WHAT HAS PATRICK O OKIGBO III BEEN UP TO RECENTLY?

Check this out. # NEXTIER POWER LISTS "TOUGH CHOICE" DECISIONS ASPIRANTS MUST MAKE TO REVIVE AILING ECONOMY - BusinessDay

NEXTIER ‎Power, a public sector advisory body, has called on political aspirants in Nigeria to make tough economic choices in Nigeria’s key sectors, mostly in the oil and gas and the power sectors to address concerns of the weak impact of government’s economic decisions on the economy.

‎NEXIER Power gave the directive at the 2018 Political Party Workshop for political parties in Nigeria held on Wednesday in Abuja.

Patrick Okigbo, the ‎founder and the principal partner of NEXIER Power, told BusinessDay at the workshop that specific tough choices that had to re-direct the economy had to be made, while insisting that politicians had to be knowledgeable about the choices to make, whether popular or unpopular, in order to keep the nation moving.

Speaking on the specific choices, he said, “We are subsiding power in Nigeria by choice. Everyone in government ‎knows. What we are paying for power today is far less what it costs to produce the power. The thinking is that we can find a way to scrub that subsidy, so that the government can in the first few years when power increases, gradually you can wipe out that subsidy and people would pay the cost reflective tariff.‎”

Citing example with France, he said, “If you look at what is happening in France today, Macron is trying to make that tough choices and they are not popular choices. The same thing happen in Nigeria when Jonathan tried to remove the fuel subsidy in 2012-the right economic decision to make, but the politics of it, he got it wrong. Not even the sensitisation of Nigerians was done that this was done, hence he did not win the support of Nigerians before pulling the trigger.”‎

On the reason for the workshop, he said, “We think that going into the 2019 elections, it is important for the political parties ‎ to understand and know what the fundamental issues are, why proffering on the solutions. Some of these challenges are even more significant more than they think.”

On the tough choices in the Oil and Gas sector, he called for the quick assent of the Petroleum Industry and Governance Bill by the President to address concerns of lost of huge investments to neighbouring countries discovering the oil and Gas in Africa.

According to Okigbo, “We have been having fundamental challenges in the Oil and Gas sector, which we have been trying to solve through the Petroleum Industry Bill. Key efforts have been made to ensure that both chambers of the National Assembly‎ put up a Petroleum Industry Governance Bill which has been presented to the President. He declined to assent, and this should not be for we are loosing investments.”

Clarifying further, he said, “If you look at the marginal fields that was licensed few years ago, only few of them about 30% had been in operation. What does this mean, it means that despite the fact that we had a goal of 4million barrels per day, we are only to do about 2.5 million barrels on a good day‎.This is why the Presidential assent to the bill is key to address the concern.”

by HARRISON EDEH, ABUJA

December 13, 2018 # https://www.businessdayonline.com/ng-election/article/nexier-power-lists-tough-choice-decisions-aspirants-must-make-revive-ailing-economy/

117,000mW?

This must be a case of NUMBER NUMBNESS (apologies to Mr Lihu of The Guardian)

I have just observed that all media outlets copied verbatim the press release about the so-called 116,659mW in an accounting period, November, 2018.

What exactly does that number mean? How does that figure relate with the public claim that Nigeria generates (and transmits?) between 3000 and 5000mW outside of the routine and under-reported systems collapse and a few loudly heralded generation spikes? . It should be obvious to everybody that 117,000mW and 5000mW are of very different orders of magnitude. Something must be wrong here. I proffer that it has to be in the unit of count. The earlier announce figure MUST have been 117000mWh. Please note the hour, h.

We should remember that there were 720hours in the month of November. This implies an average power generation availability of 162.5mW! That is a paltry figure compared with the already low figure of 5000mW. I am eternally suspicious of any statistics that I get from the government. It is quite possible that the press release from the TCN was off by a factor of 10. If indeed they had meant to announce 1,170,000mWh power delivery, we would still be talking about 1625mW average effective generating capacity. We would then have barely moved towards the Eldorado of power.

If I am right, I will still lament that I find it is so painful that not one knowledgeable individual in government, NERC and/or TCN has discovered this disinformation or found it worthwhile to correct it. Note that I am utilizing only simple arithmetic here. No Calculus, etc! I had concluded years ago in the public domain that the issue of Planning, Designing and Delivery of a viable Electrical Power Sector is NOT an equal opportunity matter. All views are NOT welcome! . A situation whereby the Units of Measure are not understood by the Policy Makers does not give room for confidence going forward. I tire!

https://punchng.com/power-generation-rises-to-116659-8-mw-in-november/

INADEQUATE ELECTRICITY IN BENIN CITY

Governor Godwin Obaseki is displaying an emotion here, anger, regarding a problem that requires rational analysis. Our people will ask, "Na today?"

