N-Delta – Blame Games

ONE major reason the situation in the Niger Delta is irresolvable is that neither governments, nor oil companies accept responsibility for its utter neglect.

Their concerns are about unfettered oil and gas production and the billion of Dollars they make from it. Both parties can really be tagged partners in the sustenance of the abuses that rage in the Niger Delta.

Each occasion that arises to address the issues, leaves governments and the oil companies shifting blames. An event on Monday on environmental issues of the Niger Delta ended on that familiar note.

“Over the years there has been a near total neglect or failure to diligently integrate environmental concerns into oil exploration and production activities by the oil companies.

This region is heavily polluted due to oil spillage, sabotage, pipeline vandalisation, and emission from gas flaring,” Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Ufot Ekaette, a retired federal permanent secretary, and Secretary to the Government of the Federation for eight years under President Olusegun Obasanjo, began, in the sanctimonious tunes that marked the day.

“Oil waste pits and hazardous dumpsites abound in the region while untreated industrial effluents, solid and municipal wastes are discharged with little concern about the environmental impacts.

“Youth restiveness has assumed a high level of criminality in many instances and the primary cause cannot be removed from the gross neglect by the oil companies”.

Chief Ekaette forgot that governments, including ones he served in, made environmental policies the oil companies obeyed, or rejected. Governments can punish oil companies for violations of laws. Did they?

“The choice we made as a nation in our oil industry has something to do with the state of the environment, especially when it comes to gas flaring, Mr. Basil Omiyi, Vice Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria and Chairman, Oil Producers Trade Sector, said in a swift response to the Minister.

“The country was in a hurry to earn income from oil and didn’t quite say we’ll wait until we’re able to utilise the gas before we do so; or it didn’t quite make the policies that enable gas utilisation to happen.

“For example, if oil for export and local refineries, gas to power were part of Nigeria’s energy policy, there would be no gas flaring today, and the power plants will be built in the heart of the Niger Delta, and power will go into the national grid,” Mr. Omiyi concluded.

These positions do nothing for the Niger Delta. Connivance between governments and the oil companies to the disadvantage of the long-suffering people of the region are too well known for Chief Ekaette and Mr. Omiyi to remind us.

We believe they can convert the same zeal with which they have despoiled these areas to new energies for sincerely developing them. They must agree on new agenda to develop the Niger Delta before the oil and gas runs out.

It is a challenge that public recriminations cannot meet

The death of Omar Bongo

THE late autocratic ruler of Gabon, President El Hadj Omar Bongo was a perfect example of how not to be a leader. He ruled Gabon for 42 years, easily Africa's longest serving leader, leaving a legacy of graft and megalomania. Bongo was a greedy, totalitarian ruler who outwardly presented a gentle mien, but inwardly displayed a ruthless tenacity to perpetuate himself in office. He appointed his son, Ali Ben Bongo as Defence Minister and his daughter, Pascaline as Foreign Minister and Chief of Staff. His home town, Lewai, was of course renamed Bongoville. The entire country is littered with monuments of self-promotion: Bongo Airport, Bongo University, Bongo Stadium.

For 42 years, Omar Bongo held on to power through a combination of trickery and ruthless suppression of any form of opposition. For him, there was no distinction between state resources and private property. He ran the country as if it were his private estate, doling out favours to a small coterie of sycophants, mostly drawn from his Bateke clan.

At the time of his death in a Spanish hospital on June 8, 2009, he was regarded as one of the world's richest men. Ironically, Gabon, a small country of 1.4 million people with oil resources, is one of the poorest countries in the world. Bongo was one of three African leaders being investigated by the French arm of the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International. The others are Denis Sassou-Nguesso of Republic of Congo and Teodore Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.

Omar Bongo rose to prominence in the 60s when Gabon's first post-independence President Leon Mba appointed him to a number of junior Ministerial positions. Bongo was rewarded for his supposed loyalty to Mba, particularly in a 1964 incident when renegade soldiers arrested both Bongo and Mba in a failed coup attempt. French paratroopers helped to return Mba to power.

In 1966, Mba appointed Bongo as Vice-President. When President Mba died in 1967, France which wielded great influence in its former colonies helped to install Omar Bongo as President. He was 31 years old. Bongo was a loyal ally of the French, he spoke fluent French and counted a succession of French Presidents among his close friends. The French oil company, Elf-Aquitaine enjoyed special privileges under Bongo's leadership.

Born Albert Bernard Bongo on December 30, 1935 in Gabon, he converted to Islam in 1973 and changed his name to El Hadj Omar Bongo. He freely distributed political patronage to his opponents in order to reach truce in times of violent demonstrations. He somehow managed to appease the opponents by offering them government posts. But even then, many political appointees were murdered mysteriously.

The death of opposition leader Joseph Redjambe sparked riots that rocked his government for days. In 1993, Bongo allowed multi-party democracy although he had no intentions of sharing or relinquishing power. In the Presidential elections that followed, and in every other election, Bongo retained his hold on power, despite allegations of massive rigging.

On the international scene, Bongo cultivated the image of a peacemaker, making several attempts to resolve the crisis in Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In fairness to him, he managed to ensure stability in Gabon despite the turmoil in the neighbouring regions.

Shortly after Bongo's death was announced, the Gabonese reacted by stockpiling food, out of fear and panic. Soldiers had to be drafted to protect key administrative buildings in the capital, Libreville. Bongo was the only President most Gabonese have known. His death therefore led to a lot of apprehension about the future of Gabon.

Bongo's sit-tight rule was largely a disservice to his country. The country's oil wealth has not translated into prosperity for the people. Senate President Rose Francine Rogombe, a Bongo ally in the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDE) has since taken over as interim leader. She is expected to organise elections within 45 days. The major challenge that Rogombe and other Gabonese leaders face is to prevent a succession crisis after Bongo's exit. Cote d'Ivoire is yet to recover from the instability that followed the death of its life-long ruler, Felix Houphouet-Boigny.

Clearly, Omar Bongo is not the best example of the kind of leaders that Africa needs. He was too much of a typical sit-tight ruler whose long reign ultimately undermined the people and truncated Gabon's overall development. His exit should be a huge relief.

National Open University: A dream deferred

THE idea of an Open University in Nigeria was first mooted by the military in the 80s. However, due to lack of political will and the political crisis that characterised the military era, it was not until October 1, 1992 that the university was established. But since inception till now, the National Open University's mode of operation especially the timing of events and its ability to conduct or implement programmes according to time and calendar has been very embarrassing.

Among its main objectives are:


to provide ready access to university education for many young Nigerians who could not secure admission through JAMB and

to provide the working class with the opportunity to acquire university degrees.
It is very sad to note that after 10 years of its operation, the National Open University of Nigeria is yet to produce a graduate of its own. It should be made clear that graduating diploma and postgraduate students doesn't seem to be the major philosophy behind the establishment of the university. The first set of degree students of the university were admitted in 2004. It is tragic to state that five years later, they are still in the second semester of their second year. Not only this, despite heavy budgetary allocation in recent times, the university is still in rented apartments. What went wrong or should we ask, what is the problem.

Just of late, speculations were rife that money allocated to the university to buy its own property or to move to its own permanent site was misappropriated. Whether that is true or not, the fact remains clear that government does not starve the university of funds. Professor Olugbemiro Jegede, the current Vice Chancellor of the University took over the affairs of the school about eight years ago. As a scholar of high repute, hopes were high and expectations were raised.

But today, it is very sad that his appointment has failed to make a difference. First is the attitude of the staff. They look more confused than the students. None of them has any idea of when any programme is coming up. Each of the staff is either a god or a goddess. A student going to their Yaba office to either collect study materials or make enquiries remains on a queue for hours. Since most of the students are workers, the whole day is wasted.

The worst part is the instability of the university's academic calendar. The university admits every day and every month. I have never seen a university that does not have an admission quota and that does not have a time to commence or a time to close admission.

The course contents are of good quality and standard, but there are no structures on ground to guarantee that a student admitted into the school will graduate in his life-time. For instance, it is difficult to explain that the National Open University of Nigeria runs a semester in one year. The implication is that a student admitted into a four-year programme will eventually spend eight years.

The most pitiable story is that of the university's Law students. The first set of Law students was admitted in 2004 and since then, the students are still in the second semester of their second year, when their mates in other universities are on their way to the Law School. Every attempt to find out what is going on is arrogantly rebuffed.

This year's semester examination was billed to commence in April, but up till this moment, nothing has happened. Rumours are making the rounds that it may eventually hold in August. Must August be the only month for examination? When will the university be able to run two semesters in a year like its counterparts in India and the United Kingdom? Is there any invisible hand in all of this?

Frankly speaking, the university authorities have not shown any sign of seriousness. If the venue for semester examinations is the problem, the Senate of the school could have access to various Federal Government properties especially schools in Lagos. I have never heard of any university anywhere in the world that runs a semester a year.

We end this submission by asking the Federal Government (especially the Presidency), the Minister of Education and the National University Commission to step into this matter. The students' union of the university should also not continue to keep quiet. Discussions and negotiations with the university authorities should commence to chart a way forward.

If that cannot bring changes, the students' union can send a high-powered delegation to the Minister of Education or even the Presidency to secure an improvement. Finally, the university authorities can still salvage the situation by ensuring that this year's semester examinations are conducted. The postgraduate students do not necessarily have to write their own examinations simultaneously with their undergraduate counterparts. In every normal school, the two levels do not write semester examinations at the same time.

If a change of hand is required as this could be considered the best option in the circumstance, there is nothing wrong in raising a new team to pilot the affairs of the university. Before now, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board was a nightmare. They could conduct examinations and it would take about three months to access the results with reports of monumental malpractices all over the country. Today, the story has changed. Who knew that JAMB could conduct examinations with minimal irregularities and results released after 10 days? By all standards, it may not be judgmental to say that the present crop of academics running the National Open University of Nigeria have proved that they are incapable of managing the university. The same logistic problems they complained of 10 years ago are still the same challenges they blame their inefficiency on.

