Upfront I will advise this administration to steer far clear of any so-called petroleum sector “deregulation” come January 2022. The sentiment is tinder-dry, and I doubt they want another #EndSARS-scale demonstration, or worse, on their hands.I mean, it takes a lot of nerve to meet the petrol price at N97, take it first to N145 naira, then N162, and then propose to leave it at N380 or more. The first increase was done without apologies or care, as the President was merely riding on his fabled and now demystified the “Mai-Gaskiya” factor. Since the government came in 2015, what Nigerians have seen has been different. No matter what anyone says about that era, the majority of voters expressed hope in the Buhari-Osinbajo ticket, and part of that hope was that the economy would be fixed, while life would be easier for most Nigerians in terms of improved standards of living. Alas, what Nigerians paid for has been totally different from what has been delivered. And so, through a lot of disdain, refusal to interact with the people, talk downs such as Nigerian youths being lazy or agreeing with David Cameron, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, that Nigerians were fantastically corrupt, the fuel price was increased, twice, to almost double what it was pre-2015. Before EndSARS, perhaps the worst nationwide riot in recent times was in January 2012, due to the tentative increase in fuel prices from N65 to N140 per litre in the name of deregulation. Then the government-backed down to N97. Nigerians would later find out that a few connected smart Alecs had swindled the country of N2.53 trillion in false subsidy claims. Some, like me, needed to know that that level of fraud did happen in this country. But not much has happened to those guys. They are still among us – rehabilitated big boys and girls.
On each occasion when petroleum prices were increased, the Buhari government claimed to have deregulated. Even the Jonathan government claimed to have deregulated in 2012. It wasn’t until later (in 2018) that the issue of subsidies crept back in again. This time, it was christened “under-recovery.” Of course, in spite of claiming to have “deregulated” the market, the national oil company, NNPC, remains the sole importer, and as I type this, the corporation says it has spent an excess of at least N1.6 trillion as at November 2021 (under-recovery), supplying just premium motor spirit (petrol) to Nigerians, compared to the amount it was able to get back from Nigerians. Why? They say the set price of N162 is way too low. So, we are back to the deregulation debate. The government has collapsed the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) and the Petroleum Product Price Regulation Agency (PPPRA) into new regulatory entities, but in reality, we haven’t seen how that market would be fully and truly deregulated, or how the government hopes to manage the blowback of real deregulation – away from the usual deluded meetings they have in air-conditioned boardrooms. Is whatever is left of the PPPRA in the new entity still going to exercise any price control? Why did the government retain an agency that purports to control prices yet lied to the people that it had deregulated twice since 2015 and wanted to deregulate “again” in January 2022? Why should Nigerians trust this administration for anything at all? Is whatever is left of PEF in the new entity still interested in “equalizing” petrol prices all over the country “because we are one, the indivisible nation”? Is that how deregulated markets work? Or has the government shown Nigerians that it is ready for a market where the price of petrol in Victoria Island is higher than in Okekoto Agege, maybe because posh people live and work in VI and can pay more, and the price in Argungu or Jimeta may be significantly higher than in Port Harcourt because of the cost of logistics? Are we ready to liberalize importation from Maradi and elsewhere and allow people to sell at any price they want or that balance their books and turn them a good profit? Are we ready to rein in the oligopolies that will likely skin Nigerians alive in that sector with price-fixing, price gouging, blackmail, fraud, and what have you? A key player once told me, one-on-one, that there were no saints in their business.
I am not certain that we are ready, simply because primordial thinking about these issues is too ingrained in the minds of our leaders. I am not talking about Buhari alone. He has to convince state governors, traditional and religious leaders, and other so-called stakeholders to make them see what real deregulation is about. The first step of that process has not even been taken at all. In fact, we hear that the El-Rufai committee, set up to look into this issue, is proposing a price of N380, and it looks like that will be the landing point in January if this government is crazy enough to stick a fist in the mouth of Nigerians. The Minister of Finance, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, has proposed some palliatives, which turned out to be more expensive than the so-called subsidies, made no sense and show just how desperate the government is. The issue is not palliatives. We have been seeing palliatives since at least the time of the Petroleum Trust Fund, headed by no less than Buhari in the mid-1990s. For me, it is either the government deregulates or not. The palliatives are an avenue for massive fraud. But all that considered, this government should please not go near this project. The government has since spent whatever goodwill it brought in the first year of its advent. It should just ride out whatever time is left with Nigerians. Let it be another government’s liability to wrestle with the issue of deregulation of fuel prices, as desirable as it may be.
Indeed, what we are subsidizing is not the price of petroleum, but the fraud that permeates the entire ecosystem around fuel imports. A very tight confederacy exists around that sector, and no matter what the government has done, no one has been able to beat those guys. The opacity in the sector also stems from the fact that the market is international. What should provide transparency (international markets) also harbors the very elements of darkness that envelop that market. Which Nigerian will be able to interrogate the process of prospecting, exploration, production, storage, transportation, export, sale, import, and purchase of the products involved in that sector? Even successive presidents in Nigeria have learnt to sit and wait for whatever that corporation gracefully hands over to them, whether they appoint themselves minister of petroleum, or not. In spite of recent reforms, it will be awfully arduous to wrestle with such ingrained and perennial power, as those with power never wish to relinquish it. Therefore, beyond the several funny calculations that lead us into deficits running into trillions, what we suffer is the massive and mindless corruption in that sector, which could be confirmed by the sabotage of all our refineries. We could add to that the failure of our education to teach us anything tangible, or perhaps more aptly, our refusal to use our vaunted education to solve problems that matter. That is why we haven’t built anything in 72 years of higher education in this country that can help us refine petroleum. The last time I checked, Nigeria imports at least $12 billion worth of refined petroleum products yearly, while we are entitled to merely 35% of the $45 billion exported in crude oil yearly ($15 billion). What we import almost cancels out what we gain from exports. And this is before the huge administrative and operational expenses from our behemoth petroleum corporation and its many subsidiaries kick in. The fault is indeed in our stars.
The issues facing the Buhari-Osinbajo government are not limited to the petroleum sector and the upcoming deregulation. I viewed every other sector, and everywhere looked covered in crimson. If this government were a child, it would have been a very dull one—the type that gives its parents pangs of disappointment and apprehension for the future. The government would like to claim some successes in infrastructure building, though. The Chinese have helped us somewhat with the rail sector, with some nice airports (some kudos to Rotimi Amaechi) and I understand Minister Fashola will be opening some roads in the next year. Yet, Nigeria could not be called an infrastructure-sufficient nation. It’s just that our standards have dropped, and the bar has been totally lowered. Most of our villages remain from the 17th century when the earliest European adventurers met them. Our children are still out of school en masse as we waste their precious minds, and I have seen some so-called enlightened leaders even justify that situation, choosing to blame it on colonialists. We thank God for our physiological composition and adaptation over time; otherwise, we should have been sicker than people in “developed” economies. No matter how hard our interpreters tried, COVID-19 did not wreak the foretold and expected havoc.
