We had zero political will to save - Okonjo-Iweala

The immediate past Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Thursday, said lack of political will to save oil revenue under former President Goodluck Jonathan was responsible for the challenges facing the country presently.

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala

She said, as a result, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund must seek means to embed savings in national constitutions devoid of political manipulations.

TheCable reported that Okonjo-Iweala spoke on the topic: ‘Inequality, growth, and resilience’ at George Washington University, United States of America.

The two-time minister recalled that Nigeria was able to save $22bn under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which she noted saved the country in 2008 during the global economic meltdown.

Citing the Chilean example, she said, “We tried it in Nigeria, we put in an oil price-based fiscal rule in 2004 and it worked very well.

“We saved $22bn because the political will to do it was there. And when the 2008/2009 crisis came, we were able to draw on those savings precisely to issue about five per cent of the Gross Domestic Product as fiscal stimulus to the economy, and we never had to come to the bank or the fund.”

She added, “This time round, and this is the key now, you need not only to have the instrument but you also need the political will. In my second time as a finance minister, from 2011 to 2015, we had the instrument, we had the means, we had done it before, but zero political will.

“So, we were not able to save when we should have. That is why you find that Nigeria is now in the situation it is in, along with so many other countries.”

On solving the problem of political will and manipulations, she said, “That is the question that I ask; what do we need to do to these countries to save over a period of long accelerated growth?

“We need to devise mechanisms, not just that are good technically but find a way to either embed them in the constitution or find a way to separate them from the political manipulation so that these countries can survive over time.

“To build resilience, African countries need tools and mechanisms, and it is doable and we need to interrogate ourselves why we have not done it.”

Okonjo-Iweala added that manufacturing was critical to growth in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, quoting manufacturing at just 11 percent of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product, and nine per cent in Nigeria.

“I do not believe that we can be resilient, except if we can encourage manufacturing, even on the goods we consume, services, entertainment industry and agriculture.

“I think these are the kind of questions that policymakers struggle with on a daily basis, and that is what we are going to answer to get resilience.

“If we don’t get these mechanisms, we politicise them, find ways to transform the base of the economy and create jobs, including in manufacturing, I believe we are going to go into this looming deceleration that is being talked about.”

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, on Thursday urged the Federal Government to seek help from international institutions, including the IMF, on the Nigerian economy as the sharp drop in oil price continued to batter Africa’s largest economy.

Speaking at the IMF in Washington DC, United States, Lagarde said Nigeria needed to be open-minded on foreign exchange and swiftly approve the 2016 budget.

She said, “Our recommendation is that Nigeria seeks help from the international institutions that can best help

“Second, that Nigeria is open-minded in using flexibility of the exchange rates in order to absorb some of the shocks. We believe that this is more efficient than to have a list of products that are barred from being imported to the country.

“Third, we believe that it is really important that the budget be completed, decided and approved, and we stand ready to help Nigeria if it wants to seek our help.”

Lagarde, who was in the company with the IMF First Deputy Managing Director, David Lipton, and spokesperson, Gerry Rice, also called on Nigeria to diversify its economy, adding that oil prices might be low for longer.

TheCable quoted her as explaining, “I believe, having visited Nigeria in January, that it is also really important that the country looks at diversifying its economy, because it cannot rely exclusively on commodity prices only, particularly oil, because it might very well stay low for longer.

“Nigeria is full of energy, smart people, and can really transform some of its activities, including the agricultural sector, where there is just too much by way of imports, when there could be a lot of transformation in Nigeria and local consumption.”

She also spoke on the viral revelations by the Panama Papers, calling for international cooperation, while assuring the world that the IMF would be “happy” to play a role in resolving such worldwide issues.

Lagarde reiterated that countries must reinforce their commitment to durable global growth and employ a more potent policy mix.

“A three-pronged approach with monetary, fiscal and structural actions can work as a virtuous trinity, lifting actual and potential growth, averting recession risks, and enhancing financial stability,” she said.

Many local and international economic experts have called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to adopt a realistic exchange rate by adjusting the value of the naira against the US dollar.

The Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, said Nigeria needed to adopt an exchange rate policy, as the current approach was not sustainable in the long run.

“Rationing the forex and refusing to adjust the exchange rate peg is a slow but painful death approach to currency policy. The approach we are adopting will continue to inflict problems on our factories and companies,” the Chief Executive Officer, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, said.

Analysts at Afrinvest West Africa Limited, an investment bank and research firm, said the naira started falling drastically at the parallel market when the CBN introduced foreign exchange restrictions.

They argued that there was a need to review the list of the items banned from the official forex market.

However, President Muhammadu Buhari has insisted that he will not devalue the naira, saying he saw no benefit that such an endeavour would bring to the poor.

We had zero political will to save - Okonjo-Iweala

Who governs Nigeria? - Reuben Abati

During the Jonathan administration, an outspoken opposition spokesperson had argued that Nigeria was on auto-pilot, a phrase that was gleefully even if ignorantly echoed by an excitable opposition crowd. Deeper reflection should have made it clear even to the unthinking that there is no way any country can ever be on auto-pilot, for there are many levels of governance, all working together and cross-influencing each other to determine the structure of inputs and outcomes in society. To say that a country is on auto-pilot is to assume wrongly that the only centre of governance that exists is the official corridor, whereas governance is far more complex. The question should be asked, now as then: who is governing Nigeria? Who is running the country? Why do we blame government alone for our woes, whereas we share a collective responsibility, and some of the worst violators of the public space are not even in public office?

Dr Reuben Abati

The President of the country is easily the target of every criticism. This is perhaps understandable to the extent that what we have in Nigeria is the perfect equivalent of an Imperial Presidency. Whoever is President of Nigeria wields the powers of life and death, depending on how he uses those enormous powers attached to his office by the Constitution, convention and expectations. Nigeria’s President not only governs, he rules. The kind of President that emerges at any particular time can determine the fortunes of the country. It helps if the President is driven by a commitment to make a difference, but the challenge is that every President invariably becomes a prisoner.

He has the loneliest job in the land, because he is soon taken hostage by officials and various interests, struggling to exercise aspects of Presidential power vicariously. And these officials do it right to the minutest detail: they are the ones who tell the President that he is best thing ever since the invention of toothpaste. They are the ones who will convince him as to every little detail of governance: who to meet, where to travel to, and who to suspect or suspend. The President exercises power, the officials and the partisans in the corridors exercise influence. But when things go wrong, it is the President that gets the blame. He is reminded that the buck stops at his desk.

We should begin to worry about these dangerous officials in the system, particularly within the public service, the reckless mind readers who exploit the system for their own ends, and who walk free when the President gets all the blame. To govern properly, every government not only needs a good man at the top, but good officials who will serve the country. We are not there yet. The same civil servants who superintended over the omissions of the past 16 years are the ones still going up and down today, and it is why something has changed but nothing has changed. The reality is terrifying.

The officials at the state levels are no different, from the governor down to the local government chairman and their staff. They hardly get as much criticism as the folks in Abuja, but they are busy every day governing Nigeria, and doing so very badly too. Local government chairmen and their officials do almost nothing. The governors also try to act as if they are Imperial Majesties. The emphasis on ceremony rather than actual performance is the bane of governance in Nigeria. Everyone seems to be obsessed with ceremony and privileges.

A friend sent me a picture he took with the Mayor of London inside a train, in the midst of ordinary citizens and asked if that would ever happen in Nigeria. The Mayor had no bodyguards. He was on his own. In the Netherlands, the Prime Minister is a part-time lecturer in one of the local colleges. Nigerian pubic officials are often too busy to have time for normal life. Even if they want to live normally, the system also makes it impossible. We need people in government living normal lives. Leaders need not be afraid of the people they govern. They must identify with them. There is too much royalty in government circles in Nigeria. No matter how well-intentioned you may be, once you find yourself in their midst, you will soon start acting and sounding like one, because it is the only language that is spoken in those corridors.

Elsewhere, ideas govern countries. People become leaders on the basis of ideas and they govern with ideas. That is why the average voter in Europe or North America knows that what he votes for is what he is likely to get. Clearly in the on-going Presidential nomination process in the United States, every voter knows the difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side and between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump on the Republican side. Such differences are often blurry in Nigeria: our politics is driven by partisan interests; a primordial desperation for power, not ideas. It is also why Nigerian politicians can belong to five different political parties and movements within a decade.

