Clay Richie

My primary poser here is that our electricity Distribution Companies’ (DisCos) footprints or franchise areas are rather large, with diverse populations and even more varied economic realities. Under the current customer classification, electricity consumers within a customer class are expected to the pay the same rate for electric service regardless of their financial abilities or willingness to pay more for better service.

It’s half way through the Buhari Presidency and its performance can best be captured in these words of Prof. Charles Soludo: “They inherited a bad situation but they have made it several times worse”.

Two years ago to this day, you brought me to tears. You were in our nation’s capital, being inaugurated as the first Nigerian in our nation’s history to win the presidency from an opposition party. I was far away, in Lagos; but I had a cherished privilege: to be the one to publish the very first tweet on your account as President of the Federal of Nigeria.

At 60 years of age (April 10,2017), Aliko Dangote who is slightly older than Nigeria by a mere three years has become the richest man in Africa and the 23rd richest in the world according to Forbes list of billionaires.

The rising confidence in the recovery of Nigeria’s economy was dealt a heavy blow in May following reports of the nation’s first quarter GDP growth for 2017 contracting by 0.52%.

The Nigerian Senate passed its version of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill on the 26th of May 2017, a day before Children’s Day without any provision whatsoever for the previously documented and well thought out 10% for the Petroleum Host Community Fund (PHCF) . It might not carry much significance to the many people who have given the Senate the usual “kudos” and “welldone’s”,  but it is significant to me, because it was a childish move, and very insensitive to the plight of the people of the Niger Delta.

It is sad that many Nigerians today talk glibly about the possibility of a coup or of military intervention in politics. They make it seem as if this democracy is something we can exchange for something else. We need to be reminded, as we celebrate democracy day 2017, how we got to this very moment, and how precious democracy is to us as a sovereign people. From 1966 to 1999 (with the short break of civilian rule from 1979 – 1983) the military dominated the political landscape in Nigeria. It was eighteen years ago yesterday when our country returned to civilian rule.

Nigeria has experienced 18 years of uninterrupted democracy from 1999 to 2017. During this period, we have witnessed an increased strengthening off all tiers of Government in the executive, judiciary and the legislature. Many political pundits in 1998 when we began this democratic journey predicted that the military will still intervene by truncating the process again. But successive governments from 1999 to date have proved the pundits wrong.

DEMOCRACY DAY SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, THE ACTING PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, COMMEMORATING THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE BUHARI ADMINISTRATION, MAY 29, 2017 Dear Nigerians, I bring you good wishes from President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, who as we all know is away from the country on medical vacation.

The continuing mystery of President Buhari’s illness and the handling of the saga by his aides is more evidence that Nigeria’s political system works almost independently of the individual nominally in charge. If we had a responsive and functional political system in Nigeria, the independence of the system from political actors would be a good thing. Unfortunately, our system is dysfunctional and thus its ramifications are always disadvantageous.

Today, the Muhammadu Buhari government commemorates its second anniversary.  Mr. Buhari will not be available to read a speech, as he is on a hospital bed in the United Kingdom.  May he recover to return to the land of his ancestors.

This intervention is not about the fact that it took about six months for the National Assembly to pass the 2017 budget which was sent to it by the Presidency on December 14, 2016. After all, the National Assembly needed to do a thorough job and look at it with a fine-tooth comb to ensure that there are no incidents of “padding” in the budget. Besides, there are other competing assignments and bills to be attended to, in the midst of oversight functions and constituency projects supervision. We are also not concerned that what came back from the National Assembly as the approved budget had transmogrified from N7.298t to N7.44t, since no one expected that the role of the National Assembly was that of a “rubber stamp”. The legislators must not only make inputs where necessary, but they must be seen to have made such inputs. It is our contention that there are a few issues we must pay attention to if the budget termed “budget of growth and recovery” would realise its purpose.

Here is FREE advice to the Cross River State government: the Cross River at 50 is directionless hubris, highlighted by an ill thought out rebranding exercise that spells disaster. For everyone. So, how should we celebrate Cross River at 50?

The police in Ebonyi State has arrested members of IPOB and MASSOB for sensitizing the public to sit at home on the 30th of May in order to honor the fallen heroes of the 1967 to 1970 civil war and mark the 50th anniversary of the war. The police says these groups are illegal and did not get the permission of the police to embark on such sensitization.

