The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  •  The good Nigerian

     The good Nigerian

    The Hausa tricycle driver did not set out to be a hero. He owns no newspaper column, has no audience hanging onto his every word, and wields no influence beyond the handlebars of his humble Keke NAPEP (tricycle). Yet, in the holy month of Ramadan, while inflation alternates its grip on random food prices and every naira bears the weight of a thousand worries, he made a simple choice: to give. He scrawled a declaration on his tricycle: Ramadan Discount: From N200 to N100 per Drop.

    He did not do it for fame or political points. But as a measure of unpretentious goodwill and for the unadorned virtue of kindness. The beneficiaries of his generosity are not predetermined by ethnicity or religious affiliation. They are Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Christian, Muslim, and those who worship in silence. In his small act of selflessness, he weaves a stronger fabric of unity and compassion than the questionable intellectuals who, from their lofty perches and soapboxes, sow discord in the name of activism.

    The critic, channeling fiery cynicism, parades himself as a self-anointed custodian of truth, but he is a prophet of doom in disguise. At the first whiff of roses, he starts looking for a coffin. He is the silent epidemic that gnaws at the soul of the country,  more insidious than the crisis of governance and the spectre of economic hardship. He is the proverbial future, now walking with a slouched spirit.

    Cynicism, now pervasive, is cultivated by an unrelenting stream of discontent. Every day, the public sphere becomes a battlefield, rife with the narratives of doomsayers: politicians, activists, and frustrated elites who have been denied the fruits of power. Once silenced by ambition, these voices now rage with venom, spewing defeatism and prophesying Nigeria’s inevitable collapse. Yet, behind their calls for change is a lurking self-interest, the bitter taste of being left out of the corridors of influence. They are neither patriots nor prophets; they are casualties of their own desires. The youth, in their vulnerability, have become their prey.

    Young Nigerians must exercise caution in choosing their role models. It is easy to be swayed by voices that loudly condemn the state of the nation, but not all who decry Nigeria’s failures seek her restoration. Many are simply opportunists in waiting, men and women who will seize power not to heal but to gorge themselves on the spoils of a broken system.

    Any youth that emulates them will simply burden himself with disillusionment and perpetual cynicism until he can ill afford the luxury of dreaming. Therein lies the death of his conscience and fervour to see Nigeria succeed. His heart will become a graveyard of lost hopes, pulsating only to despair. Even when he fancies himself a thinker, his words drip with venomous cynicism. He stalks the corridors of national discourse, like a vulture circling a dying beast, waiting for the collapse of the Nigerian enterprise so he can proclaim, with gleeful sanctimoniousness: “I told you so!”

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    For many of his ilk, Nigeria has been on a death watch since Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged as the country’s president. They do not simply anticipate calamity; they yearn for it, that their chosen narratives might be justified. At each flicker of crisis—each naira that plummets, each scandal that erupts—they rejoice and dance with macabre delight. And even when tragedy strikes in the form of system failures, disasters, or celebrity deaths, they belabour the premise of cause and effect, eagerly laying blame at the feet of the president, the government, the nation itself. Their cynical gospel spreads like wildfire among disillusioned youths, who, in their thirst for change, mistake nihilism for wisdom.

    Yet, the Good Nigerian does not preach; he acts. His love for country is not found in vitriolic essays or televised debates but in tangible, everyday kindness. His simple discount may seem inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, yet to the weary commuter clutching his last naira, it offers relief. The nation may bleed from a thousand cuts, but when its nationals manifest such heartfelt gestures of kindness, even in its smallest dose, it will begin to heal.

    The response to the tricycle driver’s gesture is as telling as the act itself. Across social media, voices from every corner of the country rose in admiration. A Christian woman prayed for Allah to bless him. A security guard, accustomed to receiving food from fasting Muslims, marveled at the consistency of their generosity. An Igbo man, weary of holiday season price hikes in his homeland, acknowledged the contrast with a wry smile. The lesson is unmistakable—here, in the small frame of a commercial transporter, is a true patriot, a man who understands that love of country is not merely an anthem sung but a kindness given. This is the Good Nigerian.

    The critics, in contrast, know little of giving. They pontificate on patriotism, yet their patriotism is conditional. They wield their critiques like scythes, severing hope wherever it dares to sprout. They celebrate nothing but decay and languish in the luxury of discontent. Their weapon is not action but rhetoric—fiery words that scorch the land but plant no seed. If the nation crumbles, they will be there to gloat rather than rebuild. Their cynicism is no longer just an affliction; it is an agenda.

