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How
N2N can help the President
By Taiwo Obe
Posted Sun Jan 15,2012
President Jonathan
The other
night, Fola Adeola, banker, businessman, philanthropist and, er,
politician, tweeted: “Why are the governors silent?” or
something to that effect. A few minutes after, I rephrased the
question on my facebook status update: “Where is the Governors’
Forum?”
So, I started a search and found what I
believed was the
answer. It was in a story where the Minister of Finance and
Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
said she was being dressed in a borrowed robe as the “Face of
Subsidy Removal.”
Yes, she may have come to Nigeria via the World Bank
route but, “The
World Bank and IMF have nothing to do with this, absolutely
nothing! This is an internal government decision and President
Jonathan has made it very clear. Remember, six months before I
came, the governors have all pushed for subsidy removal,” she
cried. Well, she is not the “mastermind,” but she doesn’t mind
the policy; otherwise she would have, as the Coordinating
Minister of the Economy, told his principal to shove it.
Being a restless soul, I continued my search and found two
governors railing against the federal government’s handling of
the economy - long before what is now known as theoccupynigeria
movement, or what Fela Anikulapo-Kuti would have wasted no time
in dubbing wedontiretodeycarryshit movement. The one, Chibuike
Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers State and chairman, Nigerian
Governors’ Forum, and the other, Adam Oshiomhole, the ex
Nigerian Labour Congress president and governor of Edo State.
Please note that both belong to different political parties;
Amaechi, to Nigeria’s ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), and Oshiomhole, to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
They spoke at the 41st Annual Conference of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
First, the governors’ governor:
“The
Federal Government said its recurrent expenditure was 73 per
cent. But how do we transform with 25 per cent capital
(expenditure)? When I took over in Rivers State, our recurrent
expenditure was 20 per cent, with capital at 80 per cent. That
is why we are asking for an amendment to the 1999 constitution.
“The Federal Government increased salaries without consulting
us, (so) we are currently doing recurrent expenditure at 35 per
cent, but our capital is 65 per cent. The Federal Government
needs to do something and in doing that they must prioritise.”
He was
not through. “I want to
talk about the issue of subsidy, not more than 100 Nigerians are
being paid this subsidy of about N1.4tn.
“I
question the arbitrariness in the payment of this subsidy. Why
can’t we set up refineries? Why must we continue to import fuel
when we have oil in abundance in Rivers State?
“I want Nigerians to challenge the government and hold them
accountable because it is only when we do this that we will
start seeing the building of refineries in Nigeria.”
And, now, the Comrade:
“On the recurrent and capital expenditure, it is an open secret
that it is impossible for us to revise the situation.
“When I
took over in Edo State, the recurrent was like 70 per cent and
capital 30 per cent. Even with the new minimum wage, our
recurrent is 40 per cent while capital is 60 per cent.
“We had
to cut down on unnecessary expenses. Since the Minister of
Finance (Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala) is new, she needs to start on
a clean sheet. I think the starting point is to revisit the way
the Federation Account is being managed.
“How
much do we even make from oil? How many barrels of crude oil do
we export daily? The situation has become so complex. Just
yesterday (Monday), my Accountant-General told me that during
the pre-Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting, the
NNPC deducted N100bn for subsidy.
“The
PPPRA even did worse than that, he told me they deducted N131bn
and these figures are over and above what was in the budget and
we all know that in a democracy, no one has the right to spend
what has not been appropriated.
“The
NNPC takes money from source, no one is complaining, PPPRA also
takes money from source and nobody is asking questions.”
He concluded: “We need
to go beyond transformation, what we need is a complete
revolution in the infrastructure of this country. Between
1999 and now, a huge amount had been invested in the power
sector and I have thought about the problem of the power sector
and have come to a conclusion that the public sector cannot give
us power because I haven’t seen new tools and approach to
solving the problems in the power sector.” (See
“Amaechi, Oshiomhole rubbish FG economic policy,”
The Punch, Wednesday,
19 October, 2011)
We learnt last week that these the duo were among the governors
who attended the meeting reportedly convened by President
Goodluck Jonathan to “dialogue” with representatives of labour
and the civil society. Since we were not told what their
contributions at the meeting were, we would “stand on existing
protocol,” as they say, being their aforementioned lambasts.
No matter.
What does, and, which is the heart of
this matter, is the
intervention of the group known as Neighbour to Neighbour for
Transformation Initiative (N2N). You would have seen their
in-your-face ads in various newspapers, on TV and wherever else.
