It goes without saying that the outcome of an imperfect exercise cannot but remain imperfect itself – a fair illustration of the dictum; garbage in garbage out. In the circumstances, we are obliged to look with sympathy at the decision by the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar not to concede defeat but to mount a legal challenge against the result of the Presidential election that held on the 23rd of February, 2019; result that gave victory to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress.

And yet, regardless of the way he feels about it, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has an obligation to tread cautiously, taking into account the impact any action he or other leaders take will have on the gravely tense political and security conditions prevailing in Nigeria today. As we are well aware, elections and electioneering campaigns in Nigeria as in much of Africa, have almost always proved to be deadly triggers for strife, apprehension, disputes and other forms of conflict, often leading to violence and bloodshed. The longer and the more protracted the process, the heavier the toll. Sadly, Nigeria has suffered terribly from these calamities in the course of this bitterly contested election exercise. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his party ran an admirably strong and sophisticated campaign. He should be justly proud of his achievements. He had established his credentials as a powerful and worthy alternative presidential material now and in the years to come.

Unfortunately, his decision not to accept the outcome of this election or conceded victory to his opponent may seriously detract from the high pedestal that he deserves in Nigeria’s political establishment. In the interest of peace and our democracy, I as one of his admirers, advise that he reconsiders that decision.

While at this, we hasten to remind the declared winner that he does not have all that much time to redeem his pledges of being a leader ad unifier of all Nigerians. The public had welcomed with cautious optimism the promises he made in his acceptance speech to run an inclusive government. To become a leader of all Nigerians requires that he ignores the voting pattern that brought him to power and consider the country as one large family. Agitations over marginalization, particularly in appointments to key government and public offices mounted by groups including Ohaneze Ndigbo, PANDEP, Middle-belt Forum, Northern Elders Forum, and all those well-meaning citizens must be addressed and redressed.

Opposition politicians must not be treated as enemies, haunted or destroyed. A meticulous adherence to the rule of law must be observed. History beckons on President Muhammadu Buhari to take a giant leap forward and re-invent himself. Within his grasp lies the chance to transform into a statesman and become the real father of the nation. Finally, he must discourage and disavow the antics of his overzealous supporters whose excessive and provocative triumphal display can only overheat and further polarize the polity.

The post Moving Nigeria forward by Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

Two recent incidents would serve to illustrate the danger.

Sometime in October/November, 2016, a rice trading company, Master Energy Commodities Trading Ltd, imported into Nigeria, 1,200 metric tons of rice in thirty, 40-foot containers. In their attempt to evade paying the correct custom duties, they declared the ‘rice’ consignment as ‘yeast’. The goods were later intercepted and seized on the orders of the Controller-General of customs CGC, Col. Hamid Ali (rtd).

Unfortunately, this seemingly patriotic action by a public officer was seen as an affront to one senior member of the National Assembly. A Senator, the leader of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise & Tariff, wrote the CGC demanding that the consignment be released forthwith, on the dubious claim that he had investigated the matter and had found the importer blameless. His findings? That it was the clearing Agent not the importer that called the goods ‘yeast’ instead of ‘rice’!

The CGC brushed aside this incredible story; as any right thinking person would do. But to the shock of all Nigerians, all hell broke loose. The Senate Committee then summoned him to appear before them in uniform- seeing that as a retired army colonel, the CGC had refrained from wearing the customs uniform. He was also directed to answer a long list of queries by this same angry panel. In the end, he was dragged before the Senate at plenary, put through a cruel inquisition, publicly humiliated and dismissed as ‘not fit to hold public office’.

Fast-forward to last week. This time, a dubious scheme was uncovered in which a subsidiary company of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, went into a joint venture with a private company to manage the Calabar Port. Both the NPA subsidiary, called Calabar Channel Management, CCM and the private company, Niger Global Engineering & Technical Co. Ltd, were incorporated together in 2014, just for this deal. The purported JV partner was then awarded a contract to dredge the Calabar Channel; a contract the Bureau of Public Procurement was to condemn as violating all due processes. This did not discourage them from demanding and getting a whopping 12.5million dollars upfront payment from the NPA or asking for a purported balance of $22 million.

