₦airaland Forum

Real Madrid have no injury concerns for Wednesday's Supercopa second leg against Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Centre-back Pepe has recovered from concussion and is expected to replace Raul Albiol in defence, while Fabio Coentrao, Sami Khedira, Jose Callejon and Karim Benzema are all vying for starting berths.

Playmaker Luka Modric, who finally completed his protracted transfer from Tottenham on Monday, could start on the bench as Real look to rescue a 3-2 deficit from last week's first leg encounter.

Barcelona could be without captain Carles Puyol after the defender fractured his cheekbone in Sunday's 2-1 victory at Osasuna, but remains in regular training.

Xavi and Pedro are both likely to be recalled into the starting XI, while summer signing Alex Song, who was an unused substitute at the weekend, could make his debut.


http://www.goal.com/en-gb/match/82608/real-madrid-vs-barcelona/preview

Messi all the way

Abuja — Erstwhile chairman of the fuel subsidy probe panel of the House of Representatives who had been on an elongated visit to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, on Monday reported to the Police headquarters in Abuja to announce his return to the country and readiness to face the charges that would be preferred against him when the case comes up in court.

Farouk Lawan who was accused of collecting $620,000 as bribe from oil magnate, Mr. Femi Otedola was granted permission to travel for his religious obligation and given a specific time frame to return to the country.

Recall that Police authorities investigating bribery allegations against Lawan have since (four weeks ago) completed their investigations and sent the report of the investigation which sources said overwhelmingly indicted Lawan, to the office of the Attorney General of the Federation for legal advice. The AGF's office is, however, yet to take action on the report.

Police sources said the former chairman, House Committee on Education, later signed the police register that he has reported in accordance with one of the conditions of his bail.

Police sources told Vanguard that Farouk and the secretary to the committee, Boniface Emenalo may soon appear before the court.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201208290124.html

Long overdue. Nice one there NOI

musiwa6: i am more worried about schools condition in the western niger.
l_1.jpg[/img]

Aare, I don't think this changes'll affect the school. Since Tinubu wasn't appointed as the VC, there shouldn't be any probs. Chancellors are just figure head in running of the school, it's the VC that matters most.

* Team includes First Bank, UBS executives

* SWF suppose to better save Nigeria's oil windfall

* State governors fear SWF means less money for them

By Joe Brock

ABUJA, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Nigeria moved closer on Tuesday to joining most of its OPEC partners in steering oil revenues into longer-term investment, announcing a top management team for its new sovereign wealth fund.

Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the fund would start with a cash hoard of around $1 billion. The top team will come from First Bank and UBS.

The West African oil producer is one of only three OPEC member states that do not have an SWF, and the new fund is being keenly watched by global markets and investors in Africa's second biggest economy.

The government hopes the fund will provide a firmer legal basis to ringfence Nigeria's savings from competing demands so it can better save when oil prices are high.

Sovereign wealth funds are essentially government-run investment portfolios that buy into anything from mainstream assets such as stocks and bonds to direct foreign investment.

Nigeria, Africa's top energy producer, pumps over 2 million barrels of oil a day but has frittered much of it away over the years on government wages, other recurrent spending and corruption, ills that Okonjo-Iweala quit her World Bank job to come back and tackle.

Auditor and consultancy firm KPMG helped hire the SWF board.

Alhaji Mahey Rasheed, a member of the board of First Bank, was chosen as the chairman of the fund team with UBS executive and former JP Morgan head Uche Orji chosen as the managing director and chief executive officer.

Okonjo-Iweala said she hoped by the end of the year the team would lay out plans for the $1 billion but did not say when investments would start.

The SWF has three main aims: saving money for future generations, funding infrastructure and defending the economy against commodity price shocks.

"I think the sovereign wealth fund will make Nigeria more attractive for investors," Okonjo-Iweala told reporters.

She said she hoped more money would be paid in later, adding that 20 percent of the fund would go to each of its three targets and the board would decide how to invest the other 40 percent.

President Goodluck Jonathan signed a bill into law in May last year authorising the SWF, but powerful state governors originally blocked the fund, saying it was unconstitutional.

They later agreed to it going ahead, albeit with an initial limit of $1 billion, a fraction of the $7 billion savings that are in Nigeria's Excess Crude Account (ECA).

Many state governors fear the SWF will mean less money for them to spend than the current ECA system for saving oil cash.

