RE: A Trapdoor to a Tale of Nazi-Era Sacrifice - WSJ(2)

THE SINGLE NARRATIVE REVISITED

In every situation, no matter how dire or hopeless, a single story (to quote Chimamanda at a TED talk) can never cover all the nuances. Just consider this. 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-trapdoor-to-a-tale-of-nazi-era-sacrifice-1436482024

Jews betrayed by Poles and subsequently protected by Poles even with their lives! Are Poles then good or bad people? Are they anti-semites or not? Quite a dilemma, isn't it? Reminds me of "Shindler's List" both the real story and the movie.

How many Africans, who otherwise followed the South African struggle against apartheid, can claim to know the travails of Ms Ruth First, Joe Slovo and many other whites who gave their lives to the effort? 

In the years before and after Selma in the southern US, many whites were brutalised and murdered for joining Dr Martin Luther King in the fight for racial justice. Or simply for expressing sentiments in that direction. Hence the expression "nigger lover" routinely thrown in their faces. 

In truth, the KKK is still very much alive together with its many apologists. However it is not about to overrun the rest of straight thinking white society as it wants us to believe. This is clearly illustrated by a good many of the responses and revelations in the aftermath of the Charleston, South Carolina. 

People like Governor Nikky Haley appeared to have sat on the fence all these years. They have now, in the fullness of time, allowed themselves to be swept along by the relentless tide of history, actually leading the parade from (where else) the front!  

In the never ending Nigerian crises, a young man Chris Mayrock immolated himself in 1968 in New York in protest over the starvation death of Biafran children. We were told earlier that the Americans just didn't care. Achebe has reminded us that author Auberon Waugh named his infant son Biafra. Meanwhile Igbo activists are yet to agree on how to immortalise Chris Mayrock. That's political correctness for you. 

Finally on the East-West cultural divide between Ndigbo and Omo'Odua. I have written earlier that it is no way near as bad as it is made to appear. The youthful exuberance that is vented anonymously as extreme and illogical positions on internet platforms does not in any way define the relationship. A good many of the contributors actually have serious mentors on the "opposing" side. As for the elite in professional settings, they certainly know on which side their bread is buttered. As an Igbo, I have observed, without an iota of consternation, that these Yoruba will not leave our women alone. That shows how much they "hate" us by marrying so many of our girls! There is God-o! 

Nigeria's place in the Global Mining Industry?; Is the Eta Zuma plan The Plan?

PREAMBLE: This opinion piece has been written and essentially put away in the cooler since April, 2013. It predated my article "Re: Africa at the Coalface of development" by almost two years. Based on noises emanating from the upper echelons of government, I had hoped then that my concerns would very shortly be overtaken by impending robust action. How wrong I was. 

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The following is quoted from The Punch Editorial of March 26, 2013: 

"THE claim last month that Nigeria lost $50 billion to her neighbours through illegal gold mining is a sickening reminder of just how badly we are being governed. . ."

"The government failed since 2006 to follow through on reforms that were poised to attract investors from around the world to exploit the 34 mineral types available in Nigeria, . ."

BIG TOOLS NEEDED FOR BIG PROBLEMS

When Nigerians think or say BIG, they often don't know what they are talking about. It is only here that a president will shamelessly attend the public commissioning ceremony for a 60Mw electric power plant built by a frustrated state government which could no longer afford to wait for the federal government to live up to its responsibilities. Somewhere in the speeches, the plant is referred to as BIG despite the fact that most conservative estimates of the power gap here are in the range of 20,000 to 50,000Mw. 

It is so frustrating that our planners consistently fail to correctly determine the true size of each of our various national problems. That failure then makes it impossible to choose or design the appropriately sized tool or system to tackle the problem.

The first time that I drove past the NIPP power plant at Geregu, Kogi State, my initial reaction was to mutter under my breath: "Is this how we are going to bridge the electrical energy gap?" 

The plant looked like the auxilliary AC/DC & Compressed Air Power Unit of a typical large nuclear power plant that I was involved in 35years ago. Geregu, for all practical purposes, is nothing more than a captive power plant appropriate for the Dangote Cement factory nearby at Obajana. 

