 |
| Ghanaian Minister of Finance Seth Tekper |
By Ekow Mensah.
At
a time when Government is having difficulties with revenue mobilization, The
Insight can report that Ghana has lost close to a billion Ghana cedis as a
result of willful neglect and inefficiency.
All of this money has been lost within two
years.
Sources close to the Customs, Excise and
Preventive Service Say that more than 400 companies and individuals who were
permitted to clear imported goods and pay duties later have not meet their
obligations.
There is no evidence that the relevant
authorities have taken steps to recover the amount owed to the state.
It is difficult to calculate exactly how
much is involved in this huge sum but values of the imported goods made
available to “The Insight” exceed GHȻ7 billion.
A customs official who spoke to The
Insight said “The Task Force established by the Presidency is showing interest
in the matter.
“They
have asked for all the relevant documents and hopefully something should happen
soon” he said.
When contacted, Mr Michael Nunoo head of
the task force refused to comment.
He said “We are dealing with many issues
which have come to our attention; we will investigate them all and make
appropriate recommendations to the presidency”.
Attempts to reach the Commissioner of CEPS
have so far failed.
Mr Seth Terkpeh, the Minister of Finance
admits that Government is not getting enough revenue to finance the country’s
development efforts.
According to him, more than 50 per cent of
total national revenue is used to pay the wages and salaries of only 600,000
public sector employees.
A more rigorous collection of existing
taxes could help expand government revenue.
Editorial
DO
SOMETHING NOW!
We have had major problems with the public
Accounts Committee if Parliament to the extent that its sitting have amounted
to nothing more than grand standing.
Every year, the Committee meets in the
full view of television cameras and members desperately try to score partisan
political points.
The fundamental problems of the Ghanaian
economy which fund expression in the Auditor-General reports are ignored and
criminals who chip their long hands in state covers get away with they loot.
At the last sitting of the Public Accounts
Committee of Parliament a very interesting issue came up.
It was disclosed that some of the gold
mining companies retain as much as 100 per cent of their gross earning abroad
under a so-called stabilization Agreement.
It must be obvious that if the companies
retain 100 per cent of their earnings abroad, then they finance their local.
Operations with credits from local banks.
The implication of this is that the
companies are competing with local businesses for access to cash generated
locally.
The stabilization agreement denies the people of Ghana access to monies
earned in the exploitation of their natural resources.
In
addition to this denial is the fact that mining activities are seriously damaging
the environment and poisoning water sources and food.
Worst still is the fact that gets only
five per cent of the country exported form the country.
The Insight believes that the time has
come for the Ghanaian authorities to
take firm steps to maximize Ghana’s interest in the Ghana’s interest in the
exploitation of the country’s natural resources.
REPORT ON TEMA SHIPYARD
 |
| Tema Shipyard and Dry dock |
The Minister of
Transport inaugurated the PSC Tema Shipyard Committee of Enquiry on the 20th of
October 2009 to investigate factors militating against the smooth operation of
the Shipyard and to make the necessary recommendations for his consideration.
The Shipyard has been
a source of concern to the GoG due to the incessant labour unrests which the
Shipyard has witnessed over the past 12 years in addition to its numerous
management problems.
It will be recalled
that GoG in order to enhance the efficiency of the operation of the Shipyard,
divested 60% of its interest in the Shipyard to its Malaysian partner in 1996.
This was done through the execution of a Sale and Purchase Agreement and a
Joint Venture Agreement.
Penang as a majority
shareholder under the SPA and JVA was to provide the working capital needs of
the Shipyard and in so doing to equip it in order to meet the requirements and
challenges of a modern Shipyard.
5. Various agitations
by the Shipyard workers are attributed to the failure of the majority
shareholder to deliver as per the agreement to improve upon the plant and
machinery and working tools of the Shipyard. -Additionally, chronic
mismanagement corruption among some top echelon and some senior and junior
workers of the Shipyard contributed to these agitations.
6. The Committee
through interviews, review of documents, analysis of memoranda and research
findings unearthed the root causes of the worker management disagreements and
also identified the factors which hindered the Shipyard from making progress.
7. As a result, the
Committee made observations and proffered recommendations which in the view of
the Committee should be implemented to transform the Shipyard into an economic
edifice from which the nation shall derive benefit.
8. The Committee is
emphatic on GoG immediately abrogating the SPA and JVA and taking over the
Shipyard. GoG should in collaboration with a local investor or consortium, or
with a foreign investor rescue the national asset from further deterioration.
