DEMOCRACY DAY SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, THE ACTING PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

DEMOCRACY DAY SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, THE ACTING PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, COMMEMORATING THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE BUHARI ADMINISTRATION, MAY 29, 2017

Dear Nigerians, I bring you good wishes from President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, who as we all know is away from the country on medical vacation.

Today marks the second anniversary of our assumption of office. We must thank the Almighty God not only for preserving our lives to celebrate this second anniversary, but for giving us hope, strength and confidence as we faced the challenges of the past two years.

Our administration outlined three specific areas for our immediate intervention on assumption of office: these were Security, Corruption and the Economy. 

In the Northeast of our country, the terrorist group Boko Haram openly challenged the sovereignty and continued existence of the state, killing, maiming,and abducting, causing the displacement of the largest number of our citizens in recent history. Beyond the North East they extended their mindless killings, as far away as Abuja, Kano And Kaduna.

But with new leadership and renewed confidence our gallant military immediately began to put Boko Haram on the back foot. We have restored broken-down relations with our neighbours, Chad, Cameroon and Niger – allies without whom the war against terror would have been extremely difficult to win. We have re-organized and equipped our Armed Forces, and inspired them to heroic feats; we have also revitalized the regional Multinational Joint Task Force, by providing the required funding and leadership.

The positive results are clear for all to see. In the last two years close to one million displaced persons have returned home. 106 of our daughters from Chibok have regained their freedom, after more than two years in captivity, in addition to the thousands of other captives who have since tasted freedom.

Schools, hospitals and businesses are springing back to life across the Northeast, especially in Borno State, the epicentre of the crisis. Farmers are returning to the farms from which they fled in the wake of Boko Haram. Finally, our people are getting a chance to begin the urgent task of rebuilding their lives.

Across the country, in the Niger Delta, and in parts of the North Central region, we are engaging with local communities, to understand their grievances, and to create solutions that respond to these grievances adequately and enduringly.

President Buhari’s New Vision for the Niger Delta is a comprehensive peace, security and development plan that will ensure that the people benefit fully from the wealth of the region, and we have seen to it that it is the product of deep and extensive consultations, and that it has now moved from idea to execution. Included in that New Vision is the long-overdue environmental clean-up of the Niger Delta beginning with Ogoni-land, which we launched last year.

More recent threats to security such as the herdsmen clashes with farmers in many parts of the country sometimes leading to fatalities and loss of livelihoods and property have also preoccupied our security structures. We are working with State governments, and tasking our security agencies with designing effective strategies and interventions that will bring this menace to an end. We are determined to ensure that anyone who uses violence, or carries arms without legal authority is apprehended and sanctioned.

In the fight against corruption, we have focused on bringing persons accused of corruption to justice. We believe that the looting of public resources that took place in the past few years has to be accounted for. Funds appropriated to build roads, railway lines, and power plants, and to equip the military, that had been stolen or diverted into private pockets, must be retrieved and the culprits brought to justice. Many have said that the process is slow, and that is true, corruption has fought back with tremendous resources and our system of administration of justice has been quite slow. But the good news for justice is that our law does not recognize a time bar for the prosecution of corruption and other crimes, and we will not relent in our efforts to apprehend and bring corruption suspects to justice. We are also re-equipping our prosecution teams, and part of the expected judicial reforms is to dedicate some specific courts to the trial of corruption cases.

We are also institutionalizing safeguards and deterrents. We have expanded the coverage of the Treasury Single Account (TSA). We have introduced more efficient accounting and budgeting systems across the Federal Government. We have also launched an extremely successful Whistleblower Policy.

The Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance has succeeded in plugging leakages amounting to billions of naira, over the last two years. We have ended expensive and much-abused fertilizer and petrol subsidy regimes.

We have taken very seriously our promise to save and invest for the future, even against the backdrop of our revenue challenges, and we have in the last two years added US$500m to our Sovereign Wealth Fund and US$87m to the Excess Crude Account. This is the very opposite of the situation before now, when rising oil prices failed to translate to rising levels of savings and investment.

Admittedly, the economy has proven to be the biggest challenge of all. Let me first express just how concerned we have been, since this administration took office, about the impact of the economic difficulties on our citizens. 

Through no fault of theirs, some companies shut down their operations, others downsized; people lost jobs, had to endure rising food prices. In some States civil servants worked months on end without the guarantee of a salary, even as rents and school fees and other expenses continued to show up like clockwork.

We have been extremely mindful of the many sacrifices that you have had to make over the last few years. And for this reason this administration’s work on the economic front has been targeted at a combination of short-term interventions to cushion the pain, as well as medium to long term efforts aimed at rebuilding an economy that is no longer helplessly dependent on the price of crude oil. 

Those short-term interventions include putting together a series of bailout packages for our State Governments, to enable them bridge their salary shortfalls – an issue the President has consistently expressed his concerns about. We also began the hard work of laying out a framework for our Social Intervention Programme, the most ambitious in the history of the country.

One of the first tasks of the Cabinet and the Economic Management Team was to put together a Strategic Implementation Plan for the 2016 budget, targeting initiatives that would create speedy yet lasting impact on the lives of Nigerians.

