Would you prescribe same change for Lagos state?
• Govt: Why we seek to acquire LCC concession rights
Gboyega Akinsanmi

The Lagos State Government has unveiled a plan to issue bonds totalling N87.5 billion before the end of the 2013 fiscal year to take over the concession rights of the Lekki-Epe Expressway from the Lekki Concession Company (LCC).
The state government also spoke on plans to restructure its borrowing plan, noting that the N30 billion previously sought under the World Bank Development Policy Operation (DPO II) "will no longer materialise this year."
The plan was contained in a letter dated August 19, which Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN), addressed to the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, thereby seeking approval of the assembly.
In his letter, the governor pointed out the need for the state government "to issue bonds totalling N87.5 billion in this year, instead of the N35 billion originally envisaged" under the 2013 fiscal regime.
He, therefore, explained the rationales behind a change in the state fiscal plan, which he ascribed to the need "to cover the shortfall in the internally generated revenue (IGR) and the delay in disbursement of the World Bank DPO II."
The governor added that the plan to issue the N87.5 billion bonds was basically to finance the acquisition of the concession rights (of the Lekki-Epe expressway) and take control of the toll regime for the benefit of our citizens."
Fashola said the state government would continue "to maintain its fiscal strategy designed to promote sustainable economic growth through the adoption of more accurate revenue estimates; gradual diversification of the state economy into new areas and provision of enabling investment climate in the state."
He expressed the state government's willingness, "to maintain sustainable public borrowing and efficient public debt management. Even though the resultant deficit has risen to N79.865 billion, it is still consistent with our fiscal policy of declining deficit when compared with the 2012 actual deficit, which was N89.45 billion."
At the assembly's plenary yesterday, the state Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Ben Akabueze, said the decision to acquire the concession was for the interest of the residents of the state.
The commissioner explained that part of the plan by government for the review of the agreement with the LCC was to pay them off in order to take full possession of the road.
Akabueze said the government had already committed about N10 billion "to the funding of the project which took off in 2004 billed to cost N50 billion," addingthat: "The state government will determine how much to be paid by motorists as toll on the road instead of allowing the concessionaire to fix prices when and how it likes."
Also last night, the state government explained its position on the plan to buy-back the concession rights, attributing it to the agitation by the concessionaire to jack up the toll.
It also said the concession agreement with the concessionaire was not terminated as reported by a section of the media.
The state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeola Ipaye and his finance counterpart, Mr. Ayodele Gbeleyi, explained the state's decision in a statement they jointly signed yesterday.
According to the statement, the state government had neither terminated nor cancelled the concession agreement it entered into with the LCC to reconstruct and expand the expressway.
The statement said the state government "is engaged in buying back the rights pertaining to the concession ahead of the 30-year period stipulated in the Design, Build, Operate and Transfer (DBOT) Concession Agreement. This is to be achieved by purchasing all the shares in the LCC."
The statement explained that the state government came "to this decision to buy back the rights in the light of several developments clearly not envisaged in the 2006 Concession Agreement (which became effective in 2008).
"The project, given its pioneering nature, had some underlying assumptions and market indicators under which the transaction was concluded which have since drastically changed in a manner that it can no longer be sustained in its current form. Such include the devaluation of the Naira and costs of construction
"The LCC, which is the special purpose vehicle representing the investors, formally brought it to the attention of the state government that given the rapid rise in interest rates on local loans, and other cost parameters, it is compelled to raise tolls currently being charged at Toll Plaza One from N120.00 to N144.00 per car.
"The concessionaire also brought it to the attention of the state government, that as provided for under the agreement, tolling would have to commence at Toll Plaza Two.
"In addition, the concessionaire indicated that unless it realised more income from increased rates at Toll Plaza One and commence tolling at the same rate per Car at Toll Plaza Two, it would not be able to meet its commitments to investors in the project and continue to fund completion of the remaining sections of the road.
"The LCC stated that Toll Plaza Three, as contained in the agreement, must be built and tolls collected for the continued viability of the project. Under such circumstances, the state government felt obliged to buy out the interests of the concessionaire in advance of the hand-over date of 2038 under a mutual settlement option also expressly provided for in the Concession Agreement," the statement said.
