Voter Education

We must praise and celebrate Nigerian leaders at both individual and institutional levels for the open and total commitment to a credible 2011 elections. This was so palpable and unstoppable during the voter registration exercise. All over the country it was magical - sheer beauty. Oh, it soothes...

And Nigerians responded!

See what a proud people can achieve with right attitude and up-front leadership? A credible voters register. Soon, a credible election. Then self-pride and world prestige. Yes.

What can NIGERIA not achieve!

This 2011 Campaign

Just when we thought the fight will be super, the opposition parties are playing it cool, acting as if they have it all wrapped up! Amazing.

The PDP is stomping and pumping, showing what it takes to be the ruling party. The presidential campaign is looking like a one-team affair: Jonathan/Sambo! Amazing.

And the words? Everyone says their own party must win (must?) if every vote counts! Yeah. But you MUST truly and really canvass the votes, non? To win us over, you need to come see us in 36 States plus the FCT, non?

So let things rev up, abeg. This is 2011 General Elections. Where are the HOT issues? Where are the figures? Where are the verifiable ROAD-MAPS?

WOMEN and 2011

Keen observers of the goings-on must be at once amused and concerned about the place and prospects in the 2011 General Elections. I am.
 
Let’s start from the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action which our women talk so much about but do pretty little to actualize: Gender is not just about women, it is about Men & Women. Therefore it requires BOTH sexes to fully integrate WOMEN in national development! Curiously, our women leaders pursue exclusivity or reverse-discrimination in prosecuting their version of the Gender Agenda. We should wonder.

As every contestant, whether in politics or elsewhere, knows there is no substitute for hard work and networking plus relevance. Seeking to get things merely on quota or sentiments hardly works. The evidence was there at the PDP presidential primary election. Jonathan’s landslide victory mocked the ordinariness both the zoning (Atiku) and gender (Sarah) carrots. This, pray seeker, is 2011; and this is section-weary and religion-wary Nigeria!

The message: Your co-citizens want you to earn their confidence and their votes on MERIT, period.

Shall we then counsel women leaders that it is time to return to the Letter & Spirit of the Beijing Platform if they seek to actualize its laudable and long overdue objectives/goals. Cherry-picking for the season and convenience-packs for the pocket will not do. We need to see strategic crusading rather than tactical forays.

Now to the MEN: You will miss 50% of national resource and country capability by ignoring WOMEN! Nigeria needs 100%. Having cornered ALL politically, be prepared to concede 30-50% of political appointments after the elections - at ALL levels! No compromise.

Last word: Women leaders, starting with Patience Jonathan, must proceed to arm-twist ALL candidates and their political parties for this DEAL. Wives of candidates as well as female running mates must get their men to commit publicly NOW! Not later. Women may now TEST their leaders.

Voters' Register Take-Off and Hiccups

We must add our voice to the calming call for patience in the ongoing voter registration exercise. INEC has huge responsibilities and humonguous challenges, not least the question of TIME!

Too many things led to this pass and we , as a nation, know the truth - the whole truth.

Never again should we play deaf & dumb to clarion calls to save our country in future: whether from dictators masquerading as democrats or from cabals posing as patriots.

Let's stand by INEC now, and through the 2011 General Elections.

Can We Mark David Mark's Word?

Senate President David Bonaventure Mark pledged that the national assembly will lead by firm (and may we hope, very honest) example in slashing federal government overhead costs with effect from the 2011 budget. He spoke during President Goodluck Jonathan's presentation of the budget proposals to the joint Senate/House sitting on Wednesday.

Good. Well said.

Is this a promise to be kept or is he venturing (no pun intended) into delicate vaults of contention, considering how touchy his colleagues can be in these matters?

Okay, give them the benefit of doubts, dear Nigerians, and await their very patriotic ACTION. Please.

Now ye distinguished and honourable legislators, lend me your ears: Make the cuts deep enough to mean what you pledged - may we suggest a meaningful figure of 50%? Please.

Once done, you can then pummel the executive branch - with our full, total and overawing support.

