A friend and I were texting today about how our mornings had not started well. She had lost her keys and subsequently missed both a dentist appointment and a work meeting. I had placed an important form in a “safe place” and then could not remember where I put it. The longer my friend and I kept looking for these items, the more flustered and upset we became.

As time dragged on, my friend’s worries grew. What if she did not find her keys? Had she thrown them away by accident? Getting a replacement key fob is not easy nor cheap. My concerns mounted as well. While requesting a new form would not set me back in money, it sure would set me back in time. I just knew I would have to call customer service and be passed from person to person to request what was needed. I dreaded the hassle it would be. Instead of stopping a moment to collect the proper perspective——we both swirled through our homes like raging storms.

I want to see the new ministers do well, but there is little they will be able to do because even their emergence has been greeted by our usual pessimism, not because we don’t believe in them, but the process itself is a lost cause, a missing in action methodology.

The ministers will not minster well because if you have watched the drama between the House of Representatives AdHoc Committee investigating job racketeering in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), and what has happened at the Federal Character Commission FCC despite all that swearing with various hold books simply points to the fact that while the big thieves do theirs, the civil servant who steals public funds will not stop because there are new ministers.

There is a new Acting Inspector General, he may want to do things differently but it will still be the same difference, call policemen off the roads, establish call lines which by the way are not toll free and a few rhetoric but personnel will still collect bribe at the detriment of national security, and thus whoever is head of police affairs cannot minister much.

There is not much we can do when a nation that saw the creation, birth, and production of an “the damsel from the east and her high JAMB score”, and how the matter has died, fact is that the Minister for Education cannot do much especially not only as teachers who organizes special examination centres litter around there will remain those at Unical that turn faculties into brothels.

Will the Minister deal with parents who pay for exam malpractice for their children, that pay teachers to have their kids get prizes they do not deserve on the speech and prize giving day.

We want to see change whether by renewed hope or the illusionary from consumption to production, whoever is minster has to deal with citizens who shunt queues and disobey traffic rules, those that refuse to get valid papers for their vehicles and will shout about how some ministers will embezzle Public Funds.

As I write this, several ministers already have been hosted to all kinds and manners of receptions, with some even being celebrated with full paid page adverts and when they start to act to script, they will be no different from the boss who gives unmerited favours to his subordinates on the basis of religion, tribe, political, and other social affiliations.

Mr. Tinubu has taken a whole lot of stick, and like leaders the bulk stop on his table, but like the Ministers they will be no different from the goods sellers who hoard goods to create deliberate scarcity.

The new Attorney -General and charge de affaire for Justice will have new ideas and like his counterpart in health,  judges and lawyers will make ways for criminals to escape facing the wrath of the law; same way that doctors will refer their patients to private facilities for personal gains. And engineers will construct below agreed standard facilities for personal gains, the Minister will look away because of because. It is who we are!

The Central Bank and preliminary findings from its audit report show dat wahala dey with bankers that collect brokerage that has been inflated, inside trading from stock brokers are fraudsters benefit because of insider information. The youths who believe shady and fraudulent acts are ways of hustling will test the minister for finance and our economy will be tested, will he be able to minister?

We are all guilty, whether it is the cleric that calls for fasting without fasting, if the government fails, other things will fail automatically, incidentally no one is called government, we are government. The new ministers are products of our environment. We need to figure out what we lost, where we lost it.

Thankfully, I am happy to report that we both found our missing items. My friend’s keys were in a closet on the top shelf. She had looked in that closet but in a raincoat pocket. She never thought to look up at the shelf. I had misfiled my form, and in my agitation and haste, must have flipped right on past it while looking. I was relieved but not proud at how easily I lost my cool. And if I am honest, this is not an isolated case. How many times have I let minor inconveniences and agitations rob me of my peace? Yes, today we misplaced important items. Tomorrow it may be traffic. We may spill something the next day and make a huge sticky mess. 

Sometimes, our peace is jeopardized not by something that happens but by worries and negative thoughts, the problem with Nigeria is that we have all by default become negative people, by our inherent negative actions and so no matter the best of intentions the new ministers won’t minister, if we don’t change, except by some magic and miracle—May Nigeria win

The Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN), on Saturday appealed to President Bola Tinubu to give female engineers an opportunity to fix the nation’s moribund refineries.

Newly-elected APWEN Lagos Chapter Chairman, Mrs Atinuke Owolabi, made the call during the association’s public lecture and Annual General Meeting in Ikeja.

Owolabi assured that female engineers spread across the various arms of the profession could fix the refineries within a year.

“All women engineers are ready to come together and see how we can proffer solutions, making sure that we revamp these refineries.

“So, we call on our president to challenge female engineers to revamp and rehabilitate these refineries, and I want to assure you that, within a year, just challenge us, we will make sure that the refineries would be put to operation by the grace of God,” she said.

She said any nation aspiring for development must empower its indigenous engineers and manpower.

“It is imperative that our homegrown engineers are empowered and granted the right opportunity to showcase our competence,” she said.

She said women had inbuilt natural qualities of being good managers and being excellent, adding that their talents should also be explored in building roads and other critical infrastructure.

