...whittles down powers of agency’s chair

The Senate has passed a bill to amend the law establishing the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), which steeply cuts down on the power of the commission’s chairperson.

If it gets concurrent approval of the House of Representatives and the assent of Nigeria’s president, it may cripple the prime anti-corruption agency’s capacity to fight corruption, a review of the proposed legislation has revealed.

The upper chamber passed the legislation on Thursday seeking profound changes to the administration of the anti-corruption agency by devolving powers and responsibilities which the commission’s chairman wields for the day-to-day running of the agency to its board, which ordinarily meets periodically.

Responsibilities to board members

The bill seeks to create Commissioner (Investigative Matters), Commissioner (Legal Matters), Commissioner (Prevention, Systems Review and Financial Intelligence), Commissioner (Asset Recovery and Management), Commissioner (Anti-Corruption Education and Mobilization), and Commissioner, (Forensics and Emerging Technologies)—also, six other zonal commissioners representing the six geo-political zones.

The section added that “provided always that in assigning responsibilities to the commissioners, the president shall have regard to their geo-political zones and respective disciplines.”

By assigning responsibilities and functions to the board members, the lawmakers are elevating them from their mere supervisory roles to being involved in the daily running of the commission, which many fear would create a bureaucratic snag in the commission’s functioning.

Chairman’s administrative order

Aside from assigning responsibilities to board members, whom the bill seeks to rechristen as commissioners, the bill also tries to strip the chairman of the power over “administrative order”.

For instance, Section 7 of the Principal Act gives the power to issue administrative orders to the chairman, but the amendment seeks to provide the power of administrative order to the board.

“The Chairman may issue administrative orders to be called “standing Orders”, which shall conform with the provisions of the general control, training, duties and responsibilities of officers of the Commission, and for such other matters as may be necessary or expedient for the good administration of the Commission and to ensure the efficient and effective functioning of the Commission,” section 7 of the existing Act reads.

The new provision replaces Section 4(2) of the ICPC Act, which deals with the number of commissioners that constitute the quorum for board meetings.

Meeting without chairman

One of the amendments with the most far-reaching implications, the provision makes a meeting of the commission to be duly constituted with or without the chairman. It provides that “any five board members,” replacing “Chairman and any four (4) members of the Commission” in the principal Act in attendance, shall appoint a chairman to preside over the meetings.

The bill also seeks to substitute “chairman” for the word “commission”, a hazy description that may allow far-reaching decisions of the commission to be taken with little or no participation of the chairman.

It also means that, even when the commission’s chairman is fully involved, he has to subject some expedient administrative functions to the bureaucratic decision of the board.

Political influence and other concerns

Furthermore, the bill seeks to amend section 70 of the existing Act by transferring the power to make rules from the chairman to the Commission.

“The chairman of the commission may make rules for giving effect to the provisions of this Act and without prejudice to the generality of these provisions may make rules,” section 70 states.

However, by replacing the “commission” to take the place of the “chairman” in the principal Act, the Senate is seeking to give the board the responsibility of developing rules governing the operation of the commission.

“It will subject the ICPC to external political influence,” Olanrewaju Suraj, the chairman of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), said while reacting to the designation of the members as commissioners.

He added that his organisation and several other civil service organisations recommended improving the commission, but not by giving operational control to political appointees, whose influence may be tainted by political considerations.

In addition, the bill also seeks to remove the power of the chairman of the ICPC to issue oral commands to the commission officers. The amendment to section 4(8) means that the ICPC chair can only give written directives to officers.

Lukman Adefolahan, an anti-corruption expert, while speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, said even though the ICPC has an SOP, however, for prosecution’s sake, the Chairman of the commission should issue a written directive

“If the ICPC gives oral directive to officers that someone should be investigated—can you tender that in court? everything you want to do as far as investigation is concerned must be written.

Technical capacity

The new portfolios the amendment bill seeks to create require technical ability and qualification that the existing act did not capture, and the bill failed to provide clear requirements for qualification.

Section 3(3) of the Act provides that the board of ICPC must include; a retired police officer not below the rank of commissioner of police; a legal practitioner with at least ten years post-call experience; a retired judge of a superior court of record; a retired public servant not below the rank of a Director; a woman; a youth not being less than 21 or more than 30 years of age at the time of his or her appointment and a chartered accountant.

While the existing Act is clear regarding the technical skill required, the amendment did not clarify.

Limit of the powers of governing board

Although establishment Acts of various parastatals of government may have some peculiar provisions, governing boards are generally set up to provide guidelines and liaise with the supervisory ministries for effective monitoring.

But the day-to-day administration of the agency is handled by a chief executive who doubles as the accounting officer.

A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, had in 2018, during the induction of governing boards of parastatals, warned against the interference of the board in the day-to-day operations of agencies.

“A board shall not be involved directly in the day-to-day management of a parastatal or agency,” he said in his speech. Adding that “a board must only operate on a part-time basis.”

Despite the clear guideline, Section 3 (11) of the new amendment seeks to change “members of the commission” to commissioners who will be involved in the day-to-day running of the commission’s activities, and the legislation seeks to give board members control administration of the agency.

.
Constituency projects

Many have said the new amendment bill was a way of the National Assembly getting at the current chairman of the ICPC, Bolaji Owasanoye, who has focused on exposing fraud and mismanagement of funds meant for constituency projects by federal lawmakers.

Mr Owasanoye, a professor and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was appointed as ICPC chair in 2018.

