The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Dearth of monitoring culture in Nigeria

    Dearth of monitoring culture in Nigeria

    By Oluwole Ogundele

    Apart from the challenges of neo-colonialism and/or cultural imperialism including fierce global power play, the Nigerian modes of leadership across the board, are promoting greater underdevelopment. Leadership in this context goes beyond the spheres of local, state and federal engagements. Indeed, our primary, secondary and tertiary institutions are not an exception. Every sub-system of the society has its leadership structure.  However, the central goal of any leadership is service to humanity on a robust scale. That is to say, that responsibility and responsiveness occupy centre stage in the scheme of things. But shockingly, many leaders in this part of the world fail to appreciate let alone appropriate the above time-tested principle.

    Therefore, holding leadership positions (as far as most Nigerians are concerned) is a golden opportunity to enrich themselves through the lens of maximum corruption. Corruption is rubbishing their sanity. Nigeria has a lot of institutional frameworks to serve as checks and balances. But those in charge have consistently bastardised almost everything. Without mincing words, most of the country’s institutions are not working. The megalomaniacs have sent these institutions to the guillotine. Indeed, Nigeria is in a mess. Who will save us from ourselves?

    The overall head of a system or sub-system becomes unreachable and unmindful of the agonies of the people he is supposed to lead. This negative attitude is inseparable from some inflated ego. The ordinary people despite their contributions to the survival of the system are often treated like a bunch of trash. Dissenting voices are quickly and tactically silenced.  The body language of an average Nigerian leader is that the followers should wait for their turn or get punished. Not surprisingly, most people including NGOs and other pressure groups have gone to sleep. This is dangerous for Nigeria’s collective progress.

    The Nigerian academia needs to show much more commitment to the promotion of high ideals. The university is supposed to be a model to the larger society. That was the narrative in the past.  Academics should not join the evilly crowd despite the economic hardships ravaging the land. A great deal of sanity is needed.  In this connection, I salute our past heroes in the academia for their fiscal discipline, meticulousness and uncommon dignity. The Nigerian society and the entirety of the global community respected them. Most (if not all of them) refused to serve as errand boys for some political class members. Today, the narrative has changed.

    The youth are now being polluted and de-culturalised more than hitherto by our leaders.  They (the youth) hear every day about maximum looting of the public wealth by leaders and yet most people continue to celebrate them. Their biographies are all over the place. For how long is Nigeria going to continue to romanticise their abusers and thieves?  The future of Nigeria is certainly very bleak. Everybody is waiting for his turn to loot the commonwealth while the toiling masses continue to wail.

    It seems to me, that demons are let loose. Material poverty and greed are some of the basic underlying factors for poor leadership culture in Nigeria.  Salaries of all categories of workers are grossly inadequate. This ugly situation leads to some survival instincts enshrined in all kinds of immorality and/or criminality. No government can reduce insecurity and looseness in the various administrative offices to the barest minimum, in the face of hyper-inflation that rubbishes workers’ salaries.  Although President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is working round the clock, he still needs to do much more to correct the imbalance.  Shameful romanticisation of bureaucratic bottlenecks is a disgusting administrative culture largely traceable to corruption. We must reject it.  For instance, hiding files of innocent people in order to get bribes is gradually becoming a way of life. Their computers or servers are always having fake technical problems. In Nigeria servers are regularly having malaria fever or coughs and bribes are the medications.  What a country! Although some people are pathologically corrupt and irresponsive, I still feel that meaningful wages for workers can go a long way in dousing (to a reasonable extent) the tensions in our system.  Material poverty promotes corruption in the offices.

    The senior officers who are supposed to ensure smooth operations in a given division look the other way. This leads to helplessness of gargantuan proportions. Monitoring remains a critical component of administrative operations. It engenders efficiency, accountability, transparency and probity. However, all these elements of healthy administration can be revived in the face of determination. Sustainable development is anchored to the above elements. PBAT can seamlessly test my hypothesis by approving realistic wages for the Nigerian workers across the board. I believe that with better wages, bribes and other corrupt practices would be reduced to the barest minimum. This is a non-kinetic and humane approach to poverty alleviation. Without close monitoring of how government financial resources are being used by the different leaders, corruption would continue to go from bad to worse.

    Read Also: Nigeria takes reform, investor confidence message to Davos

    It is a fact, that in Britain and America among other parts of the developed world, institutions such as parliament and judiciary are respected. Nobody is above the law of the land. The structures are not put in place for cosmetic reasons. They are meant to serve as checks and balances in order to promote robust human societies. These are societies defined and ruled by mutuality of respect, empathy and compassion.

    A gross lack of seriousness is an invitation to a chaotic present and an unhealthy future.  Integrity has gone to the dogs. Today’s leaders (with a few exceptions) have no space for most of the time-tested, noble African values and value systems. These are indigenous values embedded in idealism as opposed to unholy materialism or avarice/hedonism. Things are falling apart but the centre can still hold, with the sophisticated intervention of President Tinubu. We need a revolution in administration. This has to be baked into workable laws in the interest of sustainability. Promotions must be merit-based. Irresponsible workers should get the boot. Scrutinisation coupled with actions on reports/allegations bordering on impropriety is critical to progress. The monitors across the spectrum must also be secretly monitored. Unfettered impunity has to end. Currently, there is no fear of punishment. Anything goes!