Owolabi said Nigeria should reduce reliance on foreign experts and give opportunity to local engineers who are equally or more competent than their imported counterparts.

“I want to also implore our leaders, especially our president and governors, to empower indigenous engineers because we are very good.

“A country without engineers cannot develop,” she said.

Owolabi, a Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, promised that her administration would focus on mentorship and skill development for young engineers.

She also pledged collaboration with other NGOs while reeling out planned development programmes for three Lagos communities.

“Together, we shall shatter barriers and triumph over challenges in reaffirmation of the fact that gender should never constrain one’s potential in any domain,” she said.

The guest speaker, Mrs Olayinka Abdul, speaking on the theme, “The Role of Female Engineers in Building Sustainable Infrastructure”, said rising fuel prices required urgent measures for green alternatives.

Abdul, a former APWEN President, said green buildings reduce wastes, conserve energy and ensure huge energy savings and enormous long-term benefits.

She said Lagos was investing heavily in renewable energy while listing completed and ongoing interventions in various sectors, including health, education, housing and transportation.

Abdul said the various options available were wasting because some Nigerians have a class mentality not allowing them embrace local researches.

She cited examples of viable technologies, developed by “our forefathers”, being ignored because people want to move with trending foreign technologies.

Abdul advised APWEN to adopt communities and train them on how to generate power from their wastes.

She also enumerated measures female engineers could adopt against work place discrimination and how to receive mentorship from male counterparts without bruising their ego.

Panelists at the event proffered solutions to the multifaceted problem of inadequate water supply in Lagos State.

They enumerated ways mentorship and advocacy could grow capacity of female engineers. (NAN)

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assigned portfolios to his motley crowd of Ministers. Close to 50 Ministers in a depressed economy calls for jeers, not cheers. This is not to mention the plethora of advisers and assistants, each of them with their own retinue of aides, all with tantalizing perquisites of office. One is bound to query whether, truly, this economy is depressed. The crowd of Ministers, Advisers and Assistants is one thing; their suitability for assigned portfolios is another. I also thought we were told that Tinubu will not appoint Ministers of State; how come they have now reared their ugly head: Job for the boys or payback time for those who worked to make Tinubu president?

Reminds me of the street football we played in those days, which we called “work and eat” There is only one goalpost and one goalkeeper; everyone struggles for the ball and whoever scores becomes the goalkeeper and keeps the post until someone else scores and ejects the goalkeeper who now has to join the struggle to win the ball and score to keep the post again and take a deserved rest as the goalkeeper. The formula used by Tinubu to share Ministerial posts appears to me to follow the “work and eat” formula; although he still bent over backward to satisfy the constitutional provision of national spread, it is those that worked that have been called upon to eat now; although some have ended up holding the short end of the stick! Do you hold a grudge against them? The shoe would have been on the other foot were Abubakar Atiku or Peter Obi the winner of the last presidential election!

The suitability of Ministers for the portfolios assigned them apart; there is also the issue of the president grabbing the portfolio of the petroleum minister, a throwback from the Muhammadu Buhari era. The States are already copying from that: In Osun State, the governor has made himself the Commissioner for Works (which is their own cash cow or “Petroleum” ministry!) The discussion is on as to how many square pegs the president has put in round holes. Names have been mentioned but that need not detain us here. At least one ministry (that of the Niger Delta) has been scrapped while many others have been split, re-named, reclassified and what-have-you.

The noise following the scrapping of the Niger Delta ministry apart, the immediate impact of Tinubu's tampering with the structure he inherited is “job for the boys” as billions of Naira will have to be spent by the “new” Ministries on new billboards, signposts and what-have-you to reflect their new name. New letter-heads have to be printed and the old ones consigned to the dustbin; so also new call cards and ID cards for staff, etc, etc. These are not the kind of expenditure you expect to find in a comatose economy or in a government that has an eye for prudence. While the citizenry are being called upon to make sacrifices, those in government should not, to carry the people along, carry on as if nothing is amiss.

Square pegs in square holes are good; there is a place for cognate experience and academic qualifications but these, alone, are not enough for performance. We have found rookies who have performed excellently well in strange posts while experts in certain fields have failed scandalously. But this is no excuse to brazenly discountenance requisite qualification. Ministers are not the accounting officers of their ministry; permanent secretaries are. In the Nigerian system, a rookie Minister will be at the mercy of the civil servants in his ministry and they will dribble him at will. Ministers (and Governors) don't sign cheques; how come, then, they are able to siphon billions of public funds? They are helped by civil servants.

Whereas all attention is focused on politicians, civil servants are more corrupt. There are thousands, if not millions, of silent civil service billionaires all over the place, in both the Federal and State civil service. They perfect the paper works for the corrupt politicians and help them to also cover up their tracks. No governor or Minister will steal a dime without the support, connivance, collusion and protection of civil servants. And when they steal a dime for the politicians, they steal at least twice that amount for themselves. The war against corruption will amount to nothing until we also focus our attention on civil servants.

No Minister will perform if civil servants are bent on frustrating him, like they did to the late Chief Bola Ige in his first place of assignment as Minister of Power under Olusegun Obasanjo before he was redeployed to his natural habitat as Minister of Justice and Federal Attorney-General. It is worse if the Minister is a rookie in the ministry to which he has been assigned. So, because of the Nigerian factor, it is better if a minister is familiar with his terrain.

