Viewpoint
In apparent response to traders’ persistent lamentation over the scarcity of lower denominations of the national currency and its adverse effects on trade, the CBN has commenced the process of flooding the market with these denominations of the currency. It is a most welcome development which should have come earlier.
We are glad, however, that the apex bank has finally responded to this call for a redress in the market with regards to the difficulties traders and other users of the currency face with the shortage of the lower denominations of the currency.
As part of its sensitisation programme on the exercise, the CBN Director of Currency Operations, Mrs. Priscilla Eleje, was at the Wuse Market in Abuja recently to kick-start the national rollout of the lower denominations of N100, N50, N20, N10 and N5 notes. The plan is to make the notes easily accessible to the end users, especially traders through their market associations and banks. It is instructive that the CBN recognises the communication gap that existed in the past and is ready to bridge this now by engaging the traders and getting direct feedback.
The absence of this, in the past, was one reason the scarcity of the lower denominations persisted to the detriment of the economy. Privileged persons and their collaborators ran hoarding rings with the lower denominations which they resold for huge profits. Those involved in these rackets can be seen at public places like motor parks, social events venues, and sometimes, in the bank premises.
Time was in the past, when these lower denominations were hugely available and distributed. Apart from the Naira notes, the national currency was also denominated in coins. The last exercise was in February 2007 when the N50, N20, N10 and N5 notes as well as the N1 and 50K coins were reissued and a new N2 coin was introduced. It is very important for the health of any economy that these lower denominations are widely circulated. The absence of these lower denominations has tended to fuel inflationary spirals as goods and services can only be priced in currencies that are in circulation.
The disappearance of the coins in our currency units for example, also marked the seeming disappearance of goods and services that were priced at such lower values. Goods such as sugar biscuits were no longer bought with kobo coins.
The pressure is more today on the N5 note which is hardly available in the market. If something wasn’t done to stymie this ugly trend, the consequence would be that, before long, no goods and services would be priced for anything less than N10. Such a situation will be unacceptable.
Business transactions, at times, take long hours because of lack of lower denominations of the currency. We believe that the massive circulation of the lower denominations will drastically address this challenge.
Sun
When,back in January, at the conclusion of its 59th annual meeting, the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Board (CDFIPB) approved the promotion of more than 8,000 officers, no eyebrows were raised. Promotions are a matter of administrative routine within the federal civil service, and there seemed to be nothing about the latest round to raise anyone’s hackles. Yet, judging by last week’s petition to the National Assembly by a group of aggrieved officers, the latest exercise would appear to have been anything but routine.
According to the officers, “A close study of the promotion list showed that Muslim officers from the North, especially the North-West, were favoured above others from other regions. How does one explain that the first two pages of the list of officers promoted from the rank of Chief Superintendent of Immigration (CSI) to Assistant Comptroller of Immigration (ACI) contained the names of Muslim officers of Northern extraction?” The officers also pointed out that “Katsina State alone produced five to six comptrollers, while some southern states had none.” Furthermore, “Some officers have been on the rank of CSI, ACI and DCI for six to eight years and these Northern officers who were recently elevated in 2014 were again elevated at (sic) the detriment of their Southern counterparts.”
The NIS has moved to debunk these allegations. In a statement, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Service, Mr. James Sunday, insisted that January’s exercise, like previous ones undertaken by the NIS, was based on merit. He also took issue with the aggrieved officers for taking their case to the National Assembly rather than petition the Board directly. But the worry for any close observer of the Buhari administration is the uncanny familiarity of the officers’ complaint. For instance, it recalls a similar petition filed by aggrieved officers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June 2016 when the Federal Government released a list of 47 career ambassadorial nominees. The petitioners’ main animus at the time was that “the general outlook of the list is not clear and no apparent order or criteria were used, thereby making room for insinuations and speculations.”
While the Buhari administration has consistently rejected allegations of ethnic bias leveled against it, it is imperative that it put its money where its mouth is in this matter by ordering an investigation into the officers’ allegations. It is not enough, as the NIS PRO has done, to dismiss the officers’ complaint and pick holes in the method they have used to air their grievances. Nepotism and ethno-religious discrimination are serious infractions. The Federal Government cannot afford to treat them with levity.
Tribune
Even when it is not publicly disclosed, the issue that bothers even the most loyalist of President Muhammadu Buhari is his capacity to show insensitivity, especially when human life is involved. Unfortunately, no matter the length and breadth and depth of the complaints, he just carries on as he has decided.
This past weekend, President Buhari displayed such insensitivity again with his visit to Kano for the wedding of the son of the Governor of Ogun State and the daughter of the Governor of Kano State. Twenty two governors were present at the wedding.
In different states, there have been killings perpetrated by groups like Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, and others, as well as other natural disasters like flooding. Two weeks ago, some 110 girls were kidnapped in their school in Dapchi, Yobe State. Buhari has not visited Yobe State or any of the states where people were killed. He has ignored all of them and carried on as if it is normal for these deaths or disasters to occur. It is either that he is busy receiving his classmates in his hometown or he is receiving governors who have come to tell him that he is the only person that can govern Nigeria from 2019.
Interestingly, while he ignores all the states where these tragedies have occurred, he has found time to attend to political or social functions in different states, including neighbouring states where these disasters have occurred. His weekend visit to Kano for a wedding ceremony at a time he had not visited Benue or Taraba or Kaduna or Zamfara or Yobe or Borno, after the recent series of tragedies and deaths that had hit these states, was in tune with that strange attitude he displays.
Surprisingly, these states all voted for him in the 2015 presidential election. Therefore, one cannot say that he is angry at them for not voting for him.
On issues like rebuilding the economy, creating employment, defeating insurgency, revamping dilapidated infrastructure, and the like, a President will need time and money to achieve results. These are external factors that a leader does not have absolute control over.
However, when it comes to visiting a people who have witnessed a disaster, or consoling such people, or taking actions that will assuage their sorrow and pain, it does not require time and money. The factors are internal and personal. One can wake up and take such an action. And such an action helps to calm frayed nerves and communicate to the people that their President is humane. The Presidency does not need to spend money on producing and airing a commercial entitled, “The Human Side of Buhari,” a title which ironically implies that the President is not human.
Pastor Tunde Bakare, Senior Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly and former running mate to Buhari, expressed his misgivings about the wedding visit thus:
“If any of them had lost a daughter in that captivity, would they celebrate that way? I know the Bible says rejoice with them that rejoice, but I do not know what the President of Nigeria was doing there.
“And somebody came to say, let me explain to you, it is Islamic tradition, before this time, about January, they had agreed, that he (Buhari) would be the one to give the bride away and (Bola) Tinubu would be the one to pay the bride price, and present the son, and they agreed long before now.
