President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that the command centre for the fight against Boko Haram should be moved immediately to Maiduguri which is the epic-centre of the long time battle. Buhari acknowledged that though Progress has been made in recent weeks by the security forces but that victory cannot be achieved by basing the Command and Control Centre in Abuja. In his imauguration speech at the Eagle Square, Abuja today, the new President acknowledged that the most immediate security challenge facing the country now is Boko Haram’s insurgency, stressing that the command centre would remain in Maiduguri until the insurgence is completely subdued. Buhari said that his government would not claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents. “This government will do all it can to rescue them alive. Boko Haram is a typical example of small fires causing large fires. An eccentric and unorthodox preacher with a tiny following was given posthumous fame and following by his extra judicial murder at the hands of the police. Since then through official bungling, negligence, complacency or collusion, Boko Haram became a terrifying force taking tens of thousands of lives and capturing several towns and villages covering swathes of Nigerian sovereign territory. “Boko Haram is a mindless, godless group who are as far away from Islam as one can think of. At the end of the hostilities when the group is subdued, the Government intends to commission a sociological study to determine its origins, remote and immediate causes of the movement, its sponsors, the international connexions to ensure that measures are taken to prevent a reccurrence of this evil. “For now, the Armed Forces will be fully charged with prosecuting the fight against Boko haram. We shall overhaul the rules of engagement to avoid human rights violations in operations. We shall improve operational and legal mechanisms so that disciplinary steps are taken against proven human right violations by the Armed Forces.”
He was the poster child of good luck. His parents named him Goodluck. Perhaps, a prophetic name; perhaps, a parental wish. No man has had such a run of good luck like Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. From an obscure and unknown university lecturer his unusual luck propelled him all the way up to the top of our nation’s political leadership: deputy governor of Bayelsa State, governor of Bayelsa State, Vice-President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Acting President, Federal Republic of Nigeria and President, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Alas, when he needed his good luck most, it failed him. Goodluck Jonathan leaves office as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria today a thoroughly messed up man; messed up by his hubris and messed up by his wife and aides. As you read this, it should be easy for you to picture him walking towards the sunset of loneliness, deserted by friends, mocked by detractors. He expected a sustained ovation in his last week in office but it turned out to be his worst week in office. The nation was shut down and its economic and social activities paralysed. The week added a new feather to our nation’s cap as a nation of ironies, contradictions and indifferent leadership. An oil-producing nation forever battling with fuel supplies. And so, in the last week of the Jonathan administration, we are stranded in our homes for lack of fuel. Even in a nation inured to embarrassment, this still takes the cake. It must be part of the reason why General T.Y. Danjuma has urged Buhari to probe Jonathan’s “corrupt administration. Despite the nation wide paralysis, neither Jonathan nor his powerful petroleum resources minister, Mrs. Deziani Madueke, as of this writing, bothered to tell us what is happening. Obviously, they do not give a damn. Here is the problem: Jonathan cannot extricate himself from charges of sabotaging the transition or hand over programme. He has turned something worth celebrating into ashes in our mouths. We deserve better. Corruption is endemic in the petroleum ministry and the NNPC. Jonathan knew about it but he was more than reluctant to do anything it. Now it has brought him down in a manner that cements his place in our national history as a failed president. Our country is the butt of international jokes. [quote]No one expected Jonathan’s scrappy legacy to be a thoroughly demoralized nation in his last days in office but here we are: the man who lost his re-election bid and led his party into a thorough walloping at the polls goes home in a whimper, soaked in the cold rain of public opprobrium.[/quote]
He has my sympathy. In the coming days and weeks and even months, the pundits would subject the Jonathan tenure to a rigorous examination, trawling for lessons in human management and political administration. It is no use disputing the fact that despite his offering the nation airy slogans such as fresh breath of air (2011) and transformation agenda (2015), the man enjoyed enormous public good will. So, why did he end up “a failed president” (The Economist) and “a lousy president,” (The New York Times)? The answer is complex, complicated even. My take is that Jonathan was an indifferent leader. He did not understand power and, therefore, he had problems excising it other than in the primitive sense of who was the boss. Either he was misled or he misled himself into believing that as president, he could do anything, not necessarily because it was right but because he could. The consequences meant nothing to him. This unhelpful belief fired his adrenalin in the last two or three weeks of his administration. We found him engaged in a flurry of activities that resulted in administrative actions and decisions that were thoroughly unwise. He was motivated by his understanding of his enormous presidential powers. He could exercise them to the last minute. If anybody’s ox was gored in the process, well, poor luck to the ox and its owner. He was trying to court popularity but went about it in a way that suggested his ultimate objective was to commit the new Buhari administration to retaining his unwise and unhelpful decisions at its own peril. An unfriendly act.
Jonathan believes in planting universities in all corners and crannies of the country. His belief has no positive or objective end. His 12 federal universities were not the products of strategic educational thinking. He used them for his popularity contest with himself. He was unable to fund them. He knew it would come to that any way because his administration could not properly fund the existing federal universities. No government makes its burden light by adding more weight to it.
His decision to play politics with our education must go down as one of his failings as a leader. He appointed councils for those universities towards his last days to tell the new administration that their existence was a fait accompli. Thanks for nothing. Administrative decisions are not cast in stone.
Jonathan piled it on. Less than two weeks to the end of his tenure, Jonathan approved the setting up of two specialized universities and upgraded four advanced teachers training colleges to universities. He approved every application for private universities submitted to the executive council of the federation. Does anyone know the actual number of universities, public, private and religious we have in the country today? Has this large number of universities, the highest in Africa, stopped the steady decline in our standard of education? It all boggles the mind. Well, not Jonathan’s mind, obviously.
Buhari faced a similar situation in 1984. The Shagari administration had set up some new universities more for political reasons. The general felt that more universities would not remedy the crisis in our educational system. He down graded those universities and made them campuses of existing universities to cut administrative and other costs and free needed funds to tackle the real problems of our education at the roots.
Encouraged by this and believing that Jonathan’s decisions are a drag on good governance, I give the new president my special gift of a box of red biros. With them, he should walk the red biro through the new universities, the 31 billion Naira contract, the relocation of the N500 million oil and gas treatment project from Lagos to his home state of Bayelsa, the five billion Naira contract for the supply of smokeless cooking stoves for rural women (where?) and all the last minute grandstanding decisions calculated to tie the hands of the Buhari administration. Let me borrow this from The Economist magazine and say, good bye, Jonathan.
I am immensely grateful to God Who Has preserved us to witness this day and this occasion. Today marks a triumph for Nigeria and an occasion to celebrate her freedom and cherish her democracy. Nigerians have shown their commitment to democracy and are determined to entrench its culture. Our journey has not been easy but thanks to the determination of our people and strong support from friends abroad we have today a truly democratically elected government in place.
