Clay Richie

“It is dangerous for politicians to joke with enemies while preparing for electoral contest. Enemies in politics plot evil against their opponents. Always be ahead of your opponents in evil. In politics, when you take an electoral decision and your opponents kicks, just know that the decision is detrimental to their interest. Maneuver your opponents, destroy them by all means necessary,” Nicholo Machiavelli opined in his widely read book, “The Prince.” The seemingly engineered outrage currently trailing the appointment of former Governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sherrif as the National Chairman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has further shown that hyperbole is trademarks of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

I love mathematics — it’s the calculations I can’t stand. Check this out: evaluate (1/2 – 1/4 – 1/8 – 1/16 + …) – 1. Goodness me, what’s that about? But, at least, mathematics is precision science. One plus one will always be equal to one. Economics, however, is not precision science. It is social science. And in social science, you can’t always achieve precision in analysing behaviour. Humans can react to the same stimulus differently. Thus, economists say “on the one hand” and “on the other hand”, taking into account the variables. They say “all things being equal” for a reason.

Dutch Disease. Resource Curse. Paradox of Plenty. Three good turns of phrases signifying an unflattering concept that could have been developed with just Nigeria in mind. They describe the counter-intuitive but evidence-based position that countries rich in natural resources mostly tend to perform worse on major development indicators, be more susceptible to painful, widely felt economic busts and narrowly distributed booms, and be more prone to poverty, inequality, corruption and conflicts than countries not rich in natural resources. So instead of enabling prosperity, natural resources end up promoting poverty; and instead of being a blessing, plenty paradoxically becomes a burden. If we ever need an evidence for this postulation, Nigeria of the moment will more than serve. Yet it doesn’t have to be like this.

In this first of a three-part article, my aim is to get President Muhammadu Buhari to reevaluate his obvious discomfort with the workings of a market economy and change; so that he can effectively lead the CHANGE agenda that he promised Nigerians. The engine of wealth creation and poverty reduction is the private sector when enabled and not when crippled.

NATIONS ARE NOW TURNING TO TRUE FISCAL FEDERALISM TO ENHANCE THE DEVOLUTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES AND POWERS SO AS TO IMPROVE AND STRENGTHEN THE PERFORMANCE OF THEIR PUBLIC SECTORS AND INSTITUTIONS.  The scope of true fiscal federalism is majorly centred on the allocation of government resources and spending activities of various tiers of government to enhance shared responsibilities, good governance, public sector performance, and sustainable and competitive growth and development amongst the federating units.

My brother, e ku exchange rate oh.” “Excuse me?” “I am greeting you. I am saying how are you and the exchange rate palaver. The dollar wahala”.

“So when they continued asking Him, He stood up and said to them, ‘The one without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”   – King James Bible, John 8: 7

In the case of the State and Rev. Chukwuemeka Kingsley Ezeugo, the Supreme Court a few days ago, upheld the rulings of the lower courts and ruled that the bearded, self-styled “little god”, “Jesus Christ of our time”, and founder of the Lagos-based Christian Praying Assembly (CPA), deserves to be hanged, for enacting a form of horror movie which resulted in the death in 2006 of Ms Ann Uzoh. The simple import of that ruling is that no man is a king before the law, and that the law is no respecter of persons including those who describe themselves as anointed men of God, and who on that account use religion to commit atrocities.

When anxieties with the state of the economy rose, as Oil prices went South in 2015, I was struck by how we went from worry to panic and how many actions failed to recognize similar experience from our recent history and more than enough knowledge on what happened before and what was trending in the global environment. That such knowledge was untapped caused me to begin to rethink many things.

From all indications worldwide, the era of the petroleum boom is over. The era started in the opening years of the last century, the years of the great discoveries that have shaped the modern world – namely electricity (and its applications in lighting, radio, television and, ultimately, the computer), the internal combustion engine (and its applications in automobiles, trains, aeroplanes, power-driven ships, power-driven production machines, etc), various chemicals, and others. Petroleum was discovered as the best source of fuel for the internal combustion engine, and it rapidly became a very huge factor in the economy of the world.

