The recent statement credited to the Governors Forum that removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal government is to be a precursor for them to pay their workers the National Minimum Wage is laughable; when will these people stop playing the ostrich and focus on the business of governance?
Have they not realized that like the Nigeria-nation, the problem that has bedeviled NNPC and have prevented it from delivering on it's mission and vision statements as the Chief regulator of the Petroleum Industry is stifling, endemic corruption and not fuel subsidy.
Why have successive governments tended to take the path of least resistance regarding reformation of the Petroleum Industry? My take is that the current measures being put in place by the federal government in the name of industry reforms, including the Petroleum Industry Bill will tantamount to treating the symptom and come to nothing until conscious, concerted and sustained efforts are made to rid NNPC of corruption, corrupt influences and practices.
How would the governors be able to pay the minimum wage when they spend billions of naira to build secretariats, government lodges and other such non-value adding and revenue generating projects. The governors should reorder their priorities and terminate forthwith the "white elephant projects" littered all over the states of the federation.
My other concern is given that the much touted Federal government-led fight against corruption has become still born; One is then persuaded that the collateral hope of retrieving Nigeria from the precipice might as well go down the cess-pit with it.
While the comedy of errors continue unabated, the governors should tell us another story jor!!!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Great Expectations: Towards Sustainable National development by John Oke on Sunday, June 12, 2011
It is surprising to me that Nigerians, discerning ones inclusive, nurse expectations of our Federal Government as presently constituted. In so much as I would be exceedingly glad for the President Goodluck Jonathan-led government to surprise me(us) and turn things around for the benefit and betterment of the many impoverished Nigerians, I don't nurse expectations of the government, great or small.
My religion is the management sciences where the role God plays is mostly geographical, then, how a nation and its peoples harness their resources towards attaining their goals as a nation is entirely their call. With the advent of tsunamis and earthquakes, that role has become increasingly precarious.
Many patriotic Nigerians have been called names because of their vehemence in denouncing the unsustainable levels of ineptitude and profligacy in government business and insistence in a general change of attitude and approach to governance. They have been called pessimists, cynics, unpatriotic, etc, etc but I'm glad they have never been described as vain or foolish. In my "religion", if you must achieve a different outcome regarding a particular subject matter, you must change ur approach to that subject matter, you must apply different sets of variables and values in dealing with it; different inputs to achieve different outcomes. I don't subscribe to the kind of blind, unfounded hope that abound in Nigeria today, the hope that is built on empty promises and religious sentiments, on indoctrination, mediocrity and crass ineptitude. I subserve myself wholly to the hope that is built on work, hard work.
This regime has not done anything differently from what has sustained the status quo that has asphyxiated Nigeria's growth and development and there is no indication it will find the gumption to do so. I've always suspected the next four years of our democratic sojourn will be wasted chasing shadows, the only thing I'm unsure about is the quantum of the waste but I predict it will be monumental. However, patriotism moves me to work and hope and pray fervently that I'm proved wrong.
Unless this regime changes it's approach to governance and adopts new variables, we should never expect a different outcome from the last 12 years of PDP profligacy.
Finally, someone should tell our president that international recognition, peace, security and socioeconomic development will not accrue to Nigeria, and by extension himself by the number of handshakes or photographs he takes with President Barrack Obama.
THE NIGERIAN SENATE - ENTRENCHING CONFIDENTIAL CORRUPTION by John Oke on Friday, May 20, 2011
In spite of public criticisms, Senate yesterday through a unanimous voice vote amended its Standing Rules 97 (1)(f) to give vent to the issue of ranking of Senators to vie and contest for position of presiding officer and other principal offices as well as appointments as chairmen of committees in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
“(b) In determining ranking, the following order shall apply: (i) Senators returning based on number of times re-elected, (ii) Senators who had been members of the House of Representatives, (iii) Senators who have been members of a State House of Assembly or any other Legislative House; (iv) Senators elected as Senators for the first time.”
The above statements in quote are the order of ranking for senators as recognized by the Upper Legislative House regarding aspiration to Principal Offices and parliamentary delegation by Senators. Is it not shameful that a country like Nigeria would not consider merit, education, performance and contribution to legislative business as a criteria for ranking? Shame! Shame!! Shame!!!
