Compliment of the season your Excellency,
First, I would like to commend you for the efforts you are putting towards the emancipation of the downtrodden in the society. For that, I pray to the Almighty to give you long life, good health and the fortitude to bear with the intrigues of the Nigerian politics.
I also would like to commend you for the steps you have taken in reaching out to the masses by opening a facebook page for those us who cannot reach out to you physically to send our concerns on how to strength our party the CPC and brighten its chances towards the 2011 general elections and beyond.
The CPC is a unique political party, it is unique in terms of its composition and ideology and for that reason it should conduct its activities based on the dictates of its constitution and that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria not at the whims and caprices of any individual. It is based on the above premise I would like to offer some suggestions which I believe if taken seriously will bolster the chances of the party in the general elections and beyond.
1. VOTERS REGISTERATION
Awareness and Enlightenment should be the watchwords here. Party members should be made to understand that for anybody to participate and vote for any candidate of his choice a voter’s card is necessary. The cards can only be obtained when INEC starts to register Nigerians in the designated centers. It is therefore mandatory for anybody wishing to exercise his franchise to obtain it without which he cannot vote for the candidate of his choice. No matter your numerical strength if you don’t have the voter’s cards you are inconsequential.
Party members should be made to go into all corners of our wards, local government areas and the states at large and ensure that all members of 18 years and above got registered whenever the registration exercise begins. This is very important if we want to make any appreciable impact in the elections.
2. INTERNAL DEMOCRACY
To ensure that we are different from other political parties we have to allow our party to develop through strengthening our internal democracy by subjecting all contestants to the congress. In fact, this has already been echoed by INEC, that no congress no elections. In other words it is the congress that determines who represents them in any elections.
A situation whereby some senior party elders endorse candidates of their choice for certain position or decide who stands for election will not be accepted or tolerated and is not going to help our course rather candidates should be encouraged to establish their campaign machinery and solicits for votes from congress. It is sad to point out that some elders have started to plant seeds of discord within the party by either endorsing members even before it is time for the election or dissolving party officials without recourse to the party National Headquarters this is a very bad development and is surely a prelude to chaos if it is not checked.
Another area of concern is in the choice of the Deputy Governor, crisis usually erupts between the Governor and his deputy for one reason or the other. This type of problem to my mind is encountered because the Governor has always not been given the opportunity to choose who is to be his running mate without interference by the party. To prevent such crisis Governors should be allowed to choose their deputies, the party can zone the office of the deputy to an area different from where the Governor comes from. If this is done am sure it will minimize the frequency at which these crisis erupts.
Thank you
Isa.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
AN ASSESMENT OF CONTRIBUTORY PENSION IN NIGERIA
A CRITICAL LOOK AT CONTRIBUTORY PENSION IN NIGERIA
The main objective of the new pension scheme that came into operation in 2004 is to ensure that every person that work in Nigeria in either public or private sector of the economy receives his/her retirement benefits as and when due. The new scheme covers all employees in the public service of the Federation, the Federal Capital Territory and the private sector.
The characteristic of the scheme is that; it should be fully funded (contributions from both employer and employee); it should be privately managed (management by Pension Fund Administrator) and third party custody of Funds and assets (pension Fund Custodian).
The import of this paper therefore is to critically examine how far the scheme has fared 6years after its commencement. I feel 6years is enough a time to asses and evaluate its success or otherwise. In so doing I intend to look at the roles played by the major stakeholders of the scheme, i.e. The National Pension Commission (Pencom), The Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and the contributors.
My candid assessment in this regard is that the three stakeholders enumerated above have failed to leave to expectation and if things are allowed to continue the way they are now the objective of the contributory scheme will be a mirage, as some of the problems associated with the former pension plans have started to manifest in the new regime while other problems are abound.