But as fair as I tried to be, everything else looks woeful for this government, and I wonder where the miracles will come from, that the Buhari-Osinbajo regime will not be declared – officially and on the streets-as the worst government this country has ever seen. Add to this the attempt to leave fuel prices at N380, with prospects of reaching N500 or N600 once we have been left to the mercy of oligarchs, the fact that this government met the Naira officially exchanging at N199 to the US Dollar and has now devalued it to at least 410, while on the streets, what exchanged for N220 is now N570, and you begin to see the meaning of a calamitous disaster. I have consistently called this government a Buhari-Osinbajo administration because I now see that, indeed, Osinbajo is serious about coming in as president in 2023. It will be a natural transition for someone who has been part of the government for 8 years and within the same party. The idea will be to not upset the applecart at all. And indeed, Osinbajo is smart, savvy, hardworking, eloquent, fit, and very intelligent. But he can not extricate himself from the calamity on the ground. More so, per the constitution, the economy is under the Vice President, and he has had some good parts to play in how the economy has turned out. The two major devaluations that have occurred since 2016 – from N199 to N306 and then to N360 – occurred under his supervision and with his approval. Buhari was then busy repeating how he was never going to devalue the currency when he had absolutely no plan for what to do. Osinbajo has also been repeating the idea that the Naira should be floated. The Naira could only float in one direction for as long as the eyes could see – down. Add his flair and a soft spot for arcane economics like cryptocurrencies and the blinding success of fintechs and “investments,” and I’m afraid he may be playing a huge gamble if he comes in. I will write him another missive on this, seeking assurances. His economics are way too far to the right for the good of this country.
So, the Naira has tanked under this government and may tank some more. A nightmare scenario begins to unfold. What are the other indices by which economic performance may be measured? Inflation Yes, a growing economy will suffer from inflation, but the Nigerian economy has not grown since 2015. It’s been tales of woe, first due to a downturn in crude prices in 2016, and then COVID-19 in 2020. The spikes in crude oil prices in between have been liabilities to us. The higher crude oil prices, the higher PMS prices, and subsidies, and then riots or worse. The lower the crude oil prices, the more we have to devalue the naira and take loans we do not intend to pay back. More on debts shortly. But I priced a bag of Olam rice today (produced locally) and was told it was N26,500! Another one that looked imported (as it was written in Thai something or other) was priced at N28,500! We were complaining about N8,000 rice under Goodluck Jonathan. We have seen at least a 250% increase in the price of staples under this government. I recently went into a cornershop and bought a fairly large tin of Milo for N10,000! That is 60% of the minimum wage! Cooking gas has climbed from N3,000 to N9,000. Cement is closing in on N5,000. Even garri and beans are way up through the roof. And salaries have stagnated everywhere. Even those of us who do business have been unable to keep jerking up prices and fees arbitrarily in this fashion. I sometimes feel like something is eroding the very ground upon which I stand, closing in on my poor self, even though I know that the best opportunities are here in Nigeria. Things could be so much better if this government had not turned out the way it has. I also feel like something happened to Buhari that fundamentally allowed his alter-ego to kick in, like someone who suffers from a dual personality crisis. Not long after he was sworn in in 2015, the man changed against the people. A man who walked among the people simply stopped, showing that he held the people in disdain and was only happy among his fellow politicians, with whom he backslashed. When asked about his promises to the people in the couple of interviews that he granted, he scowled, grimaced, glowered and asked with dripping unconcern and disdain, “Did I cause the problem?”. I was beyond crestfallen. I knew less than six months into that government that it would bear ugly fruits and decided that we should organize ourselves around new political parties.
Debt. foreign and domestic. This is another frightening reality that deserves its own separate analysis. Well, if we were to admit it, the Buhari-Osinbajo government has unfortunately combined bad luck with incompetence. The government will want us to believe that it has no choice but to borrow. Since the advent of COVID, yes. Every country, including the richest, is borrowing to claw its way out of an unprecedented crisis that has resulted in the near-permanent shutdown of at least a portion of every economy. But there are two issues. I recall that pre-COVID-19, Kemi Adeosun not only borrowed massively, she actively courted foreign loans, ignoring the obvious problem presented by exchange risks. We complained then too, and I wrote a number of articles about it. However, recently, we have consolidated on these foreign loans, whose liabilities even became larger as we devalued the currency. The liability (in naira) will be even larger as we continue to devalue. I think that the reason why we borrow revolves around our innate laziness (which manifests in the mental block that we are helpless and must go begging) and the unwillingness of people in government to do the right thing. Most people who have ascended to office at our national level seem to genuflect to their counterparts abroad and display some level of inferiority which translates to this “begging billionaire” syndrome. Our leaders cannot go after the principalities and powers to pay more taxes. No one is even ready to better organize society to earn more for the government by way of fees, levies, duties, fines, charges, rents, and what have you. And so, all the proposals for increases in sin taxes, excise duties, luxury taxes, property taxes, capital gains taxes, inheritance taxes, and what have you, have come to naught. We chose, very much under this administration, to mortgage the future of our unborn generations to come and be beggars in perpetuity to their mates abroad.
This is not to give a pass mark to former governments in Nigeria. I don’t do mediocrity. I also know how tough governance can be, but it must be said that this government fell under the weight of its own ignorant arrogance. Indeed, other governments have even tried to collaborate with others in forging some degree of unity through politics. Obasanjo coopted the Ume-Ezeokes, the Bola Iges, the Mahmuds, and Yar’Adua coopted many from the opposition. Ditto, Jonathan. But these ones came and thought they were superstars. The government will need a major miracle to heal the cancers it has caused in the Nigerian body polity. I haven’t even spoken about the total failures in security, in education, in the health sector, in the housing sector, in the environmental sector, and indeed anywhere that matters. For now, my conclusion is that anyone that has been closely associated with this administration should not dare to step out for the 2023 elections. It will be a mockery of the Nigerian people. 2015–2022 will be a period best written off for most Nigerians. How then do we ensure we don’t get it so, so wrong in 2023? frightening indeed. But we will outlive this one also. For the sake of the economy and our own very lives, we cannot afford to get it wrong.
Writing a regular newspaper column is a lot like dancing; it takes two to tango.
The year 2021 was an extraordinarily challenging one. Suffice it to say, while I’ve kept the flame alive these past enervating months via ceaseless articles detailing the bottomless gloom of 2021, I’m hopeful that 2022 may generally bring more positive things for us to (at the very least) begin to talk about. Some up-tempo music is in sight at last.
The last 12 months were undeniably very tough. While most citizens struggled to survive the harsh socioeconomic realities of the previous 12 months, their government(s) struggled to balance competing interests among various groups (political, economic, socio-cultural, and so on) in order to meet citizens’ expectations.
Unquestionably, the country has made some gains but could have done better if not for the sub-optimal, unprepared, incompetent, and corrupt leaders it parades. leaders whose performances in the office are not only questionable but also regrettable. They didn’t just fail in economic management, but also failed to manage the country’s multi-ethnic and multi-religious diversity or build inclusive political and economic institutions that are necessary for stability and prosperity.
