NIGERIANS ALL OVER THE WORLD, STAND UP! ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES READY TO OVERRUN EVIL & TAKE BACK YOUR COUNTRY!

Before 12 noon on the same day of Voting, Osun and Ekiti States’ presidential results were ALREADY uploaded with the BVAS machines on INEC Results Portal! The world hailed.

In the Feb. 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections, each political party has only one Presidential Candidate but many parliamentary candidates. APC and PDP have 469 National Assembly candidates each, and more than that number for the other political parties combined. INEC polling unit, LGA and state officers claim that their BVAS machines are able to upload results of each of the 469 National Assembly polls per political party on INEC’s results portal, a task that is multi-terminus and far more complex in national results collation. Yet the same machines suddenly run out of stamina, network and battery when it comes to uploading the election results of only four Presidential Candidates, a task that is mono-terminus and much simpler with a single Presidential contestant per political party. Of course, this is a story strictly for the birds.

The Truth has now been exposed by 3 (three) INEC ICT strongroom Confessors who patriotically pulled out of the grandest election conspiracy of the Nigerian century! The Confessors’ verified report states that the Presidential Election results are being deliberately frozen right before the eyes of 200m Nigerians from naked treason of INEC Headquarters on a hatchet mission for the APC and its Presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Confessors state that the delay in uploading the presidential results is being orchestrated to buy time for a Hacking Bypass Technology to enable INEC Abuja Hqrs to upload a false Presidential Result different from the ones Nigerians voted en masse in favour of the APC candidate, Tinubu, the Paymaster of the ongoing treason.

This is the Confessors’ assertive report: APC’s Bola Tinubu paid hard US currency through conduit channels to INEC ICT Personnel across Nigeria as follows: $100 to Polling Unit level upload officers, $500 to Ward Level upload officers, $1,000 to LGA collation upload officers, $2,000 to Assistant Directors (AD) of INEC Hqr ICT Strongroom, $5,000 to Deputy Directors (DD) of INEC Hqr ICT Strongroom and $10,000 to Directors of INEC Hqr ICT Strongroom. The last two categories of ICT directors, who are key channels of the payments, work directly under the supervision of the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu. 

According to the Confessors, that is not the worst part of the dark, devious, ominous and satanic electoral grand fraud coming. The worst part of the scheme is the collating of comprehensively falsified results, then suddenly begin to upload the falsified versions of Presidential results. They shall begin with Southern Nigeria states which shall allocate conservative but reasonably favourable winning margins to LP Presidential Candidate Peter Obi but with victory in only 23 states. And then swamp and drown out the Southern results with falsified overwhelming results from South-West and Northern states and declare victory for Bola Ahmed Tinubu with a final result of majority votes and 27 states.

The Confessors’ further revealed that throughout Nigeria, any Polling Unit Agent, Ward Collation Agent, LGA Collation Agent and State Collation Agent refusing to upload results or fumbling with their BVAS machines to fool voters in the name of the network or battery failure is mostly just defending the dollars they have received from APC’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his blood-soaked agents in the North like the El Rufai and lunatics in the South like the Nyesom Wikes.

NB: There is as yet no verified confirmation that INEC chairman Prof. Mamhoud Yakubu received money for a role in the satanic web of graft for treason against the will of the Nigerian people.

INEC TRAITORS

Nigerians have a message for INEC chairman Prof. Mamhoud Yakubu and the commission’s ICT skunks responsible for the ongoing polls falsification racket by INEC Hqrs and APC treason cartel: NIGERIANS ARE COMING FOR YOU. You will pay a price too high for your share of blood money in bribes to subvert the will of the Nigerian People on who they have chosen to be their next President.

Be sure of this Very Thing: Everyone of you involved in this appalling, disgusting and despicable treason to subvert Nigeria’s electoral will: you shall eat your children’s flesh and drink their blood from unquenchable thirst. The blood and tears of countless orphans and widows for their families and innocent Nigerians who were slain in the soil of Nigeria over the last 8 years and beyond shall hunt you down, drown and wash your corpses and your children’s into cursed graves of shame and hell’s hottest hell forevermore.

Disclaimer: 

The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

A former Managing Director (MD) of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and former staff of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Usman Gur Mohammad, in an interview on Trust TV’s 30 Minutes x-rays the issues in the power sector and how a better understanding by the presidential candidates will help drive solutions. Excerpts:

Question: You were part of those under the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) engagement that x-rayed the power sector in relation to what the four main presidential candidates of the APC, PDP, NNPP and LP are offering Nigerians. What’s your verdict?

Answer: The programme by PWC was on the power sector post-2023. We actually reviewed the manifestos of all the political parties before we went to that programme and the conclusion that we had is that with all the rhetoric about making 20,000 megawatts or 25,000 megawatts, there is no analysis of the problem that made us stay on 4,000 megawatts as of today and there is nothing to show how the 20,000 megawatts is going to be made. There are no details and I can conclude that there is no understanding by the four major political parties of the intrigues and the issues in the power sector. So, the conclusion is that if they come to power, they are likely going to spend another four years just like the current government has spent seven years without a significant movement in the power sector; that’s exactly what is going to be.

Question: But don’t you think they will push back and say a lot of the things could not be properly understood until you are actually sitting in the office and looking at the figures before you?

Answer: The problem is that the power sector has a lot of vested interests, and the vested interests will not even allow them to understand the sector for them to be able to do any good analysis. There was a discussion we had with PWC and we concluded that they would reach out to KPMG – which is another accounting firm – so that together with me, we are going to work with them to understand what the power sector is all about, to understand the intricacies and to understand the issues that have made us be spending trillions on the power sector without movement.

Questions: Why is it so difficult for this huge amount to translate to better power delivery to Nigerians?

Answer: Let me start with the Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, and Jonathan regimes; what went wrong in those times? I will also tell you what went wrong under the Buhari administration. Under the Obasanjo regime, they passed the power sector reform into law and they unbundled the power sector into 11 companies and handed over all. They never embarked on privatisation; they stopped there. But the biggest investment that Obasanjo did in the power sector was the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP). We embarked on that project without adequate study, we were convinced by some foreign companies that they were going to supply gas turbines to us, and then they said they were not even going to be doing the installation; that they would hand it over to a Nigerian that was working with them who would take the responsibility of the installation.

So, what we did basically was that it’s like you want to build a house and you award a contract to somebody to build the house for you and he does the roof and keeps it for you when you have not started the civil works; that is exactly what we did with the NIPP. They brought this gas turbine under FOB, and some of them stayed for more than four years in Port Harcourt, with no road even to carry them; the bridges were not tested to see whether they could be carried. So, we didn’t even clear the place where we were going to install the gas turbines and there was no gas supply to the locations. This is exactly what happened with transmission also. We awarded so many contracts that we didn’t carry out the studies. Some of those contracts actually failed completely and some of them were completed with a lot of inadequacies. When I was made MD of the transmission company, one of the first contracts I awarded was for the procurement of three emergency reactors. I had to buy three reactors for a transmission that had been completed under the NIPP. We installed a reactor in Ikot Ekpene, one in Ugwaji and one in Jos. We had to also do emergency procurement of transposition towers. They built those lines without transposition.

Question: So, no way to evacuate the power?

Answer: There is no way; it will not work. The problem with electricity is not like the road where you can award a contract of nine inches and then you do four inches. You will see the road and people will ply it. Whether the road will last for three years or one year or four years; it depends. For electricity, it will not work, that’s the process. So, I had to do that for a contract that had been completed. I’ll give you another example. A 330kV line was awarded from Alauji to Owerri to Iyala to Onitsha with a 330KV substation in Owerri. That line has been funded 100 per cent through LC and all the money has been withdrawn. There’s no line anywhere and nothing, simply because the necessary studies that were supposed to be done were not done. These are some of the reasons that accounted for so much wastage that we are seeing happening under the NIPP. We spent so much money but you cannot relate the asset that we got out of the project with the money that has been spent.

