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Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts

Sunday, 26 May 2019

Mr President, may we discuss your cabinet? by Simon Kolawole

May 26, 2019 0
Your Excellency, I want to seize this opportunity to wish you the best of the Ramadan season as you prepare to be inaugurated for your second term in office. May the lessons of Ramadan — especially the aspects of sacrifice and service to God and humankind — guide your next steps as the leader of this potentially great country called Nigeria. I have many complaints about your first four years in office, some of which I have written about in this space, but I would rather let the past be gone and hope for a new chapter as you renew your mandate on May 29. But I also have many things to say ahead of the next four years, some of which I will be writing about in the coming weeks.
Can we first talk about your ministers, Mr President? Before I proceed, I have a sad story to tell you. I was a fierce supporter of the candidature of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo at the dawn of this democratic era in 1999. I campaigned for him in my little corner, believing that he had the capacity and the goodwill to take Nigeria to the right place. I believed he was not corrupt, and was further energised by his promise to fight graft if he was elected into office. I was also fascinated that he could keep the military guys in check so that we would consolidate our new experience of democracy. I voted for him even though my political sympathies were elsewhere.
On his inauguration at the Eagle Square on May 29, 1999, Obasanjo delivered a powerful speech, promising to fight corruption. At some point he stamped his foot on the platform to demonstrate his determination. He said it would no longer be “business as usual”. Good God, I was over the moon! I said finally, Nigeria was going somewhere after the devastating years of Gen. Sani Abacha. To tell the truth, Your Excellency, police officers stopped collecting their N20 tribute from commercial bus drivers at checkpoints. Civil servants started resuming work at 8am. Everybody seemed to take Obasanjo seriously. It definitely looked like the dawn of a new era. But it was short-lived.
As soon as Obasanjo appointed his first cabinet and named Chief Tony Anenih as the minister of works, my heart broke into pieces. That singular gesture proved to me that Obasanjo was joking about fighting corruption. At that point, I gave up on Obasanjo. It was not about Anenih per se, but I tend to analyse people’s intentions by their actions. It was a foreboding signal. If Obasanjo had made Anenih special adviser on political affairs or minister of cooperation in Africa, I would not have minded. But ministry of works is too central for any government to use for political patronage, so I immediately understood Obasanjo’s direction. It was a sad story. It broke my spirit.
Now, Mr President, let me say here that I will pre-judge your second term by the ministerial appointments you make after your inauguration. First, I have asked my fasting Muslim friends to help pray that we would not wait for another six months for a cabinet and they have assured me that they would spare no “rakat” in doing that. You are aware your delay in naming a cabinet in 2015 did no favours to the economy. I would even say we are yet to recover from the damage this inflicted on the system. That period was so critical to the repair of many economic fundamentals that would later shape the exchange rate and worsen inflation, unemployment and poverty.
Mr President, I will now be straightforward: if you retain certain ministers, I will finally give up on your government. I have seen enough reasons to lose faith but there is this never-say-die spirit that keeps me hoping even when it does not make sense. That is in my DNA. I have, however, been gravely worried that most of the ministers have been saying quietly that they are returning. In fact, I am told more than half of your cabinet will be re-appointed. I hope this is a joke, Mr President. Tell me it’s a joke, Mr President. Assure me, Mr President, that this is a joke. This is a cabinet you should have dissolved years ago! How on earth would they be retained? Say it ain’t so, Mr President.
Your Excellency, if you retain Mallam Abubakar Malami as your minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation, I will finally give up on you. It will show that you are not getting the memo or there is something you are not telling us. One of the most important cabinet positions in a civilised society is that of the attorney-general. In fact, that is the only ministerial position mentioned in the constitution. The position is too critical and too powerful to be toyed with. A president will never get sound and frank legal advice if the attorney-general prostrates to greet him. The position requires a cerebral and principled appointee. I will leave it at that.
