IMPUNITY IN THE NIGERIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Credited to: voiceofnigeria.org.ng

"A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom". -Bob Dylan.

When the inventors of democracy invented it, they did so with the principal aim of replacing despotic and authoritarian rulerships that were found dotted unfortunately at every nook and cranny of our planet earth since the medieval era.   These despots and autocrats were not answerable to anyone and not even to themselves.

Democracy at its core; is to give the law abiding citizens the freedom in pursuit of happiness within the confines of the law with responsibility attached to this very freedom that all of humanity are entitled to unimpeded.

Therefore, it is safe for one to say that freedom is not without responsibility. And anything short of this is no longer freedom but lawlessness and impunity, where anyone and everyone can wake up and do whatever in the name of freedom and this will be a total and a definite reversal to the despotic and autocratic rulerships that has been replaced decades ago, if not centuries.

One is therefore appalled at the new invention where the NASS abruptly feel that their freedom should be without responsibility. And indeed they feel that they are a government on their own and they are not accountable to anyone, not even to the very people that put them there in the first place. NASS who are supposedly the representatives of the people have turned they back on their masters (people) and the very laws they enacted themselves.

In any sane and democratic society, no person or institution has absolutely powers. As the saying goes “absolute power corrupt absolutely”. The makers and the designers of our constitution were not oblivion of this, albeit military as some may want to argue.

Therefore, the doctrines of separation of powers as enshrined in our constitution is to ensure that the three arms of government at any level has the freedom to perform their constitutionally assigned  duties without undue interference from another arm of government.  But this same freedom is not without constraints and limits. And to make sure that no arm of government becomes autocratic and unchecked. The doctrine of checks and balances is also enshrined in the same constitution; where the three arms of government have the powers to check each other with the sole purpose of keep each other in check and thereby avoiding excesses that might arise in course of performing assigned duties.

The separation of powers does not in any way preclude members of the NASS from obeying the laws of the land. And it does not in any way given a leeway to members of the NASS not to be charged to court of competent jurisdiction, where a prime facie case has been established against any of them or all of them as case may be. And this is applicable to all Nigerians of which NASS is part.

Cases abound even in advanced democracies like the US where members of congress are charge to court by the department of Justice headed by an appointee of the US president. And as recent as this June 21^st a democrat member of House of Representative in President Obama’s party, a black man like him, Mr.Chaka Fattah was convicted and will be sentence in October, 2016 and he has chosen to resign from his position. His son is already convicted. And no member of his party took placard to the street. In short members of both parties in the congress even helped to accelerate his resignation so as to avoid an embarrassing scene in the congress with the full support of his party leadership in the congress.

Unlike Nigeria; Senators Saraki and Ekwremandu would have sponsored a standby pseudo-Youth Congress in person of Imo Ugochinyere Ikenga and co. to go to any TV station available to tell Nigerians and the world on how the FG is out to carry out extrajudicial family cleansing, to oppress the opposition and to commit genocides against a particular tribe in this case, be a black man in the US would have fit their rhetoric and bigotry. And that was why Ekwremandu chose to dress in the attire he put on in court on the day of his arraignment. The attire that Senator Ekwremandu himself cannot recall the last time he put  it on, so as to incite tribal and sectional sentiments.

To these end members of the NASS and indeed every Nigerian is not above the law, as it is in other democracies, where we did a copycat of their constitution. And more so those who chose to lead us should be ready at any time to come to the court of public scrutiny. And where a prima facie case has been established against them they should honorably go to court and defend themselves, instead of playing to the gallery.

The courts are there as part of the democratic institutions where aggrieved parties can go and find justice, instead of the medieval era where the powerful ones were the law by themselves and were not accountable to no one.