Things cannot continue like this. I don't know why Nigerians are always held to ransom over things that would have been a source of joy. Most of the students who started the programme in 2004 have withdrawn out of frustration. Stakeholders in the education industry should step in and help. The university is obviously in weak hands and we cannot continue this way.

Shell and the Ogoni Settlement

The decision by Shell Petroleum Development Company and the families of the Ogoni 9 for an out-of-court settlement, fifteen years after the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his kinsmen is on its own commendable.
The murder of the Ogoni 9, no doubt, attracted much global condemnation of the Nigerian government and in a way, rightly or wrongly, Shell. The offer to pay the sum of $15.5 million to the families of the murdered Ogoni 9 by Shell must have been made in the pursuit of peace, although it came so many years after the case was instituted.
Convinced that Shell had connived with the Federal military government to hang the Ogoni 9, after a controversial judicial trial, the families of the hanged men had instituted a case in far away New York, United States of America. The case had dragged on for years, till the recently found rapprochement between both parties.
The compensation paid by Shell may deaden the pain of the anguish suffered by the families of the murdered men but it cannot wipe away the scar of the injury.
True, we know that no amount of money paid is worth the lives of the slain Ogoni activists, yet since the plaintiff have accepted it, we expect that the settlement should promote peaceful co-existence between both parties on the one hand and between Shell and the larger Ogoni clan in Rivers State, on the other hand.
Shell was forced out of Ogoniland by the people during the heat of the crisis. Although it calls the payment compensation, not many Nigerians see it in that light primarily because it initiated the out-of-court settlement. That perception therefore puts pressure on Shell in its relationship with communities where they operate. It may now begin to think of other communities which may want to take the company along the same road to American courts.
In the same way, we expect that other multinational corporations operating in various parts of the country must begin to show greater caution and amity in how they deal with their host communities. Host communities must be accorded their basic rights and treated fairly. If that was taken for granted in the past, this case becomes a permanent reminder that there is an international arbiter from whom infractions can be redressed.
While commending the American judicial system that allows even foreign nationals to seek redress for crimes committed outside America, we note the fact that the plaintiffs had to go to America in search of justice for their families. That off-shore search for justice says a lot about the confidence level Nigerians have of the nation’s judicial process. It is probable that if that case had been instituted in Nigeria, with all the malaise about “corporate connections” and influence, it might have been bungled or mismanaged.
The Nigerian judicial system must therefore be seen to be bold and capable of administering justice without fear or favour.
It is against this backdrop that we call on the Ogonis to sheathe their swords, if for nothing else, to ensure that the ensuing peace can bring development activities to the area. After all, it was for the development of the community that the late Ken Saro-Wiwa challenged the system. They should also handle the issue of compensation for the Ogoni 4 with care, so as not to fracture the Ogoni land again.
We believe none of the parties in the dispute must claim to be on higher moral ground, since the out-of-court settlement was mutually agreed. And no party did the other a greater favour.

Reflections on the Niger Delta

WHAT, actually, is happening in the Niger Delta? Is it an armed political rebellion, or armed banditry? Is it a legitimate and justifiable liberation struggle or sheer criminality? Has any state - ancient or modern - ever recognised any armed challenge to its power as legitimate? Put more directly, which state has ever portrayed armed rebels as better than, or rather, different from, bandits and criminals? We may be more historically specific and concrete. Was the armed group led by Isaac Adaka Boro to challenge the power and authority of the Nigerian State in the Niger Delta in January and February 1966 a legitimate liberation movement or an ordinary criminal gang?

You still remember how history resolved the matter? The leaders of the group were found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. But before the sentences were to be carried out, the government was overthrown. The new government not only amnestied the condemned men, but accorded them the status of freedom fighters and later enlisted them into the Nigerian army to fight a new and bigger rebellion. Is there a link between the Isaac Adaka Boro Movement and the current fragmented and "crime-infested" rebellion? How, exactly, did the victors of the Nigerian Civil War - I mean the forces that amnestied Isaac Adaka Boro and his group and enlisted them to fight under the Nigerian Flag - resolve their grievances? What did the rebels and the Niger Delta people they represented gain from the victors of the Nigerian Civil War?

Taking a long view of history, will it be plausible to say that for the people of the Niger Delta the "resolution" of (1966-1970) was a huge deception? If the ruling bloc in Nigeria - the heirs of the victors in the Nigerian Civil War - can afford to look at the truth - because it is before all of us - they will see that what is happening now is a stage in the long struggle to correct the deception of (1966-1970). Is a repeat deception possible? No, history has closed that option. You have to negotiate. Forget about criminals. For there are criminals everywhere in Nigeria, exploiting the situation they find and using the means available.

I did a lot of talking during a particular period of my recent hospitalisation. That was when my two hands were used in passing fluids into my body. Since there was no hand to write, or even to hold a book to read, I used the only organ that was free: my mouth. The main listeners were my spouse and the two young persons who assisted her, in turns, to cater to my needs. There was also one particular comrade whose visits always inspired instant lectures.

The subject of my lecture one early afternoon was the difference between, "treaties" and "protocols" in relations between states and, in particular, in war and peace. My case study was the famous treaty between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany on the eve of the Second World War.

Simply put: Treaties are agreements that are signed publicly by Heads of State under television cameras, with journalists and diplomats in attendance. The texts of treaties are also always published, sometimes even before they are signed. In short, treaties are open documents. On the other hand protocols are secret appendixes to treaties. The agreements embodied in protocols are often reached in direct meetings between the Heads of States themselves or their closest assistants. In almost every instance, protocols are the incentives of treaties.

While officials spend their time arguing over the wordings of a treaty, their principals busy themselves hammering out the terms of the protocols.

When Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany was labouring to sign a non-aggression pact (treaty) with Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, his main objective (embodied in the secret protocol) was a guarantee that Stalin would not intervene when German troops invaded Poland and would accept the division of eastern Europe into two "spheres of interest" - one for Nazi Germany, the other for the Soviet Union. Well, Hitler got his way in Poland but Stalin violated the terms of the protocol by incorporating the Baltic states into the Soviet Union in the opening months of the war. Since the main issue - the protocol - had collapsed the so-called treaty could not stand. Nazi troops attacked and invaded the Soviet Union at dawn on June 22, 1941 with fury and maximum force.

But why am I remembering this particular "lecture" now? The answer is that I believe, very strongly, that the massive bombardment to which the Nigerian Army subjected the Niger Delta rebels and unarmed civilians from May 15, 2009 came in the wake of a breakdown of an undisclosed protocol between elements of the Nigerian state and elements of the Niger Delta rebels and their "backers".

Since formulating this hypothesis, I have read as many accounts of the creek war as are available to me. I have discussed, and I am still discussing with people. To my dismay, I found that the more I read the more confused I became and the more the questions that needed to be answered. My frustration continued until I saw a report of the fighting in the May 30, 2009 edition of The Economist of London. (Page 46). Titled Fighting in Nigeria's Delta: getting desperate, the report asked the question: Will the government's latest effort to bash the militants get more oil flowing? The report, in seven short paragraphs confirmed some vital information that strengthened my hypothesis. Let me offer some excerpts from the report.

Excerpt 1: "After the government made overtures towards the Delta militants nearly a year ago, about eight months of relative peace ensured. As oil prices fell, so did the rate of theft and pipeline sabotage. But local human-rights campaigners say that since May 15, helicopters and naval gunships have killed hundreds of civilians and displaced thousands more. Government forces, they say, have shown scant regard for civilians".

Excerpt 2: "The militant camp the government is smashing is run by a local man known as Government Tompolo who had been aligned with MEND but fell out with it after he was rumoured to be negotiating with state officials trying to persuade him to close his camp in return for handsome pay-offs for him and his friends. But the army comes under federal authority and is removed from decisions by officials of the state. No one is sure what sparked the latest wave of attacks but it seems likely that Mr. Tompolo's "boys" engaged in a series of skirmishes, provoking it to hit back as hard as it could".

Excerpt 3: "MEND says it is fighting for a fairer share of the country's oil revenue to go to the dirt-poor people who live in the area. But the Nigerian government says that MEND and other named groups in the region are just criminals who sow chaos in order to steal vast amounts of the country's crude oil, about a tenth of which is reckoned to be stolen before it reaches the export terminals. Aerial photographs of the Delta show tankers illegally linked to pipelines, siphoning off millions of barrels of crude for sale abroad. According to security experts, theft on such a scale require the co-operation of large number of senior people in Nigeria's navy".

Let me end this fragmented piece on this note. Nigeria's Foreign Minister and the youthful Speaker of the House of Representatives have been in the forefront of state functionaries explaining to the world the Federal Government's policy in the Niger Delta and, in particular, why the government had decided to crush the rebels ("militants)" once and for all. No responsible government, they say, can fold its arms and allow criminals to hold the country hostage and destroy its economy. Fantastic formulation! The Foreign Minister may simply be reminded that in July 1967, he himself took up arms against a "responsible" government.

As for the Speaker, if it is true that he is a de-commissioned officer of the British army then there is not much I can say to him. I was particularly shocked when I read a report in which the Speaker was drawing attention to the fact that the Chief of Defence Staff and the Inspector-General of Police are from the Niger Delta. What was the No. 4 Ctitizen trying to prove? Will someone please ask him where the army officers conducting the real operation on the ground are from: I mean the Commander and the Propaganda Chief. What of the Chief of Army Staff? What of the Defence Minister? What of the National Security Adviser? Indeed, what of the President who gave and signed the order for the operation? Where are they all from?