Mr President, if you appoint election losers as ministers, then I will surrender. One of them is Senator Abiola Ajimobi, the “constituted authority” in Oyo state who lost his bid to return to the senate after spending eight years as governor. Tell me he is not on your list, Mr President. Of course, we know Alhaji Adebayo Shittu will not return as minister. Or will he? No, Mr President, you won’t do that to Nigeria. Neither would you reward Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari with a ministerial appointment after his election as a senator from Zamfara west was annulled by the Supreme Court. I know you have the power to appoint whoever you want, but use that power wisely.
I hope, Your Excellency, that we are not going to see Chief Audu Ogbeh in your cabinet again. If you love him so much, you can send him as ambassador to Thailand so that he can go and regale Thais with his tale that the Asian country is experiencing increasing unemployment because of the “rice revolution” in Nigeria. Ogbeh is very good at embarrassing the country at the slightest opportunity. I hope never to see Solomon Dalung at FEC meetings again, and this has nothing to do with his beret. To cut a long list short, Mr President, if you return more than five ministers, you will be sending a depressing message to Nigerians about your direction in the next four years.
Beyond the issue of individuals to be appointed, Your Excellency, is the need to bring in relevant people into the cabinet to meet the glaring skill deficiency. I cannot believe that you have never appointed an advanced and experienced economist as minister since you came to office. I just cannot believe it — not at a time of our worst economic crisis in decades. We have a ministerial team full of lawyers and not one economist. I don’t understand. This is a great opportunity for you to address the glaring deficiencies in your appointments. It also affords you a golden chance to correct the lopsidedness against some sections, including women and youth.
Mr President, what is keeping your administration going is not the performance of your team but rather the enduring faith in you and the hope that you will eventually come good. But you are as good as the people you assemble to assist you. If you had IOUs in the first term, you have either discharged them or they have expired. It is now time to prove the growing army of critics and doubters wrong and to reassure the enduring believers that you are on top of your game. You need a brand new team of those whose competence is not in doubt and those who have fire in their bellies. Trust me, Mr President: most of your ministers are fatigued and have nothing more to offer.
If you are bent on doing favours, there are some ministerial slots you cannot afford to joke with. I list them: finance, education, health, defence, petroleum, power, attorney-general, works and interior. Long after you have left the stage, those are the things Nigerians will remember you for. A strong economic team (in which there are indeed economists), a revamped education system, a fit health sector, an infrastructural revolution, an efficient petroleum sector and massively improved internal security will change the fortune of Nigerians if you make them your priorities. All ministers are important, but some are more important than the others.
Finally, Mr President, you must now take your cabinet more seriously. Your “non interference” philosophy, which you take as a strength, is actually a weakness. It is your government. You cannot afford to be aloof! Where is monitoring and evaluation? It would make sense if you fire ministers once in a while. The joke in town is that you are the best employer of labour: you never fire anyone, no matter how woefully they perform! Non-interference has given many ministers the cover to be doing things at odds with the advertised values of your administration, secure in the faith that no one is watching and no one will be punished. Not good, Mr President, not good.
Lest I forget, Mr President, can we have a new way of doing things at the federal executive council? All I hear every Wednesday is that a contract has been awarded to buy dustbins for Damaturu or clear the drainage in Akungba. That is a bit disgusting. Governance is serious business. There should be more to FEC than contract awards. They should be discussing serious policy issues. Let Nigerians look forward to ministerial briefings that will give them confidence that the country is in safe hands and that a great future is loading. All these contract talks are banal. It has been so since 1999. We need a new direction, Your Excellency. Enough of these meaningless routines!
Meanwhile, until my next letter, please accept, Mr President, the assurances of my best wishes.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

