodluck Jonathan is on exile in the Ivory Coast. He has countered the story sharply and angrily. “I am not on exile. I have no cause to go on exile. It is a wicked and malicious report. I was Vice President for two years and President for six years. I did everything I could and I served my country very well. This is what they keep saying any time I am outside the country. I was in Ecuador. They said I was on exile. This is my second time in Cote d’ Ivoire and I am rounding up my visit. It is a wicked attempt to link me with the renewed Niger Delta crisis.”

*Ray Ekpu (pix:vanguard)

Let’s connect the dots. There is a crisis in the Niger Delta. Pipelines are being broken by militants who seem to have issues with the President Buhari administration. Jonathan is from Bayelsa, a major theatre of this crisis. Some of Jonathan’s former executives have been pulled in by the EFCC on allegations of corruption: Badeh, Diezani Allison-Madueke, Sambo Dasuki, Femi Fani-Kayode, etc. Could it be that the militants think the government is trying to get their man? Does the government think these militants are sponsored by Jonathan to destabilise the government or to prevent the government from getting him if indeed they think he has some explaining to do about how he ran the country?

Jonathan has given himself a brilliant self-assessment. The report card issued by him on him reads A plus. That is reflected in his statement: “I served my country very well.” But does the EFCC think so? The Nation newspaper quotes an unnamed EFCC source as saying that although “Jonathan has been implicated in all transactions under its investigation the ex-President was not yet its target.” The “yet” in that sentence is very important, isn’t it?

The truth of the matter is that going by what has been revealed in court so far Jonathan must have made some questionable approvals. But no corruption has been directly traced to him so far. If Jonathan is “implicated in all transactions” so far investigated as the EFCC claims why is he not yet its target? Is it hoping to get more worms crawling out of the can? Or is it waiting for orders from “oga at the top?” or is it gauging the temperature of the Niger Delta or of the country to be able to determine whether or not to go for the big fish?

Let me give you a parable. In 1983, Dele Giwa was the editor of the Sunday Concord and I the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Concord group of newspapers. Dele was arrested by Sunday Adewusi’s policemen for publishing “classified government information.” I was arrested for an article titled “Sodom and Gomorrah” in which I alerted the public about the tactics of corrupt people: whenever there was fraud they would set the place on fire to obliterate the evidence. There was a huge fraud at the Nigerian External Telecommunications and I warned the government to keep watch lest the arsonists destroy the documents. The place was set on fire the day after my article was published. One person died in the incident. I was charged with murder, the press dubbed it “murder by pen.”

Dele and I were detained at Ikoyi Prison. Chief Moshood Abiola, the proprietor of Concord was a member of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN. He had stormed out of the party when he was schemed out of the presidential race. So the relationship between Abiola and the government was mortuary-cold. Our arrest and detention were seen by Abiola as an attempt to get at him. When he came to visit us at Ikoyi prison he gave us the parable of the ant and a cube of sugar. He said that the reason ants are only able to nibble at a cube of sugar is that they can’t carry it away. They would like to swallow the entire cube of sugar but since they can’t they just nibble at it. He told us he is the real target, the cube of sugar. Before he left the prison he pushed a wad of naira notes into the hands of the warder and told him “please give them whatever they want.” When Abiola left, the warder asked us what we wanted. We both said “cognac.” He brought it at three times the market cost. Cognac is a luxury drink. In prison it is a super luxury drink.

President Buhari's Federal Excuses Council (FEC)

By Reno Omokri

On January 22, 2016, I tweeted a joke which went viral. I had said that at meetings of the Federal Executive Council, the minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, would address members and say 'turn to your neighbour and say, neighbour have you blamed Jonathan today'!
Yes, it was a joke, but like most good jokes, it had and still has a basis in reality!

The President and his ministers appear ill prepared for office and the evidence of this is their inability to take responsibility for the situation of things in Nigeria.

*Buhari 

Was it not John Burroughs who said "a man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else"?

Those words should be embossed on a plaque and placed in a very prominent location at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa.

Seeing this admonition weekly may help members of the Federal Executive Council take responsibility and stop acting the victim.

For example, Nigerians were shocked when the minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in December of 2015 that the Jonathan administration, which had left office six months ago, was responsible for the biting fuel scarcity the nation was and still is grappling with.

That statement by Mr. Lai Mohammed is a classic case of psychological projection (a psychological disorder characterized by a patient defending himself against his own unpleasant realities by denying the existence of the reality while at the same time blaming another for it).

And it gets worse. It is bad enough that this administration refuses to take responsibility for its own failures, it also wants to take credit for the success of others.

