Category: Opinion

Ambode and The Lagos Example

Posted on by The Elites

By Rotimi Ayanbeku

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode: a silent worker?
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode: a silent worker?

In the mid 1990s when the town that I was living in finally took the danger of climate change seriously, it passed an ordinance mandating recycling of cans, bottles and plastics. To achieve its goal the town embarked on massive public service announcement campaign encouraging citizens to recycle. It didn’t stop there. It met the citizens halfway by making sure that every home and rental property has recycling dumpsters next to the regular dumpsters. It was a massive success. While my friends in other parts of the state were still throwing away their bottles, cans and plastics, just about every home in my town was recycling.

A few years later, the town’s population increased and so did people’s fondness for having pet dogs. It wasn’t uncommon to enter one’s home with dog feces caked to one’s shoes because some people weren’t cleaning up after their pets. The municipality was faced with another dilemma, how to get the people to change their behavior without too much disruption to their way of life. And once again the municipality met its citizens half way by installing racks with trash bags on each block so that dog owners could use the bags in the racks to clean up after their four legged companions. Lo and behold dogs feces soon disappeared from the sidewalks. Don’t get me wrong, there are still people who would not clean up after their dogs no matter what you do for them. However, if those people are caught, they will be cited and pay fine.

In order to discourage crime, overcrowding in the streets, and other adverse environmental effects, the Lagos State government enacted the Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law in 2003, which prohibits street trading and hawking. However, each successive administration since 2003 had not implemented or enforced the law. The Ambode administration is finally trying to enforce the law, but now wahala don come. A young hawker was killed while he was fleeing from state enforcement officers. In return, hawkers protested violently, injuring innocent civilians and destroying 48 BRT buses.

Everybody is now having their say about the pros and cons of the ban, which is a great thing for Nigeria’s fledgling democracy. The governor of Lagos State believes that street hawking encourages criminality and cheats innocent civilians by pawning off fake merchandise as authentic. On the other hand, civil society organisations and human rights organisations are condemning the law as inhumane and that it will exacerbate unemployment problems. Furthermore, motorists and commuters accustomed to buying things on the go are anxious about the government’s plan. What then can be done to de-escalate the situation?

First of all, unlike other state governments that are stuck in the hellish stagnation of business as usual, the Lagos State government should be applauded for tackling this issue. I’m sure the government sees that for its citizens to progress they must embrace a new concept of life that somewhat formalises business transactions, make the roads safe for its citizens and protect consumers. In all the advanced economies of the world, business transactions are formalised to protect their citizens and to make business entities contribute to the society in which they operate. As such, the Lagos State government is on the right track.

Notwithstanding Lagos’ noble endeavour, it must provide means for the street merchants to carry on their trade. It is true that in a society like Nigeria, where most small businesses conduct their transactions informally, to disrupt the merchants trade is almost inhumane. How else are they going to make a living? Sure there are criminals elements on the streets as there are in every business, but most of the hawkers are trying to make genuine living, young and old. Most of these people have no other skills. This is the only way they know how to feed and clothe their families, and send their children to school. For the government to start implementing the law without helping them find alternative means of selling their products is a mistake of biblical proportion.

The Lagos State government must meet the traders halfway by constructing stalls and rent it to the traders for low price. The purpose of government is to look after all its citizens. That was what the political leaders of the aforementioned town understood. They also understood human nature, that humans don’t like change because it can be disruptive. So they met them half way. Helping the traders to transact their businesses with as little disruption as possible will be a testament to how much the Lagos State government cares about its citizens.

On the other hand, the civil society organisations are justifiably concerned about the effect of the disruptions on the traders’ livelihood. They reason that it will lead to unemployment and other societal problems. However, street trading is not compulsory. The traders can be trained to learn other skills or move their businesses to government provided stalls.

Lagos State government should, therefore, be applauded for trying to get out of the rot of business as usual. It is trying to elevate business conduct in the society, but it must also balance that with what will be best for the segment of the society that is hit the hardest by the current economic doldrums.

Ayanbeku, an attorney, sent in this article via rotimiayanbeku@hotmail.com.

President Buhari, Mallam Garba Shehu and I, By Oby Ezekwesili

Posted on by The Elites

imageI woke up yesterday to read a fictitious report credited to me by Sunday Tribune that I claimed President Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve to be president. And on the basis of the fiction weaved together by a reporter, he let loose one of those now-very-common indecorous and rumor- inspired verbal assault from presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu.

However, today, in one of those uncommon but very professional decisions, Tribune newspaper not only recanted on the story but also apologized to me. While I thank the newspaper for toeing the path of honour, I hope Mallam Garba Shehu will also be decent enough to admit his error of judgement and tender an unreserved apology for his falsehood and unwarranted attacks at me.

Notwithstanding, it is important not to lose sight of the real issue which is about the fate of 2000 young Nigerians who were employed into the Nigerian Immigration Service, after a rigorous and transparent process by the last administration, only for their services to be cynically dispensed with by the current administration. These are Nigerians from across the country.

Incidentally, I was drawn to their plight just because in driving past where they had congregated, I saw among them a friend and BBOG colleague, Hajia Aisha Yesufu, who, as it would turn out, had taken up their cause. I spoke with them briefly and I had pleaded with the president to look into their matter. Fortunately, in correcting the earlier wrong publication, Tribune has helped to bring out what I said in its story of today as captured below: FORMER Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, never said President Muhammadu Buhari did not deserve to be president. Our sister publication, Sunday Tribune, had attributed the statement to be part of what she said over the plight of 2,000 immigration service recruits who slept at the entrance of Aso Villa from Friday till Saturday morning.

Ezekwesili, while addressing the recruits, had said “I am, therefore, appealing to the president to immediately ask the military as well as the Nigerian Immigration Service to do what is right, give justice to all these young men and women who, on the basis of merit, were appointed into positions in the NIS.

“I want to say that if justice is not given to them immediately, I certainly will join them in sitting here every day until they get their justice. Justice is to be able to come to table with them.

“Whatever the challenges are, let it be known, but don’t let anything be done in secrecy, and let nothing be done with such opaqueness. These young people are the present of Nigeria, not just the future of Nigeria. If we don’t treat our young right, we are laying ourselves up for what we already have troubling us in the country.

“So, I join my voice with them and I appeal to the President whom they have come to see to immediately do something about their cause. And I also use this opportunity to speak to the Federal Government, there have been too many instances of allegations of illegal recruitment into the public service. “If our public service is dysfunctional and you are worsening it by recruiting people through the back doors, people who don’t have the talent, skills, competence, capacity, character to be able to give us good service in public service, then, we certainly have no plans to be better than we are.

“So, we should just from henceforth desist from doing this. And usually, when these illegal recruitments are done, we sacrifice the best for the worst among us. Usually, when these illegal recruitments are done, what ends up happening is that the children of the poorer segment of our society who struggle to get through their education are left behind, then, that is the basis of worsening inequality.

“We cannot afford this and an unequal society is a society laying itself up for implosion and God forbid that would be the case with our nation. I want to just applaud all of you for coming out and standing, standing for your cause. I want to say that I would actually be speaking to a lawyer who will become your lawyer in this matter, so that, not just would you be on the streets, but you would have to get legal redress of your situation, because that’s very important.

“I also applaud the fact that you have been civil. Today is Saturday, I don’t know what your plan is, Saturday is not a work day. Sunday is also not a work day. So people might say they are not at work, that’s why they are not able to speak to you. Maybe what we would do is have a discussion among yourselves and perhaps resume your sit-out by wherever you chose to do that, by the first day of the week. Then whatever you want to say to the President, I think you should give the opportunity for all your members to speak to the President. He’s the one you came to see.”

The Tribune Newspapers hereby tender unreserved apology to Dr Ezekwesili, Aisha Yesufu and the Presidency for the misrepresentation.

Let me again state that the injustice that the #NigeriaImmigration2000 protesters allege needs immediate Presidential resolution considering that all other levels of authority have failed them.

If Garba Shehu was not deploying his time and talent to the wrong priorities, he should have brought the issue of 2000 disaffected young people to the President’s attention when they occupied the gate of his office last Friday.

