The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • In defence of Falcons splash

    In defence of Falcons splash

    ‘For upon all the glory shall be a defence,’ Prophet Isaiah.

    When they played, we cheered. When they were paid, we jeered. They received a pot of joy but we are throwing potshots.

    There was a lot of hoopla over the largesse showered on the Super Falcons who brought glory to the nation. The sum, N153 million, is no doubt a hefty bite.

    But so was their performance. Some commentators have said the money undermines the services of other patriots, and they ought not enjoy that sort of magnificence, too.  A writer spewed statistics to show how doctors, teachers, et al, earn too little compared with what the ladies of soccer took home.

    I had exchanges with a few wise men, and how wrong they were. One person, while comparing our girls’ bounty with what England paid Burna Boy to serenade the English team’s captain, noted it was done not by government but by their Football Association. Good argument.

    Another said their English counterpart visited their Prime Minister Keir Starmer without an outpouring of pounds sterling. Great point, too. Except that they fail to understand that the system of western societies has imprimaturs of gratitude. They are built to reward athletes for the rest of their lives. Gratitude flows in the system until they grow old. They get jobs, endorsement, contracts as a reward system built over the years.

    Their careers on the stage are fleeting. But what they enjoy is systemic compensation. Unlike in Nigeria where their sun goes down when the spotlight shifts, they move from spotlight to sunshine, though mostly under the radar. This is not for the British alone, but the west, including the United States and Canada.

    What has happened to Michael Phelps, the all-time Olympic star? He does not play again, but he cannot starve because his talent is a treasure. They will have to keep him as a role model, and today he is doing many things as mental health advocate, philanthropist and business man. The system yields itself to pay back. An affluent society makes room for its own heroes. Things cannot be too tight for its titans.

    But it is not the case with us. Part of the reason is that this is a poor country. Secondly, we may applaud our heroes in public, but do we help them as a society? It is not the case of sports heroes alone. It is all over. It is not a government flaw. It is cultural drawback. Government can only start the dialogue but society must embrace it.

    Look at some of our best. Let us begin with Best Ogedegbe, the great goal keeper. Sebestian Broderick, the ace defender and coach. Sunday Eboigbe, Charles Bassey, Joe Erico, Kadiri Ikhana. Not long ago, we wept over the fate of Peter Fregene, who struggled to pay his health bills until the Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori came calling.

    But he had been too neglected for long decades for any help to change a riptide. What of Rashidi Yekini, and his woes that mangled our faces to tears before he passed on? The society looked with impotence as newspaper article over article played out his mental and financial struggles.

    We cannot forget so easily what ace defender Christian Chukwu suffered even in spite of the intervention of Femi Otedola. The man Ernest Okonkwo praised as chairman, a charismatic presence in defence, could not move his limbs. Time mocks nature, and belittles the memory of our agile years. It watches as we slow and fade.

    My boyhood hero Haruna Ilerika died a poor man. Then Governor of example Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), like the good Sheriff with Fregene, stepped in for him, but the star of the 1970’s Second All Africa Games gold medal and Stationary Stores Maestro had struggled for too many years trying to make a living before the good governor came calling. Ilerika, who made mincemeat of defenders with dribbles as poetry might have been a Messi in his time.

    But he did not play in Europe because soccer stars were homebound in those days.

    I know of an Olympic-class boxer who was a street neighbour as a young man who struggled in a one-bedroom apartment in Surulere after his golden years had punched vitality out of him.

    These girls, most of them, may never get this treasure for the rest of their lives. It might be the only pension their passion will grant them, except of course those of them who play in Europe, to whom even $100,000 may not be that much for them compared to what they earn.

    A doctor may not earn this, nor a journalist, nor a teacher, nor a cleaner, all of whom deserve accolades. But most of them can earn, no matter how little, incomes up to their hoary ages. The athlete has a meteor of a career, and a few years of glory.

     They, like Peter Rufai, cannot live on their paltry income to their old age. It is not what you earn as a young person that matters as much as whether they can sustain you when their powers fail for fertility and gain. In his play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams says you can live without money when you are young but you cannot live without money when you grow old.

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    I read a poem authored by an unknown person lamenting the toils and sacrifice of a soldier. They do not get as much, yet they give their lives as sacrifices for country. It is a moving poem. I think it reinforces the value of sacrifice, and President Tinubu did it to families of fallen heroes of the army last year with life scholarship to their children and forever homes for their families.

     That should have triggered conversations for the country’s heroes of all types but some are using the wrong accolade for argument. Soldiers did not do it for their own while in power for a generation.

     A democratic president has done for them what no military leader did for them. In his novel The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad wrote that the first impulse of “luxury and opulence is security.”

    In advanced countries, athletes, especially in soccer and other group sports, enjoy abundance, and it is society that gives it to them.

    Sports has replaced worship there, and they cherish their sports heroes like mystic figures. In the United States, their version of football is described as a religion because the game takes the hallow of faith, like a ritual for a shrine, and the citizens attend their shrines on Sundays. They describe baseball as American pastime. I would not make the case for a person like Michel Obi or Osimen. Not all who play professional earn a lot. We should always make the distinctions.

    We have faith without works.  We have faith in our players but give little offerings. They are deities without pots of life. Love that does not give. Faith without fetish.

    Some of the rage stems from partisan resentment but we should rise above it for our Falcon heroines. The Falcons were rewarded by the falconer, so let us allow the things to fall in their pleasant places. May things not fall apart for them in their old age when their only thank you is that they would be hailed as once famous when they cannot pay their rent or pay their masseurs.

  • A new constitution or amended version?

    A new constitution or amended version?

    The debate on whether Nigeria’s national questions are best addressed through an entirely new constitution or amended version resonated last week. It formed a major plank of the resolutions of The Patriots after their national summit on “The Future of Nigeria’s Constitutional Democracy”, held in Abuja.

    It could also be discerned from the reported disagreement between governors, Alex Otti and Hope Uzodinma of Abia and Imo states respectively on the desirability of creating more states in the country. The issue is no less evident in the refutation by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio of reports that the National Assembly has approved the creation of additional states.

    The Patriots are a group of elder statesmen and women and diverse interest groups led by Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth in collaboration with the Nigerian Political Summit Group (NPSG)

    In a communique at the end of their summit, they “agreed that the 1999 constitution (as amended) is deeply flawed and unrepresentative in that it was not made by the people and is inadequate for addressing the country’s pluralism and the various challenges confronting Nigeria as a nation”. They were also in unison on the need for a new people-driven, inclusive, democratic constitution anchored on true federalism.

    To actualise this and other reforms, the summit agreed that the president be requested to introduce an Executive Bill to the National Assembly to empower the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC organise elections to a National Constituent Assembly of delegates elected on a non-partisan basis. It shall be the responsibility of the Constituent Assembly to actualise a peoples’ democratic constitution that will be subjected to a referendum before it is assented to by the president to midwife a peoples’ democratic constitution, The Patriots further agreed.

