Viewpoint
The saying goes that a man of success achieves his goals but a man of significance changes his world. If there are people who understand the difference between the two, Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), is at the forefront among them.
Prof. Oloyede’s ascension to prominence was not a matter of coincidence; it was rather a product a clear vision, a sense of mission propelled by the keen passion to excel. In other words, here is a man who has internalized five d’s as the operational blueprint for making a difference. He is a man with a dream, who then develops a drive to achieve it. With single-minded determination, remarkable discipline, this three-in-one man (okunrin meta) sets out to achieve his goal with dedication.
To Prof. Oloyede, whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well and on time. This is why he is seen as a workaholic, a man who electrifies his surroundings with an inimitable sense of duty, a man of action and guts. As Dan Gable once said, “Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They are made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.”
So, wherever Prof. Oloyede finds himself, whether in the classroom or podium as a lecturer, or at the National Political Reform Conference as a Co-Secretary, or as Chairman of the Committee of Directors of Academic Planning in Nigerian Universities, or as National Coordinator/ Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC) or as Secretary General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) under the transformational leadership of the royals’ royal, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, or in several other capacities he has functioned or still functions, he is renowned for being extra-ordinary and first class.
A talented scholar and cerebral intellectual, Prof. Oloyede is an academic genius and administrative guru, who dominates his world with well-reasoned arguments and visionary ideas. A shrewd judge of men and matters, this man who accepts no half measures smashes reputations and sets records with his sterling qualities and impeccable credentials.
A man of unconquerable will and a restless questing spirit, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Fountain University, Osogbo, is the proverbial goldfish that has no hiding place. With a Spartan commitment to duty, easy and amiable mien, Prof. Oloyede has remained a raving phenomenon to friends and foes alike with his honesty, simplicity, humility, loyalty, generosity and single-minded belief in service to Allah and humanity.
To tell a peacock a story of bright colours is to sing empty and discordant tunes to a care-free bird, yet the Qu’ran tells us, “And proclaim the Grace of your Lord” (Q. Ad-duha, 93:11) Though Oloyede does not see himself as special, this infectiously simple and rare Nigerian is a man of many firsts, a special gift of God to humanity, right from the classroom to the boardroom. Due to limited time, perhaps ten of his firsts would make a sample viz: first First Class graduate of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin (1981); first Unilorin alumnus to bag a Ph.D. from his alma mater (1991), first alumnus President in the Governing Council of the University of Ilorin; first Unilorin graduand to become a Professor (1995); first academic Director of Academic Planning, Unilorin; first Unilorin product to ever become a Deputy Vice-Chancellor; and first Unilorin alumnus to become a Vice-Chancellor of a University in the world; first Secretary-General of the Association of West Africa Universities; first Nigerian to become President of the Association of African Universities and first JAMB Registrar to remit N7.8 billion to the Federal Government.
Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede was on October 10, 1954 ushered into the world through the family of Alhaji and late Madam Oloyede in Abeokuta, Ogun State. He started his formal education at Ta’limul Islam Ahmadiya Primary School in 1961 after which he proceeded to Progress Institute, Agege, where he bagged his 1st School Leaving Certificate with Distinction in 1969. He perfected his training as an Arabist at the famous Arabic Training Centre (Markaz) between 1973 and 1976. His insatiable quest for knowledge took him to the University of Ibadan, where he bagged a Certificate in Arabic and Islamic Studies while his passion for higher learning brought him to the University of Ilorin in 1978, where he graduated as Best Graduating Student in 1981. The University of Ilorin scrupulously engaged him as Assistant Lecturer in 1982 and he subsequently obtained his higher degrees in 1985 and 1991, rising through the ranks in the process till he became a Professor in 1995.
A true scholar to the core, Prof. Oloyede is a keen advocate of training and in this respect, he leads by example as the prodigy is never ashamed of being a student. He obtained his Postgraduate Diploma in Education just in 2003 and became a Certified Teacher by Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria in 2005. Between 1994 and 1995, he received Special Proficiency Training on Information and Communication Technology at the International Centre for Communication Art and capped his ICT proficiency with a Certificate in Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme – Tertiary (ADAPT) at the International Centre for Communication Studies and Digital Bridge Institute, Abuja, in 2007.
This man of unimpeachable integrity has received several awards and honours in his dazzling and inspiring career and he is a member of many professional bodies. He is a recipient of the Arab League Prize for the Best Certificate Student in Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan; recipient of Merit Award by Islamic Mission of Africa, proprietors of Crescent University, Abeokuta; Fellow, Islamic Academy of Cambridge, United Kingdom; Fellow, Academy of Religion; Fellow, Society for Peace Studies and Practice; Fellow, Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies, Nigeria; Fellow, Nigerian Institute of Management; and Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letters.
Prof. Oloyede has been a long-time member of the Nigerian Association of Teachers of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Professors World Peace Academy of Nigeria and the Nigerian Association for the Study and Teaching of Religion and the Natural Sciences. He is a Board Member of the African Center for Religions and the Sciences and representative of Unilorin Local Societies Initiative at the Metanexus Institute of Science and Religion, Philadelphia, USA and several others. He has won the Federal Government Scholarship, University of Ilorin Merit Scholarship and several national awards, including Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR).
This distinguished gentleman had served the University of Ilorin, Kwara and Ogun States and indeed the Federal Republic of Nigeria in several capacities. His achievements are so many and etched on stone that recounting them will fill several pages. Yet, it would be unfair to the University of Ilorin and its alumni if it is not mentioned that when this illustrious graduate of the University was the Vice-Chancellor, the University was taken to such an Olympian height that Vice-Chancellors visited him regularly to understudy him. Within a period of five years, this great man of honour took the University of Ilorin from being an unranked University to one of the best 20 in Africa, according to international ranking agencies.
Not only did Prof. Oloyede take the University of Ilorin to its apogee, he also electrified the global university system with his sterling leadership qualities and high-octane administrative acumen. No other Nigerian Vice-Chancellor has achieved being Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors (CVC)/ Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU), President of the Association of African Universities (AAU), Board Member of both the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and International Association of Universities (IAU) within a tenure of five years, apart from being the initiator of the Association of West Africa Universities (AWAU) through the Ilorin Declaration.
As a prolific author and astute academic, his hundreds of research works have appeared in scores of national and international journals. Prof. Oloyede has written, co-written and co-edited books and papers published in many outlets in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, USA, among others. He has presented academic papers in conferences all over Nigeria and across the world.
Little wonder that awards and recognitions have been swarming him but the self-effacing Oloyede has been driving them away. Nevertheless, he was on Saturday, November 27, 2017 garlanded by the well-respected New Telegraph newspaper as the “Most Outstanding Public Servant of the Year”. As the blind can see and the deaf can hear, Prof. Oloyede stands tall today as one of the greatest symbols of President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade. It was therefore not surprising that when the Presidency released a statement on December 30, 2017 to showcase the achievements of the Federal Government, JAMB’s name was conspicuous in it. Subsequently, when the Minister of Information and National Orientation made an intervention in response to a statement, JAMB under Prof. Oloyede still featured prominently as a major achievement of Mr President.
Known for saying his mind without minding whose ox is gored, Prof. Oloyede is not unmindful of the fact that maggots would detest sanitary inspectors. In his frenetic pace for standard and excellence wherever the combination of hard work and good luck puts him, he steps on toes with integrity. So, one would agree with The Punch in its editorial of January 8, 2018 that “a leadership with integrity is critical….It is a fact that the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Is-haq Oloyede, showed with the N7.8 billion his agency remitted, against 3 million annually remitted by his predecessors.” Perhaps, part of his inspiration for being who he is lies in the words of Bill Cosby: “I don’t know the secret of success but the secret of failure is trying to please everybody”.
A no-nonsense man of super-abundant physical and mental energy, Prof. Oloyede loathes corruption so much that corruption too loathes him in kind. At a personal level, it was through him that I learnt that it is not a shame to be broke. Ten years ago, as Vice-Chancellor, he needed to send me on an errand and he told his son, now a medical Consultant, to withdraw money from his account. He was told there was no money there.
He mentioned another account and he was informed the last money there had been withdrawn under his directive. We had to wait till his next salary was paid. I learnt to assure myself since then that being broke is normal, after all, the Vice-Chancellor was broke!
A versatile scholar, a masterful manager of men and materials, Prof. Oloyede is a family man, happily married to the woman of his dream, a supportive, devoted, caring and enduring Dr (Mrs) Raheemat O. Oloyede and the marriage is blessed with children, including a set of male twins, and an expanding clan of grandchildren!
It is my singular honour to present to you the man of the moment, and indeed the man of all moments, a preeminent professor, astute administrator, exceptional scholar, academic mentor, redoubtable Registrar, dynamic Chief Executive, prolific writer, incorruptible leader, marvelous manager, inimitable consultant, wonderful Fellow, intellectual juggernaut, inter-religious activist, compulsive communicator and outstanding Muslim personality, okunrin takuntakun, Prof. Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, OFR, FNAL, FNIM, FIAC, FAR, fspsp, etc!
