Friday 22 April 2022
What Nigerians expect from the next President
Nigeria becomes second most corrupt nation
The Guardian editorial
The global anti corruption coalition, Transparency International (TI) rated Nigeria the second most corrupt nation in West Africa. In its 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released recently, Nigeria dropped five places, scored 24 out of 100 points in the index. This is coming after President Mohammed Buhari’s avowed fight against graft as the lodestar of his administration.
Nigeria’s current 154 ranking in 180 countries is a drop from 149 in the 2020 index. This country’s second consecutive year of downward spiral on the CPI ranking is most unwholesome. Nigeria’s score dropped from 26 in 2019 to 25 in 2020 and further downwards to 24 in 2021. The CPI is TI’s tool for measuring corruption levels in countries around the world. Zero is the measure of the worst country while 100 is the best ranked country.
The Ti representative in Nigeria said during the presentation of the report, that Nigeria’s decline made corruption the greatest contributor to underdevelopment in Nigeria. Despite the boasts by the Nigerian government on fighting corruption, driving license, new job openings and passport applications are still filled with corrupt tendencies as officials in charge still expect kickbacks while rendering their services.
Rising insecurity, ethnic cleansing and unemployment are still blamed on corruption. Moreover, systemic failure in healthcare delivery during this pandemic and leadership failure have been found to be engendered by corrupt practice. The CPI is impartial, scientifically objective and recognized as the most accepted parameter for measuring corruption. This report shows corruption is still a major challenge in Nigeria. Corruption is hindering our development, economic prosperity and it is responsible for deepening poverty in Nigeria.
Corruption is destroying the country; insecurity persists because of corruption. The report is the perception of corruption in Nigeria’s public sector. Therefore, we call on anti-graft agencies to investigate allegations of corruption leveled against politicians, political office holders and civil servants. Justice delayed is justice denied. We call on the National Assembly to fast track the passage of relevant laws amending statutes to strengthen the anti-graft agencies.
According to CPI parameters, corruption is more than stealing, although we are not saying stealing isn’t corruption; certainly stealing is corruption. However, nepotism, a phenomenon that has gained greater traction in this Buhari era, is corruption. It is noteworthy that just as President Ebele Jonathan didn’t see stealing as corruption, President Buhari doesn’t see nepotism as corruption too. This is a grave error of our educational system.
All the more corrupt is the practice of alienating other ethnic groups from the police, the military and the civil service which failure to observe federal character in the recruitment of personnel in the public service of the federation. Failure to remit revenue gathered by our ministries, departments and agencies to the federation account is also corruption. Failure to punish corrupt officials is also corruption. We are well aware that during budget hearings, legislators are asked to include their constituency needs, which makes budget padding by legislators acts of corruption.
Indeed, the refrain that by joining the ruling party yours sins are forgiven by a former national chairman of the ruling party, legitimizes corruption. For in the aftermath of that statement, people indicted for corruption who joined the ruling party had their prosecution stalled. The prosecution of Buhari’s first Secretary to the Government of the Federation has been going on for more than three years now. The case of corruption Jonathan’s National Security Adviser was charged with is still pending six years after. Government’s refusal to punish avowed culprits is an act of corruption.
How and who can stop corruption? This should be part of our questions for the in-coming President in 2023. When governors see state money in their care as their money, it becomes difficult to check corruption. Which is why the Niger Delta Development Commission has become haven for corruption. The same goes for the NNPC; behind the clamor for and against the removal of petroleum subsidy is corruption. It is corruption that has kept the refineries with government. The Federal Government has no business keeping refineries. They’re being kept in order to use them to steal.
It is a sad commentary about a country called the giant of Africa. Corruption appears in many forms. It has been identified as bribery, extortion, illegal use of public property for private use. Over and under invoicing , payment to ghost workers and pensioners; payment for goods not supplied or services not rendered, under payments of exports and imports have been categorized as corruption. Other forms of corruption are: purchase of goods at inflated prices, fraud and embezzlement; misappropriation of funds and assets; court decisions awarding damages in excess of injury suffered.
Some corruption endemic nation states are called kleptocracy, mafia dominated states. In a kleptocracy, the head of government runs the system in such a way that he maximizes the extraction of rents and he allocates these for personal aggrandizement. Under a bilateral monopoly state, the corrupt leader has a single major briber as a multinational corporation. In some bilateral monopolies, rulers form alliance with bandits, or a mafia group to provide protective services to pillage, cause fear and keep the populace in a permanent state of insurrection.
In Nigeria today, corruption is retarding long term growth, foreign and domestic investment. It contributes to capital flight, promotes runaway inflation and the depreciation of the national currency. Since government has made corruption endemic, only a visionary leader can stem it. Sadly, less than three of the current presidential aspirants can tame corruption within the next decade. Corruption makes Nigeria vulnerable to secession and disintegration. Which is why it isn’t too late for government to tame it.
Why Nigeria straddles the blind alley: rewritten piece
By Bayo Ogunmupe
Of the many cardinal programmes embedded in the Buhari Presidential campaign, I cannot decipher a single promise fulfilled by President Buhari since 2015. With an array of lawyers in his cabinet, a senior advocate of Nigeria as his vice president, another as his attorney general; and yet another as his minister of works. None of them including other distinguished professionals could persuade him to stand by his promises and at least fulfill the most pressing one, that of insurgency, the widespread kidnapping, banditry and ethnic cleansing in Kaduna, Zamfara and Benue states.
This he could do simply by approving the establishment of the regional policy force and the national Guard to relief the Nigeria Police Force from its onerous task of guarding federal roads, federal buildings, the nation’s dignitaries and judges. Sadly, Buhari just found himself enmeshed in the inanities of the time: kidnapping, banditry and ethnic cleansing in such states as Kaduna, Zamfara, benue and Plateau states. No positive solution he found for the abatement of the hostilities. Like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he is just there playing power politics. Obasanjo withheld allocations due to Lagos state for no just cause. Obasanjo caused the impeachment of his fellow party man, Governor Rashidi Ladoja of Oyo state. There was no justification for it.
Whereas, in other climes leaders engage in politics in order to empower the people, make people prosperous and eradicate poverty and squalor. For instance, Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his campaign promised Americans that when he becomes president he would eradicate poverty. And he did by establishing the Social Security Act of 1935 by which he paid old age pensions to indigent people 60 years and above. But in England, old age pensions started with the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601. Can we get such examples in Africa? I doubt it very much because we straddle the blind alley instead of real life solutions.
For Obasanjo, instead of rebuilding the flawed Nigerian Constitution 1999, he frittered away his time withholding monetary allocations to Lagos for no just cause. Viewing the Nigerian landscape with the spectacles of normative logic as an epistemological system of analytical reasoning and cognition, we see escalating insecurity as a justification for holding on to power interminably. Indeed, the foundation of sustainable economic growth in Nigeria was premised on single digit inflation threshold, however at the moment, our hopes have been dashed as inflation is galloping towards a three digit rate.
Recovering from the pandemic in 2021, with our GDP rising above 4 percent and inflation climbing out of reach owing to our penchant for foreign consumer goods. The cost of living is now on the rise, high cost of food, fuel, energy, housing and with our ungovernable economic environment, insecurity has made life more dangerous than ever before. With escalating insecurity, government is eyeing a military handover rather than a peaceful transition between two civilian governments.
Unwillingness to hand over to another civilian regime is the reason why he could not stop budget padding which a tech outfit BudgIT discovered in the 2022 budget. It discovered 460 duplicated projects valued at N378.9 billion inserted into the budget by lawmakers where padding has become endemic without any consequences and their complicit civil servants. Moreover, up to $400 billion of public funds have been stolen between 1960 and 1999,
Another anti corruption agency, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda said Nigeria suffers illicit financial outflows of about $18 billion yearly. And according to a report by the US Department of Commerce, at least 40 percent of all procurement from public sector funds in Nigeria is lost to corruption. More than these, government has refused to force agencies to return unspent funds. They are the reason why government is straddling the blind alley. They want to hang on to power as long as possible given the timorous and timid habits of our people.
One Thing In Common With Life Regrets
By Bayo Ogunmupe
Many people review their lives twice a year; during their birthdays or at the end of the year. For those who don’t know their dates of birth or those whose religious faiths do not permit birthday celebrations. As for me I review my life at the end of the year while leaving my birthdays for felicitations. Thus, December 31, 2021 was the last time I reviewed my life as a septuagenarian approaching the graveyard. Moreover, an old friend had regaled me with the circumstances of his retirement a week before.
