Friday, May 10, 2013

Soludo’s Solution of Anger and Innuendo




BY NASIR EL-RUFAI.

Long before the publication of The Accidental Public Servant, I had decided to resist joining issues with whatever commentators wrote in response to the book by way of either attacking the author or its contents. It is a narrative of my experiences and views, and   I would simply invite others to document theirs. Many of those that commented on, or ‘reviewed’ the book had not even read it in full.
Others had decided long before it was published that they would attack El-Rufai and whatever he writes, while a few others were simply going to be unhappy with how they were presented in the book as being less than perfect. When one writes a 700-page book, one has to take a deep breath and allow others the slack to write a few pages in response, however disagreeable or abusive.
When I wrote The Accidental Public Servant, there were no illusions that its account would be uncontested. As I have said repeatedly, it is simply my account of the people and events that defined my years in public service. I took several precautions (such as double-checking from the copious notes and diaries of events that were taken after every major encounter – about forty seven note books in total) of ensuring that it is a truthful, balanced and fair account of my experience.
I do not have a professorial memory, so kept daily journals of events including verbatim records of statements. I am delighted that I took the time to write it, and I once again encourage others who have been privileged to be in the public service to similarly record their experiences. Those who may choose not to write books can still contribute by responding to specific issues mentioned in my narrative on which they may have other information, however critical or contrary to my account.
Professor Charles (I have always called him Charles because that is how we were introduced. I have never gotten used to calling him Chukwuma) Soludo approached me at the end of the recent thanksgiving service for my sister, Oby Ezekwesili, to complain about some of the assertions in my book concerning him. He denied that he owed his consulting jobs with the World Bank and other institutions to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. He denied being mentored or taught by her father. He added that he had not read the entire book but would send me two pages of his initial observations. I encouraged him not only to do so, but publish it and work on a book documenting his experiences. Knowing Charles as I do, I had no doubt that he was already doing that and the first episode has now been published in his fortnightly column in Thisday.
Thus, his rebuttal did not come as a surprise; given  that I encouraged him to do so as I have nothing to hide. Even so, it is shocking that he chose to sensationalise his version of events by describing The Accidental Public Servant as intellectual fraud. There is a question mark in the title of his article, but the last sentence of Charles’ diatribe restated his magisterial conclusion. He went further to provide his own definitions of fraud as “an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual” or “as course of deception, an intentional concealment, omission or perversion of truth”; only to stop there! Fraud has a technical and legal definition and if Charles had bothered to consult his lawyer, he would have gone beyond the ‘online definition’, but that is another matter for now.
It is illogical to contest someone’s CV with him in the absence of contrary and superior information. I therefore concede to Charles’ account of his professional odyssey prior to his being introduced to us in 2000 by Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, long before joining the Obasanjo government in 2003. The logical question therefore is how any of the examples he gave of the errors in his resume would without more, rise to the level of fraud? Why would I intentionally deceive the world that Soludo’s tenure as governor of CBN started in mid-2005 rather than May of 2004? This only occurred when one of the book’s editors thought the 2004 date was wrong and ‘corrected’ it but that escaped subsequent editorial reviews. What is the personal gain to me in describing Soludo as a protégé of Professor Okonjo or how did the description damage him when he just referred to the same Professor Okonjo as “respected”? So, Charles needs to substantiate how any assertion, error or omission in the book amounts to “fraud” per his definition.
After that, I do not see much that is significant to warrant a clarification from me. One friend on Twitter observed that Charles’ polemic had so much anger and little substance that he truly sounded as angry as a woman scorned!  Much of Charles’ response is enlivened by innuendos. He repeats the frequent charge about my ambition for the presidency in 2007, a charge that is untrue but that is often echoed as if that ambition, if it existed, is akin to treason. Charles knows that I do not consider illegitimate his desire to be governor of his state or his current hopes to be a presidential running-mate. But he should know better than most that ambition for office is not the only reason for being active in politics. Since Charles has claimed that I ‘schemed desperately’ to succeed Obasanjo, he should please tell all – inform Nigerians what I did, who was involved and spill the beans! Virtually all the narratives in The Accidental Public Servant about Charles involved others that are still alive, and if he said I made them up, perhaps he should state his version and invite others mentioned to invalidate my claim instead of calling anyone a liar just because he did not like the way his conduct appeared in the book.
Charles was introduced to me by Ngozi, and that was the foundation of our professional relationship and friendship. As far as I know, it was also Ngozi who proposed his name for economic adviser and Oby (and her husband) took him to Obasanjo several times before he was appointed. If Charles is denying that this happened, that is fine. It does not change the facts, and those that did what they did know what they did or did not do! Why is Charles so hurt that others have helped him?  Is he suggesting that he had won the Nobel Prize in Economics and that is how Obasanjo got to meet and appoint him?