Dr Adedimeji is of the Department of English, University of Ilorin.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called on leaders to work closely together to tackle the incessant violent clashes between farmers and herdsmen across the country.
Obasanjo made the call in Makurdi on Saturday when he visited the graves and laid a wreath at the graveyard of the 73 victims of herdsmen attack.
He said the continued violence and insurgency required collaboration and collective urgent attention, stressing that tackling security challenges must begin from the roots to secure a permanent solution.
”If the issue is tackled right from the roots there will be no room for assumptions. We must collectively find solutions,” he said.
Obasanjo said that he laid the wreath to sufficiently express his sorrow, empathy and sympathy to the families that lost their loved ones, the governor and people of the state and Nigerians.
He disclosed that he had attended the Zero Hunger meeting which Gov. Samuel Ortom could not attend because of the incessant attacks on his subjects by herdsmen.
The former president said that he was shocked to hear that after the mass burial of 73 persons, 83 more persons were killed.
He regretted that the investment and development cannot take place in a chaotic atmosphere because investors would be unwilling to invest in such places.
Obasanjo called for an end to the incessant attacks on farmers by the herdsmen while appealing the governor not to give up because “there would surely be light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
NAN
Happy to be alive when President Muhammadu Buhari is the sitting democratically elected President of Nigeria, the world most populous black nation. The upright and integrity man of his people.
He was the leader and presidential hopeful of a leading opposition party, (All Progressives Congress) when Chibok girls were abducted in 2014. The cry then was to high heavens, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign resonated across the globe to the extent that notable world figures like Michelle Obama, Alicia Keys also joined in a campaign well-coordinated by former World Bank vice president and former education minister, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili for the release of the innocent girls and this mounted unquantifiable measure of pressure on the then President Goodluck Jonathan.
Mr. Buhari promised to help regain the freedom of the abducted school girls within six months if elected president.
Alas, 33 months down the line, rather than witnessing the release of the Chibok school girls, President Buhari cluelessly and carelessly allowed another abduction of Dapchi school girls in Yobe state through the back door withdrawal of the military checkpoint as confirmed by the Yobe state governor.
The simple truth is, what is not good for Nigeria in 1984, can't be manageable in 2015. This government is a big disaster brought upon us by misinformed and impatient 10million grown up Nigerians(+ estimated over 2million under age voters in the north) who truly desired a change without the rightful alternative.
Meanwhile, rather than utilize the Peace Corps Bill to fulfil part of the 3 million yearly jobs your party promised during the campaign, Mr. President rejected it, citing funding as an excuse. A government that budgeted over a billion naira for the renovation of the SGF's building can't afford to take over 200,000 young Nigerians off the streets and give them a sense of belonging.
Anyway, Mr. President feels no pressure since it's not of any benefit to the sons and daughters of his cabal and extended relatives (not CBN, NNPC or FIRS jobs).
Mr. President, please note that what makes you an authority over the rest of us is majorly your position as the C-in-C of this country, saddled with the responsibilities to protect and utilize the available resources accordingly as stipulated in the constitution which is supreme. In view of your continuous failure in these critical areas of governance (economy, and anti-graft inclusive), I humbly advise you to take a path of honor.
Time has clearly shown that the known devil is far manageable than a strange angel whose hidden agenda is unknown. And in terms of performance through visible achievements, you have nothing to showcase other than the usual lies, deceit and propaganda.
The recently released Corruption Perception Index(CPI) by Transparency International, where Nigeria scored 27 points is a reflection of your selective fight against corruption. Indeed, I have stories to tell the unborn generation, of how snake and monkey swallowed money, how a government official used 200million naira to cut grasses, how your administration embraced and promoted corruption through Abdulrasheed Maina.
It's crystal clear you've not only failed but also running a failed government.
I take a breath with this statement credited to an elder statesman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo who said and I quote; "I am disappointed that Buhari has not disappointed me."
That statement describes my stand because sincerely speaking, there's nothing disappointing about your government’s show of shame and display of nepotism as your style of governance, except that you've failed to prove me wrong for not believing in your abilities and capabilities to move this country forward prior to the last general election.
Oguntosin (Follow on @coguntosin)
Prof. Tunde Adeniran is a former Minister of Education, one-time Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, and a founding member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who contested for the chairmanship of the party in December 2017 but lost to Prince Uche Secondus. Adeniran alongside another founding member, Professor Jerry Gana and others last week defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP). In this interview, he gives reasons why they opted for the SDP. Excerpts:
Daily Trust: You recently left the PDP. Why did you opt for the SDP?
Prof. Tunde Adeniran: We are being guided by a definite philosophy called orientation. We are social democrats, we believe in the welfare and wellbeing of the people. We believe that there are certain irreducible minimums an average Nigerian is entitled to. We believe for instance, that education is the key to the future. Without education, we are nobody. We believe that education should be made free and compulsory for every Nigerian up to secondary school level. The second area is health. Before you can become anything in terms of growth and development, you have to be healthy. That is why we believe that health issues should not be played with. The healthcare delivery system has to be overhauled in such a way that people will have access to basic healthcare facilities. Health insurance is one of the things we believe in very much. You see, Nigerians of old age can no longer afford drugs, they can no longer take care of themselves.
I have visited virtually all continents of the world, I also had the privilege of visiting about 56 countries. I do not know of any that is as blessed as Nigeria in terms of both human and material resources. Our vegetation, you look at it and ask, ‘why should Nigerians be hungry?’ There should be no hunger in this country for goodness sake. And that is why we believe that agriculture will be handled in such a way that hunger will be pushed out. Nigeria does not have reason to be hungry. As social democrats, these are some of the things that prompted us to go to the SDP.
Apart from the core values that we share with that party, we asked our team to go round. We also went round when it became apparent that the present party (APC) and the PDP can no longer divorce themselves. They seem to have a covenant with impunity and imposition. So I feel that an alternative has to be considered. In the consideration of an alternative, the APC is a no go area because the damage that it has done to this country within a short time shows that we cannot entrust this country to the care of the APC with just one additional year after 2019. It will be a greater disaster because we are already in a disastrous situation. During the consultations, people felt these values that are entrenched in the programme and philosophy of this party (SDP), we share them because we could have gone ahead and registered a new party. But what we are looking for is already on ground, we can build on it, we can remodel it, we can reposition it the more.
Then of course, when you are coming up with new parties, there is the tendency to have as it is inherent in party formation some elements of what you can call possibility for crisis. So you do not have a perfect situation in an arrangement, whether it is a family you are putting together or a political party. In the history of the SDP, you can see that relatively, it has been crisis-free. It is also national and not driven by primordial, parochial or sectional tendencies and they have not deviated from that. We did a thorough survey, it didn’t just come from the blues. So we are thinking of making a more people-oriented party.
DT: In 2015, the SDP fielded candidates but didn’t do well at the polls. What gives you the courage that it will win elections in 2019?
Prof. Adeniran: Yes, it fielded candidates but it was a small party then, it didn’t attract large followership. But now that we are coming in, it is going to become the biggest party because of the potentials, because of the attraction to the younger generation. It will be dominated by the youths, so, some of us who are the older generation will just be there to mentor, to make sure that we add value to whatever they have to offer Nigerians then we take the backseat.
DT: Don’t you think the PDP will feel betrayed about your exit?
Prof. Adeniran: No, it is the other way round. It is the PDP that has betrayed some of us. The PDP has betrayed us because what we all subscribe to, when you go back and read the preambles of the PDP, you will know that the party has betrayed many of us. We started this party and when you see the mission and vision of the party being aborted, you see so many things happening. If you use me as a reference point, in the past, I had the mandate to go to the Senate, it was taken away from me, given to someone who did not even contest, who was not even a member of our party. I didn’t leave the party because I felt we needed to work, the answer was not to leave. On two or three different occasions, other parties had attracted me because of some of the things that I went through but I said no, I am not an opportunist. I didn’t come into politics to seek positions and then if I am not given I leave the party, no, that was not the motive.
There is the need to serve the people but when it starts getting to a situation where that opportunity to serve the people could no longer be there, there will no longer be justice, it is bad. If some other people are elected through a fair, credible process, I will work. I have done it in the past. I will work with them. But the principle involved is that you cannot continue to do things the wrong way, you are destroying the future. When you go against the principles, policies, programmes and vision of anybody, it is sabotage. So the people behind it are people who have betrayed the trust. Sometimes when I look back and I think through, those who have gone, founders of this party like Rimi, Ekwueme, Solomon Lar, I feel they would be shaking in their graves to see what is happening. Those who are still around, why would someone for instance, Jerry Gana who was spending like 18 hours per day since the formative years of this party, leave such a party. He was involved at every critical stage of the formation of the PDP but he decided to leave. So it is a painful situation.
