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There is reason to believe that Nigeria is broke.
The Minister of State for Finance, Remi Babalola made the confession
last week, at the meeting of the Federation Allocation Accounts
Committee, the government body charged with sharing monies between the
three tiers of government – Federal, State and Local.

The three tiers of government ought to have shared
500 billion naira monthly between January and March 2010, making a
total of about 1.5 trillion naira. However, only half of that amount
was shared. The balance of that money (737 billion naira) is what is
now the bone of contention between the Federal and State Governments.
The country doesn’t have the money at hand. The only alternative is to
dip into our “savings account”, designated as the Excess Crude Account
(ECA), funded from our oil earnings in times of boom. The 737 billion
naira that should augment the monies already shared out is far in
excess of the 212 billion in our Domestic Excess Crude Account.

The import of this is that after emptying our
Domestic Excess Crude Account, we still have to turn to the Foreign
Excess Crude Account for more money to share. Doing that would deplete
the FECA significantly, and there would still be no guarantees that
future monthly allocations would be possible.

Because of this the FAAC is holding back on the
disbursement of the balance of the January – March funds. Mr. Babalola
said: “So, there is a problem, so we need to sit down with the
President and others to again look at the assumptions and estimates of
the 2010 budget, otherwise if we pay the entire money now, we may not
actually have any money to pay in the next one or two months. We are
not saying that there no money to be shared. But, we are saying that
before one can touch money in the Excess Crude Account, one must have
the approval of the President. Besides, if we continue to use the 2009
budget estimate to share allocations, we are going to run into the
cloud in the next one or two months.”

The state governments on their own part will have
none of this, and are insisting on getting their money. “Having signed
the appropriation into an Act, its full implementation should begin
immediately from January till date. Therefore, those areas that were
left out as a result of the absence of an Act should be smoothened out
by clearing the differential between what was paid before the Act and
what should be paid after,” a state Commissioner of Finance argued.

The disagreement led to a stalemate during the
FAAC meeting, so that newspapers widely reported that it was the
shortest meeting in the history of the Committee. It was even reported
that representatives of the state governments walked out of the meeting
in frustration.

As a way out of the impasse Mr. Babalola was
quoted as saying: “We may thus be constrained to amongst others
consider amending the revenue profile of the 2010 budget or
re-negotiate with all relevant stakeholders the monthly distributable
amount pending improvements in the budgeted revenue profile.”

It is curious that even in this critical state the
managers of our nation’s finances are sounding tentative, clueless
even. The Minister of State for Finance is still talking as though
“amending the revenue profile of the 2010 budget or [re-negotiating]
with all relevant stakeholders the monthly distributable amount” is
merely an option, not an urgent necessity.

This government that is speaking of an Excess
Crude Account is the same one that only weeks ago told us that it is
determined to urgently replace the Account – a creation peculiar to
Nigeria – with a Sovereign Wealth Fund, in line with global best
practices. The Minister of Finance, Segun Aganga, described the
sovereign wealth fund as a “very robust institutional framework for
managing excess revenue which today we do have in the excess crude
account.” He also said that the government had set up a committee to
make the fund a reality.

From the foregoing, one thing is obvious:
Nigeria’s finances are deeply mired in confusion. The management of our
country’s wealth is characterized a painful lack of direction, and in
cases where there is direction, lack of the political will to see plans
through to completion. There are also the myriad policy somersaults, in
part attributable to the frequent changes in personnel that occur at
the highest levels of government. In the last four years the country
has had not less than four Ministers of Finance, with little effort to
ensure consistency in policy formulation. We have drifted away from the
transparent accounting pattern that characterized the Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala era. The National Economic Empowerment and Development
Strategy (NEEDS) to which the Obasanjo administration devoted much
effort and funding, is now a relic, abandoned by the new
powers-that-be. Plans to reduce our dependence on oil exports and
diversify the economy also appear to have fallen off the priority list.

Our economy is adrift, the confusion pervading it a microcosm of the
larger confusion in which our country as a whole is mired. In the
build-up to the 2011 elections, it is important that our policy makers
and technocrats do not allow themselves to get mired in the politicking
that is sure to take center stage, but move from their tentative
speeches, into the arena of drastic action. Anything less,and we are
doomed.

