How Angry Are You at Corruption?

I am allergic to corruption...PMB

*The National Assembly now attempts to blackmail the president, and even shirks its constitutional responsibilities now only because responsible agencies and institutions of law and order have laid hands on two of its leaders to answer to allegations of crime and forgery. Some of its members announce "withdrawal of support" from the president for this reason, alleging that by this act of "aggression" against their "untouchable" leaders, who, in their vain imagination, are "above the law", "democracy is being threatened," "the independence of the legislature is being compromised," and similar balderdash. Those Nigerian lawmakers need to go back to school or attend summer courses on responsible and representative lawmaking in a democracy, for they assume extra-constitutional privileges that exist only in their warped imagination. Pitiable legislators!

* Groups in Niger Delta, as the president correctly put it, are competing on which of them could do the most damage to the nation. Those rogues don't represent the Niger Delta nor are they intellectually equipped to recognize and diagnose the ailment that they now are to their people. Poor souls!

* The other time, while the president was on a brief health vacation abroad, all South-South governors excepting the Edo State governor, demanded, as a condition for peace in the Niger Delta, that Buhari's government should discontinue all corruption litigations against Niger Delta rogues, including "ex-militants", and the Minister of State for Pertroleum, Mr. Ibe Kachukwu, according to reports,  sided with them! Pathetic give-away!

* Kachukwu declared at a town-hall meeting held recently at Uyo, Akwa Ibom, that he did not "care" about the N13  billion that an "ex-militant" from his State (Delta) was given by uncle GEJ for a piece of land in one village of the State for a Maritime University. He "does not care" that such huge  amount of public funds could be given and taken fraudulently! I am distressed about his perception of corruption, being a key player in Buhari's government. Not upto N13 billion has been invested to build the university in GEJ's village since 2011! Kachukwu even boasted that if the Minister of Transport, under whose ministry the proposed university could have been housed, was not well-disposed towards it, he (Kachukwu) would "build it as a Petroleum University." What ignorance both in law and politics by a Law scholar! First, FG cannot develop the land in dispute and yet demand refund of the N13 billion. Second, there is already a University of Petroleum in Delta State; politically, you cannot expect another in the same state! By the way, who is Nigeria's president; Kachikwu? Political miscalculation! PMB must rein in his over-reaching ministers and demand harmony within his cabinet, otherwise his government can't stand.

Do you love, excuse or defend corruption? If you do, you are one of our numerous causes of headaches.

"Is he the only corrupt person; why can't they touch others too?" "PMB is being selective in his anti-corruption fight." "Na anti-corruption we go chop?" "Is Buhari a saint?" Alright, when you succeed in under-writing the expenses of bringing an angel down from heaven to fight corruption in Nigeria, then you can enlist me in the advocacy for him to run our affairs in Nigeria. You rebuke neighbors when they provoke you or others, don't you? Are you not being "selective" then? Are they the only provocative Nigerians?

But these also will pass away. Evil cannot prevail.

Babel of Selfishness in the Niger Delta

I had posted on Nigerians and Refusal to Accept Reponsibility

Now, read the report below, which appeared in Vanguard newspaper of June 19, 2016:

Niger Delta Crisis: Militants write Kachikwu, mobilise against Avengers, MEND

Assuming you have read the Vanguard report above, will you disagree with me that the Niger Delta is  now a "Tower of Babel"?


What is the "Niger Delta Struggle"? Is it an Ijaw fight,  Itsekiri aggitation or the Urhobo or Ogoni " peaceful intellectualism"? And there are yet many more ethnic groups in the Niger Delta, As I have already stated in an earlier post, the Niger Delta militants (ex-or current) DO NOT represent the Niger Delta, but their bellies. They serve not the basic interests of the poor Niger Deltan in the creeks, who is in need of clean water, health facilities, good schools, clean air, and a healthy ecosystem. Furthermore, the Niger Delta is certainly not one homogeneous (linguistically, socially, or politically) group. There are tensions between various ethnic groups, as testified in the Vanguard report.

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) became a honey pot for a few people who used Niger Delta identity to steal for themselves. The Niger Delta Ministry has not improved the economic and social wellbeing of the people either.

Today, militant groups are springing up like ants, claiming no noble values of development beyond an ability for violent destruction of their neighborhood! Such militant groups are not the ones government should "negotiate" with. By the way, what is the content of such "negotiations" beyond the cliche "resource control", which I doubt many of them understand its substance or implication.

