National Reformer Newspaper’s Discourse On State Of The Nation: A Paper Presented By Dr. [Mrs.] Veronica E. Ogbuagu [JP] Proprietress, Chinkelly Schools at the Formal Opening of Reformer Newspaper Office in Warrii

I feel highly honoured and privileged to be called upon as one of the speakers in this discourse on the state of the nation. Today, Nigeria could be described as a disintegrated, battered and groaning country. So much has gone wrong in our nation. Nigerians are talkers, not doers; mostly cowards. How many are willing to stand up and challenge the ills or evils of our time?

We have to pause and ask ourselves the following questions: what have we achieved as a nation? Where did we go wrong? Why is the system not working? Where is the country now? Where is she supposed to be? Why are things worse now than they were at independence or the military era? Why is there more crime now than at independence or military era? Why is there more blood shed than we had during the Nigerian civil war? Why have we neglected God? Why did we walk away from God? Like sheep without shepherd we have gone our own way. How can we retrace our steps to God? We have deserted our Lord who has solutions to all the problems we have.

In our days, everyone wants to rule; to have a feel of authority over others and this is actually the main cause of election rigging. Politicians dangle carrot in front of the electorates. They hold the carrot so close to their faces that they can smell it. The elections are rigged in favour of incompetent people, block heads, blind people, criminals, dullards and cultists. They rigged their way into public offices. They wear corruption clothes, they steal money and they destroy our dream.

Political leadership is seen as an avenue for accumulating the country’s wealth and resources for ones private and selfish use. Clinching to political power is now a do-or-die affair. Our leaders have no deliberate vision for the country. We need visionary leaders.  I was amazed at the figures published by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Vanguard, Monday, June 2, 2014, page 7. Okonjo-Iweala charged Nigerians to ask their governors what they do with allocations. The Minister stated that in 2013 alone “Akwa Ibom got N260 billion; Rivers N230 billions; Delta N209 billion; Bayelsa N173 billion; Lagos N168 billion, Kaduna N97 billion and Borno, N94 billion. Analysis showed that many Nigerian states receive revenue allocations which are larger than budgetary allocations of neighbouring countries such as Liberia which is $433 million and Gambia, $210 million. “Shai, Shai, there is God oh”, Nigerian governors!

I think at this point in time, I wish to suggest that, for every first tenure of any government, particularly the oil producing states, like Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, the monthly budgetary allocation from the federation account should be shared to the people in each Local Government Areas of the State. With the huge amount allocated to the states, I believe that each family may have close to N2 million each, if not above that. We are not interested in their white elephant projects. Projects that will not put food on the ordinary man’s table, projects that are meaningless and useless, projects that are poorly executed, projects that are highly inflated, projects that are abandoned etc. Indeed, we need to ask our governors questions.

Today, many people live below the poverty line. More than 70 percent of people in Nigeria are in abject poverty, living below the poverty line, and one-third survive on less than US $1 dollar a day. Our youths are denied opportunities for employment, denied education, denied support both materially and morally. What does the future hold for our country?

Nigeria celebrated 15 years of uninterrupted democratic rule on May 29, 2014. The question on our lips is: can we celebrate democracy without its dividends to show for it? Of course not! We have a weak democracy that gave birth to numerous evils in Nigeria. To be frank, there was nothing to celebrate. Fifteen years after return to civil rule, it is unfortunate we have not even got to the point of practicing true democracy with all the ills plaguing the country. People are beginning to pray for military intervention.

To mark the democracy day, the Senate President, David Mark spoke in Abuja at a special church service at St. Mulumba’s Catholic Chaplaincy, Apo. He urged Nigerians not to despair in spite of the challenges bedeviling the nation. He reminded Nigerians that, “democracy remains the best and acceptable form of government in the world.” He failed to describe the true democracy as practiced in other parts of the world. He failed to tell us that, our democracy is weak and has brought un-told hardship to Nigerians.

He told Nigerians to “remain resolute because there will be light at the end of the tunnel.” The questions Nigerians would love to ask the Senate President are:

v    Where will the light come from?

v    When will the light appear?

v    Who will hold the light in the tunnel?

v    Will corruption, fraud, violence, Boko Haram allow Nigerians to see the light in the tunnel?

v    Will corruption, fraud, electoral malpractices not blow out the light in the tunnel?

Well, Mr. Senate President, we join you to pray for the light in the tunnel. But as we pray, we must be very careful of how we select or elect our leaders in the 2015 election. As you can see, many people have indicated their interest of contesting for one political office or the other. Many more would soon join the train. In Delta State for example, we have some jokers as well as a few serious minded individuals. It is in the best interest of Deltans to know that we can only boast of three candidates who have indicated their interest to run for the gubernatorial election. They are, Olorogun Otega, Olorogun David Edevbie and Chief Clem Ofuani. These are men of integrity. They are intelligent, honest, cool, calm and calculated. And above all, they have the fear of God. Deltans have suffered enough in the past seven years. We need good men and women to move the state from the present state of hopelessness to a state of hope. I in particular will not hesitate to campaign and vote for good candidates irrespective of his/her party. I will vote for persons and not party.