The elevation of architect, Mohammed Namadi Sambo,
former governor of Kaduna State to the position of Vice President of
Nigeria paved way for his deputy, Mr. Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa to become
governor of the state. Initially there were rumours that Yakowa, a
Christian from the southern part would face strong opposition from the
majority Muslim population of the state. It turned out that the rumours
were the handiwork of detractors whose candidate lost out in the race
to be vice president. Rightfully, the Sultan of Sokoto dispelled the
rumours and pledged Muslim support for the new governor.

The fact that only the unexpected elevation of
Sambo to vice president made it possible for Yakowa to be governor
raises serious issues about our brand of politics, the concepts of
majority and minority, competence in the selection of candidates and
the entire electoral process.

If there ever was a candidate qualified to be
governor of Kaduna State, that candidate would be Patrick Yakowa. This
man was a director in the Federal Civil Service in important ministries
like Water Resources and Defence, Kaduna State chairman of one of
General Babangida’s two defunct parties, commissioner in Kaduna State
for several years, Minister of Solid Minerals under General Abdulsalam
and federal permanent secretary.

After leaving the Federal Civil Service, Yakowa
became secretary to the state government, and upon the death of former
Kaduna State deputy governor, took over that position under then
Governor Makarfi. Ordinarily, he should have stepped into his boss’s
shoes and become governor in 2007, but so timid was minority politics
that he hardly bothered to contest the primaries.

After the political abracadabra that brought the
then relatively unknown Sambo to Kaduna government as governor, Patrick
Yakowa was content to remain as deputy governor. That was the limit of
his political aspirations, restricted as it were, not by lack of
ambition, but the issue of minority and majority politics.

The patient dog, they say, may eat the fattest
bone, and Yakowa’s patience has paid off. The danger in accepting this
position is, what if President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had not died? Or
what if another of the numerous contenders for the position of vice
president had been nominated? That would mean that Yakowa, as qualified
as he is to be governor, with his far reaching contacts and many Muslim
friends in Kaduna and elsewhere across Nigeria, might never have become
governor. This is a man who in all likelihood has more experience in
politics, public administration and governance than his two
predecessors in office – Senator Makarfi and Vice President Sambo
combined.

Unless Yakowa gets distracted by the desire and
pressure to contest for governor in his own right in 2011, he may prove
to be a better administrator than both men. And that, exactly, is the
point of this piece because if he falls for the politics of religion
and ethnicity, and not competence, he may not win. Across Nigeria, the
partition of Africa that the Berlin Conference started so long ago has
been perfected by the politics of state and local government creation.
And as more states are created, so are new minorities. Thus, in Kaduna,
only the emergence of Sambo as vice president made it possible for
Yakowa to become governor.

In Benue State, the Tivs would probably never
surrender the governorship to an Idoma no matter how qualified and
experienced. This happened in 2007 when Mike Onoja, an Idoma retired
federal permanent secretary with all the right contacts lost the PDP
primaries to the relatively inexperienced Gabriel Suswan, from the
majority Tiv. If the Idomas succeed in getting Apa state, the Igedes
would become the minorities in the new state and may never produce a
governor. In Taraba State, a Muslim candidate for governor, regardless
of qualification for the position would require Christian support to be
elected.

In Adamawa state, Boni Haruna, a Christian broke
that trend and was governor for eight years, beating Muslim candidates
in 2003, but it is now business as usual. In Plateau State, despite its
large Muslim population, no Muslim has been deputy governor in this
Republic. The highest elected office Muslims occupy is deputy speaker
of the State House of Assembly. In the south, even in relatively
cosmopolitan and homogeneous states like Ogun, issues exist between the
Egbas and the Ijebus.

In the final analysis, when religion or ethnicity,
rather than qualification and competence determine who gets elected
into what office, our political system may continue to remain one of
garbage in, garbage out.

Rare is the study
that unites cougars and gold diggers. But according to recent numbers
from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany,
women who marry much younger men have something in common with women
who marry much older men. Both groups suffer an increased risk of death.

Why would age-gap relationships affect women’s longevity?

The reasons depend
on which group you fall into. For younger women with older husbands,
life expectancy can be both the cause and the effect.

“When a younger
woman marries an older man, he is more likely to die before she does,”
Dr. David Eigen, a psychologist based in Boca Raton, Florida, USA,
says. “And we know that when one spouse dies, the other is more likely
to die within a few years.” In other words, take up with an older man,
and be prepared to take on some of his risk of death too.

Younger women are
particularly at risk when it comes to kicking the bucket soon after an
older husband dies because younger women tend to be more financially
dependent on their husbands.

