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NIGERIA HAS POOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT INDICES - TETFUND

NIGERIA HAS POOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT INDICES - TETFUND

At 0.02 percent, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has said the level of research and development infrastructure in Nigeria is unacceptably low.

It said the situation requires urgent recalibration and re-sensitisation of operations and policies that would encourage sustainable and innovative research.

To this end, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, said he has assembled a reputable ad-hoc team that design and implement policies and programmes that would improve the situation.

He inaugurated the committee in Abuja on Thursday under the chairmanship of Professor Placid Njoko.

He was unhappy that Nigeria has not accorded research the level of attention it needed.

He disclosed that TETFund has recently established research and development department that will promote and coordinate research programmes and policies.

A senior member of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Tope Toguum, said that membership of the committee was made up of three individuals that have exhibited passion, contributed to knowledge especially in the aspect of research, innovation and creativity to solve human problem.

He said that members of the committee have been acquainted with their responsibilities and how to succeed in the task.

He expressed confidence in the ability and capacity of to committee members to deliver on the task given to them.

The Sun

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NIGERIANS DON'T WANT TO DIE, BUT WE DIE IN DROVES ANYWAY - DAYO DASILVA

NIGERIANS DON'T WANT TO DIE, BUT WE DIE IN DROVES ANYWAY - DAYO DASILVA

Yes! No one wants to die in Nigeria, whether rich or poor, not even the old and elderly. This reflects much in our timid and fragile life in which we all have become victims of our precarious society. 

I am not saying people want to die in other countries, but the Nigerian case is a life lived in fear. Everyday, the prayer of an average Nigerian after what to eat and money to survive revolves round protection and security from God, thus "no one wants to die".

However, news of the death of an old school mate, who was a victim of poor medical care in Abeokuta, the death of a cousin who fell to the cold hands of hypertension and the death of a friend's wife who passed away during childbirth in a Lagos Hospital within a spate of two days, jolted me into reality, that people die after all, even as no one would like to die.

Not even those who committed suicide; they never intended to die, they were just victims of an illness, a mental health disorder characterised by persistently depressed mood.

My worry is, why have we turned, a people with no conscience, compassion and patriotism for our country? How did we get to this low level, where our quality of benevolence and value for human lives have dropped tremendously? Why do we intentionally disrupt the system and society that we live in?

"No one wants to die", but people die daily while travelling on bad roads, they die in various hospitals due to lack of drugs, facilities and personnel; Curable common illnesses still kill our people; many die of hunger and poverty; we are threatened daily by militants, terrorists and armed robbers who kill at random because our Nation failed to provide jobs and good life for our people; ordinary pipe- borne water, the Nigerian Government can not provide; a whole lot of our people die due to ignorance because of our failed education system.

Most of these deaths are "appalling crimes against humanity" as they are caused by our man-made acts, thus avoidable.

The deaths are the resultant effects of bad leadership and failed followership which transcends the All Progressives Congress, APC and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP conundrum. Simply put, It is the failure of Nigerians as a people.

When would our political office holders across various tiers of Governments realise that they are not necessarily the best in the society and the opportunity to hold positions is to serve, develop and improve humanity? Any political office holder is there for only a period of time and one day, they will become victims of the society they have created.

When would followers learn how to ask questions and revolt against political representatives holding the society to ransom?

Truly, we don't want to die but the disunity, signs of war and terror in the land today, would not spare anyone if allowed to continue.

"In the past, the poor cannot sleep because they have nothing to eat, but at present the wealthy cannot sleep because the poor are awake”.

"Life is transient, People die anyway, but we have the choice to improve humanity and build a society that will preserve you and me".

"It is in our hands to create a real essence of living and heal our Nation, Nigeria"!

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NIGERIA HAS BECOME AFRICA'S MONEY-LOSING MACHINE - FORBES

NIGERIA HAS BECOME AFRICA'S MONEY-LOSING MACHINE - FORBES

Want to lose money in one of Africa’s biggest markets? Put it to work in Nigeria.

Despite sitting on nearly 40 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and over $48 billion worth of investment opportunities in the oil and gas sector, Africa’s largest economy is mired in problems with big corporate investors as President Muhammadu Buhari proceeds on his second-term after a swearing-in ceremony Wednesday.

Nigeria’s stock index is down 0.4% year-to-date while emerging markets are up 2.3% and MSCI Frontier Markets 100 is up 10.2%. As one of the better known, investable African equity markets, anyone who tried their luck with the Global X Nigeria (NGE) exchange-traded fund is down 27.7% over the last 12 months.

In five years, Nigeria ETF has blown up, now down over 74.5%. Frontier and emerging indexes are better than Nigeria. It’s also worse than South Africa, Africa’s largest stock market, and Egypt, Africa’s second largest.

In terms of foreign direct investment, back in 2013 inflows totaled $5.6 billion, most of it in the telecom and energy sectors.

Last year, Nigeria’s FDI flattened to $2 billion. Equity investment between 2013 and 2018 has fallen from around $2.9 billion in 2013 to just $139 million in 2018. In the last quarter of 2018, there was the first net pullout of equity capital since records began under the current accounting methodology in 2008, according to data compiled by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy in terms of nominal GDP. South Africa comes in second, even though its GDP per capita is roughly five times that of Nigeria. It’s Nigeria’s abundant commodity resources that make it so big. But it’s Nigeria’s government that keeps it from getting bigger, and richer.

“Nigeria has never been a particularly business-friendly place,” says David Bruckmeier, a sub-Saharan business intelligence analyst at London-based political risk firm AKE Group.

“Outright hostile action against major foreign investors is rare, but bureaucracy, pervasive corruption, an unfavorable tax system and disputes with investors hurt investment,” he says.

Nigeria’s GDP contracted 13.8% in the first quarter, wiping out last year’s economic gains. The only country to do that of late is Venezuela. And like Venezuela, Nigeria has also dealt with blackouts in the power grid—six of them this year.

“Electricity price controls are a big problem,” says Benedict Craven, a Nigeria analyst for the EIU.

“The private sector is given little incentive to invest.”

According to USAID, the main U.S. government international aid organization, Nigeria has the potential to generate over 12,000 megawatts of electricity daily. On most days, it generates around 4,000 megawatts.

A March 25 documentary by the BBC, Africa Eye, said half of Nigeria’s population has no access to electricity and those that do face daily power cuts that can last for hours.

This is the kind of stuff that happens in Venezuela, a country facing U.S. sanctions, three years of economic depression and a government with dwindling support. Unlike Venezuela, Nigeria is the eighth-largest recipient of international aid. And the second largest in Africa.

Nigeria has Africa’s largest gas reserves, some 190 trillion cubic feet. Yet for all of this great oil and gas wealth, the country’s electrical grid is a charade.

“Perhaps most worryingly of all, the damage being done by a range of investor disputes where basic property and contractual rights are being violated seems to be on the increase,” says Shanker Singham, CEO of The Competere Group, a legal and trade advisory firm in London.

“The erosion of Nigeria’s commitment to the rule of law is highly worrying, both from a political and an economic perspective,” Singham says.

