The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • North, coalition formation and presumptions

    North, coalition formation and presumptions

    Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, former Special Adviser on Political Matters to President Bola Tinubu, managed to get the huge publicity he craved last Sunday when he again stoked ethnic and regional sentiments in respect of the 2027 presidential election. The North would in six months announce its position on the poll, he said gravely in an interview, hinting that the region was at the moment dissatisfied over a number of unresolved issues. He, however, mentioned only one major issue – security. Tangentially, he also referenced the sidelining of the North, a clever term to avoid the more ferocious but jaded word, marginalisation. And finally, he seemed convinced that the present administration, which he served until he resigned in a huff recently, did not understand the needs of the North.

    What came out of the carefully choreographed interview was that Dr Baba-Ahmed, despite all his pretensions, exuded a virulent sense of entitlement. His grandiloquent reference to the North and what it wants, as if the region was ever or still remains a monolithic entity, betrays his incomplete understanding of the shifting dynamics of Nigerian politics. Whenever members of the northern elite are disadvantaged, real or imagined, they often resort to whipping up untested and often malignant theories of the position and relevance of the North. In the interview, Dr Baba-Ahmed did not, however, attempt to define the North which he swept into his analysis of regional disaffection. The fact is that ethnically, religiously or even geographically, the North has struggled like other parts of Nigeria to be monolithic. The nearest it came to being a monolith was in the First Republic. Since then, discounting the decades of military rule, the region has electorally become a variegated pastiche of competing interests and religions, with the competitions becoming fiercer every election cycle.

    Dr Baba-Ahmed was simply grandstanding. Surely he would recall that until former president Muhammadu Buhari expanded his political vista and won the presidency in 2015, he had tried three times earlier to fashion the North into a monolith in order to win the presidential poll without being beholden to the other regions and their power centres. Before he won in 2015, he could not take the entire Middle Belt or North Central, a huge part of Dr Baba-Ahmed’s hypothetical North. Nor could he even take the entire Northeast, another huge slice of the North referenced by the embittered special adviser. All he managed to take wholeheartedly was the Northwest, despite his strong pro-North proclivities. There has not been one prime minister or president of Nigeria who did not need the other regions to win the presidency. But perhaps what the former adviser was suggesting is that it is easier for a candidate to get a substantial part of the North than a substantial part of the South in order to clinch the presidency. But even that supposition would be tentative and contextualised on a number of factors, including political and cultural ecosystems.

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    Unable to predicate his argument and analysis on plausible reasons, Dr Baba-Ahmed excused his rage on the pervasive insecurity in the North. He insisted that if any administration does not act convincingly on banishing insecurity from the North, it would be undeserving of the electoral support of the region. This is balderdash. With all his education, he could not even pass the buck well. More northerners have presided over Nigeria much longer than southerners, yet poverty had increased by leaps and bounds. Poverty is a strong factor in predisposing the region to insurgency and banditry. Incompetent to execute policies that would reduce poverty, and ignorant about the effect of uncontrolled birth rate in fueling poverty and feeding insurgency, Dr Baba-Ahmed’s North wants a southern-born leader to wave the magic wand to defeat the anarchy raging in their region. Elite irresponsibility and ethnic and religious bigotry by northern leaders, rather than southern malfeasance, have been the principal reasons for the existential crisis facing the North. Northern leaders should tackle the madness raging in their midst instead of passing the buck.

    It is true that no southern presidential candidate can win without the support of the North; but it is also true that no northern presidential candidate can win without the support of the South. This political wisdom, which Dr Baba-Ahmed is not ignorant of, has reigned since the First Republic. Indeed, what he may be saying is that at the moment, he and other non-liberals like him are minded to look for a northern candidate to push their hidden agenda. Having been out of office for a mere two years, and seeing how President Tinubu has wielded power with some indifference to entrenched power idols, Dr Baba-Ahmed and his group, including the fiery loather Usman Yusuf, a professor and former National Health Insurance Scheme chief, are impatient to seek out a northern champion to recapture power. They have begun to tout former vice president Atiku Abubakar to run for office again as a one-term Mandela-type president on a ticket with the populist Peter Obi. But even if they manage to cobble together a coalition headed by the two former presidential candidates, it would still be a problematic ticket no sensible political assumptions or guarantees can undergird.

    President Tinubu has placated the core North to no end. But Dr Baba-Ahmed and others like him still feel a sense of loss and emptiness over the power shift to the South, and particularly to the Southwest, not to say to a president who is well schooled in the laws of power. Apart from the fact that the former special adviser and his cohorts cannot put together a convincing coalition, their threats of engulfing the country in flames should the 2027 election prove adverse to their stated interests is also unlikely to make the country quake. Nigeria’s political tectonic plates are shifting constantly, and those shifts require men and women smart enough to resist the temptation of arresting the crushing movements and new and unstoppable realities. If the core North will not admit their responsibility in their region’s stagnation, it is perhaps too late to shift the blame to other parts of the country. Much worse, it is pointless to threaten the other parts of the country, as fragmented as they are, with disintegration. Given the huge resources wasted on tackling banditry and insurgency in the North, it is unlikely the South or even the Middle Belt would feel disturbed by Dr Baba-Ahmed’s threat of secession.

  • Plateau crisis exposes Gov Namadi, Gumi

    Plateau crisis exposes Gov Namadi, Gumi

    In their responses to the mayhem in Plateau State, Jigawa State governor Umar Namadi and Islamic cleric Ahmad Abubakar Gumi stretched logic to the limit. Addressing the root causes of the Plateau crisis, the sheikh argued that laws prohibiting open grazing, as contemplated by the Plateau State government, would be counterproductive. Laws ‘accommodating the traditional practices of herders’ would suffice to eliminate frictions between the various groups in the state, he concluded. After all, he surmised, the Igbo, despite being non-natives, were thriving in Lagos because the state had created ‘inclusive economic environment’. But it is untrue to suggest that no friction and unease pervade Yoruba-Igbo relationship in Lagos, which sometimes erupt in ethnic hatred and bigotry. But while his analogies may be problematic, Sheikh Gumi’s arguments about herders in Plateau may also have been coloured by his hidden prejudices. The Plateau crisis clearly transcends herders-farmers clashes. It has morphed dangerously into ethnic cleansing and land grabbing.

