A Letter To the Nigerian Public sector

0
by Taulpaul Oselen on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 9:26pm

In the new Nigeria, there is a call to all public officers to live up to their name, ‘Public Servants.’ The public servant is the one who has committed the best of his abilities in service to Nigeria in accordance with the vision and values of the new Nigeria. It will no more be said that government business is nobody’s business.

The dilemma of the Servants and the Masters

In Nigeria, there seems to be a misunderstanding of the word ‘servant’. Servants (elected and appointed officers) are meant to render service to their masters (the electorate) who put them into

office but somehow this has not been the case in Nigeria.

In the old Nigeria, it was virtually impossible for the master to find his servant to make a request of him. Servants actually were not only inaccessible to their masters but were also confident enough to always know what was good for the master. Servants told their masters what they should ask for and when they should ask for it. They also demanded of their masters, gratitude for solving the needs that they assessed as priority. In the new Nigeria, this system cannot work. The master is supposed to see his servant when he desires to be able to communicate to him his needs. We recommend that public servants be mandated by law to have a known schedule and timing when they must be available to their constituency.

Also, under the old system there was another misnomer; the sacrifice for mastery and the rewards of service. It was like the strange picture the wise king Solomon painted; servants on horses and princes walking. In the old Nigeria, elected and appointed servants paid no price for service but were actually pampered and outrageously compensated for accepting to ‘serve’. While the masters had to toil and labour night and day to pay taxes so that their servants may serve comfortably. In the new Nigeria, we cannot afford to keep distracting our public servants with so much wealth and entitlements, for they need to channel more of their time to their primary function of service.

The new Nigeria is built on leadership by example and hinged on moral values. Therefore, it is safe to

say that public servants who sacrifice all to serve their masters should be first partakers of their services whether in the health, education, power sectors of the economy. It would be so unfair of we the masters to deprive them and their families the chance of being first beneficiaries of the facilities (good enough for the masters) they worked tirelessly to provide. In the old Nigeria, it was another odd sight to see our public servants patronize international services in areas such as health and education, leaving the masters to enjoy the fruits of all their labour. This we say is not the best if we as a nation must fulfill the vision of the new Nigeria.

This is a reminder to all public officers that you swore to an oath to uphold the constitution of the country which states in sections 14, 15, 16 and 20;

14. (1) The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice.

(2) It is hereby, accordingly, declared that:

(a) sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority;

(b) the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government

(2) The State shall direct its policy towards ensuring:

(a) the promotion of a planned and balanced economic development;

(b) that the material resources of the nation are harnessed and distributed as best as possible to serve the common good;

(c) that the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group; and

(d) that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions, unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens

15. (1) The motto of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress.

(2) Accordingly, national integration shall be actively encouraged, whilst discrimination on the grounds of place of origin, sex, religion, status, ethnic or linguistic association or ties shall be prohibited.

(3) For the purpose of promoting national integration, it shall be the duty of the State to:

(a) provide adequate facilities for and encourage free mobility of people, goods and services throughtout the Federation.

(b) secure full residence rights for every citizen in all parts of the Federation.

(c) encourage inter-marriage among persons from different places of

origin, or of different religious, ethnic or linguistic association or ties; and

(d) promote or encourage the formation of associations that cut across ethnic, linguistic, religious and or other sectional barriers.

(4) The State shall foster a feeling of belonging and of involvement among the various people of the Federation, to the end that loyalty to the nation shall override sectional loyalties.

(5) The State shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power

16. (1) The State shall, within the context of the ideals and objectives for which provisions are made in this Constitution.

(a) harness the resources of the nation and promote national prosperity and an efficient, a dynamic and self-reliant economy;

(b) control the national economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity;

(c) without prejudice to its right to operate or participate in areas of the economy, other than the major sectors of the economy, manage and operate the major sectors of the economy;

(d) without prejudice to the right of any person to participate in areas of the economy within the major sector of the economy, protect the right of every citizen to engage in any economic activities outside the major sectors of the economy

20. The State shall protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air and land, forest and wild life of Nigeria.

…these are but a few of the words you promised to uphold. We simply request of you nothing new but that which you swore to do. The above responsibilities give no allusion to government being saddled with the responsibilities of business operations. Therefore, government should formulate requisite policies and institutional frameworks that create the enabling environment for the private sector to start-up and operate businesses, if we are to have a successful economy.

                                                        To all other public servants

No government can function effectively without the help of different levels of committed personnel. To this end, many Nigerians acknowledge and appreciate your contributions to national growth in the old Nigeria having operated under some of the most unbearable working and living conditions in the world. In the new Nigeria, we must work together to change these inhumane conditions to enhance better service to our nation.   

We request of you to exemplify the core values of the new Nigeria in whatever you are asked to do. Make up your mind to live with the utmost sense of integrity in carrying out your duties and responsibilities. Be committed to go beyond the call of duty. Be the change that you seek in the world. Decide to be the difference maker in your sector. Become the definition of patriotism and selfless service.

A good character is important for the actualization of the vision of the new Nigeria but this cannot replace the need for the highest levels of competency; continually seek to improve your knowledge of what you do. Remember, knowledge is power. Seek up-to-date information about whatever you do so you can fully harness your God-given abilities.

It is high time we got rid of the plague called the ‘Nigerian Factor’. This has been the unwritten constitution that has governed our practices and attitudes for so many years. It is the system where moral aberrations and unacceptable practices are established as the norm. We can work together to lay the right foundations based on true moral values.

Remember, no one can ever pay you enough for your service. Therefore be motivated for service by your love for God, Nigeria and yourself. Also, bear this in mind that people rarely forget those who treat them with care and respect.

Thank you and God bless Nigeria.

Culled from my book, “Creating a New Nigeria

Private Refinery: Orient Petroleum To Start Oil Production 2012 – Anyaoku

15

 

…targets 2000 high net worth jobs, as shareholders applaud strides 

The chairman of the Orient Petroleum Resources Ltd, Chief Emeka Anyaoku has confirmed that the company would start crude oil exploration, production and sales next year, all things being equal.

The cheering news was made public at the just concluded 2011 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Company which has interest in petroleum products refining, exploration, production, sales and exports.

In his keynote address, the chairman briefly reviewed some of the fundamental developments that have taken place in the nation that directly or indirectly affects the company’s performance up to the end of August, 2011.

Looking at the performance of the company generally, Chief Anyaoku said it has an integrated business model that spans the upstream and downstream of the petroleum industry.  After the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) granted them the Licence to Establish and the Approval to Construct its 55,000 bpsd refinery in 2002 and 2004, respectively, the company had gone ahead to obtain from the FGN in 2005 the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Certificate for its refinery, the first refinery in Nigeria to obtain such an EIA Certificate. 

He disclosed also that to provide additional insurance and security for crude feedstock supply, the FGN had granted to Orient on sole risk basis, two oil blocks, OPL 915 & 916, which are very close to the location of their refinery.  They have since receiving the 2 oil blocks, been conducting the necessary Exploration and Production work to ensure timely provision of crude feedstock to the refinery.  

The company decided early in 2011 to fast-track a staged development of its two oil blocks, OPL 915 and OPL 916 by initial completion and production testing of one of the already drilled oil wells and 3D seismic data acquisition.  This staged oil field development is expected to generate cash flow to support the financing and early completion of the refinery, which is a capital intensive project.

He said that in the foregoing therefore, it is envisaged that completion of the refinery installation would be by end 2012, including overseas procurement and shipment of long lead items and on-site fabrication of storage tanks

The Managing Director, Engr Emeka Nwawka in a chat with journalists used the occasion to dissociate Orient from among the private refineries reported to have lost their operational licences. He asserted that theirs remain valid and intact.

Nwawka told the Guardian at the company’s office in Awka yesterday that they have gone far beyond that level in their operations, as they are already set to commence actual exploration, production and crude oil export within the next one year. That when that phase of their operations takes off fully it would provide no fewer than two thousand high net worth direct jobs and ancillary services.     

He commended the supportive efforts and encouragement of the Federal Ministries of Finance and Petroleum, both of which he acknowledged have kept them going. He said the sector generally is desirous to have the FG’s proposed incentives gazetted and implemented as a way to stimulate their activities and programmes.

He said they would start with oil production and thereafter gas production would follow. And that since they would not borrow all the needed funds, the initial sales of the products would assist them fund some of the machineries acquisitions

According to Chief Anyaoku, the government’s economic structural reform continues with efforts to improve the stability of the banking system, curb inflation and improve the reliability of basic infrastructure; improved expenditure on which he believes partly for the declining stock of nation’s external reserves.   The price of Nigeria’s Bonny light grade averaged US$62.20, US$ 80.90 per barrel, for 2009, 2010, respectively. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 7.72% in the second quarter of 2011, up from 7.4% recorded in 2010.

