₦airaland Forum

Evening house, at first, I appreciate the OP and other men on this thread for the knowledge they shared thus far. I studied agricultural engineering, a fresh graduate and awaiting NYSC posting.
That said, I have successfully designed a two row cassava stalk planting machine, requires no human input, and it will be trailed by a tractor. Infact, am about to begin the fabrication this week.
My question is this, how much and how long does it cost to plant an acre/hectare of cassava farmland. All am trying to do is a comparative analysis of labour cost to machine cost, and also labour efficiency to machine efficiency.
This will help me know if the innovation am bringing into the cassava planting process is worth it. Thank you all in advance, for your informed response.

And some people would try to compare UI to OAU, ...University of Ibadan, First and the Best

Nice one

igwedaboss:
JLmao... ah swear.. just like the ikoyi bridge cost 9.3billion while the Niger bridge which is longer and bigger cost 3.3 billion

U have absolutely no knowledge of what u are you saying...pure fallacy

Damn,that is a pucnhline....

Brb

AustineE1:
Why is there so much hate among Yorubas,if its not Modakeke vs Ife tribal war,or the Alaye boys in one street attacking the Alaye boys in another street,or the battle of touts on who governs a particular motor park, yoruba politicians vs their elders,Obas vs their followers,or the Odis in Ode refered as slaves by the so called Yoruba free born.
This culture of hate is been transfered from their land to other innocent ethnic groups in Nigeria.
The question is,why is their so much hate among the yorubas?

The answer is hate is not just among the Yorubas, hate cuts across all tribes, religion. And I know history of humanity proves me right.... Hope u r not a tribal bigot

mascori:
Am a graduate of sociology 2.1 just wondering were I will fit, all the post I see don't fit in with my field of study. Please advice needed

Am sorry Sir,then you shouldn't have gone to school.Many people know what they want, but few know what they don't want!!!

ignis:
The end justifies the means....

I hope the sackings and downsizing yields a good result

Thanks for this.. That's all that matter, good result...

Ekiti State is an unlucky State with an unfortunate Governor

.............

.....

Continued

Found these memes interesting and a bit hilarious and wanted to share.

SMREXY:
Definitely, but my comment is not enough to reach a conclusion that i didn't read it.

All right, Am sorry... Just finished reading it too. May God help this country. AMEN

SMREXY:
Too long

Always try to read, it's good for your brain

That school is a good one. Got my ND in Agric Engineering, 2009..Now a "Uite".

I know it's LONG, but it's worth reading.... Do have a great weekend.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/08/national-carrier-our-ten-failed-attempts-1960-2014/

Apart from the above political factor, there are other lessons from the failure of Joji’s novel project. Joji and TCPC completely forgot that, as Professor Ragner Nurkse stated in his classic Treatise on – “The Idea of Change as an Obstacle to Change”, man naturally resists change. As at the time when the entire aviation world, with the exception of the US and then UK which had just privatized its national carrier, was still buried in the prevailing regime of State-owned national airlines, both Joji and TCPC were perceived to be foisting new fangled concept of privatization on the country. The entire staff and other stakeholders rose up stoutly against what they considered “insanity” of a sort. Sadly, neither TCPC nor Joji saw the need to invest enough time and funds for staff education, enlightenment and re-orientation. Only feeble attempts were made. Little did they realize that only about 1% of the staff understood the novel change. This near total ignorance engendered fear and this misplaced fear of loss of jobs, status and privileges, galvanized the struggle and antagonism against “Air Nigeria”.

Secondly, the late Hamza Zayyad-led TCPC underrated the power of the Unions. In a reaction to a position paper on the need to get the in-house Unions and internal public to buy into the project, the then TCPC Secretary, Dr. Bernard Very

said, “Thank you for your presentation. We are only concerned about the President and we have briefed him. Once he understands us, we don’t care about any union or person”.

Joji’s novel project and the country paid dearly for these two mistakes.