ZAMFARA ZEROS
In the end, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has lost it all in Zamfara state. After months of crises and legal battles, the Supreme Court has declared that the party did not hold primaries in the state and therefore was not eligible to participate in the general election. All its results in the house of assembly, governorship, house of reps and senate polls were nullified. Candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) instantly became the beneficiaries. I don’t like to gloat but I just cannot hold myself from celebrating that fact that Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, the outgoing governor, will not enjoy the retirement benefit of becoming a senator after mismanaging Zamfara for eight years. Sweet.
OIL THEFT
Question: describe in not more than two words why crude oil is $70 a barrel but the benefits to the federation account are not commensurate. Answer: oil theft. In April 2012, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, then minister of finance, raised the alarm that Nigeria was losing about 400,000 barrels per day to crude oil theft (usually perpetrated with the connivance of security agencies and government officials), the value of which was $1 billion. It was one of the reasons we couldn’t build massive forex reserves despite high oil prices. All indications are that oil theft is back in full swing — meaning the more things seem to change, the more they remain the same. Slippery.
FULANI RADIO
A few days after former President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke about “West African fulanisation” — which many have taken the liberty to interpret as they wish — the last thing you would expect from the federal government is to announce the establishment of a radio station for the Fulani as “a vehicle for social mobilisation and education”. No matter how well-intentioned, this is difficult to justify in a multi-ethnic society where there is already an endemic suspicion that there is a “Fulani agenda”. Whose brainwave is the radio idea? Will there be radio stations for other ethnic groups as well — in the spirit of balance? Are radio stations not better left to the private sector? Baffling.
MYTH BUSTER
“LOL” used to mean “Lots of Love” in the heyday of SMS, but it soon transformed to “Laugh out Loud” and “Laughing out Loud” when instant messaging apps such as BBM and WhatsApp took the centre stage. There is a joke that a girl sent this message to her ex-boyfriend: “Heard you lost your mum. Take heart. LOL.” You can guess how the boy interpreted it! But have you been told recently by some Christian fundamentalists that LOL actually means “Lucifer Our Lord”? If you believe that, then you could as well believe that SWAG means “Satan’s Wishes Are Granted”, YOLO means “Youth Obeying Lucifer’s Orders”, and “ROFL” means “Rise, Our Father Lucifer”. LOL.
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Tuesday, 21 May 2019