When you come to Yar’Adua; he actually did something that many other people did not do. He suspended the implementation of the power sector reform and set up a committee to review the power sector reform to advise him on how to go about it. That is the best thing to do actually. But what happened immediately after he died, Jonathan discarded the report and called a consultant to advise them on how to go about privatisation. They employed an Indian consultant who advised them to do what is called pilot – privatise one or two states and see the experience that they learn from those two states before embarking on entire privatisation. Jonathan discarded that report and completely took a decision to privatise the entire network – distribution and generation.

Meanwhile, there were certain studies that they were supposed to carry out to do the privatisation. For the DisCos, anybody who is taking over a DisCo, a company that is experienced will insist that you have to give them the aggregate, technical and commercial laws determined scientifically. This was not done. We assumed a 25 per cent loss, so when we went to a road show all over the world, everybody told us, all the companies that have experience told us, “Please go and determine the studies, determine scientifically the aggregate technical commercial, we are not ready to do that. We eventually knew nobody was going to come. So, we lowered the qualification criteria to allow Nigerian companies to take over those companies. That was how all the DisCos were taken over by companies that have no experience. 

Question: Have they not added any value; I mean for customers, as all they are after is just metering and that hasn’t happened?

Answer: Unfortunately, for utility, even a company that is experienced, if you don’t monitor them you will end up losing because you can take over your utility, make as much money as you can from that utility and discard it back worse than when you took over to the person who gave you, and that’s exactly what happened because they don’t have the capacity, they don’t have the experience, they signed what they called “technical partnership” with qualified companies, but what is a technical partnership? It’s a loose relationship that has no responsibility on the part of the technical partners.

Question: Is that why some, like Kaduna DisCo, had to be taken over?

Answer: I’ll tell you what happened. We encouraged Nigerian banks because those companies have no capacity to raise long-term finance. We encouraged Nigerian companies to invest in the DisCos. I mean the government encouraged Nigerian banks to invest in the DisCos. That money that came from the banks was short-term and very expensive and is not ideal for financing this kind of infrastructure. We created a liquidity problem for the power sector; that was the beginning of a liquidity problem for the power sector. At the end of the day, now you have people who have no experience, no capacity. Eventually, most of the companies, yes they have MDs that came from the private sector, but the people that are running the DisCos are actually former NEPA staff; they are the ones running the places actually. At the end of the day, you discover that no significant investment has come to the DisCos.

Question: We sometimes see the Generating Companies (GenCos) claiming they have put back some turbines to work and are generating a bit more electricity…?

Answer: When I was MD, distribution was the most serious problem that we had, but unfortunately, as of today, we have actually descended so low that even the generation is a problem. There is a significant lack of gas supply. Some of the IOCs have pulled out of distribution, like Shell, and now there are several of them that cannot recover some of the turbines that they claimed they had. At the end of the day, now sometimes we find it difficult to generate up to 4,000 megawatts. So much talk about Mambilla, especially under this government, and it doesn’t appear as if even this spade work will happen before it goes…

I was the MD of TCN, and throughout the discussion of Mambilla, they excluded me because everybody knew I would tell the truth. Eventually, when China Exim Bank sent their consultant to come to Nigeria and review the project, the China Exim Bank sneaked in and met me and we discussed extensively and I discovered that there was no project actually. A project is something that is financially viable. If you have a project that is not financially viable, that project doesn’t exist and nobody is going to put in his money. I don’t believe China Exim Bank is going to put money into that Mambilla project because when we discussed it we discovered that the tariff for Mambilla is going to be 13 cents per kilowatt hour. You know that we have been making a lot of noise on Azura. Azura was about 10.4 or 11 cents per kilowatt hour, and we have been making a lot of noise because it’s very expensive.

Question: How do we have a hydro that is going to sell at 13 cents? Who is going to buy that energy and how are you going to recover the money? That is the question.

Answer: In the review, what we discovered is that the plant factor of a hydro, of Mambilla, was very high. What this means is that the percentage of water, if you are discharging the water at the same time for within the year, you would spend only about 20 to 30 per cent and the water will finish, meaning you are putting a big generator that is generating less. If you distribute that cost of putting that big generator to the tariff, I’m putting it in layman’s language, the tariff becomes very high.

The tariff for hydro is supposed to be between five and in most cases six cents per kilowatt hour, and this is 13 cents per kilowatt hour. I knew that the project would not fly. The China Exim Bank can be deceiving us and be doing whatever they want, but it will not fly. So, forget about what they talk about; they have litigation with some people, and there is no project because, at 13 cents per kilowatt hour, it doesn’t make economic sense for anybody to put his money there; that is the fact.

Question: What has been the general thrust of the Buhari administration in terms of the power sector?

Answer: What the Buhari administration took over from Jonathan is the completely privatised power sector with a transmission company under the government, but it was given to Manitoba Hydro International to manage on behalf of the government. The government has taken over what you call the Single Buyer Model where the bulk trader is the one buying all the electricity and they sell to the DisCos.

Question: So, it is similar to the NNPC importing fuel?

Answer: Yes! This single-buyer model in electricity has never worked anywhere in the world; it has never worked. I don’t know how they advised us to do this. It has never worked because it makes the DisCos to be not accountable to anybody; it makes the GenCos to be lazy. Because you have somebody who is taking the responsibility and taking the cost, meaning, if the DisCos don’t generate enough money to put into the sector, the shortfall that is supposed to go to transmission and go to generation is going to be paid by the government.

Question: So, is it another subsidy type of thing?

Answer: It is a subsidy. It’s supposed to be a transitional arrangement of five years, but now we have spent more than 10 years and it is still existing. Under the arrangement, the government of President Buhari has pumped close to N2trn into the power sector to finance this kind of subsidy and at the end of the day that money has not translated to a single megawatt increase because it’s just financing consumption. We are just financing the failure of the power sector reform; that is how it is.

Question: But how come we are having frequent power collapse, the whole grid collapsing maybe up to 10 times last year?

Answer: The system will collapse because all the necessary ingredients for a system not to collapse are there. For example, you need to have an adequate transmission line. That was the reason why we embarked on what you call transmission, but first of all, I did 20 LGco transmission expansion, which was the first of its kind in Nigeria, nobody had done this kind of thing before. Then we also, on the basis of the 20 expansion transmission co, established what we call the transmission rehabilitation expansion programme, where we raised $1.661bn from multilateral donors to put redundancy across the country. Redundancy means that we have to put what we call N-1 so that every line that you are building is supposed to be in a loop so that if there’s a problem you can back-feed or brand-feed. This means every transformer or any equipment that gets out of that substation should not affect the supply. We completed all the studies and launched procurement. We were about to sign the contract and everything and then they announced that they had sacked me; no query, no nothing.

Question: But the government is a continuum; so, has it not been continued?

Answer: I don’t know, because by now we are supposed to be seeing commissioning. For the Abuja transmission; we were to build five substations in Lugbe, Apo, Kuje, Lokogoma and Dawaki. All of those were signed when I was the MD, but up till today have they been commissioned? No. We are supposed to have a line that runs from Lafia to Abuja, where is the line?

Question: Is it a mafia that is making sure that all these things do not happen so that another new contract will be given?

Answer: What happened is that the same mistake we made on NIPP; we now came and created what they call Siemens. I think they distracted the management of transmission and insisted that they should do Siemens.

Question: What is Siemens; is the company or what?

Answer: If you look at the video that they did they show everything. They will electrify Nigeria, they did it in Egypt. Meanwhile, the problem of Egypt is completely different from our problem. The problem of Egypt that Siemens resolved was the problem of generation. If you want to increase generation, you can actually bring ships, there are ships that are generators, and you can put them in the sea of Lagos.

Question: Like what happened in Lagos under Tinubu who brought all those big generators?

Answer: Oh yes! You can bring so many of them. Ghana has so many of them like that. You can bring them and increase generation, but the question is that our problem is actually not generation, it is transmission and distribution. We were working. We finished TRIM phase one, we almost finished the procurement and were supposed to go to phase two where we were going to have additional transmission lines like from Sokoto to Kaura Namoda to Katsina, and then from Kano to Calabar which will provide redundancy across the areas.

We also connected the Eko Atlantic and completed the loop between Akamba and Alagbon so that Lagos would also have a loop. Additionally, we were supposed to close the loop between Delta and Port Harcourt, we would have looped Nigeria in such a way that we would have provided all the redundancy that was needed for us to have adequate electricity in Nigeria; now all these things have not been done.