The most notable disputes are with South Africa telecom MTN Group, an energy project with Process & Industrial Development (P&ID), and a hydroelectric contract between Sunrise Power and Chinese investors.

In the P&ID case, a London court in January 2017 said Nigeria owed the company $6.6 billion plus interest, a significant percentage of Nigeria’s $44 billion of foreign currency reserves. Both P&ID and Sunrise have been a thorn in Nigeria’s side, with Nigeria’s government on one side saying they were duped by P&ID as far back as 2012, and courts ruling against their defense on the other. So far, these two disputes alone have easily led to more than $11 billion in international legal awards against the Buhari government.

As for the P&ID saga, the company’s main complaint relates to the government’s failure to complete a pipeline and other critical infrastructure. The project would have generated annually up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity for residential and commercial use.

The company initiated arbitration proceedings in 2012, the standard legal set up for international investor disputes.

“Whether its calculations regarding its supposed investments and foregone profits are plausible is a different matter—but the government never made any effort to challenge them anyway. Nor is it surprising that Nigeria failed to show up to court hearings in the case,” says AKE Group’s Bruckmeier.

“This is exemplary of the unprofessional and nonchalant attitude Nigeria often displays in such matters.” P&ID is in limbo.

“We are well aware of the government’s efforts to characterize P&ID, and its founders, as frauds,” Brendan Cahill, the company’s founder, said.

“The arbitrators in London spent five years carefully reviewing the written agreement and all the facts surrounding the deal, and in the end, they unanimously concluded that Nigeria was to blame for the deal’s collapse and had to pay damages to P&ID,” he says.

“Not once during those five years did Nigeria present the courts with any evidence that there had been some kind of fraud—because there wasn’t one.”

That battle continues in the courts. Then there is Sunrise Power. Sunrise recently brought Nigeria and its Chinese partners before the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. Nigeria faces another $2.3 billion fine in arbitration over breach of contract.

Sunrise was behind the Mambilla hydroelectric dam project. It would have been Nigeria’s biggest hydropower plant, capable of generating 3,050 megawatts of power.

There have been no new developments in the arbitration case as of May 20.

Nigeria’s energy woes are costing it a fortune. It is also making some bond analysts nervous, judging by an article in the Financial Times recently saying Nigeria was facing “a looming external debt crisis.”

Its external debt increased $12 billion in three years, going from $10 billion to $22 billion between 2015 and 2018.

“Their debt service eats up 60% of their government revenue and is rising according to IMF,” says Andrew Roche, managing partner at Finexem in Paris.

“If they do not raise revenue, and if they can’t continue borrowing for whatever reason, then we are looking at a potential default or at least a period of dried up financing. The economy is expected to grow at just 2% this year, according to Fitch. They have Nigeria’s credit outlook as stable. Its bonds are rated B+, a low-tier speculative grade credit.

Nigeria’s general government debt is expected to rise to 292% of revenue, well above the historical B-rated credit, thanks in part to the government’s lack of progress on raising government revenue. Debt-to-GDP is below 30%. But interest payments on the debt owed to bondholders—which includes local banks—is estimated to be around 20% of general government revenue, more than twice that of average B-rated countries.

“Nigeria’s markets are broken, but not in the sense that they don’t work,” says Jan Dehn, head of research for the Ashmore Group, an emerging and frontier market investment firm with holdings in Nigerian stocks and dollar-denominated debt.

“Opportunities rise, get exploited, and then they end,” he says, noting that Nigeria was kicked out of the Barclays global bond index due to capital controls in 2015. Much of Wall Street’s institutional client base left.

“I’ve had positive experiences with officials at the central bank and in the banks,” Dehn says. “But the quality of the (federal) government varies.” Buhari was reelected in February. Investors hope he can signal a new direction for economic policy in the months ahead. With regards to Nigeria’s investor disputes with the two energy projects, Singham estimates that the P&ID dispute can cost Nigeria nearly 40% of their foreign reserves, calling it “a significant threat to investor confidence” if not settled.

Nigeria has yet to pay the settlement. “P&ID is a bigger deal than MMT and Sunrise,” he says in a phone interview from London.

“If I was the Nigerian government trying to signal that we were back in business, I would do something about that case first,” he says.

Global capital moves quickly. These little signals can be a powerful mover in a country that most investors believe is heading in the wrong direction.

On the other hand, there is a consensus that Nigeria can transform itself pretty quickly. “Is there the political will in a new Buhari government? It might just be more of the same,” says Singham.

“Change is not always about one leader. When you want to get a country to improve, you need to give oxygen to the reform-minded people in the country. I think we at least have something we can work with Buhari.”

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HOW 8th SENATE’s N70.6bn RUNNING COST COULD HAVE TRANSFORMED NIGERIA - Report

77 radiotherapy machines, over 1m boreholes — how 8th senate’s N70.6bn running cost could have transformed Nigeria

Each senator in the 8th assembly got a monthly running cost of N13.5 million. This was aside the basic salary and other allowances that they received. Since there are 109 senators, their running cost amounted to N1.47 billion in a month and would have reached a total of N70.6 billion by the end of this month. Over N70 billion was spent on running cost alone in the 8th assembly.

In a country where 46 percent of its citizens are currently living below the poverty line of $1.90 or N693.5 per day, the running cost could have been used to solve some basic needs. In this piece, TheCable looks at what that amount could have been used for in different sectors.

HEALTH

It is no news that Nigeria lacks an effective healthcare system. Cancer has been identified as one of the leading causes of death globally. For a country of 198 million people, there are just four radiotherapy centres. The dearth of radiotherapy services in Nigeria increases the mortality rate as those who cannot afford the expensive treatment die from the sickness while others who can afford the cost of treatment travel abroad to seek medical care.

So, what could the money have been used for in this sector?

 

With a radiotherapy machine valued at $3 million (N918 million at CBN rate of $1/N306), N70.6 billion could have been used to purchase 77 of such machines.

It can also be used to acquire and install 1,412 c-arm x-ray machines with one valued at N50 million. Noteworthy is the fact that c-arm x-ray machines are mostly used during orthopedic procedures and apart from being mobile, they give a real-time clear-cut view of anatomic structures of the patients.

SECURITY

The rate of insecurity is alarming. From banditry to kidnapping to insurgency. There have been reports of the attackers using the best type of arms and ammunition. The insurgents, for example, have been said to be in possession of more sophisticated weapons than the Nigerian soldiers.

The N70.6 billion senators pocketed as running cost over a four-year period can acquire 16 JF17 thunder aircraft which costs N4.3 billion for one.

Nigeria’s economy also suffer huge losses from the activities of sea pirates and militants in the Niger Delta region. And N70.6 billion can help make much difference in that aspect; with one gun boat valued at N20 million, 3,531 of such boats can be injected into the navy’s fight against militancy.

EDUCATION

Nigeria currently has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The organisation said about 13.2 million children in the country are not in school. Checks by TheCable revealed that N10 million can be used to construct a standard block of four classrooms. This means that with N70.6 billion, the country can afford to construct a total of N7,063 of such blocks across the country.