    But the tricycle driver? He does not speak of love; he lives it. And his love, though seemingly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, resonates louder than the critic’s flamethrower words. The Good Nigerian does not look for scapegoats. He does not sneer from the sidelines, unwilling to engage unless conditions are perfect. He understands that patriotism is not in the cynical condemnation of the land but in the conscious, deliberate acts of service that make the land better. He knows that a nation is not only its rulers; it is its people, its daily interactions, its gestures of solidarity in the face of shared struggle.

    This is the lesson that must be learned. Nigeria’s problem is not only the failure of governance; it is the erosion of goodwill among its citizens. The political elite did not fall from outer space or descend from the heavens; they are products of our homes, our schools, and our society. If we demand better leadership, we must first demand better citizens. The Good Nigerian understands this. The critic does not.

    Let the so-called intellectual take heed. His towering ego and exaggerated sense of worth serve neither him nor the country. If wisdom is the measure of greatness, then this tricycle driver, with his modest means and boundless heart, has taught more in a single act than the critic has in all his essays and televised debates. The country does not need another cynic cloaked in the guise of patriotism. It needs more men and women who, in their small corners, choose to give rather than take, to mend rather than tear apart, to believe rather than curse the darkness.

    And so, shall we, like the tricycle driver, embrace the quiet heroism of practical patriotism? Or shall we continue to wallow in the quicksand of bitter cynicism? The answer will determine not just the fate of Nigeria but the soul of her people.

  • CBN; Fuel; NAFDAC; N758b; Evans

    CBN; Fuel; NAFDAC; N758b; Evans

    We see many things beginning to resurrect. The key events include the corrupted CBN resurrected and paying corruptly delayed genuine debts in forex for industrial growth. There is also almost reunification of the official and parallel markets, sadly at the lower level.

    Another event was the price in petroleum products facilitated by private and public refineries. Celebrating the petrol price war, we ask: ‘Is it to kill the competition only to raise prices once competition is bankrupted?’ This was past corporate methodology. So, was lower priced fuel ever a benevolent gift or just boardroom steps in competition destruction?  Only time will tell.

    Another event is the production and export of oil towards the OPEC’s approved Nigeria1.8/2m barrels per day. This figure was unachievable due to lack of political will, corruption, bunkering and waste perpetrated by pirates, bunkerers and corrupt security and monitoring agencies all thirsty for corrupt oil.

    The current security-driven increased production increases government’s monthly allocation. Of course, the poor exchange rate means a lot more local money. We talk trillions no longer billions of naira. So, we may get more dollars but less dollars will be used to pay years old naira debts to contractors, pensioners or unpaid salary workers. That in turn means that much less can be done by the recipients paid years behind expected dates. The delayed pensions are worth and can buy only one third of a pension paid in the past.  Our past pension scheme managers including governors failed where pensions were delayed.

    The government is to raise N758b to clear backlog of payment liabilities for workers. Hurray. The payment of pensioners is a key component of reinforcing the ‘dignity of labour’ principle so battered by our youth witnessing our koboless parents and grandparents and those carrying placards demanding unpaid pensions for years. The nationwide civilian/military driven ‘Unpaid Pension Scandal’ has been instrumental in ruining societal social structure and the ‘Extended Family Structure’ for 40 years.

    Nowadays the youth have no regard for the elderly-especially those financially weak. Unpaid grandparents cannot provide the traditional pocket and under-the-pillow gifts of sweets and biscuits for grandchildren. What lesson about the value of hard work and honest working life do we force our grandparents to project when they have been stripped of their dignity for a generation by an absent or an inadequate non-economic index-linked pension and a chronically corrupted pension scheme in which the staff, unsupervised and unchecked sometimes extort from the vulnerable aged?

    Let us ensure that pensioners get this money in a timely, atraumatic and non-corrupt manner. They must not be subject to a corrupt conveyor belt with demands for gratification by staff of pension and government personnel. In 2025, Nigeria must elevate our wronged pensioners who must not pay from their pensions or even with their lives just to be verified and to collect their rightful overdue share of the N758b pension arrears.

    It is a disgrace not to USAID officials, though the US Government will think different as it has shut down USAID, but to the delivery chain, mostly local Nigerian conduits, that USAID drugs were discovered among N1trillion seizures by NAFDAC. This is according to the NAFDAC DG Prof Mojisola Adeyeye whose life is being threatened just as her predecessors including Prof Dora Akinyuli who was shot at. Were the attackers caught?