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    Closely related to Sheikh Gumi’s suspect analysis on the Plateau crisis is the equally tendentious and prejudiced summation of Jigawa State governor on the same subject. Governor Namadi had argued that former army chief T.Y Danjuma’s call on citizens to take up arms to defend themselves against kidnappers, land grabbers and marauders was impolitic. According to the governor, asking citizens to take up arms and defend themselves would trigger anarchy. He advocated dialogue, but without explaining why dialogue failed in Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina and some other states in the recent past. The incontestable fact is that, given the inability of security agents to protect citizens, the only reasonable deterrence against evil appears to be armed defence. Arming law-abiding citizens will not promote anarchy any more than militant land grabbers, kidnappers and herders, most of whom, it is now established, are foreigners. If the obviously insular Governor Namadi is so empathetic towards rampaging herdsmen, whom Bauchi State governor Bala Mohammed once described as citizens of everywhere, he should redirect his energies at persuading them to abandon their scorched-earth policy. 

  • EARTH DAY

    EARTH DAY

    (To be accompanied with Music of the Earth – in any language)

    Everyday is Earth’s

    Earth is everyday’s

    But this day is the day

    Of the bell and the gong

    Of solemn awakenings

    And the hurt which comes before the herb

    Wounded trees bleed in the forest

    Lynched lakes congeal like rancid potions

    A poisoned sea foams

    At the edge of a million mouths

    Who dare forget

    The day the River caught fire

    And the Mountain lay crushed

    Like a mound of hapless cake

    Yellow rains, crimson dew,

    Broiling winters, freezing summers

    A perforated sky leaks red tears

    Into the basin of thinning rivers 

    A tropical madness unclothes the streets

    New-born babies surprise the cradle

    With double heads. A heartless Science

    Has sowed the wind; see how we reap the storm

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    Where are the silk-petalled flowers

    Birds with feathers of paradise

    Air clean like the breath of a mountain spring

    Dust which speaks the language of the human skin?

    This day insists that we

    Restore the frog to its pond

    The dew to its grass

    Man to his mind

    Earth to its future

  • Reconciliation in Rivers

    Reconciliation in Rivers

    Six months in the life of an individual, state, or country could be considered a short period. But how the period is utilised may have far-reaching implications for a long time.

    The emergency rule in Rivers State is meant to make the main gladiators assess their actions and work for peace and unity. It also offers a good opportunity for learning, retracing steps, working for the state’s progress, and general reconciliation.

    Learning from the political impasse is necessary. It requires behavioural change through varied experiences, exposure, and lessons.

    If the opportunity is willfully misused, inappropriately exploited or stubbornly discarded, based on the counsel of local Ahitophels in the oil-rich state, Rivers may be back to square one after the emergency period.

    The onus is on Governor Siminalayi Fubara to take the initiative, embrace reality, weigh himself politically, do a critical self-assessment, and opt for genuine reconciliation. It is in his interest and that of his camp and the state.

    This moment calls for sober reflection. Both sides, which constituted a political family and were in a joyous mood on May 29, 2023, have made glaring mistakes and must have realised this by now.

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    While the governor should be less combative, his leader, godfather, and benefactor, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyeson Wike, should be less inflexible and more condescending. A prolonged war could be dangerous. In the final analysis, nobody can predict where it will end. The nature of war is that, sometimes, it also tends to consume the warriors.

    If both sides are sincere in their claims that they are serving the people, they should be ready to embrace dialogue, give concessions, and restore peace for the sake of the masses.

    Some critics have blamed the Federal Government for the critical intervention that led to the suspension of both the Executive and Legislative arms. Their criticisms are subjective. They are angry that Fubara was suspended. They are not sparing any thought for the plight of the 27 anti-governor lawmakers, whose constituencies were denied democratic representation. They uncritically took sides with the governor and the three lawmakers who, for over a year, made themselves the legally and constitutionally recognised House of Assembly.

    Already, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors are threatening to institute a case against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency, perhaps to determine the rightness or wrongness of the presidential action. The court will determine whether or not they have the locus standi.

    However, to objective analysts, an emergency rule is a blessing in disguise. It was the saving grace for Fubara. No member of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) wanted the career of their Rivers colleague to end on a disastrous note. Yet, they saw the danger coming, as manifested in the impeachable offences catalogued by the aggrieved 27 lawmakers who remained fiercely loyal to the former governor and the FCT minister.

    The lawmakers were strengthened by the Supreme Court judgment, which decried the recognition of only three members out of 30, the demolition of the Parliament building, the constitution of an illegal state executive council (Exco), and the implementation of an illegitimately approved budget.

    These issues and many others sparked tension in the state. The impeachment of the governor would not have been a walkover. Some unperceptive tough guys would have been angered if the impeachment option had sailed though. Perhaps, they might have taken the law into their hands by vandalising oil pipes, invading the temporary legislative chambers, and creating chaos. At such a stage, President Tinubu would have also come under criticism for inaction.

    Thus, when the President imposed an emergency rule, those who genuinely sympathised with Fubara in the NGF heaved a sigh of relief. They understood that the dangling axe of impeachment had been averted, a large-scale economic sabotage was prevented and the state’s slide into chaos was forestalled.

    The emergency rule has exposed Fubara to the two sides of the world. Before the presidential action, he was an effective governor with strong control over the state, incredible resources, governance apparatus, and instruments of coercion. But now on suspension, he gazes from afar at Administrator Ibok Ibas exercising part of those powers, even though as an unelected chief executive in the same Rivers Government House. During the week, Ibas took his seat at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting.

    Gone, at least in the interim, are Fubara’s influence, privileges, and guarantee of institutional access to financial resources. Many subjective advisers are not bearing the brunt and burden of his suspension.