Indeed, much of 2016 was spent clearing the mess we inherited and putting the building blocks together for the future of our dreams; laying a solid foundation for the kind of future that you deserve as citizens of Nigeria.

In his Budget Presentation Speech to the National Assembly last December, President Buhari outlined our Economic Agenda in detail, and assured that 2017 -would be the year in which you would begin to see tangible benefits of all the planning and preparation work. It is my pleasure to note that in the five months since he delivered that speech, we have seen tremendous progress, as promised.

Take the example of our Social Investment Programme, which kicked off at the end of 2016. Its Home Grown School Feeding component is now feeding more than 1 million primary school children across seven states and would be feeding three million by the end of the year. N-Power, another component has engaged 200,000 unemployed graduates – none of whom needed any ‘connections’ to be selected. Beneficiaries are already telling the stories of how these initiatives have given them a fresh start in their lives. 

Micro credit to a million artisans, traders and market men and women has begun. While conditional cash transfers to eventually reach a million of the poorest and most vulnerable households has also begun.

Road and power projects are ongoing in every part of the country. In rail, we are making progress with our plans to attract hundreds of millions of dollars in investment to upgrade the existing 3,500km narrow-gauge network. We have also in 2017 flagged-off construction work on the Lagos-Ibadan leg of our standard-gauge network, and are close to completing the first phase of Abuja’s Mass Transit Rail System.

In that Budget speech in December, the President announced the take-off of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative. Today, five months on, that Initiative – the product of an unprecedented bilateral cooperation with the Government of Morocco – has resulted in the revitalisation of 11 blending plants across the country, the creation of 50,000 direct and indirect jobs so far, and in the production of 300,000 metric tonnes of NPK fertilizer, which is being sold to farmers at prices significantly lower than what they paid last year. By the end of 2017, that Fertilizer Initiative would have led to foreign exchange savings of US$200 million; and subsidy savings of 60 billion naira.

The Initiative is building on the solid gains of the Anchor Borrowers Programme, launched in 2015 to support our rice and wheat farmers, as part of our move towards guaranteeing food security for Nigeria.

All of this is evidence that we are taking very seriously our ambition of agricultural self-sufficiency. I am delighted to note that since 2015 our imports of rice have dropped by 90 percent, while domestic production has almost tripled. Our goal is to produce enough rice to meet local demand by 2019.

In April, the President launched our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan which built on the foundations laid by the Strategic implementation Plan of 2016. The plan has set forth a clear vision for the economic development of Nigeria. I will come back to this point presently.

Another highlight of the President’s Budget Speech was our work around the Ease of Doing Business reforms. As promised we have since followed up with implementation and execution. I am pleased to note that we are now seeing verifiable progress across several areas, ranging from new Visa on Arrival scheme, to reforms at our ports and regulatory agencies.

The President also promised that 2017 would see the rollout of Executive Orders to facilitate government approvals, support procurement of locally made goods, and improve fiscal responsibility. We have kept that promise. This month we issued three Executive Orders to make it easier for citizens to get the permits and licenses they require for their businesses, to mandate Government agencies to spend more of their budgets on locally produced goods, and to promote budget transparency and efficiency. The overarching idea is to make Government Agencies and Government budgets work more efficiently for the people.

The impact of our Ease of Doing Business work is gradually being felt by businesses small and large; its successful take-off has allowed us to follow up with the MSME Clinics -our Small Business support programme, which has taken us so far to Aba, Sokoto, Jos, Katsina, and we expect to be in all other states in due course.

Let me note, at this point, that several of our Initiatives are targeted at our young people, who make up most of our population. From N-Power, to the Technology Hubs being developed nationwide, to innovation competitions such as the Aso Villa Demo Day, and our various MSME support schemes, we will do everything to nurture the immense innovative and entrepreneurial potential of our young people. We are a nation of young people, and we will ensure that our policies and programmes reflect this.

One of the highlights of our Power Sector Recovery Programme, which we launched in March, is a N701 billion Naira Payment Assurance Scheme that will resolve the financing bottlenecks that have until now constrained the operations of our gas suppliers and generation companies. Let me assure that you will soon begin to see the positive impact of these steps.

Our Solid Minerals Development Fund has also now taken off, in line with our commitment to developing the sector. Because of our unerring focus on Solid Minerals development over the last two years, the sector has, alongside Agriculture, seen impressive levels of growth – in spite of the recession.

On the whole, just as the President promised in the Budget Speech, these early months of 2017 have seen the flowering of the early fruit of all the hard work of our first eighteen months.

We opened the year with an overwhelmingly successful Eurobond Offer – evidence of continuing investor interest in Nigeria. We have also launched the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020, to build on the gains of last year’s Strategic Implementation Plan. And the implementation of our 2017 Budget, which will soon be signed into law, will bring added impetus to our ongoing economic recovery. In the 2016 Budget we spent 1.2 Trillion Naira on infrastructure projects, another milestone in the history of this country. Our 2017 Budget will double that investment.

