The Failure of Northern Governors

The so called Chief Servant of Niger state, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, never seizes to amaze. Beside moving his massive frame from one awards venue to another and from one public lecture hall to the next, I am not sure the man has done much to improve the socio economic lives of the people of his state. To put it another away, the number of awards he has received so far does not match the number of projects he has commissioned since coming to office about five years ago. If the awards and invitations to deliver lectures were the yardsticks to measure performance, he would probably be voted best governor – he has that award in the bag perhaps. But truth is Niger state is still among the least developed states in the North.

It is ironic that while the man was busy inaugurating the Advisory Council of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, staff of the New Nigerian – the newspaper that the late Sardauna himself set up – are on an indefinite strike action over unpaid salaries and pensions which has put the verge of death under his watch as the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum.  Perhaps he needs to be told that spearheading the revival of that newspaper would serve a greater purpose of helping to actualise the dreams of the former premier for the region. Being the “intellectual” that he claims to be however, I am quite certain he knows this fact pretty well but has just chosen to ignore it and chase shadows instead.

At last week’s inauguration, the governor  more or less confirmed what we have always known; that governors especially of the northern states have turned rent collectors who do nothing to augment what the receive from the centre  to make life meaningful for their people. He said this much himself when he called for the review of the revenue allocation formula describing as unfair a situation where his state receives between N4.2 billion to N4.5 billion monthly while some other states receive so much more. According to him, the state spends half of that amount on payment of salaries and overheads with very little left to provide infrastructure. For me, there isn’t a greater self indictment than this. It is no wonder that the people of Niger state still struggle with bad roads, poor water supply and the rest. The governor and his colleagues haves evidently not done much to harness the abundant agricultural resources in their domains to boost their revenue base.

It is not in doubt that Northern states receive much less revenue from the federal government in comparison to  their counterparts in the South some of whom also enjoy the additional 13% derivation monthly and Northern governor are well within their rights to demand for more from the center. The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN], Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, did make a similar call recently when he went as far as to blame the imbalance in the revenue allocation formula as partly responsible for the Boko Haram menace the nation, particularly Northern states, is currently grappling with.

Sanusi told the Financial Times of London that: “When you look at the figures and the size of the population in the North, you can see that there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportion. Those states simply do not have enough money to meet basic needs while some states have too much money. The imbalance is so stark because the state still depends on oil for more than 80% of its revenues”.

Looked at in the context of the on going calls by groups in the Southern part of the country for a Sovereign National Conference {SNC] where they say Nigeria’s myriad problems will be discussed, a call for more money from the centre puts Northern states and their governors at a disadvantage when the Conference is eventually convened. Despite his seeming reluctance, I am almost certain that President Goodluck Jonathan will pander to the wishes of his people. He may not call it an SNC but a National Dialogue or anything of that like. After all, he did say, while making reference to the Justice Belgore committee set up to review the Constitution that “a larger body will meet on issues that are still controversial for a national consensus”.

What Northern leaders and elite don’t seem to get is that agitators for the SNC are not necessarily calling for the break up of the country. What they want is essentially to take control of the resources found in their backyard such that all revenues accruing from the sale of those resources are kept by them and will only be obliged to pay a small percentage in tax to the federal government. Where then would that leave the North if that happens? Considering the fact that Northern leaders have always shown a disunited front when it comes to representing the interests of the region at the national stage, chances are the Southern states might just get what they want.

Over the years, Northern governors have failed to tap the enormous agricultural and solid mineral resources in the region and are now paying dearly for their over reliance for hand outs from the federal government. As someone mentioned elsewhere, Niger state, for instance, has abundant shea butter, sugar cane, palm oil and other agricultural resources but successive governments have failed to develop them to become commercially viable. Governor Aliyu and many of his colleagues in the North have failed woefully in reviving the countless comatose and dead industries that would have employed the large army of unemployed youths and this is partly responsible for the unrests we are witnessing. Agriculture which used to be the mainstay of the nation’s economy prior to the discovery of oil in the late 1950s has suffered so much neglect that it would take not less than 10 years for it to be fully revived to sustain the Northern economy.