As the story of the retirement of Prince Adesumbo Ajibola triggered my memory about regrets and incidentally the day I caused my Nigerian Federalist news blog to be uploaded by my internet consultant. One of the features uploaded onto my blog was on regrets in life. In researching the feature I found that there are two major types of regret in life: things that we did and things we wish we had done. Indeed, all regrets are matters of commission and omission.
But there is one key difference between the two, and that is how we tend to view those regrets later in life. While we sometimes regret things we have done, we are often fortunate enough to be able to reverse those situations, to apologize for them or to make amends with people we may have hurt. As an example , Prince Ajibola shared that many former high school bullies seek out the kids they tormented in the past; reconnect with them and apologize; with a positive outcome for both people. In these way, these regrets of commission can be fixed in some way.
But the majority of our regrets fall into the omission category. Our biggest regrets, especially when we reexamine things at the end of our lives, are the things we didn’t do and the risks we didn’t take. Common regrets in this category include not asking someone out, not studying abroad, not studying law or medicine or a profession; not starting a business; not moving into the city and other missed opportunities. “People regret playing it safe.” If most of our regrets stem from failing to take chances, that’s an interesting lens through which to examine our thinking about risks. This, in particular applies to two major components of risk: psychological risk and financial risk.
Psychological risk is represented by our fears of change, rejection, embarrassment and missing out on other fronts. These fears are what lead people to avoid going abroad or opting not to ask someone out. What we often fail to recognize in the moment is that many psychological risks in life are short term discomfort or embarrassment we feel when things don’t go our way, which rarely lasts a lifetime.
Financial risk can be very different, depending on the context. For example quitting your job to start a new business could have real, lasting consequences for your family if your new venture fails. This is where having a baseline level of financial security is paradoxically essential to having the confidence to take risks. If you have no savings; live paycheque to paycheque or spend far beyond your means, taking a financial risk is much harder, unless you have nothing to lose. We think of a rainy day fund as protecting our downside, but it also increases our upside by increasing our ability to take chances.
The next time you have a decision to make, especially when some risk is involved, carefully consider a lifetime of wondering “What if?” might compare to a few hours or days of discomfort or embarrassment. I know I would have regretted missing being inducted into the prestigious mastermind group, The Guardian Editorial Board if I had not tarried in pecuniary denial working as a freelance columnist for 30 years.
How to accelerate the growth of Nigerian economy
By Bayo Ogunmupe
In the year 2021, the Nigerian economy recorded the highest growth of its GDP since 2014, beating the expectations of economists and the projections of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The economy grew by 3.4 percent in full year 2021 compared to a contraction of 1.94 percent in full year 2020, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
International financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF had predicted the economy would record a GDP growth rate of 2.6 percent for its full year 2021. The Federal Ministry of Finance had estimated a growth of 2.5 percent while the projection of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was 3.1 percent. After two recessions induced by the pandemic, Africa’s biggest economy came out of its worst recession in 33 years growing by 0.11 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020.
According to the full year 2021 report, the non oil sector grew by 4.4 percent compared to a contraction of 1.25 percent in 2020. However, the oil sector contracted 8.06 percent in 2021 compared to a contraction of 1.25 percent in 2020. Nigeria’s oil production declined to 1.50 million barrels a day in the fourth quarter of 2021 from 1.57 million barrels a day in the third quarter. Nigeria has not benefited from rising oil prices as she is battling to increase her oil production.
Economic sectors such as rail transportation, solid minerals, electricity and gas grew 36.9 percent, 34 percent and 27 percent respectively. The laggards were oil refining-47.9 percent, crude petroleum and natural gas-8.3 percent and mining and quarrying-7.7 percent. The World Bank expects the economy to expand by 4.2 percent in 2022; the IMF 2.7 percent, the CBN 2.86 percent and the Federal Government projects a growth of 4.2 percent.
But the President of the World Economic Forum Dr Borge Brende agues that the world needs an equitable, sustainable and resilient post-pandemic global economy. He says opportunity now exists to lay the foundations of a resilient and sustainable world economy. Truly, at this moment the world economy faces strong headwinds, there is an opportunity for world leaders not only to accelerate growth in the near term, but to lay the foundations for a sustainable economy for the years to come.
In January this year, the IMF released projections indicating that global growth will slow from 5.9 percent in 2021 to 4.4 percent in 2022. This is half a percentage point lower than what had been forecast last October. Alongside this acceleration, economists believe persistent inflation will partially erase economic gains; with the expectation of rising interest rates slowing investment. On top of this, 60 percent of low income countries are in debt distress or at risk of debt interest. There comes the Russia- Ukraine war which at the moment of writing threatens the nuclear annihilation of the United Kingdom.
These are momentous times, with no doubt great challenges. But there are opportunities for gains ahead. However, these depend if leaders put in place policies to revitalize economies and also address shared priorities in the near, medium and long terms; there is a chance to fuel confidence and build resilience –the key ingredients for economic growth now and in the future. One, we need inclusive growth. To achieve this in Nigeria, there is need to bring on more unbanked transactions via Small and Medium Enterprises growth through interest free and collateral free SME loans. Most immediately, Nigeria must ensure economic growth is more inclusive. Many advanced economies have promising forecasts, such as China which saw her exports jump by over $675 billion last year—a 26 percent increase on the year before.
But there remains the recovery will take years in the emerging and developing economies. If inclusive growth is left unaddressed, the divergence will foster not just dire global economic consequences, but humanitarian ones as well. One way to advance a more equitable recovery is by committing to delivering sustainable investment to underfinanced economies. Here, however, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is showing signs of growth, as flows of finance were up 77 percent in 2021, surpassing their pre- pandemic level.
Indeed, China experienced a record $179 billion of investment flowing into the country, amounting to a 20 percent year-over-year increase. Yet, global FDI is still fragile, as factors like the COVID19 variants and the Russia-Ukraine war and the rising energy prices can create obstacles to capital flows. Two, in the medium term, we need to empower digital transformation, because the global economy is undergoing rapid technological advancement which the World Economic Forum termed the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The coming ten years will require each and every company to ensure technology and innovation are part of its DNA. Indeed, an estimated 70 percent of new value over this decade will be based on business models that rely on digital applications. The recent shortage in semiconductors, and the resulting focus in the USA, European Union and China on manufacturing chips, is just one indication of the rapid digital transformation taking place.
The digitization of the world economy is why China’s 14th Five Year Plan has called for the core industries of the digital economy to account for 10 percent of the country’s GDP by 2025, up from 7.8 percent in 2020. Yet, despite the growing importance of the digital, an estimated 2.9 billion people—over a third of the world population—have never used the internet. This is why last year the World Economic Forum brought together leading technology and financial companies, along with government entities, to launch the Edison Alliance, which is working to foster affordable digital access for everyone by 2025.
Three, over the long term, we must commit to going green because climate change is the most important challenge of our lifetime. By some estimates, the global economy could face unprecedented consequences, shrinking up to 18 percent in the next 30 years, if decarbonization efforts are not taken. This does not include the devastation planet Earth would face in terms of biodiversity loss and the loss of human lives.
Reaching net zero climate emissions by 2050 will require fundamentally transforming our economy, as companies and countries change their energy mixes, increase efficiency and invest in new zero-carbon solutions. But a green transition will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars to the global economy. The First Movers Coalition—a group of 30 leading companies that was launched at COP26 by the WEF and the US Climate envoy John Kerry—is helping to deliver a green economy by boosting demand signals for new low carbon technologies.
Thus, our priority should be a more equitable, digital and green economy. This forces us to rely on greater global cooperation because they are too large, too complex and too interconnected for one company or country to address alone. This why we must move away from a zero-sum mindset, in which global actors believe prosperity can only come at the expense of others. As China’s President Xi Jinping said at the WEF Davos Agenda in January: “The right way forward for humanity is peaceful development and win-win cooperation.”
Why exclude state police from Constitution?
An Editorial of the Guardian
Earlier this month, the national Assembly had voted on 68 bills that sought to alter the Nigerian Constitution 1999. Some of the bills which sought to promote more opportunities for women in political parties, create state police, and good governance were rejected. Ignorant of the provision that seats in the House of Representatives and state assemblies are allocated according to population a bill sought to allocate a number of seats to women and 35 percent of appointive political positions such as ministers, commissioners and board members to women.
