The Nation Newspaper

Category: Emeka Omeihe

  • Before we are overrun

    Before we are overrun

    Boko Haram insurgency may be a child’s play if reports are true that Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) is responsible for the mindless killings in parts of the country. Security reports submitted to President Buhari were said to have unveiled startling revelations linking the group, an affiliate of the Islamic State, ISIS to the orgy of killings that are increasing sliding this country to the precipice.

    The reports, said to be outcome of detailed investigations by tested security operatives revealed that the group has been operating in the Northcentral and South-south states using foreign terrorists. Their strategy is to recruit young men into their fold and kill innocent people with a view to creating tension along the nation’s fault lines.

    A good number of suspects arrested in the Benue valley and towns in Edo and Kogi states could not speak any of the Nigerian languages even as they were fluent in French. This in the calculations of security agencies, fuels fears of an influx of ISIS members in parts of the country.

    By extrapolation, the security agencies want us to believe that much of the killings attributed to Fulani herdsmen may in all actuality have been the handiwork of ISIS terrorists. Thus, we may begin to change our perception and extant narrative on those responsible for the mindless killings in Benue, Plateau, Taraba and other states where clashes between the herders and farmers had led to the savage butchering of innocent and harmless people.

    We may as well begin to exculpate the herdsmen from all the atrocities that have, before now, borne their imprimatur. There could be a measure of truth in the findings of the security agencies regarding the infiltration of our shores by foreign terrorists. Before now, both the government and its functionaries had claimed that Fulani herdsmen responsible for the killings are foreigners who capitalize on ECOWAS protocols guaranteeing freedom of movement of members to penetrate the nooks and cranes of the country in search of pasture for their cattle. In entering into such excuses, the inevitable impression then created was that our local Fulani herdsmen are harmless and therefore incapable of perpetrating the heinous crimes attributed to them.

    This argument resonates each time leaders from that ethnic group lament the wrong profiling of Fulani people in the violence index. In effect, the findings of the security agencies are nothing entirely new. Not when a former Inspector General of Police had some years back said those responsible for the killings were foreigners. There must have been some security intelligence that led the former IG into such a sweeping assertion.

    Sadly, it would appear everything ended with that claim as there were neither follow up investigations nor apprehension of the culprits. Those who oppose cattle settlement/colonies have sought to reinforce their argument on this score. They have consistently harped on the incongruity in creating such settlements or colonies for people of other nationalities as we had been made to believe.

    So when the security agencies came up with their seemingly novel findings, they were obviously speaking to themselves. About two years ago, Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau had announced that his terror group was going to ally with ISIS. Then also, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had accepted the pledge. They followed it up by announcing Abu Musah al-Barnawi as the new leader of Boko Haram affiliate of ISIS. In an audio message then, they said the caliphate or Islamic state had expanded to West Africa and congratulated “our Jihad brothers” there.

    Given the above, the attempt by the security agencies to sway the nation with touted diligent findings on the existence of ISIS in this country cannot strike the right chord. If anything, they should be held responsible for laxity in taking up the lead provided some years back by ISIS on the expansion of the dreaded terror group to West Africa with its leadership domiciled in Nigeria. It would have been interesting to know what use the security agencies made of that piece of information all this while.

    Or are we being led to believe that no synergy exists between the government and security agencies? At any rate, did the government not have the confidence of the security agencies before serially claiming that foreigners were responsible for those killings? And if the conclusions were borne out of arrests and interrogation, why did it take that long before the security agencies were able to establish a link between the foreigners who cannot speak any of our local languages but French and the ISIS factor? The latter poser is germane given the impression that the association of those foreigners with ISIS is on account of their inability to speak any of our local languages.

    Perhaps, security agencies stumbled into this information because they arrested some of those responsible for the renewed orgy of killings. But even if we admit that some foreign mercenaries are part and parcel of these purveyors of death, shock and awe, it does not in any way exculpate their local employers on whose shoulders the entire responsibility for the killings must squarely rest.

    It is hoped that this is not another subterfuge to absolve the Fulani herdsmen of culpability for the killings. It is also hoped it is not a subtle way of watering the ground for the so-called cattle colonies? Any attempt to do so will fail flat for a number of compelling reasons. For one, Fulani herdsmen both local and foreign speak the same language. It will therefore be neigh impossible to separate the two. For another, even when investigation revealed foreigners who speak French, this cannot in any way absolve local Fulani herdsmen from the savage and callous killings that have of late ruffled public sensibilities.

    Yet for another, the fact that all these killings are presaged by some form of altercations between Fulani herdsmen and their host communities implies ipso facto that those who kill do so at their behest. And of late, they have come public to claim responsibility for the Benue conundrum in which pregnant women, children and the aged were slaughtered in the most bestial and reprehensible manner. The lead provided by security agencies does not offer much help in resolving the conflict between the herdsmen and local farmers.

    Not with the report of a helicopter suspected to be laden with arms and ammunition that landed in Jibu village in the Wukari Local Government of Taraba State. Taraba State government claimed that the arms and ammunition were for a militia group planning to attack the state in a fashion reminiscent of the tragic attacks and killings in the Agatu communities of Benue State last year. This is a serious allegation that should attract the immediate attention of security agencies.

    This is not the first time such allegations have been peddled without our security agencies getting at the root of the matter. By now, we should have been told the mission of those helicopters and those behind them to douse speculations that they are deployed by those with interest in the clashes to teach the local farmers a hard lesson of their lives. Security agencies in Taraba and Benue states should come public on the mission of that helicopter else, we will be left with the inevitable impression that speculations as to their purpose are correct.

    The lesson in this is that we face the danger of another insurgent group that has links with the deadly ISIS. And with its international connections, prospects for better funding coupled with our plethora of internal security threats; the nation stands the risk of being overrun unless serious steps are taken to stem the slide. That is where leadership comes in. Sadly, the handling of the insurgency of the Fulani herdsmen has left much to be desired.

    It is quite revealing most of those arrested were suspects fomenting trouble in clashes between the Fulani herdsmen and the local farmers. This should instruct that the easiest channel for ISWA to penetrate the country is through the insurgency of the Fulani herdsmen. It is therefore pertinent that quick and acceptable solutions are found to the crisis before it provides a new window for terrorists to overrun us.

  • Cattle colonisation!

    Cattle colonisation!

    Outrage over federal government’s proposal to set up cattle colonies in states is not entirely unexpected. Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh who leaked the policy said it was government’s response to festering clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the country.

    Though details of the cattle colonies have remained largely cloudy, Ogbeh said 16 states have already offered lands for the purpose. The much we have been let into is that the colonies will have such social amenities as good roads, a school for nomads’ children and health facilities. It was also touted as a joint venture between the federal government and the states.

    Ogbeh must have also shocked the nation when he disclosed that President Buhari promised to give them, ‘financial help over and above the budget provisions’ to ensure the success of the programme. From all indications, the project is a fait accompli especially in the states that are said to have donated lands.

    But many other states have voiced opposition to the idea. Benue and Taraba would have nothing to do with it. States in the south are also opposed to the creation of colonies for cattle in their domain. It is not yet clear the 16 states that have been factored into the programme. My guess is that they are likely to be states in the north with large Fulani indigenous population predominantly engaged in cattle rearing.