That budget also provides for substantial investment to implement the rollout of Industrial Parks and Special Economic Zones (SEZs), as well as our Social Housing Programme. The Industrial Parks and Economic Zones will fulfill our ambition of making Nigeria a manufacturing hub, while the Family Home Fund of our Social Housing Programme will provide inexpensive mortgages for low-income individuals and families across the country.

These plans offer yet more evidence that we are ramping up the pace of work; the work of fulfilling all that we promised. In the next two years we will build on the successes of the last two. We have demonstrated a willingness to learn from our mistakes and to improve on our successes. The critical points that we must address fully in the next two years are : Agriculture and food security, Energy, (power and Petroleum,) Industrialization and Transport infrastructure. Every step of the way we will be working with the private sector, giving them the necessary incentives and creating an environment to invest and do business.

Our vision is for a country that grows what it eats and produces what it consumes. It is for a country that no longer has to import petroleum products, and develops a lucrative petrochemical industry. Very importantly it is for a country whose fortunes are no longer tied to the price of a barrel of crude, but instead to the boundless talent and energy of its people, young and old, male and female as they invest in diverse areas of the economy. 

And that vision is also for a country where the wealth of the many will no longer be stolen by or reserved for a few; and where the impunity of corruption – whether in the public or private sectors – will no longer be standard operating practice; a land rid of bandits and terrorists.

As citizens you all deserve a country that works, not merely for the rich or connected, but for everyone. And our promise to you is that we will, with your support and cooperation, take every step needed to create that country of our dreams.

We also know that this journey will of necessity take time. But we will not succumb to the temptation to take short-cuts that ultimately complicate the journey. We did not find ourselves in crises overnight, and we simply do not expect overnight solutions to our challenges.

The most important thing is that we are on the right path, and we will not deviate from it, even in the face of strong temptation to choose temporary gain over long-term benefit. As the President has summed it up: “The old Nigeria is slowly but surely disappearing, and a new era is rising.”

And so we commemorate this second anniversary of our administration with confidence and optimism. I firmly believe that we have put the most difficult phase behind us; and we are witnesses to the ever-increasing intensity of the light at the end of the tunnel. We ask for your continued cooperation and support, to enable us realise all our best intentions and ambitions for Nigeria. On our part We will continue to carry you along on this journey, speak to you, explain the challenges, and share our Vision.

And while we all daily pre-occupy ourselves with pursuing the Nigerian Dream – which is the desire to better our lives and circumstances vigorously and honestly – it is inevitable that grievances and frustrations will arise from time to time.

This is normal. What is not normal, or acceptable, is employing these frustrations as justification for indulging in discrimination or hate speech or hateful conduct of any kind, or for seeking to undermine by violent or other illegal means the very existence of the sovereign entity that has brought us all together as brothers and sisters and citizens.

Nigeria belongs to all of us. No one person or group of persons is more important or more entitled than the other in this space that we all call home. And we have a responsibility to live in peace and harmony with one another, to seek peaceful and constitutional means of expressing our wishes and desires, and to resist all who might seek to sow confusion and hatred for their own selfish interests.

Before I end this speech, let me ask for your continued prayers for the restoration to full health and strength and the safe return of our President.

I congratulate all of you on today’s commemoration of this important day in the democratic calendar our country. Nigeria is on a journey of greatness, and together we shall arrive at the destination of our dreams.

May God bless you all, and bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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50 Years After Biafra Colloquium - Ag. President's Speech

WE ARE GREATER TOGETHER THAN APART: BIAFRA: 50 YEARS AFTER

Introspection is probably what separates us from beasts. That ability to learn from history is perhaps the greatest defense from the avoidable pain of learning from experience, when history is a much gentler and kinder teacher. Indeed, the saying experience is the best teacher, is incomplete, the full statement of that Welsh adage is that experience is the best teacher for a fool. History is a kinder and gentler teacher.

I was ten years old when my friend in primary school then, Emeka, left school one afternoon. He said his parents said they had to go back to East, war was about to start. I never saw Emeka again. My aunty Bunmi was married to a gentleman from Enugu, I cannot recall his name. But I recall the evening when my parents tried to persuade her and her husband not to leave for the East. She did, we never saw her again.

I recall distinctly how in 1967, passing in front of my home on Ikorodu road almost every hour were trucks carrying passengers and furniture in an endless stream heading east. Many Ibos who left various parts of Nigeria, left friends, families and businesses, schools and jobs. Like my friend and aunty some never returned! But many died. The reasons for this tragic separation of brothers and sisters were deep and profound. So much has been said and written already about the ``why’s and wherefores’’ and that analyses will probably never end.

This is why I would rather not spend this few minutes on whether there was or was not sufficient justification for secession and the war that followed. The issue is whether the terrible suffering, massive loss of lives, of hopes and fortunes of so many can ever be justified.

As we reflect on this event today, we must ask ourselves the same question that many who have fought or been victims in civil wars, wars between brothers and sisters ask in moments of reflection….``what if we had spent all the resources, time and sacrifice we put into the war, into trying to forge unity? What if we had decided not to seek to avenge a wrong done to us? What if we had chosen to overcome evil with good?’’