Civil servants are generally the reason why there is little or no development in the land. They know how to frustrate people, policies, programmes and projects. Ever had the terms “red tape” “bureaucracy” and “bureaucratic bottlenecks”? These are sinister tactics employed by civil servants to clog the system, frustrate any Minister and arrest the nation’s development. They are adept at inflating the actual cost of contracts and ensuring that, in the end, the contract is not executed but money is paid out. They approve and certify shoddy jobs; delay project execution or outright “execution” of projects only on paper. Towards the end of the budget year, they race to clean up the plate with frivolous contracts or simply share what is left of the budget instead of returning the same to the treasury. Buhari complained of that sharp and shady practice during his tenure. So, we must wean ourselves from giving undue attention to Ministers while leaving untouched the monsters, which are the civil servants.

Having said that, I wish to advocate that there is one Ministry which should be created but which has not yet been created – it is the Ministry of Seminars, Symposiums, Workshops, inaugural Lectures and Lectures in general and also Book launch. So many useful ideas are generated at these events that will be useful for national development. Let us have a Minister, assisted by one or two Ministers of State, to attend these events and collate ideas generated there and pigeon hole them for the relevant agencies and the private sector for implementation. Ideas rule the world. I advance the following reasons for the creation of this Ministry: One is that our leaders are too lazy to read. All the ideas generated by researchers and writers are wasted, so to say, because our leaders do not access them. Some even deliberately shut themselves out of the world of ideas and wallow in their ignorance and stale environment. Two: Reading culture is generally low in the country today; na book we go chop! Yet, no country can develop faster than the quantum of knowledge available to it. Three: Our leaders are generally snobbish of the literati. Their “turenchi” is too much and offensive. Four: Our leaders do not have the time for much academic exercise, even for those of them that are diligent in the performance of their duties. Five: There is usually a yawning gap between policy enunciation and policy implementation. We need a Ministry to track this; and do a follow-up of some sort. Finally, we need a kind of Ombudsman to ensure that the ideas being generated all over the country on a daily basis are not allowed to go to waste, as is the case at the moment.

I attended two events in Lagos last July that gave me the inspiration for asking for the above Ministry to be created; one was the fifth annual lecture of an online publication, Freedom Online, published by consummate journalist and editor, Gabriel Akinnadewo. The event held at the Sheraton Hotel, Lagos on July 18; and the second, a few days later, on 20th July, at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, was a lecture delivered by Prof. Babafemi Badejo titled “Utmost Freedom: The real essence of national interest” The ideas generated at the two events, if warehoused and put to use, are enough to solve the myriad of problems confronting the country, even at this its most trying period.

At the Freedom Online event were the likes of Chief Bode George, High Chief Tola Adeniyi, former governor Omoniyi Olubolade, veteran journalist Richard Akinnola, Barrister Benson Enikuomehin, Ogbeni Lanre Openiyi, Barrister Yinka Oguntimehin (representing Iba Gani Adams), among others. State duty prevented the big guns like the governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri; his Imo State counterpart, Hope Uzodimma , the former governor of Ogun state now senator representing Ogun East, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, from attending but they were duly represented.

Although Nigeria is said to have hundreds of ethnic groups and languages, Gov. Uzodimma said the common language spoken and understood by all of them is good governance. You cannot beat that! George, a retired General of the Nigeria Navy, warned that military life (rule) cannot be compared to civilian life (rule). In the former, you can expect anything anytime. This should be enough warning to anyone trying to toy with the country’s renascent democracy. High Chief Tola Adeniyi warned that the 1999 Constitution, which he described as absolutely military in nature, will take this country nowhere. Olubolade said a leader that would build the country must unite its people, put competent people in places and set its priorities. I can go on and on!

Gov. Diri, who gave the keynote address, said he believed in miracles. How will he not, seeing how he miraculously became the governor of Bayelsa state! His Imo state counterpart, Uzodimma, should also believe in miracles seeing how he, too, miraculously became governor! Diri asked that the younger generation be empowered so they would not be pawns or drug-induced thugs in the hands of misguided politicians. He regretted that, so far, Nigeria has failed to rise up to its potentials or to the huge promise of its founding fathers.

The NIIA event had in attendance the institute’s Director-General, Prof. Eghosa E. Osaghae; Prof. Adele Jinadu as chairman; my lecturer at the Graduate School, University of Ibadan, Prof. Femi Otubanjo, Ambassador Ayo Olukanni, among others. Is utmost freedom the real essence of national interest? If so, how does war in the Niger Republic enhance or guarantee Nigerians’ utmost freedom? According to Prof. Otubanjo, utmost freedom does not exist; African societies have no such concept. The Hobbesian paradox is that society guarantees your freedom by limiting your freedom! Prof. Jinadu, quoting another thinker, said it is in the interest of every man to be free. “But suppose a man refuses to be free? Then, he has to be forced to be free!” Olukanni, drawing on his experience as Nigeria’s ambassador in many countries, said the need had arisen for the country to restructure so that the regions can decide, design and pursue their own interests.

