Friday, May 30, 2008

THE YAR'ADUA REGIME AND THE HAND OVER NOTES EXCUSE

“Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: A desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill. -Muhammad Ali
Former World Boxing Champion

Today, we learnt new facts from impeccable sources at Aso rock as reported by This Day Newspapers of May 29, 2008, that the reasons why Nigeria is currently in doldrums is due largely to the fact that the previous regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, never gave the new regime he handpicked an hand over notes.

According to This Day Newspapers, “365 days after the change of government, Yar'Adua has still not received any formal handover note around which his plans and actions can be anchored. The President has had to rely on the institutional memory of his Chief of Staff, Major General Muhammed Abdullahi (rtd) and Permanent Secretary, Aso Rock, Dr. Steve Oron-sanye, both of who also served under Obasanjo.” (emphasis mine).
My first reaction is to try and pull my grey hairs out of my head. What is going on? Are we still leaving in the middle ages? Whatever happens to vision? I had written elsewhere, that the behaviors and dictates of the present regime in Aso rock closely mirror that of the Second Republic under former President Shehu Shagari. We all know that Shagari was equally foisted on Nigeria and he even admitted that he was ill-prepared for the job. Sadly the same characters that foisted Shagari on our dear nation are also involved with the selection and installation of the Yaradua’s regime. But that is a discussion for some other day.
Now, when you combine the “handover notes excuse” with the recent news item wherein Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, former governor of Sokoto State and presidential candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) in the 2007 elections, stated unequivocally that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is not ready for the office he is occupying it becomes troubling.In an interview with Daily Sun, (reported online by Timesofnigeria.com) Bafarawa held that Yar’Adua has no vision or plan for the country. "Yar’Adua wasn’t ready for the presidency. He had no vision, and that is why he has found himself in a fix," he declared.
That got me worried. I think it was Theodore Hesburgh who stated that “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.” One needs not to look far to see the impending implosive mess that the Yar’adua’s regime had made of our geo-politic. The entire power sector is comatose; the petroleum and energy sector is in doldrums, no thanks to the unrequited wars going on at the Niger Delta. The impressive gains of the private sector epitomized by the Nigeria stock Exchange good indexes of the past few years is gradually been eroded. The consumer confidence is at an all time low. A regime that will dish out capital allocations without any budgets clearly has a visionless and directionless leadership. The fight against corruption is now a mere pawn in the chest board of Yar’adua’s directionless regime.
Some of my friends are often perplexed at my unceasing umbrage directed at the present regime and I usually told them that to whom much is given much are expected. You can explain away the past poor leadership of Nigeria as being largely due to ignorance and lack of education. We all know that Abacha, Babangida, Obasanjo, Murtala, Gowon and Balewa barely graduated with a High School Leaving Certificate. None of them can boast of being within the four walls of a higher institution other than cadet academy. But how do you explain a visionless leadership headed by a graduate of Chemistry, with a Bachelor of Science in Education and Chemistry, and Master of Science Degree in Analytical Chemistry.
And of course a vice president, Jonathan Goodluck, who holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Honours in Zoology with a second class (HONS) upper division, an M.Sc. in Hydrobiology/Fisheries biology, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Zoology from the University of Port Harcourt .
To me these impressive degrees will count for nothing if their regime remains as rudderless as it is. It is also a serious indictment on Nigerian educational system. How did we get to this point, where 365 days after inauguration, a sitting regime will explain its inaction away with a claim that it has not received hand over notes. What correlation has a hand over notes has to do with visionary leadership. Did Late General Murtala Muhammed regime receive any hand over notes from General Yakubu Gowon. whom he violently overthrew, before embarking on a platform of achievements that still remains a golden standard till today?
We need to start calling out this regime, we had endured the darkness for more than 365 days, and it seems our silence is being wrongly interpreted as acquiescence to their inertia. We cannot take it anymore. Here is an example of how democracy is expected to work: “In the small town each citizen had done something in his own way to build the community. The town booster had a vision of the future which he tried to fulfill. The suburb dweller by contrast started with the future—with a shopping center for twice the population, with a school building already built, with churches constructed, with parks and playgrounds and swimming pools. These were as essential to building a suburb as the prematurely grand hotel had been to building a city in the wilderness.
In large developments where the developer had a plan, and even in the smaller developments, there was a new kind of paternalism: not the quasi-feudal paternalism of the company town, nor the paternalism of the utopian ideologue. This new kind of paternalism was fostered by the American talent for organization, by the rising twentieth century American standard of living, and by the American genius for mass production. It was the paternalism of the market place. The suburban developer, unlike the small-town booster, seldom intended to live in the community he was building. For him community was a commodity, a product to be sold at a profit.” Daniel J. Boorstin, The Democratic Experience, Random House (1973).
My intent is to start a letter writing campaign calling on this regime to start explaining how it intends to solve our power outage problems. How it intends to address the Niger Delta problem. Etc. Even though we do not have a say on how they were selected to rule Nigeria, we are the ruled and without our legitimacy they will not remain in power. Join in!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

