The History of Nigeria in One Inaugural Speech

Inaugural speech by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari following his swearing-in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29th May, 2015.

I am immensely grateful to God Who Has preserved us to witness this day and this occasion. Today marks a triumph for Nigeria and an occasion to celebrate her freedom and cherish her democracy. Nigerians have shown their commitment to democracy and are determined to entrench its culture. Our journey has not been easy but thanks to the determination of our people and strong support from friends abroad we have today a truly democratically elected government in place.

I would like to thank President Goodluck Jonathan for his display of statesmanship in setting a precedent for us that has now made our people proud to be Nigerians wherever they are. With the support and cooperation he has given to the transition process, he has made it possible for us to show the world that despite the perceived tension in the land we can be a united people capable of doing what is right for our nation. Together we co-operated to surprise the world that had come to expect only the worst from Nigeria. I hope this act of graciously accepting defeat by the outgoing President will become the standard of political conduct in the country.

I would like to thank the millions of our supporters who believed in us even when the cause seemed hopeless. I salute their resolve in waiting long hours in rain and hot sunshine to register and cast their votes and stay all night if necessary to protect and ensure their votes count and were counted. I thank those who tirelessly carried the campaign on the social media. At the same time, I thank our other countrymen and women who did not vote for us but contributed to make our democratic culture truly competitive, strong and definitive.

I thank all of you.

Having just a few minutes ago sworn on the Holy Book, I intend to keep my oath and serve as President to all Nigerians.

I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.

A few people have privately voiced fears that on coming back to office I shall go after them. These fears are groundless. There will be no paying off old scores. The past is prologue.


Our neighbours in the Sub-region and our African brethenen should rest assured that Nigeria under our administration will be ready to play any leadership role that Africa expects of it. Here I would like to thank the governments and people of Cameroon, Chad and Niger for committing their armed forces to fight Boko Haram in Nigeria.

I also wish to assure the wider international community of our readiness to cooperate and help to combat threats of cross-border terrorism, sea piracy, refugees and boat people, financial crime, cyber crime, climate change, the spread of communicable diseases and other challenges of the 21st century.

At home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us. We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problems.

In recent times Nigerian leaders appear to have misread our mission. Our founding fathers, Mr Herbert Macauley, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Malam Aminu Kano, Chief J.S. Tarka, Mr Eyo Ita, Chief Denis Osadeby, Chief Ladoke Akintola and their colleagues worked to establish certain standards of governance. They might have differed in their methods or tactics or details, but they were united in establishing a viable and progressive country. Some of their successors behaved like spoilt children breaking everything and bringing disorder to the house.

Furthermore, we as Nigerians must remind ourselves that we are heirs to great civilizations: Shehu Othman Dan fodio’s caliphate, the Kanem Borno Empire, the Oyo Empire, the Benin Empire and King Jaja’s formidable domain. The blood of those great ancestors flow in our veins. What is now required is to build on these legacies, to modernize and uplift Nigeria.

Daunting as the task may be it is by no means insurmountable. There is now a national consensus that our chosen route to national development is democracy. To achieve our objectives we must consciously work the democratic system. The Federal Executive under my watch will not seek to encroach on the duties and functions of the Legislative and Judicial arms of government. The law enforcing authorities will be charged to operate within the Constitution. We shall rebuild and reform the public service to become more effective and more serviceable. We shall charge them to apply themselves with integrity to stabilize the system.

For their part the legislative arm must keep to their brief of making laws, carrying out over-sight functions and doing so expeditiously. The judicial system needs reform to cleanse itself from its immediate past. The country now expects the judiciary to act with dispatch on all cases especially on corruption, serious financial crimes or abuse of office. It is only when the three arms act constitutionally that government will be enabled to serve the country optimally and avoid the confusion all too often bedeviling governance today.