I advise him to do so now.
Obiageli (Oby) Ezekwesili

Lagos, The Black Megalopolis, Tatalo Alamu

Posted on by The Elites

There is always something magical and enchanting about great cities. They seem to have a character of their own. You feel them and you feel for them, as if they are living entities. Their pulse and pulsations register with you. You pray for them and even imagine their travails. You sense that beyond their architectural wonders and epic feats of engineering lies the history of impossible labour and costly exertions. All great conurbations evoke this feeling of being alive and kicking. This is simply because they are a great tribute to modern national pride or ancient ethno-hubris. Just imagine how many lives were lost constructing the Egyptian pyramids or the ancient Chinese walls.

Yet great cities also provoke irrational hatred and malice in people who believe that their own ancestors have been cheated. Rome was reduced to rubbles. Carthage was so fearsomely smitten out of existence that it was only in 1985 that a treaty was signed to forget the past. Paris was going to suffer the same fate in the hands of Adolf Hitler. But when Albert Speer, the great Nazi architect, finally arrived at the beautiful French capital, he was so overwhelmed by its grandeur and sheer magnificence that he decided that if the craven French could create such a human wonder, the Germans, with their Aryan hubris and superiority complex, ought to be able to come up with something even more spectacular. It was a pipe dream.

It is said that adversity often provokes the greatest creative spirit in a people. Now that it is clear that Nigeria is beset by urgent developmental challenges, it is time to begin to think out of the box. There is a time for everything. If Nigeria were not to collapse under the weight of political and economic malfeasance, it should be obvious by now that the era of those who seek access to power as an avenue for luxurious living and unearned social privileges has come to an end. We either come up with our first eleven as pathfinders or we end up with our last eleven as pallbearers.

Thinking out of the box is not synonymous with reinventing the wheel. We have once suggested that Nigerian developmental planners should come up with the concept of autonomous zones which will drive accelerated development and the rapid industrialization of the nation and which must be allowed to develop at their own pace without interference from an overbearing but already overburdened centre frozen in unitary rigor mortis.

These zones, with five in the north and five in the South and with Lagos serving as preeminent national hub, will serve as magnetic lodes for attracting investments and unleashing gigantic human resources now trapped between abandoned farms and collapsed factories. They must be linked with an effective rail and road network and can be grouped around the old River basins and existing strategic landmarks such as the ancient city of Kano and the important commercial and entrepreneurial nerve centre of Aba. If we are serious, Aba should be able to link up with Port-Harcourt in a generation, just as Lagos is linking up with Abeokuta to its north west, Badagry to the west and Ikorodu/Shagamu to the north east.

These were the thoughts that preyed on one’s mind last Monday as one witnessed the signing to law of two historic bills by the governor of Lagos State Akin Ambode. The first bill, the Lagos State Property Development Law, is a much hailed and welcomed breather for the law-abiding citizens of Lagos state in the sense that it criminalized the much dreaded menace of armed land grabbers and murderous miscreants known as “omo onile”.

The activities of these people have turned life into hell for well-meaning investors and developers who are often subject to serial swindles that is if they manage to escape with their life. A lot of people have not been so lucky. Many have been wasted. But it is not only the “omo onile” who are involved. There are also organized criminal syndicates who forcibly expel people from their land and who act as if they are above the law. It is a practice that dates far back.

Those who are not so young must remember the exploits of a leading Lagos socialite of the mid-seventies who specialized in eliminating legitimate landowners and rival speculators by coming up with perfectly concocted alibis until nemesis caught up with him in the guise of General Obasanjo during his first incarnation as a military ruler. Obasanjo made sure that justice was not only done but was seen to have been done.

As many developmental experts have noted, the issue of land is at the core of modern development. Radical theorists of economic growth and rapid expansion have in fact come up with the template that links accelerated development to official valorization of landed resources and their judicious redistribution. You can only begin to talk of the possibility of rapid modernization when land is divested from the feudal clutches of titular barons of antiquity and other seigneurial speculators without any vision or notion of the modern society.

Yet like all human enterprises, this one is also prone to abuse and open mismanagement. When the power of administration and arbitration is vested in a government of disoriented tribesmen lacking in rationality and the imperative of modernization, the allocation of landed resources can also lead to bureaucratic bottle necks, sharp practices and the advent of a new landed gentry which fuels social injustice and a perpetual class warfare between the possessed and the dispossessed.

As it has been famously noted, all the remedial measures on earth can hardly help the poor when the earth is monopolized by a few. The Lagos State government under Ambode would do well to guard against this anomaly in order not to exchange prehistoric monkeys for primitive baboons.

As the economic, political and cultural hub of the new nation, Lagos has taken its manifest destiny very much to heart. Ever since its forcible incorporation as a British Protectorate in the middle of the nineteenth century, the sprawling metropolis has served as the intellectual, economic and political pacesetter for the rest of the country. The urbane civility, dignified regality and royal courtesy of its succeeding monarchs are well documented.

The patriotism of its famed anti-colonial pamphleteers and cultural nationalists is the stuff of heroic legend. The decorum, integrity and fair-mindedness of its early business class echoes through history and folklore. In the run up to independence Lagos was a shining exemplar of inclusive politics of a pan-Nigerian hue and multi-ethnic vigour which ought to have served as a template and redemptive trope for post-independence Nigeria. But this gathering of all tribes at the shrine of the new nation has evaporated, leaving a fractured and bitterly polarized nation.

Although predominantly a Yoruba town with an infusion of ancient Edo nobility, the psychic energies that drive Lagos towards metropolitan stardom and its destiny as the first authentic African megalopolis are multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-racial. With its Brazilian returnees, its Sierra Leonean recaptives, its stranded Nupe warrior-class, its Igbo traders, its runaway Hausa soldiers and former European adventurers marooned by choice, Lagos is an authentic mélange; a statement of intent by Africa. This colonial and post-colonial hybridity has helped to foster a sense of oneness and belonging for all bar a few hiccups arising from competition for increasingly scarce resources.

Why then, apart from its obvious advantages, does Lagos seem to excel and to be far ahead of the rest of the country in terms of spiritual independence, economic buoyancy and political gamesmanship despite the advent of military despotism and civilian autocracy? The magical answer lies in political will and sheer economic daring which confirms the thesis about the superiority of thinking outside the box. Lagos has been well-served by the political wizardry and fiscal devilry of its Fourth Republic leaders.

Looking around the hall last Monday morning as Governor Akin Ambode signed the two bills into law, one cannot but be impressed by the dynamic energies among all the branches of government which is sorely lacking at the federal level. Inside the hall were the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Funmilayo Atilade, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Mudashiru Obasa, the Attorney General, the chairmen of the two committees and of course the top technocrats and bureaucrats who worked the system behind limelight.

But nothing that is worth it comes cheap. The synergy between the Lagos executive and its judiciary is the product of a series of modernizing reforms pioneered by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo while he served as Attorney General of the state. It has seen the Lagos judiciary top the national table as the best-equipped and best remunerated judicial entity in all of the federation. The succession plan is well-delineated and had never been subject to unwarranted external interference or undue political disruption. Everything works seamlessly. It is a system that has bought into modern rationality.

Despite the occasional legislative firefight and the odd internal power struggle there is also an organic coherence and cohesiveness between the Lagos State legislature and the executive which owes its sustainability to shared vision and what is known as elective affinity. They are birds of the same feather, sired from the same political loin. Since the advent of the Fourth Republic, Lagos has been ruled by the same dominant political tendency, no matter the internal mutations, whether it is AD, AC, ACN or APC.

This total politics, reminiscent of the total football of the famous Dutch masters of the seventies, is often a political beauty to behold in motion as it fires on all cylinders in its vertical and horizontal mobilization of elites and masses alike. It is a tribute to the superior organizational acumen and political wizardry of one exceptional individual, his tested loyalists and engine room strategists. It has created exponential wealth for the state and enough resources to commence a comprehensive welfare package which will rival the modernizing project of the avatar from Ikenne.

