Again on Greece and Nigeria - OSINBAJO BELIEVES NIGERIA IS NOT GOING INTO A RECESSION

I had for years watched with diminishing disbelief the Greek economy tank. That was long before the last major crisis hit the headlines a little over a year ago. In early 2015, I wrote an article titled Greece and Nigeria: Passing off Insolvency as Illiquidity (BusinessDay -http://businessdayonline.com/2015/02/greece-and-nigeria-passing-off-insolvency-as-illiquidity/ ).

On that occasion, I was far less interested in sounding off on the serial missteps by the rulers and citizens of Greece, (compulsive strikers and tax dodgers all, in the fashion of the French), than in drawing urgent attention to the predicament and looming crisis in Nigeria. Was I a prophet or what? No. The signs were all over the place.

I recall that as the US was ramping up its oil and gas production from new and enhanced recovery processes, (of which fracking is just one), our people in the NNPC and Ministries of Finance and National Planning continued with their unsolicited refrain that everything was going to be just fine. The question remained. How? The facts on the ground belied their unwarranted confidence which was soon dashed as US imports from Nigeria continued on the downward trajectory to near zero. The full significance of this development was obviously lost on our government until the global oil price hit rock bottom. And China, the new great knight from the east, also started cutting back too. By then it was too late to do anything in the short run.

As a failed manufacturer, I know for a fact that the current ballyhoo on diversifying the economy, is just talk. It is almost too late. It is hard enough trying to develop within a reasonable time frame and run a successful science and technology based venture with all the finance available, but however with the usual downside of having to compete  with the US, UK, Germany, Japan and finally China, not to mention Brazil and India. As it is, it is well nigh impossible to succeed now with almost no sources of funds, a confused government heckling as opposed to encouraging you, and the chorusline of the EU proposed EPA insisting that our borders be thrown open to all manner of imports.

It is against this background that I find myself aghast at the recent deal announced during the recent federal executive Council meeting by finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, which will see the government get a foreign denominated bond that will “give each state at least a billion naira monthly but only on meeting certain conditions like cleaning their payroll, cutting recurrent expenditure, using Treasure Single Account, among others.” It is strange that these conditionalities were not immediately handed out to Gov Aregbesola and his Osun State a year ago. My reaction then was one of incredulity. These would have applied to any other state government, and there were many, profligate enough to fall into the same situation. The mess has since snowballed to the point where we now have to borrow in dollars to pay salaries in naira. This is not sustainable.

Meanwhile, I find it most disturbing that our Vice  President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo speaking for his boss, shared his  belief with the public that the Nigerian economy cannot get any worse than this. That is a very dangerous assumption. He should please ask those who are more knowledgeable. Italy, Argentina and Brazil, much more advanced and established economies, with relatively strong institutions in place, are examples worthy of serious study.

It is unacceptable that one full year down the road, an administration that had supposedly been planning a rescue mission a full two years before it won the election, could still be dwelling on "the fall of the price of oil" or indeed "Jonathan" as a reason for failing to deliver on its campaign promises. Olusegun Adeniyi has written at length on the immense value and feelgood advantages for the government to quickly determine things that are readily achievable and proceeding to do them. Enough of the whining.

I had restrained myself from wrapping up this commentary when I realised that President Buhari would in a matter of hours address the nation on the occasion of his first anniversary. Giving him the benefit of doubt, I looked forward to a new tack in the way he would be speaking to us. I was sorely disappointed to note that Buhari, in leading his administration, would continue to blame all manner of external factors for our stalled and receeding economy. Blame everybody else except ourselves, meaning the leadership. Hear him:

"On the economic front, all oil dependent countries, Nigeria included, have been struggling since the drop in prices. Many oil rich states have had to take tough decisions similar to what we are doing. The world, Nigeria included has been dealing with the effects of three significant and simultaneous global shocks starting in 2014:

A 70% drop in oil prices. 

Global growth slowdown.

Normalization of monetary policy by the United States federal reserve.

The president's analogy of the farmer reaping three bags as opposed to the previous ten bags of grain, is most pedestrian and not exactly correct. He could and should have elevated his discourse. Where on earth are his speech writers, if he has any?

Quoting Azuka Onwuka, (I think), our president and his team clearly need help.

Re: Keep Your Mouth Shut: Surviving Nigeria's North - Jennifer Chinenye Emelife

ON KEEPING YOUR MOUTH SHUT: SURVIVING NIGERIA'S NORTH

I was about to write as part of my comment on this article by Jennifer Emelife, that surviving in the Muslim north is akin to "walking on egg shells." Then I came across her own take which properly sums it up:

"Living in Sokoto was like walking on broken electric wires; they may appear dead and harmless, but wait until they are charged with current."