The main functions of Pencom; is to issue licenses to the Pension Fund Administrators and Custodians, regulates their actions and generally formulates, direct and oversee the overall policy guidelines on Pension matters in Nigeria. While it can be conceded that the Supervising organ of the pension matters in the country has performed well in terms of issuance of licenses to PFA’ and Custodians but it is kilometers away from regulating their activities. The failure of the commission to provide for biometric machine to detect multiple registrations has allowed the Administrators to perpetrate this act with impunity. The consequence of this singular act is so devastating and if concerted effort is not made to remedy it will only leave the contributor in a state of confusion as to which of the numbers he would use before eventually get paid. Another area where Pencom is found wanting is in the area of enforcing full compliance on the provisions of the legislation. It is the responsibility of Pencom to do everything possible to ensure that the scheme does not suffer or run into problems and to sustain willful compliance this it can do by decentralizing its operations by establishing zonal/regional offices or at best branch offices. The excesses of the PFAs and employers can only be checked when these offices are established. I can not see how Pencom can operate from Abuja and expect to monitor the activities of the PFAs and the employers that are not ready to comply with the legislation, even those that are complying need to be checked once in a while to verify contributions deductions and remittances. Sometime ago Pencom published in the national dailies a list of employers that did not comply with the legislation apparently reported by the Pension Fund Administrators but several months after the publication nothing came out of it and am sure nothing will come out of it as long as Pencom remains indifferent to issues of enforcement. For Pencom to generate Personal Identification Numbers (PINS) takes several weeks now instead of 24hours, to process benefit claims takes about a month or even more is some instances. The issue of transfer of accounts from one PFA to the other by contributors is yet to commence 4 years after the market is supposed to have opened, this is a right of the contributor, when he is not satisfied with the services of his Administrator he can transfer his account to another as stipulated in the extant legislation. The issue is even more poignant when you consider those who contributed under the NSITF scheme as they can’t move their NSITF contributions to their PFAs largely because the transfer market has not yet opened. I think Pencom has not really appreciated the enormity of this problem until a contributor realizes that his right has been infringed by this obvious laxity and takes the matter to court.
If Pencon has had very little to cheer about in the last 6years, some Pension Fund Administrators have got nothing to cheer as they failed to clearly meet up with the expectations of their contributors as very little effort is put on Education and customer care, the resultant effect is gross disenchantment on the part of the contributors. The role of Pension Fund Administrators in this dispensation cannot be overemphasized, the success or otherwise of this pension plan can be tied up to a large extent with the Administrators. The ‘I don’t care attitude’ put up by some Pension Fund Administrators couple with the attitude of contributors towards pension, what you get in the end is a below average performance. Experience has shown us that workers generally develop apathy in deductions; they abhor deductions of their salaries for any purpose. They don’t like talking about life after retirement when they are in active service but the issue becomes relevant when they retire. To print this picture very clearly, you need to visit any public or private establishment that is complying with the New Pension regime and take a census of 5-10 staff and ask them the following questions; Have you registered with any PFA?; What is the name of your PFA?; Do you have a PIN?; When last did you receive statement of account from your PFA?; and, Are you satisfied with the services rendered to you by the PFA?. The answers to these questions and many more will give an insight as to the performance of these PFAs.
Failure by the PFAs to be alive to the needs of the contributors is a great indication that collection of one’s entitlements after retiring as and when due will be a Herculean task. Contributors are under continuous pressure from PFAs as regards to having to submit the same records/attachments several times even after earlier submissions were receipted and these attachments are a prerequisite for the issuance of PINS and without them nothing can be done. Too much noise has been made about Information Technology as a veritable tool for easing the problems of the new Pension plan but a cursory look at the activities of the PFAs in this regard indicates a huge disappointment as you can not easily hook up with the website of your PFA and get the desired result. Of course you can not register with any PFA on line, you cannot obtain your statement of account, and neither can you process your claims. Infact, the whole situation in the Pension Industry is chaotic and it looks as if it is grinding to a halt.
Finally, it is instructive to note that pension funds are as vulnerable as any public funds in Nigeria. What happened during the stock market crisis a couple of years ago where shares worth billions of Naira belonging to Pension Funds were washed away is an eye opener. Popular concern over pension is an issue well founded it therefore behoves the operators of scheme to do whatever is necessary to prevent it from drifting into chaos and efforts should be made to do the right thing at the right moment.
The main objective of the new pension scheme that came into operation in 2004 is to ensure that every person that work in Nigeria in either public or private sector of the economy receives his/her retirement benefits as and when due. The new scheme covers all employees in the public service of the Federation, the Federal Capital Territory and the private sector.
The characteristic of the scheme is that; it should be fully funded (contributions from both employer and employee); it should be privately managed (management by Pension Fund Administrator) and third party custody of Funds and assets (pension Fund Custodian).