    Locusts are having a field day as if nobody is in charge. Certainly, PBAT has the uncommon capacity to change the ugly narrative in the interest of a robust Nigerian society. There are a lot of avoidable stresses and strains. Nigerians (with the exception of the political class members and their gluttonous business associates) are bleeding profusely.

    Leadership at every level must wake up. State governors, local government chairmen, ministers, university vice chancellors and polytechnic rectors need to wake up from their slumber. PBAT alone cannot successfully do the job.  He is not a magician. Most Nigerian leaders need deliverance from the bondage of stone age arrogance or exaggerated sense of self-importance, at the expense of sophisticated performance. The Nigerian ship is drifting inside the turbulent ocean of modern globalisation. There is an urgent need for a rescue operation.

    •Prof Ogundele is of Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.

  • Arrest of Ekpoma students

    Arrest of Ekpoma students

    Powers of Nigerian Police to arrest and bring to book individuals or groups found to have run against the laws of the country are not in any doubt. Society would have been a jungle characterised by the atavism of the state of nature in the absence of modern institutions to regulate conduct and ensure compliance with law and order.

    But the discharge of these duties should not be done in a manner that negates the very objectives these institutions exist to serve. That seems the dilemma brought to the fore by the police handling of last week’s protest against escalating insecurity allegedly by students of Ambrose Ali University (AAU), Ekpoma Edo State.

    The students had reportedly embarked on the protest against rising insecurity and inexplicable killings in the area. In the course of their outing, the protest turned violent leading to the pulling down of some billboards mounted by politicians for the 2027 elections.

    Some shops were also reported to have been looted by the protesters who were apparently joined by hoodlums. The palace of the Onojie of Ekpoma was not left out as it had its own dose of vandalization.

    The protesters accused politicians of prioritising campaigns over the safety and welfare of the people of the state even when the lid on political campaigns was yet to be lifted.

    Curiously, as the protest was on, there was no evidence of police presence either to guide the students or prevent it from sliding into lawlessness. So, the protest ran its full course and fizzled out even as some shop owners suffered losses.

    About a day after the incident, the police in Ekpoma embarked on a midnight raid, arresting students from various hostels across the university town for allegedly participating in the protest. The action caused serious panic among students and residents, many of them having nothing to do with the protest. When the raids were over, about 52 students were taken into police custody.

    Several students lamented that police operatives stormed their rooms in commando style as they were asleep and indiscriminately arrested those they found inside.

    The absurd manner of police action was captured succinctly by one of the students: “they came to the hostel at midnight and started arresting students. Many of those arrested were sleeping in their rooms and were not even on the streets when the protest took place”. That captures the contradiction in the manner the police in Ekpoma went about arresting those suspected of involvement in the protest.

    Those arrested were bundled into waiting vehicles only to be arraigned at an Edo High Court on sundry charges. The presiding judge, Justice William Aziegbemi said he lacked jurisdiction on the matter. He ordered the suspects to be remanded at the Ubiaja Correctional Centre and adjourned the case to February 26.

    Events leading to the protest, the arrest and detention of the students have not gone down well with the public. And the reasons are not hard to locate given that the protest was primarily activated by escalating cases of kidnapping and bizarre killings within the area.

    It should be seen for what it is – a spontaneous response to the breakdown of law and order, threat to human life in the area. Those protesting must have been so frustrated by the rising incidence of kidnapping and killings in the face of the inability of the security agencies to live up to their statutory duties. The resort to self-help should sufficiently challenge the authorities to the danger in allowing the degenerate security situation to fester.

    Being a spontaneous and desperate response from people within the area, it was little surprising that the police had no inkling of it. Apparently frustrated by its inability to control the protest while in full swing, the police opted to storm the hostels of the students at midnight, arresting those they found there for allegedly being part of the protesting mob. There is everything wrong with this manner of indiscriminate arrests.

    Even if the assumption was that AAU students masterminded the protests, what was the justification in storming hostels around the university town, arresting students found sleeping in their rooms for an alleged offence they may know nothing about? What evidence have the police to charge those arrested except that they are students of the university?

    It is not only a faulty strategy but guilty of hasty generalisation by assuming that any and every student of AAU was involved in the demonstrations. How the police intend to prove a case of complicity on the part of those arrested remains foggy. But, it is a complete failure of intelligence that the protest ran its full course without the knowledge of the security agencies.

    Even then, the statement by the Edo State government that the protest was not carried out by the students but stranger elements has injected complications into the police action. The president of the AAU students’ union equally corroborated this position when he said neither the union nor its national body was involved in the protest. That reinforces the narrative of spontaneity of the action.

    How the Ekpoma police arrived at the initial assumption that the protest was the handiwork of the students remains curious. It is speculative and capable of inflicting grave injustice on the innocent ones. They may have been deceived by the preponderance of the students’ population in that university town. This is by no means to suggest that some students may not have been involved in the protest. That possibility cannot be ruled out.

    Read Also: Umahi commends MTN Nigeria for Progress on Enugu–Onitsha road reconstruction

    What has not gone down well with the public is the assumption that every student of the university took part in the protest – an assumption that led to the midnight hostel raids. Such a mind-set is loaded with the frightening prospects of muzzling students’ activism.

