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FG THREATENS MINISTERS OVER VISION 2020 « on: June 13, 2009, 05:26:46 AM »

From Juliana Taiwo in Abuja, 06.13.2009

The Federal Government will henceforth hold ministers responsible for the success or failure of ministries , departments and agencies under them  in the March towards the attainment of the nation’s target of Vision 2020.Vice President Goodluck Jonathan read the riot act at the opening of the two-day mid-term review of the Vision 2020 strategic development programme by the National Technical Committee Working Group held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa Abuja, yesterday.He said the Vision 2020 is “not just another futile programme of government,” but a policy which the current administration is determined to fully implement.The vice president stated that the choice before the nation is clear: “We can either drift into the future or we can plan for our future. It is time,to seize the future with both hands, to build a new Nigeria, a better Nigeria for all of our people as well as turning this great nation of ours to an even greater force for good on the continent and in the world.”“Many other countries with potential not as great as ours have completed conceptualising similar programmes and visions and have already started implementing them.”In response to critics who have referred to the Vision 2020 as “ambitious,” Jonathan said: “I also think it is a plan with seeds of immense opportunitie, which when germinated, hold great development potential for our great country.”He said: “ambition is a driving force that has made many countries in the world great nations today. We are embarking on an ambitious programme because we believe that Nigeria is a great country with boundless potential and our people should no longer be

compelled to settle for second best. In our land of plenty, we should envision great things. The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”“Our aim is victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory, there is no survival. We strive to be among the 20 economies in the world by 2020 not because it is easy, but because it is both necessary and challenging; because our people expect us to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills to improve the general wellbeing of all Nigerians . And because Vision 2020 is a challenge that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.” Jonathan said that as the nation looks ahead, the “tasks becomes even more daunting. In a fast-paced, globalised, post industrial world, the challenge to catch up is very daunting. We are confronted by gigantic challenges of inadequacy of basic infrastructure, the poverty crisis, the human capital deficit and value reorientation. But the job must be done. For the faint-hearted, it may seem an impossible dream to hope for a better future with huge odds.” “Nigeria can become a developed nation if only everyone contributes to it”, saying that the strides the nation has made in the telecommunications sector shows that the realisation of Vision 2020 is possible. Vice President Jonathan stated that “with the Vision to dream big and the political will to make our dream a reality, the Nigerian who is born today and in the years to come will be the last generation of our citizens who will be living in a country that is called “developing” by the year 2020.”

Earlier in his welcome remark, the Minister and Deputy Chairman of National Planning Commission , Shamsudden Usman, said the objective of the mid-term review was simply to “shake the tree, to see if, from the great talent, energy and enthusiasm and ideas of this nation, we can through this process over the next two days, bring forth, or sharpen new ideas on how we can improve the process of sharpening our nation’s future. Some of these ideas, we will be able to embrace. Others, we will not. And some we will take in party and change, but it is far better we ask the questions now, so that the whole process of national creativity in the ideas debate for our future occurs, rather than throttling it before it starts. Let me want that there are no right or wrong answers when it comes to visioning, especially involving discussion among people such great minds and people of goodwill”, he said. The mid-term review is being attended by Ministers, heads of departments and agencies, members of the organised private sector and the Vision 2020 Committee.

http://www.nigerianbestforum.com/index.php?topic=33303.msg165986

Nigeria: Which Paradigm?

Wednesday, 14 April 2010 00:02

As Nigeria approaches fifty years of nationhood, any sincere observer will agree that we have not fulfilled our potential as a people. This fact has been stark in the way we have conducted our affairs since November 23, when President Umaru Yar’Adua took ill.

We make the country look foolish in the eyes of the world, and other nations and peoples must often wonder what sort of people we are? Like Hillary Clinton

wondered, why should we have so much crude oil and import refined petroleum products? Why is it difficult to conduct credible elections in Nigeria? Why in deed do our elections get worse at every run? Why are we so self-destructive that we steal all our national wealth, only to hide them in other nations while we don’t have good hospitals, roads and airports? Why do we kill ourselves every now and then in the name of ethnic, communal or religious conflict?

I am convinced that one explanation for our national drift is that we have not answered some basic questions about what we want as a nation. Or perhaps our answers to those questions are so different, varied or inconsistent that as a group of people, we become dysfunctional? Our perhaps seeing that we have different perspectives to these questions, we agree to do nothing about them and continue in an inefficient compromise in which every thing is open to negotiation, and nothing is resolved. Can we progress as a nation, if we don’t resolve on our basic corporate vision and strategy? Is it possible to achieve development without a shared sense of purpose, nationhood and direction? Some will say we have Vision 2020; or that we had Vision 2010 in the past; or National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) or Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) before then; or a national anthem and national pledge all of which include lofty pronouncements on the issues I claim are unanswered.