An Examination of the Yaradua’s Regime as an Extension of the Second Republic

I have often wonder why successive Nigerian government makes their inept predecessors look like professional saints? It is as if something is inherently wrong with our politicians way beyond comprehension. They all come to power with high hopes, vowing to right entrenched wrongs in our polity. Sadly, they ended up making a big mess than their predecessors ever imagined. Don’t get me wrong I am not writing off the present regime in Abuja, but to tell the truth, they are wearing thin my patience.

I recently have a friend over and we started talking. He found my utter disdain for the politicians in Abuja quite astonishing giving my strong avowed belief in one Nigeria, irrespective of who is in Abuja. Without sounding pedantic, I explained to him that the same love I have for Nigeria drives my desire to have a strong committed government in Abuja that dearly cares for the downtrodden masses in our dear land.

When the present government came into power, I was willing to give them a chance, even when their legitimacy is in question. The much I know about Yar’adua give me hope that he will at least guide the ship of our nation out of the troubled waters his predecessors had plunged us into.

Imagine my horrors, when he inaugurated his cabinet and lard them with political jobbers and lackeys who are more interested in filthy lucre than the good of the country! From a foreign minister whose first act in office is to hire a United States Republican party lobbying firm, even when everything points to the fact that the Republican party will be losing the congress that year.
Next, is an attorney general whose loyalty to his previous clients-corrupt ex-governors is never in doubt. And now, we have a Finance Minister, who thinks of his administration as “mallams admin”

What is going on with this madness in Abuja? I had initially thought the initial vendetta against anything “Obj” will soon come to an end and Yaradua will get back to business. I was wrong! The mindless probe continues and at the end of each probe you can bank on the fact that they will end up apologizing to the previous regime because they know they owe their position to Mr. Aremu Obasanjo. All I ask is enough of this probe insanity get on with the job!The regime’s explanation for the ridiculous “go-slow” approach to governance is not only pathetic but dangerous to boot. And to hear the minister of Finance played the ethnic card to the hilt is quite baffling. Listen to him earlier this week, he made reference to an inane rumor about some Nigerians alleging that this regime is full of “Mallams who have come to steal and destroy the gains of the last 8 years?”
First of why descend to that gutter level? Why does he need to answer rumors that can potentially give fire to those who want to dismember Nigeria? The most astounding part of the minister’s press conference is that he actually believes the rumor. He clearly bought into the argument, as if only Mallams are making decisions for this administrations...as if only Mallams voted in their fraudulent selections!My fears are that we have seen this before; this is second republic being played out before our very eyes. Look check out all the characters in the infamous second republic, they are all stalking the land in Abuja.Exhibit One= A docile head of government and president, who do nothing other than attend political party meetings (then NPN, now PDP). Then it was Shehu Shagari, now Umar Musa Yarduah albeit with a little bit of education. For more than 3 years after inauguration the Shagari’s regime did nothing other than parade the streets of Lagos in siren. And now we have a president in Abuja, who gained more press coverage when he traveled to Germany for medical check up. You cannot point to a single policy thrust this administration has embraced and vigorously campaigned for our country to embrace. They are busy pulling down the structures put in place by their predecessors whilst they have no plans for theirs.