DT: Is the movement of aggrieved chieftains of various political parties to the SDP and especially some former ministers who served under President Obasanjo a fulfillment of his recent proclamation?
Prof. Adeniran: The way I look at it is that former president Obasanjo is a very passionate person when it comes to the issue of Nigeria and Africa. And what I see in this regard is the meeting of minds and God is also at work. While we were thinking about how to rescue this country, I have seen this as a decisive action. We have to change the narrative, we can’t afford to leave this country the way it is. I believe that when we were thinking about how to rescue this country, he too was preoccupied as an elder statesman, what could be done to redeem the nation, to rescue the situation.
What he is coming up with, the Coalition for Nigeria, is in tune with what we are doing and what we also believe in. There should be a third force, the coming together of people who are determined to rescue this country. At the time he was raising the issues, of course, all the issues he raised, many people felt the same way but they were not as courageous as he had been. We share views and we also believe that people who also believe in this will join us to work together.
DT: Did you meet with Obasanjo before your defection to the SDP?
Prof. Adeniran: We always have the opportunity of meeting the former president. He is a very active person and where there are issues being discussed about Nigeria, Africa and even the world, you will always find him there. So we interact with him from time to time and as far as this party is concerned, he is not going to be a partisan person and I believe he said it himself. He is an elder statesman but he will not shy away from encouraging a movement that will salvage this country.
Daily Trust
Elder statesman, Professor Ben Nwabueze has warned that the nation that the much anticipated 2019 elections may not hold if the country is not properly restructured before then.
In this interview with VINCENT KALU in Lagos, he equally opened up on a lot of national issues including how former President Obasanjo doctored the nation’s constitution to create the current problems the country is facing today. He also spoke on the near hopeless situation of the Igbo and the tough conditions through which an Igbo can become Nigeria’s president.
Nigeria doesn’t seem to be working, why?
Nigeria is not working; this is the truth. It is not working because of so many things. The first and foremost is bad leadership, which leads to bad governance. We don’t have the right type of leadership in this country, at least at the present time.
This has worsened since the election of President Muhammadu Buhari; I have made it clearly that I don’t think this man was the right type of leader for this country at this time of our history. What kind of leader do you need to govern Nigeria, which is one of the most complex societies in the world, with over 300 different ethnic nationalities? A team of researchers from the University of Ibadan has identified at least, 300 ethnic groups in the country.
To be able to govern it and manage this type of complexity and diversity is not a job for everybody. Not everybody can do this. You need a certain minimum of intellectualism for you to be able to do this.
What does the constitution proscribe as educational qualifications – just Standard Six. In today’s Nigeria, where we know expo, we know fake certificates, how can somebody with Standard Six, whatever may be his experience govern this country; lead this country? It’s not possible. I have stated this time without number, it’s not that I’m prejudiced about anybody in particular; I’m concerned about this country, and what this country needs considering the complexity and diversity. The ideas involved in government are so complex. What do you know to bring about some kind of peaceful coexistence among over 300 ethnic groups in the country? Intellectualism means ideas, people who can think, rationalize and understand ideas about society, about humanity, about human relationships.
This is the starting point. You need somebody who is educated enough; you need somebody with energy, anybody looking at you (the reporter) will know that you have the energy, but anybody looking at me will know that I don’t have the energy anymore. I will be 87 in March, and so, for me to go and put myself in that position, I’m doing a disservice to Nigeria and to my self; to go and take a job that I know that I cannot manage at my age.
I have said this that at the age of 75, nobody can undertake the job of governing or leading Nigeria now. You cannot do it; you can’t mobilize the society. Mobilization is one of the most difficult jobs of political leadership. To mobilize people for national transformation you have to move round, address people at town hall gatherings and at various platforms. Seventy five year old man cannot do this; I cannot do this. This is what Nigeria needs. This is what is involved in political leadership. We don’t have it – orientation and inclination are involved. You must consider the background of our country, emerging from colonialism. What is planted in us, that personality, as Africans had been degraded by colonialism.
What is involved in decolonization, you need certain minimum of education to be able to understand what is meant by decolonization. How do you decolonize the mind of our people, whose personality had been degraded by centuries of colonialism? This is the problem of leadership, which is the first issue.
You have been in the forefront calling for restructuring in order to make Nigeria work. Towing your line, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has come up with proposal on how to restructure the country, are their suggestions in tandem with your position?
Restructuring, whether moving from leadership to structures (leadership is about individuals), we don’t have structure. The structure of governance is not right, that is why there is a clamour for restructuring. Essentially, the problem is on individual leadership, but you also have problems of structure. The structures are not right; they have to be reformed to create the right structure.
Regrettably, we have a leader, the president, who rejected restructuring, and attributed it to people who wanted to secede, and dismember the country.
We need restructuring for this country to move forward.
We have taken the first step, which is good in adopting federalism, as a system of governance suitable for this country, but that federal structure is again not right.
I was one of those responsible for the federal system that we have. Of the so-called 49 wise men that drafted the 1979 Constitution, the late Chief Rotimi Williams and I, were really the architect of that constitution. We were thinking of having a strong one Nigeria, with power concentrated at the centre, that is what landed us in the situation we now found ourselves – a strong centre, that is now muffling all of us. Too much power at the centre, then compounded by 28 years of absolute military government. They ruled us for 28 years and then compounded our problems.
Maybe, the problems we have today were created by the military rule, which is again individual problems, not one of structures, so we must get away from that.
Thank God the APC has rejected the position of the president, who had said there was no restructuring. His party if it has any control over him has now come round to say we will restructure after 2019 elections.
You and other elders insist that restructuring must come before 2019 elections, but the APC says it is after. How do we reconcile this?
APC wants to deceive us, but I hope we would not allow ourselves to be deceived again. This country has been run by government of deceit. APC is government of deceit. Their restructuring is the more you look the less you see, that is why they say they were for restructuring, and after Buhari’s re-election then they we will restructure. This deceit has been going on for too long.
Dr. Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Information, perfected falsehood, deceit and propaganda into an art, but our own Lai Mohammed, is trying to outdo Goebbels by churning out lies, deceits everyday. Telling us that they accepted restructuring, but we should wait after the election. If you don’t want restructuring now, then there should be no election. I hope Nigeria would stand up for once and say, no, we have had enough deceit, and say restructure now or never.
You said you and the late Chief Williams were the architects of the 1979 Constitution that came up with the presidential system of government, given our not unpalatable experience, do you regret that action?
No, I don’t. I should believe that it is better than parliamentary. What I regret is the amount of power that we put at the disposal of the Federal Government, which was too much.
We believed wrongly, as it turned out that strong centre was what is needed for one Nigeria; that if you have a strong centre you would be able to achieve the dream of a strong united, progressive one Nigeria. We were so enamored of the whole idea of strong one Nigeria.
Regrettably, the amount of power we put at the centre has been so enlarged by the military that the thing has been turned, virtually into a unitary system. We have unitary system tagged, euphemistically, Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is not a federal system; it is unitary system. We must go back to the original thing, the true federalism of 1960 and 1963 Constitutions.
We must let each constituent unit; each federating unit manage its own internal affairs; internal self government, either alone or in combination with related groups. Let them manage their own affairs and leave matters of common concern at the centre.
All this do or die struggle to control the centre should go. That is part of what is killing us. Everybody is struggling to control the centre. We have to reduce the powers at the centre to the barest minimum than what we have in 1960 and 1963. The Southern Leaders of Thought sat and agreed that we must reduce more the powers that we have at the centre in the 1960 and 1963, and let each unit, state or zone go and manage its affairs, and the centre will manage the little that is left there. That is the only way you can have coexistence.
Still on the 1979 Constitution, we were told that the military handed you what they wanted and you towed that line, and not what the people wanted?
It is an exaggeration. The military told us that they wanted presidential system. They didn’t tell us the amount of power to be at the centre. They wanted the presidential system, we bought the idea, but the amount of power to be at the centre was our own making.
As I said, we believed that a strong centre would give us one Nigeria. It was a misconceived idea we had at the time. It’s part of the fault of the military, the presidential system, but the amount of power at the centre, which has led to the do or die struggle to control the centre was our own idea, not the military.
It is true that when we finished, our report was sent to the Constituent Assembly, and I was a member, not by election, but because I was a chairman of one of the sub-committees. The Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, Chief Williams, and the chairmen of all the sub-committees, were by decree made members of the first Constituent Assembly. That is how Chief Williams and I got into it, and we guided that Constituent Assembly, and we produced the draft constitution. Obasanjo was then the head of state, and went ahead and inserted so many things into it, which neither the Constitution Drafting Committee nor the Constituent Assembly considered, and these things they inserted became part of the problems we have today. That is how we have the 1979 Constitution – partly the recommendations of the CDC, partly the recommendations of the CA, and the partly the insertions made by Obasanjo’s military government.
