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Showing posts from November, 2017

CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME CAMPAIGN : REVISITING THE IMPERATIVES FOR SUCCESS

  Last Year, President Muhammadu Buhari( PMB)launched the new National Orientation campaign called: Change Begins with me. In his address at the launch, PMB said " We must resist the temptation to fall on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our Country for so long"   I am one of those who have consistently called for a national reorientation that will bring real change to how we conduct ourselves and present ourselves to the outside World  and particularly to  broaden and deepen the fight against corruption. I had fully agreed with former UK Prime Minister David Cameron that Nigeria was "fantastically corrupt" and opined that merely focusing on the alleged corrupt election funding of the former ruling party was only scratching the surface. So I congratulated PMB for launching this campaign. One year down the line and with all issues that have arisen since the launch especially the latest-Mainagate, I am wondering if we are truly m

EASE OF DOING BUSINESS: NEED FOR SUSTAINED RIGOUR

  Last week, we received the hearty news that Nigeria's position on the Global ease of doing business index improved significantly. In the 2017 rankings released by the World Bank, Nigeria moved from the 169th position to the 145th Position, thus gaining 24 positions. This is a great feat that deserves commendation to all, put particularly we commend the recent efforts of the Presidential Ease of doing Business Council chaired by the Vice President.   After achieving a peak of 120th position out of 181Countries surveyed in 2008, Nigeria remained on a roller-coaster since then, hitting the rocks at the 170th position in 2014. Worried by this depressing descent, the Federal government set up the Ease of Doing Business Council last year, which went to work to determine first, an action plan to address specific areas of business difficulties in Nigeria. This Committee which includes the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Minister of Finance and 8 other Ministers also ha

MAINA' S SAGA ENDS THIS PHASE OF PMB'S ANTI-CORRUPTION AGENDA

  It is a pity that two and half years into PMB's 4-year term we have to bring this phase of PMB's anti-corruption agenda to an end. This has become very necessary to save PMB and all those who wish Nigeria well from continued embarrassment. With the high drama of Maina's reinstatement into the Civil service, it is reasonable to conclude that we are not making much headway with fighting real corruption in Nigeria.   Maina was accused of embezzling or stealing billions of Pension funds which he was called to manage. EFCC investigated him and found that he had a case to answer. The Federal Government that he was working for, after investigating him, dismissed him from the civil service. The National Assembly invited him, he refused to show up. The EFCC invited him, he failed to show up but ran away to a foreign country to evade justice. Thereafter EFFC declared him wanted and he became a fugitive.    Then PMB came to power on the steam of an ANTICORRUPTION and ch