TheTrumpet Africans now have a voice... F Founded in 1995 V OL 22 N O 413 A PRIL 27 - M AY 10 2016 TheTrumpet #TrumpetAt21 - 21 years of publishing and waxing stronger Our Service is a true Air Freight Door-to-Door Service - Your goods are collected from your door, anywhere in the UK, Goods are packed suitable for Export, Shipped, Cleared through Custom and delivered safely to your door anywhere in Nigeria and many other destinations in West Africa. AIR & SEA PORT TO PORT EXPRESS COURIER T: 020 8150 3780 E: [email protected]W: www.infinitylogistics.co.uk Shipping-Groupage Door to Door Air Import & Export A year after the World Health Assembly resolved to eliminate malaria from at least 35 countries by 2030, WHO has released a World Malaria Day report that shows this goal, although ambitious, is achievable. In 2015, all countries in the WHO European Region reported, for the first time, zero indigenous cases of malaria, down from 90 000 cases in 1995. Outside this region, 8 countries reported Continued on Page 3> T he death toll from last weekend’s attack carried out by South Sudanese gunmen in Ethiopia has risen to 208 people. The toll of the wounded has also risen to 75 people while 108 children have been kidnapped, according to an Ethiopian official. The attack took place in the Gambela region which, alongside a neighbouring province, hosts more than 284,000 South Sudanese refugees who fled conflict in their country. A Reuters report notes that Cross-border cattle raids have occurred in the same area in the past, often involving Murle tribesmen from South Sudan’s Jonglei and Upper Nile regions - areas awash with weapons that share borders with Ethiopia. Previous attacks, however, were smaller in scale. The gunmen are not believed to have links with South Sudanese government troops or rebel forces who fought the government in Juba in a civil war that ended with a peace deal signed last year. STALLIONS AIR Ipanema Travel Ltd NIGERIA from £489 XCELLENT WORLDWIDE O OF FF FE ER RS S A AL LS SO O A AV VA AI IL LA AB BL LE E Please Call 4 Cheap Xmas Fares 020 7580 5999 07979 861 455 Call AMIT / ALEX 73 WELLS ST, W1T 3QG All Fares Seasonal ATOL 9179 Mosquito net -Fabian Biasio Ethiopia death toll hits 208 from South Sudan attack Ending Malaria by 2030 achievable
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TheTrumpetAfricans now have a voice... FFounded in 1995VO L 22 NO 413 AP R I L 27 - MAY 10 2016 TheTrump et
#TrumpetAt21- 21 years of
publishing andwaxing stronger
Our Service is a true Air Freight Door-to-Door Service - Your goods arecollected from your door, anywhere in the UK, Goods are packed suitable forExport, Shipped, Cleared through Custom and delivered safely to your door
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Credit: all4desktop.comEven the birds of the air enjoy this
heavenly sunset that is a mixture of
orange and red, giving it a
sweltering look. What then would
stop you from enjoying such a rare
sight?
Bojo Beach, Ghana
Credit: Bell Africana DigestAfter a day‘s hard work, there is
nothing more comforting for a
fisherman in Bojo Beach, Ghana,
than to row their boat under the
reflection of a beautiful sunset.
Then, they would forget their
weariness and anticipate a relaxed
evening, enjoying their hard earned
meal.
Madagascar
Credit: pixabay.comYou probably have watched
Madagascar; I am talking about the
cartoon. The beautiful sunsets in this
country are probably one of the
many reasons this animation was
shot in the island nation off the
southeast coast of Africa. Combined
with leisurely beaches and reefs, the
feeling of infinity is what you will
no doubt get here.
Zambia
Credit: www.ianplant.comIndulge yourself in this breathtaking
view of a sunset flowing into the
blissful blue of Victoria Falls in
Zambia. There is nothing better than
watching this with your significant
other; it will get you lost in the
world of wild romance and
adventure, leaving an unforgettable
memory to cherish forever.
Beautiful sunsets in Africa that willblow your mind Cape Town, South Africa (Credit
- SMCT)
Kenya (Credit - all4desktop
Bojo Beach, Ghana (Credit - BellAfricana Digest)
Madagascar (Credit - pixabay
Zambia (Credit - ianplant
Page9TheTrumpetAPRIL 27 - MAY 10 2016Opinion
The principle of autonomy and/or
self-determination is viewed as
foundational in any true democracy.
It is however worrying when democracy
becomes a millstone around the neck of
those who are supposed to benefit from it.
Such has been the case in Nigeria for close
to seventeen years of supposed democratic
rule. Democracy has been turned on its
head and self-determination or autonomy
do not exist, or at best, are infinitesimal.
Ajayi and Ojo (2014) wrote that “whileit remains true that Nigeria is governed bydemocratically elected leaders at thefederal and state levels, Nigeria is yet toinstitutionalise democracy after a centuryof existence as a political entity and that theimpediments to the institutionalisation ofdemocracy in Nigeria after more than halfa century of political independence includethe country’s colonial backgroundinterspersed by vagaries engendered bydeep-rooted ethnicity; complacent andspendthrift leadership; incessantintervention of the military in thedemocratic process; electoral fraud;widespread poverty and high illiteracylevel.” They argued that the pivot around
which most of the factors listed above
revolves is corruption which has virtually
become a way of life in Nigeria. However,
fortuitously, the prospect of a politically
stable and democratically viable nation is
marked by the Nigerian people’s eagerness
to participate in the electoral process; the
relative stability and sustenance of multi-
party system and the general realisation in
the country that the only acceptable and
popular route to the acquisition of political
power is through the ballot box.