POST ELECTION VIOLENCE? ENOUGH OF THIS SCAPEGOATISM!!! by John Oke on Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Problem solving is a scientific process which basic components include but are not limited to a rigorous study of the problem, understanding and situating its influences and causative factors. The next step in the process would be to synthesize and simulate solutions based on the knowledge acquired in stage one of the process; and finally implementing the solution which provides the greatest quantum of relief, to the greatest number of people, at the most optimal cost.
An empirical approach adapted from the above hypothesis would set out the blueprint for us to understand and tackle issues and situations of national importance such as the recent orgy of violent murders that rocked some northern cities of our country, which we simply chose to label "Post Election Violence".
These dastardly act predates the 2011 Elections but as is traditional with us when faced with daunting challenges, we, as a nation are ever content to take the path of least resistance and either mis-classify, simplify or just sweep the matter under the carpet of political expediency. There is a clear and identifiable pattern to these murderous spasms but we lazily and conveniently choose to see it only through the prism of its periodic triggers.
This murderous indiscretion was invented with the killings precipitated by the Military Coup and Counter-Coup" of 1966. In 1982 it surfaced in Yola, now in Adamawa State as "The Maitasine riots", in 1987 it surfaced in Zango-Kataff as a religious riot, in 1993 the entire South West region was engulfed in violence after the annulment of the June 12 1993 Presidential election, and this culminated in the mass displacement and exodus of “non-indigene” from that geopolitical zone. In 2001 we gave it the same toga of a religious riot when it happened simultaneously in Jos, Kaduna and Kano. Before then, it was the Jukun and their erstwhile neighbours, in Zaki Biam, Taraba State. The reprisal killings in the South East of Nigeria after the Jos killings in 2002 are worthy for mention at this point.
Very recently, Jos was again enveloped in senseless killings, at which over 1000 Nigerian lives were lost; this was shortly before the 2011 elections. One would have reasoned that the government and security agencies would have taken precautionary measures to avert a repeat but this was not to be. At various times, these killings have been triggered by different stimulus but the outcome has always been sorrows, tears and blood.
It remains incontrovertible that violence of any kind is reprehensible and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Hence, the efforts of government in terms of setting up panels of inquiry to investigate the immediate and remote causes of these upheavals and make appropriate recommendations for a solution are commendable but have become routine, ritualistic and are grossly inadequate given the scope and complexity of the problem at hand. The provable test of government’s commitment to resolving these crises would be when it commences implementation of the many panel reports that are gathering dust on government shelves.
Our national memory seems to be incurably afflicted with selective amnesia. If not, how could it escape our notice that no single individual have been successfully, conclusively prosecuted since the foundation for this carnage was laid in 1966. In fact, the perpetrators of the 1966 killings became the crown prince’s of the Nigerian Army. Down the line through Yola, Zango-Kataff, Lagos, Zaki-Biam, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Onitsha, Owerri, etc, etc, arrests are reportedly made after each bout of blood-letting but the apprehended culprits as sure as sunrise, always vanishes into thin air.
Our penal code is very much clear as to what constitutes murder in the various degrees; arson, grand larceny and all other such crimes collateral with civil disobedience and mob action; And made ample provisions for punishment for individuals or groups found guilty of murder and associated crimes. The failure of successive governments and its law enforcement agencies to see the need, talk more of finding the political will to apprehend, prosecute and enforce appropriate punishment to the perpetrators of these heinous mass murders has been an incentive for its continued recurrence. Out statute books provide for individual responsibility for crimes and acts of misdemeanour; going by that premise, it is legal, logical and proper to apprehend and prosecute those found culpable for the commission of these heinous crimes on the basis of their involvement, first foremost. Those established to have sponsored them or aided and abated the commission of the crimes in any way will be made to also face the full wrath of the law, but, also on the bases of their level of complicity.
All these rigmarole and misapplication of justice has made life for an average Nigerian brutish, short and of no consequence.
These orgies of violence and senseless murders have over the years been fuelled by injustice as exemplified by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential elections. In the case of the 2011 elections, the denial of political opponents access to public spaces for campaigns by State Governors, the lopsided access granted to political opponents to state media during campaigns, the sundry use of state powers to harass and intimidate political opponents and the failure of government to apprehend and prosecute some highly placed individuals caught in electoral malpractices are all cases in point. In the final analysis, these mass murders have been sustained by the ineptitude of a very vicious and insensitive status quo; This ineptitude is akin to a system failure and for so long as we continue to view the episodic murder spasms as the killing of Igbo's by Hausa's or Christians by Moslems and vice versa, or continue to look for scapegoats to crucify, the vicious circle would continue.
