Recession: Constitute sound team to revamp Nigeria’s economy – Ekweremadu tells Buhari

Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike
Ekweremadu, has advised President
Muhammadu Buhari to constitute a sound
economic team that will help him salvage
Nigeria from its economic woes.
Ekweremadu, in a Sallah message advised that
the team should cut across board, putting aside
party affiliation.
He also urged Muslim faithful to use the
occasion of the Eid-el-Kabir to pray for the
nation’s quick recovery of the nation.
The Deputy President of the Senate maintained
that the present economic challenges were not
beyond redemption, but could actually become
the nation’s turning point away from an oil-
depedent economy only if the right policies and
structures were put in place.
He said, “I warned long ago that elections had
come and gone and we should move from
politics to governance. It is time for governance
and we must bring all capable hands on the
deck, irrespective of political, religious or ethnic
backgrounds.
“Nigerians are facing hard times; and all they
are interested in are positive results and urgent
succour. They don’t care whether you are All
Progressives Congress, APC, or Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP and whether you are
North or South.
“The good news is that capable hands abound in
the country. We must assemble them and give
them both the mandate and liberty to help the
president’s team to revamp the nation’s
economy.” source daily post 

Falana To FG: Reject Swiss’ Conditions For $321m Abacha Loot

Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana, has asked
the federal government to reject, without
any further delay, the conditionality
attached to the repatriation of the sum
of $321 million Abacha loot from
Switzerland to Nigeria.
The conditionality includes the
supervision of the utilisation of the
money by the World Bank.
Falana said that if Switzerland refuses to
return the said $321 million without any
conditionality, the government should not
hesitate to initiate legal proceedings for
the recovery of the asset.
The lawyer, who said this in an open
letter he sent to the government, also
advised that in the proposed suit, Nigeria
should claim punitive and exemplary
damages and interests from Switzerland
for keeping the loot for over 20 years.
The letter reads in part: “We note that,
recently, the Swiss ambassador to
Nigeria, Mr Eric Mayoraz, disclosed that
the Swiss government would soon return
$321m of Abacha loot to Nigeria. As part
of the process of repatriation, the
ambassador claimed that the government
of Switzerland has, unilaterally, requested
the World Bank to supervise the spending
of the returned loot.
“We note that grand corruption, money
laundering and return of stolen assets
have long become major issues of
concern to the international community.
We further note that Switzerland has
acceded to all the relevant international
treaties such as the United Nations
Convention against Corruption for the
return of assets.
“We believe that the conditionality
imposed on Nigeria, which allows the
World Bank to supervise the spending of
returned assets by the Nigerian
government, breaches international law
principles and standards.”
Falana contended that Switzerland has
no legal authority to impose conditions
on Nigeria regarding the spending of
recovered assets.
“Imposing conditions on Nigeria regarding
the spending of returned assets is
disproportionate and amounts to an
unlawful intervention because
Switzerland has no legal or moral right to
the assets. Indeed, Switzerland is
completely complicit for the stashing and
depositing of stolen assets from Nigeria
in its banks and other financial
institutions.
“We are seriously concerned that the
World Bank itself has not demonstrated
sufficient level of transparency and
accountability in its supervision of
spending of previously returned Abacha
loot.
“For example, the World Bank has so far
refused to satisfactorily disclose
information on the spending of recovered
Abacha loot requested by Nigerian
anticorruption NGO, Socio-Economic
Rights and Accountability Project,
(SERAP).
“Having regard to the empty promises
made so far by Switzerland and the
United States to return forfeited assets
worth over $800 million, it is clear that
the Western countries will continue to
frustrate the repatriation of the looted
wealth of the nation being warehoused
by them, albeit illegally.”
Falana urged the federal government to
collaborate with relevant civil society
organisations to mount a campaign,
locally and internationally, to ensure full
compliance by Switzerland, the United
States and other Western countries to
international law principles of
accountability, sovereignty, equality,
fairness and non-interference.