But sadly, it was not Joji but the airline staff, our nation and its citizens that lost. And the devastating impact of this loss is still surging through the aviation industry with undiminished vigour.

The IFC “New Co”: (2000) – Our Failed Attempts
4.The “New Co” was the tag for the airline that would emerge from the privatization of Nigeria Airways under a new company. It was a concept created by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World

Bank, engaged by President Obasanjo on assumption of office in May 29, 1999 to privatize the then national carrier, Nigeria Airways. The Agreement with IFC was signed on October 7th, 1999 by the then Vice President and Chairman, National Council on Privatization (NCP) – Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on behalf of Nigeria and James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank on behalf of the Bank. The Bank appointed its investment arm – International Finance Corporation – IFC to execute the Agreement whose three-phase-mandate were:

Phase i – Strategic Review and Due Diligence

Phase ii – Sale Preparation involving Action Plan Presentation & Approval

Phase iii – Sale Implementation

With a Team of six Consultants – (Three Technical, two legal and one Accounting), IFC hit the ground running in November 1999, working with the Atiku-chaired National Council on Privatization – NCP, its implementing agency, Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), where El-Rufai held sway and Aviation Steering Committee – ASTRIC headed by the then Aviation Minister, late Dr. Olusegun Agagu and his successor, Dr. Kema Chikwe.

At the Steering Committee meeting of April 18, 2000, the joint groups came out with the final clarification of key government objectives, which included:

Establishment of MMIA as a pre-eminent hub for Nigeria and West Africa.
Re-establish Nigeria Airways as a strong national flag carrier.
iii.Transfer capital responsibility for the national carrier to the private sector.

After about 12 months of extensive study, analysis and due diligence of the nation’s aviation industry in the airline sub-sector and related issues never carried out before and since after, the IFC came out with three strategic options:

i.“New Co” – This would involve the emergence of an airline out of a New Company through Joint Venture between the Government and strategic investor/partner.

ii.Liquidation of Nigeria Airways: Government to liquidate Nigeria Airways through a court-appointed process or consider a Management Buy-Out – MBO.

iii. Long-Term Turnaround of Nigeria Airways and subsequent Privatization. This would involve a Management Contract of a 3-5year duration while the Government retains the capital responsibility.

iv.Of the three options, IFC rejected Liquidation on the grounds that it would not meet the Government’s objectives as well as the fact that it would stunt aviation development in the country and lead to monumental losses to the economy in all ramifications.

IFC also strongly advised against Long–Term Turnaround as it would require continuous injection of funds that would be better utilized in other social sectors of the economy.

IFC therefore strongly recommended the “New Co” option after exhaustively analyzing the extensive benefits to the country.

To ensure the success of “New Co”, it further recommended the following:

That 5 key routes – US, UK, Netherlands, France and Saudi Arabia be reserved exclusively for the “New Co” for 5 years.

That from the close of transaction, a three-year transition period would be allowed during which “all intercontinental routes remain single designation irrespective”.

All key routes operationally utilized by Nigeria Airways are grandfathered to the “New Co”.

That, until after privatization, not more than US$2m facility should be sought by Nigeria Airways in order not to further worsen the already strangulating liabilities of the airline and make it more and more unattractive and investor-repellant.

That no staff retrenchment exercise should be undertaken in order not to further enlarge the pension liability which at the time stood at US$43m and more importantly, to avoid inadvertent removal of vital technical staff that will be needed by the “New Co” which, if effected, will impair smooth take-off of the “New Co”.

There were, in addition, over fourteen other prerequisites the IFC required compliance with for successful privatization. Up to this time, the IFC was working with the institutions involved in the privatization of Nigeria Airways, including particularly the Ministry of Aviation that chaired the Aviation Steering Review Committee (ASTRIC).

