WHEN THE SAINTS … Reflections on All Saints Day

It won’t mean much to you if you are not Catholic, but today is All Saints’ Day. It’s a holy day of obligation too, which means the day is very nearly at par with Easter and Christmas and all the main feasts of the Church. And what has that got to do with the price of fuel, you may ask. Not much perhaps; except that some very committed Catholics may feel quite obliged not to open their petrol kiosks today. Yes, my dear, the day is quite heavy on the Catholic calendar. With good reason as well because, sainthood is rather a serious affair in the Church. Indeed, the Catholic faith would be less so, but for the saints-holy men and women-whose exemplary devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ has led countless souls to the Fountain of Life. Many of them were martyrs for their faith. Their blood and sweat watered the little acorn to become the mighty oak whose roots and branches spread from Rome to every corner of the globe. Many more were humble priests, nuns and lay people who simply showed the Way to a righteous and meaningful life. They preached the gospel by their actions and the Light shone so brightly in them that all could see and glorify their Father in Heaven! However, I make bold to assert that the Christian faith is not alone in the recognition of saintly persons. In the month of Ramadan, faithful Muslims devote much of their meditations to the study of writings and sermons by eminent Islamic priests and zealots. Around the Muslim world there are pilgrimages and festivals in honour of such mystics. Buddhism has one great saint after whom The Path is named. Other monks of consequence tend to lose their importance in the luminance of their incarnated bodies! The sadhus and sanyasi of the Krishna Movement and other Hindu sects are probably as numerous as the lotus blooms on the Yogi trail. You name them- Ekhankar, Grail Message, White Eagle Lodge and all the “ancient sacred orders”- any band of worshippers with the faintest notion of a Hereafter, have to their credit forerunners long gone, in whose “enlightened” steps they are trudging behind. The Church probably differs only by the degree of reverence she accords her saints. “Why do we thus praise and glorify the saints and keep festival for them? Of what use to them are earthly honours, when the Heavenly Father honours them? What is the point of our praises?” These engaging queries were raised by Bernard of Clairvoux way back in the 12th Century. Bernard, a Cistercian monk, was famous all over Europe in his days for his untiring efforts to bring dissenting Catholics back to the fold. He wrote several books on theology and the ascetic life and many years after his death, he too was rewarded with the crown of sainthood. St. Bernard is much distinguished also for having a breed of dogs named after him! The lives of saints, it may seem then, are the stuff of legends: inspiring tales that challenge our own spirituality and mark them out as exemplary folk. Yet, in those days not long ago, when “dialectical materialism” ruled the hearts of men, the saints and their stories were easily dismissed as fables; strong opiates to fool the gullible masses. But Marxism had its ‘saints’-brave men who swayed the 20th century with their vision of reality: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Che, Mao and many others. Okay, none of them was really a saint in that spiritual sense, but each of them held a torch- yes, a temporal one- by which they set certain standards of conduct for their teeming followers. And if, by any stretch of materialist whimsy, there is a dialectical paradise somewhere beyond this plane, can you bet your Bible, Koran or Bhagavad-Gita, that Karl Marx would not be there, too broke as usual to buy a razor blade? The trouble, you may point out, is that oftentimes the ‘saints of dialectics’ fall victims to their own swords: their histories ‘re-written’ in the sweeping cut of the History they tried so hard to rewrite! It’s the same fate largely for all our popular heroes, our politicians and statesmen. Not so the spiritual men and women, whose lives preach to us enduring sermons about timeless truths. History is nobler for paying them their correct dues because, as St Bernard points out: “our commemoration of them aids us, not them”. How? By showing us, in the saints, mirror images of selfless love, charity, piety, chastity and all the virtues that our poor world has always lacked. Even the most admirable of our materialist or political heroes, Che Guevara for example, came up by taking from a few to compensate the many. The saints of the Church give only of themselves. They bear the brunt alone for their convictions and will not take from anyone but may receive from many or none at all. Perhaps, nobody in contemporary times radiated these essential attributes more than Mother Theresa of Calcutta who, in 2003, was venerated by Pope John Paul II, at a ceremony in Rome. The diminutive Albanian nun, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1997, needs no introduction here. Her exertion on behalf of the poor and orphaned of her adopted city, Calcutta, is one of the most heartwarming tales of the century. Plainly, the world is in dire need of many more Mother Theresas to teach that love is the potent weapon of choice in our battles against every imaginable social ill. The necessity for such visionaries has never been much in doubt. What is not too clear, especially to non- Catholics are the criteria for the elevation of persons to saints. I agree, it has the strange feel of putting a mortal stamp on a spiritual attainment. If God makes saints and men crown them, there is then the palpable fear that human prejudices can distort the true judgment of Heaven! That is probably the sum of Protestant arguments against the beatification process, although saints already in existence prior to the schisms of the early Church are recognized by the Episcopal, the Lutheran and Orthodox Christian sects. One might wonder why the Church, which does not preach that only Catholics will go to Heaven, does not elevate people of other faiths and sects to the hallowed ranks. Why, for example, is John Wesley not a saint? Precisely because, Presbyters follow his teachings and will not accept that he be honoured in that way! Naturally, no one could possibly be a saint who, while living, did not subscribe to the veneration and canonization of worthy souls. But Catholics, resting their faith on the authority of the Church, gladly welcome each new addition to the communion of saints. Of course, only one man is fit to make the announcement; His Holiness, the Pope. Our recollection of the saints and commemoration of All Saints is simply for our own benefit. As St. Bernard says, it is “to inflame our desire…And to merit becoming their fellow citizens and companions” in the Eternal Kingdom. Blessed Tansi, our own Cyprian Tansi agrees. Speaking of the saints to a group of school children, who visited the monastery in England in 1964, he described them as “our friends in court”, to plead our case before the Tribunal above. On a day like this therefore, that ageless spiritual strikes a resonating chord for added significance in believing ears. Like me, you may prefer the jazzed up versions. The biting roughness of Satchmo’s scratchy evergreen vocals has a poignant effect. “When the saints…Oh, when the saints Go marching in… Lord I want..” Yeah, count me in, I beg you Lord! *First published in Saturday Champion November 1, 2003