On his watch, the commission has tracked over 4,000 constituency projects valued at over N200 billion through its Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Initiative (CEPTi).

The in-depth tracking of government-funded projects is a novel initiative by an agency that has existed since September 2000, about 23 years ago.

The tracking initiative, which is in its fifth stage, is said to have forced about 450 contractors to return to sites to complete abandoned projects. The projects are valued at over N45 billion.

As of 2019, an estimated N2 trillion had been budgeted for ZIPs since 2000, according to ICPC. Despite the enormous releases, citizens continue complaining about “shoddy completion, non-completion or outright non-existence of these projects in their locale”.

The commission also revealed how some lawmakers’ conduct in handling some projects denied “the public due and legitimate service of the projects.”

The first phase of the constituency project tracking by the ICPC focused on the 2109 projects.

About 490 Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIP), also known as constituency projects, each costing at least N100 million, were tracked in the second phase of CEPTi in 2020.

The CEPTi report on 2020 projects revealed how three senators from Kebbi, Taraba, and Jigawa states allegedly abused their office and converted the public property to personal use in executing some multi-million-naira worth of constituency projects.

In its earlier report focusing on 2019 projects, the ICPC revealed that lack of adherence to the provisions of the public procurement law and regulations is a major reason for the persistent infractions in the execution of constituency projects.

It noted that although the roles of lawmakers in project execution were limited, “in practice, MDAs are not involved in the conception of ZIPs” and that “sponsors (federal lawmakers) nominate contractors and take physical custody of items procured by MDAs under the pretext that they would distribute to beneficiaries”.

The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) on Sunday directed its members to withdraw their services nationwide over the sudden removal of fuel subsidy by the Nigerian government.

The NUEE in a notice signed by its acting general secretary, Dominic Igwebike, urged its members to comply with the directive and stop work from the early hours of Wednesday.

President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, in his inaugural address at Eagle Square, Abuja, declared that there would no longer be a petroleum subsidy regime as it was not sustainable.

Following the announcement, the NNPCL on Wednesday directed its outlets nationwide to sell fuel between N480 and N570 per litre, an almost 200 per cent increase from the initial price below N200.

In its reaction Friday, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) announced it would embark on a nationwide protest next Wednesday if the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) refuses to reverse the new price regime in the oil sector. The Nigerian Union of Journalists also threatened to join the strike action on Wednesday.

Reacting in a letter to its member on Sunday, the NUEE said its decision was a sequel to the NLC emergency national executive council (NEC) meeting held on 2 June at the Labour House Abuja over the sudden removal of fuel Subsidy, which it said brought untold hardship to Nigerians as well as increased inflation in the economy.

“To this effect, all National, State and Chapter executives are requested to start the mobilisation of our members in total compliance with this directive,” the statement said.

“Please note that withdrawal of Services nationwide commences from 0.00 hours of Wednesday, June 7, 2023.

“You are encouraged to work with the leadership of State Executive Councils (SEC) of the Congress in your various states with a view to having a successful action,” the letter said.

The Commissioner of Police in Enugu State, Ahmed Ammani, has ordered the deployment of officials across the state to ensure public safety on Mondays and all days in the state.

This follows the 1 June order by the new Enugu governor, Peter Mbah, cancelling the weekly sit-at-home order by the proscribed Independent People of Biafra (IPOB).

Mondays are observed as sit-at-home days by many residents of Enugu and the other four South-east states in compliance with the IPOB directive which the separatists group uses force to enforce. Many people have been killed or injured and businesses destroyed for daring to disobey the directive.

To deter residents from continuing to obey the IPOB directive, Governor Mbah, on Saturday, declared that schools, markets, retail outlets, hospitals, transporters, and malls that continue to obey the sit-at-home order would be shut.

Mr Mbah also set up a task force to monitor compliance with his new directive from Monday, 5 June.

In a statement issued on Sunday by Daniel Ndukwe, police spokesman in Enugu State, the police commissioner said he had ordered strategic units to deploy personnel and operational resources to actualise the governor’s declaration.

The police commissioner said he gave his order to strategic personnel and units such as area commanders, divisional police officers, commanders of Police Mobile Force Squadron Bases, and tactical and operational units.

He said they would ensure maximum public security and safety of residents and property in the state on all days, including Mondays.

“I have ordered them to ensure that the strategies already devised to reverse the ugly trend are implemented to the letter and equally warned them that lapses on their part would not be tolerated.

“I have directed the supervisory officers and personnel under them to live up to expectations by ensuring that every part of the state is visibly patrolled.

“The personnel should also ensure that necessary policing actions are taken to forestall possible adverse activities of the undesirable criminal elements

“Innocent and law-abiding residents deserve to go about their lawful businesses without fear of harassment or physical threats by unscrupulous and subversive criminal elements, enforcing the illegal sit-at-home order,’’ Mr Ammani said in the statement.

He said the military and other security agencies would join police operatives in the enforcement of the governor’s cancellation of IPOB’s sit-at-home order.

He warned unrepentant criminal elements, known to have murdered fellow citizens, and destroyed their property and socio-economic well-being in the name of enforcing the illegal sit-at-home order to retrace their steps.

“Unrepentant criminal elements that take pleasure in wanton destruction should turn a new leaf as security forces shall not spare any person or individuals found wanting,’’ he said.

Mr Ammani enjoined citizens to cooperate with security operatives while remaining law-abiding and vigilant as they fully begin to go about their lawful businesses on Mondays, like every other work day.