    That may have accounted for the relative obscurity that enveloped the programme until the minister blew its lid open. That may also have been the reason why as many as 16 states have donated lands for such a federal project without the knowledge of the rest. If this conclusion is right, the programme is unlikely to encounter much problem in those states. But the rationale in federal funding of the colonies which are private business concerns will still be an issue.

    For one, the announcement came at a time the country was still reeling under the pains of senseless killings by Fulani herdsmen in parts of the country especially in Benue State. Floating such idea under the circumstance was definitely bound to ruffle sensibilities. It was definitely an act of indiscretion.

    Again, though the critical details of the so-called cattle colonies are still largely vague, some of their features have raised fears as to the real intention of the government in evolving the contraption as a veritable solution to the recurring clashes between the herders and farmers. Not unexpectedly, criticisms have come in torrents questioning the rationale for the idea.

    Matters are not remedied by the equivocation of Ogbeh on the real meaning and implications of having cattle colonies in all states of the federation. At one time, he said ranches and cattle colonies are different concepts altogether. At another, he claimed a ranch could accommodate many colonies implying that a ranch is a cluster of colonies. With this ambiguity, the feeling in many states is that the federal government will grab or blackmail states to donate hectares of land for it to build modern facilities and have Fulani herdsmen and their cattle housed there. With that, the area becomes a colony of Fulani herdsmen and their cattle.

    Thesaurus defines a colony as a settlement in a new region or a country. For Catherine Martin, colonization is the act or action of taking over colonies while colonialism is the ideology or theology advocating colonizing areas. Conceived this way, the contradiction in setting up cattle colonies especially in states the purveyors of the occupation and their trade are alien becomes more glaring. It is therefore not for nothing that some states view the project as another subterfuge to plant Fulani herdsmen across the federation.

    So the so-called cattle colonies could turn out as cattle colonization or colonialism by Fulani herdsmen. It will for instance, amount to building settlements for Fulani herders in Anambra, Bayelsa or Ekiti states. Its final outcome would manifest in acquiring hectares of land in these states for the federal government to establish the so-called colonies equipped with modern facilities in sharp contrast with the debilitating poverty of their immediate surroundings. They would have created a class of favoured settlements with modern amenities while their hosts live in squalor. Funding these amenities for inmates of the colonies in areas that have over the years had little or no federal government presence constitutes both the necessary and sufficient conditions for serious resentment and another round of crisis. It will no doubt fuel feelings of nepotism and bias for which this government has received serious bashing. This is to be expected given that within the same environment, there are sets of farmers that rely on self-help for their special types of businesses.

    The government will be hard put to justify why the herdsmen should merit preferential treatment in their private business engagements which they sell to the public at some profit. Questions will be raised as to whether we are rewarding the herdsmen for levying war on innocent citizens. Or is it the reward for the insurgency of the herdsmen that have been rated the fourth most deadly terrorist group in the world?

    Beyond this and stemming from the latter, the opposition to cattle colonies has serious justification especially in parts of the middle belt and the south of the country. The profile herdsmen have courted in the last couple of years has been that of an unfriendly and deadly neighbour. In many of the states, they have metamorphosed into an invincible killer squad instead of the stick-wielding itinerant cattlemen they were accustomed to.

    In their new and dangerous form, they are feared and dreaded by their hosts. Given this antecedent in negative profiling, it will be a grave risk allowing them a settlement/colony in states other than their own. The fear of domination and an agenda is further accentuated by the fact that Buhari is the man promoting this new policy, albeit surreptitiously. Many believe that beneath the move lies expansionism fuelled by colonization. They view the idea as another attempt to penetrate all the nooks and crannies of the country to enforce an agenda of very questionable and mundane nature.

    There are also fears that in the nearest future, the so-called colonies would become Fulani territories and they will begin to agitate for political rights. The social media has been awash with all manner of possibilities as to what the so-called colonies will turn out in the future. We can dismiss these with a wave of the hand. But if events in other parts of the country especially in the middle belt are anything to repose hope in, the fear of emirates springing up in these states in the nearest future can only be ignored at a great risk. These are some of the contradictions. Being colonies, arrangements would soon be made for polling booths and even wards depending on the population. Being a settlement of people of the same stock, they may soon begin to elect representatives to the various elective positions. There is nothing wrong with that if they were living together with the indigenous people.

    But to achieve this through the instrumentality of the exclusivity of the colonies has everything wrong with it. It reinforces all the fears on having cattle settlements or colonies in states where that culture of trade is non-existent. It reinforces the accusation of an agenda as the raison d’être for the programme. Buhari may wish to proceed with the programme in those states in the north where the Fulani people own ancestral lands with cattle farming being the predominant occupation.

    It will be counterproductive to enforce the programme in states opposed to it or states where the Fulani’s and cattle farming are not part and parcel of the indigenous population. The people in the south have no need for cattle colonies. Perhaps, the government should also come up with suitable colonies for pigs, goats, dogs and the local brand of cows reared in the south. Before then, we need to be told where the appropriation for the funding of the cattle colonies will come from.

  • Weep not Ortom!

    Weep not Ortom!

    Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom wept profusely at the gory sight of children, the aged and women butchered in the most callous and dastardly manner by Fulani herdsmen. So moved at the sight of pregnant women with their stomachs ripped open, children and the aged with their throats slit like cows, eyes and private parts cut off, the governor could no longer control his emotion. It is just human!

    Apparently to give high impact and effect to this high level of bestiality that saw 73 people murdered, the herdsmen selectively executed their devious onslaught in the governor’s local government of Guma. They also invaded Logo Local Government. The choice of Guma was to test the will of the governor to continue the implementation of the anti-open grazing law.

    That message was clear. And they seemed to have injured his soul as most of those killed are from his local government. When the details are made public, it will not be surprising that even blood relations of the governor would be among the dead. So they got him. He must pay dearly for the anti-open grazing law that allegedly put the livelihood of the itinerant Fulani herdsmen in jeopardy.

    But unlike in former instances where officials of government blamed the attacks on ghosts, criminals and foreign herdsmen, those behind the current attacks are not hidden. One Garus Gololo, chairman, Benue state Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association told BBC that they were relocating to Taraba State when they stole their 1,000 cows, “So we retaliated and killed them”

    Ironically, the same Gololo had before now, threatened mayhem should the state government make good its plans to implement the anti-open grazing law. He had also addressed a press conference in which he threatened to challenge the law in court claiming that Fulani people were the first settlers in the Benue valley and therefore the original owners of the land. The same Gololo had also claimed falsely that a Fulani herdsman committed suicide by jumping into the River Benue when he lost 500 cows due to inability to find water for them on account of the new law.

    Ortom copiously drew the attention of the federal government to the threats and asked that Gololo be arrested. He also alerted that the intending attackers were amassing in neighbouring states and at the borders with Cameroun. No action was taken. Neither was Gololo arrested on these serious security threats until calamity came.

    Now, it is time to deploy the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to Benue after the harm has been done. It is time to announce all manner of measures to demonstrate the superior power of the government to maintain law and order. The mission of the IGP can be rationalized on the ground that he is there to halt further carnage. But it cannot resurrect those that have been killed. It can neither replace the lives lost nor resettle those displaced by the demented invaders who value cow more than human life.

    The tardiness on the part of the federal government and security agencies fuels suspicion that the authorities vicariously support the murderous activities of the herdsmen. The speed with which they rationalize the impunity and lawlessness of the herdsmen does not also help matters. Before now, we have been treated with the bizarre and ridiculous rationalization that the attackers are foreigners and could not be stopped from entering the country on account of ECOWAS protocols.