Additionally, the assertion credited to the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki that there is ‘government within government’ of the present administration lead by PMB is a case of a monkey insulting its infant that “see your face”. This unsubstantiated assertion ought to be made against the current 8^th NASS, who has been relentlessly trying to create a government within government. They never felt to be part of the present government to make it work. They have amended existing laws to water down the powers of the president more than they enacted laws that will benefit the very people that voted them. They are quick to amend laws that will protect their corrupt deals. But they shilly-shallied when it comes to any law that will ameliorate the sufferings of a common man or woman on the street.

They are quick to come together and forget their political differences on matters that affect their common pockets but they will always disagree on things that concern the poor man and woman of Nigeria.

This impunity is unacceptable and all well meaning Nigerians should as a matter of imperative; stand up against any institution including the executive, the judiciary and the legislature who feels to be above the very laws governing of our very existing.

GOD Bless Nigeria.

Emmanuel I. Sule writes from Lagos Nigeria.
you can contact him on: www.julijacks.blogspot.com.ng  

THE TIME BOMB IN THE OIL AND GAS & A DEMISING FUTURE

Credited to: blog.radissonblu.com

The demand for oil and gas will still continue to grow in the foreseeable. According to EIA estimates: "global petroleum and other liquid fuels inventory builds will average 1.0 million b/d in 2016. Inventory builds are expected to continue into 2017, but at a generally decreasing rate, averaging 0.3 million b/d for the year". EIA  went further to projects that "global consumption of petroleum and other liquid fuels to increase by 1.5 million b/d in both 2016 and 2017", which will be mostly influenced "by growth in countries outside of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Non-OECD consumption growth was an estimated 0.9 million b/d in 2015, and it is expected to be 1.3 million b/d in 2016 and 1.4 million b/d in 2017".

This is despite concerted and relentless efforts by inventors and technology savvies to find alternate sources of fuels that are cheaper, efficient and more environmentally friend.

However, the survival of the industry will mostly depends on the industry experts and operators that will be bold enough to invest and invent new strategies. Strategies that will help them keep their heads above the waters in this arena of fierce competitions and low prices of fuel. Especially with economic slowdowns that have affected almost all the producers couple with the competition among producers to glean any market space available.The competition for market for the products can only get fiercer especially with the return of Iran and continuous high levels of production by OPEC members.

The current fluctuating upward movements of crude oil prices are unsustainable; this is principally because of the factors that have led to this price increases. These are US storage levels reductions plus wild fire in Canada that greatly affected their sand oil productions and the crisis in the Nigerian Niger Delta. These factors are transient and can be fixed by the affected countries. As US, Canadian and Nigerian governments can  deal decisively with these situations and end the happy and celebration party abruptly.

Third and may be the more enduring  factor may be the inability of shale gas producers to stay above waters, as most of them have already started feeling the pinch of low prices and many have defaulted and breached  their debt covenants with their lenders. And this means that production levels will drop significantly. This position of low production levels has been succinctly supported by EIA  data released on June 7 this year. Non-OPEC production levels will continue to drop progressively but this may not compensates for low prices substantially, as OPEC member states will continue to sell more oil in order to balance their books and reduce their deficit budgets in Q3 and Q4 of 2016 and going into 2017.

It is therefore imperative for the operators and stakeholders to adopt sustainable and proactive management strategies that can respond almost intuitively to the challenges, and to carefully invest in technologies that can help reduced the cost of production and enhance profitability in medium to long terms.

And more importantly, oil and gas companies should invest not just in their capital development projects or technologies, but should as a matter of priority; invest heavily in the human capital development of their workforce and should also ensure that their contractors also do same. The general trend especially in the Third World countries where contracts are awarded to indigenous contracting firms that do not train their workforce is not only harmful to the industry in the short term but destructive, in a long run and is capable of causing a demise of the industry. As the older workforce is fast aging and most of them are out of date with new technologies and skills needed. 

