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Here is a riddle. I
board a plane in Lagos, Nigeria at 7.30am. Thirteen hours and two plane
changes later, I finally arrive at my destination tired and dirty but
glad that the journey is finally over. So which city in this wide world
am I visiting? Is it Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Doha, Dubai or some
far-flung exotic corner of the world? No, nothing like that, in fact my
plane hopping and many hours have not taken me beyond the West Africa
region. All of the travelling hours and the three plane rides have
taken me only as far as Bamako, Mali’s capital which is just some 900
miles or so from Lagos.

Anecdotal evidence
from friends had always suggested that travelling within the West
Africa region is a nightmare, but not having experienced it, I always
thought the stories were somewhat exaggerated; not anymore. In order to
visit Bamako, I first had to fly to Accra and wait a few hours, after
which I boarded another plane and made my way back, yes you read
correctly, back to Togo. Another four hours later, I was on another
plane heading to Niamey from which after a two-hour wait, I finally
embark on the final leg of my trip to Bamako.

This trip, if I were flying directly from Lagos to Bamako would have lasted no more than two hours.

The problem of a
lack of functioning infrastructure within the sub region is more than
an irritation; it comes with a heavy economic price, an inability to
maximise trade among the various countries in the sub region. Figures
available show that just 10 percent of total trade by Economic
Community of West Africa countries (ECOWAS) both imports and exports,
is to other West African nations.

Another example
that may bring home the seriousness of the problem is this, according
to EU figures ‘‘ Ghana sends less than 3% of its exports to neighboring
Benin (compared with 49% to the EU).

However, this is
not a problem that is peculiar to the sub-region, all across the
continent we are losing opportunities that can allow us to grow
economically because we lack the basic infrastructure to trade with
each other. Here is another example, this also taken from an EU
produced document, (sadly as with a lot of other things we rely on
others to tell us about ourselves) ‘‘ it costs as much to move a
container from Mombasa to Kampala as it does from Mombasa to Shanghai.’’

The total value of
trade between Africa and the EU in 2008 was EUR 278 billion; this is
for both imports and exports. Can you try and imagine the impact on the
continent if this level of trade was taking place among African
countries?

The wealth that will be created through job creation and other value added services would immediately transform our societies.

While it is true a
lot of unofficial trading takes place that is not captured by the
numbers, the informed consensus is that trade within African countries
is miniscule compared to trade with other regions.

It also pales in
significance when compared to the volume of trade among Western
European countries, which is 60 percent of their total trade.

The World Bank has
estimated that Africa has a population about 1 billion potential
consumers and says’’ it is a powerful engine for growth, employment and
intra-African trade, especially at a time when other markets are
contracting in the wake of the global financial crisis’’

But we are not
talking advantage of this. At various forums the obstacles to making
trade flourish have been identified and solutions proffered, yet we
seem to lack the will to implement the necessary measures.

The president of
Coca-Cola South Africa, William Egbe, is on the record as saying ‘‘ a
litany of measures aimed at curbing behind-the-border trade
constraints; improving trade facilitation and logistics and reforming
customs unions and other regional trade institutions continue to
languish in drawers, awaiting implementation’’.

This is tragic
because Africa does not need to look to any other place for the panacea
for poverty and many other ills. The solution is staring us in the
face. It is time to dust those documents that Mr. Egbe refers to and
begin to implement them, one item at a time. The difference this will
make will be immediate.

As for my arduous trip to Mali, it is

symptomatic of the
wider issues we face on this continent and these sorts of trips are
only one obstacle among many to flourishing trade among African
countries. If, however, we can start by tackling this one area by
making travel easy it would be a big first step. Let us build a decent
road/ rail network and encourage the setting up of airlines that will
offer cheap direct flights to major African cities. Sectors like
tourism would receive a boost. There are many like me who I am sure
would love to visit Mali if only to see the world heritage

sites in Timbuktu. As things stand, many won’t even be tempted to make the journey, as it is tedious and expensive.

This week Britain’s
coalition government announced its spending plans for the next four
years. We are taking urgent steps to reduce the national debt and deal
with the fiscal legacy we inherited. We have shown that we have the
resolve and determination to live within our means. And we have set out
to reinvigorate Britain’s diplomatic engagement with the world,
elevating our links with the fastest growing economies and championing
Britain as a home for business and investment. We understand that
economic recovery starts at home, but that we have to look beyond our
shores for new opportunities and new partners.

The scale of the
economic challenge is formidable. We inherited one of the largest
budget deficits in Europe and the G20. But we have a clear vision for
the future of our country. We have chosen to spend on the country’s
most important priorities – the health care of our people, the
education of our young, our nation’s security and the infrastructure
that supports our economic growth.

We are building a
fairer and more responsible society, with more opportunity for people
to lift themselves out of poverty, and with state support focused on
those who need it most. We are reforming public services – improving
transparency and accountability, giving more power and responsibility
to citizens and enabling sustainable long term improvements in
services. And we are building a stronger economy, with more jobs,
investment and growth for a private sector-led recovery.

