By Michael Owhoko, Ph.D

Any Nigerian with rational and open mind knows that complexity of governance in Nigeria today is rooted in the country’s political system, which by any stretch of imagination and logic, is unsuitable for a heterogenous society like Nigeria with over 250 ethnic groups that are characterized by incompatible cultures, varied history, background and interests.

These ethnic groups were hitherto independent nations that ceded their sovereignty to the Nigerian state under Federalism, a political system that took cognizance of their peculiarities and agreed upon by the country’s founding fathers.  But ever since this system was subverted and replaced with a Unitary state structure, Nigeria has been embroiled with unending suspicion, distrust, disunity, disharmony, nepotism, hegemony and rivalry among the various ethnic nationalities, indicative of its inappropriateness.

Unsuitability of the Unitary state structure, inequitable revenue sharing method, breach of country’s secularity status, dishonest quota system and political location of industries are major national contradictions undermining Nigeria’s potentials.  Except to hide under cover of pretense, it is a common knowledge that Nigeria’s progress is held down by these national paradoxes. They are aberrations and drawbacks that are fundamentally responsible for the country’s stunted growth.  These are what President Bola Tinubu must address in 2024 to set the tone for equitable and prosperous Nigeria.

Efforts outside this trajectory amounts to sheer cosmetic administrative routine and waste of valuable resources incapable of restoring hope.  The Unitary system of government has become a Frankenstein monster that is pushing the country towards the precipice with diminished national and global stature.  Until a more suitable political template is introduced, Nigeria will continue to drift in circles like a regional giant with no illuminating potentials to inspire public confidence.

Federalism had been tested in Nigeria, and it worked.  It is a system of government where all federating states and central government are financially independent, autonomous, interdependent and co-equal with neither the federal government nor the states inferior to each other.  This is the political system that best suits the country’s cultural diversity and sociological complexities, capable of achieving equity, justice and balance.

In a plural society like Nigeria, Unitary system is a misfit, lacking the capacity to promote unity.  It engenders acrimony, disaffection, nepotism, primordial nationalism and marginalization, owing to conflicting cultural aspirations.  Emergence of separatist movements and other related self-determination groups are some of the challenges facing Nigeria today, justifying the need for Federalism to stem the tide.  Otherwise, the country risks more ethnic nationalities surfacing to seek autonomy.

With about 68 items on the Exclusive list and 12 items on the Concurrent list, the 1999 Constitution is in structure, content and spirit, a Unitary constitution, where the destiny of the states and people are determined and centrally regulated, using revenue allocation as tool for coercion and subservient corporatism.  This Constitution has failed Nigerians.  The states or geo-political zones want independent hold of their future within the context of their distinct cultural aspirations.

As a way out, the concept of the 1963 Constitution should be invoked to allow states to take control of mineral deposits found in their domains.  In other words, fiscal federalism with derivation principle allowing retention of 50 percent minimum of accrued revenue found in or generated by the states, should be introduced.  All states and geo-political areas in Nigeria are evidently endowed as God has provided every habitat with natural resources, including agricultural crops for subsistence.  This will not only give states the necessary financial autonomy, but will encourage them to harness and optimize their potentials, just as it will encourage hard-work, healthy competition, and discourage indolence.

Government’s involvement in religion is also a national contradiction and aberration.  Nigeria is a secular state as affirmed by Section 10 of 1999 Constitution, which says that the Government of the federation or of a state shall not adopt any religion as state religion in Nigeria.  But federal government’s behavioral disposition undermines this clause when viewed against the backdrop of its contribution and participation in religious matters.

By establishing the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) and the Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC) to oversee and facilitate the process for participation of Muslims in Hajj or Umra in Saudi Arabia and pilgrimage of Christians to Jerusalem and other holy sites, the federal government has adopted Islam and Christianity as official religions, contrary to the intention of secularism.