With the discovery of new frontiers especially offshore, oil and gas operators should take the training of workforce seriously. Major E&P are as guilty as their contractors, they deliberately used this ‘strategy’ in the name of  reducing cost especially in the Third World countries where regulatory frameworks are weak or non-existence, even where they exist, they are barely implemented or monitored. This ‘strategy’ is a Biblical 'Haman' strategy that will end up destroying the very E&P themselves, as the aging workforce is hardly been replaced by qualified and trained young ones.

According to World Economic Forum:  “a deficit in skilled workers has affected the industry’s ability to deliver projects safely, profitably and on time”, especially in the new frontiers where explorations and productions come with their accompanied complexity and risk of projects.

The industry has to get it right with its human capital development aspect of the investment.Their valuable assets-people. But these assets can not be valuable, if the assets are not the right assets. Technologies cannot operate in isolation. High risks of project will be greatly reduced if right skilled workers are deployed.

And this will going a long way to help reduce the actual cost  where most of the E&Ps spend more on projects due to lack of skilled workers to deploy in manning projects. Some E&Ps severally, had gone to extent of contracting two or more companies to do the same job, in case one of them fails. This double or triple contracting will be eliminated if skilled workers are trained and deployed.

Additionally, in the Third World countries where restiveness in places of operations is prevalent, this will not only help E&Ps in their operations but will also help reduce unemployment.  Thus, youthful hands will be engaged in more productive ventures. And it will also enhance the corporate image of the E&Ps.

However, the current situation where E&Ps and their privileged contractors are seen by the workers especially local workers as predators is rather worrisome. This image, most of the times portray E&Ps in a bad light. The host communities also do view these ‘cost cutting strategy’ as predatory and exploitative as most of them are not employable because of lack of relevant skills needed by the operators.

Consequently, E&Ps and their contractors can do well by establishing mini training centers that can cater for the skills development of their workforce and their host communities. This will help them, to eventually reduce the cost in the long term and in turn, they will have a healthier and skilled workforce that is well trained and is ready to take on the challenges of the new discoveries even in uncharted waters.

Emmanuel Sule writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

JUSTIN BIEBER WAS KNOCK DOWN IN A FIGHT

courtesy of billboard.com

Popular American musician is in the news again for not too good reasons.

According to TMZ.com he was involved in a physical brawl with a guy that was big than him on Wedenesday night near his hotel in Cleveland Ohio in USA.

At the time of filing this report julijacks.blogsot.com could not ascertain the cause of the ferocious fight.

However, it was learnt that Justin Bieber was in town for an NBA game and he was seen  wearing a Cleveland Cavaliers shirt.

In addition some eyes witness said that he was be pressurized by Paparazzi for photo photos.

visit the link below to see account by account details of what transpired. Courtesy of TMZ.com. 

http://www.tmz.com/2016/06/09/justin-bieber-fist-fight-video-cleveland/

THE SHAME OF THE NATION

“A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

With this notable quote from a revered American statesman, I am tempted unstoppably to say that, that may be one of the reasons why our elitist class does what they do- blind stealing with visor.

The corruption in Nigeria has no definition even in a well venerated Oxford dictionary. Indeed no dictionary in the world can conveniently define this lexicon aptly in Nigerian context. May be in GOD’s dictionary which is beyond mere mortals like us, but even there; if not because of His omnipotence; this cancer that has permeated every strand of Nigerian societal fabric, would have elude celestial definition and elucidation.  It seems that all they learned is how to change figures, steal and if possible destroy. They have now learned to steal in billions of dollars; soon they will transit into trillions of dollars if they continue at this rate.

I was impressed when I saw the list of monies and properties so far recovered from our ‘professional’ looters (albeit their names were omitted. I am told is a legal issue) as released by Mr. Lai Mohammed’s aide. I said ‘professional’ astringently and satirically because only in Nigeria, that a sitting legislator will leave his core duty of legislating for the wellbeing of his people, and be advocating for a chartered status for politicians. They should as well advocate, for a chartered status for looters. After all that is the trade they are good at and well known for.

But all I can say is: good job to; all the agencies that were involved and the PMB government for the political will that allowed the various agencies of State to do justice and the right things. This is just the beginning the end is not in sight.