For the moment, the decision to exclude state police is most regrettable. This is because of the gravity of the insecurity pervading the country. Only recently, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor said 80 percent of the Nigerian Armed Forces personnel were deployed across the 36 states of the federation performing police duties. General Irabor spoke in Abuja at the Twenty First Century Chronicle Roundtable themed ‘Going for Broke: Fighting Insecurity in Nigeria.’
Irabor, who spoke on the topic: ‘Armed Forces and the War Against Insecurity In Nigeria,’ called for more resources for defence and security to meet our needs. In the same vein, the new national resolve to tame insecurity is best approached through the creation of another police force other than one federally controlled. Community policing was introduced to Camden, New Jersey, United States in 2014. But that was done by New Jersey State Police Command; not the federally controlled Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Actually, what Nigerians want is another tier of security force not controlled by the Federal Government. The issues involved in state police include federalism, domination and democracy. Nations are among other things, a collective agreement, partly coerced to affirm a common history as the basis for a shared future. Those opposing state police are hiding under the fact that the states of Nigeria are too weak, small and poor to be recognized as federating units.
Which was why a regional police force like the Amotekun was tolerated and accepted. Since our governors are despotic in governance, we cannot increase their despotism by handing over the control of police to the states. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete,” Buckminster Fuller.
The Nigerian nation state arose from empires like Oyo, the Sokoto Caliphate, Borno-Kanem and kingdoms like Kano, Kworafa, Benin, they explained themselves by telling stories of their origins, stories are meant to unite us as autonomous entities with a common ancestry in a federation. These entities abhor domination from any one or group. Since the Local Government police force in the West and the Alkali native authority police in Northern Nigeria failed, we should build a new model, neither controlled by the state governor nor by the President.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results,” Albert Einstein. Therefore, let us adopt regional police forces like the Amotekun: Western Nigeria Security Network. Let us amend the Constitution along that line, giving each of the six geopolitical zones its police service commissions whose members shall be indigenous to the zones. Incidentally, it is inconceivable that the National Assembly rejected the amendment allowing state or regional police. This is because we already have the Amotekun in the Southwest; the Ebube Agu in the Southeast; the Hisbah in the Northwest and the Civilian Joint Task Force in the war torn Northeast.
All of these outfits are armed, they arrest and prosecute people. Besides, the Federal Government has the Civil Defence Corps; it empowered other agencies such as prisons, the EFCC, the ICPC, Customs to carry arms. In the case of Alhaji Abubakar versus the Attorney General of the Federation; the Supreme Court pointed out that the Nigeria Police Force shall be neutral because it a federal agency, not an agent of the Federal Government. Similarly with Segun Agagu versus Segun Mimiko, the court agreed that the Independent National Electoral Commission and the State Security Service are federal agencies not agents of any government.
Thus, they are to protect interests of Nigerians, not the Federal Government. So, the SSS should desist from calling itself the Department of State Security in the Presidency. The law setting it up called it SSS. These issues have been settled in law; but Parliament pretends ignorance of it in order to retain impunity, executive lawlessness and legislative rascality; which is what our democratic culture is teaching.
In 2014, government went to court to stop amendments after Parliament had spent huge sums of money on Constitutional review. The courts are already providing virtual hearing without Constitutional provisions. Many things don’t require enactments into the Constitution, so the establishment of regional police is already recognized by the law, It is the timidity and lack of political will of the zones to establish their own police forces that is at play. It is up to the zones to establish police forces with police service commissions comprising indigenes of member states of the zones or be swamped by banditry. Therefore, Nigerian law already recognizes regional policing only the states are too ignorant to implement it.
Duty Call as Anambra Governor, Willie Obiano a.k.a. Akpokuedike
A review by Bayo Ogunmupe
It is a biographical tribute to the outgoing fourth elected governor of Anambra State Willie Obiano. To be launched soon, the book has 15 chapters, a concluding essay, 192 pages, and a bibliography of eight pages. Written by Ike Chioke, a close confidant of Obiano, who wrote the manifesto of the governor as an aspirant. Chioke’s appointment as the chairman of the Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA) gave him the insight into the workings of the Obiano Administration. His close observation of Obiano’s leadership style and his accomplishments inspired him to write this panegyric.
This book covers Obiano’s two terms as governor of Anambra, the remarkable public service legacy of the visionary leader. During the author’s research of the biography, it became clear he had to delve into the personal history of the man. This enables me to break the book to four sections. The first four chapters encompasses Willie’s pedigree, Biafra, From CKC to Unilag and from First Bank to Fidelity Bank. The author met Akpokuedike during Chukwuma Soludo’s recapitalization drive as central bank Governor.
Soludo had announced the Nigerian banking sector’s recapitalization policy requiring all banks to raise their capital to a minimum of N25 billion by December 2005. Obiano who was an Executive Director at Fidelity, was responsible for managing due diligence exercise Fidelity conducted on FSB bank. Their relationship began from that transaction, maturing into true friendship, loyalty and mutual respect. After Peter Obi adopted Obiano as his gubernatorial candidate in 2013, Chioke was tapped to develop the first of many economic blueprints for Anambra State.
Obiano is from Aguleri, a rural community in the Anambra river valley. It is the largest town in the area and the headquarters of the Anambra East Local Government Council Area. Both his mother, Christiana, his father, Philip are Catholics and are from the same town. Philip, a catechist, was a teacher, and he taught school all over Igboland. His loyal wife, Christie went with him wherever he went selling fish. Of the six Philip children, two died with Willie becoming the eldest of the Obiano dynasty. Anambra state is 98 percent Igbo and two percent Igala.
Following Nigeria’s military coup in 1966, many Igbo families lost their loved ones in pogrom in Northern Nigeria. Amidst the uncertainties, the July countercoup occurred and 11-year old Willie and his siblings returned to their classroom, with ill omen muffling family conversations in homes. In May 1967, Lt. Col. Emeka Ojukwu as Military Governor of Eastern Region declared the region the independent state of Biafra. The declaration changed the history of the region and the Nigeria nation.
The federal troops attacked Onitsha in October 1967; with the Obiano family deciding it was time to move to safer territory. They left their rented apartment on Ajassa Street, Onitsha; journeying to Amanze, Aguleri their homestead. During the war years 1967-1969, Willie and siblings were out of school. Graciously, the war ended in January 1970 and Willie returned to school at the Christ the King’s College, Onitsha. At CKC, Willie stood out confident and self assured. His devotion to his studies was unmatched. His intellectual hunger and inquisitiveness are his defining characteristics.
As the President of CKC’s debating society, Willie won many laurels including the coveted John F. Kennedy Essay Prize dedicated to the late US President by the American Embassy. He easily made Grade 1in his West African School Certificate examinations and his Higher School Certificate course two years later. That carried him to a direct entry admission to read Accounting at the University of Lagos. At Unilag, Willie learned to be responsible, making minimum demands on his parents and never travelling home to Onitsha very often.
At the start of his final year in the university, tragedy struck, his father died at the age of 57. Widowhood was an agonizing plight for his mother the fish merchant. Happily, Willie stepped up to takeover as head of the Obiano dynasty. For a 23 year old undergraduate, it was no easy position. “Without their breadwinner’s regular income, life grew tougher for the Obiano family. But Christie was not daunted. She worked hard, traded merrily and was able to complete the training of all the children. Rosary in hand, she prayed as she worked. Her cheerfulness, good humour and joie de vivre earned her many customers.”
For Obiano’s 1979/1980 Youth Service, he worked as an accountant at the Benue State Hotel, Makurdi. Consequent upon his outstanding performance in his national service, he was made a Fellow, now a Patron, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN); the President of the Advanced Management Program of Lagos Business School since 2008; and a 2006 Building New Ventures class member of Harvard Business School.
Willie’s impressive academic records and leadership skills landed him a job at the oldest bank in Nigeria, older than Nigeria itself as an auditor at First Bank of Nigeria. Eighteen months later, he made a strategic move into the oil industry by joining Texaco Nigeria Plc. He was adjudged one of Texaco’s best dressed gentlemen. In 1991, Willie left Texaco to become the Deputy Manager and Head of Audit at Fidelity Bank. Within months, he was promoted Manager at the Bank.
