Nigeria Content Online

In one breath there is something to be said for a
politician who, only a few months to a re-election bid, is willing to
annoyevery possible section of the electorate – okada riders,

Lekki residents, market women, small business
owners and now doctors. However,there is also something to be said
about governance by the will of the people – that path between the
governed and the governor.

Under this arrangement, the leader is not an
all-wise sovereign, whose every word will be unquestioned, whose
decisions haveto be accepted for their wisdom and where his will is
resisted by the people, the people are to be treated with disdain.

The recent state government order that medical and
dental officers under the Lagos State government, who have been on
strike,should resume work or be summarily dismissed and replaced
immediately brings to mind something of this trend as noticed with
Governor Babatunde Fashola; a manwho ordinarily had delivered
impressive results.

The strike has been on for about three weeks over
the non-implementation of agreements reached between the Lagos chapter
ofthe National Association of Resident Doctors and the state government
on the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure and other arrears withheld
from January 2010. Thenthere is the dismissal of the last chairman,
their union dues and what they call “over taxation”.

Negotiations, as led by the commissioner for
health, Jide Idris, haven’t made any headway. “Negotiations involve
figures,”says Dr. Saliu Oseni, the president of the Lagos State
Teaching Hospital chapter of the Association of Resident Doctors. “But
they are not negotiatingwith us. The governor has said they will pay
come January, but what we are saying is that ‘how much are you paying
come January’, ‘how are you going tohandle the arrears’, and that they
should give us a written document to that effect.” Into this mix comes
the state government’s order to resume last Monday, a posture that is
certain to complicate the crisis. TheLagos State information
commissioner said that any doctor who did not answer the directive will
be seen to have abandoned duty post – codeword for ‘fired’;but any
responsible democratic government knows that such threats are only
counter-productive, especially in a country that desperately needs as
manyqualified doctors as it can get in public service.

The Lagos government has an attitude that suggests
where it is convinced of the rightness of its action and perhaps
because of the goodwill it enjoys, the people must sit down and take it
– and be grateful while doing so. Fortunately for the people, this is
in fact a democracy. A leader might passionately disagree with the
people, but in so as far as they elected him and gave him the powers
that he has, he serves at their pleasure.

The Friday before this, the state’s intransigence
was on display when the National Industrial Court had to strike out the
matter between the government and the doctors based on a notice of
discontinuance moved by the counsel to the state government. A
resolution was said to be in progress since one of the doctors’ demands
that two cases against them be withdrawn was almost granted. However,
just as the presiding judge was about to announce the withdrawal of the
second case against the Medical Guild, two lawyers asked to be joined
as defendants on behalf the National Association of Government General
Medical and Dental Practitioners (NAGGMDP), another association of
medical workers.

This incensed the presiding judge, Babatunde Adejumo, since the striking doctors had
agreed to resume work and reopen discussions with the government once
the cases were withdrawn.

“Doctors owe a moral duty to the society,” he
reminded the litigants “(And) government owes a duty to the citizens.
There must be equilibrium between the two.” The relationship between
governor and governed is not master-servant, no matter how surrounded
it is by luxury and the adulation at Government House.

It is our hope that Governor Fashola continues to
lead Lagos into the future with the same strength of vision and
character that he has exhibited thus far, but any trace of tyranny is
disappointing. Especially when what is at stake is the quality of
healthcare – already deplorable – that Lagosians will receive if the
present crop of doctors are replaced with rookies unused to how
dysfunctional our public health system is.

Governor Fashola is on his way to losing the
goodwill of those he has chosen to lord it over if he doesn’t take to
heart the words of that wise judge. It is the fatal flaw of even the
greatest of men.

One of the grim paradoxes of our global digital civilisation is the increasing asymmetry between the rich and the poor.

The last
quarter-century has seen a doubling of global output. But this wealth
has accrued preponderantly to a few nations and a few classes within
those nations. In the United States, an estimated 5 percent of the
population control 70 percent of the country’s wealth. Poverty still
persists even in the most advanced industrial democracies. But it is
mostly in Africa and South Asia that we have dramatic incidences of
poverty bordering on destitution.

My respected
teacher Paul Collier recently wrote a book, The Bottom Billion (Oxford
University Press 2007). A former World Bank Director of Research and
Director of Oxford University’s Centre for the Study of African
Economies, Collier is one of the world’s most respected economists.

But much of his
technical work is covered up in abstruse algorithms that are known to
only a few. His recent popular work has made him into something of an
international celebrity. Collier underlines four factors accounting for
the phenomenon of world poverty.

