One of the examples of crippling poverty, persisting, is the Almajiri time bomb in Kano. Every night in Kano several million young people who roam the streets begging go to sleep with hardly any food in their bellies. They sleep on the streets and have no schooling, ensuring they would be unemployed and locked into the poverty trap. When they go from being 11 years old to being 31 years old, they will not opt to sleep hungry; they will make sure the rest of us do not sleep also. Part of the reason they may never find jobs is that the Bompai area, once a thriving industrial estate is today a graveyard of antiquated machines.

The main reason this collapse of Kano’s industrial strength is power failure. Power is so central to modern life, its economy, its pleasures and its social organization efficiencies that is unfathomable that the leadership in Nigeria in the last 15 years has not been able to reverse the downward spiral of the sector in spite of the availability of enormous cash flow from high crude oil prices. With each World Bank Group Private Sector Assessment report (PSA), and Doing Business Report (one was launched just last week) indicating Nigeria is one of the worst places to do business in the world and that the power situation is a big part of the problem you would imagine the leadership would approach the problem with great determination and sense of mission. Instead, the more we get promises that power failure will soon be ancient history the worse things become.

In my view, the problems of power are the problems of strategy, commitment, corruption, human capital and faulty project management. At the level of strategy it seems clearly that the emphasis on a centralized system focused on a National grid has been at the heart of the failure to make progress. This obsession seems to flow from the general departures from the principles of subsidiarity and federalism which were the pillars on which the founding fathers created the hope of the emergent new nation of Nigeria.

I have on several occasions had cause to encourage state Governors to promote the building of ring fenced 10-15 megawatt power plants with an off-grid licence. At modest costs of one million US dollars per megawatt they would lead Nigerians from darkness into light with only two towns in their states serviced by 10 megawatt plants. Many of them spend more than that on unnecessary travels.

It is centralized and more complex National grid based initiative that has highlighted the human capital challenge. The management flows that have characterized the process have been legendary as were highlighted by the Ndudi Elumelu House of Representatives probe panel’s work that revealed logistics and sequencing nightmares. The need for project management skills showed through as machinery for the power schemes were lying at the Ports for reasons such as the bridges on roads to their final destination being inadequate, to problems of sequencing with several contracted parties to the implementation not being well synchronized.

Then there is the almighty corruption. It certainly is more attractive for corruption to do huge centralized projects than to manage smaller plants. Yet Vietnam has quickly overcome post war challenges by building many of such plants. Even Brazil with many other options has so many of such plants.

As stakeholders professionals need to call both the people at the central and in the state to account for their stewardship on the power question in Open Town Hall Meetings such as this. Pressure must then be put on all for a regime of sanctions if SMART (Specific Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Tangible) goals proposed are not achieved. Of course we showed reward and celebrate those that achieve the goals. The resource gap often blamed for failure to reach goals does not hold here. Besides the resources wasted in governance are enough. Professionals ought to challenge the political class on the cost of governing in Nigeria. It should include being ready to get the NBA, ICAN, NMA, etc to mass up in front of the National Assembly until more resources go to the urgent national challenges rather than the pockets of legislators. Personally, I have been pushing for constitutional reforms that will abrogate the various full time legislatures we have in favour of part time citizen legislatures.

As we make savings from reform, an imperative given the waste of more money on power sector investments in Nigeria between 1999 – 2010 than Nigeria earned between 1960 – 1979 when the power situation was bearable, whether from targeted reduction of the cost of government or reduction in corruption in power sector project; we must ask how to most efficiently channel these scarce resources. Through the years I have suggested that national revenues be captured into three accounts. These are the distributable pool or FAAC account, a stabilization account and future fund.

The FAAC account should attract no more than 60% of Oil revenues up to an Oil price of 60 USD a barrel. Only this portion should be available routinely to the three tiers of government. Ten per cent of revenues should go into a stabilization fund while the rest go into a future fund. While the future fund should be invested abroad for future dividend yields to coming generations or in long term value infrastructure that will benefit many generations, it is, however, the stabilization fund I am particularly concerned about. It is essentially there to help manage income volatility so that if revenues fall below a benchmark, the account can be drawn from to augment the FAAC account.

This will help reduce the challenge of abandoned projects and the worst consequences of Dutch disease. But the stabilization Funds is of relevance in this discussion for how it can be deployed to ensure electricity is affordable by all. I hear already the call for appropriate pricing; I agree that if we do not pay the appropriate price investors will not enter the power sector. But I do not believe the poor should be penalised for years of political elite brigandage in the corruption of the power sector. We need a level of cross subsidisation of the poor by the rich and a system of further subsidiaries for the poor from the stabilization Fund.