This is my suggestion to President Buhari's government:

1. Do not negotiate with any "militant groups". They are all impostors.
2. Call for and organize a quasi-national conference of ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta, which should focus on three items:
     i. Infrastructural development of the oil-producing communities of the Niger Delta. Those communities must be provided the same amenities that Oil Companies operating within them provide for their expatriate staff.
     ii. Investment in manufacturing and processing plants related to oil and gas within oil- and gas-producing communities within the Niger Delta: That is, a set of job-creating  productive measures must be discussed and agreed upon, with an agreement that subsequently, violent attacks on such investments and oil and gas infrastructure must be paid for with allocations due to such host states from the Federation Account.
    iii. Adequate compensation of and security in the oil-producing communities: How do we compensate the Niger Delta people in the oil-producing communities directly rather than allow those corrupt middlemen called "militants" to foul the waters; and protect those communities and provide them with  the incentives to protect oil and gas infrastructure in their communities as their personal assets?

3. After the conference, reward peaceful communities that maintain peace, and punish the belligerent ones, including State governors of such troublesome States. Deduct from their allocations from the Federation Account to pay for damages inflicted on oil and gas infrastructure in those States.

Nigerians and Refusal to Take Responsibility

I am a Nigerian, and I endorse this essay. Are you a Nigerian? Then, I will talk about myself and you: "I have every right to be angry, but you don't have the right to punish evil even though, by your public standing, you are endowed with the office of a sword-bearer, avenger for God, even as you are God's minister," so many compatriots affirm. Nigerians hold forth very plausible reasons why they must destroy society, cause societal mischief, or even kill. The plausible speaker claims a holy calling, alleges oppression of their "people", or pleads some weird or even genuine injustice. The Nigerian hardly takes responsibility. If you are one of the few Nigerians that take responsibility, and refuses to blame everyone but yourself, I am not talking about you; but I must bare my mind to the hypocrites.

I imagine a large polygamous family, where there are fraudsters, hired killers, robbers, petty thieves, prostitutes, and all sorts of employees in the iniquitous trades. Each has a plausible justification for their chosen path. As a solution, they propose a kind of "restructuring", or just any type: "Let children fend for themselves"; "the father must make each mother a treasurer of his earnings"; "mothers must contribute exactly the same amount and energy that father does to sustain the family"; "daughters in the family must get more attention than sons do"; "father must allocate the most resources to the mother or mothers with the most children"; "there must be equality; mothers must each receive the same amount of allowance from the father"; "father must love the mothers according to how much their children bring into the family from their respective industry and crime," etc. And until their preferred "restructuring", however hazy in their minds it may be, is done, the children will not be restrained from setting some houses in their father's large compound ablaze, conniving with strangers and kidnapping some of their siblings for ransom from their father, whom they suspect is so rich and yet too frugal, destroying family property, or disturbing family peace and harmony. Some of the children are threatening that their mothers must divorce the father and take away with them all that they married the father with. When you ask any member of the family why they behave in such injurious manners, they answer with impudence, "I, my mother and her children are being marginalized." Others respond, "My mother's marriage to my father was a mistake." And when the interrogator suggests the children should ask how their mothers manage the huge monthly allowance from their father, they retort, "That is not the issue! Why must my mother not be allowed to control the resources? And even if my mother squanders her share from the father, do you know how much father is keeping for himself and favorite children?" Metaphorically, this is Nigeria.

Who are the Niger Delta Avengers avenging for? I think those folks should turn their anger against their governors, chiefs and political leaders in the South-South, who squander away whatever resources they receive from the national commonwealth (sorry, from their own resources). Do the militants of the Niger Delta really fight for their people? I doubt it. Let me explain why. Quite a number of "ex-militants" (I am not sure they are in retirement yet) are millionaires or billionaires now. How have they invested their "compensation" to improve the quality of life of their villagers, for instance? Buying private jets and building palatial mansions for themselves in the midst of an ever expanding ocean of poverty does not speak well of those "ex-militants". The fresh breed has set forth in the same path in the hope of some "compensation". The majority of the Niger Delta, who do not live by the sword, assume, in their innocent (?) naiveté, that the militants, both ex-and serving, are "freedom fighters" on their behalf. But can't a people use common sense, more so when the drama is being poorly acted, to arrive at the obvious conclusion-a hoax is being sold to the people, whose only benefit is the hallucination from its intoxicant, which they readily relish?  