Lagos State has been lucky that unlike what usually obtains at the federal level, it fell at the onset of the Fourth Republic into the hands of those who actually fought and resisted military tyranny. Needless to add that they are also cosmopolitan, well-travelled as a result of political adversity, and well grounded in the complex dynamics of the modern economy.

The pay off has been tremendous and even epochal. The political cohesion has enabled Lagos to weather the antics of post-military civilian autocrats and to see off their barely veiled aggression in major legal duels which have become constitutional landmarks for the Fourth Republic. The Local Development Authorities created by the state may remain “inchoate”, but it is the inchoate and incoherent mindset of those who believe that all parts of the country must develop at the same pace and tempo that will eventually spell terminal disaster for the nation.

Either as a British Protectorate, colonial enclave or post-colonial state, Lagos has bucked this dire unitarist arrangement. It is a model of strategic restructuring combined with relentless modernization without any frills or fanfare that commends itself to other parts of the country. This is the heroic legacy that Akin Ambode has inherited. A gifted economic thinker, strategic planner and deeply deliberate administrator, there is nothing to suggest, in fifteen months of brilliant governance, that he is unworthy of these glorious antecedents. Lagos is the first truly African megalopolis.

 

Tinubu, PDP And The Road To 2019 By Dele Momodu

Posted on by The Elites

Fellow Nigerians, you must be wondering what this title is all about. Please, calm down, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, one of Nigeria’s iconic politicians, is not about to dump his party, APC, for PDP, the party he fought hard with others to sack from power just last year.

The reason for bringing PDP into this article which largely concerns the Tinubu conundrum is very simple and straight-forward. PDP has suffered calamities upon catastrophes since General Muhammadu Buhari sacked President Goodluck Jonathan from office. It is hard to imagine, or believe, that a party that held Nigeria by the jugular for 16 solid years could attain meltdown so soon and almost disappear into oblivion.

One would have expected PDP, despite its electoral misfortune, to provide a formidable opposition to APC and keep President Buhari on his toes but that has not been the case. APC has wasted no time in sending PDP to an early grave by throwing poisonous darts at it from every angle.

The war against corruption has been a most veritable weapon with stupendous impact used by APC to scatter most of the PDP apparatchik to the winds. The strategy was to weaken them by showcasing the humongous corruption that was perpetrated and perpetuated during their reign. The PDP brand was thus obliterated in a jiffy. Many of their bigwigs confessed to nefarious and horrendous crimes of looting and brigandage. They coughed up or vomited incredible sums of cash.

All entreaties and shouts of a vengeful witch-hunt against President Buhari fell on deaf ears. The more they screamed the more they were horse-whipped into submission and made to weep bitterly.

As if that was not bad enough, PDP engaged itself in a war of attrition and became a house divided against itself. It was only a matter of time before it crumbled like the proverbial cookie does. Today, PDP has become its own worst enemy with the brickbats being thrown at one another by members of what used to be touted as the biggest political party in Africa. How are the mighty fallen!

The aim of my piece this week is to attempt what I did in 2014 when I wrote a permutative article titled ‘In Search of Mathematicians’. That was how I predicted a win for Buhari when many pundits still doubted such possibility. I intend to do so again in this column by painting a picture of what to expect in 2019. If you think that year is still far away, perish the thought.

The battle for the next Nigerian Presidential election started as soon as the last one was lost and won. The hurly-burly of the elections had not yet settled down when the potential gladiators picked up their gauntlets in readiness for the next combat.

The ruling party APC has suffered its own casualties as a result of its self-immolating wars of anticipation. What do I mean? The new men of power are already thinking ahead and wondering who may be too ambitious within their own fold. Any of such recalcitrant and ambitious rebels must be cut down to size, no matter his or her contribution to past victory and glory. Without mincing words, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is the first victim and he has suffered massive collateral damage on account of suspicion. APC itself has suffered almost fatally in the process. The only thing holding it together for now is the fact that it is the party in power and thus presumably has limitless opportunities to distribute largesse to the army of party operatives and their cronies.

By this time next year, as this government enters its third year in power, reality would begin to set in and President Buhari will begin to discover and see original animals in human skin.

I foresee and predict a re-alignment of political forces from 2017. President Buhari will be encouraged and persuaded to run a second term by those who are currently profiting from his government. It is only normal and it is their legitimate right. Nothing stops the President from seeking a re-election within our Constitution. The only snag is that many politicians are going to gang up against him because they see him as an outsider in politics who has benefitted from their massive support but in return has been messing things up for them.

If the President remains stoically stubborn and refuses to play ball with politicians, he would have to fight dirty to win his ticket. It seems to me that he would have to do everything to retain the loyalty of one man by all means, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is almost impossible for any candidate to become President of Nigeria without the overwhelming support of the Yoruba and their current generalissimo, Tinubu, in particular.

Tinubu derives his stranglehold on power from his iron grip on Lagos. Lagos is a microcosm of Nigeria. Whoever controls Lagos owns the commercial nerve-centre of Nigeria, just like the California of America. Tinubu has been very lucky in that his anointed candidates, Babatunde Raji Fashola and Akinwunmi Ambode, have been very cerebrally successful. The current Governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, is already set, after just one year in office, to surpass all expectations.

According to impeccable sources, Buhari may therefore be forced to risk and pick Tinubu as his running-mate if push comes to shove. Tinubu’s protégé, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is the current Vice President, who comes with intimidating credentials but may not have enough political muscle to deliver enough votes to the kitty. The dilemma for Buhari is whether he should buck the trend set by his predecessors, starting from Shehu Shagari, and jettison his Vice President, especially when a cordial and mutually respectful relationship exists between them. In addition, Osinbajo has been doing exceedingly well and he is seen as one of the few shining lights of this Administration.

There is also the fact that Prof Osinbajo is a highly regarded and esteemed senior Christian figure and the President has needed him to silence those detractors that consider him an Islamic fundamentalist.

However, I believe that the controversy that could ensue from a potentially volatile Muslim/Muslim ticket may have been fixed substantially. Firstly, there is a precedent set by Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola the acclaimed winner of the 1993 elections who picked a fellow Muslim, Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe, as his running-mate and still won in Nigeria’s freest and fairest election to date. Secondly, though Tinubu is a devout Muslim, his beloved wife is a hard-core Christian and a top-notch member of the same Redeemed Christian Church of God as the Vice President. Thirdly, there is the fact that Tinubu supported a Christian, Akinwunmi Ambode, as his anointed candidate for Governor of Lagos State, a deft move calculated to pacify those who may wish to foment religious crisis and conflagration then and in the future.

Tinubu is believed by many to have served Nigeria meritoriously and selflessly by suppressing his own personal ambition for that of others and it is believed that the kingmaker deserves a chunky reward the next time around if he so desires. He is acknowledged as being one of the most knowledgeable leaders in Nigeria today and a lot of people feel that his background in business and politics could bail Nigeria out of the economic quagmire of the moment. He is known to be a practical politician who knows how to make the world better for most people.

If the hawks succeed in getting Buhari to snub Tinubu because of his perceived threat to the President himself, the APC may split like PDP did before the collapse of the Jonathan Presidency.

One potential candidate is hovering in the wings and that is the Turaki of Adamawa, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who has never hidden the fact that he wants the Presidency by all means. My next permutation is that the former Vice President and Tinubu who are two of the three most powerful and influential politicians in APC today (the third is Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki with his firm control of the Senate) may combine forces to thwart a Buhari re-election bid. They have been old allies since the time of Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. If they join forces, it may therefore spell doom for those seeking the re-election of President Buhari.

After the seeming lull in the Buhari-Tinubu love, it seems the recent appointments given to some of Tinubu’s acolytes appear designed to assuage his feeling. But would this be sufficient to bury the combustive ambition of a man who believes he still has so much to give to his country?

The third option which also involves Tinubu in the mix is one on which for a variety of reasons Buhari chooses not to run again. Without doubt, there are several other forces contending for power in case Buhari decides not to seek re-election. In this category, Tinubu’s name still features prominently. No one can deny the ability of Tinubu to transform Nigeria the way he did in Lagos. It is presumed that Buhari may generously want to pay Tinubu back for the support he gave him. He may also want to leave a lasting legacy and shed the toga of an ethnic jingoist by handing over to a Southerner. If this happens, I foresee the visionary Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, a core Buhari loyalist, becoming Tinubu’s running-mate, notwithstanding that this is another Muslim/Muslim ticket. Many APC loyalists believe this combination may fly.