"The battle was long but I think the country stands to gain and I think it was worth it," Okonjo-Iweala said on Tuesday.

The SWF is meant to replace the ECA eventually but Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters last week the two will run side-by-side until people get comfortable with the SWF.

Critics say the ECA is opaque and can be too easily used.

The account contained $20 billion in 2007 but fell to $3 billion after a presidential election last year, despite five years of high oil prices. It has since risen to $7 billion.
http://reuters.com/article/idINL6E8JS8BN20120828?irpc=932

danjohn: Holding a position as a university president, professor, lecturer etc. is a routine practice of former elected officials around the world. Former politicians use this to buy time, while they are away from elected office. I guess Tinubu wants to have a "real job" with a title, because right now he is not even the Chairman of the ACN, he is just the de-facto paramount leader of the party.

But come to think of it, is Tinubus job not enough? He's a party leader of the ACN
He runs the tax collection in Lagos
He owns the Oriental hotel in Island
And now the Chancellor, that's too much

danjohn: Holding a position as a university president, professor, lecturer etc. is a routine practice of former elected officials around the world. Former politicians use this to buy time, while they are away from elected office. I guess Tinubu wants to have a "real job" with a title, because right now he is not even the Chairman of the ACN, he is just the de-facto paramount leader of the party.

Correct

I went to ilesha(Osun state) today and ate in the same cafeteria with these SAS. They are just combination of military men, police officers and MOPOL. The ones I even ate with are purely military men in their uniforms and huge guns. There are not to cause panic, but to retain peace in the state. I read on their red van "SAS(Swift Action Squad)". From a reliable source, I asked if those police men and the military guys can't be used for evil acts in wish of the state government. The reply was that "the agents(police and military men) are fully under Federal government, but the state government can give them some assignment to carry out. If any assignment is out of what Federal government is in support, these men would be cautioned by the federal government, since they're still under the FGN". Be calm bro, no probs

Demo.crazy for justice

Tinubu Appointed LAUTECH Chancellor

The University is jointly owned by two ACN controlled states.

Former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, has been appointed the Chancellor of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho.

Mr. Tinubu’s appointment was contained in a statement issued in Ibadan on Tuesday by Festus Adedayo, the Special Adviser on Media to the Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi.

The statement stated that Oyo and Osun States, which jointly own the university, took the joint decision. Both states are controlled by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the party which has Mr. Tinubu as its leader.

LAUTECH was established by the old Oyo State (now Oyo and Osun State) in 1988.

According to the statement, the choice of Mr. Tinubu, a financial expert, accountant and administrator, was arrived at after extensive deliberations between the governments of the two owner-states.

The former Lagos State Governor is expected to bring his administrative ingenuity and vast experience in public management to bear on the running of the institution, and reposition it to meet the standard of its peers all over the world.


http://premiumtimesng.com/news/98044-tinubu-appointed-lautech-chancellor.html

confirmed

The minister of power, Barth Nnaji, has resigned his appointment, a statement by the presidency has said.
Reuben Abati, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, said President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted the minister’s resignation and thanked him for his services to the nation.
 
More to follow.

http://premiumtimesng.com/business/98076-power-minister-barth-nnaji-resigns.html

confirmed

The minister of power, Barth Nnaji, has resigned his appointment, a statement by the presidency has said.
Reuben Abati, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, said President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted the minister’s resignation and thanked him for his services to the nation.
 
More to follow.

http://premiumtimesng.com/business/98076-power-minister-barth-nnaji-resigns.html

confirmed

The minister of power, Barth Nnaji, has resigned his appointment, a statement by the presidency has said.
Reuben Abati, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, said President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted the minister’s resignation and thanked him for his services to the nation.
 
More to follow.

http://premiumtimesng.com/business/98076-power-minister-barth-nnaji-resigns.html

coolestkc: I do not understand why some people don't reason before they make public comments, I read some people asking why somebody who wants to take a direct flight would be forced to come to Enugu first to catch his/her flight, but forgot that everybody from the East have been flying to Abuja or Lagos before catching their direct international flights so why the complaint if someone now has to fly from Abuja or Lagos to Enugu to catch a direct flight. That will help businesses like hotels and eateries in Enugu to flourish and thereby ensuring equitable distribution of wealth.Please people should stop being myopic in their thinking.

