Nigerian youths who accept challenges and are ready to conquer will wholeheartedly accept my wish for them. I am one of them, not underage, not overage. So, it is also my wish for myself. Ever since I came across this powerful wish from a Nigerian educator and author, Tai Solarin, there has been no two ways for me to success than hard work, resilience and perseverance. Whether a youth or of any age, you must believe that nothing good comes easy. There is no more divine physical manna from heaven; it is rain that falls and it heralds a season for work – time to sow for the hard times to come.
“May Your Road Be Rough” was a new year simple message by Tai Solarin on January 1, 1964 to whoever cared to listen and be self-independent. Though regarded as the most famous and controversial atheist and secular humanist in African history, Tai was an intellectual epistemologist who knew the difference between pandemic lassitude amongst “a lot of” Nigerians and the paucity of chivalry in Nigerian politics. He was quite schooled on the “special” understanding of Nigerians of things and the unusual approach of their misinterpretation, especially when the media shows special interest.
That is why he carefully started his intellectual pieces of advice with “I am not cursing you; I am wishing you what I wish myself every year. I therefore repeat, may you have a hard time this year, may there be plenty of troubles for you this year!” As if sure of being misunderstood, he quickly added: “If you are not so sure what you should say back, why not just say, ‘Same to you’? I ask for no more.”
Solarin said that “our successes are conditioned by the amount of risk we are ready to take.” How many Nigerian youths are ready to follow the rough roads to success – the road of long-term plan, not the short-cut of the devil? Definitely, there are. But they are few. So, Tai concluded his 12-paragraph scholarly counsel with a note: “If, therefore, you are out in this New Year 1964, to win any target you have set for yourself, please accept my prayers and your elixir”, still repeating his heartfelt magnetic piece with: “May your road be rough!”
I took the joy to quote this glamorous wish of all ages to juxtapose the media hoax of recent event at the CHOGM in London. President Muhammadu Buhari spoke on: “Making Business Easier Between Commonwealth Countries”, where he observed that a great number of Nigerian youths believe in entitle mentality, thereby expect free money without work hard for it. A careful perusal of the speech showed that the President, after putting Nigeria’s population at a conservative estimate of 180 million, postulated that more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s population is youths below the age of 30. He opined that a lot of the youths have not been to school. They claim that Nigeria, being an oil producing country, means wealth in abundance. Therefore, they are provoked by such belief to prefer to sit and do nothing and yet expect to get housing, healthcare and education free.
That is what has kept the media awash for the past few weeks with a lot of criticisms to the President. Some people have gone beyond their boundaries by calling names, laying abuses and giving ultimatum. But the truth remains stark. It is not the resistance of the truth that makes it anything less than it is. It is a global byword that the truth is bitter. It irritates humans. In short, how dare you call a thief a thief to his face except under security cover? Assuredly, the President did not say anything new about the Nigerian youths or the illiteracy level amongst them. It is on record that some Nigerian leaders at the state and national levels have made clearers references before. They clearly used the word “lazy” which is nowhere found in the President’s speech while in London.
At his formal declaration for presidency, Buhari had explained APC’s resolve to bring Nigeria back to the path of development by doing things differently and putting priority on protection of lives and property; pursuing economic policies for shared prosperity and immediate attention on youth employment and quality education for development, modernity and social mobility, amongst others. At the 2015 international youth day at the state house conference centre, Abuja, Buhari paid tribute to Nigerian youths for their landmark roles in making the 2015 general elections a model for democratic governance in Africa. He called them true heroes of democracy and architects of change, assuring to place high premium in tackling challenges facing them. “Young Nigerians, let me conclude by reiterating that we are very much committed to fulfilling all our campaign promises. We must all work together towards the actualization of sustainable peace and harmony to enable this administration to build an enduring legacy.” In many other fora, he had expressed the readiness of his government to uplift the youths through many initiatives.
The reactions from Nigerians over the media misrepresentation and propaganda have been divergent. A non-governmental organization, Unified Nigeria Youth Forum, (UNYF) is querying why over 80 per cent of the current cabinet members are members of the past administrations which should be blamed for the woes of the Nigerian youths. The group said that Kemi Adeosun, late Ocholi and Solomon Dalung are the only new faces in the current government. Also the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) feels that the challenges facing the youth are the creations of Nigerian leaders whose objective is to keep the country’s youth in perpetual servitude. The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF) looks at the government arrangement, appointment, government-youth relationship and concluded that Nigerian leaders do not have respect for the Nigerian youths. “The youths put their lives on the line to fight against the previous government but when it comes to sharing the goodies of government, the youths are nowhere to be found”, it notes.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wonders why the President could describe the Nigerian youths who sweat on menial jobs under very strenuous conditions on the nation’s streets. The party’s national youth leader, Sunday Udeh-Okoye, in a statement in Abuja faulted the President’s comment. But a foremost PDP stalwart and minority leader in the red chambers, Godswill Akpabio, has a different view on the publicized comment. He urged Nigerians to commend the President for his “elder statesman taught”, saying that he watched the video but never heard him for a second mention the word laziness. “I urge my party member in PDP to stop this childish act and focus fact on how to win 2019”; he warned against politicizing reality, wondering why PDP members should continue fooling themselves when truth was already known.