Why didn’t you people protest that this was not what you recommended?
We saw it as a final constitution in a decree, and you can’t do anything then. It took me time to read it word by word to see the additions, and I tabulated them. I’m not sure that Chief Williams went through the way I did to find out what these people had done. Our problems didn’t start today.
What are the Southern Leaders of Though doing to convince their Northern counterparts that restructuring is not about breaking up of Nigeria?
In my statement on behalf of Southern Leaders of Thought, I made it very clear that breaking up of Nigeria is not part of the object of restructuring. The object of restructuring is to keep Nigeria one; to make it possible for the over 300 ethnic nationalities in Nigeria to live in peace, and not to break up. Those who are taking this view are trying to be mischievous; to create misunderstanding.
This country must be kept together, but it must be restructured. It is only those who refused restructuring along the lines that I have just indicated are the people who will break up this country.
If the country is not restructured along those lines there will be trouble. There may not be 2019 elections, and it will be the result of their own doing.
I was mandated by the Southern Leaders of Thought, after the Southwest had done its own summit; the South-south has just done its own summit, and the Southeast has done what it called, its own summit, I was mandated to get in touch with Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto State, whom, they say is the chairman of the Northern Leaders of Thought, for a national summit, where we will agree on a common platform for restructuring.
I haven’t written the letter yet, because I have just been briefed on the outcome of the South-south summit. I will write to him for us to agree on a meeting for restructuring, and a framework for such a meeting. That is the next stage of the work.
The APC, as it recommended, even the Federal Government has accepted the state police, which is the central part of restructuring. You can’t have true federalism with states not having their own separate police. It is a contradiction.
Federalism means separate governments at the centre and at the level of the constituent units. You can’t have a government without a cohesive force. Now that they have now agreed, the Vice President has spoken on this. The state police you must do, but you must do it as part of restructuring.
You can’t do it by word of mouth or by ordinary legislation, it involves changing the constitution, and that is where we run into another problem.
My own idea about restructuring involves a new constitution, that is what this country needs; a new beginning.
But the National Assembly is there to give us a new constitution
National Assembly can’t give you a new constitution. A new constitution involves the entire people of Nigeria. The constitution that we have now, though it says, ‘we the people of Nigeria’, was made by the military Decree 24 of 1999. It is not the peoples constitution. Constitution is not the work of government; it is the work of the people.
That is where another problem is. The NASS doesn’t not believe in a new constitution. What is going on is their constitutional amendments; I don’t know how many they have done. So, if you want to know what the constitution of Nigeria is, you can’t find it in the 199 Constitution, you have to go through the large number of constitutional amendments made by the NASS, and they think they can implement this restructuring by constitutional amendment, which is a perversion of the whole idea of restructuring.
Don’t you think that members of NASS are afraid that any restructuring will affect them and that is why they don’t buy into the idea?
This is a matter of drafting; you don’t do away with the past completely. In any new constitution, there is transitional provision. You can provide there that the present NASS with their members can continue in existence for this period of time, until another election is held. There must be that kind of transitional provisions.
They don’t need to bother themselves as individuals. Transitional provision will be made for them to continue for a period of time, or maybe till the end of their term, for which they were originally elected.
You said that if restructuring is not held, that 2019 elections won’t hold, with the attendant chaos, anarchy, coupled with the killings going on around the country, are you not afraid we are treading on the road to Rwanda?
Rwanda was caused, and that is part of the tragedy of Nigeria. Some groups wanted to bring chaos. It is this hate songs in Rwanda that caused the ethnic tension, and later the genocide. Here, some malicious people wanted to re-enact the Rwanda scenario by bringing out hate songs.
Have you ever listened to those hate songs? How can anybody who means well for Nigeria ever allowed that kind of thing to go out, saying, “Erase Ndigbo from the face of the earth; destroy them and raze their houses and property ”. That was what the song says both in English and Hausa.
Can you imagine what this could have led to if it had not been nipped in the bud?
That’s a hate song, and that was exactly what caused the genocide in Rwanda. Many Igbo have started evacuating from the North- the quit notice. That was an incitement to genocide.
From your vantage position, do you think there is any external force to destabilise Nigeria?
There may be, but I have no authentic information on that, so I don’t want to speak on what I do not know. However, ISIS is said to have a link with Boko Haram. ISIS is external, and it is the only external force that I can think of. I cannot think of countries, states wanting to create chaos and trouble in Nigeria.
Buhari from his body language and recent statement that he wants to take Nigeria to a higher level is seeking re-election. Do you support his return bid, and what must he do to get re-elected?
I said it earlier, that this administration has been characterised by deceit. The campaign for his re-election is a journey in deceit. He has spent almost three years in office. Three years of chaos, of suffering, of hardship.
It is captured the best by the Catholic Bishop Conference if you read what they said. They gave a good description of this – what this country has suffered under Buhari.
I agree with former President Olusegun Obasanjo that Buhari should not be given a second term. He has done enough damage in his first term and we don’t need anything more to convince us that he can’t take this country to any higher level, unless he is talking about higher level of suffering. He will take us to a higher level of misery, if he is given a second term. The decision is now left for Nigerians to decide.
2019, is decisive, it is the determination of the capacity for Nigerians to govern themselves. From all indications – body language, what he has said, what the Secretary to the Government of the Federation said, it is very clear that the man is going to contest again. It is also clear that the APC will put him forward.
My position still stand that no restructuring no election in 2019, and that is also the position of the Southern Leaders of Thought.
Do you people have the capacity to carry out this position?
It’s not for the group alone; we put it out to the people, and see what happens.
What must Buhari do to get Nigerians back to his side?
Churning out lies, trying to buy votes and support here and there, that is just their concerns. No governance now, it is all about winning the election. It is for the Nigerians to decide if there will be elections.
There seems to be chaos ahead of next year’s elections, can you say that 2019 is pregnant for Nigeria?
Yes, 2019 is very much pregnant for Nigeria. It will start from there. The President will not assent to the bill. If he assents, ok, as it will save us from trouble.
I don’t see why anybody should be opposing this. Some people argue that order of election is for INEC. It is a question of constitution, let the Supreme Court decide, and everybody should accept its verdict.
Obasanjo has condemned the APC as well as the PDP, and mooted the idea of a coalition or Third force; will that be the panacea to our problem?
You can have a coalition of parties. You don’t have a coalition within a party. We have 68 political parties, and he is promoting a coalition of parties to form a third force. That is my understanding and how it works out in practice, I do not know. In a situation like this, any idea is worth trying to avoid chaos, and prevent Buhari from getting a second term, that is creating a third force, not APC, not PDP.
Igbo have been clamouring to produce the president of this country, when do you think, it can be possible?
Igbo presidency is possible only when rotation is written in the constitution. If it is the turn of the Igbo, they will know whether there are 10 or 20 candidates, only one of them, Igbo, will emerge. The political forces are so aligned against Igbo presently, and unless there is rotation, Igbo presidency will never materialize through ballot box, unless by way of providence, as in the case of former President Jonathan.
Will the rotation be in the new constitution, which is the product of restructuring?
I don’t see rotation being introduced by way of amendment. It is going to be difficult. During Babangida’s era, I was the chairman of Constitution Amendment Committee, and we agreed unanimously on rotation of the presidency, before we submitted the report, the thing got to Babangida, and he made a national broadcast rejecting it. That was the end of that.
When he wanted to contest for the presidency, the same person supported rotation, and made promises to Ndigbo that if he was elected after his term he would make sure that it was rotated to the Igbo. I’m not sure that except in the new constitution adopted by a referendum that the NASS will ever pass rotation by way of amendment. In the NASS, there was a bill to rebuild the Northeast ravaged by Boko Haram, it went smoothly, but when the same was introduced to rebuild the Southeast destroyed by the civil war, there was uproar in the House. The same scenario will play out when you want to introduce this rotation. Those forces against the Igbo will never allow this.
They will talk about Igbo presidency, but when the chips are down they back out. Why?
Fear. Fear of domination. Contrary to the character of the Igbo man, if the Igbo man becomes president, the Igbo will be the least beneficiaries because he will want to make sure that every ethnic group is well treated. That is the character of the Igbo man, he believes in justice, equity and fairness.
But because of the aggressive nature of the Igbo man in business, they are all over the place; others think that they would carry that to the office of the president if Igbo man becomes president. It is not so. The things about the Igbo character, business sense and entrepreneurship; he is so resourceful and enterprising – over 60 per cent of the hotels in Abuja are owned by them. Others are so afraid.
It is this fear that is behind the hate song – Wipe out the Igbo from the face of the earth, and destroy his houses and property. When you do that it won’t give you that enterprising spirit.
Part of the solution to the problem of Nigeria will be an Igbo president. Like I said, the two contradictory traits in Igbo character – the enterprising spirit; he wants to be on top of every situation, at the same time, he is destined in his character, the fairness – he wants everybody to be well treated, and because he won’t like to be associated with failure, he would do everything to make the government succeed.