May be you read that post again. The companies said there are high demands of their operation in Abuja, no one is saying there is no demand at all in Enugu. But when it's higher in Abuja and people are forced to land in Enugu before heading to Abuja, people spend more than what they should, and same as these companies.
The idea of the minister is good, but I think it'll be better if the flight to Abuja is granted and all these air companies flying Abuja must as well have a particular percentage of it flight towing Enugu, to balance it. But you forced to reach Enugu first before making your way to Abuja is out of it.

kooto: What is reality? please explain.

"Reality" as used in the post you quoted, means we Nigeria behaving politely, and not making Ethnicity our major factor in managing the country. But putting right and capable people on the leadership seat, Like it's done in progressive countries.

That's why development is slow. We claim to be one but divided. I think it'll be better if we divide and stand on our own, or we unit and drop the Ethnic thing. Than to be as a country and divided within.

Why can't our leaders for ones drop ethnic card, and face reality?

Former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd), has said Nigeria is on the road to disintegration and can only be rescued when the citizens agree to discuss issues affecting it.

He added that such discussions must border on what the ethnic nationalities in the country genuinely desire.

Akinrinade, who is also the convener of Yoruba Assembly, spoke to journalists in Lagos on Monday against the backdrop of the conference of South-West leaders holding on Thursday in Ibadan, Oyo State.

He said, “Disintegration for Nigeria is not out of possibility. We are not far from the road to disintegration. It will be the fault of all us if it happens. Let us sit together and speak honest truths to one another. Let us use superior arguments among ourselves in the spirit of give and take to decide what we want.”

The former CDS also said Yorubas must re-appraise themselves and decide their destiny within the Nigerian nation.

He stated that it was time leaders in the South-West sat together and discussed issues affecting the region.

Akinrinade said, ” It is our belief that the conference will afford the Yoruba the opportunity to sit together and revalidate their position on the Nigerian nation and present it so that we will reflect on it soberly.”

He stressed that the people in the region had never hidden their clamour for autonomy to be given to ethnic nationalities in the country for them to develop at their pace.

According to him, it is wrong for anyone to say such call is not negotiable and unpatriotic.

Akinrinade noted that there was no other way to resolve the challenges confronting the country than through honest discussions among the ethnic.

http://www.punchng.com/news/nigeria-heading-for-disintegration-ex-defence-chief/

Seriously, I'm fed up with it too.
It doesn't speak well of any of us to other people who visit this site.
Afam4ever made a post yesterday on one the front page thread, wanted to quote it here but it has be hidden. I think it about peoples post here affecting him emotionally. I felt for him yesterday while going through that thread. I imagined what prompted him to post such a thing, I guess he has been pushed to the wall. Same goes with one and everyone of us. Although some of us might not show it here on NL, but it's just the truth. Seriously, I think we should respect ourselves.

Also, I don't know what those mods are doing, because it's getting so obvious that they're promoting tribalism. If it's to bring traffic, then I think there are better ways that can be done. You people(mods) have the power to curb this, but you don't use it wisely. It's getting boring already. I only don't want to mention names, there are some I'd that shouldn't be existing again, but are still roaming around doing what they know best(tribalism).

It'll be great if after this thread we see meaningful adjustment in the way we(Yoruba and Igbo especially) address ourselves on this site. Because this is not the first thread to be opened on issue like this, but all to avail.

It seems someone's girl friend has been stripped .

You're aswell wrong for saying it's can't be done in Lagos. Remember Fasholas first term, when people were challenged of dressing improperly.

I do not have any official relationship anymore with Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, having resigned my appointment in his government since June 14th, 2012 and I am not looking for anything from anybody other than stabilize in the academia for which I have been preparing myself for some years now. But the speculative story in the Abuja based Leadership (August 20th, 2012) to the effect that OBJ has endorsed a Lamido/Amaechi presidential ticket, come 2015, cannot pass without a response from me as me.

This is because that story is contradicted by the much I happen to know about the credible but yet an imaginary ticket. Above all, it behoves on me to stand today by what I said or wrote yesterday. This, I believe, is the path of honour since serving in the Lamido government will remain a part of my CV for life. I should only stop defending yesterday if I were to be contradicted by something horrendous today.

