The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Diaso’s preventable death

    Diaso’s preventable death

    Imagine someone trapped in an elevator in free fall from the 10th floor of a building! Imagine the person’s indescribable horror! Imagine the horrific consequences when the elevator hits the ground!

    It can be said that Vwaere Diaso, a medical doctor, experienced death before she died on August 1, following what Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in a statement, described as “a mechanical failure within the elevator at the Doctors’ quarters of the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island.”  A graduate of Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, she died two weeks before the completion of her one-year housemanship.  

    What happened? How? Why?  Was the tragedy preventable? Who is to blame? These are major questions that demand answers.

    Diaso’s colleague at the hospital, identified as Moye, painted a chilling picture of the incident in a social media post.  The victim was said to have been on her way to the ground floor to collect food delivered by a dispatch rider that evening. A frightening bang drew attention to the elevator.

    The eyewitness described the initial rescue efforts and the victim’s pathetic situation. Her account: “They tried to use rods to open it, to be sure it wasn’t a joke. They finally opened it and the sight was gruesome. Muffled sounds of excruciating pain and agony became apparent.

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    “Her forehead had a horizontal cut; her mouth had another one and she had raccoon eyes. She was lying in between the base of the elevator and the ground floor, with the engine hanging over her head, which meant any miscalculation in movement, she’ll be crushed to instant death.

    “She was literally sandwiched in between the hanging engine and below the ground floor with blood on broken glasses and fractured limbs. It’s not a sight to describe.”

    A precious period of about 40 minutes passed before rescuers called to the scene arrived, according to the eyewitness. “I remember telling her to relax and that help was coming,” she said.  The narrative continued: ‘Don’t tell me to relax, tell them to get me out of here.’ We eventually got her out and she kept saying she thinks she’ll die.”

    Eventually she died in the hospital’s emergency ward.  Was the alleged wasted rescue time a critical factor?   The eyewitness said: “Emergency care was almost zero and inside a hospital for that matter. There was no blood in the hospital.” Would she have died if she had received prompt and proper care?

    The Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State zone, Benjamin Olowojebutu, blamed the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA) for the tragedy.  He lamented: “In that same building, there is no water, there is no light.” He added that the agency had failed to respond to multiple complaints on defects and inadequacies regarding the doctors’ quarters, including the allegedly faulty elevator.

    Reassuringly, Governor Sanwo-Olu immediately initiated “a thorough investigation into the cause of the mechanical failure,” promising that the investigation “will be conducted with utmost transparency and fairness, leaving no room for any biases or favouritism.”  That is the right thing to do.  

    The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, was reported to have confirmed the arrest of three persons, whom he did not name, in connection with the incident. It’s unclear how the suspects were involved.  

    Ironically, during his inspection tour of ongoing medical infrastructure projects in the state, in August 2022, Governor Sanwo-Olu said his administration had begun the construction of doctors’ quarters in new medical facilities to improve the conditions of service for doctors and other healthcare professionals.

    His words: “In the new hospitals we are building, we have included the construction of doctors’ quarters just as we have in Lagos Island General Hospital. We are currently building quarters for doctors in Gbagada General Hospital and another one in General Hospital, Isolo. This is to improve the conditions of service for our doctors and other health professionals supporting them.”

    At the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island, where the doctors’ quarters in question are located, and where Diaso died, he inspected the first, second and third phases of the work done at the facility, which included the redesigned and upgraded hospital’s Accident and Emergency section, Surgical Emergency wards, and Training rooms. Others were the Pharmacy department, Catering section, Eye Clinic, Administrative Building, Ambulance Bay, Relative Waiting Area and Children’s Surgical Wards. He said the final phase would ensure a full upgrade of the Pathology Department and construction of new wards to accommodate more patients on referral.

    That was a year ago. It’s unclear whether the issue of the problematic doctors’ quarters at the hospital came up at the time, considering claims that the killer elevator had been faulty for some years, among other alleged negatives at the place.    

    Diaso’s tragic death was preventable. It further highlights the issue of escalating exodus of healthcare professionals from Nigeria, which has been blamed on poor leadership, corruption, poor remuneration and toxic work environment, among others.  

    Indeed, the exit figures relating to healthcare professionals in the country are alarming. More than 9,000 medical doctors were reported to have left the country to work in the UK, Canada and America, from 2016 to 2018. Also, more than 700 medical doctors trained in Nigeria were said to have relocated to the UK from December 2021 to May 2022, a period of six months.

     The President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Uche Ojinmah, observed at an event in October 2022: “Nigeria-trained doctors are leaving in droves for Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.” The situation has not changed. Healthcare professionals are leaving the country as if escaping from a hopeless situation.

    There are consequences. The country’s doctor-patient ratio is alarmingly low, and is nowhere near the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) standard doctor-patient ratio of one doctor per 600 people.

    With only about four doctors available per 10,000 people in Nigeria, it is unsurprising that there are issues regarding availability of, and access to, quality primary healthcare services in the country. There is no doubt that the problem is compounded by the flight of healthcare professionals.

    When a doctor dies the way Diaso did, connected with a neglected malfunctioning elevator at the doctors’ quarters of a state-owned hospital, it’s bad for the image of health authorities in the state.  

  • Enugu: When solution turned awry

    Enugu: When solution turned awry

    The real objective of the Enugu State government in seeking to discourage compliance with Mondays’ sit-at-home orders by a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB cannot be faulted. The incalculable harm wrought on the economy of that zone and avoidable deaths the enforcement of the orders entail makes that line of action most compelling.

    But the strategy to that goal is patently faulty. Not only did it present inherent contradictions, it was equally loaded with frightening prospects of undermining the very foundation on which it was premised. That was the uncanny dilemma thrown up by the decision of Governor Peter Mbah to seal off shops and other business concerns which did not open on account of last Monday’s sit-at-home.

    The state government had on June 5, banned the Monday sit-at-home observance and urged citizens to go about their duties freely. It threatened to shut down any business concern that continued to obey the illegal order.

    Events seemed to have turned out in favour of the state government when a coalition of civil society groups marched round the state capital in solidarity with the decision. The coalition which brandished posters with inscriptions condemning the continued observance of the sit-at-home orders urged people of the state to return to their normal business activities.

    There have been appreciable improvement in compliance as more and more businesses were encouraged by the assurances of the governor to re-open. But it has not been total compliance given the security concerns that compel people to keep off the streets for fear of their lives.

    Instead of the state government leveraging on the gradual return to normalcy through persuasion, re-assurances and improved security, it went for broke last Monday. It made good its threat to seal off shops and business premises that did not open that day. Altogether, 106 shops and two banks were sealed off by officials of the Enugu State Capital Development Authority. The sealed business concerns were to remain closed for one week and could only be re-viewed after their owners had presented current tax clearance certificates and other revenue documents. The shops also stood the risk of being auctioned or forfeited depending on the outcome of the review by the state government.