Charles presented his jaundiced interpretations of what I wrote in clear language as my views in his piece. For instance, there was nowhere in the book that I wrote that ‘Ngozi was power hungry.’ She was pragmatic and realistic about power relations. How does that equate to being power hungry? Charles is playing with words in a patently dishonest way, knowing that many that will read his piece have not read the book, but he is not the intellectual fraud! Charles also asserted that I forced myself on the economic team and “destroyed it”! Was it El-Rufai that composed the membership of the team? When and how was the team single-handedly destroyed by me? As far as I know, warts and all, the economic team kept on working till May 29, 2007. Again, I invite Charles to educate us all now, bearing in mind virtually all the team members are still alive and around, even after he stopped attending its weekly meetings.
In the book, I wrote that Charles did many things to ingratiate himself to Obasanjo, one of which was to attribute every good ‘idea’ to the latter; not actual achievements, since there were few in the early days. Charles’ response was to misrepresent what was written, just as he knows that there is no weight to the claim that appointees under a presidential system cannot claim credit for their work. To acknowledge the opportunity President Obasanjo gave me to serve, and the support he provided to help us succeed at the FCT is very different from pretending that only the boss had any ideas on how to administer Abuja, or that he oozed perfection, presidential system or not.
Charles also came out guns blazing questioning my narratives of events involving his new mentor Atiku Abubakar, and Nuhu Ribadu and Obasanjo. In Charles’ views, these three people made me tick in government and I should be eternally grateful. Charles has not read the book. If he did, he would have come across all the instances in which I gave each of them credit for what they did right and how they contributed to the work I did. Unlike Charles who makes people believe they are perfect when he needs them, I was consistent in and out of office in pointing to those I worked with where I believe they went wrong Just as I was self critical of my own shortcomings. In Charles’ vocabulary, that is ingratitude. In mine, it is simply utilitarian sycophancy to attribute perfection to imperfect mortals because they are likely to help one’s career next week!
Charles claimed that I pleaded with him to provide technical assistance to BPE. That is false. That conversation just never happened. Those familiar with BPE know that we hired people either as regular public servants, individual consultants called ‘core team’ members that work full time in the organization or investment bankers and consulting firms like lawyers and accountants that provided periodic transactional services as needed. Charles and his economic consulting firm did not fit into any of the three categories.
I appointed him to the membership of two reform steering committees – Competition and Anti-Trust and the Industry and Manufacturing Reform Committees along with persons of the calibre of Pat Utomi, Oby Ezekwesili, and Aliko Dangote. I was the coordinator of both committees as DG of the BPE, with Ibrahim S. Njiddah, now a presidential assistant doing the day-to-day management. I am now learning from the Charles’ piece that he single-handedly did the work of the Competition Reform Committee for free. I did not realize that all the other notable members did nothing! Well, thanks Charles, but Steering Committee members got hotel accommodation and were paid sitting allowances by the BPE, so I do not quite understand what was meant by asserting that you did the work free of charge.
That leaves us with asking Charles to detail the fraud he alleges was attendant to the efforts we made to restore the Abuja master plan. He claimed that my ‘vindictiveness’ nearly ruined the exercise. Really? There is need to say more right on this away. I am challenging Charles to substantiate these innuendos with names and details of my alleged vindictiveness in his article since everybody knows that my service at the FCT is a matter of public record that has been investigated by several institutions unsympathetic to me, and all Abuja residents know about and still comment upon it.
The rest of Soludo’s article was spent blowing his trumpet of banking consolidation with his characteristic modesty! The dismissal of Charles’ over-hyped banking consolidation in The Accidental Public Servant therefore appeared to upset him more than anything else. He is still under the illusion that his ‘revolution’ changed our lives the way GSM licensing did! No one needs a single 234Next to see through the hype and the disingenuous comparison. Banks like First Bank, UBA, Union, Zenith IBTC, and GTB needed no consolidation. They had sound business models and were doing well without it.
Soludo’s consolidation abolished investment banks and regional banks, while creating a few ‘big’ banks with funny names many of which were either comatose by 2009 or had to be subsequently saved by the Sanusi Lamido Sanusi rescue exercise. It is pathetic to measure the success of consolidation by the number of banks in the top 1,000 banks in the world. Did that ranking translate into increased lending to the real sector, greater employment opportunities for our people and intensified mobilization of savings in the way the GSM revolution did? No way, only massive margin loans to create a stock market bubble, engender insider lending and incestuous relations between regulators and operators in the industry.
The kind of targeted interventions needed to fill the gaps sustained by some of such policies were opposed by Soludo unless the ideas originated from him. As CBN governor, Charles did all he could to frustrate the attempts to establish a national mortgage system and was openly critical of Ngozi’s drive and contributions in getting the Paris Club debts written off for the simple reason that the the credit might go to others not Soludo!
Charles is free to beat his chest and claim that the deformed baby called consolidation was a revolution, but today many of the the poster-children of the policy like Intercontinental, Oceanic, Finbank and Spring Bank are history, the banking-stockbroking rock stars are facing prosecution, and with N4 trillion spent to prevent the collapse of his revolution.
When Charles’ memoirs are published, those that either witnessed it or had to clean up ‘the world’s fastest growing financial system’ will have their own views. And it will be good for the country. After all, it has been said that every story has at least three sides, my version, your version and the truth which lies somewhere in between the two. If one refers to a book one finds disagreeable as intellectual fraud while insisting that a cancer one created that has cost nearly the annual budget of the federal government to treat, so far, as a resounding success, then what more is there to say? It simply points to the moral and psychological mind-set of such a person.