    He would only find solace in the fact that the political nightmare is temporary. The question is: what next after the emergency rule? The suspended governor needs to take some concrete steps. He is not expected to be combative in the course of finding solutions to the problems that culminated in his suspension.

    A hypocritical approach to reconciliation is counter-productive. In one breath, Fubara’s supporters are praising President Tinubu and declaring support for his second term. In another, they are denouncing his decision on Rivers, calling him a dictator.

    Fubara’s supporters have the right to continue their protest. It is both entertaining and engaging. Salvos are fired at the president and the FCT minister in far-away Abuja. The governor’s supporters are also not respecting the judiciary whenever they appear on radio and television. Would this lead to a truce in the politically divided state?

    Without dialogue and reconciliation, the state sits on a keg of gunpowder because the two camps will resume their hostilities after the emergency period. This is the type of tragedy that befell the old Western Region in the First Republic. The traditional rulers and party elders took sides after efforts to resolve the Awolowo/Akintola feud collapsed. After the emergency rule, Premier Samuel Ladoke Akintola regained power. But the region had lost its cohesion and peace. Awolowo was jailed. Akintola never had peace of mind. The chain of events led to the wild, wild West. Many people died. Properties were destroyed. The rest, as it is often said, is history.

    The onus is on the elders backing Fubara and those supporting Wike to sheathe their swords, close ranks, and reunite. This is possible because many of them reside in the state and belong to the same party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The suspended governor should not be averse to this approach because it would help his cause.

    Fubara and Wike should meet and break the ice. Every political problem has a solution. Perceived disloyalty brews dissension and dissension sparks antagonism. It is important to embrace loyalty. This is often tested by circumstances. But it is still the most important recipe for political relationships.

    Sometimes, in the course of applying the solution, a huge loss might arise. It could also be a temporary loss of face. But mutual interest could align later. There is no permanent friend or foe in politics. The permanent thing in politics is interest.

    Politicians should always put egos aside and apologise when they make mistakes. A sincere apology should not be perceived as a sign of weakness. A gesture of remorse or an apology tendered should not be rejected by the political leader. Every human being is susceptible to mistakes.

    In politics, punishment is apportioned. The person under punishment should not see it as the end. In this circumstance, he could bounce back to reckoning, following attitudinal changes and remission of political sins.

    Politics is full of ups and downs. It may be rosy today and dull tomorrow. There is no shame in a man falling. What is important is how you rise and use the lessons from the experience.

  • Poverty of ideas

    Poverty of ideas

    The cliché of when you fail to plan you invariably plan to fail rings so true about the outcome of the meeting held between Super Eagles players and chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on the way out of the woods in the country’s quest for the sole qualification ticket for Group C, in the ongoing 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Over 209 countries under the FIFA umbrella have partaken in the qualifiers so far, with the big boys distinguishing themselves in the matches based on different models they adopted. These give them the solutions to the myriads of obstacles as they navigate the thorny path to World Cup qualification.

    These models have been tested and trusted over time by the different countries adopting them. When these models are to be adopted, suggestions meant to upgrade them are considered and adopted irrespective of the pedigree in the game of those proposing the changes. No one’s suggestion is waved aside as we have here in Nigeria where some people claim monopoly of all knowledge and wisdom, simply because they have the ears of those in the government.

    And so when the news broke last week Wednesday that Super Eagles players were credited with $1,000 each, the need to interrogative the veracity of the story and what the money was meant for became imminent. Why do we take delight in putting the cart before the horse? This meeting ought to have been held before the 2026 World Cup qualifiers began. It would have cost us nothing to get the models adopted by the top15 nations who have attended the Mundial in recent times to evaluate how they have gotten the players to prosecute their World Cup qualifiers devoid of crisis before, during and after competition as we have had, culminating in the threat by Super Eagles not to play the second round game against France in 2014, except they were paid their outstanding entitlements. The government averted the show of shame by sending $3.8 million to settle the debts. No prize for guessing right that France beat Nigeria 2-0 in that tie. Nemesis.

    According to Sportinglife’s source on Tuesday: ”In fact, the daily allowances for the Rwandan match hasn’t been paid. Note that it’s the NSC that is to pay. They have not yet released the daily allowances meant for the Rwanda match.

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    ”I thought over time that you are aware of this matter as per how the NFF funds its teams. Well,  the NFF normally sends national teams’ budgets to the Federal Government through the Ministry/NSC for approval. If the money is released, then players and officials of various teams are paid. If not, they are owed.

    ”However, based on the availability of funds from the NFF sponsors, the federation uses such funds to settle the players and/or officials, pending when the government releases its funds. At times, it takes months/years for it to be released. When such funds are not available, teams are owed.

    ”Unfortunately, this is always the situation. I am not holding brief for the NFF though.  I’m just giving you information as to what obtains,” the source said.

    What stood out like a sore thumb was the fact that the NSC took charge directly in the payment, raising the poser whether it was part of their responsibilities beyond serving as the channel for sending out what had been approved for the NFF by the Federal Government to them. If there was the need to interrogate how the money was spent, who would the NSC men hold responsible if they made the payment? Of course, the responses from probing questions thrown at those who should at the Dankaro House in Abuja indicated that when the cash was delayed, they had to use monies outsourced through their marketing initiatives to settle the bills. The imminent question to ask would be what of the money disbursed by the NSC when they get it, what would it be used for? This arrangement is untidy.

    But I trust the NSC chiefs to immediately address this accounting flaw. However, this is part of the bureaucratic bottlenecks in governance in the country. Could it be that one of the parties involved in the chain of approvals didn’t do his job by delaying the process from his side? We need to know since it is one of the reasons the federation is always going cap in hand for cash.

    Back to the Super Eagles and the $1,000 paid into their different accounts, which is a decision worthy of applause. It would be easier to track the liars when needless disputes arise. This writer was told that the players and the NFF at one of their meetings agreed that players would each be paid $1,000 along with the daily allowances for the period of their stay in the camp preparatory to the game.

