₦airaland Forum

The chopper conveying Vice President Osinbajo touched down at the Central Police Station Umuahia earlier this morning.

Governor Ikpeazu was joined by Deputy Governor Ude Oko Chukwu, former Senate President Ken Nnamani, General Officer Commanding 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu, the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Umuahia Zonal Headquarters, Service Commanders and Heads of all Military and Para Military Formations in the State, to receive the August Visitor.

The Vice President was accompanied by the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Uche Ogah , House of Representatives Member for Bende Federal Constituency, Hon. Ben Kalu and others.

Last picture

Prof Yemi Osinbajo @ProfOsinbajo

The generations born after the Civil War are navigating the adventure of being Nigerian on different terms from their forebears.

By intermarrying, migrating and comingling in the quest for love and livelihood; they are forging alliances in business, civil society and politics.

Without mincing words, the civil war was a defining national tragedy and a robust national conversation is necessary to aid the process of healing and reconciliation.

In the 50 years that have followed since the end of the war, we have invested in national integration, peace building and reconciliation. That has been a lot less than perfect task.

Even with challenges, those setbacks should not induce hopelessness or despondency.

Our mission is to build a nation that works for all of us. And yet, nation building is hard work and bringing together multiplicity of ethnicities under one banner is an onerous but necessary task.

The last 50 years belonged to us, but the next 50 belong to our children and we must unshackle them from ghosts of ancient grudges & grievances.

By their conduct, our children show us that it is possible to forge friendships, let us give them a chance to do better than ourselves

While in Umuahia, I visited the National War Musuem commissioned in 1989. It was established to preserve the relics of the Nigerian Civil War and serve as a memorial to the soldiers, civilians and other casualties of the Civil War and other conflicts in Nigeria.

https://twitter.com/ProfOsinbajo/status/1221876182393741312

DMerciful:
There's nothing like South South! It was a divide and rule tactics. Why dont we have North North?

This was originally published years ago, but it was republished after Dr Ekwueme's death in 2017. This is how the 6 geo-political zones were negotiated.

How Ekwueme, Bisi Onabanjo plotted six geopolitical zones from prison

ON NOVEMBER 25, 2017
5:59 AM

The idea of the six geopolitical zones looks brilliant. Was it your idea alone?

The only other person who contributed to it was my friend, Bisi Onabanjo. Two of us discussed this in prison.


It was from there you now took it to the Constitutional Conference where it was adopted?
Well, it wasn’t. But Abacha adopted it. The conference itself didn’t adopt it; they wanted the status quo to remain because it was in the interest of some people to maintain the status quo.


Some have suggested the abolition of the states and for the six geopolitical zones to become the federating bodies. Do you concur?

The states don’t have to be abolished. It is a matter of nomenclature. When we had Eastern Region, we had 12 provinces which Michael Okpara created. Ogoja province, Calabar Province, Uyo Province, Annang Province, Enugu Province, Onitsha Province, Owerri Province, Umuahia Province and Port-Harcourt Province, Degema Province. There were six provinces in the minority areas and six in the Igbo areas, and all these provinces had their provincial commissioners, had their assemblies and had their provincial scholarship boards.

So, it is a matter of nomenclature. The states should be provinces of the regions. I am putting together a book called Nigeria: Thoughts on the provision of a stable polity, and in that book, there is an article by Shehu Shagari that states should become provinces of the regions.

Eventually, when I met with him when I was putting together these ideas, he said that he found that his suggestion was not very well accepted, so he wasn’t pursuing it anymore.



What kind of political structure do you think will make Nigeria politically and economically viable?

Going back to history we negotiated over a decade starting from Ibadan Conference in 1951 up to the conferences in Nigeria in London and so on until independence in 1960 – a ten year period of negotiation and in the end what Nigerians agreed with the colonial masters on what would be the form of government on the basis of which they would be given independence was a federal form of government made up of three regions – North, East and West.

That was the form of government agreed with each region autonomous in many respects and with each region having its own Constitution and the Constitutions of the three regions annexed to the Federal Constitution in one document and with each region being able to develop at its own pace.