“I looked at him and said the President of Nigeria wanted to come to my daughter’s wedding, and I said to him, Sir, don’t come. That is beneath your office. Face the work of the state and keep serving.
“And 22 governors showed up to mark register, when 110 daughters of citizens of your nation were captured by Boko Haram that you said you have already technically defeated?
“It just shows how insensitive our leaders are. We have got to a stage that our President has become a king and a monarch. That his son who rode his pleasurable bike that almost claimed his life will be returning from an overseas trip, where he had received special healthcare that Nigerians cannot afford, that it took a whole minister of state to go and welcome him, because he has no job.”
Sadly, before Buhari became the President in 2015, he consistently condemned acts like this. He condemned the way the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls was handled by his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan. He condemned Jonathan and the PDP for holding a party event shortly after the kidnap of the girls. He condemned the inability of that administration to stop the killings by Boko Haram and promised to eliminate Boko Haram and their killings.
One could understand if Boko Haram is proving difficult to eradicate, but how does one explain that the President does not show that he truly cares about those who are killed on a weekly basis or their relatives as well as those who have been kidnapped and their relatives who are in distress over the fate of their daughters or siblings? What does it cost to show concern? What does it cost to visit the scene of a tragedy? What does it cost to cancel a social or political event that had been scheduled many months before but coincides with a major tragic event? Why is it easier for President Buhari to attend social or political events but ignores areas where his compatriots are in mourning?
It is only President Buhari who can answer these questions. But it beats reason that such a man who gave everybody the impression that he was deeply concerned about the plight of Nigerians, a man who shed tears while talking about his desire to lead the nation, a man who packaged himself as a friend of the commoners, a man who promised to lead from the front, a man who condemned the insensitivity, frivolity and waste of his predecessors, would find it difficult to visit his compatriots at the hour of their sorrow but find time to go partying while those compatriots mourn.
The metamorphosis — or unravelling – of Buhari is inexplicable. Even his worst critics could not have predicted that he would be this insensitive about the plight of the same people he so passionately sought to lead for over 10 years.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Afe Babalola, has said bad leadership is fast turning Nigerians to beggars.
Saying the culture of begging was alien to the Yoruba race, Babalola lamented that it had become a common thing to see Nigerians begging on the streets “because of poverty caused by bad governance.”
The PCN was on an assessment tour of the Pharmacy Department of the newly-inaugurated 400-bedded Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital.
He said, “Today, Nigeria is at the crossroads. The Yoruba were not used to begging in the 40’s and 50’s, they used to stone beggars because they viewed it as a shameful act.
“But today, go to occasions and see how well dressed people beg for money. That was why we want to join the change agents using our university as a model, even ABUAD is synonymous with change.
“In our school here, we do not concentrate alone on academics, we are into farming. Our moringa tree is used to produce eight products that are consumed and provide jobs for our people.”
The President of the PCN, Prof. Mbang Femi-Oyewo, said the mission of the regulatory body in ABUAD was to assess the Pharmacy Department and to guide on how to give the recommendations to the university on how best to run the department.
She said, “We want this university to have an excellent Pharmacy Department that will serve as a reference point just like every other department in the hospital and that can meet international standard.
“This is a regulatory body that gives recommendations based on facilities we see. We want to ensure that the department is not left behind, and that is why we are here to give professional advice, because we don’t want people to be travelling to India for medical treatment when we have a facility like ABUTH.
Pharmacy department is very essential and it requires special expertise for its operations. We want the best practice here that aligns with the global best practices and that is why we are here as a regulatory body,” he said.
Punch
Withholding assent to the bill might set in motion problems that could mar the 2019 elections
The alarm by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) that it has in its custody a mountain load of uncollected permanent voter cards (PVCs) aside the increasing incidence of double registration, calls for concern. But coming at a time the nation is inundated with overwhelming evidence of the existence of underage voters on the register, INEC needs to do more than raise alarm. Once the register is dubious, a credible election becomes impossible.
Thankfully, with the transmission, last week, of the Electoral Act No 6, 2010 (Amendment) Bill 2017 to President Muhammadu Buhari by the National Assembly, INEC has more opportunities to consolidate its preparations for the general elections. The amendment bill contains far reaching reforms that are intended to make the electoral system deliver cleaner elections in the country.
The bill also addressed some grey areas of the electoral processes that manifested in past elections, including the provision for replacement of a candidate that dies before the declaration of results. The affected party now has a 14-day window to organise primaries for the nomination of a replacement for a fresh election to be conducted by INEC within 21 days.
The amendment bill harkens to complaints about overbearing conduct of political parties’ executives during primaries and enforces internal democracy by prescribing that all members are entitled to vote in the nomination process for delegate or direct primaries elections. Other arbitrary practices, including excessive nomination fees and disqualification of aspirants based on criteria other than those stipulated in the 1999 Constitution as amended, have been curtailed. The bill stipulates nomination fees payable, ranging from N150, 000 for councillorship to N10 million for presidential candidates.
Meanwhile, the controversial aspect of the bill is the provision which mandates INEC to appoint dates for the elections to be held in the following order: National Assembly; State Houses of Assembly and Governorship; and Presidential. This amendment reverses the prevailing order announced by INEC last month, which fixed National Assembly and Presidential elections for February 16, 2019, while the state Houses of Assembly and governorship elections would come up two weeks later on March 2, 2019.
There are arguments for and against the reordering of the sequence of elections by the legislature. For us, the most compelling is the additional cost of a three-stage election to the nation’s purse. This newspaper had argued in the past for a one-day process by which elections into all positions would be held same day and we maintain that remains the best way to go. It would have therefore been advisable, in the circumstances, to retain a two-stage process in which all the legislative elections would hold on one day, while the executive elections would on the other day.
However, in the absence of any meaningful attempt by the executive to engage the legislature before passing the bill, the matter has become quite complicated. Besides, we do not see how the current provision injures the basic objective by INEC to conduct free and fair polls. To therefore withhold assent at this stage, as being suggested by some presidential advisers, could set in motion wide-ranging controversy and generate unnecessary tension that we do not have the luxury of time to deal with.
ThisDay
We are back to the boulevard of helplessness, exactly where we were on the night of 14–15 April 2014, when 276 female students were snatched from their beds by Boko Haram terrorists in Chibok, Borno State. In my wildest daydream, I never imagined that we could be so rudely shocked again.
Apparently, nothing was learnt from the last abduction. Contrary to the chest-beating and self-congratulation of all those whose duty it is to keep the country safe, Boko Haram is alive and well — and could strike chosen targets at will despite the billions of Naira we have thrown at the problem.
The Chibok abduction happened under the watch of Civilian Jonathan. Government took two weeks to react. Now Soldier Buhari has his own Dapchi albatross to contend with and coordinated response took 48 hours in coming. Apparently, it’s not just about who is in charge but whether we have fundamentally changed the system to ensure ruthless competence rather than eye service and political correctness.