In July 2000, IFC submitted its Report and recommendations to the Federal Government through the National Council on Privatization (NCP). In August, 2000 the NCP wrote to inform the IFC of Government’s acceptance of the “New Co” and the concomitant recommendations. This concluded Phase 1. IFC was set to move to Phase 2: Sale Preparation.

It was at this stage that rumours and gossips reached OBJ that his Vice-President and the Chairman of NCP, Abubakar Atiku, was planning to buy the “New CO” through IFC. It was like a lie from the pit of hell. But the President who was still hurting from the AP saga was so incensed that he resolved to scuttle the entire well-intended privatization project. Obasanjo’s field commander was the then Minister of Aviation, Dr. Kema Chikwe. OBJ was clear in his directive to the Minister and with a Principal Officer in the Presidency then, who is now a federal legislator, whose role was to programme movement of Memos from NCP to the President and back to NCP in a predetermined manner to stall their implementation, the Minister implemented the President’s directive with sterling performance and clinical finish. At the end, all recommendations of the IFC approved by the President-in-Council were undermined by President’s personal approvals, the result of which included the list below:

The Ministry dualized the London route and signed Open Skies Agreement with the US.

It also got President’s approval for a US$30m facility from AFREXIM to revamp Nigeria Airways.

Lastly, it set up the Aboki Zawa Committee on Nigeria Airways, which sacked over 1000 staff, including top Pilots and Engineers that the “New Co” would have needed.

El-Rufais’s last minute battle from BPE against OBJ’s volt face met with resistance from both the Minister and the President, the Nigeria Airways MD, Yomi Jones, who preferred Turnaround to “New Co”, and Nigeria Airways in-house unions, where ATSSAN, whose membership and leadership comprised the 100 graduates employed by Joji as part of the start-up for Air Nigeria, was the most vociferous. It was sad and ironic.

NCP’s 13-page complaint memo to the President on October 28, 2000 received no attention. Frustrated by the sordid twist, on March 15th, 2001, IFC formally withdrew in a two-page letter to the Minister, signed by its Manager, M.D. Leonard.

Thus, “New Co” suffered still-birth midway, killed, like Joji’s Air Nigeria, by the same person who fathered the great idea, President Obasanjo himself.

BY CHRIS ALIGBE, former Corporate Affairs Manager, Nigeria Airways and Aviation Consultant

To continue next week

But the most devastating impact was the IBB SAP policy of the 80’s. The Structural Adjustment Programme came with huge devaluation of the Naira and the stoppage of annual subvention to Nigeria Airways. This twin policy action quadrupled Nigeria Airways problems as it multiplied the airline’s debt in terms of the quantum of naira it now required to meet its foreign debts obligations which at the IATA Clearing House stood at US$42m, besides others. This led to the expulsion of the airline from the IATA Clearing House in 1987 which made it impossible for the airline to fly passengers beyond one point as it could no longer interline with other airlines. This factor immediately shrank the market share of the airline as it became a point-to-point operator. The consequent huge loss of revenue sent it into a vicious cycle of ever dwindling revenue.

By 1988, IBB slated the airline for commercialization and privatization under the then precursor of the BPE, the Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization – TCPC. To drive this, IBB appointed a Presidential Task Force – PTF, led by AVM Abdullahi Dominic Bello. The Committee which included Pascal Dozie, Otumba Adesoye, Ishiaku Umar, Captain Mohammed Joji, Stella Ugboma and late Bassey Itam will remain, probably, the soundest team ever put together to manage the airline.

The PTF painstakingly injected life into the airline but the management style was based on close supervision and enforcement which left nothing but compliance for the staff to imbibe. And so when the PTF left in 1990, after its two-year tenure, the airline returned to its old ways: poor management culture, manual passenger handling and decadent work culture. In spite of Capt Joji’s novel privatization strategy adjudged to be most innovative by AFRAA, put in the works to revamp the airline in 1992/3 and the Jani Ibrahim’s turnaround magic of 1997/1999 which saw the airline resurging fast to financial health, a concatenation of new ignoble circumstances unfortunately brought the chequered history of Nigeria Airways to an end.