The nation’s crude oil production, he stated stood at around 1.9 million and 2.47 million barrels per day(bpd) by year-end 2009 and 2010 respectively is expected to increase slightly with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, which is before the National Assembly.  He saw the planned removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government as one of the expected ways to help correct a lot of distortions in the economy, including the pressure on the currency exchange rate.

The former Commonwealth Secretary General commended the strength of the new Economic Management Team set up by the President Goodluck Jonathan, describing it as a clear demonstration of the priority being placed on the improvement of the country’s economy. He told the shareholders that the ongoing political stability in the country has been an important boost in the continuing investor confidence enjoyed by the country.

He however bemoaned the security question in the nation and admitted it still calls for much concern and hoped that the increasing focus by the Government to addressing these challenges will soon begin to yield positive results.

 That they have since completed the detailed engineering, sourced the modules of its refinery and completed key project components, including:

*the acquisition, perimeter and topographical surveys of 240 hectares of land at the refinery site in Anambra State and 21 hectares at Lokoja, Kogi State for standalone petroleum products depot to serve central and northern parts of Nigeria;

*the geotechnical, geological and hydro-geological surveys at the refinery site;

    *the site civil engineering works – clearing, leveling earthworks prior to construction of internal roads and reinforced concrete plinths for installation of refinery equipment.

It is envisaged that the completion of the refinery installation would be by the end of 2012 including overseas procurement and shipment of long lead items and on-the-site fabrication of storage tanks.

  

Taking a look at the future with optimism, the board chairman said they remain committed to maximising shareholders value and will continually adapt their business model in the challenging economic climate, to ensure that positive progress would be made in the coming months to always position the company in the path of profitability.

The company he pointed out is expected to complete construction of the refinery and commence sales at the end of 2012 and thereafter, the Board of Directors will review overall results prior to recommending a dividend.

In Nigeria: Impossibility Is Nothing

0

I  have  every  right  to  prove  every  doubting  Thomas  that  things  do  work  in Nigeria  than  any  another  geographical  destination  in  the  world.  You  still  doubt?  Everything  is  possible,  once  you  are  a  Nigerian  or  resides  here,  just  chase   you   dream  with  no  or  no  effort.  It  must  come  true   now  or  in  fifteen  years  time.  Just  take  a  look  at  some  examples  and  you  agree  with  me  that  this   nation  is  getting  some  where.  Forget  what  the  international  community   is  talk  about  us  or  the  reports  we  get  everyday  from  the  American  CNN.  This  country  possess  enormous  potentials.  The  world  jealous  us  because  they  still  dream  to  do  what   we  do.

If  you  are  a  Nigerian  politician  with  any  political  post,  you  are  sure  to  be  rich  by  hundred  folds  once  you  don’t  be  in  opposition.  It  does  matter  how  you  serve  the  people,  but  the  millions  you  were  able  to  siphon  into  accounts  abroad.  If  EFCC  probe  you  tomorrow,  just  tell  them  how  you  meticulously  served  the  people.  All  your  trips  abroad  are  for  medical  check  up,  you  don’t  check  up  in  any  Nigerian  hospital  or  a  big  coffin  awaits  you.  Our  hospitals  are  certified  mortuaries.  Who  will  equip  or  upgrade  them?  While  you  go  abroad,  let  the  common  Nigeria  go  into  the  bushes  around  and  gather  roots  and  herbs.  After all  that’s  what  our  great  grand  fathers  use  any  time  a  health  malfunction  occurs.  Why  tell  me  that  nothing  is  possible  in  Nigeria?  Our  governors  can’t  pay  the  18, 000  naira  minimum  wage  because  the  state’s  treasury  will  run  dry.  Their  security  votes  run  in  billions  of  naira,  no,  that  will  never  empty  the  treasury.  The  civil  servants  will  always  cry  out  their  eyes  before  salaries  they  labored  for  could  be  paid.  One  day,  let  our  governors  be  owned  one  month  salary  and  you  will  surely  see  that  those  people  we  do  call  your “Excellency”  are  never  better  than  motor  park  agboros.  They  will  surely  go  wild.

It  is  only  in  this  country  that  our  leaders  travel  by  air.  They  don’t  pass  through  the  death  traps  called  roads.  Our  leaders  only  build  “air  ways”,  let  we  that  pass  through  those  road  do  whatsoever  that  please  us.  Even  if  they  do,  they  pass  with  jeeps  with  dinted  glasses.  So  they  don’t  see  how  the  roads  looked  like.  It  is  only  in  this  country  that  our  leaders  take  their  children  and  wards  to  schools  abroad  and  our  schools  are  left  with  depilated  structures.  No  functional  library   or  anything  that  could  aid  the  students  to  learn.  Their  children  want  better  education  while  our  children  deserve  nothing  but  a  certificate  to  be  an  okada  man  or  taxi  driver  after  so  many  years  of  academic  struggles.  If  you  are  having  a  birthday,  just  call  few  friends  with  snacks  and  drinks,  they  will  wish  you  happy  birthday  in  your  small  ghetto.  Our  leaders  don’t  celebrate  birthdays  unless  it  is  done  in   big  hotels  of  Australia,  New York  and  the  rest.  It  is  only  in  Nigeria  that  you  will  see  that  we  have  an  epileptic  power  supply,  but  still  give  electricity  to  another  country.  What  a  benevolence!  If  you  sue  or  report  your  neighbor  for  disturbing  your  peace  with  his  generator  to  the  police,  of course  that’s  one  hell  of  a  mistake.  The  police  would  rather  tell  you  to   buy  your  own  generator  and  face  it  near  your  neighbor’s  window.

We  have  refineries  in  this  country,  but  still  import  petroleum  products.  May  be  our  leaders  are  reserving  our  crude  oil  for  the  future.  Our  leaders  are  wise.  Second  handed  goods  are  contraband,  what  are  tokunbo  planes  doing  up  in  our  air  space?  The  wikileaks  have  continued  to  leak  how  oil  was  stolen  by  our  supposed  leaders  and  nothing  is  been  done  to  the  defaulters.  They  walk  the  streets  free  men  and  collect  ch(th)ieftaincy  titles.  You  still  doubt   that  in  Nigeria  impossibility  is  nothing.  It  is  only  in  this  country  that  the  elections  are  free  and  fair  unless  one  party  won  by  landslide  victory.  It  is  only  in  this  country  that  a  governor  will  decide  to  sack  workers,  with  claim  that  they  are  non-indigenes.  It  is  only  in  this  country  that  bombs  are  thrown  like  banger.  We  are  yet  to  see  or  hear  that  the  bomb  culprits  were  caught.

In  this  country,  every  business  thrives.  Talk  of  kidnapping,  Armed  robbery,  yahoo  yahoo,  trafficking  of  persons,  hawking  of  human  parts,  hard  drugs  trafficking  even  prostitution.  That  must  have  been  the  reason  why  the  deputy  senate  president  have  called  for  its  legalization.  Am  sure  tomorrow,  kidnapping  would  be  legalized  because  the  business  seemed  to  be  moving  on  higher  pace.  Even  native  doctors  and  witches  have  upgraded  their  status  now.  They  now  wear  suits  and  perfumes.  Their  offices  are  air-conditioned  with  laptops  connected  to  the  internet.  Our  pastors  prophesy  nothing  unless  dooms.  They  don’t  see  any  good  thing  in  their  vision.  That’s  why  one  of  them  couldn’t  see  that  Nigeria  will  never  qualify  for  the  African  cup  nations  2012.  Even  our  footballers  require  prophesy  to   know  how  they  fair  in  any  football  match  apologies  to  the  “Osaze’s  doctrine”.  It  is  only  in  this  country  that  human  rights  are  thrown  in  the  gutters.  Once  you  are  rich  and  got  connection  to  the  corridors  of  power,  you  do  anything  you  like.  None  will  question  you.  You  have  bought  everybody  like  groundnuts.  Who  dares  you  when  you  move  through  the  high  way  with  a  vehicle  with  no  number  plates  and  driving  without  seat  belt  in  a  more  accelerated  speed.  Let  the  road  safety  officials  break  their  heads  because  you  will  surely  knock  them  into  the  bush.  Beat  an  ordinary  man  to  stupor,  you  are  innocent.