“After the death of
a spouse, there’s the greater possibility (that) women will suffer
financial hardship, which can weigh on a person,” Eigen, author of
“Women – The Goddesses of Wisdom” (Gender Studies Institute Press,
2010), says.

Call it the Anna
Nicole Smith Effect: A year after the death of her billionaire husband,
69 years her senior, the busty blonde was in bankruptcy and ensnared in
multiple legal battles.

But even if your older gentleman is still breathing, he may not be huffing along vigorously enough to keep you young.

“A younger woman
living with an older guy is more likely to be doing activities that,
well, don’t keep her young,” Eigen says, “like playing bingo.” And even
if your husband is keeping you active, it might not be the right kind
of active.

“Women who marry
older men often become caregivers, and caregiving is stressful and can
shorten a woman’s life span by about 25 percent,” Debbie Mandel, author
of “Addicted to Stress: A Woman’s 7 Step Program to Reclaim Joy and
Spontaneity in Life” (Jossey-Bass, 2008), says.

So trade in your aging husband for a younger, fresher face and increase your longevity in the process?

Unfortunately, it’s
not that simple. The study’s researchers say the age gap cuts both
ways, and that even women who marry the strapping young mountain biker
– the so-called cougars- may see their risk of death increase as well.

A 2003 study by
AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) found that 34 percent of
all women over 40 in the survey were dating younger men, and 35 percent
preferred it to dating older men. Mandel says that women in these
relationships – the kind that TV shows like Courteney Cox’s “Cougar
Town” have made icons of – are put under a particular strain when it
comes to aging and body image, even more so than women who are married
to men their own age.

“When your husband
is young and your body is changing, you are more stressed and insecure
than the average woman,” Mandel says. “Stress is an inflammatory
process, which causes cardiovascular problems and has been implicated
in many disease processes as well as exacerbating symptoms.” This can
also, she says, lead older women to exercise addiction and severe
dieting.

Dr. Richard A. Friedman, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Weil Cornell Medical College in New York City, agrees.

“Maybe there is
something more stressful, socially and physically, about the role of
being the older woman in a couple,” he says. “They have to keep up with
their younger and more energetic husbands.” Susan Winter, the author of
“Older Women, Younger Men” (New Horizon Press, 2000), who has lived
with (and been married to) men who have ranged from 16 to 22 years her
junior, says it’s not easy to live outside the social sanctions.

“I know. I’ve done it,” she says.

“In essence, women
are dying earlier because society invalidates their choice of partner.
So maybe it is the limited social construct that kills, not the mate’s
age.” Which means that the increasing normalisation of older women with
younger men could make a difference. Samantha Jones, Madonna and Demi
Moore just might save us yet.

“Without that
societally imposed stress, a later study may prove it’s actually
healthier for women to have a younger husband,” Winter says.

So forced to choose – for your life span’s sake, of course – is it healthier to go younger or older?

According to the
study, women marrying a partner seven to nine years younger increase
their relative mortality risk by 20 percent compared with couples who
are both the same age.

If your partner is seven to nine years older, your relative mortality increases by only 8 percent.

But personally, Winter doesn’t care.

“As for me,” she
says, “I would rather die of a heart attack in bed with my younger man
than die of boredom changing adult Pampers.” (Hannah Seligson’s book,
“A Little Bit Married: How to Know When It’s Time to Walk Down the
Aisle or Out the Door,” will be published by Da Capo Press in January)

New York Times Service

Recently, state governors and key members of the
political elite stormed the National Assembly to demand legislation
imposing a two-party system in Nigeria. They decried the proliferation
of parties in the country and asserted that the current 57 registered
parties is an unworkable system.

The Nigerian ruling class has always dreamed of
the desirability of a two-party system that divides the political class
into a simple equation of a ruling class and an opposition that will
remain out of power. The high point in this regard was the 1964
elections when the Northern Peoples’ Congress brought in the Yoruba
elite of the Nigerian National Democratic Party and the Niger Deltans
of the Midwest Democratic Front and the Niger Democratic Congress into
the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA).

Obafemi Awolowo then took on the mantle of
organizing the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) into a
formidable opposition front with the Action Group, the National Council
of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) and
the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU. It was a coalition that
could have won if free and fair elections. Premier Ahmadu Bello and
Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa were frightened, they rigged the 1964 and
1965 elections and the result was coup d’état, civil war and the
militarization of Nigeria.