    The issues raised by The Patriots are not entirely new. They formed the basis for the National Political Reforms Conference of the Obasanjo era and the National Conference organised by the Jonathan regime. But as fate would have it, none of them was implemented before those regimes wound up. The Patriots want the current constitution to give way for an entirely new democratic one by the people through representatives elected on a non-partisan basis and anchored on true federalism. 

    Other key recommendations are the restructuring of the six geo-political zones to ensure true federalism, devolution of powers to reduce excess power concentration at the centre and electoral reforms.  They want amendments to the Electoral Act and the relevant sections of the 1999 constitution (as amended) for Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and electronic transmission of results in real time to be made mandatory.

    Barring elected officials from defecting to another political party before the end of their tenure or lose their seats if they switch camps, equity in statutory rotation of headship of national security agencies among sub-national units, creation of state police and secularity of the Nigerian state are other item for constitutional amendment.

    At the zonal public hearing on constitutional amendments by the House of Representatives in Owerri, Governor Uzodinma, while making a case for the creation of additional states, faulted the idea of wholesale scrapping of the current constitution. He reasoned that “like most constitutions around the world, ours is a work in progress. Let us continue to build on it. There is no perfect constitution anywhere in the world”

    He called for the creation of at least two additional states in the southeast even as he fingered ‘Anim State’ as a priority on the ground that it will have the status of an oil producing state upon creation.

    Otti’s view on the creation of additional states in the country especially in the volume the demand is coming is that it will be an additional burden to shoulder. Though he admits state creation will address concerns of exclusion of some ethnic and religious groups in the current structure, he is for an inclusive governance model in the states, one that gives every major clan a say in the allocation of resources, a seat at the decision-making table and the structural leverage to advance their political and economic interests.

    That is the level of divergence in opinions thrown up by the propriety of creating new states. Vicariously, Uzodinma shared in Otti’s fears when he sought to justify the creation of ‘Anim State’ on the basis of oil that can be found within its soil.

    But reacting to a seeming misrepresentation of his views on state creation, Otti further explained in a statement by his media aide that he had over the years advocated a six regional structure to reduce the cost of governance. He clarified that since a zone in the north has seven states, others six with the southeast trailing with only five states, there could be an additional state for the southeast to balance the disequilibrium. But not to create new states across the geo-political zones.

    The Senate entered the fray when it issued a statement denying that the National Assembly had approved a certain number of new states. Senate President Godswill Akpabio said during plenary that although 42 proposals for new states were received by the constitution review committee, none has scaled through full rigorous legislative process.

    The issue here is not as much with state creation as the dissonance in the modalities for a constitution that accommodates and reflects the pluralities of true federalism-one capable of addressing the fundamental systemic challenges that have over the years, held down the progress and development of this country.

    Can the review substantially address the structural imbalances that nurture divisions, mutual mistrust and slide to centrifugalism among the constituents? That is the issue to contend with especially given the shape these challenges have assumed in recent times.

    That is the point driving the agitation for a new constitution and restructuring the country along the six-political zones. But there are others who do not share this view. They believe the National Assembly has all it takes to initiate constitutional amendments that will take away Nigeria from the many flaws that had stood against its progress and development. They also point at the incongruity in the advocacy for the convocation of a constituent assembly when elected members of the National Assembly are still in place.

    The issue is whether the constitution review committees of the Senate and House Representatives can in verity, actuate the fundamental changes that will satisfy equity, fairness and guarantee the pluralism of a federal governance framework. In the debate between state creation and restructuring the country along the six geo-political zones given the unviability of many states, how far can the powers of the constitution review committees go?

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    The recent creation of six regional development commissions by the federal government and the inauguration of National Assembly committees for oversight functions further raise that stakes on the desirability, value and functionality of that governance framework.

    Beyond this, the National Assembly is progressing with its constitutional review process having constituted the two committees early last year. There are no definite timelines for the committees to complete their assignments even as the deputy speaker of the House, Benjamin Kalu had promised at inauguration that the new constitution would be ready in 24 months.

     Issues for amendment by the committees include devolution of powers, fiscal federalism, state police and local government autonomy. Others are constitutional roles for traditional institutions, inclusivity, equity and women representation into elective and appointive positions. Comprehensive electoral reforms to address the gaps identified in the 2023 general elections as well as the strengthening of greater institutional accountability also featured prominently in the agenda of the review committees.

    There is a common thread around the items for urgent constitutional review by The Patriots and the National Assembly. The only point of disagreement is that while The Patriots want the 1999 constitution thrown overboard, the National Assembly views incremental changes as the way out.

    Perhaps, this disagreement is fuelled by a seeming lack of confidence in the capacity of the National Assembly to come up with far-reaching changes-ones that will realistically and substantially address the contentious issues of our federal order. The body language of the National Assembly especially its inability to stand up as an independent arm of the government has not helped matters.

    The nation is facing serious systemic stress, tilting it to the precipice. This makes fundamental constitutional amendments imperative. Devolving more powers to the constituents including fiscal federalism, state police and local government autonomy are issues to be resolved before the next elections. It is time to fill the gaps created by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on local government autonomy.

    But all these may come to naught, if the National Assembly fails to review the Electoral Act and relevant sections of the constitution to make BVAS and electronic transmission of results in real time mandatory. It is nigh impossible to conceive of a democratic constitution when the lynchpin on which the wheels of democracy (free, fair and credible elections) revolves is heavily flawed.

  • In search of foreign healers

    In search of foreign healers

    When the immediate past civilian president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, and a former military ruler of the country, Abdulsalami Abubakar, were both hospitalised at the same London facility, at the same period, it was a perfect picture of the imperfections of the country’s medical system. 

    Buhari’s death from an undisclosed illness at the elite private hospital known as The London Clinic, on July 13, predictably raised further questions about Nigerian leaders and their penchant for medical tourism. He was 82. 

    After his death, Abubakar, 83, was reported saying he was “in the same hospital together with Buhari but I have been discharged.” He was military head of state from 1998 to 1999.   

    Seeking healthcare in foreign lands is not peculiar to this category of Nigerians. Indeed, it can be described as a “disease” afflicting many Nigerians who can afford to go abroad for medical purposes.

    When political leaders, particularly those at high levels in the political hierarchy, routinely seek medical attention abroad, it suggests that they failed to improve their country’s medical system.  Buhari was reported to have spent at least 225 days abroad for medical purposes during his eight-year period in office.

    His reported medical tourism to the UK as president included six days in February 2016, 10 days in June 2016, 50 days from January 2017, 104 days from May 2017, four days in May 2018, 15 days in March 2021, 12 days in March 2022, two weeks from October 31 to November 13, 2022.  

    It was a historic triumph for Buhari, a retired army general and former military head of state, when he was democratically elected President of Nigeria in 2015 after three unsuccessful attempts in 2003, 2007, and 2011.   He achieved the feat following a significant merger of opposition parties leading to the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC), his party when he won the presidential election. He had trumped the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – an unprecedented accomplishment in the country’s democratic history. 