University teachers are fond of criticising people in government as well as government programmes and policies. Like spectators watching a football or wrestling match, they are quick to point out scoring chances and the bad moves of players. One thing they rarely do is be among the players. Force one to play and he would lose woefully!

For the record, I was born after the Biafra war. Everything I know about it was what I heard or read from different sides to the conflict. Since I was not around to follow the events by myself and make my own call, I have had to rely on other people’s accounts in trying to understand what caused the war. Everybody tells the story to their own advantage. That’s natural. All said and done, though, I have consistently come to one conclusion: we went to war because our leaders were too young and too immature to manage conflict. We played dangerously close to the precipice. With no neutral elders in town and no experience to draw from, we fell headlong into avoidable bloodshed.

We have all been hearing various rumor flying around that Buhari has reportedly resigned and handed over secretly to Osinbajo to enable him go abroad and face his health issues squarely, it is no longer news to those who are constantly close to radio, television or social media that some politicians were approaching Kaki boys to stage another military coup, the allegation which was made known to Nigerians by the CoAS Buratai.

I hovered around the patched precincts of the magistrate court, Zone 2, Abuja on November 23, 2015. It was tumultuous day. A stomping and surging crowd massed around the court, just as a phalanx of gun-toting security agents planted itself in the sanctuary of justice. Why? Nnamdi Kanu was being expected! After weeks of feeding him mute, misery and torture, the Department of State Services (DSS) eventually brought him before a court.

Nigeria is going through a rather rough patch of time.  At the heart of the country’s current political challenges is the ill-health of President Muhammadu Buhari, a fact which seems to have emboldened self-serving sections of the political class, reportedly working to drag the Military into politics. An obviously angry Chief of Army Staff, Lt- General Tukur Buratai, who issued a stern warning to army personnel earlier this week, to stay off politics and politically related activities was quite unequivocal in his statement “that some individuals have been approaching some officers and soldiers for undisclosed political reasons.”

Fellow Nigerians, let’s call a spade a spade, and not by any other name today. I’m seriously perturbed that while our dear President is indisposed, for now, some of his so-called friends are only interested in consolidating themselves in power. I think President Muhammadu Buhari deserves better than this. Hate him or love him, President Buhari remains one of the most honest Nigerians alive today. Not even his worst enemy would accuse him of being a corrupt leader. As a prominent Nigerian businessman once told us: “I can’t imagine anyone discussing deals with President Buhari… The atmosphere would not be conducive…” We all concur to that.

There is a very foolish propaganda campaign claiming Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari was poisoned, being spread in various forms on the social media.

I am grateful to Shehu Musa Yar Adua Foundation, Ford Foundation and OSIWA – the co-sponsors of this event for your kind invitation. I commend your foresight in convening this conference, the first major conference discussing Biafra outside of Igboland. Nigeria. In hosting this conference the Yar’Adua Centre, which is best known for promoting national cohesion, honours the legacy of a great patriot: Shehu Musa Yar Adua. He died building bridges of understanding across our nation. I salute his family and associates for sustaining the legacy of Shehu through the works of this Foundation.

Last week, Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, issued a stern warning to soldiers to stay out of politics, raising alarm about a potential coup plot. His statement claimed that individuals had been approaching army officers for political reasons, and cautioned that: “Any officer or soldier of the Nigerian Army found to be hobnobbing with such elements or engaging in unprofessional conducts such as politicking, would have himself or herself to blame.”

An impression that had been repeatedly disputed and firmly denied by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC party has been confirmed by no less a person than a member of cabinet, Nigeria’s minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige.

Come Saturday (27th May), it will be exactly 50 years that Lagos State was created (along with others) by the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon to give Nigeria a 12-states structure. Instructively, four days after that historic event, on 30th May 1967 to be specific, the late Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu announced the secession of Eastern Nigeria and the establishment of a State of Biafra. Taken together, a combination of the creation of states, the military incursion into our national political affairs that precipitated the dismantling of the regional structure and the subsequent declaration of Biafra would define the unfortunate trajectory of our country in ways that nobody could have foreseen at the time.

