Is Jonathan Goodluck an Insurance?

"What I see is a multitude of candidates--GEJ IBB, Atiku, Buhari, Utomi, Ribadu all slugging it out in the general election. The opposition is hoping that there will be need for a run off and they can align behind one candidate. I don't agree with that strategy. I believe PDP as in Jonathan will win the general election outright if there is MORE than one opposition candidate from the list above. " -Joe Attueyi


Joe Attueyi:

I completely agree with your analysis.The multitude notwithstanding, there are two, and only two camps, in this election:

1. The Business-As-Usual Crowd:
 When you get down to it, there is only one reason behind their candidacy: they have already lived in Aso Rock, and they love it. And they really want another chance to pamper themselves some more!


2. The CHANGE Candidates:
This camp candidates  are, above all, animated by a desire for a better future. At the very least, these folks have PROVEN their  personal integrity. They have discipline, especially in the presence of money.

There are many  qualities you want in a president, but my fellow Nigerians, at this point in time, the ability to look money in the eye, and to decide that the one Family House you already own is really all you will ever need in your lifetime, is the one critical quality we need in Aso Rock. We need a leader with moral clarity. Because we must be clear about our number one problem -the root of every other evil in our nation:

WE ARE LOOTING TOO MUCH MONEY!!

Did someone say that Jonathan was some kind of 'insurance'? Insurance for what - the continuation of business as usual ???

An insurance is an arrangement that gets your back when everything else falls. Would you ever buy an insurance, knowing that your insurance company is GUARANTEED to go broke at the very moment when your house burns down?

The business-as-usual crowd have brought Nigeria to its knees, and here is the thing: with the business-as-usual crowd, the difference between one candidate and the other is non-existent. This is NOT the time for UMYA-like half-measures and pretend-solutions

Because when push gets to shove, if this election comes down to Jonathan versus Buhari, or to Jonathan versus Ribadu, I guarantee you that even IBB will support Jonathan 1000% !! Among themselves, the looters understand what is at stake! A rose will smell as good by any other name, and a looter will spend N950 Million on an 'Anniversary Parade', whether he is named IBB or Jonathan.

So my people, we must now allow the famous fear of IBB to stampede us into embracing another agent of the business-as-usual cabal. If we are prepared to have a Jonathan presidency, we should as well get comfortable with an IBB presidency, because, as far as the Nation's future is concerned, the difference between the one and the other is fiction.

What should we do?

For 2011, we MUST put all our eggs in one basket. Having a megalomanic ego is a number one requirement for contesting the Presidency, but if they truly love the nation, Buhari, Ribadu & Utomi should  join forces together. Right now! It is the ONLY chance we've got! With PDP incumbency in most of the states, overthrowing the status quo is already next-to-impossible. If we go into 2011 with a splintered progressive vote, we have already failed as well.

Those who know these men should please pressure them to put objective before self and to consolidate effort. Anything less will GUARANTEE failure for all.

God Bless the Federal Republic, and if he doesn't, may the Sun rise again and soon, because our patience is already exhausted!

Dominic


HE GOLDEN JUBILEE BUDGET BREAKDOWN
Here is a breakdown of the new budget:

1. Anniversary parade - N950 million
2. National Unity Torch tour - N350 million
3. First Lady's package (to visit select orphanages, National Children's Parliament session, party for 1000 children) -  N90 million
4. Presidential banquet - N40 million
5. Cultural, historical & military exhibitions - N310 million
6. 'Food week' - N40 million
7. Secretariat equipment, accommodation, logistics & utilities - N320 million
8. 50th anniversary logo - N30 million
9. Ministry of Information & Communication (adverts in local & international press) - N1.52 billion
10. Guests transport & accommodations - N700 million
11. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (anniversary parties) - N105 million
12. Party favors for foreign dignitaries - N450 million
13. Variety Gala night & fireworks - N210 million
14. Football friendly matches (international & local) - N200 million
15. Event planners - N120 million
16. Publication on Nigeria - N400 million
17. Publication on Legislature - N150 million
18. Publication on Judiciary - N50 million
19. Golden Jubilee Plaza - N10 million
20. Tower of Unity in 36 states - $540 million
21. Debates, essays, conferences, lectures & colloquium - N150 million
22. Concerts and carnivals - N60 million
23. Masquerades, cultural events and durbar - N100 million
24. 10 symbolic monuments of Nigeria's founding fathers - N80 million
25. Tafawa Balewa Square memory tone - N40 million
26. Security and protocol - N500 million

'Medicals' - N25 million

Functional Education in a Global Economy

Extract from Text of address delivered by Daniel Elombah at the African Leaders of Education Summit at Wembley Plaza Hotel, London.