STRUCTURE OF THE GLOBAL MINING INDUSTRY

In the summer of 1978, I was in Morenci, Arizona, working at a copper smelter accepting beneficiated ores

sourced from a nearby open pit mine, a rather small one. I took under my wings a nineteen year old whose father was Smelter Superintendent at another facility belonging to our employer Phelps Dodge Inc, in Douglas, Arizona, on the border with Mexico. From that relationship I was to learn that the old man had worked years earlier for Kennecott Inc in Chile at EL TENIENTE, the largest underground mine in the world. This was before then President Salvador Allende nationalised the Chilean copper industry, hence the birth of CODELCO CHILE. 

Copper was/is Chile's oil. The difference is that, unlike here in Nigeria, their people are intimately involved, and work hard at it. It was and remains the nation's life blood. Agriculture, including wine making together with Fisheries follow close behind. The manner the Chileans husband scarce water resources, very vital for the sustenance of its major industries, is worthy of emulation. 

How time passes. Phelps Dodge had long ago become part of Freeport Mining, which was established about a century ago at Freeport TX. Then they were better known for developing the Frasch Process for mining of elemental Sulphur. Freeport in the late 60s and early 70s developed the rich Copper and Gold deposits in the tropical jungles of Iriyan Jaya, Papua New Guinea. Believe it or not, a Nigerian was on that project. 

That was way long before the scandal, in the 1990s, associated with Canadian mining company BRE-X in neighbouring Indonesia. I recall that our very first Minister of Solid Mineral made mention of BRE-X in a speech to impress the audience. 

The world has definitely moved on. Mergers and Acquisitions are everyday news. Mozambique came out of its civil war and the war of attrition with apartheid South Africa, and almost overnight became a force to be reckoned with in sub-Saharan Africa in both steam and coking coal production.  Meanwhile here in Nigeria, we are still thinking about coal. Granted that every one or two years some elite within and outside of government makes the usual noises about diversifying our fossil fuel energy base and going into serious coal mining. That is just talk.

WHEN DO WE START

In an unpublished writing twenty years ago, I has asserted that here in Nigeria, the moment we propose a good idea, we then immediately embark on an ORGY OF SELF CONGRATULATION, ignoring the two, three or perhaps five million man-hours of brain- wracking and back breaking labour necessary to bring the idea to fruition. Simply put, we hate hard work. The very thought of it freezes us into inactivity. 

The resource and infrastructure gap that needs to be bridged here is so huge. The Eta-Zuma Group has recently announced very big plans for coal mining, coal fired electrical power generation, and other mine development for precious and other not-so-noble metals. I suspect that the group may end up spreading itself too thin. Each and every item on its Mission Statement, is enough for anyone's plate. To take on all of them is probably too much. Take rail transport for example. 

RAIL TRANSPORT 

The Minister of Solid Minerals under Abacha once boasted about his readiness to export 15million tons of coal per annum. With the aid of two handbooks I immediately did my calculations and concluded that we would need very long trains running EVERY TWENTY MINUTES in both directions (ie laden and empty) between the Ayamgba coal fields in Kogi State and the quays at Port Harcourt! On which track I asked? I never bothered to publicise my findings.

We now have the new and ever evolving mining behemoths, the Anglo Americans, the BHP-Billitons, Rio Tintos, Vale SA of Brazil (reputedly the world's second-biggest miner), Anglo-Gold Ashantis of this world, with huge operations spanning all five continents, in diamonds, columbium/tantalum, tin, bauxite, coal, iron ore, lead & zinc, potash, uranium, etc. The Chinese both in China and overseas are very substantial players in their state planned national interest. While African government are very slowly getting their act together, the wily Chinese are behind almost every single artisanal mining operation across Africa. This aspect has been subject of several studies.  

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Freeport Inc is struggling to overcome opposition, by Native Americans and environmental activists, to its plan to develop the proposed Santa Rosa copper and gold open pit mine in Arizona.

In the Gobi desert of Mongolia, Rio Tinto is taking in its stride the cost overruns in the (now $5.1b) expansion as it further develops its Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mining operations in that country. Elsewhere in Mongolia Rio Tinto runs one of the largest coal mining operations with the entire output heading to the energy hungry industry across the Chinese border. Note that nobody mentions Global Warming here! The same Rio Tinto in collaboration with Anglo-Gold and, Mittal is moving ahead with a new Iron Ore mining operation in north east Brazil, the Minas Rio project. 