Our  police  block  the  high  ways  and  extort  from  motorists  twenty  naira  on  daily  basis.  They  see  okada  men  as  animals.  It  is  only  in  this  country  that  armed  robbers  would  attack  you,  call  the  police  and  you  be  shocked  when  they  ask  what  sort  of  guns  the  hoodlums  were  having.  Who  wants  to  die?  If  you  can  challenge  the  devils,  the  police  is  willing  to  arm  you  with  any  available  rifle.  If  you  are  still  doubting  that  nothing  is  working  in  Nigeria,  you  better  have  a  rethink  and  know  that  this  nation  is  getting  somewhere.

2015: Aso Villa A Mystery For Ndigbo – Orji Uzor Kalu

4
Four distant years to the next Presidential elections,former Abia state governor Orji Uzor Kalu Tuesday flashed a Yellow card to individuals preparing for the the plum job, warning that Aso Villa remained a mystery to men of ambition.
 
Kalu disclosed that in democratic Nigeria,no President ever planned to rule until providence changed the course of history.
 
He said,”The best way to lose the position is to plan for it.General Olusegun Obasanjo was picked from maximum detention to monumental attention in 1999.Alhaji Umaru Yar’adua thought of retirement before a higher rating came in 2007.Dr. Goodluck Jonathan hardly settled down as Vice President when death rejigged his position in 2010.All these men virtually got the job on a platter of gold.”
 
In explaining the uncanny mood of Aso Villa,the former governor added that the country’s first Executive President Alhaji Shehu Shagari was ousted while on holidays in Abuja barely three months into his second term.
 
“Shagari’s second term ambition died with the December 31,1983 coup.It also took the life of Brigadier Ibrahim Bako and detention of Guards Brigade Commander Col.Mohammed Bello Kaliel.Since that period,ambitious civilians have never been so lucky to win elections to the Villa”, Kalu explained.
 
The ex-governor also played with the word “Aso” as he advised those angling for the position to learn from history.
 
“Aso is the Gwari word for victory.So whoever goes to The Villa is a winner.It also means abomination in some parts of Igboland where it serves as name.In Yoruba it could stand for dress.For those who want to earn victory in 2015,it is abominable to begin a dress rehearsal now.Patience is the name of the game.And after Goodluck,let us all like Ndigbo, wait for the hand of God,”Kalu summed up.

APGA Crisis: Fight Breaks Out In UK, Chekwas Okorie Attacked

5

Information available to 247ureports.com from sources in United Kingdom indicate that the All Progressive Grand Alliance [APGA] crisis has reached the shores of the United Kingdom. This is as a physical brawl broke-out at the Bannister House Community Hall located along Hommerton High Street opposite Hommerton Hospital in Hackney where the founding Chairman of the APGA, Chekwas Okorie was scheduled to meet with a select group of Nigerians on Wednesday November 2, 2011 at 7pm.

According to the information gathered, Chekwas Okorie had arrived at the Bannister House Community Hall at approximately minutes past 8pm for the scheduled meeting. Okorie is said to have come to the event to address the private audience of the ongoing crisis in APGA and the solutions.

However, followers of Victor Umeh faction of APGA had other plans. In their take, Chekwas Okorie’s continued struggle to for the seat of Chairman signifies betrayal particularly since they understand that Chekwas Okorie had offered the APGA gubernatorial ticket to Dr. Chris Ngige – during the period Mr. Peter Obi was deep in battle for his mandate at the tribunal. 

To this end, members of the Victor Umeh group of APGA in the United Kingdom, prior to Chekwas Okorie’s arrival, had set up camp nearby the location in preps “to harrass and disorganize” Chekwas Okorie and his continued claim as Chairman of APGA. This effort was championed by the executive members of the newly formed UK Chapter of APGA that was launched by Chief Victor Umeh in late September 2011.

As Chief Okorie arrived, the Victor Umeh group throoped behind him into the Hall and were immediately seated. As Okorie rose to address the seated audience, like clockwork, the Victor Umeh group took to action.

They began with hauling of accusatory questions [at him] – of offering to sell the party to Dr. Chris Ngige – of which Chekwas Okorie was quoted as saying in response that he will give Ngige the APGA ticket when the Supreme Courts returns his mandate later in November 2011.  

The group sustained their effort to deny Okorie the opportunity to address the audience. The event, as a result as turned into a ruckus as the two groups began exchange of words, that quickly resulted to a brawl of fists and flying chairs. Chekwas Okorie was attacked but did not sustain injuries.

The event was organized for Chekwas Okorie by Nnamdi Kanu. The organizer of the Victor Umeh group was Onyeka Mbaso. 

Stay tuned

Siasia is still Eagles Coach-Emmanuel Omijeh‏

0

FIFA President, Sepp Blatter

*Conflict may be taken to FIFA
A fresh hue of crisis may be brewing in the Super Eagles as Nigerian FIFA licensed agent, Emmanuel Babatunde Omijeh, has declared that he does not accept the news making the rounds in the media that coach Samson Siasia has been sacked as true, as the coach has not received as at today any letter to indicate the NFF has sacked him.
Omijeh who was speaking to accordsports in Abuja yesterday argued that “even if the NFF is planning to dispense with the services of the coach, the contract made adequate provisions on how that can be done, and not through the media. For now, Siasia was only sacked in the media, there is no letter to that effect from the NFF.”
He said that, my client (Siasia) and his team have only heard and read so much noise in the media claiming that the coach was sacked for not meeting up with the target given to him to qualify the nation for the Nations Cup and get to the semi-final of the competition, but he stated that the FA has forgotten so soon that there are several aspects of the contract that they contravened.”
For example, Omijeh noted that the contract explicitly stated that in the event of termination of the contract, each party must be given a notice of thirty days which he argued was not the case here.
“As far as we are concerned, Samson Siasia is still technically the coach of the Super Eagles as he has not been notified of his sack through any letter and because he has not been notified officially by the NFF we want to believe that it is just the handiwork of the press.”
“We also appeal to the NFF to please correct the news making the rounds in the press of his sack as it does not speak well of the agreement Siasia had with them. If they want to sack him they know the processes to follow to accomplish that and not through the pages of the newspapers, television screens and radio.”
Emmanuel Omijeh maintained that should the NFF not correct the news that is going on in the media, they would not hesitate to take further action with regard to taking the case to FIFA with a view to critically assessing the terms of the contract.


Olajide Ayodeji Fashikun
Weekend Editor,
National Accord newspaper,
Suite 005, TransPharm Plaza,
Opposite Jabi motor park, After ThisDay newspaper,
Jabi-Abuja, Nigeria
Tel: +234-805-3622-797

Nnaji Issues ‘Final Warning’ to Management of PHCN

3

(Abuja, Wednesday 2 November 2011). Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, yesterday issued “a second and final warning” to the management of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and its 18 successor companies to pay their workers the enhanced salary package negotiated by labour or risk the anger of the Ministry.

The Minister said he was displeased by reports that chief executives of some of the PHCN successor companies have yet to begin full implementation of the 50% increase in staff salary which the Federal Government approved for the PHCN staff with effect from June 2011.

The Minister had in a letter to the PHCN executives dated 27 October 2011, reiterated that the Federal Government not only accepted to pay for the first three months to enable the successor companies to adjust to the new salary structure but has also made available the funds for immediate payment.

There are indications that government and the trade union of junior workers in the power sector may be heading for a showdown over the implementation of the new pay, due to what insiders describe as “politicization of the power sector reforms.”

The Ministry had stated that in line with the decisions reached with labour, only workers who are captured in the ongoing biometric data exercise of PHCN staff members will be paid, to ensure accountability and transparency. In a letter written on October 28, 2011, the Chief executive of PHCN, Engineer Hussein Labo, had informed all the CEOs that the conduct of the biometric exercise “is a precondition for the payment of the arrears of the 50% salary increase for June, July and August”.

The leadership of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), on the other hand, wants the payment to be made without verification.

“In fact,” a source said, “the union’s leadership has decided to call for a strike if all 50,000 PHCN workers are not fully paid before the forthcoming Muslim holidays, verification or no verification”.

It was also revealed that the NUEE General Secretary, Mr. Joseph Ajaero, says only the casual PHCN workers should be verified, rather than both regular and casual staffers.

A top official in the Ministry of Power accused the NUEE leadership of “acting in bad faith”, disclosing that the ministry “is fast losing patience with the antics of the trade union.”

He continued: “We know that Ajaero wants to jeopardise the ongoing power sector reform which will culminate in the privatisation of the six generation and 11 distribution companies in the middle of next year.”