But I believe somehow, Nigeria will come out of its problems. We have had problems in the past and we got over them. The restructuring will come before 2019, to enable us have the elections, but we should not allow them to have their way again by deceiving us to wait till after the election.
Some people accuse Buhari of elevating nepotism to a level unseen or heard in this country, do you agree with them?
His nepotism is incredible. But he came to office mainly on that platform. That is what he came for. When you see a man contesting presidential elections four consecutive times. Not that he wanted to be president, no, there is something else that he is pursuing.
Appointing security chiefs from a particular region, has given room for suspicion and insinuation that there is an underlying agenda, what’s your take on this?
I have written a paper on this. Can anybody who means well for this country think of concentrating, sectionalizing the security apparatus in just one area?
All the members of the so- called, National Security Council coming from one section, with only one exception.
All the members – Minister of Defence, Minister of Interior, Chief of Army Staff, Inspector General of Police, National Security Adviser, National Intelligence Agency, Immigration, Customs, Civil Defence, DSS, etc.
Oh God! The man has no conscience, and he sits down to preside over such a meeting, the security of every one of us, and you think it is matter for just you alone and your people. It is this thing that has cast aspersion in the minds of the people including myself. I was disturbed when I went through the list. You appointed the people not by fairness, like the IGP, you removed people above him and brought him over; in the Customs, you did the same. Like the Executive Secretary NHIS, somebody very junior you brought him up over the head of his senior. Now the minister, under whom he works suspended him, and you reversed the minister’s directive, and restored him, and you call yourself president of one Nigeria that cannot be negotiable.
It is part of this concentration of the security chiefs in one area of the country that is what has emboldened the Fulani herdsmen. It is an agenda.
They know that this is agenda of the government and so, they are encouraged by this. The president is a member of the Miyetti Allah, and a former patron.
How do you expect a patron to take action against herdsmen?
That is why they are rampaging with impunity , you cannot do anything to them. They are sacred cows.
How can you, a country that consists of a diversity of people and you think you can favour one when you are the father of the nation? You are betraying that father of the nation, and that is what has landed us where we are today.
Sun
t is good that the All Progressives Congress (APC) government has accepted to restructure Nigeria. Over time, majority of Nigerians have concluded that there is something fundamentally wrong with the present structure, hence the demand for restructuring.
But, the issue of resource control has continued to generate heated debate and controversy. Though the ruling APC initially was not enthusiastic on the need for restructuring, however, it gave in to public pressure by setting up a Committee last year on True Federalism. The Committee, which was chaired by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, early this year, submitted its report to the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
The El-Rufai committee made far-reaching recommendations, essentially calling for devolution of powers to the states. It also recommended that ten items be moved from the Exclusive Legislative List, to the Concurrent list of the Constitution. Perhaps, one of the contentious recommendations in the report is the part that says that while the Petroleum Act needs to be amended to ensure that mineral oil and mining are vested in the states, “except offshore minerals” which should belong to the federal government.
Expectedly, that recommendation, though denied by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters, Sen. Ita Enang, has reopened the onshore/offshore oil dichotomy controversy which had intended to deprive the littoral states of the country derivation entitlements in the revenue allocation during the Obasanjo presidency. Buhari’s government, buffeted in all fronts by Herculean problems, need not distract itself further by compounding the tasks before it by reigniting a rested matter, its denial of plans to reintroduce the onshore/offshore dichotomy, not withstanding. It bears repeating that resource control is not all about the South-South, Niger Delta and crude oil. It is about the nation and the totality of the natural resources that abound therein. It is about equity, justice and fairness in the distribution of accruals from these resources in the true spirit of federalism.
It is this issue of equity and fairness that is at the core of the recent agitations for restructuring. Any attempt to upset the current sharing formula as it affects oil-bearing states could reignite restiveness in the littoral states. We want to believe government›s assurance that states will be allowed to control resources in their domains. In addition, government should devolve more powers to the states and increase their revenue allocation.
The onshore/offshore dichotomy should not be used to polarise the country any further. This government has enough problems to grapple with now. Adding the onshore/offshore problem will not help matters.
Those trying to revisit the onshore/offshore dichotomy should remember that the issue has been politically settled during the administration of ex-president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
We recall that legal experts had argued that the Supreme Court, in the case instituted by the Obasanjo administration in 2002, against the 36 states of the federation, did not take note of Section 134(6) of the 1960 Constitution which provided that “…the continental shelf of a region shall be deemed to be part of that region”.
That provision is in tandem with Section 140(6) of the 1963 Constitution. Again, the Phillipson Commission recommended 50 percent derivation fund to be retained in the region of the resource, 35 percent to be shared by all the regions, including region of origin. Within the intervening years, there were other attempts at increasing, reducing or abolishing derivation.
Also, Decree No.106 (Cap 2) of 1996 provided that, “For the purpose of subsection (2) of this section, and for the avoidance of doubt, the distinction hitherto made between onshore and offshore mineral producing areas, is hereby abolished”. The Decree 106 was, and remains an existing law under the provisions of section 315 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
It must be pointed out that, the existing law has not been modified or repealed by the National Assembly. Though the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the federal government, that the matter was resolved politically shows that there is wisdom in listening to the views of the people. Therefore, the federal government or the ruling APC should not restart the onshore/offshore dichotomy that was settled politically since 2004.
Rather, APC should be serious about restructuring. The tempers of the times demand that we can no longer wish this away. As we had noted in previous editorials, restructuring should not be misconstrued to mean separation of the country on ethnic/regional lines. The crux of the matter is about a conscious, deliberate effort at addressing the myriad issues that have made governance hard to achieve and undermined our people’s determination to meet their individual and collective aspirations. Ignoring these agitations is simply tantamount to living in denial.
Sun
Fellow Nigerians, how are you today and how is our dear beloved country? I’ve spent most of this week in Accra, Ghana. Many Nigerian leaders have also passed through the Republic of Ghana this week. The reason is not far-fetched. Ghana celebrated her 61st Independence anniversary on March 6, 2018, and the country has been in celebratory mood all week and Ghanaians have been upbeat all the way. This state of jollification is well-deserved. Ghana has not done badly at all even if it had suffered her own challenges like most African nations in the past. As with all those who wish others well, Nigerian Leaders, including, President Muhammadu Buhari and Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki came to salute the Ghanaians for the tremendous progress they have achieved since independence.
I have followed Ghanaian politics since my secondary school days and I’ve been a passionate disciple of Kwame Nkrumah whose revolutionary zeal and passion fascinated me from the outset, and, later, President Jerry John Rawlings who caught the attention and imagination of the world by his summary execution of former Ghanaian Presidents and Heads of State, on the basis of their perceived corruption, at the time.
Nkrumah was like our own Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe or Chief Obafemi Awolowo, not just because of his dogged fight for Ghanaian independence but also, because of his great intellectual prowess. I read his powerful books and fell in love with ‘Consciencism’ and ‘Africa Must Unite’. In Rawlings, I found a revolutionary soldier, turned politician, who had an idea of what he wanted to do, what he needed to do and how he needed to it. His main goal was to rid Ghana of the cankerworm of corruption and corrupt influences even if violent and tragic means were required to achieve this.
He made mistakes, as he acknowledged to Ovation International magazine, in several interviews, but still did his best to turn Ghana around in a most dramatic but efficacious fashion. It is to his credit that those who like him ,and those who do not, jointly rise to applaud his role in the development of a modern, accountable Ghana.
This year’s Independence celebration in Ghana was very exciting and colourful. It was also special and unusual because two prominent Nigerians were invited, and they both attended. First, our President, Muhammadu Buhari, was the special guest of honour. Second, the President of the Nigerian Senate, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki was also invited as a special guest of the Ghanaian Parliament.
This meant we had both the number one and number three citizens of Nigeria in attendance at the ceremonies. Nigeria being an acclaimed giant of Africa, the presence of these two lofty personages added grandeur and significance to the ceremonies, to say the least.
I paid special attention to the speeches, especially that of President Buhari of Nigeria and President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana. One is taciturn and ponderous in his delivery whilst the other is undoubtedly an orator. The Ghanaian President, dealt with and, rolled out his developmental plans and vision for Ghana and President Buhari also dealt with and, rolled out his achievements with respect to his pet project, the war against corruption.
Indeed, he made headlines with his offer and promise to help Ghana fight corruption. Many of his listeners wondered how Nigeria can help Ghana in the fight against corruption when Nigeria was already rated as one of the world’s most corrupt nations and Ghana was way behind. For me, I was happy that President Buhari accepted Ghana’s invitation and witnessed a superb ceremony by a country that has done fantastically well against all odds.
On a serious note, it is my belief that, Ghana is now far superior to many African countries in many areas. In the area of security of lives and properties, Nigeria has become over-militarised with more and more reliance on the Armed Forces rather than the Police, but in contrast, Ghana relies more heavily on its police.
