Nigeria woke up this week to a return to an age old military rule tactic: closure of media house. In this case, the government closed a privately owned broadcasting house. A government supposedly elected by the people for the people. It is hard to defend Nigeria’s comatose profiteers masquerading as journalist in Nigeria. The news item that led to the closure smacks of perfidy and appear to have the hands of the enemies of this regime all over it.
The present state of mainstream media in Nigeria is pathetic to say the least. What stops Channels Television from checking the story out with the regime, given it's well known access to the regime especially when Baba Gana Kingibe was still in government? We know how they lobbed easy question to the president and edited out the president coughing fits to camouflage the health of the president during their interview with the president sometimes ago. An interview arranged at the behest of Kingibe to burnish the image of the president when the going was good.
We are in a journalistic era where facts are considered an inevitable hindrance to preconceived agenda and truth is slaughtered frequently to appease the god or goddess of patronage. But the extreme depravity of Nigeria journalism should never be a license to return to military dictatorship. As long as the present regime surrounds itself with “militricians” in “agbada” we will continue to have problems with our democracy.
My first response when I watch the Channels TV broadcast of a fabricated Yar’adua’s retirement is élan. I said to myself, here is a golden attempt by the regime in Abuja to show their democratic credentials by suing the proprietors and journalist of Channel’s Television and thus made Nigerian journalism more accountable.
You can of course imagine my disgust when I woke up the following morning to learn that the Federal Military Government, oops, sorry the democratic Federal Government of Nigeria invaded the premises of Channels television without a search warrant, ransacked the premises, drove out the staff and locked up the station! What manner of democracy is this?
A government desperately searching for legitimacy would have given itself a massive goodwill if it had done the right thing: sue the bastard! Why is legal process so antithetical to the present regime? The answer is simple; their very foundation is grounded in tyranny.
To quote Nigerian Guardian editorial of Thursday, September 18, 2008, “But to revoke the license of a broadcasting station, intimidate the leadership of NAN and incarcerate officials of the two media houses is a sad throw-back to the era of military tyranny, and the authoritarianism of the Obasanjo years.”
In other words, no lesson learnt, nothing has changed. In actual fact if you asked Nigerian if they had received any “dividends of democracy” from the Yar’Adua regime. Their first retort is Yar’adua who? The president imposed on Nigerian by Obasanjo is hardly known outside the PDP “chop make I chop” circles. A president that has spent more time in hospital bed than the actual act of governance cannot be expected to deliver “dividends of democracy to anyone.
I am one of the few that are willing to give Yar’adua’s a chance, and he may yet surprise us, but my hope gradually turns forlorn everyday when I watch the macabre dance going on in Abuja. Hirelings and sycophants are in control of our government. The so called elected leaders have abdicated governance to their “godfathers.” We are “toast!”
We have a lame duck vice president, who hardly performed any duty when the president is away on his numerous hospital beds. We have larger than life Secretary to the Federal government who was recently ousted for plotting to overthrow the regime he sworn to serve. We have a political party, whose interest lies in protecting the interest of its rich members to the exclusion of the masses of Nigeria. How can we make progress in these circumstances? I would not be surprised if the president and the vice president did not know about the closure of Channels Television Station until the news broke out this week. Of course, what do you expect when you make a retired military general with little or no democratic credentials your national security adviser!
Nigerians are very religious, they pray for their president everyday. I think they need to start praying for their country democracy rather than the health of their president. The longevity of this democracy is hanging on a balance. We have a full blown war going on in the Niger Delta. Our stock exchange took a hit and doesn’t appear to have enough life left in it. The fight against corruption is now a footnote rather than a headline. Corruption is pervasive, whilst government is in abeyance. It is as if governance in Nigeria is on an extended vacation. The problem is the officials appear to have bought a one way ticket to vacation, hence return trip is not promised. In their absence, no one is in control. God help Nigeria.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Nigeria in retrospect: Day Babangida overthrew Buhari
Today again I yield these space to a recent article published by Nigerian Compass
Day Babangida overthrew Buhari
Wednesday is the 23rd anniversary of the coup which ousted Major General Muhammadu Buhari and brought General Ibrahim Babangida to power.
GABRIEL AKINADEWO writes on the mistakes of Buhari and the survival strategies of his successor.
After one of the meetings of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) in early July, 1985, the then Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Babangida told the Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, that it would be necessary for him to embark on tour of army formations in the country. Babangida was not asking for too much as those formations were under his office. Babangida also told the Commander-in-Chief the need to boost the morale of officers and to upgrade the infrastructural facilities in the various divisions, brigades and barracks. After a few minutes, the request was granted by Buhari. When Babangida left, Buhari thought about what some officers told him a few weeks earlier of an impending putsch. Although the details were vague, he was told that Babangida was part of the plot to remove him from office. But the problem was that Buhari was not the type of officer who was crazy about office. Again, before he made any move, Buhari would demand for a cast-iron evidence. So, when Babangida came, telling him the need to make the army boys happy, he dismissed the earlier thought. What he did not know was that Babangida was only using the tour as a decoy to perfect the final strategy for the plot which after its success on August 27, 1985 was hailed as a ‘palace coup.’It was no accident of history that Babangida became head of state 10 days after his 44th birthday.
To observers, he had, for years, planned to become the most powerful Nigerian. He was only waiting for the right time and when the chance came, he grabbed it immediately. During the December 31, 1983 coup which ousted Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Buhari was the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 3rd Armoured Division, Jos. Babangida was the Director, Army Staff Duties and Plans. Although Babangida was older, Buhari was senior in hierarchy and he commanded troops. So, it was generally agreed that Buhari should lead the new regime but the moment Babangida was made the Chief of Army Staff, he put machinery in motion which paid off 20 months later.Three factors contributed to the success of the coup. The first was that the then Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Major General Mamman Vatsa, did not really push Buhari enough to move against Babangida. Vatsa was closer to Babangida than Buhari because they were course and soul mates. And most of the officers used for the August 27 coup, especially the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 2nd Mechanised Division, Ibadan, Major General Sani Abacha, were also close to Vatsa. Vatsa knew that the plot was thick and he tried to warn Buhari but Buhari’s non-challant attitude weakened him. When he also told the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Major General Tunde Idiagbon of the plot, Idiagbon merely replied: Let them try. When the Babangida group knew about this, the rumour came out that Vatsa was ambitious to become the Chief of Army Staff and that was why he wanted to discredit Babangida.With that, Vatsa ‘soft-pedalled’ and that gave Babangida the advantage he needed.
Also, since Buhari became the Head of State, he did not promote himself till he was removed. A disciplinarian, he believed that the rot left by the civilian administration must be cleared first. He thought first about the country before himself. Believing that Babangida was loyal to him, he left the army completely under his care. That was why he was easily overwhelmed. When any report came to him, his belief was that the evidence must be strong before any move was made. That was why it took months for him to retire Lt.Col* Mohammed Aliyu Gusau because he was waiting for evidence indicting him in the import licence scam, an evidence which was eventually supplied by the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO) led by Alhaji Rabiu Rafindadi. With the retirement of Gusau, Babangida, his closest ally, felt threatened and moved swiftly to actualise the plot against Buhari. In other climes, half of the evidence gathered was enough to nail Babangida. In Adolf Hitler’s Germany, Hitler was told about the impending move against him by General Ernst Rohm. Röhm was Hitler’s long-time, right-hand man. They were arrested and imprisoned, together with others, after the Beer Hall Putsch fiasco in 1923. Rohm also worked for the emergence of Hitler in 1933 as the Fuhrer. But the moment Hitler learnt that Rohm was plotting against him, he decided, alongside Heinrich Himmler and Herman Goring, that Rohm must be sacrificed. Rohm was executed without trial during the purge of the SA - the so-called ‘Night of the Long Knives.’ in June 1934. Following his arrest by Hitler himself at the resort of Bad Wiessee on June 30, Röhm was held briefly at Stadelheim Prison in Munich. There, on July 2, he was visited by SS-Brigadeführer Theodor Eicke (then the Kommandant of Dachau) and SS-Sturmbannführer Michael Lippert. Lippert, on Hitler’s order, shot Röhm at point-blank range after he refused to commit suicide with a pistol given to him. Also in Ethiopia, the plot against General Mariam Mengistu failed because he moved fast. Mengistu who was in East Germany, returned to crush the rebellion. He ordered the Presidential Guard, supported by militia units, to surround the Ministry of Defence, isolating the key plotters. He detained the entire Ministry of Defence as well as the Commanders of the four Ethiopian Armies; grounded the Ethiopian Air Force and summarily executed hundreds of officers.
The Commander of the 2nd Army, General Demissie Bultu, was beheaded. So, the procrastination of Buhari led to the success of the coup against him. The third success factor was that Babangida planted key loyalists in strategic units of the military, a move Buhari was not aware of. As Head of State, Buhari’s isolation from the military was given a high priority by the Babangida group. It began almost as soon as he came to power in 1984. While he was fixated on purely political national issues with religious fervour, he did not notice that specific officers were being quietly placed in specific operational positions to lay in wait like ‘sleepers’ until they would be called upon to strike by the very service chiefs he had naively placed his trust in to run the armed forces on his behalf. Lt. Col. Halilu Akilu, a Grade 1 Staff Officer in the Directorate, was smuggled into the office of Director of Military Intelligence while Lt. Col. M.C. Alli went to Britain and the United States for an official engagement. Alli deputised for Col. Aliyu Mohammed who had left for a course at the Royal College of Defence Studies after assisting to overthrow Shagari. Akilu was Babangida’s ‘main-man’ in the intelligence community, a counterweight to Alhaji Muhammadu Lawal Rafindadi, Buhari’s loyal head of the NSO. In the actual execution of the coup, Babangida also played a smart one. He chose the celebration of the Eid-el-Kabir, when he knew security would be relaxed and alertness not at the peak, to strike.
On August 26, muslims headed for mosques for morning prayers on Sallah day at the Ikeja Cantonment, but there were strong indications that a change of government was imminent. Buhari, the Commander, Brigade of Guards, Lt. Col. Sabo Aliyu and Buhari’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC), Major Mustapha Haruna Jokolo tried to find out details to no avail. Idiagbon had already travelled to Mecca, together with Vatsa and a few others. Aliyu was reported to have asked Akilu, his friend it it was true ‘some boys’ were planning to overthrow Buhari but Akilu told him there was ‘nothing to fear.’ Determined to know what was about to happen, Aliyu and Jokolo left the State House to find out happenings in the barracks. They were driving round Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Ikeja, seeking information and checking on the status of units, unaware that they were being monitored by Akilu’s men. When it was about 9 pm and because the time for the actualisation of the operation was close, the order was given for their arrest at the Ikeja Cantonment gate. Buhari tried to reach Abacha in Ibadan to no avail. He also told one of his aides to get in touch with Babangida in Minna. All the efforts were fruitless. It was then he realised that he had been outsmarted because Major General Domkat Bali, the Chairman, Joint Chiefs, had no Army to command to counter the impending putsch. At the designated and pre-arranged time, units in Lagos sped toward their objectives. Officers and soldiers of 123rd battalion, 245 Recce battalion, 201 Armoured HQ battalion, the 6th battalion at Bonny Camp and the 93rd battalion at Ojo Cantonment were mobilised.
To prevent anti-riot policemen(MOPOL) from being used, even if it was going to be a fruitless exercise, the Lagos State Police Command headquarters at Ikeja was cordoned off. Lt. Col John Shagaya, the commandant of the 9th Mechanised Brigade, Lt. Col. John Madaki, commanding officer, 123 Guards Battalion, Ikeja and Major Kefas Happy Bulus, acting commanding officer, 245 Recce Battalion, Ikeja played active role in this. Armoured Vehicles and storm troopers were detailed to move to the Radio House in Ikoyi and State House, Dodan Barracks. Babangida gave the task of arresting Buhari to officers he trusted. When Majors Abubakar Umar Dangiwa, Lawan Gwadabe, Abdulmumuni Aminu and Sambo Dasuki arrived the State House, Buhari was waiting for them. He was later whisked away after he was given the chance to dress in his official uniform. After the arrest of Buhari, it was clear that the coup had become a success story.