Jennifer and I are saying exactly the same thing.

Why on earth would I or my loved ones want to be constantly exposed to such ominous danger? A situation whereby my partner in any relationship is routinely excused for wanting to take off my head for any reason whatsoever, or for actually doing so is bizarre to say the least. "Oh yes, these moslems. You know that they dont take any insult, real or imagined, of their religion and/or prophet, lightly." So what exactly is one supposed to do, when just about anyone can point at you after a disagreement and shout, "blasphemer"? Arm yourself with a personal sidearm to as to shoot first? A case of kill or be killed? Or I am supposed to

YES, NIGERIA'S CORPORATE EXISTENCE IS NEGOTIABLE

The very prospect of Nigeria’s survival depends on renegotiating the terms of the union. This has been restated over and over again by many commentators. What we have now is essentially the union of Jonah and the whale. Nobody likes that. Unless he is the whale. It is commendable that The Punch has chosen to take a strong position on this issue at this point in our national debate.

Commenting on the inequities of the fiscal regime in the strange federal system practised by Nigeria, The Punch wrote, "It is only appropriate for Buhari to appreciate this, and kick-start the process that will allow states to control their resources as it is done in other federal climes. Honestly, without fiscal federalism, the injustice will not abate. . "

Allow states to control their resources? No. This sounds like proposing a new and strange idea. We have been there before some 50years ago and beyond. The real issue is to urgently return, without further ado, to the constitutional statusquo of January 14, 1966. The Regions, (states, if you like) collected all major revenue as listed, and GAVE a percentage, 50%, to the Federal Government. They did not GET or RECIEVE revenue from the Federal. The states gave! That's the way it was.

I cannot then understand why the Phillip Asiodus and Ahmed Jodas of Nigeria, who led the country into the uncivil war with their devious advice post-Aburi, suddenly become... 

AS REUBEN ABATI TALKS ABOUT DEREGULATION, DOES HE REPRESENT THE ELITE?

The former media spokesman for President Jonathan has today given the nation his latest take on what can be called the fuel subsidy conundrum. He was quite persuasive and some of his observations are actually unassailable. However he didn't cover or perhaps is incapable of covering some of the grounds that need be covered if we are to move forward. I intend to fill in some of the blank spaces.

The petrol pump price subsidy moving from about 1.5% to say 3.5% of GDP did not become unsustainable at that transition in late 2011.  It has ALWAYS been unsustainable. The quantum of resources involved were and are of the same order of magnitude as the Federal budget itself. Yes, that is what no sane person should allow. But strangely we did. Nigeria was rushing willy-nilly towards the very edge of a fiscal cliff unperturbed, even with a cheerful song on our lips.

Now to the elite: The elite know that Nigeria is actually an undeveloped country, valiantly maintaining the pretensions of being a developing economy, which we are not. I have in the past written on the way forward for the automobile industry. I had posited that most Nigerians have no business driving any car bigger than a petrol sipping Kia Picanto. The jeep-loving crowd came after me. They buy their fuel guzzling "tokunboh" jeeps, while we pay for their fuel! Of course they like the statusquo. So also did the Association of Customs Clearing and Forwarding  Agents.

One main problem is that people like Reuben Abati, who obviously have a limitation in dealing with numbers, publicly took a position opposing removal of fuel subsidy. Then as slow students, they learn more, a luxury that Nigeria can ill afford. Two things then happen. Either, because of peer pressure or new socio-political alignments they come out to extol what they have previously opposed, WITHOUT PROVIDING ANY NEW FACTS.. . Or they keep their Road-to-Damascus conversion to themselves, hoping that the past has been put where it belongs and fully forgotten, and that nobody takes them to task. Since Reuben hit the media with a vengeance, (Abimbola Adelakun of The Punch would say in search of a new relevance), he obviously could not resist staking a position. His enemies dutifully outed him.

As for the position taken in 2011 by the leading lights of the ACN/APC, compared with their new position, it is strictly a matter of morality that has been in very short supply in our polity. What can we say, except to condemn it. Their earlier posture of urging on President Jonathan and then abandoning him midstream, can perhaps best be described by the Igbo aphorism, sending forth somebody with a head load of salt while sending a rainmaker after him. Despicable to say the least.