Exhibit Two: A comatose National Assembly more interested in accouterments of offices and perks than passing legislation. Check it out: Iyabo's and other honorables trip to Ghana can readily be equated with Saraki and others trip to France for the Fourgeroulle’s affairs.Exhibit Three: A well educated policy wonk but innately timid vice president who is hardly seen in public making any decisions. Except for occasional hosting of traditional rulers and stakeholders coming for visits, you hardly see our current vice president address any intellectual gathering. You can’t see him asking rigorous questions and demanding answers from the bureaucrats who are the conveyors for the fraud in Abuja. Compare Goodluck and Ekwueme, birds of the same feathers? It is as if they were both installed so they won't rock the boat, mere figure head?Exhibit Four: Installed and carefully selected federal parliamentary leaders who aligned with the oligarchic few of government. Current speaker is son of a second republic power player who used party loyalty to climb the levers of power and wealth. Bankole is no different from Edwin Ume Ezeoke, except that with the latter you know his stand with regards to Federalism in Nigeria, but Bankole's loyalty is first and foremost to the Danjuma/Arewa consultative forum clique that installed him at the helms of the House.We know Ezeoke could do the talk and debate issues, Bankole may have that asset, but we don’t know. He is too busy paying back those who installed him as speaker. Nigeria's problem in the early '80s is acute food shortage whilst millions of foreign currencies were being spent on Green Revolution; our current problem is power shortage. It was not that the food shortage problem went away; it is that the press are no longer interested in reporting it. At least in the '80s we get reporters talking to Ezeoke and other, now our press waits for crumbs from PDP conventions.Exhibits Five: An "Out of touch" Senate: who could forget the days of Wayas, Saraki and Barkin Zuwo. Unfortunately our current senate, are giving them a run for their money. With the richest Nigerian in charge of our senate, you might as well forget about democracy for the people. Our present senate president once said telephone is not for the masses, he was proved wrong! Why? Because he never knew poverty in his life and never had to campaign for votes from the masses to know what it feels to be a poor Nigerian. His was a life that started as a “militrican”. He owns the largest golf course in the Carribean, it was once reported that he walked to the Vatican with over 100, 000 dollars in cash as gift for the pope after a private mass.Where did he get his money? Not from any inheritance, not from any successful business. In actual fact he had never had any job other than as public servant. He made his money as minister of communication under the infamous IBB regime. The loot he made then is what he used to grease his way to the senate upper echelon, in an election that still remains an issue of "causa celebra" at the Court of Appeal.You can readily compare David Mark to Saraki and Wayas, two people who never owned a business until they got into government and then smile to banks (and even owned them) whilst Nigerian dies in poverty. Our today senate like the ones in the 1980s, sees every attempt to probe them as an affront on democracy. They will remove any anti-corruption agency that stood in their way to continue the looting. Imagine the petulant way Iyabo Obasanjo justified the looting of the Ministry of health in the name of conference in Ghana. A conference, the Ghanaian government and press had no memory of.Exhibit Six: The Presidency, so aloof from the suffering of Nigerians that nothing moves them. There was a report late in 1983, of President Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, reading and circling an article by Punch Newspapers, where Alhaji Dikko proclaimed that Nigerian are not suffering since no one is eating from the dusting bin yet. Shagari was heard to have exclaimed that "insha Allah" the press will get rid of his government.You can imagine the mindset; his first recourse is not to summon the minister, but to blame the press for reporting a verity. In today's Aso rock, our minister of finance considers this regime a "mallam" reign. He blames the 'go-slow' stance of the government on rumors. As if there was any reform in the last 8 years that did not have input from Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Al-Rufai. It is as if the problem Nigerian are going through matters little compare to the endless probe of Obj, the Arewa Consultative forums are targeting, all in a bid to get back the oil blocks from their southwest elite counterparts.Exhibits Seven: Democracy made in Nigeria, for PDP executives, for the benefits of PDP leaders. This is the same democracy that produced Akinloye's champagne. Everything is being done in Abuja to "purportedly right the wrong." i.e Pay back Ahmadu Alli's millions of Naira for property built illegally, even whilst many other Nigerian whose houses were destroyed are left to live as tenants. The intent of this regime is to settle, settle and settle everyone with grievance. If you are a Danjuma that lost a prized Oil blocks, you will get something more than that back in return as long as you have party executives installed in PDP that will do your biddings.Here is the saddest part of it all, no quality opposition party in Nigeria today. In the Second republic, at least you can count on the likes of Aminu Kano, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Azikiwe to stand for the truth and speak truth to power. Today, the so called CNPP-Conference of Nigeria Political Party, exist only on the pages of newspapers. They are reactive, rather than pro-active. Their stated goal is to get rid of Obasanjo and once baba-cracy leaves they ran out of ideas. They themselves are mired in "settlement syndrome" Compare the readiness of Azikiwe's NPP to accept to serve in NPN government without any preconditions, to the same readiness exhibited by some sections of ANPP, who could not even wait for the Court of Appeal decisions before they threw their candidate (Buhari) under the bus, so they could share in the loot going on in Aso rock.

We need to start asking Yar’adua to produce the dividends of democracy, and come up with policies that will address the problem of the incessant power outage that has rendered our economy comatose. Someone need to tell this government that we are do not care who the mallams in Abuja is, provided they addressed our problems they will get our support. The problems of Abuja is not too many “mallams” in power, but corruption! Corrupt politicians and directionless leaders knew no boundaries.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

What is new in Nigeria? Another Second Republic in the making

How come successive Nigerian government makes their inept predecessors look like professional saints?;.....Is something wrong with us?

