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A Glance at President Buhari’s Christmas and New Year Statements
Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan. Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]
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By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi
For Nigerians that have their thinking divided between the present and the future, with part of it dedicated to finding solutions to current nagging challenges in the country, and the other, concerned with what becomes the future of the country, if the present administration fails to get its leadership priorities right, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Christmas and New Year messages to Nigerians were received with mixed feelings.
Essentially, there is no doubt that the country recently made some political and socio-economic progress. But looking at the federal government’s performance in the out-gone 2021, it becomes evident, in my view, that President Buhari’s remarks, though qualify as an easy read, yet, some of his claims are in dire need of re-appraisals in areas of approach and outcome.
It showed Nigerians quite clearly that there is still a need for our public office holders to learn how to match words expressed with faith and behavioural patterns that demonstrate the faith.
This observation becomes overwhelmingly important when one remembers that there exist in the greater part of 2021 particulars of demonstrated idleness, laziness, cluelessness and outright lack of leadership and problem-solving creativity on the part of the present Federal Government. These failures are very re-sounding in the areas of incapacity to end insecurity and non-pursuit of the economic welfare of citizens which of course are the only two constitutional responsibilities of the state all leaders must achieve.
At this stage, let’s cast a cursory look first, at the good side of Mr President’s declarations
First, this piece aligns completely with President Buhari’s plan to in the year 2022 and going forward, intentionally leverage ICT platforms to create jobs, while ensuring that the diversification of our economy creates more support to other emerging sectors.
It is also gratifying, and the world is of course in agreement with Mr President’s position that the path to nationhood is often fraught with unpredictable difficulties and challenges, and most tried and tested nations have often prevailed through dogged determination, resilience, concerted commitment to unity, and the conviction that the whole of the nation, standing together against all odds, is by far greater and would ultimately be more prosperous and viable than the sum of its distinguishable parts.
However, despite the validity of the above positions, the ideas about the procedure to follow in this effort as well as the order of priority are not very clear. Making this a crisis and a reality that all should worry about is the awareness that the federal government has recently become reputed for applying methods and operating along with frameworks that are outdated.
Another troubling aspect of the New Year speech has to do with Mr President’s declaration that the issue of security remains at the front burner of priority areas that his administration has given utmost attention to.
Without a doubt, Mr President may have re-energized and reorganized the security apparatus and personnel of the armed forces and the police.
These realities notwithstanding, looking at the level of insecurity that flourished in the country through the year 2021, particularly; banditry, terrorism and kidnapping, it will in my view not be characterized as an overstatement to describe the gains emanating from Mr President’s efforts as too few.
Away from insecurity to the economy, Mr President among other things said; “we have shown a high level of resilience to record some significant achievements despite the turbulence that has characterized our economy and indeed the global economy.”
Continuing, he said; “the major wins we have recorded can be clearly seen in Nigeria’s most recent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The 4.03% growth recorded in the third quarter of 2021 is indicative of the recovery being recorded in our economy and the confidence that is being shown through the policies that our administration has put in place after the outbreak of the pandemic.
“We may also recall that this recent growth is closely followed by the 5.1% (year on year) growth in real terms recorded by Nigeria in Quarter 2 of 2021. This growth was one of the best recorded by any nation across Sub-Saharan Africa. The 5.1% growth at that time was and remains the highest growth recorded by the Nigerian economy since 2014. The good news is that we have so far recorded four consecutive quarters of growth after the negative growth rates recorded in Quarter 2 and Quarter 3 of 2020 due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Certainly, in my view, President Buhari’s narrative looks good and alluring. But regardless of what others may say, this piece holds the opinion that the orchestrated growth of the nation’s economy only exists in theory. The poor masses are not feeling the impact of such growth.
Viewed differently, one point Mr President and his handlers must not fail to remember is that ‘principles work only when we work the principle’. I trust Nigerians. They are not interested in data, figures or statistics. Their indomitable spirit could have been well expressed or demonstrated if those in public leadership like Mr President had taken responsibility for their actions, failures and failings or better still created the enabling environment.
Still on Mr President’s promise that his administration will continue to create opportunities for our teeming youths to ventilate their tremendous energy, this piece could not emphasize strongly but there are those who might wish to ask; why is it still a mere declaration by President Buhari that his government will not abandon the promises made to Nigerians for a better lease of life, whereas he has been in the office for close to 7 years without achieving the feat?
As this piece expects the FG to provide answers to the above question, another thorny issue mentioned by President Buhari has to do with the Niger Delta region.