When the EFCC unearthed the insane looting perpetrated by former service chiefs under the former administration, it was clear that corruption had civilianised our military bigwigs. The billions that were meant to prosecute the war were diverted to buying houses for underaged children of generals and pampering mistresses, while ill-equipped soldiers were court-marshalled for refusing to lay down their lives in a war in which they were so comprehensively outgunned.
What has changed?
While there seems to be a lot of motion and competition among the various security forces to give us the impression of a radical shift in tactics, commitment and strategy, the Dapchi abduction has shown us that it is all motion without movement.
It was all so easy. Terrorists wearing army uniforms shot their way into the Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, claiming to be soldiers sent to protect them. They came with trucks. Some of the girls heeded the advice of their principal and voted with their feet, especially as they noted the inscriptions of “Allahu akbar” on the vehicles and the knickerbocker-type trousers of the supposed soldiers (tell-tale giveaways of Boko Haram fighters). But Boko Haram still made a handsome haul: 110 captives; a great day in the office for the terrorists.
It turned out that the military had ben withdrawn from Dapchi shortly before the attack. The army first claimed that it handed over to the police before withdrawing, but that claim has been punctured by the police commissioner who insisted that, “There was no time that the military informed the Police of their withdrawal ….”
So, who ordered the withdrawal of the army from Dapchi before the abduction? Why have the recommendations of the committee that probed the earlier Chibok abductions not been implemented? What does government hope to achieve by instituting another ‘fact-finding’ committee to probe the series of unprofessional decisions that aided the abductions?
With the billions allegedly spent so far to pay ransom for the release of earlier captives, could the latest incident be seen as contrived to shake down the government? Has an industry developed around Boko Haram kidnap-for-ransom? Are there Boko Haram informants/sympathisers within the security forces?
My heart goes out to the helpless parents of the hapless girls.
The Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) is as puzzled as we all are and is seeking answers to the following pertinent questions: “Is this abduction not a near confirmation of the rumour making the rounds that security operatives do not want the war on Boko Haram to end because of the pecuniary benefits they derive therefrom? Again, why did the Dapchi girls’ abduction happen months before the 2019 general election, just like the Chibok girls’ abduction of 2014? Are there orchestrated plans somewhere to make a case for more security votes?
“How did the perpetrators gain access to the school? How come they were not prevented or intercepted? Does it mean that when they were coming no security or informants provided any hint? Aren’t the security operatives conversant with Sun Tzu’s Five Types of Spies in his The Art of War: Local, Inside, Double, Doomed and Surviving?”
Nigerians are not impressed by government’s explanations so far. Boko Haram abduction is not a volcanic eruption, nor a hurricane, nor a tsunami, nor any other natural disaster, but a predictable act of terror. Instead of being prepared to forestall the terrorists’ calculations, we have been busy claiming victory in successive battles.
Boko Haram is several steps ahead because we have refused to OUT-THINK them. When you chase the terrorists out of Sambisa Forest, do you think they would vaporise? Don’t you know they’ll invade other communities?
We should all be ashamed. Boko Haram is not a country; it does not have a National Assembly nor a budget of trillions of Naira. It does not have a proper army, navy or air force; no DSS, NIA, NSCDC, Police or Special Forces; no jets and no drones, no ministry of defence. To have such a rag-tag terror machine rub Nigeria’s nose in the dust now and again is a bleeding shame!
I do not for one minute gloss over the gallant efforts of our military, especially the Nigerian Air Force, in many of their confrontations with the terrorists. But something is still very wrong. We need to dredge the marshes of our security apparatus. Heads have to roll!
A recent report published by Transparency International (TI), a global corruption watchdog, shows that corruption worsened in Nigeria in 2017. According to the 2018 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Nigeria which scored 27 ranked 148 out of the 180 countries assessed in 2017; meaning that it was only better than 32 out of the 180 countries. In 2016, Nigeria comparatively ranked better when it scored 28 and took 136th position among the 176 countries evaluated for that year; meaning that Nigeria was in 2016 better than 40 other nations. The one-point reduction in Nigeria’s score slipped the country down by 12 positions; from 136th in 2016 to 148th in 2017.
CPI ranking relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as experienced by business people and analysts; using a scale that ranges between 0 (highly corrupt) and 100 (very clean). CPI is one of the most respected international measurements for corruption trends across all continents. It was established in 1995 as a composite indicator used for measuring perceptions of corruption in the public sector in different countries around the world. CPI is computed by the TI Secretariat in Germany and is published in Nigeria by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC).
Nigeria has consistently maintained low ranking on the CPI due to its persistent poor performance since it was first ranked in 1996. The country for example, scored 26, 27, 25 and 27 respectively in 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2912. This set of statistics only confirms that the incidence of corruption never went down significantly under any regime in the past including the years succeeding the creation of the ICPC and the EFCC in 2000 and 2003 respectively.
Further analysis of the 2017 report indicates that countries with the least protection for press and non-governmental organization (NGOs) also tend to have the worst rate of corruption. The analysis which incorporates data from the Committee to Protect Journalists shows that in the last six years, 9 out of 10 journalists were killed in countries that scored 45 or less on the index.
Reacting to TI’s report, the presidency in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President Malam Garba Shehu, said the assessment which reveals that corruption is getting worse under President Muhammadu Buhari “would be incredible to anyone who knew where Nigeria was coming from”; describing the report as “very misleading’ in its appraisal of the federal government’s anti-corruption crusade. On his part, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who spoke through the Deputy Chief of Staff Ade Ipaye, welcomed the report as a catalyst for Nigeria to do better in its fight against corruption.
Vice President’s standpoint is a more apt position. Rather than dismiss the report, government has a responsibility to study details of the report and use it to identify its own operational weaknesses with a view to improving upon them. Government should be concerned not only about its citizens’ perception of corruption but also about other peoples’ perception of corruption in Nigeria.
To play a leading role in the African Union (AU)’s initiative which recently declared 2018 at its 30 Assembly of Heads of States and Government as the “African Anti-Corruption Year”, Nigeria needs to re-examine its approach to the fight against corruption. Specifically, the EFCC must improve upon its investigative and prosecution skills in order to secure as many convictions as possible.
The media must be recognized as vital to combatting corruption. Government is therefore encouraged to promote laws that focus on access to information. This access would essentially help to enhance transparency and accountability while at the same time reducing opportunities for corruption.
Daily Trust
Transparency International’s (TI) latest report shows that corruption is worsening in Nigeria. According to TI’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Nigeria ranked 148th out of the 180 countries surveyed in 2017 with a score of 28/100, whereas it ranked 136th in 2016 with a score of 27/100 out of the 168 countries surveyed.
