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  • Nigeria: Is it not a failed State already? – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Nigeria: Is it not a failed State already? – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    The Guru – Godwin Etakibuebu, hereby submits to the Nigerian People; ditto the International Community, that the Nigerian Nation State has failed. Or, succinctly put, it has manifested all the indices of a failed State, though it still goes about with the name Nigeria. Going out of the name Nigeria is just a matter of time.

    There was no Nigeria before 1914. It was in that terrible year of 1914, when those traders-predators from the British Isle; conquered without shedding much of their own blood; except blood of the aborigines “around the Niger”, that a country known as Nigeria invaded the world map. A country with that name – Nigeria, was born that year. And who so named us so?

    A working female Journalist; whom history honoured to be the highest paid woman journalist of her era, named “this area of the Niger” as Nigeria. A little odyssey about this highly respected woman of her time, if I am permitted to, should be necessary, please.

    Dame Flora Louise Shaw was born into a very large family on December 19, 1852, and died January 25, 1929. She began her career in journalism in 1886-7, writing for the Pall Mall Gazette and the Manchester Guardian, and became the Colonial Editor of The Times in 1893. 

    She visited Nigeria [though “this area of the Niger” had not been so named when she visited], and met a British Army Officer, by the name Colonel Frederick Lugard, whom was recalled from Ngami in Tanganyika, by the British Government, to take command of its [British interests] in the hinterland of the Lagos Colony and Nigeria, against French aggression.

    Both met here and fell in love because Frederick Lugard arrived Nigeria a very bitter and sorrowful man; having lost his marriage in Tanganyika. This was how Flora Shaw became Lady Lugard. And she gave us the name Nigeria. Every other thing has become documented history from then. 

    So, though it is not what we would have preferred, if Nigeria goes under, after 109 years of being in existence, let it be.

    We can now move to the navigational history of Nigeria being a failed State. I have chosen not to pull the ship into the high Sea for this dangerous navigational venture into a torturous voyage of discovery without attempt at laying out the perimeters or templates of a failed State. Here we go.

    From the Oxford dictionary of languages, a failed State meaning is given as “A State Whose Political Or Economic System Has Become So Weak That The Government Is No Longer In Control”. 

    Is government in control of anything in the country today?

    What is a failed State?

    Failed State is defined as a condition of “state collapse” – eg, A State That Can No Longer Perform Its Basic Security, And Development Functions And That Has No Effective Control Over Its Territory And Borders. 

    Can this fact be assimilated by the reality of Terrorists having almost taken over control of government and governance in Nigeria as things manifest today?

    Failed State can also be categorized as a country whose government is considered to have failed at some of its basic responsibilities: for example, keeping the legal system working correctly, and providing public services, such as electricity, water, education, hospitals, etc. 

    We shall return back to evaluate these templates if they are appropriately applicable in Nigeria of today. But for now, let us move a little further in interrogation of Nigeria’s today trend.

    What is a failed State in international law?

    State Failure Is Best Defined As The Incapacity Of A State To Perform Its Obligations Towards Its Citizens And Towards The International Community In General. This is so defined for the simple reason that for any State that fails, there is that international dimension returning as collateral liability. 

    What causes society to collapse?

    Possible causes of a societal collapse include natural catastrophe, war, pestilence, famine, economic collapse, population decline, and mass migration. A collapsed society may revert to a more primitive state, be absorbed into a stronger society, or completely disappear.

    9 Reasons For Failure

    1. Lack of communications

    Enabling employees to complete tasks properly, and with minimal mistakes, requires time and effort. When people do not understand what they are doing, how to do it optimally, or why they are doing something there is a higher chance of making mistakes or failing to complete tasks altogether. Mitigate this risk by ensuring clear communications on tasks, responsibilities and projects (current and upcoming) that require actions from employees. 

    1. Lack of leadership

    Working without sufficient or proactive leadership is just as bad as not knowing what to do due to a lack of communication. The leadership should be present, providing clear directions and empowering information-sharing across the team so that everyone can complete their work. You need to make sure workers have all the information they need to complete their tasks with confidence.

    1. Lack of vision

    If employees do not have a direction and understanding of the overall vision they are working towards, it will have an impact on the quality of their work and their performance (ie: the number of mistakes they make). The vision and mission goes hand in hand with communication and providing sufficient information, but also includes promoting a culture where everybody feels that they have a purpose behind the work they are doing.

    1. Complex systems

    Some surroundings and functions will have more chance of failure and mistakes than others. This means a failure could be inherent to a system based on its complexity. There is usually a limited set of improvements to reduce the complexity itself, but as general rule of thumb, all steps in a process should be well-documented in order to increase the likelihood of succeeding.

    1. Ill-discipline, lack of trust or negligence

    Other times, failures happen as a result of the employee’s negligence or lack of trust. This involves failure to abide by departmental or operational procedures, or disregarding rules and methods. The root causes vary and might be about organisational problems, individual relationships with supervisors or lack of motivation as a whole. Thus, offering a turnkey solution is impossible but being aware of these issues is always the beginning. To do that, having a low-threshold incident reporting platform helps a lot.

    1. Not learning from past mistakes

    A huge cause of repeated failures and mistakes is that organisations do not address the root causes of failure the first time around. These unaddressed problems are like snowballs starting to roll down from the top of a mountain, getting bigger and bigger as more time passes. To avoid this, push to understand underlying issues, mitigate them, document the corrective actions, and make sure relevant people are being trained based on this new information.

    1. Poor reporting channels

    Poor incident or issue reporting channels and policies can cause blockages in identifying and resolving issues. To learn from past mistakes, you need to enable the possibility for employees to report and notify you when mistakes happen. To do this, you need to have a proper channel, make sure people know how to find it, and make the reporting itself as effortless as it can be.

    1. A lack of business goals overview

    If the strategy of your department or business isn’t communicated properly, employees won’t know their goals, objectives or how to best execute their everyday work. This makes it more likely that they will face problems and failures. To address this, make sure that everybody understands both the bigger scope and how their role plays into achieving it. As an additional tip, we highly recommend organisations to look into both KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and OKRs (Objectives and Key Results).

    1. Lack of employee involvement

    The role of management and a manager is key for minimising failures and mistakes. Managers are responsible for defining clear plans and goals, conducting quality checks, and organising and monitoring their team’s performance. A part of the perfomance success also comes down to how involved and engaged each individual team member is. Employee involvement has a direct impact on the efficiency and bottom-line of the business, as it also includes high levels of productivity. If employees aren’t feeling involved in setting the KPIs, OKRs or strategies for their work, then the team motivation drops. This leaves room for more errors, and slow delivery times. 

    We can continue in interpreting and identifying what it means for a State to fail for the next several days if we may want to go on. But for now, let us wait, and for a moment, throw our collective thought over only one issue; which remains the sword of Damocles hanging over all of us – Nigerians. And that is the Naira Notes redesigned Policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] on October 26, 2022.

    On this policy issue, the CBN has spoken, or putting it more definitely – has decreed [when we are not under military administration – or are we?], some leading politicians have spoken, the Nigerian Apex Court – Supreme Court of Nigeria spoke, then the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces of the Federal Republic spoke.

    In all these, the Nigerian people are dying. They are dying not because they don’t have their own monies in their different banks of choices. They are dying because there is no law and order in the land, to protect and shield them. The Nigerian people must necessarily die And continue to be dying because they cannot access their own monies – courtesy of a government that was supposed to be! 

    We shall return back to this topic in a few days’ time, and we shall be specifically discussing the issue of Naira redesigned Policy and many other topics that justifiably identify the fact of a failed State Nation. 

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

    Contact:

    Website: www.godwintheguru.com

    You Tube Channel: Godwin The  Guru

    Twitter: @godwin_buebu

    Facebook: Godwin Etakibuebu

    Facebook Page: Veteran Column

    Telegram: @friendsoftheguru

    WhatsApp: @friendsoftheguru

    Phone: +234-906-887-0014 – short messages only. 

    You can also listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday; 9:30 – 11am on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG].