While you be at it, kindly settle the small unfinished business of passing the FoI Bill into law. Thank you.

Nigerian Parliament Vs Nigerian People

It still baffles how politicians "miss it". They don’t "get it", do they? And this is a worldwide mystery. Recall the British parliamentarians? And other parliaments? Recall the US Congress? And other bi-camerals? These folks are constantly being punished by voters yet the new set (plus their retained co-conspirators) proceed to pummel the populace with arrogant intolerance! They leave why they are elected and leap into cloud cuckooland, on a fishing expedition! Nigerian lawmakers are a rare species: having connived with the military to ruin their nation, they find it discomfiting to serve her nationals. They see themselves as lords and masters, feeding fat on the public purse and concocting fairytales like the discredited military vampires we finally dislodged. Nigerians are so miffed that visiting and reading online comments/chatters on these folks will deeply depress you. The list of their “sins” is long, very long.

Our look today is the small matter of these "representatives" wanting to impose themselves on their political parties - by attempting to pass a law to make them automatic members of their respective national executive committees! Okay, maybe it’s not too bad to aspire; but with the instant and constant rejection and opposition to the move by all Nigerians, you would expect the bill to freeze and disappear. Oh no, not this national assembly (as our parliament is uniquely named!) that serves self and scorns nation! The more the opposition, the emboldened and disdainful they became. And the utterances! The arrogance! Irking.

Not for the first - and, we predict, not for the  last - time, they have been roundly humbled to drop the controversial bill. Wisely, the senate acted first after the governors threatened court action openly, and electoral castration privately. It buckled. We are not impressed. The time and resources wasted on this misadventure should have been invested in better and more urgent bills - the freedom of information bill, voting rights for Nigerians in the Diaspora, a social security/welfare/safety net bill, electoral offences tribunal, special anti-corruption courts, removal of immunity from criminal prosecution of all political office holders as long-proposed by late President Yar’Adua, to mention a few.

The good news: Nigeria is showing African brethren how to respect the people - We, The PEOPLE! May our brethren continent-wide start to do same, and may their politicians (especially their parliaments) start to listen.

In sum, kudos to Nigerians and half-nod to the Nigerian Parliament!

Performing GOVERNORS

In this comedy of errors called governance here, how can a performing public official not shine, and not be noticed? Yes, they do. One low-hanging-fruit area is in road infrastructure, followed by healthcare, then schools, and finally housing. Serious governors show their mark within 12 MONTHS!

So, let's think aloud. And we stay with first-term governors, ranging from 2-3 years in office. Unlike in the not-too-distant past, we are witnessing some real performers, with concrete projects. We are also seeing some real cost-cutters! These are governors who are doing "more with less". The president has publicly praised the 7-year governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje, for both the quantity, quality and cost of developmental projects, especially critical infrastructure. We can't say same of some of the other out-going governors across the nation.

With constant and - this time! - credible media coverage, governors are showing off their performance to the world. If your governor has not bought media space to do same, worry. If he does so with doctored footage, double worry. If he proceeds to bore us with more words (of cronies and hirelings) than actual projects, triple worry!

Real performers will show you clips of the past and video coverage of the present. They will bring you the voices of the real people who will vouch for the concrete change that has happened. Take two states the president has visited, for example - Rivers and Akwa Ibom. They stunned us all, didn't they? Take Anambra State, for instance, where the February Election gave us the chance to evaluate: Governor Peter Obi of APGA wowed us all, didn't he? And Anambrarians stayed solidly with him. We've also seen some heart-warming videos from Adamawa, Benue, Enugu, Jigawa, Plateau and Zamfara States recently - though their political opponents are disputing and casting doubts. Let evidence emerge, and EFCC assert!

Now, in two very clear cases, morning is showing the day. While some prominent politicians are scrambling for rehabilitation cum accommodation by defecting or redefecting to the PDP, local leaders and elected officials are trooping to the opposition parties (AC in Edo; Labour in Ondo), because of their visibly performing governors! Of course, the same feat is happening in Anambra. What does this portend for 2011? Simple: Power is with the PEOPLE! Perform, and you have them! The "Adams they can't damn" Oshiomhole, and Olusegun "the Iroko they can't fell" Mimiko, are performing wonders; and the PEOPLE love that!!