Godwin Emefiele and the task ahead

May 21, 2019 0
ABDULFATAI OLAMILEKAN
At the time Godwin Emefiele was appointed the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, the economy was in trouble, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had declined, and inflation was around 19 percent and unemployment rate at the flying speed of a rocket. The downward slide of international crude oil prices snowballed into foreign exchange crisis for the country, and bettors and speculators had unchecked reign attacking the Naira. The situation was further compounded with preparation for the 2015 general elections and its electoral campaign spending. This was the scenario when he became the governor.
Godwin Emefiele in the past five years at the helms of CBN has no doubt tried to assert the autonomy of the apex bank with some of his daring monetary policy initiatives. He treaded where even lion hearted men fear to walk. He dared currency speculators. He refused to devalue the Naira when virtually everyone see it as the way out, rather he proffered a ‘home grown’ prescription. The promoters of currency devaluation wanted Nigeria to go the way of Egypt, Venezuela and Zimbabwe for them to continue prospering in their illicit trade. He suspended the 41 items he considered as drains on the scarce foreign reserves, and since then he lost his sleep. The attacks, local and abroad mounted unabated. Some international media and their local collaborators tagged his monetary policy initiatives a‘toothpick alert’.    
At the risk of being immodest, I did not foresee any reason why he should not be reengaged by the President considering how passionate he has piloted the affairs of the economy. The reappointment was not out of place in view of fresh breath givento the economy that slipped into recession shortly after him and the President assumed office. Aside, it is not out of place to see anyone coming new having worked with the President in the last four years on economic diversification of which he proved his mettle in revival of agriculture, the economic focus of President Buhari. He was blamed for the ills of the economy, but without a fault of his he was able to bring the economy out of recession.
But despite pressures and speculations by the rumour millers, and political ‘marabouts’ who coveted his position for their cronies, the President shocked them with the re-nomination of Emefiele. 
There was temporary grave silence in the camp of the lobbyists and applause from those who would have not taken anything otherwise from the President. Barely 48hours after the pronouncement, economic vampires struck with a ‘concocted wired audio tape discussion between the Governor and his aides’.
Also surprising, was the synergy and unity of purpose and speed never witnessed between the present federal executive and the outgoing 8th National Assembly, on Emefiele’s reappointment. He was confirmed with the speed of light, an approvalthat he has indeed worked for and his actions were indeed nationalistic.
As we all know, an audio recording surfaced on the social media posted by a notorious online medium and his co-travellers in mischief 48 hours after the President announced Emefiele’s reappointment, named: ‘Caught On Tape: How Central Bank Governor, Emefiele, Deputy Adamu, And Top Officials Discuss How To Cover Up N500bn Which They Stole From CBN’. The ‘expose’ turned out be ahoax and handwork of the sworn enemies of Emefiele’s developmental policy initiatives.
The video trended with the intention to scuttle the governor’s reappointment and dent his glorious career but the ‘travellers’ got another shocker was the speed with which the Red Chamber approved his reappointment, the first of such in the life of the 8th National Assembly and first of any government appointee of the present administration. The ravenous hawks are not relenting and have regrouped.
Probably what Emefiele’s traducers do not know about him was his disposition and pronouncement on assumption of office, the posture of a ‘stoically’ stubborn man who has come to leave a legacy of re-orientating our psyche about nationalism. He gave insight into what would be his mission with a 10-poing agenda he unveiled on assumption of office. He pledged to use resources and energy at his disposal to build a resilient financial system that would serve the growth and development needs of Nigerians using development bank strategies as the fulcrum of his policy. Not only, he committed himself to creating ‘a central bank that is professional, apolitical and people focused …’
The task ahead is however arduous, the burden of his reappointment, and epochal in our democratic journey calls for more hard work and the journey ahead is no doubt going to be tortuous. His first term journey was rocky but able to redirect financing to agriculture through Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.