  • CBN vs S’ Court: We now know Buhari wasted 8 years – By Godwin Etakibuebu [Part 1]

    CBN vs S’ Court: We now know Buhari wasted 8 years – By Godwin Etakibuebu [Part 1]

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on October 26, 2022. announced the redesign of 200, 500 and 1,000 Naira notes, and declared an end to the use of the old notes by January 31, 2023, with a presidential fiat. 

    Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, did not miss words by telling the whole world that he got approval of Muhammadu Buhari; President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And the President quickly concored, saying he indeed approved the venture for the CBN to carry out.

    But acute scarcity of the new notes made the January 31, 2023, deadline unfeasible, and prompted the bank; with the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari, again, to extend the legal tender status of the old notes till February 10, 2023.

    On February 3, 2023, three state governments – Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara – citing the hardships the continued scarcity of naira notes brought to their people, sued the federal government at the Supreme Court for a reversal of the policy. And this was after all the ruling political party [APC] governors in Nigeria met with the President, asking him to rescind the order as the effect of the redesigned policy having a destructive and devastative effect on the residents of their individual States. 

    Five days later, the court issued an interim order suspending the implementation of the deadline set by the federal government, directing the old and new notes to continue in circulate pending the resolution of the case.  

    Unmoved by the court’s order, the CBN insisted that the old notes had stopped being legal tender after the February 8, 2023, deadline while the scarcity of the new notes persisted.

    In defiance to the Supreme Court’s interlocutory order, Mr Buhari on February 16, 2023, restored the validity of the old N200 notes, insisting that the N500 and N1000 notes had ceased to be legal tender.

    The number of plaintiffs rose to 16 after six new States were added to the three initial plaintiffs during the hearing of the case on February 22, 2023, three days to the national elections held on 25 February.

    The biting cash crunch featured as a major issue in the lead-up to the elections, with many fearing that it could derail the process.

    The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) then [now the President-elect, having won the election as declared by INEC] Bola Tinubu, said during his campaigns in Abeokuta, Ogun State, that the twin problems of cash crunch and the protracted fuel scarcity were targeted at him, “by powers that be”. He was understood to be referring to President Buhari then.

    Many had expected that the Supreme Court would make a pronouncement on the disobedience to its order during the February 22. But the court adjourned its final judgement on the matter till March 3, 2023.

    Let us try to follow a timeline of trajectory through those instruments of interrogation played up from introduction of the policy till the matter ended up at the Supreme Court of Nigeria, last week Friday, March 3, 2023. 

    It is only by embarking on this journey that Muhammadu Buhari; a man who once invaded the Nigerian democratic space in 1984, through coup-d’etat, and forcefully uprooted the democratically elected government of the time – under President Shehu Shagari, can be properly evaluated. 

    We need to know the man – President Buhari. We should endeavour to know him in, and what, he represents as a leader, at both times – Military Head of State – a venture through coups, and as a democratically elected President. Has he proved to be a blessing, or a liability, to Nigeria and Nigerians?

    Let us take the Supreme Court’s judgement as a lead-template or perimeter of navigating this turbulent waters in arriving at where we can critically evaluate the topic of this exercise – captured above. Let me equally plead your total indulgence that the write-up of today should be seen as a preamble – a prelude to the main exercise of identifying what the eight years of Buhari’s tenure shall be leaving Nigeria and Nigerians with.

    Members of the seven-member panel of the Supreme Court that delivered the historical judgement are:

    *John Okoro (presiding)

    *Amina Augie

    *Mohammed Garba

    *Ibrahim Saulawa

    *Adamu Jauro

    *Tijanni Abubakar

    *Emmanuel Agim 

    Highlight of judgement as read out by Justice Emmanuel Agim

    Justice Agim says the government of Nigeria is an agent of the federation to govern Nigeria to its benefit and well-being. The act of the President and government of Nigerian is an act of the federation. The government of the federation in implementing the policy should have held adequate consultation to avoid massive disruption of government operations and trades.

    The dispute is between the states and the government of the Federation. The dispute is within the original jurisdiction of the court.

    The argument that it is the CBN was the proper party to be sued is invalid. It is not the action of the CBN that is being challenged.

    The suit challenges the validity of the decision of the President to redesign naira, release the new notes into circulation and withdraw the old notes without consultation with Nigerian through the Council of states and the National Economic Council without prior notice or giving reasonable notice to the public. The CBN only carried out the directive of the president.

    It is glaring from the law that the CBN has no power to carry out the policy without the directive of the president. The policy is directed by the President. The CBN does not have to be joined as a party. This suit is not an action against the banks or the CBN.

    The subject matter of this suit can be entertained under the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

    The constitution having issued unlimited subject matter jurisdiction, no court including this court has the power to exclude from the original jurisdiction of the court. All the preliminary objections are dismissed. “I hold that this court has jurisdiction to determine all the suits.”

    It is obvious that the president did not consult with the Council of States, the National Economic Council and other stakeholders including the National Security Council.

    The constitution does not expressly state that the president must hold such consultation. The duty is implicit in section 5 of the Constitution that makes the President an agent of the federation. Such duty is inherent in a democracy.

    The first defendant belatedly realised that it needed to consult with the Council of States.

    President acknowledged the widespread problems of the policy.

    There is nothing to show either through newspapers and gazetted that reasonable notice was given to the public.

    Notice was given only by a way of press remark by CBN governors on 26 October 2022. It is this press remark that that the president relied on to redesign naira notes and withdraw the old ones.

    This press remark cannot constitute a reasonable notice to the public. It is what it is – mere press remark. The directive given by President is invalid.

    Such directive is not just handed down after personal conversation with the governor of CBN.

    In other countries, old and new currency notes are allowed to circulate simultaneously for not less than one year.

    In the light of the above, I hold that no reasonable notice was given to the public in line with Section 20 of CBN Act 2007 before the president gave the directive of the redesign of new naira and the withdrawal of new notes.

    Therefore, the directive is invalid and the implementing invalid.

    It is not in doubt that the President refused to comply with the order of the court that the old 200, 500, and 1,000 naira notes should continue to be legal tender.

    Interestingly, there is not even nothing to show that that the President’s directive for the release of N200 notes was implemented.

    I agree that the first defendant ought not to be heard when the president has refused to obey the authority of this court.

    Dipsogenic of order of court shows the country’ democracy a mere pretension and now replaced by autocracy. This suit is meritorious.

    We are continuing this exercise tomorrow, by the grace of God, with Part 2.

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

    Contact:

    Website: www.godwintheguru.com

    You Tube Channel: Godwin The  Guru

    Twitter: @godwin_buebu

    Facebook: Godwin Etakibuebu

    Facebook Page: Veteran Column

    Telegram: @friendsoftheguru

    WhatsApp: @friendsoftheguru

    Phone: +234-906-887-0014 – short messages only. 

    You can also listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday; 9:30 – 11am on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG].

  • 2023 election: The deadly overheated melting pot for both the prey and the predator – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    2023 election: The deadly overheated melting pot for both the prey and the predator – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Every living soul in Nigeria today is an endangered species. The young, the old, female, male, all youths and all children, are all endangered. Many have died. And many are still going to die most likely. 

    This proportion of calamity has never occurred in the annals of Nigeria’s history before. And it is most likely that if we survive this calamity, a type of Armageddon like this may not come our ways again. Never again shall we – Nigerians, encounter this darkness again; forever and ever.

    Imagine a Nigeria we found ourselves – a country that is about going into oblivion. If care is not taken; and this should be a few days from now, this beautiful landmark might become a country that was. Or, succinctly speaking, historians might be referring to it as a “country that was”. 

    To think of it along this line is scaring to me personally. And l know it is that scaring to many of us – “citizens of a country about to die”.  

    What are the issues?

    Here is a country that is preparing for elections – an exercise that is more than liked, worldwide in this modern age, for the continuity of democracy in Nigeria. As a country we embraced a democratic system of government, first in 1960. It came with euphoria and melodious celebration.

    Six years on; in 1966, the Nigerian Military came, scrutinised the system, pronounced a judgement on our then young democracy and killed it. The Military that destroyed Democracy, took over steering the Ship of the Nation into a future that wasn’t mapped out with an understandable navigational chart.