Question: What will be your advice if you are to meet the presidential candidates of the four main parties aspiring to rule Nigeria?

Answer: Number one, they have to understand the power sector very well, understanding generation, transmission and distribution. They have to understand that electricity is not like water; you don’t store it. If your transmission capacity is 4,000MW and your distribution capacity is 2,000MW, your generation capacity is 4,000MW, you can only generate 2,000MW. At any point in time supply and demand must be equal. When you say the system is collapsing, it is because at any point in time supply and demand are not equal and there are certain ingredients that you need to have. You need to have what they call a spinning reserve. As of today, we operate the grid without a spinning reserve.

All over the world, if you want to operate a stable grid in addition to having adequate redundancy, you need to have a spinning reserve, you need to have adequate scada and you need to have frequency under control; meaning all the generators must be on grid code. They have to have people who are incorruptible. The president has to be the driver; meaning he has to be the person who will champion the power sector otherwise there’s no way we can move forward. 

Courtesy Daily Trust

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

I have restrained myself from getting involved in this kind of controversy. This was why I made a strenuous effort from being drawn into the brickbat between Bayo Onanuga/Dele Alake on the one hand and Arise News on the other despite pressure on me to say something. “Oga, this is shameful, won’t you say something to guide us?” I resisted the pressure.  The drive for political power in this clime has no respect for anything. Not for honour, nor anything with the tinge of sublimity! You will be hailed for calling black white and white, black even on the platform of journalists who are not just observers but chroniclers of developments and events.

How can anybody say LASU was a glorified school? Oh, really? The Metro line was stopped by the Buhari junta, not by NPN! What NPN attempted to do was to stop the establishment of Lagos Radio and Television. The Shagari Administration sought to vest the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria with the power to establish and operate state radio stations.  The Nigerian Television Authority was to set up at least one television station in each state of the Federation. They said states setting up radios and TV would amount to the proliferation of broadcast stations. They did not know the person they were dealing with—someone who for years was the President of IPI, the founder of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, the founder of Newspapers Proprietors Association, (NPAN); founder of NIJ, managing director/editor of the Nigerian Tribune, one who led the media in battles with the military as well as irresponsible civilian administrations.  Jakande fought it and was victorious. His administration was therefore the first state government to own a TV Station in Nigeria.

The functional primary schools he built to abolish the three-session system he inherited were recommended by UNESCO for developing countries. When  Gbolahan Mudasiru came, he started to upgrade them. And he did a lot. The Jakande schools were meant for a purpose and they fulfilled such that pupil enrollment leapt from 90, 172 in 1979 to 136, 987 in 1983. Secondary schools rose from 79 when Jakande took over in 1979 to 319 by July 1983. The student population was 59,584 by October 1979. By a year later it had leapt to 107, 835 students. The teachers were the highest paid in the nation with the right to car and housing loans like the state civil servants.

Housing: He embarked on a crash programme to build 50, 000 housing units in four years. For 17 years before his ascension, LEDB, the state housing corporation succeeded in building only 4,502 housing units. His focus was on the low and medium classes of our people. He succeeded in delivering 21,000. An allottee was required to pay only N4,000 as a deposit. Whoever was unable to afford that could pay just N1,000 and he would be eligible for a loan to balance up from LBIC. He thus established 18 housing estates in the state. A two-bedroom flat was sold for N6,000 and a three-bedroom unit for N8,000.

I have read in several places that by 1999, Lagos could only generate N600 million. Let’s hear it from the horse’s mouth who came to the saddle 20 years earlier, the one and only LKJ:

“We generated enough to meet our obligations without dependence on the Federal Account.” And so, Lagos State under Jakande was the first State Government in the land to announce a billion Naira budget and it gave loans to some state governments, notably Borno! Jakande was the one who established the Lagos State Ministry of Environment under the headship of Alabi Masha. He then set up Lagos State Waste Disposal Board with Alhaji Mumini as chairman. Anyone of my generation who knew Mumini would remember the kind of person he was, and his unremitted application to assigned tasks. Equipped with a fleet of 157 vehicles, 21 mechanical shovels and 2,000 movable dust bins in every part of the metropolis, the board collected 400,000 tonnes of refuse yearly. Of course, the population of Lagos has increased by leaps, it should necessarily be expected of his successors to roll up their sleeves and Fashola fitted the bill. Fashola did remarkably well. We should remember that because of his shine, it was a tug of war to have him get the nod of the city fathers for a second term! Ambode continued in the line of Fashola to tackle the refuse problem successfully. Was it not part of building a cleaner Lagos that Fashola embarked on environmental transformation everywhere, turning Lagos into exemplary leafy surroundings—plants, flowers, green lawns even in the most unexpected terrain?

Jakande established Flood Relief Committee de-flooding Ebute Ero, Oroyinyin; Obalende; Aguda; Opebi; Apapa; Eric More; Simpson; Oba Akran and many more upto Somolu! Drains collectors were built at Gbagada; Oshodi Mafoluku; Ojota; Keri etc.

To arouse public interest in environmental transformation, Jakande introduced the following:

Annual Sanitation Day for Market Women; Annual Sanitation Day for Workers; Annual Sanitation Day for School Children; Annual Environmental Day for Community Development Committees; and Annual competition on environment among the 20/23 local government councils in the state.

I won’t want to bore the platform with the roads Jakande built and paved nor his strategy to turn the finances of Lagos State around. Presently, I will mention just one area. Strategy on roads? Hold it: His strategy was to establish a Works Management Board. One unique activity of that board was that it had its asphalt plant which could produce 200 tons of asphalt an hour!  So it was possible to build neighbourhood roads without much stress. That board also constructed 94 public buildings including the Lagos State House of Assembly; the rebuilding of Onikan Stadium; the Coconut industries in Badagry as well as Conference Hall in that town!

Perhaps worthy of mentioning because of the exaggerated claims we are fed on this platform is Eto-OSA-Lekki which stretched to Epe! And also perhaps Epe-Ijebu-Ode ( 12,000 meters)! Ha! Let me quickly mention the opening up of Victoria Island-Lekki!

Just one stream of financial turn-around: Jakande Administration invested in the following companies:

Guinness Nigeria Limited; Nigerian Breweries; Dunlop Industries; Capps & Da’Alberto; Julius Berger; G. Cappa; UAC; BEWAC Ltd; UTC Ltd; CFAO; Volkswagen Nigeria Ltd; Nichemtex; Clay Industries; British American Insurance; Westminster Dredging; Crusader Insurance!

I have not exhausted all that Jakande did to be the modern builder of Lagos. As I said earlier, I have refrained from getting involved in this kind of thing. Were we living on the moon? Are we children? It is rude to attempt to pull the wool over the faces of journalists on their platform, many of them very senior journalists who, if not editors in the period under review, were line editors! What constitutes the index of development, of enlightenment if not education, environment and health, transportation? Jakande built LASU, polytechnic colleges and schools which form the foundation of civilization anywhere. He met 17 hospitals since the colonial days, and within four years he increased the facilities to 22. He set up 10 mini waterworks which is a tool of sanitation. He established a ferry service from Festac to Marina and wool is being pulled over our faces as if we are children and uninformed—on this platform!!!

– Lade Bonuola, first editor and later managing director of The Guardian on The Guardian platform

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

Section 134 (2) of the CFRN 1999 provides that “A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being more than two candidates for the election: (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”  In my opinion, what the constitution means is that adding Abuja to the other 36 States (to make up 37 States), a candidate with the highest number of votes cast in a presidential election, must also get at least 25 percent of the votes cast in each of at least 2/3 of the number (that’s, 37 states). Accordingly, if the candidate secures at least 25 percent in each of up to 25 States, the constitutional requirement would be deemed satisfied irrespective of whether he gets up to 25 percent votes in Abuja or not… Thus, a candidate who secures the highest number of votes cast and also at least 25 percent in each of the 25 States of Nigeria, does not need to score up to 25 percent in the FCT Abuja as a condition precedent to being declared the winner.