Leaders who succeeded in widening the country’s existing fault lines, resulting in an unprecedented rise in insurgency, kidnapping, and banditry across the country. Similarly, leaders who presided over increases in absolute inflation, poverty, unemployment, and economic and social inequality
It is therefore not surprising, although sad, that the 2021 report on the Fragile States Index (FSI) ranked Nigeria as the 12th most fragile state in the world. Last year, the country was ranked the 14th most fragile state, which implied that the country had declined by two further steps. This gloomy result cannot be divorced from the country’s inability to address problems such as its factionalized elite, group grievance, economic decline, uneven economic development, human flight, and brain drain, state legitimacy, public services, human rights, and the rule of law, demographic pressures, and internal security problems, among several others.
To compound the problem, the prevailing economic downturn, worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, constrained the capacity of both the state and individuals, so much so that the necessities of life went far beyond the reach of most Nigerians. As conflict zones expanded, so did agitations. Sadly, the federal government almost lost its capacity to rein in sundry cartels of gunmen who went about terrorizing innocent citizens across the country, particularly in most parts of the North.
There is a common saying that “the seeds of the future lie in the present.” As we bid 2021 farewell, we must all remember that Nigeria’s future can never be given; we must consciously create it. Hence, this is a period for deep reflection, a period we should all set aside to imagine the unimaginable and think the unthinkable. Hence, I’ve decided to take time out to imagine the possibilities or scenarios for our dear country in 2022. The three scenarios are as follows: 1. Each to his or her own2. The Rise of the State. 3. Together we can.
Scenario 1: To each his or her own
In this scenario, Nigeria will continue on the same path as in 2021. Our pressing problems—unemployment, poverty, safety and insecurity, and poor public health and education delivery—will worsen. Our social fabric will further unravel as civil society organizations disengage and public trust in public institutions diminishes.
It is a scenario of “musical chairs” or “reshuffled elites”. It is triggered by the failure of our leaders across all sectors to deal with our critical challenges. This failure is the result of pervasive identity politics, weak and unaccountable leadership, weak capacity in government departments, and tightening economic constraints that are not dealt with realistically or inclusively. Hence, an increasingly disengaged civil society as public trust in public institutions diminishes. The state is increasingly bypassed by citizens, resulting in unaccountable groupings assuming power over parts of society. The gap between the leaders and the led grows. Citizens eventually lose patience and erupt in protest and unrest. The government, driven by its inability to meet citizens’ demands and expectations, responds brutally, and a spiral of resistance and repression is unleashed.
Scenario 2: The Rise of the State
In the second scenario, the Nigerian state leads and manages the process of addressing our challenges. Citizens either support strong state intervention or are submissive in the face of a more powerful state.
This is a scenario where the state assumes the role of leader and manager. State planning and coordination are seen as central mechanisms for accelerating the development and delivery of services to citizens, especially the poor, unemployed, and vulnerable. The ruling party argues that strong state intervention in the economy is in accordance with global trends, and the electorate, concerned about the impacts of the global economic crisis, gives the ruling party a powerful mandate. Strong state intervention crowds out private initiatives by business and civil society. The risks of this scenario are twofold: one is that the country accumulates unsustainable debt; the other is that the state becomes increasingly authoritarian.
Scenario 3: We Can Do It Together
In this third scenario, our challenges are addressed through active citizen engagement, a catalytic state, and strong leadership across all sectors.
This is a scenario of active citizen engagement with a government that is effective and that listens. It requires the engagement of citizens who demand better service delivery and government accountability. It is dependent on the will and ability of citizens to organize themselves and to engage the authorities, and on the quality of political leadership and its willingness to engage citizens. It entails a common national vision that cuts across economic self-interest in the short term. This is not an easy scenario. Its path is uneven – there is robust contestation over many issues, and it requires strong leadership from all sectors, especially from citizens.
Our today (2021) already contains the seeds of all three scenarios, and 2022 will not look like purely one or the other, but I have drawn the three apart to see the opportunities and risks that each path poses for our country’s future. A healthy democracy and strong socio-economic development require a healthy interface between an effective state and an alert and active citizenry. It is my belief that the nature of this interface will determine the future of our country. Nigerians are standing at a crossroads. Each one of us, citizens and leaders, must choose the kind of 2022 we desire. Through the steps we take, we will create our 2022.
I wish you all a prosperous 2022.
Perhaps, being a pragmatist who has weighed all the odds against the concept of direct primaries for the nomination of candidates for political offices by parties, such as the humungous cost of executing the task and the risk posed to the lives of potential voters owing to the alarming level of insecurity in lives in the polity, as well as the undemocratic element in the bill that smacks of imposition, amongst other reasons, President Mohammadu Buhari had to demurn
It is a document that he has five (5) times sent back to the sender; hence, I have named it Ogbanje/Abiku.
I will elucidate on that aspect later because it is the easy part.
The hard part that President Buhari is confronted with is the challenge of convincing the majority of Nigerians that his actions are altruistic and not hypocritical. But how can what was transmitted from Aso Rock Villa via a memo to the Senate on Monday, the 21st day of December 2021 not be hypocrisy and bad news for democracy in the optics of the long-suffering Nigerian electorate that has been dying for the day that their votes would start counting?
Of course, President Mohammadu Buhari does not share their sentiments, hence he withheld his assent to the Electoral Act Amendment bill, 2021, as passed by NASS.
That is perhaps owed to the fact that in his position as the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Nigeria, he knows what we all do not know, so he has his reasons, which he has tried to put across to us.
And the justifications are that direct primaries are an undemocratic practice as it would be tantamount to an imposition on political parties; it is too expensive-lNEC already has a budget proposal of not less than N305b excluding the cost of direct primaries; and the high level of insecurity,
(driven by terrorism), particularly in the entire northern region of our country at this point in time, would disenfranchise folks who may be unable to go out and queue up in the open for direct primaries since it would expose them to potential terrorist attacks, etc.
As cogent as President Buhari’s reasons appear on face value, to most Nigerians, the failure to assent to the bill that would allow direct primaries, which could have enabled the masses to have more say in who governs them, as opposed to the current process of vesting such powers on delegates that are susceptible to manipulation by the governors who appoint them, is simply terrible news that was broken to them on the 21st day of December, of the 21st year in the 21st century.
To me, it is certainly a lost opportunity for President Buhari to write his name in gold by being the one who moved the process of electioneering in Nigeria a few notches higher than when he assumed power as president.
The singular act of signing that bill into law had the capacity to erase all the negative actions and inactions attributed to President Buhari from the first time he served in a political role as governor of the northeastern state (1975-76), federal commissioner (minister) of petroleum resources, (1976-78), military head of state (1983-85), chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF (1994-99), and his current position as president of the federal republic of Nigeria since 2015.
The assertion above is validated by the fact that it is the critical efforts made by his predecessors, particularly on the reform of the electoral process, that elevated them to the high esteem in which Nigerians currently hold them.
Particularly worthy of mention is the late president, Umaru Yar’adua (2007–2010), who laid the foundation by setting up the Justice Lawal Uwais committee on electoral reforms after he admitted that the process that ushered him into power in 2007 might have been flawed. Credit also goes to his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, who took over from him as president and implemented some of the Uwais committee’s reformative recommendations that culminated in the electoral law of 2010, which is currently in the process of amendment.
Given the narrative above, it behooves President Buhari to take the electoral process to the next level, which is the mantra of the ruling party at the center, APC, when it was campaigning for the re-election of President Buhari in 2019.