He captured it this way; “on August 16, 2021, I signed the landmark Petroleum Industry Act into law. The signing of this legacy legislation is a watershed moment in the history of our nation, considering the massive positive impact the new Act would have on the economy. I would like to sincerely commend the 9th Assembly for the grit they demonstrated, succeeding where others have failed, and the cooperation that led to the completion of this process after almost two decades.”
Whatever Mr President may say about the Petroleum Industry Act/Niger Delta region, two stands out; first, the truth is that until the federal government see through to completion of all the critical projects embarked upon in the region as promised at an event in Lagos, by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, nobody will take the present federal government seriously.
Secondly, the people of the region are particularly not happy with the paltry 3% allocation by the Petroleum Industry Act, for the host communities.
But of all the content of Mr President messages, the hardest to believe is his claim that the diversification of the economy embarked upon by his administration is yielding fruits.
Utomi Jerome-Mario is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He could be reached via [email protected]/08032725374
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By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi
Spaced out from prevailing indices/situations in Nigeria which reflects the fact that things are not as good as we might wish them to be, let me underline that this piece was inspired by two separate but related occurrences.
The first was a recently held focused group discussion in Asaba by some concerned Deltans to among other critical issues shop as Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s successor a development-minded Deltan who understands that when ‘public sector achievements pick up speed, the increased pace extends to the activities in other sectors.
The second has to do with a proposition by a well-informed Deltan, who while reacting to one of my recent interventions titled; ‘Delta 2023; why Justice and Equity Must Prevail Over Sentiment’, noted thus; it may pay more if the position of the governor is placed on merit than unnecessary sentiment in Delta state’.
For clarity sake, the referenced piece above was inspired by and dwelt primarily on the agitation by Ijaw leaders of Delta State, that their ethnic nationality must produce the next governor of the state in 2023, as they have made huge sacrifices, contributing to the socio-economic sustenance of state and supported other ethnic nationalities over the years emerge governors in the state. Heightening the imperatives of the piece as it were, was that the declaration came at a time when another ethnic nationality in the state, the Urhobos of Delta Central Senatorial zone is also of the views that the year 2023 is their turn to produce the governor. Their position was predicated on the ‘alleged political power rotation arrangement in the state between the three senatorial zones’.
However, despite the validity of these claims/counterclaims, mountains of superior evidence presently abound, if only sought for, that argument constructed around natural resources ownership/contribution or zoning arrangement as a justification for demanding leadership positions can only translate to political suicide and a move devoid of calculated risks. In fact, it can no longer hold water when faced with embarrassing facts.
Certainly, if we are to survive as a state, Deltans must depart mundane and parochial senatorial/tribal considerations and seek as a governor some that can serve and save the people as well as engineer economic prosperity of the state via effective management of these much-admired resources.
More particularly, in order to throw up a creative governor to sustain Governor Okowa’s developmental tempo in the state, the state needs a more liberal and sophisticated leadership recruitment approach anchored on merit and international best practice, that will not only but place the state in the hands of a vibrant technocrat.
Going by the above and looking at the calibre of Deltans angling to succeed Okowa, their credentials and achievements, this piece proposes that Deltans look at the direction of Afiesere, Ughelli North local government area of Delta state born David Edevbie.
The choice of Edevbie by this piece is anchored on two broad critical reasons. The first has to do with the public leadership experience that is delta state-specific. The second focuses on education and professional expertise.
Being with delta state public leadership, the state in material terms qualifies as a location that has left behind third world challenges of illiteracy and poverty, to become a successful centre for the dissemination and distribution of best human capital resources across the nation. And blessed with people that have through hard work, planning, established themselves in all sectors-finance, science/technology, sports and education among others. In view of this fact, governing the state will call for personalities capped with a global mindset and exposure. This claim is evident in its profile that will be made available in subsequent paragraphs
Secondly, the state, to use the words of Governor Okowa, is a microcosm of Nigeria because it is populated by different ethnic nationalities. It has had inter-ethnic conflicts/clashes, fatal boundary disputes, especially over oil-bearing land, and political tensions’.
It will, therefore, in my view be highly rewarding to bring in as a governor, a personality that has been with the government of the state since 1999. He not only understands the story, but he is conversant with such challenges and has been part of the solution in the past two decades. We must not fail to remember that leadership is but nature and nurture.
Concerning his work credentials, it presents something alluring.