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    But things went sour when aggrieved traders in the state’s main market-Ogbete protested the sealing of their shops. Accounts of the immediate cause of the protests vary. But the one that quickly gained traction was that their decision not to allow any of the shops in the market to open until those sealed are unlocked and anger against the government action spurred the protests.

    The traders quickly took to the adjoining streets. A trending video clip showed angry traders making a bonfire even as they questioned the propriety of the state government’s action in sealing off their private shops. A team of policemen were sighted interfacing with the traders apparently to persuade them to remain peaceful.

    But events went awry when security men comprising of soldiers, policemen and their sister organizations were drafted to disperse the crowd. A young man in his twenties was sighted lying on the ground apparently felled by the bullets fired by the security agencies. Unconfirmed accounts put the number of deaths at three while an unspecified number of others sustained varying degrees of injury.

    The state government has been compelled by the escalated development to shut down the main market indefinitely. Having shut down the market indefinitely, the original objective of the government in locking the shops to compel compliance to its order has been roundly defeated. And that is the contradiction in the efficacy of its policy.

    Not only did the policy turn out eliciting reverse consequences, lives have also been lost in circumstances that are largely avoidable. The message that has been served by all this is that the strategy adopted by Enugu State government in seeking to get the markets re-opened was ab initio, ill-advised and not well thought out.

    It failed to take into account the peculiar existential issues that compel even those who would have wished to do business on those Mondays’ to keep off the streets. Had the government factored in the complex nature of the challenge it sought to untangle, it may have realized that much of the blame for the subsisting security situation that instils fear on people should instead, be heaped on the shoulders of governments – state and federal.

    The poor traders are just victims at the receiving end of the failure of the government to secure lives and property. Those who refuse to venture out do so for fear of their lives. They are concerned their lives may be put in harms’ way when they venture out during such days. They are not to blame.

    Some of those who ventured out in other occasions have had sad stories to tell. Many lost their valuable lives and property in the process as there were no security agencies to their rescue. Reported cases of callous and senseless killings, the burning and looting of shops and other valuables by all manner of hoodlums and criminals hiding under the sit-at-home order enforcement have not helped matters either. In all these, the affected citizens are left to lick their wounds.

    So the new government in Enugu State had a very simplistic interpretation and understanding of the issues when it reasoned that shutting down shops was a viable way out. It was a grave miscalculation. And the consequence of that error is manifest in the protests, killings and eventual indefinite shut down of Ogbete market. What a contradiction!

    The state government has been forced to return to the drawing table. Force as a strategy to compel traders to open their shops should be out of the calculation. Had the government continued in subtly persuading businesses to return to normalcy with assurances of safety for those who venture out, the state may not have been entangled in the current mess.

    Even then, it is puzzling that Enugu State has all this while, been unable to substantially guarantee security around the capital city to allow normalcy return. That is not the exact situation in some of the state capitals in the zone. Much of the security challenges encountered during those sit-at-home days are located in communities and towns outside state capitals. That is where the role of state governors in de-escalating insecurity arising from those orders comes in.

     Sit-at-home on Mondays was originally declared by IPOB in 2021 to press home their demand for the release of Nnamdi Kanu from detention. But it has been rested by that faction of IPOB. It may be instructive to observe that Kanu, the arrow head of the agitation hails from Abia State. Ironically, Abia has been largely more peaceful and safer than Imo, Ebonyi and Enugu states in the orgy of violence that trails sit-at-home enforcement and the general insecurity in the zone.

    The reason for this is not quite clear. But it cannot be completely detached from the actions and inactions of the respective state governors. There have been copious allegations of mismanagement of the security situations by state governors. Imo State has lost more traditional rulers to faceless killers than all the states in the zone put together. The reason for this remains a puzzle.

    Allegations have also been rife that some notorious militants were hired by some governors to provide security under the guise of the so-called Ebubeagu security outfit. Curiously, the membership and operational modalities of such nebulous security outfits have remained largely cloudy. That appears the issue Senate President, Godswill Akpabio raised while responding to the motion for the release of Nnamdi Kanu. He had accused southeast governors of not doing enough to curb the insecurity.

    Though the senators did not endorse the request by southeast senators for the federal government to use “political solution approach” to free Nnamdi Kanu, the thesis of their presentation was that his release will defuse the insecurity in the zone. In this, the senators are with many.

    So it is not just enough for the senate to hide under legal concerns. The political dimension to resolving the security challenge ought to be called into quick action. Nearly all key personages, groups and interests that matter in the zone have suggested that option as a viable way out. If releasing Kanu will defuse the tension in the zone, it should be in our collective national interest to do so.

    That will not be the first time political solution will be deployed to address troubling issues of our federal order. It is not a costly sacrifice to make for the peace and security of the country if there are no extraneous interests taking undue advantage of the degenerate situation.

  • The president’s men

    The president’s men

    Many have wondered over the whys and wherefores of President Bola Tinubu’s romance with his foes. Few have reflected on how he makes them. Perhaps surveying how he hates can help us peer at his soul of charity. It can make us imagine how he will dispense love to over 200 million of God’s creatures in the years ahead.

    He does not only make foes. He nurtures them. Nothing of late is more potent than “Akin, thank you.” That rhetoric exhumes former Lagos State governor Akinwunmi Ambode. It announces him as the latest prodigal who returned home for the party. There have been many, high profile and low. President Tinubu has his revolving doors of comers and goers, a pageant of the beloved and damned. Come, all ye that betray and a hug awaits thee.

    We can content ourselves with a few rippling the news waves. Apart from Ambode, we know of the ebullient Godswill Akpabio, mercurial Nasir El Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu, the bull in a tiny package. At one time, these men were soldiers at arms against Tinubu. Today, they are brothers in arms. In wartime against Tinubu, they growled in public, deployed troops, invoked an imperial throne, unleashed media and institutions, betrayed trepidation when they were not displaying jubilation.

    Today, we can call them the president’s men. No one in Nigerian political history has turned hate and warfare into a virtue. No one has redefined hate or even problematised its definition. Few would have welcomed back an Ambode after many draped him as traitor and usurper. Lagos was on the boil as Ambode sought a second term. He defied the party chieftains and decapitated many a friend and ally. They charged him with hubris and an inflated sense of his own power and influence. He charged them back for  underestimating him. For him, Tinubu’s time was on a hangman’s noose. He was his executioner. The party chose Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the now BOS of Lagos, to replace him. Ambode rasped and raged, questioning his health and sanity. Sanwo-Olu’s team took Michelle Obama’s path and asserted that “when they go low, we go high.” Ambode came apart. Tinubu the Phoenix was unscathed. Ambode dissolved into oblivion when reports were not naming him as fighting back under the sewer, in cahoots with a rival party, especially the PDP.