In any case where exactly in the Niger Delta are the Chief of Defence Staff and Inspector-General of the Police from? I would advise the Speaker to talk less and enjoy the honey that history is dropping into his mouth - at least for now. We all know that the power of Nigeria's ruling bloc rests desperately on the crude oil that gushes out of the Niger Delta. Block this access, and that power collapses. So, the war the Nigerian state and the ruling bloc that controls it are waging in the Niger Delta is a "war of survival", so to say.

Challenges of Single WA Currency

Some fresh life was breathed into the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the realisation of a 10-year-old dream for a common currency.
Recently in Abuja, the Convergence Council of ECOWAS approved a revised road map for the realisation of a single currency for West Africa. But as the history of the commitment of member states to the goals of the Community show, a lot more than the revision is required to achieve the dream.
The road map, which targets the full realization of the dream of a single currency in the year 2020, has clearly defined quarterly milestones starting this year. Between 2009 and the first quarter of 2013, the road map envisages the harmonization of the regulatory and supervisory framework for banking and other financial institutions, the establishment of a payment system infrastructure for cross border transactions, the completion of the e-payment system infrastructure in Guinea, The Gambia and Sierra Leone (countries lagging behind in e-payment) and the completion of the ongoing integration of the financial markets of the region.
Then, through the creation of the West African Monetary (WAMZ) zone comprising Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, a monetary union for the zone, the introduction of Eco common currency for the zone in January 2015, and the eventual merger of the Eco and the CFA currency of the French-speaking West Africa currencies, the dream of a single currency would be realised.
Considering the advantages of single regional currencies, realising the feat would be a very commendable achievement.
We are aware that introducing a common currency leads to gains in economic efficiency. These include the elimination of transaction cost and risks associated with uncertain fluctuation of the exchange rates.
One common currency also creates a simple platform for price comparison, makes price differences more noticeable and helps to equalise it across borders. Additionally, disappearance of transaction costs and price transparency will certainly deepen the common financial market that is likely to arise from the exercise.
Although there are, on the other side of the coin, such disadvantages as the cost of institutions and individuals adjustment to a new currency and the lack of national monetary policy to adjust as desired, the benefits are enormous.
Even so, there are additional benefits from the new vision, which we find equally commendable. They include the creation of a highly functional regional market and its equitable integration into the global market; effective attainment of regional food security based on enhanced production, effective storage, distribution and marketing; and the establishment of a viable regional infrastructure network.
Lofty as these goals are, we note with concern the lack of commitment of the member states of ECOWAS to the values and objectives of the Community. We also notice the mutual suspicion among members and the unending supremacy battle between the French-speaking countries and their English-speaking counterparts.
These are major reasons for the stunted growth of the regional body founded in 1975 to promote economic integration in "all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters ....."
We are therefore persuaded to believe that the realisation of the dream of a single currency for the region remains a function of how well these problems are addressed. For example, the fear of some member countries that with a single currency they would become an appendage of Nigeria, the region’s largest nation, is unfounded. Active trade in the region stands to benefit all member countries. Already, a lot of trading is being done informally.
As a key member of the body, Nigeria has been playing a commendable role in actualising the dreams of ECOWAS. She has already shown commitment to the new vision. Minister of Finance, Dr. Mansur Muhtar, gave the commitment at the ECOWAS council meeting in Abuja.
Muhtar told the convergence council made up of the ministers of finance and central bank governors of member states that: "Let me once reaffirm Nigeria's unflinching support for the attainment of the ECOWAS single currency project."
We support a single currency for the sub-region and urge member countries to show seriousness in the efforts to achieve it.

Challenges of Single WA Currency

Some fresh life was breathed into the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the realisation of a 10-year-old dream for a common currency.
Recently in Abuja, the Convergence Council of ECOWAS approved a revised road map for the realisation of a single currency for West Africa. But as the history of the commitment of member states to the goals of the Community show, a lot more than the revision is required to achieve the dream.
The road map, which targets the full realization of the dream of a single currency in the year 2020, has clearly defined quarterly milestones starting this year. Between 2009 and the first quarter of 2013, the road map envisages the harmonization of the regulatory and supervisory framework for banking and other financial institutions, the establishment of a payment system infrastructure for cross border transactions, the completion of the e-payment system infrastructure in Guinea, The Gambia and Sierra Leone (countries lagging behind in e-payment) and the completion of the ongoing integration of the financial markets of the region.
Then, through the creation of the West African Monetary (WAMZ) zone comprising Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, a monetary union for the zone, the introduction of Eco common currency for the zone in January 2015, and the eventual merger of the Eco and the CFA currency of the French-speaking West Africa currencies, the dream of a single currency would be realised.
Considering the advantages of single regional currencies, realising the feat would be a very commendable achievement.
We are aware that introducing a common currency leads to gains in economic efficiency. These include the elimination of transaction cost and risks associated with uncertain fluctuation of the exchange rates.
One common currency also creates a simple platform for price comparison, makes price differences more noticeable and helps to equalise it across borders. Additionally, disappearance of transaction costs and price transparency will certainly deepen the common financial market that is likely to arise from the exercise.
Although there are, on the other side of the coin, such disadvantages as the cost of institutions and individuals adjustment to a new currency and the lack of national monetary policy to adjust as desired, the benefits are enormous.
Even so, there are additional benefits from the new vision, which we find equally commendable. They include the creation of a highly functional regional market and its equitable integration into the global market; effective attainment of regional food security based on enhanced production, effective storage, distribution and marketing; and the establishment of a viable regional infrastructure network.
Lofty as these goals are, we note with concern the lack of commitment of the member states of ECOWAS to the values and objectives of the Community. We also notice the mutual suspicion among members and the unending supremacy battle between the French-speaking countries and their English-speaking counterparts.
These are major reasons for the stunted growth of the regional body founded in 1975 to promote economic integration in "all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters ....."
We are therefore persuaded to believe that the realisation of the dream of a single currency for the region remains a function of how well these problems are addressed. For example, the fear of some member countries that with a single currency they would become an appendage of Nigeria, the region’s largest nation, is unfounded. Active trade in the region stands to benefit all member countries. Already, a lot of trading is being done informally.
As a key member of the body, Nigeria has been playing a commendable role in actualising the dreams of ECOWAS. She has already shown commitment to the new vision. Minister of Finance, Dr. Mansur Muhtar, gave the commitment at the ECOWAS council meeting in Abuja.
Muhtar told the convergence council made up of the ministers of finance and central bank governors of member states that: "Let me once reaffirm Nigeria's unflinching support for the attainment of the ECOWAS single currency project."
We support a single currency for the sub-region and urge member countries to show seriousness in the efforts to achieve it.

Challenges of Single WA Currency

Some fresh life was breathed into the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the realisation of a 10-year-old dream for a common currency.
Recently in Abuja, the Convergence Council of ECOWAS approved a revised road map for the realisation of a single currency for West Africa. But as the history of the commitment of member states to the goals of the Community show, a lot more than the revision is required to achieve the dream.
The road map, which targets the full realization of the dream of a single currency in the year 2020, has clearly defined quarterly milestones starting this year. Between 2009 and the first quarter of 2013, the road map envisages the harmonization of the regulatory and supervisory framework for banking and other financial institutions, the establishment of a payment system infrastructure for cross border transactions, the completion of the e-payment system infrastructure in Guinea, The Gambia and Sierra Leone (countries lagging behind in e-payment) and the completion of the ongoing integration of the financial markets of the region.
Then, through the creation of the West African Monetary (WAMZ) zone comprising Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, a monetary union for the zone, the introduction of Eco common currency for the zone in January 2015, and the eventual merger of the Eco and the CFA currency of the French-speaking West Africa currencies, the dream of a single currency would be realised.
Considering the advantages of single regional currencies, realising the feat would be a very commendable achievement.
We are aware that introducing a common currency leads to gains in economic efficiency. These include the elimination of transaction cost and risks associated with uncertain fluctuation of the exchange rates.
One common currency also creates a simple platform for price comparison, makes price differences more noticeable and helps to equalise it across borders. Additionally, disappearance of transaction costs and price transparency will certainly deepen the common financial market that is likely to arise from the exercise.
Although there are, on the other side of the coin, such disadvantages as the cost of institutions and individuals adjustment to a new currency and the lack of national monetary policy to adjust as desired, the benefits are enormous.
Even so, there are additional benefits from the new vision, which we find equally commendable. They include the creation of a highly functional regional market and its equitable integration into the global market; effective attainment of regional food security based on enhanced production, effective storage, distribution and marketing; and the establishment of a viable regional infrastructure network.
Lofty as these goals are, we note with concern the lack of commitment of the member states of ECOWAS to the values and objectives of the Community. We also notice the mutual suspicion among members and the unending supremacy battle between the French-speaking countries and their English-speaking counterparts.
These are major reasons for the stunted growth of the regional body founded in 1975 to promote economic integration in "all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters ....."
We are therefore persuaded to believe that the realisation of the dream of a single currency for the region remains a function of how well these problems are addressed. For example, the fear of some member countries that with a single currency they would become an appendage of Nigeria, the region’s largest nation, is unfounded. Active trade in the region stands to benefit all member countries. Already, a lot of trading is being done informally.
As a key member of the body, Nigeria has been playing a commendable role in actualising the dreams of ECOWAS. She has already shown commitment to the new vision. Minister of Finance, Dr. Mansur Muhtar, gave the commitment at the ECOWAS council meeting in Abuja.
Muhtar told the convergence council made up of the ministers of finance and central bank governors of member states that: "Let me once reaffirm Nigeria's unflinching support for the attainment of the ECOWAS single currency project."
We support a single currency for the sub-region and urge member countries to show seriousness in the efforts to achieve it.

Jailing Traffic Offenders

IN September 2007, Lagos State judiciary delivered a remarkable judgment when it sentenced seven people accused of driving against the traffic, on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway to 20 days imprisonment. The prosecution and sentence were finished within a month of the offence.