From my own corner and concern, it is better to accept the reality so that the appropriate measure and correct solution can be made. Living in a “fool’s paradise”, methinks, is not the way of the incumbent federal government. During the two-day 2017 Nigeria’s Annual Education Conference, entitled ‘Achieving Inclusive Education through Innovative Strategies’ organized by the National Commission for Mass Education in Birnin Kebbi which led to a courtesy call on the state governor, the Minister of Education, Mallam adamu Adamu said Nigeria had about 75 million illiterates. This was publicized but it did not attract any anxiety or comment for the wailers who claim more love for Nigeria and her youth.
Interestingly too, the former Minister of State for Education now Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, while flagging off the 2014 International Literacy Day disclosed that the number of illiterates in Nigeria was estimated at 60 million, which is about 38% of the country’s population estimated then at 170 million.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, adult illiteracy rate in Nigeria stands at 56.9%. This implies that about 70% of Nigerians are illiterates. The Country Comparison Index of Literacy Level in 2012 showed that Nigeria ranked 161 out of 184 countries with 66 per cent literacy rate. USAID study showed that an estimated 10 million Nigerian children are out of school.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has it that Nigeria has an estimated 40 to 45 million illiterate persons. UNESCO Country Representative Dr. Joseph Ngu at a Roundtable on “Cultivating Peace” in Celebration of 2012 International Literacy Day in Abuja categorically declared that Nigeria is one of the countries among the E9 countries where education is a problem and the only one in sub-Sahara Africa, because of its population.
Ochiaka Ugwu writing on Nigeria’s high illiteracy rate: What went wrong? in the Peoples Daily of October 5, 2015 quoted a statistics which showed that 60% of Nigerians have no qualifications at all and that 60% will still be jobless after five years from then. “Officially, 54% of Nigerians are unemployed and actual unemployment is projected to be much higher than that”, he noted.
If the United Nations’ universal definition of ‘youth’, as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years or that of the African Youth Charter as every person between the ages of 15 and 35 years is to be accepted for this purpose, then all estimates cannot be authenticated. Is it arguable that 99 percent of kidnappers in Nigeria are youths? Is it arguable that 99 percent of Niger Delta militants are youths? Is it arguable that 99 percent of Boko Haram insurgents are youths? Is it arguable that 99 percent of Yahoo fraudsters are youths? Is it arguable that 99 percent of Fulani herdsmen are youths? Is it arguable that 99 percent of IPBO members are youths? Is it arguable that 99 percent of drug and alcoholic addicts are youths? And is it arguable that 99 percent of almajiris are youths? If all these are unarguable, then there is another meaning for illiteracy in Nigeria.
Muhammad Ajah is an advocate of humanity, peace and good governance in Abuja. E-mail mobahawwah@yahoo.co.uk. [myad]
The Yoruba have a cherished prayer that they offer in disapproval of a traumatizing battle that faces their beloved ones or associates: “Ki Olorun ki o gba wa lowo ogun ale ni ma dehin”, transliterated as: “May the Almighty God deliver us from the battle by relentless pursuers.” It is a significant prayer that goes to the roots of existential threats.
And, this is certainly an apt summation of the sticky situation in which the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), has found himself. He is sauntering in the treacherous terrain of the nation’s cloak-and-dagger politics with some forces and their back-end sponsors in hot pursuit.
There has been a series of attempts from the outset of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to short-circuit Malami in the formation of the government, despite his immense commitment and unwavering loyalty to the president. Their political relationship dates as far back as to the years that presaged the formation of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) on which platform Buhari contested the 2011 presidential election. Malami was the National Legal Adviser of the CPC.
That was not the event that proved his steadfast loyalty to Buhari. The test of his commitment and loyalty crystallized in the presidential election petition that was instituted after the 2011 election in which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Dr. Goodlcuk Ebele Jonathan as the winner.
Very senior lawyers were reluctant to take on Buhari’s brief. Scores of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) represented Jonathan and the INEC while only three SANs represented Buhari, to wit: Malami, Oladipo Okpeseyi and the late James Ocholi. Okpeseyi was the leader of the legal team. Ocholi’s participation later became on and off because he had to focus on his governorship project in Kogi state.
What motivated the Buhari legal team was not pecuniary as Buhari did not even have the money to pay the standard fee. The team believed that Buhari had a case that could be proved in court: not that he won the 2011 election, but that Jonathan did not win the majority of the validly cast votes. The purpose of the petition was to convince the court to declare a run-off in which case anything could have happened. The Supreme Court, however, upheld the outcome of the election.
But in 2015, with the emergence of Buhari as president via his candidature of a coalition of parties that birthed the legacy All Progressives Congress (APC), some of the lawyers that shunned Buhari’s petition because he was acting from a disadvantaged position had gravitated into the APC and were close to some gladiators that positioned them for appointments.
That was to be the beginning of Malami’s predicament when he was named the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation. Had Malami not been named into the position, he would not have been assailed by the campaigns of calumny that are crudely choreographed by a proxy whose benefactor had planned to nominate into the cabinet solely for the position of the Minister of Justice and AGF for some selfish ends.
But unfortunately for the proxy, he could not even scale the nomination hurdle. And, interestingly, Malami was not the only lawyer nominated for ministerial appointment. There were others like Babatunde Fasola (SAN), the late James Ocholi (SAN), Udoma Udo Udoma, Adebayo Shittu, Lai Mohammed, Solomon Dalung, Aisha Alhassan, Ibe Kachikwu and Geoffrey Onyeama. In that circumstance, any of them could have been appointed as Minister of Justice and AGF.