The import of this paper therefore is to critically examine how far the scheme has fared 6years after its commencement. I feel 6years is enough a time to asses and evaluate its success or otherwise. In so doing I intend to look at the roles played by the major stakeholders of the scheme, i.e. The National Pension Commission (Pencom), The Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and the contributors.
My candid assessment in this regard is that the three stakeholders enumerated above have failed to leave to expectation and if things are allowed to continue the way they are now the objective of the contributory scheme will be a mirage, as some of the problems associated with the former pension plans have started to manifest in the new regime while other problems are abound.
The main functions of Pencom; is to issue licenses to the Pension Fund Administrators and Custodians, regulates their actions and generally formulates, direct and oversee the overall policy guidelines on Pension matters in Nigeria. While it can be conceded that the Supervising organ of the pension matters in the country has performed well in terms of issuance of licenses to PFA’ and Custodians but it is kilometers away from regulating their activities. The failure of the commission to provide for biometric machine to detect multiple registrations has allowed the Administrators to perpetrate this act with impunity. The consequence of this singular act is so devastating and if concerted effort is not made to remedy it will only leave the contributor in a state of confusion as to which of the numbers he would use before eventually get paid. Another area where Pencom is found wanting is in the area of enforcing full compliance on the provisions of the legislation. It is the responsibility of Pencom to do everything possible to ensure that the scheme does not suffer or run into problems and to sustain willful compliance this it can do by decentralizing its operations by establishing zonal/regional offices or at best branch offices. The excesses of the PFAs and employers can only be checked when these offices are established. I can not see how Pencom can operate from Abuja and expect to monitor the activities of the PFAs and the employers that are not ready to comply with the legislation, even those that are complying need to be checked once in a while to verify contributions deductions and remittances. Sometime ago Pencom published in the national dailies a list of employers that did not comply with the legislation apparently reported by the Pension Fund Administrators but several months after the publication nothing came out of it and am sure nothing will come out of it as long as Pencom remains indifferent to issues of enforcement. For Pencom to generate Personal Identification Numbers (PINS) takes several weeks now instead of 24hours, to process benefit claims takes about a month or even more is some instances. The issue of transfer of accounts from one PFA to the other by contributors is yet to commence 4 years after the market is supposed to have opened, this is a right of the contributor, when he is not satisfied with the services of his Administrator he can transfer his account to another as stipulated in the extant legislation. The issue is even more poignant when you consider those who contributed under the NSITF scheme as they can’t move their NSITF contributions to their PFAs largely because the transfer market has not yet opened. I think Pencom has not really appreciated the enormity of this problem until a contributor realizes that his right has been infringed by this obvious laxity and takes the matter to court.
If Pencon has had very little to cheer about in the last 6years, some Pension Fund Administrators have got nothing to cheer as they failed to clearly meet up with the expectations of their contributors as very little effort is put on Education and customer care, the resultant effect is gross disenchantment on the part of the contributors. The role of Pension Fund Administrators in this dispensation cannot be overemphasized, the success or otherwise of this pension plan can be tied up to a large extent with the Administrators. The ‘I don’t care attitude’ put up by some Pension Fund Administrators couple with the attitude of contributors towards pension, what you get in the end is a below average performance. Experience has shown us that workers generally develop apathy in deductions; they abhor deductions of their salaries for any purpose. They don’t like talking about life after retirement when they are in active service but the issue becomes relevant when they retire. To print this picture very clearly, you need to visit any public or private establishment that is complying with the New Pension regime and take a census of 5-10 staff and ask them the following questions; Have you registered with any PFA?; What is the name of your PFA?; Do you have a PIN?; When last did you receive statement of account from your PFA?; and, Are you satisfied with the services rendered to you by the PFA?. The answers to these questions and many more will give an insight as to the performance of these PFAs.
Failure by the PFAs to be alive to the needs of the contributors is a great indication that collection of one’s entitlements after retiring as and when due will be a Herculean task. Contributors are under continuous pressure from PFAs as regards to having to submit the same records/attachments several times even after earlier submissions were receipted and these attachments are a prerequisite for the issuance of PINS and without them nothing can be done. Too much noise has been made about Information Technology as a veritable tool for easing the problems of the new Pension plan but a cursory look at the activities of the PFAs in this regard indicates a huge disappointment as you can not easily hook up with the website of your PFA and get the desired result. Of course you can not register with any PFA on line, you cannot obtain your statement of account, and neither can you process your claims. Infact, the whole situation in the Pension Industry is chaotic and it looks as if it is grinding to a halt.