The truth is that the spilling of blood in dispute is hardly ever worth the losses. Of the fallouts of bitter wars is the anger that can so easily be rekindled by those who for good or ill want to resuscitate the fire. Today some are suggesting that we must go back to the ethnic nationalities from which Nigeria was formed. They say that secession is the answer to the charges of marginalization. They argue that separation from the Nigerian State will ultimately result in successful smaller States. They argue eloquently, I might add that Nigeria is a colonial contraption that cannot endure.

This is also the sum and substance of the agitation for Biafra. The campaign is often bitter and vitriolic, and has sometimes degenerated to fatal violence. Brothers and sisters permit me to differ and to suggest that we’re greater together than apart.

No country is perfect; around the world we have seen and continue to see expressions of intra-national discontent. Indeed, not many Nigerians seem to know that the oft-quoted line about Nigeria being a “mere geographical expression” originally applied to Italy. It was the German statesman Klemens von Metternich who dismissively summed up Italy as a mere geographical expression exactly a century before Nigeria came into being as a country. 

From Spain to Belgium to the United Kingdom and even the United States of America, you will find many today who will venture to make similar arguments about their countries. But they have remained together.

The truth is that many, if not most nations of the world are made up of different peoples and cultures and beliefs and religions, who find themselves thrown together by circumstance. Nations are indeed made up of many nations. The most successful of the nations of the world are those who do not fall into the lure of secession. But who through thick and thin forge unity in diversity.

Nigeria is no different; we are, not three, but more like three hundred or so ethnic groups within the same geographical space, presented with a great opportunity to combine all our strengths into a nation that is truly, to borrow an expression, more than the sum of its parts.

Let me say that there is a solid body of research that shows that groups that score high on diversity turn out to be more innovative than less diverse ones. There’s also research showing that companies that place a premium on creating diverse workplaces do better financially than those who do not. This applies to countries just as much as it does to companies. The United States is a great example, bringing together an impressively diverse cast of people together to consistently accomplish world-conquering economic, military and scientific feats.

It is possible in Nigeria as well. Instead of trying to flee into the lazy comfort of homogeneity every time we’re faced with the frustrations of living together as countrymen and women, the more beneficial way for us individually and collectively is actually to apply the effort and the patience to understand one another and to progressively aspire to create one nation bound in freedom, in peace and in unity.

That, in a sense, should be the Nigerian Dream — the enthusiasm to create a country that provides reasons for its citizens to believe in it, a country that does not discriminate, or marginalize in any way. We are not there yet, but I believe we have a strong chance to advance in that direction. But that will not happen if we allow our frustrations and grievances to transmute into hatred. It will not happen if we see the media — television and radio and print and especially social media — as platforms for the propagation of hateful and divisive rhetoric. No one stands to benefit from a stance like that; we will all emerge as losers.

Clearly our strength is in our diversity, that we are greater together than apart. Imagine for a moment that an enterprising young man from Aba had to apply for a visa to travel to Kano to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams, or that a young woman from Abeokuta had to fill immigration forms and await a verdict in order to attend her best friend’s wedding in Umuahia. Nigeria would be a much less colourful, much less interesting space, were that the case. Our frustrations with some who speak a different dialect or belong to a different religion must not drive us to forget many of the same tribe and faith of our adversaries who have shown true affection for us.

My God-son is Somkele Awakalu, his father Awa Kalu, SAN, and I taught at the University of Lagos. My first book was dedicated to Somkele and my two other God-children. Chief Emmanuel Dimike is almost 80, he was my father’s friend and business associate in his sawmills in Lagos. Chief has been like a father. I see him most Sundays, he worships with me at the chapel.

The individual affections and friendships we forge some even deeper than family ties, must remind us that unity is possible, that brotherhood across tribes and faiths is possible.

Let me make it clear that I fully believe that Nigerians should exercise to the fullest extent the right to discuss or debate the terms of our existence. Debate and disagreement are fundamental aspects of democracy. We recognize and acknowledge that necessity. And today’s event is along those lines — an opportunity not merely to commemorate the past, but also to dissect and debate it. Let’s ask ourselves tough questions about the path that has led us here, and how we might transform yesterday’s actions into tomorrow’s wisdom.

Indeed our argument is not and will never be that we should ‘forget the past’, or ‘let bygones be bygones’, as some have suggested. 

Chinua Achebe repeatedly reminded us of the Igbo saying that a man who cannot tell where the rain began to beat him cannot know where he dried his body. If we lose the past, we will inevitably lose the opportunity to make the best of the present and the future.

In an interview years ago, the late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, explaining why he didn’t think a second Biafran War should happen, said: “We should have learnt from that first one, otherwise the deaths would have been to no avail; it would all have been in vain.”

We should also be careful that we do not focus exclusively on the narratives of division, at the expense of the uplifting and inspiring ones. The same social media that has come under much censure for its propensity to propagate division, has also allowed multitudes of young Nigerians to see more of the sights and sounds of their country than ever before.

And for every young Nigerian who sees the Internet as an avenue for spewing ethnic hatred, there is another young Nigerian who is falling in love or doing business across ethnic and cultural lines; a young Nigerian who looks back on his or her NYSC year in unfamiliar territory as one of the valued highlights of their lifetime. These stories need to be told as well. They are the stories that remind us that the journey to nationhood is not an event but a process, filled as with life itself with experiences some bitter, some sweet. The most remarkable attribute of that process is that a succeeding generation does not need to bear the prejudices and failures of the past.