However, Buhari decided to assign the portfolio to Malami. Having put his nose to the grindstone in a rare commitment to a Muhammadu Buhari presidency even when the possibility was remote, it was only expected that he should reap where he had sown. And, what wrong had Buhari committed by appointing a man whose capacity in the legal profession he practically knew while doing the 2011 presidential election petition in court?
Those whose fixation it was to clinch the portfolio of the Minister of Justice and AGF would turn Malami into a butt of unconscionable propaganda and relentless smear campaigns. I believe if Malami is out of that office today, which is their wish, they would forget about him and take on anyone other than their own that is appointed in his stead. But unfortunately for them, the president has not shown any indication or inclination towards changing his cabinet not to talk of removing Malami.
The central focus of their campaigns of calumny by which they have deliberately accentuated the pains of Malami is essentially to cause a collateral damage to his leadership of the Justice ministry and AGF’s office. They do not care, if in the process, reputations of Malami and others are unjustifiably injured. They have steadfastly pursued Malami from different flanks and directions as if their lives depend on his downfall.
One of the flanks used was the repatriation of the Abacha loot from Switzerland. They had tried to insinuate that the Abacha loot was being re-looted because Malami determined the contract of the Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, in 2016 and appointed a team of Nigerian lawyers to complete the repatriation process. What they would not accept was that by doing so, Malami had put an end to Monfrini’s opaque professional charges since 1999 when he was contracted by the Federal Government.
Interestingly, Monfrini had requested to be paid at least another 20 percent to complete the repatriation of the remaining $322.5 million, which Malami rejected. The Nigerian lawyers, who were contracted in his stead, accepted five percent professional fee on the value of the money to complete the process.
The Federal Government, through the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, had announced the receipt of the money to the last cent which is with the Central Bank of Nigeria. She said the amount was more than the $321 million that was widely reported in the media (having attracted about $1.5 million interest). She also clarified that there were no problems with the repatriation and the request by the Nigerian lawyers that completed the repatriation process to be paid $16.9 million. That clean bill of health is significant and underscores the transparency and integrity of the Buhari government.
Unrelenting, the same forces pursuing Malami had since resorted to using the House of Representatives to try to throw spanner in the works. Consequent upon a motion recently, the House set up an ad-hoc committee to probe the payment of $16.9 million to the Nigerian lawyers. This is another hurdle that Malami is poised to dismantle with good arguments and documentary evidence. It is just possible that, in the long run, the probe may expose a cartel that has all these years been fleecing and actually re-looting the Abacha loot.
The question is: will it be possible for Malami, as a cockroach, to get justice in the gathering of fowls? For a House that has already presented itself as rabidly anti-Malami, for a House that only recently indicted Malami, even though misguidedly, in the controversial reinstatement of fugitive Abdulrasheed Maina, such prospects look bleak. But then, there is a legal maxim: res ipsa loquitor, meaning the fact speaks for itself. As long as Malami presents irrebuttable facts of the repatriation of the Abacha loot before the committee for public consideration, the House will expectedly be careful not to play with the intelligence of Nigerians.
Ojeifo, editor-in-chief of The Congresswatch magazine, wrote from Abuja via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com. [myad]
Repeated acts of mass killings and destruction in parts of the country and Benue State in particular has been described by President Muhammadu Buhari as pointers to the evil design of enemies of peace and unity who have desperately been trying to bring the country to this sorry point.
The President therefore, appealed to Nigerians not to playing into the hands of the agents of disunity who enjoy seeing brothers killing brothers, neighbors killing neighbors and communities attacking and killing members of other communities.
President Buhari, in a statement by his special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina today, Thursday, said that those behind the Church attack that left 18 people dead, including two Priests, did not mean well for Nigeria and peaceful coexistence.
“The revenge attacks that followed in which 11 members of the Hausa communities were killed are part of the agenda of the bandits and their sponsors to turn Nigerians against one another. We must resist all temptation to fall into this laid out plan.”
The President said that he is greatly pained by this persistent violence and the total disregard for the sanctity of life by those he called “these hideously evil people who have no iota of respect for humanity, decency and civilization.”
The President reiterated that the government will not rest on its oars in its determination to fish out these barbarous mass murderers and their clandestine sponsors.
He assured Nigerians that measures being put in place by the government will, sooner than later, bring to an end, these extremely brutal and wanton killings. [myad]
Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has described the invitation which House of Representatives extended to the President to appear before it as ‘democracy in action.’
Femi Adesina who spoke today, Wednesday, in an interview with Channels Television’s Politics Today said: “it is democracy in action. The House has the right to ask anybody to appear and the President is holding the position as a trust for Nigerians. It is the mandate of Nigerians that he is holding.
He said however that the House had not communicated the summon on Buhari to him yet.
“It is a development that just happened and almost throughout the day we have been in the Federal Executive Council meeting. That meeting did not rise until after 5pm.
“So, it was after 5pm when I got back to my office that I saw that news scrolling on the television. That means that the President himself hadn’t heard of it at that time. So, when the lawmakers, the Houses of Representatives communicate their decision to the President, it would be handled appropriately.