In a treatise bothering on megalomania, the publicity and communications team of President Buhari's office claimed the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (AKA TSA) as the major achievement of the first 365 days of the Buhari administration.

But for a government that prides itself on anti-corruption, that statement, fraudulent as it is, is dishonest and 'fantastically corrupt'!

First of all, the Treasury Single Account WAS NOT an idea of the Buhari administration and secondly the present government DID NOT initiate its implementation.

The TSA was conceived by the Jonathan administration and there was to be a staggered implementation because from an expert point of view, it was thought that if all Federal Government funds were suddenly pulled out of the commercial banking sector in one fell swoop, the shock on that sector would be so immense that it would trigger job losses and perhaps bank failures. It was thought that a gradual implementation would allow banks recover such that the baby would not be thrown out with the bath water.

How To Defeat Boko Haram

By Philip Hammond

I was delighted to visit Nigeria again, the second time in under a year, to meet with President Buhari and attend the second Regional Security Summit. Combating violent extremism is a global chal­lenge, which has affected many of our countries in Europe, just as you are tackling it here in Nigeria. That is why I welcomed President Buhari’s call to hold this important summit.

The UK and Nigeria have a strong and long-standing relationship. President Buhari’s recent visit to the UK for London’s Anti-Corruption Summit underlines the importance of our partner­ship. The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Ni­geria as it tackles corruption, something President Buhari himself has said has become a ‘way of life’.

During my visit, I was struck by how much progress had been made on President Buhari’s manifesto since I was last here for the President’s inauguration. In particular, significant improve­ments in security stood out.

Over the last 12 months, action by Nigeria and its neighbours, with the support of friends in the international community, has greatly diminished Boko Haram. We have reduced their strength and the territory they control. I congratulate President Buhari and other leaders in the region on this prog­ress.

Far From The Madding Cows

By Lekan Alabi   

On Thursday, May 19, 2016, it was 20 years when my article (satire) of the above title was published in major Nigerian newspapers – for ease of reference, the Sunday Times issue of May 19, 1996. I wrote the satire in the heady days of Nigeria’s military dictator, the late General Sani Abacha, whose regime tortured Nigerians most, and the motivation for the article was the ravaging Mad Cow Disease Bovine Spongriform Encephalopathy (BSE) of that time. In the article, I wrote, inter alia, “Oftentimes, during the long treks in search of food, our cows act as ‘mediators’ between their dagger-wielding owners and landowners / farmers when they get mad at each other over grazing rights. Roles reversal you will say”.

Could anyone ever imagine cows ‘mediating’ between their owners and landowners/farmers over grazing rights in Nigeria? But that was my statement even though on allegory, 20 years ago. Today, Nigeria is in the precipice of cows mediating between their owners and landowners/farmers, if great care and diplomacy, are not urgently taken.

The raging national controversy over the speculated Federal Government’s proposed N940 million grazing reserves for Fulani herdsmen especially in Southern Nigeria, and attendant protests against the plan, coupled with the reported atrocities of herdsmen across the land, spurred my reach for my said article. One of the aims of the recall is to draw public / government attention again to what I said in 1996. It is not a joking matter, as they say.

I wish to lend my voice to the ongoing reasoned calls/advice that negotiations, rather than government fiat/sentiments, are the better options in the pros and cons for ranches, grazing rights, path ways, etc to avoid an unnecessary chaos, bloodletting and what have you. As a saying goes, sense and sensibilities are quite often embedded in jokes/banters.

Following is my 1996 article (excerpts). Please ponder on it.

“What lessons can human beings learn from animals?” I asked. How naïve I was! Scientists have since proved that animal share basic instincts with man. They also feel, communicate and react. Nigerian herdsmen have authenticated this scientific theory on animal communication, as they (herdsmen) talk to, and receive responses from their cows and goats.

“Recently, I overhead some Nigerian cows discussing the raving malady afflicting their British counterparts, the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), otherwise called the mad cow disease. The submission of our local breed was that British cows, having been part of the revolution on the “Animal Farm”, had become over-pampered along with their fellow co-plotters such as dogs, cats, horses, pigs, birds, etc.

“Our cows are of the opinion that since animals in foreign lands are treated like gods, live in palaces, fly first class, ride in limousines, attend balls, inherit fortunes and get state burials, madness cannot but creep in.

Nigeria: Tomorrow Is Dying!

By Ayodele Adio

Northern elders and the elite class have been quite vocal in the last couple of years, giving a louder voice to national issues, particularly that which affects their region. However, the sad reality is that they have focused on issues that  massage the ego of the elite class and deepen the pockets of a selected few turning a blind eye on the more threatening issues eating up the region.