    Nigerians students have before now played active roles in reshaping unpopular government policies. The cases of the Nigerian-Anglo Defence Pact of 1960 and the 1978 school fees increase tagged, “Ali Must Go” stand out distinctly in this regard. Things seem to have gone awry in this country with the docility of Nigerian students in the face of bad and unpopular government policies.

    It is good a thing Edo State government said it has started releasing the remanded students with a promise to release the remaining ones. That process should be carried out expeditiously.

    Beyond the arrests, the spontaneous protest in Ekpoma highlights the increasing frustrations by the public with the unabating insecurity. Citizens are increasingly getting impatient with the reign of terror by criminals masquerading under various guises in the face of the inability of the government to tame the monster.

    The Edo State government and security agencies should address the dire security concerns that precipitated the protest. They should investigate further, the pattern of vandalization that occurred during the protest rather than exploit the vulnerability of the students as the line of least resistance.

  • Why Northern Nigeria must put education first

    Why Northern Nigeria must put education first

    By Abayomi TJ Ishola

    UNICEF has released a statistic so damning it should halt governance as usual across Northern Nigeria. As of late 2024, Nigeria now carries the grim distinction of having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world – 18.3 million. That is one in every five out-of-school children globally. But the real tragedy lies in the geography of this failure. According to UNICEF’s June 2025 Humanitarian Situation Report, 45 percent of these children live in the Northwest and 28 percent in the Northeast. In other words, 73 percent of Nigeria’s educational catastrophe is concentrated above the Middle Belt.

    In states like Yobe, 43 percent of children never attend school. Zamfara follows with 41 percent and Sokoto with 37 percent. A Universal Basic Education Commission study confirms that two-thirds of Nigeria’s out-of-school children live in the Northeast and Northwest. These are not marginal numbers; they represent a civilisational emergency.

    One would reasonably expect governments facing such statistics to channel every available kobo into classrooms, teachers, textbooks, and safe learning spaces. Instead, northern budgets tell a different story, one of misplaced priorities, moral confusion, and fiscal recklessness. The house is on fire, yet the budgets are busy buying scented candles.

    In December 2025, the Kebbi State government approved N10 billion to subsidise 1,300 Hajj seats for the 2026 pilgrimage. Each seat costs about N7.6 million. This single decision consumed 59 percent of the state’s total 2024 revenue and over 71 percent of its internally generated revenue for the first nine months of 2025.

    To put this in perspective, Kebbi allocated just N86 million for capital spending in its Ministry of Water Resources, N2 million for boreholes, and N20 million to build a clinic. That same N10 billion could have funded 5,000 boreholes, 500 health centres, or furnished 1,300 schools. Instead, it was spent ensuring no pilgrimage seat was “wasted.”

    Kebbi’s Pilgrims Welfare Agency praised the governor’s “foresight.” Yet Kebbi remains one of the states with the worst school attendance figures in Nigeria. The irony is brutal.

    Kano State’s 2025 budget, totalling N719.75 billion, earmarked N2.5 billion for quarterly mass weddings across all 44 local governments. By October 2025, the Hisbah Board planned weddings for 2,000 couples, complete with medical screening and official ceremonies.

    Meanwhile, Kano allocated N955 million merely to count out-of-school children, less than half of what it spent marrying people off. Another N1 billion went to Ramadan feeding and N267.6 million to Islamic calendar production, Da’wah programmes, and welfare packages for new converts.

    In July 2025, Kano received N26.6 billion from FAAC. Its N8 billion Ramadan feeding budget alone consumed nearly a third of that monthly allocation. The children who never make it to school are evidently not considered as urgent as feeding adults during fasting periods.

    Katsina State’s 2025 budget turned religion into a full-scale industry. The Pilgrims Welfare Board received N4.58 billion, while the Ministry of Religious Affairs got N4.79 billion. Add allocations to Hisbah, Zakat boards, and N2.3 billion for Ramadan food, and you have a religious governance structure worth billions of public money, not private charity.

    Across northern states, over N16 billion was approved in a single cycle for Ramadan palliatives: Kano N8 billion, Jigawa N4.8 billion, Katsina N2.3 billion, and Sokoto N1.28 billion. These are not emergency donations; they are permanent budget lines.

    Zamfara went further, approving N1 billion for the construction of an Emir’s Palace and N550 million for “special days and celebrations.” In states where children learn under trees, or not at all, palaces rise and festivals flourish.

    The security vote black hole

    If religious spending raises eyebrows, security votes demand outrage. In just nine months of 2025, 14 northern states released N56 billion as security votes, opaque funds spent at governors’ discretion, without audits or public scrutiny.

    Read Also: ADC seeks clarification on U.S–Nigeria health MoU

    Borno alone released N32 billion, more than twice its July FAAC allocation. Yobe released N5 billion, Adamawa N4.5 billion, Nasarawa N4.39 billion, Katsina N3.1 billion, Jigawa N2.4 billion, and Kebbi N1.49 billion. Several states, including Kano, Bauchi, Niger, Plateau, and Sokoto, did not even disclose their figures.

    Transparency International describes security votes as “cancerous tumour” in Nigeria’s budgets. Nationally, over $670 million is spent annually on these votes, more than the combined budgets of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Yet insecurity worsens.

