nigeria’s most informative newspaper no 2,048
SUNday, 29 may, 2016
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FRONT PAGE COMMENT
President Muhammadu Buhari: One year on
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oday, the Muhammadu Buhari administration is a year old in office. Nigerians had welcomed the government with open hands on May 29, 2015, pregnant with expectations that it would, within its term of office, build a solid superstructure for significant
alterations of their unpleasant past and take steps forward towards the manifestation of a country of their dream. President Buhari came on board with an identifiable pedigree. He had been military Head of State in 1984 at a time of perceived slide in the affairs of Nigeria and arguably imposed a regime of
probity, accountability and great disdain for the social mucks of indiscipline and corruption that had coagulated and indeed signposted the relationship between the government and the governed. Continues pg4
Democracy Day:
Anatomy of change •War against corruption dominates governance •Terrorism, vandalism, hunger, salary delay in states •Nigerians will hail Buhari soon —Momoh pgs13-41 •PMB addresses nation today
Militants dare FG, blow up Agip, Aiteo pipelines again
HOPE ON DEMOCRACY DAY
•Crude oil output drops, Nigeria loses $27m daily •Residents flee as soldiers invade Delta community •Bayelsa govt condemns attack pg5
You are ignorant
pg5
•Soyinka blasts critics over Lagos appointment NEVER DIES: 11 months old Abigael was abandoned and left to die, but she survived. Today, she is a bubbling 4-year-old, •Lagos to demolish properties under high tension lines HOPE celebrating 2016 Children’s Day at Jesus Kids Orphanage, Bishop Philips Academy Area, Ibadan, Oyo State. PHOTO: TOMMY ADEGBITE. Hope rises on tomato pg7 We’ll not pay striking workers —Fayose pg7 •FG claims it has found solution to pest pg4
2 govs under watch, face travel ban
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editorial
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AFRICAN NEWSPAPERS OF NIGERIA PLC Founders: CHIEF OBAFEMI AWOLOWO
GCFR, SAN (1909 - 1987)
Chief (Dr) H.I.D Awolowo CON (1915 - 2015)
Buhari: One year on Continues from Front Page
The last one year has seen a fastidious and frenetic governmental abidance by its campaign promise of purging the polity corruption. High-profile persons are being prosecuted, with frightening details of their alleged involvement in fiddling with the national patrimony. For the first time in the history of Nigeria’s anti-corruption moves, the top echelon of the military have a searchlight beamed on their alleged corruptive past and details of their nefarious activities placed in the public sphere. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has, in the last one year, been operating at a speed arguably unheard of since its establishment. For a Nigeria that seeks scapegoats for its economic stagnation, the public example made of those who allegedly converted national inheritance into personal fiefdom has attracted claps, salutations and kudos for the government. However, these commendations are pock-marked by allegations of one-sidedness. This is founded on a general perception of governmental demonisation of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while unwittingly beatifying the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). This allegation is strengthened by the fact that, even though both PDP and the APC went into the general elections parading stupendous war chests, only the then ruling party that has slipped into the opposition has had a searchlight beamed on its spending. More fundamentally, rather than strengthening the anticorruption institutions, government’s attention and energy are, in the last one year, unduly focused on scape-goating individual malefactors and making public examples of them. We are of the opinion that, desirable for the moment as this approach may appear, the vermin of corruption would thus only have been attacked superficially, with the tendency for it to recur and metastasize at a later date. It is thus our candid opinion that government should begin immediately to build and strengthen the institutions of anti-corruption so that even when it is no longer in office, the anti-corruption fight would have been virtually on auto pilot. Its refusal to obey court orders, though fascinating against current national angst at the bleeding of the national till in the past, is ultimately dangerous and could foist on the nation a despotism. In the area of security, we commend the feats so far recorded in the war on insurgency. We however counsel that government must not rest on its oars until it finally purges the Nigerian slate of all remnants of this global affliction that has led to the death of thousands of fellow compatriots. Still, we are not pleased with the resurgence of the impunity of Fulani herdsmen in the last one year. Even though the nefarious activities of these nomads have been recurrent, they seem to have assumed unusual boldness in the last one
year. Government’s inability to find a lasting solution to the animalistic butchering of innocent people is already making many Nigerians to assemble their own private army to combat the menace. The argument by the military high command that the herdsmen could have had their ranks infiltrated by Boko Haram insurgents begs the question. The truth is that, whether they are insurgents or blood-thirsty herdsmen, Nigerians’ safety and security have been compromised and government is seemingly inept at curtailing or apprehending these mindless attackers. The activities of Niger Delta Avengers who have made the bursting of Nigerian oil pipelines a demonic pastime, thereby crippling the economic lifeline of the country, also leave much to be desired. The group appears resolute and vengeful. Taking into consideration their complete familiarity with the geography of the creeks, it makes sense for government to enter into a cogent dialogue with the militants in such a way that national integrity and economic sustenance would not be compromised. However, the economy is perhaps the greatest bother of the polity at the moment. All indices point to a national slide. Government has flip-flopped on basic economic policies and the national economy, from all indices, is entering into a period of recession. Even though it is flawed logic to blame the current government alone for this looming economic doom, it is vicariously liable for the inept and wobbly steps it has taken in the last one year to tame the slide. Chief among these steps is the tardiness in the passage of the national budget and the dingdong between the National Assembly and the presidency which elongated the process of budget passage. It was obvious that an economy that had faced severe balkanization and plundering could not withstand such dilly-dally. The result of the economic meandering is that Nigerians are facing extremely excruciating pains on all fronts. States have become economically stymied and the cost of living grossly unbearable. Now, government is unsure whether to devalue the Naira and it is at present toying with the regime of flexible exchange rate. Even though the stock exchange has picked up with news of possible liberalisation, government has to do more by speedily injecting massive palliatives into the economy. This economic stasis has also bred tension and despondency among the populace. In spite of the foregoing, we believe that there is still hope for the country. Government must communicate hope in its actions. The effect of non-communication of hope to the people is dire and disastrous at this time of gross despondency. We urge that government should cloth all its policies with democratic tenets and the rule of law. With a combination of all these responses to this peculiar time, Nigerians would be confident to journey with government to cross this critical bridge of national development.
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2 govs under watch, face travel ban Taiwo Adisa - Abuja
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WO serving governors in the country might have drawn the ire of the Federal Government, leading to a decision by security agencies to place them on security watchlist. Sources within the administration told the Sunday Tribune that some
activities of the said governors are considered to have security implications, a development that informed the decision to place the duo on security watchlist. Information at the disposal of Sunday Tribune confirmed that one of the governors is from the South West, while the other is from the South South. Investigation indicated
that an order directing the affected governors to have a chat with principal officers of security outfits before embarking on any overseas trips has been circulated at all entry ports including land, air and sea. It was confirmed that one of the signals issued in Abuja three weeks ago emanated from the Directorate of Security Enforcement in
one of the agencies. The directive has already been deposited with security officials at all entry and exit points in Nigeria, sources said. By that signal, officials say that the affected governors would be required to “See the Director General in Abuja” before being allowed to embark foreign trips. When asked what hap-
pens to the immunity of the governors, the source said that the immunity was not being curtailed, adding that a number of security questions were involved. “The government is moving to stop any form of infractions and the process does not infringe upon the immunity of any of the actors. I believe that none of the officials would be
stopped from embarking on trips unnecessarily,” a source in the know said. It was gathered, however, that if any of the affected governors refused to comply with the advise that may be given him at the entry or exit points, he would be prevented by security operatives from boarding an aircraft, a ship or vehicle with intent to travel out of the country.
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FG loses $27m daily to fresh militant attacks •As Bayelsa govt condemns attack From Olatunde Dodondawa with agency report
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here are indications that the Federal Government may be losing about $27 million daily to the resurgence of militant attacks on oil installations. According to industry sources, the incessant attacks have led to decline in crude output from 1.4 million barrels per day last week to one million barrels per day as of Saturday after the attacks. Nigeria has fallen short of its OPEC crude quota of 2.2 million barrels per day, losing 1.2 million barrels per day production to militancy. At an average of $45 per barrel, about $54 million is being lost daily to militancy. Considering the fact that most affected oil installations are Joint Ventures, Nigerian government has an average share of 50 per cent, meaning the government is losing $27 million daily on the average, while its JV partners together are also losing $27 million daily. The source also said with the way the attacks are going and the threat of ‘something big’ by the militant group, Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), the deep offshore fields may be their next targets. According to the source, “the deep offshore fields ERHA, like Agbami, AKPO, YOHO and Bonga may be immune from attacks because they are deep offshore, but because Bonga was attacked sometimes ago, you never can tell.,” the source said. The news of crude oil reaching $50 per barrel last week was received with mixed feelings by stakeholders because Nigeria’s output has fallen and it cannot benefit from the crude price rise. In another development, the Bayelsa State government on Saturday condemned the attack on two crude trunk lines, operated by Aiteo and Agip, by the NDA. Mr Jonathan Obuebite, Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information, who confirmed the twin attacks in an electronic mail to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), described them as “one too many.” “The blowing up of the trunk line is coming a few days after a similar oil facility operated by Chevron was blown up in Delta.”
Obuebite lamented the economic impact of destruction of the key oil
facility and wondered why the militants would go to such extent, knowing the
economic implication to the state and the country. He observed that in spite
of concerted efforts by the government to move against such atrocities, the
militants were still unrepentant in their acts of vandalism.
‘Avengers’ dare FG, blow two more pipelines •As military invades Tompolo’s community From Ebenezer Adurokiya, Austin Ebipade and Ademola Adegbite
The country’s oil production suffered more attack in the wee hours of Saturday as members of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) blew up the oil facilities of Brass to belonging to oil giants, Agip and Aiteo. The latest incident, coming just 24 hours after an NNPC gas pipeline was bombed near Warri on Friday, occurred at about 2:15a.m. The NDA, after its Friday attack, had vowed to shock the whole world soon with more of its activities and Saturdays’ blast may just be one of them. While the Saturday attack was being carried out in Brass, Rivers State, members of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) were reportedly conducting a search on Oproza, the country home of former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo. They were alleged to have harassed women and children who were forced to scamper for safety in the woods. Members of the JTF, it was gathered, invaded Gbaramatu kingdom at about 2:00a.m on Saturday and allegedly beat up everyone in sight. No fewer than 10 person had reportedly been arrested Sources from Gbaramatu kingdom also informed Sunday Tribune of sporadic shootings, as chil-
dren and women began to dash into the bush for fear of being caught in the melee. “As I speak to you now, the soldiers are shooting. We are not sure if the shootings are aimed at people or the empty air,” one of the sources disclosed. It could, however, not be ascertained if some militants engaged the soldiers in a gun duel, prompting the sporadic shootings. Further distress calls from a resident of the community, Comrade David Saturday to Sunday Tribune, said the soldiers specifically invaded the community of Tebuzo and Oporoza in five gunboats. “As I speak now, our women and children are taking refuge in the bush amid dangerous reptiles. “I’m also speaking to you from the bush because the soldiers are breaking into houses and dragging people out in anger. “They are around all the corners of the communities harassing our women as I speak now,” Saturday said. He further alleged that students of Gbaragama School, Oporoza, who were sleeping in their hostel, were woken from their sleep and chased out into the woods by the soldiers. The soldiers, it was gathered, were in continued search for members of the NDA responsible for the upsurge in vandalism of oil and gas installations in the area, one of which still occurred at Batan near Warri
on Friday. Sunday Tribune gathered that soldiers numbering about 78 had, a fortnight ago, invaded the community in 13 military gunboats allegedly in search of the avengers. Comrade Saturday warned that if nothing was quickly done to assuage the people’s feelingsby withdrawing the soldiers, youths of the kingdom may be pushed to the wall and might fight back. “They are pushing us to the wall. They are harrassing our women, beating up our students in the hostel. “Are we the ones blowing up pipelines? Are we the Avengers? Buhari should come and withdraw his boys before we defend our land,” he warned. Meanwhile, the Foundation for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (FHRACC) based in Ayakoromo in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, has condemned the military invasion of Gbaramatu Kingdom by soldiers. National President of FHRACC, Alaowei Cleric Esq., in a statement made available to Sunday Tribune on Saturday, said the invasion by soldiers had shown that President Muhammadu Buhari was not serious about dialogue with the militants. “The commando style invasion of Oporoza Community in Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West LGA of Delta State by the war-hungry and bloodthirsty Nigerian armed
•10 arrested in Oporoza
forces on the 28th of May 2016 is most barbaric and unlawful. “The attack on the peaceloving ancient town, the headquarters of the Gbaramatu Kingdom, is an abuse of the traditional Institution of the Gbaramatu people,” he stated. He further called on the president to order for the immediate withdrawal of the soldiers from the community. Meanwhile, as of the time of filing this report, several people, particularly women and children, are said to be missing as the soldiers are said to have occupied the communities. The JTF spokesperson, Lt Col. Isah Ado could, however, not be reached for comments. When contacted, Shell spokesman, Joseph Obari, said the company had left the attacked trunkline since 2014. He, however, clarified that the second trunkline belonged to Aiteo OilCompany and not Shell anymore. “Kindly contact Aiteo, the operator of the reported assets for information on their status,” Obari stated in a sms to our correspondent in Yenagoa. It was learnt that the militants and a crack team of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps battled in the creeks of Bayelsa on Saturday following the twin blasts that ruptured pipelines belonging to the Agip and Aiteo. A civil defence operative, who did not want to be
Eko at 50: Soyinka blasts critics
•Celebration will showcase our achievements to the world —Ambode Bola Badmus-Lagos
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has described as ignorant, those opposed to his cochairmanship of the Lagos Golden Jubilee Anniversary Committee constituted by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. Some prominent Lagos indigenes, including Professor Imran Smith had condemned Soyinka’s appointment and urged him to turn down the offer. But speaking in Lagos, on Friday, at a special children programme to officially kick-start the year-long jubilee celebra-
tion, Soyinka said while he would not join issues with the critics, his family was a pioneer in the development of Lagos. He said it was unfortunate that the “so-called Lagosians” were denying themselves the opportunity of knowing Lagos, whcih he said the committee would offer. Soyinka explained that the idea of the year long anniversary was just to create consciousness about the celebration in the minds of people, saying it is not that the events would be organised every day. He disclosed that a month would be dedicated
to victims of Boko Haram insurgency, promising that the committee would give people the opportunity to know Lagos. In his remarks at the official start of the anniversary, Governor Ambode promised that the activities lined up would showcase the “unique achievements, culture, heritage and tourism potentialities” of the state to the world. Ambode said the celebration was put together to provide historical opportunity that would propel the state to “unimaginable greatness” and on “the highest pedestal in
the league of world’s megacity states.” “This golden jubilee celebration will show Lagos for what it is a home for all and a land of opportunities where dreams are made and fulfilled. “This celebration will be all-inclusive and in furtherance to this, each of the five administrative divisions of the state will have one month to showcase their culture and landmass. In this way, we will expose to the world, the uniqueness and diversity of our culture and tradition as well as our great tourism potential,” he said.
mentioned, said another blast happened along a pipeline located at Legosgbene in Southern Ijaw area of the state. Continuing, He said after the onslaught, the armed militants laid ambush around the area, apparently to stop security operatives from accessing the crime scene. The security source said, “There are two blasts from Agip pipeline, one from Tebedeba to Brass. It happened opposite Orubiri community in Nembe. Then another blast happened in Legosgbene in Southern Ijaw. “As I am talking to you now, our team has advanced to the Legosgbene. The perpetrators are there laying ambush.” The Bayelsa State Commandant, NSCDC, Mr. Desmond Agu, confirmed the incident and said the militants were exchanging gunfire with his men at Southern Ijaw. Agu said, “We have deployed two teams in the two different locations where Agip pipelines were attacked in the state. Our team heading for the Southern Ijaw location discovered that the militants laid an ambush in the area. We will soon clear the area and ascertain the extent of damage done to the pipeline.” Meanwhile, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), has said it is not the responsibility of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to protect Shell, Agip or any other pipeline which belongs to private or corporate entity. A senior staff of the company, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, told Sunday Tribune in Abuja that the onus was on the management or authorities of the private organisations to take adequate security measures to protect their respective pipelines. According to him, “NNPC doesn’t protect Shell and Agip. However, we don’t have the duty responsibility to speak on pipelines when they are not NNPC’s. The only person, who can give you answer to this is our boss, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mallam Garba Deen Muhammad”.
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Oyo gov’s wife urges people to pay attention to their health By Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare
The celebrant, Baba Ijo of Our Saviour Anglican Church, Ikenne, Remo, Ogun State, Chief Olanuyi Okuyiga Okunuga (second left); Lagos State governor’s wife, Mrs Bolanle Ambode (second right); the chairman of the occasion, Chief Adesina Adeleke (left); son of the celebrant, Mr Abiodun Okunuga, cutting Chief Okunuga’s 100th birthday cake, at Ikenne Remo, on Saturday. PHOTO: D’TOYIN.
PDP govs declare support for Makarfi —Dickson Muhammad Sabiu -Kaduna
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he chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Reconciliation Committee and Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr Seriake Dickson has said all the governors under the party are currently behind the former governor of Kaduna State and chairman of the PDP caretaker committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi. He dropped the hint in Kaduna on Saturday when he paid a courtesy call on Senator Makarfi at his residence. Dickson said “I am here to congratulate you on your emergence as our national chairman. You emerged as our national leader for a job you did not seek for. He continued: “Everybody knows that you are one of the respected leaders of our party and of course one of the respected leaders we have in the country. “At a time like this, we have to put ego behind and talk, because we are one family. We must put our act together towards building our party to greatness. And, I have the conviction
that PDP is coming back stronger, especially when one considers the fact that we now have a focused leader that is respected within the party and the nation. “I want to convey to you the message of PDP gov-
ernors that they are all behind you and your team,” Dickson said, calling on aggrieved PDP members to refrain from seeking legal redress instead of political solutions. Responding, Makarfi commended the governor
for his untiring efforts in keeping the party afloat. He said: “We need to sit down and talk to ourselves and see where we go wrong. To say sorry is a good virtue. I don’t think there is any thing wrong to say sorry.”
Glo salutes Nigerians’ resilience on Democracy Day Next generation network, Globacom, has congratulated Nigerians on the 17th anniversary of unbroken democracy in the country. According to Globacom, the sustenance of democracy is gradually leading Nigeria on the path of justice, liberty, and egalitarianism. Democracy Day is celebrated in Nigeria every May 29 to commemorate the smooth transition to the fourth Republic. “The last 17 democratic years of our nation have been a learning curve for politicians and citizens who have improved on internal and external communication and amicable resolution of issues in a peaceful and democratic manner. This culminated in the watershed election that led to the ouster of a sitting gov-
ernment through the ballot for the first time in the country,” Globacom stated. The network further declared: “We urge all the arms of government to cooperate and firm up strategies to pull Nigeria out of dire straits. They should also formulate viable and enduring strategies that will make the country live up to its appellation as the giant of Africa, whilst building institutions that would safeguard the perpetuation of democratic ethos in the country forever.” On the economic realities in the country, Globacom enjoined Nigerians to avail government their unalloyed support, adding that if the citizenry and the private sector collaborated effectively with government, the country would together tri-
umph over the current vicissitudes sooner than later. It encouraged all to continue to make sacrifices and offer prayers for God to turn potentials to advantages, and dreams to realities. The statement advised the country’s leaders to carefully harness Nigeria’s human and natural resources in a sustainable manner in order to lead the nation to the Promised Land. Globacom, which has consistently been adjudged the leader in data, observed that it was under the democratic dispensation that the telecommunications industry was deregulated to make telephony available and affordable to all. It added that the giant strides recorded in the sector and others were democratic dividends.
Democracy Day: Let’s keep faith in our country —Mark Taiwo Adisa - Abuja FORMER Senate Presudent, Senator David Mark has asked Nigerians not to despair in the face of the daunting economic and socio-political challenges facing the nation at the moment. Senator Mark, in a Democracy Day message made available, on Saturday, said the Nigerians must remain steadfast for its democracy
to endure. Senator Mark noted that it was by deliberate choice and design that the nation chose presidential democracy as the best form of government because of its representative and participatory nature. The former Senate helmsman said that this year’s democracy day is unique “because it is the first time in the last 17 years of uninterrupted civilian adminis-
tration that an opposition political party is in charge.” He noted that despite some criticisms , the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration had put in place for 16 years guaranteed the congenial atmosphere that enabled an opposition party to win elections. Senator Mark stated: “The PDP provided the enabling environment for democracy to thrive. It never hindered
or prevented opposition parties from operating. Everyone had access and the political space was free for all. “For 16 uninterrupted years, the PDP discharged firmly and competently the popular mandate of governance of Nigeria through four unprecedented political transitions which included the first ever transition of power from a ruling political party to opposition party in our county.”
The wife of the Oyo State governor, Mrs Florence Ajimobi has implored everyone to pay better attention to their health, most especially the eye. She stated this at the free eye care initiative organised by Ibadan North-East Local Government caretaker committee chairman, Mr Lekan Afuye, at the council secretariat in Iwo Road, Ibadan. In her address, Mrs Ajimobi described the eyes as the window of the soul and the light of the body, which should be well-taken care of. While appreciating Afuye for such a laudable initiative, Mrs Ajimobi urged all well-meaning Nigerians to emulate such gesture that would impact on the lives of others positively. In his welcome address, Afuye said the focus of the free eye screening exercise was to ensure better sight for the people of the council area, noting that the exercise would also involve the provision of free eye treatment, surgery and distribution of drugs as well as glasses.
Act fast, improve living conditions of Nigerians, NUJ tells Buhari the National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Comrade Waheed Odusile, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to do the needful to improve the socio-economic wellbeing of Nigerians. Odusile, who made the call while reviewing the oneyear administration of the All Progressives Congress-led government, in Abuja, on Saturday, said the president needed to act quickly to address the untold hardship being faced by Nigerians. “Mr President should act quickly and do the needful in the areas that will positively impact Nigeria and Nigerians. Although the signs are good, the speed of delivery is slow, Nigerians are losing patience. “The administration should remember that Nigerians massively voted for the APC, based on the promise that it would bring a change of fortune for them. “Nigerians have patiently waited to experience the positive change they expect from the APC-led Federal Government,’’ Odusile said. He said that one of the ways the president could achieve result was to give his cabinet members the “latitude to perform their assigned responsibilities.’’ According to the NUJ president, whoever is found wanting, whether in integrity or capacity to work, should be shown the way out and prosecuted. “This way, the administration will enjoy greater goodwill from Nigerians and the international community and the much-needed Foreign Direct Investments will flow into the country,’’ he said. Odusile, however, commended the president for his dogged fight against corruption, which had not spared the hitherto “untouchables’’ in the society. “For this cause, many high ranking individuals, who hitherto could be considered untouchables, are having their days in court. “Whooping sums of money in various currencies have been recovered from the privileged few, who in time past helped themselves to our common inheritance. “The money is much, no doubt, but we don’t know how much yet,’’ Odusile said.