Perhaps this explains why many Northern elders and politicians are afraid of the SNC. They simply do not have a strong economic position to canvass for the North. Interestingly, a group of Concerned Northerners met last week in Abuja – again with Governor Aliyu in attendance – to, among other things, support the call for a restructuring of the country. They however failed to give details of the kind of restructuring they wish to see take place.

With Governors like Aliyu and his colleagues who are only interested in talk but not action, the region is in a severely disadvantaged position in the scheme of things in the country. A Sovereign National Conference, if allowed to happen, will only drive this harsh reality home badly.  

Important lessons from elsewhere

Very few people will argue the fact that the kind of leaders Nigeria has had over the years are indeed a rare breed. A breed that seems only adept at self aggrandizement and self perpetuation at the expense of the majority for whom living has become a constant struggle. Our leaders have regularly proved that their own concept of leadership is quite different from the text book definition that sees it as a platform to serve the people.

This selfish disposition partly explains why there is a dearth of heroes and role models especially among the political class in the country. Since the passing of what could be described as the first generation of leaders after the first republic ,very few public servants can qualify as role models after whom the young generation of Nigerians would aim to shape their lives. To look for such kind of people who have distinguished themselves in leadership positions we mostly have to look outside our shores.

In this month alone, three public office holders in Germany, Romania and Greece again proved that public service is all about meeting the expectations of the people – earning their trust in the process - and once it gets to a point where that cardinal principle cannot be upheld, the public office holder has no business remaining in office. Here in Nigeria however, it seems, for many, public office is all about an opportunity for self enrichment and perpetuation at all costs.

Last Friday, the German President, Christian Wulff, resigned from office after coming under pressure from political opponents and prosecutors who claimed he accepted bribes during his tenure as the governor of Lower Saxony. He was also alleged to have received financial favours including gifts and sponsored vacations which were in clear violation of German laws and code of conduct for public officers. His resignation paved the way for prosecutors to launch criminal investigations against him having lost his immunity. In announcing his resignation, Wulff said: “He had lost the trust of the German people, making it impossible to continue in a role that is meant to serve as a moral compass for the nation. For this reason, it is no longer possible for me to exercise the office of president at home and abroad as required”.

If Wulff were a Nigerian, he probably would have clung to office and continue to heap blame on imaginary political opponents for his travails rather than do the honourable thing. The whole idea of resigning from office seems to be an unheard of concept in this part of the world. How else can one explain the continued stay in office of the Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani Allison Madueke, who even before her reappointment was dogged by all manner of allegations about her involvement in shoddy deals in the ministry. If this was not enough to make her bow out gracefully, her inglorious role in the fuel subsidy removal earlier in the year and the glaring incompetence she displayed during the public hearings by the House ad hoc committee of fuel subsidy where she proved to all that she was not abreast of the goings on in the nation’s petroleum sector were enough to make her leave the stage. She neither knows the nation’s daily fuel consumption figure nor does she know how much was spent on fuel subsidy last year. Now she has gone on a frenzy setting up task forces and committees that are duplicitous and unlikely to achieve much.

Much earlier this month, the Romanian Prime Minister, Emil Boc, also resigned after facing mass protests against International Monetary Fund {IMF} backed austerity measures. The IMF had granted Romania a 20 billion euro loan in 2009 with the condition that the government implements severe cuts in spending.  In addition to the cuts, the government also raised taxes which made life difficult for many Romanians who also complained of widespread corruption in government.  In his farewell speech, Boc said: “I took the decision to release the tension in the country’s political and social situation, but also in order not to lose what Romanians have won”.

Faced with a similar situation during the fuel subsidy protests, our own President Goodluck Jonathan not only sent troops to Lagos to break the protests, his security forces threatened to charge those calling for his resignation with treason. Rather than see the protests as a clear policy error which needed to be reversed quickly, the president chose to blame defeated political opponents for orchestrating the protests.