Some free-market-oriented economists
have strongly criticized the efficiency of
democracy, based on the argument that
voters are illogical or otherwise highly
uneducated about many political issues,
especially those concerning economics and
relationships with other countries in the
world, while having a strong bias about the
few issues on which they are
knowledgeable.
This could result in a wealth disparity
in such a country, and in the case of
Nigeria, add ethnic and religious
discrimination, which unscrupulous and
corrupt politicians are very quick to exploit.
Fierlbeck (1998) points out that such a
result is not necessarily due to a failing in
the democratic process, but rather,
“because democracy is responsive to thedesires of a large middle class increasinglywilling to disregard the muted voices ofeconomically marginalized groups withinits own borders”. The criticism remains
that the will of the democratic majority may
not always be in the best interest of all
citizens within the country (Wikipedia)
Furthermore, some have argued that
voters may not be educated enough to
exercise their democratic right. A
population with low intellect or low
education (and let’s face it, Nigerians are
still largely uneducated) may not be capable
of making beneficial decisions. They argue
that the lack of rationality or even education
is being taken advantage of by normally
unscrupulous politicians, who compete
more in the way of public relations, money
and tactics, than in ideology. Lipset’s 1959
essay about the requirements for forming
democracy, found that “good educationwas present in almost all emergingdemocracies”. However, education alone
cannot sustain a democracy, though Caplan
did note in 2005 that “as a person’s
education increases, their thinking tends tobe more in line with most economists”.
In our or Nigeria’s interestor their best interest?
Fayose -Stomach infrastructure
Continued on Page 12 >
For those who care to know, I am a
passionate supporter of the
Muhammadu Buhari cause and that
position is not about to change! As a matter
of fact, my preference in the March 28,
2015 Presidential Election through which
Buhari eventually became Nigeria’s first
opposition candidate ever to defeat an
incumbent President, was a product of my
convictions and until I have sufficient
reasons to change course, my preference
remains on course. Be that as it may,
surprise will be the appropriate word
should I fail to make the list of the ‘Cult ofWailing Wailers’ as a result of this piece
which I believe is in the overall interest of
my country.
Whichever way the pendulum swings,
the good news is that, within a very short
time in office, Buhari has, to a great extent,
succeeded in rescuing Nigeria from the
jaws of a predatory elite and a band of
merit-devalued interlopers who have for
close to two decades deprived Nigeria of
her gold and silver. However, this is not to
say that I envy the president, not even with
the scourge of impunity that has turned
Nigeria into a morass of incensed screeches
where priorities are misplaced with
unimaginable perfidy and, responsibilities,
shifted with unrivaled pomposity.
Like the Biblical ten plagues, PeoplesDemocratic Party, PDP, passed through our
land and all we could feel were pinches of
hypocrisy and pains of stagnation. Its bunch
of yo-yos insulted our collective
intelligence with unimaginable artificiality
and its crop of educated-but-politically-
incompetent hands, “celestially” endowed
to take care of the downtrodden, only used
their “celestial weapons” to mortgage our
commonwealth. And, as if the gods were
angry, meanness replaced magnificence;
and, in place of conviction, we had
deception.
Buhari’s victory at the poll is no doubt
a great opportunity to reposition the ruling
All Progressives Party, APC, as a party of
principle. It is also an opportunity for the
progressive class to truly rediscover itself
before the next General Elections,
especially, if the ruling party must retain its
relevance in the consciousness of
Nigerians. As things stand, there are folks
out there in whose eyes, the only difference
between the badly-degraded PDP and the
victorious APC is Buhari. Well, maybe one
or two other genuine hearts here and there.
But they are as scarce as hen’s teeth! Added
to this is the opposition’s reported huge
investment in a mass of experts in the
spread of hate messages against the
President but, from the look of things, it is
as if the President’s strategists and
publicists have forgotten that lies, when
told too often, have the capacity to carouse
the exigencies of truth. In my candid
opinion, this is unhealthy for the party that
wants to move beyond where it currently
holds sway to the upper realm!
Needless to repeat that the President’s
efforts at recovering part of Nigeria’s stolen
loots is already yielding fruits. Nonetheless,
concerted efforts should be made towards
preventing the anti-corruption war from
being a temporary reprieve. This is why,
apart from building it around structures, not
men, Buhari must also endeavour to reform
a zigging-zagging judiciary that is at the
moment misconstruing the people’s tall
level of tolerance for short memory. He
must strive to put in place workable
structures that will prevent our monies from
being indescribably stolen and
indiscriminately stashed abroad. At least for
once in the affairs of this great country, our
destiny as a people created by God should
stop being in the hands of Pharisees who
value passion of power above logic of
reason and Princes of Sodom who cry even
when they don’t have tears.
Some governors’ sojourn in denial with
threatening jaunts of antiquated illogicality
notwithstanding, except Nigeria’s socio-
economic landscape which is currently
playing host to the fury of a global
meltdown receives anointing for
improvement, it stands to be seen how most
of the States can survive, post-Buhari’s first
term in office. For instance, no fewer than
four out of the six States in the Southwest
are as we speak, in arrears of several
months of workers’ salaries and
allowances. Other zones, including the
Federation, are not faring any better. No
thanks to an economic malaise that has
taken hold over the national economy.
