U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay
HARARE – United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has urged Western countries to suspend sanctions on Zimbabwe and its president – Robert Mugabe – to give the country a chance to implement reforms. The call came as Pillay ended her landmark five-day visit Friday.
Navi Pillay, a former South African High Court judge who has also served on the International Criminal Court, told reporters here in Harare Friday that sanctions imposed on President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party leadership are hindering economic progress in Zimbabwe.
“While it is difficult to disentangle the specific causes of Zimbabwe’s major social and economic ills, there seems little doubt that the existence of the sanctions regimes has – at the very least – acted as a serious disincentive to overseas banks and investors,” said Pillay. “It is also likely that the stigma of sanctions has limited certain imports and exports. I would urge those countries that are currently applying sanctions on Zimbabwe to suspend them, at least until the conduct and outcome of the elections and related reforms are clear.”
The United States and European Union laid sanctions on Mugabe and his Zanu PF party leadership in 2002 – following reports of election rigging and human rights abuses. The disputed 2008 elections only solidified Western concern. Mugabe claimed victory, but was forced by regional powers into a coalition with the opposition MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister.
Mugabe actually extended the invitation to former jurist Pillay, in the hope of clearing his government from persisting allegations of rights abuses ahead of the next crucial elections.
The call to lift sanctions may be a boost for the Zimbabwe president, but the rest of Pillay’s visit did not deliver all the desired results. She did not support his call for elections this year to replace the divided coalition government. Instead she sided with MDC Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, saying human rights abuses continue and legal reforms were needed before there could be a fair vote.
“Unless the parties agree quickly on some key major reforms, before the next election – which should be held some time in the coming year – could turn into a repeat of the 2008 elections which resulted in rampant politically motivated human rights abuses, including killings, torture, rapes, beatings, arbitrary detention, displacements and other violations,” she said.
On a more positive note, several people told me they believe that, if the country can get through the next 18 months or so without another political and human rights problem, it could finally turn the corner towards renewed stability and prosperity.”
Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told reporters that the targeted sanctions should be lifted unconditionally and not suspended for elections, as recommended by the UN chief.
He says Pillay has no right to dictate when the Zimbabweans could hold elections. “When elections are to be held is an internal Zimbabwean matter,” said Chinamasa. “I just wish outsiders could keep away from commenting on our internal processes. Parties are agreed to have elections soon after completion of a new constitution process. If that process becomes protracted to a point where it is difficult to hold elections this year, then there might be parting of ways between that process and elections…”
Besides calling for reforms, the UN rights chief warned the Army – which has openly supported Mugabe – to remain neutral in the next election. Pillay also called on Zimbabwe’s government to repeal laws that restrict the rights of activists and journalists. Zimbabwe must hold elections by June 2013. But delays in ratifying a new constitution because of political infighting has put that deadline in doubt.
Analysts say the Zanu-PF wants to hold elections sooner rather than later, while the 88-year-old Mugabe is still strong enough to campaign.
So the grand Barack Obama administration foreign policy strategy of trying to square the circle between an Iranian nuclear deal and getting the eurozone economy back on the road slouches towards … what exactly? (See War and cheeseburgers Asia Times Online, May 22)
Not even Zeus knows. At least what was on the table this week in both Baghdad and Brussels has kept the ball rolling further on down the road in Moscow and Paris/Berlin.
The story in Baghdad
The much-anticipated meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, China, Russia, Britain and France plus Germany (P5+1) with Iran in Baghdad at least
produced a result; a third round of negotiations in Moscow next month.
It couldn’t be any other way. A divided P5+1 (the US and the Europeans on one side, BRICS members China and Russia on the other) wanted Iran to totally halt their uranium enrichment to 19.75% – to which it has a right, as it subscribes to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In exchange, the P5+1 offered a “sanctions-lite” package, allowing the sale of US aircraft spare parts and a vague “assistance” in developing Iran’s energy sector.
Tehran was unmoved; to succeed, this P5+1 package had to be “significantly revised and reformed”, according to the IRNA news agency. Tehran’s ultimate objective in these negotiations is to soften the Security Council sanctions. For the leadership, a schism is very clear between the UN as a whole and the wall of mistrust involving any US government. Both Russia and China support Iran’s position.
Tehran even accepts, in principle, the idea of a foreign supply of 19.75% enriched uranium for the production of medical isotopes at its medical reactor. And it might even agree with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspecting the military base in Parchin (although that is not part of the IAEA mandate).
But the key point is still that the P5+1 has turned the NPT into dust. The mantra since 2006 has been the same; Tehran must stop all sorts of uranium enrichment. This is being enforced by a nasty financial blockade whose ultimate aim is essentially to paralyze the Iranian economy – by preventing it from selling oil using the international banking system.
Unfair doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Then steps in the European Union (EU) – with its extra sanctions cum oil blockade, to be in effect in theory by July 1, in fact going beyond the Security Council sanctions, and virtually illegal to boot. This is compounded by a US law in effect on June 28 forbidding any foreign bank to be involved in payment for Iranian oil.
Yet the Obama administration needs a deal – be it in Moscow, or beyond. That will be essential for Obama to milk as a foreign policy triumph – in fact much more substantial than the milking of the Osama bin Laden raid (see Osama re-elects Obama Asia Times Online, May 25). If there is no deal, the Obama administration will have to exert much pressure for the EU to scrap, at least until the end of 2012, the ban on insurance of tankers carrying Iranian oil (EU companies control most of the global maritime insurance industry).