Meanwhile the word palliative has established a new place in our lexicon. Let's pursue that line for a while. We are supposed to speak no ill of the dead, a concept that I find difficult to agree with. Such a notion is why our brief history as a nation is full of misery and several missteps, both political and economic and an inexplicable preponderance of heroes. Our children must be so confused.

Yes, Gbolahan Mudashiru, erstwhile governor of Lagos State is long dead, and so we will leave him to his rest. However we, the elite, must have something to say to General Buhari under whose watch as military head of state that the original Chief Lateef Jakande government initiated Lagos Metroline was stopped. It was eventually to be cancelled and ultimately paid for with no goods delivered, courtesy of the European arbitrators. Has President Buhari learnt any lessons from that terrible decision? If so he would have alluded to it even briefly during his campaign. It is possible that Buhari is incapable of expressing such fine sentiments. That is part of his baggage.

On the other hand, what does one say about the new darling of the APC, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who spent a good part of his 8year rule undermining Gov Tinubu's effort to provide Lagosians with a viable metro line system meant to be a backbone of the much awaited urban/suburban mass transit system of Greater Lagos? The point I am making here is that the elite in their overpriced airconditioned jeeps, (aided by subsidised fuel), seem incapable of thinking outside what they perceive to be their immediate needs and concerns. How wrong they are. My wife once related how she rode in the same railway carriage just a couple of feet away from the Malaysian prime minister. He was simply going to work. The only privilege extended to him was that people did not crowd around him. Of course a couple of his personal security detail was unobtrusively in th‎e vicinity, with no fuss. They asked nobody to move.

Against this background, I can now confess that one of the most stupid investments I ever made was to ‎purchase a car for my wife, for the only purpose of going to work on The Marina, Lagos. However, I had no choice. At several points over a decade, I had to throw in a driver, who invariably had a mind of his own. Driving around in the "kabu-kabu" mode was just one of their many shenanigans. The palliative of a cheap, conformable and reliable mass transit system is one that the elite, who waste time discussing the price of petrol, should have been relentlessly hammering on. It should have predated this unfruitful debate.

Because of the strong and unwavering position that I have held in support of the removal of fuel subsidy, I tried at a time to keep a list of all the turncoats. It was a useless exercise. The stampede was unbelievable. The list became so long that I gave up the project. The conclusion here is that Reuben, who has delivered very sound arguments and a good historical excursion over this matter, is definitely not alone. As the Americans say, the elite, if only they can eschew greed are the only ones who should step up to the plate and make their analytical bent to count. This is a duty.

Now, what exactly do we have here? Is it an increase in the pump price of petrol? Is it a deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector? Is it a partial deregulation? What about price modulation? What exactly does each one mean? Right now the conflicting signals coming from the various arms of government can confound the bravest of souls.

Why on earth is the PPPRA, which rightly should have been scrapped in the same press release by the minister, still making pronouncements about petrol pricing? When the government announced glibly that anyone can now import petrol into Nigeria, does it not amount to beer parlour talk? The stranglehold of the government through the NNPC over this nation is but one aspect of its maintenance of THE COMMANDING HEIGHTS OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY, in place over the past four and a half decade. For that era to be truly over, the National Assembly  must be involved in tearing down the walls. At the end of the day the NNPC, if it survives at all, will have no business with the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.

If the NNPC owns any refinery, it should be expected to sink or swim. The government must start by relieving NNPC of any role in the importation of ANY fuel into Nigeria, and sell off all its fuel dumps nationwide starting with The Atlas Cove, which for the past two decades has remained a load on the conscience of those who still have one.

I have said my bit.

Change Management: Deformed objectives, leadership disharmony and crises of expectations Ik Muo, PhD.

Guest feature:

Ik Muo, PhD. FCIB.(muoigbo@yahoo.com) Department of Business Administration, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.  Published,(abridged) in the Guardian of 25/7/15, p54;

About 500 years ago, Machiavelli declared authoritatively that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things.’ (Nicholo’ Machiavelli,(1532)The Prince: A handbook of power, politics and statesmanship). As it was then, so it is now. Change; whether imposed or voluntary, is not a tea party, it is a serious business and the failure rate of change efforts averages above 70%. Those who are genuinely interested in making a success of change-and the transition, which is the core issue-, therefore make conscious efforts to create the conditions that are favourable for success or avoid those that have the capabilities to torpedo the effort. Some of these critical success factors (or hindrances in reverse) are objectives, leadership and the expectation dynamics.