Deception of Nigeria’s secularity status is further exposed by Nigeria’s membership of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a religious body representing “the collective voice of the Muslim world”, and working “to safeguard the interests and ensure the progress and well-being of Muslims.”  Nigeria’s membership is a tacit endorsement of the country as an Islamic state, as depicted by its commitment to dues obligation.

Religion is a personal affair, and individuals are at liberty to practice their faith as deemed appropriate, as long as it does not violate the right of others.  The huge amount expended by federal government annually to fund NAHCON and NCPC, as well as meeting financial obligations in OIC, is an infringement on the right of Nigerians whose taxes are used to service these private interests.

After all, government’s involvement in religion has not reduced moral decadence in Nigeria, as most beneficiaries of these pilgrimages to Hajj and Jerusalem are involved in corruption that have contributed to the country’s woes.  Rather than waste the country’s resources on these unprofitable ventures, such money should be used to shore up decaying infrastructure across the country.

President Tinubu should therefore dissolve NAHCON and NCPC, and remove Nigeria from membership of OIC, as part of strategies to maintain the secularity of Nigeria.  Any state government whosoever desires to fund its citizens to holy sites is free to do so at its own expense.  The federal government must hands-off religion to save tax payers’ money.

Quota system is another national contradiction.  It is part of Nigeria’s problems, and a source of bureaucratic ineptitude that should be discarded for excellence.  This system has been consistently abused and manipulated by government officials to serve primordial and entrenched interests.  The system has also deprived millions of brilliant Nigerians of opportunities to serve their fatherland on account of their states of origin.

When merit is sacrificed on the altar of representation, what you have is incompetence and failure.  Nigeria is currently paying price of poor performance in government owing to quota application in recruitment process in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).  The outcome has been inefficiency and poor delivery output with no value addition.

Sadly, the quota system is applicable to the educational sector that is supposed to be the substratum of research and development.  Unqualified students are admitted into federal unity schools and universities while brilliant ones are unable to secure placements.  In some cases, appointment of professors and award of PhD degrees are based on quota system, leading to production of quota scholars lacking capacity for research and discovery.  What an irony for a country that is striving to compete in global affairs!

Quota system is a recipe for failure and poor performance.  It is not applicable in the private sector because of these gaps.  This may have also informed why the powers that be have deliberately refused to introduce the system in the selection of players for the national team, the Super Eagles.  They know that if the obnoxious quota is applied, the performance of the Super Eagles will be outright tragedy for the country.

Another national contradiction is political location of industries.  Oil and gas companies involved in exploration of crude oil in the Niger Delta should be compelled to relocate their administrative headquarters to areas where they have a minimum of 70 percent of their operations.  This will not only accelerate development of the region, but will help in resolving current poverty and frustration, resulting from negligence and degradation in the region.  The Nigeria LNG Limited which moved its administrative headquarters from Lagos to Bonny Island, Rivers State, where its operational base is located, is enjoying support from its host communities.  The company should be commended and emulated.

Therefore, to reset, reshape and reposition Nigeria for stronger brand identity aimed at maximizing its full potentials to achieve national progress, regional influence and global respect, President Bola Tinubu must address and nip these national contradictions in the bud by next year, 2024.

• Dr. Mike Owhoko, Lagos-based journalist and author, can be reached at www.mikeowhoko.com.

By Charles Ifeanyi Obi

The people of Anambra Central are once again witnessing a quintessential and unrivaled representation in the 10th Senate as Senator Victor Umeh embarks on dynamic and tactful legislative engagements.

Senator Victor Umeh, who was an award winning Lawmaker in the 8th National Assembly owing to his outstanding performance between 2018 and 2019 after he was able to clear all the litigations delaying his Election; has remained a Five-star Senator, consistent and indomitable by all assessments.