Willie’s meteoric rise to stardom at Fidelity never actually surprised anyone who knew Willie well. The pleasure of working with him readily attests to his uncommon drive, principled objectivity and supreme confidence. “Alhaji Abdulrahman Esene was an Executive Director at Fidelity Bank until 2012 when he retired. Esene remembers Willie’s tenure as Executive Director (Business Banking). Wille led core banking business, deploying his entrepreneurial mind to attract quality risk assets to the bank. He brokered paradigm- changing equity arrangements that firmly placed Fidelity on the global financial map.” In 2012, after 31 years of meritorious service in the banking industry, Willie aged 57, retired from Fidelity Bank and moved to the United States.
Section two covers Willie and Ebele, From Candidate to governor, Philanthropy, Mentoring and Governance, and Securing Anambra Lives and Property. Here, we’re engaged with Willie’s marriage and public life. Like her husband, Ebele is a fashionista. She dresses excellently and admires those who dress well. The two lovers met on their way to work. Willie was at Texaco then while Ebele was working at Ikeja Hotels at a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) facility at Falomo, Lagos.
While commuting to office in their Texaco branded bus Willie was waiting to catch the bus while Ebele was at the same bus stop on the way to her office. Willie chatted her up: in a platonic affair for two years before making up their minds to get married. His gentility and her Catholicism glued them together. On October 29, 1988 Ebele wedded Willie at St Anthony’s Catholic Church, Gbaja, Surulere, Lagos. They were blessed with three sons and two daughters. Their eldest child a girl, graduated a medical doctor in May 2017.
From candidate to governor is a most interesting chapter. Willie’s CKC confraternity worked for his gubernatorial election campaign causing the current commissioner for Local Government Dubem Obaze to lead his campaign. Willie won and was sworn in as Anambra governor the following year, March 17, 2014. Solo, his CKC classmate was his Secretary to the State Government. His accomplishments are to be consolidated by his successor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo.
The moral compass behind court sacking of defecting governors
An Editorial
Earlier this month, an Abuja High Court judge, Mr Justice Inyang Ekwo declared as illegal, the defection of Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State and his deputy, Dr kelechi Igwe from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The court made the order on a judgment on a suit filed by the PDP seeking the removal of Umahi and Igwe from office. At a press conference in his state capital, Abakaliki, Umahi berated the judge, adding that the judgment was bought . he said he would not respect the court order.
The governor said, “We are alarmed how misery and desperation could navigate some politicians to offer themselves as willing tools to enemies of Ndigbo, just to destabilize Ebonyi State and set the state on fire. This court judgment will not see the light of day.” Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide is on this same page with Umahi. In a statement issued to the media, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, secretary- general of the organization, dismissed the ruling as a miscarriage of justice and “a black market judgment.” He believes that the ruling was aimed at creating havoc and chaos in Ebonyi State and an attempt to take over the reins of power in the state through the back door.
Before then, Justice Ekwo had ruled that the crux of the suit was the defection of the governor and his deputy from the PDP to the APC. The judge said the declarations of the third and fourth defendants did not address the issue of defection rightly and frontally but rather general denial and affidavit evidence. Justice Ekwo said the depositions of the defendants in their counter—affidavits were evasive and insufficient to completely challenge the plaintiff’s originating process.
He said that the immunity clause in section 308 of the Constitution is not absolute. Section 308 is a veritable Constitutional shield but not for political reasons. The court said umahi and Igwe did not controvert the deposition that the total votes scored in an election belonged to a political party. The judge said Umahi and his deputy cannot transfer PDP votes to APC because there was enough evidence that the APC contested the Ebonyi State governorship election held in March 2019 with its own candidates.
Consequently, the court declared that under the democratic system operated in Nigeria, PDP won the majority of votes during the election and was entitled to enjoy same till end of tenure of office for which the election was made. The judge therefore restrained Umahi and Igwe from parading themselves as governor and deputy governor of Ebonyi State. In another judgment, the judge sacked 15 members of the Ebonyi state assembly who defected from the PDP to the APC on the same grounds the governor and his deputy were removed.
The Guardian agrees with the ruling. The judgment is a true reflection of the Constitution and the Electoral Act. It is perfidious for the defendants to abandon the PDP that sponsored them in 2015 and 2019 elections. We who believe honor should underpin the conduct of political office holders are horrified and embarrassed by the spate of defections by leaders we look upon for examples of decency. The Ekwo verdict will deepen democracy and curtail the excesses of politicians, especially lawmakers who jump from one party to another.
Citing precedents from similar statutes from Common Law countries such as in the USA and the Commonwealth of Nations, the American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes, the law is what a court says, not what is written in the books. Also, let the precedent that says, “Let the pronouncement of a judge stand where a lacunae in the law could have been left out of mischief.” Defection used to be called carpet crossing; it is now called defection. It was used in 1954 by the Action Group to deny Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe the chance to become Premier of Western Region. It has now become the defining characteristic of Nigerian politics.
It is now a way of life of the Nigerian politicians who see it as a clever way of rewarding themselves without efforts. Hopefully, other judges will find courage in this judgment by upholding it up to the Supreme Court whose chief justice was removed via a non-judicial officer code of conduct tribunal chairman. Let the judiciary help rescue governance from the irresponsible actions of unscrupulous politicians who think moving from branch to branch like monkeys is pragmatic politics.
Nigerian politics is in a mess because our big men refuse to play by the rules. Nigeria is in shambles because we are all complicit in the raping of the Constitution and the continued hacking at the pillars of democracy by men entrusted with both the moral and legal duty to protect them. Law should not be divorced from morality. The behaviors of these political harlots are deleterious to the growth of democracy and party politics in this country. Defection is a worm in the apple of our politics, it should be destroyed.
Since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999, defection became so rampart that it nearly ruined President Buhari’s re-election in 2019. No single political party registered by the departing military regime has remained the same. Politicians have crossed carpet back and forth to the extent that the majority of Nigerian politicians have changed parties more than twice. The reason for defection has been dubbed stomach infrastructure which translates to using politics to make money, not to serve the people.
Defection is a malaise with the capacity to spread its poison to all things political and decent. It fosters impunity and corruption. Let the judiciary extinguish it now before it make another military takeover inevitable. Just like the weakening of the tribes through the creation of unviable states, it is yet another entity left to promote the domination of one ethnic group by another in the federation. It is because of defection that Nigeria cannot build political parties around a well defined ideology intended to promote economic and social development.
In Nigeria today, we are just using politics for making a living. Even the blind knows that defection is dangerous to our unity, it promotes nepotism. By making the Ekwo judgment to stand, it will represent a milestone in our statute books and the means of rescuing Nigerian governance from scoundrels.
SME funding as panacea to Nigerian prosperity
By Bayo Ogunmupe
According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Small and Medium Enterprises have contributed 48 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the past five years. They account for 50 percent of Nigeria’s industries and 90 percent of our manufacturing, in terms of number of enterprises. A 2020 World Bank report notes that most Nigerian SMEs do not grow, they remain stagnant or exit. However, a few exhibit rapid growth in productivity and scale.
Indeed, some startups shape the Nigerian economy through new and more productive business models. The World Bank report also noted further that compared to large firms, SMEs are more likely to fold up permanently. But a strong SME dominated economy bolsters the economy’s resilience in diversifying the domestic economy, thereby reducing fluctuations in the global and private capital inflows.
Sadly, poor SME funding, and overregulation threaten the sustainability of SMEs. In a 2020 survey, 57 percent of SME chief executives cited multiple taxes and levies and the absence of technological aid as challenges of SME growth. Lack of access to credit and overregulation remain the bane of SME development in Nigeria. Without finance to facilitate transactions, the entire SME supply chain comes to a halt. Trade finance becomes highly relevant here, by introducing liquidity via a Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) special allocation.
One of the segments that has been impacted the most by the exit of large global banks from frontier and emerging market economies as economic fallout of the COVID19 pandemic was its subsequent impact on SME funding. Thus, financial inclusion in Nigeria is yet to peak as most SMEs operate in the informal sector and are largely unbanked. Hence their viability cannot be ascertained Indeed, the hurdles that impede growth in the informal market have not been effectively tackled.
For example, customs clearance in the ports requires tons of paper documents which slow down trade activities by forcing unnecessary supply chain bottlenecks. These bottlenecks form a hurdle for most SMEs who require ease of doing business and valuable financial products offered by the banks to drive their growth plans. It is for this reason that I advocate a separate one trillion naira special funding allocation for SMEs. That was how China, India and South Korea escaped from poverty strangulation to transition into industrial societies.
Digitisation is another enabling policy option for a rapid SME propelled industrialization. Moreover, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital trade finance solutions by SMEs. While technology driven solutions are becoming more and more relevant, much of the trade finance sector, is still paper driven, with manual processes slowing down access to finance.
