New Presidential Economic Team: What Agenda?

 By Marcel Okeke

Recently, to the chagrin and perhaps, bewilderment of most Nigerians, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government inaugurated a ‘Presidential Committee on the National Economy’—just about 35 weeks to the end of the eight-year (two terms) tenure of the Administration. Truly, not a few Nigerians were stupefied by this ‘eleventh hour’ or ‘injury time’ move of the Government at the Centre—justifiably for numerous reasons. 

More surprisingly, for the first time in the over seven-year-long life of the Administration, Mr. President himself assumed headship of the economic team—and presided over its inaugural meeting on Friday, September 9, 2022. About the same time, the National Economic Council (NEC), putatively headed by the Vice President, was reportedly ‘rushing out’ a National Social Protection Policy (NSPP)—to be ratified and approved ‘soon’ by the Federal Executive Council.

*Buhari and Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed

At the inauguration of the new Presidential Economic Team, President Buhari said: “this Committee will provide our nation an opportunity to be bold, more proactive, and innovative in tackling persistent challenges”, adding that “the work with which I have tasked the assembled team will enable us respond more swiftly and efficiently.” 

ASUU: Dealing With A Blackmailing Government

 By Andrew A. Erakhrumen

As it stands today, except new reality emerges, the renegotiation of 2009 agreement between Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has been stalled by FGN. As a quick background: this agreement was originally due for renegotiation in 2012 but delayed, through FGN’s antics, till 2017 when Wale Babalakin-led FGN-empanelled renegotiation committee came on board to continue government’s antics through a ‘phantom’ renegotiation with ASUU’s team in order to waste everybody’s time.

This premeditated “wild goose chase”, on the part of Babalakin and his co-travellers, continued until he (Babalakin) was forced to resign as chairman of the Governing Council of University of Lagos on the 15th of September, 2020. As FGN was left in a lurch owing to this sudden resignation that nearly poked holes in their fakery, it has no choice other than to constitute Munzali Jibril-led renegotiation committee. This committee submitted a renegotiated draft agreement in May, 2021.

The President And The Silent Trumpets

 By Dan Agbese

The late premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna Sokoto, was once quoted to have said that it was his duty to blow his own trumpet because other people were busy blowing theirs and would not bother to blow his own for him. There appears to be some unquestionable wisdom in that. President Muhammadu Buhari appears to have missed it. He has relied on his appointees to blow his trumpet, but they have failed him.

*Buhari 

On his working visit to Imo State this week, the president opened up on his frustration with the men and women in his administration for failing to trumpet his achievements in the past seven years as president. He has done titanic things worthy of being loudly trumpeted within and beyond our shores. Still, the trumpet is silent. He has waited this long and these many years for the president’s men and women to loudly blow his trumpet. All he keeps hearing is the rich sound of silence. He said: “Those who should be speaking about my government are not doing so.”

That is criminal. Why will the trumpeters padlock their lips as if they were mere observers in the administration whose achievements rub off on its appointees? One could offer one of two possible reasons for this. It is either that (a) his appointees are busy blowing their own trumpets they forget that blowing their principal’s trumpet is a duty incumbent on them or (b) they see nothing worth trumpeting in the sterling performances of the administration. If the president knows what he has achieved and his aides do not, there is a serious problem, I tell you.

Shettima’s Freudian Slip…

 By Bello Maigari

Senator Kashim Shettima has again amused serious-minded Nigerians, this time, opening up on how his principal in the All Progressives Congress, APC presidential ticket, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu would combine the hospitality of General Sani Abacha and the competence of Muhammadu Buhari as president.

*Shettima and Tinubu 

Speaking last Thursday at the 96th-anniversary celebration of the Yoruba Tennis Club in Ikoyi, Lagos state, the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN quoted him as saying Nigeria needs the “hospitality” of Abacha. For Nigerians unfamiliar with Abacha, a slight recall of some of the worst abuses in human rights are easy to recall.