With a quality NERC in place, the Commission should be able to do power what an Ernest Ndukwe NCC did for Telecommunications. One of the key roles will be managing a process where not only does Ikoyi pay more than the average to subsidise Mushin that should pay below the average line but direct drawings from stabilization Fund to power companies in respect of certain category of consumers will ensure the power companies earn enough to encourage further investment.

There are many more issues relating to the real commitment of the authorities, know-how and know-why and the independence of NERC that need to be discussed. Let us bear in mind as we engage those immortal words from Dante’s inferno that “The hottest part of hell is reserved for those who in a moral crisis take refuge in neutrality” we must go forward recognizing that we can make dry bones rise up and walk. Nigeria will rise up again. Together we can restore Nigeria.

Utomi warns that history would hold the progressive elements and leaders of the opposition in permanent contempt if they fail to rally and take advantage of the fact that PDP has become unelectable, as they now are largely a Poverty Distribution Party rather than a political party, even as their members in government are focused on themselves rather than the advancement of the common man and job creation as well as creating infrastructure to drive entrepreneurial opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid where the masses require empowerment to work their way out of poverty.

At the Island Club Business Luncheon, Utomi laments the cost of governance, saying that public service, instead of being sacrificial giving by an elite class desirous of a better future for their children, has become a parasitic enterprise in which Nigeria national budget is being sucked up for the personal well-being of politicians at the expense of infrastructure and conditions that would lead to job creation for the masses. He laments the portion of the national budget that is going to managing the National Assembly and state legislatures as well as the abusive spending on travels by both the state and national level of the executive arm. He calls on Nigerians to take back their country from the political-jobbers else they would have no country to turn to.

At the Ondo State briefing, Utomi calls on the progressives to rally around people like Governor Olusegun Mimiko so that the idea of servicing the grass-root would come alive. He reminded Nigerians that real progress in Nigeria has always been stimulated by sub-national governments. He recalls that it was Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Michael Okpara, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello brought industrialization to their rrespective regions. “Then,” he recalls, “sincere and conscious efforts by these regional governments at agricultural extension services to enlighten farmers at the grass-root made Nigeria a major exporter of cash crop produce.” But now, conversely, he laments, “all the state governments seem to be doing is go to Abuja cap in hand to collect their allocation from the Federation Account.” He says that as the levels of government closest to the people, the state and local government ought to carry a greater burden of making life more comfortable for the people, yet this role has been largely abdicated by many of the state governments controlled by the PDP. He urges social democrats to focus their mind on understanding that enterprise democracy, the culture of fair work and fair wages for work can best raise the dignity of the human person, as the answer to the nation’s problem.

“That is why the Social Democratic Mega Party, SDMP is building bridges to all opposition groupings,” Utomi informs his audience. He describes as “limited in understanding,” those political players who are focused on criss-crossing back and forth from one political party to other. “This,” he says, “is and indication of the state of health of their political standing.” Utomi informs his audience that in the few weeks behind, he has been in communication with every major opposition leaders and a significant number of people who are in the PDP but who find their political outlook at variance with the PDP philosophy. “Many of them are contemplating coming into the Mega Party.” He opines that shortly, this movement across the political spectrum into the ideals of social democrats would become evident across the country. He however notes that his major goal as the chairman of the Mega Party is to bring about a major surge of new actors into the political process, indicating that many professional people, teachers and grass-root leaders are being educated on the value of the social democratic movement and that this would form the surge that would form the backbone of the party rather than the traditional reliance on a few deep-pocketed big-wigs who can finance the rigging of elections. He therefore calls on President Goodluck Jonathan who had given many encouraging signals that would enshrine his name in history, to live up to his promise in conducting a truly free and fair election. He pointed out that Ghana is so much more highly regarded than Nigeria in the comity of nations because twice now in their electoral cycle, a sitting president has presided over the loss of election by the ruling party to the opposition and they have not tried to manipulate the election process by their power of incumbency. “In these elections, the wishes of the electorates have prevailed,” he notes. “Until Nigeria could get there, we would remain the laughing stock of the world,” he concludes.