It is also important to warn that the logic of that story is not its truth or falsehood but hanging Sule Lamido's perceived presidential ambition on Obasanjo's sponsorship with a view to making it unacceptable to Obasanjo's many political enemies. Sule Lamido might be the target but the story itself is an unmistakable signal of how the North will bleed from internal struggle for power between the various fractions of its elite, come 2015. Given the heterogeneity of the North and lack of central authority reining in everybody, there is no way there won't be such struggle when a choice is to be made. However, it was assumed that, in the context of an office which has eluded it, the region would strive to avoid open fight among contenders in 2015.

This assumption has been questioned by the Leadership story and it is worrisome because it was the moment Nigerian leaders of Northern origin started employing manipulation, intrigue or deception in their statecraft that the end of Northern hegemony began. My contention is that the story in question is fundamentally a product of intrigue, manipulation and misinformation. First, this is not the first time the same Leadership has come up with that sort of story. In May 2010, it ran a front page lead story to the effect that Obasanjo had positioned Lamido as Jonathan's Vice-President. It was a very laughable story because by then, Jonathan had already received the two criteria for the appointment, all of which automatically excluded anybody like Sule Lamido. I am sure the president and those who knew what was going on in the Villa laughed out their hearts regarding how such a story found its way into the newspaper except it was an SSS job. Logically, if the first story about OBJ positioning Lamido for Vice-Presidency was a figment of somebody's infertile imagination, this too must be another one.

Two, the story about Obasanjo endorsing Lamido/Amaechi for 2015 is just a replica of the first, a strategy by a section of those fearing the possibility of real and imagined alternatives to themselves. Otherwise, the idea of a Lamido/Amaechi pair was never there before the publication on May 21st, 2012 of a centre spread material I wrote, titled, "Sule Lamido and Rotimi Amaechi: The Communion of Nigeria's Ultimate Trouble Makers". This was published in no less than four newspapers viz Daily Trust, The Nation, Daily Sun and Blueprint. Neither Lamido nor OBJ had any input into it. It is a different thing if it appealed to them after it came out but Lamido, for sure, read it for the first time in the newspapers like any other person. It was a continuation of my unprompted liking for a Lamido president of Nigeria, an inclination which took roots from a number of things I observed while working closely with him as a foreign affairs ministers and later, as a governor. Of course, he has his baggage, just like most of us but there are things that even his worst enemy cannot deny him because they are empirical or provable.

That was always the basis of my inclination thereto, inserting in an advertorial in Sunday Trust, (October 26, 2010, page , for example, that his aides were surprised that, instead of stretching out himself, he was stretching out for Goodluck. It was a risky enterprise even though the advertorial did proceed to rationalize GEJ as a matter of duty. In fact, the presence of some visitors, including a former minister, saved me from Lamido's indignation when he saw that portion of the advertorial because it was never with his permission.

And it was the same inclination that informed the Lamido/Amaechi article in May 2010. I was not even in Government House, Dutse, anymore but at the University of Ibadan when Governor Amaechi visited Jigawa State earlier that month. I only saw pictures of the visit as a member of a mailing list. But I had been to Rivers State earlier in March, 2012 on an NGO related research on governance scrutiny assignment. The assignment required of me to look around and then talk to the governor in the context of his coming to power in spite of forces railed against him.

I carried out the assignment but I did not get to talk to Amaechi because his aides said he was busy. But I came away from my tour convinced that the guy was a clear leadership model. The conception, design and implementation of his primary schools alone should give him any serious leadership award in Nigeria. Added to the stories I heard about him and cross checked from an academic who was a NANS activist at the University of PortHacourt with him suggested that he is what, for want of a better term, I would call the ultimate purposive rascal. So, when I heard of his visit to Jigawa, it crossed my mind that in Lamido and Amaechi, Nigeria might find the two purposive rascals that a former Chief Justice of Nigeria has been wondering how the country could find to salvage it. That was how the Lamido/Amaechi article came up.

Suspecting how Governor Lamido would react, I did not send it to him electronically but to someone in Kano who was to 'compel' him to read the hard copy and who would tell me how he felt. Fortunately or unfortunately, the person had traveled out of the country and I was only to know of this when he called me from where he was about my assignment to him. By then, I could only send a text to the governor that I had written something about Amaechi's visit to Jigawa State which I asked a named person to take to him only to discover that the person was not in the country. I added that already, many of the newspapers I gave the material had gone ahead to print it in their advance pages because I thought his 'silence' meant approval, not knowing my messenger had traveled. I joked that should the material turn out unacceptable to him, I was not in fear of any reprisal since I was already several hundred kilometres away from Dutse.