    Few foresaw the magnanimity of his former foe. Dressed in his vintage cap and striding with a casual dignity, the BOS of Lagos attended  Ambode’s birthday party, and that was the beginning of the party. His reborn day. We knew the man was now on all fours. That ‘Akin, thank you’ episode eventually unveiled him in a party that featured all four governors of the state in this republic, beginning with Asiwaju Tinubu himself. Many who expected comeuppance, not a comeback, must have mused on Asiwaju’s facility to make enemies when Ambode met him for a photo-op at the presidential villa. Gov Sanwo-Olu set it in motion. A medal for him.

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    Ribadu was a public foe as head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). An OBJ protégé, Ribadu hunted the political class. The slim, slow-speaking, thin-voiced omen among men never fazed the Lion of Bourdillon. But Ribadu had railed about an Econet deal. It became a big harvest rather than a scandal and EFCC’s case became a dud. But Ribadu became presidential candidate for the ACN, Tinubu’s party. He did not make it and abandoned Tinubu again to pick a Jonathan job. Tinubu’s famous statement of poignant irony wished the former EFCC boss well. But they came together again, and Ribadu will stand to be counted as one of the principal associates who stood like a rock and brother beside Asiwaju when many who now advertise their loyalty despaired about a Tinubu candidacy. Today, he is a worthy head of Nigerian intelligence.

    El Rufai did not battle Tinubu in private. His is what the Yoruba call ija igboro. Fight in the open square. He is the last person many expect would be a candidate for a Tinubu cabinet. He accused him of the filth his foes in the Labour Party and PDP are throwing at him today. He once attended an event in Lagos and called for a party mutiny against their leader. When Tinubu was on the right, El Rufai veered left. Both were never permitted to access oxygen in the same hemisphere. I had a raucous exchange with him at the front of Eko Hotel over an issue that concerned their clash.

    Yet, when it came to the crunch, El Rufai was a voice as balm. After Tinubu assailed an Aso Rock cabal for engineering the cash and petrol crisis to suffocate his bid for power, the then Kaduna State governor was the interlocutor of the northern conscience. He valorised Tinubu’s claims and rid him of any tar of paranoia. He was the one who kept saying that the north would not forget those who did them a favour, referring to Asiwaju’s role as Buhari’s kingmaker.

    Of course, Akpabio held the forte in Uyo as a counterpoise to a charging Tinubu with his candidate, John J. Akpanudoedehe. It was a brutal election, and the exchanges sometimes held the register of an apocalypse. Outside the southwest, no prize was dear to AC and no foe was Mephistophelian like the governor of Akwa Ibom State. Today, though, it is Akpabio on Tinubu’s side and Akpanudoedehe in the crypt. His former ally morphed into one of the plotters to stop Tinubu candidacy. Who would believe that Tinubu gets the laurel for making Akpabio our chief lawmaker?

    So, were these people ever his enemies? That’s the conundrum. When he fights, he is lion. When he embraces, he is loincloth. So when he was fighting, mapping strategies, reading maps, deploying men and resources, what was he doing? He was not hating; he was cultivating them to manure a future. The enemy is an asset. They may not know it. Shakespeare said “My only love sprung from my only hate. Too early seen unknown, and known too late. Prodigious birth of love is it to me. That I must love a loathed enemy.”

    Tomorrow, they might return to the barricade. But it is nothing personal. His is not the classical hate, not the sort Mike Tyson meant when he said he had no love left and no one should deprive him of his hate. No ferocity here, except to tame the foe into a hug. During the age of Emperor Justinian, Rome signed the Treaty of Eternal Peace. Russia signed a similar one with Poland. Persia resumed war later. The Russian one expired. But when he wars, Tinubu would prefer what Balogun Latosa of 19th century Yoruba Wars called “the war to end all wars.”  If it resumes, he slips back into the battle gear.

    Yet some are fuming, unleashing cannons, digging trenches, concocting fantasies of Asiwaju’s skeleton in a Gehena. He has no malice, no poisoned chalice. He merely pursues the prize. He wants them alive. They have value. If they die, what a loss. It would be like Walt Whitman’s lines after the American civil war, “My enemy is dead; a soul divine like myself is dead.” Something of his soul tolls in the other, apologies to John Donne.

    He has been accused of privileging rebels over constants. He acknowledges it with an air of impotence. Like Jesus said of his sheep. If one strays, he abandons flock and goes after the lost one, so that they can be one flock and one shepherd. There are quite a few lost sheep today. Some still asking for pardon and not asking for pardon. Some fuming in silence. Others spewing out rants. But the man loves it so. Who will be so bold to blend a prodigal with the flock again after all the quarrels? The flock is a quicksand anyway. It is called politics. Hence, Churchill’s friend, Lord Beaverbrook, wrote, “A man with a will to power can’t make friends.” They make enemies, especially the best of them. 

      Who will defend the poor?

    Those who say the social register of the poor is flawed, have they seen it? Can they tell us the chinks and weaknesses? Do they know how it was made. Do they know that the same states that are taking over also created these registers and handed them to the centre? Are we going back to our vomit? Do we throw the baby away with the bath water? Can’t we repair the damage? I am happy though that few people are now shouting that N8k is too small. It is a case of the haves speaking on behalf of have-nots and want to stop the poor from having a little. What a babel of disenfranchisement! They don’t even understand that more of such money in circulation stimulates demand and production and jobs. No wonder Jesus said the poor will remain with us. No one said the states should not share N2 trillion but the poor cannot have N500 billion. Nawa o!

  • Arise and shine

    Arise and shine

    He might not have meant it for public consumption but the social media is today’s George Orwell. The social media never sleeps. But it was a good thing. Akwa Ibom Governor Umo Eno said what the president and his governor colleagues would want aired in the open field. He said politicians are everywhere at government house without appointment. They want audience. He said he needs to work.  He however gave them a compromise. Let me work Monday through Wednesday and we can parley Thursday and Friday.

    If he spends all time in meetings, for instance, how would he organise the unveiling of his ARISE agenda, encompassing his vision for the state he is shepherding? How would he have had time to see some of the schools he visited recently to renovate and make a few model ones?

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    Politicians are flocking because they want IOUs redeemed. But the bigger IOUs are to the people, while not tossing them aside. It reflects the problem in society where government is the be-all and end-all of all things. Governor Eno is trying “to avoid scandal or temptation,”

    in the words of the great historian Edward Gibbons about a seductress Queen Theodora of Rome.

    It takes a delicate navigation as Governor Eno is doing to accommodate them while focusing on the big picture, like he is doing this week with his ARISE unveiling that will feature stakeholders including his predecessor, Udom Emmanuel. As a pastor, Gov Eno might be echoing Prophet Isaiah, Arise, and shine.

  • Back to reality

    Back to reality

    After about 11 years of clinging to an unreal name, Osun State is back to reality with the passing of the corrective ‘Osun State Anthem, Crest and Flag Amendment Bill 2023’ by the House of Assembly on July 17. The Speaker, Adewale Egbedun, said the new legislation would be sent to Governor Ademola Adeleke for assent, and replace the ‘State of Osun Anthem, Crest and Flag Law, 2012.’