    The players went further to accept from the NFF the payment of World Cup qualification bonuses when the country eventually gets Group C’s sole qualification ticket for the 2026 World Cup to be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. Need I say this arrangement is a no-brainer if we fail to qualify for the 2026 World Cup? This meeting succeeded in reducing the money spent on prosecuting the qualification ticket. Is this what other nations pay? Does this agreement guarantee the country the qualification ticket not just Group C’s, going forward?

    We need an all-embracing template that ensures every facet in the chain for progress recognises team bonding, unity among the players, and a healthy synergy between everyone in the squad and the management of the NFF. After all, they are no kids. Truth be told, Nigeria has the youngest set of players for the 2030 World Cup. And the time to start assembling those players is now. 2030 is just five years away with the oldest players being 22 years old now.

    To achieve some of these targets, we need to identify what we want to achieve and build on it. Most countries’ football growth stems from grassroots communities such that when new talents are discovered, it is easy to know where it all started because each community will celebrate its own. Simply put, sports, not just soccer, grows its stem from the catchment areas from ages four to six, where the kids can be taught the rudiments of the game. Since such schemes pervade all the communities, blue-chip firms can identify with sports of their choice – most times soccer because of its immense followership. What the communities provide are platforms to discover, nurture and expose their young ones to games that they like.

    Countries measure their growth in soccer by the number of domestic league players in their national teams. The ripple effect of this is that the domestic league matches are watched by a crowd of soccer lovers weekly, invariably increasing the revenue of the domestic clubs.  Our league games won’t attract foreigners like we had in the past if we play before an almost empty stadium and can’t offer good money to lure them here. It isn’t enough for the government to fund clubs. The governors should ensure that credible people manage the teams.

    They should be given targets and timelines to deliver on mandates given, otherwise, they are asked to go. One of the targets governors should give to those who administer clubs is to ensure they are listed by the Stock Exchange. It is laughable that none of the clubs’ value is public knowledge. How, then, do they expect the blue-chip firms to do business with them?

  • Increased telecoms tariffs and inconsistent quality service

    Increased telecoms tariffs and inconsistent quality service

    Four months ago (in January 2025), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved a significant telecom tariff of 50%, which was implemented on 11th February, 2025. Some of the justifications given for the decision were due to rising inflation and foreign exchange volatility, resulting in higher operational costs for telecom operators. The objective of the approval of the increase is to ensure the sustainability of the industry. Accordingly, the NCC mandated that telecommunication companies (telcos) must improve their network quality within three months, with intensified scrutiny and heavier penalties for non-compliance. This condition was part of the tariff increase approval process. Consequently, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) insists that the “telecom tariff increase must result in significant service improvements”. Furthermore, the FCCPC and NCC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure robust consumer protection, fair competition, and the eradication of exploitative practices in the telecommunications sector.

     Nigerians and other telco customers have accepted the increase in telecommunications tariffs on calls and data. This is despite initial resistance by a lot of Nigerians and also the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), who at one point threatened to go on strike if the telecommunication companies did not return to old tariffs.

     However, while some of us were not against the increase in the telecommunications tariff, I believe that the very important issue of quality service delivery and actual value for money should have been the issue on the front burner. As it is, call drops, poor data connections, and incessant network downtime are continuing, without tangible sanctions or pay back to telco customers for call drops or data loss. Consequently, Nigerians lose Billions of Naira daily due to call drops, poor call or poor data network quality, and outright network downtimes without consequences.  These are the critical issues that I expect the NLC and all telco customers to focus on and push back on because telecommunication companies are not taking responsibility for service failures. This should no longer be acceptable!

     Nigerians should not be made to continue losing money without remediation or explanation by the service providers or the regulators as to why things should continue this way. This should no longer be acceptable, given the justification given to stakeholders in support of the increase in telco tariffs. If nothing is done by the relevant agencies of Government, i.e. Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCP), Nigerians will continue losing money with the attendant socio-economic impacts because life is almost now entirely dependent on telecommunication whether it is security economy, business, health, social activities, etc.

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     It is a fact that for about twelve years, the telecommunication companies did not increase their call and data tariffs. It is a fact that Nigerians have been facing brutal socioeconomic conditions, which have escalated in the last ten years. But suffice it to say that the latest increase in the tariff is huge. So, on one side, the telecommunication companies may say that the increase in tariffs is justifiable. However, the increase in the cost of living and the cost of doing business in Nigeria have affected all businesses, not just telcos. Of course, the cost of Diesel and other forms of alternative power, the cost of providing security to telecommunications base stations and other sites all add to the operational costs of telcos. However, the question is: “Over the years, have Nigerians been really getting actual value for the money they pay for the communication services (calls and data)? We all know that the service qualities we get from all the service providers, vis-à-vis the costs of data, are not up to par.

     In my view, and most Nigerians will agree with me, the service providers are making a lot of money on data without an empirical commensurate value to customers in terms of the quality of service, and also in terms of the throughput that customers should get. For example, if a person or business pays for 1GB of data, will they get the actual value for the money they pay for 1GB of data? And/ or if there are incessant downtimes or poor quality of service, are there remediations to cover for the poor service delivery, apart from periodic apologies? Indeed, the service providers will not accept apologies for even 1 Kobo less of the money for whatever service they provide!

     Therefore, NCC, FCCPC, the organized labor, civic society, consumer forums, and citizens should be more proactive in engaging the telecommunication companies to ensure that they provide services in Nigeria in line with best practices. So, I think there is a need to step up surveillance of service quality and consistent engagement to achieve best practices and outcomes. There is also a need for improved regulation enforcement. This is especially so given the fact that all the telecommunication companies have been making the highest revenue and profits in Nigeria, above and beyond other countries that they operate in on the entire African continent in the past 25 years. This is also even while taking cognizance of the income downturn they experienced last year or 2. Indeed, the over 20 years that they have been posting Billions of US Dollars in profit over-compensate the short-term losses. I therefore urge all the relevant regulatory institutions to do the needful, particularly in the area of the quality of service, and remediation upon failure. By the way, I wonder if we have empirical ways to determine that everybody is getting value for their money for the telecommunication services.