The statement added that the decision to acquire the concession was taken after due consultation with all major stakeholders including the State House of Assembly based on various feedback and agitation the state government received from the concessionaire
From the concession in 2006, to the implementation of the concession agreement from 2008 and commencement of tolling in 2011, the Lekki-Epe Expressway has continued to generate controversy, up untill two weeks ago when the Lagos State government made known its intention to buy-back the concession rights. Write JOSHUA BASSEY & NATHANIEL AKHIGBE
The Lekki-Epe Expressway remains a major access road, linking the metropolitan Lagos with the rural Epe communities which also share boundaries with semi-urban towns in neighbouring Ogun State, such as Sagamu. It also provides linkages to highbrow commercial environment of Victoria Island and the Lekki/Ikoyi residences. The road was built as a single carriageway by the civilian administration of Lateef Jakande in the early 1980s.
By mid-1990s into the early-2000s, the road, due to increase in the state population and new developments that were beginning to spring up along the Lekki corridor, had become too narrow to take the increasing activities and traffic volume on that corridor. It had become clear that the road needed to be expanded and modernised.
The search for how best to address the challenge of expanding the road began in the days of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as governor of Lagos State (1999-2007). The state government eventually settled for concession when it signed an agreement with Lekki Concession Company (LCC) in 2006. Babatunde Fashola, the present governor of the state, was then chief of staff to Tinubu.
The road expansion had become more compelling in view of new developments, such as the Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ), Lekki Deep Sea Port, Lekki International Airport and the numerous housing estates along the axis, which is said to be the fastest growing corridor in West Africa.
With the agreement sealed, LCC had become the concessionaire of the Lekki-Epe Expressway and set to deliver one of the best road networks in this part of the world.
But in a dramatic turn of event, five years into the implementation of the agreement, the state government recently made known its intention to buy back the concession together with the toll regime with which the concessionaire was to recoup its investment on the road.
LCC's silence on the matter
Since the government's intention was put in the public domain, there has been no official reaction from the concessionaire as to what went wrong with the agreement it voluntarily entered into with the state which, in the opinion of some, held hope as a good model for public infrastructure financing.
The concession agreement was sealed in 2006, but took effect from 2008 when work on the road took shape. It was a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model under the Lagos Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative backed by a law passed by the state House of Assembly and assented to by the governor. Under the agreement, LCC was to build the road towards Epe, manage it for a 30-year period before handing back to the state government in 2038. The road construction is said to have been valued at N50 billion. The concessionaire was to recoup its investment via a toll regime that would see it erect three different tollgates on the 49.36km road. Tolling at the first toll point (Admiralty Gate) started in December 2011 while work on the second toll gate after the Chevron roundabout has been completed, but tolling is yet to commence.
Effort to get the concessionaire to speak on the buy-back deal had been unfruitful so far. An official of LCC said they would rather prefer to be left out of the deal. Benson Ajayi, acting managing director of LCC, was said to be on annual vacation outside the country when BusinessDay called at the Lekki Phase II office of the concessionaire. A young lady who was introduced by the receptionist as the person in the department given the responsibility to speak to the press declined to give any detail. She said LCC might speak later in the future.
Some have postulated that the silence of the LCC over the buy-back is admittance of inability to further source private sector funds to finance the project to which about N35 billion may have been committed so far. LCC's intention to start tolling at the second gate in 2012 was resisted by the public, and got the nod of the state government which prevailed on the concessionaire to stay action on it.
There is also the insinuation in some quarters that the buy-back was to be expected as there may have been an initial understanding between the parties involved and relevant stakeholders that it would come at this time.
Those who toe this line say it explains why Lagos State is acquiring LCC itself. But they ask: Who owns LCC? In whose interest is the buy-back and acquisition of LCC? What is the total sum borrowed by LCC from the private sector in respect of the project and how much of that had been spent? How much has so far been collected from the tolling at Admiralty tollgate and how has it been deployed?
Government's explanation
While the concessionaire keeps sealed lips, the state government has explained the motive behind the buy-back. According to the government, this is prompted by several developments not envisaged in the 2006 concession agreement. Stating the government's position, Ade Ipaye, commissioner for justice, and Ayo Gbeleyi, commissioner for finance, said, "The project, given its pioneering nature, had some underlying assumptions and market indicators under which the transaction was concluded which have since drastically changed in a manner that it can no longer be sustained in its current form, such as the devaluation of the naira and costs of construction."