I would like to thank President Goodluck Jonathan for his display of statesmanship in setting a precedent for us that has now made our people proud to be Nigerians wherever they are. With the support and cooperation he has given to the transition process, he has made it possible for us to show the world that despite the perceived tension in the land we can be a united people capable of doing what is right for our nation. Together we co-operated to surprise the world that had come to expect only the worst from Nigeria. I hope this act of graciously accepting defeat by the outgoing President will become the standard of political conduct in the country.
I would like to thank the millions of our supporters who believed in us even when the cause seemed hopeless. I salute their resolve in waiting long hours in rain and hot sunshine to register and cast their votes and stay all night if necessary to protect and ensure their votes count and were counted. I thank those who tirelessly carried the campaign on the social media. At the same time, I thank our other countrymen and women who did not vote for us but contributed to make our democratic culture truly competitive, strong and definitive.
I thank all of you.
Having just a few minutes ago sworn on the Holy Book, I intend to keep my oath and serve as President to all Nigerians.
I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.
A few people have privately voiced fears that on coming back to office I shall go after them. These fears are groundless. There will be no paying off old scores. The past is prologue.
Our neighbours in the Sub-region and our African brethenen should rest assured that Nigeria under our administration will be ready to play any leadership role that Africa expects of it. Here I would like to thank the governments and people of Cameroon, Chad and Niger for committing their armed forces to fight Boko Haram in Nigeria.
I also wish to assure the wider international community of our readiness to cooperate and help to combat threats of cross-border terrorism, sea piracy, refugees and boat people, financial crime, cyber crime, climate change, the spread of communicable diseases and other challenges of the 21st century.
At home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us. We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problems.
In recent times Nigerian leaders appear to have misread our mission. Our founding fathers, Mr Herbert Macauley, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Malam Aminu Kano, Chief J.S. Tarka, Mr Eyo Ita, Chief Denis Osadeby, Chief Ladoke Akintola and their colleagues worked to establish certain standards of governance. They might have differed in their methods or tactics or details, but they were united in establishing a viable and progressive country. Some of their successors behaved like spoilt children breaking everything and bringing disorder to the house.
Furthermore, we as Nigerians must remind ourselves that we are heirs to great civilizations: Shehu Othman Dan fodio’s caliphate, the Kanem Borno Empire, the Oyo Empire, the Benin Empire and King Jaja’s formidable domain. The blood of those great ancestors flow in our veins. What is now required is to build on these legacies, to modernize and uplift Nigeria.
Daunting as the task may be it is by no means insurmountable. There is now a national consensus that our chosen route to national development is democracy. To achieve our objectives we must consciously work the democratic system. The Federal Executive under my watch will not seek to encroach on the duties and functions of the Legislative and Judicial arms of government. The law enforcing authorities will be charged to operate within the Constitution. We shall rebuild and reform the public service to become more effective and more serviceable. We shall charge them to apply themselves with integrity to stabilize the system.
For their part the legislative arm must keep to their brief of making laws, carrying out over-sight functions and doing so expeditiously. The judicial system needs reform to cleanse itself from its immediate past. The country now expects the judiciary to act with dispatch on all cases especially on corruption, serious financial crimes or abuse of office. It is only when the three arms act constitutionally that government will be enabled to serve the country optimally and avoid the confusion all too often bedeviling governance today.
Elsewhere relations between Abuja and the States have to be clarified if we are to serve the country better. Constitutionally there are limits to powers of each of the three tiers of government but that should not mean the Federal Government should fold its arms and close its eyes to what is going on in the states and local governments. Not least the operations of the Local Government Joint Account. While the Federal Government can not interfere in the details of its operations it will ensure that the gross corruption at the local level is checked. As far as the constitution allows me I will try to ensure that there is responsible and accountable governance at all levels of government in the country. For I will not have kept my own trust with the Nigerian people if I allow others abuse theirs under my watch.
However, no matter how well organized the governments of the federation are they can not succeed without the support, understanding and cooperation of labour unions, organized private sector, the press and civil society organizations. I appeal to employers and workers alike to unite in raising productivity so that everybody will have the opportunity to share in increased prosperity. The Nigerian press is the most vibrant in Africa. My appeal to the media today – and this includes the social media – is to exercise its considerable powers with responsibility and patriotism.
My appeal for unity is predicated on the seriousness of the legacy we are getting into. With depleted foreign reserves, falling oil prices, leakages and debts the Nigerian economy is in deep trouble and will require careful management to bring it round and to tackle the immediate challenges confronting us, namely; Boko Haram, the Niger Delta situation, the power shortages and unemployment especially among young people. For the longer term we have to improve the standards of our education. We have to look at the whole field of medicare. We have to upgrade our dilapidated physical infrastructure.
The most immediate is Boko Haram’s insurgency. Progress has been made in recent weeks by our security forces but victory can not be achieved by basing the Command and Control Centre in Abuja. The command centre will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely subdued. But we can not claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.
This government will do all it can to rescue them alive. Boko Haram is a typical example of small fires causing large fires. An eccentric and unorthodox preacher with a tiny following was given posthumous fame and following by his extra judicial murder at the hands of the police. Since then through official bungling, negligence, complacency or collusion Boko Haram became a terrifying force taking tens of thousands of lives and capturing several towns and villages covering swathes of Nigerian sovereign territory.
Boko Haram is a mindless, godless group who are as far away from Islam as one can think of. At the end of the hostilities when the group is subdued the Government intends to commission a sociological study to determine its origins, remote and immediate causes of the movement, its sponsors, the international connexions to ensure that measures are taken to prevent a reccurrence of this evil. For now the Armed Forces will be fully charged with prosecuting the fight against Boko haram. We shall overhaul the rules of engagement to avoid human rights violations in operations. We shall improve operational and legal mechanisms so that disciplinary steps are taken against proven human right violations by the Armed Forces.
Boko Haram is not only the security issue bedeviling our country. The spate of kidnappings, armed robberies, herdsmen/farmers clashes, cattle rustlings all help to add to the general air of insecurity in our land. We are going to erect and maintain an efficient, disciplined people – friendly and well – compensated security forces within an over – all security architecture.
The amnesty programme in the Niger Delta is due to end in December, but the Government intends to invest heavily in the projects, and programmes currently in place. I call on the leadership and people in these areas to cooperate with the State and Federal Government in the rehabilitation programmes which will be streamlined and made more effective. As ever, I am ready to listen to grievances of my fellow Nigerians. I extend my hand of fellowship to them so that we can bring peace and build prosperity for our people.