    At other times, they were touted criminals as Fulani herdsmen are alleged to have no history of such killings. Yet, the touted foreign herdsmen operate so freely in our country, sentencing our people to early deaths without being apprehended. And we claim to be a sovereign country whose primary duty is to protect the lives and property of the citizens. Is it not a national shame that our security agencies serially failed to deploy intelligence to decode the modus operandi of the Fulani herdsmen to facilitate their arrest despite the similarities in their operational strategy? And what is there left of a government if it fails to perform this basic function for which governments derive their legitimacy?

    In the wake of this embarrassing and inexcusable mass murder, Buhari’s aides have come up with sundry reasons for the conflict. We have been told they have nothing to do with religion, ethnicity or some agenda. They have also attributed the recurring killings to major demographic changes in the country which at independence had a population of 60 million as against a projected population of 200 million now. Statistics have also been rolled out to show the number of deaths recorded in similar clashes in Benue during the regime of Jonathan to underscore the point that the upsurge has nothing to do with Buhari being a Fulani man.

    The conflict between farmers and the herdsmen in Benue predates the Buhari regime. But it has intensified and expanded to other states since that regime came into force without the government taking visible and reassuring measures to stem the tide. The fact that a Fulani man is at the helm of affairs is the more reason why the murderous activities of some members of his ethnic group cannot be allowed to degenerate to the current level into which it has irretrievably sunk. The heterogeneous nature of the Nigerian society and the role of ethnicity in its politics should have been a guide.

    Perhaps, these rationalizations would have been patently unnecessary had Buhari done the needful when Ortom complained of the invading Fulani herdsmen severally without any practical steps to stem the tide. Had preventive measures been taken, we would not have found ourselves in the current predicament of inventing all manner of reasons to detach the president from the activities of the herdsmen. It is a statement on its own that such excuses are being entered on his behalf now.

    Beyond this, the development inexorably brings to the fore the imperfections of our federal order and their disruptive effects on law, order and co-habitation. The killings would have been averted had the Benue State government its own police. Since the governor had prior security information on the attacks with evidence of where the invaders were stationed, he would have had little difficulty averting the attack.

    But alas, he was helpless because those who control the police looked the other way until the killings took place. This is at the heart of the suspicion that there is some agenda behind the renewed insurgency of Fulani herdsmen rated by Global Terrorism Index as the fourth terrorist group in the world. Despite this negative profiling and the killings the herdsmen have wrought in parts of the country, the government is yet to wean itself of this culture of finding spurious excuses for their devious activities. Yet, the same government rolled the tanks in other security threats that are not as grave as the terrorism of the Fulani herdsmen.

    And we are curiously being told the federal government considered challenging the anti-open grazing law in court. It was good enough that idea was dropped. Otherwise, it would have further fuelled insinuations that the government has more than a passing interest in the matter. It could have been an uncanny irony for a government that could neither find solutions to the menace of the herdsmen nor apprehend their standing army, to have rushed to court to challenge the initiative to protect citizens from their acts of terrorism.

    Ortom wept from the depth of his frustrations. He wept that a band of insurgents were able to make good their threat to force him drop the anti-open grazing law or continue to harvest deaths and destruction of lives and property. He wept because had he his own police, his people would not have been slaughtered like animals. He wept at the irony of being the chief security officer of the state, yet he could not protect his people in time of grave danger.

    The sensibilities of the Benue people have been seriously injured by the killings. They have demonstrated this through the three days mourning and state burial given the victims. Those killed are martyrs of the anti-open grazing law and the only way to immortalize them is to ensure that the law stands and firmly too. Ortom must stand firm on the law and refuse to be intimidated by a band of killers no matter those behind them or whatever interest they represent.

  • Buhari’s systems and structures

    Buhari’s systems and structures

    President Buhari in his New Year message touched on a number of issues germane to the overall progress and development of the country. Apart from blaming fuel scarcity and the attendant hardship on some unidentified people, he promised to get at the root of the blackmail to ensure that those behind it are prevented from doing so again.

    The president also reeled out a plethora of measures his regime intends to take to address the huge infrastructural deficits across the country. This spans across power, works, housing and transport. The measures are ambitious and promising as they raised new hopes for a better future.

    Since these are largely statements of intent, the most we can do at this point is to cross our fingers in wait of the coming into fruition of the promised quantum leap in infrastructural development. No doubt, significant progress would have been made if these promises give practical expression in the delivery of public goods and services within the projected time frame.

    One is nonetheless not enthused by the president’s attempt to blame the devastating fuel scarcity and the attendant prohibitive cost of the commodity solely on some imaginary enemies bent on sabotaging and occasioning harm on the rest of us. There is obviously a government angle to the scarcity. The stock the NNPC claimed it sufficiently had to cushion the effect of the scarcity was of little or no help in the circumstance. Neither did the promise of price enforcement translate to anything.

    As I write, the price of the commodity still sells above N250 per litre in many parts of the country. The problem does not solely lie in the identification of the so-called saboteurs and preventing them from a repeat. It hinges inexorably on extant policies measures working to push up the price of the commodity to a level that is bound to make life unbearable for a majority of our people. That is the issue to contend with rather than the trending obsession with buck-passing.

    In an apparent reaction to rising criticisms on his claims to have defeated the Boko Haram insurgents in the face of escalating attacks on both soft and hard targets, the president sought to draw parallels with some advanced countries which he claimed are yet to overcome such unconventional warfare. He contends that even the best policed countries cannot prevent determined criminals from committing acts of terror as evident in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa and America.

    Whereas it is not possible to prevent determined criminals from committing occasional acts of terror, it is incongruent to liken the organized warfare going on in the north-east to isolated terror acts by criminals. They are not the same. What we are contending with is a full-fledged war that is taking a huge toll on human lives and property.

    As the president spoke, the military were celebrating their success in releasing 700 people held hostage by the insurgents. According to them, the captives who hitherto were forced to work in the farms of the insurgents got freed due to the impounding of their camps by the Nigeria Air force. If they were working on farms owned by the insurgents, it implies that they still have some territories in their control. So the attempt to reduce the serious warfare in the north-east to a similitude of occasional terror attacks in some countries is as laughable as it is ridiculous.

    By far, the most contentious and controversial of the president’s speech is his position on agitations for restructuring. His interpretation of the aggregate of opinions is that the nation’s problems have more to do with process than structure. “We tried the parliamentary system: we jettisoned it. Now there are shrill cries for a return to parliamentary structure”. He argued somehow correctly that in older democracies, these systems took centuries to evolve and we must give a long period of trial and improvement for the system to fit our purpose.

    The issue canvassed is not entirely out of place. But the first problem with it is the conceptual error in equating systems with structures.  His argument that “whatever structure we develop must periodically be perfected according circumstances” suffers this conceptual liability and therefore very confusing. A difference must be made between systems and structures. Systems are analytic constructs and in them are found structures. Whereas it can be admitted that systems (democracy or federalism for instance) need periods of trial and error to get attuned to the operating environment, that perfection is attained by adjusting their structures and processes in line with the dictates of the adopted paradigm.

    Again, each system has a set of supporting elements (structures) that must be in place for it to function optimally. When we take democracy for instance, the process Buhari talked about would manifest in terms of attitudinal support. In this wise, we are concerned with the orientations and dispositions of the people that are supportive of the thriving of democracy. Max Weber called them political culture and came out with three variants in terms of their dispositions and capacities to support and sustain democratic practice. They range from the parochial to subject and participant political cultures.

