A PRESIDENT IN NEED OF DISCIPLES BY DELE MOMODU

By Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, let me say right away that I do not envy President Muhammadu Buhari at this moment. It cannot be easy carrying the burden of nearly 200 million highly boisterous people. It is worse when your predecessors had messed up big time thus almost snuffing life out of a potentially great nation. What a shame!

I’m not trying to find and make excuses for the President. Far from it, but it is pertinent to constantly remind ourselves of how we got to this sad juncture. I seriously doubt if Mr President ever bargained for this monstrosity that has confronted him so early in his long awaited and much trumpeted second coming. The Naira has nose-dived in the most cataclysmic fall ever in the history of our beleaguered country. And the disaster I foresee and predict would be monumental if a miracle does not happen soon. I won’t be surprised if our great leader is experiencing insomnia and wondering what has hit him like a thunderbolt.

When I had the privilege of sitting with our President one on one, I was reasonably persuaded that he has in him the right dose of passion and patriotism necessary to reignite this great country. He also has the guts to take on dangerous tasks. He wouldn’t have been a Major General if he was lily-livered. There is no question in my mind that he has what it takes to lead Nigeria out of the doldrums. But whenever I think of the debilitating challenges he is currently facing what comes to my mind is that the man is running a lonely marathon. I’m not sure he has enough disciples around willing to imbibe his spirit of simplicity and integrity. The reason is very simple. It is not so easy to be a Buhari devotee.

What do I mean? Buhari is a preacher who teaches what is quite difficult for an average Nigerian to follow and obey. I already explained in my column last week why corruption is very attractive in Nigeria. The contradictions within our ruling classes make it almost impossible to be a pontiff in our clime. The society makes silly demands of the public officer. The public officer also has the mind-set of a demi-god. He knows everyone sucks up to him and expects him to be a Santa Claus in office. There are other expectations he must activate and actualise. In summary, he is not expected to retire into poverty and perdition. Now Buhari is saying that is no longer possible. And that Big Brother is watching everyone and everywhere. How realistic this is, we are yet to see.

Corruption is not an easy scourge to exterminate especially when it has become cancerous and malignant. Ours has spread far and wide. What is the President doing? Fighting corruption has become an all-consuming agenda, indeed, perhaps, the only visible agenda that is raking in all attention and headlines. No one knows how much has been recovered, where it is kept and what is being done with the humongous loot. The EFCC is working frenetically on overdrive. I hope they are able to cope with the deluge of cases that keeps unfolding almost on daily basis.

The President also seems to have placed his fate more in the hands of Government technocrats. These civil servants are expected to propel the policy directions of this administration. But is that working as planned and expected? I can’t confidently confirm anything of the sort. I’m almost certain they are already letting down the President. There is no other evidence than the budget conundrum that has left this Federal Government terribly exposed and heavily scandalised. Whoever participated in crafting that horrific document has not done the President any favours. In fact, the budget-drafting team has done incalculable damage to a government that rode to power on the crest of frugality and accountability. Not only is the budget outlandishly profligate it is atrociously hypocritical.

What Nigerians wanted from President Buhari is simple and straight-forward. One, reverse the reckless spending in Abuja and replace it with prudent spending on common-sense capital projects and investments. Two, make corruption unattractive by establishing a workable regime of crime and punishment. Three, tidy up the economy and create a conducive environment for investors and their investments. Four, arrest the perfidious attacks of Boko Haram and make every inch of the Nigerian landscape safer for every citizen or foreigner. Five, upgrade our worthless educational system and create substantial opportunities for our army of unemployed youths. Six, fix our comatose infrastructure and restore aesthetic glory to our environment. Seven, find some veritable alternatives to our over-dependence on a monolithic economy in this season of oil commotion.

Unfortunately, I don’t think some of the disciples are working in tandem with the Commander-in-Chief. Rather, they are skilfully wasting the resources that are so difficult to come by. Worse still, they want Nigeria to mortgage its future by borrowing money to fund their expensive habits. I sincerely beg the President to cancel the rubbish budget and substitute it with one that will reflect the principles and values upon which he was elected. It is better late than never. Nigeria is in bad shape. There is no point pretending to be a wealthy nation when we are miserably poor. We must do what countries like China and India did, invest heavily in education and food production. Education is the greatest leveler and the key that can unlock a prosperous future. Remove hunger out of poverty and you would have killed penury half-way and also energised the people.