Some of these untoward circumstances include: the shocking cancellation of the Nigeria Airways/British Airways JV that was a cash-cow, yielding Nigeria Airways N100million net monthly and the shutting of all other revenue sources of the airline by the then Minister whose objective was to collapse the airline so as to create a new national carrier of her purpose. This was in 2003 when at the valedictory Executive Council meeting of OBJ’s first tenure in May, the then Minister of Aviation, Kema Chikwe, in a shockingly mute Executive meeting, secured the Council’s approval of her Memo, by 100 percent unfortunate consensus silence, to liquidate the airline.

Joji’s Air Nigeria/Nigeria Airways: (1992) – Our Failed Attempts:
The next attempt was Capt Mohammed Joji’s “Air Nigeria/Nigeria Airways”. Joji was appointed Managing Director/CEO of Nigeria Airways in January 1992, a year after the exit of the AVM A. D. Bello-led Presidential Task Force on Nigeria Airways in which he served between 1989 and 1990. With a clear understanding of the challenges of the airline and a conviction that only privatization would redeem the beleaguered national carrier, Joji cooperated extensively with the Hamza Zayyad-led Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization – TCPC, the precursor of BPE, which was then working on the privatization of Nigeria Airways. Joji created an ingenious concept of “Nigeria Airways/Air Nigeria” as the model for the twin objective of: resuscitating the ailing Nigeria Airways and creating out of it a brand new privatized airline – “Air Nigeria.” Nigeria Airways was to remain fully-owned by government and operating domestic and regional routes, while “Air Nigeria” would be a privatized airline, operating Nigeria’s international routes with the government holding 40% equity, technical partners – Swiss Air and Sabena 40% and remaining 20% would be sold to the public and staff. Air Nigeria was to use Nigeria Airways DC10s and A310s on lease and pay Nigeria Airways US$1million monthly. It would absorb relevant technical and professional staff of Nigeria Airways needed for its operation as well as engage close to 300 new staff required for the start-up.
Pension and Gratuity liabilities worth, as at 1993, N489,526,000 would be paid off. Envisaged in the concept was also the privatization of Nigeria Airways Skypower Catering Services and the Skypower Ground Handling Company. It also incorporated the establishment of a Property Company to manage vast landed assets of the airline scattered over Nigeria, Africa and Europe. The process of realizing this concept had advanced to almost the last but one stage before the throttle lost power and the train came to a painful final stop.

As at that time, only British Airways had successfully privatized under the resolute political will and financial commitment of the then British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, which Lord King and Collin Marshal made no mistakes with. The novel “Nigeria Airways/Air Nigeria” was to be the second lesson in global studies of privatization models in the airline sector. This however, unfortunately, was not to be. The Project faced intense stakeholder-antagonism and rejection. From the Aviation Minister, late Chief Wole Adeosun to the airline’s in-house Unions – NAAPE, ATSSAN, NUATE and Pensioners, for various reasons, mostly personal and group interest, ego and ignorance, rejected privatization. Even the efforts of the Dubem Onyia’s – led House Committee on Aviation to save the project failed as it came too late. The killer-nail was however hammered by the then Military Head of State, when, in his bid to remain in power, he traded Nigeria Airways CEO position for political favour to the then Senate President , whose role was critical to his bid. Thus, the replacement of Joji with Engineer Agom, the Senate President’s childhood friend, and a sworn opponent of Joji, led to the abortion of Joji’s “Air Nigeria”.