You will see for instance, Eastern Region that started as the poorest region, by 1966 the leadership had established agricultural plantations, rubber, cocoa plantations in Cross River State, palm in Anambra, Imo, Rivers and so on and they had industries, like Trans Amadi Industrial Estate in Port Harcourt, they were able to negotiate with foreign countries and were able to build the brewery in Umuahia, ceramic factory in Umuahia, the Calabar Cement Factory and there was development. They were able to build the University of Nigeria before the Federal Government took it over ten years after.

So, each region was given the freedom to exercise its initiative. It was Eastern Region that first started the Pay As You Earn tax in Nigeria. That was the creation of -21- Bon Ejike— the first minister of finance of Eastern Region in 1952 – Pay As You Earn, automatic deduction from salary. It was first started in Eastern Nigeria because when the region was founded they had to find means of raising money. It was in the East that they first started Entertainment Tax, if you went to cinema if it was One and Six, you paid three pence tax to the government.

People used their initiative. If you went to the North you would find groundnut pyramids in Kano everywhere. In the West, cocoa was booming and they used it to invest property in Lagos, Western House, WEMABOD, Cocoa House in Ibadan all that was based on the initiative. Even free education in the West and so on.

I did my analysis while I was in Kirikiri Prison, the only problem with the form of government that we had with that structure was that it was lopsided. The structure of the regions at independence was such that one region, the North was said to have been bigger than the two other regions, East and West and when even Mid-West was created the North was still bigger than East, West and Midwest and in a parliamentary system based on population, the membership of the parliament allocated more seats to Northern Region than to all other regions put together.

If as they did in the North, they all decided to go into one party, a Northern party, and they elected all their legislators on that party, then they would continue to have the leadership of the country for ever which would not be palatable to the rest of the country. That was one fault in the disparity in the size of the regions.

The second problem I discovered was that within each region, you had majority group and a group of minorities. In the West, the Yoruba were the majority group, and the minority group was what grouped together in what became the Midwest. In the East, the Igbo were the majority and the minority group called themselves the COR State – Calabar, Ogoja, Rivers. In the North, Hausa Fulani were the majority group and the minority were mostly the Middle Belt and to some extent, the Kanuri.

So, you had a struggle within each region between the majority and the minority. So, I decided to cure these two problems that we must have parity of regions between the Old North and the Old South and that was why I decided to have parity of geopolitical zones between the North and the South.

And it also helped to have parity between the majority regions and the minority regions; the majority regions being in the Northwest, mostly Hausa-Fulani, Southwest, mostly Yoruba and the Southeast , mostly Igbo; and the minority regions being Northeast where you have the Kanuri with a number of ethnic groups in Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba; and in the North Central you have Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Niger; and in the South you have the minorities in the former Midwestern Region and the minority of the Southeast region who together formed the South-South.

So instead of three regions, you now have six regions; three majority, three minority; three in the North, three in the South – parity between North and South, parity between majority and minority and the apportionment of representation would be as we negotiated with our colonial masters on the basis of which we got our independence.



What of representation at the National Assembly?

That will have to recognise the type of assembly we should have. Before we had a House of Representatives which was a House of the people based on population and we had a Senate which was based on equality of the regions.

So, in a real federation, the lower House represents the equality of all human beings within the country. Like in America, a state like Rhode Island will have two senators, New York will have two senators, California will have two senators, all the states will have two senators showing equality of the states in the upper chamber and equality of human beings means that New York may have 50 men in the House of Representatives whereas Nevada or North Dakota may have just two or three.

So would you go along with those who say that we should adopt a unicameral legislature to reduce cost?

In a federation, it won’t be wise to have one legislative body as you will have nothing to show that all the federating units are equal. It is the upper chamber that signifies the equality of the federating units.

The only problem is that we copied and abused it whereby we have full-time lawmakers. In the First Republic they had only one Long Session which lasted about six weeks for the consideration of the Appropriation Act and then another one for the Supplementary Appropriation Act, so they had two major sessions, and any other session was an emergency session lasting a few days, and they were all part-time members.