9. Finally, the
Committee would wish to emphasize that the takeover will put GoG in a position
of strength during this era of the oil find, to expand the Shipyard, offer
training to its workers and improve upon its facilities.
BACKGROUND
The Tema Shipyard and Dry-dock
Corporation
10. The Tema Shipyard
and Dry-dock Corporation (TSDC) was built during the construction of the Tema
Harbour as part of the overall infrastructure requirement for the country's
maritime economic development. The Shipyard has two graving docks and a
slipway. One of the Shipyard's graving docks is the largest dock between the
Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) and the southern tip of Europe. As such the
Shipyard is-strategically placed to take
advantage of dry-docking and repair needs of ships up to 100, 000
deadweight (DWT) plying the western shoreline of Africa.
11. Built in the
1960s, before the advent of containerships, when the capacity of an average
general cargo ship was 10,000 DWT, and the Arab-Israeli war has not influenced
the construction of the modern super oil tankers, it was capable of docking the
largest oil tankers of the era.
12. The strategic
significance of the Shipyard as .part of the country's overall maritime
economic development is never in dispute. Consequently, there is no option but
to improve the standard of operations in the Shipyard to enhance it's
efficiency and make it contribute effectively to the national economy.
Divestiture
13 . ln pursuance of
the above i.e. to enhance efficiency, the Government of Ghana (GoG) in 1996
divested 60% of its interest in TSDC. The main purpose of the divesture was to
attract a strategic investor who would be able to raise capital, as a partner
to GoG to physically transform the aging Shipyard into a modern, well equipped
one, which should be the first and obvious choice for any ship owner operating
on or passing by the entire shoreline of the western coast of the African
continent.
Joint Venture
Agreement
14. It was against
this background, that the GoG settled on the divestiture option and executed an
agreement with Penang Shipbuilding and Construction SDN BHD (Penang) as its
partner in the divestiture. The aims and objectives of the GoG were clearly
stated in the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) signed on the 8th November 1996
between the GoG and the Penang Shipbuilding and Construction SDN BHD (Penang).
15. For ease of
reference, we produce-below the relevant clauses in the JVA on the improvement
and development of the Shipyard.
Clauses 7.3 and 7.4
(a) and (b) of the JVA refer:
7.3 The Parties agree
that the company shall rehabilitate the assets to be acquired pursuant to _SPA
and complete the facility currently known as the "TEMA SHIPYARD AND
DRYDOCK".
4.4The majority share
holder shall:
(a) Provide, or
otherwise procure from third parties, such funding as is reasonably required by
the Company to meet costs in connection with the rehabilitation and completion
referred to in clause 7.3 (such costs having been estimated at US$5,300,000) ;
and
(b) Use their best
endeavours to provide or otherwise procure from third parties such funding as
is reasonably required by the Company to meet its working capital needs; in
each case to the extent such funding is not met from the company's reserves.
16. Twelve years into
the execution of this agreement, there have been numerous public outcry that no
attempt has been made by the majority share holder (Penang) to fulfill its part
of the contractual agreement as stipulated in clauses 7.3 and 7.4 (a) and (b)
as above refers.
17. The ownership of
the majority shareholdings changed hands from Penang to Boustead Heavy
Industries Corporation Berhad in 2006 under circumstances that was not clear to
the GoG and many other observers. This change in ownership did not redeem this
negative public perception.
18. The initial
observation by all including this Committee was that the majority shareholder
has not fulfilled its obligation in improving the performance and working
conditions of the shipyard due to lack of investment and weak management
structure has created a situation for incessant labour unrest and worker
agitations against the management.
Reason for the
setting up Committee of Enquiry
19. Since the
divestiture in 1996, the Shipyard has persistently been bedeviled by labour
unrests. The latest was the impasse which led to a general lock out of the work
force by the Management between 12th December 2008 and 9th March 2009.
20. ln addition, the
leakage of the Internal Audit Report (IA) for the 1st Quarter of 2009 issued on
the 20th April, 2009 which contained serious allegations of corruption
heightened the already existing concerns of the general public. Consequently
the GoG set up this Committee vide Ministry of Transport letter No. UL-41 1204/01
dated 16/1012009 to review the operations of the PSC Tema Shipyard Ltd and in
accordance with Section 7.2 of the JVA.