My answer is that as a strategist, I know very well that strategy is not what you say; or what you write in your plan or strategy document; or the declarations contained in your vision and mission statement. Strategy is what you do, and do consistently! I have identified at least seven fundamental questions which our actions reveal we either do not have settled answers to, or our perspectives are so inconsistent or irreconcilable as to leave us hobbled and immobile as a nation.

Do we seek to be a modern, democratic nation-state, organised as a constitutional democracy based on the rule of law or are we a pre-modern, traditional, communalist or neo-feudal society ruled by men, negotiation, consensus or customs? Can we be both these things as we evidently seek to be? There is much evidence in favour of both of these conceptions of organising society in Nigeria. Yes we have a constitution, but we have difficulty obeying it, and are always looking for “political solutions” like our pre-colonial towns and villages in which when a conflict arises, every one assembles in the village square or traditional rulers palace to agree some consensus. We have governors, but mention one governor in Nigeria who does not defer to Obas, Emirs, Obis and other traditional institutions in matters of governance and policy?

Do we desire a competitive, free enterprise, private-sector led, entrepreneurial and transparent society or a prebendal, rent-allocating, state-controlled, dependent economy? Are we agreed on this question? Why do we for instance have difficulty privatising PHCN or the refineries in spite of the clear failure of these entities in government hands? Even our so-called private sector leadership turn into opponents of privatisation once they are in government only to rediscover the virtues of such liberalising polices after they leave their very rewarding government positions. Why in spite of the overwhelming evidence from telecommunications, broadcasting, financial services, aviation etc are we unwilling to deregulate power, downstream petroleum and solid minerals?

Do we want to build a progressive, dynamic, enlightened, forward-looking society in which everyone has access to qualitative health, education, employment and social protection or we are a conservative, archaic society in which everyone fends for himself and the poor are condemned to a sub-human existence? Why then have our leaders refused to invest in our human capital? Why do we leave over fifty per cent of our people in poverty? Why do we ignore the looming crisis of unemployment, illiteracy and social dislocation that threatens our society’s social fabric? What will be the relationship between the leaders and the citizens in Nigeria? Do we want a bottom-up society, a participatory democracy with access to information, free, transparent elections, fundamental freedoms and a free and ethical press or we are a top-down society ruled by cabals, cliques, oligarchs, patriarchs, chieftains or other unelected or unaccountable leaders? Why can’t our political parties-all of them-organise transparent party primaries? Why must our elections be rigged or violent? Why do we refuse freedom of information to the citizens?

There are others as well. Do we want a secular society in which we separate state and religion or we are a sectarian society? What we have today is a fudge that threatens to one day explode in our faces. Do we desire ethnic harmony or hegemony? Are we a nation or a group of peoples? Do we have one national interest or a set of (often conflicting) sub-national interests? As a people, are we interested in politics or policy? Do we seek development or decay?

Business Dayhttp://www.businessdayonline.com/ARCHIVE/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10059:nigeria-which-paradigm&catid=96:columnists&Itemid=539

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Reforming Nigeria

Editorial Jan 8, 2010

THE challenges that reforms pose are not new to these parts. With a little hindsight, we can remember that the re-structuring of this economy, otherwise called reforms started most emphatically in the public’s mind with the structural adjustment programme, SAP.

Devaluation of the Naira that followed from SAP failed to produce the economic elixir Nigerians were promised. The Naira has been on the slide ever since.

Reforms of banks, electoral system, the polity and attitudes of Nigerians dominated the air waves in the past three decades. If we are not being told how to cross the streets, we are harassed to all become farmers, so that jointly we can feed the nation.

Greater attention is paid to words rather than the sustainability of these programmes that have left Nigeria constantly under reforms without meaningful progress. Reforms no longer have meaning. From the Constitution to electricity all we talk about are reforms. Yet nothing comes out of these.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo sang about reforms as if they would be the sole basis for the survival of the country. The most accomplished of the reforms under Obasanjo could be the recapitalisation of the banks to a minimum of N25 billion. Competitive as this was said to have made Nigerian banks globally, it did not in any way improve banking services, nor did it improve corporate governance in banks.