    For him, what you find in established democracies is the participant variant. So when Buhari talked about the process rather than the structure, he may have had system in mind. Yes, systems need adjustments; they need to be aligned to the environment in which they operate. But such alignments must come in the form of adjustments in processes and structures of the system. But whereas processes may have to do with the human element, structures are largely institutional. The latter does not require the long period of trial and error Buhari referenced upon.

    Those who canvass restructuring are of the opinion that the ingredients of a stable federal order are lacking in the contraption that we currently operate. Their contention is that what we call our federal system is an aberrant order. And for us to make reasonable progress, we must adjust to the true dictates of federalism. It did not take us donkey years to create states and local governments (structures of a federation). It does not require long period of time to devolve powers to gain the right balance.

    The argument that it took established democracies centuries to get where they are today is defeatist, stale and uninspiring. Those countries, as pioneers in the process, made mistakes and learnt from them. Those mistakes constitute the real issues to the agitations on restructuring. Or are we going to wait for centuries to address systemic challenges whose solutions are too well known and within our competence? We can as well go back to the atavism of the Hobbesian state of nature and wait for centuries before opting for either democracy or federalism. It is a sad commentary that a government confronted by emergent challenges is seeking to justify its inability to rise to the occasion by citing such trite and worn out arguments as the long period it took some other countries to get to where they are today. And we depend on the technology of those countries for most of our needs. We should have waited for more centuries for our whims and caprices to dictate the way forward.

    The real issue is that Buhari is averse to restructuring. So he must invent all manner of reasons to dampen and ridicule the momentum of the rising agitations. But his arguments are confusing because they lack clarity. The argument on restructuring has nothing with jettisoning either democracy or federalism. They relate in the main to genuine desires to perfect their structures so as to stave off their disruptive influences on our quest to enthrone a stable political order.

    In the political equation of this country, Buhari knows the interests the convoluted federal system serve best. So we must invent all manner of subterfuge to ensure such changes do not see the light of the day even when they can be ignored at a great risk to the progress and unity of the country. Ironically, this is a government that touts the change mantra.

  • Celebration gone awry

    This Christmas and New Year celebrations will for a long time be remembered by Nigerians. Not only do they represent one of the worst in recent times in terms of the hardship people passed through, they were also marked by organized and despicable violence in some parts of the country.

    Innocent people who were on Christmas carol in Kaduna State were attacked by a lone gunman with many of them sent to their early graves for no just cause. Though the motive of the dastardly attack is yet to be established, the method of attack and the area where it happened leaves little room for imagination.

    And In Benue State, unidentified gunmen riding on several motorcycles reminiscent of the style of the Boko Haram insurgents, stormed a gathering killing and maiming those who were there to share meat for their Christmas celebrations. Not done, the bandits, wielding automatic guns, rode into the villages, attacked houses and killed all those at sight and vamoosed into the thin air.

    They left in their trail sorrow and awe. The motive is yet to be established but indications are that it was a reprisal attack allegedly by some Fulani herdsmen having lost two of their members around those villages not long ago. That was the Christmas gifts those innocent souls who may know nothing about the missing herdsmen got from the avengers. In all, the attacks were primed to coincide with the Christmas celebrations.

    Aside these premeditated acts of violence were the debilitating fuel scarcity and concomitant price hike that messed up the celebrations for many a family. When the development reared its ugly head a few weeks before the yuletide, government’s reaction was tepid. At the Federal Executive Council meeting, the minister of state for petroleum Ibe Kachikwu was mandated to take immediate steps to normalize the situation by that weekend.

    The impression we got was that government was on top of the situation as they usually claimed and within that weekend, the situation would normalize. But that became a tall order.  It soon became obvious that the government had no immediate solution to the problem as the issues that lead to the scarcity were much more fundamental than we were made to believe.

    It became obvious there were certain policy measures the government needed to implement if the return of long queues, hording and price hike is not to make a mess of the relative stability we hitherto enjoyed in the supply chain. Things really got out of order as the commodity became inaccessible even in the federal capital territory and Lagos- two cities that at the worst of times enjoy relative steady supply of fuel.

    The government began to change the narrative. They began to trade blames accusing independent marketers of sabotage, hoarding and all manner of malfeasance. The story was no longer that the government had enough supply to run through the New Year. They now invented new enemies of the people in the marketers.

    The matter was so bad that both the president and his vice could no longer cover up. And in places where the commodity was available especially in the states, they sold at very exorbitant prices. The price of a litre of fuel went haywire. Those who planned to travel for the celebrations but could not afford the now jerked up transport fares had no other option than to shelve their journeys.

    Apparently piqued by the scandalous level the fuel situation had degenerated, the NNPC came out with another narrative that the landing cost of a litre of imported fuel now stands at N171 as the product sells for N145 per litre. What that implied was that government is still subsidizing the product by N26 per litre. But NNPC Managing Director Baru Maikanti carefully avoided the word subsidy for fear of running into some contradictions. That disclosure suggests that for the product to be readily available, some form of upward price adjustment may have to be effected. But the government avoided saying that explicitly.

    Even with that reluctance, the stark reality of the increase is already with us as people now pay more than double the pump price except in some petrol stations owned by major independent marketers especially in Lagos and Abuja. It is not difficult to fathom why the government is reluctant to go into the issue of increase in the pump price of fuel. In 2016, it had against all expectations, jerked up the price of the commodity from 87 per litre to N145.

    Then, it had contended among others that one of the reasons for the price increase was to ensure regular supply. That logic has been shattered by the turn of events even as citizens are yet to recover from the chain of events unleashed on the nation by that increase and the subsequent down turn in the nation’s economy.

    To contemplate another increase would amount to adding salt to injury. Moreover elections are around the corner. And further increases could become a major issue in the campaigns. As things stand, the prospect of the government being put to task on this is still there. Not with the hardship currently being experienced in the country. Not with the high cost of the commodity where it is available and the general increase in prices of goods and services given the centrality of fuel to economic activities.

    When the last regime attempted to effect marginal increase in the price of fuel, those with the technology in organizing mass protests stoutly resisted it. And some key players in this administration were among the unseen hands that opposed that increase. And the question that is now being asked is, if the last government could afford to sell fuel at N87 per litre, why are we being told now that the landing cost equates to N171 per litre?

    The answer you are likely to get will lie in disparities in the foreign exchange rate of the two regimes. But then, that would throw up another question as to the factors responsible for the foreign exchange rate disparities. The answer will inexorably hinge in the way and manner both regimes managed the economy. Could it then imply that the former administration managed the economy better than the current one irrespective of the quick resort of the latter to blame the former for all the ills of this nation? That is the question that may form the central thrust of the coming campaigns.

    In all, it is important government takes immediate steps to address the debilitating fuel scarcity and the prohibitive cost of obtaining the commodity.  With the biting effects of the economic recession still with us, the current situation is bound to compound the suffering of the common people if it is allowed the way it is.

    The government has blamed marketers for sundry misdeeds that culminated in the scarcity. But the fact of the matter is that at the root of it all is the policy of the government on fuel importation. It needs to take another look at the suffocating corruption in the sourcing of foreign exchange by marketers. There is a lot going on among officials at the apex bank that add up to this sordid pass.