Most of Nigeria's freedom fighters, Labor leaders and activists are like the oppressing rulers you find at the three tiers of government in Nigeria. The people must be slow to believe them, verifying their past actions or philosophical postulations, consistency and integrity, or not believe them at all. I learned that in Bayelsa State, Labor leaders who led out their colleagues on the recent strike action, later got public appointments by the State governor in the course of the action; they accepted the governor’s offer to pay workers only 50 per cent of their monthly salary (which was the offer that had partly provoked the strike in the first place). The strike has been called off, but with no gain for the workers, who are still being owed months in salaries (even at half the value offered). The people of the Niger Delta need decent jobs commensurate with their skills. They need projects such as the Brass NLNG completed; they want International Oil Companies (IOCs) to establish their company offices in places such as Yenagoa, for the purposes of tax revenue and job creation (But I must appeal to my Niger Delta brethren that the perception of insecurity will make this a long shot). I will talk about Amaechi and Kachikwu in a later post (watch out for it: Amaechi, Kachikwu and Niger Delta Development).

When the people are ready for change, it will come. It is time to refuse to rely on militants (ex-or serving), Labor leaders and activists. The people must determine what they want, and a leader would emerge to serve their purpose. There are too many hungry activists around. WATCH OUT FOR MY NEXT POST ON "A Nigerian Manual for People-led Change Action (NIMAPCA)". 

Artificial Poverty in a Rich Continent

                                                              Leonard Shilgba

Now is the time for Africa to stop the blame game and confront herself with the truth, the uncomfortable truth. The current rush for Africa by the two largest global economies, USA and China, tells us two pieces of truth: The oranges in daddy's orchard are ripe for harvest at home, but the Africans are fast running out for various reasons; and there is need for Africans to position themselves to drive the new trend and bargain for a better deal than they did or could have done during the sad era of colonialism.

As the story of the Ebola plague ravaging much of West Africa broke, I was struck yet again by disturbing evidence of inefficient public service, and how this contributes to increasing levels of poverty on any people. I saw on an international news station, an African man, suspected of having the Ebola virus, lying helplessly and unattended to for hours on a street in Liberia. In contrast, some Americans who reportedly contracted the virus in Africa, were flown back to their home country in specially prepared cubicles and offered special medical attention. I learned later that they had started  the journey of recovery to good health. Why is life not respected in Africa? Poverty cannot be reduced without proper and productive labor.

Effective public service begins with high quality of personnel in charge of public affairs. And the quality of personnel engaged for public service depends on  the recruitment procedure, the reward, training (including on the job), and work environment in public service. All of these determine the level of motivation of the public servant; and this motivation affects quality and speed of public service, which determines whether or not the welfare of the people will improve or suffer.

In my State, Benue State of Nigeria, it is reported that there are less than 40 medical doctors. This is a state with more than 4 million inhabitants. That is, the ratio of doctors to inhabitants is less than 1:100,000 or 0.001 per cent! Poverty is usually an appendage of poor health. Poor health results in poor productivity of the citizens, which exacerbates poverty. If in 40 years since its creation in 1976 the government of Benue State has been unable to improve this horrid ratio, what then is a more glaring evidence of poor governance? African leaders usually travel abroad in search of good medical care, which they have refused to provide at home, in spite of huge commonwealth.  It is true that Benue State is only a metaphor for many other African provinces or regions.

In the same State, the State governor decided to take N 11 billion bond ( i.e. about $69 million) in the twilight of his government in 2014, purportedly to "complete public infrastructure projects."  The governor had taken N 15 billion bond before. The State House of Assembly, reportedly, demanded for about N1 billion ( $ 6.8 million at the rate then) in cash before giving approval, claiming that they received no "returns" after giving approval for the first bond. This was offered and the approval was granted. Now, what would you say is the quality of public service that those legislators offered to citizens of their state? And what should be your conclusion about the governor's motive for the bond if he so  quickly granted the request of the lawmakers?

African public servants usually see their offices as the honey pot that must first satisfy themselves and offspring, with surplus put aside for a long line of personal inheritors, before mere mortals, whom they consider as subjects, are given even a second of thought. Service to the people is certainly not a motivation for public officials, but personal gain is. This explains the brazen ferocious and murderous pursuit for power and public office on the continent. The interest of the people is certainly not the goal that instigates this much hatred and blood shed in the quest for power. Public civil servants become private servants to the "kings" of Africa, and must do their bidding even if the consequence is clash with or even destruction of public expectation, public trust, and public good. Those civil servants, having faithfully and traditionally done the will of elected or selected public officers of state, using public institutions and instruments,  have turned themselves wild upon the people, offering them spite for care, harassment instead of needed help, and oppression in the place of honest and proper service. The result is the  blistering material poverty among the people.