Friday, May 3, 2013


El-Rufai on Friday: These Cowards 
BY 
Olusegun Dada


The rising popularity of social media among young people has become such a nightmare for Nigeria’s rulers that are afraid of openness and information symmetry, that the Jonathan administration is spending a whopping $40 million to read their emails, romantic exchanges and other ‘subversive’ exchanges. Interacting regularly with young people on Twitter and Facebook gives the older generation both hope and concern.
‘Dada Olusegun is one of those young people that have been making positive contributions in cyberspace. He is just 25 years old! He attended Awori Ajeromi Grammar School in Lagos and graduated from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Ogbomosho with an honours degree in Pure and Applied Chemistry! Yet like many of the multi-talented youths we have introduced on this column, Dada writes as if he studied humanities, the social sciences or even literature.
Dada was very active along with Yemi Adamolekun, Japheth Omojuwa, Chinedu Ekeke, Seun Fakuade, Zainab Usman, Momoh Adejoh and Amina Saude Mohammed and numerous others during the #OccupyNigeria movement that successfully resisted the imposition of the surreptitious Jonathanian tax called ‘fuel subsidy removal’. He is a talented writer cum social change advocate. He is a regular political columnist on #EkekeeeDotCom and contributor on numerous online blogs and newspapers. He is a gifted public speaker who is also involved in youth empowerment and enlightenment.
Today, Dada issues a call to action and appeals for Nigerian citizens to end their lethargic acceptance of bad governance, looting and impunity by claiming to be neutral. Indeed, Dada thinks such people are simply cowards. Do you agree? It is my honour and privilege to introduce another vigorous young voice, Mr. ‘Dada Olusegun for your weekend enjoyment.
                                    – Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai


Let me put it this way: I have seen many things in my life. I have seen certain people who treat passivity as some kind of heroic action. There are people who say, “I just want my job, my family, and my religion and I will leave politics out of my life.” Passivity isn’t heroic, it’s cowardly! It’s the lazy man’s easy way out. But I see it beyond laziness.

Let me say this to those people: you’re idiots! While you’re asleep in front of your own life, they are screwing you. While you shut your mind to national issues, they are mentally gang-raping you. While you’re living out your life, they are ripping you off; they’re pulling the carpet from under you, tripling national debts that your children and grandchildren will not be able to pay till they die.

You’re idiots for closing your eyes exactly when your eyes should be open. You’re morons for thinking that the present day government will take care of the people if not put on their toes and forced to do so. You’re blind for thinking that the corruptly rich will not do everything in their power to keep their stranglehold on you; you cannot be passive while the missiles of corruption fall on your head and the heads of your children. You cannot be passive while they destroy your life and the lives of your children. You cannot sit there and pretend to be neutral. You cannot be passive when people thousands daily die due to negligence of government. You cannot be passive when the military sworn to protect your lives and properties kill and maim you and your children on the altar of the war against terror. You cannot afford to be passive. No you cannot.

Your destiny is in your hands, the destiny of your generation and the generation after yours. Let me tell you this: it’s either you become politically active or you risk a complete destruction by those in power. You either become politically active or your unborn children and grandchildren will curse you even in your grave because politics is too important to be left in the hands of “the politicians”. It is even worse to leave it in the hands of criminals who know no difference between state purse and personal pocket. Who will loot the entire treasury, in the drop of a hat.

Our direct participation in politics both now and during and after every election is compulsory for the growth of the society and the welfare of the humans living in it. Our contract must never stop with voting anyone into power, but prevailing upon them to perform. Only with our direct participation in politics will power truly belong to the people.

Enemies of Nigeria are on the prowl, only our combined voices can throw them out. The Edo and Ondo state gubernatorial elections have shown that it is possible for us as a people to resist all forms of electoral malpractices.

I also understand that your ilk, the Mister-mind-my-business, didn’t participate in the Edo election. Your church and family and job and business and holiness and righteousness were all more important to you than the good of the society you live in.

When the vigilance of those you call fools now cause those in power to get responsible and build roads, you will want to drive past them. When they build good schools, you will want to pull your kids out of the low-quality but unreasonably expensive buildings called private schools, to put them in the government owned ones.

We saw how your ilk in performing states pulled their kids out of those private schools when they saw that a responsible government can actually build good schools.
You sit under your religious leaders who enjoin you to honour thieves in government with their silence and you swallow such messages without thinking them through. What they fail to tell you however is that without the Reverend Martin Luther Kings’ of yesterday, there could never have been a Barack Obama today.
You are an enemy of this country.

But the country must move on with or without you or your cowardice masked in passivity. We will defeat all the enemies and put our nation back on the path of growth and change.

Did I hear you say I insulted you? Well, whatever I say here will be better than what your great grandchildren will say on your grave, if this nation fails.

Wake up, my friend, wake up!



Olusegun Dada can be followed on twitter @DOlusegun