This is a gathering of eminent academicians, Professors, Vice-Chancellors and Education Practitioners eminently qualified to dissect the problems besetting African education and proffer solutions.
As an individual and a father, I am a customer of the education business. My son will also be a customer. I wish to approach my topic from a clients’ point of view.

The question therefore is: If “the customer is king”, and a “customer is always right”, to what extent does the individuals and institutions whose business it is to provide me with what I want, what I need, go to satisfy my wants and needs.

As an African living in Nigeria for instance, why should I get secondary and tertiary education? What do I want from my education providers?

The answer is simple: to be equipped to excel in my environment, to acquire the necessary tools to live in the modern world. And that includes among others; the ability to express myself, to get a job and earn income commensurate with my learning and abilities.

So if after acquiring my LLB,LLM, PhD or whatever high sounding degree that exists, if the aforementioned needs are not met, the education business have failed me and I should go back for a refund...yes, refund my money!

In today’s global economy, the goal post and what I need to live in the modern world is further expanded. A graduate from Africa should no longer be content to get a job in his country, for example.

The world is now a global village and multi-national companies reigns supreme. An African graduate will thus expect to compete with foreigners for the available jobs in his own country. He could also apply to work in companies based abroad.

In the UK for example, City Law Firms in London employ Lawyers from China and Australia; City Financial Institutions from India, Hospitals source doctors and Nurses from Hong Kong, Philippines, IT experts are employed from India.

So an African education should equip an African Law graduate to get a job in Link-Laters London. A Graduate of Finance in UBS Switzerland; Barclays Capital New York; British Petroleum etc

Now, many countries from Africa belong to the Commonwealth, with English as the official language. It is to be expected therefore that Law graduates from Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe– tutored in the common law system - should be able to get jobs in City Law Firms. But that is not so. But you see the Chinese working in these Law Firms after learning English.

When I came to London seven years ago as a qualified “BARRISTER” from Nigeria I discovered to my chagrin that I am ill-equipped to compete for places in UK Law Firms so I had to back and do further studies at the University of East London. (Employability Depts.)

Oil has been discovered in several countries in Africa including Ghana and Angola. Sudan and Libya etc are major suppliers of oil. But who are being employed in these international oil firms? Italians, Americans, Norwegians, Chinese...whereas a country like Nigeria that discovered oil in 1958 should be supplying oil experts to these African countries if our education curriculum is synchronised with the needs of the oil Industry. Our educational Institutions should be able to supply the human capital needed for these businesses, but that is not the case.

WHY?

The education Business (please I note I always use this term, “education business”, because it is business) in most countries in Africa is facing monumental challenges. From what has been said in this conference these problems include resource inefficiencies and misallocations in the composition of public spending across educational levels, and poor quality of schooling from elementary to higher education, gross enrolment rates both at the primary and secondary levels are low, even when compared with the averages for other developing economies and is worse in Sub Saharan Africa.

........

I am representing Transform Nigeria Citizens Initiative, popularly known as Transform Nigeria Movement, This week we hope to submit a memo to the Honourable Minister of Education, on the way forward based on the Resolution of the Education Reforms Committee of the Transform Nigeria Movement at their meeting held on the 18th of July, 2010.

The Nigeria Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, on July 20, 2010 unveiled a six-prong, one-year education development strategy for the country.

I can say with confidence that our submission to the Minister could be equally applied to other African countries.

We identified 8 serious problems with the Nigeria education sector that was been ignored in the government plan Education Strategy.

1. The penchant for Nigerian political office holders to educate their children abroad or in expensive private schools.

2. The Curriculum of the educational Institutions is out of sync with the needs of the Business Community of the 21st century.

..........

We observed that while the recommended UNESCO international target for government investment in education suggests that 26% of the national budget should be invested in education, in Nigeria, the amount budgeted for education has continued to go down – about 8% - in comparison to the amount spent on maintaining the expensive lifestyle of our political office holders.