In Chile, CODELCO has embarked on a $3.5b development of a new level at El Teniente to boost production and take the company (and Chile) to the next half century.

Here in Africa, we are fully aware of the century-old developments of the mining industry in the Republic of South Africa. Almost every major player is there and also in neighbouring Bothswana and Namibia where they even trawl for diamonds offshore. 

Nearer home, regional disputes and local conflicts have not stopped mining investment and operations for uranium in Niger, or iron ore in Guinea and Mauritania, phosphates in Morroco/Saharawi regions.

In a recent (2013) report published in Nigeria's BusinessDay newspaper, Angola released plans to further develop its iron ore, manganese investments in order to cut its reliance on oil and diamonds.

Angola wants to diversify its earnings away from the crude oil and diamonds that make up almost all its exports, more than 40 percent of economic output and over 70 percent of government revenue.

Angola, the  world’s fifth-largest diamond producer, has cut mine taxes and plans to spend billions of dollars to attract investment into mineral deposits according to Geology and Mines Minister, Francisco Queiroz.

According to Bloomberg reports the projects include the $900 million Cassinga iron-ore mine, a planned fertiliser output of 400,000 metric tons a year and a $400 million manganese development. A mining law enacted in November that cut tax to 25 percent from 35 percent, was followed by investment from companies including diamond producer De Beers and Sumitomo Corp, which is developing an ammonia and urea plant. 

OUR SHACKES ARE SELF IMPOSED

Many elite, with the greatest potential to help nudge Nigerian industry on the right growth trajectory, still prefer to play safe and endeavour to corner every (apparently) easy deal in town. We are all painfully aware of the scandals associated with the award of oil blocks and the granting of import duty waivers. Let me elaborate on another example associated with mining.    

Immediately the Nigerian military government of Gen Abacha mooted the idea of creating the Ministry of Solid Minerals, the late Godwin Daboh and two dozen other individuals, (one each from the then existing states), stepped out to claim centrestage. Despite not owning any mining companies, they boldly announced the formation of the so-called " Association of Solid Mineral Producers of Nigeria." According to the published terms of reference, anyone or organisation desiring a mining lease must pass through that cartel. Unfortunately the Corporate Affairs Commission published the usual invitation for comments and objections. I am proud to announce that I was able, almost single-handedly, to shoot down that contraption. The landscape would have been a lot more different and restrictive if I did not.

WHAT IS IN IT FOR US?

The quantum of investments here and elsewhere can only be described as enormous. To date, Nigeria has been incapable of attracting any of this investment flow. The problem of insecurity apart, the approach has been consistently faulty. I had told the same minister in a letter that it was wrong, if not naïve, to think that the development of the Nigerian mining sector would depend on bilateral relationships. Instead of cultivating Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton etc, the Nigerian government routinely wastes its time talking to the Australian government and others. Mining is dirty duty business with very little to do with the usual cocktail circuit. It is on record that the presentation by Nigeria's team at Mining INDABA-2013 was received with derision and scorn. I was ashamed when I read about it.

Since we are lead by people who do not know how the real world works, we shall continue to flounder in the current morass of low level development. I am very reluctant to repeat what I told General Abacha's Minister of Power and Steel in a letter about the wrong premise on which our then nascent aluminium industry was based. I predicted the imminent closure of the plant shortly after commissioning. Sadly it came to pass exactly as I said. We are all witnesses.

How many deskbound decision makers in the Ministry of Steel and Solid Minerals can visualise the logistics of moving 1billion cubic metres of earth (ie 1 cubic kilometre) over a period of perhaps 10 to 40years in a effort to extract the 3-5% value in it? That is what a typical mining operation entails. We are so used to the opportunistic exploitation of visible outcrops of granite for aggregate used by the construction industry and seams of columbite/tantalite routinely exposed during road building. We think that that is mining!

However it is my fervent hope that Nigeria breaks out of this mould soon so as to make real progress. 