While his impacts in the 17months of participating actively in the 8th Senate and his numerous projects cited in various communities across Anambra Central are still being put in good use for the benefits of the people of Anambra Central, with 76 Youths graduating from Tertiary Institutions courtesy of the Anambra Central Scholarship Programme by Senator Umeh and up to 50 others gainfully employed owing to his massive employment drive as well as other Skill Acquisition/Empowerment Programmes for Youth and Women, and distribution of 34 tricycles (Keke NAPEP) to Anambra Central men which have elevated many families above poverty threshold; Senator Victor Umeh is back in the 10th Senate making even more concerted efforts to do more than he did before.

His voice has become even louder and lots of amazing programmes and projects have been articulated for the betterment of the various communities and the people of Anambra Central.

• Senator Victor Umeh, OFR at the 10th Senate

Among his numerous robust presentations in the Senate, Senator Umeh made stringent inputs on the Motion on “Urgent need to Reconstruct/Rehabilitate the Onitsha-33-Otuocha-Adani Roads Boundary to Enugu State” presented by Senator Tony Nwoye. Disturbed by the sufferings of road users, he visited Oba Erosion/Landslide Site along Onitsha-Owerri Road and called For Emergency Intervention. Consequently, he made a persuasive outcry in the Senate with a Motion on “Urgent need to control the erosion ravaging Onitsha-Oba section of the Onitsha-Owerri Federal Highway in Anambra State”

Senator Umeh also sponsored a motion titled: “Urgent Need to Protect Local Meter Manufacturers in the ongoing National Mass Metering Programme of the Federal Government.

Just on November 15th, the untiring Senator Umeh greeted the Senate with a Motion on “Urgent Need to upgrade the Eastern Rail Line (Traversing Port Harcourt-Enugu- Maiduguri) from Narrow Gauge Rail to Standard Gauge Rail” which was co-sponsored by thirty four other Senators. A Motion the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio described as patriotic and of national importance.

The ranking dexterous Senator is the Chairman of Senate Committee on Diaspora and NGOs, and Member of 13 other strategic Committees of the Senate through which enormous programmes would emerge for the good of ndị Anambra Central and Nigeria in general.

Despite being a Member of a minority Party—   Labour Party LP, he has continued to feature very proactively and has become a formidable voice other senators/proponents would lobby to achieve a successful debate.

Nevertheless, some of the sterling contributions of Senator Victor Umeh in the 10th Senate are: 1. Additional prayer calling on the Inspector General of Police to punish Police Officers involved in Harassment & Abuse of Commuters & Travellers. 2. Sought Justice for Igwe Chukwuemeka Cyprian, a final year student of University of Abuja from Ichida, Anambra State.
He was one of the lead voices that backed Anambra-born Barr. Mrs Uju Kennedy Ohanenye during her screening as minister nominee. She is presently the Minister of Women Affairs.

In just FOUR MONTHS, Senator Victor Umeh has redeemed the place of Anambra Central as a prominent Senatorial District in Nigeria through his visionary, punctual and distinctive representation despite the legal tussle/distractions by his opponents who refused to accept their humiliating defeat in the last Election. Thank God he further emerged VICTORious at both the Election Tribunal and Court of Appeal.

In this FOUR MONTHS, he has facilitated employment opportunities for about 20 ndị Anambra Central whilst issuing letters of recommendation to numerous constituents with genuine reasons. He has maintained an open door policy whereby his office is open and accessible round the clock with a competent team of staff selected from communities in Anambra Central. He has also continued to reach out to his constituents, attending to lots of their invitations, as many as possible.

It is only Four Months gone, ndị Anambra Central should brace up for a fruitful and people-oriented representation in the next 3 years and 8months. The yield shall be enormous!

Do not listen to any rabble rouser trying to whip up sympathies by pathetically spewing junks in the guise of performance assessment. Those are lamentations of people who lost Election.