Every new generation can take a different and more ennobling route than its predecessors. But the greatest responsibility today lies on the leadership of our country. Especially but not only political leadership.

The promise of our constitution which we have sworn to uphold is that we would ensure a secure, and safe environment for our people to live, and work in peace, that we would provide just and fair institutions of justice. That we would not permit or encourage discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, beliefs or other parochial considerations. That we would build a nation where no one is oppressed and none is left behind.

These are the standards to which we must hold our leadership. We must not permit our leaders the easy but dangerous rhetoric of blaming our social and economic conditions on our coming together. It is their duty to give us a vision a pathway to make our unity in diversity even more perfect.

Source:     Office Of The Vice President

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50 Years After Biafra, Nigeria Is Still At Cross Roads

Speech of the President of Ohanaze Ndigbo Chief Nnia Nwodo Jnr at the Yar Adua center on 50 years of Biafra. The Acting President Prof Yemi Osinbajo and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo were guests.

50 YEARS AFTER BIAFRA: REFLECTIONS AND HOPES

PROTOCOLS:

1. I am grateful to Shehu Musa Yar Adua Foundation, Ford Foundation and OSIWA - the co-sponsors of this event for your kind invitation. I commend your foresight in convening this conference, the first major conference discussing Biafra outside of Igboland. Nigeria. In hosting this conference the Yar’Adua Centre, which is best known for promoting national cohesion, honours the legacy of a great patriot: Shehu Musa Yar Adua. He died building bridges of understanding across our nation. I salute his family and associates for sustaining the legacy of Shehu through the works of this Foundation.

2. It is significant that you have chosen to harvest sober memories of Biafra. By so doing, you help us to wisely situate today’s talks of Biafra in the proper context: namely, as an opportunity for nation building; and not - as an invitation for invectives or recrimination.

3. 50 years ago, Nigeria faced disintegration by the declaration of the Republic of Biafra. Biafra was born out of the political crisis which engulfed Nigeria at that time. The crisis began with the struggle for leadership in the Western Region of Nigeria, the declaration of state of emergency in the West, the coup of January 1966, the counter coup of July 1966, the pogroms, the declaration of Biafra and the commencement of a police action that turned into a three years civil war.

4. I hope that our gathering today may contribute to the body of knowledge or body of lessons from the war. Lest we forget, there is wisdom in the words of George Santayana that: those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. That is why I thank you for the chance for us to collectively remember, reflect, hope and seek ways to build anew.

5. My most heartfelt reflection is that in the Nigeria-Biafra conflict, we can and should acknowledge the sacrifice - in blood, suffering and toil - by millions of citizens on both sides of that divide. They shared a common hope for their sacrifice: namely, that out of that war, we shall build a nation where no man is oppressed. The only difference was that for one side, Nigeria was that nation. For the other it was Biafra.

6. Let us spare a thought for every victim of that conflict and the crises before that: the leaders and the soldiers, ordinary men, women and children. Each one loved life; had hopes and dreamt dreams. They died prematurely and often, painfully.

7. For those of us that survived the war and others who came afterwards, we are both heirs to the sacrifices of fallen brethren. Let us commit ourselves today and always to their hopes for peace and justice. Anytime that we are violent, anytime that we are unjust in the exercise of our public trust, anytime we lower the ideals of this nation, we betray them; and we act as if they died in vain. As we honour their memory, today my worry is not only about the rising feeling of marginalization of Igbos or any other group but that our nation may emerge from this conflict a more united and prosperous country.

8. At the end of the war, in spite of a policy of no victor no vanquished by the Government of General Yakubu Gowon, an unconscionable policy of impoverishment of Biafrans was unleashed by the federal government. Every bank deposit of Biafrans that had encountered a transaction whether by deposit or withdrawal was reduced to £20. Massive savings were completely wiped out. Capacity for investment and recovery from the war was shattered. Whilst this poverty pervaded, the Indigenisation Decree was promulgated enabling other Nigerians, except Biafrans to acquire commanding heights in the indigenised companies which held at that time the critical and commanding heights of Nigeria’s private economy.​

9. Nevertheless, on the issue of reconciliation, we must give due credit to the resilience of the people from the war affected areas and the generosity of millions of other Nigerians that opened their hearts and homes to their friends and neighbours that were victims of war. In many ways, it was by these incredible citizen to citizen relationships that Nigeria achieved one of the most remarkable post-conflict people to people reconciliation and reintegration in modern times.

10. Before the war national unity was the norm. A Biafran was a member of Northern Nigeria House of Chiefs. Biafrans lived freely and invested in all parts of Nigeria. In Lagos Dr Azikiwe was elected leader of Government Business. Mbonu Ojike was elected Deputy Speaker. In Enugu Alhaji Umoru Altine, a Fulani man was elected Mayor of Enugu. Mr Willougby a Yoruba man, was Accountant General.