BY CHRIS ALIGBE
From Independence in 1960 to date, Nigeria has made ten attempts to float and run a virile national airline but virtually all failed. The most successful of them was the erstwhile national carrier, Nigeria Airways that survived from 1971 to 2003, though the airline had existed as West African Airways Corporation for close to twelve years before it was renamed Nigeria Airways.
These attempts include: “Nigeria Airways” 1971 – 2003, Capt Joji’s “Air Nigeria” 1992/1993, IFC “New Co” 1999/2001, Kema Chikwe’s “Air Nigeria” 2001/2002, Kema Chikwe’s “Nigerian Global” 2002/2003, Yuguda’s “Nigerian Eagle” 2003/2004, Obasanjo/Branson’s “Virgin Nigeria” 2005/2009, UBA’s “Air Nigeria” 2009/2010, Jimoh Ibrahim’s “Nigerian Eagle” 2011/2012 and Odua’s “Nigeria One” 2012/2013.

Over the years, the desire for a world-class National Carrier has become endemic. Today, the clamour persists and reverberates with intensity any time a new Minister is appointed. While the clamour is understandably unabating, the need for a highly effective functional national airline cannot be overstated.

Unfortunately, many a stakeholder in the aviation industry, as well as Ministers do not have a clear record of our many failed attempts, let alone why the attempts failed and what should be avoided in planning new floatation. Many do not know that, of the ten attempts, only four – Nigeria Airways, Virgin Nigeria, Nigerian Eagle and Air Nigeria were physically in existence at one time or the other. The remaining six remained, as it were, at the realm of ideas but suffered one form of affliction or the other. For instance, Joji’s “Air Nigeria”, in spite of visible strides towards its emergence, suffered a violent political abortion; the IFC “New Co” was a victim of political intrigues and deliberate abortion. Kema’s “Air Nigeria” was a victim of the usual Nigerian political hobby-horse, ending in legislative abortion, while her contraption, called “Nigerian Global” was shot down at the Federal Executive Council as an illegitimate conception.

Yuguda’s “Nigerian Eagle” was carefully and predeterminedly killed by a Presidential fiat; while Odua’s “Nigeria One” suffered gestational impediment, foetal suffocation, atrophy and death.

In all ten, there are common indices revealable in their demise, most prominent of which are; ulterior and non-altruistic motives, lack of transparency, lack of understanding of the dynamics of airline floatation, deceptive road- map and insincerity as well as refusal or failure to use the right professionals and adhere to professional advice. There are also issues of greed and desire for personal gains as may be found in some, but not in all the attempts.

Since again we have a new President who having openly expressed displeasure over the demise of the erstwhile national carrier, Nigeria Airways and has directed the Ministry of Aviation to work on a new National Carrier, the issue of a new National Carrier is again resurging. It has now become necessary to contribute to the impending discourse by x-raying all our failed attempts, how and why.

Nigeria Airways: (1960) – Our Failed Attempts:
Nigeria Airways came into existence as a symbol of a new nation in 1971, a decade after the accession to sovereignty in 1960 following our buy-out of the equities of Elder-Dempster and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in the then West African Airways Corporation (WAAC). The Nigerian newly acquired airline, though continued operations without break, was under the same name of West African Airways Corporation. On January 22nd, 1971, it was renamed Nigeria Airways.
For over 40 years, the airline served to link various destinations within Nigeria, West and Central Africa. It also operated intercontinental flights to Europe, USA, Middle East and Asia, hoisting the flag of a new sovereign nation as well as fulfilling the social responsibility objective of its acquisition. Its outstanding performance reached the crescendo during the years of struggle to liberate Southern African States of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia then still under colonial rule and apartheid South Africa. The period of the Murtala/Obasanjo military administration was so impactful in the Southern Africa struggle and Nigeria Airways was one of the instruments used as it flew sorties delivering men and materials to aid the struggle. So much was the impact that Nigeria was referred to by OAU as a ‘Frontline State’ and occupied the Assistant Executive Secretary position in the OAU Liberation Committee that spearheaded the planning for the liberation struggle. Fully owned by the government, the airline ran as a first-class parastatal under the control of relevant Ministries. The government hired and fired top Management and Board, paid the airline’s major debts, subvented it and determined some of its routes, viable or not. Civil Servants and the Military used its services at will and engaged the airline in rescue operations, pilgrimages and missions without payment.