SOCIAL WELFARE

Another aspect the fund can be of great use is in the area of social welfare, with particular reference to empowerment programmes such as constructing information communication technology (ICT) centres in the country.

At the value of N58.3 million for a fully equipped ICT centre, N70.6 billion could be used to construct and equip 1,211 of such centres across the 36 states and the FCT.

POWER SECTOR

Nigeria’s electricity situation has been anything but commendable. Recently, power generation dropped by 312 megawatts, from about 3,231 MW to 2,919 MW, after a cut in gas supply was reported in four key power plants across the nation. Despite the power being generated, citizens still complain of paying for power they never consumed through estimated billings. The only way out of the alleged exploitation is with prepaid meters now being used in parts of the country. Senators’ running cost can also come to the rescue in this aspect.

While single phase meters cost N37,000, three phase meters are acquired at N67,000. This means with N70.6 billion, Nigeria can be able to acquire a total of 1,909,438 single phase meters and 1,053,329 three phase meters for citizens across the country.

WATER

Another area the senators’ allowances can have an alternative huge impact is the water sector. In 2018, UNICEF reported that 69 million Nigerians did not have access to safe water. And 83 percent of schools in the country were said to have also lacked water supply.

Here’s where the succour could come: with N450,000 as fund for drilling a borehole in Nigeria, N7.6 billion can afford the country 1,712,515 boreholes which will most likely go round for most communities.

SALARIES

Only recently, the federal government approved a minimum wage of N30,000 for its workers at both federal and state levels. Before then, workers were collecting N18,000 – one of the least in the world. Interestingly, even the new minimum wage being celebrated is still far from being enough; the money is three times less than the South African minimum wage and — wait for it — 450 times lower than what a senator collects as monthly running cost (minus salary). The N1.47 billion being pocketed by the 109 senators in a month can pay a total of 49,050 Nigerian workers salaries at minimum wage level.

Additional reports by Ebunoluwa Olafusi

 

TheCable

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Last modified on Thursday, 23 May 2019 17:29

IN OUR HEARTS LIE PIUS ADESANMI, THE PROPHET WHO FORETOLD HIS DEATH

IN OUR HEARTS LIE PIUS ADESANMI, THE PROPHET WHO FORETOLD HIS DEATH

At a workshop in 2013, the Nigerian writer Chuma Nwokolo came up with a thought-provoking exercise: He asked the more than 40 assembled African thinkers to inscribe their own epitaph.

“Here lies Pius Adesanmi,” one wrote, “who tried as much as he could to put his talent in the service of humanity and flew away home one bright morning when his work was over.”

On Sunday morning, during a layover in Addis Ababa’s airport on his way to a conference in Nairobi, Adesanmi again wrote what seemed like a foretelling of his own death, this time a reference to Psalm 139, on Facebook: “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”

Adesanmi’s death, along with 156 others, on the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed early Sunday has spurred waves of mourning across the world. In Adesanmi’s native Nigeria, tributes to the well-known professor, author and cultural critic have overflowed from all corners of the country’s exuberant literary world.

In videos of speeches he gave, a picture emerges of a man both in love and at odds with Nigerian culture. In front of rapt audiences, he would decry what he viewed as the “mediocrity” widely accepted by his countrymen, while also employing tender phrases in Yoruba and pidgin English, two of Nigeria’s most widely spoken languages. He had no trouble enthralling a whole room.

“Beyond his indelible place in the hearts of family, his greatest life was lived on record, with an industry and perspicacity that a flaming jetliner cannot efface,” Nwokolo wrote of Adesanmi in a remembrance. “He spoke his truths fulsomely, without calculation, with an honesty and courage that drew people to him. His writing pops with life, even now when he sleeps with the ancestors.”

In his last column, posted the day before he died, Adesanmi ruminated with characteristic aplomb on Nigeria’s current affairs. That day, Nigeria held state elections that observers criticized for alleged military interference. Two weeks earlier, President Muhammadu Buhari was reelected in a poll marred by delays and violence.

“Sadly, I think our people have been psychologically defeated and have come to accept and love these things about Nigeria. They turn on whoever tries to awaken them. Nigeria’s irresponsible rulers have us where they want us. I write basically these days for the purposes of archaeology. A thousand years from now, archaeologists would be interested in how some people called Nigerians lived in the 20th and 21st centuries. If they dig and excavate, I am hoping that fragments of my writing survive to point them to the fact that not all of them accepted to live as slaves of the most irresponsible rulers of their era,” he wrote.

The Nigerian Canadian professor taught at Carleton University in Ontario. More than 40,000 followed him on Twitter, where he sparred with Nigeria’s feisty readers. He was a mentor to many young African writers.

“My intellectual life was built by him. He supervised me, mentored me, and yet he always treated me like a colleague,” wrote Wandia Njoya, a Kenyan writer. “I cant imagine thinking or writing without him. My heart is crushed.”

Adesanmi’s second book, a collection of essays called “You’re Not a Country, Africa” (2011), received the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing in the nonfiction category. In July, Adesanmi was involved in a traffic accident that left him bedridden, but it was during that time that he began writing his most popular columns, which he labeled “Injury Time.”

Benoit-Antoine Bacon, president and vice chancellor of Carleton University, said in a statement, “Pius was a towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship and his sudden loss is a tragedy.”

"Some of the students have been hanging around the makeshift memorial at the Institute all day. They can’t believe he is gone. Pius lived well. He affected a lot of people. He made time for his students. 

He listened and believed in them,” Bacon told Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper.

Washington Post 

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BUHARI: NOT A CLONE BUT A CLOWN - FAROOQ KPEROGI

BUHARI: NOT A CLONE BUT A CLOWN - FAROOQ KPEROGI

My Saturday column syndicated in Daily Trust on Saturday and Nigerian Tribune on Saturday. Snippet: Last Tuesday was an awkward day for me here in the United States. It wasn’t just that President Buhari’s ill-advised response to the insanely absurd IPOB whispering campaign that he is a body double from Sudan was the butt of hurtful jokes in American news media, all that my students wanted to talk to me about was this issue.

“While your president certainly isn’t a clone, he sure is a clown,” one student said. Although this jibe jabbed at my national self-esteem, it’s painfully accurate nonetheless. Why would someone who isn’t a clone (IPOB actually called him a body double, not a clone) deign to dignify such implausible absurdity with a response— and in a foreign country, to boot?

Several readers of this column had importuned me to share my thoughts on the allegation that it’s a Sudanese body double who is pretending to be our president, but I always responded that the suggestion is so ludicrous, so off-the-wall, and so patently illogical that even acknowledging it would be an exercise in the legitimization of stupidity.

But the president, who is at the receiving end of this fatuous folly, chose to mainstream and legitimize it. Many people said the president’s protestation that he wasn’t a clone was intended as good-natured banter. I believe them.

It’s obvious that Buhari fancies himself as possessing an uncommonly rich faculty of humor precisely because his inanely fawning aides habitually make exaggerated pretenses to finding his often unfunny jokes hilarious. But it’s part of the performances of power that sycophantic subordinates who want to ingratiate themselves with people in power have to learn to laugh at their bosses’ jokes, even if the jokes are flat, unwitty, inappropriate, and humorless.