Finally, it is instructive to note that pension funds are as vulnerable as any public funds in Nigeria. What happened during the stock market crisis a couple of years ago where shares worth billions of Naira belonging to Pension Funds were washed away is an eye opener. Popular concern over pension is an issue well founded it therefore behoves the operators of scheme to do whatever is necessary to prevent it from drifting into chaos and efforts should be made to do the right thing at the right moment.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
'OLD WAR HORSES ANDTHE REST OF US'
I had just finished my weekly meeting with the Executive members of Ashaka Cement Factory Pensioners association, a weekly meeting that had been religiously attended by all the members to discuss on issues bordering on retirement benefits of the staff of the factory when Muhammed the office assistant of Gombe branch office of the NSITF brought my cell phone with a call in waiting. It is apparent I didn’t know the caller since there was no name attached to the number but it didn’t make any difference to me as with or without the name I would still take the call, as a marketer several calls from my clients do frequent my phone and majority of them without names attached. Immediately I took the phone, a voice just emerged My Name is Useni Elama I quickly realized my Executive Director was on the line. He called to request for me to see him the following week in his office that he wanted me to discuss some issues.
I waited for that encounter anxiously without having an iota of hint as regards to what was to be discussed. I picked up courage and inform Mohammed Sani the Kaduna State Branch Manager who immediately relieved me of my anxiety by telling me that Mr. Elama would want to work with you at the newly established Trustfund Pensions Plc. He told me that he had similar discussion with him, I was a bit skeptical about that but I just managed to controll my emotions and waited for the encounter which turned out to be exactly what Mohammed postulated. We were interviewed by Trustfund Staff mostly of NSITF extraction and eventually offered employment as Assistant Managers. We were employed to supervise the activities of Trustfund in the six regions.
Even if I didn’t take the Trustfund job I would still be unemployed as NSITF was moribund. So why don’t you take the job, I said to myself. I was initially posted to Benin Regional Office but for some reasons I was asked to go and head the Maiduguri Regional Office. We left for our various offices with full alacrity as we saw our appointments as a challenge. We tried our best to open as many Retirement saving accounts as possible and by extension broaden the revenue base of the company.
One of our high points was the stellar performance we put while registering Police recruits at Maiduguri police College in August 2007. We registered the 2000 recruits available. On the low side, one day when coming back from a presentation delivered by the Head of Business Development and the Company Secretary at Head of Service’s office, Bauchi I was attacked by armed robbers along Damaturu – Maiduguri road, I together with the other passengers had to pass the night in the bush. The following morning I was scheduled for another presentation at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. This is how our itinerary was as regional managers. I really didn’t have time of my own at Trustfund as you are supposed to work 24/7 and in the course of that spending all you have including your monthly salaries just to ensure the job is done. But our effort and sacrifice to increase the fortunes of the company at the Regions is not appreciated by the Head Office as promises made were reneged with vehemence and oversights committed were amplified and punished severely.
The first regional Manager to throw in the towel was Chris from P/Harcourt then followed by your sincerely in March, 2008 and recently Mrs Hassan. But the most recent retrenchment is the most surprising as the top guns, the most influential representatives ’OLD WAR HORSES’ of the NSITF were also put in the cooler. These are people who have wielded so much power and influence blended with such flair of arrogance. Nobody thought they would ever leave the company in such a circumstance and am saying this without any equivocation but – presto!!! - They are gone.
The exercise is in top gear now as the positions of the remaining Regional Managers have been advertised in the national dailies a prelude to disengaging some of them. One wonders why this situation has continued with such impunity. What is even more poignant is the way and manner many of us are chased out, it is really tragic for some of us who are not of pension age to wake up one morning and find out that they are not in the pension business for no cause of theirs. But the fact still remains – it’s our company, we initiated it, we set it up - we built it.