Top ministry officials recounted steps taken by the Godluck Jonathan administration to improve the welfare of PHCN workers, including payment of N57b for monetised benefits which was delayed for seven years, granting of a percentage of shares in the PHCN companies slated for privatisation, the 50% salary increase and the decision to convert thousands of casual employees to the regular staff.” Despite this, the NUEE leadership is said to have remained “unduly combative and confrontational”.

Both the Bureau of Public Enterprises and the Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP) have accused the union members of refusing their officials and representatives from gaining access to PHCN facilities across the country for evaluation.

“They have also vowed not to allow prospective private sector investors enter the PHCN premises”, said a Ministry of Power director, citing an August 2, 2010, circular by the NUEE scribe directing members to “chase away” BPE and PTFP officials as well as those interested in buying into the PHCN assets whom he called “intruders”.

Explaining the rationale for the biometric data collection, the Special Adviser to the Minister of Power, C. Don Adinuba, said the “exercise is designed to capture legitimate employees of PHCN and its unbundled companies into a central database for purposes of planning and human resource management. Similar exercises have been done or are being executed in other ministries and agencies of government ostensibly to weed out ghost workers.

A recent study shows that up to 30 percent of the workers currently employed and paid in the federal civil service can be classified as ghost workers.

Ubaghaji and Oronomics

1

Indispensible Agriculture and Unsustainable Raw-material Exporting and Luxury Importing Economy
(Paper presented at the 2011 Iriji-Ikeduru; Amaimo, 22 October)

CHIDI G. OSUAGWU, PhD
Department of Biomedical Technology
Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State.