If the purpose of human existence is utmost freedom as posited by the lecturer, Prof. Badejo, then, whatever limits the utmost freedom of individuals or groups cannot be in the national interest. QED!

Lionel Messi was hailed as the “best in the world” as he scored a 10th goal in seven games to help his Inter Miami side to their first trophy.

The 36-year-old Argentinian fired into the top corner from outside the box to give Miami the lead against Nashville SC in the Leagues Cup final.

Fafa Picault levelled in the second half to send the game to penalties.

Miami sealed a 10-9 shootout win when Drake Callender saved Nashville goalkeeper Elliot Panicco’s spot-kick.

Miami had the worst record in Major League Soccer this season before World Cup-winning forward Messi arrived last month alongside former Barcelona team-mates Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets.

They are now unbeaten in seven games on their way to winning the Leagues Cup, a tournament featuring MLS and Mexican Liga MX clubs.

It was the club’s first trophy since being formed in 2020.

They also have the chance to reach another final when they play Cincinnati in the semi-final of the US Open Cup on Wednesday.

Co-owner David Beckham said the former Barcelona trio were instrumental in the club’s change in fortunes: “It is like a movie, you watch these players play and, emotionally, everything about their play is beautiful.”

Spain midfielder Busquets added: “The team is growing by leaps and bounds and we are very happy.

“We are making a solid team – and then we have Leo, who makes a difference because he’s the best in the world.”

The win also meant seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi – who was named player of the tournament – has now won 44 trophies, more than any other player.

The leader of the Niger Republic coup plotters, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, has fixed a three-year timeline for the army to hand over power to civilian government.

He stated this in a televised broadcast on Saturday night.

Tchiani spoke after meeting with a delegation of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) led by the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd).

Tchiani said within a month, the junta would form a committee to study and form the new constitution of the country.

While he maintained that Niger did not want to go to war, the General said the county would defend itself if the need arose.

He, however, added that the door for negotiation was still open.

ECOWAS has yet to react to the speech of the junta leader, but Abdulsalami is expected to brief the regional bloc on the outcome of the meeting.

Meanwhile, Niger’s military-appointed prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, said that the deposed president Mohamed Bazoum would be safe and unharmed.

Recall President Bola Tinubu on Friday warned of impending “grave consequences” should the military rulers of Niger allow Bazoum’s health to deteriorate while under house arrest.

Lamine Zeine told The New York Times that, “Nothing will happen to him, because we don’t have a tradition of violence in Niger.”

Niger’s new rulers have so far shown little flexibility and warned against an “illegal aggression”.

Meanwhile, thousands of volunteers turned out in central Niamey on Saturday answering a call to register as civilian auxiliaries who could be mobilised to support the army.

This is coming on the heels of ECOWAS force readiness to intervene in Niger ‘anytime the order is given’, after a two-day meeting of the regional bloc’s military chiefs in Accra, capital city of Ghana.

There appears no end in sight to the raging crisis gripping the West African sub-region in view of the military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of Niger Republic and the resolve of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) heads of governments to restore the country’s constitutional order through military activation if all diplomatic measures to force the Nigerien junta into total compliance fail.

Rising from a meeting in Ghana’s capital, Accra, on Thursday, the ECOWAS defence chiefs said they were prepared to reinstate the democracy in Niger as all elements that would go into the military intervention had been worked out and were being refined.

Despite the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council not backing the military action, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, after the Accra’s meeting, noted that there was no going back on the military activation as the military junta in Niger has remained defiant, playing a cat-and-mouse game with the ECOWAS body.

While noting that the junta has flouted the country’s constitution and ECOWAS protocols, Musah said: “Let no one be in doubt if everything else fails, the valiant forces of West Africa are ready to answer the call of duty. By all means available, constitutional order will be restored in the country.”

But while observers have noted that the military action against the Nigerien junta is in line with ECOWAS protocol as the entire arrangements that came after the third wave of democratisation in the West-Africa sub-regions was for countries to peer-protect one another and their democracies, the successive military interventions the ECOWAS standby troops have had in the past, albeit successful, have failed to prevent fresh military coup detat in the region.

It will be recalled that since the 1990s, ECOWAS forces have been employed to end civil conflicts and coups in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Guinea-Bissau, as well as to assist Mali authorities in their struggle against Islamists in 2013 and to facilitate the transfer of power in the Gambia in 2017. However, coups have persisted in the region due to what many have described as contagious failures of successive civilian governments to return their countries on the path of socio-economic prosperity. Political leaders in the region have been been accused of using democracy as a pretext to commit serious crimes amid pervasive corruption, incompetence and looting of the public treasury.

This much was given as reasons by the Nigerien coupists for toppling Mohamed Bazoum’s gpovernment. Leader of the junta, who is the commander of the Nigerien Presidential Guard, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, in his statement on July 28, 2023, attested to the failure of political leadership in the region when he described his action as a war against public-fund misappropriation, impunity, fraud in all its manifestation and nepotism.

Tchiani had said that the action of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country (CNSP), the group of soldiers he led to stage the takeover, was motivated by the need to rescue the country after being plagued by the worrisome security situation and pitiable economic and social crisis, despite being the world’s seventh largest importer of uranium which top European countries like France rely on for their energy needs.