Without mincing words, it is my hope
that Buhari would do well for progressive
politics by departing from the old, cruel
culture of taking the needs and expectations
of its followers as a four yearly-ritual in
which, immediately their votes are
captured, counted and credited, they
become aberrant artefacts whose ‘phones
will no longer ring’ until it is another
election year. Yes! In their attitude of
pettiness and little traditions, some among
them may wish to gloriously access the
Promised Land without painstakingly
encountering the Red Sea while, like the
children of Israel, others may prefer serving
the Egyptians to dying in the wilderness!
But, like it or not, since politics is a
numbers game, the President will be in a
better stead with the wisdom of Solomon,
not the tact of Jeroboam!
Again, that Buhari has done well for
himself and for the country is no longer
news! If he maximizes the momentum, the
President may become to Nigeria what
Abraham Lincoln is to the United States of
America. Like Buhari, Lincoln had
governed America at her most difficult
time. Apart from leading his country
through its bloodiest civil war, Abe Lincolnalso saw it through its greatest moral,
constitutional and political crisis. Not only
did he abolish slavery, he also strengthened
the government and completely rescued the
economy from the bottomless mess into
which it had previously been plunged.
Like the Lincoln-era America, Nigeria’s
current challenges are not only monstrous,
they’re also hydra-headed. The country is
currently contending with its bloodiest non-
conventional war ever even as Barabbas
and disaster capitalists who masquerade as
leaders have reduced dear fatherland to a
rustic cave of impiety, stymied
development and inverted values.
Coincidentally, the ‘bureaucracy’ which
quickened former President Goodluck
Jonathan‘s administration journey to the
Golgotha is still in Buhari’s government,
almost a year after, doing new things the
old way and it‘s as if the President is
comfortable with their services. On the
other hand, those ‘Change Agents’ who
committed so much in terms of human and
material resources into making the Buhari
dream a reality have for close to a year been
waiting in the wings to contribute their
quota to the development of the polity or,
as the case may be, replenish their barns.
Indeed, this is where the President has to
Page10 TheTrumpet APRIL 27 - MAY 10 2016 Opinion
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Muhammadu Buhari
A word for President Muhammadu BuhariBy Abiodun Komolafe
During the Jonathan administration,
an outspoken opposition
spokesperson had argued that
Nigeria was on auto-pilot, a phrase that was
gleefully even if ignorantly echoed by an
excitable opposition crowd. Deeper
reflection should have made it clear even to
the unthinking that there is no way any
country can ever be on auto-pilot, for there
are many levels of governance, all working
together and cross-influencing each other
to determine the structure of inputs and
outcomes in society. To say that a country is
on auto-pilot is to assume wrongly that the
only centre of governance that exists is the
official corridor, whereas governance is far
more complex. The question should be
asked, now as then: who is governing
Nigeria? Who is running the country? Why
do we blame government alone for our
woes, whereas we share a collective
responsibility, and some of the worst
violators of the public space are not even in
public office?
The President of the country is easily
the target of every criticism. This is perhaps
understandable to the extent that what we
have in Nigeria is the perfect equivalent of
an Imperial Presidency. Whoever is
President of Nigeria wields the powers of
life and death, depending on how he uses
those enormous powers attached to his
office by the Constitution, convention and
expectations. Nigeria’s President not only
governs, he rules. The kind of President that
emerges at any particular time can
determine the fortunes of the country. It
helps if the President is driven by a
commitment to make a difference, but the
challenge is that every President invariably
becomes a prisoner.
He has the loneliest job in the land,
because he is soon taken hostage by
officials and various interests, struggling to
exercise aspects of Presidential power
vicariously. And these officials do it right
to the minutest detail: they are the ones who
tell the President that he is best thing ever
since the invention of toothpaste. They are
the ones who will convince him as to every
little detail of governance: who to meet,
where to travel to, and who to suspect or
suspend. The President exercises power, the
officials and the partisans in the corridors
exercise influence. But when things go
wrong, it is the President that gets the
blame. He is reminded that the buck stops
at his desk.
We should begin to worry about these
dangerous officials in the system,
particularly within the public service, the
reckless mind readers who exploit the
system for their own ends, and who walk
free when the President gets all the blame.
To govern properly, every government not
only needs a good man at the top, but good
officials who will serve the country. We are
not there yet. The same civil servants who
superintended over the omissions of the
past 16 years are the ones still going up and
down today, and it is why something has
changed but nothing has changed. The
reality is terrifying.
The officials at the State levels are no
different, from the Governor down to the
local government chairman and their staff.
They hardly get as much criticism as the
folks in Abuja, but they are busy every day
governing Nigeria, and doing so very badly
too. Local Government Chairmen and their
officials do almost nothing. The Governors
also try to act as if they are Imperial
Majesties. The emphasis on ceremony
rather than actual performance is the bane
of governance in Nigeria. Everyone seems
to be obsessed with ceremony and
privileges.
A friend sent me a picture he took with
the Mayor of London inside a train, in the
midst of ordinary citizens and asked if that
would ever happen in Nigeria. The Mayor
had no bodyguards. He was on his own. In
the Netherlands, the Prime Minister is a
part-time lecturer in one of the local
colleges. Nigerian pubic officials are often
too busy to have time for normal life. Even
if they want to live normally, the system
also makes it impossible. We need people
in government living normal lives. Leaders
need not be afraid of the people they
govern. They must identify with them.