Some people have been insinuating that what is happening in Trustfund was a result of an administrative oversight made by the former NSITF management led by Alhaji Rufa’I by allowing Accenture to produce the pioneer staff of the newly established office. They opined that the management should have allowed us (NSITF) staff to manage the new company given our robust experience in the management of individual pension, an experience running to over four decades. They contended that having been exposed through the various aspects of Business processes Management the NSITF staff are rightly positioned and have acquired all it takes to manage the new pension outfit. I wouldn’t agree more with this opinion but then, what Rufa’i did was in good faith especially when you consider the solid foundation he set by appointing about six management staff all from NSITF. Just look at this line up:
• Mr. Oseni Elama - Managing Director/ CEO
• Ikechuwcku Chukwucha – Head of Business Development and Marketing
• P S Okodua - Head of NSITF Funds
• G. Onokwai - Audit
• Racheal CCO
• Musa Nasir- Company Secretary
• The six Regional Managers
• A host of other staff
This is one of the legacies the Rufa’I led management bequeathed to Trustfund, so for anybody to insinuate that the Management had made a mistake that person is either not being fair to Rufa’i or he is just being mischievous. However, something is definitely wrong and I think it is not unconnected with the way and manner the NSITF ‘old war horses’ handle the affairs of the company abinitio.
Oseni Elama’s departure from Trustfund was a big blow to the Regional Managers but it was celebrated with fanfare by some of the ‘Old war horses’ because they knew that some of them wouldn’t have survived in the company if he had stayed any longer. The calculation was that with him out of the way, they will take full control of the office; several attempts were made to coerce the other side into submission but proved futile. At this stage Pencom interceded by bringing Mr. Bakare to superintend over the affairs of the company as stipulated by the enabling laws. His tenure was silent albeit there were some underground maneuver by the old war horses to outwit the other side so as to enable them have an edge when Bakare’s tenure expires but has not come to fruition as the other side remained resolute.
At the end of it all, Bakare recommended that Bernand should be appointed as M/D on acting capacity until the appointment of a substantive CEO. I was told that the appointment was based on his seniority over the old war horses. Having lost the power game to the other side, they deployed a strategy of ‘survival of the fittest’. To prove your loyalty to the new order you must show disdain for the Regional Managers and anything NSITF. Caution was thrown to the dogs, the company ceased to be a formal organization - a bureaucracy - where things are done with civility. Where the name of the individual does not matter, what matters is, has he done the right thing? Stuff like that. We were totally emasculated and ridiculed, subjected to all sort of intimidating languages and sometimes uncouth. We really became accustomed to this insult, embarrassing as it was; none of us had ever demanded to know why we were so treated. But my only consolation had always been if only Mr. Elama had lived long in Trustfund and was able to implement the decisions taken at the 1st MPR that took place in Kaduna, 2007 things would have been different.
The other side spectated the drama with delight, while at the same time warming themselves into the hearts of the Board members and consolidating their positions with such a managerial brio. But for the Old war Horses they have to contend with the reality. The reality is the fact that they just succeeded in creating in themselves a Frankenstein Monster.
I was told that when their sack letters came most of them were on leave. One of them was cruising the Avensis in his village when it was demobilized, he thought it was a glitch that could be easily rectified but was astounded to hear from one of the Village mechanics that the car was turn off from the office. While the other one had his office’s locks changed an indication of ‘your services are no longer required’. This is the type of treatment you mete out to a common criminal. What a pity!!!
I waited for that encounter anxiously without having an iota of hint as regards to what was to be discussed. I picked up courage and inform Mohammed Sani the Kaduna State Branch Manager who immediately relieved me of my anxiety by telling me that Mr. Elama would want to work with you at the newly established Trustfund Pensions Plc. He told me that he had similar discussion with him, I was a bit skeptical about that but I just managed to controll my emotions and waited for the encounter which turned out to be exactly what Mohammed postulated. We were interviewed by Trustfund Staff mostly of NSITF extraction and eventually offered employment as Assistant Managers. We were employed to supervise the activities of Trustfund in the six regions.
Even if I didn’t take the Trustfund job I would still be unemployed as NSITF was moribund. So why don’t you take the job, I said to myself. I was initially posted to Benin Regional Office but for some reasons I was asked to go and head the Maiduguri Regional Office. We left for our various offices with full alacrity as we saw our appointments as a challenge. We tried our best to open as many Retirement saving accounts as possible and by extension broaden the revenue base of the company.