Don’t let Nigeria become another Yugoslavia, Ajayi cautions Buhari

Elder statesman Sir Olaniwun Ajayi has
warned President Muhammadu Buhari
against taking steps that could cause the
country to go the way of the former
Yugoslavia, a balkan confederation that
violently split up in the 90s into smaller
nation-states over ethnic conflicts.
Ajayi, a political associate of the late
nationalist leader Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, while reacting to the on-going
agitation in the Niger Delta and Eastern
Region, said the President should not
reject the persistent calls for the
restructuring of Nigeria by well meaning
Nigerians across the south.
“Yugoslavia has about 6, 7, 8
nationalities. They’ve done all they could
to make sure that every nation in that
country went his own way, but their
leaders said no all the time up to the
time of Josep Broz Tito in 1980.”
The nonagenarian lawyer noted that
between 1980 and 1990 Yugoslavia tried
to stave off disintegration, until tensions
came to a boil in 1991, when the
state began its split into Croatia (1991),
Slovenia (1991) Macedonia (1991),
Serbia (2006), Bosnia and Herzegovina
(1992), Kosovo (2008), and Montenegro
(2006).
He noted that Nigeria should be ran along
the existing six geo-political zones and
let every zone develop in accordance
with its own pace.
“We are not a one monolithic country.
We are a federation of different nations
as a result of our nature, from the point
of view of our ethnic nationality, our
languages, culture. And if we are so
different we should be managed
according to our nature and culture.”
He pointed out that there was no way
the president or any leader could think he
could force a multiethnic country like
Nigeria to live same way, saying the
ideology and ways of life of Fulani and
Igbo are not the same as that of the
Yoruba and Kanuri, for instance.