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    In 1975/6 during NYSC Posting in Lafia General Hospital, patient relations travelled to Onitsha Market for unavailable life-saving medication. I remember vividly wondering why relatives had to buy anti-snake venom and anti-tetanus serum and anti-rabies serum stamped with the labels ‘WHO – NOT FOR SALE’ or ‘UNICEF -NOT FOR SALE’. Corruption, of course! So, it is not surprising that even today USAID drugs have been stolen and sold.

    A serious investigation is required to identify the route that the USAID drugs took and who were involved. Fortunately, every bag, container bottle and sachet will have a tracking number to track the route and personnel in touch with the products in Nigeria. This can be done even if USAID has been destroyed by its own political leadership. On receipt of such material, local organisations and receivers will have documentation so the fraud trail can be exposed and participants prosecuted. Some of the material was for IDPs.

    How callous to steal from such traumatized Fellow Nigerians, who have already lost everything. We must prosecute the criminals for ‘bringing Nigeria into disrepute’. If not, all Nigerians will be assumed guilty by the foreign government justifying terminating USAID.

     We congratulate NAFDAC’s leadership on their success supported by security agencies. However, the bankers and masterminds behind the hugely expensive unpatriotic, greed-driven effort delivering stolen free medication and purchasing, importing, smuggling or adulterated murderous medications to Fellow Nigerians must be tracked and trapped.

    The notorious kidnapper Evans, maybe worth N2.2b, sentenced to life and 14 years caused destruction, terrified, tortured and murdering at least one person, an 86-year-old, must be denied clemency and any secret or public plea-bargaining options until his death. Can he resurrect the dead papa? He is sorry he got caught! Period!

    He should not be allowed to teach in prison. He should be in solitary confinement. His property worldwide must be used to reimburse robbed families and businesses. Kidnapping is a heinous crime killing spirit and body, smashing social norms, impoverishing surviving victims and families mentally, physically and financially forever.   

  • Ethnicity and religion as Nigeria’s albatrosses

    Ethnicity and religion as Nigeria’s albatrosses

    The place of ethnicity and religion in Nigerian society has hardly been fully examined in the Nigerian media, partly because they are complicated subjects and partly because they are considered too sensitive for discussion. Rather than pay due attention to them, the focus has been on weak leadership, poor governance, and corruption as the major factors responsible for Nigeria’s lack of development and progress. Yet, ethnicity and religion have been at the root of Nigeria’s problems since colonial times.

    Ethnicity was a critical factor in the delay of Nigeria’s independence till 1960. The Fulani-dominated North insisted that they were not ready for independence at an earlier date. Ethnicity also was at the root the crash of the first republic, which was aided by an Igbo-led military coup in January 1966 in which political leaders across the country were killed, except those from the coup plotters’ ethnicity. It also was at the root of the Fulani-led counter-coup by General Murtala Muhammed, which led to Aguiyi-Ironsi’s assassination. Today, ethnicity is in the forefront of the agitation for self-determination by several groups.

    This is not surprising, given the multiplicity and complex distribution of ethnic groups and religious practices across the vast land that the colonial government brought together as one. What is surprising is Nigerian leaders’ unwillingness to take necessary steps to limit ethnic and religious tensions and their effects, despite several suggested solutions, including various recommendations of national political conferences convoked by the government. 

    On the surface, it would appear that Islam predominates in the North, while Christianity predominates in the South. Below the surface, however, is a complex tapestry of ethnic and religious identities and interactions.

    In the North, for example, sizable groups of Christians are to be found largely in the Northeast and North-central, while the Northwest is the bastion of Islam, being the entry point of the religion into Northern Nigeria possibly as far back as the 11th century. But in that same Northwest, there are smatterings of Christians here and there, notably in the southern part of Kaduna state. In general, however, there are no states in the North in which Muslims and Christians do not coexist, although Muslims are a clear majority.

    By the same token, there are Muslims in the South, especially in the northern part of the South to which the jihadist influece spread in the precolonial period. Nevertheless, Christianity predominates in Southern Nigeria, because it was the region of entry for Christianity. While the Anglican and Protestant missions predominated in Southwest, the Catholic mission predominated in the Southeast and parts of the South-south, because Irish Catholic priests were in the majority in those areas during the missionary phase of colonisation.

    Neither Islam nor Christianity is monolithic in terms of beliefs and modes of worship. Each has various denominations or sects in Nigeria as elsewhere. However, the different sects within each religion often come together as one when confronted with the other religion. This was evident, for example, during the 2023 presidential election, when the Christians as a block opposed the Muslim-Muslim ticket of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima.