There are records of the airline’s “call sign” being given to private airlines as favours by government officials on directives, usually unwritten, for Hajj Operations and the huge over-flight, landing and parking charges were left for Nigeria Airways to settle. For despicable motives, ministers acted on the airline to its detriment. In 1991, a supervising minister fired the entire Board and Management for increasing fares without his permission. In the same year, same minister unilaterally cancelled a Commercial Agency contract that caused the airline severe financial injury amounting to millions of pounds sterling in restitution. In 2002, another Supervising Minister scuttled Nigeria Airways contract for Hajj Operations resulting in a revenue loss of over four million dollars, all in the bid to cripple it as part of the alibi for its liquidation.

Once, a matriarch of the Presidential family admonished and stopped a CEO of the airline from recalling a level 10 officer from a foreign station. Virtually, all the F27 and F28 work horses of the airline were either sold or given away to some African States by the Federal Government in a show of big brotherhood. These were part of the singsong of Obasanjo about the 32 aircraft he left as Military Head of State.

All these were not helped by the internal factors of very low managerial competence, receding knowledge of staff, retrogressive and injurious union activism, fraudulent activities and staff resistance to change exemplified in 1991. In 1991, the Presidential Task Force which managed the airline had introduced computerized check-in system for two prime international routes; London and New York. This system not only improved passenger handling, it also exterminated “boarding pass” malpractices. This incensed those staff that engaged in selling boarding passes. The system was used on Friday night, usually the busiest. By Sunday morning, this group of boarding pass profiteers lit the computer wires with fire which eventually blew up the entire system. Thus, ended the highly forward-looking development and the airline returned to its old ways of manual check-in of passengers and with it came the return of boarding pass malpractices till its demise in 2003.

So the CIA have successfully invented another Osama bin Ladin... Good job America... GOD IS WACTHING

......

Beautiful and very funny, may God bless us with wonderful children, Amen.

I have a feeling that this New Nigeria will favor the youth that have foresight... Proudly Agricultural Engineer..

Brb

Brb

Before Bukola Saraki is Coronated as Senate President of the 8th National
Assembly: A word of Caution to Career Politicians in the Nigerian Senate

Bukola Saraki has been in the news lately. The fellow I
understand wants to be the next President of the Senate and the Chairman of the
National Assembly. As a Nigerian and a Senator, he has the right to vie for the
office in question. His colleagues in the Senate however have a moral duty to
reject him unless of course they are as corrupt and criminally inclined as he
is.

Before we go further, I must introduce myself. My names are
Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi, a clinical psychologist and a scion of the Imam
Fulanis of Ilorin Emirate, Kwara state. I have witnessed firsthand Bukola’s
maladministration in my state. The tales are too many. I will list just a few.
Before I do that, I will also make a detour to write about Bukola’s sordid past
long before he became Governor of Kwara state – a gift his daddy gave him
before he clocked 41 in 2003. It will become apparent in a little while that
Bukola is not cut from any moral fiber.

Bukola Saraki and his immediate younger sister, Gbemisola
Saraki have always lived on daddy’s dime. In the mid 1990s, Bukola Saraki and
his sister were regular visitors to Criminal Investigation Department at Panti,
Yaba, Lagos, over allegations of theft leveled against the two by the Nigerian
government under General Sani Abacha. It is a blatant lie by Bukola to claim
that former President Goodluck Jonathan set the EFCC after him because he moved
a motion on fuel subsidy – Bukola was only trying to be clever by half. We
shall come to that later.