“But when they communicate that decision to him, he will respond accordingly. I can’t be talking of what he will do until that decision is communicated to him.”
Members of the House of Representatives decided to summon President Buhari in reaction to the continued killings in Benue and other parts of the country. [myad]
Senator Oluremi Tinubu, from Lagos State, has made it clear to her colleagues that she would not support a situation where the travails which Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi State West Senatorial Area, is going through in the hands of the law enforcement agencies on President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
The lawmaker, who is the wife of Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), spoke today, Wednesday during the deliberation by the Senate on the matter.
”If we are talking about a particular issue, we should stay with it but when we are bringing in a government that a lot of people supported to be here, using whatever happened to implicate the government, I think I am against that.
“We should face the issues. I am not in support of what happened to Dino. If we have anything against the executive, we have the leadership here who is supposed to go and meet with Mr. President.
“This government is only three years old compared to 16 years of rot. It has only been in power for 3 years and inherited a lot of trouble.” [myad]
Former Nigeria’ s Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has made it clear that he is not desperate to become Nigeria’s President in 2019.
“If I am desperate, I wouldn’t have stepped down for M.K.O. Abiola in the 1993 presidential race.”
Atiku who was speaking in an interview with BBC Hausa morning programme, said that if Nigerians could follow his political antecedent, they would not see him as a desperate politician.
“In 1993, I contested with M.K.O Abiola. I later withdrew from the race. In 1999, I was elected a governor of Adamawa state, then invited to be Nigeria’s vice president, under Olusegun Obasanjo.”
He recalled that in 2007, he contested against former President, Olusegun Obasanjo “to show the world that I have the right to contest and I did that to satisfy my conscience.
“All the times I have been contesting for the Presidency, I have been opportune only once to be presented to Nigerians as a candidate.”
He said that after that he had always ended up only at the primary election.
“I could have become Nigeria’s President in 2003 when virtually all the state governors then rallied support for me to contest which I declined. I am not desperate to be President as some Nigerians view it.
“As a former Vice President, I am opportune to know things. If I am opportune to be elected as a President, I will accomplish my mission by reviving the economy, by making Nigeria an investors’ haven.
“The present administration discouraged investors into the country, because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exchange rate policies are too tedious for investors. CBN has three different exchange rate policies, which is not supposed to be.
“If I’m elected Nigeria’s President, I will expand the nation’s source of wealth to cater for the growing youth population in the country.
“Nigeria can justify my claims, going by the number of youths that are working in my industries across the country.” [myad]
The Senator representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe has declared his intention to contest the governorship of Rivers State in 2019 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Senator Abe, who made the declaration today, Wednesday while addressing a mammoth crowd at the inauguration of Freedom House, his liaison office in Port Harcourt, said that his decision to run for the governorship position is for the interest of the future of the state.
“I am glad to say that I have reached a decision which I am going to share with you on a burning issue if Senator Magnus Abe is going to vie for the governorship of this state under the APC or not. I have taken every advice and every opinion”.
“I have taken all these views into consideration. I have also consulted my family and most importantly, I have consulted my God. There are several persons who have advised me against seeking for the office of the governor just as there are several who have advised me to go for it. Looking back now, everybody who had spoken to me did so with the best of intentions”.
“Having taken all these into consideration, I, Magnus Ngei Dunebari Abe, I have decided to seek the nomination of the All Progressives Congress, Rivers State, in the interest of our state and in the interest of the future of our people.”
He commended his supporters for conducting themselves with decorum, saying their actions were not sign of weakness but strength.
“We have conducted ourselves with decorum; we have shown and will continue to show great respect for our leaders. This is not our weakness, it is our strength. We must not allow conflict entrepreneurs and frustrated politicians whose only hope for relevance and economic sustenance is the continuous balkanisation of our party”.
“Some of them are here and some of them are there. But, all of us need to ensure that the congresses are free, fair and transparent. Any attempt to hold another hotel-style congress in Rivers State will break faith with the people of the state that we are a party committed to doing the right thing”.
“Without the confidence of the voting public, a political party becomes a mere social club. It will be good for dancing and partying but it will not win any elections.”
In his, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Prince Chibudom Nwuche, called on the APC to learn from the past mistakes of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the country approaches the 2019 general elections.
“Let APC learn from the mistakes of the People’s Democratic Party. PDP was imposing candidates and that was why some of us left. Today, it is happening in the APC but thank God, Senator Magnus Abe came up. Let us have a transparent congress and let the popular candidate emerge.”
Describing Abe as one of the best sons of Rivers State, the former deputy speaker, who is also a chieftain of the APC, said Rivers State needs a leader like the senator to treat all indigenes and residents of the state equally.
“Magnus Abe is one of the best sons of Rivers State. He has embarked on a journey to free Rivers State. Magnus Abe believes on the development of Rivers State and the empowerment of the people.
“Rivers State needs a leader like Magnus Abe, who will treat all sons and daughters equally. Rivers State needs a leader who will not victimize Rivers people and see sons and daughters of the state who have gotten national recognition as threats.”
Speaking at the occasion, the lawmaker representing Ikwerre/Emohua Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Elder Chidi Wihioka, said the people of Ikwerre ethnic nationality and Rivers East senatorial district in general will support the emergence of an Ogoni as the next governor of the state.
