Defending Anambra’s Light

By Chuks Iloegbunam

 Anambra State marked its silver jubilee on August 27, 2016, emitting rays of brilliant colours that emphasize the uniqueness of its people as wonderfully crafted by God, continuously demonstrating to the entire world that they are endowed with the dominant infrastructures of greatness, unsurpassed pacesetters in all noble walks of life – the arts, entrepreneurship, leadership, scholarship, the sciences, sports, statesmanship, etc. How apposite that this land of a blessed people has as its slogan the revealing title of Light of the Nation! There isn’t any aspect of national life in which Ndi Anambra do not excel.

*Gov Willie Obiano of Anambra State 

Little wonder that Jubilee Governor Willie Obiano waxed prophetically lyrical in, Please, Let’s Do It Together, his speech to mark the anniversary: “Anambra state will be the food basket of Africa in the next 25 years. In the next 25 years, Anambra will not depend on federal allocation. It will be known as a state that transited to become the Taiwan of Africa. We are number one among states that were created 25 years ago. We pay salaries as and when due. We are the safest state, and we have attracted billions of dollars in investment to the state.”

Yet, Anambra State’s great future, and the fact that its affairs are currently under the controls of a pair of capable hands, belies the palpable dangers that lie ahead. The situation evokes the sort of apprehension that informed the late great poet, Christopher Okigbo’s writing of his 1966 poem entitled “Come Thunder”, the first four lines of which go thus:

Now that the triumphant march has entered the last street corners,

Remember, O dancers, the thunder among the clouds…

Now that laughter, broken in two, hangs tremulous between the teeth,

Remember, O dancers, the lightning beyond the earth…

The smell of blood already floats in the lavender-mist of the afternoon.

What seeks Anambra’s negation? What strives to dim its brilliance and turn the people’s joys into one long, dark night of bewitched recrimination and retrogression? The answer is FALSEHOOD. Deliberately manufactured falsehood! Let’s illustrate.

I recently took a telephone call from an educated friend domiciled in the United States since the 1970s. To my astonishment, he exhibited a rage uncharacteristic of his calm and urbane nature. “Obiano will never have a second term of office,” he bawled, swearing that I had made a fatal mistake by recently accepting appointment as the Anambra State Governor’s Media Director. On and on he railed, his voice rising to a crescendo. When I managed to put in a word edgewise, I reminded him that our friendship mustn’t be confused with the relationship between a cane-wielding village headmaster and a recalcitrant truant. We were basically friends. Could he possibly hold his peace and take a listen? He agreed, having screamed three principal complaints: (1) He had heard that Governor Obiano ordered soldiers to gun down peaceful IPOB demonstrators. (2) He had read from a Nigerian-owned, UK-based online newspaper a July 25, 2016 story entitled How Governor Obiano Embezzled N75b In Two Years. (3) He was despondent at another newspaper report that widows had been “forced from their stalls” and consequently rioted in Onitsha.

I proceeded to provide him with the correct version of things. Although a national daily had so claimed, there never was a women’s riot anywhere in Anambra State including Onitsha. Here are the facts: there is a street market on the main road that issues into Onitsha through the Niger Bridge. It stands on a land owned by Nath Okechukwu, the boss of Interbau, the road construction giant. Chief Okechukwu had ceded the land to a younger sister for temporary business purposes, pending its conversion into his firm’s headquarters. But the sister had leased it to agents who made an instant vegetable market out of the land, collecting “landing” fees and rents without remitting any taxes to government. Every so often vehicles plowed into the market, causing casualties. The place has no toilets, a veritable eyesore.

Nigeria:Why We Are In This Terrible Mess

By Dan Amor

Once upon a time, there was a young country struggling in the comity of nations to find her place in the sun. For in this young country of brave people, it was discovered that freedom is a God-given right. So impressed were the citizens with this belief that they lit a candle to symbolize their freedom. But, in their wisdom, they knew that the flame could not burn alone. So, they lit a second candle to symbolize man's right to govern himself. The third candle was lighted to signify that the rights of the individual were more important than the rights of the State. And finally, they lit a fourth candle to show that government should not do for the people those things which the people should do for themselves.

*Buhari

As the four candles of freedom burned brightly, the young nation prospered. And as they prospered, they grew fat. And as they grew fat, they got lazy. When they got lazy, they asked the government to do things for them which they had been doing for themselves, and one of the candles went out. As government became bigger, the people became smaller, and the government became all important. And the rights of the individual were sacrificed to the all important rights of the State. Then the second candle went out. In their apathy and indifference, they asked those who bear armour to govern them, and the marshals of the commandist clan did, and the third candle went off. In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security, a comfortable life, and they lost all - comfort and security and freedom.

