Strictly Personal

In whose interest do governors hold LG funds? By Niran Adedokun

Published

1 year ago

September 8, 2023

“Two recent events in Nigeria demonstrate state governors’ overlordship and self-absorbed nature. And with what we saw in Edo and Ogun states, it is also clear that the totalitarian tendencies of governors transcend party affiliations.

The governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, momentarily turned his deputy, Philip Shaibu, into a destitute, even though they were elected on the same ticket. Obaseki won elections on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party. His Ogun State counterpart, Dapo Abiodun, who sat like an emperor while people’s fathers prostrated before him for their subsistence, is of the All Progressives Congress. The men of authority in Nigeria are united in their misuse of power and state resources, even against the people’s interest.

In Edo State, the first two citizens fell out because the deputy governor reportedly aspired for the party’s governorship ticket. Like most governors, Obaseki seemed to have other plans, so all hell broke loose.

Before the intervention of some respected citizens of the state this week, Shaibu had filed a court action against the state House of Assembly, which allegedly had the governor’s push to impeach him. That audacity infuriated Obaseki, so he went all out against his deputy without any care about the optics.

His security detail at a recent state function stopped the deputy governor from speaking with his boss! Obaseki’s aides later came up with the ridiculous excuse that their principal was oblivious to his deputy’s move, even though pictures from the event showed the proximity between the parties.

Not just that. Obaseki ordered the withdrawal of his deputy’s press crew and directed that the latter must, subsequently, write to request coverage from the governor’s office. You can only imagine the humiliation awaiting Shaibu in the event of such requests. That is not to speak of other actions targeted at diminishing his influence and rubbishing his office, but for external intervention that led to the withdrawal of the court case.

So, what are the issues here? They are the desperate scramble for power, the unbridled deployment of state resources against political opponents, and the total disregard for the welfare of the people while this is going on.

The situation in Ogun State is more explicit. Chairman of the Ijebu East Local Government of the state, Wale Adedayo, had accused the governor of withholding funds belonging to the local government for the second year running.

In addition to sending petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, Adedayo also sought the intervention of a former governor of the state and party elder, Chief Segun Osoba. He indicated that local government chairmen got no allocations since their election in 2021 and attributed the lack of development in the rural areas to the governor’s actions.

On the surface, his petition, which has gone viral, appears altruistic and motivated by nothing else but the welfare and well-being of citizens. For instance, a part of it read: “Revenue sources, which the local governments should benefit from, have mostly been taken over by the state government. Motor Parks and attendant dues, which should go to each local government, are centrally managed by the state government. Primary school administration and control have been taken over, too… In Ijebu East Local Government Area, we are a complete rural section. Our people need roads, especially in the interior. They need water. The health centres are nothing to write home about. The primary schools are something else. It is a crying shame that, in 2023, some of our people still depend on water from the stream to drink!”

This part of the petition presents a grim picture that should worry everyone, especially a governor who swore to improve the people’s condition. Suppose Adedayo’s plea is untrue or presumptuous in any respect; the man accused should show due regard for the electorate, clarify, and then start to address the developmental issues raised in the petition. But that is not the way of the Nigerian governor.

First, considering himself a tin god and justifiably so, the average state governor would rather address issues dissipating energy on crushing anyone who dares confront him. His irritation is more when the “offender” is a member of his party or someone he profiles as a beneficiary of his grace.

Now, this is what almost all elected representatives are to governors. From the wards to the National Assembly, most governors decide who contests for what position, striking out and replacing names without regard to the people’s preference.

From party officials to councillors, local government presiding officers, members of the state House of Assembly, House of Representatives members, and senators (except when the senatorial candidate is an outgoing governor), state governors decide who gets what and enforce the same without mercy or consideration for any other factor.

Although they deploy state resources for the execution of this venture, their main aim is self-preservation. This is how state governors got members of state Houses of Assembly to reject their autonomy for so many years! The role that governors play in appointing judges in their states is also why many Nigerians cannot be sure of getting justice against the state government. The absolute tendency of governors is unending.

Adedayo colleagues’ decision to beg the governor stemmed from this realisation. Although he claims that all chairmen agreed to write the petition, his colleagues preferred throwing him under the bus, siding with the governor to protect their offices and livelihood. Politics and political offices are like business for many people, so they would sacrifice the general good for survival.