This means that Nigeria has not made significant progress in the fight against corruption. This is surprising given the fact that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has anti-corruption as a priority objective of governance. Indeed, Nigeria occupies the 32nd position out of the 52 assessed countries in Africa in the 2017 ranking. In West Africa, Nigeria is the second worst country out of 17 countries, leaving only Guinea Bissau behind. Nigeria’s score of 27/100 is far below the African average of 32/100.
The TI report provides some insight into the relationship between openness and corruption. In countries where openness and media independence are absent, corruption thrives. The report called on the government and private sector organisations to support free speech and media independence. Importantly, too, government must allow the opposition and civil society to engage it. The government must give life to the Freedom of Information Act which has not been allowed to operate because of hostility by public office-holders to request for information on the basis of that law. President Buhari assumed the reins of leadership on the back of a campaign promise to crack down on endemic corruption. His slogan was that “if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.” Now, he must ensure that corruption does not kill Nigeria by ensuring that graft is effectively sanctioned.
Since 2015 when the current government took the reins of power, very few high-profile corruption cases have been concluded. Convictions have been very scarce. The claim by the government that the judiciary has been largely compromised, thereby undermining the anti-graft war, cannot be a valid excuse.
The government has to re-engineer public institutions to address corruption. The government must lead in transparency by proactive disclosure of important data such as budgets, company ownership, public procurement and political party financing through open data formats.
Although the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) claim to have recovered huge sums of money, the size, location, owners and basis of the recovered funds have not been provided for public scrutiny. Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has challenged the government to make public the identities of those who have refunded stolen public money. We support the idea. Indeed, some Nigerians fear that such funds would likely be re-stolen by government officials who are shielded by the government.
It seems that both the EFCC and the ICPC have become agencies for the recovery of stolen public money without detailed public accountability for such recovered funds. The fight against corruption must go beyond such claims. It must be done with openness. Above all, those found guilty of stealing pubic fund must be sanctioned.
Tribune
The chronic ailments that pin this country down are only a handful. They include self-deceit, selfishness, and foolishness. Fortunately or unfortunately, none of the lot is natural or extraneous. The nation-destroying vices are man-made: made in Nigeria by Nigerians for self and country!
It is not too hard to deduce that our country is where she has been, man and boy, because of the idiosyncrasies of her people. The situation is worsened by the fact that leadership and followership are as guilty as they are unpatriotic. Or which of the two strata is better: our clueless leaders or we the apathetic population? Nigeria is, has been and, may always be in trouble because those who lead are as bad as, if not worse than, those they lead.
The facts are horrendous and compelling. First, we are a docile people who allow leaders to get away with just about anything. Next, we contrive a system that plays politics even with life. How on earth do Nigerians expect a different result when we keep repeating the same lousy mistakes of old?
For instance, weeks after Dapchi transmogrified into Chibok, we have done absolutely nothing differently to reassure the populace. To this day, no one knows for sure exactly how many of our daughters were carted away. Government’s initial back and forth coupled with parents’ insistence that the number is 105, not 110 drains away the essential element of believability. We need to step up and provide leadership while so-called leaders step down and manage as followers!
Imagine, they bungled something as basic as lawmaking. Our 36 State Houses of Assembly, in their legislative wisdom, want autonomy for themselves but not for Local Governments which need it more. To the goosy honourable members, autonomy cannot also be sauce for the gander-third-tier. The legislature can only stand up for self; not for the weak, the oppressed, nor the helpless.
Disappointed, my mind wanders back to Dapchi. This may not be the best time to raise this, but when would be? Without any intention whatsoever to rub it in, I just need to wonder aloud about what’s going on in the name of education up north. I thought those Chibok and Dapchi girls abducted were in secondary school?
Why then do their mates and they always speak to Anglophone journalists in Hausa? Is there something I am missing, please? Those I have put this question to always tell me some crap about female education in that part of the country. I know too many northern women who can beat their southern counterparts educationally, to believe such fallacy.
Still, my worry persists. Are we witnessing the downside of a strategem by good-for-nothing sexists called men to keep our sisters, daughters and future wives up north permanently subjugated? Is Hausa the pedagogic lingua franca in the north? I am desperate: just what is going on?
Furthermore, I am horrified that we see the deliberate zoolification of this beautiful country as one of those things. Human beings turn into snakes and monkeys and swallow tens of millions of Naira. Yet, we laugh it off because it’s nothing. I mean, what’s 36 million or 70 million Naira in a country where people help themselves to (not steal) billions every day?
We are a huge joke. On the eve of the general elections which should activate that century-elusive change, the electorate is busy focusing on clannishness, partisanship and allied backward mannerisms that brought us to this cul-de-sac in the first place. For crying out loud, an alarming majority of current leaders deserve quit notice not tenure extension. These guys only take this country backwards!
Or, do we enjoy the silly ritual of the same folly every four years? 2019 is the time to show that we don’t, and indeed that we have had enough of self-inflicted hypocrisy, greed, and lunacy. Let’s go out, register and get our voter card so that in February we would use it to render snakes, monkeys, rats, hyenas, wolves, lion kings et al jobless. God bless Nigeria!
Exactly how does the brain of a Nigerian political office holder work?
Why do people we expect so much from give us so little? How does even the most fanatical Buharist explain away the president’s decision to visit Kano for the wedding of Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje’s daughter just weeks after the same man kept away from Benue and Yobe which had suffered untold lives-involving incidents? Do our leaders think we are fools?
We always knew about President Muhammadu Buhari’s propensity to make choices that damn the people but this one is completely over the bar. Try as hard as I have, I can’t seem to wrap my head around this presidential malfeasance. I am happy he attended the young couple’s wedding but I am sad not being able to understand the president’s rationale for ignoring Benue, Yobe and other states which need his presence!
I hope nobody adds salt to injury by offering one of those unmathematical excuses. The only way to heal this hurt faster is the president apologising personally or (since he never would) allowing the matter to die off naturally. Or, better still, Governors Samuel Ortom and Ibrahim Gaidam should be smart enough to set up Muslim weddings at Guma/Logo and Dapchi respectively, and invite the president!
Thou shalt not stop being proactive. Thou shalt not react to opponents hate with hate.
Thou shalt not depart from subtle marketing of thy boss’s achievements. Just as thou shalt not fail to focus on his/her achievable plans and promises.
This is re-election strategy 101.Thank me on May 29, 2019!
A former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, has said falling standards in the Judiciary can only be addressed if the culture of lobbying and godfatherism used in influencing appointment of judicial officers is discouraged and discarded by the National Judicial Council (NJC).
Justice Mukhtar said a competent and strong judiciary can only be achieved by reviving what held sway in the past, where merit was the watchword in making such appointments.
She spoke at the weekend, in Abuja, at a book presentation in honour of a retired female justice of the Supreme Court, Clara Ogunbiyi.