We equally pointed out a research study conducted by Dr Fred Okwo, Dr Eunice Okeke, and Mrs Catherine Oreh, at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in December 1996, titled ‘Enrolment Trend and Drop-Out of Boys in Primary Schools in Eastern States in Nigeria (1993-1996) showed that the four Eastern states under study are recording a decreasing trend in both boys and girls enrolment in primary schools and a constant increase in dropout rates of boys enrolled in secondary schools between 1993 and 1996.

...........

We at the TNM concluded that Nigeria is still using antiquated education system of the past decades already abandoned by the international community.

The Nigerian educational sector cannot compete with the advanced technologies of this world; we are still using chalk and blackboard when the world has gone digital.

There is currently a tri-partite apartheid in Nigeria education system: The super rich educates their children abroad, the middle class go to private schools while the public schools is left for the dregs of the society.

We therefore made the following 11 Recommendations:

1. Primary Education should be made free, compulsory and comprehensive. Primary schools should be so funded so that minimum financial commitment will be required of parents.

2. The Constitution should be amended to make the obligation to provide free and compulsory education up to University level justiciable.

3. A bill should be enacted by the National Assembly to make it compulsory for the children of political office holders to educate their children in public schools in Nigeria or else should quit and become private citizens - Transform Nigeria Movement should liaise with other stakeholders to sponsor such bill

4. Government should strictly observe the UNESCO’s recommendation of 26 per cent of the nation’s annual budget to the education sector.
.................

Another area we have to look at is a change of attitude. To this end The Transform Nigeria Citizens Initiative has initiated a program called 'My Generation Project' (MGP)

My Generation Project (MGP) is a cohort program that emphasizes that corruption is not beneficial to self and community. MGP will specifically design an anti-corruption curriculum that will help to disseminate accurate information about the effects of corruption in the Nigerian society and the consequence of flouting the law.

This Curriculum is adapted to enable participants will learn about International anti-corruption organizations, the judicial system, Community development, civil obligations & Human Rights, anti-corruption strategies, Conflict Resolution, Diplomacy, Due process, rule of law and good governance. Emphasis is laid on Speaking the Truth, Leadership, Ethics, and Diversity.

We at Transform Nigeria Movement believe that the state of a country’s education is a reflection of the state of their economic development and the general attitude of its citizenry to such issues as corruption, rule of law, good governance and due process.

So the second phase of My Generations Project, MGP, is the establishment of an Anti-Corruption Academy.

The Academy will function as a centre for anti-corruption capacity building, promoting best practices in investigations, monitoring and assisting Nigerian law enforcement agencies and interested Nigerians in newer areas such as accounting, forensic science, ethics, and impacting transformational leadership training for anti-corruption officers and business executives.

Another Project that we have established and we hope should be pushed into the Education system is aimed at inculcating the volunteer spirit in our youths. It is called Community Development and Volunteer Project.

9 State Governors have mortgaged the Future of their citizens

An atrocity is taking place in some States of Nigeria. Just in case you don't know, Nine Nigerian States have accessed the Nigerian capital market for funds via bonds and so far have raised N108 billion from 1999 to date.

 These states claim they raise this money for the financing of infrastructure projects. When the treasury has been looted dry, the State Governors resort to borrowing. Future generations are now being saddled with bondage of debts.

The future of the citizens of those states is being mortgaged, and no one is asking questions!

According to statistics obtained from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), in the last 11 years, the nine states that successfully issue bonds between 1999 to 2009 include : Edo (1999) N1billion; Delta (2000) N3.5billion; Yobe (2001) N2.5 billion; Ekiti (2002) N4billlion (in 2 tranches of N2.5b in 2002 and N1.5b in 2004); Lagos (2002) N15billion, Cross River (2003) N4billion, Akwa Ibom (2004) N6billon, Kebbi (2006) N3.5 billion, Lagos (2009) N50 billion first tranche of a N275 billion; Imo (2009) N18.5billion bond issue is Series 1 of a N40billion Medium Term bond issuance programme.

In most of these states, the reasons for borrowing the funds were not specified. Most were classed under the omnibus heading: “for various projects”.

In fact, many more States have approached the capital market for funds, but they have not been able to access the market for long term fund (bond) because of their inability to tidy up their financial statements which is part of the conditions that must be fulfilled before approval is granted to them by the Commission.