On the Structure of the Nigerian Federation - My rejoinder to Ahmadu Abubakar

PREAMBLE: 

In November 2013, Ahmadu Abubakar circulated on a private platform an article denouncing the historical excursion undertaken by renowned constitutional lawyer Prof Ben Nwabueze. Nwabueze had drawn attention to the weakness of the very structure of the Nigerian federation deliberately created by our British overlords at the turn of the 20th century. Abubakar wrote: 

Nwabueze as Adult Delinquent 

http://www.peoplesdailyng.com/nwabueze-as-adult-delinquent/ 

I had joined him in the debate there and then. However I discovered that he had taken his arguments to the popular press a full seven months later, specifically the Peoples Daily Newspaper of Thursday, June 19, 2014. It is only proper that I present my hitherto unpublished rejoinder to the discerning public. 

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Re: PROFESSOR NWABUEZE AS AN ADULT DELINQUENT by Ahmadu Abubakar.  Nov 18, 2013

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  I have found it extremely difficult to understand Ahmadu Abubakar's beef with Prof Nwabueze. He had enough grounds and is supposed to have the tools, (a logical legal mind), to try to dismiss the renowned professor's rendering of what was essentially HISTORICAL FACT. On this score, he failed woefully.

  He could have disputed the stated sinister motive of the British colonial overlords in the persons of Lord Lugard and his masters in Whitehall. Ahmadu Abubakar made no effort to apply demographic data in his own favour to show or at least endeavour to prove that the north as defined was actually more populous ab initio than the south. Whereas Prof Nwabueze dutifully pointed out the very uneven splitting of primordial Nigeria, forcing a very large number of non-Hausa/Fulani tribes into a vastly disproportionately large "north", for motives that were less than noble, Abubakar made no effort whatsoever to debunk the notion of perfidy. Insults have now taken the hallowed position reserved for rigourous debate and scholarship.

    It is rather difficult to discuss or analyse his opinion, if we can call his outburst one. Or is he expecting Prof Nwabueze, his teacher, in his old age to recast himself in the image of a new fangled Abubakar? That will be the day. One gets the impression that by trying to develop himself through the medium of Prof Nwabueze's seminal books, Abubakar was actually doing the professor a favour! In this country anything is possible.

THE NORTH, Revenue Allocation, etc . .

    Having read Nwabueze, I would rather spend my time fruitfully commenting on some of the relevant statements credited to Senator Paul Unongo, the latest stalwart co-opted to speak for the Arewa Consultative Forum. Nwabueze quoted him  as follows:

  " . .  I see the allocations and see what has happened and I am intelligent enough to know and say that this is not fair, this is not good enough? Why did THEY allocate so much money there and not here?"

    Why does it always have to be about sharing? Can we ever find something positive and lifting to disagree about, arrive at a common ground and then proceed to make progress?

     If I may ask: "Who are THEY?" Do they include the following? Ahmadu Bello/Tafawa Balewa (1955-1966); Yakubu Gowon (1966-1975); Murtala Muhammed (1975-76); Shehu Shagari (1979-1983); Muhamadu Buhari (1983-1985); Ibrahim Babangida (1985-1993); Sani Abacha (1993-1998); Abdusallam Abubakar (1998-1999). .  Perhaps we should leave the short, illness-prone presidency of Alhaji Musa Yar'Adua out of the discussion for now.

    If we are honest, we must recognise that the foundation of what is good or bad in Nigeria was laid much earlier by these northern rulers at a time the current President Goodluck Jonathan was not even in high school. I am often taken aback for example when agitators ask President Jonathan to resolve already settled issues of Abuja land compensation. Short of calling back Minister Mark Okoye from the dead, why were the agitators mute while Pres Yar'Adua was alive? Why not start with quiet consultations with OBJ, Gen Theophilus Danjuma, Pres Shehu Shagari, etc.  and finally IBB? Pres Jonathan may be incompetent, but we have seen worse before. Unnecessarily harassing him only makes matters worse by distracting him from needed governance. Efforts to defeat him fair and square at the upcoming polls may turn out to be a better investment than the current rabble rousing by the elite.