First, we have what
is referred to as ‘the conflict trap’. Nations trapped in conflict such
as the DRC, Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan and Sri Lanka are willy-nilly bound to
remain poor. War saps the energy of nations and peoples, wiping off
physical infrastructures and destroying the fragile networks of social
capital that hold communities together. Post-conflict nations such as
Sierra Leone and Liberia also have to grapple with the challenge of
rebuilding hope and restoring confidence in societies where conflict
and violence have eroded trust among the people.

Second is ‘the
natural resource trap’. It is a well-known law of economics that
nations that rely solely on one commodity for their export earnings
will sooner than later run into trouble.

All raw-material
exports are subject to wild gyrations in world prices. With the
exception of oil and gold, most are also subject to path-dependent
decline.

The wisest leaders
have always pursued the path of structural diversification as the
ultimate solution to the trend towards increasing economic
vulnerability.

Thirdly, we have
the curse of geography. Many of Africa’s nations are small and
landlocked. There is only so much you can do if you are a landlocked
Central African Republic surrounded by poverty-stricken warring
neighbours. Much of Africa is far from the world’s growth poles. This
means that commerce and transportation are bound to be much more
expensive and a country cannot take advantage of the benefits of
contiguity to a prosperous neighbour as nations like South Korea,
Singapore and Malaysia have done.

Fourthly, we have
the problem of poor governance. The accumulated wisdom of five decades
of economic development makes it clear that leadership makes all the
difference. It would be difficult to contemplate Singaporean prosperity
without the figure of Lee Kuan Yew. It is equally doubtful that Tunisia
would have achieved so much in economic and social development without
the leadership of the visionary Habib Bourguiba and his successor Zine
Abidine Ben-Ali. Africa’s poverty cannot be dissociated from the
failure of leadership and governance.

The recently
concluded summit by world leaders at the United Nations (20-22
September) has brought into sharp focus the abiding challenge of world
poverty. The summit was convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to
assess the achievements of the last decade in terms of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and to forge a new consensus towards meeting
the internationally agreed targets by 2015.

Many observers had feared that it would be just another talking shop. Diplomats are, of course, paid to talk.

And talk they did.
But the summit was also significant in highlighting areas of progress
and the constraints that must be overcome. It was acknowledged that an
additional amount of US$35 billion would be required annually to meet
the MDG targets. Donors have also pledged contributions of some US$40
billion over the next five years for the Global Strategy for Women and
Children’s Health. This new initiative has the potential of saving the
lives of 16 million women, preventing 33 million unwanted pregnancies
while protecting 120 million children from preventable diseases.

I am pleased to
note that our country was ably represented by President Jonathan
Goodluck and the Senior Special Assistant on MDGs, Amina Az-Zubair.
While some progress has been made in such areas as school enrolment and
child health, we are well below targets in the area of maternal
mortality. I dare to say that Nigeria’s problems transcend mere issues
of MDGs. With our population of 150 million people, tackling poverty
requires a concerted development strategy anchored on agriculture-led
industrialisation. Providing electricity across the country would
reduce poverty by 20 percent in Nigeria.

I know Ms.
Az-Zubair and I know that she can achieve even more if she has the
necessary backing. It was rather unfair that some sections of the press
recently made some outrageous allegations about her Office, insinuating
corruption involving figures that were wildly above the total quantum
that the Federal Government has committed to poverty alleviation over
the last decade. Some of the problems the MDG Office has encountered
have to do with legislators cornering some of the funds in the name of
‘constituency projects’. We would do well to keep politics out of
poverty.

I know that I complain a lot, which is
the reason I’ve tried to keep quiet recently. But something happened on
Wednesday that bears complaining about. You see, on that day, the
Federal Executive Council approved the sum of N972 600 000 for the
purchase of 60 000 waste bins from the United Kingdom. The purpose of
the importation of these waste bins is to ‘maintain a clean environment
in Abuja’.

This bumper purchase was made known to
the nation by Dora Akunyili, our formerly loveable Information
Minister. In all honesty, were I Aunty Dora, I’d rather have resigned
than make that announcement to Nigerians! But then again, there is this
little problem of the divide between Nigeria’s elite and the rest of
us, so in Aunty Dora’s defence, it is more than likely that she thinks
she’s doing us a favour by purchasing those bins from Jand at those
prices.

The very first question that arises
here is why does the FEC, the Nigerian Cabinet (!) have to get involved
in something as mundane as the purchase of rubbish bins? Are we a
Banana Republic (no, we are a Plantain Republic)? What is the point of
having an Abuja Municipal Council if Aso Rock keeps butting into their
business?

The next question that arises, and
probably the scariest one is why our own dearly beloved FG is taking
such a large sum out of our own purse and transferring it to Britain.
For the sake of clarity, I admit that Nigerian artisans are not the
best (that is an argument for another day), but for crying out loud, it
cannot possibly be so difficult to manufacture a dustbin! Okay, okay,
okay, the British variety have wheels on them, but hang on, wheels
aren’t difficult to make either!

