Ambivalence over Gas Flaring

Again, the goal post for gas flaring has been shifted till December 31 next year. And Nigerians can only hope that it is the last. In the last six years, the goal post, deadline, has been shifted four times. The last shift was in December 2008 by the Yar’Adua government. Although the Senate which recently passed the Gas Flaring (Prohibition and Punishment) Bill seemed determined to ensure that the goal post does not move again, it is amazing that given the detrimental effects of gas flaring, the country has continued to tolerate the practice for this long. On all fronts, the gas flaring practice is reprehensible. Nigeria is considered the second highest offender of gas flaring. The worth of the flared gas according to the World Bank is put at $2.5 billion annually. The opportunity cost could be much higher. We are aware that the reasons for the shifting post are basically two. The defence of the oil companies and the Federal Government’s ambivalence, which must have caused a 1993 court ruling against gas flaring to be ignored. The oil companies have always argued that contrary to the belief of some people, the flares are not like candle lights that can easily be blown off. Gas is naturally produced with the crude oil, the country’s cash cow. To put good use to the flared gas it must be collected at every flowstation and exported in gas pipelines over kilometres of land and water to where it can be used. They say that unlike now when new gas production facilities have in-built technology to gather gas, most of the old facilities do not have this technology so there has to be fresh investment in gas-gathering plants. According to the oil majors, these are capital-intensive projects with long gestation period that do not only need timely funding, but uninterrupted execution. They readily point to the insecurity in the Niger Delta and its effects on project execution.But opponents to flaring have been insistent that gas flaring is injurious to human beings and the environment and the oil companies have been blamed for the continuous gas flaring in the country. They have been accused of disobeying the laws of the land just because they have the resources to pay the imposed penalty, and choosing out of selfishness, to ignore the environmental and health hazards associated with gas flaring. With growing concern for global warming, there can be no justification for gas flaring. However, as we have said before, the continuous flaring of gas is the result of the Federal Government’s indecision largely informed by the desire to eat its cake and have it. It is obvious that enforcing government’s deadline will mean oil production shut-in and oil revenue loss. And so, with dwindling oil revenue caused by a slump in oil prices and the Niger Delta, the true question to ask is whether the Federal Government, has the political will to enforce a deadline.The position of the National Assembly on this is clear on this. They have always wanted the flaring to stop. And with the bold step of legislation to walk the talk we think President Yar’ Adua should bite the bullet and save the country all the losses associated with gas flaring. One thing is sure: Government cannot eat its cake and have it. Neither can it walk both sides of the street. With growing international cooperation to stop global warming and the condemnation of practices that tend to contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer, Nigeria can only move one way – join the rest of the world.

Policing for Public Good

With a little over 377, 000 policemen, Nigeria, a nation of over 140 million people, is one of the most under-policed nations in the world. Nothing perhaps demonstrates this inadequacy more than the general atmosphere of insecurity of lives and property and the increasing wave of crime in the land in recent times. But it is one of the many ironies of our situation and inherent contradictions in our polity that almost one-third of this paltry police personnel are engaged in duties outside their regular calling, providing private security and even domestic services to few well-placed individuals while leaving the general security needs of the larger society unattended to.
It is against this bizarre background that we commend last week’s decision by the new Inspector General of Police, Mr Ogbonna Onovo to withdraw about 100, 000 policemen illegally posted to guard private individuals who are not entitled to such privileges.
In a move suggesting the dawn of anew era, Onovo, while handing down the order, gave the affected policemen seven days to return to their various service commands for retraining and reposting. The IG deplored the abuse of the services of policemen by members of the public and vowed to henceforth appropriately deploy the force’s manpower to police the general society instead of restricting them to some privileged few. This, indeed, is a commendable right step forward by the new IGP.
Onovo’s decision is also a welcome amendment of a Federal Executive Council (FEC) directive earlier in the year ordering the withdrawal of police orderlies from judges, commissioners, lawmakers and some other public office holders. Needless to say that that earlier directive, which kept silent on the fate of those attached to unauthorised individuals, mostly politicians, businessmen and even conmen, was greeted with widespread condemnation before it was eventually dropped.
Illegal posting of policemen as orderlies, guards and escorts to unauthorised citizens is an extension of our ingrained culture of impunity whereby public resources are often cornered by influential individuals for their personal convenience. Thus, in the face of general insecurity in the country, few people of means and power do not see anything wrong in beefing up their own security with some personnel from the regular police force whose full service complements are even inadequate to police the entire nation of 140 million people.
But then, the security situation in the country appears to have so far defied the heavy security deployment by even the privileged individuals, as, in most cases, the security details are often overpowered by the superior fire power of armed robbers, hired assassins, kidnappers and other hoodlums whenever they strike. Examples abound where many of these “big men”, with an array of security personnel swarming around them, have fallen victims of criminal gangs. It would appear therefore that most of those who retain the services of police orderlies do so not for any strict security reason but as an instrument to intimidate political opponents or business rivals, a duty these straying policemen appear to be well-versed in.
However, one pertinent question that must be answered by the police high command is: who authorised the posting of those policemen to those individuals in the first place? To be sure, this could be one of the pervasive underhand deals in public institutions that have continued to make our police force, in particular, the den of corruption. Therefore, it is not enough to recall those policemen on illegal duties. The police authorities should find out who sent them to their unauthorised duty posts with a view to applying appropriate sanctions for the aberration.
But more than this, the new IGP should take the issue of police welfare more seriously, as most of the personnel lured into guarding unauthorised persons went there in search of extra dough.

ASUU

In response to what the Federal Government calls the rigidity of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the on-going nationwide strike, it has called off further negotiations with the striking lecturers. On its part, ASUU has sworn to continue its action until the government concedes more grounds and formalises their agreements. But since the destiny of Nigerian youths and integrity of university education in the country are at stake, both parties and indeed other stakeholders should urgently work towards resolving the logjam.
In taking its stand, government clung to a curious technicality, which was explained by the Chairman of the FG/ASUU Re-negotiation Committee, Mr. Gamaliel Onosode, the other day. He said: “The government team endeavoured to facilitate the conclusion of these negotiations at the strictly employer/employee level. Unfortunately, that effort has been stalled by the current strike action. We therefore cannot get to the point where the Councils can receive the documents and speedily conclude the negotiations for implementation. Consequently, the government team is not in the position to continue further negotiation with the Union until it suspends its strike action to provide an enabling environment for them”.
From the government view point, that argument is strengthened by the concessions it has reportedly made to the dons, at least, in principle: The autonomy granted to universities to appoint their own vice-chancellors, the 70 years retirement age as against the current 65 years, special monetary allocation for staff training and research, allocation of N33billion for the upgrading of six universities and also the 40 and 20 per cent salary increase for ASUU and non-academic staff respectively.
However, the lecturers claim to have enough reason for being skeptical about government’s sincerity. They cite their previous experiences on the same matters, bordering on their welfare and the restoration of the glory and quality to the education sector, particularly at the tertiary level. In 2001, government failed to execute the pact it had with ASUU. Three years later when it was due for review, it had not even been officially assented to, let alone implemented. And then, in the last days of the immediate past administration, it was re-negotiated, but it has remained unsigned.
The most unsettling episode in this government-worker melodrama took place in June 2007, one month into the present government. President Umaru Yar’Adua (also a former lecturer) called the teachers who were then on strike and persuaded them to call it off to give him a chance to tackle their grievances. They did. But in a twist, Yar’Adua declared that the face-off would only be settled by the Supreme Court. In this light, ASUU’s refusal to go back to work before concretizing its deals with government is understandable. Government’s decision to invoke the “no work, no pay” policy is, therefore, hasty. Sadly, it is not likely to work.
The right way to go now is back to the negotiation table. But in so doing, ASUU should accept the unlikelihood of achieving blanket conditions for both the federal and state universities. Reason: the two tiers of government are not only structurally unequal; their financial status is also uneven. Even individual states differ from one another in terms of revenue. So, while a mutually acceptable benchmark could be sought and agreed upon, compelling government to approve uniform remunerations would be unfair.
On a final note, government need not be reminded that in the current rating of universities worldwide, no Nigerian university is among the top 5,000. As the most important deciding factor in this critical aspect of national life, it should seize every opportunity to put education on the path of full recovery and dignity. Nigerians have suffered enough illiteracy, shame and underachievement occasioned in part by a mediocre educational system.

Swine Flu in UK: How Safe Are We?

It had seemed a far-fetched ailment, but with the recent increase in the outbreak of swine flu in many countries especially the United Kingdom, Nigeria does not seem sufficiently insulated from the malaise, what with the heavy traffic of Nigerians on the London--Nigeria route everyday. The Health ministry has begun a public education on the symptoms of the disease, but in the face of the new threat posed by the spread of the disease in UK, more concrete measures are called for. We are worried that given the huge human traffic between Lagos/Abuja and London, especially during this summer season there is a high probability that carriers of the disease from the UK can easily get into the Nigerian environment and thus begin the spread of the disease in the country. In the past two weeks, England has had 30,000 recorded cases of swine flu infection. The week before, it recorded 110,000 cases. This is no doubt frightening, especially as the disease has claimed about forty lives in both England and Scotland. About 1,126 deaths have been recorded from afflictions of the disease in some six countries like Canada, Mexico, Australia, Chile, America and Argentina. The fact that Nigerians are spread round the globe, and are highly mobile makes us particularly vulnerable. It would seem that besides the mere television enlightenment on the disease, there is no clear strategy by the government to contain the epidemic if it breaks out in Nigeria. Worse still, there is hardly any device in our entry borders to check whether or not, persons coming into the country are infected with such diseases. The nation, therefore stands a clear risk in the face of the cross-border connection between the United Kingdom and Nigeria, which is further worsened by the absence of control measures in the country. Going by past experiences and our general attitude to such matters, it has become imperative for the Federal Government to mount a more aggressive public enlightenment campaign on the disease; and to take precautionary measures to ensure that Nigeria is protected from the disease. Besides educating the people on the symptoms which are essentially sudden fever (above 38C), sudden cough, tiredness, chills, sore throat, sneezing, diarrhea, stomach upset and loss of appetite among others, it is necessary to tell which segment of Nigerians is more vulnerable to the disease – pregnant women, 65-year olds and above, and children under five years. People with chronic liver, kidney, heart and lung diseases as well as asthma patients are more vulnerable. Nigerians will also need more awareness on how to contain the disease and stop it from spreading, if we experience an outbreak. Government must also put in place measures to ensure that even when there is an outbreak, the nation is not caught napping.