For, you see! When the freedom they wanted most was freedom from responsibility, then Nigerians ceased to be free. The last candle has been extinguished. One could assume, then, that we have it made. Never have any people at any time, anywhere, had it so good. But in our present abundance and luxury in the galaxy of power, something is wrong. People aren't happy. They no longer walk down the streets of our cities smiling or whistling a happy tune. There is discontent, and one can sense the fear of the unknown. Everywhere, the people are grumbling, cursing, jeering and hooting. 

Nigerians are jittery. There seems to be a tarnish on our golden Mecca. We've created a new breed of men and women who can't work but loot, just like we've created a new breed of men and women who crave for power for the sake of it. You had an opportunity to turn the nation to an Eldorado, but you supervised the mindless looting of our national patrimony into private pockets. You wailed and roared and were given the power, but you're seeing it as an opportunity to favour your tribesmen at the expense of others and you're still enmeshed in blame game while the country is bleeding. And, instead of the slogan, "God bless Nigeria", all we now hear is, "Let us go our separate ways". The signs aren't too hard to read. They are the signs of internal decay - the dry rot of apathy and indifference.

Should Change Begin With Me Or Buhari?

By Onyiorah Paschal Chiduluemije  
The foregoing remark credited to and drawn from the speech delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari during the launch of the National Re-orientation Campaign tagged Change Begins With Me, on Thursday, September 8, 2016, is, to say the least, quite unbecoming of the President. Indeed, the man who is now a proverbial tortoise that once upon a time assured all animals at the beginning of their journey, of an existing promised land, like an Eldorado, and only for it (the same tortoise) to announce in the course of the journey, and to the chagrin of all animals, that the so-called promised land which they had all set out to behold and possess was the same as the land they had just left in search of milk and honey (thus obviating the need for their journey).

*President Buhari and Lai Mohammed

But unlike what obtained in the old (and abandoned) land, all animals were now individually saddled with the responsibilities of tracing and accessing the new Kingdom through the different paths apparently leading to it, basically because the main entrance to the promised land was practically unknown. This tale in a nutshell, aptly illustrates the analogous (abrupt) paradigm shift in the APC’s and/or President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘change slogan’ afterthought called Change Begins With Me.

Of course, it is almost unbelievable that the same man who – with hindsight – apparently tricked the electorate into voting him into power with an unmistakable promise of a positive change in the living standard of all, is today squarely pontificating about a clearly diversionary tactic called Change Begins With Me, and, as it were, almost patronising both the hungry and the angry for “failing” to first of all ask themselves what they have done to change their ways before expecting the government to change their lives.

As it were, many an APC supporter would have by now definitely found it extremely difficult to fathom the essence of this seemingly derogatory remark against the people made by no less a person than President Muhammadu Buhari, which, critically viewed, ought not to have arisen in the very first place. And the reason for this thinking is not far-fetched. For one, a campaign promise of change made to the people remains a campaign promise, and so it does not necessarily follow in a thriving democracy that the people must be willing to dance to the tune and/or comply with the dictates, wishful thinking, whims and caprices of their elected representatives, before the latter could be reasonable enough to bring to fruition all that had been promised during the electioneering. Therefore, it makes no sense at all for anybody, be that Mr. President or whoever, to begin to impress it on the masses to alter their ways as a condition precedent for being “entitled” to demand, inter alia, that the APC-led government accomplish its campaign promises. 

Ironically, though, the same President who now appears to be patronising Nigerians and scoffing at their increasing demand for a positive change to take effect as promised by the All Progressives Congress, is yet to repent of his own old ways or, better still, renounce his ethnic and religious preferences and inclination towards people and issues of national importance. Evidently, there is no gainsaying that his glaringly lopsided appointments so far still reek of and speak volumes about facts associated with his unpalatable past.

Buhari Plagiarized Obama In “Change Begins With Me” Speech

By Adeola Akinremi

Plagiarism is not a trivial matter. President Muhammadu Buhari made a terrible mistake last Thursday. He plagiarized President Barack Obama’s speech to launch “Change Begins With Me.”

So you didn’t notice that our president lifted from Obama’s 2008 victory speech and passed it off as if the words were his own? The argument will rage, but the moral problem of plagiarism on a day Mr. President launched a campaign to demand honesty and integrity from the people is what we should concern ourselves with.

*President Buhari with US President Obama
 at the Whitehouse

I’m not a wailing wailer and I don’t like the downfall of any man but I also don’t like to be deceived. The very last thing you should do when you’re launching a campaign like this is to be dishonest with the people.

As Buhari talked down on Nigerians during the launch of the campaign spearheaded by no other person, other than the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, known for his trash-talk, particularly for the opposition, I started following the speech line-by-line. I was alarmed to make the discovery. It was a scandal that escaped the attention of our newspapers. It is one of two things: either people don’t pay particular attention to Buhari’s words or we are a nation of anything goes.

Only in July, Melania Trump, the wife of the Republican White House hopeful, Donald Trump, was caught in the web of plagiarism after she spoke at the Republican National Convention. She plagiarized Michelle Obama’s speech. It was a big headline on television screen and national newspapers. Indeed it was a “global” headline. Yes, a prime part of Buhari’s speech to the nation last Thursday to launch a campaign encouraging new culture of transparency, attitudinal change and hard work among Nigerians was plagiarized from America’s President Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech.