    Ipso facto, since then, all we achieved in the Nigerian Military’s adventure into Oceanic sailing without compass was nothing but navigational disasters. The Military continued from one type of fumbling and wombling to another. This was the journey until 1999, when they [the Nigerian Military] were chased out of power.

    The ugly fact of this voyage was that at any-time the Nigerian Military came in to chase away; either itself or civilian, there was always another counterpart of theirs, helping things out for them.

    The counterpart is the army of civilian politicians. We were even told at a time, by the Military, that their civilian counterpart invited them – the Military, to take over government. Even in situation when they [the Military] shamelessly had to kill themselves, at such points of Coup failures – and we saw too many of such disasters, they [the Military] still would tell us that “the politicians invited us” or “we have to rescue the country because of the politicians’ failure”.  

    Let us fast-track the discussion.

    Now, 24 years into the longest unbroken democratic practice in Nigeria, the dangerous Hawks are back in another form and format. They are crawling around as terrible predators. They are fearfully and terribly out after the available preys. Or let us say their preys.

    However, the game is undergoing some redefinition. A very radical one for that matter. This is what the caption of this essay holds for us, in a fearful manner.

    Nigeria, as a country today, has no nationally accepted legal tender money. This is because the Nigeria national currency; which is the only currency of legal tender in Nigeria is in short-supply through the Nigeria community. In fact, there are about four States in the North Central and North East that are now trading with the Francophone currency – the CFA.

    Beyond this sad fact, the Nigerian Federal Government Authority failed woefully to stop the two biggest political parties – APC\PDP, from dollarizing their political parties Primaries in Abuja last year. Yet, the government that failed to stop that big show of shame, by implication of commission or omission, allowed the patronage of a non-legal tender currency [the Dollar] in Nigeria to remain legal.

    Nigeria has no light – electricity. Nigeria has no fuel. Neither has it any of the 17 products gotten from refined of Crude Oil. Nigeria has no currency for the usage of its citizens. This is on one hand.

    In the other hand, Nigeria itself has become instrument of killing and pronouncement of death against Nigerians. There is enough of darkness – which is the opposite of light, for the whole population of over Two Hundred Million Nigerians. Fuel is not available for Nigerians to purchase. Yet, Nigerians need the fuel to powered their generators, vehicles, boats and whatever fuel could be used for. 

    The Jet A4 – fuel for aviation [flights], is non-existent. Planes taking off from Nigeria found it most comfortable making a stopover in Ghana to buy aviation fuel because it is mostly cheaper there than in Nigeria.

    What Nigerians have in abundance is death – death from all angles. This is easily distributed because the Nigerian State had earlier on engaged full services of SUPERIOR and SUFFISTICATED Agents of Death. Or don’t you know them?

    These are Terrorists, Bandits, Herders, Fulani Jihadist, Ritualists, Kidnappers and, of latest – the unknown Gunmen. Even when the greatest Military Institution in Nigeria, the Nigeria Defence Academy, was attacked, by what many Nigerians thought were terrorists, the Nigerian Military Authority told us that “they were Unknown Gunmen”.  

    Let us come to the Now, as we speedily approach the point of anchorage.

    I started this exercise by narrating that many have died and that more are going to die before the General Elections – and that is if the tomorrow of the Elections will come. Yet, we are talking of elections that is just 12 days away – counting from today, Sunday, February 12, 2023.

    The creation of the battlefield itself is comic as it is tragic. The planners of the battlefield and the executors, including the personae dramatis of the battleground at the battlefield are the same and same people.  Have you heard about such war before? Except in the Bible, it is never known and seen.

    All the planners of this battlefield and the appointed Executioners are all members of the same family.

    This unseen and unknown battle contestants and contenders – in a fiercely staged battle of self-annihilation, are all members of the same and only one family – the APC-led Federal Government of Nigeria. The same federal government with Muhammadu Buhari as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. They are all members of the same Ruling Political Party – the All Progressives Congress. 

    All and everyone of them came into this last battle of Nigeria’s attempt in surviving as one country, is said that it is all about the incoming elections.

    We now know that there is a Cabal in the Presidency that may not want APC to win the presidential election. The Cabal is APC – a la carte Nasir El Rufai, the Executive Governor of Kaduna State.

    Those who are “hiding” or “hording fuel” from Nigerians, for reason of sabotaging the election against the Presidential Flag Bearer of the APC [Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu] is APC – a la carte Bola Tinubu.

    The real reason why Godwin Emefiele; the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN], in collusion with President Muhammadu Buhari, sabotaged the redesigned and redistribution of the Nigerian Naira, by taking the money away into hiding; in one most organized affliction against the Nigerian People, so that the result of the incoming elections would not favour the APC, is the APC – a la carte – all APC Governors in Nigeria.

    It has become a case of the APC helping Nigerians identifying the enemy of the Nigerian People; which is APC. Can divided against itself stand? APC has identified the APC is the tormentor of the Nigerian people.

    So, 2023 General Elections remains the deadly hot melting pot for both the prey and the predator. 2023 general election remains therefore the real nemesis of these wicked, notorious and thieving Nigerian politicians that have taken an otherwise great country to the gutters over the years. Their day of reckoning and doom has come.

    2023 General Election is the place where the Prey and Predator shall devour themselves. They shall embark in a frenzy of self-annihilation at the DEADLY MELTING POT. 

    And so shall it be!

     

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a Veteran Journalist, writes from Lagos.

    Contact:

    Website: www.godwintheguru.com

    YouTube Cannel: Godwin The Guru

    Twitter: @godwin_buebu

    Facebook: Godwin Etakibuebu

    Facebook Page: Veteran Column

    Telegram: @friendsoftheguru

    Phone: +234-906-887-0014 – short messages only

    You can also listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday; from 0930 – 1100 hours @ Lagos Talks 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG].

  • The drum of crisis and violence is sounding louder in Nigeria – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    The drum of crisis and violence is sounding louder in Nigeria – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Last week I captured my usual Sunday broadcast as The Nigerian political atmosphere is becoming darker. And the caption of what I am presenting today is not too much different – The drum of crisis and violence is sounding louder. Are the two captions not similar enough?

    Yes, they are. In fact, both would run, through whatever tunnel of interpretation, to one confluence point of decoding. 

    The point of final analysis may not be too different from what Lokoja; the Capital City of Kogi State, in North Central geopolitical Zone of Nigeria, stands for. Lokoja is that beautiful city where both the River Niger and the River Benue met. Isn’t that being why it is called a Confluence point?

    So, there is a looming darkness over the Nigerian atmospheric space. It is actually dark enough for all to see. It is not like anything not physically visible and real. Except for those who might be pretending. Or those human catalysts that pulled the darkness out of the pit of hell into covering the Nigerian territorial space. And these – that brought/or bringing the darkness over Nigeria, are powerful and strong. They are Principalities and Powers. They are Rulers of Darkness in High Places at the Special Realm of Control. 

    They know what Power meant. They speak to Powers at all the time. In fact, they have paid the prices for Power acquisitions from the Kingdom of Darkness. These people are the same people we sometimes dine and fraternise with. We can, sometimes; and almost all the time, vouch for their integrity.

    We do so because they are the outstanding benevolent of our Society. We call them the “kind and good men/women God sent to us”.  Their shoulders are always available for us to lean upon. Don’t they wipe away tears, at most times, from our eyes?

    We run to them for help whenever we are under life pressure. They present themselves as our burden bearer. Yet we don’t know them. And all of us cannot decode the ironic code of knowing them. And that is . . .

    These people are the same; as part of the Powers, they hold over those of us [who are ordinary mortals] would have others recruited for another trajectory differently. They need this different voyage to accomplish their acquired route of total conquest. Again, they are triumphantly diabolic in this assignment. Just as they are in all their other penetrations. 

    In the face of this assignment, what the Political Principalities and Powers of Darkness in Nigeria do is simply to recruit a few individuals; across the country’s ethnicity, tribes, cultures and religion. Having been fully assured of the recruitment, the next stage they move into is purchase of Drums. Drums painted of different bright colours and place the painted drums in the hands of the recruited performers. 

    The political demonic gods of the land would now turn the drummers loose on the people – who are their brothers and sisters, with only one instruction. Go out there and keep the drums talking as we dictate it to you. 