This has indeed revolutionized rice production and save the country huge import bills. And not only rice, but significant local production of the suspended 41 items has also begun to witness massive production and creating jobs.  Shortly before his reappointment, he signified intervention in the revival of Palm oil, Cotton and textile production with the assurance to make cheap and sustainable credit available at single digit interest, all geared towards job and wealth creation.
The trilemma challenge usually faced by any monetary authority is the exchange rate stability, interest rate and inflation rate which in the last five years of Godwin Emefiele at the CBN has been able to stabilize the exchange rate in the last three years and has also achieved success in bring down inflation which stood at over 18 percent in Q3 of 2018 to about 11.37 in Q2 of 2019. Taking on the third leg of the trilemma, the interest rate, was the reason he rallied round the hitherto unwillingdeposit money banks’ chief executives to lend to SMEs and urged them to set aside 5 percent of their annual profit to finance MSMEs, which also include fashion, music and film production as well as information and communication technology (ICT). 
Also in the same vein was his ability to erect a tri-partite structure to enhance the financial inclusion strategy of the CBN, the NIRSAL, Bankers’ Committee and NIPOST to hoist a national microfinance bank in all the 774 local governments areas in the country to make cheap and sustainable credit at single digit rate available to the economic but active poor rural dwellers and get included in the financial inclusion net.
Godwin Emefiele in driving his vision and de-risking credit to MSMEs established Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agriculture Lending (NIRSAL) and the National Collateral Registry to invigorate his development finance policies,and in particular to support farmers, entrepreneurs and small holder businesses.
The task ahead of his reappointment is to consolidate on these efforts. In achieving results he employed some unconventional policies (though heavily criticized) but proved potent needs for our peculiarity – the home grown policy of 41 suspended items, the Investors and Exporters’ Window among others, to bring the economy to full recovery. For the CBN to achieve this, the Governor in the Bank’s March 2019 Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) briefing, urged for synergy of purpose between the fiscal and monetary authority. In fact, the challenge is more on the fiscal side which needs to complement the monetary policy initiatives by providing critical infrastructure, particularly power to fire the economy and diversify the country’s revenue base from oil to non-oil products.
Mr. Emefiele therefore should see this next five years to rein-in the activities of rice smugglers as cried out by the Rice Farmers Association early in the year. He should call for support of relevant government agencies, particularly, the Nigeria Custom Service, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure that the activities of smuggling are stopped through the porous borders. As some analysts have advised, what the CBN needs to do in the next five years is to target inclusive growth having stabilized the foreign exchange market; and if it is able to achieve that the challenge of double digits interest rate will ultimately be tackled.
On the new National Microfinance Bank, NIRSAL Bank, set to come on streamsoon; the CBN should ensure it does not go the way of Community banks and the Peoples’ Bank of yester years. The apex bank should ensure that the credit being provided by the tripod institutions reach the economic active but poor rural farmers and artisans, the small businesses and entrepreneurs on sustainable bases, through which appetite for foreign imports would be addressed, jobs created and grow the economy.  
As President Buhari is set for the inauguration of his second and final term (so also is Godwin Emefiele) he should earnest unveil his ‘Next Level’ economic blueprint promised Nigerians to better their living condition with tested technocrats and bureaucrats with nationalistic fervor, while Godwin Emefiele should not rest on his oars nor allow himself to be distracted, neither should he be deceived that with his confirmation by the National Assembly the battle against him is over, the battle has just begun and it will get worse. I am advising him to rally round agencies of government that he thinks will help him drive his dream, step on toes (even if they need to be cut off) as history will judge him for his success or failure.  
Abdulfatai Olamilekan writes from Minna, Niger State.   
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Sunday, 19 May 2019

