Saturday 21 February 2015

Teaching others what I knew helped me greatly –Adeagbo Mujib, first class graduate, FUTA

Adeagbo Mujib, 20, was the best student in the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Federal University of Technology Akure in the 2013/2014 academic session, having graduated with a 4.73 CGPA from the Civil Engineering Department. He tells TUNDE AJAJA about the extra efforts he invested to have a first class
What was your most memorable moment as an undergraduate?
That was in my 300 Level second semester. It was during a class one week after we had a test in Engineering Statistics, the course offered by all students in the School of Engineering, so it was a full attendance. During the class, the lecturer stopped abruptly and asked that a student named ADEAGBO should stand up. I was the only one with that surname, so I stood amongst about 700 students in the faculty. I felt so intimidated because I did not know why he called my name. I couldn’t hide my joy when he announced that I had the highest score in his test, which he said about 85 per cent of the class failed. After that day, several people would meet me on the walkway and greet me, most of them I didn’t even know. So, that was memorable for me.
Have you always had such performance in your previous schools?
I was always the best student in my class during my primary and secondary school days. I was the best in eight out of the nine subjects I offered in secondary school. I wrote West African Senior School Certificate Examination in May 2009 and had seven A1 and two B2. My result was among the best 50 WASSCE results in Nigeria in 2009. I also participated in several quiz and essay competitions for Sharon Rose College, Saki, Oyo State, where I won prizes and awards at the local, state and national levels. When I wrote the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination the same year, I had 250 and I was so lucky to gain double admission that same year, one in the Federal University of Technology, Minna and the other in the Federal University of Technology, Akure. Since FUTA was and still is the best university of technology in Nigeria, I chose to study there.
What attracted you to engineering?
From my childhood, I was always interested in calculation works. I wrote WASSCE GCE and NECO GCE in my SS2 and the normal WASSCE and NECO in SS3. In the four exams, I had A1 in subjects like Further Mathematics, Physics and Mathematics. Also, my phobia for blood made me lose interest in medicine, which reinforced my passion for engineering. I am particularly interested in it because of its uniqueness in the creation and production of new things from available resources, and the control of such to make the existence of man in his environment easy. Engineers are like the bees – we’re always working; to overcome man’s problem. The joy of helping the human race to proffer solutions to problems and being the agents of “change” in man’s environment makes the engineering profession feel different, and I am proud to be one.
Some people think Civil Engineering is all about highways and buildings, but from what you have learnt in school, is there more to it?
Civil Engineering is that branch of engineering that is concerned with the planning, designing, construction, maintenance, operation of buildings, roads and highways, bridges, canals, dams, airports, water-supply systems, irrigation systems, railroad lines, harbours, water and waste treatment systems, power plants amongst other infrastructure. Suffice to say that civil engineering is the engineering aspect of man’s environment. And as opposed to some people’s belief, there are more to civil engineering than highways and buildings. It has well over 60 disciplines. I wish to specialise in Structural Engineering, which deals with the loading systems and safety of engineering structures and systems.
Some people think only the brilliant can survive in Engineering, was there any form of competition in your class?
There was little or no competition amongst us. We were like a family and we did help ourselves. As Ben Franklin said, “A man wrapped up in himself makes a small bundle,” so, we helped one another through tutorial classes, sharing of ideas, group studies, sharing and transfer of course materials etc. Those things made the learning process easier for us. I must say here that it was never my intention to lead the class; my only desire was to graduate with a first class.
So, when did you start having a first class?
I started with a CGPA of 4.71, that was in my 100 Level first semester, and I led the class from then but I didn’t get to know until the third year. I always have the mindset of setting the pace anywhere I am, and with my exploits during my secondary school education, my parents and teachers expected me to have nothing less than a first class. So, I’ll say people’s expectation and my aspirations spurred me to take a stand and not settle for anything less from the beginning. So, I led my department for nine out of the 10 semesters of my study in FUTA. The only time I did not was when there was a calculation error in one of my results; that was in the second semester of my first year, and it was the only course I had an E throughout because our results had been collated before I knew that my script was missing.
What was your growing up like?
My growing up was quite uneventful. I was an asthmatic patient, so I had serious issues with my health from when I started school till my SS1. I could barely attend classes in school throughout my elementary education. But through the tutelage of my father, even though I wrote my exams with injection strapped on my arms, I always came first each term in my class.
Would you say you are a genius or you were just hardworking?
I would say hard work, which was self-driven, blended with my God-given ability to remember whatever I had written. God rewarded my persistence and laborious efforts. I had read a lot about people who made it through hard work despite a difficult beginning and poor background, and I wanted to give it a shot, which was a motivation to work hard. Even though I never got the ‘big treats’ because my parents were civil servants, their encouragement and lifestyle (hardworking) helped me. Success, they say, comes by dint of hard work. It wasn’t on a platter of gold, but through God, it was much easier than I imagined.
Did you do anything differently to have a first class?
I don’t really think so. I only learnt to put God first in my dealings, studied smart and adhered to my rules regardless of the situation. My philosophy of study is that it has to be done in conditions where the mind is satisfactorily at peace; and that its goal should be only to learn more and add values. I also love to teach what I know, for the mind recollects repetitive events better and I always read ahead of the class. One of the most important ways I learnt was teaching others. I used to read ahead during holidays because I knew people would come for tutorials when lectures started, so I would have read the courses repeatedly and even learnt several methods of solving the difficult parts. So, the repetition in studying and teaching others helped me.
What was your reading schedule like?
I did most of my reading early in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon if the environment was quiet enough, or any other time I had the urge to read. I used to read for at least three hours and for as long as I could assimilate what I was reading and did not feel exhausted. What really guided my reading was setting weekly goals for all my courses. I didn’t have flair for reading at night so I slept very well, except in few instances.
Would you say you were social?
Being social as it connotes nowadays is not in me because of my upbringing and religious belief. However, I used my free time watching and discussing football with friends, watching movies, reading novels and playing video games. I had fun in school and I still followed my reading schedule, and one didn’t affect the other in any way.
While in FUTA, what was your happiest moment?
My happiest moment was when I was announced as the best student in the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology during our convocation ceremony. I never thought of it before because same award had been conferred on another fellow during the faculty students’ award night some weeks before our final exam. So, it was really a big surprise, and interestingly I didn’t lead my Faculty until the final semester.
What have you been doing since you graduated?
While awaiting the NYSC programme, I have been doing Civil Engineering Software trainings for some of my classmates because I always love to help others by imparting knowledge into them. It gives me joy. So, I also engage in coaching classes for some secondary school students and it’s free, because the intention is to help.
What are your aspirations?
I aspire to be a renowned Structural Engineer. I hope to go for my Master’s degree and Ph.D in Structural Engineering, preferably outside the country. I will also love to be involved in some research works in my field in the future. I wish to work in either an educational institution or a reputable multi-national engineering company, where I can utilise my knowledge to improve on the safety of human lives and infrastructure and gain more experience.
What is your advice to students, especially those in higher institutions?
I will advise students to put God first, be original, and desist from running their race by other people’s watch. The university only helps to know how to learn, so there is the place of self-development, which they would need in the real world.