WHY DID "THEY" ALLOCATE SO MUCH MONEY THERE AND NOT HERE? - Sen

        Paul Unongo

    Any analysis and/or objection to the current petroleum-derived revenue allocation formula, so much decried by ALL, must be placed at the very doorsteps of the above named former Heads of State. Unongo and his ilk, while complaining about the disparity in revenue allocated to the northern states, compared to the oil-producing states, deliberately ignore two facts. One is that the 13percent derivation was not what the oil-producing states demanded in their effort to get back to the constitution-based status quo of 1966. It was the much they could get from a no-nonsense dictator, Sani Abacha, a blood brother of Paul Unongo, if we are to believe the later on who is a northerner. My take on this matter is that the oil-producing states (often synonymous with the Niger Delta states) won the war together with the rest of Nigeria, but then proceeded to SNATCH DEFEAT OUT OF THE JAWS OF VICTORY. Gen Ogbemudia probably understands this, whereas the more ebbulient Chief E K Clark certainly does not. Having a son in Aso Rock has nothing to do with it, more of a side show.

    The second point is that the typical state in the "south" with no oil, gets about the same (or in some cases far less) revenue compared with the "marginalised" states in the north. The published data speaks for itself.

    Based on the current structure of things in Nigeria and specifically in the "north", it is doubtful if the "north" can make much progress EVEN IF THE ENTIRE OIL-DERIVED REVENUE IS APPROPRIATED BY THE NORTH. Experts in Econometrics can quite easily project the disastrous impact of such a development. The current dismay expressed over the Oil/Resource Curse will be like a walk in Paradise in comparison. 

    As an illustration, why on earth are we still discussing Almajiri instead of mass education? When was the last time the "north" had a candidate to the CEO position in our top three government ventures viz NLNG Ltd, Shell Petroleum Dev Co Ltd, SNEPCO? Don't get me wrong. There are brilliant people all over. But when such are corrupted by lavishly remunerated non-work position, (very, very low hanging fruits), it becomes extremely difficult to go back to working for a living. One may ask for example, "What exactly does Dr Junaid Mohammed do?" But he eats.

  The typical northern political pundit will probably achieve less intellectual work in one month than a less intellectually endowed Alhaji Aliko Dangote achieves in a good day. Just see the kind of people with which he surrounds himself!

I GET AM BEFORE NO BE PROPERTY, and Similar Matters

  I have said this before over and over again. The average northerner, farmer, cattle rearer, teacher, carver, glassbead maker, tanner and leather worker, goldsmith and brasswork artisan, milkmaid, butter and cheese maker, brewer (a la burukutu), etc is not lazy. He or she cannot afford to be. His very hard life, in which he strives to find some measure of happiness, depends on hard work. It is only the parasitic elite that are irredeemably lazy, including those with no aristocratic pretensions. The good life available to the few who manage to be accepted in THE IN-CROWD is well nigh impossible to pass up, even when ethics, morality and good conscience dictate otherwise.

    Does anybody recall the who-is-who that cornered grains issued from the National Grains Reserve the last time government intervened to boost supply and lower prices? No prize for the correct answer: the emirs, other traditional rulers and men of influence who had absolutely no need for the grain. Who routinely corner all the fertiliser, subsidised or not? Same answer.

    In view of the above, why then is Sen Paul Unongo threatening to unleash on the nation such an explosion of agricultural and minerals production from the "north" as to comfound our very own Dr Akinwunmi Adesina and maybe Chief Kola Jamodu? The byline of the Nike Inc ad says "JUST DO IT!" Enough of the talking.

    The current brave corps of northern farmers, whose contribution only a fool can dispute, are most worthy of their ancestors who built the famous groundnut pyramids out of their sweat. Their productivity is in spite of, but definitely not because of the contribution of their own governments. By no measure have their own elite helped matters.

IF THE CAP FITS, WEAR IT

    The elite, no matter how defined, encompasses a very broad range of people, backgrounds, education, experiences, world view, attitudes, analytical ability, religious fevour, life expectations. Hence a huge swathe of hard working and decent northerners must necessarily escape my tar and feather. Down south we have our own misfits too. The tragic difference is that in the north the attitude and mindset that I am railing against has alas been institutionalised.

    I suggest that Ahmadu Abubakar goes back to redo his essay. His current attempt merits an F grade.