There is a fourth option and this is coming from the direction of PDP. The theory here is that PDP can still spring a surprise on Buhari and pay him back in his own coin. The PDP apologists believe the North has lost more under Buhari despite allocating many political appointments to the region. They are of the opinion that former President Jonathan did more for them and gave them access and respect than their own man Buhari who they accuse of being standoffish. This is the reason that many Northerners, apart from his kinsmen in the South South, have become the biggest promoter of PDP.
In case you think Jonathan is dead and buried politically, perish the thought! He still holds the biggest ace in PDP. In fact, many in PDP today see him as their best candidate in 2019 because some of his transformation agenda are beginning to come to fruition. They are hoping and banking on Buhari becoming so unpopular that Jonathan would be sorely missed by Nigerians who would practically beg him to come back.

The rising profile and the promotion of Jonathan in the international community is part of that systematic way of re-polishing, repackaging, redefining and preparing him for a return to power. Every attempt to smear him with a tar brush would be rebuffed by his die-hard loyalists who see Buhari as someone trying to kill any future role for Jonathan as Nigerian President. They are totally committed to ensuring that Jonathan is well protected between now and next year when serious politicking would have reached a crescendo again. The hope is that as a former civilian President, he can bounce back to power like President Mathieu Kerekou did in Benin Republic, when he returned in 1996 after quitting in 1991.

Who knows tomorrow?

 

Popular Lawyer and Anti-corruption Crusader, Okoi Obono Obla, Blasts Florence Ita-Giwa

Posted on by The Elites

…Says, I Will Not Mar My Integrity By Supporting Her Inglorious Self-seeking Advocacy of on Bakassi

…Her campaign on Bakassi is insincere, deceitful, opaque, and steeped in self-glorification;

image
Mms Bakassi, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa

In a response to my statement titled ‘’The Hypocrisy of Senator Florence Ita Giwa on Bakassi’’ which was published on National Dailies across the country recently, Senator Giwa made an appeal to me to join her advocacy campaign on Bakassi.

However, I want to state categorically clear that I will not mar my integrity by supporting the inglorious self-seeking advocacy of Senator Florence Ita Giwa on Bakassi on the following grounds:

I perceive Senator Florence Ita Giwa’s campaign on Bakassi to be insincere, deceitful, opaque, and steeped in self-glorification;
Until Senator Florence Ita Giwa render an account of her stewardship as the Chairman of Bakassi Re-Settlement Committee, vis-a-vis media reports of missing funds which she there after requested the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate in an interview she granted the Galaxy Television on the 25th May 2010;
Until the former Governor of Cross River State , Mr. Donald Duke renders an account of more than N9 Billion that was given to the Government of Cross River State by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2006 to re-settle the people of Bakassi affected by the implementation of the Green Tree Agreement between Nigeria and Cameroon;
Until the former Governor Liyel Imoke render an account of the money given to the Government of Cross River State by the Federal Government to ameliorate the effect of the loss of Bakassi Peninsula by Nigeria to the Republic of Cameroon, and the loss of 76 Oil Wells by Cross River State to Akwa Ibom State sequel to the Judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Until Senator Florence Ita Giwa render a frank and honest disclosure of the role played by her office during the Bakassi saga. Despite her luscious position as a Senator of the federal republic, who was influential, resourceful and powerful and a Senior member of successive PDP controlled Federal Government, Presidential Adviser , 2003-2007, Member of the Board of the Nigeria Port Authority and Chairman of Bakassi Resettlement Committee.

imageUntil senator Florence Ita Giwa renders an account of how much was contributed by the public and private sectors to her charity campaign for the Bakassi Children Foundation.
I also crave her indulgence to answer the following questions:

Where was Senator Giwa when Obono-Obla started his advocacy campaign on Bakassi on the 28th of October, 2002. When he wrote an editorial opinion in the Guardian Newspaper of 28th October, 2002 titled Bakassi; Matters Arising;
What was the contribution of Senator Florence Giwa to the case filed by Honourable Bassey Ita ; Honourable Effiong Edet Effiong; Samuel Asuquo and Prince Edem Nsa (for themselves and on behalf of all the Communities in Bakassi Local Government Area of Cross River State affected by the ‘Green Tree Accord’ between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroon against the Federal Government of Nigeria; Attorney General of the Federation; Attorney General of Cross River State; Independent National Electoral Commission and Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission. and his associates in 2007 in the Federal High Court, Calabar in Suit No. FHC/CA/CS/13/2007; a case which I handled (as Counsel to the Plaintiff) pro bono;
Why did Senator Florence Ita fail to use her influence as a Senior Member of the PDP to get the former Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke to support the case? ;
4 Is Senator Giwa (as an unofficial adviser to Senator Imoke) aware that the Cross River State Government did everything humanly possible to defeat the Plaintiffs in that case?

 

…Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, is the Special Assistant on Prosecution to President Buhari

Resilient… New Feathers In Lagos’ Cap, By Steve Ayorinde

Posted on by The Elites

“Innovative thinking that comes with courageous execution and prudent management of resources, therefore, are two essential elements that Lagos State government has adopted in approaching its ‘continuity with improvement’ policy.”

Lagos Information Commissioner, Ayorinde
Lagos Information Commissioner, Ayorinde

‘Smart’ and ‘resilient’ are great adjectives to describe a person or an entity that knows how to get the job done admirably. These words more than qualify the giant strides that Lagos State is recording lately, and two key events of the past couple of months underscore the remarkable profile that Lagos is enjoying, especially with global institutions.

When Governor Akinwunmi Ambode declared right from the outset of his administration that he was looking beyond Lagos being a megacity to building and projecting the state as a Smart City, the import of that profound aspiration was probably lost on many people. However, it became clear in June when the governor, in company of a few members of his cabinet, signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Dubai towards a plan to build Africa’s first Smart City in Lagos.

A Smart City, of course, is a growing concept that draws from the success of Dubai’s innovative knowledge-based industry clusters to empower business growth for companies and knowledge workers all over the world. Technology drives a Smart City, and Dubai itself, with its enviable wonder-clusters like the Media City, Internet City and Financial City – all within the Dubai megalopolis, is testimony to how something close to an el dorado can emerge in modern urban planning.

Malta has since caught the bug, with its own Smart City. And next is India, with Smart City, Kochi. It is now the turn of Lagos to implement this wonderful initiative that is expected to bring multi-billion dollar investments to the State, to create thousands of jobs and transform the Ibeju-Lekki axis of the state into a jewel by the Atlantic.

To Governor Ambode, this is a deliberate attempt “to establish a strong convergence between technology, economic development and governance,” as declared excitedly in Dubai when the first step to making the Lagos Smart City dream a reality was taken. To him, the vision is clear. “A smart city Lagos will be the pride of all Lagosians. We are encouraged by the fact that we do not, as a government, need to develop at a slow pace but take full advantage of the digital age and fast-track development of Lagos to a real megalopolis that we can all be proud of.”

Even before the Smart City project commenced, there had been cause for Lagos to celebrate a month earlier when it was named among the final group of 37 cities, chosen in a highly competitive selection process, to be part of the 100-member Resilient Cities Network. Nine other African cities joined Lagos on the list of the world-acclaimed project that aims to build urban resilience, an idea pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States.

Lagos was chosen from more than 325 applicants on the basis of willingness, ability and need to become resilient in the face of future challenges. And it does say something about the arrival of Lagos on the main global arena when the President of 100 Resilient Cities, Michael Berkowitz said: “We are so proud to welcome Lagos to 100 Resilient Cities Network. We selected Lagos because of its leaders’ commitment to resilience-building and the innovative and proactive way they have been thinking about the challenges the city faces.”
…resilience must be in the DNA of a thinking government that bequeaths to Lagosians the Light Up Lagos project as one of its prime legacies; while noting the fact that the teeming youthful population needs empowerment through an initiative like the N25bn Employment Trust Fund which seeks to support young entrepreneurs and start-up businesses with soft loans.
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It is evident that the pro-people, innovative ways in which the Governor Ambode-led administration has been tackling issues confronting this Africa’s most-populous city-state is not lost on the international community and is indeed earning their nod and applause.