Wednesday 18 February 2015

We Lack The Capacity To Prevent Corruption In Nigeria – Okonjo-Iweala

Abuja – The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Tuesday that corruption persisted in the country because Nigeria lacked the institutions, systems and processes to prevent it.

Okonjo-Iweala made this known when she spoke on the Topic: `Preventing Leakages in the Nigerian Economy` at the Catholic Caritas Foundation Forum in Abuja.

According to her, the absence of the relevant systems and institutions that will help check corruption has created opportunities for people to engage in the act.

“This thing has been with us and we must crack it. This is not something that started in this country today; but it is something that we must crack.

“Fundamentally, we have to ask ourselves, why has this continued to be a problem; I am convinced that it is because we constantly look at the symptoms and not the cause of the disease.

“The cause of the disease is we don’t have in place the institutions, the systems and the processes to block and prevent it in the first place.
“That’s the only difference between us and the people abroad.`

The minister assured that people would be compelled to do the right thing always if the appropriate systems were in place to block and prevent corruption.

She urged youths in the country to ask the relevant questions that would help tackle corruption in the country.
She said: “This is so important now because of technology and I am a total fan of the use of technology and electronic platforms to block the leakages in this country.

“We must use them the way they are being used in other countries.“
Okonjo-Iweala said that the introduction of the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMS) had helped to reduce physical movement of cash to make payments and curb corruption.

She said that the Integrated Personnel Payment System had also helped government to remove ghost workers from the system and save money in the process.

She said, “We have been able to weed out about 62,893 ghost workers till date saving N208.7 billion and we have not finished in the system. That is addressing the root cause.“

The minister said that the names of the persons found to be involved in the act had been sent to the ICPC for further action.
OKonjo-Iweala said that through the electronic wallet system introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture, government had been able to reduce corruption in fertilizer distribution in the country.

According to her, 10.5 million farmers have been registered under the system with more than 6 million being able to access the product personally.

This, she said, had contributed to increased food production.
The minister said that with the creation of the Pension Transmission Administration Department as demanded by law, issues with old pension were being handled systematically
She said that 14 people were presently under trial for various pension scams in the country.

Commenting on the outcome of the forensic Audit on the alleged 20 billion dollars missing oil money, she said the ministry had written to the NNPC asking it to remit the amount as directed by the auditors. (NAN)

Vanguard Newspaper

Tuesday 17 February 2015

Re: Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond the Election, by Kayode Fayemi

We commend Professor Chukwuma Soludo for his insightful and incisive article published in the Vanguard Newspaper of January 26th under the above title. We agree with Professor Soludo that if the political parties, including ours, must justify the overwhelming enthusiasm of Nigerians about the 2015 elections we must remain focused on the issues that matter most to them, which is the progress of our country and the well being of our people. Indeed, this has been the driving sentiment of our party and our campaign all along.
While we accept his critical comments on our party, more for the intentions than for the letters, we believe some clarifications would be quite necessary. We wish to emphasise that our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), presents a real option to Nigerians. Professor Soludo expressed the sentiments of most Nigerians when he spoke about the incalculable damage that the PDP under President Jonathan has done to the Nigerian economy and the unprecedented hardship that his six years of the locust has brought upon Nigerians.
However, the APC does not intend to ride into power on a mere rhetoric of ‘change’. The change that we propose is fundamental in many ways as it is critical to the very survival of our country. This in itself presents a major distinction between our party and the PDP. Perhaps, the most compelling argument against the People’s Democratic Party today is that its government and leadership does not even see that Nigeria is in trouble. While majority of our people wallow in abject poverty, and the gap in inequality gets ever wider by the day, PDP has wallowed in self-celebration of imagined accomplishments. How can a party or a government even begin to solve a problem that it does not believe exist. Like in all things, PDP is stuck in denial.
APC does not promise Eldorado. Neither our candidate nor our manifesto has made such promise. Our programs are based on the critical awareness of the difficult task ahead, while holding out a ray of hope to our people. The promises that we make reflect our conviction that the people must be at the centre of development. And that any economic growth that leaves the majority of the people behind and does not protect the weakest and the vulnerable among us is merely delusionary.
Professor Soludo has drawn our attention to the striking but unfortunate similarity in the nation’s economy in 1982-1984 period and what we are experiencing today. Back then, a period of sustained high crude oil prices had also ironically led to unsustainable debt levels and introduction of the austerity measure. Just as it happened more than three decades ago, it is difficult to explain how a sustained period of oil boom should ultimately lead to austerity measure except to say that huge opportunities that the period of boom presented were frittered away by mindless profligacy, wanton corruption and bad economic choices made by the PDP government, which has rewarded a protracted period of boom with uncertainty and austerity and is still asking for another mandate to do more damage.