My view is that the “and” in “all the States in the Federation AND the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja” is conjunctive, not disjunctive. The role it plays in section 134(2) is merely to add the FCT Abuja to the number of States in Nigeria, so that a candidate would know he must get up to 25 percent of the votes cast in each of 2/3, not just of 36 States, but of “the 36 States and Abuja” (which is 37 States).

My submission that the “and” has a conjunctive interpretation may be strengthened by the realization that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria treats the FCT Abuja as a State in Nigeria. In other words, Abuja has the status of a State. If this is the case, why should Abuja be treated differently from the other States, for the purpose of interpretation and application of section 134(2) of the Constitution? It’s therefore submitted that for purposes of the application of section 134(2) CFRN, Nigeria is a country of 37 States. In my commentary titled “WHY NIGERIA MUST ALWAYS HAVE A MINIMUM OF THIRTY-SEVEN (37) MINISTERS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION” [July 03, 2016; <http://adviceafrica.blogspot.com/2016/07/why-nigeria-must-always-have-minimum-of.html?m=1>], I discussed why Nigeria is a country of 37 States: “Thirty-seven (37), because, by virtue of the provisions of section 299 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, the provisions of the Constitution shall apply to the FCT, Abuja as if it were one of the States of the Federation”.

 Continuing, I said:_

‘In a letter to Justice William Johnson of the United States, Sir Thomas Jefferson, a founding father and 3rd President of the United States of America, had this to say: “on every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” The following words of Abraham Lincoln, delivered in a speech he made on August 27, 1856, at Kalamazoo, Michigan would serve as a piece of advice to us on the construction of our Constitution: “Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. And not to Democrats alone do I make this appeal, but to all who love these great and true principles.” Let us then not turn our government and governance away from the channel in which the framers of the Nigerian Constitution originally placed them. The business of governance is too serious and onerous to be left in [the] hands of only the leaders; they need the law and the Constitution as their guide’._  On its part, *Section 301 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, provides:

“”Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of Section 299 of this Constitution in its application to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, this Constitution shall be construed as if – (a) references to the Governor, Deputy Governor and the Executive Council of a State (howsoever called) were references to the President, Vice President and the Executive Council of the Federation (howsoever called) respectively; (b) references to the Chief Judge and Judges of the High Court of a State were references to the Chief Judge and Judges of the High Court, which is established for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja by the provisions of this Constitution”.

Finally, While answering the question, of whether the Federal Capital Territory is a “State” by virtue of the provisions of Section 299 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the Court of Appeal (Per RAPHAEL OLUFEMI ROWLAND, JCA, pp 7 – 13 Paras A – A) said in KOYODE v. FCDA (2005) LPELR-41123(CA):

“…. Section 299 provides thus – “The provisions of this Constitution shall apply to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as if it were one of the States of the Federation and accordingly- (a) all the legislative powers, the executive powers and the judicial powers vested in the House of Assembly, the Governor of a State and in the Courts of a State shall, respectively, vest in the National Assembly, the President of the Federation and in the Courts which by virtue of the foregoing provisions are Courts established for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; (b) all the powers referred to in Paragraph (a) of this Section shall be exercised in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution, and ??? (c) the provisions of this Constitution pertaining to the matter aforesaid shall be read with such modification and adoptions as may be reasonably necessary to bring them into conformity with the provisions of this Section.” 

The above provision of the Constitution to my mind is very clear and unambiguous. It is trite that where a provision of a statute is clear and unambiguous, only its natural meaning is to be given to its interpretation. See A-G., Abia State v. A-G., Federation (2002) 17 WRN 1; (2002) 6 NWLR (Pt. 763) 264 at 485 – 486, Texaco Panama Inc. v. Shell P.D.C.N. Ltd. (2002) 14 WRN 121; (2002) 5 NWLR (Pt. 759) 209 at 227 – 228, Tasha v. U.B.N. Plc. (2003) 36 WRN 64; (2002) 3 NWLR (Pt. 753) page 99 at 106, O.A.U. Ile-Ife v. R. A. Oliyide and Sons Ltd. (2001) 7 NWLR (Pt. 712) page 456 at 473, Akpan v. Umali (2002) 23 WRN 52; (2002) 7 NWLR (Pt. 767) page 701 at 729. It is therefore doubtless clear that by virtue of Section 299 of the Constitution of the Federation, the Federal Capital Territory is in law a State. In others words, the Federal Capital Territory should be treated as one of the States in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It follows therefore that bodies like the Federal Capital Development Authority are to be regarded as an agency of “a State” independent of the Federal Government. It would appear that the only relationship existing between the Federal Government and the Federal Capital Territory is that its executive and legislative powers and duties are exercised for it by the President through the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and the National Assembly respectively. From the provision of Section 299(a), where the President through the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Acts, he does so as a Governor of a State, so also where the National Assembly legislates for Abuja it does so as a State House of Assembly. See Fawehinmi v. Babangida (2003) 12 WRN 1; (2003) 3 NWLR (Pt. 808) page 604 where the Supreme Court endorsed the status of Federal Capital Territory as a “State” of the Federation. On page 677 the Supreme Court per Onu, JSC held as follows- “Returning to the case in hand, the power to make a law under the 1999 Constitution for the establishment of a Tribunal of Inquiry is now a residual power, which only the States can exercise. The National Assembly can only pass such a law in regard to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Thus, while the Commission of Inquiry Act Cap, 447 is an existing law, it has no general application to Nigeria. It is only applicable to the Federal Capital Territory a law deemed enacted by each House of Assembly for the respective States.” I hold the strong view that the intendment and general purpose of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria particularly its Section 299 is that the Federal Capital Territory should be a separate administrative unit distinct from the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This is the position in reality. For example, the Abuja Environmental Protection Board is an agency created for the development, enhancement and beautification of the Abuja environment while the Federal Government has a similar agency called the Federal Environmental Protection Board. Section 5(e) of the Abuja Environmental Protection Agency Decree No. 10 of 1997 provides as one of the objectives of the board to “co-operate with the Federal Environmental Protection Agency and such other States, Environmental Protection Agencies to achieve effective prevention or abatement of transboundary movement of wastes.” It seems to me that the above provision further confirms the status of Abuja as a separate administrative unit distinct from the Government of the Federation. 

I consider Section 301 of the 1999 Constitution to be very germane to the subject matter. Section 301 reads- “Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of Section 299 of this Constitution in its application to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, this Constitution shall be construed as if – (a) references to the Governor, Deputy Governor and the Executive Council of a State (howsoever called) were references to the President, Vice President and the Executive Council of the Federation (howsoever called) respectively; (b) references to the Chief Judge and Judges of the High Court of a State were references to the Chief Judge and Judges of the High Court, which is established for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja by the provisions of this Constitution???” From the above provisions of Section 301 of the 1999 Constitution, it is my view that all institutions created for the Federal Capital Territory only carry the appellation “federal” while in the real sense, they are State agencies because they are institutions meant for the Federal Capital Territory as a State. I must say it loud and clear again that from the provisions of Section 299 of the Constitution, one should not be left in doubt: (i) That the provision of the Constitution shall apply to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as if it were one of the States of the Federation. (ii) All legislative powers, executive powers and judicial powers vested in the House of Assembly, the Governor of a State and in the Courts of a State shall respectively vest in the National Assembly, the President of the Federation and the Courts established under the Federal Capital Territory”._

It’s therefore my position that a Presidential Candidate who scores the highest number of votes cast is not required to score up to 25 percent of the votes cast in the FCT Abuja as a mandatory condition precedent to being declared the winner, provided that the candidate has secured at least 25 percent of the total votes cast in each of at least 25 States of Nigeria. 

By way of conclusion, let’s take a look at the following two English expressions/constructions, to help make the intendment of section 134(2) clearer:

A. “in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”.

B. “… in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”.

The former [number (A)] is the exact expression used in section 134(2) CFRN 1999. If you look at the grammar construction, you’d see that the “and” in the number (A) is used and meant to be interpreted conjunctively, meaning that the affected candidate is only required to score up to 25 percent of the votes cast in each of 2/3 percent of the totality of the component units of Nigerian (that is, 37 States: comprising 36 States and Abuja). On the other hand, the “and” in the number (B) above is used and meant to be interpreted disjunctively, meaning that aside from scoring at least 25 percent of the votes cast in each of 2/3 of 36 States, the affected candidate must additionally, unfailingly score at least 25 percent specifically in the FCT Abuja.