Before dwelling further on the political nitty-gritty, let us examine some issues in leadership from the optics of the private sector to see if we can make some extrapolations for the political arena.
And I would like to commence by posing the question: what are the authentic and altruistic reasons that drive people into aspiring to occupy office (public or private) if not to take the entity higher to levels beyond the point at which they took over the mantle?
As a Chief Executive Officer or CEO of a bank, oil and gas exploration firm, consumer goods manufacturing company, or telecoms outfit, one’s goal is to leave the organization with a better and bigger balance sheet and profit, producing more barrels of oil and gas at less cost, churning out more fast-moving consumer goods to cover a larger market size and leveraging robust network infrastructure to expand into a wider market size by onboarding more subscribers to grow the base, as the case may be.
What would be the equivalent deliverables in the world of politicians?
I would assume that it is the provision of the proverbial dividends of democracy. And this entails services such as good roads for ease of transportation, abundant and affordable houses to enable more people to have roofs over their heads, an adequate supply of potable water for sustenance of health and avoidance of water-borne diseases, well-equipped hospitals for improved public health care and longer life expectancy, and finally, high-quality educational institutions at all levels for the acquisition and spread of better knowledge in society, amongst others.
And all the outlined dividends of democracy can only be made possible within the framework of a thriving liberal democracy, which can only be obtainable if the democratic space is made more open and transparent.
And one of the ways of making the political atmosphere more friendly and less fractious is through increased citizen participation in the process of choosing their leaders. Which is what direct primaries by political parties for choosing their candidates would engender.
Given the dwindling turnout of voters in elections, such as the Anambra state gubernatorial election held barely a month ago, where only about 10% of registered voters turned out to vote (a clear indicator of the electorate’s waning interest in engaging in the civic responsibility of voting), it is clear that public interest in the political process of electioneering needs to be bolstered.
The experience in Edo state about a year prior to the Anambra state governorship contest, which is not significantly different, simply demonstrates that there is a pattern of low voter turnout reflecting apathy by potential but reluctant voters in Nigeria who are skeptical of the process of elections.
And the adoption of direct primaries in the manner that candidates would emerge from within the parties could have given Nigerians the desired shot in the arm that could have spurred more interest in politics.
It is a no-brainer to identify the culprit for the dwindling number of Nigerians going to the polls as partly the lack of transparency in the electoral process that is mired in violence and therefore off-putting to the majority of the electorate. It is also the reason that high-caliber personalities that abound in our country and would have loved to be candidates in political contests, since they are competent, have been giving politics a wide berth.
Now, allow me to return to why I have dubbed that piece of legislation causing a ruckus in the polity, Ogbanje/Abiku.
The fact that the electoral act amendment bill is a piece of legislation that has five (5) times been sent back and forth between the legislative and executive arms of government, makes it an Abiku to the Yoruba people, or Ogbanje in LGBo land.
For the benefit of those not familiar with African mythology, it is about a child born with predestination to die each time he/she is born. The fact that the electoral act amendment bill has been tagged Ogbanje or Abiku is due to the fact that NASS has conceived and given birth to the bill and sent it five times to President Buhari, who has also returned it five times.
How else can one characterize a process that should have given a new lease on life to a political system that is currently defined by opacity, particularly with regard to elections and internal democracy within political parties, but instead has been shot down by the same president a record five times?
So, while the electoral system remains obfuscated through continued prevarications by the political class under the watch of the current leadership in Aso Rock Villa, fewer Nigerians will engage in the chore of voting as long as they believe that their votes will not count. That simply implies that democracy would either stand still or recede.
That is not a place where our democracy should be, especially after 21 years of continuous practice.
Hence, I wondered aloud in a previous article published by the cable on January 4, 2016, and subsequently on other mass media platforms with the title: “Are Elections Giving Democracy A Bad Name in Nigeria?”
Permit me to reproduce an excerpt.
Given the unprecedented spate of violence in the 2015 general elections that ushered in a change of rulership to an opposition political party in Nigeria and the brigandage that eclipsed recent elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states, leading to inconclusive governorship elections, all arms of government in Nigeria need to rethink the role of violence viz-a-viz the integrity of elections in our fragile democracy.
According to Kofi Annan, a former UN scribe, one of the most striking developments of the last quarter of a century is the spread of elections. In his view, “Commonwealth was both a witness and an agent of this remarkable phenomenon.” When it adopted the Harare Declaration in 1991, nine of its members were under military or one-party rule. By 1999, all had become “multiparty democracies”.
Annan’s analogy reflects exactly the situation in Nigeria because in 1991, our country was under the yoke of a military jackboot but by 1999, multi-party democracy had returned and it has consistently remained back-to-back for an unbroken sixteen years. “
Going further, the former UN scribe lamented, “Unfortunately, after the initial period of genuine change, rulers learned that elections did not necessarily have to mean democracy: elections could be gamed to remain in power, sometimes indefinitely.”
Sadly, the scenario described above by Annan generally reflects the state of affairs in the Nigerian political space, which is now characterized by deadly battles to supplant popular votes with the imposition of candidates using the force of violence by elements in and out of government that are undemocratic.
Most striking is Annan’s conclusion that when elections are rigged, it does three things to democracy: firstly, it confuses legality with illegitimacy; secondly, it confuses repression with stability; and thirdly, it confuses an electoral mandate with a blank cheque.
The former United Nations UN scribe, Annan’s conclusion is damning and disconcerting. More so, because the current faulty electoral process in Nigeria that direct primaries could rectify is an archetype of what Annan was referring to.
So, restoring confidence in the sanctity of our political parties’ process of electing candidates into public office is one sure way of curing the malaise of voter apathy that the adoption of direct primaries, amongst other provisions, could have engendered, thus conferring integrity on elections so that it would no longer give democracy a bad name, as Kofi Annan queried. Unfortunately, the opportunity has been lost one more time on December 21, 2021.
That is ostensibly due to some elements embodied in the bill deemed to be undemocratic by the powers that be; the high cost of conducting direct primaries in an economy where authorities are struggling to pay civil servants’ salaries; and a country that is experiencing very disturbing levels of insecurity of lives and properties in most parts, making life look like hell on earth.
At least, the above is my understanding of the official reason adduced by Mr. President in his 21/12/21 memo to the NASS.
Let us not forget that a similar chance to do the needful (as the youths would put it) was also lost in 2018 — patently because the passage of the bill, according to Aso Rock demagogues, was too close to the date of the 2019 general elections.
Although both reasons for bucking in 2018 and 2021 appear to be absurd to most Nigerians outside the orbit of Aso Rock Villa, the ball, as the saying goes, ends at the president’s table.
Vox populi, vox dei is a Latin proverb that translates as “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
Mr. President appears not to be a fan of that aphorism as he seems ready to shake off the flak being generated by his decision not to harken to the voice of the people as dexterously as a duck would feel at home inside a lake.
Otherwise, he may find himself looking like a fish out of water when the chips are down and he incurs the ire of the people via the heightened activities of civil society advocacy groups currently urging the National Assembly (NASS) to override the president by activating the relevant portions of the constitution that empower it to so do.