Even when men of ideas show up in the political arena, they are quickly reminded that they are not politicians and do not understand politics. Gross anti-intellectualism is a major problem that Nigeria would have to address at some stage. Some of the administrations in the past who had brainy men and women of ideas in strategic positions ended up not using them. They were either frustrated, caged, co-opted or forced to adapt or shown the door. The question is often asked: why don’t such people walk away? The answer that is well known in official corridors is this: doing so may be a form of suicide. Once inside, you are not allowed to walk out on the Federal Government of Nigeria, and if you must, not on your own terms. So, governance fails even at that level of values: that other important element that governs progressive nations.

Partisan interests are major factors in the governance process. These seem to be the dominant factor in Nigeria, but again, they are irresponsibly deployed. The crowd of political parties, religious groups, traditional rulers, ethnic and community associations, professional associations, pastors, priests, traditional rulers, imams and alfas, shamanists, native doctors, soothsayers and traditional healers: they all govern. They wield enormous influence. But they have never helped Nigeria and they are not helping. All the people in public offices have strong links to all these other governors of Nigeria, but what kind of morality do they discuss? Those with partisan interests, including even promoters of Non-Governmental groups (NGOs) all have one interest at heart: power and relevance.

The same priests who saw grand visions for the PDP and its members over a 16-year period are still in business seeing visions and making predictions. Those who claim to be so powerful they can make the lame walk and the blind see have not deemed it necessary to step forward to help the NNPC turn water into petrol. If any of these miracle-delivering pastors can just turn the Lagos Lagoon alone into a river of petrol, all Nigerians will become believers, but that won’t happen because they are committed to a different version of the gospel. As for the political parties: they are all in disarray.

The private sector also governs Nigeria. But what is the quality of governance in the corporate sector? The Nigerian corporate elite are arrogant. They claim that they create jobs so the country may prosper, but they are, in reality, a rent-seeking class. They survive on government patronage, access to the Villa and its satellites, and claims of indispensability. But without government, most private sector organisations will be in distress. The withdrawal of public funds into a Treasury Single Account is a case in point. And with President Muhammadu Buhari not readily available to the eye-service wing of the Nigerian private sector, former sycophants in the corridors are clandestinely resorting to sabotage and blackmail. A responsible private sector has a duty in society: to build society, not to donate money to politicians during elections and seek patronage thereafter. And if it must co-operate with government, it must be for much nobler reasons in the public interest.

The military are still governing Nigeria too. They may be in the background, but their exit 16 years ago, has not quite translated into a loss of influence or presence. In the early years of their de-centering, many of them chose to join politics and replace their uniforms with traditional attires. Their original argument is that if other professionals can join politics, then a soldier should not be excluded. They failed to add that the military class in politics in Africa has shown a tendency to exercise proprietorial rights and powers, which delimit the democratic project. In Nigeria such powers and rights have been exercised consistently and mostly by, happily for us, a gerontocratic class, whose impact, I believe, will be determined by the effluxion of time.

And it is like this: the President that emerged in 1999 was a soldier: the received opinion was that only such a strong man could stabilise the country. His successor was the brother of another old soldier; he and his Deputy were personally chosen by the departing President. He died in office, but for his Deputy to succeed him, it helped a lot that he was also a favorite of the General who chose his own successors. When this protégé fell out with the General, in retrospect now, a miscalculation, the General turned Godfather swore to remove him from office. And it happened. In 2015, another former soldier and strong man had to be brought back to office and power. When anything goes wrong, a class of old Generals is the one who steps forward to protect and guide the country. The only saving grace is that they do not yet have a successor–class of similarly influential men with military pedigree. But when their time passes, would there be equally strong civilians who can act as protectors of the nation?

The media governs too. But the media in Nigeria today is heavily politicised, compromised and a victim of internal censorship occasioned by hubris. Can the media still save Nigeria? It is in the same pit as the Nigerian voter, foreign interests, the legislature and the judiciary. But when there is positive change at all of these centres of power and influence, only then will there be change, movement and motion, and a new Nigeria.

Who governs Nigeria? - Reuben Abati

Angola overtakes Nigeria as Africa’s top oil producer

Nigeria has again lost its Africa’s top oil producer status to Angola, as the country’s crude oil production fell by 67,000 barrels per day last month, latest data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries have shown.

OIL

OPEC, in its Monthly Oil Market Report for April, which was released on Wednesday, put crude oil production from Nigeria at 1.677 million bpd in March based on direct communication, down from 1.744 million bpd in February.

Nigeria recorded the biggest drop in output in the month among its peers in OPEC, followed by Venezuela, based on direct communication.

Exports and production of Nigeria’s popular crude grade Forcados continued to be shut in due to a sabotage-related spill on the subsea Forcados pipeline.  The country has recently seen a rise in militant attacks in its main oil-producing region, the Niger Delta, denting oil production.

The country’s production figure for March was put at 1.722 million bpd by secondary sources, compared to 1.762 million bpd the previous month.

According to secondary sources, total OPEC crude oil production in March averaged

32.25 million bpd, a marginal increase of 15, 000 bpd over the previous month.

The 13-member oil cartel, said in the report, “Crude oil output increased mostly from Iran, Iraq and Angola, while production decreased in UAE, Libya and Nigeria.”

Angola saw its oil output rise to 1.782 million bpd last month from 1.767 million bpd in February, based on direct communication, according to the OPEC report.

The southern African country had in November 2015 overtaken Nigeria in output level as it produced 1.722 million bpd, compared to 1.607 million bpd produced by Nigeria, OPEC’s December report showed.

According to the latest monthly report, OPEC believes crude supply outside the producer group is set to fall more than expected, with weaker Chinese, Colombian, UK and US oil output eclipsing better outlooks for Canada, Norway, Oman and Russia.

The outlook for non-OPEC supply has been hit largely by lower expectations for crude oil production from China’s onshore mature fields.

OPEC also cited the postponement of major new projects due to reduced cash flow as the impact of lower prices takes its toll.

It now sees output falling by 730,000 bpd over the year, up from a previous estimate of 700,000 bpd, to average 56.39 million bpd in 2016.

OPEC also partly attributed the 20 per cent surge in oil futures in March to weaker non-OPEC supply in 2016, supply disruptions in Iraq and Nigeria, signs US shale is shrinking, along with expectations of a supply intervention plan by major crude exporters in Doha on April 17.

Angola overtakes Nigeria as Africa’s top oil producer

Buhari sets new world record

President Muhammadu Buhari has again put Nigeria into the global scene with having recorded the worst and unprecedented fuel queues in the history of Nigeria.

President Buhari

Temper seems to be high, hope tumbles like a pack of cards, the change mantra of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has become a rocket science, as angry Nigerians who defied rain and sun shine to vote for President Buhari have now been subjected to serious economic hardship.

To many Nigerians, Buhari has written his name in the Guinness Book of Record having been the only president in the world that recorded the longest queues in filling stations and generated zero Megawatts of electricity.

Quite paradoxically, under Buhari’s watch, Nigeria remains the only oil-producing country globally where fuel availability has become a major headache despite having a sitting President who doubles as the substantive Petroleum Minister.

The shout of “Sai Baba” under the present economic down turn has become suicidal as the APC “e-rodent,” and “electronic rag sheet” have gone into hiding. This new world record set by Buhari does not need any celebration.

From the commercial city of Lagos, through Abuja, to other major cities across the country, the story has been the same as motorists spend hours and days queuing to buy petrol, a product that ordinarily should be available in the remotest villages in the country if Nigeria has been blessed with a visionary leader.

Post-Nigeria gathered that many Nigerians have lost hope having been subjected to excruciating pains for going through weeks without Electricity and Fuel.

The Fuel scarcity is biting harder as motorists queue for hours and pass nights at filling stations in search of petrol. The queue circles stretched into tens of kilometers, especially in NNPC filling stations.

Many commuters are now stranded at different bus stops especially in the nation’s capital, Abuja due to lack of vehicles. The few ones that are plying the road jerked up their fares by 50 percent.

This chaotic situation has prompted black marketers to cash in on the situation by selling fuel at exorbitant rates to motorists.