Then, Colonel* Joshua Nimyel Dogonyaro, Director of Manning (“A” Branch) and concurrent Director of the Department of Armour at the Army Headquarters, announced that the Buhari regime had been deposed. Hours later, at about 1 pm, the more familiar voice of Abacha, who was to become the Chief of Army Staff, announced the appointment of Babangida as the new Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Babangida immediately took the title of ‘President’. The position of Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters was eliminated. Navy Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, then Flag Officer Commanding, Western Naval Command, was appointed to the new position of Chief of General Staff (CGS) at the General Staff headquarters. The first thing Babangida did was to remove the control of service chiefs and GOCs from any direct relationship to any other officer.
They reported directly to the new Commander-in-Chief. Obviously, he didn’t want what happened to Buhari to repeat itself in his regime. He scrapped the NSO and detained Rafindadi for close to three years. Gusau was recalled from retirement, promoted Brigadier*, and became National Security Coordinator, later GOC of the 2nd Division and Chief of Army Administration. Akilu was promoted Colonel, retained directorship of the Military Intelligence and became a member of the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC). http://www.compassnewspaper.com/news.php?extend.2882
Day Babangida overthrew Buhari
Wednesday is the 23rd anniversary of the coup which ousted Major General Muhammadu Buhari and brought General Ibrahim Babangida to power.
GABRIEL AKINADEWO writes on the mistakes of Buhari and the survival strategies of his successor.
After one of the meetings of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) in early July, 1985, the then Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Babangida told the Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, that it would be necessary for him to embark on tour of army formations in the country. Babangida was not asking for too much as those formations were under his office. Babangida also told the Commander-in-Chief the need to boost the morale of officers and to upgrade the infrastructural facilities in the various divisions, brigades and barracks. After a few minutes, the request was granted by Buhari. When Babangida left, Buhari thought about what some officers told him a few weeks earlier of an impending putsch. Although the details were vague, he was told that Babangida was part of the plot to remove him from office. But the problem was that Buhari was not the type of officer who was crazy about office. Again, before he made any move, Buhari would demand for a cast-iron evidence. So, when Babangida came, telling him the need to make the army boys happy, he dismissed the earlier thought. What he did not know was that Babangida was only using the tour as a decoy to perfect the final strategy for the plot which after its success on August 27, 1985 was hailed as a ‘palace coup.’It was no accident of history that Babangida became head of state 10 days after his 44th birthday.
To observers, he had, for years, planned to become the most powerful Nigerian. He was only waiting for the right time and when the chance came, he grabbed it immediately. During the December 31, 1983 coup which ousted Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Buhari was the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 3rd Armoured Division, Jos. Babangida was the Director, Army Staff Duties and Plans. Although Babangida was older, Buhari was senior in hierarchy and he commanded troops. So, it was generally agreed that Buhari should lead the new regime but the moment Babangida was made the Chief of Army Staff, he put machinery in motion which paid off 20 months later.Three factors contributed to the success of the coup. The first was that the then Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Major General Mamman Vatsa, did not really push Buhari enough to move against Babangida. Vatsa was closer to Babangida than Buhari because they were course and soul mates. And most of the officers used for the August 27 coup, especially the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 2nd Mechanised Division, Ibadan, Major General Sani Abacha, were also close to Vatsa. Vatsa knew that the plot was thick and he tried to warn Buhari but Buhari’s non-challant attitude weakened him. When he also told the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Major General Tunde Idiagbon of the plot, Idiagbon merely replied: Let them try. When the Babangida group knew about this, the rumour came out that Vatsa was ambitious to become the Chief of Army Staff and that was why he wanted to discredit Babangida.With that, Vatsa ‘soft-pedalled’ and that gave Babangida the advantage he needed.
Also, since Buhari became the Head of State, he did not promote himself till he was removed. A disciplinarian, he believed that the rot left by the civilian administration must be cleared first. He thought first about the country before himself. Believing that Babangida was loyal to him, he left the army completely under his care. That was why he was easily overwhelmed. When any report came to him, his belief was that the evidence must be strong before any move was made. That was why it took months for him to retire Lt.Col* Mohammed Aliyu Gusau because he was waiting for evidence indicting him in the import licence scam, an evidence which was eventually supplied by the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO) led by Alhaji Rabiu Rafindadi. With the retirement of Gusau, Babangida, his closest ally, felt threatened and moved swiftly to actualise the plot against Buhari. In other climes, half of the evidence gathered was enough to nail Babangida. In Adolf Hitler’s Germany, Hitler was told about the impending move against him by General Ernst Rohm. Röhm was Hitler’s long-time, right-hand man. They were arrested and imprisoned, together with others, after the Beer Hall Putsch fiasco in 1923. Rohm also worked for the emergence of Hitler in 1933 as the Fuhrer. But the moment Hitler learnt that Rohm was plotting against him, he decided, alongside Heinrich Himmler and Herman Goring, that Rohm must be sacrificed. Rohm was executed without trial during the purge of the SA - the so-called ‘Night of the Long Knives.’ in June 1934. Following his arrest by Hitler himself at the resort of Bad Wiessee on June 30, Röhm was held briefly at Stadelheim Prison in Munich. There, on July 2, he was visited by SS-Brigadeführer Theodor Eicke (then the Kommandant of Dachau) and SS-Sturmbannführer Michael Lippert. Lippert, on Hitler’s order, shot Röhm at point-blank range after he refused to commit suicide with a pistol given to him. Also in Ethiopia, the plot against General Mariam Mengistu failed because he moved fast. Mengistu who was in East Germany, returned to crush the rebellion. He ordered the Presidential Guard, supported by militia units, to surround the Ministry of Defence, isolating the key plotters. He detained the entire Ministry of Defence as well as the Commanders of the four Ethiopian Armies; grounded the Ethiopian Air Force and summarily executed hundreds of officers.
The Commander of the 2nd Army, General Demissie Bultu, was beheaded. So, the procrastination of Buhari led to the success of the coup against him. The third success factor was that Babangida planted key loyalists in strategic units of the military, a move Buhari was not aware of. As Head of State, Buhari’s isolation from the military was given a high priority by the Babangida group. It began almost as soon as he came to power in 1984. While he was fixated on purely political national issues with religious fervour, he did not notice that specific officers were being quietly placed in specific operational positions to lay in wait like ‘sleepers’ until they would be called upon to strike by the very service chiefs he had naively placed his trust in to run the armed forces on his behalf. Lt. Col. Halilu Akilu, a Grade 1 Staff Officer in the Directorate, was smuggled into the office of Director of Military Intelligence while Lt. Col. M.C. Alli went to Britain and the United States for an official engagement. Alli deputised for Col. Aliyu Mohammed who had left for a course at the Royal College of Defence Studies after assisting to overthrow Shagari. Akilu was Babangida’s ‘main-man’ in the intelligence community, a counterweight to Alhaji Muhammadu Lawal Rafindadi, Buhari’s loyal head of the NSO. In the actual execution of the coup, Babangida also played a smart one. He chose the celebration of the Eid-el-Kabir, when he knew security would be relaxed and alertness not at the peak, to strike.
On August 26, muslims headed for mosques for morning prayers on Sallah day at the Ikeja Cantonment, but there were strong indications that a change of government was imminent. Buhari, the Commander, Brigade of Guards, Lt. Col. Sabo Aliyu and Buhari’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC), Major Mustapha Haruna Jokolo tried to find out details to no avail. Idiagbon had already travelled to Mecca, together with Vatsa and a few others. Aliyu was reported to have asked Akilu, his friend it it was true ‘some boys’ were planning to overthrow Buhari but Akilu told him there was ‘nothing to fear.’ Determined to know what was about to happen, Aliyu and Jokolo left the State House to find out happenings in the barracks. They were driving round Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Ikeja, seeking information and checking on the status of units, unaware that they were being monitored by Akilu’s men. When it was about 9 pm and because the time for the actualisation of the operation was close, the order was given for their arrest at the Ikeja Cantonment gate. Buhari tried to reach Abacha in Ibadan to no avail. He also told one of his aides to get in touch with Babangida in Minna. All the efforts were fruitless. It was then he realised that he had been outsmarted because Major General Domkat Bali, the Chairman, Joint Chiefs, had no Army to command to counter the impending putsch. At the designated and pre-arranged time, units in Lagos sped toward their objectives. Officers and soldiers of 123rd battalion, 245 Recce battalion, 201 Armoured HQ battalion, the 6th battalion at Bonny Camp and the 93rd battalion at Ojo Cantonment were mobilised.
To prevent anti-riot policemen(MOPOL) from being used, even if it was going to be a fruitless exercise, the Lagos State Police Command headquarters at Ikeja was cordoned off. Lt. Col John Shagaya, the commandant of the 9th Mechanised Brigade, Lt. Col. John Madaki, commanding officer, 123 Guards Battalion, Ikeja and Major Kefas Happy Bulus, acting commanding officer, 245 Recce Battalion, Ikeja played active role in this. Armoured Vehicles and storm troopers were detailed to move to the Radio House in Ikoyi and State House, Dodan Barracks. Babangida gave the task of arresting Buhari to officers he trusted. When Majors Abubakar Umar Dangiwa, Lawan Gwadabe, Abdulmumuni Aminu and Sambo Dasuki arrived the State House, Buhari was waiting for them. He was later whisked away after he was given the chance to dress in his official uniform. After the arrest of Buhari, it was clear that the coup had become a success story.
Then, Colonel* Joshua Nimyel Dogonyaro, Director of Manning (“A” Branch) and concurrent Director of the Department of Armour at the Army Headquarters, announced that the Buhari regime had been deposed. Hours later, at about 1 pm, the more familiar voice of Abacha, who was to become the Chief of Army Staff, announced the appointment of Babangida as the new Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Babangida immediately took the title of ‘President’. The position of Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters was eliminated. Navy Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, then Flag Officer Commanding, Western Naval Command, was appointed to the new position of Chief of General Staff (CGS) at the General Staff headquarters. The first thing Babangida did was to remove the control of service chiefs and GOCs from any direct relationship to any other officer.
They reported directly to the new Commander-in-Chief. Obviously, he didn’t want what happened to Buhari to repeat itself in his regime. He scrapped the NSO and detained Rafindadi for close to three years. Gusau was recalled from retirement, promoted Brigadier*, and became National Security Coordinator, later GOC of the 2nd Division and Chief of Army Administration. Akilu was promoted Colonel, retained directorship of the Military Intelligence and became a member of the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC). http://www.compassnewspaper.com/news.php?extend.2882
Thursday, July 31, 2008
A Rejoinder to Northern Nigeria Governors Press Release
Today, I yield these pages to an illustrious son of Nigeria, the Late Yusuf Bala Usman, the article below is a good riposte to the recent rantings of Northern Nigeria governors. Let no one think that the underpinings of this articles applies only to the North of Nigeria. The same argument can be made of the southwest, where the gerontocratic leadership in cahoot with feudalistic traditional rulers have made mess of the gains highlighted by Dr. Usman in this article. In the East, the rapacious ex-governors holds sway. Nigeria is currently on the throes of death, with bayonets drawn from all sides by rabid ethnic traducers who used the ignorance of the Nigerian peoples to set them against each other in the name of "tribalism" whilst they loot the coffers of the nation. Please read on:
Political Economy and Political Stability in Nigeria in the Early 21st Century*
by Yusufu Bala Usman,
CEDDERT, Hanwa, Zaria, Nigeria.
Being A contribution to the Workshop on the Survival of Democracy in Nigeria, Royal Tropicana Hotel, Kano, Wednesday, 27th September, 2000.