“Nobody can cause problem between the Ikwerre people and the Ogoni people. The cooperation between the two ethnic nationalities had been there before we were born and it will not end at our own time.
“Ikwerre people and the Rivers East senatorial district will support the Ogoni governorship ambition because the people of Ogoni supported Ikwerre people. The four local government areas in Ikwerre are in support and our senatorial district in also in support.” [myad]
The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has claimed that with the killings going on everywhere in Nigeria, especially the recent one in Benue State, it is evidence that Nigeria has no government in place now.
“The APC administration should accept one huge fact that under their watch, the country has collapsed irreparably and there is no evidence of the existence of government in the land.”
The national chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, in a statement today, Wednesday, decried the brutal murder of two Catholic priests and 17 other worshipers of St Ignatius Quashi Catholic Church parish in Ukpor-Mbalom in Gwer local Government area of the state.
“From whichever angle you are witnessing what is happening in this country, one thing is agreeable that this country is sliding dangerously”
“Nigerians and the global community have continued to watch as all the tenets of democracy are being eroded and giving way to dictatorial tendencies.
“In the last one week we have watched as disturbing indices continue to crop up ahead of the forthcoming general election with APC administration either unconcerned or involved in a tactical endorsement of such act.
The PDP National Chairman alerted the nation and the international community that the choreographed tension in the land is being designed by the APC administration to charge up the polity to enable them carry out its agenda of abusing democratic process and the rule of law ahead of 2019.
Prince Secondus admonished the security operatives as professionals to bear in mind always the words of the former US President Theodore Roosevelt that ” patriotism means to stand with the country. It does not mean to stand with the President”
“I find it unexplainable that some group of gunmen should hold a state to ransom since January killing and maiming citizens and destroying their houses and the security operatives appear helpless.
“Where are the military operatives that carried out Python and Crocodile dances in South East and South South Region respectively lately brandishing their might to less dangerous citizens and who have been unable to tackle the Benue killings.
“How can anybody expect Benue state for instant to contribute its own share of the $1b security votes when the nation security architecture is not designed to protect their people?
“If we are to give in to the President’s assertions lately that these killer herdsmen are foreigners trained by late Libyan leader, Muamour Gadhafi, where then lies our pride as a nation that a dead Gadhafi could leave behind such deadly force that a living President and its army have no answer to.” [myad]
Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar delivering speech at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London
Former Nigeria’s Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has taken his age-long crusade for the restructuring of Nigeria to Royal Institute of International Affairs otherwise known as Chatham House in the United Kingdom.
He said, when he delivered a 10-page address today, titled: ‘The Importance Of Strengthening State Economic Management Systems,’ Wednesday, that even at the risk of repeating himself, restructuring Nigeria is no longer an option but a necessity, adding that this was why he told Nigeria’s elite that ‘restructuring will not cheat them but will free them.
According to Atiku, restructuring will foster the spirit of co-operation and consensus in a nation of diverse ethnic groups, cultures and religions, adding that it is desirable and is required to establish, nurture and sustain a strong and effective democratic government.
“We must also remind ourselves that restructuring is not a new or strange phenomenon. A number of developing economies have had cause to restructure their economies, for greater efficiency or to correct imbalances or to reorient them towards, for example, more open and market-oriented systems with greater reliance on the private sector as engine of growth. Even the United Kingdom is restructuring its political and economic systems to enable a better union among its component parts. Businesses restructure for better performance. Even families do!
“Faced with the reality of non-performance, Nigerians have clamored for the restructuring of the economy towards a more diversified structure. Similarly, in line with current global realities, citizens have come to appreciate that the old economic model, built on public sector supremacy is no longer a viable, sustainable option. They have therefore called for a re-orientation of the economy to leverage resources from the private sector and stimulate growth and development.
“To make this, that is, economic restructuring happen would require appropriate political intervention. In particular, it would require that we establish and sustain a model of governance which would nurture a spirit of participation and consensus on key national issues and accommodate all the diverse segments of the society.
“In other words, if we accept the wisdom behind calls for a restructuring of the economy, we must be ready to build a foundation for its success: we must, in other words re-structure the polity.
“Nigeria has operated for too long a faulty system of federalism especially under military governments. True federalism ensures that a strong federal government guarantees national unity while allowing various parts of the country or the federating units to set their own priorities.”
Full text of the address is reproduced here:
I thank the Royal Institute of International Affairs for giving me this platform to speak to such a distinguished audience. I specifically want to thank Dr. Alex Vines for inviting me to give this address.
I particularly want to thank Nigerian nationals who are present here today. Your love for Nigeria is evident in that you have left your regular pursuits to be here to interact with lovers of Nigeria on issues that, if implemented, will lead to the progress of Nigeria. Your presence inspires me.
To friends of Nigeria here present, I appreciate your friendship and it is my strong desire that our collective wish to see Nigeria fulfill her potentials are realized in the not so distant future.
I am a widely traveled man, and everywhere I visit around the world, there is agreement that Nigeria has the potential to make that leap from third world to first that Singapore, under Lee Kuan Yew, made. We have the human and material resources required to make the leap and in fact, many of our nationals have helped other nations make that transition.
And it is not that we have not made progress, after all, within a decade we were able to move from being the third largest economy in Africa to being the largest bar none.
Yet, there is still that consensus that we are not meeting up with our potential and all things considered, that verdict is true.