Buhari’s speech during the launch of the “Change Begins With Me”, a new national orientation campaign, contained largely the same sentiment and arrangement of words that President Obama used in his 2008 victory speech after he was elected the first American black president.

The president lifted a whole paragraph from Obama’s speech and passed it off as his own when he said: “We must resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country for so long. Let us summon a new spirit of responsibility, spirit of service, of patriotism and sacrifice, Let us all resolve to pitch in and work hard and look after, not only ourselves but one another, What the current problem has taught us is that we cannot have a thriving army of rent seekers and vested interests, while the majority suffers.”

President Buhari’s Triumphalism

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Until last week, it might have been dismissed as delusional to think that President Muhammadu Buhari considers the citizens as people he has conquered. But if the body language of the president has failed to magically make available the dividends of democracy to the citizens, it has at least in recent times reinforced the notion of his seeing himself as a conqueror, and thus a blight on our democratic experience.

*President Buhari 

Here are a people who have been brutalised by decades of misrule and who invested so much hope in the  Buhari’s change mantra. Over a year after waiting for the realisation of the promised change, Buhari has unabashedly disavowed it. Passing the buck, Buhari has rather asked the citizens to make the change a reality.

Yet, Buhari and his party members are the only people who know the breadth and length of the change he envisaged. The citizens did not sit down at a table to arrive at a template of his promised change. At best, the president only revealed snippets of the change: a robust economy that would guarantee full employment and a parity of the naira and the dollar, and as a palliative measure for those who are still jobless,  the payment of a stipend of N5,000.

Buhari’s new mantra of change beginning with the citizens is an expression of his sense of triumphalism. The new mantra brims with the hauteur of a president who has not only impenitently abdicated his responsibility, but who is yet to come to terms with his own failure to grapple with the problems he was elected to solve. The citizens could tolerate the president’s incompetence while hoping that with his seeking the advice of those who should know better, he could still fulfill the people’s expectations. But with a mindset that the citizens have been conquered, the president does not need to attach any importance to such advice. Or why would the president tell the people that change begins with them when he is expected to make good his promise? As far as the president is concerned, he has used the change mantra to gain power and those who are interested in its actualisation are free to torment themselves with that triviality.

But the president may not be wrong after all. From his Olympian height, he can only see the citizens he has conquered. The conquest began with his ministers and other aides who are supposed to advise him on the right decisions to take. We must be reminded that the president did not hide his disdain for his would-be ministers. They were only imposed on him by the constitution. And this was why he considered them as noise makers whose contribution to national development could only be consigned to a marginal space compared to that of civil servants in whom he reposes more confidence.

Niger Delta: Buhari’s Unwinnable War

By Ray Ekpu  

The Federal Government of Nigeria is amassing troops, arms and ammunitions in the oil-rich Niger Delta region in readiness for war with the militants who have been destroying oil infrastructure. In the last week of last month, the Director of Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, announced that the military had launched “a precursor operation” to a planned offensive codenamed “Crocodile Smile.” This is aimed at supporting a wider operation codenamed “Operation Delta Safe.”

Most people in the Niger Delta have condemned the activities of these militant groups which are now sprouting like mushrooms and making both sensible and senseless demands. The Niger Delta people have suffered a lot since the discovery of oil in 1956. Their environment has been savagely spoilt. Their fishing waters and farming lands have vanished leaving them impoverished. Strange diseases have emerged that apparently have no cure. The reckless activities of these militants have done considerable damage to the Niger Delta ecosystem apart from the loss of oil revenue to the Federal Government. The Niger Delta leaders are pleading with these militants to give a peace a chance since the Federal Government is offering them the peace reed.

A few weeks ago, Alfred Diete Spiff, a former military governor of the old Rivers State who is now a traditional ruler, had a meeting with Niger Delta leaders in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. A couple of weeks later, Edwin Clark, a former Federal Information Commissioner and a prominent leader in the region, also had a conference in Warri, Delta State, trying to find ways of resolving the matter without bloodshed. On his part, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, has been touring the region in search of an amicable solution to the conflict.

Since President Muhammadu Buhari has said he is interested in a negotiated settlement of the matter I think the soldiers who are in the creeks of Sapele itching for action should tarry a while. Before hostilities begin, let me warn that this is an unwinnable war. No one will win. The militants will not win and the Federal Government will not win either. Men, women and children will be killed and maimed, property will be destroyed, the environment will be damaged. No oil will be produced because oil companies do not work with soldiers holding guns to their heads. The price of crude oil will go up but Nigeria will not benefit from the rise in price while the fight goes on in the creeks. New refugees will emerge; we will look for food, shelter and medicine for a new set of internally displaced persons (IDPs). We will then go looking for money to rebuild what has been destroyed in an economy that is already suffering from asphyxia. The only winners will be the generals who will be doing arms deals, food supply deals, drug supply deals and the women who will be available, willingly or unwillingly, to comfort the troops during the war. Crocodile, don’t smile yet. Keep your teeth hidden.