When they came, they were quartered in flats LEGCO Flats and they got sitting allowances on top of their salaries and salary wasn’t very much. Many of them were teachers, some local government officials and so on. But now, everybody who goes to the House of Representatives is a full-time person; he needs a fully furnished house, he needs legislative aides, he needs a constituency office.

Yes, all these are supposed to enhance the legislative process, but they cost a lot of money and how far this competence is enhanced is a matter of concern to some well-meaning people, because you find that some of these constituency offices, and there are some around here, you go there, and you just find a table and a chair, and you ask whether this is where a member of the House of Representatives is going to sit down and draft laws to be presented to the National Assembly? So, it is not a matter of having a single chamber just to save cost.

It is a matter of not adopting the American system hook, line, and sinker. But even in America, the congressmen have just modest accommodation in Washington; they take every opportunity to go back to their constituencies to stay with the people who elected them and to brief them on what is happening.

Will you then suggest that we go back to the parliamentary system with part-time legislators?

I am not advocating for a parliamentary system. I am ok with the presidential system, but it doesn’t have to have two chambers with full-time legislators assigned with a lot of staff, having staff at home and staff in Abuja.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/11/ekwueme-bisi-onabanajo-plotted-six-geopolitical-zones-prison/

I haven't found the original interview (which was quite fascinating), but I've found a reprint which was published after his death. I'm going to post the reprint without the commentary about his death.

I've posted this thing on Nairaland years ago, but I can't find it. Now I'll have to create it again.

DMerciful:
That 1999 constitution did not come from a national or sovereign national conference and as such Illegitimate. The people never contributed to the constitution rather it was imposed. Suffice to say we dont have a constitution until a sovereign national conference where all ethnic nationalities will be represented and renegotiate our existence together!

Almost all constitutions have this issue. Blacks, women and the poor could not vote when the US constitution was enacted, the United Kingdom was created via marriages and conquests rather than the free will of the people.

However, since then, the people have elected representatives that have been able to amend their constitutions. Similarly, the Nigerian constitution has been amended.

(By the way, each of those constitutions were created or ratified by elected representatives of the people, just like the 1999 constitution is basically the 1995 constitution which was created by elected members of the 1995 constituent assembly).

By the way, someone is asking how come we have a South-South. This was created by Dr Alex Ekwueme at the 1995 Constituent Assembly. He said that people have always been afraid that the north is too big and therefore it will dominate Nigeria and therefore he proposed that there should be three geo-political zones, three in the north and three in the south, so that no zone would feel like it was being dominated. (Years later, he admitted that the idea was designed to reduce the power of the north).

The 6 zones are North-West, North-East, North-Central, South-West, South-East and South-South.

Davash222:
Aha! I've found someone that gives a damn enough to quote me.

Interesting

Yes, very interesting.

Davash222:
It may interest you to know I'm the chief patron of 'I don't care' crew.

Nobody gives a damn who or what you are.

Davash222:
No one cares!

Aha! I've found someone that cares enough to quote me.

Wonderful!

naptu2:
The Lagos State Government has banned motorcycle taxis, popularly known as Okada and auto-rickshaws, popularly known as Keke Marwa from operating in some local governments in the state. The ban takes effect from February 1, 2019.

The local governments include Lagos Island Local Government, Eti-Osa, Apapa, Surulere and Ikeja. This was made known by the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Lagos State Governor on New Media, Mr Jubril Gawat. The ban will also affect ride hailing services like O-Pay and Gokada.

That should have been 2020.

That's the State Chief of Protocol (SCOP), Ambassador Lawal Kazaure.

Videos

1) Hear the full list of local governments in which Okada and Keke Marwa have been banned from operating.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF5deHXY4E0


2) All forms of Okada and Keke Napep have been banned from these local governments (this includes ride hailing services like Gokada).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0fBpVKUje0

3) Alternatives


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P00S6UiIVQo

The Lagos State Government has banned motorcycle taxis, popularly known as Okada and auto-rickshaws, popularly known as Keke Marwa from operating in some local governments in the state. The ban takes effect from February 1, 2019.