    Between May 2023 and May 2024, 2.2 million Nigerians were kidnapped, mostly in the North. In late 2025 alone, 315 students and 13 teachers were abducted in Niger State, while 26 schoolgirls were taken in Kebbi, states awash with security votes.

    What the children never asked for

    Northern Nigeria holds 73 percent of Nigeria’s out-of-school children, yet consistently prioritises pilgrimages, mass weddings, palaces, religious bureaucracies, and secret security funds over education. Female net attendance in the Northeast and Northwest hovers around 47 percent. Over 800 schools remain closed, hundreds destroyed or damaged.

    This is not a failure of religion or culture. It is a failure of governance and moral clarity. Every N10 billion spent on pilgrimage seats, every N2.5 billion on mass weddings, every opaque security vote is a choice, a deliberate statement of what matters.

    UNICEF puts it plainly: “It is our shared responsibility to keep our children safe in schools.” Northern governors have chosen otherwise. They have found a formula for political comfort: keep adults spiritually appeased, ceremonially married, and rhetorically secured while the future quietly collapses.

    There is a fire in the house. And until education becomes the first line in northern budgets, not an afterthought, no amount of prayers, weddings, or security votes will put it out.

    •Ishola writes from United Kingdom.

  • Where is Enwonwu’s ‘Drummer’?

    Where is Enwonwu’s ‘Drummer’?

    How can a public sculpture by a master artist vanish without any explanation from the authorities? The curious disappearance of the commissioned 1978 4-foot bronze masterpiece by the legendary Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu, titled “The Drummer,” is the subject of a viral post by artist and writer Mudiare Onobrakpeya. His January post is titled: “The Missing Drummer: Ben Enwonwu’s Lost Landmark at NITEL House.”

    The disappearance of this sculpture is a hot issue in the Nigerian art world. It was commissioned for the NET Building (later the NITEL/NECOM House), which was the country’s telecoms nerve centre, on Marina, Lagos. The work stood there majestically from 1979 until it disappeared mysteriously around 2022. 

    It depicted a traditional drummer and was meant to symbolise telecommunications—the drum being Africa’s oldest long-distance signaling system. “The Drummer was a masterstroke of symbolism,” Onobrakpeya observed.

    The piece remains missing. Art historians and the artist’s family have raised questions about its “silent disappearance.” Onobrakpeya lamented: “Not relocated with ceremony. Not conserved in a museum. Not publicly documented. Simply absent—absorbed into the familiar silence that surrounds cultural loss in Nigeria.” He said: The seriousness of this disappearance lies not only in the artwork itself, but in what the building represented… proof that modern Nigeria could rise high without abandoning its cultural voice.”

    According to him, “the story of the sculpture’s fate is riddled with contradictions. Some public records suggest it is still there. Others—more credibly—state that it was removed. A national newspaper quotes Enwonwu’s son confirming that the work used to be at NITEL before it was taken down. Architectural commentary suggests it remained visible until around 2022, making its disappearance recent, traceable, and verifiable.”

    He argued: “This confusion is precisely how cultural assets vanish in plain sight. When certainty dissolves, accountability follows.

    “NITEL’s institutional collapse and the murky afterlife of its properties created ideal conditions for heritage loss. But one principle must be stated clearly: the sale or transfer of a building does not automatically include the right to remove public art.”

    The inevitable question: What happened to the artwork? “There are only three plausible scenarios,” Onobrakpeya reasoned. His thoughts: “First, removal for renovation or safety—if so, there should be records, condition reports, storage locations, and photographs.

    “Second, quiet transfer into private hands—where silence slowly converts patrimony into property. Third, outright theft disguised by bureaucratic confusion.”

    According to him, “Any of these scenarios is traceable—if the will to investigate exists. Public sculpture is not like private painting. A painting can disappear into a home. A public monument disappears in full view—and the public is told to move on. When a society accepts that, it signals that stealing from the commons is easy.”

    There is no question that the situation demands action from the authorities. Onobrakpeya called for: “A public declaration of the sculpture’s status. A proper inventory of Enwonwu’s monumental works. Heritage and law-enforcement involvement. And a recovery effort focused not on scandal, but on restoration and public access.”

    Ultimately, he argued, “The Drummer is not just missing bronze. What is missing with it is governance—the discipline of knowing what we own, where it is, who is responsible, and how it is protected.”

    He added that until the missing sculpture is clearly accounted for, “every institution connected to that building remains part of the chain of disappearance.”

    Ben Enwonwu, a painter and sculptor, died in Lagos in 1994, aged 76. He was born in Onitsha, in present-day Anambra State. Described as “arguably the most influential African artist of the 20th century,” he was “one of the first African artists to win critical acclaim.” He exhibited in   Europe and the United States and was listed in international directories of contemporary art.

    A beneficiary of a joint Shell Petroleum Company and British Council scholarship, in the 1940s he studied at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, and the Ruskin School, Ashmolean, Oxford University. He received an honorary doctorate degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, in 1969.

    He was appointed the first professor of Fine Arts at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, from 1971 to 1975; and also, art consultant to the International Secretariat, Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in Lagos, 1977.

    His public sculptures include “Anyanwu” (1954–55), commissioned for the Nigerian National Museum in Lagos; and “Sango” (1964), a 14-foot representation of the Yoruba god of thunder and lightning, holding his double-axe staff, symbolising power and energy, displayed in front of the Eko Electric Distribution Company (EKEDC) (formerly NEPA) on Marina, Lagos.