But Niger is not the only West African country with deficit political governance. Most, if not all, countries in the region are experiencing excruciating socio-economic whirlwind caused by poor political leadership unabashedly enrobed in corruption and severely impared economic vision, which forced the coup detat in Niger. From, Nigeria, Ghana to Chad, Mali, Senegal, among others, especially the ECOWAS members rooting for war in Niger, the story is the same.

Nigeria

Nigeria, the self-acclaimed giant of Africa, has consistently been short-changed by its leaders. The fast-paced retrogression of the country, officially the most populous country of the Blacks, is not too different from the Nigerien experience. It is on record that since the country voyaged into the civilian era having exited the military regimes of the 1980s/90s, its development has drastically fallen short of the progress recorded during the regional era of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and other founding fathers. They said the country had since then been crawling from grace to grass.

Remarkably, Nigerian socio-economic misery witnessed an upsurge in 2020 when the country experienced its second recession. Since then, industry statistical records say the country has been grappling with the worst economic decline in almost four decades. While other countries like Rwanda have since efficiently exploited the gains from the global oil prices after the coronavirus nightmare, the African giant hasn’t been able to recover from the economic battery it suffered in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Jermome-Mario Utomi, the programme coordinator (media and public policy) of Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos, since 1999 till date, Nigeria has been afflicted with widespread poverty, insecurity, corruption, gross injustice, and ethnic politics.

Utomi noted that successive governments in the country have been unable to clearly unleash economic development, promote growth and structural change with some measures of distributive equity, emplaced evidential political transformation, advance the health and education sector of the country, and create a sustainable employment rate for the teeming Nigerians, yet the past presidents had always been at the forefront of every democracy preservative move in the region.

In a similar vein, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) says the country’s economy is mired in a mesh of problems that have constrained its performance over the years, but that the biggest missing variable is purposeful leadership.

“Bad leadership has been Nigeria’s biggest problem since 1960. Nigeria’s political process is highly commercialised or monetised; thus, the process is plagued with a deficit of ideas competition,” NESG stated in a report of its National Economic Dialogue held in Abuja on May 20, 2022.

The group added that: “Since politics is superior to the economy as it provides the process or ecosystem that produces the type of leaders to govern the country, Nigeria’s lack of strong leadership with the capacity to understand its problems and solve them is her biggest problem. Due to this bad leadership experience, Nigeria is classified as a nation with a low-grade civil war on the Failed Nation Index.”

The group further listed a weak and non-inclusive economy, highly volatile macroeconomic environment, weak economic competitiveness, infrastructure and social sector collapse, and national insecurity as some of the issues eclipsing the country’s development.

It stressed that with a compound annual growth rate estimated at 1.92 percent between 2012 and 2021, the Nigerian economy grew below the yearly population rate of 2.6 percent, adding that: “After netting out inflation and other costs, the real size of the Nigerian economy has remained relatively the same since 2012. This implies that the country is experiencing economic stagnation. Consequently, for the average Nigerian, real income had been declining since 2012, and welfare worsening.

With this, combined with heightened inflationary pressure and deteriorating security challenges, observers opined that the Nigerian government, despite being one of the key drivers of ECOWAS, has a lot of challenges to contend with than spearheading a rescue mission to Niger, whose citizens have somehow backed their military intervention.

Ghana

Ghana is another big figure among the 10 West African countries rooting for military action against the Nigerien junta. But successive democratic governments in the country haven’t delivered the dividends of democracy to its teeming masses for years.

According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Ghana potentially has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, but the country’s long-term economic growth is challenged by high energy costs; high levels of government debt, including in the energy sector; low access to credit; high borrowing costs; low agricultural productivity; a business climate that restricts private sector growth; and regional trade barriers.

Worst still, Ghana is among the United Nation’s least-developed countries, with four out of 10 people living in poverty, says the USAID, noting that the country ranks 131 out of 177 countries listed in the 2004 Human Development Index, reflecting insufficient progress in improving its citizens’ levels of health and education.

In his assessment of the current state of development in Ghana, a columnist with GhanaWeb, Joel Savage, said the Gold Coast should not have faced any high unemployment and economic crisis, if it had not been plagued with poor management, chronic corruption, and ineffective leadership, despite being rich in agriculture and mineral resources, including gold, diamond, bauxite, and oil.

In a public lecture, he delivered earlier this year at the University of Ghana to mark the 75th anniversary of the institution, the Coordinator of the Pan-African advocacy organisation, Third World Network-Africa, Dr. Yao Graham, also opined that successive Ghanaian governments have failed to orchestrate a smooth development of the country through wanton resources mismanagement and ill-conceived socio-economic policies.

He said: “We have gone from a country which aspired to be a Ghana beyond aid to being a country which is desperate for aid. There is widespread destitution as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.

Stating that the economic crisis cannot be blamed on a single regime, Dr. Graham said that “Government after government have seen the problems and addressed it differently and have only succeeded in piling up the country’s debt stock in an attempt to solve the problem.”

