Boosting Regional Cooperation in Africa

By: Salisu Suleiman

Within hours of his swearing in as President of France, Francois Hollande was on his way to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. For a man who had aspired to be president since the age of 15, it was extraordinary that he spent his first night as president not in the Élysée Palace, but in a hotel room in Berlin, so important is the European Union to France and Europe.

Reports in the past week suggest that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are contemplating a closer union in addition to strengthening economic ties. Similarly, former bitter enemies and rivals, China, Japan and South Korea are now seeking a trading pact. Nuclear armed rivals India and Pakistan are also exploring the potential of stronger economic ties.

Across the world, countries are coming together to promote economic and political interests by easing trade barriers and boosting regional cooperation. Except in Africa, where a truck conveying Ivorian goods to Nigeria will pass through about 43 checkpoints and process about 32 different documents. Yet both countries (and all others in-between) are members of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS).

Catching a flight from Nigeria to Mali involves multiple flights and may take days instead of hours. Markets in Nigeria have few goods from Africa, while it is hard to find made in Nigeria goods in other African countries, even if we produce little besides crude oil. Despite decades of rhetoric, intra African trade and economic cooperation remain largely neglected, at great loss to the continent.

The time has come for African governments to promote higher levels of cooperation towards achieving national and regional developmental goals and objectives. In the short run, the process may be disruptive, as long accepted practices are thrown out and regulatory agencies forced to cope with uncertain conditions. As things stand now, few African governments appear ready for these challenges.

Thus, Africa’s one billion people are scattered in 57 countries and territories. Even experts have difficulty mapping the peculiarities of each country. The populations, cultures, and politics of these countries differ greatly, thus hindering opportunities for economic integration. This means that continent’s regional economic blocs must play greater roles in promoting economic and trade, while facilitating the agenda for stronger political integration.

Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are not new. Since the 1970s, several RECs have emerged in Africa. ECOWAS/CEDEAO was the first such bloc and is a regional group of fifteen countries, founded in 1975. Its mission is to promote economic integration in “all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, Natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters”.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been in existence since 1980, when it was formed as a loose alliance of nine majority-ruled states in Southern Africa known as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC). Its central objective is to coordinate the development of projects in order to lessen economic dependence on the then Apartheid South Africa and to promote regional cohesion. Its transformation from a coordinating conference into a proper regional development bloc occurred in 1992 when the Declaration and Treaty were signed at the Summit of Heads of State and Government, thereby giving the organization a legal character.

The East African Community (EAC) is the regional intergovernmental organisation of the Republics of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Republic of Rwanda and Republic of Burundi with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. The EAC has a population of about 130million. The aims are to widen and deepen co-operation among the partner states in political, economic and social fields for their mutual benefit.

The COMESA (Common market for Eastern and Southern Africa) states, in implementing a free trade area, planned to remove all internal trade tariffs and barriers. COMESA’s focus is the “economic prosperity through regional integration”. With its 19 member states, population of over 389 million and annual import bill of around US$32 billion with an export bill of US$82 billion, COMESA is a major market for both internal and external trade.

The Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) is a Pan-Arab trade agreement aiming for economic and political unity in North Africa. It was created with the objective of developing a common market among its member states of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. The main objectives of the Arab Maghreb Union Treaty are to strengthen all forms of ties among member states for the purpose of facilitating regional stability and enhance policy coordination. The UMA Treaty also planned to gradually introduce free circulation of goods, services, and factors of production among them.

With all these organisations, frameworks and treaties in existence, it is startling that Africa still has about 40 different currencies, while only about 11 per cent of the continent’s total trade is conducted within Africa

                                                                                  

What Jonathan will Say in 2014

My dear compatriots, after my election as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2011, my intention was to serve a single term, then hand over the baton of leadership to another elected president. Immediately after the election, I introduced plans and policies to unify our country and heal the wounds caused by the highly divisive poll and its violent aftermath. I also pledged to transform Nigeria and make it a country we can all be proud of. I promised Nigerians a breath of fresh air.

As we approach another election year, it is pertinent to reflect on these issues as we look forward to the future. It is on record that when I took office, over a quarter of Nigerians were unemployed. Though we set up various strategies to address the problem, unemployment remains unacceptably high and millions of Nigerians still have no jobs, nor any means of livelihood. I believe it would be unfair to bequeath such a burden to another administration.