Elsewhere relations between Abuja and the States have to be clarified if we are to serve the country better. Constitutionally there are limits to powers of each of the three tiers of government but that should not mean the Federal Government should fold its arms and close its eyes to what is going on in the states and local governments. Not least the operations of the Local Government Joint Account. While the Federal Government can not interfere in the details of its operations it will ensure that the gross corruption at the local level is checked. As far as the constitution allows me I will try to ensure that there is responsible and accountable governance at all levels of government in the country. For I will not have kept my own trust with the Nigerian people if I allow others abuse theirs under my watch.

However, no matter how well organized the governments of the federation are they can not succeed without the support, understanding and cooperation of labour unions, organized private sector, the press and civil society organizations. I appeal to employers and workers alike to unite in raising productivity so that everybody will have the opportunity to share in increased prosperity. The Nigerian press is the most vibrant in Africa. My appeal to the media today – and this includes the social media – is to exercise its considerable powers with responsibility and patriotism.

My appeal for unity is predicated on the seriousness of the legacy we are getting into. With depleted foreign reserves, falling oil prices, leakages and debts the Nigerian economy is in deep trouble and will require careful management to bring it round and to tackle the immediate challenges confronting us, namely; Boko Haram, the Niger Delta situation, the power shortages and unemployment especially among young people. For the longer term we have to improve the standards of our education. We have to look at the whole field of medicare. We have to upgrade our dilapidated physical infrastructure.

The most immediate is Boko Haram’s insurgency. Progress has been made in recent weeks by our security forces but victory can not be achieved by basing the Command and Control Centre in Abuja. The command centre will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely subdued. But we can not claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.
This government will do all it can to rescue them alive. Boko Haram is a typical example of small fires causing large fires. An eccentric and unorthodox preacher with a tiny following was given posthumous fame and following by his extra judicial murder at the hands of the police. Since then through official bungling, negligence, complacency or collusion Boko Haram became a terrifying force taking tens of thousands of lives and capturing several towns and villages covering swathes of Nigerian sovereign territory.

Boko Haram is a mindless, godless group who are as far away from Islam as one can think of. At the end of the hostilities when the group is subdued the Government intends to commission a sociological study to determine its origins, remote and immediate causes of the movement, its sponsors, the international connexions to ensure that measures are taken to prevent a reccurrence of this evil. For now the Armed Forces will be fully charged with prosecuting the fight against Boko haram. We shall overhaul the rules of engagement to avoid human rights violations in operations.

We shall improve operational and legal mechanisms so that disciplinary steps are taken against proven human right violations by the Armed Forces.

Boko Haram is not only the security issue bedeviling our country. The spate of kidnappings, armed robberies, herdsmen/farmers clashes, cattle rustlings all help to add to the general air of insecurity in our land. We are going to erect and maintain an efficient, disciplined people – friendly and well – compensated security forces within an over – all security architecture.

The amnesty programme in the Niger Delta is due to end in December, but the Government intends to invest heavily in the projects, and programmes currently in place. I call on the leadership and people in these areas to cooperate with the State and Federal Government in the rehabilitation programmes which will be streamlined and made more effective. As ever, I am ready to listen to grievances of my fellow Nigerians. I extend my hand of fellowship to them so that we can bring peace and build prosperity for our people.

No single cause can be identified to explain Nigerian’s poor economic performance over the years than the power situation. It is a national shame that an economy of 180 million generates only 4,000MW, and distributes even less. Continuous tinkering with the structures of power supply and distribution and close on $20b expanded since 1999 have only brought darkness, frustration, misery, and resignation among Nigerians. We will not allow this to go on. Careful studies are under way during this transition to identify the quickest, safest and most cost-effective way to bring light and relief to Nigerians.

Unemployment, notably youth un-employment features strongly in our Party’s Manifesto. We intend to attack the problem frontally through revival of agriculture, solid minerals mining as well as credits to small and medium size businesses to kick – start these enterprises. We shall quickly examine the best way to revive major industries and accelerate the revival and development of our railways, roads and general infrastructure.

Your Excellencies, My fellow Nigerians I can not recall when Nigeria enjoyed so much goodwill abroad as now. The messages I received from East and West, from powerful and small countries are indicative of international expectations on us. At home the newly elected government is basking in a reservoir of goodwill and high expectations. Nigeria therefore has a window of opportunity to fulfill our long – standing potential of pulling ourselves together and realizing our mission as a great nation.

