Is Mr. President Overwhelmed, Clueless?

by Eze Eluchie

With the Naira, the national currency crashing by the day;

The fuel supply situation attaining the status of unstable and unpredictable;

The terrorists now more emboldened and striking at will in our northern fringes;

Fulani herdsmen are continuing, unchecked, with their dastardly agenda for ethnic cleansing across our Middle Belt regions;

Yet, the 'elected' President is unable to either stem the slide to anarchy or even form a Government to address the crisis;

It has become pertinent, over 15 weeks after being declared as President-elect and 6 weeks since assumption of office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to inquire if indeed, General Muhammadu Buhari has any ideas as to how to stem the free fall of the Nigerian State!

Is there a ready remedy for the comatose state of governance in Nigeria?

Can a polity as diverse and complicated as ours survive prolongation of the present state?

Is Mr. President overwhelmed with the enormity of the situation?

Nigerians had expected so much, the reality we are faced with regarding a vacuum in governance is astonishing, to say the very least. It is hoped that the present regime will realize and appreciate the need to get started and frontally confront the damage done to the polity by the continuing failure to have a Government in place at the Federal Level with its full complement of Ministers and other political appointees.



Picture: President Muhammadu Buhari

The Greece Fiasco Exposes the Nigerian ‘Debt Cancellation/Forgiveness Hoax’

by Eze Eluchie

Nothing better exposes the fraud played out on Nigeria and Nigerians under the bogus claim of 'Debt Cancellation' or 'Debt forgiveness/Relief' supposedly accorded Nigeria by the London and Paris Clubs and other Bretton Woods institution under the rulership of Olusegun Obasanjo's and supervised under the watch of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Minister for Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, than the present impasse playing out between Greece and its creditor-countries and agencies, particularly the Trioka.

In one fell swoop in year 2005, Nigerians were informed that over US$18 Billion of debts Nigeria was purported to  owe such entities as the Paris Club, the London Club, the IMF et al were forgiven/cancelled on condition that in one fell swoop Nigeria pays the sum of over US$16 Billion. Most of the debts Nigeria was alleged to owe were actually spurious paper transactions domiciled outside the shores of Nigeria and the funds purported to have been loaned to Nigeria, in most cases, never left the vaults of foreign banks and the same ‘creditor institutions’.

A close look at the so-called 'Debt Cancellation' deal reveals it actually deepened our indebtedness and served to mortgage our future. Several States of the Nigerian Federation, who were accused of accumulating the debts that were purportedly cancelled/forgiven, denied ever receiving or soliciting for such debts in the first instance. No efforts were made for a comprehensive verification of these debts before Nigeria was forced to cough out the incredulous sum of over US $16 Billion to the creditor countries and ‘clubs’.

If it had been so easy to accord Nigeria a sweetheart 'Debt Cancellation' deal, why the difficulty in cancelling the debts owed by Greece to these same international financial institutions? Is it feasible that the Trioka and their Breton Woods accomplices would ‘love’ Nigeria far more than they love Greece? Is it possible that these creditor states and agencies would rather ‘save’ Nigerians from ‘economic collapse and not be bothered that Greece and the Greek people were going down?’ Methinks not!

Within a few years of the sweetheart debt cancellation/forgiveness deal, Nigeria was back to worse than where it was before the cancelation/forgiveness.

To believe that some Nigerians were made to hold celebratory Conferences and Seminars, while others danced on streets corners and parties held at official circles to celebrate the debt cancellation merely serves to concretize my description of our erstwhile Finance Minister, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala as a truly ‘mercurial’ character.

Soon after the sweetheart ‘debt cancellation/forgiveness’ deal, our one and only mercurial ex-Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was rewarded, for a job well done, with an appointment as Managing Director of the World Bank!!

Pictures: Greece Prime Minister and Foreign Minister: Alexis Tsiprars and Yanis Varoufakis and then Nigeria President and his Finance Minister: Olusegun Obasanjo and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

President Buhari’s First Act of Fiscal Irresponsibility.

by Eze Eluchie

The very first executive acts of President Muhammadu Buhari, ordering the release of Twenty One Million Dollars (US $21million) to the so-called Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a most amorphous entity unknown to Nigerian law and practice  and whose rules of accountability is unknown, is  in addition to constituting an act of fiscal irresponsibility and  rascality also an impeachable offense. Worse still, the US $21million is merely a part of the One Hundred Million Dollars (US $100million) which President Buhari pledged to give the so-called MNJTF.

A combined reading of the provisions of Sections 59, 81 and 82 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic makes it clear that the National Assembly has to legislate for any monies withdrawn by Mr. President from the National purse. As at the time when the US $21million-giveaway was effected, the 8th National Assembly was yet to be inaugurated. From where did Mr. President get the authorization to giveaway public funds to an entity unknown to our laws?

Is the MNJTF a drain pipe? Into whose pocket?

Was the pledge of US $100million to MNJTF reflected in any Federal Budget?

Was the US $21million giveaway accorded MNJTF ever approved by the Senate of the Federal Republic as stipulated in the Nigerian Constitution?

Whilst not calling for Mr. President to be impeached now, the Buhari regime must watch it! The President must, at all times be reminded that he is presiding over a supposedly democratic arrangement and not an autocratic era where he can wake up and do whatsoever he feels like with national resources. Such mannerisms, as displayed by the reckless throwing around of national funds, are the root causes of corruption and other vices which serve to undermine whatsoever efforts being made to pull our contraption out of the woods.

President Buhari, as part of the transitional processes, should be forgiven this time around, but such lapses must never occur again. The Legislative houses are enjoined to ensure that such lapses never occur again and that this present misadventure is corrected.



Picture: President Buhari clearly in need of learning fiscal practices of the presidential system