    Once this is accomplished, and unknown to the recruits – the drummers, mostly with their glittering drums of many colours, a siege is of terrorism would have been unleashed on Nigerians. Blame these hypnotised drummers less, please. And for a one or two reasons.

    In the first place the glittering colour and decorations of different currencies of the drums put in their hands could transfer many mortals from the land of reality to a community of Eldorado. How many of them – the drummers, would know that it was coat of many colours that put Joseph, son of Isaac, in the Bible, into greater trouble?  

    This very long preamble – you will be right to say so, brings logic to what last week’s caption [The Nigerian political atmosphere is becoming darker] and today’s [The drum of crisis and violence is sounding louder] have in common.

    Metaphors of the 2023 general election is approaching faster with sound of crisis/violence on one hand and almost total darkness in the other hand. 

    Yes, Nigerians are happy with INEC’s preparation for the elections in terms of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System [BVAS] and other technological equipment for the election. That should be always seen as good news. 

    But in the other hand, let us take a cursory look at the languages and body showmanship of the politicians and subject same to full interpretation as it relates to fair, free and credible election. There is surely visible void in the horizon. And this should worry us much.

    For example, let us look at disclosures and revelations being made against each other amongst two of the four leading political parties – speaking of the APC and PDP, and their flagbearers; Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar.

    What the whole international community is hearing from Nigeria within the last two weeks is nothing but total embarrassment to the Nigerian Nation. It is either APC telling PDP that its flagbearer is a big scammer/fraudster of international dimension that should rot away in prison or the PDP is telling the APC that its flagbearer is the heaviest hard-drug kingpin the world ever produced.

    And both political parties have gone to the courts for the authentication of each other allegation against the other. Isn’t shameful that these are the type of people contending for Nigeria’s presidency in a country with over Two Hundred Million people?

    Let us say, just for the purpose of this Peculiar Mess; in the language of the late Ibadan politician – Adegoke Adelabu [which Ibadan people turned to pekelemesi] that it is only APC and PDP that are contending the election, how will Nigeria and its over 200 million people be feeling now?

    It would have been a dilemma of producing one of the two alleged criminals as president. Or, are we so sure that one of them shall not even emerge, the way things are now moving? If it so happens, which of the two shall we be referring to as the deep red sea and which will be the devil?

    This is on the one hand. Yet, there are many other things to look at. 

    The long awaited elections is few days away from us, yet there are thousands of problems the Nigerian government has created, and still creating. Each of the problems is darkening the Nigerian sky more.

    The Federal Government and the Nigerian President; who is the defacto Minister of Petroleum Resources for the country, have defrauded the citizenry in all areas of petroleum product to the extent that all Nigerians are now morbid and moribund. We have become are a pitiable revelation in the study of morbid anatomy.

    What about the truth concerning the Naira redesign and distribution? All that we now know is of Nigerians languishing in abject squalor, while the same political class that have betrayed us is accusing each other over things that shall never benefit us – the down-trodden citizens.

    We have mounting debts – going up to 77 trillion; as we have been told, awaiting the unborn generations for payment.

    It has now become a situation where all Nigerians are resulting into allying their thought with that great Author – Sidney Sheldon, in that famous book – If Tomorrow Comes. Must it be so?

    Isn’t it true that the words of our own cherished Chinua Achebe – Things fall apart; the Center cannot hold, has become fulfilled in today’s Nigeria?

    This is the time that The Nigerian political atmosphere is becoming darker while The drum of crisis and violence is sounding louder. May God help us. 

    The Guru adjourns!

     

    Godwin Etakibuebu

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  • The Nigerian political atmosphere is becoming darker – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    The Nigerian political atmosphere is becoming darker – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    I was never. 

    I have not been. 

    And, for sure, l shall never be. 

    A prophet of doom. 

    I have always lived my life, physically and spiritually, very positively about everything. 

    My dearly beloved country inclusive.

    The caption of this piece: the Nigerian political atmosphere is becoming darker, might be suggesting something negative. Or so it looks like. Yes, it is like that, and there is no way one wants to explain it, the truth is that the Nigerian political cloud is not too clear for objectivity’s reading. 

    The political oracle; if there is any identifiable one, might even not be able to be more forthcoming with the darkened political weather in Nigeria currently. If it looks that much for any oracle to interpret, then you will be willing to forgive this writer. He is nothing but a mere Political Technocrat. And for every individual, there is always limit of endeavours.

    Let us take some cursory interpretation of a few things happening around us. We just have to be very positive in doing so. Or, succinctly put, let us be exclusively objective, though the word ‘objective’ itself is ‘subjectively’ in detailed diagnosis. But we can, for the purposes of this discussion, chose to be conspiratorial, of the few things we should be looking at. 

    Which is the best way to start than to begin with the quality of the campaign ushering in the 2023 General Elections. How qualitatively cogent and eruditely attractive are the issues being canvassed by the personae dramatis in the narrative route to the general elections? Are the campaigns any issue related or based?

    Will all of us in Nigeria, even across the frontiers of this country, be falling into a major camp of conspiracy by saying that the political permutation, as we see it today, are not far from issues based? 

    What we have in our hands; at each point of campaign discussions, across all the major political parties, is nothing but abusive languages on each other. They; the campaigns, are nothing but campaign of calumny. They are looking so much like campaign of gangsters.

    Coming with the first day of the campaign, even before the campaigns started properly, revelations about criminality lifestyles of the upper-class runners of the politicians have been made public – one against the other.

    It is so bad that hitherto securely protected criminal lifestyles of the front runners of the two major political parties – APC and PDP, are now common knowledge to babies that are just born. It is even an obvious fact, as a friend of mine in the United State of America put it to me while discussing the issue a few days ago that “unborn Nigerian children shall know all Nigerian big thieves before they are born, because they [the unborn children] are now hearing the narration from their mothers’ womb”. 

    Can any person, in all sincerity, say that the Nigerian political atmosphere is not becoming darker on this issue?

    The departing president of Nigeria; Muhammadu Buhari, is another “bend corner of the road” in the plaintive narration into our future. More critically on Buhari’s narration is the difficulty of finding a way of fixing his “bend corner”.

    Here is a President that will go to sleep whenever the country he is elected to governor is on fire. He would sleep so deeply that most of us would be thinking that he has travelled to a place no ordinary mortal can reach. That would be the time that the wife – Hajia Aisha, will not even be available to help Nigerians in crossing over to the “ozer” room to call him.

    Take for example, the case of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] – Godwin Emefiele, who has been accused of “sponsoring terrorism financing and great economic crimes against Nigeria”, by the Directorate of State Security [DSS]. In fact, the DSS embarked on arresting Godwin Emefiele but for the judiciary that stopped the operation more for its illegality. 

    Where is President Muhammadu Buhari in this melodrama? This is not the first time he is displaying this character. It is his way of doing things – albeit strangely, unofficially, and oddly too. Here is a man that would appoint ministers and the ministers he so appointed would torpedo the Nigerian ship, Buhari would not say a word, in either queuing, disciplining or sacking the minister taking Nigeria to hell. He will opt to go for a very deep sleep at such times, and always.

    Take a look at this comparison of event below, as it happened in 1977 and how the same event is playing out in 2023 – 46 years after. This will also help us to know more about the man; Muhammadu Buhari.

    In 1977, a Colonel Muhammadu Buhari was the Nigerian Minister [then called Federal Commissioner] for Petroleum Resources, and today; 2023, a retired Major General of the Nigerian Army, and now President Muhammadu Buhari, is the Nigerian Minister for Petroleum Resources [in fact, he has been since 2015]. Why this comparison?

    On June 7, 1977; 46 years ago, a front story headline on the Daily Times, quoted Colonel Buhari as assuring Nigerians, on the crisis of fuel in the country then, and this is what the Newspaper quoted him as saying: “FUEL CRISES MAY BE OVER NEXT YEAR”, with a subheading rider that says: “we rely on foreign firms for figures”.

    What has changed since 1977, when he made this statement, as then Minister for Petroleum Resources and today – from 2015 till date [2023], when he is also the Minister for Petroleum Resources?