    Interestingly, he first ruled Nigeria following a military coup that toppled Shehu Shagari’s civilian democratic government, in December 1983.  This was just four years after the country returned to democracy in 1979, after 13 years of military rule. This military intervention involving Buhari ushered in another long period of military dictatorship that ended in 1999. He was removed in a palace coup led by Ibrahim Babangida in August 1985.

    Buhari’s two-term presidency as a converted democrat, from 2015 to 2023, had promised a three-pronged attack on corruption, insecurity, and poor infrastructure. His decision to enter civilian politics may well have been inspired by a sense of personal unfulfillment and a need to demonstrate that he could lead the country to a better place, considering that a coup had abruptly ended his first regime. However, his entry and self-projection as a reformed autocrat attracted criticism and rejection in some quarters.

     His personal integrity was widely considered unassailable. Given his military background, he was expected to significantly improve security in the country. However, his administration proved to be long on promise and short on delivery. Under him, the anti-corruption fight failed to live up to expectation; and the country’s security crisis, fuelled by terrorism and banditry, outlived his presidential tenure.  But he made some impact in infrastructure, particularly roads and railways.

    Importantly, he inaugurated a 14-bed Presidential (VIP) Wing of the State House Clinic, in the Presidential Villa, on May 19, 2023, just before he left office. His administration had launched the N21bn project in November 2021.  Designed to reduce the need for medical travel abroad, it was described as a specialised Intensive Care Centre to cater for the President, Vice President, their immediate families and VIPs. Against this background, it is ironic that Buhari died while seeking healthcare abroad.

    Speaking on his death, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Bala Audu, was reported saying, “When public officials entrusted with strengthening our health sector consistently opt for foreign hospitals, it raises serious concerns. It shows a lack of faith in the very system they are supposed to be building and sustaining.”

     A former spokesman for Buhari, Femi Adesina, who defended his foreign medical trips, argued after his death, “If he had said I’d do my medicals in Nigeria just for show off or something, he could have long been dead.”

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    The implication that Nigerian medical practitioners are incompetent is “a false and dangerous narrative,” the President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr Tope Osundara, asserted.  Audu described the argument as “deeply offensive,” and noted that the issue “has never been about competence.” According to him, Nigerian doctors and nurses “are among the best in the world.”  The real problem, he stated, “is the lack of adequate infrastructure and equipment, particularly in public hospitals.”

    Remarkably, under the Buhari administration, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made the headlines in July 2022 after undergoing orthopaedic surgery locally – at the Duchess International Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos.  It was reported that some “government and private practice doctors” had advised him to consider having the operation abroad, but he had insisted on a Nigerian hospital and Nigerian medical experts. The success of the operation not only confirmed his faith in the hospital; it also corroborated the facility’s image as a centre of medical excellence.   

    After his treatment, Osinbajo had described the hospital as “world-class, both in the quality of its medical personnel and its management,” adding that “it is living up to its mission to reverse medical tourism by delivering the highest standards of care using the most advanced technology and treatments to give the fastest, most convenient access to the best medical expertise available anywhere in the world.”

    However, it must be noted that the hospital is a private hospital. Osinbajo’s surgery experience there gives the impression that its status as a private hospital was an important contributory factor.

    Are there public hospitals in the country that boast similar standards? The answer to the question may well be negative.  The Federal Government’s insignificant budget for the health sector over the years is mainly responsible for that.

    Notably, under the Remuneration of Former Presidents and Heads of State (and Other Ancillary Matters) Act, the Federal Government is to provide for the medical expenses of former presidents and their immediate families, covering treatment within the country and abroad.

    If this is the case, it behoves the occupant of the office to ensure that there are standard facilities locally that can handle their medical needs, and those of their compatriots, instead of relying on high-cost medical tourism.  Sadly, Buhari’s death underlined the reality that expensive healthcare abroad does not necessarily guarantee life.

    Medical tourism continues at the highest levels of government in the country. This is a damning proof of its underdeveloped healthcare system and underscores lack of confidence in it.   

  • Supreme Court, Akwa Ibom and Cross River

    Supreme Court, Akwa Ibom and Cross River

    It was at the Sheraton Hotel in Lagos, and Rotimi Amaechi was only very early in his first term as governor.

     Beside him was Godswill Akpabio, then the governor of Akwa Ibom.

     Both did not like each other very much and could not conceal it in the presence of editors.

     The matter of contention was 86 wells that the Supreme Court returned to Rivers State, and Akwa Ibom had to concede.

     Akpabio smiled a pained and dignified smile. He knew the facts, and no one ought to court the outraged majesty of the law.

    Akpabio would later smile with triumphal creases when he had to savour another verdict. The Supreme Court restored 76 oil wells to Akwa Ibom. It was agony for then Cross River State governor, and for over a decade, the state has gone to court to try to change the verdict. But no dice. In the Niger Delta, oil is the pepper soup of all dialogues.

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    Recently the 76 oil wells is boiling over again. Cross River State I pity a lot. It is the only state in the region that cannot boast a pitcher of oil. It is a spoof of Samuel Coleridge’s lines, “water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.” For Cross River State, it is oil, oil everywhere, no derivation fund. But law is not about pity, it is about fact. In Merchant of Venice, when the case became clear to Shylock, he exclaimed, “Is that the law?” The court has ruled twice, and the Cross River has had an oil version of o lule. The matter is simple. Is Cross River a littoral state? Does it have a territory that abuts on the sea? It is not only a legal question; it is a cartographic issue. Maybe we can blame those who mapped out the state, and the people of Cross River may find it hard to do so since a people can only claim a territory where they planted their customs, language, practices and citizens. If that means they are not overlooking any water, then it is what it is.

    In 2002, the apex court ruled that “Cross River no longer has a seaward boundary.” In 2012, the same court asserted that “The facts before the court do not support the claim of the plaintiff to being a littoral state. A non-littoral state cannot claim oil wells offshore, as it has no maritime boundary.”

    No time for bellyaching now. Both states can sit at table to jaw-jaw, not war-war. The law is what it is. But they can arrange for ways that some sort of regional concessions, with the cooperation of the Federal Government, can bring some sort of money to Cross River. Cross River should not do like Shylock who waited for a bitter verdict after he turned his back on mercy.

     “The quality of mercy is not strained/ it droppeth like the gentle rain upon the place beneath.” That is the line Akwa Ibom under Governor Umo Eno wants to take, and I think both states are cousins, and should follow the éclat of peace, not hecklers online.

  • Every inch

    Every inch

    There has been a lot of ballyhoo over the ways of the late Awujale, especially what many of his critics say were indiscretions, that the king stooled on the royal pool. I ponder why such objections have not taken cognizance of irony of the age.