The third question, which is closely
related to the second, is that ofemployment. I know that assumption is
the mother of all … (insert expletive here), but at the end of the
day, it is safe to assume that if a huge government contract comes to a
Nigerian company for the provision of 60 000 waste-bins, many of our
teeming youth, like the kind I saw playing snooker at Ikeja this
morning, would be taken off of the streets and made to do something
productive. Instead our Cabinet would rather take this opportunity and
give it to the jobless in Britain?

Then there is the question of cost…
It so happens that not too long ago, I in fact, bought a waste-bin. I
bought it at Ojuelegba. I bought it for the cost of N800. Now, it is
perfectly possible that given where I bought it, and the fact that I
haggled for 30 minutes before parting with my cash, that I bought it
cheap. So, let us assume that being that it is a government contract,
the purchaser would pay the first price, no questions asked. Let us
assume that that first price is double the N800 that I paid for my bin
that is N1600. Then let us assume that since ‘some other people must
eat’, that the bins would be quoted at double the asking price, which
is N3200. Now let multiply that new price by 60 000 units. The total
sum for all those bins given these variables would be N192, 000, 000!

There, you see, I’ve just saved the
Nigerian tax-payer almost N800million, and added to that, I’ve created
jobs for some of our unemployed youth…

I admit, I am jealous.

On Friday, I got
the call from a friend who has links with CNN. She asked if I would be
interested in having exclusive access to transcripts of an interview
our president, Goodluck Jonathan, was scheduled to have with the
station later that day.

You can’t be
serious, was my response to her. My disbelief was not so much that I
didn’t believe and trust that my friend knew what she was talking about
and would send the transcripts once the interview had been conducted,
(after all it was she who gave NEXT exclusive access to transcripts of
the Amanpour interview with Mr. Jonathan) it was more like he is
talking to CNN, AGAIN, just five months after doing the Amanpour
interview but also at a time when his handlers are busy dribbling
Nigerian journalists and refusing to give us access to him for one on
one interviews? What on earth could he be thinking, I pondered?

Does he realise how this will look?

In the end, my
friend called me late in the day to say in far away New York, Mr.
Jonathan had ducked out of the interview. So there is at least someone
on his team who is thinking, I said.

Can you imagine if
he had appeared live on CNN so soon after that first interview? I would
not have been pleased and neither I suspect would a few of my other
colleagues who have spent months trying to persuade the president to
grant us interviews. I am not talking about an interview granted to a
few handpicked people on a state controlled station like that which was
aired on NTA recently, but a one on one interaction with individual
journalists where hopefully a candid conversation can take place.

But Mr. Jonathan
is not the first and probably won’t be the last Nigerian leader to shun
the local press. Most would rather speak to the CNN’s and BBC’s of this
world than speak to us.

Why this is, I
really don’t know especially as the local media not only serves their
primary constituency but is also a part of that constituency. That is
not to say I don’t understand why there is a need for them to tap into
the reach and spread of the international press. I do. What I find
difficult to fathom is why there is no balance and why we are not given
the same access as the foreign press but treated as second class
journalists by our leaders?

Many foreign
journalists come to Nigeria and make their name from reporting out of
this country. In addition to having superior resources, like equipment,
qualitative training and adequate funds, they also enjoy an easy access
to the corridors of power that Nigerian journalists can only dream
about.

Already
disadvantaged by our limited resources, this final indignity of been
discriminated against by our leaders makes it that much harder for us
to compete with our foreign colleagues.

During my time
with the BBC, all I had to do was place a call and Nigerian government
and public officials would be tripping over themselves to accommodate
my request for an interview. On occasions when they were not available,
leaving a message meant seven times out 10, they would return the call.

Now that I am at
NEXT, how things have changed. The majority refuses to answer phone
calls and will not even acknowledge messages sent. This is a scenario
that breeds confusion and misinformation as typified by the dodgy
Yar’Adua interview on BBC.

While it is true
that the media in this country is not perfect and some might even argue
that the problems we face are of our own making, it is also correct
that the work we do under very difficult conditions is important and
can help in nation building.

If our leaders are
truly interested in that, they should make our jobs easier by giving us
access to information. Interviews with key people, like the president,
particularly as we approach elections would be a good start.

An even better one would be the passage of the Freedom of Information bill.

The minister of
information, Dora Akunyili, this week spoke about a problem that media
content owners, especially in the electronic media business, have cried
out about for years now: the huge debt profile they have to contend
with courtesy of advertisers.