The parable of the talents

THE ruling party and its sympathisers are not pleased with the frank assessment of the Nigerian situation by the American Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton. While her presence in Nigeria was appreciated, her objective evaluation of our socio-economic and political situation is constantly irritating to the men in power here. To an average and patriotic Nigerian, it was a Daniel come to judgment. The Senate President feels that our sovereignty does not give room for unnecessary interference, that Mrs. Clinton's opinion was shaped by what opposition parties fed her with .

This recent issue and the usual comparison of our polity and fortune with Ghana's have been very unpleasant to the men of power. For instance the Minister of Defence was quoted as saying in an interaction with the press: "when you are discussing Nigeria, don't compare us with Ghana next time" because according to him "... the number of teachers that you have to pay salaries in the whole of Ghana is not more than (what you have in) (south) Western Nigeria )."

The big question is: why do our leaders manifest this attitude of looking at criticism negatively? Why not address the real issue in a very objective and rational manner? According to Shakespeare, before we know if a thing is big or small it must be in comparison. Also, the parable of the talent teaches us that it is not size but it is judicious application of resources available to one that he is judged. To whom much is given much is expected. A popular African proverb has it too that you don't flog a child and stop him from crying.

The tone of the American secretary of state in her town hall meeting was a deviation from what the Government is used to. Rather than eulogising the government that has been spreading poverty, she went straight to the point, to the heart and root cause of our woes. We are an independent nation no doubt. The Senate President and other Nigerians will not want anybody or anything to erode our sovereignty. But the issue is that, there is nothing in what was said during Mrs. Clinton's visit that attempted to do this. If independence and sovereignty mean the entire world closing its eyes while a few people subject the entire nation to unparalleled and unwarranted suffering, then there should be a better definition of sovereignty. It is a big irony that we look and yawn for aid, both economic and otherwise, from the western world and yet when they point out where we are going wrong that it is seen as meddlesomeness.

There is little doubt now that the world has dissolved into a global village and without the constant intervention and watchdog role of the western powers, a few powerful people in developing regions like Africa will subject the weak and the helpless to abject poverty and hardship. We want more of this type of foreign visits and bashing. The scenario is becoming very interesting. It is dubious and a disservice to humanity for the Western world to be silent in the face of the unbridled modern slavery that has crept into Africa in the name of government.

Leadership in this part of the world seems to be so intolerant of alternative views. Can this be seen as a feature of underdevelopment? Nigeria is the easiest place to rule on earth. We are so resilient and complacent. We make noise, shout, condemn government policy, outcomes of fraudulent elections. After that what happens? The whole noise dies down and life continues as if nothing has happened. Apart from a pocket of religious violence and the recent developments in Niger delta, Nigerians tolerate their leaders a lot no matter the way they are insulted.

There is nothing new as a matter of fact in what Mrs. Clinton said. The worry now is the source it came from. It is a common knowledge that a government is accountable to the people and promotes public good rather than personal aggrandisement. Do we have that kind of Government in place here? The answer is known, even to a most undiscerning mind. If we are victims of natural disaster or economic meltdown we can endure, hoping that what has a beginning will have an end . But the sad reality about us is that we have been exposed to this harsh reality for decades now with no signs of end in sight. It is the same story: promises to solve problem of water, energy, health, education, roads. At the end of each year, each dispensation, nothing changes. Should we be clapping at this development?

We have had a PDP government in control of the three arms of government for over 10 years now. This period of 10 years is enough to solve our basic problems and give us a good foundation to move ahead; but everything seems to be in disarray as we are beginners. We cannot be celebrating this ineptitude in governance. Even if the men in power decide to turn a deaf ear, it is necessary that all Nigerians and those who wish the country well raise their voices of disapproval to a bad experiment and deliberate abuse of a people's destiny. At least it will be on record that there were vocal voices when our nation was being raped.

It has been said for the umpteenth time that this is a rich country with poor people. This is a great fallacy. But mind you, the poverty in the land is class-structured. The powerful and those close to them are alien to the sufferings in the land. In fact it gives them sadistic joy to see millions of people who languish in poverty. It is an exercise in self-deception to hide under our 'large population' as the reason for the non-promotion of public good. Population has its problems, but if it is properly managed it is an asset in the evolution of any nation. If the interest of our leaders is in governance in the true sense of the word, they should learn to keep pride away, and learn from harmless and free advice given to them.

Senate and post-UME examinations

NOT satisfied with the conduct of the post-University Matriculation Examinations (UME) by Nigerian universities, the Senate recently initiated moves to enact appropriate legislation that would remove what it called the obstacles hampering the proper conduct of university entrance examination by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). This once again brings to the fore the debate over who should conduct entrance examinations into the universities.

Senator Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa State), and five others reportedly sponsored a motion which, among other things, seeks to mandate the Senate committee on education to undertake a comprehensive investigation into the causes of the failure of JAMB to conduct sufficiently creditable examination acceptable to the universities. It also seeks to condemn the failure of JAMB to carry out its statutory responsibilities; condemn the illegal activities of our universities in conducting pre-admission tests; mandate the Minister of Education to direct the universities to stop forthwith the illegal post-UME tests and empower JAMB to conduct matriculation examinations into the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

Going by the prayers being sought by the lawmakers, it is obvious that the Senate is condemning the post-UME tests while at the same time seeking ways to strengthen JAMB. It has also gone a step further to describe the pre-admission tests as illegal. But it is not clear what the role of the Senate is in this matter. The question to ask is whether or not the universities have the right to admit their own students? Don't the universities under the laws establishing them have the statutory right to admit students they deem qualified? Does the Senate have the power to issue directives against the conduct of post-UME? We think that the Senate is delving into what it can't properly handle. The National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Ministry of Education, among other stakeholders are in a better position to address this matter.

The Senate seems to have left the real issues that should attract its attention to waste energy on other matters. The universities, for instance, need to be adequately funded to enable them rehabilitate their decrepit infrastructures and facilities. After that, they would be able to admit more students than they are currently doing. Poor funding is a critical issue that the lawmakers should address when considering appropriation bills. Except something is done in this regard, the reality on ground at the moment favours the conduct of post-UME.

The root of JAMB's problem is that it is dealing with a large number of applications it is unable to cope with because the vacancies in the universities are limited. Faced with this situation, students and their parents see the examination as a do-or-die affair which leads to graft and compromise. This was not the case when JAMB was established in 1978 with 13 universities and a manageable number of candidates.

The JAMB Act spells out its duties and functions in the area of admission of candidates into available spaces in the universities. It is the failure or inability of the board to conduct hitch-free and credible examinations that led to the introduction of post-UME. Therefore, rather than blame the universities for the untoward consequences of this development, it is JAMB that should be blamed.

The post-UME is a child of necessity. Except and until JAMB is able to deliver credible entrance examinations, the univerisities will feel obliged to continue to administer the post-UME. In that case, if it is established that JAMB is no longer able to perform its statutory duties, it should be scrapped and the universities allowed to admit their own candidates directly. That would reduce cost and save students and their parents the trauma of having to go through admission examinations twice.

But why is it so difficult to establish a workable admission framework for our educational institutions? Why is the country still battling with basic issues like funding and admission into the schools? These are fundamental questions that border on systemic failure. The truth is that the universities are being systematically downgraded. The quality of students admitted through the flawed process is low. Academic standards have been compromised. Most products of the universities are therefore substandard. It the end, the nation is short-changed, and the Senate ought to be more concerned about this bigger challenge.

Crooks of the creeks

SHELL, Chevron, Agip, ExxonMobil, Totalfinaelf, Schlumberger, Halliburton, etc (hereinafter called Big Oil) have won again. Has anyone noticed how the Niger Delta uprising is now about government vs militants, south vs north, Yoruba vs Ijaw and no longer about Big Oil? Did anyone ask why the government's amnesty without armistice was 60 days long? Before the end of that period, the government would create another mouth-watering distraction just like in the mid-80s: it was education, health, housing, food for all by the year 2000. As year 2000 approached, they changed it to Vision 2012. Now it is 2020.

As 2020 approaches, they will change it to 2050. Yet they never postpone treasury looting. During that 60-day distraction, Big Oil would have squirreled away another N2 trillion worth of oil from the Niger Delta. What is at work is a sinister combination of delay tactics and divide and rule. When the Sierra Leonean civil war was raging on, there was no day the multinationals stopped mining the diamonds. In Angola during their civil war, there was no day Big Oil stopped exploration. Ditto for the current Congo war. Not a single day passed that the multinationals did not meet their quota. Yet all these resources were the reasons for the wars. If Nigeria, heavens forbid, explodes into a civil war situation, Big Oil will continue to siphon oil while nearby, we go on killing ourselves. It is already happening. Big Oil has experienced crooks and experts on its payroll. They are pulling the strings and as unthinking puppets, we are dancing.