Who’s suffering with the sanctions? Not the suspected “regime change” target – the Tehran leadership. The military dictatorship of the mullahtariat stays comfortably in place with oil above $54 a barrel (Brent crude is at around $106, and West Texas Intermediate at $90). Moreover, Tehran is selling energy in every currency from yuan to Indian rupees, and is engaged in wholesale barter with its customers – especially Asian.
The bottom line though is clear; the EU will have to scrap its absurd Iranian oil blockade to avoid badly hurting itself and also, by extension, the US economy.
The story in Brussels
It was up to German weekly Der Spiegel [1] to gleefully register the birth of Merkollande.
New French President Francois Hollande drew a monster crowd during his first press conference after a EU summit – starting way beyond 1 o’clock in the morning and speaking for over an hour; for her part German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced a half empty room for five minutes.
The stage is set for a Gotterdammerung-style clash. Hollande will go no holds barred to prove to Merkel that issuing euro bonds is the only way out of the eurozone disaster.
Hollande insists that would be a mighty help to hyper-troubled Spain, for instance, in terms of saving on huge interest payments and using the money on productive investment. Hollande is supported by Spain, Italy, Ireland and Austria.
Merkel’s argument is the troika (European Central Bank, European Commission, International Monetary Fund) argument; euro bonds violate EU law. She is supported by Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. Yet even Hollande admits EU treaties would have to be modified to accommodate euro bonds – and that would be a mess, as Britain and the Czech Republic already rejected an amendment to the treaties late last year.
The whole situation is immensely complex. Hollande let it be known that some EU members would accept euro bonds only in a distant future; some may accept them for a very specific purpose; and some reject it outright.
European bankers, for their part, take refuge in a fuzzy “debt sustainability” concept; somebody’s got to pay, and it’s basically the bulk of the salaried population. No wonder Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz is fuming with the “pontifications” of “those who, at the helm of central banks, finance ministries and private banks, steered the global financial system to the brink of ruin – and created the mess”.
No one seems to be betting on multi-year subsidies of core European countries to the periphery, most of them part of the Club Med. At the same time, everyone knows there’s never been an “exit” sign on the euzone. Now, though, the unthinkable is already thinkable.
Anyway, what is being described as a Orwellian “growth package” will only be decided on at the next formal EU summit in late June – after two crucial events on June 17; the French parliamentary elections, and the possible victory of the left-wing Syriza party in Greece, whose key platform point is to renegotiate the country’s bailout imposed by Berlin/Brussels.
Incidentally, EU political leaders have absolutely no clue what to do with Greece. While they reassure the god of the market saying Greece will never leave the euro, they threaten Greece saying, “If you don’t vote the right way, you will be out of the euro.” No wonder the Obama administration is perplexed. Compared to this, killing Osama was a piece of cake.
The country is losing about 180,000 barrels of crude oil daily to thieves, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said.
The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mr. Austen Oniwon, who said this on Thursday when members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) paid an oversight visit to the corporation in Abuja, also solicited the assistance of the National Assembly to combat the menace of illegal oil bunkering and crude oil theft.
The NNPC boss said, “The first challenge, which I will like the House to help us with is the high level of insecurity of oil and gas facilities. As at today, our operations have been severely handicapped by the activities of these criminals.
“We are losing almost 180,000 barrels of oil per day to criminals. If you reflect back that the total amount of crude being produced per day in Ghana and which sustains the whole country is about 120,000 barrels, yet, as a nation, we lose more than that to criminals.”
Beyond the financial damage to the national treasury, illegal refineries built by oil thieves, according to him, are causing near permanent environmental damage to the Niger Delta region where they are located.
Oniwon warned that if left unchecked, the environmental damage wrought by the activities of oil thieves and illegal refineries could make the Ogoniland pollution saga look like a child’s play.
“These people drill into the pipeline, take what they want, and at the end of the day, they just leave the pipeline to gush out its content into the environment. The case is even worse for those who engage in illegal refining. They just take crude oil into drums, put fire underneath, boil it and whatever boils off it is what they take,” he said.
According to him, about 25 per cent of the crude oil that the illegal refiners take is utilised, while the remaining is poured on the soil, thus leading to massive pollution of the environment.
Oniwon said, “And because hydrocarbon can stay in the ground for decades and even centuries, it means that in practical terms, it will take generations before the land can be recovered and made productive again.”
“A United Nations report indicates that oil has penetrated 30 metres deep into the soil; so, even if you want to remediate the environment, you cannot scrape 30 metres of top soil and replace same. So, we are looking at a near permanent damage to the environment.” On exploration activities at the inland sedimentary basins, particularly the Chad Basin, the NNPC GMD lamented what he termed paltry appropriation from the National Assembly, which he said was slowing down the tempo of oil search in the area.
“Last year, we proposed a budget, but we got just $230,000, which is totally inadequate. This year, we proposed a budget of $269m for 2012; we only got $75m. So, our desire to explore for oil in the inland basins is being defeated because of poor budgetary allocation. But we will continue to try our best so that we can open up the inland basins to produce more crude and gas for this country,” he said.
Oniwon also called on the House to speed up work on the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Muraina Ajibola, pledged the readiness of the committee to work with the NNPC as part of its statutory oversight function in such a way as to ensure that Nigerians benefited adequately from the proceeds of the nation’s hydrocarbon resources.
Australia and South Africa are to share the world’s biggest telescope – the Square Kilometre Array.
After an intense six-year battle between the two bidding nations, a split-site solution for the giant radio telescope has been reached, with antennas to be built in both countries.