In recognition of these historical antecedents, one can deduce, and not be controverted that the attempt by various vested interests to crucify some prominent politicians for the recent orgy of violence and senseless murders in Kaduna, Kano and other parts of the north is foolhardy, mischievous and at best misplaced. This is a social malaise that must be rigorously assessed and defined in the proper sociological context if a permanent solution must be devised to check its further occurrence. It's not about 2011 Elections, Muhammadu Buhari, President Goodluck Jonathan, IBB, Northern Elders' Forum, or any other individual or group for that matter. This is a national emergency!!!
Above all, government must become alive to its primal responsibility in our social contract, which is to uphold the sanctity of the lives and property of its citizens. We must look beyond ethnic and religious lines for solution to this malaise. In addition to creating employment opportunities for the teeming, idle youth, conscious efforts must be made at building centripetal forces among Nigerian ethnic nationalities. Above all, no prospective solution can be as effective and efficient as apprehending, prosecuting and punishing both identified sponsors and perpetrators of these heinous acts. Enough is enough!!! Is just not enough. It is time to walk the talk with positive, proactive, empirical action.
Enough of this Scapegoatism!!! Enough of this ineptitude!!!
John Oke
FACT SHEET ON THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY... by John Oke on Friday, April 15 2011
In August 2006, the EFCC had seized the sum of N104 Million from one Mrs. Nancy Ebere Nwosu. Nwosu testified on oath that the money belonged to Mrs. Jonathan, then the Bayelsa State first lady, and that she was a mere mule, contracted to launder the loot. The case eventually made its way through the EFCC’s convoluted investigative hoops, ending up in the court of Justice Anwuli Chikere of the Federal High Court Abuja. Then, like all corruption cases involving favored members of the PDP family, the case fizzled out, never to be officially mentioned again. Even the fate of the seized money, which Justice Chikere ordered frozen, is still a mystery.
Another incident came to light before the dust of the first incident settled. The story, widely reported in September 2006 in the local and international media, was of yet another EFCC interception of funds traced to the then Bayelsa first lady. This time, the amount in question was an unheard of $13.5 Million. Like the previous loot, it was destined for laundering in offshore schemes. Mr. Osita Nwajah, the EFCC spokesman, gleefully announced the seizure. Again, the case disappeared into the PDP’s labyrinth of impunity.
CURRENT RECORD: Our public debt is 17.8% of the GDP while crude oil accounts for 95% of our exports. Our foreign reserves have gone down from $72 billion in 2008 to $33 billion in 2011. Our gross external debt has been put at $9.689 billion and the Gross Domestic Debt has shot up from $13.6 billion in 2006 to $21.8 billion.
South Africa gave a contract for 5,000MW at just $3b, but Nigeria spent over $17b in 11 years on power to generate less than 2,000MW. The 2011 budget shows that the government will have to borrow additional N1.3 trillion in 2011, to finance a deficit. The National Assembly has widened the deficit gap further by jacking the budget up by about N700 billion!
Excess Crude Account was valued at $22 billion in 2007 but was down to less than $4 billion by 2010. Our Domestic debt grew rapidly between March December, 2010 by up to as much as $30 billion. The state of insecurity has become increasingly worrisome.
Manufacturers consume 8.7 million litres of diesel weekly for their operations, amounting to about N903 million weekly or N3.6 billion monthly. A total of 834 manufacturing companies closed their factories in 2009. 176 firms were shut down in the Northern area, comprising the Kano and Kaduna states manufacturing axis. In the South-East-178, the South West- 225, in the Lagos area, 214 manufacturers closed their factories. The implications in terms of job loss can only be imagined.
Yesterday South Africa was inducted in the G20 and attended for the first time its executive meeting in Washinton.
It has also joined the BRIKS, which are the group of five nations which has been recongized to lead the set the pace in the new world economic order. We can decide to remain in our deluded state and vote GEJ/ SAMBO for as long as we want but that neither arrests the fatal haemorrhaging that is speedily and steadily asphyxiating our economy nor will it contribute in any way to mending the deep scars in our socio cultural and economic fabric. It will also by no means, facilitate the return of our professionals who have remained in The Diaspora not necessarily because they wish to but because the thought of residing in their father land is a disincentive and life threatening venture.
The Heavens help those that help themselves by John Oke on Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Lord is presently in Japan helping them decommission the nuclear reactor that was damaged beyond repair by the Tsunami and earthquake, that's compensation for their gallantry during the turbulence. After Japan, The Spirit of the Lord will travel through North Africa; Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, etc, etc, in order to help them rebuild their land after fighting gallantly to reclaim it from tyrants; by then it might be 2015 and the prophesy that "... we are not eating from dust bins yet" would have come to pass. If we are not ready then to pick up the gauntlet, the Lord will move on, helping those that help themselves.
The Dora Akunyili's that I know of... by John Oke on Wednesday, December 15, 2010
There are two Mrs. Dora Akunyili's; one served as the Director General of NAFDAC and her "distant cousin", served as Minister of Information. If it is the Mrs. Akunyili that served in NAFDAC that is going into politics, then there is the likelihood of her bringing electoral value but if it is her "distant cousin", the one that served as Minister of Information, the one that sent a budget of =N= 6 billion + to the National Assembly for SIM Card registration that wants to go into politics, Hmm! Hmm!! Ha! Ha!! Ha!!! I dey laugh O! Let's forget her.
Anyway, the cobwebs are yet to clear so we can see clearly which of the Akunyili this transfiguration shall produce.
Reaching out to the electorate: The need for documentation of action plan by presidential aspirants by John Oke on Tuesday, November 16, 2010
"The best place to solve a problem is on paper"
- Jim Rohn
My dear President Goodluck Jonathan,
I am writing this comment because I am concerned about our collective investment in the Nigerian project and the overwhelming feeling I have that we, the common citizens would all go to the bank to cash the cheque of our collective patrimony and it will be marked "insufficient funds, drawers attention required". I also have a predisposition to view issues and challenges from a project management mode and in this mode sentiments are cast aside and resolution plans documented to ensure full understanding of a problem, clarity of thought and action and that no stones are left unturned in the processes of action planning and solution implementation.
A lot of people are cheering you on in the pretext that all is well but I beg to differ, on the grounds that it shall take more than an uncanny believe in providence and, or indulgence in piety to steer our beloved country, this giant with feet of clay out the doldrums back into greatness. Making Nigeria great again will take clear, concise, creative action planning and focused wilful implementation to say the least.
I am so deeply pained that the Nigerian electorate has been so serially deranged that the mere thought of having the seeming best of several bad prospects as a ruler sends them into frenzied ecstasy like schizophrenics dancing to drumbeats from yonder worlds; like moth being attracted to the fire.
I recognize that you are a nice guy, who definitely has good, even great intentions for Nigeria but I write with every sense of responsibility that leading Nigeria out of the plethora of challenges facing it is not a job for "nice guys" and "the road to hell, they say... is paved with good intentions". All intentions are latent until they are concretized by documentation and followed through by self application towards the goal. Your taciturnity at critical moments of national unease, times when the nation is incontinent with confusion neither emboldens us to support your political aspirations nor epitomizes the firmness we expect in our leader in the unfolding dispensation; it portrays you as not having a firm handle on the depths to which this country has sunk or the fact that moving it forward will entail a complete departure from the current way of doing government business.
In the case that I am wrong, that you do know what measures to take to revive our irretrievably decaying socio-economic and infrastructural life as a nation, where have you documented your action plan? Where is your manifesto on how you plan to get Nigeria out of the guillotine? You were an academic; are marks awarded to students in a subject if they come into the exam hall and proclaim they know the answers to set questions but that the answers are cocooned in their memory? No way! You give them an answer script and ask them to put pen on paper. In all sincerity, we will rest assured in trusting you with our votes and defend that mandate with our lives if you would document your action plan and let it serve as a contract between you and us, the electorate.
The strive for a free and fair election is, and will remain a mantra until we can be able to read the action plan of aspirants to elective positions and debate with them on ways and means of implementing these action plans. Such a document would serve in deepening their understanding of situations, clarify their thoughts and in the course of fine-tuning the contents with the electorate, engender buy-in to their programs.
It is my humble believe that the contract for leadership in Nigeria can no more be between our leaders and their God or their conscience; it would and must be between them and Nigerians.
Thank you for finding time to read my comments.
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