Terms of reference of
the Committee
21. The Committee was
inaugurated under the following terms of reference:
To assess the
commercial performance of the Company since its divestiture in 1998;
To assess the
financial viability of the company;
To investigate the
reasons underlying the incessant labour unrest and how it has affected
operational performance;
To investigate all
tax obligations and ascertain if there have been any defaults over the period;
e). To establish
whether there is any corporate malfeasance and if so, how it has negatively
affected the operations including payment of Dividends to Government;
f). To investigate any
other issues that might-have affected the operational sustainability and its
subsequent impact on the Maritime Industry; and
g) Any other matters of relevance.
Members of the
Committee
22. The composition
of the Committee was:
a) Mr. Chris A-Ackummey -
Chairman
b) Mr. Seth Kugblenu - Member
Mr. Adaangiak
Akanteyam - Member
Lt. Cdr. K.
Kpesese(Rtd) - Member
Mr. George Winful - Member
f) Mrs. Ama Bamful - Member
g) Mr. K. Owusu-Ansah
-Member /Secretary
Methodology
23.The Committee
conducted interviews, reviewed documents, and paid site visits. In all 28
personalities were interviewed under oath. These included prominent
politicians, a representative from Boustead Malaysia, personnel from the Ghana
Police Service, Media Houses, Social Pressure Groups, Sub- contractors, Union
Members, Staff and Management of the Shipyard. Find details as in Appendix A.
24. Documents
reviewed included some Internal and External Audit reports, Joint Venture
Agreements (JVA) and Sales and Purchase Agreements (SPA), written memoranda
from the workers of the Shipyard, the public and also the reports of KPMG
Malaysia on observations/findings made in the leaked 1st Quarter 2009 IA Report.
25. The Committee
also paid 3 site visits to the premises of the Shipyard to acquaint itself with
the operations of the yard and to meet with both Senior Management the Junior
and Senior Staff Union Executives.
FINANCIAL VIABILITY
OF THE SHIPYARD
26. "When
considering Tema Shipyard and Drydock Company's present low staff
"motivation: the poor state of the plant and--machinery and the lack of
investment and maintenance over recent years, it is soon obvious that the good
quality of work currently being undertaken and completed must show the
strength, resourcefulness and innovative skill of the work force.
27. With a new strong
and enthusiastic management that is capable of injecting fresh capital,
attracting new clients and lifting job motivation of the workforce, there is no
doubt that this great facility at Tema can be returned relatively quickly, to
again play a prominent role in the shipping market worldwide.
28. Previous studies
have shown that the layout and versatility of the building which make up the
TSDC facility can readily be equipped and adapted to undertake fabrication work
that would expand and complement the business of ship repair and
maintenance."
29. This is a
quotation from a proposal by Managecraft Limited to the Divestiture
Implementation Committee (DIC) before the Shipyard was divested in 1996. From
the above quotation, it is obvious to any discerning mind that the commercial
viability of the Shipyard has never been in doubt.
30. The Committee
fully endorses this observation and more so with the country entering the oil
and gas exploration and production age, opportunities particularly in general
engineering services, offshore fabrication and repair works for oil drilling
rigs, swamp-barge new buildings and fabrication works associated with the oil
and gas Industry will enhance the Shipyard's economic viability.
31. The Shipyard has
already been approached by Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) to
develop an effective business alliance between the two, focused on establishing
the Shipyard as the centre of excellence for Drilling Rig new build, repair,
upgrade and support services in West Africa (refer to Appendix B).
32. OGDC is a Project
Management Assurance Company providing Consultancy and Project Execution
Services to the Upstream and Downstream Oil and Gas Industry. The facility at
the Shipyard can readily be adapted to suit the Oil and Gas Industry to enhance
it's viability and bring enormous gains to the country if well managed other
than how it is managed presently.
33. Shipping
continues to be the most significant means of international transport. Over 90
per cent of international trade is by way of maritime transport. There are over
twenty harbours in the West African Region with ship calls to these harbours
totaling over 20,000 per annum. This figure includes over 2,500 ships in a year
visiting the Ghanaian Ports in a year.
34. Ships will
normally dry-dock on routes upon which they trade. This boom in shipping,
coupled with greater demands for safety at sea and greater concerns for the
environment, more stringent inspections and statutory requirements call for
ship maintenance.