    In two striking cases, the sale of Enwonwu’s art after his death highlighted the growing global recognition and value of African art.  His portrait, “Christine” (1971), was in October 2019 sold at Sotheby’s in London for £1.1 million (around $1.4 million USD). Another portrait, “Tutu” (1973), was in 2018 sold at auction for £1,205,000 by Bonhams.  

    Read Also: Osun ex-lawmaker tasks NOA to increase sensitisation for Nigerians about the new tax law

    It is thought-provoking that while Enwonwu’s private paintings are being rediscovered overseas and sold for millions, his public bronze monument, “The Drummer,” has disappeared from Lagos.

    It is commendable that important advocacy groups are currently pushing the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) to move beyond “general audits” and launch a specific task force to locate “The Drummer.” These groups include the Ben Enwonwu Foundation (BEF), the Bruce Onobrakpeya Foundation (BOF), and the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA). The NCMM is targeted as the agency responsible for enforcing recovery.

    Curiously, there has been no formal confirmation from the Nigerian government or the current owners of NECOM House regarding the whereabouts of the sculpture. The entities involved in the building’s privatisation and current upkeep have not responded to public inquiries about whether the piece was moved for “safekeeping,” sold as part of the real estate, or stolen.

    The crux of the matter is that the sculpture was commissioned for a state-owned corporation (NITEL) that was later privatised, making it vulnerable to being treated as private furniture rather than a national treasure.

    The Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy and the NCMM must demonstrate a sense of responsibility, and pursue this issue to a logical conclusion.

  • Let the truth speak in the Bauchi EFCC case

    Let the truth speak in the Bauchi EFCC case

    Sir: In Hausa parlance, there is a popular saying: “If a bride does not mount a horse, it does not mean she was not prepared.” This proverb teaches patience, wisdom, and the danger of rushing to conclusions.

    In recent weeks, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has come under public criticism following the arrest, detention, and prosecution of the Bauchi State Commissioner for Finance, Yakubu Adamu, over allegations bordering on money laundering and terrorism financing.

    Supporters of the Bauchi State Government, including Lawal Mu’azu Abubakar, a media aide and supporter of Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, have strongly argued that the EFCC is acting politically and unfairly targeting the governor and his officials.

    On the other hand, a detailed investigative report by Premium Times, based on court documents, official memos, confessional statements, and financial records, presents disturbing allegations that cannot be brushed aside with sentiments or propaganda.

    The EFCC allegations did not come from political opponents, social media bloggers, or opposition propaganda units. They came from, official government records, statements from serving and former Bauchi State officials, cash delivery agents, banking and forex transaction trails, and court filings accepted by a Federal High Court.

    According to Premium Times, millions of dollars meant for “security commitments” were allegedly paid outside the banking system, through cash deliveries in restaurants, supermarkets, and private residences.

    Even more troubling is the allegation that Bello Bodejo, leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, received over $2.33 million from Bauchi State sources — some of it allegedly during periods when he was in detention.

    The EFCC further alleges that the Commissioner for Finance himself received nearly $7 million in cash, without acknowledgements or official documentation.

    These are not light accusations. They involve terrorism financing, one of the gravest crimes under Nigerian and international law.

    This is where many political communicators are getting it wrong. When allegations come from EFCC, DSS, DIA, or the courts, it is dangerous and irresponsible to dismiss them as “politics” without evidence.

    Statements like the one allegedly made by Al-Mustapha Haji Sufi on Albarka Radio, claiming the case is purely political, do not help the governor, the state, or the truth.

    If these allegations had come from rival parties, faceless groups, or campaign propaganda, then media defence would be justified.

    But when state funds, terrorism laws, and court processes are involved, the correct response is facts, documents, and explanations, not noise.

    The most important question remains unanswered:  Why was Bello Bodejo paid?

    What service did he render?  Which contract did he execute?  Who approved the payments and under what legal framework? Why were payments made in cash, outside the banking system?

    These are simple questions. They deserve clear and honest answers.

    Read Also: How Tinubu’s reforms are reshaping Nigeria’s global standing

    If the money was truly for security coordination, then the government should present official approvals, contracts, security briefs, and beneficiary records.

    Silence or political shouting will only deepen suspicion.

     Nigeria is fighting terrorism, banditry, and organised crime. The EFCC, despite its imperfections, is a statutory institution with the legal mandate to investigate financial crimes.

    Distracting investigators, attacking judges, or turning serious allegations into propaganda battles weakens democracy and endangers national security.

    Let the EFCC do its job. Let the courts decide. Let evidence speak.

    Bauchi people deserve clarity, not confusion. Nigeria deserves accountability, not propaganda. Security deserves truth, not politics.

    History will not remember who shouted the loudest. It will remember who stood with facts and integrity.

    This too shall pass — but only the truth will remain.

    •Yasir Shehu Adam (Dan Liman), Bauchi.

  • Nigeria’s pervasive culture of impunity

    Nigeria’s pervasive culture of impunity

    Sir: Nigeria today labours under a quiet but corrosive crisis: a reign of impunity that has seeped into politics, religion, culture, business, and even private relationships. It is not merely that wrongdoing occurs—every society contends with crime and moral failure—but that wrongdoing is explained away, justified, celebrated, or ignored.