Back to the Ekwueme Constitution

One of the most perplexing paradoxes in
today’s Nigeria is the strident campaign for the
adoption of the report of the 2014 national
dialogue on the Nigerian condition organized by
the Goodluck Jonathan administration as the
basis of a new constitution. Even people who
should know better have joined the bandwagon,
showing that many Nigerians just go with the
flow. Mental rigour remains a commodity in
awfully short supply in the Nigerian public
space.
The most critical objective for the campaign for
Nigeria’s structural redesign since the
mid-1990s is to reduce the number of states
from 36 to about 6, so as to, among other
factors, free the economy from perennial
paralysis arising out of the humungous annual
recurrent expenditure at all levels. But the 2014
Conference agreed that the number of states
should, in fact, balloon from 36 to 54.
The delegates believed that Nigeria, whose 28
out of the 36 states cannot pay workers’ salary,
should have the highest number of states
throughout the globe, four more than the United
States, the world’s wealthiest nation which has
50 states and a population of 300m. This
recommendation highlights the emptiness of the
Nigerian political class. Still, some people who
delight in being called social critics and
statesmen have of late been trumpeting the
2014 Conference Report as Nigeria’s only hope
for survival whereas it actually sounds the
country’s death knell. Pray, how can Nigeria
survive for up to six months with some 54
states?
High-minded people recognize the enormity of
power conferred on Nigeria’s centre, observing
it is a principal cause of the country’s
socioeconomic underdevelopment. And a major
reason for the concentration of power at the
centre is the large number of states. In other
words, the more states are balkanized to create
other states, the more they become dependent
on the federal government. And yet the people
who complain that the centre is too powerful
are the same individuals and groups pushing for
the 2014 Conference Report which advocates
as many as 18 more states to be created in one
fell swoop! The truth is that the death of the
report iwas foretold ab initio. Besides the fact
that there is no law creating the 2014
Conference, it never had legitimacy or moral
authority. All the almost 500 delegates were
appointed by one single individual. This is not
tenable in a democracy in the 21st century. And
those asking President Muhammadu Buhari to
adopt and implement the report should know the
Constitution does not vest such power in the
president. Interestingly, those who advocate
Buhari’s implementation of the report frequently
accuse the president of dictatorial tendencies.
Nigeria needs to be redesigned. Much of the
work has mercifully already been caught out, as
can be gleaned from the 1995 Constitution
which is sometimes called the Ekwueme
Constitution because its key differentiating
features were canvassed by former Vice
President Alex Ekwueme at the 1994/5
Constitutional Conference in Abuja. The major
differentiating contents of the 1995 Constitution
are the division of the country into geopolitical
zones, the adoption of the zones as the
federating units, rotational presidency, one term
of five or six years for the president and each
state governor which is not renewable, increase
in the use of the derivation principle from 3 to
13%, etc. Sani Abacha had begun to implement
the 1995 Constitution, as shown by his creation
of six states in 1996, with each zone getting one
new state. One good thing about the zones is
that it makes for equity and stability. It divides
the South into three zones and the North into
another three zones. Nigeria began as an
amalgamation between the North and the
South.
It is regrettable that Afenifere leaders coerced
Abdulsalami Abubakar into jettisoning the 1995
Constitution and replacing it with the 1979
Constitution. Afenifere leaders felt that since
the 1995 Constitution was drawn up under
Abacha who was justifiably considered an
enemy, it must be rejected, even though Abacha
had practically no input in it. It was a case of
throwing away both the baby and the bad water.
Abubakar was desperate to have the Yoruba
participate in his transition to civil rule
programme, and so capitulated to the Afeniferi
demand. He acquiesced to the demand that the
1979 Constitution be brought back. This is why
there are almost no differences between the
1979 and 1999 constitutions. The few
differences lie in such matters as the
establishment of the National Judicial
Commission and the increase in the use of the
derivation principle from 3to 13% in the revenue
allocation formula because the chairman of the
committee set up by Abdulsalami to look into
the adoption of the 1979 Constitution, Justice
Niki Tobi, an indigene of oil-rich Delta State,
insisted on its retention from the Ekwueme
Constitution.
Ironically, the Afenifere leaders who made
jettisoning the 1995 Constitution and its
replacement with the 1979 Constitution their
condition for participation in the transition
programme are the same people now accusing
the Abubakar military junta of imposing the
1999 constitution on Nigerians—and many
otherwise perceptive Nigerians believe the
propaganda stunt!
Nigeria needs a new constitution to meet its
new challenges. Only people directly elected by
the citizens can have the mandate to undertake
such a sacred enterprise as designing or
reforming a constitution in a fundamental sense.
Though some critical national issues have been
addressed by the 1995 Constitution, one matter
which should not be overlooked is the
imperative for multiple vice presidency. It was
about the only issue which Ekwueme spiritedly
but unsuccessfully fought to include in the 1995
Constitution. Ekwueme argued that there should
be six vice presidents, with each zone, including
the home zone of the president, supplying one.
In the event of the president dying in office or
resigning or removal from office, the vice
president from his zone will complete the term
of the president.
If the term is not completed, the people from
the president’s zone are most likely to feel
cheated, as we have seen in the case of
President Umaru Yar’Adua when he died in 2010,
in the third year of national leadership; the
North felt shortchanged. To reduce costs and
make things easier, the people who may be
regarded as vice presidents can be the Senate
President, Speaker of the House of
Representatives, secretary to the federal
government, head of civil service, and a person
who may be designated as Vice President 1 and
working daily with the president in State House.
This means that people coming from these
offices mentioned above will perforce hail from
different geopolitical zones.
Nigeria needs a new constitution or a
comprehensively reformed one. The states as
currently constituted and local government
areas cannot have a place in the new
constitution. The idea of a so-called third or
fourth tier of government is a misnomer. The
1995 Constitution, otherwise known as the
Ekwueme Constitution, provides the starting
point for a new Nigeria.