President Buhari and VP Osinbajo

The dominant lexicon, Revenue allocation, as to who gets a better share from the national purse seems to take a sizable share of their mind thereby ignoring the bigger elephant in the room. If increase in allocation translates to better distribution of wealth across the social strata and an improved living standard of the average northerner, then they stand on holy ground but the evidence proves otherwise. The lack of regional purpose, poorly articulated vision, an incoherent strategy and a continuous mismanagement of resources is the cradle upon which the parlous situation of today’s north was bred.

The huge textile industries in Kano and Kaduna that employed thousands of young northerners gradually slid into extinction without any of our leaders attempting to thrown in a rescue rope. There is no doubt that the north is home to the richest man in Africa and a couple of other billionaires, what  logical explanation could one then give to the widespread poverty of the larger populace rather than the earlier assertion on the north’s focus on building strong individuals at the expense of stronger communities.

 It is this widening gap between the rich and poor that has gradually metamorphosed to the insecurity we are experiencing today. How could we not have known that economic repression breeds strife and contempt. The north is today making the headline for all the wrong things. The challenges in the north and its opportunities  are tied to a single yet critical word, Education. It is the level of awareness of a people, their skills and cerebral sophistication that determine the kind of community they build. There is a strong relationship between education and economic prosperity. When Egypt became the centre for global education, she consequently became an economic world power.

This trend extended to Greece, Rome, Britain and today the United States where seven of the top ten universities in the world are resident. The north accounts for the highest rate of illiteracy in the country, way below the national average and worst ratios  for girl child education in the country. The national demographic and health survey puts the illiteracy rate for women at 21% in the north west compare to a national rate of 50%, the 10 states with the highest number of girls out of secondary school are also found in the north.

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.

APC Lied To Get To Power And Fantastically Lying To Sustain Power

By Nwamkpa Modestus

No doubt, this is a very tough and challenging period for many Nigerians. The past one year under this APC led government in Nigeria has been dotted with lamentations, gnashing of teeth, full of disappointments, unimaginable hardship, dashing of hopes and complete reversal of promises. Certainly, the present despicable and lamentable situation in the country was the least thing Nigerians particularly those brainwashed 15 million Voters who voted for President Buhari bargained for. Even though I can raise my head high and say that I was not among those bunch of ignoramus voters who were deceived into believing that  President Muhammadu Buhari has the capacity to turn stone into bread as I never fell for those white lies that the party gushed out to Nigerians. 

However, much as I had expressed skepticism and have continued to be skeptical as to the party’s genuine capacity to lead the country to a safer shore but what actually baffled and keep surprising me is the level at which the party is struggling desperately to use the same lies or peddling of falsehood they used to get to power to also remain in power. Or could this be the reason why there is this maxim that one needs another lie to sustain one lie?

Perhaps, unknown to them that there is this popular saying that ‘you can deceive some people some of the times but you obviously cannot deceive all the people all the times’. When in 2014/2015 the APC members and leaders were aggressively seeking to supplant former President Goodluck Jonathan and his party- the PDP accusing the former President and PDP members of being clueless, incompetent, weak and corrupt among other spurious accusations, very few discerning and informed minds knew then that APC as a  party and its leaders were playing on the intelligence and psych of some vulnerable Nigerians. They promised to make light to shine across the country, water to run on dried taps, three millions of jobs to be provided yearly, 25 million unemployed Youths to receive five thousand naira stipends yearly, NYSC members to have their alowee increased, one dollar to equal to one naira, Chibok girls to be rescued within six months including the automatic stoppage of Boko Haram madness within six months.

They also mesmerized us with the sweet promises that pump price of fuel would be reduced to N40 per litre, that Nigerian school Children would start enjoying one free meal every school day, that workers and pensioners would receive their pay on or before 25^th of every Month and above all, that the cankerworm called Corruption would be fought to a standstill among other promises.

General Muhammadu Buhari who later got ‘baptized’ by charging to President Buhari was so much repackaged to the point that the dummy was sold to Nigerians that the Daura born former Army general was the only clean and incorruptible Nigerian existing. They told us he was the ‘Messiah’ to come and the only one that has the panacea to our economic cum political travails in this country. We were told that even as a former military head of state, he had no other house anywhere in the world except the moderate bungalow in his village. They said Buhari has the magic wand to exterminate corruption in Nigeria. Funny enough, we were meant to believe that the only reason why there is huge unemployment, epileptic power supply, continued abduction none release of Chibok girls, hardship and other crimes was because Buhari was not the President. In all, they said Nigeria only needs a specie of a man in the image and likeness of Buhari and things would start working again. Surprisingly, some people believed this cart while there were few discerning minds like yours sincerely who took the entire gambit with a pinch of salt and dismissed the whole lies as balderdash.