Badejo Okusanya, presiding at an Ikeja Magistrate Court sentenced Chukwudi Ikeazoba, Obinna Odugboemu, Abdulfatai Yinusa, Tajudeen Ibrahim, Taiwo Adewale, David Otacheonyilo and Samuel Ashari. They were to serve their term at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons. The court also ordered them to submit their passport photographs and driver’s licences to it.

Supo Shasore, State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice and Efunbowale Gbadebo, Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, were in court to argue the matter. They were passing the message that the government was serious about wiping out traffic misconduct.

The accused earned lighter sentences as first offenders because their offence, inconsiderate driving, was tried under the Lagos State Road Traffic Law. Had they been tried under the criminal code, they would have gone to jail for six months.

Road accidents arise from impatience, over speeding, reckless and inconsiderate driving. All these are common practices in Lagos. At peak periods, some motorists delight in driving against the traffic and creating more traffic havoc for law-abiding drivers. Sometimes these dangerous drivers knock down commuters and pedestrians at bus stops.

The emergence of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, the imposition of stiff fines and the introduction of psychiatric tests failed to stem this misconduct.

Nor has the conviction of seven men, whose impatience drove them to jail, changed anything in the conduct of Lagos drivers.

We had hoped that the prosecution of the offenders was a sign of seriousness on the part of government. Almost two years after the first move, reckless drivers are again allowed to operate as they like.

Many motorists believe that they can bribe their way of traffic troubles when they are arrested. The effort at bringing sanity to Lagos State roads by enforcing compliance with traffic rules should continue. The Lagos State Government must not relent in the zeal to restore sanity to Lagos roads.

The same traffic laws should apply to the police and bullion van drivers. On many occasions, these categories of drivers go against the traffic, setting bad examples that other drivers copy. Even uniformed men in commercial and private vehicles encourage their drivers to flout traffic laws, as if the law is not for them.

Provision of road signs would ensure fairness in this exercise and deny suspects of any excuses for their conduct.

Many Lagos roads are without vital signs to direct drivers and save lives. Massive enlightenment campaigns are required to make motor cycle riders, okada, realise that they too are subject to traffic rules. They operate mostly above the law.

Another way to activate the campaign against traffic violation is to publicise the sentencing of the seven and tell the public about the implications of a jail sentence on one’s personal record.

The CBN is in need of intervention

FOR the CBN, the time of test has come. And it needs help. All along it had been shielded from reproach by the unprecedented oil boom receipts and the laudable banking sector consolidation even though it was saying and doing a lot of things wrongly. Had the good run of revenues been sustained, every crack would eventually have sealed up. But the worldwide financial crisis makes imperative a higher degree of circumspection in the words and actions of the central government, generally, and of the CBN, particularly.

It is well-known that the approach of the CBN to the consolidation of banks was very unconventional and ended up with a lot of window-dressing, with form dominating substance, in the books of most banks. The primary objective of the consolidation was to beef up funds attributable to shareholders in order to minimise the probability of business losses and investment in fixed assets impairing the deposits of innocent customers. But the CBN became so fixated on 'new money' that a bank like ACB, with landed assets of about N7 billion, was valued at only N420 million, whereas almost all the banks which raised money during the period, whether by private placement or by public offer, would devote an average of 30 per cent of the proceeds to the development of landed property, mainly by way of branch buildings, according to the prospectuses.

The mindset of the CBN remained unchanged even after the interim management it put in place at Springbank, where ACB berthed, had, with its approval, realised several billions of naira from the disposal of some of ACB's landed assets, to sustain the bank and in spite of the higher valuation of ACB by a consortium in which the same CBN participated. To add insult to injury, it went ahead to collaborate with the interim management and Bank PHB in the recent hostile takeover of Springbank without any attempt to correct injustice in the precedent merger, particularly, the type that shortchanged shareholders of Springbank who entered through the erstwhile ACB. Meanwhile, banks which were less than transparent in the recapitalization programme, including those said to have provided counterpart funding to subscribers to their public offer of shares and which, therefore, do not have all the equity funds they claimed to have raised, were given a bill of good health. There are many more tales of woe in the consolidation already swept under the carpet.

A great test now awaits the CBN on the exposure of banks to the securities and the oil and gas markets that have fallen flat. It should be noted that the posturing of the CBN on margin facilities could be indicted in the drastic decline of the stock market. By now most of the stock exposures should be doubtful or lost if the banks complied with prudential classification. In what way would the CBN manage the situation to avert a liquidity crunch that would ground the system? It has left everyone gazing, whereas some banks urgently need significant life-line if they are to restructure that portfolio successfully.

Already exchange rate stability has become an issue - no thanks to the CBN which ignited the freefall of our currency, first, by deliberate depreciation and then by panic reaction to the repercussions, in a highly speculative market. With a lot of money outside the banking system and with people taking the position that the rate would slide further to N200 or more, how would the CBN deal with capital flight? How does it even ascertain the legitimacy of disbursements under the Retail Dutch Auction system? Money is a measure of value. Is it, therefore, possible to stabilise the currency when oil revenue has fallen sharply, without stimulating domestic production? How then would the CBN successfully defend the Naira, given our paltry reserves, in this era of borderless world trade? When a man loses his job or even suffers a deep pay cut, how should he utilise his limited savings: increase the household maintenance expenditure or open a small store for the wife to sell food items, fruits and vegetables, so that the family might feed tomorrow?

A prudent man would go for the store and that is capital expenditure. The times are not for salary increase - not to talk of profligate spending such as the outlandish remuneration of political members of the executive and legislative arms of government. It is time for efficient capital expenditure. What is the CBN, the custodian of our reserves, telling the government: we have not seen enough diligence and desperation to rehabilitate the laws and to drive the PPP programmes for power and other infrastructural components so that the people can produce competitively - even when oil price rebounds, as it is bound to?

The banks loathe lending to the productive sectors of the economy, particularly, agriculture and manufacturing, without which the economy cannot prosper. Instead, they lend massively for the import of finished goods, including consumer assets like pleasure cars, which they now encourage people to buy on credit and mortgage their future earnings, thereby accelerating the outflow of money from the cycle of national income to other lands. Even the Small and Medium Enterprises Equity Investment Scheme, funded from banks' annual profits, has been made discretionary! What of the patriotism expected of the banks and what is the CBN doing to reverse the ugly trend of resource allocation?

The more the financial resources turned over to the banking system by individuals, households and businesses, the more effective government's monetary measures would be. But many of the banks appear unmindful of disincentives to the development of banking habit among segments of potential savers, which include high (and, oftentimes, illegal) tariffs, interest rates and documentation requirements. Many banks charge astronomically for convenience facilities such as ATM card, e-account statement and transaction alerts/notification, meant to expedite service delivery and draw customers, in the competitive market. Should they really be allowed to charge customers for these pure convenience facilities? Take the ATM Card, for example. Whether you used it or not, most banks would still levy the ATM Maintenance charge at the tour of a month. Consequently, the vast majority of the populace is being alienated, by excessive charges, from the system. The permissive conduct of the banks has been abetted, in part, by their evidently paternalistic relationship with the CBN, at the expense of the people.

One could go on and on recounting CBN's errors of omission and commission in the governance of the banking system. It has demonstrable propensity to focus on objectives at the expense of procedure and due process, with scant attention to details. While such failure could pass unnoticed when the revenue stream was strong, its outcome could be catastrophic in such volatile times as we are now in. The CBN, therefore, needs to sit up, watch its utterances and actions, avoid panic reactions and become more circumspect, henceforth. The time of test has come and "the good is oft interred with their bones".

Barack Obama's speech

BARACK Hussein Obama, as the 44th President of America took the pain to call himself, delivered an historic speech before a select audience at the University of Cairo on Thursday, June 4. In this speech of close to 6000 words to Muslims everywhere, Obama put religion at the core of the peacemaking process in issues involving Muslims and America.

The U.S. president declared that Islam has a rich history and tradition of teaching and promoting peace and tolerance; that Muslims have championed and stayed at the forefront of promoting values of social justice and equality everywhere and that Islam carried light of learning for centuries and that hijab is not inequality. Obama freely quoted verses from the Holy Quran to entrance his auditorium audience who themselves performed like a veteran cheering squad as Obama walked into the auditorium without guides.

Also captured in the speech was American occupation in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the spread of nuclear weapons, development of democracy, religious freedom, women's rights and economic development. If nothing else, this speech shows that America can give to the world the peace it needs at this time, and that America's only enemy is truly its own foreign policies. It is interesting to see a U.S. President that is willing to break from Bush's disgraceful legacy of propagating fears based on the myths of a cruel, murderous, destructive, fanatical and blood-thirsty Islam. Although Obama's speech is capable of uprooting the various myths founded by Bush and his neocon minions and he addressed this speech specifically to the Muslims, the whole world listened. And rightly so. If words could repair all the sorrow, pains and trauma caused thousands of families whose sons, husbands and wives were raped and tortured in the most horrific ways in Abu Ghraib and in other secret prisons by uniformed filths whose only claim to being human is at best feeble, these clever insights will.

They are nice words, almost too nice not to hear the clinched nonsense about the hoax called war on terror that Bush and Blair - a despicable breed who hold life, law and human rights so cheap they caused the death, directly and indirectly, of more than a million innocent Iraqis on a pack of what they know to be lies - waged for eight years to keep alive the fear that causes the American public to accept pointless wars. It is equally nice to see that no one gave Obama the Muntazer al-Zaidi's flying shoe treatment in Cairo. But in the heat of the Obamania euphoria, a relevant question must be asked: will these nice words transform into real policies and actions in Washington where Obama will have to walk the talk?