35. The West African
sub-region have over US$12 billion worth of oil and gas industry (about 10 per
cent of the world total) that is of interest to the whole international
community. Ghana will from the last quarter of 2010 join the oil producing
countries. New findings of petroleum-reserves-also continued to be made in the
sub-region. The oil rigs; jack-ups and semi-submersibles, Production Supply
Vessels (PSVs) and Floating, Production and Storage Offloading (FPSO) units
will require dry-docking from time to time.
36. Additionally, the
region-also has some vessels of the industrial fishing fleet that would require
maintenance at the dry-docks. When the newly established Ghana Maritime
Authority becomes fully operational, particularly with respect to the port
state and flag state controls, the maintenance requirements of ships trading in
Ghanaian maritime waters including the fishing fleet will increase.
37. This gives a big
competitive advantage to the Shipyard which has one of the biggest graving
docks in Africa.
38. Geopolitically,
Ghana is one of the most peaceful countries in the sub-region and most of the
ship owners are willing to take advantage of this.
39. The market
potential for ship repair activities which the Shipyard could benefit from is
therefore huge with a lot of indirect benefit to the country.
40. The question to
ask is whether the management of the Shipyard as presently constituted with
it's attendant deficiencies is capable of taking advantage of this future
business trend? The answer is definitely NO.
41. Further, it is
also prudent to pose the question as to whether the management is capable of
injecting fresh capital into the Shipyard to turn it fortunes?
42. The answer is
that, if it has not been done in the 12 years since divestiture then it is not
going to happen under the current management.
43. The future-of
the-Shipyard-is-bleak without fresh capital injection and proper management
control.
44. The labour force
at the time of the divestiture is completely depleted. There is a reduction by
almost 40 percent in the labour force instead of an expansion or increase. It
is envisaged that with the oil find, ships and rigs with repair needs will
increase the Shipyard's potential for harvesting in yields from the oil find. A
well organized and expanded Shipyard, which is well resourced, will position
itself as a source of employment for both skilled .and unskilled youth in line
with the government's policy of offering employment as a component plan of it's
better Ghana agenda.
COMMERCIAL
PERFORMANCE OF THE SHIPYARD SINCE THE DIVESTITURE IN 1996
45. The Committee
reviewed the financial statement of the Shipyard and noted that the total net
profit earned over the 12 year period after the divestiture in 1996 was
GH¢1,687,119 disclosing an average net profit of GH¢140,543 per year. Return on
capital employed fluctuated over the years registering an average return on
capital employed of 4% per annum. This return in our view was low when compared
to the average borrowing rate then in existence in the country over the period.
46.High uncontrolled
operational and administrative cost, coupled with transferred recurrent
expenses (see paragraph 125 on related party expenses) incurred by Penang in
Malaysia on behalf of the Shipyard accounted for this abysmal performance
resulting in the Shipyard's inability to declare profit and to pay dividends to
it's shareholders since the divestiture.
47. Our further
analysis of the accounts showed that except for other activities, the Shipyard
made losses in its core business of ship repair. Find-in-Appendix the detailed
financial analysis. -
FACTORS MILITATING
AGAINST THE FINANCIAL VIABILITY OF THE SHIPYARD
Deficiencies relative
to the workforce of-the shipyard
a) Under strength
48. Our review of the
staffing position of the Shipyard showed that from a numerical strength of 432
in 1999, the strength of the workforce declined over the years and as at 2008,
stood at 286, a fall of 34%.
49. With the freeze
on recruitments by the Board, there have not been replacements of separated
staff (retirement, resignation, etc.) for some time.
According to records
from the Human Resource Department, the current workforce has aged (34% of the
workforce are above 50 years as at January 2008). The freeze on employment has
adversely affected productivity in the Shipyard.
b) Training
50. Investment in
human capital, a critical factor for higher productivity has not been fully
exploited. Our investigations revealed that the employees are not exposed to
further training in order to equip them technically and professionally to face
the challenges of the industry. For example, most welders and non-destructive
testing (NOT) technicians currently have not been provided with the opportunity
to update their certification.
51. They lack the
basic certification required for the jobs they undertake. Our review of
correspondence from Tidex Limited, a customer of the Shipyard confirmed- this
assert (Refer to Appendix D). _
52. There was no
expenditure from training on the Shipyard's accounts sighted and which
heightened our observation.
The engagement of
non-certified employees pose a serious risk to life and property and in our
view could be an additional reason for the unattractiveness of the Shipyard to
ship owners for purpose of repairs.