We have protected
as far as possible those areas of public spending which matter for
economic growth and pursued reforms to make these more cost-effective.

We know that we
cannot have sustainable growth in the economy without healthy public
finances. We have created a new independent Office for Budgetary
Responsibility, so that the power to determine the growth and fiscal
forecasts now resides with an independent body immune to the
temptations of the political cycle. And we have pledged to eliminate
the UK’s structural deficit by the end of this Parliament, which has
been welcomed by the International Monetary Fund as a necessary path to
ensuring fiscal sustainability and a balanced recovery.

Our Spending Review
is part of an ambitious plan to create a business environment that is
one of the most competitive anywhere in the world. We understand that
the British economy of the future must be one that is built on
investment, saving and exports, and are determined to use our tough
plans for fiscal consolidation as a springboard for growth and recovery
through the private sector.

From 2011 we will
gradually reduce corporation tax to 24 per cent, giving Britain the
lowest in the G7 and one of the lowest in the G20. We will reduce the
small profits rate of corporation tax to 20 per cent. We will lower
capital gains tax for entrepreneurs.

And we will cut
National Insurance contributions for employers, extend help to small
businesses needing to access credit, and make Britain the easiest place
in the world to start a business.

But let us not
forget that throughout the recession the UK has remained the sixth
largest economy in the world. We have one of the most flexible labour
markets in Europe and, according to the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development, the least number of barriers to
entrepreneurship in the world. Our unrivalled financial services
industry, our strong skills base, our global outlook and orientation,
our creative talents, our world class universities and our central
position etween Asian and American time zones all demonstrate that we
have an open economy and we are open for business.

So we have a strong
base on which to build. With that in mind, we want to inject a new
commercial focus into our relationship here in Nigeria.

We are aware our
two countries already enjoy an important trade relationship. Trade
between the UK and Nigeria increased by 67% from the year 2007 to the
year 2009, and in the last year alone, UK goods and services exports
reached the value of £2.3 billion indicating that Nigeria is a key
destination for British firms keen to invest in Africa.

The UK is one of
the largest investors in Nigeria, in sectors from oil and gas to
financial services, to agriculture. As His Royal Highness The Duke of
Gloucester stated during his recent visit to mark the 50th anniversary
of Nigeria as an independent nation, Nigeria is and will continue to be
a key international partner for the UK. So we are confident that we are
taking the right steps at home and abroad to help economic recovery in
our own countries, and to contribute to a stable and prosperous global
economy.

William Hague MP, is United Kingdom First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

In the Nigeria of our day, writing is synonymous with loss of gravitas.

To be identified as
someone who ‘makes noise on the pages ofnewspapers’, is the surest road
to Siberia. Power and media currency are, are, to all intents and
purposes, diametrical opposites. Why then do I write?

I first encountered
my demons as a fourteen year-old at the British Council Library in
Kaduna. During the long summer holidays, with nothing better to do, I
spent all my days reading everything I could lay my hands on – history,
literature, science, philosophy. I stumbled upon Bertrand Russell in a
feat of absentmindedness. Russell wrote such beautiful and witty prose.
Although his childhood was as lonely as mine, I was not born an Earl
and did not grow up in a palace in Richmond. And my grandfather was not
prime minister. I was born in a humble evangelical village parsonage in
the ancient central savannah of Nigeria; a place more beautiful than
the Swiss Alps.

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to write with the wit and lucidity of Lord Russell.

I also look back
with nostalgia to an earlier chivalrous tradition that was founded on
robust intellectual culture. The Founding Fathers of the Nigerian
Republic — Azikiwe, Awolowo and Balewa — were excellent writers. It
is only in an ignominious age like ours that people would deign to look
askance at anybody who takes up the pen.

It was the mystic
Carlos Fuentes ho noted that writing is a ‘struggle against silence’.
In our own case, it is the silence borne of decades of military
tyranny. As a consequence, we have lost the civic culture, which has
inspired our greatest patriots.

Many people write
to promote sectional agendas. Others write because someone has paid
them handsomely. I write because I believe in Nigeria and her manifest
destiny; because of my faith in the unconquerable power of the human
spirit — in the ultimate triumph of Good over Evil. Some have accused
me of writing to curry favour with the powers that be. One or two have
already declared me to be the prospective envoy at the Court of St.
James where I would presumably idle my days in small talk and
champagne. Never have a man’s ambitions been more under-estimated.

It was Elbert
Hubbard who observed that, in order to avoid being criticised, you
would have to “do nothing, say nothing, be nothing”. When I wrote about
gays and the Church, I was accused of being homophobic. One or two
critics have advised me to avoid writing about politics, which I know
nothing about. One regretted that my writing no longer made him cry, as
it did when I wrote on child abuse. I must therefore, I suppose,
restrict myself to subjects likely to exert the most lachrymose impact.
I once made the mistake of mentioning our five German shepherds. It set
off a bedlam of howls. Nobody will ever know that those dogs protected
me from the real and present danger of assassins; and of course, God
Almighty, and the late President Yar’Adua, who called the people
concerned to order.