Edevbie going by information at the public domain-joined Barclays Bank Plc, the UK as a trainee and 1988 and 1992, rose to the position of Manager’s Assistant, Corporate Lending while in late 1992, joined Hill Samuel, a U.K. Merchant Bank, as an Investment Banking Executive. In 1995, David, joined the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), UK (CDC Group) as an Investment Officer responsible for Asia & Pacific Regions. And was in 1996, promoted to Deputy Country Head, and was responsible for establishing the CDC Philippines Office. Again, in March 1998, the Edevbie returned to the London Office and was promoted to Investment Manager. This time around capped with significant project finance expertise having participated in several high profile project-financing transactions.
In June 1999, he was appointed Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning, Delta State. Where he transformed work attitudes and computerized the operations of the Ministry. And at the end of Chief James Ibori’s first tenure in office in 2003, took a break to attend the prestigious Harvard Business School Advanced Management Programme to prepare himself for higher responsibilities.
He was invited in late 2006, by one of the PDP Presidential Aspirants, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to join his small campaign team as Director of Finance and Strategy and Yar’Adua was elected President in April 2007.
In recognition of the significant role played in the Presidential Campaign Organization, President Yar’Adua, in 2008, appointed him as Principal Secretary to the President (PSP) to take over the responsibilities of the out-going Chief of Staff. And performed prominently well in the Presidency until shortly after President Yar’Adua’s death in April 2010.
Finally, this piece will again underline without failure that if an accelerated economy is our goal, if social and cultural development is our dreams, if promoting peace, supporting our industries and improving our energy sector forms our objectives, then, we must look beyond ill-will, socioeconomic contribution and ethnic specificity, and go for a vibrant technocrat like Edevbie with a capacious mind to build on Governor Okowa’s achievements. If elected, he will likely preach and practice development principles.
But for us to offer merit on the altar of ethnic consideration could only but amounts to political suicide.
Utomi Jerome-Mario is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He could be reached via [email protected]/08032725374
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By Ezrel Tabiowo
Before he ventured to contest the Senate Presidency, Senator Ahmad Lawan, had a clear-cut vision in his legislative agenda which some at the time considered a rather tall order.
One of the most ambitious of them was his bid to restore the nation’s deformed budget cycle to the January to December timeline.
The country for 20 years between 1999 and 2019 had operated an irregular budget cycle from the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo all through to the first tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
Determined to correct the anomaly which for long had weighed down the Nigerian economy from making steady progress, Lawan understood he needed to come up with a leadership model or, if you like, a stopgap that would adequately address the bureaucratic setbacks that hitherto frustrated the nation’s budgetary processes in the past.
In coming up with his unique leadership model, the Senate President, one of Nigeria’s seasoned and longest-serving legislators, understudied the leadership style and outcomes of past Assemblies and how the persistent clamour for exclusive authority and supremacy between the arms of government had staggeringly hindered the evolvement of the country’s democracy.
He also weighed these outcomes against the attendant impact which they had in general on the economy and other facets of our national existence.
To him, the associated fallouts of legislative-executive feuds under the guise of ensuring ‘checks and balances’ was nothing short of an albatross on legislative undertakings that would ultimately continue to make Nigerians the overall losers in the scheme of things. He felt this had to stop, as it was too much baggage working against the nation’s advancement.
Giving a new flare to the role of the National Assembly, Lawan devised a model which now accommodates robust legislative engagements across frontiers that nevertheless adheres to the principle of ‘Separation of Powers’ in Parliament’s dealings with the Executive arm of government.
No doubt, this new thinking and approach attracted its fair share of public criticism from some Nigerians who were already addicted to the screaming headlines on covers of national dailies from internecine conflicts between the executive and legislature under past assemblies.
To them, a parliament not at war with the executive has to be in bed with it and is nothing short of a “rubber stamp” in their exact words.
They, however, fail to see that Lawan’s leadership model has become the great reset that altered the dynamics of the nation’s governance architecture in a way that underscores and distributes shared responsibilities between the arms of government, so as to guarantee collective effectiveness in leadership roles.
In other words, it drew the curtains on the mediocre way of scoring cheap political points by those opposed to government policies through unnecessary and avoidable face-offs which, in my considered view, is grossly counterproductive and does nothing but reduce the quality of governance as events have shown.
Validating Lawan’s Advocacy for Harmony in Governance
The consistent clamour for harmony in Executive-Legislature relations by the Senate President, no doubt finds footing from his leadership model which relies on a flexible approach to outlining the limits of the principle of ‘Separation of Powers’ as provided for in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
In public law, the principle of Separation of Powers in the Constitutional System is along two paths; the Strict Approach and the Flexible Approach.