The decision was made on Friday night at a meeting in Amsterdam of the board of directors of the international SKA Organisation overseeing the telescope’s construction.
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It had been feared Australia would miss out, after an independent scientific panel in February narrowly recommended South Africa as the preferred site.
To be one of the great scientific projects of the 21st century, the array will be so sensitive it could detect an aircraft radar on a planet 50 light years away.
It will be able to look back to the dark ages just after the Big Bang, and could help answer some of the big question of the cosmos, such as whether we are alone, and the nature of mysterious dark energy and dark matter.
Due to be fully operational by 2024, the internationally funded project will provide a significant economic boost to both countries, particularly in the construction, engineering and IT sectors.
In a majority determination it was decided that most of the dishes that will comprise the array in the first phase will be built in South Africa and combined with a 64-dish telescope planned there called MeerKAT.
More SKA dishes will be added to a 36-dish telescope almost completed in Australia called the Australian SKA Pathfinder.
A second set of mid-frequency antennae will be built in South Africa and a third set of low frequency antenna will be built in Australia.
The core Australian site is in the remote shire of Murchison, in Western Australia, a radio-quiet zone about 300 kilometres north-east of Geraldton which has only about 100 people in an area larger than Holland.
In South Africa, it is in the Karoo desert in the Northern Cape.
The decision to share the telescope, which will have three types of antennas including 3000 dishes, was made by five of the organisation’s eight member nations – Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, Canada and China.
The concept of building a mega-telescope with a square kilometre of collecting area was proposed 20 years ago. Australia and South Africa were shortlisted as potential hosts in 2006.
In March, the Herald broke the story that the independent scientific panel had recommended South Africa.
However a final decision was delayed while a new scientific working group investigated the possibility of an ‘‘inclusive approach’’ that would ‘‘maximise the value from the investments made by both countries’’.
On Friday, before the decision to share the telescope was made, the Minister of Science, Chris Evans, said the Australian government had ‘‘continued to argue Australia’s case right up to the 11th hour’’.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan has agreed to restart talks with South Sudan on Tuesday with the aim of ending hostilities and settling disputes after heavy border clashes scuppered an earlier round of negotiations, its Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The two armies clashed last month in a disputed oil region near the poorly-drawn border, coming closer to all-out war than at any time since South Sudan’s independence last July.
The fighting prompted Sudan to say it was pulling out of the African Union-brokered talks, which were due to tackle issues including oil export payments, the position of the border, debt and the respective status of each other’s citizens.
African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki met the presidents of both countries this week.
El-Obeid Morawah, spokesman for Sudan’s Foreign Ministry, said the meeting would be on May 29.
There was no immediate comment from South Sudan, but two sources from Juba’s negotiating team said they planned to travel to Addis Ababa on Monday to resume talks on Tuesday.
The U.N. Security Council had endorsed an African Union resolution on May 2 that threatened both sides with sanctions unless they stopped fighting and resumed negotiations.
Western diplomats do not expect a quick breakthrough as positions still seem wide apart.
Sudan has said it wants to make security issues a priority and accuses the South of supporting rebels in Sudan’s border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
South Sudan denies this and has accused Sudan of bombing its territory several times since the U.N. Security Council resolution was approved.
The sides have also failed to agree how much the landlocked South should pay to export its oil through Sudan.
South Sudan took three-quarters of the oil output of the formerly united country when it became independent, but the export pipelines run through Sudan.
Juba shut off its entire output of 350,000 barrels a day in January to stop Khartoum seizing oil in lieu of what it called unpaid fees.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum and Hereward Holland in Juba; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest has challenged the
Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola to speak up on the raging
controversies over his educational qualifications.
The party said it was appalled that academic credentials of the
governor are being questioned on the internet for over three weeks now
without formal response from either him or any of his aides, adding
that; “Aregbesola needs to speak out because the people of Osun State
deserve to know who their governor is.”
Zonal Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Kayode Babade said in a
release issued today that the governor should also explain his status
as an Engineer so as to lay to rest the controversy over his
qualification as an Engineer, saying; “The governor has nothing to
lose by being opened with his academic records because even when the
birth place of President Barrack Obama of the US became an issue, he
promptly released his Birth Certificate.”
Babade said “Without prejudice to the governor’s claims as per his
academic qualifications, it is necessary that he tell the public when
he actually qualified as Engineer because his supporters are claiming
that he obtained Council for the Regulation of Engineers in Nigeria
(COREN) membership on October 13, 1999, with Certificate Number 002829
and Membership Number R. 7822.This was 19 clear years after he claimed
to have obtained HND from Ibadan Polytechnic in 1980!
“If actually the governor obtained COREN certificate in 1999, when he
was already a Commissioner for Works in Lagos State and was addressed
as an Engineer before, when and after he was appointed commissioner,
Isn’t it clear then that Aregbesola impersonated as an Engineer until
October 13, 1999 that he actually became an Engineer?
“For instance, one Alagba Leye Ige claimed that Aregbesola got an NND
in 1980, while one Wale Adedayo Said the governor was Chief Engineer
at Airport Hotel in the early 80s. It was also claimed in Aregbesola’s
profile that he established his own engineering services company,
Aurora Nigeria Limited in 1986.
“From the above, the question to be asked is; how was Aregbesola
employed as a Chief Engineer in the early 1980s when he was not a
COREN registered engineer until 1999? Why was Aregbesola addressed as
an Engineer when he was appointed commissioner for works in Lagos
State prior to his qualification as a COREN registered engineer? And
lastly, could it have been that Aregbesola used his position as a
commissioner in Lagos State to influence his issuance of COREN
certificate?