Talkin' about a revolution by Simon Kolawole

May 19, 2019 0
I always hesitate to use the “R” word because I don’t understand how it really works, but a lot of Nigerians have been talking about “revolution” for a while. They say Nigeria will experience a revolution at a point in time, given the way the society has been going: the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer; the fat getting fatter, the lean getting leaner. One definition goes like this: “Revolution is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organisation which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due to perceived oppression — political, social, economic — or political incompetence.”
It sounds interesting but many have also argued that a revolution is not possible in Nigeria because “we the people” are “docile”. Some say Nigerians deserve the kind of leaders they have. They collect cash, rice and vegetable oil at election times to trade their votes and are inevitably bound by the choices they make. It is said that morally, therefore, they cannot rise up against the same leaders they put in office after selling their votes. Nigerians are also sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines, meaning there can never be a consensus to rise up against the government in power because it will be resisted by those who have the incumbency advantage.
Revolution is too heavy an idea for me to discuss on the pages of newspapers, but Senator Dino Melaye got me thinking with his tweet on Thursday about the “revenge of the poor” and the “perilous times” that lie ahead. He tweeted: “I am afraid of the revenge of the poor, it happened in Russia, France and recently in Sudan. It can happen in Nigeria. Housing segregation put us the elite in jeopardy. Ikoyi, Banana, Maitama, Asokoro etc.  Our leaders + me beware of violent revolution. Perilous times loading.” Coming from a senator who has more fancy cars than the hairs on my head, the warning hit me like a half-hearted satire but I managed to survive it.
In my previous article, “Whatsoever a Man Soweth” (May 12, 2019), I did warn that nobody is safe in Nigeria, including those who think they are covered by a convoy of armed escorts. I also said that the rebellion by the vulnerable elements of the society seems to be in full motion as Nigerians groan under the pandemic of kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, internet fraud and all kinds of criminality. Unfortunately, the security system designed to protect the high and the mighty is failing. It is not just the poor and the lowly that are bearing the brunt, although it is only when the big fish are victims that we make so much fuss over the calamity that has befallen us as a people.
I don’t know if Senator Melaye actually meant what he was saying but I will, all the same, give us a few examples of how our legislators are contributing to the state of union and how they are making “perilous times” inevitable — except they change their ways. As I will always argue, our leaders should stop thinking that Nigeria is like this because of some mistake or co-incidence. No. We are only reaping what we have been sowing. What we failed to plan for yesterday is coming back to bite us today and unless we plan for tomorrow as a matter of urgency, the harvest is going to be bountiful but unpleasant. The ruling elite must chew over this again and again.
The first thing the lawmakers must realise (and I refer to both state and federal legislators because I don’t believe Abuja is the only problem) is that there is a link between their greed — the obscene allowances, extortion-driven oversight activities as well as padded budgets — and the poverty and insecurity in the land. It is a very simple matter. In a country where tens of millions are unemployed and those who have jobs are struggling to survive, each senator is pocketing N13.5 million “running cost” in a month. We still don’t know what members of the house of reps take home every month, neither can we say anything about state legislators. Maybe theirs is even fatter and juicier.
Imagine if the lawmakers — at all levels — are determined to live a decent life and are not obsessed with grabbing every naira in sight. Imagine they are working round the clock to hold the executive accountable for the budgets that are passed every year. Imagine that the lawmakers make sure what is budgeted for roads goes into roads, every kobo earmarked for education goes into education, and every naira allocated to health goes into health. Imagine that those public hearings are actually meant to hold MDAs accountable and expose the rot in the system. Imagine that the auditor-general’s reports are used by the lawmakers to clean up the system rather than to extort.
Unfortunately, the lawmakers are a big burden on Nigerians. Not so long ago, the Bayelsa state house of assembly passed a bill granting themselves pensions. The speaker would take N500,000 monthly, the deputy N200,000 and the others N100,000. This, we must understand, is different from the severance package, which the rest of us are not privileged to know. We can only guess that it will not be miserly. All of this happening in a state where the majority of the people are struggling to make ends meet. So we run a society where the fat are getting fatter and are not ashamed to keep sowing bigger coats for themselves every day. But Nigerians are watching.
Not to be outdone, Kano state lawmakers have also passed their own law to award life pension to their principal officers. They will also be entitled to foreign medical treatment for life — while the people who voted them into office are not entitled to common paracetamol at the public hospitals. The lawmakers in several states, working as rubberstamps of incumbent governors, passed pension laws that awarded former governors new cars every three to four years, in addition to mansions in the state capitals and Abuja, foreign medical treatment and other sickening benefits. Nigerians are programmed to be exploited by their leaders in and out of office! The inequality is wicked.
The bazaar of budget padding by lawmakers is one of the most evil developments in this democratic dispensation. A former lawmaker once challenged me to define “budget padding” and I was wondering if he was pulling my leg. It so happens that an agency will prepare a budget of N10 billion and the supervisory legislative committee will tell the agency it can double the figure to N20 billion if they can bring a certain amount in cash upfront. Some lawmakers will even insist on nominating contractors for projects smuggled into the budget, and you and I know that the job may not be done at all. How can any society make progress that way? How can?
Melaye is talking about the coming “revolution”. Yes, the behaviours of the power elite are in the public domain. Nigerians are watching. They listen to the news everyday and can tell you what the lawmakers are doing with our commonwealth. They are seeing pictures and videos on social media. They are reading the charges filed against politicians in court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). They know all these things. Nothing justifies criminality and I will never vote for criminality, but maybe it is time for Nigerian politicians — not just the lawmakers — to see how their greed and lifestyles are hurting Nigeria’s progress and breeding criminals.
You can always argue that we should not use poverty to explain the growing criminality in the land. But we need to step back again and again and ask the question: why are certain crimes becoming attractive to our young people? Many of those being arrested are university graduates and brilliant people whose energies have been deployed for the wrong use because they have nothing gainful to do. I will, therefore, conclude with the same admonition: the time has come for the Nigerian elite to have a “meeting” and agree to change their ways. Things cannot continue like this. They must forsake their greed and redirect our commonwealth from personal comfort to communal progress.
To make my admonition simpler: let our budgets and resources be utilised to build a society that prioritises the welfare of the majority and not the pensions, wardrobe allowances and DTAs of a tiny minority. Governors’ convoys must grow leaner and the presidential jets must reduce in population. Tracy Chapman, the American singer, sang in 1988: “Don’t you know/They’re talkin’ ’bout a revolution/It sounds like a whisper/While they’re standing in the welfare lines/Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation/Wasting time in the unemployment lines/Sitting around waiting for a promotion.”Those who have ears, let them hear.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