That was how Lamido, not to talk of Obasanjo, read it like any other reader. Of course, OBJ and Lamido have been together since 1999 and a Lamido presidency could have featured in their discussions but certainly not the Amaechi dimension before the piece in question and certainly not in the notion of a done deal that Leadership presented in its story based on what a source told them.

Three, if it was because Amaechi visited Jigawa, that makes the story even more problematic. Governors Murtala Nyako, Magatarkada Wammako, Babangida Aliyu, Ibrahim Shema, Ibrahim Yakowa have also been to Jigawa in the last few years.

Four, Lamido positioning himself or being positioned by someone has been the recurring hearsay in Nigerian politics in the last 5 years, peaking during the first spasm of Umaru Yar'adua's sickness that the Jigawa State Government had to issue a statement then.

I have gone into details not in defence of Lamido but in defence of my thesis that the story in question benefited from a manipulative agenda. And that if that is how the Northerners are going to go about 2015, then there will be more problems than necessary. It might be Lamido this time but another person next time. It goes against the background of the imperative for the North, should power rotate there, to use the opportunity to demonstrate that it is not in the interest of social safety to give just anybody power in the name of democracy. This, it can do by producing a presidential candidate based on executive search. Whoever an executive search produces, be it Atiku, Buhari, Bukola, General Gusau, Gov Lamido or those yet to announce their intention, so be it. The North has been the theatre of unwarranted bloodshed since 1981. That must stop through a less acrimonious leadership selection process that ditches crude scheming, manipulation and intrigue. For the umpteenth time, it must be said that the road to greatness must be great or it is contradictory.

Onoja wrote this piece from Abuja
http://allafrica.com/stories/201208270724.html

Kobojunkie: Any Back-on-track plan that include some of the very same entities that helped bring this nation to where it is today, is likely a joke and not much else. These men have proven they are in this for power, money and/or fame for themselves and not for the Nigerian people.

Correct
But how are we going to get the fresh blood into our political system when these old entities are still living

Also, I thought they said Tinubu was a wanted man in the US How come he has not been bundled and thrown behind bars?
May be this confirm the fabrication of all these strategic lies we read on Nairaland.

Tinubu is making some moves nowadays, with all these US thing. Wondering what their agenda is.
I pray it's in the good interest of Nigerians and not how they'll maximize their skills in looting us. Right now, it's seems he and his gang are the ones representing Nigeria in the West.
My though

