₦airaland Forum

(Okwubunka of Asa) Umuiku-Isi-Asa Ukwa-West
E-mail: Ubanidon@yahoo.com
P.M.B. 7048, Aba
Phone: 08035523360
02-06-205


THAT INAUGURAL SPEECH BY PRESIDENT BUHARI
SCRIPTED BY CHIEF (SIR) DON UBANI

In a democracy, the first thing a newly sworn-in leader does is to address his people. Such address is expected to convey the leader’s mission and commitment, with regards to the quality and scope of leadership he intends to be driven by. In political parlance, such address is referred to as inaugural speech or address. Inaugural address was first recorded on April 30, 1789 when President George Washington addressed the American Congress and other dignitaries in the Senate Chamber in New York City. When he was elected for a second term, he delivered his second inaugural speech on March 4, 1793 in the Senate Chamber of the Congress in Philadelphia. It was during this second inauguration that Washington gave the shortest inaugural address on record; just one hundred and thirty-five words. Since then, Presidents, including William Henry Harrison who delivered the longest inaugural address at eight thousand, four hundred and fourty-five words, on March 4, 1841 have been delivering inaugural addresses.
In conformity with this global best practice, Nigeria’s newly sworn-in President; Muhammadu Buhari, on 29th May, 2015 at the Eagle Square in Abuja, delivered his inaugural speech. It would be recalled that Muhammadu Buahri had bulldozed himself into power as Nigeria’s fifth military Head of State on December 31, 1983 when he overthrew the democratically elected government of the first Executive President of Nigeria; Alhaji Aliyu Usman Shehu Shagari. Coincidentally, Muhammadu Buhari has been sworn-in as the fifth Executive President of Nigeria.
Buhari’s inaugural speech has since elicted a lot of comments from Nigerians. To begin with , his open expression of faith in and thanks to God has, as it were, re-affirmed the fact that Nigeria is a God-loving and fearing country. His public acknowledgement of the statementship of the immediate past President; Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, was one assurance that Nigerians applauded, for it really meant that government is, indeed, a continuum. His declaration that he belongs to every body and belongs to no body ignited excitement in Nigerians as that portends openness and transparency. Nigerians were not surprised when he re-emphasized his agenda on security of life and property of citizens, more especially the Boko Haram madness.
It must be stated that of all the issues contained in his inaugural address, the most interesting and captivating is his proclaimed readiness to fight corruption. According to him, fight against corruption is prologue. By simple explanation, Buhari means that his anti-corruption agenda is the starting point of his administration. Who, except beneficiaries of corruption, would query this posture in Nigeria?
While many have expressed optimism that President Buhari would be effective in addressing the problems currently bedeviling Nigeria, not a few are skeptical of his ability to lead Nigeria out of its present wood. Those in this realm of though quickly point out the vagueness of his address in the area of economic recovery and foreign policy objectives. They are of the opinion that these sectors should have attracted lucidity in terms of presentation.
Again, this is the beauty and chief attraction of democracy which accords every on the right of thought, perception and freedom of expression. It must, however, be said that what matters in leadership is the ability to conceptualize, propagate and pursue an original thought, vision or agenda. Since Buhari’s inaugural address captured his thought on the diversification of the economy by placing extra-ordinary emphasis on agriculture and minning, he could be given benefit of the doubt that he has, at least, a vision on national economic recovery. His overt appreciation of the contributions of neighbours of Nigeria in the fight against insurgency by Boko Haram is an acknowledgement of the fact that Nigeria, no matter how large, big and powerful, can not be an island unto itself. It must be integrated within the sub-regional, African and global dynamics and influences. Equally important is the fat that no inaugural address can be so comprehensive or detailed that every likely objective of the addresser would be clearly stated. Even the famous longest inaugural address by William Henry Harrison, may not have contained every detail of his vision for the American people. In human relationship, individuals or groups tend to be more comfortable or relaxed when dealing with people or organizations they already know. This is because once the antecedent or pedigree of an individual or corporate entity is known, prediction can easily be made. The name Muhammadu Buhari is not new in the political lexicon of Nigeria. Having presided over the affairs of Nigeria as Military head of state for more than one year and a half, Nigerians, especially those that had come of quantifiable mental age during his Military dictatorial era, are in a good position to say ‘this is the man, Buhari’.
