FEATURE ARTICLE

Shola Babs-Aro-LamboFriday, February 13, 2015
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London, UK

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A CATALOGUE OF GROSS IMPERFECTIONS – SOLEMN REMINDER TO NIGERIANS (PART ONE)

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“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government” - Thomas Jefferson, Third president of the USA (1801 – 1809)

“You can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time” - Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)

et no apostle of socio-economic and political realism canvass for the continuity of this present PDP government at the centre. Continuity of what? Insecurity, failing economy, corruption, unemployment, epileptic power supply, poverty, inflation and so on? The fundamental question to all Nigerians is: If the heavy rain does not fill the bucket, is it the early morning dew that will fill it?

When President Goodluck Jonathan solicited for the votes of Nigerians in 2011, the message was powerful, strategic and sellable because all the prevailing indicators and circumstances at that time were favourable: “A Breath Of Fresh Air”, he won convincingly with more than 22 million votes and was sworn in as President.

Not too long after, the fresh air started turning to polluted air when on January 1st 2012 he gave the Nigerian electorate a sour New Year gift in form of oil subsidy removal. Immediately, the fuel price of oil was raised from N65 to more than N100. This led to a nationwide outcry which shut down the economy for a week and forced the government to reduce it to a fixed price of N97. The Union leaders negotiating on behalf of Nigerians sold out as usual, and the president ordered the Nigerian Army to disperse all demonstrators. So much for patriotism; barely 24 hours after agreeing to a N97/Litre fuel price with the presidential council, the president of TUC, Comrade Peter Esele was appointed as SURE-P Committee member (Convener, Vocational Training)

The Federal Government created Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) to manage the savings from the oil subsidy removal. The Agency became another layer of Government that is engaged in duplicating everything the Government Departments and Agencies already do, thereby, making it another conduit like the NDDC to suck the nation dry.

For instance, The Nigerian Railway is listed as one of the seven parastatals under the Ministry of Transport, collects allocations meant for capital and recurrent expenditures from the Federal Government, yet SURE-P’s allocation was used to revive Nigerian Railway by repairing existing rail tracks, and the procurement and refurbishment of locomotive trains from the United States of America. Again, a substantial sum of SURE-P’s allocation is currently being applied in the construction of the new Loko-Oweto Bridge over River Benue linking Nasarawa and Benue States, and the second Niger Bridge in Onitsha/Asaba linking Anambra and Delta States. Others are:

• The rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Expansion of Lagos – Ibadan Express Road

• The Rehabilitation of Enugu – Portharcourt Road

• The Construction of New Bridges, and

• “Special Presidential Intervention Projects”, Etc.

The question is, what is the Ministry of works doing with its allocations? Why can’t the Federal Government use SURE-P’s allocation to repair some or all of our oil refineries? This will create jobs, reduce the level of poverty and impact positively in the lives of ordinary Nigerians

By December 2014, SURE-P confirmed that about N164.9 billion was received from the Federal Government of Nigeria. Is it not interesting for Nigerians to know that the two most powerful ministers in the cabinet are also members of the SURE_P Committee. A representative from their respective Ministries should suffice. They were obviously planted there to influence the award of contracts and how the sharing formula is perfected. Their overbearing influence must had led to the tactical resignation of the highly respected Dr. Christopher Kolade, CON, who served the Agency selflessly as the chairman from inception without collecting a kobo as remuneration, from January 2012 to September 2013.

At the 6th Christopher Kolade Symposium organised by the Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI) in Lagos. Dr. Christopher Kolade said he knew his reputation was at a great risk when he accepted his appointment to chair the committee. According to him, that was why he served in the committee without remuneration.

“Many people warned me against taking up the role of chairing the SURE-P committee. They didn’t understand why I should accept to do it. They were worried about my reputation but I said to them, that whoever wants to destroy my reputation must first of all destroy me. So I had to accept the job because I want to continue to ensure that things work in this country,” said Kolade.

The level of insecurity in Nigeria is frightening, you can no longer sleep with your eyes closed; most new houses are built like guardrooms, and the continuous epileptic power supply has worsened the situation. In the southern part of Nigeria, cases of armed robberies, ritual killings and kidnappings are reported on a daily basis, while the Northern part is bedevilled with insurgency called Boko Haram, a cancerous and deadly sect hiding under the cover of religion.

The truth must be told about Boko Haram that is turning our beloved nation into hell. The group started as a non-violent group called “The Borno ECOMOG”, led by Muhammed Yussuf. Trouble started when the Nigerian Police arrested him for disturbing the peace, instead of prosecuting him in a court of law, he was extra-judicially murdered. Did the Federal Government do the needful by instituting an inquiry into his death? NO!

The leadership now rested on the extremely violent Abubakar Shekau, who regrouped the scattered members and started venting their vengeance on innocent Nigerians. Today, Boko Haram has killed more than 16,000 people and displaced almost 1.5 million Nigerians from their communities, and of course, the kidnapping of more than 200 innocent Chibok school girls for more than a year.

Mr president failed to act timeously on two occasions, firstly, as soon as the group turned violent, he ought to have treated it like a cancerous cell that was capable of spreading to other parts of the country. I for one expected Mr. President to declare a total state of emergency in the troubled States, instead he declared a partial state of emergency which has proven belated and highly ineffective. This even led to accusations and counter-accusations between the presidency and the Governors of Borno, Yobe and Gombe States . I remember vividly that I debated this issue with my Dad. I posited that if former president Olusegun Obasanjo could declare total state of emergency in Plateau and Ekiti States to correct the political aberrations at that time. Why wouldn’t he do same?

Again, the president waited for more than ten days before taking a decision when the Chibok School girls were kidnapped. As they say, a day is a long time in politics. Ten days were more than enough for the insurgents to disperse the innocent girls to various hidden locations.

It is also important to note that the activities of Boko Haram had exposed the rot at the Federal Ministry of Defence. I need not state the facts.

The Commander-in-chief has failed to tackle the challenges of insecurity, therefore if the Chibck girls are not rescued and reunited with their families before the forthcoming presidential election, Mr President has lost any moral justification to seek for a second term mandate from the Nigerian electorate.#

To be continued.

In part two, i will tell Nigerians a true life story on anti-corruption, titled “The Sage And The Politician” WATCH OUT!

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