The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Feb 9 deadline not feasible as NIMC gives March 22 date for capturing

    Feb 9 deadline not feasible as NIMC gives March 22 date for capturing

    Lucas Ajanaku

     

    SUBSCRIBERS seeking to link their National Identification Numbers (NINs) with their telephone numbers got a shocker yesterday National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) yesterday. They were told to come back on March 22.

    The extension granted by the Federal Government for them to sychronise their lines will expire on February 9.

    Stakeholders in the telecommunication industry have asked the Federal Government to further extend the timeline of blocking people’s Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.

    Desperate Nigerians, who besieged the Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos Office of the NIMC went back home disappointed after they were given a March 22 date for enrolment.

    Read Also: NIMC opens 20 enrollment centres for NIN

    At the NIMC Office entrance, prospective enrollees were requested to register their names which were subsequently transferred to a notebook. They were asked to come on March 22 for data capturing.

    Efforts to get the reaction of NIMC were futile as neither the two mobile phone lines of its spokesman, Kayode Adegoke went through. Text message sent to him failed to elicit reaction too.

    Some of the youths at the centre said they needed to get their NINs so they could write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to gain admission into higher institutions, while others said they needed it to renew their expired driver’s licence and international passports.

     

  • VIDEO: Sunday Igboho’s house razed in Ibadan

    VIDEO: Sunday Igboho’s house razed in Ibadan

    Our Reporter 

  • Time to speak to the Fulani youth

    Time to speak to the Fulani youth

    By Fredrick Nwabufo

    SIR: Leadership must be responsive to diversity. It is the rudimentary ingredient to fostering unity among variegated people. Where leadership becomes insouciant to diversity, every other thing fails. This is where the Buhari administration hit its nadir. The government abused, disregarded and mismanaged the delicate ethnic and religious balance on which Nigeria pivots.

    The ethnic and religious taxonomies are very pronounced. IPOB in the south-east, supremacist groups in the south-west and south-south — and confusion everywhere. Some of these groups were not there until after 2015 – owing largely to the divisive government which elevated nepotism to a state policy.

    As a matter of fact, there was Boko Haram and farmer-herder clashes prior to the Buhari administration, but Nigeria fell to the suzerainty of bandits under Buhari. The scale of pillaging and savagery is unprecedented. From Zamfara, Katsina to Oyo and Ondo, the blood of the innocents cries out. Some roads have become ghost avenues; villages and businesses abandoned – all because of leadership failure which enabled the enterprise of banditry.

    It is really disturbing. With a crisis of deadly potential precipitating in the southwest over the siege by bandits in the region, it is time for the president to act – by initiating a process of prevailing on the Fulani youths to desist from this path. Miyetti Allah, the Fulani socio-cultural group, has been instrumental in securing the release of captives from bandits and in establishing links for dialogue with them. For example, the freedom of the Kankara schoolboys of Katsina was by dint of Miyetti Allah. The group has also intervened in other situations. Can this group do the bounden duty of speaking to the heart of the Fulani youths?

    A few days ago, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi met with some Fulani communities in Kaduna and sermonised them. About 600 bandits reportedly agreed to surrender their firearms.  This is leadership. Really, this precarious occasion in the life of our nation calls for leadership by all Fulani leaders. They must rise up and talk to their won.

    Our unity should matter to us. There are people working overtime to plunge Nigeria into crisis. They profit from blood and build their political assets from anarchy. We should not let these blood dealers celebrate. We have lost many souls to violence already; we should not lose more precious souls to a crisis of attrition.

    • Fredrick Nwabufo, fredricknwabufo@yahoo.com

  • At last, Kogi’s magic formula

    At last, Kogi’s magic formula

    By Olatunji Dare

    Of the 121,000 cases and 1,501deaths from coronavirus disease in Nigeria as of January 23, 2021 (courtesy of Johns Hopkins University, which compiles and updates such figures from dependable sources,  not a single incident or fatality or rumour thereof has come out of Kogi State.

    Daily, the media are awash with rumours and reports of Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths, certified by the competent authorities. Most families grieve privately or bury their dead quietly.  Not a few buried theirs in rowdy ceremonies that defied the Covid protocols.

    But there has been everywhere, a general acceptance that something malignant was in the air, and that the recognition of that reality is the beginning of healthy existence.  Everywhere, that is, except Kogi State.

    The state governor, Yahaya Bello, dismissed it as a hoax.  He said, it was just a species of malaria and would soon vanish. The whole thing had been confected by corrupt medical authorities and political officials to extort funds from the Federal Government.   Being a God-fearing person sworn to transparency and propriety in thought, word and deed, he would play no part in that fraudulent scheme, he declared again and again.