Hence, before it becomes about increase in derivation percentage, or actualisation of the Willinks Commission or Kaiama Declaration or the Minority Report, any Niger Delta insurrection that does not begin as an immediate stoppage of all oil exploration is both unserious and a complete waste of time. Of what use is an uprising when business continues as usual? Of what use is much heat and no light? With all the heat generated by the Niger Delta since Saro Wiwa, what steps have been taken to make Big Oil responsible to the environment? It is not about giving handouts to the people or token posts or NDDC or Ministry of Environment, it is primarily about making oil exploration compatible with environmental health and safety laws. The issue of fiscal federalism or revenue sharing only comes later, and that has nothing to do with Big Oil. It is our family affair. The debate over that should be for later not now lest Big Oil uses it to divide us and distract from its own responsibilities to the environment.

That in serious nations, Big Oil cannot get away with its shoddy practices only shows that Abuja is our problem. The privatisation of national interests and nationalisation of private interests that have been our doctrine of corruption since independence gave Big Oil licence to impose its unedited vileness on the Niger Delta. For instance what is the meaning of these terms Abuja uses to entice foreign oil investors: '...enjoy a substantial rebate - in the form of reduced government take - based on a memorandum of understanding (MOU), Operators obtain a "minimum guaranteed notional margin" once they kept "technical cost" within a certain range. The cost of clearing of oil spillage or stopping gas flaring stretch this technical cost so no substantial rebate. Therefore? The fate of men and women of the Delta has been auctioned off with impunity in these NNPC business terms.

And yet this logic of Thatcherism and Reaganomics is what led to the credit crunch: The idea that there is too much regulation that gets in the way of profit margins. If government wants to get more revenue, it must give big businesses and rich people more concessions, more tax credits, more rebates so they will get more money to expand their business and ordinary people would have more employment opportunities and the wealth of the rich would trickle down to the common man. Sounds logical but it was greed speaking.

With a weak government influence, the logic led to anything goes culture. It caused the global recession that had ruined families from Berlin to Benin, Moscow to Mokola, Kaiama to Cayman Islands. As Obama is cleaning up the house, stretching the government influence and imposing more regulations on the so-called untouchable business titans and big corporations, so should Abuja. Get Big Oil together to commit to another Memorandum of Understanding that includes respect for the people, the lands, air and water of the Niger Delta.

Warren Buffet said as the world richest man last year he was paying a tax of 17 per cent while his secretary whom he shares his office with was paying 30 per cent tax to the same government. What that means is that over the years of Reaganomics, the poor and the middle class every week have been sending a large portion of their earnings legitimately through the government to make the rich get richer. Likewise, it is against morality, civilisation and all rules of decency that the place that provides 80 per cent of our GDP, 90 per cent of national budget and 95 per cent of foreign exchange earnings is entitled to 13 per cent in return from the nation's treasury. When we have shown Niger Delta such a blatant disrespect, why would Big Oil not follow suit with a mania for ecological destruction? Yes in a federation we should help the states weak in resources to develop, but this does not mean we should reward laziness.

Big Oil in its own eyes could be kind. But to us its kindness is always a sinister machine that grinds down a thousand destinies for every lucky individual it rewards. They advertise scholarships, maternity wards, tap water as fulfilment of corporate social responsibility. But CSR like charity is not an obligation; you do it on your own terms since it is voluntary. Yet what is needed is a mandatory requirement of justice and fairness to the host communities and to the environment not token infrastructures, scholarships, or employment quotas they parade on the media as 'helping' the community. It is not only offensive but also very dubious to convert responsibilities and obligations to acts of charity.

Not faith but hope is the opium of the people. In spite of the comprehensive pain in every corner of the nation, Nigerians have a hope that is unparalleled in history. It is either a miracle of oppression or an abuse of pain. Certainly, Abuja's trick of postponement is effectively at work. Whereas pains suppose to make the people develop sufficient rage against an oppressive system. The government does not fear us and we do not present ourselves as "fearable". So they turned us into foot mat to step in and out of the corridors of power and corruption. At last, the lords of the creeks have decided to show us the way to self-determination. We should raise our voices with them in solidarity. There is no challenge too great if we all stand together as one. Only that violence is very abhorrent. And there is already a misplaced confidence in its wanton use. At this stage, we need more brains not more violence as the sole motivation

Cory Aquino: Angel of democracy

THE death of Mrs. Cory Aquino on August 1, 2009, Mother of the Yellow revolution brought back beautiful memories to me. In 2002, I visited Manila and had the rare privilege of being invited to dinner at the Malacanga Palace with President Gloria Arroyo. As the gates of the Palace flung open to receive us, I whispered to our hostess who had arranged the dinner: Gosh, I wished that I had come here while Mrs. Cory Aquino was in power. Without looking at me, she said: If you were not a priest, I would have thrown you out of this vehicle. We all laughed. Dinner with Mrs. Arroyo was great, but truly, my heart was elsewhere.

To me, after Mother Theresa, Cory was one of the most special women I admired. Her death therefore marks the beginning of the end of the era of the great icons of democracy in the last century. Although in a different context, she did for democracy and freedom in Asia what Mr. Mandela has done for us in Africa. She has secured a special place in the pantheons of the greats. She definitely deserves the medal for being the Queen of Democracy along with her 24 international awards and 14 honorary doctorate degrees she garnered from around the world while in power. Sadly, in 1986, she lost the Nobel Prize for Peace to Mr..Elie Wiesel, of the Holocaust fame.

Like other women around the world, she sprung to prominence from the shadows of her husband, Mr. Benigno Ninoy Aquino whose brutal assassination provided the spark for her ascent. In her six years in power (1986-92) she brought courage, glamour, integrity to both Democracy and Womanhood. She was catapulted into power with almost no previous experience or preparations. Her husband had fled to the United States after he and others had been sentenced to death in the wake of the proclamation of martial law by President Ferdinand Marcos. During her husband's exile, she went to mass every day, prayed three decades of the rosary daily and fasted. While his exile lasted, she banned her children from attending parties, going to the salon or buying new clothes. Little wonder, her life was shrouded in such miracles.

It is important to recall some of the events and the forces that shaped her political profile and how these helped to change the story of Democracy in many parts of the world. The most significant force in the transformation of the Philippines of course was the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church, traditionally seen as a conservative voice in the area of social change became the force for the radicalisation of politics in the Philippines. The nature of these forces is complex, but they are worthy of just a mention.

Mr. Aquino, a very popular politician and part of the Philippino elite had been in self exile in the United States for three years. He decided to end his exile and return home in 1983. However, it seemed that the government had planned to welcome him with a casket. On August 21, 1983, he was shot dead as he alighted from the plane at the Manila International Airport. By this action, the Marcos government set in motion a constellation of events which would later consume him and change the course of history and politics in the Philippines

It is important however to note that the Catholic Church was only one out of six main power blocks in the Philippines. The others were: the Marcos regime itself (made up of the Executive, Legislative, Judiciary and Bureaucracy) the Military, Protestant Churches, the Evangelical Churches, and the Communist Party. Although the Marcos regime was firmly in power, like all dictatorships, it sustained itself by playing one group in the opposition against the others. The death of Ninoy Aquino offered the Catholic Church the opportunity to step forward, take control of the cockpit of power and safely landed their nation on Democracy's run way.

The role of the Catholic Church in the revolution demonstrated two things. First, that when injustice has become pervasive, it normally carries the seeds of its own destruction within its own womb. Secondly, that with the right leadership, contrived differences can be overcome and genuine change can unite people across every divide. The challenge often is how a nation can find its niche when fate throws up time, moment and events.

When Marcos sensed that the ground was moving from his feet, he decided to call what has come to be known as the snap elections. All he wanted to do was to catch the opposition off guard. In the face of growing and crippling inequalities, landlessness and poverty, some Catholic priests and nuns became radicalised and very sympathetic to the cause of the Communist party and the left. The pressure from them and other social forces within the country compelled the leadership of the Church led by Cardinal Jaime Sin to shift ground and move quickly to the centre. Rallying the Catholics and a wide range of supporters across the board, a new strategy of communications was adopted. It proved to be very effective as a rallying point.

The first tool Radio Veritas which had merely been a spiritual voice for the Catholic Community mutated into a political weapon for rallying the people. The second strategy was the adoption of the writing of Pastoral Letters which, though addressed to the Catholic Community, spoke to most citizens. Two months to the snap elections, the Catholic Bishops issued three Pastoral Letters. The first was Message to the People of God issued on December 28th, 1985. In it, they told Christians that religion and politics were not opposed to one another and that voting was a Christian duty. On January 19, 1986, a second Pastoral Letter insisted that all citizens must ensure that the elections did not become a national scandal.

Barely one month later, on January 25t, they issued the final letter, We must Obey God Rather than Men. Mrs. Aquino, sending that this was the death knell of the Marcos regime, nailed her colours on the mast provided by the Church. In a speech on February 5th, two days to the elections, she said: We cannot win this election without God's help. I have no cheating experience. I have no salvaging experience. I have no experience in arresting and terrorizing people...We have our people's overwhelming support. Prayer is all we need right now.

When Marcos was declared winner of the elections, the Catholic Bishops responded by issuing what they called a Post Election Statement in which they declared that the elections recorded an unparalleled fraudulence. Cardinal Sin would from here, rally a broad spectrum of Philippinos across all religious, ideological or class lines. Thus was the candle of People Power lit. After four nights and three days of non stop prayer and peaceful protest, Mr. Marcos was ferried off to Hawaii on exile and Mrs. Aquino installed President. In her first year in office, she fought off 8 military attempts to overthrow her. By sheer moral force, she lit a flame that did finally cast off the darkness of ideology and inspired the world to the barricades of democracy. Thus, from Warsaw to South Africa leading this flame finally led to the overthrow of apartheid and Communism. Thus, Peoples power became the rallying cry for victims of dictatorship all over the world. This is why, the world will not be the same again because of her contributions. May her flame never go out.

