By Yinka Odumakin
NOBEL Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka went on a courtesy visit to Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in Abuja.The good old Prof had for years not been known to be a ministerial visitor raising the curiosity that something must be cooking in the ministry of Information and Culture.

Journalists walked up to him  as he stepped out  of the meeting with  Mohammed. The grey-bearded man of letters pleaded for understanding with the present administration as he offered some suggestion: “The  economy is bad. It is obvious and it is so bad. I think the Presidency should call an emergency economic conference where experts will be enlightened.

We really need an emergency economic conference, bringing experts together to march the nation forward. I think the economy is not encouraging. Quite frankly, I think most economists will agree with this.”

I had expected the Information Minister to assure us a day after that  the government was not clueless as the suggestion of hosting an emergency conference on the economy would suggest . I thought he would also add that  the economic  team of the government was working and Nigerians would soon see the outcome of  their deliberations.

The minister instead went on the usual tangent of telling the country untruth when he denied before our “korokoro” eyes that the 2016 budget was not padded.

Hear him: “A lot has been said about the budget. Let me make clear that nobody can ever accuse this government of padding any budget. The total for every ministry has remained exactly the same as what was submitted to the National Assembly. The total of all ministries put together has not exceeded N6.08 trillion that was submitted. It is factually incorrect to say that the budget was padded.

 Envelop and Zero budget: “This is the first time in the history of this country that a government will embark on  what is called zero based budget. Before now, the budget system was what was called an enveloped system. In an envelope system, there is no justification as to why we need N30 billion for a structure. This year, we decided that every ministry must have a zero based budget. In other words, you must justify and explain why you need N100 billion….”

Thank God for Mr. President who assured us the administration is not wretched as far as integrity is concerned when he addressed Nigerians in Saudi Arabia.

Buhari said, “ I have been a military governor, petroleum minister, military Head of State and headed the Petroleum Trust Fund. Never had I heard the words budget padding. Our Minister of Budget and National Planning did a great job with his team.The minister became almost half his size during the time, working night and day to get the budget ready, only for some people to pad it. What he gave us was not what was finally being debated. It is very embarrassing and disappointing. We will not allow those who did it to go unpunished.”

Emergency economic conference: Back to the emergency economic conference. In what would appear as if the Nobel Laureate  was being a sounding board,

a national daily reported days after his vist to Mohammed that President Buhari had  heeded the Professor’s suggestion and a 2-day summit was in the offing sometime in March to address the country’s economic challenges.

Disaster of the  millennium

I still want to believe that the newspaper report would be denied very soon as it must not be true. It would be the greatest disaster of the millennium if there was any iota of truth to this report at the end of the day.

Just hold my hand and give me some explanation as to why such a conference would not signal that we are in a deeper crisis than we  ever thought.We have a party that campaigned on the agenda of CHANGE with all manner  of promises.Their manifesto has even been translated into Yoruba,Igbo and Hausa  and the translations were to be presented to the public two weeks ago before it was postponed last minute.The party came into power and we waited patiently  for months as it  said it was searching for the best of the best to be ministers. The ministers  were later chosen and assigned portfolios. With much expectations in the air months  after their swearing in and nine months into the life of the administration, we would now be having a NATIONAL CONFERENCE.

Floundering economic reforms: This conference is not going to discuss the polity but the job that we already assigned experts to do-fixing the economy. Are we being told there is no economic team within the cabinet? Is Reuters right when its report titled “A year on from Nigerian election victory, Buhari’s reforms flounder” states: “With no regular meetings, ministers are still trying to figure out what they can achieve, officials say. Buhari merged several ministries but since a cabinet retreat in November, he has left them to drift……..a senior civil servant who asked not to be named said ministers struggled to get the attention of Buhari’s office. There is a proposal, a consultancy does a study but then the report gets ignored,” he said.

“Buhari  asked Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to coordinate economic policy, but diplomats say he is being sidelined as the president personally handles all key issues, including a freeze of the naira exchange rate that is crippling investment.”

Lying to the bedridden: If we now have a two-day summit to say all what people have been saying in the newspapers,what happens? A committee would be set up to study and analyse the report of the summit. This committee may sit for about three moths after which it would submit a report to the Federal Executive Council that meets on the average of once in a month. When the report is now adopted, it would then be passed on to the ministries headed by lackluster ministers many of whom we don’t even know are in town. Lord have mercy !

The holding of this so-called conference would not be different from a doctor who says he knows what is wrong with a patient, charged him all the fees  and treating him after carrying out  all the necessary tests suddenly turns around to call a meeting  of colleagues  and even non-doctors to come and tell him what to do with his patient. He must have been lying to the bedridden!

Re: As Arewa governors migrate to Saudi….

MY dear Yinka, May God bless your soul for saying the truth about Nigeria. I have always described Nigeria as a phantom. I have just completed reading your book Watching the watcher. I commend your courage for dissecting Ex- president Olusegun Obasanjo.

I read the  latest edition of your column in the Vanguard newspaper.  Are you aware that the President’s wife inaugurated the Northern Governors’ Wives forum recently? Let us continue with the pretense.

l know that Nigeria will not stand. We are not, and will never be a country.

I pray for the oil wells to dry up, then you will see the true colour of our northern “brothers”.

Thank you and please continue with what you are doing. My sincere regards to you.

Mr. Godwin German.

Just to say your Candid Notes column is always on point. Please keep the good work and struggle for fairness and justice on the front burner.

I will  communicate with you from time to time . Regards,

Engr. Babatunde Oshodi.

Dear sir, you are a great writer and the more reason why Vanguard is one of my chosen newspapers. I am sad and bitter that southern governors are always divided and intimidated when it comes to the overall economic interest of the South. Please help us to pasuade them to see reasons to unite and migrate to America too while we will continue to look for God’s intervention.

Oriogu onwuamaeze Ephraim

Unfortunately your latest write up is too loaded and complicated for the average Nigerian.

I think you should publish it again and again until…..

As for northern Gominas, and their main sponsors, that  is, the Islamic Banks,they are also dependent on wealth supported by oil sales.  How long will they remain relevant?

Fashola routinely led a delegation to watch Man United soccer games in the UK, you forgot to give him credit.

Hopefully, a  new Republican administration will usher in a new African policy that we must be ready to embrace. Susan Rice is a joke. I will not meet with her.

How do you explain the fact that her boss will not visit Africa’s most populous country in all of his eight years in office?

-Hillary Okoronkwo.