INTRODUCTION
I’m glad to be here, in Amaimo, today. I’m glad to be in Ikeduru today. To be invited to Amaimo and to Ikeduru, to enjoy the New Yam festival and exchange pleasantries and ideas with my Isuama kinsmen from these parts gladdens my heart. But what really gets my spirit adancing is that this is coming exactly a hundred years; the centennial, of a historic event in which Amaimo is mentioned by name to have played a significant role, and in honour. By 1911 the final battles of the British invasion and colonial takeover of Nigeria was fought in the Isuama territories of the Igbo Heartland. In that war, the records show: “Obowu and its environs … for many months … had become the main battle-field in the resistance movement against the British … Captain Taylor struck into the heart of the area, by a night attack… , the main target of the attack was Obowu. Subsequently, a number of surrounding villages were attacked … Alike, Amaimo, Umuokirika, Orimozo and Ahiara”. What makes the role of Amaimo so remarkable in that struggle is that the severity of the British punitive military attack on her was for her principled refusal to hand over what to the British were ‘truculent Umuokirika rebels’, but to Amaimo, ‘brave Umuokirika freedom fighters’. On this centennial, Amaimo,I salute you! Ya Gazie! Other Ikeduru people fought, too… Avuvu, Umudim, etc, were also mentioned by name in the war records. Ikeduru I salute you! Ya Gazie! May the love of freedom by our Isuama ancestors remain our inheritance; as much as the New Yam festival.
Iriji
The greatest of all Igbo festivals is Iriji; the Great Yam Festival. Iriji is a festival of Agriculture and of the patron spirit of Agriculture, Ohiajioku. After Ala, Mother-Nature (note: Earth Spirit is Ajala, not Ala), Ohiajioku, Spirit of the Wealth-yielding Forest, is next in importance. These are among the spirit-forces that organize the Igbo world and life, as agents of the Creator, Chukwu Okike. These spirits (note: Igbo never use the term chi, god, to address them) are, to the Igbo, enshrined knowledge systems. From her name, Nji-oku, Ohiajioku is not merely the Igbo spirit of Agriculture; she is the Igbo spirit of wealth. Hence Agriculture is equated to Wealth, Jiwuba! Infact, Ubaghaji; wealth that excludes agricultural produce is baseless. Those who mistake Igbo for traditional traders should, because of recent amakeme economic activities note that the Igbo are no such thing. There would have been an important patron-spirit of traders; like Agwu for medicinemen, Amadioha for judges and Ohiajioku for farmers. There is, also, no Ozo title, like Ezedibia or Ezeji, dedicated to traders. Ezeahia is market-warden, not trader.
Ubaghaji
Ubaghaji is a common Igbo surname. Surname because it is one of those Igbo core-value names that is no longer found as first name; displaced by the God-cajoling ‘chi-chi-chi’ names that carry little meaning. Nothing represents the intellectual decay of Igbo culture, with the coming of the Whiteman, as this name-switch. But the message of Ubaghaji remains pithy and efficient today, even more so, than when through the Great Yam Experiment, 5000 years ago, the Igbo established their great agriculture-based Scientific Civilization (Note: Civilization is Culture plus Cosmic Conscience. Igbo Cosmic Conscience is Ogu; Truth-Justice. Any culture without a cosmic conscience is just that; a culture, but not a civilization). Because Yam is foundational seed and the Great Yam Experiment is the foundational event of Igbo agriculture, Yam; Ji and Agriculture are synonymous. That is how Yam comes to lend its name to Igbo agriculture. That is how the Agriculture festival comes to be Yam festival in Igboland.
Ubaghaji means; wealth cannot be properly wealth without agricultural component; economy not based on agriculture is baseless. To the Igbo, Jiwuba, agriculture is affluence; Jiwuaku, agriculture is wealth; Jiwueze, agricultural sufficiency is sovereignty; Jiwunze, agricultural prowress is nobility! Agriculture is everything honorable and desirable. Of course, this Igbo superlative characterization of agriculture, and its place in society, is not empty boastfulness. One recalls that the lust for the remarkable products of Igbo agriculture, particularly palm-produce, was a factor in British colonial adventures in Africa; and the foundation of Nigeria. Palm oil from the Lower Niger was used as lubricant to oil the wheels of the machines of the industrial revolution in Britain. Surplus money from palm-produce (and the southern ports) made Britain to amalgamate the northern and southern protectorates of Nigeria, in 1914, so as to offset the chronic budgetary deficit generated by the non-productive feudalist economy of northern Nigeria. Agriculture is the ultimate enterprise! Iriji, the agriculture festival, is, therefore, the greatest of festivals. Ubaghaji! Emume aghaghi iriji!
Some years ago, I went to Ohaji with my friend, and Ikeduru son, Chief Dave Amonu; professional pharmacist and vocational farmer, to visit some of his acquaintances. Our hosts went over to invite the elder of their family to come present kola to us. As the distinguished looking elderly man arrived, he was hailed by his ozo-title name; ‘Onye ghara ubi!’ to which he responded joyously ‘O ghara ihe okpu!’ He that abandons agriculture abandons something ancient; he that abandons agriculture abandons something eternal. Our Chief-host had taken the Ezeji title of “Onye ghara ubi; o hara ihe okpu”. He did this when he had harvested enough yams to feast the clan for days; and still have more to plant during the next farming season, as well as offer yam seedlings to aspiring young farmers to start their own farms.
Ohiajioku or Iriji is therefore an ancient Igbo festival. The roasted yam and its consumption and festival has been with the Igbo for at least five thousand years as scholars inform us. So long ago that when an Igbo child is born, and his arrival is being celebrated by women with ululations they ask two questions 1. Amuru nwa gini; what sex is the child? The answer to which is either boy or girl 2. ‘Eji gini azu ya?’ … what food would he be raised on? The answer to this ‘Ji na ede o!’ … Yam and Cocoyam! So, the yam culture is so ancient in Igbo land that it is the Igbo idea of food. Ubaghaji!
The Igbo child is not raised on Naira and dollar; but on agricultural produce. The Igbo staple was yam and cocoyam; not beans and rice. Not even cassava, the impostor alien that came to help out the husband and wife of yam and cocoyam, in the service of the Igbo people; and like the Whiteman that brought her, quickly colonized their land.
Oronomics
Oro is the moonlight play that makes Igbo children dream of the dry seasons. When children engage in ‘oro’, it is a happy and desirable thing. When adults engage in ‘oro’, it is a comic tragedy. An adult life that mimics oro is, therefore, also called oro; a misguided life; a wasted life. The oro-lifer, Dioro, is a wastrel!
Jamjam timjam is the Igbo song that encapsulates, and critiques, the oro life-style. It is the song of Di-oro. An essential stanza of Jamjam-timjam goes:
“Jamjam-timjam, jamjam-timjam , jamjam-timjam; oro e; jamjam-timjam!
Kporo akpuru aku m, gama ogwumabiri; ga zuru ihe rie; zuru okporoko m!
M rileghi ihe nwuo; ufo ihe fodu, ndi di ndu erie!
Jamjam-timjam, jamjam-timjam , jamjam-timjam; oro e; jamjam-timjam!”
The study of a people’s worldview, a mass-mind, is a fascinating subject. The mass-mind represents a far more complex and superior mental machine mind than any one individual mind, which the Igbo, correctly, hold is subject to illusion (agwo otu onye huru n’agho eke!). Ubagahji encapsulates Igbo perception of pre-colonial Igbo economic values. Jamjam-timjam encapsulates Igbo criticism of colonial-times aberration from Igbo economic value and life-style.
UBAGHAJI AND 2011 IGBO AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMY
Now, we know the agricultural and economic values that the traditional Igbo society celebrated in Iriji, the Great Agriculture Festival. Ubaghaji is of the time of Chinua Achebe’s Okonkwo Unoka and such other great farmers that displayed their prowess in the farms and celebrated it in the market-squares. We also now know the new economic values that contradict the ubaghaji principle.We now live in times when men buy yams to celebrate their ‘yam harvest’, taking part of the bought yam to ‘God’ for church harvest. God, of course, does not eat roasted yam, with peppered fresh palm oil. Now is the time of men whose yam barns are seaports and Government Treasuries. What would our ancestors of a hundred years ago think of us, if they saw our economic ways of today? Would they call us Di-ji, distinguished farmers, like Okonkwo or Di-oro, great wastrels, like Unoka, the musician and chronic debtor?
Exporting Petroleum, Importing Petrol and Jamjam-timjam
The evidence is that our ancestors would be embarrassed with us, who import our food and forget that “onye ji afo mmadu ji onu ya”; one that is fed by another losses his freedom. Agricultural self-sufficiency is a necessity for political freedom. Nobody can be economically dependent and be politically free. This is why the Japanese would rather depend on, very costly, rice grown in Japan, than depend on very cheap imported rice. Japan imports raw materials and exports finished goods. We tragically do the opposite. Loss of war is no justification for a dependency psychology. War usually teaches serious people of the capital need to be self-reliant. Japan lost war; and so did Germany. They are the most self-reliant and efficient, economies in Asia and Europe; why must our case be different? We are singing and dancing jamjam-timjam around the world; picking and importing ‘tokunbo’ materials from alien refuse dumps. We fail to keep in mind that Abraham Adesanya’s daughter, Dupe Adelaja, who was minister in the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidency, informed us that otherwise marginal men; some from traditional mercenary soldiering tribes and clans, who think they have defeated the Igbo in his centuries old struggle to free the Blackman from the bondage of ages had schemed to turn Eastern Nigeria into resources farm for others’ industries; and industrious Igbo into petty-traders. And here we are; adancing jamjam-timjam!
Nothing represents the new Jamjam-timjam economy in which the Igbo have found ourselves than the situation with the petroleum that is abundant in our land. To understand how our ancestors would see our situation, let us understand the key theses of the song Jamjam-timjam. The singer, Dioro, inform us that he was going to the market to sell unshelled palm kernel; that the purpose of his trip is to buy food, a perishable consumer item; buy his beloved imported stock-fish; and that his present pleasure mattered more than the future of the community, after he was dead.
Igbo children born after the Nigeria-Biafra war, have no way of understanding how shameful it is, by Igbo culture, to depend on the market for one’s food or to take unshelled palm kernel to the market for sell. It is a sign of extreme laziness, irresponsibility and poverty. It is like selling fruits on top of trees before proper ripening and harvest; ‘ire n’osi’. These are acts associated with ‘onye uwa n’atu n’onu’; ‘onyeuwa; the irredeemably poor; the spiritually and materially poor. The industrious Igbo would not sell raw materials; without processing to add value before sale. Our people were industrialists, who invented the idea of centers of excellence in technology, the technopolis; Oka (Awka, as the Whiteman would write to pronounce it).
And for ‘onyeuwa’ to spend the little money from sale of unprocessed raw-material on imported luxury, like stockfish? Again Igbo born after 1970 cannot fathom the foolishness. ‘Ngwanri’; the basic ingredient for Igbo soup was crayfish and some local dried-fish, like ‘uripiriti’ and ‘okpokwa’; not meat, which was occasionally available (Igbo are basically vegetarian) , and imported stockfish that were luxuries (meat and stockfish were in the class of optional ‘ihe-nri’; as against the essential fish ‘ngwa-nri’ of the Igbo soup ingredient). And Dioro calls this import ‘my stockfish’; the way a ‘tokumbo’ four-wheel car owner would ‘proudly’ display his ‘fifth-hand’ car in the Igbo village-square today; strutting and gleaming.
Now, the market-type for Di-oro’s transaction, ogwumabiri, is an alien ‘emergency, make-shift’ market that came with the Whiteman, from the coast. I’m informed the term is of ijaw-origin. As marine-nomads, the ijaw would have some make-shift markets, at the river-sides, to sell their everyday, and occasional, fish catches. Ogwumabiri is, therefore, a nomadic-market; neither the scheduled eke, orie, afo or nkwo of the super-settled Igbo (Ugwele/Uturu archeological artifacts show the Igbo have been settled where they are since the stone age). This is the kind of market that attracted men whose barns were at the market-squares, like Dioro. The vogue now, in Nigeria and perhaps other parts of Africa, is for other insightful ethnic groups to use Igbo as development slaves who would rush to open up one ogwumabiri ‘international market’ from one swamp land to another; as their clever hosts shut down earlier ones and take over, offering them new empty land to develope; jamjam-timjam.