     In fairness to the telcos, we know that they’ve been making losses recently due to increased cost of operations, as I mentioned earlier, but having been allowed to increase the tariffs, they have no excuse for providing sustained, inconsistent service quality. My advice to the NLC and other advocacy groups is that while the conversation is going on, the focus should be on the quality of service we are getting, on data, and on calls. Key areas to clarify should include: “What are the values we are getting for each service. I believe that remediations should be given by the service provider and/ or penalties should be imposed on the service provider for poor service, as some of the ways to ensure that customers get the best value for money. Customers have the right to challenge the telcos through the appropriate mechanisms/ channels if they don’t deliver value as promised. Customers also have the right to put the NCC and FCCPC on their toes to ensure that when we pay N100 Naira for a call or data we get value for our N20 Naira.

  • The Hornet’s Nest

    The Hornet’s Nest

    “Conscience is an open wound; only the truth can heal it”. 

    By Usman Dan Fodio

    Preamble

    This article is not new. It was first published in this column in 2013 as a reaction to an outburst of some Nigerian political demagogues whose aim was to aggravate the confusion in the land. It is being repeated here today due to popular demand by ardent readers because of its relevance. Here it goes:

    Nest, to the hornet, is a sanctuary. Whoever wants to stir it must be ready for some painful stings. It was the words of Nigeria’s lotus eaters against those of the former American President, Bill Clinton, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, sometime in December 2013 where the latter was the guest speaker at ThisDay’s award ceremony. The theme of the lecture was something like ‘Causes and Solution to Insurgency and general insecurity in Nigeria’.

    When Bill Clinton opened up on the causes of insecurity in Nigeria, particularly concerning Boko Haram, hardly did he realise that he was stirring the hornet’s nest. As a man who knew because he was in a position to know, Clinton emphatically identified poverty as the main cause of insecurity in Nigeria. He was frank in canvassing some ways by which Nigeria could effectively deal with Boko Haram insurgency and other forms of insecurity in the country without caring about whose ox might be gored.

    Among the ideas he suggested as solution were poverty alleviation, thorough education at all levels, equitable distribution of wealth and job creation for the nation’s teeming unemployed youths. Highlighting some desired programmes urgently necessary for curbing the spate of violence and general insecurity in the country, Clinton said:  “You have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don’t have it. You already have all these political problems — and now violence  — that appears to be rooted in religious differences as well as all the rhetoric of Boko Haram and others, but the truth is that poverty rate in the North is three times that of Lagos”.

    Economic Management

    Counseling on the need to re-design the country’s economic management to the delight of all and sundry while pointing out that “too much inequality” was capable of limiting growth and opportunities among the citizens of a country, Clinton stressed that only a redistribution of wealth would go a long way to address the prevalent violence and insecurity in Nigeria. He went further to say: “You have about three big challenges. First of all, like 90 per cent of the countries who have one big resource, you have a number of ways with your own money. It shows you have different ways. Now you are at least not wasting the natural gas, you are developing and selling it through the pipelines. You have to do better job of managing the natural resources…..”

    “Secondly, you have to somehow bring economic opportunities to the people who don’t have. This is not a problem peculiar to Nigeria. In almost every place in the world, prosperity is heavily concentrated in and around urban areas. So you have all these political problems for now even violence. There appears to be political and religious differences and now, the rhetoric of Boko Haram and all that. You have to build a powerful state and local governments as well as a national policy that works along. If you just keep trying to divide the power into loosening strategy, you have to figure out a way to devise a strategy that will help share the prosperity.” The President-Elect may find some of these ideas useful in his blue print on governance in Nigeria.

    Clinton then went further to advise that education should be used as a tool to tackle poverty among Nigerians, saying that if citizens were well educated they would be economically empowered and hence have less inclination towards violence. He added that: “Nigeria, which earns billions of dollars from her oil industry and is a major supplier to the US, must not take a “divide the pie” approach towards attacking poverty”. He therefore advised that governments at all levels needed to tackle youth unemployment which, according to him, is a major source of instability across the world.

    Bill Clinton was not the first experienced international figure to make such truthful but painful comments about Nigeria and her style of governance. As far back as January 27, 2010, the former US Secretary of State, Mrs. Hilary Clinton, who incidentally is the wife of Bill Clinton had spoken in the same manner about Nigeria in Nigeria. And the reactions that followed her statement were not in any way dissimilar from those that greeted Bill Clinton’s statement of 2013. While the wife spoke in official capacity, the husband spoke in private capacity. But the coincidence in their speeches was not just in the similarity of their thoughts but also in the similarity of the reactions that greeted both speeches. Speaking in blunt terms at a “town hall” in a meeting with Nigeria’s State Department officials in Abuja Mrs. Hillary Clinton said:

    “….The most immediate source of the disconnect between Nigeria’s wealth and its poverty is a failure of governance at the federal, states and local levels … Lack of transparency and accountability has eroded the legitimacy of the government and contributed to the rise of groups that embraced violence and rejected the authority of the state.”

    Government’s Failure

    “Nigeria”, she continued: “Africa’s biggest energy producer and second-largest economy, “faces a threat from increasing radicalization that needs to be addressed. Describing corruption in Nigeria as unbelievable, she reiterated that the government’s failure to deliver basic services helped foster extremism in young people…adding that: “The failure of the Nigerian leadership over many years to respond to the legitimate needs of their own young people, to have a government that promoted a meritocracy, that really understood that democracy can’t just be given lip service, it has to be delivering services to the people, has meant there is a lot of alienation in that country and others”. She lamented poor governance and deteriorating living conditions which she said made Nigeria’s disaffected young people ripe targets for militants looking for recruits to attack the West.