Unless you are still living in an internet-free world, you have probably heard the phrase “buy naija to grow the naira”. Championed by Senator Ben Murray Bruce as the solution to the naira struggles and the key to the growth of manufacturing in Nigeria. The idea is that if we could all stop our unpatriotic tastes for foreign goods, and buy locally made goods instead, our economy would grow and we would all get jobs and be happy and so on.

At an evening service in a church I attended last week, the lady who led the prayer session did not even bother to quote from the Bible to drive home her point; she simply referred the congregation to the Book of Olajumoke: “How many of you have heard the story of the bread seller in Lagos and how her life has been transformed?” With several hands up, she enjoined members to pray by reminding everyone: “No matter the challenge we face either as an individual or as a country, God can instantly rewrite our story such that we can move from poverty into prosperity; from lack into abundance, just like Olajumoke. Now, pray…”

As I write this nineteenth piece in the #SaatahBudgetSeries, I feel a tiny bit of relief knowing that I have about nine more pieces to put down, and I would have succeeded in analysing the entire 2016 budget. The nineteenth piece in the series is about the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

President Muhammadu Buhari vowed late Tuesday in Riyadh that all those involved in the “padding” of the 2016 National Budget will face the most severe punishment. Addressing the Nigerian Community in Saudi Arabia, President Buhari condemned the distortion of the budget proposals by entrenched interests.

Nigerian economy is fast slipping into a state of comatose; urgent measures must be taken to salvage the situation else I don’t think we can survive till 2019 at this rate under the fist and grip of President Buhari.

This is the eighteenth piece in the #SaatahBudgetSeries. In this piece, I will take a look at the budget for the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning. Before I move on, let me inform you that we now have a new Director General for the Budget Office of the Federation, and he is Mr. Tijjani Mohammed Abdullahi. Now, let us move forward.

Former Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has described the narratives of her former group managing directors, GMDs, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, with regard to the ongoing legislative probe of the oil swap and OPA deals as fabricated tissues of lies.

The 2nd Annual Powering Africa Summit was held on the 28-29 January 2016 in Washington D.C. The summit is a platform to showcase power, trade and infrastructure investment opportunities across the African continent.

In the 2015 presidential election, the APC was more prepared for defeat than for victory.  The party did not expect to win and clearly had no agenda for victory. In a 1972 Hollywood film entitled The Candidate, Robert Redford acts as Bill Mckay; a political neophyte who is drafted out of the blue into a race for the U.S. Senate.  With no chance whatsoever of winning, Mckay is given a free hand to say whatever he likes on the stump.  Therefore, he tweaks the political establishment at every turn.

Our nation is currently submerged in a currency crisis. The value of our national currency is tumbling against the dollar on a daily basis, and our foreign exchange reserves continue to dwindle as a result of the continuous fall in the price of crude oil.

In the difficult moments of our history, looking precisely at the period of Nigeria’s war of unity 1966-1971, Egypt proved to be a strategic partner from helping to train our military to support with equipment and aircraft maintenance. In the course of his bilateral meeting with the Egyptian leader, Abdul Fattah El-Sisi, President Muahmmadu Buhari recalled that in the course of his service in the army,  he too received military training in Egypt.

When many thought the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is ticking the right boxes for 2019, the party leadership came up with something unique. There appear to be a drama series which never in want of Acts and Scenes with its peculiar dramatis personae as professional politicians or “garrison commanders”. When one is left to think that one event is at anti-climax, another event within same plot is in ‘raising action’. The question on the minds of the audience is: When will this film come to an end?

One person of interest, an Aso-empowered brigandage, Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, a former militant leader, like a wounded telltale, has been in the dock of public opinion for acts bothering on corruption, fraud, money laundering and sabotage on the nation’s economy.

Is the country better off today as it was eight, nine months ago when a well respected, self-disciplined and fearless man in the name of Muhammadu Buhari, walked into the Aso Villa and vowed to work tirelessly for his people? There’s definitely no justifiable or modest way to respond to this question without looking at facts and figures – unemployment rate and economic growth rate.