Reforms have not touched key human development areas like education, health, provision of drinking water, housing, and food security. There has not been any basic improvement in agriculture, beyond the billions of Naira allocated to the sector. Nigeria’s agriculture remains in its primitive nature and is unable to fend for the peoples, hence the increasing import of grains, especially rice.

Electricity supply is mired in sheer semantics. One day generation is the problem, another day, the distribution of what is produced is the issue. The most profound statement on electricity supply came from  former Power and Steel Minister, Chief Lyel Imoke, who four years ago said stable power supply would be achieved in 2056 – 46 years hence.

Media reports are filled with the high cost of manufacturing – and living – that poor electricity supply causes. This sector will only get proper attention, if there is good leadership to unbundle the issues and manage them.

Remarkably, the Vision 2020 document, which captures government’s economic and social aspirations for Nigeria, is already suffering devastating blows from the absence of enabling laws to bring it to life. Constant references to the Vision 2020 document as the possible provider of direction for development of Nigeria now sound trite.

The imperatives of reforms for Nigeria to combat debilitating poverty are pressing. Reforms that do not change peoples’ lives are meaningless. Reforms today address issues that could compound the poverty of more than 90 million.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/01/reforming-nigeria/

M. M. YUSIF

Welcome to my home, where the main concern is Political commentaries, Political writings and Anti-globalistion educational papers, WTO Mock Summit research and guide papers. Academic papers and other essays, my poems, teaching programmes and other guides including ICT and communication skills papers for learning and research, research reports and other essays.

Monday, 28 January 2008

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMME AND NIGERIAN LABOUR MOVEMENT:--- STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMME AND NIGERIAN LABOUR MOVEMENT: A CASE OF NIGERIAN CIVIL SERVICE UNION

BY

MU’AZU M. YUSIFDepartment of Political ScienceBayero University, Kano

Two-Day Seminar for Local Union Leaders of the Nigeria Civil Service Union, Kano State Council

Organised by Bayero University Consultancy Services Unit, Kano from 7th – 8th February, 1994, at the Federal Secretariat, Kano

IntroductionThe impact of SAP on the organised Labour Movement is devastating. Its effect on the economy of Nigerian workers has bred organisational and political lack of confidence on the Managers of labour affairs. Yet workers, as individuals and through their organisations have put up resistance against the on-slaught of SAP on their living standard and have joined broad struggles to improve the conditions of everybody. The Nigeria Civil Service Union symbolised these struggles.

The Civil ServiceFirst what is the civil service? What constitute the civil service? In ordinary Language, all workers in the public sector are called civil servants. The concept is used to differentiate workers in the public sector from that in the private sector. Narrowly speaking and for our purpose of addressing members and leaders of civil service union, the civil service include only workers in the Federal and State Ministries. According to a 1981 statistics out of 2.3 million people in the modern sector wage employment 1.3 million, or 58 percent were in the public sector. Within the sector itself, the civil service, i.e. representing Federal and State Ministries, carried 261,000 (11.3%) and 427,000 (19%) respectively. This implies that in the public sector majority were in the civil service.

Labour Unions in the Civil ServiceTrade Unionsm in Nigeria originated in the civil service. Historically, the number of unions in the civil service are not numerous, although nearly one hundred unions operated in the civil service before 1978 reorganisation of the Trade Union movement in Nigeria. In that year, more than 1,000 unions were re-organised. During that exercise the number of unions in the civil service has been reduced to eight.

In the following table the names of these unions, the number of unions that were merged to make them and their approximate estimated membership as at 1982 is shown:

S/NNames of the UnionsNo. of Unions mergedApproximate membership 1982

1.Civil service Technical workers union of Nigeria30150,0002.Nigeria Civil Service Union2260,0003.Nigerian Union of Civil Service Typists, Stenographers and Allied Staff212,0004.Printing and Publishing Workers Union132,1435.Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria1720,0006.National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Mid-wives325,0007.Customs, excise and Immigration Staff Union214,0008.Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria290,000

The Nigerian Civil Service UnionThe history of Trade Unionsm in Nigeria indicate that the first trade union formed was the Nigeria civil service union, organised in 1912.

It first started as Southern Nigeria Civil Service Union but later changed its name to Nigerian Civil Service Union after the amalgamation of the protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria.

Infact, before the 1929 Economic Depression, the politics of Nigeria labour movement was dominated by that of the Civil Service Union. During this period and even after formation of other organised unions in the public sector, before the Second World War, the civil service union championed most of the improved changes of conditions of service in the public service.