We have succeeded in turning our police into an inferior force of unmotivated, inefficient and corrupt officers, and our soldiers now appear more in public as if we are in a military era or worse still, state of war.
Our police have, as a result become ill-equipped to deal with the security challenges that face our nation. They are unable to fight the rising menace of armed robbery and kidnappings by a rag-tag, motley crew of undesirable elements, such that, it is painfully obvious that, they cannot fight the dastardlier, highly organised, but cowardly insurgency of the Niger Delta or Boko Haram not to mention control those agitating for secession in the East, all of which are ravaging Nigeria and threatening our corporate existence.
I was enthralled and encouraged when the Ghanaian President declared, emphatically, that he would enlarge the size of the Ghanaian police and give them sufficient training and equipment to enable them fulfil their role as the guardian and protector of a civilian populace in peace time. He asserted that the military would only be used in exceptional cases as back up, since indeed that is their role when there is no war.
I have said it repeatedly that we must return power, purpose and significance to the Nigeria Police. The only way to do this is to follow the vision of President Akufo-Addo and recognise that the time has come to deal with all the issues which plague the police and make them the sorry and sometimes laughable outfit that they have become.
A situation where the police have been turned into little more than escorts and security guards for the rich and famous cannot augur well for the internal security of the nation. I do not object to the police carrying out this role, in part, given the security challenges that our nation faces. However, there is no reason why they cannot and must not fulfil their constitutional role of maintaining and securing public safety and public order, even as they protect the upper echelons of society.
The Armed Forces should be restricted to its constitutional role of defending the country from external aggression, maintaining and securing the integrity of our borders and quelling insurrection. They should only be called upon by the President to aid and assist the civil authorities, like the Nigeria Police when there is a real need to do so. Even in such circumstances, the President is required to act only upon conditions laid down by an Act of the National Assembly.
It seems clear to me in my layman’s understanding of the law and the relevant constitutional provision of s. 217 of the 1999 Constitution that in the absence of such an Act of the National Assembly, the constant and regular resort to the Armed Forces to deal with simple matters of public order and security is not only wrong but unconstitutional.
To enable the Police to fulfil their constitutional role, our governments now need to concentrate on making bigger budgetary provision not only for equipment but also the number of personnel. Their personal welfare must also be improved. For people who constantly and continually lay their lives on the line, improving their welfare should be a no-brainer. Their salaries should be paid as at when due and must be increased.
It is common knowledge that the Police earn a pittance, hence their eagerness to work as security detail and escorts because they know that they will not just be paid on time, but they will earn a package much more considerable than that offered by Government. If we complain about the brazen corruption of police officers and their reluctance to perform their duties, we should appreciate that their emoluments make their position a bit understandable, even though a corrupt police officer cannot be justified and must never be condoned.
There should be a comprehensive insurance, medical and pension package for all Police officers, which will see them adequately taken care of, not just when they are in service but even afterwards, upon retirement. In case of their untimely demise in the call of duty, proper provision should be made for their families. I have no doubt that the level of performance of our officers would increase tremendously if their welfare was improved and they knew that the Government really cared for them.
Having dealt with their personal welfare, the Government must further make provision for a strong and well-equipped police force. A situation where police officers have to pay for their own uniforms must be anathema to us. It is an absolute disgrace to see police officers wearing bathroom slippers because, the individual officer, or the Police force, cannot afford to kit them out with shoes, not to talk of boots. How can any sane person chase a criminal in such circumstances? To imagine this scenario is comical and farcical, to say the least. Yet this is the state of our police today.
For me and my house however, the major area that Government also needs to concentrate upon is equipping the Police Force. There is no reason why the Police should not be as well, and heavily equipped as the Armed Forces. Even though they are a peace time force, it is apparent that the criminals that they sometimes contend with have not just superior fire power, but also superior intelligence gathering techniques.
This puts them several steps ahead of the police and sometimes leads us to deride the efficacy of the police when they are not to blame. I see no reason why the Military police should not have armoured combat vehicles like the Army. The air wing of the Police should have sophisticated aircraft including surveillance and assault helicopters. A sea arm of the police should have heavily armed patrol boats that can navigate and take control of our creeks and riverine areas.
It seems apparent, that part of the unwillingness of our present leaders to deal with the situation and have an effective, well-equipped, militarised and properly motivated police force is the military background of those leaders.
Esprit de corps properly mandates them to ensure that the Nigeria Police is not as strong as the armed Forces, because such a situation would mean that the Armed Forces could be permanently checkmated as a possible alternate force for governance in the country. Our history demonstrates, that army generals would always want to keep this trump card. To protect our nascent democracy, especially at this time, when some of our leaders are making dangerous references to the possibility of a military takeover, it is imperative to have a strong viable police that can curb the excesses of the military since that is part of its duty of maintaining and securing public order.
As President Nana Akufo-Addo demonstrated with his vision and plans for the Ghanaian Police, the problem is not with our police force, but with the will of our leaders to empower the police force to take its proper constitutional position as the protector of our security and public order. This can only be done by giving and afforded the Police the necessary resources to carry out their duties. It is not too late to carry out the essential reforms of the Nigeria Police.
May God protect and secure us all!
It was the other way round. Just three years ago, my friend and publisher of the Ghanaian Chronicle, Kofi Coomson, had almost given up on Ghana. He wanted to move.
After only one term, John Mahama’s government had brought the country to the brink and Ghana was, once again, near its second major wave of emigration after the first in 1982. Corruption was rife and poverty – worsened by the devaluation of the cedi and the fall in commodity prices – was widespread.
Coomson wanted out. A survivor of Jerry Rawlings’ dictatorship, during which period he was forced to go into exile for his uncompromising journalistic work, Coomson had seen hardship, but feared something worse was coming.
For some reason, the election of President Muhammadu Buhari reawakened in him hope for a revival in Ghana, where the general election was about 18 months away at the time.
Even before Buhari was sworn in in May 2015, Coomson would call me nearly every week and tell me just how Buhari’s post-election fever had caught on in Accra.
At last he would say, here was a man who would not only bring change to his country but one whose moral force would shake things up in West Africa and around the continent.
What happened?
That fever is gone, disappearing almost without a trace as Buhari arrived in Accra on Tuesday to join celebrations for Ghana’s 61st independence anniversary.
Home and away, hope and expectation have been replaced by a nagging feeling of anger, regret and disappointment.
Coomson’s question, What happened to Buhari?, is not being answered in Abuja and might never honestly be. But by some strange twist of fate, that question is being answered in Accra, where President Nana Akufo-Addo is showing what is possible when preparation and effort meet opportunity.
It’s the other way round. I’m now in my Coomson season, wondering exactly what I’m doing here and whether I should not be going to Accra.
In just over one year of taking office as president, Akufo-Addo has inspired the sort of confidence that Ghanaians were looking for in Buhari; and Nigerians are taking lesson notes and sharing videos of what might have been, if Buhari had the quality they thought they voted for three years ago.
Even after he reluctantly visited Taraba, where dozens had been murdered in a farmers-herders clash months ago, to condole with the bereaved on his way to Accra, the dust stirred by his words unsettled the shallow graves of the dead, dispirited the grieving and trailed him all the way.
Sometimes you don’t know which one to choose: Buhari’s speech, his silence or his indifference.
Cousins, all
It’s not just a Nigerian thing; quality appears to be missing around much of the continent. South Africa’s Jacob Zuma did not understand the difference between the state treasury and his own wallet; and until Robert Mugabe was led out like a bull out of Zimbabwe’s china shop, ordinary Zimbabweans bore the brunt of his misrule, including paying for the First Lady’s fake doctoral thesis.
Yet, if Zuma and Mugabe are past, a good number of such rulers are still present tense: from Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea to Paul Biya of Cameroun, and from Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo to Yoweri Museveni of Uganda – leaders who give old age a bad name and don’t care by what name they or their countries are called.
in a recent video on leadership on the continent, Mo Ibrahim described them as leaders who are not only too old to lead but are also determined to take their countries with them to their graves.
Bright spot
At 74, age is not on Akufo-Addo’s side, but he appears to hold out a different promise from the club of gerontocrats. I’ve been following him with the same interest that my Ghanaian friend was following Buhari. It’s the other way round now.
I watched Akufo-Addo telling France’s President Emmanuel Macron when the latter visited Ghana in December, that even though Africa was grateful for the tons of aid pouring into Ghana and the continent, Africa should take responsibility for its own future.
The continent has had enough of carrying around a begging bowl for 25 percent of global development aid; its leaders must be held to account. His own stewardship in Ghana, he said, was not an exception.
Though Macron knows Africa well, the look of disbelief and shock and excitement on his face as Akufo-Addo spoke suggested that he had not heard an African leader speak with such candour for a long, long time.