Nigeria At An Economic Crossroads

By Ndubuisi Ukah
To say that Nigerians are economically hurting at this moment is no exaggeration; to state that most Nigerians have never had it this economically difficult in their lifetime is not an overstatement; the fact that most Nigerians are out of work and go to bed hungry now is no longer news. The pains are palpable in the voices and faces of everyday Nigerians on the streets and in the work and market places across the land – driven by the current economic recession. And while it’s luring to heap the blame squarely at the doorsteps of fallen crude oil prices, it would be best to put the blame to where it rightly belongs – on our visionless and prodigal leadership class, who instead of building the nation’s future by responsibly planning ahead for times like these, irresponsibly chose to build and nurture an unprecedented corruption industrial complex.

What we are experiencing right now in the country is a practical realisation of the age-long saying that “he who fails to plan, plans to fail”. For decades, the leadership class rather than engaging in the patriotic act of nation-building, has spent most of their time perfecting the shameful act of betrayal of public trust by repeatedly engaging in massive looting of our “easy-to-come” petro dollars, at the callous expense of everyday Nigerians. Stories abound of looting in the billions of dollars of monies earmarked for road construction, Niger Delta development, power rehabilitation, refineries turn-around maintenance, and fight against Boko Haram even as innocent Nigerians, women and children were being raped, abducted and killed by the Boko Haram renegades, etcetera. As such, in the light of the above and other several well-documented gross mismanagement of our national wealth by an irresponsible, greedy and visionless political class, it’s unfortunately, fair to conclude that the current economic recession has been a long time coming.

It’s also fair to acknowledge that all of these frustrations led to the CHANGE vote by the Nigerian people in the last election. The election was simply aimed at making a statement against impunity and business as-usual.

While the current administration has recorded some success in the areas of reducing corruption in public service and curbing the free reign of Boko Haram in the Northeastern part of the country, it’s clear to any objective observer that not much has been done to instill needed confidence in the economy, especially by way of sound fiscal and monetary policies. There doesn’t seem to be a steady hand in-charge of the economy at this time and this doesn’t bode well for the administration after 15 months of coming to power. 

All one hears most of the times on the pages of newspapers are platitudes and pockets of incoherent and reactionary interventions by the apex bank. It is well known that nothing hurts an economy and scares investors and the business community during an economic recession more than equivocation and non-steady economic steering hands. Considering that recessions are not uncommon in nations’ economic lives, one tends to believe that what our economy is suffering more from right now is not simply the recession, but the feeling of hopelessness in the recession. A time as serious as this calls for decisive economic leadership and clarity of direction.

Mr. President, if I were you, I’ll be on national television engaging in question and answer sessions as often as possible, explaining the present economic problem and possible solutions in very simple and clear terms to the Nigerian people. You owe it to them and they rightfully deserve it. The Nigerian people are hurting so much right now and they don’t seem to get the sense that someone is caring, listening and doing something to alleviate their sufferings.
The Nigerian people are a smart people; they get the fact that the problem did not emanate with this administration, but they also understand that things could really get worse if nothing urgent and serious is done right now by the administration to stem this ugly tide.

Mr. President, there has to be that sense of the fierce urgency of now on the economy, just like you’ve demonstrated in the fight against Boko Haram and corruption. This time calls for you to seek help from the best Nigerian economic experts wherever you can find them.

APC: A Mistake Edo State Must Not Make

By Jude Ndukwe

September 28, 2016, is epochal in the history of the great Edo State. It is a date when life beckons on the people to embark on a game-changing and life-amending venture; a time when the people are called out by the Benevolent, the God of second chance, to right the wrong they elevated to a position of authority and immense responsibility eight years ago.

That day is the day when Edo people will finally extricate themselves from the shackles of a searing chain fresh from the hissing fires of a renowned blacksmith and etched in the back of the people with a heart that chooses to be deliberately unmindful of the people’s sufferings. That APC, by the virtue of their worsening abysmal performances everywhere they go, both at the federal and state levels, has since grown into that monstrous party not fitting to replace itself in any election in the name of continuity, is no longer news.

What is news is that they still have the temerity to present themselves for election after all they have done to Nigeria just within one year! Nobody, not even the good people of Edo State would want a continuity of suffering, of human degradation, infrastructural decay, ethnic discrimination and general underdevelopment. These are some of the ‘natural’ traits of the All Progressives Congress which are well known not only to Nigerians but also to the whole world. In other climes, where service to the people is a priority and the elevation of their standard of living is government’s main focus, the party would not be going about insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians by wildly gyrating with so much brazenness as we saw the president’s delegation do in APC’s grand rally in Edo recently.

