₦airaland Forum

FreeGlobe:
Obiano has achieved more than Peter obi in a year plus. Security, IGR, Job creation, Youth empowerment, workers welfare etc. Go to the state, the difference is clear

FreeGlobe:
obiano has said he didnt see any money although he has refused to embarass obi by making a fuse of it in the media like obi is doing and by the way, obiano raised IGR from a mere 500 million naira a month to over 1 billion a month in less than 6 months which means more money in state coffers

pazienza:
It's good that every government have those that criticize it, that should keep them on their toes.
Peter Obi did well.
His management skills will be better managed in an Igbo country, free of negative energies of other envious Nigerian groups.

MzJackBaueress:
Peter Obi is already the SEC boss. He doesn't need a ministerial post again. I hope he performs well in his new appointment.

Kenai:
Troubled Governors And The Peter Principle

As most governors in Nigeria run from pillar to post in search of funds to meet such basic obligation as salaries and pension arrears, this column wagers that all the petro-dollars in Arabia will not help a poor governor. Even as they collectively resolved to recover expenditure allegedly made on behalf of the Federal Government, a better option may well be to tell each other the harsh truth. Unless most of our governors purge themselves of spiritual and mental poverty, they will always be plagued by this manner fiscal poverty.

The newly-elected governors in particular must carry out a deep introspection over the activities of their immediate predecessors and determine to choose a fresh path because the road ahead is destined to be tough. It will be interesting to note the amount spent by some of the governors at the Abuja meeting last Wednesday in search of bailout. It will be even more interesting to note that some of the governors travelled to and from Abuja in chartered jets at highly wasteful rates.

Just last month, even as workers suffer the pangs of hunger, a governor from the Southeast was on a junket with a chartered jet. As he touched down in his state, he kept the jet on standby for so long and at such huge cost that even the owners of the craft were worried at such wastefulness by a state’s chief executive.

Early in this month, four vessels berthed at the Apapa Ports bearing 34,450 tons of imported crude palm oil worth over N3 billion. In the last five years, Nigeria has imported about 2.4 million metric tons of this commodity valued at about N314 billion (about $1.6 billion).

We must point it out for the umpteenth time that between Adapalm in Imo State and Risonpalm in Rivers State all the palm products needs of Nigeria’s manufacturing industries can be met with extra to export to Europe. In other words, these states could have easily earned a chunk of this multi-billion dollars palm oil trade. But a visit to any of these sprawling palm estates would only make you weep. It would also afford you an idea of the kind of people managing our affairs.

Apart from funds from the federation account, which has virtually vanished with the crude oil debacle, most governors never mustered the initiative to build alternative economic bases in their states. As we said here last week, has cocoa stopped growing in the Southwest of Nigeria or has it stopped being a major world commodity? Any thinking governor can make any state in the Southwest the hub of cocoa production and processing in Africa.

Regardless that most states lacked any economic base and do not earn enough revenue, yet they all live large and embark on vanity programmes and projects that are not only way above their means, but have little economic value. Imo for instance was handing cash to pupils and also claimed to be building two universities at the same time. It was also building a fancy skyscraper and three massive hotels in the three senatorial zones. There are 27 general hospitals going on simultaneously in the 27 LGAs. There is no iota of financial planning in all of these.

In Osun State, an unsustainable N3.6 billion free school meal programme is on, as well as free uniforms; free tablets and free tuition. What then are parents for? In the thick of all these is an airport project.



Where on earth is this impoverished State supposed to get the fund for all these? Where is financial planning and projections in all this? Another state in the southwest is building so many posh public schools in towns while many students still learn under trees in the rural areas. There is also a plan to build a sky-scrapper like the Cocoa House in Ibadan, an ego-induced edifice, not minding that the Ibadan monolith is barely occupied and of little economic value apart from gracing the horizon.

Why would a governor dare to purchase jets, helicopters and fly in chartered jets yet expect that cash is inexhaustible? Why are local government council workers also owed for months in many states? The federal allocation to LGAs ought to be enough to pay that level of staff five times over since hardly anything else happen in the LGAs.