     Osun State was created in August 1991.  “State of Osun,” a construction introduced more than 20 years later, was a creation of the Rauf Aregbesola administration. Aregbesola was two-term governor of the state from 2010 to 2018, and the name-change was part of his legacy.

     Adegboyega Oyetola, who succeeded Aregbesola and governed the state from 2018 to 2022, inherited the name created by his predecessor and kept it intact. Interestingly, his administration had reviewed some of Aregbesola’s policies but not the renaming of the state.  Both men are members of the same political party, All Progressives Congress (APC).

     Governor Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caused a stir at his inauguration in November 2022.  He announced some directives, including “An immediate reversal to the constitutionally recognised name of our state, Osun State.” He ordered that “All government insignia, correspondences and signages should henceforth reflect Osun State rather than State of Osun which is unknown to the Nigerian constitution.”  He said the directives would be “backed up with appropriate Executive orders.”

    The then Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity, Moshood Kunle Akande, who claimed to be speaking for the state’s then APC-dominated legislature, wasted no time expressing its opposition to the governor’s directive changing the state’s name.

     He argued: “The usage of the State Anthem, Crest and Flag is an enactment of the law and as such, its usage is a matter of law and not choice.” He said the legislature was “aware of a court judgement in effect recognising ‘Osun State,’ but “would not be drawn into this matter” before “the determination and exhaustion of all legal means.”

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    The March 2023 House of Assembly election in the state changed the situation as the PDP emerged as the majority party in the legislature, winning 25 seats while the APC won only one seat. When power changed hands in the legislature, the name-change Adeleke ordered was inevitable.  

    The governor’s directive was based on law and legality. There are in fact two court judgements that recognised Osun State and rubbished “State of Osun.”  Within three years, two law courts judged that “State of Osun” did not mean Osun State, and the constructions should not be used interchangeably.

    In June 2020, Justice Mathias Agboola of the Osun State High Court, Osogbo, had declared that, legally and constitutionally, “State of Osun” did not exist. He also declared that, under the Nigerian constitution, only Osun State could be said to exist.

     Justice Agboola, in his judgement in a case brought before the court by a lawyer, Mr Kanmi Ajibola, against the state government over a personal tax of N5.3m that the state Internal Revenue Service had asked him to pay, said it amounted to “artistic colouration” when Osun State was referred to as “State of Osun.”

    Ajibola had asked the court to declare the law upon which the tax was based as illegal since it was a law made by “The House of Assembly of State of Osun,” a body unknown to the constitution. “The issue of Osun State and the ‘State of Osun’ is a loud one,” the judge had observed.  

    Before this, in December 2017, Justice Yinka Afolabi of the Osun State High Court, Ilesha, had given the same verdict on the matter. Justice Afolabi’s words: “The executive governor of the state changed the name in 2011. The renaming of a state goes further and deeper for anyone to single-handedly do. To re-order the name of Osun State as ‘State of Osun’ is hereby declared as illegal, null and void.”

    The same Ajibola had instituted a case challenging the legality of the “State of Osun Land Use Charge Law.’’ He asked the court to declare that the “State of Osun Land Use Charge Law 2016,” having been enacted by a legislative body that is not known to the constitution and the state not known to the 1999 constitution, was illegal and unconstitutional.

    The judge had ruled in his favour. After the verdict, Ajibola had said jubilantly: “The judgement has pronounced ‘State of Osun’ dead and so be it. For now, the judgement subsists except there is any other contrary opinion by the higher court.”  

     In a notice of appeal filed in January 2018 at the Court of Appeal in Akure, the then State Attorney General, Dr Ajibola Basiru, had raised eight grounds of appeal against the judgement, asking the appellate court to set it aside. Nothing has been heard of the matter since then. It’s unclear if the Oyetola administration pursued the matter after inheriting it from the Aregbesola administration.

    These rulings invalidating “State of Osun” have not been overturned by a higher court.  Despite these decisions, officials of the state, according to reports, had continued using “State of Osun” in their official engagements and communications, which amounted to disregarding the law. 

    Governor Adeleke should be commended for respecting the law on this issue, and directing a return to the state’s constitutionally recognised name. The new legislature also acted correctly.  Those who clung to Aregbesola’s fantasy and revolutionary absurdity contradicted the law and can be described as lawbreakers. They were just deluding themselves.  Hopefully, they will now wake up to reality.

    It’s thought-provoking that Aregbesola introduced an unlawful construction, and the legislature collaborated with him to cosmeticise the unlawfulness. Ultimately, the Aregbesola administration and the legislature that backed him on the name-change were guilty of abuse of power. His immediate successor, Oyetola, and the legislature that perpetuated the illegality were no less culpable.

    The corrective law in Osun State underscores the supremacy of the country’s constitution as well as the unacceptability of power abuse at governmental levels.

  • NDLEA’s stray bullet

    NDLEA’s stray bullet

    It is not very often that the death of innocent Nigerians through stray bullets fired indiscriminately by sundry law enforcement agencies attracts considerable public attention and condemnation.

    The reason may in part be located in the frequency of such incidents which has seemingly inflicted in the psyche of citizens the feeling that they now constitute the rule than an exception. The cavalier handling of previous incidents by those in authority may also have dampened any optimism that those fingered in inexcusable fatal shootings would in verity, be made to account for their acts of indiscretion.

    But one of such unfortunate killings that could neither escape the prying eyes of the public nor key government officials was the recent death of a two-year old Ivan Omhonrina and the injuring of his younger sibling by a stray bullet fired by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.

    Reports had it that the two school children who were taking snacks in their mother’s shop at Okpanam in the Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State after being dropped off by their father were suddenly hit by a stray bullet fired by NDLEA operatives pursuing some drug suspects said to be operating in the area.

    The father of the children, Fidelis Omhonrina gave a very touching account of the incident. He had just dropped off the school children and left for his business when his wife called him to come back as the intestines of Ivan were coming out and their other child had shards of glasses all over him. Before he could turn back, he got another call asking him to proceed to the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba.

    But he rather opted to visit her wife’s shop to ascertain what actually happened. Nobody was prepared to open up to him until someone told him of how some NDLEA officials were chasing drug sellers. He later saw officials of the agency in their vehicles fully armed coming towards the house still looking for other people that were running. It was then that someone came behind him and whispered that ‘NDLEA officials shot my son’.

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    Armed with that mortal piece of information, Fidelis went to one of the officials and confronted him with the sad story. But he did not listen to him. The confused father of the children then brought out his phone to record the incident but was quickly confronted by another official who cocked his gun threatening him to surrender the phone else. But he refused after all, “they had already killed my son and there was no bigger harm they could inflict on me”.

    At that point, one of the NDLEA officials in the Sienna car came down to inquire what the matter was all about. “I told them they killed my son” He signalled others, they quickly jumped into their vehicles and fled. Fidelis said he also entered his own car and pursued them. A trending video showed a vehicle pursuing the NDLEA officials shouting: “They killed my son, NDLEA killed my son”.