Our situation somehow reminds one of a passage in Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar
There is a tide in the affairs of men which,
taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life,
Is bound in shallows and miseries.

We have an opportunity. Let us take it.

Thank you.

Muhammadu Buhari
President Federal Republic of NIGERIA
and Commander in-chief-of the Armed forces.

75 Relationship Principles

Beyonce once said "Diva" is another word for a Female Hustle. Now, Sherry Argov has redefined, refined and taken the word "bitch" to a whole new level altogether.

After reading Sherry Argov's book on my Men Marry "Babe in Total Control of Herself" a.k.a Bitches, I marvelled at the way she delved into the minds of men revealing how they pass across their message or intentions to women who though most often ignore these clear signals!


Here's a summary of some of her interesting analysis and interviews with men on this subject told in snap shots.

Each picture is like flipping a page; only this time a few pages were selected at random - so you can get a general idea of the tone and spirit of the book before you go shop for it online.

                                                          

                                         


                                         

                
                                                     

De-Mystify the Nigeria Civil Service  - The Need to Work with a No-Size Won't Fit Implementation

In less than three months since Jonathan made the 'famous' call to Buhari as the unbiased winner of the 2015 general elections, Nigeria economy seemed to have nose dived. Fuel prices skyrocketed from N87 per litre to now N200 per litre!

The impact on the economy is felt at once as banks, major telecom networks, state and federal televisions, hospitals and civil service, private businesses and daily running of household maintenance are been shut down because the No. 1 Oil Nation in Africa has no fuel running through its refineries or reserves, which sad to say are moribund at best.  

Ironically in 2010 when Goodluck Jonathan wanted to woo Nigerians for his upcoming presidential election, overnight as it would seem, fuel prices dropped drastically, leaving Nigerians to believe Jonathan was more than capable of running the country and tackling some serious social and economic issues. Alas, the tune currently been song just at the tail end of his hand-over leaves many with their mouths gapping - wondering what kind of political intrigues is being played behind the scenes away from the innocent eyes of the electorates.

In 2007 budget, the Nigeria Goverment budgeted 600 billion naira for personnel cost. In 2015 that cost is now 1.8 trillion which increased three times. 

In 2007, the National Assembly budget was N59 billion, today it moved to N150 billion by 2010 and now in 2015 that same budget has risen to about N130 billion. Perhaps the large cries of the electorates against the 3rd Estate for their unscrupulous budgeting and salary fixing has finally made them feel some ashame of taking too much. 

But what about fuel subsidy? In 2007, the Executive budgeted about N279 billion for fuel subsidy. In 2009, it moved to N257 billion and N2.6 trillion in 2011. In 2014, it was about N1 trillion.

The background budget appropriation and spending above are just a tip of the analytically dissected spending of the Nigerian Government by the Kaduna State Governor-Elect, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. These catastrophic spending has occurred under the PDP presidency of the outgoing Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan's administration. 

El-Rufai postulates that once APC takes over the mantle of leadership under General Muhammadu Buhari, and things seem to go wrong or the expectations of Nigerians are not met, it would be easy for Nigerians “to blame those that are there without looking at what legacy they are inheriting." need to put their expectations in perspective as this graphic picture of how things have deteriorated in the last five to eight years should not be easily overlooked and not taken into account.

“What I am trying to say here is APC is inheriting perhaps the worst ever set of human development indices in Nigeria’s history than any government has ever had to face and this change of 2015 arose because of this deterioration actually. People just got tired of this lack of progress and the tendency to go into denials that there were no problems.

The need therefore, for structural and systemic reforms of the Nigerian civil service and the adoption of a zero-budget system among others as key issues to be implemented by the incoming administration under APC if it to bring about the change that will make it succeed should be firmly and rigorously pursued and implemented within the shortest possible time before its first four tenure is over. He further affirmed that the present administration was handing over the worst human development indices any government would ever pass on to a successor.