Nelson Mandela died and was buried in a blaze of international glory. They came from all over the world to give him a colourful burial. Such was the carnival atmosphere of bidding one of Africa’s greatest ancestor’s farewell that Brother Barack Obama was even caught committing lookery on the blonde Prime Minister of a Scandinavian country while our sister, Michelle Obama, looked on murderously.

Due to the dwindling economy, the Federal Government of Nigeria, the National Assembly, and many well-meaning Nigerians have suddenly come to a moment of self realization. We have reached that point in our lives where we are forced to consider where we got it wrong, how we got it wrong, and what we can do to make the cards that we have been dealt – in these dire economic circumstances – work in our favour.

“In every community there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don’t mean criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably, the most dangerous people seek power.”Saul Bellow. VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 124.

The naira issue has been the topic of debate for a while now. Should we devalue or not? Can we cope with the effect of a devaluation? What happens if we don’t? And so on. Over the next few days, I and other colleagues-experts in their fields-will give views on a variety of issues regarding the naira devaluation debate.

I am quite taken aback by the linear, Naira centric thinking, patriotic blackmail attempts led by the ‘Buy Nigeria save the Naira’ crusaders and I have no love reserved for the don’t Buy Nigeria just because it’s made in Nigeria bullies.

The condemnable attempt a few days ago by just 5 Kogi State legislators to remove their Speaker, Momoh Jimoh Lawal, ought not to be referred to as news. This is not to suggest that negative issues don’t make news because everyone knows that bad news is the most popular news. But considering that the newer and fresher an event is, the easier it is for it to make news, hooliganism which has since become a hobby of our legislators and which is no longer new, ought not to make news in the ordinary sense; rather it should make condemnable news.

Sanusi Muhammad II, the emir of Kano and immediate past governor of the central bank of Nigeria (CBN), says the naira has already been devalued. He added that President Muhammadu Buhari and the CBN were only subsidising the private sector by selling dollars to the sector at N200 as against the real market price.

In Wole Soyinka’s Republic of Liars, the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has a permanent place. The treatise of Professor Wole Soyinka’s book is not my preoccupation at this time. The real bee in my bonnet is the most recent social and economic lies told by Mr. Obasanjo.

As we all know, the Nigeria police force is bedeviled with myriads of problems. Chief amongst these are gross reputational deficit, inadequate operational tools and poor welfare packages.  All these, and others not listed, rolled up in one have been highlighted severally as the bane of the police’s ineffectual operation.

As Director of New Media for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), I understand that you are a busy man. I also understand that you may have been tasked with trending the next hashtag against the APC and President Buhari. For the reasons mentioned, I am going to keep this piece very short.

Fellow Nigerians, let us start today’s epistle with a real life story. Some years ago, a woman named Dr Kema Chikwe was appointed Minister of Aviation. Her mandate was to bring sanity to our insane airports across the country. It was as if we were a jinxed nation and nothing good could ever come out of our rudderless system. Dr Chikwe set out on her mission like Henry the Navigator. She mapped out her strategy meticulously and elaborately. Our airports were as hot as hell. All efforts to tranquilise the place and make it habitable for passengers proved abortive but Dr Chikwe was determined to succeed where others had failed miserably and woefully.

In a recent interview with the BBC, President Buhari said: “I have asked the Central Bank Governor and others to sit and see if they can convince me to murder the Naira.” He also said: “Most of our young people can’t get jobs; one of the biggest dangers we face.” For Nigeria to meet its job creation target, the government needs to solve the supply side challenges impacting the exchange rate in order to make the economy more competitive.

For those unfamiliar with the cobra effect, I’m certain you’re wondering what the popular twitter hashtag employed by Nigerian citizens and senators has to do with cobras. Don’t stress, this doesn’t refer to ‘juju’ or anything superstitious, instead it’s about the unintended bad effects of seemingly good decisions.

There has been renewed talk lately about the need for Nigerians to patronize locally made goods, (someone should have added… and services!). Championed by Senator Ben Murray Bruce, and supported by the Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar and a large crowd of online campaigners, so much ink, saliva, and emotions have been invested in this old, and perhaps boring story.