    Substantiating her assertion, Mrs. Clinton said, when she met with a group of Nigerians in the capital city of Abuja, “people were … standing and shouting about what it was like to live in a country where the elite was so dominant, where corruption was so rampant and criminality was so pervasive”. And “that”, according to her, “is an opening for extremism that offers an alternative world view”. After all, poverty knows no tribe, religion, gender or age. It cuts across all strata of human life. That was the idea imbibed by one time Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, in the 1960s, which came to transform China into a formidable nation today.

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    Official reaction

    However, rather than pontificating on Mrs. Clinton’s analysis some members of the then ruling party virtually told her to shut up and mind her own business by leaving Nigeria alone. The arrogant resentment particularly came through the mouth of the then Publicity Secretary of the party, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, who, in a swift statement, said Mrs. Clinton’s remarks were baseless.

    In his words: “Although the ‘ruling party’ saw Mrs Clinton’s “visit to Nigeria as a further expression of the age-long strong cordial diplomatic relations between both countries, we are at the same time concerned that some of her remarks are not only way off the mark but also based on misinformation. Her sweeping statement on what she calls a ‘failure of leadership’ does not correspond with the reality of present day Nigeria where a committed leadership operating within the realm of the rule of law holds sway”.

    Professor Alkali said the ‘ruling party’ found Mrs. Clinton’s “condescending statements against our country and leaders not contextualised,” adding that she “seems to have taken her briefs from individuals or groups and other failed politicians who have an axe to grind with the government of the Federal  Republic of Nigeria”.

    He added: “It is a fact that the present administration inherited a lot of challenges that were entrenched in the body polity for a long time since assumption of office in May 2007, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has demonstrated a rare but firm commitment to right the wrongs of the past, using constitutional instruments in order to strengthen democratic governance in the country”.

    Observation

    Despite leaving a bad taste in the mouth, Alkali’s statement did not bother Mrs. Clinton who knew Nigeria better than the respondent Nigerians. Her reaction was a reminder of a Yoruba adage which says ‘a dog that refuses to respond to the warning whistle of the hunter is surely destined to stray into permanent perdition’. That adage has now proved to be a prevailing destiny on the then so-called ruling party that took impunity for law.

    Were Bill or Hillary Clinton a Muslim, some fanatics especially in Nigerian media would have characteristically accused him/her of wanting to ‘Islamise’ (sic) Nigeria just for telling the naked truth. However, to the great delight of reasonable and patriotic Nigerians, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), in a statement signed by its then President, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), said it wished “to align itself with the statement credited to the US Secretary of State the summation of which was that corruption, amongst other factors, has caused failure of governance in Nigeria”.

    Akeredolu concluded that: “We cannot agree less and note that President Yar’Adua admitted that Nigeria was facing challenges in its war against corruption and bid to reform its electoral system, which has underscored failure of governance at the federal, state and local government levels,” it said, adding: “This intervention could not have come at a better time than now when agents of the government are on the prowl, deploying viciously the weapon of blackmail against the leadership of the NBA who has long identified this and continues to clamour for change”.

    He continued: “Secretary Clinton having reiterated the position of the Bar, it would, perhaps, not be out of place for those who are quick to stand logic on its head to satisfy greed, to conclude that the top diplomat, being a lawyer, must also belong to Action Congress or any of the opportunistic organisations dubbed parties.”

    Nothing is strange

    It is not strange therefore, that the comments by Bill Clinton in 2013 drew similar parochially partisan reactions from those who are benefitting directly from the then ongoing rot in the country. It seems that politics in Nigeria is like an animal carcass on which idle vultures must feast without caring about the pollution which the odour there from would cause to the environment. Even a blind person can perceive the poverty in Nigeria or smell its odour. It is rather an added assault on the public to say that Mrs. Clinton in 2010 and Mr. Clinton in 2013 must have been briefed by certain individuals who were antagonistic to the ruling government. Such a statement could only have come from people of feeble minds who exemplified the ineptitude of Nigeria’s government of the time.

    In retrospect

    On December 22, 2012, the Nigeria Muslim Forum,  UK, held its 22nd Annual Winter Conference at Stamford Court, University of Leicester. At that conference, retired General Abdur-Rahman Dambazau delivered a paper that electrified the Hall. The paper which was entitled ‘Poverty Alleviation, Security and Stability’ addressed the Nigerian situation from social, economic and political points of view. In the paper, he made the meaning of poverty clearer, using verified statistical indexes to buttress his arguments. The retired General also looked at the ranking of Nigeria on the poverty table which showed Nigeria as one of the 20 most poverty-stricken countries in the world; and the Northwest as the most hit and Southwest of the country as the least affected. Generally, the situation is by far worse today than it was then.

    Religious Angle

    “In his own contribution to the discussions the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Dr. Mathew Kukah stressed that poverty was one of the main causes of intolerance in the society, which in turn often leads to conflict and insecurity. He said people react to poverty in various manners and that they respond to conflict in ways they feel would bring them justice. He also blamed the deterioration of the situation in Nigeria on injustice and warned that injustice would continue to breed violence in the country unless something was quickly done to ensure equitable dispensation of justice. He explained that diversity should be seen as an advantage to the society as it enhances growth, “although in Northern Nigeria the reverse is the case due to the failure to manage it well in view of the crises the region now faces….”.

    Frank Talk

    In an earlier similar statement he made in January 2012 about Boko Haram and causes of insecurity, Bishop Kukah said inter alia: “We live in a state of ineffective law enforcement and tragic social conditions. Corruption has destroyed the fabric of our society. Its corrosive effect can be seen in the ruination of our lives and the decay in our society. The inability of the state to punish criminals as criminals have created the illusion that there is a conflict between Christians and Muslims. In fact, it would seem that many elements today are going to great extremes to pitch Christians against Muslims, and vice versa, so that our attention is taken away from the true source of our woes: corruption. As Nigerians, Christians and Muslims, we must stand together to ensure that our resources are well utilised for the common good. This is why, despite the hardships we must endure as a result of the strike, the Fuel Subsidy debate must be seen as the real dividend of democracy”.