Financial mess

Financial mess
•How Nigeria was looted blind
•N17tr stolen in one year


Recently, the Director of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), Tim Daniel, revealed that Nigeria loses $110 billion annually to treasury looting. According to him, the country cannot boast of tremendous development because of the large amount of money being siphoned out of government and taken outside the country.

findings reveal that Daniel hit the bull in the eye. Every ministry, government’s agency and parastatal corporation have been discovered to be involved in the looting spree. Indeed, during her first anniversary as Chairman of Economic Finance and Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri noted that former governors, ministers and members of parliament alone have stolen N285billion in this political dispensation.

With this and other reported cases of corruption Transparency International cannot therefore be faulted in its position that corruption is high in Nigeria.

It would be recalled that one of the reasons the military sacked the civilian government of Shehu Shagari on December 31, 1983 was corruption. Corruption still continues. When what happened then is compared to the looting in the last 10 years, the former pales into insignificance. When the country started another journey in democracy, led by Olusegun Obasanjo, a probe was instituted against the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, which led to the discovery that the former military junta sole $3billion from the country’s treasurer.

The uproar this generated and the recrimination it attracted to the Abacha family did not deter others from helping themselves from the treasury, whether it is national, state or local government levels.
on daily basis political office holders’ siphoned money, through various means, from the treasury. Recently, the National Coordinator, Nigeria Network on Stolen Assets, Rev. David Ugolor, revealed that the N65billion looted by Abacha, which had been returned, had been mismanaged. According to him, from evidence the Federal Government, under Obasanjo, disbursed the funds and could not provide evidence of transparent disbursement. The same fate greeted the N16billion recovered from Tafa Balogun, which was said to be missing and no record to trace it.

When Obasanjo assumed office in 1999, he adorned the messiah toga. In fighting corruption, he set up the EFCC, with Nuhu Ribadu as its chairman. The anti-graft agency started blowing hot until it turned out to be a tool for hounding perceived or real enemies of the president. Ribadu, while appearing before the Senate in 2007, told the bewildered nation that the agency had investigated then serving governors and that 31 out of the 36 of them had been found to have allegedly looted the treasury of their respected states and would be prosecuted as soon as their immunity expired.

Curiously, when the tenure of these governors ended, only six of them who were said not to be in the good books of Obasanjo were taken to court by the agency. Not much was known about the extent of looting of the national treasury until the National Assembly started probing various agencies, ministries and parastatals. The figures coming out from some of the probes that represent what have been looted are frightening. It was from the probes that Nigerian realised why the problem of the energy sector had defied solution and why the country has been in perpetual darkness. Over $16 billion, said to have spent by Obasanjo’s government to find solution to the perennial darkness, went into private pockets.

The usual Nigeria’s conundrum was introduced in the probe, which made the report to be confined to the trash bin. The hunter later turned the hunted. Ndudi Elumelu, the head of the probe committee, is now facing trial with four others for alleged perpetration of monumental fraud of N5.2b.Those involved are Chairman, Senate Committee on Power; Senator Nicholas Ugbare, his House of Representatives counterpart, Ndudi Elumelu; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Dr. Abdulahi Aliyu and Managing Director of Rural Electrification Agency, Samuel Gekpe.

Another sleaze at Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) involved N3billion alleged stolen by the suspended Chairman of the agency, Dr. Ransome Owan and six commissioners. They are currently facing trial on 197-count at an Abuja High Court. Of this amount, N77million was said to have been spent on overseas frolicking and cost of living allowances.

Yet another case of looting is in educational sector, while the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is lamenting the high level of adult illiteracy in Nigeria, the literacy commission boss was involved in N271m fraud, which is part of the amount meant to reduce the illiteracy rate in the country. According to latest report of UNESCO, Nigeria is classified as one of the countries at a serious risk of not attaining the Education for All (EFA) goal by 2015. The report claimed that there are about 60 million adult illiterates and 11 million out-of-school children in Nigeria. It rated Nigeria as one of the most illiterate in the world. In the face of this negative index, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Adult Education, Mass Literacy and Non-Formal Education, Dr. Dayo Olagunju and 19 officers of the commission are being prosecuted for the alleged fraud.

The Director of the Universal Basic Education Commission, Prof. Bridget Sokan and three top officers are also facing trial over N78million loot. Also, while the universities are crying of under-funding and lecturers on strike, the Vice Chancellor of Imo State University, Prof. I. C. Okonkwo, has been arrested in connection with N70million fraud. When his house was searched, the sum of N4.5million cash, $11, 200 and 700 Euros were found in his apartment in Owerri.

Former Minister of Aviation, Prof. Babalola Borishade, NAMA’s former Managing Director, Roland Iyayi and two others were fingered in N19billion loot. They are facing criminal charges in court.
The football house is not left out. It was recently reported that $236, 000 was stolen from coffers of Nigerian Football Federation. Funny enough, the National Sports Commission, the supervising agency inaugurated committee to trace the money. The committee, after collecting sitting allowance, did not come up with any finding.

The National Film Corporation has its pie in the shame, as its Managing Director, Afolabi Adesanya and four directors were recently arrested for allegedly sharing of N11.8m belonging to the agency.
The Trans National Corporation (TRANCOP) is also in the news as it relates to corruption. Its Group Managing Director, Thomas Isegoli, is in the net of EFCC for fraud. The amount involved is more than N15billion. He is being held with the company’s Secretary, Mohammed Buba and another official, Mike Okoli.

The GMD is said to have, in connivance with other staff, severally abused the N100million approval limit given to him by the Board of TRANSCORP. He allegedly used organisations owned by his friends and associates to siphon money through bogus and overlapping consultancy projects, contracts and services.
The Chairman, Federal Character Commission, Prof. Oba Shuaibu Abdulraheem, was last September accused of involvement in N262million scam. A petition on this issue was sent to President Umar Yar’Adua and Code of Conduct Bureau. Chief Bode George and others are also facing charges over scam in the Nigeria Ports authority. Former Senate President, Adolphs Nwagbara with Prof. Ebere Osuji, former education minister and others are also facing corruption charges, likewise serving Senator Iyabo Obasanjo and Prof Adenike Grange, who are alleged to have corruptly enriched themselves to the tune of N300million.

At the peak of the Obasanjo campaign for the cancellation of Nigeria’s foreign debt, United Kingdom Minister for Africa, Mr. Chris Mullin disclosed, on February 2005, that about N315.5billion of Nigeria’s looted funds were frozen in various British banks. He had said that Nigeria’s quest for debt cancellation would be a mirage if corruption and looting of the treasure persisted in the country. From reports, Nigeria’s stolen money kept in foreign accounts in 1999 increased from $50billion to $170billion in 2003. This was buttressed in the June 2006 edition of The Africa Report by the former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr. Raymond Baker, who had estimated stolen money from Nigeria and stashed away in foreign banks to be about $100b.

Baker, who put the total value of “dirty money” laundered globally at $500million per annum, also noted that about 50 percent of these funds, which come from developing economies end up in US dollar dominated accounts.

the sum of N53.3billion owed failed banks in the country and now considered bad debts came about as a result of insider abuse or outright stealing by officials of those banks. Before the collapsed of these banks, some of them went to the Nigerian Stock Exchange to raise funds to assist them come out of the woods. This ended with much of the funds being diverted to other uses by the unscrupulous officials of the banks.

Of all these funds stashed away in foreign banks, in 2006, the then Attorney General of the Federation declared that the Federal Government could only recover $1billion.

Vision 2020: Let’s walk the talk

The plan by the Federal Government to release fresh rules on Vision 2020 appears worthy and commendable.
This, in real terms, means that government’s desire to make Nigeria one of the 20 frontline economies in the world 11 years from now would not be a vacuous dream.

Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsudeen Usman, who announced government’s plan for fresh rules for Vision 2020 at a recent breakfast meeting with media chief executives in Abuja, said part of the new plan would be to work with the National Assembly to set up what he called a “binding legislation on Vision 2020.”
This suggests perhaps that hitherto, government had not taken the national legislature into confidence in the policy framework that will fast-track the economic development plans of the country.

Only recently, Dr Usman admitted publicly that government doesn’t have a realistic blueprint yet on Vision 2020. He said that this could come out not earlier than October this year. And in his meeting with the media chiefs, the minister maintained that previous development plans failed because of the absence of a clear-cut implementation framework.

While accusing former President Olusegun Obasanjo of being the brain behind the failure of Vision 2010, the precursor of the current Vision 20-2020, Dr Usman noted that the way forward will be thorough implementation strategies that will reflect in annual budgets, and their enforcement through proper legislation that would be binding on successive governments in the country.

We share the concerns of the government as expressed through the Minister of National Planning. The truth, however, is that this government appears not genuinely convinced of its own programme of action for realizing this vision. Nigeria is neither lacking in intellectual ideas, nor the roadmap on any policy measure that can propel economic development of our country. What is annoyingly lacking is the political will.

In just under six months this year, the Federal Government has inaugurated over six different committees on Vision 2020. These include the Business Support Group which is tasked with articulating and developing a long term strategic plan, the National Council on Nigerian Economy, and the National Steering Committee on Vision 2020.

Only recently, government set up a 25-member Macroeconomic Framework Working Committee to review the draft macroeconomic groundwork of the economic as well as Nigeria’s historic performance and identify the constraints to growth.

Clearly, and indisputably, visioning is not new with our governments. Indeed, it has become a sort of mantra for successive administrations in Nigeria. But few, if any at all of the plans, have gone beyond the drawing board. The damper on these economic blueprints is that they are stymied by lack of political will and commitment.