It is not often
that the quality of our broadcast journalism is put under the
microscope, although some have complained about the quality of local
content when compared with that of the international reality show
formats and the big budget brand-driven productions. There is one big
reason in particular for this, according to the Independent Television
Practitioners Association of Nigeria (ITPAN). Its members will put it
succinctly and say the independent TV and radio producer is, to use a
popular catchphrase, on her own.

TV stations buck
the global tradition of buying TV shows from original content
producers, instead turning the international standard on its head by
requiring those producers to pay for airtime. With concept owners
impoverished and having to scrap to pay for the expensive airtime,
effort is concentrated on staying on air rather than improving the
depth and quality of their productions.

It is not enough
to point fingers at ‘greedy’ chief executives of TV and radio stations.
The major problem at the end of the day is the fact that advertisers do
not pay. In the big tug of war between media owners and advertisers
(both media buying agencies and the marketing departments of companies)
the independent producer and indeed the media owner who gives his
airtime ‘on credit’, can barely survive.

Media orders are
given for advertising, but even where payment is promised 60 days
after, in practice it can take up to six months for the payments for TV
and radio promos to come through. When there are complaints by
practitioners, these are sometimes accompanied by stories of subtle
attempts at blackmail and blacklisting.

There are two
bodies that have some regulatory power over this relationship between
buyer and seller – the Advertising Practitioners Council for Nigeria
(APCON) and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). Both
organisations are under the purview of the Federal Ministry of
Information and so perhaps it is no small surprise why there has not
been a meeting of minds on how the decline in local content can be
stopped.

Perhaps it is time
for the three to step in and take pro-active steps to ensure that the
steady decline in homegrown productions does not continue. It is surely
not enough to wait for football tournaments and other epic occasions
before government officials pay attention to what is on television. We
should begin to pay close attention to international competition in all
our creative sectors, especially one that we have pioneering status in
with the Obafemi Awolowo-established (WNTV) Western Nigeria Television.

As advertising
professionals tell us, it is not that difficult a problem to engage.
With the deregulation of many sectors and the inflow of investment,
advertising budgets, if anything, have improved. Many companies, flush
with customer patronage, do not suffer for cash flow and so can pay up
in advance or within a legally enforced period without any discomfort
to their bottom-line. They get away with their present conduct only
because they can and because there is next to nothing that radio and TV
content owners, desperate to remain on air, can do.

That is where
government steps in – to ensure that the right thing is done where its
citizens are helpless. If these media buyers pay in advance or on time
for other services that they enjoy, there is no excuse – moral or
business – for them to treat the media so cavalierly.

Nigerians might
continue to complain about ugly sets, tired pictures and studios that
cannot even compete with productions in the rest of the West African
region, and many Nigerians might take comfort in boasting that they
watch only international or cable television, but at the end of the day
this is about developing sectors that can contribute to the Nigerian
economy and provide jobs.

If content
providers are unable to make monies back, there will be no improvement
in what we see on the small screen, and that industry will remain
stagnant. And for them to make their monies, advertisers have to pay
up. The minister has taken the first step by talking, now it’s time to
put her money where her mouth is.

In other cultures, flour immediately brings to
mind bread; the process of adding a leavening agent to finely ground
grain, with skilful handling and patience. Again this foreign concept
of allowing food to “rest”, allowing a slow chemical reaction that
produces something that rises and expands, is full of air, cooked with
trapped air. Air baked into the fabric of the flour and other
ingredients, the desired end result being the precise textural balance
of crumb and crust…In our culture it is certainly not so. When
presented with flour made from ground dried cassava or yams or
plantains or wheat we do not instinctively think of bread or things
that rise or are left to the will of yeast spores. We do not think of
air, not yeast, but water, not cold water but boiling water, and a
beating stick. Not therapeutic kneading but hard urgent turning. The
Yoruba idiomatically suggest that if you do not take charge of the
flour and water, it turns aggressively on you sensing your weakness,
and wrestles the stick from your hand. It turns you! For us, the
desired end result is a mound, a solid hard mass that has had all the
air beaten out of it: Matter that fills and bursts the seams of the
stomach.

I have been wondering how the word Okele came to
being. The Yoruba word for a morsel when divided into “oke” and “le”
sounds like picking up a small hill with the fingers, separating the
little hill from the big one. It is not the only question in my mind.
Why for example must our flours be made into hard mounds that accompany
oily soups?

Why are they instinctively made into savoury foods and not sweet? Why do we eat them hot and heavy? Why not cold?

The most popular answer to these questions is that
eating heavy starches is carried over from farming community style
eating. If one eats a bowl of fufu first thing in the morning and goes
to the farm, the fufu provides slow burning energy for the hard work of
the day. Not many of us are farmers, yet we crave our fufu and gari and
semovita and pounded yam and Akpu. We eat them in the morning, in the
heat of the day, at night before we roll into bed. We eat them as a
main meal, after a first course of Jollof rice! After about three years
of marriage, my mother -in-law demanded that I start to feed my husband
gari for dinner. Why?