It is not surprising that those who are dissatisfied with President Buhari’s decision to withhold assent to the bill believe there is more to it than meets the eye.
Firstly, it is argued that the long-term benefits of the decision to sign the bill into law for the purpose of deepening democracy far outweigh the short-term benefits of yielding to the antics of those who want to maintain the status quo ante by wiping up fear and panic sentiments that might have tied the hands of President Buhari.
On the issue of fear-mongering, Mr. President might have been told that approving direct primaries, which was incidentally the process applied during the party primaries that earned him the opportunity of being the APC flag bearer in 2015, would expose the party to the type of defeat which it suffered in recent elections in both Edo and Anambra state gubernatorial elections when technology was leveraged.
Secondly, the hawks around Mr. President might have also rationalized to him that in the event that the ruling party at the center, APC, suffers a loss to the main opposition party, PDP, in 2023, President Buhari may not have a restful retirement at his farm in Daura, which he has stated multiple times in various fora that he is looking forward to.
But, applying trend analysis in assessing the fear that might have been sewn into the mind of President Buhari, the chances of the president going to jail after he exits office in 2023 on account of his stewardship is near zero.
Here is why: neither ex-presidents Olusegun Obasanjo nor Goodluck Jonathan (two of the surviving presidents since the return of multi-party democracy in 1999) is in jail.
Furthermore, vice presidents under the aforementioned presidents, Abubakar Atiku and Namadi Sambo, are not imprisoned.
Even the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF (Ufot Ekaete, Babagana Kingibe, Anyim Pius Anyim) during any of the aforementioned administrations is not imprisoned for what they did or did not do while in those roles or capacities.
Yes, there is usually public opprobrium for poor performance in office. But there is also evidence that those who leave positive legacies end up having good footprints in the sands of time.
In the realm of those who left positive legacies is the likes of Umaru Yar’adua, who is currently being applauded for the electoral reforms that he introduced and which the current administration has been unable to build upon.
Incidentally, President Buhari is a beneficiary of Yar’adua’s positive legacy of reform introduced into the process of elections. That is simply because it would have been impossible for an opposition candidate to have won the presidency in 2015 were it not for the card reader machines and biometric accreditation systems introduced and used for that election.
Furthermore, although the relationship between ex-presidents Obasanjo and Buhari is now frosty, the former is on record as having been the latter’s cheer leader during the 2015 presidential contest. What is more, ex-president Jonathan, who lost power to the incumbent, is now such a big deal to the current president to the extent that he and the party that kicked Jonathan out are being rumored to be considering the former president as the next president when Buhari quits the stage in 2023.
In light of the scenario above, it has been established that there is camaraderie amongst the past and present presidents of Nigeria.
So, if anyone or group of people told President Buhari the lie that his freedom would be in jeopardy when he leaves office, he should make it impossible for the ruling party to be defeated (except he is caught with his fingers in the cookie jar, which is unlikely, as stealing is not one of his vices), he should figure out that they are doing so in pursuit of their personal or group agendas that are not necessarily in the best interest of our beloved country.
And Nigeria is bigger than them.
One clear fact that everybody should be cognizant of is that Nigeria is unlike South Africa, where ex-president Jacob Zuma is currently in jail.
So, contrary to the situation in South Africa, our past presidents appear to be protected and insulated from being sent to the penitentiary for the actions that they took or did not take while in office because there may be an unwritten pact to that effect, just like the rotation of the presidency between the north and south, hashed out during the 1994/5 Abacha-convened constitutional conference.
My guess is that the esprit de corps among current and former presidents not to imprison each other after leaving office was woven or hashed out during council of state meetings that feature ex-heads of government at the center—military and civilians alike.
So, why should President Buhari be frightened, assuming one is correct in the notion that it is one of the underlying reasons for demurring from signing the bill as it was presented with a direct primaries mandate contained in it?
Once again, I would like to crave the indulgence of readers to allow me to share my understanding of President Buhari’s expressed concerns about the electoral act amendment bill, 2021 in his now-famous correspondence with the NASS, one-by-one, with the hope that it might create further illumination on the matter from President Buhari’s optics using the prism of a democracy enthusiast like me.
On the fear of insecurity, my take is that if folks are expected to vote in the general elections, they can vote during direct primaries.
So, although the fear of disenfranchisement of people in the violence-stricken areas is real, the challenge can be dealt with in the same manner it was handled during the 2019 general elections. Why is it suddenly anathema to hold direct primaries in crisis-prone areas and expect to hold general elections in the same place?
On the high cost of conducting the elections, my take is that if the president can authorize the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to commit an estimated N1.3 trillion to intervene in a variety of sectors of the economy, why not make similar investments towards reforming the electoral system, which is the very foundation on which a new Nigeria could be built, as such reforms have the ability and capacity to shift our country from third to the first world, as was the case with Singapore when Lee Luan Yew carried out extensive reforms that literarily overhauled the country.
In a worst-case scenario, the present price tag of N305 billion for the annual budget of INEC could be doubled to accommodate direct primaries and it would still be less than the over one trillion nairas that President Buhari, through the Nigerian National National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), spends on subsidizing fuel pump prices year-on-year.
On the question of whether direct primaries should be applied in shortlisting candidates for political office contests by the parties which Mr. President deems as a possible infraction of some principles of democracy, my take is that given that it is the preference of the critical mass of Nigerians to adopt the direct primaries system that worked for President Buhari in 2015, why not allow it to be incorporated into the statutes book since it has been proven to work better than the current system that is being resented by the electorate to the extent that it has triggered voter apathy?
If you ask me, Mr. President’s non-acceptance of direct primaries (as enshrined in the bill passed by NASS), ostensibly because the rule is undemocratic, would be tantamount to crying more than the bereaved, simply because Nigerians prefer it, as demonstrated by the hue and cry in the polity after he failed to assent to the direct primaries component.
Ideally, the current uproar against his decision to veto the bill should guide Mr. President.
Given the opportunity to choose between removing fuel subsidies and direct primaries, I can wager a bet that Nigerians would choose to forgo fuel subsidies for robust electoral reform. If in doubt, President Buhari should try conducting that referendum as former military president Ibrahim Babangida did with the Structural Adjustment Program, or SAP, which he threw open in July 1986 for public debate by Nigerians before its adoption.
In any case, what do I know?
After all, I am only being patriotic and intellectual on the matter, rather than being politically correct in a system that runs on the currency of selfish and group interests.
Apart from the minister of justice and attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, and INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, whom President Buhari acknowledged as those he sought their opinion on the matter, pundits have accused governors of influencing the president’s decision to reject the bill.
Tellingly, governors and legislators had drawn a battle line on who would outwit each other on the question of whether direct primaries should be enshrined in the electoral act in the process of amendment. With President Buhari finally withholding his assent, the leaders of the sub-national entities seem to have triumphed over the legislators.
Uncharacteristically, the governors are appearing to be humble in victory by being reticent since 21/12/2021, when President Buhari communicated his refusal to append his signature to the document that had been subjected to a series of back and forth movements between the upper and lower chambers of NASS.