“I will, at this juncture, revisit the issue of lobbying and in addition, favouritism and godfatherism in the appointment of judicial officers. It is sad that we allow the rising culture of lobbying to influence appointments in the judiciary.
“Lobbying, favouritism and godfatherism should be discouraged and discarded, as they lead to the fall in the standard and, instead of enhancing the institution, they devalue and waeken it because of incompetence of the personnel.
“These practices negate the principles of justice and breeds indiscipline. I once read in one of our daily newspapers that lobbying is the norm in the United States of America and since we are operating the American system of democracy, it’s adoption here is in order.
“I disagree because, even if they do so, they consider merit first as the efficiency and the intellectual ability of an appointee is always paramout, as far as the judiciary is concerned.
“We should not think of only what we desire today, but what we will bequeath to the generation yet unborn.”
Justice Mukhtar described the celebrant, who is the first female judge from the North East and the fourth female justice of the Supreme Court as “an epitome of humility.”
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The plan to ban the importation of vehicles into the country, which is being currently canvassed by members of the House of Representatives, on paper, is a good one. It has the immediate and long-term effect of stimulating the local vehicle industry as well as the capacity to build wholly Made-in-Nigeria vehicles, which will have positive effects on the economy and overall development of the country. But, we urge caution in the implementation of this policy.
We recall that the automobile lobby has articulated claims of what it has achieved and what it can achieve if given the needed incentives and enabling environment to operate. But, our experiences so far, have not been so palatable. We recall the adventures and misadventures of some of the pioneers of the local content initiative in the automobile industry.
The exploits of Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) in Kaduna, the Volkswagen Plant in Badagry, Lagos, Leyland in Ibadan, Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company (ANAMMCO) in Enugu and lately, INNOSON Motors in Lagos and Nnewi are already well known. But, the attempts to provide local content in the automobile industry have not been very successful. Apart from the high cost of locally manufactured vehicles, the quality of their products could not be vouched for.
But, that is the path some of the advanced countries, which have achieved local capacity in vehicle manufacturing, passed through. For the country to ban importation of vehicles, there must be adequate support for the local vehicle industry. Government must muster the economic and political will to assist the local vehicle industry develop. As we have cautioned earlier, it must be done in a manner that is devoid of deceit and undue politicking.
Our politicians and lawmakers must resist the temptation of being seen to be playing to the gallery with very important legislations which can potentially have very far-reaching effects. Have they, for example, contemplated the full implication of this legislation on the automobile industry? Are they ready to walk the talk? Are they ready to work with all the stakeholders to provide the enabling environment? Do they appreciate what it would take to have truly local automobile manufacturing companies, rather than the mere assembly plants we have had in the past?
The legislators should purge themselves of the penchant for foreign and ostentatious goods, if the local vehicle industry must be given a fillip. In the life of the 8th National Assembly, orders have allegedly been placed for many exotic and foreign vehicles for members. So, where is the seriousness of purpose for the new policy to work? Or is the intended law, as some cynics have argued, meant for the ordinary man on the street? That would have a dire outcome if that were to be so.
Rather, the legislators should make the proposed law to be complementary to the Executive Order 5, which President Muhammadu Buhari recently signed into law. The Executive Order is meant to promote the local capacity and more local participation in the oil and gas industry. It is also destined to boost the local economy and promote harmony and equity in the workplace with the overall goal of engendering peace, prosperity and wholesome development in the country. Although the law came out late, we still believe that working with the relevant government agencies such as the Nigeria Local Content and Monitoring Board, government is making a huge mark in the oil and gas sector.
This is the kind of impact we expect the new law by the federal legislators to have. But to have it, they must fix the problem of lack of adequate and sustainable power supply and issues in the steel sector. Though some progress has been made in both sectors of late, the financial outlay required to bring both sectors to function optimally is enormous and presently beyond the capacity of the nation. The new policy would require enormous sacrifices and disciplined planning by our political leaders for it to work. Unfortunately, we have not seen much of that yet.
Sun
There seems to be no end to the dissonance among government agencies in prosecuting the anti-corruption war. The ambivalence evinced again in two recent clear messages from the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
In a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, he advised the Federal Government to drop the Malabu oil block scam trial for lack of evidence. He has also queried the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, for continuing with the N10 million corruption trial of the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Umar, against the backdrop of two clearances the commission had given him in the past.
Malami’s logic does not sit well in public imagination. An EFCC clearance does not carry the weight of a discharge and acquittal by a court. If the agency has fresh evidence that overrides its earlier position, then it is within its competence to reopen the case.
The deal is murky; Etete allegedly initiated it in 1998 as the Minister of Petroleum under the regime of the late maximum military ruler, Sani Abacha, when he awarded the OPL 245 – oil block to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited – said to be largely his, upon the payment of just $2 million “signature bonus.” The oil well’s estimated value is $500 billion. Thereafter, protracted ownership wrangling that involved Shell, Malabu and others ensued. Government got involved in settling the rift. Shell and Eni eventually bought it in 2011 for $1.3 billion and the proceeds paid into government coffers, which it transferred $1.1 billion to Malabu.
According to Italian prosecutors, $466 million out of the money was laundered via Bureau de change, with which a highly politically exposed person in Nigeria was bribed.
The so-called amicable resolution of the Malabu tango was when Mohammed Adoke was the AGF and Diezani Alison-Madueke, the Minister of Petroleum Resources. The EFCC also wants to hold the duo liable. But they have denied any wrongdoing. Adoke claimed the sale was approved to save Nigeria humongous financial losses that could emanate from arbitration abroad.
However, the EFCC, in its 21-paragraph affidavit before a Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by John Tsoho, stressed: “That Italian Police have also conducted extensive investigation on the fraud….” Evidence abounds for the trial to go ahead, the EFCC says; but Malami disagrees. There was nothing in the proof of evidence to support the charge of money laundering or any case of fraud against the parties, he argued. According to him, the ex-public officials to be tried acted in their official capacities with the approval of three presidents.
The AGF’s dogged invalidation of the case does not fly. It is absurd that every high-profile corruption case in Nigeria dissolves like salt block in water, whereas, suspects in other countries do not escape justice. The Siemens and Halliburton bribery cases adjudicated in France, Germany and the US are sordid instances. What evidence did the UK Crown Court rely on to seize the $85 million, which Malami had earlier rhapsodised about? And why are Italian prosecutors unwavering in the trial? The Chairman Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Itse Sagay’s curiosity about this turn of events bears repeating. “So, it is strange that in the home turf, where it originated, and where all the evidence exists, there is no evidence,” he lamented.
This case has passed through three AGFs with the same incredulous upshot. But it should not be the same with the Buhari government. It is a red herring to argue or impute that every transaction with a presidential assent bears the seal of legitimacy. No! In fact, dozens of them, as our chequered past reveals, carry the badge of infamy like the $2.1 billion arms scandal, for which not a few members of the political elite are being tried by the EFCC.