Now, the Chicken has come home to roast. The breeze has blown and Nigerians have seen the Buttocks of a foul. One year is gone and yet there is nothing to show that we are heading to the world of Eldorado. On the contrary, Nigerians are getting the direct opposite of all that were promised. Instead of employing 3 million Youths as promised, there has been millions of job lost. Instead of improving on the five thousand mega watts of electricity that the previous administration of Jonathan left it, there has been a decline in electricity generation that it now hovers around I,450 mega watts of electricity with its attendant blackout across the country even when there is a hike of about 45% of electricity tariff. Instead of buying fuel at least at N86.50 that the last administration bequeathed with the availability of the product, we are now faced with an astronomical increase of N145 per litre and scarcity of the products. Instead of enjoying a downward slope Change in the prices of food stuffs and transportation, Nigerians are faced with an upward arbitrary change in the prices of food Stuffs and transportation. Instead of finding life easier and reassuring, hardship, hunger and penury are today common realities in the country under APC led federal government.

Nigeria: A Year Of Unmet Expectations?

By Bolaji Tunji

In two days time, precisely May 29, the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of President Mohammadu Buhari would be a year old in office. Being the tradition in this clime, it’s a time to take stock, to find out how the administration has fared in the last one year. Has the administration been able to meet the hopes and expectation of Nigerians who denied the Peoples Democratic Party that continued hold on power and placed their hopes on the APC and General Buhari.

*President Buhari 

That Nigerians had a lot riding on this administration was not in doubt and they had justifiable reason for that. APC had promised them what they felt they were not getting from the PDP government. A new life, a new Nigeria where fuel prices would be about N40 a litre. Where the mass of the unemployed and the aged would be paid a certain amount of money every month and  school children fed at least once a day. It was an administration that fed on the hope and the desire of the people with a promise to ensure that the hopes and aspirations were met. And the Buhari administration made history, unseating a sitting government. President Buhari’s victory at the polls marked him as a dogged, consistent fighter.

He had contested for the highest office in the land on three different occasions before victory eventually came. That in itself is historical. I can’t recall any serious Nigerian politician being that dogged. His tenacity endeared him to many Nigerians, his victory was thus assured especially when Nigerians had grown disenchanted with the PDP government . His victory also signaled the end of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) dominance of the political landscape. Recall that the party had boasted, in its heydays that it would rule Nigeria for 60 years. It could only rule for 16 years, losing to the progressive elements which in itself is equally historical.

Incumbents, with so much at stake, hardly lose election while the conservative elements have always aligned to hold the mantle of leadership of this country. It was under this epoch that President Buhari became the president, a feat that had proved impossible until a merger of his Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) with the Action Congress of Nigeria and a faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) spearheaded by the Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha. The rest is history, as it is usually said.

Beyond Children’s Parades And Promises

By Yinka Adeosun

Children Day, first proclaimed by the World Conference for the Wellbeing of Children in 1925 and then established universally in 1954, is celebrated each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare. International Children’s Day has also been set aside by the United Nations to celebrate and honour children across the world every May 27. (Today is one of such remarkable days). 

It is recognised and celebrated on various days in many countries around the world. The day was created as part of efforts of the UN to protect children from dangerous situations in the society and as well to give every child the opportunity to acquire formal education. Significantly, it was set aside to highlight the dignity of children and their need for love, care and respect, and to also instill in them a sense of patriotism and national pride.

(Regrettably), the Nigerian child is an endangered species. She or he usually bears the impact of poverty, family problems, peer pressure, failed educational system, social and religious conflicts as well as violence and terrorism. At an early age, some children are given in marriage, thereby exposing them to sexually transmitted diseases and infections, many have been conscripted into foot soldiers, are victims of sexual slavery and all sorts of emotional torture.

Child abuse, child trafficking, child battery and exploitation are common realities in our society. It is sad that despite the information age, some cultures and practices in our country still make children vulnerable, disadvantaged and prone to abuse. Under-aged marriage is the norm in the North and child labour is not peculiar to the South alone.

Many of our children grow with bitterness for their country. Having watched the insincerity of the government to the plight of the child in comparison to the news of child bravery in other climes, many would prefer to stay away and fulfill their potentials in a clime that encourages them to do so. The tale of the Chibok girls, the kidnap of students of Barbington Macaulay Junior Seminary in Lagos and the plight of Ese Oruru are miniature compared to the many cases of child abuse and neglect in the Nigerian society.