Fayemi
If we sound upbeat in our manifesto, it is because we recognise that this crisis period also presents us a great opportunity to restructure the economy in a way that improves the quality of lives of our people by ensuring that our economic growth is job led. Our party has identified job creation as a critical priority of government. We have noted with concerns that Nigeria’s unemployment rate of 23.9% should be seen as a national crisis. And if this government was more sensitive to the enormity of the challenge that this presents, it would be reluctant to jump all over the place in self celebration while so many of our youths are wasting away. In the immediate future, our priority is to tackle unemployment and provide good jobs by embarking on a massive programme of public works, building houses, roads, railways, ports and energy plants. Over the long term, we believe we must wean Nigeria off its dangerous addiction to oil which currently provides 80% of our spending leaving us at the mercy of volatile international oil prices. Even as a Federalist party, we believe that an economy that is dependent on a commodity that is so dangerously exposed to price volatility must always prepare for eventuality through savings and investments once the agreed thresholds are met. What we disagree with is the unilateral and arbitrary deductions in accruable revenues in a way that hampers the development of the Federating States.
Going by the government’s own statistics, is it mere coincidence that the three States with the lowest unemployment rate – Osun, Lagos and Kwara – are all APC States? This is evidence of our Party’s ability to tackle this problem head-on. APC’s policy thrust will create an enabling environment and incentives for the formal and informal sectors to lead the quest for job creation. This will be done in addition to skills acquisition and enterprise- training to ensure our youths are equipped with the appropriate skills to take these jobs. Merely introducing a National Qualification Standards would power a whole new world of opportunities for our artisans by launching them into the international job markets. We note the issue that Professor Soludo picked with our figure of 720,000 jobs. We need to clarify that this is limited to immediate direct employment opportunities from public projects and maintenance works only. Our manifesto actually promises a lot more jobs but we see that as the product of the enabling environment we seek to create for private sector job creation, especially in high opportunity sectors like agriculture, construction, entertainment, tourism, ICT and Sports. APC economic policy is driven by an overwhelming concern for the level of inequality in our country today. Specifically, to quote from our manifesto, we intend to achieve our job-creation agenda through:
· Massive public works programme especially the building of a national railway system, interstate roads, and ports. These projects must commence early in the life of the new administration.
· Establishing a new Federal Coordinating Agency – Build Nigeria – to fast track and manage these public works programmes with emphasis on Nigerian labour.
· Embarking vigorously on industrialization, public works and agricultural expansion.
· Diversifying the economy through a national industrial policy and innovative private-sector incentives that will move us away from over reliance on oil – into value-added production especially manufacturing.
· Reviving textile and other industries that have been rendered dormant because of inappropriate economic policies.
· Reinvigorating the solid mineral sector by revamping our aged mining legislation and attracting new investment.
· Developing a new generation of domestic oil refineries to lower import costs, enhance our energy independence and create jobs.
· Working with state governments to turn the country into Africa’s food basket through a new system of grants and interest free loans, and the mechanization of agriculture.
· Encouraging and promoting the use of sports as a source of job creation.
· Creating a knowledge economy by making Nigeria an IT /professional/Telecom services outsourcing destination hub to create millions of jobs.
· Filling the huge gap in middle level technical manpower with massive investment in technical and tradesmen’s skills education.
· Ensuring that all foreign contractors to include a plan of developing local capacity (Technology transfer).
· Creation of six Regional Development Agencies covering the country with representatives from the Federal government, States and the private sector to manage a new N300billion growth fund.
Our obsession with job creation stems from the fact that we believe we must focus on actions that would serve the twin purpose of closing the gap in inequality and creating opportunities for our people, especially the youths. Our current situation is dangerous for the stability of the country. The Human Development Index position ranks Nigeria 152 of 169 countries surveyed. This is incompatible with the present administration’s insistence on celebrating GDP growth and our absolute economic size hinged on a routine rebasing exercise. As many commentators have pointed out, rebasing the GDP is not an achievement. Rather, it is a mere statistical adjustment that does not impact on the real or imagined standards of living of the people. So, we also wonder what this PDP government is celebrating. And maybe it is not that difficult to explain when one discovers that a small elite has captured the state and converted our commonwealth into private gain, becoming disproportionately rich from massive corruption while poverty has deepened. The income gap and illicit capital flight are growing alarmingly. Instead of investing in modernizing our economy, massive theft has starved the country of desperately needed resources for infrastructure and public services and left us dangerously dependent on fluctuating global oil prices for our economic survival. For the ordinary Nigerian, the much-touted economic growth cited by the present administration has not translated into employment or development. Over 100 million Nigerians are struggling to make ends meet on a regular basis.
We understand Professor Soludo’s concern on the cost of implementing our various programmes, especially those relating to social welfare. The enormity of this challenge is not lost on us. We also know that sometimes, going into government is like buying a “no testing” electronic equipment. You may never know the true state of what you are buying until you get in. We want to assure Professor Soludo and other likeminded Nigerians that our policy team is looking at all the options – including the worst-case scenario of a completely empty treasury. We are however confident that by blocking avenues of wastage and corruption alone, savings could run into trillions of Naira that could be deployed for productive use. Even so, we agree with Professor Soludo that savings from corruption alone will not tackle the enormous challenges we are likely to confront in government. We are however comforted by the fact that a four-year period provides opportunity for phased implementation while growing the resource base as well as changing the culture of graft while reducing the cost of governance.
Quite significantly, we know that periods of economic downturn also potentially provide opportunity to lay the foundation for real economic restructuring and development; and we can reflect on how Singapore under Premier Lee Kuan Yew and the United States of America under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used historic moments of economic downturn in their countries to launch a period of sustained development and a new deal for their people. General Buhari has never claimed to have the magic wand nor the answers to all of the country’s problems. His greatest assets would be his moral authority borne out of his self-sacrificing integrity, his sincerity of purpose and his patriotic zeal to return Nigeria to the path of progress and genuine development. He is committed to utilize competent and committed people of integrity wherever he may find them. This is precisely why he promised when flagging off his campaign in Port Harcourt on January 5, 2015 that if voted into power, it would be an opportunity to, in his words, “finally assemble a competent team of Nigerians to efficiently manage this country”. This is a clear sign that a meritocratic process will govern the appointment of those that would be entrusted with managing our economy and country. His stint as Head of State shows a track record of using self-sacrificing professionals in his governance team. His previous cabinet included the likes of Dr. Onaolapo Soleye, Professor Tam David-West and Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) is determined to lead Nigeria in the direction of change that is so urgently required. And even as we prepare for the immediate rescue mission in 2015, our minds are also set on building the necessary democratic institutions that would entrench our ideological conviction as a progressive and people-centred party. A National Progressives Policy Institute is part of this plan in the near future but we are very clear about the enormity of the task ahead. We would not seek to underplay it. We are supremely confident that we are equal to the task and we appreciate the commitment of majority of Nigerians to this quest for change.

Dr. Kayode Fayemi heads the Policy, Research and Strategy Directorate of the APC Presidential Campaign.

Saturday 14 February 2015

Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond the Election, by Charles Soludo