In advanced societies, the police routinely question sitting presidents for abuse of office or they are brought to account after they had left office. South Korea’s first female president, Park Geun-hye, for example, was forced out of office because of bribes received from corporations in return for business favours. She is now on trial, while her confidante, Choi Soon-sil, was on February 13 sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment and handed a $16.6 million fine. Similarly, ex-president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, received a nine-and-a-half year jail term for a beachfront apartment gift from a firm he helped win contracts in Petrobas – the state oil company.
It is difficult to see how these constitutional imperatives would be discharged with his demand. A public official that appropriated an oil block and it was later sold for $1.3 billion for his, and others’ enrichment, cannot escape a judicial inquest. Buhari should not condone this new twist.
Justice Edis of the Crown Court put it more poignantly: “I cannot simply assume that the Federal Government of Nigeria, which was in power in 2011 and subsequently until 2015, rigorously defended the public interest of the people of Nigeria in all aspects.” So, let the Malabu trial be.
Punch
I must confess that I am not a clairvoyant, neither am I a politician. And let me admit beforehand that if I were a politician, I would probably have been a poor one at least within the context of how it is played in this clime. I was raised in the very simple and principled way of life – to stand for something, value hard work, integrity and honour my father’s name. I cannot claim to have always excelled, but I can claim to have reasonably acquitted myself. These are the values that have defined me and my interactions with my fellow man.
You can hardly find these values in the conduct and behaviour of our politicians. Theirs is about the politics of money, material acquisition, godfatherism, cult membership, human sacrifice, etc. It has nothing to do with a dream or a vision for society. And betrayal is the currency of their trade. I can hardly belong here. But I have come to the realisation that at some point, we may have to throw our hats into the ring in an effort to reorder our politics. We cannot just sit down and lament day in, day out. We have to come out and put our money where our mouth is and then walk the talk. My generation is too complacent. We want change but lack the courage and will to effect it.
Now let’s go back to the main thrust of this article. Let me make a very categorical prediction here: Tinubu’s task to reconcile the APC is doomed to failure! Certainly, there is no gainsaying the evidence of this prediction as is right in our faces.
The attempt at reconciliation is a last-ditch effort to save a rudderless ship bound for the bottom of the ocean. The party that duped Nigerians with the sweet-nothing promise of change, only to exhibit the worst of the very behaviour it had condemned in others, is about to implode and there is no one to save it from its original sin.
To start with, Tinubu is the wrong person for this reconciliatory effort if the intentions were truly to reconcile the many aggrieved members before the 2019 general election. Tinubu himself is a factor to the crisis rocking the coat of many colours. Often overrated as “the greatest political strategist in Africa” by his lackeys and hangers-on and buoyed up by the media, he has an insatiable sense of entitlement, and has remained implacable over his loss of the control of the party, sulking over his inability to hand-pick and impose his preferred candidates on the party at the national level.
Consequently, he has had a running battle with the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, whom he had a very public spat with over the conduct of the Ondo State primary election to choose the APC governorship standard-bearer in 2016. Tinubu went to the extent of even accusing him of corruption, undemocratic behaviour and demanded his resignation. It was one of those moments Tinubu tried to flex his ACN muscle. When his call was largely ignored, Tinubu quietly withdrew into his shell to lick his wounds.
The irony here is that it was Tinubu who was alleged to have pulled all the stops to make Oyegun the chairman of the APC, perhaps in the hope Oyegun would be used as a stooge in the implementation of Tinubu’s not-so-hidden-agenda to take over the structures of the party. Well, men’s fortunes do change and new alliances are forged. Oyegun found new friends and drifted away from the original unspoken intent and the unwritten script to the chagrin of Tinubu.
Make no mistake, Oyegun is a sycophant of the current finger-pointing government. He has been talking like a man whose life depends on President Muhammadu Buhari running for another term. He daily pleads with Buhari to seek another term “to continue the good work” he and a few others see. In his warped thinking, God sent Buhari to save Nigeria. He is an unfeeling chairman who represents everything a New Nigeria should move away from. And so is Tinubu. They are both more interested in Buhari’s continuation and advancing their relevance than condemning the killer herdsmen who continue to wreak havoc on lives and properties across the country.
I am sure Tinubu himself does not expect he would succeed in reconciling his party of coat of many colours. It was not a coat made by a loving mother whose love is eternal and never fades. The APC is a coat of many colours made by a mixture of “walking wounded politicians with a vendetta ideology” of different shades and vices and experts in propaganda.
A party of strange bedfellows which succeeded in wresting power from an incumbent – a victory well beyond its own imagination and which unfortunately has saddled it with a responsibility to govern – a responsibility now provably far beyond its capacity. For a few of us who saw through the massive propaganda in 2015, we are not surprised by the tragedy that has become this coat of many colours and a “vast reservoir of inner nothingness”.
If Tinubu thinks his reconciliation would succeed, then it shows how extremely naïve he is. I suspect there may be other reasons for picking him other than a true desire at reconciliation. It may be to keep him busy and give him a false sense of relevance from the abyss he was sidelined to. Otherwise, how can it be that the Aggrieved Commander-in-Chief is suddenly the right person to reconcile a fractious party? Has Tinubu reconciled himself with the party’s players who “trashed” him after the party won, as stated by his wife just recently? Has he reconciled himself with Muiz Banre and Babatunde Fashola within his Lagos domain? Has he done likewise with Kayode Fayemi and Rotimi Akeredolu within his South-west domain?
A man who cannot fix his own house is now saddled with the task of fixing the crises in several state chapters of the party? There are two court cases instituted by Muiz Banre in Lagos, a direct fallout of the last local government elections. And what am I hearing that Tinubu’s headache just got bigger with the split in the Lagos chapter of the APC? Sometimes, it not only rains, it pours. How can Tinubu be a fair arbiter in the crisis rocking the Kogi State APC chapter when he is a factor in the crisis that has seen some members at daggers drawn with the governor’s faction?
The kind of talisman he would use to reconcile the intolerant and tyrannical Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai with Senators Shehu Sani and Suleiman Hunkuyi whose house was demolished on the orders of el-Rufai a few days after Tinubu was appointed to reconcile the many irreconcilable enemies in the party remains to be seen. In Rivers State, the Rotimi Amaechi/Magnus Abe feud is festering.
Amaechi wants to be the godfather who determines who gets what, like Tinubu is in Lagos. Will Tinubu be able to tell Amaechi to keep his empire dream in abeyance for the good of the party? Is that not wishful thinking?
What magic wand will he wave to resolve the war of attrition between Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso in Kano? Tinubu would soon find out that his Lagos sphere of influence does not extend to Kano, Kaduna, Kogi Adamawa, Rivers, Oyo, etc. In Ondo State, the governor, Akeredolu, has practically declared Tinubu persona non grata in his state, advising him not come to the state with his reconciliation committee. It remains to be seen whether other state governors will follow in his footsteps.