When he spoke on the second day day of the policy dialogue organized by the All Progressives Congress, APC, El-Rufai called for the abrogation of the permanent secretary cadre in the civil service asserting it to be an aberration in the presidential system operated in Nigeria. He accused the outgoing administration of maintaining a culture of greed and corruption that turned it into a master in destroying every good legacy it inherited.

On the topic of “Governance and Improving Efficiency in Public Service” urge the incoming administration to streamline the civil service and eliminate the permanent secretary cadre. He explained that by running a zero budgeting system, every ministry and institution of government must justify its expenditure and by that enthroning transparency and accountability in the public service.

“We must operate a zero-based budgeting system. Let us dump the PDP budget of saying every government agency must justify every penny it wants to spend, because what often happens is that every year they take the budget of last year and reduce or increase the number so if we do that as APC we are implementing PDP budget.

“We must draw a line and say no more, let every agency justify every penny from personnel cost, how many people do you have? What are their salaries? Why are you paying them this salary? If it is recorded we would know why you are taking more tea than in any other country in the world?

“Why do your vehicles consume more petrol than all the vehicles in Kaduna State? We must ask this question and start the budgeting cycle now; it has to be zero based. In Kaduna that is what we are doing, I am not going to even look at the budget that is there, we are going to do a budget from 30 May.

“Permanent secretaries in a presidential system of government are abnormal. There is nothing like permanent secretaries. We learned that nomenclature because we came from colonial tradition and some permanent secretaries that have refused to disappear still exist. If there is one, show me who is a permanent secretary in the US.

“A permanent secretary is a deputy minister. It is a political appointee. He should even be cleared by the Senate. So, let us stop all these things about permanent secretary and so on. The highest level in the civil service in a presidential system of government is director.

“The moment you move from director, the civil service career has ended and you enter into the political realm and you will be treated like a politician. They don’t want to hear it. But it is the truth and I hope the APC government will streamline it.”

Giving details of the public expenditure by government institutions, the governor-elect said that unless the incoming administration made drastic decisions, the road to success would still be far.

“Now our performance as a government will depend on two things; first our political legitimacy and second, the administrative capacity. It is the combination of these two; political legitimacy and second, the administrative capacity that will ensure we succeed or we fail.

“To improve governance, we need to develop political vision, courage, and political will along with enhancing administrative capacity.

“It is clear from what I have described that political leadership provides the vision and will while the public service contributes administrative capacity and it is impossible to succeed without the two.

“The effectiveness of public service is vital to progress and we must all be interested in it. Where is our public service? I want to give you a quick summary of what we found in 2005. Our public service has been perceived as dysfunctional, inefficient, corrupt, lacking administrative capacity and incapable of attracting the best and brightest. Those of us old enough to remember would remember that the best graduates of Oxford University, Cambridge, Ahmadu Bello, and Ibadan University used to join the civil service. Not anymore.

“Our public service is too large. We have 1 million federal employees and between two and three million in states and local governments. So the entire public service in Nigeria is three to four million in size. In 2005, we found that public service was aging. The average age was 43 in a country where 75 percent of the population was below the age of 35.

“The public service was inadequately educated. Seventy percent of public service workers had secondary school leaving certificate compared to UK, China or the US. In China, you need to have a Masters Degree to even attempt the civil service exams but here we have 70 percent with secondary school certificate.

“Our public service is also expensive because it consumes 60 percent and 120 percent of federal, state and local government revenue. In some states like Kano, it was observed that the payroll of the public service was 120 percent of the revenue of the state. Our public service is outdated.

“Less than 5 percent of the public service is computer literate. The poor pay in the public service is also a problem. The pay hardly covers for transportation which accounts for 80 percent of our spending in this country, and finally, there is a complete breakdown of human resource management in the public service and ghost workers account for between 15 and 25 percent.

“Finally because there have been previous reform efforts that have had limited success, there is an inbuilt feeling in the public service when you mention reform or you want to check something, they just wait because they know you will leave in four years. They are there for 35 years. There is a culture of cynicism and change resistance. So, unless you are ready to take really difficult decisions they will just delay you and in four years you are gone and another government starts from where you left.