The question becomes why is Nigeria not living up to the promise of her potentials?
More specifically, why are we saddled with a heavy and almost unsustainable debt burden twelve years after President Olusegun Obasanjo and I provided the leadership that paid off Nigeria’s entire foreign debt of $32 billion in one fell swoop?
After paying off a monumental debt accumulated by previous governments, then President Olusegun Obasanjo on April 22, 2006 said “Nigeria will not owe anybody one kobo”. Today, almost exactly 12 years to the day, you can almost say ‘Nigeria is now owing everybody more than one kobo’.
What happened in the intervening years to turn the dream that our administration had, into this present reality where Nigeria now owes double what we paid off in 2006?
In talking about the Importance of Strengthening State Economic Management Systems, we must identify the structural defects in Nigeria’s federal structure that prevents all levels of the Nigerian government, federal, states and local governments, from operating at optimal levels.
After nineteen years of uninterrupted democracy in the fourth republic, it is now an indisputable fact that today’s Nigerian states essentially have been reduced to parastatals of the Federal Government and are addicted to the monthly allocation they receive from Abuja.
There is nothing as addictive as states that are dependent on their monthly share of revenue from crude oil sales and the only way to get them to manage their economies in an economically viable way is to cure them off that addiction. Nigeria needs to be restructured. We must commit to a new development agenda with focus on wealth creation by the federating units, rather than wealth distribution from Abuja to state and local government capitals. We must undertake far reaching economic reforms to attract private resources, including financial resources and build bigger, stronger and more dynamic sub-national economies. We must expand the frontier of private sector activity beyond the realm of the oil sector and build a new Nigeria without oil.
If oil could save a nation then surely it would have saved Venezuela, the nation with the largest proven reserves of oil in the world. But you and I know what is up with Venezuela and if oil has not saved her, it will not save Nigeria.
If we want to help states strengthen their economies, we must come up with creative ways to encourage them to look inwards rather than outwards.
Before we outline the steps we will take to support the states, we remind ourselves how we got to where we are.
We have promoted, tolerated and indeed celebrated a defective political structure. The federalism we practice is not smart. We politicized the creation of states and local governments over the years. States and local governments became too weak to meet their constitutional responsibilities and consequently the Federal Government emasculated them and took away those responsibilities which belong to them. Many of the states are small, subsistence economies with very limited capacity to sustain growth and lift their citizens out of poverty. It is therefore very attractive for these states and local governments to become addicted to revenues from federation accounts and to care less about their internal revenue opportunities. As a result, combined Internally Generated Revenue from all the 36 states came up to less than 1% of Nigeria’s nominal GDP and less than 12% of their 2016 budgets! Internally generated revenue is far less than what the states require to run their administrations – and many state and local governments survive by consuming more resources than they can generate internally – thanks to the generous ‘handouts’ from the federation accounts.
We allowed crude oil to ‘crowd out’ the non-oil sectors which were Nigeria’s lifeline in the 1960s and 1970s and celebrated the windfall from oil exports – which resulted in a steep rise in the volume of funds allocated to all tiers of government in the federation. We preferred to survive on rent than on hard, productive efforts. We were too drunk to remember to build a revenue buffer – for the proverbial ‘rainy day’. There has been no effective revenue stabilization programme and effective strategic planning to cushion the effect of falls in the price of crude oil.
We lived on another structural fault line for too long and pretended all was well. The Nigerian economy remains fragile and vulnerable to the vagaries of the global oil market, making the fiscal position of the national and sub-national economies become precarious. However, this faulty economic structure has always been shielded by increased revenues from crude oil sales. Its deficiency is only exposed when global oil prices collapse with impact on investments, consumption and growth.
Now the big question: what can we do to help the federating units strengthen their economies?
There is no alternative to a policy which promotes the growth and diversification of the sub national economies. How much revenue they generate locally from taxes and fees depends on the size and structure of their economies. The bigger and more diversified the better. The federal government will create a business-friendly macro-economic environment, through the pursuit of appropriate monetary and exchange rate policies, to leverage private sector investments especially in agriculture to promote economic diversification. Indeed, achieving diversification is central to our economic development strategy. Let us begin to visualize Nigeria without oil or one not predominantly dependent on hydro-carbon.
Our economic policies will be coherent, consistent and therefore more predictable by the business community. Nothing could be more threatening to investment flows than an environment that is full of policy flip-flops.
We will ensure spatially balanced investments, through a carefully designed incentive regime, in order to provide more opportunities in the poorer and less endowed federating units.
The sub-national economies will be assisted in reforming their economic management institutions, including the revenue generating agencies which are seen by many as failed and ineffectually managed institutions within the state service. They need to be reformed and strengthened to make them more innovative and efficient in service delivery. The reformed agencies will be expected to improve tax-payer compliance, develop potentials of non-tax revenue sources and block all leakages associated with tax administration.
Beyond institutional and administrative reforms to improve operational efficiency of the revenue agencies the federating units will be challenged to double their efforts in rebuilding the fiscal-social contract, by enhancing service delivery in key areas such as health, education, water supply and infrastructural development. Only this would change the predominant perception that government revenues are diverted to the private bank accounts of politicians and their cronies.
And it is for the purpose of making states lose their addiction to federal allocation, to make them look inwards, and return to the healthy competition of 1957-1966, when Nigeria practiced her unique brand of true federalism known as regionalism, that I suggest the introduction of matching grants to states, that have succeeded in increasing their internally generated revenue.