To Mr. President, Nigeria needs effective leaders, whose intelligence, skills and ability to get things done are equal to the task. As the President of Nigeria, please take time to scrutinize yourself and fine out how your person, your special advisers, ministers, your policies and we the followers have contributed to the difficulties in our country. Seek the face of God, then take a decision whether to contest in the 2015 election or not. Listen to the voice of God and not men.

Every problem in our country today has its roots in bad leadership. Most of our leaders never really had the skill and competence to lead a nation like ours. Nigeria needs a leader who is competent, committed, courageous, patriotic, disciplined, trustworthy and embedded in the ethos and principles of democracy. We need enlighten leaders with God fearing heart. There is also the burden of bad followership. Leaders cannot be bad unless the followership allow them to be. We are no better than those in top leadership positions. We blame our leaders but fail to be upright in the little duties and offices we hold.

Because of the degree of corruption among public office holders, Nigerians have become over dependent on government for the provision of virtually everything. Total dependence on government has not, is not, and will not solve our problems. Take for example, the provision of a sound and qualitative education to our children is a serious problem in our country. The schools are ill-equipped, and teachers are poorly trained. Our leaders always campaign and promise free education to the electorates. Nigerians have been made to believe that all they have to do is to sit at home, produce children, and donate them to the government to nurture, maintain, train and educate.

We must tell ourselves the bitter truth. Anything that is free purges the stomach and looses value.” Education cannot be totally said to be free, parents must be seen to play a role in the training of their children. When the term “free education” is mentioned, parents relegate all their responsibilities to government. Politicians should be very careful of promises made in their so called 3½-, 4 or 7 point agenda. We must not toy with education and health in our country. Education is the people’s only defence against leaders that would do them harm. Parents who can pay fees should be made to pay instead of declaring a tuition – free policy which does not match with commensurate financial backing.

All tiers of government from Local Council to Federal Government should put in place a scholarship scheme for indigent students [students with poor financial background]. Such students must show evidence of insufficient means. The private sector should be allowed to be part of the scheme.

Nigeria Needs To Be Reformed

We need a reformed Nigeria. We need to pray to God to raise up courageous men and women who will reform Nigeria. If we must call for reformation, firstly, we must all agree that, Nigeria can do better than it is right now. We must start from the conviction that Nigeria can be cleaned up. We must agree that the medicine must be tough.

Secondly, the leaders who have been running the affairs of Nigeria since democracy started must be held accountable. We must agree on both fundamentals or else we are not reformers.

Thirdly, we need men and women of strength and courage. Build a core of co-reformers who buy your reform agenda. Reformers must take over the security forces, the police, and the army, and the SSS. They must be under the control of the reformers.

Next, is accountability. Accountability is the basis of the 10 commandments. God gave us free will but He made it clear that, He is going to hold us accountable to our actions. This is a universal law in every society. It is the law of cause and effect. That is where we have the day of reckoning. The reason we have a rise in criminality and corruption is that, the government itself is deeply corrupt. They are not accountable to anybody. It is beyond redemption as we speak.

The first block in the foundation of a reformed Nigeria has to be accountability. Every person who has held any public position must account for every kobo allocated to him/her, until that is done, there is no reform. Real power has to rest on morality. We have an African model when one talks about accountability. In one word, “Rawlings,” that is why Ghana is highly rated for good governance. And that is why they have a more stable polity in Ghana.

Every judge who has decided a case where there is a miss-carriage of justice, must be held accountable because they are all accomplices. The judiciary is a critical piece to be considered in the reformation process. Reformers must infiltrate the judiciary with clean lawyers. Find out the judges that are selling justice, disgrace them and send them to jail. Have a group of good lawyers/judges to take over from them. Empower these clean ones to do the cleaning process. Monitor them as well.

Clean Up The Police Force

There is no doubt, we have a highly corrupt police force. The police force need to be re-constituted. Reformers must create a secret elite unit of the police force that would clean up the system, they would report only to the top administrative political leader who has the reform agenda. The new cleaned police force would have to be trained. Re view their curriculum, and give them dis-proportionate resources and authority. They can cultivate information sources within the police force such as: Who are the criminal king pins within the police force? How do they carry out their activities/operations? Who are their political allies? Who are their criminal allies, their girl friends/concubines/relations? There is a chain of command in every criminal organization/enterprise, destroy that chain of command.

The reformers must form task force to deal with the various units in the police force. The goal is to make crime un-profitable. The new police force must first and foremost respect and honour the community. They must strive to build bridges of trust. The new police must be a guardian police not a criminal police.

The culture of responsibility must replace the culture of impunity. If you commit a crime, you must be punished. With all due respect, I wish to say that, Babangida is the author of the culture of impunity in Nigeria. When criminals became governors, house of assembly members, local government chairmen etc, it gave birth to a culture of impunity. Our culture is not based on criminality. Most politicians with their ill-gotten wealth rush to get titles from their traditional rulers as well as from our institutions of higher learning. They do some fake charitable work. Traditional rulers must not give dishonourable men and women titles. Our universities must not honour them with doctorate degrees. We must deny them social recognition. We must not give honour to dishonourable people.