The same thing happened during an international conference in Senegal on how to replenish funding for education, where Akufo-Addo narrated how his government’s free education programme up to secondary school level had led to 90,000 more children enrolling in high schools in less than one year.
While other African heads of state and government hardly noticed the passing away of Hugh Masekela during the January meeting of the AU in Addis Ababa, the significance of Bra Hugh’s contribution to global music, culture and entertainment was not lost on Akufo-Addo. On his way back to Accra, he stopped over in Johannesburg where he paid his last respects to Hugh and other African greats, including Fela, who had gone before him.
It was the Ghanaian president’s speech at the US National Governors 2018 Winter Meeting in Washington in February, that cleared any remaining doubts that he was a serious guy.
In a speech that earned him a standing ovation and one that should have made every African proud in the same country where President Donald Trump had cast a slur on the continent only a few months earlier, Akufo-Addo repeated his theme of responsible and accountable leadership, saying in clear terms that trade was better than aid.
He has shown it in Ghana. The economy has grown from 3.6 percent in 2016 to 7.9 percent in 2017.
The cedi has stabilised and inflation reduced from 15.6 per cent at the end of 2016 to 10.3 percent last year. “Nuisance taxes” have been abolished and emphasis is now on production and improvement of infrastructure.
And without making too much noise, the Ghanaian president appointed a Special Prosecutor, the first in the country’s history, to deal with matters of corruption “and hold public officials, past and present, accountable for their stewardship” of public finances.
Not by size
Ghana is small, and by comparison, far less complex than, say, Nigeria or South Africa. It’s not even among Africa’s Top 10 economies. If, however, size and complexity were disincentives to growth and development, then India, the world’s largest and arguably most complex democracy, would not be among the world’s top 10 economies. With general elections coming up in 31 or so African countries in the next 18 months, from Sierra Leone to Gabon, from South Africa to Senegal and from Mali to Nigeria, the worst disservice citizens can do to themselves and their children is to stand idly by.
The Africa of Muhammadu Buhari, Paul Biya and Teodoro Obiang Nguema, is also the Africa of Nana Akufo-Ado.
Poor leadership deserves a red card: There’s no other way around it.
It is no longer a secret that there is an unsavoury muscle-flexing competition going on between the Presidency and the two chambers of the National Assembly. The situation has become so bad that President Muhammadu Buhari recently lamented that the legislative arm of the Federal Government is responsible for much of the slow pace of governance which he has been accused of.
The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, however, debunked that notion recently when he averred that the Senate has only rejected 13 out of the 227 nominees it has received from the President’s table in its three years in office.
This, however, does not neutralise the fact that the Red Chamber, which is constitutionally mandated to confirm certain categories of presidential appointments, has frozen confirmation of appointees from the Buhari-led Executive as a result of the latter’s insistence on retaining Mr. Ibrahim Magu as the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, even after the Senate turned down his confirmation twice based on adverse reports from the Department of State Services, DSS.
The problem has even been noticed by international stakeholders such as the International Monetary Fund, IMF, which has called on the Senate to confirm the appointments of members of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s, Board of Directors and Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, members to enable them join in the efforts to strengthen the economy which is just climbing painfully out of recession.
When the face-off over Magu arose early last year, we had enjoined the Presidency to seek the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Section 171 of the 1999 constitution as amended which deals with the class of presidential appointees that need the Senate’s confirmation rather than resorting to self-help and deciding that the EFCC Chairman does not need.
The fallouts of this faceoff have confirmed the old saying that two wrongs do not make a right. When the Presidency and the Legislature decide to engage in power show, it is smooth governance that suffers as we have seen.
The lesson in this matter is that each arm of government must respect the powers of other arms while exercising its own with utmost sense of responsibility. Presidential democracy, while emphasising separation of powers also demands cooperation among the arms for effective operation of governance.
The President and the leadership of the National Assembly should dialogue and break the deadlock to reopen the channel of cooperation between them. Whenever there are doubts over any sections of our laws, the Judiciary is there to clarify them as the constitution demands.
Since the Legislative and Executive arms of the Federal Government are controlled by the same All Progressives Congress, APC, we call on the Party to intervene on this matter in the overall interests of the nation.
Vanguard
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently announced dates for general elections in the country for the next 36 years, from 2019 to 2055. The elections include presidential, gubernatorial and national and state houses of assembly. INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu announced the dates at a consultative meeting with leaders of political parties in Abuja. He said the move was to engender certainty in our democratic system.
Yakubu said in 2019, the dates for the various elections are Feb. 16 and March 2; in 2023, Feb. 18 and March 4; in 2027, Feb. 20 and March 6; in 2031, Feb.15 and March 1. According to him, in 2035, it is Feb. 17 and March 3; in 2039, Feb.19 and March 5 and in 2043, Feb. 21 and March 7. “In 2047, it is Feb.15 and March 2; in 2051, it is Feb.18 and March 1; in 2055, it is Feb. 20 and March 6,” he said. Prof. Yakubu said in other democracies of the world, periods of elections were generally known and were not topics for speculation. He said the aim was to ensure certainty in the election calendar and allow for long-term planning by the commission and stakeholders.
This standardization, according to findings, greatly increased the speed of presidential elections and others without recourse to the convenience of any individual or group of persons. No wonder that INEC rolled out this elections timetable at a time the National Assembly is trying to change the sequence of 2019 elections. The legislators have already amended the Electoral Act and re-ordered the election arrangement in such a way that that of the National Assembly would come first and the presidential election last. Many groups have already faulted the reordering of the election, accusing the legislators of a self serving voyage.
Also citing relevant sections of the Constitution, INEC through its chairman also said it would go ahead with its initial timetable for the 2019 elections with put presidential election first at a time the amended bill is before the president for assent. From all indications, it is only the courts that would resolve the impasse in the event President Buhari declines to sign the amendment into law. INEC’s 36 year election timeline, coming at such a time, elicited varied reactions.
Announcing election dates so far into the future, especially when they are not backed by law, is a curious act and in the end many of the dates may not stand the test of time. The most important thing to do at this time is to institutionalize the process with legal backing which would only come into effect when the Constitution is amended.
Rather than show-casing dates for elections far into the future which could be altered by other leaders of the electoral empire in the future, INEC should initiate a bill with a proposal that presidential election should hold on a certain day in a certain month in the election year.
For now INEC, National Assembly and Presidency should work together and resolve the issue at hand which revolves around which election should hold first next year. Time is not on our side.
Daily Trust
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest report on Nigeria, averred that despite the recovery of the nation’s economy from recession, more Nigerians were sliding into poverty. The Bretton Wood Institution’s report came a few days after the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Social Investment Programme, Mrs Maryam Uwais, said that no fewer than 80 million Nigerians live in poverty.
This underscores the fact that the government is not oblivious of the debilitating and devastating poverty in the land. But despite this cognizance, is the government doing enough to liberate Nigerians from the smothering muscle of the demon of poverty?
Rather than throwing money at the problem of poverty, the government should emplace appropriate policies that would facilitate economic growth and engender employment generation. While the role of the government in cushioning the effects of poverty on the vulnerable is not debatable, the government needs to come to the realisation that it will fail to properly protect the poor if it does not first create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
Without businesses succeeding, there will not be enough tax revenue which the government would deploy to help the poor.
Poverty in Nigeria is rising principally because doing business in Nigeria is generally a nightmare. Businesses are going through a hard time and are forced to shed some of their workers because of the hostile operational environment. If an enabling environment is created for micro, small and medium scale businesses to thrive, a number of unemployed young people will be able to start their own businesses, which would result in the decline of poverty.
If the right environment is created by the government, big businesses will thrive, expand their operations and create employment opportunities for the youth.
Although in 2016 the Federal Government set up the Presidential Enabling Business Council whose activities resulted in the country moving up 24 points on the ease of doing business index published by the World Bank in 2017, the fact is that there still exist institutional barriers such as the squabbles among government agencies located at the ports which slow down the pace of doing business in the country. Till date, it takes almost forever for companies to clear their imported items at the ports. This hampers businesses. When businesses are hampered, the economy flounders and poverty flowers.
Then, the cost of doing business at all levels is on the increase. As the cost of doing business climbs up, so does the viability of businesses go down with the effect that many of the organisations reduce their operations and are forced to let go of some of their employees. So, a nexus exists between scaling down the cost of doing business and slowing down the rise of poverty in a country.
One of the ways the government can reduce the cost of doing business is to address the nation’s infrastructure deficit. Moving finished goods from one end of the country to another still costs a fortune because of the poor state of the roads and the near absence of the rail system. In spite of the fortune expended on electricity generation, companies still have to generate their own electricity because the electricity companies have yet to get their acts together.
So, the government should pull out all the stops to make businesses to thrive in Nigeria. When the government makes it easy for businesses to flourish, it indirectly prepares the ground for the citizens to move out of poverty, as many of them become productively engaged. It is a thriving private sector, not a stipend-sharing government, that holds the key to poverty reduction.