Montesquieu, a French Jurist and Political Philosopher advocated the Strict Approach amidst his view that no organ of state should encroach on another, either in terms of function or personnel. He was instrumental to the division of government powers along with three functions: law-making – Parliament; Implementation of the law – Executive; and Interpretation – Judiciary.
However, Luigi Giussani, a Theologian and Public Intellectual, while referring to a number of writers, viewed such a system of Strict Separation of Powers as “unworkable”.
According to Cheryl Saunders, a specialist in Comparative Public Law and President Emeritus of the International Association of Constitutional Law, “every constitutional system that purports to be based on a separation of powers in fact provides, deliberately, for a system of checks and balances under which each Institution impinges upon another and in turn is impinged upon.”
She explained further that, “a lack of cooperation between limbs would result in constitutional deadlock.”
Kent H. Barnett, an Author and world-renowned Professor of Law, who resonated with this view posited that a system of government founded on the strict separation of powers could result in legal and constitutional deadlock if the branches of state disagree.
By implication, such disagreement between the arms of government could also manifest in non-assent to bills passed by Parliament and non-approval to executive money bills by the legislature.
Flowing from the above, it becomes obvious as to why a lot of legislation passed under the Eighth National Assembly was refused assent, and why most passed by the Ninth Assembly were signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
It also explains why the National Assembly under Lawan’s leadership was able to effortlessly restore the Budget Cycle to the January to December timeline with the support of the Executive arm of government, as well as get assent to other critical legislation which before now defied passage such as the Finance Act and Petroleum Industry Act, among others.
The national budget was passed by the Ninth Assembly and signed by President Buhari in record time three years in a row since 2019, a feat never once achieved by previous assemblies or any administration since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.
As a result of the restoration of the nation’s budget cycle to the January – December timeline, the Nigerian economy has become insulated against recession threatening other developing countries, in spite of the country’s reduced revenue earnings from a crash in crude oil price caused by the attendant effect of the global lockdown, following the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
Lawan’s leadership model – which fosters Inter-governmental collaboration and inclusion – if replicated by Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government – would no doubt address some of the challenges faced by Nigeria as a result of the lingering insecurity.
It is, however, noteworthy to point out that insisting on a harmonious and mutual working relationship between the arms of government and its agencies do not in any way strip them off their independence nor does it weaken or make one arm or agency a subject of the other.
Lawan’s leadership model demonstrated this a couple of months back when the Senate bared its fangs on errant MDAs that refused to defend projects proposed to be funded by the external borrowings of the federal government.
The upper chamber under the leadership of the Senate President also frowned at wasteful spendings by refusing to approve monies running into hundreds of millions for the procurement of mosquito nets never minding the cordial working relationship it has with the executive.
Against this backdrop, security agencies such as the Military, Police, Department of State Services (DSS), the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and others not mentioned, must begin to think along the lines of ensuring Inter-agency cooperation in the fight against terrorism, insurgency and all forms of criminality across the country. It is time to stop the jostle for supremacy and put on the garb of patriotism in the discharge of duties.
The urgency of the situation makes it expedient for the hierarchy across these agencies to adopt a workable leadership model that encourages mutual engagement, as well as prioritises the security and welfare of Nigerians in accordance with duly enshrined constitutional provisions.
On the much-anticipated Electoral Act Amendment Bill not signed into law by President Buhari, Lawan’s poise radiates unwavering confidence in the power of engagement between the executive arm of government and the National Assembly.
It would be recalled that moments before the Senate adjourned on December 22, 2021, for the Christmas and New Year break, the Senate President, immediately after the chamber rose from a closed session, announced that the Senate would consult the House of Representatives in January to decide what next line of action to take over the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021.
President Buhari in a letter read by Lawan on the floor a day earlier had advanced reasons why he decided to withhold assent to the piece of legislation.
He warned that signing the bill into law would have serious adverse legal, financial, economic and security consequences on the country, particularly in view of Nigeria’s peculiarities.
Buhari added that it would also impact negatively the rights of citizens to participate in the government as constitutionally ensured.
Having made his reasons known, Nigerians should keep in mind that the Senate is bound by an obligation to do only those things that would bring about unity, peace and prosperity for the country.
One of those things, according to Lawan, is “stabilising the polity”, particularly in moments when it is heated up by agitations and anxiety.
The National Assembly is constitutionally required to act only in the interest of Nigerians like it always has, without due recourse to any other consideration not in tune with their expectations.
As we begin the new year, may the patriotic zeal which has guided their actions be renewed with vigour for the service of humanity and advancement of our fatherland.
Dr Tabiowo is the Special Assistant (Press) to the President of the Senate and writes from Abuja.
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