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    A major drag on progress in Nigeria is the commercialisation of religious worship and the belief by many Nigerians that Imams or pastors could provide solutions to their problems. This is especially true of Evangelical Christianity, which preaches prosperity  gospels, attracting many followers. Even politicians run to Muslim and Christian leaders for blessings and support. Perhaps no politician in Nigerian history has foregrounded both ethnicity and religion than former Governor Peter Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election.

    The various shades of religious sects are not as worrisome as the complex interplay of ethnic identities in the country. If we go by Ethnologue’s list of nearly 500 languages in Nigeria and assume that each language is spoken by a distinct ethnic group, then there are possibly 500 ethnic groups in the country. Even more challenging is the tapestry of dialects within particular ethnic groups, leading to subdivisions within each group. This is especially true of the Southwest, where each of the six states is composed of distinct dialect groups, except Ekiti state, which appears to be linguistically homogeneous.

    Two related formulas are employed in Nigeria to accommodate ethnic and religious factors in the distribution of political positions at federal, state, and local levels. One is the constitutional requirement of “federal character” (Section 14(3)) and the need  “to recognise the diversity of the people” within a state or local government (Section 14(4)).

    The other formula is the convention of zoning political positions at federal, state, and local levels. Nevertheless, it is sometimes difficult to accommodate the two factors of ethnicity and religion at the same time, without violating meritocracy or incurring some tension. For example, Christians across the country criticised President Tinubu for choosing a Muslim running mate, while other ethnic groups in the North wondered why he chose a Kanuri man and not Fulani, Hausa, or some other ethnic group from the region.

    What is even less discussed is the system of internal colonialism by the more powerful ethnic or sub-ethnic groups within each local government, state, zone, or region. Perhaps no where is this better demonstrated than in Northern Nigeria, where Hausa identity is masked by the adoption of Islamic religion and the adoption of their language by the Fulani, who conquered them and imposed Islamic religion. The situation is further complicated by the adoption of Hausa-Fulani as a single label for both groups.

    The truth, however, is that over the centuries, the Fulani have taken over Hausaland, while their cattle have been eating up Hausa crops in the little land they have left. This has been, and continues to be, a source of tension between the two groups. What is worse, the leading traditional rulers in the North are Fulani. So are the leading politicians. That’s why, today, there is not a single Hausa Governor, whereas there are at least 9 Fulani Governors. The remaining 10 Governors from the North are distributed across various minority ethnic groups: (2 for Kanuri and one each for Ebira, Jukun, Nupe, Marghi, and Mwaghavul).

    Secession or disintegration of the country is not a desirable solution to ethnic rivalries and religious tensions. Rather, a reorganisation of the country is necessary in which power is devolved to states and local governments in such a way that each group can attain self-fulfillment. The less the power of the central government and the less frequently the states and federal institutions go cap-in-hand to Abuja for bread, the more self-actualisation will be achieved across the country. The present administration has initiated measures on devolution of powers. There should be further action, rather than a pause.

  • Fubara: Between a rock and a hard place

    Fubara: Between a rock and a hard place

    Prominent Nigerians in trouble quickly find religion. It’s a soothing balm when they are down; a ready tool when they want to manipulate the gullible. Sometime last year, the once all-powerful former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, found himself a regular presence in the courts, fending off corruption charges an arm long.

    On one of those occasions, the now frail looking banking supremo, shorn of the power and prestige of office, turned up clutching a massive copy of the King James Bible that the Archbishop of Canterbury would have been proud of.

    Just days after receiving the political equivalent of an uppercut from the Supreme Court, Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, was spouting scriptures to lift up the spirits of his deflated supporters.

    He referenced Philippians 3:18-19 which says: “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.”

    He meant it as a rallying cry to his troops, encouraging them in the vain belief that there’s still a way to victory in a rapidly narrowing path through the courtroom. But sometimes Bible verses serve a dual purpose. This one also had a barb directed at foes he had repeatedly accused of only being interested in plundering the state’s finances. Surely, they were the ones “whose God was their belly.”

    Last Friday in Abuja, the governor’s arch nemesis and erstwhile godfather, Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, was croakily leading a conclave of his closest allies in a session of praise and worship, fuelled by what looked suspiciously like one or two glasses of alcoholic cocktails, to celebrate a thumping legal victory over a man he had dubbed a ‘mistake.’

    It was a measure of how much the triumph meant to him that the minister who often comes across as rough and tough, and hard as nails, was momentarily overwhelmed with emotion and was captured dabbing away tears. He knew he had been in the fight for his political life.

    Fubara, too, knew it was all or nothing. Having been rebuffed by the lords of the highest judicial temple, his only hope now lay with the Lord which art in heaven! Hence the recourse to the Holy Book.