“For us,” Berkowitz remarked thoughtfully, “a resilient city has good emergency response and meets citizens’ needs. It has diverse economies and takes care of both its built and natural infrastructure. It has effective leadership, empowered stakeholders and an integrated planning system. All those things are essential for a resilient city,” he stated.

What the 100Rc boss has described is indeed the story of Lagos and the hit-the-ground running approach adopted by Governor Ambode to tackle the myriad of challenges that confront Lagos as a megacity with the highest population in the country but with the smallest landmass. Innovative thinking that comes with courageous execution and prudent management of resources, therefore, are two essential elements that Lagos State government has adopted in approaching its ‘continuity with improvement’ policy.

Month after month, Lagosians are seeing the benefits and Nigerians as a whole now see the evidence of exceptional leadership that is on offer in Lagos. Safety is top-notch with ceaseless support for the Police and other security agencies through the innovative Security Trust Fund. Emergency Rescue Operation is the best in the country, perhaps in the whole continent, with the massive investment in the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA) Rescue Unit.

Traffic management has recorded its most significant improvement ever with the infusion of well-trained university graduates into the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), the phenomenal construction of new roads and relentless rehabilitation of bad ones all across the state, as well as deploying ingenious ways in ensuring that traffic flows freely along previously notorious routes characterised by snarls and gridlocks.

The lay-by at Oworonshoki that ensures the free-flow of traffic for vehicular movement from Third Mainland Bridge has been described as something akin to a miracle, while the pedestrian bridge and lay-by being constructed at Berger-Ojodu axis is already widely acknowledged for the ingenuity behind them. Of course the walling off of the problematic Ketu-Mile 12 Ikorodu Road service lane has brought succour to millions who move to and from Ikorodu town.

Yet, resilience must be in the DNA of a thinking government that bequeaths to Lagosians the Light Up Lagos project as one of its prime legacies; while noting the fact that the teeming youthful population needs empowerment through an initiative like the N25bn Employment Trust Fund which seeks to support young entrepreneurs and start-up businesses with soft loans.
The gains are enormous. “As a member of 100RC, Lagos will gain access to tools, funding, technical expertise and other resources to build resilience to the challenges of the 21st century,” Berkowitz said.

The good news about Lagos joining the league of resilient cities is that it is not a mere jamboree.

The gains are enormous. “As a member of 100RC, Lagos will gain access to tools, funding, technical expertise and other resources to build resilience to the challenges of the 21st century,” Berkowitz said.

In other words, Lagos will now be eligible to receive grant funding to hire a Chief Resilience Officer who will lead the city-wide resilience building process and engage stakeholders from across different government agencies, public and private sectors and various communities “to incorporate diverse perspectives and knowledge.”

Lagos will also receive technical support to develop a Resilience Strategy that reflects the city’s distinct needs and the support and services they need as they work towards implementing the strategy. In the class of 2016 Resilient Cities are Cape Town, Addis Ababa, Luxor and Nairobi from Africa, as well as Atlanta, Washington DC, Toronto, Kyoto, Seoul, Tel Aviv, The Hague and Salvador.

This is the company that Lagos now keeps.

As a new network member, Lagos is expected to gain access to a variety of work platform partners, who offer tools and services valued at more than $180 million at no direct cost to the 100RC members, in areas such as innovative finance, technology, infrastructure, land use, and community and social resilience.

Undeniably, it all comes down to the qualitative leadership that Governor Ambode is providing and his vision to see this city-state blossom as the jewel of the south of the Sahara. No wonder that as the profile of the state continues to rise, the governor too, like a general forging ahead courageously at the battlefront, is having his cap decorated with yet another feather.
On September 22 when Ambode will be formally decorated with the prestigious African Leadership Excellence Award as Best Performing Governor in Nigeria…the world will have another opportunity to hear the good news emanating from a smart state being run by a smart governor who, perhaps, also doubles as its Chief Resilience Officer.

One of such worthy commendations is the latest by the United Kingdom-based African Leadership Magazine whose online poll on Good Governance in Nigeria saw Governor Ambode emerge as the winner for the remarkable developments that Lagos State has witnessed in the past one year.

Governor Ambode came tops with 37.2 percent of the total votes cast, ahead of Governor Nyesom Wike (Rivers) with 29 percent, Governor Willie Obiano (Anambra) with 18 percent, Patrick Okowa (Delta) with 13 percent and Nasir el Rufai (Kaduna) with 5 percent. The online poll, which ran for a month from July 5th attracted Nigerians from all walks of life who voted to select the country’s top five Best Performing Governors.

The publisher of the magazine, Dr. Ken Giami, in announcing the winners practically summed up what has endeared the Lagos State governor to millions of residents and visitors. “Mr. Ambode’s emergence as the winner of the polls,” he said “is a clear indication that more Nigerians are increasingly becoming aware of his strides in Lagos State, which is quite commendable.”

Yet another testimony to Lagos’ good fortune under Ambode came from one of those polled, who noted that “Akinwunmi Ambode came to power with his blue-print for the greater development of Lagos State which he has since then pursued with precision. His pursuit of 24-hour economic mechanism, when attained, would propel revenue generation for Lagos State in ways unmatchable by any other state in Africa.”

On September 22 when Ambode will be formally decorated with the prestigious African Leadership Excellence Award as Best Performing Governor in Nigeria during the International Forum on African Leadership at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, the world will have another opportunity to hear the good news emanating from a smart state being run by a smart governor who, perhaps, also doubles as its Chief Resilience Officer.

IBB At 75, By Mohammed Harunna

Posted on by The Elites

Five years ago today, I wrote a birthday tribute on these pages to Nigeria’s one and only self-styled Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. At 75 today, he is the youngest living former military head of state, bar General Abdulsalami Abubakar, his childhood friend, classmate and neighbour on the Niger State capital, Minna’s, exclusive hilltop neighbourhood; General Abubakar was 74 on June 13.

(General Muhammadu Buhari who will be 74 on his next birthday on December 17 and who Babangida ousted in a palace coup on August 27, 1985 as his army chief, would have been the youngest, but then he returned as elected President Buhari in May last year after a record three attempts and another record of being the first contestant to oust an incumbent national ruler in Nigeria’s history.)

At 75, Babangida is also Nigeria’s longest ruling peacetime military head of state, with his eight years in office; General Yakubu Gowon who ruled a year longer, between 1966 and 1975, spent three of those years (1967-1970) fighting a civil war to keep Nigeria one.

Babangida’s eight years as military president, as I said in my birthday tribute to him at 70, have since become the defining period of Nigeria’s history for better or for worse. This is because since independence in 1960 no Nigerian leader has sought to change the face of the country’s politics and socio-economics in as thoroughgoing manner as the man. To date the Structural Adjustment Programme and the New-breed dominated two-party democracy he sought to impose on the country have remained the template of our political-economy.

Because of the impact of his long rule on the country, many Nigerians have come to regard him as the chief villain of Nigeria’s many woes, not least of all its deep and widespread corruption. For such Nigerians there could hardly be a more conclusive proof of their view than the recent remark by President Buhari that Babangida removed him from power because he was about to investigate a case of corruption against Babangida’s friend, then army intelligence chief, General Aliyu Mohammed.

As he said in the now widely reported interview with the opinion monthly magazine, The Interview (July, 2016), “I found out that some officers were spending money. I asked: Where did they get the money from? They said it was from the military intelligence fund. Later, I learnt that General Aliyu Gusau who was in charge of intelligence took import licence from the Ministry of Commerce which was in charge of supplies and gave it to Alhaji Mai Deribe. It was worth N100, 000, a lot of money then. When I discovered this, I confronted them and took the case to the Army Council. I said if I didn’t punish Aliyu Gusau it will create problems for us. So I said General Aliyu Gusau had to go. He was the Chief of Intelligence. That was why Babangida got some officers to remove me.”