The extra-judicial killings of Mrs Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane and many others recorded and unrecorded are living testimonies of the hospitality that Shettima wants Nigerians to remember. Shettima’s principal, Tinubu was driven to exile like many other Nigerians who kicked against the military regime’s decision to usurp the mandate given to Chief MKO Abiola.

Nigeria: The Dangers Of Massive Brain Drain

 By Ayo Oyoze Baje

According to Professor Innocent Ujah, the President of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Nigeria lost over 9,000 medical doctors to the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America between 2016 and 2018. In fact, no fewer than 727 medical doctors trained in Nigeria relocated to the United Kingdom alone between December 2021 and May 2022.

He made this shocking statement during the Maiden NMA Annual Lecture Series earlier in the year. The event was held in Abuja. The theme of this year’s lecture is ‘Brain Drain and Medical Tourism: The Twin evil in Nigeria’s Health System.’

Are you alarmed by this saddening situation that has the best brains in the medical field jetting out to greener pastures far beyond our shores? You should be and that is because the loss left Nigeria with only 4.7 per cent of its specialists to service the healthcare needs of over 200 million people!

Do We Still Value Education In Nigeria?

 By Adekunle Adekoya 

Last Wednesday, the United Nations, UN, Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Matthias Schmale, said that our dear country, Nigeria, is not on track to meet many SDGs (Strategic Development Goals) by the year 2030. Schmale said this in a speech at the opening ceremony of a three-day capacity building workshop for the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC’s educators on the UN Strategic Development Cooperation Framework, UNSDCF. 

Let me quote Schmale: “As it stands, Nigeria is not on track to reach many of its SDGs by 2030, a situation compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine. With women and youths hit, especially hard by growing unemployment, spiraling inflation, and insufficient access to quality education and health services, we must take a fresh look at how best to support the most vulnerable in society.”

One sector where we clearly will miss the SDG target date is education, prompting the question: Do we still value education in Nigeria? 

Reflections On ASUU And The Constrictors

 By Tony Afejuku

Once again, necessity is compelling me to dwell on the FGN-ASUU imbroglio – which is becoming or has become bigger than an imbroglio. Perhaps we should call what the FGN is doing to and against ASUU a game of imbroglio? All positive hopes that our public universities on lock-down will re-open sooner than later are shrinking un-steadily second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day and month by month.

*ASUU, Federal Govt negotiating team 

Several persons have spoken and written and several more are still speaking and writing about this important issue that is now in the critical hurly-burly of our tertiary education. And after my last appearance here, I promised myself to keep quiet for sometime in the cherished hope that the constrictors who are gripping tightly the neck-muscle of our universities would withdraw their sphincters because they were more or less in touch with reality at last – especially after the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee honourably did their duty with unblemished integrity that the de-humanized constrictors in power never bargained for.

Nigeria: Motion Without Movement

 By Femi Oluwasanmi

It is common knowledge that the flashpoint of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and Federal Government face-off is the 2009 agreement, which has undergone a series of renegotiations with great controversy. However, what seems to be obscured is the impact of the impasse on the country, particularly with the continuous circumnavigation in the wilderness of war against insecurity and economic quagmire.

*Buhari 

On August 30, 2022, ASUU declared an indefinite strike after several rollovers that commenced on February 14. Some of its demands include the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement and deployment of the UTAS payment platform for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers, among others.

Before the current face-off, there have been several industrial actions with results synonymous to a motion without movement. This has affected the career of most students by elongating their period in school.

How Scary Is UNICEF’s 20 Million Nigerian Children Out-Of-School Statistic?

 By Cheta Nwanze

It has been well acknowledged that primary school education is the foundation of individual and national development. The skills learned at that level are the base on which the capacity for future economic productivity is built. Primary School Education takes up the first six years of Nigeria’s nine-year Basic Education Curriculum which seeks to give every child resident in Nigeria an adequate foundation for a successful and productive life.