The point being made essentially here is that money or the lack thereof, is not the problem with these states that cannot pay their workers. This may be hard to comprehend but the point is that no state is in reality richer than the other. A state is only as good as its manager. This is buttressed by the fact that while some oil-rich state are in trouble, some that are deemed to be poor states have managed their finances so well that they have enough to bailout rich states.

This is where the Peter Principle above comes in. This principle, espoused by a certain Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull states that people are usually promoted to positions quite above their competence. Are most governors in Nigeria truly competent. Are they willing to learn?

This leads to the other Peter Principle: the Peter Obi Principle. This column will recommend him especially to the new governors. They must quietly seek out the erstwhile governor of Anambra State, Governor Peter Obi and tap his mind on the art of running a state in an emerging economy like Nigeria’s. It is not only that Anambra is not owing workers, it has enough in its kitty to lend money to some overly trouble states.

Obi did not only leave about N80 billion in cash for his successor Chief Willie Obiano, he put millions of dollars of the state’s funds in bonds that will mature in a few years time at some profit. As if he saw tomorrow, he executed a policy of putting aside at least N100million monthly for his eight years in office. Apart from a glaring fiscal discipline, he never embarked on any vanity projects of policies but enacted numerous decisions that would continue to redound on the economic well being of the state for a very long time.

There are investments in modern shopping malls in Awka, Nnewi, Onitsha; Onitsha Business Parks one and two and a N500 million investment with the Bank of Industry to support SMEs in Anambra State. Perhaps most remarkable is the SAB Miller’s breweries in Onitsha, which recently expanded to Nnewi. SAB Miller, one of the biggest brewers in the world has invested about $170 million in its Nigeria subsidiary based in Anambra and will provide about 50,000 jobs at full capacity. This is the way to build a state’s economy.

Peter Obi exemplified prudent leadership while delivering value to the people. At the time he left in March 2014, he had restored the people’s trust in public schools and Anambra candidates topped in all national exams for many years. While some states are so indebted that they are no longer credit worthy, Peter Obi did not borrow a dime in eight years. His time in Anambra (2006- 2014) ought to be a case study on how to run a state. He left the state far better than he met it and proved that it is not the quantum of funds available to a state but the quality of mind managing it.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/troubled-governors-and-peter-principle/

cc: Lalasticlala, Ishilove, Obinoscopy, Ikengawo, Superstar1, Raumdeter, Abagworo, Schematics, Sunnybobo3, Eagleeye2, Eaglechild, AgabaI23.

decode55:
I can remember going to ibadan last year for FECAMDS convention despite the Ebola outbreak brouhaha..

Best decision ever

From the well "stocked" UI zoo, to the vast town and landscape, to the heritage malls, cocoa house(first sky scraper in Nigeria), shopping malls, shoprites, cinemas and the cute females,
I must say: I really enjoyed myself

Most Med Students I had convos with during the convention were igbos though (I wonder why)


Well, [color=olive] DELSU 2015; here I come [/color]

onatisi:
I swear buhari will soon sack adeshina . Adeshina comment portrays him to be a drunk who brain is always on the bottle

softysparky:
Wow, where have you been?

Nigeria36:
I don't have time to educate you now, SSS performs 3 functions: intelligence (equivalent of the CIA), counter-terrorism (FBI) and close body protection (presidential security service, South Korea or US Secret Security Service) they don't av uniform but dresses on black suit (jacket). It is their responsibility to offer close body security to the President and Governors and their immediate family. They also maintain the mobile fleets of the President except the air fleets. The Guard protects the seat of power not the DSS, but the DSS protects the interior of the buildings. When the President is on a move, the Guard acts as Vanguard, during functions they protect the perimeter of the event venue, while DSS maintains close body. During emergency, it is the duty of the DSS to extract the President while the Guard engages the criminal, providing cover for the evacuation of the President, and during the extraction, the DSS acts as body shield to the President until successful extraction while the Guard engages. Thank me later

Teespice:
koko is they should not owe at all whether primary or secondary or tertiary.

kapish.

onatisi:
that is the scary part of all this mess, what it means is that aregbe has ran osun state down to the extent that the total civil service salary is been used to service and pay up debts !!!! That runs into solid billions !!!!!