Many Nigerians would recall a very common saying between December 31,1983 and August 27,1985, ‘the fear of Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Babatunde Idiagbon was the beginning of wisdom’. These two Generals, within the period stated above, had carved a niche for themselves as pragmatic advocates of transparency and disciple in the conduct of the affair of a society .While Major- General Buhari; a Fulani northern Muslim, was the Head of State, Brigadier-General Babatunde Idiagbon; a Yoruba Northern Muslim, was the chief of General staff and second-in-command to General Buhari. It was during their period that war against indiscipline was launched and observed. During their administration, it became a pleasant surprise to realize that Nigerians, including the high and low, could for the first time, observe simple rules and regulation. One recalls with much delight that essential commodities such as milk, sugar and other items were being sold at designated centres in those days at government subsidized prices and that Nigerians obediently and responsibly waited patiently in queues for their turn. Even though that was an era of a military junta, many citizens still regard that epoch as the finest and most glorious in the annals of Nigeria’s nation-hood. The General Ibrahim Babanginda administration that resplaced the Buhari dictatorship failed to keep up with the standard Buhari had set. The consequence was that Nigeria relapsed into its depth of social and economic decay as a result of gross indiscipline.
The point being made here is that Buhari has an established pedigree as a leader that does not brood nonsense and has zero tolerance for indiscipline and corruption. Of much interest is the fact that Buhari is coming back to governance at a period when Nigeria is at a cross-road. A land known to be exceedingly blessed with both human and material resources, a country that God packaged to be first among equals has systematically declined to a point where her citizens are currently referred to as the poorest, not mainly within the global context but incredulously within the continental definition. Today, the hitherto giant of Africa has turned itself into an object of scorn and self-humiliation. Unemployment and hunger have consistently driven Nigerian youths into search, not for the Golden Fleece but for menial jobs in such places as South-Africa and even war-torn Liberia, just to see if they could guarantee their stomach infrastructure. It has equally gotten to the dangerous aspect where young Nigerians, forced into desperation, try to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Italy for a greener pasture in such destructive illegal trades as drug trafficking and prostitution. Of course, many have lost their lives in such desperation while those who managed to get to South Africa ended up as victims of xenophobic attacks.
No other challenge glares before Nigeria of today other than corruption. This is so because while corruption is the cause of Nigeria’s malaise, unemployment, power failure, mediocrity, lack of accountability, unemployment, insurgency, armed robbery, rape and other social vices are resultant effects of unbridled corruption.
If Nigeria addresses the problem of corruption today, fall in oil prices would no longer constitute a headache to the country’s economy. In the absence of corruption, the transparent combined revenue efforts of such national agencies like Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigerian customs And Excise, Nigerian Ports Authority and other revenue generating agencies and organizations are capable of assuring a smooth and fruitful national budget.
Anytime a patient goes to see his or her doctor and complains of headache, fever, or general body pain, what the doctor does, if he is a good one, is to first regard the complaints as mere symptoms and conduct a diagnosis to find out what the cause of the ailment is. It is only when the cause of the symptoms has been successfully investigated and examined and adequately treated that those symptoms can disappear.
The cause of all the political, economic and social dislocations in Nigeria is traceable only to one thing and that is corruption. Any leader that is worth his salt and means well for Nigeria must, of necessity, fight corruption head-on. In the last sixteen years, every public office in Nigeria was, directly or, at least, indirectly, contaminated or even paralysed by the debilitating effect of corruption while the masses became the epic victims of a deliberately mismanaged and malnourished economy. If President Buhari is still made of the stuff for which Nigerians had known him; knowledge that drove the majority of them to vote for him against an incumbent President, with high hope that Nigeria would be sanitized, he just has to walk the talk by setting in motion the required machinery to recover all the loots by past political leaders. In order to do this, anti- graft agencies must be given enough teeth to bite and bite very well while patriotic citizens who know where the rain beat them should not hesitate to say ‘This is where we were beaten’.