I watched in utter amazement as theorists propounded some jejune thesis on how to save the Naira against the US Dollar. They cleverly stood truth on its head by recommending that those sending their children to schools abroad should be ready to pay the full dollar rate. What stupidity? No sensible country plays politics with sound education and good health. Even at a time Nigeria had quality education most of those who later became our elites schooled abroad. They travelled by sea and later by air. Most of them enjoyed government or foreign scholarships. My own Brother left Nigeria as an indigent student in 1965 after his A’levels and returned with a PhD from Stanford University.

Those preaching that Nigerians should remain at home have refused to take care of home. These preachers will still spend public money on sending their own children abroad for studies and vacations. They will go for medical treatment abroad at public expense. Education is a universal phenomenon and no amount spent on it is ever wasted. It is a shame that our politicians and members of the privilegentsia would rather punish Nigerian students abroad instead of cutting their own excesses at home. They would rather we produce half-baked illiterates than offer our youths the opportunity to display their natural wizardry globally.  This is the worst decision any government can make and President Buhari should veto the shenanigan of the carpetbaggers who are trying to sell him a rubbish legacy. What will save Nigeria ultimately is a well-educated citizenry and not the beautiful government houses and bullet-proof cars. I can name thousands of our icons who schooled abroad and returned home with bright ideas needed to grow our economy.

The Chinese and Indians litter everywhere on this planet! You find them as IT gurus today because their governments encouraged them to acquire knowledge from the greatest institutions in the world. Only the children of the poor would be affected by our ill-thought decision while the rich can afford anything, anyhow.  Education would then become the exclusive preserve of the privileged few and those who wish to join them would have to steal to catch up. We should not push our people into more hardship. Paying fees abroad is more verifiable and virtuous than budgeting billions for over-inflated contracts and flights of fancy.

The President should please avoid enemies from every direction. In case he is not aware, Nigeria is tension-soaked at the moment. The change we promised was to reduce and not to escalate hardship. Nigerians are ever willing to make sacrifices if and when the leaders are seen to be reasonable and sincere. As promised, when I met our great leader after he took office, I will continue to advise this government in order to avoid the pitfalls of the past. There are huge challenges but they are not impossible to tackle. The solution is not the type of jamboree and propaganda that certain people are recommending. We finished campaigning with drums and tambourines last year; it is now time to settle down to serious work. Rebranding Nigeria every time a new government comes is shambolic and myopic. There is nothing to campaign about again after election. A beautiful work will always speak for itself.

On a final note this week, the President should fast-forward the war against corruption by recovering as much loot as possible very urgently. We should decrease the raucous and riotous drama surrounding the corruption crusade by revving up the substance of the war and establishing our goals and destination. When tomorrow comes, no one would ask how many people were jailed but everyone would always remember the hunger that ravaged the land in the time of Lagbaja.

It is the bitter truth.

A TOAST TO FLORENCE ITA-GIWA AT 70

The name Florence Ita-Giwa flashed across my consciousness over 30 years ago. The news of her whirlwind romance with the famous journalist Dele Giwa and their short-lived marriage had spread like bushfire in harmattan. Of course, the assassination of Dele Giwa on October 19, 1986, would amplify Florence Ita-Giwa’s name. The melodrama of Florence and Dele’s wedding would later be captured by Dele Olojede and Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo’s biography on the life and times of Dele Giwa, titled BORN TO RUN.

The description of this gorgeous lady and Calabar Princess read like fairy-tale and I looked forward to meeting her someday. I landed in Lagos in 1988 after completing my Master’s in Literature in English at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and instantly took appointment at the African Concord magazine. Months later, in February 1989, I was transferred to a new publication, Weekend Concord, and there my rendezvous with Nigerian celebrities and newsmakers began.  From Weekend Concord, I resigned and joined Classique magazine, owned by May Ellen Ezekiel Mofe-Damijo, now of blessed memory, as Editor.

It was while at Classique that I got to know very well some of the movers and shakers of Nigeria. Florence Ita-Giwa had already established herself as a veritable member of that class. She had a powerful aura and exuded panache. There was no way anyone could have missed a lady who mesmerised Nigeria with her beauty and brains. We met and we became friends forever. She never stopped extolling my writing skills. Unknown to her her, I had been greatly influenced by Dele Giwa who incidentally was born at number 2 Atiba Square, Ile-Ife, where I later grew up, though we never met. Aunty Florence and I were party animals by virtue of our socialite status and we met at too many functions in Lagos and London. She and her circle of friends also stopped by at my Accra home for dinner and we danced late into the night. Aunty Florence is always such a jolly good woman.