I now know with incontrovertible evidences, why these looters and profligate maniacs took to the social media, newspapers and electronic media like untamed and famished locusts to misinform the unsuspecting public and to distract PMB government from pursuing a well intended crusade to sweep these plunderers and looters out of our system and body polity.

We are fully aware that these saboteurs and socio-economic traitors thought initially that it was a mere political mantra to; fight corruption and that it will fade away as usual after few months. What next: they will come out as usual like dry season’s fire and loot mindlessly and this time horrifically without any modicum of mercy.

These enemies of the Nigerian State, who should be cooling off somewhere in Apapa (Maximum Prison) did not recede in doing what they know how to do best, they went ahead and in connivance with languorous civil servants (with the exception of few of them), who are slow to do their jobs but quick to change figures; padded the well structured 2016 budget even to the amazement of Mr. Bernie Madoff in prison somewhere in the US, therefore, making his thievery a child play.

This bizarre act of thieving makes even professional larcenies and heists to rethink their strategies. In short they have to dust and revise their crime 101 lesson books in order to update their knowledge using Nigeria as a case study. We call this madness: lootocracy of the highest level. If Abraham Lincoln is alive today; Nigerians civil servants and their political collaborators would have forced him to amend his definition of democracy to lootocracy as: “government of the looters by the looters for the looters. They care less of anyone.  

And when their devious deals were discovered by patriotic servants of the Nigerian State, these barefaced lootocrats were everywhere in the media lampooning the government of the day and they tried  laboriously to make us believe that they were the ones that discovered their satanic and stealthy acts of padding the budgets, hence we should canonize them as saints. Pope must hear this!

However, they were and they are still disappointed and disillusioned with the unwavering stands of PMB government. The government was and is still resolute on war against this cancerous corruption. The evil servants in Budget Office were moved and their surreptitious inclusions in the budget were unmasked and expunged by vigilant PMB and his team.

The only thing and the best option left for these brazen corrupt elements was to blackmail government; by using and making ludicrous pronouncements and hosting media conferences. These tireless swindlers can do anything to survive. They sponsored sabotage, create scenarios that will make the government look bad, so as to force government to bow to public pressures.

This dreary tactic worked for them in the past because they know that most of us are dehumanized and impoverished by them for years. Therefore we are always at their beck and call. In addition, most of our people are emptied stomach and hence; gullible and malleable, especially when garnished with little religio-tribal bigotry costumes and financial inducements. But they have failed woefully and ignobly this time. Thanks to GOD and PMB definitive stands.

The looters of our commonwealth are panicking and shivering feverishly. But all we want is: #BringBackOurMoney, period. And you are healed.  There will be no more high fevers when you hear EFCC or PMB. And you will stop committing another sin by wishing PMB dead or EFCC Chair dead in your mind. After all PMB said it: you have nothing to fear if you are clean from any embezzlement and you did not betrayed our trusts.

We want a Nigeria where every one of us should determine his or her destiny like the legend Bob Marley once sang. This should be, irrespective of one’s family background. We want a country where hard work counts and is rewarded and not the other way round.

Enough of using our resources to rewards thuggish and ill-nurtured behaviours and characters. We want our youths to know that hard work, honesty and resilience pays.

Nigeria as a country is in dire need of men and women of integrity. Integrity is a scarce commodity in Nigeria. It cannot be found on our supermarkets’ shelves not to talk of it on the streets of our cities and villages. This should and must be a source of concerns to all of us.

We want a country where tribe is not a yardstick for prosperity. But where our culture and diversities are cherished and honour. And not just honoured but to be a source of prosperity for all. We want a country where religion is a matter of personal conviction, moral and spiritual rejuvenation than a source of disunity and hatred. We want a country where honesty and patriotism is celebrated and exalted. That is the country every well meaning and sane Nigerian should aspire for.