    Or don’t we – Nigerians, know how much President Buhari hates corruption, with his advocacy that Nigeria must kill corruption before corruption kills the country? 

    Yet don’t we know, in the other hand, how much our dearly cherished anti-corruption Czar President now presides over one of the most organised and syndicated corrupt government this country ever seen?

    And do you want to say that this is not translating to a darker political atmosphere over Nigeria?

    If there is any Nigerian that would say that the political atmosphere over Nigeria is not becoming darker, such Nigerian must either be a very sick person – suffering from “concentrated dementia” or be part of the instrumentality that helps in darkening the political cloud; a cloud that is pushing Nigeria faster to a precipice.

    Or in a position where we may be having front political parties’ contenders for this February 25th, presidential election being fully qualified for total disqualification, for reasons of their alleged nefarious acts of the past, that someone will say that the political atmosphere over Nigeria is not becoming darker?

    Of course, there are many other topical issues that identify the depth of how deep corruption  has sank Nigeria into. For example, the argument of whether the Federal Government increases fuel pump price or not would remain neither here nor there. Facts remained solidly proven that the Federal Government of Nigeria and its Agencies in the Petroleum Sector continue to defraud Nigerians on daily basis in many ways.

    Facts on ground, based on most recent finding show that while the syndicated Cabal presiding over the finished product [PMS] rakes N200.9 billion monthly from our connective commonwealth, those crook officials presiding over the Nigerian Crude Oil sector gather for themselves nothing less than $US70,000,000 daily.

    The issue therefore couldn’t have been the increase from N165 to N185 or otherwise. That begs the predicament of the Nigerian citizens. The issue is whether there shall be hope for Nigerians for a qualitative leadership after going through the rituals of 2023 general elections?

    Because the issue and the challenge are that of leadership!

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  • Wike and his friends: The limit and destructive element of human vengeance – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Wike and his friends: The limit and destructive element of human vengeance – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Nyesom Wike; Executive Governor of the oil-rich Rivers State – in South-South region of Nigeria, obviously is the leader of what some might term as the five rebellion governors of the People Democratic Party [PDP], though they are known more as the G-5 Governors.

    This G-5 Governors is slightly different from the one they called Integrity Group, though both Groups are in the PDP. There is need to place the two groups outstandingly different, and it is by so doing that we may be able to present the narration vividly, for assimilated understanding. 

    While the former [G-5] is made up of Governors Nyesom Wike [Rivers State], Seyi Makinde (Oyo State), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu State), Samuel Ortom (Benue State) and Okezie Ikpeazu [Abia State], the Integrity Group consists of these five governors and other top hierarchy members of the Party [PDP]. 

    These other members of the Party would include people like Chief Olabode George, Professor Jerry Gana, Air Vice Marshal Jonah Jang and scores of others scattered around the country but said to have been united on one purpose – Equity, Fair-play, Inclusivity and Justice.

    Of course, it was as a fallout of two events. The first being the aftermath of the PDP Presidential Primary of May 28, 2022, at the MKO Abiola Stadium, in Abuja – a Primary Atiku Abubakar won, with alleged intrigue of compromised conspiracy. The second runner-up at that exercise; Governor Wike made a point of violating the Party’ rule of conduct against the Governor of Sokoto State – Aminu Tambuwa, without so much heating the water up. 

    But the chicken did not come home to roost until the Presidential flagbearer [Atiku Abubakar] turned around to pick his running mate for the battle ahead. Unexpectedly, at some quarters, but specially expected at other camps of evaluations, Atiku picked the Governor of Delta State – Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.

    This was where the bubble blows up. And Governor Nyesom Wike’s calls to rebellion echo out. Of course, he had rays of ally amongst his compatriot of serving governors. He was able to gather four others [already named above] to himself. We all are not ignorant of what the cruise of the calls are. Ipso facto, let us move fast to the exodus of the narration, having identified the genesis. 

    We are not giving judgement on who did the right thing and who did the wrong thing. At least, not for now.

    In the Nigerian politics display, there is not straight line of morality as there is no ideological camp of practitioners. What is acceptable to one Political Party on this side of the line is conveniently acceptable to any other Political Party at the other side of the divide.

    On the revengers mission, trenches have been dug since then. And of course, each of the personae dramatis have adequately dogged in.

    Permit me to quote my thought on the battle when it started. And yours sincerely penned this down on September 22, 2022. Read my thought below, please.

    In 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan refused 5 PDP Governors’ request of letting Bamanga Tukur; then National Chairman of the Party – PDP, go. This led to the failure of the Party @ the 2015 General election. One of those that led the breakaway N-PDP was Atiku Abubakar.

    And this is 2022; months to 2023 General elections, that beautiful woman of substance in destiny matters; known as KARMA, is quickly here again with the same PDP. And she comes with ready-made 5 Governors of the Party, now confronting Atiku Abubakar; the presidential candidate of the Party in 2023 General elections, to either throw away the Party’s National Chairman; Iyorchia Ayu, or say goodbye to 2023 electoral presidential victory.

    As it was with Goodluck Jonathan in 2014, so it is with Atiku Abubakar in 2022.

    It is Madam KARMA that is visiting.

    The Guru shall return!

    And many agreed with me then. As many are still agreeing with me now. Let us fast-forward the transition because of time and space for this exercise.

    Governor Nyesom Wike’s warning of yesterday, saying that “the window of reconciliation in the PDP is closing”, can only be news for the “Hippopotamus from the sea of the rivers”, because that has been a vital known fact for most Nigerians, even before now.

    Unfortunately, though, there are evidence now that all members of the G5 lacked the courage and integrity to metamorphosed into becoming anything near Integrity class of a people.

    Did they not promise that they would name the Presidential candidate of other political parties their followers would be voting for on January 5, 2023, when Governor Seyi Makinde would be launching his gubernatorial campaign in Ibadan? What did Nigerians hear from those cowards at the launching – the date they promised? 

    Mum, we confirmed. And what did that imply?

    I ran into Chief Olabode George at the Bent Cross Shopping Mall in London, on Saturday, December 31, 2023, where we exchanged good wishes as we shook hands, there was one thing l observed from his looks, which told me that things were not too good with the meeting they had in London the previous day. 

    And that observation cautioned me not to discuss the presidential candidate that they agreed to be backing as expected for the governors’ announcement in Ibadan on January 5, 2023. But the very sad dead-end they arrived in that their jamboree, galvanising round the world about their resolve, in London, is now more publicly in the domain of most Nigerians.

    While Wike and Makinde were said to have agreed to openly work for Tinubu, Ugwuanyi and Ikpeazu reportedly agreed to work silently for the former Lagos State governor to avoid the wrath of the supporters of the Labour Party (LP), who have the capacity to frustrate their political ambitions in the South-East. Ortom, on the other hand, opted to work for Obi. 

    But none has made any public pronouncement. Even Ortom, in his press statement supporting Obi, acknowledged that as a member of the PDP, he would not lead Obi’s campaign. 

    Could this be a great lesson for Nigerian politicians, whom, at most times live like God, in all but one thing only – nefarious activities? 

    There is an Urhobo words of wisdom that cautions about the foolishness of any human being living like God. 

    It says that Ohworakpo cha sia dio Oghene bidibede re! 

     

    Godwin Etakibuebu

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  • How Buhari illegally spent N23.7trn in 7yrs without NASS’s knowledge – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    How Buhari illegally spent N23.7trn in 7yrs without NASS’s knowledge – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    The Senate on Wednesday, December 28, 2022, rejected President Buhari’s request for approval of N23.7 trillion CBN loans. But how did his government accumulate that much in seven years?

    The Central Bank of Nigeria’s advances to the federal government rose 2900 per cent in the last seven years to N23.8 trillion, an unprecedented rise that violated the law, stoked inflation and worsened the country’s debt burden.

    Central banks sometimes help governments to fund budget deficits, but such loans, called Ways and Means Advances, are tightly controlled as they can fuel inflation and distort monetary policy.

    In May 2015 when the Buhari administration came to office, the CBN’s loans to the federal government stood at N789.7 billion cumulatively. Since then, the government has drawn central bank loans each year at an unprecedented level.

