THE QUEST FOR POLITICAL POWER AND CONTEMPORARY ECONOMIC REALITIES IN NIGERIA

As it is well known, every season has activities that keep persons within it busy. Presently in Nigeria, individuals and groups, especially politicians and political parties, have kept themselves pre-occupied with the pursuit of political power that, expectedly, could be actualized in May, 2015. To that extent, every nook and cranny of the landscape of Nigeria is charged with a very high tempo of political jamboree, manoeuvres and manipulations. Typical of Nigerian politicians, promises are being made left, centre and right. The electorate may not be surprised to hear political aspirants promise to construct bridges where there is no pond, much more river.

A retrospective glance at Nigeria makes it clear that the country will be fifty-five years of independent nation-hood on October 1st, 2015, being the year of the anticipated next general elections. Any man at fifty-five who does not feelinsulted, if addressed as a child or even a boy, must be singled out for a special case study in psychology.

It is pertinent to recall that Nigeria held a lot of optimism for her citizenry at independence on October 1st, 1960. It was a country which leadership manifested vision, mission, patriotism, altruism and transparency. At the time of independence, oil and gas had not become the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy. Emphasis was maximally placed on agriculture and revenue so generated translated to quantifiable development projects. Income from palm produce was used to build the first indigenous University in Nigeria; the University of Nigeria, Nsukka under the first Premier of the defunct Eastern Region, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe. In the former Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, as Premier of the region, harnessed resources from cocoa to build the famous University of Ife. In the same vein, Sir Ahmadu Bello galvanized resources from groundnuts and cotton to build the first University in the defunct Northern Region; Ahmadu Bello, Zaria in his capacity as Premier of the region. The country witnessed a buoyant and dependable economy. Nigeria’s balance of trade was assuring.

Before the discovery of oil in commercial quantity, which almost coincided with military adventurism in Nigeria, the Nigerian youths were known for their ingenuity and creativity. The educated amongst them were determined to make their marks in their chosen fields of endeavour and career. Those who could not go to school, took to agriculture, trade or one skill or the another. It was almost a taboo for a young man to come out from school and head straight to politics without first making a mark either in the public or private sector.

One might be tempted to say that the discovery of oil and gas in Nigeria meant more harm than good. This could be substantiate by the fact that Nigerians turned themselves into a mere consumer-nation instead of the producing-nation they had hitherto been. Nigerian youths, whose youthful energy should have intrinsically or extrinsically been channelled towards productivity, have, rather, resorted to being corrosive parasites  hanging destructively on the nation’s economy. It is today, therefore, common to see hundreds, if not thousands, of young Nigerians whose curriculum vitae only highlight their participation in political matters. More than sixty percent of the Nigerian youths do not contribute, in any productive manner, to the growth of the country’s economy. He that does not produce but only consumes is worrisomely and devastatingly a parasite.

As the saying goes, no condition is permanent. The oil and gas sector that regrettably made Nigeria and her citizens live a false way of life has been on a steady decline. Expected national revenue from the sector is no longer feasible. Budgetary implementations have become characterized by precariousness and extremity of pecuniary difficulties, if not impossibilities. The country’s currency; the Naira, has nose-dived to a level of economic discomfort. Many governments in the country appear to be at the cross –roads with the present economic realities.  

It is necessary to observe that because of the materialistic assumptions Nigerians have about governance, many of the present political aspirants to high positions of responsibility may not be in tune with current economic realities that are systematically engulfing every segment of the country’s economy. With the price of oil crashing on a daily basis, oil being recently discovered in some other countries, the United States of America’s policy of non-importation of petroleum from Nigeria, rise in illegal oil bunkering in the volatile Niger Delta region and the current irresponsible and most destructive insurgency by mentally deranged extremist moslems in both North-East and North-West of Nigeria, even including some parts of the North-Central, whosoever is aspiring to leadership in Nigeria in 2015, especially via the executive arm of government, should be prepared psychologically to inherit a system that may have just little, if not nothing, trickling from the Federal Account Allocation Committee, FAAC.

Any governor in 2015 that will be deficient in vision, enterprise, resourcefulness, transparency, ability to diversify his state’s economy and dexterity in managing and multiplying resources will feel terribly disappointed.