No single cause can be identified to explain Nigerian’s poor economic performance over the years than the power situation. It is a national shame that an economy of 180 million generates only 4,000MW, and distributes even less. Continuous tinkering with the structures of power supply and distribution and close on $20b expanded since 1999 have only brought darkness, frustration, misery, and resignation among Nigerians. We will not allow this to go on. Careful studies are under way during this transition to identify the quickest, safest and most cost-effective way to bring light and relief to Nigerians.
Unemployment, notably youth un-employment features strongly in our Party’s Manifesto. We intend to attack the problem frontally through revival of agriculture, solid minerals mining as well as credits to small and medium size businesses to kick – start these enterprises. We shall quickly examine the best way to revive major industries and accelerate the revival and development of our railways, roads and general infrastructure.
Your Excellencies, My fellow Nigerians I can not recall when Nigeria enjoyed so much goodwill abroad as now. The messages I received from East and West, from powerful and small countries are indicative of international expectations on us. At home the newly elected government is basking in a reservoir of goodwill and high expectations. Nigeria therefore has a window of opportunity to fulfill our long – standing potential of pulling ourselves together and realizing our mission as a great nation.
Our situation somehow reminds one of a passage in Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar
There is a tide in the affairs of men which,
taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life,
Is bound in shallows and miseries.
We have an opportunity. Let us take it.
Thank you
Muhammadu Buhari
President Federal Republic of NIGERIA and Commander in-chief-of the Armed forces
Some senior staff of the Presidency could not hold back tears today when President Goodluck Jonathan formally handed over the affairs of the nation to the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.
The tears began to flow, especially amongst the female staff when Buhari made moving, emotional remarks in response to the 49-paragraph speech delivered by President Jonathan before handing over the instruments of office to Buhari.
Buhari acknowledged that the single phone call which Jonathan made to him conceding defeat shortly after the April 28 changed the face of democracy in Nigeria and brought relief to the people of the country.
He said that if Jonathan had wished, he would insisted that he would cling to power, a situation that would have led to chaos and bloodbath across the country. He praised the President to high heavens, assuring that his name “would be boldly written in gold in the history of Nigeria.”
Earlier, President had recalled that the inception of his administration in May 2011, “we committed ourselves to consolidating national unity through democratization and good governance. Our assessment then, and our firm belief ever since, is that the unity of Nigeria, the security, well-being, greater freedoms and opportunities for all citizens must remain the primary objectives of government.”
Part of the speech reads:
The Agenda for National Transformation which we did our best to implement consisted of clear and consistent governance strategies, policies, plans, programmes and projects, in all facets of our national life. Emphasis was placed on human and state security, democratization, sound economic management, as well as structural and institutional reforms.
Our foremost concern was the unity of Nigeria. In keeping with that concern, we engineered a process that began with a review of issues outstanding from previous Constitutional Conferences by the Belgore Committee. After that, we widened political consultations through a National Dialogue that was orchestrated through the Okurounmu Committee. These culminated in the all-inclusive National Conference which unanimously reaffirmed that Nigeria must remain united and indivisible.
The Conference also made resolutions and recommendations for serious constitutional, political and governance reforms, which we have forwarded to the National Assembly for appropriate legislative action. It is our hope that the incoming Government will accord the Report of the National Conference the very high priority that it deserves, as a genuine expression of the will of our people.
The recognition that the starting point for good governance is the legitimacy of the government itself informed our commitment to promoting free and fair elections.
It also motivated innovations in the management and conduct of elections which we undertook. Hopefully, in the years ahead, those innovations will be properly and fully implemented so that Nigerians will be even more assured of the integrity of the electoral system and the legitimacy of any government that it produces.
To strengthen the social contract between the government and the governed, we institutionalized the rule of law as well as the independence of the legislature and the judiciary. We also promoted group and individual freedoms. As a result, there is vast expansion in democratic, social and economic space for all citizens.
Our nation and citizens faced many new challenges over the past four years but the greatest was the vastly increased menace of Boko Haram with their mindless terror, mass killings, utter ruthlessness, kidnapping of innocent children and other unspeakable acts of brutality.
We should all remember that Boko Haram’s emergence predated our administration going as far back as 2002. The group however became extremely malignant with the killing of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf in July 2009.
It therefore became an urgent task for us to effectively confront the great threat Boko Haram posed to the security and well-being of our people. To do so, we overhauled and virtually reinvented our security architecture to confront Boko Haram and its insurgency. We re-organized our security apparatus. We re-equipped and fully motivated our forces.
Victory is now in sight and within our reach. However, the cost in blood of citizens and heroes; and the diversion of national treasure from urgent needs for development have been very high. While more than 500 women and children have been rescued from the clutches of Boko Haram thus far by our security forces, it remains my sincere hope and prayer that our beloved daughters from Chibok will soon be reunited with us.
I wish to thank the Nigerian people for their resilience and patience. I also wish to pay very special and personal tribute to all the men and women of our valiant armed forces and security agencies. Their sacrifice and dedication have brought us thus far.
While striving to overcome our national security challenges, we still gave necessary attention to economic development. Our goal was to achieve long-term economic growth and stability, improve the quality and quantum of infrastructure and enhance human capital development.
Our financial system reforms included the Treasury Single Account [TSA] that unified the structure of government accounts for all MDAs and thereby brought order to cash flow management; and Government Integrated Financial Management Information System [GIFMIS] was introduced to plug leakages and waste of resources. The Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System [IPPIS] weeded out 60,450 ghost workers in 359 out of 425 MDAs, yielding N185.4 billion in savings to the Federal government.
Improved Revenue Mobilization was achieved through improvements in the laws and compliance measures. In 2013 alone, these measures resulted in a 69% rise in Federal tax revenues from N2.8 trillion to N4.8 trillion. Also, Waiver Policy and Trade Facilitation were reformed to create a more rational regime. Our emphasis shifted to granting waivers to specific sectors instead of individual companies and the Sovereign Wealth Fund was established to provide stabilization from external shocks, provide funding for critical infrastructure and savings for future generations.
Our Financial Sector reforms addressed the issues of inefficiencies in the coordination and monitoring of the financial system. Our policies promoted transparency, better risk management, new banking models and payment systems. We established the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria as a resolution mechanism for toxic banking assets. We strengthened banking supervision and enhanced public confidence in Nigerian Banks.
Similarly, we undertook innovative reforms for job creation and repositioned the manufacturing, agriculture and housing sectors. Specifically, it was observed that over the years, job creation did not keep pace with economic growth. Thus unemployment, especially amongst the youth was assuming alarming dimensions.