CHICKEN CHANGE
Abdulgafar Ayinla, a member-elect of the Kwara state house of assembly, has been arrested by the EFCC over an alleged N26 million property scam. Ayinla, a legal practitioner, allegedly defrauded a US-based client in a property deal. He is accused of collecting the money without delivering service and has allegedly confessed to the crime, promising to refund the N26 million to the petitioner as soon as he is inaugurated and he — wait for this — collects his “wardrobe allowance”! The lawmakers are really feeding fat on the treasury. Of course, he will be sworn in as a lawmaker. That is the way we roll. And we still wonder why Nigeria is like this. Honourable!
LOOT AND LAUGH
If you are a public officer in Bauchi state, I have some news for you: you can now loot and laugh all the way to the bank. The Bauchi state house of assembly has repealed the law on the recovery of looted public funds and properties. The law was passed on the floor of the house with only 13 out of 31 members in attendance. Governor Mohammed Abubakar had signed the law establishing Public Property and Funds Recovery Tribunal in 2017 allegedly to deal with his predecessor, but now that he is about to become a predecessor himself, he does not want to have a dose of his own medicine. And life will continue as usual. And we will keep wondering why Nigeria is like this. Licence.
SMOKING HOT
Is the grass greener on the other side? Rotimi Akeredolu, governor of Ondo state, has joined Omoyele Sowore, former presidential candidate, in stressing the value of marijuana business, which is projected to hit a global value of $145 billion by 2025. “We all know that Ondo State is the hot bed of cannabis cultivation in Nigeria… we would be shortchanging ourselves if we failed tap into the legal marijuana market,” he said. Of course, there is a difference between medical use of marijuana, which has been identified as a cure for diseases such as epilepsy, and recreational use — which we regard as a vice. Marijuana is gradually becoming a burning issue in Nigeria. Highlight.
MYTH BUSTER
The full meaning of “sir” is “Slave I Remain”, isn’t it? It was a word introduced to Indians during the British colonial rule to make them subservient to their colonisers for life, according to the urban legend. While India was under various forms of British colonial rule from 1612 to 1947, the word “sir” entered the English language in 1297. That means it was in use about four centuries before India was colonised! Indeed, “sir” was a formal English honorific address for titled knights, not slaves, derived from “sire”. It was also used as a respectful address to “senior commoners”. Sir, sire, seigneur and senior all grew up together in the evolution of language. Fact.
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Thursday, 9 May 2019

Putting square pegs in square holes by Keem Abdul

May 09, 2019 0
KEEM ABDUL.