Most of us, including those too young to have lived a single day through it, associate the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the 1980s with the darkest period in Nigeria’s economic history. The popular narrative generally considers SAP to have both caused the problems and failed to fix them, laying the blame squarely at IBB’s feet.

There is a roving, seemingly ubiquitous army of Nigerians who have appointed themselves defenders of President Buhari. Unfortunately, by employing offensive and ineffective logics and tactics, these fanatical supporters of the president are doing more reputational harm than good to their hero, and turning away compatriots who would otherwise be willing to give the president a fair hearing on the mounting disappointments with his administration.

With the urgent task of resettling the more than two million refugees, mostly women and children on his mind, and at hand, the more urgent one of rebuilding damaged  infrastructure such as roads, bridges,clinics, schools as a requirement for their return to their  communities, President Buhari leaves for the middle-east on a wee tour of three friendly countries.

Following the recent Supreme Court judgement, which upheld the election of Mr. Nyesom Wike as Governor of Rivers State, some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and their supporters have taken to the media not only to criticize the ruling they have not bothered to read, but indeed to lampoon justices of the apex court. Some have even gone as far as making reckless allegations that question the integrity of the justices.

Here in Nigeria, we are obsessed with slogans and cosmetic agendas. Do we really think that sloganeering has ever changed the fortunes of a nation or a society? Slogans cannot replace values and ethics. Slogans don’t change the ease of starting and doing business in Nigeria, but intentional and strategic action do.

Two recent conversations reminded me of the extent to which the lives of “ordinary” Nigerians—that is to say, most Nigerians—have been gravely debased. Let’s start with the more recent. Last Saturday, I made a routine phone call to a relative who lives in Anambra State, Nigeria. As the conversation drew to a close, I asked after her mother.

When President Muhammadu Buhari disclaimed Nigerians as a criminal infested country, I was one of those who staunchly rejected it. Not because, like all other countries, we do not have criminals, but because our President, like our Information minister is paid to be our chief image maker. It is disheartening to make such statements about my country, but I have to considering the reality. And as a free soldier, I am not paid to protect our image.

When the incredible issue of a missing/counterfeited 2016 budget arose some weeks ago, I was expecting to hear from the APC that Goodluck Jonathan was to blame. Surprisingly, that did not happen. Instead, blame was traded between the presidency and the national assembly, seemingly forgetting that both organs of government are now controlled by the same APC.

The condescension that Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola has for poor people is well-known as most of his actions as governor of Lagos State showed us. As a Lagos resident not living in the Lekki-Ajah axis, Ikoyi or Victoria Island, I knew well how those of us on the mainland suffered from some of his actions and inactions. It is therefore not surprising that the minister for works, power and housing does not see anything amiss in the recent hike in electricity tariffs by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

Nigeria has been known to place a deplorable value on the lives of her citizens. It seems to run in the veins of successive administrations. And none has been more disturbing than the inclination to celebrate the much hyped technical defeat of Boko Haram over the continual massacre of defenceless citizens in the war-ravaged NorthEast region of Nigeria as well as in camps holding numerous distressed Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Welcome to the seventeenth piece in the #SaatahBudgetSeries. This piece will focus on the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development. As usual, before I begin, I will first name the agencies/institutions that are under the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development. These agencies/Institutions are: Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development HQTRS, Council of Nigerian Mining Engineers and Geosciences, Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency (Kaduna), National Metallurgical Development  Centre (Jos), Metallurgical Training Institute (Onitsha), National Iron Ore Mining Project (Itakpe), Nigeria Institute of Mining and Geoscience, Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office and Centres, Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited, and the Solid Mineral Development Fund Office.

Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki on Wednesday February 10, 2016 took his pledge to make the 8th National Assembly open, inclusive, transparent and accountable a notch higher, when he opened the gates of the legislature to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the labour to ventilate their thoughts, make observations and voice their recommendations on how best to ensure that the 2016 budget truly reflects the will and aspiration of Nigerians.