IT was meant to be a presentation of the book jointly written by Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and United States former Consul-General in Niageria Brian Borwne in Chicago, the United States (US), but it became a forum where suggestions were offered on how to get Nigeria’s economy out of the woods.
Literary icon Prof Wole Soyinka, who wrote the foreward to “Financialism - Water from an Empty Well”,  and co-author Tinubu, warned of the consequences of leaving the dwindling economy in the hands of half-baked and inexperienced managers to fix.
 At the Rainbow Push Headquarters in Chicago, venue of the presentation on Saturday were civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson Jnr, Borwne, many Nigerian professionals resident in Chicago and other parts of the US,  former American diplomats, and civil rights leaders. 
In the audience also were: Governors Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) and Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Nigerian lawmakers, council chairmen and youths. 
Soyinka warned that it was dangerous to allow leaders who lack the wherewithal to lead the country on the path of economic perdition. 
According to him, one of such leaders ruled Nigeria for about eight years recently and only succeeded in multiplying Nigeria’s economic woes. 
His words: “I have no qualms declaring that I am not fully economic literate. That is why I leave it to the experts to figure out. First, let it be clearly stated that I am not in the least embarrassed or ashamed to acknowledge myself as an economic illiterate. 
“This is quite unlike a former head of state, who was thus dubbed and never forgave his perceptive analyst, even after his death. That economist was my late friend, Prof Ojetunde Aboyade, the only ‘specialist’ from whom I received any insightful…”
 While presenting the book, Soyinka acknowledged Tinubu and Browne as key figures in the unfolding world where the book they have both written opens a new window of how the world’s financial system was designed to the disadvantage of many people.  
Soyinka said: “The skewed world of economics needs to be challenged. A world where the umbilical cord between produce and tally-card was slashed when no one was looking, and the latter has come to be a thing-in-itself, empowering a parasitic class of finance controllers who place the mere tally over and above the material goods – yet succeed in making the rest of the world fall in line! 
“The collapse of the dominating economies of Europe and America is a call for re-thinking, away from orthodox assumptions and givens, under which satellite economies in a distant continent like ours have taken a severe beating, whether or not their governments choose to admit it”. 
Rev. Jackson Jnr, who moderated the book presentation and signing, said the time has come for both Africa and African –American perspective to fuse into one because both are challenged by similar issues. 
He welcomed the fact that the exposition in the book raises fundamental issues.
He provided answers to why Africa and African –Americans live under a discriminatory economic system. 
Tinubu stated the rationale behind the book publication, saying he was provoked by the injustices of the economic system and how the contradictions eventually caught up with the players, who left the low level income earner and small businesses with the short end of the stick.
Tinubu said: “Productive capitalism relies on the discipline of the market place. What now occurs is that powerful actors exploit the licence the market place affords them. In doing so, they endanger the very economies from which they unduly profit. 
“In other words, they have emptied the well yet continue to seek to take water from it. These people practice a speculative brand of economics. My co-author and I, have given this mutation of capitalism the name of ‘financialism’. Financialism is capitalism so shorn of all restraint that it cannibalizses itself” 
The former Lagos State governor decried the wiping away of the earnings of the struggling segment of the society and demanded a new thinking and approach on how to deal with the problem. 
“Recurrent crises show that something is profoundly wrong with the global financial system. Unless we want to suffer these damaging jolts for the foreseeable future, we need to make systemic corrections. 
“Both developed and emergent nations have committed the similar sin of turning what should be productive economies into factories of financial speculation that generate more financial paper than they do material products that real people can use to improve their living conditions”. 
Giving Nigerian leaders food for thought, Tinubu said: “Nigeria needs to be put to work. We have a lot of catching up to do. Asian governments support the industrialisation of their economies. Wise European nations are starting to retool their industrial base. “Nigeria cannot hope to achieve prosperity simply by exporting exhaustible natural resources. We must follow the historic route that all large nations have followed in reaching national prosperity. We must make, create and export what we make and create”.
 Browne argued that recession has put black America into a structural recession. 
He said: “The financial system has become over inflated and incestuous to the point of killing the productive sector.”
Brian maintained that Africans cannot be orphans on their own land and the 21st Century story of Africa must be written by Africans. 
Ambassador Howard Jeter, who reviewed the book, stated that the two perspectives from Africa and the United States offer an invaluable insight into the global financial structure and offers practical solutions and challenges what we know as impositions.
 Aregbesola and Ajimobi also aligned with the call for a more global equitable financial order.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/news/59236-how-to-get-nigeria-back-on-track-by-tinubu-soyinka-others.html

If yorubas were not Nigerians before, then what were they before?

The change Nigeria need, lies in our hands, our votes and our voices. Nigerians wake up.

Fellow Nigerians, after two weeks of igniting a passionate debate about a dream team for Nigeria, I have come to some serious conclusions. Nigerians generally see a need for radical change

That change they crave ranges from a full-blown revolution to a systemic change through the electoral process. Most of the contributors to the controversy generally agree that the ruling party at the centre has failed abysmally in the dire quest to move Nigeria up to its rightful place in the comity of nations. None disagrees that our country has had no value for its humongous investments in the leadership of the People's Democratic Party these past 13 agonising years. I chose the PDP because it has been in control of more than 70 percent of our commonwealth and frittered most of it away.

The report card is a resounding F in all subjects like Education, Power, Infrastructure, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Health, Judiciary, Legislature, Foreign Policy, Security, and so on. A review of the performance chart would expose a government that never met its own targets by up to 20 percent but collected the over-inflated payments in full and up-front. But the die-hard supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan insist the problems were not caused by the present President and as such we should not expect him to clear the mess in one fell swoop.

As tempting as their argument is, they are definitely wrong. Jonathan did not create the problem but he was a prominent part of the decay that engulfed Nigeria since the unfortunate ascension of PDP to power at the centre. And even if he was as powerless as he looked in those years, he should have realised his limitations and let the baton of leadership pass over him. It is wrong for a man to put himself forward for a heavyweight bout when it is clear he belongs in the featherweight class. What has happened to us in Nigeria is a classic mismatch of an unprepared leader in the face of great expectations and a fatal calamity. No nation at this time and age can afford to gamble with the future of its citizens by placing it in the hands of defenders of the status quo.