Local Government Reforms

The purpose of Local Government is to bring services to the people. What do we see and experience today? Thief! Thief!! Thief!!! Some Local government chairmen and their councilors prey on the people. They come up with all kinds of tax, radio tax, fence tax, bore-hole tax, corridor tax, caravan tax etc. The government is supposed to serve the people, especially the weak. Instead the government serve the strong and oppresses people who are already oppressed by poverty and ignorance.

Waste Disposal/Management

If there is any problem posing a great challenge to this present government in Delta State apart from kidnapping, it is proper disposal of waste. Every where you turn, you see garbage. Of course, we all know the health implications. A good government can make the business of garbage disposal profitable. All government needs to do is to pass tough environmental laws. Enforce those laws, provide capitals/loans for people to start environmental cleaning, make it a profitable exercise. License companies for waste management. A neighbourhood association can decide to hire a cleaning agent to handle this project.

Corruption

Corruption has become the bane of Nigeria. It has evaded every aspect of leadership in Nigeria. Most of our leaders are corrupt, and this has brought our country to the level it is today. The most painful aspect of it is that, President Goodluck Jonathan is not prosecuting the anti-graft war seriously. The President lack the political will to fight corruption. The Nigerian case is very disturbing.

Nigeria is like a cow, and everybody is just milking the cow, without regard for the cow’s health. Every good farmer knows that you’ve got to feed your cow, take care of it so that it can be healthy enough to keep producing milk for you for a long time. If you fail to take care of it, you will eventually kill it. May we not allow Nigeria to deteriorate to a situation where we may have anarchy and civil war.

Politicians and relatives who are abroad are generally conduit pipes whom they use to siphon money out of the country and buy properties aboard and also make investment. In case of any reform, there are Nigerians in diaspora that would support the reformers hundred and one percent. There are Nigerians in diaspora who can be used to provide information and tract the ill-gotten wealth that are siphoned abroad. All the reformers need to do is to enlist the co-operation of British, American and Arab law enforcement agencies in order to track down the entire activities of these corrupt politicians.

Recently, in a news story in the US, Nigerians were rated as the second highest purchaser of real estates, and second only to the Russians. That tells you the huge capital being taken out of Nigeria. We call it political hot money. They buy houses for their concubines and wives. Their friends organize dummy seminars or fake seminars, and they use that excuse to leave Nigeria with big allowances in addition to what they have already wired out through multiple sources. Most times they spend their time there with women of easy virtues.

The reform movement has to be built on a culture of accountability. Today, no body is holding any public office accountable for mis-governance. As powerful as the American president is, he is accountable to the people. He is accountable to Congress and of course, Congress represent the will of the people.

A New Nigeria Is Possible

Let us look into the future with optimism. Let us believe that a new Nigeria is possible if we believe it and work for it, trusting God with whom all things are possible, the new Nigeria which is our dream will be realized.

First, we must work towards having a Nigeria where God is given His supreme and proper place; a Nigeria where our leaders believe in the absolute power of God and not the powers of darkness.

A Nigeria where free and fair elections thrive; a Nigeria where leaders will be elected and not selected; a Nigeria where human rights are not violated.

A new Nigeria where Nigerians are fully patriotic; a Nigeria where life and property is secured, a Nigeria where social amenities such as good roads, hospitals, schools, electricity, water etc are given due consideration; a Nigeria where everyone is safe and feels secure; whether in the South, Niger Delta, West, East or North. A Nigeria where the youths are employed by Government or private individuals. A  Nigeria where there is equity in the distribution of our human and natural resources; a Nigeria where laws are respected and kept, a Nigeria where police men will be seen patrolling or policing the communities, instead of guarding politicians and extorting money from motorists on our highways. A Nigeria, where we would celebrate 15 years of un-interrupted power supply.

A Nigeria where job opportunities are available and people are rewarded on merit.  A Nigeria where teachers are well trained, paid, and motivated. A Nigeria where pensioners are rewarded for the services they rendered. I could go on and on.

We have the power to change things ourselves. We must first and foremost look up to God for His grace. I am of the opinion that God has not yet taken His grace away from our leaders, because when that happens, nothing pure in man will stay, all his good will turned to evil. We need His grace to survive. Therefore both leaders and followers should act like the people of Nineveh who turned back to God in fasting and prayer to see if God would relent from his plan to destroy them and have mercy on them. We also need to turn to God in prayer, in sincerity of heart and in truth to ourselves without deceit because this is the only way by which peace and prosperity can reign again in Nigeria. I am using this opportunity to donate these five cartons of various books to the library of the National Reformer Newspaper because our reading culture is dying.

Thank you for listening.

God bless the National ReformeR Newspaper!

God bless Delta State!!

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!

Dr. [Mrs.] Veronica E. Ogbuagu [JP]