It is heartwarming, however, that government is planning to retool the rules and design a comprehensive legislation that will be binding on successive governments. This is the case in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, India, Malaysia and Singapore where visioning is known to have succeeded.
Realistic vision must say something that clarifies the direction in which the government wants to take the country and its people. This can only be achieved through concrete action plan. So far, there is a contradiction between government plans and the strategies that can propel such plans.

For instance, no economic visioning will succeed in the absence of steady power supply and adequate infrastructure such as good road network, healthcare system and security, among others.
All in all, words alone are not enough to move a vision forward. Action, real action, is the answer. Now is the time to walk the talk on Vision 2020.

Wanted: Transformative leadership

It is good that most Nigerians are eager to see their country on the path to meaningful development after decades of missed opportunities. Statistics from international development organisations about the country’s development status are dispiriting enough. Out of the over 140 million citizens, 70 per cent live on less than two dollars daily, according to the development agencies, which also say that 66 per cent of our people have no jobs.

The situation may have been exacerbated by the global economic crisis and the Niger Delta crisis which has seen daily oil export decline from 2.5m barrels to 1.6m barrels. The failure to meet oil production targets is one of the critical factors affecting this year’s budget performance.

Still, we are optimistic. President Umaru Yar’Adua, for instance, is proceeding with his Vision 20:20:20. He hopes by the year 2020, Nigeria will be among the 20 largest economies in the world. This is a lofty ambition, indeed. But as everyone knows, there is no way Vision 20:20:20 can be realized without the states and local governments buying into them. By buying into this vision, one is not talking of their official declarations of support, but taking concrete and far-reaching steps to modernize their economies and governance systems generally.

The reality, however, appears different. I have in the last few years been touring various parts of the country in search of like-minds to form a coalition to transform governance at every level in Nigeria, rather than just the federal administration. The country is in desperate need of a paradigm shift. What many people expect from the government is the routine, namely, provision of basic infrastructure like roads and payment of workers’ salaries.

This is nothing other than business. The country cannot develop, let alone join the club of the world’s largest 20 economies by 2020, if intellectuals, professionals and others who should know better ask the government to merely concentrate on the routine in the 21st Century. To make the kind of stupendous progress that will see become a large economy in the next 13 years, it means that we all must leapfrog, that is, more than double our present growth rate of about mere 5% of the Gross Domestic Product.

Countries like Malaysia, Brazil, Thailand and China did not make it by merely providing basic infrastructure and paying salaries of civil servants. Theses countries began by recruiting transformative leaders. Transformative leaders are leaders who are dissatisfied with the status quo, they do not want business as usual in the governance of their societies. They are imbued with the right vision for the transformation of their countries and consequently work towards the realization of the dream. They are also imbued with well above average intelligence, or what the great Chief Obafemi Awolowo called mental magnitude.

Their love of their nations is, of course, well known. Transformative leaders draw up a roadmap on coming to office and prosecute the war of transformation with all resources and talent at their disposal. From time to time, they review their performance, find out where they have gone wrong, make necessary adjustments and continue with the religious implementation of their development agendas. Besides, such leaders always have self-pride. They believe that if some countries could get it right, there is no compelling reason why their societies could not make it also.

It may well be pointed out that it is not only Asian nations and territories that have stunned the world with stupendous development in recent times. In South America, there are the examples of Chile and Brazil. Chile was another hopeless Third World nation up to the 1970s. General Augustino Pinochet altered its development trajectory from 1973 with his economists from the University of Chicago.

His human rights record is nasty, but Pincohet did develop Chile, making it the third largest economy in South America. Despite years of military rule, Brazil is today a very important manufacturing economy. It is the fourth largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, and most of the luxury buses in Nigeria are from there. Even in sub Sahara Africa, there are the success stories of Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, and, of course, South Africa.

Whipping skirts and the fraternity of the boys

I HAVE never wanted to be a man, I cannot imagine stuffing myself into a pair of trousers every day of my life but I am sure there are men out there who will equally shudder at the thought of being transformed overnight into a woman by a fairy godmother gone berserk or the witch from their village. Yet for some reason men fascinate me. I watch them go from a dawdling clumsy childhood marked with big knobby knees to a swash buckling adulthood characterised by premier league matches and beer-guzzling meetings. I am intrigued by the male of our species, I really am.
During my university days, I began to notice the wide difference between the two sexes. We ladies could squabble over the most insignificant things and keep long faces with each other for weeks, months and even years. We exchanged words over trivial things refusing to make amends with each other, afraid of looking weak. But the men? They made up and shook hands even if the whole fracas was over a girl. Charming!!! They bonded, laughed and patted each other on the backs while we snickered, hissed and involved our pretty selves in a heavy dose of back biting. I doff my hat to them for this ability to overlook trivial issues and forge a closer bond.
One thing though, are we seeing a largely themed male against the female philosophy sink its tentacles deep into the fabric of the society as a result of this chummy camaraderie our menfolk so obviously enjoy? I hope not. Every time I watch news about the Nigerian Senate, I realised that I was still staring at those young university course mates and their back slapping attitude. The Senate is a chamber of the Nigerian parliament called the National Assembly, it has a related chamber called the House of Representatives. It is bicameral in structure and currently houses 109 members. However in this hallowed legislative arm of the Nigerian government, it is very interesting that out of 109 members, only nine are women. Very interesting! Why should the number of female senators be at a dismal number of nine despite the advancement of today's civilisation and the generally touted success of women in politics? I beg for an answer just as desperately as I seek to understand the low tolerance and participation of the female senators in the National Assembly. The fraternity of the boys has won again and the women continue to stand at different poles of contending principles.
According to the June 26, 2009 edition of the Business day, the upper chamber, on return to democracy in 1999 considered and passed five bills, while 16 bills were passed in 2001._ It also considered and passed 22 bills in 2002 and 21 bills in 2003. At the end of the legislative session in 2003, the Senate passed 70 bills, out of which 36 were private, 33 executive and one from the House of Representatives. Between 2003 and 2007, following the inauguration of the National Assembly, the Senate considered and passed 106 bills, out of which 66 were executive bills, nine from members of the public, and four from the House of the Representatives._ Six of the bills were passed in 2003, while 35 were passed at the end of the 2004 legislative calendar._
The Senate also considered and passed 25 bills in 2005 and 40 in 2006, which represents the highest number of bills since the return of democracy in the country._ The country recorded a milestone in 2007 with the successful transition from a democratically elected government to another, which ushered in the sixth Senate, with the inauguration of the National Assembly by President Umaru Yar'Adua on June 5._ The upper chamber passed only eight bills during its first session, beginning from June 5, 2007 to June 2008, and has so far passed 15 bills from June to date._ Of the eight bills, five were executive and three were private members' bills, while nine executive and six private members' bills were passed from June 2008 to date.
From the above analysis, it would seem that the Senate has been very busy yet when you look closely you realise that despite the number of bills passed, very few were sponsored by women. However with the likes of Joy Emodi, a lawyer by profession representing Anambra North senatorial zone who is the chairman of the Senate committee on education and a member of four other committees and has sponsored bills and motions such as the National Ethics Curriculum Bill 2008 and the Bill for an Act to make for the establishment of National Institute for Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA), which has already gone through second reading, I hope that female senators will wake up and become serious about pursuing and sponsoring realistic bills. The case of Senator Eme Ufot Ekaette who proposed the dress code bill is a regrettable case of misrepresentation. The distinguished Senator must have forgotten that she was representing a constituency with probably more pressing needs for infrastructural development when she enveloped herself with the desire to make Nigerians adopt a common dress code.
When will we see more bills sponsored by the charming ladies of the upper chamber of the National Assembly? When will women actively participate in the sponsoring of bills without suffering the pitfalls of badly thought out projects? Somehow it seems women in the Senate are content to hide in the background, only coming out to sing discordant tunes which have no relation to the reality of the Nigerian society save of course a FEW stalwart female senators.
When Senator Patricia Etteh, the Speaker of the House from June till October 2007, was indicted and challenged by the opposition of the house because of the award of N628 million contracts for the renovation of her official residences and that of her deputy, Alhaji Babangida Nguroje along with the purchase of 12 cars, I could not help but feel like there was a conspiracy to get rid of this very vocal and vociferous female leader of the house. It was like the members of the house could not stand the thought of being led by a female no matter how highly qualified. Am I trying to justify the former speaker's antics? No.
I am only pointing out the fact that there was a sophisticated gang up of male chauvinists making intelligent and self righteous noises against her as if they had suddenly acquired spotless garments of unparallelled performance in their various constituencies and had never at one time or the other sullied their seemingly pristine reputations. The then Speaker Etteh committed some sins no doubt but the worse of it was being a woman. If the National Assembly were indeed sincere in its fight against its corrupt members, how come we can still count many sticky fingers in the house today?
Let section 41 of the constitution be respected and no member of the house denied any opportunity of leading on account of sex, tribe or religion.