It has been said that ‘the first step to getting the things you want out of life is to decide what you want’. As it is for life, so it is for the slippery process of change. The importance of change objectives is that they determine the strategies adopted as well as providing a means of assessing performance. Many change programmes actually have objectives but at times, these objectives are shortsighted or self-serving, non-inclusive, or are ‘kurukere’ and contain some hidden agenda. Consequently, they adopt strategies that may not last the distance or are out-rightly Machiavellian. These change operatives have forgotten that ‘to be prepared is half of the victory’ (Miguel de Cervantes), and that getting the objectives and strategies right is the key preparation factor.

Leadership is obviously a critical factor in the success or failure of change management.  A key dimension in this leadership factor is

REUBEN ABATI CANNOT DECRY THE EXCESSES OF THE FULANI HERDSMEN WITHOUT INSULTING NDIGBO

dailypostng article by ruben abati

Reuben Abati wrote:

"Ethnic hate, serving as sub-text to the January 1966 and July 1966 coups, for example, set the stage for the civil war of 1967 -70. The root of Igbo-Hausa/Fulani acrimony can be traced back to that season when Igbos were slaughtered in the North, and (wait for this) . .

1)THE HAUSA/FULANI WERE SLAUGHTERED IN THE EAST  . .

Really? Please Reuben tell me about it! 

This is a rather strange way of providing balance in a narrative by throwing in a few chunks of falsehood as ganishing? Reuben Abati had earlier been confronted and rubbished by better organised professionals like Chuks Iloegbunam, but obviously he has refused to learn any lessons.

2) He continued, "Ethnic hate also led to the Tiv riots, crisis in the Middle Belt since then, . "

"Since then. ?" Since when?

Reuben has messed up the order of events in history. The Tiv riots against the Hausa - Fulani hegemony in the north spanned a period from before Nigeria's paper independence in 1960 to just before the military coup of 1966. Hence that agitation for Tiv freedom led valiantly by Joseph Tarka of blessed memory could by no stretch have been a  diirect result of whatever "sins" Ndigbo committed (later) in January 1966 as Reuben Abati would have us believe. It is on record that Ndigbo have been hunted as game every so often since the 1950s. Just check the historical records.

Instead of sticking to profering solutions to the menace of Fulani herdsmen (and other criminals elements who have found that appellation a good cover for their illegal activities), Reuben could not resist taking another poke at Ndigbo. I find it rather strange that some people who "write for a living" would suddenly rouse themselves from their self-induced stupour to address issue that ordinary folks like me had taken on a year ago. Thank God that Mr Abati now has time on his hands.

3) Reuben dutifully  warned that if the situation is not urgently addressed, "A resort to self-help SUCH AS OCCURRED IN 1966, could have serious national security implications. . " . Here we go again.
Self-help? It is most amazing that a government organised, approved and tolerated genocide of Ndigbo in 1966/67 could be presented by an otherwise educated Nigerian, who had the priveledge of serving (himself?) in the highest levels of government, to have been as result of self-help by the aggrieved. Even General Gowon cannot say this. He would rather keep mum or accuse the Ikemba of another infraction long fogotten. This is probably part of the reasons Gowon has adamantly refused to write his memoirs.  At this rate, Nigeria has absolutely no hope going forward.

Meanwhile I will concede that Mr Abati's excessively long opinion piece is not completely bereft of redeeming features. Shorn of the Igbophobic overindulgence,  it should serve as another wake-up call to Nigerians and the sleepwalking government at Abuja. His belated commentary was an inelegant rehash of earlier writers.

FOR LEADING A GOVERNMENT OF LIMITED OBJECTIVES: MASARI HAILS PRESIDENT BUHARI

Katsina State governor, Aminu Bello Masari has been reported in the media to have said that northern Nigeria would have been in misery had former President Goodluck Jonathan won the 2015 presidential election.

Speaking at the 33rd annual symposium in memory of late Malam Aminu Kano, Governor Masari described the situation the north found itself as precarious in which the region fell short in every aspect of human development. If the governor had been following the annual UNDP report on Human Development, he would have noted that the indices for the north have been dismal at best over at least three decades. No northern dominated federal administration has yet been able to reverse that trend. Most Nigerians will  easily agree that that is one of the reasons why Buhari was elected into office.

On the comment by Governor Masari that the lives of the people of northern Nigeria have been rendered valueless by the Boko Haram insurgency, it is clearly up to the citizens in the north to decide to change that narrative.

He maintained that the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s president brought a glimmer of hope to the north and anticipation of the return of socio-economic prosperity.