    Apparently rattled by the desperation and helplessness of the grieving father, the officials stopped along the way and asked why he was following them. He again told them that they killed his son and they started to beg him that the incident was not intentional.

    He was later taken to their boss before he proceeded to the hospital where doctors battled to save Ivan’s life but he succumbed to the cold hands of death. His sibling was a bit lucky as doctors were able to stabilize him after removing debris of glass lodged in his eyes. That was the sad story of the Omhonrinas.    

    Either on account of the age of the toddlers or the circumstance of the shooting, the incident attracted the attention of the high and mighty. President Tinubu has waded into the matter, condemning it in very strong terms. He has also directed the management of the NDLEA to speedily and thoroughly investigate the incident with a view to punishing those who foisted agony on the innocent family.

    But the House of Representatives which equally condemned the killing would rather have the Inspector General of Police IGP take over the investigations, prosecute all those involved in the shooting that killed the boy and ensure justice for the family.

     There have been other high level reactions to the incident including that from the Delta State governor. It is good a thing this singular incident has aroused the consciousness of the country to the mortal danger stray bullets pose to the lives of the citizenry. Hopefully, this particular killing will not be swept under the carpet just like many before it. So the Omhonrina family may after all get justice as all those behind the unfortunate incident are made to pay for their acts of indiscretion.

    But no amount of compensation or punishment to the offending officers will bring Ivan back to life. No amount of compensation will suffice to wipe off the sorrows inflicted on the young family by the way and manner the toddler was sent to his early grave. That is the uncanny irony the situation presents. And that is why the scourge of stray bullets or its twin sister-accidental discharge has to be avoided like a plague.

    But the new disposition will send a bold signal to law enforcement agencies on the inelasticity of public temperament with the frequency of such avoidable killings. It should instruct strict adherence to the rules of engagement in such matters. The point would have been made and very clearly too that those who shoot indiscriminately without regard to the incalculable harm they entail, will henceforth be made to face the music. That appears the message elevated to the fore by the interest of the presidency in the incident.

    But this killing is just one out of the litany of such cases that dot the entire landscape. A couple of weeks ago, 17-year old Ibuchim Ofezie was killed in his shop by a stray bullet fired by operatives of the Nigerian Police in Jos, Plateau State. The policemen who were enforcing the ban on commercial motorcycles had stormed the terminus market chasing those operating there.

    They allegedly shot sporadically and their bullet killed Ibuchim right inside his shop. Though five of the police men involved in the shooting were arrested but that may be the last the public will hear of the incident.

     A 24-year old man, Idris Jagun also lost his life to similar incident in the Oregun area of Lagos State. He died of bullet wounds he sustained when the police fired into a fighting crowd in a bid to disperse them. These are just a few of recent cases of the harm wrought on the lives of innocent citizens by the scourge of stray bullets. But they underscore the gravity and deadly nature of the challenge.

    That is why the new awareness raised by the intervention of the presidency must be sustained. But it remains doubtful if the offending law enforcement agencies are in a proper stead to investigate and do justice to infractions arising from the misconduct of their men in the performance of their duties.

    There is subsisting public doubt that the police for instance, will be impartial when investigating such cases involving their men given their very nature. The same applies to other law enforcement agencies including the NDLEA if they are now to investigate, bring their men to face the raw teeth of the law and ensure justice for the aggrieved.

    If we are desirous to discourage the frequency of stray bullets fired indiscriminately by law enforcement agencies, we must take away investigations in such cases from the very agencies whose officials are being probed. That will make for impartiality and ensure the aggrieved families receive justice. The government could consider inter agency panels for such investigations.

    But it appears the laws setting up these law enforcement organizations do not permit of such. And that is where the real problem lies. The conduct of the NDLEA officials when they were told they just killed an innocent child left much to be desired. They were callous as they showed no sympathy initially to the grieving father of the boy. They may be doing well in the fight against banned drugs. But they should not allow overzealousness on the part of some of their officials to mar whatever progress they have made.

    One of them even had the temerity to cock his gun threatening to shoot him. On display were evidences of poor training in appropriate use of firearms, disrespect for human rights and amateurism in conflict de-escalation techniques.  But for the fact that Fidelis risked his life pursuing them, they may have even disappeared into the thin air or come out later with spurious excuses.

    Fidelis was even lucky that he came out alive. If he had such encounter with some other organs of law enforcement, the story may have been different. He may not even live to tell the story. That is how bad such situations have become. If the high level interest shown in this singular case will bring sanity to the wanton killing of innocent citizens by stray bullets, Ivan would not have died in vain. May the soul of the poor child find peace in God’s bosom!

  • Crude oil theft: Matters arising

    Crude oil theft: Matters arising

    When former Niger Delta militants’ leader, Asari Dokubo recently claimed that 99 per cent of crude oil thefts in the country were traceable to the Nigerian Army and the Navy, many considered the allegation outlandish.

    His controversial antecedents and inability to provide credible evidence may have diminished the potency of the allegation. But that may not be enough to offhandedly dismiss the issue he raised as lacking in merit.

    Hear him: “The military is at the centre of oil theft, and we have to make this very clear to the Nigerian public that 99 per cent of oil theft can be traced to the Nigerian military: the army and the Navy, especially”

    He spoke to State House correspondents after he had audience with President Tinubu during which meeting he said, discussions centred on oil theft and security. It is possible Dokubo raised the same weighty allegation in his discussions with the president.

     The Nigerian military has denied the allegation arguing they had conducted several successful operations to curb oil theft in the country. In separate statements, the Nigerian Army and the Navy dared Dokubo to furnish evidence to substantiate his claims. That may prove a hard nut for Dokubo to crack

    But events seem to be fast according credence to the claim by the former militant leader in spite of the refutation by the military. Facts surrounding last week’s interception and subsequent destruction of an 800,000-tonne capacity vessel with stolen crude oil, point to the direction that Dokubo’s allegation may after all, not be a ruse.

    Not with all the shady activities ascribed to the vessel in the last 12 years. Not with the revelation that the vessel had been caught twice in the same criminal business and handed over to the Nigerian Navy. Curiously, each time it was handed over to the Navy, the vessel resurfaced with a disguised name to continue its shady deals.

    Apprehended in the wee hours of penultimate Friday, following discrete surveillance by a private security company, the vessel which was conveying the stolen crude oil to Cameroon had 11 Nigerians and one Ghanaian on board at the time of its arrest.

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL gave a troubling account of the devious escapades of the vessel owned by a Nigerian registered company when it revealed that its’ original name- Ali Riza-Bey had been altered to MT Tura 11 to evade security. The NNPCL rationalized the destruction of the vessel for serially being used for crude oil stealing.

    The identities of those arrested on board of the rogue vessel as well as owners of the Nigerian registered company have remained curiously cloudy. How come the rogue vessel operated for 12 years changing names after each arrest and yet gets away with such criminality?