As for Lagos, please, wait. Just wait.

Constitution Review: Save AYE's, Re-present NAY's

The whole nation was involved but voted through their official reps. The returns are not necessarily what the people said or want. This was why many analysts had canvassed for a sovereign national conference, at best, or a referendum, at worst. It is for example not likely that Nigerians will approve immoral carpet-crossing or deny their state parliaments the autonomy that is inherent in a democracy. Nigerians want independent candidacy; where did those state assemblies which voted against it get their mandate from? So, dear compatriots, this be unfinished business.

As we see from other climes, the unpassed amendments are not necessarily dead. Since it is a state by state process, let's save all the AYEs and counting. We proceed to challenge or lobby the nay-sayers and win them over. This is what has been done in the EU's constitutional processes. In our case, we are on solid grounds: once a majority of 60% passes any amendment, it qualifies for the "bank", while we work hard to bring others on board. Any amendment earning below 60% dies. There is no time limit - only vote-accretion. However, after THREE attempts a nay-saying state stays NAY for that cycle.

Our grounds for this position are solid: All constitutional review reports have some common denominators. The standard-bearer is the Uwais Committee Report. If the legislators for selfish or partisan reasons vote down an amendment, they must not be allowed to get away with it. The voters must have the last say. We should get them to change their NAY or we recall them instantly or vote them out of office eventually. This is a task for pro-democracy groups and civil society leaders in all states of the federation.

Roads and Refunds

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has brought some sanity to the vexed issue of Roads & Refunds, whereby states may work on federal projects and be reimbursed according to agreed templates. Before now, even by the president's admission, the matter was politicized. Some states got refunds, some rebuffs.

Though we shall not be detained here by the unwholesome politics of our queer federalism, it is salutary to see a president come to its rescue in this regard. If the question of roads is a national malady, devolution to states and the private sector is the most promising interim remedy, while the final solution is the practice of TRUE federalism.

If Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State had left it up to the federal bureaucrats, would we have the 10-lane wonder of the Lagos-Badagry Multi-modal Expressway being built right now? In fact, the vote-worry PDP tried every trick in their bag to frustrate, if not terminate, the world class project! My family lived on that road when Mobolaji Johnson was building it in the early 1970's. Though it has since become a crucial part of the Trans-African Highway, it has suffered the most despicable neglect from the federals - in league with its ilk across the land: Lagos-Ibadan, Lagos-Benin, Onitsha Bridge
and Lokoja-Abuja, to name a few. But for Yar'Adua's personable presidential propriety, the storm troopers were threatening hellfire, invoking federal powers and flaunting central controls - a throwback to the same debilitating desperation which killed the futuristic "metro train" project of the Jakande Administration.

Looking back now, we must wonder how the dramatis personae in both sagas feel today. See the avoidable costs and chaos they caused Lagos and Nigeria! In the recent past, the cabal saw Lagos and Kano States as prized targets for PDP's political "conquest & capture" come 2011. They forgot history: Lagos, Kano and The Old Bendel (now Edo/Delta) live and prosper as progressives. So is most of the Northeast, and all of the Southwest. Clearly, to eye any state for fair electoral victory is a
legitimate political aspiration. But to sabotage Nigeria's main commercial and population centres thus undermining national security, is political hara-kiri. It was why Governors Tinubu and Shekarau made mincemeat of OBJ and PDP despite his imperial presidency!

But be not carried away. If you thought the roads & bridges matter is mainly an inter-party saga, you are dead wrong! Few examples will do: Abuja-Lokoja, Abuja-Kaduna, and Abuja-Keffi-Lafia-Makurdi to the East, Abuja-Jos, and all PDP-controlled! The rot is simply "inter-tier" of governance (federal vs states), period. We must rework our pathetic practice of federalism by reducing BOTH the load and resources at the centre. Let's evolve a credible scheme that breeds patriotism, nationalism, real accountability and unblemished integrity. The federal "centre" is overloaded, over-resourced and over-rated! Politically, it is too attractive for all the wrong reasons, and it is failing us all - expectedly.

