Having taken my time to study the agitations of the three dominant ethnic groups in Kogi state over who replaces Late Audu of APC in the ONGOING GUBERNATORIAL election in the state, I cannot but make my opinion clear and public, without sentiment, fear or favour. Those who know me well know that I have never blamed the Igalas for their continuous ruling since the creation of the state in 1991, even though I expected them to have considered power shift to other senatorial districts in the state. I often considered it as democracy at work while I blamed the Ebira and Okun elites for this unhealthy dominance.
It is generally agreed that the electoral issue in Kogi state at the moment is a novel one. However it is an issue that can be addressed thanks to Section 33 of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended. This section gives a path through which to manoeuvre without any breach to the laws of this land. I am not a lawyer but I believe one doesn’t have to be a lawyer to understand the provisions of the laws. The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice has set the pace and INEC has follow suit. I expect APC leaders to act accordingly and without prejudice.
Having analyzed these people, Igalas, Okuns & Ebiras’ arguments and with reference to the relevant laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and in the light of rule of law, I observe the following:
The Igalas want Audu’s son to replace his late father. Does Kogi state operates a monarchy system of government? Without apology, the Igalas are making mockery of the good legacy of late Audu by parading his son and pushing him to go and claim what, in the eye of law, is not his. No constitutional backing do they have whatsoever. They are equally saying that APC zoned governorship ticket to them. Have they forgotten so quick that the APC primary election included candidates from other senatorial districts, West and Central? Is any zoning arrangement in force in Kogi state at the moment? Of course NOT! I advise the Igalas to accept that their agitation is baseless and unconstitutional. It is nothing, with due respect, but greediness and sentiment.
The Okuns want Mr Faleke to replace Late Audu to conclude the election. They are accusing INEC of declaring the election inconclusive. Are they saying INEC should ignore the relevant provision of its own Electoral Guidelines and acted otherwise? For those who are saying Faleke is now entitled to the votes cast for APC may I refer them to section 221 of the Nigerian Constitution that clearly indicates that the right to vote is the right of a political party, in this case, APC. The combination of Section 221 of the Nigerian Constitution and Section 33 of the Electoral Act leave no room for any conjecture. One lawyer said that Faleke has spent money in the ongoing election hence deserves the victory. Was he telling Nigerians that people’s votes were bought? What about those candidates that contested the primary election? They purchased nomination forms with no small amount of money and when they lost did they ask for refund? If we don’t respect the law, where is the change we are clamouring for? Constitutionally, since Late Audu had NOT been DULY ELECTED as governor, Faleke, as his running mate, NOT deputy at the moment, can neither replace Late Audu nor be sworn-in as governor. The advocacies of this move, who are “highly learned”, with due respect but no apology, allow sentiment to overshadow their respect for the laws of this land and in this particular matter. A barrister even preferred a ludicrous option to INEC to go ahead to conduct the supplementary election and conclude it without filling the vacancy Audu left and thereafter declare Falake the winner and be sworn-in as governor! He added that the relevant sections of the Electoral Act and INEC Guideline should be ignored and thrown out. What a greedy move! This is not only unconstitutional but a gross disrespect for the laws of this land. Faleke remains the running mate for APC in the ongoing election and no one should take it away from him.