Ayo Salami: The Curse of Justice

Justice exists, like it or not. Never too far away, but mostly around court buildings, though she may play hard to get. Blindfolded, she clutches a scale in one hand. The other wields a sword. She is the archetypal symbol of a mind that brooks no bias, but is most impartial and fair. Whoever dreamt up this world class logo must have imagined a utopia where human beings would cease to be human: that is to say, crass, greedy, deceitful, selfish and conniving. Such a place does not exist; not on this side of reality anyway. Still, in spite of that, Lady Justice represents a tireless search for the ideal, for parity and excellence in human relations. Bottom line, justice is a human creation, or did you ever see two dogs going to some court over a bone or piece of crap? No. The stronger hound takes it. Case closed. So, having agreed that we are dealing with a human invention for dousing contention and enthroning equity in society, it stands to reason that different societies should have different models of what is fair and good for the maintenance of peace in their societies. The jury system of American courts illustrates this point in a fashion. It is no surprise then, that we have a Nigerian model of Lady Justice, decked out as it were in wrapper and head gear to match, though it seems as if her blindfold is always slightly askew. And so we come to the matter of Ayo Salami et al and the naked dance in the market place that has become the twit of the universe. (Yes dear, you may twit about this post too) Strange country we do have, yes. Dirty linen? Tell that to the hogs. Shame is on exile and disgrace has lost its odious value. Why did things get so bad, you might ask and my answer is, because we lost a sense of the sacred, that’s why. How is that? Rewind, please, to a packed courtroom in 1963 and a famous case of treasonable felony against a leading politician of the era and his close aides. Summing up his verdict on the highly contentious and explosive trial, the judge declared with every hint of sadness, “My hands are tied,” before delivering a sentence of ten years on the first defendant. Perhaps, it was a most injudicious admission of regret, an inadvertent and unwarranted admission of guilt for conniving with the powers that were. Well, that is how the teeming supporters of the politician (with the active encouragement of the more educated party stalwarts) saw it. In the heightened partisan climate of the times, this could arguably have been the case. But in the absence of any viable proof, the contrary and innocent meaning of that confession should apply: Sorry, I’m bound by the evidence before me to pronounce you guilty. Left unsaid, but sadly implied, were his potent partisan feelings for the first defendant. But you may tell that to the birds anyway: A lasting damage has been done on society and the judiciary has been the worse for it ever since. This is the lesson of that historical moment. Politics had invaded the scared chambers of justice and knocked its silvery wig to the ground. Of course, it’s ever so easy to castigate politicians for playing politics the only way they know how; like a wrestling or rugby match as opposed to a game of tennis. But only a fool would suppose that politicians dare not attempt to influences judges or that judges would never fall for the bait. In other, saner societies, everyone- journalists, politicians included- is wary of casting unproven aspersions against judicial officers. Now, the restraint in their attacks is not merely for fear of the legal consequences. Rather, everyone understands that the sacred trust of the judiciary is theirs to protect. The judiciary is very like a masquerade. There’s someone behind the fearful mask, not a spirit like children are made to believe. But sensible adults do not tell because, to disrobe the masquerade or reveal the identity of the masquerader is to destroy the very essence of the carnival. Ditto for Lady Justice. The blindfold has little or no meaning if we do not believe that the fair minded lady is not peering through the cloth. True justice rests on the people’s confidence in the judicial process. Take that away and the entire structure collapses like a sandcastle in the rain. For all the wounds that politicians and press thugs have inflicted on the judiciary, it is a great surprise that Nigerians still go to court for justice. Let’s “fast forward” now to the eighties, when a military despot with a Hitlerite moustache, tried to beat everyone into a disciplined line. His draconian rule saw to the swift sentence of a mouthy musician for the effrontery of having foreign currency in his pocket while boarding a plane for an overseas tour. Push the button again. One year later, the judge who administered the legal whiplash on the “currency trafficker”, is on a visit to a hospital where the mouthy musician is also a patient. He asks to commiserate with the sick convict. It’s a kindly Christian gesture to visit the sick, no? “E don’ beg me!” the Wild One reported days afterwards and a band of willing fans and sympathisers desiring to undo the great havoc wrought by the arch dictator with the Hitlerite moustache, play into the crafty hands of his gap-toothed successor. Without much ado, a judge of great standing is dismissed from office for no greater misdemeanor than paying a sick call. Well, if the politicians pulled the silvery wig off the head of a snoozing judiciary, the military men marched routinely on the esteemed head gear in a long parade that lasted fourteen years and more. One of them, a “phantom” coup plotter of those years, has been quoted as saying, “I know of judges who write two opposing judgments and keep both in their drawer for the highest bidder.” What greater insult can the judiciary swallow without blinking? Looking back, it was no surprise when Justices of the Supreme Court suffered the further indignity of bribery allegations en masse against their persons and offices. They were accused of favouring the Federal Military Government and receiving gifts of expensive cars as kickbacks in a case involving another weighty politician, who got a mandate he was never able to claim. Our egungun had lost its face in the market square. Whatever became of that bribery case, can anyone tell? Since then of course, the image of our esteemed judiciary has tumbled downhill, like one yeye ball, as that mouthy musician would love to sing, wey jus’ dey roll for one yeye corner…” As anyone can see, therefore, the Katsina-Alu/ Ayo Salami roforofo fight was a scandal just waiting to happen. The judiciary has been in a proper mess at its topmost chambers. Mouths agape, we watch without much inkling how to intervene as the controversy gets ever more contentious by the day. At stake here, is not just the pride or sensibility of any judicial officer but the sanctity of the hallowed institution along with the trust and confidence of the people. Many questions remain unresolved. Did Salami compromise his office as President of the Court of Appeal? Dis Katsina-Alu arm twist him for failing to toe some injudicious line on the Sokoto State gubernatorial tussle? Having gone to court to clear his name, could Salami function in one breath as a litigant for the same office? How would he relate with members of the Bench with whom he is yet in court? Having had the Senate approve the appointment of an acting President of the Court of Appeal, should not President Jonathan refer his re-instatement back to the Senate for re-approval? What happens to Salami’s case against the Judicial Council and the several litigations surrounding this messy matter? Finally, where do we place the organised rally in protest against his delayed re-instatement, with all the odious implications of that political stunt? Taking all of these in proper perspective, no one can blame President Jonathan for exercising caution on the matter. The president is very likely to seek every legal and political advice he can muster for the right and patriotic decision to take. Meanwhile, it behoves us all, judges, lawyers, journalists and politicians to shield the judiciary from further embarrassment. Like the distraught wives of a polygamist whose husband has run amuck, we must all put aside our petty differences and rally around to retie his loosened loin cloth. Indeed, the shame of our judiciary is the shame of every sensible citizen. The journalists among us must temper their pens and refrain from spreading unfounded and malicious gossip about judicial officers. As stated, we are not suggesting that judicial officers cannot err. Rather, journalists and their editors should put their investigative skills at work to unmask and shame those corrupt officers who are giving the Bench a bad name. Justice Ayo Salami must also weigh his position carefully and consider the role he may play to defuse the controversy generated by his face-off with the retired chief justice of Nigeria. When he was promoted to the Supreme Court, he rejected the offer and called it a “Greek gift.” After the shameful protest in favour of his re-instatement, how may we now label his recall? Poisoned Chalice? Will he feel proud to take back his seat after the appalling mudslinging match of the past year? It should serve him better to resign honourably now and fight to have his name cleared at the courts. The lady wields a double edged sword. It cuts both ways. That is the curse of justice. Like every fair lady, we may chase her and never catch her: to our disappointment. Take heart, Sir, and help save the institution to which you have given your most.