Contrary to the claim by the magazine that this was the first time Buhari would reveal why he was ousted by his army chief, Buhari had said as much several times before in media interviews, perhaps the only difference this time being his more specific mention of names and his speaking as a president whose topmost priority, quite rightly I believe, is his fight against corruption. He had, after all, given the same reasons each time in response to claims by Babangida – the first time in a Newswatch interview in November 1985 after his first 100 days in office – that he ousted Buhari because himself and his co-conspirators had come to the painful conclusion that Buhari was “too rigid” on issues national and international.

In his interview in The Interview Buhari challenged Babangida to deny his claim. “Let him (Babangida) repeat his own story. Ali Gusau is still alive,” he said.

Babangida would be wise not to pick up his former boss’ gauntlet for at least two reasons. First, the Ali Gusau factor may not have been the only one in Buhari’s ouster, but certainly it was among the key ones. Second, as we all know, image has since come to matter more than substance even before the advent of the so-called social media. Unfortunately for Babangida the public has since been persuaded to regard his charm and ability to neutralise almost all opposition to his viewpoint as a vice.

Personally I have always believed this negative image of Babangida is a metaphor for people wanting to blame everyone else but themselves for their inability to stand up for their convictions. I have been as great a beneficiary of the man’s legendary large heartedness as any. But that has never stopped me from telling him the truth as I saw it in private and on the pages of newspapers, as any regular reader of my columns going back to 1978 would testify.

On his part, my forthrightness has never stopped him from remaining a senior brother and a benefactor. It has therefore never seized to amaze me why anyone would blame the man for the failure of many politicians to stand up for their convictions during his years in power.

Unfortunately for Babangida, verisimilitude, as one public relations executive once put it, matters more than veracity. And so at 75, his image as the Great Compromiser is, sadly, a cross he has to bear for the rest of his life. Fortunately, however, since 2011 the man has put partisan politics behind him for reasons of age, as he himself put it, and of ill health, due mainly to a worsening of his well-known radiculopathy, occasioned by a bullet he took on the war front during the civil war. This ill health apparently led some faceless malicious people to spread unfounded rumours of his death twice this year in the social media.

Happily those rumours, as they say, proved greatly exaggerated.

And now that he does not need to charm anyone out of his or her convictions, Babangida can only live a quiet and peaceful life for the rest of his highly fulfilled life.

Here’s wishing many more returns of today to arguably the country’s most astute military politician.

 

Ambode’s Quest To Secure The Future of Lagos, By Niyi Anibaba

Posted on by The Elites

That Nigeria’s economy is not healthy is no longer news, however, the effects of the dwindling economic situation is fast manifesting across the country. While some states can no longer cope with the obligations of paying workers’ salaries regularly, some are hanging in the balance, forcing them to visit Abuja with cap in hand, hoping for some bail out from the government at the centre.

Observers have even argued that without the bailouts, many of the state would by now be insolvent. But despite the economic challenges, Lagos State seems to be daring the odds and breaking new grounds.

With an increasing population of over 22 million people, the state has continued to witness an influx of Nigerians from other states and citizens from neighbouring countries on a daily basis, stretching its inadequate infrastructure.

Economic experts readily attribute the state’s ability to remain buoyant in the midst of the economic uncertainties to the dexterity of the man at the helm of affairs, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

Since assuming office on May 29, 2015, Governor Ambode has proved his financial acumen in many ways than one, which has among other things, led to the growth of the State’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Governor Ambode is not oblivious of the fact that Lagosians expect nothing less from him, but to build on the legacies of his predecessors, hence his economic policy is focused on exploring new ventures to shove up its IGR to N30 billion by 2017 and N50 billion by 2018.

At every given opportunity, Governor Ambode does not hesitate to tell anyone who cares to listen about the potential of Lagos emerging as Africa’s biggest economic hub in no distant future.

To achieve this, the Governor is already mapping out strategies to complete some landmark projects already under construction, while plans are also in top gear to embark on new ones. This was the focus when he recently embarked on an extensive tour of the Eko Atlantic City (EAC) Project.

The Eko Atlantic City Project is a multi-billion dollar project sitting on over 10 million square metres and is expected to accommodate over 150,000 people who would reside there and another 250,000 who would work and commute within the city on a daily basis.

So far, out of the over 10 million square meters of the project, about six million square meters have been reclaimed, while there are 15 bridges and two tunnels designed with the project.

For Ambode, the EAC Project, on completion would go a long way, to not only boost the economy of the State, but also increase its IGR. Accompanied on the tour by members of the State Executive Council, the governor pledged the total commitment of his administration towards the success of the project, saying that it would go a long way to facilitate the quest to grow potential of the state economy.

In his words, “I would like to express the total support of this government to this project because at the end of the day we need to grow the economy of Lagos and this obviously is going to have multiplier effect on our IGR. We promise that we are going to grow our IGR to N30bn by 2017 and N50 billion by 2018 and this project is a sure outlet in achieving that goal.”

Satisfied with the infrastructure already in place at the EAC, the Governor said it now behooves on investors to take advantage of the massive opportunities, while commending the promoters of the EAC Project for their confidence in committing huge resources to the Nigerian economy, which according to him, was a positive sign that Nigeria remains the investment hub in Africa.

The governor also took time to inspect the 8.5 kilometre long shoreline wall, otherwise known as the ‘Great Wall of Lagos’, built to protect the EAC, saying it was gratifying that the project will not only protect the new city, but also protect the whole of Victoria Island against any ocean surge, which was one of the primary reasons for the project.

He continued: “This is a new and a bigger version of Victoria Island. We are going to have an Energy City here, a financial hub that is more or less going to run under a Free Trade Zone and so on.

“Basically, all these put together turns Lagos to that leader that we want it to be in Africa and the quality of infrastructure that has been put here is also encouraging.

“I just want to encourage other investors and other people who had taken one step or the other in respect of the Eko Atlantic City that the time is now because in another one and half years, this place will be something else,” the governor said.

Chairman of Eko Atlantic City, Mr. Ronald Chagoury said one of the first two residential buildings in the new city will be completed by the end of August, while the second will be ready before the end of the year, adding that the first office block will be ready between September and October, 2016.

Chagoury described the project as an impressive financial district which upon completion, would compare with the financial district in Paris, France and the 5th Avenue in New York, United States.

He added that the Great Wall of Lagos was scientifically designed to withstand any ocean surge and that it was built to last for 1,000 years.

Managing Director of Access Bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, whose bank is the major partner with the promoters of the EAC project and the Lagos State government, said aside the fact that adequate arrangement had been made to protect the city, the project was all about saving the State and creating a new tomorrow for people to live in Lagos.

He added that with the project, the land that was lost over time to the bar beach had been reclaimed, adding that investors and interested people need not entertain any fear as to the safety of the city.

In similar corollary, Governor Ambode has set his eyes on seeing the Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ) take flight.

Prior to Governor Ambode’s visit to the EAC, the governor had accompanied the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo to the LFTZ to inspect the level of work on the projects being carried out by the Dangote Group.

The zone, which has the capacity to shoot the state to global economic reckoning, among other budding industries and multinational companies is host to Dangote Group, developers of an $11 billion world class refinery with a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels of oil per day.

Aside the refinery, the Dangote Group is also embarking on a Fertilizer Plant and a Gas plant, all in one location. Speaking to journalists after a tour of the projects which lasted about two hours, Ambode said projects being undertaken by Dangote at the Zone would significantly boost the economy of Lagos and have great multiplier effects on the nation’s economy.

He said the projects would also be critical to the economic growth of the Lagos East and West Senatorial Districts, which according to him, will be open to massive investment opportunities on completion.

Governor Ambode said the decision of the vice-president to lead the inspection visit to the projects was a signpost to the benefits inherent not just for the state but to the nation, while pledging to provide the necessary support to ensure that the projects are completed within schedule.

Governor Ambode is also excited that apart from the 135,000 direct jobs that will be created from the projects, another 100,000 indirect jobs would be generated while income accruable to the Federal Government would be in the region of over $500 million in three years.

Only last week, the President of Togo, Mr Faure Gnassingbe was the latest visitor to the zone. His interest as expected was the Dangote projects.