Meanwhile, more state governors are in a race to issue bonds from the capital market include: Ogun, Bauchi, Kano, Niger and Kwara states.

 These states, last year, expressed preparedness to hit the capital market with bonds issuance so as to fund cash soaking long-term infrastructure schemes.

In Ogun State, the mad rush for bonds has assumed a theatre of the absurd.

If you are from any of the above states, what are you doing about this?

Jonathans Ambition to be President would Bankrupt Nigeria

Now that President Jonathan has decimated the Excess Crude Account
• Jonathans Ambition to be President would Bankrupt Nigeria

Around August 2007, the newly elected governors of the 36 states of the federation met and clamoured for the release and sharing of the excess crude funds. The governors had been mounting pressure on the former President, Umaru Yar’adua to approve the sharing of the money from excess crude oil sales as provided by the constitution, saying that it would help them stabilise in their states which treasuries had been looted by some of their predecessors.

According to them, injecting the excess funds into the economy would create job opportunities for the teeming army of unemployed youths in the country. But the Federal government through the CBN, under Professor Chukwuma Soludo refused to budge stating that sharing the funds in the Excess Crude Account, ECA, may be disastrous for the economy.

Fast-forward to February 2010. One of the first acts by Jonathan Goodluck upon being made acting president was to approve the disbursal of $2 billion from the country's windfall oil savings between the Federal and State governments. Fuelling suspicion that the disbursal was an attempt to quieten those who might otherwise seek to undermine him, a charge government and presidency officials then strongly denied.

At the inception of his government, President Jonathan Goodluck inherited about $7 billion in the Excess Crude Account.

The excess crude account stood at over $20 billion when Yar'Adua took over in 2007 but his administration regularly dipped into the account. Relatively high oil price meant the money in the ECA remained at $20.1 billion at the end of 2008. The account has a balance of $20 billion as at January 2009. By December 2009, Former President Umaru Yar’adua had reduced the Account to $7.8 billion.

Then in February 2010, Jonathan Goodluck, then Acting President asked Federal, States and Local governments to share $2 billion from an earlier balance of $6.2 billion, leaving about $4.1 billion in the account.

In March 2010, he approved the disbursal of a further $1 billion from the country's windfall oil savings, leaving about $3.1 billion in the account. The move brings to $3 billion the total amount of Nigerian oil savings that Jonathan approved for disbursal to the country's 36 states and government agencies in one month!

Then on Friday, August 13 2010, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwanbo announced to journalists shortly after the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting, which was chaired by the new Minister of State for Finance, Hajiya Yabawa Lawan-Wabi that the remaining $3 billion in the Excess Crude Account was depleted and shared among the Federal and State Governments this month leaving only about $460 million in the account.

$2 billion of it was shared among the three tiers of governments while $1 billion was set aside for the proposed Sovereign Wealth Fund which is yet to be signed into law, he said.
The present administration is raising concern about Nigeria's commitment to fiscal discipline. There are growing concerns that so much have been taken from the Excess Crude Account without tangible improvement in the lives of Nigerians.

Nigerians are asking; why is President Goodluck Jonathan in a hurry to deplete The Excess Revenue Account accrued from revenue derived from Crude Oil Sales, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) and Royalties over and above the budgeted benchmark of the Federal Government of Nigeria for each year.

The logic for saving excess crude revenue, according to the CBN is that the oil sector is highly volatile when one considers the past experience of oil boom and reckless spending of the 70s which caused depression around 1978 and forced the country to start borrowing.

While ECA was rightly used to meet the shortfall in revenues caused by low oil prices in 2008 and 2009, the worrying signs in terms of fiscal deficit and depletion cannot be ignored.

Alarmingly, of the $17 or so billion withdrawn from the account since February 2009, it appears that only $5.3 billion was invested in any capital project – Yar’adua’s emergency power project.

Even that investment has been somewhat opaque - Likened to Obasanjo’s investment of $16billion on Independent Power Project, IPP - there was no evidence that Yar’adua’s allocation actually went to Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN.

The remaining withdrawals have been shared among the federal, state and local governments. Likely, these have been spent on recurrent items.