    We live in modern times, crown a modern king and expected an ancient custom. It is the contradiction that we must expect. We crown Christian and Muslim kings and expect fidelity to traditional deity. A king cannot be king if he cannot exercise unquestioned authority.

    What is more important, king or culture e? But that may be the wrong question. Maybe it is whether we can have a king of the future. If we cannot, why do we want a society of the future, with the daring of technology, the atrophy of obeisance, the primacy of reason, the sanctity of rebellion. We applaud all of these, and when a king does it, we shout haba! English history  throws up this contradiction. King Henry VIII abandoned tradition to divorce his wife to marry a svelte vision in Anne Boleyn, defied the Catholic Church and formed breakaway Anglican Church. He at once exercised royal power and defiance. In the 20th century, Edward the VIII did not challenge tradition but abdicated the throne when he preferred regal beauty to regal throne by marrying divorcee Wally Simpson.

     Did Awujale fit into Shakespeare’s line in King Lear: “he is every inch a king.”? In Julius Caesar he writes, “he who dies pays all debts.” Many who comment on Adetona know little about him.

    Below is an excerpt of this essayist’s 2017 review of his autobiography. Enjoy.

    The oba, a tall, robust, charismatic figure, told a story of some of his interactions with the Owu chief. Having written it, he made no bones about howling after the fact. He had written it, and he moved on. Seven years later, the Owu chief is whining and wailing.

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    Oba Sikiru K. Adetona Ogbagba 11 is one of the underappreciated talents and virtues of this age. Perhaps because he heads what we all know as an anachronistic institution, we tend to undervalue what political scientists call “soft power,” a term coined and popularised by Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye.

    He does not need to hold political office, or stand behind an army tank, or be a governor, to wield influence. He had to exercise the force of courage, honesty and the principle of fierce independence.

    It is interesting that, in spite of the ballyhoo of the Owu chief, the Awujale routinely ignored him. News reports say the Owu chief has apologised. It had better be true. The man is not only older than the former president, the Awujale has earned his octogenarian credentials, not by years but the exercise of his dignity.

    The book, titled Awujale: the autobiography of Alaiyeluwa Oba S.K.Adetona Ogbagba 11, unfurls his forthrightness. If he has lashed out at OBJ in the book, it is a little lazy, especially of our media critics and journalists, not to have plunged deeper. Many have restricted themselves to where he narrated Obasanjo’s witch-hunt of GLO chief executive Mike Adenuga. But the monarch has been quite fair to Obasanjo. We all know, Adenuga was targeted in an exercise of hypocrisy when he wanted the same man to help build his Bells University.

    The Awujale worked with Obasanjo to push the presidential candidacy of Professor Adebayo Adedeji during IBB’s quicksand transition programmes. While opposing his actions in government, he praised him for constructing roads that gave access to Ijebu land, and stood against those who wanted to dislodge him from office.

     He had called Obasanjo Judas and made it known he called him so in a meeting in the buildup to the elections that selected him to run against Falae. Yet, in spite of OBJ’s failing, the Awujale thought for the sake of the country and stability, Obasanjo’s rift with Atiku ought to end in order to save democracy. Newspapers ought to pay attention to books as news, not as vapid material for inside pages but virile aspects of our conversations. It is a reflection of the philistinism of today’s news organisations that many of such gems pass us by.

    I was also struck by his sense of balance in the Ogun State governorship sweepstakes. Ever a stickler to be nonpartisan, he said when Gbenga Daniel indicated he wanted to be governor, he advised Daniel to wait out Aremo Segun Osoba’s stewardship. But he didn’t. The Awujale stayed neutral. But when Daniel stormed his palace for a visit, he insisted that he would not attend to Daniel unless he stopped his supporters from throwing invectives at Osoba outside his palace. Daniel reportedly obliged.

    His Awo story also should have made news in 2010 when the book was published. He implied Awo’s AG and UPN resisted dissent or intellectual independence. He said he had doubted Awo’s socialist credentials and wondered if he was a socialist, why was he so wealthy he would not part with his properties as Mahatma Ghandi did. Awo had replied that he would if the society agreed to have full-blown socialism. That was not the same thing with Ghandi. Ghandi led by example. Awo wanted the mass example to lead him.

    During the western crisis, he had tried to play peace maker, but neither Awo nor Akintola obliged. He wondered why Awo wanted everyone in Ijebu-land to line behind him uncritically while he wanted others from other ethnic groups he competed against to abandon their ethnic leaders for him. His tale with Awo dovetailed into his crisis with Chief Bisi Onabanjo, who had dinner with others downstairs in his house with Awo, while he asked him(Awujale) to wait up to an hour upstairs. It began a friction that, once Onabanjo became governor, he deposed him as Awujale. This is the same person he had predicted would betray him after showering hospitality on Onabanjo in London with free accommodation, meals and transport back home when he was sick.

    He even offered to resign as oba when Diya succeeded Onabanjo after the military coup. Diya would not reinstate him even when the courts ruled against Onabanjo. After his military bluster, Diya had to acquiesce because the man said he wanted a plebiscite and if 90 percent or less voted against him, he would resign, support his successor and buy him a car. In spite of this, he eulogised Onabanjo’s exploits as governor.

    He also stood with the NADECO chieftains. He was openly called Oba NADECO and he even hosted the meetings. He had warned Shonekan that he would be dislodged as interim leader and history would call him a traitor.

    He knew very early to enjoy his reign, he had to be financially independent. Chief Odutola had wanted to teleguide his reign as he had done the predecessor. But Adetona resisted him. He launched into commerce and pried himself loose from the antics of government wheel horses.

    This is a good book, not a great book. I had craved his fresh observations of men like Awo, IBB, Abacha, Shonekan, Tafawa Balewa, Oba Sijuade, Adenuga, FRA Williams, etc. He had more than cursory interactions with them and must have greater insights than he revealed.

     Abroad, he met with Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, etc in the Middle East. He mentioned them in passing. It is not his fault but his editors’. They could have debriefed and opened him to bigger revelations.

    The book is uneven, showering details in some areas and stingy in others. But it is a book that gives a window on a man of character, aware of his position and did not take anything he was not ready to do away with on principle.

    Remember he was the only Southwest monarch who did not mince words to Jonathan when dollar softened his peers.

  • Interrogating kidnap rescue claims

    Interrogating kidnap rescue claims

    Claims and counter claims between security agencies and the public on who takes credit for the freedom of kidnap victims, especially in circumstances ransom was paid are increasingly growing by the day. Though the government and security agencies have severally cautioned against ransom payments, the fact remains that many kidnap victims have had to secure their release from captivity through that process. That fact is no longer hidden.

    The ubiquity and complexity of kidnap cases in the face of inability by the security architecture to find a handle to many of them have left victims at the mercy of all manner of marauders. Many have been killed by their captors for inability to pay ransom even as others have been maimed for life due to torture.

    For fear of torture and death, victims do all within their powers to cough out huge sums of money to save their lives. Curiously, after this ransom has been paid and victims released, you find security agencies issuing statements assigning credit to their efforts for the eventual release of such victims.