There is too much royalty in government
circles in Nigeria. No matter how well-
intentioned you may be, once you find
yourself in their midst, you will soon start
acting and sounding like one, because it is
the only language that is spoken in those
corridors.
Elsewhere, ideas govern countries.
People become leaders on the basis of ideas
and they govern with ideas. That is why the
average voter in Europe or North America
knows that what he votes for, is what he is
likely to get. Clearly in the on-going
Presidential nomination process in the
United States, every voter knows the
difference between Bernie Sanders and
Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side and
between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump on
the Republican side. Such differences are
often blurry in Nigeria: our politics is
driven by partisan interests; a primordial
desperation for power, not ideas. It is also
why Nigerian politicians can belong to five
different political parties and movements
within a decade.
Even when men of ideas show up in the
political arena, they are quickly reminded
that they are not politicians and do not
understand politics. Gross anti-
intellectualism is a major problem that
Nigeria would have to address at some
stage. Some of the administrations in the
past who had brainy men and women of
ideas in strategic positions ended up not
using them. They were either frustrated,
caged, co-opted or forced to adapt or shown
the door. The question is often asked: why
don’t such people walk away? The answer
that is well known in official corridors is
this: doing so may be a form of suicide.
Once inside, you are not allowed to walk
out on the Federal Government of Nigeria,
and if you must, not on your own terms. So,
governance fails even at that level of
values: that other important element that
governs progressive nations.
Partisan interests are major factors in
the governance process. These seem to be
the dominant factor in Nigeria, but again,
they are irresponsibly deployed. The crowd
of political parties, religious groups,
traditional rulers, ethnic and community
associations, professional associations,
pastors, priests, traditional rulers, imams
and alfas, shamanists, native doctors,
soothsayers and traditional healers: they all
govern. They wield enormous influence.
But they have never helped Nigeria and
they are not helping. All the people in
public offices have strong links to all these
other governors of Nigeria, but what kind
Page11TheTrumpetAPRIL 27 - MAY 10 2016
Opinion
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Who governs Nigeria?
BY REUBEN ABATI
Page12 TheTrumpet APRIL 27 - MAY 10 2016 Opinion
democracy in Nigeria?
• In whose interest was the sixteen years
of democracy under the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP), and in whose
interest would the Alliance for
Progressive Change (APC) rule for the
next 3 years remaining?
• In whose interest were our oil and other
resources being managed since
Independence 56 years ago?
• In whose interest do we even have
governments – federal, state and local?
• In whose interest do our politicians seek
election into all electable offices?
• In whose interest are our civil servants,
ministers and other political appointees
working?
• In whose interest are politicians called
upon to resign for one reason or the
other
• In whose interest are the employees,
contractors, owners and stakeholders in
Nigeria’s oil industry working?
• Whose interest have Nigeria’s military
been serving since they ventured into
governance?
• Whose interest is being served when
unions call strikes?
• And a thousand other questions.
What we have in Nigeria is a deadly
cocktail of conflict of interest, self-
interests, selfish and personal interests,
regional interests, religious interests and
unbridled, chocking corruption-driven
interests. What for? Aren’t we all going to
die? And when we die, what do we take
with us to wherever dead people go?
Femi Fabiyi, in his article, “Nigeria and
the Emerging Economies” wrote “Many ofNigeria’s mafias have invested their stolenmonies in personal homes abroad (USA,Britain, Dubai, South Africa and a host ofother countries). Why should a Nigerian-based politician maintain a residentialhome in the USA? I honestly cannot find areasonable answer to this question. For myreaders who do not understand the USAreal estate market, here is a hypotheticalcase – A Nigerian based politician whoowns a $1,000,000 house in America isexpected to pay at least 2% of $1,000,000in property taxes and between 1.5% and
2% of $1,000,000 for maintenance on ayearly bases. So, what sense does it makefor a Nigerian politician to pull an averageof $35,000 from the local economy everyyear and send it to America to help developAmerican cities and counties?”
Will it be easy? Of course not! Aside
from dealing with the problems inherited
after decades of debauchery, profligacy,
mismanagement, indolence, corruption,
neglect of the people and infrastructure, etc;
there is also the added issue of newly
created difficulties occasioned by
prevailing circumstances alongside the
added complications of purveyors of
hopelessness and dejection fouling the air
with their negative natter, sabotage and
wanton corruption, who want to retain and
maintain the status quo.
But just like President Obama of the
United States of America said - simply and
succinctly - “Nothing in life that’s worth
anything is easy.“
In whose best interest is Nigeria itself?
References:
* Ajayi,A T and Ojo E O, 2014.
“Democracy in Nigeria: Practice, Problems
and Prospects” International Knowledge
Sharing Platform, Vol 4, No 2 (2014)
* Bendix, Reinhard; Lipset, Seymour
M. (June 1957). “Political Sociology”.
Current Sociology 6 (2): 79–99.
doi:10.1177/001139215700600201.
Retrieved April 05, 2014.)
* Caplan, Bryan. “From Friedman to
Wittman: The Transformation of Chicago
Political Economy”, Econ Journal Watch,
April 2005.