As at press time, motorists were still going through hectic time under the scorching sun, trying to buy the commodity with hope out of sight.

Businesses are crumbling; the masses can no longer afford three square meals a day. Unemployment has gotten to a breaking point. The nation is at a standstill as hope gradually fades away, paving way for gloom and doom fuel scarcity.

 

Buhari sets new world record

Building Nigeria, not an overnight operation, US tells Buhari

The United States has acknowledged Nigeria’s challenges and told President Muhammadu Buhari administration that building Nigeria would not be “an overnight operation.”

United State Secretary of State, John Kerry

The US Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, who stated this on Wednesday at the US-Nigeria Binational Commission’s meeting in Washington, said America wanted Nigeria to succeed.

He stated, “You know there are challenges.  That’s what your election was about.  And so we are all aware that the world right now is facing many different challenges in terms of governance in various parts of the world and for various reasons: absence of capital, absence of structure, having to build capacity.

“These things take time.  Nobody is pretending that it’s an overnight operation.  It wasn’t for us.  And some people sometimes are very revisionist in America about our own history, but we’ve gone through some very difficult periods and very difficult issues.”

Kerry recalled that America took slavery out of its constitution after it had been written in, adding that it was no small task.

He stated, “We’ve been through a history.  And what we’re trying to do is, really, share with people the shortcut, if you will – how you can manage to avoid some of the mistakes that we’ve made in the course of our own development in ways that can embrace the hopes and the aspirations of millions upon millions of people.  That’s what this is about.”

He added that Nigeria was finding very vibrant expression in every branch of the arts. He said that   like the United States, Nigeria “is a diverse country with a very large and assertive civil society.”

Kerry said,  “The United States, let me be clear, is very encouraged by President Buhari’s commitment to an economy that is more diversified, less dependent on a single commodity for export earnings, and that means we need to develop sustainability.

“Sustainable growth depends on a climate that is welcoming to investment and respectful of the environment and of workers’ rights.  And we have learned in these last 25, 30 years that it is never a competition between the environment and development.

“That is a false choice – completely false, and particularly in the context of today’s challenge of climate change.  You can develop in ways that protect the environment and also are competitive and provide jobs for people.”

According to him, Nigeria’s future is in Nigerians’ hands.  He said the United States would help Nigeria.

“Our development assistance this year will top $600m, and we are working closely with your leaders – the leaders of your health ministry – to halt the misery that is spread by HIV/AIDS, by malaria, and by TB,” he added.

He explained that the US Power Africa Initiative was aimed at strengthening the energy sector where shortage in electricity had frustrated the population and impeded growth.

He explained that America’s long-term food security programme, Feed the Future, would help to create more efficient agriculture and to raise rural incomes in doing that.

Kerry said that under Buhari’s administration, Nigeria had been taking the fight to Boko Haram and  had reduced Boko Haram’s capacity to launch full-scale attacks.

He, however, stated that the group remained a threat to the entire region, adding  that the US and Nigerian governments had been collaborating on new ways to institute security measures.

“The threat that is posed by Boko Haram is serious, but it must not – and I really believe this – it will not be allowed to shape Nigeria’s future.  Nigeria is a country with could almost boundless capacity for economic growth,” he stated.

He also said no country could make progress with a culture of impunity.

The US also supported Nigeria’s fight against corruption. The secretary of state also backed Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s efforts to prosecute corruption cases.

Kerry said that no country, including Nigeria, could make progress with a culture of impunity.

He stated, “We back the role of civil society and of the media in exposing corruption and in advocating for greater transparency.

“And we emphasise the message that in the United States, we don’t have a holier-than-thou attitude about this.  Believe me, we don’t.  We’ve had our own challenges with organised crime through some of our history, but we have fought back against it.

“And we have fought back against it with prosecutors, who are above reproach, above the possibility of any kind of interference, and that has made all the difference in the world.  You cannot have impunity in your culture – in anybody’s culture – and expect to be able to make progress.”

He added that all countries should emphasise that the fact that the soliciting of a bribe at any level of government could not be considered business as usual.

In his address, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, said it had not been easy for Nigeria.

“President Buhari has really persisted.  He is somebody, as you all know, whose unimpeachable integrity is respected in Nigeria and around the world.  And it was not an easy task for him in opposition to come into power, but as you found also with your incumbent President, anything and everything is possible,” he said.

Meanwhile, the BNC in a communiqué at the end of the meeting said it discussed among other things, measures to counter violent extremism and encourage defections from Boko Haram; the importance of protecting civilians and safeguarding human rights; the need for integrated planning for the restoration of full civilian authority, resettlement and reconstruction; the need to understand and eliminate sources of terrorist financing; and ways to expand intelligence sharing.

The BNC’s discussion on security cooperation was co-chaired by Mansur Dan-Ali, Nigeria’s Minister of Defence and US Deputy Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

Building Nigeria, not an overnight operation, US tells Buhari

Nigerian doctors in US set to return home

Nigerian medical practitioners based in the United States of America under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas on Tuesday said they were determined  to relocate to the country if the Federal Government could provide  incentives for them.

The doctors, led by their National President, Nkem Chukwumerije, stated this in Abuja when their executive officers paid a courtesy call on the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health,  Senator Lanre Tejuosho,  at the National Assembly complex.

The ANPA members said they were interested in  returning home to help  their fatherland but lamented the  government had not done  enough to encourage them.

Chukwumerije listed   poor remuneration, inadequate modern equipment  and a  lack of low interest loans for those who want to set up medical facilities in Nigeria as some of the impediments to their homecoming.

He said, “The major barrier preventing the relocation of medical doctors back to Nigeria is incentive. Every human character and behaviour is linked to incentives. Some of the incentives to get back the medical doctors abroad to Nigeria are not in place.

“Most of us here love our country and our hearts are in Nigeria but we just have to be physically at another country. We  are very passionate about improving health care system here but the incentives, especially remuneration sends people out and force them to remain abroad.

“Another thing is a lack of proper equipment to work with. Most people abroad honestly want to come back. But to physically relocate,  we will need the right financial incentives.

“The Federal Government should provide low interest loans for health care workers so that medical practitioners abroad could bring their money and have access to low interest loans.”

Nigerian doctors in US set to return home

Oil price rises to $42.29 in Nigeria

World oil prices rose for a third straight day today with traders brushing aside news of a rocket attack by jihadists on a gas plant in OPEC energy producer Algeria, the AFP reported.

The development sees the price of Brent crude, against which Nigeria’s oil is priced, rise to $42.29 dollars, $4.29 higher than the country’s proposed benchmark of $38 for the 2016 budget.

According to the AFP, with confidence growing that the world’s biggest crude producers will hammer out a deal to curb output, investors piled back into the commodity after they toyed with 13-year lows last month.

Qatar’s energy minister, Mohammed al-Sada, confirmed this week that exporters from within and outside the OPEC cartel will meet April 17 in Doha, stoking hopes of an agreement to ease a global supply glut.

Around 1215 GMT on Friday, United States benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in April was up 72 cents at $40.92 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for May delivery won 75 cents to $42.29 a barrel compared with Thursday’s close.

WTI had advanced 4.5 per cent Thursday, closing above $40 for the first time since the start of December.

Buying in recent days has been fuelled also by the Federal Reserve, which on Wednesday halved its forecast for US interest rate hikes this year.

The outlook, citing a global slowdown and market turmoil, sent the dollar plunging, which in turn makes oil cheaper for holders of rival currencies.

“The expectation that the leading OPEC oil producing countries and Russia will agree on binding production caps on 17 April is lending prices additional buoyancy,” said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.

Elsewhere Friday, jihadists launched a rocket attack on an Algerian gas plant jointly operated by foreign companies, three years after a deadly hostage crisis at another facility in the Sahara desert.

There were no reports of casualties in Friday’s attack, companies and workers at the site said.

Algeria is one of the world’s largest exporters of natural gas, with revenue from fossil fuels accounting for 95 per cent of its exports.

Oil price rises to $42.29 in Nigeria

Our Soyinka has gone wrong again

THE  first time Wole Soyinka misdirected himself, it had to do with his “cautious endorsement” of Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential candidacy. He offered a platter of reasons for the stunning faux pas, of course. But, post-election, his out of sync reading of Nigerian politics has been patently exposed.

Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka

To recap, it happened that in the run-up to the presidential ballot, Professor Soyinka, long time combatant on the side of the oppressed, announced that the best thing that could happen to Nigeria was a President Buhari. His rationalisation: “It is pointlessly, and dangerously provocative to present General Buhari as something that he probably was not. It is however just as purblind to insist that he has not demonstrably striven to become what he most glaringly was not, to insist that he has not been chastened by intervening experience and – most critically – by a vastly transformed environment – both the localised and the global.”

Aware that his about-face would set teeth on edge, Soyinka took the pains to further explain his Road-to-Damascus conversion. He had become a Buhari flag-waver, having “studied him from a distance, questioned those who have closely interacted with him, including his former running-mate, Pastor Bakare, and dissected his key utterances past and current.” He underpinned his implausible argument with his location in Buhari of “A plausible transformation that comes close to that of another ex-military dictator, Mathieu Kerekou of the Benin Republic.”

Some of those unconvinced at the time went public with their disagreement. How vindicated they now are! President Kerekou had apologised in front of his people for the wantonness of his military dictatorship before they granted him a shot at democratic leadership. But, Buhari would have absolutely nothing to do with remorse and apologies, not even for heading a junta that executed its citizens on the strength of a retroactive decree, and not for other wild excesses of his despotic rule, for which Soyinka, in better days, had been indignant: “Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining. In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evidence suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order.”

Well, Buhari’s presidency is not even a year old and already the chickens have come home to roost. During the 1970s, Soyinka criticised Uganda’s Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada for converting his country’s universities into toys. Only recently, Buhari, with a mere press statement by one of his subordinates, fired the Vice Chancellors of 14 Federal universities, an irrational move unsupported by any known Nigerian statute. Is Soyinka unaware of this?

In his Introduction to The movement of transition: a study of the plays of Wole Soyinka [Ibadan University Press, 1975], Professor Oyin Ogunba told the fascinating story of how, during an Ife Varsity conference, Soyinka had dramatically borrowed a piece of paper from someone, to pen an instant letter of resignation because a high official of the institution had mouthed a new and arbitrary administrative policy he could not live down. How time wounds all heels.

While, in-between global junketing, Buhari has been busy on a firing spree, his field commanders have been firing at and killing peaceful pro-Biafra demonstrators. In fact, they seem minded to match, if not surpass, the unenviable record of massacres set by Olusegun Obasanjo in Odi and Zaki Biam, when they massacred nearly a thousand Shias in Zaria. Pray, in what way does this contemporary preying on human lives begin to equate the transformation that our Soyinka discovered in Kerekou?

While an undergraduate at Ife during the 1970s, and working on freelance basis for The Punch group of newspapers, I recall approaching Soyinka to issue a damning statement over the 20 or so suspects that suffocated inside a Police Black Maria, and he obliged! This kind of memory jerks the consciousness into conceiving of our man at the barricades with placard-bearing demonstrators insisting that an immediate stoppage must be put to President Buhari’s human rites.

Rather, our Soyinka of the “Justice is the first condition of humanity” fame, decided on appropriating a turf better left to the devices of by people with the éclat and élan for economics and public finance. Soyinka wants an ‘emergency conference” to fix the country’s “dire” economy! As was the case with his “cautious endorsement,” he is fluent with reasons. “Recovery is going to take quite a while…the President should call an emergency economic conference, with experts to be invited. Consumers, producers, labour unions, university experts, professors, etc. I think we really need an emergency economic conference, a rescue operation bringing as many heads as possible together to plot the way forward.”

Soyinka’s difficulty in this new adventure is three-pronged. To start with, it is preposterous, unless our man will claim that between the superstructure and the substructure, he would place primacy on the latter? In which case the onus would be on him to list the numerous ways in which the inhabitants of graves benefit from buoyant economies. Of course, the problem is also to do national amnesia. There was a national conference held recently in this country. Its report is presumably on the presidential shelf, gathering dust. It quite possibly has been binned. Now, if the report of a properly constituted national conference is unworthy of attention, where is the assurance that the outcome of Soyinka’s emergency conference will attract other than skeptical presidential smiles or guffaws?

Another fundamental disability of his recommendation is that the man in charge of the economy believes that it is soaring. As Soyinka was somewhere wailing about an economy going under, Buhari was elsewhere insisting that “Today, our country has the fastest growing economy in Africa and one of the fastest in the world.” So, who really requires a talk shop on an economy that is firing on all cylinders?

Soyinka’s third handicap is the most dangerous – to him! Through the past year, Buhari and all the newcomers have been hammering it into every thick skull that the country’s problem was and still is the PDP. Therefore, doesn’t it occur to the Nobel Laureate that his emergency conference is tied into the uncanny prospect of proffering the problem as solution? How could we have “consumers, producers, labour unions, university experts, professors, etc.,” in whose ranks are PDP cadres, looters, stalwarts and foot soldiers, salvaging the economy? Doesn’t Soyinka realise that his idea, liable to contaminate the antiseptic purity of Buhari’s APC with tainted victims of change, could get him wrapped up on a treasonous charge?

As an ardent and long-standing fan of Soyinka’s, I have advice for the “grey-haired lion”. Please leave President Buhari well alone. The man has experts in quantum, including those who would host a dinner for N82 million and others who would upgrade a personal website at N78 million, to confer with. Together, this amalgam can, in great speed, navigate the Nigerian economy to ether.

Chuks Iloegbunam

Our Soyinka has gone wrong again

How policymakers can put Africa back on upward trajectory, by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Africa’s rise is in danger of faltering. After years during which the continent’s economy grew at an average annual rate of 5%, global uncertainty, depressed commodity prices, and jittery external conditions are threatening to undermine decades of much-needed progress.

Tax, Federal Government, Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria economy

Ensuring the wealth and wellbeing of the continent’s residents will not be easy; but there is much that policymakers can do to put Africa back on an upward trajectory.

First and foremost, policymakers must secure the financing needed to pursue sustainable development in an uncertain global environment.

The World Bank estimates that Africa will require at least $93 billion a year to fund its infrastructure needs alone. Climate-friendly, sustainable infrastructure will cost even more. And yet, as long as global growth remains weak, Africans cannot count on developed countries to fully honour their commitments to help attain the Sustainable Development Goals.

Support Project Syndicate’s mission Project Syndicate needs your help to provide readers everywhere equal access to the ideas and debates shaping their lives. Learn more Africa must rapidly develop its own resources, beginning by nearly doubling tax revenues.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, tax revenues account for less than one-fifth of GDP, compared to more than one-third in OECD countries. This means there is plenty of room for improvement. From 1990 to 2004, for example, Ghana reformed its tax system and raised revenues from 11% to 22% of GDP. Admittedly, such progress is difficult; in Nigeria, we saw an opportunity in raising non-oil tax revenues, but struggled to seize it.

Another source of domestic resources is the roughly $380 billion in pension assets held by just ten African countries. Policymakers should be leveraging these considerable sums. At the same time, African countries will have to find a way to diversify their economies. Diversification requires investment in the future, in the form of education and well-developed infrastructure, including telecommunications, power, roads, rail, and water.

There are plenty of models to follow: Dubai, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, Indonesia, and South Korea are all admired by Africans as economies that managed to transform themselves. Dubai, for example, set out more than three decades ago to prepare for a future without oil.

The government implemented a step-by-step transformation of the country into a service economy, putting in place the infrastructure and incentives necessary to build up financial services, tourism, medical services, real estate, media, arts, and culture. South Korea and Singapore, which had few natural resources on which to rely, are no less inspiring.

The secret behind these countries’ success is relentlessly focused leaders, whether entrenched but benign dictators or democratically elected politicians with a shared vision of a broad-based economy. Sub-Saharan Africa has paths for diversified growth that many of the trailblazers did not: value-added agriculture and agro industry, the processing of mineral resources, petrochemical complexes, manufacturing of durable and consumer goods, tourism and entertainment, and an emerging information-technology sector.

As the necessary measures for diversification are implemented, policymakers must ensure that the economic growth they are pursuing creates jobs. Sadly, this has not always been the case. Much of the recent growth has benefited only a few, leaving many behind – most notably young people and women.