It is only a government without shame for its widely acknowledged failures and a party without human sympathy for the mega-sufferings it has visited on the people that would embark on such a banal celebration of the destruction of a people and their nation without restraint in so short a time. Since APC took charge of governance, the people can barely live and hardly survive. The hunger in the land is real and the frustration palpable. Nigeria, right under the nose of President Buhari and his gyrators, has slid into its worst recession in history. Millions have lost their jobs as companies after companies, both local and international, keep closing shops due to the economic hardship.

Yet, the price of foodstuff keeps rising while the naira has been adjudged the worst performing currency in the whole wide world after Suriname and Venezuela. What a story! This is after all the grandiose promises of turning the moon into sunlight for Nigerians and creating a state of Eldorado and Utopia for them. However, the Nigerian state has since become the legendary Hobbesian State where life is not only nasty and short but also brutish under the watch of APC. With the free rein of death in the hands of terrorist Fulani herdsmen all over the country, the extra-judicial murders and endless incarceration of citizens even against court orders by state agents, the descent of Nigeria into the Hobbesian state of anomie is confirmed.

Buhari, War And The Niger Delta

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

It is mystifying that President Muhammadu Buhari has chosen to capriciously shatter the prospect of peace in the Niger Delta through his massive deployment of troops and weapons in the region. The deployment came at a time the agitators for socio-economic justice in the oil-producing region, especially the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), have agreed to dialogue with the government.

Buhari and Army Chief, Buratai

The agreement came after much hesitation apparently because the agitators understood the remorseless penchant of successive governments to treat the issue of the ecological disaster and economic deprivation spawned by oil exploration in the region with disdain. Despite their doubts, the agitators have expressed their sincerity by suspending the bombing of oil facilities.

Of course, we should have known that Buhari considered war in the region inevitable. For while apparently leaving the option of dialogue open, Buhari has consistently threatened that he would deal with the Niger Delta agitators the way he crushed Boko Haram insurgents. Buhari may have drawn inspiration from the strident calls from some northern leaders for him to bomb agitators like Boko Haram insurgents. By their position, these northern leaders have lumped up the agitation in the Niger Delta in the same cauldron of misguided religious and blood-thirsty ideology of Boko Haram insurgents.
So what is unfolding in the Niger Delta is only a manifestation of a coveted agenda of Buhari that has escaped the veneer of  pretensions to foster peaceful dialogue to resolve the problems of the region. Buhari only wanted the agitators to lay down their weapons so that he could deploy his own in the region.

The fact that the agitators have declared a ceasefire has rendered the option of war patently chauvinistic. What is needed is for the government to continue with the option of dialogue. Buhari’s acceptance of the option of war amounts to blithely glossing over the fact that there are issues in the Niger Delta that need to be responded to appropriately. These are issues of socio-economic injustice in the region. Here are a people whose oil wealth has been used to develop other parts of the country while they have become impoverished. This has been the situation for over five decades.

The nation and its leaders have not deemed it necessary to engage in a comprehensive agenda to improve the environment, except some sporadic and facetious efforts. Now, the oil funds from the region are now being used to search for oil in the northern part of the country. If oil is found there, would the northerners allow people from the Niger Delta to be the prime beneficiaries? Would they allow them to be those that would lead supervisory agencies and dictate the terms for intervention in those areas where oil is produced in the north?

Dele Cole’s Nonexistent ‘Igbo’ Slaves

By Ochereome Nnanna

On  Tuesday, 30th August 2016, at exactly 10.41am, I received a text from an unidentified frequent sender of messages to my platforms whenever he reads topics that agitate his mind, whether written by me or others.

He wrote: “Greetings. How can Dr. Patrick Dele Cole, in today’s Vanguard Newspaper…assert that the Igbo were slaves of the Ijaw? If, for the purpose of argument, one or two Igbo men were captured, held as slaves, or were sold into slavery in those days, how does that translate to the Igbo (an entire ethnic nationality) becoming slaves to the Ijaw…?”

Dele Cole’s article was entitled: “Nigerians And Their Origin”. He was displaying his rich knowledge of how people, not just in Nigeria but also in different parts of the world, acquired their current ethno-racial identities; how some powerful conquerors like the Jihadist Fulani, “dropped” their language and adopted those of their majority subjects, the Hausa, in order get assimilated and rule over them effectively.

Cole, at the tail end of his very interesting tapestry of sampling, however, made a conclusion I found both curious and contradictory compared to his earlier conclusion about the “Igbo” and “Ijaw” (I am putting these words in inverted commas for a reason that will be explained shortly). According to Cole: “Who are the Hausa-Fulani? The French of Normandy conquered England in 1066 and adopted their language. They were not known as French-English but English…Thus in the North of Nigeria they (Fulani) should be known as Hausa”.