Or are we looking at glass half full? What is going on with the madness in Abuja?
I had initially thought the vendetta madness will soon come to an end and Yaradua will get back to business....but alas they had even apologised to the guy they are trying to probe...so what is left...get on with the job!

And then the minister of Finance played the ethnic card to the hilt; citing a mindless rumour about Mallam stealing and destroying the gains of the last 8 years? As if only Mallams are making decisions for this administrations...as if only Mallams voted in their fraudulent elections.....One of my friends finally quibbed last week: Maybe Yaradua is waiting for the Supreme Court decision!

My fears is that we have seen this before, this is second republic being played out before our very eyes. Look check out all the characters in the infamous second republic, they are all stalking the land in Abuja:

Exhibit One= A docile head of government and president, who do nothing other than attend to political party meetings (then NPN, now PDP). Then Shagari, now Yarduah albeit with a little bit of education.Exhibit Two: A comatose National Assembly, more interested in acoutterments of offices and perks than passing legistlation. Check it out: Iyabo's and other honorables trip to Ghana can readily be equated with Saraki and others trip to France for the Fourgeroulle affairs.

Exhibit Three: An educated but timid vice president who is hardly seen in public making any decisions. Except for occasional hosting of traditional rulers and stakeholders coming for visits, you hardly see our current vice president address and intellectual gathering asking rigorous questions and demanding answers from the bureacrats. Compare Goodluck and Ekwueme, birds of the same feathers? It is as if they were both installed so they won't rock the boat. A mere figure head.

Exhibit Four: Installed and carefully selected federal parliamentary leaders who aligned with the oligarchical few of government. Current speaker is son of a second republic player who used party loyalty to climb the levers of power and wealth. Bankole is no different from Edwin Ume Ezeoke, except that the latter to Nigeria is unquestionable, but Bankole's loyalty is first and foremost to the Danjuma/Arewa consultative forum clique that installed in at the helms of the House.
Whilst Ezeoke could do the talk and debate issues, Bankole is also adept at that. Nigeria's problem in the early '80s is acute food shortage whilst millions of foreign currencies was being spent on Green Revolution, our current problem is power supplies. It was not that the food shortage problem went away, it is more that the press are no longer interested in reporting it. At least in the '80s we get reporters talking to Ezeoke and other, now our press waits for crumbs from PDP conventions.

Exhibits Five: An "Out of touch" Senate: who could forget the days of Wayas, Saraki and Barkin Zuwo. Unfortunately our current senate is giving the ills of that era a run for their money. With the richest Nigerian in charge of our senate, you might as well forget about democracy for the people. Our present senate president once said telephone is not for the masses, he was proved wrong! Why? Because he never knew poverty in his life and never had to campaign for votes from the masses to know what it feels to be a poor Nigerian. His was a life that started as a militrican. He owns the largest golf course in the Carribean, it was once reported that he once walked to the Vatican with over 100, 000 dollars in cash as gift for the pope after a private mass.
Where did he get his money? Not from any inheritance, not from any successfull business. Infact he had never had any job other than as public servant. He made his money as minister of communication under the infamous IBB regime. The loot he made then, is what he used to grease his way to the senate upper echelon, in an election that still remains an issue of "causa celebra".

You can readily compare David Mark to Saraki and Wayas, two people who never owned a business until they got into goverment and then smile to banks (and even owned them) whilst Nigerian dies in poverty. Our today senate like the ones in the 1980s, sees every attempt to probe then as an afront on democracy. They will remove any anti-corruption agency that stood in their way to continue the looting. Imagine the petulant way Iyabo Obasanjo justified the looting of the Ministry of health in the name of conference in Ghana. A conference, the Ghanaian goverment and press had no memory of.

Exhibit Six: The Presidency, so aloof from the suffering of Nigerians that nothing moves them. There was a report late in 1983, of President Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, reading and circling an article by Punch Newspapers, where Alhaji Dikko proclaimed that Nigerian are not suffering since no one is eating from the dusting bin yet. Shagari was heard to have exclaimed that "insha Allah" the press will get rid of his government.

You can imagine the mindset, his first recourse is not to summon the minister, but to blame the press for reporting a verity. In today's Aso rock, our minister of finance consider this regime a "mallam" reign. He blames the 'go-slow' stance of the government on every policies to the rumours of an attempt set back the reforms of the last 8 years. As if there was any reform in the last 8 years that did not have input from Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Al-Rufai. It is as if the problem Nigerian are going through matters little compare to the endless probe of Obj, the Arewa Consultative forums are targetting, all in a bid to get back the oil blocks from their southwest elite counterparts.