SHE CAME, WAS TAXED…SHE TRIUMPHED

“Let’s give unto Ifueko… a rousing ovation!” A pervading calmness describes her overt spirit. This, from sources close to her eight-year reign at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), confirms the latent weight of that first name: Ifueko- potent avowal by delighted Edo parents of a restful end to the frightful pangs of pregnancy and the desire perhaps for a baby girl. Sole daughter among the five Omoigui children, we can say with benefit of hindsight that she was born with a knack for making the essential difference. The official records celebrate her sparkling academic laurels from primary through secondary school (Queen’s College, Yaba) and thence to the University of Lagos, where she veered from the sciences to accountancy and a career in top flight financial advisory services. Still, there is no indication that she was prepared for that telephone call in May 2004 when finance minister Okonjo-Iweala informed that President Obasanjo had pencilled her for the job of helmswoman at FIRS. The opinion is rife that Obansanjo wanted a respected professional without any known strings to the establishment to drive the tax reforms envisaged by his administration. The parameters for re-tooling and resuscitating the moribund tax regime in Nigeria had been spelt out in 2002 by two study groups from the public and private sectors of the economy. Ifueko Omoigui’s credentials stood her in rather attractive stead as the person most likely to deliver the promised goodies. For all that however, she was treading on new, uncharted grounds that would prove the toughest challenge of her career to date. "The president was thinking about the whole economic reform agenda," she deposed to interviewers in 2009. Without a sustainable revenue base, she argued, “no other developmental plan or objective could be met." Central to this strategic goal is Vision 20: 20: 20, the bold twenty year plan to launch the Nigeria economy to the ranks of the top twenty economies of the world by the year 2020. Looking back, it seems most auspicious that Ifueko Omoigui had led the technical team for Vision 2010, the 1996 brainchild of the Nigeria Economic Summit and first ever attempt to enunciate long term strategic goals for the national economy. That assignment summarized a gnawing national need and showcased her ardent patriotic spirit. This, apart from erudite track records at the accounting firms of Akintola Williams & Co., Arthur Andersen (now Andersen) and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) – where she garnered loads of valuable experience in audit, tax and various management consulting functions, before going solo with ReStraL Ltd., her own baby consultancy outfit in 1996, was the clincher that got her the presidential nod. Her brief at FIRS: to bring to renewed life and vitality a moribund institution and reclaim its pride of place in the national economy. At her resignation after two terms in April 2012, the Nigerian public went agog with profuse thanks for a job well accomplished. Their loud ovation underscored the daunting challenges of transforming a revenue service hampered by poor funding and even poorer staffing. With the emergence of oil as the topmost revenue earner of the Nigerian economy, taxation took a back coach on the fiscal policy train. The biting economic depression of the eighties and beyond forced policy makers to consider that improved revenues from taxation could cushion the harsher effects of overdependence on oil. The FIRS came to life in 1993 to pursue this noble goal but for reasons already stated, failed to deliver on its mandate. When she took over in May 2004, less than 15% of the staff had any significant training in tax matters and subjects. For over a decade, the revenue service had not organized any training courses for its staff. She had no detailed information on staff resumes and education and lacked the fundamental insight for far reaching reform of the ailing service. Though acquainted with the overbearing control of staff recruitment by the Federal Civil Service Commission, Omoigui Okauru discovered to her dismay that the FIRS rarely investigated and punished allegations of corruption by its staff. Furthermore, delays in budget approvals and allocations hampered efficient planning and execution of programmes aimed at improving revenue collection. Yet another feature of the defective tax system was the incidence of rampant tax evasion and avoidance. Although FIRS generated 700 billion naira revenue in 2003, the newly appointed chief executive reported that about 12 billion naira went down the drain from inefficiencies in the tax collection machinery. Since the FIRS collected each type of tax independently of the rest, many staff of the revenue service specialized only in the collection of a single type of tax. Collectors of value added tax had little knowledge of personal income tax or levies on company profits, etc. "If you wanted to pay withholding tax, you went into an office. If you wanted [value-added tax] you went into another office, if you wanted to pay [corporate] income tax, you went to another office. ... None of them were linked," Omoigui Okaru told reporters. That was less than half the story. The federal system worked at variance with a harmonised tax regime for the entire country. The existence of a Joint Tax Board with the head of the FIRS as chairman and members from the state revenue services had done little to ameliorate the rash of disparate and erratic, muscle flexing policies adopted by the state and local governments. To make matters worse, the FIRS appeared incapable of leading by example. These factors contributed in no small measure to the abnormal rate of avoidance and outright evasion by corporate and individual citizens. Enough of this depressing scenario: how did Ifueke Omoigui Okauru contend with the challenges? By her own admission, she had not known what to expect. "I hadn't the foggiest idea. I had never worked in government." Exhibiting a forthright sense of mission and humility, she rang up Ballama Manu, her immediate predecessor in office. He expressed confidence in her ability to drive the reforms already initiated by the FIRS. She had a unique opportunity, he told her, to midwife a new and more efficient tax regime for the nation. The FIRS reform agenda, encapsulated in the recommendations of a Presidential Study Group and a Private Sector Working Group, provided the launch pad for Omoigui Okauru’s rescue mission. Deploying her varied experiences in team and consensus building, the “farm fresh” chief executive rolled up her shirtsleeves and rallied a team of experienced managers and tax administrators to map out strategies for achieving the stated objectives of the intended reforms. She surveyed the top 60 members of the FIRS management team to identify the strengths and weaknesses and the top three problem areas of the FIRS and their vision for the organization. Working closely and tirelessly, the team identified three platforms to drive home the reforms: the legal- to create an independent revenue service with adequate control over funding and recruitment functions, the institutional - changing tax policy and the administrative -reforming tax management. These actions would go on simultaneously, Omoigui Okauru and her team decided. The task called for a broad based outreach programme to the various arms of government and other significant power groups, including the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Civil Service Commission. Effectively morphing into chief lobbyist and marketing officer, the executive chairman of the FIRS led her senior management team as they went around "just selling the agenda, getting their support, getting their buy-in, seeking their help, which was day after day after day after day." The focus of their presentations was institutional autonomy and financial independence from the Ministry of Finance. The study and working groups had recommended that the FIRS be empowered to keep 4% of non-petroleum tax receipts to fund its operations. The ability to hire and fire its own staff, she argued, would facilitate effective institutional reform and aid the FIRS in finding solutions to the daunting challenges of the prevailing tax regime. For all her diligence in seeking consensus, it was not always easy sailing for Omoigui Okauru. Said Waheed Gbadamosi, assistant director of communications, in an FIRS report: “Not a few loathe her insistence that you explore all angles to an item, seek all the facts, allow people to have their say, before you close on an issue or cut to the bone.” Her initiatives for turning around the FIRS made a good number of people very jumpy. Since the nineteen eighties, the federal and state revenue services had engaged in tax farming, an ancient practice dating back to the Roman Empire in which individuals, otherwise known as “tax consultants”, collect taxes on behalf of the state for a 10-20% cut of the bill. Their use in Nigeria was controversial and confusing, to say the least. Backed by powerful interest groups with stakes in the highly profitable trade, the private tax collectors constituted a stumbling block to the emergence of a new tax administration. Prior to her appointment, the Joint Tax Board tried but failed to enforce legislation proscribing their use. They continued to operate with frightful ease around the country. Even as Omoigui Okauru stepped into office she was swamped with proposals from various consultants. “Nearly one hundred or more,” insider sources at the FIRS headquarters reveal. Her refusal to play ball would lead to an oft heard condemnation-“she no gree chop; she no let others chop.” In time, the jilted consultants would turn to her worst opponents, using their ample financial muscles to sponsor media attacks against her person and office. Undaunted, Omoigui Okauru and the FIRS took their case to the National Assembly with eight bills to amend various aspects of the value- added and corporate income taxes and untie the FIRS from the apron strings of its parent ministry and the Federal Civil Service Commission. The greatest opponents of the bill were the disgruntled tax consultants, who stood to lose their lucrative tax contracts. She argued that, "If I worked with you and not my staff, I would not be building an institution." But the logic did not cut any ice with them. They lobbied legislators to delay the bills, and then unleashed a vicious smear campaign to impugn her integrity and rubbish the reform agenda. It was a “vicious fight” to use her expression, but Omoigui Okauru stood her righteous ground. In 2007, after a long hard struggle in the National Assembly, the legislators passed the FIRS Establishment Act (FIRSEA) and President Obasanjo signed it into law alongside other legislation amending the value-added tax and updating the corporate income tax. In the long haul through the legislature, Omoigui Okauru was disheartened to find that some of those who had supported her efforts in the early days turned coats during the latter rounds. The saving grace was she had taken the trouble to consult widely and extensively beforehand. "What also helped was the fact that we went through those processes ... so at least people could not fault you on not carrying everybody along. But it's no guarantee." The signing into law of FIRSEA marked a turning point in the overall fortunes of FIRS and its chief executive. Though she had kept most of the reform programmes in the cooler for lack of requisite autonomy, she had made progress on many fronts by accessing loans from the World Bank through the Federal Economic Reform and Governance Project. To get around the staffing hurdles and fill the huge gap of personnel required for cost efficient tax administration, Omoigui Okauru had employed consultants and other staff on contractual terms. She also fast tracked an integrated payroll and pension scheme alongside staff development and performance management structures. Still, she could not immediately break into song after President Obasanjo signed the Act into law. The Federal Civil Service Commission petitioned the incoming President Umaru Yar’Adua to challenge the legality of granting FIRS authority to recruit its own staff directly without reference to it. The Commission argued that FIRSEA had robbed it of statutory powers to hire personnel for all federal establishments. Following this complaint, the new president stopped FIRS from embarking on direct recruitment of new staff. Nearly twelve months crawled by, before the attorney general decided in favour of FIRS. The impasse expired but the pressures did not. Legislators, top civil servants and other high ranking individuals swamped Omoigui Okauru with requests to find jobs for their protégés. Many of these persons had supported her during those trying times at the National Assembly. For them, it was payback time. Period. The FIRS increased its pool of talent by employing many finance and accounting graduates and prioritizing the continuous training of staff on defined career path structures. In two years from 2005-2007, more than half the work force acquired various computer skills. Later, as its funding situation improved, the service provided computers and software for its personnel. The staff union feared that these changes would lead to mass retrenchment of less educated employees. To quell their fears, Omoigui Okauru approved a five-year grace period from 2008, for disadvantaged staff to update their CVs. The sum of these developments was an improvement in the general competence of the staff, many of who could now handle more than one type of tax. The practice of separate offices administering separate taxes for each region became glaringly untenable. Omoigui Okauru and her management team embarked on a consolidation exercise to integrate its offices nationwide into one stop shops where taxpayers could pay all their taxes at once instead of going to separate offices to fulfill this civic duty. They introduced new and simplified payment procedures including payment options through the banks that reduced the chances for revenue officers to collude with taxpayers and shortchange the system. Earlier in her tenure, Omoigui Okauru had created a modernization department to focus on strategic planning and jumpstart the automation of tax collection to increase the service’ capacity for monitoring and tracking compliance around the country. Automation would act as a check on corruption and graft, everyone agreed, but was hardly a quick fix. Consequently, the FIRS team developed yet another strategy to register all corporate citizens in the land and track their tax compliance records. Expanding on this issue, Waheed Gbadamosi reports, “Today, a corporate taxpayer can no longer open a file in say Apapa or Ikeja Integrated Tax Office, abandon it after failing to file his returns and pay his tax and lie to the Tax Controller at the Wuse Integrated Tax Office that the company has not done business since it was registered. Just a click, on the mouse, or a tap on your ipad and a second’s search of the FIRS portal will reveal such a corporate tax taxpayer’s status and records. This is courtesy of Project FACT and one of its products: the Taxpayer Identification Number, TIN.” The director of corporate communications avers that “FIRS under Omoigui Okauru has reached a point that even in London or any part of the world, she or any authorised member of top management could ascertain FIRS’s daily collection from all taxes and each category of taxes, know what bank brought in what, ascertain a pattern and advise the minister, the President or whoever needs such information.” In his informed view, a variant of TIN through the Unique-Taxpayer Identification Number, (U-TIN) in the states will give federal and state authorities real time, to the minute and near accurate information about taxpayers, reducing opportunities for tax-avoidance and outright tax evasion. In the works also are the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS), and the democratic self-assessment regime. All of these will raise the bar of tax-based revenue collection in Nigeria. Through these developments, Omoigui Okauru walked a gauntlet of misguided critics and naysayers whose rabid attacks helped sharpen her sensitivity to the political dimensions of the so-called Nigerian factor. Omoigui Okauru admits that she had been naïve in some cases. She was just acting professional, she thought. "So I didn't consider the political implications of the decisions I was taking," she said. In deciding to close down some non-performing offices for example, she had neglected to consider the effect on people's jobs and the politics of the outcome. The employment of contract staff before the signing into law of FIRSEA allowed the service to hire staff directly. The move angered some senior management staff, who resented free and easy entry of these outsiders into their treasured domain. Inevitably, among her immediate subordinates were people who felt that the mantle of succession to the chair of chief executive should have fallen instead on them. Omoigui Okauru’s direct answer was to engineer a work ethic built on consensus and team work. It went without saying that checking graft and raising compliance and revenue collection levels would not depend on automation alone. The dedication and diligence of staff were also critical factors and Omoigui Okauru wasted little time in fashioning a code of conduct for her staff. Though they participated actively in drawing up its details, the unions declined when the time came for all staff to sign the code. The code went beyond the scope of civil service regulations, they alleged. It took another three years to get them to accept to abide by the FIRS code of conduct. When she brought the office of the service ombudsman under her direct control, the number of disciplinary cases rose so appreciably that she sought the aid of the State Security Service to monitor activities in the regional offices. The apprehension and dismissal of a few fraudulent staff sent a strong message around that old order had changed for good. Other internal administrative changes to strengthen the service by bringing the operations, legal and tax policy departments together with the criminal investigations and tax audit departments happened well outside the public view to attract any notice. Omoigui Okauru began to expand the FIRS audit and investigations units in 2005, through extensive training of the staff. Upgrading the internal financial systems, she improved collaboration with the Department of Petroleum Resources, to eliminate inconsistencies between the taxes on petroleum profits and actual production data. In 2007, the long awaited audit of the oil and gas sector and all large corporations generated gross revenues in excess of 40 billion naira. The establishment of an Intelligence, Surveillance and Anti-Corruption Division raised the tempo of her war against tax evasion, tax-related fraud and staff misconduct. At the same time, the FIRS rolled out a nationwide image management and public enlightenment blitz to reposition the service as a forward looking federal agency working to protect and promote the best interests of the Nigerian people. Omoigui Okauru unveiled a new logo whose characters projected a cheery and purposeful visage. Infomercials highlighting the civic duty to pay taxes visualised the uses to which government put the taxes paid. A new look communications directorate took the campaign to the people through active participation in social and commercial events like trade fairs, public seminars, town hall meetings and road shows. The feedback from these encounters helped in the draft of a new national tax policy in 2009. Though 2007 recorded a lot of positive developments, it was the year also when Omoigui Okauru faced her stiffest test of character. Before his term expired in May, President Obasanjo had nominated her for a second term in office. Happily, the incoming president seconded his predecessor’s decision and presented her name to the Senate a month later. In 2003, the Senate confirmation came in less than a month. This time, ten months would pass till April 2008. The unhappy tax consultants and their supporters put up a rear guard ambush against her. Petitions flew in from all over seeking to thwart her reappointment. This unsavoury development forced the responsible committee to extend its scrutiny of her performance at FIRS. Presenting the finance committee report to the Senate, the chairman Senate Ahmed Maikarfi reported that quite apart from examining Omoigui Okauru’s professional and academic records, his committee also dealt with numerous petitions against her. He disclosed that some of the allegations violated Senate Rule 41 barring the admission of unsigned petitions. She could have stepped on many toes he noted, but the finance committee found no reason to move against her reappointment. The committee of the whole unanimously endorsed his motion for the confirmation of her appointment. For Omoigui Okauru, this was a vital, even if costly experience: "I had to go to nearly every senator to talk to them. A lot of them said that they didn't know me. This was politics, and I needed to become a politician, you know; they needed to know me." Through these meetings, she was able to present her version of events and disprove much of the accusations and misinformation by her determined adversaries. But the support of the government mattered a great deal. "If I didn't have the support of the president, I wouldn't be sitting here," she admitted several months later to the media. The good sense of the Senate in confirming her reappointment yielded spectacular dividends. It goes without saying that the FIRS and the Nigerian economy would have been the worse for it if the Senate had turned her down. Tax revenue grew from 6.1% in 2005to 8.8% of GDP in 2010. In 2003, FIRS collected 698 billion naira in taxes. In 2004, the figure shot to almost N1.2 trillion. The total for 2008 was N2.9 trillion which dropped to N2.2 trillion in 2009, due to the global slump in oil prices at the end of 2008. Inflation, not withstanding, which peaked at 14% from 8% during the reform period, these figures amounted to significant increases in tax collection. In effect, FIRS was on the track of broadening the revenue base and reducing dependence on the petroleum industry. Non-oil revenues improved every year after the reforms began, rising to N1.74 trillion in 2010 or more than six times the 2003 total of N265 billion. Expert opinions aver that increased non-oil revenue shielded Nigeria from substantial revenue shortfalls when oil prices tumbled sharply from 2008 to 2009. President Goodluck Jonathan maintained the tradition of government support for Omoigui Okauru, who prefers to describe herself as a "change agent" rather than "a tax person." So the FIRS waxed even stronger to the admiration of every Nigerian but with the possible exception of the disgruntled tax consultants of old. "The FIRS you see today is totally different from the FIRS we used to have. It's been set on the path of growth," Abiola Sanni, professor of tax law enthused to researchers from Princeton University in the US. This is Omoigui Okauru’s legacy, which her successors should emulate and improve upon. For the unassuming, soft spoken heroine of this story "To build Nigeria, we need to build institutions, and the revenue service is one such institutions."