Does it have anything to do with preparations for the 2011 election?
In an address titled “Safe-guarding Nigeria’s Fiscal Health: Some Considerations for the Present and the Future”, delivered to mark the 24th and 25th combined convocation ceremony of the University of Calabar, 08 April 2010, former Minister of Finance and Director at the World Bank, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala pointed out that while ECA was rightly used to meet the shortfall in revenues caused by low oil prices, the worrying signs in terms of fiscal deficit and depletion cannot be ignored.

Warning against depleting Excess Crude Account, Okonjo-Iwealla stated that Nigeria’s huge fiscal deficit, rising domestic debt, depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and the distress in the banking sector are issues that urgently need the attention of Jonathan’s cabinet.

Obviously, the absence of cranial matter between the ears of President Jonathan Goodluck means that nothing stops this warning from going in through one ear and escaping through the other ear.

Alternatively, it could be that Jonathans Ambition to be President would Bankrupt Nigeria.

More than one hundred days into his presidency it is now apparent that President Goodluck Jonathan has the ambition to remain president beyond 2011 despite his party’s zoning agreement.

Soludo’s economic thesis, prophecy of doom – FEC

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday disputed claims by a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, that the economy had a dismal outlook as a result of poor fiscal management. Reacting to Soludo’s claims in a newspaper on Wednesday, the Minister of State for Information and Communications, Mr. Labaran Maku, said there was more confidence in the Nigerian economy, contrary to Soludo’s “prophesy of doom.” Soludo had said on Wednesday that, if preemptive measures were not taken immediately, Nigeria’s economy was “doomed” to a worse form of structural adjustment programme and “something will have to give”. He added that the government had been piling up domestic and foreign debts with no improvement in the economy. However, the FEC argued that Soludo should be held accountable for the economy’s problems. “Professor Soludo, as you know, was CBN governor until about two years ago and we hold him accountable for all that is happening,” Maku said. He pointed out that the latest reports from the CBN presented to the Council by Soludo’s successor, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, projected that the economy would grow by seven per cent, adding that the economy was on the right track. He said, “We do know that in the last one year, we have been battling with the circumstances we inherited from the misapplication of the reforms in the banking sector. “We are confident in the economic policies of this administration – we have been investing resources in the key sectors of the economy, especially those that have multiplier effects on the economy.” The minister, however, said the government would take a “critical” look at the claims. He said, “He (Soludo) is a distinguished Nigerian and as you do know, he was CBN governor until slightly over a year ago when he was relieved of his responsibilities and therefore we want to look critically at what he said.” Maku also observed that Soludo’s statement might have been politically motivated. “You know we are in partisan economic times, and so, for every person speaking about the Nigerian economy today, you have to analyse critically why those comments are coming at these critical times,” he said. He said the establishment of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria was to address some of the crises inherited by the government. Meanwhile, the FEC approved various contracts on Wednesday, including an earlier dropped memo for a N2.1bn contract in favour of Messrs Macmillan Nigeria Limited for the supply of textbooks to Nigerian schools. The contract was stepped down after the FEC received information that the World Bank had blacklisted the firm. However, the Council had to approve the contract on Wednesday after enquiries at the World Bank revealed that the blacklisted firm was Macmillan United Kingdom and not Macmillan Nigeria. Also, the Council approved the revised estimated total cost for the Sabke Dam project in Katsina State, in favour of Messrs CGC (Nigeria) Limited with an augmentation sum of N415.9m, bringing the total contract sum to N1.2bn.

Ribadu dares Jonathan, IBB, joins presidential race

The former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, on Thursday declared that he would vie for the presidency in 2011, less than 24 hours after President Goodluck Jonathan and the former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, did same.

In his characteristic manner, he insisted he was not intimidated by the power of incumbency enjoyed by President  Jonathan, who is also an aspirant or the stature of those of other contenders like Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida.

Ribadu, who is not known to be a card-carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), maintained sealed lips on the ticket on which he wishes to actualise his ambition, while confirming his interest in vying for the seat of number one citizen of the country to journalists in Abuja.

The former EFCC boss said he was inspired to be part of the team that was on the mission to rescue the country and place it on a new path of progress, even as he continues with necessary consultation before he publicly declares.

He said whatever ticket he chooses eventually must be national in outlook, but with the motive of saving the country from the perennial problems of corruption, insecurity and general backwardness.

Ribadu, unlike President Jonathan, promised to solve the lingering problems of insecurity and erratic power in the country if elected.