    “Religious leaders across the faiths must indeed stand up together and face the challenge of the times by offering a leadership that focuses on our common humanity and common good rather than the insignificant issues that divide us. We therefore condemn in very strong terms the tendency by some religious leaders to play politics with the issues of our collective survival….”

    Conclusion

    With all these issues still prominent on the national table it may be interesting to ask a very vital question as the so-called National confab was put on the front burner as a matter of priority despite the overwhelming opposition to it by the well informed sectors of the society. Now, besides wasting another colossal sum of money on mere political patronage what has become of that jamboree? There is a great lesson for the incoming government to learn from all these. For things to take a proper shape, not as it is but as it ought to be, a ‘CHANGE’ for the better must be vivid and practical. The euphoria of the recent electoral victory has created such an unprecedented hope in the generality of Nigerian populace that the new government must not allow such hope to end up in another paroxysm of despair. God guide our leaders aright.

  • Starving in the presence of wide agricultural land

    Starving in the presence of wide agricultural land

    I have been listening to the broadcast of Dr Tunde Bakare, the nationally renowned and relevant man of God who like prophets of old spoke words to power pointing out to government what can be done to bring our country back to prosperity not just waiting to collect commissions on oil but to build an agriculturally sufficient country, adding value to what it produces on a vast industrial complex. His program can be described as the application of Biblical Joseph’s economic plan to the development of ancient Egypt to our situation in Nigeria. Good old agriculture is the way to economic development of Nigeria. Agriculture does not mean food production alone but the growing of tree crops.

    When I was very young during the colonial days, we did not import food before we ate. As far as I can remember, agriculture and agricultural development belonged in the realm of local government particularly the towns and villages. The same thing was true of education and other things which have now been appropriated by either the state or federal (central) government.  In the early 1950s when I was in primary school, every school had what we called “school farms”. I don’t know what people in Lagos had but I have a feeling they must have had school gardens because of the scarcity of arable land in the Lagos colony. But in my place in Ilawe Ekiti where I was born, we all had school farms. It did not matter how young or old one was, there was always a time devoted for farming. When it was time for harvest, it was a big celebration marked by drumming, dancing and eating. In my place, we only planted yams, corn, groundnuts, vegetables, peppers, onions, tomatoes and other edible vegetables. At harvest, there was public sale of our products and whatever was left was shared among teachers, students and the clergy since most of our schools were sectarian schools established by the various churches that were around in those days. When I entered Christ School, Ado Ekiti in 1956, we continued with the same tradition and added more things that we produced. Agriculture was then properly provided for in the school curriculum. Wednesday morning in alternate week was devoted to agriculture. Piggery and poultry were then introduced in addition to growing of root crops and vegetables. Most of the operations were done by students who belonged to agriculture society by choice. The whole thing was supervised by an “Agriculture Master” who had very light academic teaching.

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    At harvest time, the entire school feasted on the produce from the school farm during the day of harvest celebration and the agriculture society became popular because of the free pork shared with other students. The intention in students’ participation was to generate interest leading to many of them going to agricultural schools set up by all the regional governments of the country to train extension workers in agriculture to show our peasants the way forward in agricultural development in the country. Later, the Awolowo government of the 1950s established farm settlements to engage the overflow from free primary schools who could not find places in the very few secondary schools and “Modern” schools specifically established to absorb them. The Awolowo schools were copied by Michael Okpara and Ahmadu Bello, respectively premiers of Eastern and Northern Nigeria. The upshot of this was that agriculture, both peasant and modern, were made available in Nigeria. Unfortunately, we did not progress towards industrial agriculture of large commercial agriculture involving the use of modern tools on large estates.

    Throughout the years of Nigeria’s development, our largely peasant agriculture has never failed us. Perhaps that is where we went wrong. We should have developed vast agricultural estates either as state venture or private enterprises to produce food for home consumption and export particularly in the years of huge oil earnings in the 1970s. Now the urban population is swarming with young people who have refused to go to the farms but have been attracted by the bright lights of the cities and are only interested in white collar jobs or at worst in riding motorcycles to ferry people around in unproductive and unprofitable ventures sometimes extending to criminal tendencies. To augment their incomes, the urban proletariat and poor peasantry have taken to crimes of kidnapping and countrywide brigandage to fend for themselves and to satisfy their tastes and unrealistic desires based on their exposures to global television and cheap films. All this has led to shortages all round and we must do something about it.

    The greatest tragedy that a country can face is starvation. It is natural for people and even animals to do everything to feed themselves. Self-survival is the first law of nature. No matter how many soldiers or police we may have, man must first answer the law of nature. We have a reached the critical point where we have to find food for everyone. We once had “Operation Feed the Nation” during General Olusegun Obasanjo’s military administration and program of “Green Revolution” during the presidency of Shehu Shagari. We had great intentions then but they did not translate to reality. I remember everyone was called upon to grow something behind or in front of their homes to reduce the cost of food imports.

    The program of the “Green Revolution” put enormous resources and emphasis on large dams and large estates of rice, corn, and wheat. We have to revamp the programs and go back to them and this time, make them work. The growing population of Nigeria which we have refused to curb will not permit failure this time. We must do something about our galloping population and our open borders which allow people from Niger, Chad, Benin, Togo and other West Africans to flood our borders. If we don’t tackle our population problem, we will not solve our food problems.

    The solution to our population problem is both internal and external. We must all ask ourselves what we as individuals have contributed towards them. Ask how many children and grandchildren you as individuals have contributed to the rising population creating a future population bomb.  Gone are those days when having many children are signs of affluence and power. Today they are signs of poverty and problems.