And finally, ‘m rileghi ihe nwuo!” provided I eat; nothing, not the future, matters more. This is Igbo value upside down. This is negating what nnekwu okuko, the Hen, has taught the Igbo since the world began; Nkiruka! The future is more important than the present, which is the foundation of the Oganihu paradigm of Igbo socio-economic developementalism .We should live a diligent and austere life so that our children can live better. ‘Ka umu ka m!’ may my children be greater than I is the good Igbo’s daily prayer. Not so, Dioro! ‘M rileghi ihe nwuo!’
There is no need looking farther than the dominant petroleum industry, to show that the life-style lived by the Igbo, and other Nigerians today is a jamjam-timjam life; an oro life. We export petroleum; unrefined, crude, oil and import petrol, from refined crude petroleum (we must keep in mind that what is lacking is not the technology, as Biafra built and ran petroleum refineries; it is those that want us down or dead, Dioro’s men, who oppose local refining as they get commission from imports). The imported petrol is mainly for driving our imported luxury cars. Economists, in their habitual way of creating interesting-sounding terms would call the economics that governs this kind of oro-driven life ‘Oronomics’; wastrel economics. Our ancestors who fought the Whiteman a hundred years ago to stop the ascendancy of oronomics, will observe, with deep regret, that our generation is worse than Dioro, of their time. At least Dioro climbed the palm tree, cut down the bunch; came down and partially processed the palm-nut to separate the oil and the kernel. In our case, we issue license to aliens to find the oil, drill for it, carry it away to process in their country, and ‘find us something’; ‘ihe-nri’; ‘food thing’. Dioro would love the term ‘ihenri’. In our ancestors time, we are excellent candidates for the slave market. But like our ancestors observed, in their encounter with the Whiteman, ‘ugha ka mma na bekee!”; lies are best told in English. As we now speak so much English, we can keep lying to ourselves. But we cannot continue, and survive, this way. What we need to survive is Ubaghajionomics.
UDEBIUWA: WHAT DO IGBO DO TO ESCAPE ORONOMIC TIMES?
The issue, though, is not to continue to lament. As our ancestors observed, Udebiuwa; moaning solves nothing! Akwaebiheuwa; wailing solves nothing! What do we do? “Dibia n’agba afa, ya n’agba akwukwa aja!” The competent doctor not only diaognize the disease; he prescribes the proper treatment. Criticism that does not proffer an alternative solution is a distractive noise. The reasonable answer, we think, is to go back to the principle of Ubaghaji; go back to our agriculturally based economy; abandon glittering oronomics. Go back to ‘iko-ji’, before ‘iriji’. Luckily, the strong framework built by our ancestors is still there to rely upon. The Osunjioku’s (Osujis and Njokus) are still the dominant personalities in our agriculture, like the ancestors designed it. They must lead us back to ‘ubi; to ‘ihe-okpu’. They must teach us again how exhausted land is nurtured, by ‘Izuala’; inye ala nri-ala.
At different fora, I keep repeating one interesting question “how come when an Osuji (Gabriel Osuji) was Rector of Michael Okpara College of Agriculture, Umuagwo, an Njoku and son of Amaimo (Placide Njoku) was at the same time Vice-chancellor of Michael of Michael Okpara university of Agriculture, Umudike? If we answer this question correctly, a big part of our problem with agriculture would have been solved. It is true that Jizurumba; Agriculture is universal, as the Igbo name goes, but there are still culturally designated people who are at the helm of it.
The fact of Igbo culture and history is that the agricultural institution was so well developed; and specialized that the aptitude prescribed for the successful practitioners is still found in their descendants, who still dominate the Schools of Agriculture in Igboland today. That is why the Osujis and Njokus still dominant the study and practice of Agriculture in Igboland. We must turn to them consciously to lead the way back to Ubaghaji.
Tips on Road from Oronomics back to Ubaghaji
As we await the agriculture specialist Osunjioku’s to awaken and lead us back from the enslaving grain-markets of aliens places back to our freedom and yam-filled barns, I, an Osuagwu commissioned by the ancestors with the custodianship of Knowledge and medicine must shuffle some ‘okwe seeds’ for the lives of umunnadi.
As I shuffle the seeds of divination, ‘nkpuru okwe’, the oracle asks Ndiigbo:
1. ‘Gini kpatara onye riama oria tansip, asi ya gaa riwe nri vilej?’ Why are those who suffer from city (modernization) diseases advised to revert to traditional (village) food? Foods like aki, unere-nwiko, onugbu, utazi, ukwa, ji, ede, ugu, uha, okoro, etc? Some of our people still suffer from indigestion from beans and pile symptoms from rice that have displaced ‘ji na ede’ as staples in our diet. A good number of our people taken away to America hundreds of years ago still suffer from lactose intolerance when they drink milk; while Usain Bolt’s father explains his great speed at 100 meter races in terms of yam meals. The fact is that over millennia, people adapt genetically, more perfectly, to their main foods. To leave off their native food and adopt some alien type is to court some kind of dietary problem. Our native foods are best suited to us. They are cheaper for our economy; and better for our health. ‘Nku di na mba n’eghere mba nri’.
2. How come Igbo are letting little erosion points expand into gully erosion that carries away their soil to the Atlantic Ocean and houses into canyons, while crying to deaf Governments for help? Is that what our ancestors would have done? Ubaghaji would do nothing like that, but Dioro; the patron of our oronomic times would do just that. My opinion; any Igbo people ‘damara anyi’ while sheet erosion washes away their chief inheritance, soil, while they chase naira in alien places, in the name of ‘biznes’ deserve little sympathy. Let them organize their new yam festivals in township Hotels. But I suggest we revive the culture of planting fruit trees, like Nkwu-alo, in native Igbo villages to commemorate the birth of every Igbo child anywhere in the world. We can plant four fruit trees for each Igbo child (nkwu, ube, ugba, ukwa, etc). Over time we repopulate Igbo communities with economic fruit trees, which also help control sheet erosion. From now on each Igbo town Union should have an officer for Environmental Protection.
3. Why do some Governments in Igboland re-export the fertilizer allocated to their people to Northern Nigeria? ‘Onye ruru ala ruo onwe ya; o marala aru?’; is one that tricks himself a competent trickster? This is one of the drawbacks of the new instinct to trade by those who are not culturally traders; they don’t know where the boundaries are. They don’t know that the most important commodity of the natural trader is trust, which sustains the long-term loyalty of a clientele. Today Igbo ogwumabiri cheat people, thinking they will be foolish enough to come back the next today. Ogwmabiri-politicians do the same; thinking they can always buy votes. Let’s hope some careless people who find themselves in Governments, one way or other, are beginning to learn from events here and around the world that people are more intelligent and informed than they think; and might react adversely to jamjam-timjam someday.
4. What kind of woman bears children so that others can feed and take care of them for her? This is the kind of woman Igboland has become. Igbo bear children and expect them to go away to Lagos, to Abuja, to Cameroun, to Gabon, to China, to America; to anywhere, but Igboland for survival. Any Igbo who knows what our children are going through in alien lands would be ashamed. It is time for Ikeduru to bear children with plans to educate and employ them in Ikeduru; it is time for Obowu, Mbaise, Akaeze, Nnewi, Ngwa, Abriba to do the same. The project of sending out expanding Igbo population to a contracting world has become counter-productive; and culturally corrosive. The kindest of women will take care of their own children before taking care of other’s. Look at what’s happening to our children in Libya, and one Chibuzor complaining of the helplessness of their situation. No Government or organization to speak out for our children facing the barrels of Arab guns. How can our children become like the children of Hen in a village of Hawks. Sheep without shepherded in a forest of wolves? And one day as the economic pain spreads around the World, they might be driven out of everywhere, at the same time. They will be forced to come home, all at once. It sounds like Armageddon. But that is the reality of a jamjam-timjam people, led by Dioro; 2011 Igbo.
Two proverbs bequeathed us by ancestors help highlight the argument here: “Onwe nwe n’eri nti gbawaa!”; he that owns the food takes precedence when it is eating time. And, “Onye agu ji anaghi eru mgbambga”; the famished does not celebrate life; the hungry suspends claims to dignity. The resultant of these two interacting conditions is what is rendered in English ‘a hungry man is an angry man’; the famished is prone to violence. In these volcanic socio-economic times, of global meltdown, the evidence for these ancient truths are not far to find. The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement In America, and around the world, is about hungry, angry jobless, youth against ‘owners’ of the world economy. Those who follow global events, and trends, systematically, are aware of the link between the great forest fires that destroyed the huge grain farms of Russia, which fed the world, and uprisings elsewhere. Russia’s decision to ban grain export, so as to feed her own population, the global scarcity and rise in the cost of grains, and the revolutions in Egypt and other Arab nations that depended on Russian wheat for bread are chain-linked. Recently Thailand announced plans to prohibit rice export to protect her own population from hunger. What will happen to the Nigerian ‘ogwumabiri’ rice dependents and the Igbo Thai-rice vendors?
Oro-life and Igbo Future
To begin to do anything realistic, to go back to Ubaghaji’s Igbo times requires one commodity that is very short supply in Nigeria and Igboland today; Ogu, Truth-justice. Truth-justice is the soul of civilization; and social stability; ‘eziokwu bu ndu’; ‘emee onye ka emere ibe ya, udo adi!’ And the shortage of trust, chief commodity of the natural trader; as a market established by tricksters never lasts (“Ahia ndiaru hiwere anaghi araahu aru!”), is a great compounder of the dismal Igbo economic situation! One cannot easily hire Igbo workers today, in Igboland, and trust they will do a good job, at a fair price, as was Igbo tradition. Rather today’s Igbo youth would charge an impossibly high price for a job the Togolese standing next to him would charge an objective price for and win. Worse, many Igbo youth would abandon the work if paid in advance or do a shoddy work; and start a quarrel. The Igbo worker, contrary to culture, now looks for money in place of work. Yes, the present day Igbo is no better or worse than his Nigerian compatriots from other ethnic groups; but that is part of the problem. Problem because the Igbo had some intrinsic superior qualities that, as Olaudah Equiano and others wrote it down, made the Igbo the preferred worker in the slave plantations, inspite of his rebelliousness (whereas other slaves were bought for $180, Igbo slaves fetched $240). Those qualities have now degenerated into the ‘happy-go-lucky’, oro-life; imperialists prescribe for Africans; so as to be amenable to control. The dismal fate of black people in the recent crisis in Libya teaches that the emergent new world order cannot tolerate disoriented people; the choice is ours to reform ourselves or be destroyed by a harsh, unsentimental, world.
CONCLUSION
We have seen Diji; met Ubaghaji, great farmer-teacher. We have met Dioro and heared his jamjam-timjam song. We should now think again, like our ancestors, who build one of the world’s earliest and greatest civilizations. Who built the World’s first technopolises (Awka, Okigwe, etc) and go back to processing raw materials, from our land, to add value to make ourselves rich and them proud; instead of exporting it to remain poor and slave to others. We can remain the ogwumabiri traders, dioro that we have become and remain the laughing-stock of the world. The choice is ours; to salute Ubaghaji or hail Dioro! But we must keep in mind ‘he that abandons agriculture abandons something eternal’. Ya gazie!

