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THE UNCONCIOUS ADVANTAGE OF GRAFT.

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Nigerian jet-fuel binge created history in the United States real-estate business news. The central personalities involved in this historic occurrence, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke (former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources who held the office between 2010 and 2015) and Kola Aluko, have been critically criticised for allegedly spending colossal sums of money which they got from graft in acquiring real-estates, exotic cars, jets, and yachts. It is being reported that the yacht which Beyoncé, at one time, rented for her birthday bash, was rented from Aluko. It is also alleged that he even recently auctioned one of his houses for the sum of $36M. Nevertheless, many of these properties have been seized on the orders of the Nigerian court. While this record of graft is sterling, there is a paradox that is hardly discussed. It is of immense benefit to local content in the Nigerian Oil economy. It is what we may call the unconcious advantage of graft. This is what happened: Diezani,
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WHEN POLICIES ARE TAKEN SERIOUSLY, SYSTEMS WORK

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The reason Nigeria moved 24 paces forward (from 169th to 145th) in the World Bank’s 2017 Doing Business index, 6 months after the issuance of the Executive Order on the "Ease of Doing Business " is because policies were made and implemented, deliberately to pursued to produce results. The following are taken very seriously; 1. Transparency; 2. Default Approvals; 3. One Government operations; 4. Entry Experience of Traveller and Visitors; and 5. Ports Operations 1. Transparency: All relevant MDAs are now mandated to publish a comprehensive list of all fees, timelines, conditions and requirements for obtaining permits licences and approvals, and all these must be published in their websites. The heads of the MDAs must ensure that the list is verified and kept up-to-date at all times, and if there is a conflict between a published list and an unpublished list, the published list shall prevail. Information is power; and more transparency goes hand-in-hand with better-qualit
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WITH EO1, WE CAN MAKE ADDITIONAL 96 PACES IN TWO YEARS

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Nigeria has started a journey towards the zenith since it moved up from 169th to 145th (24 paces forward) in 2017 World Bank’s Doing Business index. Although, not much of a profound achievement, it is, nevertheless, a critical achievement built on policy reform and the exercise of extant rules to make the business cart move. In 2016, President Buhari inaugurated the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC); the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo chaired it, Jumoke Oduwole (Senior Special Assistant to the President on Investment, Trade and Industry) headed the Secretariat, and the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, led by the quick-witted Okechukwu Enelamah, coordinated it. PEBEC operates by convening the leadership of key MDAs to tackle regulatory impediments to doing business in Nigeria. The council had to operate on this score because, in the past, red tape and regulatory barriers infringed on the ease of doing business. The existing government insti
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THE NIGER DELTA AND THE PARADOX OF DEVELOPMENT

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I once sat down and listened to the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, His Eminence Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Emir of Kano, as he gave an allegory of "a man who died". From him I understood that there is a variation in what we inquire when we say "The Man has died" and when we say "The Man's neck was slit with a knife". When we say "a man dies" the import of the statement is much different compared to when we say "a man's throat was slit with a knife". While it is true that the man died, that is not enough because it hides too much information. The questions of; WHO killed him? WHAT sharp object was used to slit his throat? WHEN did this happen? HOW did this happen? are fundamental questions of philosophical significance we must not shy from. The Nigerian economy was certainly dying; that goes without saying. But the questions we are most often not comfortable with are; WHO killed it? WHAT was used to kill it? WHEN di
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STRATEGIC IMPLEMENTATION WORK PLAN FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NIGER DELTA (SIWP).

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The SIWP is a roadmap currently undergoing implementation. It provides a strategic framework which coordinates investments in the development and stabilisation in the Niger Delta. It aims at ensuring maximum efficiency and impact on the people of the region. The SIWP was created by organising the proposals developed by the various Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and the development projects planned by the various oil companies operating in the region, into one joint and coordinated roadmap. Its framework shows 475 projects implementable in the short-term (2017-2019), medium-term (2020-2022) and long-term (2023-beyond). Of these projects, 307 are of the Federal Government and 150 are of the IOCs totalling ₦2,065,140,035,959. The commitment of the Federal Government totals about ₦1,769,621,000,816; with the Short-term being ₦1,549,008,641,117, Medium-term, ₦208,989,130,066 and Long-term, ₦11,623,229,633. Whereas, the IOCs totals about ₦295,519,035,143 ;
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POWER, CHANGE AND THE PRACTICE OF GOVERNANCE

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The age of reason has turned out to be the age of structure; a time when, in the absence of purpose, the drive for power as a value in itself has become the principal indicator of social approval. And the winning of power has become the measure of social merit. -John Ralston Saul There is an intuitive notion of what power actually is, and that is what informs, in part, the ideas herein contained. Power here connotes the capacity to perform in the context of subjects such as politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of legal codes by authority. What these concepts are, why they exist, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms must a government protect (and what must not) and why, what form government should take and why, what the law is, and what duties citizens owe a legitimate government, and when a people may reject a government (whether legitimately or not) are key questions that addresses the nature, limits and
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POWER, CHANGE AND THE PRACTICE OF GOVERNANCE

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The age of reason has turned out to be the age of structure; a time when, in the absence of purpose, the drive for power as a value in itself has become the principal indicator of social approval. And the winning of power has become the measure of social merit. -John Ralston Saul There is an intuitive notion of what power actually is, and that is what informs, in part, the ideas herein contained. Power here connotes the capacity to perform in the context of subjects such as politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of legal codes by authority. What these concepts are, why they exist, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms must a government protect (and what must not) and why, what form government should take and why, what the law is, and what duties citizens owe a legitimate government, and when a people may reject a government (whether legitimately or not) are key questions that addresses the nature, limits and
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