With Buhari now in power, are we then to understand that the north is

BUHARI STILL SAYS NO TO NAIRA DEVALUATION.

President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly insisted on Friday in Abuja that he was YET to be convinced that the vast majority of ordinary Nigerians will derive any tangible benefit from a devaluation of the Naira. He is definitely entitled to his misgivings.  

Without immediately weighing in on one side or the other of the devaluation debate, I must point out that the main issue highlighted above is the the speed at which Buhari can learn. I have deliberately laid emphasis on the word YET. . Pray, what does one expect of a 72(?)year old who has probably never read any complex document since he was dethroned by his military colleagues some 35 years ago? If indeed devaluation is it, I doubt if President Buhari can get it. I believe that it is as bad as that.

Buhari has for the past three years and more been surrounded by his political friends who, for reasons best known to them, insist on not upsetting him with contrary viewpoints. It is now time to bring on board perceived enemies, opponents and iconoclasts, people who do not care to respect whatever preconceived notions Buhari brought along to Aso Rock. The system, if indeed there is one, needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up, brick by brick. Even if for nuisance value, though most unlikely, people like economist Henry Boyo and many others must have a role. This job is currently beyond President Buhari and his present team. Someone wrote a few weeks ago that Buhari needs help. Need I say more?

Buhari to sack five ministers? Where does that lead us?

Writings in Naij.com, correspondent Clement Ejiofor reported that five ministers in President Buhari's cabinet may have been pencilled down for sacking. He elaborated. I have wondered if this is news or a figment of the imagination of the writer as in wishful thinking. Are we happy with their performance to date? Definitely not. However floating the kite of a cabinet reshuffle now is definitely unhelpful. Let those who got the jobs settle down and do it.

Dr Kayode Fayemi "was reported to have said that he would need time to learn in his ministry."

This is correct. It applies to almost everyone of the ministers even potential high fliers like Babatunde Raji Fashola. The size, scope and the entrenched interests in just one of the ministries under Fashola, say Power or Works, is capable of styming the most brilliant of us all. When a president or minister says that he/she will hit the ground running, nobody seems to factor in the fact that he/she will have to run the gauntlet set up by the necessary evil called the Civil Service. The 2016 Budget fiasco is a case in point.

Dr Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu of Petroleum and NNPC was not mentioned in this regard. However I am dragging his name and position into this discussion because in the coming year or so we shall definitely encounter several developments that we, the masses, will be extremely unhappy about. Take the current fuel and electricity scarcity for example. We had it coming due to years of timidity, spineless administration and non-regulation. The government seems incapable (or is it unwilling?) to explain, sell or push through with the new electricity tariff. Everybody prefers to discuss metres. I do not envy Kachikwu. Yes, he sells gas to the power companies, and has no fuel for the masses.

As regards the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, when is he ever going to

Oduche Azih featured on Your view at TVC with Olajumoke

Our very own Oduche Azih of Oduche Azih's blog was a guest speaker on Your View at TVC with Olajumoke. He was on the show to discuss the energy crisis in Nigeria which is making waves at the moment. . The show was broadcast on the 6th of April 2016 and the response was overwhelmingly positive. He is ability to stimulate curiosity and interest in younger people was not in doubt.  Below are photos from the set.

 For those who don’t know, Oduche Azih has written many articles about the Nigerian situation. His articles have been regularly featured in the Punch, Thisday, BusinessDay and many on-line publications. He is now moving into other media platforms. For bookings or other enquiries, please leave a message on the right hand column on the blog.

News: RMRDC Gives Farmers seeds for New Tomato variety. - IS SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH NOW JOB FOR THE BOYS?

I wonder whatever happened to The Nigerian Institute for Horticultural Research, NIHORT, that The Raw Materials Research and Development Council, RMRDC should now be handing out tomato seeds to farmers. At this rate the Nigerian Road Research Institute may soon organise the introduction of new yam and potato cultivars while the National Root Crop Research Institute slumbers. I imagine that all readers have now gotten my drift.

Right from the days of late Mrs Maria Sokenu at RMRDC, at a time the current Minister of Science and Technology Dr Ogbonnaya Onu was a prolific writer on scientific and developmental issues, it was not known to have a mandate that overlapped with those of the other Federal government research institutes. Why now? Nigeria has so much work begging to be done that we cannot afford any duplication of efforts often attended by intra and inter ministerial squabbles. I will spare the readers battle stories on this score.