11. On the economic front, the economy was buoyant. Import substitution industries grew rapidly and were more profitable. In the North, groundnut production and export fuelled economic growth. Textile industries flourished, agriculture boomed. Ahmadu Bello University thrived with outstanding international reputation.

12. In Lagos and the entire Western Region growth was phenomenal. Cocoa was a dependable foreign exchange earner. Cement, soft drinks, rubber, beer, soap and other import substitution industries grew phenomenally. Lagos, Ibadan and Ife housed universities of world standards. The first television station in black Africa was built. The first stadium in Nigeria was also built in the West.

13. In the Eastern Region palm produce grew the Eastern economy. Coal was mined and exported. Beer, cement, cashew nuts, tyres, aluminium, steel and soft drink factories grew rapidly. University of Nigeria was built and run by Americans.

14. Reflecting on 50 years after the Nigeria-Biafra conflict, it would seem to me that we have made very elaborate efforts: constitutional, political and administrative to ensure a united Nigeria. We must not shy away from giving our nation its due credit, after all, some other societies with challenges like ours did not fare as well as we did.

15. However, we should not rest on our oars. Unity is not an end in itself; and ultimately, the best way to sustain our unity is to apply it to achieve a higher objective; namely, nation building.

16. Our political system is jaundiced, unfair, exploitative and unsustainable. Since attainment of independence the civilians have not been able to agree on a political structure. Our present constitution and the previous 1979 constitution were impositions of the military – an unrepresentative and dictatorial corps whose decrees were seriously influenced by the lop-sidedness of their composition.

17. The economic and development data from Nigeria is unencouraging in many sectors. Our law and order system including the police, the court system and the penal system has been characterised by impunity, incompetence and indiscipline.

18. On the global Terrorism Index Nigeria ranks 3rd after Iraq and Afghanistan and ahead of Pakistan and Syria. The World Economic Forum ranks Nigeria 127 out of 138 on the Global Competitiveness Index. The UNESCO ranks Nigeria with Chad, Pakistan and Ethiopia as the worst educational system in the world. Nigeria, according to the report, has the highest number of children out of school and one of the world's worst education systems due to a combination of corruption, conflict and lack of investment. In the Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Program, Nigeria ranks 152 out of 188 countries and is the lowest among OPEC countries. The data points to a bleak future as we march to post-oil world without a coherent plan to reduce conflict and build a new national consensus.

19. On the positive side, there is a global consensus that Nigeria is highly potentiated. With a population of about 182 million people, by current estimates; and with our vast mineral and material resources; a well-organized Nigeria should be a land of plenty that supports its people and a leader in the comity of nations. Sadly, this is not the case.

20. Almost every Nigerian is agreed that Nigeria is not working but there is no clear consensus on why; or on what to do about it. Some say that it is merely a problem of leadership and once that is fixed all other things will fall in place. Others say that it is a problem of corruption. Once you tackle that, everything will be fine. Others have said that our problem is one of law and order; some say it is more fundamental and has to do with control of resources, structure of the Federation and thus requires more equitable sharing of revenue and the devolution of powers. Others say it can be fixed with power rotation and a more level playing field. It has been said that it could be a bit of all of the above; and that Nigeria cannot be fixed without a fundamental change of values and attitudes. Whatever the case, it will not profit us to pretend that we do not face existential challenges

21. These challenges are worrisome; especially to our younger ones who must face the fact that the next 50 years could be even more challenging and there is a good chance that we could be left behind if we fail to take action today. For instance, it is estimated in some quarters, that by 2050 – that is in 33 years’ time – Nigeria could be the 4th most populous country in the world. That means that Nigeria, which is just twice the size of Texas; would be more populous than all the United States of America. Meanwhile, as of today, we have a GDP that is barely 2% of that of the United States.

22. At the same time, in the years ahead, we could face very severe ecological challenges that will impact negatively on our economy. The desert is encroaching southwards at a speed of up to 6 km per annum. Thus within 33 years we could lose about 200 km of land to the desert - across the north. This can only exacerbate competition for arable land in the north and elsewhere – with dire political consequences.

23. In the South East, we could expect more ecologically-induced dislocation. For instance, the government of Anambra State estimates that about 40% of the State is threatened by erosion. In the South-South, by 2050 we could be dealing with the reality of a post-oil economy and yet have massive environmental degradation that is yet unattended to. There is also the possibility that much of the mangrove ecosystem could be lost to deforestation. Lagos could have a population of up to 50 million people and face unbearable challenges of massive urbanization.

24. We must become more responsive to the world around us, or we and our children will be left behind. These are some of the fears and anxieties of our youths. We have for too long allowed the bitterness of the war and its lingering feelings to dictate our political relationships. The coalition that fought the war is still in control of Nigeria engaging in rhetoric that fuelled the war in managing renascent Nigeria. The young men and women who were not part of the war are frustrated by this impasse.

25. Those who are in the East fuel strong agitations for separation in the face of clear treatment as second class citizens. War is the primary instrument of military dictatorship while negotiation and agreement are the essential ingredients of civilian democracy and political diplomacy. Nations are not created and sustained by street warfare. The federal government of Nigeria must instruct its police and army to promulgate a ceasefire and disengage from further unproductive street warfare with IPOB and MASSOB. There are no problems which cannot be resolved by negotiation.