    It must act fast to save the toiling people of this country the suffocating impact of having to source fuel at the prevailing prices especially in the New Year. If it amount to bending the rules, it should do so in the overall interest of the people. The welfare of the people is the very essence of governance.

  • $1billion insurgency fund

    $1billion insurgency fund

    The politics of Boko Haram insurgency was again brought to the fore by the $1 billion approved by governors from the Excess Crude Account to fight the seemingly degraded war. At the centre of the altercation have been the PDP and APC with the former accusing the government of secret plans to deploy the funds to unwholesome means.

    It alleged the funds are for the funding of the 2019 elections since President Buhari claimed his government had technically defeated Boko Haram. Some other groups have also criticized the approval on the grounds of the purpose for which the funds are to be deployed.  There are also issues with whether the governors have the powers to give the approval without recourse to their state houses of assembly.

    Regime apologists have entered defence. They accuse the PDP of bad faith. Bolaji Abdullahi, APC’s publicity scribe captured the central thrust of the government’s position. For him, the PDP is scared because it diverted funds meant for weapons’ purchase for the war on insurgency ahead of the 2015 general election. Given that experience and revelations on how humongous sums of money were allegedly diverted, Abdullahi is not surprised PDP would be quick to smell a rat in the instant case.

    But he cited the integrity of the president and his aversion to corruption as a safeguard against the manner of malfeasance that allegedly took place when the PDP held sway. He would want us to believe that any money meant for the fight against insurgency would be dutifully deployed to the objective for which it was appropriated. It is left for us to believe this rationalization.

    Even if we accept Buhari is unlikely to divert the funds to some other purposes, the same cannot be said of his key functionaries. The diversion of funds meant for internally displaced peoples IDPs to frivolous and questionable contracts as was evident in the sacking of the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir Lawal puts a lie to such optimism. Neither do recurring cases of diversion of relief materials for the displaced in the north-east give cause for optimism.

    For Abdullahi, it was wrong for the PDP to base its criticism on the claim that Boko Haram had been technically defeated because winning the peace is more vital than winning the war. By this, he contends, winning the war does not preclude the government from voting substantial funds for the security of that region. Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima argued along similar lines when he drew analogy with countries that have low security threats but vote handsomely for national defence.

    By interpolation, Shettima contends that voting huge amounts of money to fight insurgency does not in any way, vitiate the claim that the war has been won. But there is difference here. The difference is between national defence budgets and intervention funds. The 2018 appropriation bill made generous provisions for defence just as the examples Shettima cited.

    We are not concerned with national defence budgets here. The money in question we were told, is to fight Boko Haram, except now Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has added a new dimension to the matter. We shall return to this shortly. And if technically, we defeated the scourge two years back, setting aside such huge amount for the same purpose without due process is bound to raise suspicion.

    Those who query the approval on this ground are on strong rational foundation. Even then, the fact of our past experience where such funds were allegedly diverted to ends other than that for which they were meant, as the APC pointed out, is serious justification for suspicion. So it is not enough to malign those who raise doubts on the propriety of the fund especially given the information we had been fed with regarding the state of the war. If blames must be apportioned for this controversy, it should be placed at the doorsteps of those who claimed the war had since been won.

    It is not enough to bandy the credibility of the president as sufficient guarantee that whatever funds appropriated would be dutifully deployed. If anything, the case of Lawal and similar instances of corruption allegation even with the touted war against corruption, do not imbue confidence that we have parted ways with our decadent past.

    During the regime of Jonathan, he sought and obtained Senate approval to borrow $1 billion to prosecute the same war. The facility was for the supply of military hardware to be paid across seven years. It has also been said $2 billion were also approved for that regime from the same account to prosecute the same war without much ado.

    When the loan was being debated, at least, two APC senators- George Akume and Olubunmi Adetumbi questioned the procedure on the ground that it had consequences for extant Appropriation Act but were overruled with the Senate approving the loan. Also, the $2 billion approval given to Jonathan from the Excess Crude Account was heavily criticized by the opposition.

    The issues canvassed are not entirely new given that we had gone through this path before. If the approvals attracted stringent criticisms and opposition during the last regime, there are serious grounds to raise dust for the appropriation of funds to fight a war that had been declared won. So reservations on the governors’ action are not out of place.

    Some of the governors who were said to have consented to the approval on behalf of their states have raised issues. While Ayo Fayose of Ekiti queried the approval, Nyesom Wike of Rivers asked for similar funds for the Niger Delta to tackle its numerous challenges including insecurity and environmental degradation. Curiously, local government chairmen in Ekiti State have gone steps further to institute legal action to restrain the federal government from tampering with the said amount. As it stands, the government cannot tamper with the money until the case has run full cycle. Ironically, whatever security challenges in the north-east that warranted the approval may have to wait until all the issues to it are thrashed out.

    Osinbajo added a new dimension to the controversy when he said the money is not meant to fight insurgency alone but for security challenges being experienced in all states of the federation including community policing. The claim though belated, runs contrary to the brief Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki gave reporters on the issue. He did not leave any one in doubt that the fund was to fight insurgency. He said the amount will include but not limited to the “purchase of equipment, procuring intelligence and logistics to ensure we finally put an end to the scourge of insurgency”.

    Those who argued on behalf of the government defended the fund on the ground that it is vital to finally secure the gains made in the insurgency war. That is the interpretation of the conversation by the APC publicity secretary. That is also the summation of the intervention of Shettima when he drew comparison with countries with low security threats but still vote hugely for national defence. The purport of their argument is, technically defeating Boko Haram is the more reason we should commit more funds to the project to sustain the gains.

    It was therefore a big surprise when Osinbajo came in the midst of the controversy to claim that the fund was for sundry security challenges across the country. That clarification came too late and did not tally with what those who spoke on behalf of the government understood of it. If the explanation of Osinbajo is to be believed, how come Wike was demanding that the same measure should be applied to the security and environmental challenges that inundate the Niger Delta?

    Beyond this, it is sad Boko Haram insurgency has been a victim of undue politicization since it reared its ugly head. Overtime, this has complicated calculations in the handling of the war. Not only have we been unable to figure out its local sponsors, it is increasingly getting difficult to fathom which interest it serves. The current controversy mirrors the enigma the scourge has become.

  • Adamu’s twisted argument

    Abdullahi Adamu, chairman of Northern Senators’ Forum obviously played to the gallery when he told his audience why the 2014 recommendations of the National Conference cannot be implemented by the Buhari administration.

    Toeing the line of those who had sought to disparage the report on spurious and self-serving grounds, Adamu said it would be unfair to expect the president to implement the recommendations of a conference convened by the former administration when he was not privy to its underlying philosophy and primary objectives. Hear him, “You cannot compel the president to implement a report he is not part of”.

    He further boasted that those who put their thrust in the report have not even read it even as he claimed the report has nothing radical to offer the country as it does not provide the solution to a restructured Nigeria. Abdullahi who expects the forum to discuss restructuring also queried the legitimacy of the conference in keeping with extant laws of the country.

    He was apparently reacting to resolutions of southern senators who after their recent retreat, urged President Buhari to as a matter of urgency summon a conference to consider the report of the 2014 National Conference. In the communiqué after the meeting, they urged President Buhari to convoke a meeting of the National Assembly leadership, governors and the leadership of the state Houses of Assembly to a brainstorming session to commence implementation of that conference report.