                                                                                     Halim Y. Agava

If APC upheld Faleke’s position and present him as replacement for Late Audu, and the judiciary does nothing, then Section 33 of the Electoral Act as amended is automatically nulified as that would mean that the moment a running mate is picked he or she would replace the gubernatorial candidate if he or she dies before, during or after the election and not the first runner up in the primary as prescribed by the Electoral Act. In any case, I am not surprised seeing these unfortunate statements coming from some famous lawyers because if the politicians have double mouth, most lawyers have multiple mouths. For instance, if those lawyers who are twisting the laws were counsels to other contesting individuals or groups, they would definitely have contradictory observations respectively. The reason is not far fetched: they were just doing their legal jobs. They were paid to do it! But I must remind them that no individuals or group of individuals, however rich or highly placed, they cannot fool all the people all the time. The laws of this land is supreme.
The Ebiras are saying that APC should strictly adhere and abide by the INEC directive to it to substitute its deseased candidate, Audu, for the 5th December’s supplementary election in the state. This is also in compliance with the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice’s pronouncement.
The Ebiras are also stressing that APC cannot go ahead conduct any fresh primary election to replace Audu as it is unconstitutional as the primary election that gave Audu the ticket is still valid. In addition a party can only conduct a primary election after atleast a 21 day notice has been served to INEC, a provision APC cannot meet, given the time frame to the supplementary election. Section 33 of the Electoral Act has made provision on how to replace a deceased candidate, so why this call for fresh election or Faleke or Audu son to replace the deceased?
The only option available to APC under the Law is to pick the first runner up to Audu in the August, 2015 APC’s primary election to replace him to conclude the gubernatorial election in the state. For cry out loud, the first runner up is not guilty of any wrong doing or anti party activity. Why the regmarole by the APC leaders?
Base on these divergent opinions, the Ebiras’ position should prevail if we are actually serious about change.
The AGF and Minister of Justice, INEC and Ebiras have spoken. The onus is now on APC leaders to do what is legally right through strict observance of the rule of law and without sentiment or favouritism.
Finally, my advice to the good people of Ebiraland is that they should unite, remain firm and use all the available legal instruments to claim their mandate and what is rightfully theirs.
Long live Ebiraland, Long live Kogi state and Long live Nigeria. [myad]