I had just one fear regarding Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s suitability for the Kano Emirship when I was supporting his candidature for the exalted seat and that fear has been justified. He simply cannot transit from a suit and tie ‘do good’ advocate to the royal father of one of Nigeria’s most historic states. Certain extraordinarily high standards are expected of such men. They are not to be seen criticizing other leaders in public before at the very least, a botched attempt at advising them in private. If at all they must speak on governance, they are expected to urge the government to explore more productive policies instead of criticizing existing ones. Their status, in a few words, can best be captured in this hyperbolic statement- “Other mortals may bleed red but  royals bleed blue”.

There have been times when I asked myself how we ended up with President Muhammadu Buhari again. Two years and half way into his first term, the charm that gave Buhari a historic victory over Goodluck Jonathan’s government appears to have faded, leading to troubling comparisons with that incompetent government.

The conveners of this event, The Yar’Adua Memorial Centre , the Ford foundation and the Open Society initiative West Africa, have done us an enormous favour by offering us the platform for this profoundly important conversation . They deserve our deep gratitude for this opportunity for individual and collective introspection. Introspection is probably what separates us from beasts. That ability to learn from history is perhaps the greatest defense from the avoidable pain of learning from experience, when history is a much gentler and kinder teacher.

During elections in Nigeria, and even across the world, many people focus on the politicians themselves - whether they are good or bad or whether they are corrupt or not. This is the one ways in which I am significantly different from a majority of people I know: I instead pay all my attention to the citizen.

Without a doubt, the reckless manner the nation’s oil industry was administered by past governments was shoddy, but remains so to this day, even in this dispensation of the “change” mantra where transparency and due process are being flaunted as trademarks of ‘the oga at the top.’ Impunity by the government and its appointees may even be worse now than as witnessed in previous administrations.

Above was the title of a lecture that the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs delivered to students of Stanford University in 2005. The first time I came across the lecture, it was the title that first struck me.

The co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group, Aisha Yesufu, has been at the center of the storm in the past few days after releasing a video via her Twitter handle urging President Muhammadu Buhari to resign on health grounds. The woman, who came to prominence (at least to many Nigerians) via the BBOG campaign, received the bashing of her life from ardent supporters of President Buhari for what they described as lack compassion and concern for the president as others questioned her sincerity to the campaign.

“Have you read Lauretta Onochie’s latest post?” “Lauretta. Lauretta. Who is she?” “She is a social media assistant at the Presidency. She shoots straight and direct. She defends President Muhammadu Buhari with the passion of someone the President treats like a daughter.”

The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, has signed a very important executive order on port operations: He has instructed Apapa Port to resume 24-hour operation within 30 days and asked all agencies at the port to harmonize their operations into one single interface station.

According to Oxfam International’s ‘Inequality In Nigeria, Exploring the Drivers,’ a report published last week, the combined wealth of Nigeria’s five richest citizens, nearly $30 billion, can end extreme poverty in the country. Exploring the vast and deepening chasm between the country’s rich and her poor, the report said the benefits of the nation's economic growth has been seized by a minor sliver of the nation’s population, to the detriment of the ordinary Nigerians.

On May the 19th 2017, SaharaReporters published an article “NCC in Toothless Dog Bark at Telecom Firms” with an opinion that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has not acted on the violation of consumer rights by the telecom operators. I think the opinion that the Nigerian Communications Commission hasn’t acted on this is wrong!

The politicians may spend the two years left of the current regime talking about rail projects for which they’re seeking almost $6billion loan from the China EXIM Bank. Last year, transportation minister Rotimi Amaechi hinted that several rail tracks would be ready by 2018. Six months to 2018, the debate in the Senate is about south-east’s exclusion from the proposed projects. The loan has not even been negotiated, I guess.

There is a renewed clamor in the country for a young President. There is little doubt that concerns over the health condition of President Buhari fueled the resurgence of this agitation. The recent election of a 39-year old-Macron as President of France must have presented these agitators with a symbol in the example of Macron youthfulness. This agitation has its progressive benefits as it would enrich debates over the restrictive principles and content of our electoral laws. But the suggestions flowing from this debate – almost elevated to the realm of fanaticism – that a youthful politician is somehow bound by virtue of his age to turn things around is misplaced, and a record low in the annals of wishful thinking that fraught this country.