    My reading of the southern senators resolution is a passionate appeal to the president to provide the lead by driving the process to review the recommendations of that conference with a view to adopting salient aspects as may be agreed upon by all the parties to the discussion. It is a patriotic call for a quick commencement of discussions that will culminate in the restructuring of the country using the recommendations of that conference as a working document.

    And in this review, the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly will have the crucial role of determining which items in the report should be given the final nod. The main objective is to fast-track the constitutional amendment process, conserve valuable time and resources that stand to be wasted by an entirely fresh conference. This view seems to draws ample credence from incremental theory as it seeks to work on existing documents to arrive at consensual agreements that will save our federal contraption from the systemic stress into which it is seemingly irretrievably mired.

    If this represents a fair interpretation of the content of the southern senators’ position, then Adamu went off tangent in some of his assertions and conclusions especially if they were directed at the resolutions of his southern colleagues. His contention that Buhari cannot implement the conference report because he is not privy to its underlying philosophy and primary objectives is not only cheap but an indictment on the president.

    For one, it is inconceivable that a former military head of state that thrice made a bid to be elected a civilian president of this country can safely claim ignorance of the issues and wider dynamics of the recurring agitations for a national conference. These issues have been there and constitute both the primary objective and the philosophy for seeking platforms to construct durable framework for the survival of this unity in diversity. It will be a huge disappointment for any person who has led this country or aspires to lead it to feign ignorance of them as Adamu would make us to believe. So that argument does not add up.

    For another, it is not an issue of compelling the president to implement a report he is not part of. Buhari has been part of this system. As at the time the conference was being nurtured, he had an ambition to rule the country. His party, the APC also had restructuring in its manifesto and sought election on that promise. So the same philosophy and principles that made his party promise restructuring, influenced both the 2014 discussions, those before it and extant agitations.

    He must not be a participant at the conference before he understands what it recommendations are all about. That document was handed over to him by his predecessor and the minimum demand of his office is that he ought to go through it irrespective of whatever reservations he may have. Going through it will aid him tap into the temperament of the nation on some of the vexatious issues of our federal order. He could come up with different perspectives on some of the issues. And he would be entitled to them. But to dump such a vital document into the dust bin on grounds of some of the reasons adduced by Adamu would amount to crass insensitivity to the yearnings and aspirations of the people.

    Again, nobody is expecting Buhari to take up the report and decree it into law. He lacks such powers under constitutional democracy. Neither have suggestions been made to that impossible effect. Southern senators were conscious of this reality when they asked him to drive the process by convoking a meeting of all relevant bodies to constitutional amendment with a view to sieving salient aspects of that conference recommendation and passing them into law. That should take care of the issue of legitimacy highlighted by Adamu and those who have hidden under such reservations to sabotage the process.

    Beyond this, we are not doing this country any good dissipating valuable energy finding faults with genuine attempts to fashion out suitable framework to stabilize this country for unhindered development. It is not enough to find faults in genuine attempts by others to move this county forward. If the recommendations of that conference fell short of what the constituents needed to live in harmony, Adamu and his colleagues ought to provide the alternatives instead of this constant relapse into morbid fear for real change.

    It is obvious that some sections are profiting from the convoluted federal order. It is no less a truism that the fear of loss of influence, undue advantage and power is at the heart of the stringent opposition against restructuring. But the system as presently constituted has not fared well. Not only is the defective order at the root of the festering corruption in the land, the acrimonious and deadly competition for the presidency is directly linked to it. The same phenomenon accounts for the rivalry and competition between the central authority and the primordial units for the loyalty of the citizens. Such loyalties denoted by the variegated ethnic and sectional groups are bound to diminish with true federalism both in content and practice. So those opposed to some measure of restructuring are not helping the country. They do so in the knowledge that some of the distortions wrought into this polity by the military are difficult to redress without the consent of those benefiting from them. But there is a limit to the patience of constituents that have been at the receiving end of these convoluted and suffocating structures.

    Those genuinely desirous of the country’s continued existence must come to terms with the reality that we have not fared well with stereotypes that have not served our collective being. And for this country to make real progress, it must be disentangled from those systemic defects that have overtime held it prostrate. The structure of the federation is at the center of it all.

    It is not just a matter of the south intimidating the north or the north being afraid of restructuring as Adamu is inclined to believe. It is a patriotic desire to move the nation forward by dismantling all the imperfections that render national integration and the forging of a common sense of national identity illusory. It is a desire to unleash the creative energies of the constituents for rapid and unhindered development.

    Good a thing, Adamu has admitted that the north will support restructuring provided it “guarantees justice, equity, fairness and the unity of all Nigerians”. That is the essence of the conversation. So let the discussions commence!

  • Festering terror attacks

    The war against Boko Haram is far from won. Not with their renewed escapades in the north-east that leave in their trail, sorrow and awe. Not with the frequency of such attacks and their high success ratio.

    That these serial killings no longer attract the umbrage associated with them in the early days of the insurgency is a measure of how accustomed the society has become with them. The frequency of these attacks and the high casualty rate they entail including soldiers and civilians, have raised fresh doubts on some of the claims bandied by the government on the state of the war.

    President Buhari had in an interview with BBC two years ago said Boko Haram had been ‘technically defeated’ and that Nigeria had technically won the war. Asked what he meant, he said “my own description is that they can no longer mobilize enough forces to attack police and military barracks and destroy aircraft like they used to do. But they can regroup and go after soft targets”.

    About the same period, Senator Baba Garbai (Borno Central) had, after a visit to his constituency cried out that the insurgents were still present in more than 20 local governments of the state.

    Apparently rattled by this, Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima and Director of Defence information, Brigadier-General Rabe Abubakar made spirited efforts to clarify what they considered the true position of the war. Shettima said they no longer had a situation where Boko Haram used to come in commando style attack, seize and occupy communities, hold hostages and administer territories. For Abubakar, attacks on soft targets do not translate to occupation of territories or some parts of Borno or the north-east.

    In this column then, I had looked at the semantic issues raised by all those who spoke especially the tenuous claim that Boko Haram no longer occupied territories in the areas of their operation. The kernel of my argument was that if Boko Haram no longer occupied territories, how come they were still able to mobilize and attack targets soft or hard? Do they plan and coordinate their attacks from the moon or outside the shores of this country? And if they operated from the outside, why not take them on at the point of entry?

    These posers served to highlight the contradiction in the claim that Boko Haram no longer occupied territories in the north-east even when it has continued to engage the military in fierce military battle. That was then. Two years thereon, it is clear that those positions were really over exaggerated. Not only have the insurgents continued to attack soft targets, they have shown strong capacity for sustained attacks on the military (hard targets).

    Curiously, the same insurgents were said to have entered into an agreement with the government that led to the freeing of 82 Chibok girls with the promise to secure the release of the rest through the same channel. If government’s account of the Chibok girls’ release is anything to repose hope on, if the entire Chibok story is to be disentangled from suspicion, why is there no change of attitude from a group the government entered into agreement culminating in the release of some of its commanders?

    Or are we being made to believe that the released commanders were for the purpose of fortifying the battle line of the insurgents? The general expectation is that a government which engaged the insurgents to the extent of securing the release of that number of school girls, after many years of incarceration, should have inched closer to ending the war.