    Between January and October this year [2022] alone, the government drew N5.6 trillion. By comparison, between December 2012 (the earliest date the CBN has released data for) and May 2015, a period of two and half years, ways and means advances rose by N654.9 billion.

    As his administration winds down, President Muhammadu Buhari tried on Wednesday, December 28, 2022, to obtain a delayed approval for the loan that had already been spent, causing an uproar in the Senate. Lawmakers rejected the request and accused the president of violating the constitution. They also demanded details of how the money was spent.

    How CBN loans to Buhari govt climbed 2900% in seven years in violation of law

    The CBN Act says the CBN may grant temporary advances to the federal government in respect of temporary deficit of budget revenue at such rate as the bank may determine. It however warns that the total amount of such advances outstanding “shall not at any time exceed five (5) percent of the previous year’s actual revenue of the Federal Government.”

    In addition, it stipulates that, “All advances shall be repaid as soon as possible and shall, in any event, be repayable by the end of the Federal Government financial year in which they are granted and if such advances remain unpaid at the end of the year, the power of the bank to grant such further advances in any subsequent year shall not be exercisable, unless the outstanding advances have been repaid.”

    Analysts say all requirements of that legislation have been breached by the CBN under Godwin Emefiele and Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed.

    If the regulation had been followed, the ways and means to the government for the entire 2022 should not exceed N219 billion (5 per cent of the government’s revenue in 2021).

    Yearly Advances

    The bank’s loan as of December 2015 stood at N856 billion; it rose to N2.2 trillion in December 2016 and reached N3.3 trillion in December 2017.

    By December 2018, the figure rose to N5.4 trillion and reached N8.7 trillion in December 2019. The amount was N13.1 trillion by December 2020 and N17.4 trillion by December 2021. It is now N23.8 trillion.

    In October, the government said it was converting the CBN loans to bonds with a maturity of 40 years and an interest rate of nine per cent, effectively transferring the bill to the next generation.

    Analysts say drawing so much from the CBN has opened the economy to severe risks. “Specifically, the Debt to GDP now surpasses the 30 per cent benchmark the DMO and Minister of Finance always quote,” Kalu Aja, a finance expert, said of the advances.

    “This is a contingent liability to the federal government; it narrows the ability to do more deficit financing and essentially guarantees taxes must rise to cover the deficit.”

    He said injecting so much money into the economy has made Nigeria’s inflation worse.

    “On the monetary side, one wonders the strategy of the CBN, they have monetized the deficit by excessive printing of the naira which will continue to cause inflation. Their response to fight inflation has primarily been to raise the monetary policy rate,” he said.

    “A high MPR means SME cannot profitably borrow. Thus, we see a clear linkage between excessive printing on behalf of the CBN and higher interest rates.”

    Nigeria’s inflation reached 21.47 per cent in November 2022, rising for the 10th consecutive month. In response, the central bank raised the benchmark lending rate to 16.5 per cent.

    ‘Piggy Bank’

    The International Monetary Fund in November warned that the CBN’s continued financing of the country’s deficit through ways and means will complicate the effort to contain inflation.

    In November 2021, the World Bank also listed the sizeable “fiscal deficit financing” by the CBN as one of the factors undermining the business environment, compounding underlying constraints on domestic revenue mobilization, foreign investment, human capital development, and the delivery of public services.

    In 2017, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Doyin Salami, criticised the CBN’s “massive injections of cash” into the economy, accusing the bank of serving as a “piggy bank” for the government, against its own rules.

    He said the CBN’s claims on the federal government at the time were “twentyfold higher” than what the law permits.

    In December 2016, a former governor of CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, raised concern over the violation of the CBN Act concerning the financing of the government’s deficit.

    “The CBN-FGN relationship is no longer independent. In fact, one could argue their relationship has become unhealthy. CBN claims that the FGN now tops N4.7 trillion – equal to almost 50 percent of the FGN’s total domestic debts. This is a clear violation of the Central Bank Act of 2007 (Section 38.2) which caps advances to the FGN at 5 percent of last year’s revenues. The overdrafts alone are equal to more than 10 times that prescribed limit and are growing every month,” The Cable quoted Lamida Salusi as saying.

    In August 2022, Kingsley Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the bank, also criticised the CBN’s actions.

    “In the current scenario, the leadership of the Bank evidently does not believe in the concept of central bank independence in its operations. Rather, the Bank asks, “how high?” once the Presidency says “jump”. It sees itself as a quasi-fiscal agent, using its ability to print money, for the government of the day,” he said.

    “If the CBN is busy printing money for the government through illegal Ways and Means lending, and then pretends to be fighting inflation by belated raises of the Monetary Policy Rate and what one commentator aptly termed a “dubious” cash reserve ratio policy on commercial banks, how can we fight inflation successfully?” he wrote in an opinion piece. 

    Source: Premium Times of January 2, 2023 

    Godwin Etakibuebu

     

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  • Countdown on Buhari and his fraudulent budgets – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Countdown on Buhari and his fraudulent budgets – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Counting down from today, Monday, December 9, 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari has just, and only, 140 days to tell Nigerians goodbye – ceteris paribus. That will be May – the Fifth Month of the Year of our Lord Jesus Christ; 2023, and it shall be the 29th day of that month that President Buhari shall be handing over to his successor at the Eagle Square, in the City of Abuja – again, “all other things remaining equal”. 

    He shall thereafter, by the grace of God, be joining the league of Ex or Former Presidents. And out there, waiting to receive him shall be Four of his original and traditional constituent members – Generals Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Abdulsalam Abubakar, plus one other; that the four mentioned above would have referred to, at one time or other as “a bloody civilian” – Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan. 

    The man – President Muhammadu Buhari, told Nigerians very recently that he was in hurry to leave the Aso Rock Villa for Daura; his hometown in Katsina State. But more importantly, according to him, he would not be missing anything in Abuja that would compel him of coming back to the Capital City of Nigeria in hurry. 

    I think that may likely be good news to Nigerians, because if the truth must be told, his departure from the presidency and Abuja; to a very large extent, shall remain one good riddance to bad rubbish. Nigerians shall not be missing him as President of Nigeria, for many reasons.

    One, the man Buhari, is old enough to deserve a continuous resting off his labours for Nigeria. On this alone even, Nigerians never expected him to return to Abuja for any contribution to the Think-Thank Rolling Machine of solving the country’s problems.

    Two, Nigerians’ brought Muhammadu Buhari to judgment and found him wanting in most things – most things across the line of all his promises, from 2015, till date. Some even are giving greater thought to his days when he evaded Nigerian gloriously serene democratic home and dismantled all beautiful structures of that Home – speaking of the time he came in through the vehicle of coup-de-tat, form December 31, 1983, to August 27, 1985. 

    Three, his monetary policy, mostly as reflected in his Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN]’s operation remains one big and major disaster even as this piece is be written. His CBN policy has been seen as bad model for dud mediocrity, absurdity and deadly, by monetary institutions all over the world. For a long time to come, Buhari’s monetary policy’s prosecution remains a model in mockery. And you don’t have to blame those that mocked us, because every decent Nigerian don’t understand where Godwin Emefiele; the Governor of CBN, imports his ideas of running Nigeria from

    Let us consider one more reason why most Nigerians shall never be missing Buhari, amongst many others, before drawing the curtain on today’s exercise. And please, let us take this as number Four.

    President Muhammadu Buhari, from the beginning of his [second coming] administration [2015] to the end [2023], packaged, presented and operated the most corrupt Budget in the annals of Nigeria’s history. All through his 8 years tenure the man never pretended, not even once; in the matter of budgeting, of being anti-corruption personality despite of the picture he painted for himself in the past.

    Muhammadu Buhari, instead, showed to Nigerians a mind that thrived in the prosecution of corruption – using the Budget as a template for this exercise, thereby leaving him as a very poor case study in fighting battles against corruption. Let us dwell on this on the Budgetary matter, from 2015 to 2023, a little more.