    Now that we are beginning to seriously look at the structural configuration of the country, we should begin to realise that structures go beyond politics and the economy, pivotal as they appear. Structure should include production particularly who and where things are produced. We should look back to the future, so to say, in the ways we run our country. The closer we are to the grassroots in agriculture, the better and more profitable and productive we are likely to be. The same thought should inform security and policing. The more secure we are at the village level, the more we are likely to be at the national level. The more secure we are, the more food secure we would be as a nation. It is also generally hazarded that the more food secure a country is, the more politically stable and economically viable a country would be. If a country is stable and secure at home, the more it would be able to wield influence and power abroad. To be where we want to be internationally, we must first be able to feed and secure ourselves. A hungry man is an angry man and an angry man cannot think rationally. A mad man is entertaining but no one wants to be a parent to a mad child. This is the situation facing us where the subject of our conversation these days is the cost of tomatoes, peppers, onions, bread and rice. A serious country’s concern should go beyond food which has in most countries been assumed to be normally available whether locally produced or imported. Nigerians must not be allowed to starve.

    Corrigendum:

    My last article on Nigeria as a “A Republic of a thousand kingdoms “ omitted the  fact of the significance of the Ooni of Ife as the fountain of both the Oba of Benin and the Alaafin of Oyo before the two kingdoms developed into empires .I have written in the past about the interconnectedness of Ife , Benin and Oyo. I am gratified that my article in The Nation is read globally .The omission is regretted.

  • Adieu, Pope of Peace

    Adieu, Pope of Peace

    In A world ravaged by wars and agitations, Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis who died on Easter Monday did his best to defuse tensions. He was a man of peace who sought peace in every part of the world. He did not only speak for peace, he worked and walked for it, as much as his frail health could carry him.

    When he celebrated Mass with the faithful worldwide on Easter Sunday, his only message, as usual, was peace in the world. Peace in our hearts and peace in our homes for the world to be livable for all. The Pope would have wanted to do more, but he went as far as his health would allow him. As he sat on his wheelchair by a window at his Vatican residence from where he greeted the world at Easter, it was plain that the Pope was in pain.

    But he put up a brave face to address global ills and what should be done to make the world a better place for all. Unknown to those gathered on the grounds of the Vatican and the millions watching on television and following him online worldwide, he was making his final farewells. It was to be the Pope’s last Easter celebrations as the Bishop of Rome and the foremost Catholic in the world.

    A Russian leader, Joseph Stalin at the height of the power and glory of the now crumbled USSR, was so carried away that he rhetorically wondered: “how many divisions does the Pope have?” The Pope’s power does not lie in military might, it is in his moral force, which is more powerful than the strength of all the combined armed forces of the world. Whenever the Pope speaks, whether in times of peace or conflict, the world listens.

    The Pope does not need an army to do that because the God that he works for does not fight with troops. Presidents, prime ministers and kings hold him in awe. The Pope might not wield the political and monarchical powers of temporal leaders, but his spiritual power places him on a higher pedestal than them. He commands much respect because of his moral and spiritual force.

    Thus, Pope Francis’ spiritual and moral authority gave him the voice to speak the way he did. The Pope was sought after, and not the other way round. No leader refuses to see the Vatican Head of State; never. Such is the the respect, honour and integrity that the Pope commands. Yes, Pope’s are humans, but they are of a different species of homo sapiens. They give their lives to serve the Lord and humanity, living in a cloistered home where they are constant in season and out of season, while their concerns remain what is going on around the world.

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    Pope Francis brought a common touch to his Papacy. He was at home with the poor, the lost, the forgotten and the migrant. He lived for the wretched of the earth and fought their cause with all he had. He knew he held a powerful office with a strong voice. Even though his weak health strained his own voice, the voice of his office rang out loud and clear wherever he went to. He walked among kings, but he never trampled upon serfs.

    He was the leader of Catholics worldwide which number is said to be 1.4 billion, but Christendom and the global community are the Pope’s constituency. The Pope never speaks for Catholics or even Christians alone, he speaks for the world. He was concerned with happenings in Israel, Lebanon, Poland, Azerbaijan as he was with developments in Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In short, the Pope was everywhere because humanity is universal.

    Francis was an uncommon Pope who took office after his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI resigned on health grounds. He chose the name Francis after the order of Francis of Assisi, the Catholic friar, who became a beggar and itinerant preacher in pursuit of his vow of poverty, chastity and obedience. Pope Francis lived such a life too. Though surrounded by opulence at the Vatican, he never shut his eyes to the suffering of the poor, the lost and the hungry around him and across the world.

    Indeed and in truth, the Pope fought a good fight; he finished his course; he kept the faith. He has gone to the House of his Father in heaven for the crown that awaits all those who finish well. Rest well, Pope, you made the world a better place with your messages of peace. It will not be out of place if you are considered posthumously for the Nobel Prize for Peace. After all, you referred to destitute as the “noble beings of the earth”. It will be noble for you to win the Nobel.

  • Haba Nipco, 40k for 20k petrol! (1)

    Haba Nipco, 40k for 20k petrol! (1)

    It has been over three months since the transaction. It was on January 15 that I went to Nipco filling station at Arepo, off the Lagos-Ibadan Express road to buy petrol. I paid with my ATM card, but the transaction was declined. Nevertheless, I was debited for the failed transaction. On the second attempt, the transaction went through. It was not the first time I was experiencing such at a filling station. I was sure I would get my money back once I went to complain formally at my bank since such disputes are usually resolved inter-bank.

    I took my case to my bank and GTB did all it could to help. It sent my complaint to UBA, Nipco’s bank. UBA said its customer got value for the transaction, meaning that Nipco was credited with my first N20000 for which I, the retail outlet’s customer, never got value for. I was debited for the transaction yet Nipco declined to serve me petrol until I paid another N20000.

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    So, I paid N40000 for a N20000 transaction. Despite all efforts to get my money back, Nipco and its bank keep proving difficult. I have tried all peaceful means to resolve this matter to no avail. I have tendered everything I got from GTB to support my complaint but Nipco and UBA seem not interested in all the documents. What Nipco is particular about is the POS printout of the failed transaction which I have since misplaced. It is not interested in other supporting documents to my claim provided by GTB.

    It sounds illogical that a ‘dispense error dispute’, as they call it cannot be resolved just because of a missing printout of the failed transaction, despite all the available backups provided by GTB.