Elaborating, Utomi said, “We all agreed that Nigeria needs a change, but this change would not come about through the politicians.” He explained that because the politicians are benefiting from the state of affair, so they would be unwilling to change what is clearly benefiting them. Citing history, he remarked that “some 500 years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli, the Italian political philosopher in his book, The Prince, said that nothing is more difficult to bring about like the changing of the status quo. This is because those who profit from the old order would do everything to prevent the new order from coming about.” This anticipated change, he said, would have to come from ordinary Nigerians. “The people need to take back their country. People ask if there can be a free and fair election. My response is ‘if the people desire such an election, then they can make it happen. We have examples of places where people have said; “We will not accept,” “Enough is enough,” and the will of the people prevailed. We saw it happen in kano with the present governor in 2003. Shekarau was just a permanent secretary, persecuted and demoted by the then Governor Kwankwaso to a school teacher. The people rallied around him and he became the ANPP’s gubernatorial candidate. And the PDP of course was determined to rig the election but the young people of Kano manned the whole process. From the moment the INEC personnel arrived with the voting materials, these young men policed everywhere leaving riggers no room for maneuvering. In fact, the ultimate story told of the INEC commissioner there was after they were offered $1 million in cash. Of course, they looked at the money, they liked the money, but they knew that if they touch the money, they were going to end up dead. So, they said, “This money is not worth our lives.” That was how Kwankwaso was defeated in Kano. We saw it happened in Bauchi, to some extent, we saw it happen in Lagos. So, the people, if they want change can make it happen,” he concluded.

Once again God bless Nigeria.

PU

He particularly upbraided the PDP governors over their frequent trip to Abuja to peddle influence and waste their state meager resources.

His words: “The chief culprits of these unacceptable conducts are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors whom every well meaning Nigerian must join hands with the youths to vote out of the office in the 2011 elections.”

Utomi submitted that the youths were in the best position to effect a positive change in the country, stressing that they must constrain their leaders to sit down in their offices and develop strategic plans to improve their states and the living standard of those they govern.

Dignitaries at the event included former Heads of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Gen Muhammudu Buhari, who were represented by Ambassador Moses Ihonde and Aghanya Dennis in that order, Imo State Commissioner for Special duties, Dr. Kelechukwu Okpaleke, who represented Governor Ikedi Ohakim; Prof. Greene Nwankwo; famous musician, Onyeka Onwuenu; and rights activist, Barrister Mike Igini.

Utomi said stressed: “Nigerian youths are not leaders of tomorrow but that of today. They are more educated, and more exposed than those who took over the control of the country 30 years age and still hang on to it, they have energy, time and can take risks.”

Speaking on the appropriateness of the event’s theme, Utomi said: “The knowledge of our heroes past is diminishing because we no longer teach history in schools. The simplicity of power and the connectivity to the people is almost lost to the youths of this generation.

“When Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Mike Okpara, and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello chose Ikeja, Aba, and Kaduna respectively as hubs of industrialisation in the country, they were not selfish but were in competition to bring development and progress to the people.”

Gen Gowon also said that he found the theme of the conference stimulating. According to him, “the labour of our heroes past presupposes a plan to leverage the good works of the past leaders to chart a new direction for our country. What it means is that today’s youth needs to gain direction from the experience of the old, as the young cannot do it alone.”

The key issue, the former Head of State added, is that the youth must be given a chance to act and perform.

He stated: “I got that chance because God made it possible for me to be Head of State and Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at age 31 going to 32, and I invited experienced public service officers and politicians to join me in the running of the government of the country.”

In a statement presented by Ihonde on behalf of Gen. Buhari, the former Head of State argued that care must be taken when celebrating the nation’s past heroes.

According to him, “our country today is passing through great challenges and most of the problems were as a result of the contribution of our past heroes. Nigeria is a country that we should be very proud of, but today, it has not been easy. This boils down to the integrity of our past leaders and that is why we must be very careful of the leaders we choose in 2011 general elections.

On his part, Ohakim said: “I vowed that I will not accept or regard our youths as wasted generation. To accept that is to condemn our future. I prefer to always embrace them with love.”

On the event’s theme, Ohakim said: “For me, it is not a question whether we have allowed the labour of our leaders past to be in vain which is contrary to our national anthem. But if we cannot maintain true federalism in today’s Nigeria which was won for us by our heroes past in 1952, then what they fought for is almost in vain.

“It is within the ability of youths of Nigerian and Igbo land to help to enthrone genuine democracy and true federalism in Nigeria. It is within the power of the Nigerian youths to arrest election rigging in Nigeria. All they need to do is to carefully identify and partner with those who are trying to change the old embarrassing order by changing the quasi-federalist Constitution of 1999 as our heroes in the pat changed the Macpherson Constitution in 1954.”