They further explained that the LCC, as the special purpose vehicle representing the investors, formally brought it to the attention of the state government that given the rapid rise in interest rates on local loans and other cost parameters, it is compelled to raise tolls currently being charged at Toll Plaza One from N120.00 to N144.00 per car.
"The concessionaire also brought it to the attention of the state government that as provided for under the agreement, tolling would have to commence at Toll Plaza Two. In addition, the concessionaire indicated that unless it realised more income from increased rates at toll plaza one and commenced tolling at the same rate per car at toll plaza two, it would not be able to meet its commitments to investors in the project and continue to fund completion of the remaining sections of the road.
"Furthermore, the LCC stated that toll plaza three, as contained in the agreement, must be built and tolls collected for the continued viability of the project. Under such circumstances, the Lagos State government felt obliged to buy out the interests of the concessionaire in advance of the hand-over date of 2038 under a mutual settlement option also expressly provided for in the concession agreement. This is after due consultation with all major stakeholders including the Lagos State House of Assembly based on various feedback and agitation made to the government," they added.
The state explained that the significance of the buy-back is that it allows the government to take full control over the determination of the toll rates in order to continue to make it affordable for road users. The LCC shall therefore continue to operate as a fully commercial entity for the benefit of taxpayers and the larger society.
"More importantly, it would also preserve the ability of the government to complete and deliver the infrastructure by direct budget funding, which was also one of the reasons for the presentation of the Year 2013 budget re-ordering to the State House of Assembly.
"Lagos State government wishes to reaffirm its unflinching commitment to the adoption of PPP model as a complementary policy thrust for the acceleration of infrastructure delivery towards improving the living standards of the populace. Lagos remains an investor-friendly state that shall continue to ensure the sanctity of contracts, as in this case, in sustaining investors' confidence in its investment climate as a preferred destination," they further stated.
Divergent views
But the government's explanations notwithstanding, some watchers of developments in the state still believe that there is more in the deal than has been revealed – urging a probe into the case.
Ebun Adegboruwa, a lawyer and activist, said issues around the project from the beginning were shrouded in secrecy, insisting "there is more than meet the eyes" in the deal, especially its financing, which the state government should explain to Nigerians.
Adegboruwa called for a probe to unravel the "undercurrent" dealings between LCC and Lagos State government leading to the state buying back the concession rights and tolling arrangement.
"After LCC has been left since December 2011 to milk Lagosians dry, we need to know why the project failed. I call on the House of Assembly to immediately cancel the toll regime," he said, adding that he would continue to pursue the case in the court of law.
However, Wole Akala, chairman, Lekki Peninsula Phase 1, said the Lagos State government must have decided to buy out LCC in the contract in the interest of Lagosians. "Really, I don't know the details of the buy-out yet. I have read it in the papers. The question is, what next after the buy out?" he said.
"We can analyse the issue from both contract and political point of view. The reality is that LCC has an existing contract. They have every right to protect their right knowing fully that there is not a serious country in the world that would not protect the sanctity of a contract. They know when there is an existing contract it should just be binding on both the Lagos State government and other parties. But if quick reaction would not pay LCC, they may not react as such," he added.
Akala said many residents of the Lekki axis were not privy to the contract between Lagos State and LCC in the first instance. In his words, "Those are issues we have been having with Lagos State government. But the reality again in life is that if you have done something wrong and you want to retrace your step, must we discourage that person? We shouldn't. So long as they have identified what they did was wrong and they are willing to put it right by retracing their step, they shouldn't be discouraged to do so. You can be a watchdog to ensure that they do it nicely. Objectively, what they are doing is not wrong, at least from my own point of view."
He said he foresaw the toll going down drastically. "I am not one of those who believe there may not be toll again because they would have spent money that could have been spent for a long time in a very short time which might not be possible for them to recover without tolling. They may equally work out what I call relief package. They may give people in this area some kind of privilege that LCC ordinarily wouldn't have been able to give; government has to be seen to be on the side of the people. What I foresee is that, in the nearest future, there would be a lot of relief. There could be a form of reduction of toll or not charging toll in specific time of the day to ease traffic and make life more comfortable. Generally, as I said, there would be some palliative measures," he said.
