TO FIND PROGRESS IN NIGERIA, THINK LOCAL - SIDDHARTHA MITTER

On May 29, it will be one year since Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari took office. His electoral triumph and no-nonsense style sparked high hopes in a country fatigued by chronic corruption, poor infrastructure, the Boko Haram insurgency, and the incompetence of his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan. But it hasn’t been an easy year for Africa’s largest economy, which has been stunned by the drop in the price of oil — the main source of government revenue and nearly the sole source of foreign exchange. 

So what has Buhari accomplished? 

The evidence is contradictory. On one hand, for instance, a vast anti-corruption campaign is under way — in a country that badly needs it. Buhari reinvigorated the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the country’s lead anti-corruption agency, with aggressive new leadership. Every week brings news of prominent figures being questioned; the sums reportedly in play can reach billions of dollars. But the targeting feels haphazard, the methods are unclear, and running well-handled prosecutions in the country’s creaky justice system is a challenge. 

Buhari also appointed new leadership at the all-important state oil company, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Investigations have shown that billions of dollars in revenue due for the public treasury have vanished inside the NNPC in recent years. Now the company is making a commendable effort at transparency, publishing accounts for the first time in years. But the oil sector is still in trouble. There is almost no working refining capacity, so gasoline is imported under a creaky license and subsidy regime that breeds chronic fuel shortages. Meanwhile, militants are sabotaging oil production facilities in the Niger Delta. Just cleaning house won’t be enough. 

Against this ziggurat of problems, all of which have both proximate causes and underlying ones that have festered for decades, the Buhari government has appeared at some times inert or incompetent, at others, purposeful and aggressive. There’s evidence to back every narrative, and Nigerian social media, where an ever-growing share of the population thrashes out its impressions, contains them all. 

Nigerians have every right to expect decisive leadership from their chief executive. But the presidency shouldn’t be viewed as the only potential source of change. Nigeria is a federal republic, with 36 socially and economically diverse states. This creates room for experimentation:- 

What the federal government can’t get done, perhaps the states can. 

Devolution of power is somewhat shallower in Nigeria than in some other federations, such as the United States. Still, the states have real authority, and having a reformist state government instead of an old-school, corrupt one makes a real difference to the business environment, the provision of public services, and ordinary people’s lives. Moreover, with populations between 2 and 20 million, Nigeria’s states are better-sized for reform than the national behemoth. And the lack of any real ideological differences between Buhari’s All Progressives Congress, which controls 22 states, and the opposition People’s Democratic Party, which has 13, makes a favorable environment for emulating reforms that deliver. (There is one third-party governor, in Anambra State). 

When Buhari took office, so did some 20 new governors. As in the past, some states are proving better run than others. The difference now is that the collapse of oil revenue makes it urgent for the states to find new ways to support themselves. In 2014, according to fiscal watchdog BudgIT, federal transfers accounted for 75 percent of total state revenues. Almost all that money came from oil revenue allocated — “shared,” in Nigerian parlance — from the federal account. Now, this source of funds has shriveled. Boosting their own resources (known as IGR, or internally generated revenue) is crucial for the states to keep services running. But it is also the key to future policy autonomy and the ability to progress no matter what happens (or doesn’t) in Abuja, the national capital. 

There is room to grow. A BudgIT analysis of monthly revenue for the first half of 2015 found only one state (Lagos) where IGR made up more than 50 percent of revenue. In a cluster of states, it accounted for 20-25 percent of revenue; in the poorest ones, especially in the north, it was as low as 5-10 percent. In part, the level of development of the local economy helps explain the variation. But another reason is that Nigeria is disastrously under-taxed: according to widely cited estimates, tax collection is only 7 percent of GDP, most of it from the oil sector. The real economy is far more diversified than its revenue base suggests. According to a Nigerian banking institute, at least $11 billion in non-oil-based taxes escapethe government each year. 

In the past year, the two states where new governors have taken the most aggressive policy steps are Kaduna, a big, relatively poor state in the north that has been highly dependent on federal transfers, and Lagos, the commercial hub, which has the healthiest state economy and lowest reliance on Abuja. Combined with more tentative efforts in other states, this suggests that leadership and political will, not the underlying condition of the local economy, are the crucial factors for progress in governance. 

In Kaduna, a former industrial powerhouse that has fallen on hard times, the hard-charging new governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has launched a volley of reforms: a biometric census of civil servants, an electronic land registry, removing middlemen from subsidy distribution, eliminating school application fees, starting free meals in primary schools, and more. He has instituted a Treasury Single Account (TSA), combining all the state’s revenue streams into one place, so that various agencies are not tempted by waste or graft. El-Rufai has also reduced the number of state ministries, appointed a relatively young, technocratic team, and has brought in the respected former head of the national tax agency to advise on state tax reform. And while data is kept close in most states, Kaduna is partnering with BudgIT to set up an open-budget electronic platform. 

The governor of Lagos, Akinwunmi Ambode, had the advantage of a much stronger foundation. Tax collection grew twentyfold from 1999 to 2015 under previous governors. Revenue management was opaque, however. To address this, Ambode also instituted a TSA, in September 2015. According to the state finance commissioner, merging the accounts has already saved the state 6 billion naira ($30 million at the official rate); restructuring the state’s debt portfolio has also saved money. A loan scheme for new small businesses began this year; the governor has promised to complete a long-delayed light-rail line, and secured federal support and cleared right-of-way issues for another. On May 25, four days before his own first-year anniversary, Ambode signed an agreement with a private consortium to build a massive and much-needed new highway and bridge across the Lagos lagoon, boasting that it would require no federal funds. 