Because after three years, it was not apparent
from just looking at him that he was a married man, that’s why! There
is a Nigerian physique that coerces respect, and it has nothing to do
with muscularity or neat lines in a European suit. I know men who have
cultivated that gari-in-the-gut look to match their political
aspirations, especially if they are running for local government
chairman back in their village or for a position in the house of reps.
Looking like a well-toned and wiry Obama is not the way forward. I’ve
heard Nigerians disdain that look as “The hungry look” “The man looks
hungry!” The Nigerian man in authority is filled out: his stomach rubs
even-if-just-ever-so-slightly against the front of his buba. That look,
that authoritative physique, that signature posture of well taken care
of married men and women who the Yoruba say life begins and ends at
their “Ibadi” (“Ibadi” in this context is that notable backside of
notable proportions) is only achievable from eating mounds of pounded
yam and gari and fufu. From as often as possible bulldozing hills of
ground grain and wading through rivers of soup. These things are
intrinsic. I am not the slimmest of women, but I have noted the disdain
with which I have been regarded in some circles, for being too slim.
(Please Lagos does not count!) As my husband succinctly put it, “No
Efik man will have you!” We are not completely out of touch with food
trends, or ignorant of the fact that the world is talking about cutting
calories, demonizing hydrogenated fats and castigating palm oil as
being the river of blood that flows through hell. My mother recently
spent a few months in Houston, Texas and noted that many Nigerians
living there no longer romanticize the pot bellies, rubbing thighs and
rotating bottoms that are the sure end result of swallowing gari and
soup every day. How have they managed to balance that intrinsic need,
that comforting rolling of morsels between fingers before dipping in
hot soups with keeping up with the West’s obsessive counting of
calories?

Oats is the answer. Rather than give up our
beloved “swallow”, we buy a tin of Quaker oats,run it through the
blender, douse it in hot water and yes as usual, turn it,

beat it, subdue it into swallow. This is called
the new Amala. Its complexion is beige, so perhaps “Lafu” white Amala
is the more appropriate comparison. Nigerian food specialty shops in
America are now brimming with bags of oats sold as the new and
improved, not so bulge inducing swallow.

It is clear that no health fad is going to rescue us any time soon from devouring our Okeles.

As illogical as it is to consume such a high
allowance of starch when one is not doing any manual labour or body
building or indeed going to the farm, eating starchy foods goes beyond
comfort.

It is who we are, what we like.

It is an anchor so familiar, so necessary to
physically feeling “as one should” and even sometimes looking
respectable and well that we will be climbing those hills of grain and
swimming in rivers of soup for a long time to come.

Is Nigeria hungry for peace? Possibly. Is it
desperate for peace? I doubt it. Peace is fast becoming a synonym for
controlled conflict and a tool for creating power and wealth. This is
corruption, pure and plain. Corruption and conflict are unseemly
bedfellows.

Politicians engage in corruption and dress it up to
make it acceptable. President Obama recently made strenuous statements
condemning corruption in Afghanistan while his advisors spoke to the
media explaining that it was better to go soft on corruption among
government officials in Afghanistan rather than risk losing the support
of the Afghan Government.

After accepting amnesty some “former” militia
leaders in the Niger Delta are reported to be negotiating their support
with potential northern candidates for the presidency. Any candidate
engaging in such negotiations should be immediately barred from standing
as a candidate for the highest office in the land.

Southern candidates are not exempt from deals with
former militia and gang leaders. In the Niger Delta recruiting is in
full swing for gangs that will help secure the election of particular
candidates we have seen in previous elections. The old methods that have
yielded success in the past are hard to shake when people are desperate
for power.

These are indications that the amnesty in the Niger
Delta has not taken root. It is still fragile and the relatively few
arms that were turned in during the amnesty means there is a vast
quantity of weapons in non-government hands throughout Nigeria and in
particular in the Niger Delta. The potential for renewed conflict
remains high and thus the peace efforts need continued support.

The Catholic Bishop of the Niger Delta town of
Bomadi, Hyacinth Egbegbo, is urging the militants to stay calm saying
only a negotiated peace can bring lasting stability to the troubled
oil-rich region.

The Bishop is right. The amnesty with some add-ons
such as brief training courses and non-violence education is not enough
to sustain peace.

“Let us go for peace, not for any more struggles,”
said the bishop. “Armed struggle is not going to be in favour of any
Nigerian. So let us sit down at the table and see that we resolve these
problems amicably. I appeal to the boys to take their guns away from the
dialogue that is being initiated by the government because dialogue
with guns is not dialogue. So let us put the guns aside and speak words
of wisdom to each other so that we can come to a more amicable solution
to the problem.”