I need to preface this article with a few clarifications. I have taken a long sabbatical leave from partisan politics, and it is real fun watching the drama from the balcony.  Having had my own share of public service (I do not need a job from government), I now devote my time and energy in pursuit of other passions, especially abroad.
A few days ago, I read an article in Thisday entitled “Where is Charles Soludo?”, and my answer is that I am still there, only that I have been too busy with extensive international travels to participate in or comment on our national politics and economy. But I occasionally follow events at home. Since the survival and prosperity of Nigeria are at stake, the least some of us (albeit, non-partisan) must do is to engage in public debate. As the elections approach, I owe a duty to share some of my concerns.
In September 2010, I wrote a piece entitled “2011 Elections: Let the Real Debate Begin” and published by Thisday. I understand the Federal Executive Council discussed it, and the Minister of Information rained personal attacks on me during the press briefing. I noted more than six newspaper editorials in support of the issues we raised.
Beside other issues we raised, our main thesis was that the macro economy was dangerously adrift, with little self-insurance mechanisms (and a prediction that if oil prices fell below $40, many state governments would not be able to pay salaries). I gave a subtle hint at easy money and exchange rate depreciations because I did not want to panic the market with a strong statement. Sadly, on the eve of the next elections, literally everything we hinted at has happened.  Part of my motivation for this article is that five years after, the real debate is still not happening.
The presidential election next month will be won by either Buhari or Jonathan. For either, it is likely to be a pyrrhic victory. None of them will be able to deliver on the fantastic promises being made on the economy, and if oil prices remain below $60, I see very difficult months ahead, with possible heady collisions with labour, civil society, and indeed the citizenry. To be sure, the presidential election will not be decided by the quality of ‘issues’ or promises canvassed by the candidates.
The debates won’t also change much (except if there is a major gaffe by either candidate like Tofa did in the debate with Abiola). My take is that more than 95% of the likely voters have pretty much made up their minds based largely on other considerations. A few of us remain undecided.
During my brief visit to Nigeria, I watched some of the campaign rallies on television. The tragedy of the current electioneering campaigns is that both parties are missing the golden opportunity to sensitize the citizenry about the enormous challenges ahead and hence mobilize them for the inevitable sacrifices they would be called upon to make soon. Each is promising an El-Dorado.
Let me admit that the two main parties talk around the major development challenges—corruption, insecurity, economy (unemployment/poverty, power, infrastructure, etc) health, education, etc. However, it is my considered view that none of them has any credible agenda to deal with the issues, especially within the context of the evolving global economy and Nigeria’s broken public finance.
The UK Conservative Party’s manifesto for the last election proudly announced that all its programmes were fully costed and were therefore implementable. Neither APC nor PDP can make a similar claim.  A plan without the dollar or Naira signs to it is nothing but a wish-list. They are not telling us how much each of their promises will cost and where they will get the money. None talks about the broken or near bankrupt public finance and the strategy to fix it.
Goodluck-Jonathan-new
In response to the question of where the money will come from, I heard one of the politicians say that the problem of Nigeria was not money but the management of resources. This is half-truth. The problem is both. No matter how efficient a father (with a monthly salary of N50,000) is at managing the family resources, I cannot see how he could deliver on a promise to buy a brand new Peugeot 406 for each of his three children in a year.
Even with all the loopholes and waste closed, with increased efficiency per dollar spent, there is still a binding budget constraint. To deliver an efficient national transport infrastructure alone will still cost tens of billions of dollars per annum even by corruption-free, cost-effective means.  Did I hear that APC promises a welfare system that will pay between N5,000 and N10,000 per month to the poorest 25 million Nigerians?  Just this programme alone will cost between N1.5 and N3 trillion per annum.
Add to this the cost of free primary education plus free meal (to be funded by the federal budget or would it force non-APC state governments to implement the same?), plus some millions of public housing, etc. I have tried to cost some of the promises by both the APC and the PDP, given alternative scenarios for public finance and the numbers don’t add up.  Nigerians would be glad to know how both parties would fund their programmes.
Do they intend to accentuate the huge public debt, or raise taxes on the soon to-be-beleaguered private businesses, or massively devalue the naira to rake in baskets of naira from the dwindling oil revenue, or embark on huge fiscal retrenchment with the sack of labour and abandonment of projects, and which areas of waste do they intend to close and how much do they estimate to rake in from them, etc?
I remember that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was asked similar questions in 1978 and 1979 about his promises of free education and free medical services. Even as a teenager, I was impressed by how he reeled out  figures about the amounts he would save from various ‘waste’ including the tea/coffee served in government offices. The point is that at least he did his homework and had his numbers and I give credit to his team.
Some 36 years later, the quality of political debate and discourse seems to border on the pedestrian. From the quality of its team, I did not expect much from the current government, but I must confess that I expected APC as a party aspiring to take over from PDP to come up with a knock-out punch. Evidently, from what we have read from the various versions of its manifesto as well as the depth of promises being made, it does not seem that it has a better offer.
Let me digress a bit to refresh our memory on where we are, and thus provide the context in which to evaluate the promises being made to us. Recall that the key word of the 2015 budget is ‘austerity’.  Austerity? This is just within a few months of the fall in oil prices. History repeats itself in a very cruel way, as this was exactly what happened under the Shehu Shagari administration.
Under the Shagari government, oil price reached its highest in 1980/81. During the same period, Nigeria ratcheted up its consumption and all tiers of government were in competition as to which would out-borrow the other. Huge public debt was the consequence. When oil prices crashed in early 1982, the National Assembly then passed the Economic Stabilization (Austerity Measures) Act in one day— going through the first, second, and third readings the same day.
The austerity measures included the rationing of ‘essential commodities’ and most states owed salary arrears. Corruption was said to be pervasive, and as Sani Abacha said in that famous coup speech, ‘unemployment has reached unacceptable proportions and our hospitals have become mere consulting clinics’.
General Muhammadu Buhari/Tunde Idiagbon regime made the fight against corruption and restoration of discipline the cardinal point of their administration which lasted for 20 months. I am not sure they had a credible plan to get the economy out of the doldrums (although it must be admitted that poverty incidence in Nigeria as of 1985 when they left office was a just46%— according to the Federal Office of Statistics).
We have come full circle. If the experience under Shagari could be excused as an unexpected shock, what Nigeria is going through now is a consequence of our deliberate wrong choices.  We have always known that the unprecedented oil boom (in both price and quantity—despite oil theft) of the last six years is temporary but the government chose to treat it as a permanent shock. The parallels with the Shagari regime are troubling.
First, at the time of oil boom, Nigeria again went on a consumption spree such that the budgets of the last five years can best be described as ‘consumption budgets’, with new borrowing by the federal government exceeding the actual expenditure on critical infrastructure. Second, not one penny was added to the stock of foreign reserves at a period Nigeria earned hundreds of billions from oil.
