THE LAW

There has to be an explanation for why the Judiciary – the last bastion of justice and democracy, our important adjudicating arm of government – has lost its respect and powers. Heavily brutalized and subjugated during the military era, one would have thought that with the advent of democracy, our bar and bench would step up and ensure that the sanctity of the law, the court room and its rulings would get optimum protection in order to protect our nascent democracy. They should instruct our police force to be teachers and guide us on our path, building form and structure according to laid down procedure and precedent in order to preserve natural justice.

The additional responsibilities and expectations that come with civil rule are very heavy, the Judiciary should by now have regained control of its own house and discharge its duties with commanded respect. Sadly, it is turning out more and more glaringly that our courts are battling with a crisis of confidence. Their self-image is very poor and our laws as a result are flouted with impunity. When we the laymen hear that there has been a court ruling and it is openly disobeyed by the offending party without consequences, then it shakes the very foundation on which we stand and creates an air of insecurity in the land.

It is even more frightening that it is our lawmakers in this dispensation that have flouted more court orders and judgments than at any other time of our nationhood. With each judicial pronunciation openly and obnoxiously ignored, the self-worth of the Judiciary further deteriorates, allowing for even more damning contraventions of the law. It does not make sense nor allow for order when we consider the culprits of this disturbing trend are the two other arms of government – the legislature and the executive. They have ensured that the Judiciary remains lame and inept and have put the security forces on a leash which they control and is used willy-nilly as a tool of oppression. We have no balance.

This trend has become institutionalized. It grows by feeding and profiting from a weak citizenry who cower in fear or watch in disbelief the actions, whims and caprices of our “defenders and protectors.” It is a far cry from our culture and our traditions and a growing cancer inherited from the interruption that was the dictatorial military rule we experienced here. Illegality profits from a weak judicial system, we must with dispatch elevate our judiciary to its constitutional position as the arbiter and custodian of our statute.

Penultimate week, 10 candidates of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) from Katsina State were ruled rightful owners of a ‘stolen’ mandate as lawmakers representing their constituencies by a court of competent jurisdiction. They were however denied access to the National Assembly by their fellow lawmakers. The recurring irony of lawmakers breaking the law should not be lost on the rest of us. The PDP circumvented a judicial pronouncement by suspending the very next day, a member whom the court had asked them to reinstate for being wrongfully removed. The party and its government, by this act, is dangerously maintaining the status quo and making an ass of the law, which they have promised to protect.

We have a job to do. The foundation for a better Nigeria has to be laid starting from now. How do we do it? We need to stop considering ourselves as powerless inhabitants of the ‘Niger Area’. We cannot despair. We need to make our voices heard by creating social movements whose voices will be louder than our individual voices. We must come together. We need to insist on justice and accept rulings even when we feel that the law has been an ass and not stop there but put our energies into appealing any offensive decisions by “lawfully” seeking redress at the courts and effecting change that will better protect us. We need to speed up the delivery of this justice, as justice delayed is justice denied, and we must defend our laws and the spirit of them, as allowing anything or anybody to soil the sanctity of our agreement is nothing less than an infringement of our rights and a breach of the contract which binds us together.

DOING US ANYHOW

In my article of Sunday, September 15, 2013, I lamented how it was difficult for Nigerians to move around abroad without being vilified and humiliated. Legitimate Nigerian tourists, students and businessmen suffer at every stage of their travelling processes, even though what they do is add value to their host countries. Sadly, how we are perceived abroad and how we treat our fellow countrymen is clearly being observed from abroad and as a result we are left exposed and powerless.

The perception is that these Nigerians are rich and reckless and undisciplined but we must deal with them and take their money. You know for all their wahala, we can make bumper profits from them and they are very fatalistic, so their rights can be waived. They are used to it, their own government does it to them everyday and they do nothing. Their expectations are very low as a result and they will accept any situation and even pay though their rights have been denied. Last week, I received a message from one of my readers. Permit me to share this with you: 

The other day, I checked in online for a flight to Lagos from London. I tried to pay for an extra bag and the system flatly refused. At the airport, I let them know that I had checked in (to which the system confirmed), but that I could not pay for an extra bag at the discounted rate of £90. After a lot of back and forth, a snooty blank-faced curt 'manager' showed up and simply said, “Some countries like Nigeria are blacklisted and are not allowed to pay online due to fraud.” I asked her if there were no fraudulent people in England and that surely the actions of a few should not allow for blanket discrimination.

There are definitely other ways of verifying that credit cards used have not been stolen. When you shop in-flight on a British Airways flight, you must produce your passport, etc. Why is same not applicable? They just enjoy maligning us for where we come from!