From the Presidency, to the Federal Ministry of Power, NERC and the handicapped state governments, it has been obvious for years that no one understood the scope of the Nigerian electrical power conundrum. The DISCOs are simply the shriveled limbs of a diseased body closest to the electricity consumers. The manner of the so-called privatization did NOT solve any of the fundamental problems.

The following was my comment on BEDC and Mrs Funke Osibodu three years ago. # # # # # # # # # # # # #

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.

CHINESE ROAD SIGN TO LEKKI FREE ZONE

Some Nigerians have taken exception to the presence in Lagos of a road sign, written in Chinese, pointing towards the Lekki Free Zone. I find such complaints disingenuous, belated and completely missing the point. When and where did this rain start beating us?

As originally conceived, the Lekki Free Zone was a development concept targeted at the global investing audience. Of course China was always part of that. However with the turmoil in the world financial system since 2008, long before the destructive tornado that is Donald Trump (#MAGA), the Chinese have remained about the only bloc with any taste for major risks in such foreign undertakings as the Lekki Free Zone. How come there are no major projects, whether white or black elephant, attributable to the US and the West in any part of Africa in the last two decades? If you follow the writings of people like Dr Charles Chukwuma Soludo, (From Berlin to Brussels, etc), you will notice that the West has no intention of coming up with the quantum of investments in Irrigation, Agriculture, Power and Industry, etc as will set Africa on a path of Irreversible Growth. China has seen a lot of opportunities in meeting these needs, albeit skewed inequitably towards its own national interests. Africa and Nigeria simply refuse to do their homework, perform no DUE DILIGENCE and simply sign on the dotted lines. Whose fault? All the West does is to shout after the fact that Africa has gotten a raw deal, while providing no meaningful alternative path. Meanwhile the funds creamed off the top of such Chinese "contracts" are gladly welcomed in US and European banks, with no questions asked. Why would they, when they have hardly done anything to restrict the flow of stolen Russian roubles into their economies? .

The basket case that is Africa is the least of their concerns. . Yes, back to the Road signs to Lekki, written in Chinese. I regard those as a matter of courtesy in view of the large number of Chinese speaking peoples who are currently operating in the Nigerian Economy. For those who imagine that we have lost any part of our shambolic "sovereignty" because of those road signs I advise that we have willingly given up a whole lot more through less visible means. Chinese carmakers and other manufacturers operating just across the border in Russian territory have street signs in Chinese. Putin, leader of a poor almost Third World nation, is smart enough not to complain about minor issues like this. It would make no sense. The hand that gives is usually on top.

Nigeria's AMINA MOHAMMED makes BBC 100 Women Honour List. 2018

The first time I came across this interview by BBC's Zainab Badawi, I couldn't concentrate on it because of the negative vibes it gave me. This was due to no fault of Mrs Mohammed. However since I have always taken on global issues from an unapologetically Nigerian bias, I couldn't help but take my mind back to the cultural millieu from which she was thrown up. Here I am referring to Nigeria's North-East, a.k.a. Boko-Haram land with all its sad connotations.

As a very educated woman, Mrs Mohammed deserves all the encomium extended to her by Badawi. I would hate to imagine that for all her education and the mentoring by the late Dr Kofi Annan, she has held onto her top positions in both the government and the UN due only to those connections. I often wonder if the male-dominated, sexists and mysogynists at the top of the Northern Nigerian establishment, proud to have their wife and daughter in such top positions, an ego trip for them, would readily support her activist side, if such would rise to the top. The connected issues of education in the north, Almajiri, girl child education, girl child marriage, the unpassed Child Right Act and the events at Chibok are staring us and Mrs Mohammed in the face. Would that she could come home and risk life and limb on the home front dealing with these matters.
However I am not all about criticizing a very visible member of the Northern elite, and a female at that. I always plead enlightened self-interest. A well educated, well informed, peaceful, economically and technologically developed Northern Nigeria is probably of more value to an Igboman than our northern brethren can ever understand. I wish Mrs Mohammed well in her endeavours on the global scene with every hope that it will rub off positively on us here. Congratulations!

RE: SENATE’S PROBE OF RAILWAY CONCESSIONING

Note the date of this report and my reaction to it. November 11, 2016.

Has there been any positive changes since then in the behaviour of the Buhari administration in parceling out major projects to his cronies both foreign and domestic? There, doesn't seem to be any evidence to that effect. Let's review my comment one more time, as the political gladiators seek to outdo each other in the campaigns towards this Presidential Election.