    Evil no longer hides. It performs openly, confident that nothing will follow. In the political space, individuals loot public resources with breath-taking boldness. Due process is treated as inconvenience. Institutions meant to enforce quality assurance, accountability, and rule of law are weakened or compromised. Politicians are no longer public servants; they are worshipped like deities. Their wealth, often of questionable origin, is paraded as proof of divine favour. Convoys replace character. Luxury becomes legitimacy. Followers gather like flies around abundance, not asking how it was made, only hoping some crumbs will fall.

    This worship is dangerous. When citizens suspend conscience for patronage, they become accomplices. When sycophants defend the indefensible, impunity gains a human shield. The loyalist who claps for corruption today will cry tomorrow when the system devours him. History has never been kind to professional praise-singers.

    In the economic sphere, employers and entrepreneurs frequently breach contracts, neglect appointments, and exploit labour under the excuse of “hustle culture.” Workers are used to achieve ends and discarded without dignity. Promises mean little. Integrity is optional. Yet the same society prays for prosperity without justice, growth without structure, and blessing without order.

    Religion, which should be society’s moral conscience, has not escaped contamination. Many religious leaders speak with the lips of God while walking in darkness. The pursuit of power, relevance, and influence has pushed some into questionable spiritual alliances, double-speaking altars, and theatrical righteousness. Congregations are fed words while character starves. When faith becomes a performance and not a discipline, it produces noise, not light.

    Read Also: Nwabali stops Salah, Marmoush as Nigeria claim AFCON bronze

    Socially, relationships are increasingly transactional and distorted. Love is confused with leverage. Bodies are traded for access. Manipulation, seduction, and emotional exploitation masquerade as romance. Marriages suffer under gas-lighting, infidelity, and the quiet erosion of trust. Authority is mocked, commitment is treated as imprisonment, and responsibility is postponed indefinitely. The matrimonial bed, once sacred, is casually defiled in pursuit of status or convenience.

    Culturally, darker practices persist beneath modern appearances. Rituals, sacrifices, incantations, and spiritual attacks are still deployed against perceived enemies. The recent actions of the Anambra State government under Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo—detaining notorious native doctors and confronting ritual violence—highlight how deeply rooted these practices remain. A society cannot claim enlightenment while secretly consulting darkness. Progress cannot coexist with blood-stained shortcuts.

    Even in Enugu State, people disguise in masquerade uniforms while celebrating festivals, feasts or ancestors to stab, maim or injure rivals; enemies perceived to be more successful than them.

    Even the youth are not spared. Many young girls, instead of developing skills, character, and intellectual capacity, are pressured—or choose—to measure worth by social media validation, hook-ups, and fleeting attention. Platforms designed for connection have become marketplaces of the self. This is not empowerment; it is exploitation disguised as freedom.

    At the heart of all this is complacency. Nigerians have become too skilled at explaining away evil. “That’s how the system works.” “Everyone does it.” “If you don’t do it, someone else will.” These statements are not wisdom; they are surrender. A nation that normalizes wrongdoing will eventually lose the moral language to challenge it.

    Systems do not heal themselves. Cultures do not reform by accident. Transformation begins when individuals withdraw their consent from evil. This is a word of caution to sycophants and loyalists who mastermind impunity: history does not remember you kindly. When the tide turns—and it always does—your loyalty will not save you. Power is transient. Truth is not.

    Nigeria does not lack intelligence, faith, or resources. What it lacks is courage—the courage to say no, to demand better, to refuse participation in decay. Change will hurt. Accountability will inconvenience many. A nation that celebrates hoodlums, negotiates with bandits and terrorists even criminals would never remain in the path of peace and progress. That culture and attitude must change lest the nation will continue to bleed quietly. The choice before us is stark: reform or rot. And history is already taking notes.

     •Obiotika Wilfred Toochukwu, Nkono-Ekwulobia, Anambra State.

  • Of high inputs vs. low output prices

    Of high inputs vs. low output prices

    Sir: The current agricultural landscape presents a heartbreaking paradox for the Nigerian farmer. While we celebrate the availability of food, the market prices for agricultural products have plummeted, often falling below the actual cost of production. Meanwhile, the cost of essential inputs—fertilizer, high-yield seeds, herbicides, and diesel for irrigation—continues to soar, driven by currency fluctuations and removal of subsidies.

    When a farmer spends N10,000 to produce a bag of grain but is forced by market glut and lack of storage to sell it for N7,000$, we are not witnessing “cheap food”; we are witnessing the systemic bankruptcy of our rural economy. If this continues, the “success” of this season will lead to a total abandonment of farms next season, resulting in a catastrophic food shortage by 2027.

    To prevent this, the Nigerian government must move beyond being a spectator and become a strategic “off-taker.” We can look to countries that have successfully balanced low consumer prices with high farmer profitability:

    India uses a Minimum Support Price (MSP) system where the government guarantees a “floor price” for over 23 crops. If market prices fall too low, the government buys the produce directly from farmers, ensuring they never sell at a loss.

    In Brazil, the government intervenes through the  Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos  (PAA) food acquisition program. Through this, the government purchases food directly from smallholder cooperatives at fair market prices and distributes it to schools, hospitals, and social programs. This guarantees a steady market for farmers regardless of price volatility.