The nine-year Basic Education Curriculum covers 10 subjects: Mathematics; Basic Science and Technology; English Studies; Religion and National Values; Cultural and Creative Arts; Business Studies; Nigerian Languages; Pre-vocational Studies; French and Arabic.

Ukraine: US, NATO Must Be Held Accountable

 By Opeyemi Soyombo

For weeks, from CNN through BBC to Al Jazeera, we are fed the same diet on a daily ba­sis. We run the risk of being victims of intellectual kwashiorkor. Hence some of us have to cry out! This exercise is not in defence of President Vladimir Putin, a dictator of no mean measure. I reject fascism, communism, Nazism, militarism, sit-tightism and all forms of tyran­ny. Putin epitomises monocracy. 

*Zelensky 

I like democracy of the Westminster model. The United States presiden­tial system of government is fasci­nating. When it comes to the rule of law, freedom and right to dissent, I belong to the West (the US). I reject the strangulating, despotic govern­ments in China and Russia. They are an open sore on our humanity. The Kim Dynasty in North Korea must fall. Everything must be done to bring down autocracy everywhere in the world. The world must stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Myanmar (Burma), Chad, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso,etc. and take all legitimate measures, including use of force, to remove the unconsti­tutional governments and usurpers of political power.

Nigeria: Epitaph To A Dying Republic

 By Mike Ikhariale

Judging by the way things are going presently, it is only those who take pleasure in deceiving themselves that would ignore all the tell-tale signs of the imminent morbidity awaiting the Repub­lic. It is quite sad that Nigeria has rapidly be­come a theatre of unbridled anarchy, a society that is seemingly jinxed to stumble and fall, where government, through defective actions and policies, is actually at the forefront in the ignoble march to national ruination.

*Buhari 

The traditional constitutional schema for separating government powers and functions for the purposes of achieving stability and effectiveness in society, namely the Legisla­ture, the Executive and Judiciary as well as safeguarding us from an overbearingly tyran­nical government in the classic Montesqui­uean sense, ie, checks and balances has been corrupted in Nigeria.

It is, however, worth noting that the doc­trine of Separation of Powers is also a key el­ement in Nigeria’s constitutional architecture which was structurally designed to serve as a ‘feedback stabilization mechanism’ whereby the various organs of government routinely interact with a view to reinforcing their in­dividual and collective stability in moments of crisis and general constitutional/political turbulence.

2023: Between Atiku, Tinubu And Obi

 By Charles Okoh

For Nigeria, the year 2023 is just not another year. It is a year that will determine the fate of the nation. The campaigns by political parties would not commence until September 28, 2022 as provided by Sec. 94(1) of the Electoral Act 2022. But, the tension around the election has reached boiling point. What happens to this nation going forward would be determined by the choice we make in 2023.

*Obi, Tinubu, Atiku 

There are several reasons why 2023 could make or mar Nigeria. One of the biggest reasons why Nigeria and Nigerians must get it right is that for the past seven years we have been living the reality and facing the pangs that come with our wrong choice of President Muhammadu Buhari. In seven short years, Buhari has squandered the enormous goodwill he had coming to that office. That more than anything else, is the reason there is so much tension in the land. It is the reason Nigeria has remained on the edge of a precipice.

As the campaigns commence, it is imperative on all political parties and candidates to focus on issue-based campaigns. This way we can ensure that the polity is not unnecessarily heated up and it will also afford us the opportunity to assess the competencies and preparedness of those who seek to rule us in order to ensure transparent elections in which only the votes cast by citizens determine the winner. Sentiments, emotions and selfishness must take the backstage in making that vital decision.

Obidients: The Protest Before The Revolt

 By Tony Eluemunor

Keeping faith with the sorry saying that: "All things bright and beautiful Nigeria kills them all,” we members of the wasted and wasting generations (age 40 and above) are busy demeaning the only hope that Nigeria could ever hope to get it right as a nation.