This fact creates a false self-construal in the bosses of their matchless capacity for humor, and predisposes them to thoughtless, inapt jokes.

When my American student said Buhari was a “clown,” he was acknowledging that the president was joking when he said he wasn’t a “clone,” but he was also communicating the fact that the subject-matter of the joke was beneath the self-worth of a president….

Nevertheless, although it’s utterly brainsick to even imagine that a Sudanese body double could successfully take the place of Buhari, this whole notion of a Buhari imposter in the Presidential Villa resonates because it captures the vast disconnect between the Buhari Nigerians thought they elected in 2015 and the bungling, wimpy, aloof, unjust, and inept Buhari that we have as president now.

Buhari had an unearned reputation as a firm, fearless, just, disciplined leader who was animated by a restless thirst to transform Nigeria, to build enduring institutions, to wipe out or at least minimize corruption, and to bequeath a legacy of justice, fair play, and national cohesion.

But he has turned out to be an infirm leader who looks the other way when injustice is committed by his close associates, who disdains the poor, who defends and praises corruption when it’s committed by people who are loyal to him, who lies interminably, who has not a clue how to glue the nation and transform lives, and who is consumed by a monomaniacal obsession to perpetuate himself in power.

For people who invested hopes in an idealized Buhari that never existed, the Buhari they see now is figuratively a clone. Even his wife, Aisha Buhari, casts him as a helpless, ineffective, and isolated leader who is held prisoner by an evil, sneaky, corrupt, vulturous, and conniving two-man cabal….

Buhari is also the first and only Nigerian president on record who has openly confessed to being disaffiliated from many of the signature policies of his own administration…

The hard, painful truth is that Nigeria has no president now. Buhari is merely a figurehead who is battling with the ravages of aging and who is unaware of what is going on in the country and around him.

If there is anything that this unhinged “cloning” or “double-body” narrative has dramatized, it is that we have a president who isn’t in charge, who holds the horns of the cow while others milk it, who should be resting, not ruling.

This is dangerous for the country. Four more years of this will sink Nigeria irretrievably.

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Last modified on Monday, 10 December 2018 07:47

A PEOPLE ENSLAVED IN FREEDOM - Leonard Akwo

A PEOPLE ENSLAVED IN FREEDOM - Leonard Akwo

Three things in life are the sweetest – Power, Sex and Liberty. Nothing stirs desperation more than the hunger for these things. In all these, the third to me is the finest, as it is earned only by men driven by a selfless desire to change the narrative for a people. In the strife for liberty; heroes, legends, Martyrs are born. Men whose names remain eternally grafted in the rock of time. Little wonder, that Patrick Henry in his speech stressed the need for liberty during the 1775 congress at Virginia before their colonial masters in the following words:

“It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!”

Six days ago, like many other countries, Nigeria celebrated the greatest day of her existence as an independent entity. A day which marked the beginning of nationhood, and the end of imperialism. On this day, Nigerians, Instead of the Union Jack, dared to venerate the coat of arm. For the British flag, proudly, they projected the green and white far into the sky to meet the east and west wind, flapping in a fit of wild excitement.

Six days ago in Abuja, Aso Rock and Eagle Square were agog with celebration. Stadiums across every local government in Nigeria were filled to capacity with men, women and children from various institutions and civil society arrayed in sparkling colours, marching, dancing; reveling Nigeria in a euphoria untold. As I type, I relieve my childhood in tears. I remember marching along the street of Obudu with throngs of school mates, adorned in our white uniforms like white hens, singing zealously as the words:
Oh freedom,
Oh freedom,
Oh freedom,
Freedom everywhere…
…tore the young October air from GOSCO, opposite Itek Hotel, through the Sacred Heart Hospital, through St. Charles, all the way to the Obudu Township Stadium. Freedom, oh freedom… nothing else mattered! Nothing else still matters!

As I metamorphosed into adulthood, I make bold to say that I have seen celebrations. I have seen people dine and wine to mark this day. I have seen churches sing in white and green T-shirts and mufflers distributing free booklets, all for this day. I have seen clubs filled to capacity for the same reason. Without thinking twice, I can tell how much we love Nigeria, how much we love freedom. But none of these forms of merriment comes near to the way the Okwa people celebrate Independence.

A community in Eastern- Boki, Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State, Okwa resides by the very edge of the country sharing borderlines with the Cameroun Republic. Unlike her sister communities, it is the only Anyang speaking tribe in Boki, and Nigeria respectively, as the rest of the Anyang speaking communities share about one-fourth, if not one-third of the entire southeast province of the Cameroons. Locked in the very center of a vast virgin forest of over fourty kilometers through all coordinates, and endless numbers of large rivers and streams, it is one community in this country, whose soil has never felt the touch of rolling wheels from inception of creation. That is a story for another time.

With a population of over three thousand people, and still rapidly growing, they have their culture and tradition, so specifically unique to them, cutting across mode of greetings, mode of worship, special meals, special deities, ancestral beliefs and some very unique rules and regulation governing them. They also have their unique festivities like the new yam festival, new cassava, Christmas, new year, Easter, and yes, first October – the very crown of all festivities.

I was so young, as a matter of fact, too new to the community when I first witnessed Independence Day in Okwa. It was back in nineteen-ninety-two. Father just retired from the military as a sergeant, a very lofty office in that environment at the time. He would be returning home after escaping the fatalities of wars and other horrible operations soldiers must engage in, neither incurring a cut, a stray bullet or any form of deformation. His was nothing short of a success story. The accompanying celebration from siblings and well-wishers was a testimony to that feat. All I knew about first October celebration in Lagos where I was born and bred till my sixth year was the march-pass in the stadium and the public holiday as well. Being a remote community, there was no stadium, or an event center to mark first October in Okwa. So I gave up, expecting nothing but a boring Thursday without school.

And I was disappointed.

It was about 5am, in the early morning of October first. I was relishing the cold moment and the sweet dreams you experience at the verge of dawn, when I heard noises of men and women singing and jubilating… I could remember the steel-melting voice of one Mbuako-anento, a very gifted old bloke who could have gone farther than Osadebe, Prince Nico, or Oliver de Coque, if he ever came anywhere close to limelight. As he pierced his enthralling tone through the gray- dark glow of dawn, through every crevice of closed doors and windows, down through my ear drums, helplessly, I found myself sitting face to face with him, beating the drum while he sang:
Independent Nigeria obeh beh… or so I heard.
Then I woke up. Gosh, it was a dream! But I came out of the house to find out that Mbuako-anento just left my compound with the very song in his mouth. At another glance, I saw fire hearths in every kitchen burning viciously underneath large pots of cocoyam. Again I heard the sound of pestles in mortars hitting in musical harmony from distant houses. In every compound, men and women gathered in groups sharing tumblers of overnight palm wine. Young ladies sat before trails of okazi, slashing their knives through thick folds of the leathery leaves with exceptional zeal. Intermittently, they scrubbed the serrated edge of their knives against the edges of their trails, producing teeth weakening sounds. In an hour or so, I saw kids of about my age strolling with already bloated tummies in new clothing. Same with young men and women. I heard sound of generators – the type you call I better pass my neigbour, grinding from one house to another, music colliding with music.
With head full with questions, I turned to my house, calling out:

“Daddy!” Instead, I saw mum coming out of our bed room with a parcel of beautiful stock jeans shirt and trousers, along with the most fascinating brand of canvass I have never owned.
“Go have your bath, Walter” she said in her usually soft nature, handing the clothes to me. “In a short while, we will all be in the village square to watch cultural dances”. Until dusk, we all assembled around the village square catching cultural vibes – okumanko, makpo ukei, obiamkpor, ntomandei and the likes, thrilled the crowd. We returned home, brimming with excitement.