    The Nigerian national Budget Buhari operated from May 29, 2015, when he took mantle of democratic leadership was an inheritance from President Goodluck Jonathan. And of course, that budget would have come with its flaws, though nothing was mentioned of it. And the silence about that inherited budget, in my candid opinion, would have emanated from the fact that Buhari did not appoint cabinet – Ministers, until 6 months after he was sworn-in as President.

    However, Buhari put together his own Budget for Nigeria in 2016, and that budget came with some notorious fallouts. And President Buhari pretended that padding of that of that budget rattled him some much, he complained about it in Saudi Arabia when he was addressing the Nigerian community in that country during his state visit there. Listen to what he said:

    “The culprits will not go unpunished. I have been a military governor, petroleum minister, military head of state and headed the Petroleum Trust Fund. Never had I heard the words ‘budget padding,’” Buhari reportedly said during his official visit to Saudi Arabia. “Our minister of budget and national planning did a great job with his team. The minister …was working night and day to get the budget ready, only for some people to pad it. What he gave us was not what was finally being debated. It is very embarrassing and disappointing.”

    Despite the threat, Buhari did not bring anyone out for punishment in 2016, nor has there been any record of punishment melted out to any of his appointees [Ministers and members of the Civil Service] from that year [2016] till date. 

    In 2019, the president wrote to the Nigerian National Assembly, warning the latter to desist from the habit of colluding with the MDA of inflating budgets – a habit that continues as this piece is being written. Buhari knows that the National Assembly turned deaf ears to his letter, probably for the reason; that the latter understands the game that both – the Executive and the National Assembly, have a conspiratorial agreement to dupe Nigerians yearly on this Budget matter. 

    Still on the disaster of fraudulent budget under discussion, the legacy of Muhammadu Buhari remains solely one identifiably confirmed fact: a Budget of Padding [from the Executive] and Inserting [form the Legislature – National Assembly], and this occurred every year; from 2016 till 2023. 

    Let us take a very keen note and observation of the last Budget Muhammadu Buhari presented to the National Assembly, which has been passed by the latter and signed into Law by the former. We cannot resist crying for Nigeria after keen observation.

    President Buhari’s Ministers were the first in accusing each other, publicly, of Budget Padding, at the National Assembly. This was when the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development [Sadiya Umar Farouq] accused the Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning [Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed] of padding her ministry’s budget to the tune of over 262 billion Naira. 

    Then, after the first exposure, many padding were later exposed by the National Assembly until the Minister of Finance publicly – with unacceptable explanations though, admitted to padding the 2023 budget to the tune of N1.7 trillion. With such deadly revelation, nothing has been heard from our “Holy” President.

    This admission did not ruffle Buhari into defending himself as Anti-Corruption Czar. He waited until the National Assembly Inserted its own version of a little over One Trillion Naira, without the whole House sitting as a Committee in crosschecking the Appropriation Committee’s work before sending it to the President for assertion. And our President signed it into Law.

    What and how are Nigerians to conclude other than to say that Muhammadu Buhari started with Padded Budget in 2016 and ended with Padded Budget in 2023. May his name be blessed in the specialization of padding and always inserting of Budgets. And can this be called corruption? Only posterity, at the documentation of the Buhari’s era, can say. 

    This is one of those issues coming under discussion tomorrow morning, under the segment of The Guru, at Lagos Talks 91.3 FM, as from 0930 hours. 

    Won’t you rather join the discussion tomorrow, at your chosen Golden Radio of choice, through phone call-in and other media platforms? Those unbeatable spices: Historical Perspective, Periscope and Knowledge Dropbox are equally waiting for you.

     

    Godwin Etakibuebu [The Guru].

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  • Wike plus Atiku: Equals PDP’s waterloo – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Wike plus Atiku: Equals PDP’s waterloo – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Let us set a befitting background for today’s essay as such will help us to understand the subject hereunder captured.

    I must however confirm my biased respect for the French Army General; Napoleon Bonaparte, more for his commanding military policy of “bring the bad news to me at once while the good news can wait”. And according to him, “it is the bad news that teaches me if what l am doing is right or wrong in battles, and it is only through it that l know how to reorganize my war strategies”.

    A little more about the man – Napoleon Bonaparte and that disastrous battle he lost at that very small village called Waterloo in Belgium.

    The Battle of Waterloo was fought on June 18, 1815, between Napoleon’s French Army and a coalition led by the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Blücher. This battle concluded a war that had raged for 23 years, and ended French attempts to dominate Europe. It also destroyed Napoleon’s imperial power forever.

    The battle of waterloo was a devastating event for the armies involved as well as the community itself. The combined number of men killed or wounded reached nearly 50,000, with close to 25,000 casualties on the French side and approximately 23,000 for the Allied army.

    We can see that there was a very highly devastative casualty from both sides; a thing that would have been avoided if precaution was taken.

    But precaution was never taken then; as it remains in most cases till date, it merely proved to be a blunder-trend that defines how human being cookie crumbles, even from the beginning of human history on earth.

    It is probably for that reason that our own dearly cherished Cicero – the late Chief James Ajibola Idowu Ige, told us about the difficulty of people learning from history, which made him to conclude that “inability of people to learn from history is the reason why history keep repeating itself”.

    Unfortunately, our beloved great lawyer; a man that was delightedly eloquent, both in Latin and the English languages’ inability to learn from history, made him climbing the Tiger’s back and, unfortunately, ended up in the Tiger’s stomach.

    We are not embarking on that historical voyage today, so we must return to the narration of almost likely battle of Waterloo which this acrimony between Wike and Atiku may result to.

    A presidential political Primary of the People Democratic Party [PDP] took place at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja a few months ago. Most of the contenders deviated from bargaining with the Nigerian Naira at the event. They staked the Delegates with US Dollars instead of the Nigerian legal currency – Naira.

    The Delegates fell for the trap. And who won’t go down for such temptation in the market place where Delegates became cash and carry products?  Dollarization of election was thus massively introduced into the Nigerian political lexicon. The All Progressive Congress [APC] followed same pattern, though in a much larger scale, a few months after the PDP introduced the Dollarization concept.

    The Dollar game might not necessarily be the factor that promoted Atiku Abubakar over and above Nyeson Wike at the end of the day because what Dollar could not complete, sentiment of religion and tribe completed – to wit: in favour of Atiku Abubakar. For that reason, Wike left the scene a bruised candidate.

    That “first among equals” of an infamous stone that hit Wike became something smallish compared to the water of opprobrium poured on him when the vice-presidential running mate of the Party was picked, as Wike, who was meritoriously invited to face the Selection Panel, performed creditably [three times – as we were told] over and above his contemporaries, but was dumped for Delta State Governor candidature. It was at this point that “yawa gas” as Warri people would say.

    Ego-bruised Nyesom Wike withdrew to his cocoon to strategized, while Atiku Abubakar kept the tempo of his dance of victory momentously growing. Every other thing since then has become history well-known to the Nigerian people.

    One thing for sure that the Nigerian people know too well about the man Nwike – l called him the “Hippopotamus from the Sea”, is that he is always fearless, audacious and dangerously ravaging in all his political pursuits. He lives a life of an open book. He says what he wants to do in advance. And he does what he had said he would.

    But above all, he remains a Party man, and in this case – fully-blooded-PDP-man-totally. He remained just one of the very few that stood for the PDP throughout the country when the Party almost went into extinction.

    In the other hand, Atiku  Abubakar; the former Vice President, has proved to be a fair-weather political man. He could come and go with connective failure or victory. Within the past few years, this big man from Adamawa has floated from the PDP; a Party which he co-founded in 1998, three times and each time he saw pepper at his new “golden land” he returned without qualms and good conscience.

    On the principle of continuous political loyalty, the two men stand millions of miles apart. Let us leave that much for now.

    Now the battle between the two – Atiku and Wike, which for sure, if not resolved fast by the leadership of the Party [minus Senator Iyorchia Ayu – the National Chairman of the Party], has the capacity of tearing the Party into pieces.

    And the stone throwing by Senator Iyorchia Ayu, when he referred to Wike; and possibly Chief Olabode George – a very senior ranking member of the PDP Board of Trustee, “as children that were never born when we formed the Party”, is most likely to take the Party down to abyss of no return.

    And of course, Wike has replied Ayu adequately, telling him that “since they want to lose the election, we will help them”.