The staying power of a political party is its resilience in trying times.  In the 16 years of reign by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), its resilience was, really, never tested, until the 2015 general elections when the party was defeated by the All Progressives Congress (APC). Naturally, the defeat brought despondency to many members.  Times heal, as they say, and months after the painful defeat, the PDP is already beginning to pick up its own bits and pieces.
Those grieving PDP’s defeat fall into different categories: among them, are the genuine members who have been consistent and loyal to the party for years and who invested time, human and material resources in the elections, which the party lost for reasons that have become obvious.  Another category of those in grief are some men and women whose campaign activities were motivated almost solely by personal interests, greed and avarice.  And, of course, there were those who were members of the party only by name, and who never made any investment to the party’s efforts, and have been without any commitment to its fortunes and survival.  Together, both the genuine and the counterfeit have been grieving or pretending to grieve over PDP’s defeat.  Who, exactly, belongs to what category is better left for the conscience of the individuals.
However, Nigerians must have been surprised to hear the television guru, High Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, express regret over PDP’s defeat at the 2015 polls and apologising to Nigerians for the mistake of presenting former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as the party’s Presidential candidate. That colossal error, he said, was responsible for the defeat of the PDP.  Dokpesi then claimed to be championing the task of reviving the PDP, first, through massive electronic membership registration drive all over Nigeria and second, by organising a self-assessment stakeholders’ conference in which the remote and immediate causes of the party’s defeat would be analysed and solution proffered. Then, there was confusion!
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, one of those responsible for the party’s defeat and whose loyalty is also doubtful, queried Dokpesi’s locus standi to speak for the party.  Metuh is right.  Dokpesi cannot speak on behalf of the PDP for many reasons. He is not a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.  And, concerning Jonathan’s candidacy, the High Chief was, in 2011, the Director-General of IBB’s Presidential Campaign Organisation, which tried but failed to stop Jonathan from contesting for the President that year.
On the issue of whether or not the PDP made a mistake by presenting former President Jonathan as the party’s Presidential candidate, the truth is that Dokpesi was not speaking for the PDP, and he could not have intended to speak on behalf of the PDP, because he, really, was never in the PDP.  Nor was he ever with Jonathan, in spite of his recent flattering 58th birthday wishes in which he credited the former President with the enthronement of democracy in Nigeria. Dokpesi was speaking for himself when he apologised to Nigerians for the choice of Jonathan. What he really meant was that he had, ab initio, been against Jonathan’s candidacy for re-election in 2011 and that Nigerians did not listen to him.
That’s Dokpesi’s brand of politics!  His problem borders on political dubiety and bloated self-estimation, which are common afflictions with successful media businessmen who veer into politics.  Recall that Dokpesi had campaigned for Jonathan based on his assessment of what he would get there and then. In other words, his loyalty was determined by immediate reward, rather than principles or national interest.  It was common knowledge, for instance, that Dokpesi had to abandon Jonathan in 2011 on the pretext that the former President declined to approve payment of a bogus sum for the transmission by his AIT of a global football competition hosted by Nigeria.  The contract was purportedly packaged under the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.  I stand to be corrected on this.
If Dokpesi were sincere to himself, he would have admitted before Nigerians that he was neither in the PDP nor with Jonathan.  And, if he were modest enough in self-assessment, he would have known that he does not have what it takes to champion the task of rebuilding the PDP.  What you don’t have, you don’t give.  Yet, sadly, that was what Dokpesi set out to do by organising a conference to reassess the fortunes and misfortunes of the PDP.
Being crafty and clever by half, Dokpesi sought to enlist the support of elder statesmen such as former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Mallam Adamu Ciroma and Chief Alex Ekwueme as Special Guests of Honour, only for the General, whose Campaign Orgainsation Dokpesi served as Director-General, to tell him in the plainest language, “Count me out”. What a shame! Rebuilding the PDP requires men and women of integrity, moral rectitude, commitment and selfless devotion. Unfortunately, the current members of the party’s NWC lack these essential requirements.  They are, therefore, incapable of reviving the party.
The good thing is that the PDP still has, in abundance, men and women of honour and integrity, of strength and character, determination and drive, to start the genuine task of rebuilding the party.  The problem is that they are not likely to come out, until all the charlatans on the dancing floor give way.  What gave the like of Dokpesi the audacity of thinking they can hijack the leadership of the PDP is the void created by the exit of the former National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu.  After the departure of Mu’azu, the corrupt members of the NWC refused to vacate their positions, in flagrant violation of the party’s constitution.  To date, Uche Secondus, one of those believed to have betrayed President Jonathan by working for his own pocket rather than for the former President, has insisted on holding on to the position of National Chairman which, legally and rightly, belongs to the Northeast geo-political zone.
The greatest challenge facing the PDP today is that the current NWC is a liability that would continue to affect the fortunes of the party. Anybody hearing Olisa Metuh talk, in his usual infantile manner, would never take the PDP serious. The situation is not made better with Uche Secondus’ lack of ideas, focus and personality.  All this is compounded by Dokpesi’s entry into the scene, claiming to have the magic wand for reviving the PDP.  The situation is pathetic, but not totally hopeless.
The founding fathers of the PDP and other committed members of the party still around, must take up the challenge, chase out the charlatans and start the genuine task of rebuilding the party.  The PDP has all the advantages – the structures, experience, material and human resources and above all, committed men and women with the required determination to drive the process through.  Rebuilding the party must be seen as a call to duty.

Abubakar, Development Consultant, sent in this piece from Kaduna. [myad]