    At what point was this serial criminality discovered-before the recent arrest or thereafter? And what made it possible for the vessel to get away with its criminal escapades all through these years. What really changed now that made the arrest possible?

     Yes, the vessel has been destroyed to serve as a deterrent to future offenders. But that is just scratching the surface of the organized syndicate responsible for stealing crude oil in our territorial waters. The incident is just a tip of the iceberg on the monumental looting of the nation’s crude oil in the high seas by sundry rogue and unpatriotic elements.

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      Figures released by the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, in April this year, indicated that the country lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.

    This may be a rough projection given the difficulty in recording crude oil theft in view of the illicit nature of the business. Had the ill-fated vessel not been caught, it remained to be conjectured how the attendant loss would have been figured out by NEITI.

    Nonetheless, the figures illustrate the incalculable harm wrought on the collective patrimony of the suffering citizenry by crude oil thieves. They underscore most poignantly, the enormity of the challenge and why the current incident must be methodically investigated to get at the root of all those involved in this economic sabotage.

    The investigation should unveil those behind the activities of the rogue vessel, the government agencies and security officials under whose supervision the vessel had a free reign all through these years. It is important to unravel why the vessel has been operating and changing names in the last 12 year and yet nothing happened.

    The Navy was fingered as taking custody of the vessel on each of the occasions it was arrested. We need to locate the officials who were handed over the vessel to explain the circumstances that brought about this odious pass. They have a very serious case to answer whether they are still in service or out of it.

    Had they been handed over the vessel this time as they demanded, we may have had the vicious cycle of the scandal to contend with for a longer time.  It is possible someone high up there has been covering up the stealing by the vessel. That person or syndicate must be unmasked else the drama of the arrest and destruction of the vessel will be of little consequence.

     Beyond these, this singular arrest has miserably elevated to the fore some of the reservations for which fuel subsidy removal had in the past, received strident opposition from the citizenry. Here; the amount of revenue lost to crude oil theft in the face of frequent reminders by the government of what it loses by subsidizing domestic consumption of fuel comes into mind.

    When the cost of crude oil that would have been lost to Cameroon in the ill-fated deal is paired with the figures from the NEITI, the enormity of the loss becomes more glaring. Yet, this does not include losses from unrecorded crude oil theft.

     So the real issue is not just about what the government loses by ‘subsidizing’ domestic fuel consumption. Of critical importance are losses incurred from the high volume of crude oil theft due to negligence or connivance by responsible government agencies. If a particular vessel could be arrested twice in the last 12 years, yet it continued to operate in the illegal business without let or hindrance, then the matter is that hopeless.

    The country’s oil revenue losses are likely to accrue more from unrestrained crude oil theft than fuel subsidy removal. The figures given as losses from crude oil thefts strike as mere projections in view of the difficulty in getting accurate data from such illicit businesses.

    We have just been told by the federal government that domestic fuel consumption has reduced by a monthly average of 18.5 million litres in June. Figures released by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) showed that average daily petrol consumption fell to 48.43 million litres in June as against a previous average of 66.9 million litres.

    NMDPRA also said fuel smuggling collapsed in the neighbouring countries of Benin, Cameroon and Togo after fuel subsidy removal. These should be obvious fallouts of fuel subsidy removal.

     But reduction in domestic consumption will inescapably adversely affect government revenue projections. The situation is a bit intricate. A monthly average domestic fuel consumption drop of 18.5 million litres would imply a reduction in government revenue by that margin. When this is paired with the revenue accruals consequent upon fuel subsidy removal, one may discover that the projected revenue receipts may have substantially dropped.

    So the promise of re-investing the revenue projected from fuel subsidy removal and the prospects it holds for the citizenry may be jolted by the huge drop in revenue from domestic fuel consumption. That is the emerging dialectics in the fuel subsidy debate.

  • How will Tinubu fight corruption?

    How will Tinubu fight corruption?

    It’s an inevitable question that urgently demands a reassuring answer: How will the Tinubu administration fight corruption? Last week, the question came up indirectly at two different events. It was indirect, but direct in its implication.

    At an event in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, on July 10, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Call to Bar of Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), activist lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) observed that “The level of corruption in Nigeria has assumed a very dangerous dimension.”  He said: “We have a situation whereby highly placed public officers steal money meant for building hospitals, people are dying on our roads, money for ecology meant to fight erosion are also being stolen.”

    Falana added: “President Bola Tinubu must show leadership and lead an anti- corruption crusade.

    “Some of those who are going in and out of the villa are standing trial for looting the treasury of this country. So, wrong signals must not be sent to our people and the international community.”

    This event was followed by a two-day national anti-corruption conference in Abuja, July 11-12, organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) and the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch (CEFTIW). The theme was “Nigeria and the Fight Against Corruption – Reviewing the Buhari Regime and Setting Agenda for the Tinubu Administration.”

    HEDA chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, in his assessment of the Tinubu administration’s first steps towards fighting corruption, said: “If we want to go by what has been happening so far in terms of the fight against corruption, we can’t for now, say that we have any good reason to believe that there is going to be any serious fight against corruption.”

    President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration took place on May 29, less than two months ago. About two weeks after he came to power, he sent a strong anti-corruption signal by approving the “indefinite suspension” of the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, “to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office.” The move, according to the federal government, was prompted by “weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.” What are these allegations? Are they old accusations or fresh ones?

    Just before Tinubu’s inauguration, there had been corruption-related allegations against Bawa that dented the agency’s credibility. For instance, the then governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, had dropped a bombshell, alleging that Bawa “requested a bribe of $2 million from me and I have evidence of this.”

     Also, anti-corruption crusaders in the country, led by the chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Debo Adeniran, had called for an in-depth investigation of the anti-graft agency under Bawa by “a technical Commission of Inquiry,” which would “dig into the modus operandi of EFCC investigations in the last three years by thoroughly analysing records of arrests, investigations, outcomes and final closure of each incident and individual suspects and how the matters were eventually dispensed with.”

    The anti-corruption activists alleged that “Some of the commission’s officials simply negotiate with suspects, get assets and cash retrieved and do plea bargains. This opens limitless opportunities for corrupt bargaining and self-enrichment by the operatives of EFCC.”

    On the performance of the EFCC under Bawa, they faulted his claims that the agency had secured 98.93 percent of convictions in 2022, losing only 1.07 percent, and noted that most of the convictions involved online fraudsters, and that high-profile political players were treated as sacred cows.

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    It’s been more than a month since Bawa’s suspension. He was later arrested. But there has been no further news about him. The authorities need to say and do more beyond his suspension and arrest.   

    The EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are symbolic of the country’s fight against corruption. Fighting corruption is serious business, and these anti-corruption agencies must not give the impression that they are mere anti-corruption symbols.

    Nigeria’s immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari, made a lot of noise about fighting corruption, but positive results were hardly visible.  “We must work tirelessly to get rid of corruption by fighting it 24/7,” he said enthusiastically at an anti-corruption event, in September 2022, in New York, USA. “This fight is a necessity and not a choice to give our citizens a better life through economic prosperity, social peace and security.”