    Besides, on being admitted to the honourable society of accountants, he had pledged solemnly to abide by the ethics of the profession.  Nothing in the world, not even a so-called pandemic, was going to make him violate that pledge in letter or spirit.

    And to show that he was not grandstanding, he rejected on the threshold any Covid-19 funds that might be allocated to Kogi. Nor would he allow into the state the concoctions being touted as remedies for the disease.

    Whether they came out of the most reputable laboratories in the world or bear the imprimatur of the world’s leading epidemiologists, you have Bello’s word that those concoctions are no better than refined poisons, the sole object of which is to kill Nigerians in the tens of thousands.  The indecent haste with which they were produced and rushed to the market – with far less rigorous testing than a toothpaste would undergo:  is that not proof enough of the evil designs of their promoters?

    Fortified by their governor’s assurances, Kogi residents went about their businesses as they had always done, mingling freely in groups large and small to celebrate one thing or another, congregating in places of worship and journeying back and forth. The state remained open for trade and commerce and social intercourse from all corners of Nigeria.

    While they were running out of hospital beds and intensive care facilities in other states, there was not a single hospitalisation in Kogi.  While medical personnel in other states were dying or stretched to the point of physical and mental exhaustion, their counterparts in Kogi said they had never found their work so agreeable.

    While “mysterious deaths” stalked communities across the country, it was all fun and gaiety and laughter in the Confluence State. Investors fleeing other states found a safe, lucrative harbour in Lokoja, the Kogi state capital.

    Governor Bello’s confident assertion that his domain was off-limits to the coronavirus was no idle boast, it turned out.  The virus never found a way of insinuating itself into Kogi, not even in its serial mutations or permutations.

    Nigerians were mystified.

    What was it about Kogi that made the coronavirus keep a respectful distance from it even as the virus ravaged other parts of Nigeria with implacable malignancy?

    Army generals, university professors, industry barons, top civil servants, senior clergy across the faiths and regular folk, old and young, featured prominently in the daily bulletin as victims or casualties of Covid-19.

    But not in Kogi. The place seemed like a world apart, a bubble, in which the tens of thousands came and went day in and day out and automatically acquired Covid immunity in the process.

    Instead of entreating Bello to share with the rest of the country the magic formula he has employed to keep Kogi off-limits to Covid-19 in whatever mutation or permutation, they pilloried him and called him all manner of names.  They said he was anti-science, and that he combined pitiful ignorance with brazen arrogance.

    But the laugh, alas is on them.  The facts on the ground have confirmed his foresight and wisdom.  So, he just sat back and watched as hospitalisations and deaths from Covid-19 mounted across the country. Kogi stood out as the lonely exception, envied at home and revered abroad as an African success story

    At home, there is now excited talk of drafting him to run for president in 2023 so that he can replicate his liquidation of Covid-19 and other malignant diseases on a national scale. A Committee of Friends is currently on a national mobilisation tour in aid of that project.  At every stop, it has been received with great enthusiasm.

    Meanwhile the Nigerian Conference of Patriotic Journalists is set to confer him with the special award of “World Conqueror of Covid-19,” at a ceremony in Lokoja later this month.

    Abroad, the international community will move the Nobel Committee to award Bello the 2021 Peace Prize, if not the substantive Nobel medallion in Medicine, in recognition of his unparalled contributions to global public health.

    Following all the attention, and to show his detractors that he is not the unfeeling potentate they love to hate, decided recently to share, free of charge, the secret of Kogi’s stunning success in keeping Covid-19 at bay.

    It is not denialism – stubborn, dogged denialism, denialism enforced with every official and extra-official power – that has been at work in Kogi’s conquest of Covid-19.  If that were the case, why have other states not employed it in wishing the plague away?

    At first blush, the Kogi Formula appears beguilingly simple – so simple that it can be expressed in a just one word, the meaning of which every adult Nigerian knows or can figure out in the proper context.  But on close examination, the formula is nothing if not recondite, the product of pure genius.

    That formula, it can finally be revealed, consists primarily if not wholly in sensitisation.

    At a parley with journalists in Lagos last week, Kogi’s Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, who should know, was asked:  “How has the state been fighting COVID-19, especially now that the second wave is causing more havoc across the world?”

    His response, as reported in this newspaper, bears quoting at some length.

    “We have succeeded in sensitising the good people of Kogi state. The best weapon to fight COVID-19 as far as we are concerned, is through sensitisation. When the people know their responsibilities and what they should do to keep themselves safe, it will help in ensuring that the pandemic doesn’t ravage the state.  We are still on the fact that there has not been a single case in Kogi State,” (emphasis added.)