My fellow countrymen, you will recall that even before I became president, about 100 million Nigerians lived in poverty. In the last three years, my government has confronted poverty head-on. By empowering our poverty alleviation agencies, we recorded some measure of successes. But poverty cannot be eradicated within four short years. Our efforts are bearing fruit, though not as quickly as we wanted. With more time, I am optimistic that we will defeat poverty and free Nigerians from hunger and disease.

Four years ago, I approved the establishment of nine federal universities in different locations across the country. I am happy to inform you that these universities will soon produce graduates. Our opponents may say none of Nigeria’s universities appears on the list of the top 1,000 universities in the world and that our education is still in doldrums. To them I say: education takes time to develop. The decay we met was too deep to be sorted out in three or four years. We have made significant progress, but need more time to consolidate.

Dear Nigerians, there is a well-orchestrated conspiracy by sections of the international community to label Nigeria as the most corrupt country in the world. These people do not understand our cultural values and norms, so they see simple ‘thank you’ gestures to our family, friends, allies and traditional leaders as acts of corruption. I refuse to allow them define our innate generosity. It is public knowledge that our anti-corruption agencies have recorded appreciable successes under my administration. We are slowly winning the war on corruption.

Our detractors have been making farcical allegations that government has returned the country to the debt trap, with nothing to show for it. I agree that Nigeria now owes more than it did when we exited our debts to the Paris Club in 2004, but every dollar of loan we have taken is in the best interests of Nigeria. Having said that, I also believe it will be unjustified to leave these debts as our legacy to a new government. Obviously, a little more time is required to sort out these challenges.

On security, our critics only see the negative aspects of the situation without giving credit to what we have achieved. From the time I assumed office, my administration has consistently devoted about a quarter of all budgetary allocations to defense and security. That we have not completely defeated terrorists or made Nigeria secure for foreign investment is only a ploy by the opposition. No government has allocated more funds to secure our country than my administration. Like every country in the world, we still have security challenges, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

My fellow compatriots, in view of the myriad of challenges still confronting our dear country, Nigeria, I have carefully considered all options and consulted widely with my family, party, state governors, traditional leaders and the fuel subsidy cabal. My conclusion is that it would cowardly to run away from these challenge without consolidating the transformation I promised. It is my firm conviction that within the next four years, we will eradicate poverty, provide jobs for all Nigerians and ensure the security of lives and property. Fresh air is on the way.

Finally, I wish to reiterate my conviction that harping on ethnic, religious and regional differences have done more harm than good to this country; what most Nigerians want is simply good governance. That is what I promise. It is therefore with a deep sense of humility that I inform you of my intention to seek my party’s nomination, and if successful, stand for election as president for another term in office. No sane person would want to remain in such a difficult, thankless job, but it is a painful sacrifice I am prepared to make for our Fatherland.

Thank you, and long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

If you could hang a Northern leader

Salisu Suleiman

The panel was well-educated, urbane, though the discussion was heated. The topic was how successive leaders from the North – at all levels – ruined not only the North, but Nigeria as well. Then someone threw in a hypothetical question: If you could hang any of these selfish, thieving leaders, who would you hang?

The candidates were many, too many. The reason was consistent: a tiny clique of Northern leadership – whether wearing turbans or berets – held office as presidents, governors and ministers, only to convert the instruments of state to promoting their own self-serving agenda, to the detriment of the North and Nigeria. The consequences of their actions are the illiteracy, poverty, and now terrorism, that have become synonymous with the region.

Soon, the group yielded to the argument of one discussant who insisted that if he could hang anyone from the North, it would be Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), Nigeria’s self-declared military president from 1985 to 1993. He argued that IBB not only overthrew a patriotic government, but had also no plan beside the democratisation of corruption.

His most unforgivable crime was scrapping all Commodity Boards in 1986 for no tangible reason, a decision that dealt a death blow to Nigeria’s agriculture. The discussant argued that even when a wheat growing programme that would have matched oil revenues was introduced, IBB abandoned the programme halfway for fear of offending America, which sells wheat to Nigeria.

Another IBB crime was his systematic destruction of Nigeria Airways which had been positioned to become a world leading airline. The panelist informed us that a previous government had arranged with a Swiss group to train Nigeria Airways staff and facilitate its upgrade to a world class airline. IBB cancelled the programme – though it had been fully paid for by the Nigerian government. By the time the despot left office, Nigeria Airways was practically grounded, with almost no airworthy aircraft. Hanged.

