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We are fortunate in
Nigeria to have many elder statesmen. . Wikipedia defines a
statesman/woman as “usually a politician or other notable public figure
who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at
the national and international level. ”

‘Statesman’ is an
ascribed status that cannot be applied for, nor is one elected to it.
It is neither a title conferred by a traditional ruler nor a national
honour conferred by the president.

You can only become
a statesman after you have retired and assessed by the people as having
dedicated a large portion of your life to serving national and
international interests meritoriously.

The international
statesmen that I am aware of do not seek to return to power after
exiting the stage. The status conferred on them means that they remain
highly influential and relevant for the rest of their lives. They are
called upon again and again.

Alas, here at home,
the well-known former politician is not required to have had either a
long career in politics (e.g. interim heads of state), or a respected
career in politics (e.g. military or failed administrations). Once you
have held the top position in a government body, you are called a
statesman. Any of our heads of state and all of our top political
figures are labeled statesmen, including the ones who were disgraced
off the stage.

In seeking a
definition that would satisfy our burning desire for someone who will
take us along internationally acknowledged roadmap to national
development and self-fulfilment, I came across five statesmanlike
qualities in wisegeek.com Statesman-like qualities.

1. A statesman is generally above party politics.

I agree with this
one. The international statesmen I mostly admire belong to one
political party or another and participate actively in promoting their
party; YET, the issues that concern them are broader and greater than
any one party and concern everyone, irrespective of their political
leanings.

2. A statesman
takes the long view of things, and tries to consider what is best not
only for his nation or group, but for everyone concerned.

A classic example
is the poster-boy for national transformation, Lee Kwan Yew, the former
prime minister of Singapore who spent time with advisers and his team
devising a win-win situation that would not only benefit the civil
servants in his government, their nation, and the distinct ethnic
groups within it, but also neighbouring countries and the world at
large.

3. A statesman
possesses the power of persuasion, not only to other national and
international leaders, but to his own constituency.

I would like
someone to point out to me any statesman in our nation’s history whose
constituency engaged with them, understood their vision for their
constituency and for the nation, and have seen real and lasting
development in their areas as a result of the efforts of their
statesmen.

We are a funny
people. We like telling stories of how the big politician returned to
his village or home town and sat under the tree by the mud huts with
the contemporaries he left behind, not too proud to drink palm wine
with them or share their food from a common plate, as in days of old.
Why was the leader not able to elevate the level of development where
s/he comes from to levels higher than were s/he left them?

And our dear
compatriots, instead of being angered that the person who, through
their efforts, was lifted over the development barrier; our people feel
HONOURED that the person has come down to their level!

4. A statesman can be tough when needed, but never loses his/her temper or perspective.

As has been clearly
shown by the recent scuffle on the streets of Ogun State during the
inauguration of a new bridge; by the fisticuffs in the House of
Representatives over allegations of misappropriation of funds and
impropriety; our political leaders lack this statesmanlike quality.

5. The things that a statesman accomplishes often wind up not only in newspapers, but in history books.

Yes, we can say
that our founding fathers, the big three, Tafawa Balewa, Azikiwe, and
Awolowo, accomplished independence, but it did not last. Corruption has
eaten away at all they envisioned for our nation. What will the history
books say about the parade of heads of state, speakers of our national
assembly, and governors of our states?

Statesmen, we are begging you to please step forward.

Six students of the University of Ado
Ekiti were yesterday arraigned before an Ado Ekiti magistrate court on
a five count charge of breach of peace, unlawful tumultuous gathering,
unlawful damage to properties, causing injuries while rioting and
assault on police officers by stoning them. The students, who were all
male, were alleged to have committed the offence last Monday include
Oluwatuyi Olufemi, 24; Isiaka Muri, 25; Fadoju Olubode, 19; Lawal
Oluwaseyi, 18; Oladeinde Kehinde, 24 and Akinsola Busuyi, 24. The
students had on Monday staged a protest against the decision of the
management to increase the fees payable by incoming students. The
Prosecutor told the Magistrate, Adesoji Adegboye that though he would
call five witnesses for the case asked for an adjournment to enable him
study the case file. Speaking on behalf of others, counsel to three of
the six accused persons, Kayode Akinwumi pleaded for bail for all of
the accuse and promise to produce them on any of the adjournment dates
having spent two days in the police cell. Mr Adegboye, while adjourning
the case till October 8th for hearing, granted the accused persons bail
in the sum of N10, 000.00 each with reasonable surety in like sum.
The student protest nearly marred the
2010 Distinguished Lecture of the institution, which was delivered by
the Chief of Air Staff, Oluseyi Petinrin. Some of vehicles that were
damaged during the confrontation between the security attached to
Messrs Oni and Petinrin and the protesting students were: a Nissan
Sunny, a Nissan Primera, and a Toyota Camry belonging to the wife of
the personal assistant to the governor, Bunmi Ojo. Others are two
Toyota Hilux vans and a Station Wagon belonging to the police.
Blame the opposition
Meanwhile, the Ekiti State commissioner
for information and civic orientation, Taiwo Olatunbosun, has accused
opposition politicians in the state of being the masterminds of the
students protest. Miffed by what he described as the relentless attempt
by the few dissenters to make the state unmanageable at all cost
through instigating chaos and discords at the detriment of the people
in the state, Mr Olatunbosun castigated the instigators of the unrest
for putting the lives of the people in the university community at
risk. He said it was by the grace of God and the benevolence of Mr Oni
that the situation did not deteriorate to a full fledge melee with
attendant loss of lives.
The state official said the students
had no reason to engage in such unruly venture since they were not
affected by the proposed increase in school fees as the new fee regime
would affect only the new intakes that were yet to resume in the
institution.
“The running of the institution was entirely at the discretion of
the board and management of the institution without any undue
interference, and we wondered why the governor was targeted on such
ridiculous and unconvincing excuse,” he said.