November 11, 2016

The Senate has suddenly woken up from its long self-induced slumber. On Tuesday, it directed five committees to probe the concessioning of major segments of the Nigeria Railways network by the Presidency to General Electric without competitive bidding. Should we cheer? Hardly.

A railway project without competitive input from the world leader in railway infrastructural work, the Chinese, must be fishy, to say the least. That concession to GE should not just be probed. It should be thrown out.

What’s the hurry? We have wasted four decades and did almost nothing to develop our railways, but for the little achieved by President Goodluck Jonathan in his final days in office. Why then should the government regulatory agencies entrusted with the responsibilities over the issues at hand be brusquely shunted aside, TO SAVE TIME! Really? This is most disingenuous to say the least.

What is an extra year in the life of a project with a 25 to 30-year time horizon? As we speak, the average Federal Government landmark project is behind schedule by five years. That includes many that are unencumbered by any contentious agreement or contractual disputes. So, who is fooling who?

According to the report, the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation also warned the Ministry of Transportation against this backdoor concessioning because of the extant procurement laws. Was anyone listening?

Meanwhile, the Bureau for Public Procurements has been directed to issue a “Certificate of no objection” as part of the fast-track approach. By who? Note that the key word here is DIRECTED. According to the law, nobody directs the Bureau for Public Procurements, BPP. Its mandate is not ambiguous. Has President Muhammadu Buhari now decided, as most of his detractors and critics suspect, to run a one-man administration? Like during the Obasanjo reign, the Senate and House of Representatives have their job cut out for them. Sitting on the fence is not an option. Feigning indifference also implies criminal complicity # PS: I keep reminding myself that the Buhari administration has all this while claimed to be about an unrelenting War Against Corruption, even as it barely makes a dent in meeting the demands for infrastructural development. It would appear that some of our kids, who watched earlier promises, made decades ago on television, about say the 2nd Niger Bridge, would end up working on them. Call that silver lining if you wish. The Mambilla Hydroelectric Project, huge in both size and potential impact, readily comes to mind.

HOW MUCH AGAIN DID ABACHA STEAL?

This question is not aimed at reducing in anyway the significance of the financial malfeasance of the goggled one and a whole array of thieves before him and since.

WE have followed innumerable narratives in the foreign media, especially on TEDx talks, about how foreign banks in London, New York and lately Hong Kong have systematically conspired with faceless entities to defraud struggling Third World economies. There seemed to have been a forlorn hope that somehow they could be shamed into changing their behavior. Unfortunately this has not materialized. However when we consider the huge sums pilfered out of Russia through Deutsche Bank and the array of the usual suspects in the west, it all seems so hopeless. Subsequent revelations in the Panama Papers (Part 1 & 2), has not staunched the illicit flow. . And now this. .
The Danish bank DANSKE has been reportedly steeped in illicit transfers to the west to the whopping tune of $150 billion over the past several years, and everybody, including the Danish government, appears hell bent on looking the other way. With this regulatory landscape, more like lack of it, why then do Third World activists and bleeding hearts in the west imagine that somehow salvation lies in the hands of Western authorities with their proven track record of lack of good intentions? This sordid landscape reinforces the need for the developing nations, especially those dependent on an extractive economy, to buckle up to establish home-grown institutions and procedures to save themselves. Neither London nor New York lawyers not to mention the amoral Chinese will do this for Africa.

WATER FOR THE INHABITANTS OF LAGOS

Thunder fire the person who is dissuading citizens from digging boreholes! . It's not as if they enjoy doing so. They say that Omole has not had tap water for three weeks. ONLY THREE WEEKS?! . I have lived in Okota for 20years. I cannot dream of one litre of water from the public supply. A commentator pointed out that there is water in abundance 24/7 in Mushin. If I try to point out the differential in the demographics of Mushin and Okota, they will accuse me of Hate Speech. So, I will not.

The fact is that is that very many parts of the Lagos megalopolis lack potable water with negative impact on health, human productivity etc. No group is spared. Our various administrations, (state & federal), have failed to recognize that there must be a concerted, long-term, sustained and global/regional plan to tackle the issue of water availability. Currently we take the trouble to source a not-very-useful product like petrol from across the globe and pipe it hundreds of kilometers to reach the consumer. Why not water? Others do it. Until we have major water projects where with huge man-made aqueducts in the model of the Great Libyan River, we will still be here scratching our heads twenty years hence. Think of 4m diameter systems, 150 - 400km long! Yes, it's huge! Think of the Electrical Power that will make it work. Wahala dey-o!

Or if we prefer to search far, why not look at the Chinese template. Enlightened individuals are already aware of the California model resulting in a multibillion dollar agriculture industry. You move water from where you have excess of it to where it is needed. Our current irrigation effort for agriculture has barely scratched the surface of national need.

