Looking for allies in the "Fuel War" in Nigeria

I am gladdened each time I remind myself that Nigeria is a great Nation because we have the people and human resources with the potential to positively  transform the nation. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi made my day when I read his thoughts expressed long ago. The build-up of his argument was intellectual and agreed with my economic reasoning. I wonder whether the members of the Economic Council have good background in Economics of Developing Countries. They should really be given some books to read. Meanwhile they could start with the Sanusi piece by clicking on the excerpt highlighted below!!!!!

 

"Economic policies aimed at reducing subsidies, unraveling the welfare state, widening income distribution inequalities and increasing the suffering of our masses to fuel obscene profiteering must be resisted. However, we ought to applaud debt repayment/cancellation, due diligence and increased transparency, a fight against corruption and drug trafficking, and those steps taken by the likes of Okonjo-Iweala, Mansur Muhtar, Nasir el-Rufai, Nuhu Ribadu, Oby Ezekwesili and Dora Akunyili to improve our image as a nation and reform the economy and society."

Making a sense of OBJ

"I have never participated in any coup, but I have been a beneficiary of a coup. I believe, for instance, that we in Nigeria, on the whole, we would have been better off without coups. We keep learning, and we keep improving. I believe that this is the third election we have in this dispensation. I believe we are improving in the quality of people that are coming up. The first election in 1999, many people didn’t believe it would work, so, they kept away. Some even told me I was a fool." OBJ

The interview of OBJ in a recent newspaper publication was an interesting reading to me. Nigerian leaders like OBJ must keep the history of Nigeria outside the realm of conjecture. There are many lessons to be learned from him. Perfection is achieved by adding positively and removing the militating factors.

Housing Sector Development in Nigeria

Kindly read this article:

How to reduce dearth of Nigeria’s housing stock

It provides insights as to what government must do now to solve the problem of housing deficit, slum development and crowded cities. After the GRAs, there are no decent places to live in Nigeria.

Opposition: Who is covering the milestones and road signs?

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Opposition: Who is covering the milestones and road signs?

Why Vote GEJ?

1) He represents a paradigm. An impossible permutation made possible by a transformational evolution of fresh values in politics. It speaks eloquently about minority rights in country attached to the dominance of three tribes.
2) He is a personality I can trust with the future of democracy.
3) He has responded to trade unions and taken favourable actions on issues that bother me. Other candidates have historical traits that will negate GEJ's current position.
4) He is unassuming and can accept the position of the weak in a struggle. Quite poised to see another side of the argument. He listens and acts, with a research orientated approach to national problems.
5) He has a national outlook and believes in the slow tangible progress we make as a nation. He preaches peace and advocates an inclusive government.
6) He is fighting corruption under the law by creating an environment for the flow of information and strengthening institutions that will adjudicate in breaches of the law.
7) He has displayed better emotional balance than other candidates.
8) He is an academic and can accept intellectual challenge from Nigerians here and abroad.
9) He is our hope to break away from the past, so that history does not repeat itself ingloriously. 10) .........etc.
If you research and look at all the issues, you will vote GEJ. PDP has a problem, yes! All the parties do. Do your best for Nigeria.

Reflection on Nigerian Politics of Opposition

The essence of the opposition in politics is NOT to cover the milestones and road signs on the highways built in a democracy. The opposition is, rather, expected to highlight and point out the clearer paths to greatness of a nation.


A good road for the journey in a democratic process is built by politicians who play by the rules and have true sense of patriotism without inordinate taste for power.

Politicians must not love power and hate to lose it. Those who truly love Nigeria will always have the power to govern because they will be called or beckoned to serve.

Opposition in politics is not about creating crises for the sake of relevance. Opposition is creating visions that remove illusions in the minds of people to make better choices.

My Response to Bakare's Interview

The wisdom that comes from experience guides us to great heights. One of them says: No one learns how to use a left hand in old age. And a left-handed man cannot become efficient as a right-handed man in old age.” Nigeria lost many football matches when left players were featured on the right wing. That is, round pegs in square holes. Bakare’s interview comes to mind as a contradiction of wisdom even against his initial best judgement. An advocate of an ascetic and hard-line disciplinarian, he claims. Being an ascetic and deprived individual was virtuous in the eastern tradition, but it never eliminated discontent in those who practiced it because of the innermost inadequacy it engenders. Such an individual is driven to find fulfilment in a class revolt as an effort to find a new vista of fulfilment. This is the basis of social revolution fired by crisis of unequal access to economic resources.