*Obi

Nigeria is right now on the verge of a right thing. Ever lucky, Nigeria is hosting a new political and nationalistic and developmental Mojo; that magical phenomenon of Nigerian youth rising up to seize control of the political space and lead from the front, instead of following behind their fathers and mothers. Mojo? It is a slang for a magic charm, talisman or spell or magical power or supernatural influence or luck. 

Ordinarily, Nigeria has so failed and traumatized it’s youth that that segment of the citizenry should be totally alienated. But, here comes the young ones rising up to embrace and remake their fatherland. The political interest they have shown in the forth-coming 2023 election is out of this world, and could only have come from Nigeria, a country that breaks all the rules. 

Insecurity: Lai Mohammed, Where Are You?

 By Dan Onwukwe

He evokes different images to different people. He’s a talker and a tackler. He lives in denial just like the government he serves. Anybody who has been following his political career carefully and his comments, will understand that this man has an irritating habit of talking too loosely and telling yarn that amounts to nothing other than rough humour. That’s just one of his numerous personality traits. Other traits include peddling half-truths and outright lies. But there’s a darker side of living in denial.  It doesn’t give one the ability to look facts, very unpleasant facts – in the face – without deluding oneself with wishful thinking. 

*Lai Mohammed

Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture possesses these traits in abundance. As any management consultant will tell you: beware! These traits are the blinding lights of success. They are also the secrets of failure. But, Lai Mohammed keeps telling the same tale. Very often, he indulges in outright propaganda to hoodwink the undiscerning . However, the good thing is that half-truths have expiry date, no matter the short-term political gains. Let’s go a bit back in time. In the campaign leading to the 2015 elections, and desperate for power, Lai Mohammed was a forceful presence in the then opposition APC propaganda machine to demonize the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency and make it unelectable. 

Peter Obi: As Tough As Nails

Excerpts from The Promise Of A New Era, a book on Mr. Peter Obi, written by Chuks Iloegbunam, which will be publicly presented at the Enugu Sports Club on Wednesday September 21, 2022...

Sitting inside his Apapa, Lagos, office, one day, just the two of us, and holding lighthearted conversation, Peter Obi suddenly said that he would forever be grateful to Onyechi Ikpeazu.

Why did he say that? I didn’t put the question to him. All the time the suit to claim his stolen electoral mandate was in the courts, there was no day we met without discussing it, at least tangentially. Sometimes we had a full house. At other times, half a full house. On certain occasions, just the two of us. In every shape or setting we had, the case came up for exhaustive or salutary examination. Not once did he talk of Dr. Ikpeazu being worthy of perpetual gratitude. So why did he raise it now? I looked at him intently, saying nothing.

He resumed: “When we were going to challenge INEC’s declaration of Dr. Ngige as the winner of the governorship election, our plan was to file the case in the name of APGA,” he said. “But Onyechi refused and said I must file the case in my own name. I didn’t immediately see his point because, apart from not being a lawyer, I assumed that since I contested the election on APGA’s platform, the party must file the case. Onyechi refused and said no. ‘If APGA filed the case, they might run out of steam during the proceedings and throw in the towel, even if you hold a contrary opinion. File the case in your name; you contested the election. Only you can legitimately dictate whether or not to go the whole hog.’”

Remembering Gani Fawehinmi

 By Ayodele Ale

We were in the newsroom when respected lawyer Gani Fawehinmi’s call came in that reporters should be sent to his Oduduwa Crescent, GRA, Ikeja residence. A drama was in the offing. Gani was news, any time, any day. Within a jiffy, reporters from different media houses stormed his abode. It was a day to the Ileya festival and two rams were tied to the stakes in his compound. Gani pointed at the two animals, alleging that they were sent as Ileya presents to him by the then military administrator of Lagos.

*Fawehinmi

Fawehinmi said emphatically that the MILAD, who is a Muslim did not know the tenets of Islam as Ileya meat and gift is to be shared with the poor, not the rich like him. Cameras flashed as Gani granted an interview, turning the animals to four-legged celebrities. The enfant terrible loaded the animals into a truck and returned it to the Alausa office of the governor, with the message that Gani would never accept any such Greek gift.