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    This war of attrition could have played out in a totally different way but for the wrong choices made by the governor. President Bola Tinubu was barely six months in office when as part of his earliest fire-fighting assignments he oversaw a parley at Aso Rock between contending parties in the Rivers’ political crisis.

    At the end of the talks an eight-point communiqué was issued which many felt would extinguish the flames consuming the Rivers PDP government. Key points of the pact included withdrawal of court cases by all sides, recognition of Martins Amaewhule as Speaker and the 27 lawmakers loyal to him as members of the assembly. It was also agreed that legislature would be free to do its business wherever it chose and wouldn’t be hindered in any way by the Executive.

    It’s interesting that what Fubara, his supporters and advisers spurned 14 months ago, is the exact thing the Supreme Court has established as irrevocable law. What could have happened if all parties had acted with good faith at the time they were required to do so? Unfortunately, in the time elapsed the key players have crossed the Rubicon. Now, only the vanquishing of one’s foe would suffice.

    The president’s intervention was hailed by many as statesmanlike given that the problem wasn’t that of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). But his good gesture would be frustrated by parties whose main concern was to see Wike’s vicelike grip over the state’s governance apparatus broken. As is to expected in any Nigerian political conflict, Fubara’s Ijaw kinsmen soon weighed in, injecting a dangerously ethnic dimension to the conflict.

    The governor was told that the Tinubu deal favoured Wike. He was advised to man up and fight fire with fire. The minister had had his turn in power and should let his successor breathe. These were the sentiments that encouraged the governor to stymie the plan and embark on an experiment with an illegitimate four-man assembly – a car crash that was just waiting to happen.

    With a political solution dead in the water, the only path left was the courts. But something interesting is happening in Nigeria these days. Governors with a political agenda approach state high courts secure in the knowledge that they would do their bidding. Their Abuja-based rivals do their battles through the Federal High Courts also sure that these would be favourably disposed towards them. Even when the Supreme Court – universally accepted as the final bus stop – delivers judgment, litigants don’t want to accept verdicts that go against them.

    In his initial reaction, Fubara made the point that he disagreed with the judgment. The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), proceeding from the viewpoint that the poor would suffer due to directive to withhold state allocations, demanded the Supreme Court – whose judgment is supposed to be final – reviewed itself.

    Not to be outdone, the Ijaw National Congress (INC) released an incendiary statement that looked beyond the verdict. It warned against the governor’s impeachment.

    The statement signed by the group’s president, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, stated: “If Governor Fubara’s tenure is truncated by the Martin Amaewhule-led Assembly or anybody else, the INC cannot guarantee the sustenance of the current peace in the Niger Delta, nor the continued rise in oil production – a veiled warning of potential disruptions in the region’s petroleum industry.”

    The statement goes on to give a short history the contributions of the Ijaw people to the political development of Rivers State. In this instance, Fubara’s reversals are being painted as an assault against the interests of his ethnic group. It doesn’t matter whether his comeuppance came through the courts.

    Blackmailing the central government with threats of attacks against the nation’s economic interests is par the course in this region. But the INC is a mainstream pressure group, it remains to be seen whether it would stand by this extreme position just because of a downturn in one man’s political fortunes.

    The threat of impeachment hangs over Fubara today as it did fourteen months ago.  It was that fear that drove the errors that have kept the crisis alive over the last one year. It was what led to the bombing of the assembly’s chambers. It was the lone factor that informed the sudden need to renovate all structures of the legislature arm – demolition of several buildings within the complex.

    While these steps may have appeared very wise to the governor and his supporters, they drew widespread outrage. The Supreme Court reiterated that shock that one arm of government could visit such subversive violence against a co-equal arm in the pursuit of political ends.

    Fubara first speech last Friday was measured and conciliatory. The second was emotional, laced with menace and actionable intelligence Telling the youths to ‘wait for instructions’ means exactly what? Instructions to do what exactly? Can Fubara and his legions prevail in a battle against the state?

    All through the crisis the governor has exhibited questionable judgment. Going on record telling the youth you will give them signal at the right time isn’t smart. Are you encouraging them to rise up against the state? The recent history of the Niger Delta shows that youths have been used for violence. Even if it were to come to that would such destruction force the Supreme Court to reverse its judgment?

    Why boast about not being afraid of impeachment when nobody asked you? This unforced revelation could be a pointer that it’s what you spent your waking and sleeping hours thinking about.