From 2006 to 2013, inequality rose in many of the continent’s most important economies, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, and Rwanda. These were challenges that we were starting to address in Nigeria when I was finance minister.

We knew that we needed not just to secure growth, but also to improve the quality of that growth. To that end, policymakers must ensure that growth is channeled into sectors that create jobs, such as agriculture, manufacturing, and services. They may also have to redistribute income and strengthen social safety nets to protect better those at the bottom of the ladder.

Matching skills to job opportunities will be crucial. Some 70% of Africa’s population is under 30, and the continent is home to half the world’s primary-school-age children who have been deprived of the opportunity to study. Offering Africa’s children basic reading, writing, and technology skills, as well as vocational, technical, and entrepreneurial training, must be a top priority.

Weak health-care systems must also be strengthened in order to tackle the endemic diseases that sap productivity, such as malaria, as well as improving preparedness for outbreaks of deadly epidemics. The stakes are high. The World Bank estimates the Ebola outbreak shrank the economies of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia by 16%. As the world economy sputters, African countries will have to develop trade with one another.

In 2013, African goods and services accounted for just 16% of trade within the continent, and just over 3% of world trade. One problem is that most African countries produce the same type of commodities and trade them with very little value-added. Policymakers must encourage greater specialization; differentiated goods and services will add value and volume to trade. Logistics pose another obstacle to intra-African trade.

Policymakers must make it easier to move goods across borders, by improving connectivity between countries and reducing bureaucratic hurdles and administrative costs. For example, road transport tariffs across Africa are estimated at $0.05-$0.13 per ton-kilometer, compared to the average of $0.01-$0.05 for all developing countries.

The Rift Valley Railway project, which will eventually link Mombasa on the Kenyan coast to Kampala in Uganda, is a good example of the benefits that investments in transportation could provide. The African Development Bank estimates that it will double the volume of trade between the two countries, while reducing marginal costs by 30%. As they make these investments, policymakers must not forget that much of Africa’s recent growth can be credited to good macroeconomic policies and sound economic management.

Extending the continent’s rise will require strengthening the continent’s economic fundamentals. This means ensuring that prices in the economy are correct, starting with the exchange rate. Some countries may need temporary controls to curb damaging capital outflows, but policymakers should aim for a market-based exchange rate and a solid plan for governing inflation, debt, foreign-exchange reserves, current accounts, and fiscal balances. Africa’s potential can hardly be overstated.

The continent is well placed to build diversified economies based on low-carbon, sustainable infrastructure. But policymakers cannot simply assume that Africa’s rise will continue. They must take the right steps to ensure that it does. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a former finance minister and foreign minister of Nigeria, a former Managing Director of the World Bank, and a distinguished visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development.

How policymakers can put Africa back on upward trajectory, by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Terrorism: Foreign minister clarifies Nigeria’s membership of Islamic coalition

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, on Monday said there was no big deal in Nigeria being a member of the Islamic Coalition Against Terrorism put together by Saudi Arabia.

He said it was wrong to accuse the government of giving Nigeria an Islamic identity with the decision to be a member of the coalition.

Onyeama gave the clarification in an interview with State House correspondents shortly after he met President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

President Muhammadu Buhari had in an interview he granted to Al-Jazeera during his recent visit to Doha, Qatar, confirmed Nigeria’s membership of the coalition, further fueling speculations of alleged plans to Islamise the country.

The minister said Nigerians should show more interest in the objectives of the coalition rather than looking at the religious perspective.

He said because terrorism was global in outlook, Nigeria would be interested in any move to tackle it.

He said, “It has nothing to do with religion as far as Nigeria is concerned. We have to look at what the objective is. We face terror challenges and its a global phenomenon.

“Unfortunately, the problem we have today is that some of the terrorists groups are claiming some of the things they are doing is in the name of a particular religion and it is clear to everybody that this is not the case which is obviously a concern to people of Islamic faith and Islamic countries that their religion should be so abused.

“So, there is naturally a tendency to show that this has nothing to do with Islam. Terrorism has nothing to do with Islam.

“Islamic countries, Islamic people want to be seen as being in the forefront of the battle against these terrorists to show also that it has absolutely nothing to do with religion.

“That’s what this is all about. So, we are supporting every move to achieve this, to disabuse people’s minds that some of these terrorists are speaking in the name of Islam or are Islamic or that there’s anything about Islamic teaching that somehow condones these barbaric actions.”

Onyeama said Nigerians should be ready to support any move to tackle terrorism.

Terrorism: Foreign minister clarifies Nigeria’s membership of Islamic coalition

Boko Haram: Amnesty International Warns UK Against Assisting Nigeria

Amnesty International has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to stop side-stepping justice and start investigating war crimes committed by the Nigerian military against civilians in the fight against Boko Haram.

Buhari

Until this happens, the international human rights organisation has asked the United Kingdom Prime Minister, David Cameron, to stop offering military assistance to Nigeria.

Currently, the UK Government provides military assistance to Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram. More than 150 British troops have been deployed in the country to offer military training.

Amnesty International’s UK Director, Kate Allen, made the call after President Buhari’s visit to the UK to attend the Supporting Syria Conference in London on Thursday.

Allen said in a statement, “The UK must ensure that any assistance it provides to Nigeria is compliant with human rights law. It should not provide military assistance to Nigerian troops accused of committing human rights violations. All proposed training or other security assistance must be very carefully scrutinised, and all Nigerian military personnel recommended for training should be vetted to ensure the UK is not complicit in any serious human rights violations.

“The UK, under its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty, must also ensure that a rigorous risk assessment is carried out before weapons, ammunition, or other military technologies are sent to Nigeria, and no transfers should take place where there is a clear and substantial risk that they could be used to commit or facilitate atrocities. This is no time for a diplomatic tap-dances around the issues of mass unlawful killings, arbitrary arrest and deaths in detention.”

In a June 2015 report titled, “Stars on their shoulders, blood on their hands,” AI detailed alleged war crimes committed by the Nigerian military.

Amnesty also reiterated its call upon the UK Government to ensure any military assistance provided to Nigeria is in keeping with human rights standards, and not provided to units accused of crimes under international law and other serious violations of human rights.

In a related development, AI has entered into partnership with civil rights organisation, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, to protect the rights of Nigerians against torture.

The rights group said it recognised CDHR’s efforts in the protection of human rights, adding that their collaboration would strengthen AI’s global ‘Stop Torture’ crusade.

AI’s Project Manager in Nigeria, Mr. Makmid Kamara, during a press conference recently at the CDHR headquarters in Lagos, said, “Human rights issues in Nigeria are very complex. For instance, the Nigerian Constitution prohibits torture but does not criminalise it. We urge the CDHR and other civil society groups to speak out against this. Torture should be criminalised in Nigeria.”

Kamara said the AI would be assisting the CDHR in the “area of research and investigation of alleged rights abuses.”

CDHR’s National President, Mr. Malachy Ugwumadu, said the organisation was delighted with the partnership, adding that it was in the “process of providing a thoroughly researched database on looting in Nigeria.”

He said the database, which would be made public, would include details on what the looted funds could have been used for.

He said, “The meeting coincides with the country’s challenge in the area of upholding the rights of Nigerians not to be tortured. The inefficiency of Nigerian law enforcement agencies in conducting investigations often leads to the use of torture against suspects.”

Boko Haram: Amnesty International Warns UK Against Assisting Nigeria

I don"t know why i became the President at this time - Buhari laments

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday said that with the quantum of problems his administration inherited, he sometimes wondered why he had to seek power at this time.

President Buhari

Buhari spoke in London while addressing members of the Nigerian community in the United Kingdom.

Our correspondent obtained a transcript of the President’s address to the gathering on Friday.

Buhari said he wondered why oil, which used to sell for over $140 per barrel, would reduce to $30 per barrel during his time as the President.

Notwithstanding the problem, however, Buhari said he kept praying to God to be merciful to the over 170 million Nigerians who are exposed to poverty, illiteracy and other social ills.

He said, “With the problems we have in this government, I sometimes wonder. At least, this time around, I asked for it, I prayed for it, I went round the country and I asked for it. But the first time under the military, I allowed the military to take decision.

“But I say why me? Why is it that it is when they have spent all the money, when they made the country insecure that I returned?