So, I had to pay the higher rate of £140 and was advised to file a complaint. I called a customer service line and the lady looked into the issue and came back with a confirmation that Nigeria was indeed blacklisted. And wait for this... I had bought my ticket from a travel agent, so that didn't help; there was nothing she could do for me on that basis. I asked if obtaining my ticket from a licensed agent was a crime. And, if Nigerians were so bad, why does BA operate 14 full flights weekly to Nigeria?

In my case, the customer service agent was happy to refund the £50 difference, since I am a Gold member. What about the majority of Nigerian travellers who are not Gold members? What would be their fate? That the British government has reversed the £3000 visa bond for first time travellers is a minor victory, because the ordeals of Nigerian travellers continue everywhere in the world.

A friend of mine recently flew into Lagos from Abuja to take a pregnancy test at a designated clinic in Yaba because, after six weeks of holding on to her passport, the Canadian High Commission insisted that she must prove she was not pregnant before her visa was issued! Haba! Why us? Our own government and politicians at home stiff us, then foreign airlines and their governments treat us with such indignity. It’s just not right! 

Aisha, Lagos.

This is only one case among thousands. Daily, Nigerians endure these policies from countries whose people are ever ready to generalise whenever the name ‘Nigeria’ is mentioned. Just last week, I mentioned the ire of the Nigerian community in America, when Senator Ted Cruz fetched from the perception maltreatment well to embarrass the Nigerian community over there.

More importantly, however, is the fact that we mete out worse treatments on ourselves here at home.  Policemen are either using brute force against law-abiding citizens or PHCN is charging you for the electricity it didn’t supply. Lawmakers openly flout the rule of law by delaying or outrightly ignoring court judgements from our toothless judiciary. Politicians’ convoys drive us off the roads and it is commonplace for people to drive down the expressway in the wrong direction, whilst FRSC concentrates on new number plates. The aviation minister buys new cars whilst the Lagos airport leaks and looks like a poorly maintained relic from the 1900’s. I could go on and on. We make the job of others maligning and maltreating us easy, as we make a laughingstock of ourselves daily. We must stand up together and start saying no, otherwise our leaders, who are our interface with the world, will lead us to the abyss.

 

SEARCHING INWARDS

Our worst fears are beginning to creep up on us, and we have made no plans to deal with the situation. One way or the other, the petrodollars serving as the backbone of our survival is dwindling. Data from the Ministry of Finance, Budget Office and the Central Bank of Nigeria show that Nigeria’s earnings from oil continue to plummet this year. It has been estimated that this might result in a $12billion shortfall of budgetary estimates. What next? We are forced to dip our hands into the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to augment the deficit. That account is supposed to be our Sovereign Wealth Fund, which should insulate our economy from external shocks. Already, we have drawn $4billion from the account this year; it is down from the $9billion we had in the beginning of the year to $5billion.

Government at all levels is feeling the impact of our declining oil wealth. The federal government’s quarterly disbursement for capital projects has reduced. Funds shared among the three tiers of government in the months of August and September were way below expected allocations. If oil production continues to be disrupted and the 80,000-barrels-a-day oil theft goes on unabated, it means we will keep dipping into the ECA until it runs dry. What happens next? Your guess is as good as mine. By now, it should be clear to the government, especially at state level, that they have been left with little option than to look inwards. For too long, we have neglected the economic potency in developing the mineral resources within state territories and devising sound internally generated revenue strategies. The time to go back to the drawing board is now.       

According to the Gross Summary of Statutory Revenue Allocation and VAT released by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in March 2013, apart from Akwa Ibom (N22, 205,383,781); Bayelsa (N13, 350,351,654); Delta (N17, 057,045,907); Rivers (N20, 934,686,737); Kano (N12, 333,095,855) and Lagos (N14, 219,026,551), no other state got up to 10billion naira from the Federation Account. In many of these states, internally generated revenue is near zero. For instance, Plateau State got N6, 099,168,412 during the month in review, and has only succeeded in generating just over 6billion in IGR between January and October. The state makes roughly 600million in IGR per month; a pantry 10 percent of its monthly allocation. This is why any reduction in Federation Account allocation creates panic among states.     

On the other hand, a state like Lagos may not be overly alarmed by these allocation shortfalls. As at May, Lagos State’s internally generated revenue (IGR) is put at an average of N30 billion monthly. In fact, figures released by the state’s Ministry of Finance show that in 2012, Lagos generated an average of N29.0 billion monthly, as against an average of N18.9 billion in 2008.  Over the past five years, the state’s monthly IGR maintained an average increase of 10.7 percent, and its IGR accounts for over 65 percent of the total revenue of the state. Meaning, Lagos State generates three times more funds for itself than it receives from the Federation Account. Without being insensitive to the peculiarity of Lagos, I still believe that the IGR base of other states can improve if they engage and empower their citizens, who, in turn, would be the driving force behind improved IGR.  