One of our high points was the stellar performance we put while registering Police recruits at Maiduguri police College in August 2007. We registered the 2000 recruits available. On the low side, one day when coming back from a presentation delivered by the Head of Business Development and the Company Secretary at Head of Service’s office, Bauchi I was attacked by armed robbers along Damaturu – Maiduguri road, I together with the other passengers had to pass the night in the bush. The following morning I was scheduled for another presentation at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. This is how our itinerary was as regional managers. I really didn’t have time of my own at Trustfund as you are supposed to work 24/7 and in the course of that spending all you have including your monthly salaries just to ensure the job is done. But our effort and sacrifice to increase the fortunes of the company at the Regions is not appreciated by the Head Office as promises made were reneged with vehemence and oversights committed were amplified and punished severely.
The first regional Manager to throw in the towel was Chris from P/Harcourt then followed by your sincerely in March, 2008 and recently Mrs Hassan. But the most recent retrenchment is the most surprising as the top guns, the most influential representatives ’OLD WAR HORSES’ of the NSITF were also put in the cooler. These are people who have wielded so much power and influence blended with such flair of arrogance. Nobody thought they would ever leave the company in such a circumstance and am saying this without any equivocation but – presto!!! - They are gone.
The exercise is in top gear now as the positions of the remaining Regional Managers have been advertised in the national dailies a prelude to disengaging some of them. One wonders why this situation has continued with such impunity. What is even more poignant is the way and manner many of us are chased out, it is really tragic for some of us who are not of pension age to wake up one morning and find out that they are not in the pension business for no cause of theirs. But the fact still remains – it’s our company, we initiated it, we set it up - we built it.
Some people have been insinuating that what is happening in Trustfund was a result of an administrative oversight made by the former NSITF management led by Alhaji Rufa’I by allowing Accenture to produce the pioneer staff of the newly established office. They opined that the management should have allowed us (NSITF) staff to manage the new company given our robust experience in the management of individual pension, an experience running to over four decades. They contended that having been exposed through the various aspects of Business processes Management the NSITF staff are rightly positioned and have acquired all it takes to manage the new pension outfit. I wouldn’t agree more with this opinion but then, what Rufa’i did was in good faith especially when you consider the solid foundation he set by appointing about six management staff all from NSITF. Just look at this line up:
• Mr. Oseni Elama - Managing Director/ CEO
• Ikechuwcku Chukwucha – Head of Business Development and Marketing
• P S Okodua - Head of NSITF Funds
• G. Onokwai - Audit
• Racheal CCO
• Musa Nasir- Company Secretary
• The six Regional Managers
• A host of other staff
This is one of the legacies the Rufa’I led management bequeathed to Trustfund, so for anybody to insinuate that the Management had made a mistake that person is either not being fair to Rufa’i or he is just being mischievous. However, something is definitely wrong and I think it is not unconnected with the way and manner the NSITF ‘old war horses’ handle the affairs of the company abinitio.
Oseni Elama’s departure from Trustfund was a big blow to the Regional Managers but it was celebrated with fanfare by some of the ‘Old war horses’ because they knew that some of them wouldn’t have survived in the company if he had stayed any longer. The calculation was that with him out of the way, they will take full control of the office; several attempts were made to coerce the other side into submission but proved futile. At this stage Pencom interceded by bringing Mr. Bakare to superintend over the affairs of the company as stipulated by the enabling laws. His tenure was silent albeit there were some underground maneuver by the old war horses to outwit the other side so as to enable them have an edge when Bakare’s tenure expires but has not come to fruition as the other side remained resolute.
At the end of it all, Bakare recommended that Bernand should be appointed as M/D on acting capacity until the appointment of a substantive CEO. I was told that the appointment was based on his seniority over the old war horses. Having lost the power game to the other side, they deployed a strategy of ‘survival of the fittest’. To prove your loyalty to the new order you must show disdain for the Regional Managers and anything NSITF. Caution was thrown to the dogs, the company ceased to be a formal organization - a bureaucracy - where things are done with civility. Where the name of the individual does not matter, what matters is, has he done the right thing? Stuff like that. We were totally emasculated and ridiculed, subjected to all sort of intimidating languages and sometimes uncouth. We really became accustomed to this insult, embarrassing as it was; none of us had ever demanded to know why we were so treated. But my only consolation had always been if only Mr. Elama had lived long in Trustfund and was able to implement the decisions taken at the 1st MPR that took place in Kaduna, 2007 things would have been different.