Nigeria: Why I Will Not Serve in Buhari's Govt - Okonjo-Iweala

By Charles Kumolu
Former Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala yesterday said it was better to allow
those managing Nigeria's economy to do the
best they could, noting that there could be
solutions to the present economic decline in the
country.
She also noted that she would not be available
to serve the present administration if overtures
were made to her by President Muhammadu
Buhari, noting that Nigeria boasts of competent
people, who would offer their services when
called upon.
Okonjo-Iweala, who said this while participating
in an Aljazeera programme: The Stream,
regretted that the economic gains recorded in
Africa started eroding a few years ago, noting
that solving macroeconomic question was key
to fixing the continent's economic challenges.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT
She specifically said that having a firm control
over the rate of inflation in addition to ensuring
a stable exchange rate should be prioritised by
African governments.
She said: " One of the things you learn as you
get wiser is to talk less as you grow older. I
have spent my time contributing to the country.
It will be better to live those managing the
economy to do what they know how to do.
There can be solutions.
"I am not a typical politician. I went in as a
technocrat. I think on the continent we have
seen a period when the economy was doing
well, in the last two years we have been
experiencing challenges. We need to focus on
the basics which are macro-economics. You
must get the fundamentals like having a stable
exchange rate and having inflation under
control.
"I served my country for seven years and it was
a great honour. The second time was very tough
but it is still an honour. I am not the only
person who is a repository of knowledge. There
are other people who can equally try their hands
in running the economy.
"I will advise young people not to wait for
employment. They should create jobs to employ
six people or more. During my time in
government, we had a programme called You
Win designed to support young entrepreneurs.
The whole idea was to have a business plan
competition. Source All Africa

FG Orders Navy to Investigate Influx of Foreign Trawlers into Niger Delta Waters

The federal government has ordered the
Nigerian Navy to investigate and stop the
increasing influx of foreign trawlers into the
nation’s territorial waters for indiscriminate
fishing.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural
Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri,
disclosed this while addressing some issues
raised during the interactive session held with
farmers in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
Lokpobiri said the influx of foreign trawlers into
Nigerian territorial waters through the coast to
fish without the permission of the federal
government would no longer be tolerated.
He said the presidency had directed the Chief
of Naval Staff to look into the matter with
immediate effect.
Lokpobiri also enjoined the indigenes of Bayelsa
and other states of the region to embrace
peace while the federal government would
continue to provide ways of boosting the
economy.
He expressed concern about pipeline vandalism
by youths in the region, urging them to go into
agriculture.
Lokpobiri also advised the people of the Niger
Delta region to invest in farming as loans would
be provided for them by Bank of Industry and
Agricultural Development Bank in the state.
Commenting on the interactive session, the
President of the Ijaw Youth Council, Mr. Udeng
Eradiri, said the Niger Delta region and youths
had to key into agriculture to create wealth.

ONDO GOV POLL: How padded delegates’ list tore APC apart

Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Mr. Rotimi
Akeredolu, SAN, as the governorship
candidate of the All Progressives Congress,
APC, is already tearing the party apart.
Signs that all is still not well in the party
even after the initial calm that followed last
weekend’s governorship primaries are
becoming more visible and is threatening
the fragile peace in the party.
The aftermath of the primaries has claimed
a Senatorial Chairman of the party, Chief
Gboyega Adedipe, who stepped down
following Akeredolu’s emergence.
Interestingly, more leaders may dump the
APC, as some of the aspirants are already
in talks with political parties that are yet to
conduct their primaries with the hope of
picking their tickets.
The highly monetised election saw the
preferred aspirant of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed
Tinubu, the national leader of APC, Dr
Olusegun Abraham taking the second
position behind Akeredolu.
Akeredolu took many by surprise as political
pundits had posited that he would perform
dismally at the polls.
Padded delegate’s list
However, the outcome shook many to the
marrows and huge dust is being raised by
some of the aspirants, who allege that the
delegates’ list was padded to favour
Akeredolu in Saturday’s election.
Rejection of the result by two frontline
contestants and calls for fresh election have
trailed the exercise in the last one week.
Two aspirants, Prof Ajayi Boroffice and Dr
Bode Ayorinde both members of the
National Assembly have preferred not to
lend their voices to the alleged padded list,
perhaps, for political reason and to secure
their present positions.