Does the muteness of the governors suggest that their victory may be pyrrhic? Considering the outrage of Nigerians when they kicked against the expunging of electronic transmission of election results from the polling units to the collation centers, introduced by the lower chamber, but which was watered down by the upper chamber, by basically stripping INEC of its independence, before it was finally restored in the current bill rejected by President Buhari, the legislature should be leaking its wound.
It may be recalled that NASS had transmitted the bill to the president on November 19th with a December 19th (one month long) deadline for him to sign-off on it, or his failure to give consent may be vetoed by NASS by passing the act into law if it feels strongly that a majority of Nigerians are in support of it.
Being a product of a consensus of opinion and therefore the desire of a broad spectrum of Nigerians, the bill truly commands mass appeal.
But the NASS is unlikely to veto President Buhari’s rejection of the bill (as presented) because it is beholden to the presidency, which is another evidence of the general perception of the convergence of the executive, legislative, and judicial arms of government that, in a truly democratic system, are supposed to be independent of each other.
The first and only time that NASS exercised its power of veto since the return of multi-party democracy in Nigeria in 1999 was with the Niger Delta Development Corporation (NDDC) bill under the watch of then-president Olusegun Obasanjo and during the senate presidency of Anyim Pius Anyim.
The NDDC bill only became law after Niger Delta state governors (whose interests were at stake) encouraged their lawmakers in NASS to mobilize the support of their colleagues from other regions in order to garner the 2/3 majority votes of members in both the red and green chambers required to overrule the president by vetoing him.
Today, the reality is different.
Whose overall interest is at stake or who will benefit if the concept of direct primaries is introduced into the statute book? the masses.
Who is supposed to protect their interests? their elected representatives in NASS.
But the passage or otherwise of the Electoral Act Amendment bill is
It is being treated as a family affair by the party at the center, APC, which is clearly monolithic and does not only have control of both the Senate and House of Representatives but also boasts the highest number of governors in the country, so it takes no prisoners.
In broad terms, in the present circumstances, the governors are with the president, so who is on the side of the electorate that would galvanize the legislature into transforming itself from boys to men?
One thing that is curious to me and which has remained a sort of puzzle is that most of the governors allegedly pushing the agenda for indirect primaries that would enable them to continue to control the political parties for which they are basically the piggy banks or Automated Teller Machines, or ATMs, is that most of them are exiting the stage as governors in 2023. With the exception of governor-elect Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra, Godwin Obaseki of Edo, Gboyega Oyetola of Osun, and Abdulahi Sule of Nasarawa states, as well as Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara state, not forgetting Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state and Babagana Umara Zulum, the rest of the governors are completing their second terms in 2023.
So, I am intrigued as to how the current crop of governors will profit from the control of the political parties by the governors that would succeed them.
I’m curious because governors can essentially influence who becomes president, senator, or member of the House of Representatives through indirect primaries.
As most of the current governors are in the terminal stages of their tenure, after which some of them may not make it as the President, Vice President of Nigeria or party chairman, end up as senators, it does not add up that they want to bestow so much power on the governors, a power block that they will be exiting in 2023.
But then, politics and politics are never straightforward calculations.
As such, whatever the agenda may be, hopefully, President Buhari will sign the reworked bill into law early in January after NASS might have extracted the portion that is not acceptable to the president, which to the best of my knowledge is the compulsory conduct of direct primaries by political parties.
It is critically important that the legislators make haste so that the amended electoral act may not become too late to be applied in the fast-approaching 2023 general elections, which is the reason the bill was passed by NASS but not signed into law by President Buhari in 2018.
As things currently stand, the prayer point of all Nigerian men and women of goodwill as we cross over into the new year by God’s grace, should be that the electoral act amendment bill, 2021, would not become an Ogbanje or Abiku in 2022.
Onyibe, an entrepreneur, public policy analyst, author, development strategist, an alumnus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA, and a former commissioner in the Delta State government, sent this piece from Lagos.
As the play, Ufok Ibaan, opened at the famous Ibom Hall yesterday, the elites of Akwa Ibom came out in their numbers.
Everybody was there. From top politicians to media executives, to academicians and world-famous businessmen,
The hall was glitzy, and the absence of the First Lady didn’t even dampen the enthusiasm and energy the hall was radiating.
As I moved to welcome my guests to the all-VIP show, something strange was evolving.
I must seat at the front. I am the protocol officer for Mr. Xxxx and he is coming with his wife and four in-laws, and they normally seat at the front.
Welcome to Akwa Ibom’s top society, I told myself.
Now we have finite seating in front. At best, 50 seats were at the outer limit, and here I was struggling to seat 200 people. A group of citizens who mostly lent their support in the front lines.
In frustration, I went to my brother Tony Ndah and said, “I will run away.” I couldn’t take it any longer, and he said, “This is a COVID-compliant event; people must sit in the front.”
As I was begging and pleading, one protocol officer walked up to me and asked, “Are you the Duke of Shomolu?” I said yes, irritated by this point, and he said, “My principal is coming, and he usually sits in front.”
I say, “Who is your principal?” and he mentions his name. A top academician I wonder if he has a protocol officer too.
Isn’t he somewhere negotiating an ASUU strike or something?
“I’m sorry he has to sit behind,” I said. In the second row, The protocol man says no. He usually sits in front of me, and I always say, “No sir.”
Was I going to ask the man who gave me N2.5m to stand up for an academic who didn’t take my calls for 3 months to soothe his ego and save the job of this hapless protocol man?
I’m sure you know my answer. There was no seat for HIS Excellency Gov. Udom’s representative, the Hon. Commissioner for Culture, Oman Esin, when he arrived.
I begged him. He, being a paddy man, understood and took me outside, ‘Edgar, you don’t work with us, make sure we give you protocol people. This thing is very important in Akwa Ibom. Your protocol list is very key for things like this.
By this time, I was almost done. I was tired of fighting and begging. This was just a play, albeit a very powerful depiction of a strong story. I shouldn’t be fighting protocols.
Then it gets worse-the Duke, who is the brother of the Emir of Kano, must sit in front. I just gave up and shed tears.
Finally, by some miracle, everybody sat in front. The whole two hundred of them, and the show started, and we had a wonderful time.
Then I went to my hotel to sleep and was woken by a text from a young TV CEO whose station had supported the play.
… I was irritated that I was forced to sit two seats back from the front row, on a red chair rather than the black chair on which other VIPs were seated, and even beside the drummers…
This was the next generation, and she had already imbibed the egotistical posturing of our elders.
I told her I was sorry and next time I would ask Senator Udo Udoma, whose family was being celebrated, to stand up from his seat for her.
Akwa Ibom, this was an experience.
Despite this, I still thank you all for the wonderful show of love and support. It’s good to be with your people. Irreplaceable.
The Duke of Shomolu
A few weeks ago, I watched the Minister for Finance and the GMD of NNPC try to justify the subsidy removal policy on a live National Television program. I was thrilled, but not surprised by their comments, that Nigeria can no longer underwrite subsidy payment, or what they just months ago refer to as under-recovery given the economic fundamental that makes such policy inevitable. Their arguments made me remember an old joke that pokes fun at economists and it goes like this:
Three people were stranded on a desert island and had no food. One was a chemist, the second a physicist, and the third an economist. A can of baked beans floated ashore. The chemist suggested that they rub two sticks together to start a fire which would then cause combustion to burst the can open. The physicist calculated a trajectory that would likely break the can open. The economist countered, “Assume we have a can opener.”