To address this, my administration made job creation a key consideration for all programmes in the Transformation Agenda. Emphasis was also shifted towards empowering youths to become entrepreneurs rather than job seekers, through such initiatives as Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YOU-WIN), Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), the SURE-P Technical Vocational Education and Training Programme (TVET) and the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP).
Manufacturing in Nigeria faces many challenges, including poor power supply, high cost of input, high cost of doing business, multiple taxation, poor infrastructure and lack of synergy with the labour market. To address these problems, we launched several programmes and initiatives including the National Industrial Revolution Plan and a new National Automobile Policy designed to boost domestic car production and expand existing capacity. Since then, five new private vehicle assembly plants have been established.
Agriculture is critical to national survival and yet the sector was besieged with many problems. By year 2010, Nigeria was the second largest importer of food in the world, spending about N1.3 trillion on the importation of fish, rice and sugar alone.
The reforms we introduced in agriculture dramatically increased local production of staple food and saved us vast amounts of money that we would have spent on the importation of food items.
To address the glaring inadequacy of critical national infrastructure, we focused on the Power Sector, Roads, Railways, Aviation, Ports and Harbours as well as on Water and Sanitation, Information and Communication Technology.
My government introduced the Power Sector Roadmap in 2010. Since then, we have privatized the generation and distribution aspects in a most transparent process. Obstacles to the private sector investments in power supply were removed and we developed cost effective electricity tariff to make the sector more attractive. It remains our hope that the successor companies to PHCN and also the private sector will step forward with the necessary investment to make the power reform work.
The major challenge in the road sector in Nigeria is the high cost of building roads and it continues to rise. The other challenge is the fact that because of regular use, roads are one of the fastest depreciating assets in developing countries.
To address this, Government has developed the required legal and regulatory framework and created opportunities for Private Public Partnership (PPP) in road construction and maintenance.
From Ore/Benin Road, Lagos/Ibadan Expressway to the Kano/Maiduguri dualisation projects, we made concerted efforts to address age-long problems of delays in construction, design defect, neglect and ineffective maintenance. The construction of the historic Second Niger Bridge has also commenced, and on completion, it will open new and far-reaching opportunities for greater trade and interaction among our people.
In the Aviation Sector, our government developed a Master Plan to institutionalise safety and security, and to develop infrastructure at the airports and local airlines. We embarked on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of 22 airports nationwide. Construction work on five new international terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu are also on-going.
There has been a revolution in rail transportation. We rehabilitated the old narrow gauge network and ensured that it has served our people steadily for three years running with new coaches and improved expanded services nationwide.
We are in the construction stages of a new national network for standard gauge speed-train services, with the new rail line segment, from Abuja to Kaduna, successfully completed. In addition, we have initiated the process for the construction of an ultramodern coastal rail line that will run from Lagos to Calabar, with a link to Onitsha.
We have also successfully completed the dredging of River Niger, from Warri in Delta State to Baro in Niger State, and completed construction works for the Onitsha River Port. Other River Ports at Baro, Lokoja and Oguta, are at advanced construction stages. Working with the states and development partners, we have facilitated the process towards the development of two new deep sea ports at Lekki in Lagos, and Ibaka in Akwa Ibom. We have also implemented reforms to streamline the clearing regime in existing ports, increasing cargo turnover time and easing business for all users.
In the oil and gas sector, our local content policy has continued to empower Nigerian companies, particularly in technical and engineering projects. The Gas Revolution Industrial Park in Delta State is unprecedented in the subsector, and will not only deliver Africa’s biggest industrial park, but all the accompanying benefits to local industry and job creation.
We recognized Human Capital as the most important agent for transformational development. Our reforms in this sector focused on Health, Education and Social Development and also on Women and Youth Empowerment and Social Safety Nets.
In the Health sector, the comprehensive National Strategic Health Development Plan (NSHDP) of 2011 laid the foundation for widening access and improving the quality of healthcare with lower infant mortality rates and higher life expectancy for the populace. Our effective curtailment of the Ebola epidemic has continued to receive worldwide acclaim as an example in prompt and effective national disease management. On our watch, guinea-worm has been eradicated from Nigeria and we are on the verge of wiping out polio entirely.
In the Education sector, our objectives are clear and precise. They emphasise expansion of access and the upgrade of quality. I am proud that we have widened access by establishing 18 more Federal Universities and other specialized polytechnics. We strengthened TETFUND and used it to boldly address the problems of inadequate infrastructure in the existing institutions.
I am particularly proud of our efforts with regards to Early Childhood Education and Out-of-School Children. We provided modern hybrid Almajiri Education Programme in the North, attended to schooling needs of boys in the South-East and ensured the construction of special girls’ schools in 13 States of the Federation to improve girl-child education. We expanded opportunities for open and distance learning and provided scholarships at all levels to help improve access to quality education for bright and promising Nigerians.
We have promoted gender-mainstreaming with commensurate priority and opportunities for our womenfolk, beginning with ensuring that not less than 30 per cent of key Federal appointments go to women. Other initiatives that we have taken include: the National Gender Policy, Establishment of Gender Units in Federal MDAs, Women Empowerment Training Programmes, Micro-Credit for Women, Social Safety Net Programmes and the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Scheme.
My Administration has emphasized giving a free hand to our Anti-corruption agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). We preferred that they mature into strong institutions instead of being the images, the hammer and the anvil of a strong man. We must encourage them to abide by the rule of law and due process instead of resorting to dramatic or illegal actions orchestrated for cheap applause.
Beyond the very impressive records of enhanced convictions by statutory anti-corruption agencies like the EFCC and ICPC, our other strategy has been to fashion economic policies that deliver higher deterrence and frustrate concealment. In this regard, the Bureau of Public Procurement has played a central role and impacted strongly on the fight against corruption.
In Sports, we have improved our national performance in team and individual events. The disappointment of not qualifying to defend our African Football Championship was cushioned by a decent FIFA World Cup appearance, an Under-17 World Cup win in addition to other victories in other international football tournaments and the Paralympics. We have also encouraged excellence in other sports, apart from football, resulting in exceptional performance in international sporting events, especially in athletics.
Our foreign policy position remains strong. In October 2013, Nigeria was elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the second time on our watch. Our country had only served in that capacity thrice before 2011, since independence in 1960. Our Administration also played a leading role in the resolution of security and political challenges in our sub-region, particularly in Niger, Cote D’Ivoire, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Burkina Faso.
In addition, we increased engagement with Nigerians in the diaspora who contribute so much in remittances to their fatherland. Our Administration successfully encouraged more of them to invest in Nigeria and others to return home and join in the task of nation-building.