BIOMETRIC? HABA POLICE!

By Guest Writer, Saidu Nafunche
This indeed, was my spontaneous reaction when the police announced their new platform for a vastly improved highly efficient Central Motor Registry. Biometric? What a cheek! The senior officer who unveiled the initiative to the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs should have shown more sensitivity to our bruised nerves. The fraud riddled word assaulted our battered national psyche via sundry disclosures about the Police Pensions Fund. Really, I feel so disturbed by the word I have a mind to banish it from this article.

Adjective, my dictionary says, “using human physical characteristics (face shape, finger prints, etc.) for identification.” It looks so harmless word doesn’t it? It’s very attractive too as a new index of development planning. Unfortunately, it reminds me of “ultra-modern,” another fancy expression that policy makers love to use, which has turned to a euphemism for flagrant over-invoicing and inflated building contracts. By the same token, just add ‘biometric” to the simplest data generation exercise. The faint click you hear is a mouse ‘squeaking’-the digital variety that is- and whoosh! Like a tale from the Arabian Nights, someone or, some people are riding a magic carpet!

That, of course, was my first instinctive feeling. Reflecting further, I asked myself the pertinent question: how equipped are the police to handle the new, improved, okay biometric CMR? Because, it seems so clear to my stiff, analogue senses that a lot of hardware and software, not to mention staff ware would be required to remedy the shambles that was the old CMR and cross over to the new digital regime. The Nigeria Police that we know today, can it manage the process efficiently without major snafus in the form of serious logistic challenges and operational setbacks occasioned by inadequate planning and worse, insufficient funding?