This joke says a lot about the recent policy decision of the PMB led administration, and the efforts of his team to convince Nigerians that subsidy removal is the best among all the policy options available to the government to be able to develop critical infrastructures required to enhance the country’s economy’s performance. All their argument for subsidy removal is centered on simple elegance economic assumptions, without weighing the unintended consequences.
Back in the days as a graduate student of public policy, I was taught the basic concepts and assumptions required to make sound public policy choices. I was also taught that for any policy decision of the government to gain popularity there is a need for those involved in drawing such policies to appreciate the power of the people and involve them in the entire process. Several years down the line, I am surprised that most of those who find themselves in government view policy-making processes and decisions from a narrow point of economics – which they even have very little or no knowledge of its philosophical foundations.
Although economics remains my first calling and still imposes discipline on my policy thinking process, hence it is necessary and dares I say that I have learned to make it a crucial part of my analysis skills repertoire – but it is not sufficient. Studying public policy however taught me that within the economic policy-making space, politics plays a very messy role in public policy choices, but politics is harder to discern than the simple elegance of economic assumptions as a reason for the total removal of subsidy. This does not however make politics less important than economics in the policy process.
That the duo of the Minister for Finance and GMD of the NNPC still justify subsidy removal policy from the narrow perspective of abstract economic theories and assumptions without considering its socio-political implications really baffle me. I would have expected them to have applied multi-dimensional logic to argue their point. Doing this will have enabled the government they serve to build different scenarios around the possible implications and consequences of the policy decisions and to determine whether the policy will be acceptable or was inclined to fail. It will have also helped citizens to analyze or critically evaluate the policy from several perspectives and if need be, make their inputs.
The point I am trying to make is that, within the Nigerian socio-economic and political context, petrol subsidy removal must happen, but at this moment, it is an irrational policy decision given the challenges of the high cost of living, growing poverty, and inequality as well as the perception of the majority of Nigerians. As it is today, the PMBs government has lost its social capital. Nigerians do not trust the government and believe that their commonwealth is used for the private gain of politicians or their private sector co-travelers. A cogent reason for the hushed cry for the non-removal of subsidies by Nigerians is valid. For years now, most of those who have held senior positions in government never disputed the fact that it is the inefficiency and incompetence of those in government to properly think through and refine the ‘subsidy’ or is it ‘under-recovery’ that made the policy fail. This means that subsidy, as it is today is the only benefit ordinary poor Nigerians gain or get from our insincere political leaders as a credible redistribution of the commonwealth.
The goal of this article is not to argue for or against the economic rationality of subsidy removal. Rather, to let us know that subsidy is not a one-size-fits-all policy prescription that can be explained with economic models or assumptions, given the existing structural rigidities in our economy, and because there is nothing in economic theory that unequivocally supports the policy. But since the government had already made up its mind to go ahead with the policy irrespective of the pains and untold hardship it will bring forth, one will have expected that the well-thought-out policies and programs to help cushion the impact of the subsidy removal, rather than the proposed 5000-naira cash transfer or palliatives been proposed.
Finally, those who may wish to play politics with this piece will only see one side of the story. Nigeria’s problem is not a subsidy, rather it is a canker of corruption, nepotism, failure of government, high level of incompetence of those holding political office among several others. What is important at this point in time is for the government to proactively tackle and eliminate these problems because for now most low- and middle-income earning Nigerians are not ready or willing to pay for the government’s inefficiency and incompetence.
What do you do when you wake up and all your energy is low? What do you do when you know you are acting spoilt and unhappy because things you have been working hard at & expecting positive news/feedback hasn’t come? Knowing fully well you have a lot to be thankful for but this singular thing has captured your entire being. How do you deal with continuous, unrelenting, and sometimes insensitive demands on your time, mind, money, attention, emotion & more when you don’t have more or are not in the frame of mind to give? What do you do when the people you have given your heart & soul to then ask for your immortality (because I don’t know what else to give after soul ) or the classic, “what have you done for me”?
I woke on Monday this week with all these emotions and looking for where to run to if possible. Everyone sees you and imagine you are perfect, you have no problems. In fact, you are the only solution to their problem., God, I only asked you to give me a good life and see paparazzi God of mine, gave me a life many will die for but silly me, here complaining, whining, being petulant, and wanting to run away. Didn’t Jonah run? What was the end of that? What problems can I possibly have that can compare to Job? What sacrifices have I been asked that come close to the demand of Abraham sacrificing Issac? Imagine Jesus at the last supper with one man willing to kill for him one side and another planning to set him up to be killed on another side of the table? Didn’t God promise a feast for me in front of my enemies? Didn’t David slay Goliath with a slingshot to then be taken down by his own wandering eyes which led him down a series of valleys with Bathsheba and Uriah and then eventually a mountain with Solomon? Did Moses see promised land after all the work? Didn’t Esther break all barriers? Who am I to be entitled to? So Also what is my problem? I realized quickly I was being ungrateful in my anticipation and entitlement. The gift of thinking I have a problem itself is a gift. So I got up & went to do God’s work.
I spent the last two days going to children & schools we sponsor & work with. From regular schools to all-inclusive schools for differently-abled. We have talent in this country for real. And what a reminder it was. I am blessed & lucky. I saw beautiful & happy people whom despite all life has thrown at them, still radiating gratitude & glorifying HIM. What is my problem biko? Devil, you lie. You are a better liar. Whatever I am waiting for will come to me if it is mine. I work 20-hour days, I honor my parents, I do my best for my loved ones, I am my brother’s keeper to the best of my abilities, I don’t covet what is not mine. I and Jealousy are not friends. I am not perfect. I am flawed not broken. I serve my God. He is a faithful God. If it is mine, it will happen because His covenant is if I do my part, He will do his. Like my friend Edgar, Duke of Somolu will say “Mbok, let me continue to my part before God vex say I no serious “
Dr Akintoye Akindele Chairman Platform Capital
He is no doubt a force to be reckoned with in Nigeria and beyond. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is one of the most respected and influential leaders in the country and on the African continent.
Described by many as one of the luckiest Nigerians, as he had the privilege of leading the country twice – first as a military head of state and later as an elected president, he did his best to better a lot of Nigerians while in office.
More than 14 years after leaving office, the 84-year-old elder statesman still commands respect from many Nigerians because the positive impact of his leadership has not stopped reverberating. Some of his notable contributions to national development are highlighted below.
Today, the country is able to join the growing number of countries rolling out 5G network, the latest advancement in wireless technology, because the Obasanjo administration laid the foundation 20 years ago by kick-starting the Global System for Mobile Communications revolution.
The National President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers, Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, was quoted in an October 16, 2021 report by PUNCH as saying, “GSM has been a blessing and this was brought about by the Obasanjo administration; he blazed the trail and gave us GSM to align with the rest of the world. That was something commendable and we should continue to appreciate him for this.”
