₦airaland Forum

Government in Nigeria is a dark art into which only a select few ever get initiated.

Passage through the rites and rituals of initiation impose obligations. One such obligation is a deliberate loss of memory, which induces a silence not much unlike the Mafia’s Omerta. Fidelity to these obligations attracts benefits. The doors of government revolve and the benefits of fidelity to its unspoken rituals are a conservationist’s delight: it is run on the principle of recycling. Its grammar is conducted in past continuous tense.

The consequence, rather ironically, is government by dis-continuity, a future uninformed by memory and a present rather disembodied from context. Few of the initiated in the dark arts of government have the courage to break with this deliberate loss of memory. The most notable contributions to this genre have come mostly from tenured or career public officers.

Former Chief Justice, Atanda Fatayi Williams, titled his own autobiography published in 1983, Faces, Cases and Places. Our Unforgettable Years was the title of excellent recall by Chief Simeon Adebo, pioneer lawyer and public administrator, in his autobiographical account of the building of the peerless civil service in the old Western Region published in 1984.

The 1995 autobiography by Chief Jerome Udoji, another lawyer who achieved distinction in the public service, was issued under the title, Under Three Masters.

These titles were the reminiscences of public servants looking back with mixed feelings at the end of long and distinguished public service careers. It is rather unusual for mid-career or active public servants to issue memoirs in Nigeria. Similarly unusual are memoirs by political office holders or politicians. The reasons are in plain sight: such a memoir could also be a political suicide note or worse. In a country in which the primary purpose of political office is subsistence and accumulation, a faithful memoir that is worth its name even minimally would invariably break all the unwritten rules that accompany initiation into government in Nigeria.

It would be a fatal opt out from the benefits of political recycling.

In The Accidental Public Servant, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai sets out to do more than merely break the unwritten rules of ex-political office holders in Nigeria; he utterly annihilates them. For a vocal politician with somewhat activist credentials who only turned 50 in 2010, the motives of his narrative will be the subject of speculation for some time to come irrespective of whatever he says or believes are his own reasons for putting this out. By this book, this author says in effect that Nigeria is bigger than any one person and he cares more about Nigeria than any temporary benefits from partisan politics.

In setting out this tale, El-Rufai manages to serve up a memoir whose principal characters hark back to Udoji’s title; whose narrative evokes Fatayi Williams; and whose title could also easily have been Adebo’s.

The book has three organizing themes that indeed resolve into one. It is a story about how, in Nigeria, “governance outcomes really depend on a series of accidents rather than any meritocratic or rigorous process.” This is the origin of its title. There is a bigger theme, however, which the author goes back to repeatedly in the book: in Nigeria, “we are pretty much the same everywhere.” Indeed, it is possible to read the title as only an illustration – for good or ill – of this larger Nigerian condition.

In terms of its message, The Accidental Public Servant is also a passionate advocacy for firm, equal and non-discriminatory application of rules to everyone irrespective of status or other irrelevancies. It makes a solid case for the normalization of processes in governance.

Although the author makes his entry into public service appear like an accident, in reality, it was anything but. This was a case of opportunity meeting preparation. His guardian, Mallam Yahaya Hamza, who insisted on sending the author to “the elite” Barewa College for his Secondary education, knew why he did so. Our author honestly admits that his “four and a half years in Barewa remain the most significant in shaping” his “future life, friendship, and person.”

Barewa has produced at least three Nigerian Heads of State, countless Ministers and heads of extra-ministerial departments. The author is just one in this production line.

In Tweet-bite The Accidental Public Servant is the story of a bright young man who graduated in Quantity Surveying at the top of his class, made early money and got called into public service where, under three different masters/principals, his brief The Accidental Public Servant, was successively to help transfer power from soldiers to civilians; undertake the sale of government assets (privatization); and then, administer the allocation and sale of arguably the priciest real estate in Africa (Abuja). The book is an account of the people whom he met along the way, mostly in the inner sanctums of Nigerian power, how they bonded, fell out, suffered betrayals and what they learnt about one another, before he would be hounded, first into exile and then into opposition politics.

This summary does not nearly enough do credit to the audacity of the story or the sweep of its narrative. The book has multiple identities, unfurled in multiple trinities, each like a little diamond – with a pointed and racy beginning; a somewhat portly, sometimes didactic middle section; with an equally breathless and pointed ending.

The trinities in The Accidental Public Servant are many. It is an account of public service mostly undertaken under three institutional acronyms: the PIMCO (Programme Implementation and Monitoring Committee); BPE (Bureau of Public Enterprises); and FCT (Federal Capital Territory (a.ka., Abuja). Our author unfolds in three persons – an activist professional/technocrat, a politician, and a family man. The story is a tale of service with three successive principals and Heads of State: a serving General, Abdulsalami Abubakar; a former General, Olusegun Obasanjo; the brother of a dead General, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. There are some other significant characters, none more so, perhaps, than Atiku Abubakar, President Obasanjo’s Vice, whose Teflon qualities are evident in the account.

The dysfunctional chemistry – or lack of it –between the author, Atiku and Obasanjo is indeed another of the book’s trinities. It also produced perhaps its memorable line when President Obasanjo tells the author: “my short friend, I have a duty to train you… to make sure you learn to work with everyone, not just people you like.”

The book is also a story of bonds formed, betrayed and in various stages of re-constitution in the racy cauldron of Nigeria’s messy politics. And it is a story of the three options confronted by Nigeria in the transition after President Obasanjo’s Third Term debacle. At the personal level, the narrative fulsomely acknowledges the support of the author’s three spouses in the making of an outstandingly readable tale and career.