Nigeria is a country of mystics and deeply convicted religious folks – I belong to the Jesus people. This is why I see unemployment as a mountain that must be removed. And how so blessed we are to have the man with the Nkpara, Dr. Chris Ngige, at the helm of affairs at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Productivity. I am optimistic that this rod wielding prophet, sorry, politician, will take us to the promise land after the mystic order of Moses who in times past applied the rod to part the Red Sea, to smite the Mountain that the people of Israel may have to drink and same rod became a snake for the purpose of scaring Pharaoh so as to set the Jews free.
Dr. Ngige is up against the Mt. Kilimanjaro, which is a representation of the unemployment, under employment, sub employment and pseudo employment that Africa’s most populous nation is faced with today. The stats are ugly: the country is dishing out about 1.8 million graduates yearly – mostly half-baked, and rates of school dropouts should double that, and the figure will be tripled by folks who may have attained adulthood without acquiring any form of Education or instruction in Skill to produce or to deal.
Expectancy is high, the ruling party has promised to create three million jobs in a year, which is an indicator that the problem is fully apprehended but a clear roadmap is yet to be seen. This has to be the first assignment for the honorable Minister. The document has to be publicly presented without tape and ribbon cutting and the citizens must buy-in.
Secondly, the Minister of Labour and Productivity should declare an emergency on the issue of skill. Nigeria is a largely incompetent or skill deficient nation, specialized or basic. Assuming that there is a recognized index for skills and competency in the world, Nigeria will easily find itself in the bottom 10 in the world.
To address the skills situation, the Ministry must have a thematic focus of not more than 3 industries in geographically distributed scenarios as well as actively collaborate with middle schools and higher institutions of learning, private and non-profit organizations to develop market place skill acquisition programs. The highest allocation in the ministry’s budget must be devoted to providing funds and grants to credible programs and schemes that promote the aforementioned objective. I don’t want the government involved in direct trainings.
The honorable minister can also draw CSR commitments from top industries to providing quality skills acquisition, incubation and accelerator programs for our citizens. I believe that the best way to solve the issue we are faced with is to keep as many who are out of employment in focused education and training. Remember the axiom about an idle person being the devil’s workshop.
In same vein the Ministry of labour and employment must liaise with the Foreign Affairs Ministry to encourage Skilled Migration and Integration. Nigerian Small Businesses must be supported to bring in Skilled labour from outside our borders through Technical Aid requests from Foreign Missions and more initiatives to encourage skill acquisition and experiential work abroad exchange programs. All these can be facilitated by the government.
Nigeria had such programs in the past; a lot of our today’s engineers were trained in communist Cuba and the Soviet Union while the 70’s Indian immigrants transferred knowledge to a lot of agriculturists in Northern Nigeria. The Egyptian Aquaculture Industry was boosted by the collaboration with the Hellenic Government of Greece through an agreed migrant skills transfer project that involved Egyptians going to work in Greek Aquaculture companies for certain durations and returning to the country to transfer the skills acquired.
Thirdly, I advocate the restructuring of the Labour Ministry. A quick peek of the departmental structure laid out on the Ministry’s website reveal a shocking state of unpreparedness to tackle today’s labour and workforce challenges. The ministry needs an overhaul, it must be business-like in approach and form, a skills audit must be conducted while gaps must be analysed and plugged. Civil servants in the Ministry must see themselves as Analysts instead of Officer II, Managers instead of Level 10s and C-Suite Executives instead of AD, DD and Directors. The ministry must also recruit support staff and consultants to work with all the mission critical departments. I believe that the Blair-Elumelu Fellows programme of the Tony Elumelu Foundation has in time past resourced Government agencies with competent personnel and will be more than willing to assist the Ministry. The least Ngige can do is to put a call across.
Fourthly, Government has to be directly involved in creating a number of jobs immediately or will need to spend more on security. The labour and productivity ministry must work to develop a Small Business Procurement Policy which mandates that certain transactional volumes of Government contracting are executed by companies with small size or low turnover. A good example of that is Governor Elrufai’s Classroom and Uniforms procurement initiative. No single big company should get that entire contract!
The government must also explore job creation or occupation of the unemployed through Social Impact Jobs. I opine that this should be the criteria for the unemployment benefits that government is proposing. Social Impact Jobs can range from Community Vigilance and Security to Environmental Conservancy – Tree planting, Climate Change Awareness to Health and Sanitation Corps as a form of preventive care and to avoid disease outbreak, Mass Literacy initiatives like Financial Education, Evening Classes for market women and rural settlers which will save government of spending in the long term and help to achieve much desired social outcomes in shorter time. There are grant pockets for these kinds of initiatives if the process is properly managed and documented.
Fifthly, the new minister of employment should beware of Start-ups but should rather embrace Scale ups. Start-up evangelists around the world seem to be winning a lot of converts lately and it is just so cool. But startups, the truth is; a lot of them fail. Silicon valley stories inspire us but in Africa, failure is like a death sentence. Scale ups are small to mid-sized companies that are 3 years of more with annual employment growth rate of about 20%. These companies are in need of a lot of support. These companies can be supported with Manpower, Technology and Training, and Financing opportunities to give them competitive advantage and growth opportunities.
The “Igbo model” of entrepreneurship that epitomizes apprenticeship and mentoring works and should be adopted on a grand scale. Nigeria must be a mentoring country as seen in the Igbo enterprise structure and the biggest effort of your ministry will be to ensure that thriving Start-ups are supported to become scale-ups. We have seen ‘spare parts’ businesses with boys mostly recruited from rural villages scale to become a vehicle distribution franchise and now an assembly line. All by themselves. Nollywood remains another model of this Igbo enterprise model and spirit. Scale-ups are more sustainable and are generally adjudged, according to several studies, as having the highest impact on job growth. The reason remains that failing start-ups will eventually send more people into the labour market.
Finally, Nigeria must look forward to the future. The average age of the population is 19.2 years and this shows that the worst years are not here. We must look to the Future and I have two thoughts along this line: One, our elementary education must be more focused on industry and enterprise with full appreciation of vocational and technical skills. The second is that we have to accord highest priority to our women – they are the keys to the future. “If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a family (nation), ” the saying goes.
Nigerians are hungry, driven and passionate people. The resources abound everywhere but we have either been blind or incapacitated and there is no better time to act. I trust Ngige, our Nkpara wielding doctor to lead the way. We are behind you, sir. My eyes can see the glory. This mountain must be removed (Singing till it fades)! [myad]