    There are two main routes for resolving the logjam. One is impeachment given that the two sides have shown they can’t tolerate each other. The lawmakers just gave the governor a 48-hour ultimatum to present the budget to them. This was unnecessary, provocative and petulant.

    With the Supreme Court verdict they already have Fubara where they want him. No matter how long he foot-drags, he would sooner than later have to comply. Their action can only then be interpreted as symptomatic of the state of relations between the sides. It’s also indicative that pulling the impeachment trigger is only a matter of time.

    The pro-Wike forces have the numbers to force it through. If it ever happens, the heavens won’t fall. Fubara wouldn’t be the first person to be removed in such a manner despite the threats.

    The other option is an uncomfortable cohabitation that enables the governor see out the remaining two years of his tenure as a lame duck. It would be a very long two years requiring him to swallow a daily or weekly dose of humble pie in dealing with a hostile assembly. For a governor who once boasted that the 27 legislators existed only because he permitted it, this could be a fate worse than death.

    Nigerian governors are very powerful. But we’ve seen time and again that they can be brought to heel. Success in this high office is often a function of political skills rather than deployment of crude force and threats. Fubara can choose to play the politics he needs to survive, or go down in flames as the martyr who actually believed he would save Rivers from a godfather. Either way, this doesn’t look like it would end well for the governor.

  • Ohanaeze and the battle for reparation

    Ohanaeze and the battle for reparation

    Okechukwu Isiguzoro, Deputy President General of Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, last week demanded N10tn reparation and a letter of apology from President Bola Tinubu because of “the erroneous classification of the 1966 January coup as an Igbo insurrection”. He commended Babangida “for his exemption of the Igbo people from the unjust label of being ‘enemies of the North’ whilst not forgetting to hail him over his claim that the objective of Nzeogwu and his fellow insurrectionists was “to free Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and install him as Nigeria’s leader”.

    The problem is that besides Isuguzoro, I am not sure many Nigerian will take Babangida serious. This is a man who has been trying to rationalize the unjust and malicious murder of Mamman Vatsa, his child hood friend while Vatsa’s appeal over alleged coup plotting was pending (General Donkat Balli The News May 22, 2006), a con man who took Nigerian through “eight years of transition without end” only to annul the most credible election in our nation’s history won by MKO Abiola his friend and business partner only to resort to buck passing 32 years later. And this is a man whose controversial book has been described as “a collection of distorted facts which cannot serve as a reference book for the younger generation but a good reference book for criminal-minded people”. (Jonathan Vatsa, Punch Feb 28). It is doubtful if much weight can be attached to Babangida’s mendacities. There are just too many lose ends in his tales.

    For instance, he claims the  “primary objective of the January 1966 coup was to free Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and install him as Nigeria’s leader” without telling us his source. And if his source was Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who first sold the dummy during an interview, that also only raises more questions. If Ojukwu, who claimed to have foiled the coup in Kaduna while Aguiyi Ironsi foiled it in Lagos, were in possession of such privileged information, what stopped the duo from releasing Awo from an unjust incarceration despite his three different letters of appeal to Ironsi?

    And if the coup plotters were performing their duty as custodian of the constitution as Babangida would want us to believe, the cleansing ought to have started with premiers Okpara and Ahmadu Bello, who refused to recognize Dauda Adegbenro, the Western Region recognised premier, followed by President Azikiwe and Prime Minister Balewa, who masterminded an illegal declaration of state of emergency in the West, imposition of Akintola of NNDP and Fani Kayode of NCNC as premier and deputy premier without election and  imprisonment of Awo over a fabricated claim he was about to overthrow the government of Her Majesty, the Queen.

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    And lastly, Babangida is a master of obfuscation; there is no evidence in our recent history to show Igbo ‘are enemies of Hausa/Fulani’ or that there has been any form of love lost between Igbo and Yoruba. Indeed if the phrase that best captures relationship between the former is ‘conjugal bliss’, the later will be “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.

    When it comes to power sharing, Igbo find Hausa/Fulani irresistible. For instance, following the outcome of the 1959 election Awo conceded leadership to Zik and agreed to work under him as finance minister. While his group was waiting in Asaba to seal the deal, Zik and his group were already in Kaduna cutting a deal that produced the NPC/NCNC alliance.

    That the 1959 marriage of convenience ended in a civil war did not discourage the marriage between NPN/NPP in 1979 (both metamorphosed from NPC/NCNC of the first republic). Ojukwu the rebel leader returned from 10 years exile to join the new alliance which again collapsed in 1983, not over how best to serve Nigeria, but over sharing of perks of office.