Tribune
The apex socio-political body of the Igbo, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has said it will consult widely before taking any decision on the 2019 elections.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Mr. Chuks Ibegbu, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, said the association’s position on the forthcoming elections would be based on the views of Ndigbo.
“The apex Igbo body will not take any decision on 2019 without subjecting it to the opinion, views, inputs and contributions from a wide spectrum of Igbo society,” Ibegbu said.
However, the Ohanaeze spokesman stressed that the body’s major concern at the moment was the restructuring of Nigeria.
He said, “Our main concern now is the restructuring of Nigeria in sync with other progressive groups and individuals in Nigeria. Once Nigeria is restructured, other things will fall in place.
“We want a level-playing ground for all sections of Nigeria; we want justice, equity and fair play. We want a Nigeria in which the bountiful talents of Ndigbo and other Nigerians will be fully realised. The nation as it is presently constituted kills initiative,” Ibegbu added.
Meanwhile, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has called on the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to first disarm Fulani herdsmen before ordering licensed gun owners to submit them to the police.
Ibegbu, who stated Ohanaeze’s demand in the statement in Enugu, faulted the IG’s directive that all licensed gun owners should submit the firearms to the police.
“Without disarming the armed Fulani herdsmen, it will be inappropriate to tell licensed gun owners to submit them in the face of terror and attacks on innocent citizens in all parts of the country, especially in the Middle Belt and the South.”
The spokesman for the group, Mr. Okey Colbert, expressed regrets over what he described as the “unfortunate reduction of the killings in Benue, Taraba and Adamawa states to a mathematical contest of the number of casualty” by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Maybe if his own children were butchered by hoodlums, he would know how other victims of the Fulani herdsmen terror feel too,” he noted.
Punch
Without batting an eyelid, Maikanti Baru, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, told a bewildered nation last week that he had spent $5.8 billion importing petrol in just two months. This figure is likely to rise sharply since he says the NNPC’s petrol supply will rise from 55 million litres per day to 100 million lpd. No sane country carries on wasting so much of its resources on importing a product it can so easily produce for local consumption and for export.
But this is a misadventure long foretold: this newspaper has for years highlighted the folly of relying on imports for refined petroleum products, while the 2018 national budget is anchored on a daily crude oil production of 2.3 million barrels. Stubbornly, against all economic reasoning, the government holds on to its four loss-making refineries, instead of selling them to competent private operators. Highest capacity usage was 42.4 per cent throughout 2017, according to the NNPC figures, with zero capacity recorded for some months at some refineries.
The Central Bank of Nigeria figures indicate that foreign reserves rose to $43.2 billion on March 6, the highest level since mid-2014. Significantly, the CBN just announced a drop in average national import bill to $1.9 billion monthly in the second half of 2017, down from $5.5 billion previously, following measures to curb certain types of imports.
While the House of Representatives in 2012 swiftly investigated the expenditure of N2.53 trillion on subsidy payments in the 2011 fiscal year, it is lukewarm about the $5.8 billion (and rising) spent in just two months that, at an official exchange rate of N305 to US$1, comes to N1.76 trillion, about the same amount that was identified by the Reps ad hoc committee as fraudulent, unbudgeted subsidy payments in 2011. It also represents about 20 per cent of the 2018 budget of N8.6 trillion.
Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, says Nigeria spends about $28 billion each year importing petroleum products. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, total value of exports from Nigeria in the second quarter of 2017 was N3.1 trillion, while spending an annual average of N3.35 trillion importing petrol. The NBS put the value of petrol imports in 2016 at N2.39 trillion. Worse, according to Kachikwu, 40 per cent of this is spent on “logistics.” We cannot afford this continued waste and crippling import dependence for everything, including goods in which we have comparative advantage. Already, the country spends $22 billion each year importing food, says Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, though it has adequate arable land and a rich diversity of cash and food crops.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s leisurely response to this fiscal haemorrhage is unhelpful; the bounce in the external reserves stock is attributable to higher crude oil prices. Our external debt stock on the other hand had risen to $15.35 billion by the end of September 2017 and is still rising fast as the government borrows furiously to fund capital projects and the budget deficit.
It is imperative to check the claims from the NNPC and the Petroleum Ministry: while Baru puts current demand at 60 million lpd, up from the 55 million litres he cited last month, Kachikwu claims a daily demand of 66 million lpd. But while other marketers were involved in importing petrol, 35 million lpd was supplied and largely met local demand and a thriving smuggling market to neighbouring countries. Convinced that widespread smuggling is responsible for persistent shortages, the NNPC visited the Nigeria Customs Service and submitted details of retail outlets close to the country’s borders to its Comptroller-General, Hameed Ali. Given the severity of the problem, Ali and other security agencies’ heads require presidential orders to move decisively to stop the smuggling trade.
Independent investigations should be undertaken urgently by the Presidency and the National Assembly into the petrol import system. Who verifies NNPC’s claims? The Reps probe in 2012 uncovered bogus claims by importers and opaque dealings by the NNPC. Today, despite higher import claims, many retail outlets have no stocks when there should be enough to use and more than enough to smuggle! According to the US Energy Information Administration, petroleum consumption in the neighbouring countries where our petrol is believed to have been smuggled to is: Chad 11.2 litres per capita or 2,200 barrels per day; Togo 13,000 bpd or 102.6 litres per capita; Niger Republic 14,000 bpd or 46.5 litres per capita; Benin Republic 41,000 bpd or 234.2 per capita; and Ghana 83,000 or 157 litres per capita. These markets combined cannot absorb the volume of petrol “missing” daily from Nigeria.
Top priority should be getting other marketers back to break the NNPC’s import monopoly. The news that landing cost per litre has dropped from N170 per litre to N161 per litre is enough to galvanise government to entice marketers back through transparent, competitive bidding. The NNPC should not be allowed to continue spending as it deems fit without strict oversight. Its plan to raise and spend another $1.8 billion for turnaround maintenance of its four dysfunctional refineries is surely precious money going down the drain, the latest in decades-long endless cycle of waste and graft that has never achieved the advertised target of full capacity utilisation or subjected to any acceptable standard of accountability.
Without spiritual monarchy, televangelist’s life leaves legacy for Nigerian Christian leaders
In a world where perversion reigns and many who claim to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ are caught in vices, contrary to the word of God, there lived an evangelist who preached for about 80 years without a whiff of scandals. If anyone could be described as faithful to his calling, it was Billy Graham whose lessons are engraved on stone for Christian leaders all over the world.
Early enough, he realised the need to start with principles and values that would drive his ministry. In 1949, his team met at Modesto in California to work out the now famous Modesto Manifesto, a testament of sorts. The Manifesto was anchored on four cardinal values: Honesty in all things, including in reporting attendance at crusades; Humility as the evangelist was not carried away by the fame he garnered over the years; Purity as he and his partners chose to resist the devil by ensuring that none held discussions or counselling with women privately; and Integrity in realisation that money is a great tempter with its love declared as the root of all evil in the Bible, Graham ensured that he lived on a well-advertised, modest salary beyond which all financial matters were handled by the Board of Directors.
The evangelist who obtained the title, the American Pastor as a result of a great influence that saw him pray for 12 presidents of the great country, never sought to appropriate the influence for personal gain. He was not tempted to institute a spiritual monarchy. At all times, he gave all glory to the Lord, asserting that, ‘’I’m not a great preacher…I’ve heard great preaching many times and wished I was one of the great preachers. I am an ordinary preacher just communicating the gospel in the best way I know.’’
Graham stayed true to his calling for the 99 years he lived, left the stage for the younger generation when the incapacitating hold of old age sought to knock him out, thereby forestalling the bitter succession struggle that attend the demise of such charismatic leaders. Today, he is gone, but his disciplined lifestyle remains a model to all who claim to have been called to the ministry of proclaiming the gospel.
As a society in dire need of progress and development, and with the hold religion has on the people, Christian leaders should learn from Billy Graham the need for ecumenism. He remained a member of the Southern Baptist Convention all life and would not be tempted to branch out. His Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) reached out to, and collaborated with, many churches and ministries. Nigerian ministers could borrow this virtue, realising that in the face of assaults from the enemy, they are better united. Resources, materials and spiritual, become more formidable when they are pooled together.
His resolve to avoid partisan politics while relating with earthly authorities, only praying for them is another lesson, in view of Nigeria’s recent history that saw Christian leaders chose to swim or sink with political leaders, receiving gratification, compromising values, attempting to serve God and mammon, forgetting that God cannot be mocked.
The attempt last year to introduce Governance Code for the Churches readily comes to mind. The ferocious attacks from modern-day Pentecostal missions are an indication that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) have a lot to do in mobilising their members for internal regulation. Otherwise, external regulation might become inevitable someday.
Billy Graham, soldier of Christ, your light shall continue to shine even as you have inevitably bowed out of the stage here.
The Nation