* Fabiyi, Femi 2016. “Nigeria and the
Emerging Economies”
http://www.championsfornigeria.com/inde
x.php/14-articles/107-nigeria-and-the-
emerging-economies Retrieved 10 April,
2016.
* Fierlbeck, K. (1998) Globalizing
Democracy: Power, Legitimacy and the
Interpretation of democratic ideas. (p.13)
Manchester University Press, New York.
In our or Nigeria’s interest or their best interest?Continued from Page 9<
proactively rise to the occasion in order to
avoid any possible backlash which may be
unpleasant to the ruling party and
counterproductive to the country.
Ernest Benn describes politics as “theart of looking for trouble, finding it whetherit exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly,and applying the wrong remedy.” But what
is so special in progressive politics that
politicians always find a place of refuge in
it? Even in its “comfortable and ill-defined”
state, how does a progressive party manage
its successes as well as prevent abuse of
power in politics and government? And,
with our kind of politics and the attitude of
politicians in this clime, is any politician
worth dying for? As a matter of fact, is
politics worth dying for, let alone
politicians?
Like Teddy Roosevelt, Buhari will be
writing his name in gold if he is able to
champion noble aims that are in agreement
with Nigeria’s socio-economic and geo-
political realities. And who knows? With
zealous vigilance, our President may end up
as another “ultimate pragmatist“ and an
“epitome of a president who enduredpersonal loss, political attacks, and theprospect of presiding over the dissolution
of the country, yet persevered andtriumphed.”
May the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sins of the world, grant us peace
in Nigeria!
*Abiodun Komolafe([email protected]) wrote in fromIjebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria.
Continued from Page 10<
A word for President Muhammadu Buhari
Iread an interesting article recently in
which the author, objecting to President
Muhammadu Buhari’s frequent travels
abroad pointed out that Presidential
spokespersons since 1999, including this
writer, have always justified such trips using
essentially the same arguments. The fellow
quoted copiously and derisively from my
State House press statements and an article
by me titled: “The Gains of Jonathan’s
Diplomacy”.
Those who object to Presidential travels
abroad do so for a number of reasons: (a) the
cost on the grounds of frequency and size of
estacode-collecting delegation, with multiple
officers performing the same function
tagging along on every trip, (b) the need to
make better use of diplomats in foreign
missions and Foreign Ministry officials who
can act in delegated capacity; (c) the failure
to see the immediate and long-term gains of
Presidential junket, thus creating the
impression of a jamboree or mindless
tourism, and (d) the conviction that the
President needs to stay at home to address
urgent domestic challenges, rather than live
out of a suitcase, in the air. While these
reasons may seem understandable, arising as
they are from anxieties about reducing
wastage and increasing governmental
efficiency for the people’s benefit, I still insist
that Presidential trips are important, and that
by travelling abroad, the President is
performing a perfectly normal function.
We may however, complain about abuses
and the reduction of an important function to
tourism for after all, in eight years, President
Bill Clinton of the United States travelled
only 54 times – only by Nigerian standards,
but we must also admit that the President is
the country’s chief diplomat. In our
constitutional democracy, he is the main
articulator and implementer of the country’s
foreign policy. He appoints ambassadors who
function in their various posts as his
representatives. He also receives other
country’s ambassadors. Emissaries from
other countries or multilateral organizations
consider their visits incomplete without an
audience with the President, and it is his
message that they take back home.
He visits other Presidents and he also gets
visited by other world leaders; an interaction
that provides him an opportunity to give
effect to Section 19 of the 1999 Constitution
which defines the objectives of Nigeria’s
Foreign Policy. In doing this, he is expected
to strengthen relationships with other
countries, at government to government and
people to people levels in the national
interest.
The President is also the country’s chief
spokesperson, and that is why what he says,
or what he does when he is negotiating within
the international arena on Nigeria’s behalf is
of great consequence, and this is particularly
why on at least two occasions recently,
Nigerians were inconsolably upset when
their President chose a foreign stage to put
down his own country, and people. This
clarification of the role of the President as the
country’s chief diplomat may sound didactic,
and I apologise if it comes across as pedantic,
but this is necessary for the benefit of those
who may be tempted to assume that the job
of a President is to sit in one place at home
and act as a mechanic and ambulance chaser.
The concerns that have been expressed
however point to something far more
complex, and I seek to now problematize
aspects of it.
One of the concerns often expressed is
that the trips that have been made by our
Presidents since 1999 look too much alike. It
is as if every President that shows up,
embarks on exactly the same junket to the
same locations, for the same reasons: foreign
direct investment, agriculture, security, co-
operation etc. etc. accompanied by a large
retinue that includes many of the same
officials who travelled with the former
President and had prepared the same MOUs
that will be signed again, with the new
spokespersons telling us the same story all
The President as Chief DiplomatBy Reuben Abati
Chinese President Xi Jinping with NigerianPresident Muhammadu Buhari in Beijing
Continued on Page 13<
Page13TheTrumpetAPRIL 27 - MAY 10 2016Opinion
of morality do they discuss? Those with
partisan interests, including even promoters
of Non-Governmental groups (NGOs) all
have one interest at heart: power and
relevance.
The same priests who saw grand visions
for the PDP and its members over a 16-year
period are still in business seeing visions
and making predictions. Those who claim
to be so powerful they can make the lame
walk and the blind see, have not deemed it
necessary to step forward to help the NNPC
turn water into petrol. If any of these
miracle-delivering pastors can just turn the
Lagos Lagoon alone into a river of petrol,
all Nigerians will become believers, but
that won’t happen because they are
committed to a different version of the
gospel. As for the political parties: they are
all in disarray.