Before I forget, has Tinubu truly made up with Bukola Saraki and Aminu Tambuwal? Saraki went against the party/Tinubu’s choice to emerge the Senate President in 2015. Tambuwal was said to have stabbed Tinubu in the back when he refused to support Femi Gbajabiamila’s quest to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives and instead, backed Yakubu Dogora.
I have been intrigued watching the way Tinubu has approached his “presidential assignment” with obvious relish. It is more as if he saw an opportunity to resurrect his grudge fight with his own party chair or those he had disagreed with in the past. If you doubt me, read the condescending and very commanding letter laced with accusations he wrote to the chairman of the party.
Let me provide excerpts here for my readers: “You have taken it as your own personal ambition to thwart my presidential assignment in these key states. While this may place you in significant affinity with those parallel officials you hand-picked, this machination suggests no improvement in the welfare of the party in Kogi or at the national level.”
He accused Odigie-Oyegun of rushing to Kogi to inaugurate a new parallel state executive without reference to the appropriate organ of the party. Tinubu told Odigie-Oyegun: “It is my understanding that your dissolution of the duly-constituted state executives and the hurried naming of the above-mentioned caretaker group were not approved by the NWC. You had let this situation fester for months on end. Only when I was appointed to help resolve internal disputes and when you realised I might focus early on Kogi, did you stir from your indifference and inaction.”
Consequently, Tinubu stated, “In furtherance… I request that you make available to me the status reports and all the pertinent information regarding the state chapters without further delay.”
Even though he used the word request to disguise his order, it sounded more like a command to Odigie-Oyegun. Then of course he threw in the catch, “my presidential assignment” for effect – clearly an undisguised attempt to seemingly intimidate and barrel his way through any likely resistance.
Can this tactic work in the pursuit of peace, in an environment where the president is badly weakened by his own poor understanding of party politics? Here is a president who has largely remained aloof and uninterested in the internal politics of his party. Without mincing words, Buhari’s after-victory attitude to his party is at the root of the APC dysfunction.
The party could have stood a chance at transforming from a contraption into what nearly looks like a party despite its poor foundation, if Buhari was interested. But he was apparently more interested in the victory than the vehicle he used to achieve that victory.
At the height of his popularity when his body language was doing wonders, he could have stamped his moral authority on the party, before that authority unraveled. But he failed and allowed the competing forces for power and influence to fester and even in some cases his name was dropped to advance certain interests. For all he cared, the party ceased to matter after his win. It is that failure to build the party that is now about to spell the end of it.
His ethnic agenda and nepotism since coming to power have more than anything damaged him in the estimation of not only his party members but the generality of Nigerians – that is if it has not completely eroded his authority. Now, faced with a daunting task of being re-elected and a moral authority that is not worth more than paperweight, he is attempting to act, albeit belatedly.
Buhari suddenly realises he needs the party as a vehicle and the support of the competing interest groups and factions in unison to win a second term. Unfortunately, many of these interest groups and factions have solidified their blocks within the party and every so often go to war with one another in their battle for supremacy. It is now a fight to the finish in many states.
Many of the actors duelling it out in these warring state chapters, not only detest Tinubu as a person, they loathe his politics. It is unlikely they will be charmed by the opening salvo contained in his letter. Before we forget, Tinubu’s mandate is to reconcile aggrieved members and unite the fractured party ahead of 2019. Does anyone think Tinubu is really going to succeed, especially going by his approach which bears all the hallmarks of one who sees an opportunity to avenge an old slight? At the end of his “presidential assignment”, I can bet an arm and a leg that the APC would be more divided.
The 12-month tenure extension granted Oyegun and other principal officers of the NWC by the party’s NEC is not only a forceful rebuttal of Tinubu and his tactics, but a ringing endorsement of Oyegun. He has been “trashed” again. Obviously, the self-proclaimed national leader does not have a national following. Where does Tinubu go from here? As me, I know when I am being ridiculed. All his investments in the quest for power is going up in smoke. There is no better way of seeing what happened last week – the extension of Oyegun’s tenure despite Tinubu’s opposition. Tinubu should take heart because it was “party supremacy” at work.
No doubt, Tinubu is a very successful and experienced politician, but he has been very lucky as well that he has had loyal successors who decided to play the good boys. With all his successes in politics, his temperament seems unsuited for the assignment he so enthusiastically accepted. In this, he certainly needs tutoring in the art of diplomacy. It is also possible but highly unlikely that Tinubu is about to outsmart those who sidelined or better put “trashed” him. It is either he wants to cause more chaos and division and then have the last laugh, or that he may be genuinely naïve about his political reach.
Either way, we’ll find out soon. Let me not discount the significance of the fact that some good can come out of Tinubu jetting around the country in pursuit of the so-called reconciliation. Since Buhari is rumoured to be offering a carrot in the form of 2023 presidency to Tinubu to get his endorsement for 2019, there is one benefit that will most likely accrue to Tinubu, if he can see it: an opportunity to identify crucial players, key indicators and build new bridges in critical states for himself in furtherance of his ambition ahead of 2023 under the cover of the “presidential assignment” to reconcile aggrieved members.
If Buhari wins the 2019 election (God forbid)! Tinubu’s eyes would be opened to the “true lies” and deception he has been sold. Drawing from that, let me make one more prediction: Tinubu’s political reign is about to end, whether Buhari wins or loses. But I guess Tinubu has probably decided that he is probably better off sticking with Buhari than ditching him because if the opposition party should win the presidency, the Tinubu political empire would inevitably be a prime target for a total decimation.
The Presidency, through the spokesperson for President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has a message for those it says are jubilating, for political reason, over the abduction of over 100 schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe State: You are enemies of Nigeria. Adesina fielded questions from Sunday Vanguard last Wednesday on the Dapchi kidnapping allegedly carried out by a faction of terrorist group, Boko Haram, among other issues.
Let us start with the abduction of the schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe State which some people have been accused of politicising and, in fact, jubilating on the grounds that it is poetic justice for the administration following the way President Buhari and the APC, then in opposition, harassed the ruling PDP in 2014 when Chibok girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram under the Jonathan administration.
If anybody jubilates over that (schoolgirls abduction), that person is an enemy of humanity and he is also an enemy of Nigeria. If you jubilate over the abduction of schoolgirls, you hate humanity, you hate your country. To anybody that is jubilating over that, that is my message for him or her.
Six months into the administration of your government, you told me in your office at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja that those who were calling President Buhari a failure were unfair. You said the President has a mandate of four years and that his performance will determine whether he would go for second term or not. This is the time to assess the President’s performance, especially in the light of current happenings in the country. What is the update?