Privatization of public assets in Africa, which is often applauded by the "civilized world," is, in fact, an official looting of the public wealth by a few privileged folks in government. Improvement of service is thrown up as a goal, but it is only a devious pretext. The recent privatization of public electricity
Infrastructure in Nigeria has rather yielded a new ownership by people in power who arranged the deal. The  common  experience of consumers is that of unreliable supply or service and increased tariff.  The promise of improving service with endless failure has been  an adopted language by the new owners. Consumers receive no information either by email or text messaging about schedule of supply of electricity to their neighborhood even as generation cannot presently meet demand.  Almost three years after privatization, there is nothing in terms of service improvement that suggests respect for the consumer. The Jos Electricity Distribution  Company ( JEDC), which serves my home district,  and which is partly owned by a former Nigerian governor, is very sloppy in service delivery. Service has worsened since the privatization, and yet consumers are in the dark about plans by the company to improve; transformers are not adequate and secondary load-shedding is a norm, but consumers remain at the mercy of the new oppressors, who are being protected by the government, even this APC government. The Nigerian people are certainly without respect in the eyes of their leaders.

I have observed among Africans a despicable obsession with personal accumulation of western toys just to provoke envy and worshipful adoration among their fellows. As long as Africans celebrate unfounded wealth, unregenerate wealth, and foreign-acquired wealth, their public officers will continue to be motivated by the prospect. Deliberate impoverishment of the people is a means, and crippling of public dissent is a goal. The people have lost any hope for a better life.

There are weapons of endless impoverishment that African public officers use:

Inadequate public infrastructure: What would motivate a leader to neglect transport infrastructure such as roads, and allow their people to drive on pothole- filled roads to their untimely death? I know some African national and regional leaders that have genuinely made commendable efforts to provide public infrastructure for their people's good health and wealth. However, the preponderance of African leaders can go for monsters who delight in the suffering of their people. And this is the bane of their regions and nations.

Unreliable legal system: The rule of law in Africa is a strange thing in the land, and is often observed only in breach. The brutality of African chiefs, kings, and political leaders, is only possible because of a weak judicial system, which usually gives justice to the rich and powerful. The pathway of justice is very long for the poor, but short for the rich and powerful in Africa. It is a puzzle in Africa when the rich and powerful suffer improbable mishap in the temple of justice. Quite often, the explanation is that they have fallen out with their more powerful colleagues.

Non- functional public education: Functional education is that which prepares the people to demand of their leaders service rich in accountability, befitting of their civilization, and influenced  by the search for public good and noble  legacy. It is the kind of education that trains the people to engage in sensible and reasonable debates and discourse without pettiness. It awakens in them self-respecting volunteerism without expectation of immediate personal gain.
It teaches the people that individual survival or prosperity is only guaranteed in the same for the collective. Such education prepares the mind to create and not just consume wealth.

Lack of productive imagination is not only delaying Africa's integration, it also opens up Africa for exploitation. When will Africans wake up from this frightening dream of artificial colonial-instigated boundaries between brothers and sisters? A continent of more than one billion people and rich natural and human endowment can transform into an enviable huge country, and reduce poverty for her peoples while promoting healthy economic and social competition among her states, and developing humongous public infrastructure across her length and breadth in order to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. For now, our poverty is only artificial, man-made.

Many Africans have been too traumatized by poverty to think rationally about governance. Such have rather turned themselves into apologists for government and thugs for public officers, harassing those who dare stand up to their masters. Democracy in much of Africa has claimed more precious lives than military rule did. Elections are usually dreadful prospects to contemplate, fetching huge military deployments like in war time.  If Africans should wait for their leaders to suddenly get some spiritual transformation and change without pressure from them, redemption will be long delayed. Their leaders hastily buy into foreign-designed initiatives such as removal of fuel subsidy, privatization of public assets, currency devaluation, etc., which have increased poverty in the land and killed public assets in order to protect the interests of a few businesses, whose proposperity thereby is often flaunted as an index for "economic growth". I have argued that the term "privatization" is foreign to an African, who is traditionally groomed in an environment of common ownership and social mutual assistance.