The one I saw on Sunday, 8 January proclaimed:
“Today, we state categorically that nothing has changed. The
product, the man and the message….” The product and the man are
none other than Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, president and
commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the
message is what they call Transformation. N2N said that they
had, during Dr Jonathan’s presidential election campaign,
“knocked on your doors, bothered you with phone calls, and
assailed your living rooms with messages and jingles from radio
and television stations…to (sell) a product ….to tell our story
of the imminent dawn of a new era. A new era of
Transformation!….” And, with the imminence of a nationwide
strike, they had come again to ask Nigerians not “to lose the
faith and trust (they) have in him (the product, the man)
…because he is fighting day and night for us.” On the issue of
removal of fuel subsidy, which really was why they had to assail
our eyes again, they came out the next day with another
in-your-face ad, stating matter-of-factly, that with billions of
money “spent” on Agriculture, Education, Health…and Fuel
Subsidy, “there is nothing to show for it…” They said it.
In other words, they are in
sync with the governors and the people that nothing has changed
and nothing to show for it.
Beyond advertising, the folk
at N24 have to do more: to help the president in actualising his
vision and mission of Transformation.
Let’s proceed to consider a
few ways that the president could be helped, and don’t worry, it
is for free: we truly love this country.
In his nationwide broadcast on 7 January
2011, President Jonathan had concluded: “As I ask for the full
understanding of all Nigerians, I also promise that I will keep
my word.” From the various rallies by
Nigerians at home and abroad, one of the messages is that the
Jonathan Administration uses the word “promise” loosely. To
prove Nigerians wrong and, so that they can “keep faith,” dear
N2N friends, why don’t you set up a website where you can upload
ALL the promises made directly by the President during the
presidential campaign so that Nigerians can track the
Government’s performance. If you need help with what these
promises are, you can ask Mr Sonala Olumhense to get you the
original manuscript, perhaps with his autograph, of his series
run in The Guardian on
Sunday, in May 2011, entitled “Non-Governing Governance: A
Mountain of Promises.”
Or, simply, ask The Guardian’s librarian to send you the
copies, if you can’t get them online. And, if you need help with
how to achieve it, you can spend some time on
www.politifact.com,
which motto is: “Sorting out the truth in politics.” Or simply
contact Tampa Bay Times, Florida, USA, which has won the
Pulitzer Prize for this beautiful work. Just in case you don’t
know already, “PolitiFact is a project of the
Tampa Bay Times to
help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and
editors from the Times
fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House,
lobbyists and interest groups and rate them on our
Truth-O-Meter,” declares PolitiFact on its website. Guys, be not
afraid; go on this mission with the charge, in Onitsha, Anambra
State, on 27 February, 2011 by Dr Jonathan: “I do not make empty
promises in my campaign because whatever I promise to do, I had
already carried out adequate study to make sure I can accomplish
them in the next four years.”
The people of Nigeria, at home and abroad, have, in unison, said
– and are still saying - that while a majority of us are “shuffering
and smiling” (as per “The Happiest People on Earth”) their
Governments (executive, legislature, judiciary, at federal,
state, and local government levels) are feeding fat on our
commonwealth. If you permitted yourself to read some of the
postings on this subject, you would have seen all sorts of
allowances (hardship, newspaper, farting…) that are being
mentioned. So, what should N2N do about this? Do a position
paper to the President, simply entitled, “Cutting the waste.”
Let me quickly digress. I used to wait anxiously for the
magazine of the Department for International Development (DFID)
called Developments.
Then came the Coalition Government of the United Kingdom with
their Big Knife and my beloved magazine was one of the many
items that were axed. As a matter of fact, when Nigerians were
told to expect Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s maiden announcement which
would indicate the transformational direction of the Jonathan
Administration, I had expected a presentation that would include
all the areas that the government would cut this and that, but
it was an anti-climax. All we were told was that the national
(2011) budget was/is (since it is still operational) N4.5
trillion (about US$30billion), 75 per cent of which is recurrent
expenditure, and that within the next four years, this would be
brought down to 70 per cent. Not even bothering with the almost
insignificant reduction, the big question was HOW would this be
achieved? What was being cut from where? I, personally, had
expected something in the manner of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer George Osborne’s 100+ paged “Spending Review 2010”
presentation to the British Parliament on 20 October 2010.
You can find this here:
http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sr2010_completereport.pdf. The
SR “set a CLEAR (emphasis, ours) direction for reform.” And, “it
(came) at a time when the State is spending significantly more
money than it raises in taxation, and is having to meet the gap
–called the deficit – by borrowing at record levels.” Please,
read that again, and you probably would pick out some words that
are similar to what Dr Okonjo-Iweala and even the Central Bank
of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi used in the week that
was. Just a few hours ago, United States President Barack Obama
indicated that he would seek Congressional authority to
“consolidate six agencies dealing with trade and commerce to
give businesses a single government contact point,” to quote
Bloomberg.