The little contribution I am going to attempt to make to this workshop is on the subject of, Political Economy and Political Stability in Nigeria in the Early 21st Century. This takes care of what was in the provisional title, as set out in this workshop’s programme, and even goes beyond it. Political economy covers education, employment, and much more, including political stability, whose nature, forms, root causes and pattern, cannot be properly understood with the outlook which imposes an arbitrary distinction between politics and economics; a distinction which, as you all very well know, does not exist in real life. The central theme of this workshop, according to its programme, is the survival of democracy. And, since the country is now operating under a democratic constitution, the main issue before us is, the growth and stabilisation of this democracy in it. A democratic form of government is being established in this country over the last fifteen months, after fifteen long years of military dictatorship. Like everything else in natures and society, this form of government has to grow in order to stabilise and survive.
A cardinal requirement for this is that those who have taken on their shoulders the responsibility for operating this term of government have to be clear-headed as to what this growth and stabilisation involves. They have to understand, and make their followers understand, what the establishment of democracy means beyond winning elections by hook-or-by-crook, and sharing the legal and illegal spoils of office. This contribution is aimed at drawing the attention of the participants at this workshop to some of the realities of the Nigerian political economy which will determine whether this democracy grows and survives or whether it breaks down and is overthrown. Some of these realities, even the organisers of this workshop, from the way they have formulated its theme, seem to want to evade. But, before going into all these we need to seek to clarify what political stability, in general, and the stabilisation of democracy, in particular, means in the context of our country in Africa and the world in these early years of the 21st century.
Political Stability
The political stability of any form of government has to involve the stable realisation of the political essence of that form of government. The political stability of a communal gerontocracy in villages and small towns headed by elders under an age grade system, means the continuation of the exercise of power by those who have reached the appropriate age at various levels of the system. The political stability of a feudal monarchy means the continuation of the exercise of power by the heirs of the dynasty or dynasties who produce the monarch.
The political stability of the type of democracy provided for in our constitution means the continuation of the exercise of power by those freely elected by the people of this country for specific periods with definite mandates which conform with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy clearly defined in chapter II of the Constitution. The opening sections of this chapter makes this very explicit, providing that: 13. It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government , and of all authorities and persons exercising legislative executive or judicial powers, to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of this chapters of the Constitution. 14(i) The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a state based on the principles of democracy and social justice (2) If is hereby accordingly declared that- (a) sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority (b) the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Therefore, the political stability of our democracy does not mean the stability of the power of any civilian elected to rule any way they want. There can only be political stability for our type of democracy if those freely elected rule in accordant with the fundamental objectives and Directive Principles of state policy and in words and decide make the security and welfare of the people the primary purpose of government. Most of you elected to hold office under this Constitution who have taken solemn oaths on the Holy Koran or the Holy Bible to carry out your duties in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution like to behave as if these Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles do not exist, or if they do they are merely words intended to decorate a document whose only use is to get the soldiers out and get you into official and give you the keys to the public treasury. This is why even before this democratic form of government has taken-off it is threatened with political instability. But instead of facing up to your clear constitutional responsibilities you used all sorts devices to evade them in order to rule the country, as if that is all you were elected to do.
Compartmentalisation
One of these devices is the compartmentalisation of the country into the so-called six geo-political zones, which?? This outlook has now become so pervasive that the organisers of this workshop can conceive of a serious discussion of democracy surviving, or not surviving, in six States in a federation of thirty-seven states, without any consideration of the fact that if democracy does not survive at the level of the Federal Government where sovereign power lies, it cannot survive in any part of the territory under this government.
This retrogressive outlook which squeezes the complex geographical, cultural, economic and political diversity of the country’s thirty-six States and seven hundred and seventy four local government areas, into six so-called geopolitical zones arose from the divide-and-rule agenda of the military dictatorship led by the late General Sani Abacha, and of its NADECO rivals, both sides of which shared an interest in reducing the political crises arising from the annulment of the June 12th presidential elections to an ethnic and regional conflict between the Yorubas and the Hausa-Fulani and between the North and the South. This outlook has no basis in the actual geographical, cultural, social economic and political realities of the country. Let us take the so-called North-West Zone for example. At what level of the physical and human geography of Nigeria, does Kano, Jigawa, and Kaduna States belong to the same zone with Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara, and not with Yobe and Borno, in the case of Jigawa; Bauchi, and Gombe in the case of Kano; and Niger in the case of Kaduna and Kebbi? At what level of political culture, political activity and political behaviour do the inhabitants of these States belong together, more then with others? What is the empirical evidence for this geo-political cohesion? Linguistic? Is it that these are the states where the Hausa language is predominant? Then why not call them linguistic zones and not pretend that they have some geo-political unity, separate from the others? But then can you call the North-East Zone, or the North-Central Zone or the South-South linguistic zones? This creeping separatist mentality may be a convenient cover to promote tribalistic politics with which you can evade your Constitutional responsibilities of ensuring the security and welfare of the people because not only at the level of politics, but even at the level of the climate, the hydrology, the demography and the economy the states of the so-called North-West Zone, like those of the other zones, are so interdependent with one another and with parts of the neighbouring countries of Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, that they cannot do without one another.
All I want to do here is to draw your attention of how wittingly or unwittingly we get our minds imprisoned by conceptions which have no basis in the realities of our existence and in the Constitution and yet which makes assume that we can meaningfully discuss the survival democracy in some states of a federation and not in others and not at the level of the Federal Government.
Misrepresentation
Besides promoting a narrow and tribalistic political outlook this compartmentalisation allows for misleading characterisations which also allow you the elected public officers to run away from your Constitutional responsibilities. One of there characterisations, is the one found in the them of this workshop referring to these seven states as “economically weak” The reality on the ground is that these states are not economically weak in the context of the Nigerian Federation and of West Africa and, in fact, of the whole of Africa.
This misrepresentation arises from the myth that the Nigeria has an oil-based economy, and the states which have no oil wells and no significant proportion of the plants of the manufacturing sector are economically weak. But almost everybody knows that the states in the so-called North-West Zone are not only well endowed with vas natural and human resources for agriculture, livestock-rearing and fresh-water fisheries and a wide range of domestic crafts, extensive commercial activity. The facts as is brought in Table 1, are that minerals, including petroleum have never exceeds more then 14% of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product. Agriculture, including livestock, and fisheries in the last two decades accounts for around 40% of the GDP. If you consider the serious limitations of the Federal Office of Statistics, the Central Bank, and the other organisation computing Nigerian economic statistics, particularly in relation to the rural economy and the vast so-called “informal sector,” in both the rural and urban economy, the agricultural sector is likely to account for more then 50% of the country’s GDP. Out of this a significant portion comes from the states of the north-west. So how can they be “economically weak”?
Let us take one basic determinant of the strength of an economy which is the capacity for the production of food. Amongst the foodstuff essential for human nutrition are proteins, derived from legumes and livestock. The states of the north-west produce over 70% of the beans produced in this country in the period 1992-1995 as Table 2, illustrate. These states have for the years 1991-1995 produced up to over 50% of the cattle , goats, and sheep, inspected and slaughtered in the country, as Tables, 3,4, and 5 respectively bring out. These states is properly governed can double and treble this output in the next few years. These states are not economically weak” therefore. They are economically backward, because even in the sub-sectors of agriculture where they are leading, like in the production of some of the most basic protein-rich, foodstuff, this strength is not reflected in the living conditions of the people of these states. And since an economy is basically the utilisation of natural resources with human capacity for human needs, when the living condition of a people incapacitate them that economy is backward, it is retarded, not weak.
Malnutrition
The gap between the resource endowment of the economy of these seven states and the living condition of their people is clearly brought out in the fact regarding the under-nourishment of children in these states. The nutrition health and the general welfare of the children in any society is one of the best indicators of the general living conditions of the people in that society. Here you have states which lead the rest of the country in the production of foodstuff, particularly protein-rich beans and meat, but the children of these states are much more under nourished then children in other states who are not so well-endowed. As Table 7 bring out 43.1% of children under five in Nigeria are stunted largely due to poor nutrition but the figure for the north-west is 50.4% while that of the south-east is 36.6% and 35.6% in the south-west! This is very revealing about the political economy of the states of this zone, where the children of those who produce a significant amount of the protein-rich beans and meat for the country are under-nourished and suffer from being under-weight wasting and stunting, with long-term consequences damage to their capacity education, training and for mental and manual labour in adulthood. But it is not only on the area of nutrition that these states are backward, severely damaged, but also in almost all other areas of child welfare, as Table 7 illustrates with regards to prenatal care, delivery, vaccination, infant mortality under-five mortality and the occurrence of diarrhoea. Thus, the people of these states who are damaged by malnutrition, although they are major producers of food also suffer in other areas of their welfare, in spite of the fact that in terms of the revenue allocated to their local and state governments, they have not being at a disadvantage, as Tables 8, 9, and 10 bring out clearly and which you are more then familiar with.
Lack of Infrastructure
In the period June, 1999 to May 2000, in your first one year in office, the local and state governments of the seven states of the north-west received a total of 92.5 billion naira from the Federation Account. The local governments receiving N22.5 billion and the seven state governments receiving N30.0 billion with a total population of about 30 million this means for every single men, women, child and infant you received a total of N1,733.3 which you have solely sworn to use for their security and welfare. There are no indications in terms of their living conditions that you have used these billions of naira as you have sworn to do. The fact is that far from the state of north-west being economically weak, their economy is actually well-endowed but it is very oppressive and exploitative of the producers of the wealth.
A ruling class made up of local, states and federal government bureaucrats, military officers politicians, traditional rulers, businessmen and religious leaders has established a strangle-hold on the lives of the peasant farmers, pastoralist, traders, craftsmen, workers and artisans in these states. The areas of health, water supply and education as the tables here illustrate are ones in which the rapacious role of this elite is most clearly illustrated. While as Table 11 bring out the national percentage of household with water supply from pipes and boreholes in 1993-1994 was 31/7%, it was only 26.3% in the states here. That was seven years ago. The situation is much worse now, even for our households in the most favoured areas of the GRAs. The pipe-borne water supply system has virtually collapsed in most of the major urban centres, in spite of the hundreds of billion of naira local state, and federal government funds and foreign loans allocated to waters projects now and over the years. The water situation of the majority of the people in the rural areas and the high-density urban areas is a disaster. If we turn to electricity supply we find on Table 12 that while the national average of households having access to electricity in 1993/94 was 33.63% it is below half of that at 16.5% in the seven states of the north-west.
Crippling Manufacturing
The backwardness of the states of the north-west is a result of the highly exploitative and parasitical activities of the section of the Nigerian ruling class dominant in these states. Their capacity and parasitism is brought out over how they have not only undermined the major industries established here like the Sokoto Cement Factory, the Kaduna Refinery, the Katsina Steel Rolling Mill and the Fiat Vehicle Assembly Plant in Kano, but they rose in arms against the P.R.P Government of Kaduna State, when in 1979-1983 it set out to establish fourteen industries in Kaduna State, some of which were agro-allied, in order to build up on the states leading role in the production of agricultural inputs into the food beverages and related industries. As a result of their rapacity of the seven states of the north-west, as Table 13 reveals, had only 53 out of the 330 food and beverages industries in the whole country in 1994, which is about half of the 104 located in Lagos and Ogun states many of which rely directly on food inputs from the states of the north-west.