    Ironically, those who pay ransom for their freedom do not take kindly to such bogus claims due largely to the dire circumstances such funds were raised. In many instances, victims were incarcerated in captivity for months without end only to be released after ransom was paid. It is not surprising that those who secured their freedom through ransom payment are easily piqued each time security agencies seek to appropriate credit for their freedom.

    A case in point was last week’s outcry by the Chief Imam of Uromi Central Mosque, Edo State, Sheikh Muhammad Murtadha Obhakhobo against the claim by the police that they rescued him from kidnappers who abducted him along the Ubiaja-illushi road. He was piqued that the police sought to take credit for his release even when they had no role in it.

    The Edo State Police Command had in a statement by its spokesperson, Moses Yamu said it was “pleased to inform the public that Moritada Obhakhobo, the Chief Imam of Uromi, was released by his abductors on July 13th,2025 due to the intense and sustained pressure mounted by our operatives”.  According to the statement, on receiving the report, the command launched a robust manhunt for the perpetrators, deploying tactical teams and collaborating with the local vigilante to track down the assailants and rescue the victim. The state’s police commissioner also commended the efforts of the operatives involved in the rescue action.

     Curiously, the police account on the date of the kidnap did not tally with that provided by the kidnap victim. The police said the incident occurred on July 7, and was reported at the Uromi Police Divisional Headquarters the following day. But the Imam’s account recorded the incident to have taken place on July 9.

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    Besides, the Imam faulted police account of their involvement in the rescue operation. Hear him: “I am Imam Muhammad Murtadha Obhakhobo, the Chief Imam of Uromi Central Mosque in Edo central. I was kidnapped on July 9, 2025 along Ubiaja-Illushi road. I just got information from the newspapers where the police are trying to take credit for doing nothing. I got myself released with the sum of N6.5 million on the 13th of July 2025”.

    The Chief Imam recounted that when he returned home, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Uromi, visited him to gather information on his abduction and subsequent release, wondering how the same police could now ascribe credit to themselves for the role they did not play. As far as the Imam is concerned, his release was as a result of private efforts and the payment of substantial ransom.

    Before this incident, the kidnap and freedom of a 64-year old Irish Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Luigi Brenna while watching football game by boys in the Somascan community playing ground in Ovia West Local Government Area of the same Edo State, was also embroiled in similar controversy. That time, it was between the police and the Catholic Archdiocese of Benin.

    Edo State police had claimed that when they received the information of the kidnap, their operatives immediately swung into action tracing the suspects to their camp. According to them, on sighting their operatives, the criminals opened fire on them. They were overpowered by police’ superior fire power with three of the criminals neutralised. The rest scampered into the forest abandoning their victim. The police said they rescued the victim and rushed him to Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital, Okada for medical treatment.

    Apparently not satisfied with the police account, the Catholic Archdiocese of Benin issued a statement to put the circumstances of the kidnap straight. A statement by the Archdiocese recounted how the priest was watching a football game by boys in the community playing ground, on Sunday July 3,2022, when suspected herdsmen stormed the venue and shot sporadically.

    The boys scampered at the sound of gunshots while Fr, Luigi made to run into his apartment before he was captured by the assailants. They beat him, used machete to hit his head and body and dragged him away. After about half an hour trekking and dragging the statement said, they gave him more beating for resisting to follow them. He fainted after the renewed beating. Sensing that he may have died, his captors abandoned him and disappeared from the scene.

    The Archdiocese said on regaining consciousness, Fr. Luigi went home in a pool of blood only to be rushed to the Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital Okada by some of his colleagues who came out from hiding. The next day, he was taken to another hospital.

    These are just two instances. There are many other accounts of contradicting claims from the police on its role in kidnap victims’ freedom that did not go down well with those involved in ransom negotiations and payment. In the first case cited, the police claimed the release of the Imam was due to their sustained pressure while in that of Fr. Luigi they even gave account of how they neutralised three of the criminals after heavy gunfire. The yawning gaps in the narratives are there for every discerning mind.

    Even if we are minded to tolerate police narrative that sustained pressure from them compelled the criminals to abandon the Uromi Iman, how much value should we assign to such claims in circumstances ransom was paid? That is the issue to contend with.

    This puzzle is further highlighted by a recent altercation involving the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) on their role in the release from captivity, of former Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Maharazu Tsiga (retd). The exchange followed a viral WhatsApp message by Brigadier-General Ismaila Abdullahi which claimed that some retired and serving military officers contributed money to pay the ransom demanded by Tsiga’s abductors for his release. The message further stated that the funds were paid into his account which was provided by Tsiga’s son, Kamal and thanked all those who contributed.

    But this incurred the ire of the DHQ. Its spokesman, Brigadier-General Tukur Gusau was quick to describe Abdullahi’s claims as “misleading” and “a calculated attempt to undermine the military’s dedicated efforts” to combat terrorism and rescue abducted citizens. Gusau said troops responded within hours of the abduction and launched series of search-and-rescue operation in conjunction with the air components.

    According to him, intelligence-led air raids on Dunya Hill – a known stronghold of terrorists disrupted the kidnappers and enabled the escape of several captives. Though Tsiga was unable to flee due to ill-health, DHQ said another captive, Barau Garba, a local teacher who was with him was rescued and reunited with his family.

    Here again, we are confronted with the puzzle of how much value to assign the sustained pressure by the military in situations where substantial ransom was paid before captives’ freedom? This is by no means to undermine the efforts of the security agencies in the war against kidnapping and all manners of violent crimes.

    Tsiga corroborated the efforts by the air component in the sustained pressure on the terrorists by the DHQ when he admitted that such air raids were the only response the terrorists feared most. He also gave a lucid account of how the terrorists used the captives as shield on the approach of fighter jets.

    All that can be admitted. But, if such pressure was not enough to get the captives released until negotiations were concluded with the terrorists and huge sums of money paid, can we reasonably wish away the influence of money in the circumstance? More so, when the captives had stayed so long in the dens of the terrorists as in Tsiga’s case?

    That is the dilemma thrown up by the manner the DHQ reacted to Abdullahi’s post. This may be an isolated case. But not for the Nigerian police that are in the habit of taking credit for the rescue they had no hand in. The encounter of the Chief Imam of Uromi Central Mosque and Fr. Luigi bear this out. But they denote a worrying trend in the success claims the police institution regularly assigns itself. The police are neither omniscience nor omnipotent. It would amount to wishful thinking to expect that they must find solutions to all crimes. Not at all! Bandying rescue claims that are easily faulted, whittles down public confidence in that institution. It is high time they refrained from bogus, false claims.

  • Inheriting Buhari

    Inheriting Buhari

    As former President Muhammadu Buhari lay, wrapped in his final shroud, in his tranquil bed, some politicians started to exploit the man’s afterglow. That afterglow, in quest for a better word, I would describe as his crowd. Some will call it his structure.