I recall that in my days as a fledgling (and ultimately failed) manufacturer, I could not get any help, not even information, from the relevant agencies. Even my group’s effort to collaborate with PRODA was a disastrous failure because the agency simply did not have in place a template for such collaboration. We were  forced to repeat research work already done by PRODA. The silver lining was that my company overtook PRODA and in the years to come had the pleasure to offer PRODA technical advice on their demand! For readers still wondering what the encounter was all about, let me save you from your misery. It was Engineering Ceramics,  an arcane discipline most educated people are not even aware of. However all that is now history. Our effort ultimately collapsed because my team was about a quarter century ahead of the thinkers (?) in governments of those days. With NEPA/PHCN, the government was our number one but very lousy customer. I doubt that much has changed since then, the Buy Nigeria mantra notwithstanding.

The above storyline however did not prevent the Federal Government from opening a brand-new front on Ceramics Development Research at FIIRO, Oshodi, in Lagos. We would have laughed over the matter, but this development was not in the least funny. The "researchers" at Oshodi were well known to us and knew full well that they were wasting their time and ours. And the people's money too.

It was in our interest then to be aware of the engineering capabilities available in our immediate  and often wider neighbourhood. Many fabricators could not believe the things that we literally forced  and taught them to make for us.

I personally cultivated many large enterprises that had better foothold in the supply chain of many raw materials, clays, quartz, feldspars, talc, diatomite, etc which we needed in rather small quantities, which made it unprofitable for the original suppliers to do business with us. We developed in house processing, an activity that we would not have had to engage in if we were in more advanced climes.

We knew and kept abreast with whoever had spare ballmill and furnace capacities. We made our own glazes for the high performance products that we made for the electrical power industry. Meanwhile we had access to the WAHUM Group which, with a line of several ballmills, makes vast quantities of glaze for its enamelware production lines. One can then imagine my alarm when the current Director General of FIIRO in a recent public presentation announced to the world at large that nobody makes glazes in Nigeria! Who or what will prevent this individual from becoming a Permanent Secretary tomorrow, to be better able to infest the whole ministry with ignorance. Only in Nigeria!

Of Ethiopian Airlines, Cut Off Marks and Patriotism - WHEN WILL NIGERIA FIELD ITS FIRST ELEVEN TO MEET ITS DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES?

Cut off mark? Who has not experienced the torture of explaining to an otherwise brilliant child that he/she cannot get into a school because he/she is from the wrong state. I do not need to bother my compatriots with my battle stories getting my kids into Fed Govt Unity schools for high school. The most enervating was when and how my daughter sought admission into Unilag, my only child to attend my alma mater.

Fast forward. . I have lately been commenting on the status of the electrical power industry. Has anyone noticed the way the membership of the governing board of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, was "equitably" zoned out? To what end I ask. I once took the trouble to check out the intellectual and professional backgrounds of some of them and I came out gravely dissappointed. Many of the members have no business being in that Commission.

As an an angry consumer, I do not particularly care if the right technocrats are sourced from say Kwarra or Edo State, if only they know what they are doing. I hold great respect for Dr Sam Amadi, but that has not stopped me from being brutally frank with him. The work at NERC is not another job for the boys/girls. I have drawn attention to the utter confusion among the ranks of the new power moguls, and made dire predictions on the future of the spun off Discos and Gencos. I doubt if anyone had taken me seriously. Meanwhile I stand by my predictions. In a lighter mood, I once picked on the management of Benin Disco. How I wish that they have seen the light. Perhaps they will share their new and improved insight with us all.