    “All those other ones declared by the NCDC are controversial and we have rejected those figures in clear terms.  As far as we are concerned, we will continue sensitization. Before any other state, we built our communication pillars on COVID-19 and ensured that we are telling the people the right thing about the virus. That is what is working for the state. . .”

    There you have it.

    Why waste billions on vaccines that will be available only to a privileged few and produce uncertain outcomes when you can, with a rolling sensitization campaign that will cost next to nothing, keep the infernal plague at bay?

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  • Jonathan on restructuring

    Jonathan on restructuring

    By Gabriel Amalu

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan, surely remains his old self, gentle and naive. Even with the hindsight of over five years as a president, and morphing into an African peacemaker, albeit with limited success, Jonathan remains the gentle dove, who hopes that the dominant political elite that has held the country hostage, can be persuaded to rein in their greed and become patriotic.  His recent position on the issue of restructuring, shows that his naivety is ingrained.

    In his contribution at the 2020 Daily Trust Dialogue, which he chaired, former President Jonathan is hoping the ruling elite will restructure their minds. He mentioned the troubling issues like nepotism, ethnic and religious differences as challenges requiring restructuring of the mind. The news report, mentioned some others who spoke at the event to include Chief Nnia Nwodo, Professor Attahiru Jega, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, most of who discussed restructuring from the prism of politics.

    For this column, the major reason why Nigeria must either restructure or die is economic. Of course, I will be naïve not to appreciate that politics trumps economics, especially in a country like ours, where according to one of the participants at the dialogue, Chief Audu Ogbe, politics is the only viable industry in the country. But looking at restructuring from the prism of politics is perhaps why the hegemonic power holding Nigeria down would do everything it can to frustrate a national rebirth, through restructuring.

    But the actors forget that without a restructured national economy, they would have no nation to exploit. As presently configured, even before COVID-19, nearly all the states of the federation were at the mercy of economic forces completely beyond their control. As the intellectual colossus, Prof Jide Osuntokun, while making a comparative analysis with the Canadian federalist model, wrote recently in his weekly column, in The Nation Newspaper, under the heading: Obiozor’s Ohaneze Ndigbo: An Outsider’s perspective: “we used to have this kind of federalism in Nigeria at least between 1957 and 1959.”

    He went on: “Each state controlled its resources and transferred agreed sums to the centre to run the federal government. The federal government was the creation of the regional/state governments and not the present warped practice of the federal government creating unviable states and feeding them from federal seized revenue acquired by force of arms without negotiations.” The double whammy presently afflicting Nigeria, is that the federal seized revenue is no longer enough to sustain the federation, while the states are hamstrung by the unitary constitution that authorise the seizure of state revenues, to engage in meaningful economic activities.

    So, as presently configured, Nigeria is in a quagmire, operating under the spell of a self-induced strangulation.  As should be clear to everyone, the nation is bleeding profusely from the strangulation on many fronts, and unless a miracle happens, the increasing state of anaemia will inevitably result in exsanguination – death from loss of blood. President Muhammadu Buhari, who campaigned that he had the magic wand to the northeast bleeding, apparently has mere iodine, for an injury that is already a gangrene.

    To make matters worse, President Buhari has exacerbated the gangrene by his ill-advised policies on nepotism, ethnic and religious preferences. Of course, when former President Jonathan raised those issues at the Daily Trust Dialogue, he was gently throwing the darts at his successor, who has interestingly found him a worthy ambassador of peace for troubled African nations.  Interestingly, just like the departed President Donald Trump, President Buhari has an army of die-hard followers, who are blind to this debilitating shortcoming.

    But regardless of how long he stays in power, President Buhari will likely not deliver the kind of progress he promised, at the military front, the economic bough and the anti-corruption battle grounds, because the fundamentals are not in place to achieve the results. On his part, Jonathan who is now fondly remembered by some Nigerians, because of the overwhelming challenges the present regime is grappling with, compared to his, would agree that the nation didn’t make much progress even while he was in charge.

    Of course, the nation has not made the desired progress since the 1970s, despite the huge resources forcefully seized from what ordinarily should be the federating units. So, while the nation has earned billions of dollars from the forcefully appropriated oil resources of the Niger Delta, for instance, majority of Nigerians have become poorer, as few elites in the corridors of economic and political power, hide in the maelstrom of the confusion foisted by the perpetual constitutional crises, to cream off the commonwealth.

