Nigerians will pelt Jonathan stones if…- Oshiomhole

Governor Adams Oshiomhole, who chaired a special committee set up by the National Economic Council, NEC, in this interview with Sunday Vanguard insists that the President Goodluck Jonathan administration plundered the nation’s economy despite the defense being put forward by the former Minister of Finance, and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
As a matter of fact, the Governor who is a member of the National Economic Council, NEC, made further disclosures revealing that under the watch of Okonjo-Iweala, the Federal Government spent the sum of N140billion on consultancy for the Second Niger bridge. He said the money was sourced from the Sovereign Wealth Fund, SWF, illegally, asserting that the Igbos must hold the former President responsible since such amount was expended with no bridge on ground.He insists that the nation cannot succeed in the war against corruption unless people are prosecuted, stressing that “If Nigerians know what these people did, they will stone them to death, jungle justice. 700 million dollars gone on second Niger bridge without any bridge to show”.Oshiomhole, visibly angry, said he may not be able to reveal as much as he would have liked but maintained that if Nigerians knew what actually went down during Jonathan’s reign, they would stone him and his cabinet members on the street.

He also spoke on the Edo World Bank loan, the race for the Edo guber race in 2016 and other national issues.Excerpts:Sir, the National Assembly recently approved the 75million dollar loan to Edo State, but the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, opposed the loan deal saying the stateis already heavily indebted, how would you react to that?First, is that the PDP does not believe in development and for them anything that will bring prosperity to the people negates what they stand for. Which is politics for the benefit of PDP leaders. And of course they are embarrassed by the amount ofgoodwill that we have continued to enjoy from the people of the state; it is not easy to be in government for six and half years and you can still walk the streets – on and off. You find people trooping out to hail you and, see, they have been praying, with the declining oil prices such that many states can’t pay salaries.Their first shocker is that Edo State was never in the club.Then they started praying that okay if we can’t default in salaries we will default in our contractual obligations, that once people see that no job is going on, they will now cook up stories to confuse the people. So the PDP people are worried that with more resources available to us to sustain the projects we have started and even start new ones, there is no hope for them in the state. But you know there is nothing I have ever done that the PDP did not oppose. While PDP states in the South South were taking bonds of N100billion, N200billion, we applied for N25billion and they went to court totry to stop it, but of course they failed. If you look at the document by the DMO – you have listened to the narrative by the PDP governors which give a window about the debt profile of the states in the South South – you will find that even Bayelsa with eight local Governments is far more heavily indebted than Edo state, we are the least. From a bond of N25billion we have been servicing it because we pay N530million every month and we have paid over N21billion leaving us with less than N5billion left. If you compare this with what is happening in other states across the country, Edo State is the least borrowing.   Remember that our neighbours are super rich states but they have borrowed more than us. Buteven more outstanding for me, is that I am proud to say any day anywhere that our books are available. We have never borrowed a dime to pay salaries because I feel that will be the height of irresponsibility. To borrow to pay salaries because if you borrow to pay salaries what will you use to do projects. We have met our personnel cost strictly within our revenues while others could not.So PDP’s worry is basically, ‘oh this guy is going to finish stronger even more than he started’.   So everything must be done to stop him.

read more...

The four great enemies Buhari must terminate after being sworn in on Friday

Muhammadu Buhari is sworn in as Nigeria’s next president on Friday but he has a daunting to-do list after promising wholesale change during elections two months ago. Here are four key areas, otherwise termed enermies of his successful administration he will have to tackle when he takes office:



– Corruption –

Buhari, 72, has said the corrupt and corruption will have no place in his administration, sparking fears of a wide-ranging crackdown similar to his previous time as military ruler in the 1980s. But he has pledged outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan has “nothing to fear” and there will be no witch-hunt against the former administration.

Some areas are likely to be too big to ignore, however, such as the running of the opaque, state-run oil firm, which is seen as riddled with corruption. Analysts predict Buhari will beef up existing anti-corruption agencies, while he has personally promised to declare his assets and liabilities for greater transparency and accountability.

Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) estimates it could save three trillion naira ($15 billion, 13 billion euros) by streamlining government and plugging “leakages” in the system.

– Security –

Jonathan’s administration will be remembered for the rise of Boko Haram Islamists, who left least 15,000 people dead and more than 1.5 million homeless in a six-year campaign of violence. Boko Haram is currently seen as on the run but security experts say the war is far from over, with sporadic attacks continuing and the likelihood the rebels could regroup in border regions.

Former army general Buhari has recognised the need for top-down reform to boost poor morale and end graft that hit military procurement, leaving troops ill-equipped to fight. But restructuring also needs to go hand-in-hand with social and economic programmes to tackle the root causes of the insurgency, namely lack of development and unemployment in the Muslim north.

Buhari has indicated he will maintain regional cooperation with Chad, Niger and Cameroon but he faces potential trouble on another front from former militants in the oil-producing southern Delta. Rebels wanting a fairer share of oil wealth have threatened to resume their activities against energy facilities in the region if a government amnesty programme is not extended beyond this year.

– Unemployment –

Nearly two-thirds of Nigeria’s population of more than 170 million is under 30. But unemployment is currently nudging 30 percent, despite strong overall rates of economic growth in recent years. Outgoing Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in 2013 recognised the benefits of growth needed to be shared more equitably. The APC says some 110 million people still live in poverty.

Buhari’s administration has pledged to embark on a massive programme of industrialisation, including building railways, improving roads and ports, and improving crumbling infrastructure. But those programmes could be hamstrung immediately by lack of funds, with Nigeria hit hard by the slump in the global price of oil, on which it depends for 90 percent of foreign income.

Observers say diversifying the economy is a must, as is educational reform to improve skills. Some 10.5 million Nigerian children are currently out of school — the most in the world.

– Energy –
Last Friday, the government said Nigeria was producing just 1,327 megawatts of electricity — an all-time low and down even on Buhari’s last time in power in 1983-85. Reversing the country’s crippling power deficit is seen as key to driving economic growth but has evaded successive governments because of mismanagement, incompetence and vested interests.

Buhari is expected to decentralise, deregulate and privatise the transmission sector, opening it up to competition. The APC has reportedly promised to triple generation to 12,000 MW by 2019. He will also have to address the oil and gas sector and controversial subsidies paid to fuel importers who bring in petroleum products because of a lack of functioning refineries.

The government’s alleged non-payment of arrears saw fuel supply lines shut down in recent weeks, causing a crippling shortage that brought Nigeria to a near standstill.

AFP

read more...

Good Luck, President-Elect Buhari, By Femi Aribisala

It is all going to happen within four days. Four days to the great national revival and renewal. Four days to the rejuvenation and restoration of the Nigerian economy. Four days to the great “changi” we have all been waiting for. Four days to the arrival of the Nigerian messiah, Muhammadu Buhari. I am sure we all can hardly wait.


In four days time, there will be an end to the problems of Nigeria. Corruption will be killed. PHCN will be reborn. Youth unemployment will be a thing of the past. The international oil market will stabilise. The naira will find its level. Petrol will sell for 40 naira per litre.

The Boko Haram will lay down their arms. Fulani herdsmen will stop their killings. Our cotton mills will roar back to life. The groundnut pyramids will reappear. Our cocoa farmers will laugh all the way to the bank. Our hospitals will stop being consulting clinics. Our universities will once again become ivory towers of learning.

Hallelujah

We will achieve all this “changi” because Muhammadu Buhari will make a transition from president-elect to president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. May 29th will no longer be known as Democracy Day. It will henceforth be Buhari Day. On Friday, we will finally bid goodbye to the PDP, and usher in the APC who will rule Nigeria for the next 60 years! I can hear vice-president-elect Osinbajo saying: “Let everybody shout hallelujah!”