The local governments include Lagos Island Local Government, Eti-Osa, Apapa, Surulere and Ikeja. This was made known by the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Lagos State Governor on New Media, Mr Jubril Gawat. The ban will also affect ride hailing services like O-Pay and Gokada.

porka:
The bold face refers.

The requirement according to section 133(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) is one-quarter (25% or 1/4 or one-fourth) of votes in 2/3 states and Abuja.

It is not 2/3rd of votes of 2/3rd states.

Thank you

Atouke:
That I don't know, if its hybrid or plain artificial.
But going by what they have done in other stadium, I know moni Michelle will do a good job at the Uyo township stadium.

Yes. They use Desso Grassmaster (hybrid), which I think is the best surface at the moment.

Atouke:
AKWA ibom already have 3 standard grass turf.
The Godswill Akpabio stadium and the training pitch.
Ikot Ekpene stadium has grass turf.

So what we need in the new stadium are artificial pitches.
The uyo township stadium is handled by moni Michelle, the company that fixed enyimba, bayelsa, bauchi and onikan stadium pitch. So it will be good.

The Eket stadium will have a standard artificial turf.
This will balance off so if the players are going to be facing opponents that play in grass turf, they can practice in grass, if they are facing and opponents that plays on artificial turf they can also practice on artificial turf.

Presently Akwa ibom state has no artificial turf stadium, but by the end of the year they will have two.

If it's handled by Moni Michelle, then it's probably hybrid, rather than artificial (the turf at the Enyimba Stadium and Onikan Stadium are hyrbid).

Atouke:
We should start the bring back Mobil pegasus FC to Eket campaign.
Who remembers this club and will like to see it make a comeback?

Really great idea. Not only Mobil Pegasus, we also need to bring back the Mobil Athletics Championship and it should be held here.

Atouke:
The eket stadium and the uyo township stadium will have artificial pitch, the commissioner of sports Akwa ibom state stated the artificial turf will be layed this year's before the rainy season begins.

That's the only possible mistake. They should do what Governor Akpabio did with the Akpabio International Stadium.

While the stadium was under construction, Governor Akpabio invited lots of experts to visit it regularly. These experts included Nigerian journalists, former footballers, etc. On one of those inspection tours, Governor Akpabio told Stephen Keshi that the stadium would have an artificial turf. Keshi screamed and advised the governor that it would be much better if the stadium had natural grass. The governor took Keshi's advice and the stadium was given a natural grass surface and nurseries were set up to grow the grass that was needed to resurface the stadium whenever the need arose.

It'll be better if these stadia have natural grass or hybrid pitches.

MayorofLagos:
Thanks Naptu, I got it, that 2/3rd is needed in all cases to add, remove or alter the constitution.



1. South wants restructuring, North does not.
2. North wants to nationalize Sharia, South does not want it.

This is basically the issue. It's like the provision that requires "spread" in presidential, governorship and local government elections. It is not enough for a candidate for the presidency to win majority of votes in the election. He must also win 2/3rd of the votes in 2/3rd of the states. This is to ensure that no single region can determine who will be president. A candidate must win in multiple regions before he can be declared the winner.

Similarly, I told people that said that Buhari was going to "Islamise" Nigeria that it was not possible under our current constitution. You would need to get the consent of 2/3rd votes of 2/3rd of the state houses of assembly and that's impossible.

MayorofLagos:
I understood you at first.

In regard to referendum and secession, the two items are not in the current Constitution. They are to be added to the constitution. If they existed already and we are trying to modify them then we need 2/3rd majority to assent to the alteration, but this is not the case. There is currently no statute on referendum or secession.

The constitution authorizes National Assembly to make laws. They will make a law authorizing inclusion of referendum and secession. It is not alteration because the items are not there yet.

Does the constituion call for 2/3rd to pass a Bill, or simple majority?