Some other states are also taking steps to improve governance and grow revenue. In Ogun State, next to Lagos, second-term governor Ibikunle Amosun has overseen a substantial rise of internal revenue, including a 49 percent jump in 2015, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. These results follow a campaign to widen the tax net, with improved enforcement and more competent staff. In Anambra State in the east, internal income grew by nearly 30 percent in 2015; there, the government is replacing often-corrupt collectors with a network of point-of-sale devices. 

On the whole, however, more states are in trouble than are finding their way out of it. In 2015, only 11 states grew their tax intake, while the others saw mild to disastrous declines. According to BudgIT, in the first half of 2015, 19 of 36 states were unable to meet recurrent expenditures (such as paying salaries). In July 2015, 27 states sought a federal bailout; there are now controversies about whether some of those funds were mismanaged. 

Nigeria’s states cannot afford to wait for the federal government to turn the ship around. Emerging from oil dependency requires policy innovation at both the federal and state levels. Better information would help, too. Most state governments are poor at public communications, and the quality of journalism drops off precipitously as you get further from Lagos and Abuja. Lack of scrutiny, in turn, breeds complacency. But when Buhari comes up for reelection in 2019, most governors will too — and any improvements in Nigerians’ lives will have come as much from their performance as from his.

THE DEAL IS DONE, TRUMP CLINCHES PARTY'S NOMINATION.

Icheoku says they doubted him and never gave him any chance at succeeding with his latest project become president of the United States of America. Even President Barack Hussein Obama once chided him that he can never be the presidential nominee/candidate of the Republican Party. But his message and passion resonated with the American people and with their help, he smothered sixteen other wannabes and today is the presidential nominee of the Republican Party, having secured the required 1237 delegates plus one. Icheoku hereby formally congratulates the next president of the United States of America, Donald John Trump, on successfully clinching the Republican Party's presidential candidate nomination. A new prince of the American politics has arrived and he will be officially crowned in November as the president-elect of America and together we shall join him in making America great again. Go Trump; Vote Trump.

OBA OF BENIN IS FOR BINIS, JESUS IS FOR THE JEWS - ESOGBAN

"Jesus Christ belongs to the Jewish race, he was born a Jew and they have a way of paying respect to their kings. When Jesus Christ was doing what he was doing in the Middle East, there was a complete different civilization down here, where the only figure we recognize is the Oba. 

So if it is the belief of Christians that only Jesus is Lord, I agree because I am a Christian, but that is not to say that our own ethnic Lord is not. You know that this is the era of Christianity, nevertheless in the next 1000 years; nobody knows what will be in place, but our own tradition has been there. Even when the Roman Empire was the only empire in the whole world, the Benin Empire was already thriving here. So we do not dispute what the Christians are saying, we do not dispute what the Muslims are saying regarding Mohammed as their spiritual father. We are saying that the Oba of Benin is the spiritual leader of the Benin race." - Chief David Edebiri, The Esogban Odionwere of Benin Kingdom, Nigeria.

HILLARY CLINTON IS SINKING FASTER THAN THE TITANIC - WAYNE ALLYN ROOT

I’ve predicted publicly for a year now that Hillary Clinton, although a prohibitive favorite, still may never become the Democratic Party’s nominee. 

Don’t look now, but at this moment Hillary is still far from a sure thing to become the Democratic standard-bearer. This week, she lost Oregon and barely squeaked by in Kentucky. Bernie has now won 11 of the last 14 primaries and caucuses. 

I ask Democrats, is this your nominee? The winner of your presidential nomination has lost just shy of 80 percent of her races coming down the homestretch. If Hillary were a racehorse with that record, she’d be sent home.

Call me crazy but don't presumptive nominees usually win about 80 percent of their races? This has to be the first time in history the leader of her party has lost 80 percent of them. I'm not sure you call someone like that a "leader" or "nominee." Usually you call someone like that..."loser!" 

Hillary is certainly still the favorite -- if only because of the scam of superdelegates. The Democratic nomination is basically rigged. Because of those superdelegates Hillary already has the nomination locked up. But she appears to be crawling on her knees, over razor blades, towards the finish line. 

First, while she’s the clear-cut delegate winner and we all know that everyone loves a winner, it’s gotta be downright frightening for Democrats that she still can’t put away a wild-eyed radical socialist from Vermont who wants tax rates as high as 90 percent and would add an estimated $18 trillion to the national debt. 

Then, there’s the FBI. They are closing in. No matter how many times Hillary or her delusional aides claim the investigation is only a “security inquiry” it doesn't change reality. 

FBI Director Comey recently set them straight. Turns out the FBI doesn’t do “security inquiries.” Hillary is the subject of a “criminal investigation.” 

Then there’s that millstone hanging around Hillary’s neck -- Bill Clinton. Can you become president when your husband’s past behavior with women raises more questions every day? We’re about to find out. 

The stories about Bill’s reckless and possibly criminal behavior keep popping out of the closet. First there’s the beautiful blonde “friend” who got $2 million from the Clinton Global Initiative and another $800,000 in government contracts with Bill's help. Don’t we all wish we had friends like that? 

Worse, there’s the new disclosure that Bill took 26 flights on a sex offender’s plane, an aircraft actually called “The Lolita Express.” It flew nonstop to “Orgy Island” where old men cavorted with young (13 to 15-year old) girls. Bill flew five times on this aircraft without his Secret Service detail. This isn’t a scandal, it’s a disaster for Hillary. 

It’s already May and now the question is: Can Hillary crawl past the primary finish line? And if she does, will she be so crippled for the general election that she becomes a sitting duck for Donald Trump? 

Have you seen the latest polls? Last week the experts were shocked to see Hillary tied with Trump. This week it got even worse. In the latest Fox News poll Trump leads Hillary.  

I have close friends in high Democratic Party circles. Trust me, they are beginning to panic. They are starting to think about Plan B… and that doesn’t include either Hillary or Bernie being their nominee. 