The other side spectated the drama with delight, while at the same time warming themselves into the hearts of the Board members and consolidating their positions with such a managerial brio. But for the Old war Horses they have to contend with the reality. The reality is the fact that they just succeeded in creating in themselves a Frankenstein Monster.
I was told that when their sack letters came most of them were on leave. One of them was cruising the Avensis in his village when it was demobilized, he thought it was a glitch that could be easily rectified but was astounded to hear from one of the Village mechanics that the car was turn off from the office. While the other one had his office’s locks changed an indication of ‘your services are no longer required’. This is the type of treatment you mete out to a common criminal. What a pity!!!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Dear Mathias,
I read your piece captioned above in the daily trust newspapers dated Wednesday,July21,2010 and feel obliged to write and engage you with my views albeit the article was full of anger and somewhat abusive but has such an intellectual brio in content.
To start with am not a PDP card carrying member neither am I a member of any political party but I found the agreement entered in 1999 by the PDP to rotate offices between North and South after each eight years interesting and commendable. This is possibly the only way every part of the country would have a feel at the presidency, I feel if this is not done the coveted office might just revolve around a particular zone for ever.
To my mind all political parties in the country should emulate this noble cause and even extend the idea to go beyond the Presidency so that Governorship seats and Council chairmen seats should be rotated in both the states and Local Government areas. This has already been enshrined in our constitution in form of Federal Character and other extant policies.
I really do not know from which State you come from but for me am from Katsina, resident in Kaduna State and if you are conversant with the politics of the state I don’t know what you can do to a southern Kaduna indigene have a shot at the Government House; or if you are conversant with the politics of Kogi State what you can do to the Okun or even the Ibira man have a shot at the Government House, these examples are abound in the country. The point here is that it is democratically impracticable for a certain group of Nigerians especially the minorities to ever be elected into the coveted offices if zoning or power rotation or even constitutional balance as President Jonathan would say is not put in place.
Iam surprised you did not mention that zoning will breed incompetence as many writers oppose to it insinuate. In this time of our National development we do not need the African Union or even the United Nation for that matter to tell us who is competent to lead us to the promised land we have to do it ourselves and I tell you no ethnic group in Nigeria has the monopoly of competent people, they are so ubiquitous.
By the way, I share the sentiment of some of you that President Goodluck Jonathan is free to contest the presidency in 2011 but going by the dictates of the PDP constitution and the rotational agreement of the party he cannot but surely he can find solace elsewhere.
Thank you,
ISA AHMED
I read your piece captioned above in the daily trust newspapers dated Wednesday,July21,2010 and feel obliged to write and engage you with my views albeit the article was full of anger and somewhat abusive but has such an intellectual brio in content.
To start with am not a PDP card carrying member neither am I a member of any political party but I found the agreement entered in 1999 by the PDP to rotate offices between North and South after each eight years interesting and commendable. This is possibly the only way every part of the country would have a feel at the presidency, I feel if this is not done the coveted office might just revolve around a particular zone for ever.
To my mind all political parties in the country should emulate this noble cause and even extend the idea to go beyond the Presidency so that Governorship seats and Council chairmen seats should be rotated in both the states and Local Government areas. This has already been enshrined in our constitution in form of Federal Character and other extant policies.
I really do not know from which State you come from but for me am from Katsina, resident in Kaduna State and if you are conversant with the politics of the state I don’t know what you can do to a southern Kaduna indigene have a shot at the Government House; or if you are conversant with the politics of Kogi State what you can do to the Okun or even the Ibira man have a shot at the Government House, these examples are abound in the country. The point here is that it is democratically impracticable for a certain group of Nigerians especially the minorities to ever be elected into the coveted offices if zoning or power rotation or even constitutional balance as President Jonathan would say is not put in place.
Iam surprised you did not mention that zoning will breed incompetence as many writers oppose to it insinuate. In this time of our National development we do not need the African Union or even the United Nation for that matter to tell us who is competent to lead us to the promised land we have to do it ourselves and I tell you no ethnic group in Nigeria has the monopoly of competent people, they are so ubiquitous.
By the way, I share the sentiment of some of you that President Goodluck Jonathan is free to contest the presidency in 2011 but going by the dictates of the PDP constitution and the rotational agreement of the party he cannot but surely he can find solace elsewhere.
Thank you,
ISA AHMED
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