• Charles Ifeanyi Obi is SSA Media to Sen. Dr. Victor Umeh OFR (Ohamadike Ndigbo)

By Uche Anichukwu

When Governor Peter Mbah unveiled his Statement of Purpose ahead of the 2023 governorship election in Enugu State, his promise to grow the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) seven folds from $4.4 Billion to $30 Billion generated mixed reactions, as many saw it as a tall order for a state renowned as a public service state. Five months down the line, however, Mbah is gaining more converts as he presses towards the target with the right policies, structures, and both local and international partnerships in place.

From tackling the security challenges headlong, including putting an end to the illegal sit-at-home, to improving ease of doing business, hosting the first Enugu State Investment and Economic Growth Plan Stakeholders Roundtable, introducing e-ticketing and automating revenue collection, and the recent flag off of the construction of a New Enugu City and 400 kilometres of various roads to bolster infrastructure needed to attract investments, the governor is not leaving any stone unturned.

Last week, Mbah took his quest for investments to southeast Asia where he marketed Enugu to investors at the Nigerian-Indonesian Investment Trade Forum in Jakarta, Indonesia. Themed “Rediscovering Business Potentials in Nigeria and Indonesia”, the event, which was facilitated by the Nigerian-Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI), came after the first edition in 2022 attended by the then Vice of President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. It is an outcome of more than five years of previous trade missions and bilateral business expos by the business communities of both nations that continued this year with the 38th edition of the Nigerian Indonesian Trade Expo. Recently, Nigeria became Indonesia’s largest trade partner in Africa, overtaking South Africa.

But is Indonesia a worthy direction to look in search of economic cooperation and FDI? Yes. In 1967, Indonesian GDP stood at $5.67 Billion, while that of Nigeria was $5.20 Billion in 1967 and $6.37 Billion in 1966. Fast-forward to 2022, Nigeria’s GDP stood at $477.39 Billion, while that of Indonesia stood at $1.319.10 Billion (approximately $1.4 Trillion), driven by the production sector that sees the southeast Asian nation export machinery, steel, textile, footwear, among others. At the same time, Indonesia is doing so well in agriculture, exporting palm oil, rice, rubber, coffee, cocoa, among others, while Nigeria has declined from a net exporter of palm oil to an importer. Nigeria imports about 800,000 metric tons of palm oil annually estimated at over N500 Billion.

Indonesia has done so well for itself despite serious disadvantages imposed by geography. It is the world’s largest archipelago, consisting of 17,504 islands of which only 6,000 are inhabited. These have made it extremely difficult for the country to exploit its 2.5 Billion barrels of crude oil reserves, producing about 0.3 billion barrels only in 2018, according to Worldometer.

Obviously, a return to 1956 to 1966 mentality, Nigeria’s most prosperous era, also known as the golden era of Nigeria’s federalism when the federation units unleashed their potentials in a competitive manner, unhindered by an overbearing, over-bloated, and resource-expropriating central government becomes imperative. Despite the debilitating constitutional constraints, there are a lot the states could do to turn things around. Nigeria’s exit from the present economic quagmire lies in the states reinventing themselves from the status of spoilt, indolent, and uncreative appendages to resourceful sub-nationals. And that is exactly how Mbah’s effort in Enugu and his investment pilgrimage to Jakarta could best be understood.

Speaking at the Forum, Mbah observed that whereas the growth of trade volume between both nations to $4.7 Billion was commendable, they could actually do much more. He went on to enumerate the abundant investment opportunities in the state, spanning agriculture, mineral resources, logistics, aviation, tourism, real estate, mineral resources, ICT, to name a few.

Delivering the keynote address at the gathering, he said: “In the area of Agriculture, Enugu is blessed with 100 per cent arable, fertile land with a high factor of productivity and good access to both surface and subterranean water that makes all year-round agriculture possible.

“The State is climatically disposed to the production of key produce like Cassava, oil palm, Cashew, spices of various types.

“These areas offer not only the opportunity for primary agricultural production, but also the opportunity to invest in industrial facilities to add value to these produce for local consumption as well as export.