Before I go on, let me correct Cole. The Fulani never dropped their language. Though they adopted the Hausa and other languages in areas they conquered (such as Nupe in Bida and Yoruba in Ilorin) they still maintained their Fulbe language and identity. In fact, former Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, a Fulani royal who hails from Bamaina in Birnin Kudu Local Government of the state, told me he did not “learn” Hausa until he went to school.

Buhari: Worst President Nigeria Ever Had?

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

I have two confessions to make from the outset.

I am an incurable optimist. I am a firm believer in the maxim that no matter how dark a tunnel may appear to be, there will always be some ray of light at the end.

Of course, this presupposes that for you to encounter this light, you must not stand still at the darkest end of the tunnel. Therefore, the philosophy underpinning this belief is that for you to get to the bright end, you must keep moving away from the darkest end.

*Buhari 

You must stay the course; perseverance is the watchword. Don’t quit because quitters never win. Here, pragmatism is an inevitable companion.

This conviction also informed my reaction to the socio-political and economic developments in our country in recent times.
I strongly believed that no matter how starkly the national augury may seem to tilt south, we shall overcome as long as we have a leadership that is prepared to put on its thinking cap, prepared to listen, be pragmatic and innovative in handling the myriad of problems confronting the nation.

The last thing we need right now is a leadership that is in denial, a leadership that revels, like the ostrich, in burying its head in the sand, thinking that nobody is seeing it. The last thing we need in this country is a leadership whose only solution to the problems is to point fingers of blame at others. Unfortunately, this is the leadership we have right now.

My second confession is that I am really afraid for this country’s fate under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch.

My worry was not informed by the frightening numbers released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday, August 31, which finally confirmed what many already knew – that the economy had slid into recession or that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at a woeful –2.06% performance did worse than expected. It was –0.36% in the first quarter.
The fact that $1 exchanged for N425 last week with a potential of going beyond N500 before the end of the year, while inflation rose to 17.1 per cent in July from 16.5 in June is scary, but didn't worry me much.
Ditto the unemployment figure which increased to 13.3 per cent from 12.1 per cent and investment inflows which dropped to the lowest levels at $647.1 million from $710 million.

These figures are the natural consequences of the otiose and impractical monetary and fiscal policies of the Buhari administration. Discerning Nigerians and members of the international community didn’t expect anything different.

But as grim as they are, what worries me most is the puerile antics of some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), including Buhari, and APC National Chairman, John Oyegun.

It baffles me that those who claim to be our leaders can actually indulge in such laughable political shenanigans.

Buhari’s Anti-Graft War: A Sham

By Charles Ogbu

The 8th wonder of the world is how Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, managed to convince sane adults and some foreign countries that his government is waging war against graft. Fact is, there is no war against corruption. The so called anti-graft war is one hell of a lie, a fraud, a sham, a farce. It is a carefully planned and well executed show meant to deceive the hoi polloi of the society and take their minds off very crucial issues while the rogues in power keep preying on them in their characteristic manner.

*Buhari 

First, president Buhari who is supposedly spearheading this anti-graft war is a man I believe to be integrity-challenged. With due respect to his office, I think the president is a dishonest man who is incapable of honouring his own promise: Before the election, Buhari promised to fight corruption by first declaring his assets publicly, to enable Nigerians determine whether or not he had corruptly enriched himself when he would publicly declare his assets again upon leaving office. On September 3, the president's media aide, Garba Shehu, read out a list of some of the president's belonging where he mentioned incoherent stuff like: "yet to be located plot of land in Port Harcourt", "Unspecified number of cars" etc.

Mr. Shehu would later promise that the president would disclose his full assets when the CCB was done with the verification. The CCB has since finished with the verification and almost one year after, the president has refused to honor his own word.

How can I trust a man who is incapable of honoring his own word? How can Nigerians trust such a man to fight corruption without corruptly enriching himself in the process? And if he is corruptly enriching himself, family and cronies in the process, can he be said to be fighting corruption? How can you claim you are fighting corruption when you have not even proven the very garment you wore was not made from the forbidden tree of corruption? 

Nigeria:The Grim Statistics

By Ray Ekpu  

The figures are grim. Inflation 17.1 per cent; Gross Domestic Product 2.06 per cent; unemployment/underemployment 26.06 million; crude oil price, less than $50 per barrel; oil production declined from 2.11 million barrels per day by the end of the second quarter of 2016 to 1.69 mbpd. These are figures produced by the National Bureau of Statistics which indicate that Nigeria’s economy is in a recession.

*Buhari

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, put the situation quite grimly but frankly: “It’s the worst possible time for us. Are we confused? Absolutely not. How are we going to get ourselves out of this recession? One, we must make sure that we diversify our economy. There are too many of us to keep on relying on oil.”