I was particularly fascinated by her political adventures and charitable spirit. She served her people of Bakassi , a peninsula between Nigeria and Cameroon, loyally. She fought hard for them to remain within the geographical boundary of Nigeria. This coupled with her adoption and sponsorship of children from that area was how she acquired the moniker of Mama Bakassi. She became a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and later Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo on National Assembly Matters. She handled every assignment with total dedication and competence.

Born on February 19, 1946, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa turns 70 in the next few days. I’m proud and privileged to raise a toast to this ageless beauty ahead of her celebrations which starts with a reception this evening by the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN, of which I’m a patron) and a seminar to be hosted by the African Women in Leadership Organisation next Monday in Lagos.

Here’s a toast to good health and more prosperity…

Kwara: The Quagmire Of Corruption And Oppression By Remi Oyeyemi

"Senator” Bukola Saraki is a very lucky chap. He is a very smart person. He is very intelligent. He is greatly endowed. His pedigree is that of a silver spoon. He is eminently well educated. He is also well gifted as a politician. As a scion of the Saraki family, he has shown like a star and over shines all of his other siblings.

President of the Senate Bukola Saraki

Well tutored by his father, former Senate Leader, late Chief Olusola Saraki, popularly known as “Oloye” among his Kwaran faithful, in the ways and means of politics, Bukola has taken the lesson very well. He has shown this by being the governor of Kwara for two terms. His father was never a governor of that state but was a recurrent king maker in that state, Bukola has also become a “Senator.” To surpass his father, he also succeeded in reportedly stealing the Senate Presidency. He has since brought the highest law making body of the country into disrepute.

Bukola obviously took more than the lessons of politics from his father. He learnt how to hold people in bondage. He learnt how to keep people down. He learnt how to prop up feudalistic institutions as opposed to the liberating institutions that could help improve the lives of Kwarans. He fostered the enslavement of the Kwaran people that his father put in place and exploited it beyond what his feudalistic father could ever have imagined.

In the course of his trajectory, Bukola has been mean. He has been cold. He has been calculating. He has been ruthless. He has no qualms showing that the blood flowing in his own veins is different from the one flowing in the veins of other Kwarans. One has no idea where he got that belief. But that is what he believes. And he acts it out in the open unashamedly. He believes he is entitled. He believes that he is the issue in the Kwaran politics and not the Kwara people.

“No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.”   -  Frederick Douglas.

Bukola learnt how to be a godfather from his father and even used the same tricks taught him by his father to shame the same father, reportedly into untimely death! It was also reported that his father was so distraught about the antics of his son that he cursed him. It was reported that his father, on his dying bed, told everyone who cared to listen that Bukola would meet his waterloo and end up shamefully! How efficacious is this curse remains to be seen. Time will soon tell.

Meanwhile, Bukola also learnt how to become more dexterous in looting the people’s commonwealth. He proved that to his late father’s cheering by looting and bankrupting the Societe General Bank. He reportedly stole 40 billion naira from the Intercontinental Bank through a loan without any collateral. His reported major collaborator was Sanusi Lamido Sanusi currently hiding under the Emirship of Kano to escape prosecution and explanation of how he mismanaged over 600 billion Naira of Nigeria’s money as Central Bank Governor!

Bukola went ahead to attain the infamous title allegedly as the “most notorious bank bandit” in Nigeria’s history by looting to liquidation the Kwara State owned Trade Bank. With this on top of the looting of Kwara State into stupor, he believed he had arrived. And indeed he had. This gave him the courage to hang his father politically and imposed his crony in AbdulFatah Ahmed. He was the new layer in the quagmire of corruption and oppression in the beloved State of Kwara.

Governor Ahmed continued the mismanagement of Kwara State on behalf of his mentor, Bukola Saraki. Ahmed has been so efficient in the mismanagement of the state’s fund that he not only further enriched his kleptomaniac slave master in Bukola, but allegedly managed to enrich himself too. Analysts posit that it is often in the art of mismanagement that kleptomaniac politicians thrive in their act of looting. It seems this might have been a truism in the sordid affairs of Kwara State.