I think there is no confusion in the wording of section 134(2) of the Constitution; it leaves no one in doubt that the FCT Abuja is not to be treated separately from the other 36 States, but must be considered as one of the constituent units or Federating States meaning that there are 37 States for the purpose of calculating the 2/3 requirement in section 134(2)(b) of the Constitution. 

The following observations were made in a paper titled, “Place of Internal and External Aids in Statutory Interpretation In the Light of Legitimateness of Jurisdictive Discretion”:

_“The meaning of an enactment must be ascertained from its text, in light of its purpose and in its context.” The legislature must be taken in a statute to have said exactly what it means, and also to mean exactly what it has said therein. Although jurists may take the help of both the Rules or Canons of Interpretation as well as of some Internal Aids and External Aids to the Rules in the interpretation of Statutes, it goes without saying that interpretation of a word or expression must depend on the text and the context. In People v. Jefferson, 10 the California Court of Appeals, 4th District, USA, observed that the role of the courts “in construing a statute is to ascertain the intent of the Legislature so as to effectuate the purpose of the law. According to the Court of Appeals of the US state of Indiana, “the first and often last step in interpreting a statute is to examine the language of the statute”11 As one writer puts it, “statutory test should be both the ending point as well as the starting point for interpretation.”12 This is because, words are the skin of the language, while language is the medium of expressing the object that a particular provision or the Act seeks to achieve. In other words, to find the real intentions of the drafters of a statute, regard must be had to the context, subject matter and object of the statutory provision in question 13 Courts and jurists achieve this by carefully analyzing the whole scope and provisions of the statute or section relating to the word or phrase under consideration.14 Though schools of statutory interpretation vary on what factors should be considered, all approaches to statutory interpretation start (if not necessarily end) with the language and structure of the statute itself.

15 This is because the language and provisions of a statute are the most reliable indicator of the intent of the makers of the statute.16′

[See: Sylvester Udemezue, “Place of Internal and External Aids to Statutory Interpretation in the Light of Legitimateness of Jurisdictive Discretion” (2021) 5 IMSU Journal of International Law and Jurisprudence (IJILJ) 48 (Imo State University). https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Role-of-Internal-and-External-Aids-in-Statutory-A-Udemezue/2a1cb4f1f872da82140420cc0a308d65f5900d57]

Respectfully,

Sylvester Udemezue (Udems), Tel (+234) 08109024556, E-mail: mrudems@yahoo.com, (28/02/2023)

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

By divine order, it is the duty of a woman to be pregnant. It is taboo to hear that a man is pregnant. However, God has the capacity to reverse it. Humanly speaking it is impossible. Some time ago, a certain man with a bulging belly was relaxing half-naked one evening on the balcony of his house. After sending three bottles of beer to their untimely graves, he dosed off and was snoring like a local pig. He was breathing like a big pot on the fire. Her little daughter came out and saw her father’s belly expanding bigger and bigger as he breathes. She rushed immediately to her mother who was busy in the kitchen and shouted, “Mummy, come and see! Daddy is pregnant!” The mother couldn’t control her laughter. She ran straight away to the scene to see what her daughter meant. She couldn’t control her laughter.

After a while, she said to her little daughter, “Your daddy is not pregnant. He has a pot belly. The inquisitive daughter asked, “Mummy, who put the pot inside daddy’s stomach?” The mother answered, “Ask your daddy when he wakes up.” At this point, the mother tapped the pot belly of her husband and shouted, “Get up! Supper is ready.” He opened his eyes widely and saw her little daughter standing before him. The little daughter touched his pot belly and asked, “Daddy you are pregnant. When will you give birth?” With the influence of alcohol he looked at his little daughter with consternation and retorted, “Foolish girl, I am not pregnant. A man does not get pregnant.” The curious little girl innocently asserted, “Daddy, mummy said it is a pot belly. Who put the pot inside your stomach?” The daddy shouted, “Get out of here before I send you back to your mother’s womb!” She quietly walked away chorusing, “A man has a pot belly! A woman gets pregnant!”

After the sperm from a man fertilizes the egg in a woman, the product is naturally transferred into the womb of the woman where it develops gradually. Then the woman is said to be pregnant. A normal pregnancy lasts for nine solid months. If it is less, it is referred to as premature birth. It is often inserted into an incubator for further development. The baby may or may not survive. Towards the last days of pregnancy, the mother experiences irregular movements of the baby in her womb. Gradually she enters into the period of labour. This is not manual labour but antenatal labour. It is very severe in some women.

Many years ago, I came across a heavily pregnant mother in serious labour. Since no means of transportation was readily available, the husband pleaded with me on his knees to assist him in taking his wife in labour in my car to the maternity hospital where she underwent her antenatal praxis. I yielded for God’s sake. She was helped to sit behind with her husband. On our way, she was wreathing in pains of birth. I prayed that she may not give birth inside the car. I was postulating that if she gives birth inside the car, the baby will either be a driver or a conductor when it grows up. Providentially we managed to reach the maternity hospital. The nurses came out and assisted her into the labour room. The husband stood outside the door marching up and down. He was also in a sort of masculine labour of restlessness. I stood by to know the outcome. I was hearing as the assisting nurse was shouting from within the labour room, “Push! Push!! Push!!!” I asked myself, “What are they pushing inside there?” Indeed ignorance is a disease. It was later that I learnt that the expectant mother in labour must push with her kinetic energy so that the baby can easily come out.” Thank God the mother had a safe delivery. She was delivered of a bouncing baby girl (BBG). When I visited the mother and the baby later at home, they were both smiling. I teased the happy mother by shouting, “Push! Push!! Push!!!” She laughed and said, “Father, you are funny. The pushing period is over. I am now basking in gladness.”

Our country Nigeria is the expectant mother. She is now in labour. If she gives birth to a bouncing baby, then we shall praise the Lord and rejoice. But if she gives birth to a still baby, we shall groan. The Presidential and National Assembly Elections have just been completed. We prayed for free, fair and credible elections. We are anxiously waiting for the results. If the will of God and the electorates prevails, then we shall heave a sigh of relief. But if there is any manipulation or rigging, then we shall go back to Egypt and continue to suffer at the hands of the Nigerian evil Pharaoh.

In every election, there must be a winner and a loser. I always remember the words of advice from my secondary school principal, Mr C.C. Nwobi-Okoye of blessed memory, at Aguata High School Aguata, whenever we were about to go for sporting competitions: “If you win, you win honourably. But if you lose, you lose honourably.” Politics is a game. It is a political competition. Everybody must not win. There must be winners and losers. Both must accept the outcome in good faith. It is said that the downfall of a man is not the end of his life. Likewise, a loss in an election is not the end of one’s political career. It is never a do-or-die affair. If you fail, you try again later. The spirit of sportsmanship is for the losers to congratulate the winners. On the other hand, the winners should extend an olive branch to the losers.

Nevertheless, any aggrieved candidate can go to Election Tribunal to look for justice, if the result is questionable. The judges must be above suspicion. It is common to say that the court is the last hope of the common man. Let it be practical. In these days we see instances where some unjust jurists thwart justice. Often justice is bargained at the highest cost. Often the winner is disqualified while the loser is declared the winner unjustly. We have seen instances where some politicians who did not take part in primary or main elections are declared winners in court. There has been an instance where a gubernatorial candidate who came fourth in an election magically became first by Supreme Court pronouncement.

Since the suspicious declaration, things have fallen apart in that state. What it takes for injustice to triumph is for good people to keep silent. The judges and justices must maintain the dignity of the Bar. Injustice is a vice. The Supreme Court Justices should maintain their high dignity. They must not be coerced or bribed into dispensing justice. God as the Supreme Being is above mistakes. Likewise, the Supreme Court justices should not be found wanting.