In summary, Your Excellency, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, our administration has done its best to intervene robustly and impact positively on key aspects of our national life.
There is no doubt that challenges still abound, but they are surmountable and overwhelming national transformation remains realisable, with continuity, commitment and consistency.
Nigeria is blessed with citizens that will always remain faithful, firmly committed to national unity, accelerated political, social and economic development.
As we hand over the reins of government, I believe that our nation is secure, our democracy is stable, and the future is bright. Let us all work together, and with greater resolve, continue to build a stronger and more prosperous nation.
May God Almighty continue to bless our dear country, Nigeria.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) will form the new government in Nigeria as from 29th May, 2015. The party won the election with a campaign on a change agenda. Before the election of the APC, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has been in power for sixteen years. There are many lessons to learn from the failure of the PDP regime which led to the victory of APC. These lessons should be taken into cognisance by the APC from the beginning. The first is that the development of a country is a complex issue and is much more than a rendition of activities and projects of Ministry, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). There is also the need to focus on the big issues of political, social and cultural change. Secondly, the voice of the people is important. For instance, the majority of the people cannot be arguing that corruption is a major problem and the political leadership is insisting that corruption is not a problem. Thirdly, government must learn to put the people at the centre of development. The Nigerian economy has grown. The economic growth rate is high but poverty is increasing at the same time. There is the need for policy intervention to deal with this. In addition, any party that operates and portrays itself for the sole purpose of patronage is digging its own grave. According to the former chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, Alh. Bamamga Tukur “PDP is all about patronage. We are going to dole out patronage to all our members who remain in the party….Let me inform you. We are going to give patronage to all our members who have contested elections and lost. There is enough in the party to go around everyone. There is no need to leave the party.” Political organising need to be a continuous process involving political education of party leaders and members. The think tank of the party is very important here. Furthermore, lack of engagement with critical stakeholders of the society is political suicide. There is the need to engage with critical sectors such as civil society, labour and the private sector. Moreover, poor co-ordination of government activities and poor monitoring and evaluation can lead to failure of a government.
The APC has come to power to implement a change agenda. Nigerians are anxiously waiting for that change. It is necessary to carefully craft the change agenda in the four key areas of economy, politics, social and technological. The economic agenda should address the issues of structures and institutions of economic management; diversification of the economy; promotion of transparency and accountability and promotion of pro-poor policies (Policies that will lead to good macroeconomic environment, improve access to financial services, improve governance and increase access of the poor to basic infrastructures and social services). The political agenda should address the building of institutions and mechanisms; review of the 1999 Constitution; institutions of horizontal accountability; reform of the Electoral system; building of democratic culture; regulation of party financing and campaign finance and reform of INEC. There should also be a social agenda because over the years the social fabric of the Nigerian society has been destroyed. A lot of people become wealthy overnight without questions about the sources of the wealth. People who embezzle public funds are rewarded by their communities with chieftaincy titles. There is brazen display of wealth in the midst of widespread poverty. The extended family system is being destroyed. The get rich quick syndrome has caught up with a great number of the population. The social agenda should focus on re-orientation on social values; re-orientation on work ethics and corporate Social responsibility and investment. The technological agenda should focus on building of technology infrastructure and use of technology to promote transparency and accountability.
In order to implement the above change agenda, there are certain immediate issues that the new administration must focus upon. They include the immediate production of a strategic plan to replace the vision 20:2020 document. It will also be a process to engage Nigerians in the change process. There is also the need to train the elected party officials on party philosophy and programmes. In addition, the regime must have an immediate plan for co-ordination. In the past, some form of co-ordination only took place in the economic sector. There is the need to divide the whole governance structures into four co-ordinating units: Finance and Economy; Social Services; Infrastructure, Science and Technology and Governance. Luckily, the public service has already been divided along those four lines. Finance and Economy will encompass Finance, Industry, Trade and Investment, Budget Office, Office of Accountant General, Office of Auditor General. Social services will include Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Education, Health, Sports, Women Affairs and Social Development, Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Police, Youth. Infrastructure, Science and Technology will be made up of Communication, Science and Technology, Environment, Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Power, Water, Transport, Niger Delta, Petroleum and Agriculture. Governance will include the State House, SGF, HOS, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Information, Interior, Justice, Labour and Productivity.
Another important area to focus upon is monitoring and evaluation. The vision 20:2020 demanded that all tiers of government and MDAs should have a robust M & E system. This needs to be operationalized. Finally is the very important issue of public administration reform. There are several issues that require reform in the Public Service. A few of them is examined below:
· Cost of governance: It is well known that the cost of governance in Nigeria is very high. Over 70 percent of the federal budget is devoted to recurrent expenditure. The political and bureaucratic classes are over bloated. Cost of doing business with government is high. Most of the procurement in the public sector is inflated.
· Effective Budgeting: The budget is perhaps the most important instrument in any modern state apart from the constitution. The focus on budget has assumed greater prominence in recent years with increasing democratization, civil society participation and the desire to respond to the development challenge of poverty. Budgeting is very crucial for the economic development of any nation. Good budgeting can lead to economic growth and development. But to prepare a good budget requires a responsible leadership, special staff assistance, broad, accurate and reliable information, complete plan, a financial calendar and effective monitoring and control over the execution of the budget plan. Meanwhile, the budget has been described as the most important document for the development of any country. It is the most powerful way that a government can meet the needs and priorities of the citizens. The budget process is crucial to good development outcomes. Corruption in any country starts from the budgetary process. In very corrupt countries, the budget is done in secret. Releases are done without the knowledge of citizens. Procurement information is not made available to citizens and corruption is guarded and protected. Effective budgeting requires an open budget system. A budget is regarded as open if citizens have access to the key budget documents; have high level of involvement in the budgetary process and have access to procurement information. The Open Budget Index 2012 scores Nigeria 16 out of 100 which is a poor rating of the quality of budgeting in Nigeria.
· Public Finance Management: There is still opacity and lack of transparency in the oil and gas sector. Oil theft continues unabated despite the effort of government and security agencies. According to NEITI Audit report 2009-2011, Nigeria losses N578.990 billion annually to oil theft and NNPC owes government $5.8 billion from Liquefied Natural Gas which has not been paid into the federation account since 2006. There is still late releases of funds to ministries, departments and agencies. There is improper project design, costing, monitoring and audit. The end result is low capital budget implementation and unsatisfactory public expenditure outcomes.
· Civil Service Reform: In the civil service today, there is the culture of self-interest and patronage. The recruitment process does not supply the right people in the right numbers to the right places to meet the service needs of citizens. The civil servants are not managed, promoted or rewarded based on objective measures of performance. The end result is that the civil service functions as an employment mechanism and not a service delivery mechanism with the with over 70 percent recurrent expenditure. Consequently, there is poor delivery of public goods and services.