We returned to politics in 1978. In that year, the
barons of the defunct Northern Peoples’ Congress, repeated their act.
The former secretary of the National Party of Nigeria, Uba Ahmed,
recounts in his thesis on the history of the party defended in the
University of Birmingham how they got A. M. Akinloye with his Oyo
Parapo group, T. O. S. Benson and K; O. Mbadiwe of the NCNC group and
Akanu Ibiam of the Igbo Forum to join them in forming the winning
coalition that was to be the National Party of Nigeria.

By incorporating Joseph Tarka of the UMBC, Aminu
Kano of NEPU, the Igbo elite split between K. O. Mbadiwe and Akanu
Ibiam, Awolowo was to be denied the capacity to lead a viable
opposition. The late Ibrahim Tahir boasted in the New Nigerian
(27/10/1978) that they have now achieved what De Gaulle did for France
by uniting all the political elite into one unbeatable political
formation.

The late political scientist, Billy Dudley
described the great joy of the Northern elite when they assembled in
Sokoto in 1978 for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the late
Sultan of Sokoto, Sir Abubakar where the final deal on establishing the
NPN was sealed.

It did not work out that way. Nnamdi Azikiwe
repositioned the Igbo elite into the Nigerian Peoples Party, Aminu Kano
was humiliated out of the NPN and was successful in delivering Kano and
Kaduna states to the Peoples Redemption Party and of course Pa Awolowo
demonstrated he still controlled his turf. The NPN was shocked to
discover in the 1979 elections that it controlled only seven of the
nineteen states and needed legal chicanery in the Supreme Court to
pronounce Shehu Shagari as President.

The NPN went back to the drawing board. They
actively organized factions in all the other parties, got the Federal
Electoral Commission (FEDECO) to recognize the pro-NPN factions and
rigged the 1984 elections. On the last night of 1984, a certain General
Muhammadu Buhari, took over power on the grounds that Nigerian
democracy had been violated.

Then came the PDP, the current ruling party. Last
year, Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State visited a certain Ogbulafor
who held sway in the PDP to proclaim that he had no regrets about the
statement that his party intended to rule the country for the next
sixty years. He asserted that no party in the world would willingly
give out power to another. He concluded on the note that “my duty in
PDP is to go and destroy our opponents”.

What our history teaches us however is that
destroying political opponents is a sure route to dismantling our
democracy. The irony in Nigeria is that as the number of political
parties in the country increases, the movement towards a one-party
regime accelerates. The fear of one party rule has however consistently
destabilized our democracy.

As we think about political parties for the
future, we should remember that what Nigerians are crying for are
parties that are concerned about their welfare and the provision of
public goods. Parties that they can remove from power when they are not
satisfied with their performance. In essence, what Nigerian democracy
requires is a new type of party that believes in and respects
democratic values.

A study by Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere, dated December
2007 examines gender disparities in income in Nigeria and takes a look
at education benefits from democracy against this background. Titled,
Within and Between Gender Disparities in Income and Education Benefits
From Democracy, its conclusions mirror what one would expect, even
without the benefit of the close analysis it offers.

Oyelere concludes, “these results imply a growing
gap in mean income and returns to education across gender”. However she
finds that “within “ these disparities the advent of democracy has
produced benefits. Oyelere also discovered that the income gap between
men and women has grown on average and this growth gap is restricted to
the lower levels of education.

One of the significant implications of her study
was that, “inequality in the benefits of democracy are real and could
keep growing without government intervention.” So now there is a an
intelligent explanation for what has largely been anecdotal evidence of
an increase in the ferocity, as men claim, of the pressure from young
Nigerian females on the prowl for hollas, as in hol am well, aristos as
in cooler sugar daddies, boxed as in ready with the bucks, multis as in
six zero units, and Big Boys as in you know where. But then there was
always cause.

Back in the day, when every speech from OBJ was
premised on the future achievements of a strong and virile nation under
the military, anybody who expected a different outcome from what we
have now surely had to have been very short sighted. There is only one
obvious way to prove virility is there not?

The men in khaki conceived the country, (there is
no point in trying to avoid this pun) in their own image. Contracting
and supplying became instant careers for young women, just as clearing
and forwarding (aka backwarding and forwarding) from grid locked ports
was a direct path to financial liquidity for young men. When the
politicians in agbada came back the benefits of democracy flowed from
the houses, apartments and offices and hotels that had to be built and
furnished to accommodate the multiple realms of government, and so the
largesse was spread a little wider.

It was also orchestrated in accords and preludes
of the Honda variety that became the vehicles of choice. Each
generation has its brand symbols.