    By former president Jonathan’s inference, at the Daily Trust Dialogue, he is hoping that the kleptomaniac and parasitic elite, thrown up under this national atrophy will see reason to become patriotic, and stop the practice of nepotism, ethnic and religious bigotry, which are the essential fuel they used to rise to prominence and also escape from justice. That possibility is very remote. But like the case of the chicken and the egg, it is still by elite consensus or a military fiat that a federal constitution that would enable the growth of the units of the country can be brought to fruition.

    The challenge is how to get the vital number of that kleptomaniac and parasitic elite, to come to their senses that the nation is dying, and it is in their self-surviving interest to recreate the country, unless they are willing to become citizens of a failed state. Perhaps, the need for an elite consensus to make progress, may bring us back to Jonathan’s forlorn hope that the elites can restructure their mind, to enable the nation build the necessary consensus, to restructure the country.

    For this column, the least the nation must do to survive the maelstrom almost overwhelming it is to devolve powers to the states. As has been severally argued on this platform, the ‘legal’ strangulation of the states, accentuated by a unitary 1999 constitution, is at the heart of other national challenges we are faced with. Even the conservative Mallam El-Rufai committee set up by the All Progressive Congress (APC), recommended the devolution of power, as a panacea for the debilitating crisis almost overwhelming our country.

    Yet, like the ill-fated dog which on a hunting expedition chooses to ignore the owner’s whistle, the ruling party is ignoring the recommendation of its own conservative faction, even as members of the progressive belt may be ruing the political alliance. It is appropriate to ask, which should come first: restructuring of the mind as Jonathan posited or the restructuring of the laws of the land. Those who think the country can march on without any fundamental change are welcome to their grave illusion.

  • Four things to know about the new COAS, Major General Attahiru

    Four things to know about the new COAS, Major General Attahiru

    By Adeyinka Akintunde

     

    Nigeria has a new Chief of Army Staff. He is Major General Ibrahim Attahiru.

    He takes over from Major General Tukur Buratai, who served in the position for five years.

    His major job is to continue in leading the war against Boko Haram.

    Here are four things to know about the new Chief of Army Staff.

    1. Major General Ibrahim Attahiru was a former commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, the code name for the special military operation against insurgency in North East Nigeria.
    2. He was in charge of the 82 Division, Nigerian Army.
    3. He was appointed to lead the offensive against Boko Haram in the North-East in May 2017.
    4. He was sacked in July 2017 following series of increase in attacks and suicide bombings carried out by Boko Haram using young girls under his command. He was then replaced with another general, Nicholas Rogers

     

  • COVID-19: CBN supports economy with ₦8.8tr

    COVID-19: CBN supports economy with ₦8.8tr

    By Nduka Chiejina (Assistant Editor)

     

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has spent over ₦8.8 trillion to support the economy since the advent of COVID-19.

    CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele made this disclosure on Monday in Abuja at the end of the of the first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting for 2021.

    Reacting to Fitch rating agency’s criticism of the CBN’s credit to the federal government, Emefiele stated that it is “very unfortunate that fitch which is known to be a first-class company and first-class rating agency will hold such views on what we are doing and therefore pass judgement regarding the size of credit that the CBN has granted to the federal government”.

    He defended the bank’s action, insisting that “the CBN is banker to government, second let it be known that the CBN is a lender of last resort not just to government but also even to our banks when they run into short term liquidity problems”.

    Read Also: CBN gives credit to 200,000 maize farmers

    Using other countries and the European Union as examples of entities that extended credits to their governments, Emefiele revealed that “in Nigeria just 4.5% of the GDP amounting to about $18billion (₦6,822,000,000,000)” was extended as credit to the federal government to address the COVID-19 challenges.

    Emefiele said some this money was used to “support measures which included outright purchase of debt by the Central banks in order to improve the ability of fiscal authorities to fund recovery efforts”.

    According to Emefiele, “the efforts of the central bank are not different that’s the only thing I can say from what is being witnessed in other climes all over the world as we all share the same objective considering both conventional and unconventional measures that will support faster economic recovery in light of reduced revenue reset been faced by this fiscal recovery authorities”.

    The balance of ₦2trillion Emefiele pointed out was what the bank committed to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • How to Participate in the Bitcoin Revolution

    How to Participate in the Bitcoin Revolution

    Since bitcoin was launched in 2009, there have been several cryptocurrencies introduced. However, bitcoin has been the most successful cryptocurrency to date and has gained authority in the industry. Investors have also found it to be a great investment opportunity and following its track record over the years, there is so much more to expect from this digital currency. If you’re thinking of how to participate in the bitcoin revolution that will be happening in the next few decades, here are a few ways to go about it.