Leadership is service to God and to the people. In a democratic setting, the leaders are elected by the people. That is why Democracy is simply defined as “the government of the people, by the people and for the people.” The electorates go to the polls to elect the leaders they want. Therefore the will of the people must never be thwarted by any means. Rigging of election is devilish. Buying of votes is undemocratic. I am still wondering why some state governors and politicians are crying more than the bereaved in the current Naira Redesign Policy and its swap. They did not cry wolf when the ordinary citizens were suffering alone in this country. Because of the cobwebs under their roofs, they are now agitating and heading to the Supreme Court. Their anger is because the billions of old N500 and N1000 they stored in their houses for buying votes have become obsolete. They are not concerned as such for the suffering of the masses. I wish our mother Nigeria safe delivery in this democratic pregnancy.

By Fr. Pat Amobi Chukwuma, Email: amobipchuks@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

1. I have absolute respect for Baba for having added massive value to Nigeria. He and the remnants of CLASS 66 are like the Nation’s super glue and Guardians stopping the House from falling or catching fire. That was exactly how President Tito and Class 45 held Yugoslavia together until they all went the way of all mortals one after the other. Not only did Yugoslavia’s House catch fire, but It also fell, scattered and disintegrated immediately after President Tito was called home, to the Final Headquarters

2. Baba has been on the front seat of Nigeria’s Limo for the past 50 years either as a Driver or a silent but powerful Co-driver yet Baba has not been able to transform Nigeria or get the people he single-handedly installed as Presidents to transform Nigeria. Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia was Baba’s colleague and age mate. Malaysia like Nigeria fought a bitter civil war with Singapore. President Mohamad, like President OBJ, had two shots as Malaysia’s president and he got Malaysia transformed from 3rd World to 1st world. Malaysia today is a world leader in Semiconductor manufacturing, which is probably the most complex technology in the world. Taiwan, America, South Korea, and Japan are the other leaders in semiconductors besides Malaysia. China is doing a catch-up. 

President Mohamad Mahathir is 95 years this year but he doesn’t have to be writing letters every 4 years to the people of Malaysia because he built a system that works. Ditto the late President Lee Kuan Yew ( LKY)  of Singapore. On his dying bed, President Yew confidently told the Singaporeans thus I came, I saw and I discharged. If anyone in future tries to mess up Singapore which I and others used our whole lives to build, I will wake up from my grave to fight the person. Of course, the Singapore system works.

3. By any reckoning, Baba OBJ’s Nigeria is looking more like Yugoslavia than Malaysia and Singapore, all things considered.

4. God gives each country a leader who is better positioned than anyone else in that country. To the Jews,  God gave them Moses, to Malaysia, Mohamad, to America, Lincoln, to South Africa, Mandela, to UAE Mohammed bin Zayed, etc etc. To Nigeria, God gave us Obasanjo- Baba Iyabo The Great!!!

5. Meanwhile, while those other leaders helped in building a system that can work independently of their Messiah, Nigeria still depends on OBJ’s missives every 4 years to know the direction we should go. What happens to Nigeria when Baba goes the way of all mortals?

It will be recalled that Baba gave President Shehu Shaghari to Nigeria, who failed calamitously. Baba’s letters to Shaghari inspired the emergence of the 1st  Buhari as Head of state, whose main achievement was in jailing bus conductors for 1000 years while he kept the driver of the bad accident bus ( President Shaghari) under house arrest. Baba’s letters to Buhari produced IBB, whom he later accused of lacking a human face and milk of kindness. Baba told us MKO was the people’s choice and that MKO was not the Messiah. Sani, the true son of Abacha read Baba’s letter upside down and he came away convinced that he was the Messiah Baba and Nigeria needed. Abacha threw Baba, though very unjustly,  into prison. And those Nigerians whom Abacha didn’t mastermind their deaths like Alfred Rewane and Kudurat Abiola, he threw under the bus.

Meanwhile, God was preparing Baba Iyabo for Second Coming like the Mahathir of Malaysia, who got a second chance to consolidate on his first coming. Baba was spiritually purified for 3 years like Mandela.

6. Baba’s second coming failed to produce an enduring legacy. He left $43 billion in foreign reserves which were wasted within 6 months of his leaving power. Baba inherited a geographical – expression he handed over a geographical – expression. For 8 years, Baba was busy doing fire fighting to keep himself in power. Baba was helpless when 5 States decided to violate Nigeria’s constitution which was hitherto secular through the introduction of Sharia law. Baba had to kneel down and beg his then-N02 before that one grudgingly allowed Baba to get a second-term ticket. Baba had to beg openly the Speaker of the House Ghali Na Abba by publicly putting Cake of peace in his mouth. 

7. Baba installed Presidents Umaru Yar Adua, Jonathan Goodluck and Buhari the Second. In 2011, Baba said Nigeria needed GEJ, a breath of freshness who would unite the broken county. GEJ like Yar Adua failed. In 2014, Baba took to Buhari for body massage, pedicures and beauty enhancement treatments and massive image laundering. Baba told Nigerians in the presence of those powerful women in his house while pulling down the Jonathan government he helped installed that Buhari would do better than Jonathan in security and National cohesion being a retired General. Today, Baba in his fresh letter told Nigerians that Buhari had dragged Nigeria to a worse position than it was in 1999.

CONCLUSION

1. Of what impact have Baba’s numerous letters been on Nigeria? Baba’s destiny is similar to Mohamad of Malaysia, LKY of Singapore, and Zayed of UAE, but while those other leaders managed to get their countries transformed on a sustainable level, Baba Iyabo’s Nigeria remains jejune, fragile and underdeveloped 60 years after independence.

2. Baba himself could not get Nigeria to become a nation-state from a mere geographical expression that it has been since independence.

3. Therefore, something is fundamentally wrong with Nigeria which election capsules we swallow every 4 years cannot cure.

4. I don’t want to believe that Baba doesn’t know the truth.

Baba is widely read, widely travelled, widely intelligent and widely connected and widely spiritual not to have discovered since 1976 when he had his first shot at the power that Nigeria is like an unserviceable nuclear power plant No matter who the Plant Manager is, the nuclear power plant cannot generate electricity.

The wisest solution is to DE-COMMISSION the nuclear power plant and in its place build 6 or 8 new nuclear power plants that are manageable and serviceable. This way, Nigeria’s hidden potential will be realized.

North West under Prime Minister Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and El-Rufai as Deputy will become more prosperous than Thailand and Australia combined. North East under PM Zulum will be more prosperous than Malaysia and Australia (Agricultural and Mineral resources). South East will overtake Taiwan and Singapore combined in 20 years under Peter Obi as Prime Minister assisted by Kingsley Moghalu. South West will overtake South Korea and UAE in 20 years focusing on manufacturing and tourism. South South under Okonjo Iweala will be as prosperous as Russia and Qatar. North Central will be as successful as Norway and New Zealand combined. (Agricultural and Mineral resources).

Even if we bring Baba Obasanjo back for his 3rd Term as Nigeria’s President, and we make PO, his adopted son, the Minister of Finance and Coordinator of the Economy,  TY Danjuma, his old friend as Defense Minister, Sanusi Lamido as CBN Governor to complete his 2nd term,  as long as the existing superstructure is in place, wholesale transformation is impossible and Nigeria’s hope of becoming a nation-state as against a mere geographical expression will remain a -will -the -wisp. Our problem is not retail but wholesale, not ad hoc but fundamental, not leadership but structural

Whilst wishing Papa Obasanjo a Happy New Year: I will respectfully ask Baba to ponder on one question; 40 years from now,  when he and the Class 66 who have been fixing things  (they veto who gets what, when and how) on behalf of Nigeria have gone the way of all mortals: will Nigeria’s fate resemble Yugoslavia or South Korea?

Thank God, Baba is blessed with uncommon energy and strength, my suggestion is that Baba should invest his energy in leading the restructuring and unbundling of Nigeria into 6 or 8 semi-autonomous serviceable Regions. Those of us who boarded the Restructuring Bus at Dawn are stranded at the bus station because there is no DRIVER with Baba Iyabo’s sagacity and influence to drive the bus.