Oduche Azih,

August 2014

Re: NIGERIA CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT THE IGBO - BY FEMI ARIBISALA - The African Sun Times

Recently I wrote an article, a rejoinder to public comments by Gen Gowon on Ikemba Ojukwu and Aburi - 
http://oducheazih.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/gowon-ojukwu-misinformed-nigerians-on.html?m=0. 

I had pointed out the growing set of non-Igbo Igbo apologists in our political landscape. I presented a short list which I never claimed was either comprehensive or complete. What I found most interesting was the fact that commentators across the generational divides are well represented. Akin Osuntokun is one. So also is Engr Tombari Sibe, the guy "who was not even born when the major madness of 1966 started." 

Sibe had detailed how, despite being from the Niger Delta, (Bayelsa?), he arrived at his own conclusions on the 1966 crisis, the war and its aftermath, and on Ojukwu and Ndigbo in general. Of course his views are not mainstream but he is now at an age where he can make up his own mind and has the confidence to make it public. 

All the above however did not prepare me for the major work by Prof Femi Aribisala titled "Nigeria cannot Survive Without The Igbo". The strange thing is that this opinion piece, which will definitely win him very few friends outside Igboland, has been in circulation since 2014. How could I, hunter and gatherer that I am, have missed it until today while trawling through Facebook? 

http://africansuntimes.com/2015/06/nigeria-cannot-survive-without-the-igbo-by-femi-aribisala/

It will be instructive revisiting the book reviews by the Saro-Wiwa siblings Noor and Ken(Jr) on Achebe's "There Was A Country." One of them, while referring to the complaint by other commentators about the thread of Igbo triumphalism in Achebe's narrative, riposted that the feeling of triumphalism has been earned. I leave the reader to deduce if Prof Aribisala is actually saying the same thing. 

I am Igbo. I studied at Unilag at a time it was not a normal or natural thing to do. I have lived in Lagos for the better part of my life, with all the rough and tumble associated with Eko. The good, the bad and the ugly! However, however, I cannot yet point out a case of systematic and overt dislike of my person by my Yoruba professional colleagues, acquaintances, neighbours and friends because of my being Igbo. This is notwithstanding the fact that I routinely plant my feet in each and every controversy that arises in our polity, especially Lagos and the O'odua states. 

Nigeria may yet be saved. If it is God's will and our determination that this will be achieved with the well known and documented fair and fully appreciated involvement of Ndigbo, then let's get on with it. We have wasted so much time bickering over non-issues. 

Re: Where is Funke Osibodu?

I do not normally pay much attention to the gossip sections in the newspapers and other media platforms. But then in spite of my stated antipathy I must confess when some gem shows up.

Here I am referring to the above caption headlining a query/story about Mrs Funke Osibodu, which appeared on pg L2 Society of The new Daily Times of Tuesday, February 10, 2015.

Mrs Osibodu, who is the wife of renowned businessman of Vigeo Limited fame, Chief Victor Osibodu, was former Managing Director of Union Bank-in-transition. She is currently the Managing Director of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, one of the DISCOs recently hived off PHCN.

In the Nigerian parlance, everyone who has ever blazed through the banking sector, from the days of import license, through the free-for-all that was the restricted foreign currency market of twenty years ago, down to the shady activities revealed in the Soludo/Sanusi years, is called a whizkid. It is then surprising that no one has noticed that despite amassing so much net worth, very few bankers can point to anything that they have made, any productive activity that they are involved in.

In a previous essay, popularly called Gas to Power Conundrum, I had clearly tried to educate the policy makers and public alike that many investors would find themselves in over their heads in this matter. Statistically some are bound to fail. The free market takes the blame here. Nothing that NERC does can prevent this from happening. There will be winners and losers. Our duty is to learn lessons from the "evolving scenario" and move on.

In conclusion, Mrs Osibodu, like other DISCO MDs is overwhelmed. Nothing she learnt in her many years in banking has prepared her for this. I doubt that she can recall where she left her "gele" after the last public outing. Not with Benin protestors heckling her from beneath the windows of her suite of offices. I do not envy her one bit.

Please, please, I am not picking on a woman. I hereby challenge Tony Elumelu and perhaps Hakeem Belo-Osagie to try their hands running one of the DISCOs. Or Bismark Rewane for that matter. The melding of sound engineering and economics is a hard nut to crack any day. That is why only a few are chosen to do this.