26. We do not want any more wars. We have shed enough blood without producing corresponding political results. 50 years after Biafra the time is now overripe for a fresh approach. We must immediately commence discussions and fruitful negotiations about our political future. In the era of assymetrical warfare, war is no more an easy option for states, therefore we must negotiate our way out of a sense of national despair to a new national consensus that unlocks our national possibilities.

27. Nigeria, blessed as the richest and the most popular nation in Africa has enormous potentials. Every part of Nigeria can survive as an independent country. The North with its mineral and agricultural potentials can build a strong nation. The West with its cocoa, oil, indomitable intellectual know how and commerce can build another Britain. The South South with its oil, notwithstanding its declining economic potency can transform its area before oil ceases to be a major foreign exchange earner. The East with industry, outstanding innovation and little oil may still emerge as the African wonder. But none of these little enclaves will rival the capacity of a united and reconciled Nigeria. We must all rise up and save this nation from a trajectory that will make a break up a more viable option.

28. The challenges ahead are beyond Biafra. Just like the challenge in North East Nigeria exploded in our face and has engaged our nation for almost 9 years; we could face challenges anywhere and anytime. In my view, if we fail to build a nation that caters fairly for all its citizens; and prepares us for the world of tomorrow – there will be new challenges in the future.

29. We must find creative ways to manage a complex multi-ethnic and multi-religious state. History teaches us that no society is static; the status quo cannot endure forever. We must find creative ways to promote political, economic and social justice within a nation and between the people that comprise it. If not, then we are invariably opening the doors to future threats of chaos, disorder and societal dislocation.

30. The final challenge of our generation is to show that we learnt the right lesson from that sad conflict of 50 years ago. We must bequeath our children with a nation that works for all and one that looks ahead. We want a Federal Republic of Nigeria which is collectively owned by all Nigerians as opposed to a Federal Republic that will be perceived as a the private property of one group or groups of ethnic groups depending on who is in office. The categorical destination is a Nigerian Nigeria under the collective hegemony of the people of Nigeria. In order to achieve this we must have a flexible federation; strong enough to guarantee our collective defence and protect individual rights, agile enough to react to emerging tensions and threats, yet expansive enough to allow each state room to develop at its own pace. We must create a national order whereby each state bears the primary responsibility for its development.

31. Today majority of Nigerians are yearning for a restructuring of the federation. The beneficiaries of our current system are resisting it. A famous British Prime Minister in the wake of nationalist struggles in colonial Africa said to the British ‘there is a wind of change blowing throughout Africa. Those who resist it do so at their own peril’.

32. Nigeria cannot prosper, as it should, unless we redress some aspects of our current condition. I believe we have enough men and women of vision and experience, in every part of the country, to help us plot a bright future. I commit Ohaneze Ndigbo to this path. It may be difficult but it is doable.

33. True leadership evolves in historical circumstances like this. Our country is at cross roads. You can feel the tension every day. It is palpable, it is potent, it is real. Let us wake up to the change imperative at this moment and claim a glorious judgment by History.

34. Thank You for your kind attention

JOHN NNIA NWODO

PRESIDENT GENERAL, OHANEZE NDIGBO

ABUJA 25TH MAY, 2017

Source:     Facebook

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Where Is The Save Nigeria Group?

Where is the Save Nigeria Group right now?

Are the conditions prevailing now in the Country not akin to what happened in the Yar'adua era if not worse?

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5 Things Currently Trending In This Week

1) Buffett’s Costly Mistake

People flock to Omaha, Neb., for Warren Buffett’s annual shareholder meeting in search of ideas.

The big lesson this year?

Buffett seems frustrated.

The Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chief executive officer spoke at length about his failure to pounce on opportunities in tech stocks, the challenge of finding big deals, and his frustration with a cash pile that’s approaching $100 billion, Noah Buhayar and Katherine Chiglinsky wrote. 

With thousands watching live (and many more streaming video online), Buffett and Vice Chairman Charles Munger took questions for five hours.

Buffett said that, in hindsight, he could have been quicker to understand Google—its founders consulted him around the time they were taking the company public. “I had plenty of ways to ask questions, or anything of the sort, and educate myself,” Buffett said. “But I blew it.”

2) Think Before You Send That Email

The old warning still applies: Never put in an email something you wouldn’t want to see on the internet.

A five-word message to a rival banker was enough to cost former Citigroup Inc. trader David Madaras his job, Patrick Gower reported. 

Citigroup’s Timothy Gately disclosed the message on the first day of Madaras’s employment lawsuit in London Tuesday.

The executive said the April 2011 chat constituted gross misconduct, and firing Madaras was the only appropriate sanction. “he’s a seller/fking a,” Madaras wrote to a rival trader who had just disclosed the identity of a client, Gately said in a filing prepared ahead of the hearing.

That chatroom message “validated an external trader’s disclosure of a client name,” Gately said in the filing.

The lawsuit comes as the bank seeks to appease regulators probing a foreign-exchange scandal engulfing the industry.