The story of The Accidental Public Servant is told in 17 chapters over 627 pages, including 38 pages of source notes; 90 pages of appendices and 490 pages of the author’s own narrative. There are another 60 pages of prefatory, introductory material, including a captivating insider account of the drama of President Obasanjo’s Third Term project as a prologue.

The Accidental Public Servant is both a bold story and a spirited defence of a tenure in Nigerian public life, sometimes perceived as controversial. Perhaps a little over half of the book is dedicated to the author’s tenures, first as the Director-General of the BPE and then as the Minister for the FCT. Six of the seventeen chapters are dedicated to various aspects of the latter and the various controversies that were to arise during that tenure.

The story has many sharp edges and the author does not leave the reader guessing about his positions on most issues. For instance, he thinks that Obasanjo is consistent “in putting his personal interest before that of the nation”, complains that Atiku Abubakar “actively undermined me and accused me of inappropriate behavior simply to get contracts for his friends”, and found the manner of the fund-raising for the Obasanjo Presidential Library simply “disgusting”. It is a tale told with committed clarity.

It provides ample information as to not just decisions taken but also the reasons behind them. The reader does not have to agree with the conclusions. The author marshals ample material in support of his story and, in all fairness, provides evidence to support his occasional use of adjectives.

The Accidental Public Servant offers a forceful defence of the policies and decisions that the author took as Minister responsible for Abuja. Notable gaps, however, exist in the narrative; several aspects of this narrative could be argued; and some unevenness in cadence invite close attention. Among the omissions, three are notable. First, the author narrates that he quit the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in 2010 and rather laconically mentions elsewhere in the book that “as Ministers, we were given overnight party membership cards”, without providing details as to time, place or rationales.

If Ministers could be appointed without party affiliation, why could they not serve out their terms without party affiliation and what were the reasons for their being whipped into a party? Did this affect their subsequent performance? Second, the author recalls that in the run up to the 2007 general elections, he was “doing more or less whatever the President usually assigned the Vice-President to oversee, like serving as a liaison with the electoral commission….”

Given the appalling perversions committed by the electoral commission in 2007, the narrative could have provided greater information to explain what happened or enable the reader to exculpate him from or inculpate him in the crimes of electoral mis-management that characterized those elections. Thirdly, with ample space devoted in the book to the defence of the idea of Abuja, the author missed an opportunity to interrogate the Abuja project or examine whether any aspects of it could have been open to re-think. For instance, how proper is it to make the governance of such a limited resource as land (in Abuja) subject to the Ministerial caprice through the political economy of “allocation”? Should a political appointee such as a Minister have monopoly of decision making on such allocations? If not, how do you eliminate such an inherent architecture of abuse? Should there be specific rules governing conflicts of interest of the administration of various aspects of the FCT?

Equally troubling is the story in the book of the meeting with the FCT judiciary led by a man fondly described by the author as “my Barewa senior”, “for their support” and the confession that following this meeting, “the FCT judiciary supported us strongly throughout my tenure.” In the absence of more details about what manner of support this was, readers may ask legitimate questions as to whether this crossed the line into compromising the independence of judicial decision making.

The role of the judiciary, after all, is not to support anyone as such but to administer the law fairly and impartially. Many of the commendable enforcement actions initiated by the author through the courts in the FCT remained uncompleted at the time of publication, long after he had left office, calling into question the institutional wherewithal of the FCT High Court.

The most obvious differences in cadence are in the treatment of four characters in the book that, by reason of death, are no longer around to speak for themselves.

These are:

Waziri Mohammed, late former Chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation and alleged arrow-head of President Obasanjo’s Third Term bid, who was tragically killed in an air crash;
Chief J.U. Igweh, proprietor of Bolingo Hotels in Abuja, who, was killed in the same air crash with Waziri;
Justice Bashir Sambo, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal;
and President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, also the author’s senior at Barewa.

To these four, the author applies three different narrative standards. He introduces Waziri into the narrative on Third Term namelessly merely as “an Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) alumnus and friend who chaired the board of a federal parastatal and was very close to Obasanjo.” Most readers would struggle to identify who this is about. With respect to Chief Igweh, the author limits himself to a narration of the official interaction.

Similarly, with Justice Bashir Sambo, the author acknowledges that following his death in April 2007, he (the author) “remained silent because the man could no longer defend himself”,12 and tastefully limits himself to disclosure of the official correspondence in the matter. Although it is possible to deduce possible reasons from the text, the author offers no explicit explanation, however, as to why he fails to extend this standard of restraint to the parts of the narrative relating to President Yar’Adua, whose High School nickname, the author discloses, was “Bad Man.”

In hind sight, he may consider that this could have been essential to a better understanding of this part of his story.

In recalling the public statement issued on 2 December 2010 by the collective initially known as G-55 which later became G-57 asking President Yar’Adua to vacate office, the author narrates that this was followed by “initial set back, when, under pressure from the NSA, Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar, some of the people dissociated themselves from the statement claiming that ‘they did not sign’ any statement.”

This contains a factual inaccuracy.

This Reviewer is one of the people that “dissociated” themselves from the statement. No one called me about this and, surely, no one put any pressure on me to do so. The fact is I thought it was plainly poor organizing and utter bad manners for anyone to associate me with a document – no matter how well intentioned – whose contents no one had made any prior effort to inform me about. I still think so.

The production of The Accidental Public Servant is professionally done. The book is not marred by habitual editorial slippages that often mar a lot of our books, although a few slippages nevertheless intrude. Anoraks may wish that the Indexing at the end of the book could have been a little more comprehensive and the appendices were better clustered. The quality of the product nevertheless is excellent.