The gender disparities in who held the reins of
power and was therefore was in a position to allocate, were glaring and
for the most part went unquestioned. There has not been that much of a
shift today where Nigeria lags behind other smaller and less wealthy
African countries, like Rwanda for example, in breaking down gender
barriers and in legislating for the inclusion of women in governance
and politics.

In a society with large disparities in income
between men and women it should not be surprising that finding a rich
boyfriend or husband would be seen a path to financial security, or at
least as a means to an end.Between the young women and the rich men
there is a group that is left high and dry to seek self validation
wherever they can- young men who have not yet made their mark and can
be uncharitable and harsh judges of their female contemporaries.

This is often most obvious in movie depictions of
student life in our universities and in a number of ‘investigative’
journalism forays into the so called sexual depravity of female
undergrads that just stop short of branding them as prostitutes. What
is surprising is the venom sometimes directed against such women, given
that the whole situation is essentially one that operates on the basis
of supply and demand. There are two sides in this game: the procurers
who ‘charter’ the entertainment for the big men parties, corporate,
business and political and the well heeled clients, pillars of society,
corporate, business and political who demand the titillation.

As a society though we tend to be pretty prosaic
about the nitty gritty of life. Call it a kind of hard nosed realism if
you like, but when it is conveyed in traditional terms it sounds much
more romantic; it is not really. When earnest parents name their
daughter Ogbeiyalu, a poor man will not marry you, they are praying for
the best for her aren’t they? Granted there may be a concept of wealth
that encompasses the abundance of values that make you rich in personal
attributes and lead to success in spiritual as well as material terms,
but there is link between the two.

Maybe part of the problem today is that we have
lost that link. We do not question whether Chief and Madam Bigs
acquired their wealth by fair means or foul.

Going back to Oyelere’s study it showed that
within gender,women with tertiary education are the obvious winners in
a post democratic Nigeria with much higher increase in income and
returns to their education than their counterparts.

Education and wider access to it, is the path to improvement in all things.

The National
Assembly doesn’t seem to be able to decide whether to make even more of
a hash of the Uwais Panel’s electoral reform recommendations than the
deadly combination of the White Paper Committee, the Aondoakaa-led
White Paper Review committee and the Council of State with its coterie
of self-serving governors.

This is
understandable: like governors and presidents, most legislators know
that they didn’t get where they are by transparently free, fair or
credible elections. But they also know that to become their party’s
candidates they survived a cutthroat process over which we had better
draw the veil of political discretion and spare ‘honourable’ and
‘distinguished’ blushes. They don’t want to go through that again,
especially if they’ve fallen out with whichever political godfather it
was who secured their nomination. So they exhibit conflicting desires
for elections that are free, but fixed in such a way that they will win.

Still, with their
refusal to sanction queue voting, and early reports that the two-party
system had been rejected, one began to hope that even if they wouldn’t
improve the electoral system, legislators would at least avoid doing
major damage to what is already in place.

But reports can be
misleading. For example, although a lot of nonsense was written about
‘Option A4’ being rejected, all the House of Representatives in fact
did was maintain the existing ‘Open Secret’ system. There will be no
queue voting for the public in national, state or local government
elections. Of course, political parties are free to stipulate whatever
candidate selection method they like, but for the general public, the
secrecy of the ballot to which Nigeria is committed by both local and
international undertakings, remains intact.

Despite the
romantic haze through which so many look back at queue voting, the
election that the same people insist was “the freest and fairest in
Nigeria’s history”, the presidential election of June 12th 1993,
actually used the Open Secret system of voting; with ballot boxes and
ballot papers: Not queue voting. However much former governors may
obfuscate about the “Open Ballot system”, with queue voting there is no
ballot. (Since only 14 million Nigerians voted in that election, which
is now almost 17 years behind us, the sad reality is that many of those
pontificating about the beauties of queue voting probably didn’t
actually vote on June 12th and quite frankly haven’t the faintest idea
what they are talking about.) Now, because the Humphrey Nwosu-led
National Electoral Commission of the 1992/1993 Babangida Transition was
better at logistics than the Maurice Iwu-led Independent National
Electoral Commission (and because Nwosu was operating under a military
dictatorship and had only two parties to contend with) we should hope
that the incoming INEC will learn from Nwosu rather than Iwu. The
decision to require all voters to be present at the same time across
the country and cast their votes within the space of the same hour
nationwide may have been born of necessity (after the illegality of
queue voting had been pointed out) but it was a stroke of genius.