“Aregbesola needs to answer the above questions so as to lay to rest
the controversies now being generated on the internet concerning his
academic qualifications and qualification as an engineer.”
The spectre of fraudulent activities in pension administration in Nigeria has been described as abuse of public trust. The Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde made the observation in a paper he presented on Thursday May 24, 2012 at a workshop organized by the Certified Pension Institute of Nigeria, CIPN in Abuja . In the paper entiled “Sustaining the Public Confidence in the Face of Financial Mismanagement and Corruption”,presented on his behalf by Mr. Wakili Mohammed, Director Internal Affairs, Lamorde bemoaned the mind-boggling scam in the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation Pension office.
According to him, “it was not so much the mind-boggling amount of money that was stolen as the brazen way the looting was carried out and who was doing the stealing that shocked us at the EFCC.”
Lamenting the paradox between the country’s huge natural resource endowment and widespread poverty, the EFCC boss blamed the country’s woes on corruption. He said the only way confidence could be restored in the conduct of public affairs in Nigeria is through the restoration of family values and aggressive law enforcement.
“From the position of a law enforcement officer, the only answer is “Enforce the law!” That is the only way to restore and sustain public confidence in the face of daily, brutal trashing of public morality and trampling of social ethics,” he posited.
Speaking while declaring the workshop open, President of CPIN, Barrister Ose Ogunkorode described the training as crucial and timely in view of recent happenings in the pension industry. He said the programme was organized to awaken the consciousness of stakeholders to good corporate governance and best practices in the industry.
He challenged participants to be active change agents who would ensure that all deserving retirees benefit from their years of labour without being shortchanged.
In his contribution, Ivor M. Tankor, a director with Nigeria Pension Commission, PenCOM, said that if the government, the regulators and all stakeholders in the pension industry do their jobs in accordance with the law, there would be a great deal of accountability in pension matters in Nigeria. He identified corruption as the biggest challenges facing the industry and emphasized timely disclosure of information to enable law enforcement agencies do their work whenever the need arises.
(Keynote Address Presented by Chief Ralphs Okey Nwosu, at the Summit Organized By the Youth Empowerment Summit Group, In Collaboration With The Enugu State Government at Enugu on the 25th of May, 2012)
Protocols.
Nigeria – A Failed State? Nigeria is often rated in the bottom range of any global comparative chart for quality of life/economy of nations. In its 2011 Failed States Index, the United States-based Fund for Peace assigned Nigeria the 14th position out of 177 countries analyzed, only ahead of the world’s 13 most miserable and war ravaged nations. The American Bipartisan Centre on May 12, 2011, similarly, listed Nigeria among the world’s fragile states. The World Bank had also published reports in 2006 and 2007 ranking Nigeria among 15 “fragile states” in the world.
Whatever may be our opinion as individuals or we may feel as a nation, this is the way the world sees us and the indices are not arbitrary, they were derived empirically. For reality test, I will urge us to recount the major stories in most of our newspapers for any two weeks within the last 20 years or so. The stories are of violent power struggles, insecurity, injustice, election rigging, group agitation, looting, hate crimes, unemployment, school closure, infrastructure decay, dearth of manufacturing, capital flight, food scarcity, poverty, infant mortality and maternal deaths, disease, conflicts, bombing, arson, and repeated failures of strategic projects like census, national identity card and privatization.
Against a battery of indicators, we look like a nation at war with itself. The institutions we have in place are ineffective to steer the country back to good health either. The decay is deep. It is shortsighted to heap the blame on the present leadership. Changing executives or principal officers do not guarantee instant new life. We are not able to stop crime; that is the natural result of a police force that the powers that be have neglected for over fourty years. Joint military, state security forces and police are not able to contain Boko Haram and other forms of insurrection; true, because for fourty years they have derailed from best practices in training, organization and discipline. The Chief executives of the various military arms, state security and police are some of the best trained and disciplined officers in the system; and they are doing the best they can with the officers and resources they have. With 30 to 40 years of neglect, abuse and decay, there is no quick fix; it takes time to deconstruct and reconstruct. These institutions are human institutions; habits and attitudes take painstaking effort to defrost before new learning, retraining and retooling can take place.
Jonathan’s Transformation Programme. Quite often, Nigerian politicians come up with flowery manifestoes, captivating slogans, and campaign themes and agenda. But no sooner do they get elected than they abandon the promising statements and return to business as usual or worse; taking advantage of public office and the peoples trust to loot and squander their common wealth. This has been the direction and meaning of political power in Nigeria. However, this time, it has been different at least at the federal level, and few states. President Jonathan has been resolute on a National Transformation mission that would have government to be responsibly vision driven to take Nigeria to its rightful position as a world leader.
Nigeria’s Vision 20, 20, 20.
“By 2020 Nigeria will be one of the 20 largest economies in the world, able to consolidate its leadership role in Africa and establish itself as a significant player in the global economic and political arena”.
The leadership vision is that Nigeria becomes one of the 20 leading nations of the world (a G20 nation) by the year 2020. The G20 nations consist of countries and regions of systemic significance for the international financial system. They include members of the more elite G8, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Britain, and USA; the industrialized nations of Australia, Mexico, Turkey, and South Korea; the developing nations of Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa; and the 27-member European Union. Actually, there are no formal criteria for G20 membership; however, all member countries are among the top 29 economies as measured by their Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and top 25 as ranked by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Economic power is key to being a G20 nation; achieving this status requires stable, vision driven political leadership, along with a culture that breeds effective and forward looking leaders across the entire spectrum of societal endeavor: government, business, academia, industry, science and culture.