“What is the matter this time? Many Nigerians are lamenting that the change you promised them is fast becoming a mirage. It is certainly not what they are seeing right now.”

Read the full memo:

Your Excellency, it’s been months since I wrote my desperate memo to you. I wish to thank you once more for reacting promptly and swiftly at that time and for giving me the honour and privilege of meeting you in your office. I remember presenting you a special compilation of my articles, especially the many admonitions to your immediate predecessor, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

After handing over the book to you, Sir, I promised to continue acting in my self-appointed capacity as Special Adviser because of the need to tell you what those very close to you might not be able to say. They might be afraid of you and your reaction.

The truth is you are a plain and simple man imbued with a mission and a passion to save this great country but you cannot do it on your own. You can only do it if people close to you, who should be advising you, tell you as it is so that you can do that which you were elected to do.

Sir, it is on the above basis that I’m back today for reasons some of which you probably know already from your own personal observations and readings. But before I go further, kindly permit me to set some records straight before some conspiracy specialists step forward to ascribe other people’s opinion to me. I shall clearly expose my personal views and state where I belong or stand for any avoidance of doubt. Everywhere I go people refer to me as Buhari’s man and ask “what’s your Baba doing ooo?”. I seriously have no problem with that. I’m proud that I joined so many other Nigerians as well as foreign friends in supporting a man of impeccable pedigree and solid integrity. No matter your view of President Muhammadu Buhari, one thing his bitterest enemies give to him is the fact that he is way above the level of most mortals in matters of uprightness.

This is why many of us volunteered to scream your name to high heavens and we were ready to follow you to Golgotha. Many of your opponents have not gotten over the thrashing you gave them and would forever seek everything and anything to smear you with. It is therefore not surprising that there has been so much noise about what you’ve done or left undone. Whether they are right or wrong in their assessment, I feel it is right and proper to let you know what people are saying about you including your most ardent fans and supporters. Sir, please, let’s not dismiss them as mere rabble-rousers. A groundswell of public opinion can easily metamorphose into an ocean of disenchantment and cataclysmic confusion. In short, I believe your enemies are skilfully setting you up for failure in order to be able to taunt your supporters later by saying we “we told you so!” In this regard it is pertinent to always bear in mind the Yoruba saying ‘ehin kunle l’ota wa, ile ni a se ni ngbe’! Loosely translated it means “the enemy lurk outside in the backyard but your foe resides inside your house.”