The fate awaiting them otherwise is evident in Adedayo’s travails in the last few days. First was the attempt to impeach him by members of his legislative council. Ultimately, he was suspended for six months based on accusations of maladministration and financial mismanagement. We do not know whether there is any substance in these accusations but why did the legislators wait until the current crisis ensued before bringing up the charges?

It is also noteworthy that governors take all their arsenal to war when matters get to this head. As a state correspondent for The PUNCH years back, a state governor went as far as instigating armed robbery and gun-running charges against a council chairman just to remove him from office. The extent to which these people go is confounding.

So, at junctures like this, it should not surprise you that policemen and “political thugs” will collaborate to achieve one purpose. Hence, reading about a similar scenario in the matter under discussion was not surprising.

However, it is worrisome that state institutions would lend themselves to the oppression of ordinary Nigerians in these circumstances.

Reports indicate that the Department of State Services detained Adedayo for three days. His detention was reportedly based on allegations of defamation and planning a protest by the governor. One wonders why the chairman was not released immediately after his interrogation. Why deny him his freedom for three days? But it isn’t out of the character of many state agencies whose loyalty is with the government of the day instead of the country and its people!

Avoiding the consequences (which are still ongoing) that Adedayo faced is the reason local government chairmen across the country (most of whom have the same fate) are too frightened to complain about their governors. After all, most of them aspired for the office for what they could gain; why should they jeopardise that by confronting the conquering lion that their governor is? But will Nigeria ever attain sustainable development without paying attention to local governments?

There is a temptation to attribute the problems that local government administrators face to the creation of the State Joint Local Government Account by S.162 (6) of the 1999 Constitution, and there may be a point there. But wouldn’t things be better if governors had more fidelity to their oaths? Wouldn’t Nigeria be better if everyone elected to public office were more committed to the people’s welfare and a legacy of achievement?

Click to comment

Strictly Personal

Here is Raila’s Africa Union road to nowhere, By Tee Ngugi

Published

1 week ago

September 2, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

On August 27, the Kenya government officially endorsed Raila Odinga as its candidate for chairman of the African Union Commission in a ceremony held at State House.

In attendance were William Ruto, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan, South Sudan’s Salva Kiir, former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete , among other dignitaries. The platitudes spoken at the ceremony, and the grandiose reception of the VIP dignitaries resembled a mini African Union heads of state gathering.

Watching the gathering and listening to the speeches, I was struck by two sad truths.

One truth was of a tone deaf generation totally incapable of understanding the problems of Africa. The other was that these same people continue to be in charge of Africa’s affairs or determine or influence its future. Let me expound on these two issues by reference to the speech made by Raila Odinga.

Odinga touched on several problems plaguing Africa including peace, the poverty that forces people to flee to Europe, and intra-Africa trade.

Yet not once did he hint at, let alone mention, the root cause of all these problems. Lack of peace in Africa is caused by failed governance.

The governance style fashioned by the independence leaders is characterised by what Ali Mazrui called “deification” of political authority.

By this process, the president becomes a god. He uses government positions and public resources to buy support or reward sycophants. Significant resources are used for self-aggrandisement and to fulfill megalomaniacal ambitions.

It is a wasteful and corrupt system. The state employs an elaborate police apparatus to intimidate citizens. A case in point: A few weeks ago, and not far from State House , the Kenya regime stationed snipers on rooftops to execute unarmed protesters.

The African governing elite is also adept at using tribalism as a political tool. The war in South Sudan is a competition for power by individuals who mobilise the support of their communities.

The deadly conflagration in Sudan is traceable to Bashir’s dictatorship which weakened systems and impoverished the country. Now those close to Bashir are fighting to be the next “deity” and continue to plunder the country.

Odinga evoked the ghosts of Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Sekou Toure and Haile Selassie — dictators who designed the oppressive parasitic state. Evocation of these dictators was ominous, because it signaled continuation of the AU defence of the broken system they designed and which successive regimes have perpetuated.

Should he succeed, Raila will become the next spokesman and defender of this fundamentally flawed governance which the youth of Africa want to overthrow.

His legacy will be cast in the same lot with that of dictators who have ruined and continue to ruin Africa.