Global investment experts Goldman Sachs in 2004 identified Nigeria as one of the countries that has the potential for attaining global competitiveness based on their economic and demographic settings. They are not alone; the reality is that Nigeria’s economic potential and strategic importance in Africa and the world is well recognized. Nigeria is the most populated African nation, the 7th most populated country in the world, with about 40 billion barrels proven crude oil reserve, 10th largest producer of oil and 26th largest producer of gas. Nigeria is richly endowed with tin, iron ore, coal, limestone, niobium, lead, and zinc and vast arable land for agriculture and coastline for trade. Compare this with Japan which has virtually no natural or mineral resource and is the world’s largest importer of coal and liquefied natural gas, as well as the second largest importer of crude oil. Japan is a member of elite G8 and G20 nations, it has a population of 127,650,000 (10th in the world), and is the 3rd most prosperous country.
For a leader intent on lasting transformation, the non-negotiable condition are authenticity; respect for law and order; trust and patriotism; abiding framework of equity and justice; integrity in all dealings; transparency, and good communication. To the chagrin of many, President Jonathan has begun to deconstruct the institution of the presidency starting with himself. He demonstrates authentic characteristics of a leader who feels good in his skin genuinely struggling to make a difference without hubris, no superhero or Mr. Know-it-all persona. At the recent World Economic Forum in Addis Ababa, he was emphatic that CEOs of African nations should count themselves privileged to have been chosen to lead and should not regard themselves as above the state. He said he is not the most knowledgeable, nor the most educated or most physically endowed in Nigeria; no swagger, no sanctimony. While some Nigerians would like to cast him in a particular mould, he has resisted all the temptations. He has said that the Villa, the presidency, and the country belong to the people of Nigeria. He supported one of the nation’s eminent statesman and a charismatic leader to become the National Chairman of his political party. He did not look for a stooge, rather someone who could help sanitize the political process. He has opened-up the villa; for two years running he hosted Youth Corpers in its Banquet hall. He has appointed the presidential candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria one of those who contested against him, Dr. Nuhu Ribadu, to chair a very important commission of the nation’s apex industry. We wait to see how he engages General Buhari; certainly transformation requires all hands on deck.
In addition to leading with justice, equity and transparency, Mr. President must show greater courage. All the institutions need to be reconstructed, heads must roll, looters must be put where they deserve, and known roadblocks and bottlenecks should be dislodged to send clear signals that Jonathan means business. It behooves the leader to assure effective stakeholder consultation and buy-in into the agenda. Nigeria is naked without the states and local government areas; there cannot be a strong Nigeria until our different states become viable through the strength of the composite local government areas, communities, towns and villages.
Governors: As Chief Executive of the states, Governors should develop big picture thinking and make governance what it really is, leading with vision and integrity. Singapore remains a classical example of leading with purpose and discipline, and a model country for transformation studies. Under its transformational leader Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore soared; it now holds the records of the world most competitive country, world’s best business environment, and it’s among the best in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI). It receives over 12 million tourists yearly, and records income from tourism of approximately USD$20billion yearly. Singapore occupies approximately 750sqkm, has near zero of the world’s natural resources, however, its GDP (PPP) is USD$59,900, and it has robust foreign reserve of $284billion, combined Sovereign Wealth Fund of $400billion, and an annual budget of $40billion. A great country; you can say that again.
Ironically, the population of Singapore is about 5million while Enugu state has a population of 5.6million. In Enugu, one would appreciate the fine layouts of the city road networks, good signs for a state in transition. Enugu, certainly, is well endowed for agriculture and tourism. It could be to Nigeria what the state of Florida is to the US; a place where people from everywhere could come and build vacation or retirement homes, and experience and enjoy the wonders of nature signposted by the Milikin hills, the unending valleys and hilltops from Ninth Mile and the bye pass to Enugu city. With some creativity, the governor could convert this magical landscape to a global resort. I believe too that the governor could collaborate with the Monks at Awhum to build up the scenic area that I have christened The Trinity Spiritual and Retreat Centre, a scenic place where humanity interfaces with God, featuring the Passion Mountain, Heavenly Valley, and Spiritual Waterfall. With these areas developed, millions of non-Enugu and international visitors can come for enrichment of spirit, peace and rest. With UNN, and other tertiary institutions, the state could be a Research and Academic centre for Nigeria and Africa. Enugu like many states in Nigeria holds a unique promise; 7,500sqkm of arable farmland, deposits of coal, lime stone etc.
The huge potential of the third tier of government is yet to be fully explored. The grassroot is the foundation on which the entire structure of the state and nation rest; it is the pillar for development and industrialization. State governors may unwittingly be stifling the growth and development of their states by not empowering the LGAs and rooting development there. Our states and nation are artificial/constitutional constructs, the fulcrum are the clans, villages, communities, and towns. Council Areas are strategic to Transformation, and must be driven to develop to full potentials. Deliberate effort must be made to grow the LGAs and assure visionary leadership at this critical level.