Nigerian banks and The Africa Report

THERE has been much contention about the source materials and criteria upon which the editors of Africa Report, a Paris-based publication, recently based their opinion regarding the solvency of Nigerian commercial banks. Focusing on the exposure of Nigerian banks, post-consolidation, to the capital market and the oil and gas sector, and their published shareholders' funds and total assets, Africa Report paints the picture of a troubled Nigerian banking sector where only four banks can be considered "strong".
In its view, when the stock market wiped out about eight trillion Naira in value, the major burden of the incidence was to be felt in the erosion of banks' assets. But risk profiling alone does not fully tell the story of a bank's strength. So contend, correctly, the CBN, the NDIC, the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB) and other stakeholders. The lesson to be taken from the entire controversy is that Nigerian banks can no longer pretend to be insulated from international attention.
With the banks seeking international presence and patronage, in a global, competitive market, they are bound to attract broader scrutiny, including irreverent analysis by intrepid investigators. In recent times, Nigeria's banking sector has been the subject of scrutiny by not only the Africa Report, but also the World Bank, Fitch, a ratings agency, and Forbes magazine.
The banks are up in arms because Africa Report insists that some banks have 'something to hide' and that they can be categorised as follows: Strong (four banks): "Thriving, to profit from the crisis''; Satisfactory (nine banks) - "Margin lending issues but will all survive''; Shaken (seven banks) - ''Serious governance issues need urgent attention''; Stressed (four banks) - "on the ropes, sink or be swallowed.'' The main contention is that a report of this nature may result in a crisis of confidence, and possibly a run on the banking sector and render many Nigerian banks, more vulnerable. This certainly cannot be in the interest of either the regulatory authorities or the affected banks.
The complaint by the banks is obviously because they have received less than their favoured or perceived rating from the publication. Thus far, the ensuing alarm among the banking public, is we believe, unwarranted. Ultimately, ratings are subjective judgements. But the Jeune Afrique - Africa Report equally focused on issues of corporate governance, and the fact that the regulator "still has work to do." No doubt about this, as indeed regulators worldwide have a lot to do on the heels of the global financial crisis.
Ordinarily, the basic norms of assessment for banks prescribe a review of the institution's capital adequacy for the quantum of risks it carries, whether the quality of assets it creates justifies the risk, the quality of available human skills and elements of management, the texture of the earnings stream and the institution's liquidity profile to meet immediate and future obligations. The Africa Report publication does not seem to have considered other indicators. It is not helpful that the editors have refused to disclose their parameters of assessments, for, they insist, legal reasons. What cannot be controverted though is that questions continue to be raised about some Nigerian banks and the country's financial system.
Both the appearance of this edition of the Africa Report and the recently declared objectives of Mr. Lamido Sanusi at the Central Bank, call for concerted and urgent action to establish the truth about the trading of the post-consolidation years and then provide a transparent state of bank balance sheets. The possibilities open to Mr. Sanusi's tenure include CBN-inspired ratings and models of all financial institutions in the Nigerian market. In the main, it can no longer be that of relaxed rules and governance benchmarks in the banks, a challenge worsened by the emergence of owners-managers in this sensitive sector.
It is, therefore, in order that the CBN is insisting on full disclosures and more diligent reporting standards by the banks. The banks must support this internal audit in order to prevent alleged misrepresentation. Individual banks also need to reassure their customers by raising their level of performance, while the regulatory authorities must embark on the task of rebuilding market confidence and standards.

Judiciary and the Anti-Graft War

Chairman of the Economic and Fin-ancial Crimes Com-mission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri and others have attributed the slow pace of the anti-graft war in Nigeria to flaws in the judicial process. According to them, many accused persons standing trial in anti-graft cases, have, through their lawyers, systematically devised effective means of whittling down and undermining the effectiveness of the courts in the speedy disposal of the cases against them.
We cannot agree more that our flawed judicial process has consistently impeded the sweeping measures to combat corruption in Nigeria. Not infrequently, former State Governors and political bigwigs standing trial in high profile anti-graft cases bribe their way to obtain dubious court injunctions to impede their prosecution in court. Anti-graft cases are stalled by unnecessary court adjournments.
Distressfully, some lawyers handling anti-graft cases, who are supposed to be officers in the temple of justice, throw decorum and professional ethics overboard to bring frivolous court applications aimed at scuttling the judicial process.
Having said this, we are not unmindful of the fact that the greatest obstacle in the wheel of the criminal justice system in Nigeria is executive interference in the affairs of the judiciary. Contrary to the principle of separation of power, some members of the executive manipulate some anti-graft cases in favour of some former State governors and high personalities. Some former State governors who have benefited from this unjustified largesse are walking the streets today as canonized saints.
Even the EFCC cannot be exculpated from the tardiness and moral degeneration which have flawed our judicial process. Oftentimes the delay in the prosecution of those suspected to have been involved in graft and official corruption results from poor preparation and presentation of cases by the EFCC. In some cases, charges preferred against some suspects by the EFCC are later dramatically dropped by the same EFCC without genuine reasons. Some of the suspects being publicly paraded by the EFCC are always beaming with smiles with the belief that they would be let off the hook sooner or later.
Till date, no suspect who has been investigated by the EFCC has been duly convicted and sent to long imprisonment. The EFCC pre-bargain option has drawn public outcry. Even the integrity of the office of the Federal Attorney-General in the prosecution of the anti-graft war is sometimes called into question by the public.
Consequently, we call on the Bar and the Bench to live up to expectation in the dispensation of justice in anti-graft cases. Let there be responsible criminal investigation and prosecution. Quality criminal justice system stems from quality criminal investigation and prosecution. When our judiciary is corrupted by the very people who should labour to maintain its prestige, the inevitable outcome is huge stranglehold on the judiciary, bare-faced injustice and enthronement of corrupt criminal justice system.
All said, an efficient and effective criminal justice, predicated upon the basic principles of law and justice and propelled by a vibrant judicial system is indispensable in winning the ant-graft war in Nigeria.

Again, the ASUU Strike

The frequency of strikes by both the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and their non-academic counterparts says much about the unenviable state of tertiary education in the country. Our concern here is not necessarily the merit or otherwise of the latest industrial action by the university teachers. Certainly we have written much on the poor attitude of our governments towards matters pertaining to education which had often triggered restiveness in our higher institutions of learning. We have also written much on the need for lecturers to explore other means of airing their grievances than work stoppages.
However, the issue at hand is one that clearly portrays the government as insensitive. Why are the university teachers currently on strike? Principally because the government has refused to endorse an agreement it had signed with the union last January on the need to, among other things, improve the state of the universities by upgrading their infrastructure. Noteworthy is the fact that many of the issues have nothing to do with the welfare of the teachers themselves but rather with how the quality of education in the universities can be generally enhanced.
Anyone familiar with the environment of our universities today will be amazed that government needs any prodding to act to save the situation. There is so much decay of infrastructure that most of these universities have become no more than glorified high schools. Funding is low and even the little that is available is hardly well utilized. Classrooms are incredibly over crowded and lecture theatres that were even originally meant for large number of students have become scandalously over-congested, with sometimes more than half the students receiving lectures from across the windows. This highly non-conducive atmosphere invariably leads to the production of half-baked graduates by the universities.
In the globalised labour market of today, we wonder how these poorly exposed graduates can compete. Right from the universities they have been disabled by the poor quality of environment in which they receive their classes. The situation is worse for science and engineering students. All too often, they lack the necessary practical experience because of the absence of good laboratories and workshops.
These are not issues that need flogging before a government that has listed education as one of its cardinal programmes can begin to act towards remedying them. It can only be argued that the government is not showing much concern because most of the children of its top officials study abroad where facilities are much better.
The state of higher education in the country has become so bad that nothing less than a call for a national emergency can redress it. For us, the challenge before the current minister of education, who incidentally was a university lecturer just as the president and the vice-president, is how to re-invent our universities.
Indeed, most of them have become shadows of what they ought to be. Is it any surprise that Nigerians who can afford it now send their children to places like Ghana where the quality of education is evidently higher than what currently obtains in our country?
The latest ASUU strike is really regrettable. The government should not have allowed it to happen in the first place. Now that it has, we expect the federal authorities to take necessary steps to stop it from being prolonged by acceding to the reasonable demands of the university teachers. Let our universities regain their lost glory. And one of the ways to do so is through massive infusion of funds into them for the development of infrastructure.

CBN and the sack of bank managements

THE brazen decision of the Lamido Sanusi-led Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sack the CEOs and Executive Directors of Oceanic Bank, Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank and Finbank should be treated with the due suspicion that it deserves.

The present predicament of the banks was long in coming. The bitter, persistent complaints of alleged marginalisation of the ‘North’ by the Soludo consolidation policy by Northern politicians, journalists and traditional rulers during the Obasanjo administration, gave an inkling of what fate would befall the banks immediately this adminis-tration came into office.

And the ‘Northern’ saboteurs went into action as soon as Yar’Adua was sworn in. They first focused their attacks on Soludo and its main achievement, the consolidated banks, which were blamed for all manners of ills plaguing the country’s economy.

The African Finance Corporation, which was established by the Soludo CBN in partnership with Nigerian banks, was portrayed as a gigantic fraud. The Presidency even set up a special investigative panel which could only find Soludo culpable of alleged procedural mistakes in setting up the continental development financial institution.

Then came the accusations that the ex-CBN chief was not policing the banks properly and that he co-owned some of them.

Series of pressure was mounted on the Professor of Economics, making him to embark on a series of measures to pacify the powers that be. He gave back the operating licence of Société Générale and to achieve regional balance also Savannah.

Moreover, he even forgave the 70 billion naira debt of Unity Bank. But all to no avail. The North wanted that position at all costs. When the time came for the renewal of his term of office and against all rules of logic in view of his world-acclaimed achievements, Soludo was asked to go and Sanusi was swiftly named in his replacement.

The curious thing about the processes of appointment and Senate confirmation of Sanusi was the lack of controversy which should normally have characterised them because of the antecedents of the Fulani man.

Sanusi is an unabashedly Fulani nationalist and he has made that clear in many articles he has written since 2000 and which were published in Nigerian newspapers and online, especially on gamji.com.

He has made disparaging remarks about Chief Obafemi Awolowo and even attacked Abacha and Babangida, non-Fulani former Northern heads of state.