Aggrieved aspirants kick

First to complain over doctoring of the
delegates’ list released to the aspirants a
few hours to the election was the former
governorship candidate of the PDP in the
2012 governorship election, Chief Olusola
Oke.
Also, Dr. Olusegun Abraham, who had earlier
conceded defeat recanted and described the
result as fraudulent and unacceptable.
Some aggrieved leaders of the party in the
state have picked holes in the election
describing it as a sham.
Oke said in a statement, a day after the
election, that the postponement of the
election twice was “as we later learnt from
the process of the primary, to allow time to
perfect the rigging strategy of the primaries
to return a pre-agreed aspirant.
“The illicit substitution of the delegates’ list
officially given to the aspirants from
Abuja,less than 12 hours to the primary was
meant to allow persons who were never
members of the executive of the party to
participate as voters in the primaries.
Speaking through the Director General of
his campaign Organisation, Bola Fisayo, Oke
said, “let the people of Ondo State and in
particular members of the APC in the state
not be deceived, what they saw on
television as a process was a voodoo. The
primary election was everything but credible
primary.”
On his part, Dr Olusegun Abraham who was
the “annointed” aspirant of Tinubu, who had
earlier conceded defeat and congratulate
Akeredolu recanted by rejecting the result
which he markedly declared as fraudulent.

Abraham kick

Abraham declared that “the result was
unacceptable to him considering the
staggering facts of anomalies that have
since emerged to the demerit of the
exercise.
Speaking through the Director General of his
campaign Organisation, Chief Olu Adegboro,
Abraham said he was baffled by “the gale of
allegations and facts of malpractices that
have since mared the conduct and process
of the Ondo gubernatorial primary election.
He said: “It is now beyond doubt that the
delegates’ list used on the day of the
primary election was doctored and strangely
injected with a mind blowing number of
delegates who are neither executive
members of our party nor statutory
delegates.
“To say the least, the manipulation of the
delegates’ list, highly skewed accreditation
process and the entire processes leading to
the conduct of the primary election has cast
the darkest stain on the result of the
primary election held on the 3rd September,
2016.
“Against this background, coupled with the
change and integrity that our party preaches
and practices, and having widely consulted
with my numerous supporters, I have
reached the hour of decision to fall back on
the internal mechanism of our great party to
seek redress so that at the end justice will
be served and more importantly, our
democracy may endure.
“To this end, the outcome of the September
3rd APC Governorship primaries in Ondo
State is unacceptable and I hereby appeal
against same.”
Also, some leaders of the party have
petitioned the appeal committee equally
alleging fraud in the election and called for a
fresh exercise.
The petition signed by chairman of the party
in the Central, East and West senatorial
districts, Messrs Adegboyega Adedipe,
Akintunde Samuel and Adeola Ademulegun
respectively, said the result failed to reflect
the reality of the election.
They alleged in their petition that “A strange
delegates’ list was introduced on the night
of the election after everybody had gone to
sleep only for us to wake up in the morning
of the election to see a massively corrupted
delegates’ list.”
“Names of 47 percent of the delegates in
Ondo East were either deleted or substituted
with people who are unknown to the party
as executive members. Some of the injected
names are not even aware of the
development and so did not come for the
primary election.
“In all, a total of 64 names were injected
into the delegates’ list. The names were
unknown to the party. For instance,
somebody who never contested any
election, and some even unknown to the
party suddenly became ward chairmen in
wards four, six, two and seven of Ondo East
Local Government.
“Our total valid delegates are 135 out of
which 64 were disenfranchised, meaning 47
of the delegates on the unlawful list were
illicit voters.
“While Akeredolu got 669 votes at the
primaries, Abraham got 635 votes.

Ondo PDP call for probe

Also worried by the monetised election, the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state
has called on President Muhammadu Buhari
to probe the alleged N5 billion allegedly
spent by the aspirants of the APC during
the primary election.
It’s publicity Secretary, Banji Okunomo, said,
“It was gathered that the aspirants involved
in a cash bazaar to induce the delegates at
the elections, an act that is unprecedented
in the history of party primaries in Ondo
state.
“If the Buhari government fails to urgently
probe the sources of money wasted on the
APC primary in Ondo State, it would be
difficult for any sane person to countenance
the seriousness of the acclaimed fight
against corruption by the APC led
government.”