The Legislature has a duty to drive transformation through oversight functions. This will help control corruption and make the executives and their agencies function more effectively. Understandably, we have many structural problems; the legislature in Nigeria is at infancy and should not be in a hurry to overhaul the entire constitution over night. It is important to promptly sponsor critical bills to address major structural imbalances which impede trust amongst the federating units, as harmony is needed to enable the country power along with the full force of 167million persons. The legislature should remove all hindrances to transformation and motivate the executive arm to better performance. Party or tribal politics will slow or derail the process. Nigeria is far behind and we have a lot of catching up to do. We win when the national GDP and PPP are comparable to those of the G8 and G20 nations, when electric power is in all our localities, and Nigeria youths are availed high quality education, when all our constituents are employable and employed. The legislature needs to knock down and reconstruct the stereotypical and constraining aspects of our constitution, and lead transformation through enabling and qualitative legislation and excellent oversight.
The Judiciary and Our Judges. The idea here is not to criticize. But our court found Governor Ibori without stain; he pleaded guilty in the UK, and was sentenced to 13 years in prison in a foreign land. The Oceanic Bank Chief Executive Mrs. Cecilia Ibru has been in jail for almost two years, while the courts entertain Nigerians with orchestrated delays and manipulation of its processes and deliberately shielding the other bank Chief Executives from the course of justice. It is common knowledge that “elected” political leaders pledge state, local government, or constituency allocations for favourable judgment; fraudsters pledge bounties, corrupt public officials their loots. The role of Magistrates, Registrars, and Judges in leading national transformation is well cut out; Save Nigeria, shun corruption; wield the gavel with courage and justice.
The Media: Transformation is about people. Until habits and attitudes change, nothing changes. Expose and report corruption in a way that discourages potential perpetrators. X-ray the image, conduct and poise of the leaders of other industrialized nations and emerging economies; USA, UK, Japan, and China, Indonesia, Singapore, Mexico, Brazil, India and South Korea; and promote them as examples for our leaders. Continuously beam the legislators, executives, judiciary, public servants, business men and factory workers of the G8 and G20 countries at work; create opportunities to interview and interact with them, and use your different media to project what makes them excel for Nigerians to see, and emulate. People change when they are confronted with nobler and better ways that could enrich their lives.
Elder Statesmen and Former Heads of State: They have played their roles and are a living testimony that the old ways are not the best for Nigeria. If during their years Nigeria had advanced to become a G8/G20 nation or a permanent member of the Security Council, their generation would have been our heroes. They are in the vantage position to speak out and shed light on the booby traps to nation building, so that past mistakes are avoided. By 2030 Nigeria’s population will be almost doubled. Haste is required to create jobs, empower our people, grow our economy, and enrich our perspectives. Extreme tribalism, religious fanaticism, and god-fatherism deprive our different people the strength in our diversity. As leaders you owe it to yourselves and the country to advocate and play the lead role. You can make the transformation run better in as many ways as you may choose.
Scholars and Academics Change is difficult; people change only when their perceptions and mental paradigms shift. You can lead transformation by using your skills, classrooms and pens to project facts, new realities, alternative and better ways of doing things for students, industry, business, government leaders to see. We may lack the resources at the moment to fund groundbreaking scientific researches, but the internet has made it easier to do great literary reviews that could be impactful in our circumstance. Transformation requires that you rise above the hardship and continue to seek and transfer relevant knowledge and enhance learning.
Nigerians in the Diaspora Transformation is a clarion call, no matter where you may be. The Asian tigers pulled together to roar; the Nigerian Eagle will only soar when your great intellect and sophisticated world view find a place in the transformation process. Malaysians, Indonesians, Saudi Arabians and Iranians have done it; Indians in the Diaspora championed a lot of changes at home, and today India is a health Mecca. Copy, or create templates; your abilities are not in doubt; you can teach the people at home how to collaborate, how to plan long term, create niches, and pull resources together. National Transformation creates a viable platform for every one of you to make a lasting imprint at “home”.
Traditional and Religious leaders have their roles well defined as every one of the 167million Nigerians is from a community and each of them worships somewhere. These leaders shape culture and tradition, and mould the spirit. Culture is powerful and the spirit is a super force. They could lead transformation by enriching the cultural and spiritual vitality of all of us. Our native values, storytelling, rituals and artifacts make meanings; excavating the relics of historical and heroic exploits, framing and reframing of these have been found to energize a people to great action and accomplishment. Transformation is not simply about copying what works in Japan, rather we mesh those with our originality.
Careerpublic officials, men and women of different professions and trade, and parents you are called to act with diligence, and lead by example; be the mirror. Public trust requires accountability; excellence requires commitment, great society requires quality parenting. We are all called to take a lead role for Nigeria to make the transformational leap. Colin Powell says that in the end, what matters is not what the leader says but what he/she does; true leadership is do as I do and not as I say. Whether you are a teacher, businessman, artisan, office worker or farmer, transformation means no more business as usual, no “deals”, lawlessness, or apathy. Transformation says own what you do, and own your country and stop its abuse. Support the government in its good causes, bark when they derail. Like Caesar’s wife be beyond reproach.
My friends the Youth Empowerment Summit Group, I have taken steps to throw light on some of what is required from the various stakeholders as you requested in your brief; it is not exhaustive. My interactions with the national coordinator Hon Anselm Chinedu Nebeife, a wise and true patriot and a quintessential man of action, and with the members of the executive committee have shown you to be a group that is committed to noble causes. I have faith in your mission, that the entire executives and members of the YESgroup will go door to door across the nation to mobilize Nigerians into the transformation-craft. You are the youth of Nigeria, the Transformation is for you. If you support and drive it, it will work, if you do not, it will fail. You are extremely important in the equation; if Transformation succeeds the youths of Nigeria are the biggest beneficiaries, you will walk tall in all parts of the world. Nigeria will become a strong country with its strength deriving from strong village, town, and LGA/city economies. The world will come to find you in your “city-villages” in no distant time.