“Why didn’t I come when the treasury was full? Oil price was over $140 per barrel and when I came, it slipped down to $30. Why me?

“I keep on praying to God to pity Nigeria and its over 170 million people who are exposed to climate change, illiteracy and poverty.”

The President, however, said his administration had succeeded in mopping up over N2.2trn as of January through the Treasury Single Account arrangement.

He said although the TSA was introduced by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, that administration could not implement it for reasons best known to its officials.

He said his administration decided to implement the arrangement when he came on board and discovered that the country was broke.

The President said, “You know the condition we are in now. I am sure with demands from home, in spite of what your effort is, you know we are really in trouble.

“We have tried to impose what we call Treasury Single Account. The reason is simple. This government did not initiate it, it was initiated by the previous government. But it was so unpopular to the bureaucracy, so the previous government for its own reasons, could not impose it.

“But when we came and we found out that we were broke, we said this is the way to do it.

“I will tell you two examples to convince you. Firstly, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had more than 45 accounts. Ministry of Defence had more than 70 accounts. Tell me which Accountant-General can trace all these accounts?

“So, we imposed TSA. By the end of December, coming to January 2016, we mopped up more than N2.2trn which would have been used through bureaucratic system to raise vouchers and sign cheques so that they don’t go into the next budget.”

The President said Nigeria owed the United States and Britain a lot of appreciation for stopping the former administration from rigging the last presidential election.

He recalled that ahead of the elections, the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), urged the service chiefs and the then Inspector-General of Police to tell officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission that they could not guarantee their safety during the polls.

He said the then Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, however, gave a comprehensive report at a meeting of the National Council of State, where he said he would be able to deliver, at least, 60 per cent free and fair election.

The President said as of that time, the country had never gone beyond 45 per cent.

He said it took the intervention of US Secretary of State, John Kerry, for the last administration to conduct credible election.

He said, “Then we insisted that election must be done according to the constitution.

“At this point again, I must hasten to thank the United States for sending the Secretary of State, Kerry, to go and read the riot act to the previous government and speak to Prof. Jega, the Chairman of INEC and speak to us as opposition that the US would not tolerate any election outside the Nigerian constitution.

“They maintained the pressure from that date until after the election and the formation of the new government.

“I think Nigerians honestly should thank the US for this. The same thing with Britain, they used all their experience and their powers to make sure that the Federal Government did not rig the last election.

“We thank God, we thank these super powers and we thank technology. Why we thank technology is because of the permanent voter cards and the card readers.”

Buhari said the issue of Diaspora voting had been coming up in all the countries he had visited since the inception of his administration.

I don"t know why i became the President at this time - Buhari laments

Despite huge budget government laments poverty

• ‘Funds going into private pockets since 1999’

• Minister says anti-graft war not against political foes

DESPITE the huge increases in the country’s yearly budget in the past 17 years, the poverty level among Nigerians, rather than decrease, has worsened, the Federal Government has said.

Lai Mohammed

The government also said its fight against corruption was meant to count the cost and not to vilify anyone.

Speaking at a meeting with journalists in Lagos yesterday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed that Nigeria’s national budget increased from over N900 billion in 1999 to over N6 trillion in 2016, adding that at the same time, poverty also increased almost by the same proportion.

“The reason is not far-fetched: appropriated funds mostly ended up in the pockets of a few. When funds meant for construction of roads are looted, the end result is that the roads are not built and the people suffer and even die in avoidable road accidents.

“When the money meant to provide electricity is looted, we all are perpetually sentenced to darkness. When the money meant for healthcare is pocketed by a few, we are unable to reduce maternal and infant mortality. These are the costs of corruption.”

He said this manifested more in a comparative analysis of the number of ‘Dasukigate’ beneficiaries and the amount they collected from the office of the National Security Adviser in 2015 on one hand, and the list of projects and amounts across the nation in the zonal intervention project of 2015 appropriation act.

 According to him, while “the sum of N51.829 billion was appropriated for 1,278 projects in the zonal intervention projects for 2015, a total of 21 individuals and companies benefited from the Dasukigate to the tune of N54.659 billion as we know so far.”

The implication, he noted, was that the amount received by 21 individuals and companies was more than the 2015 zonal intervention projects budget by N2.829 billion.

“The value of what beneficiaries of Dasukigate contributed to development is zero, compared to how the lives of Nigerians would have been transformed, poverty reduced and livelihoods improved by the zonal intervention projects which – as we have shown – would have cost N2.829 billion less than Dasukigate,” Mohammed added.

The minister denied claims by critics that the government was dwelling too much on the war against corruption to the detriment of other areas of governance, saying that the situation was very grim and had to be tackled squarely.

He said that the objective of the war against corruption and particularly the sensitisation campaign embarked upon by the government was not to denigrate anyone or group but to count the cost of corruption in the country.

His words: “Our response to that is that indeed, there is nothing like dwelling too much on this war. The situation is very grim indeed, as far as corruption is concerned. That is why the Federal Government is embarking on this sensitisation campaign. Our approach – which is to count the cost of corruption– is not to vilify anyone but to use facts and figures to give Nigerians a sense of what corruption has done to their lives.”

Despite huge budget government laments poverty

How Buhari is hurting Nigeria electoral process

•Like Madam Zakari, INEC REC in Kogi remains in office beyond tenure

•Why Nigerians must compel FG to obey the Constitution

By Jide Ajani

Perhaps, because the more  vocal sector of Nigeria’s civil society has been co-opted into the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, Federal Government, there is a creeping danger into Nigeria’s electoral system as President  Muhammad Buhari has serially  refused to obey the provisions of the 1999 Constitution regarding the composition of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the same body that was reformed and structured to deliver an election that ironically brought him to power.  

President Buhari

In the latest in a long series by Sunday Vanguard, it has been discovered that the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for Kogi State, appointed on December 16, 2010,  and whose  tenure should have ended on December 16, 2015, is still sitting  pretty in office.   Either because of an oversight, or a deliberate base appeal to  primal and  ethane-religious considerations, or both, Hussaini Halilu Pai, is still in office over 39 days after the expiration of his tenure. This, at a time when  the statutory 13-member Commission is not in place, leading to half-baked and sometimes confusing policy statements from INEC.   This report will show the danger in what President Buhari is doing and why men and women of goodwill must guide him appropriately before Nigeria’s electoral system (of which he is a major beneficiary) is sent to the dogs.

Hussaini Halilu Pai, appointed December 16, 2010, and was expected to have finished his tenure by December 16, 2015, is still in office as Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for Kogi State.   Mind you, that was the state where the controversial governorship election produced an outcome that has confounded even the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.   He hails from the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.   Vanguard’s Boluwaji Obahopo, correspondent in Kogi State, upon inquiry from Kogi State office of INEC last Friday,  confirmed authoritatively that Halilu Pai was still in office operating as REC for Kogi State.

Two others, Dr. Kwanga Godwin M., from Benue State, and Mr. Akinyemi Orebiyi, from Ogun State, who were also appointed on the  same date of December 16, 2010, have since left the employ of INEC and moved on.

The question is, why is President  Muhammad  Buhari still keeping Hallilu Pai in office some 39days since the  expiration of his tenure?

Perhaps, it is traditional with the emerging realities of the modus operandi of Mr. President in his appreciation of the fundamentality of the electoral process as a critical bastion of democracy which is expected to lead to good governance.

But as was the case with Madam Amina Zakari, so it is now with Pai today.   Another question is, what infraction would President Buhari come up with again, in this macabre appreciation of the real essence of obedience to rule of law?

Many and not a few stakeholders in the politically effervescent Kogi State are wondering – particularly INEC staff – that what started in the national headquarters of INEC Abuja where an “acting Chairman” of INEC was unconstitutionally imposed and continued illegally in office even when her tenure ended on the July 21, 2015, and the National Assembly kept quiet, has now been extended to Kogi State that now has an “acting Rec” on account of the unofficial extension of the Kogi State REC’s tenure, perhaps earned, according to stakeholders, from events arising from the recent inconclusive elections in the state.