Plundering Education
The level of parasitism on the part of the rulers of this parts of Nigeria is far-reaching. For, the local, State and federal government funds allocated to this part of the country and formally assigned for educational development are systematically stolen by a highly organised education industry mafia, to the extent that the peoples of the area are some of the most educationally backward in the country. The level of backwardness cannot be covered-up with the evasive tactic of calling these “educationally disadvantaged-states.” There is no question of any disadvantage as the budget of these states in educational sector makes clear. When billions of naira are allocated to education and yet the percentage of unqualified primary school teachers in 1995/96 in Katsina State was 76.31%; in Sokoto and Zamfara States it was 72.54%; 59.55% in Kebbi States; 59.18% in Jigawa States; 58.00% in Kano State and 31.02% in Kaduna State. The national average of unqualified primary school teachers is 24.05% giving Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara States the distinction having 300% more unqualified primary school teachers then the national average. Anambra, Ogun, Osun and Oyo record on 2% of their primary teachers being unqualified!
These states of the north-west are clearly just backward educationally because of the rapacity, of their ruling elites, because in these states there are the institutional provisions and the funds available to train the hundreds of thousands of secondary school-leavers and College of Education drop-outs to become qualified primary school teachers. But this is not done and among the reasons is that the local and state governments and the federal agencies, want to minimise the amount of money they pay teachers and for the running of the schools. They believe these are better taken and put in their own pockets, so that they can continue run around the country calling their states “educationally dis-advantaged,” while they are actually the most educationally-advantaged section of the Nigerian elite, since they make so much money from education! Even for the Technical Colleges, for the training of bricklayers, plumbers and electricians, and such essential technicians these states which have a very poor system for apprenticeship training in the private, sector have barely 12% of the total enrolment in 1997-98, far below what they need, in terms of population, area and other resource endowments. In the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination of 1995, 44,2999 student from the seven states sat for the paper on English and only 1,185 passed, that is 2.6% passed. In mathematics the percentage that passed was 5.1% and in Physics it was only 2.5%. Out of the 4,870 who sat for Physics from Katsina State, only thirteen passed, giving it a failure rate 99.8%!
It is not surprising therefore, that in the UME admissions to Faculties of Agriculture of Nigerian Universities in 1998, out of 3,069 candidates admitted only 99 came from these seven largely agricultural state, which are not up to the 128 admitted to read agriculture from Lagos State, which barely had any significant agricultural sector in its economy. The 3.2% admission from these states to read agriculture is about the same in engineering and environmental technology, where out of 11,782 candidates admitted on 3.6%, that is 428 are from these seven states, less then half of the 1,167 admitted to those faculties from Imo State alone. The percentages admitted from these states, into the medical science faculties and into the basic sciences were 3.9% and 2.6% respectively. Table 19 reveals that this backwardness is not just in the physical and natural sciences it extends to admission into the faculties of administration, art, education, law and the social sciences. The situation is equally disastrous if not even more dangerous with regards to admission into the polytechnics as Table 17 reveals. At this crucial of education essential for the training of essential middle level manpower for the economy the percentages admitted from these states for the two years 1996/97 and 1997/98 are 0.02% from Jigawa State; 0.11 from Kadna State; 0.12% from Kaduna State; 0.03% from Kebbi State; 0.005% from Sokoto and 0.004% from Zamfara State. The seven states had only 0.31% of the admissions in that year!
Conclusion
The seven states of the north-west are not economically weak and educationally disadvantaged. They are economically exploited and educationally plundered. Their people are held in the grip of an oppressive system which rapidly enriches those in power and authority in the public and private sectors and impoverishes and dispowers the majority of the citizens.
This process of the enrichment of the few and the impoverishment of the many generates resentments, insecurity and violence. The attempt to channel the resentments away from the rich and powerful who are actually responsible for it, and direct it to take the form of communal ethnic, religious and regional hatreds and phobias, entrendies a particular type politics, most easily described as the politics of fear. This type of politics seriously retards the growth of civic consciousness and civic responsibility necessary fro democratic political activity to grow and survive, because it turns politics into a jungle with predator and prey and not an activity by citizens contesting and cooperating in working out the best way of running their affairs.
Political Economy and Political Stability in Nigeria in the Early 21st Century*
by Yusufu Bala Usman,
CEDDERT, Hanwa, Zaria, Nigeria.
Being A contribution to the Workshop on the Survival of Democracy in Nigeria, Royal Tropicana Hotel, Kano, Wednesday, 27th September, 2000.
The little contribution I am going to attempt to make to this workshop is on the subject of, Political Economy and Political Stability in Nigeria in the Early 21st Century. This takes care of what was in the provisional title, as set out in this workshop’s programme, and even goes beyond it. Political economy covers education, employment, and much more, including political stability, whose nature, forms, root causes and pattern, cannot be properly understood with the outlook which imposes an arbitrary distinction between politics and economics; a distinction which, as you all very well know, does not exist in real life. The central theme of this workshop, according to its programme, is the survival of democracy. And, since the country is now operating under a democratic constitution, the main issue before us is, the growth and stabilisation of this democracy in it. A democratic form of government is being established in this country over the last fifteen months, after fifteen long years of military dictatorship. Like everything else in natures and society, this form of government has to grow in order to stabilise and survive.
A cardinal requirement for this is that those who have taken on their shoulders the responsibility for operating this term of government have to be clear-headed as to what this growth and stabilisation involves. They have to understand, and make their followers understand, what the establishment of democracy means beyond winning elections by hook-or-by-crook, and sharing the legal and illegal spoils of office. This contribution is aimed at drawing the attention of the participants at this workshop to some of the realities of the Nigerian political economy which will determine whether this democracy grows and survives or whether it breaks down and is overthrown. Some of these realities, even the organisers of this workshop, from the way they have formulated its theme, seem to want to evade. But, before going into all these we need to seek to clarify what political stability, in general, and the stabilisation of democracy, in particular, means in the context of our country in Africa and the world in these early years of the 21st century.
Political Stability
The political stability of any form of government has to involve the stable realisation of the political essence of that form of government. The political stability of a communal gerontocracy in villages and small towns headed by elders under an age grade system, means the continuation of the exercise of power by those who have reached the appropriate age at various levels of the system. The political stability of a feudal monarchy means the continuation of the exercise of power by the heirs of the dynasty or dynasties who produce the monarch.
The political stability of the type of democracy provided for in our constitution means the continuation of the exercise of power by those freely elected by the people of this country for specific periods with definite mandates which conform with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy clearly defined in chapter II of the Constitution. The opening sections of this chapter makes this very explicit, providing that: 13. It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government , and of all authorities and persons exercising legislative executive or judicial powers, to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of this chapters of the Constitution. 14(i) The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a state based on the principles of democracy and social justice (2) If is hereby accordingly declared that- (a) sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority (b) the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Therefore, the political stability of our democracy does not mean the stability of the power of any civilian elected to rule any way they want. There can only be political stability for our type of democracy if those freely elected rule in accordant with the fundamental objectives and Directive Principles of state policy and in words and decide make the security and welfare of the people the primary purpose of government. Most of you elected to hold office under this Constitution who have taken solemn oaths on the Holy Koran or the Holy Bible to carry out your duties in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution like to behave as if these Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles do not exist, or if they do they are merely words intended to decorate a document whose only use is to get the soldiers out and get you into official and give you the keys to the public treasury. This is why even before this democratic form of government has taken-off it is threatened with political instability. But instead of facing up to your clear constitutional responsibilities you used all sorts devices to evade them in order to rule the country, as if that is all you were elected to do.
Compartmentalisation
One of these devices is the compartmentalisation of the country into the so-called six geo-political zones, which?? This outlook has now become so pervasive that the organisers of this workshop can conceive of a serious discussion of democracy surviving, or not surviving, in six States in a federation of thirty-seven states, without any consideration of the fact that if democracy does not survive at the level of the Federal Government where sovereign power lies, it cannot survive in any part of the territory under this government.
This retrogressive outlook which squeezes the complex geographical, cultural, economic and political diversity of the country’s thirty-six States and seven hundred and seventy four local government areas, into six so-called geopolitical zones arose from the divide-and-rule agenda of the military dictatorship led by the late General Sani Abacha, and of its NADECO rivals, both sides of which shared an interest in reducing the political crises arising from the annulment of the June 12th presidential elections to an ethnic and regional conflict between the Yorubas and the Hausa-Fulani and between the North and the South. This outlook has no basis in the actual geographical, cultural, social economic and political realities of the country. Let us take the so-called North-West Zone for example. At what level of the physical and human geography of Nigeria, does Kano, Jigawa, and Kaduna States belong to the same zone with Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara, and not with Yobe and Borno, in the case of Jigawa; Bauchi, and Gombe in the case of Kano; and Niger in the case of Kaduna and Kebbi? At what level of political culture, political activity and political behaviour do the inhabitants of these States belong together, more then with others? What is the empirical evidence for this geo-political cohesion? Linguistic? Is it that these are the states where the Hausa language is predominant? Then why not call them linguistic zones and not pretend that they have some geo-political unity, separate from the others? But then can you call the North-East Zone, or the North-Central Zone or the South-South linguistic zones? This creeping separatist mentality may be a convenient cover to promote tribalistic politics with which you can evade your Constitutional responsibilities of ensuring the security and welfare of the people because not only at the level of politics, but even at the level of the climate, the hydrology, the demography and the economy the states of the so-called North-West Zone, like those of the other zones, are so interdependent with one another and with parts of the neighbouring countries of Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, that they cannot do without one another.
All I want to do here is to draw your attention of how wittingly or unwittingly we get our minds imprisoned by conceptions which have no basis in the realities of our existence and in the Constitution and yet which makes assume that we can meaningfully discuss the survival democracy in some states of a federation and not in others and not at the level of the Federal Government.
Misrepresentation
Besides promoting a narrow and tribalistic political outlook this compartmentalisation allows for misleading characterisations which also allow you the elected public officers to run away from your Constitutional responsibilities. One of there characterisations, is the one found in the them of this workshop referring to these seven states as “economically weak” The reality on the ground is that these states are not economically weak in the context of the Nigerian Federation and of West Africa and, in fact, of the whole of Africa.
This misrepresentation arises from the myth that the Nigeria has an oil-based economy, and the states which have no oil wells and no significant proportion of the plants of the manufacturing sector are economically weak. But almost everybody knows that the states in the so-called North-West Zone are not only well endowed with vas natural and human resources for agriculture, livestock-rearing and fresh-water fisheries and a wide range of domestic crafts, extensive commercial activity. The facts as is brought in Table 1, are that minerals, including petroleum have never exceeds more then 14% of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product. Agriculture, including livestock, and fisheries in the last two decades accounts for around 40% of the GDP. If you consider the serious limitations of the Federal Office of Statistics, the Central Bank, and the other organisation computing Nigerian economic statistics, particularly in relation to the rural economy and the vast so-called “informal sector,” in both the rural and urban economy, the agricultural sector is likely to account for more then 50% of the country’s GDP. Out of this a significant portion comes from the states of the north-west. So how can they be “economically weak”?
Let us take one basic determinant of the strength of an economy which is the capacity for the production of food. Amongst the foodstuff essential for human nutrition are proteins, derived from legumes and livestock. The states of the north-west produce over 70% of the beans produced in this country in the period 1992-1995 as Table 2, illustrate. These states have for the years 1991-1995 produced up to over 50% of the cattle , goats, and sheep, inspected and slaughtered in the country, as Tables, 3,4, and 5 respectively bring out. These states is properly governed can double and treble this output in the next few years. These states are not economically weak” therefore. They are economically backward, because even in the sub-sectors of agriculture where they are leading, like in the production of some of the most basic protein-rich, foodstuff, this strength is not reflected in the living conditions of the people of these states. And since an economy is basically the utilisation of natural resources with human capacity for human needs, when the living condition of a people incapacitate them that economy is backward, it is retarded, not weak.