However, the hallelujahs have been dying down lately. The “Amen and Amen” are getting few and far between. Believers are becoming uncertain. Cynics and skeptics are beginning to come out of the woodwork. The Buhari brigades are fast losing their mojo. Indeed, if the election were to be re-held today, many would not even bother to vote for their Daura favourite-son. Not much is heard anymore of “Sai Buhari; sai Baba!” The wedding is on Friday, but we are not even sure anymore whether the bridegroom will show up.

Buhari supporters are no longer as bullish as they used to be. They are no longer sure if there will be “changi” after all. Some now hasten to insist they did not vote for Buhari; they voted against Jonathan. They are now likely to point out that Buhari is not a magician. They would have us know that Rome was not built in a day. But nobody bothered about these truths during the election campaign. Then, Buhari was presented as the answer to every question. He was sold as the solution to every problem.

Illusory change

I am a Nigerian who lives in Nigeria. It is in my interest for Buhari to succeed. I am the potential beneficiary of every Buhari success. But I don’t see him succeeding because APC told too many lies in order to get him elected. They built up expectations to unrealistically high levels. They are not going to be able to tamp down those expectations now. They are simply going to be left to drown in them.

There is an expiration date for the current penchant to blame the PDP for everything. That date is May 29, 2015. The blame-game has served its purpose. It has secured APC the certificate of occupancy to Aso Rock. What Nigerians need to know now is what the APC has to offer. Alas, in that department, Buhari and his cohorts do not seem to have a clue. They are now just holding conferences at this late hour in order to put together a road map. By all indications, that road map leads to nowhere.

“Power must return to the North. Power must return to the North.” We have heard this chant for the better part of six years. Congratulations are now in order: power has returned to the North. Now what is the North going to do with this power? Will this power be used to revamp the Nigerian economy? Or is it merely fulfilling the imperatives of “Turn-by-turn Nigeria Limited?” Will the power now light up our home and industries? Will it be used to overwhelm the Boko Haram?

Not likely! Those who wanted power to return to the North are now calling for amnesty for the cold-blooded Boko Haram killers. Could it be that their insurgency has fulfilled its purpose? Those who insisted power must return to the North certainly did not make this demand in order to make Nigeria great. They made the demand because they are hungry. They want a Northern lion share of the national cake. Anti-corruption is anathema to their agenda. In the anti-corruption campaign, Buhari is on his own. He is a lone-ranger. He cannot even secure the unflinching support of members of his own APC party.

Corruption incorporated

One of the myths of the last presidential election is that it was won and lost on the platform of anti-corruption. Nothing could be further from the truth. The APC and the PDP are yin and yang. Neither party is anti-corruption. As a people, Nigerians are definitely not anti-corruption. From the mechanic to the plumber to the dentist to the policeman to the Senator; Nigerians are corrupt. In Nigeria, we live and breathe corruption.

The new class of 2015 in the National Assembly is not anti-corruption. One of our Senators-elect is already wanted for drug-smuggling in the United States. Both within the APC and the PDP, we have re-elected thieves and robbers. These people cannot be expected to fight corruption. What is likely to happen is that they will fight Buhari’s pretensions to anti-corruption to a standstill.

In my youth, there was the story of Ali Monguno, a federal minister from the North-East, who was hated by his people. Their angst against him was that he was not corrupt. His people found it unacceptable that while other ministers were corrupt; their own representative was foolish enough to be upright. They wanted to be fully represented in the corruption at the national level. They wanted a representative thief for Borno in Lagos.

Buhari does not understand this propensity. As long as we continue within the current federal framework where the centre controls far more resources than all the states combined, the issue of corruption will remain with us. As long as Buhari sits in Abuja with 55% of national resources to which he and most Nigerians are abstracted, so long will there be corruption in Nigeria. As long as the whole point of government is the allocation of resources deemed to belong to nobody and to everybody, even so will the emphasis be on dividing the cake rather than on baking it?

If you steal the money of cocoa farmers, you will have to answer to cocoa farmers. But if you steal Nigeria’s oil wealth, you are the man. To deal with corruption structurally, you have to deal with Nigeria’s lopsided federal structure. But the issue of fiscal federalism does not feature at all in Buhari’s anti-corruption road map.