    Read Also: NFIU hails Nigeria’s FATF, EU delisting as boost to financial system

    In the United States, the government provides robust crop insurance and direct subsidies that cushion the effect of high input costs, ensuring that even if global prices drop, the farmer remains in business.

    For Nigeria to survive this transition, the federal and state governments must:

    Re-establish the commodity boards: We need a structured system to buy back excess grain during harvest to stabilize prices.

    Use the strategic grain reserves: Use the current surplus to stock national silos, which will provide a buffer when the “lean season” arrives.

    Direct input support: Instead of cash transfers, provide “input vouchers” specifically for fertilizers and seeds to lower the entry cost for the next planting cycle.

    •Michael Adedotun Oke, Gwagwalada, Abuja.

  • Good call

    Good call

    •Setting apart N1.8 trillion to pay local contractors is sound economics

    It must be a boon to local contractors, and eventually a toast to the Nigerian economy: the Federal Government, by the 2026 budget proposals, has set apart N1.8 trillion to pay indigenous contractors for work certified done.

    For a construction sub-sector used to the thick blues of delayed payment — if any payment at all — that appears a new deal: prompt payment for jobs done.

    Though it’s only a proposal, and funds projected hardly ever equate funds released — often times, there are shortfalls — it’s a good gesture towards a good cause.  It bodes well for the local economy; and could jack up the construction sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP).  More or less, it could retool the indigenous segment of the construction sector — great!

    Still, that N100 billion, of the target N1.3 trillion, has been projected to pay for work certified done in 2024 — two financial years after job completion — shows the stiff payment challenges indigenous contractors have been facing.

    By a report in ‘The Nation’ (January 14), as at June 2025, the Federal Government owes local contractors between N200 billion and N400 billion. No prize for guessing right: the pile-up has resulted from “delayed budget releases, cash flow challenges, and procurement bottlenecks.”

    Delayed budget releases and cash flow challenges starkly show the structural nature of the delayed payment crisis.  Even the sum proposed for a better deal in 2026 is subject to the same structural bottlenecks.  That means though redemption might come for past jobs done, 2026 jobs might have to wait till later years to be settled.

    The moral here is clear: no matter how huge the sum set aside, delayed payments will subsist, until the structural bottleneck is tweaked for the better: improved — nay, timely budget releases — and eased cash flow challenges.

    Still, this is trite: rigorous checks for certified jobs done take a decent amount of time.  To checkmate fraud and allied sharp practices, it’s better to tarry awhile, and maintain adequate checks.  But needless delays, via casual human attitudes and deliberate stonewalling by unscrupulous officials, can be eliminated, particularly as the processes are progressively digitalised.

    Therefore, the more the government eliminates deliberate delays, the faster the entire payment chain will run.  That is the challenge before the federal — and even state — authorities, as they try to fasten payments, without giving way to fraud.  It can — and should be — done.  That’s the only way to correct delayed payments.

    There is another reason to give indigenous contractors a better deal.  By sheer capitalisation, they can’t compete with the big international firms, which capitalisation earns them the biggest jobs.  Yet, these local firms, by virtue of lower capital outlay, contend with higher interest rates from banks.  Now, having to cope with delayed payment constitutes a triple jeopardy that make them fairly uncompetitive in their own home economies.

    Read Also: Osun ex-lawmaker tasks NOA to increase sensitisation for Nigerians about the new tax law

    Besides, by their comparatively humble capitalisation, they operate at the base of the industry.  That means their recruitment doors are likelier open to Nigerian professionals and skilled artisans, operating at that base.  Prompter payment for work certified done, therefore, will guarantee those jobs.  That not only helps to sustain their operations, it can also help them to grow their business and climb up the industrial ladder.  That can only deepen the Nigerian economy.

    Jackson Ifeanyi, president of the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria (AICAN), was openly accusatory — and understandably so — while speaking of his members’ plight.

    “We, the indigenous contractors, under the auspices of the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria,” he told ‘The Nation’, “wish to draw the attention of the Nigerian public … and all relevant stakeholders to the unfair and unbearable conditions our members are being subjected to, by the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

    The government should further attend to their grievances, following a December 2025 payment pact, which followed AICAN members’ protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja, after which the government delivered on its promise to off-set part of the bill.

    Subject to a better budget management structure, the government should follow this new and promising path in the new year — and beyond.

    If it does — and it should — the government might just save some money, from the inefficiencies built into the delayed payment regime.  Contractors are known to pad bills, in anticipation of delayed payment.

    But a new found promptitude might change all of that: tighten the purse, save some money and ensure that the available money pays more contractors than hitherto.  That would be a win-win for everyone.

  • On course

    On course

    •That we now import less fuel is something to celebrate; but govt must maintain delicate balance between local refiners and importers

    The report that importation of refined petroleum products has fallen, sharply by 54 per cent in two years, should not come as a surprise going by the milestone achievements in the sector in the last two years. Aside the most notable one which is the grand entry of Dangote Refinery into the sector in early 2024, other smaller modular units like OPAC, Walter Smith, Aradel and Duport have also reportedly joined in producing refined fuel for the local market.

    ‘The Punch’, quoting the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Balance of Payments report, succinctly captured the systematic decline in fuel imports, first from $14.58bn in the first nine months of 2023, to $11.38bn (21.9 per cent) in the corresponding period in 2024, and subsequently to $6.71bn for the corresponding period of 2025.