On the whole, this is a book by a brother who must make many of us feel proud to be Nigerian and which must restore our faith in the project of nation building. Anyone considering public service in Nigeria would do well to consult this book, or, if you have access to him, its author. You do not have to agree with everything in it but it is a compelling read with jaw-dropping disclosures on every other page and compelling lessons dripping from most of its paragraphs. The disclosures in this book will surely inform and possibly affect the landscape of Nigerian politics.

Even if they don’t, this book is likely to inspire spirited conversations that should enrich citizenship and political participation in Nigeria.

For this and more, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai deserves our gratitude for memorializing his record of public service and for courageously inviting public scrutiny of that record. Many more who preceded him in public life and all who do so after him should do well to accept his invitation to “document their experiences and tell their sides of the story.”

http://premiumtimesng.com/news/119180-in-defence-of-public-service-a-review-of-the-accidental-public-servant-by-chidi-anselm-odinkalu.html

A 27-year-old woman, Mary Sunday, has been in the hospital bed at Igbobi Orthopaedic Hospital seven months after she was allegedly attacked by her fiancé, Corporal Isaac Gbanwuan, with a pot of boiling stew and a lighted stove.

It was learnt that Sunday had lost her ears due to the attack.

Before the attack, which took place in August 2012, Sunday, was to report for training at the Police Academy, Kano as a cadet officer.

Still nursing severe burns to her neck, chest and upper arms, Sunday can barely sit or walk straight. She holds her head stiffly and talks with difficulty as she recalled the events that led to her present state to PUNCH Metro on Wednesday.

She said, “I have known Gbanwuan for a while, while I was still a student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, but it wasn’t until our marriage introduction in 2011 that I moved in with him at the Pedro Police Barracks, Lagos.

“On the day I was assaulted, Gbanwuan and I went to see our doctor. We had some health issues. While we were on our way back home, I made a phone call. Immediately we got home, Gbanwuan started querying me. He accused me of keeping lovers and claimed the person I called was my lover.

“I tried to explain to him that it was my sister I called, but Gbanwuam was not listening. He began to beat me,” Sunday said.

Unable to take it any more, Sunday said she ran into the kitchen of a neighbour with Gbanwuan giving pursuit. He allegedly broke into the kitchen where he continued to assault Sunday.

She said, “Then to the horror of those who tried to intervene, Gbanwuan seized his neighbour’s cooking stove on which was a pot of boiling stew, emptying the entire contents on me.

“I don’t know for how long I was unconscious but I was later told that I was in a coma for seven days. I learnt the stove also exploded after Gbanwuan threw it with the boiling soup at me.

“I was first rushed to a private hospital at Bariga before I was eventually transferred to Igbobi hospital.

“I couldn’t tell my family for a while because I could not use my hands; they were sort of stuck to my chest. It was after much treatment, that I was able to use my hands and call my family.”

Sunday’s lawyer, Mr. Moses Kassim, told PUNCH Metro that a petition had already been sent to the Police Provost Office and the Commissioner of Police.

He said, “We have still not received any response from either of them. Gbanwuan is yet to be arrested despite the fact that Sunday’s family reported the case at the Pedro Police Division.

“While Sunday is confined to a hospital bed, Gbanwuan is still at his duty post at the Ebutte Ero division, showing no concern for her condition.”

Copies of the acknowledged petition received by the Provost Office and Commissioner of Police were dated January 17, 2013.

When PUNCH Metro contacted Gbanwaun, he denied causing any harm to his fiancée.

He said, “What Sunday has told you are all lies. She has been going about saying all sorts of things about me.

“That is how she wrote a petition through her lawyer to the Lagos State Police Command. Anyway, the matter is already being investigated by the command.”

When our correspondent sought his opinion on how Sunday got her injury that had kept her in the hospital, the policeman said, “I don’t know what to tell you. Like I said, the matter is being investigated.

The Lagos Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Damascus Ozoani, said he was yet to be fully briefed on the issue.

He said, “I don’t have all the facts right now. Let me investigate and I will respond to the story.”

But Sunday said she was more concerned with getting well.

She said, “All I want is the money to treat myself. My doctors are afraid to tell me how much because they don’t want me to be worried, but I have overhead them discussing several times.

“There is a deep wound in my chest which has to be treated and then my neck has to be operated on because it has been stiff since the incident and then there is the matter of my upper arms.

“The doctor, who attended to me at the first hospital I went to in Bariga, told me that I would have to go to India to have my ears reconstructed because they melted. He said I would need N5m.

“Gbanwaun’s family has abandoned me. They did so immediately my family reported the matter to the police. My mother is dead and my father is aged. Coping with my daily treatment here is a struggle for my siblings.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/my-fiance-poured-hot-stew-on-me-woman/

I recall dad telling me about a man in my Neighborhood who became popular for engaging in money rituals just to buy the 80's edition of the Honda Prelude.

You wouldn't buy that car for 50k today.

I Remember as a kid, my whole street gathered to watch a truck deliver a very large satellite dish to my neighbor's house.

Today a dish one tenth that size delivers 5 times the value and is in almost every student hostel room.

What about the Volkswagen Santana, Mercedes Benz V booth, 505, all overtaken by Camry, Honda discussions and range rover? .... Vanity.

A friend declared drinks for the boys because he just launched the Nokia Communicator for over a hundred grand in 2002.

Today that phone would embarrass the owner and is a joke compared to the low cost and everyday phone.

What about d MTN sim card dat many people went extra miles b4 dey bought it for over 30k, today u will not buy it at N200.

People are still making the most amazing sacrifices over the 'vainest' of things, make enemies over worthless material things even resulting to killing.

What can I say? Look back at that one thing you want to kill or die for today and see what becomes of it tomorrow.