We therefore urge the gladiators in the PDP to recognize that they have a duty to the Nigerian people to clean their Augean stable without disrupting the lives of the law abiding citizens of this country. We however believe that because the PDP has held public for the last 10 years, the public is entitled to a full disclosure of the level of abuse that has been going on in that party using public resources during the past ten years.

Fortunately for us, general election is around the corner. And the legitimate instrument that all democratic people have used to deal with such loss of confidence and abuse of public trust is to vote out the offending party. I therefore urge all democratic people of Nigeria to hold firmly to the democratic ideals of this country, empower themselves by massively registering to vote and voting when the time comes to completely throw out those who have abused our national trust. Let us bring in a whole new generation of more serious-minded people, committed to public service and the advancement of public good over self-serving schemes that has characterized the PDP era.

In addition, I would bring to the notice of Nigerians with the heart of radically changing this nation, the importance of defending their votes. The sole reason that the PDP’s hegemony has come to be established is that the votes of Nigerians have not counted for a long time. Everybody should be prepared to protect their votes and to ensure that their votes count.

I also want to seize this opportunity to call on the Nigerian people to see this as a season for fundamental renewal and rejection of self-serving politics by inviting people of accomplishment and integrity to come forward and participate in the process. We very wholeheartedly welcome to the various offices of the SDP Mega Party, professional people, honest, hardworking Nigerians, who have never thought of participating in politics to register. One of our goals is to ensure that all local government areas would be manned by well-exposed people, especially from the ranks of retiring senior civil servants, retiring military officers, high court judges and academics. So, we welcome people of these cadres to visit shortly our website and download registration form to become members of the Social Democratic Mega Party and then to seek public office on the platform of that party so that we can completely renew our country in the face of the total failure of the PDP to account to the Nigerian people for the mandate that they have hijacked this last decade.

It is unacceptable that our country has fallen so far behind so many other countries not similarly endowed just because of bad leadership of one political party. Albert Einstein has reminded us that to continue to do the same thing and expect different result is a clear definition of insanity. Nigerians know that they are not insane, and so, they will not want this same people who are wrangling in the PDP to continue to offer leadership to the country. This is why we welcome a broad spectrum of Nigerian people to become part of the SDP Mega Party revolution that would relieve Nigerians of an undisciplined political grouping like the PDP and enthrone public service with an eye for a place in history at the core of the political process.

Pat Utomi

Protem Chairman of the Social Democratic Mega Party, SDP.

While a presidential ‘aspirant’ recently said that Nigerian youths are not capable of leading Nigeria, we present to you a message of hope, renewal and possibilities by the man known simply as Nuhu Ribadu. The child crying in the background represents the cries of Nigeria’s youth who have suffered under the jackboots of leaders who have become so rich while the country became poor under their watch and are now so out of tune with the rest of Nigeria’s society that they have deemed Nigerian youths as uneducated failures. The youth of Nigeria who built Nollywood from the scratch into the third largest movie industry in the world and who make the best grades in the best universities in the world are certainly more than capable of leading Nigeria. Enjoy!

Once again, God bless Nigeria. PU

You were part of those that mobilised Nigerians to that “Enough is Enough” protest march over uncertainty surrounding president Umaru Yar’Adua’s health .How do you react to the politicization of his health issue ?

Well, I think that to talk about challenges we have been having on and on for more than twenty years, is the absence of functional institutions that hold the country. It is not about how many oil wells an individual has or about what goes into his or bank account. The state of the nation is in the institutions in the country.
Importantly , is the mythology of what is shared by all that then drives people to act in a particular manner. Exactly for Nigeria a lot in our recent history, the last 30 years particularly, a lot has led to a breakdown of both our institutions and the mythology of nationhood, leaving an environment where arbitrariness pervades our politics.

What it means is that progress will continue to elude us until we overcome these problems. But what is going on in the last few weeks regarding presidency is really the ultimate manifestation of the nature of the patrimonial state, where merit does not matter, law does not matter, it does not matter that we say rule of law, we really know that laws does not matter.

Prof. Pat Utomi
What matters is power, how you can get it and use it to dispense favours. This nature of patrimonous state has driven people into acts of desperation on matters of routine that we should have had no difficulty with. That has left us in this awkward situation. When this crisis started, I thought to myself, what is the big deal about the president being away and his vice president acting for him.