You will need a constitutional amendment in order to change the shape of Nigeria, in order to add, remove, create any state in Nigeria, etc. That's why all the calls for referendums have been that a clause should be inserted in the constitution to permit a referendum and to give legal backing to the result of a referendum. The territory that makes up Nigeria is spelt out in the constitution (that's why it was difficult for the Lagos State Government to create new local governments during Bola Tinubu's era). Therefore, it will require a constitutional amendment.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/157577-national-conference-provision-referendum-nigerian-constitution-lawmaker.html

https://asknigeria.com.ng/topic/42/what-does-the-law-s-of-nigeria-say-about-referendum


(Lots of people will approach the courts Immediately such a bill is introduced or passed, to get a declaration that the bill is unconstitutional because the National Assembly has no power to alter the shape of Nigeria without a constitutional amendment).

MayorofLagos:
Three items are needed to go into the amendment.
1. referendum clause
2. right of secession
3. review on the exclusive lists.

Referendum is part of fundamental rights to liberty and freedom because it gives participants in the republic the choice between alternatives. The alternatives of restructuring is to keep a federated republic or a unitary republic. All the Southern regions and MB have expressed desire to go for a Federated Republic. These are four zones out of six. So in a vote I dont see how two zones will defeat the four that reject unitary government. Likewise if you look at the numbers from constituencies, 170 will defeat 104.

You didn't get what I'm hinting at, so I'll make it clear.

You are looking at what's required to pass a bill in the House of Representatives. All that's required is a simple majority.

However, a constitutional amendment is different (all the things that you listed require constitutional amendments).

In order to amend the constitution, you need

1) ⅔rd majority of votes in the House of Representatives.

2) ⅔rd majority of votes in the Senate

3) ⅔rd majority of votes in ⅔rd of all the state houses of assembly in Nigeria.

This is why, although voice votes are usually used in the National Assembly, electronic voting is used when they are amending the constitution, because they must count each vote to determine if they've gotten ⅔ majority.

A lot of these things require constitutional amendment. What is the procedure for amending the constitution and what kind of majority do you need to amend the constitution?

I think I need to make this clear.

Some people are surprised that Alhassan Dantata made a fortune from trading in groundnuts. This is because the value of groundnuts today is not what it was back then. Therefore, I'm going to help them understand how valuable it was.

The industrial revolution was one of the main reasons for the colonisation of Africa (and many other parts of the world). European factories needed raw materials and they also needed markets for their goods. One of the badly needed raw materials was oil. I don’t mean crude oil, I mean vegetable oil.

Vegetable oil was used to lubricate machines in European factories (this was before the discovery of crude oil products that could do the job better) and it was also used as a raw material for consumer goods like soap. The major sources of vegetable oil were palm trees and groundnuts.

This was the reason that part of the Southern Protectorate of Nigeria was previously known as the Oil Rivers Protectorate. This was because the primary reason that the Royal Niger Company colonised it was to get palm oil from the area (the area is now known as the Niger Delta).

This trade in palm oil led to violent wars and conquests in the Niger Delta. Many kings and chiefs wanted to act as middlemen between the British and the sources of palm oil and they wanted to do this by force. For example, King Jaja of Opobo was deposed by the British because he levied taxes on British traders who bought palm oil from his territory. He even shipped palm oil directly to Liverpool, independent of British middlemen. Therefore the British deposed, arrested and exiled him.


However, in Northern Nigeria, Alhassan Dantata was not a king or emir. He was a businessman. He did not try to stop the British from buying groundnuts, rather, he figured out ways that he could profit from the groundnut trade. He spoke English, therefore he could negotiate directly with the British merchants and he understood a little bit of accounting and so he could ensure that every kobo that he made was accounted for.

Alhassan was also affected when the British banned many Nigerian traders from trading directly with the big companies, but his invention was so efficient that the British eventually had to rely on him for large amounts of groundnuts.

This was his invention. Alhassan had agents in almost all the little towns and villages across Northern Nigeria. It was the duty of the agents to seal deals with farmers who grew the groundnuts. These deals ensured that the farmers only sold their nuts to Dantata’s agents. The agents would then move the nuts to Kano, where they were stored in pyramid like structures. Dantata also had shares in the West African Railway Company and the company’s trains would move his groundnuts to the ports in Southern Nigeria, where the European companies would transfer them from trains to ships for onward movement to Europe.

Dantata also realised that northerners loved chewing kolanuts, therefore, he had agents that bought kolanuts from forest areas in south-west Nigeria and so his trains brought groundnuts to the south and then went back to the north loaded with kolanuts.