“I am putting this in perspective because if we are going to have to achieve anything we have to go in with a knife and take drastic actions in the shortest possible time to put things in perspective”, he said.

He put the blame for the bleeding economy squarely on the door post of the outgoing administration, even as he stated that challenges facing the APC administration were enormous.

“So what are the challenges ahead for us? The challenges for us are only five but they are big issues; first is rising governance cost. Jonathan’s legacy of waste, debt, corruption and institutional destruction. One of the things I think Jonathan deserves a Nobel Prize for is the capacity to take functional institutions and destroy them within the shortest period of time.

“Functioning institutions that we left have been destroyed and I don’t know how; it is magic, Jonathanian magic. The second is manifest injustice. We live in a country where 3-4 million people that work for the public service consume about 90 percent of the revenues of the government.

“That is injustice and we must ask ourselves whether that makes sense. We must ask ourselves whether we should live in a country with this kind of perverse prioritization. How can we be spending only 10 percent of the budget on capital expenditure and the entire 10 percent will be borrowed?

“So the entire revenues of the Federal Government are going to be spent on running the Federal Government so that one million people that work for the Federal Government wear nice suits meanwhile we don’t have roads, electricity is not working, no rail system. What kind of people are we?"

El-Rufai suggested a 10-point solutions in tackling and de-mystifying the internal twin-disease of corruption and non-performance in the civil compressed into 7 keypoints:

1. Accelerate implementation of the national ID scheme to enable the appropriate agencies in the country to tracing wrong doings and criminals with ease. 

El-Rufai said: “People do things and just disappear. People from neighbouring countries come into Nigeria and just take our passports and do things in our name. The national ID card scheme is the most important infrastructure we need not only to identify who is a Nigerian but to count ourselves and eliminate many areas of wrong doings.

“This project has been ongoing forever. In 2006, I was asked to take it over. We did organize; we did the Nigerian Identity Management Commission but it is still ongoing. We need to finish registering all adult Nigerians within the shortest possible time and give them ID cards so that when they do something they can be traced. It is a very important human infrastructure.

2. Review our statues on falsification of records and perjury. 

Nigeria is the only country where people lie on forms, change their age, do any kind of stuff without any consequence because our statues make it very difficult to convict.

“I don’t think we will make progress because it starts from there. The moment a person feels comfortable about altering records it is even easier to steal and disappear since there is no identification. For us in the APC government if we want to change government we have to do this”, he said

3. Complete and thorough overhaul of the NNPC.

“I said NNPC is evil, I mean it. Any organization that can singly bankrupt the country is evil,” he said.

4. Every law offender must be brought to justice was also suggested by Mr. Oronsanye, former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Steve Oransonye,

5. To make progress, identify what the problems are, but if you are in self-denial you can’t make progress. Now talking about promotion; people are put in positions that they can’t not even deliver. There are many abuses in the system one of such is sexual harassment which goes both ways.

6. People who need to have courage to do the needful and be protect when they take the right decision. You will find out that if you do the right thing you may be punished and if you do the wrong thing you have yourself being celebrated.

7. Set aside a day to name and shame people. Let us sanction people, there should be consequences for every action and those in service should also know what obtains outside. We have to know how the market is because we need to build capacity”, he said.

"Which Way Nigeria"? is the question. Incidentally that question was the tiltle of the popular track of late musician Sunny Okosu.

When Speaking the Truth has Nothing to do with Religion, But  Everything to do with Values And Ethics

Breaking the Emir's typical Code of Silence, former Governor of CBN, Lamido Sanusi Lamido from his palatial position as Emir of Kano went for the jugular as he wrote in the London Financial Times, is again questioning NNPC's management of Nigeria's crude oil revenues and other NNPC funds. In addition he has brought more damning reports forward to prove the veracity of his claims. His approach was that of an ethical inquiry and call for accountability and not explanations of how these funds were used.