    Contradictorily, five months earlier, in April 2022, the Buhari administration had made a move that was widely seen as a corruption-friendly action.

    The Buhari presidency had controversially listed a former governor of Taraba State, Rev. Jolly Nyame, and a former governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye, among 159 people granted pardon and clemency based on the approval of the Council of State following recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM).

     They were two-term governors from 1999 to 2007.   Nyame was serving a 12-year jail term, and Dariye was serving a 10-year jail term. “Both men were jailed for criminal misappropriation, diversion of public funds, and criminal breach of public trust and misappropriation of public funds,” the EFCC had said in a statement. 

    They were not expected to be set loose without completing their prison terms. Their indefensible pardon was ultimately counter-productive. It sent the wrong message to those who occupy high office in the country that corruption-related imprisonment is not to be taken seriously, and can always be cancelled by the powers that be. 

    It is noteworthy that as EFCC boss Bawa had said that there were certain provisions in the EFCC establishment Act that gave the agency powers similar to those under the UK’s “Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO).”

    He explained: “Section 7, subsection 1b of the Act says the ‘commission has the power to cause investigation to be conducted into the properties of any person that appears to the commission that the person’s lifestyle and the extent of the properties are not justified by his source of income.’

    “This means without any complaint, if it comes to our knowledge that you have amassed so many properties that are not justified by your source of income, the EFCC can ask questions. That is the simple explanation regarding the Unexplained Wealth Order .”

     Unexplained wealth can be inexplicable. The EFCC should use its power to demand explanations concerning unexplained wealth.  It is useful to have such power. It should be used effectively.

    It remains to be seen how President Tinubu will tackle corruption. But there is no question that Nigeria needs to fight corruption, and win the anti-corruption war.  The people are tired of the monotonous song about fighting corruption.  They want to see anti-corruption results.

  • Robin Hood economy

    Robin Hood economy

    The Tinubu administration’s strategy for the economy brings up the concept of Robin Hood.

     The English throw him up as one of their major eponymous heroes.

     He was man as legend, a terror of the patrician class, a swordsman as go-getter, a lifetime as a cause, an equalizer of resources.

    No self-delusion like the grandiloquent swordsman of the best novel ever written, Don Quixote, who mistook himself for the masses. Robin Hood’s vanity was in the right place: with the people.

     He was no pure hero, and history has never embalmed a creature without a flaw. But Robin Hood was peculiar as a rough-hewn ancestor of Karl Marx, Fabian socialists and the welfare state.

     He was a warrior who upturned his martial acumen and morphed into a traitor of the feudal class.

     He would raid the rich in gold and food and hand them to the poor.

    He was the people’s brigand. As a ballad, A Gest of Robin Hode, describes him, “Of the good he shall have some/if he be a poor man.” Plays, films and adventure stories have inked his heroics. Shakespeare endorsed him in two plays. Ben Jonson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Thomas Paine cruised on his tales. He haunted the French Revolution. Even those who loathed him were villains like the Republican fellows who banned his stories as a heartthrob for communism in the United States during the McCarthy Era.

    The first person to decorate President Bola Tinubu as Robin Hood is former Lagos State governor, then governor of example, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). He should know. Some see it as a term of endearment. Some have skewed it with mischief. But whatever his flaws, Robin Hood was a soul after the commoner’s heart. His lion’s heartbeat for the poor.

    That was behind the policy to do away with fuel subsidy and turn the money over to the little guy. One was $800 million, and that amounts to over N500 billion. There has, however, been a mix-up in the public imagination between the supplementary budget that includes an $800 million loan for cash to the poor and the N500 billion saved from the subsidy. News hysteria should be restrained for the facts. The mistake is probably because $800 million equates a little over N500 billion. Tinubu came with a number of measures in what he described as a national emergency on food security. It is a wide swath of programmes, some of which, I hear, have not yet been unveiled. One, the $800 million that entails the N8,000 for the very poor households. Two, N19.2 billion for agriculture and that will help farmers immiserated from floods. The allocation of N70 billion whose details we are awaiting and the N35 billion to the judiciary do not belong to this programme. The N10 billion for Abuja may, in parts, address the question of poverty.

     The declaration against food security is the first time we are cohering food policy with security. There has been some hoopla as to whether it made sense to give N8,000 to the poor. Such critics do not live where the real people are. It has been said in some circles that it is nothing new. The United States has done it over time. So has the United Kingdom. Covid was an example. We infested ours with corruption. What the West gave its citizens compares with ours. We only put flies in our own ointment. During the George W. Bush era, he won an election on a promise of cash transfers of a few hundred dollars. The real point is not just the amount of money but because such an infusion would stimulate demand in the economy. Economists like Keynes call it demand-pull, and it vitalised the New Deal of President Franklyn Roosevelt during the Great Depression. When such monies are doled out, no one saves. They spend them. People buy and sell and that helps drive production and boost jobs. Bringing such an amount of money into the economy through the people’s spending is one great way to nourish a system.

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    Some have asked, how will the money get to the poor? Others have said we should have done census first. They are a little confused. We cannot wait for a census in an emergency. But that view also advertises ignorance. They do not know the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO) that has a database of the Nigerian poor. The agency will cross-check its data with the National Cash Transfer Office to get this money across. Reporters should investigate it. I gathered that all beneficiaries do not have to have bank accounts but their information is documented. The document, according to my sources, is not cast in stone. The Labour Unions, my source adds, are welcome to coordinate their lists with them. Citizens without bank accounts will get codes to get cash on POS machines.

    My worry is if the operators of those machines do not gouge the poor and give less than they were allocated. Some wonder if this is a good chance of fraud. The government must guard against it. Since this is a policy for the people, the people will know if they get the money. The government expects it will be the people’s evidence against a doubting elite.  A hand-proof against Didymus. Doubts are not unfounded, though. They saw this recently when the former Humanitarian minister splurged billions on non-existent students.

    Ekiti State had it under Governor Kayode Fayemi, except that some poor complained that his government punished the mothers of successful children. A mother of a Customs officer griped that she was being punished for being a successful parent. While rigour is required, it cannot satisfy all. We want the utilitarian maxim of happiness for the greatest number of people.

    But this is different from the subsidy money that is being worked out in committees on transportation and mass transit, health and education, cost of governance, etc. Chief of Staff Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila is in the centre of some of this. The subsidy money will also look at agro-industrial zones to ensure that goods are shipped without inflationary pressures. We have one in Ogun State and the African Development Bank has identified about 19 across the country.

    If inflating the economy with cash will stimulate activity, it can also inflict high cost of goods. Inflation is a factor of dollar value. President Tinubu has unfettered forex, so it should bring down dollar value and prop the naira. A stronger naira will check the cost of goods. It is a smart idea. Banks must be monitored not to play Shylock with the currencies.

    “The inflation will not last, especially if we enforce the policy of not exporting raw materials,” said a source.