chigidos@yahoo.com

David-West: ‘If Labour Fails To Act, I Will Lead Demonstrations Against This Government’

2
Professor Tam David-West, Minister of Petroleum and Energy (1984-1985) and Minister of Mines, Power and Steel (1986), told KELVIN EBIRI in Port Harcourt that the amount spent on importing fuel is more than what is required to build refineries in Nigeria.
HOW much should petrol cost in Nigeria?
Forty to N50 per litre! I told Obasanjo to fix the price of petrol at N50 per litre and see if any filling station would close down. They will never close down; they are making a lot of money. If the business was not lucrative, why is it that petrol stations are springing up everyday? They are ripping Nigerians off.
Does government really subsidise refined petroleum products?
There is nothing like subsidy. The government is lying. So, to talk about removing subsidy is fraudulent. You don’t remove what does not exist.
General Muhammadu Buhari was oil minister before he became Head of State and I became oil minister under him. Both of us have consistently said there is no subsidy on Nigerian fuel. Why do I say so? What is subsidy?
Basically, if a particular essential commodity, say garri in Nigeria, costs N100 per bag, that is when the farmers are producing garri under natural condition and there is no problem. But at a particular time, due to natural causes, the farmers cannot have enough cassava to make enough garri; which means there is no much garri in the Nigerian market.
Thus, government goes abroad to buy garri at N150 per bag. They bring it to Nigeria and still sell it at N100 per bag so that the citizens will not suffer and the government will absorb the extra N50. That is subsidy, pure and simple.
But in the case of petroleum products, there is no subsidy. Why? We have four refineries in the country and if they are working, we will have more than enough fuel in the country. The total capacity of our four refineries is 445,000 barrels per day and if these are refined, we will have more than enough fuel in the country. If these refineries are working at 80 percent efficiency, we will have more than enough.
During General Buhari’s era, we were exporting refined products; we never imported any litre of petroleum products and we had only three refineries. I signed the fourth refinery’s contract in 1984.
They (other governments since then) have killed the refineries. I published my ‘sabotage theory’ of the Nigerian refineries in February 1996: that they were deliberately killing the refineries so that they could import fuel. Now, how can you punish the poor man for your profligacy and corruption?
God has given us crude oil under the Nigerian soil. We have refineries owned by government on this soil. We have petroleum stations all over the place; so, where is the subsidy?
Subsidy comes when you go to the international market and buy the fuel at international price, come here and punish the poor man to pay higher price for fuel, which he is blessed with.
I challenge President Goodluck Jonathan, his oil minister and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to engage me in a television debate. I have said there is no subsidy and they are saying there is subsidy; now, let them justify it. They are punishing the poor man. They don’t buy fuel; and they eat free.
Please, let the poor man not suffer. If Labour allows them to do this and it does not call for mass strike, I will mobilise the students to go on the street; I will lead a demonstration against the government.
Nigerians should go on the streets and force the government down. If they don’t do that, they should not blame the government but themselves because they cannot assert their rights. Students, everybody, should go on the streets and let us have sanity.
Must the government import fuel? All the presidents after Buhari turned into oil merchants. They are all corrupt oil merchants. Now, ministers have oil blocs; they have petrol stations. They are merely punishing the poor man.
Oil subsidy started during Ibrahim Babangida’s time. And Obasanjo, as president, arbitrarily increased oil price by four times. The then Group General Manager of the NNPC, Engr. Yar’Adua, appeared before the Senate last year and said Obasanjo used to tell them to increase petroleum price.
I challenge Jonathan and all of them to publish the names of those who import fuel into this country. If they publish the names, the country will be ablaze because they are punishing the poor man.
 
…‘Refineries Not Working Because People In Govt Are All Oil Traders’
————–
 
GOVERNMENT has consistently maintained that the low price of petroleum products is discouraging investment in refineries. Is this the situation?
They awarded contracts for 18 refineries but they have not been able to build any because to build a refinery is expensive and no Nigerian has the money to build one. The economic situation in Nigeria is not conducive. They should look for something else to say.
Corruption, stealing, killing are rife. If you want to invest $5 billion, you must be sure that you have another $100 million for bribe in Nigeria.
They (government) are talking nonsense. They said if they remove subsidy, they are going to use the money for infrastructure. Again, this is rubbish. They are lying.
You don’t need removal of petroleum subsidy for infrastructure. Every budget has capital expenditure. Obasanjo gave Anenih billions of Naira for roads; when Obasanjo went to Ogun State, he asked Anenih, ‘where was the money I gave you?’
Subsidy removal has nothing to do with infrastructure, it has nothing to do with unemployment or drugs in the hospitals. I have been a Professor since 1974. I am sad to see graduates serving as stewards in restaurants, driving taxis.
Now, look at the hypocrisy. The governors said they could not pay the minimum wage except they remove the subsidy. But when Jonathan signed the Minimum Wage Bill into law, he never mentioned subsidy. They are all lying.
Why are the refineries not working?
It’s because the people in government are all traders in oil. They don’t love Nigeria, and the poor man; they love themselves. They have sabotaged the refineries.
The first refinery was built in Port Harcourt in 1965. It was destroyed during the Civil War. The Warri Refinery was built in 1978 and Kaduna Refinery in 1980. I signed the contract for the last Port Harcourt Refinery in 1984 and it came on stream in 1986.
Let them bring the people that built the refineries for us to fix them. No, they will not even do that because it will expose that they had sabotaged the refineries. The amount of money Nigeria is spending on importing fuel can build 10 refineries in this country. They are lying to Nigeria.
Nigerian oil is the worst managed globally. Every day Kuwait sells oil; they put aside something for Kuwaitis of the future. They have saved several billions of dollars; that is management. They bought Dorchester Hotel in London. They wanted to get 10 percent of a steel company in the United Kingdom, but the British government cried out loud.
Why has it been difficult to build and/or repair refineries?
The people that are sabotaging the economy are their agents. I told (former Petroleum Minister, Dan) Etete during his time, and he said he needed N250m to repair the refineries. But that year, they imported fuel worth of N900 million. This year again, we have imported fuel worth over N850 billion. Why are they getting money to import fuel and not money to build refineries? The government is not serious.
At worst, refineries can be built in less than three years. Let them build more refineries and be responsible. I still ask them: why is it that during Buhari’s time, we never imported fuel? Why are you importing now?
The people must force the government to build more refineries. You can build refineries in two years. Obasanjo said it’s five years. No. If by 1996 when I wrote the sabotage of the Nigerian refineries, Nigeria had decided to build more refineries, we would have had at least eight refineries. We will never lack.
We are producing over 2.4 million barrels per day and the capacity of our refineries is 445,000 barrels a day. So, build more refineries
 
…‘Our Finance Minister Is Here To Implement IMF Agenda’
—-
 
IT appears the subsidy saga is the voice of the people against the determination of government to have its way. Isn’t it?
The Minister of Finance has merely brought an IMF script. She is here to implement IMF programme. Let me extrapolate. During Babangida’s time, when he wanted to take the IMF loan and implement its programmes, over 65 percent of Nigerians said they didn’t want IMF’s policy. He went and took it and the economy collapsed.
Now, let her (Okonjo-Iweala) test her popularity. Let them hold a plebiscite and see how many people will support further implementation of the IMF policy and the so-called removal of subsidy. Removing subsidy is poverty of ideas. Must the poor man suffer?
Look Okonjo’s logic: that the subsidy they are adding does not go to the ordinary people. So, if you remove it, will it go to them? They are going to make the lives of poor Nigerians more miserable. They don’t need to punish the poor man to rule.
Let me tell them: In a democracy, the people’s voice is supreme; the sovereignty of the people is cardinal to democracy. So, Jonathan is wrong to say no going back on subsidy. Is he a dictator? If the country does not want and you insist on going ahead, who are you? The voice of the people is the voice of God.
Let me warn them that the sovereignty of the people is supreme and if they go against it, they will be punished. A government that cannot satisfy the people is irrelevant and must go.
Government is to serve the people and they cannot dictate to the people. They have not produced any statistics to contradict my claim that there is no subsidy. This year alone, a senator said from January to August, Nigeria imported fuel worth over N850 million. At the end of the year, this will hit over a trillion Naira. God will punish all those who make the poor man to suffer and cry.
I can buy petrol for N150 per litre. I will cut down my expenses, but what about the poor Nigerians who can barely feed? Obasanjo increased the price of petroleum products about four times, what impact did it have on the economy? It will have no positive impact on the economy and the poor will suffer more.
They are lying about subsidy. Let them repair the refineries and build more. The Minister of Petroleum denied that Nigeria wants to build three refineries in Indonesia at the cost of $2.8 billion, which is about N400 billion. When the heat came, she denied. How can four newspapers report the story independently and lie?
An Indonesian minister released the information. Was the Indonesian minister lying or our own minister? They should not convert Nigeria into a laboratory of funny economic experiment. If they are not ready to govern, let them get out.
Did IMF exert pressure on the Buhari government to remove subsidy?
Yes, but Buhari refused and insisted he would never take IMF loan and recommendations. Shagari was negotiating for $2 billion loan before he fell from government. The then Minister of Finance, Dr. Onaolapo Soleye and the Secretary to Government, Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, were discussing with the Paris Club.
Buhari told me: ‘Let them go on talking; I will not take IMF loan.’ Then, he put the question to me: ‘Professor, tell me one country that took IMF loan and conditions that survived?’
He went further to say: “If somebody wants you to borrow money and you said, ‘I don’t want to borrow money’ and the person is pressing you, then, there is something; a catch.”
We were able to make IMF irrelevant. Is IMF behind Buhari’s overthrow?
Is IMF behind Buhari’s overthrow?
History will tell one day. Colonel Gadhafi offered Buhari $4 billion interest-free loan and we refused.
 