I have said it before that for states to start preparing for life with limited crude oil resources, we have to attract investment in agriculture and industry by genuinely courting prospective investors with incentives. States like Plateau, Bauchi and Taraba amongst others should be reaping bountiful IGR from tourism and agriculture, but first, they have to get their act together. We have to focus our collective effort on providing infrastructure as the first step towards diversifying our economy. There is no guarantee that petroleum will continue to dominate global exchange because every day the world inches closer to cleaner and renewable energy sources. Rather than groan and grieve about the insufficiency of their monthly allocations, state governors should take up the challenge of using what they have to open up sectors where they reserve competitive advantage to investors. 
 
It is important for us to start following global trends and investing in human capital, industry and technology. Fresh thinking and the ability to prepare for “what-if” have propelled other countries to self-sufficiency. Dubai is a perfect example. What has happened there is what we should have been thinking of years ago. Imagine what a desert state has been able to achieve. We are here in the midst of plenty but a visit to the Murtala International Airport in Lagos alone is enough to let any serious minded person understand that we live in the country of the blind.     

THE POWER OF ONE

There is an African proverb which says the efficacy of the broom is in its bunch. No single or scattered broomsticks can achieve the kind of effectiveness achieved when they are bunched. A good lesson in this was exhibited recently across the Atlantic when Nigerian-Americans bound by their roots, forced an American senator to retract an offensive statement about Nigeria and Nigerians.

Senator Ted Cruz, being a Republican from Texas, did not surprise many for being a vocal anti-Obama congressman. In the wake of America’s government shutdown, we are all aware that what Republicans like Cruz wanted Obama to do, as a prerequisite for signing the budget, was to repel his signature Affordable Care Act. However, Obama Care took a fresh knock when subscribers began to find it difficult to sign on to its exchange website. It was a triumphant moment for the Tea Party Republican politicians who taunted, mocked and lashed out at the health programme.  Senator Cruz joined the bandwagon and joked that the Affordable Care exchange website of the US was being run by Nigerian email scammers. Na Wah O!

As Nigerians, we are used to “diplomatic insults” from all corners of the globe. I have said before that Nigerian tourist, businessmen and immigrants suffer untold hardship, embarrassment and insult in the hands of their hosts, just because they are from the famous Nigeria known for everything bad or pathetic. We are judged from exaggerated documentaries and news bulletins fed by their media. They rub in their prejudices and we are expected to shrug them off and move on as we do here at home. We do not want palaver, so we quietly acquiesce.  Things are not quite the same in America as they are over here. People have a voice. Over there, people understand what their rights are. As can be expected, our home government took no official stance. However, Nigerian-Americans – our sons and daughters in the Diaspora – were united in condemning the senator and insisted on him tendering an apology.   

They worked magic. They took the fight to the social media, made personal calls to Cruz and shook his rock. They did this by coming together with one voice. The American senator finally succumbed to their demands and released a statement which partly read thus: “Earlier this week, Sen. Ted Cruz made a joke in which he used the term ‘Nigerian email scam’... It is unfortunate that we’re living in a time where just about every joke can be misconstrued to cause offense to someone… Cruz has never, nor would ever use a blanket term in a derogatory fashion against such a vibrant and integral part of our community. This usage was never directed to the Nigerian community as a whole… To the good people of Nigeria - a beautiful nation where my wife lived briefly as the child of missionaries - no offense was intended. I am fully appreciative of the range of mutual economic and security interests that make Nigeria an important friend to the United States.” 

Cruz also requested for a peace meeting between himself and representatives of the Nigerian community in Houston.  He knew his reelection might depend on mending his relationship with this large community in the state of Texas. Their votes are important. Every vote has been made to count in the USA.              

Because of this, America is the biggest beneficiary of the Nigerian brain drain.  There are Nigerians holding pole positions in education, health, ICT and other sectors. A recent finding says Nigerian doctors dominate the United States of America’s medical practice. According to the report, 77 per cent of members of the Association of Black Doctors in that country are Nigerians. The outcry that followed the distasteful denigration was totally justified. Daily, we hear the story of disillusioned Americans going on shooting sprees killing innocent people. Yet, nobody has been foolish enough to conclude that Americans are killers. This is only so because the state is seen to do all possible to protect their laws, as opposed to being the recipients of the proceeds of criminality, or indeed sponsoring the criminality in the first place and getting away with it in the full view of the law.

These guys are not confused or afraid and understand the difference between a privilege and a right and are ready to stand up to protect both. Back home, we need to imbibe the model of our citizens in the US in tackling our challenges. We have to come together for the common good and speak in one voice. There is no middle position between good and bad. Our ethnicity should continue to bind us as one and not be used as a tool to weaken our collective resolve. Such a simple tool as a broom can show the effectiveness of being bound together. United we stand and divided we fall.