Iwu was not the
only electoral chief to reject the June 12th method of Open Secret
voting and it has not been used since. But for now, the National
Assembly has left the decision about how Open Secret voting should be
organised where it properly belongs. With INEC.

Although the House
avoided another blunder by refusing to limit the number of political
parties to just two, it is a gross delusion to imagine that the
self-serving vote, fixing a limit of five, preserves political
pluralism. One recognises that our ideology-free legislators may have
difficulty grasping this concept, but perhaps they should imagine
limiting religious expression in this way, and dictating that everybody
should be able to find a faith to suit them in one of five
state-sanctioned religions.

It’s always amusing
to hear those who already occupy it complaining that the political
terrain is “too crowded” or that the number of parties is unwieldy.
That theory may wash in one-party dictatorships, but no other country
that claims to be a democracy imposes such restrictions, which risk
delivering the political space, bound hand and foot to moneybags and
incumbents. Unfortunately, like queue voting, the bitter experience of
intra-party dictatorship under Babangida’s two-party regime is
forgotten, remembered through a romantic haze, or simply unknown.

To quote another
dictator, China’s Chairman Mao said: Let a thousand flowers bloom! The
United States has 25 national parties ranging from the American
Conservative Party through the Pansexual Peace Party to the U.S.
Taxpayers Party, with hundreds more at local level.

Leaving aside the
nightmare of implementation for this and independent candidates (as the
House seems to have done, since the Political Parties Commission
recommended by Uwais has already been rejected), Deputy Senate
President Ike Ekweremadu correctly observed that limiting the number of
parties conflicts with the Constitution’s guarantees of freedom of
association and its liberal party registration system.

So it can only take
effect if the Constitution is amended, concerning which, perhaps our
lawmakers should take advice from Britain’s Monster Raving Loony Party
(one of that country’s 25 parties). Britain itself doesn’t have a
written constitution, but item 3 on the MRLP manifesto proposes that
the European [read ‘Nigerian’] Constitution “will be sorted out by
going for a long Walk. As everyone knows that walking is good for the
Constitution.” But what if ‘We the People’ decide that it is costly,
unproductive and uninformed lawmakers who need reforming? Maybe we will
be the ones telling them to … take a hike.

One of the major challenges
confronting us as a people today is the “copy-cat syndrome” which in pidgin
parlance is referred to as “kopi kopi”. It is about our knack for imitating
foreign styles and mannerisms that fail to gel with our unique socio-cultural
makeup.

Despite being aware of this, most of
us still go on pretending about it. Laik say notin de hapun. Time without
number, I had reason to ponder over the mannerisms of supposed “trained”
receptionists and telephone operators who in replying visitors either in person
or via the phone, would say “how may I help you? “- a new way of receiving guests
since the advent of GSM. In the old days, it was “Can I help you?”

My grouse actually is with the
oyi-boik manner in which they speak. Receptionists have had to repeat
themselves with attendant man-hour losses. Situations like these have resulted
in quarrels with pipul wey no get taim fo nonsense. Why not just say “abeg, e
get wetin ah fit du fo yu?” Meaning, “please, can I be of help to you?” Pilots and
crewmembers sometimes spoil the day for passengers in their “spree spree spree” (blabbing) because they hardly communicate.

Passengers have to strain to make
out what they are saying about flight time and general safety tips. After
delaying our flight departure time from 3.20 to 8.30pm, the annoyance of
passengers was set to blow. It was an Abuja – Sokoto flight by one of these new
generation airlines. As preparation for landing at Sultan Abubakar III
International Airport, Sokoto began a member of the cabin crew started
announcing in “spree spree spree” which stoked the anger even more.

You could hear loud hisses and comments like, “abeg mek una drop os”, “wich kain tin bi dis?” “Dis won na big nonsens”. And
there was no apology whatsoever to passengers. To my mind, and just like the
earlier scenario painted in the case of the receptionists, a smart cabin crew
would have doused the tension on board dat aftanun to nait flait by saying, “wi de beg una wel wel. Wi don fol awa han. Wi no go du so egen lai lai. Mek una
fogiv os”.

Translation: We seriously plead for forgiveness. We are clearly at fault. We have
disappointed you all. We will never do so again. Please, forgive us.

In
situations like that, only the use of the language of the people would help. No
bi big big grama wey pesin no go hia wel. Don’t tell that us there may be other
nationalities on board the flight. Oyibo na awa languej? How about pilots
learning Naija Pidgin?