One speaker chose Vice President Namadi Sambo. Asked why, he told the panel that the biggest challenge confronting Nigeria today was the indiscriminate bombings and killing by Boko Haram. He argued that as the leading Northerner in this government, Sambo ought to have initiated and sustained negotiations with the group because President Goodluck Jonathan, National Security Adviser Andrew Azazi and the other officials leading the war against Boko Haram did not sufficiently understand the complexities of the North and the various forces at work. Instead, Sambo strives to maintain a stolid detachment from the problem – while devoting all his time and energy to his presidential ambition. Hanged.

A quiet, but forceful member told the group that his candidate for the gallows would be David Mark who, he said, has been a part of virtually every coup in Nigeria, including the one that brought Gen. Abacha to power. According to him, Mark also demonstrated his anti-democratic credentials by supporting Obasanjo’s third term bid, yet by default is now a major beneficiary of our democracy. To this panelist, it was an irony that such a skilled coup plotter was now the head of Nigeria’s legislature and one of the wealthiest Nigerians, even if he hadn’t managed to genuinely win any of his four elections to the Senate. Hanged.

A female panelist introduced an element of poetry to the discussion. According to her, if she could hang any Northerner, she would hang not one, but five. She called them the “Five S”. They were Sheriff, Saminu, Shekarau, Saraki and Suswam. She was referring to former governors Ali Modu Sheriff (Borno, for promoting what is now Boko Haram); Saminu Turaki (Jigawa, for deceiving farmers into massively planting sugarcane for a proposed ethanol project, only to abandon them, and for taking out billions from the impoverished state to sponsor Obasanjo’s third term bid); Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano, for betraying the popular movement that made him governor against all odds, and making himself the only obvious beneficiary of his eight years as governor of the North’s economic powerhouse).

The panelist also listed Bukola Saraki (Kwara, for having the youthfulness, experience and exposure needed to set an example, but got himself embroiled in too many shady deals and driven by inordinate ambition). The final S was Gabriel Suswam, the current governor of Benue state (who began well, only to become worse than the governor he replaced). She alleged that many top politicians from the state now fear going home because of several unexplained assassinations. Sheriff, Saminu, Shekarau, Saraki and Suswam. All hanged.

The jury might have been hypothetical and jurors, law abiding citizens. Yet, given the opportunity to hang any of these so-called leaders from the North, there would be no hesitation; the anger is real and deep. So, imagine what the angry, hungry Northern masses would do to the greedy and visionless leaders that destroyed their lives and stole their future, given half the chance? It would not be with words.

Nigerians not for to be houseboys?

By: Salisu Suleiman

It was very embarrassing watching President Goodluck Jonathan repeating his jaded and, frankly, largely ineffective way of soliciting foreign investments during his recent meeting with German Chancellor, Angela Markel. Why has it been so difficult for our leaders and policy makers to understand one thing: if you have to beg investors to invest in a country, product or service, they probably wouldn’t?

As former American Secretary of State Colin Powel once said, “Capital is a coward. It flees from corruption and bad policies, conflict and unpredictability.” Without addressing these issues, few would invest in Nigeria. But, more importantly, investors want to make money. If our investment and business climate is safe and attractive, the President would not need to go cap in hand to beg for investments. Incidentally, if we want investments, why not make the pitch to business, and not political leaders? Politicians cannot compel businesses to invest in another country.

So, of what use is the experience of the Trade and Investment minister, Segun Aganga? Has our Investment Officer-in-Chief asked himself: of all the foreign concerns operating in Nigeria, how many did we beg to come and invest here? Did we beg the major oil companies to invest in Nigeria? Did we beg South African telecommunications firm, MTN, to invest in Nigeria? And if government asks them to leave Nigeria today, would they? If we stop British Airways from operating in Nigeria, wouldn’t there be a ‘diplomatic incident’?

The late Gani Fawahenmi once sued former president Olusegun Obasanjo for spending the equivalent of one whole year of his first term travelling about 100 different times across the world to seek investors. How many investors did he really bring to Nigeria and how many jobs and value-added did we get in return? Conversely, the question can also be asked, how much did it cost the Nigerian treasury to pay for the presidential entourage’s junketing around the world in the name of seeking foreign investments?

Not unexpectedly, the Jonathan administration has refused to learn from the mistakes of the Obasanjo government. At least, the former president seemed to believe in his mission, even if we saw no results. The timidity (and predictability) with which President Jonathan calls for these so-called foreign investments is inept and certainly not confidence-inspiring. By the way, while in Germany, did he inquire if we had to beg Julius Berger and Siemens to invest in Nigeria? They are here because they are making huge profits – and creating jobs and value for Germans and Germany.