Governor Ambode seized the occasion to inform the August visitor that the Dangote project was another confirmation that Lagos is a prime investment destination, expressing optimism that the project, one of the biggest in the African region, will positively change the face of oil and gas business in the West African region.

The governor said aside the fact that the project confirmed the positive investment climate in Lagos which has resulted in massive investor confidence, he also strongly believes that the future prosperity of West Africa is in collaboration between government and investors, which was why his administration has been working hard to encourage investment in the state.

He maintained that Lagos is home to all nations, races and creeds, including substantial Togolese population, adding: “I’m positive that we are providing them with the opportunities to get ahead in their endeavors.”

Governor Ambode said as a prominent Head of State in the West African region, he was not oblivious of the interest of President Gnassingbe in the Dangote refinery, adding that the project was one of the emerging opportunities in Lagos State.

While inviting Togolese investors to take advantage of the positive investment climate in Lagos, Ambode said the state is open for businesses, and that his administration, in a bid to encourage investment, had massively invested in infrastructure and security of lives and property.

“Lagos is open for business. We are open to collaboration with the Togolese government and investors to move our two countries forward. Our government is investing massively in creating infrastructure which will support businesses and individuals. We have made huge investment in security and we will continue to ensure that the lives and property of all citizens are secured.”

“We will remain partner in progress with all our investors. Our desire is for investors to invest in Lagos, grow their businesses, create wealth and jobs for our people and ultimately grow our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) positively,” the governor said.

For Dangote, the decision to site the massive projects in Lagos was not a difficult one to make. Dangote said the decision to site the projects in Lagos was due to the investment friendly climate in the state.

“Lagos is one state that is very investor- friendly and the governor himself has always been asking what the issues are and he normally put in place steps to resolve those issues immediately,” Dangote said.

He said the gas pipeline project would guarantee uninterrupted power supply in Lagos on completion, which he said would also positively increase the state’s Gross Domestic Project (GDP).

Aside the Eko Atlantic City Project and the Lekki Free Trade Zone, the Lekki Deep Sea Port, Badagry Deep Sea Port, Oshodi Regeneration Project and the historic 4th Mainland Bridge are other landmark projects the Ambode administration looks poised to bring to fruition.

For sure, with the above multi-billion dollars projects coming into fruition within the next two to three years, it is not too difficult to discern that the projected N50 billion IGR would be achievable. And as the governor has severally said, despite the uncertain economic climate, the future of Lagos is secured.

Anibaba, an economist, lives in Gbagada

These Are Turbulent Times, My Friends. Let’s Brace Up, By Emeka Oparah

Posted on by The Elites

Before I deliver this piece, let me make it ABUNDANTLY clear that my support and admiration for and belief in the leadership of PMB is unflagging, irrefragable and 105%!!!
That said, I want to say, even if everyone knows, which is good in itself, that we are in very turbulent times. Yes, we are, my brothers and sisters. Everywhere you look, there’s anger, hunger and strife.
Things are NOT working. There’s palpable apprehension and, sometimes, fear, fear of the unknown, that is. Indeed, people are dying. I’m sorry but I wager that the suicide rate in the country will spike. Those who can’t cope with the times will succumb to hypertension and depression or even suicide and murder. That’s how bad it can get.
How did we get to this sorry pass, people still ask-even if they know what happened. Well, the truth, bitter truth, my dear friends, is that we have lived wastefully. We have lived a profligate and extravagant life. We have built a country that consumes and hardly manufactures. We moved from the groundnut pyramids, cocoa plantations, onion mountains and palm plantations to an AGO, DPK and PMS economy. We consumed and consumed and consumed. We didn’t save for the rainy days, and the rains-with all the warnings-have come upon us.
Over the years, the leadership of the country at the federal, states and local government levels have failed the people. Majorly, men and women without an iota of vision but with an abundance of rapacious proclivities have occupied leadership positions.
The period between 2011 and 2015 will rank, to me, as the watershed of the country’s economic and Socio-political despoliation and stagnation, even if they kept telling us lies, white lies about the “largest economy in Africa”. The flagrant, blatant and luciferous gang-raping of the economy and the deepening of the divisive tendencies of the peoples of Nigeria were the hallmarks of that better-forgotten era.
In any case, I’m seized of the opinion that what we are experiencing now is a very serious mid-air turbulence, like you have on long-haul flights. Unfortunately, it is very severe. We must pray (as believers) for God to take control and guide the pilot and his crew to navigate us out of the stormy weather to safe landing.
But we must fasten our seat belts and comply with the instructions of the captain. We must be in the brace position to ride the storm, this terribly terrifying storm.
Beyond the prayers, we need to throw overboard our extravagance, imprudence, excessive appetite for foreign materials, needless “investments” and thriftlessness-like expensive overseas holidays, more bags, more shoes, foreign products. We must tighten our belts. This is also time to get smarter and find other streams of revenue outside what we currently do (but please let’s avoid stealing to make a living!).
A country that once imported toothpicks will never develop quickly, if at all. Now, that’s stopped. Let toothpick be a euphemism for unnecessary foreign products. We must reduce our dependence on foreign exchange, ($2.5b weekly????) and if possible get into commercial activities that will instead earn forex.
It’s good to see many young folks getting into farming. Personally, I am taking my passion for fashion into tailoring, and, as I told someone, the numbers, the Benjamins, are not looking bad at all. Besides, we will take some young men off the streets, and give them hope.
Brothers and sisters, let’s get creative. Let’s get smart. Let’s switch on our survival instincts. Let’s get positive. Person wey dey cry no dey see road, they say in Sapele. The economic challenges will get even worse, but then again, it will begin to get better sooner rather than later. I’m supremely confident in the leadership abilities, good intentions and patriotism of President Muhammadu Buhari. He, however, needs to inject some fresh blood (and some tested hands too) into his government and do away with politicians, who have nothing but their personal interests at heart.
By the way, I have a short story to share as a way of ending this epistle. A friend called recently to lament she was struggling to buy tickets for herself and her son to go on vacation to the US.
Between the first time she contacted the airline and the last (just 7 days!!!) the price of an economy class ticket had moved from N1.3m to N1.8m. She was distraught, justifiably, because she believed her son would be disappointed. Well, I asked her to avoid the vacation this year because things are not good at all. She would pay for tickets. She would pay for upkeep. And pay for shopping. I advised her to have a talk with her son, who’s 14 and in college. To her amazement, she had hardly completed three sentences when the boy said “but mom, do we really have to go on vacation to the US this year? Let’s forget it this year. I know things are very bad, Mommy. I don’t want us to come back and you start struggling with my school fees.” Wow! A son from heaven, yeah? It is what it is. Even kids know what the birds are singing right now. They should. Shouldn’t they?
So, let’s not over-reach ourselves to please our kids or feed our ego (as Bob Marley sang, “every need has an ego to feed!”). Now, I hope I made sense. If I did, then gwazia ndi yard unu!

When Love Comes From Abroad, By Dele Momodu

Posted on by The Elites

Fellow Africans, let me start by thanking hundreds, if not thousands, of all those who felicitated with me last weekend on the honorary Doctorate degree bestowed on me by one of Ghana’s most prestigious institutions, the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA).

UPSA started out as a privately owned professional institute named the Institute of Professional Studies in 1965. In 1979, it was taken over by the Government of Ghana and in 1999 it became a tertiary institution by virtue of the Institute of Professional Studies Act 1999 (Act 566). The mandate of the newly revamped Institute was to offer professional programmes in the disciplines of Accountancy and Management leading to the award of degrees, diplomas and certificates.

The Institute was affiliated to the University of Ghana in so far as the award of degrees, diplomas and certificates was concerned. However, the baby graduated to adulthood and the institution became a full-fledged University on 1st September 2008 when it was granted a Presidential Charter with authority to award its own degrees, diplomas and certificates.

The Institute metamorphosed into a University in status and name when the University of Professional Studies Act 2012 (Act 850) received Presidential assent on 31 July 2012. The Institute was renamed the University of Professional Studies, Accra.