Presently, a travesty is being perpetrated in Kwara State under the Òdájú Governor Ahmed who has been deducting the salaries of civil servants to pay a loan he had taken without consulting them. He paid October 2015 salary on January 28, 2016 -   three months behind schedule. Shamelessly and audaciously, he deducted 10% from that same salary. A 10% deduction of his own salary would be of no effect on him or any member of his own family. But for an average family in Kwara State, that 10% definitely could not be anything but a lifeline. It could be a difference in so many ways.

But the point is that to saucy “Senator” Saraki and his pompous protégé, Governor Ahmed, the average Kwaran is less than a human being; he is not deserving of any freedom; he should not be allowed to determine his own destiny other than the one decided for him by the godfather. The average Kwaran is a land tiller in the feudalized Kwaran political system whose fortune or misfortune depends on the gratuitous magnanimity of the feudal lord of Kwaran politics.

“Be not discouraged. There is a future for you….. The resistance encountered now predicated hope…. Only as we rise….. do we encounter opposition.”   - Frederick Douglass

Kwarans are expected to work for the comfort of the godfather and his cronies. They are not entitled to the same level of comfort. Their destiny as determined by “Senator” Saraki is to remain in perpetual political, economic and social slavery. Both Saraki and Ahmed have not just come across as mean spirited, they have proved to all that they are what the Yoruba will call abatenijé. Or worse still amunisin.

The laws of the land have been trying hard to bring “Senator” Saraki to justice, but he has been manipulating the system to postpone what appears to be his doomsday. But On February 5, this year, he was liberated from his own intricate web of dubious cocoon by the Supreme Court of the land – a Supreme Court that has been so frustrating to the generality of Nigerians who considered its decision on Saraki an exception.

“Senator” Saraki is now free to answer the charges brought against him. It is a kind of a weird freedom. But, nevertheless, it is still a sort of freedom. He should embrace it. He should revel in it. He should use the opportunity to answer the nagging questions. It is an opportunity for him to be accountable. He should avail himself the opportunity to convince Nigerians that he deserves to be a member of the highest law making body of the country, not to speak of being its president.

The greatest enemy of Saraki is Saraki himself and the shadows of his own shady deals. A complex character that exudes bogus boldness and gaudiness in his antics, Saraki is vainglorious, pretentious and obviously shameless. He has shown over and over that he has no scruples whatsoever. His temerity, effrontery and audacity knows no bounds, otherwise, he would not have collaborated in allegedly forging the rules to become the Senate President. He has sharp instinct for rapacity. He is very predatory and plunders with glee. He is a bandit blatant in his debasement.

Saraki, it seems from his exploits in the national assembly so far, has mastered the art of deceit, deception and duplicity. He, evidently, does not give a damn about Kwara and Kwarans except for his own political ends. He obviously covets and chases power by all and any means necessary. Saraki evidently thinks that by being in power, or close to power is the best way to impede the long arms of the law and protect his loots.

From the experience of what happened to his father, it is very clear that Saraki has no loyalty to anyone, friends or family. He would betray and disgrace anyone, sacrifice anyone, humiliate anyone and blackmail anyone. With the bitterness that emblazoned his father through his machinations, and the ruthless annihilation of his sister, Saraki is unrepentantly perfidious, treacherous and traitorous.

From his trajectory, it is clear that in Saraki’s books, nothing matters except his own ambitions. He could be appropriately described as not just one of the Judases of our generation, he is also one of the Brutuses of this era. To him everybody, no matter how close and intimate, no matter how influential, powerful, connected or lowly, is usable and dispensable. To him everything, no matter how valuable and precious, is disposable.

But, guess what, the chicken is on its way home to roost! Freedom bell is now ringing for the people of Kwara. They have been fooled for a long time, but not anymore. They have been taken for a ride for several decades but not anymore. They have been held in bondage for so long but not anymore. They have been exploited for so long but not anymore. They have been impoverished for so long but not anymore.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continues till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”    -  Frederick Douglas.

The peopleof Kwara have decided to resist tyranny by publicly stoning Bukola Saraki. That public stoning of Saraki is just a rehearsal of what is yet to come. It is hoped that Kwara people would be able to follow up by throwing off the yoke of Saraki family. It is hoped that they would be able to kneecap the oppression being fostered by Governor Ahmed on behalf of his mentor. It is hoped that they would be concerned enough about themselves, the future of their children and the posterity to follow through with their struggle against feudalism, oppression, exploitation and subjugation. 

For the people of Kwara the time has come for them to liberate themselves. To the people of Kwara, “the chance is now given you to end in a day the bondage of centuries, and to rise in one bound from social degradation to the place of common equality with all other varieties of men,” as once again, Frederick Douglass has remonstrated. It is time for the oppressed people of Kwara to take control of their destinies.