They showed their pernicious hands again last Sunday, and have been on the prowl since then, roaring like a lion, seeking who to devour. Purveyors of death they are, and they have killed President Muhammadu Buhari many times over, cloned the websites of international media houses to announce the hoax, but their wishes did not become horses, so they remain stranded, with nothing to ride.

I need your help please. At the annual Nigerian jamboree to the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of state for petroleum resources, told a “world press conference” on May 5, 2017 that Nigeria’s refineries would soon have new investors. He said 26 investors had indicated interest in the epileptic refineries. “By September, we will unveil the investors for the refineries,” the minister said smoothly, typically. “When we came onboard, the refineries were not working but as we speak, we have sizeable investment portfolio for them to an extent that we don’t know who to partner with for the investment.”

Sometime in 2012 at the height of Goodluck Jonathan’s unnerving incompetence amid rising Boko Haram insurgency, I made a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Nigeria’s governance should be privatised. I got a swift pushback from a motley crowd of humourless, dewy-eyed “nationalists” who thought I was advocating the recolonization of Nigeria.

I am very worried now. Ever since 1966 the northern ruling class has ALWAYS effected a coup d'etat whenever they feel sufficiently threatened with the loss of power. The only time that they failed to do this, to their eternal regret, was when President Goodluck Jonathan succeeded President Umaru Yar"Adua after the latter's death in 2010.

Below are excerpts from a post on the social media pushing a counter proposition that Nigeria is a ‘great’ country. It is unique in the respect that it seeks to controvert the premise on which the international community and the overwhelming majority of Nigerians think so poorly of Nigeria. In a manner of speaking, it is intended as positive propaganda for Nigeria and will find companionship in the new tradition being set by public communication proxies of President Donald Trump of the United states, called ‘alternative facts’. There is however a qualitative superiority to the Trump tradition-all the citations made to support this propaganda effort are factual and verifiable.

My dear Prophet, I’m very certain this letter must come to you as a big surprise. But that is the nature of this column. It is in the character of Pendulum to swing in the direction least anticipated. Today, it has chosen to navigate itself towards you, my dear man of God.

Lest we miss a vital opportunity to reflect on the anti-corruption campaign, we must put the positions of Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara on the inveterate plague in the proper perspective. It serves no good to the anti-corruption campaign and the nation’s development in the long run for their views to be dismissed in a huff simply because of a phalanx of allegations that have portrayed the duo and other members of the National Assembly as not immune from corruption.

Today’s event emphasizes the position of Lagos state as the telecommunications hub of Nigeria. The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics in its first quarter telecommunications sector report for 2016 placed Lagos voice subscriber base at 19.04 million or 12.8% of the country’s subscribers and 12.62 million internet subscription or 13.65%. The state is home to many of the key players in the telecommunications sector so it is understandable that is has been selected as the flag off city after the major event in Abuja on March 15 2017.

That Nigeria is a lawless country is an understatement. And that 'anything goes' is the order of the day is also a true statement. Our potentially great nation has major socio-political problems to contend with to wit: corruption, indiscipline, dysfunctional federalism and administrative mediocrity. Yet Nigerians are reputed globally to be a happy praying people! Despite those foreign or local sentiments, however, it is incontrovertible to avert that no nation ever gets built on such primordial instincts bordering on gender, race, religion or region. We can pray to God without ceasing but when we refuse to work or do the right thing the Supreme Being would definitely look elsewhere for the acknowledgment of supplications. After all, He is neither Nigerian nor African but the Omnipotent Master of all nations and peoples!

Because we run a nation-building company that is the continent’s leading expert on elections, we routinely sit in on meetings with politicians who want to be president, who want to explore being president, who want to push forward candidates who should be president, and who just want to brainstorm through what the presidency means and should be.

I agree with those who impugned arguments that designating the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, as the person who “will co-ordinate the activities of the government,” while President Muhammadu Buhari is away on his medical leave could derogate from Osinbajo’s active position as Acting President.

It is human nature to desire and try out new things. It is not unusual for people to become dissatisfied with a system, a person, a government or even a spouse especially when expectations are no longer met. The reason why we have new inventions and innovations springing up every minute is because humans become easily tired with old things. It is in the light of that context that I wasn’t surprised when building up to the 2015 elections, an over whelming Nigerians wanted the PDP kicked out from the holding the number position in the country- the presidency. PDP no longer met desired expectations. They had become too familiar and full of questionable vices.