The Parable Of The Mad Man (2)

Click HERE To Read Part 1

By Dan Amor

As we were saying, can a sane person allow him­self to be driven by some spurious emotion to run stark-naked into a crowded market for whatever reason? The moral implication of the story is obvi­ous. It shows that it is the soci­ety that creates its madmen that also treats its madmen shabbily as though they were not human beings. If, indeed, we are at first comfortable with the way the first madman who opens the story is ill-treated, by the time the story closes, and we are fa­miliar with the fate of Nwibe, we certainly can no longer be complacent about the treatment of the madman. What is more, we are awed by the realization that Nwibe’s troubles have only begun by the time the story ends. The alternate implication is that Nwibe might in the end become truly mad. This situa­tion certainly urges us to the be­lief that the madman who opens the story might have become a madman through an experience similar to that of Nwibe. This is a devastating indictment of so­ciety. 

*Nnamdi Kanu 

This indictment is addressed not only to the stone-aged so­ciety ridden with superstitions and taboos such as Nwibe’s, but also the modern society because Nwibe’s village is in the end only a microcosm of the larger human society. The extreme vulnerability of the individual within the society is the major concern of Achebe in this epic. Man is revealed to be ultimately alone and alienated in society which is supposed to exist for his advantage but which ironi­cally seems to exist to destroy him. Despite the solicitude of relatives, the existential tragedy of Nwibe is his loneliness in the face of a horrendous natural ca­lamity.

Consistent with the system of ironies in this story, water which is a universal symbol of life becomes the source of human tragedy. It is the local stream which invites Nwibe to cleanse and purify himself from dirt that has also invited the madman to quench his thirst and rejuvenate his tired body. Yet these invitations lead inevitably to a tragic collision. Similarly ironic is the fact that the road, which is the universal symbol of life and irrepressible human quest for knowledge, is also that which has tragically crossed the paths of Nwibe and the madman. The irony fur­ther extends to the name of the protagonist himself- “Nwibe”, which translates from Igbo into “a child of the community”.

Such a child is supposed to be loved, respected and helped along by all to achieve his life’s goals. The opposite is ironically the case with the Nwibe of this story. The community as dem­onstrated in the upper class of society- the Ozo title holders and the medicine men- prides itself in its realism, good sense and wisdom. However, when these claims are put to test, the society is not only found want­ing, but is discovered to be in­capable of distinguishing ap­pearance from reality. Hence, the community rather than be­coming the making, is the ruin of this Nwibe.

Tomato Scarcity As Metaphor

By Reuben Abati

One of the major news items in circulation has been the scarcity of tomato. Incidentally, Nigeria is (was) the 14th largest producer of tomato in the world and the second largest producer in Africa, after Egypt, but our country hardly produces enough to meet the local demand of about 2.3 million tonnes, and lacks the capacity to ensure an effective storage or value chain processing of what is produced. Out of the 1.8 million tonnes that the country produces annually, 900, 000 tonnes are left to rot and waste. Meanwhile, tomato-processing companies in the country operate below capacity and many of them have had to shut down.

(pix:wealthresult)

The CEO of Erisco Foods, Lagos, Eric Umeofia laments that tomato processing companies lack access to foreign exchange to enable them buy heat-resistant seedlings and other tools that would help ensure the country’s sufficiency in local production of tomato paste. Similarly, Dangote Tomato Factory recently suspended operations due to the scarcity of tomatoes and the assault on its tomato farms by a tomato leaves destroying moth, known as “tuta absoluta” – a South American native, also known as the Tomato Ebola, because of its Ebola-like characteristics.

Other reasons have been advanced for the scarcity of tomatoes in our markets: the fuel crisis which has driven up costs making it difficult and expensive for Northern tomato farmers to bring tomatoes to the South, insurgency in the North East which has resulted in the closure of many tomato farms in that region, thus cutting off national output, the recent ethnic crisis in Mile 2, during which Hausa-Fulani traders and other marketers engaged in a murderous brawl, climate-change induced drought and heat wave in the Northern-tomato producing states of Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Plateau, Kano and Gombe. In the best of seasons, Nigeria spends $1.5 billion annually on the importation of tomato products. The cost in this regard, seems certain to rise.