I do not dislike President Jonathan as a person but I'm certainly not a fan of his modus operandi. I see in Jonathan a man who's merely in power for the sake of power; what the literati call arts for arts' sake in Literature. It is a formalist way of maintaining the structure without considering the content. The Jonathans of this world would be too happy, and even consider themselves successful, for as long as Nigeria does not collapse totally but is able to maintain its perpetual state of higgledy-piggledy. It is a selfish attitude to politics.

A leader must place the interests of 160 million Nigerians above that of personal ambition and accomplishments. At any rate there is nothing the President wants to prove again after climbing the ladder of power and breaking the world record almost effortlessly. It is sad he wants to continue this charade that would keep us perpetually in a state of inertia if we are lucky and things don't spiral beyond control and endurance. A situation where a leader decides to announce gleefully that he must win the next election nearly three years in advance is tragic and unfortunate. It is a terrible slap on the electoral process and an insult on long-suffering Nigerians that they have no hope of changing incompetent leaders through the ballot box.

Where then do we go from here? Some have argued that we don't need a dream team but a dream institution. Again they are wrong. The dream institution won't build itself. It has to be erected and supervised and sustained by human beings. Those human beings can only succeed where there is that general consensus to excel. The PDP has quite a number of bright people in government but they won't be able to achieve their optimal level when the man at the very top is not absolutely committed to making the necessary sacrifice. The few good ones would normally get disillusioned.

Let me illustrate with the following examples. We are all witnesses to the fuel subsidy brouhaha caused by a motion moved in the Senate by the former Governor of Kwara State, Dr Bukola Saraki, to call attention to the mismanagement in the fuel subsidy scheme. The Federal budget of 2011 had become virtually un-implementable when over N1 trillion had been spent on fuel subsidy alone as at the end of September. A more responsible administration would have gone all out to unravel how such humongous payments were made without going through the due process but not in our country. Even the Senate that raised the query did not find the courage to summon the President on whose table the buck stops. The supervising Minister of Petroleum is still sitting pretty and unperturbed. The Ministry of Finance feigns ignorance. The Central Bank paid the money as if under a spell. The payees face indictment but not the payers who almost certainly colluded with them to spring the biggest scam ever on Nigerians.

And yet everything goes on as normal. The President is totally innocent as an unprecedented amount of money is stolen under his nose. That is why the priority of our dream team is to find a President who would take full responsibility for his failure and enjoy full glory for successes. The inspiration for good governance and accountability must flow from the top downwards and not the other way round. There is nothing Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala can do to check the financial recklessness of the ruling party if the President insists on not rocking the boat. They will find other means of scamming Nigerians to raise money for their next elections. Most people are in PDP not out of Faith but to fulfil all requirements for government patronage. Most members of the party I know are always lamenting behind the scene like Jeremiah but can't speak up for fear of falling out of favour.

Most of the good materials in government are never in the inner caucus while those in it quickly get sucked in based on ego-trip. The rulers know how to rubbish the equity of the Dora Akunyilis and the Barth Nnajis by giving them difficult assignments without commensurate backing of the Him on High. The former President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua disappeared for about three ugly months without the then Minister of Information having the faintest idea about what had happened to him or indeed exactly where he was. How would she have performed her duty well? I can imagine how favoured PHCN contractors must be making life miserable for the Minister of Power, Professor Nnaji and would love to see him rebuff friends of the First Lady or some members of the National Assembly.

In short the first thing the dream team needs to tackle is how to whittle down the power of the Nigerian President who has been raised to the level of a god. In agreeing to present a common front, the dream team must receive an article of faith from their Presidential candidate. Such article should include putting an end to the profligacy of our different tiers of government. This is the biggest impediment to national progress. We must make it impossible for the President's family and cronies to run a parallel government with or without the knowledge of the President. We must discourage the First Ladies from behaving as if every day is Christmas.

The Presidential fleet must be cut down drastically to reflect the mood and true condition of the nation. There is no reason to allocate special planes to public officers in a country as broke as Nigeria. Let our men of power have pity on poor Nigerians. We see Ministers in Great Britain riding bicycles to work or taking the train to various destinations. The wife of former British Prime Minister, Cherie Blair did not abandon her Law practise because she knew no one was capable of elevating her to the status of Queen's Counsel unless she truly deserved it. We should eliminate those frivolities that make us look more like people of the Stone Age. I'm certain that we don't have to do things only the way it's always been done. We must fashion new ways that can lead us to general prosperity but cause some discomfort to a few parasites. If we can reduce the waste to the barest level, Nigeria will witness spontaneous and pervading developments all over. It is very pertinent to wage an all-out war against the prodigal sons and daughters who litter our political landscape.