Nonetheless, Article 6 of the Police Memorandum on Generating and Keeping Data for Crime Prevention Purposes states as follows: By December 2011, the Central Motor Registry (CMR) was upgraded to the Biometric Central Registry (BCMR). The BCMR has necessary logistics, modern equipment, and requisite infrastructure to enable it provide the required capacity and biometric data base for all transactions within the enabling Act with respect to automobile registration, keeping records of stolen and recovered, online reporting of incidences of stolen vehicles and ensuring compliance with regulations.

Wow! Is that really so, I asked myself. What is the problem, then? What is the inspector general of police waiting for? What is stopping him from launching a scheme for which everything is in place? From my picayune point of view, any suggestion that the FRSC is dabbling into police affairs and must be stopped first, does not hold water. The most that the road safety corps can do is to generate its own data by its own means. Since 1958 when the Road Traffic Act which gave birth to the CMR came into being, the police have maintained a direct and formal relationship with the Motor Licensing Authorities. The police have not told us that the relationship is dead. Besides, the law is quite clear on whose duty it is to maintain a Motor Vehicles Traffic Statistics and by association a Central Registry of Vehicle Licenses. No one can take that responsibility away and give it to another agency without due process.
Heck, it is still a democracy, is it not and we are all bound by the Rule of Law, are we not?
Going through the Memorandum very carefully and applying my aging analogic senses to the matter, I have come to the sorry conclusion that Article 6 was very economical with the possible truth. Na lie, I am forced to declare. Dem no get not’ing yet. Dem just dey bluff sake of say FRSC wan steal dem show. Money no dey ground, orderwise, dem for don’ begin tell us make we ready…
Think about it for a minute. Obviously, the moribund condition of the CMR allowed the FRSC to step up its act for a greater stake in the data management regime. After waking up to the portentous trespass, the police then launched a counter attack to defend and protect its territory. Having done that, successfully, I think, it behoves the police authorities to engage the public proactively with their plans for resuscitating the CMR to its blazing potential as a crime fighting weapon. The major challenge is budgeting related and aside of the need to lobby legislators for adequate funding; the police do not need their permission to rekindle the CMR.

For good measure the police have said they are not concerned about who registers vehicles or produces number plates. They only desire that the process is streamlined to generate the necessary information for monitoring vehicular movement for the prevention and detection of vehicle related crime. The police standpoint is faultless. No other government agency needs vehicular data as much as the police do to carry out its duties. The police should therefore be in the front seat of gathering and updating these all important records.

With regard to the funding issues, the police should consider creative ways of getting around the constraints. In line with new thinking in public financing, the police should consider public private partnerships to ameliorate the envisaged budgeting constraints of providing all the equipment needed. Each unit of the Motor Transport Division should have a partnership contract with an individual contractor, to provide the standardised processors, video camera, external hard drive, etc., and under close supervision of the Motor Transport Division, capture the required biometrics from vehicle owners in its area of operations. The contractor earns a standard and attractive percentage of the fees paid, while the police keep the information collected.

The inspector general should be paying me for this consultative effort. I should be sending him a Memorandum on the matter, soon.