Over the years, more activities were added to the celebration such that spilled over to other days: football tournaments, beauty pageantry, long and short distance races, fishing competitions, eating competitions, dancing competitions, music competition, etc. In addition, a town hall meeting is held, where the story of Nigerian independence is retold, demonstrated with traditional facts. Libations are poured by the priest of the community deity for a prosperous Nigeria, while Christians also go to church, praying to God for the same reason. For one week, every individual activity within the community, receives a pause button until the celebration is satisfactorily and exhaustively achieved. Even as I write, I do so in hurry to catch up with the semi- final match in the football field between Azikiwe FC and Belewa FC. I feel so distracted now, as the sound of trumpets and metallic gongs tends to jerk my buttocks from this stool. The spectators are compared to half the number of a presidential campaign crowd as every neigbouring community around Okwa are present to witness the October celebration in a grand style.

As a young man, I have realized that the saddest feeling in life is to love and not to be loved in return. I have had the experience and it hurts to the bone. This is what the people demonstrate. They don’t just love their country. They adore her. With their hard earned resources, they celebrate her. They give in their best, their all to show they are Nigerians, to earn a sense of belonging from their dear country. It is not just independent for them; it is a traditional festivity – a yearly addiction. Take this day away from them, and you have taken their soul away. They so love Nigeria. So helplessly, they do.

But sadly, the very country they so love and adore does not even take notice of these patriots. Perhaps they know they exist. Perhaps they don’t. And if they do, what is there to show? I make bold to say that of all villages in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Okwa is the only community that has never felt government presence. Not even through the establishment of a primary school, a dispensary, a road, talk more of jobs for her teeming graduates, or a scholarship or a grant of any sort. Kudos to a very few politicians in the neighbourhood who have been by them sometimes.

Beyond just the October celebration, Okwa (as a community) holds the largest percentage of rainforest (I mean natural virgin forest) which makes up the Cross River National Park after Akamkpa (as a Local Government). What this means is; following the National Park stringent laws, Okwa is duty bound to protect the forest and the wild life in them. They have little or no place left to farm and completely restricted from hunting, being their only occupation. A couple of persons who have tried to break that rule for the sake of survival have suffered squarely for it. Humbly, Okwa has jealously protected this forest and by extension has protected the Cross River State and the nation at large from various hazards, arising from Climate Change without an alternative means of survival. Indeed, the very reason the Ministry of Climate Change is established in Cross River State for instance, is not without the understanding that there is such vast body of forest situated somewhere around there. This Ministry no doubt has attracted quite some income for the state. Even the carbon credits earned by the state are still some compensation enjoyed for keeping the forest hitherto (I stand to be corrected). But the big question is this; what has the Okwa people earned for slaving for the state or the country?

It is shameful to say this, but suffice me do. The distance from Okwa to an accessible community is at least 40 kilometers through thick virgin forest. To this moment I am writing, the people still trek on foot through this distance, crossing tempestuous rivers for at least nine hours to get to an accessible community. The people have lost so much enduring this terror year after year. I will give only one instance.

Sometime in 2008, my kid (half) sister, Sandra just delivered twins after a ten months long pregnancy. Two girls they were, strong and bouncy. Well-wishers had just celebrated the birth, washed the girls and their mother leading them to the bed to be breast fed. Suddenly, Sandra began to choke in her own breathe. What is the matter? Everyone was asking. But no one had answer to give. She was speedily losing the battle. There was no health center in the community. No health giver either. We were left with just one option – carry her to the hospital. Of course everything had to be manual. Hastily into the bush, we brought live sticks with which we made a local stretcher. Damn, time was running out! Lifting her into the stretcher, we carried her on our shoulders (one person in front and one person behind) matching hastily to an accessible point from where she could be taken to the hospital. This was going to take at least nine hours.

To cut the long story short, we managed her through to the hospital, only to be told it was an ectopic pregnancy. She died moments later. Like Sandra, lots of women have died of very curable diseases. There are so many, so many preventable deaths in the course of delivery. Babies have died in the womb of mothers who cannot put to birth through natural means. The best we can do is attribute the catastrophe to a curse or an offence committed by the deceased, all to manage our grief and stay alive for the better. But deep inside, we know that if we have close access to the hospital, we can escape some of these circumstances. Many other persons have drowned in rivers trying to access a motorable place. The disaster has not stopped.

The only secondary school in Okwa was initiated and built by the people. The only primary school was established in the late fifties by the Catholic Missionaries who came preaching the good news of Jesus to them. The school building raised by the Missionaries was the only one there, until it was pulled down sometime in 2010. You may want to ask who pulled it down.

The Border Commission at the time were flying through all border communities in the enclaves to inspect borderlines. In one of these trips, they landed with their helicopter in Okwa Mukwanda, just in front of the primary school building. The strength of the helicopter fan blew open the roof of the building, pulling down the entire structure. They left afterwards. Not without the promise of returning to fix the building they have blown down. But as I type, there is no trace of their return. Series of letters have been written to them, even to the state government, and it’s been all silence. Pupils have to sit under trees and in shades to learn. These are supposed to be leaders of tomorrow. How many of our leaders have ever learnt under such unkind condition? Which of their kids still study in Nigeria, talk more of learning in circumstance as deplorable?

There is the National park Service in Nigeria, as a body saddled with the responsibility of protecting the forest, the wildlife and its people. But the forest is well protected. Of course it is imposed on us to do so. But we are abandoned and despised. The National Park offices are occupied by Igbos, Yorubas, Hausa’s, Efiks, Ejaghams, and some people whose environments has nothing connected to the rainforest or wildlife. The men in power employ only their brothers, despising the very people who are natural owners of the forest. There are a lot of graduates from this community wandering in the streets of Nigeria in search of jobs, while others, strangers to say, are eating fat from the resources they are dying to protect. Up to now, not up to one percent of Okwa people work in a Government establishment. Nobody works in a political office. But we also cast our votes to elect leaders for the same Nigeria. This is the lot of an Okwa man. This is the lot of a people enslaved in freedom. This is a country whose freedom we give our all to celebrate. This is a country we die every day to be identified with.