The presidential
task force on NITEL/MTEL have appealed to the federal government to
ensure an immediate release of the sum of N51.692 billion to settle
outstanding debt owed to employees.

The chairman of the
task force and the minister of labour, Chukwuemeka Wogu, while
presenting the report to the vice president, Namadi Sambo, said the
terms of reference of the task force was to address the issue of
outstanding salaries and allowances owed NITEL/MTEL staff and determine
the number of staff to be disengaged to reduce the wage liabilities of
government, as the enterprises were not operational.

The vice president
said a committee constituted by the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE)
has recently recommended the immediate sale of the company.

“The federal
government will be working on the sale of the company, while exploring
other revenue sources to address the problems enumerated by the task
force as a matter of urgency,” the vice president said.

Mr Wogu also catalogued the challenges his group faced in conducting its assignment.

These include
judgments by an Abuja High Court prohibiting the employment of casual
staff, as it goes contrary to the condition of service, which,
therefore, confers on t hem permanent and pensionable status, even
though the ruling is under appeal by BPE; the appointment of actuarial
consultant who was to foreclose the possibility of inflation of
entitlements; and the lack of funds to adequately execute the
assignment.

Three scenarios

He said the task
force explored three scenarios, which were: to disengage all current
employees and immediately re-engage 445 transition staff from the 3389
staff, with a monthly wage bill of N115.5 million, down the current
N695 million, who will remain to hand over to a new core investor; to
disengage all employees who are currently aged 45 and above and those
that have served 25 years and above – which will reduce the work force
by approximately 66% of the staff and reduce monthly wage bill from
N695 million to N187.6 million. The third option is to disengage all
employees who are aged above 50 and employees that have served 35 years
and above. This, the task force says, is capable of reducing the wage
bill from N695 million to N313.8 million.

“The task force
recommended the adoption of the first scenario, where all staff are
exited and paid off their entitlements,” he said.

Mr. Wogu,
therefore, appealed to the government for the immediate release of the
sum of N51.692 billion to downsize and comply with court orders.

The 100,000 metric
tonnes silo being constructed in Ekiti State by the federal ministry of
agriculture and rural development will be ready for use by December,
the minister of state for agriculture and rural development, Najeem
Adewale Awodele, has said.

Mr. Awodele, while
on a visit to the state governor, Segun Oni, yesterday, expressed
confidence that the completion date for the silo would be met.

He added that apart
from Ekiti State, other adjoining states would benefit immensely from
the project, saying that government was no longer interested in just
talking about its developmental plans for the agric sector.

He also promised
that distribution of tractors would be flagged off in Ibadan, Oyo
State, this week, assuring that Ekiti State would get its own
allocation from the tractors immediately after the flag off.

Mr. Oni urged the
federal government to assist the state in urbanising its farm
settlements, saying the state government will not relent in its efforts
at providing basic amenities like roads, electricity, water, and others
for the farm settlements.

He also said the
state government would soon open a Register of Output, so as to be able
to target farmers output. “Ekiti has spent so much money on subsidies,
but it has not been able to get anywhere,” he said.

“Henceforth, we are
going to be making subsidies in form of loans, seedlings, and others
available to genuine farmers based on their output. Therefore, all
those who are farmers only by way of associations and cooperatives must
be ready to go to the farm and do the real farming, if they want to
continue to benefit from government subsidies.”

“We have had more than enough of agric on paper that we should now be asking what the farmers delivered last year,” he said.