    Before he passed on, some cynical politicians did not offer the man a peace in his hearth. They turned him into a shrine of sorts, as though by bowing and flattery they could automatically take over what Boss Mustapha described as his 12.3 million followers.

     Especially in Kaduna, they became dubious pilgrims powered by messianic self-delusions.

    The man did not give them what they sought, especially some of them from the north who appeared to be his faithful servants, including former Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Abubakar Malami, etc. They shrouded themselves as his inheritors, the custodians of his legacy, the messengers of the might he left behind.

    The same fellows should have asked a pertinent question when the man died. Where were the 12 million folks in his funeral hour? Where were their tears and where were their wailing agonies on the streets? They should have known that the 12 million exist, but they do not exist under anyone’s umbrella anymore.

    They are there for the taking. They have been there for the taking even before the man died, or even before the man left office.

    If Buhari was a man of integrity, it is now clear that integrity is not enough to govern.

    He was a rose in a sty, but a rose cannot extinguish a sty’s scent.

    That is what we are left with. The 12 million expected much from their man who was known as Sai baba. But two things account for why that crowd is now there for the taking.

     One, according to this reporter’s investigations, the northern streets expected him to unleash a campaign against the high and mighty who oppress the talakawa. They waited in vain.

     “The northern poor loves you when you deal with the rich people,” a fellow told me from the north.

    But more important is that the man had a vision to help the talakawa, and that accounted for the formation of the humanitarian system under the charge, initially, of vice president Yemi Osinbajo.  Buhari was sanguine about this project, and it included, among others, conditional money transfer. What happened to the billions that Buhari devoted to the rescue of the poor?

    That is a query his men, especially the former governors of the north, must answer. And this must include, his aides and ministers who were associated with this project.

    Much of that fund did not enrich the poor.  Rather it alienated and further pauperised the northern talakawa.

    The template was wrong from the beginning. They did not tell president that, to reach the northern poor, they did not need to depend on conventional banks.

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    The vice president then who held the ace did a lot of work visiting the communities in the south. If it did not pull weight in the south for all the investments, how could it have done well in the north. There was a palpable disconnect between ideas and people.

    The reason was that most states in the north have too few bank branches, and it became almost impossible to reach these people. In the south, some states have bank  branches enough to dwarf five or six states together.

    Take away Lagos or Abuja, but just look at Delta and Akwa Ibom. Both states have more bank branches than 10 northen states put together, except perhaps Kano and Kaduna. Yet, a lot of money was allocated, year-on-year, for this task.

    National Assembly investigations revealed that much of the money was not accounted for, and it led to a wave of angry rhetoric. Yet, the northern governors who held the key to saving it did not rise to the occasion.

    Buhari’s aides also were dead from the neck up. N-Power, the name we knew it by, was impotent for the throng in the north.

    The poor had hoped, and Buhari believed. But in the end, hope and belief collapsed on the incompetence of politicians whose devotion to their boss’ ideal was cynical and self-serving. That was how the big, swirling masses lost gusto and became disillusioned.

    Before his death, Buhari was aware of this and his comments reflected a sense of acceptance that he might have done things better. He took it as a man.

    So, when he received these slobbering, fawning politicians in Daura and Kaduna, he was aware these same politicians were undertaking a futile search. They were in phony worship of a shrine but they had betrayed the deity.

    In the last part of his reign, Osinbajo had to be decoupled from the humanitarian project because the operators had failed the ideal.

     Buhari reorganised it, but there was no zeal or integrity among those who took over. In the end, they alienated him from his beloved folks.

    So, when a man like Boss Mustapha speaks of a 12.3 million crowd, he should look at the mirror because he was, as the government’s scribe, in the centre of connecting his boss with his crowd. He failed, and woefully.

    It is the way of charismatic folks that once they leave, their followers are like sheep without a shepherd. The followers are no longer there for plucking.

    Whether it is Awo, or Sardauna, or Mandela or De Gaulle or Josip Bros Tito, once they depart the stage, no one claims their followers.

    They are open to new ideas, new entreaties and entrances, new wooers, new charismas. They are fresh clay waiting for new moulders.

    So, those who say they belong to the CPC, and they inherit his followers, have no sense of history. When he left ANPP, did the party not become a ghost? It was his charisma, his spiritual face, his magnetic carriage, aura of rectitude that pulled the crowd. The CPC folks should stop deceiving themselves.

    Again, men like Atiku and their new ADC squatters should not forget that they are following a phantom, not a crowd.

    They are inaugurating the new form of politics that may be termed the politics of absent crowd. Nothing demonstrated this more than the crowd’s lack of eruption of funeral agony as the man passed. It should be a cause for pause, for contemplation rather than exploitation by all these politicians who have no other ideas but to walk on the man’s grave. If anything, it shows that the masses cannot always be taken for granted.

    When De Gaulle resigned as French leader, he expected to see a throng outside his window the next morning.

     His ambience was as quiet as a wilderness. He was to learn that you have to always cultivate the people. De Gaulle must have felt like the character in Ishiguro’s Nobel Prize-winning novel written decades later titled: The Remains of the Day, in which the main character thinks of what might have been if he cultivates his loved one at the right time.

     Buhari has done his bit and left, but these cynical politicians are looking for pieces.

    The ADC folks are looking for the remains of the man, whereas they should have done the right thing when he gave them the window and wherewithal to save the talakawa.  They did not sow with him, and now they want to reap. They failed, so they are finding it hard to sail.

  • Peter Obi’s RBK moment

    Peter Obi’s RBK moment

    Recently, Pitobi went on BBC to recreate the RBK Okafor moment. RBK Okafor had tried to exploit the death of Nnamdi Azikiwe, and went on television with an effusive jeremiad telling the world that the Great Zik had handed over his platform and work to him. He was teary and almost convincing. Alas, Zik was not dead, and no such dialogue happened with the Owelle of Onitsha.

    Well, Pitobi says he had a dialogue with Buhari and the Daura chieftain asked him to care for the poor. I wonder why he waited, like RBK, until his passing to make such a proclamation. He might not have visited Buhari alone.

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     There might have been an aide around, and we want to verify, so it is not like one of Obi’s fantastical China statistical claims again.  The northern crowd did not take kindly to his assertion, and they lashed out at him in torrents. They mocked him as liar and they don’t want him near their neighbourhoods, etc. There is a way to respect the dead. Exploiting Buhari’s passing is not one of them.

  • Anticlimax

    Anticlimax

    We have never had a leader like Muhammadu Buhari, and we may never have one like him again. He first stepped into the nation’s imagination as a soldier and exited as a soldier in some eyes and a soldier-statesman in some other eyes, as a bigot in some others. Some will continue to see him, though, as a man of mystery.