· Planning: There is no systematic planning framework for the country that ensures that adequate data and research, good information system, monitoring and evaluation and tracking of results. In addition, there is no integration of planning and budgeting. The end result is abandonment of projects, poor plan implementation and poor service delivery. For instance, it has been documented by the Presidential Assessment Committee report that 11, 886 projects worth N7.7 trillion have been abandoned across the country denying citizens of the benefits. Also, the Ajaokuta steel plant was planned in 1978/79 to be completed in 1986 at US$650m but government has spent over US$5 billion and it is not completed as a result of poor planning and corruption.
· Policy: There is no process or criteria or mechanism for filtering policy ideas in the country. Policy proposals are often not evidence based because ideas that enter into the policy agenda are based on the private interest behind them. The result is that the policy ideas are not strategic and implementation do not give the desired result leading to wastage of resources due to duplication and failed programmes and projects. The World Bank Resource Allocation Index and Global Competitive Index rate Nigeria very poorly in terms of policy.
· Sectoral Issues: The ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) in the different sectors such as Trade, agriculture, education, health, and security are expected to deliver government services to meet the needs of Nigerians. But the poor recruitment and posting, lack of motivation, poor allocation of resources and poor management has resulted in weak capacity, weak accountability and poor performance of the MDAs.
· Constituency projects: Constituency projects constitute a huge challenge to organizational effectiveness in the public sector. Most of the projects are put in the budget without proper design and costing. The nature, location and choice of contractors for the projects are determined solely by political considerations. The end result is abandonment of projects, poor execution and poor service delivery to citizens.
· Corruption: As noted above, corruption is widespread and endemic in Nigeria. But we know that the problem of corruption is as old as society itself and cuts across nations, cultures, races and classes of people. It is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges of our times leading to underdevelopment and poor service delivery in Nigeria. Corruption has a lot of negative consequences on every sphere of societal development whether social, economic or political. Corruption not only leads to poor service delivery but loss of lives. Corruption is pervasive in Nigeria with serious negative consequences. Despite the plethora of legislations and agencies fighting corruption in the country, corruption has remained widespread and pervasive because of failure to utilize universally accepted and tested strategies; disconnect between posturing of leaders and their conduct; lack of concrete sustainable anti-corruption programming and failure to locate the anti-corruption struggle within a broader struggle to transform society. Some scholars have recommended that the anti-corruption fight must be guided by legislative framework for transparent and accountable government; political will and commitment to fight corruption; comprehensive strategy that is systematic, comprehensive, consistent, focused, publicized, non-selective and non-partisan; protection of Whistle blowers; political reform to curb political corruption especially election rigging; reform of substantive programmes and administrative procedures; mobilisation for social re-orientation; independent media; adequate remuneration for workers to reflect the responsibilities of their post and a living wage; code of ethics for Political office holders, business people and CSOs; independent institutions especially electoral, human rights and gender commissions and a movement for Anti-corruption.
The Buhari Administration will be starting on a firm footing if these issues are taken seriously and implemented with efficiency, effectiveness and professionalism. The administration should have a clear change agenda that is incorporated into a strategic plan with clear plan for monitoring and evaluation and public administration reform. In particular, the administration should focus on the challenges of implementation by addressing the issues of strategy, operations and people.
The writer is the Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD). otiveigbuzor@yahoo.co.uk
Nigeria’s outgoing agriculture minister Akinwumi Adesina has risen from humble origins to become the head of the African Development Bank at a time of economic transformation on the continent.
The son of a poor farmer earning 10 US cents per day in Ogun state, southwest Nigeria, 55-year-old Adesina gradually climbed the social ladder, according to friends.
He earned a first-class honours degree in agricultural economics from the southwestern University of Ife and a doctorate in the same subject at Purdue in the US midwest in 1988.
Before becoming a minister in 2011, he worked for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and held senior positions in agricultural bodies around the world.
In 2013, Adesina was named African Person of the Year by Forbes magazine for his agricultural reforms. “He is a man on a mission to help Africa feed itself,” the publication said.
“My goal is to make as many millionaires, maybe even billionaires, from agriculture as possible,” he said while accepting the Forbes award.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and biggest economy, and a leading shareholder in the AfDB.
The appointment of Adesina, after months of intensive lobbying across the continent, breaks the unwritten rule that the top job should go to someone from a small to medium-sized country.
The new chief said in late March that he wanted to “finish off the white elephants,” in a reference to useless luxury projects that are often financed using international aid and built by foreign businessmen, and which reek of corruption.
He called for “intelligent infrastructure that is more productive, more competitive”.
He also urged more cooperation across borders, pitching ideas such as an “African Google,” a transnational electricity market, and a regional stock exchange.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, has long been urged to reduce its reliance on crude by diversifying its economy, including in agriculture, which supports more people.
Official data indicated food imports fell from 1 trillion naira ($5 billion, 4.6 billion euros) to 466 billion naira in the last three years on Adesina’s watch
Admirers say transparency has improved in the administration and distribution of fertilisers, which had long been riddled with inefficiency and corruption.
Adesina said last year his aim was “to cut out all the crap within the system” to forge policies that allowed private investors to make money from agriculture in the same way as energy.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon described Adesina as an “eminent personality” who had shown outstanding leadership in his role since 2009 in the UN Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group.
