NEW CABINET: The way forward for Jonathan – Oshiomhole
On May 18, 2011 · In Headlines
BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

LAGOS — GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, yesterday, charged President Goodluck Jonathan to constitute an Executive Council based strictly on competence, integrity, sound technocratic acumen and high sense of public purpose, even as he set a nine-point agenda for the nation’s leaders to move the country forward.

Oshiomhole who spoke at the Tell Magazine’s 20th Anniversary Lecture, entitled “An agenda for deepening democracy, good governance and development in the next four years and beyond,” said the nation needed a new vision and fresh dynamism in governance over the next four years.

He noted that Nigeria could not afford a return to the “come-and-eat tradition” of the past, which reduced governance to rewarding godfathers and other political merchants with portfolios well beyond their competencies.

Oshiomhole lamented the nation’s democracy was still not delivering on public welfare, but noted that it “works almost entirely for the benefit of elected and appointed actors, as well as their godfathers and sponsors, at the expense of the people.”


Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, former Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, Chairman, (left) and Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, Guest Lecturer, at the TELL Magazine's 20th anniversary .
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He argued that an example of how the system was only benefitting the actors of Nigeria’s democracy was the current disclosures on the floor of the House of Representatives indicating that each member had gotten N27 million in emoluments and allowances, from a N10 billion overdraft facility, and urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, to probe the “dubious overdraft facility.”

The Edo State governor who is also the immediate past President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, said that for the nation to move forward in the next four years, it must conclude the unfinished electoral reforms project, fix the economy, address unemployment, fight corruption, address the protracted power crisis, address the transportation crisis, post-election violence, revenue allocation and high cost of governance.

Governance as usual

He said: “The next four years can, and must not be governance as usual. Nigerians have voted and our votes have substantially counted. From Kano to Lagos, to Ibadan, Benin, Enugu, Maiduguri, Jos, Uyo, Kaduna and other places, both urban and rural, our people turned out and waited patiently in the sun and in the rain to cast their votes. In some places, our people organized and chased thugs away from their polling units, they trekked from vast distances in some cases, and they generally made sacrifices often beyond the call of civic duty.

“The corresponding obligation for those empowered with the mandate to rule is to ensure that the next four years make a qualitative difference in the lives of our people. The real riots will break out across the nation if this sacrifice does not result in benefits for the people, their children, their businesses and their communities.”

Dignitaries who graced the anniversary celebration included former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola; Prof Itse Sagay; former Commissioner for Commerce, Lagos State, Mrs. Teju Philips; Ondo State governor represented by the state’s Commissioner for Information, Mr Oluranti Akerele.

Others were renowned journalist, Alade Odunewu; Vanguard newspaper’s publisher, Mr. Sam Amuka and Thisday newspaper publisher, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena; renowned poet, Odia Ofeimum; President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mr. Gbenga Adefaye; Chairman Editorial Board, Compass newspapers; Professor Ayo Olukotun; and Managing Director, Punch newspapers, Mr. Ademola Osinubi.

At the anniversary lecture, two books from the stables of the TELL were launched. One was Courage in Print, a collection of editorials, articles, features and opnion articles that have been published in the magazine in the past 20 years, The other book was ‘Opilogue, Not a Laffing Matter,’a compilation of the articles of the magazine’s Deputy Editor in Chief, Dele Omotunde.

Chairman of the occasion, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, commended TELL magazine saying it has now become a national institution and tasked Nigerians on the issue of quality followership.

Arguing that it was not enough to lament the poor leadership that Nigerians have been saddled with all these years, Ayoola said: “No nation can enjoy quality leadership if its followership is pathologically distrustful of its intention. We also need value driven followership. People should not just remain fence sitters. They should not just blame the problem of corruptionon leaders but assume leadership in the fight. Leadership is very important, of course as a bad leader canfrustrate the yearning of young people and create a conflict ridden society.