In the meantime, a rash of petitions and reports had inundated the NPA against this contract, with many alleging it to be a bogus scam to siphon public funds. The Bureau of Public Procurement was the first to cry out, saying both the award of the dredging contract and the initial payment of over N4billion to Messrs Niger Global Engineering & Technical Co. Ltd, were done in violation of the law. Even worse, all efforts of the new management of the NPA under Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman, to find evidence of the dredging work purported to have been done in the Calabar Channel at the time the company claimed to have done so, was unsuccessful.

That is not all. There was also the report by a consultant that advised against a joint venture partnership for the purpose of managing the Calabar port. Their reason was simply that maritime activities in the Calabar port was too low, that a joint venture scheme as obtained in Lagos and Bony was unsustainable.

Faced with these negative outcomes, the NPA management under Ms. Bala Usman decided that national interest would be better served if the JV scheme as well as the so-called dredging project are terminated. On their part, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have moved in, with a mission to “recover public funds collected for job not done”.
Now, the name of the person driving this scheme is quite instructive going by the very loud and sustained counter attacks being mounted against the public officers; officers that insist that right things are done. He is the leader of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff. He is the owner of both the Niger Global & Engineering Co. Technical Ltd; as well as the rice smuggling giant, Master Energy Commodities Trading Ltd.

Nigerians must not leave the likes of Hamid Ali, Ibrahim Magu, Hadiza Bala Usman,(former BPP DG) Emeka Nzeh et al at the mercy of these strange law makers; politicians that have demonstrated time and again that they are in politics to serve themselves and themselves alone.

The experience of Hadiza Bala Usman, the new M.D of the NPA, is particularly sad. The more she tries to fight, to reduce graft and perfidy, the more determined they seem to mobilise against her, to neutralise her and see her back. They want her out because, they now claim, she is ‘too young’ to manage a complex organisation such as NPA – even though she is past 40 years of age. Unashamed, they question the wisdom of appointing a woman to such a post – her training and experience counting for nothing; apparently.

Incidents such as these are the reason the Nigerian public feels let down by our Parliament. They are the reason why a whole lot of Nigerians take a dim view of members of the National Assembly. Some even believe the conduct of our legislators is a major factor holding Nigeria down; why it is a laughing stock among the nations of the world.

It is the duty of all Nigerians to demand correct conduct from all public officials, including from members of the National Assembly; especially the Senate. Senator Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, must enforce discipline among his colleagues. No member of a committee, much less a chairman, should remain in his duty post once credible information about possible crime is received on the person.

We need not remind our political leaders, most of all our legislators, that punishment always follow excess.

The post Watch It! By Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar(Rtd) appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

Since taking over, the acting President has embarked on measures which have effectively set the country on the path of positive change.

In an effort to reunite a dangerously polarized nation since the APC took power at the center, he has paid visits to the Niger Delta region and parts of the southeast. These are two zones of the country which feel genuinely alienated by the federal government’s discriminatory doctrine of favoring those who gave President Buhari over 95% of their votes over those who gave him less than 5% of theirs.

The implementation of this policy in the initial political appointments including those of the military service chiefs had the negative effect of spawning a more determined Niger Delta militancy. That in turn, succeeded in crippling most of the nation’s oil and gas assets.

As we all know, this country depends for over 90% of its foreign exchange earnings and an equally huge proportion of governments’ revenue on the oil resources in that region. Even more, it exacerbated the agitation for an independent state of Biafra.

The acting President’s initiative appeared to have convinced the belligerents to engage in meaningful dialogue. This has led to the suspension of acts of sabotage and in raising our crude oil output to the optimum level of over two million barrels per day; as per our OPEC quota. Power generation has also gone up substantially, thanks to the reduction in gas pipeline vandalism.