Slow down with the sense of attachment and blind pursuit of things, for today's 'gold' is tomorrow's 'copper'

Yes it's good to have money.....pleas ­­e make it a good one.

Baba Abiara no get jet yet sef ? This man has been doing God's work before dem born all these new age jet riding pastors. CAC agbala tura members should be ashamed of themselves ...Give Baba a jet haba . There should be some respect and seniority in grapevine work na . ...Baba should just disband the church if his flock no wan cooperate. On top the miracle upon miracle this baba don perform . Na wa for CAC flock o

General Evangelist of the Christ Apostolic Church, Prophet Kayode Abiara, says controversies surrounding the ownership of aircraft by prominent Christian clerics in the country are not justified.

“If I am given an aircraft as a gift, I cannot reject it,” Abiara said while speaking on the church’s planned prayer session billed for Odo Owa,Kwara State on Wed-Friday next week .

According to him, those who have been criticising the purported extravagant lifestyle of some Christian leaders in the country do not quite understand the scriptures.

He said, “Christians need to understand that the scripture supports receiving gifts. Having a jet or a helicopter, for example, will greatly advance the work of God. It is good for christendom.”

The prophet, who said the controversy in the CAN had been exaggerated, called on the Catholic Church to embrace dialogue because of its importance to the association.

He rose to the defence of CAN leadership, saying it was not true that it had become “too friendly” with the government.

Abiara said, “As Christian leaders, we do our duty by giving advice to the government whenever we can. That does not mean CAN has become an arm of government.

“Because we do not say something bad about the government all the time does not mean we are compromised in any way. I do not collect any money from any government official.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/i-cannot-reject-aircraft-gift-abiara/

I attended the launch of the controversial book, The Accidental Public Servant, written by a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre Abuja last Thursday. A close friend of mine bought me a copy which the author graciously autographed for me. I had listened to the author several times as the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises but I had not met him face-to-face until last week. I listened to most of the commentators at the book launch and was most fascinated by those by the Governor of Central Bank, Lamido Sanusi. He said, “There are many things that will surely be contained in the book but one that will not be there is that I share something with Nasir. Both of us are small in stature and that led to the fact that our mouths are the most developed parts of our bodies. Therefore, we are ever ready to fight with our mouths”.

I read about 75 per cent of the book all through the weekend and one thing I must say is that it is a brilliant piece of work. I congratulate the author both for the book and the conversations it will elicit which will enrich the governance landscape in Nigeria. I have always admired the fantastic work that el-Rufai did in the FCT while he held sway as minister. He comes across as a courageous and hard-working man. Those who hate or like his person or disagree with his style always acknowledge this. No one can take for granted the amount of effort that might have gone into writing such a voluminous book – no less coming from a quantity surveyor.

In the book, the author really made substantial efforts to portray himself as a nationalist who is exceptionally intelligent and who discharged his duties as a public servant with utmost integrity – such a move deserves my commendation. Many Nigerians have been freely commenting on the book even without reading it. Some have gone ahead to lambast him in the media while others have caught the dummy that he is desperately trying to sell to the public to begin to applaud him as an untainted reformer.

But if you critically read and analyse the book, you will discover that the book actually reveals the author as someone whose bloated picture of himself led him to several political blunders that he is now desperately trying to cover up. It presents him as a vindictive character, on a clear revenge mission, struggling to get political mileage by demonising his godfathers and benefactors. A “born again” political activist still gasping in the euphoria that he is the most qualified person to become a beneficiary of the palpable public indignation against bad governance whose foundation some of them contributed to. However, one will not dismiss the shocking details of the insider intrigues and manoeuvres in high places in public service and the lessons that come with it. Many people refer to el-Rufai as an accidental progressive and political opportunist. Is he really any of these? One can overlook his derision for his former boss Olusegun Obasanjo who was clearly his target for vengeance.

Obasanjo’s sin apparently was the fact that he did not anoint the former FCT Minister as his successor but that is by the way. How about his friends and colleagues in the economic reform team, namely, Nuhu Ribadu (whom he described as a typical policeman) , Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (whom he accused of having civil war hangovers) and Charles Soludo (whom he described as a Central Bank Governor often seen with expensive suits). I will draw a few points with an intention to simply contribute to the ongoing debate about the author and his motives at this time and allow you to make up your mind.

The third term misadventure is by all means unfortunate, despicable and reprehensible yet the author left his readers guessing about what could be his motive for making the subject the first chapter in his book. Could it be for a deliberate reason? It may be true that El-Rufai did not support the ill-fated project; however, one would have expected that if he hated it as much as he painted in his book, he could have resigned from Obasanjo’s government. Yet, he stayed on. The so-called “siddon look” approach was ostensibly due to his expectations and positioning to become the beneficiary of a possible failure of the project. Sadly, that did not happen and that is probably a bigger source of frustration to the author than the project itself.

Let us assume that what el-Rufai served the Nigerian public in his book is the full story of all that happened. Does it mean that he did not commit any error in his nine years in public service or is this a mere selective narrative? Was he such an infallible man in public service? Yet, he was able to chronicle and amplify the failure of others. How come someone who claimed to have dabble in something did it so perfectly? Did he deliberately choose to rob his readers the lessons that could be learnt from his mistakes, if any? For instance, how come with all his experience, he saw nothing wrong in presiding over the procurement process where Motorolla, a company he worked for and that is known to be associated with his elder brother Bashir, took part in? How else can you define conflict of interest? How about the alleged allocation of choice plots of land in the FCT to his friends and family members including his two-year-old child? Really! Who is he trying to fool? Nigerians?