What is the matter this time? Many Nigerians are lamenting that the change you promised them is fast becoming a mirage. It is certainly not what they are seeing right now. They insist that your style and methodology appear too slow for a nation in dire straits and in need of urgent and miraculous deliverance. They are not happy that you are no longer the prudent man they used to know. They think you’ve already capitulated by frolicking with members of the bourgeois class and junketing around the world while Nigeria burns like Dante’s inferno. They are miffed that you are still keeping the Presidential fleet when you are supposed to have sold most of them off, if not all. They are worried that the mandate of four years they gave you is being unwittingly frittered away and before you know it all the goodwill you garnered would have evaporated and vamoosed. Time, they say, waits for no man!

The economy and the free fall of the Naira have become worrisome. There are all manner of rumours that may make matters worse, if true, about the current state and status of our banks. Though the Central Bank of Nigeria has come out forcefully to dispel the dangerous rumours, they want you to unleash your economic master-plan as soon as possible, so that what was once a baseless rumour does not somehow become harsh reality. They are expecting a blue-print that would guarantee a farewell to poverty. On this I agree with the opinion that something drastic has to be conjured up to arrest this drift to perdition. Nothing amplifies this monumental tragedy than the debit card fiasco which stipulates that Nigerians cannot live in a civilised world by walking into any international hotel or shop of their choice and paying with their cards. This is terribly depressing.

What this means in plain terms is that Nigerians must patronise the black market and run the risk of carrying cash recklessly whenever they travel abroad. It makes a mockery of the cashless society that the CBN has fought so hard to put in place and jeopardises your fight against corruption because government officials who travel abroad must of necessity carry large sums of cash if they are not to be embarrassed or even disgraced. Sir, the most important thing is that this is not healthy at all. The last thing your Government should be telling the world is that we are so broke that we are on our knees. The world laughs at us and treats us with derision because we have resources other than crude oil which should make us one of the richest in the world if we properly harness them. We must stop giving the impression that we are so impoverished when it is leadership, brigandage and a lack of focus that has failed us.

The other matter that continues to embarrass Nigerians is the issue of Boko Haram. The matter is made worse by the fact that you are a retired army General who should know and have what it takes to drastically reduce if not exterminate the cankerworm. But rather the menace has exacerbated. It has snowballed into a seemingly unquenchable conflagration. I had argued repeatedly that the military alone cannot achieve this result. Intelligence seems to be the key word here. Also identifying and locating some of the cells and prominent sympathisers is crucial. Those who arrogantly and naively say that no form of negotiation should take place are very far from the theatre of war. They have probably not heard of a group called IRA, the Irish Republican Army, that terrorised Great Britain for God knows how many years. I and my directors at Ovation International were lucky to escape a massive explosion that shattered the peace and tranquillity of London Docklands when a bomb went off inside the South Quay light rail station which was next to our office at Beaufort Court. The battle of wits and the war of attrition had to be fought using the carrot and the stick approach. It was the carrot approach that eventually succeeded and the United Kingdom has now been rid of that hitherto interminable scourge for many years!

The Boko Haram issue has defied every effort made so far and it is time to expand the options for the sake of our fellow citizens in the heart of this conundrum. When over 200 girls vanished into thin air, we were so sure they would return very soon but that has remained an illusion. This should tell us that this issue is not a joke and that we need to keep all windows open. Sir, Nigerians want to see government show a different approach and better compassion than what we had in the past. They are waiting to see how you will do this with minimum collateral damage.

Sir, you have a herculean task ahead but it is not a mission impossible. Other nations are experiencing almost similar challenges and they are forging ahead. The first indicator to exhibit our seriousness is when we stop the business as usual syndrome and tighten the belts of government officials and politicians. If the idea is to continue along the path of profligacy then Nigeria is contagiously jinxed. The Republic of Tanzania has already taken the lead. I will publish a report that has already gone viral below this letter as a veritable example of what is possible.

I wish you well as always Sir. [myad]