HOW did Buhari’s regime meet domestic fuel consumption?
We did not import because we in government were not interested in becoming oil merchants. We had what we called offshore processing. Some major companies signed contracts with us. If, for a particular month, there would be a shortfall of production from our refineries, say one million litres, we would give them crude to go and refine outside, send us one million litres, sell the rest and give us foreign exchange in our account.
We never imported fuel. Petrol was 10k per litre at that time. When we wanted to increase to 15k, we had to sensitize the public for one month. Thanks to Senator Chris Anyanwu, who was the best Energy Correspondent at that time.
We needed money. When Buhari came in, the international community, including IMF, was squeezing him. We needed money and we wanted to use what we had to strengthen the nation. Six months’ salary arrears were paid off. We never borrowed money.
But the Jonathan government can also lay claim to needing more money to run the economy?
No. They need money and they are importing fuel worth more than what is required to build refineries. If the refineries are working and we are not importing fuel, there will be sufficient money to run the system and provide basic amenities.
In any case, they already have plenty of money. The increase in the price of petroleum products, which they seek, is because they are buying oil at international market price and squeezing the poor. We never needed money to service our profligacy. Never. Now, they need money to service their profligacy. The poor man is servicing the nation. That is what is happening.
     
Author of this article: KELVIN EBIRI

Kwankwaso’s Shaddy Deals: Lucrative Contracts to Wife, Brothers and Inlaws

24

Trouble appears more evident within the administrative cabinet of the Executive arm of the Kano Government under the governorship of Engr Rabiu Kwankwaso. This is as information available to 247ureports.com indicate that the principal officers of the Kano State House of Assembly have grown uncontrollably “mad” at the Governor of Kano State over recent developments bordering on financial crminality. Particularly, the lawmakers are said to be unhappy over the governor’s refusal to include them in the fleecing of the State treasury.

As a caveat, 247ureports.com had reported previously on the alleged execess of the Kano State governor in a publication titled “Gov Kwankwaso’s Drug Abuse, Assault on Cabinet Members, Corruption & Ibrahim Shekarau” which espoused on the open secret of Kwankwaso’s drug addiction, the turmoil within his cabinet and financial offenses. 

According to highly credible sources within the inner caucus of the Governor aides, immediately following the publication, the governor was heard on Tuesday @ 3am [October 4, 2011] in a loud anger tantrum. “The man was hollering at the top of his voice in the early hours of Today in one of his induced madness. Dr. Dangwani, the Chief of Staff, had to be summoned to the government house to calm him“. As the Chief of Staff arived, the source adds, the governor turned to him and began shouting “I am the Excellency! Who is the Excellency?”. The visibly shaken Chief of Staff responded “You are indeed the Excellency“. The Chief of Staff successfully calmed the governor and the governor was reported to spend the large part of the day “in doors”.    

Meanwhile, reconciliatory moves are currently being undertaken by the stakeholders and elders in Kano State over what impartial observers cite as the imminent collapse of the Kwankwaso cabinet owing to internal fights and crumblings. Sources indicate that 2/3 of the Commissioners are in “hot” discussions with the opposition camp – possibly with the camp of the former governor of Kano State, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. Similar crumblings within the Kano State Assembly are said to be emanating and directed at the Kano State Governor. As gathered, the lawmakers may have “an axe to grind with him” over what they termed as “financial offenses” committed by the governor.

Top on the list of the Governor shaddy deals and near financial offenses is the activities of the governor through his brother, Baba Musa Kwankwaso [popularly known as “Baba”] who is employed at the Kano State Housing Cooporation. The governor “unofficially” appointed Baba to handle all the lucrative contracts associated with the State Universal Basic Education Board [SUBED] including the feeding contract of all State owned boarding schools.

The recent resignation/sacking of the Executive Chairman of SUBEB, Alhaji Yakubu Adamu Wudil, as gathered, was the result of Baba’s undue influence into the activities of the SUBEB. According to 247ureports.com source, Alhaji Yakubu Adamu Wudil, the sacked chairman, had bitterly complained on how Gov Kwankwaso rendered the SUBEB Board useless in contract award by subverting the Board’s functions thus throwing due process to the wind. The sacked Chairman was severally heard openly complaining that Kwankwaso’s brother, Umar Musa Kwankwaso [Baba],  always cornered the juiciest contracts without observing due processes. He was said to be bringing written notes from Kwankwaso’s Chief of Staff, Dr Yunusa Dangwani on how to dispense contracts to Kwankwaso’s brothers and cronies. Insiders cite N2.8 billion class room contracts that were awarded and allocated to Kwankwasiya associates without the Board’s knowledge.  The source continues to add that “Alhaji Yakubu Adamu’s sack brings to fore one of the several contradictions within Kwankwaso administration. There is a serious deep divisions within government circles as many believed that Kwankwaso is fooling the public by feigning prudence while using several fronts to swindle public coffer of several billions of naira since his controversial ascension to power in May 2011. 

Gov Kwankwaso, in a similar swoop, ordered all its State contractors to adhere to buying roofing zinc only from Baba Musa Kwankwaso. Baba had pre-ordered a Kwankwasiyya branded roofing sheets from China, in anticipation of getting an exclusive market since his brother (Governor Kwankwaso) “forced/mandated” all government contractors to use the type of branded zinc that he [Baba] solely sells.

247ureports.com source gathered Kwankwaso’s wife, Salamatu as beneficiary of the Kwankwaso’s nepotism/shaddy deals. Mrs Salamatu Kwankwaso produces and supplies interlocking tiles, which Kwankwaso’s government “directed” (via a circular with ref: LS/ADM/43/TP1), that owners/occupiers of properties within the metropolitan area “must be sandcreted or interlocked…” thus paving way for her company which is situated along Yahaya Gusau road to have an exclusive patronage.

Political observers believe that there exist a sleath all over Kwankwaso as he potends to be prudent while cornering all the contracts to himself, family and in-laws.

The infamous Garba Musa Kwankwaso is reported to the sole supplier of water treatment chemicals [alum] in Kano. Garba Kwankwaso also doubles as a front for the governor. He fronted for the governor in the purchase of vehicles recently donated as patrol cars to the security organs of the state.  247ureports.com gathered that over fifty [50] vehicles were sold to the state government at an inflated price of over N9m each against the actual cost of N4m. Garba also fronted for the hurried purchase of multi-billion fertlizer, the repair of gate to the government house at a warping sum of N5m.

This is in addition to official records which indicate the governor spent N600m in less than 100 days from the Special Services Department.

Meanwhile, available information indicates that the lawmakers have begun to lose their cool with the Governor following his abrupt slashing of their Overheads, incapacitating their Oversight functions, freezinf all training programs, seminars and excursions. The governor also stopped remittance for Constituancy Projects [a gesture advanced by the past administration that enables active participation of lawmakers in all projects]. The governor is reported to treat the complaints of the lawmakers with “coldness and indignity”. 

A principal source reveals that during last Sallah, the Speaker of the Kano State Assembly [believed to be a boy of the Governor and a PDP member] attempted to source an “Honoraria” from the Governor’s office. He was asked to provide a budget – which he submitted at the tuned of N44 million equivalent of N1.1million per lawmaker. But the Governor was said to respond in a manner deemed disrespectful by the lawmakers. The Governor accused the lawmakers of rapacity and slashed the money to a “paltry” N4m equivalent to about N100,000 per lawmaker. The lawmaker were stunned. And when the Chief of Staff, Dr Dangwani, attempted to plead on behalf of the lawmakers, the Governor, reportedly “snubbed him by heaping unprintable insults on the lawmakers”.

A source close to the Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly tell 247ureports.com that the fear of the lawmakers mustering up the audacity to probe the governor over the many shaddy deals is non-existent. He notes that 30 out of the 40 lawmakers are members of the PDP and will not go against the governor. Sharing similar view is another authoritative source who reveals that the governor has reached out to the lawmakers through his brother, Baba. The adds that Baba was told to share the boarding school feeding contract to 30 of the lawmakers.

stay tuned