This will then be followed by the engineering of distribution with safety in mind to obviate incidence of contamination. Meanwhile our youth remain unemployed. It is a simple step to analyze the impact on the overburdened health system and infrastructure. There is so much work to be done.

"SNIPER" IN BEANS!

Hello Nigerians. Yes, What you don't know can kill you!
Some Nigerians have expressed alarm at the revelations from the following video. "Sniper", (not the real name), is a family of powerful insecticides identified by Nigerians and liberally applied without regulatory controls for containing the spread of insect pests, especially cocroaches, in homes. Apparently in order to minimize losses in stored agricultural products, Sniper is now being used for food preservation. This is a very dangerous trend which obviously did not start today. The practice only makes headlines when an entire family dies from poisoning as a result of excessive ingestion of the active agent.
One commentator has asked, "What is wrong with us?" I will try to answer that question as follows: We start by lowering our expectations from agencies created by government like NAFDAC. Then we undermine them by allowing other agencies to interfere with their mandate simply because their work seems more glamorous and gets more raving press reviews. Here I am referring to SON which a few years ago started commenting on quality and specifications of food and food additives eg palm oil at Oyingbo Market. One would imagine that NAFDAC had closed shop. . As if that was not bad enough, here comes the Consumer Protection Agency. Yes-oo, job for the Boys and Girls! . It's first major public involvement was with the issue of the already documented and codified additives in Coca-Cola, Sprite, etc. I recall that a prominent writer ignorantly joined this controversy, from which I had restrained myself. This matter has been winding it's way through the court system. I wonder on whose side NAFDAC would give evidence? Or would the courts and the establishment assume that NAFDAC is dead? .
Under this deliberately confusing environment, who then is left to do the laborious and clandestine work of tracking down those who use "Sniper", "Ota Pia-pia" or whatever, for weevil control in harvested agricultural produce? Clearly nobody.

Nigeria has for long been led by dunces. That's the way it is.

TO FIX A BROKEN WORLD

There is this book by Dambisa Moyo titled, EDGE OF CHAOS: Why Democracy is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth. I imagine that here in Nigeria, it has passed essentially under the radar except perhaps in such circles as the Lagos Business School.
I have found this review by Jason Hickel most engaging. The analysis was great and forthright. Now contrast Moyo's pet paradigm with the call by Prof Charles Soludo in his cry, "FROM BERLIN TO BRUSSELS - Will Europe underdevelop Africa Again?" I am yet to see a single response from the politicians and Financiers of the advanced economies up North to his call.

There is this story narrated in the Brothers Kamarazov by the Russian writer Tolstoy(?) on what greed for say land can do to a man. If indeed we default to the position of Moyo and her principals, and achieve a new GDP of say 10 times the current figure, and as usual retain 90percent of it for the top 1%, then what? What would they do with all that extra wealth? Relocate to Bali where they will be surrounded by poverty and filth? I just don't get it. It doesn't make any sense at all. Such a world may no longer be worth living in. That is exactly what the advocates of Trumponomics fail to understand. We may find ourselves back to Franz Fannon's world, nasty, brutish and short.

What would prevent a poor policeman or soldier from shooting his commander? All the money in Fort Knox cannot take care of that possibility. Or the owner of an obscenely palatial mansion being dispossessed by his very own servants overcome with hatred for their lazy "hard-working(?)" employer and drowned in his own swimming pool? Because they are grossly underpaid? . The seeds of a revolution are being unwittingly sown by the likes of Moyo. The concept of FAIR distribution of the resources of the planet earth and the output of our combined effort is lost on them. Any discussion of that is off-handedly dismissed as a reversion to Socialism. This is sad and very dangerous.

THIS IS THE MAN BUHARI PROBABLY NEVER CONSIDERED TO REPLACE DR AKINWUNMI ADESINA

DR. MARTIN FREGENE

Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department, AfDB

Dr. Martin Fregene is a plant geneticist and molecular breeder with over 25 years of research and development experience at two International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs), a renowned Plant Science Center in the US (judged the sixth best plant science center in the US), at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) of Nigeria – as Chief Technical Adviser to the erstwhile Minister of Agriculture, and as Adviser to the Vice President of Agriculture, Human, and Social Development at the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Jennifer Blanke. He is currently Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry (AHAI) at the African Development Bank working on implementation of a bold initiative of the Bank, the Feed Africa Strategy in collaboration with AHAI’s sister department at the Bank, Agricultural Financing and Rural Development (AHFR). Specifically, he is leading the execution of the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) to raise farm level crop, livestock, and aquaculture productivity across the continent. He is also leading the design and implementation of the Transformation of African Savannah Initiative (TASI), a science and technology –based initiative, that seeks to transform 16 million Ha of African Savannah across eight African countries into breadbaskets producing 50million MT of maize, 30million MT of soybean, and 10 million MT of livestock within 25 years via new private sector investments and climate-smart agriculture.