Those who are honest in their private and public dealings and do not take arms against their people and government should be and must be rewarded. Those who choose the path of honour to engage relevant authorities in addressing their grievances and discontentment should be encouraged and listened to.

While change is inevitable in life, it is also not palatable especially at the beginnings, most of the times. It comes with both physiological and anatomical re-organisation of lives.  And at times stepping on toes of the ‘untouchables’ is inevitable. This is very true not only in public service but it is even more prevalent and ubiquitous in a corporate world where results are the mainstay of the corporate institutions. Who strive and survive on results, without it, there will be no them.

Therefore, bringing real change is like breaking down your old house for renovation or expansion as case may be. It will bring inconveniences and discomforts to the occupants and it will cause confusion and puzzles the young minds at times. But what matters is the end result.

A country like ours that is used to doing the same thing–corruption, all the times since 1960 even before, it will take time even for the victims of corruption to realize that the fight the present government is wading is even their fight and not that of the PMB government. The government of PMB would have chosen to do the same thing with same unproductive results to the admiration of the elitist class, lootocrats and their cohorts.

According to PwC report (https://www.pwc.com/ng/en/assets/pdf/impact-of-corruption-on-nigerias-economy.pdf) corruption alone ‘’could cost Nigeria up to 37% of its GDP by 2030’’. And that is not far from now. Statistically, a chunk of Nigeria’s population is between 18 years to 35 years (http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/nigeria-population/) and by 2030 most of the lower limit of these demographics will be in their primes and the upper limit of it will be approaching their retirement ages. And the question is; what is the future for us here, if we continue on this same trajectory of astronomic and exponential stealing and profligacy- corruption. 

In 2014 alone, corruption cost Nigeria $1000/person, this is according to PwC. And in 2030 it will be up to $2000/person approximately. These figures are alarming and disquieting to any sane mind. But, this is the reality that all of us have to face, and take it up hastily without dillydally.  Because our looters are not vacillating about what they can do when they laid their hands on our commonwealth. They think of how to build and secure their children’s children futures.  Their profligacy is next to none. They loot without recourse. And now that we are blessed with a government that is ready to face them, all we can do is to support this government morally and in whatever way possible.

The decision and indecision of this government on certain issues of governance may even affect us but we have to be patriotic enough to see rationality in most of the decisions of government. After all they are not infallible, especially as it pertains to corruption-the nation’s cancer.

But that does not in any way exonerate and insulate the government from constructive criticisms which is the hallmark of democracy. And in doing this; we should not be oblivion of these unscrupulous and same devious elements that have held us captive and kept us lean while they feed fat on us. These swindlers they surreptitiously and clandestinely infiltrate genuine critics and claimed to be critics of government for good. 

Democracy is not ‘demos’ and ‘crazy’, where well conceived decisions that do not go our ways must be seen in a bad light and criticized destructively and selfishly. All democracies blossom on the basis of checks and balances. And it is not only within the purview of the three arms of government to check and balance themselves, but also by the entire citizenry. This we all ought to do. We should ask pertinent questions and demand answers from our elected and unelected officials. In short we should demand accountability from all and sundry.

It is in our clime that digging into someone’s source or sources of income and livelihood is a taboo and abomination. And that is why corruption thrives here with reckless abundance.  In every country and hamlet where corruption is fought to the barest minimum, one will observed cursorily that accountability is at the core of such fight and it is indeed an irrefutable panacea for corruption reduction in any setting.

The era of ‘get rich quick’ by finding yourself in public office is with gradualism becoming shibboleth and a thing of the past. Civil and public servants are reluctantly coming to this realization that things have to change, for us to move forward. It might not happen tomorrow but with our support and unflinching and dogged determinations we will get there and build a prognostic future for ourselves and our children’s children. And we should be ashamed and act.

God Bless Nigeria.

 Emmanuel Iormbahan Sule

Write from Lagos, Nigeria.

You can contact me on julijack.blogspot.com