In the history of the University only three people had been honoured with honorary doctorate degrees and this was in 2013. It was thus a special and privilege and honour for the University to singularly consider me as the next most worthy recipient of its honorary degree and this was made even more exceptional by the fact that I was the only recipient and the first non-Ghanaian.

In effect, what this particular recognition accorded me was awesome and apparently took into account the myriad of ways in which I have become an adopted son of Ghana. My close relationship with the Republic of Ghana spans more than two decades. In those twenty one years, many have come to see and accept me as an Associate Ghanaian primarily because of the way in which I have acted as the Chief Promoter of tourism and investment in the country. Through the extensive networks of Ovation International, we’ve been able to attract countless visitors and investors to the gentle giant of Africa. Before our very eyes, Ghana has repositioned herself as a destination of choice in Africa. Furthermore, I have done a great deal to repair the rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria and instead created a relationship of brotherhood borne out of genuine affection, goodwill and determination to jointly succeed. Whenever Nigerians have needed a voice in Ghana I have immediately hearkened to the call and ensured that our position was clearly stated especially when attempts were made with smearing us by stereotyping us. I also was in the vanguard of promoting and encouraging the influx of Nigerian Banks into Ghana and now most Nigerian banks are represented there. In addition Nigerians are establishing indigenous Ghanaian banks all because of our attempts to create conducive atmosphere for their investment.

As a friend told me, whatever good you do may seem unnoticed but someone, somewhere is watching and recording and someday the reward would come when you least expect. Such was the situation I found myself in last week as honour came from the most unlikely and unexpected corner. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a mail from the Council of the University of Professional Studies a few weeks ago informing me that the Council had resolved to confer me with the Honorary Doctorate Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

The institution had obviously studied my resume and found it worthy of being greatly honoured. What was more, no condition whatsoever was attached to the award of the honorary degree. No one asked me to make donations or pay for this and that. The University wanted to appreciate “a pan African ambassador and role model” in its own inimitable way. The University was of the view that I had done a lot to showcase the very best of Africa generally and Ghana in particular and that it was necessary to give honour to whom it is due in his lifetime. I cherish the kind and gracious gesture of the Governing Council of UPSA and they have created a committed, fervent and ardent adopted Alumnus.

In addition, I believe the University wanted to tap into the super brand that we had created beyond the shores of Ghana and by so doing extend the same international exposure to this outstanding Ghanaian institution which has done so much for the creation of a professional elite in Ghana. This expectation of the University has clearly worked. It is unbelievable how the University’s name exploded and trended for days after the convocation ceremony that heralded my honorary degree. It was so incredible. I thank God immensely for ensuring that UPSA received accolades for its decision. I sincerely relish what the University did for me.

As the icing on the cake I was thrilled and honoured when the President of Ghana, Joh Dramani Mahama informed me that he would be attending the convocation ceremony as a mark of honour and a demonstration of his respect for me.
What then can I say about President John Dramani Mahama? I’m not sure there are enough adjectives in the lexicon to describe this perfect gentleman. An invitation had been extended to him to attend the convocation at UPSA. From all indication, it was going to be a tough call as the President has been travelling within Ghana rendering accounts of his stewardship to his people. Also more pressing was the 40th day funeral service for his beloved mum which according to Islamic rites, was coming up a day after the convocation. But the President still made the huge sacrifice of honouring us with his presence as he had promised. And he stayed with us from beginning to the end.

I was particularly touched by his speech. He gave three reasons why he decided to attend. Firstly, He spoke about UPSA being one of Ghana’s greatest universities. Secondly, he eulogised the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Joshua Alabi who he asserted had demonstrated how internally generated revenues can be judiciously managed to sustain universities. He had therefore come to pay tribute to the great scholar whose tenure expires this December. Lastly, he told the congregation that he had honoured the invitation to attend particularly because of the honorary degree being awarded to me. In this regard, he had very generous words for me:

“My third reason for being here this morning is to honour a great journalist and a respected African personality in the person of Chief Dele Momodu. I do this for his outstanding contribution to both national and international discourse, his strong personality, his vision, his perseverance in and strength in the face of adversity …” the President said amongst other kind words he spoke of me. This is what true friendship means.
I had met Mr Mahama before he became the Vice Presidential candidate to Professor John Evans Atta Mills. We got introduced by Mr Victor Smith who’s currently the High Commissioner of Ghana to Great Britain. I met a very charismatic and humble man and we were well attended to by Mr Mahama and his equally simple wife, Lady Lordina, when we visited their home then. And that was it.

Mr Mahama would soon become Vice President and we met on a few occasions thereafter. One of such opportunities was at an event hosted by GLO, Nigeria’s widely celebrated telecom prodigy, in Accra. I noticed the security around him was scanty, practically non-existent and may have been deliberately designed to be unobtrusive. I approached his table and his face lit up as soon as he saw me. “Wow, Dele, long time no see…” It was clear that he genuinely meant this and was not merely patronising me. On another occasion, I saw him in Abuja and his demeanour and disposition towards me was still the same. I discovered a man who has not been transfigured by power. Similarly, when President Muhammadu Buhari visited Ghana last year, President Mahama was quick to inform President Buhari that I was as much a Ghanaian as I was a Nigerian.

As fate would have it, his boss, Professor Atta Mills took ill and died and presidential power landed on Mahama’s laps. I watched this development from the distance and was proud that the new found power still didn’t change Mahama. I became his secret admirer unknown to him. Since I do not partake in government contracts, I had no business running to him for anything. He served out the first term of his boss and went through his own election and won. My interest in watching his performance increased because I wanted to see if such a cerebral leader would debunk the belief that professionals often fail in politics.

Contrary to expectations, Mahama unleashed an elaborately ambitious master-plan for the development of Ghana and littered everywhere with a plethora of world class projects. Despite my regular visits to Ghana, I did not realise the extent of his vision. I only noticed that the airport kept changing for the better. The roads in the city were being tarred or resurfaced. I expected him to be commended for his uncommon efforts but he was being savagely attacked. I decided that the beautiful story of his achievements must be told now because of the African penchant for only saluting the valiant deeds of their leaders or heroes long after they are gone. The Mahama project is a compelling story that must be told not just to honour and laud this bright star of Africa but to show the world the exciting leadership prospects and possibilities available in Africa. I promise you a mind-blowing experience when you see what we are talking about. Very soon…

SEGUN ADENIYI’S WORTHY CAUSE
In 2004, my brother and friend, Segun Adeniyi started hosting an annual Youth Conference, essentially for Teenagers. At the time, he was Editor of THISDAY and head of Teens Church at RCCG, Good Shepherds Pasture, Alagomeji, Lagos. The idea was to bring teenagers together to listen to expert advice on career choices in today’s dynamic and challenging world and the programme was always open to all RCCG Parishes in Lagos so attendance was always huge.
The maiden edition in 2004 featured the late Dr. Dora Akunyili who was then the DG of NAFDAC along with Pastor Sam Adeyemi. The second and third editions in 2005 and 2006 featured Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who was Finance Minister and Mrs Oby Ezekwesili who was the Education Minister, respectively. The preparations for the 2007 edition were truncated when Segun was appointed as spokesman to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on 30th May 2007.
As fate would have it in 2014 Segun became head of the Teens Department of The Everlasting Arms (TEAP) in Abuja. One of the teens who is on holiday from the UK rekindled the idea of a career conference in him and Segun swung into action.

He came up with a Teens Summer Conference with the theme “Your Life, Your Future: Not a Laughing Matter”. The conference will hold in Abuja on 13th August 2016. Speakers at the conference are, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele; the former Chairperson, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, the Director General of PenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu and ace comedian, Mr. Atunyota Alleluya Akporobomerere (aka Ali Baba)

Attendance at the conference will be by registration at a portal already opened at www.rccgteapteens.org. I am sure that this Abuja Conference for Teens will inspire them. The objectives of the conference include teaching the teenagers to take responsibility for their future and making them realise that no matter the odds, they can reach their goals. I commend it to all our teenagers and I will ask parents to support this worthy cause which can only uplift and enhance their young children. There are still limited places available and I will urge our teens to register online at www.rccgteapteens.org.