    Then came Babangida’s 1993 ‘transition without end” (Oyediran). All the Igbo states except Anambra voted for Tofa, the NRC presidential candidate. Over 80% of those Babangida named during his last week book presentation as conspirators in the annulment of the election won by MKO Abiola were of Igbo ethnic extraction.

    In 1999, Igbo voted massively for PDP and Obasanjo, the candidate the northern hegemonic power imposed as Yoruba candidate as against Olu Falae, the Yoruba sponsored candidate.

    Unlike the enduring love of the Igbo, the ever ready beautiful bride and their Hausa/Fulani suitors, there has been no love lost between Yoruba and Igbo political elite since the 1930s when as leaders of urban immigrants, Igbo political elite wanted to make themselves relevant in the politics of Lagos and intimidation, blackmail and propaganda were some of the weapons of war freely deployed by Igbo against their Yoruba hosts.

    This played out in 1934 during a struggle to have a member of the Nigerian Youth Movement move to the House of Representatives. Awo had supported Earnest Ikoli, an easterner against Akinsanya, his fellow Ijebu kinsman, sponsored by Zik. Because Akinsanya, Zik’s candidate lost the election after a bitter campaign, Zik pulled out all Igbo members and collapsed the movement accusing Awo and Yoruba of playing tribal politics. The seed of mutual distrust was thus sowed.

    The Ibo Federal Union was formed in 1943. Zik became its national president. According to Obafemi Awolowo, “Dr Azikiwe himself was an unabashed Ibo jingoist who gave the game away when he said during his presidential speech at the Ibo Federal Union in 1949 that “It would appear the god of Africa has specially created the Igbo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of the ages, not only to conquer others but also adapt themselves to the role of preserver”, (Awo autobiography PP 172). 

    However when Egbe Omo Oduduwa was formed in Lagos in 1949 by Awolowo to unite the Yoruba, Zik, claiming it was targeted at Igbo and 27million Nigerians unleashed virulent attack on the Egbe and its leaders who were physically attacked along their properties in Lagos by  Zikist youths.

    In1951, after the regional election, of the five members elected on the platform of Ibadan Progressive Union, Adegoke Adelabu remained loyal to Zik and NCNC, while Adisa Akinloye and others joined Awolowo’s Action Group. This followed a stalemate as Mbadiwe  and other Zik’s supporters insisted he should become the premier of the West while leading members of NCNC like Olu Akinfosile and TOS Benson, who regarded NCNC as a Yoruba party as there was only one non-Yoruba in its inaugural meeting, insisted one of them be chosen to be premier.

    The decision of some Yoruba in NCNC to join Awo’s AG in order to control their own destiny became a subject of intense propaganda and blackmail and misinformation by Zik; today’s equivalent of the ‘Obdients’. They crowned Obafemi Awolowo, who emerged leader of government, king of tribal politics and enemy of Igbo.  Not even the world-celebrated Chinua Achebe could restrain himself from spreading misinformation when he wrote in his last major work – There was a country – that he witnessed carpet crossing of Zik supporters on the floor of Western House in 1952.

    The misinformation and misrepresentation of the 1952 events have continued to define Yoruba and Igbo politics.

    Finally, I think Ohanaeze will have to search beyond Babangida’s tenuous claim to justify their N10trn reparation demand especially in the face of overwhelming evidence that confirmed  that both the January insurrectionists and Ironsi were mere pawns in the hands of highly cerebral Igbo political leaders including Dr. Nwafor Orizu, the senate president, Dr  Ben Nwabueze, Ironsi’s adviser  and Dr. Ozunba Mbadiwe (the man of ‘timber and calibre’), a cabinet minister  during the January 31 night of many knives.

    For instance, it has now been established that Zik was the first to seek the support of the military following the constitutional gridlock that followed the massively rigged 1964 election. It was believed it was the negative response of the military that claimed to be answerable to the prime minister that precipitated insurrection by younger elements in the military sympathetic to Zik’s course in January 1966.

    There was also sufficient evidence from those present at the meeting, including Richard Akinjide, that the senate president, instead of supervising the election of the most senor surviving minister as acting prime minister, was playing the ostrich game until Ironsi declared himself head of state.

    And finally, Igbo’s  two other dominant ethnic groups will need to be convinced that Ironsi’s Decree 34 that turned a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural  federal state into a unitary state, a system promoted by Igbo up to the London 1957 Constitutional Conference, was not an Igbo agenda.

  • Rail from pork

    Rail from pork

    Got your share of the latest round of elite pork?  The North Central is the last to get its — with the advent of the North Central Development Commission (NCDC).