Exhibits Seven: Democracy made in Nigeria, for PDP executives, for the benefits of PDP leaders. This is the same democracy that produced Akinloye's champagne. Everything is being done in Abuja to "purportedly right the wrong." i.e Pay back Ahmadu Alli's millions of Naira for property built illegally, even whilst many other Nigerian whose houses were destroyed are left to live as tenants. The intent of this regime is to settle, settle and settle everyone with grievance. If you are a Danjuma that lost a prized Oil blocks, you will get something more than that back in return as long as you have party executives installed in PDP that will do your biddings.

Here is the saddest part of it all, no quality opposition party in Nigeria today. In the Second republic, at least you can count on the likes of Aminu Kano, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Azikiwe to speak up. Today, the so called CNPP-Conference of Nigeria Political Party, exist only on the pages of newspapers. They are reactive, rather than pro-active. Their stated goal is to get rid of Obasanjo and once baba-cracy leaves they ran out of ideas. They themselves are mired in "settlement" Compare the readiness of Azikiwe's NPP to accept to serve in NPN goverment without any preconditions, to the same readiness exhibited by some sections of ANPP, who could not even wait for the Court of Appeal decisions before they threw their candidate (Buhari) under the bus, so they could share in the loot going on in aso rock.

We are indeed in deep dodo...read more on my blog

Friday, May 16, 2008

SUBVERTING THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRPTION: THE AONDOAKAA MADNESS

“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become victims of the darkness.”
-Justice William O. Douglas

Every time our attorney general of the federation speaks I almost always have my heart in my mouth. Sometimes he speaks as if he bought his license to practice law at a pawn shop. He has little or no understanding to the underpinnings of the law and constitution, he sworn to protect and defend. He takes liberty with the constitution, depending on the clients he is trying to defend. His obedience to court orders is dependent on the vagaries of his moods and his paid clients, who unfortunately as we are gradually finding out is not the people of Nigeria.

As I write this article, I cringe at what is happening at our Federal Ministry of Justice. It is an open fact that Mr. Michael Aondoakaa SAN, was formerly representing some of the most corrupt state governors before his elevation as attorney general. It seems he carried that representation to his new office and he will stop at nothing to exonerate those clients no matter how ridiculous his defense might sound. We might as well forget he is our attorney general as his zealous advocacy for his corrupt clients trumps his job as the chief enforcer of the law.

And now, today we read about his new diagnosis for corruption in Nigeria. According to news report, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), has challenged the Body of Attorney Generals of Nigeria to initiate laws in their respective states to criminalize the payment of advance rent usually sought by landlords.

In a keynote address at the opening of the second Body of Attorney Generals in Makurdi yesterday, Aondoakaa said the demand of over one year advance rent from tenants by Nigerian landlords was one of the root causes of corruption in the country.

There you have it folks, the “loot-ocracy” going on in Abuja, is down to you poor masses. It is down to landlords who paid through their nose for building materials. It is down to those same landlords who took bank loans to buy or build their houses. In our attorney general obtuse logic, one of the root causes of corruption in Nigeria is one year rent in advance and not the greedy politicians he represents and defends.

Maybe, we need to remind him that the demand of one year rent in advance is rooted in the bad economic policies foisted on Nigeria by this government for which he is part and parcel. Our comatose economy is down to the lethargic “do-nothing” policies of the Yardua’s administration. A policy that is gradually taking apart our Stock exchange ruining many Nigerian investors in the process. A government that is spending over 2 years on vendetta and pay back in the power sector whilst the entire nation plummets into a habitual darkness.

Need we remind him that a 50kg bag of cement currently sells between N1,500 and N2,000 depending on the market location. The current price level of cement in Nigeria is said to be four times the price of the product in Egypt and South Africa, and ten times the price in the United States of America (USA).

Perhaps, he needs to know that as a result of the prohibitive one year rent advance payment; many Nigerians are now building their own house, without any help from the government. Maybe we need to ask him how many houses have been built by this “go-slow” regime since their inauguration. Apart from their much publicized probe into Abuja FCT where they ended up justifying the retroactive “ballooned” payment they made to an ex- Chairman of PDP, what has his administration done to assist Nigerian masses in owning affordable houses?

We need to collectively let Mr. Attorney General know that the subterfuge of his attempt to deflect focus from his numerous corrupt clients will not work, lest we become the victims of darkness stalking our land. We need to expose his pretense for what it is! Nigeria is a free enterprise economy. Nigerians have right to determine what rents to charge on the houses they built from their sweats and labor. Government, particularly the present one in power, has no moral basis to pass any law that address the root causes of corruption, whilst the government itself buried its own head in the sand of corruption protecting the powerful on the back of the poor.