To digitize trade finance, the entire ecosystem needs support to participate in how to unlock value. This includes how to integrate activities between role players and regulators, the banks and other non-bank financial institutions. This drives a concept known as digital trade ecosystem. It is an online platform that facilitates the exchange of data between partners in trade finance networks. It is a catalyst for this sector. While innovation and advancement in technology are important. To leverage the positive impact of digitization, there are issues that have to receive urgent attention. These issues will leverage the positive impact of digitization on SMEs.
First issue is a focus on a system to facilitate coherent industry-wide solutions that can operate on the world’s scale. This is particularly relevant to Nigeria with the opening of the African Free Trade Area which we expect to be a big driver of cross border trade in Nigeria. The second issue is standardization. This is an important issue to the sector because only parts of the African Continental Free Trade Area finance process are subject to digital innovation. Which is why the end-to end digitization across the trade value chain remains fragmented.
We need common language technology and credit scoring systems to facilitate faster access to solutions. Finally, we need to focus on more agility in the regulatory space. An example in this age paperless communication, is the limited acceptance of electronic documents and digital signatures on contracts by banks and other stakeholders. Millions of dollars of transactions could be freed up through the adoption of these digital tools.
Digitization must be supported by easy foreign currency availability and the regulatory reform in the appropriate treatment of trade finance. However, Nigerian government failure to formalize the operations of over 34 million informal micro- small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria has continued to minimize the potential of the Nigerian economy. Latest figures from the NBS show that of the 39,654,385 SMEs in Nigeria, 34,413,420 operate informally. This makes it impossible for the government to regulate and harness full benefits from them; particularly in terms of taxes.
As contained in the 2020 SME survey jointly conducted by the NBS and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN). The assets of the SMEs were valued at N8.41 trillion in 2020, despite the pandemic. If nothing is done to formalize this sector, we cannot fully optimize the potential of the Nigerian economy and the growth expected cannot be actualized because the informal space is very
To be Godly is to be good2
By Bayo Ogunmupe
According to the Psalms of David in the Bible: “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners inn his ways.” Psalm 25:8.
How would you define “goodness” or “the good life?” The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau defined happiness as “a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion.” Some would say the good life is physical. They think it doesn’t get any better than a long soak in a hot tub, a back rub and a drink at the pub. Others would say the good life is material. They think if you have the mansion, the Mercedes and the money, you’re living the good life.
But the goodness isn’t about feeling good, looking good, or having goods. It’s about being good and doing good. And just like we need a clock to tell time and a ruler to measure distance, we need a universal standard for determining goodness. And we have one: God. “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.” Without a universally accepted standard for goodness, it becomes a grey area, a matter of opinion. Adolf Hitler thought annihilating the Jews was a good thing. Suicide bombers think killing innocent human beings is a good thing.
And such thinking cannot be countered with a simple, “that’s not good.” What’s to keep a Hitler or suicide bomber from saying, “that’s just your opinion?” The word good stems from the old English word with the same connotation as God. It literally means to be like God. Goodbye is the shortened phrase for “God be with ye.” So, the universal standard for goodness can only be decided by one who is universally good, and that One can only be God.
“The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked, but gracious words are pure in His sight-“ Proverbs 15:26. Sometimes we say to people half in jest, “Try to be good, and if you can’t be good, be careful.” The idea that if can’t be good make sure you’re clever enough not to be caught. But in reality, our lack of goodness is no laughing matter. Goodness that used to meet a universal standard is now a matter of personal interpretation and preference. And an epidemic of public officials whose private conduct leaves us shocked hasn’t made things any better.
James Madison one of the framers of the US constitution and who later became US president wrote: “The aim of every political constitution is to obtain as rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern and most virtue to pursue the common good of society.” Nowadays, surveys show that trust in our political and business leaders is at the lowest point on record. They have only two things in mind: to get rich and to stay in power. The Bible says, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people,” Proverbs 14:34. You must get personally involved in politics to stop evil from triumph. The revered British statesman Edmund Burke said: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” One person, plus God, can change things. Try to be that person.
Time to hone the Nigerian industrial strategy
By Bayo Ogunmupe
The rapid rise of misery in Nigeria in the aftermath of petroleum scarcity and rising inflation have hasten the adoption of a new industrial strategy for Nigerian economic growth and prosperity. Moreover, the Debt Management Office (DMO) says that at December 2021, Nigeria’s debt has grown to N39.55 trillion. The Director general of the DMO, Patience Oniha said that was our total external and domestic debt. These borrowings from several sources including the Eurobond, Soverign Sukuk and the federal government bonds.
Our total debt to GDP ratio of 22.47 percent. The debt ratio still remains below Nigeria’s limit of 40 percept. Meanwhile, campaigning has begun for the presidential election which in February 2023 will draw the curtain on eight years of Buhari’s nepotism, on whose somnolent watch Nigeria has sleepwalked closer to banditry induced disaster. President Buhari had overseen two economic slumps, skyrocketing debt and a calamitous increase in kidnapping, banditry—the one thing you might have thought a former general could control.
We desperately need a leader whose energies go not into preserving its own privileges, but into providing public goods—resolving the impasse in education through paying the debts owed the Academic Staff Union of Universities, health and social welfare; rule of law through freeing Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho. Other problems waiting to be solved include: terrorism, uninterrupted power supply, roads and digital infrastructure. We need a leader to remove distortions in the salary structure and the removal of subsidies that disturb entrepreneurial activity.
Large scale unemployment is one of the reasons why our moribund industrial strategy needs to be honed. Industrialization is the process by which an economy is transformed from agrarian production to manufacturing. As a country is transformed into an industrial society manual labour is replaced by mechanized mass production. Like the advanced societies of today, we need to break the vicious cycle of underdevelopment.
Before Nigeria’s oil boom, we thrived on agricultural commodities which were exported for foreign exchange. It contributed more than 57 percent of our GDP; while the sold minerals like coal, iron, tin and columbite contributed more than 15 percent to the Gross Domestic Product. Sadly, the discovery of oil changed that as minerals were neglected in favour of oil and gas. Consequently, the Nigerian economy became volatile due to fluctuations in the price of crude oil. In fact the recessions experienced in Nigeria are attributable to the fall in oil prices.
In 1986, we were forced to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) owing to the fall in oil prices in the world oil market. Also by 2014, the continuous decline in crude oil prices led Nigeria to experience yet another economic recession, largely caused by the slow growth of China which is the largest importer of crude oil in the world. Yet in 2016, the start of the most recent economic recession, which was as a result of the mining of shale oil in the United States as the largest buyer of Nigeria’s crude oil.
Since 2020 after the outbreak of COVID19 pandemic, crude oil price sold below $40 per barrel Nigeria’s economy has been in a coma, with the galloping inflation on the rampage, this was further worsened by the scarcity of foreign exchange, worrisome debt and mass unemployment. All these have garnered clamours for the diversification of the economy and the honing of an industrial strategy to cater for the teeming unemployed.
Presently, the media is agog with reports that Nigeria’s main oil companies are leaving Nigeria on the account of divestment for cleaner energy. In the words of the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, “Oil companies are leaving because they want to shift their portfolios to where they can add value and also add towards carbon net-zero commitment.”
The Paris climate accord has set a climate goal that by the year 2050, global warming should have been reduced to 1.5C while Columbia Climate School reported that keeping global warming to below 2’C from industrial levels means that an estimated one third of oil reserves and 80 percent of coal reserves need to remain unused by 2050. In another report, the International Energy Agency has declared that no fossil fuel cars should be sold beyond 2035. This means that a country like Nigeria whose economy depends on oil faces more economic burdens due to its specialized economic structure.
Sadly, the Russia/Ukraine war spells doom for Nigeria if appropriate measures are not taken. Nigeria maintains a good bilateral relations with Russia with trade to the tune of N994 billion. Reports show Nigeria is a major importer of various agricultural and mechanical products from both Russia and Ukraine. According to Bloomberg Russia is set to ban certain exports following sanctions she receives from other nations over her invasion of Ukraine.
The implication of this is that there will be a reduced supply of many commodities to Nigeria increasing the rate of inflation in Nigeria. The new industrial strategy preferred are triple faced. Instead of wasteful and unrecoverable loans presently churned out by Central Bank of Nigeria such as trader money; there should be a N50 billion SME loans scheme without collateral, without interest. Secondly, another N50 billion loans scheme should set aside for import substitution industries. Finally, the Nigerian Enterprise Board should be empanelled to register, monitor and implement government policies regarding the recovery of these loans.