Political dynamite

In any case, any attempt by the in-coming Buhari administration to address the allegations of corruption under Goodluck Jonathan is bound to be problematic. Out of 55 years of Nigeria’s existence, the South-South has only been in power for five years. You cannot prosecute corruption in the five years of South-South rule without being accused of ignoring corruption in the 50 years of North-West and South-West rule.

In many respects, South-South corruption while in government is justifiable in view of North-West and South-West corruption while in government. Since the oil is from the South-South, the geopolitical zone is entitled to its own oil billionaires as those of the North and the South-West. Why should Theophilus Danjuma and Folorunsho Alakija be oil billionaires when the sons and the daughters of the Niger Delta are not? These questions will continue to haunt any and every attempt at addressing past corruption in Nigeria.

Anti-corruption is good public relations, but it is no substitute for a viable programme for economic growth. In the final analysis, it is all sound and fury signifying nothing. Making a difference means ending the petrol shortage. It means increasing electricity generation and distribution. It means providing jobs for unemployed youths. It means providing social security for the teeming poor. In these practical decibels of government, the APC is at sea. It simply has no idea what to do.

Running against time

Buhari has just 100 days to make a difference. After that, all bets are off. With the same measure the APC used, it will be measured back to it. APC used social media masterfully in order to defeat PDP. They will now come to understand what it means to govern in the age of social media. They called Jonathan “clueless.” They must know that new names are in the offing for Buhari. Some are already going viral. But I leave it to others to conduct the naming-ceremony.

Complaints about how bad things are will just not cut it. Buhari cannot expect to get any sympathy from Nigerians. He showed no sympathy for the plight of Goodluck Jonathan. He deserves none in return. If the economy is in bad shape as a result of the drastic drop in oil prices, that fact was known before the election. Nevertheless, he asked for the job. No point in telling us now what is wrong with the job or how difficult it is. You were elected to overcome the difficulties.

In my youth, I used to sing a popular Yoruba song. It says: “Omo n’wase, o ri’se. Ise to wa lo ri.” It means: “the chap looking for a job, got a job. You got the job you were looking for.” Buhari wanted to be president. He ran for president four times. He is finally the president-elect. But one week to his inauguration, he runs away to London. He is already tired, even before the job begins.

Is he sick? Does he need regular medical attention? The General talks a lot about the need for transparency in government. However, he does not seem to understand that this must also apply to his personal life as a public official.

In order to achieve anything meaningful as president within the first 100 days, General Buhari is going to need all the good luck he can get. However, Goodluck will be leaving Aso Rock unfailingly on 29th May, 2015.

read more...

A DESERVED VICTORY.

The people have spoken in one voice and they have been heard!

Hearty congratulations to the President-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari and all radical and change-enthusiastic Nigerians; all dogged APC supporters and relentless GMB believers especially. For standing firm, consistent  and unpertubed in the face of the dangerous campaign against ethnicity, tribalism and religion, and in the engagement of vulgar, offensive and gutter language from most pro GEJ supporters especially on social media. It was a classical display of maturity, courage and wisdom. Such resilient spirit should be applauded.

read more...

As the general elections approach...

Tension is heightened. Verbal wars become more intense. Allegations fly all around. Accusations are thrown left, right, front and back. Different strategies are plotted. But the main focus is on the presidential elections; who's going to be the next man piloting the affairs of our beloved country, Nigeria. And there seems to be 2 major aspirants vying for that position - Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan; Acting President from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and of course the military man General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) representing the All Progessives Congress. It is safe to say these 2 gentlemen have being in power one time or the other.

From the quotes by Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and his political  aides making headlines in the newsfront, it shows that they feel threatened by General Muhammadu Buhari and APC in general. Wonder why that is? GMB lost out thrice in a row during the last 3 presidential elections to PDP's aspirants consecutively; GEJ being the victor in one case (2011 presidential elections). Power of incumbency favoured him then, perhaps it might this time.

read more...