The author emphasises the role of meritocracy, competence and track record in governance in producing competent leadership. The chronicle of his achievements and meteoric rise is unique and impressive yet it reveals him on a closer look, as a classical product of man-know-man. A product of the so-called big families united by marriage. Clearly from his own account, four factors were responsible for his entry and rapid growth in public service. The first was being an old boy of Barewa College. The second was being the younger brother of Bashir el-Rufai. The third is his network for Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The fourth is being an adopted son in-law to Dr. Hamza Zyyad.

The most interesting part of this book in my view is the conversation that held between Obasanjo and el-Rufai between pages 125 and 128 of the book. In those pages, the author himself narrated how the former President drew his attention to three of his problems bordering on cleverness. That short encounter gave me a very important insight that can flow from the wisdom of an old man. In all, el-Rufai unwittingly painted Obasanjo as a master political tactician with a wealth of experience. Never mind that he might have deployed his experiences for more selfish ends and less common good. My mother once had a similar conversation with me many years ago. She told me that there was a big difference between being brilliant and being clever!

In all, I have learnt so much from reading this book. I will read it over and over again. Everyone who wants to understand how Nigeria operates should read it. Every student of Nigerian politics and a future career aspirant in the Nigerian public service deserves a copy. Let the conversation continue.

http://www.punchng.com/opinion/el-rufai-accidental-public-servant-or-political-opportunist/

Wow! Since last week Friday!! Accidental public servant indeed. Mallam El-rufai you have done well. I don't give a TOSS what people think or say about you, I must admit that my knowledge has greatly enriched by your 'epistle'. Even if your book is full of 'lies' as some people have said, they are very few people in the world that can conjure such lies with great boldness, and even have the temerity to have it published.

As for your future political ambitions, I wish you well. The question I have asked myself is, will El-rufai make a good president? And my straight answer is No! The reason being, you do not have 'temperament' to lead a complex nation like Nigeria. I will rather prefer you to be a Vice-President with administrative powers (more like a Prime Minister), and an enforcer of govt rules and regulation. I see you more like the 'Idiagbon' of the current political dispensation.

Olusegun Obasanjo did not disagree with me that Goodluck Jonathan was personally ill-prepared and incapable of shouldering the burdens of the presidency and taking Nigeria as his constituency rather than his very narrow Ijaw mindset" #ElrufaiLeaks

"If the leadership of a country does not care about its citizens, why should the citizens care about the country?"- Mallam Nasir El-rufai

The truth is Times av changed things are different, its a whole new dispensation. If footballers are rewarded as acclaimed its worth it. Having said that the bitter truth is that, Nigeria has more than enough to satisfactorily provide for all its nationals (considering her as the 6th largest oil producing country). But the greed of our leaders has displaced the ability to prioritize and make available the essentials its nation needs. As for many nationals who has been deprived of their rights..... Well we can only pray that the heart of our leaders are changed.
It is a pathetic situation for my nation. So pathetic that as many that gets the chance to go abroad goes and never want to come back even though they been treated as second class in a foreign Land.

The way forward from my perspective is having the right attitude towards everything and treating your immediate neighbor as u would love to be treated. Starting from within our homes, to communities and this spreads in diaspora.

God bless Nigeria!!!

Pictures from the protest.

Cyber Nigerian Civil War

Hundreds of women Thursday took to the streets of Lagos to protest against the allocation of N4 billion for the building of a mansion for African First Ladies Mission Initiative in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka who was billed to participate in the protest, however, sent a speech condemning the project.

He described the project as a mind boggling fiscal misappropriation.

The protest march, organised by Women Arise for Change Initiative, a Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, took off at the premises of Lagos Television, Agidingbi, Ikeja to the State House, Alausa where a letter of grievance was delivered to Governor Babatunde Fashola.

Speaking through Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, President, Women Arise for Change Initiative during the protest on Valentine’s Day, Soyinka said the latest move by President Goodluck Jonathan to set up such initiative for his wife and legalise the office of the First Lady was another “egregious conspiracy to drain the Nigerian treasury, mounted in the name of a high-flying member of your gender.

“I have therefore elected not to lend my affection to any one individual, but the entire bevy of First Ladies of the African continent and that includes First Male Spouses. What, after all, is to stop these male consorts from developing ‘pet projects’ and setting up Missions? Even if they number no more than one or two, there is a saying that goes: What is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.”

The nobel laureate said the move was an attempt to legalise illegality through a debasement of the democratic process and wastage of public fund on such project.

According to him,: “a mind-boggling fiscal misappropriation – Four Billion naira, no less! – is being attempted in your names – openly, in an attempt to institutionalize an illegality through a debasement of the democratic process. It is no longer secretive but in-your-face, and damn public opinion!

“Your names (women) have been invoked as the ultimate beneficiaries, and thus, you are vicariously implicated. In the name of St. Valentine and the love I bear for you all, please dissociate yourselves from this display of shameless avarice. I shall not go so far as to ask you to denounce what you probably know nothing about, but if you ever get to hear of it, distance yourselves from the gross impropriety.”

He said there was no such thing as an African First Ladies Mission in the Nigerian appropriation list, saying that any claim remotely like it is the conspiracy of sycophants, jobbers, masters of impunity, a desperate clique that unfurled a continental umbrella as cover for private aggrandizement, urging women not to be part of it as “the people of this nation are fast losing patience.”

Okei-Odumakin, in her own letter to President Jonathan, said women were scandalised by the culture of waste that had become the hallmark of governance in Nigeria, especially in recent times.

She stated that the latest of such fiscal waste was the N4 billion allocated for the building of an office for Nigeria’s First Lady, Patience Jonathan’s African First Ladies Mission Initiative, an allocation which was provided for in the Federal Capital Territory’s 2013 Budget, saying the move was an affront to Nigerians and should be vehemently resisted by all right-thinking members of the society.