He began his career at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1991 as a pre-doctoral fellow in cassava breeding (1991-1993. While at IITA, he was a recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation post-doctoral fellowship on molecular genetic mapping (1993 – 1996) that took him to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT, its Spanish acronym), Cali, Colombia; while at CIAT as a post-doc, he developed the first molecular genetic map of cassava. From 1996 until 1997 he was an associate scientist at CIAT working on tagging of genes controlling early yield, resistance to diseases and pests in cassava. In 1999, he was promoted senior scientist and cassava geneticist at CIAT and initiated the first cassava molecular breeding program to accelerate development of improved cassava varieties for various agro-ecologies of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

He left CIAT in 2008 to join the Biocassava Plus project, an initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to enhance the nutritional status of cassava, as product development manager at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (DDPSC), St. Louis, Missouri. He was promoted Director of the Biocassava plus project in July 2010 and led a team that produced cassava events rich in pro-vitamin A and iron, also successfully renewing the grant, securing an additional US$7million for a phase II, bringing the total grant to US$21million. Dr Fregene took a leave of absence from DDPSC to join the Honorable Minister of Agriculture as a Chief Technical Advisor and team leader of the cassava value-added chain, continuing on to the African Development Bank in 2015 as adviser on Feed Africa.

Dr Fregene has a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He bagged a M.Sc. degree in Organic chemistry at the same University, graduating at the top of his class. His Ph.D. degree in plant genetics and breeding was conducted at the John Innes Center, Norwich UK, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT, its Spanish acronym), Cali, Colombia, and awarded by the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Dr Fregene has also been recipient of several travel award: including a grant of the Japanese Society for the promotion of Science (JSPS) in 2001 to spend a total of 6 months at the Iwate Biotechnology Research Institute (IBRC), Kitakami, Japan; a CIAT award to spend 3 months with Dr Rod Wing at the Clemson University Genome Institute (CUGI), a grant of the International Program for Science of the University of Uppsala to spend 3 months at the Swedish Agricultural University, Uppsala, Sweden, amongst others. He also won best publication award twice while at CIAT. He has been recipient of over US$25M in research grants over the course of his 25 year career and has published over 70 scientific papers in refereed journals and book chapters. https://agrf.org/speakers/dr-martin-fregene/

FREE EDUCATION FOR ALL

I like that. But who is going to pay the bill? . Somebody has to.
More than two decades ago, Prof Francis Idachaba, Vice Chancellor at the Federal Government university in Makurdi joined the debate over fee-paying private universities in Nigeria and listed the many benefits of deregulating the Higher Education Sector. He attracted to himself excoriating commentary from people who closed their minds to following his arithmetic projections. All that is history now. I wouldn't want to waste any effort repeating his arguments. Water under the bridge, they say. Just like at the Nursery, Primary and Secondary school levels, (expensive) private education, as an enterprise, is now a fact of Nigerian life in the area of Universities.

Which brings us to the latest fool's errand by the victorious new and improved governor of Ekiti State. This is a state, like many others, with an incredibly tiny taxable population, individual and corporate. The record of revenue generation/collection has been dismal. The people of Ekiti, unlike their cousins up north, are noted for their attachment to education from time immemorial. The name Christ High School, Ado-Ekiti rings a bell everywhere. It can safely be assumed that the people of Ekiti State value education so much that they have been ever ready to pay for it. Why then would Fayemi "fall his own hand" now? At a time he can use all the revenue that he can lay his hands on? !

The time to blame Fayose for unpaid salaries is gone. The ball is finally back in Fayemi's court. He should play it, looking to the future, in the long term interest of Ekiti people. . I hate to make comparisons. However I must point out that in Igboland, no matter how hard things are, a man that refuses to provide for his children's education, is essentially an outcast. Ekiti people should be encouraged to put their money where their mouth is. Ekiti State cannot afford free education. Period!

FG BANS 50 PROMINENT NIGERIANS FROM TRAVELLING ABROAD

This is silly posturing. Gen Buhari has had the better part of three years to sort out the issue of who and who stole our money and force them to make amends, even outside the boundaries of the law. Not that we recommend such action. Which is exactly what Buhari is NOW doing.