Sometime in 2017, the United Nations through its Economic and Social Council sought for taxation experts from across the world to sit on its committee to proffer solutions to issues on international taxation and cooperation. In August of that year, Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations told the world that they had been able to get 25 of the world’s top minds in matters of taxation and the Committee inaugurated for their deliberations was called the United Nations Committee of Experts on International Cooperation.
A Nigerian was one of the 25 and was selected from among his selected peers to be the 1st Vice Chairman of the Committee. His name is Babatunde Fowler and he currently heads Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
This August, Mr Fowler’s tenure as head of Nigeria’s tax collection agency comes to an end and given the heavy and often dirty politics surrounding top positions such as the one he currently holds, he may not be rewarded with a reappointment to continue the great work he has been doing.
Therein lies one of the perennial problems with Nigeria. There are too few good people leading the country and where there are any, they are often victimised and chased away by the fierce, petty and sometimes diabolic jostling for power by Nigeria’s ruling elite. When that happens, they are often recruited by top global organisations and they go on to do very well, leaving Nigeria to continue its steady slide into its predicted, self-inflicted and pretty much-assured doom.
Dr Oby Ezekwesili and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are examples of this but so that the trend is not mistaken as peculiar to women only in a clime where patriarchy is still entrenched, then consider the case of Dr Akinwumi Adesina who currently heads the African Development Bank (ADB).
 Dr Akinwumi Adesina had served as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Goodluck Jonathan administration and was globally acclaimed for his phenomenal work that helped make Nigeria one of the world’s fastest growing economies at the time. Forbes had named him its Africa Person of the Year and then UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon appointed him as one of 17 world leaders to galvanize support for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
As Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure ended in 2015, it was expected that the incoming presidency of Muhammadu Buhari would at least draw on the strength and wisdom of Akinwumi Adesina, if not officially by retaining him, then unofficially in any capacity. Instead they appointed an old blundering politician as his successor and Nigeria has lost the gains made during Akinwumi Adesina’s time as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Yet Adesina has continued to shine brighter outside Nigeria as head of the AFB and he continues to garner several laurels and numerous accolades across the world.
Some people even believe that he is deserving of being elected to serve as Nigeria’s President and they hope that he will forgive the nation for her errant ways and run for high office in the near future. The big question in focus now however is, “Will Nigeria ever learn to ensure that her square pegs are correctly placed and retained in square holes?”
 In any progressive country in the world, the stellar display of Babatunde Fowler as head of Nigeria’s premier tax and internal revenue generation agency would be rewarded with another tenure especially if the constitution allows for it. With him at the helm, the FIRS has greatly improved its revenue generation, such that in 2018, the agency collected approximately N5.32 trillion, which also bested its 2017 annual revenue of N4.02 trillion.
To put that achievement in its proper context, the Agency had never before earned those figures in its history and the revenue generated with Babatunde Fowler at the helm proved to be profoundly beneficial to the Federal Government as Nigeria went through an economic recession that would have been worse if the FIRS didn’t generate the additional revenue it did to support the Federal Government.
Perhaps the only reason that Babatunde Fowler may not be reappointed as FIRS Chairman is because of his perceived closeness to the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is suspected that Bola Tinubu is lining up to contest for the office of the President in 2023. In certain quarters where that is a threat to other political calculations and ambitions, allowing Fowler who they believe has risen by the help of Tinubu to continue as the head of such an important national agency would further empower Tinubu to achieve that goal, if it were indeed true.
It is indeed true that it was when Bola Tinubu was Governor of Lagos State that Babatunde Fowler first entered public service but that does not in any way make Fowler beholden to his former boss. It is undeniable that his phenomenal work increased the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from an average of N3.6 billion per month in January 2006 to a monthly average of N20.5 billion in 2014.
That he was able to replicate and surpass that feat at federal level heading the FIRS is enough reason to give him a second tenure. However his perceived ties to Bola Tinubu might see to it that he does not. Already the Asiwaju’s political opponents have come out with their guns blazing and Fowler is being targeted by an unscrupulous smear campaign.
 If indeed Babatunde Fowler loses his current job at the FIRS, it would be to Nigeria’s gain if he were to be deployed to the Central Bank of Nigeria, an organisation in need of able leadership and one that he is eminently qualified to run. He would also be a great pick for Minister of Finance. However if he is entirely schemed out and is ultimately taken out by Bola Tinubu’s enemies, perhaps the Jagaban Borgu should position him to become the next Governor of Lagos after Babajide Sanwoolu.
Several top global bodies and business organisations are reportedly waiting to snap Fowler up and it would be to Nigeria’s detriment to lose yet another shining star to the darkness that pervades our political spaces. Nigeria must learn to always put its square pegs in square holes.
 
Abdul, a public commentator writes from Abuja.
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Saturday, 4 May 2019

The war against women in Abuja

May 04, 2019 0
by Paul Nwabuikwu

Abuja is getting dirtier, more disorganized and less safe but the FCT authorities are more interested in harassing and arresting women for the crime of going out for a drink at night.
Over the past few days, scores of women accused of being prostitutes have been crudely assaulted and detained by mobs of policemen and task force enforcers.
No man, including “customers” caught in the act was arrested proving that the exercise was more religious and “cultural” than legal.
No effort was made to determine the identity of those accused of soliciting. On the streets, in gardens, in “joints”, in nightclubs and lounges, these women and girls were accosted and whisked away, protesting their innocence.
I read the heartrending story of a distraught couple who kept screaming “We are married! See our rings!” as the woman was being dragged away. Mercifully, the man refused to let go of his spouse and the “law enforcers” eventually left them, bruised but relieved, to search for more “prostitutes” to throw into their buses.
Many of the arrested women reported that they were verbally and physically abused in detention. Some were given stark options: “pay N5000 or spread your legs…”
To think that the official objective of this horrendous exercise is to improve the moral tone of Abuja. Hypocrites in high and low places.
Misplaced priorities. Atrocious lawlessness. Medieval cruelty. All happening in Nigeria’s capital city in 2019.
Nwabuikwu, media aide to Ex-Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala writes from Abuja.
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