Like Nigeria, Dr. Yao Graham pointed out the Ghanaian government has been contending with a surging debt profile occasioned by weak accountability of the public treasury.

During the same lecture, the Managing Director of Ghana Stock Exchange, Ms. Abena Amoah, stated that: “The Ghanaian economy has indeed faced a lot of challenges, and in recent years, we have seen high inflation, low productivity, high unemployment rates, poor resource management, and the lack of accountability, among others. These challenges have significantly impacted the growth and development of our economy, leading us further away from our ideal socio-economic environment.”

But yet again, the country’s president is one of the leading voices for the ECOWAS military action, despite the widespread public anger in his country against the move.

Ivory Coast

Despite being the world’s leading cocoa and cashew producer, Ivory Coast or Cote d’Ivoire has had its own fair share of poor leadership. The country’s president Alassane Ouattara had initially been constitutionally mandated to serve the maximum of a two-term limit, but the man has been ruling the country since December 2010, having succeeded in influencing the country’s parliaments to change the Ivorian constitution in his favour and make him run for both third and fourth terms. In essence, Ouattara has so far spent over 12 years in government, but his long reign has reportedly not translated into enviable developments for his country as almost 40 per cent of the country’s about 27 million people still languish below the national poverty line, while more than 40 per cent of the people are battling food insecurity, according to World Data.

Though the country is well known to parade sit-tight presidents, investigation reveals that the many years of misrule from the successive democratic presidents have greatly plundered the country’s common wealth. Instead of fast-paced development, the country has also been caught in a severe leadership crisis triggered by the refusal of Ouattara’s predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, to hand over power after spending over 10 years and being defeated during the country’s last presidential election run-off held in 2010.

This leadership wrangling, according to Oscar Otindo, a Kenyan activist, has drastically deepened the severity of the socio-economic and bad leadership hitches gripping the country in the last decade.

According to the Ivory Coast Travel Advisory released earlier this month by the United States Bureau of Consular Affairs, terrorism has sunk deeply in the Northern and North-Eastern parts of the country. Crime has continued to be a major public security concern in Côte d’Ivoire. The US travel advisory notes that apart from terrorism, violent crimes such as carjacking, robbery, and home invasion have deeply prevailed in the country. In view of this, one wonders why Ouattara has not been able to deploy the country’s whole armoury and security architecture to dislodge the festering security breaches, but throwing greater attention to the democratic infringement of another sovereign country, while outlaws are feasting under his nose.

Republic of Benin

Benin Republic is another country that has indicated interest to commit security forces to the ECOWAS military actions against the Niger junta, but the country also has its own attendant security crisis. Despite being populated with just 13 million people, the country is depleted by corruption and illicit diversion of public funds. The Africa Organised Crime Index says the country’s leadership has poorly implemented laws that criminalise corruption and degenerate criminality.

The crime index says even though the country may be faring better when compared to its neighbours in the region, its political stability is greatly being threatened and its government has shown little will to curb existing organised crime.

It stressed that the country’s national legal framework against organised crime remains inadequate and there is little capacity and willingness to improve it, noting that there is no record of any clear national strategies to address the crimes and the weakness of the country’s current legal regulations, which allows for significant smuggling and trafficking, has made the government appear helpless.

“Benin’s judicial system is also weak and ineffective, burdened by insufficient funding and corruption. Political interference is inappropriate, and President Patrice Talon has consistently exhibited undemocratic tendencies by appointing his own judges,” the crime index says, noting that the porous judicial move has ensured the prevalence of mob justice with many criminals able to escape legal sanctions through corruption in the country.

It is said that Benin’s underdeveloped financial system occasioned by President Talon’s weak and ineffective leadership has hindered his government from combating money laundering and flagrant abuse of public office power.

It added that while the president is making efforts to correct the shortfall of his administration, its lack of adequate employment opportunities has expanded its criminal markets, while ethnic conflict and political instability have weakened its economic capacity.

The way out

Like Niger Republic and other countries appraised so far, failure of political leadership has remained widespread among other West African climes at the vanguard of the ECOWAS’ military intervention in Niger.  Amid the rapid efforts being deployed by the ECOWAS Defence Chiefs to restore the deposed constitutional order back in Niger, political observers are of the view that only good governance can preserve democracy in the West Africa sub-region. They said no degree of military activation and machinery can build up and strengthen the declining democracy in the region.

“West African leaders are only being blindfolded by greed and self-preservation agenda. But no amount of combined military machinery can stop them from being deposed by any vibrant and tactical coupists with spot-on strategies like the Niger Junta. The only way is for ECOWAS to ensure good governance thrives and delivers the dividends of democracy to the people in the region. Doing this will not only discourage coup d’état, but also deepen the love for democratic government among the people, such that you will not see them jubilating when a military government takes over power as we have seen in Niger,” says professor of Conflict, Security Governance, and Comparative Politics at the Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka, Professor Chukwuemeka Jaja Nwanegbo.

“As I have said earlier, the whole issue is quite complicated. But the only way aside from preaching good governance is for ECOWAS leadership, ahead of time, to begin to intervene in the governance principles in the West Africa sub-regions to avert a further reoccurrence of this kind of crisis that is happening in Niger. Anything thing other than the diplomatic option will create war and anarchy in the region. And at the end, the same people, whose interests ECOWAS is mandated to protect will be severally killed,” Nwanegbo submitted.