The private sector also governs Nigeria.
But what is the quality of governance in the
corporate sector? The Nigerian corporate
elite is arrogant. They claim that they create
jobs so the country may prosper, but they
are, in reality, a rent-seeking class. They
survive on government patronage, access to
the Villa and its satellites, and claims of
indispensability. But without government,
most private sector organizations will be in
distress. The withdrawal of public funds
into a Treasury Single Account is a case in
point. And with President Muhammadu
Buhari not readily available to the eye-
service wing of the Nigerian private sector,
former sycophants in the corridors are
clandestinely resorting to sabotage and
blackmail. A responsible private sector has
a duty in society: to build society, not to
donate money to politicians during
elections and seek patronage thereafter.
And if it must co-operate with government,
it must be for much nobler reasons in the
public interest.
The military are still governing Nigeria
too. They may be in the background, but
their exit 16 years ago, has not quite
translated into a loss of influence or
presence. In the early years of their de-
centering, many of them chose to join
politics and replace their uniforms with
traditional attires. Their original argument
is that if other professionals can join
politics, then a soldier should not be
excluded. They failed to add that the
military class in politics in Africa has
shown a tendency to exercise proprietorial
rights and powers, which delimit the
democratic project. In Nigeria, such powers
and rights have been exercised consistently
and mostly by, happily for us, a
gerontocratic class, whose impact, I
believe, will be determined by the effluxion
of time.
And it is like this: the President that
emerged in 1999 was a soldier: the received
opinion was that only such a strong man
could stabilize the country. His successor
was the brother of another old soldier; he
and his Deputy were personally chosen by
the departing President. He died in office,
but for his Deputy to succeed him, it helped
a lot that he was also a favourite of the
General who chose his own successors.
When this protégé fell out with the General,
in retrospect now, a miscalculation, the
General turned Godfather swore to remove
him from office. And it happened. In 2015,
another former soldier and strong man, had
to be brought back to office and power.
When anything goes wrong, a class of old
Generals are the ones who step forward to
protect and guide the country. The only
saving grace is that they do not yet have a
successor–class of similarly influential men
with military pedigree. But when their time
passes, would there be equally strong
civilians who can act as protectors of the
nation?
The media governs too. But the media
in Nigeria today is heavily politicized,
compromised and a victim of internal
censorship occasioned by hubris. Can the
media still save Nigeria? It is in the same
pit as the Nigerian voter, foreign interests,
the legislature and the judiciary. But when
there is positive change at all of these
centres of power and influence, only then
will there be change, movement and
motion, and a new Nigeria.
Continued from Page 11<
Who governs Nigeria?
over again.
Nigerians are therefore not impressed
with the seeming conversion of the country’s
foreign policy process into a money-guzzling
ritual. This, I think, is the crux of the matter.
Whereas our foreign policy objective talks
about national interest, what constitutes that
national interest has been blurry and
chameleonic in the last 55 years and more so
since the return to civilian rule in 1999.
National interest has been replaced majorly
by personal interest and it is the worst tragedy
that can befall a country’s foreign policy
process. We run a begin-again foreign
relations framework because every new
President wants to make his own mark. The
second point is that he is compelled to do so
because in any case, we do not have a strong
institution to follow up on existing
agreements. The international community
knows this quite well, and more serious
nations being more strategic and determined
in the pursuit of their own interests will
bombard a new Nigerian President with
invitations to visit. They also know that a
new President in Nigeria is likely to cancel
or suspend existing agreements or contracts
being executed by their nationals. The
uncertainty that prevails in Nigeria is so well
known, such that the gains recorded by one
administration are not necessarily
institutionalized.
We may have thus reduced foreign policy
to individual heroism, which is sad, but
institutions and human capital within this
arena are critical. The Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, once a glorious institution is a
shadow of its old self. The politicization of
that Ministry has done great damage. When
a President visits a country, and enters into
agreements that result in Memoranda of
Understanding, it is expected that there will
be follow up action to be taken by officials
either through Bilateral Commissions (where
they exist between Nigeria and the respective
country) or the issuance of instruments of
ratification, leading to due implementation.
Nigeria signs all kinds of documents but so
many details and agreements are left
unattended to. There is too much politics in
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and too much
rivalry between career foreign affairs
personnel and the politicians who do not
allow them to function as professionals. This
has to stop, otherwise every new President
has to start again and embark on trips that
should have been taken care of at the level of
bilateral commissions or the ministry.
Career foreign affairs personnel are
critical to the shaping of foreign policy. They
are the agents through which states
communicate with each other, negotiate, and
sustain relationships. The only thing they
complain about in that Ministry is lack of
money. It is the same with the Missions
abroad. Give them money, but there is always
a greater need for professionalism, which
makes the diplomats of Nigeria’s golden era
so sad. The foreign policy process also works
better when there is Inter-Ministerial and
Intra-governmental collaboration. The
tendency in Nigeria is for every department
of government to operate as an independent
foreign policy unit. Government officials get
invited to functions by foreign embassies,
without clearance from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, and they just troop there to
eat free food, but they never keep their
mouths shut. Nigerian officials are probably
the most talkative in the world and with
foreigners, they will offer their mother’s life
history to make them appear important. That
is not how to run foreign relations. There
must be control, co-ordination, discipline,
clarity and sanctions.