She is not saying anything that nobody has said before. All of Nigeria’s leaders since the Shehu Shagari era have parroted this diversification line but how much of it has been done? Pretty little. One of the problems of Nigeria’s leadership is “a short attention span.” When there is some calamity in the oil industry and we cannot engage in full production we talk about diversification. When the price of crude goes south we talk about diversification. When the militants go crazy and blow up oil infrastructure we remember diversification. As soon as the problem recedes, the talk of diversification goes away too. I am almost certain that if by some stroke of luck the price of oil goes up and the guns fall silent in the Niger Delta tomorrow, diversification as a policy will disappear from the government’s radar.

But first let’s interrogate the statistics. The facts behind the figures that tell us that our economy has slipped into a recession are even more grim. They are more grim because while statistics are just cold blooded figures, the facts deal with live human beings and their condition as they negotiate life’s treacherous bends.

Kerosene, the poor man’s cooking liquid, now sells for N300 a litre if you can find it. Many men and women are crawling back to their old, reliable friend: firewood. A depletion of the forest is an environmental hazard that can contribute significantly to climate change. Diesel, the rich man’s manufacturing liquid, the most effective power source in the absence of power from the official source now costs N220 per litre. The result? Low production, closures and layoffs.

Now airlines are staying more on the ground than in the air because they cannot get aircraft fuel which some smart fellows are now selling as kerosene. This is compounding the woes of the flying machines. The airlines are now raising their fares astronomically to make ends meet. At the last count there were two casualties, Aero Contractors and First Nation. Both airlines have been grounded by the force of impecuniosity because all along they have been flying at a low altitude financially.

The prices of goods including foodstuff have gone up since the price of petrol was upped. Most people are making adjustments in their eating habits either by patronising “food is ready” or “mama put” eating outlets or resorting to a 0 – 1 – 0 arrangement, that is one meal a day. This lifestyle change is not restricted to eating habits. In the area of housing, a lot of young people are moving from flats to face-me-I-face-you shanties or engaging in flat sharing. Those who have cars are involved in car pooling or are taking a ride in BRT buses in Lagos which they had hitherto scorned. But there are adjustments that are difficult to make. One area is health. Those who cannot afford hospital bills are either patronising petty medicine sellers who may be selling fake drugs or they are beating their way to the babalawo or the Pentecostal churches. Neither the babalawo nor a spiritual church is a hospital. The bottom line is that the health of many of our country men and women is gradually being put in peril.

Sack Your Grossly Incompetent Economic Team – Dino Melaye Tells Buhari

PRESS RELEASE 

Deeply worried by the poor state of the economy which has brought unprecedented hardship and hunger on the masses of the Nigerian people, a federal lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent and drastic measures, including the immediate sack of three prominent members of his Economic Team as the solution-precedent to reboot the ailing economy.

*President Buhari and Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun

In a Statement in Abuja Sunday, Melaye said the President must shake up his Cabinet, and accused most of the members of gross incompetence, inexcusable ineptitude and a distressing lack of capacity to deliver on the mandate of their ministries/Agencies.

Those to face the axe immediately if the economy must be effectively rebooted to deliver on the Change Agenda of the present administration, in the estimation  of Melaye include the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, Budget and National Planning Minister, Senator Udoma  Udo Udoma and the governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele. 

" At the moment, it must be crystal clear to all discerning minds that the President's widely-acclaimed magical body language has lost its presumed  aura and efficacy. His  no-nonsense demeanor is equally neither instilling fear nor commanding respect and loyalty from amongst his cabinet members. It is therefore obvious that the time for barking is over, now is the time to bite and boot out all those who have demonstrated, in the past several months, a crass lack of capacity to effectively carry out the functions of their office", Melaye declared, stressing:

" The Finance Minister has not only displayed gross incompetence on the Job, she also lacks the basic and rudimentary grasp of economic fundamentals necessary to run a critical sector of the Nigerian economy like the Finance Ministry. It is time for her to go now and pave way for a qualified and experienced person to steer the Nigerian economy away from the dark woods it has sunk presently under her stewardship".

On Udoma Udo Udoma, he stated : "To be sure, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma is a very charismatic man, an accomplished lawyer, and a quintessential gentleman with a fairly untainted reputation. In everyday parlance, he is a good man. But the critical job of Budget and National Planning Minister for a huge country like Nigeria, with her prevailing economic challenges requires much more than being a good man with a great personality. 

Fighting Criminality With Illegality Equals Injustice

By Owei Lakemfa

I have a soft spot for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, mainly because I was present at its birth. Nigeria had transited from  long years of unaccountable military regimes that made little distinction between the national purse and private pockets. So corruption was rampant when the civilian administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo  came into office in 1999. EFCC Following  local and international pressures, the administration sought to fight corruption with specialised agencies. To set these up, stakeholders were invited to  meetings which I attended as the representative of the  Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC.