He has been proactive in attending to state affairs. He has so far signed seven bills while rejecting four, offering cogent reasons for rejecting the others. Much to the relief of the nation, the acting President forwarded the name of the acting Chief Justice Onnoghen to the Senate for confirmation as substantive CJN just before the expiry of his 90-day acting status. This has averted what could have been a major political crisis in a fragile federation as we have.

The acting President has been chairing very lengthy and regular weekly Federal Executive Council meetings at which memos are dispassionately debated after which far reaching decisions are taken.

He has prevailed on the CBN to adopt new and more transparent Foreign Exchange Management procedures which have yielded the desired result of reducing forex market volatility. The Naira is making tremendous gain against the US dollar and other currencies, much to the delight of the masses.

He met at the state house with senior members of the NLC and other demonstrators who are protesting the current economic hardship in the nation. This is a departure from a situation where such demonstrators were forcefully dispersed by security forces and refused access to senior government officials. Even members of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group, a recognized ally of this administration, were prevented from meeting with the President.

The acting President has also demonstrated an unalloyed loyalty to his principal by continuing to attribute his successes to the President’s inspiration. He has also debunked any criticism of the Buhari Administration in his absence.

In contrast, the governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha, treacherously criticized the Buhari administration for allegedly marginalizing the Ibos. He complained that even under a President they supported, they had nothing to show for it.

“In Imo state for instance”, he insisted, “all we have is a minister of state for all our efforts and extreme sacrifices to ensure that the APC had a good outing in the last elections. I know you are acting President and have the ears of the President so there is no better person to tell our painful story than you”. The Governor went on and on in indicting the Buhari administration which he had hitherto praised for its wonderful achievements.

In a show of loyalty to his principal and his administration by the evident disloyalty of a governor who had pretended servile obeisance to the President, the acting President responded with a rebuke: “If there is any Governor in this country that has the ear of the President, I will say that it is Governor Okorocha. As such, it cannot be said that the state is marginalized by the APC-led federal government”.
This definitely was intended to discourage traitors and effectively shut down the door to would-be turncoats.

Credit for the acting President’s trialblazing actions and high performance must surely be attributed to President Muhammad Buhari who selected a running mate with tremendous intellectual capacity and character where most Presidential candidates would go for docile, inefficient and greedy ones; a person whose blind loyalty is to his principal as to himself.

President Buhari’s choice of a running mate might well have been informed by his prescient consideration of the need to select a competent, patriotic and loyal person in appreciation of the challenges of his advance age and the enormity of the task of reclaiming the country.

The President also deserves praise for his prompt transfer of power and continued support to his deputy as required by law. This will undoubtedly enhance and sustain our nascent democracy.

All people of goodwill must condemn those who are making ill thought out comments that portray the acting President as a puppet and who needs continuous prompting from his principal to function. This is likely to cause ill will and disaffection between them.

The acting President must continue, undeterred with the good actions he has already started. He must maintain the zeal and tempo of his good performance which will do justice to the patriotic wish and desire of his convalescing principal.

He cannot afford to succumb to blackmail and selfish machinations of his critics. Nigeria is a nation in need of rescue. We must all come together to rescue it. The acting President needs all the support to steer the ship of state.

As Deng Xiaoping rightly observed: “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is white or black as long as it catches mice”. We cannot allow the forces of division to prevail at this point.

We also have to caution all those who are regaling us with stories of their daily phone contacts with Mr. President as this can only misrepresent him as belonging to a few and therefore not to everybody as he initially declared. We are optimistic that the President will speak to the nation as soon as he can and return as soon as he is able.

Meanwhile all well-meaning Nigerians and their foreign friends are silently praying for the quick recovery and good health of President Muhammad Buhari, just as they are praying for the success of the acting President.

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Dangiwa Umar (rtd), Chairman, Movement for Unity & Progress

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