We must only appoint men and women of proven record to totally overhaul our dilapidated and disgraceful infrastructure. We can no longer afford to hand over such Ministries to hungry desperados who would only award the juicy contracts to the untouchables who may never execute the project not to mention executing it to the least international standards. Even some of the roads delivered to Nigeria by the so-called construction giants would never meet the rigorous tests and requirements in their home countries. The dream team must reject such jobs. We now have the advantage of technology and without flying anywhere we can see the quality of similar jobs in South Africa, Dubai, Great Britain, Singapore and other places. Why should Nigeria continue to pay more for less? Those who short-change our country henceforth must pay dearly for it.

Our Ministry of Education must only be run by those who are openly known to have a stupendous passion for the education of our kids. The politicisation of education in Nigeria is one of the biggest tragedies of our time. Our system of appointments must be elevated in other to search for the best managers of men and resources in order to ignite a major revolution in that sector. As far as I'm concerned things have gone quiet after the frenetic pace we witnessed when Oby Ezekwesili was around. What is on ground is a Ministry that is as slow as a snail as there is no visible impetus to turn things around for the better. The Federal Government ought to borrow a leaf from how Governors Rotimi Amaechi, Kayode Fayemi, Ibikunle Amosun and a few others are revamping the ancient-looking schools into modern wonders. Our school environment is a key ingredient to learning.

Health is wealth. It is sad that most of our hospitals remain anaemic and depressing. The situation is so bad that our leaders run to foreign medical centres at the slightest medical provocation. Let's compare this to near-by Ghana where former President John Agyekum Kufuor had a spinal cord surgery at the local Korlebu Hospital in Accra. I would love to see Nigerians receive treatment as stress-less as the one I witnessed last Monday in Accra. A close Nigerian friend on a visit from London had suffered a stroke in his hotel room that fateful morning. We had spent the evening before at my house having dinner with the Managing Director of an International Bank who was heading to Lagos.

After seeing off the bank MD, I dropped my friend off at East Hotel. All seemed well until the following morning when a strange call jolted me out of my stupor and made me dash from my house in sheer panic. My lawyer friend was dying unknown to me after a massive stroke that collapsed his right side. But the brave man struggled to open his door and to reach me and a prominent Nigerian businessman from the North. I rushed over to his hotel where I saw a man ravaged by stroke. The first problem was where to find a good doctor on a Ramadan holiday. The second was how to find the cash deposit to underwrite the treatment. The third was how to find the type of technology to aid such a man in desperate need. I'm happy to report that we surmounted all our fears. First the great Mallam managed to get a very professional lady Dr Ama Boohene-Andah, a Medical Director at Brain-wave Clinic. She had worked as physician to President Kufuor for about a decade and was kind to join me at my friend's hotel in East Legon. The hotel had even brought its own wheelchair for my friend. After a few tests, the Medical Director suggested we should evacuate my friend to Nyaho Clinic in the Airport Residential area. She had gone ahead to prepare the stage for us. We drove in and he was promptly attended to. We did all manner of scans in very advanced labs.

No one forced us to deposit millions of Naira for unavailable treatment. The safety of the patient was their priority.

We met a very neat hospital that sparkled like a 5-star hotel. The doctors, nurses and stewards were nice. And my friend felt at home. The money we eventually deposited was reasonable and no one made life more difficult. Even when a concerned Nigerian doctor from London was getting frenetic on the phone about the need to get me to fly my friend abroad urgently, the Ghanaian doctors calmly explained the intricate treatment they were applying. Our London-based Nigerian doctor could not believe the giant medical advancements of Ghana. As I close this, my friend is on his way to London to continue the great work started by Ghanaian doctors. We are praying unto the good Lord to complete the healing. And enable us have such stories to tell about our hospitals at home.

The import of my story is that we must reawaken Nigeria to modern realities. The era of the predatory beasts is over. Our nation must be governed by great ideas. We must begin to reject old ways of doing things and insist on total value for our money. I have only scratched the surface of what we must do. There is so much pending but we must start rebuilding somehow.

The dream team can actualise our dream ideas for Nigeria. It is very possible and need not be a mirage!

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Wizkid no.1!
That small boy wish them all good luck