Last week I promised I will reproduce today some of the responses to my column of the week before on the lecture in Abuja last month by Nasir el-Rufa’i, the Kaduna State governor, in which he suggested the NNPC, Nigeria’s oil conglomerate, should be scrapped. I also said I will reveal today my mid-year resolution about the too frequent slips I’ve made in my columns in recent times, typified by the wrong date I gave for the coup that brought Major-General Muhammadu Buhari to power, as military head of state, back in December 1983.
I made the slip in referring to a survey published by The Economist, the global London newsmagazine, on how Nigeria mismanaged its oil windfall of the early eighties. The survey, “After the ball,” was published in the magazine’s edition of May 3, 1986.
The way our erstwhile president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, blew our most recent oil windfall, I said, reminded me of The Economist’s survey published “a few months after our soldiers overthrew the fiscally reckless Second Republic under President Shehu Shagari and Muhammadu Buhari took over as military head of state.”
As several readers pointed out, by May 1986, Buhari himself was no longer in power, ousted as he was by his army chief, General Ibrahim Babangida, in a bloodless palace coup in August 1985.
Inadvertent as the slip was, I told myself it was inexcusable and resolved that I simply have to put a stop to such slips, especially after Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, former minister of external affairs and one of the country’s leading intellectuals, phoned to say every once in a while he referred my columns to his post-graduate students which, in effect, was saying I needed to put a stop to my carelessness.
To err is human. But I’ve resolved that three more egregious slips like the last one, I’ll pack it all in and turn my attention to compiling my columns, which I started in New Nigerian nearly 38 years ago, into a book.
There are, of course, journalists/columnists who have been at it for much longer than I have, notably Dan Agbese and Dr. Olatunji Dare who also happen to be older than me. But none comes close to me in the frequency of my errors.
I hope and pray that I don’t have to pack it in any time soon. So help me God!
And now to some of the responses to my piece of last week, “Aregbesola’s predicament”, and of the week before, “El-Rufa’i, PMB and our oil misfortune”.
Sir,
Your incisive article on “Aregbesola’s Predicament” failed to point out that the ongoing action by the Osun State House of Assembly is a very loud waste of time, as it is purely illegal. There is nowhere in the constitution that a serving judge or any individual outside the House of Assembly is empowered to initiate an impeachment of a governor.
The Osun House of Assembly is setting a dangerous precedent whereby every Tom, Dick, Harry or judge who is emotionally challenged can wake up and disturb the peace of a state. Neither Justice Oloyede Folahanmi nor the Osun House of Assembly has told Nigerians the law under which they are acting. The most the State House of Assembly could have done under the circumstance was to have raised Folahanmi’s concerns on the floor of the house by way of a motion.
Records show that this lady had raised similar dust during the tenure of Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola and no one cautioned her. Now she has raised the ante. If not now, this judicial officer is a potential threat to future governors in the state because if she goes on to become its Chief Judge, one day, she will wake up and summarily remove an elected governor.
Like the Americans say, “there will always be enough evidence to jail the Pope”. Justice Oloyede Folahanmi’s is too partisan to be a judge. It is certainly not fair to so unkindly wish away Aregbesola’s heroic interventions in Education, Health, Infrastructure and Social development.
Segun Adedeji
Ibadan
Sir,
Osun State had been bedevilled so much with politics of grab I grab over the years that those involved did not want to quit the stage. They had always connived with the state civil service.
As you rightly pointed out, Aregbesola as a human being has his own mistake(s) but it is appalling for a justice in the services of the state to raise the kind of petition raised by Justice Oloyede Folahanmi. I have tried in vain to get hold of her petition but if what you stated is the true representation of her claim, it leaves much to be desired. How can anybody in a good frame of mind say there is nothing to show for huge debts of Aregbesola’s administration?
As for the governor, I wonder why it took him so long to look for a way out. Is it that he is not given any allocation again after the prices of oil plummet in world market? If he still gets allocations though reduced, what is the extent of reduction? The governor should realize that a hungry man is an angry man. Many of the civil servants have no alternative income and not paying them is like sending them to the firing squad.
As for the petitioner, I advise she apologize to the governor and good people of Osun state for sending a wrong signal at this point in time.
Omo Elu
Sir,
Aregbesola is not the only state governor owing. Even oil producing states owe. l am not from Osun but my daughter is in the state university and attests to the construction of good roads and building of schools. PDP is darkness and APC is light. That is why darkness cannot overcome light.
Adekoya Muyiwa,
Gbagada.
+2348035313169.
Sir,
Are you a paid agent? First, Justice Folahanmi Oloyede is acting to character. She sued Oyinlola earlier on and if 0.00001 per cent of our educated elite emulate her, the country will move forward. The main issue, $2 Billon loans and badly executed projects littering Osun State, is quite unfortunate. But what do we expect from half baked semi-literate man?
Cardinal Wolesky,
Sinners Redemption Assembly, Abuja.
+2348055567777.
Sir,
“As and when due,” is the preferred usage, not “as at when due.” Your article on Aregbesola refers.
Aminu,
Minna.
+23548037042295.
Sir,
Re- ‘El-Rufa’i, PMB and our oil misfortune’ in Daily Trust, 22 July, 2015. From my perspective you have said it all. The problem with our political elite and some others in the upper middle class is lack of discipline and respect for rules and laws.
Mixed-economy is safe and flexible. Government must retain a reasonable capacity to produce. El-Rufa’i’s diagnosis is faultless. But the remedy is essentially capitalist dogma. Recent turmoil and US government bailout of a major private bank contrasts with the stability of China’s controlled capitalism.
Ambassador Kabiru Ahmed,
+2348033908695.
Sir,
I refer to the famous New Nigerian editorial published on June 29 l974, titled “Oil Money Honey or Poison” you mentioned in your column of July 22. The comments in it have come to pass long time ago. Nevertheless Buhari government must work on the monumental plan it suggested.
Emmanuel Olaniyan,
+2348034683555.
Sir,
With respect to our oil misfortune, the oil boom of the past is becoming an oil doom, given that crude oil has made us crude, very crude.
Eghosa
+2348033593310.
Sir,
It seems you know nil about el-Rufai. He is an opportunist, kara-da-kiyashi-daukar–marassani. He possibly, more than any single person, helped Obasanjo enrich himself. When he is asked where are the over N500b from BPE (Bureau of Public Enterprise) sale of government companies and over N500b from sale of government properties as FCT Minister his response is people should ask Obasanjo.
Moreover, why not make public his asset declaration? That is the dilemma. He should go quietly and enjoy his ill-gotten riches while he can and stop deceiving people. He is certainly no messiah.
- I. Sodangi,
+2348034515166.
Sir,
I read your thought-provoking article and it is like the previous ones you wrote on privatization years ago. The points you raised were similar to the issues discussed by Naomi Klein in her book, “Shock Doctrine”.
Let’s remind ourselves what El-Rufa’i said in his book, “Accidental Public Servant”, about the suspicion by OBJ (President Olusegun Obasanjo) of his Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, on the privatization exercise which El-Rufa’i headed then. It is safe to say that Nigeria began privatization at a time inappropriate, considering the level of corruption and impunity which largely made most of the public companies comatose. Did Nigeria care to know the where-about of the officials who by commission, omission or design made the companies inefficient?
This is what apologists of privatization fail or refuse to understand. To them, our public companies must be sold by whatever means necessary. This is the misfortune of Nigeria!
Kawu Bala,