It was at CID Panti that Bukola Saraki met one of his later
sidekicks, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Lanre Jimoh (popularly called
Lanre Olopa). ACP Lanre Jimoh was a junior officer during this period and he
went out of his way because of his Ilorin kinship to assist Bukola Saraki
maneuver the Nigerian police muddle. I am not aware that the case was ever
closed. It was more like it was hushed like everything else in Bukola Saraki’s
life. In the mid 1990s when this happened, was Abacha also witch hunting Bukola
Saraki?

This is what actually happened from our findings at the Kwara
Restoration Project. After Bukola Saraki spent countless years trying to be a
medical doctor in England, he finally managed to pass the medical exams in
1988. This, after spending a decade in British higher education in the pursuit
of a medical degree. In 1989, Bukola did his House job as a medical officer at
one of the hospitals in England and moved back to Nigeria to join Société
Générale Bank in 1990 as the Vice Chairman representing his father’s interest.
Bukola continued what he knows how to do best – spending other peoples’ money.
He didn’t care that there were many other stakeholders at Société Générale Bank
- Shareholders, Employees and Customers, he dipped his hands into the Bank’s
purse voraciously and his little sister Gbemisola partook in the bazaar. When
Abacha took over, he was intent on punishing the bank robbers of the day,
Bukola Saraki was one of them and thus Bukola became a regular visitor to CID,
Panti, Yaba, Lagos.

Abacha’s death saved Bukola from going to jail but Société
Générale could not be rescued, when the late Admiral Muhammad Lawal, former
Governor of Kwara state, fell out with Dr. Olusola Saraki, the Sarakis
liquidated Societe Generale to finance Bukola’s governorship campaign. Since then,
Société Générale Bank, Nigeria Limited became history until recently when
Bukola in cahoots with some others invested in Heritage Bank through proxies.

When Société Générale became insolvent, a lot of hardworking
Nigerian families lost their entire savings and many lost their lives in the
process. As a clinical psychologist I know that when we talk about money, we
ought to go beyond the paper and look underneath to see the men and women whose
lives depend on it. Bukola Saraki and his family stole depositors’ money and in
the process destroyed millions of lives in the process. These lives are not
mere statistics, they are someone’s son and daughter, brother, sister, aunt,
uncle, father, mother, mother in law, father in law etc. and the most prominent
amongst these individuals is Austin Jay Jay Okocha who lost a considerable
amount of money in Société Générale. Later, as Governor of Kwara state, Bukola
sought to bribe Jay Jay Okocha with some type of arrangement at the Kwara
Football Academy which he established with Kwara state money but later
converted into a private concern. There is more to that deal than the scope of
this paper will allow.

When Bukola became Kwara state Governor, he continued in his
characteristic corrupt ways. He assumed that the Kwara treasury was an
extension of Société Générale and daddy’s magnanimity. He dips his hand into
the Kwara treasury at will and disregards government due process. Those who try
to stand up against his impunity were dealt with mercilessly. Dr. Hezekiah
Bamidele Oyedepo was one of those individuals. After the gentleman couldn’t
stomach Bukola’s excesses any longer, he transferred his services to the
Federal Government under President Olusegun Obasanjo as a Director in the
Federal Ministry of Water Resources. There are countless others who are not so
fortunate.

A case in point was when Bukola Saraki, drunk on power slapped
Alhaji Saka Isemin, a commissioner under his administration for being more
loyal to Bukola Saraki’s own father than to Bukola.

Bukola’s eight years reign as Governor of Kwara state was
typified by stealing and the conversion of state properties into his own using
cronies such as Kamaldeen Ajibade, the former Kwara state Attorney General and
one non Kwara, Yomi Ogunsola. These two individuals more than others within
Bukola’s corrupt inner cycle hold many of Kwara’s converted assets.

I will list some of them here; Kwara Cashew Company, Kwara
Tourist Kitchen, Patigi Regatta Motel, Kwara Advanced Diagnostic Centre (Now
renamed Harmony Advanced Diagnostic Centre), the Shonga Farms was largely
financed by Kwara under a very shadowy arrangement. The Kwara mall and
countless other state properties were converted by Bukola Saraki.