For comparisons, President Obasanjo met about $5 billion in foreign reserves, and the average monthly oil price for the 72 months he was in office was $38, and yet he left $43 billion in foreign reserves after paying $12 billion to write-off Nigeria’s external debt. In the last five years, the average monthly oil price has been over $100, and the quantity also higher but our foreign reserves have been declining and exchange rate depreciating.
I note that when I assumed office as Governor of CBN, the stock of foreign reserves was $10 billion. The average monthly oil price during my 60 months in office was $59, but foreign reserve reached the all-time peak of $62 billion (and despite paying $12 billion for external debt, and losing over $15 billion during the unprecedented global financial and economic crisis) I left behind $45 billion.
Recall also that our exchange rate continuously appreciated during this period and was at N117 to the dollar before the global crisis and we deliberately allowed it to depreciate in order to preserve our reserves.  My calculation is that if the economy was better managed, our foreign reserves should have been between $102 –$118 billion and exchange rate around N112 before the fall in oil prices. As of now, the reserves should be around $90 billion and exchange rate no higher than N125 per dollar.
Third, the rate of public debt accumulation at a time of unprecedented boom had no parallel in the world.  While the Obasanjo administration bought and enlarged the policy space for Nigeria, the current government has sold and constricted it.  What debt relief did for Nigeria was to liberate Nigerian policymakers from the intrusive conditionalities of the creditors and thereby truly allowing Nigeria independence in its public policy.
How have we used the independence?  Through our own choices, we have yet again tied the hands of future policymakers. This time, the debt is not necessarily to foreign creditor institutions/governments which are organized under the Paris club but largely to private agents which is even more volatile. We call it domestic debt. But if one carefully unpacks the bond portfolio, what percentage of it is held by foreign private agents? And I understand the Government had removed the speed bumps we kept to slow the speed of capital flight, and someone is sweating to explain the gyrations in foreign reserves. I am just smiling!
In sum, the mismanagement of our economy has brought us once more to the brink. Government officials rely on the artificial construct of debt to GDP ratio to tell us we can borrow as much as we want.  That is nonsense, especially for an economy with a mono but highly volatile source of revenue and forex earnings. The chicken will soon come home to roost.
Today, the combined domestic and external debt of the Federal Government is in excess of $40 billion. Add to this the fact that abandoned capital projects littered all over the country amount to over $50 billion.  No word yet on other huge contingent liabilities.  If oil prices continue to fall, I bet that Nigeria will soon have a heavy debt burden even with low debt to GDP ratio.
Furthermore, given the current and capital account regime, it is evident that Nigeria does not have enough foreign reserves to adequately cover for imports plus short term liabilities.  In essence, we are approaching the classic of what the Shagari government faced, and no wonder the hasty introduction of ‘austerity measures’ again.
Fourth, poverty incidence and unemployment are also simultaneously at all-time high levels. According to the NBS, poverty incidence grew to 69%  in 2010 and projected to be 71% in 2011, with unemployment at 24%.  This is the worst record in Nigeria’s history, and the paradox is that this happened during the unprecedented oil boom.
Buhari and Jonathan
One theme I picked up listening to the campaign rallies as well as to some of the propagandists is the confusion about measuring government “performance”. Most people seem to confuse ‘inputs’, or ‘processes’ with output. Earlier this month, I had a dinner with a group of friends (14 of us) and we were chit-chatting about Nigeria. One of us, an associate of President Jonathan veered off to repeat a propaganda mantra that Jonathan had outperformed his predecessors.
He also reminded us that Jonathan re-based the GDP and that Nigeria is now the biggest economy in Africa; etc.  It was fun listening to the response by others. In sum, the group agreed that the President had ‘outperformed’ his predecessors except that it is in reverse order.
First, my friend was educated that re-basing the GDP is no achievement: it is a routine statistical exercise, and depending on the base year that you choose, you get a different GDP figure.  Re-basing the GDP has nothing to do with government policy. Besides, as naira-dollar exchange rate continues to depreciate, the GDP in current dollars will also shrink considerably soon.
We were reminded of Jonathan’s agricultural ‘revolution’. But someone cut in and noted that for all the propaganda, the growth rate of the agricultural sector in the last five years still remains far below the performance under Obasanjo. One of us reminded him that no other president had presided over the slaughter of about 15,000 people by insurgents in a peacetime; no other president earned up to 50% of the amount of resources the current government earned from oil and yet with very little outcomes; no other president had the rate of borrowing; none had significant forex earnings and yet did not add one penny to foreign reserves but losing international reserves at a time of boom; no other president had a depreciating exchange rate at a time of export boom; at no time in Nigeria’s history has poverty reached 71% (even under Abacha, it was 67 -70%); and under no other president did unemployment reach 24%. Surely, these are unprecedented records and he surely ‘outperformed’ his predecessors!  What a satire!
One of those present took the satire to some level by comparing Jonathan to the ‘performance’ of the former Governor of Anambra, Peter Obi.  He noted that while Obi gloated about ‘savings’, there is no signature project to remember his regime except that his regime took the first position among all states in Nigeria in the democratization of poverty—- mass impoverishment of the people of Anambra. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, poverty rose under his watch in Anambra from 20% in 2004 (lowest in Nigeria then) to 68% in 2010 (a 238% deterioration!).
Our friend likened it to a father who had no idea of what to do with his resources and was celebrating his fat bank account while his children were dying of kwashiorkor.  He pointed out that since it is the likes of Peter Obi who are the advisers to Jonathan on how to manage the economy (thereby confusing micromanagement which you do as a trader with macro governance) it is little wonder that poverty is fast becoming another name for Nigeria. It was a very hilarious evening.
My advice to President Jonathan and his handlers is to stop wasting their time trying to campaign on his job record. Those who have decided to vote for him will not do so because he has taken Nigeria to the moon. His record on the economy is a clear ‘F’ grade. As one reviews the laundry list of micro interventions the government calls its achievements, one wonders whether such list is all that the government could deliver with an unprecedented oil boom and an unprecedented public debt accumulation.
I can clearly see why reasonable people are worried.  Everywhere else in the world, government performance on the economy is measured by some outcome variables such as: income (GDP growth rate), stability of prices (inflation and exchange rate), unemployment rate, poverty rate, etc. On all these scores, this government has performed worse than its immediate predecessor— Obasanjo regime. If we appropriately adjust for oil income and debt, then this government is the worst in our history on the economy. All statistics are from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Despite presiding over the biggest oil boom in our history, it has not added one percentage point to the growth rate of GDP compared to the Obasanjo regime especially the 2003- 07 period.  Obasanjo met GDP growth rate at 2% but averaged 7% within 2003- 07. The current government has been stuck at 6% despite an unprecedented oil boom.  Income (GDP) growth has actually performed worse, and poverty escalated.
This is the only government in our history where rapidly increasing government expenditure was associated with increasing poverty. The director general of NBS stated in his written press conference address in 2011 that about 112 million Nigerians were living in poverty. Is this the record to defend?  Obama had a tough time in his re-election in 2012 because unemployment reached 8%. Here, unemployment is at a record 24% and poverty at an all-time 71% but people are prancing around, gloating about ‘performance’.