First and foremost, what I would like to say is that, going for another term is the personal decision of Mr. President. He has not made that decision but when he makes it, just as he said very recently, he will address Nigerians. But the second part of the question is, does he have enough grounds to seek second term? I say more than enough all fronts: Political, economic, social, security, everything! On all fronts there is more than enough. Let’s take it one by one. He promised that he would secure the country, which he has done and he is doing.
In spite of the Dapchi kidnapping?
That was a freak occurrence, calamitous, very sad, but it is not what you should use to determine whether the country is more secure or safer than it has ever been. Those who live in the North-East would easily tell you. Roads that had been closed for years are now open. Emirs that had fled their palaces are back in the palaces. Places where NYSC orientation was not holding are now hosting NYSC orientation. Markets that had been deserted, people are back there. Farms that had been abandoned, people are back there. Of course, the region is a lot of safer. Does it mean that the insurgency is completely over? No. There are still remnants of insurgents who launch occasional attacks, and that is what happened in Dapchi. But in terms of securing the country, yes, the President has done quite well. The job is not fully done but he has done well.
The second promise he made was to fight corruption. If you are honest, despite even the recent report of Transparency International, you will know that at no time had corruption been fought vigorously like this in Nigeria. Do you know how many people are before our courts? Do you know how many people have decided to enter into plea bargain? The anti-corruption war is well and alive and we are making progress.
Despite the view in some quarters that the way the anti-corruption fight is going is one-sided?
They say it is one-sided and I ask, ‘All the former military chiefs who are answering before the courts now, are they PDP members?’ That is one big question they have been unable to answer. The administration’s position is that anybody who runs foul of the law must face the consequence. And the anti-corruption war is well, alive and on course. The third promise was to revive the economy. The National Bureau of Statistics just said that inflation has dropped consistently in the past 12 months. As of this time last year, our foreign reserve was $24billiion. As we speak, it is $42.8 billion. If it was not a prudent government, how would that happen? In six years of the previous government when oil price sold at $112, $113 per barrel, foreign reserve did not go up. How come under this government that took off at a time oil price dropped to $29 but is now between $45 and $50, foreign reserve has gone up? Also, the stock market is growing. It is on record that our stock market is number four best in the world and it has never been as active as it is now in the history of Nigeria. And then foreign investments are coming into the country, heavily, like they have never been. On the Ease of Doing Business, Nigeria has moved up 24 points. So, there is a lot that this government has done for Nigeria in different phases. So, if it is re-election based on achievements, the government has a lot to show for it. But then, like I said earlier, it is the President that will determine whether he is running or not.
In spite all of these, some people claim they have seen nothing that has been done and it is on that basis that they are calling on Nigerians to vote against the President in 2019. Why do you think somebody would live in a house and he wants the house to collapse on his head?
It baffles me why some Nigerians want to pull down the country. You see government pulling up and you see those people pulling down. I think they are people who have not got out of primordial sentiments and loyalties. They are people who will say, ‘Because the President is not from my area, he doesn’t speak my language, he is not of my religion, so there is nothing he can do.’ Some are in pre-2015 election mood; you know that the 2015 election was very keenly contested. In fact, Nigeria was polarized along different lines; religion, ethnicity, language, everything; all our fautlines reflected in 2015. Regrettably, after the election, some people have still not accepted that the election had been won and lost. So, they are resolutely opposed to the government that had emerged.
But there could be natural consequences for all of these. What is your advice? It is a democracy and in a democracy, people have the right to their opinions. But this same democracy works for the society where we copied it from. Why is it not working in Nigeria?
We will get to learn. Let me just believe that we are learning. Our democracy is how old? Nineteen years. We will eventually learn and realise that this is our country and what we make of it is what it will be.
It was about the first time that any Nigerian President would appreciate his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity like President Muhammadu Buhari did thanking you for ‘holding out against mischief makers’ at a time hate speeches and fake news spread about him when what he needed was support for his quick recovery with prayers. Talking more seriously, why would you think that such statement could come from the President to you? Well, it shows you that the man has an appreciative heart; and that is just President Buhari for you.
He has an appreciative heart that whatever you do for him, he appreciates. He never forgets those who have done him good. How did I come to work for him? Because since 2003 when he began to run, I had always supported him and, as a journalist, I had always written to support him. Whenever he read my articles, he would phone me and we would discuss. We didn’t meet one-on-one for many years. I think the first time I met him was 2009. Professor Tam David-West had written a book on him, which was being launched in Lagos and I was the Master of Ceremony (MC) at that event. That was the first time we met one-on-one. And then when my mother passed on in 2013 and we were having a commendation service for her in Lagos and I sent him an invitation, he came, all the way from Kaduna! So, the President never forgets people who have shown him loyalty. Loyalty is two ways; when you show loyalty to a man, that man should always be loyal to you. And that is President Buhari for you.
Moving forward, you talked about how it is characteristic of President Buhari to appreciate his loyalists particularly anybody who has done him any good. Is that a confirmation of the claim that he gave some of his top government appointments to his loyalists or associates from ANPP, CPC days?
When you are going to give appointments, you start from the known before going to the unknown. When Obama came, first term, as President of the United States of America, who were the people he appointed? His college mates, his friends, those he had known for some time. Those were the people that were predominant in his administration. So, in appointment, you start from the known to the unknown.
But when you have the known behaving the other way expected of the appointing authority, what then happens to our perception about the appointment of the known like it happened in the Babachir’s case?
There are some things that are prerogative of the leader; the decision is his. When somebody is appointed and he turns out to behave contrary to expectation, it is the prerogative of the President to then act and decide what will happen and we leave our President to decide that.
But some people still believe, despite the sack of Babachir, for instance, that the President has refused to act on the matter. What about that?
The prerogative is his; let us leave him to exercise that prerogative.
You replied Dr. Reuben Abati when he wrote about demons in the Villa. How come President Buhari who emerged on the platform of self-integrity and popularly suddenly became someone people talk ill of; recall the allegation of nepotism and so on and so forth? Is it not the Abati’s tale of demons in the Villa now coming to reality and does it not mean that you are already feeling the heat concerning what Abati wrote about, especially when even your colleagues in the media criticize you that you don’t tell the truth about your government?
Not at all. You know there are some people who just want to believe the worst about the next man. So, if that is their predilection and frame of mind, there is nothing you can do about it. But the thing is, we would continue to do what we are doing, we would continue to do what is fair, just and right. We would continue to tell Nigerians the truth. We would not deliberately lie to Nigerians. We have never lied to them and we would never do that. The President I am serving does not want me to twist information for him. He wants you to just tell Nigerians the way things are. That is what we would continue to do and there is nothing anybody will say that will push us out of that. Some people have just made up their minds that, ‘This is what he must say, this is what he must tell us’, and they want you to say it. But (laughter), it will never happen.
Vanguard