“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.”
- John F. Kennedy, in his Inaugural Address January 20, 1961

Please follow writer on Twitter: @OyeyemiRemi

Via: Sahara Reporters

2016 Budget padding: Buhari orders probe

An embarrassed President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a  probe of  the alleged massive padding of the 2016 Budget proposals  by yet to be identified officials, Premium Times reported yesterday.

National Assembly members first blew the whistle on the strange figures and consequently suspended deliberation on the budget  until further notice.

Many Nigerians have expressed concern over the smuggling  of  unauthorised figures into the budget proposals.

The president is said to have directed that all identified   discrepancies, errors and ambiguities be expunged  immediately.

Officials of the  Ministries of Finance and Budget/National Planning  are expected to effect the necessary corrections.

A Presidency official blamed most of the errors in the budget on “over-ambitious civil servants” in the budget office who handled the preparation of the document prior to the appointment of ministers.

He said that by the time the ministers were eventually appointed, they had no sufficient time to properly scrutinize the budget for errors, in view of the tight deadline each of the ministries got before the final presentation to the joint session of the National Assembly on December 22, 2015.

Premium Times quoted a Presidency official as saying  that the probe will cover “all the allegations and issues, particularly on padding, raised by the National Assembly on various ministries, departments and agencies of government.”

The  panel,according to him, will also “critically look into the budget item-by-item, incident-by-incident, with particular attention to the reactions from the National Assembly, ministries, media, civil society groups or indeed anybody that raised concerns regarding the padding of the budget.

“All corrections would be made to ensure that the budget is passed as soon as possible. I assure you government is working cautiously on the corrections with the intention of correcting any error or malfeasance spotted in the 2016 Appropriation Bill. If there is any error whatsoever, it is being sorted out straight away.”

Budget Minister  Uda Udo Udoma was at the Presidential Villa yesterday apparently in connection with the Budget issue.

He claimed ignorance of any probe of the budget padding  by the Presidency.

But speaking  during the signing of an agreement with the Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria Mr. Sadanobu Kusaoke for an $11 million ‘Project for Emergency Improvement of Electricity Supply Facilities in Abuja’ on Thursday, Senator Udoma  said: “Let me just say that it is normal in a budget process – proposals are presented, sometimes issues are found and they are sorted out; so, it’s fairly routine.

“It shouldn’t be overplayed; these are routine things which are resolved as they come up and so, it is not an issue.

“Besides, we are discussing amicably with the National Assembly,” Udoma stated while responding to a reporter’s question.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Mallam Garba Shehu, declined yesterday to comment on the probe of the fraudulent padding of the budget.

Source: The Nation

PRESIDENT BUHARI MOURNS HAJIA FATI KOKO, SAYS SHE HAD A GOOD HEART

President Muhammadu Buhari has extolled the virtues of Hajiya Fati Koko, popularly called Maitalla Tara, who has passed away, aged 95.

Mourning Hajiya Koko, who had waited nine hours in Kebbi early last year, to donate the sum of N1 million (One million Naira) to him as the then presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Buhari described her as "a woman with a good heart, who stood by her convictions, and gave sacrificially."

Hajiya Koko had offered virtually her life's savings to candidate Buhari then, saying she admired his honesty, discipline, and stand for truth.

Receiving the news of her passage, President Buhari commended Hayiya Koko's conviction and sacrificial giving, urging Nigerians to learn vital lessons from her life.

"She gave practically all she had towards our campaign. Though well advanced in age, she still believed a new Nigeria was possible, and followed her conviction with action. What generosity of spirit and what tenacious faith in her motherland. Nigerians, old and young, have a lot to learn from her," the President said.

Late Hajia Fati Koko with APC Stalwarts

President Buhari condoled with the family and relations of the departed, urging them to take solace in the fact that their matriarch lived to a ripe old age, "and she saw the beginning of the change she had long yearned for. The onus is now on all of us to ensure that the change gets entrenched and solidified for even generations yet unborn to benefit from."

The President also sympathized with the governor and people of Kebbi State, whom he said will all miss the sterling qualities of Hajiya Koko, but added that the life of the departed will serve as a standard to emulate "in the service of God, humanity and country."

"May Allah grant her soul repose in Al-jannah," the President prayed.

Femi Adesina
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
February 13, 2016