Lack of equipments
and facilities
a) Plant and
machinery
53. In the assets
document of the SPA and JVA, there is evidence that almost all the plant and
machinery at the advent of the divestiture were in good and workable
conditions. Twelve years down the line, most of the machinery and equipment at
the Shipyard are in a very high state of disrepair. Not only has the majority
shareholder failed to achieve the divestiture objective to improve the
management of the Shipyard through the enhancement of the Shipyard's plant and
machinery but woefully neglected to maintain the shipyard at its
pre-divestiture standard.
54. The outmoded
plant and machinery are still in use. Some have even been scrapped without
replacement. The continuous use of the machinery at the Shipyard has become
uneconomical and unsafe. This situation has drastically affected the
productivity of the Shipyard to turn it's fortunes around.
b) GANTRY CRANES
The gantry cranes at
the Dock One looked rusty and have not been painted for some time. At the time
of the divestiture, there were 3 gantry cranes in use at the Shipyard. One was
serving the fitting out quay (FOQ) and the other two serving Dock One. The
gantry crane which was serving the FOQ have been scrapped without replacement.
M984~e cranes have to be hired anytime lifting is required at the FOQ thus
increasing the cost of service. This is very inconvenient and time wasting.
The two cranes
serving the Dock One then had lifting capacities of 60 and 20 tons
respectively. Now the 20 tons crane is unusable due to weakness and the 60 tons
crane can lift only 5 tons weight.
Ghana: Why We Talk in Tongues
By T. M. Luhrmann
Last month I was in Accra, Ghana, to learn more about
the African version of the new charismatic Christian churches that have become
so popular in the United States and are now proliferating in sub-Saharan
Africa, especially Ghana and Nigeria. What struck me was how much people spoke
in tongues: language-like sounds (usually, repeated phonemes from the speaker’s
own language) thought by those who use them to be a language God knows but the
speaker does not.
I went to services that lasted three hours
and for most of which people prayed in tongues. People I interviewed spoke
about praying by themselves in tongues for similar stretches of time. They said
they did so because it was the one language the devil could not understand, but
what I found so striking was how happy it seemed to make them. “We love to
speak in tongues,” one young Ghanaian woman told me with a laugh.
Some of the early Christians spoke in
tongues. At least, the Apostle Paul writes about them in his first letter to
the Corinthians. Then, for the most part, tongues died out of Christian
practice until Pentecostalism emerged around the turn of the 20th century, most
famously at a revival in Los Angeles in 1906. “Weird babel of tongues, new sect
of fanatics is breaking loose, wild scene last night on Azusa Street, gurgle of
wordless talk by a sister,” one newspaper article screamed.
Most tongue speakers talk about tongues as
a “gift” from God that can neither be forced nor controlled. Yet the act
involves learning and skill. It can also be easily faked. (If you say “I should
have bought a Hyundai” 10 times fast, you’ll have done just that, a pastor
taught me.)
At an American charismatic evangelical
church I studied, about a third of the congregants spoke in tongues
occasionally when praying alone. As one young man put it: “You run out of
things to pray for and you just need to pray, to let all these emotions run out
of your head. So you pray in tongues. I do that quite often.” The Pew Research
Center found that 18 percent of Americans spoke in tongues at least several
times a year.
What dawned on me in Accra is that
speaking in tongues might actually be a more effective way to pray than
speaking in ordinary language — if by prayer one means the mental technique of
detaching from the everyday world, and from everyday thought, to experience
God.
There are, broadly speaking, two kinds of
Christian prayer practice, beyond rote recitation. “Apophatic” prayer, which
looks a lot like meditation and mindfulness, asks one to still the mind and
disengage from thought. The classic example is the 14th century “Cloud of
Unknowing,” a monastic text whose anonymous author advised: “Thought cannot
comprehend God. And so, I prefer to abandon all I can know, choosing rather to
love him who I cannot know.”
In “kataphatic” prayer, one fills one’s
imagination with thoughts from Scripture. The classic example is the
16th-century spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who called
worshipers to see “with the eye of the imagination the road from Nazareth to
Bethlehem, considering how long it is and how wide, and whether it is level or
goes through valleys and over hills.” American evangelicals seeking
daydreamlike encounters with God are praying in this tradition.