Unarguably, Nigeria like Haiti is not configured to work in the interest of Nigerians. Haiti and America are neighbours and Age mates: 200 + years old. Haiti’s legs and hands were tied: likewise Nigeria. Therefore, just like Haiti has been rotating like a Berber’s chair on the same spot for 200 years, Nigeria can still depend on Obasanjo’s letter from the Headquarters for directions by the year 2123 ( 100 years from now) if we don’t unbundle Nigeria now. If Baba Iyabo deploys his gargantuan international influence behind the restructuring movement, our Restructuring Bus will move, and move successfully.

Again, Let’s Not Play, or Let’s Get Serious. OR let’s stop playing and Let’s Get Serious. Happy New Year Nigeria! Wishing us all a sweet 2023.

By Kayode Akano 

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

“One of my memorable early experiences in BPE was a political baptism of fire – an encounter that opportunity to cash in on that misfortune. They did something similar in India in the 1990s and it went really wrong but they learnt some lessons and came to Nigeria with a more refined approach. What Enron proposed was to supply second-hand, barge-based generators (moveable and easy to relocate in case of payment defaults) using diesel initially, to be supplied by Wale Tinubu’sOcean & Oil Ltd. (now Oando) until gas pipelines are extended from Egbin to the barges’ location, to provide initially 90MW and expandable to 540MW of electricity exclusively for Lagos State.

The Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, his finance commissioner Wale Edun, budget commissioner Yemi Cardoso, Gbenga Oyebode of Aluko & Oyebode, Wale Tinubu and Tunde Folawiyo, all of them friends or acquaintances of mine, were involved in the transaction at various levels and capacities. There were only three hurdles that needed to be crossed.

First was the legal reality of the time: that only the federally-owned National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) could buy, transmit and distribute power so the cooperation of the Federal Government (FGN) was needed. 

Second was that NEPA was notorious for not paying its bills (even to government-owned companies like the Nigerian Gas Company which supplies it with feedstock), so some payment security arrangements needed to be put in place in anticipation of NEPA’s default, and finally, Enron would require a sovereign guarantee in the event that NEPA fails to pay and the security arrangement fails to crystallize or is exhausted by multiple defaults. Enron and Bola Tinubu found a way by getting Chief Bola Ige, a fellow opposition AD party leader working in a PDP administration, to get Obasanjo to sign off on the transaction without any cabinet review or rigorous inter-agency discussions. Bola Ige also obtained the president’s consent to sign a sovereign guarantee on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria something only the Minister of Finance was legally authorized to do.

There was no loud protest from NEPA management who could foresee the dangers of potential corporate insolvency because they all believed resistance was fruitless since Minister Bola Ige had the ears of President Obasanjo. Everything was signed, sealed and delivered and we all read about it in the newspapers. I was concerned that this could negatively impact the future privatization of NEPA and requested the VP to obtain copies of the agreements signed for our review. This was barely two weeks after I resumed, and then early in December 1999, we received the ‘power purchase agreement’ (PPA) of over 100 pages including annexes, annexures and other attachments. 

We could not make any sense of it. We approached Norton Rose of the UK, and two local law firms, A B Mahmoud & Co. based in Kano and George Ikoli & Okagbue of Lagos to undertake a review of the power purchase https://t.co/aw0UH3uI05 Rose needed several weeks, and instinctively I knew we had to figure this out before it got too late, and several weeks might be too late. The local law firms submitted the outcome of their reviews within a short period, but what we got was not very helpful in isolating the potential impact of the PPA on our power sector reform programme. 

The agreement was highly technical with enough equations and integrals to scare all but the most mathematically proficient of lawyers.

At this point, I approached the World Bank country office for assistance. Trevor Byer, the country director who fortuitously had been involved in power sector reforms elsewhere before his posting to Nigeria, was very very helpful, proactive and immediately responsive.

Within a couple of weeks, we received a summary of the agreement, its impact on privatization, and what the equations and annexes meant in terms of tariffs, security arrangements, dollar payments and contingent liabilities. I immediately briefed the Vice President who was alarmed at the findings, and he instructed me to draft a memo for onward transmission to President Obasanjo.

Within five weeks of taking over the headship of BPE, I drafted the first of many memos which would be forwarded to the drawing attention to surreptitious steps being taken by line ministries to frustrate sector reforms and privatization. The Lagos State-Enron case was particularly dangerous as it would have bankrupted NEPA almost overnight! The president immediately put the transaction on hold and commended the vice president for briefing him on the implications of the deal. 

The VP set up a ministerial committee chaired by Minister of State Danjuma Goje, with BPE, the Federal Ministry of Finance, and the Lagos State Government represented as members, to review the agreement. Enron immediately hired GoodWorks International, the global advisory firm co-founded by former US Ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, to influence the outcome of the review, while Bola Ige and some sections of the South-West media got busy attacking me, the vice president and the BPE for depriving Lagos and Yoruba people of steady electricity. We declined to respond, focusing on fixing what we saw as a potential stumbling block to reforming and privatizing our electricity supply industry. 

I am glad we truncated the original deal, but even the better arrangement which reduced tariffs from 8.5 cents per kilowatt–hour to just 1 cent a kilowatt – hour ended up placing huge financial burdens on NEPA years into the future – and the undertaking we extracted from Lagos State to share part of the burden was subsequently challenged in court, and remained in dispute until we left office.

My Enron experience was an education of sorts. I learnt many new lessons that dispelled my naivety. Well-informed and trusted friends put pressure on me to look the other way because they were advisers or consultants to Enron, or were potential; beneficiaries in the transaction. My explanations and passionate representations that the transaction was inimical to the national interest, negatively impacts the long-term viability of NEPA and threatened the reforms of the electricity industry were neither relevant to their position.

I saw starkly how government officials were willing to prevent the interest of the country to impress foreigners or obtain preferences for those they thought were their kinsmen. It was an early sobering experience and an appreciation of the reigning dictum of everyone for himself, and no one for the country.”

~ Source: The Accidental Public Servant (Page 81 – 84)

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The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

The D-Day has finally arrived and over ninety million eligible Nigerian voters will cast their vote to elect a new President in an election like no other, which had been dubbed by some commentators as a ballot-box war between the poor and the rich, who had over the decades fed fat on the commonwealth, to the detriment of the former. A historic greed, unparalleled in even in medieval history, which would also make a good case study in psychiatry.

The big question is: who would be victorious? The downtrodden or a corrupt system that has held them in brutal bondage for decades? Would the ordinary people finally choose to extricate themselves from the iron grip of a ravenous elite or elect to retain the status quo and wallow through another eight years of degradation and dehumanization?

Would they embrace the hope offered by the wealthy but compassionate businessman, Peter Obi of the Labour Party and hand the former frugal Anambra governor the mandate to forge a new, fair country, where the modest dreams of the common people could be realized? A country, where according to Obi, who has upturned Nigerian political architecture with his popular message, “where a son or daughter of a nobody can be somebody without knowing anybody” – unlike in the old Nigeria, which he says he wants to dismantle.

About six months ago, Mr Obi was wandering in a no man’s land politically, after he was frustrated out of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as a result of the massive dollarization of its presidential primary. He later joined an obscure Labour Party, and with his inspiring message of hope, galvanized millions of Nigerians, especially the youths, who had lost faith in their country, and its rigged political system.

The two main parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party, had dismissed Obi’s rising popularity at their peril. They had mocked him as an internet candidate, but the army of Obidients successfully spread the message of hope and it materialised into one-million marches across the length and breadth of the country.

It had never been witnessed in the annals of Nigerian political history that the electorate, including the jobless, used their own money to buy campaign t-shirts, and face-caps and organize rallies. Before now, the culture was that people were paid or hired to attend political rallies – to give the impression that the candidate is popular. The youths were enthused by Obi’s message that he was not running for president, rather they (the oppressed people) were running for president through him and his likewise popular running-mate, Dr Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, to take back their country.