Badru Bashir, a legal practitioner, said there would have been certain conditions attached to the agreement to give Lagos State government the buyout advantage. "If you look at contract in that regard, we say, once we have agreed to do certain things, we can as well set conditions when either party can terminate the contract at certain notices. In the concession agreement, there would ordinarily have been certain conditions set in. And when you talk about buy-back, or buy-out, it is trying to gain absolute control," he said.
He further said the fear of the government could have been: "Should this government go, how do we sustain this? And if this people (LCC) should continue in this contract, succeeding governments may not see our dreams and what we are doing. Let us see what we can do. It is at the discretion of a party to say, fine, let me pay you off and take absolute control of this. Let us buy out all the interest of this company and run the thing.
"The government by doing this may be trying to protect the interest of Lagosians from further enslavement. LCC may hold successive governments to ransom. On the other hand, successive governments may even be ready for a showdown with LCC. So, the decision is also in the best interest of LCC."
Bashir said the legal implication of the decision is for LCC to say "we have expended so much", and if the decision has not formed part of the initial agreement, the conditions to the perfection of the contract at the initial stage, LCC could only state what they have expended so far and demand what should be given to them.
"If the government is ready to do that, why not? I think this is what I understand about the intention of the government to buy out LCC in the concession agreement. There must have been clauses in the initial agreement that paved the way for Lagos State government to take such decision," he said.
The buy-back plan
Governor Babatunde Fashola in a letter dated August 19, 2013 sent to Adeyemi Ikuforiji, the speaker of the state House of Assembly, two weeks ago, sought an amendment to the 2013 budget size of N499.105 billion to accommodate additional N7.5 billion. This will increase the budget to N507.105 billion, in what is intended to fund the buy-back of the concession rights.
Aside from the N7.5 billion supplementation in the 2013 budget being sought to fund the buy-back, the state government in the same letter to legislators also indicated intention to borrow up to N87.5 billion through bond issuance this year as against original plan of borrowing only N35 billion. This, Governor Fashola said, was to cover a shortfall in the state IGR and non-materialisation of the expected N30 billion World Bank DPO II, and will enable the state to finance the acquisition of the concession rights and take control of the toll regime "for the benefit of our citizens"
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We face forward,...we face neither East or West: we face forward.......Kwame Nkrumah
We face forward,...we face neither East or West: we face forward.......Kwame Nkrumah
From: Segun Ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 23 December 2014, 21:14
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tinubu loses Vice Presidential slot, pledges to support Buhari, Osinbajo
Thanks for the post. I cannot understand why Ikhide got blindfolded to facts and evidences that are indubitable.
Nigeria needs to change gear from PDP to APC for a comparison. We cannot be eating hamburger all the time. We need to eat hamburger with cheese. Let us have a taste of hamburger with cheese of APC come 2015.
Segun Ogungbemi Ph.D
Segun Ogungbemi Ph.D
Professor of Philosophy
Adekunle Ajasin University
Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State
Nigeria
Cellphone: 08033041371
08024670952
Of course prof. There is no doubt whatsoever. Ikhide is a full-time MEGAPHONE of PDP- period!!!--On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 8:50 PM, Segun Ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:--IkhideAre you a paid PDP agent?