He urged residents to promptly report criminals and their activities to the nearest police station or call the police emergency hotlines on 08032003702, 08075380883, 08086671202 or 08098880172 for necessary policing actions.

Medical services at the Delta state-owned hospital in Ogwashi Uku, Aniocha south council area of the state was at the weekend paralyzed after a female youth corper doctor was seriously beaten up by a mobile policeman.

The incident which occurred on Thursday night was said to have caused panic in the hospital even as patients were discharged.

It was reported that other doctors in sympathy with their colleagues decided to down tools until the policeman is brought to book by the relevant authorities.

The doctors were yet to resume work as of Sunday noon when NIGERIAN TRIBUNE inquired.

The crisis started on Thursday night when some policemen on escort to a burial ceremony in Ogwashi Uku town rushed some persons to the hospital following injuries they sustained during fracas that ensued at the wake-keeping ceremony.

According to findings, shortly after the victims were attended to by the doctor, one of the policemen became hostile despite all efforts made by his colleagues to calm him down.

“The policeman holding his gun started shouting at the doctor inside the emergency ward. He said so many things to the doctor. He was insisting that one of the victims in particular (his brother) be treated .

“Despite being told outrightly by the doctor and others health workers that the person and indeed all others have been treated, the man was not satisfied.

“He moved towards the doctor while sitting and gave her a severe blow, kicked and dragged her to the ground until some staff come to her rescue.

“The other policemen sensing more danger hurriedly escape from here.

“Other doctors were so sad what happened to their colleague and immediately decided to shut down”, an eyewitness account said.

In his reaction, the Permanent Secretary in the state health management board, Dr Paul Okunbor described the action of the policeman as unacceptable adding that the issue of doctors in the facility protesting over the matter was being addressed.

Dr Okunbor hoped the police authority would expedite action as it had assured to fish out the mobile policeman .

Confirming the story, the state police public relations officer DSP Bright Edafe said the suspect, a mobile policeman is not from the state command adding that he was yet to be found.

He said the policemen involved accompanied some personalities outside Delta state to a burial ceremony in Ogwashi Uku, assuring that no stone would be left unturned in the command’s investigation to get the policeman in question.

This isn’t the first time the idea of petrol subsidy removal would be mooted. The Jonathan administration under which the incumbent Director General of the World Trade Organization, WTO, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, served as Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy also had its fair share of mention in the saga. In fact, former President Jonathan said at that time severally that fuel subsidy was unsustainable and tried unsuccessfully to remove it.

In a video that went viral last week, Okonjo-Iweala is seen narrating how she spearheaded efforts to scrap payment of questionable subsidies and how beneficiaries viciously fought back, culminating in her mother’s kidnapping and demand for her resignation.

“My second example has to do with a very specific one in my country, the clean-up of the fuel scarcity regime in 2012 during my second stay as Finance Minister”, she narrates in the video.

“Nigeria has a physically challenging force of fuel regime, the country exports crude oil and imports fuel because their refineries are in a very bad shape and provides a subsidy for the refined oil as support.

“At the end of 2011, a total of N1.73tr, US $11b equivalent, was submitted as claims for subsidy by 143 marketers, who were importing the product.

“These numbers seemed horrendously large compared to what I had last when I was in government in 2006, which was close to $2b in subsidy.

“So, we decided to study these claims. We audited about $8.4b worth of claims and we found out $2.5b worth of fraud. That is, many of these marketers were trying to claim $2.5b fraudulently.

“With the full backing of the President and the Economic Team, we decided that we were not going to entertain these claims or to pay.

“The pressure from affected marketers was tremendous…not only to say we would not pay but also to say we would clean up the whole mechanism for the subsidy claims and put in place something more transparent, something clearer.

“This did not go down well with them. “When we insisted on our position of non-payment and implementation of the new verification regime, these, and well-connected interests, were angered, and came to blame me personally for this. “There were personal consequences. My 83-year-old mother, a retired professor of sociology, was kidnapped by four young men and held for five days.

“She was totally terrified. She asked them why she had been kidnapped and they told her ‘Because your daughter, the Finance Minister, refused to pay oil marketers their dues’.

“The kidnappers, negotiating with my brother, demanded my resignation, publicly; that I should go on television, publicly and announce my resignation and depart from the country as a condition for my mother’s release.

“Needless to say these were some of the worst days of my life. Imagine when you are in a position, you want your parents, all of whom are here with you today, and your relatives to be proud of you. You want to be a source of good for your family.

“You can imagine how I felt, sitting there and thinking, just because of trying to do something right. To implement a policy that was good for the country, to lead to the taking of my mother’s life. These were some of the worst days of my life.

“With my father’s support and the firm resolve of the President, we all decided I should not give in to the blackmailers and I refused to resign.

“Following a manhunt for my mother by security agencies, she was able to make a dramatic escape after five days in captivity, where she was only given water and half of a sausage roll.

“So, here with the well-justified clean up and reform of a policy, but implemented in a dangerous reform environment where the losers in the reform, where the entrenched vested interests decided to fight back to derail implementation.

“The decision not to resign was a very difficult and risky one but, as it turned out, it worked.

“But on my down days, I ask myself, what if it hadn’t? What if they had gone ahead and murdered my mother, as she overheard them planning to do with one of the handlers on the phone? Could I have justified trading firmness on policy and standing up to blackmailers, implementing a good policy for my mother’s life? What decision would you have made?”

Terrorists at the weekend, attacked communities in Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State where they killed many locals and abducted no fewer than 30 girls.