Chief (sir) Don Ubani

(Okwubunka of Asa) Umuiku-Isi-Asa Ukwa-West
E-mail: Ubanidon@yahoo.com
P.M.B. 7048, Aba
Phone: 08035523360

May 25, 2015.
A TIME TO SAY NO TO FLAMBOYANCE IN GOVERNANCE
SCRIPTED BY CHIEF (SIR) DON UBANI

The banking sector is one of the longest surviving institutions of human enterprise. Just to substantiate this assertion, two banks would be sited for illustration. Monte dei Paschidisiena was founded as Mount of Piety in 1472 and today remains one of Italy’s largest retail banks. Berenberg Bank was founded as a Merchant House in Hamburg in Germany in 1590 and is still a private Merchant bank run by its original founders and owners; the Berenberg family. Banks survive because of good planning, financial discipline and frugality.
As it has severally been stated, success does not come by chance. It is always planned and worked for. Two persons could be exposed to the same environmental conditions and equal opportunities yet one might excel in life, by far, more than the other. Some people, out of mere naivety and lack of deep knowledge of enterprise, attribute success to luck. In as much as providence plays a role in the life and growth of man, success is basically determined by strategic planning and hard work. A Latin axiom puts it more succinctly when it insists that ‘laboire et oraire’. This simply means ‘to work is to pray’. King Jaja of Opobo was a good beneficiary of the pragmatic application of this Latin wisdom.
Putting it in the right context, it has to be reiterated that the children of the poor, by dent of good planning, discipline and hard work could grow to be among the nouveaux riches while those of the rich could almost completely descend down the valley of irretrievable poverty due to lack of planning and discipline in management of the wealth their parents had accumulated for them. Success has no common boundary with indolence, profligacy, neither can it come by necromantic invocation.
On Friday 29th May, 2015 state governors that were elected on 11th April, 2015 would be sworn-in as the Chief Executives of their respective states. Some of them might be very familiar with both the political and economic terrain of their respective states while some others might not be very conversant with the present realities in their states.
For them that know and those that may not know, the naked truth is that they are coming into governance at a very critical moment in the economic life of Nigeria. The major source of revenue for the country; oil and gas, has terribly been weakened at the international market. The naira has become a mere shadow of its glorious past. Infrastructure has generally collapsed. Graduate and Youth unemployment has become the rule rather than the exception. The governed have not only lost hope in government but have become suspicious of government. The masses have not seen any wrong with the economy of Nigeria but, rather, they have attributed every blame to corrupt leadership, embezzlement and avoidable mismanagement. The people have, unarguably and, of course justifiably, become wary and sceptical of those in government.
With this type of scenario, no one should be in doubt of the onerous tasks ahead of the in-coming governors. In the first instance, since the population is psychologically dislocated, the new governors should apply a lot of clinical psychology in trying to revive them psychologically. There were certain life styles that became associated with governance in the present dispensation that were sources and causes of displeasure and disappointment amongst the Nigerian masses and ended up making those in government very unpopular. The new governors have, without waiting to be prompted by any external influence, to distance themselves from those life styles that made Nigerians loathe those in government.
To begin with, any governor that wants to succeed in this very critically challenging period, must guide against financial recklessness. Indiscipline in the management of the finances of a state could manifest itself in many ways. Salaries and allowances of officials and personnel of a state government must be made within the legitimate confines of the state’s budget. Anything contrary to this would tantamount to financial recklessness. Some governors, as experience has shown, add to the cost of governance by moving in avoidably expensive long convoys. The cost incurred via such an angle could be enormous.
With the present economic melt-down, it would be out of the reach of reason for any governor to contemplate chartering an air-craft on any official engagement. Financial discipline, in this regard would simply dictate that every Chief Executive of a state would have to be guided by good time management. If time is properly managed, the Chief Executive could effectively make use of commercial passengers’ air-lines and still meet up with his engagement. Afterall, the same weather or aviation challenges that could cause delays in flight operations equally affect charted flight schedules. No matter from what angle it might be seen, Nigerians would not be happy seeing their governors fly in chartered flights when majority of them can not afford two poorly-prepared meals a day. The day a governor starts living such flamboyant style is exactly the same day he commences the process of isolating himself from the masses and no other day would better tell the result of such flamboyance than the day of the next election.