Set up a powerful, efficient and effective "Roads & Bridges" Commission, just like NCC, NBC, NAFDAC, and let states, communities and the private sector build for their people and the nation. Do same with education, health, agriculture, water and housing. If we need a mega or special project as national intervention, it should be handled by the National Economic Council cum National Council of State cum National Assembly with the usual concurrence of State Assemblies, and funded
from the Federation Account.

FERMA, the present roads' maintenance agency, should be split and inaugurated into SIX Zonal Construction Companies. We should get them six world class technical partners from different countries with up to 30% equity. We should equip them and staff them with redeployments from the works and housing MDAs so they can compete for business in their zones (in the first 5 years), nationwide (5-10 years) and Africa-wide (after 10 years). They will be owned by a Zonal Trust as joint ventures
FG/States/Workers/Tech Partners, and will be full service construction firms. In the fullness of time, just like the NNPC and NRC, they will be privatized.

This architecture will enable us leave urban works to first-rate contractors while deploying/dedicating the various State Direct Labour Agencies (DLAs) to rural infrastructure/housing.

Thank goodness, President Jonathan has shown the way. Now, he must show the will: The next stage of the constitution amendment must redress this aberration. Who is afraid of true federalism?

Where Are The Women?

As the political tempo picks up, we are seeing less women shaking our elections forest! Never mind Patience Jonathan's change movement, and the tough-talking gender campaigners! Real work is yet to set.

Let's not discount what Nigerian Women can do, but let each aspirant beware: you must personally measure up, and rise up to the challenge. Nothing replaces quality and hardwork. We must worry about the declining political fortunes of our women these days - just when real variety is such an urgent imperative for national development.

Is this fair? No. Can we make amends? Absolutely, yes. How? Credible candidates!

May the recruitment and headhunt begin. But first, honest self-assessment. Then, the Beijing '95 spirit must come alive, again.

These Politicians!

2011. We are in for the naija drama. It won't be my country if we were not! Make no mistake about it: the green, the grab and the grey will strot and scream. Then, they will fizzle out - most of them. But before then, there will be one heck and hell of a time. Cage your kids.

Who comes please come. In your own interest, health and all, caveat emptor! Take not the crowd to heart - we may discount them without pain. In your further interest, mind your purse or damn your pulse - most of these acting-gladiators are playing the pseudo game. If you tarry, and pray tarry, you will laugh last, laugh loud!

It is why you must not take sides - for now.

Let the party primaries be your filter. Then INEC's final lists (for more will still drop-out) shall point you home. Anything else na show - just naija drama, fa!

I'm All Apologies!

Anyone who knows Nigeria and Nigerians knows that we are very passionate about our dear nation, and go the extra mile to mull over her. We will not be put down or held down. Ask the colonialists, ask the military, ask the Third Termists! Read up on the Nigeria vs Niger Delta conundrum. Ask the so-called "cabal" that held our late President Yar'Adua and his regime by the jugular! Just to add a more current scent, ask our soccer (mis)representatives - the Super Eagles (?) – to the just-concluded FIFA World Cup in South Africa: For earning us such a poor grade, and not rising to the challenge of making Africa proud in the first-ever mundial on African soil, they are being roasted! This, despite our criminal and incriminating absence of focus, bad and improper coordination, the palpable fraud in sports administration - not unlike everywhere else - late and inadequate preparation, and an ageing squad!!

Followers of this site may recall my passion and commitment when all was well. So, for me to be off - sort of AWOL - all these months is the most painful and depressing blow my country has dealt me thus far. Recall, dear friends, that we've had hitches and glitches before: Internet Access wahala. And the usual apologies followed. However, this time, it became very clear that there was a plot to "under-DIGITALize" the nation! The official national carrier, NITEL, had been "cornered" along with SAT-3, the submarine cable. As my preferred ISP and Nigeria's Internet backbone, we have been virtually crippled in the last 20+ months! I got very angry and decided to await the Glo-1 and Main One submarine cables being deployed by some great patriots Mike Adenuga (I told you before) and Fola Adeola (founder of GTB Bank) + Ms Opeke (a Telecoms Amazon). I will revisit this subject sometime soon.