“MADAM CHIEF JUSTICE” -Aloma Muhktar and a date with History

The forecasts are most promising that Justice Aloma Mariam Muhktar will by 14 July this year become the 13th Chief Justice of Nigeria. That is the day when the current chief , Dahiru Musdapher, shall attain the age of 70 years and thereby “cease to hold office” as the Constitution commands. A succession order has come to be at the apex court since the days of Justice Muhammad Bello. The most senior member of the Supreme Court takes over from the preceding chief justice to perform the function. Again, this is at the behest of the Constitution.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances therefore, the elevation of Aloma Muhktar will make the perfect birthday gift four months before her 68th birthday on November 20, 2012. This final berth of a 45 year long cruise since her admission to the Nigerian Bar in 1967 has set tongues wagging all over. From the excitable Bar to the even-tempered Bench, the import of the first female chief justice of the federation is a matter of great social interest. The one person who may be least impressed by all the debate is the lady at the centre of the spotlight. She may rightly be miffed that once again, public attention and scrutiny is drawn to her body and not her brain.
Seven years earlier in 2005, the confirmation of her appointment to
the Supreme Court elicited widespread and impassioned commentary on a ceiling-shattering ‘ great leap forward’ for Nigerian womanhood. Some analysts wondered if her promotion would initiate a trend for more female justices of the Supreme Court. Their number has since grown to three with Olufunlola Adeyeye and Mary Odili joining to dilute the overly masculine flavour of the Court. Granted that gender equity may be just as politically significant as geo-political equity ("federal character"), there is nothing to show that gender inequities in the homes and workplaces have greatly diminished on account of the investigations, litigations, prosecutions and decisive judgements by women cops, lawyers, magistrates, judges and justices.
Justice Karibi-Whyte was on target therefore, when he famously dismissed the demand for a woman to take his place upon his imminent retirement, to correct the gender imbalance at the Supreme Court then. “So what if there is no female Supreme Court judge?” he had countered. “Why must there be? It is not a gender issue… Whether there is a man or a woman has nothing to do with the administration of justice. When a suitable female arrives, we will appoint." Moot was the question why the judiciary could not find “suitable” appointees from the vast pool of female judges, roughly 25% of the lot, to sit at the higher Bench?
This argument took place ten years ago in 2002. Looking back, Aloma Muhktar and all her learned sisters should have plenty reason to beat their chests and echo the world famous advert, Baby, you’ve come a long way…More importantly, can anyone deny that Aloma Muhktar is eminently “suitable” to be the prime jurist of the land?
The excitement generated by her admission to the all-male assembly of Supreme Court justices already mentioned, it is reasonable to expect that fireworks of commentaries will trail the emergence of Nigeria’s first woman chief justice in the weeks ahead. When Muhktar first joined the men at the apex court, Mary Odili, fast rising judicial officer and spouse of the Rivers State governor, paid tribute to her indomitable spirit in a “Testament of Hope” saluting the valiant struggle of women to gain respect in a male dominated world. Hope, nurtured by faith, brings forth the sweet fruit of success. In 2000, when she served in the Court of Appeal, Aloma Muhktar ranked third in seniority behind Dahiru Musdapher and the President of the Court of Appeal. Still, before she arrived there in 2005, Musdapher and four lower-ranking members of the Court of Appeal had taken their seats in the Supreme Court. Merit thus assumes a broad span of considerations which, for so long, did not appear to include gender parity.
When we hailed her ascent to the Supreme Court, were we not at once celebrating the triumph of good conscience over callous indifference and negligence? This time around, shall we not be toasting ourselves and the maturity of our judicial system? A wistful edge to our good cheer: her short tenure which should likely terminate in two years when she turns seventy. Rapid and mandatory baton change to keep faith with the law is a current feature of the office of the chief justice of Nigeria. Kutigi and Katsina-Alu spent roughly two years each at the top job. Dahiru Musdapher will serve for barely ten months as chief justice but that is only half the story. Turnover is high at the apex court in the land and few justices last further than five years on its revered corridors. Fewer still make it to the esteemed chair of chief justice.
On this count alone, Aloma Muhktar has had a good and exemplary run. Exhibiting what is seen in many circles as a staid conservative background, she is credited with expertise in formalist decision making rather than creative tinkering to extend the frontiers of the law. On the heels of her admittance to the Supreme Court, the media reported that her judgements at the Appeals Court were frequently endorsed by the Supreme Court. In one commentator’s opinion therefore, she appeared to be “faithful and competent rather than reform minded.” The analysts contended that she would not rock the boat of consensus decision making for which the Supreme Court is rather well known. Others wondered about the perceived influence of a woman on an exclusive body of men such as the justices of the Supreme Court.
Seven years afterwards, there is no telling the quantum of social and administrative changes that have been wrought by the admission of two more women with their peculiar needs and attitudes into the establishment. Even now, as Aloma Muhktar waits to lead her learned ‘brothers and sisters’ on the eternal struggle for the defence of justice and fair play, the analysts are many who believe that she is most unlikely to create any waves. Not a few also submit that she would not be to blame for this.
The Court, they contend, is probably the most reactionary institution in the land and is forever struggling to catch up with the rest of society. The justices are carefully chosen to fit the special mould of team players and consensus builders. Nevertheless, it must be taken for granted that Court and Country have a learning curve ahead with their first ever “Madam Chief Justice”.
In the past, the Supreme Court had been described as "essentially a court of criminal and land appeals" A wave of robust political cases and judgements have helped to alter that perception during the last five years. Attendant to that is the rising popularity of the judiciary, quite simply the Supreme Court, as a bastion of hope for the survival of democracy in Nigeria. Nonetheless, the work rate of the Court leaves much to be desired. Some observers have blamed it on the huge man hours the justices spend in writing individual judgements merely for the record even when they do not disagree with the lead judgement.
This was not always the case, legal historians assert. In its early days, the Supreme Court adopted the system of collegiate judgments practiced by its predecessor, the West African Court of Appeal, instead of the tradition of separate judgments by British appellate courts. Calls for the justices to showcase their erudition and provide individual insights and quotable references for the legal journals, snowballed into great pressure for a change at the Bar and on the Bench. In 1979, the Court resorted to the British model and with considerable cost in speed. Said an observer in 2005, “Unless the Court is reformed soonest, we sadly envisage that most of Justice Mukhtar's labours on the Supreme Court would be dissipated through unceasingly repeating precisely the same task someone else is also repeating.”
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A curious and unwholesome development is the media controversy that has trailed the appointment of a chief justice since Salihu Alfa Belgore stepped aside in 2007 for Idris Legbon Kutigi. Baton changes at the Court used to be such quiet events that most citizens barely acknowledged, or followed with the mildest interest. Suddenly, following the high-wire politics of post-election petitions, the media got interested and speculation mounted significantly about which justice would be most favourably disposed to which of the parties contending for leadership of the nation.
Public sentiment about the imagined political leanings of the justices, heightened with the dissenting positions of Justices George Oguntade, Aloma Muhktar and Walter Onnoghen in the celebrated election petitions of Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari. Sadly, the media has not helped the public to understand and appreciate the salient peculiarities of the judicial process. Instead, it remains commonly obsessed with peddling salacious but unsubstantiated rumours about the public and private indiscretions of high placed judicial officers. Most guilty of this objectionable practice is a motley of internet media organs.
Justice Niki Tobi, while delivering his judgement on the already cited 2007 election petition, had this to say: “It is sad that so much has been said in the newspapers of this country on the case. The new technology of internet reporting has added to the comments, some of them doubting our integrity to do justice according to law. I regard them as blackmail and I will not succumb to blackmail.”
In like manner also, the local press has shown a bewildering inclination to feed their readers with titillating, but poorly substantiated news of the inner workings of the Court. In the days preceding his imminent resignation, the media pointedly accused Chief Justice Katsina-Alu of desiring to prolong his tenure and to thwart Dahiru Musdafer’s claim, on grounds of seniority, to the seat. His nomination of Aloma Muhktar as a second choice rang in their ears as subtle power play to undermine the suitability of his first choice. On Sunday October 23, 2011, a newspaper further “revealed” by quoting nameless sources that the outgoing chief had tried unsuccessfully to spread false stories of ill health about his successor.
As early as Boxing Day, 2011, the local press had begun to stoke the fires of a possible controversy over the appointment of Justice Aloma Mukhtar to the office of chief justice. The particular publication reported that she had been in danger of receiving the ‘Salami’ treatment: dubious promotion to eliminate the perceived threat of an opponent. Without any proof at all, the reporters accused the Presidency of complicity in the plot. The newspaper did not specify the “foreign appointment” offered which Aloma Muhktar had turned down. The reporters did not quote her nor did they indicate that they sought her opinion but did not get it. A “source close to the apex court’” was routinely credited with revelation of “an attempt to stop Mukhtar and possibly bring in Justice Walter Onnoghen, who is the second most senior JSC.”
Adjunct to these rumours was the kite flown by the current chief justice on expected judicial reforms. He had suggested to an audience at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies that appointments to the Supreme Court should be for a lifetime, as obtains in the United States. Chief Justice Musdapher has made no secret of his interest in judicial reforms to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. Yet, the conclusion of the reporters rested only on the fact that an expected constitutional amendment to increase the retirement age of Supreme Court justices from 70 to 75 years, “may make it difficult for Mukhtar to become the first female CJN by July 15, 2012 when Musdapher is expected to have attained mandatory retirement age of 70 years.”
Recalling the minority judgement already cited, in which Oguntade, Muhktar and Onnoghen, dismissed the 2007 elections as not meeting the requirements of the law, the reporters opined as follows: “fears that Muktar may be difficult to bend … might have informed the plots to stop her from becoming the CJN.” What informed the suggestion that Onnoghen would be easier to manipulate, these resourceful reporters did not say.
These stories underline the herculean challenges facing the Supreme Court which Justice Aloma Muhktar or any other chief justice, must contend with. The Court is bedevilled with a growing image problem. The recent brouhaha over the ‘promotion’ of Justice Ayo Salami to fill the South West slot in the Supreme Court and his subsequent rejection of the “unholy Greek gift” illustrates the point vividly. Even the elevation of Mary Odili to meet the “yearning and aspirations of women in Nigeria,” according to Chief Justice Katsina-Alu, “and the 35% affirmative action promised women by President Goodluck Jonathan,” may be grounds for serious controversy in the future.
The challenge of uplifting the morale of judicial officers and restoring public confidence in the Supreme Court is not peculiar to Nigeria. In Kenya, Nancy Baraza, the first woman appointed to the post of deputy chief justice, has swung into action to redeem the country’s judiciary from crippling corruption and inefficiency.
Baraza, a former executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission and chairperson of the Kenyan Federation of Women Lawyers has a glowing track record of public service much like her Nigerian counterparts. At the time of these press reports in November 2011, Baraza disclosed that the Kenyan High Court had 2,015 pending criminal appeal cases, “some of which have not been heard for 20 years because files had gone missing.” There was a need to clear the backlog of over one million cases in the courts in the next six months, she declared. Seems like a distant cousin of the Nigerian judicial system, does it not?
"We shall implement radical but necessary reforms that are going to be able to bring effectiveness, fairness, eliminate corruption and instil discipline among (the judiciary’s) officers," Baraza told the International Press Service. The Supreme Court in Kenya is composed of Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, his deputy, Baraza, and five other judges. Their mandate is to spearhead the implementation of the country’s new constitution and to establish an independent judiciary. "Radical transfers of judicial officers may be on the way to break up entrenched cartels that are frustrating changes in the judiciary. There are some officials who may want the old order to continue. But we will push for the necessary reforms to make the judiciary meet the expectations of Kenyans. Those resisting changes will have to fall by the wayside," Baraza said.
Question: Can Aloma Muhktar or any other appointee to the office of chief justice make such daring promises to Nigerians?
Without pre-empting the recommendations of the Muhammad Uwais Judicial Reform Committee, it seems obvious that its reform agenda must include the creation of new courts in remote parts of the country and the rapid digitalisation of court processes and procedures. Electronic systems for the allocation of cases and dissemination of information on suits must be the standard- SMS and bulk e-mail being the most basic. Computer literacy programmes should be compulsory for senior judicial officers so that the Supreme Court may attain the high standards of a “paperless” Court in the shortest possible time.
Can Aloma Mariam Muhktar deliver on most or all of these? We certainly hope so. Because, if she does we would not be celebrating the token significance of a first woman chief justice but more far-reaching landmarks in the history of the judiciary. And it would not matter to anyone whether a woman oversaw the process or not, as it does not really matter to disputants in a case whether the judgement was delivered by a man or woman. The important issue is who won? Will the Supreme Court win over its myriad challenges? What will be Justice Aloma Mariam Muhktar’s role in this historical fight? That is the all-important poser.
She alone can provide the answer. But we shall be there-every progressive Nigerian, that is- to help her with our cheers and our good wishes.
Come July 15, the words of Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu at the swearing in ceremony of Justice Mary Odili may well apply to our most likely candidate for chief justice.
“It, therefore, behoves you to join hands with your brother justices of this court in order to continue to sustain the confidence of the general public and the judiciary. The code of conduct for judicial officers is there always to guide you. I have every confidence that you will not fail this court and nation. I urge you to strive hard to discharge your duties in accordance with the oath of office you have subscribed to, having the fear of Almighty God in your hearts and always following the dictates of your conscience.”
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ROAD SAFETY AND NATIONAL SECURITY: WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT?

Funny question, yes, but there is a sense in which the recent jaw-jaw at the Senate between the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Nigeria Police reads like a secondary school debating tussle. Farmers and doctors, mummies and daddies: of course, they all are vital to our wellbeing. But often, the panel of judges is swayed, not so much by what is said as who said it- a bright, eloquent or scruffy, stuttering debater.