If I worked for Shell or UAC, and it just happened as a matter of course, because there are shared goals that we are pursuing and additional goals are clear. But we in political parties really does not have share goals, they don’t believe in the same thing, it is just a contraption for people to go and seek power, then you have the kind of crisis that we have. This crisis is a failure of the political party system, and a personalization of the state in Africa.

These are really heart of the nature of the patrimonial state, a personalization for material favour so it is not where is Nigeria going? What are the problems? I am more worried about the almajiri situation in Kano and I find that most of the people who are supposed to be in power, they don’t even think of it at all, and that is a time bomb that is waiting to blow in our face, that we have several million young people who don’t go to school, who beg for a living and pass on what they get to some teachers. If they are hungry they just go to sleep because they are children . In 10-15 years from now and they would become adults, those kids, unable to cope with life and they are in a society where they are looking at some people driving around with four wheel drive.

That is what we are doing in Nigeria right now and it is a dangerous time bomb. Instead of dealing with those problems we are consumed over whether or not somebody is acting for another person, whether he is or not ill?

It is irresponsibility to function like this, the Nigerian elite is irresponsible that is why we are dealing with these kinds of issues, rather than focusing on the burning issues that are time bombs before us. We are struggling to contain the Niger Delta, 10 years ago we were telling them that this Niger Delta would be like this, everybody ignored it; then you could award contract, they could get money they could share. Suddenly, all we predicted 15, 10 years ago happened. So, we have an amnesty programme, we are running from one end to another .

I am saying that just the way I predicted the Niger Delta years ago and it became a reality, so have I predicted the Almajiri situation as the next time bomb blowing Nigeria up and if our irresponsible politicians don’t realize that this is what they should be facing, rather than who grabs power, then really should something happen, we should call them to give account.

The issue of acquisition of power and dispensation of patronage appear to be central to what we have today in Aso Rock. W here will it take this country to if the Federal Executive Council doesn’t say we have had enough of this?

This people should ask themselves where they would take this money to, anyway. Few moments and bang its all over, that reminds me of the story of a mad man whom people did not think he had any sense until his very rich brother died. He came to the house where they were digging the grave. He asked them, ‘how can you be digging such a small grave for my brother? Do you know what he has, you have to dig a much bigger grave because you have to put all that he had on the ground, and everybody laughed. This obsession in Nigeria for material acquisition is for people who are of such low culture, who don’t even know how to enjoy money; it is a tragedy. But that is just part one of it. The most substantive issue is that it is not sustainable.

This patrimonial state arrangement is not sustainable, because it is only going to take us down the road to Somalia. It is only a matter of time before the whole thing come crashing down. Unless politics can be about serving the people so that we reduce poverty, we create conditions of life that, essentially provides opportunity for all, this place is going to come crashing down like a pack of cards in a very a short time.

People say Nigerians are docile, I think that they are foolish when they say that because they have not studied history. It takes the smallest of things to get this otherwise docile people to rise and be moved. We all remember the story of Louis XIV, the wife could not understand why they were rioting because there was no bread. She said, “Ah, give them cake now”. And even closer home are much better example.

Again there is a sad thing that comes from the fact that we don’t have a reading culture. This nonsense we are going through in Nigeria was foretold by an American called Robert Capland in a book entitled: The Coming Anarchy, looking at West Africa. And he opened this book with the story of Sierra Leone. He talks about this minister in Sierra Leone.

The setting is on this country called Zinsun where he had these poor relatives. He kept them, fed them, help them. And then, one day this uprising started and these men came, the young people that we thought that “we fed them, raised them and thought that we did a favour led others to come and cut off our hands and our feet.

We thought we were doing them a favour but we did not realize that they resented us all along” and what simply happened in Sierra Leon was finally, as I like to quote “a revenge of the poor”. Nigeria will see a revenge of the poor of cataclysmic proportions if the idea of politics is not turned around to be the service of the common good that raises the quality of life of everybody. Then all these things you have accumulated whether abroad or at home would become meaningless because those Sierra Leonean politicians who were busy accumulating ended up in refugee camps if they had their arms and legs intact.

You talked about the collapse of the patrimonial state. Now the National Intelligence Committee in the United States about 7 years ago predicted that by 2015 Nigeria would fail completely as a state and would come down to this Somalia that you talked about, and yet we are walking towards it?

(Cuts in) Absolutely, that is why I say Nigeria elite is an unthinking elite. When the report was, actually about 7 years ago, published, I listened to the Senate abusing the Americans. I said to myself, how can God allow people who don’t think to come together and say they are ruling the country? Because the first thing to say is what is the interest of the Americans in saying Nigeria would fail?