However, the EFCC was a rascal  using uncomely methods like breaking down doors, finding suspects guilty by  media trials, disregarding court orders and making outlandish claims like stating before the Senate that 31 of the serving 36  governors were corrupt, but having little to show after the men left  office and no longer had immunity. Worse still, the body swarm comfortably in political waters; engineering the removal of political office holders including elected governors. The worst case, was using six Plateau State legislators it had captured, to impeach Governor Joshua Dariye  when the constitutional number required was a minimum sixteen. The EFCC began operating  like  a weather forecast  station issuing  intermittent statements about people arrested,  stages of investigation or even its intentions. It chairmen who ordinarily were public servants; in fact, serving police officers – except Mrs. Farida  Mzamber Waziri, a retired police officer – became Czars.

The agency has been severally accused of doing the bidding of whoever is in power and restricting its investigative prowess to those in opposition. While there is a lot of truth in this, personally, I think it is good for the country; if even a few looters are brought to book, that will send a strong message  that people will be held to account even after leaving public office. I must also admit that the EFCC has brought some bite into the anti-corruption war; we have witnessed governors, bank chief executives and even an Inspector General of Police prosecuted and convicted. But this is no excuse to fight criminality with illegality. I believe public agencies like the EFCC and Directorate of State Security,DSS, can be effective even if they employ  legal and civilised procedures.

This will be in line with the EFCC’s vision of being “An agency operating to best international standards…” Unfortunately, at 13, the EFCC has not shed its toga of rascality and know-it-all attitude. Nothing typifies this better  than its uncultured response to the inaugural speech by the President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud. I had known Mahmoud in the early ‘80s as a quiet, soft-spoken  gentleman who tries to convince on the basis of logic rather than  be pedantic and flamboyant like some of his colleagues. He and  many  of us in our generation had admiration  for the late Alao Aka-Bashorun the principled NBA President who brought activism to the Bar. Aka-Bashorun believed that law must serve the people and that service to the citizenry is the basis of legitimacy  for any government.

I was not surprised that Mahmoud in his inaugural speech emphasised some of these themes such as  “A clean  judiciary that will deliver consistent and predictable outcomes” and “No to corruption, whether in the Executive, Legislative or Judicial branch of government”  He warned that  “for the legal profession in Nigerian, it can no longer be business as usual” and that “there cannot be rich lawyers in a poor country.”

His message that “the fight against corruption can only be achieved if we do so within the frame work of the rule of law and by strong institutions” did  not seem appealing to the EFCC, a body which he commended for its modest achievements. His suggestion that the EFCC be reformed by limiting it to an  investigative agency while  “the conduct of the prosecution must be by an independent highly resourced prosecution agency” infuriated the EFCC.   Rather than respond to Mahmoud’s arguments, the Agency resorted to insults.

Recession Caused By Buhari’s Incompetence And Visionlessness – PDP

PRESS RELEASE 

Our attention has once again been drawn to the recent inconsiderate statement attributed to the Governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru and similar comments from people of like minds to the effect that the previous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Administration was responsible for the current Economic Recession.

*Buhari 

It is really disappointing that a notable personality as highly placed as a State Governor could be drawn into making idle and pedestrian claims without the benefit of facts. It is either he does not realize the obligation of speaking responsibly in that position or he is grossly ill-informed; in which case, we could only try to put the facts before him, and hoping he would recognize them.

In the first place, this blame is misplaced because our elementary understanding of economics teaches us that the major cause of recession is inflation and poor handling of the economy given that the higher the rate of inflation, the more impoverished people become, industrial production and GDP decline resulting in massive job losses. Perhaps we should quote those who should know and tell Governor Badaru that wrong economic policies of the All Progressive Congress (APC)-led Government caused the current stagnation and recession in the Country.

Larry Ettah, President of the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) did not mince words when he said few days ago that, “It is quite evident that the lack of clarity about the economic agenda of the current government contributed to the current economic stagnation and recession.” He said further, “In recent times at our AGMs, we have variously described our operating environment as challenging, unpredictable, unstable and energy sapping. These words are of course, true and descriptive of what our members have experienced in keeping their businesses afloat.”

However beyond that, we make bold to tell Governor Badaru that Jonathan and the People’s Democratic Party Government saw this coming since 2011, and wanted to deregulate the sale of hydrocarbons in 2012, but Badaru and his co-travellers who are now in the All Progressives Congress (APC) frustrated the effort. The former Administration also wanted to encourage more savings in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and set up the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) but the Badarus of this world who play politics with serious national issues and were state governors at the time took the Federal Government to Court and did everything to frustrate the effort. Thank God some of them are among the ‘best brains’ in the APC Federal Government of today.

Governor Badaru should know that you can't plant grapes and harvest mangoes. It is no secret that the policies and statements made by key government actors have not been business friendly and Nigerians and foreign business men took their hard currencies out of the Country. When professionals were advising the Government to woo investors, characters like Badaru were busy de-marketing Nigeria all over the world. They should be reminded that great leaders take over countries either in recession or war and still succeed in turning them around; quite unlike the prevailing situation where a Ruling Party plunges the Economy into an avoidable recession, only to turn round and begin to whine helplessly like a baby.