Ghanaians woke up to find that their government threw at them fuel subsidy removal amidst depreciating local currency value, high tuition fees in government colleges and universities, and  low public wages, but without any social shock absorbers. Nigerians have fared worse: In order to provide mobile telecommunications services, a "democratic"  government sacrificed public-owned Nigerian Telecommunications company (NITEL) and threw Nigerians out of work, stultified deployment of landlines, closed down beautiful and functional phone booths that had been built across the country, including on university campuses, by NITEL , replaced phone call plastic cards that were being purchased and used by callers with nothing but road-side human call merchants. Fuel subsidy was removed or reduced in 2012,and completely taken away this year without verifiable public pacifiers. In 2012,  the federal government announced supply of about 700 buses to serve 774 local government areas and more than 160 million people, and called that a "cushioning" approach to people's suffering! We indeed have comedians in government. OCUPPY NIGERIA protests were organized like the Ghanaians attempted, but the efforts did not change anything significant even as organized labor seemed to have compromised the struggle. Maybe they were too occupied to occupy Nigeria.


History has been a faithful witness that publicly accepted change does not come cheap. South Africans, here at home, paid a price for what they enjoy or appear to enjoy today, even though corruption and crime are now creeping in under black majority rule. The French Revolution was an open statement against the aristocracy that executed its excesses with the collaboration of the religious leaders. The North African protests in the Maghreb region and Egypt were also a bold statement that even docile people can bite when pushed to the wall. The silence by other Africans or inconsistent and unsustained protests by them has not sent a strong enough message to their oppressing  leaders that they are angry. Elections are clinically rigged now with impunity, using various surreptitious means, and the aggrieved are challenged to go to the courts that have lost credibility. As the case is in Nigeria, a 180-day time limit has been constitutionally set through the cunning brinkmanship of the former ruling party, PDP, during which the aggrieved can seek redress at the Election Tribunal. Thus all sorts of legal speed bumps are built on the road to justice, which cannot be navigated before time is up. It is all in the hands of the suffering and sometimes smiling Africans. External colonialism has transmuted, internal colonialism has got the hold, and the people have the final say.

Who Wants President Buhari Dead?

If you want President Buhari dead, read this, if not...

Nigerian Nationalists Congress

What is it that makes us Nigerians? Have you asked a similar question before? North, West, East, South, or Central, what makes us Nigerians? Nigeria is not just a geographical expression any more than you are just a human being. But being a human being defines your purpose. Every so often I hear threats of dismemberment of Nigeria only because those making such threats are dissatisfied with certain people or actions and inactions in Nigeria. One consideration they seem to ignore is this: After that then what next? After dismemberment of Nigeria, what will come after? Have we not seen how dismemberment of Nigeria as an expected solution to Nigeria's problems is so petty and simplistic?

Nigerians will not suddenly be transformed after Nigeria is split into whatever number of minuscule countries. The vulgar will remain so; only that then, they would have to fashion out new vocabulary of vulgarity to deploy in discussing their new countries' affairs. The criminally-minded will not become born again just because they have won for themselves new countries. I stumbled on a post on a blog, where the blogger confidently opined that people like Shilgba  from a "minority group" (by the way, she observed that from my name she concluded I was from a "Minority ethnic group" in Nigeria) would prefer to live in Nigeria rather than in a smaller country carved out of Nigeria. This is an unfortunate as it is an uninformed position to take. I am not sure, by population, the Niger Delta people are not part of the "minority" this lady referred to; yet, quite a number of Niger Deltans want their separate country from Nigeria for whatever reasons they believe in.

Who are Nigerians? We are the pure expression of black culture. We are not a country of immigrants like the USA; rather, we are representative of black art, black fashion, black music, black linguistic creativity and inventiveness, black diversity and plurality. That's who we are. We are the melting pot of Africanness. What defines us is not what the world says about us, but what we think of ourselves and  say about ourselves. Join the discussion on the Nigerian Nationalists Congress (NNC) on this blog to find HOW. 

WATCH OUT FOR MY UPCOMING BOOK: Nigeria and Her Seven Secrets:Building a More Perfect Union (Pre-1914 to 2016 )

BibleClinicMinistry

                                                         About the book

Nigeria and Her Seven Secrets is a manual for Nigeria’s socio-political restructuring.  The book provides an exposition on the  foundation of and solutions to Nigeria’s many social and moral ills. There are some arguments that abound for and against convocation of a sovereign national conference for Nigeria. In this book,  not only are arguments made in favour of such a conference, but also a conversation about the methodology and process is provided. Nigeria and Her Seven Secrets  contains a historical narrative of Nigeria in perspective, and is therefore a useful reference material for scholars and students who would like to understand better  this interesting country.