A survivor told the BBC Hausa Service in an interview monitored on Sunday, that one of the abducted girls who managed to escape from captivity, returned with only her head scarf.

The terrorists attacked Sakkida and Jambako communities on Saturday afternoon, killed over 20 villagers at Sakkida and injured others.

According to a villager who survived the attack, ” We woke up peacefully, there was rain and some locals had prepared to go to the farm. Suddenly there was report that the terrorists have attacked a neighboring village, Sakkida. “

“The local vigilante, JTF called the people of Janbako and sought help. Our volunteers and other community members took up arms and. headed to the village. “

” There was a hill before you reach the village. Not knowing that the terrorists had laid ambush behind the hills, they opened fire on our people. Today in Jambako, 22 people were buried .”

“Security operatives were called but they replied that they cannot be able to come immediately because their armoured personnel carrier was not on the ground. They only had Hilux. The security operatives tried, they chased the terrorists. When they came back, they came with motorcycles that belonged to the terrorists,” he alleged.

” Many people were injured, some were shot, others were hit with machetes. In Janbako, there was no any security operative stationed there to provide security,” he alleged.

Another local told journalists that girls were abducted in Gora village while picking fuel wood in the bush at Daggera, adding that last week the terrorists killed 3 locals and abducted another 3.

” Now they’ve abducted our girls, over 30. They send a message that this year if we want to cultivate our farms in Daggera, we must have a truce with them. We’ve been doing that with them, we can’t even count the number of times we entered into such agreement. We don’t know what to do,”he said.

He said the girls were abducted on Saturday at about noon, adding that among them one was seen running back with only her head scarf.

He alleged that security operatives were yet to go on search and rescue of the abducted Zamfara girls.

According to the BBC Hausa Service, the police in Zamfara confirmed the incident but had no details.

Leadership is pivotal to development; as such, every election is taken seriously, and the transition of power is especially given attention in Nigeria. Nigeria is coming from a place where its leadership has been in question because of the failure of past leaders to remedy several of the problems it faces. So, in every election circle, with May 29th as the handover of power, there is so much expectation, anticipation, and delight, except for the current one. But over the years, those anxieties are met with disappointments.

Nigeria saw a new semantic twist to the word “change” from its mantra in 2015. The year was supposed to be the beginning of hope; the citizens thought Buhari, the messiah, had come, not knowing that things were just getting messier. It has been a long eight years, and the nation has taken two steps backward in several ways, an inch forward in some while the others stay in their stagnant, deteriorated states. It has been a long ride, and the score sheet is quite discouraging in the spirit of speaking the truth to power.

One of the selling points of the change mantra was the readiness to fight any corrupt practices in the country. The citizens had expected that many politicians would have been put in jail or get several of their properties confiscated. Well, for those not on the good side of the President and the party, those promises were made regarding them, but the big-bellied politicians eating from the puts of corruption and sitting in influential political offices have become saints that stack away national treasure. The list of those that got their sins “forgiven,” as stated by the former chairman of the All Progressive Congress. No one hears of David Umahi’s alleged N400 million naira diversion of public funds, Godswill Akpabio’s N100 Billion alleged diversion, Stella Oduah’s alleged N9.4 billion,and other accusations, Orji Uzor Kalu’s N3.2 billion accusation, Adebayo Alao-Akala of blessed memory’s N11.5 billion allegation before his death, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika’s alleged connection with the Sambo Dasuki’s $2.1 billion, and several others after they have moved to the ruling party, the fount of foundation that all sinners can come. The corruption rate in the country reached a record rank of 154 in 2021 and has become the 150th least corrupt country in the world. One would have thought that the nation was ready to fight corruption under Buhari’s tenure seeing that there was a report that there was a possibility that the country would lose about 30% of its GDP by 2025. We are edging toward this problem, and Mr. President and his appointees indulged the causes too much.

One needs to check whether the poverty rate has been reduced as promised by the change mantra, but the country is in a dreadful situation it has never been before eight years. The margin between the rich and poor grew, while citizens were left with no buying power. The past eight years have left one wondering if there has truly been the availability and access to supposed public goods and services with “a united, peaceful and secure nation,” as the president had stated in his farewell speech. As expected, the supposed global recession and economic downturn, as the president alluded to, would never be enough excuse for the incapability of at least giving the citizens steady lives. First, Nigeria is not the only country that faced the challenge, but the propensity of its effect seems higher than in other countries. Secondly, the administration has been in place since 2015, and laying claim to the incidents of 2020 and 2022 is outrageous.

One of the reasons Mr. President showed more enthusiasm toward the nation’s petroleum sector was first to ensure that there are sustainable changes to its different problems andreduce the corruption rate in that sector. Despite all the various promises to revive the sector and the refineries and make things easier for the citizens, the petroleum sector continued to worsen. The fuel prices now are not just ununiformed in practice but have increased almost 200% more than before the administration’s commencement. The refineries have remained in their state while we export crude oil and purchase petroleum products in an inconsiderate state. The subsidy has not been removed, but prices are still not favorable to the people. Mr.President as the Minister for Petroleum and those who served as Minster for State for Petroleum Resources have found themselves in limbo while millions of Nigerians still queue to buy petrol at high price year in and year out. Fuel scarcity is no more a phenomenon; it is a festival people are not surprised it happens.