    Peter Enahoro, known as Peter Pan, and author of How To Be A Nigerian gave the first hint of his profile as a man of mystery when he interviewed him for his Africa Now magazine. He described him as “deceptively gentle.” Since Peter Pan’s characterization in the 1980’s, in his first time as leader, Buhari changed his image as a sublime chameleon in many ways.

     He was a military leader, civilian bureaucrat, fighter for democracy as revenge rather than as ideologue, a presidential candidate as a supposedly repented autocrat, a serial loser with a Lincolnian strain, a president who developed a cult and fanatical following who bowed on the street and drank unclean water in his name, a president who almost died in office but developed a health status that resembled a miracle before he bowed out.

     As a young man, my first introduction to the Katsina patriarch was when he was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) in Jos, and he asked the army to begin reading the Constitution to know their responsibility for the country.

    As a columnist for the Nigerian Tribune, Ebenezer Babatope warned Nigerians to look out for the man, hinting that he was not a man to take for granted.

    It was during the Shagari era, and Babatope warned that no one should be surprised if we woke up one morning and he would be behind the “good morning fellow Nigerians” accompanying a martial music.

     It happened, according to his prophetic clairvoyance, in December 1983, and Buhari, later that night, in a winsome face and beret, addressed the country as a military ruler. He cherished that number 1983.

    In 2006, when I placed a call to him for an interview, I used a colleague’s number. When we met at his suite at the Hilton, the first remark was whether I was the fellow whose number ended with 1983.

    He beamed from ear to ear with a touch of rare vanity. I said no to his disappointment.  He might have wanted to swap numbers.

    When I met him that morning, I mused on a lot of things about the man. He had not had his second time as leader. I had a belief in him that he had the discipline and aura to run Nigeria.

    As I had characterised him on this page and before I started writing for this newspaper, he would bring his spartan discipline to stanch the bleeding in the country. This was because as a military head of state he was a personage who loathed corruption, and wanted to bring the nation on the path of sanity.

    So, when he ran for president, even the first time, I thought he was good for politics. The problem with Nigeria was not only a lack of discipline, but a lack of imagination in governance.

     I thought Buhari would bring his spartan charm and blend it with men of thinking and energy on the front row while he ran the country as a czar of corruption and due process.

     And that was the anticlimax of having him at the helm. He would govern with a purifying shadow, a sort of secular priest with his aura both cheering and chastening.

    He became a president and ran it with a cabal of antediluvian ideas. With a man like Malami as attorney general espousing the idea of an old route grazing.

     He presided over a sometimes cranky and conservative government, dead of ideas.

     On the economy, he stood guard over a government that had no way to generate money except by printing and borrowing from China, among others. He gave us a debt of over N30 trillion in Ways and Means and several billions of dollars.

     He left the finances in chaos and the nation’s morale was at the nadir. In one word, Buhari should have saved the economy from the Jonathan era where the nation was in dire straits. Rather, he worsened the situation, and created an economy that had to be saved from itself.

    Buhari, in the end, turned out to be a man who looked after one man: Muhammadu Buhari. Nothing reflected this self-absorption more than when he was running for election. When in Ogun and Imo states, he asked voters to vote for him but vote their conscience on the governorship and other offices.

    He dithered on his successor. He told the world he was not interested but he tried to undercut the best man in his whole political career: Bola Tinubu.

     It was he who crafted an alliance that vaulted him to Aso Villa. Yet, he did not want him to succeed him. It was hypocritical that he did not even tell now President Tinubu that he did not want him as his successor.

    Rather he put his weight behind former Senate president Ahmad Lawan.

     It reflected his lack of integrity, and even blatant hypocrisy as a leader.

     He did not only support Lawan, he ran an election-period economy with currency and fuel scarcity that cast his APC in bad light and sought to undermine its candidate.

    In spite of accusations, he was unfazed and many saw those measures as choreographed to derail Tinubu’s presidential dreams.

     So besieged was he that he did the wrong thing by showing off his voter’s card as a mark of party loyalty.

    As military leader, he squeezed the economy in the name of enshrining a moral tone.

    In his time as civilian leader, he choked the economy and failed as a moral compass. He might have made the claim that he was a moral leader in his first time with his war against indiscipline.

     In retrospect, it was discipline without imagination or conscience. It was the same lack of imagination that throttled his way as a civilian president.

    It has turned out that Buhari loved himself too much to love Nigeria enough. He loved his faith too much to open his heart out of his prejudices.

    He visited Ibadan once as a fighter for the herdsmen, and it cast him as a bigot. He did not make much effort to defrock himself of such optics in the way he handled the herder crisis.

    In fact, the link between the herder crisis and the banditry became more potent in his time, and was soft on banditry. The bandits swaggered in the bushes and highways, and had full eight years to fatten and nurture the monsters in their souls.

    There is a belief that he did not want the bandits to be killed, so our murderers blossomed on the blood and treasures of society.

    When I was a student at Ife, I expected much from the man when he took over as military leader. It was on the cusp of a new year he took over as head of state, December 31, 1983. There was a parade on campus hailing the end of democracy.

    My throat joyed with songs that morning.  When the French revolution was born, William Wordsworth crooned, “Bliss it was that dawn to be alive. But to be young was very heaven.” As a youth, I felt like that. Just as the revolution became a bust, Buhari’s coming with Decrees two and four hammered Nigerians out of our comforts.

    When he wanted to be a civilian leader, I gave him a chance as a man of conscience. He failed. Buhari was a tease. He promised with an air of pious devotion. He did not deliver.

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     Yet, he had a charisma and cult following unmatched by any in our history. His was a charisma of suggestion. He was no demagogue, no performer.

    If one, his was a demagogue of body language: his ramrod carriage, his no-smile and smile, his soldierly bearing, his façade of severity and disdain for materialism. If no doer, he bequeaths an example of beguiling simplicity. He was known for no extravagance, cars, houses, money show. His was an extravagance of apparent austerity.

    He was loved by both cow and man. He did less for man than cow, but cows never had a way of gratitude known to man, except men like him, perhaps.

    He was a head of herders without herding. He was a soldier but did not quaff or indulge the pleasures of the flesh.

    He was a good soldier but preferred the love of his civilian followers. Danjuma once said he would want him as a chief of army staff rather than head of defence staff. He looked a force of character but he could not translate it to those he governed.

    His following knew he could do no wrong. He might have lost some of his mystique to his failures, but if he ran for election again today in a coalition that guaranteed just a few millions from the south, no one can bet against him.

    He is a testament to the futility of the crowd as a picture of wisdom. That is why we should be wary of man who, without clear vision, capture the imagination of the throng, a thing Elias Canetti warns about in his Nobel Prize-winning book, Crowds and Power.

    History may yet be kind to him in a few areas. As president, he worked, with Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, on infrastructure and redeemed his image by prioritising rail transportation.

    He lived a phenom and died a phenom. He was a hero to many, a man of unflinching tenacity. Even  in death, his foes have nothing but admiration, bordering on curious affection.