So let me lay out a very plausible scenario. What if Hillary’s approval ratings slide continues? What if over the next 60 to 90 days she finds herself down by 5 to 7 points to Trump? What if she goes down by double digits? Would the panic become hysteria? 

What if the FBI recommends indicting Hillary over the email scandal -- my law enforcement sources tell me this is a very real possibility. 

But it gets worse. Have you heard that Russia claims to have 10,000 of Hillary's hacked emails? They say they will release them. If this is the case, Hillary better stop worrying about the White House and start worrying about the Big House. 

Would President Obama allow the Justice Department to indict his former secretary of state? I used to think “no.” But I now believe the answer to that question depends on only one factor -- is Hillary beating Trump? 

Every Washington insider knows that Obama has no love or loyalty for Hillary. 

I’m betting if Obama senses Hillary is a sinking Titanic -- and he still has time before the convention -- he will throw her under the bus. 

At this point, I would guess the president gives Hillary a choice that is no choice at all. Be indicted, lose the presidential race, and risk a long jail term, or announce to the world that your cough has become a real medical issue and you will have to decline the nomination, then receive a presidential pardon. 

That means all her delegates become free agents and a new nominee can be substituted at the Democratic convention in July. 

I’ve always predicted Obama would prefer Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren as the nominee, or the combination of Biden/Warren. He may yet get his wish. But this much I know:- Hillary is sinking faster than the Titanic.

HILLARY CLINTON WANTS THE TITLE, BUT NOT THE JOB?

- Says she will appoint Bill Clinton her economic tsar? 

Icheoku says the putative democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said that she plans to outsource the president's job of the country's economic management to an unelected third party, her husband, Bill Clinton. 

Icheoku says what then remains of the job of a president if not to manage and steer the economic ship of the state safely. A president who is not ready nor prepared to manage the economy of the state might for all intent and purpose be said to have abdicated in her duties and functions as a president. So with the economy parceled out, what else remains for a president to do, one is forced to ask? Is it therefore safe to conclude that Hillary Clinton just wants to be president in name only and in order to freely junket around the globe, parading herself as president, but without being saddled or bogged down with performing the duties of the office. This is a self-effacing candidate, who prides herself as going to be the first female president of the United States of America, yet she is cluelessly saying that she will have a man running the affairs of the office and you wonder, really? 

Icheoku does not know about you but this Hillary Clinton scares the heck out of so many; especially those drinking the coolaid of having a first female president; but here she is admitting her handicap and by extension punting the office over to a man. It would seem that Hillary Clinton does not want to do the heavy lifting but would settle for playing a role of president but without performing the attendant hard work. But hey, Americans will decide appropriately at the right time that this Hillary Clinton is not the right female to be first female president of the United States of America and that at the right time, such a suitable female will emerge to lead America and the free world. Until then, let Americans vote their interest and vote for a person who has the can-do attitude and who has done it in other fields of life and one who has a proven accomplishment and together help make America great again. Go Trump; Vote Trump.

WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE PREYING ON AFRICA - JAMMEH

“Let me warn you, those evil vermin called opposition: If you want to destabilize this country, I will bury you nine feet deep and no Westerner can say anything. What great liars the Western press are that are used as mouthpieces to destabilize Africa. To the opposition, you have a right to join any political party. You can vote for anyone you want. But no one has the right to join a group of hate mongers that hate themselves and hate Africa and are slaves to the West. These are people being sponsored by the West to destabilize progressive African countries…. Let me make it very clear: there is no single Western country that wants to see an African country develop.”- President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia.

DONALD TRUMP, THE CASE FOR AN ENTREPRENEUR - ANTHONY SARAMUCCI

What elitists misinterpret as uneven principles is really adaptability—and, by the way, he can win. 

The rise of Donald Trump has exposed a deep chasm in America between the haves and have-nots. I could go on, but you have probably read that story by now. You’ve also likely read about conservatives who think that stopping Mr. Trump is the only way to save their cause. I’m here to explain why they couldn’t be more wrong. What principled conservatives fail to understand is how the nation would benefit from putting a right-leaning entrepreneur in the White House. 

I too began the primary cycle as a critic of Donald Trump. I’ve never come across a candidate who perfectly matched my philosophical fingerprint—have you ever found such a match?—but I am a Republican because the party best represents the ideals of human liberty and economic empowerment that fuel the American dream. Mr. Trump shares those values. 

Here are four things that the movement from the right to stop Donald Trump is missing: 

1. He has empathy. Mr. Trump is both a beneficiary and victim of the soundbite generation. He has leveraged social media to run a thrifty campaign, but critics have also latched onto one-liners rather than examine the whole of his record. You couldn’t find one person who knows Donald Trump who thinks he’s a racist. While his stance on immigration has often been expressed in brutish terms, the substance of his message—securing America’s borders and pausing the Syrian refugee program—is not crazy. Mr. Trump’s empathy, when voters see it properly expressed, will lead to victory in November and to policies fortified by longstanding conservative values. 

2. He is a pragmatic entrepreneur. What elitists misinterpret as uneven principles, entrepreneurs understand as adaptability. Whether you like or dislike Mr. Trump personally, you have to respect the business empire and brand he has built. He has always demonstrated an ability to take punches and get up off the mat while others without his fortitude and ingenuity would have crumbled. Most of his critics have never dared to step into the entrepreneurial arena where there exists the potential of embarrassing defeat. Mr. Trump would be the greatest pragmatist and deal maker Washington has ever seen. 

3. He is a team builder. I have spent several hours over the past few weeks with Mr. Trump, and I came away with the feeling he has the analytical depth to excel at the job of the presidency. Mr. Trump has put his ego aside to reinforce Corey Lewandowski’s formidable campaign team with a talented group of people: Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Scott Brown, Paul Manafort, Rick Wiley and Steven Mnuchin, to name a few. Mr. Trump has shown a willingness to welcome Republican establishment figures into his coalition. The establishment should be constructive in return. If he were elected president, like any smart entrepreneur Mr. Trump would continue to surround himself with brilliant people. 