While you preached democracy, even in your farewell speech, I am not certain all its tenets were well kept or practiced as they should have been. Maybe the president does not know that the practice and presence of democracy is not the absence of military or despotic rule as it was in the first administration of the General but the recognition of the people’s sense of belonging in the leadership, the obvious practices of the system, especially in the face of antagonism. What are the tales around elections in Nigeria, what has happened to freedom of expression, and how best can one describe the prevalence of the tenets? Nigeria has seen one of the worse levels of suppression of human rights under the Buhari administration in this democratic dispensation. Police brutality has increased to incitea high rate of citizen resistance to the police. The government’s body language has been more of beating a child and beating him when he cries. The advent of the EndSARS protest was not just the youth showing readiness for a better Nigeria, but it was an expression of the insults of oppression of the injuries of lack of facilities and low standard of living.

I believe those that thought the President was a reformed and repentant democratic would be close to disclaiming such assertions. The government institutions have become elements of witch-hunting and the hands of political strategies to intimidate that are in the way of the government or anyone at all. Should one refer to the popular Twitter ban from June 5th, 2021,to 13th January, 2022? The killing of several EndSARSprotesters and the darkened truth about what happened on that fateful night at Lekki Tollgate. And if elections alone are what Mr. Buhari understands as democracy, I am not sure Nigeria can boast of the 2019 and 2023 elections conducted under its administration. A report stated that the DSS, the Army, and other security operatives were used to intimidate voters and several other intimidations from children of the dark worldsduring the 2019 elections. The 2023 elections were worse, with different public intimidations and obvious rigging, violence, and other vices during the electoral processes.

One may need to ask where the jobs promised or seemed to have been produced are, who are employed, and who are the employers. While there is considerable progress in this instance, the conditions have not changed, as most of the steps taken are not sustainable. With an unemployment rate of about 33%, those who try to establish themselves face a toxic environment. A report shows that about 80% of Small and Medium Enterprises fail in Nigerian as of 2020. While efforts, even where they are not sustainable, are still efforts, the Buhari administration forgot to provide more enabling society for businesses to thrive. In the name of business interventions, the momentary Christmas gifts are mostly embezzled by the officials and gotten by party members and associates; they are not enough if self-subsisting systems are not built around them to ensure they serve the purposes for which they are given out.

The argument of certain people during the pre-election change mantra before the 2015 election was that because of the military background of Buhari, the nation might have enough hold of its security problems. One of the great sins of Goodluck Jonathan was his inability to combat terrorism and the growing security challenges. Of course, a General was coming, and it was reasonable to see people with some comfort level. The Buhari agenda and propaganda were sold to the nation, and security was the weak spot of many of the citizens. The ride for the past last years has been worse; while the news about Boko Haram has become normal incidences that do not even get to make newspaper headlines in the country, other forms of insecurity have become strengthened. The anxiety of fear on an average Nigerian road is enough to give one high blood pressure danger. Prisons are broken in most undignified ways, mass massacres and kidnappings, and several other unspeakable disgraces. Mr. Buhari, Nigerians never see you coming.

When the common and seeming colloquial saying, “What is worth doing is worth doing well,” is said, it is a big message that even Buhari should have learned from. There are excuses that the anticipated rot was worse, as almost all government says when resuming after an opposition predecessor. And where it seems that the Water of Nigerian problem is fast becoming more than the Garri of your power, it would have been an honorable thing to step down for others to try; well, the phrase, although never reflected, “politics is not a do or dies affair,” does not extend to while in office. But Yoruba would say, Akukuu joye, o san ju enu mi o kalu lo.

While Nigeria has been on fire, it seems the president had more enthusiasm for tourism than the nation’s state. From 2015 to December 2022, our Ajala president spent not less than 225 days on medical trips, aside from other summits and official trips. This is against the promises of ensuring the President and other politicians explore local medical options. But most importantly, if a president could spend such several days on unofficial journeys at different intervals, there is little to say about how settled and ready he has been for the job.

However, it is my message to the next president of Nigeria that the nation needs real change and that the duty is to at least make things stable. He should take clues from the mistakes of Buhari and other past leaders to make wise decisions that will transform the nation. More so, the 2023 election has threatened the nation’s unity, so he must rule with this consciousness at heart. I say “Amen” to the oft-repeated prayer:

May Buhari Never Happen to Nigeria Again.

Power is shifting – from large, stable armies to loose bands of insurgents, from corporate leviathans to nimble start-ups and from presidential palaces to public squares. Power is also changing, becoming harder to use and easier to lose – Moises Naim, former Foreign Policy Editor.

From May 29, 2023, our nation’s eyes once again turned toward public leadership for a new direction and meaning. And so as most governments, especially in the last 24 years have appeared to us as unprepared for governance, we need to encourage the new administration in Abuja and 28 states to begin to manage priorities in the public sector as if it were in the organised private sector (OPS).

Let me quickly clarify this construct: it is important to adopt the private sector approach to governance and see citizens as customers to be satisfied. Marketers are always told in a customer-centric business that the customer is king. In this construct, the citizen should be seen by political leaders as a customer whose rebellion or boycott can destroy a business enterprise.

When political leaders begin to see the citizen as a customer whose patronage is necessary to survive, they will begin to treat the people as potential electorate they will depend on to win elections next time. For whatever it is worth, the 2023 election outcomes have shown the politician a yellow card of some sort: that the electorate should no longer be trifled with, after all.

When we talk of priority management in the organised private sector, it is straightforward. Let’s examine the fact file:
Management of Priorities is the practice of focusing time and resources towards work, projects, and tasks that affect high-value projects, accounts, and long-term goals. And so managing priorities is an essential part of time management and project management, where project managers adjust resources, schedules, and tasks to deliver projects on time and within scope.