    Accept and Purchase Bitcoins

    If you are an entrepreneur, the easiest way to play a part in the bitcoin revolution is to start accepting bitcoin payments. Many businesses today are beginning to accept bitcoin as a form of payment through a merchant solution. This includes high-profile businesses such as Amazon, Tesla, and Microsoft and a 2020 survey by HSB reveals that 36% of small-medium businesses in the US accept Bitcoin. You can also purchase bitcoin through bitcoin exchanges such as the https://bitqt.org/. These platforms are designed to help you store your money in bitcoin and also easily trade it.

    By accepting and purchasing bitcoin, you will be contributing a great deal to the use and spread of the cryptocurrency.

    Engage in Services for Bitcoin

    You can engage in services for bitcoin to contribute your part to the spread of bitcoin across the world. Some individuals and businesses have created digital and hardware wallet services to help users and investors of bitcoin store the coins efficiently. This has made it easier for more people to trade and invest in bitcoin since they can now do it with a few clicks. There are also bitcoin payment processors or bitcoin exchanges that work by processing payments on behalf of vendors.

    The idea is to make the process easier for everyone regardless of their level in the investment world. If you can contribute to that, you will be playing a huge role in the revolution of bitcoin in the long run.

    Invest in Bitcoin

    The investment market has been making the news lately and one of the most discussed topics is cryptocurrency. Investing in bitcoin has huge advantages, as the price is volatile and it is also not regulated by the government or any institution. If you are looking for great investment opportunities, bitcoin should be one of your options. Early investors in this cryptocurrency have good news about the returns today and would encourage even more people to invest in it for the long-term.

    The Bottom Line

    There are several ways to contribute to the bitcoin revolution, some of which have been highlighted in this article. The idea is to play your part in ensuring the growth of bitcoin and also the increase in demand and value over the next decades. You could also provide solutions for bitcoin acceptance to help more people understand how it works and leverage it to their advantage.

    While bitcoin might seem to be making the news today, there’s still a large gap in the number of users and non-users. It gets better from here but you can also be a part of the revolution.

  • Bookseller jailed one year for pirating Bible

    Bookseller jailed one year for pirating Bible

    By Adebisi Onanuga

     

    A FEDERAL High Court , Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has sentenced a trader, Chinonso Ugochukwu, to one year imprisonment for pirating the Holy Bible and other books.

    The trial judge, Justice F.O. Riman however,  gave the convict an option of N30,000 fine and to compulsorily forfeit the recovered materials to the Federal Government.

    Justice Riman convicted Ugochukwu of a two-count- charge, bordering “on pirating, being in possession and offering for sale, 578 copies of various literary works including The Holy Bible (Revised Standard version).

    The offence contravenes section 20(2)(c) of the Copyright Act, Cap C28, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria which attracts one year imprisonment.

    During trial, a witness and staff of staff of Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC), Martins Umoh, had told the court that the commission received complaints from copyright owners, including The Bible Society of Nigeria alleging that their literary works were being pirated.

    Read Also: Court lifts house arrest of Bobi Wine

    Umoh said  they embarked on searches in several local government areas of the state and discovered  that several copies of pirated literary works were found in Ugochukwu’s shop located at No 17 Grace Bill Road, Eket, in Akwa Ibom State.

    Also testifying, a staff of the Bible Society of Nigeria, Oluwafemi Akindele, told the court that his office translates The Holy Bible, typesets it and sources for funds to publish it.

    Akindele  said that they observed that while the products were everywhere in the market, it never reflected in its official Bible distribution figure

    According to him, that was when they observed that most of the products in the market were pirated copies and made formal complaints to NCC which led to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of Ugochukwu.

  • New Service Chiefs will deliver, APC assures

    New Service Chiefs will deliver, APC assures

    By Jide Orintunsin, Abuja

     

    The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has canvassed support for the newly appointed Service Chiefs.

    It expressed confidence in the ability of the new appointees to deliver and improve the nation’s security architecture.

    The party called for public support for them in the performance of their constitutional roles of protecting the country’s territorial integrity and tackle emerging security threats.

    Read Also: ‘How to resolve Kwara APC crisis’

    In a statement welcoming the newly appointed Service Chiefs, Secretary of the party’s Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Senator John James AkpanUdoedehe, the party said: “The All Progressives Congress welcomes the appointment of new service chiefs following the resignation and retirement of the outgoing service chiefs.

    “We are confident that the new service chiefs will consolidate on the remarkable achievements of their predecessors in keeping the country safe and peaceful.

    “As a nation, our strength remains in our diversity and we should continue to forge unity in that diversity. We urge peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding among Nigerians, irrespective of the part of the country we chose to live and work.”