The Senate Committee is yet to announce its decision, but given the intense love-hate relationship between the Nigerian people and their police, the gavel may swing in favour of the officers with khaki shirts over reddish trousers and head gear to match. Yes, the ones in light blue over black trousers and matching beret may lose the argument on the strength of poor image alone. In matters affecting their welfare but requiring stringent police oversight or vigilance, the public will likely vote for ditching the dishes with the dishwater. Yet, the police is only a reflection of the society it polices.

All things considered, the Nigeria Police must be given the wherewithal to carry out its lawful responsibilities for the maintenance of law and order in Nigeria. To do that successfully, the police must manage a certified system for gathering, storing and retrieving information on the gamut of criminal activities in the country. The issue is so clear no one should dare question the good intentions of the police. However, the bone of dubious contention between the police and the road safety commission concerns data connected with the registration of vehicles in Nigeria.

In the opinion of the FRSC, everything to do with vehicle documentation falls within the province of safeguarding our roads and highways and protecting Nigerians from untimely deaths through road accidents. Indeed, the high fatality rate of road accidents in Nigeria gives serious cause for concern and the FRSC deserves all the support it can get to make our roads safer. But the Corps errs in believing and trying to convince the public that it has the primary responsibility for documentation, storage and retrieval of vehicle records.

The question to ask is this: before the FRSC came into existence via a military decree in 1988, how did the nation cope with the mandatory records of vehicle ownership in Nigeria? Answer: the police ran and maintained a Central Motor Registry (CMR) that kept the records of all licensed vehicles and renewal of such by the Motor Licensing Authorities. Historians may like to note that the CMR was established thirty long years in 1958, before road safety marshals appeared on the streets and highways of our dear land.

History will also record that as time went by the CMR fell short of expectations along with the general decline in service delivery standards that became the lot of our nation. The rapid expansion of the economy and the stupendous rise in vehicle ownership in Nigeria without the commensurate equipment of the Motor Traffic Division of the police combined to stretch and weaken the efficiency of the CMR. Government did not avail the police the necessary technology to operate a data base backup for the CMR. Besides, the increasing sophistication of criminal gangs using state of the art forgery techniques to falsify vehicle particulars, made a mockery of the old manual methods of the CMR.

Police authorities aver however, that they have done their best to upgrade the CMR and mitigate the negative effects of playing catch-up. Still, the enhanced CMR configured in 1997 and the Police Vehicle Recovery Portal unveiled in 2009, offer little hope against a highly digitalised underworld. But since last year, the police authorities have developed a Biometric Central Motor Registry (BCMR) employing facial and other demographics to keep round the clock track of vehicle ownership and movement. In their submissions to the Senate the police authorities are enthusiastic about the BCMR, which they say will “usher in a new phase of law enforcement on vehicle related crime, robust biometric vehicle data base, enhanced application of forensic investigative capacity for the police which will engender better service delivery and improve public satisfaction.”

This says to me that our much maligned police are raring to retrieve their sullied image. Nothing could be more patriotic than to give them maximum support in this task. The point was roundly made at the Senate Hearing that the data generated from the BCMR will be available for use by other law enforcement and security agencies. To this end, it was doubly emphasized that the police alone have the right as enshrined in the Road Traffic Act of 1958 among other legislations to collate and coordinate the release of vehicular statistics to agencies that require them.

This is as it should be, because though the FRSC may use the data only to monitor the infringement of traffic regulations, the police need it to keep a tab on potential or actual violations of the law in which a vehicle is involved. And this may range from burglary to armed robbery, kidnapping, fraud and terrorism.

A BLESSING SO RARE -----The spectacular journey of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala---

Brace up Nigeria! Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, star candidate for the presidency of the World Bank may not win that coveted seat. It’s an election year in the US and the significance of any “loss of face” in the defeat of their preferred nominee cannot be lost on President Obama and the Democratic Party. The opposition will make a meal of the implied diminishing of American influence and prestige as proof of Obama’s incompetence and misrule.
Okonjo-Iweala’s thrilling challenge to the US and Europe “for a level playing field where candidates can be evaluated on their own merits,” resonated deeply among liberals and progressives in the international financial community. However, the reality of the situation is that the US and Europe cannot surrender, on grounds of morality alone, their treasured privilege to call the shots on who runs the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The feverish search by the US for a most internationally appealing nominee suggests that the Obama administration was not unaware of the requirement for change.
Never also have more candidates been suggested and mentioned, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Indra Nooyi, the head of PepsiCo. The gender show looked too silly and contrived. Thereafter, a few development experts from within and outside the World Bank were brought into the picture. But in choosing Jim Yong Kim, the Korean-American health expert who had made his mark in the world wide battle against the HIV scourge, the US presented to the world the compassionate face of the western capitalist ethos that gave birth to the World Bank at the end of World War II. Okonjo-Iweala had an answer for that and without impugning the credentials of the US nominee maintained that, she does not have a learning curve to undergo at the Bank. “I know how the institution works and I know what needs to be done to make it work better and faster for developing countries," she said to Reuters, the news agency. "I know what its strengths are, its weaknesses, and importantly I know what policymakers need. I’ve actually done it."
It remains to be seen if the US and its allies will be swayed by that or resolutely keep faith with the hardball realities of international power plays. Still, her determined effort to prove her mettle made an uncommon statement about her commitment to a long sought, much advertised, but hardly protected new world economic order. Emerging economies must take a leading role in the global financial institutions, she has argued. "The balance of power in the world has shifted and emerging market countries are contributing more to global growth - more than 50 per cent - and they need to be given a voice in running things. If not, they will lose interest." she told Reuters. If this statement sounds like a subtle threat backed by the Chinese, South African and Nigerian support for her candidacy, then it would be naïve to imagine that US and allied interests are applauding her wit and common sense. Yet, the tough talking Nigerian minister of finance betrayed an impolitic streak of idealism with this dream, "My biggest hope is that this will be a fair contest." When last did the US and the members of the Security Council play by the Queensberry rules?
Back home are varied interests who consider that the brewing controversy over the World Bank job is an unnecessary diversion from the important tasks of monitoring, restructuring and transforming the Nigerian economy for optimum performance. They see in her adroit posturing, a self-seeking intention to attain the pinnacle of the World Bank by the ladder of her repeated engagements at the Ministry of Finance in Abuja. It’s hard to justify their claim, though her credentials for the position include the “hands on experience of managing one of Africa’s largest economies.”
Ironically, it is on this track alone that many of her fellow Nigerians consider her ‘unfit’ for the job. Like many influential people Ngozi Okonjo-Iwuala has her admirers and her detractors. It’s a measure of her astounding ‘strength’ that the push and pull of their various comments do not obscure that shining example of her spectacular journey into the hearts of her countrymen and women.
ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ

She was born in June 1954 to a rather well-known Professor Chukuka Okonjo. Nothing is known, officially, of any middle name. She is just Ngozi, the Igbo word for ‘Blessing’ which exemplified her quick progress through school till graduation from Harvard University in 1977, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where, as a graduate assistant she researched housing issues in developing countries, studied regional economic theories and policies alongside economic planning in developing economies, worked for the World Bank as research assistant on project evaluation of low cost housing in Jamaica, instructed first year graduate students in the principles of economics, consulted for the UN/NGO Forum on the Conference on Women and Development in Copenhagen, organised workshops and conferences on Women and Rural Development in the Third World, whilst netting her Ph.D. in regional economic development from MIT in 1981.
Ngozi Okonjo joined the World Bank via a Young Professionals Programme in 1982 and started off on the West African beat as resident economist cum loans officer handling macro-economic issues and urban sector programmes in Cameroun. There is no official evidence that she did her compulsory youth service scheme and no one has raised the issue in her twin appearances before the Senate as presidential nominee for ministerial appointments. Whilst her native country quaked from the oil glut of 1982, Dr Okonjo was away to East Africa, where at the Bank’s Agricultural Operation’s Division, she oversaw related projects in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
From 1983 onwards, as economist, project economist and later senior economist, she traversed the South Central and Indian Ocean Department, the Africa Region and the East Asia and Pacific Region on a wide spectrum of assignments in Thailand, DR Congo and Rwanda. By 1990, she had risen to senior economist and special assistant to the Vice President Operations. Working on operational and policy matters affecting the Bank, she travelled widely with her boss and gained acquaintance with leaders and policy makers around the globe.
In time, her responsibilities grew appreciably and she participated in the 1992 multilateral Middle East (Oslo) Peace Talks and played a role in the development of the Arid Lands Management Initiative of the talks. As chief of agricultural operations for the Middle East and North Africa Region, she travelled often to the Middle East and helped develop sectorial programmes for country lending initiatives and technical assistance to the countries in the region. She managed work programmes in agriculture and natural resources for Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran and the West Bank Gaza. Between 1994 and 1996, while Nigeria burned from the turmoil of botched elections and the crisis of military intervention in politics, our fast rising countrywoman had become the chief of country operations in the West Central Country Department of the Africa Region. She managed World Bank country strategies and adjustment programmes for Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Togo.
Back in Washington by ‘96 as director of institutional change and strategy, the broad tasks of “facilitating, integrating and coordinating the Bank’s institutional change programme fell on her plump shoulders. Still, by the following year, the Bank proved to be a world tour organiser and as country director for East Asia and Mongolia in the East Asia Region, Ngozi Okonj-Iweala oversaw its high powered macroeconomic and sectorial policy dialogues and program implementations in Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and Malaysia.
This is the woman whose CV so pleased a flustered President Olusegun Obasanjo, he invited her to be his economic adviser. Returning from prison to the presidency a year earlier, Obasanjo had found the economy in shambles and in a resolute effort to shake off the pariah status of the nation needed someone who could speak the language of the international financial community by his side. Okonjo-Iweala, whose trademark African prints and matching scarves made a famous statement about her ethnic pride and confidence, fit the bill perfectly from more than one perspective and Obasanjo could not hide his delight at having her on board.
Coming home therefore, to serve her fatherland, Okonjo-Iweala encountered a dire lack of capable administrators to interpret, oversee and implement government economic policies. The new economic adviser quickly organised, with the aid of the World Bank the training of over 40 mid-career civil servants and legislatives aides in this vital area. Working with a committee of 45 public servants, she fashioned a working document “Nigeria Economic Policy and Strategy: The Way Forward” to signpost the nation’s broad strategic directions in the new millennium.
Thereafter, she created a national Debt Management Office (DMO) along the lines of international good practice and took charge of revamping of the management of the nation’s external debt –which stood then at US$30 billion. Through her good offices also, an Economic Policy Coordinating Committee (EPCC) chaired by the vice president came into being to strengthen national economic policy coordination and implementation. Yet her work at the Bank continued in stride. She ran the operations and country support service of the Middle East and Africa Region and as deputy to the regional vice president helped manage the region’s work programme and oversaw the work of senior advisers providing support to regional staff and country clients in diverse areas. In November 2002 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed vice president and corporate secretary of the Bank. She remained at that post till July 2003, and in her role became the chief mediator between staff and management of the World Bank group and the executive Board of Governors.

ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ

The announcement came in May 2003 after Obananjo’s tug of war with his deputy and feisty face off with Buhari and others at the polls, that Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, erstwhile economic adviser to the president was in contention for nomination and appointment as minister of finance. After her confirmation and swearing into office in July 2003, she launched a robust package of reforms to galvanise support for the national economy by international ratings agencies, Fitch and Standard and Poors. The BB- ratings from the international agencies inspired confidence within and outside the country for the continued health of the economy. Many at the time, attributed the endorsement by the ratings agencies as the singular handiwork of the new minister of finance. Her no nonsense approach to matters of probity and transparency at the ministry endeared her to progressives at home and abroad.
Controversy waited nonetheless with the work and negotiations she led to deliver a 60% or US$ 18 billion slashing of Nigeria’s external debt profile, and a discounted buy-back plan which lowered the external debt profile from US $35 billion to US$5 billion. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala also chaired a 13-person Presidential Economic Team that framed and implemented an Economic Reform Agenda to tackle corruption, increase transparency in government affairs, introduce probity in the management of public finances and strategic reforms in the public sector. Consequently, the economy grew at over 6% for the three years from 2004 -2006. On the eve of Okonjo Iweala’s departure from the office of minister of finance to the ministry of foreign affairs, Nigeria could boast of foreign reserves of US $21 billion.
The jury is still out there on why President Obasanjo sought to de-shine the star performer in his recovery cast by taking her off the spotlight to an obscure corner in the wings. When the fool hardy attempt to foist himself on the Nigerian people started to unravel, there was little doubt that Okonjo-Iweala was shoved out in remarkable style because she would not acquiesce to the tenure elongation programme. She was the first woman ever to be appointed minister of finance as well foreign minister. However, her three months record of service as minister of foreign affairs is nothing to crow about.
ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ

“Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Former Nigerian Finance and Foreign Minister, Joins Brookings”- the international media announced in January 2007. Their source was no other than Strobe Talbott, the distinguished journalist and diplomat. As distinguished visiting fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program, of the world acclaimed think tank, “Okonjo-Iweala will focus on economic reform issues in Africa, corruption and governance in social sector financing, transparency and accountability, and global health financing issues,” the announcement said.
The statement prided her appointment on the fact that she had received the Euromarket Forum Award for Vision and Courage in 2003, won the TIME Magazine "Hero of the Year" in 2004, and had been honoured with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Brown University in 2006. Said Lael Brainard, vice president and director of Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution, "Ngozi's outstanding achievements as finance minister on fiscal reforms and in Nigeria's debt negotiations will bring a unique insider perspective to bear in our work on African economic reform and poverty alleviation – one of the great challenges of our time."
Yet, like a rolling that would brook no moss but gathers more polish in its rolling joust through time, Robert Zoellick president of the World Bank appointed her managing director of the on October 4, 2007, to continue her swashbuckling campaign against world poverty.
It is a matter of conjecture why she won out against other qualified persons but her outspoken concerns and essays about the trend of global finances and the role of the World Bank in ameliorating world poverty, not discounting her exemplary performance on several assignments for the Bank could only have worked in her favour.
In a paper titled, Nigeria’s Economic Reforms: Prospects and Challenges, co-authored in March 2007 with Philip Osafo-Kwaako a visiting research associate to the Brookings Institute, the duo reviewed Nigeria's recent experience with economic reforms and accepting that notable achievements had been recorded under the program, contended that significant challenges remained particularly in the areas of “translating the benefits of reforms into welfare improvements for citizens, in improving the domestic business environment, and in extending reform policies to states and local governments.”
They argued further that the “recent reform program must be viewed as the initial steps of a much longer journey of economic recovery and sustained growth.” Okonjo-Iweala and Osafo-Kwaaku listed a number of outstanding issues that future Nigerian administrations must address. Deriving from this, her essay, The World Needs a Stronger World Bank published in the International Herald Tribune of May 25, 2007 encapsulated the growing image problems of the Bank, but declared that the institution has a vital role to play in the arrest of world poverty.
“There is no doubt that we need the World Bank. It has a strong future, and it has a mandate that it must fulfill in helping the two billion people still living on less than $2 a day. It can only do so, however, if the countries that it serves feel true ownership of the institution. Why were there no voices raised from the developing world during the recent crisis against the damage being done to an institution with such a noble and critically important mission?
“Perhaps it is because developing countries feel they have so little voice at the bank, despite being the very reason for its existence. It is clear that the governance structure at the Bank must be addressed; that developing countries must feel they have a stake in its policies and its work. “
She cited the significant role played by the Bank during the the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, “when the Bank provided $10 billion in emergency financing to Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand.”
However, she asked the shareholders to focus on re-appraising the corporate governance of the bank. “Everything from the management selection to management structure to clarity on the role and operation of the board must be reexamined and reformed. Openness, transparency, and merit should be the bywords in doing such reforms. “
The World Bank has so much to offer the world, the Nigerian born world economic witch doctor reiterated. "But it needs to adapt, it needs to be flexible in a changing world.”
In 2011, Okonjo-Iweala returned to the service of the fatherland as the coordinating minister for the economy, and minister of finance. Her performance in fashioning a second regime of policy actions to rescue the national economy from an overloaded subsidy of the petroleum sector fuelled strong anti-government feelings in the New Year. The pros and cons of petroleum subsidy are still on the front burner of public discourse even as the government grapples with the task of “translating the benefits of reforms into welfare improvements for citizens, in improving the domestic business environment, and in extending reform policies to states and local governments.”
Some would say, physician, heal thyself and Okonjo-Iweala might point to SURE-P, the slow acting subsidy removal amelioration drug. She might even recap, with Osafo-Kwaako’s nod that reform is not a destination, but ‘a first step…’
ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