4. He can win. Pundits cherry-pick polls to suit their narrative, but the reality is that Mr. Trump is already in a good position even before turning his full attention to Hillary Clinton. Skeptics point to a recent CNN poll showing her with a double-digit lead, but a Rasmussen poll showing Mr. Trump leading by two points gets less attention. The electoral map is ultimately all that matters, and a Quinnipiac University poll released May 10 showed the two candidates basically in a dead heat in three crucial swing states. All of the momentum in the general election will swing to Mr. Trump, but establishment Republicans had better realize abstention would in effect be a vote to put Hillary Clinton in the White House. 

As the product of a middle-class household and an entrepreneur who loves this country, I understand both the appeal Mr. Trump has to the electorate and the opportunity to put Republican policies at the forefront of American politics for a generation. I’m not willing to lose this election over bruised egos. 

I urge my fellow Republicans to listen to the will of the people, shun the destructive cynicism of the past eight years, and unite not only for the good of the party, but for the good of the nation. 

A NIGERIAN ARAB SPRING, HIGHLY PROBABLE - JUDE AKUBUILO

The Arab Spring, a series of anti-government protests, revolts and uprisings started in early 2011 in Tunisia and led to the ousting of long time Tunisian leader, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. By the time it came under some control,  it had severely impacted eight countries, dislodging  powerful Middle East rulers like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt who had been in power since 1980. It  plunged Syria, Libya and Yemen into long drawn conflicts, forced deep political reforms in Morocco and Jordan, while changing the political landscape of the region for a long time to come, if not forever.

The Arab Spring was precipitated by deep rooted resentment by the masses against the ruling class. The resentment was fuelled by mass anger against the prevailing pervasive corruption, high youth unemployment, high inflation in the backdrop of a geriatric ruling class that had been there for decades, and its resistance to mass demand for political reforms. At the onset of the Arab Spring, the Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak had been in power for 31 years; the Tunisian President had been in power for 27 years; while Muammar al-Qaddafi had ruled Libya for 42 years, the youth felt that the sit-tight ruling class would never create room for their upward mobility confining them to abject poverty in harsh prevailing economic conditions. Most university graduates were unable to secure employment commensurate with their education and had to settle for menial jobs in order to survive. Engineers trained in good universities found themselves working as taxi drivers. In Egypt, the uprising was sparked by a single Facebook post that called for a mass protest exploding into a response by tens of thousands that overwhelmed and toppled the ruling class.

LESSONS FOR NIGERIA

The precipitants for an Arab Spring type uprising exist today in Nigeria and in many other West African countries. The political and ruling class can avert this by taking immediate steps/measures to reduce the risk factors for a potentially catastrophic chapter in the nation’s history.

1. UNEMPLOYMENT

According to the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (NNBS), unemployment in Nigeria today is about 9.90%. This figure is hotly contested by Non Governmental Organizations and other stakeholders as unrealistic who feel 34% to be more realistic. See Tolu Ogunlesi, FACTSHEET: How Nigeria’s unemployment rate is calculated in africacheck.org. Bringing it into perspective, France with an unemployment rate of 10.5%, (as of April, 2015)would have a higher unemployment rate than Nigeria using the NNBS figure. Important to note that Nigeria recently changed the way unemployment is calculated, adopting a formula that lowered the rates compared to the past. Today, people who work for twenty hours per week are regarded as having full time employment as against the forty hours per week benchmark used previously.

According to the Nigerian National Population Commission, in 2012 Nigeria had a population of 167 million, half of which are youth defined as those between the ages of 15 and 34 years. Over 11 million of the youth are unemployed presenting a picture bleaker than what is painted by statistics. The jobs are simply not there and many job seekers while they possess the paper qualifications, are unemployable because they lack basic skills for today’s job market. The ones in highly skilled areas like medicine, pharmacy and nursing, seek employment overseas where there is great demand and better remuneration for their skills. Hundreds of accredited and unaccredited universities, polytechnics, and other institutions of higher education churn out graduates in their thousands annually, with little or no employment prospects. Rather than create a level playing field for the scarce employment opportunities that become available, the ruling class allocate the employment positions to their cronies and off springs. The masses when lucky, have to purchase very scarce employment positions and become victims of  numerous employment scams, losing hundreds of thousands of Naira. The female applicants are subjected to sexual exploitation, without any assurances of obtaining employment. Meanwhile, the children of the ruling class, (who most of the time are educated overseas, using funds embezzled by their parents from the Nigerian Commonwealth), are not subjected to such indignities. These privileged few are beneficiaries of employment allocations, while millions of Nigerian youth who graduated many years ago are condemned to hideous and soul destroying unemployment or menial jobs.

Three recent examples will bring clarity to the scandal of youth unemployment that threatens to engulf the country.

On March 15, 2014, over 200,000 job seekers reported to a poorly organized recruitment scam by the Nigerian Immigration Service having been made to cough up illegal levies totaling about N520 Million. About 20 of the job seekers died in the ensuing stampede. The then Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro and other officers are presently standing trial for this scam. One would have thought that after this public black eye, the Immigration Service would have learnt a bitter lesson. That however was not the case because in December 2015, it came to light that the Immigration Service secretly recruited about 500 officers without due process and publication. It is alleged that that the beneficiaries were wards and nominees of top public officers, politicians and the ruling class.

In March 2016, it came to light that the Central Bank of Nigeria allocated 91 employment positions to children and wards  of the top Nigerian ruling elite. It was said that this employment placed these wards in enhanced positions beyond their experience and educational qualifications. To mask the apparent deceit and criminality of this job allocation, some employment letters are alleged to have been issued with fictitious names.

The public outcry over these odious practices was short lived but like a tinder, no one knows when the spark will ignite and conflagrate the nation given the presence of robust social media in Nigeria, like  Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. It takes just one flash point. Mohammed Bouazizi was a 26 year old unemployed man from Tunisia who tried so hard without success in seeking government assistance to get employment. He tried and failed getting into the army neither could he secure employment with public and private enterprises, he then started a small business selling vegetables from a kiosk. The government stopped his business by confiscating his vegetables and kiosk effectively barring him from feeding his family and paying his sister’s school fees. Out of frustration, he set himself on fire in front of the government building where his confiscated kiosk rested, thus registering his extreme condemnation of the 23 year regime of President Ben Ali. This tragic self-immolation triggered a mass uprising and spurned a revolution which brought down the ruling class and government in Tunisia.

The issue of massive and pervasive youth unemployment in Nigeria is a ticking time bomb that needs to be addressed in earnest and with utmost urgency.

2. CORRUPTION

According to Hamza Abbas Jamoul writing in the Al Manar News, “Economic hardships can be tolerated if the people believe there is a better future ahead, or feel that the pain is at least somewhat equally distributed.”

A situation where a small group of people engage in thievery to govern the people is known as KLEPTOCRACY. Such a group consolidates tyrannical powers by transferring the country’s wealth and power from the public to only a few. The kleptomaniac ruling class usurp all the democratic rights of the people, embezzling all their money, using same to buy justice, liberty, influence, and an upper crust existence for their generations unborn. In the case of Nigeria, these people own homes in choice areas of  Lagos, Abuja and other cities, as well as in other world capitals. They own fleets of cars, their children are educated overseas, they seek medical treatment overseas even for minor tooth aches while denying Nigerians funding for mass transportation, good education and quality health care, Money allocated for the building of infrastructure like well-equipped and functional hospitals is embezzled and construction of a sustainable mass transit system in Nigeria is sabotaged while playing politics with the payment of a paltry N5000 per month stipend to the unemployed youth. This group has billions of Naira and foreign currency in local and foreign banks and some of them feature prominently in the recently released PANAMA PAPERS, setting up contraptions to hide their ill gotten wealth as well as making certain Nigeria is denied the tax revenue that would better the lot of the common man.

In 2015, the World Bank released a list of Nigerian looters with billions of dollars trapped in banks all over the world. In January of 2016, the Nigerian Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed informed the world that between 2006 and 2013, 55 Nigerians stole over N1.34 trillion. He went on to say  “We know that those who stole us dry are powerful, they have newspapers, radio and television stations and an army of supporters to continuously deride government’s war against corruption…Corruption is responsible for the endemic poverty in the country today”. Premium Times Newspaper, January 18, 2016.

According to Shehu Sani, the Nigerian Senator representing APC, Kaduna Central, and the Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, corrupt Nigerians have stashed over $200 billion in United Arab Emirates especially, Dubai. Nigerian Vanguard Newspaper, January 26, 2016.

The on-going War Against Corruption, (WAC) unearths daily, billions of Naira in embezzled and stolen funds by  people in the public and private sectors. The psyche of the public appear to be numbed by the magnitude of theft of public funds which has rocked the nation to its foundation. It is difficult for Nigerians to reconcile these stolen billions in the pockets of a few with the harsh economic hardship that is suffocating Nigerians. While the EFCC has embarked on highly publicized arrests, prosecutions, and seizures, the public is holding its breath to see how many of these prosecutions result in long term commensurate sentences, return of the stolen funds and its use to improve living conditions for the population. If wishes were horses, nothing will make Nigerians happier other than to see a wave of voluntary return of the  embezzled or ill-gotten funds.

Corruption continues to stare Nigerians in the face daily. As Nigerians struggled to scratch out one meal a day, news broke of the billions of Naira spent to procure vehicles for members of the National Assembly. This scandal was followed by the outrageous padding of the 2016 federal budget, including an alleged N100 billion allocation set aside as “Constituency Projects” for members of the National Assembly. Sahara Reporters, May 16, 2016.  As Nigerians battle to comprehend the efficacy of the operation of a ubiquitous federal government system saddled with fulltime legislators at the local government, state and federal levels, most have come to agree that this system is fiscally challenging, impossible to sustain given the current economic realities in Nigeria amid questions of whether the people are getting any value or their money’s worth from this system and whether these elected government officials are representing themselves or the populace.

Unfortunately, the hydra-headed corruption has not spared any branch of life in Nigeria, from public to private life, attacking the executive, legislative and the once thought to be sacrosanct judiciary.

The spiraling hyper inflation, the devalued Naira, the removed fuel subsidy, the total collapse of the economy and the evaporation of personal and economic security make Nigeria a bubbling cauldron for mass agitation. This may possibly be averted if government does a  better job of  selling to Nigerians the gospel, that better days are ahead.

3. SECURITY

There is fairly general consensus that in a civilized society, the first and primary duty of government is the protection of its citizens. Even before Boko Haram, (the most dreaded terrorist organization in the world), the Nigerian government had fared poorly in keeping their own end of the social contract. In 1971, Ishola Oyenusi and his gang of seven were executed at the Bar Beach- Lagos, for a robbery at the WAHUM factory that netted the group $28,000. The execution was witnessed by over 30,000 persons. It was alleged that Oyenusi confessed that he would not have become an armed robber if his father had the money to train him in secondary school. Those days, crimes such as armed robbery were novel to Nigerians and attracted public condemnation. Kidnappings were rare and embezzlement of public funds was seen as a serious crime with the culprits  and their families made pariahs and ostracized. Many people who faced investigative panels probing their handling of public funds usually died of heart attacks before the conclusion of proceedings. No one knows precisely when the Nigerian psyche became numbed to crime and the fruits there from, or when it attained the  glamorization that it has today. By 1992 when the popular Nollywood thriller Living in Bondage came out, making money at all costs in Nigeria had become the norm. The film tells the story of a man who joins a secret cult, kills his wife in a ritual sacrifice, gains enormous wealth as a reward, and is afterwards haunted by the dead wife’s ghost. Today, armed robbery is common place, no longer news and has been joined by more lucrative criminal enterprises like kidnapping, brigandage by herdsmen, oil bunkering, cultism, violent agitation for separatism and so many other vices that have cheapened the life of the Nigerian. The meager sums for which armed robbers were executed in the 1970s are peanuts compared to the billions which few Nigerian elite now embezzle on a daily basis without any fear of repercussions, recriminations or public odium. While those in the privileged class could afford the luxury of police orderlies protecting them and their families, the ordinary Nigerian is exposed to the ugly prospect that his or her life is worth little or nothing and could be lost in a second. This is as the people who have robbed Nigeria blind have sequestered their children in the safe havens of United States, United Kingdom and other developed countries. To compound matters, Nigeria is said to have about 370,000 ill-equipped and demoralized police officers to police over 170 million persons. This is a poor average police to population ratio in the world compared with Russia’s 143 million people with about 782,000  well equipped police officers. Wikipedia: List of countries and dependencies by number of police officers.

One should be worried about the total lack of security seeking to envelope Nigeria. The Boko Haram insurgents  in the North East are being tackled vigorously by the Nigerian Military but  like bees, they have been dispersed from their honey comb in the North East. It appears that vicious  attacks (blamed on Fulani Herdsmen) are mushrooming in other parts of Nigeria like Agatu, Benue, Nimbo Nsukka, Enugu State, Nassarawa and other parts. A closer look should also be taken at the emerging conflict involving Shiite Moslems, followers of Sheikh al- ZakZaky, to ascertain whether the proxy war between Sunni Moslems backed by Saudi Arabia, and Shiites backed by Iran has extended to Nigeria.

Equally worrisome are the  separatist agitations of the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, MASSOB, the Niger Delta Avengers and other groups, whose agitations could metamorphose into full fledged insurgencies.

These security issues coupled with the unpalatable daily diet of frustration,  horrors and hopelessness  could push the masses over the precipice, leading to mass uprising, with the people  demanding  a government that is more responsive to their security and welfare.

4. YOUTH DISCRIMINATION, AGEING & SIT TIGHT RULING CLASS

According to Jekwu Ozoemene in his blog of November 1, 2015, titled, Memo to Nigerian Youth,

“The UN, for statistical consistency across regions, defines ‘youth’, as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years, an interesting definition in a country whose erstwhile ruling party’s Youth Leader was 60 years old and the current ruling party’s youth leader well past 50. I will be 43 in February 2016, almost 20 years passed the UN best-before date for youth so I cannot in good faith consider myself a youth (though I am young in mind and spirit). Unfortunately however, trapped in a time warp of a geriatric society, people well passed my age are still considered ‘youths’ in Nigeria. So it must have been people like us who were referred to when our leaders intoned that they cannot find an ‘outstanding’ Nigerian ‘youths’ to include in their Work-in-Progress Federal cabinet, a cabinet whose youngest member is 48 years old.”

Nigeria suffers from a chronic discrimination against the youth which feeds a culture of foisting geriatric leadership across all spheres of Nigerian life. To  make matters worse, Nigerians generally understate their age. It follows therefore that people in positions of authority in their 70s may actually be in their 80s, an age when their contemporaries in civilized societies would be enjoying peace in retirement. Chuba Ezekwesili captured this problem in his article, “The Economic Consequences of “Adultism” in Nigeria“, The Scoop, June 25, 2013:

“Adultism is a form of prejudice characterized by discrimination against young people. It’s the belief that adults are better than young people, and entitled to act upon young people without agreement. In Nigeria, your age in many ways determines how much respect you’ll be accorded, irrespective of your abilities. Such fanaticism on age leads to adverse political, social and economic consequences for Nigeria.”

A sampling of the age of the world leaders will put the problem in perspective, the President of the United States of America, Barrack Obama is 54 years old, David Cameron of Great Britain, 49 years old, Justin Trudeau of Canada 43 years old, while Vladimir Putin of Russia is 63 years old. At such average age, a typical Nigerian may still looking for his first job and may not have held any position of authority.

There is simply no space at the top, since virtually the same group of people have occupied the Nigerian political space since independence in 1960. These days in America, it is hard to remember that Bush Senior and Junior, and Bill Clinton were once Presidents. They and others quietly stepped aside, ushering in a breath of fresh leadership so that new ideas will continue to propel America to great heights. Not so in Nigeria where not long ago, Chief Anthony Anenih was pleading with the Nigerian “youth” who average over 50 years to be patient and wait for their turn. When a population feels condemned to the bottom of the barrel, with little or no opportunities to rise to the top, especially if the system is rigged against progress based on merit, it is only a matter of time before such a system explodes. This was identified to be one of the major causes of the Arab Spring.

5. SOCIAL IMBALANCES

In Nigeria, social development grossly lags behind economic development. The rate of poverty and the widening income disparity are reasons for grave concern when coupled with the widespread youth unemployment and stagnant economic development, one can appreciate that Nigeria could be sitting on a time bomb. In 1980, less than 30% of Nigerians were living below the poverty line. By 2013, this percentage grew to 50-60%. In fact some studies show that there has been no change in per capita income in Nigeria since 1970 despite the trillions of dollars in oil revenue that accrued to the country over the years. The wealth appears to have gone to a small percentage of Nigerians. At the same time, the average Nigerian has not witnessed a major improvement in his living standards since government investment in social services has been abysmal. Today, Nigeria cannot boast of good hospitals, good and quality education, good road infrastructure, public transportation, employment, or anything that can show that the massive wealth that accrued to the country in the past several years trickled down to the masses. It has been observed that when the benefits of economic growth are not reaching a majority of the people, and there exists increasing disparity in income and living standards between social groups and between regions, and where such is exacerbated by serious environmental degradation (as is the case in Niger Delta region), due to careless or over exploitation of natural resources, the country could experience serious turbulence.