Nigeria’s No.1 rap artist, RUGGEDMAN
once accused his fellow musician Idris Abdulkareem of “kopi kopi” meaning that
his work was “not original”. The accusation led to a thaw in their
relationship. However, they later made up and even did a musical “kolabo” as a
proof of their peaceful reconciliation and resolve to move the music industry
forward.

Previously in this column, I
recounted how a Nigerian broadcaster lost the golden opportunity of working
with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) because, at the interview
session, he was said to have indulged in “tok tok fo noz” like “spree spree
spree”, “kopi kopi” and all that jazz. He was imitating the oyibos, trying to
be more British than the British. He lost the job. Of kos na!

If you have seen Hamisu Rogo
reporting on NTA, you can differentiate between genuine reporting and kopi kopi
reporting; he is a true Nigerian. No kopi kopi! At the National Assembly, one
Hon Alias “Igodomigodo” from Edo State does a lot of kopi kopi that reminds one
of the late Sam Mbakwe of “timba & kaliba” fame.

Whether he is actually helping his
people get the dividends of democracy by his verbosity or effectively
communicating with his colleagues in the hallowed chambers is none of my
business. Mai oun bi se, dis kain tok tok wit big big grama no dey fo maket
egen. (e no de ren).

After taking a second look at the “copy cat syndrome”, it needs to be repeatedly said that, in these times of
re-branding, kopi kopi de fol awa han. It is doing a lot of damage to our true
identity as a nation, as Nigerians in all ramifications. A re-orientation is
urgently required. Hau pesin go jos de tok wit noz. Blo oyibo we no get hed, no
get tel. Haba!

As the present
Nigerian government is focused on ensuring that the relevant
infrastructure for stable power supply is in place, since stable and
affordable power supply effectively is the bedrock of the society, let
us this week analyse the role that private business, public sector and
information technology as an enabler need to play in achieving this
objective.

Stable and
affordable electricity which we crave for as a nation can be discussed
under the broad headings: generation of adequate power capacity,
effective distribution/maintenance of the infrastructure, marketing and
sales, and implementing accurate billing/payments mechanism or process.

So in ensuring that
we have stable power supply, it makes sense to rely heavily on the
private sector, since it is a proven fact that when a service is based
on competition, profit making, and investors monies are at stake, the
likelihood of maintaining continuity, reliability and efficiency in the
service provision is more likely to be achieved and the consumer is
better served.

In more advanced
countries, particularly in the United Kingdom, every stage of power
supply is privatised and I accept that this model has inherent
disadvantages, as there is clearly a junior role for the state to play
not only as a regulator but in the crucial role of power generation,
distribution, and maintenance of the underlying transmission
infrastructure.

Generation of adequate power capacity

Since we don’t have
an efficient power infrastructure base in Nigeria it makes sense that
both the state and the private sector are involved as partners in
ensuring the establishment of such infrastructure.

The state or its
agencies steer this partnership in ensuring that the objective is
achieved from a holistic point of view whilst the private sector
organisation whose primary objective is to provide an efficient service
and return profit to its shareholders has no choice than to deliver.

In such an
arrangement, even if it is just one company providing this service such
as is obtained in the UK where the National Grid performs this role, it
is must be target driven and based on clear, enforceable service level
agreements with built in severe monetary penalties.

Distribution and maintenance of the power transmission infrastructure

Again the relevant
infrastructure needs to be implemented and maintained to ensure power
is effectively distributed and clearly managed as a part, private and
public initiative (PPP) for the same reasons highlighted earlier.

The electricity
transmission network which includes cables and poles that ensure that
power is transmitted from where it is generated into our homes,
offices, shops must be maintained and looked after.

Marketing and sale

To ensure that a
competitive service is provided to the consumer, the actual sale of
power to the end user ought to be fully privatised and there should be
a minimum of five companies providing this service, just like in other
developing nations.

The consumer can
decide to choose any supplier based on price, quality of service,
customer service and responsiveness among others. If necessary it may
be best to invite foreign based electricity supply companies to get
involved but with a strict requirement to ensure that Nigerians over a
defined period of time dominate the management cadre and work force of
their organisations.

Implementing accurate billing/payments mechanism

The consumer must
be provided with the confidence that whatever billing process is
implemented is accurate and based on his consumption which will
encourage prompt payment. You are more likely to pay for a service
promptly when you are confident that you are paying the correct amount
for what you have used. The billing process must be transparent to the
consumer (available online) and should be able to withstand any manner
of scrutiny or audit.