Teespice:
not only him.

imo state owes workers 11 months salary. I wonder how those workers are coping.

Cuche:
That road is not a finished product. The most important thing that should never be joked with in road construction across the State is a functional drainage system serving the roads and the anticipated housing density around the area. Such drainage plans should be part of the consultancy for each road.
Anything short of that is a poor quality road

investnow2013:
Obiano at The commissioning of Awkzu Anambra University Campus Road Igbariam today!

Teespice:
don't mind them.

I am not in support of buhari nor Jonathan but then truth has to be told.

for instance, the monthly stipend of 5k for unemployed Nigerians, these same lots will say that the money should be used for development but will still say again that the president hasn't fulfilled his promises.

it is less than a month he became president yet see baseless criticisms. tell me how it is the fault of buhari that nigeria hasn't won a single game in the world cup as claimed by these lots.

let it be stated that Nigerians were simply tired of Jonathan and voted him out. same will be done for buhari come 2019 if he does not perform up to expectation. if Jonathan had done really well, Nigerians won't bother voting for buhari because of his antecedents.

I am really tired of the name callings. nigeria is our country and all hands should be on deck to see that we move forward. how do we expect to do that when we have one faction still whining over elections of how many months ago.

too much epistle. I don tire to dey type.

God knows I would not revisit this issue again.

Imanuelle:
Looks crazy,
But its okay...
Can't forget the lashing I got from my guys on one of my birthdays on campus...
Worth much more than what money can buy.

Microflux:
the pple will, must nt be necessarily good, bt the main thing is that the elected shud b of pples choice. If bad, then dey will v themseive to blame.

sammyscholar:
it is not. and i ask you: if the rope that bounds pdp into accord had nt come loose, would they have suffered this defeated frontiered by thier own men that are now in the opposition party? we cannot talk about the 2015 general election without talking about how things began to fall apart in the pdp. you just want to take it from the head.

Tgirl4real:
Exactly how the argument for OAU should go.
Unfortunately, u aint one of the debaters.

Tgirl4real:
Many will still argue that it wasn't free and fair.

Secondly, the results showed that there were a lot of personal interests at play.

sammyscholar:
still waiting @microflux. You and miracy are not saying anything about the bone of contention - political vendetta. Should I assume that you guys are bereft of the wit of the subject matter?

swindo1:
from abagana down to awka na europ i rep nawfia njikoka lga

ak47mann:
Obiano at the Commissioning of Nkpor Junction -Amawbia Section Of Onitsha - Enugu Old Road come with new install traffic lights Ikemba dey salute una

whizpet:
.

This  is what we are been confronted with within the APC as we choose our senate President and Speaker of the House

“The party is supreme and its interest is superior to that of its individual members,” the party said.

MizMyColi:
What about the thread on FP suggesting that there was no legal proclamation of the senate?
That could be a bottleneck.

But I ask..If there was a schedule of events, shouldn't Buhari have been at the venue at the stipulated time?
Awaiting more clarity on this.

Obiagelli:
You have got a valid point, apc messed up big time, David mark could have been sworn-in

PassingShot:
And that is what I just said. That if he didn't ask the Clerk to inaugurate the 8th assembly, it can NEVER be inaugurated.

PassingShot:
Who has said otherwise. I have only said that for the NASS to be inaugurated, the president of FRN MUST ask the Clerk to proceed. If not, the inauguration can not proceed. Which part of my post is unclear or not correct.

puntersmind:
Most Importantly, APC forgot that the PDP lawmakers and national leaders met yesterday night till early this morning to harness their plan with Sariki. Why leave the national assemply where the real deal was gonna happen for some meeting with PMB somewhere else. Amateur.