    It means therefore that the present “macabre dance of death” some personae dramatis leaders of the PDP [led by Nyesom Wike and Iyorchia Ayu] are embarking upon is almost becoming one-too-much.

    Enough is enough because the Centre cannot hold more than this, and God forbid bad thing, if the Accord Concordia; in the words of the late Dr Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe, fabric snaps, Nigeria could blow up. And if that happens, all of us will be in one terrible mess.

    Let me provide a direct and more succinct political answer to those that might want to ask me the question of why am I crying more than the bereaved or why am I taking Panadol for someone else’s headache.

    Yes, l am not a politician. I have no membership Card of any Political Party. I am contented doing what is my God-given assignment, which is being and remaining a Political Technocrat. But because I am involved – being the caption of the late Odumegwu Ojukwu’s book, the collapse of Nigeria will almost remain a permanent disaster to all of us. I am “crying more than the bereaved” because I am a Nigerian who surely must be a victim of this country goes under.

    Nigeria is currently overstressed already – courtesy of President Muhammadu Buhari’s clueless administration; any little push by any of these Political Dealers parading themselves as Political Leaders, the country [Nigeria] would go over the cliff, straight into the bottomless pit.

    God forbid such from happening. That is why l am always prepared to cry more than the bereaved and willing to swallow as many Panadols for our connective headache because l remain a fantastically one patriotic Nigerian.

    This C-o-u-r-t adjourns!

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

    Contact:

    Website: www.godwintheguru.com

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    Phone: +234-906-887-0014 – short messages only.

    You can also listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday; 9:30 – 11am on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG].

  • Between Nigeria and Niger Republic: Where does Buhari’s interest lie? – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Between Nigeria and Niger Republic: Where does Buhari’s interest lie? – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Evidence on the place, time and jurisdiction of birth of Muhammadu Buhari – either as a Major General or President, are well documented enough that ambiguity is never accommodated. He attained the rank of Major General of the Nigerian Army before retiring. And he was, and is, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

    These are the incontrovertible facts of the gentleman and officer – Muhammadu Bubari. Even when the level of his Certificate became so controversial and search for it became a serious challenge to all those in his camp, the search was limited only to Nigeria’s landscape.

    It was never extended to Niger Republic in spite of the fact of the Country’s proximity to Nigeria – the neighbourhood boundary extends from Sokoto in the North-West to Maiduguri, in North-East. This secures the evidence that my President – Muhammadu Buhari, is a Nigerian over and over.

    Yet, there are happenings over the past few years to put a wedge of suspicion on the actual nationality of Buhari; in-between Nigeria and Niger.

    The more we look at the evidences of nationality’s loyalty, available to Nigerians, about Buhari’s actions, the more one would want to query and interrogate the fact of him being a Nigerian. Maybe, we should access one or two of these happening in order to put our navigational chart on focus.

    At the end of our interrogation and whatever fact or facts we may be coming out with; without giving judgement ahead, Buhari must be seen as a Nigeria – through and through.

    Since his emergence as the President of Nigeria in 2015, Buhari has overwhelmingly opened Nigeria’s financial vault into providing strategic infrastructural development to the Niger Republic, despite Nigeria’s poor financial standing.

    The projects executed in the last seven years include a $2billion standard gauge railway project the Nigerian government is constructing from Kano to Maradi in Niger Republic, a project President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off in February, 2021.

    The project, which was awarded to a Portuguese Construction Company, Mota-Engil, involved the construction of 284 kilometres standard-gauge line with 12 stations from Kano in northern Nigeria to Maradi in landlocked Niger Republic.

    The project was funded through an external loan of $4.054b, approved by the National Assembly, in 2018. It remains one of those loans we might not be able to pay in the next 50 years.

    The Nigerian leader had informed the National Assembly, in the letter, dated August 24, 2021, that the projects to be executed in the six geopolitical zones of the country, including Kano to Maridin, listed in the 2018-2021 Federal Government Borrowing Plan, would be financed through sovereign loans from the World Bank, French Development Agency, EXIM Bank International Fund for Agricultural Development, Credit Suisse Group and Standard Chattered/China Export and Credit in the total sum of $4,054,476,863 and €710m (839m) and grant components of $125m.

    And we must not forget in hurry what the Nigerian Minister of Transport then; Rotimi Amaechi, told Nigerians at a time that he had to go to Niger Republic personally to beg the government to allow the construction of the rail line into their country. Did he say so? Yes, he said it, and with the approval of President Buhari.

    Then another project followed successively.

    In July 2018, Nigeria and Niger Republic agreed to collaborate to construct an oil pipeline and refinery.

    They agreed that while the proposed refinery will be located in Katsina State, Northern Nigeria, crude supply will be through the pipeline from Niger Republic’s oilfields in the Ténéré desert.

    The MoU for the two projects, which are expected to cost about $2billion, was signed by the two countries’ energy ministers and witnessed by Buhari and his counterpart from the Republic of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou.

    In November 2020, the Nigerian government, through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, headed by President Buhari himself, signed a $2b refinery project to import fuel from Niger Republic, a country that only joined the league of oil-producing countries in 2012. That is Buhari’s way of growing Nigerian economy!

    The Ministry of Petroleum Resources in justifying the MoU stated that the Soraz Refinery in Zinder, Niger Republic has an installed capacity to produce 20,000 barrels per day while the country’s domestic requirement was just 5000 barrels per day, thereby resulting in a surplus of 15,000 barrels per day.

    Timipre Sylva, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources; who was more or less a spare tyre in the Nigerian-Buhari’s vehicle said: “Nigerians should be proud that we are doing that to encourage sub-regional trade because we have been talking about sub-regional trade for a long time, and this is how it should be between neighbouring countries. Niger should import from us what we have, and we should import from Niger what they have. Let us encourage intra-regional trade, and this is one good example of trading within West Africa.”

    There are too many over-generosity of Muhammadu Buhari to the country called Niger Republic that time may not permit to mention all, exempt just to add the latest, which looks like a few days ago.

    President Buhari, just last Wednesday, was reported to have directed the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning; Zainab Ahmed, to release the sum of N1.14billion for the purchase of 10 Land Cruiser Jeeps, to the government of Niger Republic.

    These 10 luxurious cars – take note that they are not security operational vehicles, came at the cost of One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira apiece. And they were never imported from Innoson Motors of Nigeria, but instead, the contract to import the vehicles from Japan was given to  Kaura Motors Nig. Ltd to supply the vehicle under the direct procurement method, in line with section 10 A and B of the Public Procurement Act 2007, because of the urgency of the matter. Kaura Motors Nigeria Limited is an incorporated auto dealers based in Kaduna State and was registered on the 19th of August, 1985, with Registration Number 75140.

    The vehicles, it was gathered, would “assist the country [Niger Republic] in the transportation and movement of VIPs, high-ranking officials, top government functionaries and visitors scheduled for official visit to Niger at this time of its nascent democracy, with all its attendant consequences on their collective and individual security and safety of lives and property.”

    Permit me to point out that there was a time, about four years ago, when President Muhammadu Buhari nominated a Nigerien [not Nigerian citizen] citizen for ambassadorial appointment in Nigeria and same was confirmed by the Nigerian Senate.

    I will recommend that Nigerians should tamper justice with mercy on our beloved president on this Niger Republic issue because if the truth must be told; Muhammadu Buhari has so many Cousins – not the type of Mafioso Cousins, but BLOODLY related Cousins in that country.

    Or how will you explain a situation when two Governors, from two different regions of Niger Republic, crossed the Nigerien/Nigerian border into Kano State in 2019, to campaign with, and for, a bigger Cousin – Muhammadu Buhari, during the General Campaign of that year. Or didn’t you see that?

     

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

    Contact:

    Website: www.godwintheguru.com

    You Tube Channel: Godwin The  Guru

    Twitter: @godwin_buebu

    Facebook: Godwin Etakibuebu

    Facebook Page: Veteran Column

    Telegram: @friendsoftheguru

    WhatsApp: @friendsoftheguru

    Phone: +234-906-887-0014 – short messages only.

    You can also listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday; 9:30 – 11am on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG].