Article written by former Abia State Governor, Mr. Orji Uzor Kalu read......
HISTORY MADE YESTERDAY.
Contrary to the widely-held view of political analysts and irredentists that Nigeria was going to disintegrate after the 2015 general elections history was made yesterday when a new President and some governors successfully took the oath of allegiance, thereby qualifying them to hold the offices for the next four years.
I could not believe what I saw yesterday as a new Federal Government was born. President Muhammadu Buhari exuded confidence, resplendency and panache as he took the oath. His face shone like a million stars, while Nigerians looked forward to happier and more fruitful years ahead.
Beneath the outward hilarity and gaiety lay gargantuan challenges that require extraordinary solutions. Nigerians are full of expectations that President Buhari is going to perform magic. Their expectations are after all not misplaced since the new administration had promised to tackle the myriads of problems confronting the nation with uncommon commitment and courage.
From what I saw Nigerians are not ready for any excuses. All they want is immediate action to deal with the critical troubles besetting Nigeria.
For those who know Nigerians very well their problems are basic and not too difficult to fix. All they want are good roads, water, jobs, steady electricity, employment and security. They do not care how much their leaders starched away in foreign banks or the magnificent properties they own. You may have all the wealth in this world they care no hoot about it provided you give them the basic necessities of life.
I have not, up till today, understood why our leaders should always abandon the voters that gave them power to chase shadow instead. No sensible leaders, I guess, would fail to pay their workers at the end of every month when there is no moral justification to do so. However, from statistics available to me, many state governments, including the federal government, failed to pay their workers arrears of their salaries before their exit, in spite of the advice by President Buhari before he was sworn in for them not to leave any arrears of salaries unpaid.
Every four years the electorate queue up to elect new leaders who do not have, by their actions, their collective interest at heart. Their actions while in office smacked of insensitivity and egoism.
The past four years had been the worst in the history of the country. The more they hoped, the more they were disappointed. It is regrettable that the last administration allowed itself to be manipulated by some persons in positions of authority in the same government. This is not the best of times to engage in frivolities. What the nation and its people need now are peace, development and love.
There is too much wickedness in our land. This makes Buhari’s assignment a bit cumbersome. But who will bell the cat? If you ask me, Buhari has the moral fortitude, intellect, courage and passion to move Nigeria forward. Some of the leaders Nigeria had had in recent times cared only about themselves and left the masses placed under their aegis to suffer and perish. But God, in His infinite mercy, has continued to cater for the needs of the masses.
The events that culminated in the successful staging of the 2015 elections showed vividly that God is with Nigeria. But do not forget that despite the palpable fear in the land over 2015 elections I had always assured Nigerians that nothing would come between it and progress. I have written in this column on a few occasions that no human force can destroy Nigeria. Our people’s faith in Nigeria is as solid as the Rock of Gilbraltar. That was why I did not betray any emotions or fears when some former foreign diplomats repeatedly warned that Nigeria was going to disintegrate in 2015.
Their allusion to self-destructive tendencies was based not on any prophecy really, but on what they had envisaged as violence that was going to erupt should Buhari or Jonathan lose. They also considered the negative consequences of corruption and the growing disenchantment among the various ethnic groups that make up Nigeria. Of particular mention here is insurgency in the north east of Nigeria and some parts of Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa. So all these added up, they had thought, would lead to the disintegration of Nigeria.
The concession of defeat by former President Goodluck Jonathan ever before the final results were tallied helped greatly to douse tension and increase the credibility the elections enjoyed.
I must state here without any equivocation that the history that was made yesterday would not have been possible without the cooperation of Nigerians. Even though the turnout of voters in the elections was a little below average it still contributed substantially to the relative peace we have enjoyed so far. That Nigerians came out to vote at all and ensured that their votes counted could not give troublemakers the opportunity they had sought to foment trouble.
Again, the insistence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use card readers for the accreditation of voters also broke the backbone of election riggers. The undeniable truth is that the success recorded in the elections would have been truncated if INEC had not used the card readers. Probably, those that had thought Nigeria was going to disintegrate in 2015 did not factor in the use of card readers for the elections.
Those opposed to the use of card readers and other measures introduced by the electoral body to guarantee free, fair and credible elections in 2015 had planned to rig the elections and create the magnitude of trouble that would have engulfed and destroyed our nation. If this had happened then the prophecies of the prophets of doom would have come to pass. But God in his infinite mercy thwarted their evil plots and gave us an election of which a sizeable number of Nigerians and members of the international community were proud of.
I recall with deep sense of trepidation the wicked plans of those that had wanted to balkanize Nigeria. Why has Boko Haram continued to wage war against the federal government and its agencies? The answer lies in the plot to destabilize Nigeria by some subterranean forces. What if their plans had succeeded? Where would we have been by now? Would we have witnessed the glory of what happened yesterday? Of course, no!
Boko Haram remains one singular problem facing Nigeria. Despite the military bombardments in recent weeks they have continued to unleash destruction of unimaginable levels on hapless Nigerians. The northeast geopolitical zone has continued to witness occasional bombings by Boko Haram. And this tells one that the sect is ready to do battle even if it is only one man among them is left standing. However, this does not mean the military does not have the upper hand in the fight against them.
It is worrisome that the dreaded sect was allowed to dig in deep, even to the point that uprooting them has become quite cumbersome. That the Chibok girls have not been found means that our joy will not be complete if eventually in the end the war ends without them. Each time I remember these girls my heart skips. Poor innocent girls! What have they done to deserve this kind of treatment from their fellow compatriots?
To destroy the ugly spectre of violence connected with Boko Haram is one huge challenge facing Buhari – beginning from yesterday. In fact, the whole nation believes strongly that his administration will find the girls and reunite them with their families. Nevertheless, I have my own fears. Much as Nigerians are hopeful of the eventual return of the girls they should not lose sight of the inevitable reality. And that is that the girls may not be complete in number whenever they are found. Do not forget that over 400 days had passed since they were abducted. And nobody can tell for sure under what conditions they have been kept.
I pray daily that miracle happens over the girls to show the world that our God is still alive. There is nothing impossible for Him to do. He is He that can kill and make alive again. We need to intensify prayers to see what God can do for us in this connection.
I challenge President Buhari to put his security infrastructure into proper use to forestall undue delay in tackling insecurity in the country. As he has always said without security little could be achieved in other areas of our national life. We need adequate security to attract foreign investments and make life worth living. No reasonable investor can bring in his hard-earned money to invest in an environment that is replete with crisis and instability.
It is gratifying to note that Nigerians are becoming increasingly security conscious and this will make the fight against insurgency easier, unlike in the past when only a few Nigerians showed interest in it. The fight against Boko Haram is one the new administration can handle with minimal stress considering the enormous goodwill at its disposal. It will leverage on the immense experience of Buhari who, as a GOC, gave the dreaded Maitatsine religious sect a run for their money. He sent them into oblivion and they could not muster enough courage and logistics to re-launch. The same fate will befall Boko Haram unless they have a change of heart and embrace dialogue. Unfortunately, going by the person Buhari is he may not have the patience to negotiate further with the sect. All the opportunities they had in the past to resolve the matter have been wasted. So, they should be ready for the consequences of their actions.
How Buhari plans to deal with the unpaid arrears of workers’ pay running into hundreds of billions is another problem I envisage will set the hand of the clock back a little. But I trust the wisdom and foresight of Buhari. For those who know him he is a man of ideas and indescribable courage. He is also passionate about the people he leads. This will propel him to find a lasting solution to the nagging problem of workers’ salaries.
In tackling the issue of unpaid salaries, I urge Mr. President to see what he can do about gratuities and pensions of retired workers. Many of those that retire from the service go home without their gratuities. On what are they going to live in retirement? State governors should be compelled to ensure they pay their workers as due, including pensions and gratuities. As far as I am concerned a labourer is entitles to his wages, no matter what. It is wicked and insensitive for any worker to retire without his benefits. It is only in Nigeria that such outrageous things happen.
The economy poses the hugest problem, even though some people think it is power. Both are essential nonetheless: power is as significant as human development; they complement each other.
Instructively, the three priority areas of the present administration are security, employment and economy. The three are intertwined. This is logical: provide security, attract investment and boost the economy, then people get jobs. Wealth and job creation is at the centre of modern economic trends. Divorce one from the other and you leave the country limping. There is too much poverty and want in Nigeria resulting from disparity between wealth and job creation. If Buhari can find a lasting solution to youth employment then insecurity is half-addressed. The manpower for crimes comes from idle hands, which are the devil’s working tools. Many of them abound in Nigeria.
But I was taken aback when I read recently that many of our youths are unemployable right from their days in school, ever before they gained admission into college. What this means is that no matter the efforts by Universities to ameliorate the situation it will never produce the desired result. In any case, I have a contrary view here. The decadent academic system we currently have arose from the fact that nobody really cares about what the public opinion was. From comments in the media about Nigeria’s educational system it is certain that it is long due for restructuring. The restructuring should centre on the curriculums that our primary and secondary schools use at present. They should contain those elements that drive development and foster national integration and cohesion. They should as well address the cankers such as moral decadence, cultism, drug abuse among juveniles, and corruption that have ravaged our fatherland.
The economy as it stands now is comatose – almost collapsing. Last week the nation was thrown into darkness for over a week. Thousands of passengers were seen stranded at various airports across the country – all as a result of scarcity of fuel. Abuja and Lagos airports were the worst hit. Many Radio and TV stations have abandoned their night segment as a result of scarcity of fuel. In fact, every service provider had threatened to shut down should the situation persist.
I must commend Independent Oil Marketers for calling off their strike. At least Nigerians can now heave a sigh of relief. Let me however call on President Buhari to cancel subsidy on petroleum products without delay. Subsidy is not only criminal, but it is responsible for the majority of the problems we have encountered in the oil sector.
Efforts should be made by the new administration to check scarcity of petroleum products. The resultant effect of the scarcity of petroleum products is the high cost of living. Imagine what has become the fate of the common man in this circumstance. When will the welfare of the common people in our society receive commensurate attention from government? When will Nigerians enjoy the benefits that life brings? When will the suffering in the land end? These are questions that every caring administration must provide answers to.
There is so much pressure on Buhari to deliver the goods and that is why he should stamp his feet down to ensure that the right things are done to save our nation from the real threats of disintegration.
We have survived the doomsday prophecies, no doubt, but can we survive the booboos by enemies of progress who think that Nigeria belongs to them alone?
Whatever machination they come up with in future will surely be thwarted by God in whom we place our hope of salvation.
Nigerians are elated that, at last, Buhari has successfully assumed office as President and Commander-in-Chief. Expectations are feverishly high. And by the special grace of God these expectations will be met in the months and years ahead, so that Nigeria can join the league of truly developed economies; not the current status of giant dancing naked in the sun.
Article written by former Abia State Governor, Mr. Orji Uzor Kalu read......HISTORY MADE YESTERDAY.
Contrary to the widely-held view of political analysts and irredentists that Nigeria was going to disintegrate after the 2015 general elections history was made yesterday when a new President and some governors successfully took the oath of allegiance, thereby qualifying them to hold the offices for the next four years.
I could not believe what I saw yesterday as a new Federal Government was born. President Muhammadu Buhari exuded confidence, resplendency and panache as he took the oath. His face shone like a million stars, while Nigerians looked forward to happier and more fruitful years ahead.
Beneath the outward hilarity and gaiety lay gargantuan challenges that require extraordinary solutions. Nigerians are full of expectations that President Buhari is going to perform magic. Their expectations are after all not misplaced since the new administration had promised to tackle the myriads of problems confronting the nation with uncommon commitment and courage.
From what I saw Nigerians are not ready for any excuses. All they want is immediate action to deal with the critical troubles besetting Nigeria.
For those who know Nigerians very well their problems are basic and not too difficult to fix. All they want are good roads, water, jobs, steady electricity, employment and security. They do not care how much their leaders starched away in foreign banks or the magnificent properties they own. You may have all the wealth in this world they care no hoot about it provided you give them the basic necessities of life.
I have not, up till today, understood why our leaders should always abandon the voters that gave them power to chase shadow instead. No sensible leaders, I guess, would fail to pay their workers at the end of every month when there is no moral justification to do so. However, from statistics available to me, many state governments, including the federal government, failed to pay their workers arrears of their salaries before their exit, in spite of the advice by President Buhari before he was sworn in for them not to leave any arrears of salaries unpaid.
Every four years the electorate queue up to elect new leaders who do not have, by their actions, their collective interest at heart. Their actions while in office smacked of insensitivity and egoism.
The past four years had been the worst in the history of the country. The more they hoped, the more they were disappointed. It is regrettable that the last administration allowed itself to be manipulated by some persons in positions of authority in the same government. This is not the best of times to engage in frivolities. What the nation and its people need now are peace, development and love.
There is too much wickedness in our land. This makes Buhari’s assignment a bit cumbersome. But who will bell the cat? If you ask me, Buhari has the moral fortitude, intellect, courage and passion to move Nigeria forward. Some of the leaders Nigeria had had in recent times cared only about themselves and left the masses placed under their aegis to suffer and perish. But God, in His infinite mercy, has continued to cater for the needs of the masses.
The events that culminated in the successful staging of the 2015 elections showed vividly that God is with Nigeria. But do not forget that despite the palpable fear in the land over 2015 elections I had always assured Nigerians that nothing would come between it and progress. I have written in this column on a few occasions that no human force can destroy Nigeria. Our people’s faith in Nigeria is as solid as the Rock of Gilbraltar. That was why I did not betray any emotions or fears when some former foreign diplomats repeatedly warned that Nigeria was going to disintegrate in 2015.
Their allusion to self-destructive tendencies was based not on any prophecy really, but on what they had envisaged as violence that was going to erupt should Buhari or Jonathan lose. They also considered the negative consequences of corruption and the growing disenchantment among the various ethnic groups that make up Nigeria. Of particular mention here is insurgency in the north east of Nigeria and some parts of Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa. So all these added up, they had thought, would lead to the disintegration of Nigeria.
The concession of defeat by former President Goodluck Jonathan ever before the final results were tallied helped greatly to douse tension and increase the credibility the elections enjoyed.
I must state here without any equivocation that the history that was made yesterday would not have been possible without the cooperation of Nigerians. Even though the turnout of voters in the elections was a little below average it still contributed substantially to the relative peace we have enjoyed so far. That Nigerians came out to vote at all and ensured that their votes counted could not give troublemakers the opportunity they had sought to foment trouble.
Again, the insistence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use card readers for the accreditation of voters also broke the backbone of election riggers. The undeniable truth is that the success recorded in the elections would have been truncated if INEC had not used the card readers. Probably, those that had thought Nigeria was going to disintegrate in 2015 did not factor in the use of card readers for the elections.
Those opposed to the use of card readers and other measures introduced by the electoral body to guarantee free, fair and credible elections in 2015 had planned to rig the elections and create the magnitude of trouble that would have engulfed and destroyed our nation. If this had happened then the prophecies of the prophets of doom would have come to pass. But God in his infinite mercy thwarted their evil plots and gave us an election of which a sizeable number of Nigerians and members of the international community were proud of.
I recall with deep sense of trepidation the wicked plans of those that had wanted to balkanize Nigeria. Why has Boko Haram continued to wage war against the federal government and its agencies? The answer lies in the plot to destabilize Nigeria by some subterranean forces. What if their plans had succeeded? Where would we have been by now? Would we have witnessed the glory of what happened yesterday? Of course, no!
Boko Haram remains one singular problem facing Nigeria. Despite the military bombardments in recent weeks they have continued to unleash destruction of unimaginable levels on hapless Nigerians. The northeast geopolitical zone has continued to witness occasional bombings by Boko Haram. And this tells one that the sect is ready to do battle even if it is only one man among them is left standing. However, this does not mean the military does not have the upper hand in the fight against them.
It is worrisome that the dreaded sect was allowed to dig in deep, even to the point that uprooting them has become quite cumbersome. That the Chibok girls have not been found means that our joy will not be complete if eventually in the end the war ends without them. Each time I remember these girls my heart skips. Poor innocent girls! What have they done to deserve this kind of treatment from their fellow compatriots?
To destroy the ugly spectre of violence connected with Boko Haram is one huge challenge facing Buhari – beginning from yesterday. In fact, the whole nation believes strongly that his administration will find the girls and reunite them with their families. Nevertheless, I have my own fears. Much as Nigerians are hopeful of the eventual return of the girls they should not lose sight of the inevitable reality. And that is that the girls may not be complete in number whenever they are found. Do not forget that over 400 days had passed since they were abducted. And nobody can tell for sure under what conditions they have been kept.
I pray daily that miracle happens over the girls to show the world that our God is still alive. There is nothing impossible for Him to do. He is He that can kill and make alive again. We need to intensify prayers to see what God can do for us in this connection.
I challenge President Buhari to put his security infrastructure into proper use to forestall undue delay in tackling insecurity in the country. As he has always said without security little could be achieved in other areas of our national life. We need adequate security to attract foreign investments and make life worth living. No reasonable investor can bring in his hard-earned money to invest in an environment that is replete with crisis and instability.
