Nigeria We Hail Thee?

Not many citizens will hail the current state of affairs; not with the rising tension everywhere, not with the unabating growth in unemployment, not with the impending strike over fuel subsidy and the subsisting one by ASUU - our university teachers.

If you blame the aggrieved, I hear you. If you blame the miscreants/hoodlums (as the media joins leaders to call them), I hear you. If you blame *US* the citizens, I hear you. Blame not the politicians or their hirelings or their hangers-on or their naked and inordinate greed cum ambitions or their spiritual consultants who see no evil, speak no evil. Chide not our leaders or their ethics or their ineptitude or their tactical rather than strategic cast or their herd mentality or their budget-failure artistry or their mindless looting of our patrimony. They were not responsible, are not responsible, will not be responsible beyond the pot.

So, they get us on the queue to vote and claim the glory. We hail them, they nail us. We hail them, they jail our youths in the visible prison of poverty but tell us we are FREE! Judging by the spending spree of government at many levels, they clearly enjoy the glee.

As duty calls, dear compatriots, who hails NIGERIA?

Budgets: Is It Blockade or Bungle?

When we ritualized the annual budgets in Nigeria, disconnecting it from the development plan we set the nation up for disaster. And it started with the better-forgotten structural adjustment programme (SAP) - the horrid pill of the IMF/World Bank of yore. What the military regimes and their civilian collaborators didn't chop the SAP Monster sapped! And we reeked and reeled. The rest, as they say, is history - bitter history.

Thanks to President Olusegun Obasanjo's courage and Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's commitment, we got out of our foreign debt crisis and regained our national pride. It was historic, even euphoric. But, alas, it was short-lived! (PDP, I'm looking at you).

Right from 1999, our political leaders and their collaborators - ably aided by bureaucrats and technocrats - have failed to faithfully and fully implement our annual budgets. Okay let's qualify that: they have selectively and unpatriotically implemented the budgets - routinely consuming all recurrent/overhead votes, ruinously sidelining all capital votes! We've done so year in year out, averaging 30 to 40% budget implementation. (Infrastructure, Education, Unemployment, Poverty, Security, Maternal & Infant Mortality, I'm checking your pulse)

Question: Do we also have a Budget Cabal -at all levels of government - in Nigeria?

Poser: Who is blocking Budget Implementation?

Query: Why are Nigerians not challenging, why are we condoning, this mindless Budget- Bungle?

Puzzle: Is anyone doing the Development Mathematics of these Wasted Trillions?

May 2012 be a bright beginning. Amen.

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.

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.

Where is the Freedom of Information Law?

The Nigerian political class should stop putting national interest last! Pray, who is afraid of transparency? Or the right of citizens to know??

President Yar'Adua and the National Assembly should give us the Freedom of Information Act right away. The wait is over! The disdain is enough!!

Unless there is a wanton conspiracy to strangulate the war on corruption, hamper accountability and disable our democracy, that law should be signed soonest. No more delay, please.

Let the Nigerian Media start a count-down campaign TODAY!

Duty calls.