“Even in an era where fiscal irresponsibility is the norm, and not the exception, the allocation is an especial egregious insult on Nigerians. To budget such a huge amount of public funds for a ceremonial office that is not recognized by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a resounding slap on the collective visage of the majority of Nigerians at a time when tens of millions live on less than a dollar per day.

“To do so when the majority of Nigerians are the unwilling patients of poverty pandemic deriving from criminally poor leadership is tantamount to spreading salt on an open wound. The office of the First Lady is not a creation of the constitution. Rather, it is the accursed child of the whim and caprices of our country’s insensitive elite,” she stated.

According to Okei-Odumakin, “it is instructive that it (First lady’s office) acquired its notoriety in the profligate Ibrahim Babangida years, where the military dictator’s wife, Maryam, wasted billions on the so-called ‘Better Life for Rural Women’ programme.

“This culture of unbridled wastage has since been embraced by the spouses of successive heads of government, particularly under the current democratic dispensation. We fervently hold that a government with an appropriate sense of duty and an eye on posterity would deploy the resources to be wasted on Mrs. Jonathan’s flight of fancy on critical infrastructure. To do otherwise, is to be insensitive and irresponsible.”

She said the N4 billion meant for the project could help millions of school age children receive better education, equip rural clinics with drugs and do society a host of other good.

Okei-Odumakin demanded that Jonathan must direct the FCT Minister to withdraw this budget allocation and sack him for this assault on public morality.

She also called for the scrapping of the office of the First Lady and that spouses of elected officials should play no more than ceremonial roles, adding that “we ask all decent women and men in our country to back these demands with positive actions.”

—Kazeem Ugbodaga

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/02/14/soyinka-women-protest-n4b-mansion/

The meanings of love offered by dictionaries suggest that true love is a lifestyle or habit. It is a character or habitual activity. Considering the true nature of love and the attitudes of people in this part of the world, it may not be wrong to conclude that many celebrants of Valentine’s Day in this clime are hypocrites. The exhibition of works of charity or show of love for one another ought to be a daily affair. This is the position of both the Holy Bible and Quran and their injunctions on love. The drift here is that only those who consistently have and exhibit the feeling of love for their fellow human beings have the moral right to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

If many retirees lost their lives without receiving any benefits because you diverted the pensions fund into personal use, you have no right to talk about Lovers’ Day. If you promised to marry someone and you have broken the promise with neither a cogent reason nor a remorse, you have no business with Valentine’s Day. A medical practitioner who watches a patient die, simply because of salary issues with his employer should not celebrate Valentine’s Day. If you have been sitting on people’s contract files because they failed or refused to offer you bribes, Valentine’s Day celebration does not concern you. If as a lecturer, you have delayed the graduation of students simply because they either refused to offer you bribes or have sex with you, you don’t have love and you have nothing to do with Valentine’s Day events.

Valentine’s Day is not for everybody. A politician who has killed or organised the killing of people to win an election cannot be involved in Valentine’s Day celebration. If as a state governor or local council chairman, you have increased the sufferings and poverty level of your people by embezzling the resources meant for infrastructure and human development without creating jobs, forget about Valentine’s Day. It is not for people like you. If you are an armed robber, ritualist, terrorist bomber, kidnapper, rapist, assassin or gunrunner, you have no business with Lovers’ Day celebration. Valentine’s Day celebration is for only true lovers. It is for those who hate man’s inhumanity to man. It is not for hypocrites or wicked people.

Bill Cosby "I'm 83 and Tired"
I've worked hard since I was 17. Except for when I was doing my National Service, I put in 50-hour weeks, and didn't call in sick in nearly 40 years. I made a reasonable salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, it looks as though retirement was a bad idea, and I'm tired. Very tired.
I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.
I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers"; Muslims burning schools for girls; Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.
I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries use our oil money to fund mosques and Madrasa Islamic schools to preach hate in Australia , New Zealand , UK, America and Canada , while no one from these countries are allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia or any other Arab country to teach love and tolerance..
I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate.
I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses or stick a needle in their arm while they tried to fight it off?
I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of all parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.
I'm really tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.
I'm also tired and fed up with seeing young men and women in their teens and early 20's be-deck themselves in tattoos and face studs, thereby making themselves unemployable and claiming money from the Government.
Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 83.. Because, mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter and their children. Thank God I'm on the way out and not on the way in. There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on! This is your chance to make a difference.
“I’m 83 and I'm tired. If you don't agree you are part of the problem!

http://www.facebook.com/jolene.dornbusch

Here is MFM prayer for February 14,
Feb 14 is a day for prayers against every strange girl in d life or around our husband, fiancé's life.
1) Anybody trying to hug my husband or fiancé seductively, catch fire.
2) Anyone planning to sit on his laps, be unseated by fire.
3) Any person, spirit or power that wants to collect money or expensive gifts from him, somersault and die.
4) Any strange woman that wants to put asunder what God has joined together, be shattered by fire,
5) Anyone sending romantic msg to my partner, be struck with rheumatism.
6) Evil kisses waiting for my partner, be consumed by fire
7) You strange woman/ man, that wants to camp my partner all day, be encamped by fire
Anyone, planning a 'quickie' with my husband in d office on d 14th, be electrocuted
Open your mouth and P r a a a a a a a ay.

I totally disagree. Nigeria is not a "strong, united and prosperous nation," and we have neither come of age. Beyond this usual platitudes, please let's tell ourselves the truth.