Already, the effect of this tomato blight is being felt in households. Whereas a few months ago, a basket of tomato was about N5, 000, it is now about N40, 000 per basket. Housewives are protesting bitterly about how a piece of tomato vegetable has jumped up by about 650%, such that three pieces now go for as much as N500. Tomato in Nigeria today is thus more expensive than a litre of petrol! I have it on good authority, that in those face-me-I-face-you quarters where the poor live, it has in fact become risky to leave a tin of tomato paste carelessly or fresh tomatoes lying around: they would most certainly be stolen, and there have been reports of soup pots suddenly vanishing should the owner take a minute from the communal kitchen to use the loo. Many are resorting to desperate measures to sort out a growing epidemic of empty stomachs and empty pockets. Unless this matter is addressed seriously and urgently, the social crisis may be far too costly in both the short and the long run: hungry people could become sick and angry, hungry citizens could become thieves and a nuisance, they could also become angry voters and a rebellious populace.

Herdsmen Menace: Gov Fayose Confronts The Monster

By Amanze Obi

It is hardly surprising that the rampage of Fulani herdsmen has continued unabated. This is in spite of the outrage that trailed the organised massacre that they unleashed on Enugu State. The itinerant killers are not yet deterred by anything. When they soaked Enu­gu State with blood, what they got was mere condemnation. No deterrence was placed on their way. That is why the story of their kill­ings has remained unending. They have con­tinued to strike elsewhere in the south and the Middle Belt. So far, Nimbo and Agatu communities in Enugu and Benue states re­spectively have borne the worst brunt of their attacks.

Regardless of the wanton destruction of life and property in Agatu and Nimbo, the Federal Government has not acted in a way that suggests that we have a monster in our hands. The governments of the affected states did not also respond as stridently as ex­pected to the emergencies.

But it is gratifying to note that Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has departed radi­cally from the complacency that we saw in Enugu State. Just a few days ago, we were told told that the herdsmen struck in Ekiti State, leaving two people dead. Fayose could not accept this. He was appalled by it. He did not just condemn the murder in Ekiti, he also talked tough. Then he followed up the tough talk with concrete action. He has banned cattle grazing on Ekiti soil. He has told the herdsmen to take their cattle elsewhere. They are no longer wanted in Ekiti State. That is the order. That is the situation in Ekiti at moment.

In taking that decision, Fayose was only doing his job. As the chief security officer of his state, the governor has a responsibility to take necessary steps to protect life and prop­erty in his domain. He did not have to wait for the authorities in Abuja who, obviously, are not interested in the murderous activities of the herdsmen.

I consider Fayose’s action very appropri­ate. It is the answer to the impunity and impudence that surround the activities of the herdsmen. It is also gratifying that the governor’s action is enjoying the blessing of Afenifere. By so doing, the region, which has come under attack, has stood up to be count­ed. This is unlike what obtained in Enugu State where neither the state government nor any Igbo group responded stridently or appropriately to the ugly development.

In a harassed and cowed region, such as the south of Nigeria, it can only take a man of un­common courage, such as Fayose to confront this monster of oppression and suppression. To demonstrate that somebody somewhere is enjoying the bad situation, Northern states Governors Forum shocked decent minds with their response to the Enugu killings. While blood was still flowing in Nimbo, the governors had the audacity and temerity to defend the Fulani killers. They berated those, who condemned the action of the Fulani herdsmen. The governors said they were unhappy that the Fulani were being vilified. They warned against further demonisation of the Fulani race. That was impudence walking with a swagger.

One Year After: Where Is the Nigerian Economy Heading?

By Uzoma Ngozi

Nigeria’s overdependence on oil is one reality that President Buhari’s government has to grapple with if it will survive the crash in the global oil prices. The good news is that every challenge posed to this administration is a prospect for them to make a change, just as they promised during the presidential campaign.

However, it seems that this government has no clue on how to fix the economy. The incompetence of Buhari’s economic team is instantly apparent as the economic system is on the verge of collapsing; inflation is on the rise, purchasing power is very low, unemployment is high, the country is in gross darkness and it seems like Nigerians have already lost hope in this government.

The best word to depict an economic system led by Buhari and his team without a pattern is to refer to it as “Buharinomy.” To borrow the words of Prof. Utomi, Buhari is indeed operating an “archaic and medieval kind of economic system.”

Despite the pathetic situation of the economy, his economic team has been mum about the present state of affairs. And instead of the president to accept the responsibility of giving direction to the economy, he keeps blaming the immediate past administration for the present economic woes. He forgets the word of the German author Eckhart Tolle that says, “Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you take.”

There is no basis to compare the Buharinomy and the economy of the past administration because the economic policies of the immediate past administration were direct and had a human face to it.