From every indication, Nigerians will not be ready to take excuses from Chief Executives who will fail to deliver on their mandates merely on the grounds that not much is received from the Federal government. Leaders, especially Governors, must be mentally articulate, resourceful and disciplined as to guarantee efficient and effective diversification of their moribund economies. They should also conduct a study on how Governor T.A Orji of Abia State has successfully managed the meagre resources of the state to place it where it is currently without borrowing any dime from the bond market. This piece will not be successfully rounded off if caution is not given that leaders that will succeed  in the next dispensation will surely be ones that will maintain a very reasonably safe distance from sycophants whose only contributions to governance are mischief, treachery, gossip, blackmail and opportunism. May God save Nigeria.

Chief (Sir) Don Ubani; Ksc, JP
(Okwubunka of Asa)

Breaking News! Orji Uzor Kalu Finally Arrested in Abuja

Former governor of Abia state Orji Uzor Kalu was today arrested at the gate of Eagle Square Abuja as President Jonathan declares his re-election bid. Our source said Kalu was arrested when he wanted to force himself into the arena with an unmarked car. Security men at the gate insisted that he should be searched before hewill be allowed, but Kalu who wanted to play smart told his driver to force his way in.

At this point the security men ordered him down, searched his car and in the process discovered some strange objects suspected to be bomb. He was promptly whisked away with other female occupants of the vehicle.

More details soon

Arthur Eze and peripheral roads in Abia State

IT is only a blind man who will not attest to the fact that there is absence of Federal concern in the whole of South East region and Abia State in particular due to the fact that it is centrally located as a result of its geographical connectivity to the peripheries of neighbouring states.

This situation has remained static for quite sometime that we can no longer keep quiet because people of the South East have continued to suffer in silence for the fact that we purposefully remain loyal to Mr. President.

The fact that roads in Abia State have erroneously remained on the front burner is not only troubling but calls for immediate concern and attention by appropriate authorities. South East remains a major bloc of supporters in Jonathan’s administration and yet there is not much to write home about with respect to nature and status of federal infrastructures in the region.

The crux of this write up is to disprove the notion in circulation that Abia roads are bad, which is not the same thing as saying that roads in Abia are bad, because road users do not know the difference. In Abia State federal roads criss cross the length and breath of the landscape and not one is faultless to say it mildly. Beginning with Enugu, Port-Harcourt road which is almost a death trap that has constituted serious menace to the economy of the south east and Abia State in particular to the Arochukwu-Ohafia road for which attempts in its reconstruction by the Federal Government have been aborted by unscrupulous contractors, other federal roads in Abia are Aba to Ikot Ekpene express way via Ogbor Hill Aba, Ikot Ekpene to Umuahia via Ikwuano, Umuahia, Ohafia, Arochukwu to Ikot Ekpene/Itu/Calabar express roads.

The present administration of Chief T. A Orji has continued to toil in the turmoil of federally located infrastructure and rather than receive encomiums is being vilified by some uninformed and unpatriotic elements most of whom are in a better position to canvas for federal attention in the south east but rather than do that they choose to pass wrong judgment on a State which is struggling to come out of the woods due to long period of neglect by past administration because they would not like to be preserved as been confrontational with the federal authorities in order not to endanger their businesses at the cost of dilapidation of federal presence in the south east. The comments attributed to a businessman who visited Abia with respect to roads in the State is not only massively doctored to suite a media fit in Lagos owned by a sworn enemy of Abia who has been crying over spilt milk for long time now, but misdirected at the wrong target all in the bid to play to the gallery. In the past, honest evaluations of infrastructure which have been conducted in Abia have attested to the incontrovertible fact that the current Governor of Abia State has done very well in a formerly dry land where nothing existed than propaganda.

Today in the south east erosion has continued to ravage the environment thereby constituting fear and despair among the populace particularly in Anambra, Imo and Abia States but our so called leaders have turned a blind eye to it. It is no longer secret that the federal authority is selective in its road reconstruction projects which has tilted more to the North because it feels the Igbos can not raise an eye brow.

The State of federal roads in Abia is simply deplorable particular along Aba axis and the whole stretch of Arochukwu Ohafia roads for which the contractor is said to have absconded with the fund already available to him, and as such the so called businessman whose verbitude and character of speech is enmeshed in controversies can be more useful to the society by assessing correctly and reporting situations to the appropriate authorities to the benefit of the entire populace.

ABIA BEFORE AND AFTER - COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS IN PICTURES