Priority management can also mean organising your day according to the tasks you have and working out which are the most important to the least important. You can then see what your day looks like in terms of time management and how you can effectively get the high-priority tasks done in the time you have. Having good time and priority management is important during projects and for management in general. Being able to organise, prioritise and change priorities when needed is an effective tool that managers should try to help their teams with. Therefore, priority setting can be a painful and divisive process, but it is a necessary activity—particularly in times of resource scarcity.

Let’s examine this same issue – priority management from the perspective of planners in the public sector. Prioritisation can be a device for policy-makers to realise political ambitions, or to signal policy shifts. However, prioritisation is also typically embedded in policy processes, either in a routinised fashion, or as responses to triggering events.

Key challenges in this regard can be how to translate broad priorities into programmes and projects, how to govern the knowledge base, and how to handle organisational tensions during implementation. With limited resources and lower risk appetites, public sector organisations should put any available funds toward projects that will stimulate long-term growth, efficiency and stability.

Ahead of Monday, May 29, 2023 inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the 16th President of Nigeria, and Governors of 28 other subnational governments, experts and stakeholders in critical sectors had been setting agenda for the new Sheriff in Abuja and the 28 federating units. Specifically, across the country and beyond, Nigerians were awaiting the taking over by Tinubu, who has promised to address the myriad of challenges facing the country as encapsulated in his Renewed Hope agenda.

Top on the agenda is the issue of insecurity, which encompasses the raging banditry, kidnapping, insurgency, oil theft, secessionists’ agitations, cult clashes, farmers/herders,’ communal clashes/killings and internet fraud as key problems confronting the sector. The people would also have read about the need to address challenges of: Subsidy, power grid crashes in the energy sector, N77trn debt amid rising inflation, Health, Education, ASUU strike, uncompleted projects, $3.02bn Port Harcourt/Maiduguri rail line, Kaduna-Kano standard gauge rail line, etc.

For me, the ‘New Sheriff in Town’ should pay attention to the following issues as he puts finishing touches to appointments of what constitutes the presidential bureaucracy, the president’s men – and his cabinet. I think prioritising the following areas should help in stabilising the already deeply divided country he inherited from former President Muhammadu Buhari. The areas are:
• Nation Building
• Civil /Public Service Reforms (to deal with corruption, innovation, redundancies and mediocrity in the public sector)
• Parliamentary Reform/Cleansing
• Education, Health And Knowledge Development

Nation Building:
This should be on top of the agenda of the administration by focusing on using existing institutions such as Federal Character clause in the constitution supported by the Federal Character Commission (FCC) and strong presidential/gubernatorial bureaucracy to share values, power, infrastructure, top positions fairly and equitably.

There shouldn’t be perception after the national assembly election this week or thereabouts that the five top positions in the country are occupied by people from one section or faith in the country. This can deepen the already ticklish national question. The Tinubu administration should also ask the security and intelligence chiefs if it is true that it had been impossible to find Leah Sharibu The Guardian calls the ‘goddess of resistance,’ in 2019 among other missing schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State?

Public Service Reform:
Government can continue to deal with corruption with legal institutions of governance such as office of the Auditor-General of the Federation; Fiscal Responsibility Commission; National Procurement Council (yet to be inaugurated); Freedom of Information/Open Government Partnership; etc
If the above institutions of governance are made to be functional in the public service, there will be reduced attention to EFCC, ICPC and CCB to fight corruption. We need to prevent corruption through the civil service, not through anti-corruption agencies.

The Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR) can be revived to deal with audit of public servants and management of waste/redundancies and ghost workers. How much does the Federal Government spend monthly on civil servants and what percentage of that is Nigeria’s population? Can the presidency have the political will to merge ministries and scrap those ones that 21st century doesn’t need such as ministries of information, disaster management, police affairs and water resources? Do we need agriculture and Water Resources separately? Do we need Interior and Police Affairs Ministry separately? What about Transport and Aviation in two ministries? What do we do with the many expensive protocol SUVs in multi-dimensionally poor and deeply indebted country?

Therefore, government should tackle bureaucratic delays and reduce opportunities for corruption urgently as these are essential elements for setting the business environment for success. There is also a need to keep governance costs and overheads low and match ambition with pragmatism and growth will follow, as has been shown in the case of airlines such as Ethiopian and Emirates airlines. It is urgent that the critical reform initiatives begin now because it will be too late as a large population of young people with smartphones and high expectations have arrived in the cities too.

National Assembly (NASS)

Ruling APC and Parliamentary Reform:
Doubtless, the parliament is the most important arm of government. Without it there is no democracy. This is where people are represented for the purpose of solving federal and federation problems. How much does each member earn monthly? Why is remuneration package of our parliaments opaque? Can we have independent national and state assemblies that won’t be rubberstamps of the executive arms?

When should we have assemblies that can curb executive excesses in the 36 states and Abuja? When should we have organic investigations in the legislatures that will shake tables of the executives? When do we have national and state assemblies that will equip good and world-class libraries where they can research for development? When do they use the parliament to dignify the majesty of democracy through debates on public policies that will attract attention of the people they represent – and the world? This is a responsibility for the leadership of the legislatures always of the ruling parties.

Education, Health and Knowledge Development
This should be on top priority. The Ministers of Education and Special Advisers of Education should not be just political figures. They should be resourceful enough to assist the president on more than mere audit of the quality of public education generally: Do we need more or better universities?