As the President continues trying to attract foreign investors, has the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission provided any analysis of the value-added of foreign investments in Nigeria? The point of seeking foreign investment is to create value, bring in needed capital, create employment, stimulate economic activity and transfer technology, skills and resources to local people.

MTN is a major investor in Nigeria, but apart from the ‘savage survivalism’ of selling recharge cards, how many real jobs has it created, and at what cost in terms of capital flight? Is MTN listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange? Most Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Nigeria goes to the oil sector. How many Nigerians are employed in the petroleum industry and how much real value has it added to the Nigerian economy?

Who regulates the activities of foreign investors? A cursory look clearly shows that many so-called foreign investors are taking advantage of lax regulators to carry out practices they cannot dare attempt elsewhere. A few examples would illustrate this point.

Located at Karu, on the outskirts of Abuja, is a so-called super specialty hospital, owned and run by Indian investors. Ordinarily, this would be good news, as it would supplement gaps in local healthcare. The problem, however, is that due to sloppy regulations, the hospital charges fees most medical professionals regard as outrageous even by international standards.

The high charges would have been tolerable if their services were really world class, but this ‘foreign investor’ brought along electricians and plumbers from India! Nigeria may not have all the qualified personnel needed to provide the specialized services the hospital offers, but we certainly have qualified plumbers and electricians. In the end, the hospital is only a local outreach for those who can actually afford to travel abroad for medical treatment, but chose not to. In real terms, where is the value-added to the Nigerian economy?

All over Nigeria, from global franchises to bakeries, supermarkets, car shops, restaurants and even retail outlets, one finds foreign nationals working as sales clerks, cashiers and waiters. A certain ‘foreign investor’ actually brought in domestic workers from China. So Nigerians are not even qualified to be houseboys in their own country?

The points are clear: without security, few foreign investors will be attracted, and without proper regulation, foreign investments will not add value nor create jobs for our economy.

Ibori: Between a thief and a judge

James Onanefe Ibori has made many mistakes in life. In the late 1980s and in 1990, he was found guilty of stealing goods from the Wickes store in London where he worked as a clerk; a year later, he was convicted of handling a stolen credit card; in the 1990s, he stole building materials from a warehouse in Abuja and as Delta state governor from 1999 to 2007, he put his innate talent to good use.  

Once indicted, he loaded $15 million dollars cash and tried to bribe former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu to drop corruption cases against him; like former Bayelsa governor Timipre Sylva, he didn’t demonstrate sufficient support for President Goodluck Jonathan at a critical time. All these were terrible mistakes. But the worst error of judgment on the part of this serial thief was escaping police arrest and fleeing Nigeria.

If Ibori had remained in Nigeria, he would not be in cold cell serving a 13 year jail term. Dame Cecelia Ibru, who got a six month bed rest at a very expensive (and luxurious) hospital as a sentence for ‘milking’ almost 200 billion naira from the now defunct Oceanic Bank would have told him how to do it. Or better still, Pastor Erastus Akingbola who is today a free man after allegedly defrauding the also now defunct Intercontinental Bank of tens of billions of naira would have given him a clue.

In the worst case scenario, his PDP soul mate, Chief Bode George, who inexplicably ended up in jail, but returned to the full embrace of his associates in the Peoples Democratic Party, would have taught him a trick or two on how to survive life in prison for two years – with a chef and personal physician on stand-by.

Last week’s sentencing of Ibori to jail was a grave indictment of Nigeria’s judiciary and our criminal justice system. If the judiciary had done its work properly, James Ibori would never have worked in any government house as a steward, much less as governor. In the run up to the process that saw him elected twice as governor of one of Nigeria’s richest states, several cases were brought against him alleging that as a former convict, he was not qualified to be governor. All the cases were mysteriously dismissed. In one particularly bizarre case, the court admitted that a James Ibori had actually been convicted of theft, but it was not the same James Ibori as the accused!

Even when the EFCC, under Ribadu, successfully put together a strong case against the former Delta state governor, the judiciary contrived to damage the investigation. First, the case was transferred from Kaduna to Asaba – where Ibori governed for eight years. Even when he was eventually arrested in December 2007, the charges were subsequently dismissed on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

In discharging Ibori, the Federal High Court, Asaba, said that the prosecution failed to prove that a prima facie case had been established. The prosecutors, the judge maintained, did not assemble reasonable evidence to support their charges. Justice Marcel Awokulehin, who delivered the mind-boggling judgement stated that “going strictly on the evidence before this court, I hold that the application for quash has merit and accordingly the charges be and, are hereby quashed and the accused persons are hereby discharged”.