Any governor that is mounting the stable at this time in Nigeria, for goodness sake, is best advised to distance himself from what psychologists may regard as ‘pecuniary hedonism’. Some people in government erroneously believe that endless acquisition of wealth could be a major source of happiness. Therefore, while in government, they would be busy diverting public fund meant to address and re-write the miserable plight of indigenes and residents of their states to use by members of their nuclear families and very few of their extended families and cronies. It is not uncommon to observe people in government buying buildings, demolishing them and in their places, put up magnificent edifices. They do this while many public servants are not paid and nothing is done to address infrastructural decay in their states. Why these looters of public treasury think the masses, who have been deprived by their gluttonous acts, would not take cognizance of this chain of deprivation, is what battles not a few. Of course, being not in a position to remove the governor, the electorate wait, both patiently and impatiently, for the next round of elections.
On assumption of office, it is expected that the new governors would be realistic in their administrative polices. This would reflect first in the appointments they would make. The era of numerosity of political appointees has been subsumed by the present economic reality. A state that has seventeen local government council areas may not necessarily have a State Executive Council that exceeds twenty Honourable Commissioners. The Commissioners must be individuals that know their onions and are altruistic. They should be persons that are prepared to serve their states, without attaching much materialism to service. Experience has shown that some individuals once appointed, embark on building hotels, to the detriment of service delivery. In any case, in appreciation of the economic reality on ground, no commissioner should be paid one hundred thousand naira more than the monthly salary of a Permanent-Secretary in the state. Such salary should be contained in the ministry’s salary voucher. There should not be anything like security vote.
Emphasis should, here, be repeated on time management. God, in His wisdom, made the day a span of only twenty-four hours. No matter how creative man could develop to be, he will not be able to add even one second to the duration of a day. Americans, Europeans, Chinese and Indians are centuries ahead of Africans because of how well they have been able to manage their time. For investors to have sustainable interest in a state, the concept of time must be put in a constructive display. If a Chief Executive is manifested for an engagement at 10a.m only for him to arrive 12 noon, it kills interest in people who want to do business with the state. Besides, it paralyses the administration of the state as commissioners and other state functionaries in the manifest would end up wasting two precious hours that could have been put into effective productivity. it is, therefore, advised that punctuality and regularity should be the motto of the in-coming governors.
Development analysts are aware that one of the causes of infrastructural collapse in Nigeria is the quality of contractors that governments award contracts to. As it has been said severally, what one does not have, one does not offer. Any governor that means well should live above sentiments. Contracts should be awarded to construction companies that have competence; expertise, experience, capacity and pedigree. No contract should be awarded on the basis of personal, family or primordial considerations. In a place like Aba, for instance, it would be better that the in-coming governor does only twenty roads with good drainages that could last for, at least, twelve years than doing thirty or more roads that would collapse even before the end of the first tenure of the governor. Any contract given to an incompetent contractor is certainly a machinery moulded against the electoral chances of the governor and his political party.
Nigerians, as was made manifest in 2015 general election, have ceased to vote for parties. They now vote for quantifiable and verifiable performance. The era of sentiment is gone and gone forever.
Flamboyance in governance also leads to insensitivity to the plight of the masses. Insensitivity could manifest itself in many ways. Apart from fundamental financial indiscipline it orchestrates, it could bring about unrestrained desire to unduly exploit tax payers via multiple taxation. Nigerians have groaned more than enough because of double or, in most cases, multiple taxation. In-coming governors are, for this reason, counselled to meticulously and humanely harmonize their machinery for internal revenue generation in such a way that multiple or double taxation should just become a thing of the past. This also implies that the use of hostile touts and thugs in state revenue drive as has been the case should equally be stopped.
This commentary would not be deemed conclusive if the in-coming governors are not dutifully reminded that they are coming on a recovery mission. This being the case, their priority and focus should be on experience, competence, transparency and unfailing assiduity. A cabinet that parades men and women that have the above attributes should be a cabinet that should be allowed to stay for, at least, four consecutive years for effective service delivery. Time and experience have proved that indiscriminate dissolution of state executive councils does not allow for optimum performance in service delivery.
The new governors and even the re-elected ones should be as scrupulous and shrewd as banks that do not allow indiscretion to rub them off constructive existence and growth. This equally implies that the era of indiscriminate expenditure on awards that do not impact on the lives of the masses should be avoided.