This is what really matters to the Iraqis who continue to be victims of Americas more than 20-years old violent justice and this is what matters to the Palestinians who watched in horror as Israel slaughtered 1,400 people in Gaza last winter, including hundreds of sleeping, fleeing or terrified children, with American-supplied weapons? It will surely take more than 50 minutes of nice words to simply wipe off the memories that centuries of Jews persecution by the Europeans, which culminated in the Holocaust, and the legitimate need to redress this, are the only two core elements of the cause of the Palestinians suffering since 1948. The injustice of original ethnic cleansing, and continued victimisation derive their fuel from the fund, guns and political cover from America. As one of the founding fathers of America, Churchill, aptly puts it: "Words are easy and many, while great deeds are difficult and rare". Deeds are what really matter to the Muslim world; great deeds, not nice words.

Although, President Obama's speech contained many honest words, it is also riddled with many blindspots. One of these was President Obama's description of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a conflict between two overzealous national formations that must learn manners and civility from the international community. Obama called on Arabs and Israelis not to point fingers at each other or to see this conflict only from one side or the other. In actual fact, the conflict is not strictly between Arabs and Israelis but rather between Arabs on one side and Israelis and America on the other side. The United States alone plays a major and decisive role in sustaining the conflict and Obama gave no indication that the role should change or even be considered.

Lastly, Obama's choice of Egypt, one of the region's most repressive, undemocratic and ruthless police states, to address Muslims detracts from the full merit due the speech. Selection of Egypt for the address has been rightly deemed by some analysts as a desperate move by Washington to prop up one of America's last remaining dictators in the Middle East, which is dwindling in regional influence - a sort of commission for services done for America. But in fairness where else could he have gone to make the august address in the whole of the so-called Muslim world?

From Morocco to Bahrain political dissent is ruthlessly stifled, opposition movements where they are allowed to exist are weak, vulnerable, manipulated and persecuted by ruling establishments who use venal state intelligence machinery to carry out some of the worst forms of abuse and torture known to man. Tacit acknowledgement of this fact must be the reason why the auditorium, packed full of a supposedly obedient audience, was drowned in a resounding applause when Obama declared that some governments once in power, are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others. When Obama said these honest and clever words, all eyes turned on Obama's chief host: the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Who Owns Lagos Airport Road?

The road to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos is a big eyesore desperately begging for urgent remedy. This is even after the complaints of many well meaning Nigerians. So although whose responsibility it is to heal the festering eyesore is not in doubt, we repeat the question that has always been asked by some foreigners in Nigeria, “who owns the Lagos Airport Road?” That is a good question, considering the increasing beauty of the rest of Lagos.
Although Lagos has lost its status as the capital of Nigeria, it remains the nation’s commercial nerve centre. Besides, the MMIA is still the main gateway to Nigeria. Lagos is the first contact of many foreigners with Nigeria. Even Nigerians who habitually live and work in Abuja are compelled by pressing professional and family reasons to make frequent trips to Lagos. It is no doubt, the hub of business, political and social activities in Nigeria. That explains why the MMIA remains one of the busiest international airports in Africa.
It is therefore disheartening that the main access road to such an important airport has been left over the years to be overtaken by weeds, filth, beggars, street urchins, etc. It is riddled with potholes, some large enough to be called craters. This causes heavy vehicular traffic jam and facilitates the nefarious activities of armed robbers on the road. On both sides of the road are artisans’ workshops and showrooms, makeshift shades for all manner of vendors including those hawking pornographic materials. To make matters worse, rarely do the street lights work, making the route dark most nights.
The situation of the road is indeed a big embarrassment for a country that pretends to be rebranding itself. A first timer’s impression of any country is usually formed from what he or she sees while driving out of the port of entry. For instance, if the Airport road is dirty and unkempt, the visitor goes away with the impression that the country is a dirty one. Anyone passing through the MMIA Road will naturally think that we are a lousy nation because of the squalid state of the road.
We call for the immediate fixing and beautification of this important road. If the road to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja is a paved double carriage way beautified with trees and manicured green grass, why not the road to MMIA which links Nigeria with the rest of the world?
We recall with sadness that in 2004 when the Bola Tinubu administration tried to expand the road into four lanes on each side with one lane being the service lane, some FERMA officials quickly came in and stopped the project on the pretext that it was a federal government project. Since then most of the expanse of land along the road has either been encroached on or illegally sold.
This is completely unacceptable. The task of providing public utilities for the common good should transcend petty partisan politics. If the Fashola government has successfully re-constructed and beautified most Lagos roads within years, why is the MMIA Road in such a shameful state?
The Yar’Adua government should take immediate steps to fix it; and to keep that access corridor free of anything that tarnishes the image of the country. No tourist, after seeing the ugliness of the road, would be comfortable. It is clearly a bad signal! For us, rebranding Nigeria should start with such matters.

Bongo: End of a Sit-tight Leader

Omar Bongo Ondimba, former President of Gabon who died in Barcelona, Spain last week, is a metaphor for the African condition. After ruling one of the continent’s most endowed nations for over four decades, the erstwhile “Big Man” died in a foreign land in search of solution to even his own medical problem.
For sitting tight as President of Gabon, Bongo typified the bad leadership style that has held back the development of the African continent. Until his death, he was the longest serving African President, a “feat” we pray no African leader will like to emulate.
The life and times of the man who was born to a peasant family as Albert Bernard Bongo on December 30, 1935 were indeed intriguing. He attended school in Brazzaville in Congo and later joined the French Air Force where he made history as the first black man to serve in Chad. His political career began with the trust he won from ex President Leon Mba, father of Gabon’s independence, which led to his appointment in 1962 at the age of 27 years as a director in the president’s office. Two years later, a coup attempt, the only one in the country’s history, was foiled by French paratroopers who restored Mba and Bongo to power. The latter’s reward for loyalty was the oil-rich nation’s vice-presidency in 1967.
And in a drama of fate, Mba died nine months after, paving the way for his deputy to assume full presidential powers. And for the next 26 years he ruled over a one-party state with all the unwholesome signs of such political arrangements in Africa. In the 1970s, many of his opponents met their death through circumstances that were generally believed to be politically motivated. The mysterious demise in 1990 of opposition leader, Joseph Redjambe, ignited riots that rocked the regime for weeks.
That turbulent reaction compelled Bongo to introduce multi-party elections in 1993, which he won predictably, of course, with a trail of allegations of rigging. The violent demonstrations that greeted that electoral outing prompted Bongo to form an all-inclusive government to give his rivals key positions. While the next polls conducted in 1998 produced similar results and wide rejection, it is to the credit of Africa’s longest serving leader that his country of 1.4 million people did not degenerate into ruin. Not even the accusation of corruption, particularly the financial scandal involving Elf Aquitaine, could significantly diminish his status as Gabon president. The fact that sensitive government posts were occupied by close family members also did not substantially damage his image as the nation’s leader.
Observers of Africa’s political history also commend him for not allowing the perennial conflicts from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other troubled countries within the region to spill over to Gabon. Instead, he managed to be viewed as a disinterested peacemaker, someone the international community depended on many times in its quest for peace in one of the world’s most traumatized spots.
Surely, Bongo, with his not so enviable leadership profile, was not a completely despised figure. Even as yet another example of sit-tight rulership, a practice that often undermines the continent’s rating in the comity of nations, he tried to give the generality of the Gabonese people a sense of belonging.
But one question will continue to beg for answers in the years ahead: “Couldn’t the man have done better for the country under his grip for 42 years, with the enormous public wealth at his disposal?” Even if the French judge that initiated enquiry last month into whether Bongo plundered the country’s resources to buy homes and cars abroad fails to respond to that poser, posterity certainly will. Bongo did not deserve to rule for that long. On a level playing field, the resource-rich country could have produced successors of Bongo long before now.

The CBN is in need of intervention

FOR the CBN, the time of test has come. And it needs help. All along it had been shielded from reproach by the unprecedented oil boom receipts and the laudable banking sector consolidation even though it was saying and doing a lot of things wrongly. Had the good run of revenues been sustained, every crack would eventually have sealed up. But the worldwide financial crisis makes imperative a higher degree of circumspection in the words and actions of the central government, generally, and of the CBN, particularly.

It is well-known that the approach of the CBN to the consolidation of banks was very unconventional and ended up with a lot of window-dressing, with form dominating substance, in the books of most banks. The primary objective of the consolidation was to beef up funds attributable to shareholders in order to minimise the probability of business losses and investment in fixed assets impairing the deposits of innocent customers. But the CBN became so fixated on 'new money' that a bank like ACB, with landed assets of about N7 billion, was valued at only N420 million, whereas almost all the banks which raised money during the period, whether by private placement or by public offer, would devote an average of 30 per cent of the proceeds to the development of landed property, mainly by way of branch buildings, according to the prospectuses.

The mindset of the CBN remained unchanged even after the interim management it put in place at Springbank, where ACB berthed, had, with its approval, realised several billions of naira from the disposal of some of ACB's landed assets, to sustain the bank and in spite of the higher valuation of ACB by a consortium in which the same CBN participated. To add insult to injury, it went ahead to collaborate with the interim management and Bank PHB in the recent hostile takeover of Springbank without any attempt to correct injustice in the precedent merger, particularly, the type that shortchanged shareholders of Springbank who entered through the erstwhile ACB. Meanwhile, banks which were less than transparent in the recapitalization programme, including those said to have provided counterpart funding to subscribers to their public offer of shares and which, therefore, do not have all the equity funds they claimed to have raised, were given a bill of good health. There are many more tales of woe in the consolidation already swept under the carpet.

A great test now awaits the CBN on the exposure of banks to the securities and the oil and gas markets that have fallen flat. It should be noted that the posturing of the CBN on margin facilities could be indicted in the drastic decline of the stock market. By now most of the stock exposures should be doubtful or lost if the banks complied with prudential classification. In what way would the CBN manage the situation to avert a liquidity crunch that would ground the system? It has left everyone gazing, whereas some banks urgently need significant life-line if they are to restructure that portfolio successfully.