The struggle for change or transformation of our political fortunes should come from the recognition of ideals that are foundations for development. One of these ideals is the practice of truth which must come from the realization of certain facts of life. Bakare, as a pastor, knows this. The paradigms in Bakare’s interview are inconsistent with his struggle for order.

The paradigm that he has found the anti-corruption magnet in his ally is faulty on moral grounds. The reason is simple: “You cannot fight corruption with corruption as your insignia”. Dictatorship is a corruption of democracy. A successful coup is the highest crime against democracy and it is a corrupt practice!!!!! Ruling with draconian force with no respect for civilian rights is corruption. Accepting to serve a dictatorship, not working to disengage the dictator and usher in democracy is corruption. All dictators have undemocratic traits. Dictators have a way of generating blind faith in them and can mobilize support undemocratically through surrogate manipulations of propaganda and subtle coercion.

Obasanjo was our first democrat with a history of dictatorship. He did not hide his background even when he chose to be addressed as a chief and not a military general. We survived his intrigue to be high-handed from time to time and to abort the third term agenda which could have perpetuated him in the Aso Villa. Obasanjo was a reluctant coupist, dragged into military rulership by the circumstances of his time, but he slightly vindicated himself by handing over to civilians and joining forces with pro-democracy compaigners during the era of Nigeria’s discomfiture in the grips of dictatorship. Obasanjo was in a grade of dictators less malignant than those that took over power, were hesitant about democratization and hobnobbed with avaricious dictators.

Nigeria must beware of dictators in democratic garbs with eloquent advocates. Dictatorship is a trait once learnt never ever cleans out. Like a recessive gene, it manifests in a homologous association which is guaranteed when power is tasted. We have not forgotten that “power corrupts” Those who have sought power corruptly know the corruption of power and have used power corruptly. I have given researched evidence of this. A lot of opinions are pointing that Bakare’s ally is capable of controlling politicians with “absolute power” in order to checkmate their excesses. There is a snag in this advocation. It is not about fear, but a caution that we may lose the political freedom that was hard won. Anyway, those who have their passports, multiple visas to privileged parts of the world and money in foreign accounts have no fears, since they are on notice to vacate the country before the ombudsman arrives. He may know how to stay long enough to repeat the Tunisian and Egyptian saga which he predicts.

Bode George left the prison and celebrated. Those who celebrated with him were vilified. Today, those who committed a successful crime against democracy, a crime punishable by a death sentence, have become heroes of our time. Where is the deterrent that will dissuade the young “academists” and young armed officers from engaging in this act against the state? We must have some reasonable abhorrence of anti-democratic events and persons in order to build a stable democracy in future. We need to understand the meaning of corruption. It is an illegality against the state infrastructure or process. If we intend to fight corruption, we must stand on a pedestal that can be morally trusted. Let’s dissociate with that past history.

The Bakare argument is weak and cannot win any case for the future of democracy in Nigeria.

Note taken from President Shehu Shagari

"Corruption is now rampant in our country. Everybody is corrupt, and it is taken for granted. Everybody accepts it as a necessary evil. The people who should work against corruption, who are on the frontline are the police. But the police are now the most corrupt body in the entire country. There is nothing you can do about it, unless you can do away with them, and perhaps only the military remains. Gen. Buhari tried to do so, but he did not succeed. He became ruthless as a person. But you need to tackle this problem of insecurity, which is caused by corruption. The people who are supposed to check all these things are also corrupt! So, what do you do? That is the entirety of the problem."

"I was telling some people, the other day, that each time I travel on the road I am disgusted with the behaviour of the Road Safety men. Everyday, I find the police and Road Safety men on the roads; however, I have not seen them arresting anybody, even if they are driving vehicles that are overloaded. They are just ordered to park on the roadside, as if they were being arrested, but, instead, I have seen them give the police and Road Safety men money in plain sight of the public! Everybody can see what is happening! The drivers all know that all these people want is money, so they just throw money at them like you throw things to a dog. They (the drivers) don’t even stop. They just slow down, take ten Naira, and throw it at the policeman. And shamelessly, the policeman would stoop down to take it! I have seen it with my own eyes! So when we have come to this stage, what do we call it?"