3) A Trump-Related Investigation Can Be Bad for Your Career

U.S. President Donald Trump’s dismissal of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday was the third time he’s fired someone involved in an investigation of him or his associates.

The bureau has been probing Russian involvement in the U.S. election and possible involvement of Trump associates since the summer.

Earlier, former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates was dismissed after she refused to defend Trump’s first travel ban.

And former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was initially asked to stay on in his role before being fired in March.

Our helpful graphic shows how, in each of these cases, the justification for dismissal was inconsistent with prior actions, or immediately followed events related to investigations.

4) Traditional French Politics Are Over 

France rejected the populism of Marine Le Pen and opted for 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron, who created his own party for the election.

His victory means the two parties that have dominated the presidency since 1958 are out of power.

Now comes the hard part: turning his political movement into a vehicle capable of winning a majority, or at least garnering enough seats in parliament to govern or form a coalition.

The French will vote again on June 11 and June 18 to elect their 577 national legislators.

Macron’s lack of an established base has injected uncertainty into the vote.

5) Stop Ruining Doughnuts

Not long ago, we were the biggest champions of the doughnut, but now it’s gone too far, Kate Krader and Chris Rovzar wrote.

Flavors that shouldn’t work but do, such as “Peanut Butter and Yuzu,” are fine.

As is morphing into a cruller or cronut.

But a spaghetti doughnut is the latest smash hit at Smorgasburg in Brooklyn, N.Y. Gourdough in Austin introduced the Drunken Hunk, a doughnut topped with a mound of bacon-wrapped meatloaf, potato pancake, and candied jalapeños.

Ford Fry in Atlanta created a fried chicken sandwich with egg whose “bread” is actually two whole doughnuts. 

Stop it. The doughnut is nearly a perfect thing, as is.

Source:     Bloomberg

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The War Of Armageddon Is Almost Here: USA Vs North Korea

North Korea launches a ballistic missile that flies about 435 miles

TOKYO — North Korea fired a ballistic missile early Sunday, sending it from a launch site near its border with China some 450 miles into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

It was launched from the same site where North Korea fired two mystery missiles that some analysts thought could have been intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the mainland United States.

But the U.S. military said that the flight pattern was “not consistent” with an ICBM and did not threaten the United States.

Regardless, the apparent success of the launch and the steady pace of firings will only heighten tensions in the region.

Sunday’s launch is the first since Moon Jae-in, a liberal who is promoting engagement with North Korea, took office as South Korea’s new president Wednesday. Moon immediately convened an emergency meeting of his national security council to discuss the launch.

It also comes after repeated warnings from President Trump to North Korea to stop — and China to crack down on its errant neighbor. Trump will likely urge Beijing to use its leverage over Pyongyang to punish it for this latest provocation.

In a statement late Saturday, the White House said, “North Korea has been a flagrant menace for far too long...Let this latest provocation serve as a call for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions against North Korea.”

The statement also noted the missile’s proximity to Russia: “With the missile impacting so close to Russian soil – in fact, closer to Russia than to Japan – the President cannot imagine that Russia is pleased.”

Analysts were still working to identify the kind of missile launched Sunday morning local time.

U.S. Pacific Command, based in Hawaii, said it had detected and assessed the missile, and “the flight was not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile.” However, it did not state what kind of missile it appeared to be.

“The North American Aerospace Defense Command determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America,” Pacific Command spokesman Rob Shuford said in a statement.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the missile was fired shortly after 5 a.m. North Korea time, from Kusong, an area not far from the border with China.

In Tokyo, the Japanese government said that the missile flew for 30 minutes. It strongly condemned the “absolutely unacceptable” behavior.

“These repeated missile launches by North Korea are a grave threat to our country and are in clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.

North Korea has been testing missiles at a rapid rate over the past year, apparently working toward leader Kim Jong Un’s ambition to develop an ICBM that can reach the United States.

The two most recent launches last month were deemed to have failed, as they exploded within seconds. However, Sunday’s missile appears to have been successful.

The site of the latest launches is raising suspicions.

North Korea launched two missiles in October last year from an air base in Kusong on North Korea’s west coast, on the other side of the country from the usual intermediate-range Musudan test site near Wonsan, on the east coast.

U.S. Strategic Command said they were “presumed” to be Musudans, which are technically capable of flying as far as 2,400 miles, putting Guam within range and almost reaching Alaska.

But Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California, said at the time that there was an “even chance” that they were intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

At a huge military parade that Kim presided over last month, North Korea displayed two of its newest model missiles, including the submarine-launched ballistic type it successfully fired last year and the land-based version it launched last month.

One of the missiles looked similar to the KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile that North Korea had included in previous parades. This missile has a theoretical range of about 7,500 miles, which is enough to reach all of the United States from North Korea.

  

It also put two ICBM canisters, which protect solid-fueled missiles from the effects of the environment, on the trucks that had carried the ICBMs previously. One may have been a KN-14, another missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, although it has a slightly shorter range.

Although there are still plenty of technical hurdles to be overcome, many analysts believe North Korea will eventually achieve Kim’s stated goal of developing an ICBM that can reach the mainland United States.

Source:     WashingtonPost

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