    But that has failed to happen. Instead, the insurgents have continued to put in all within their powers to prosecute the war with heavy toll on human and material capital. In the last couple of months, the devious escapades of the deadly group have come to an all time high.  This has raised serious doubt on some of the claims that have been bandied by the government on the level of success in the war. Since May this year, suicide bombing and armed attacks on the military have been on the rise with the insurgent group successfully attacking Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

    Some geologists and other technical staff from the University of Maiduguri on oil exploration were also ambushed at Magumeri by Boko Haram with about 12 soldiers who escorted them and some staff of the NNPC reportedly killed. Elsewhere, suicide bombings have been on the increase. Deploying young female suicide bombers, the deadly group attacked Muna Gari, a suburb of Maiduguri and killed 14.

    They have carried out series of attacks in Yola, Adamawa State. In one instance, they killed 40 people when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a crowded mosque. Yobe State is not left out as a unit commander and about 15 soldiers were killed last month when insurgents attacked a military unit in Sassawa. The list is inexhaustible as what is usually reported represents the amount of information the military is willing to avail the public.

    In its September update, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Activities, OCHA cried out that many people faced the risk of hunger and disease in the hinterlands of Borno due to inaccessibility of their locations because of the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents. The UN body which said there were five suicide bomb attacks in Borno in September alone is worried that with the setting in of the dry season, hostilities will intensify and further exacerbate the displacement trend in Borno.

    It should be admitted that our military have been making enormous sacrifice to contain the insurgency. Many of them have had to pay the supreme sacrifice in the very arduous task of containing the difficult asymmetric warfare. Some measure of success has also been recorded in this regard as the UN body has attested to.

    But it is getting clearer that the war against Boko Haram is a victim of high wire politics. And two major reasons account for this. The first is what can be described as the pre-2015 electioneering campaign politics while the second though closely related, has to do with the electoral campaign promise of President Buhari. In the build up to that election, Boko Haram insurgency was highly politicized.

    Those in the ruling party saw Boko Haram as political grievances masquerading in religious garb. Then governor of Adamawa state, Muritala Nyako, added a dangerous dimension to the matter when in his controversial letter to the northern governors; he alleged that Boko Haram was a contrived agenda to depopulate the north. He believed it only existed in the minds of its creators.

    In that highly inciting and tendentious letter, Nyako left nobody in doubt of his belief that the weird religious group was an agenda of the Jonathan regime to keep the north down. Many key northerners also shared this view and that accounted for their ambivalence in not unequivocally condemning the atrocious proclivities of that murderous group.

    With that blame game, the campaign to tame the monster suffered reverses. The campaign was sabotaged and Boko Haram became larger than life. It was not for nothing that Buhari made the war against insecurity a tripod of his campaign promise. With victory smiling his way, he did not waste time to set quick and unrealistic deadline to tame the monster and prove a point. Thus, the haste with which he announced two years back that the war had been won.

    But that has been his greatest undoing as facts on the ground continue to prove him wrong.  Boko Haram is much alive as we have seen from the limited statistics above and the attestations of the UN body. What seemed to have changed is the paucity of information emanating from the theatre of war. Incidentally, much of that information comes from the same military that is engaged in the fight. What will the likes of Nyako say of the war now?

  • Minimum wage politics

    In the early life of the Buhari administration, state governors had after one of their meetings, canvassed for a reduction of the current minimum wage or in the alternative, they will be compelled to reduce their workforce. They cited the parlous state of the Nigerian economy and the drop in international oil price as their main reasons for wanting a reduction from the current N18, 000 minimum wage regime.

    But they found two dissenting voices in their colleagues who argued to the contrary. The then governor of Edo State; Adams Oshiomhole, apparently because of his labour background, contended that the current wage regime was a product of elaborate discussions and agreement between the various governments and labour and could therefore not be tampered with even as it had become time barred. He found ample and timely support from his colleague, Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.

    We were soon confronted by a scandalous inability of governors and even agencies of the federal government to pay salaries, allowances and pensions. In some cases, workers were owed backlog of salaries and allowance mounting to over 10 months. The federal government had to intervene by advancing some funds to enable governors offset the arrears of salaries and allowances. Even then, there were instances where the funds were diverted to areas other those for which they were meant.

    Some governors and even agencies of the federal government arbitrarily worked out their own formulae of what to pay and how to pay in other to remain afloat. They resorted to paying workers certain percentage of their salaries. And faced with serious challenges of survival, those workers had no alternative than to accept whatever stipend the governments were prepared to pay. Since then, some governors have been paying below the minimum wage hiding under questionable agreements entered into with their workers. Yet, the issue of salary and pension arrears running into several months has remained a recurring decimal.

    The above background comes handy given the inauguration last week of a 30-man tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee to negotiate a new national minimum wage for workers.  President Buhari while inaugurating the committee said it followed the recommendation of a technical committee put in place after the increase in fuel price in 2016 and that the current minimum wage had expired.

    In May 2016 and against all expectations, the government increased the price of fuel from N87 per litre to the current selling price of N145 per litre. Before that regime came into office, its prime movers were at the vanguard of those opposed to any slight upward adjustment in the selling price of the commodity. It was therefore surprising that in one fell swoop, and barely a year after it came into office, it unilaterally hiked up the price of the commodity by that high margin. For some reason, protests did not erupt from any quarter probably because those with the technology for organizing them saw the government as their own.

    That increase brought in its wake a sporadic rise in the prices of goods and services with deleterious effects on the living conditions of the people. Prices of everything skyrocketed given the centrality of fuel to all economic activities. But it led to demands for wage increase with the NLC being its prime mover.

    Instead of wage increase, we were soon to witness an unprecedented layoff of workers, closures and salary cuts. Life was reduced to a similitude of the Hobbesian state of nature – nasty, short and brutish. We were almost immediately entrapped in an economic recession that took a toll on the lives of the people. The price of oil which sold around $40 per barrel in the international market then did not help matters. So we have had to contend with the debilitating realities of the harsh economy in the last two and half years of the current regime with no end in sight.

    Given the above, the inauguration of the national minimum wage committee came with mixed feelings. Not unexpectedly, some people have termed it an attempt to bribe workers as the 2019 elections draw closer. Some others see in it, an exercise in playing with time, doubting the sincerity and commitment of the regime to emplace a new national minimum wage. They cite the delay in setting up of the committee more than one and half years after the debilitating effects of the fuel price increase had taken negative toll on the lives citizens and the trademark inability of governments to pay the current wage.

    And since many of these governments have been finding it difficult to pay extant wage, there is the feeling that increasing the minimum wage would amount to an exercise in futility. What is the sense in an increase the governments cannot pay, the argument further goes. Since the governors are heavily represented in the tripartite committee, there is everything to suggest they will gang up to oppose an increase now.

    So the committee may not come out with anything tangible given that the debilitating economic conditions that forced them to owe are still very much around. But the federal government may be basking on the euphoria of our supposed exit from economic recession which has even failed to translate into improved standard of living for the toiling people of the country.

    It is true prices of some commodities have had a marginal drop. It is also no less correct that the price of oil in the international market now hovers around 60 dollars per barrel. The federal government in its 2017/2018 appropriation bill to the National Assembly also promised increased revenue to state governments next year. All these may have encouraged the government to inaugurate the committee.

    But they remain at best projections. And for a government that banned employment in all its ministries, agencies and departments next year, it appears contradictory it is about to increase wages. Even then, the same government has not kept faith with the current minimum wage regime. Under its N-Power Tech job creation scheme, it pays N30, 000 monthly stipends to graduates. By that policy, it has set the precedent that any employer can pay workers what it desires.