All the same, we are Nigerians, and Nigerians we shall remain. We love this country and will proudly celebrate it year in and year out. We will protect and preserve our natural gift whether or not it yields a thing for us. We have been suffering. We are still suffering. We shall continue to cry until our voices dry out, hoping that before then, we may be heard. I have dared to put this on papers. I am not afraid who might read about it, even as crude as it is written.

Long live, The Federal Republic of Nigeria!

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Buhari and restructuring gambit - Biyi Adegoroye

Buhari and restructuring gambit - Biyi Adegoroye
 

The recent tirade between Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over restructuring of the country may underscore the disposition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the issue.

 

If there is any matter that has elicited exchange of verbal barbs between President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and many notable Nigerians in the build-up to the 2019 elections, it is the vexed issue of restructuring. And in line with the belief expressed by its proponents it is one issue the will have a bearing on the victory of any political party in months ahead.

 

It was not baffling, therefore, that the structure of this country and const of governance led to a diatribe between Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in recent weeks.

 

Whereas the nation practised true federalism before and shortly after independence, the issue of geographical restructuring was one of the over 600 recommendations of the 2014 National Conference, and a major component of the manifesto of the APC, as was touted by the party during its campaigns before the 2015 elections.

 

Besides, more than anything else, leaders of various ethnic nationalities led by Afenifere Leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. John Nwodo and Ijaw Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, had on many occasion called for restructuring of the country, in tandem with the dreams of the nation’s forefathers that powers must be devolved to the regions, to promote active competition which hitherto engendered growth.

 

Atiku, who, has been an advocate of restructuing since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference picked up the gauntlet two years ago, drawing more attention to the need to this same restructuring. For instance, at the late Gen.Usman Katsina Memorial Conference, held at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Memorial Hall, Murtala Square, Kaduna on July 30, 2016, with the theme:“The Challenges of National Integration and Survival of Democracy in Nigeria,” Atiku said the nation’s existence was dependent on its readiness to restructure.

 

He acknowledged that national integration and the survival of Nigeria’s democracy are related and are important and that they both face challenges in Nigeria today. He concluded that “I suggest we resolve today to support calls for the restructuring of the Nigerian federation in order to strengthen its unity and stabilize its democracy. I believe that restructuring will eventually happen whether we like or support it or not.

 

“The question is whether it will happen around a conference table, in a direction influenced by us and whether we will be an equal partner in the process. Or will it happen in a more unpredictable arena and in a manner over which we have little influence? It should be at a table and we need to be at that table. A nation is an organism; it grows, it evolves, it changes, it adapts. And like other organisms if it does not adapt, it dies.”

 

Spreading the imperatives of restructuring, Atiku has always alluded to the fact that in the pre-independence era, and sometimes thereafter, the regions developed at their paces, but the rising dominance of oil revenues led them to abandon cash crop production and neglect food agriculture.

 

“Before oil, agriculture was our main industry and we taxed it (and the products of other economic activities) to develop the north – to provide education, healthcare and infrastructure. But because of oil we now plead helplessness. The north has the largest known deposits of solid minerals in Nigeria including some of the rarest and most expensive. So why should we be afraid of the concept of resource control, that is the control of rents by the areas of derivation?”

 

Since his defection to the PDP, however, and consequent indication of interest to rule the nation next year, the former VP has upped the ante, promoting the restructuring factor to the dismay of the ruling party.

 

But upon Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s statement in the United States that the “problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring…and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographic restructuring,” the issue again came to the fore.

 

While Atiku said he was surprised that the Vice President took such a position and, in particular, failed to appreciate the connection between Nigeria’s defective structure and its underperformance, the latter claimed he was misquoted and that sparked come controversies.

 

Osinbajo’s position that Atiku should at least have got the full text of his comments before his public rebuttal was of concern, more so when he expressed his concurrence on the issue, but that Nigerians must not allow themselves to be drawn into the argument that its problems stem from some geographic re-structuring-leaving the elephant (corruption) in the room.

 

To him, geographical restructuring is not a solution to the national problems, rather it either amount to taking Nigeria back to regional governments or increasing the number of states that make up the Nigerian federation.

“The 2014 National Conference actually recommended the creation of 18 more states. And I argued that, with several states struggling or unable to pay salaries, any further tinkering with our geographical structure would not benefit us.

“We should rather ask ourselves why the states are underperforming, revenue and development wise. I gave the example of the Western Region (comprising even more than what is now known as the South West Zone), where, without oil money, and using capitation tax and revenues from agriculture and mining, the government funded free education for over 800,000 pupils in 1955, built several roads, farm settlements, industrial estates, the first TV station in Africa, and the tallest building in Nigeria, while still giving up 50 per cent of its earnings from mining and minerals for allocation to the Federal Government and other regions.”

According to him, what the nation requires now is not geographical restructuring but good governance, honest management of public resources, deeper fiscal federalism, and a clear vision for development.

 

“In arguing for good governance, I made the point that our greatest problem was corruption. I pointed out that grand corruption, namely the unbelievable looting of the treasury by simply making huge cash withdrawals in local and foreign currency, was the first travesty that President Buhari stopped.

 

“I showed the OPEC figures from oil revenues since 1990. In four years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigeria’s history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018, less than 1/3 of what Jonathan Administration earned at the same period in that administration’s life. Despite earning so much less, we are still able to invest more in infrastructure than any government in Nigeria’s history. The difference is good governance, and fiscal prudence.

 

“In the final analysis, restructuring in whatever shape or form, will not mean much if our political leaders see public resources as an extension of their bank accounts. This, I believe, is the real issue.”

 

Osinbajo minced no words when he said: “Atiku’s concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition.” The Vice President said restructuring also means a “cultural revolution,” and that Nigeria needed a structure that gives everyone an opportunity to work, a private sector driven economy, (which are) critical pillars of our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), including our Ease of Doing Business Programme.

 

But Osinbajo argued that if, however, this   is his concept of restructuring, “it is clear that he has mixed up all the issues of good governance and diversification of the economy with the argument on restructuring. Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for young people.”

 

“Surprisingly, Atiku leaves out the elephant in the room – corruption. And how grand corruption, fueled by a renter economic structure that benefits those who can use political positions or access to either loot the treasury or get favorable concessions to enrich themselves. This was a main part of my presentations the Minnesota Town Hall meeting,” he said.

 

Clarifying his position, Atiku referred to his 2017 lecture in Enugu, where he expounded his concept of restructuring to include “devolution of powers and resources to the states, matching grants from the federal government to the states to help them grow their internally generated revenue position, the privatisation of unviable Federal Government-owned assets, a truly free market economy driven by the laws of demand and supply, replacing state of origin with state of residence, and passing the PIGD so that our oil and gas sector will run as a business with minimal governmental interference.

There is no denying the fact that wanton fraud has brought Nigeria’s economy to its knees, especially if Federal Government’s recent disclosure of the recovery of over N769 billion looted fund and evaded tax since 2015 is anything to go by. Though the loot recovery efforts has been said to have been skewed against opposition parties, the nation has been saved billions.

 

Whereas Osinbajo had said the thrust of the lecture was not restructuring, evidence seem to abound that the APC has been prevaricating and failed to display readiness to restructure the country in the past years. They alluded to rejuvenation of the Nasir El-Rufai Committee on the issue, less than five months before the elections as one of the reason.