Achebe lived through the times, suffered career and personal loses. We can say he’s even lucky to survive. What he did here was write a private memoir. A memoir is not necessarily a work of inviolable truth. It is one man’s recollection and opinion which most times is coloured by his own emotions. I accept it as another account by another notable Nigerian and choose not to make a judgment. Some of us have read Awolowo’s own defence of some of those charges. And just like Achebe’s, I’ve accepted such as his own account of the time.

However, outside individual accounts, I can perfectly make up my mind about what I think happened during the war. Having ploughed through countless historical documents and accounts, I have concluded that it was caused by the immaturity, political inexperience, over-ambition and the lack of patriotism of the military class that took over from the civilians of the First Republic. Every crime committed by one side was equally committed by the other during the war. There are dozens of officers on both sides I would gladly arraign for genocide.

As for such civilian operatives as Awolowo, I really have nothing against them as far as they acted in support of their side by providing ideas that won them the war. That is okay. No matter what anyone believes about Awolowo and the idea to starve Biafra, it’s not anything covered under international law. He was not a military commander. He was an economic planner who had to determine how to use the resources of the state to prosecute a war successfully. If he were a Biafran who used his intellect and management acumen to win the war for Biafra, no one on the Igbo side would have anything bad to say about him. He did what he needed to do as a member of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria at the time. It has nothing to do with him wanting to belong or wanting to be President, because, no matter what anyone says, that is mere speculation. Awolowo had never hidden his political desire to be Prime Minister or President neither did Zik. It would be churlish to accuse Zik of crossing to the Federal side because he wanted to belong or be President and so on. We are talking a war here and everyone with influence did their bit to avoid it to no avail. Even Awolowo was the only national leader that went to Enugu to see Ojukwu with the aim of averting the war. People should simply accept the reality of the day. Awolowo could have been a Fulani or Hausa General or political leader. He had a side in the war and provided ideas to win that war. To single him out as some demon is to miss the historical reality of the times. The problem as I see it is people getting bogged down in emotional and personal minutiae to the detriment of the issue as a national affair.

So, for me, people should respect what Achebe has done by recalling his own experience in his own way and expressing his opinion of personalities of the time along the line. It is immaterial that he criticizes Awolowo or that he has a view about why Awolowo did this or that. After all, he expresses not so charitable views too about Gowon and Ojukwu as well. We can disagree with his opinion of Awolowo and anybody without turning it into some kind of ethnic war. We can do so without questioning his motive or attributing it to ethnic reasons. Achebe has paid his dues and has shown over the years that he is not beholden to ethnicity. Yes, he didn’t say what he said about Awolowo only because he is Igbo, but also because that is the way he honestly saw it. Of course, he and Awolowo fought on opposite sides and that may have played into his recollection, but that is not exactly disqualifying. An account is just an account. It need not be accepted as the full fact, but should be welcomed as another great addition to Civil War literature. Unfortunately, Awolowo is not alive to defend himself, but he has responded enough to the type of criticism Achebe is putting forward and any good student of history should read all accounts in the context of others. This has just presented the ethnic jingoists on both sides an opportunity to jump and shout, but the two great personalities would not have seen anything ethnic in their criticism or defence respectively.

Technically, There Was A Country, though not very original in content, is vintage Achebe. It draws you in and never lets go till you are through. It is a fine work. And for much of the textual quality, it excels.

It provides a clear and impassioned viewpoint of the biafran struggle from the viewpoint of an eminent participant. It is well researched, as balanced as a personal piece written from a point of painful remembrance can be. But that is where its beauty ends.

Achebe called it a personal history so he has the right to state every opinion or fact he wrote in it. And i have a right to disagree respectfully.

1. Achebe somehow contrived to make it seem as if all of of Nigeria had and has a visceral hatred for the Igbos. That is not true. Biafra may have had an Igbo majority yet Ijaws, Efiks, Ibibios etc were part of that state. He made mention of this fact a few times, agreed, but his general tone and even a line about all of Nigeria's tribe hating the Igbos speaks more of his opinion.

2. The hoopla about Achebe on Awo has been overblown but yet the point must be made that Achebe over reached. Achebe declared Awolowo a murderously malicious criminal without giving evidence for that. Awolowo advocated Starvation as a weapon of war, but it was not the first resort for him. It was a confluence of bad decisions by Dim Ojukwu, irrational expectations and misplaced priority by biafra, external influences and admittedly an ammoral decision by Awo that led to it. Does this absolve Awo from the responsibility of that policy and its consequences or defend the policy? Definitely not, but available facts, historical antecedents do not back up Achebe's claims as well. As to the fact that Achebe had earlier made this same allegation in the 80's does not make it any more true, it only tells of the age of that impression of Achebe.

" Just before he took his leave, the traditional asked Umaru Yar'Adua to give him the names of anyone he had considered a 'successor', so that the mystics could pray appropriately and ascertain if the person can successfully wear the crown of leadership. UMYA thought carefully about this, got a piece of paper, wrote four names and handed them over to the Emir without another word............The names on the list were UMYA wife, Turai, his sons-in-law Governors Saidu Dakingari of Kebbi state, Isa Yuguda of Bauchi state and Bukola Saraki, then Kwara state governor" #ElrufaiLeaks

"During my eight years in govt, I never had to buy a ram because I usually get between 50 and 100 rams a year" #ElrufaiLeaks

According to Obiageli Oby Ezekwesili, the IQ of the Yar'Adua administration was about 30. #ElrufaiLeaks

"I do not want the govt to drop the charges against me.The charge against me is that I have committed an offence by approving the allocation of a plot of land to my wife. That is the kernel of the charge against me. I want a judge to rule that it is an offence to do so. Every Nigerian is entitled to a plot of land in Abuja if he is over 18. If my wife applied in 2001, and I got to the FCT in 2003 and she finally got the land in 2006, I do not see how it can be an offence. It is not like I got there and on the first day I said to people, bring my wife's paper to approve an allocation for her. I still stand by this position" #ElrufaiLeaks

"Umaru Yar'Adua had a historical problem with me. He considered me a competitor"- #ElrufaiLeaks Hmmn.....ngbo Umoru? Over to you! Oh sorry, he's six feet under

"I always had difficulty understanding how Obasanjo could sit with us preaching sacrifice and transparency one moment, and the next moment he sits with Gaius Obaseki (Group Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation), on how to get some payments to PDP from some oil or LNG deals" #ElrufaiLeaks Hmmn......Mallam, are you insinuating that Aremu is corrupt?

