Who Will Tell The President
By
I had a strange but interesting encounter with some journalist at the lobby of the Nicon Hilton Hotel, Abuja on Wednesday the 31st October 2001. I had come to see a friend who has in the past two years converted the hotel to a second home. Incidentally he was not available so I decided to wait at the expansive lobby of the hotel. There were as usual a number of persons seated around the lobby. Quite a number were also standing and chatting or simply roaming about fishing for attention. I hung around a bit, unsure of what exactly I wanted to do and then decided to move to a less populated corner of the lounge where three young men where already seated. They seemed to be engulfed in a serious discussion.
As I sat down not too far away from them, I could overhear their conversation. It pertained to the botched opening of the financial bid of Nigerdock by the National Council on Privatisation and the BPE scheduled for the same day. Their fluency in Pidgin English was quite enthralling. The picture they painted of Obasanjo’s government was clearly uninspiring. I asked them why they could not publish their story the way they have expressed themselves to my hearing. They stared at me as if I was the problem. One of them explained that they work for bosses who enjoy various levels of government patronage. They must therefore be careful about the stories they file and are usually guided by their intuition or sixth sense.
If journalists in Nigeria cannot tell it as it is, who can? This is one aspect of the problems of this country that I still cannot come to terms with. It is obvious to me that people fail to speak out on issues, not just because of fear but because of the lure of government patronage. This is perhaps the reason why truth is in short supply in this country. Who will tell the President what people say behind his back in their bedrooms. Who will tell the President that the masses know a lot even when they say very little. Who will tell the President that the people apapreciate truth but despise deceit? Who will tell him that his goodwill has waned and his credibility worn.
Who will tell the President that Nigerians still look up to him for salvation, but their confidence is wearing thin. Who among 120 million Nigerians can go to this particular President and tell him the plain simple truth today. I have pondered these questions since my encounter at the Hilton and reproduce below my recollection of what the journalists will not tell the President. Happy reading. It looks like the government wants to cancel the Nigerdock bid. I am not surprised at all. There’s news that No. 2 is interested in acquiring the company. This man again with his insatiable appetite. Will he buy the whole of Nigeria? I do not believe that the man is that acquisitive. He does not look like that kind of person. He may just be trying to help people. You know he has many friends. I sincerely do not care whether he buys Nigerdock or Nigeria itself.
My main concern is how we do things wrongly in this country. The irony is that whilst the President is busy burning his international goodwill trying to attract reluctant foreign investors to our battered country, his No. 2 is busy rubbishing his efforts. See how we have treated the investors who showed interest in acquiring Nigerdock. BPE or NCP knew that the bid would not hold. What did they do? They allowed the foreign investors to leave the safety of their countries and come to Nigeria, only to be informed at the venue here that a fundamental defect was discovered in the financial report of the company. On this basis, both the technical presentation that the investors were prepared to make today and the opening of the financial bids were suspended.
The worst part of this is that BPE communicated this news to the investors orally in a most discourteous manner. They did not disclose the nature of complexion of the defect; they also did not indicate how, or if it will be cancelled. They are not told whether they should stay on in Nigeria or return to their various countries. Honestly, this BPE people are really undermining investment in Nigeria. I agree with you completely. BPE is using Naija jibiti to conduct international matter.
The privatisation troupe is performing in the global theatre to our collective shame. This is the original tale of the unexpected. When we look at this matter against the background that the President is desperate to bring foreign investment to Nigeria, it is clear that NCP is sabotaging his efforts. Are you sure Oga himself does not know about this. You remember that E1-Rufai said when bicycle minister tried to stall the bid, that only the President can do so. This drama is becoming a comedy. First the Minister tries to stall the sale of Nigerdock but fails; next the Federal Executive Council is humiliated on the matter, and now an ordinary company secretary locates an unsubstantiated defect in the financial report, nobody has bothered to verify the nature of this defect, but BPE just suspends action. Full stop. Nothing could be said for this. You either take it or leave it. An arrant display of primitive power.
They seem to forget that this particular bid has attracted the best foreign companies to the entire privatisation process and the Oyibos must feel terribly insulted by the conduct of BPE. I blame the Oyibos for bothering to express interest in this so-called privatisation. You know that most of them came because of Baba. That is not true. Investors are usually not persuaded to invest in a foreign land because of the stature of the President. Investment considerations are not based on the personal attributes of the Head of State. Is that not one of the Oyibos who came for Nigerdock? Which one? The one walking with those three men. Let’s go and chat with them. I do not think that those men are in the mood to chat with anyone. I do not understand this country at all.
Why wont NCP apologise to these people and tell them they changed their minds about selling Nigerdock. And perhaps out of courtesy offer will repay their expenses. What’s funny? You talk as if you do not live in this country. Have you ever seen any Nigerian leader apologise. Even for them to be above board is asking too much. There is nothing we have ever done in the proper manner in this country. Look at the GSM that Ghana and Burkina Faso installed successfully, we are finding difficult to handle. But the GSM auction was flawless? It was near flawless because a private sector man came in fresh to conduct the auction.
Time denied the big men the opportunity to influence him before the auction. It will have been a different story otherwise. Can we really consider the GSM auction a success in the face of the loud protest from CIL coupled with the MTS palaver. There is a free for all fight in that sector now. The fraud that the government committed in that sector is the forced hike in tariff of NITEL’s landlines. It is obvious that it was imposed to aid the unreasonable and mostly unaffordable charges of the GSM operators. It is as if the major assignment of every government in Nigeria is to deliver a low blow on the common man. I wonder how the President rates his performance in this privatisation exercise.
I am sure he will say, “everything is going according to plan”; meanwhile we all see that there is no plan at all. What we see is a plan to sell everything to themselves. Who will tell the President that things are falling apart? Who will tell him that his men are mischievously degrading his integrity? Very little credibility is associated with the current privatisation exercise. Why do you say so? How many Presidential deadlines have been given on privatisation. Can you remember any one that was met? The first deadline on the privatisation of Nitel failed. Another deadline had been given for November 22nd. We will see how that goes. As for Nigerdock, it is competing with Julius Aghahowa on the intricate act of somersaulting. Although Oga has mandated BPE to privatise it by 12th November, other powerful forces seem to be contesting Oga’s decision. They have for now suspended action on the bid indefinitely.
My friends used to joke that Oga has declared that Nepa must attain cruising altitude by December, but people are asking if it is this year’s December or another year. Even the people who have received billions of Naira to repair NEPA hint that Oga’s December deadline may be unrealistic. So where do you see credibility in all of this. Is credibility not making and keeping a commitment at all times. Left to me, I believe that people are deliberately sabotaging Baba’s efforts. I beg to leave. We can discuss the problems of this country to no end. Anyway, if people are sabotaging Baba’s efforts as you claim, why doesn’t he do something about it?
November 2001