What happened between the thief and the judge?

In the eyes of the Nigerian judiciary, Ibori was innocent, though confronted with only part of the same evidence in London, the ex-governor buckled. He spent his loot on luxury homes, top-of-the-range cars, five-star travel and fees at exclusive boarding schools. Investigations revealed that he had bought six properties in London, including a six-bedroom house with indoor pool in Hampstead for £2.2million and a flat opposite the nearby Abbey Road recording studios.

The former governor also had property in Dorset, a £3.2million mansion in South Africa and further real estate in Nigeria. He owned a fleet of armoured Range Rovers costing £600,000 and a £120,000 Bentley. On one of his trips to London he bought a Mercedes Maybach for more than £300,000 at a dealer on Park Lane and immediately shipped it to South Africa. He bought a private jet for £12 million, spent £126,000 a month on his credit cards and ran up a £15,000 bill for a two-day stay at the Lanesborough Hotel in London.

Ibori’s family is also paying the price of unbridled greed: he was helped in carrying out these crimes by his wife Theresa; his sister Christine Ibori-Ibie; his mistress Udoamaka Oniugbo and lawyer, Bhadresh Gohil. They are currently serving sentences in different jails for money laundering offences. Ultimately, the most important lesson for Nigeria’s judiciary and electoral system is what British prosecutor Sasha Wass told the court:  “Ibori was never the legitimate governor and there was effectively a thief in government house ….”

How many more thieves do we have in government houses?

I am not yet born….

I am not yet born, but can see clearly the land that will one day be mine, the waters I shall one day sip and the citizenship that will one day become my millstone. I can hear plainly the cacophony of languages I will one day speak and the divisions that will be mine to inherit.

I can see my future fellow citizens shuffling and hustling to mosques and churches with a fervour that burns hot and runs deep. Their faces are etched deeply by godless fervour, but hearts swathed by the shallow mosaic of deceit.

I am not yet in this world, but smell the putrefaction that pervades public life and the perfidy that prevails on private conduct. I see a leader completely disconnected from the pervasive reality of poverty: unable to grasp the enormity of his responsibility; unwilling to grapple with the inevitability of tough prudence and incapable of nurturing hope in the millions of hearts whose burden I will soon share.

And so while others come into beauty and bounty, I know, before I am born that my yoke will be one of colossal debts, bone-crushing poverty and heart-wrenching hopelessness.

I am still to stare at the rays of sunlight that shines on our savannah, but its shadows have shown me clearly the similitude of the hospital where I will be born, the untrained hands that will be the first to hold me and the candles that will light my way.

And I do know what the growling sounds in the distance are: the intestinal rumblings of the diesel generators that will shatter my present silence for all eternity and strum the arpeggio of my eardrums every minute, every hour, every day. I know that my solitary serenity will only return when I am deeply interred in the wombs of Mother Earth.

My eyes are still closed, my breathing shallow, but I sense the deep divisions that rend the land to which I will soon be born. I see a land where Muslims regard Christians with suspicion and where the latter regards the former with scorn. I see a land where the south feels it has been treated shabbily by leaders from the north and therefore see nothing wrong with being treated even worse by someone from the south, no matter how profligate, pernicious.

What I can see, but the older and supposedly wiser multitudes that came to this land before me refuse to perceive, is that Muslim or Christian, north or south, the elite eat together in private and share the loot as one while the masses are fed doses of hatred, intolerance and false hope. And so they wallow in poverty and regard the mismanagement of public resources as divine destiny, a prophetic mission.

I am not yet born, but already repulsed by the schools that I will one day attend. I can feel the cold bare floors, the shattered window panes, the peeling paints and crumbling masonry. I shudder at the cold stares my teachers will soon direct at me to and the hot volcanic anger that seems to spring from some deep-seated hatred of a profession they despise, but cannot leave.

I know other pupils and I will bear the brunt. And because our leaders scoop funds for public schools to train their children abroad in select schools, I discern that I will go to school an unlettered ignorant and come out a certified ignoramus; no school will admit me for further studies and no employer will give me a job.

I am not yet born, but know that I cannot change the scam; I cannot exercise the liberty of choice because my democracy is a sham; I cannot evoke change by force because the armed forces will come in to kill and maim; I cannot flee to other lands because my passport is my shame; I cannot confide in my imams nor confess to my priests for they take part of the blame.

