Is Okonjo- Iweala Finally Coming Around? By: Sam Nda-Isaiah on June 17, 2013 - 1:55am There were indications that after continuously but unreasonably praising Jonathan’s administration on its handling of the economy, the finance minister and coordinating minister for the economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, may be finally coming around. Some news media reported last week that, at an economic management committee meeting a few days ago, the minister was brutally frank with everyone present. She declared matter-of-factly that the nation’s economy was in grave danger and headed for a collapse. She said the corruption in the oil industry and the unbridled theft of the nation’s crude oil would ground the nation soon if something was not done about it. She complained bitterly that the theft of crude oil had reached unprecedented levels and, consequently, the revenues of the nation were fast drying up. It is far worse today than it was at the height of the Niger Delta militancy. These fresh facts are diametrically at variance with her mid- term report only a week earlier. But why should this be so? Hasn’t President Jonathan paid billions of naira to Niger Delta militants (or are they former militants as President Jonathan himself prefers to call them?) to guard oil installations and block the theft of crude? Why should the president pay billions of naira to militants to protect crude oil installations and yet the theft would surpass what it was during the period such contracts were not in place? Would it not be common sense to think that it could be these militants that are stealing the crude while guarding the installations at the same time? It is only in Jonathan’s governance style that a goat would be handed over to a bunch of hyenas for safekeeping. I sincerely find the president’s creative governance style quite intriguing. A few weeks ago, a certified clown and one of his minions who has been put in charge of sharing resources to these militants declared in faraway United States that only President Jonathan could guarantee peace in the Niger Delta. He was making reference to the 2015 elections and the need for the Americans to help maintain Jonathan in power beyond 2015. Of course, that silly statement only served as amusement to those listening to him. If Jonathan’s great idea of peace is one that is achieved by allowing thieves to feast on the nation’s resources, then, he must be the most creative president the world has ever known. Maybe we should nominate him for a Nobel Peace prize for such creativity. Because of Jonathan’s funny idea of peace, Nigeria is no longer Africa’s largest oil exporter. That position has been taken over by Angola. It is now estimated by several international agencies that oil theft since Jonathan became president has gone over 800,000 barrels per day, more than the amount that several other oil-producing nations around the world are able to produce. And, of course, it is very glaring that the president lacks both the will and capacity to stop the hoodlums. But that is not even the only issue posing danger to the economy. The finance minister just didn’t go far enough. Apart from the theft of the nation’s oil, the broad daylight theft of the nation’s funds is probably worse. The thieves here are not Niger Delta militants. They are robbers who cut across the country — and they make the militants look like pickpockets. Okonjo- Iweala did not speak of corruption, but I am sure she knows this fact better than most people. She had tried to fight “some” of the oil subsidy thieves, for example, but she, herself, knows she cannot go the whole hog. Most of them are too close to the oga at the top. There must be a reason why, in the very first year that Jonathan took over as president of Nigeria, the fuel subsidy expenses, which hovered between N200 billion and N250 billion during the Obasanjo and Yar’Adua presidencies, became N1.6 trillion. This is like seven times more than that of his predecessors. I am not aware that, on the day Jonathan became president, Nigeria’s population jumped sevenfold. It is quite embarrassing that several thieves feel at home in the company of the president. Abdulrasheed Maina, who had an issue with the Senate, was known to be hiding behind the president before he finally escaped. Many fuel subsidy thieves contributed very handsomely to the president’s campaign war chest and several others of very dubious characters still hang around the corridors of power. When Nigerians complain of his misgovernance, the president is fond of saying that he was not the one that created the bad roads, the lack of electricity, and the lack of everything a good president should be providing. That is very unpresidential. If a president, any president at all, does not feel compelled to turn the fortune of his country around, and instead revels in the convenient alibi that he didn’t create the problems he met, then, that person should not be president. President Jonathan needs to start becoming president immediately so that his remaining two years in office would be worthwhile. He needs to start thinking of his legacy as the first Nigerian president of Niger Delta origin. If he blows it, as he is already doing, the Niger Delta area which harbours some of the most decent and smartest Nigerians would never forgive him. Let President Jonathan please see this as a good piece of advice from a friend. And Okonjo-Iweala should be mindful of her own legacy too. EARSHOT Winning Hearts And Minds Immediately President Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, I tried to follow the activities of the military in those states as closely as I could. It was quite a daunting task doing that as all telephone networks had been disabled by the military. Fortunately, no one has yet been able to disable the Thuraya network. Not many people still remember the Thuraya phone, but in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa they do. There appears to be a consensus that the military has tried all it could to minimise the collateral damage that is usually associated with the cleaning-up job of this type. And the citizens and denizens also see that the soldiers are deliberately trying to protect innocent people. They have tried very hard to avoid the kind of human rights violations that they had been accused of in the past. And it should therefore surprise no one that the hearts and minds of the people of the affected states, which are also major battlefields in the fight against terrorists, are already being won. Last week in Maiduguri, the epicentre of the insurgency, several youths braved all the odds and started helping to fish out and hand over known Boko Haram insurgents to the JTF. It was so serious that a father called in the JTF to arrest his own son, who subsequently got shot dead when he tried to escape. If this trend continues, it will not be long before the insurgents are completely routed. This is hoping that the JTF has learnt an important lesson here and will do all they can to continue to win the hearts and minds of the people.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:22:49 +0000
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