Chief (Sir) Don Ubani; KSC, Jp
(Okwubunka of Asa)

Chief (Sir) Don Ubani; KSC, JP
(Okwubunka of Asa)
Umuiku-Isi-Asa
Ukwa-West
P.M.B. 7048, Aba
E-mail: Ubanidon@yahoo.com
Phone: 08035523360
SAT. 09 – 05 – 2015.

CONSOLIDATING NIGERIA’S DEMOCRACY, USING THE CARD READER.
SCRIPTED BY CHIEF (SIR) DON UBANI


When the idea of smart card reader was first muted by the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission; Professor Attahiru Jega, many politicians, commentators and writers agreed that the introduction of the electronic gadget would assist in stabilizing Nigeria’s electoral system. However, a good number of them were sceptical that introducing the card reader during an election period that had witnessed a lot of interest and controversies basically hinged on primordial and religious differences could be precariously timed.
Some had expressed fear that the introduction of the electronic card reader during a very sensitive election might amount to an acme of avoidable and unjustifiable experimentation. It was the opinion of many political watchers that the Independent National Electoral Commission could better introduce the card reader during less sensitive elections such as bye-elections or even supplementary elections. Still on the side of those who had reservations about the timing of the introduction of the electronic device, there was the palpable fear that an electoral system that allowed two sharply contradictory rules to govern its application was surely bound to create confusion, inconsistency, distrust and probably anarchy.
On the 28th March, 2015 when the Presidential and the National Assembly elections took place, while majority of voters, especially in the South-East and South-South geo-political zones of Nigeria were restricted to strict adherence of the use of the electronic card reader, all most all voters in states such as Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa and Kastina voted on the basis of the index form. The use of the index form made it possible for General Buhari to obtain a total vote cast of one million, nine hundred and three thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine votes in Kano alone while President Jonathan got two hundred and fifteen thousand, seven hundred and seventy-nine votes. Of course, every right-thinking person would appreciate that no matter how fast and efficient the server and the operator of a smart card reader might be, it would take, at least more than two days for the cards to have accredited the two million, one hundred and nineteen thousand, seven hundred and seventy-eight voters that were said to have voted for both Buhari and Jonathan in Kano state.
The visible contradictions notwithstanding, the smart card reader has become a legacy for which history would continue to remember and possibly honour the former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission.
Since the smart card reader has been introduced and has equally come to stay, it has become necessary that its use should form a legitimate integral part of the country’s electoral laws and system. The eighth National Assembly of the Nigerian legislature, which is expected to come into existence from June 2015, would be expected to legitimize and formalize the use of the smart card reader by giving it a legal backing. This would demand for an amendment to the present electoral law or act as to give the use of smart card reader a legal existence.
Before stamping a legislative finality to the use of the smart card reader, it would be absolutely paramount to advise that officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission would successfully invest on appropriate human capacity on the use of the smart card reader. The company that manufactured the electronic equipment should be liberal enough to deeply drill Nigerian officials in the technical-know-how of the card reader so that indigenous Nigerians would, at the slightest notice, handle any technical challenge that could arise in the course of an election.
The above expectation, on its own, raises a fundamental challenge to Nigeria’s planning machinery. As it has been witnessed in the nation’s economy, where due to over dependence on oil and gas, which fortunes are externally influenced and determined, the country has been at sixes and sevens, the sustainability of Nigeria’s electoral reliability based on the use of the smart card reader should not be foreign dependent. Since there appears to be a new beginning where it is hoped that things could be done right, a little technowledge that manifests itself in the manufacturing of card reader should not be beyond the reach of indigenous scientists and technologists. It would be too sad a commentary that Nigeria, in twenty-first century, cannot manufacture a simple smart card reader and would, therefore, have its electoral reliability and stability dependant on foreign expertise. This should not be the situation. If Biafra could be sustained for thirty months, despite the near-total blockage it suffered in the hands of the federal military government that freely used all kinds of arms and ammunitions in prosecuting the war against it because of the ingenuity, creativity and vibrancy of Igbo scientist, engineers and technologists, then nothing should prevent Nigeria from manufacturing the smart card reader.