Every world leader wants to meet the
Nigerian President. Nigeria is a strategic
market and a very cheap one too, a source of
raw materials and a dumping ground for
finished products, with a consumptive
population. Our balance sheet in all our
relationships is unbalanced even in Africa,
which we once described as the centerpiece
of our foreign policy. We have toyed with
many slogans: dynamic diplomacy,
economic diplomacy, concentric circles of
medium powers, citizen diplomacy,
transformational diplomacy, what else/- the
Buharideens are yet to come up with their
own, but you wait, they will soon come up
with something- really, the truth is that
Nigeria’s foreign policy process is not
strategic or competitive enough.
Within Africa, it is driven by too much
kindness rather than enlightened self-interest,
or deliberate search for sustainable
advantages. A Donatus mentality has seen
Nigeria over the years looking out for its
African neighbours, donating money,
supporting their causes, but Nigeria has
gained little from this charity-driven
diplomacy. Many of the countries we have
helped to build openly despise us at
international meetings, they struggle for
positions with Nigeria, they humiliate our
citizens in Diaspora, and when they return
later to beg for vehicles, or money to pay
their civil servants or run elections, we still
oblige them. The attempt in recent years to
review all of this, and be more strategic
should be sustained.
We must wield the carrot and the stick
more often. American Presidents don’t just
visit other countries, they make statements
and often alter the course of history with their
mere presence as Kennedy did with his visit
to Berlin in 1963, Nixon in China in 1972,
Jimmy Carter going to Iran in 1977, George
Bush visiting Mexico in 2001, and Obama in
Cuba in 2016. In the international arena, we
give the impression that we are ready to jump
at any and every invitation in order to be seen
to be friendly, but we tend to overdo this.
Foreign Affairs Ministry officials who want
to be seen to be doing something will always
try to convince the President to embark on all
trips. The dream of every Ambassador on
foreign posting is also to have his President
visit, even if once during his or her tenure.
The resident Ambassador is happy, the
Foreign Affairs folks get quality eye-time
with the President but the hosts look at us and
wonder what is wrong with our country
signing the same agreements with the
emergence of every President and not being
able to act.
It does not help either that with every new
President, we talk about reviewing Nigeria’s
Foreign Policy. We are probably the only
country in the world that is always reviewing
Foreign Policy and informing the whole
world. That should be the routine work of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigeria
Institute of International Affairs, with inputs
from the Nigerian Institute of Policy and
Strategic Studies (NIPSS), the Nigeria
Intelligence Agency (NIA), and the
Presidential Advisory Committee on Foreign
Affairs.
We must never lose sight of a necessary
linkage between domestic policy and foreign
policy. What exactly is in it for the average
Nigerian, for the Nigerian economy and for
Nigeria? Do we have the capacity to
maximize gains from foreign interactions?
Always, the real challenge lies in getting our
acts together and tying up the loose ends in
terms of sustainable policy choices,
infrastructure, culture, leadership, and
strategic engagement.
Continued from Page 12<The President as Chief Diplomat
Page14 TheTrumpet APRIL 27 - MAY 10 2016
He means different things to different
people. To some, he is a workaholic. To
others, he is the governor of the masses,
a deeply passionate leader through whose
arteries, the overall best interest of the people,
flows just like blood. Yet to some others, he is a
purpose-driven, prudent manager of human and
material resources committed to permanently
changing the look and feel of Ogun State
through his Mission to Rebuild.
But from whichever perspective he is
viewed, one thing is however constant and that
is the fact that Senator Ibikunle Amosun as
Governor of Ogun State is one man who
constantly shies away from accolades, awards
and recognitions in spite of the fact that his
achievements in office in the last five years,
easily recommend him for many of such.
“For me, awards and recognitions are best
when they come after we must have left office
and people access our efforts and achievements
in office,” Amosun would say each time the
subject matter is broached.
However, in spite of his near aversion for
awards and recognitions, Governor Amosun,
like a golden fish that his sterling performance
in office has made him, has no hiding place. He
is constantly, literally chased around with
awards, accolades and recognitions for the
unparallel record of achievement that he has
garnered since he assumed office as the duly
elected governor of Ogun State on May 29,
2011.
In a society where many are known to pay
for and literally solicit awards, Governor
Amosun has turned down several. It therefore
came as a pleasant surprise when some of us,
his aides were able to convince him to be
physically present to receive the 2015 Vanguard
Personality of the Year Award which he won in
the Governor of the Year category and was
presented to him on Friday, April 8, 2016 at the
Eko Hotels and Towers, Lagos.
On a lighter note, I personally consider
Governor Amosun’s decision to receive the
Governor of the Year Award as a birthday gift
since it was presented to him at a colourful event
which the organisers had coincidentally
scheduled on my birthday.
Beyond that however, it was also a well-
deserved honour for a man who has done more
than anyone before him to permanently change
the fortunes of Ogun State and its people for
good. In achieving this feat, Senator Amosun
was deliberate and calculated. Indeed, Ogun
State is lucky to have had in him a leader whose
emergence was not in any way accidental. He
first served as a Senator having been elected into
the Nigerian Senate in 2003. By 2007, he tried
to be governor but was adjudged to have lost the
election by the powers that be then, although the
people felt otherwise.