Segun Ogungbemi Ph.DProfessor of PhilosophyAdekunle Ajasin UniversityAkungba-Akoko, Ondo StateNigeriaCellphone: 0803304137108024670952
On Dec 19, 2014, at 11:57 PM, "'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:Let me speak one more time in the name of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Obafemi Awolowo, Tai Solarin, and Ambrose Alli, good men traumatized in "General" Buhari's Gulag. We are being dishonest and I will not shy away from what must be said. I return to the ethnicity factor. It is particularly telling that Yoruba intellectuals have praised to high heavens, the Buhari pretend-candidacy and have stayed silent about Tinubu. Those that have rightly criticized Buhari as unfit for leadership have no record either of publicly taking Tinubu to task. My theory is that to the extent that he is doing their job, they will be silent about his misdeed and criminal acts. Tinubu is a convicted felon, parades around with forged academic credentials and is probably one of the top ten most corrupt leaders Nigeria has ever been cursed to know. You will not hear any of this from a Yoruba thinker, certainly not publicly. Those that complain of ehnic baiting have been loudly silent about the crass ethnic baiting and manipulation that the Buhari pretend-candidacy is all about. Having failed to install himself as vice-president, Tinubu installed a lackey to that position. That lackey is Yoruba. Tinubu wants a Yoruba presidency next, after pretending to give it to the Hausa/Fulani. I honestly don't have a problem with that - as long as it is not Tinubu or his lackey.Why are the Yoruba tolerating and celebrating Muhammadu Buhari, an ethnic and religious bigot? I come to the conclusion that they are doing it for parochial and self-serving reasons, it is macchiavellian. Otherwise, they would shudder at the thought of installing Buhari, a man that treated Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Tai Solarin and Obafemi Awolowo, great icons of Nigeria like wretched criminals in a gulag. This is what Awolowo said of Buhari: "During the period of my house arrest ordered by Major General Buhari when he ousted Shagari's administration, I had a restriction within my room for 24 hours a day, and for somebody who has tried to give others liberty all their adult life, that was absolutely intolerable." I can imagine Awolowo and Solarin weeping in their graves at the perfidy of these new "leaders."This is all academic of course; my sense is that the PDP will remain in Aso Rock. I find that incredibly distressing. Goodluck Jonathan is not fit for the office of the presidency. But Tinubu er Buhari in Aso Rock would be even worse. The graft would continue unabated, with no serious attempt at making structural changes. It is tragic that we have come to this point where we have to choose between two evils, we should own a huge responsibility in the mess. What is our purpose? Are mere words enough? Obviously not. We have been complicit in the rot. For 15 years we have sat around either as part of the corruption or as silent, lazy witnesses to a looming conflagration. And the intellectual dishonesty is galling. One Jaye Gaskiya is on this list, a "comrade" who writes and says all the right things, but guess what, he was one of the many intellectuals that joined criminals lile Alaiyemeiseigha and Ibori at the recently concluded CONfab a glorified town hall meeting that gulped millions and millions of dollars. When I ask for a little bit of introspection, folks get all defensive and abusive. The truth hurts I imagine.We are being lazy and cowardly, we don't have it in us to fight our enemies. It is therefore my sincere hope that the PDP retains power. They will take us faster than the APC to that point where our backs will be against the wall and we will have to fight our traducers. Right now, Tinubu is playing the ethnic card, baiting us callously by dangling before us an ethnic and religious bigot with a history of rank hatred for those not from his side of the world - as change agent. Awolowo would have had something to say about that. I knew Awolowo, Tinubu is no Awolowo.PS. I am not Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, I am a minority within the Edo minority group. a double minority. I just want the best for Nigeria. I was born in Lagos and lived in places like Moor Plantation and Ibadan, there really is no incentive for me to engage in ethnic-baiting, whatever that means. It is just that I have no hesitation in having certain conversations. Buhari is bad for Nigeria. The good news is that we will have no opportunity to suffer his nonsense. Tinubu is bad for Nigeria. This is a man who forfeited almost $500,000 for his complicity in drug trafficking in the US, come on... You don't hear our public intellectuals talking about it. What is wrong with us?