    The same government has been beating its chest regarding the quantum of jobs it claims to have created. But in reality such jobs have turned out as sources of cheap labour for state governments who deploy beneficiaries to schools with no incentives at all. Due to the paltry stipends, beneficiaries refuse to put in their best as it barely covers their transport fares to their places of assignment. If the government found reason to engage these graduates, it should have shown example by going the whole hog to pay them the minimum wage. With the cheap labour offered by this manner of job creation coupled with that of the NYSC members, the federal government has inadvertently shut down the capacity of the state governments to recruit workers.

    Even as wage increase is desirable, the number of those in paid employment peters out in the face of the army of the unemployed and the self-employed. A wage increase that targets the few in paid employment cannot substantially address the rising poverty in the land. Moreover, it will definitely come with its own concomitant problem of a general rise in the prices of goods and services. So we should be prepared for another inflation spiral.

    It would seem despite its allure, wage increase does not offer much prospects now especially given the inability of governments to pay the subsisting wage regime. It is bound to trigger another cycle of inflation and turn out counterproductive unless the government puts in place safety nets to cushion its negative effects on the ordinary people. The solution to the rising poverty lies in massive job creation and the provision of attendant infrastructural facilities to enable people create their own jobs.

  • My childhood friend, my brother!

    A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and allows you to grow”-William Shakespeare.

    Perhaps, the above captures very succinctly the relationship between my childhood friend and brother, Dr Christian Ngozi Umeh (Gallant Pieces) and I. Umeh was snatched away in his prime, by the cold hands of death three weeks ago.

    I don’t really know how and where to begin. I lack words. Yet, I should be in position to write a book on the life and times of my childhood friend, Ngozi Gallant Christian, Pieces Umeh (NGCPU) as he fondly abbreviated his initials.

    My predicament stems from inability to come to terms with the sad reality that Gallant can disappear from my sight just like that. That the company and affection we shared through the years have been truncated by the wicked hands of death. And a relationship that has been the admiration of many, crashed when its fruits were beginning to fully mature.

    All those who knew Gallant well either from childhood or later in life can attest that we are two of a rare pair. Not many know the genesis of our relationship or how long it has lasted. Two of us may not even fully account for how it all started given our age at that time.

    This is because the friendship is as old as our ages minus our age the day we enrolled at St Jude’s primary School Ikpa-Eluama Osina in the present Imo State. That was the period you were required to place your right hand across your head to touch your left ear as a criterion for admission into the first class in the primary school.

    If your right hand touched your left ear, then you are qualified for admission and vice versa. So we found ourselves in that preparatory class together with other mates. I cannot recall how we started as friends so early in life or the incident that brought us close. But my guess is that our performances in that rural primary school class could have been the bond. He was very eager to learn and highly elated each time he performed excellently well. I still recall the exclamation he made the day our teacher announced he scored 80 per cent in one of the subjects. The whole class burst into deep laughter when he exclaimed: uwa a a a…( the world….) as the teacher called his name and announced his score. He was enthusiastic to learn; very hungry for knowledge, always trying to show his peers that he has something more to offer.

    Even at that tender age, he had learnt some French language from one of his cousins COC Umeh who was then in a secondary school. It was from him that for the first time, I learnt bonjour monsieur was a French equivalent for good morning sir. He pronounced monsieur badly as I came to realize when I started French years after in my secondary school. So he was above his peers in such innovative issues and somehow, we got attracted to each other due to competition to excel.

    St Jude then prepared pupils for admission into St Mary’s primary school which was the senior arm of the Catholic primary school. I had thought two of us completed two years at St Jude before proceeding to St Mary’s until his cousin Jasper Umeh who was also with us( but in a different class) told me a fortnight ago he left briefly to Alaogidi primary school Uhualla due to some political pressure.

    However, we rejoined in primary four at St Mary’s after the transition from standard to primary in the school calendar system and were together until we took the First School Leaving Certificate. My younger sister, Chinwe used to remind me of how he usually escorted me to my Aunty’s house- the Ebosie’s in Uzii after school each time my father sent me on errand there. The distance is not less than 10 kilometres to and fro. Chinwe lived with my Aunty after our mother’s death very early in our lives. She reminds me of how we usually sneaked to the backyard to pluck some pear as we left.

    While in primary six, we took common entrance examinations. He was later to attend Earnest Gems Grammar school Akokwa while I attended Holy Ghost Juniorate, Ihiala. Our friendship continued throughout our secondary school period especially during holidays. On completion of his secondary career, he enrolled at the famous Christ the King College, Onitsha (CKC) for his Higher School. We met again at the University of Ibadan when he was admitted to read Geography in the same faculty of Social Sciences. There, the comradeship continued. At Ibadan, we had other friends like Dr Chika Ohia and late Dr Linus Dim.  We worked together and shared common vision regarding the progress of our town, Osina.

    In liaison with other friends in other universities: Bernard Nnagha and JO Eze both at the University of Ife then, Christian Maduekwe and Lambert Eze, UNN, we built a formidable relationship that changed the course of history in the community for the better. Issues relating to this are for another occasion.

    Suffice it to say we all enjoyed our relationship. We trusted each other and enjoyed the confidence of each other. Between two of us, the confidence was much stronger because of our childhood experiences. We were with each other after our national service and when we secured our initial appointments. We spent our initial salaries savouring and oiling our relationship. Such was the story until responsibility set in after we started marrying one after the other.

    For some reason, two of us were among the last in the group that married. And when it came to choosing his marriage sponsors, my wife and I were his choice. He was also the Godfather of my first son at baptism. We understand the chemistry of each other and have never had cause for serious disagreement even with our personality differences. He was quiet, non controversial and largely apolitical. Yet, we found common grounds to cohere.

    He taught for some years at Abbot Girls’ Secondary School Ihiala, in Anambra State before securing appointment as a teaching assistant at the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri. While at Alvan and in very quick succession, he enrolled for his post graduate diploma certificate in education and Masters Degree at Imo State University, Owerri. On successful completion of the two programmes, he went for his doctorate degree which he successfully obtained within record time.

    He rose fast to the rank of Reader/Chief lecturer at Alvan. Dr. Umeh also held so many positions in the college: Head of Department of Geography and Environmental Science, chairman School of Social Sciences Teaching Practice Committee and departmental project coordinator among others. He has many publications.

    Umeh exudes a lot of wits and very famous for inventing interesting and sharp remarks, many of which his circle of friends cannot forget in a hurry. Those witty sayings still dominate our discussion till date. The frontiers of his knowledge are wide covering the sciences, medicine, engineering and architecture.

    A versatile and humorous person, Gallant will be highly missed by his numerous friends. He showed considerable determination to live even in the face of the odds. He displayed an uncommon resilience and doggedness as he battled health challenges in the last couple of months. It is sad he eventually succumbed to the wicked hands of death. Gallant will be missed by his family, his friends and all those who came into contact with him.

    May the God almighty grant his soul eternal rest in His bosom and the family, the fortitude to bear the sad loss! May I end this tribute by quoting from Lisa Whelchel: “There’s something about childhood friends you just can’t replace”. Gallant, I miss you and will continue to miss you until we meet to part no more. It was indeed a sweet friendship that refreshed the soul-proverbs 27:9.