Strictly Personal

Mpox crisis: We need an equity-driven pandemic treaty, By Magda Robalo

Published

1 week ago

September 1, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The current multicountry Mpox outbreak started in January 2022. It has now been declared a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (Phecs) by the Africa CDC and, for the second time, a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (Pheic) by WHO, under the International Health Regulations (2005) highlighting critical deficiencies in the global public health response.

Endemic to West and Central Africa, the first human case of Mpox was detected in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Nigeria experienced a large outbreak in 2017 and 2018. Only sporadic cases occurred outside endemic areas before 2022.

According to the World Health Organisation, most people suffering Mpox recover within two to four weeks. The disease is transmitted through close, personal, skin-to-skin contact with someone who has Mpox, contaminated materials, or with infected animals. Transmission could also occur during pregnancy or childbirth and among people with multiple sexual partners, who represent a high-risk population.

Despite early warnings, failures in implementing robust surveillance, contact tracing, and containment strategies have allowed the virus to spread across at least 120 countries. In the DRC, where the outbreak has been particularly severe, two distinct outbreaks are evolving, caused by clade Ia and the newly emerged clade Ib.

Increasingly, and rightly so, voices are coalescing to demand an urgent, coordinated international action and global solidarity toward an equity-driven, focused response to curb the virus’s spread and mitigate its impact.

Loud calls for equitable vaccine distribution are being heard, a reminiscence of the Covid-19 dramatic experience. But vaccines are only one complementary tool in the box of interventions against the outbreak. Two fundamental questions we should be asking are: whether we have done enough to prevent the outbreak from becoming Pheic and Phecs, and if we are doing all we can to contain it, beyond placing our hopes on the still scarce doses of vaccine.

The Mpox outbreak underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive, equity-driven pandemic treaty, to coordinate global efforts to improve pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The potential impact of this treaty is substantial, promising to address critical areas such as public health infrastructure, equitable access to treatment, vaccines and other supplies, and enhanced international cooperation during health emergencies.

The spread of Mpox across multiple continents in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic confirms the persistence of significant vulnerabilities in national and global health systems, particularly in surveillance and rapid response—areas a well-crafted treaty could strengthen.

A united voice from Africa is critical to the negotiations. Without systemic changes, the world risks repeating the mistakes of Covid-19 and the ongoing Mpox outbreak in future outbreaks. Global health security depends on timely action, transparent communication, and a commitment to protecting all populations, regardless of geographic or socioeconomic status. It depends on strong health systems, based on a primary health care strategy and underpinned by the principles of universal health coverage.

There is no doubt that the world is facing an emerging threat. The scientific community is confronted with knowledge gaps in relation to Mpox. Several unknowns persist on the real pace of the evolving outbreak, its modes of and transmission dynamics, evolutionary routes and the human-to-human transmission chains. It is uncertain if we are moving toward a sustained human-to-human transmission and its potential scale and impact.

However, despite the fragility of health systems in most of its countries, Africa has decades of vast, diverse, cumulated experience in dealing with major epidemics, such as HIV/Aids, Ebola and most recently Covid-19, in addition to the decades of surveillance for polio eradication and containment of outbreaks.

In recent decades, African countries have improved their human, technical and infrastructural capacities and capabilities to detect, diagnose, and respond to outbreaks and large epidemics. Expertise and skills have been built in disease surveillance, infection prevention and control, diagnosis, epidemiological data management, including pathogen genomic sequencing.

Communities have developed systems to fight stigma and discrimination, built resilience and capacity to respond to and address their unique challenges, including poor access to information, education, communication tools, as well as to treatment and prevention interventions.

Admittedly, the response to this outbreak continues to expose significant flaws, particularly inconsistent and inadequate surveillance and monitoring systems to track the spread of the virus, contact tracing, and infection prevention measures (isolation, handwashing, use of masks and condoms, etc).

Many countries still lack the necessary infrastructure or have relaxed these measures, leading to delayed detection and widespread transmission. Moreover, a reluctance to deploy aggressive contact tracing and isolation protocols, partly due to concerns about stigmatisation, resulted in missed opportunities for early containment.

While negotiating for potential vaccine doses to protect high-risk populations, countries should invest in and deploy what they have learned and now know how to do best, based on the lessons from polio, HIV/Aids, Ebola and Covid-19. It is imperative that we contain the Mpox outbreak before it is too late. It is time to put our best foot forward. We have no reasons for helplessness and hopelessness.