One technocrat that made a difference in the past administration was the former Minister of Finance and coordinating minister of the economy who helped in charting a cause for the economy. Although the administration had its own challenges, she put policies in place that helped cushion the hardship known to the ordinary man in the country.

Nigeria: Sixteen Minus One

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It is not unusual for the fierceness of the support for the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Party (APC) to find expression in the riposte that the citizens must not expect an automatic realisation of the change the party and its helmsman promised. Their expectations have often been scaled down with the reprimand that if it took the last administration 16 years to liquidate all props for corporate probity and sanity, it smacks of sheer perfidy on the part of the citizens to ask the president and his party to rebuild the nation in just one year.

But this position has turned out as a self-fulfilling prophecy since the Buhari administration is pathetically denuded of the hallmarks of stellar performance as it marks one year on Sunday. No doubt, the promise to fight corruption was irresistible. Let’s get all the money stolen from the national treasury and deploy it in the development of electricity, roads and other infrastructure.  No one really opposed fighting corruption.  Indeed, the citizens thought that fighting corruption was a grand idea and that once this was resolved, the nation would sally forth towards its destined path of greatness.

But a year after, the fight against corruption has been reduced to a part of the nation’s cocktail of chimeras. Forget about the arrests and their razzmatazz  of  media trials. The question the citizens are asking now is, how effective has the anti-corruption campaign been in the past one year? This is simply because the Buhari administration’s  prosecution of  the anti-corruption campaign  has been divorced from  the  rigorous  imagination  that would have earned it more credibility. It is convenient for the Buhari administration to engender an environment in which the focus is only on the members of the opposition whom the anti-graft agencies arrest and ask to refund the money they have stolen. But the inconvenient and a much more credible way to prosecute the anti-corruption campaign on the back of audacious imagination would have been to extend it to both foes and friends. Now, it is the people who ought to be among those being tried who are dictating the terms of the anti-corruption regime.  Let’s strip the argument that we should start from somewhere and use some people as scapegoats of all its sophistry. As long as the anti-corruption campaign has not caught up with all former leaders who made their billions simply on account of occupying public offices, and as long as it is only targeted at the members of the opposition and critics of the policies of the Buhari administration, we cannot regard it as one of the achievements of the past year.

And The Truth Shall Make President Buhari Free

By Reno Omokri

Having worked twice at the Nigerian Presidential villa and once at the British Parliament, if there is anything I have learnt, it is that it is impossible to over inform a leader. You can under inform him, but no matter how much information you give a leader, you cannot give him too much information.

*Buhari 

In today’s world, strength and weakness are gauged differently than they were, say in 1984. In the millennial age in which we live in, information is power and lack of information is weakness. My concern is that there are a lot of weaknesses in Nigeria’s seat of power because not enough information is being given to President Muhammadu Buhari. I, like other Nigerians, have heard or read reports of ministers in President Buhari’s cabinet being afraid to challenge him or disagree with him. Perhaps unawares, the minister of state for petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, corroborated these reports in a recorded YouTube video now circulating where he revealed that the President ignores his ministers when they bring up issues that he does not want to discuss.

Having such anodyne personalities around you just means that you are living in a bubble, seeing things as you want them to be and not as they are. On Friday May 20th, 2016, Dr. Yemi Kale, the Statistician General of the Federation and head of the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics revealed that Nigeria’s economy had not grown in the first quarter of the year but had rather shrunk by 0.36%, the worst contraction in 25 years! Since the announcement was made, there has been various reactions with pundits pointing at this or the other as being the cause of this setback. But I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubts that this negative trend owes more to President Muhammadu Buhari’s utterances on our economy and polity than to any other single causative factor.

 The bigger problem is that even though I suspect that his ministers know that what I have just said is true, they would rather pander to the President and like Dr. Chris Ngige, say that Nigerians are lucky to have President Buhari (obvious Ngige does not know the meaning of luck). In the last eleven months, the President had traversed the globe and has spoken about Nigeria’s economy as if he was the chief undertaker of our polity rather than the chief marketer that he is meant to be. Of what benefit is it to the President’s agenda or to Nigeria’s economic well being for him to go to foreign nations and instead of highlighting the positive things that are happening in Nigeria, he begins to regale his hosts with the most unsavory stories about Nigeria.

 And some of the stories the President tells are just that-tales. They are not factual. At best they are arguable. You go to India for a summit where other world leaders are competing with you for the attention of venture capitalists and foreign investors and while your counterparts are talking about how great their countries are, you tell the audience how everybody in your country is corrupt except you and oh, can they come and invest in your country? Only a foolish investor would go and invest in a country whose President thinks his citizens are ‘criminals’ (as the President said to the Telegraph of UK in February) and whose officials are ‘fantastically corrupt’ (as the President said in agreement with British PM David Cameron when questioned by Sky News). The President speaks on the Nigerian economy and polity without any filters and his comments are causing his chickens to roost with devastating consequences for all of us.