This is the way forward for Nigeria if we are to begin correcting the country's political approach to, and many a Nigerian's mentality in their conscious and unconscious manner in which they sanction corruption by making it a way of life in Nigeria.

Here's a direct quote from him on the missing $20bn NNPC funds, which during his tenure under President Goodluck Jonathan's administration had cried foul! Rather than wade into the matter in an ethical fashion, the President instead gave Lamido the boot out of office.

"Just over a year ago President Goodluck Jonathan suspended me from my position as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria after I questioned an estimated $20bn shortfall in oil revenues due to the treasury from the state oil company. As I said then, you can suspend a man, but you cannot suspend the truth. The publication last month of a PwC audit into the “missing billions” brings us a step closer to it.

"When I was central bank of Nigeria governor I raised three broad questions. First, did the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation remit to the government the entire proceeds of its crude oil sales? Second, if it did not, is there proof of the purpose to which the unremitted amounts were applied? And third, did NNPC have the legal authority to withhold these funds?

"Contrary to the claims of petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, the audit report does not exonerate the NNPC. It establishes that the gap between the company’s oil revenues between January 2012 and July 2013 and cash remitted to the government for the same period was $18.5bn. And it goes into detail about the NNPC’s account of how it used that money, which raises serious questions about the legality of the state oil company’s conduct.

"The auditors say a significant part of the unremitted funds is supposed to have gone towards a kerosene subsidy that had been stopped two and a half years earlier by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. His decree never appeared in the official gazette, leading some to question whether it ever had legal force.

"Evidence disclosed in the report suggests this is a sideshow. The executive secretary of the agency charged with administering subsidies confirmed that, acting on Yar’Adua’s orders, it had ceased granting subsidies on kerosene. There was no appropriation for such a subsidy in the 2012 or 2013 budgets.

"Throughout all this, Nigerians paid 120-140 naira a litre of kerosene, far more than the supposed subsidised price of 50 naira. Yet the state oil company withheld $3.4bn to pay for a subsidy that in effect did not exist. I have consistently held that this was a scam that violated the constitution and siphoned off money from the treasury.

"The second major item raised in the report relates to the transfer of oil assets belonging to the federation to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, a subsidiary of the NNPC.

"NPDC has paid $100m for these assets, from which it extracted crude valued at $6.8bn but paid tax and royalties worth $1.7bn in the period scrutinised by the auditors. PwC was unable to establish how much of the remaining $5.1bn should have been remitted to the government. But the report showed that, along with the private companies NPDC partnered with, it was extracting crude worth billions of dollars but yielding very little revenue for the treasury. I was investigating related transactions when I was suspended.

"The third major item is a claim of $2.8bn by NNPC for expenses not directly attributable to crude oil operations; PwC said “clarity is required” on whether such upfront deductions from remittances to the federation accounts are allowed, or whether the money should have been remitted to the government. Finally, there are duplicated ex­penses, “unsubstantiated” costs, computation “errors” and tax shortfalls; a total of $1.48bn has to be refunded.

"Of the $18.5bn in revenues that the state oil company did not send to the government, about $12.5bn appears by my calculations to have been diverted. And this relates only to a random 19-month period, not the five-year term of Mr Jonathan, the outgoing president.

"Nigerians did not vote for an amnesty for anyone. The lines of investigation suggested by this audit need to be pursued. Any officials found responsible for involvement in this apparent breach of trust must be charged."

The writer, Lamido Sanusi Lamido is the Emir of Kano and a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

For more on what Lamido has to say, copy and paste the links below to have a holistic picture: 

• lamido on london financial times on missing $20b nnpc fidelity
• lamido on london financial times on missing $20b nnpc cofunds
• lamido on london financial times on missing $20b nnpc pension
• lamido on london financial times on missing $20b nnpc fundsnetwork
• lamido on london financial times on missing $20b nnpc child trust
• lamido on london financial times on missing $20b nnpc trust funds
• lamido on london financial times on missing $20b nnpc hedge funds

When Professionals Play Politics of Hide and Seek

The Coordinating Minister of Economy and Minister of Finance of Nigeria, a one time Vice President of the World Bank, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala during Obasanjo's tenure made being a Professional in politics a joy to behold as she evidently made that administration publicly accountable with the monthly reports on government spending, giving Nigerians a window never before seen into how public officials waste, abuse and denied Nigerians their right to quality living, infrastructures and institutions. We praised her and the Economic team back then that consisted of El-Rufia, Ezekwesili and others who made the entry of Professionals into politics a breath of fresh air.