“The State is also blessed with significant deposits of minerals. In the area of petroleum, Enugu State has proven deposits of oil but more importantly has extensive deposits of natural gas.

“Other minerals within the state include Coal, gold, kaolin, gypsum, clay and limestone, among others. This makes Enugu ideal not only for mining, but also for the siting of key industries”.

However, while anchoring his $30 Billion GDP target on heavy private sector investment and utilisation of strong local and international partnerships, Mbah, being a successful businessman himself, having founded and nurtured Pinnacle Oil and Gas from ground zero to leadership of the Nigerian downstream petroleum subsector, understands and has also often emphasised that businesses/investors are not philanthropists or Father Christmases. They are in it for profit. They go where the business environment is better de-risked and where ease of doing business is higher.

Consequently, while declaring to the government and business community in Indonesia that “Enugu is open for business”, the governor equally outlined some of his administration’s deliberate steps to improve the investment and business climate of Enugu State. They include expansion of security networks for improved security, functional One Stop Centre for speedy processing of investment interests and needs, massive urban and rural infrastructural development, establishing about 300,000 hectares land bank for both for corporate farmers and special agro-processing zones, establishing of Free Zones, the recently signed Enugu State Electricity Law to create a free market for electric power, and the effort to build a Tier 4 HyperScale Data Center, far-reaching reforms towards stronger contract enforcement, ease of procurement of land titles, which would now take 48 to 72 hours, among others.

The Ambassador of Indonesia to Nigeria, Dr. Usra Hendra Harahap, while acknowledging Mbah’s determination to make Enugu State the preferred destination for business, investment, living, and tourism, said there was an ongoing discussion between Enugu State Government and Pertamina, the national energy company of Indonesian to build a gas power plant in the state. He emphasised the need for greater cooperation between Nigeria and Indonesia for greater mutual prosperity.

“In 2022, the trade volume between Indonesia and Nigeria reached USD 4.7 billion, with the majority of Indonesia import in oil and gas. However, the untapped potential for trade and investment in other sectors are massive and open for future development as long as we all have the commitment to our mutual benefit.

“Last week, we had the Trade Expo Indonesia 2023 (TEI 2023) and we invited 133 businessmen from around Nigeria like Abuja, Lagos, Sokoto, Kano, Enugu, to name a few. They were able to see the other untapped potential of our both countries’ trade relations. Last we heard, there is $12.5 Million of potential transactions made in the TEI 2023.

“The other good news is that we are planning to bring together the potentials between Enugu State and West Java as well as welcoming the cooperation between Enugu and Pertamina in developing gas power plant. We hope there will soon be a team formed to achieve this collaboration with the related stakeholders”, the Ambassador said.

On his part, the Governor of Jakarta Province, Mr. Heri Budi Hartono, said Jakarta presently contributes 15% of Indonesia’s GDP, but was still hungry for growth given her numerous ongoing projects and infrastructure programmes. The Governor said the future was bright for collaborations among leading cities like Jakarta, Lagos, and Enugu, which he said had lately come to the consciousness of Indonesian businesses and government through Mbah’s investment outreach.

In his remarks, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Usman Ari Ogah, reiterated federal government’s commitment to strengthening bilateral economic ties between the Nigeria and Indonesia, while the President of the NICCI, Ishmael Balogun, expressed his strong belief that such ties hold tremendous promise for both nations, paving way for economic growth and prosperity and strengthening bonds of friendship and cooperation.

Among the Igbo, it is said that you do not sell a he-goat standing in one spot. You need to move it around the market square. Likewise, the English say that if you do not say “Here am I”, it is not likely that anybody would say, “There you are”. This point can be gleaned from the statement by the Governor of Jakarta and other investors, who were happy to now know the great potentials and investment opportunities that Enugu possesses.

If things go as planned; if the several meetings held by Mbah and prospective investors are anything to go by, then Enugu is the next big thing to happen in Nigeria. Thanks to Mbah’s focused and investment-oriented government.