Despite the present boom in the culture and music industries of Africa, the major challenge facing the industries remains how to find ways to sustain the growth and spread the benefits to larger layers of the society through significant job creation and poverty alleviation. This submission was made by the President/Executive Producer, All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, Mr. Michael Dada, during his presentation at the 4th Pan African Cultural Congress, PACC4, on May 26, 2015 at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa. Organised by the African Union Commission, AUC, in collaboration with the Department of Arts and Culture of the Republic of South Africa, the three-day PACC4 with the theme “Unity in Cultural Diversity for Africa’s Development”, opened on Monday, May 25 and was brought to a close on Wednesday, May 27. The congress featured thematic presentations and plenary and panel discussions encouraging participatory interactive discussions moderated by carefully selected moderators. The presentations were prepared by expert in each of the themes and sub-themes. Addressing participants on the theme: “All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA: A tool for promoting African Culture and Identity for Development”, Mr. Dada described music as an integral part of African culture to promote brotherhood, solidarity and the struggle for liberation. He referenced history saying African musicians over the years had produced rich and inspirational songs on political independence for African countries, the problem of apartheid in South Africa, the need for African countries to unite, and ultimately, the development of the continent. “African musicians have also composed different songs that challenged hegemonic nations and organisations such as the United States, France, United Kingdom and most importantly the United Nations on policies which affect Africans at home and in the Diaspora. They also support the campaign for enthronement of democracy in Africa and sing against any policy of governments that is anti-people.” The AFRIMA President emphasised that this decades long effort by African musicians has resulted in economic growth in Africa as shown in a report produced by PricewaterHouseCoopers (PWC): On the continent, South Africa is the biggest media and entertainment industry valued at $10.5 billion in 2013; Nigeria is in second place at $4 billion and Kenya is in third place at $1.7 billion. Said Dada: “The report projects that by 2018, these industries will haverisen dramatically to $17.1 billion, $8.5 billion and $3.1 billion respectively. However, the economic growth must be transformed into economic development and thereby create a new Africa. It is the positive aspects of music, which are immense, that All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) seeks to promote. AFRIMA is a combined effort to recognise, award, promote and preserve Africa’s rich music culture. Besides, it is a platform to communicate the unique image and culture of Africa to the world for global competitiveness. In AFRIMA, we believe music can play a wonderful role in fulfilling this historic task. The economic revival has unleashed a wave of creative energy and inspired hope. We strongly hold that music and cultural industry can help create good jobs and raise consciousness about developments and the needed change in Africa.Thus, working in partnership with the African Union Commission, AFRIMA has set out to contribute to the realisation of the objectives of those laudable plans of the AU through music, culture and tourism.” He revealed that already, in preparation for the 2015 edition of the continental awards project, AFRIMA and African Union Commission held a Joint Conference/Roundtable Discussion in Addis Ababa on April 29, 2015 under the theme: “Using Music, Culture and Entertainment as tools for a new Africa.” Other distinguished speakers at PACC4 included: Commissioner for Social Affairs, AUC, H.E. Dr. Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko; Minister of Arts and Culture, South Africa, H.E. Mr Nathi Mthethwa; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture, Zimbabwe, Dr. Thokozile Chitepo; Director General, Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization, CBAAC, Sir Ferdinand Ikechukwu Anikwe, Independent Curator, Ms. Ngone Fall; Secretary General, Arterial Network, Mr. Peter Rorvik; Executive Director, Godown Art Centre Kenya, Ms. Joy Mboka and Director General, Afro-Arab Institute, Dr. Mohamed Salem Soufi, amongst others. The congress also featured exhibitions, music and dance as well as a celebration of the ‘World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development’-a United Nations sanctioned international holiday for the promotion of diversity issue marked on May 21 each year.
Nigeria’s outgoing agriculture minister, Akinwumi Adesina has been voted as President of the African Development Bank. He was elected with 58.10 percent after six rounds of voting, beating the finance ministers of Chad and Cape Verde to the role.
A total of 80 AfDB shareholders — 54 African states and 26 non-African countries — took part in the election in Abidjan, in which eight candidates were vying for the presidency.
Adesina, 55, will succeed Rwandan Donald Kaberuka, chief for two consecutive terms since 2005, at a time when the institution is trying to diversify from its traditional role as a development bank.
Adesina inherits a financially sound institution, which was awarded a prestigious AAA rating by US ratings agency Fitch in 2013 — a year in which it lent a total of $6.8 billion for 317 operations.
The Nigerian was voted African of the year in 2013 by Forbes magazine for his agricultural reforms, and he represents a country considered to be the new economic powerhouse of Africa.
His appointment breaks the unwritten rule that the top job should go to someone from a small or medium-sized country — Nigeria is the leading oil producer and most populous country in the continent.
Despite multiple conflicts, health crises such as Ebola, and staggering poverty, Africa is today seen as “a new frontier in world economic growth”, Amethis investment fund founder Luc Rigouzzo told AFP ahead of the election.
Adesina will now have the job of managing the continent’s financial attractiveness — without losing sight of the need to fight poverty and develop infrastructure.
Chad’s Finance Minister Bedoumra Kordje came second in the election with 31.62 percent of votes, and third was Cape Verde’s Finance Minister Cristina Duarte with 10.27 percent.
She would have been the first woman and the first Portuguese speaker in the job.
The United States — the AfDB’s second-biggest shareholder after Nigeria — had a central role in the vote, as did Japan and China. France had been hoping for a champion of Francophone Africa.
After a failed coup in Ivory Coast in 2002 that threw the country into crisis, the bank’s headquarters was relocated to Tunis in 2003. It returned last year to the Ivorian economic capital.
Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo has charged the new Board of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) to surpass previous standards on hajj operations, assuring members of the board that they were chosen based on their wealth of experience and diligence.
Namadi Sambo who performed the inaugurat5ion of the board today at the Presidential Villa, Abuja said that their duty is not only bound by the governing rules of the Board but also that of Almighty Allah.
“I charge the new members to be steadfast in their responsibilities by not only meeting the high expectations of the Muslim Ummah on Hajj Operations, but by surpassing such expectations by discharging their duties diligently and to the best of their ability and conscience.”
Vice President Sambo commended NAHCON for delivering on its mandate in improving the standards of Hajj operation in the country since its inception in 2007, which he acknowledged has facilitated smoother hajj experience for the average Nigerian pilgrim.
“Our pilgrims now enjoy better accommodation and better facilities during Hajj operations. The management of the Hajj operations has been greatly enhanced to face contemporary challenges and to accommodate the increasing number of intending pilgrims that apply annually for this spiritual obligation.”
Vice President Sambo congratulated the erstwhile board members for successfully completing their tenure and for the various developments they brought to the commission.
Speaking on behalf of the Board members, the Chairman, Abdullahi Mukhtar Mohammed thanked President Jonathan and Vice President Sambo for given them the opportunity to serve their country and pledged their commitment to live up to expectation of all the stakeholders particularly the pilgrims.
NAHCON was established in 2007 and its board is consisted of nine members including the Chairman. The tenure of the board is four years. Since its establishment the board had been inaugurated twice on May 25th of 2007 and 2011, while for 2015 it was done today.
Members that were inaugurated were Abdullahi Mukhtar Mohammed, who is the chairman, Yusuf Adebayo Ibrahim, Abdullahi Modibbo Saleh, Alhaji Ibrahim Ezeani, and Adeyemi Ademola Fuad as well as Alhaji Enenwary Zikey, Hajiya Aisha Maidubu Mohammed and Danjuma Salihu Usman. The ninth member, Hajiya Ramatu Bala Usman, is still awaiting National Assembly confirmation.