Amid the sad news of the harsh economic situation that Greece has found itself in, a cheering bit of news came last Friday which showed that despite the people’s anger with their reckless leaders whose actions have plunged that country into near economic abyss, there are leaders who do take their jobs seriously. The Culture Minister, Pavlos Geroulanos, tendered his resignation after armed men broke into a museum and made away with dozens of antiques that were up to 3,200 years old. The antiques which dated from the 9^th to the 4^th Century, were stolen from the museum of the ancient games of Olympia and because of the proud history and heritage of the Greeks, Geroulanos felt he has let down a nation by his inability to provide adequate security for its treasures hence his resignation.

There is glaring failure of leadership at all levels in this country but our leaders seem unperturbed by it to even contemplate resigning from office. To them, leaving public office before one’s time is perhaps the ultimate admittance of failure and encouraged by an increasingly materialistic and docile society, they get away with the more important failure of delivering on the objectives of their office. Our situation is also made worse by the kind of politics we play which ranks ethnic or regional loyalties above all else. On many instance, corrupt public officials have been left off the hook because their kinsmen have risen to their defence and lobbied vigouriously to get them off the hook. Until this changes and we have a leaders who inspire confidence by maintaining the highest ethical and morals standards in office, we may wait a long while for that equitable nation we truly deserve.

An American Connection to Boko Haram?

By Abdulazeez Abdullahi

There is no denying the fact that if the Boko Haram crisis is not resolved in the earliest possible time it could lead to the destabilization of the country. As things are now, the harmonious coexistence of the nation’s diverse peoples in different parts of the country is coming under serious threat with southerners leaving the north in fear of attacks by the religious sect that has warned them to relocate or risk attacks. This sad situation is not helped by some leaders especially of the south east who have asked their kinsmen to return home. To make matters worse, northerners residing in the south do not also sleep with two eyes closed as they live in constant fear of becoming targets of reprisals even for attacks that may have nothing to do with Boko Haram. This much was evident last week when they were forced to flee Onitsha after a policeman reportedly shot dead a motorcyclist. For the unfortunate fact that the policeman was a northerner and the motorcyclist an Igbo was enough reason for residents to vent their anger on the northerners they could lay hands on.

If this atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion amongst Nigerians is allowed to go on, surely that could provoke a major crisis that may lead to the break up of the country. By the time the Ibrahim Babangidas and the David Marks get their military uniforms back on in readiness for the trenches, it may well be too late. To avoid such scenario, perhaps they will do well to use their influence and power now to see that the country, particularly the north, gets out of this Boko Haram logjam.

The dangerous road to perdition that our dear nation is travelling on is seen by many as a deliberate grand plot allegedly put in motion by the United States of America which to it eternal credit has carved a reputation for itself over the years for such diabolical operations especially where its interests have come under threat. Last week Friday, this newspaper began publishing a three – part article by a group called the “Greenwhite Coalition” in which it drew attention to the role the United States in orchestrating the Boko Haram attacks that have evidently defied any well thought out solution from our security agencies. Grrenwhite Coalition claims that America’s Central Intelligence Agency {CIA} operates a camp in Niger Republic where it trains young Muslim radicals who have been brain washed into believing that they can bring about violent change in the country.  It claimed also that the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Abuja and indeed some of the sophisticated attacks so far carried out by members of the Islamic sect were masterminded by CIA operatives. While the group has not provided evidence yet to support its claim, it does beat the imagination how the sect was able to acquire the sophistry to carry out such audacious assault without external help.

The coalition which said its membership cuts across Nigeria’s religious and ethnic divide alleged that the Boko Haram crisis is part of a grand strategy whose ultimate goal is the break up of the county by 2015. According to the coalition, Nigeria’s influence in the West African sub region and also the continent poses a direct threat to the interest of the United States, adding that the success of ECOMOG during the Liberian crisis proved to the Americans that their influence and support may be less needed on the continent in the future.