The apophatic method is probably more
effective in shifting attention from the everyday, but harder to achieve. That
seems to be what the fifth-century monk Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite meant
when he described kataphatic prayer as a steppingstone for those who could not
pray in other ways. Many of us know people who have tried to meditate and
failed, defeated by thoughts that refused to stay put — what skilled
practitioners call “monkey mind.” In an experiment, I assigned participants for
one month to meditation, to imagination-rich prayer or to lectures on the
gospels. Many who meditated didn’t like it; those who did reported deep
spiritual experiences, like the expert meditators studied by the neurologist James H. Austin (“Zen and the Brain”) and other scientists.
As a technique, tongues capture the
attention but focus it on something meaningless (but understood by the speaker
to be divine). So it is like meditation — but without the monkey mind. And the
practice changes people. They report that as their prayer continues, they feel
increasingly more involved. They feel lighter, freer and better. The scientific
data suggest that tongue speakers enter a different mental state. The
neuroscientist Andrew B. Newberg and his colleagues took M.R.I. scans of
tongue speakers singing worship songs,
and then speaking in tongues. When they did the latter, they experienced less
blood flow to the frontal cerebral cortex. That is, their brain behaved as if
they were less in a normal decision-making state — consistent with the claim
that praying in tongues is not under conscious control..
Speaking in tongues still carries a
stigmatizing whiff. In his book “Thinking in Tongues,” the philosopher James K. A. Smith describes the “strange brew of academic alarm and
snobbery” that flickered across a colleague’s face when he admitted to being a
Pentecostal (and, therefore, praying in tongues). It seems time to move on from
such prejudice.
<img
src="http://meter-svc.nytimes.com/meter.gif">
T.
M. Luhrmann, a professor of anthropology at Stanford
and the author of “When God Talks Back: Understanding the American
Evangelical Relationship with God,” is a guest columnist.
CPP SAYS AMERICA
GOOFED
A deputy
communications director of the Conventions Peoples Party, Mr. Eric Asani Tano,
has expressed regret over the recent public statement from the American embassy
warning its citizens to be extremely careful as there could be potential
increase in political tensions and the possibility of isolated violence
associated with the anticipated Supreme Court verdict on the 29th August 2013.
Speaking on an
Accra based radio station, he said America goofed by choosing to circulate that
alarmist and highly insulting text, especially at a time when religious bodies,
Chiefs and Queens, civil society organisation and even the petitioners and
respondents of the 2012 election are visibly working to ensure peace after the
verdict.
He said if the
American embassy had any sense of responsibility and was not on a mischief
mission of causing fear and panic, they could have done better than throwing a
blood stained towel at the tail end in such a sensitive atmosphere. “If not
mischief, what prevented America from resorting to their data base and
circulating the information to their nationals only? If not for anything at
all, America could have issued a statement commending Ghana and adding its
voice to the chorus of peace songs”.
To Negotiate Nigeria
Book Title: Nigeria is Negotiable – Essays on Nigeria’s Tortuous Road to
Democracy and Nationhood
Author: Chido Onumah
Publishers: African Centre for Media
& Information Literacy, Abuja
Pages: 460
Date of Publication: July 2013
Reviewer:
Nnimmo Bassey
Chido Onumah
warns of the truth of this saying a few times in his book, Nigeria is
Negotiable: that when history repeats itself, and it happens quite often in
places where people do not learn from history, what takes place is a farcical
replay of tragedy.
It must be said
right away that this 460-page book is a work of passion and deep concern for
all who live in the geographical contours that define Nigeria. It is an unrelenting critique of the
political class as well as the deep display of disappointment that we keep
moving in circles without paying heed to the lessons that are thrown at us.
The critical
praise for the book, the foreword by Hafsat Abiola-Costello, the preface by
Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, the prologue by Anthony Akinola, the introduction by
Yakubu Aboki Ochefu and the author’s note speak volume about what the reader is
to expect from this collection of essays.
Divided into
five sections, four of which are prefaced by poems by Chiedu Ezeanah, the first
section deals with June 12 and the Democratic Alternative, the second
deals with Heroes and Villains while the third section is on Matters
Miscellaneous. The fourth section zeroes in on the subject of the book,
Nigeria
is Negotiable, while the last section looks at the next political games
and gives away the author’s lack of faith in the processes from its very title,
2015
and all that jazz.
Taking Nigeria
is Negotiable as just another compilation of articles will be
erroneous. Just like Chido Onumah displayed in his Time to Reclaim
Nigeria, this is a serious addition to the library of contemporary
Nigerian history. The good thing about this book is that whereas historians
crave the impression of being disinterested in their subjects, this tome does
not pretend to be an impartial analysis of our fetid political history. Nor
could any serious writer of fact or fiction afford that luxury except such a
writer is part of the cohort immersed in what Chido calls sick intellectualism.