Some governors who will soon see the end of their
second term are very worried that their indemnity from prosecution will
soon expire. Will the EFCC pursue these “big men”? Not likely under the
current EFCC leadership which is simply too close to some of the big
men. Some governors have already anointed their successors and
reconstituted gangs to ensure their protégé will be elected and then do
all necessary to protect the godfather.

On 10th November 2010 former governors James Ibori
and Victor Attah will face trial before the Southwark Court in the UK.
David Edevbie, former Delta State Commissioner for Finance under James
Ibori, before serving as President Yar’Adua’s Principal Secretary, is
joined with Ibori and Attah in the Southwark Court in connection with
money-laundering charges. A conviction should send a shiver through the
spine of many facing the end of their immunity from prosecution. But
this is unlikely if Waziri retains leadership of the EFCC. She is the
insurance for the big men who have flouted Nigeria’s laws and enriched
themselves for state coffers thus ensuring those in poverty remain in
poverty.

The former militia leaders have an opportunity to
make a major contribution to building the nation of Nigeria. They can
starve conflict in the Niger Delta by honouring the amnesty. For its
part the federal government must widen the amnesty package and provide
sustained employment.

MEND has remained on the sideline in the amnesty
and election process thus far. This is a credible action. In similar
fashion Asari Dokubo honoured the terms of the 2004 Peace accord and
became a force for stability in a very turbulent period. But sitting on
the sidelines while some former militia leaders are paid large sums of
money is a difficult position to maintain. The temptation is high in a
country where over 100 million people live on $1 per day.

The EFCC should, with all vigour, investigate every
allegation of payment to form gangs, recruit former militia and subvert
the peace process.

Canon Dr Stephen Davis is Canon Emeritus at Coventry Cathedral and
has served as an advisor to President Obasanjo, Presidential Envoy under
President Yar’Adua and is the author of The Report on the Potential for
Peace and Reconciliation in the Niger Delta.

One of the
specificities of Nigeria is that we have one of the largest numbers of
extremely poor people in the world. Indeed, about 70% of Nigerians live
below the poverty line while over 10 million primary school age children
are still out of school. In addition, about 100 children will die by
the age of 5 out of every 1,000 born in Nigeria while almost 800
pregnant women out of 100, 000 die during child birth in our country.

Tomorrow, Monday
20th, world leaders will begin a summit at the United Nations in New
York to assess progress in achieving the 8 millennium goals adopted at
the largest gathering ever of heads of state in September 2000. The hope
then was that by 2015, combined action would eradicate poverty, promote
human dignity and equality, and achieve peace, democracy and
environmental stability.

Ten years after the
commitments, the Nigerian situation is that although a lot of effort has
been made, we are still not sure of achieving any of the targets by
2015. It will be recalled that in pursuance of the goal of scaling up
and creating further traction for programmes aimed at achieving the
MDGs, Nigeria would commit to channelling about N100 billion ($750
million by the federal government and $250 million by the state
governments) annually to key poverty-reduction sectors.

In this regard,
between 2006 and 2010, N571 billion has been allocated for the MDG
programmes through annual appropriations by the federal government
alone. It is coordinated by the Office of Senior Special Assistant to
the President on MDGs (OSSAP) that has the responsibility of overseeing
the country’s efforts at achieving the MDGs. The programmes provide
water, health clinics, midwives and medical care, teacher training and
so on to poor communities.

One important
element of the programme is the annual Monitoring and Evaluation
(M&E) by independent consultants and civil society, and the centre I
work for has led the civil society component over the past three years.
Our reports cover all states in the federation and are objective and
results-based, providing dependable expenditure tracking and impact
assessment of projects. In addition to physical assessment of the
projects, the end users and beneficiaries’ views were sought through
individual informant interviews and focus group discussions using clear
benchmarks.

The latest report
covers projects executed under the 2008 federal budget and the results
show very high completion rates of over 86%. Completion relates to the
actual physical finishing of a project as well as an assessment of the
quality of execution of the project based on agreed benchmarks. Over and
beyond project completion, the Nigerian MDG programmes have over the
past five years set in motion a number of trends that are having a
positive impact on governmental processes.

The first is the
emergence of positive governmental responsiveness to our assessments.
Following the results of the monitoring of the 2006 budget which showed
that many of the projects were not executed by certain ministries and
agencies and even when they were, the distance between the federal
agencies and the beneficiary communities were so profound that neither
the affected states nor local governments were aware of ownership of the
projects. The federal government responded positively by creating new
project lines including the conditional grants scheme in which states,
and later, local governments, chose, provided part funding and executed
the projects.