It is instructive to note that Buhari waited to wrap up the mago-mago APC Presidential Primaries before springing this illegal action on his perceived enemies. It has been stated over and over again that the War Against Corruption never really started. We can rationalize all we want on the actions of a president who for example loudly claimed that his friend late Gen Sani Abacha stole nothing but shamelessly keeps accepting loot returned from foreign banks in Abacha's name. .

In the unlikely event that Buhari wins the 2019 Election, I would imagine that by December 2019, (ie seven months after inauguration), he would be in EXACTLY the same situation that he was in as at December 2015, surrounded by the same crooks and criminals, friends and enemies alike. As Baba Go-Slow, he probably would have no new cabinet in place. All this would be nobody's fault but his own.

Buhari probably does not posses the intellectual wherewithal to enable him appreciate the quantum of goodwill that he voluntarily dissipated since coming to office. I am yet to see any country where the generality of the people wish their political leadership a dismal failure. Not Nigerians. It is our country for goodness sake. That is why we have been passionately involved. If only 10% of the accusations by enemies of Bola Tinubu is true, Buhari, the Anti-Corruption Czar, would have consigned him to the gulag. Meanwhile is Buhari interested? No! Of course there are very many others. So, who is fooling who? Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has been available for vilification and prosecution for at least these past three years. Nothing nothing. When he was with Buhari ahead of the 2015 elections, he was a "national asset", a reservoir of wisdom and experience. Thank God that he didn't die such that all manner of pretenders, including cloak and dagger closet enemies, will extol him and cry over his grave. Hence Atiku is still here with us and wants to run for president in an opposition party. Hell breaks loose. Atiku has been a thief all along, they say. . Mbanu!

Let us wait and see how the civil society who ordinarily would be expected to hail this Executive Order react. Would they be conned? What about the Legislature in the National Assembly, the Nigerian Bar Association and the Judiciary? This is the kind of upheaval we do not need in the runup to what will prove to be a most contentious election. I call for caution on the part of an Executive run amok. POSTSCRIPT: How do you define "prominent"? Is it simply a matter of cash? Do I qualify, if we were to include other parameters? . Just asking.

The other Trouble With Nigeria - WHO ARE YOUR TECHNICAL PARTNERS?

NTA anchor Obiayo had asked, "What is the guarantee of the quality of the project executed by OilServe?" # I doubt if I have met Mr (Engr?) Emeka Okwuosa. Nigeria is a big country. I have however interacted with a good many of his peers, on the client side and his competitors on the contractor side. Most Nigerians, especially in the media, refrain from educating themselves on what activities, Engineering, Planning, Procurement and Construction (EPC) that are involved in delivering most major projects. Or more importantly delivery of products and/or service to the people. Because several Nigerian administrations had chosen to address the matter of Local Content (I call it Participation) more in the breach, the public does not get to know the limited but steadily growing progress that our indigenous professionals have made these past four decades even WITH ONE HAND TIED BEHIND THEIR BACKS. # That question by Obiayo would have been appropriate if it came from a fellow professional in that sector, who in such an interview would be able to make sense of Engr Okwuosa's answer and have relevant follow-up questions to hold the attention of an ignorant public. That was a huge insult. # Unfortunately, in my own professional practice, I have encountered several variations of that theme, from decision makers in government Parastatals and major oil companies. After all the handholding that I provided to operators at Shell, they still routinely found it natural to revert to The Hague for solutions that we have hitherto provided them in Lagos and Port Harcourt. Most infuriating was having to go to Bonny Pump Station to troubleshoot a problem (mis)handled by "experts" from say HOLEC. And they won't even pay me even a fraction of what they readily shovel into overseas coffers. I have often been asked, "Who are your technical partners?" As if the person asking has any clue whether or not I needed one, or had the capacity to grade any partner that I may have mentioned. Let me make this clear. Engr Emeka Okwuosa and OilServ represent a growing crop of confident Nigerians, unfortunately mainly from the southern parts, who have committed themselves to the petroleum and related industries. Their aim, ahead of wishy-washy government stated intentions, is to domesticate it. They have jumped into the deep end and are giving the foreign competition a run for their money. It is sad but true that the deteriorating security situation had given a filip to the reluctant trend to go local. Please note also that not all the founders and prime movers have an engineering background. Some came from other professions but had the clear understanding of the composition required for these kinds of projects. May I now take this opportunity to salute people like Austin Avuru of Seplat,

Alfred Okoigun of ARCO, Ernest Azudialu of Nestoil Limited, Prof David Aderibigbe of i3M Power Systems Limited, Chris Baywood Ibe of Baywood Continental Limited, and many many others. People who have never seen a sliderule in their lives OR do not know that Nelson & Parker is a physics text book, will keep doubting your competences to our deep chagrin. I wish that the know-nothing decision makers in government and those in the media who boost their egos will wear a cloak of deep humility when talking to people such as these.