Already exchange rate stability has become an issue - no thanks to the CBN which ignited the freefall of our currency, first, by deliberate depreciation and then by panic reaction to the repercussions, in a highly speculative market. With a lot of money outside the banking system and with people taking the position that the rate would slide further to N200 or more, how would the CBN deal with capital flight? How does it even ascertain the legitimacy of disbursements under the Retail Dutch Auction system? Money is a measure of value. Is it, therefore, possible to stabilise the currency when oil revenue has fallen sharply, without stimulating domestic production? How then would the CBN successfully defend the Naira, given our paltry reserves, in this era of borderless world trade? When a man loses his job or even suffers a deep pay cut, how should he utilise his limited savings: increase the household maintenance expenditure or open a small store for the wife to sell food items, fruits and vegetables, so that the family might feed tomorrow?

A prudent man would go for the store and that is capital expenditure. The times are not for salary increase - not to talk of profligate spending such as the outlandish remuneration of political members of the executive and legislative arms of government. It is time for efficient capital expenditure. What is the CBN, the custodian of our reserves, telling the government: we have not seen enough diligence and desperation to rehabilitate the laws and to drive the PPP programmes for power and other infrastructural components so that the people can produce competitively - even when oil price rebounds, as it is bound to?

The banks loathe lending to the productive sectors of the economy, particularly, agriculture and manufacturing, without which the economy cannot prosper. Instead, they lend massively for the import of finished goods, including consumer assets like pleasure cars, which they now encourage people to buy on credit and mortgage their future earnings, thereby accelerating the outflow of money from the cycle of national income to other lands. Even the Small and Medium Enterprises Equity Investment Scheme, funded from banks' annual profits, has been made discretionary! What of the patriotism expected of the banks and what is the CBN doing to reverse the ugly trend of resource allocation?

The more the financial resources turned over to the banking system by individuals, households and businesses, the more effective government's monetary measures would be. But many of the banks appear unmindful of disincentives to the development of banking habit among segments of potential savers, which include high (and, oftentimes, illegal) tariffs, interest rates and documentation requirements. Many banks charge astronomically for convenience facilities such as ATM card, e-account statement and transaction alerts/notification, meant to expedite service delivery and draw customers, in the competitive market. Should they really be allowed to charge customers for these pure convenience facilities? Take the ATM Card, for example. Whether you used it or not, most banks would still levy the ATM Maintenance charge at the tour of a month. Consequently, the vast majority of the populace is being alienated, by excessive charges, from the system. The permissive conduct of the banks has been abetted, in part, by their evidently paternalistic relationship with the CBN, at the expense of the people.

One could go on and on recounting CBN's errors of omission and commission in the governance of the banking system. It has demonstrable propensity to focus on objectives at the expense of procedure and due process, with scant attention to details. While such failure could pass unnoticed when the revenue stream was strong, its outcome could be catastrophic in such volatile times as we are now in. The CBN, therefore, needs to sit up, watch its utterances and actions, avoid panic reactions and become more circumspect, henceforth. The time of test has come and "the good is oft interred with their bones".

Iran's own June 12

THE unfolding electoral crisis in Iran reminds us of the crisis of democratization in our own context and the people's response to electoral outcomes. All of a sudden, Iranians are looking like us, some 17 years ago when Nigerians trooped out en masse to insist on respect for the people's will and sovereignty. On Friday last week, Iran had its own version of June 12 when it held its general elections. No election has been annulled, that is one critical difference, but the people's insistence that the integrity of the ballot should be respected and that the people's vote should be allowed to count are issues that Nigerians, faced with the transposition of electoral fraud into state art, can relate to. Iran is in great turmoil, witnessing in the last week alone, demonstrations and protests of a scale unseen since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The streets of Tehran have been taken over by hundreds of thousands of angry youths who insist that the Presidential election of Friday June 12 is fraudulent and the result is unacceptable. "We will die but count our votes", they said. At the end of the June 12 election, the theocratic Council of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, a body that wields more power than the elected President, awarded victory to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadijenad, with 62. 6% of the votes, and the main opposition leader former Prime Minister Hossein Moussavi got 33.7%. The protesters are mainly supporters of Moussavi. For a week, many Iranians have been wearing the colour green, the colour of Moussavi's party, even the Iranian national team in the first half of a World Cup qualifier match against South Korea, wore the green armband. Yesterday, which was declared a day of mourning, the protesters wore black.

How come the Iranians held their own Presidential election on June 12? What concidence! I think of the practical symbolism of the date for Nigerians but I also lament how the spirit of protest, of outrage and righteous indignation appears to be dying slowly in our land. In 1993, Nigerians stood up to the military dictatorship in Nigeria and challenged the junta's attempts to annul a democratic election. What we are seeing in Iran is equally an expression of rebellion against dictatorship. Their rebellion is against the mismanagement of the economy by Ahmadijenad's government, and the over-bearing authority of the Council of Guardians which uses theocracy as a tool of fascism. Before now, the world had witnessed this kind of people power on display in Czechoslovakia (the Velvet Revolution, 1989), in Georgia (the Rose Revolution, 2003), in Ukraine (the Orange Revolution, 2004/2005) and in Brazil when the people chased out President Fernando Collor de Mello (1992). It is a subtle reminder of how democracy rests on the power of popular opinion.

But in witnessing this people-dimension of democracy, we wonder what is it that has gone wrong with Nigerians. The same Nigerians who protested against electoral fraud in 1965 in Western Nigeria, who also rebelled in Ondo State in 1983 when the National Party of Nigeria attempted to steal the people's mandate; the same Nigerians who in 1993 -up till 1998- threw eveything that they could summon into anti-military protests, have suddenly become apathetic. Worse electoral fraud has been committed in Nigeria since 1999. But after every election, Nigerians crack jokes out of the theft of the people's votes, and move on with their lives. As soon as the protests in Iran began, someone sent me a text titled BREAKING NEWS with the following content: "Just to let you know that Professor Maurice Iwu returned from Tehran at the weekend after offering the Iranians Nigeria's technical assistance on how to conduct elections".

I had once argued that democracy for Nigerians has become a kind of blackmail. The politicians and their agents manipulate the votes and declare the results that they want, but the people allow it to pass, because they do not want to create more tension in their lives. Elections that have been held since 2007, after the various rulings by the electoral tribunals have been just as problematic but there are no large numbers of Nigerians taking to the streets to voice their opinions. In the recent re-run Gubernatorial elections in Ekiti, there was a semblance of protest, and a few electoral observers got their heads battered, but protests these days are synthetic. Half of the protesters are rented; they defend democracy for a fee. When will Nigerians rediscover the urge to defend their own future? Rediscovering our capacity to be shocked and outraged is crucial to the task of electoral reform.

It is not always that protests lead to a fulfilment of the people's expectations, In Iran, it won't. Not now. But a momentum is afoot which may eventually in the future lead to the displacement of the fascistic Islamic regime. Protests make loud statements and put the dictator on notice. Ahmadinejad may have a Ph.D in engineering, and he may have mastered the rhetoric of provocation, but he is a stooge of the clerics. By last year, long before the election, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme leader, had predicted that Ahmadinejad will be in power for another five years. But the sub-text of the on-going protest is that the people are saying they no longer want that kind of democracy that is vetoed by the mullahs. The Council of Guardians has ordered a recount of the votes in some of the constituencies, today, Khamenei will address the people at Friday worship. There is no likelihood that the elections will be cancelled, or that Moussavi's share of the votes will increase. But the underbelly of the power class in Iran has been exposed.

Moussavi's supporters are mostly young people and women. Young Iranians want a different country in which they can have a voice. Iranian women want greater freedoms, but these freedoms are denied by the Council of Guardians and Ahmadinejad under whom even little freedoms hitherto enjoyed by Iranian women have been withdrawn. For 30 years the mullahs have dictated the pace in Iran, what is happening is a showdown between the conservatives and the reformists. And yet no one has burnt down houses, the protesters are not wielding machetes, and there has been no indication that the protesters are on the pay-roll of a political party.

Dictators everywhere behave the same way. General Abacha threw people into jail. He burned down newspaper houses. He gagged the media. Ahmadinejad's government is clamping down on the people. The basiji- the band of thugs who try to enforce the will of the state- target people's faces and testicles. Eight demonstrators have died in the last week. Opposition figures have been clamped into detention. International journalists have been advised to leave the country and internet sites have been blocked. But still in the age of information technology, the Iranian crisis still gets out to the world. It is on Twitter. It is on Facebook. It is on CNN. Technology has changed the face of governance and human relations forever. It is amazing to see how in Iran, the revolutionaries of 1979, the successors of the Ayatollah, are losing grip, just because they didn't allow a transparent electoral system. The clerics selected the five candidates that took part in the June 12 Presidential election out of a total of 140 candidates. What criteria did they use? They didn't have to explain. The grandchildren of the revolution want a different template of power and control. In the last week, they have managed to convey their discontent.

In the end, there will be no regime change, the incumbent President won most of the votes in rural Iran, and he is still very popular among the people, but it is clear that there are fissures in that society. The legitimacy of the present governance arrangements has been effectively called to question. There is a message here for all forces that hold on to power at all costs: sooner or later, there will be a time and ocassion for accounting.

The West, which has never liked Ahmadinejad is triumphant. Newspapers in Europe are celebrating the supposed wind of change that is sweeping across Iran. Well, not quite. There is a touch of mischief in Western responses to the Iranian situation. Ahmadinejad is not a friend of the West. His anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist statements including a declaration once that Israel should be wiped off the page of time has made him a persona non grata. His insistence on Iran's uranium enrichment programme has brought him into conflict with the United States, Israel and the United Nations. Israelis say he is a modern-day Amalekite. Moussavi's name sounds Jewish and there are Jews in Iran, but regime change may not resolve the question of Iran. The mullahs are not about to disappear. And Ahmadijenad's dismissal of all this as "passions after a soccer match" may be informed by the ineffectuality of earlier protests in 1999, 2003, 2006, and 2008.