Fast forward less 10 years later, with more participation in politics and her desire to probably make her way to declare for presidency someday, it would seem Okonjo has allowed Naija politics to rob her off on the wrong side.

Just before the 2015 general elections, when Okonjo-Iweala submitted the budget for 2015 she declared that everything was okay with the economy.



But barely a month after conceding defeat to the opposition, the Jonathan-led government has in the last four months borrowed no less than N473b to fund its recurrent expenditure due to dwindling sources, finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has confessed.

Speaking at the unveiling of the 2015 Appropriation Act passed by the National Assembly last week, the minister said, “Out of the N882 billon budgetary provision for borrowing, the government has borrowed N473billion to meet up with recurrent expenditure, including salaries and overheads.”

That amount spent is over 53 per cent of borrowing limit allowed in the 2015 budget within the last four months. If you recall, same Okonjo-Iweala took Nigerians on the path of no more burrowing and the canceling of the Paris Club debt debacle.

She went as far as saying that things have been tough since the beginning of the year and they are likely to remain so till the end of the year.



The only question I ask is: What changed? Was Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala just out to make a political name with first impressions for herself? Is this the woman we've been told could qualify to run the presidency as can be seen from the pedigrees of some of her fellow colleagues who once held the Vice Presidency in World Bank now running as President of their countries?

There is a thin line between the kind of politics one plays and the content of one's character.

With the recent call for her resignation by Dino Melaye and activist groups, the need for professionals not to play the game of political thuggery, wayo-wayo and white-faced fraud that has been the norm cannot be over emphasised.

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO KAINJI DAM? – The Story of Hydro Electric Power Abandonment in Nigeria

Kainji Dam is a dam across the Niger River in Niger State of western Nigeria. Construction of the dam was carried out by Impregilo (a consortium of Italian Civil Engineering Contractors) to designs by Joint Consultants, Balfour Beatty and Nedeco, and began in 1964.

The dam was designed to provide Nigeria a generating capacity of 960 megawatts (1,290,000 hp); however, only 8 of its 12 turbines have been installed, reducing the capacity to 760 megawatts (1,020,000 hp) and today that is mere history as occasional droughts have made the Niger's water flow unpredictable, diminishing the dam's electrical output.

What beats me is how the government of Nigeria utterly abandoned a veritable power option in lieu of complete privatization of the power sector, a process seriously flawed with a lot of dubious acquisition, bids and acquisition afterwards.

Today stories are rife with petrol station owners in cohorts with these private power generators paying bribes behind the scenes so that many Nigerians will have no option but to continually buy fuel to power their generating sets.

As though that were not enough, it would seem that suppliers of power plant are also part of the sabotage of regular power supply to a country such as ours.

The level of incompetence shown by both government and the private sector is not only shameful but a slap on the face of productivity, creativity and every competent mind able to produce and create so that they can earn the rewards of their hard work.

The generation of power cannot be left in the hands of private hands who don't give a damn about providing prompt and best practices for services paid for. Gas, windmills, dams, and other forms of energy should also be functional, each servicing key sectors of the economy.

Nigerians need to rise and speak with one voice! If they don't this life we live here is exactly because of our inaction and not because enough prayers have not been said already.

WHAT IS A COUNTRY WITHOUT POWER?

When Silverbird Man of The Year Awards Becomes Politically Driven

Awards are good. It means, you did an extraordinary job, you performed beyond expectations. But when Award becomes Politicized, it laughs at excellency and claps at mediocrity and bad service. Perhaps that's where the Silverbird Man of The Year is heading?