If it cost these firms less than US$1.5bn to land their cables in West Africa, we could have wired up the Whole of Africa with US$5bn a few years back. Yet, Nigeria paid over US$15bn to exit her so-called "external debt", to the London and Paris Clubs of Creditors!! Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria & South Africa should have paid US$5bn to put their continent on a 21st Century Internet pedestal, under the proud auspices of the African Union. It would have been easier, cheaper and faster. Thank God for our conscientious compatriots and their likes around Africa, and within the African Diaspora.

Returning to my blogs, and remaining online, was my only condition for re-subscribing to any ISP. I have used most of what was on offer, and, along with other nationals, the story has been sad. So sad. Since you are reading this, it means I'm fairly confident I now have a good deal. Well, I hope!

My apologies to you all. If you had any lashes for my back for going AWOL, spare them: I've groaned under the harshest possible punishment: not being able to "speak" with you, "share" with you, in this privileged and enthralling zone of our Online Commons!!

Jubilee Knocks!

Thank God for both big and small mercies! I am writing with great gratitude myself, as with my dear country Nigeria, for resuming my blogs on the eve of our Fiftieth Independence Anniversary. Details will follow on why and how I've been off. But I apologize sincerely.

As I write, there is optimism in the air and in my own heart. If we cannot speak for the past, we can certainly ply our worthy part in the plans for the future.

Your humble blogger shall do his bit. May God's lan for country and citizen be fulfilled in Jesus' Name. Amen.

God bless NIGERIA!

Budget 2008: Kudos to the National Assembly!

We can at last start a new year with kind words for our federal parliament - the first time in very many years! And this is with regard to the 2008 Budget consideration.

The scrutiny and sagacity of the legislators in processing the executive estimates have been at once torturing and heartwarming. Yes, this drags things on, but why not?

All previous budgets in the last eight years were jamborees, convoluted and badly implemented. Indeed we have been told they were, on average, 30% implemented! Well, the old parliaments were fully culpable. Period. But da new one has found its voice, and its strength. It is working differently, confidently....

Not only has the principled approach been profitable in bringing hidden facts to light, their new and vibrant discipline has dredged up "lost & found" resources, including several illegal accounts secretly operated by the executive branch, before now! Kudos to all our representatives for this "feat"!!!

Let it be known that after passing this budget, Nigerians and our well-wishers will need, and should be given, full account of all these illegal accounts and their operations. Were there some previous ones which are now closed? Forensic audit must kick in, right away.

As many crusaders and commentators have rightly demanded, there must be recoveries and consequences. No chickening out, no cover up!

Kudos also to President Yar' Adua for enthroning the culture of, and strict adherence to, rule of law and due process. This made a world of difference to the vigorous "oversight" component.

From 2008, Budgets will never be the same again!

We are consoled...

Budget 2008: Speaker Tours States

House of Representatives Speaker Dimeji Bankole is on tour of states to solicit and have their views on the 2008 Federal Budget currently under consideration in the National Assembly. Bravo! Never done before.

Late and probably not-yet-well-scripted, it never the less gives us hope. The legislators, if they were truly da people's reps and were actually up to/true to their mandates, should have had the needs and demands of their constituencies firmly in their pockets & portfolios before taking the oat of office, and as they discharge their onerous legislative duties each day.

Both from the first snippets and the subsequent evaluation hearings Budget 2008 has not cut a worthy image for the Yar'Adua administration. It is clearly a ritual civil service bureaucratic mishmash with the very usual PDP top-down political contraption, devoid of reality check and detached from the due process mantra of the president.

Whereas the speaker gets a hearing everywhere he's been, the ministers and bureaucrats are a sorry sight at House and Senate hearings! Keep the search on, Mr Speaker, da states need it!!