Anyone who has
personally lived through the period of coverage of the articles that form this
book will find it a brutal reminder of the repeated cycles of rot that has
passed for politics over the last decades. Sections one and two are brutal
renditions of the patently sick era of direct military dictatorship in Nigeria
with the earliest article dated 1993. To appreciate and accurately understand
this book, the reader must step back and take in the larger picture of what
makes states and statesmen behave the way they do. Beyond the military
dictators Babangida, Abacha, Abubakar and Obasanjo (especially in his first
stint in the state house) we must of necessity see the systemic superstructure
that made their ascendancy and sustenance in power possible. That same system
has sustained the largely cash-and-carry politics that pervade Nigeria to this
day.
The book
chronicles and analyses the numbing realities that we have had to live through,
including the phantom coups, the utter disregard for human life manifested in
unresolved murders such as that of Dele Giwa, Chief Bola Ige and Chief Alfred
Rewane among others, as well as the convenient deaths of Shehu Yar'Adua and
M.K.O. Abiola. The murder of Alhaja Kudirat
Abiola is one of the most notorious smears on the history of
political/military leadership in Nigeria. And quite rightly, despite attempts
to sweep the dastardly murder under the carpet, the struggle for justice in
that regard goes on to this day. The book reminds us of the assault on human
rights activists and returns repeatedly to the murder of four Ogoni chiefs followed
by the brutal hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight Ogoni leaders. The manner in
which the Ogoni environment, the entire Niger Delta environment and the
environment of the entire nation has succumbed to the powers of multinational
companies and the corrupt and corrupting power of capital speaks volume.
This chronicle
of our sordid history should not make you merely cringe as you read, but angry
enough to stand up and demand answers to pertinent questions.
The title, Nigeria is Negotiable, shows the author’s
complete rejection of the notion that anything about the geographic expression
called Nigeria is set in concrete and cannot or must not be negotiated. We are
reminded that the Nation was cobbled together by the colonialists in 1914
without as much as a consultation of the various ethnic nations living in the
territory about whether and how they wish to live together and under what
system. The painful reality is that ever since then the political leaders have
pandered to the desires of the erstwhile colonial masters in subtle and in not
so subtle ways. Let us see an extract from Chapter 11 of Section 1:
Like Babangida, Abubakar and his
disciples who now serve as the overseers of this neo-colony called Nigeria, are
not perturbed by the economic crisis convulsing the nation. Their attempt at
democracy is nothing but a design to placate imperialism and maintain the
neocolonial state structure. While it took some years for Babangida to initiate
the transfer of the national economy to foreign control; the present
monstrosity, a grotesque mediocre by all standards, has vowed to undertake the
complete transfer of the Nigerian economy to his foreign backers before he
leaves office in May.
We make a link
in the next chapter where Chido writes that:
Not surprisingly, the international
community, led by the United States and Britain, who are clearly detached from
the Nigerian debacle and whose commitment is matched only by the amount of oil
available for sale, have become the cheerleaders of this theatre of the absurd
that Abubakar is directing; an absurdity that has the potential of consuming
the unstable theatre. There cannot be any meaningful electoral process in
Nigeria no matter the support of these vultures hovering over it. Western
leaders pressing for the lifting of sanctions or applauding Abubakar’s
transition must appreciate this feeling.
Note that,
"commitments matched only by the amount of oil available for sale."
You may replace the world “oil” with any other critical natural resource and
you will see the same “commitment.” This means that talks of democracy are the
hymns that are intoned at the altar of exploitation. Chido reminds us of the posturing of world
leaders including those of African and Nigerian extraction when it comes to
dancing to beats portending quaint transitions wired to have military despots
translate into civilian presidents. We give examples here:
When General
Abacha declared that the cap of the Nigerian presidency fitted only his head, a
leader like President Clinton of the USA said he wouldn’t mind if Abacha ran
for president provided he ran as a civilian. Kofi Annan, then General Secretary
of the United Nations called on Chief Abiola, four years in detention, to
denounce his mandate thus emboldening Abacha to cling on to power (page 115).
Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Commonwealth Secretary General declared that the
Commonwealth would accept any one of the Nigerian people elected (page 17).
Chido reminds us that when journalists asked Tony Blair, then Prime Minister of
Britain, if the Commonwealth would welcome Abacha as president he
retorted: “That was a hypothetical
question.”