How do governments recruit and sustain first class brains to teach the STEM/STEAM subjects? This is the component of reform that will also affect medical science education and revival of health sector. What happened to Nigerian Teaching Hospitals? Why do our leaders fly over our hospitals to the U.K to see even their dentists?

It has been discovered that we talk so much about Singapore and South Korea without looking at the roots of their competitive advantage, which is education quality. Same for the United States where the quest for excellence and exceptionalism once led to discovery that there was once a ‘Genius Factory.’ This is through a 2005 ground breaking research by David Plotz, a professor who ‘unravels the mysteries of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank, which led to production of many geniuses and Nobel laureates in the United States.

In the main, our new leaders should develop their own tactics to put across the sense of urgency and prove that they are materially attentive to the needs of their citizens. President Alvaro Uribe’s performance in Colombia bears study, as he was instrumental in turning that country around within a decade from a failing to a functioning state.

Presented with a huge security challenge, he nonetheless refused to stay in Bogota, opting instead to go out every weekend to visit municipalities and talk to local people. He often gave them his personal phone number and encouraged them to call him if they had a security-related problem. Uribe used these visits to understand the challenges and drive change. Our leaders who aspire to lead the black race will have to give similar thought to what kinds of profiles they should adopt to change the prevailing political culture.

Mills, Herbst, Obasanjo and Davis in Making Africa Work (2017) posits that Central to the turnaround of many countries, enabling them to implement pro-growth policies was creating a sense of urgency, a realisation that business as usual would lead to disaster.

Several Asian countries, including case studies of Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan show that they were able to use their crises to create a narrative that allowed leaders to implement difficult policies and to explain why changes were needed. Leaders were able to show first that the state itself, protector of the current population, would be threatened if difficult decisions were not made immediately.

There has to be a focus on what the state must do and what it should not do. Case studies have revealed that there is a vital role for the state in setting up a business environment that promotes confidence and growth, and in developing robust institutions.

**This piece is an edited excerpt of my remark at the agenda-setting Seminar and Investiture of the new executive of the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) on May 25, 2023 at MAN House, Awolowo Way, Ikeja.

The steep increase in the price of petrol and the attendant public outcry could have been better managed. Truth be told, subsidy removal was one of the banana peels strewn in the path of the new administration by the Buhari regime. History has now recorded the level of Buhari’s cluelessness in fixing the problems in the petroleum sector as unprecedented. For eight years, the former president doubled as President and Petroleum Minister but he failed to revive Nigeria’s local refineries; neither did he discontinue the scam called fuel subsidy. Today, Nigeria is the only oil producing country in the world that imports petroleum products.

We knew that this day would come. For those milking Nigeria through bogus subsidy claims, the party is over. About time too. But there is the not-so-little matter of procedure in the way petrol pump prices tripled in one fell swoop. A measure as far reaching as subsidy removal with implications for hyperinflation in transportation, food, services and commerce, among others, should have been handled differently.

Even in our traditional setting, things would have been handled differently. In a typical African village, the elders send messages pertaining to a death in the family in stages. If the son of the deceased lives faraway, they would send a message that his father is gravely ill and that he should endeavour to come home. Shortly after, another message follows, saying that the illness was worsening and that his father was now in intensive care. Finally, by the evening of that day, if he hadn’t yet arrived, they would break the news that his father did not make it. My friend, Chukwukadibia, who is a master in these matters, told me that there is sense in village wisdom. You don’t just break bad news the way you break coconut.

Several times during Buhari’s presidency, I gave free professional advice on how to engage the populace in decisions that would eventually affect their lives. A good government goes the extra mile to cultivate the people’s empathy and understanding before taking difficult decisions. However, the immediate past administration was not famous for accepting unsolicited counsel.

This new government should run the shop differently. I have no doubt that the petrol subsidy thing is a gravy train that should be stopped in its tracks. However, to avoid unintended casualties and disaffection, you prepare the ground for the big decision. Say what you will about Ibrahim Babangida, the Evil Genius, the Maradona… that was one leader who knew how to involve the people in crucial debates even where he already had his mind made up to introduce a jack-in-the-box

Every leader who wants to be taken seriously must marshal out a communication and public relations programme to sell his ideas and secure the people’s cooperation. Public communication is both an art and a science with a proven methodology that delivers positive results again and again. Winning the people’s support in these digital times, has gone beyond the traditional practice of sending veteran opinion vendors to various broadcast stations to spread unverified rumours labelled as facts. Nigerians have seen beyond those obvious cheap gambits.

When the government is in the process of introducing a programme, it is no longer enough to map out the budget implications as if the programmes, in the final analysis, are implementable sans people. Advocacy ought to precede public pronouncements. Take the recent withdrawal of petrol subsidy for example. The bitter pill would have been easier to swallow if a massive advocacy programme had been unleashed.

Public relations is the art and science of building mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their publics. The Nigerian government can use public relations to sell a difficult program by using various techniques such as media relations, community relations, crisis management, public affairs, lobbying, advertising and folk media.

A good public relations and marketing campaign can be so expertly designed that even when you’re telling the audience to go to hell, they actually look forward to the trip! But when you just suddenly drop a bombshell without preparing the audience for the shock, you alienate potential allies and justify the negative portrayal of those outside your political camp.

The Nigerian government must learn to use public relations experts at the design stage of their policies to enhance the chances of their acceptability by the populace. If advocacy had preceded the announcement of the price hike, chances are that people would have been more receptive to the idea.