By 2011, the popular will of Ogun people was
finally affirmed and Senator Amosun was sworn
into office as Governor of Ogun State. The first
indication that he was prepared for the job
showed in the five cardinal programmes he
immediately rolled out as the focus of his
administration. The programme was led by
education. One was therefore not surprised
when his administration quickly proceeded to
make education free and ensure that no child is
left behind on account of his/her economic
background.
Tuition fees and all forms of levies in the
State were abolished for all students in primary
and secondary schools. In addition, the
distribution of free textbooks to pupils of public
primary and secondary schools by the Amosun
administration also helped to ensure that
education remains accessible for all. Not only
did the Governor Amosun-led administration
offset the outstanding WAEC fees it inherited
from the previous administration, it also went
further to consistently pay the (WAEC) fees for
final-year students of public secondary schools
in the State since its inauguration in May 2011.
At the tertiary level, the Amosun
administration significantly reduced tuition fees
payable in all the State’s higher institutions of
learning and paid bursary to 16,277 indigenous
Ogun State students in all tertiary institutions in
the country between 2011 and 2015.
Governor Amosun administration also provided
critical infrastructure in the education sector. As
at the last count, it has so far constructed 15
state-of-the-art model schools out of a planned
total of 28 spread across the State. And these are
not your regular schools. They are called Model
Schools because they are designed to
accommodate 1,000 students and over 200
teaching and non-teaching staff. They all come
with boarding facilities as well as computers for
virtual learning, modern science laboratories
and other facilities.
All of these have been made possible partly
because the Governor Amosun-led
administration has consistently allocated over
20% of its yearly budget to education in
accordance with UNESCO guidelines. It
therefore did not come as a surprise that the
administration won the 2015 Fafunwa
Educational Foundation award, as the State with
the highest percentage of budgetary allocation
to education.
Knowing the place and importance of
having a healthy population, Governor Amosun
placed affordable and efficient healthcare
delivery second on the five-cardinal
development programme. In this respect, the
Amosun-led administration for instance,
upgraded the Totoro Primary Health Centre
(PHC) into a Comprehensive Health Centre.
Such midas touch is not limited to Totoro PHC
- it is to be replicated in the other Local
Government Areas of the State.
Prior to the Amosun touch, the Totoro PHC
was a three-room centre with an attached
outpost structure used as antenatal care and
reception area. This facility was demolished and
replaced with the construction of a state-of-the-
art one-storey building with a partial
underground section. Equally currently enjoying
the Governor Amosun touch is the Olabisi
Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital
(OOUTH) which can now boast of a state-of-
the-art Radio-Diagnostic Centre established
through a Public Private Partnership (PPP)
initiative. This Centre provides services such as
multi-dimensional digital X-ray, ultrasound
facility, telemedicine, mammography,
fluoroscopy and CT scan.
Little wonder that during the Ebola Virus
Disease outbreak of 2014, Ogun State came out
unscathed in spite of the risk presented by the
numerous, yet porous borders that Ogun State
shares with the West African sub-region and the
fact that it is the gateway to all other parts of the
country.
Today, the need to not only return to the
cultivation of the land but also engage in
agriculture value chain addition is one that is
crystal clear to government at all levels in
Nigeria. This is however one other area where
the visionary in Governor Amosun easily shines
through. As soon as he assumed office in 2011,
Governor Amosun made this a critical
component of his five cardinal programme in
Ogun State.
The governor was driven by the proximity
of Ogun State to a vibrant consumer market in
Lagos and the West African sub-region and the
abundance of land and labour within its territory.
Therefore, since May 2011, 15,221 hectares of
agricultural land has been allocated for the
development of various crops and the raising of
livestock, notably poultry.
Priority crops include Cassava, Rice, Oil
Palm, Cocoa and a range of vegetables.
The Governor Amosun-led administration
entered into an agreement with the Malaysian
Ministry of Agriculture to develop a 500-hectare
rice plantation, positioning Ogun State to help
drive an important dimension of the national
economic diversification efforts. It also
developed farm estates for both crops and
livestock, engaging young farmers within the
State in Agriculture. The Owowo Model Farm
Estate is a laudable example of this effort.
Today, thanks to the visionary leadership of
Senator Amosun, Ogun State is the most
industrialised sub-national in Nigeria. Statistics
from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria
(MAN) indicate that Ogun State Industrial Zone
ranked 1st in 2014, while new investment into
Ogun in 2014 was valued at N514.87 billion, an
increase from the 2013 investment of N376.57
billion and total Investment stood at N691.77
billion (74%) by the end of 2014.
A total number of 88 new factories have
been commissioned between 2011 to date, thus
bringing the total number of factories in the
State to 371. More than 100 companies made
requests for land, while many others are at
various stages of construction. In fact, in its
latest economic review (2015), MAN said the
production value recorded by the Ogun
Industrial Zone accounted for 69 percent of the
total production for all zones, thus re-confirming
Ogun as the industrial hub of Nigeria.
Page15TheTrumpetAPRIL 27 - MAY 10 2016Trumpet Ogun
A Governor and his moment of glory By Adejuwon Soyinka
Celebrating the achievements of Amosun and his team
Ogun State cabinet members celebrating with Amosun
Continued on Page 16>
Page16 TheTrumpet APRIL 27 - MAY 10 2016
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