As he put it:
“We
live in a 21st century economy, but we’ve still got a government
organised for the 20th century….With this authority, we could
help businesses grow, save businesses time, and save taxpayer
dollars.” If you remember, the T Y Danjuma-led Presidential
Advisory Council, set up by Dr Jonathan - one of his first acts
as acting president - had in a memorandum on the effective and
optimal management of national resources, submitted in January
2011 (that’s a year ago), advised him to reduce the size of the
“bloated” federal bureaucracy. Following this, and believing
that, indeed, there was need to “eliminate overlap, duplication
and redundancies,” Dr Jonathan set up a Committee on
Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government
Parastatals and Agencies, with Mr Stephen Oronsaye, one-time
Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, as its chairman.
This was after the then Secretary to the Government of the
Federation had reviewed reports and reports on appropriate
sizing of the federal bureaucracy. Said Jonathan at the
inauguration of the Oronsanye Committee: “The adhoc committee
constituted by the SGF noted that there were indeed duplications
and overlaps in the mandate and responsibilities of the
parastatals and agencies and recommended the setting up of a
broader committee to carefully examine the enabling Acts of the
federal parastatals, agencies and commissions and identify all
areas of overlap and duplication of functions with a view to
their eventual rationalisation. …Government attaches great
importance to this committee’s assignment in view of the
financial implications of maintaining a federal bureaucracy with
over 400 parastatals and agencies.” He directed the committee to
start work immediately, and submit its report within EIGHT
weeks, stating: “I have no fear whatsoever that your findings
and recommendations will go a long way to transform the
parastatals and agencies in line with this administration’s
determination to ensure greater efficiency and productivity.”
That was in August 2011. Very little has been heard about what
the committee has done or is doing. It is known that Mr Oronsaye
also chaired a panel which probed the activities of the Niger
Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and had submitted what they
called an “interim report.” Details of the report were not made
public even as the Federal Government may have acted on it by
changing the leadership of the NDDC.
Fielding questions from journalists on the day the NDDC
“interim report” was submitted, Oronsaye was quoted thus:
“People should not think that because of rationalisation, it is
just going to lead to job loss. No. If anything, we are only
going to look at how we can save cost and deploy other people to
agencies on sheer value, so that Nigeria can be better for it.”
In October 2011, there was a speculative report – you know the
type that says “it was learnt that” and “reliable sources say” -
in The Nation talking
of a “preliminary report” recommending some mergers and whatever
else.
When you reflect on this, then you would understand the point
also raised by Nigerians, at home and abroad, during the
protests: there should be more openness, transparency and
accountability.
My dear
N2N friends, please tell the president that Nigerians want
transformation in this area. While you are figuring how to couch
that, you may want to know that the United States Government, in
fulfilment of President Obama’s pledge “to make government more
open and accountable to its citizens,” set up an online portal
called “We, the People” (https://www.whitehouse.gov/petitions)
“giving Americans a direct line to the White House on the issues
and concerns that matter most to them.” This is how it works,
according to information on the White House website: “Anyone 13
or older can create a petition on WhiteHouse.gov and gather
like-minded folks to sign it. Once a petition gets 150
signatures it goes live on WhiteHouse.gov and is searchable. If
the petition then reaches 5,000 signatures, it will be reviewed
by the administration and an official on-the-record response
will be issued from a policy expert on the given matter.” Says
David Plouffe: “We the People gives you a new way to join
together with others to ask your government to address a
problem, change a policy, or take action on a range of issues.”
If you don’t mind, please check out
www.whitehouse.gov/advise. You will also see how the White
House, believing that they don’t have the reservoir of knowledge
on how to make their country work, seek advice from the people.
“When President Obama says that we can’t wait to put Americans
back to work, he’s not talking about the White House. He’s
talking about all of us. That we is everyone. We know that some
of the best ideas will come from outside Washington, and that’s
why we want to hear from you.”
Just one more point on openness, and we
would be done. There is a body called Open Government
Partnership (OGP) which is “committed to openness in government,
greater civil participation in public affairs and seeking ways
to make their governments more transparent, responsive,
accountable and effective.” As at September 2011, 50 countries
have signed up. No, Nigeria is not among. Yes, South Africa,
Ghana, Kenya and Liberia are among. You will find everything on
www.opengovernmentpartnership.org.
Oh yes, we, the good people of Nigeria want
our great country truly
transformed. And, yes, it can be transformed – with everyone
playing their part – sincerely, faithfully and patriotically.
And, so help us God.
Obe is group editorial director, Harpostrophe Limited, and
owner/manager, EverythingJournalism group on LinkedIn.com
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