There are some bitter truths that those in the temporary house of power may not like to hear. One such truth is the fact that democracy is not a sure fire assurance that a country will prosper. Autocracy, its supposed opposite, is also not guaranteed to lead to misery. If Democracy was an infallible system of government, how does one explain the fact that China, a ‘autocratic’ state, is about to upstage America, the land of the free, in the world pecking order? What is responsible for the situation where Uranium-rich Niger, a democracy until the military struck some weeks ago, ranks 7th among the world’s poorest countries with about half of its  population living in extreme poverty?

When Nigeria’s First Republic came to grief in 1966, close watchers of the country were not surprised. Only the politicians believed that they could carry on with their gangsterism, opulent lifestyles, corruption and atavistic machinations. When soldiers decided to vote with the barrel of their guns, democracy was interred until 1979 when we briefly resurrected it before another ‘gun-slide’ reminded us that our politicians had not learnt their lessons. We retraced our steps in 1999, but no man born of woman can guarantee that Nigeria will remain a democracy forever in the present shape and form. 

Those who regurgitate the usual unwisdom that democracy is the only acceptable form of government in the modern world usually don’t have an answer when asked if a flawed democracy is to be preferred to a people-oriented autocracy. What do you do when democracy, as practiced in some countries, leads to the perpetual pauperisation of the people? Is the system operated by democratic Nigeria better than the autocracy (or communism) of  China which is now firmly entrenched as Nigeria’s benefactor and favoured project partner?

Who defines democracy? Uganda is democratic by definition but its president has been in office since 1986. Ugandans have not asked for the help of self-appointed sheriffs of democracy to help them remove the army general-turned president. The man keeps confounding imperialists with his native intelligence and, arguably, unabashed determination to make the country better than he met it. If one is not conceited or arrogant, one must concede that Ugandans are capable of deciding how they want to be governed and by whom. It is their country, after all.

Duplicity is the bane of the West’s reaction to governance elsewhere. While they market their brand of democracy to Africa, they conveniently look the other way when they have to deal with ‘undemocratic’ governments or monarchies such as those in the Gulf states because of petrodollars. Take Qatar for instance. That country is a semi-constitutional monarchy with the hereditary emir as head of state and chief executive, and the prime minister as the head of government. There is a partially elected Consultative Assembly with limited powers. The emir is the embodiment of executive, legislative and judicial authority. 

If Qataris are happy with their monarchical system, why would any outsider pretend to teach them how to govern themselves?

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy based on Sharia  (Islamic) law and the Qur’an. The Qur’an and the Sunnah are the de jure country’s constitution. GDP in Saudi Arabia is expected to reach $1128.00 billion by the end of 2023. The West is very careful not to upset the conservative Saudi leadership. The kind of insult that the World Bank recently passed on Uganda with the cancellation of further loan facilities until the country legalised gay relationships cannot be contemplated with Saudi Arabia where homosexuality could attract the death penalty. All animals are not equal.

Western analysts describe the United Arab Emirates, UAE, as a “tribal autocracy”. The seven constituent monarchies are led by autocratic tribal rulers. The discovery of oil in Abu Dhabi in 1958 and the ensuing oil wealth has made the UAE largely a paradise on earth. The rulers have allowed tourism full bloom and Dubai is definitely the tourism destination of choice for many. The West has learnt to live with UAE’s style of not making any commitment to freedom of speech and having no democratically elected institutions. 

If the Emirati are not complaining about their system which seems to have served them better than many democracies elsewhere, what level of presumptuousness would make anyone think that he can impose a foreign model of governance on them?

It is only in Africa and Latin America that the West flexes its muscles. Political leaders who insist on holding allegiance to their people instead of being slaves of neo-imperialism, are routinely deleted from the scene. The preferred mode of dispatch in the 60s and 70s was either assassination or an arranged coup funded by the former colonial masters and their allies. 

Increasingly, the younger generation of Africans are voicing out their outrage at the level of thievery going on in several countries under the pretext of trade or ‘colonial debt’. Is there anything more preposterous than African countries having to perpetually reward France for enslaving them? America, the land of the free, has not found anything wrong with this. Had it been China or Russia that was exploiting Africans, America would have been at the rooftops crying more than the bereaved. 

Apparently, the only kind of relationship that the US and many of its European allies are interested in nurturing in Africa is that of master/slave. All the unctuous declarations about partnerships are insincere. To underscore their selfishness, they agonise about BRICS, the grouping of the world economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa . And one wonders, if Africans cannot see a path to rapid development having sheepishly followed you all these years, don’t they have a right to seek new paths, or must they be your slaves forever?

Trust the Chinese and Russians for milking the situation with their reiteration of the fact that they never colonised any African country and therefore were coming as friends. The situation China has found itself by dint of hard work which took four decades of policy implementations and effective governance, to lift 800 million of its citizens out of poverty, recommends it for emulation. That was a country once colonised by Britain, Portugal and even Russia!