He made sure his readers understood him well that he was foremost a Fulani — he even described the term Hausa-Fulani a nonsense nomenclature. In fact, the title of one his articles was “The Fulani without Apology”. Sanusi’s writings were so nauseating that Garba Shehu, the non-Fulani Northern rights activist, once described them as “racist crap”.

Aside from that, Sanusi at First Bank was rumoured to be actively engaged in the infamous de-marketing campaign, a charge that Intercontinental Bank made against him, in a veiled reference, in a newspaper advertisement early this year.

Doubts about the veracity of the widely-held suspicion were dispelled by the negative feature on Nigerian banks published by The Africa Report, in which Sanusi was the main source of information. He was also exclusively interviewed in the report.

That such an unabashed tribalist could be appointed into such a professional national office without any protests shows the political lethargy of the Southern elite.

And that must have emboldened the Fulani CBN chief that he made very negative remarks about Nigerian banks in the very first interview he granted the press upon his assumption of office. In the interview, with the West Africa correspondent of the Financial Times, he made it point blank that he would prefer new investors to come into the market, even expressing his preference for foreign players at the expense of those he referred to as anonymous Nigerian nominees.

That interview also failed to elicit condemnation despite its patent patriotism and its potentials to cause a confidence crisis in the capital market. No wonder that Sanusi felt so sure of the docility of his victims that he devised the so-called audit programme, carried it out in a rash and without even waiting for the completion of the exercise or informing the boards of the affected banks of its findings, he went ahead to change the managements of the banks.

Without doubt Sanusi’s actions are premeditated and are meant to change the ownership structure of the banks. Why the haste to take the decisions when the so-called CBN audit has not been conducted in all Nigerian banks?

Why did Sanusi not invite the boards of the banks to show them the results of the so-called audit and ask them how they think they could solve the problem; for example, giving them a deadline to recapitalise?

Why wield the axe so soon?

The practice all over the world is to first demand that the existing shareholders meet the capital adequacy. It is only where they are not able to raise the required capital that forced intervention by the regulators takes place.

These are indications that Sanusi is following a script.

The appointment of Southerners as acting MDs of the 5 banks is a smokescreen. When the smoke clears, Fulanis would have become the majority shareholders of most Nigerian banks. As Sanusi has said that he would invite investors to shore up the capital of these banks and take stake in them.

There is a grand conspiracy by the Yar’Adua administration to foster Fulani control over all facets of life in the country. What Sanusi has just done must be linked with what his people are doing in other sectors of the economy where they’re edging out other Nigerians, such as in the oil & gas industry.

Today, it’s the banks. Yesterday, it’s the petroleum products importers. Who knows who’s next?

When will Southerners and other marginalised Nigerians begin to resist this blatant process of internal colonialism?

CBN and the sack of bank managements

THE brazen decision of the Lamido Sanusi-led Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sack the CEOs and Executive Directors of Oceanic Bank, Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank and Finbank should be treated with the due suspicion that it deserves.

The present predicament of the banks was long in coming. The bitter, persistent complaints of alleged marginalisation of the ‘North’ by the Soludo consolidation policy by Northern politicians, journalists and traditional rulers during the Obasanjo administration, gave an inkling of what fate would befall the banks immediately this adminis-tration came into office.

And the ‘Northern’ saboteurs went into action as soon as Yar’Adua was sworn in. They first focused their attacks on Soludo and its main achievement, the consolidated banks, which were blamed for all manners of ills plaguing the country’s economy.

The African Finance Corporation, which was established by the Soludo CBN in partnership with Nigerian banks, was portrayed as a gigantic fraud. The Presidency even set up a special investigative panel which could only find Soludo culpable of alleged procedural mistakes in setting up the continental development financial institution.

Then came the accusations that the ex-CBN chief was not policing the banks properly and that he co-owned some of them.

Series of pressure was mounted on the Professor of Economics, making him to embark on a series of measures to pacify the powers that be. He gave back the operating licence of Société Générale and to achieve regional balance also Savannah.

Moreover, he even forgave the 70 billion naira debt of Unity Bank. But all to no avail. The North wanted that position at all costs. When the time came for the renewal of his term of office and against all rules of logic in view of his world-acclaimed achievements, Soludo was asked to go and Sanusi was swiftly named in his replacement.

The curious thing about the processes of appointment and Senate confirmation of Sanusi was the lack of controversy which should normally have characterised them because of the antecedents of the Fulani man.

Sanusi is an unabashedly Fulani nationalist and he has made that clear in many articles he has written since 2000 and which were published in Nigerian newspapers and online, especially on gamji.com.

He has made disparaging remarks about Chief Obafemi Awolowo and even attacked Abacha and Babangida, non-Fulani former Northern heads of state.

He made sure his readers understood him well that he was foremost a Fulani — he even described the term Hausa-Fulani a nonsense nomenclature. In fact, the title of one his articles was “The Fulani without Apology”. Sanusi’s writings were so nauseating that Garba Shehu, the non-Fulani Northern rights activist, once described them as “racist crap”.

Aside from that, Sanusi at First Bank was rumoured to be actively engaged in the infamous de-marketing campaign, a charge that Intercontinental Bank made against him, in a veiled reference, in a newspaper advertisement early this year.

Doubts about the veracity of the widely-held suspicion were dispelled by the negative feature on Nigerian banks published by The Africa Report, in which Sanusi was the main source of information. He was also exclusively interviewed in the report.

That such an unabashed tribalist could be appointed into such a professional national office without any protests shows the political lethargy of the Southern elite.

And that must have emboldened the Fulani CBN chief that he made very negative remarks about Nigerian banks in the very first interview he granted the press upon his assumption of office. In the interview, with the West Africa correspondent of the Financial Times, he made it point blank that he would prefer new investors to come into the market, even expressing his preference for foreign players at the expense of those he referred to as anonymous Nigerian nominees.

That interview also failed to elicit condemnation despite its patent patriotism and its potentials to cause a confidence crisis in the capital market. No wonder that Sanusi felt so sure of the docility of his victims that he devised the so-called audit programme, carried it out in a rash and without even waiting for the completion of the exercise or informing the boards of the affected banks of its findings, he went ahead to change the managements of the banks.

Without doubt Sanusi’s actions are premeditated and are meant to change the ownership structure of the banks. Why the haste to take the decisions when the so-called CBN audit has not been conducted in all Nigerian banks?

Why did Sanusi not invite the boards of the banks to show them the results of the so-called audit and ask them how they think they could solve the problem; for example, giving them a deadline to recapitalise?

Why wield the axe so soon?

The practice all over the world is to first demand that the existing shareholders meet the capital adequacy. It is only where they are not able to raise the required capital that forced intervention by the regulators takes place.

These are indications that Sanusi is following a script.

The appointment of Southerners as acting MDs of the 5 banks is a smokescreen. When the smoke clears, Fulanis would have become the majority shareholders of most Nigerian banks. As Sanusi has said that he would invite investors to shore up the capital of these banks and take stake in them.

There is a grand conspiracy by the Yar’Adua administration to foster Fulani control over all facets of life in the country. What Sanusi has just done must be linked with what his people are doing in other sectors of the economy where they’re edging out other Nigerians, such as in the oil & gas industry.

Today, it’s the banks. Yesterday, it’s the petroleum products importers. Who knows who’s next?

When will Southerners and other marginalised Nigerians begin to resist this blatant process of internal colonialism?

Anti-corruption revolution and the rest of us

THE resolution by my community to create some social services like water borehole and pipe laying to distribute same, electricity development and secondary education building project without recourse to the government saw monetary contributions made.

As typical of an Ibo society, defaulters in financial contributions were harassed/intimidated by the masquerades and the task force men. But along the line a new twist emerged as rumour moved to suspicion and more to distrust causing great breach between the leaders and the led. It is from the buggle announcing massive mismanagement of our commonwealth as these men in position of trust changed their food regimen and acquired properties without known financial generators.

Moreso, the churches holding hope of men and women of pious standing came stories from elderly women of great financial misappropriation by the elite class. A woman recounted her ordeal in the monthly broom presentations which the annual financial report never suggested anything positive as seen from the population involved. In these scenarios people hailed and protected the perpetrators with chieftaincy titles or religions honours.

Yes! It is from a similar society most of us grew up and the forces of our environment drowned great many. Our leaders reneged on advocated pact as misery became the lot of majority with project cost rooted to high heavens and most times the only indication of project site is the plaque.

Deception ruled the entire space, while secrecy delivered communion wines to the pain at heart. On these, some persons prayed for an ecclesiastical space of a new Nigeria devoid of over night millionaires and praise-worshippers of greed and treasury looting.

Indeed, the emergence of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from the anthill marked a turning point as the tears of many gave way to hope. It was built on the sophistication by which actions were carried out and result of unimaginable status recorded.

So, the fear of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Ibrahim Larmode garnished hotdog took men to religious books with its forceful inscription as in Ephesians 4:28: “Let the stealer steal no more, but rather let him do hard (legal, positive) work, doing with his hands what is good work, that he may have something to distribute to someone in need”. This can be compared to a scene in an elementary school where the sound of the closing bell saw the pupils flee to different directions leaving the troubled heart to bemoan the day’s result.

Truly, the troubled and sick hearts were caught as they saw the democratic era from the prism of ill-gotten wealth, while those perceiving the stench from dead bodies bade farewell to wealth without work. Once, I ran into a politician who told of an incident where he declined collecting a cheque from a lobbyist as he said while chastising the giver for pushing him into the lion mouth of the EFCC led by Nuhu Ribadu. On these strides some of us craved and prayed to be part of this revolution as the sighting of Malam Ribadu’s footage from the watch tower was glorious.