Ultimatum on roads

Mr. Oni also
directed the contractor handling the newly re-awarded
Ikole-Ara-Isinbode road to ensure completion of the road within the
next two months.

He gave the directive while inspecting construction work on the 19-kilometre road.

Also speaking after inspecting the 12-kilometre Irele-Ponyan road,
the governor commended the contractor for doing a good job, stressing
that when completed, the inter-state road would improve cultural and
economic ties between the people of Ekiti and Kogi States.

The sum of N89.3
billion was yesterday approved by the Federal Executive Council for the
immediate procurement and delivery of fertilizers to be sold to farmers
at subsidized rates.

The contract, which was previously awarded to only four companies, has now been awarded to 30 companies.

This decision was reached at yesterday’s 28th session of the FEC meeting which was presided over by Goodluck Jonathan.

While addressing
journalists after the weekly meeting, the minister of state for
information and communications, Labaran Maku said the minister of
Agriculture, Ahmed Abdullah presented a memo to the council seeking
ratification for the award of contract to 30 companies for the supply
of 900,000 metric tons of various types of fertilizers, for
distribution to the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.

He said the council
considered the plight of the people and decided to subsidize the
product by 25 per cent, amounting to N22.227 billion. He said this year
there is greater participation in the supply process of the product.

Mr Maku said the
council also agreed that new roads be constructed, and others
rehabilitated across all the zones of the country at a cost of N65.3b
in order to reduce the problems of road transportation in the country.

The federal
government, on Wednesday, also announced plans to enact a law that will
compel it, state and local governments to roll out long term
development plans to enable Nigeria achieve its Vision 2020 targets, at
a cost of N32 trillion.

The Vision 2020 is
intended to make Nigeria one of the top 20 economies of the world by
2020 and the first phase of the implementation plan is from 2010 to
2013.

The minister said the second phase is slated to start from 2014 – 2017 and the third phase, 2018 – 2020.

“In developing the Plan, close attention was paid to ‘what went wrong’ and ‘what do we need to do differently’”.

Upgrade of airport

Also, as part of the efforts to improve power situation at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA),

the council approved the augmentation of contract for the complete power upgrade at the sum of N7.7billion.

The contract
involves the complete replacement of the entire power infrastructure at
the 32 year old international airport, which includes the cables and
the generating sets.

Mr Maku said the
process commenced in 2009 at the cost of N5 billlion with N1 billion
appropriated for the project in the 2009 appropriation bill.

On how the airport
will be run while the overhaul is going on, the minister of aviation
Fidelia Njeze said “the power upgrade, especially the cabling will be
done in stages. I assure you it would not disrupt power supply in the
airport”.

Another approval
granted was that of the contract for the design, supply and
implementation of the Unique Taxpayer Identification Number (UTIN)
infrastructure and systems.

The contract is in the sum of $22.60million with a N40.60 million value added tax added.

The identification
number is to provide central database of all taxpayers and facilitate
tax administration by tax authorities. State governments have agreed to
contribute to the funding of the project.

It is an initiated
of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) which hopes to register all taxpayers and
issue personal identification numbers that will uniquely identify the
taxpayer.

The governor of
Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel, has evaded a challenge by the House of
Assembly for a live television debate on the controversial N100billion
bond.

The lawmakers,
while ruling out the possibility of granting the governor’s wish for
the bond as a result of alleged loopholes in the documents backing the
bid, said if Mr Daniel is not satisfied with their position on the
matter, he should present himself for a public debate.

Reacting to the
challenge, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Sina
Kawonise, at a press conference held at Governor’s Office press centre
yesterday, said the lawmakers were trying to make mockery of the
governor, therefore Mr Daniel would not engage in such a debate.

“We will not drag
ourselves to gutter level. It is childish, a serious government should
not be part of the shenanigan. It is insulting to the integrity of
people of Ogun State. It is ridiculous. Assembly wants to make mockery
of serious issue,” Mr Kawonise said.

“Debate what? Who is to be the judge? We will leave people of Ogun State to judge them.”

The information commissioner said he was optimistic the current set of legislators will not be in the Assembly in 2011.

“All of these funny
characters in the assembly will not be part of history when the next
legislature comes into place, to grant the bond.”

He alleged the
lawmakers have an agenda to kill the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) in the state and move to another party.

Indebted to PHCN

In another
development, Mr Daniel said as a result of the poor financial status of
the state, the government is owing Power Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN) a huge sum of money that it cannot pay. He said the company has
since sent a letter threatening to disconnect power supply to a number
of government offices.

Mr. Daniel claimed that the State House is one of the premises marked for disconnection by the company.