On the local
scene there was no shortage of sycophantic politicians and intellectual
hangers-on falling over themselves in promoting the dark goggled “messiah.”
Even the youths were not left behind. Under the infamous Youth Earnestly Ask
for Abacha (YEAA) led by one Daniel Kanu, the cacophony spiraled. We are
reminded of the many costly jokes that were called transition programmes
including the several banning and unbanning of politicians who continued to
kowtow to their masters with no sense of shame.
General
Babangida’s place in the military history of Nigeria is assured. His play in
the political terrain including the engineering of two political parties, the
National Republican Convention (NRC), a little to the right and the Social
Democratic Party (SDP), a little to the left, left him firmly in the centre of
things. When the 1993 elections inexplicably broke religious cleavages with a
two-Muslim presidential ticket winning the election, the general stepped
forward to annul the results before eventually “stepping aside” from the seat
himself on account of the massive and persistent resistance of the general
public to that inglorious act.
Nigeria
is Negotiable contains loads of facts and analyses on the
sequence of events, the warning signals as well as the players whose acts of
national betrayal will not disappear from our memories and from records such as
the one in our hands today.
With reference
to general Abacha, Chido’s chronicle reminds us that
It was not for nothing that Abacha bore
the tag “Africa’s No1 outlaw”.
When he seized power on November 17,
1993, he promised a quick return to democratic rule; but that was not to be. In
the five years that he reigned, Nigeria witnessed an archetype of military
despotism which marks the period as the cruelest and most shameful period of
her national history.
This allusion to Abacha’s brutal rule is
not overdrawn; neither is the epithet that he was the most vicious and most
corrupt ruler in the history of Nigeria. Abacha mindlessly engraved his name on
the plaque of notorious dictators. Under Abacha, Nigeria became an absolute
police state. He declared war on every aspect of the nation without batting an
eyelid. The bestiality of his regime knew no frontiers. He unleashed wanton
viciousness and terror. The press was shackled and citizens jailed and
assassinated indiscriminately.
Abacha’s
vicious jackboot was lifted from the neck of Nigerians on 8 June 1998, when
perhaps by non-military exertions, the General succumbed to death. And another
army general took over and eventually handed over to another army general in agbada.
It had been a transition of marshal songs all the way.
Permit us to
state the obvious at this point - that Chido Onumah is a clear-headed analyst
with a firm popular ideological foundation. To add to that, he is a consummate
writer as evidenced by his writings and by this new book. You may not agree
with him, but you will not easily fault the premise upon which he builds his
arguments and draws his conclusions. What we are reviewing today is a shocking
collection of essays on shocking events and equally shocking actions of the
oppressors and often even the oppressed.
The flow of the
essays and the laying out of the Nigerian story is unrelentingly smooth. Until
you arrive at Chapters 27 in Section 2 where the author brings on a rather
abrupt injection of reflections on Dame Jonathan and the circle of manipulative
image-makers around her. And in chapter 28 we see a snapshot on matters around
Nuhu Ribadu former head of the EFCC.
Beyond these
and a few other interruptions, Chido dwells on the annoying assertion by some
politicians and commentators that Nigeria is not negotiable. Such claims, which
the author debunks, include the suggestion that the nation’s creation was
divinely orchestrated and thus should not be questioned. The essays in this
book expose such arguments and pleas as puerile and such as are promoted only
so as to secure the stranglehold on power of powerful interests, both local and
international, whose main dream and pursuits are the exploitation and bleeding
of the territory.
The book wraps
up on a very concrete note. It sees the planned centenary of the amalgamation
of the nation as wrong-headed and suggests that it should be a most “auspicious
moment to negotiate Nigeria.”
We agree that
there must be something basically wrong with a position that we should
celebrate the day we were forced into a union and have since then been
disallowed from even simply having a conversation about the nature, state,
purpose and future of such a union.
Some may wish
to dismiss Achebe’s assertion that Nigeria is not a great country but one of
the most disorderly, corrupt, insensitive and inefficient nations in the world
(see page 214). But if we take a sober look around us we should take caution
from the caustic comments of the sage. The disorderliness cuts across every
sphere – spatial, social, economic and very vitally political.
With these and
the deep reflections presented in this book we completely agree with Chido
Onumah that it is foolhardy for anyone to say that we cannot interrogate and
even negotiate Nigeria.
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