I have been a long admirer of the Silverbird Group. I love their passion, their vision and ability to identify opportunities and turn them to possibilities.

Single handed, they awakened and revived the pleasures of Cinema in Nigeria from a dead elephant corpse to a booming industry.

They also revolutionize Radio as a unique user experience providing him with quality productions in terms of programming content, music quality, presenters, DJs and producers all working round the clock to give Nigeria a truly great Radio Experience. And ever since, they've come out with one great project, brand or another; always creating exciting entertainment.

However, whether due to internal financial crisis or internal management corruption of funds, talents etc, they seem to be losing fast the one thing that got them this far: Credibility. I have had to talk one on one with past workers and even one or two top management and I could tell that all is not as well for this group as it once was.

Somehow, whatever that thing is that has seeped into them, it seems to have penetrated their radio, TV, beauty pageant, and now the Silverbird Man of The Year Award.

I have often wondered what the criteria for each person nominated for this award was. I searched online to see if I could get a detailed outline of what criteria are used to determine who clinches the award, but as at the point of writing this, I did not gather very much.

However, the point here is this: if someone like Dr. Emmnanuel Uduaghan can get that coveted crown when the likes of Fashiola earned it only after the transformation he did in Lagos then I ask myself, by what standard?

Did they visit Delta State 25 local governments or some parts of the 3 senatorial districts to ascertain whether he merited that award?

I know Ben Murray Bruce has just gotten the senatorial seat for for his constituency, yet politics should not be mixed with Performance and Award for Achievement; for being a creator, builder and sustainer of lasting projects etc.

If the group's research team has visited the government house along Okpanam road this is what they will see: the front drainage of the Government Lodge is a trap, there are no proper drainage across Delta! As a matter of fact it took the government four years to even get to this level you see here. Yet the project has been certified done! No review needed!

Residents of Okpanam who journey from their homes to work, school, market and elsewhere face this everyday! Deep crevices, erosion, bad roads and pot holes litter internal roads. Even the state airport barely three-years-old has been downgraded by the Federal Government! Imagine a cargo airport converted to a different use from its original design just to make noise about visible projects. Doesn't that show a certain lack of focus, misplaced priority and show of incompetence for a project that supposedly gulped tens of billions of naira? I leave that for you to ascertain for yourselves.

As at 2010, Delta State government accrued no less than N90.4 billion from the national treasury and Uduaghan was governor and will leave soon on May 29th 2015! What did he do with all that money? And if that same amount has accrued to the state ever since, why so much poverty, lack of industries, bad roads, unfinished projects, badly executed projects, poor health facilities and uncompleted centres and so many other ills prevalent in Delta state? Visit Delta State to find out for yourself. Read more about what state governments get monthly or biannually from the country's treaury:www.vanguardngr.com/2010/11/rich-poor-states-how-states.


As I write this, for over one year, Delta State TV has been gone off-air! The story from within the government circle is that a former NTA DG who is the consultant to oversee the refurbishing and upgrade of the structure, including an Itsekiri high chieftain who seems to wield an unusual sway over the governor are behind the complete shut down of the station! And this is after N700M has been approved for it. We need the fact sheets to verify the exact amount disbursed for this. Are we to think now that the governor is a puppet pulled by invisible strings? Does he not have executive powers to call these persons into account for sabotaging a State TV?

And what about the Union overseeing the welfare and productivity of the staff of DBS? All bulldog with no action! Too much infighting, back-biting and scuttling of a concerted effort to speak with one voice!

Meanwhile, there is a board of directors who seat each time simply to collect their sitting allowances watching with their hands folded, unconcerned about taking appropriate action to call all parties involved into order. Since they don't know their jobs, guess it's time they are dissolved once for all so human effort can be better channeled into making things work as they ought to.

Now, I'm tired of all this them say, he said talk. I want Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan to please come and tell Deltans why their TV has been gone off air for this long. If this were his hard earned business, will he treat it this way for that long?

Deltans Need answers. Not tomorrow, NOW.
It is called being accountable.
It is called leaving a lasting legacy of professional work ethics.