As I write, the Naira exchange rate to the dollar is $210 at the parallel market. What a historic performance! Please save your breathe and save us the embarrassment. The President promised Nigeria nothing in the last election and we did not get value for money. He should this time around present us with his plan for the future, and focus on how he would redeem himself in the second term—if he wins!
Sadly the government’s economic team is very weak, dominated by self-interested and self-conflicted group of traders and businessmen, and so-called economic team meetings have been nothing but showbiz time. The very people government exists to regulate have seized the levers of government as policymakers and most government institutions have largely been “privatized” to them.
Mention any major government department or agency and someone will tell you whom it has been ‘allocated’ to, and the person subsequently nominates his minion to occupy the seat.  What do you then expect? The economy seems to be on auto pilot, with confusion as to who is in charge, and government largely as a constraint. There are no big ideas, and it is difficult to see where economic policy is headed to.
My thesis is that the Nigerian economy, if properly managed, should have been growing at an annual rate of about 12% given the oil boom, and poverty and unemployment should have fallen dramatically over the last five years. This is topic for another day.
So far, the Government’s response to the self-inflicted crisis is, at best, laughable. They blame external shocks as if we did not expect them and say nothing about the terrible policy choices they made. The National Assembly had described the 2015 budget as unrealistic. The fiscal adjustments proposed in the 2015 budget simply play to the gallery and just to pander to our emotions.
For a $540 billion economy, the so-called luxury tax amounts to zero per cent of GDP.  If the current trend continues, private businesses will come under a heavy crunch soon. Having put economics on its head during the boom time, the Government now proposes to increase taxes during a prospective downturn and impose austerity measures. Unbelievable!
Fortuitously, just as he succeeded Shagari when Nigeria faced similar situations, Buhari is once more seeking to lead Nigeria. But times have changed, and Nigeria is largely different. First, this is a democracy and dealing with corruption must happen within the ambit of the rule of law and due process. Getting things done in a democracy requires complicated bargaining, especially where the legislature, labour, the media, and civil society have become strong and entrenched.
Second, the size, structure and institutions of the economy have fundamentally altered. The market economy, especially the capital market and foreign exchange market, impose binding constraints and discipline on any regime.   Third, dealing with most of the other issues— insecurity, unemployment/poverty, infrastructure, health, education, etc, require increased, smarter, and more efficient spending. Increased spending when the economy is on the reverse gear?
If oil prices remain between 40- 60 dollars over the next two years, the current policy regime guarantees that foreign reserves will continue the precipitous depletion with the attendant exchange rate depreciation, as well as a probable unsustainable escalation in debt accumulation, fiscal retrenchment or taxing the private sector with vengeance. The scenario does not look pretty.
The poor choices made by the current government have mortgaged the future, and the next government would have little room to manoeuvre and would inevitably undertake drastic but painful structural adjustments. Nigerians loathe the term ‘structural adjustment’. With falling real wages and depreciating currency, I can see any belated attempt  by the government to deal with the bloated public sector pitching it against a feisty labour.  I worry about regime stability in the coming months, and I do not envy the next team.
The seeming crisis is not destiny; it is self-imposed. However, we must see it as an opportunity to be seized to fundamentally restructure Nigeria’s political economy, including its fiscal federalism and mineral rights. The current system guarantees cycles of consumption loop and I cannot see sustainable long term prosperity without major systemic overhaul. The proposals at the national conference merely tinker at the margins.
In totality, the outcome of the national conference is to do more of the same, with minor amendments on the system of sharing and consumption rather than a fundamental overhaul of the system for productivity and prosperity. President Jonathan promises to implement the report of the national conference if he wins. I commend him for at least offering ‘something’, albeit, marginal in my view. I have not heard anything from the APC or Buhari regarding the national conference report or what kind of federalism they envisage for Nigeria.
In Nigeria’s recent history, two examples under the military and civilian governments demonstrate that where the political will exists, Nigeria has the capacity to overcome severe challenges.  The first was under President Babangida. Not many Nigerians appreciate that given the near bankrupt state of Nigeria’s finances and requirements for debt resolution under the Paris Club, the country had little choice but to undertake the painful structural adjustment programme (SAP).
I want to state for the record that the foundation for the current market economy we operate in Nigeria was laid by that regime (liberalization of markets including market determined exchange rate, private sector-led economy including licensing of private banks and insurance, de-regulation, privatization of public enterprises under TCPC, etc). Just abolishing the import licensing regime was a fundamental policy revolution. Despite the criticisms, these policy thrusts have remained the pillars of our deepening market economy, and the economy recovered from almost negative growth rate to average 5.5% during the regime and poverty incidence at 42% in 1992.
Under our democratic experience, President Obasanjo inherited a bankrupt economy (with the lost decade of the 1990’s GDP growth rate of 2.2% and hence zero per capita income growth for the decade). His regime consolidated and deepened the market economy structures (consolidation of the banking system which is powering the emergence of a new but truly private sector-led economy and simultaneously led to a new awareness and boom in the capital market;
telecommunications revolution; new pension regime; debt relief which won for Nigeria policy independence from the World Bank and Paris Club; deepening of de-regulation and  privatization including the unbundling of NEPA under PHCN for privatization; agricultural revolution that saw yearly growth rate of over 6% and remains unsurpassed ever since;
sound monetary and fiscal policy and growing foreign reserves that gave confidence to investors; establishment of the Africa Finance Corporation which is leading infrastructure finance in Africa; backward integration policy that saw the establishment and growth of Dangote cement and others; established ICPC and EFCC to fight corruption, etc).
The economy roared to average yearly growth of 7% between 2003 and 2007 (although average monthly oil price under his regime was $38), and poverty dropped from estimated 70% in1999 to 54% in 2004.   Obasanjo was his own coordinating minister of the economy and chairman of the economic management team— which he chaired for 90 minutes every week. I met with him daily.  In other words, he did not outsource economic management.
We expected that the next government after Obasanjo would take the economy to the next level.  So far, we have had two great slogans: the 7-point agenda and currently, the transformation agenda. They remain empty slogans without content or direction.
Let me suggest that the fundamental challenge for the next government on the economy can be framed around the goal of creating twelve million jobs over the next four years to have a dent on unemployment and poverty. The challenge is to craft a development agenda to deliver this within the context of broken public finance, and an economy in which painful structural adjustments will be inevitable if current trends in oil prices continue. Most other programmes on corruption, security, power, infrastructure, etc, are expected to be instruments to achieve this objective.
So far, neither the APC nor the PDP has a credible programme for employment and poverty reduction. The APC promises to create 20,000 jobs per state in the first year, totalling a mere 720,000 jobs.  This sounds like a quota system and for a country where the new entrants into the labour market per annum exceed two million.
If it was intended as a joke, APC must please get serious.  On the other hand, President Jonathan targets two million jobs per annum but his strategy for doing so is a Job Board— another committee of sort.  Sorry, Mr. President, a Job Board is not a strategy. The principal job Nigerians hired you to do for them is to create jobs for them too. You cannot outsource that job, Sir.  Creating 3 million jobs per annum under the unfolding crisis would task our creativity and audacity to the limits.