When you do not do ya homework, folks, ya budget goes bunkers! This year teaches great and telling lessons. As for da future, we wait.

Budget 2008: Wey De Cooperation?

From all we see and hear, it seems both citizens and their representatives are in the dark about the federal government's 2008 Budget Proposals.

That is why the parliamentarians are lost and furious over the content or lack of it. It is also why their preliminary comments have been largely characterised by dismay, disgust and disbelief.

If the same party controls both presidency and parliament, how come we are saddled with this mystery? Why aren't they on da same page? And why is the administration short on requisite details in what the president laid before the national assembly?

Alas, there is this joke of "passing" the BUDGET by 20th December - i.e. within barely 30 days! We don't know how that provides for "harmonisation" by both chambers of parliament.

Pray, if the legislators can't debate the budget sensibly, how then do the Nigerian people do so? Have a feel? Even the media has been dry! Where now is the chance and need for public data, public scrutiny, public input, and public passion plus ownership?

Most of all, for a servant-leader, where is da consultation???

Niger Delta: Senate on the Move!

We must commend the Nigerian Senate for holding their 2007 Retreat in Port Harcourt, right in the Niger Delta...and its "Theatre of War"! Courage.

We must double the kudos for their "limited creeks' tour" of the region...... to see things for themselves! And, did they see!!

They were so depressed, disappointed, disgusted and charged-up by their firsthand discoveries! Some wept!!

In the end, our senators returned to Abuja, DETERMINED to right da wrongs - the heartless and relentless rape of the people and their land! Bravo.

Now, we must ask the House of Reps to do same: Take a freehanded tour, like the Senate, so you can all be on da same page!

Change is at hand. CHANGE be afoot. Thank God.

Hail da COURTS!

The judgements from the Election Petitions Tribunals as well as the Superior Courts are so calming and comforting, that the masses now believe that justice is attainable and obtainable in the land!

Bravo to Their LORDSHIPS!

Especially the Supreme Court if Nigeria.

After Ettehgate

Now that the House of Representatives has put the Ettehgate saga behind it, and with the generally welcomed election of Speaker Oladimeji Bankole, let the people's work begin!

While the crisis lasted, it brought out the good, the bad and the ugly of the crowd in the House. Nigerians never had it such putrefying. Now, dear reps, purify yourselves!

Start with fast-tracking the Freedom of Information Bill. Send it to the president next week! Nigerians are clamouring, and waiting.

Next, tackle the 2008 Budget just presented by the president (which was sadly delayed by Ettehgate!), as if your physical and political lives depend on it! In doing so, revisit and evaluate the 2007 Budget/Appropriation Act for full reporting/accountability.

Be firm: You be da People's Representatives!

Sit-Tight Speaker, Shameless House!

The Ettehgate scandal has, as they say, claimed its pound of flesh sadly soaked in blood! The sudden collapse and eventual untimely death of Hon Safana, an Etteh supporter, was a rude shock to the nation last week. The nation mourns...

If we ever thought that was enough to jolt the combatants into reality, we were dead wrong and scandalised. These members are less than honourable, and must be politicians from the pit of hell. The House is more fractured and fragmented than ever, and there are now threats and counter-threats about! Nothing seems beyond bounds - not words, not antics.

As for the ruling party, it has lost both morality and control - having unwisely but so typically taken sides in the sordid saga! The presidency had wisely initially steered clear - on grounds of constitutional separation of powers - but failed to prudently invoke da party machinery to avert this compound disaster, convoluted disgrace and collective shame-oozing odium.

This speaker, Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, has misread, mistaken and mismanaged everything in her bid to outdo and undo her adversaries. Her advisers and supporters have failed her. And the House of Representatives will not be respected by Nigerians for a long time to come!

Well, the least they can do now is for her to step down or be impeached. As her party belatedly said, after Dr Safana had sadly died, she cannot be a judge in her own case. Period.

Meanwhile, no matter what they do or how they go, the anti-corruption and other statutory agencies of government should proceed to open independent investigations into the whole saga.

Let our institutions of governance work.