Obi promised to turn Nigeria “from consumption to production” so as to create jobs that would employ the teeming youths, who are yet to get a feeling that their country is the seventh largest oil exporter in the world. The hundreds of billions of dollars earned from oil since 1960 had not trickled down to the man on the street. And they are nowhere to be seen. Eighty percent of that money had ended up in private pockets. He also successfully bandied his stellar achievements as governor, his frugal management of public funds and his unblemished record of being incorruptible, in a country where everyone seems to be corrupt. He dared anybody in doubt to “go and verify”, and it became a slogan for millions of his supporters, who prided themselves in the integrity and character of the man they were following, almost fanatically. The same cannot be said of his two rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Bola Tinubu of the APC, who had all through the campaign window engaged in a vicious war of words as to who was more corrupt.

When it was business as usual, this election would have been between the former vice president and former Lagos governor, who solely based his run for president on the claim that he built Lagos – distancing himself as much as possible from the President Muhammadu Buhari, his party man, whose administration is struggling in its twilight not to be the worst since the country gained independence from Britain. But Nigerians have discovered Obi, got seduced by his uncommon compassionate nature and message of real hope and it has become a real problem for the two parties that have dominated the political space since the fourth Republic in 1999. Obi’s Labour Party has now become a third major force in Nigerian politics and almost all the opinion polls, including that of CNN and Bloomberg, have tipped the simple man from Onitsha to emerge victorious on Saturday.

More people, especially the hitherto lethargic youths, registered to vote in this election like never before. And a historic turnout is expected despite the challenges of insecurity across the country. It is however left to be seen if the polls would turn out to be accurate, and how much the energized youths would eventually turn out to vote, in the face of voter suppression, intimidation and violence, engineered by those who have held the people hostage, and are driven almost insane by fear of an imminent loss of power.

In any case, the momentum is behind Obi, and if he eventually breezes the finish line, it would be a tsunami that would politically consume the old force. In the new Nigeria envisaged by the LP flag bearer and his Obidients, they would look like outcasts and would be forced to quit the stage, or even go into exile. This writer calls for peaceful and credible 2023 general elections as President Muhammadu Buhari has consistently promised. No one needs to tell those in charge that anything to the contrary could set the country on fire. And I encourage Nigerians to seize this historic opportunity and change their narrative. 

IT’S NOW OR NEVER!

Charle Ogbu, Email: cofoji@hotmail.com, Cologne, Germany

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The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

Politicians sometimes are awed by the magic that lawyers and the courts are able to work for them. Check out the Lawan v Machina case? Who rigged the process? Was it Lawan who was only a party before the court or the court who awarded victory to him by simply refusing to attend to the complaint against him that in the plain view of the world, he did not contest the senatorial primaries which took place in May because he participated in the presidential primaries that took place in June?

This Lawan magic is what happens 70% of the time in election petitions. Sometimes, it works to the satisfaction of the majority of the people who simply say “serves them right” and forgive the truncation of expected outcomes. An example is the case of Amaechi v INEC where Amaechi, who went to court for a Declaration that he was the right person to contest the Governorship election, went home from the Supreme Court with a Declaration that he participated in the election which took place during the court action, with Omehia as the candidate of the PDP, and won. The people did not seem to mind very much at the time because there was sympathy for Amaechi who they felt was cheated out of the primaries of his party.

Election rules are clear and designed to give almost a foolproof result. However, by interpretation, the courts in most cases disable the rules and permit a situation where INEC and the winning candidate could get away with any infraction to declare a result that is in most cases debatable. I will give an example. INEC rules require candidates to attach to their application forms certificates as evidence of any qualification that they claim. However, the courts have ruled that the Constitution itself makes no direct provision for such and that since the Constitution is superior to the rules of INEC, it means that the infraction is of no consequence. 

This, in my respectful view, stands the rules of constitutional interpretation on the head. It is an axiom that the Constitution only provides a skeletal framework. It does not provide detailed rules. If it did, which is impossible, there would be no need for the legislature. So, the legislature provides in law detailed rules for driving the provisions of the Constitution. Sometimes, the rules made by the legislature in the substantive law are not detailed enough and therefore the body set up by the law is given the power to make further rules of minute details in the form of regulations. When made, the regulations have the force of law as if they were made by the legislature directly except where they are inconsistent directly or indirectly with the parent law. In the case of INEC, both the Constitution and the Electoral Act give it the power to make the detailed and minute regulations required to drive the process of elections.

Therefore, the approach in reconciling the regulations of INEC with the provisions of the Constitution is not to ask whether any regulation of INEC is contained in the Constitution – with due respect, that is begging the question. The correct question is whether or not it is inconsistent with any provision of the Constitution, directly or indirectly. In the case of the attachment of certificates to the application form, it is not inconsistent with any provision of the Constitution. On the contrary, it aligns with and drives the provisions of the Constitution regarding educational qualifications. If a candidate does not attach any certificate claimed to his application, it simply means that he has not shown that he possesses such qualification. The requirement of INEC has not imposed any extra requirement on a candidate. The surprising interpretation provided by the Supreme Court indirectly disables the Constitutional provisions relating to minimal educational qualifications and submitting a false certificate to INEC by making it lawful for a fraudulent and unqualified candidate not to present any certificate at all to INEC. 

We can go on and on. The rules for the recording of votes at the polling unit are detailed. For instance, cancellations must be interrogated and explained and such explanations must be recorded. Where that is not done, the result should be rejected. At the end of the result form EC8A, there should be a summary of the results showing the number of accredited voters, valid votes, void votes, spoilt ballots, total ballots collected, total unused ballots and total votes cast. You don’t need to be extra bright to know that all these figures must tally. However, it is only with respect to what is called overvoting, that is, when the total votes cast exceed the number of accredited voters, that the rules of INEC expressly state that the result should be cancelled. With respect to other cases, they say that the situation should be investigated and the report provided. You will expect that the court would put on INEC or the person that wishes to rely on a result that is obviously irregular on its face, to provide an explanation for the discrepancy. The courts do the opposite. What the parties then do is to tamper with results with cancellations or provide total fakes taking care that the number of votes cast is less than the number of accredited voters. You, therefore, have a common situation where the total votes cast is less than the number of accredited voters. This obvious indication of tampering with the results is what the INEC Chairman gloated over before the whole world as having shown, in the case of Ekiti State, that there was no over-voting.

The courts further disable these provisions by their rules asking the complainant to provide a witness from every polling unit where this happened. You can imagine how burdensome this could be for a petitioner. I did an election petition with just one witness because I had less than 48 hours from the time I was briefed to present the petition. I collected all the results from each polling unit up to the final collation. By the time I isolated mutilated results and those with these sorts of discrepancies and corrected wrong tabulations, I was able to show that my candidate won the election. 

However, the courts introduced one of their absurd rules of “dumping” results on the court. They said that I did not provide witnesses from every polling unit to “speak to” the results of that unit. The rule is absurd because (1) it is a misconception of what constitutes dumping. Dumping is practised on an opponent by providing him much more information than is required in the hope that he will miss the most vital piece. It is not upon the court since the lawyer is going to summarize his case and point out to the court the parts of the evidence that he wishes the court to take into consideration, (2) the law is that you do not require oral evidence to explain a document. You don’t need anyone from the polling unit to point out errors on a result sheet obtained from INEC, and (3) the results are certified documents from INEC. They don’t require further proof. On the contrary, the rule should have been that INEC makes the results available to every election tribunal. Nobody should be put into the extra trouble of securing them from INEC. 

The seriousness of the challenge that I mounted to these absurd rules has led to new provisions in the election petition rules that give legal recognition to my approach. I know, however, that those laudable innovations will also not survive the interpretation of the courts.

What could be the confidence of the APC regarding the non-observance of a critical provision of the Electoral Act requiring electronic transmission of results from polling units, which is a provision over which there were many struggles led by the INEC Chairman before it was passed into law? The President declined assent twice before he finally relented. It was promoted as the game changer and really changed the attitude of Nigerians who came to believe that finally, their votes would count.

APC which had vowed to disable the BVAS innovation is the party taunting those complaining to go to court. What could be the confidence of an obvious wrongdoer in the courts? Their confidence is the manner in which our courts interpret the rules of the election process. They are confident that the courts will again disable the BVAS and electronic transmission provisions. Thus, without the confidence that our courts breathe into politicians, they would never be so daring to glaringly rig elections and disregard electoral rules.

Chuks Nwachukwu Esq.

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.