    Goodbye to a man among men

  • Cybercrime syndicates of foreigners

    Cybercrime syndicates of foreigners

    Nothing illustrates the mortal risk to Nigeria’s national security than the disclosure by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) of the successful prosecution and conviction of 146 foreign nationals out of the 194 arrested in the country last year for various financial crimes.

    Though heart-warming, the fact that such a high number of foreign cybercriminals operated within our shores, says a lot on the vulnerability of the country to external sabotage. Who knows the number of others that have been evading security detection and the incalculable harm their devious activities have wrought on the national economy?

    Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede said at the opening ceremony of the International Cybersecurity Conference in Abuja that the foreigners were arrested last year for various forms of financial crimes and activities inimical to the economic growth and development of the country.

     A majority of them were said to have posed as Nigerians with stolen identities to defraud unsuspecting individuals and institutions in the country while Nigerians are being accused wrongly for the crimes. The convicted foreigners would be made to serve their jail terms in the country before being repatriated to their home countries.

    It is good a thing the EFCC arraigned and secured the conviction of the 146 foreigners out of the 194 it arrested for sundry cybercrimes. The promptness of the arraignments and subsequent convictions will no doubt, send a clear message on the zero tolerance of the country to cybercrimes, especially those driven by foreigners.

    But the arrests and conviction of this high number of foreign criminals in just one year, highlights the pervasiveness of cybersecurity crimes in the country. In December 2024, the commission arrested 792 suspects for alleged involvement in cryptocurrency investment fraud and romance scam. This followed its sting operation in a seven-storey building in Victoria Island, Lagos.

    Subsequent profiling of the suspects showed that 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, and two Kharzartans were the brains behind the phoney fraud company which could easily be mistaken as the corporate headquarters of a major financial establishment. But behold, all that took place in that imposing edifice was nothing but cybercrime operations.

    The foreign syndicate used the facility to train their Nigerian accomplices on how to initiate romance and investment scams deploying their identities to that effect. It is not clear how long they operated in the building before being detected by the security agencies.

    But the fact that such imposing edifice employing so many Nigerians and located at the heart of Nigeria’s commercial centre, could be deployed for criminal activity, illustrates most poignantly the porosity of our national environment. In saner climes, it will be nigh impossible for foreigners to set up a phoney company in that manner, employ many of its nationals without someone raising an eyebrow.

    Even then, with the burgeoning high unemployment rate in the country, those lucky to secure jobs with the cybercrime company may not see the compunction to report them to the law enforcement agencies which may come with job loss. That is part of the uncanny contradiction. It is also possible that some of the Nigerian employee may not even understand the real nature of the business they were employed to carry out. 

    Another syndicate of fraudsters specialising on hotel review scam targeting mostly victims in the United Kingdom, (UK) was busted at Abudu Garba Street, Gudu within the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Abuja. Of the 105 suspects apprehended, four were Chinese while the rest Nigerians. 100 compact workstations were recovered from the Chinese who employed computer savvy Nigerians to work for them usually as customer service representatives.

    Their modus operandi is to train the Nigerians to work on prepared templates of criminality online. The foreign bosses give fake identities and assign foreign names to their Nigerian employees through which they chat with foreigners making false representations to them. When once the criminal business is about to be consummated, the Chinese takes over the discussions and shuts off the Nigerian employees to deny them knowledge of the eventual sum scammed.

    These are the high-profile foreign cybercrime financial syndicates smashed by the EFCC. There are many other arrests and smashing of cyber criminals across the country both of foreign and local hue. But as key to the war against sundry cybercrimes as the arrest and prosecution of offenders is, the objective factors that predispose Nigeria as safe haven for foreign-led criminal rings are issues to consider.

    A total of 5,049 cybercriminal domains and networks were taken down by the Cyber Hawks unit of the Nigerian Police in 2024 alongside arrests and seizures of electronic devices deployed for the crimes. The war against cybercrimes is no doubt, a huge challenge given its sophistication.

    Increasing reliance on technology, interconnected systems including the ease of access to cybercrime tolls and marketplaces are some of the factors that incubate cybercrimes. There is additionally the lucrative nature of cybercriminal activities.

     In the face of the lure of cybercrimes, Nigeria’s weak regulatory framework, widespread digital fraud and economic instability serve as fertile grounds for foreign-led cybercrime syndicates to take root. This is evident in the number of arrests and convictions, the relative ease with which such syndicates operate and evade the prying eyes of the security architecture.

    But how do these criminally-minded foreigners get into the country? That is the big question the relevant authorities charged with the duty of visa approvals must provide. Before then, the high number of foreign citizens involved in cybercrimes speaks eloquently of glaring loopholes and inadequacies in the processes preceding visa issuance.

    This calls for total overhaul of the visa issuing regulations by our embassies and high commission especially for citizens of countries that feature more prominently in cybercrimes within our shores. It is apparent that many of the foreigners found culpable in cybercrimes have no business being granted entry into the country in the first place.

    Besides, the yawning absence of a cybersecurity centre with the capacity to detect and promptly respond to cybercrime attacks in the face of the spreading scourge has not helped matters. It has become imperative for the relevant agencies to respond to the exigencies of the changing environment to stave off the easy resort of foreigners to cybercrimes while in the country.

    EFCC chairman, Olukoyede spoke along this line when he said “foreigners are taking advantage of the nation’s reputation as haven of frauds to establish a foothold here to disguise their atrocious criminal enterprise”. But he was quick to add that the EFCC through its operations has shown that there is no hiding place for foreign criminals in the country.

    Even as efforts are made to stamp out foreign-led cybercrime syndicates, the country faces the additional danger of the criminal technology they have transferred to our nationals. Our nationals trained by them still pose serious threat to economic and financial stability.

    A recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned that Chinese and Southeast Asia cybercrime rings have increasingly migrated operations to African countries including Nigeria following law enforcement crackdowns in their home countries.

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    UNODC’s acting Southeast Asia representative, Benedict Hofmann said, “The networks spread like cancer. They relocate, build and continue to exploit institutional weaknesses wherever they can”. Statistics from various sources in the country corroborate the enormity of cybersecurity crimes and attacks.

    According to Nigerian Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS), businesses in the country face an average of 2,560 cyberattacks each week. Its Managing Director, Haruna Jalo-Waziri said at a 2024 cybersecurity conference in Abuja that the threat posed by the menace underscored the urgent need for robust cybersecurity measures especially with the 45 per cent increase in ransom wave attacks globally.

    All these highlight the top priority the government should place on cybersecurity because of its effects on economic stability and public trust.  Foreigners are quickly exploiting the weaknesses of our regulatory framework to sabotage the national economy. We must quickly stop that ruinous trend.

    But then, Nigerian landlords who rent their buildings to phoney cybercrime companies should be made to face severe consequences to serve as deterrent to others. It is a huge scandal that a foreign-led cybercrime company could rent a seven-storey building in the heart of Lagos, employ hundreds of Nigerians and operate with impunity before it was unmasked.