Today, events have changed as the once dreaded agency drops her toga of pragmatism for the blue wine of revelries. The men who once lived inside the palace of fear and trepidation with their political future a subject for science students on the principles of a swinging pendulum, now informs same (students) on how to regain balance.

So, when I read recently from the news dailies of a plan to drop charges by EFCC against a former South-South Governor for want of evidence, I tried checking my pulse level and that of the millions on the hinterlands of the state on their perceived trauma which is now being sacrificed on altar of contacts/connections and technicalities. Yes! Even the nation’s Attorney General and Minister for Justice celebrate same technicalities as he announces his championship status whenever the London Metropolitan Police and courts sneeze on this case.

Oh! Who will contact Malam Ribadu for a national service? This is important as he once told us the great number of past state chief executives whose sin barrels extended to the heaven tops. He meant every bit of it as he re-echoed same in a recent London lecture that a former state governor who once offered him millions of dollars to shut out his satellite technology on him today, occupies a larger space/seat in our future drive.

The trouble with Nigeria from Ekiti

THE news of Boko Harram insurgence in Northern parts of the country filtered to me while I was away in Ado Ekiti from Abuja on official assignment.

Meanwhile, I didn’t get the full gist of the carnage and I became curious. I could not wait till the next day to read from newspapers. I made for my radio transistor which is always my companion on tours in order to listen to BBC London or Voice of America from where I am sure of getting authentic information on the development.

My appetite was satisfied when by 10.pm of the night I got hooked up to BBC for news analysis on Boko Haram incidence in Nigeria. When the analysis was over, I heaved a heavy sigh and relaxed back on the edge of my bed where I sat, eyes closed, hands cross- folded behind my head. My mind started wandering: What is the trouble with this country called Nigeria? I thought of the reason proffered by the dissidents; the destructions and causalties which follow the insinuations as well as the lapses in security permeating the crisis.

All of a sudden there was power outage, I brought out my handset to check time, and it was 11.30pm. I assumed the hotel must have a generator; moments after, I heard the Manager yelling at one of the staff to switch on the generator. After several attempts it came on with a loud noise accompanied with heavy smoke enveloping almost everywhere. I decided to stroll out within the neighbourhood to escape from the noisy atmosphere for a while to have peace and reflect more on the sordid news I’ve just heard.

I barely walked few minutes away from my hotel when I noticed a beer parlor where some few cars were parked. As I approached, I had an impression that the people within were gentlemen. I was welcomed by the attendant who quickly arranged a chair for me around one of the tables where two people sat down. “Hello, good evening,” I greeted them. “Thank you, my brother, you’re welcome,” one of them replied. The attendant tapped my table and said “Oga, what do you care for?” I told him what I wanted and he brought it.

Having listened to conversation between the guys I sat with, I knew that they are learned people. I had hardly settled down to enjoy my drink when the incident of the Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalist flashed my mind again, then I heard myself unknowingly saying: “Oh My God”. The guys looked at me as if something must have gone wrong. One of them said to me: “Sorry”. I looked up at them and laughed, as if to confirm their thinking that something was actually wrong.

I thanked the guys for showing concern over my attitude and went straight to the point. But where are we going in this country? I wonder what the problem with us is, I retorted. The guys looked at each other and then looked at me; one of them said: “What do you mean?” I mean the recent Boko Haram incident in the North I replied, it is not worth it. We shouldn’t be killing ourselves and destroying properties of government and individuals for no reason at all.

I had thought I could easily be able to engage the guys in a conversation on the Boko Haram killings and perhaps other national problems since it has become my hobby to generate topic of national interest for discussion at every opportunity.

They shifted attention away from me with no reply to my lamentation on the national situation; they merely wiped foam off the beer and had a good kiss from the glass cup. There was relative silence for a while. I felt snubbed that the guys said nothing on the matter. Then, I noticed one of them tapping his legs and occasionally shaking his head.

Unsatisfied with their snobbish attitude, I made another attempt. “Is this the way we will continue in this country? For how long are we going to continue like this?’ To my surprise, one of them said: “My brother, don’t disturb our peace here. I’m sorry, why don’t you just enjoy your drink and go to bed”. Are you not fed up discussing national problems all the time while situations remain unchanged? More painful is the fact that this habit of discussing national problems is gradually making me a nuisance while the perpetrators are somewhere coasting away in enjoyment with their loots and spoils.

Look at you, is this the first religious crisis in this country or do you think it will be the last? Where were you during the “Maitatsini” crisis in Kano and other religious crises? Don’t you know there is trouble in Nigeria? Wait a minute, his other friend chipped in, don’t you know there are some fundamental problems in this country and not until we addressed them, we would continue to grope in crisis?

Olusola Saraki playing God

MORE than any other Nigerian first generation state, Kwara State has demonstrated higher capacity for political theatrics. Time there was that two incumbent governors – Alhaji Adamu Atta in 1983 and the late retired Rear Admiral Muhammed Alabi Lawal in 2003 – kissed the dust after fierce electoral battles with the septuagenarian “god father” of Kwara politics, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki. They were both epic battles that will not be forgotten in a hurry by chroniclers and watchers of political events in the Middle Belt state and Nigeria as a whole.

The feat performed by Oloye, as Dr. Saraki is better known in the Kwara political firmament, in those two elections really stood him out as a formidable grass-roots politician who actually knows his onion. That he succeeded in sending Lawal packing with his gunboat, and replacing him with his own heir, Bukola, further underscored his political sagacity in contemporary Nigeria.

Not many in the larger Nigerian society, however, succinctly knew why Lawal fell prey to the Trojan horse. The navy general’s many tactless battles with civil servants, pensioners and the emirate provided enough banana peels for his fatal fall.

There is no doubt that Dr. Olusola Saraki, the Waziri of Ilorin, has come a long way in the demonstration of political wizardry, given his antecedents after his 1964 parliamentary electoral debacle in Ilorin, for which he was perpetually taunted by the late Babatunde Alamu, an unrepentant anti-Saraki element in Ilorin. The Alamu past-time was to debunk Saraki’s well-orchestrated invincibility.

In addition to installing Bukola as Lawal’s successor, Oloye literally moved up his daughter, Gbemisola, from the House of Representatives where she served a term from 1999 to the Senate in the 2003 elections to boot. Very few Nigerian politicians, dead or living, ever recorded such feat.

It is improbable that those electoral “victories” of 2003 and 2007 were the factors that combined to buoy up Oloye Saraki to recently, with the gait of a peacock, promise to announce Bukola’s successor as governor of Kwara State in December this year after he might have returned from Umrah (the lesser hajj). It is a common knowledge that no political party in the land has yet announced a time-table for primaries for 2001.

Olusola Saraki reportedly said in Abuja that “the bond between him and the people of Kwara State could be likened to that between the Shakespearean Romeo and Juliet, such that if he presented any capable person as governorship candidate under the banner of any political party, the person will win.”

When asked to comment on the wide-spreading rumour that he was planning to present Senator Gbemisola Saraki-Fowora as Bukola’s successor in 2011, Oloye only went lyrical. He could neither deny nor confirm the rumour, saying: “I love Senator Gbemisola Saraki-Fowora very dearly too as she is the girl after my heart.”

In apparent appreciation of the place of religion in the gullible hearts of his highly impoverished army of followers (especially the womenfolk), Saraki cunningly added that he would wait till December, after communing with Allah in Saudi Arabia, before making his new year 2011 Kwara governorship declaration.

Only the fool will be incapable of reading between the lines, even from the little that the press could extract from the foxy political gadfly. No respecter of Allah will discountenance the place of equity and justice in the appropriation of a common patrimony. As fairness to others remains the major plank of both Islam and Christianity as religions, Saraki cannot be sincerely dependent on Allah to be scheming the succession of his son by his daughter in a state of about two million people of enviable political heritage and academic attainments.

Oloye is only trying to play God. And he had better watch it as no known empire, in history, has ever risen without falling. He should guard against a fatal fall. He should borrow a word from the legendry Chinua Achebe that those who had their own palm kernels cracked for them by the benevolent gods must not fail to be humble.

Political calculation
Politically, morally and constitutionally, it is nauseating for anybody to tinker with the idea of retaining the Kwara governorship in Ilorin in 2011, which would then be twelve years after the state power had squarely resided in the city and Kwara Central senatorial district. Nowhere in Nigeria is such impunity being contemplated by any political group or individual.

If the people of Kwara South and North senatorial districts supported the re-election of Governor Bukola Saraki in 2007, it was not because they lacked sense of political calculation. Rather, it was basically because of the people’s belief that he had a legitimate right to a second term given his modest record of performance. Oloye will definitely be stretching his luck too far by this growing rumour of planning a Gbemisola succession of Bukola Saraki. Some even say that both (Gbemi and Bukola) are planning to swap positions. Haba Saraki! Oloye has to bury this thought.

The Kwara South Senatorial district, comprising Irepodun, Ifelodun, Offa, Oyun, Isin, Ekiti and Oke-Ero local governments, has waited long enough after the military termination of the three-month administration of Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo on December 31, 1983, to take their turn at the Kwara governorship.

On the political arena from the area are many quality materials like Lai Mohammed, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, Ambassador Tunji Olagunju, Arc. Lola Ashiru, Yekinni Alabi, Ayo Opadokun, Gbenga Makanjuola, Fatai Ahmed and Gbenga Olawepo. Indeed, the list is inexhaustible. Oloye cannot feign ignorance of the rich human capital base of this district which produced the bulk of the state’s manpower at inception in May 1967.

It will be the height of effrontery and brigandage for the Waziri of Ilorin to rub insult into the already wounded psyche of the usually easy-going people of Kwara State whose jugular has been under his suffocating grips in the past three decades. The state surely needs a new breath after the current tenure of Bukola Saraki. Nothing less is expected by the people of Kwara.