The 2006 United Nations Human Development Index puts Nigeria at 159th out of 177  countries, with 70.8 percent of the population living on less than $1 per day and 92.4 percent living on less than $2 per day. There is consensus that high levels of poverty and inequality undermines social cohesion and endangers political stability. It is difficult to convince Nigerians to accept the status quo, when they are treated to a daily diet of how a small number of individuals misappropriated billions of dollars meant for their welfare.

 Even for those lucky to be employed, it is increasingly difficult to sustain the argument that the N18,000 minimum wage is a living wage, especially since the purchasing power of the Naira has been whittled down by hyperinflation, covert devaluation, exchange control issues and other factors.  While Nigerians are subjected to these indignities, people are debating the necessity of paying a N5000 per month safety net stipend to the unemployed youth, a campaign promise made by the ruling APC during the elections. Urgent steps need to be put in place to address the glaring socio-economic imbalances and dislocations plaguing the country if the country hopes to avert a Nigerian Arab Spring.

For those in doubt as to how dire the situation is, on or about May 10, 2016,  irate youth burnt down the houses of a serving Senator and that of a member of the House of Representatives in Kano allegedly for failing  to fulfill their campaign promises. New Telegraph Newspaper,  May 11, 2016. This should be a wakeup call for all of us. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, for it tolls for thee too!

BLOCK THE SALE OF WARPLANES TO NIGERIA - NEW YORK TIMES.

Fourteen months after the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria, the Obama administration is considering selling his government 12 warplanes. It is a thorny decision because Mr. Buhari is an improvement over his disastrous predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, and is fighting Boko Haram, the Islamist extremists who have terrorized the region. But he has not done enough to end corruption and respond to charges that the army has committed war crimes in its fight against the group. Selling him the planes now would be a mistake. 

Under Mr. Buhari, Nigeria has cooperated more with Chad and Niger to fight Boko Haram. The group, which emerged in the early 2000s, has seized land in the northeastern, predominantly Muslim section of Nigeria. Thousands of people have been killed and 2.2 million displaced. The group’s depravity captured world attention in 2014 when it kidnapped 276 girls from a secondary school. 

While violence is down and some territory has been recaptured, the group continues to attack remote villages and refugee camps, and it is using women and children as suicide bombers. American military officials say that Boko Haram has begun collaborating with the Islamic State and that the groups could be planning attacks on American allies in Africa. 

Yet Nigeria’s government cannot be entrusted with the versatile new warplanes, which can be used for ground attacks as well as reconnaissance. Its security services have long engaged in extrajudicial killings, torture and rape, according to the State Department’s latest annual human rights report. Amnesty International says that during the army’s scorched-earth response to Boko Haram between 2011 and 2015, more than 8,200 civilians were murdered, starved or tortured to death. 

The Obama administration was so concerned about this record that two years ago it blocked Israel’s sale of American-made Cobra attack helicopters to Nigeria and ended American training of Nigerian troops. American officials even hesitated to share intelligence with the military, fearing it had been infiltrated by Boko Haram. That wariness has eased and American officials say they are now working with some Nigerian counterparts. 

Since winning election on a reform platform, Mr. Buhari has moved to root out graft and to investigate human rights abuses by the military. But the State Department said Nigerian “authorities did not investigate or punish the majority of cases of police or military abuse” in 2015 

That hardly seems like an endorsement for selling the aircraft. Tim Rieser, a top aide to Senator Patrick Leahy, who wrote the law barring American aid to foreign military units accused of abuses, told The Times that “we don’t have confidence in the Nigerians’ ability to use them in a manner that complies with the laws of war and doesn’t end up disproportionately harming civilians, nor in the capability of the U.S. government to monitor their use. 

To defeat Boko Haram, which preys on citizens’ anger at the government, Mr. Buhari will need more than weapons. He has to get serious about improving governance and providing jobs, roads and services in every region of Nigeria. Until then or until Congress develops ways to monitor the planes’ use, it should block the sale.

HILLARY CLINTON, FACING PERFECT LEGAL STORM OVER EMAILS - NAPOLITANO

The bad legal news for Hillary Clinton continued to cascade upon her presidential hopes during the past week in what has amounted to a perfect storm of legal misery. 

Here is what happened.

Last week, Mrs. Clinton's five closest advisers when she was Secretary of State — four of whom remain close to her and have significant positions in her presidential campaign —were interrogated by the FBI. 

These interrogations were voluntary, not under oath, and done in the presence of the same legal team which represented all five aides.

The atmosphere was confrontational, as the purpose of the interrogations is to enable federal prosecutors and investigators to determine whether these five are targets or witnesses. Stated differently, the feds need to decide if they should charge any of these folks as part of a plan to commit espionage, or if they will be witnesses on behalf of the government should there be such a prosecution; or witnesses for Mrs. Clinton.

In the same week, a federal judge ordered the same five persons to give videotaped testimony in a civil lawsuit against the State Department which once employed them in order to determine if there was a "conspiracy" — that's the word used by the judge — in Mrs. Clinton's office to evade federal transparency laws. Stated differently, the purpose of these interrogations is to seek evidence of an agreement to avoid the Freedom of Information Act requirements of storage and transparency of records, and whether such an agreement, if it existed, was also an agreement to commit espionage — the removal of state secrets from a secure place to a non-secure place.