Before Greenwhite Coalition’s warning, an American journalist, Gordon Duff, had late last year also wrtten about the alleged plot to destabilize Nigeria by what he describes as “powerful forces outside Nigeria”. Duff, who was a US marine during the Vietnam war and currently a senior editor for Veterans Today journal, said he has told his friends in the Nigerian government about the plot and even gave them a heads up on some of the attacks before they happened. According to Duff, “they who have been working with the terror groups are building an Al Qaida type organization that will be able to start across borders and carefully orchestrate a pattern of destabilization using the same contractors that are going to be paid millions to help put in place security apparatus to protect the country”. Like the Greenwhite Coalition, he too disclosed that a training base is located in Niger Republic from where attacks are being plotted.

In a country where its people have become cynical about almost everything, chances are that many Nigerians will dismiss these accounts as conjecture and conspiracy theories. It may however serve our security agencies well  to consider some of the leads the Greenwhite Coalition and Mr. Duff have thrown up. The National Security Adviser, Andrew Azazi, the sacked police chief, Hafiz Ringim and the State Security Service officials have all said that Boko Haram attacks are a new phase of terrorism which we hitherto do not know of. This clearly indicates that external forces are behind the sect’s activities.

The United States it must be said has not acquitted itself in the past to avoid being drawn into such conspiracy theories as many of the nations where the CIA had carried our covert operations have bitterly come to realize. America’s involvement in the arming of rebels and eventual toppling of regimes that undermine its interests are legion. During the Cold War, for example, The CIA helped topple a democratically elected government in Guatemala in 1954 simply because it was headed by the communist party just as it did to an elected government in Brazil in 1964. Closer to home, it also orchestrated the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana in 1966. Chile also fell victim of the treachery of the Americans when it made several attempts on the life of Salvadore Allende, the Chilean leader in 1973 before his eventual ouster.

The world will not forget in a hurry the CIA’s role in destabilizing Nicaragua in the 1980s when it armed and financed the Contra rebels who were based in Hunduras against the Sandanista government.  In a desperate bid to overthrow the Sandanista, the CIA “planted mines in civilian harbours and sunk civilian ships”. It also helped sabotage Nicaragua’s refineries, ports, and bridges without sparing a thought for the lives of many innocent civilians. In defence of these atrocities, the US had this to say: “Nicaragua’s neighbours have asked for assistance against Nicaraguan aggression and the United States has responded”. The United States is also responsible orchestrating the unending crises in Somalia by funding some war lords to destabilize the government. It also armed Ethiopian army to launch cross border attacks against the Somali government.

While there is no evidence yet of its involvement in the Boko Haram nightmare, Nigerians should not be in doubt of the capability of the United States to mastermind such a sinister plot. As history has shown, nothing stands in the way of America in its pursuit of what is in its national interest and if destabilizing Nigeria is what is required to further that national interest, well it is just a small price to pay Let however hope this is just a conspiracy theory.

Getting to know the president better

He has honour if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable or dangerous to do so. – Walter Lippman

If the peoples cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and promote their common welfare – all else is lost. – Barack Obama

Gradually, the president’s real character is emerging and it is not a flattering one. It is one that betrays him as a sly fellow who would do or say anything just to have his way. Nigerians must as a matter of urgency brace themselves for more shocks and the attendant disappointments that will follow until the end of his tenure hopefully in 2015. Perhaps it is in realization of this that some Nigerians who can not wait to see the back of this president famous for his shoeless campaign mantra have begun a count down to his possible exit.