    Bringing the economy to the poor is not supposed to be easy. Even the poor will resist. The cash-for-the-poor policy is a Robin Hood idea. Nigerians who are not trusting it are those who are used to being duped by the government. Releasing money to farms also means strengthening security. Many farmers are coy to go to farm because of bandits. Farms with fertilisers but without farmers is stillborn agriculture.

    On the cash transfer, getting the money across is less a test of policy than a challenge of integrity. The howls of disputers should not deter the government. Doubt is not an excuse. The goal is gold. The money is no ghost. If implementers fail, a spectre of mistrust will dog the government.

    Taking from the rich to the poor in a modern Robin Hood style is more subtle than in the early Middle Ages when he reigned on horseback. It works today by stealth of policy, not the sword of valour. It is by redrawing the map of supply and demand. Shakespeare described it as “distribution undo excess and each man have enough.” That bard did not know Marx, just like Robin Hood. Shakespeare, Marx and Robin Hood knew the early Apostles’ commune and the tale of apostates.

    Food security is not fool’s gold. It is a national goal.

  • Horde of advisers

    Horde of advisers

    Enugu State House of Assembly just approved the appointment of 50 special advisers for Governor Peter Mbah. This was sequel to a request to that effect by the governor. The governor had anchored his request on the need for the advisers to assist him drive the required agenda to achieve exponential growth of the economy of the state even as he justified the appointments on section 196 (1-3) of the 1999 Constitution.

    The section among others permits a governor to appoint any person as a special adviser to assist him in the performance of his functions. The number of advisers and their remunerations shall be as prescribed by the law or by a resolution of the House of Assembly of the state.

    So the constitution did not set a limit to the number of advisers a governor could appoint to assist him in the performance of his functions. It left that decision to the House of Assembly of the states. By securing the approval of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Mbah acted in line with the law. With the approval however, the total number of such aides appointed by the governor since he assumed office shot up to about 77. 

    This is considered very unwieldy for a budding regime especially given the realities of the dire economic circumstances in which we live today. Before now, the trend had been in the direction of a reduction in bureaucracy to cut down the cost of governance.

    For an administration that is just taking off, it would have made better sense to start with a lean cabinet such that would enable the government cut cost and save money to tackle the complex developmental challenges of his state. Sadly, this new direction that instructs prudence in the conduct of governmental affairs has been dealt a death blow by the high number of special advisers Mbah just appointed.

    But the governor’s action is not entirely surprising. He appears to have followed the wrong footsteps of his predecessors elsewhere who had in the past, made a mockery of such appointments through the ridiculously high number of persons elevated to such positions.

    The difference between what those governors did and the current situation presented by Mbah is that they made such appointments after they had been in office for some years. Mbah opted to start with a very high number from the first weeks fuelling feelings that the number may go much higher by the time governmental functions expand.

    He has tried to rationalize the high number of appointees on the ground that they would assist him realize his vision to fast-track the development of the state. Good! But this argument did not factor in the negative effects of bloated appointments. If events in other states are anything to repose hope on, such appointments had always been at a very huge cost to them.

    We have had situations where people were appointed just to create job for the boys without clearly defined functions and roles. Many did not have offices and were even unknown to the governors that appointed them. How such disorganized and disoriented crowd can be of value in driving the administration of a state save for their nuisance value, is left to be figured out.

    Events during the regime of former governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade highlighted the ridiculous extent some governors went in replicating appointments of questionable hue.  He had in 2020 appointed more than 90 special advisers bringing the total to 100.

    As if the bazaar of appointments was not just enough, he later followed it up with the appointment of 1,106 advisers. The so-called advisers were largely made up of 799 persons who were appointed into the boards, commissions and agencies while 307 were engaged as special advisers, senior special advisers, special assistants and personal assistants.

    As usual, Ayade rationalized his crowd of appointees on the grounds of expanding government as a way of reducing poverty, increasing democratic participation and improving the value of service delivery. He is entitled to his opinion.

    But one fact that should not be lost is that Cross River State did not post a high revenue profile then in comparison with its contemporaries to justify the high number of appointees. As at the time Ayade made those appointments, the state’s revenue had nosedived having lost 76 offshore oil wells to a sister state in a protracted legal battle. So, it became a big puzzle how a relatively poor state could go on replicating appointments without regard to its effects on the overall health of the state.

    It may be helpful to factor in Imo and Rivers states to aid proper interrogation of some of the claims usually bandied to market the replication of positions in the name of political appointments.

     Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State had appointed liaison officers for the 305 wards of the state just as the 2023 elections drew nearer. He had in 2020 appointed 95 aides made up of 63 special advisers and 32 senior special assistants. And as usual, the purported aim is to upscale the development of the state.

    The case of Rivers State presents an intriguing situation. Governor Nyesom Wike, a few months before the last general elections, appointed 50,000 special assistants.  Curiously, he did not name the advisers who were expected to resume work immediately and play ‘pivotal’ role in the administration with a few months for him to leave office.

    Beyond the facade of the reasons adduced by Uzodimma and Wike, political observers saw the appointments as the beginning of another round of campaigns for the general elections. Many of the appointees were just floating without clearly defined assignment.

    The danger in servicing such largely redundant and unproductive appointees can be seen from the stagnation of the economies of those states in all indices of development. It is not just a mere coincidence that the 305 ward liaison officers and 50,000 special assistants were appointed by the two governors respectively on the eve of the elections.

    The driving force was to use them for all manner of odd jobs during the elections. And we saw this happen in the level of sundry electoral infractions in many states. Those appointees hold their offices at the behest of the governors and their terms of offices expire with those that appointed them. So the tenure of the 50,000 so-called special assistants appointed barely four months before the expiration of Wike’s tenure had since expired.

    If those appointed by Uzodimma are all still there, the story will soon change after the coming governorship elections. Yes, there is no doubting the fact that well-structured appointments will lead to job creation, efficient delivery of public goods and services.

     But there is a limit beyond which unguarded replication of political appointments will become fatally injurious to the health of those states. Fatality will ensue from the unproductively of some of the appointees and its consequence on the finances of those states.

    Such unwieldy appointments encourage the miserable feeling that politics is a profession and that people will have to depend on government patronage to earn a living. That misconception accounts for the large number of school leavers and youths who now see politics a means of livelihood- a disposition that accounts for all the ills associated with politics on these shores.

    Extant realities can no longer permit of avoidable duplication of political appointments at all levels of governance. Job creation can be better approximated through infrastructural development both at the federal, state and local government levels. This should be more enduring than questionable political appointments that raise the tastes of beneficiaries and goad them into doing just anything just to remain politically relevant.

    If the local government administration had not been emasculated by state governors through tampering with their funds, much of those who run to the state levels for patronage would have found accommodation at the third tier of governance. That would have obviated the need to accommodate them with appointments of spurious description. The times no longer call for bloated bureaucracies that end up depleting available resources and render governance ineffective.