THE CHURCH MILITANT (Not an Official Organ), THE POPE, ERRANT CLERGY, TRUMP & BEER!

I still believe that I am a Catholic and hope to remain one for as long as I live. I must confess that it has been a torture continuing to follow the shrill commentary of Michael Voris and his merry band. It has been hard enough dealing with the constant Anti-Pope stance that has remained a regular staple on these pages. One would easily imagine that somehow the editors at St Michael Media see themselves among the College of Cardinals to select a replacement for Pope Francis. Of course this will not happen. Those of us belonging to the old generations surely find some of the statements attributed to Francis cringe-worthy. However it seems as if Voris and Co have not benefited from church history and exhibit absolutely no faith in Christ himself.

The Lord had pledged to be with his Church through thick and thin, with the Holy Spirit in control. The gates of hell will never prevail against the Church. Doesn't anyone believe this promise any more? I am beginning to wonder if indeed I belong to the same church with you guys. Meanwhile don't get me wrong on these other matters. I also agonize over the poor quality of catechesis and faith formation these days. Similarly I too am astounded by the revelations over pedophilia, straight sex and gay sex in the clergy. Unlike you I recognize a downward trend in these evil tendencies. I also recognize that these occurrences show probabilities comparable with the US national average. I say this not as justification.

Finally let me repeat an observation that I made on these pages about a year ago. Going by the editorial position of The Church Militant, The St Michael Media and Voris himself, a visitor from another planet would rightly assume that The Catholic Church in America is the praying arm of the Republican Party. This is atrocious. The Evangelicals have lost God and got Trump as replacement. (See The Financial Times of London.) If we go down the path charted by the Church Militant, the Catholic Church SHOULD follow suit. God forbid! . So as not to complicate matters, I will refrain from expressing any opinion on the contentious confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. As a parting shot, I must say that your above comments about (what must have been) excessive consumption of beer among teens and adults alike to have been flippant and downright unserious.

ATIKU ABUBAKAR and KINGSLEY MOGHALU (Forget Buhari!)

Like all of us humans, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is a flawed being. As at 24months ago, how many northerners of all persuasions dared come out to express the "satanic" opinion that there was something wrong with General Muhammadu Buhari and his presidency? Nobody. That would have been the take-off point for any Presidential bid. Nobody came forward. Faced with that, the issue then was/is how does one compare Atiku with Buhari? Most will agree that it is like comparing DAY with NIGHT. In this day and age, is Atiku Abubakar the best presidential material from amongst our 200m odd population? Definitely no. I have in the past expressed a long list including Dr Usman Bugaje from the same Katsina State. I even included the current governor Aminu Masari. I do not like him one bit, but he is relatively young, (a necessary attribute), and has a better intellectual and political presence. At other times, I had also wondered why Nigeria cannot conscript a renowned old man Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, who apart from his cerebral endowment and diplomacy, has a spring in his step that Buhari cannot match. At that time I never mentioned the name of any Igboman because of the primitive knee-jerk reaction on the Nigerian political landscape. In the absence of those, both willing and able, to challenge the rapidly fading and dysfunctional Buhari presidency, who am I not to root for Atiku Abubakar? I did so in many writings. Please note this. Despite the hue and cry about the northern and Fulani hegemony, ALL FULANI CANNOT BY ANY STRETCH BE THE SAME. . . FINALLY, in a level playing field, with an enlightened electorate, why would I even be joining issues with anyone about Atiku? . I would vote for the bravest, most experienced, most articulate individual to throw his hat into the ring, Prof KINGSLEY MOGHALU. Make no mistake about it, I have publicly contributed to his campaign. . Many who oppose Atiku have been too lazy to invest their time, money and intellect, like I proudly do, in support of a named presidential aspirant. They simply pray that God will come down to fix things for us. I am so ashamed.

VIETNAM AND NIGERIA CAN WE DARE COMPARE THEM?

I stumbled on this World Economic Forum Report about the Vietnam Miracle as I was searching for something else on the Facebook wall of my inlaw Dr Gordon Ononiwu. The report spoiled my day. It all reminds me of my mantra THE ROAD NOT TAKEN. #

To think that just a few decades ago, Vietnam was at war with the no1 superpower in the world and was consequently devastated. It came out of the war determined to reset its relationship with the US and the West despite its loud claim of attachment to Communist principles now observed more in the breach. China, Vietnam's avowed big enemy and neighbour, had earlier under Deng Xiao Ping started to make serious inroads into the US market leading to its current overwhelming dominance. Poor Vietnam pragmatically looked to a time that it would take its "rightful" bite out of the US bazaar and went right ahead to work towards it. What we see now is NOT the Vietnamese Miracle but rather a result of conscious planning and sustained action. I shuddered when it was revealed that the former, (disgraced?) head of the Nigeria Customs went visiting Vietnam to learn about Rice husbandry. Till today I have been scratching my head wondering how on earth it concerned him. It would have made some sense if it was Audu Ogbe undertaking that trip. . Nigeria we hail thee!