This special REC, whose conditions for appointment to the office, as clearly indicated in the Constitution, requires clearly defined consecutive steps beginning at the National Council of State and Senate approval. Consequently, not a few tongues have been kept wagging in speculative anxiety over how the political appointee earned the special treatment and the very first of its kind. Inside sources at the INEC headquarters confirmed that the REC had written a hand-over note just as the then “acting chairperson” also claimed that she was not aware of anything as she was driving home when she received a call to continue in office without due process.

No doubt, the failure of Nigerians to rise up against the first unconstitutional retention of a National Commissioner as an “Acting chairperson” of the electoral commission despite the attrition of her tenure of office, has now been taken to the states starting with Kogi.

Insiders in INEC say that what is happening in Kogi with a REC whose tenure had ended but is still staying in office could not have happened under the leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega who could not be ordered by any authority to allow someone whose tenure had ended to remain in office in violation of the five-year tenure.

A senior official of INEC in Abuja revealed further that were it to be under the regime of Jega, a letter of notice would have long been written to the REC to hand-over to the Administrative Secretary but that “right now nobody could be sure of independence of the commission”.

Regrettably, the National Assembly since the inception of this administration, has been silent on the many unconstitutional acts with respect to INEC.

It was pointed out by those who make such allusions that the former “acting Chairperson “ of INEC   Mrs Amina Zakari, worked in legal limbo, because she did not have a constitutionally defined mandate until she was recently re-appointed.

Observers of the electoral arena find such constitutional breaches deeply disturbing because under a very contested political atmosphere, constitutional breaches are grave impeachable offences and can be destabilising for political development. The current government has been plagued by several constitutional missteps regarding INEC, apart from the unguarded removal of an acting   “chairperson” as determined by the autonomous decisions of the Commission, the President then allowed the Commission to function with just seven individulas without the defined constitutional board of 13 members and perpetuated this state of affairs till date, making all actions and decisions of the Commission susceptible to legal challenges.

In the same vein, well over 20 states according to sources in INEC, have no RECs yet to be appointed.

COMPOSITION OF INEC BOARD STILL INCONCLUSIVE

The government’s early constitutional breaches when it had not appointed Attorney General were somewhat attributed to that void but since that office now has a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, as the chief legal officer of the country, how do we explain what is going on now in INEC where seven Nigerians are now running the affairs of a constitutionally provided 13-man board from which a quorum of 5 minimum members can sit to take decisions on election matters.

If section 159 of the constitution   says one third of a full board of 13 – which a Federal High Court had declared to be 5, the question then is, does one third of the current seven INEC commissioners as configured, give us five members?

Therefore, why is it that the AGF is not giving the president an unimpeachable counsel on the implications of such constitutional breaches, particularly in an atmosphere of internal and external political rancour surrounding the APC government.

The APC, which is a merged party with many internal tensions and clear obvious external tension from an opposition party that is struggling to retain its political relevance, cannot afford the luxury of constitutional violations as this is a dangerous weapon in the hands of its opponents.

INEC is one of the areas where the APC government has however continued to portray itself as inelegant in abiding by statutes and regulation.

For instance, it took the spooking reminder of a various editions of Sunday Vanguard and that of a SAN, Barr. Femi Falana, to inform the government that a subsisting court order required INEC to have its full complement of board members in order to legally conduct elections.

However – and embarrassingly so – the government only made minimalist gestures in addressing the matter by appointing an incomplete board to conduct the affairs of the Commission.

And even at that, Sunday Vanguard discovered that there was no proper background check on two of the commissioners in the light of paragraph 14(2) of the constitution.

NEXT WEEK, WE SERVE YOU THE SEEMINGLY INCOHERENT STATEMENTS FROM INEC ABOUT UPTURNED ELECTIONS

How Buhari is hurting Nigeria electoral process

BREAKING: Nigeria, UAE sign agreement on stolen funds’ recovery

Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi signed six agreements to enhance bilateral relations between them.

President Buhari

According to a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the signing of the agreements on trade, finance and judicial matters was witnessed by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Adesina said Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun; and the UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs, Obaid Attayar signed the Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement, while the Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelamah signed the Agreement on Trade Promotion and Protection with the UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs.

He added that the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; and his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates,  Sultan Bin Saeed Albadi signed the Judicial Agreements on Extradition, Transfer of Sentenced Persons, Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal Matters, and Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal and Commercial Matters, which includes the recovery and repatriation of stolen wealth.

The presidential spokesman also said that at a reception after the signing of the agreements, Buhari reiterated his commitment to fighting corruption and restoring Nigeria’s dignity in the comity of nations.

The President also urged all Islamic countries to support the fight against terrorism in Nigeria and denounce  the atrocities of Boko Haram as un-Islamic and against the teachings of the Holy Prophet.

In his remarks,  Crown Prince Zayed Al Nahyan said that the relationship between Nigeria and the UAE will be strengthened by President Buhari’s visit and the signing of the agreements.

BREAKING: Nigeria, UAE sign agreement on stolen funds’ recovery

Nigerian capital market slips further by N250bn

Trading activities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the fifth consecutive days on Friday, sustained a negative trend with the market capitalisation dropping by N250 billion.

Stock Market

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation lost N250 billion or 3.0 per cent to close at N8.086 trillion compared with N8.336 trillion on Thursday amid sales pressure.

The NSE All Share index dipped by 725.94 points or 3.0 per cent to close at 23,514.04 points from 24,239.98 points recorded on Thursday.

NAN reports that the volume of shares traded increased by 81.57 per cent due to sales pressure with an exchange of 476.65 million shares valued N6.16 billion transacted in 4,448 deals.

NAN reports that this was in contrast with 262.52 million shares worth N2.41 billion exchanged in 2,579 deals on Thursday.

The NSE Chief Executive Officer, Mr Oscar Onyema, said that the market trend was a reflection of the nation’s economic condition.

“The market is reflecting what is going on in the real economy,’’ Onyema said.

He said that the NSE would continue to position itself to be a credible platform for financing government’s deficit.

Onyema said that the trend might likely continue with dwindling oil price and other challenging economic policies.

He said foreign buyers, who accounted for 54 per cent of trading volume, were on the sidelines owing to lack of clarity on Nigeria’s FOREX policy.

Major equities recorded price depreciation with Nestle leading with a loss of N38.95 to close at N740.05 per share.

7UP lost N8.75 to close at N166.25, while Dangote Cement dropped N5.18 to close at N133 per share.

Lafarge Africa dipped by N4.56 to close at N86.75, while GT Bank declined by N1.44 to close at N13.37 per share.

Nigerian Breweries led the Gainers’ table, growing by N4.57 to close at N96.90 per share.

Tiger Brand followed with 8k to close at 91k, while Live Stock Feeds gained 5k to close at N1.21 per share.

NAN reports that UBA appreciated by 1k to close at N2.60 per share.

GT Bank was investors’ delight accounting for 120.39 million shares worth N1.62 billion traded in 749 deals.

Zenith Bank sold 113.75 million shares valued at N1.08 billion, achieved in 802 deals, while UBA exchanged 44.61 million shares worth N116.75 million in 347 deals.

Transcorp posted a turnover of 28.93 million shares valued at N28.57 million in 184 deals and FBN Holdings traded 26.68 million shares worth N95.99 million in 456 deals.

Nigerian capital market slips further by N250bn

Obama Receives Formal Petition against Buhari for Disregard of Court Orders

United States President, Mr. Barack Obama, has been formally presented with over 4,000 signatory petition, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to respect court orders, uphold the constitution of Nigeria or resign from office.

The petition, which is being championed by a Legal Practitioner, Constitutional and Human Rights Lawyer, Ms. Carol Ajie, was sent to Obama on Monday, urging him to bear his influence on Buhari to respect the rule of law.

Ajie had in the petition which was  launch on the new year eve through the popular petition site Change.org, with over 4,000 signatories and 47,000 views,  also urged the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), lawyers, legislators, National Judicial Council (NJC) and benchers, among others, to “call on President Buhari to resign from office for his disobedience to court orders.”

The concerned lawyer with the support of other members of the judicial arm of the government, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), asserted that Buhari, by his statements during the Presidential Media Chat at the State House in Abuja, was behind the flagrant disobedience to court orders.