Dantata became the main supplier of groundnuts to the Niger Company. The Niger Company is a successor to the Royal Niger Company which colonised the Niger Delta area of Nigeria so that they could get more palm oil to export to Europe. The Niger Company eventually became the United African Company (UAC) and they were once the biggest consumer goods company in Nigeria. The company was so large that at various times it included:

naptu2:
UAC was the largest non-oil company in Nigeria in the 1970s, ‘80s and early 1990s. The two most important business executives in Nigeria at that time were the M.D. of Shell (the largest oil company) and the Chairman of UAC (the largest non-oil company). They were almost like presidents. One of them, Chief Ernest Shonekan (Chairman of UAC in the 1980s and early 1990s) even became Head of State of Nigeria. The company was huge and (at various times) included the following subsidiaries:

1) A.J. Seward ( "for skin, hair and body care" ) : They made hair creams, body creams and lotions, face powders, soaps and other beauty products.


2) Kingsway Department Stores: They had the largest supermarket and mall chain in Nigeria.

3) Kingsway Chemists: A chain of pharmacies that was spread right across Nigeria.

4) UAC Foods: This included Kingsway Rendezvous (now known as Mr Biggs), Gala Sausage Rolls, Wall's Ice Cream, Spring Waters Nigeria Ltd (makers of SWAN Water, Gossy Water and SWAN soft drinks), etc.

5) UAC Motors: GM Nigeria (Bedford, Chevrolet and Isuzu), Federated Motors Industries Ltd (locally made Bedford trucks) and Niger Motors.

6) Bordpak Ltd (packaging).

7) Premier Packaging Ltd.

8 ) UAC Technical Ltd: Industrial machines and huge electricity generators.

9) G.B. Olivant: Trading company.

10) UAC Property Development Company: They own 1004 Estate, Golden Tulip Hotel (formerly Dubar Hotel), Abebe Court Ikoyi, etc.


11) Grand Cereals: Grand Pure Soya Oil, etc.

12) MDS Logistics: Wharehouses, haulage, distribution, etc.

13) Chemical and Allied Products Limited (CAPL) : Dulux and Caplux paints, etc.

14) African Timber and Plywood Ltd.

15) West African Cold Storage.


This company has directly or indirectly produced several very wealthy families including the Abebes, the Dantatas, the Dangotes, the Murray-Bruces and the Shonekans.



UAC has helped to nurture the fortunes of some of Nigeria's wealthiest families.

1) Dantata/Dangote: Alhassan Dantata's business got a big boost when he got contracts to supply UAC (Royal Niger Company) groundnuts, kola nuts, etc.

2) Murray-Bruce: Mulligan Murray-Bruce (Ben Bruce's father) was a UAC executive who did so well that upon retiring he was given Domino Stores to run.

3) Abebe: Sir Christopher Abebe (Stella Obasanjo's father) was Chairman of UAC (also Chairman of Nigerian Breweries) in the 1970s. He did so well, that several UAC and Nigerian Breweries facilities are named after him (Abebe Village, Igamu).


In the picture below are the logo of the Royal Niger Company, UAC's first logo and UAC's current logo (which was adopted in the 2000s). The logo in the middle is my favourite.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/6870095_1169259416510334384872907671844771556875958n_jpgf20940feb4ac0dd73a8fe48ef7f592f2

https://www.nairaland.com/4413629/christopher-abebe-stella-obasanjos-father

In America the groundnuts were not only used for industrial applications, but they were also eaten in large amounts. Remember that this was the golden age of baseball (1920-1960) and it was the most American thing to do to go out to the baseball park and watch baseball while eating peanuts and drinking beer. Baseball was known as “America’s favourite pastime” at that time and one of those baseball peanut brands, Cracker Jack (combination of peanuts, popcorn and honey) became extremely popular.

Dantata and his children were also smart enough to diversify the business (into transportation [railway and trucks], jewellery [his wife sold jewels and household goods to women], textiles [Dantata and his associates established the first textile mill in Kano], etc.) such that they did not lose out when groundnut lost its value.