It is gratifying to note that Nigerians are becoming increasingly security conscious and this will make the fight against insurgency easier, unlike in the past when only a few Nigerians showed interest in it. The fight against Boko Haram is one the new administration can handle with minimal stress considering the enormous goodwill at its disposal. It will leverage on the immense experience of Buhari who, as a GOC, gave the dreaded Maitatsine religious sect a run for their money. He sent them into oblivion and they could not muster enough courage and logistics to re-launch. The same fate will befall Boko Haram unless they have a change of heart and embrace dialogue. Unfortunately, going by the person Buhari is he may not have the patience to negotiate further with the sect. All the opportunities they had in the past to resolve the matter have been wasted. So, they should be ready for the consequences of their actions.
How Buhari plans to deal with the unpaid arrears of workers’ pay running into hundreds of billions is another problem I envisage will set the hand of the clock back a little. But I trust the wisdom and foresight of Buhari. For those who know him he is a man of ideas and indescribable courage. He is also passionate about the people he leads. This will propel him to find a lasting solution to the nagging problem of workers’ salaries.
In tackling the issue of unpaid salaries, I urge Mr. President to see what he can do about gratuities and pensions of retired workers. Many of those that retire from the service go home without their gratuities. On what are they going to live in retirement? State governors should be compelled to ensure they pay their workers as due, including pensions and gratuities. As far as I am concerned a labourer is entitles to his wages, no matter what. It is wicked and insensitive for any worker to retire without his benefits. It is only in Nigeria that such outrageous things happen.
The economy poses the hugest problem, even though some people think it is power. Both are essential nonetheless: power is as significant as human development; they complement each other.
Instructively, the three priority areas of the present administration are security, employment and economy. The three are intertwined. This is logical: provide security, attract investment and boost the economy, then people get jobs. Wealth and job creation is at the centre of modern economic trends. Divorce one from the other and you leave the country limping. There is too much poverty and want in Nigeria resulting from disparity between wealth and job creation. If Buhari can find a lasting solution to youth employment then insecurity is half-addressed. The manpower for crimes comes from idle hands, which are the devil’s working tools. Many of them abound in Nigeria.
But I was taken aback when I read recently that many of our youths are unemployable right from their days in school, ever before they gained admission into college. What this means is that no matter the efforts by Universities to ameliorate the situation it will never produce the desired result. In any case, I have a contrary view here. The decadent academic system we currently have arose from the fact that nobody really cares about what the public opinion was. From comments in the media about Nigeria’s educational system it is certain that it is long due for restructuring. The restructuring should centre on the curriculums that our primary and secondary schools use at present. They should contain those elements that drive development and foster national integration and cohesion. They should as well address the cankers such as moral decadence, cultism, drug abuse among juveniles, and corruption that have ravaged our fatherland.
The economy as it stands now is comatose – almost collapsing. Last week the nation was thrown into darkness for over a week. Thousands of passengers were seen stranded at various airports across the country – all as a result of scarcity of fuel. Abuja and Lagos airports were the worst hit. Many Radio and TV stations have abandoned their night segment as a result of scarcity of fuel. In fact, every service provider had threatened to shut down should the situation persist.
I must commend Independent Oil Marketers for calling off their strike. At least Nigerians can now heave a sigh of relief. Let me however call on President Buhari to cancel subsidy on petroleum products without delay. Subsidy is not only criminal, but it is responsible for the majority of the problems we have encountered in the oil sector.
Efforts should be made by the new administration to check scarcity of petroleum products. The resultant effect of the scarcity of petroleum products is the high cost of living. Imagine what has become the fate of the common man in this circumstance. When will the welfare of the common people in our society receive commensurate attention from government? When will Nigerians enjoy the benefits that life brings? When will the suffering in the land end? These are questions that every caring administration must provide answers to.
There is so much pressure on Buhari to deliver the goods and that is why he should stamp his feet down to ensure that the right things are done to save our nation from the real threats of disintegration.
We have survived the doomsday prophecies, no doubt, but can we survive the booboos by enemies of progress who think that Nigeria belongs to them alone?
Whatever machination they come up with in future will surely be thwarted by God in whom we place our hope of salvation.
Nigerians are elated that, at last, Buhari has successfully assumed office as President and Commander-in-Chief. Expectations are feverishly high. And by the special grace of God these expectations will be met in the months and years ahead, so that Nigeria can join the league of truly developed economies; not the current status of giant dancing naked in the sun.
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