“I want to felicitate with TELL on this unique anniversary because the magazine has tasted times and seasons. Seasons of harsh military rule and yet, it is still alive today. For leadership to take its due place in Nigeria, our conception of leadership must move from rhetoric to application of correct values. ”

TELL’s Editor-in-Chief, Nosa Igiebor, in his remarks said, the magazine has done well in the past 20 years. Noting that it was set up by a group of young vibrant Nigerians to fight military tyranny, he said that after the end of the military regime, they had been promoting that values of nation building.

Igiebor said the magazine was celebrating the anniversary not because it has reached a milestone but to remind Nigeria that its democracy is lucky. He disclosed that the magazine faced huge challenges in its quest to fight the oddities of the military regimes noting that for the country to sustain its democracy, rule of law must be given its rightful place.

He added: “Nigeria media today is at a cross road, it suffers from a wide range of problems such as low financial investment, poor revenue and remuneration which has eroded professionalism. Nigeria media needs urgent intervention. It needs massive investment to make it fulfill its role effectively.”

Post-election violence

Oshiomhole said: “The premeditated killings, arson and destruction of property that occurred in some States after the Presidential Election are unfortunate. But even more unfortunate is the attempt to describe them as “protests”, when in fact they were merely acts of inhumanity and criminality. To describe murder and arson as “protests” is to devalue the very essence of that word.

“Coming from my background, and as a democrat, I remain convinced in the legitimacy and constitutional sanctity of protests, including street protests, over any matter. Indeed, one of the key features that distinguish democracy from dictatorship is the right of citizens to collective representation and ventilation of grievances through protests. But this must be peaceful and should not occasion any danger to the lives of fellow citizens.”

The Economy

“As we have seen already, the greatest threat to democracy are the tensions and explosions usually provoked by mass unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and other consequences of economic and social dislocation. Consequently, the most fundamental challenges which will come to define governance in the next four years lie in the management of the economy. For me, the real challenge of economic management is the creation of jobs, jobs and jobs.

The current level of unemployment, which is officially estimated at 21 per cent, is alarming indeed. It is commendable that the President already recognises the job creation imperative, as underscored by his convening of a jobs summit.

This is certainly not enough. In the next four years, the Federal Government needs to embark on fresh and more creative initiatives to boost domestic production through stable and proactive macro-economic policies, especially in the areas of interest-rate and exchange rate management.”

On power, he posited that “emerging evidence indicates that the energy share of the cost structure is 33 per cent compared to under five per cent in most industrialized countries. The high cost of generating alternative power supply is partly responsible for the massive de-industrialisation which has taken place over the past decade. That Power is central to boosting the productive capacity of the economy has been recognised by all stakeholders.

“On its part, the Federal Government has shown commitment to dealing with the power challenge, judging by the huge volume of funds expended over the last 12 years. My view is that the private sector business model should form the basis for the immediate reform of the power sector.

The country cannot afford to sustain the PHCN as an integrated monopoly while it makes no sense any longer to invest additional funds to prepare it for privatisation. Mr. President needs to exercise greater decisiveness in this regard and confront the various vested interests, which thrive on the crisis in the power sector. Among these vested interests are the Generator_importers, who recently found a spokesperson in the person of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole.”

Petroleum Products

He decried the conitinued importation of petroleum products into the country, saying, “it is scandalous that we continue to depend almost exclusively on imports for the supply of petroleum products to the economy. I believe that the President should set a date for stopping the importation of finished petroleum products, as part of a concrete roadmap to boost domestic refining through either the existing refineries or new ones.”

Road, rail infrastructure

Speaking on transportation crisis in the country, the former NLC President argued that “the other area of infrastructure which needs to be addressed is transport infrastructure. The poor transport infrastructure is responsible for the high cost of doing business after energy.

The state of our roads and rail infrastructure cannot sustain modern economic activity in a country as physically vast as Nigeria. The state of the Lagos-Benin, Abuja-Lokoja-Benin and several other roads is a clear indication of the failure of governance. An examination of the Federal budget over the past decade shows that huge sums have been allocated to these failed roads.

We must ensure value for money in our budget execution. The cost of road construction and maintenance will remain daunting as long as we continue to depend almost exclusively on road transportation for the haulage of goods and the transportation of persons. We need to put in place urgently a rail development plan, based on latest technology.”