The United States has been cautious not to be seen to be supporting the opposition, for were it do so, that would immediately unify the proud Iranian nation. Moussavi is promising a detente in diplomatic relations, greater freedom for women - he holds hands with his wife in public (!). His wife has also called for an end to misogyny. But like many Iranians, his views about Israel and the future of Palestine as well as Iran's nuclear weapons programme, are typical. President Obama is right: there isn't much difference between Ahmadinejad and Moussavi. If change must come to Iran, it will come from the people themselves not through the promptings of the Western media imposing its own notions of democratic governance. The worst case scenario is a drawn out civil conflict in Iran between supporters of the status quo and those who want change. But can the world afford such implosion in the Middle East? Can the world afford to have Iran go the way of Iraq? The West and the United States must make no bones about it: If Iran has become an axis of evil, they helped in building its foundations with their duplicitous politics of expediency, dating back to the 1950s.

Passports issuance and the rights of married women

THE ruling of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt denouncing the policy that required married women to produce their husband's consent before they could be issued international passports is a major victory for Nigerian women. This is a landmark judicial pronouncement, even if all it does is to affirm extant provisions of the constitution regarding equal rights and non-discrimination. It is more instructive that the policy has gone unchallenged for decades until now.

In view of the unambiguous statement of the court emphasising the equality of persons, and forbidding discrimination on the grounds of sex or on any other ground, it is imperative that the authorities concerned immediately give effect to the judgement. This should start with giving appropriate relief to the complainant in the matter, as well as all other female applicants to whom the obnoxious policy previously applied.

The policy in issue is an administrative one employed by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to compel a married Nigerian woman to produce a letter of consent from her husband as a condition for issuing her an international passport. Justice G.K. Olotu has now declared the policy unconstitutional, stressing that this kind of policy has no place in 21st century Nigeria.

It became a matter of dispute when Dr. Priye Iyalla-Amadi, wife of renowned author, Elechi Amadi applied to the NIS for a passport and was given a list of documents she was required to submit with her application. One of these is a letter of consent from her husband to which she objected, insisting that as an adult, she should not require anyone's consent to obtain the Nigerian passport.

When her protest was ignored, she filed the suit against the NIS and its Director General. The court held that the requirement offends the equality of citizen's principle enshrined in section 17 (I) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as all citizens are put on the same pedestal irrespective of sex and status. The court also agreed with the complainant that the policy discriminates between Nigerian citizens on the grounds of sex, contrary to section 42 of the Constitution.

According to Justice Olotu, the policy is obnoxious, repugnant and unconstitutional, and the defence of the defendant merely showed the policy as a "cunning, surreptitious and high-powered, calculated attempt to subjugate women as if they are still in the medieval times."

We cannot agree more with the ruling. The NIS policy is one of such chauvinistic policies still enforced against women without the backing of any law or the constitution. By taking the pains to go to court Mrs. Iyalla-Amadi provided an opportunity to test and expand the frontiers of the law.

Her case is straight-forward considering the clear provisions of sections 17 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution. The requirement of a husband's consent as it concerns married women, is also a violation of article 18 (3) of the West African Charter on the People's Human Rights. But it is instructive that those provisions had not precluded immigration authorities from tenaciously holding on to a policy that has no more than a cultural explanation. It is in fact curious that rather than dispute the arguments advanced by Mrs. Iyalla-Amadi, the NIS simply sought to justify the policy.

The authority's reasons include a contention that government has classified married women in Nigeria alongside minors, and therefore are persons who require consent from the head of the family. Besides, the requirement is meant to sustain the authority of a man over his wife, and also to avoid a breakdown of the marriage institution.

Mrs. Iyalla-Amadi's response, which is in line with the Constitution, is that although there is nothing wrong in protecting the marriage institution, it is inconsistent with the constitution as well as internationally accepted standards to put the burden of consent on women alone and not on both women and men.

We commend the court, the complainant and her counsel for insisting on fundamental human rights in this manner. The judgment should serve as a guide to correct all similar discriminatory practices in the country. It is unfortunate that these practices abound without the support of the law or judicial precedents.

For instance, in the popular case of Mojekwu V Mojekwu, the Court of Appeal denounced in strong terms the custom of barring women from inheriting the properties of their husbands or parents. There are other similar court pronouncements. Yet, women are still not allowed to stand as sureties for suspects or accused persons in applications for bail. While this practice has no legal or constitutional justification, it thrives all the same, as a matter of discretion by the police or other law enforcement authorities.

Mrs. Iyalla-Amadi has done well. Women can naturally stand on their own whether they are married or not. Practices or policies that tend to discriminate against them or debar them from exercising their full rights should be denounced.

Bongo: End of a Sit-tight Leader

Omar Bongo Ondimba, former President of Gabon who died in Barcelona, Spain last week, is a metaphor for the African condition. After ruling one of the continent’s most endowed nations for over four decades, the erstwhile “Big Man” died in a foreign land in search of solution to even his own medical problem.
For sitting tight as President of Gabon, Bongo typified the bad leadership style that has held back the development of the African continent. Until his death, he was the longest serving African President, a “feat” we pray no African leader will like to emulate.
The life and times of the man who was born to a peasant family as Albert Bernard Bongo on December 30, 1935 were indeed intriguing. He attended school in Brazzaville in Congo and later joined the French Air Force where he made history as the first black man to serve in Chad. His political career began with the trust he won from ex President Leon Mba, father of Gabon’s independence, which led to his appointment in 1962 at the age of 27 years as a director in the president’s office. Two years later, a coup attempt, the only one in the country’s history, was foiled by French paratroopers who restored Mba and Bongo to power. The latter’s reward for loyalty was the oil-rich nation’s vice-presidency in 1967.
And in a drama of fate, Mba died nine months after, paving the way for his deputy to assume full presidential powers. And for the next 26 years he ruled over a one-party state with all the unwholesome signs of such political arrangements in Africa. In the 1970s, many of his opponents met their death through circumstances that were generally believed to be politically motivated. The mysterious demise in 1990 of opposition leader, Joseph Redjambe, ignited riots that rocked the regime for weeks.
That turbulent reaction compelled Bongo to introduce multi-party elections in 1993, which he won predictably, of course, with a trail of allegations of rigging. The violent demonstrations that greeted that electoral outing prompted Bongo to form an all-inclusive government to give his rivals key positions. While the next polls conducted in 1998 produced similar results and wide rejection, it is to the credit of Africa’s longest serving leader that his country of 1.4 million people did not degenerate into ruin. Not even the accusation of corruption, particularly the financial scandal involving Elf Aquitaine, could significantly diminish his status as Gabon president. The fact that sensitive government posts were occupied by close family members also did not substantially damage his image as the nation’s leader.
Observers of Africa’s political history also commend him for not allowing the perennial conflicts from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other troubled countries within the region to spill over to Gabon. Instead, he managed to be viewed as a disinterested peacemaker, someone the international community depended on many times in its quest for peace in one of the world’s most traumatized spots.
Surely, Bongo, with his not so enviable leadership profile, was not a completely despised figure. Even as yet another example of sit-tight rulership, a practice that often undermines the continent’s rating in the comity of nations, he tried to give the generality of the Gabonese people a sense of belonging.
But one question will continue to beg for answers in the years ahead: “Couldn’t the man have done better for the country under his grip for 42 years, with the enormous public wealth at his disposal?” Even if the French judge that initiated enquiry last month into whether Bongo plundered the country’s resources to buy homes and cars abroad fails to respond to that poser, posterity certainly will. Bongo did not deserve to rule for that long. On a level playing field, the resource-rich country could have produced successors of Bongo long before now.

Bongo: End of a Sit-tight Leader

Omar Bongo Ondimba, former President of Gabon who died in Barcelona, Spain last week, is a metaphor for the African condition. After ruling one of the continent’s most endowed nations for over four decades, the erstwhile “Big Man” died in a foreign land in search of solution to even his own medical problem.
For sitting tight as President of Gabon, Bongo typified the bad leadership style that has held back the development of the African continent. Until his death, he was the longest serving African President, a “feat” we pray no African leader will like to emulate.
The life and times of the man who was born to a peasant family as Albert Bernard Bongo on December 30, 1935 were indeed intriguing. He attended school in Brazzaville in Congo and later joined the French Air Force where he made history as the first black man to serve in Chad. His political career began with the trust he won from ex President Leon Mba, father of Gabon’s independence, which led to his appointment in 1962 at the age of 27 years as a director in the president’s office. Two years later, a coup attempt, the only one in the country’s history, was foiled by French paratroopers who restored Mba and Bongo to power. The latter’s reward for loyalty was the oil-rich nation’s vice-presidency in 1967.
And in a drama of fate, Mba died nine months after, paving the way for his deputy to assume full presidential powers. And for the next 26 years he ruled over a one-party state with all the unwholesome signs of such political arrangements in Africa. In the 1970s, many of his opponents met their death through circumstances that were generally believed to be politically motivated. The mysterious demise in 1990 of opposition leader, Joseph Redjambe, ignited riots that rocked the regime for weeks.
That turbulent reaction compelled Bongo to introduce multi-party elections in 1993, which he won predictably, of course, with a trail of allegations of rigging. The violent demonstrations that greeted that electoral outing prompted Bongo to form an all-inclusive government to give his rivals key positions. While the next polls conducted in 1998 produced similar results and wide rejection, it is to the credit of Africa’s longest serving leader that his country of 1.4 million people did not degenerate into ruin. Not even the accusation of corruption, particularly the financial scandal involving Elf Aquitaine, could significantly diminish his status as Gabon president. The fact that sensitive government posts were occupied by close family members also did not substantially damage his image as the nation’s leader.
Observers of Africa’s political history also commend him for not allowing the perennial conflicts from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other troubled countries within the region to spill over to Gabon. Instead, he managed to be viewed as a disinterested peacemaker, someone the international community depended on many times in its quest for peace in one of the world’s most traumatized spots.
Surely, Bongo, with his not so enviable leadership profile, was not a completely despised figure. Even as yet another example of sit-tight rulership, a practice that often undermines the continent’s rating in the comity of nations, he tried to give the generality of the Gabonese people a sense of belonging.
But one question will continue to beg for answers in the years ahead: “Couldn’t the man have done better for the country under his grip for 42 years, with the enormous public wealth at his disposal?” Even if the French judge that initiated enquiry last month into whether Bongo plundered the country’s resources to buy homes and cars abroad fails to respond to that poser, posterity certainly will. Bongo did not deserve to rule for that long. On a level playing field, the resource-rich country could have produced successors of Bongo long before now.