Gani was war. Uncompromising. And the MILAD dared not try him. But the MILAD was also fond of him. He later approved that the road leading to Gani’s house be tarred. Gani had no objection. He told the press why. “The MILAD only used taxpayers’ money to tar the road and not his compound and he could not prevent other people living in the same street from enjoying the product of their tax. Chikena!

At The Peter Obi Event In New York

 By Sonala Olumhense

As a Nigerian with considerable interest in public affairs, the Grand Ballroom of New York City’s Hilton Midtown Hotel, the venue of “Afro-Economics & Government Policy: A Conversation with Governor Peter Obi,” was my destination last Sunday.

*Obi

The engagement followed others in the United States, some of which had been mismanaged by local organisers who chose to charge a gate fee. Not New York, which was free to every registered attendee, thanks to the Columbia University’s Africa Business Club and Black Law Students Association.

The Hilton Grand Ballroom is a cavernous facility capable of accommodating 3,000 persons. For a city with nearly 700 hotels pre-COVID, Hilton bills the facility as the city’s largest ballroom.  At the height of the event, it was about two-thirds full.

Nigeria: Victory For The Vanquished

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

It Is A Goal! No! – The Necessity of Biafra by Hanum Mary Chioke (ISBN: 978-978-977-670-2; 2018; 259 pp)

 

Man’s existence on earth can be understood like a football match in which a goal must be scored for victory to be achieved. Hanum Mary Chioke in his book It Is A Goal! No! – The Necessity of Biafra understands that a radio or television commentator almost always enthusiastically screams “It is a goal!” only to reverse himself when the ball does not eventually hit the back of the net. The players must then keep on trying until the goal of victory is scored.

Hanum Mary Chioke has lived through the gamut of the early promise of Nigeria at independence in 1960, the horrors of the Igbo genocide after the coups of 1966, and saw action as a Biafran soldier in the civil war. He now stands strong as a witness to the denial of justice and equity in post-war Nigeria, and thus bears testimony that the clear and present necessity is to let the oppressed people go.

 

It is remarkable that Hanum Mary Chioke in It Is A Goal! No! – The Necessity of Biafra goes way back to the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria by Britain. His discussion of the country’s early politics is foregrounded by an unpublished paper entitled “A Quick Review of the Development of Nigerian Politics 1945-1966” written by one of the permanent secretaries of the era. The author adds gravitas to his thesis with Philip Asiodu’s “The Formal Structure of British Colonial Government in Nigeria.”

Why Nigeria Is In Debt

By Sunny  Awhefeada

I must begin with a confession that I am not an economist! My dabbling into a topic with its moorings in economics is the consequence of provocation by those who rule, run and ruin Nigeria. The ruling class too of­ten feels that the rest of us do not think and are therefore bound to swallow opinions hook line and sinker without asking questions.

*Buhari and Ahmad

This tendency to undermine the people is also traceable to our docility and inability to follow through clamours for account­ability and good governance. We occasionally raise alarm and frown at some of government’s inanities, but we give up too soon and move on and those who creat­ed such discomfitures laugh and mock the brevity of our critical response and also move on to per­petuate more devious schemes that hold us down. Economics and politics are no rocket scienc­es.

Nigeria: Why Getting The Economy Right Matters

 By Dan Agbese

Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo was in Washington last week to talk shop with US and World Bank officials on issues that matter to our country and the rest of the world. His takeaway from that trip will most likely be the brief lecture given him by the World Bank Group president, David Malpass, on the management of our stubborn national economy. Osinbajo was shopping for support from the World Bank on the vexed challenge that has defeated every president since our return to civil rule in 1999: fuel subsidy. Yes, that again.

Malpass thought the vice-president was looking for a solution in the wrong place because, as we say in this country, the solution is in his sokoto, not in Sokoto. The Daily Times online publication captured the essence of his advice to the vice-president with this headline: “World Bank to Osinbajo: Go home, address your staggered exchange rates, over-bloated fuel subsidy.”