Another remarkable feat the Obasanjo-led government achieved was the debt relief he secured for Nigeria. He was relentless and undaunted in his efforts to tackle the country’s external debt burden of about $36 billion, most of which was owed to the Paris Club creditors. In October 2015, Nigeria and the Paris Club announced a final agreement for debt relief worth $18 billion and an overall reduction of Nigeria’s debt stock by $30 billion. The deal was completed on April 21, 2006, when Nigeria made its final payment and its books were cleared of any Paris Club debt, according to the Center for Global Development.
Obasanjo, in his address to the nation on June 30, 2005, said, “This debt relief offered to us, I am pleased and proud to say, is the direct product of our relentless and persistent endeavor over the past six years.”
A few months ago, the country celebrated the passage of the much-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill, which seeks to reform the oil and gas industry.
It is worthy of note that the reform efforts started in April 2000, when Obasanjo inaugurated the Oil and Gas Reform Implementation Committee, with a mandate to review and streamline all petroleum laws and advise on establishing a regulatory framework for the sector.
Out of office, Obasanjo has continued to show his commitment to the country’s development in word and deed. He has written at least a letter to every president after him, voicing his concerns about critical national issues.
Love him or loathe him, Obasanjo has distinguished himself as one of Nigeria’s, nay Africa’s, living legends.
To many, National development is about philanthropic ideas such as ‘Doing something for humanity, ‘Changing the world for better, ‘Improving the lives of the poor, or even the ‘Leave no one behind’ principle of global development.
National development does not necessarily follow these morals, it is sometimes the wolf in sheep clothing but one thing is clear, you’d see through that sheep sooner rather than later.
In practice, the process of development involves a great number of interactions between actors of different status with varying resources and goals, but “the endpoint of any developmental thinking or process must be the welfare and wellbeing of the people themselves”.
Beginning with the colonial development plan (1958-1968), Nigeria has a unique background in national development planning— Long-term prejudice, political instability, and corruption, among other things, are stumbling blocks to Nigeria’s development.
Nigeria has tried to promote national development through major strategic initiatives – such as the Structural Adjustment Programme; the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy; the Strategy for Attaining the Millennium Development Goals; and the 7-Point Agenda – which were not seen to have been effectively implemented mainly as they lacked the critical essence of continuity as administrations changed.
With the 1979 election, while still a military dictator, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo redefined national development in modern-day Nigeria by handing over the authority of the country to the newly elected civilian president, Shehu Shagari.
Despite protesting his innocence, he was arrested in 1995 and convicted of being a part of a planned coup against the Abacha dictatorship. He achieved a higher level of spirituality while imprisoned, with providential having a profound influence on his eventual worldview.
The reality that the lessons and pathways built yesterday define our course today necessitates a review of some of the initiatives taken by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to put Nigeria on the road to inclusive development.
To combat corruption in Nigeria, Obasanjo established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), as well as strengthening the Code of Conduct Bureau, after inheriting a deeply divided, indebted, corrupt, and insecure country.
The depoliticization of the military, as well as the expansion of the police and mobilization of the army to battle widespread ethnic, religious, and separatist violence, produced results that were not followed up on by later administrations.
To reduce the country’s spiraling debt, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo privatized various public firms while receiving an $18 billion debt relief from the Paris and London clubs.
Influenced by Pan-Africanist ideas, he was a keen supporter of the formation of the African Union and served as its chair from 2004 to 2006.
Obasanjo, who has been dubbed “one of the great figures of the second generation of post-colonial African leaders,” has been lauded for overseeing Nigeria’s transition to representative democracy in the 1970s as well as his Pan-African efforts to promote cooperation not only within the country but across the continent.
Obasanjo sought to alleviate poverty, reduce government corruption, and establish a democratic system which he followed with action, results of which we still see today in form of the institutions he established.
If there is one thing that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo will be remembered for, it will be his part in ensuring that Nigeria’s telecoms sector thrived.
What then is our takeaway from all this?
A lot I must say, but one thing I’d take away from all these is that development is only possible if there is a willingness from the very tip of power to make sure it happens.
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo Exemplifies this narrative.
God bless Edgar Joseph for his article which reflects his kind thoughts about his root in Nigeria.
Fate has foisted a self-destructive “ifot” phenomenon on an Akwa Ibom mind and to exorcise that fate it will take a deliberately planned program of action by an NGO supported by the Akwa Ibom Government.
Every Akwa Ibom person is a deep believer and or a victim of Ifot witch.
From the governor to the highest Man of God in the streets of Uyo and Akwa Ibom state in general, the belief in Ifot is treasured. All Akwaibomites, maybe with few insignificant numbers are propagandists of the foolish talk and evil exploits of Ifot witch. Akwaibomites model themselves as mere tools or toothpicks in the covens of Ifot witch.
Urban local government is even reputed as the “Airforce Ifot” headquarters, we all know this as we know Uyo as the capital of Akwa Ibom state.
I am yet to attend any circus show in which the actor can disappear or instruct that bullets are fired from the renowned AK47 gun and he will thereafter excrete it out to prove the
Ifot witch powers.
My Akwa Ibom people will tell you that Ifot witch can do that.
Also, an Akwa Ibom candidate who is supposed to score 400 over 400 in JAMB can end up with zero if he has Ifot witch challenge from his family. Are believers in ubiquitous powers of ifot witch stupid, yes they are because their reasoning capacity is inverted and twisted?
If any Akwa Ibom person in diaspora died and is brought home for burial, it is because Ifot witches at home employed their aerial dominance to arrive overseas to kill that Akwaibomite.
Gringory , a character in James Iroha’s Masquerade soap, personifies how subservient an Akwa Ibom person could be with satirical speaking mannerisms and body language. Of course, Okon Lagos TV character is an innovation of the earlier jokes by Gringory for commercial value.
I wish Gringory and Okon Lagos used their talents to sensitize our people about the vanity and self-destructive potentials of the mind that celebrate and eulogies the evil powers of ifot witch. Ex-governor of Akwa Ibom, Obong Akpan Isemin ‘s Mental Adjustment Program didn’t address AkwaIbomites childish belief in ifot witch.
Governor Attah was busy with Resource Control. Then-Governor Akpabio with Housemaid Syndrome.
DUKE OF SOMOLU, has done AkwaIbom a favor by identifying a belief that is holding the state down. Edgar has named the malaise that is limiting and diminishing, i.e the compulsive belief in ifot witch.
I am so gratified that Edgar with a respectable media reach is the one pushing this discussion. I trust in Edgar’s capacity to catapult this topic to the front burner.
It is my opinion that any individual that will help to persuade and lessen AkwaIbom mind from ardent belief in the exploits of witches in the state, that individual must have successfully led his people to cross the last bridge which needs to be crossed for Akwa Ibom enterprise to enter into the threshold of sustained economic impact in sub-Saharan Africa.
State government and clergies must take the lead by telling their flocks that Akwa Ibom’s mind needs to be liberated from witch malaise.
Finally, for all those AkwaIbomites who ran to Lagos in the 60s to avoid being killed by witches, take a lesson from Edgar Joseph’s return to join hands with the progenitor of IBIOM & UFOK IBAAN stage play to develop our beautiful State.
However, if you have nothing to offer or contribute like Edgar Davies, stay wherever you are until your Ifot witch catches up with you.