Malnutrition
The gap between the resource endowment of the economy of these seven states and the living condition of their people is clearly brought out in the fact regarding the under-nourishment of children in these states. The nutrition health and the general welfare of the children in any society is one of the best indicators of the general living conditions of the people in that society. Here you have states which lead the rest of the country in the production of foodstuff, particularly protein-rich beans and meat, but the children of these states are much more under nourished then children in other states who are not so well-endowed. As Table 7 bring out 43.1% of children under five in Nigeria are stunted largely due to poor nutrition but the figure for the north-west is 50.4% while that of the south-east is 36.6% and 35.6% in the south-west! This is very revealing about the political economy of the states of this zone, where the children of those who produce a significant amount of the protein-rich beans and meat for the country are under-nourished and suffer from being under-weight wasting and stunting, with long-term consequences damage to their capacity education, training and for mental and manual labour in adulthood. But it is not only on the area of nutrition that these states are backward, severely damaged, but also in almost all other areas of child welfare, as Table 7 illustrates with regards to prenatal care, delivery, vaccination, infant mortality under-five mortality and the occurrence of diarrhoea. Thus, the people of these states who are damaged by malnutrition, although they are major producers of food also suffer in other areas of their welfare, in spite of the fact that in terms of the revenue allocated to their local and state governments, they have not being at a disadvantage, as Tables 8, 9, and 10 bring out clearly and which you are more then familiar with.
Lack of Infrastructure
In the period June, 1999 to May 2000, in your first one year in office, the local and state governments of the seven states of the north-west received a total of 92.5 billion naira from the Federation Account. The local governments receiving N22.5 billion and the seven state governments receiving N30.0 billion with a total population of about 30 million this means for every single men, women, child and infant you received a total of N1,733.3 which you have solely sworn to use for their security and welfare. There are no indications in terms of their living conditions that you have used these billions of naira as you have sworn to do. The fact is that far from the state of north-west being economically weak, their economy is actually well-endowed but it is very oppressive and exploitative of the producers of the wealth.
A ruling class made up of local, states and federal government bureaucrats, military officers politicians, traditional rulers, businessmen and religious leaders has established a strangle-hold on the lives of the peasant farmers, pastoralist, traders, craftsmen, workers and artisans in these states. The areas of health, water supply and education as the tables here illustrate are ones in which the rapacious role of this elite is most clearly illustrated. While as Table 11 bring out the national percentage of household with water supply from pipes and boreholes in 1993-1994 was 31/7%, it was only 26.3% in the states here. That was seven years ago. The situation is much worse now, even for our households in the most favoured areas of the GRAs. The pipe-borne water supply system has virtually collapsed in most of the major urban centres, in spite of the hundreds of billion of naira local state, and federal government funds and foreign loans allocated to waters projects now and over the years. The water situation of the majority of the people in the rural areas and the high-density urban areas is a disaster. If we turn to electricity supply we find on Table 12 that while the national average of households having access to electricity in 1993/94 was 33.63% it is below half of that at 16.5% in the seven states of the north-west.
This economic backwardness of the state on this major economic infrastructure is not just because somebody in charge of NEPA at the parastatal, or ministerial level, from another region has deprived the area of electricity. For most of the last decade the top executives at the parastatal and the ministerial level and
some of the biggest contractors of NEPA were from the states in the north-west!
They are morally and politically responsible, together with other local government and state government top officers for this serious retardation. There is no held to go around looking for 9 Yorubaman, an Iboman or a Christian to blame!
Crippling Manufacturing
The backwardness of the states of the north-west is a result of the highly exploitative and parasitical activities of the section of the Nigerian ruling class dominant in these states. Their capacity and parasitism is brought out over how they have not only undermined the major industries established here like the Sokoto Cement Factory, the Kaduna Refinery, the Katsina Steel Rolling Mill and the Fiat Vehicle Assembly Plant in Kano, but they rose in arms against the P.R.P Government of Kaduna State, when in 1979-1983 it set out to establish fourteen industries in Kaduna State, some of which were agro-allied, in order to build up on the states leading role in the production of agricultural inputs into the food beverages and related industries. As a result of their rapacity of the seven states of the north-west, as Table 13 reveals, had only 53 out of the 330 food and beverages industries in the whole country in 1994, which is about half of the 104 located in Lagos and Ogun states many of which rely directly on food inputs from the states of the north-west.
Plundering Education
The level of parasitism on the part of the rulers of this parts of Nigeria is far-reaching. For, the local, State and federal government funds allocated to this part of the country and formally assigned for educational development are systematically stolen by a highly organised education industry mafia, to the extent that the peoples of the area are some of the most educationally backward in the country. The level of backwardness cannot be covered-up with the evasive tactic of calling these “educationally disadvantaged-states.” There is no question of any disadvantage as the budget of these states in educational sector makes clear. When billions of naira are allocated to education and yet the percentage of unqualified primary school teachers in 1995/96 in Katsina State was 76.31%; in Sokoto and Zamfara States it was 72.54%; 59.55% in Kebbi States; 59.18% in Jigawa States; 58.00% in Kano State and 31.02% in Kaduna State. The national average of unqualified primary school teachers is 24.05% giving Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara States the distinction having 300% more unqualified primary school teachers then the national average. Anambra, Ogun, Osun and Oyo record on 2% of their primary teachers being unqualified!
These states of the north-west are clearly just backward educationally because of the rapacity, of their ruling elites, because in these states there are the institutional provisions and the funds available to train the hundreds of thousands of secondary school-leavers and College of Education drop-outs to become qualified primary school teachers. But this is not done and among the reasons is that the local and state governments and the federal agencies, want to minimise the amount of money they pay teachers and for the running of the schools. They believe these are better taken and put in their own pockets, so that they can continue run around the country calling their states “educationally dis-advantaged,” while they are actually the most educationally-advantaged section of the Nigerian elite, since they make so much money from education! Even for the Technical Colleges, for the training of bricklayers, plumbers and electricians, and such essential technicians these states which have a very poor system for apprenticeship training in the private, sector have barely 12% of the total enrolment in 1997-98, far below what they need, in terms of population, area and other resource endowments. In the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination of 1995, 44,2999 student from the seven states sat for the paper on English and only 1,185 passed, that is 2.6% passed. In mathematics the percentage that passed was 5.1% and in Physics it was only 2.5%. Out of the 4,870 who sat for Physics from Katsina State, only thirteen passed, giving it a failure rate 99.8%!
It is not surprising therefore, that in the UME admissions to Faculties of Agriculture of Nigerian Universities in 1998, out of 3,069 candidates admitted only 99 came from these seven largely agricultural state, which are not up to the 128 admitted to read agriculture from Lagos State, which barely had any significant agricultural sector in its economy. The 3.2% admission from these states to read agriculture is about the same in engineering and environmental technology, where out of 11,782 candidates admitted on 3.6%, that is 428 are from these seven states, less then half of the 1,167 admitted to those faculties from Imo State alone. The percentages admitted from these states, into the medical science faculties and into the basic sciences were 3.9% and 2.6% respectively. Table 19 reveals that this backwardness is not just in the physical and natural sciences it extends to admission into the faculties of administration, art, education, law and the social sciences. The situation is equally disastrous if not even more dangerous with regards to admission into the polytechnics as Table 17 reveals. At this crucial of education essential for the training of essential middle level manpower for the economy the percentages admitted from these states for the two years 1996/97 and 1997/98 are 0.02% from Jigawa State; 0.11 from Kadna State; 0.12% from Kaduna State; 0.03% from Kebbi State; 0.005% from Sokoto and 0.004% from Zamfara State. The seven states had only 0.31% of the admissions in that year!
Conclusion
The seven states of the north-west are not economically weak and educationally disadvantaged. They are economically exploited and educationally plundered. Their people are held in the grip of an oppressive system which rapidly enriches those in power and authority in the public and private sectors and impoverishes and dispowers the majority of the citizens.
This process of the enrichment of the few and the impoverishment of the many generates resentments, insecurity and violence. The attempt to channel the resentments away from the rich and powerful who are actually responsible for it, and direct it to take the form of communal ethnic, religious and regional hatreds and phobias, entrendies a particular type politics, most easily described as the politics of fear. This type of politics seriously retards the growth of civic consciousness and civic responsibility necessary fro democratic political activity to grow and survive, because it turns politics into a jungle with predator and prey and not an activity by citizens contesting and cooperating in working out the best way of running their affairs.
This type of politics has to be oiled with vast amount of money largely acquired illegally and is therefore/inherently subversive of the rule of law and theThe choice before you, the elected public officer shouldering the responsibility for ensuring the growth and survival of democracy in our country is stark. You either go ahead with this type of politics and see this form of democratic government collapse on top of you with all the dire consequences to your limbs, lives and property, or you change course and follow, in your own interest the difficult path of genuinely democratic politics as provided for in the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of the Constitution. You have solemnly sworn to uphold and defend.
supremacy of the Constitution. It s inimical to any form of stability, particularly democratic stability as provided for in our Constitution.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
OF FASHOLA, TINUBU, OBAIGBENA AND THISDAY CHICKEN COMING HOME TO ROOST
“If Nigeria were to die and an autopsy was to be performed the media would be the cause of death” – Anonymous
A little while ago, I wrote about the impending danger that the new brand of journalism now perpetrated by This Day Newspapers posed to Nigerian fledging democracy. In that piece I submit respectfully:
“There is a new way of doing business, especially if you are a newspaper proprietor in Nigeria and it will make you rich, I mean “stinking rich,” and you don’t have to employ a journalist to run your newspaper anymore. The new deals can be called Award Ceremonies, Pop music concerts and Fashion Show Extravaganza. All you need do is announce through the front page of your national newspapers that you are organizing an award ceremonies for companies and government “parastatals” and agencies. The crassness of the deals lies in its buffooneries. There is no semblance of merits in such an award. All it does is get these private companies and government agencies tripping over themselves to advertise in such newspapers. It is interesting to note that the winners of such awards end up locking down an advertising contract with such newspapers.”
I had stated then that the problem I have with this brand of journalism is the inherent “damage it does to the already “battered” integrity of journalism in Nigeria.” Sadly, I could not have been more prescient. I hate to gloat but for once I am proud to say “I told you so.”
Today we learnt that indeed the chicken is coming home to roost for this brand of journalism. In a news story that is clearly a cut between an “hit piece” and an otherwise intelligent investigative report, we learnt of the shenanigans and hypocrisy of the former governor of Lagos State and his connections with the disgraced Abacha’s family friend-the Chagoury’s; as well as the multi billion naira awarded to the latter’s company-Hi-tech Construction company by the Lagos State government.
The problem I have with This Day report is the timing. When did they start working on this story? Since most of the reports referenced deeds and incidents that happened during Tinubu’s years at Alausa why did they sat on the story until now? What motive is behind publishing it now rather than on the eve of election? The reason I say this is that publishing such a story would have enabled the electorates in Lagos State exercised a better judgment in returning someone that is not a lackey or stooge of Bola Tinubu.
The more troublesome problem and the question This Day editor and publishers need to ask is why give the Governor of the Year Award for distinction in infrastructure development to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola when the same construction company made all the infrastructure development available? It is interesting that the paper now claims it made the award to Fashola based on the wishes of its reader, but then is that not an indictment of the newspaper itself? Could they not be found culpable of misinforming their readership by highlighting musical jamboree and awards to the detriment of actual work of journalism?
Another question I would love to have the publisher answer for us is this: What nexus if any, is there between the Lagos State government refusal to grant a permit for This Day permanent center for jamboree and fashion show and the publication of this news story at this time?
The problem with the ongoing saga is that none of the parties come out of this clean. The Lagos State government had already sent out its “tax goon’s” to This Day corporate office to find out if they had been paying tax regularly. The problem with that is it stinks! Everyone knows this is the same tactic that General Abacha would have used when a newspaper published something unsavory of his regime. So what the Lagos state government is doing is merely confirmed the hypocrisy of its so called democratic ideals. They played into ThisDay story lines when they take a vengeful stand instead of taking every effort to respond to the story accurately and introspectively.
ThisDay newspapers on the other hand will go down in history as contributing to the “demise” of Nigeria democracy more than any other media if it refuses to desist from promoting crass journalism over and above its new found “constitutional duty of the press to hold governments accountable.”