This innovation has
created a higher sense of ownership in terms of choice and quality of
execution of projects. Even more important, the high standards of due
process mechanisms embedded in the project implementation plan have
significantly improved the accountability mechanisms in project
execution, therefore providing better value to beneficiary communities.

A third significant
result is that some of the non-performing MDAs identified in earlier
reports no longer benefit from the allocations and alternative better
performing institutions have taken over the said portfolios. This trend
is important, as it has now introduced sanctions for non-performance and
inefficiency thereby improving the conduct of government business.

The net result of
this process is the emergence of observable and measurable improvement
in performance and project delivery. Prior to the commencement of these
programmes, monitoring and evaluation had virtually disappeared from
government. However, today, we observe the establishment and
strengthening of M&E units in government departments.

The scaling up of
investment in the MDG sector in Nigeria and the improvement in
performance demonstrates that achieving the MDGs by 2015 is realistic if
we can build up on the institutional improvements and scale up further
the net investment not only by the three tiers of government – federal,
state and local, but also by the private sector and the international
community which remains a notoriously low key player in the Nigerian
arena.

As Nigeria engages
gear on the countdown to 2015, one key required strategy is the
increased involvement of communities in creating the demand, conception,
supervision, management and maintenance of projects that improve their
lives and livelihoods.

We must intensify
the fight against corruption and lack of transparency in government
while scaling up investments in the social sector to ensure that Nigeria
can show the world that the largest African country can and will attain
the MDGs by 2015. The ultimate message is that committed governance can
reverse the massive level of poverty Nigerians are suffering from.

As the drums of electoral war echo across the
land, amidst barely concealed preparations for victory celebrations, some
provisions in the electoral act have game-changing potentials capable of
throwing the elections wide open – thanks in part to ‘accidents’ like the
emergence of Attahiru Jega as INEC chair and the passage of the Electoral Act
2010.

For legislators better known for drawing huge,
illegal and unearned allowances and little else, the enactment of the Electoral
Act 2010 is an unusual achievement. The Act contains provisions which
substantially change the rules of future political competition. It also
restructures engagements among political actors, parties and umpires in several
ways.

By legislating that 21-day notices must be
given to INEC by every political party prior to primaries, congresses and
conventions – without the flexibility of a waiver by INEC, many parties stand
the risk of disqualification from participating in the 2011 Elections unless
strict compliance is observed. For instance, a political party wishing to
select its candidates through indirect primaries must notify INEC of this by
Sept. 18, 2010. The latest date for a party opting for direct primaries appears
to be Oct. 2. I wonder if the parties have noticed this requirement.

This notice is required because the new rules
also require every political party that adopts the indirect primaries system of
candidate selection to amend its constitution to incorporate the rules and
procedures for the emergence of delegates and the conduct of the primaries.
This in turn may require a special convention and the required 21 days notice
to INEC.

The PDP for instance just recently publicised
its guidelines, but did not announce when it would hold the national, emergency
or special convention to incorporate the guidelines into the PDP Constitution.
With respect to the almighty PDP, the adoption of the guidelines by its
national executive is not enough. A constitutional amendment is required which
means an emergency convention, at least, must be held 21 days or more from now.

The Act prohibits many of the shenanigans of
the past, like appointing hundreds of special assistants and making them
automatic delegates. Also barred are consensus candidates, delegates sponsored
by godfathers without primaries, and the last-minute replacement of candidates.
Henceforth, even unopposed aspirants must go through a yes-no vote in
primaries. Last minute replacement of those that contested primaries by
strangers that never participated is now illegal.

By far the most interesting provision relates
to the procedure for the emergence of the presidential and gubernatorial
candidates of political parties. Candidate selection will now take in 37
separate special conventions in each of the 36 states and Abuja, with a
national convention for ratification of the winner ­ with the highest number of
votes. With this requirement, the supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan
must persuade delegates to vote for him in disparate locations ­ mostly away
from Abuja.

With the tone of the arguments for and against
zoning, I do not see how the president can prevail in more than one or two out
of the 19 northern states. How the Goodluck team and some media outlets are
already declaring victory and expecting his coronation in the upcoming PDP
primaries remain a mystery to many unless he faces several candidates from that
geographical zone.

The same risk to incumbents applies to the
governors who will emerge from special congresses in each local government of
their respective states.

Without the delegate selections held in one
central location, for persuasion, bribery and intimidation as appropriate, how
they ultimately vote is truly difficult to control by the once-invincible
governors!

For the indirect primaries, the winner that
emerges in the congresses and conventions does not require a majority of half
of the votes plus one ­ but simply the highest number of votes cast. This
provision means no run-offs will ever be necessary as the first past the post
wins. I was therefore amused to see provisions for run-off in the published
guidelines of one of the political parties ­ the PDP.