It has been observed that the bulk of Nigeria’s manufacturing takes place in consumables such as food, beverage and tobacco. This corroborates the London School of Economics recommendation that Nigeria should adopt a new industrial strategy if she hopes to meet the necessity of creating an additional five million jobs per year for the next 10 years. Without these preferred measures Nigeria is threatened with disintegration in the near future.
Nigeria needs import substitution industries more than ever before, for importation stokes unemployment. Lack of diversification of the economy has put the Nigerian economy in in danger. Let the states exploit the resources within their territory for their own survival. The onus lies on the states and the federation to exploit its opportunities for industrialization by promoting a value based economy, which drives the conversion of raw materials to finished goods before exportation. Nigeria needs a working manufacturing strategy that can absorb our teeming unemployed to prepare the country for the high quality skills that are needed in this modern age.
The Biography Of Ademola Olatunde Dixon
A review by Bayo Ogunmupe
This book is partly biographical, ending as an autobiography. It started as a biography but ended being written by the protagonist Dr Ademola Dixon a medical doctor. It is hard backed, illustrated with the picture a motor park. With 350 pages, Three parts and 37 chapters.
The Prologue speaks of laid out streets, well planned buildings, taps flowing, unblinking lights and food everywhere. It showed unfettered freedom with the pleasures of a peaceful existence. The quintessential physician, Dr Ademola Dixon isn’t a time traveller, he had only spent about a decade in Europe, studying and working. Through Omo Eko, he had only relived those near idyllic scenes of his youth in the 1940s when Lagos Island was the seat of the government of colonial Nigeria, with Lagos as the pearl on the West African coast.
At such spells of reverie, you will see this lanky, light- complexioned, bespectacled gentleman standstill, oblivious of the bustles around him. Such equanimity and ordered lifestyle was the spirit of the time. With mother, father and grandfather born on the Island, this quintessential physician gloats of being a thoroughbred Lagosian imbued with the inalienable pride and integrity that make Lagos Islanders a special people.
“Being a Lagosian mattered to me a lot initially,” said the doctor. “In my loud moments, I used to talk of being a Lagosian first, then a medical practitioner and a Christian…I was always conscious of being born on Lagos Island like my father and grandfather. The explanation was the great privilege and the tremendous freedom we enjoyed …on the Lagos Island—adequate provision of life’s basic necessities for little or nothing. Lagos was provided with food supplied from all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. Fresh fish, vegetables – name it- were available in abundance.”
So Dixon’s youth was remarkably joyful. No pipes, only the tap at the backyard which never run dry. Now six months shy of his October 77th birthday anniversary Dr Dixon still relishes his admiration for the Igbo business spirit which he says was as evident in his youth as it is today. He remembers a particular Igbo customer of his grandma. After buying all the goods he needed, the man would call an alaaaru (porter) to ask how much he would take to convey the goods to the motor pack. After ascertaining the average price from three alaaaru the Igbo trader would then commence carrying all the materials himself – even if it took him several trips. What the Igbo trader does next is to take the exact amount he would have paid the porter to buy himself a sumptuous meal.
Part 1 chronicled his Early Years. Unto us a Libran is born. He was born on October 6, 1945, at the time Hitler’s war, the Second World War was drawing to a close. For timeliness, Russian President Vladimir Putin is at the moment threatening with a nuclear strike in his war with Ukraine. “Announcing it means it is primarily a political message designed to impress us,” says Bruno Tertrais, an expert on nuclear deterrence at the Foundation for Strategic Research, a think- tank in Paris, France.
He was the second son 20 year old Olayinka Agboola nee Awojobi would have for her printer husband, Adio Dixon. His paternal grandfather, known as Megida gave him his only Muslim name, Abdulfatai after being named Ademola Olatunde by his father. On the whole Ademola has linkages with the Ijesha people of Ilesha; the Aworis who migrated from Ife to live in uninhabited farmland of Lagos island. Through his mother, he is also linked with the Remos of Shagamu. You can see how he could comprehend the study and practice of medicine in the German language. It has been said that the offspring of a mixed breed is often more intelligent than children of the same breed.
Gaining admission to a secondary school was tough then as now. In retrospect, says Dr Dixon, the three people who impacted him most favorably were the former Premier of Western Nigeria, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the former governor of Ondo State, the late Chief Adekunle Ajasin and the for mer Principal of Oriwu College, Ikorodu Chief E. I. A. Banwo who admitted Ademola into Oriwu College in 1959.
At the end of his work at the sausage factory, Ademola was able to save a whopping 70 pounds sterling. By the time he got admission to study medicine at the oldest university in Germany, Heidelberg, Dixon was ready financially. He had a monthly allowance of twenty pounds from Mama; his two and half years stay in UK; the six months in Leicester and two years in London gave Dixon sufficient exposure and confidence to fend for himself anywhere.
A most entertaining value of Omo Eko is the capture of the Cassius Clay of the Sonny Liston fights of May 1965, and February 1964. Cassius Clay (better known as Mohammed Ali) later in life. He won at the first round of the 15 round match. It was a technical knockout.
Eventually, Dixon left for the seaport of Dover by train to get into a ferry to take him across the English Channel to Ostend, Belgium. After alighting from the ferry headed for Germany, arriving at Heidelberg by train on a Sunday morning. After four months in a German language school for foreign students, Dixon entered into the true study of medicine at Heidelberg University. According to Dixon, Heidelberg had a longstanding reputation for excellence, especially its medical school.
In Germany, there was a deliberate policy by the government to align universities and research centres with the needs of the industrial sector. This is absent in Nigeria. Historically, there is a deep respect for the academia in the German society. Generally, the Germans do not see a university degree as a meal ticket. For them, a graduate was one who was willing to be trained and retrained to meet the demands of country in a facets of life.
For life in Germany, efficiency is their watchword. Working as a medical doctor in Germany for over a year after graduation afforded Dixon great insight into the German work ethic which was very different from the British. A surprising episode of Dixon’s sojourn in Germany was a visit by his brother Folabi who resides in Chicago, USA. Folabi arrived at the Dusseldorf Airport in Germany on a Saturday. It was just half an hour’s drive from where Dixon was living then.
“Having tried to reach me on the phone without success, Folabi asked at the airport for the fun areas in the town, hoping to while away time till night when I would be at home. Unknown to him I had also headed for Dusseldorf to have fun.
Unexpectedly, he saw me! He suddenly announced himself; just imagine seeing a brother I had not seen in eight years!” Dixon’s only disappointment while in Germany was the passing unto glory of his grandma, the one who sponsored his study abroad. It was a premonition coming true. While leaving Nigeria back in 1965, he thought he might be seeing some of his relations for the last time. The premonition proved painfully true.
Then, the Lagos Boy returns home. “As at 1975 when I came back to the country under full- blown military dictatorship, the NMA was radicalized.” But he eventually got employed by the Lagos State Government. Having found discriminatory practices in government service, he decided to resign at the end of his two year probation with the Lagos State Government.
Now out of the restrictive government service, he could now enjoy Lagos life full- blown. “This period 1975 to 1977, was at the climax of the oil boom when the U.S. dollar was less than one naira. Petrol was being sold at 77kobo per litre. Four brand new tyres cost not more than N50. Full comprehensive car maintenance cost less than N10. Nigerians then had difficulty remaining sane most of the time.” Indeed, Dr Dixon admits that he was also caught up in the spending spree. To show he had arrived he celebrated his 30th birthday in October 1975. After many years of exposure and participation in the healthcare services in Lagos, Nigeria, Dr Dixon considers it a duty to undertake an appraisal of these services. For good healthcare services, he recommends the availability of potable water, efficient waste disposal system and a health bank like the bank of industry where loans could be obtained by citizens to build and run state of the art hospitals.
Dr Dixon shares the experience of the loss of his first child, Adebola Olugbenga Dixon 1977—2011. A Unilag graduate in Economics, he died of kidney failure. His grieving is an unconscious catharsis to relieve a pain that cuts deep to the soul.
On cars and travelling, Dr Dixon being a slow driver, isn’t an admirer of the Japanese fast cars. “Before this one, I was using a flat engine Mercedes Benz which I bought in 1987 and used for many years until my siblings, out of annoyance, bought the V boot for me as they felt sufficiently embarrassed by the flat engine. Two of my siblings also bought the same type of car at the same time. They have since then changed their vehicles three times while I am still running around with mine.”
By his birthday anniversary next year, a second edition of this biography with additional information on his roots will be on sale. Thank you for your attention.
Standing to confront bad leadership
By Bayo Ogunmupe
The spate of corruption and stealing in government necessitates the establishment of Aso Villa fellows like the White House fellows in the United States. The White House Fellows is a dozen of experts, a presidential Think Tank which sits weekly to solve raging issues in creative problem solving meetings. It reminds me of Brigadier –General Aminu Kano Maude, former Director of Finance, Army Headquarters who stole all the money allocated to be used to buy arms for the Army to fight Boko Haram.
General Maude used the money to buy over 30 petrol filling stations, buildings and shopping malls all over Nigeria. It took over five years for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to trace the loot. The money was over N20 billion. The EFCC was able to recover 29 properties worth N10 billion. The EFCC is still searching for others. When caught while alive, EFCC couldn’t detain or prosecute him because of his links with the Fulani ruling caliphate of Kano emirate. It was only after he died of cancer that the embezzlement was made pubic.
Along with the looting presided over by President Jonathan’s National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, Nigeria cannot endure another lily livered leader who will allow his aides to loot Nigeria with impunity. Which is why we must confront and stop the 2022 Committee from foisting another clueless president on the nation. We don’t enjoy confrontation, but it’s impossible to grow without it. Healthy confrontation calls for speaking the truth in love. Just as God confronts each of us in areas where we need to grow, He expects us to do the same for others.
Here are some guiding principles to help you criticize others without causing injury. One, talk to them not about them. Talk to them in private where possible, to be delivered graciously but firmly. Two, don’t exaggerate; give specific examples. Don’t hide behind words like, “I believe the Lord had shown me that you’re wrong.” Three, don’t leave them in a stew without clear direction on how to improve or what to do. The best approach is to calmly identify the problem and suggest ways it can be resolved.
In the Nigerian political case, we are to get involved in guiding the politicians through the conventions to elect their flag bearers. Your goal isn’t to expose a politician’s weakness but to show the qualities necessary in the in-coming leader.
Four, admonish like a good wife who criticizes her husband not to hurt him but to correct him. Be compassionate in criticism; confront rather than condemn. Healthy confrontation calls for your putting the other person’s well-being above your own.
“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity,” Proverbs 11:3. Every honest or dishonest word and action either adds to or takes away from character. That’s what the Bible is saying in that quotation. You should therefore strive for integrity in all your dealings with others.
The war on terror should be re-invigorated
A Guardian Editorial
As bandits attack Kaduna airport, killing one and abducting 11 in Zaria, the battle to control terror is intensifying rather than abating. Within the past month, bandits killed 43 in Kaduna and Zamfara as the Kaduna State governor imposed a 24-hour curfew in two local government areas. Tension mounts as gunmen threaten schools in Imo State forcing President Buhari to approve additional security units for the state. Moreover, 70 houses were burnt in Kaduna making the security situation in the states of Kaduna, Zamfara and Imo intolerable.
As against the opinion of the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, Nigeria isn’t winning the war on terror. With five killed, scored injured as bandits open fire on travellers in Katsina and in Benue herdsmen continue taking people hostage daily, demanding money and food; which forced governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom to say that Nigeria is drifting towards anarchy. Thus, it is noteworthy that we pay scant attention to various forms of bias and self blinding falsehood in which we help deception to interact with one another in our national life.
“When regard for truth has been broken down, or even weakened, all things will remain doubtful,” St Augustine. We’re not out of the scourge of terror yet, we are still waiting to recover the missing Chibok girls. General Irabor is just mimicking our political office holders who live in denial of the rampaging banditry and corruption in the country. It is as if our leaders are conniving with terrorism with the way they turned a blind eye to the ethnic cleansing in Kaduna and Zamfara states. A justification for government connivance with terror is the alleged disappearance of 178,459 arms and ammunition belonging to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
The details of the missing arms on pages 383-391 of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF’s) annual report on non-compliance/internal control weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government for the year ended 31st December 2019. The report indicated that 88,078 AK-47 rifles, 3,907 assorted rifles and pistols from different formations nationwide could not be accounted for as of January 2020. It further queried the failure of Police Headquarters to provide comprehensive details about unserviceable weapons even when such arms could fall into some unauthorized hands. According to the report, this contravenes paragraph 2603 of the Financial Regulations document which stipulates that, “in the event of any loss of stores, the officer in charge of the store in which loss occurs shall report immediately to the head of Department of unit but not later than three (£) days by the fastest means possible, if loss occurs away from headquarters.”
Sadly, records obtained from force armament at the Force Headquarters showed that 21Police Mobile Force Squadron Abuja did not report a single case of missing firearm, whereas the schedule of missing arms obtained from the same police formation showed a total of 46 missing arms between 2000 and 2019. The value of the lost firearms could not be ascertained because no document relating to their cost was presented for examination. The above anomalies could be attributed to connivance by the authorities. Like those funding terrorism, government has refused to prosecute them.
Just about ending this editorial, breaking news has it that many are feared abducted as terrorists attack a Kaduna bound train, detonating explosives and opening fire on about 970 passengers on board. The train derailed as explosives planted on the rail track went off close to Rigasa station. On the same day, gunmen killed three persons in Kabo, Gurara Local Government of Niger State. Further more 15 villagers were killed by terrorists at Hayin Kanwa in Giwa Local Government of Kaduna State.
A government whose security operatives cannot protect its citizens from rampaging marauders and terrorists and kidnappers cannot wield any influence on the global stage. There is no short cut to greatness, Nigeria must reform or disintegrate. The way forward is delivering good governance. Without running Nigeria on its natural contours of diversity, disaster and an unfavourable image will persist. With about 370, 000 police personnel for a population of about 211 million, Nigeria cannot meet the United Nations 340 to 100,000 police to citizen ratio. Nigeria’s current police format is not congenial to effective policing in a federation.
The zones should be empowered to secure their own territories. Let us utilize the regional policing exemplified by the Amotekun police force from the South West and the Hisbah of the North West. The federal Government must of necessity immediately embark on recruiting and equipping commensurate numbers of policemen in line with our population. More so, the military should face its core duty of protecting Nigeria’s territorial integrity. A state of emergency on national security should be declared enabling government to use every available strategy to protect the lives and property, which is the function of President Buhari’s government.
With the killings, abductions and arson reported daily around the country, it is clear, weapons are in dangerous hands. Worse still, arms are being shipped into the country illegally on a consistent basis. The National Guard Force proposed many years ago to complement the police should be revived.
Being educated means knowing truth from error, By Bayo Ogunmupe
Asset Recovery as Tool for curbing corruption
By Bayo Ogunmupe
Asset recovery has been discovered to be a powerful tool in the fight against local and global corruption. It is noteworthy that global corruption now costs around $1 trillion yearly. Moreover, Asset recovery is an overlooked means of returning money to countries and people it was stolen from. It can be used to provide development funds in impoverished countries like Nigeria and among nations most impacted by corruption.
However, the private sector is key to fighting corruption. Everyone bears the burden of corruption. Our political and economic systems need to be grounded in transparency, accountability and integrity from now. The release of Pandora Papers, nearly 12 million leaked financial records, exposes the extent to which the world’s wealthiest and powerful use legal loopholes to launder money, avoid paying taxes and hide assets.
While much of the financial activity isn’t illegal itself, it is precisely the type that is used to conceal the proceeds of corruption. More than 330 public officials in more than 90 countries, including 14 current world leaders, have been implicated in the papers’ release. This trove of information provides us with a guide to how the global cost of corruption has swelled to around $1 trillion yearly, (more than $20 to $40 billion of that loss from developing countries) and also insights into how to fight it.
The revelations in the Pandora Papers have inspired United States lawmakers to take another look at regulating global corruption, including evasive financial practices. Indeed, two U.S. representatives from the two major parties are co- chairing a new Congressional caucus against kleptocracy, and they have a strong ally in the White House. U.S. President Joseph Biden has repeatedly touted fighting corruption as a top foreign policy priority of the United States, and in a June 2021 memo officially established countering corruption as a core national security interest.
While the transparency which investigative journalism exposed like the Pandora Papers provides, potential US regulations are important steps to reduce illicit financial flows, there is another powerful but often overlooked anti- corruption mechanism in the law’s toolkit: asset recovery and return. Through this mechanism, which President Biden cited in his memo, stolen funds can be returned to their rightful owners – citizens in a fair and effective manner. But achieving justice in this way will require investment and reform.
Asset recovery is a process that roots out the proceeds of public corruption and gives them back to the countries and the people from which they were originally stolen. When implemented well, asset recovery can provide needed development funds, right the wrongs of corruption and rebuild social trust. If even a fraction of the billions of pilfered dollars were recovered and returned, citizens would benefit and corrupt officials would be held accountable, all without expense to taxpayers.
To fulfill the twin goals of justice and development, lawmakers should urgently invest in asset recovery efforts as a way of taking on kleptocracy and achieving positive social change. The BOTA Foundation shows the potential and power of asset recovery. Founded in 2008 by the governments of Kazakhstan, US and Switzerland and the civil society leaders in Kazakhstan, it was set up as a means of returning more than $115 million in assets stolen from government coffers to vulnerable Kazakh children, youth and their families.
BOTA distributed these funds to the country’s poorest people through needs based scholarships for youth to attend institutions of higher learning, direct cash transfers to encourage and enable households to access early childhood education and prenatal health services and the expansion of social services such as a crisis hotline or at- risk youth and a new foster care model. Fortunately, there are opportunities to apply the lessons from BOTA and other past efforts today.
Frozen assets in Ukraine belonging to former President Yanukovych are ripe for return, pending the result of ongoing litigation. Officials in Sierra Leone and Angola are also litigating cases that have the potential for asset recovery. Some countries, such as Mozambique, are passing laws extending their capability to recover illicit assets, while others like Kenya are confiscating assets at an increasingly rapid pace.
To fully capitalize on these opportunities, lawmakers aiming to elevate asset recovery efforts will need to invest in four key areas: Increased money and manpower for the Ministry of Justice Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) kleptocracy team, which is responsible for investigation and litigation to recover the proceeds of foreign official corruption. Better inter- agency coordination at all levels between MLARS, which freezes stolen assets and USAID, which should be brought in to coordinate their return in an efficient and impactful manner.
Stronger legislation to allow the US to freeze foreign assets suspected of being illicitly gained. Lawmakers should follow the example set by countries like Switzerland to pass legislation providing opportunities for legal cooperation between the US and states where the assets originated, and to allow governments to start working on how to return the cash – and how it will be spent.- as soon as the recovery process starts.
More engagement in and support for ways to share information and evidence, such as the World Bank’s Global Asset Recovery Forum and smaller regionally focused forums that engage civil society and government actors. Media training or investigative reporting initiatives are also valuable in raising awareness. Corruption is both a cause and result of poor governance, imposing steep costs on societies as it holds back economic and human development.
The process of asset recovery has the potential to reverse those costs. Currently, over $4 billion in assets have been frozen and await either adjudication or disbursement; a massive source of potential funding for social programmes in developing countries, which could quickly overtake current levels of official development assistance.
The Pandora Papers offer a sobering look at how deeply entrenched evasive financial practices and corruption have become globally. United States lawmakers and the Biden administration should capitalize on the current moment with corruption at the forefront of public consciousness, and broad bipartisan appeal for anti- corruption reform, to invest in asset recovery to the benefit of millions of people worldwide. We should not let this moment pass. It is up to the National Assembly to make asset recovery laws and the Federal Government to seek the cooperation of other countries. Sadly the pardoning of governors Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame shows President Buhari isn’t serious about fighting corruption.
Mitigating Nigeria's penchant for wasteful spending
By Bayo Ogunmupe
Nigeria’s penchant for borrowing money and wasting it on frivolities surges forth in rising debts without any tangible accomplishments to show for them. Which is why Nigeria’s thirst for debts has become a growing concern among economists. At present, the nation’s debts have risen by 278 percent or N4.03 trillion in the last six years. This public debt data was disclosed by the Director General, the Debt Management Office, Mrs Patience Oniha. According to the document, Nigeria is owing so much as at December 31, 2021 and that the new borrowing allocation for 2015 was N1.46 trillion which was 90 percent of N1.62 trillion budget deficit.
For 2021, the allocation for borrowing was N5.49 trillion which was 85 percent of N6.45 trillion budget deficit. On the source of the figures, the document avers, “2015 comprises 2015 Appropriation Act and the supplementary budget of N575 billion for the same year. The year 2021 comprises 2021 Appropriation Act and the supplementary budget of N802 billion for the same year.” The data also identified issues around the public debt level, which include fast- growing debts, high debt service to revenue ratio, and concerns around the use of proceeds from the debts.
However, Mrs Oniha tried to justify the debts as due to recession, infrastructure deficit, consecutive budget deficits and low revenue base. The World Bank has said, Nigeria’s debt attracts risks of becoming unsustainable in the event of macro- fiscal shocks. For the International Monetary Fund (IMF) high public debt in Nigeria is worsening inflation. The IMF disclosed this earlier this week in a blog post titled: How Africa Can Navigate Growing monetary policy challenges. It said, Sub Saharan African economies are vulnerable to high inflation, “given the often heavy dependence on food and energy imports.”
Sadly for Nigeria, food imports have exceeded exports by N2.23 trillion in 12 months. The total international trade in agriculture in Nigeria stood at N3.24 trillion in 2021 with the import value exceeding export value by N2.23 trillion. Despite interventions by the Federal Government to diversify the economy and increase food production in the country, security concerns have driven most farmers out of their farms. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, while Nigerian farmers exported goods worth N127.2 billion in the first quarter of 2021, the country imported N630.2 billion goods.
In the second quarter, agriculture goods worth N165.27 billion were exported while import value was N652 billion. According to NBS, most of the agricultural products were exported to Europe and Asia. It is noteworthy that Nigeria first looked abroad for loan in 1964 to build the Kainji Dam. The loan built for us a gigantic hydroelectric dam at the Kainji Island on the Niger River, it was the longest dam at the time. Although it would later cost us $2020, the decision to borrow to fund infrastructure development was a game-changer for Nigeria then.
While the Kainji Dam is still standing today, a few if any ground breaking projects like that have been built through loans since then. That Nigeria’s latest loan of $1.25 billion is to finance the wasteful petrol subsidy scam leaves much to be desired. The controversial petrol subsidy which was to be phased out by June, has been deferred to continue till the end of Buhari’s tenure. Despite the drain on our revenue, Nigeria continues to stick with it against the odds of high level poverty in the country today. As we sink deeper into debt with nothing to show for it, in terms of economic growth and social infrastructure, it shows that we have not managed our economy well. If it took Federal Government six years to appoint an economic adviser much less an economics minister, you can see how backward we are.
The government has also failed to acknowledge (who will tell them?) that the economy has shrunk from $546.67 billion in 2014 to only $436 billion in 2021, despite rising population. Nigeria’s shrinking economy has worsened poverty and has created mass unemployment. Upon this dismal economic outlook, Nigeria’s idle government refineries posted a loss N63. 3 billion from September 2020 to August 2021, according to data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The NNPC itself lost N227.4 billion.
All the government refineries located in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt have been lying idle since 2019. Though the refineries are not operating, government will continue to pay them since they are civil servants. Since the shut down of the refineries, Nigeria has relied on imports to meet her needs. But the Federal Executive Council had in March last year approved to rehabilitate the refineries instead of selling them. Rehabilitating the Port Harcourt refinery alone will gulp $1.5 billion.
Another challenge has emerged as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has raised an alarm that Nigeria loses more than 90 percent of crude oil pumped into its Trans National Pipeline (TNP) to theft and vandalism in the Niger Delta Region. The PENGASSAN president, Festus Osifo who spoke to journalists in Lagos, exposed what he termed acts of sabotage in the nation’s oil industry. He warned that unless urgent steps were taken to halt the criminality, the nation’s economy will collapse.
Speaking further, Osifo said, “Reconciliation at Bonny Terminal shows that less than 10 percent of crude oil metered from the operators gets to the terminals.” Arguing further the labour leader said beyond the reduction in revenue to the companies and the national economy, the act of sabotage has caused serious environmental degradation to the host communities and region, just as the health implications of the unwholesome situation is impacting on the people. The way to mitigate this continuing indebtedness is reduce the civil servants by a quarter, merge the ministries, sell the refineries, reduce wages by half and abolish the national Youth Service Corps. Without military training youth service is both a waste of resources and a waste of time for the youth corps members.
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