The 1978 Trade Union restructuring which reorganised all the Trade Union organisations into 42 Trade Unions came with one central Civil Service Union, with a national structure and state councils. That gives the present structure or Civil Service

Union, Kano State Council.

SAP and Nigerian WorkersWith the rejection of the IMF structural adjustment loan by Nigerian people, the Government of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, still came with another programme in collaboration with IMF which contains all the conditions of the financial institution. This is called SAP.

The conception of SAP is economic policy package which will open the economy to world big business, along the way to temporarily diversify exports, achieve fiscal and balance of payments viability, be able to pay foreign debts and strengthen the private sector.

The main strategies of the programme, in order to achieve the above stated conception is the rationalisation and restructuring of public expenditure, customs tariff and hence the civil service. Also are adoption of free exchange rate policy combined with liberalisation of the external trade and payments system and adoption of market forces principles on everything particularly the pricing policies.

In order to achieve these objectives through the strategies so employed certain policy measures came into being. These policies are:1. Withdrawal of petroleum subsidy2. Privatisation and commercialisation of public enterprises.3. The emergence of liberal foreign exchange of market determined rates4. The liberalisation of external trade and payments5. The deregulation of interest rate, such that it is determined by market forces6. Wages freeze and later wage deregulation

In effect, the implementation of the above policy prescriptions and others has brought a lot of hardship on Nigerian people especially the wage-earning group. Members of NCSU for example are horribly affected through:1. Retrenchment of workers in the name of rationalisation of the public service2. Like workers elsewhere, members of NCSU are going through, declining living conditions caused by declining value of the currency, stagnant wage level and increasingly rising inflationary trends.3. Increasing difficulties because of virtual commercial value of Health Services and Education of the children of workers.4. Unemployment as a result of retrenchment and closures of enterprises which brings more people under the dependency of “ordinary” workers, which is a burden on their wages.

SAP and the Labour MovementIn discussing the impact of SAP on Nigerian workers, it is necessary to treat it also on the level of politics. The SAP has indeed introduced a lot of unimaginable difficulties on workers. For workers the only solution is to abolish the programme. Therefore, while they are fighting to improve their conditions under the programme, their long-term objective is to get the policy measures abandoned. On the other hand the Nigeria’s state wants make that a permanent standard on the people. As such every political measure is to curtail human rights of Nigerian workers. A statement by Nicholas Van Hear captures the essence of this when he says:

“Wages freezes and other restraints on pay bargaining are a common concomitant of structural adjustment. Constraints on organisation remain in place for implementation (of) free market policies require authoritarian regimes, under which freedom of organisation and association are fragile”.

The transition programme of the Babangida Government imposed many restrictions on workers involvement in politics. Trade Unions activities are limited by repressive actions of the state. Labour leaders are under constant harassment and surveillance by the state. Security surveillance on ranks-and-file and labour activists in their places of work, disturb their consciousness and confidence of actions. Some labour leaders allow themselves to be co-opted into the political and economic structures of the state.

However, inspite of everything, Nigerian workers have resisted every act against their interests and interests of Nigerian people in general. The example of Nigeria Civil Service Union, Kano State council is a case in point. The Union, using the umbrella of Nigeria Labour Congress, Kano State Council fought to secure the implementation of SAP relief package and went against retrenchment of its members.

The Nigeria Civil Service Union is the workers group very closely related to state. The leadership therefore needs to develop extra commitments and direction to deal with forces against the interests of workers. In order to defend the interests of workers, leadership in this union requires a high spirit of loyalty to the union, above personal interests, and subjecting the method of work to democratisation of decision making.

ConclusionIt is worth noting for leadership of workers union that while struggles to defend interests of workers using legal procedures is not unnecessary the method of strike is also effective where employers do not have respect for procedures and the negotiated agreements. Posted by M. M. YUSIF at 07:11

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About Me

Ma'azu Mohd. YusifI am a Senior Lecturer in Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano – Nigeria. With many research experiences, my areas of interest cover Political Economy, State and Society, Development Studies and Industrial Relations. While doing my work for teaching and research, I have been involved in trade unionism, pro-democracy movements, civil society organizations and participate in many national political groups to promote political and economic development of Nigeria. I was for a short period of time the coordinator Anti-globalisation Forum, Kano – Nigeria, but now the Director of WTO Mock Summit Group in Bayero University, Kano, which at any rate will become a national organization. My writings will reveal more about me. You could also contact me through: - +2348035983639.

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