Through the petition, Ajie made what she described as a clarion call on President Obama and other concerned stakeholders to “respectfully call President Buhari to order, prohibit violence from politics and rights advocacy campaigns, ask President Buhari to respect court orders or resign, support Nigeria and Nigerians to achieve true federalism or support the path to a confederation of independent states in Nigeria.”

She listed some factors in the current administration  which necessitated the petition including “sectional tension,  deliberate acts of inhumanity and dehumanisation, gender injustice, presidential profligacy and budget 2016 and disobedience of court orders.”

She said: “President Buhari’s unfair tactics, expression of prejudices and hostility towards the people commonly known as ‘Biafrans’ in the South-eastern region of Nigeria, is a bad precedent against our peaceful co-existence. The gravamen of his complaint is that the Igbos did not vote for him in March 2015. His supporters now tag the South-east derogatorily as ‘Biafraud.’  Elected as President, he must be magnanimous in victory.

“President Buhari was quoted as saying those who didn’t vote for him will be punished and sadly demonstrated this in a modern society.”

Ajie in the petition, also accused the president of deliberate acts of inhumanity and dehumanisation, especially against the Shiites and Biafran agitators, liking his treatment of these two groups to what led to the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

The human rights activist accused President Buhari of gender injustice, saying: “For obscure reasons, President Buhari ceded only 15 per cent to women in his cabinet, without remorse or apologies. Hence must be held to keep this and his other campaign promises and pledges, please.”

Obama Receives Formal Petition against Buhari for Disregard of Court Orders

Selfish leaders hinder nation’s growth, says Obasanjo

A former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has advised the nation’s leaders against selfishness in the interest of the country’s growth and progress.

Olusegun Obasanjo

He said they should let the interest of the governed be paramount to them.

He gave this advice on Friday at his Presidential Hilltop residence, Abeokuta, when the leadership and members of the Scout Association of Nigeria paid him a courtesy visit and decorated him as Messenger of Peace Ambassador for Africa.

The former President who recalled when he was decorated as Queen’s Scout years ago, emphasised that for any leader to succeed, such a leader must always be prepared to face challenges, especially the unexpected ones.

He said, “We need a scout spirit in our country not just for individual benefit alone but for services to the nation. Work collectively and provide the leadership that will make us get progress.”

Obasanjo called on Nigerians to work collectively with their leaders, arguing that this would ensure meaningful progress in all spheres.

Obasanjo said, “I will not only live up to expectations but also inspire others. Be prepared in all ramifications, if you are adequately prepared mentally, spiritually, educationally, religiously and culturally, there will be no situation in life you cannot be able to face.

“As you move ahead in life, you will meet unexpected things, so prepare for all eventualities.”

He assured the group that he would help to inform President Muhammadu Buhari to fix the date for his own decoration as the Grand Patron of the association, which would be automatic in line with the association’s constitution.

The Chief Commissioner, Scout Association of Nigeria, Olusoga Sofola-Atibioke, said the investiture of Obasanjo as its ambassador was to help build a peaceful and formidable Africa with special focus on Nigeria.

Sofola-Atibioke, who was accompanied by other national officers of the association, said a foundation had been formed to raise funds to finance various programmes set aside for youth development in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes that “will enable them to be responsible leaders of the future.”

Selfish leaders hinder nation’s growth, says Obasanjo

Lassa fever: Death toll hits 40

The Federal Government  yesterday confirmed the death of 40 Nigerians in a Lassa fever outbreak in 10 states  of the country.

Eighty-six people  were infected in Bauchi, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba, Kano, Rivers, Edo, Plateau, Gombe and Oyo ,according to Health Minister Isaac Adewole.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines  Lassa fever as an acute haemorrhagic illness which belongs to the arenarvirus family of viruses, which also includes the Ebola-like Marburg virus.

Adewole called the outbreak an embarrassment .

“It is not the outbreak that   is unusual; what is unusual is the large number of deaths recorded so far and these deaths came largely from three states; Kano, Bauchi and Niger,” Adewole told reporters  yesterday while giving an update on the situation in Abuja.

He said the situation in Niger is “worrisome because we had unusual deaths dating back to August and only came to light about three to four months after and that represents a breakdown in disease notification system and we are trying to strengthen this because deaths even when they are unusual should be reported and we should not have waited for 35 cases in Niger before sitting up and that is the worrisome part of it.

He spelt out measures to check the spread of the disease.

These include avoiding contact with rats and  food or objects contaminated with rats’ secretions or excretion.

Shedding light on disease,he said: “The onset of the disease is usually gradual, starting with fever, general weakness, and malaise followed by headache, sore throat, muscle pain, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cough, and bleeding from mouth, nose, vagina and gastrointestinal tract and low blood pressure.

“The virus is shed in the urine and droppings of the rats and can be transmitted through direct contact, touching objects or eating food contaminated with these materials or through cuts or sores and the incubation period is 6 to 21 days.”

He asked  health facilities across  the country  to place emphasis on routine infection prevention and control measures and ensure that all patients are treated free.

Health workers seeing patients suspected to have the fever were advised  to contact the following numbers: 08093810105, 08163215251, 08031571667 and 0813505005.

The first case of the disease was recorded last November in Bauchi state. Cases were then reported in Kano and other places.

The Lagos State government  on Thursday alerted residents on the need to observe proper hygiene to curb the spread of the disease.

One of the Lassa fever deaths occurred in Plateau State.

Consequently, the authorities have placed a team of medical experts on  the red alert to prevent its spread.

The disease  has been noticed in Jos North, Mangu, Langtang South, Pankshin and Shendam Local Government Areas.

Health Commissioner  Kuden Kamshak who briefed the press in Jos yesterday said  the  state, with support from the World Health Organisation (WHO), “is working round the clock to contain the spread of the virus.”

Accordingly, Disease Survellance and Notification Officers (DSNO)  have been deployed  in each of the 17 local governments in the state to monitor and manage the health challenge.

The commissioner  urged residents not to panic but remain calm and vigilant, and to report promptly to the nearest health care facility.

The  Niger State government issued a similar don’t panic advice yesterday on the Lassa fever outbreak.

Health and Health Services  Commissioner  Mustapha Jibril in a statement in Minna  said that measures were  being  put in place to address the development as blood samples of those suspected to have been infected had been taken for laboratory test at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in Abuja and Lagos.

He said: “The Ministry of Health and Health Services has swung into action in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, World Health Organization (WHO) and the local government to bring the situation under control,” Jibril stated.

The Commissioner said that his ministry had strengthened monitoring and surveillance on the affected communities in Fuka ward of Muyan Local Government area of the state.

He then called on members of the public with to come up with information on any suspected disease or death to the nearest health facilities.

Lassa fever: Death toll hits 40

Be careful with your borrowing - IMF warns Buhari

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the Federal Government to be careful with its borrowing plans.

IMF, Ms. Christine Lagarde

A statement issued yesterday by the Managing Director of the IMF, Ms Christine Largarde, at the end of her visit to Nigeria urged the Federal Government to identify ways to broaden the revenue base, particularly to create additional fiscal space to offset the impact of lower oil prices.

Largarde advised the government on the “need for careful decisions on borrowing, public spending, and managing the cost of fuel subsidies – with a view to safeguarding priority social sectors and the most vulnerable groups.”

She added that the country “will require a package of measures involving business-friendly monetary policy, flexible exchange rate policy, and disciplined fiscal policy, and the implementation of structural reforms.”

Ms Largarde “complimented the authorities on their efforts to address corruption, particularly the decision to publish monthly data on the finances and operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).”

She explained that “transparency and the rule of law will be crucial in reducing constraints to the country’s growth.”

At her meetings with the authorities, Largarde said they discussed how to maintain economic progress while making the transition towards more inclusive and sustainable growth.

Poverty, inequality, and unemployment levels she lamented, “remain too high, in addition to the challenge of the Boko Haram insurgency. Nigeria also has to deal with the difficulties presented by falling oil prices, reduced emerging market demand, and tightening global financial conditions.”

This challenges she noted have “led to sharply lower export earnings and government revenues. The non-oil sector has also been affected and financing for investment is hard to come by.”

1n 2015, however, growth is expected to slow to about 3 1/4 percent, with a slight recovery in 2016. The IMF she said “remains Nigeria’s committed partner as it moves forward to face the challenges of the future.”

Be careful with your borrowing - IMF warns Buhari