I heard one politician argue that once we fix power, private sector would create jobs. Not necessarily! Well, this government claims to have added 1,700MW to the national grid and yet unemployment soars. Ask Greece, Spain, etc with power and infrastructure and yet with high unemployment. Structural dislocations play a key role. For example, currently in Nigeria, it is estimated that more than 60% of graduates of our educational system are unemployable.
You can understand why many of us are amused when the government celebrates that it has established twelve more glorified secondary schools as universities. I thought they would have told us how many Nigerian universities made it in the league of the best 200 universities in the world. That would have been an achievement.  Surely, creating millions of jobs in this economy would, among other things, require ‘new money’ and extraordinary system of coordination among the three tiers of government plus the private sector.
Unfortunately, from what I read, the CBN is largely likely to be asleep at this time the country needs the most revolutionary finance. This is a topic for another day. Only the President can lead this effort. Moreover, we are waiting for the two parties/candidates to spell out HOW they will create jobs, whether it is the 20,000 jobs per state by APC or 2 million per annum by President Jonathan.  Let us know how you arrived at the figures. Whichever of the two that is declared winner will have his job cut out for him, and I expect him to declare a national emergency on job creation.
Surprisingly, none of the parties/candidates has any grand vision about African economic integration, led by Nigeria. There is no programme on how to make the naira the de facto currency of ECOWAS or the international financial centre that can attract more than $100 billion per annum.
Where is the strategy for orchestrating the revolutionary finance to power the economy during this downturn? For President Jonathan, I find it shocking that the most important initiative of his government to secure the future of the economy by Nigeria refusing to sign the ruinous Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union is not even being mentioned.  President Obasanjo saved Nigeria from the potential ruin of an ECOWAS single currency while to his credit Jonathan safeguarded our industrial sector/economy by refusing to sign the EPA. Or does the government not understand the import of that?  It will be interesting to know the APC’s strategy for exploiting strategic alliances within Africa, China, and the world for Nigeria’s prosperity.
If Buhari wins, he will ride on the populist wind for “change”.  Most people I have spoken to who have decided to vote for Buhari do not necessarily know the specifics of what he would offer or how Nigeria would be different under him. I asked my driver, Usman, whom he would vote for President.
He responded: “If they no rig the election, na Buhari everybody go vote for”. I asked him why, and his next response sums it: “The man dey honest. In short, people just want to see another face for that villa”.  But if he wins, the honeymoon will be brief and the pressure will be immense to magically deliver a ‘new Nigeria’ with no corruption, no boko haram or insecurity, jobs for everyone, no poverty, infrastructure and power in abundance, etc.
As a first point, Buhari and his team must realize that they do not yet have a coherent, credible agenda that is consistent with the fundamentals of the economy currently. The APC manifesto contains some good principles and wish-lists, but as a blue print for Nigeria’s security and prosperity, it is largely hollow. The numbers do not add up. Thus, his first job is to present a credible development agenda to Nigerians.
The second key challenge for Buhari and his team will be to transit and transform from a group of what I largely refer to as aggrieved people’s congregation to build a true political party with a soul from the patchwork of political associations. It is surely easier to oppose than to govern.  This should not worry us much. After all, even the PDP which has been in power for 16 years is still an assembly of people held together by what I refer to as dining table politics.
I am not sure how many members can tell you what their party stands for or its mission and vision for Nigeria. The third but more difficult agenda is cobbling together a truly ‘progressive team’ that will begin to pick the pieces.  The lesson of history is that the best leaders have been the ones who went beyond their narrow provincial enclaves to recruit talents and mobilize capacities for national transformation.
In Nigeria’s history, the two presidents who made the most fundamental transformation of the economy, Babangida and Obasanjo, were exceptional in the quality of the teams they put together. I therefore pray that Buhari will be magnanimous in victory – if he wins—to put together a ‘team Nigeria’ for the rescue mission.
If Jonathan wins, then God must have been magnanimous to give him a second chance to redeem himself. Most people I know who support Jonathan do so either out of self-interest or fear of the unknown.  As a friend summed it: the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know.  One person assured me that we would see a ‘different Jonathan’ if he wins as he has been rattled by the harsh judgment of history on his presidency so far.  I just pray that he is right.  In that case, I would just draw the President’s attention to two issues:
First, beside the coterie of clowns who literally make a living with the sing-song of transformation agenda, President Jonathan must know that it remains an empty slogan. His greatest challenge is how to save himself from the stranglehold of his largely provincial palace jesters who tell him he has done better than God, and seek out ‘enemies’ and friends who can help him write his name in history. Propaganda won’t do it.
Second, Jonathan must claw back his powers as President of Nigeria. He largely outsourced them, and must now roll his sleeves for a new beginning. I take liberty to tell you this brutal truth: if you are not re-elected, there is little to remember your regime after the next few years.
On 7th January 2004, I made a special presentation to an expanded economic management team to set agenda for the new year (as chief economic adviser). The focus of my presentation was for us to identify seven iroko trees that would be the flagship markers for the administration as well as how to finance them. I use the same framework to evaluate your administration.
What I say to you, Mr. President, is that your record of performance so far is like a farmland filled with grasses. Yes, they are many but there is no tree, let alone any iroko tree, that stands out.  Think about this. The beginning of wisdom for every President in his second term is to admit that he is racing against time to cement his legacy. So far, your report card is not looking great.  You need a team of big and bold thinkers, as well as with excellent execution capacity.  So far, it is not working!
Under the executive presidential system, Nigerians elected you to manage their economy. You cannot outsource that job. Our constitution envisages a federal coordination of the economy, and that function is performed by the National Economic Council (NEC) with Vice-President as chairman. Indeed, the constitution and other laws of Nigeria envisage the office of the VP as the coordinator on the economy.
All major economic institutions of the federal government are, by law, chaired by the Vice-President including the national planning (see functions of the national planning commission as coordinator of federal government economic and development programmes), debt management office, National Council on Privatization, etc. As chairman of National Planning (with Ministers of Finance, Agriculture, CBN governor, etc as members), the VP oversees the federal planning and coordination.
Then the Constitution mandates the VP as representative of the federal government to chair the NEC, with only CBN governor and state governors as members—to coordinate national economy between federal and states. No minister is a member of NEC. Many people do not understand the logic of the design of our constitution and the role of the VP.  Of course, the buck stops on the desk of Mr. President. Only the President and VP have our mandate to govern us.
Every other person is an adviser/assistant. I bet that you will only appreciate this article AFTER you leave office. Now that you are in power, truth will only hurt!  Be assured that those of us who are prepared to die for Nigeria will never spare you or anyone else this bitter truth.
Nigeria must survive and prosper beyond Buhari or Jonathan!
Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, was  former CBN Governor.