 

Chief Ayo Adebanjo said this government is not sincere about restructuring. “They are not sincere about it because if they are, you know restructuring the country into true federalism is in their manifesto. If they are sincere, why are they setting up a committee to put forward their position on restructuring? That shows you that they are not sincere. What did they think of restructuring when they put it in their manifesto if they are honest?

 

“And right now, even if some of them want it, but because of the body language of President Buhari who does not want it, they will not talk. They are now begging the issue by setting up a committee headed by Governor Nasir El-Rufai who will do this and take a decision which will be sent to the party for implementation. Who are you deceiving? The party controls the government; the government is there to implement the position and decisions of the party. They are not talking to babies. Do they want to teach their grandfather how to suck eggs?”

 

The elder statesman recalls: “President Muhammadu Buhari has been promising restructuring since 2007. If you will recollect, Afenifere supported Buhari in 2007 on the promise that he was going to restructure the country. May be he has forgotten. That was when he, Abubakar Atiku and Umaru Yar’Adua contested in the presidential election. We regarded him as the cleanest person then and we supported him because he promised to restructure the country. Throughout the election he never mentioned it. He now contested with Tunde Bakare, when Yinka Odumakin was his Publicity Secretary. Restructuring was also on the card. Now he came with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and made the same promise but the moment he got the presidency, he has changed. I am too old now to be lured into an election under the premise that you will do a restructuring. If you believe in it, do it now.”

 

But Jide Owoeye, a Professor of International Relations at the Lead City University, Ibadan, said despite the seeming dialectical differences at this point, Osinbajo believes in restructuring.

 

“As advocates of restructuring I believe Prof Yemi Osinbajo is on our side. He talks about fiscal restructuring. For instance he says Value Added Tax should be a work and eat formula and so should belong to states where they are incurred rather than the federal. Is that not restructuring?

 

 

 

“He further advocated for removal of Federal Government’s overbearing involvement in inland waterways, land matters etc which Lagos fought for via the law courts.

 

“He wants state police as policing according to him is a community issue if it must be effective and using his own words you cannot police the entire expanse of this country effectively from Abuja. What he seem to be against is tinkering with the existing geopolitics of what constitutes the federating units. I would agree with him because what he advocates is seems to be the path to true federalism should not be confused with bogging ourselves down with cumbersome geopolitical re- arrangements which some are using to agitate for creation of more states etc or regional units that would further increase expenditures on governance.

 

“As Attorney-General of Lagos State, he fought for restructuring without using the term which of course has acquired different interpretations among the advocates and antagonists of true federalism. Above all he is a Yoruba man with the sentiments we want to uphold in this side of the country. Let’s encourage rather than disparage him.

 

“Of course a new federal constitution or a return to the one of 1963 would profoundly serve our desires for decentralisation. But what happens in the mid- term is what renders Osinbajo s position thinkable considering the fact that constitutional structure is one thing while it’s operation is another.”

 

Owoeye said UK and South Africa are good examples of unitary systems where provinces have acquired considerable autonomy just because operators of the system make it so.

 

 

“Perhaps we should prevail on our state governors together with their Attorneys-General to take a cue from Lagos because more often than not, their style of governance inadvertently moves us further away from federalism judging by their actions and inactions.”

 

But it is one thing for Osinbajo to believe in it and another for his party and indeed President Buhari to share such views and be ready to execute it.

 

At a forum not too long ago, the ethnic nationalities in the country had spoken about restructuring, itemising its benefits to the economy and governance. Dr. Nwodo, who spoke on their behalf talked passionately about diversification of the economy, stating: “America has developed shell oil technology, which makes their continual dependence on our oil practically impossible. Other countries are going to do so. What ate the alternatives? Agriculture. Take a country like the Netherlands. It is the 14th largest economy in the world. Netherlands exports just vegetables and dairy of $100billion annually. In the history of this country, our oil export has never attained such amount.

 

“When we had regional police, this state of insecurity did not exist. Every state enjoyed security. What we want is restructuring. If we have it, we will manage our domestic affairs. Productivity will increase, mutual respect will increase and friendliness will be encouraged. We want a restructured Nigeria. The alternative will be worse than the situation we have today.

 

“If it is possible for us to have a situation where people carry AK 47 to run about freely in Nigeria and murder people every day, yesterday it was 21, the other day it was 19. This is happening as if nobody cares…Any serious security agent in any country would have predicted it and organised preventive measure.

 

“If the essence of choosing 17 heads of security arms in this country is to ensure that they all come from the same region as the President to guarantee loyalty to him, what have they done to guarantee our security? If they must all come from the northern Nigeria, please bring those who can do the job,” the elders said.

 

However, while regional governments might hasten growth and probably reduce cost of governance, its timing at this moment has been suspect. Besides, the process is cumbersome, capable of creating controversies and chaos among various states and regions. Most importantly, it requires approval of the National Assembly, interestingly, the lawmakers, aware of the implications on their offices, would hardly vote in its favour.

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Last modified on Sunday, 16 September 2018 04:56

Vladimer Putin and Xi Jinping:The Rise of The New Presidents for Life An article By Tony Ogunlowo

Vladimer Putin and Xi Jinping:The Rise of The New Presidents for Life An article By Tony Ogunlowo

Just as Africa is busy clearing its stables of despotic Presidents-for-life, China and Russia are busy installing their own.

President Vladimer Putin has a won a new term in office in an election that was marred by vote rigging and intimidation of opponents. In China the constitution has been changed to allow incumbent President Xi Jinping to serve more than two consecutive terms in office.

From a Western, and the rest of the world’s , point of view it means both leaders will remain in power for as long as they wish leading to abuse of power, corruption and abolition of democratic rule.

On the international scene it’ll mean dealing with two difficult men who are set in their ways: their policies regarding trade, dispute-settling, arms build-up (- most importantly nuclear) will not change. Already Russia has started a throwback to its Cold war tactics: poisoning its dissidents abroad, rebuilding and advancing its nuclear arsenal and antagonising the West at every opportunity.

Both leaders have seats on the United Nations Security Council and their GDP far exceeds that of the West and their policies can make or break the world especially when Donald Trump, leader of the free world, is indecisive and unpredictable.

On the international scene, a Third World country dictator poses no threat except to his own country and people. But when these dictators happen to be the leaders of Russia and China the whole world is potentially in line for a lot of trouble.

The idea of holding elections periodically is to enable a new leader to emerge with new ideas and policies: when the same person stays in the job for too long he’ll be practicing the same old stale policies over and over again.

We are all aware of what Presidents-for-life get up to once they’re in office for a long time: they become complacent, suppress free will and public opinion, resort to dictatorial tactics to rule and will indulge in cronyism and nepotism. Both Presidents have, over the years, have embarked upon crackdowns on dissidents: thousands who have opposed their rule have been locked up or murdered and have surrounded themselves with ‘yes’ men.