Now, some of us at the Kwara Restoration Project are not
averse to entrepreneurship. In fact, we welcome it. What we are averse to is
stealing of government properties and converting same into personal estates. By
all means, if Bukola Saraki makes his own money and invests such in Kwara
state, we welcome it and we perhaps may even celebrate it. But in this case, we
have incontrovertible evidence of Bukola’s daylight robbery of Kwara state. We
were fortunate through our contacts at the corporate affairs commission to get
certified copies of how these companies were transferred to the two cronies
earlier mentioned. We took it upon ourselves to hand these documents to our
senior ulamas (Islamic scholars) in Ilorin to act on and call Bukola to order
but they sat on it. During the just concluded elections, the opposition PDP got
the documents from us and they sought to publish same in the Punch Newspapers
but the Punch Editor told them that Bukola had already got a court to give him
a spurious injunction restraining all Nigerian media, print, broadcast, etc
against publishing any negative article on his person even if they are true. On
this issue of converted Kwara state assets, anyone that doubts the veracity of
my claims should please make an independent verification from the CAC in Abuja.

Bukola Saraki has also been linked with Arson in Kwara state.
Shortly after Bukola left office as Governor of Kwara state and his personality
conflict with former President Goodluck Jonathan is simmering over Jonathan’s
refusal to honour his side of the bargain for Saraki’s assistance during
Jonathan’s 2011 election as President; Bukola panicked when the EFCC began to
go over the Kwara state financials between 2003 and 2011. Bukola in cahoots
with some of his foot soldiers like Otunba Tunde Morakinyo organized some cult
boys to burn the computer office of the Kwara state Ministry of Finance. The
cultists who carried out this operation did not cart away anything besides
burning down the documents. It is noteworthy that they went with a generator to
perpetrate their criminal act. One security guard who was not in the know of
things and tried to resist was shot dead. The police commissioner at the time,
an elderly gentleman from the eastern part of Nigeria was in the know and
perhaps a few others.

It is also important to point out that the heroic security
guard that was killed crossed over to the state police command that is directly
opposite the scene of the crime and was refused help before taking matters into
his own hands. May his soul rest in peace with his Maker. The state police
command is literally opposite the Kwara State Ministry of Finance and yet the
cultist stayed for over one hour burning and destroying documents in the middle
of the night with no official state power confronting them.

The police commissioner who went along with this nefarious
act was later shot dead by hired assassins on his way to his village during the
Christmas of 2012. I do not know whether Bukola was involved but the
coincidence was too ominous.

When Bukola Saraki left office physically in 2011 as Kwara
Governor, he made sure to install a placeholder in his stead thus guaranteeing
him ruling by proxy. Bukola is the only Nigerian politician who is serving an
unconstitutional fourth term because AbdulFatah Ahmed is tied to his apron
strings and cannot make any independent decision on his own. Directors and
permanent secretaries in the Kwara state civil service have been known to route
memos to Bukola behind the back of the placeholder AbdulFatah Ahmed. This is a
feat that even his godfather, former President Olusegun Obasanjo could not pull
off.

In essence therefore, distinguished Senators of the 8th
National Assembly, you are advised to stay clear from coronating Bukola Saraki
as your Senate President. He does not typify any decent, democratic values. He
is greedy, corrupt, self absorbed, violent, autocratic and does not have regard
for the basic tenets of African culture and tradition in the way he treats
those older than him with disrespect until lately.

The only reason you will elect Bukola Saraki as your
President is only if he is just like you men and women who populate the Senate
chamber, in which case, you would have found a perfect replica of yourselves.

Dr. Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi is a clinical psychologist and
writes from Ilorin, Kwara state.

Wetin he dey sing sef

Now we have a President, #ProudlyNigerian

What a great man, another person of such status is Thomas EDISON...imagination at work.