Source: vanguard Newspaper, Nigeria


Friday 10 May 2013

5 Best Mobile Phones In The World Today

We’ve all got at least one mobile phone each, right? The trouble is, how do you decide which is the best one for you?
When deciding on a budget phone, it can be a nightmare trying to decide which one to go for. Is it power? Name? Specs? Or just a low price tag attached to a phone that doesn’t go bananas when you prod it?
Well, this is where we make it easy.
Number 5 Google Nexus 4
Google and LG have worked together to bring to market a fantastic offering, one that even Apple fans can’t help but coo over when they hear the price.
The fact of the matter is that this is a handset with world class specs – yet it’s at a cost you’d expect to get a budget phone for. Sure, there are a few things that could have been done better, but the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.
The Nexus 4 is beautifully designed with a stunning display and rocking the latest version of Android. It has more connectivity than a telephone exchange and even excels in the simple matter of making calls.
We’re not fans of the lower memory allowance, and it’s not got the best screen on the market, and there will be a few that see stock Android 4.2 as too stripped-down to consider it a valid phone OS choice; more a platform for the big hitters to build on.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not a fantastic handset, it would have competed even without the insanely low price tag.
Quick verdict
Make no mistake, this is the best Nexus handset so far by a long shot. We love it and can’t recommend it highly enough.
It was a contender for the top spot at launch, although it’s fallen just short ahead of intense competition. If you’re due a new phone and aren’t willing to spend the big bucks, you should check the Google Nexus 4 out without delay.
Nexus 4


Number 4: iPhone 5
Did you see this one coming? The iPhone 5 now behind three other Android phones in our rankings? Some think it should be higher, some think lower, it depends on your level of Apple love.
Never has a company polarised opinion in the smartphone world like Apple, and with the iPhone 5, so many are quick to decry it while others know it to be the smartphone they’ve been waiting for.
And let’s make no bones about it: this is a stunning phone, with a gorgeous two-tone finish, a high-res screen that’s been extended to four inches and an efficient yet powerful core.
The iOS 6 update is a good one, and while some feel it to be ageing slightly, many see it as doing exactly what they want, and given Apple has built it smartphone reputation on simplicity, this makes sense.
However, it’s not all cookies and cream for Apple, as it’s ditched the Google Maps app for something that’s not as slick or well-stocked in its own Maps app, which had some issues at birth. However, it’s certainly picked up more recently, and you can just download Google Maps anyway if you don’t want to take the risk.
The main problem we have with this phone, spec list aside, is the fact the iPhone 5 is STILL very expensive. We’re not sure how such sky high prices can be charged when equivalent smartphones are available on the market.
Quick verdict
Let’s not beat around the bush here: the iPhone 5 is still one of the great smartphones in the world thanks to a great package of technology, design and UI intuition.
iOS definitely needs an update, and we’ll always hope for a price decrease soon, but there’s no doubt the competition is starting to outstrip Apple’s bullet-proof reliability and simplicity of use.
iPhone 5


Number 3: Sony Xperia Z
Sony’s new handset is most definitely the most impressive the firm has launched either in its current guise or as Sony Ericsson. The latest handset should always be the best, obviously, but the Xperia Z is a real, real step forward.
You can see the Sony influence throughout the handset as it oozes quality and build from the large screen, which fits close to the edges of the bezel, to the intelligent camera that allows you to snap some really premium photos without needing to fiddle about with the settings.
And it’s water and dust resistant too, which makes it excellent for general life business. There’s a certain freedom that comes from knowing that the heart-stopping moment of your phone falling in a pint of beer is gone for good.
It’s also packing a microSD card slot in an impossibly thin chassis, for which we laud the phone even higher. Add to that the Bravia Engine 2, which can upscale standard definition movies and bring your content to life, and you’ve got a real matchwinning phone in your hands.
There will be an outcry from many that wonder how it’s managed to climb above the iPhone, we deliberated for a long time between the two, but the fact is that spec for spec, the Xperia Z beats the iPhone 5 down.
It’s not all about the numbers though, which is why the fact the Xperia Z uses those specs so well – a crisper video experience, a more powerful camera, being waterproof, expandable memory gives it the boost it needed to enter the top three.
Quick verdict
While it doesn’t quite pack the clout of the phones from HTC and Samsung, the Xperia Z is a phone that says Sony is definitely back at the sharp end of the smartphone game.
There’s still (a small amount of) room for improvement, as the screen can look a bit washed out from some angles, but there’s no doubt that if Sony keeps us this pace it will be vying for the top spot in no time at all, we just don’t know what Sony will call it.
Sony Xperia Z

Sony Xperia Z
Number 2: Samsung Galaxy S4
All change at the top! Samsung managed to hold off HTC at the top in 2012, but this year the supreme stylings of the HTC One proved too strong against a phone that’s a slightly-better-version of its predecessor.
Well, that’s not really fair, it’s only in looks that it’s too similar, and sadly that was one of the biggest issues most users had with the S3. It’s not the world’s biggest smartphone crime, but it’s enough to keep it from the top spot.
There’s a lot, a lot, to love with the Samsung Galaxy S4 though: whether it’s a powerful camera, a brilliant screen, a long-lasting battery or just a fluid experience, there’s everything you could want in a smartphone right here.
The cost is a tad higher than on other smartphones, but thankfully still cheaper than iPhone level. If only it was made out of something a little more premium.
Quick verdict
There’s no doubt that this is one of the best smartphone ever made. It’s clear, powerful and does everything we’d expect a flagship phone from Samsung to do.
It’s just a shame that the perceived ‘innovation’ doesn’t really add anything: motion gestures, smart scroll and it’s other non-contact bedfellows didn’t take smartphones to the next level, which is what we needed in the face of Ultrapixels and BoomSound.
Make no mistake though: you’ll love the Samsung Galaxy S4 if you choose to go for it, as it’s an amazing phone with some really cutting-edge features.
Samsung Galaxy S4


Number 1: HTC One
Well, here’s something of a shock if you’re a Samsung fan, after nearly two years of dominance, the Korean brand has fallen from the top spot.
It’s nothing to do with the quality of the S4, an outstanding phone in anyone’s book, but more the fact HTC has managed to bring out a smartphone that’s worthy of any user’s consideration.
The supreme aluminium chassis, the Full HD screen and the simplified version of Sense 5.0 sitting on top of Android Jelly Bean means it’s a pleasure to use and recommend this handset.
The new innovations are also pleasingly more than just marketing gimmicks; Zoe functionality allows the creation of delightful video highlight reels, and the Ultrapixel camera means you’ve got a much wider range of shots available thanks to being stunning in low light.
The only reason this isn’t a five star phone is the slightly off-key battery, which can leak juice if you’re power-creating videos or watching reams of video, but for day to day use it will be acceptable for most. We’ve also got high hopes a recent software update could have solved this little conundrum as well, meaning you could see another five star phone enter the fray shortly.
Quick Verdict
With power, poise and beauty all combined in this innovative phone, HTC has proved it can more than still cut it with the big boys when it comes to bringing out a lust-worthy flagship smartphone – and it’s also proved that it still knows how to beat Samsung into second place in the phone world too.
HTC One