It doesn’t help matters when a pro-government television guest says, “If we don’t increase the price of petrol in Nigeria, our marketers will continue smuggling the product to neighbouring countries”. Such statements actually rile the people. What is the business of the government if it cannot police the borders? Is a government that admits its incapacity to stop smugglers worthy of the name it pretends to bear?

Also, in the last eight years, the phenomenon of ghostly barges and tankers sailing into Nigeria and disappearing with millions of tonnes of crude oil became rife. In a few cases, some of the thieves were intercepted. But no one is fooled. The Niger Delta is still considered a juicy posting if you’re a military or security personnel. Stories abound of officers becoming multi millionaires within months of getting there. When one adds up the official stealing with the unofficial thievery by local pipeline vandals, it is a miracle that Nigeria still manages to export appreciable quantity.

Mind you, this is not about the merit or otherwise of the government’s action. Most sensible Nigerians want the subsidy scam to end. On that score, half the job is already done. The problem is how to transit with minimum stress from one price regime to the other. That is why communication and public relations experts should have been consulted first.

In their attempt to justify the increase, some government officials dredge up figures from other countries to show that Nigerians are being spoilt by low prices. They selectively pick one item to the exclusion of all other variables, and conclude that any Nigerian protesting the price hike is an ingrate.

Such squint-eyed interventions only manage to win more foes for the government. And the people on the receiving end of these measures are no longer docile. They are flinging back the bricks one after the other. One such Nigerian took up the challenge to show that singling out petrol price alone for comparison is like comparing a mango with a grapefruit. The writer says he is making his petrol price comparison in Naira using the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). His analysis:

Spain – 246.9 Naira per litre.

USA – 403.3 Naira per litre.

UK – 330.6 Naira per litre.

Germany – 330.6 Naira per litre.

France – 335.7 Naira per litre.

Nigeria – 500 to 600 Naira per litre.

Having compared cost of petrol per litre between the listed countries, he then proceeds to compare the minimum wage paid in each country using the CBN exchange rate:

Spain –  535,559 Naira per month.

USA  –  535,340 Naira per month.

UK – 955,876 Naira per month.

Germany – 947,618 Naira per month.

France – 866,241 Naira per month.

Nigeria – 30,000 Naira per month.

President Tinubu recently charged the service chiefs to stamp out terrorism and economic sabotage. There should be a timeline. The era of do-nothing security chiefs should be over by now.

Nigerians believe that we are gifted with very capable security men and women but that nepotism and corruption have eaten deeply into the system. One such Nigerian, Lawrence, took to the social media to explain that the way the Nigerian security operatives abducted Nnamdi Kanu from  Kenya to Nigeria shows that they could have captured former Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, if they were so inclined. He argued further that smuggling of petroleum products will stop on the day the military and immigration officials decide that it should stop.

Now that organised labour is threatening to go on strike from June 7, the new administration is having its baptism of fire so early in the day. There is likely to be a change of tactics by operatives of the new administration, away from the bellicosity of the former administration’s labour minister, Chris Ngige. The government should take advantage of the experience of Adams Oshiomhole to navigate the negotiations with Labour in an atmosphere of mutual respect. It doesn’t take a tarot reading to know that the government can do without a labour crisis at this stage.

Operatives of the new administration should lean on Richie Norton’s encouraging words, “Every sunset is an opportunity to reset. Every sunrise begins with new eyes”.

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Bola Tinubu to “set up a presidential panel of enquiry to promptly probe the grim allegations that US$2.1 billion and N3.1 trillion public funds of oil revenues and budgeted as fuel subsidy payments are missing and unaccounted for between 2016 and 2019, as documented by the Auditor-General of the Federation.”

In the letter dated 3 June 2023 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “There is a legitimate public interest in ensuring justice and accountability for these serious allegations. There will be no economic growth or sustainability without accountability for these human rights crimes.”

SERAP said: “Your government should urgently act to follow due process of law in any policy to remove fuel subsidy, ensure that suspected perpetrators of these crimes against Nigerians are brought to justice and full recovery of any missing public funds.”

SERAP also said, “Arbitrarily removing fuel subsidy without addressing outstanding accountability issues in the alleged mismanagement of oil revenues and fuel subsidy payments would amount to punishing poverty and further impoverishing the poor while letting high-profile officials and non-state actors get away with their crimes.”

SERAP also urged him to “name and shame anyone suspected to be responsible for the alleged widespread and systemic corruption in the use of oil revenues and the management of public funds budgeted as fuel subsidy, and to ensure their effective prosecution as well as the full recovery of any proceeds of crime.”

SERAP wants the President “to promptly, thoroughly, independently, transparently and effectively probe all fuel subsidy paid by successive governments since the return of democracy in 1999, and to use any recovered proceeds of crime as palliatives to address the impact of any subsidy removal on poor Nigerians.”

The letter, read in part: “Any removal of fuel subsidy should not be used as a ploy to keep the poor in poverty while those who allegedly stole oil revenues and fuel subsidy payments keep their ill-gotten wealth.”

“Allegations of corruption in oil revenues and fuel subsidy payments suggest that the poor have rarely benefited from the use and management of the revenues and payments.”

“Poor and socio-economically vulnerable Nigerians should not be made to continue to pay the price for the stealing of the country’s oil wealth while state and non-state actors pocket public funds.”

“We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within 3 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest.”

“The proposed panel should be headed by a retired justice of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal, and its members should include people with proven professional record, and of the highest integrity that can act impartially, independently, and transparently.”

[ripplesnigeria]