Dr. Ahmed Wali; New INEC Boss?

I have not bothered to follow the story of developments at INEC since the end of the tenure of Prof Jega. Am I to understand that a new helmsman has now been appointed or is Dr Ahmed Wali holding forth until the appointment of a substantive CEO? I ask these questions because the South-West arm of the APC, a people claiming rightly or wrongly to possess deep political sagacity, have been railing against the evolving political arrangement in the wake of APC's recent victory at the polls. 

They complain of being handed the very short end of the stick. The issue of the Senate Presidency and the Speakership of the House of Reps remains an open wound. . And now this. Is there absolutely no one in the South or specifically the South-West who could have been appointed to the headship of INEC. That should have calmed frayed nerves. 

Having said that, I am not an avowed apostle of federal character in all circumstances, no-matter-what. In certain sectors like electrical power, I would vote any day for a team comprised of technocrats from ONLY Kwarra, or Ogun, or Enugu, or Kano states, if the team knows what it is doing and achieves good results. I deeply resent having to invest so much emotional energy criticising government policies (if the output can even be described as such), and presuming to offer advice from the sidelines. The current situation, whereby a patently incompetent organisation is acceptable simply because my own "brother" is on the board and management, is a recipe for stagnation. Even retrogression. Evidence abounds. 

By the way, where does the vocal South-West position Ndigbo-APC in all these political calculations? It is strange that the loudest analysts, complaining about the recent "coup" by the Hausa-Fulani, never indicate that Ndigbo or the South-East have any stake in this evolving political melodrama. Are Ndigbo at all in the equation? Sauce for the goose, etc! . In the mosaic or jig-saw, which one is our piece of the puzzle? To quote The Ikemba, in this national "intercourse", there must be adequate room for Ndigbo on the Nigerian matrimonial bed! 

Don't you think so?

NEITI, NNPC and The Federal Government of Nigeria: Can the tail wag the dog?

I have been  looking into the recent news report whereby the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI disclosed (for those who do not know already or simply refuse to acknowledge) that petroleum subsidy payments can fund new refineries. I am shocked that it took NEITI this long to come to that realisation. If I may ask, what exactly is in it for NEITI?

One often wonders about the official relationship between the NEITI on the one hand and the NNPC/Federal Govt of Nigeria on the other? Is NEITI an independent local offshoot of Transparency International? Or is it only a collaborative joint venture (JV) with TI, by which the Nigerian government goes through the motions of posturing on openness in its transactions whilst stubbornly retaining the extreme opacity that is the hallmark of (mis)governance here? 

Can NEITI presume to get involved in our budgeting process even in the unlikely event that we eliminate graft and adopt world-class resource allocation procedures? Should it? Much as I am vehemently opposed to the current regime of fuel subsidy, I do not understand the place of NEITI in our processes of resource allocation not to mention the important issues of whether or not we repair our refineries or build new ones. 

Is NEITI an NGO? Is there any member of the NEITI Board not appointed or at least approved by the government? Who funds NEITI? Based on its current structure, can the NEITI realistically call this government, any government, to order on any issue?  It is most unlikely that it has been able to do so in the past. From the recent celebratory mood at NEITI the impression has been created that here at last is a government (Buhari's) with which NEITI hopes to do business. I wonder if NEITI had a vote in the last election. 

Because NEITI is supposed to unearth what the government and the NNPC would rather bury deep, I get worried when I learn of a "courtesy visit to the NNPC in Abuja by a delegation of NEITI." 

The matter gets even more curious when the NNPC spokesperson comments, "As for us in NNPC, we have enjoyed an unprecedented cooperation and collaboration with NEITI in their transparency drive in the oil and gas industry.” Really?

As I inferred earlier, the relationship between NEITI and government agencies is supposed to be adversarial

and needs to stay that way. That is the only way the public interest can be served. 

I wonder if former presidential media aide Olusegun Adeniyi can provide clarifications and answers to the many questions that I have posed. He spent some time on the NEITI Board before his assignment at the presidency. I hope that he is not too busy to oblige us. Please, please let no one refer me to the NEITI website, essentially a PR portal.