It is foolhardy for the West to think that the primitive exploitation being perpetrated by the likes of France’s mining company, AREVA, in Niger Republic would go on forever. As is becoming evident in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and, now, Niger, the foot of the cadaver which the Western colonialists refused to bury properly is now sticking out of the grave. There is a wind of change sweeping not-too-silently through Africa. The younger elements among the population— and they are in overwhelming majority— will not tolerate the same indignities their parents lived with.

That is the context in which ECOWAS should look at the Nigerien coup. Democracy may smell of promissory roses but the way it has played out in many parts of Africa where unpopular leaders are celebrated by the West, can only lead to ‘gun-slides’. When, following a request from Niger’s civilian administration, the Buhari government donated exotic SUVs worth N1.4 billion to that country, we all wondered if Nigerien president had forgotten that half the population of his country was living in extreme poverty. Shouldn’t he have been asking for food instead of SUVs?

The wind of coups blowing across West Africa can be neutralised with good governance. First we have to come to terms with the fact that unconstitutional tenure elongation by incumbent presidents is itself a coup. When leaders refuse to vacate their seats at the end of their agreed term but opt to bend the constitution to their will, ECOWAS ought to rise up against them. That is how to prevent coups. Now, who is going to tell Alassane Dramane Ouattara, the Ivorian president, that this is his 13th year in office instead of the original maximum of ten?

France and America are closely monitoring the situation in Niger, hoping that an orchestrated black-on-black violence will dislodge the coupists and enthrone the interests of the ‘uraniumists’ (a new word for those desperate to continue exploiting Niger’s uranium for little or for free). ECOWAS should not be seen to be doing their bidding. 

Back home in Nigeria, we should have, by now, realised that national security is beyond regime protection. If a government cares for its people, they will always rise to protect it in turn. The people of Niger seem to be on the same page with the coupists. That, in the current unwholesome circumstances, is some form of legitimacy. If Nigerien politicians were booted out for failing their people, that fact should be a lesson to all African politicians. The stone you ignore might pluck your eye.

As an advocate of constitutional democracy, firmly believing in the government of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, and for the PEOPLE; the situation in Niger République deeply concerns me and makes some of us very uncomfortable. The coup d’état in Niger resulted from ethnic and geopolitical power play. For example, in the aftermath of the coup, events have unfolded rapidly, revealing that a considerable number of Nigeriens support the military intervention, viewing the interventionists as saviors who will liberate their country from foreign dominance and exploitation of its resources.

Unarguably, the July 6, adventure appeared to have some form of constitutional constipation. It came with an ethnic dimension in that the Zabarmawas (Zarmas) are the second largest ethnic group (22%) after the major Hausa tribe which constitute a whopping (53%), which is the dominant and populated the military and power configuration of the Niger République since independence in 1960. Historically, Military coups mostly happen each time anyone from the other ethnic groups (Hausa, Fulani, Tourage, or Arab) is in power – Mohammed Bazoum is from the Arab ethnic group which constitutes (0.4%).

Before I continue with this contribution that focuses on “Constitution” to “Constipation” let me completely align with the perspective of our Wakanda Queen Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, former Permanent Representative to the African Union Mission in Washington DC. While the coups come as a surprise to many, our Wakanda Queen the envoy, from Zimbabwe, seems to have a different perspective, noting that: “The writing has been on the wall for a long time when it comes to France,” adding that “What’s happening now in Africa is a revolution.”

Dr. Quao likened the coups to a revolution similar to what saw the demise of the mighty Roman Empire and the fall of the mighty British Empire, noting that: “There’s no way the West would have continued to plunder Africa’s natural resources, abuse the Africans for as long as they have. The end is here and I hope France can see the handwriting on the wall. This is just the beginning of the African revolution and it is not going to stop”.

Furthermore, she profoundly articulated her position: “I think that France has gotten away with a lot over the years and it is not just France, most of the western powers. I hope that they would see that what happened in Niger and other countries in West Africa is a very significant movement that I hope the West will look at and consider very seriously in terms of their foreign policies on Africa. What they’ve done in the past is simply not going to work anymore.”

Flowing from the Niger République debacle, and the postulation of our Wakanda Queen Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao. The time has come for us as a continent and a people to revisit the issue of reparations and demand restitution from our various colonial masters. This is what we should do to change our present situation from a continent bogged down with very controversial debts which in my opinion is just an “arrangee” kind of conspiracy between some of our elites in concert with the West “Imperialists”. Reparation is a timely response to long years of slavery, exploitation, and manipulation of the big world as enunciated by our Wakanda Queen.

In conclusion, it is important to honor the memory of Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (MKO), the progenitor of REPARATION for Africa’ by making a demand for restitution from the big world. With profound respect and a very high sense of responsibility; I, therefore, wish to state that a definite time and amount of not less than five trillion dollars be placed as a demand for restitution. Additionally, the revitalization of NEPAD is expected to focus on REPARATION, so as to reduce the burden of our debt profile.

Finally, this is an opportunity for my President, the ECOWAS chairman Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to demonstrate the spirit of Pan-Africanism, take the lead, and be consumed by the passion and commitment for Africa’s emancipation as exemplified by ‘MKO’ the pillar of sport in Africa.