And I cannot share these fears with my friends because we are not from the same zone, nor voice the truth because I speak a different tone. I cannot be myself because I have no right to be.

Dear God, I am not yet born, but pray thee: when I take my first breath and see my first sights, birth me not in the Nigeria of today; berth me not in a land sheared by lies, tears and fears, nor give me countrymen corralled by complacency and ignorance, unhearing, unseeing, unthinking.

The president and the well-digger

By: Salisu Suleiman
Five years ago, Nigerians were waiting earnestly for a new beginning as Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight years as president petered out with ignominy. It was in sharp contrast to the optimism when he assumed office in 1999. That year, Nigerians had been filled with hope that the country was preparing a new charge towards much-delayed greatness. We had the human capital and natural resources: Obasanjo was to be the catalyst to merge the two. For the first few years of his presidency, Nigeria stumbled along without actually falling, but when the allure of power proved too much for him, Obasanjo showed his true colours – a despot willing to do anything and to sacrifice everything to remain in power.

In the end, popular will defeated him, though according to a former top official in the Obasanjo government, ‘if money could buy a third term, Obasanjo would have gotten it easily’. This was in response to the massive inducements allegedly passed to anyone who was thought to be able to influence the process. It is very disingenuous for Obasanjo to now claim that he never wanted a third term. He desperately wanted it, and to placate the ‘international community’ (whatever that means), hurriedly and unconstitutionally ceded Bakassi to Cameroun. But then, considering Obasanjo’s history, no one should be surprised.

As at the time he left office, few Nigerians could have imagined that the country would ever suffer through a more unpopular and corrupt leadership. As a well-digger, Obasanjo was a catastrophic failure, except for the few that his policies (and ambitions) made multi-billionaires. In any other country but Nigeria, this man would probably be back in his old cell at the Yola Prisons. Whoever gave Obasanjo the task of dissuading Abdullahi Wade of Senegal from contesting a third term was probably mocking him. The irony was of course lost on the would-be statesman.

Late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s inaugural speech in 2007 was a soothing balm. For Nigerians, after eight mostly wasted years under Obasanjo, the apparent humility of a president who acknowledged coming to office through a flawed process was enough to endear him to us.  It didn’t take long to realize that his frail health and regional outlook put the duties of a president way out of Yar’adua’s pay grade. As a well-digger, he never learnt how to handle the digger, beholden as he was to the forces that brought him to power. The politics of his death is one that Nigerians hope never to see again.

Enter, President Goodluck Jonathan. This well-digger started by breaking a world record. The 2011 presidential elections, in terms of ‘mobilization’ to get disparate groups to support the bid proved to be the most expensive in the history of democracy. No one will ever know what it cost the treasury - or who got what, where and how - but at the end of the elections, Nigeria was practically broke. The President’s insistence on removing fuel subsidies was no accident. All the money was gone.

Still, many expected more from this well-digger considering his humble beginnings, supposed experience and advertised academic qualifications. Again, he didn’t take long to disappoint Nigerians. For example, last year, the federal government spent an average of 2 billion naira every day on security alone. It was the highest peace time spending on defence and security in Nigeria, yet the year proved to be one of the bloodiest our history. It is debatable if the government and security agencies really have a strategy, yet in the 2012 budget, will spend an average of 3 billion naira every day to ‘protect’ you and I. Perhaps part of the security strategy is to barricade every public or security related building ….

Apart from deteriorating security, Nigeria’s economy remains in the doldrums. While government likes to claim figures and statistics like 7 – 8 percent growth, the fact is that poverty and unemployment remain high. Even the Minister of Youth Development acknowledges that 20 million Nigerian youth (41.6 Percent) are jobless. The total figure of unemployed Nigerians is at least 25 percent. The president may not be entirely responsible for the high unemployment rates, but it is his job to fix it. Where are the plans, policies and programs to create jobs? The epic nature of the task at hand is probably beyond the imagination of this well-digger.

In the 13 years since the return of civilian rule, the well-diggers at the Villa have yet to strike the water that would bring succor, peace, prosperity and stability to Nigerians. While we wait, many have died. Many have been driven from their homes. Many live in fear. And many have come to realize that unlike real the well-digger, whose progress is measured by how fast he strikes water, the deeper the Nigerian president digs, (by spurious claims of achievements we can neither see or feel), the deeper our levels of insecurity, indebtedness, unemployment and poverty.

Maybe this well-digger should come up for some the fresh air he promised Nigerians.