It has to be emphasized here that the card reader has now thrown up an entirely different phenomenon in the electoral system of Nigeria. Long before the introduction of the card reader, politicians had taken it for granted that the electoral success of a contestant did not depend on the collective will of the electorate. This feeling was indeed, true because politicians, as long as they had the needed money and influence, were very easily able to manipulate the electoral system and got themselves declared victorious in a contest, even when it was obvious that they were not the people’s choice. The outcome of this illegitimacy was that those that were elected through such manipulative acne had no regard for the electorate and, so, were completely insensitive to the plight of the masses.
But with the smart card reader, every one now should have realized that Nigeria has reached a stage where electoral success would have to be determined entirely by the voting population. Anybody that has a permanent voter’s card has automatically become a stake-holder. Politicians that are known to be pompous and arrogant have been rendered irrelevant and ineffective in the present dispensation of things. This is a very positive way of strengthening the country’s democracy, as every vote now matters and counts. Thanks must be given to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan that stimulated and encouraged electoral reforms that have led to this development.
Having gotten to this length in her march towards electoral civility, there is another aspect of the country’s democratic engagement that equally deserves to be reviewed. Most of the problems that end up tearing Nigerian political parties apart start from periods of their primary elections. Experience has proved over time that in Nigeria, political parties are owned by few individuals who do everything, both legitimate and, in most cases, illegitimate, to teleguide the affairs of their parties. Because they would want party members to remain loyal to them at all times, they manipulate party machinery in order to have their pre-determined aspirants emerge as party flag-bearers in subsequent elections. When these acts of imposition take place during party primary elections, the out-come would always be rancour, bitterness and loss of confidence and strength. In most cases, If not in all cases, it leads to factionalization of the party.
Problems arising from teleguidance of party primary elections have not helped the growth of party democracy in Nigeria. The main reasons for which many politicians have defected from their parties to others have allegedly been traced to lack of internal democracy within their parties.
With the introduction of the smart card reader, which is a sure way of growing and stabilizing the political system, it would not be out of place for the Independent National Electoral Commission to extend its use to conduct of primary elections. Some critics or even pessimists might frown at this suggestion as they may argue that primary elections should be left to be decided via party leadership. This notion should be quickly corrected as it does not hold water. Anything that should be done to do away with Nigeria’s present culture of impunity, should be encouraged.
It has to be borne in mind that elections, no matter at what level, are off-shoots of democracy. Democracy, on its own cannot be meaningful in the absence of the rule of law which encompasses fundamental human rights. One of the fundamental human rights of man is his freedom to chose who represents or governs him. If this right is denied him under any guise, it would simply amount to a violation of his God-given right and also a travesty of justice.
This project is achievable within the democratic space of Nigeria. What is required for the realization of this novel and noble objective is principally legislation. Once the National Assembly passes a law that mandates the Independent National Election commission to supervise the conduct of Party primary elections, using the card reader for accreditation and authenticate the winner(s) of the primary election, it would become very certain that internal democracy would have been injected into political parties and this would help reduce the magnitude of rancour and bitterness that are associated with party primary elections and, by so doing, stabilize Nigeria’s democracy.


Chief (Sir) Don Ubani; KSC, JP