"We are not progressing as fast as we would wish; but we are, indeed, making some progress. The pace may not be to my liking or to yours, but the fact is that we are making progress in some areas. Normally, for countries to progress, it is a struggle." Click here to read the full interview

Criterion for Presidential Candidates in Nigeria

"A man should never be appointed to a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths. The man who always knows what people cannot do, but never sees what they can do, will undermine the spirit of the organisation. Of course, a manager should have a clear grasp of the limitations of his people, but he should see these as limitations on what they can do, and as a challenge to them to do better." Anonymous from Okoroa4forum

Leading is just like being a manager. Most cynics stand by and think that our politicians are corrupt. They have the mindset of saviours, and will always meet head bouts in power struggles. That I know. He who can work with the weakness of people in mind and harness the best from them is the best leader for Nigeria. We should screen our presidential candidates with this criterion.

Good leaders must run very open government and respond to genuine public interests. This is why any good leader must support freedom of information within the law. Has the President Jonathan responded to public interests? Are we able to query the high and mighty on moral issues in governance? Can due process and financial impropriety be investigated? Is there equity for the common man. Do Nigerians resist corruption and despise it?????? Answer these questions.

Thinking about Voting

The article was a stimulating thing to read in the NATION newspaper. The article cleared my thoughts about voting in the forthcoming presidential election. This was how I thought:

If Nigeria must thrive and grow, we have no other choice than to throw away sentiments and look at hardcore analysis seeing what will strengthen the nation. The development of Nigeria will derive from basic evolutionary changes without rash pushes and impulsive strong-personality leadership. Nigeria is too big for any self-righteous autocrat and every responsible Nigerian must avoid any leader with such trait or tendency, because it a good recipe for anarchy. Sam wrote what I read and he did a good write-up. He has told the truth in much rhetorical sarcasm. The Arab uprising is not for Nigeria. If IBB dogged it, no ruler in Nigeria will wait for it to happen. My choice is clear and I know it can never be a former soldier, who loved to hate trade unionism (Journal of Politics and Law Vol. 4, No. 1; March 2011), who protected public officers with decrees while fighting corruption, who did not understand the systematic evolution of social infrastructure, who thought soldiers were "holier" than politicians and who thought we could be organized with a whip on our backs. I am old enough to have seen it all. In a democracy, we decide how we are ruled. But if we are indolent in our creativity, we may choose wrongly and hate what we have done. Most strong-minded former coupe-ists have little faith in the final triumph of democracy as shown in the statement: ......democracy stands in danger of failing in Nigeria How could democracy be failing when we are moving forward in various areas of articulation of public will? The autocrats usually promised a better life for Nigerians, but often left us disgruntled. Nigerians need to know their history and respect its lessons.

Taking a step to a New Nigeria

A story about Taking a step to a New Nigeria

The states and geopolitical zones should have more relevance in politics than the the old regions because the old regions created Nigeria's historical problems. Devolving the regional powers has taken care of the minor interest groups that were smouldered by regional monstrosities. Minorities must converge at majority positions. This is the new Nigeria we have been waiting for and we are on the threshold of its emergence. The country is unfolding and transforming to a new one with paradigm shifts. This was the goal of state creation and a positive impact of the military era of that time. Thanks to Gowon and his group.

Refresher Course Presentation for Veterinarians in Borno State

NSBMB conference in Kebbi State

Link to subsequent slides

Leadership in Nigeria: comments.

Why I withdrew from Presidential race – IBB

My responses to comments of readers of the above article:

"We are looking for new perspective to leadership: knowing what is right for Nigeria and having the will to do it. What is right is intellectually and experientially distilled from data-based investigations of our national events and peculiarities. This kind of leadership comes from reflective politicians like..........."

"Our elders deserve respect and kind words as we give them words of advice. They have done their best which we may not conceive to be good enough. How I wish those who have tasted power could write or get writers to bring out their thoughts about the past, the present and future. This

is the stuff about leadership. You must think it before you can do it. We accept leaders from the value of their consistent thoughts and actions. All leaders are honourable!"