Kano gov sacks SSG, names replacement, 7 perm. secs GOVERNOR Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has appointed Usman Alhaji Usman as the Secretary to the State Government (SSG). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Usman replaced Dr Rabi’u Bichi, who was removed by Governor Ganduje. The appointment was contained in a statement signed by the Kano State Head of Service, Alhaji Muhammad Na’iya, and made available to newsmen in Kano, on Saturday. According to the statement, Ganduje also approved the appointment of seven new permanent secretaries. They are Halilu Baba-Dantiye, Alhaji Usman Bala, Hajiya Bilkisu Waziri, Dr Saadatu Bala, Danladi Garba, Aminu Mohammed and Aliyu Sani. Similarly, the governor approved the immediate redeployment of six permanent secretaries to other ministries. According to the statement, the appointment and redeployment are with immediate effect, while handing and taking-over processes should be completed within one week.
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Lagos to demolish properties under high tension lines Bola Badmus-Lagos IN its resolve to establish zero tolerance for all structures and properties built under high tension cables across the state and has directed owners of such structures to remove them within the next seven days. Commissioner of Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Anifowoshe Abiola, said this was part of efforts to maintain a sustainable, organised, liveable and friendly environment. “The Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development had noted with dismay the flagrant disobedience of building regulations in the state, and has resolved to ensure removal of all structures that are in contravention of the law. “Contravention notices have already been served on offending structures. Owners of such structures have been urged to remove them within seven days. “Failure to adhere to the directive would lead to the removal of such structures by government at a cost to be borne by owners, developers or occupiers of such buildings,” the commissioner said.
The celebrant, Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba (Dr) Oladunni Oyewumi (second right) flanked by the Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi (second left), his wife, Florence (left) and the Elejigbo of Ejigbo, Oba Omowonuola Oyesosin (right) at Soun’s 90th birthday and 42nd anniversary on the throne held at his palace, Ogbomoso, on Friday. PHOTO: ALOLADE GANIYU
Hope rises on tomato
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HE Federal Government, on Saturday, said it had developed a pesticide agent that was very effective against the new tomato pest, Tuta Absoluta, which had recently ravaged tomato farms in Nigeria and had been of great concern to the country. Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, disclosed this in his office in Abuja when he received in audience a delegation from Kids-Fest, who paid him a visit. Dr Onu, who was of the opinion that the pesticide was a ready solution to the rampaging pest noted that there was no reason whatsoever to “go outside the country to import a solution.” He explained further that an agency under the ministry, National Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT), Zaria, developed the pesticide agent using natural resources available in the country. He stressed that the development of the pesticide agent and the expected mass production by industrialists and the support from other sources would contribute to food security in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large. According to him, the ministry was always ready to provide necessary support to all sectors of the economy in the sustained effort to promote national development. Earlier in his speech, the national project coordinator, Prince Paul Ikonne, informed the minister that the foundation was part of a global project which was founded by a German woman named Sussane Prahl in Sarajevo, shortly
after the ethnic crises that rocked part of the world over a decade ago. He said it had since become a global brand that promoted social integration of children through various events designed for
children to mingle, share useful ideas, learn new skills, exhibit their creative talents and generally entertain themselves and the society at large from their innocent and free-spirited viewpoints.
The Nigeria edition is scheduled to hold in Abuja this August and the minister assured the delegation of the support of the ministry in ensuring the realisation of the laudable objectives of Kids-Fest Nigeria.
Bad governance responsible for Boko Haram insurgence —Danjuma Bola Badmus-Lagos FORMER Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, has identified bad governance, among others, as the root cause of Boko Haram insurgence in the country. Danjuma, who is the Head, Presidential Committee on North East Initiatives (PCNI), said this in Otukpo, Benue State, while speaking at the 3rd Annual Chief Ogiri Okoh Memorial Lecture organised by the Idoma National Forum.The lecture was themed, ‘Good Governance for Sustainable Development in Nigeria.’ Danjuma said the destruction caused by the sect, and the many years of insurgency, could find its root in, among others, bad governance, adding that “intelligence failures, lack of political will, absence of state presence in local areas, initial abysmal performance by the security forces, loss of territory to irregular forces, which we suffered at the height of the insurgency, were manifestations of bad governance and state failure.”
Let’s keep hope alive, Atiku tells Nigerians Taiwo Adisa - Abuja
The Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr Leye Oyebade (right), being assisted by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Administration, Mr Amba Asuquo, during the decoration of the state’s Police Public Relations Officer, Adekunle Ajisebutu, with his new rank of a Superintendent of Police. PHOTO: OLUWATOYIN MALIK
We ’ll not pay striking workers —Fayose EKITI State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has said the state government will only pay salary to workers who are not on strike. He also opined that embarking on strike was not the solution to the poor resources available to the government, which had led to irregular payment of salary in the last few months. He stated this on radio and television stations in Ado-Ekiti. In a statement by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, on Saturday, the governor noted that the state was handicapped by the continuous slide in statutory allocations to the state and also the economic reces-
sion in the country. “For the April allocation shared in May, we got N752 million, while our wage bill is N2.6 billion monthly. The previous month, we got a little over N1 billion. That has been the trend since last year. We have had to combine two monthly allocations to be able to pay a month salary, but since the beginning of this year, three month’s allocations are not even enough to pay a month salary. “When you compare what we got from January to May, 2015 and what we got in the same period this year, we have a shortfall of over N6 billion. “Some are talking about
our internally-generated revenue. The records are there for all to see and I have always told labour leaders to go and verify. The highest we have recorded is N302 million a month. There was a month we had N181 million. “Since I assumed office, every month the allocation paper comes from a committee made up of labour leaders and other stakeholders in Abuja. The committee has been the one sharing whatever comes among all sectors. If I am not hiding anything from labour leaders and workers, I expect them to understand. I feel their pain. But there is a limit to what I can do in this type of situation.
FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is also a chieftain of All Progressives Congress, said on Saturday that Nigerians need to keep hope alive, despite the current limitations and challenges. In a Democracy Day statement released by his media office, Atiku said notwithstanding the limitations of democracy, it remained the best form of government anywhere in the world. He explained that the freedom of choice granted by democracy was one of the most important ingredients of the democratic system. He stated that the freedom to choose leaders made democracy fashionable, as according to him, any system that subverted the will of the people also destroyed the progress of the society. The former Vice President, said that as an active participant in the democratic struggle in Nigeria and an ardent proponent of the rule of law, as opposed to the rule of man, he recognised the sacrifices of gallant Nigerians whose struggles brought the nation to its current stage. He said that as Nigerians celebrate democracy day, they should also keep alive the memories of the late Shehu Yar’Adua and MKO Abiola, which, he said, would resonate across the country. He also said that the sacrifices of countless others, who paid the supreme price in the quest for democracy should also not be forgotten. According to him, no sane society would choose despotism over democracy because, under dictatorship, dissent is met with death or torture. He asked Nigerians to endure the current challenges, adding that no democratically elected government would intentionally hurt the voters that put it in office. He explained that the APC administration remained committed to the welfare of Nigerians, adding that the current challenges were temporary. He stated that the 2016 budget was specifically targeted to address the basic needs of the ordinary Nigerians, adding that its implementation would bring succour to Nigerians.
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29 May, 2016
Sunday Tribune
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sundayinterview
29 May, 2016
Sunday Tribune
How we’ve transformed Adamawa in one year —Jibrilla
Adamawa State governor, , Senator Mohammed Jibrilla Bindo, is one year in office today. He speaks with KABEER GWANGWANZO on how he has developed the infrastructure, health, agriculture and other key sectors in the state in the last one year, his relationship with the big shots in his state and why Nigerians need to support President Muhammadu Buhari. Excerpts:
T
ODAY makes it exactly one year that you got into office as governor of Adamawa State. By the time you made up your mind to run for office as governor, you must have had some aspirations and you must have drawn timelines for yourself on the things you want to achieve at certain periods; have you been able to realise your expectations for the state in the first year? And those expectations, against the backdrop of the reality you see now, how wide were they in comparison to what you have been able to achieve today? Did you expect what you have experienced in the last one year? Honestly, the answer to your questions is very simple. I have said it earlier that I did not become a governor by accident. I had planned for all these things that are happening in terms of the development of Adamawa State. When I was in the Senate, I made all my plans and prayed that if God, in His gracious will, would allow me to go through the election and enable me to become the governor of the state, these were the things I would want to do. Unfortunately, as I told you earlier that Adamawa was not one of the most backward states at the period we took
over, it was, indeed, the most backward state in terms of infrastructure and social amenities. All the infrastructure that one can think of: road, water, health, education were in serious state of decadence and backwardness. What I did was to decide that even if it would take me the whole four years that I have to fix one thing, which would impact on the lives of our people; one thing that would be visible and highly impactful on our people, especially the poor masses, I would do it. I took the decision to begin with that one thing that would be visible for everyone to see and impact positively on the people, especially the poor masses of the state. So, we decided on focusing on the infrastructural development of the state. We discovered that the major thing that would affect virtually everyone is the road infrastructure and as I told you, the situation was quite bad. Even the township roads through which people conduct their daily activities are in utterly poor condition and total neglect. So, we designed the plans to first attend to the most important places where the masses are located. I did not go to the Government Reserved Area or streets where the elite and affluent people are. We went to where the common people are most affected and began the construction and reconstruction of roads,
such that by the time we build basic infrastructure, the town will expand and economic activities will improve in those places. To date, we have embarked on the construction of 44 roads and as God will have it, the contractor will hand over 44 newly-constructed and reconstructed roads in the state capital here, Jimeta and Yola. We have also embarked on the construction of 14 roads in Mubi, which is second largest city in Adamawa State and the economic nerve centre of the state. That is the local government I come from. It was badly hit by the insurgency but God has helped us to overcome that and the people are blessed by God, such that Mubi has bounced back. If you go to Mubi now, you will even say it is better than before. My expectations are going according to plan. The focus of my programmes as a governor is to finish all I want to do for the masses in terms of infrastructural regeneration and development in two years. In the third year, I plan to focus of social welfare, because if you build roads, build schools and whatever development and the people are still hungry, there will be problem. So, in the first two Continues pg 10
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sundayinterview
29 May, 2016
Sunday Tribune
‘We’ve begun agricultural revolution’ Continued from pg 9 years, we will be concentrating on capital projects so that I will have a legacy. In the third year, I will also fully commit resources to the welfare of the people. If it is only one term I am able to do, I will be happy that I have rebuilt the state and put its people on the path of prosperity so that posterity can judge me. So, I can tell you that all my plans are going according to plan. The roads that will be handed over in June, the initial planned date for them was December, but because since we started, we have never defaulted in paying the contractors. We paid them as and when due, so I give them a lot of pressure. Coming from the private sector background, I have been able to ensure strict monitoring and commitment to timing on the contractors. I go to the project sites in the morning and evening. Today, maybe around 12 p.m., someone will come here to pick me and we will go to town to see why the street lights are not working, because we have already put a committee in place chaired by the Deputy Governor [Honourable Martins Babale]. I would call a contractor and ask him why he is not working and all that. There has been a lot of supervision and pressure; they work during the raining season and dry season, so they will complete the projects by June instead of December. That is an advantage of six months. After we finish the roads, my next plan, as I have said before, is to concentrate fully on the health sector. We have already started working on the sector but we will be more committed after the completion of the roads. We have four major hospitals: one in Yola, one at Ganye, a specialist hospital in Numan and, of course, one at Mubi. We have done all the designs, the consultant has finished everything. We are just looking for funds here and there and as God would have it, the World Bank is trying to help us on the hospitals and the health care system in the state because of the insurgency and all that. So, we are just strategising and trying to see how we can put more resources into the health sector. We will start on that one. Insha Allah, by December, I will complete the reconstruction and rebuilding of all these hospitals. Of course, we have, through the MDGs and UBEC interventions, embarked on a massive rebuilding of schools. We have almost 58 primary schools that we are working on. UBEC has about 111 primary schools; we just started work on them. With the supervision and pressure we have put on those handling these projects, we will also finish work on them by December. By 2017, we will continue on the building of road infrastructure by moving to other major towns. We will move to Ganye and Numan and we also want to do a road in Shelleng, where we want to do a road of over 30 kilometres. That road has been of concern to the rural people in that area for about 30 to 40 years. We want to do that road from Numan to Shelleng, because it is very important and we promised during campaigns that we would do it. We have even advertised for tender but I do not want to award the contract without having the money to do it. We do not want to carry so many things at the same time so that at the end we would be stuck. I love to plan my things and carry out the plans effectively, so that I can go at a steady pace, even if it is slow. I do not want
as corruption is concerned, I maintain zero tolerance for it, because I have to be accountable to the people and be transparent. The motto of our administration is transparency and accountability; they are very important. Look at what is happening. Some of our colleagues are in EFCC’s net and coming from my legislative background as a senator, I have to know how to do my things according to the rule books and within the ambit of the appropriation laws. I do not just do projects anyhow; they have to be in the budget and be appropriated for.
Governor Jibrilla failure to pay as and when due to affect the pace of the projects, so immediately we have the resources, we would start those projects. Therefore, throughout next year, by God’s grace, we will continue with the construction of roads and rebuilding of other relevant infrastructure. By 2018, I want to be able to say ‘Alhamdulilahi,’ meaning that I am grateful to Almighty Allah for giving me the opportunity to serve my people and to serve them selflessly. I see what I am doing as selfless service, because as you can see, this place you are is my personal house. It is a small place but I am comfortable, contented and happy though I am not in the Government House. I may go there, but the truth is that for more than seven years, nobody has lived in the Government House. We are renovating the place, complete renovation. I am happy with what I have, so I do not waste government money on where I will stay and all these luxuries. Inasmuch as my programmes for the people are going on well, I am contented and happy. Most of your colleagues have been complaining about the paucity of funds, but you have been reconstructing and rebuilding the city, where have you been getting the resources? Or are there any secret resources you have access to in Adamawa that you are not sharing with other states? There are no secret resources anywhere. Just as I told you that I am from the private sector, so I should be able to effectively manage resources to achieve results. So, I have been able to use whatever resources we have to achieve what you are able to see now. Governance is all about management and once you are a businessman and you are successful as a businessman, effective management of resources should not be a challenge to you. As you manage financial resources, you also manage human beings; this is what I have been doing. I am not getting any extra fund from anywhere. The few resources I have is what I have been using to negotiate my way with the contractors, because I have also been a contractor before. We know where they cut corners. We know how they add to things. So once
you bring a bid for N1 billion, I know that N550 million to N600 million will do the job. I sit with the contractors and we articulate issues, disagree and iron out differences. I would often tell them ‘see, this a township road; you are not doing the road outside town where you will see there are streams and rocks and all that. It is when you are doing a road outside here that you can add these and that.’ And they would agree. But if you don’t know how things run, they will compound everything and give you a huge bill. That is how we have been managing resources and God in His infinite mercy has been assisting us by giving us the wisdom to do what we have been doing. There is no special fund; it is just experience and the little knowledge I have and God on my side. You are from a well-known family in this state, how much of advantage did that confer on you while contesting for this post and while you are doing this job? I have a belief since I was running for the Senate that the goodwill of my background has assisted me immensely. Of course, we all wear our parents’ Kaftan; that is who you are. How you come out of your family is how people will see you. I can assure you that this is what has been gearing me up and assisting me. The record and reputation of my father preceded him in everything in terms of hard work, integrity assisting humanity and all he did and I know I have to maintain that momentum. I know that I must make sure I am doing the right thing. Even though he is late, I believe that he is watching me and guiding me and whenever I pray, I pray for him and pray that God continues to also keep me on track. There are certain people in the state who try to help me simply because they were close to my late father. They try to guide me and give me advice; ‘do this, don’t do that’ and all that. I am comfortable and I always like to appreciate and also associate myself with my background. That way, I can always remember where I come from, because if you don’t remember where you are coming from, you won’t know where you are going. That is why in whatever I do, as far
One noticed that there are so many powerful people in Adamawa State: notable politicians, captains of industries and influential businessmen, what kind of pressure does that put on you? Honestly, there is zero-level of pressure, because I am busy. I cannot remember any enemy or someone I have to contend with because of his status, because I am busy. I am focused and I have a responsibility to deliver; the moment you start looking left and right, you will lose focus and from there, you will derail. And like you have said, Adamawa is not like every other state; it is the most difficult state to govern because of the people you talked about. By the time you say you want to do something, they will say ‘you have to serve this and that master’ and I think I will not do justice to myself if, coming from the background I am from, if I start joining issues with people. In Adamawa, we respect elders; we don’t join issues with elders, because they are very important. If you respect yourself and you respect elders, once you grow up too, people will respect you. But once you join issues with elders and start insulting them, when you grow up, people will insult you too. So, I don’t go to that side. I respect the elders and do my thing. I have a mandate from the people of Adamawa and I have responsibility to them and not to anybody either in APC or PDP. When we started this governorship project, people didn’t take us seriously because the PDP was still in power and they thought they would do what they normally did. I also came from the PDP and when I got to the Senate, it was the masses that said it was going to be me, so all the things that PDP was used to could not be perpetrated. You can see, even now the PDP has not learnt its lessons. See the congresses and convention they tried to organise and all sorts of scams everywhere. So, I don’t have any boss that I need to call in Abuja who dictate what I should and should not do. If I need advice, I have people whom I respect like my parents and I can call them or they will call me and advise me. There are certain people I visit monthly and they would ask me what my problem is and give me advice. That is how I run the state. Also, we have a team. I don’t do things on my own. We have a team of experienced people that I brought in to man at least seven or eight ministries. These are serious technocrats in the fields of finance, agriculture, health, education, works and so on. These people are technocrats who give advice on things I don’t know, because it is not everything that one can know. So, with my experience coming from the private, their knowledge and exposure, we are able to get things right and that is why we are able to be where we are today and we have this level of progress. Continues pg 12
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29 May, 2016
Awo’s thoughts PATH TO NIGERIAN GREATNESS
On the campaign trail
Fundamental issues in nigeria’s economic development Continued from
Table 8.3 Revenue Raised and Spent by Each Level of Government 1970-71 - 1977-78 (N Million)
Revenue Raised
States
Local Governments
Revenue Revenue Revenue AlloRaised Allocated cated
Office and House Maintenance
5028
3350
7927
17302
29531
21599
18576
12403
Motor Vehicle Purchases
983
1657
2397
5848
29892
9690
9431
5390
Vehicle Advances
3154
1728
4111
10964
20702
19915
20928
12190
Vehicle Allowance
1543
1145
3081
7172
10855
11932
14209
14720
Overseas Visit and Expenses
6026
6566
8550
94320
28499
25863
20020
20160
Telephones
1020
1928
3311
4358
6989
6195
6303
5245
Hospitality
1147
1417
2604
3857
4368
4539
3398
2508
Rent, Furniture and Accommodation
2437
2312
7137
17366
30108
33094
28501
25282
Contributions to External Agencies
1778
2373
4009
3466
6085
10171
9805
7605
Conference and Seminars
1318
1763
3542
5224
5667
7268
5165
2584
Casual Labour Costs
1490
1689
4135
5801
15598
13947
5077
5040
* 1977-78 Reversed Estimates * * 1978-79 Estimates
last week
Federal
Sunday Tribune
Revenue Raised
Gross Total Total Domestic RevProduct enue Total Rev- Revenue at Factor AS% of Revenue enue AlloCost GDP Spent Raised cated (GDP)
1970-71
758.1
456.0
91.0·
363.0
50.9
81.0
900.0
9442
9.5
1972-73
1390.-
1077.4
142.4
419.9
85.6
120.6
1618.0
11998
13.4
Table 8.5 Estimated Gross Domestic Product, Government Revenue Federal and States), and Educational Expenditure 1970-1980 (N Million) Education Expenditure
Year
GDP at Current Factor Cost
Govt Revenue as % of GDP (State)
Govt Revenue (Federa)
Variant A
Variant B
Education Expenditure % of Revenue
Ed. Expenditure % of GDP
Variant A (Col 5 as % of Col 4)
Variant B (Col 6 as % of Col 4)
Variant A (Col 5 as % of Col 2)
1973-74
2171.1
1847.4
225.6
504.3
105.3
150.3
2502.0
13135
19.1
1974/75
5171.1
4343.4
335.9
1123.6
122.6
168.6
5635.6
14254
39.5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1975/76
5856.2
4138.4
451.8
2119.6
135.0
185.0
6443.0
14648
44.0
1770
1742.9
18.3
318.6
77.0
81.2
24.2
25.5
4.4
1976/77
7057.2
5642.3
710.3
2072.2
152.6
205.6
7920.1
16040
49.4
1971
1878.2
21.1
397.2
81.0
87.8
20.4
22.1
4.3
1977/78
7966.2
6086.3
810.4
2490.3
210.8
410.8
8987.4
17500
52.5
1972
2055.5
23.1
473.8
85.8
95.3
18.1
20.1
4.2
1978/79
6855.2
5168.1
920.8
2407.9
224.0
424.0
8000.0
19000
41.1
1973
2280.9
24.9
570.2
109.7
123.5
19.2
21. 7
4.8
1974
2554.6
25.0
638.7
135.2
147.0
21.2
23.0
5.3
1975
2861.2
25.5
729.6
160.7
178.6
22.0
24.5
5.6
1976
3204.5
26.0
833.2
188.6
231.8
22.6
27.8
5.9
1977
3589.0
26.5
951.1
217.9
268.9
22.9
28.3
6.1
Table 8.4 Federal Government of (Common) other Charges and Special Expenditures: 1971-72 - 1978-79 (N Thousand) ITEM
197172
19721973
19731974
19741975
19751976
Local Transport and Travelling
26367
21755
35039
62584 122780
19761977
19771978’
197899**
120055
120757
82055
To be continued
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‘Why all Nigerians have to support Buhari’ Continued from pg 10 It was learnt that there are about 82 or 84 tribes in Adamawa State… (Cuts in) 87 tribes. There are even about 14 other tribes that are saying they were not captured in that number; so we have over 100 tribes. That would make the state as one with about the highest number of tribes. How do you manage them? I told you that I give everybody his or her due respect. Not only the tribe but the religions two are equally balance 50-50, so once you are a leader; it is a responsibility from the Almighty God and you have to treat everyone equally. You have to give justice, equity and fairness in whatever you do and do your best in performing the responsibility. If we continue to do things based on ‘I am from this tribe or that tribe or that I am a Muslim, you are Christian’ I don’t think we will ever move forward. That is why we have a problem in Nigeria. But our administration has been able to kill this religion and tribal sentiment or mentality; you can ask anyone. I carry everybody along; this state belongs to all of us. We do not have an Adamawa for Christians or Muslims or any tribe; it is only one Adamawa in Nigeria and it is for all of us. We have made people to know that we all have to come together to move the state forward and bring back the past glory of the state, because with the human resources and influential people you mentioned, we should have been farther than this in terms of progress and development. But we are still behind in terms of health, education and other sectors; there is nothing on ground despite the fact that we have had so many people at different levels of government. That is why Mr President should be commended for his boldness and commitment towards fighting corruption. Our major problem initially was the insurgency, because as you all know, without peace there is nothing anyone can do. But the president has done very well and I am sure he will continue to do well, by bringing the insurgency under control. For someone like me who had the opportunity of being in the Seventh Senate and also served as the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence and Army, I knew what the state went through with the Boko Haram insurgency. The terrorists occupied seven local governments in the state and five of them were in the zone that I represented in the Senate. Even my home town, Mubi, was occupied by Boko Haram for about two months or so. So, I really fought insurgency in the Senate and the state of emergency and all that. We know how things used to be and we know what is happening now. Everyone can go about their normal businesses now. We must give kudos to President Muhammadu Buhari, who has shown commitment to fighting the insurgency, which almost destroyed the entire North-East zone. About four million Adamawa residents are looking at you in terms of social welfare and you have a programme you termed ‘Bindow for Social Change,’ how do you think this programme will impact positively on the people? We have made all the provisions and we are giving soft loans to our people to enhance their businesses. We decided at the
Governor Jibrilla beginning of this administration that we won’t be giving our people fish but that we would teach them how to fish. So, we have instituted these soft loans to enable the people to be self-reliant small scale entrepreneurs. The microcredit facilities have been designed to capture the people at the lowest rungs of the ladder, who would be given N30,000 loans to boost their business. We are touching every ward in Adamawa State. We have 226 wards in the state and 66 people have been selected from every ward to benefit from the loan scheme. It will be a revolving loan; as you take a loan and pay back, you still have access to the money and about N500 million have been earmarked for this purpose. We have already finished all the arrangements and very soon, we will begin the disbursement. This scheme is designed to impact directly on the masses in the state. They will know that government is trying to support them to be independent and not just that they will be dashed free money, which they end up spending without anything to show for it. This scheme will make you work hard and when you do, you can always be sure that you will be liberated from the shackles of poverty. In order to make the loan effective and well-monitored, we are going through the traditional rulers. They will be the ones to guarantee those who get the loans in order to make sure that beneficiaries are locals and that people know them and the business they do. We have also involved the traditional rulers to prevent people from diverting the loans or running away. We believe that this scheme will impact on the under-privileged in the state. Adamawa State is largely agrarian, how have you been able to reach out to the farmers, because if farmers are well-mobilised, it will improve the economy of the state? We have a lot of programmes on the agricultural sector, because we realised the centrality of Adamawa to the agricultural chain in the country. This state is the largest producer of rice in Nigeria. But we had flooding problems, so what we did when came in was to diversify or move planting
to dry seasons. So, we have bought fertilisers and given loans to farmers. We have given almost N300 million in loans to farmers so that they can do the right things and we are supervising them through a farmers’ forum. Through that forum, we did a lot of training for them on how to utilise the loans. It was the first time that any government thought of giving loans to farmers and helping them. We also gave them fertilisers at the right time. They are now doing dry season farming and also during raining seasons. We are also getting some facilities from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to help rice farmers, because the president is very serious about rice production. We have gone to Kebbi to see the rice and flour mills and we are going to have about three mills in Adamawa State so that we can produce the rice and mill them here. That way, there will be no need to bring rice from outside Nigeria. There is a serious commitment to agriculture and the farmers are happy. We are bringing about 250 tractors in for the farmers; I think about 105 are already on the ground. Every local government will get about 15 tractors so that people can have access to them. So, I can say that we are doing a big thing in the agric sector. Is there a way through which you are encouraging the youth to go into farming? Yes. Most of these farmers are now
I cannot remember any enemy or someone I have to contend with because of his status, because I am busy. I am focused and I have a responsibility to deliver
young people. We have been moving towards that for some time, encouraging our youths to embrace agriculture, because most of them are graduates and yet have nothing to do. For many years now, the government used to give them Special Assistant posts and would give them about N10,000 as monthly salary. Of course, they would be happy to get that stipend but after a few hours, that money would finish. But we recognised that this has to change and we set forth to address that immediately we got into office. The agriculture revolution is not only going to capture the youth, even the women. The soft loans that I told you about, we are giving about 40 per cent to the women, because they are quite vulnerable and have to be cared for to stand on their own. There are so many programmes that we have for the youths. I am trying to finish our stadium complex; Adamawa is the only state in the North-East that does not have a stadium. But now we are building a complex that will create a lot of jobs for our youths in that sector and also generate revenue for the government. I don’t know if you have visited the Yola International Hotel. For 10 years, it has been in a sorry state but now it is coming up. I can tell you that by March or April, the rehabilitation of the hotel will be completed and we will get one of the best companies in the hospitality business to come and manage it. About 500 blue collar jobs and about 50 blue collar jobs can be created through that hotel alone. We will get international hoteliers to come and manage the hotel, because once we finish the project, it will be the best in the North-East. Once we finish that hotel, it will be good for the tourism business and conferences and so on. How well have the people received these projects that you are doing? You know that sometimes a leader’s effort is justified by the reception of the people towards the projects. Are the people happy with the roads you are building and all the things you are doing for them? How I wish you go round the town with me. Every evening, I go out and I cry when I see the crowd of people and the old women that hail me and pray for me and pray for my father because of the projects they see. Most of the old people have never seen developments like these and never thought these kinds of things could come up within a short period. There were governments that came and spent seven years but they never did anything like these. They have nothing to show. Anyone, even my greatest enemy, if he brings a sword to fight me and sees what I am doing, he must hide his sword, because there is nothing he can have against me. I was elected to bring developments to Adamawa and these are physical developments that anyone can see. People can see where their money is going in terms of infrastructure and well-being of the people. If the roads are not good, people cannot live well and the economy cannot thrive. Today, we are doing a lot of rural roads in collaboration with many Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the World Bank. We are doing about 300 kilometres of rural roads, so the farmers would bring their agricultural produces to the city centres. Everyone is happy and if anyone is not happy, then he must be an enemy of progress and the enemy of the masses in this state.
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Sunday Tribune
DemocracydayEdition
The anatomy of change Buhari should stop seeing himself as Northern president —Adebanjo
State of the states:
Hunger, salary delay, infrastructural challenges Vox Pop: What Nigerians say about one year of Buhari’s govt entertainment
Buhari’s govt has started well —Kosoko Nothing has been achieved —Bimbo Manuel
He has not justified his mandate —Agbakoba
Let us be patient, things will get better —Bimbo Akintola
He is concerned about Nigerians —Momoh
•Says their sacrifice’ll be for a short term
I don’t know if anything has changed —Timaya
I’ve continued to pray for Buhari’s govt —Yakassai
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Sunday Tribune
The anatomy of ‘Change’: One year
of Buhari’s administration
With its deafening change sloganeering in the build up to the last election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) drowned all music from the orchestra band of the hitherto ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) meant to sway the electorate to continue to keep faith with the brand. As the election day loomed, confidence level in the change camp was almost sky-high. Not even the postponement of the presidential election from February 14, 2015, to March 28 could dampen the resolve of the citizens to bring a change of guard about. After one year of President Muhammadu Buhari’s change government, what has actually changed? DARE ADEKANMBI AND MOSES ALAO comb the anatomy of change in 365 days .
Dr Bukola Saraki, Senate President
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo
I
T is 365 days today since President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated as the fourth president of the most populous Black country, at a wellattended swearing-in ceremony in Abuja. Similarly, it is 426 days today after the historic presidential election in which Nigerians, saturated and mobilised with the gospel of change, filed out in thousands and defied weather conditions to elect Buhari as president on March 28, 2015. The atmosphere at Eagles Square, venue of the inauguration ceremonies as in the entire country, was heavily pregnant with expectations and high hopes. Nigerians perceived Buhari as the long-awaited messiah and bringer of good tidings, a president whose reign will make life abundant for them. President Buhari, in his inaugural address, acknowledged the weight of expectations on his government and the pressure to deliver the goods. He promised to tackle insurgency, give corruption a bloody nose, frontally confront youth unemployment through the agriculture and solid minerals sectors, see to improvement in power generation and distribution, revamp the economy and restore investors’ confidence, among others. But no sooner had Buhari been inaugurated than events in the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) government began to validate the salad bowl theory, especially with its gastronomical metaphor of elements retaining separate identities rather than melting same in a common cauldron. Choice of leadership of the National Assembly was the first test of might spectacle that Nigerians were treated to. A section of APC leadership was pitched against the other over the matter with Buhari initially standing aloof. By the time he waded in, the bi-cameral legislature had affirmed its independence and chosen its leaders.
President Muhammadu Buhari
Opinion differs on the barometer to use in gauging the Buhari Presidency on its first anniversary. Some analysts believe the change promised Nigerians during the campaign period was a coated bitter pill now unwrapped in the form of harsh economic policies. But others are quick to rise in defence of the president with the argument that Nigerians cannot enjoy the omelet promised by Buhari without the eggs being broken; that the fruits of the envisaged change are slow in coming does not mean the seeds have not been planted. Analysing the appointments made so far and the configuration of the political power apex, there are those who hold the view that Buhari has betrayed the creed popularised in his maiden address, the pledge to “serve as President to all Nigerians. I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.” To this group of Nigerians, with 27 of the 48 key positions in the North-West geopolitical zone, where the president also hails from, no further evidence is needed to drive home the point that the universalistic purport of the “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody” credo ended on the dais where it was made at Eagles’ Square. The appointments made last week, which was deemed to have been skewed in favour of the North, was also cited by this school of
observers. Another school, however, counterargued that the president addressed whatever perceived imbalance there was with the assignment of portfolios. To this group, the allotment of key ministries to Babatunde Fashola, Adebayo Shittu, Professor Isaac Fawole, Kemi Adeosun, Rotimi Amaechi, Kayode Fayemi, all from the southern part, has assuaged the ill feelings towards the president in his choice of men and women to actualise the change mantra. Perhaps, no other area has Buhari received warm and superlative accolades than in combating insurgency in the North-East and “degrading and reducing,” as some officials of government put it, the Boko Haram insurgents to “feeling ragtag.” Communities hitherto under the control of the insurgents have been recovered with the attendant reduction in threat to Nigeria’s territorial integrity. There has been considerable casualty suffered by the sect. One of the 219 Chibok girls abducted more than two years has been rescued and reunited with her parents, although as a mother. Almost all analysts buy into the avowed commitment of President Buhari to reduce if not eliminate corruption so that resources meant for the development of the country will not end up in the pockets
Hon Yakubu Dogara, Speaker, House of Representatives
of some clique. “Giving corruption a bloody nose” and entrenching transparency and accountability in government at all levels rank high in the wish-list of most Nigerians. The citizens reposed much confidence in the president that, given his perceived high level of integrity, he would go after corrupt people and get them to return money stolen from state purse. Many big names who served in the immediate past government are said to have secretly returned mouth-watering sums, while many others have pledged to similar act. But criticisms have not been short in coming on the modus operandi of the anti-corruption crusade of the Buhari administration. Many analysts agree that, while cleaning the Augean Stable is not negotiable, due process and the rule of law must not be discounted in the name of fighting graft. Instances cited by these analysts include the continued detention of the immediate past national security adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd), despite being granted bail by three courts. Dasuki is being held in connection with the $2.1 arms deal bazaar. Probing Continues pg15
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Sunday Tribune
The Anatomy of change Continued from pg14
campaign funds of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), without extending the same scrutiny to money spent to fund the election of APC candidates, including what is spent on Buhari’s election, is seen as uncalled for
and detracts from the gains of the anticorruption fight. To observers, Buhari’s rating on the economy is very low. About 2 million jobs have been lost in one year. Power supply has worsened. Investors are leaving the country in droves and the 2016 first quarter GDP figure, which showed negative growth, summed up
the frightening picture already painted. The hardship being felt by the masses is said to have escalated with the removal of subsidy from petroleum products. All these are being analysed against the backdrop of the promised change and the sharp fall in the price of crude oil, the country’s mono-product. Sunday Tribune, in its accustomed
tradition, spoke with some prominent Nigerians on the Buhari administration one year after. Their views vary. Also included in the anniversary edition of the delightful newspaper is the “State of the States” analysis which looks at the programmes and policies of the state governments in the last one year as well as other issues of development.
State of the states: Hunger, salary delay, infrustructural challenges dog states 365 days of Ajimobi’s second term By Wale Akinselure and Moses Alao OWING to the dwindling prices in global oil market, states more than ever before, are compelled to reduce dependence on federal allocation and focus on improving their Internally-Generated Revenues (IGR). The assertion by President Muhammadu Buhari that 27 states were bankrupt, coupled with the bailout package by the Federal Government to states to clear the accumulated arrears of salaries clearly revealed the poor state of finances in states. In spite of the bailout, many states have still been unable to pay workers’ salaries. Like in many states of the country, Oyo
State government has also struggled to address the needs of its teeming populace since the inauguration of the second term of Senator Abiola Ajimobi as governor of the state. The indebtedness of the Oyo State government to workers for between three and five months, at any point in time, is a clear evidence of a challenging financial situation, with the recently averted industrial crisis between the labour union in the state and the government, highlighting the situation of the state. Though the issue was resolved when government and the labour union signed Continues
Johnson Babajide - Makurdi
Governor Abiola Ajimobi, Oyo State
pg17
How Delta has fared under Okowa in one year Ebenezer Adurokiya -Warri THE first one year anniversary of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa in Delta State could go for a pass mark, given the prevailing economic circumstance in the country. May 29, 2015 was a major landmark in the political history of Delta State. This is because Dr Okowa was inaugurated as the fourth civilian governor of the state as well as the first governor from Delta North Senatorial district. The previous administrations, according to Okowa, left behind a huge debt profile. Monthly allocations from the Federal Government declined steadily, just as the crude oil price nosedived at the international market. The Okowa administration has to take some decisive steps to address the situation and navigate the state out of economic gloom into a path of progress. As a result, the first step he took was to restructure the finances of the state, plug all leakages, reinvigorate the internally
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta State
generated revenue drive, maintain strict fiscal discipline and prioritise government’s projects and programmes. Presenting his first budget early 2016 tagged: “Budget of renewed hope and inclusive development,” Okowa set an internally generated revenue target of N75 billion, the Delta State 2016 budget of N167 billion with recurrent expenditure of N153 billion, while capital expenditure
ORTOM’s one year in office: How far, how well for Benue?
was N114 billion were aimed at driving all inclusive economic growth. He then set out to address unemployment, the most arguably nagging problem of the state. In August 2015, the Delta State job and wealth creation scheme was launched. It included the Youth and Entrepreneurship Programme and the Product and Processing Support Programme (PPSP). Through the creation of the office of the Chief Job Creation Officer, about 17,175 private sector jobs were created. Governor Okowa also restructured and repositioned the award-winning Delta State Micro and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agencies. As of April 2016, the agency has disbursed N546 million as loans to 3, 100 clients in cottage trading, agriculture and agro-processing services. As regards infrastructural development, Okowa administration has awarded contracts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of 54 roads across the three senatorial district of the state.
IN Benue State, 365 days of Governor Samuel Ortom has been a mixed grill, with the government and the opposition viewing the one year in office of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government from different perspectives, as expected. While the governor and his team would be able to boast of achievements in different sectors of the state, with their supporters noting that there is every cause to celebrate, following the emergence of another party at the driving seat of the state government for the first time in 17 years, members of the opposition and indeed, some political observers have noted that all has not been well with the state in the last one year. But the government, given its activities and affairs, can be rated on the important sectors such as the economy, payment of workers’ salaries, security and so on, which have been largely affected by its actions, inactions and policies in the last 12 months. Governor Ortom had told everyone during his campaign that his coming into the race was a divine call to rescue the people of the state from age-long poverty and underdevelopment, adding that he possessed the magic wand to turn around the fortune of the state for better. At the inception of the administration last year, the government decided to cut cost to be able to meet its obligations by pruning down ministries. The governor also announced the suspension of jamboree tours by government officials.
Ayade’s one year of successes, challenges in Cross River Anthony Ubong - Calabar DURING his swearing-in as governor of Cross River State on May 29, 2015, Senator Benedict Ayade told enthusiastic crowd of Cross Riverians and Nigerians alike who thronged the Calabar international convention centre that his administration was out to make a difference. In fact, he promised to better the lot of Cross Riverians through the provision of basic
infrastructure. He specifically said his administration woul embark on signature projects such as the Calabar garment factory, deep seaport, 260-kilometre superhighway. In a bid to create employment, he also unveiled plans to establish a cocoa processing plant, rice mill and a modular refinery in the state. One year after, his vision for the state seems to be coming to fruition as the gar-
ment factory, for instance, is near completion. The factory, located along the Goodluck Jonathan bypass in Calabar, seeks to recruit 1,000 jobs, the bulk of which would be women, particularly widows. Already, it has created 3,000 indirect jobs, the state government noted. Recruitment of workers for the factory had also begun and feelings of hope have gotten stronger, as state-of-the-art facilities had already been installed.
Governor Samuel Ortom, Benue State
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Sunday Tribune
Ahmed has done a lot in the last one year —Aide Dr. Muideen Akorede is the senior special assistant to Kwara state governor on Media and Communication. He speaks with Biola Azeez on achievements recorded by the present administration of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of the ruling APC.
W
HAT has the government been able to achieve since its inauguration for second term on May 29, 2015? Now, talking about the record of major achievements of the Kwara state government from May 29, 2015 and April 2016, in June, Harmony Holdings Limited, which handles businesses of the state government, procured 42 new buses for the Kwara State Transport Corporation, otherwise called Kwara Express, to improve the operational efficiency of the transport company. The company invested about N.5bIllion in the Kwara Express with the procurement of the buses and the injection of another N170m into the scheme to revamp the transport company. In November the government approved the release of N3.2 billion for the completion of outstanding capital projects in the Education, Energy, Health, Roads, Works and Justice sectors in the state. Some of the ongoing road projects in the State include; the Aduralere-Isalekoko-
Ojagboro-Sanu Sheu road, Henry GeorgeAgbo-Oba road, Henry George-Unilorin mini campus road, Ita-Alamu village road, Oloro palace road, Share-Oke ode (lot 1), Share-Oke ode (lot 2), Kishi-Kaiama road, Egbejila road, Ilorin, Arobadi Magida road in Moro LG, Baboko market road, Ilesha Baruba-Gwanara road, Rore-Ipetu road, construction of three span bridge in Ilala, Ifelodun LG, Oniju street Babanloma in Ifelodun LG and Anilelerin road, Offa. The government also approved N850 million for the implementation of critical grassroots projects in 192 wards across the State. The initiative which is a collaboration between the Kwara State Government and the World Bank, will focus on projects on roads, education, health, energy and water and will be purely community-driven. In January, this year, the governor kicked-off free cleft-lip and palate surgery to100 children from various states in Nigeria, which is a programme by the Kwara State Government in partnership with Rotary International and cosponsors, Mike Omotosho Foundation and Alliance for Smiles. In February, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed flagged off Helicopter Training at International Aviation College (IAC) making it the first in West Africa to provide fixed and rotor wing training. In March, Governor Ahmed laid the foundation of the Hub, an ultra-modern shopping and office complex, while he also flagged off the construction of 1,000
365 days of Ajimobi’s second term Continued from pg16
According to the state government, the viability of the agreement with labour would be contingent on operating circumstances and as long as the labour movement cooperates with government in its revenue generation drive. The Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr Yomi Layinka said, “it is viable insofar as both labour and government cooperate in exponentially driving the revenue opportunities of the state. We have to grow our IGR exponentially and to do that, we need to be more creative, more collaborative with labour and ensure that the environment progressively reinforces growth. That means we need to ensure that industries thrive, institutions, businesses, entrepreneurs that have the capacity to generate wealth on their own and pay accruing taxes to government.” Recognising the negative effects of dwindling Federal Government allocation to the state, Ajimobi had premised the 2016 budget of about N173 billion on a targeted monthly IGR of N5 billion, whereby the IGR makes 70 per cent of the budget. Towards attaining this target, the state government had decried internal problems ranging from fraud to leakages, under and over assessment and shrinking tax net. The measures, which the state government described as belt tightening measures to increase the IGR, included the restructuring of the Board of Internal Revenue, reduction of ministries from 23 to 13 and new targets for Ministries, Departments and Agencies. Aside from the Board of Internal Revenue Service, other income generating Ministries to be involved in the renewed revenue drive include, Ministry of Agric, Trade and Investment, Lands, Housing, Water Corporation, Oyo State Signage and Advertisement Agency. Ajimobi has expressed commitment to the renewed drive of the state government to increase the IGR through expansion of the tax net, tenement rates, among other statutory levies and fines so as to cater for the usual wage bill deficit of about N2.5 billion every month. This also includes computerisation of cash transactions, reduction in the operating expenses of most of those income generating centres to ensure that they meet expected income targets, including the use of the streamline banking system, that is, Treasury Single Account (TSA). One of the noticeable steps already taken by the state government was the diversification to agriculture as paramount in the IGR drive. The recent launch of the “Agric Oyo” initiative, where 100 hectares in 28 agrarian local government areas would be deployed for use, lends credence to the new resolve. The renewed focus on agriculture, according to Governor Ajimobi, had become expedient in view of dwindling crude oil price at the global market and the attendant reduced Federal Government allocation to states. Apart from this, the state government has also been making efforts to sustain the infrastructural development tempo it started in the governor’s first term, with ongoing road constructions in the state capital. But the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the state government for its failure to prepare for raining days, which it said accounted for the poor economic situation the state found itself. The Continues pg20
Housing units at Budo-Osho New GRA, Tanke, Ilorin. What has the government done about the persistent problem of water supply? In the area of water provision and supply, the situation of water supplies at the inception of this administration in 2011 can be best described to be on the path of recovery from an epileptic situation pre-2003. A considerable achievement had been attained by 2011. The quality of supplies had improved, and accessibility gap had been reduced
from about 3000m to 1500m. Presently, the present administration between 2011 to the present date has been able to also improve the quality of production to meet with the WHO standard. Daily production has also improved. For example, Asa Dam water work’s production increased from 4mgpd to 25.5mgpd, and has continued to be sustained since expansion. Presently, government is striving to attain WHO standard of 120 litres per person per day. The accessibility gap has also been further reduced to about 700m and gradually closing down towards the state government policy target of 500m. A robust and strategic approach was adopted in the sector to bring about a steady supply system. In the face of a dwindling revenue and a geometrically increase in domestic, commercial and industrial demand, occasioned by increasing population, the ministry tried to adopt a phasing approach to rehabilitation of its existing 94 waterworks under its supervision. It is important to note that about 65 of our waterworks are being fed through the underground water systems. These waterworks are also being attended to through the rehabilitation system mentioned above. Between 2011 till date, a total of 367 boreholes in the motorised and hand pump category have been drilled. The distribution across the three senatorial districts is carefully done to achieve equitable spread, except of course where the dry aquifers predominates.
It’s a govt of misplaced priorities —Kwara PDP chieftain A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State, Mr Iyiola Oyedepo, speaks with BIOLA AZEEZ on how far the ruling APC government has met people’s expectations in the last one year. Excerpts: IT’S another Democracy Day, how will you assess the ruling government? I want to say this, not because I am in the opposition, I will validate whatever I tell you with objective analysis. I don’t believe the government is doing well at all. If the governor and his predecessor have been in government for about 13 years (2003 till now) and the state is as it is, what other evidence do you need to show the whole world that these people are not doing well? When they came in, they claimed our reliance on federal statutory allocation was 80 per cent and that we were only able generate about 20 per cent of requirement of Kwara State. It is still very much so today. So, what improvement have they brought to the economy? More so, it has been a government of misplaced priorities. Where agric ought to be encouraged in Kwara State, these people are building us school of aviation, metropolitan square, football academy and cargo terminal. Where they need to do internal network of roads to ease transportation even within urban
centre, they gave us an overhead bridge that is becoming more and more useless. Where the rural areas must be taken care of, they concentrate all their efforts in the urban and thereby encouraging rural-urban drift. The governor is five years in office today. Honestly, he cannot boast of any legacy thus far. When he came in 2011, he started by mending potholes on urban roads, calling the project, Operation No Potholes. Please, go and verify if we still have potholes or not. The second of his laudable project is renovation of general hospitals. The renovation shouldn’t ordinarily be a project for a serious government. Renovating what somebody built in 1956. The general hospital, Ilorin was attracted to the state by Yahaya Madawaki, the former health minister in the defunct northern region. And that’s the hospital now renovated by the Abdulfatah Ahmed government. Many other people had renovated it in the past. I don’t see why he’s talking of renovation as a big project. The government in power recently slashed salaries of its political appointees among other measures aimed at shoring up finances due to low federal allocation. Are these not commendable? Well, my position may sound extreme. I don’t believe that having failed for 13 years, this set of people can do it well. I don’t believe slashing salary will do.
For someone collecting N50 to now collect N35, thereby slashing N15; it does not go well. Do they even need the number of political appointees that they have appointed? I was a commissioner in this state in 1992. There were only 10 commissioners. The land area of Kwara State as at then is what we still have. So, what’s it that really necessitate appointment of 18 or more commissioners? When I was there, we had only two special advisers. Today, you can count up to 40 or 50. Now, they say they have trimmed it and brought it to 40 instead of 90 or more before. They should reduce to the number of appointees to the minimum. Also, their lifestyle must reflect our needs. If you say we should sacrifice and before people will be able to sacrifice, they would watch the lifestyle of their leaders. These leaders travel by chartered flight instead of a commercial flight that will reduce high cost, when you can meet the British Prime Minister inside a train. Not only that, look at their fleet of vehicles. If we want to be realistic with the financial state of Kwara, the cost of a governor’s car should not be more than N10 million. I don’t see why a grade A Tokunbo car can’t be used by governor who is ruling over poor people. The first thing they should slash is their lifestyle and it would in turn encourage people to pay tax. Yes, I believe citizens should pay tax, but they would watch lifestyle of those in authority before they comply.
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Sunday Tribune
An x-ray of situation of states in the South-East zone
Gov Okorocha
Gov Ugwuanyi
Jude Ossai -Enugu
F
OR the South-East geo-political zone, the situation of governance varies from state to state though with similar challenges. But there has been a similar thread cutting through all the states, as investigations revealed that this may not be the best of time for governors of the five states in the South-East geopolitical zone, namely; Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States. Like many other states in the country, they have been grappling with a declining economy. In Enugu State, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi had an overwhelming support in the 2015 governorship election, hence, when he assumed office on May 29, 2015, the atmosphere in the Coal City State was electrified by his teeming supporters. But between May 29, 2015 and now, events, no doubt, had either pushed up or lowered the image of the governor. To critics of Ugwuanyi’s regime, they wondered why the present government is yet to come out boldly to pursue programmes and policies quite distinct from the immediate past administration of former Governor Sullivan Chime. Again, the critics scored the government low for going a-borrowing when it has not been able to settle huge bills it inherited from the last regime. While the monthly salaries of core civil servants and teachers are regular, most staff of local governments and some parastatal-agencies are owed between three months and four years’ salaries, a development the critics described as worrisome. However, others, especially those from Nsukka axis, have
risen in defence of the governor, noting that his last one year in office has, indeed, been satisfactory, as they cited the role of Governor Ugwuanyi in the Nimbo community carnage and the aggressive construction of Opi/Nsukka road. To them, the governor was able to absolve himself from the Fulani herdsmen’s attack as well as give a face-lift to the Nsukka urban roads. Ugwuanyi, who has united almost all major forces in the state, also beats his chest for having constructed and rehabilitated over 20 road projects covering 35km in the last one year. The Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Patrick Ikpenwa said that the state government had invested so much on road construction in spite of the economic challenges in the country. He listed some of the completed urban roads to include Holy Ghost Road, Samuelson Road, Holy Trinity Road, Nawfia St., Mbanefo Street in New Haven, Ridgeway Rd, Colliery and Lake Avenue all in the metropolis. Others are Airport RoundaboutEmene-Eke Obinagu Road, 9th Mile by-pass, Isiuzo Street and Abakpa Nike Road.
Imo State The situation in Imo State is unique. As Sunday Tribune investigations revealed, many Imo residents are reportedly unhappy with the governor over failure to fulfill his campaign promises, one year into his second tenure. The critics of Governor Rochas Okorocha cited the government’s inability to pay workers’ salaries, noting that workers in the state have not paid for several months and that he is even planning to downsize the workforce from 45,000 to 13,000.
Gov Ikpeazu
Though Sunday Tribune gathered that the governor has agreed to pay workers 80 per cent of their salary arrears, the workers had reportedly rejected the proposal, with the governor, last week, unveiling his administration’s plan to use the “rejected salaries” for capital projects. An Igbo group, called the Ndigbo Unity Forum, recently gave the Imo governor a 60day ultimatum to pay workers’ outstanding salaries and allowances. The president of the forum, Augustine Chukwudum, in a statement, accused the governor of diverting bailout funds provided by the Federal Government, saying such action was the height of insensitivity in a democratic setting that holds a lot of good promises for the people. However, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Okorocha, Mr Sam Onwuemeodo, defended his boss, noting that the last one year, indeed, the last five years, have been remarkable for the state in terms of the sterling performance of the governor. He listed the free education programme at all levels, which the government has sustained, the dualisation of several roads, construction of bridges, tunnels and overhead bridges and several welfare packages for the people of the state, as some of the achievements of the state government, noting that no matter how badly critics of the government try to portray Owelle Okorocha, “he has the interest of his people at heart and they have been at the very heart of his programmes and policies.”
Ebonyi State Like Imo, reports from Ebonyi State showed that Governor Dave Umahi has not been
finding things easy, as he has to contend with workers’ anger and the opposition from the Labour Party (LP), the major opposition party in the state. Between September and July 2015, there was restiveness in the state over the frosty relationship between labour leaders and the state government, with critics of Umahi’s regime noting that his 100 days in office portrayed him as a man who had no vision before coming into office. Trouble was said to have started when the governor declined to implement the 100 per cent increase in workers’ salaries he promised during his campaign. Shortly after Umahi assumed office, he told the bewildered workers that the state could not meet up with the 50 per cent salary increase okayed by his predecessor, a development that made the organised labour to embark on a strike, which forced the government to pay the workers in the state civil service with the new salary table. As it is, the popularity of Umahi has continued to go down to the extent that his Special Security Aide, Ali Odefa, openly challenged him at the Michael Okpara Square, Enugu, during the last zonal congress of the PDP. Although Odefa lost the PDP chairmanship position to Umahi’s younger brother at the Enugu zonal congress, the message of ill-feelings among the governor’s kitchen cabinet was clear. But everything is not about tales of woes for the governor, as even his worst critics have not failed to acknowledge his effort in the area of road construction. The governor completion of the Gunning Road in Abakaliki metropolis and ongoing work on the Nkaliki Road, which leads to the State House of Assembly are
some of the projects for which he is being commended. It was learnt that work is also in progress on the Ogoja and New Market roads. According to a critic who said he would not want his in print for fear of being labeled as having compromised, “there is no contention that when these roads are completed, they will improve commerce in the state immensely.” But the “Salt of the nation state” is witnessing serious ripples on the issue of loans. Though Governor Umahi had, during the campaigns, tongue-lashed his predecessor, Martins Elechi, for borrowing from the capital market to complete projects in the state, saying that the loans taken by the government had put the state in perpetual bondage, he has since made U-turn by saying that he also needs loans to actualise his vision and programmes for the state. Reports said that Umahi’ government, with the state House of Assembly in alliance, is set to obtain a loan of N8.4 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Abia State In Abia State where Dr Okezie Ikpeazu holds sway as governor, reports said that many Abias are not comfortable with his slow style of administration, scoring him below average. Investigation revealed that the figure of his predecessor, Theodore Orji, who is now in the Senate, might have aggravated the hatred for the governor, as his policies and programmes are misinterpreted by many. For instance, the road construction, which is one of his cardinal points, is being misconstrued by his critics, who noted that the construction and Continues pg20
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365 days after: Wike and his promise of a new Rivers Dapo Falade -Port Harcourt
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HROUGHOUT the period the electioneering campaigns lasted, Governor Nyesom Wike’s slogan was to create a new Rivers State and restore what he termed the lost glory of the state. The man traversed all the crannies and corners of the state, canvassing votes from the electorate, with the promise to positively touch every facets of human endeavour. The mantra for Wike, at every fora, during the campaigns and after the elections, was, “my word is my bond. What I say I will do, I will do.” He won the governorship election and was sworn in as the successor to his erstwhile friend and boss, former Governor Rotimi Amaechi and immediately swung into action. However, many critics were not convinced of the governor’s ability to sustain the tempo and efforts. There were, indeed, some serious issues on ground in the state that would make the lily-livered to tremble. But Wike appeared to have taken the bull by the horn by immediately taking charge, with most of his supporters noting that he was apparently well-prepared for the arduous task ahead. The new Rivers helmsman immediately took two steps that took the wind out of the sail of many people in the state and critics alike. Right at the inauguration ceremony on May 29, 2015, the new governor announced the reopening of the courts in the state, which had been under lock and key for almost one year, following the protracted crisis that rocked the state judiciary over the appointment of a substantive Chief Judge of the state. From the inauguration ground, Wike proceeded to the kicking off of the ‘Operation-Zero-Pothole’ programme, which was aimed at getting rid of potholes in the Port Harcourt metropolis. Many had also thought that the man would be slowed down by the various litigations against his electoral victory, but the reverse was the case, as he continued with his developmental programmes for the state with the same speed. After the victory at the Supreme Court, last January and one year into the journey, Governor Wike, some political watchers noted, has lived up to the expectations of the people through massive projects initiation and execution, enhanced civil servants’ welfare, empowerment of the underprivileged, enhanced security architecture, sports, education and employment generation. In what has been dubbed ‘a celebration of performance’, Governor Wike had, within one year, made meaningful impacts cutting across all sectors in the state, his supporters maintain. In the judiciary, the Wike’s administration made significant positive impacts by opening of the courts and ensuring the stabilisation of the judiciary in the state through peaceful succession. The governor also revived the state House of Assembly and granted it financial autonomy to ensure a strong, effective and efficient legislative arm of government. In the housing sector, 50 housing units were built at the Iriebe Housing Estate, within his first 100 days in office, for middle income earners to ease the acute problem of accommodation in the state. In the area of empowerment and poverty alleviation, the Governor Wike administration recently obtained a N2 billion loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the Rivers State Micro, Small and Medium Scale Entreprises Development Fund for women groups, youth groups, artisans and the less privileged. 35,000 people, cutting across all political divides, were said to have had been directed beneficiaries of the governor’s initiative. The present administration in Rivers State has also not been oblivious of the fact that agriculture is key to the attempts at the diversification of the economy, given the downturn in the national economy occasioned by the sharp drop in oil price globally. As part of the effort to take agriculture from the subsistence level and turn it into profitable business venture and also ensure food security, the state Commissioner for Information, Dr Austin Tam-George, while addressing a
Gov Wike
media briefing, last Tuesday, said the present administration had, among others, launched the School Farm Programme to attract youths to the sector. The Governor Wike-led administration gave priority attention to road infrastructural development as key to jump-starting the socio-economic transformation of the state. According to the state Commissioner for Information, over 150 kilometres
‘In civilised democracy, most of these govs ‘ll not be nominated for another term’
Gov Umahi Continued from pg18
rehabilitation of roads is ill-timed, hence the frequent rate of abandonment. As a matter of fact, in the “God’s own state”, what is much talked about is the issue of second tenure. To one Ijeoma Nnanna, “it is perplexing and somewhat hilarious when his supporters and indeed
Nothing to show in Oyo —Opposition parties Continued from pg17
chairman of the party in Oyo State and former chairman of Iseyin Local Government, Alhaji Yinka Taiwo, noted that the PDP had warned Ajimobi from his first in his second term in office to design an economic template to take the state out of its economic crisis, sympathising with the workers and the people of the state for “the untold suffering Ajimobi has brought on them.” When confronted with the measures the government had taken to reduce the cost of governance and diversify the state’s economy, Taiwo said they half-hearted measures, querying why Ajimobi should even complain about the decline in federal allocation, having had the opportunity to diversify and save resources in his first time in office and
of roads have so far been reconstructed or rehabilitated across the state since Wike took over as the state governor on May 29, 2015. The commissioned roads included the Abonnema/ Obonnema Link Road/Bridge; the Eagle Island/Iloabuchi Road/Bridge; Abuluoma-Woji Link Road/Bridge; Oyigbo Market Road and Nkpogu-NLNG Road/Bridge Roads reconstructed by the administration, within the period, included 33 kilometres of township roads under the ‘Operation Zero Potholes’ programme; the IgwurutaChokocho road (on-going); Eleme Junction to Onne Junction of the East-West Road (on-going); the Rumualogu/Alakahiah Road (on-going); rehabilitation of the road under Mile 1 Bridge (completed); reconstruction of the Rumuolumini-Iwofe Road; rehabilitation of Obi Wali Road (completed). The list, indeed, appears endless but a 6-day lineup of activities, starting from Wednesday, had been penciled down to mark the one year anniversary of the present Rivers State government and it was kick-started on Wednesday with the commissioning of the newly-constructed 3.5-kilometre Ibe Ama Community Road in Borokiri; the 1.5 kilometre Industry Road and the reconstructed Njemanze-Abonnema Wharf Road, which was part of the 42 Diobu reconstruction projects awarded by his administration on June 17, 2016. Speaking during a brief church service at the foundationlaying ceremony, the Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh, commended Governor Wike for having the thought to build the Ecumenical Centre, saying the governor had relaid the foundation of Rivers State, adding that the state would experience fruitfulness. Speaking with Sunday Tribune, the state AttorneyGeneral and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Emmanuel Aguma, SAN, said the achievements of Governor Wike within one year in office was no fluke and that the people and residents of the state should expect more from him.
failed to do so. Also commenting, the state public secretary of Accord Party, Dr Nureni Adeniran, said the people of Oyo State, particularly the civil servants, had been subjected to misery in the last one year. He said the party could not understand what the governor meant by hanging the salaries of over 16,000 workers when Governor Ajimobi, during his first term, told the whole world that the state was saving over N500 million following a biometric verification of workers. “We dare him to conduct local government election, as he promised, to test the popularity of his government and party. In any case, he said the election would be conducted in June. We are waiting,” Adeniran said.
most Nigerian politicians, start talking about second term barely half way through their first year in office. “It is either they regard it as fait accompli that they will be re-elected by an unsuspecting and clueless electorate or they are confident they will be able to rig themselves back to power. Whatever is the reason behind their crystal ball assumption, the honest truth is that in a more civilised democracy, most of them will not even be re-nominated by their political parties, let alone stand for re-election.” Nnanna accused the state government of destroying the roads in the state in the last one year instead of constructing them, saying: “On the road construction in Aba, which is Governor Ikpeazu’s one signature achievement, it has been a case of one kickoff and photo op ceremony after another, with the construction machinery removed the next day. Now that the rains have come, some Aba residents now wish their roads were left in their previous condition of disrepair instead of being turned into cesspools of mosquito-infested ponds,” he added. Critics of Ikpeazu also accused him of titling toward sectional politics, saying that his cabinet members and advisers apart from being too large are mostly his kinsmen. However, supporters of Governor Ikpeazu believe he has done pretty well in the last one year. To Ikpeazu’s loyalists, he has taken the tide at the flood. One of them who identified himself as Godwin Adindu, while x-raying the governor’s one year in office, said: “In just one year, he has laid solid foundations for a new political culture in Abia State. He has given political power a new meaning as a call to service. This new value re-orientation is permeating every facet of public service in Abia State today.” According to him, “Governor Ikpeazu is brandishing a scorecard of excellent performance. He is flaunting the construction of 65 roads construction, out of which 27 have been duly commissioned. This is in addition to having executed a massive desilting of drainage, gutters and storm water ways in Aba. This broad approach in dealing with the issues of Aba has given birth to many tactical actions directed towards developing the latent ingenuity and creativity for which Aba is celebrated. It has led to a renewed attention to the artisans of Aba and a review of the future of the fabled Aba-made goods. It has led to a general sanitation of the city, including the open markets, leading to war against street trading and illegal structures,” he concluded.
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One year after
How economy has affected our business —Kosoko, Timaya, Gbenga Adeyinka others speak By Segun Adebayo and Seyi Sokoya
I
T has been mixed feelings for Nigerian celebrities as President Muhammadu Buhari clocks one year in office today. When the president took over the mantle of leadership on May 29, 2015, many questions agitated the minds of the practitioners as some of them took to their social media platforms to express their expectations from the new government making reference to the seemingly robust relationship they enjoyed with the previous government, led by Goodluck Jonathan. It was gathered that in the twilight of Goodluck Jonathan’s government, N2 billion fund for Nollywood was launched to address the urgent challenges of poor distribution system and the menace of piracy. The fund was tagged ‘Project ACT Nollywood, which was said to be similar to the
N3 billion Nollywood Intervention Fund. Many social commentators commended the former president’s intervention, describing it as a move in the right direction. The intervention was one out of other numerous support that the entertainment industry, especially Nollywood, benefitted from the Jonathan administration.
Though, the distribution of the fund was said to have been taken over by the Bank of Industry (BOI), it was however gathered that not many practitioners in the motion picture industry have been able to access the fund due to strict conditions attached to its release. Another one major success of this ad-
One major success of this administration according to those who spoke with Sunday Tribune is the passage of the Motion Picture Council (MOPICON) bill.
ministration according to those who spoke with Sunday Tribune is the passage of the Motion Picture Council (MOPICON) bill. The bill, which proposes a regulation of quality Nollywood film production, was initiated 10 years ago, but was suspended because the proposers believed it was doctored. It was criticised by some entertainers who believe that it suggests restriction of creativity. As the new government celebrates its one year in office today, some of the entertainers who spoke with Sunday Tribune expressed divergent views on the Buhariled administration’s policy as it affects the entertainment industry. Continues on pg23
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‘Corruption fight good, but work on economy’ It has been 12 months since President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 election on the wings of the change mantra. In this public opinion poll, Nigerians bared their minds on how Buhari’s government has impacted on their lives within the period.
Not much has been achieved —Dr Ola Abegunde, Dept of Political Science, EKSU, Ado Ekiti
Things are difficult, but...
—Gbajabiamila, House Majority Leader “Things are very difficult in Nigeria today; we must acknowledge that. The question we need to ask ourselves is why? And the answer is very simple. “When this government came into power, we knew the situation was bad, we knew the previous government did so much damage to the economy, but, we did not know how bad. “It was when this government got there that they saw the books and they found that everything was empty. Apart from the falling oil revenue, we have read in the papers how people are being tried for looting the country`s treasury; how people were putting billions meant for terror war in their pockets. “The kind of rot, the kind of corruption Buhari met is unprecedented anywhere in the world. Had the president not taken some of the measures he is taking now, the system would have collapsed completely,” he said.
Power failure has crippled my business —Ejike Eze, a student “The one-year-old administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has affected me. I have a barbing salon where I make money to pay my school fees, but I am finding it difficult to operate because of power outage. Buying fuel is difficult because I do not make enough gains from barbing due to increase in fuel price. “Things are becoming more terrible for me and prices of foodstuffs have gone up too. I have not fared well in the past one year of Buhari’s administration.
“Personally, I feel that the Federal Government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, has not done much in its first year. The first pointer is the economy of the country which concerns all Nigerians, and when you look at the economy, it seems that things are being moderated by luck rather than a careful plan. “The global economic situation is not robust even before he came and Nigerians thought he had a plan to execute, with a foreknowledge of this. “However, now there’s hike in the fuel price and an inflation that has reached a record level. There’s nothing to cushion the effect. That has affected everything and it seems to me that President Buhari sees himself as the only one who can do it. He can’t do it all. “The education sector, the health sector, the transport sector, the maritime sector; no jobs as promised and the economy generally is in a free fall and yet there’s nothing to suggest that we are making any progress. For instance, it is not a good omen for the president of the country to
Fight against corruption, insurgency on course —
Prof Oluremi Sonaiya, KOWA party presidential candidate
Bad for education sector
—Michael Alogba-Olukoya, the National President, NUT “The last one year had not been too encouraging in the education sector. “The Federal Government should convene an education summit to find a lasting solution to all the challenges bedevilling the sector. “I personally appeal to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to consider convening an education summit to look at the various challenges holistically. The truth is that the curriculum in place today may not be able to solve the various societal challenges.”
He should fulfil electoral promises —Pastor Dan Obinegbo, Leader/Founder of Victory Prayer Ministry, Enugu “President Buhari’s government is having challenges, no doubt, in the sense that his administration is witnessing economic recession, which is worldwide. Remember he told Nigerians that the fuel pump price will be less than N87. Today, the price of a litre of fuel is N145, but here in Enugu you can buy it for N160, from independent marketers. “So, one year so far, Buahri has not made me feel better. He should be able to fulfill his election campaign promises. The fuel subsidy which he kicked against has been removed. It affects the man in the street negatively in various ways. “There is insecurity in the land due to activities of herdsmen which the present administration tends to treat with kids glove. As a man of God I believe that what will save this country is sincere leadership and prayers. “We need to turn to God for help. God loves this country. There should not be any sacred cow in the fight against corruption.The present administration should start to find ways of arresting the restiveness in the Niger/Delta; the problem of ethnic agitation should also be looked into.
be receiving treatment abroad, it shows lack of confidence in the Nigerian health sector. “On the fight against corruption, we have been made to believe that going after personalities is the ultimate.
He’s nepotic, but doing well on corruption —Ade Fasehun, Photographer
“I am worried about his penchant for nepotism. He has given too many slots to Northerners above other majority and minorities in the government. That is not fair. OBJ and GEJ didn’t do that. He is creating a bad impression as many have concluded that his heart is more about the interest of the North than Nigeria. But I praise him for the fight against corruption. If we have more of punishment on those who have been found guilty, it will go a long way in curtailing government officials and others from stealing.”
Face one problem at a time —Mahmad Boni, Barber
The president should just pick a major problem and fix it. For me, it should be power. Let him stop deceiving us with his anti corruption war as it is still going on, even right under his nose. If he must spend the entire earnings of the country on that sector, let him do it.
“Many Nigerians are relieved that the military had recorded a lot of successes in the fight against the insurgents and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are returning home. “First and foremost, everyone has to be grateful for the successes that have been recorded on the issue of fighting Boko Haram. “That was a huge problem for the country and so we are relieved that the armed forces are gradually getting a strong hold of the insurgency and even the Internally Displayed Persons (IDPs) are gradually returning to their homes. “We are also grateful for the revelations that have come out in the fight against corruption. “The revelations are part of the reasons we were not making any impact on the war against Boko Haram. “We have seen that the money that would have been used to equip our soldiers was being diverted into private pockets.”
Right now, we have concentrated on personalities rather than institutions. That’s the way I see it. If you fight personalities, they’d gang up and fight back but when you institutionalise anti-corruption culture in the country, the better for us all. “With the right institutions in place, there won’t be untouchable people because we have individuals that are above the law and the president himself knows about these people. He must therefore act on every piece of information, or rumour to know the truth and establish facts. “Some of us are afraid of what will happen after Buhari because government has limited what they say to us. The have restricted contrary opinions and dissent. The government is just making a mockery of democracy and our culture tends to support the silence because “it is not good to show dissent to elders. That culture has affected us because it has been made part of our democracy.”
The last one year has been hell —Dada Ajai-Ikhile
“Personally, the way I see the last one year under this present government is that it is even worse than when we started. The challenges facing the larger economy did not spare the industry I belong to; that is if we can still call it an industry because what we have in advertising industry today in enterprise. “Today, the trickle-down effects of some of these policies, from this government, on the industry are better left to the imagination. People have to survive, and as a result some practitioners cut corners, and this is affecting us in the industry. “For instance, when was the last time we heard of agencies actually pitching for jobs? All we hear today are account movements, without information about how the winning agencies got such accounts?”
Dr Frederick Fasehun, Founder, Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) “The naira is at its all-time low and inflation has spiralled to an all time high, the present administration should do everything to reverse the trend. The Federal Government should make the country’s four refineries to operate and produce optimally. The government should do more to cushion the effects of the recent fuel price hike on the people.
He should focus more on insecurity, economy —Soyeye Ade Buhari is very slow in dealing with the economic issues facing the country presently. All the policies he ought to have put in place have not been quickly acted on. That should be a bother. That is why things are getting out of the reach of many. I believe he is doing a great job on the issue of security. For me, Buhari has done better than the past leaders, just as he is doing well in his fight against corruption, but he still has his obvious flaws. “His position on the killer herdsmen is worrisome. He should speak up and let people know that he is not indirectly supporting the killings or else the global goodwill he is enjoying will fizzle out when other world leaders are beginning to doubt his sincerity and intentions. Nothwithstanding, he needs to act fast on the issue of pipeline bombings in the Niger Delta area because it can go out of hand. He needs not negotiate with the so called ‘Avengers’ but try and find out who is behind the terror group because it is human beings that are behind them. “The bombings will not help Buhari’s plan to clean up the region. Besides, residents need to be educated on the clean up plan because more oil spilling will only hurt the region’s eco-system the more. More people will, die from the spillage that Buhari wants to stop and it wont be good for the people.”
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‘This govt is slow’ is a process, urging Nigerians to be patient with the President. “We all know how many times this man tried before he got his mandate, and if you have monitored his approach to issues, you will know that he has a mission to accomplish. Nigerians are struggling to adapt to change because we always like to do things the old way. My regret is that we have relied so much on oil that we have neglected the entertainment industry that is capable of giving good financial returns to the country. I want you to quote me, in the next five years, you will see what the entertainment industry of this country would have turned into. The sector is booming, though it has experienced a lull in the last one year because we are being careful as to where to invest their money. With the support of Bank of Industry, you will soon find out that the industry has got what it takes to put Nigeria on the map.” Falz Budding rap artiste and actor, Folarin Falana, also known as Falz, believes the industry has grown in the last one year to give room for new stuff that have taken over the industry. “The industry has been booming and this is why we are seeing great stuff everyday from the entertainers. I understand the MOPICON bill had been passed but I am against it. How can you say if someone wants to post motion pictures on YouTube, Instagram or facebook they have to join a council? Apart from that, we are yet to see the best of the entertainment industry.”
Continued from pg23
Jide Kosoko Veteran actor and producer, Jide Kosoko, said the government has taken steps in the right direction for the survival of the entertainment industry. “The feelers we are getting from the government in the last one year point to the fact that it has beautiful plans for the entertainment industry. The Minister of Information and Communication, Lai Mohammed, has been meeting with the stakeholders in the industry and has confirmed President Buhari’s readiness to put the industry on the road map. My take away from this is that the industry will take a new shape in the next one year.” Gbenga Adeyinka For comedian, Gbenga Adeyinka, best times await entertainers in the country. He admitted that things have been hard but was quick to say that there is hope for the country and the entertainment industry. “What we have been seeing in the last one year is telling us that our country will rise again and the entertainment industry will be better for it. Buhari’s government in the last one year has been laying the foundation for good governance, and we are begining to see it in the entertainment industry with the passage of bills that will put the industry in its rightful position that will further enrich the lives of the practitioners. Things will get better.” Julius Agwu Comedian and actor, Julius Agwu observed that change
9ice Abolore Adegbola Adigun, popularly known as 9ice, said: “The present government hasn’t done anything regarding entertainment. The problem of Nigeria as of now goes beyond a sector or a segment. At present, Nigeria is in a position where we have to start all over again. My assessment of Buhari-led government will be too premature now; either to criticise, scrutinize or appreciate what they have done and what they haven’t achieve. My advice to them is that they should be honest in discharging their responsibilities on behalf of the country and put the interest of the people first before their personal interests. Buga Jese King, otherwise known as Buga, called for patience among Nigerians, saying the economy
Everybody in the country knows that this government has performed far below expectations. You will agree with me that people are living below penury. No light. No job.
of the country would soon pick up.”I want to urge Nigerians to be patient as the government works out their way for a better Nigeria. Sincerely, the economic problems of the country are affecting every sector and the entertainment industry is not exempted. If the economy is doing well, every sector will be fine. So, we should all to support the government to stabilise Nigeria’s economy.” Pawpaw Actor, Osita Iheme, better known as Pawpaw, stated that Buhari’s government in the last one year has not made any meaningful impact on the entertainment industry. “We are still doing our things the best way we can. My advice to politicians is that they should think of Nigerians and not their political ambitions. They should remember that their decisions are affecting Nigerians.” Funke Adesiyan Actress, Funke Adesiyan berated the Buhari’s government for its alleged inability to cater for the people. According to her, any government that can’t take care of its people has failed. “Everybody in the country knows that this government has performed far below expectations. You will agree with me that many people are living below poverty level. No light. No job. Nothing appears to be working and the condition of living is even worse, so what is there to talk about again? This government has failed Nigerians.” Bimbo Thomas Actress, Bimbo Thomas, said the last one year has been a busy one for her and she has been concentrating on her career. “I have been busy with my job and that’s the most important thing to me right now. Of course, condition of living has been hard due to the change of government. I believe the country will get better with time.”
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Buhari has not justified his mandate —Agbakoba
Former president, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, speaks on the first anniversary of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in office, among other issues, in this interview with BOLA BADMUS. Excerpts: business. There may be a feeling somewhere that there is some deal here now, but I would say on a broader level, economic planning first designs what are the conception issues, like in China where they have designed how private sector grows. For instance, the Chinese bank that has given us a loan, it guaranteed Chinese supplies to freely provide goods for us and on default, the banks pay. So there are all kinds of incentives to sensitise businessmen to work. Tax waiver is part of incentives government would give. They can reduce tariffs, so it is okay to do that. Generally, what is your assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari in his one year in office? When this administration came on board, I was cautiously positive but right now I am cautiously negative, because I am waiting to see what will happen. But in fairness to President Buhari, he has been challenged by the unenvisaged crisis of governance, which bogged him down. Further credit should go to him in the area of anticorruption, but the problem with the anti-corruption programme is that it is in rigmarole. It is stories about what we are doing but as I said, if you keep looking in rear view mirror, you won’t move. The anti-corruption programme suffers from the equivalent of a driver who is looking at the rear view mirror and what is happening behind, so he is not going to move forward. We know people have stolen money, what we want to see is aggressive action plan. This government needs to stop looking at the rear view mirror. It needs to develop a clear political and economic vision for the country. At the moment, it does not exist.
Mr. Olisa Agbakoba
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hat is your comment on the recent petrol price hike to N145 from N86.50 per litre, do you think it is justified? Do you think Nigerians can bear the pains? In economic parlance, when you are discussing the economy, justification is not the solution, the solution in economics is whether you can satisfy the market. So, clearly, central planning has a way of breeding corruption and other things. Therefore, the market is not as efficient, that is the problem of our system; the market is not as efficient. So, whether the price should be N145 is what I don’t know, because I don’t have the raw data. Your doctor would tell you that you are afflicted with one condition and that you require taking pain-go therapy to get well. If you say I don’t want, then you are probably going to die. So, notionally, Nigeria could not afford to fix price, that is justified. Nigeria cannot afford to hold prices, it creates rent seekers, the beneficiaries of the fuel subsidies and low prices having bunch of marketers, not the very Nigerians that you wish to protect. What I thought was wrong in the cul-de-sac was the way it was communicated. The communication sounded very poor and then the planning of government action was lopsided. I would have thought that government would spend a lot of energy in explaining the challenges so that we also will see it and in explaining the challenges, we also see government sacrificing and not buying jeeps and Prados. But you could see everybody playing a role to sacrifice in the impending oil game, that is the first thing that government ought to have done. The second thing government should have done was to
release the social benefit palliative to the people. I am not interested in whether or not they have signed the budget, because when President Muhammadu Buhari rolled out the bailout for states, it was not a matter of budget; it was a matter of life and death. If you had identified Nigerians who needed the benefit protection and you had explained to them that if you increase the price of fuel, we are going to give you a palliative, say N5,000, I would have thought that is better. So, the point is not whether it was right to remove subsidy or raise the prices, I think that was inevitable if you want to grow. If you want a lot of foreign investments to come in, you really have to allow market forces to take roots and that is done in America, which is the beacon of market forces. Fifty per cent of their $3.87 trillion is set aside for social welfare, which is part of America’s budget, so that prices don’t affect a certain class of people. I need to see government say that they have a clear economic policy. You said government needed to have a clear economic direction, but some will argue that the current administration’s focus on the economy and private sector partnership is clear enough, as could be seen in the government’s decision to grant Dangote a concession to build Obajana-Ilorin road in return for a tax holiday for some years. Do you support such an idea? Yes, because we want to encourage the economy to grow big. That is not the problem; the problem is government economic policy is opaque, it is not defining. If it is defining, I will know that I can go into a particular field of business. Why it is a problem is simply because you can’t find any government policy anywhere; it is almost a man-know-man
You talked about an aggressive action plan and some other people have berated the noise about anti-corruption, which has not been able to convict anyone. In your view, why has no one been convicted? I think it is because the anti-corruption programme is a very strong programme and also the president’s personal integrity has helped to highlight all the massive stealing we are seeing. But you see, slogans don’t put people in jail; what puts people in jail is strong criminal prosecution strategies, where you have the best lawyers, including private lawyers and not just government lawyers. And funding, because you are dealing with very strong men who can hire the best lawyers. So we need a strong programme, strong funding, strong lawyers and the best strategy on how to get these guys into jail and that hasn’t happened. We need to have proper planning and I hope that the president, during his second year, can articulate a strong anti-corruption programme, because we can get a lot of money from those who stole Nigeria’s money. And I am happy he went to United Kingdom to make that promise, we can get a lot of money from what we can recover and put them into development. Looking at the sectors of government under the Buhari presidency, is there anyone that gives you concern the most? The one that gives me the greatest concern is the unclear economic direction of government. I see two competing forces in government. I see state control from the president and I see private sector framework from the vice-president. A very good example will be the handling of the shortages in the petroleum sector. First was the exclusion of the marketers, NNPC had to do it by importing and they failed. They ran back to the marketers who now demanded a special rate and they got N285 to a dollar, which is the current template. I see that tension between governments, one is state enterprise, the other is private enterprise and that has led to four foreign exchange regimes. First is the official rate, the second is for the marketers, there is the third one for the DISCOs and the fourth one is the autonomous market. What this will do is to breed massive corruption, because people who can access the official rate will offload to the next rate and it is called arbitrate, Continues
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Buhari concerned about Nigerians’ suffering —Momoh Prince Tony Momoh was the National Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the legacy parties that formed the ruling party. In this interview, he reviews Nigeria’s democratic journey so far, as well as the activities of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last one year, among other issues. Group Politics Editor, TAIWO ADISA and KOLAWOLE DANIEL, present the excerpts:
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HEN we started democracy in 1999, people were talking about the learning process; but right now, it appears that we are back to 1999 with the change in government. There are problems with the budget; the legislature is having problems settling down. Would you really say that we are moving forward? We are moving forward, because you cannot face backwards and start moving your back. Every step we take is an opportunity to learn. But the outcome with media analysis is whether we have really learned or retrogressed. I think because of the cost of running our democracy and the gain many derive from it, there does not seem to be any serious attempt to obey the rules. There are breaches than obedience of the rules we have settled to run our democracy. I think what happened to bring this government to office was that the voting pattern was more organised, rather than allowing for people to write results and announce them. That has been the case after 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011; there were hardly any elections. The last elections (of 2015) changed the face of Nigeria, because it was freer and fairer, although there was a siege in the South-South and the SouthEast. That’s the only difference one can say has occurred since 1999, maybe because of the card readers. But then, the need is there for INEC to work harder. I hear that in 2019, they want to even go electronic. But we ought to have been more serious with the restructuring of the system to make what we packaged for ourselves less expensive. Imagine full time councilor, full time House of Assembly person, full time National Assembly people, House of Representatives and then Senate full time. So, we ought to restructure these things to be cheaper. The democracy we have chosen, to me is very, very expensive. What you will now recommend? Today, we are running presidential system. Is it about the system we are running or about the actors? Presidential system is okay. We wanted a strong person at the centre. But the fact is must lawmakers be fulltime? Lawmakers shouldn’t be fulltime. While the president is nationally elected, the fact is where you have in the House of Representatives and then the Senate, you have about 93 areas of lawmaking, that’s the exclusive list and concurrent list, it means that if they make laws in 93 areas, the president must execute laws in 93 areas. There is no human being who can cope with that type of arrangement, especially when you call it a democracy. Now the states, the governors, why would you have 36 States that have the powers of the three regions we had before? You know we had three regions – West, East and North; later we had four
Prince Tony Momoh
– Mid West. Only those were constitutionally created. All others were by fiat. So, we have 36 States now and all of them exercise the powers of the regions. Do you know that from Midwest region, they created Delta and Edo. When it was Bendel, there were 18 Permanent Secretaries; then they created Edo and Delta; arithmetic it will only show us that Edo should have nine Permanent Secretaries. But you know how many they have in Edo? 32. So, the thing is too expensive. There was something beautiful that was brought in 2005 during the constitutional political conference of Obasanjo and that was called the Yoruba agenda. That programme was the best I think we would have used to help restructure and grow Nigeria. But when they came to the Conference, I think Obasanjo told the governors from the South-West to ignore it. Then during the dialogue organised by (President Goodluck) Jonathan, those who even created the document were asked to come to the dialogue and they themselves threw away the document and associated themselves with creating 52 states to be federating units. I think we should be serious if we want this country to grow, to have six regions as we have now because there is none of the zones that cannot come together to grow together and pursue one economic agenda and then lead Nigeria to faster prosperity than
we can get through 36 states. As a key participant in the process that threw up hthis current government, can give us a view of how the government has fared? In 2005 or so, America said Nigeria will be a failed state by 2015 and I wrote and analyzed it and said from what Americans are saying that Nigeria will be a failed state, they are looking at it from the material aspect. But the fact is that there is a spiritual dimension to life. America is a country and Americans are creatures. Nigeria is a country and Nigerians are creatures created by the Almighty God. I’ve always said that Nigeria has a mission and Nigeria has an anointing. Nigerians will help grow the world in the next, 20, 25 years and there is nothing anybody can do about it. It’s an anointing by God Almighty. With that in view, how can Nigeria be a failed state? That twenty-something years is beyond 2015 and I believe that would not have come to pass if there had not been change in the election in 2015. You saw what Orubebe did, wanting to force a particular situation, which we thank God Almighty that it didn’t come to pass. So, Buhari being there has come at a time of unprecedented depression in our economy. Oil prices have fallen below 40 dollars. Then the Niger Delta that is laying the golden egg, you know what is happen-
ing. Instead of 2.2 million barrels a day, we have less than 1.2 million barrels a day. We are earning 1 billion dollars a month and spending $4 billion a month. It’s not done. The subsidy they said we were paying for fuel, obviously, it was all paper money and people just sat down collecting money. If you see what has happened, what Buhari said he will do, he will fight corruption, he will create jobs, he will face agriculture and, of course, he will fight insurgency. Buhari is a very predictable person. He will secure this country. He will do anything to secure this country. In other words, he will fight insurgency, he will fight hostage taking, he will fight armed robbery; he will fight anybody who wants to undermine Nigeria’s economy. He will even fight those cattle rustlers and other people who are undermining other communities by destroying their hosts. He will fight them. So, there will be security in this country. It’s only after you have secured the country that you will start developing it, stabilising it through infrastructural development. So, security, plus stability will give us prosperity. There is no magic about it and that is what Buhari has been doing. When he started, about 14 local government areas were in the hands of Boko Haram. Now, the Boko Haram is not in control of any local government area. I don’t know whether people know that Sambisa Forest is bigger than the South West. Sambisa Forest is a massive area. It’s not like a 100 kilometers area. It’s a huge area, stretching to Cameroun and that’s where they are holed up and where the army is fighting them now. Secondly, you will see how much is being given to capital expenditure. I don’t know if we ever gave that much to capital expenditure in our recent history. Then you will see the war on corruption. I think the latest you can look at is this fuel subsidy. You know that it’s a cartel that has been routinely sharing our patrimony through diverting the little we have to buying fuel, bringing it and people just sharing it. I think he’s successful in his war against corruption. He’s successful in the war against insurgency. The area of capital development, that’s stabilising the system, is also going to be celebrated within one year. Look at the roads that will be built; even the money he put on the second Niger bridge in the South-East and lots of other areas that will be empowered. People have described the anticorruption war as being selective and as being targeted at political opponents of the president. Are you not worried by that? I was the chairman of CPC. I was not in government. Ogbonnaya Onu was the chairman of ANPP; he was not in governContinues pg 41
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Buhari should stop seeing himself as a Northern president —Adebanjo A disciple of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, an Afenifere chieftain, a legal luminary, Chief Ayo Adebanjo speaks with YINKA OLUKOYA on 17 years of civil rule, the anniversary of President Muhammadu Buhari, among other issues. Excerpts:
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S a pro-democracy fighter during the military era, how do you feel now that democracy is 17 years in
didn’t see Okigbo’s Report because “it is you rob my back, I rob your back.” He can’t be ungrateful to a man who brought him from prison.
Nigeria? What we have had in the last 17 years is return to civilian rule and not democracy, because all the ingredients of democracy have not been practised since then. There has been a violation of the rule of law. All the tenets that people expect haven’t been done. Elections have not been properly conducted and the political parties lack internal democracy. The emergence of candidates in elections and all that, across the political parties has been more or less through nomination and dictatorship by leadership of the parties. Power has not really returned to the people, that is, Nigerians, as envisaged during pro-democracy struggle.
What were some of the most critical experiences you had during the pro-democracy struggle? During the pro-democracy fight, we were fighting against the military. The military didn’t want a dissenting voice. We fought for the restructuring of the country along the progressive line. Once you have a dictatorship, there is no freedom of speech, no freedom of action. Those were some of the things we fought against in the military- must-go campaign. At that time, if you said anything against the military, they would put you in jail. If your newspaper wrote what they didn’t like, they closed it. There were so many dictatorial actions under military regime, particularly under General Sani Abacha, whom we called “Maximum Ruler.” When we agitated for a return to civilian rule, we wanted it to be under a strictly federal constitution as we had at the time of independence. The military rule was oneline rule. By that time, we in the Afenifere and the pro-democracy group at that time argued that, if we must return to civilian rule, we must predicate such rule on the tenets of democracy. We don’t regard May 29 as Democracy Day, because it is just a commemoration of the return to civilian rule. The democracy we fought for at that time was because we had the election of MKO Abiola unilaterally annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida. This is in spite of the fact that the man won overwhelmingly, but IBB said ‘no.’ Whether you like the man, whether he had 20 wives or he had bad head, 14 million people voted for him. One man cannot upturn what 14 million people did. That was the main theme of the pro-democracy group, that the elected man must be sworn into office. That was the springboard, the pivot around which the pro-democracy people were organised. By the time we were fighting for a return to civilian rule, the military didn’t want to go, but we insisted that the country must be restructured because the military destructured Nigeria. When you people hear about restructuring, you don’t know how it began. It is not the constitution we are using now that the colonialists gave us. It is not what our forefathers namely, Nnamdi
Chief Ayo Adebanjo Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Sardauna, gave us at pre-independence. They had really returned us to rarely federal constitution. By that time, the Eastern region and other regions of the federation had their constitutions written separately in the practice of federalism. But when the military took over in 1966, they de-structured Nigeria and that is why we are now talking about structuring before they started their one-man rule. You know the military has one man, one command. All the regional governors took instructions from the Head of State. They had no independent action. But since that time, the question of structuring, restructuring has come in. By the time Abacha wanted to give us a new constitution, they gave us what we called a concise dictatorial constitution. The constitution was given to us by Abacha and then amended by General Abdulsalam Abubakar. This is why we have always described the 1999 Constitution as a fraudulent document, because it says “We, the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” But we didn’t write the Constitution; it was done by the military. It says we are federal, but are we federal? All the ingredients of federalism are absent in the document. This is why Afenifere insisted that we must restructure the country and have a new constitution that will show that we are a federal state, which is the beginning of the clamour for restructuring.
Since then, what has happened? In essence, are you saying that the democracy the country has been practising since 1999 is not democracy in the real sense of it, but purely civilian rule? We have not been practising democracy. The government we have been having is a supposedly civilian government. It is not democratic. Even from the beginning, the selection of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, it was Babangida who brought him. It was not the people. They were thinking they wanted to pacify the Yoruba by bringing back a Yoruba man, having removed Chief Ernest Shonekan and because we said they didn’t return Abiola. They thought nominating a person for us would pacify us. We did not insist on Abiola because he was a Yoruba man. We insisted on Abiola because Nigerians voted for him. If you are not going to return us to a democratic rule, you are not going to choose it for us. We should choose it ourselves. That is why we said that one is not democratic. That is why we said we won’t accept that. So, when they now pretend to rectify the wickedness of Babangida, they thought of giving us Obasanjo. That was why Obasanjo couldn’t do all that he ought to do. When they said Babangida too was corrupt, that there was Okigbo Report that condemned him, Obasanjo said he
What do you think should be done to have a democratic government? The thing has been done. This is one of my disagreements with President Muhammadu Buhari. We all agreed that the document we have as constitution is not good for us. One, it is partisan. It is a constitution that favours one section of the country against the other. For instance, it was the military under their regime that created more local governments in the North than in the South under the constitution. They also created a law that says that when we are distributing the revenue of a country, we distribute it according to the number of local governments. Do you see the cheating? And you want us to perpetuate that? This is one of the defects of the constitution. There is so much power at the centre. To put control of the police, the local government and many others at the centre at that time is anti-federalism. At the last national conference, I asked Ibrahim Commassie, who was then the former Inspector General of Police, if he ever heard of IGP in the United States where Nigeria copied its federalism. Policing, for them, is a regional and local government matter and that is why the security system we are having today is ineffective. The governors don’t have control over police in their areas. Those are the defects of the constitution. In Britain, which is even a unitary form of government, have you heard of Inspector General of Police? They have cosmopolitan police. When you join the police in your local government, you rise to the position of Chief of Cosmopolitan Police. As a result, every policeman in your local government knows the nooks and crannies of the area. When you bring a policeman from Zungeru to go Anioma, does he know the terrain? Does he understand the language? If he wants to gather intelligence, can he? These are some of the awkwardness they say they are doing in Nigeria. It does not make practical ruling easy. These are the things we are complaining of. You are asking what the way out is. Each time we say we must change the constitution, people don’t understand. The corruption we are talking about is because there is so much money at the centre. Too much money that they don’t know what they want to do with it. At the conference, we reduced the amount of money for the Federal Government and we have reduced the functions of the Federal Government to local government. For the federal nature of the constitution we had during the First Republic, Awolowo couldn’t have done the wonders he did in the Western Region. There was autonomy in education, local government, agriculture and that was why he was able to initiate free primary education, free medical services in his own area. He was able to establish the University of Ife (now ObaContinues pg 34
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‘We are not in economic recession, we are in depression’ when there is Boko Haram; whether it is right or wrong, it is there. We can’t have it when there is Niger Delta problem. All of these issues put Nigeria in a great, great civil war. If you are a businessman in London, are you coming to invest here when you can see Macedonia and other peaceful countries? Botswana is now number one in new IMF economic outlook. It is ranked as the fastest growing economy; Nigeria is not even the first on the list. That is Botswana that is less than Lagos, so there is a problem.
continued from pg 27 making more money by being able to access another market. So, I am going to give the government a below average performance in respect of how it has managed the macroeconomic issues. What do you suggest as a way to tackle the current economic challenges? I sense that the president is very concerned not to inflict pain on Nigerians, but the way to do that is to spend the money in the budget. I believe in liberalisation and deregulation as the only way forward, it is a policy that the government has to accept. This confusion in government policy between state-owned enterprises on the one hand and liberalisation on the other hand, will continue to keep us in this mess and we are not going to come out of depression unless the government announces a complete deregulation and liberalisation of economic policy. If that happens, I think by the second quarter, we will begin to see growth and if it continues to happen with the right stimulation, not the one of N350 billion but a stimulation of at least $50 trillion. Now that the politically incorrect word has finally been said by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), let me now say that we are not in recession but we are now in depression, because five consecutive quarterly growths, which Q1 2016 showed is a negative balance, it is in itself a depression. Technically speaking, nobody is making profit. You calculate the growth rate by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over population, but the current growth of the Q1 released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is 0.34 per cent. The last growth rate was two per cent, so we are now at a depression stage. And if you look at all the critical indexes, you will find out that things are really bad; Foreign Direct Investment is zero, stock market is down, fuel prices are up, you can see that there is no good news. In appraising the one year of President Buhari, we must acknowledge the crisis of the old order. What is your take on the issue of security? Security has had flip flops; Fulani herdsmen, Niger Delta Avengers, the Biafra question. But there has been success on the side of waging war against Boko Haram. So, we need a new security apparatus that can deliver results. The president needs to adopt a more flexible approach. This also extends to pro-Biafra agitators. But in appraising, we must say something has happened. It has affected the country in a heavy way. Take for example the issue of oil, we are losing about 50 per cent already and our economy is based on oil, so it plays a significant role in our earnings. When the late President Umaru Yar’Adua came on board, he saw immediately that the diminishing oil production was very counter-productive to the economy; he reached out to the Niger Delta people and resolved the crisis. What is missing in Buhari’s government in the past one year is what the Europeans realised about 500 years ago, without peace and stability, you can’t make progress. Nigeria is in low grade civil war, because there are few places you can go in the country without thinking if it is safe. It is a low grade civil war situation, which many don’t realise, because they are participants. But if you go away and return to Nigeria from the airport you will
There are a lot of conflicting things coming from the courts on the PDP convention. Having talked about political parties and ideology, what is your take? I don’t get into that rubbish discussion; it is too petty. If they [PDP] like, let them go and sort themselves out. We are talking of more serious things, if they want to fight, they can kill themselves.
Mr. Olisa Agbakoba understand it better. But the question is what the response of the government is. I will appraise government’s response as rather poor. I think it is important that government realises that it has to put political stability on top of its agenda. We need to prebalance the federation; we need to include all Nigerians. But when Nigerians are excluded from what is taking place, people will feel there are those people in Abuja who are special and have the magic wand to solve problems. I think the president’s approach to handling political stability issue has been rather weak and going forward, he will need to address how to make Nigeria a country where all participate, such that little things that should not cause problems will not have this national ramification. So, when we have peace and stability, then we can talk about planning. Apart from you saying that there is the need for economic vision, what other areas do you think the Federal Government should pay more attention to so that the country can move forward? Political, political. How? On the 4th of May, I was 63, but since I am enamoured in the struggle, there is a problem if I have been in this thing, I started the CLO, Nigeria’s first civil liberties organisation, because of bad governance
Nigeria is in low grade civil war, because there are few places you can go in the country without thinking if it is safe.
and I am still in it. It is a challenge. Do you still feel disappointed with the situation of governance in the country? Yes, of course. What do you mean, why wouldn’t I be disappointed? Do you think I want to be talking about this and I don’t want to enjoy myself? We need to sort out the country. As you know, constitutional meetings were held and only Chief Obafemi Awolowo got it right when Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello and Awolowo sat. He said ‘let us sort out all issues,’ but Zik and Sardauna said ‘we don’t trust all these colonialists, let them go.’ So, the three parties did not get a common agreement before independence and that was a big mistake, because having failed to agree, when power came, they couldn’t agree. Quickly, they had the crisis where the North teamed up with half of Western Nigeria with Chief SLA Akintola and found NNDP and the other part of North teamed up with Zik and formed APGA and Action Group and since then, we have had this crosscarpetting. This APC [All Progressives Congress] thing is not today. So people will win power on the basis of deals not on the basis of ideology. We never had any real Nigerian political party that will espouse doctrines and stand on it and say I am in this party. APC, what difference does it have from PDP? We don’t have political parties. I think what President Buhari can do with his great goodwill is to resolve Nigeria’s political problems. Thirty-six states are not viable, the states are all broke apart from Lagos, so why don’t we have a serious discussion about how to create a viable Nigeria based on a new balanced federation, that’s my take. I was at the National Conference and I thought that former President Jonathan would have taken the reports and implemented them, because before Jonathan, there were other conferences. So if we can resolve our political crisis, Nigeria would witness a boom. Nigeria has the capacity to be first among equals in the world but we cannot do so when there is a problem after problem. We can’t have it
You once talked of the need to stimulate the economy. At that time, the president had not signed the budget and Nigerians were quite hopeful that as soon as the budget was signed, the economy would move in the right path. But as soon at the budget was signed, the government said the country is broke, do you actually agree that Nigeria is broke? Nigeria is broke. Nigeria is quite broke. To what extent? I am not in government, I wouldn’t know to what extent. But I do know that if you look at the one broad vital sign, a man who was earning so much before is earning so little, then somewhere along the line, it doesn’t add up. So, the country can be said to be technically insolvent, but economists, people who know how to bring money out of the wood, abound in Nigeria. Do you think the Buhari’s administration has justified its mandate? No, he hasn’t. I have even answered you by saying that I am cautiously negative. But the rider for me is that I think he can still justify it. So it is not a hopeless case. Do I think President Buhari has justified his mandate as of today? No. But I feel that there is some hope if he takes stock of this appraisal that is being done, thereby applying radical medicines to changing things. Do I think he can get out of it and achieve a milestone? I think yes, so it is not all that hopeless. But if you ask the man on the street why rice is being sold at N20,000 per bag, prices of foodstuff are high and tomato is costly, they are not rationalising like me, they are just angry. There is anger on the streets and it is a good thing that the country has no social revolution history, so we are calm. But that calmness should not be mistaken for passivity If you still do your appraisal, do you think the president needs to change his guards, people working around him, who Nigerians think are giving the president the impression that all is well? I think that’s a good question, I think the president needs a stronger team. So, the president has to consider whether in his second year, the team he is carrying can assist him to deliver. It is not for me to answer that question, it’s for him, but it is an important question for him to look at.
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Sunday Tribune
‘President’s disrespect for rule of law unhelpful’ Continued from pg 31 femi Awolowo University) and then there was competition among the regions. He was the first man to pay minimum wage in the country, then Azikiwe followed him in the Eastern Region. That was an era of competitive governance in federal set up. There was freedom of autonomy in all the spheres of government. What do we have now? The present administration says since it did not convene the conference, it would not implement the recommendations. The question is -what was done at the confab and not who convened it. Are the recommendations good? If you believe it goes a long way in rectifying the defects of this constitution, it should be implemented. Whether it is a man that sees a snake or woman, all that matters is for the snake to be killed. I also put another question. If you say because, you are not the one who initiated the constitution, what are the things that they recommended that are not good? If is in the interest of the country you love, not for ego, if there is anything defective in that constitution, you remove it and put the other one and let’s go and we move forward. The problem in Niger Delta, the revival of Biafra, is all the result of not going through all that we recommended which have taken care of the minorities. Before the election, I clamoured that the change we needed was the change of the constitution. I was not defending Jonathan, but the APC leaders said no, that if he was sincere why didn’t he do it before then? Okay I agree, but the man said if Nigerians voted for him, he would do it. Why I picked him [Jonathan] was that I regarded the two parties—PDP and APC— as two evils. So, I was left to choose the lesser of two evils. The lesser of two evils is Jonathan in that he will give me what reform the country needs because he can’t go back until when he is re-elected on the basis of implementing the confab report. The APC should have said, alright give us a chance too we will implement the confab recommendations too? That will be a different matter. In fact, their leader told them that the confab was an afterthought. They called it a waste of time. There are so many things one must give an answer to. For example, Biafrans are raising their hands; the Niger Delta Avengers is there, the Fulani herdsmen are there too. All these things we have resolved in the conference. There is a lot in the report. Like the corruption that this man is fighting, for instance, I am 100 per cent with him, but for the fact that he’s partisan. He has done well in this regard. He’s fighting it at one side. We also know those people in his cabinet who are not saints. He should have made the fight holistic, but the corruption he is fighting just appears that he just wants to decimate the opposition. That is where I disagree with him. He has the integrity but unfortunately his albatross are the people that surround him. Those of us who mention this all the time are not his enemies. I want him to succeed. He cannot afford to waste another four years. 56 years after independence, we haven’t got anywhere. Those of us who fought for independence, we find out that one-side anticorruption war is not in the interest of the country. In the previous interview that I gave after the election, although I opposed
say that I will do this or that. You are now there. All those things you are complaining about let Nigerians see action. [Barrack] Obama didn’t complain about George Bush’s inadequacies when he got into office. The US economy was in the doldrums. He just went into action, reformed it and got the praise. So, all these lamentations that what we met was so bad and the rest is not the question now. We are not bringing back Jonathan; we have brought you in and we say yes, the situation is bad don’t make it worse. The situation is bad make it fine for your name to go into good memory; that when recession was so bad, it was Buhari that saved the situation and not that Buhari gave excuses for the situation. Nigerians didn’t vote for him to give excuses and that is why I say that I am disappointed that he has not disappointed me.
Chief Adebanjo him, I prayed that he succeed. l challenged him to prove me wrong about the criticisms that I made of him being a dictator, being anti-rule of law. That is unfortunately what is happening now. I am disappointed Buhari hasn’t disappointed me. I want him to disappoint me by doing the thing that I said he would not do. I said that he’s a dictator that he doesn’t obey the rule of law and I gave examples. I was told that that was because it was in the military era and that this is a democracy that he can’t do it. But what have we got? But President Buhari promised to tackle insurgency and to a large extent he is deemed to have scored very high in this area. But the latest threat to security has been the invasion of communities by Fulani herdsmen. What do you think is the problem? We mentioned the issue of herdsmen and their invasion of communities in the confab report. When he was not the Head of State, he approached the former governor of Oyo State, the late Alhaji Lam Adesina, complaining to him that his people were killing Fulani people at Iseyin. If you read the report then, that Adesina called the commissioner of police then and asked him what happened at Iseyin and they found out that it was the Fulani people that first attacked the Yoruba people. I wish Buhari is conscious of the circumstances of his occupying the presidential seat. Those of us who have faith in his integrity, he should not diminish that by doing what he should not do. He knew the suspects were the Fulani herdsmen. People know that he also is a cattle rearer. He declares the number of cattle he has in his ranch, and so he is an interested party in the issue. He has not made convincing statement on the Fulani herdsmen insurgency which is now becoming very wild. What do you want people like me to say? On the rule of law, courts said Colonel
Sambo Dasuki should be released, Buhari said no. We are talking about democracy with all its effects and advantages and disadvantages. There is no half-way to democratic rule. There is no half-way to the rule of law. I want him to pursue the fight against corruption as he promised, because when he was sworn in, he promised that he would abide by the rule of law. The question is with what has happened now, has he been true to his promise? Buhari must not forget that it is his Spartan life and personal integrity that the people voted for and he should be conscious of the fact that people are aware that a tree does not make a forest. That is why they are criticising him that the APC organisation is a conglomeration of the incompatibles and that is why they could not agree on a policy till now. From the beginning, they could not choose their leaders of the National Assembly and they are the party in power. These are all problems they should have solved before winning an election. They should have decided on how to share the booty before going to the war. If you win the war, I will take this, you will take that. That is the practice. It appears that they were embarrassed by the victory and I said at that time which was what is happening, that they didn’t agree on what to do in government. All they agreed on was that Jonathan must go. I said then that okay, Jonathan is bad. After his departure, what will take place? Fighting corruption is fine. Does that put food on the table? That is the position where we are now in Nigeria. We are happy that he is recovering the loot, but that people are crying is not a hidden fact. Both the rich and the poor are crying under the present economic strangulation. That is what the government of the day must solve. This is not the time to say well, Jonathan was bad or he didn’t do well. What Nigerians voted for is for you to right the wrong that Jonathan did and you promised that you have the ability to do that. This is not the campaign period to
Talking about the fuel subsidy removal, there are mixed reactions about the development. Do you think this is the best option taken by government at this critical situation in the country? When Jonathan removed the fuel subsidy in 2012, the people were on the street with protests. When subsidy was removed at that time and later restored, the opposition made politics out of it. Jonathan even gave Nigerians palliatives through SUREP and mass transportation. What is the provision for the people or the poor under this system? Fuel subsidy removal is good, but it is the duty of the government to make it less painful for the masses. That is the defect in Buhari’s system. If you are to advise the president on any issue concerning the country, what will it be? My principal advice is for him to go and implement the recommendations of the last confab. All issues affecting the country would be resolved. I accused him then that he cannot restructure the country because what we are complaining of in the constitution, his own people are the beneficiaries. I said it and people said that was not fair, because it was in the North that we have more local governments. That was when they said monthly allocation must be based on the number of local governments. That can’t happen under the new constitution and that is why I believe that he cannot do it. Those are the problems. As long as the constitution remains, that injustice will continue to prevail. You want to make provision for the development of a particular trade for certain individuals by compulsorily accessing the land of other people, even against the present constitution. Under the Land Use Act made by Obasanjo, it is the governor of a state that has power to give land. Now, he is saying that he wants to set up a commission to acquire ranches all over. At the confab, we had already passed the law that ranches should be created in the areas where they are doing the business. Shall we say because cocoa is growing well in the West, we should compel them in the North to give us land to plant cocoa? It is unfair. That is why we are saying that the man should get out of his shell as a Kastina man or a Northerner. He is the president of the country and he must do things that will favour the entire nation. The moment he does that, he’s my man. All I want is peace.
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democracydayedition
29 May, 2016
Sunday Tribune
I have continued to pray for Buhari’s goverment —Yakassai Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, former special adviser on National Assembly to former president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, speaks of president Muhammadu Buhari, the state of the nation, among others, with KOLA OYELERE. Excerpts:
Y
OU were one of those who fought for the restoration of democracy. How do you feel after 17 years of democracy? To be specific, right from the move made by the military to hand over power to the civilian administration, I knew that the military was neither sincere nor committed to returning the country to democracy. I read a book about some serving military men meeting with the then military Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo , where they informed and pleaded with him not hand over to the then elected president , Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who won election during the 1979 presidential election. But General Obasanjo asked them who he should hand over power to, if not Alhaji Shagari. They replied that he should hand over power to General Muhammadu Buhari. Obasanjo further told them that it would not be all that wise because election had been conducted and concluded while a winner, in person of Alhaji Shagari, had emerged. He added that the same election was challenged at the election tribunal where Shagari’s victory was affirmed. The Supreme Court did the same. Obasanjo said by the time he gave the power to President Shagari, he quite knew that the administration would not last long and this assertion was later confirmed by both General Ibrahim Babangida and General Aliyu Gusau. In fact, General Babangida said by the time Obasanjo handed power to President Shagari he knew of about eight attempts to overthrow his administration. This was equally corroborated by General Gusau, who added that there were nine attempts plans to stage a coup to send President Shagari out of power. After the exit of General Sani Abacha, the then military head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar came in, without too much of time, and he released Obasanjo from where he was serving jail term for alleged coup against Abacha. Also, it will be further recalled that Obasanjo was invited to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The same military personnel, both serving and retired rallied round him to be the candidate of the PDP. It was so funny that when Obasanjo was invited to join the PDP, he told the press that election is a matter of money and, for him, he has no money to spend. General Theophilus Danjuma, a retired military man, doled out some money to assist him. Obasanjo decided to divide the money into two and gave part one to the party and the other one he used it to set up campaign office in Abuja and in other areas of the country. During the election, both serving and retired military men rallies round him to win the election. So, it was deliberate at that time the military decided to hand over power to their colleague. When he, however, realised that he could not achieve that aim because Nigerians were against his third term agenda, he picked the late [Umaru] Musa Yar’Adua as the presidential candidate of the PDP. Obasanjo sponsored him for his ulterior belief. His thinking was to use him for his biding. But unfortunately, the late Yar’Adua failed to dance to Obasanjo’s music. The moment Obasanjo realised that late Yar’Adua refused to be his puppet; he mounted a campaign of calumny against
the ruling party. The logical aspect of it is that for the APC to have defeated the party in power, it must have spent much more than the PDP, since election is a capital intensive business in Nigeria. If APC leaders will be sincere and honest with themselves, they should tell the world where and how they got the money they spent during the last election and if the ruling party got money from the corrupt people, equally the APC also might have got same from corrupt people to finance the election. Therefore, for corrupt people to donate money to a political party, such a political party is also corrupt, having used the money to run election. So, will such a party be honest to regard itself as a party of saints? Does the APC have moral justification to arrest people that gave it from proceeds of corruption? APC cannot successfully fight corruption because the party has skeleton in the cupboard.
Alhaji Tanko Yakasai
his government, to the extent that he influenced some serving and retired Generals against him. He instructed him to write a letter to the National Assembly to inform them of his traveling to Saudi Arabia for medical attention, the moment Yar’Adua did not do that, Obasanjo then hatched his plan, which resulted in National Assembly making a resolution to appoint Dr Goodluck Jonathan as the acting president. All these clandestine moves were the handiwork of military to block democracy from working After the death of President Yar’Adua, the military with the collaboration of Obasanjo gave power to Dr Jonathan. The same thing that happened to late Yar’Adua repeated itself, as President Jonathan refused to be a stooge to Obasanjo. Obasnajo reacted and he and his colleagues in the military resolved to bring back one of their own to rule the country. This then led to the support given to Buhari to become the president. From all this analysis, it is evidently clear that from onset the military was not interested in yielding the political space to civilians in a democratic setting. Hence, they gave the country half-baked democracy. You can also see that we have not been practising real democracy in Nigeria, but a military-styled democracy. What is your take on the 17 years of democratic rule in the country? Everybody is convinced that we are not practising true democracy in Nigeria. It was the military that imposed the presidential system of government on the country and they deliberately did that to satisfy their whims and caprices. They eventually came back to snatch power
from the civilians and have been running the same government they want. Though initially, I thought the presidential system would be good for the country, because my thinking was that since the president will be elected by the generality of Nigerians and automatically the whole country will be his constituency; he will be able to carry everybody along with his programme. But to my greatest surprise, it was not so. One of the demerits of the presidential system of government is that it is costly to run. To organise election under this system requires huge amount of money, as the country will conduct five different elections- the Senate, House of Representatives, state assembly, governorship and presidential. I therefore opt for a parliamentary system of government. If we adopt this system, we will only have one national election and state election. Presidentialism gives room for desperation from office seekers. The truth is that nobody can kill corruption as long as we maintain the presidential system of government as we currently practise it. What is your take on the method being adopted by the EFCC in the anti-corruption crusade? We have seen how much PDP was said to have allegedly distributed during the last 2015 general election. Fortunately, APC is now the party in power and, therefore, the EFCC cannot tell the country how much APC also spent during the election. If the PDP could spend as much as we are now hearing, it is only natural that one should expect that the APC, being the then opposition party, to have spent as much as
How do you see the Buhari government in the last one year? I think every Nigerian can answer this simple question. If you also will be sincere and be objective, you know the answer yourself, at least going by what has happened in the last one year of the administration. Is it the exchange rate of naira to dollar that we should talk about? What was the rate this time last year? How much does the average Nigerian now buy rice and other foodstuffs? The prices of food items have increased far higher than what they were early last year. How many jobs have been lost in the last one year? What do you know is the challenge confronting the present administration and ways forward? One thing I always do is to offer prayer for this government to succeed, as a citizen. However, the way to succeed is to imbibe the culture of consultation, because the problem confronting this country requires experts to study various aspects of our lives. Aside that, the government equally must be ready to give listening ears to their recommendations. The country equally needs international experts who will study many things like revival of agriculture, industrialisation and other areas of economic sectors. What is your views on the war against corruption, many are saying it is one- sided Go through the list of those arrested by the EFCC or are that are now under detention or in prison without been tried and do the analysis. By studying their political affiliations, how many are from the PDP, APC, SDP and other political parties , therefore, you can now be able to judge whether is a one sided or not. But the view of many is that if the Senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki, a strong member of APC can be on trial for a specific offence, it does indicate that the purContinues pg 36
36
democracydayedition
29 May, 2016
Sunday Tribune
Democracy has been sour for Nigerians under Buhari —Chukwuma In this interview with JUDE OSSAI, Anglican Archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province of Enugu, Emmanuel Chukwuma Xrays the first anniversary of President Muhammadu Buhari, 17 years of civil rule in the country. Excerpts:
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OW do you assess the nation’s 17 years of democracy? We give thanks to God for Nigeria’s democracy which has enjoyed uninterrupted smooth-sailing for 17 years. Things have gone somehow democratically smoothly and very well but with a lot of difficulties. I said difficulties in sense that each time we have this democracy, a lot of problems come up as regards good governance. Good governance has been a very great problem as well as obeying the rule of law. Not only that, the economy has also been a hindrance to a successful democracy in this country. Every time we have a transition from government to another, people complain of bad debt and this bad debt is caused by the greed of politicians, a complaint that has bewildered our political scene. What you said has been the problem of the country from one government to the other. May we know your view on the economy? Talking about the economy, we have not been having a stable economy. We have not been having a stable atmosphere of peace. It is one problem to the other and there has been bad governance, wrong and late implementation of budgets. These have really put our democracy in jeopardy. There has not been any year of our democracy out of 17 years that the budget has been implemented sincerely and that has affected the lives of our people. Civil servants have not been treated well, particularly in this current administration. Nothing was done before price of fuel was increased. While civil servants are demanding for N56, 000 minimum from the N18, 000 they have increased the fuel price, causing inflation in the country. And one wonders how someone whose minimum wage government has refused to increase will survive with N145 per liter. The exchange rate of naira to the dollar has been bastardised. If you look at even from few years back to now, one wonders if our democracy has become a curse or if the system we practice should be changed be-
What we need is a good economy. Biafra is not agitating because they want sovereignty/ Biafra but because they have been marginalised and put to comatose. They are agitating for recognition and making sure that things go well with South-East and the Igbo people. Then, the agitation will stop. If you use all these boys during election and dump them afterwards, there will be agitation.
Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma
cause this presidential system has brought a lot of hardship to people. One, therefore, wonders what the future is for Nigeria as far as democracy is concerned. If it has been a matter of winners take all and any party that wins decides to witch-hunt the other party that is a problem. Like what is going on now for the past one year, we have not seen any incredible thing that can be pointed at all that has not been about fighting corruption. All we see again is witch hunting people. Nobody has been jailed; nobody has been committed to prison. And we have not even heard how much exactly has been recovered from the past government. What is the plan being made with the recovered money? Will it be used for the alleviation of the suffering of the people? What we see today is the increase in inflation, which has made democracy a little bit sour and uncomfortable for our people. So, I believe with the 17 years of democracy, Nigerians have tried as much as possible to be tolerant. We have been so much
a tolerant country. We have been a country that has been so much accommodating and government should not continue to take the citizens for granted. The time has come that we must begin to think of a revolution because those who are voted into power are occupying power by our votes. If democracy is government by the people and for the people, then we should see this in action and practicality rather than a matter of saying it. Nigerians are facing oppression. How can Nigeria’s democracy be made better? Nigeria’s democracy will be better if attractions of office are reduced and the process de-monetised because you find that that those who are really interested and capable of being in office are not given the chance because of corruption and the huge money required to get there. So, change cannot be better as long as huge money is being used to induce voters by those who seek offices.
What is your view of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first anniversary? Reactions to Buhari’s administration in the last one year have been mixed. He came with the intention of bringing a change and now people are tired and are saying what type of change is this. Nigerians under Buhari administration are going into exile, like the people of Israel who did not obey the Lord and were taken captive in the hands of Babylonians and Assyrians until they learnt their lesson and were brought back. So, I believe that we are now in captivity, like the Babylonians and the Assyrians, in the hand of Buhari with hardship in our country now. We might learn our lesson and come out of it and come back to the Promised Land where the resources of the country will be enjoyed by Nigerians. Nigerians have had to be patient for one year to see what will happen. The magic they told us that as soon as the budget is signed, every Nigerian will start to smile. We are looking forward to the smile. If one year has been a time for reconstruction, rebuilding and recovering or whatever, we want to see what happens after May 29, to see what Nigerians will have to face as real change as compensation for the time lost and the suffering endured. Nigerians have suffered and are looking for a way to survive and be able to make daily bread, provide for their children and have water and constant electricity and many more. So, we should not fold our hands and watch a government which thinks all is well. Nigeria under Buhari must make a change indeed and make things positive for the people. If not, the people will lose confidence very soon.
‘APC campaign funds must be probed too’ Continued from pg 35 ported war on corruption is across all political party We won’t allow them to deceive us. The whole country knows very well the reasons why Dr Saraki being investigated by Code of Conduct Tribunal. To most of the APC leaders, Dr Saraki is a “rebel APC.” They do not see him as a loyal member of the party; the leadership of APC is quarreling with him. Is it a normal thing to probe campaign funds meant to organise an election? There is nothing bad in probing campaign funds of political parties, the only thing is that the probe should be total, should cut across all political parties. In the US, the government pegs a certain amount for a political party to spend during and after campaigns. The government
equally pegs the amount of money an individual, organisation and corporate agencies can contribute to a political party for its campaigns and such donated funds are audited from time to time. Therefore, it would have been in order if the probe could be holistically done for all political parties. As the PDP is being probe, that of APC and others should equally be probed. But when it is one sided, I am not in support and it does not augur well for polity because the posterity will judge us, whether we like it or not, and no condition is permanent Nigerians expect that the PDP would be a strong opposition party, but as it is now, the party is bedeviled with crisis. What is your take on this? I am neither a member of APC nor of the PDP. However, many Nigerians expect the PDP to be an alternative party to the APC in 2019 because the teeming masses
have the thinking that the party may come back to power. But going by what is happening in the polity, it is obvious that Obasanjo does not mean well for the PDP, right from the time he tore his membership of the PDP upon whose platform he ruled the country for eight years. If you go through the list of those who spearheaded the crisis within the party, it is evident that most of these notable personalities are close associates of President Obasanjo. Furthermore, I could not rule out the possibility of Obasanjo using these people to cause disaffection within the rank and file of the PDP to cause disunity. It is clear that most Nigerians see the PDP as the one that will wrestle power from APC in 2019. So, the common sense thing for them, therefore, is to throw the PDP into confusion. It is unfortunately that the PDP has broken to three camps, the Jerry Gana, the caretaker committee and that of Ali Modu Sheriff.
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opinion
29 May, 2016
Sunday Tribune
Sokoto: Quiet policies making loud impact By Imam Imam
T
ODAY, May 29, 2016, the present democratic experiment clocked one year and all over the country, governments will roll out the drums to celebrate their achievements and make renewed commitments to the citizenry. In Sokoto, it has been 365 days since the election of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as Governor of the state. It has been a time different approach to governance. While expectations were high following the ouster of the former ruling party at the national level, Tambuwal and his team understood the need to render diligent service to the people. As a member of the new breed political class, it is safe to say that Tambuwal and his team know too well that doing things the old way is never an option. This is because in addition to the glaring failure of the past, the old ways have left a toxic feel in the political firmament of the nation. Key sectors in the state have felt the impact. As one columnist recently pointed out, in Sokoto, governance trumps politics because all the buttons of development have been pressed. The last one year has seen its fair share of emotional pain for the people of Sokoto. In September 2015, 114 pilgrims who were away for the annual Muslim pilgrimage died during the now infamous Hajj stampede in Saudi Arabia. 22 other citizens have been missing since then while two sustained various degrees of injuries. They were treated and discharged. Reeling from this pain for a huge number of its citizens, Tambuwal quickly stepped in by providing support to the families of the victims. In that regard, the sum of N500,000 was given to each family of the 138 victims. In terms of social intervention, Sokoto is shoulders above its peers in the country. Even when the Federal Government was yet to decide on payment of benefit allowances to the vulnerable members of the society, Sokoto had implemented the policy by giving the sum of N6,500 to extremely poor citizens monthly. In addition to this, underprivileged members of the society do not have to pay for drugs in hospitals, because the government sets aside N10 million monthly for provision of free prescribed drugs to the sick who cannot afford to purchase the drugs. The funds are kept
in selected hospitals and pharmaceutical stores in different parts of for easy access. In education, the impact made by Tambuwal is very visible. First, he declared a state of emergency in the sector and followed that up with a release of N1 billion for settlement of fees for Sokoto students studying in various schools across the globe. The school expansion and renovation project has already commenced in four schools namely: GGC Rabah, GGMSS Illela, GSS Tureta and GDSS Sabon Birni. The government also provided free forms to 8,000 beneficiaries who sat for the unified tertiary institutions admissions examinations in April this year. As a demonstration of its new found commitment for the sector, government set aside 29 per cent of its 2016 budget estimate to education, the highest allocation in the budget and far above the UNESCO-recommended 26 per cent. Government thereafter flagged off a programme to enroll over one million children into schools in the present academic calendar. Happily, the target has already been met after a total 1,193,760 pupils were enrolled into basic education level for the 2015/2016 academic session. More
teachers have been recruited while a committee set up to proffer solution to the challenges confronting the sector has just submitted an interim report. Watch this space because more far reaching decisions are on the way. In addition to the provision of free drugs, government has passed legislation that has totally transformed the delivery of service in the primary healthcare sub-sector. The PHC under-one-roof policy has streamlined control and removed unnecessary bureaucracy in the implementation of health goals in Sokoto state. Within the first few months of the second year of the present administration, a signature policy, one that will transform healthcare delivery in the state for ever, will come into effect. About three million citizens are expected to benefit from the Community Contributory Health Scheme. One of Tambuwal’s campaign promises was to enhance collaboration with the private sector and empower small businesses to deliver quality service to the populace. In that regard, the sum of N2 billion was set aside by the Government and the Bank of Industry (BoI) as intervention fund for the development of micro, small and medium scale enterprises in Sokoto state. Tambuwal’s innovative approach to leadership is more visible in the management of the state’s environment. After reintroducing the monthly sanitation exercise following a decade of suspension, the government then introduced a monetary incentive to have the cleanest neighbourhood rewarded with cash. Without much prompting, people embraced the idea and the quantity of refuse churned out from inner streets within the few week of the implementation nearly overpowered evacuators. No column space will properly capture what Tambuwal has done in the last one year. That is the duty of book writers to attempt, but it is worth mentioning here that having created employment opportunity for close to 20,000 people in different sectors, notably agriculture, mining and the state civil service, and seeing to the creation of 1,000 new millionaires following the payment of N2.6 billion to nearly 2,000 retirees, the upward trajectory of impact on the economy of the state will only continue. Imam is the Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to Governor Tambuwal.
In Ambode’s Lagos, the achievements are visible By Niyi Anibaba MR Akinwunmi Ambode, the governor of Lagos State has, since his inauguration some 12 months ago, moved with the winds of a hurricane to begin a new phase of growth and development of the state such that his achievements in this brief period of one year out of his four-year constitutional tenure appear like he has been there for a longer time. Yet, it was only on May 29, 2015 when the newly sworn-in Governor Ambode stood before a hugely expectant crowd at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, to proclaim his agenda as the helmsman of Lagos. He went on to make a solemn promise that his era would strike a difference, adding “the challenges we face today as a state are good enough ingredients to bring out the best of all of us.” Indeed, as we mark his government’s first anniversary we can see the result of leveraging on these ingredients to give the best to Lagosians. We can safely admit that truly Ambode has not flinched from the problems of governance. Instead he has boldly applied these challenges to effect changes in all spheres of life in Lagos. In less than 24 hours after taking office, he met with the Body of Permanent Secretaries with whom he would work before the appointment of members of the cabinet. He presented his vision to reposition the state along the principles of efficiency and a service driven-administration. He would streamline some ministries, departments and agencies, he said. This would cut cost of governance as well as create new offices to cater for the emerging needs of the people. By August 5, 2015, Ambode had moved swiftly to give teeth to the reform. He dropped some senior carrier civil servants and appointed 19 new permanent secretaries based on “merit, competence, and track record.” In the same period, he scrapped the Office of the Special Adviser on Taxation and Revenue, Debt Management Office while he merged the Office of Works and Office of Infrastructure, Office Drainage Services and Offices of Environmental Service. A major outcome of these reforms was the re- introduction of lump sum leave bonus for civil servants. It also resulted in something else that brought smiles and joy to thousands of Lagosians: he paid a massive N11billion back log of arrears owed retirees for decades. Quite early in office, Ambode located the thorny issues of
fraud and corruption in the flow of government revenue. He blocked the drainpipe by introducing the Treasury Single Account (TSA) operation with effect from September 1, 2015. This consolidated all government revenue into a single account. It threw out the multiple account regimes that was a breeding ground for graft and the pauperisation of government treasury. While at work attending to the business of bureaucracy and civil service reform, the governor simultaneously embarked on a whistle-stop inspection to several areas of the state. In his first 100 days, he had toured Ipaja, Mosan-Okunola, Oshodi-Isolo, Brown Road (Oshodi), Ikotun Ejigbo and Somolu communities. Now, there is a pedestrian bridge in Ojodu Berger and overhead bridges in Abule Egba and Ajah being built by Ambode in his first year in office to save the lives of citizens. There have also been noble futuristic moves such as the signing of MOU for the construction of a Fourth Mainland Bridge. Dozens of major and link roads have been constructed across the state; In June 2016, some 114 local government roads will be delivered. All these have landed with a gigantic light-up Lagos campaign, notable among which are the 36 kilometre stretch of street lights from Ile Zik to Sango Toll gate and the linking of 67 Ibeju Lekki communities to the national grid.
Ambode’s government has linked security to this quest for an enabling environment for business. He has erected a huge security profile befitting a megapolis that Lagos has become. His administration gave the police a hefty N4.8billion worth of equipment in December and more were added by President Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented by Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, during the week. Covering Lagos is also a function of the business of commuting between home and the work place by the residents. In this area Ambode has injected 434 new BRT vehicles for the people in the Ikorodu corridor. There is also the re-launch of the Blue Rail Project to ease the burden of road transportation. A water transportation scheme is in the pipeline. A key promise of Ambode on May 29,2015 was to nip unemployment in the bud and offer an outlet to the creative prowess and potential of the teeming job-seekers in Lagos State. He has set up a whopping N25b Employment Trust Fund to work out an enduring template to engage the youth. Government has also intervened with the recruitment of 1300 teachers. The latter has had a three-fold impact: it has revived primary education in the state; it has reduced unemployment in a socially significant aspect and finally it has contributed to tackling poverty since in Nigeria’s sociocultural setting. Still on education, Ambode set aside some N1b for upgrade of schools infrastructure across the state. The governor has in addition resolved the protracted LASU crisis leading to the signing of the Revised University Law to make for harmonious campus life devoid of the seasonal industrial actions. Hurricane Ambode has not left the health sector untouched as is typical with all great storms of that name. Recognising the evergreen truth of the Latin saying, Mens sana in corpore sano, (a sound mind in a sound body), he has approved N49b Medical Park in Ikoyi while his government has greatly improved the welfare of medical doctors and other health delivery staff. Agriculture and food production in the state got a fillip under review. Ambode’s administration entered into a deal with the Kebbi State government for the Development of Commodity Value Chain Rice Production. Anibaba, an economist, wrote in from Gbagada.
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With Rita Okonoboh rosarumese@gmail.com 08053789087
tribunechurch
Archbishop Stephen
Reverend Omobude
Buhari
Sunday Tribune
Reverend Ayokunle
Pastor Banke
Our verdicts on Buhari’s administration •Clerics assess one year of ‘Change’ govt
RITA OKONOBOH and OLAIDE SOKOYA speak with clerics across Nigeria on the President Muhammadu Buhariled administration as it clocks one year in office today.
R
IDING on the change mantra, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari celebrates its one year in office today. A cross-section of clerics across Nigeria speak on how far the present administration has fared.
We should congratulate Buhari on corruption –Anglican Primate Head, Global Anglican Future Conference Primates Council (GAFCON) and Primate of Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), the Most Reverend Nicholas D. Okoh, in an interview, stated that, “To be frank, everybody is surprised at the revelations coming up on the amount of money stolen from the government. So, on that note, we have to congratulate the man because he is fighting the evil while he is doing his best to uproot it. How well he will succeed remains to be seen, but we pray that he succeeds, because he made a lot of promises. If he chooses to fail, people will lose hope in governance. So, he cannot afford to fail.” One year is enough to have started something –Revd Ayokunle Vice-President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and President of the Nigerian
Baptist Convention (NBC), Reverend Olasupo Ayokunle, congratulated Nigerians on their united front, and support for government, in spite of the challenges. “Times have been hard, but Nigerians have been resilient. I will urge them to be more resilient because tough times do not last but tough people do. I congratulate the new administration and commend them for the relentless war against corruption. If we don’t kill corruption, it will kill us. However, I would advise that it should not be limited to one political party, because there are bad people in all political parties. The government should also focus on the civil service, because that sector is also corrupt, so that those bad eggs that are involved in inflating contracts and other illegal activities going on can be prosecuted,” Ayokunle stated. According to him, “we have never had it this bad. There are families where both parents work for the state government, and this is the first time ever that they would appeal to outsiders for help. Why should it be this bad? As much as we fight corruption, this administration must work harder on its economic policy. They should invite economic technocrats. There is nothing bad in looking back to the previous administration because in spite of the corruption, the econ-
omy was sustained until they left. There are experts who were in the previous administration who can put together economic policies to sustain the nation.“Our leaders need to embrace humility and seek out people who can help to put this economy on the right track. Nigerians do not need to die of hunger, in spite of plenty. However, there is hope, if this present government does not renege on its integrity. People are beginning to repose confidence in them.” Nigerians should exercise more patience and understanding —Omobude The National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Reverend Felix Omobude, while congratulating the president on his efforts at fighting corruption, “urged all Nigerians to exercise more patience and understanding, continue to build bridges of tolerance and maintain their belief in the Nigeria Project. “We call on all Christians, especially the Pentecostals, to continue to lift the nation in prayers, at all times.” He noted, among other issues, the state of unemployment, which he described as a time bomb and charged government at all levels to “tackle unemployment and engage the youth pro-
ductively. Enabling environment should be created for business to thrive, so that more people can be meaningfully engaged.” TSA, anti-corruption stand, infrastructural development are commendable —Archbishop Stephen Most Reverend Kehinde Stephen of Ibadan Archdiocese, Methodist Church Nigeria, in a statement made available to TribuneChurch, commended the president for seeking to still govern Nigeria after previous failed attempts, noting that he had demonstrated the political will to tackle the issue of corruption, which, as far as he was concerned, was the only major issue Nigeria must tackle. According to him, “the establishment of the Treasury Single Account; diligent prosecution of the war against insurgency; prosecution of corrupt persons, and the commitment of this government towards infrastructural development in the effort to alleviate poverty should be commended. “However, we look forward to the presentation of a comprehensive list by the president of those who have looted Nigeria’s treasury and the sum of monies recovered. I also hope that the president will take a look at the resolutions of the previous National Conference on what should be the best arrangement for Nigeria as a nation, so
that we can move forward.” In spite of the hardship, we should give Buhari a chance —Owolabi Resident Pastor of Abundant Life Church, Reverend Tunde Owolabi, in his assessment, stated that “a lot of things will be taken into consideration when assessing this administration. On the issue of corruption, I will give the president kudos. However, if one considers the state of the economy, with regard to the increase in prices of items, we may score this administration low. However, on the overall, we can’t say things are generally bad because steps are being taken to ensure that things improve. The removal of subsidy is a positive step for the country and I commend labour for returning to the negotiation table. “Corruption is a major issue in Nigeria and if it is effectively tackled, things will work. Eliminating corruption will put Nigeria on the proper footing. We should give the president a chance, and pray for him. Working to ensure change is also a challenge to us as a people.” Proper communication will help us understand him better –Pastor Bello For Pastor (Mrs) Banke Armstrong Bello of Light Impact Church, “President Buhari’s adContinues on pg39
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Your Life Counts
Sunday Tribune
by Tunde Jaiyebo 0803 406 2013
Thrive and not survive (1)
Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi (fifth left); the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi (fifth right); his wife, Wuraola (fourth left), with clergymen and other dignitaries during the Methodist Award ceremony, held at Methodist Cathedral, Apaara, Oyo, Oyo State, recently.
Alaafin, Ooni, Obasanjo, Lere Paimo, others receive Methodist awards By Rita Okonoboh THE Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi; former President Olusegun Obasanjo, veteran film producer, Chief Lere Paimo, among others, received awards of excellence in their various fields of expertise, last Sunday from the Methodist Church Nigeria (MCN). The award ceremony was organised by the Progressive Association in Christ (PAC) of the Methodist Cathedral, Apaara, Oyo State. Former Prelate of Methodist Church Nigeria (MCN), Dr Sunday Ola Makinde, while
congratulating the awardees, commended the traditional rulers for their efforts at ensuring unity in Yorubaland. Commending the Alaafin of Oyo, Makinde noted that his presence in the Christian community was noticeable, stating that he was a man of peace. The cleric also praised the Ooni of Ife, for his courage and humility, and, especially, his efforts at fostering unity in Yorubaland; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for his support for the spread of the gospel, especially with the building of the national ecumenical centre; Chief Lere Paimo for his significant contribution to entertainment in Nigeria, and congratulated all the award-
ees, praying that God would reward them all. In their responses, while the Alaafin of Oyo thanked the organisers of the award for the gesture and prayed for peace and prosperity in Oyo State, the Ooni of Ife, who sang songs of praise to God, stated that it was a day to give thanks, noting that now was the time to work for better unity in Yorubaland. The Alaafin of Oyo and the Ooni of Ife received awards of extraordinary ambassadors of peace; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, represented by his wife, Bola, received the heroic leadership award; Rector, The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Professor O.O. Fawole, represented by
Mr Semiu Adekunle, received the award of excellence in educational administration; Chief Lere Paimo received the award of humourous entertainer; Mr Wasiu Elegbede was awarded for being a role model; Chief (Mrs) Florence Animashaun received the award for being a virtuous woman, among others. Also present were Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu; Bishop of Oyo Diocese, MCN, Right Reverend T.I. Omoniyi; Founder, PAC, Very Reverend F.A.O. Osanyingbemi; President of the PAC, Mr Abraham Ogunjide; Mr Michael Ojo; Prince Akeem Adeyemi Adeniyi, among others.
‘Proper communication will help citizens understand Buhari better’ Continued from pg37
ministration has been a blessing. Change is a gradual process. It attracts criticism, discomfort before adjustment. He should keep his focus and not allow distraction from critics, sycophants or praise from people. He should not give room for religious sentiments. Communication is the key to a successful relationship. Proper communication with the citizens will help
Nigerians understand him better.”
I’ve not seen any campaign promise fulfilled —Prophet Nwazuo General Overseer, Revolution Fire Christian Ministries, Lagos State, Prophet (Dr) Emmanuel Nwazuo, who expressed disappointment with certain policies of the present administration, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to also prosecute cor-
rupt officials in his government. According to him, “President Buhari needs to adopt clear cut policies on steering the country out of the recession which we are heading towards. Nigeria seems to have gone from bad to worse. There is starvation and bloodshed and the president needs to tackle the issue of herdsmen attacks. I have not seen him fulfill any of his campaign promises.”
Govt should provide incentives for farmers —Revd Owolabi By Rita Okonoboh RESIDENT pastor of Abundant Life Church, Ibadan, Oyo State, Reverend Tunde Owolabi , has called on government to provide better incentives for farmers in order to ensure better contribution of agriculture to economic improvement. Owolabi, who traced his sojourn into agriculture as dating back to over 15 years ago, when he discovered that the amount he got from his early business in poultry was the same as what he was paid as a youth corps members, stated this in an interview with TribuneChurch, as part of activities heralding his 50th birthday, which will take place on June 4. According to him, “Government should create enabling environment for the
agric sector through subsidising cost for farmers and availability of mechanised equipment. Government should also make funds readily available and easily accessible. Youths should also be more interested in becoming
entrepreneurs.” The cleric, who has been a pastor for over 15 years, gave thanks to God for clocking that age, stating that “No matter the challenges we face, life is worth celebrating. I would have loved
to have known Christ earlier.” He called on Nigerians to see opportunity in the current challenges and become more creative, stating that “Nigeria offers one of the best opportunities in the world for growth and expansion.”
Media foundation honours Tribune reporter, NDDC Director, others A senior reporter with the African Newspapers of Nigeria PLC, publisher of the Tribune titles, Rita Okonoboh; Executive Director, Communications, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr Anietie Usen; online editor of the Nation newspaper, Mr Lekan Otufodunrin; and Mr Chris Kehinde Nwandu of CKN News were among personalities recently honoured by a faith-based nongovernmental organisation, Christian Media Foundation, for their contribution to the de-
velopment of media evangelism in Nigeria. The award chronicled the two-day Christian media workshop organised by the Christian Media Foundation (CMF) and Providence magazine. According to CMF Country Director, Mr Gracious Akintayo, the award is aimed at encouraging, appreciating and celebrating secular and contemporary journalists in print, online and broadcasting, who had distinguished themselves in Christian news reporting.
TO deny that we live in tough times is to deny the obvious. Life seems to get rougher and tougher by the day. The economic climate is depressing, the security situation is precarious and there seems to be crisis in virtually every sector of life. We are designed not to go under so survival is a natural instinct we all have. When the storms of life wants to overwhelm us we naturally do all we can to hold our head above water. Survival is an unconscious habit we all have as human beings . . . we will do all we can to live and get by. In the midst of the storms of life that we have found ourselves we must not allow survival to be our only option. We must not allow ourselves to be pressured and cornered to the realm of survival as that will hamper our ability to live our dreams. There is no way our lives will count if we operate if live and operate from the land of survival. We must not allow the adversity of the times to kill our drive to make indelible impact with our lives. “I strongly believe that one of the core reasons why so many get accustomed to living a life of survival instead of a life that is thriving is because they let the hustle and bustle of life completely take over their lives and clog their decision making. They let their doubts continue to pile up and corrupt their thinking. They set out on a new adventure or set a new goal, but immediately after doing so, they let their doubts take over.” Matt Mayberry There is no way we can live our dreams in survival mode. We must make thriving our focus else we rob ourselves of the needed power, passion and pursuit to live our dream. To thrive means to grow vigorously- it is to make progress towards a particular goal or aim despite the adversity one comes across along the way. There is a difference between survival and thriving mindset. “The difference between these mindsets are relatively straightforward. Surviving is doing what is necessary to live. Thriving is not being satisfied just surviving, but reaching above this to make continual progress. A thriving mindset is defined by continually challenging oneself. To be a better person. To be a better spouse, parent, child and friend, being more understanding, more supportive or just being there more. Challenging yourself to have a better career, being more fulfilled, being more rewarded or just being happier.” Ryan Krueger Survival mode conditions people to limited and restricted thinking. In the survival mode perspective is limited. Survival mode conditions our thinking to just want to keep our head above water. We must rise above survival and enter into the mode whereby we are thriving. The transition from survival to thriving starts in the mind and it will demand that we are pro-active. “People Are Like Plants …Thriving versus surviving is like the difference between sticking a plant on a shelf, watering it occasionally, and hoping for the best — and placing it near a window, regularly watering it, periodically adding some plant food to the soil, and pruning it when necessary. While it’s possible for the plant to grow under the former conditions, and it probably will survive, treated so, it’s much more likely to flourish under the latter conditions. One way doesn’t require much more effort than the other — just a little more intentionality.” Leapforwardcoach.com
While the West African Theological Seminary (WATS) was honoured for Institutional development, other recipients were Sunday Oguntola of Nation newspaper; Aramide Oikelome, formerly of Independent newspaper; Sanmi Falobi, a project officer with International Press Centre, Lagos; Publisher, Praise The Lord News, Julius Adegunna; Adetunji Akintola, Breakthrough News, To be continued and posthumous award given For enquiries/comments please send to late Femi Kehinde, publisher, email to charisfamily@yahoo.com Prosperity Today.
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democracydayedition
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Sunday Tribune
‘In 2019, Nigerians’ll plead with APC to continue in govt’ Continued from pg 28 ment. Bisi Akande was the chairman of ACN; he was not in government. All those that came together to effect change, they are just coming. When Jonathan invited all of us in 2011 to join the unity government, CPC didn’t go. But it collapsed. So, if there had been unity government and you have elements of those who formed government now in that unity government, you can’t say they had access to money and they are being left unattended to. Buhari has never sat down to say to security agencies go and hunt or to discuss who and who the security agencies should prosecute. He has never done it. All that has happened is that he has allowed the security agencies and other agencies to do their work. Apart the change of EFCC chairman, all others are there. The fact is Buhari says he has nothing against you. But you must go and answer your name. In those days in PDP, if you were accused of anything and you went to PDP, they stopped you. But Buhari is not going to stop anybody who is joining APC because he is being asked to answer his father’s name in the area he managed the affairs under his care when he was there. All you have to do as the media is to point to any person who has been accused of corruption that the anti-corruption agencies did not attend to. What is your take on the recent deregulation of the petroleum sector, which led to hike in fuel pump price, especially given the fact that the opposition blocked the implementation of that policy in 2012 but, as the ruling party now, you are celebrating the same policy. Don’t you see a bit of inconsistency here? The opposition party was against the management of oil. They increased fuel price and it was known that time that the landing cost of oil was less than N40. The landing cost of processed fuel was less than N40 and we were buying it for N65. Then we believed that Nigerians were subsidising the government. How come you say that the landing cost was N141 and that was the cost of fuel at international market in respect of a country that does not have crude and then does not have refineries. But what did Jonathan do? Jonathan accepted that there was a cabal, but he could not control the cabal. And what he did was threw the thing at this market and said go and buy your fuel at N97. He could not control the cabal and then said you people go and pay to the marketers. The only gain he was getting was this NNPC mega stations. The money that was being paid to the marketers was going to the pockets of the marketers, not to government. So, it was acceptance of defeat in management. We were earning $140 dollars or thereabout that time per barrel. Now, we are earning less than $40 per barrel and also, the depression in world economy. So, if we earn $1 billion a month and we have to spend $4 billion a month, will you not prioritise. Are you going to borrow to fund toothpicks? We are talking of two scenarios. In one scenario, you had a lot of money and also in that scenario, everybody knew that people will bring three ships empty and then record that they brought fuel. The volume of fuel that they were supposed to be bringing was more than enough for the whole of West Africa; but the fact is
conducted? It’s the law. If you look at the law, they are making pronouncements on the basis of the law. They are in their own way, interpreting what is happening because they are independent. The government has never queried INEC and they cannot query INEC. INEC is a constitutional creation and it’s there that INEC will not take any instruction from anybody. So, it’s independent and it’s there in the constitution. So, if they say election is inconclusive, they explain it in the law and there is nobody who can take them on because they are independent. They have even shown a proof of non-interference.
Prince Momoh
government was paying subsidy as a result of documentation of the so-called subsidy and that’s why people were opposed to it. But Buhari said he did not believe there was subsidy. But if he comes to government and he discovered there was subsidy, he will pay it. All the so-called subsidy that government has been paying is the subsidy they carried over. In this government, there is nothing like subsidy. So, I don’t know where there has been any departure from the position of government. But how do you now reconcile that with the policies that seem to allow prices to skyrocket in the markets. You have the subsidy removal; you have the forex policy; so far now, rice has gone to almost 100 per cent increase in the last one year? I’m not celebrating rise in prices. But what do you do? You have to cooperate with the inevitable. When you want change, you do not say I want change and refuse to be changed. When we were growing up, we were eating rice twice a year– during Easter and Christmas. Rice is now eaten every day. We are saying that we will be efficient in that area in 2019. If we emphasise agriculture, then, of course, food will be available and will be cheaper. When I was Minister of Information, we encouraged growing of rice all over the country. Bauchi had 10,000 tons of rice to sell. All the marketers in Nigeria refused to sell the rice. They said they preferred Uncle Benz’s rice because in our Nigerian rice, there was stone. Can there be any better description of indiscipline and indulgence? This sacrifice is going to be short term. You can see there are no longer queues. People will bring their fuel and be competitive. Some people are not selling fuel at N145. Some are selling fuel at N143; some are N140. At the end of the day, people will be competitive. How would you react to the democratic credential of this government,
when you look at its obedience to court orders and respect for the rule of law. There was this discussion recently when the Government went to National Industrial Court to obtain the injunction stopping NLC from going on strike. Some said the same government that did not obey court orders is going to get injunction from the same courts. How democratic will you say your government is? That’s not evidence of democracy or lack of it. If you feel in anyway shortchanged in anything, you go to court. Look at PDP now; two of them went to court – one in Port Harcourt and one in Lagos. Don’t forget that these things about obeying court injunction and not obeying court injunction is administrative. Someone may say that the injunction was not served on him and it may be true. You don’t serve injunction on the pages of newspapers. I agree that some security agencies may dodge service. I’m saying so as a public analyst. But the fact is that until it gets to where you were serving, you were not serving. But this government, I can assure you, the president told everybody that the constitution is our guide. For instance, in the National Assembly elections, he did not encourage any intervention. He said they are autonomous. Let them sort themselves out. In all the elections since he took over, he has told the INEC people, you are on your own. If you think you want to please us by compromising elections, you are on your own; you will be prosecuted. Anybody who compromises election will be prosecuted. You have seen since he came all the elections, there is none of them that has been declared faulty because of rigging. But the President should be worried that even the same INEC has gone into what we did not see previously, by bringing inconclusiveness into almost all the elections it has
The president has said repeatedly that he feels the pains of Nigerians, but so far he has been unable to their pains. Looking forward, what do you think the government will give to Nigerians? In a year or two, Nigerians will celebrate Buhari because all the things he’s doing are things to ease the pain that you must go through because of change. Many decisions that are being taken are decisions that cabals opposed. Imagine level 12 to 16 officers own estates in Abuja. How did they make the money? Padding of the budget did not start today. So, every step taken is denying someone the access to unearned income. So, it’s not business as usual when you want change. Are you not worried as regards the report we are having about shrinking economy, GDP dropping and all that. How long will this last? There is nobody who will not be worried and it’s a world phenomenon, you know that. Even Saudi Arabia increased fuel prices. All OPEC countries have increased fuel prices. All OPEC countries are running at deficit. So, what is confronting Nigeria is a world situation. It’s not only Nigeria. And Nigeria itself has been lascivious in expenditure, just eating the future in the present. Obasanjo left volumes of money; Yar’Adua left volumes of money. Jonathan spent it all and even dragged us into debts. There had never been as much recklessness in governance as what we experienced in the last few years under Jonathan. Yes, Jonathan is a very good man. But we were not looking for good men in government. Goodness is not a qualification for being in government, where, for instance, you just ignore everything. But you should be worried by what the people are saying that if elections were to be called today, in view of the deprivation in the polity that APC might fare badly? I agree with you. Nobody likes to suffer. You don’t think that could be a threat to your party even in 2019? That’s why I said within a year or two, you will celebrate us. In fact by 2019, they will be begging us to continue in power. If by 2019, we have thousands of people who are empowered because of the economic programme we have, you think those who are empowered will not vote for us? That’s why I’m saying we have to attend to certain things. They are painful. But we plead for patience. Within a year or two, Nigerians will be celebrating Buhari.
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sport
29 May, 2016
Yusuf hails Eagles’ spirit
N
IGERIA caretaker, coach Salisu Yusuf has saluted the spirit and commitment his youthful team displayed in a 1-0 win against Mali in a friendly in France. “The performance is inspiring and I am happy about the team spirit,” declared Yusuf, whose inspired second half changes proved to be the difference between the two West African gladiators. “Every player fought well on the field. The commitment and determination is there, and we hope to carry this forward.” The Eagles were cheered off the field after what the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF),
Mr Amaju Pinnick called “an exciting display” at the Stade Robert Diochon. “I’m quite happy with the display and the result,” Pinnick remarked. The young Eagles fought and could have won by a wider margin. Forward Odion Ighalo fluffed a hatful of chances in the first half, but Etebo Oghenekaro, Alex Iwobi and man-of-the-match Shehu Abdullahi gave the Eagles legs on the field in a game that for long periods flowed from end-to-end. With only goalkeeper Djigui Diarra to beat, Ighalo wasted a golden chance in the 19th minute. There were plenty of great opportunities, but Ighalo, debutant Musa Muhammed
and Etebo could not get the ball into the Malian net before half time. Just before half time, an error by stand-in skipper Ogenyi Onazi nearly gifted Mali the lead. But the impressive Carl Ikeme covered well. The mobile Muhammed was thwarted after a good pass by the creative Iwobi in the 50th minute. Etebo was then foiled three minutes later before Ighalo wasted another opportunity on the hour mark. Ikeme saved well from a header in the 69th minute, before substitute Kelechi Iheanacho scored Nigeria’s only goal in the 77th minute, only three minutes after coming on.
... As Iwobi, Balogun celebrate Mali fall NIGERIA stars Alex Iwobi and Leon Balogun have hailed the 1-0 win over West African rivals Mali in France on Friday night. Substitute Kelechi Iheanacho was the Eagles match winner in the 77th minute. Arsenal youngster Iwobi said he was thrilled to be part of the win, while also celebrating the match winner, Iheanacho. “Great Win Against Mali, Happy For My Bro @67Kelechi To Grab The Winner ???????? #SuperEagles,” Iwobi tweeted. Mainz 05 defender, Balogun equally expressed delight at his return to international duty with Nigeria. Balogun has struggled to stamp his au-
thority on the Nigerian side, owing largely to injuries, with his last game for the Super Eagles coming last year, and he missed the last matches due to injury. However, he returned to the Nigeria fold on Friday, starting in central defence and seeing out the game, helping the Super Eagles keep a clean sheet in the process and he said he is happy to have come back strongly. “Happy to celebrate my comeback to #Supereagles with a win and a clean sheet!!” he said via his twitter handle. Nigeria faces Luxembourg on Tuesday in another friendly and Balogun is expected to feature again in the game.
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Nigerian fans want Okocha out of retirement MORE than a decade after he last played for the Super Eagles, Nigerian fans want Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha to
come out of retirement after he dazzled at Friday’s Joseph Yobo’s testimonial in Port Harcourt.
Even Cameroonian super star, Samuel Eto’o was intimidated by his array of skills that he asked
Iwobi gets No 17 shirt for new season
A
RSENAL starlet, Alex Iwobi has admitted he is “gutted” he will no longer wear jersey No 45 in the new season. Iwobi will now wear the jersey number 17 from the 2016/17 season. He wore the jersey number 45 this past season, but with Tomas Rosicky and Mikel Arteta leaving ‘The Gunners’, thereby vacating their jersey numbers, the 20-yearold forward has been handed Alexis Sanchez’s former number. “Also Very Gutted To Let Go
Of “Big 45” ... However It Is An Honour To Be Given The Number 17, New Chapter In My Football Career #COYG,” the youngster tweeted. Arsenal announced squad numbers for the next season, with the Nigeria international taking up number 17, which has been vacated by Sanchez, with the Chilean now on jersey number 7. Iwobi started for Nigeria in their international friendly against Mali on Friday night in Rouen, France, in which the Super Eagles won 1-0 courtesy of Kelechi Iheanacho’s 77th minute strike.
that the former Nigeria captain be substituted before half time. Okocha set up two goals for Team Nigeria with some piercing passes from midfield which left everyone stunned by his vision. His feints and turns left opponents lost as he took viewers down memory lane. Fans took to social media in appreciation of his vintage skills which looked as fresh as it was in youth despite not having played professional football for more than a decade. If the wish of Nigerian fans comes true, Okocha might be lacing his boots once again for the Super
Eagles who have failed to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations on two consecutive editions (2015 and 2017). The former Bolton Wanderers captain won’t be the only legend coming out of retirement though, as Brazilian legend, Pele has also said he would be warming up to play at the Rio Olympics in August. Who knows, Nigeria U23 coach, Samson Siasia might have found the magic player for his final over-23 slot for the summer. Some Nigerian football stakeholders took to the social media to applaud Okocha’s exploits at the testimonial.
Bimbo omo Adeola@ in bimbolovesmusic his twitter handle writes: “Austin Okocha is no doubt Nigeria’s most gifted player of all time” as Godwin Enakhena @genakhena writes “Baba God, please, forgive us our sins and bless Nigeria with another JJ Okocha... Watching the Yobo Testimonial on...”, while Lolade Adewuyi @ Jololade writes “Someone just said we should recall Jay Jay from retirement. He’s that good. #YoboTestimonial”. Another from Cape Town, Rob Delport @FMSouthAfrica writes “Jay Jay Okocha still a joy to watch...”
Yobo testimonial: Eto’o’s private
jet denied permission?
Iwobi
THE private jet of Samuel Eto’o Fils was denied permission to fly out of Port Harcourt moments after the Cameroon skipper featured in a testimonial for former Super Eagles captain, Joseph Yobo on Friday night. It remains unclear what actually happened, but AfricanFootball.com has
been informed that the four-time African Player of the Year wanted to leave immediately after the game at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, but his plane was prevented from leaving by the airport authorities. “Eto’o wanted to leave immediately after the match but his jet was not allowed to leave,” a source informed AfricanFootball.com.
“I’m not sure what exactly happened, but I was told the plane didn’t have permission to land in the first place but it looks like it has been sorted.” Former Real Madrid and Barcelona star, Eto’o played for the Team World which lost 4-5 to Team Nigeria in a game which featured several other international football stars – both retired and active in the Garden City.
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29 May, 2016
Sunday Tribune
SIDELINES
As this administration celebrates its one year in office today, Nigerians have expressed mixed feelings on how well this government has fared. However, the general hope is that the much proclaimed change will cut across all sectors of the economy soon, so that Nigerians can smile again. After all, as David DeNotaris puts it, ‘Dissatisfaction is a great starting point, for it is right there that we have the most power, strength, and energy to push change through.’
NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER
NO 2,048
29 MAY, 2016
www.tribuneonlineng.com
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Hull City returns to EPL
POOLS RESULT 01, 04, 27, 32. LKO. 05, 10-20, 38, 42, 45, 47. TODAY’S MATCHES: 2, 5-7, 9-26, 28-31, 33, 35-37, 39-49
Real Madrid players led by Sergio Ramos (with the trophy) celebrate their UEFA Champions League victory on Saturday at San Siro, Milan.
RealMadridwins12th ChampionsLeaguetitle R By Ganiyu Salman
EAL MADRID in Milan on Saturday night won a record 12th UEFA Champions League title following a 5-3 victory over Atletico Madrid via penalties after
a 1-1 draw at the end of 120 minutes of play. The Los Blancos last won the title in 2014 in Lisbon, Portugal with a 4-1 defeat of their arch rivals, Atletico Madrid, where all goals were scored during extra time. Skipper Sergio Ramos opened
Youngsters hungry for success in Eagles —Onazi SUPER Eagles stand-in captain, Ogenyi Onazi has said he is excited by the future of Nigeria after he led a youthful team to beat West African rivals Mali on Friday night 1-0 in a friendly in France. The Lazio of Italy midfielder led the team in the absence of captain Mikel Obi and his assistant, Ahmed Musa, who were released by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to feature in the Yobo testimonial also played on Friday night. Youngsters Musa Mohammed, Alex Iwobi, Moses Simon and Kingsley Madu all started against one of Africa’s durable teams Mali, while Manchester City starlet, Kelechi Iheanacho, was used as a second half subtitute, where he also emerged the match win-
ner with his 77th minute strike. “This is a very young team and everyone was fighting to play, hungry to win. There is future for Nigeria football sure,” an impressed Onazi told AfricanFootball.com. The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winner also expressed delight at his new leadership role as Nigeria’s stand-in captain. “I am really happy to lead the team to victory as the captain and assistant were not here, I am happy to represent them very well and make sure everything was in order and the team were in high spirit. “We were focused on winning the game, we took the match seriously and it was very important we won,” Onazi said.
scoring in the 15th minute with close-range finish and the Zinedine Zidane-side maintained lead till in the 79th minute when Yannick Carrasco’s goal brought hope for the Diego Simeone men. During the penalty drama, Lucas Vazquez put Real Madrid ahead as Antoine Griezmann made it 1-1.
Marcelo sent Real Madrid back on lead as Gabi scored to make it 2-2, while Gareth Bale scored to make it 3-2 but Saul drew parity for Atletico. Sergio Ramos put his side ahead again only for Juanfran to waste the fourth kick for Atletico. Cristiano Ronaldo settled the dispute as he converted the last kick to give Real a 5-3 victory.
A Mohamed Diame wonder strike on Saturday at Wembley was enough for Hull City to secure victory in the Championship play-off final against Sheffield Wednesday and the ticket back to the English Premier League. The Senegal midfielder’s curling right-footed shot from 25 yards sealed The Tigers’ immediate return to the EPL. Steve Bruce’s side dominated what was a tense affair at times, with Diame striking a post in the first half. The Owls struggled to impose themselves as their 16-year exile from the top flight was prolonged. They had a late handball shout turned down when Jeremy Helan’s stoppage-time shot appeared to be blocked by Michael Dawson’s arms. Diame’s 10th goal of the season was his most important to date in a Hull shirt, with promotion to the Premier League estimated to be worth at least £173m. The 28-year-old’s moment of magic came when he ran on to Robert Snodgrass’ lay-off and spotted the opportunity to curl in to the roof of the net past the outstretched fingers of Keiren Westwood in the Wednesday goal. Victory in a third Wembley appearance in three seasons meant Hull joined champions Burnley in bouncing back to the Premier League at the first attempt, 370 days after they were relegated from the top division. For Hull, who finished fourth in the regular season and nine points ahead of sixth-placed Wednesday, there was uncertainty over their promotion credentials before kickoff.
Hull City captain, Michael Dawson lifts the Championship play-off trophy as the team returns to the Premier League after a 1-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday.
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