It is totally false to suggest, as we are apt to do, that Nigerians are fundamentally different from any other people in the world. Nigerians are corrupt because the system under which they live today makes corruption easy and profitable; they will cease to be corrupt when corruption is made difficult and inconvenient….The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely is a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character.
There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership… I am saying that Nigeria can change today if she discovers leaders who have the will, ability and the vision”, Chinua Achebe, in his book, “THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA”.
“Nigeria could, however, follow another path. Its potential is huge. Its tremendous wealth, if properly channeled, holds out the hope that a stable government could unleash the unquestioned energy and talent that pulsates through the rich ethnic mosaic.
“Nigerians spend a good part of their lives trying to get the better of the government for their own benefit or that of their family, their village, or their region. Rare is the head of state who acts on behalf of the entire nation. The people are not so much governed as ruled. It is as if they live in a criminally mismanaged corporation where the bosses are armed and have barricaded themselves inside the company safe. Nigeria’s leaders, like the colonialists before them, have sucked out billion of dollars and stashed them in Western banks”, Karl Maier wrote in his book, “THIS HOUSE HAS FALLEN—NIGERIA IN CRISIS”.
In the last couple of years, Nigeria has been confronted with enormous national crisis that could only be compared with the crisis of the 1960s, which eventually led to civil war. In fact, if one reflects on what the country went through from after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election up to the demise of General Sani Abacha, one must thank God that Nigeria still survives as one united nation.
Nigeria’s problem is not just economic. Indeed, it is largely political. Nigeria is still undergoing the crisis of nation building.
It is important that Nigeria policy makers appreciate the enormity of the crisis of nation building still staring at us as a nation. I don’t like to sound alarmist or pessimistic but some of the unresolved conflicts in our country have the potential of escalating into unimaginable proportions at any given time.
The events leading to the return to democracy in Nigeria could only be understood as a divine intervention.
Before then the fate of Nigeria, as a country, was precariously hanging in the balance. The country was a pariah nation among the international community. The economy was in doldrums.
The second major crisis of the Obasanjo’s Presidency was the issue of oil subsidy which was triggered by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), then led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. The strike action paralysed the country for days if not weeks. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was forced to set up a special committee on the review of Petroleum Products supply and distribution.
The committee was inaugurated on August 14, 2000 by the then Secretary to the government of the Federation, Chief Ufot Ekaette. The committee was headed by my friend, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi while the secretary of the committee was Chief Segun Ogunkua from Akure in Ondo state, who retired later as the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
The other members of the committee were Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, Mr. Sylvester Ejiofor, Issa Aremu, Mr. Lucas Damulak, Mr. Joseph Akinlaja, Umaru Ndanusa, Chief Rufus Giwa, Dr. Imo Itsueli, Dr. Pat Utomi, Alhaji Abba Gana, Chief Nkem A. Ekwechi, Mr. S.O. Luwoye, Professor Emmanuel Edozien, Professor Dotun Phillips, Alhaji Ahmed Chanchangi, Chief D.K.O. George Taylor, Chief (Dr.) E.O. Ilodibe, Pastor E.O. Ogun, Mrs Emily Aig-Imokhuede, Chief Richard Uche, Mr. Ray Ekpu, Chief M.O. Onoja (M.M. Jir), Mr. A.S. Okoye, Dr. Samaila M. Kewa, Mr. Funso Kupolokun, Mallam M.S. Bashar, Dr. Titus Adeboye, Mr. C.O. Iwuozor, Mallam Wada Maida, Alhaji A. Umaru, Mr. G.D. Loma, Dr. S. Usman, G.M. Anyanwu and Alhaji G.Hamman.
Government should explore the possibility of using more foreign crude and sell more of Nigeria’s high quality crude to bring down the price; to curb the problem of vandalization, the principal actors in the oil sector would need to intensify their community relations programmes such that it creates employment, quality life and sustainable development in their operational areas; if and when the oil sector is deregulated, there would be need for a price monitoring agency that would be saddled with making public the movement in the prices of fuel just as obtains in the money market today.
The Zamfara state governor had accurately judged the mood of population. The introduction of Shari’a was initially very popular, for several reasons.
Foremost among these was public disenchantment with a government and a legal system which were failing people in many respects. There is widespread poverty across Nigeria, and the north is especially underdeveloped.
There was the expectation among the general public that Shari’a, with its emphasis on welfare and the state’s responsibility to provide for the basic needs of the population, would go some way towards alleviating their plight.
In all these twelve states, Shari’a applied only to Muslims. State governments have not attempted to coerce non-Muslims into being tried by Shari’a courts. However, non-Muslims are not prevented from accessing the Shari’a jurisdictions and may choose to take cases through the Shari’a courts if they wish. A third type of court, customary courts, also deal with cases of non-Muslims in the south, as well as in Kaduna State. At the level of state governments, the state attorney general is responsible for the operation of both the common law and Shari’a systems in the state; there is also a Shari’a section in each state ministry of justice.
In any event, there is an overlap between the Penal Code for Northern Nigeria and the Shari’a laws, as the Penal Code includes elements of Islamic law and provided the basis for whole sections of the Shari’a penal codes.
In 1984, Dr. Ayagi was appointed acting director of Continental Merchant bank, formerly Chase Merchant Bank of Nigeria. As Managing Director, he was critical of the adoption of the IMF approved Structural Adjustment Programme by the Babangida administration. The same government owned majority equity in the bank, and after, a lawsuit filed by Continental Merchant Bank against the central bank, he was relieved of his position.
He returned to Kano and was appointed Director of the Kano State Foundation.
Apart from the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Presidential spokesman and the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mallam Mohammed Idris Malagi, we don’t hear of prominent voices defending the Bola Tinubu’s Presidency these days.
Shortly after his appointment, Dr. Ayagi was in the office of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation to collect data on President Obasanjo’s appointments and other policy decisions. My immediate boss, Prince Dosu Oyelude, and all of us gave him the necessary assistance, for which he expressed his gratitude.