It is not too late for the parties to sheath their sword, roll up their sleeves and helps Nigerian democracy expose pervasive corruption, rebuild crumbling infrastructures and laid a good foundation for black Africa’s largest democracy.
A little while ago, I wrote about the impending danger that the new brand of journalism now perpetrated by This Day Newspapers posed to Nigerian fledging democracy. In that piece I submit respectfully:
“There is a new way of doing business, especially if you are a newspaper proprietor in Nigeria and it will make you rich, I mean “stinking rich,” and you don’t have to employ a journalist to run your newspaper anymore. The new deals can be called Award Ceremonies, Pop music concerts and Fashion Show Extravaganza. All you need do is announce through the front page of your national newspapers that you are organizing an award ceremonies for companies and government “parastatals” and agencies. The crassness of the deals lies in its buffooneries. There is no semblance of merits in such an award. All it does is get these private companies and government agencies tripping over themselves to advertise in such newspapers. It is interesting to note that the winners of such awards end up locking down an advertising contract with such newspapers.”
I had stated then that the problem I have with this brand of journalism is the inherent “damage it does to the already “battered” integrity of journalism in Nigeria.” Sadly, I could not have been more prescient. I hate to gloat but for once I am proud to say “I told you so.”
Today we learnt that indeed the chicken is coming home to roost for this brand of journalism. In a news story that is clearly a cut between an “hit piece” and an otherwise intelligent investigative report, we learnt of the shenanigans and hypocrisy of the former governor of Lagos State and his connections with the disgraced Abacha’s family friend-the Chagoury’s; as well as the multi billion naira awarded to the latter’s company-Hi-tech Construction company by the Lagos State government.
The problem I have with This Day report is the timing. When did they start working on this story? Since most of the reports referenced deeds and incidents that happened during Tinubu’s years at Alausa why did they sat on the story until now? What motive is behind publishing it now rather than on the eve of election? The reason I say this is that publishing such a story would have enabled the electorates in Lagos State exercised a better judgment in returning someone that is not a lackey or stooge of Bola Tinubu.
The more troublesome problem and the question This Day editor and publishers need to ask is why give the Governor of the Year Award for distinction in infrastructure development to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola when the same construction company made all the infrastructure development available? It is interesting that the paper now claims it made the award to Fashola based on the wishes of its reader, but then is that not an indictment of the newspaper itself? Could they not be found culpable of misinforming their readership by highlighting musical jamboree and awards to the detriment of actual work of journalism?
Another question I would love to have the publisher answer for us is this: What nexus if any, is there between the Lagos State government refusal to grant a permit for This Day permanent center for jamboree and fashion show and the publication of this news story at this time?
The problem with the ongoing saga is that none of the parties come out of this clean. The Lagos State government had already sent out its “tax goon’s” to This Day corporate office to find out if they had been paying tax regularly. The problem with that is it stinks! Everyone knows this is the same tactic that General Abacha would have used when a newspaper published something unsavory of his regime. So what the Lagos state government is doing is merely confirmed the hypocrisy of its so called democratic ideals. They played into ThisDay story lines when they take a vengeful stand instead of taking every effort to respond to the story accurately and introspectively.
ThisDay newspapers on the other hand will go down in history as contributing to the “demise” of Nigeria democracy more than any other media if it refuses to desist from promoting crass journalism over and above its new found “constitutional duty of the press to hold governments accountable.”
It is not too late for the parties to sheath their sword, roll up their sleeves and helps Nigerian democracy expose pervasive corruption, rebuild crumbling infrastructures and laid a good foundation for black Africa’s largest democracy.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
DEMOCRACY ON TRIAL IN OSUN STATE: THE SAGA OF ELECTORAL PETITION TRIBUNAL AND EXPARTE COMMUNICATION WITH COUNSELS
It is a settled maxim of law that you have to hear the other party in any judicial proceedings. The Latin maxim aptly states “audi alteram partem.” It means that any and all judicial official is required in every democratic judicial institution to avoid “ex-parte” communications with any of the parties and their counsels before the court. All communications and conversations with the parties and their counsels must be made in open court room or in chambers with all the parties and/or their lawyers present. This by the way is the first thing a budding lawyer is and would be taught at the law school. Any attempt to circumvent this settled principle will taint the entire proceedings and thus rendered whatever outcomes a nullity!
This basic constitutional and administrative law principle readily sprang to mind when I read a recent exclusive news report from “The News” magazine about the improper triangular telephone conversations between counsels to the governor of Osun state, the incumbent governor, as well as some members of the Electoral Petition Tribunal in Osun State.
According to the news magazine in its story titled ‘‘The Scandal of Judges, How Osun Tribunal Was Compromised;’’ it claimed that it had obtained “authentic, incontrovertible and unimpeachable” phone logs containing conversation between the counsel to the governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and his lawyer, Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye. “The truth is that we have the logs of all calls and text messages made by Kalejaiye and Justice Naron in the last six months to colleagues, friends and family members, and those made to them,” the magazine stated.
Now, let me say that I applauded the journalist who uncovered this story and wish them “more grease to their elbow” as we usually call it in Nigerian-ese. My problem however is their subsequent press statement that they have phone logs of conversation in the last months to “colleagues, friends and family member.” Even if they do, statements such as that should never have made it to the pages of news papers. We all have rights to privacy and the journalist will be “pushing it” if they think the court will protect their right to freedom of information if they start boasting of illegally obtaining phone conversation of lawyers, judges and their family members.
However, what is fair game is any “ex-parte” phone logs between the judicial officers of the tribunal and the counsel to the governors. The phone conversations between the governors and his counsel are well protected under Attorney/Client privileged relationship. The conversations between the counsel and any of the judicial officers outside the legal frameworks permitted by the tribunal rules and procedures are unfair, unjust and contrary to the rules of any democratic principles anywhere in the world.
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 specifically provides in Section 36 subsection 1 that “In the determination of his civil rights and obligations, including any question or determination by or against any government or authority, a person shall be entitled to a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court or other tribunal established by law and constituted in such manner as to secure its independence and impartiality. “ Emphasis mine.
Subsection 3 further provides that “the proceedings of a court or the proceedings of any tribunal relating to the matters mentioned in subsection (1) of this section (including the announcement of the decisions of the court or tribunal) shall be held in public.”
What the Osun State Electoral Petition Tribunal did in this case is a clear affront on the constitution. The fact that the tribunal chairman, Justice T. D. Naron exchanged text messages with the respondent’s counsel at an “unholy hour” of the night (some of the messages and phone conversations took place past midnights or early in the morning) brings back to memory the saga of another judge who put Nigeria democracy on trial. The story of the infamous now late Justice Ikpeme who issued an injunction to stop the declaration of June 12 election in the dead of the night!
The link between the Osun State Electoral Petition Tribunal tenuous interlocutory rulings so far and the beginning of the ex-parte phone conversation with the tribunal members is there for all to see. At this point it is clear that the tribunal is sufficiently tainted that no one could expect justice will be done in this case. It is incumbent on the National Judicial Council to vacate their ruling and dismissed the panel immediately.
But this is Nigeria after all, and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is still in power, so I expect nothing will happen. It is saddening indeed that the democracy I lost some of my best friends fighting for had been turned to a nightmarish experience. A macabre dance with an hydra monster populated by evil genius pretending to be democracy messiahs in “agbada.” We are indeed in big trouble and there is no end in sight.
The potential for prosperity, peace and development is clearly all over Osun State, but the “goons” in power will not let that state move beyond their shadows. Their vicious grip on the state is evident by the mayhem they have unleashed on the state since the death of Bola Ige. There is no single politician of any hue in the state that could boast of getting into office through a free and fair election. “God-father-ism” is the order of the day.
The ongoing battle at the Electoral Petition Tribunal is a side show to the eventual battle to come, which is the next gubernatorial election. The battle between ex-president’s Obasanjo’s so called “poodle,” Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode and Senator Iyiola Omisore for the governorship jostle started recently when the latter maneuvered to have the former arrested for corruption related to the multi-billion naira Airport contract, even whilst he himself subsist under the clouds of suspicions for the dastardly and callous murder of Bola Ige. The age old adage again rings true here, when the elephant’s fights, it is the grass that suffers. In this case, the grasses are the poor people of Iwaraja, Ila Orangun, Igbajo, Modakeke, Ikire, Ikeji-Arakeji, Ijemba, Ere-Ijesa, Ifewera, et al who will wake up this morning without any functional health centers, no sanitary tap water, no motor-able road network, and of course most importantly; no government to hold accountable for the provision of basic amenities of life in a 21st century Nigeria. And yet they say we have democracy. Well this democracy is on trial and the judge is on phone busy text messaging one of the counsels before him!
This basic constitutional and administrative law principle readily sprang to mind when I read a recent exclusive news report from “The News” magazine about the improper triangular telephone conversations between counsels to the governor of Osun state, the incumbent governor, as well as some members of the Electoral Petition Tribunal in Osun State.
According to the news magazine in its story titled ‘‘The Scandal of Judges, How Osun Tribunal Was Compromised;’’ it claimed that it had obtained “authentic, incontrovertible and unimpeachable” phone logs containing conversation between the counsel to the governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and his lawyer, Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye. “The truth is that we have the logs of all calls and text messages made by Kalejaiye and Justice Naron in the last six months to colleagues, friends and family members, and those made to them,” the magazine stated.
Now, let me say that I applauded the journalist who uncovered this story and wish them “more grease to their elbow” as we usually call it in Nigerian-ese. My problem however is their subsequent press statement that they have phone logs of conversation in the last months to “colleagues, friends and family member.” Even if they do, statements such as that should never have made it to the pages of news papers. We all have rights to privacy and the journalist will be “pushing it” if they think the court will protect their right to freedom of information if they start boasting of illegally obtaining phone conversation of lawyers, judges and their family members.
However, what is fair game is any “ex-parte” phone logs between the judicial officers of the tribunal and the counsel to the governors. The phone conversations between the governors and his counsel are well protected under Attorney/Client privileged relationship. The conversations between the counsel and any of the judicial officers outside the legal frameworks permitted by the tribunal rules and procedures are unfair, unjust and contrary to the rules of any democratic principles anywhere in the world.
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 specifically provides in Section 36 subsection 1 that “In the determination of his civil rights and obligations, including any question or determination by or against any government or authority, a person shall be entitled to a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court or other tribunal established by law and constituted in such manner as to secure its independence and impartiality. “ Emphasis mine.
Subsection 3 further provides that “the proceedings of a court or the proceedings of any tribunal relating to the matters mentioned in subsection (1) of this section (including the announcement of the decisions of the court or tribunal) shall be held in public.”
What the Osun State Electoral Petition Tribunal did in this case is a clear affront on the constitution. The fact that the tribunal chairman, Justice T. D. Naron exchanged text messages with the respondent’s counsel at an “unholy hour” of the night (some of the messages and phone conversations took place past midnights or early in the morning) brings back to memory the saga of another judge who put Nigeria democracy on trial. The story of the infamous now late Justice Ikpeme who issued an injunction to stop the declaration of June 12 election in the dead of the night!
The link between the Osun State Electoral Petition Tribunal tenuous interlocutory rulings so far and the beginning of the ex-parte phone conversation with the tribunal members is there for all to see. At this point it is clear that the tribunal is sufficiently tainted that no one could expect justice will be done in this case. It is incumbent on the National Judicial Council to vacate their ruling and dismissed the panel immediately.
But this is Nigeria after all, and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is still in power, so I expect nothing will happen. It is saddening indeed that the democracy I lost some of my best friends fighting for had been turned to a nightmarish experience. A macabre dance with an hydra monster populated by evil genius pretending to be democracy messiahs in “agbada.” We are indeed in big trouble and there is no end in sight.