Guest feature: They Fly, We Die By Okey Ndibe

Let’s start with the more recent. Last Saturday, I made a routine phone call to a relative who lives in Anambra State, Nigeria. As the conversation drew to a close, I asked after her mother.
“Well, her condition is getting slightly better,” came the response.
I was taken aback, for I wasn’t aware at all that her mother was sick. I immediately confessed my ignorance by asking, “Has she been sick?”
“Oh, I thought you knew she was hit by a car,” the relative said. Then she told the story.
On Monday, February 8, her mother had gone to the local government headquarters to pick up a bag of rice that the state governor had offered to all pensioners. Her mother met an old friend, also a pensioner. The two women stood by the roadside, discussing. Quite suddenly, a driver who was trying to pass another car lost his grip, and his car nearly plowed into the women. The two friends were extremely fortunate that the car merely brushed them as it careened into an open roadside gutter. Even so, my relative’s mother fell from the car’s glancing impact.
A day later, the elderly woman’s arms began to swell, indicating a fracture. She was taken to the state-run teaching hospital in Awka, the state capital. There, the woman—who was in fairly serious pain from her injury—was told that she must return in a week (today, in fact). The reason: the hospital’s orthopedic surgeon sees patients at the teaching hospital only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
For me, the story was hard to fathom. In a country where orthopedic cases are rather rife—what with automobile and other kinds of accidents—it simply defies logic that any health facility, much less a state-owned hospital, would not have several doctors with expertise in treating bone fractures.
Bones broken in an accident bring excruciating pain. Believe me, I know. In 1992, a friend was driving me to Murtala Muhammed International Airport when—with the airport in sight—we had an accident. His car somersaulted three times, and then came to rest upside down. Luckily, none of the three of us died. The friend driving me was a banker, and we were all taken to a clinic in Surulere, Lagos that was retained by his employer. Despite my complaints of monstrous pain on my left arm, the doctor on duty did not bother to send me for any x-ray. He just looked at my arm, and assured me I was fine, just a bit bruised.

Two days later, I returned to the US, my arm terribly swollen, and the pain at a hideous level. I called my doctor who asked me to come in immediately. She (sensibly) ordered an x-ray, which revealed I had sustained one fracture at the elbow and had broken my left thumb in two places.
That experience gave me a deep first-hand experience of how hapless Nigerians’ suffer at the hands of doctors who practice what I call juju medicine, or mis-medicine.
Knowing how painful it can be to break any bones, I think it’s inexcusable—to say the least—to ask an elderly woman, a grandmother, to go a week before she would be seen by a doctor.
A few months ago, I had an even more disheartening conversation with a US-based Nigerian friend. His uncle’s wife was standing at a country road waiting for a bus when she crumpled to the ground. Passersby gathered, loaded her in a vehicle, and raced to a local hospital.
The patient was still alive when they arrived at the hospital. There was a doctor on duty, which should have been good news. But this doctor had less faith in medicine than in spiritual intervention. The doctor did not check the patient’s pulse. He did not gauge her blood pressure. He didn’t bother to listen to her heart. Instead, he asked his nurses and the Good Samaritans who brought in the woman to form a circle around the patient. Then, extending a hand over the woman’s supine body, (and inviting his nurses and others to do the same) the doctor began to utter a torrent of prayers. He reminded the Devil (ever-present in Nigeria) that the Devil was a liar. He ordered the affliction that had felled the woman to release the woman and “return to sender.” He importuned God to demonstrate His majesty and power by raising the woman back to her feet.
The doctor kept up the racket for about an hour, as sweat poured from his body. Then he calmed down, his energy spent. It dawned on him that the woman had passed away while he, the supposed man of medicine, played a televangelist, the good doctor solemnly announced that God had decided not to heal the patient.
Of course, Nigeria has many fine, dedicated doctors. Chances are, however, that the “prayer-warrior” doctor had received wretched medical training, if any. In many other jurisdictions in the world, the so-called doctor would have been stripped of his license, assessed a steep fine, and likely sent to jail.
But in Nigeria? Perish the thought! The physician’s criminal dereliction invited no consequences. Another poor person had died; that was all. I won’t be surprised if the doctor’s prestige soared in the estimation of those who saw him resort to spiritual theatrics rather than the practice of basic medicine. Nigeria has evolved into a space where many people routinely demand that God do for them what they can and ought to do for themselves.
The two poor women here—the one with a broken arm and the other who breathed her last while a negligent doctor wasted time flinging a storm of alleluias at her—are among millions of victims of a brand of inhumanity and irresponsibility that have marked the behavior of Nigerian public officials. I’m confident there are many orthopedic doctors willing to take up employment in a major hospital in Anambra State. Why must patients with fractures wait for several days to receive treatment?
Closing in on fifty-six years of its existence as an “Independent” country, Nigeria has no healthcare policy to speak of. Nigerians ravaged by diabetes, cancer, heart diseases and a slew of other grave ailments are left at the mercy of ill-equipped hospitals or, worse, in the hands of unscrupulous, money-obsessed pastors, imams and dibias whose stock, magic and make-belief, are dressed up as sure-fire miracles.
Nigeria’s political and business elite—in other words, those who have shaped their country into the near hell-on-earth it is—feel no compunction hurrying off to the UK, the US, Asia, Europe or even other African countries to receive medical treatment.
In the end, it’s up to Nigerians to demand that their public officials participate fully in Nigerian life. Officials’ school-age children should attend the same schools as other Nigerians. And when these public officials fall sick, they should submit themselves for treatment at the same hospitals that other Nigerians go to. I mean, why not?