Purists may want to point out that Vietnam does not in any way approximate to a modern democracy. My response is simple. NEITHER DOES NIGERIA! . The way things are here, I could quite easily have been living in the erstwhile IS Caliphate carved out of northern Syria and Iraq.

THE BOKO-HARAM ARE NOT ISLAMISTS - Buhari

The Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Conference, Dr. Youssef Al-Othaimeen (met the Nigerian President) on the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday. So we are told by presidential spokesman Femi Adesina.

The OIC scribe had told the Nigerian President that his organisation had passed a resolution committing member states to support Nigeria in combating extremism.

He said that the body was ready to use its facilities and institutions TO CORRECT THE WRONG NARRATIVE THAT THE BOKO-HARAM INSURGENCY WAS ABOUT ISLAM. That's a propaganda war meant to lull the affected and potential victims into a false sense of security. Why would an Islamic organization engage in such a Taqqiya offensive if not for sinister ends?

This is indeed serious. When President Buhari made this same statement recently, I was taken aback. One would wonder whether Muhammadu Buhari is a member of Boko-Haram such that he can discern and publicize the intentions of the organization over and above its own pronouncements and actions. We may find that we do have an enemy who poses an existential threat to Nigeria's very survival in residence at Aso Rock.

Now we know for a fact that the membership of the OIC, have no peace at their own various home fronts. Think of Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Turkmenistan, Pakistan etc. How can these nations, wracked with religious and sectarian strife and terrorism, impossible to stem even with the aid of the no 1 superpower the United States, presume to offer to help Nigeria fight terrorism? The OIC scribe has even gone ahead to redefine, on our behalf, that indeed the Boko-Haram is simply a terrorist organization. Between Al-Othaimeen and Buhari, it is difficult to determine who is quoting the other. At this rate Nigeria is in deep trouble. Those Middle-Belt and Southern elements among the diehard Buharideen would want to keep their heads stuck in the sand. At the rate we are going, they may not even have the opportunity to pull them up one last time before the end. Only the paranoid survive! . Nigerians, especially Christians, should keep their eyes wide open, prepare for the worst, while hoping and praying for the best possible outcomes.

WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE IN THE NAME OF PHILANTHROPY?

It's been out there in the open only that we have been too busy to recognize it. Now comes Anand Gridharadas. This review of his book WINNER TAKES ALL, points at "a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can–EXCEPT ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it!". This should be a good read.

Yesterday Anand Gridharadas held me spellbound as he was interviewed on AMANPOUR by correspondent Hari Sreenivasan.

As usual, I want to bend this discussion to Nigeria, the only country, warts and all, that I have ever called my own. Does the cap fit? In my engagements I have come away with this general impression that even members of the vanishing middle-class, who manage to still send their children to private schools within and outside Nigeria; routinely go on summer vacations beyond these shores, THINK that until they measure up with the likes of Aliko Dangote and Jim Ovia, they cannot afford to spare a though for the structural inequities that keep the poor in their place. Some of my colleagues, regarding me as powerless, have asked to my face why I bother to engage in the issues like I do. When I compare myself to the unknown John Lewis of 60years ago, I can only conclude that I am gifted. I hope that I am right.

As for these really rich, according to Gridharadas, simply forget them. You should not look for salvation at their hands. A decade ago, an aging Gen T Y Danjuma complained to the hearing of hapless Nigerians that he didn't know what to do with his unearned $millions. There are many others. They keep insulting us with their many Foundations. Despite all the soundbytes, maintaining the status quo remains their primary concern. The feel-good derived from philanthropy is simply an icing to the cake.

Going back to the truly global linkages, I have always wondered why no international bodies have reacted to or answered the poser by our own Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo: BERLIN TO BRUSSELS - Will Europe Underdevelop Africa Again? It is funny that as British Prime Minister Theresa May feels under extreme pressure from her Brexit negotiations unraveling before her eyes, she runs to Africa for succour. To pursue the interest of Nigeria and South Africa? I just wonder.

I have almost lost all hope about a positive change in the world social and economic order without some revolutionary upheavals. Not the US, Europe, Russia, Africa could be immune. It is quite scary, not with every tin pot dictator brandishing nuclear weapons.