The Act has also legislated the order of elections
to put the governors at a disadvantage. The attrition rate in the National
Assembly has been high ­ averaging 80% in each electoral cycle. As an example,
in my home state of Kaduna, only one member, Ado Audu Dogo, has been in the
House of Representatives since 1999! By scheduling their elections first, and
the governors last, the legislators have extracted their revenge and hope to
reduce the manipulation their elections have suffered due to gubernatorial
interference.

In the event a political party adopts the
direct primaries system, party members must be given equal opportunity to vote
directly for the candidates to various offices ­ without the need to elect
delegates. This further devolves power away from party apparatchiks to the
membership and cuts the delegate middleman. It is doubtful if any party will
choose this as it completely eliminates the control of outcomes of primaries
from the leaders of the various parties. Clearly, a direct primaries system is
the better, more democratic system that will be more prevalent in the long run.

So for those planning victory laps before the
race proper, it may be helpful to read the Electoral Act again.

El-Rufai is a former
minister of the FCT and a member of the PDP

The recent sacking of the Inspector General of
Police, Ogbonnaya Onovo, again brings to the fore the debate about the
real value of Nigeria’s National Honours.

Mr. Onovo was given the honour in July, only to be
unceremoniously sacked six weeks later. At the time he was given the
award, a correspondent from this paper asked him if he thought he
deserved the honour given the appalling security situation in the
country.

An angry Mr. Onovo replied: “Answer [the question]
for yourself. You are a member of the public. If I don’t deserve it, say
so. I can’t answer stupid questions, because insecurity is all over the
world. There is no society where there is no crime. You can’t tell me
of any society, if you know one, tell me. So, I think it is not a proper
question and I will not answer it. “You have come to provoke. You
haven’t come to ask questions as journalists who want to know and who
want to disseminate information. Your question has spoilt my happy
mood.” When one however considers that the list of honorees included
Patricia Etteh, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was
forced to resign following allegations of financial mismanagement, it
becomes clear why Mr. Onovo harboured no reservations regarding his
receipt of the award.

When Mr. Onovo snapped at our reporter for
“spoiling” his mood, little did he know that an even more potent
mood-spoiler was in the horizon. After an unremarkable stint as
Inspector-General, marked by Boko Haram and the overrunning of South
eastern Nigeria by kidnappers, Mr. Onovo was removed. He has now gone
into the record books as the shortest serving Inspector General in the
history of the Nigeria Police Force.

The sack notwithstanding, he gets to keep a
renowned national honour, earned at the height of his infamy. (We should
point out that in 2006 he had previously bagged the Officer of the
Order of the Niger award).

In May this year, the international rights group,
Reporters without Borders, named Mr. Onovo one of world’s “40 predators
of the press”. By the time he left office Mr. Onovo had also built a
reputation as a serial disobeyer of court orders. In a profile of Mr.
Onovo by this paper, following the expiration of the tenure of his
predecessor, Mike Okiro, we noted that “[Onovo] was in charge of the
inconclusive investigation of the killing of Funsho Williams, a People’s
Democratic Party Governorship candidate in Lagos State.” President
Jonathan needs to be told that what has just happened with Mr. Onovo
cannot but inflict grave damage on the reputation of the National
Honours, a reputation already battered by the rejection of the awards in
recent years by such distinguished Nigerians as Gani Fawehinmi (Order
of the Federal Republic, 2008) and Chinua Achebe (Commander of the
Federal Republic, 2004).

The tradition of awarding National Honours to
serving political office holders and bureaucrats simply on the strength
of the offices they hold is wrong, and should be stopped forthwith.
National Honours should only be conferred on the basis of integrity,
outstanding career achievement and selfless service to the nation, not
on the basis of political office.

A look at the scandals that have trailed some of
the occupiers of the post of Inspector-General in recent years is enough
to convince any right thinking person that being the country’s number 1
cop is in no way a guarantee of honesty and integrity. National Honours
ought to be earned and never merely given. Mrs. Etteh, like Mr. Onovo,
and many other names on that list, were honoured simply because they
occupied certain positions; they did nothing to earn it.

Based on current tradition, we imagine that the new
Inspector-General of Police has automatically earned himself a place in
next year’s Honours List, regardless of his record. This is a travesty
of the meritocracy that the mechanism guiding the annual awards should
be.

We want the Federal Government to bring utmost
transparency to the nominating, short-listing and screening process. How
truly open is the nominating process? What role does the Presidency –
and specifically the President – play in the short-listing process? In
what situations or circumstances is a person liable to be disqualified?

If no real reform takes place regarding the annual
national awards, a time is coming when they will not be worth the paper
bearing the citations of the recipients. Indeed there are those who will
even argue that time is already here.