The American President, Barack Obama has announced the designation of a Presidential Delegation to Nigeria to attend the inauguration of the Nigeria’s President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, tomorrow at the Eagle Square, Abuja. This is even as a delegation of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) United Kingdom Chapter, under the leadership of Dr. Phillip Idaewor has arrived Nigeria to witness the inauguration of the President-elect and his Vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
According to a statement from the US, the American Secretary of State, John Kerry, will lead the Obama Presidential delegation with Honorable James F. Entwistle, U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Department of State and Honorable Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Department of State as members of the team.
Also in the team are General David M. Rodriguez, Commander, U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM), Honorable Grant T. Harris, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, National Security Council and Mr. Hakeem Olajuwon, NBA Legend and Olympic Gold Medalist.
Meanwhile, a statement signed by the deputy chairman of the UK Chapter of APC, Tunde Doherty said the delegation flagged off their trip to Nigeria with a visit to one of the APC leaders, Chief Wale Osun, who is also the leader of Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG).
They also paid a courtesy call on the Chairman of APC in Lagos State, Chief Henry Ajomale and his deputy, Cardinal Odunmbaku at the party’s secretariat in Lagos before they stormed the studios of the Television Continental (TVC) where the group’s deputy chairman, Mr Tunde Doherty appeared on the news live.
The group later left for Abuja on Tuesday and were at the APC National Secretariat where they met the Director of Organisation, Alhaji Abubakar Kari and the Deputy National Chairman (South) and former Ekiti State Governor, Chief Segun Oni.
Earlier, Prince Hilliard Etagbo Eta, the National Vice Chairman, (South-South) had hosted Dr. Idaewor led APC, UK Chapter to lunch in Abuja.
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President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that the command centre for the fight against Boko Haram should be moved immediately to Maiduguri which is the epic-centre of the long time battle.
Good Bye Jonathan, By Dan Agbese
He was the poster child of good luck. His parents named him Goodluck. Perhaps, a prophetic name; perhaps, a parental wish. No man has had such a run of good luck like Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
From an obscure and unknown university lecturer his unusual luck propelled him all the way up to the top of our nation’s political leadership: deputy governor of Bayelsa State, governor of Bayelsa State, Vice-President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Acting President, Federal Republic of Nigeria and President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Alas, when he needed his good luck most, it failed him. Goodluck Jonathan leaves office as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria today a thoroughly messed up man; messed up by his hubris and messed up by his wife and aides. As you read this, it should be easy for you to picture him walking towards the sunset of loneliness, deserted by friends, mocked by detractors.
He expected a sustained ovation in his last week in office but it turned out to be his worst week in office. The nation was shut down and its economic and social activities paralysed. The week added a new feather to our nation’s cap as a nation of ironies, contradictions and indifferent leadership. An oil-producing nation forever battling with fuel supplies. And so, in the last week of the Jonathan administration, we are stranded in our homes for lack of fuel. Even in a nation inured to embarrassment, this still takes the cake. It must be part of the reason why General T.Y. Danjuma has urged Buhari to probe Jonathan’s “corrupt administration.
Despite the nation wide paralysis, neither Jonathan nor his powerful petroleum resources minister, Mrs. Deziani Madueke, as of this writing, bothered to tell us what is happening. Obviously, they do not give a damn. Here is the problem: Jonathan cannot extricate himself from charges of sabotaging the transition or hand over programme. He has turned something worth celebrating into ashes in our mouths. We deserve better.
Corruption is endemic in the petroleum ministry and the NNPC. Jonathan knew about it but he was more than reluctant to do anything it. Now it has brought him down in a manner that cements his place in our national history as a failed president. Our country is the butt of international jokes. [quote]No one expected Jonathan’s scrappy legacy to be a thoroughly demoralized nation in his last days in office but here we are: the man who lost his re-election bid and led his party into a thorough walloping at the polls goes home in a whimper, soaked in the cold rain of public opprobrium.[/quote]
He has my sympathy.
In the coming days and weeks and even months, the pundits would subject the Jonathan tenure to a rigorous examination, trawling for lessons in human management and political administration. It is no use disputing the fact that despite his offering the nation airy slogans such as fresh breath of air (2011) and transformation agenda (2015), the man enjoyed enormous public good will. So, why did he end up “a failed president” (The Economist) and “a lousy president,” (The New York Times)?
The answer is complex, complicated even. My take is that Jonathan was an indifferent leader. He did not understand power and, therefore, he had problems excising it other than in the primitive sense of who was the boss. Either he was misled or he misled himself into believing that as president, he could do anything, not necessarily because it was right but because he could. The consequences meant nothing to him.
This unhelpful belief fired his adrenalin in the last two or three weeks of his administration. We found him engaged in a flurry of activities that resulted in administrative actions and decisions that were thoroughly unwise. He was motivated by his understanding of his enormous presidential powers. He could exercise them to the last minute. If anybody’s ox was gored in the process, well, poor luck to the ox and its owner. He was trying to court popularity but went about it in a way that suggested his ultimate objective was to commit the new Buhari administration to retaining his unwise and unhelpful decisions at its own peril. An unfriendly act.
Jonathan believes in planting universities in all corners and crannies of the country. His belief has no positive or objective end. His 12 federal universities were not the products of strategic educational thinking. He used them for his popularity contest with himself. He was unable to fund them. He knew it would come to that any way because his administration could not properly fund the existing federal universities. No government makes its burden light by adding more weight to it.
His decision to play politics with our education must go down as one of his failings as a leader. He appointed councils for those universities towards his last days to tell the new administration that their existence was a fait accompli. Thanks for nothing. Administrative decisions are not cast in stone.
Jonathan piled it on. Less than two weeks to the end of his tenure, Jonathan approved the setting up of two specialized universities and upgraded four advanced teachers training colleges to universities. He approved every application for private universities submitted to the executive council of the federation. Does anyone know the actual number of universities, public, private and religious we have in the country today? Has this large number of universities, the highest in Africa, stopped the steady decline in our standard of education? It all boggles the mind. Well, not Jonathan’s mind, obviously.
Buhari faced a similar situation in 1984. The Shagari administration had set up some new universities more for political reasons. The general felt that more universities would not remedy the crisis in our educational system. He down graded those universities and made them campuses of existing universities to cut administrative and other costs and free needed funds to tackle the real problems of our education at the roots.
Encouraged by this and believing that Jonathan’s decisions are a drag on good governance, I give the new president my special gift of a box of red biros. With them, he should walk the red biro through the new universities, the 31 billion Naira contract, the relocation of the N500 million oil and gas treatment project from Lagos to his home state of Bayelsa, the five billion Naira contract for the supply of smokeless cooking stoves for rural women (where?) and all the last minute grandstanding decisions calculated to tie the hands of the Buhari administration.
Let me borrow this from The Economist magazine and say, good bye, Jonathan.
[myad]