Also earlier this week, the State Department revealed that it cannot find the emails of Bryan Pagliano for the four years that he was employed there. Who is Bryan Pagliano? He is the former information technology expert, employed by the State Department to problem shoot Mrs. Clinton's entail issues.

Pagliano was also personally employed by Mrs. Clinton. She paid him $5,000 to migrate her regular State Department email account and her secret State Department email account from their secure State Department servers to her personal, secret, non-secure server in her home in Chappaqua, New York. That was undoubtedly a criminal act. 

Pagliano either received a promise of non-prosecution or an actual order of immunity from a federal judge. He is now the government's chief witness against Mrs. Clinton.

It is almost inconceivable that all of his emails have been lost. Surely this will intrigue the FBI, which has reportedly been able to retrieve the emails Mrs. Clinton attempted to wipe from her server.

While all of this has been going on, intelligence community sources have reported about a below the radar screen, yet largely known debate in the Kremlin between the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Intelligence Services. 

They are trying to come to a meeting of the minds to determine whether the Russian government should release some 20,000 of Mrs. Clinton's emails that it obtained either by hacking her directly or by hacking into the email of her confidante, Sid Blumenthal.

As if all this wasn't enough bad news for Mrs. Clinton in one week, the FBI learned last week from the convicted international hacker, who calls himself Guccifer, that he knows how the Russians came to possess Mrs. Clinton's emails; and it is because she stored, received and sent them from her personal, secret, non-secure server.

Mrs. Clinton has not been confronted publicly and asked for an explanation of her thoughts about the confluence of these events, but she has been asked if the FBI has reached out to her. It may seem counter-intuitive, but in white collar criminal cases, the FBI gives the targets of its investigations an opportunity to come in and explain why the target should not be indicted.

This is treacherous ground for any target, even a smart lawyer like Mrs. Clinton. She does not know what the feds know about her. She faces a damned-if-she-does and damned-if-she-doesn't choice here.

Any lie and any materially misleading statement — and she is prone to both — made to the FBI can form the basis for an independent criminal charge against her. This is the environment that trapped Martha Stewart. Hence the standard practice among experienced counsel is to decline interviews by the folks investigating their clients.

But Mrs. Clinton is no ordinary client. She is running for president. She lies frequently.

We know this because, when asked if the FBI has reached out to her for an interview, she told reporters that neither she nor her campaign had heard from the FBI; but she couldn't wait to talk to the agents.

That is a mouthful, and the FBI knows it. 

First, the FBI does not come calling upon her campaign or even upon her. The Department of Justice prosecutors will call upon her lawyers — and that has already been done, and Mrs. Clinton knows it. 

So her statements about the FBI not calling her or the campaign were profoundly misleading, and the FBI knows that. Mrs. Clinton's folks are preparing for the worst. 

They have leaked nonsense from "U.S. officials" that the feds have found no intent to commit espionage on the part of Mrs. Clinton. Too bad these officials — political appointees, no doubt — skipped or failed Criminal Law 101. 

The government need not prove intent for either espionage or for lying to federal agents.

And it prosecutes both crimes very vigorously.

FANTASTICALLY CORRUPT COUNTRY, NO APOLOGY NEEDED - PRESIDENT BUHARI

Icheoku says President Muhammadu Buhari was right and appropriately responded that Nigeria will not seek nor demand any apology from British Prime Minister David Cameron for calling Nigeria a fantastically corrupt country because the prime minister spoke the truth. The president was also right in calling Britain to help and assist Nigeria recover the looted funds held in British bank vaults and laundered as choice properties in London and other British territories. Icheoku says the president spoke well and rightly articulated the thinking of majority of honest Nigerians who truly meant well for the country. It is foolhardy for any Nigerian to demand the head of a man who simply spoke truth to corrupt Nigerians and in a matter which affects the country and the wellbeing of their country men and women. 

Unfortunately some Nigerians are taking up issue with the PM, claiming that he was out of diplomatic niceties by so publicly calling out Nigeria for its corruption. Icheoku says these pinheads are wrong in tacitly condoning corruption by Nigerians, in hounding the prime minister for speaking out. They should instead be praising the prime minister for whistle blowing on prevalent corruption amongst Nigeria's elite. It is also important that the Prime Minister spoke on the authority of one who should know and knows, being the leader of Britain and privileged of information of financial dealings and transactions within Britain. It is also a fact of consequence that the West eavesdrops on virtually every communications throughout the world and most likely heard conversations involving these Nigerian thieves of state. 

That all mortgages transactions and other outright purchase of properties within Britain are duly documented and their owners easily verifiable is also a fact of consequence in this call out by the British prime minister. So Nigerians instead of being unduly and unreasonable patriotic in the defense of their country, should pile on pressure on David Cameron to help them recover their loot treasure hidden in Britain. That is a more sensible thing to do; but to needlessly pretend that the prime minister overreached himself is foolish as evidence of wanton corruption is everywhere for every unbiased eyes to see. A matter made worse by the lurid disclosures in the ongoing $2.1 or rather $15.1 corruption investigation involving arms deals in Nigeria popularly known as the Dasikugate scandal. 

Icheoku commends the courage or rather the fortunate hot mic that yielded this public chastisement of Nigeria by the British prime minister. Hopefully it will  provide the much needed push for Nigerians to demand more from their leadership and encourage them to up the ante in the war on corruption and demand more accountability in their leaders. Icheoku prays that the government of Nigeria will keep the heat on British prime minister and his government and challenge them to do something about Britain being a receptacle of global corruption proceeds. If this is achieved, then the public humiliation was not in vain, otherwise what a scolding it was that Nigeria was called out alongside Afghanistan as the most corrupt country in the world. What a condemnation.