My idea is for the introduction of Matching Grants to be taken from the revenue accruable to the Federal Government for the purpose of matching the Internally Generated Revenue of each state in order to encourage states to become self-reliant. If I have my way, the Federal Government will match state’s IGR up to $250 million per state.
Even with this policy, the Federal Government will continue to offer support (in the form of intervention programmes) for states that rank below the average development index, until such a time as they are able to become self-sufficient and sustaining.
In furtherance of strengthening their economic management systems, another policy I would recommend to Nigerian state is to follow the example President Obasanjo and I laid between 1999 and 2007 when we privatized and liberalized many aspects of the Nigeria economy. It had the almost immediate effects of reducing our wage bill and increasing services, capacity and jobs in the private sector.
By privatizing those state government owned public enterprises that gulp huge sums by way of recurrent expenditure yet give little returns by way of return on investment, state governments can free more of their revenue from recurrent and devote it to capital expenditure.
We will promote and insist on fiscal efficiency at the federal level to lead other tiers of government by example. The states will be challenged to adopt sound fiscal management strategy so as to reduce wasteful spending. Many view government spending as wasteful, imprudent and lacking in priorities. Typically, recurrent costs constitute between 60% and 72% of state and local governments.
As I said in a recent interview, if I had the opportunity, I would disrupt Nigeria’s budgeting process. We would have a budget heavy on capital expenditure. Roads will be built in every state. Mass housing schemes would pop up in every local government area. Railways will be extended to every state capital. Rivers would be dredged to open up the hinterlands of the North. Licenses would be given to state governments to begin immediate exploitation of resources in their jurisdictions.
While this is happening on a macro level in the Federal Government, I would create the enabling environment for this to be done on a micro level in the states.
When citizens are working, especially in construction and the service sector, the economy benefits because they pay more taxes, they utilize their increased purchasing power in buying goods and services, which improves Value Added Tax revenue and helps the private sector. The multiplier effects are almost limitless.
I am not talking about what can happen. I am talking about what is currently happening in Rwanda. According to the International Monetary Fund, Rwanda’s economy is expected to grow by 7.2 per cent in 2018. This is an economy that already grew by 6.1% in 2017. Their growth is being driven by the services sector, construction and tourism.
In my private capacity, I am already doing this. There has not been a year in the last twenty years that I have not set up a new enterprise to employ Nigerians. The latest being that we brought the Chicken Cottage franchise to Nigeria which will be creating direct and indirect jobs all across the country.
If states are to strengthen their economic management system the Debt Management Office, which our administration set up in the year 2000 to centrally coordinate the management of Nigeria’s debt must be given more independence than it already has. The head of the DMO must be a person with proven ability to say no to powerful persons otherwise the states will keep on borrowing at an unsustainable rate as we see in today’s Nigeria.
In her just released book, “Fighting Corruption is Dangerous –The Story Behind the Headlines”, Dr. Mrs. NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, former Managing Director of the World Bank and two time Nigerian minister of finance and coordinator of the economy who served during my time in office, revealed that she almost got beaten up by a particular Governor at a meeting of the National Economic Council, because she would not approve his request to take out more foreign loans for his already over indebted states.
There are already statutory parameters in place before the Debt Management Office could approve foreign loans to states, but I would want such parameters strengthened such that Nigerian Governors who are close to the President would not use that relationship to get the ministry of finance and DMO to approve wasteful, unnecessary loans that in many cases are squandered on white elephant projects.
There are states in Nigeria who are unable to pay workers’ salaries, yet have taken out huge foreign loans to build stadia and secretariats. Projects that would not improve their financial position.
We have seen in recent years that both Fitch and Standard and Poor’s have downgraded Nigeria just as the Egmont Group has suspended us. As one who worked very hard along with President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007 to bring Nigeria back from the brink and pay off our entire foreign debt, these negative indices bother me.
It is also imperative that our foreign reserves and revenue buffers are boosted to insulate the economy against adverse shocks and to strengthen countercyclical fiscal capacity.
We will streamline the operations of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Excess Crude Account and the Stabilization Account which is currently embedded in the Revenue Allocation Formula for more effective stabilization outcomes.
Unless these stabilization vehicles are reshaped Nigeria will continue to be subject to the vagaries of the world oil market.
Let me end by providing more detail on restructuring – even at the risk of me repeating myself. Restructuring Nigeria is no longer an option. It is a necessity. This is why I said in February to Nigeria’s elite that ‘restructuring will not cheat you. It will free you.’
Restructuring will foster the spirit of co-operation and consensus in a nation of diverse ethnic groups, cultures and religions. It is desirable, in fact you may even say it is required to establish, nurture and sustain a strong and effective democratic government.
We must also remind ourselves that restructuring is not a new or strange phenomenon. A number of developing economies have had cause to restructure their economies, for greater efficiency or to correct imbalances or to reorient them towards, for example, more open and market-oriented systems with greater reliance on the private sector as engine of growth. Even the United Kingdom is restructuring its political and economic systems to enable a better union among its component parts. Businesses restructure for better performance. Even families do!