It is of no strategic value to them if Nigeria fails. It is just an objective assessment by independent thinkers whether we like it or not. Whether they are right or wrong, it is their view, which they expressed about some trends they see. They are very smart people but they can also be wrong. What happens is that when you see that kind of view you all come together and say my goodness what are we doing? Well I can tell you that a subsequent report was published last year, and this report is Global Trends.

Every 5 years they release such report. Before these reports are released to tell you that it is not some careless thing that U.S continues to put out; before the publication, think tanks around the world are given an advance draft; to reflect on it and give them feedback before they publish their final copy. The successive report to this one we are talking about, came out last year.

I had the good fortune of being invited by the Swedish Think Tank, Cypril to the discussion, before it was published. By the time the next report came out, Nigeria had been ignored completely, because technically, people are moving past Nigeria as being of little strategic value. Few years ago, Nigeria was thought of as significant strategic value. Today, Nigeria is thought of only as a nuisance value. The possibility that if the anarchy comes as Capland predicted, the refugee consequences from Nigeria going down the road to Somalia would be a major burden on the global community. That is the way Nigeria is talked of today,
not in terms of its strategic significance, because we have an unthinking elite that have held on to power for some time in Nigeria.

We have concentrated so much on the ill health of President Umaru Yar’ Adua to the extent that critical issues as the electoral reforms, constitutional review have been kept aside and here we are preparing for elections 2011, are we likely to have a credible and smooth elections come 2011?

Well, since form is always important to us over substance, as 2011 date is fast approaching we are going to put together something. Something will happen, whether it is what will get Nigerians out of this mess we are in? I think that it is left to you or for God and seers. Right now, I don’t really see any significant work being done on these issues.

Well, reforms? Ownership of the process by the people, is even more important than change in laws because it is the people who can stop rigging. It is the people who can ensure that the process is correct, until the people begin to believe those they elected are in power, government will not be effective in Nigeria; legitimacy crisis will continue, and you need legitimacy for policy implementation to be effective.

That is a problem, because we don’t think through these things enough and those who think through them are said to speak grammar, you know; there is a very distinct anti-intellectual culture that the military has foisted on Nigeria, and we have accept
ed it. When people think they say, ha, ha, grammar, eventually all those things people who think said come to happen. So, I do hope that we realize that where we are going is not a salutary location. I hope that God will help us.

In one of your public presentations you talked about the Alaska options in the management of oil resources. The government of Yar’Adua has proposed 10% as a community equity fund and today we have the amnesty Programme floundering. Do you think the 10% community equity is what the Niger Delta community requires for development and peace?

I think it is a beginning, it is a starting point. Left to me we should deal with oil the way Texas deals with oil; if we find the thing in your land, it belongs to you and government will tax you appropriately. It always leads back to what you call the Alaska option which is not just Alaska but states like Alvata in Canada, Cowberry. If you go to Cowberry you will know that cheques are mailed out to citizens from excess revenues from oil and all of that.

That thesis don’t want to claim any ownership of it, that thesis offered in most aggressive and pejorative context by two economists from Colombia. There was a Spanish , a guy of Indian origin called Sala-I-Martin Javier. Sala-1-Martin Javier and Subramanian, in a very famous paper for the IMF years ago described Nigeria as “metaphor par excellence of a failed development experience”.

And in that paper they suggested that Nigeria would even profit more from just collecting oil receipts and signing the full amounts as cheques to individual citizens and posting it to them because the government of Nigeria is so basically incompetent that Nigerians would be better served by doing that. There have been modifications obviously of that thesis in the Alaska option type and all of that.

There is a guy called Martin Sanbull, Martin is Norwegian, who has a modification of that which talks about the endowment effect that if every year Nigerians all get a cheque whether it is one dollar or 10 dollar in the mails, this is your share of oil money.

However we have kept back 99% of it as tax, People would say oh, so this is the money I would have gotten that is kept back as tax, then they will ask how the money is used, right now because nobody is paying attention politicians are running all over the place doing all kinds of things with the resources and people are suffering mostly.

We commiserate with the family, friends and colleagues of our departed justice and pray that God would give you the fortitude to bear the painful loss. Our hearts are with you at this passing and we also pray that at those moments when you would turn around to access the support of a father, husband, brother and colleague, Providence would come to your aid.

Once again, God bless Nigeria.

PU