At the moment, unemployment is dealing a deadly blow on our young people. You have the potential to compete with your contemporaries in China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Canada, USA, UK and Australia, but the present system denies you the wings to fly and excel. Quality education will give the same skillsets and toolkits to the youth as the young people in Japan; transformation will guarantee those. Do not be dismayed; bring your creativity, tremendous energy and passion to life to lead this transformation. I am aware we have had our hopes raised before, there are numerous failed promises, and we have been taken advantage of in the past. Do not tire, be firm; do not expect me or anyone including the governors or President Jonathan to motivate you to action. Take the lead. Put on your thinking cap. If you ignite a spark you will motivate the entire stakeholders to action. And you can.
Before I close, I will tell you how my son spurred me to learn how to drive myself to a greater action. I went bicycle riding with Elochukwu, my 7 year old son recently. He has newly learnt to ride a bicycle. This day I tried to get him to apply some energy and ride up a hilly path. I stayed at the other end and asked him to ride to where I was. As I watched him coming closer I clapped and tried to encourage him to get to the finish line. He pedaled with difficulty towards the end as he completed the race. Tired, he came with me to sit on grass besides a tree that provided some shade. As I congratulated him and tried to talk, he interrupted me and said “Daddy, I want to tell you something”. He was exasperating and excited at the same time. He said that as he rode and got exhausted, he thought to himself of a song that could motivate him to complete the race. Then he started to sing to himself “Pedal, pedal to the limit. Pedal, pedal to the limit” and he sang on till he got to the finish line. He said “Daddy, really when I started the song, the tiredness, the struggle and the pain evaporated; and I was not going to give up until I got to the end”
My young boy taught me a significant lesson with his song; “Pedal, pedal to the limit”. While the content of the song makes meaning, the import in my son’s lesson are twofolds; that when creativity takes over the soul in every human person, no task is impossible, there is nothing that can stop the spirit; and that there is always a way to motivate oneself under any condition to achieve a noble goal. I believe and I am convinced that Transformation-YESgroup will be the ones more than any other to assure that the Transformation is pedaled to the limit until Nigeria takes that seat, nay, those seats. Today also, The Transformation-YESgroup, gives me a new impetus to say to Mr President, Transformation-Yes; no going back; Going back will be surrendering this country to catastrophic revolution and anarchy. Irrespective of the pull to retrogression and the various forces of dissention, Mr. President should push on and get more creative, engage the great force amongst the young people whose future you have determined to make better, empower them and create a whole new and overwhelming ecosystem that will not only pull Nigeria out of the failed state doldrum but put it where it belongs, G20, G8 and permanent seat in Security Council of the United Nation.
My last word. At times people assume that the World Bank, IMF and other institutions’ templates for sustainable development are a magic wand. That is not quite correct. The idea of one suit fits all is untenable. Nations have their peculiarities. A Nation can borrow or steal development ideas from IMF, World bank, other notable institutions and nations, but must fortify such with their own original and breakthrough strategic creations. Notwithstanding what anyone thinks, our country will leap to unparalleled greatness if we are able to mobilize and empower the grassroots to lead transformation. If the federal government can collaborate with the other tiers of government to systematically get N5billion worth of investment and industrialization fund into each and every Senatorial district in our land, the creativity, entrepreneurship and sense of industry of our different people will be challenged and powered, and Nigeria will not be the same again. This is radical, you may say. Yes, it is courageous, groundbreaking and uncommon actions that cause real progressive change to happen. How do we find the money? That’s what the financial experts in and outside the government are for.
Transformation-YES, it’s for me and you; it is for every one of us to make it happen.
God bless you all. God bless Nigeria.
—
Chief Ralphs Okey Nwosu.
Ikolo Dike Orabueze Awka. National Chairman, African Democratic Congress.
FROM LEFT: GOC 3RD DIVISION JOS, MAJ.-GEN. ADAMU MARWA, BAUCHI STATE GOV. ISA YUGUDA, AND NEW COMMANDANT OF NIGERIAN ARMY AMOURED CORPS BAUCHI, MAJ.-GEN.JACK NWAOGBO DURING THEIR COURTESY VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR IN BAUCHI
The 2011 presidential campaign exercise saw executive shame descend on the State of Bauchi and her administrators as an airplane carrying the vice presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN], Mr. Fola Adeolu, landed on the runway of the Bauchi State airstrip to crash into folk of sheep that had made their way onto the airstrip – causing the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority [NCAA] to shut the airstrip for safety concerns. The airstrip reopened a year later following renovations valued at N290million. And, as learnt, the mishap gave birth to a multi-billion Naira siphoning and laundering exercise for the Governor and his men.
Information available to 247ureports.com through sources from top officials within the government house in Bauchi State indicate that the renovation of the airstrip and the subsequent upgrade to an international airport has served an excellent platform for the governor’s men to siphon and launder the Bauchi State treasury with “due process”.
A top government official reveals, the renovation of the airstrip pegged at N290million was ‘callously and heartlessly overpriced’ – particularly knowing the work performed at the airstrip comprised of mere fencing of the 2.5kilometer airstrip, runway repairs and towers repairs. As customary with the Yuguda administration, a 70% mobilization fee was paid as the contract was signed equivalent to the sum of N203miilion – allowing for the personalities involved in facilitating the contract to collect their share upfront. The Secretary to the State Government [SSG], Barrister Ibrahim Ahmed Dandija, in tandem with the Commissioner for Special Duties, Alhaji Buppa Azare, were said to have collected the lion-share of the mobilization fee. As the contractor was serving as a front for the two gentlemen. The contract belonged to the SSG and the Commissioner for Special Duties, Alhaji Buppa Azare.