The truth really also really was that Obasanjo would not even in his wildest dreams think of supporting me to be president, largely because he knows that he wouldn't be able to control in that or indeed in any position. If, as president, I find out that he did something seriously wrong, he knows as well as I do that I would not overlook it simply on the basis that he used to be my boss" #ElrufaiLeaks

UMYA Visits Nuhu Ribadu
"No, Obasanjo has not told me ( about UMYA been the preferred choice), and as far as the presidency is concerned, I have my candidate for president and that is Nasir el-Rufai. I am going to have to speak to Obasanjo about this" - Nuhu Ribadu

OBJ Puts UMYA In The Driving Seat #Accidental Presidential Candidate
"UMYA came to my house that evening looking like a man who had just had the weight of the world thrust upon him. He told me that Obasanjo had just called and asked him to submit a nomination form to run for president and that he was really not expecting this and felt totally unprepared, but that if he was to go ahead, he will need me by his side and the rest of the economic team" #ElrufaiLeaks

Last Day of OBJ administration
"The sentiment of the final breakfast, was for the most part upbeat, but it struck that Olusegun Obasanjo that morning looked like he had grown several years older. He looked as if he was about to face death - his skin was sallow and it was very clear that this (leaving office) was difficult for him, like someone in the finak hours before heading to the electric chair. He did not eat any breakfast, he just had some tea. I never thought of leaving power being that painful but he was visibly pained"
#ElrufaiLeaks #LastBreakfast

Conversation Between El-rufai, OBJ and Anenih on Third Term

ER: 'Mr President, this is going nowhere. This 152 House of Reps members will not support this, no matter what. They plan on withdrawing from the chambers so that the term limit provisions will be impossible to be passed by any presiding officer. So why not just end this?'

OBJ: 'No your information is wrong. Go and see Tony Anenih, he will give you different picture - your in

ER: 'No sir, these people are our friends. They have told us this is what they plan to do'
OBJ: 'No . They cannot do it. Your friends are misleading you'

#Off to see Tony Anenih: Tony Anenih brings out a list of 260 Reps and 86 Senators in support of Third Term.

ER: 'I do not know where you get your informatioot your information but I have a list of 152 members who have signed statements to the effect that they intend to withdraw from the proceedings

TA: ' No, your information is wrong'

ER: 'No it's not'

TA: 'Look Minister. By the time we give them money, all of them, they will change. May be your information is right, right now, because we have not yet distributed the money'

#ElrufaiLeaks #ThirdTerm

"Muhammadu Buhari remains the only politician in the North that can announce that he needs 1million people to attend an event tommorow and 2million will show up without being paid to do so" #ElrufaiLeaks

ThirdTerm " Nuhu Ribadu asked the Financial Intelligence Unit of the EFCC to track cash movements, mostly from states into Abuja, which accounts most of th money ended up in. Most of the money was allegedly going into companies and bank accounts of Andy Uba, the president Senior Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs" #ElrufaiLeaks

According to Nuhu Ribadu, the 'Third Term' team of Olusegun Obasanjo raised over $300million #ElrufaiLeaks

Why I left PDP - Mallam El-rufai
"I left the PDP in 2010 because the party had evolved within four years into a totally different party, more toxic, more self-centred and controlled by a tiny clique of morally-flexible people. Is it possible in PDP of 2010, I always ask, for any minister of FCT to take down a building owned by the chairman of the ruling party? "No way"! virtually everyone will respond. However we did that, and life continued like nothing had happened, as it should" #ElrufaiLeaks

"In 2003, Obasanjo tasked Yayale Ahmed, the crafty head of the federal civil service, with the job of reforming the civil service and a huge budget to support it. Yayale ensured that all monies were expended on travelling all over the world - visiting Malaysia, singapore, Australia, New Zealand, among other nations, to learn 'international best practices', sent beautiful 'progress reports' to Obasanjo but implemented zero reform at home" #ElrufaiLeaks

"While our national has increased by 160% between 1960 and 1999, our civil service has increased by 350% during the same period" #ElrufaiLeaks #OverblownBureaucracy

and still on the public sector decay, the federal civil service has ballooned from N600mllion in 2007 to N1.6billion in 2012. Hmmnn......goodluck Nigeria! #ElrufaiLeaks

Hmmn........with this sort of poster, I confidently say that we have a long way to go. Ona wa jin! Anyway, we will get there.

Afam4eva: The people that have waited for over 5 hours at the National stadium have been disappointing. The eagles just made a brief stop and left. I think they're heading to the presidential villa where Jonathan and his PDP co-horts will take the glory and list this as one of the transformational achievements. See the way the eagles just deserted for once-happy Nigerians that were delighted to see them to go dine with ndi-Oshi. Tufiakwa.

Before they start attributing this victory to Jonathan remember that under Abacha the Super Eagles won the same cup plus an Olympic gold medal.