Leaders that have made a success of their tenures the world over are those who have endeavored to gain the trust of their people and dedicated themselves to keeping that invaluable commodity. Some notable leaders who did not fare well in that regard in the not too distant past include George W. Bush and Tony Blair of the United States and United Kingdom respectively who led a coalition of war mongers into a phantom chase for so called weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. As a consequence, the two left office with their reputations in shreds

President Jonathan seems well on his way to joining that inglorious league as demonstrated by his ingenious moves which leave even the barely literate in no doubt that this man has taken too much for granted and sees Nigerians as gullible people who have permanently been stricken by a bout of amnesia. It must be said that the president is blessed with a mien that presents him as an innocent who is not wise in the ways of the world. It was this demeanor that he sold to many sympathizers who fought hard to make him acting president during those trying times when the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua was sick in Saudi Arabia. But having known what many of us didn’t, the so called cabal dared to stop him. It has now become apparent that despite his pretentions, he was keen and a touch desperate to seize power from his bed ridden boss.

Having comfortably settled in office, Nigerians were soon to realize that this man is not one to whom agreements mean much. As far as he is concerned, they are just a necessary inconvenience with which to get what one wants. Once the pendulum swings in one’s favour, then to hell with agreements. That was his exact disposition to the zoning arrangement of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP}, whose constitution he trampled upon on his way to becoming president in spite of the fact that he was a signatory to its agreement on zoning   If he was a respecter of agreements, he probably would have been nestling in his county home in Otueke instead of Aso Rock Villa.

This is all in the past as I am certain his supporters would argue. Let us grant them that, after all, what has happened has happened. But as sure as we all are that a leopard cannot change its spots no matter how hard it tries, the real Jonathan was on show again, even if by sleigh of hand.  Just last week, he attempted and woefully failed to grab the chairmanship of the African Union {AU}.  Jonathan attempted a coup de grace of sorts against his Beninous counterpart, Yayi Boni of Benin, by lobbying ECOWAS leaders to transfer their support to him. He was forced to back down when it became clear that they were resolute in their support for Boni. What is poignant about the president’s action was that, as he did during the zoning controversy, he attempted to violate an agreement by the ECOWAS leaders who had, at a mini summit here in Abuja, unanimously agreed to back Boni’s bid. The president and his handlers may not know it but this singular action has completely demeaned not only his person and his office but ridiculed Nigeria as a whole.

It may well be that his attempt for the AU chair was to try to checkmate South Africa’s growing influence in the continent. What he however failed to realize is that his fellow African leaders are not as gullible as Nigerians back home who he has taken for granted. South Africa is generally perceived - and rightly too – as a country that has got its priorities right and is seen o be more serious at actualizing them. It has positioned itself well to provide leadership for the continent in deepening democratic values and good governance. African leaders will also not forget in a hurry Jonathan’s ill-advised hasty endorsement of the Libyan rebels in the run up to Ghaddafi’s fall even before the AU took a stand.    

The president has also got himself in a mess back in his home state, Bayelsa, over the choice of the PDP candidate in the coming gubernatorial elections. When he was desperately seeking support for his presidential bid last year, he was full of accolades for  then Governor Timipre Sylva who went on to deliver Bayelsa for the president. But since that goal has now been achieved, the president said Sylva did not perform hence his decision to dump him. If we may ask; did all the PDP governors he backed performed well enough to deserve re-election? Or what other criteria did he use to determine his support for them? Did he not promise to back them all in return for their supporting his bid?

Nigerian workers who always get the short end of the stick in any agreement with government are now left to rue their misfortune as many of them have still not received their January salaries which the president promised will be paid by the 20^th of that month. He made this promise in desperation to gain support for the removal of fuel subsidy. Now that that dust has settled – albeit temporarily - that pledge seems to have been forgotten, with that also are the many other palliatives he promised.

The president need to realize that trust is the glue that binds him to Nigerians and one sure way to strengthen that bond is if he is acknowledged by all as one who is trustworthy. He can not go on violating agreement after agreement and expect that he will gain the trust and confidence of Nigerians. In the opinion of many, any one who violates agreements at will especially for personal gain is devoid of honour and the greatest tragedy to befall a leader is when he loses honour.