Please follow me on twitter @okeyndibe or email at okeyndibe@gmail.com

Letter to Olusegun Adeniyi of Thisday RE: BUHARI AND THE OLD WOMAN IN KATSINA

RE: BUHARI AND THE OLD WOMAN IN KATSINA - Olusegun Adeniyi, Thisday

Dear Segun,

As usual you covered so much ground in your recent article. Please allow me to dwell only on the issue of fuel subsidy.

How do I get the impression that the people in President Buhari's inner circle are leaking their reasoning for delaying the removal of fuel subsidy through you because they believe that you will do a better job of selling it to the rapidly growing band of critics, which now includes you? Kind of Explainer-in-Chief. For goodness sake, you have done your own bit. Let this regime carry its own burden.

In my opinion piece titled "Gas-to-Power Conundrum" (Sept 2014), I boldly staked a position for the immediate removal of natural gas, fuel (as in petrol) and electricity subsidies. I knew that this was a very unpopular position, but I have never engaged in a popularity contest with the ever posturing Nigerian public figure and pseudo-analyst. For sure, I am not one of them. I actually directly blamed the elite who against their better judgement joined the largely uninformed masses at Gani Fawehinmi Park to torpedo the then planned removal of fuel subsidy. I regret to inform you that I have to date not seen a proper analytical response to my original thesis. Talk of being roundly ignored. Over the course of several interventions, (none of which was published by Thisday), I have also asked for the price of kerosene, indistinguishable from aviation fuel, to be freed from government control. None of the intended benefits ever trickled down to the masses. Meanwhile the market became grossly distorted as a result. The unresolved issue of the continuing abuse of the fuel subsidy scheme is a different kettle of fish. Today Friday, December 4, 2015, I purchased 30litres of petrol from a filling station in Oshodi, Lagos. You should have seen the relief on my face as I most gladly paid N120 per litre. How desperate I was.

I have therefore become quite frustrated when, with the predictable but ignored collapse of government finances, the same activists who graced the rally at Ojota (I don't have to name them) started falling over each other to have their names in print, and on radio/television with the new message, "Yes, it is now the right policy to eliminate fuel subsidy." They say and/or write this viewpoint with a straight face, and without offering any new facts to buttress the change of position. Probably they are counting on the short memory of most Nigerians.

You also wrote, "Nigerians want to know, and indeed deserve to know, what Buhari is doing about the economy and they want to hear it from him." Why then are you allowing President Buhari's handlers to offer us snippets through your column? Is it a matter of plausible deniability? The Buhari presidency should man up and talk directly to us citizens. If we don't like or don't make sense of what we hear or see, we will roundly criticise the government. That's their lot. The team asked for the job. We gave it to them.

I can easily deduce that you wish this new administration well. So do I, without any reservations. It must learn and fast too that all the carry over problems from the Jonathan presidency plus any new ones now belong to President Muhamadu Buhari. His team should please, please get on with the job.

RE: ROAD TO JULY 29, 1966.

We must thank Jide Oluwajuyitan for this new(?) slant on the remote and proximate socio-political developments leading to the (sad) events of July29, 1966. Unlike most young commentators, I was already 18years old when this particular madness evolved to the point of denouement. Without necessarily agreeing with Jide and his new-found sources, we are grateful for this fresh insight. 

For example, I did not realise that Gen Aguiyi Ironsi was ACTUALLY a Saroman and was of such poor intellectual pedigree. Strange then that when Ironsi was violently taken out of the equation, these same characters, who Jide claimed complained about Ironsi, still went ahead to replace him with a Lt Col Yakubu Gowon, known to be far less cerebral than most of his peers and superiors. I am yet to read a proper explanation as to how Admiral Wey, Brigadier Ogundipe, Col Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, all brilliant Yorubas, were all found unworthy to replace the upstart Ironsi. I am still waiting. 

I must confess that I found Jide's take on the controversies in the Western Region and regional House of Assembly quite interesting. Others will disagree with his analysis and that of his sources, but then he is entitled to his view. That's what plurality is all about. 

I look forward to continuing revelations from other analysts especially the diminishing band of political activists old enough to have been real participants. Its a pity that Chief TOS Benson, Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya and a host of others who made Lagos and the West tick, had to die in the fullness of time. How we miss them. They would have set the record straight. That is if Jide's account is faulty. Is it? Readers are advised to research the issue and arrive at their own conclusions without my help.