The potential for prosperity, peace and development is clearly all over Osun State, but the “goons” in power will not let that state move beyond their shadows. Their vicious grip on the state is evident by the mayhem they have unleashed on the state since the death of Bola Ige. There is no single politician of any hue in the state that could boast of getting into office through a free and fair election. “God-father-ism” is the order of the day.
The ongoing battle at the Electoral Petition Tribunal is a side show to the eventual battle to come, which is the next gubernatorial election. The battle between ex-president’s Obasanjo’s so called “poodle,” Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode and Senator Iyiola Omisore for the governorship jostle started recently when the latter maneuvered to have the former arrested for corruption related to the multi-billion naira Airport contract, even whilst he himself subsist under the clouds of suspicions for the dastardly and callous murder of Bola Ige. The age old adage again rings true here, when the elephant’s fights, it is the grass that suffers. In this case, the grasses are the poor people of Iwaraja, Ila Orangun, Igbajo, Modakeke, Ikire, Ikeji-Arakeji, Ijemba, Ere-Ijesa, Ifewera, et al who will wake up this morning without any functional health centers, no sanitary tap water, no motor-able road network, and of course most importantly; no government to hold accountable for the provision of basic amenities of life in a 21st century Nigeria. And yet they say we have democracy. Well this democracy is on trial and the judge is on phone busy text messaging one of the counsels before him!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
AFENIFERE AND ALLEGATIONS OF ETHNOCENTRISM IN YAR’ADUAH’S REGIME
Sometimes a brilliant and factually accurate message gets distorted by the harbinger of the news; the messenger often determines the reception accorded to a message. In law, there is what we call judicial estoppel. Judicial estoppel arises in equity and serves to preclude a party from gaining an advantage by asserting one position before a court and then later taking a clearly inconsistent position before the court. A court may invoke judicial estoppel either to prevent a party from gaining an advantage by taking inconsistent positions or to maintain the dignity of judicial proceedings.
I believe recent report from Punch on the Web, quoting Mr. Yinka Odumakin, the national publicity secretary of ethnocentric, geriatric and ultra-ethnic association popularly called Afenifere fits this bill. According to the text of Mr. Odumakin press release, which he titled “Yar’Aduah’s ethnocentrism stinks still.” (sic). In the actual piece itself, he disparages an attempt by Yar’Aduah’s to explain away some of his appointment as an “ill-attempt by President Umaru Yar’Adua …. to exonerate himself from real allegations of “northernisation” of power in clear violation of the Federal Character principle in the 1999 constitution.” Mr. Odumakin submits that most of the principal appointment of Yar’Adua went to Nigerians of northern origin and that this “further demonstrated that he (Yar’Adua) has a dangerous mindset that threatens the unity of Nigeria and its continued corporate existence.”
Now, I have known Mr. Odumakin for shooting from the hips, since his appointment, first as PRO and thence as publicity secretary of Afenifere, but the latest beats the cake. Mr. Odumakin’s latest diatribe brings back memories of how an otherwise patriotic Nigerian can suddenly turned an ethnic jingoist. I knew Yinka Odumakin in our days at University of Ife, as we both actively participated in Students Unionism at Great Ife. We also belong to the same collective in Ife where we gathered to engage in serious thinking over the ills of Nigeria. Then, his love for Nigeria and all Nigerians is unquestionable. We often jointly railed against the oligarchies holding our dear country, Nigeria, hostage and wish for the day when all Nigerians irrespectively of where they hailed from will occupy an office not because of the accident of their birth but on merit!
Everyone knows I am not a card carrying fan of the present regime in Abuja, just as I do not join the bandwagon of those who celebrated its corrupt predecessors. My concerns with Odumakin’s piece is the fact that it seeks to question Yar’adua’s ministerial appointment not on the merits of those appointed but because they hailed from the north. This is what he called “northernisation.” This card had always been played by ethnic jingoist jostling for position of power in Nigeria.
This is at best laughable given the fact that Afenifere is itself an ethnic jingoist organization set up to further the parochial interest of the ethnicity of the majority of its members. The aim of organization such as Afenifere is to defend the interest of the Yoruba ethnic group it represent and not the interest of Nigeria or Nigerian. And they are not alone, there is the Arewa People’s congress, the Ohaneze N’digbo, the Ijaw People’s Congress, MASSOB et al. The paradox is therefore only lost on Mr. Odumakin befuddled minds as everyone knows he is crying wolf. This is why I said the messenger sometimes kills the message.
I recalls that a couple of years ago, when former President Obasanjo was in government, the same Afenifere, actively push the then government to appoint Yorubas to position of influence in Obasanjo’s government as a condition for supporting him. They hailed him when he appointed Bola Ige, as Power and Steel minister, with little or no qualification for that position. They hailed him when he appointed the sons and daughters of Awolowo, Akinjide, Akintola, Fani Kayode et al with little or no qualification! And now, they have the temerity to question what they engineered and actively support?
I confess that if Afenifere had stopped at questioning the merits of those appointed by Yar’Adua, I would not have had any problem with their diatribe. Why not dig into the background of those appointed by Yar’Adua and bring out things that disqualified them from functioning in that position. Is Shamsudeen Usman, who had spent his entire career at Nigeria financial industry, not qualified as minister of Finance? We can query the appointment of Yayale Ahmed and Aondoakaa as minister of defense and attorney general especially given the latter conflict of interest vis a vis ongoing investigation of some of his previous clients who are corrupt ministers being prosecuted by the same ministry. But attacking them because they come from the north is at best myopic and self serving. What makes this ministry less important than the ministry of External and Internal affairs occupied by Nigerians from the southern part of the country?
The more damning evidence is that Afenifere was peculiarly silent when the erstwhile minister of health, Adenike Grange, who hails from the south west, was indicted and disgraced out of office for corruption. This should have thought them a lesson that merits should be the answer to questionable appointments and not ethnicity!
As long as we keep emphasizing ethnicity in our national discourse we will end up with government of wolves! I hope the likes of Yinka Odumakin and his Afenifere will contribute more positively to our national discourse rather than issue this type of jejune and divisive press releases.
I believe recent report from Punch on the Web, quoting Mr. Yinka Odumakin, the national publicity secretary of ethnocentric, geriatric and ultra-ethnic association popularly called Afenifere fits this bill. According to the text of Mr. Odumakin press release, which he titled “Yar’Aduah’s ethnocentrism stinks still.” (sic). In the actual piece itself, he disparages an attempt by Yar’Aduah’s to explain away some of his appointment as an “ill-attempt by President Umaru Yar’Adua …. to exonerate himself from real allegations of “northernisation” of power in clear violation of the Federal Character principle in the 1999 constitution.” Mr. Odumakin submits that most of the principal appointment of Yar’Adua went to Nigerians of northern origin and that this “further demonstrated that he (Yar’Adua) has a dangerous mindset that threatens the unity of Nigeria and its continued corporate existence.”
Now, I have known Mr. Odumakin for shooting from the hips, since his appointment, first as PRO and thence as publicity secretary of Afenifere, but the latest beats the cake. Mr. Odumakin’s latest diatribe brings back memories of how an otherwise patriotic Nigerian can suddenly turned an ethnic jingoist. I knew Yinka Odumakin in our days at University of Ife, as we both actively participated in Students Unionism at Great Ife. We also belong to the same collective in Ife where we gathered to engage in serious thinking over the ills of Nigeria. Then, his love for Nigeria and all Nigerians is unquestionable. We often jointly railed against the oligarchies holding our dear country, Nigeria, hostage and wish for the day when all Nigerians irrespectively of where they hailed from will occupy an office not because of the accident of their birth but on merit!
Everyone knows I am not a card carrying fan of the present regime in Abuja, just as I do not join the bandwagon of those who celebrated its corrupt predecessors. My concerns with Odumakin’s piece is the fact that it seeks to question Yar’adua’s ministerial appointment not on the merits of those appointed but because they hailed from the north. This is what he called “northernisation.” This card had always been played by ethnic jingoist jostling for position of power in Nigeria.
This is at best laughable given the fact that Afenifere is itself an ethnic jingoist organization set up to further the parochial interest of the ethnicity of the majority of its members. The aim of organization such as Afenifere is to defend the interest of the Yoruba ethnic group it represent and not the interest of Nigeria or Nigerian. And they are not alone, there is the Arewa People’s congress, the Ohaneze N’digbo, the Ijaw People’s Congress, MASSOB et al. The paradox is therefore only lost on Mr. Odumakin befuddled minds as everyone knows he is crying wolf. This is why I said the messenger sometimes kills the message.
I recalls that a couple of years ago, when former President Obasanjo was in government, the same Afenifere, actively push the then government to appoint Yorubas to position of influence in Obasanjo’s government as a condition for supporting him. They hailed him when he appointed Bola Ige, as Power and Steel minister, with little or no qualification for that position. They hailed him when he appointed the sons and daughters of Awolowo, Akinjide, Akintola, Fani Kayode et al with little or no qualification! And now, they have the temerity to question what they engineered and actively support?
I confess that if Afenifere had stopped at questioning the merits of those appointed by Yar’Adua, I would not have had any problem with their diatribe. Why not dig into the background of those appointed by Yar’Adua and bring out things that disqualified them from functioning in that position. Is Shamsudeen Usman, who had spent his entire career at Nigeria financial industry, not qualified as minister of Finance? We can query the appointment of Yayale Ahmed and Aondoakaa as minister of defense and attorney general especially given the latter conflict of interest vis a vis ongoing investigation of some of his previous clients who are corrupt ministers being prosecuted by the same ministry. But attacking them because they come from the north is at best myopic and self serving. What makes this ministry less important than the ministry of External and Internal affairs occupied by Nigerians from the southern part of the country?
The more damning evidence is that Afenifere was peculiarly silent when the erstwhile minister of health, Adenike Grange, who hails from the south west, was indicted and disgraced out of office for corruption. This should have thought them a lesson that merits should be the answer to questionable appointments and not ethnicity!
As long as we keep emphasizing ethnicity in our national discourse we will end up with government of wolves! I hope the likes of Yinka Odumakin and his Afenifere will contribute more positively to our national discourse rather than issue this type of jejune and divisive press releases.
Monday, June 23, 2008
YARADUA’S POWER SURGE WITHOUT RESOLUTION OF THE NIGER DELTA CRISIS, A MIRAGE?
“Nigeria is a place where the best is impossible but where the worst never happens.”
-John Gunther “Inside Africa” Harper & Brothers 1953 page 776
Recently President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua made a major announcement on the perennial power outage problem in Nigeria in far away Paris, France. He declared that beginning from next month; he would formally declare a state of emergency in Nigeria's power sector. At about the same time, the three tiers of government (federal, state and local) unanimously agreed to pump $5.375 billion (N639.625 billion) into the power sector for rehabilitation and expansion of Nigeria’s power generation, transmission and distribution through the Independent Power Project (IPP).
This of course is a “causa celebra” for those of us who have been very impatient with the “go slow” approach of the present regime to governance in Nigeria. I was genuinely elated on hearing the announcement, despite my disgust that such an important announcement had to be made in Europe. Declaring a state of emergency in the most debilitating sector of the Nigerian economy deserves kudos, it shows the government is at last getting grips of the endemic problem of power outage in Nigeria.
My celebration was however cut short, when I start to reflect on the practicability of the major policy announced by the government. I suddenly discovered that without a holistic look at the plans one may end up celebrating a hollow and pyrrhic victory. The plan calls as usual for a massive injection of funds, something we have done time and time again in Nigeria without success. One of those exercises in futility undertaken by the preceding regime of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is currently under probe by the National Assembly.
Such funds according to the news report is expected to come from excess crude account based on the projection that exploration and production of oil in the Niger Delta will continue uninterrupted by the crisis in the region.