Criticism is a form
of recognition. But even criticism has limits. Some have compared me to
Reuben Abati of The Guardian; others say I am ‘the new Dele Momodu’. I
would rather I was compared with Obadiah Mailafia.

Echoing the
Scottish philosopher David Hume, I would say that the invention of the
Internet marks the real end of chivalry, as we have always known it.
The Nigerian Internet crowd is a rather illiberal horde. Most of them
live abroad and have lost touch with realities back home. Most are in
all sorts of primordial cocoons — Biafra, Arewa or Oduduwa. Hiding
under bizarre pseudonyms, they have succumbed to the Western-inspired
nonsense about our being a ‘failed state’. When I got tired of the
haranguing, I decided to throw in one lone Latin expletive – just to
test the waters. Pandemonium! “We told you this fellow is not what he
claims, beneath the gentility”; “We must never vote him!” On and on
they went.

What some of these
people lack is a bit of irony. When I wrote about Cecilia Ibru, I never
for once absolved her of any crime. What she did was horrendous, and
all the more tragic, considering how hard she had worked to build up
Oceanic and how so many looked up to her as a model. Even if she we
were my mother I would never excuse her crimes. Someone even asked if I
had collected money from her.

Reminds me of the
story of the woman who was caught in adultery. As the Jews set off to
stone her to death according to the Laws of Moses, Jesus asked that
those who had never committed adultery be the first to do so. He was
not denying her sin. All have sinned and have come short of the glory.
We are human and fallible. What matters is to learn from our mistakes
and to move on.

“Woman, where are your accusers?”

It caught many Nigerians by surprise: what one of this paper’s columnists rightly called “Jonathan’s subversive loophole.” Following the request from the Independent National Electoral Commission to postpone the 2011 general elections from January to April 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan sent an Executive Bill to the National Assembly proposing those amendments to the Electoral Act 2010.

But beyond the amendments, the president added his own changes – particularly those relating to Section 87(7) and (8) of the Electoral Act. And these provisions were dangerous, even fatal, to the conduct of credible elections.

Section 87(7) proposed that “A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidates shall outline in its constitution or guideline:

Who shall be a delegate at the congress or convention”. In essence, that provision would allow parties change at will the rules governing procedures for primaries simply by issuing a new guideline.

This meant, in effect, that the procedures set out in the current 2010 Electoral Act imposing clear conditions for internal democracy, by stipulating that political parties nominate candidates only by elected party delegates, could be jettisoned. Political parties will be able to select delegates at will, the offensive idea of consensus candidates will be allowed to thrive, and the situation that led to litigation all around the country, most famous of which was current Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi’s, would be perpetuated. .

Even worse was the president’s proposal that Section 87(8) of the Electoral Act 2010 be deleted. The Section provides that: “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate at the Convention or Congress of any political party for the purpose of nomination of candidates for any election.”

This section sought to prevent the president or governors flooding political party congresses with ministers, commissioners and others and to avoid the situation where a governor with about 1000 assistants (as obtains in Adamawa State) is able to skew the primaries heavily. Finally, it sought to give the leadership of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the power to determine the sequence in which elections are held.

Thankfully, the Senate immediately resisted the president’s transparent plan to hijack the new Electoral law, rightly calling his proposals undemocratic and “toxic”. Last Wednesday, the Senate acted in a largely unified manner to shut down Mr. Jonathan’s attempt to reshape the 2010 Electoral Act. Their move was devoid of the political or ethnic sentiments that usually colour similar debates. They were determined to “kill the bill” and perhaps send a message to the presidency.

It can be assumed that Mr. Jonathan and his campaign team experienced something of a shock to the system from the Senate’s rejection. Of course it is possible that the Senate’s action was predicated on self-interest rather than commitment to the nation, since many of them were affected adversely by these kinds of provisions in the last election cycle. Still this was a laudable move.

At least, on this issue, we know that the National Assembly stands with the rest of Nigeria.

The question now is: where does Jonathan stand? He has spoken severally about giving Nigerians “free and fair elections”, but not only do his intentions signify a desperate man looking for loopholes to manipulate, they belie his stated commitment to improving the democracy in Nigeria. The unavoidable conclusion is that President Jonathan’s incumbency is following the predictable trend.

Unfortunately, this was no isolated incident. The president has shown a disappointing propensity to play politics with issues of national importance, and in this case he doesn’t seem to get the message that it’s him against the national interest. “We haven’t given up. We will go back and negotiate and ask questions,” said one of his campaign managers to NEXT last week. “There is not absolute victory or defeat.”

This is very worrying. President Jonathan fell into a deep, dangerous hole with his unholy move to circumvent reforms already agreed on. Right now, it is time for him to put the shovel down first, and stop digging.