As the NCAA Director General [DG], Dr. Harold Demuren reopened the airstrip following the completion of the renovation exercise, the governor of Bauchi State; Malam Yuguda announced to the DG NCAA that his administration will undertake a new exercise to upgrade the airstrip to an international airport – notwithstanding the airstrip operates at less than two flights a day – and sits 117kilometers from the underutilized Yakubu Gowon Airport in Jos the capital of Plateau State.
The Governor’s announcement indicated that the upgrade exercise will be accelerated to enable completion within eighteen [18] months. “The pilgrims for the 2013 Hajj will be airlifted from the new international airport” stated the governor who revealed that the contract development process was underway.
On October 25, 2011, the contract was signed for the upgrade of the already renovated airstrip to an international airport for the sum of N8billion [N7,998,595,433.13] awarded to Triacta Nigeria Limited [Managing Director, Eli Abu Fahat] over fourteen [14] other companies in a ‘competitive bidding’. According to the Commissioner for Special Duties, Alhaji Buppa Azare who signed the contract on behalf of the governor – who also doubles as the chairman of the project, 70% mobilization fee was released to the contractor – an amount equivalent to N5.6billion. Alhaji Azare explained the N5.6billion was paid to enable the contractor complete the work in eighteen [18] months. He went to add that the money for the contract has been secured and “it is available”.
The response to Yuguda’s N8billion airstrip upgrade announcement was quick. A top official within the Yuguda administration who ‘feel left out’ of the deal state that the amount pegged for the airstrip upgrade to be “ridiculously criminal” as he pointed to an equivalent international airport being proposed by Governor Al Makura in Nasarawa State as costing N1billion. “They are just sharing the money” who went on to add that even the affected communities who will have to relocate to other places have yet to be compensated. But “the Yuguda men went on the radio to say all compensation has been paid. And it obvious it has not been paid”.
On October 27, 2011, the spokesman to the affected communities, Musa Ibrahim, confirmed that none of their communities had received compensation. In his words, “We have over 1,000 people living in that place and we have been there for over 50 years because my grandfather was born in that place. The place is surrounded by the communities of Bakin Pa’ah, Jamai, Wuro Depe, Shattah and Jam pitril. As far as we are concerned nobody saw any compensation”.
Independent investigation by 247ureports.com reveals a transparent financial dishonesty within what appears a cabal within the Yuguda administration – between the SSG and some cronies in the governor’s cabinet.
On the first level, the Yuguda administration, following its public assurance of the availability of the N8billion to complete the airstrip upgrade, has turned to go behind the scenes to tap on each of the twenty [20] Local Government Area [LGA] to contribute N5million each on a monthly basis – a sum equivalent to N100million monthly. The money, according to the Yuguda administration, is for funding the airstrip upgrade. Available information indicates the Commissioner for Special Duties, Alhaji Azare to be the one coordinating the N100million monthly levy on the LGAs – in his capacity as the project chairman. Keen observers of the Bauchi polity question what the additional N100million per month is being collected for.
Yuguda’s bold face award of an N8billion airstrip upgrade contract only months apart from the award of another bold face contract for conversion of a polytechnic to a teaching hospital for the sum of N2.6billion [N2,594,913,135.99] to Current Mechanical Engineering Limited depicts what appears a culture of financial dishonesty. In-depth inquiry into the actual contract values indicate the governor’s certainty over priced the contract by over 750%.
The governor’s insatiable appetite for the Bauchi treasury stretches beyond contract overpricing. In 2010 and the early part of [January to May] 2011, the Governor and his SSG spent N1.683billion on travel and entertainment alone. For the period in question, Gov Yuguda spent N400million on foreign and local trips while his SSG spent N587million. In 2010 alone, the governor spent N160million on ‘hospitality’ while his SSG spent N275.4million. For cleaning of the government house in 2010, the sum of N140million was spent.
Recent activity of Governor Isa Yuguda’s private salary account – i.e. the account where his salary is paid into – confirms the far reaching extend of the governor’s insatiable appetite. The account which is domiciled at Diamond bank located along Bank road near the government house – shows a steady monthly deposit of the governor’s salary at N1.2million. Information obtained from a source inside the bank indicates the governor recently took a loan on his salary account for the amount of N180million – with stipulated agreement to repay the loan by making deposits of N30million monthly into the account. But, interestingly, the governor has not been able to make consistent monthly payment as agreed. His last monthly payment was N60million owing to his inability to pay the stipulated N30million every month.
Under the guise of security concerns for the State and the threat of Boko Haram, the State governor earmarked over N17billion for security votes. And the security votes which normally is domiciled under the governor’s care, as in order states of the federation, is domiciled under the SSG office in Bauchi State. It is an anomaly which has experts in the State questioning why the governor and the SSG have chosen to switch roles. Other keen observers who point to the N17billion as duplicating the monies [N1trillion] already made available by the federal government, allege that the state government and the security outfits stationed in the State – to be “having their way with the money”.
A close ally of the governor who spoke to 247ureports.com on phone blamed the governor’s insatiable appetite to his 2015 presidential aspirations and the SSG’s 2015 gubernatorial aspirations.