    The paper would surmise that, ‘‘overall, the figures show that Nigeria spent $7.87bn less on refined fuel imports in the first nine months of 2025 than it did in the corresponding period of 2023, underscoring a significant easing of foreign exchange outflows linked to petroleum product imports’’.

    At this point, it is perhaps safe to say that the transition from being a country wholly import-dependent on fuel imports to one with increasingly progressive local capacity is not only on course but has become unstoppable.

    Surely, the trend is as much a measure of the stride that has been recorded in the last two years as it is the promise of the boundless potentials still waiting to be unlocked with time.  

    Yet, much as this progress has been somewhat steady, so has the resistance been no less fierce from the traditional quarters – the cartel of fuel importers whose massive investments in tank farms and allied infrastructures for fuel imports are increasingly being laid to waste as a direct consequence; and the powerful industry unions, whose old ways of doing business potentially threatens the progress being made.

    Read Also: ADC seeks clarification on U.S–Nigeria health MoU

    In all of these, our position is that the country has long gone past the debate on whether the cartel and the powerful industry unions should embrace this inevitable reality of change, or be left behind. Now, the main issue is whether a leading oil-producing country, particularly one whose natural harbours place her in vantage position as global refining hub, should continue to be stuck with the old paradigm of fuel importation, with its corrupt and inefficient playbook, for any reason. We consider the current $6.71bn import bill part of that old playbook that must be jettisoned.

    After all, Nigerians have already made clear that what they want to see happen, and this in the shortest time: more players coming on board in the refining sector to usher in the country’s emergence as a major player in a sector that she once played the laggard.

    More than that, they want to see investments cascade down to the petro-chemical sector to catalyse industrialisation, to reduce the current dependency on industrial raw materials imports.

    And, while the pioneering efforts of the likes of Dangote Refinery show how much the climate of investment has improved in the country for those willing to take the bet, the government must consider further steps to guarantee their survival through fiscal regimes that might be deemed appropriate and necessary.

    Part of that duty must include the maintenance of that delicate balance between local refiners and importers where perceived supply gaps exist, while ensuring that predatory and anti-competitive activities are kept at bay at all times.

  • Ikwerre bear vs Ijaw fox

    Ikwerre bear vs Ijaw fox

    In Rivers, it’s the Ikwerre bear versus the Ijaw fox!  Who prevails?

    The Ikwerre bear, former Governor and riled godfather, Nyesom Wike, bawls: “Agreement is agreement!”. 

    That seems to reinforce the notion that his embattled godson, Siminalayi Fubara, and the Ijaw fox, isn’t trusted enough to land a second term. 

    Unconfirmed sources claim the post-emergency entente that returned Fubara to his job decreed that he wouldn’t “smell” a second term.

    But Fubara’s body language beams contrary vibes.  He made much by wincing under the weight of the high cost of “peace”.  But as he waxed lyrical about his “second coming” in his troubled first term, he appears to posture that, well, he has borne enough scars and boast enough sacrifices for the Wike-controlled Rivers political establishment, to let bygones be bygones.

    Proof?  Fubara has screamed support for President Bola Tinubu’s second term, with own piercing screech, outside the Wike booming orchestra.  What’s more?  He has also dumped the troubled PDP, which hauled him to power (under Wike’s benevolence, of course), triumphantly opting for APC, the federal ruling party.

    “I’m 001 in Rivers APC!” the foxy Fubara enthused, hoping his bearish mentor-turned-tormentor would take political notice.  Since then, Fubara had gone full blast, blaring the gospel of Tinubu for second term, and how he and the Rivers flock were ready to make it happen; and roaring for the victory party after.

    But the irate bear would hear of no such nonsense!  “Agreement is agreement” he roared, mocking Fubara and his more-Catholic-than-the-Pope support for Tinubu, as being a tad too opportunistic and overdone!

    It’s classic clash of two motives.  Over their dead body would the Wike phalanx ever trust Fubara with high office again.  But Fubara fancies his foxiness to charm everyone to claim that diadem!

    Read Also: Adewole hails Akande at 87, describes ex-Osun governor as pillar of Nigeria’s democratic history

    That’s the crux of the matter.  But as the fox tries to over-reach himself, so has the bear and his allies in the Rivers legislature.  The legislature has still not learnt basic gumption from the emergency crisis.  Why not strike the shepherd and plunge the sheep into disarray, instead of the impeachment double-whammy they tried before? 

    If you strike Fubara but leave his deputy, you would have divided the Fubara power base — no matter how thin — since Prof. Ngozi Odu would be the new governor. That’s far less risky than the double-whammy, full of double-trouble, they are pushing now, but which failed in the past, but led to emergency rule.

    Still, for all you know, this latest threat could well be deliberate: a vicious dash to make Fubara forget any second term dream, showing him he’d be lucky to complete his sole term in one piece.  Rivers politics seldom brooks half-measures!

    Likely solution?  Fubara should reconcile himself to “agreement is agreement” — one term!  He should gulp the hemlock and fade away — if he really craves Rivers “peace”.

    But Wike too should learn to pull back from his zero-sum-game battling philosophy!

    Is either capable of mid-point political common sense?  That’s the thing!

    Rivers!  We’ll see how it all pans out!  Rivers!