The APC has more than an image problem. The APC is the problem.- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2014 10:38 AM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tinubu loses Vice Presidential slot, pledges to support Buhari, Osinbajo
Ayo, fair enough. We can acknowledge and applaud Tinubu's role in helping to build a credible, competitive opposition and his role in fighting Abacha's tyranny while also holding him accountable. The two narratives can co-exist. Unfortunately, too many of our compatriots want us to overlook Tinubu's past, present, and ongoing sins and simply advance him as the savior of our democracy or as a selfless, heroic political figure. I don't deny that, like all humans, he has some redeeming qualities to him, which should go to the credit column of the ledger, but the debit column of the same ledger should also be populated with his many sins.The bottom line, as my friend, Pius Adesanmi always reminds us, is that in Nigeria it is not a choice between good and bad (PDP bad and APC good), but between bad and less bad.On that score, unless one wants to sit out the election in disgust because of two bad choices, a decision that I can respect, I think that the reasonable thing to do is to take a chance on change, given our dire circumstances.The truth is that Jonathan has been largely a disaster, and it's not just his handling or non-handling of the insurgency. On a whole slew of issues, the man has shown time and again that he simply has no game plan. The economy is on the verge of recession and the Naira is in free fall. This is not entirely Jonathan's fault, as much of it flows from the vagaries of oil prices and the fluctuations of international commodities markets. Even so, a responsible government would have kept the Excess Crude Account (ECA) rainy day savings intact and not spent most of it--even under the prodding of rapacious governors, as Finance Minister Okonjo-Iweala claims. For all his villainy, OBJ was smart enough to leave a $40 billion ECA fund for his successors. Yar'adua recklessly spend it down and Jonathan has almost depleted it. As of a few days ago, the balance in that rainy day account was $3.1 billion. Alas, the rainy days are here and oil prices continue to tumble, but our rainy day funds are gone and we have no where to turn to. Electricity supply and distribution remain anaemic in spite of the much touted privatization and deregulation (sorry, my good friend and brother Dr. Sam Amadi, but the testimony on power supply on the ground ain't pretty). Major road projects have either been neglected or abandoned. Healthcare has not improved under GEJ's watch. Quite frankly, there is little to say in favor of Jonathan.Which is why, as I said on my Facebook wall a few days ago, even though I am deeply troubled by Buhari's captivity to characters like Tinubu, Amaechi, and others who funded and engineered his way to the nomination, and gave him a running mate beholden to them to boot, if I had the vote, which I, like all diasporans don't have, I would vote for Buhari. I would do this in the hope that, like Obasanjo who managed to extricate himself from the grip of Babangida, TY Danjuma, and others who funded and orchestrated his ascendance, and become his own man, Buhari, the rough retired soldier that he is, will do likewise with his godfather/funders like Tinubu and Amaechi. To use a boxing analogy, I would hit and hope--hit the change button and hope that Buhari finds the spine to be his own man outside the overbearing influence of the odious characters around him.Moreover, for me, personal integrity, which is Buhari's strong suit, and which Goodluck "stealing is not corruption" Jonathan lacks, counts a great deal. Especially in a country as ravaged by corruption as Nigeria. Like most African peoples, we are oriented towards authority and tend to take moral and ethical cues from our leaders, so even though having leaders who set the right tone at the top may not cure our corruption ailment it will trickle down and scare some of those inclined towards corruption straight.People talk about Buhari's military dictatorship history and his regime's human rights violations, but most Nigerians didn't seem to have held that against Obasanjo when he ran for president, so it should not be a deal breaker for Buhari either.People also accuse Buhari of being a religious bigot and a Sharia fanatic. But as I stated in a recent write-up, Buhari is not, in my opinion, an Islamic extremist. He passionately supports sharia as a moral system recommended for Muslims, but, like most non-politicians, he has been inarticulate and inadvertently controversial in expressing this commitment, leading to both innocent and mischievous misrepresentations of his views outside his Northern Muslim constituency. A man who spent many years in a multiethnic and multi religious army and in different governments would have had a hard time being a religious bigot. Buhari's main problem in this regard, as one prominent Northern commentator told me, is that 1) the man lacks exposure to a broader world and to other worldviews; 2) the main frame of reference in his speeches is his northern Islamic community and identity and he has a hard time transcending this; and 3) he is surrounded by yes men who have not counseled him on the need to "nationalize" his persona, outlook, and utterances: 4) as a former soldier, he is too blunt and does not do political speak. All of these mean that when he speaks, he often imagines a parochial, homogeneous Northern Muslim Hausa-Fulani audience, instead of a national, multiethnic and multi religious one. He tells them what they expect an upright, devout Muslim to say on such topics. He is then shocked when his in-house utterances find their way to other constituencies, acquire new, more sinister meanings and are then used mischievously to portray him as a bigot.His handlers in several election cycles were content to market him as a northern grassroots champion, alienating other parts of the country and stunting his appeal as a national candidate. All of this has changed with the latest campaign. I have it on good authority
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