Faced with the reality of non-performance, Nigerians have clamored for the restructuring of the economy towards a more diversified structure. Similarly, in line with current global realities, citizens have come to appreciate that the old economic model, built on public sector supremacy is no longer a viable, sustainable option. They have therefore called for a re-orientation of the economy to leverage resources from the private sector and stimulate growth and development.
To make this, that is, economic restructuring happen would require appropriate political intervention. In particular, it would require that we establish and sustain a model of governance which would nurture a spirit of participation and consensus on key national issues and accommodate all the diverse segments of the society.
In other words, if we accept the wisdom behind calls for a restructuring of the economy, we must be ready to build a foundation for its success: we must, in other words re-structure the polity.
Nigeria has operated for too long a faulty system of federalism especially under military governments. True federalism ensures that a strong federal government guarantees national unity while allowing various parts of the country or the federating units to set their own priorities.
As a consequence, the Federal Government appropriates, along with these responsibilities, huge resources. For example, in the allocation of revenue from the Federation Account the Federal Government is unduly favoured at the expense of the States and Local Governments. Out of every Naira in the Federation Account, 56k will go to the Federal Government and four other ‘special accounts’ which it manages! This is neither efficient nor equitable.
Let me use this opportunity to once again emphasize why everyone of us must be involved in the discourse on re-structuring. When I carry the gospel of restructuring Nigeria around, I don’t carry it for mere political convenience, I am in this crusade for the purpose of making Nigeria work. Africa and indeed the world needs a Nigeria that is working.
While maintaining all the other niceties inherent in promoting the restructuring discourse in Nigeria, today, I want to add that beyond the healthy competition among the federating units which a restructured Nigeria would engender, is the unique opportunity for the retooling of the leadership recruitment process in the country. Governance would be elevated to a serious business manned by equally serious-minded people. The attraction to power would no longer be a chance to stumble upon privileges not worked for. But a carefully calibrated move to demonstrate ingenuity and quality in creating wealth for the country.
The restructured Nigeria that I talk about, is a Nigeria that not only provides opportunities for everyone to work but even more specifically challenges the leadership to demonstrate capacity to create wealth for every layer of governance.
It is time for serious minded people to get involved and take the lead in making our country work. It is time for citizens to demand as a matter of right, from people aspiring to lead them, a plan on not just how to manage their wealth but most fundamentally how the wealth is going to be created. Slogans cannot take the place of plans and propaganda is a poor substitute for proper agenda.
For long, our leadership has been pampered. We work into managing a wealth we have little input into how it is created. And because we are not involved in the creation, we rarely appreciate it. Hence, we turn out as either bad managers or killers of the greater Nigerian dream.
For instance, I insist, anybody who cannot tell Nigerians at the State level how, he/she is going to generate the required resources to run the State he/she is aspiring to govern is not worthy of the electorates’ votes. Nigeria needs a leadership that can create wealth for the country and make it work. Every part of Nigeria has enough wealth to sustain it. What is lacking is the leadership with the required capacity and vision to tap and manage the wealth on behalf of all.
To me, any skeptic of restructuring Nigeria, is submitting to the leadership indolence which has denied the country its cherished position of leading Africa to greatness.
Restructuring is not just about the devolution of powers to the states, it is about transforming the role of the federal government. In matters of territorial governance, the federal authorities must learn to cooperate with, and in some instances defer to state authorities; in matters of economic governance, the federal authorities must learn to cooperate with, rather than displace or ignore, the private sector.
If we want Nigeria to succeed, we must break with the misguided notion that the Federal Government, or the President, knows best, and that no one else can be trusted. When I talk about restructuring, I am not talking about just constitutional tweaks, I am talking about a cultural revolution. It is not about re-shuffling a few responsibilities or resources, but about disrupting the authoritarian politics our democracy has inherited from its military and colonial rulers.
And there is nothing abstract about it: just think about the open skies agreement [Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM)], which African governments agreed on in January, and which the Nigerian government underwrote without consulting our airline industry. You do not have to convince me that we must integrate African markets, that we need arrangements like the open skies agreement. I am a believer. But you will never convince me that a government can build an open market economy or transform trade relations if it refuses to cooperate with the private sector.
We, as a nation, must rekindle the spirit of enterprise we experienced two decades ago, when we prepared our return to democracy. We must rediscover the pragmatism that guided us through the difficult transition we were facing at the time. And we, as leaders, must recognise that this time, we cannot do it alone: we must encourage cooperation, we must embrace openness, and we must rebuild trust – with our people, but also with our international partners.
These are some of the ways I believe Nigeria’s states can improve their capacity, increase their revenues and better manage their local economies which are critical to the safety, prosperity, and welfare of all Nigerians and will allow my homeland to realize its true potential.
Let me end with these words: Some Nigerians states are poor not because they are not receiving a fair share of oil money but because they are not receiving a fair shot at true federalism. Only restructuring can correct that.
The House of Representatives has resolved to suspend plenary for 3 consecutive days to protest the killing of Nigerians, especially in Benue State.
The House, at its sitting today, Wednesday, also resolved to pass a vote of no confidence on all the Service Chiefs and all security advisers to the President even as it asked the president to declare all killer herdsmen as terrorists.
The resolutions, which also included the invitation of President Muhammadu Buhari to appear before it to explain why the country is no longer safe, were supported by the majority of members.
Suspected herders killed two priests and 14 parishioners in an attack on a Catholic church in Benue state on Monday.
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