The Travails Of Citizen Chidi Duru

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Let me disclose from the outset that Nze Chidi Duru is my friend.

I met him for the first time sometime in 1999 through a mutual friend who is now late, Tony Anyanwu, who represented my Federal Constituency, Ahiazu-Ezinihitte Mbaise, in the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003.

Both Chidi and Tony, vibrant young lawyers, had won their elections and were waiting to be inaugurated when Tony and I went to see him in his law office in Lagos.

*Nze Chidi Duru (pix: vanguard)

Upon inauguration in early June 1999, Duru became one of the stars of the National Assembly (NASS) of the Fourth Republic, bringing his erudition and huge intellect to bear on lawmaking.

Such was his contribution that he was appointed chairman of the very powerful and strategic House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation between 1999 and 2003.

So exceptional was he that he was nominated by the British government as one of 14 outstanding leaders in Africa and attended the Africa Future Leadership Pilot Programme in Manchester, United Kingdom.

For a man who believes so much in capacity building and that politicians should have a “second address”, when he left the NASS in 2007, he attended several management courses, including the Chief Executive Programme at the Lagos Business School; Competitive Strategy and Value Creation Course at the University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain; and the Privatisation, Regulatory Reform, Corporate Governance and Management of Political Economic Reforms at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

He also ran his businesses here in Nigeria.

Until last week, I had not spoken with him for about a year. So, I was alarmed when I read a story online on Wednesday with the headline “Pension Scam: Ex-Rep, Hon. Chidi Duru, goes into hiding as EFCC comes after fraudsters.”

I called him immediately and the story he narrated shocked me.

The whole crisis has to do with the First Guarantee Pension Limited (FGPL) which he founded.

Duru said: “The licence of the First Guarantee Pension Limited was given to me in recognition of the work that one did bringing to fruition the Pension Reform Act of 2004.

“Fola Adeola, who was then the chairman of the Steering Committee of the National Pensions Committee, was so excited and so pleased with the hard work that was done in bringing this into fruition that one was encouraged to consider the possibility of also being a player in the industry.

“I applied and was granted a licence as one of the players in the Pension Fund Adminiatration (PFA) industry and the name of my company then was First Guarantee Pension Limited.

“Eventually, I brought together 37 shareholders to be able to promote First Guarantee Pension as a business.”

Unfortunately, that seems to be his mistake.

eLearning Africa: Impatient Africans “Not Going To Wait Until 2063”

Press Release 

There is a mood of impatience among the ministers, businessmen and education experts attending this year’s eLearning Africa conference in Cairo. Aware of the opportunity offered by information and communication technologies to spread education, training and access to information throughout Africa, many are starting to feel that 2063, the date the African Union has set for the realisation of its vision of a ‘transformed continent’, may be too long to wait. They want Africans, and particularly young people, to feel the benefits, which the combination of technology and education can bring, within the next ten years.

“We are not going to wait until 2063,” Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, H.E. Yasser ElKady, told the conference’s opening session yesterday (Tuesday) evening.

And one of Africa’s leading intellectuals, Professor Ismail Serageldin, the founder and Director of the Bioblioteca Alexandrina, said:

“It’s the dawn of a new age! Let’s embrace it. There is so much we can do for a new generation and for the whole world… We cannot let the gap between us and the advanced nations continue to grow. We must translate rhetoric into action. Rhetoric, declarations, plans and targets are not equal to action.”

Experts at the conference agree that failure to accelerate the pace of change could have devastating consequences for Africa.  

“There is a widespread awareness among educators, politicians and businessmen that we really have to move quickly now,” says Charles Senkondo, Executive Director of Tanzania’s Global Learning Agency. “We’re all aware that Africa is a young continent and that soon the majority of our population will be under the age of 24. We can’t afford to leave the future of 200 million young Africans to chance. Unless we invest heavily in education and training, and ensure that our young people are fully equipped to compete in the digital age, we will store up some very serious social problems for ourselves and our neighbours.”  

 The view was echoed by Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, founder of RISE Networks and a leading social entrepreneur, who addressed the conference this morning (Wednesday)
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“56 million Africans aged 15 / 24 haven’t completed primary education…,” she said. “The more uneducated children Africa has, the more prisons we’ll have to build.”