They ‘win’ elections to make themselves look democratic and respectable but the reality is they will exploit their status and the system to become dictators. Even though in their constitutions there are checks and balances that can mean they can be impeached and removed from office but when they control the judiciary they become effective above the law.

But the biggest problem here is trade and armed forces : China and Russia have sizeable armies equipped with the latest technology which they can unleash at a minutes notice: since Putin became President the probability of another World War has greatly increased as he continues to get involved in conflicts in Syria, the Crimea and elsewhere. He alone can start a war without the backing of the Russian parliament which makes him a very dangerous person.

 The current US-China trade war also shows how vulnerable the rest of the world is : without trade with China, which manufactures 47% of our goods from buttons to cellphones, cars, computers… (you name it, it’s made in China!) we’ll be in trouble. With Trump sparking conflict putting up tariffs the Chinese can follow suit with all of us paying the price when things start costing more than they should. And China ‘owns’ America if you consider the fact China holds more than $1.2 trillion in US treasury bonds.( - I don’t thing Trump knows this!)

And right now these two men who have set themselves up as Presidents-for-Life ,have the military and economic clout to change the course of the world. Two men who will not abide by the rules and will do as they seem fit.

Follow me on Twitter: @Archangel641 or visithttp://www.archangel641.blogspot.co.uk

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Drug Abuse: Ndigbo and the Real Authors of Moral Decadence among Northern Youths By Jude Ndukwe

Drug Abuse: Ndigbo and the Real Authors of Moral Decadence among Northern Youths By Jude Ndukwe

University Don, Malam Bala Mohammed, of the Faculty of Communications, Bayero University, Kano, has accused the Igbo of being responsible for the drug abuse prevalent among youths in the north. He was reported to have made this wild claim  of“unscrupulous Igbo drug dealers as brain behind the scourge” while presenting a paper titled “Nexus between youth, drugs, crime and insecurity” at the Kano Youth Summit on Peace Advocacy and Development, organised by Hamisu Magaji Foundation, at Mambayya House, on Tuesday, 3rd of April, 2018.


 Such assertions as this are irresponsible, callous, wicked anddeliberately woven to exculpate northern elites and shield them from taking full responsibility for the high, well documented and almost irreversible moral decadence of northern youths under their watch.

One wonders why a university don would condescend so low asto attributing the horrendous failures of northern leaders and elders in instilling discipline in their youths to another ethnic stock when it is obvious that those who go about hawking fake, expired, unapproved and hard drugs in the open markets everywhere including in Igboland are young men of the Hausa/Fulani stock.

What do the northern elites expect when their region is notorious for the highest number of children running into millions in the country without a home? It is not the fault of the Igbo that the north boasts of the highest number of illiterates not only in Nigeria but also in the whole wide world! Does Malam Bala Mohammed not know that such level of illiteracy comes with a price? Does he and his co-travellers on this infamous road of constantly blaming others for their own self-inflicted woes expect that their youths would be engaged in decent acts even when they are deliberately denied education and proper parental upbringing by their elites?

As at 2011, the then UN Under Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the United Nations, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, had during the Northern Nigeria and Economic Summit in 2011, in Abuja, lamented this situation when he said, “On Health and Education, the level of immunization of Children against dangerous childhood diseases, in the South-East is 44.6% immunization coverage, but the North-West has 3.7% and the North-East 3.6%. If you take the education of the girl-child as indicator, you see similar pattern of inequality with the South-East having an enrolment rate of 85%, South-West having an enrolment rate of 85%, South-South 75%, while the North-East 20% and North West 25%".

The continued dismal performance of the north on immunization as in other areas of life is not surprising. When children are left to roam the streets homless and hopeless as we see in the north everyday, who takes them for immunization?

In a data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, in 2017, it indicates that Yobe State, for example, has the lowest literacy level of 7.23% in the whole country followed by Zamfara (19.16%); Katsina (10.36%); Sokoto (15.01%); Bauchi (19.26%); Kebbi (20.51%); and Niger (22.88%) respectively. Compared to Ebonyi (77.76%), Imo State (96.43%), Abia (94.24%), Anambra (92.11%) and Enugu (89.46%), one understands why northern elites feel threatened by the Igbo and would always want to give the good people of the southeast a bad name in order to have them hanged!

When one further considers the fact that Yobe State with nearly two times less (2.8 million people) the population of Imo State (4.7 million), according to the 2014 population estimates, received N30.59bn from federal allocation in the whole of 2016 compared to Imo State that received N29.85bn in the same period even though Imo has more population to cater for than Yobe State, one is bewildered at how northern elites are deliberately impoverishing their citizens by denying them education, keeping them in perpetual poverty and disease, making them easily vulnerable to social vices that are natural consequences of such neglect only for them to turn around to find easy targets in people of the southeast to blame for their own calamities.

Rather than lament about their precarious situation which is driving the north against itself while their southern counterparts have continued to make the best of the meagre resources that the skewed sharing formula has forced on it, the north would do well to look at themselves in the mirror and do an honest soul searching on why it has remained the most backward, illiterate, diseased and poverty-stricken of all the regions in Nigeria despite the monumental resources it has cornered for itself over the years at the expense of the other regions.

For example, according to data sourced from Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, “In (about) 10 years, 2007 – 2016, successive northern governors have received over N12 trillion in federal allocation on behalf of the 19 states and its 413 local government areas excluding FCT.

The breakdown of the allocation from 2007 to 2016 reveals that states in the Northwest, North East and North Central have received a total of 3trillion, N2.5 trillion and N2.2 trillion respectively. And out of the over N10 trillion allocated to the 774 local government, northern states have received more than 50 per cent of the funding.”

Furthermore, between 2005 and 2016, the federal government has disbursed N153bn to the 19 states in the north and N115bn to the 17 states in the south, yet, the north burdens the whole nation with its nauseating level of illiteracy and its unavoidable consequences. It is children from Igbo states in particular and those of the south in general who make unimaginable and heroic sacrifices by being continually denied admission into federal government colleges despite scoring very high marks at entrance examinations, after their parents and government invest heavily on them, just to give room for some of their street-roaming, drug addicted, homeless and directionless northern counterparts who score as low as just 2 in some cases.

When Bill Gates insisted that our federal government under a northern president, Muhammadu Buhari, has not done enough to invest in human capital despite the humongous amount made available to it for such noble venture, it was another northern governor in Nasir El Rufai who rose up stoutly to defend the obvious dismal performance of northern leaders in that critical area. What a shame!

Ndigbo are known to be everywhere, in Lagos, Edo, Oyo and such other places, carrying out their legitimate businesses. Why are there no similar complaints about them from these hosts? In fact, from their legitimate businesses, Ndigbo contribute greatly to the IGR of states they reside and do business in. Rather than lament and whine continuously, the north should find ways of making the best opportunities huge presence of the Igbo in their localities present to them.

Northern leadrs, elders and elites should put their house in order and stop blaming the Igbo for every of their avoidable self-imposed misfortune. It is not our fault that despite them having unfettered access to the political and financial capital of the nation for nearly sixty years, they remain the most illiterate, diseased, backward and poverty-stricken region in the whole of Nigeria!

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