Revocation of NITEL sale

THE other week, the National Council on Privatization revoked the November 2006 sale of the Federal Government's 51 per cent equity stake in NITEL/M-Tel to the Transnational Corporation Limited (TRANSCORP). We are sure that no one would shed a tear for this most welcome development. We are even more certain that TRANSCORP is indeed happy to be relieved of the burden of managing NITEL/M-Tel as a core investor, a role it was clearly ill-suited to play.

The grounds for the revocation are as damning as they are cogent. Contrary to the terms and conditions of the sale, TRANSCORP failed to inject N8.9 billion cash into NITEL within 100 days of its take-over, in order to remedy the acute liquidity crisis of the telecommunications outfit. The core investor also failed to pay interconnectivity debts of N17 billion, and for the past 11 months it had been unable to pay workers' salaries. In fact, 30 months after TRANSCORP took over NITEL/M-Tel, the workforce of the telecommunications operator shrank dramatically from 13,000 to fewer than 1,000. Its telephone exchanges, switches and other immovable assets are now virtually decrepit.

The woeful performance of the core investor is indicated by the fact that NITEL/M-Tel's market share plummeted from 15 per cent to around 0.03 per cent. The core investor also left a debt overhang of $500 million owed various banks. These breaches, including the exit of British Telecommunications as a technical operator, were serious enough to have voided the privatization contract.

Just how an incompetent organisation like TRANSCORP came to acquire majority stake in NITEL, a prime national carrier, raises questions about the fidelity of some of the transactions in the privatization exercise during former President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration. TRANSCORP has no track record either in telecommunications operations, or in general enterprise management. It was obviously a special purpose vehicle contrived by the power of political incumbency to corner NITEL with an eye on its vast assets spread throughout the country.

TRANSCORP, in which Obasanjo had substantial interests, even though described as a blind trust, had no real capacity to manage NITEL/M-Tel. The former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Dr. Irene Chigbue, whose organisation supervised the sale, was either being economical with the truth, or was plain ignorant when she declared in November 2006 that the privatization of NITEL/M-Tel was a huge success and a model in Africa. Thirty months later, it has all unravelled.

The sale was not competitive, as TRANSCORP was the sole bidder. Yet, it beggars belief that the NCP indulged TRANSCORP for 30 agonising months while the fortunes of NITEL/M-Tel deteriorated in clear violation of the advertised benefit of privatization, which is to make for more efficient management and profitability. The Federal Government was too slow in putting an end to the rot. Almost 18 months ago, in January 2008, the then Minister of State for Communications, Alhaji Ibrahim Nakande, had recommended to President Umaru Yar'Adua that, owing to TRANSCORP's failure to revive NITEL/M-Tel, another core investor should be sourced, together with other measures which the government only last week cranked into effect.

Subsequent steps to be taken by the Federal Government/NCP are critical. We endorse the move to stop forthwith further, or any attempt at, asset-stripping. In the same vein, no one will bat an eyelid over the NCP's position that it would recover any assets that were arbitrarily sold during the pendency of the ill-fated acquisition. But there should be concern about the proposed appointment of a technical board to oversee the affairs of NITEL/M-Tel before it is again sold to another core investor. The concern centres on the terms of reference of the technical board, which have not been publicly disclosed.

There are a few suggestions in that regard. The role of the technical board should be to recover and secure all assets of the telecommunications outfit. That will involve a proper audit and maintenance of records, including the extent of its financial ill-health. It should not be the business of the technical board to embark on any new investments on the pretext of preparing NITEL/M-Tel for another round of privatization.

The country has lost enough money already, and it is pointless pouring more funds into a sink-hole. The task therefore of the technical board should be to present NITEL/M-Tel "as is" for sale, with the necessary implications of caveat emptor. The earlier this is done, the better. The technical board must not entrench itself and then become another source of patronage and squabble.

Oyinlola: The 'peace-maker' cometh

GOVERNOR Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State is fast acquiring the reputation of a peacemaker. I am not so versed in the Bible, but at least I read a portion some 20 or so years ago while I was preparing for the then Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board, (JAMB) examinations, that eulogised the peace maker. I had to double check to be specific that it was in Mathew 5.9. It says: "Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called children of God."

In recent times, the governor of Osun State has made great moves that may give him the tag, 'child of God'. Some couple of months ago, I read in the newspaper how Oyinlola 'completed the peace initiative between age long enemies, the Ifes and Modakekes that resulted in the ruler of the acclaimed 'minority' Modakeke going to the palace of the Oni of Ife, the leader of the 'majority' tribe of Ife, to pledge allegiance. It would be recalled that the Ife and Modakeke were engulfed in a bitter ethnic battle some couple of years ago. The fight tore the thin thread of any filial relationship (if it ever existed) between the two communities because the casualty in terms of human and material was too much. Thus, forgiveness, was not in the minds of the warring parties who perhaps were still nursing (if they are still not at present) huge ambition of carrying outreprisal attacks on each other.

Then, Governor Oyinlola pulled out his now famous peace wand, and made the ruler of Modakeke go to the Oni's palace, what no one thought would happen in a long while. There is peace, at least for now. Trust a politician that Oyinlola, a former military officer is, the 'achievement' was politicised, newspapers were awash with reports of how only someone as 'enigmatic and charismatic' as Governor Oyinlola could pull this through. I don't have any issue with that, 'a labourer deserves his wages', according to the Bible.

Then the one that shook the entire nation, was the shock appearance of immediate past Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, at the doorsteps of the Manor of Ota farm, immediate past 'Head of State' Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. These two for about six years were embroiled in a bitter struggle for the soul of the country. Atiku wanted to succeed his boss (which is natural), but Baba Sege as Obasanjo is sometimes referred to, would not want any of it. He wanted a third term in office, according to his former political allies. Unless you were not on this planet, then you would not have had knowledge of the mudslinging that happened between the duo. At any given opportunity, Obasanjo reminded the world why he was opposed to Atiku's ambition, was (and still is, because at BBC HardTalk show recently, he made allusions to the fact that Atiku was a thief) because Atiku had the habit of dipping his hands into government coffers.

Only Obasanjo was a saint in the eight years he ruled this country like Herod the Great. Now back to the Ota peace accord brokered by the effervescent Oyinlola. It took only a few weeks before it crumbled like the famous cookies. Both Atiku and Obasanjo from all indications are back in the trenches, where they have been for years now. That was a dent on the reputation of Oyinlola as the peace maker of our time.

Then just recently, on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 to be precise, I was again confronted with the picture of our dear Oyinlola with Major Saliba Mukoro, a 'repented' coup plotter (?) and the master of them all who is generally believed to have a fair share of blame for the nation's woes today, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) on the front page of Daily Sun. With the screaming headline: How Oyinlola reunited ex-president and the man who wanted him dead. With a rider: I have forgiven him - IBB. The story was also in The Guardian of the same day and perhaps other newspapers. Major Mukoro (rtd) was one of the major players in the Gideon Orkar coup that nearly toppled Babangida's regime while he was military Head of State, on April 22, 1990.

Again, the governor of Osun State had scored a 'major' political point, at least the one he would use to fight his present-day nemesis, Alhaji Rauf Aregbesola, if the tribunal orders a re-election in the ongoing election feud in Osun, where Aregbesola is hotly contesting the 2007 re-election of Oyinlola, alleging heavy malpractice. Only time will tell if the peace joker our dear governor is dealing, will come to play then. Aregbesola is the Action Congress Party candidate at the heavily rigged 2007 elections. Oyinlola belongs to the 'ruling' People's Democratic Party (PDP). Before one starts to misunderstand me, I want to state that I am one Nigerian that is apolitical. I have no affiliation to any known political group, and may never do so, at least, not in Nigeria, where guns and army, police uniforms as well as thugs with cigarette and Indian hemp-stained teeth are necessary tools needed to win elections. And of course, a 'cooperative independent' INEC boss.

Sorry for the deviation. Now back to the peace-maker. Many people have left different legacies behind, I believe Oyinlola's legacy is to be remembered as one that brokered the peace between sworn enemies. So, we have not heard the last of his breakthrough, peaceful resolutions of thorny issues. But hold on a bit, how peaceful is the retired military officer? Was Oyinlola not a major player in the violence that rocked Ekiti State during the re-ordered governorship elections that PDP as usual 'won'?

Was it not alleged that the same Oyinlola was caught on tape boasting that he would supply military hardware weapons and uniforms for the 'field soldiers' that would prosecute the Ekiti do or die elections? He denied the allegations, but a certain newspaper urged all to playback the audio of the statement on its website. Well, it is left for forensic experts (one wishes Adrian Forty is still alive) as well as voice pros to determine if the voice on that tape actually belonged to Oyinlola. Eventually, with the able assistance of Iwu, Adebayo Ayoka, Oyinlola and the PDP 'won' the Ekiti charade called an election.

What kind of a peace-maker is Oyinlola? A man who is named in connection with violent orgies (Ekiti, Osun states elections) today, and tomorrow he is busy resolving issues between people? Is peace-making in the mind of Oyinlola, a divertive past time? Only time will tell.