I got worried that the government might not have thought the entire plan through, when I realized that majority of the power plants are anchored on regular supply of natural gas from the Niger Delta. A region of Nigeria currently embroiled in crisis due to the criminal neglect of the region by successive government in Nigeria, which led the people of the region to take up arms against the government.
The Federal Government’s projects in Niger Delta under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) are the Omoku Thermal Power Station, Rivers State, Gbaran/Ubie Thermal Power Station, Bayelsa State, Sapele Thermal Power Station, Delta State, Ikot Abasi Thermal Power Station, Akwa Ibom State, Ihovbor Thermal Power Station, Edo State, Egbema Thermal Power Station, Imo State and Calabar Thermal Power Station, Cross River State.
How anyone could fathom an idea of uninterrupted, free outflow of gas out of this region with the prevailing environment beats me. And yet, according to the Federal Government, the sites for the project were chosen because of nearness to gas supply. The country does not have a gas grid yet. Establishing the projects in far-flung places would require additional funds to lay gas pipelines as well as increase the risk of vandalization, the government explained.
News report out of the Niger Delta is grim. The militants in the Niger Delta have done a lot to shut down oil exploration in the region and in the recent past they have moved on to shut down off shore oil platforms that hitherto appeared unreachable. There is no doubt that some criminal hoodlums had taken advantage of the crisis to perpetrate evil on the Niger Delta people themselves. The thought of an exploding gas pipe in the midst of this crisis looms large as a possibility.
Any power surge plan involving gas supplies without a final resolution of the Niger Delta crisis is a tinder box waiting to explode. Rather than declare a month of power emergency we are better served declaring a 90 days emergency summit on the Niger Delta crisis. Here is an opportunity to once and for all call all stakeholders in the region to task.
The futility in the Federal government power generation plan is clearly manifested in the attack on offshore oil platforms we witnessed recently. Something that has never been done before, the militants have surely made mincemeat of any gains we hope to derive from excess crude oil funds. So I wonder where the three tiers of government alluded to above are going to realize their contribution without a resolution of the Niger Delta crisis. We are at present at a position where we would find it difficult to produce enough crude oil for local production, not to talk of export in the next 7 years.
Any attempt to “wish away” the crisis in the Niger Delta will remain a chimera, an illusion, an apparition that will refuse to go away. Confronting it with an “Odi-like-attack” mentality will surely backfired as we learnt from former President Obasanjo’s experience. The fact that the serious militants among the varied groups have repeatedly called for truce and get ignored by politicians in Abuja is a testament to the tone-deafness of the traducers in Aso rock. An insurgency such as the ones in Niger Delta cannot be quelled by tanks and ammunitions. If you like you can buy up the guns, ammunitions, chiefs and the elders within a five mile radius of the last attack! Until the grievances of the people are addressed, peace will continue to elude the land.
We need to take a page from the United States government power/troop surge in Iraq, and embarked on a multi-faceted approach to the crisis. This is no longer a civil disturbance as the Federal government will have us believed. There is a war going on in the Niger Delta. Abuja cannot pretend to be stone deaf! We gain nothing by the present hypocritical stands of politicians in Abuja. The militants may have some thuggish elements in their midst but majority of them do have genuine grievances that needed to be addressed. Calling them to the table to address their grievance is not an act of cowardice!
My recommendation, which I confessed, mirrors another “troop surge” elsewhere, is not fool proof, but it will at least start the national conversation which has been lacking for too long. First of all, we need to admit that there is an ongoing war in the Niger Delta. It is only after then we can justify an increased military presence in the Niger Delta. Such military presence must be led entirely by soldiers from the Niger Delta. The present exercise where military task force are led by soldiers from North or West is at best condescending and counter productive.
The goal of any military presence must be clearly spelt out and the intent should be to “take hold and build.” I am privileged to have lived and traveled in the region during my national youth service and the infrastructures required for growth is none-existent. The troops send to the Niger Delta must have a clear mandate to help protect the population and not mown them down as they did in Odi; every efforts must be made to isolate extremists, kidnappers and thugs; create space for political progress, the attempt to installed political office holders vide “kangaroo” election must stop! The People’s Democratic Party and its retinue of thugs and political profiteers have a lot to do with the festering crisis in the region. They need to be told to stop imposing candidates in local, state and regional elections.
Next, attempt must be made to diversify political and economic efforts. The earlier we make Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), answerable to the people it is meant to serve the better. Creating a gargantuan bureaucracy answerable to politicians in Abuja is antithetical to all tenets of democracy and accountability. The Chairman of NDDC should and ought to be made accountable to the people he or she is required to serve. So, there is a need to amend the Niger-Delta Development Commission (Establishment etc) Act 2000 Act No 6, to accommodate the diverse community it is meant to serve with their input taking into consideration and its political office holders made answerable to the people vide free and fair election.
Finally, situate whatever strategy for combating the problem in a regional approach. A top down solution approach to the problem as we have learnt from OMPADEC to NDDC remains a dumb approach to the most important crisis facing the Nigerian nation since the Civil War.
We cannot afford to fail, power surge without a comprehensive resolution to the Niger Delta crisis will remain an illusion, a mirage, a chimera and apparition in Nigerian politician’s befuddled minds. A mere conduit for another “merry go round” waste and spend. In my next piece, I intend to tackle the issue of “none-natural gas” procured power generation solution including solar and wind energy.
-John Gunther “Inside Africa” Harper & Brothers 1953 page 776
Recently President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua made a major announcement on the perennial power outage problem in Nigeria in far away Paris, France. He declared that beginning from next month; he would formally declare a state of emergency in Nigeria's power sector. At about the same time, the three tiers of government (federal, state and local) unanimously agreed to pump $5.375 billion (N639.625 billion) into the power sector for rehabilitation and expansion of Nigeria’s power generation, transmission and distribution through the Independent Power Project (IPP).
This of course is a “causa celebra” for those of us who have been very impatient with the “go slow” approach of the present regime to governance in Nigeria. I was genuinely elated on hearing the announcement, despite my disgust that such an important announcement had to be made in Europe. Declaring a state of emergency in the most debilitating sector of the Nigerian economy deserves kudos, it shows the government is at last getting grips of the endemic problem of power outage in Nigeria.
My celebration was however cut short, when I start to reflect on the practicability of the major policy announced by the government. I suddenly discovered that without a holistic look at the plans one may end up celebrating a hollow and pyrrhic victory. The plan calls as usual for a massive injection of funds, something we have done time and time again in Nigeria without success. One of those exercises in futility undertaken by the preceding regime of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is currently under probe by the National Assembly.
Such funds according to the news report is expected to come from excess crude account based on the projection that exploration and production of oil in the Niger Delta will continue uninterrupted by the crisis in the region.
I got worried that the government might not have thought the entire plan through, when I realized that majority of the power plants are anchored on regular supply of natural gas from the Niger Delta. A region of Nigeria currently embroiled in crisis due to the criminal neglect of the region by successive government in Nigeria, which led the people of the region to take up arms against the government.
The Federal Government’s projects in Niger Delta under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) are the Omoku Thermal Power Station, Rivers State, Gbaran/Ubie Thermal Power Station, Bayelsa State, Sapele Thermal Power Station, Delta State, Ikot Abasi Thermal Power Station, Akwa Ibom State, Ihovbor Thermal Power Station, Edo State, Egbema Thermal Power Station, Imo State and Calabar Thermal Power Station, Cross River State.
How anyone could fathom an idea of uninterrupted, free outflow of gas out of this region with the prevailing environment beats me. And yet, according to the Federal Government, the sites for the project were chosen because of nearness to gas supply. The country does not have a gas grid yet. Establishing the projects in far-flung places would require additional funds to lay gas pipelines as well as increase the risk of vandalization, the government explained.
News report out of the Niger Delta is grim. The militants in the Niger Delta have done a lot to shut down oil exploration in the region and in the recent past they have moved on to shut down off shore oil platforms that hitherto appeared unreachable. There is no doubt that some criminal hoodlums had taken advantage of the crisis to perpetrate evil on the Niger Delta people themselves. The thought of an exploding gas pipe in the midst of this crisis looms large as a possibility.
Any power surge plan involving gas supplies without a final resolution of the Niger Delta crisis is a tinder box waiting to explode. Rather than declare a month of power emergency we are better served declaring a 90 days emergency summit on the Niger Delta crisis. Here is an opportunity to once and for all call all stakeholders in the region to task.
The futility in the Federal government power generation plan is clearly manifested in the attack on offshore oil platforms we witnessed recently. Something that has never been done before, the militants have surely made mincemeat of any gains we hope to derive from excess crude oil funds. So I wonder where the three tiers of government alluded to above are going to realize their contribution without a resolution of the Niger Delta crisis. We are at present at a position where we would find it difficult to produce enough crude oil for local production, not to talk of export in the next 7 years.
Any attempt to “wish away” the crisis in the Niger Delta will remain a chimera, an illusion, an apparition that will refuse to go away. Confronting it with an “Odi-like-attack” mentality will surely backfired as we learnt from former President Obasanjo’s experience. The fact that the serious militants among the varied groups have repeatedly called for truce and get ignored by politicians in Abuja is a testament to the tone-deafness of the traducers in Aso rock. An insurgency such as the ones in Niger Delta cannot be quelled by tanks and ammunitions. If you like you can buy up the guns, ammunitions, chiefs and the elders within a five mile radius of the last attack! Until the grievances of the people are addressed, peace will continue to elude the land.
We need to take a page from the United States government power/troop surge in Iraq, and embarked on a multi-faceted approach to the crisis. This is no longer a civil disturbance as the Federal government will have us believed. There is a war going on in the Niger Delta. Abuja cannot pretend to be stone deaf! We gain nothing by the present hypocritical stands of politicians in Abuja. The militants may have some thuggish elements in their midst but majority of them do have genuine grievances that needed to be addressed. Calling them to the table to address their grievance is not an act of cowardice!
My recommendation, which I confessed, mirrors another “troop surge” elsewhere, is not fool proof, but it will at least start the national conversation which has been lacking for too long. First of all, we need to admit that there is an ongoing war in the Niger Delta. It is only after then we can justify an increased military presence in the Niger Delta. Such military presence must be led entirely by soldiers from the Niger Delta. The present exercise where military task force are led by soldiers from North or West is at best condescending and counter productive.
The goal of any military presence must be clearly spelt out and the intent should be to “take hold and build.” I am privileged to have lived and traveled in the region during my national youth service and the infrastructures required for growth is none-existent. The troops send to the Niger Delta must have a clear mandate to help protect the population and not mown them down as they did in Odi; every efforts must be made to isolate extremists, kidnappers and thugs; create space for political progress, the attempt to installed political office holders vide “kangaroo” election must stop! The People’s Democratic Party and its retinue of thugs and political profiteers have a lot to do with the festering crisis in the region. They need to be told to stop imposing candidates in local, state and regional elections.
Next, attempt must be made to diversify political and economic efforts. The earlier we make Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), answerable to the people it is meant to serve the better. Creating a gargantuan bureaucracy answerable to politicians in Abuja is antithetical to all tenets of democracy and accountability. The Chairman of NDDC should and ought to be made accountable to the people he or she is required to serve. So, there is a need to amend the Niger-Delta Development Commission (Establishment etc) Act 2000 Act No 6, to accommodate the diverse community it is meant to serve with their input taking into consideration and its political office holders made answerable to the people vide free and fair election.
Finally, situate whatever strategy for combating the problem in a regional approach. A top down solution approach to the problem as we have learnt from OMPADEC to NDDC remains a dumb approach to the most important crisis facing the Nigerian nation since the Civil War.
We cannot afford to fail, power surge without a comprehensive resolution to the Niger Delta crisis will remain an illusion, a mirage, a chimera and apparition in Nigerian politician’s befuddled minds. A mere conduit for another “merry go round” waste and spend. In my next piece, I intend to tackle the issue of “none-natural gas” procured power generation solution including solar and wind energy.
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