Corruption

According to Comrade Oshiomhole, “with the unimpeachable legitimacy and the Pan_Nigerian mandate of President Jonathan, I believe that he has the moral and political leverage to take the tough measures and decisions needed to arrest the rot in several facets of the Nigerian polity, economy and society. In this regard, a task we must set for the President is the restoration of morality and order in governance, especially in the handling of public funds.

The case for immediate Presidential intervention is the House of Representatives, whose leadership has been at the centre of several controversies involving apparent abuse of public funds. The latest report of an apparently dubious overdraft facility amounting to N10 billion cannot be swept under the carpet by the EFCC and the ICPC. The public is anxious to unravel the truth about this and other previous reports of apparent misuse and sharing of public funds. It is also a national embarrassment that the public does not know the exact emoluments and overall individual entitlements of its federal legislators.”

“From current disclosures however, we cannot but reach the conclusion that severe abuse of appropriation powers is taking place in the National Assembly, for the self_enrichment of its members, on a scale that is clearly not sustainable.

In 1999 under my stewardship, the NLC had organised massive protests over the N5 million furniture allowances to National Assembly members. If N5 million was outrageous in 1999, clearly the current monthly allowance estimated to be at least N15 million per member is beyond the bounds of propriety, in a country where about 70% of the population are officially classified to be poor.

I believe strongly that the campaign against these predatory appropriations and criminal opulence must be resumed by Labour, civil society, the Media, mass organisations, professional bodies, etc.”

He also condemned the the high cost of governance, saying “the very high cost of governance in Nigeria is arguably the highest in the world”, and “the cost of governance both in the executive and legislative arms of government must be streamlined and brought under control. The burden of this cost on the economy is overbearing and must not be allowed to continue.”

Revenue allocation:

Speaking on the increasing agitation for a review of the revenue allocation fomular, the governor contended that “too much resources are currently concentrated at the centre and too little in the states where the direct impact of governance is felt more by the people. Because of this, the Federal Government is deploying huge amounts of resources annually on agriculture, primary and secondary education and other areas in which the states clearly have comparative efficiency advantage.

Devolution of resources and responsibilities to governmental authorities closer to the people is today globally accepted as a mechanism for promoting development. While the constraints of executive capacity may militate against transferring more resources to the local governments as of now, the states clearly have the capacity to undertake more effectively and efficiently many of the areas in which the Federal Government is currently holding sway.”

He declared that “given the nature of the political economy of Nigeria and the dynamics of the Presidential System, the task of setting a national development agenda rests squarely on the shoulders of the President. We need new vision and fresh dynamism in governance over the next four years. The starting point is for Mr. President to constitute an Executive Council based strictly on competence, integrity, sound technocratic acumen and high sense of public purpose.

We cannot afford a return to the come-and-eat tradition of the past, which reduced governance to rewarding godfathers and other political merchants with portfolios well beyond their competencies.We must all prevail on the President to exercise the political will to break the shackles of political IOUs in constituting his Cabinet.

In particular the economy, infrastructures and social sectors of health and education require tested and competent hands. The search for capable hands to handle these and other sectors should go beyond Mr. President’s Party, if necessary.”

“For the Nigerian people, the business is not finished yet. Having voted and defended our vote, we need to insist on the highest standards of performance by those we have elected at all levels. The Labour Movement, the Intelligentsia, NGOs and civil society, professional bodies, faith_based organizations across the country must challenge the system to deliver.
We need to challenge the President and other elected actors to live up to their electoral promises and manifestoes. The struggle to re_energise the citizenry and evolve a culture of critical engagement of the system become even more compelling.

At this point, we must return to the Media, which was the take_off point of this discourse. Our media needs to discard the culture of advert_driven obscene celebrations of periodic signposts in the tenures of public officers (e.g. 100 Days, one year etc).

The Media should be far more critical in appraising policies and in exposing malfeasances. For instance, ex_convicts should be properly addressed and described in media reports, so that the public would be reminded of their antecedents anytime they seek to intrude their obnoxious selves on the public space!


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/05/new-cabinet-the-way-forward-for-jonathan-oshiomhole/