Information Technology role

From the power
generation stage, to distribution and sale, accurate computerised meter
reading records need to be maintained, accurate computerised records of
wholesale purchase of power from the generating company by electricity
suppliers, consumer details and monitoring application systems need to
be implemented.

Online billing
systems and connectivity between systems used by competing electricity
supply companies must also be maintained so that a consumer can
seamlessly move over to another supplier based on their preference. All
the mentioned systems need to be in place to ensure that every stage in
the power supply chain is effective, accurate and auditable which will
provide all round confidence on all sides.

Competent IT
literate administrative staff and IT professionals will all be required
to enhance the application systems. For example, Centrica PLC, an
electricity supplier in the UK requires over 500 IT professionals to
support and maintain all the relevant electricity application systems
that automate every stage of the electricity supply process from
purchasing bulk electricity from the National Grid to supplying it to a
consumer, through to billing and receiving payments.

As Information Technology is the enabler of all sectors in our
society, not just the power sector, the better the IT infrastructure in
place and the more computer literate our society becomes, the more
efficient all other sectors can become, certainly in my view.

On paper, the 2010 Electoral Act is an ambitious piece of draft
legislation. The Act seeks to repeal the 2006 Electoral Act, under which the
disgraceful 2007 general elections were conducted, and to introduce
unprecedented changes to the electoral process. One striking example is the
independent candidature model.

The Act also seeks to end the idea of state funding of political
parties. In addition, it seeks to confine election petition adjudications to a
sensible time frame, a departure from the current situation where cases are
still being decided by the courts three years after the elections that gave
rise to them.

The bill has its failings. In not seeking to alter the current
mechanism by which the Chairperson of INEC is appointed – the powers of appointment
and sack are currently vested in the President – it falls short of being truly
revolutionary.

There are those who will argue that the conferment of these
powers on the President is the principal defect of our current electoral
set-up. Indeed, speaking at the presentation of the Electoral Reform panel
report to former President Umar Yar’Adua at the Aso Villa in 2008, the Chair of
the panel Mr. Uwais said: “The independent national electoral commission and
the state independent electoral commission lack the requisite independence.
This is a key deficiency of our electoral process.”

To remedy this the Uwais-led panel recommended that the Head of
the Electoral Commission should be appointed by the National Judicial Council,
subject to the confirmation of the National Assembly.

It is indeed absurd to grant that power of appointment to the
President, a patently partisan individual, who clearly has vested interests in
the election process. Take the current scenario as an example: very soon
President Jonathan will appoint a substantive head for INEC. This appointee
will be the person who will oversee the conduct of the 2011 presidential
elections, in which, from all appearances, Mr. Jonathan will be not only a
contender, but also the candidate with the overwhelming advantages of
incumbency.

The failure of the 2010 Electoral Act to adopt the Uwais panel
recommendation on the appointment of an INEC chairman is its “key deficiency”.
As the 2011 elections approach, there are therefore no guarantees of the
autonomy of the electoral commission. We hope that as the draft bill undergoes
further deliberations in both chambers of the National Assembly, and as
Nigerians get a chance to make an input through public sittings of the
Assembly, the Act will be rendered free of glaring loopholes and deficiencies.

It must also be noted, however, that until the new Act is
signed into law by the President, it is merely a commendable listing of hopes
and aspirations, of no value to Nigerians and to the electoral process. As
things stand, the significantly flawed 2006 Act is still the final word on
elections in Nigeria. There is no guarantee that will change in time for next
year’s elections.

That 2006 Act, in the light of the massive changes that its
successor seeks to bring to it, represents the dark ages of the Nigerian
electoral process. It leaves INEC at the mercy of the Executive arm of
government, in terms of funding. It makes no provision for expeditious
adjudication of election petition cases. At the moment, Alphonsus Igbeke, a
member of the National Assembly – the arm of government in whose hands a speedy
overhaul of the Electoral Act lies – is still unsuccessfully trying to claim
his seat, three years after he was elected. Joy Emordi, who fraudulently
usurped his seat, has managed to hold on all the while by exploiting the
snail-like progress of the petition process. Unfortunately, Mrs. Emordi’s
antics are the rule, not an exception.

Instances like this hurriedly dispel whatever meager hopes
Nigerians have that the National Assembly is ready to ensure that 2011 does not
end up being a repeat of 2007.