    Let it rain the deluge.  Let the sun, with venom, fry the earth.  The Nigerian power elite would share and gobble sweet pork!  To rear the swine?  Who cares?

    That explains the elite hankering after new states — new cost centres.  Or this gifting of every part of the country with own so-called development commission — flabby bureaucracy! 

    Which nation ever sates its elite greed, but cares less about even parsing the real need of the voiceless majority?  The one that happily hugs winking apocalypse?  Ha!

    Ogun East Senator, Otunba Gbenga Daniel (OGD), also a former governor of Ogun State (2003-2011), probably pats himself on the back for midwifing the South West Development Commission (SWDC) Bill in the Senate — fair enough.

    But beyond the South West accessing own elite pork, whoever told OGD the South West needed a development commission? 

    What serious catastrophe had plagued the region to warrant that, despite already having the Development Agenda of Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission (DC)?

    Isn’t DC tighter and much cost-effective than replicating a flabby central bureaucracy, as SWDC?

    Holy Moses!  Both DC and SWDC will cohabit in the same iconic Cocoa House, Ibadan!  Two for the price of one?  No. Two costs instead of one. But tell that to the waste-crunching elite!

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    Still on that: the South East doesn’t need a development commission either, though those steeped in the politics of “marginalization” would scoff, bite, kick and bawl!

    Beyond the Civil War (1967-1970) — which ended 55 years ago — what catastrophe has struck the South East, beyond Nnamdi Kanu’s neo-Biafra self-imposed mayhem, which its political elite somewhat tolerate, to the ruin and chagrin of its masses?

    With their huge human endowments, the South West and South East should use trimmer think-tanks to drive home developments, not some fatty central contraptions.

    But if the South East elite think otherwise, it’s their democratic right, so long as they act in good faith.  Still, with all due respect, they underrate own inherent capacity.

    The South-South is markedly different.  Even years after the defunct Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) and the present Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the environmental plague of mining crude oil — which fattens Nigeria — is still there, and remains a sore thumb.

    Yes: the South-South elite are no less rapacious than cousins in the other five geo-political zones.  Under President Goodluck Jonathan, many — if not most — among them forgot all about “resource control”.  Whoever makes a row when eating!

    Their “son” — to pilfer a fond word by the late Chief Edwin Clark — was state chef-in-chief.  They could help themselves to as much gravy as they could! 

    And yes too: neither OMPADEC nor NDDC had proved, over the years, any saintliness in accountability or transparency.  But either body could also claim it only follows the hoot of many of the locals to just “share the money”.

    Yet, the albatross of cruel oil mining has earned the Niger Delta a special intervention agency to atone for past deeds.  But whatever that agency is called, it must shed past opacity, and hug rigorous transparency, to hit its goal.   Otherwise, it would remain a supposed solution-turned-problem. That would be double jeopardy.

    To the North!  No doubt: the North East — from Boko Haram and plague — sorely needs a development commission to rebuild its infrastructure, re-tool its people and re-awaken economy.  No doubt!

    Bandit terrorism in the North West is self-inflicted.  That region had held the reins of power, more than any, since Nigerian independence in 1960.  Yet, its masses are as dependent as the South West — the bastion of opposition till 2015 — is sure-footed and self-striving.  For that, the North West power elite stand legitimately docked.  

    Still, for bearing the brunt of fleeing terrorists  from the hot North East Boko Haram theatre, maybe it needs some state special intervention agency to straighten it out. 

    Nevertheless, its elite should crave less central pork; and be wary of acting as if without political power — least reflected in their people’s welfare — they are a fish out of water.

    The North Central is the least poverty-prone, yet the least politically pampered, among the three northern geo-political zones.  Their respective poverty rates: North Central (42.7%), North West (64.84%), North East (71.86%).

    So, the North Central could well argue, as arguably the least politically favoured among the three northern zones, to deserve an interventionist agency. It just got the NCDC.

    Still on strict merit, only two zones: South-South and North East, deserve a central interventionist agency.  Only the two have been sapped with recent truly national catastrophes, to merit one.   Such agencies should target specific disasters, and have a fixed time to wind up.

    The Civil War could have earned the South East one.  But that ended 55 years ago.

    But all of these — merits and demerits — are academic exercises now.  All regions have got their pork.  But how can each region turn this potential “waste” into value?

    Rail!  Intra-regional rail!

    The last time the PDP seized power, near-wholesale in the South West in 2003, words were rife that they planned a South West rail network that would have further powered the regional economy, by far the strongest in the country.

    But it was all talk, no walk. President Olusegun Obasanjo was too distracted, wrestling over the rail right-of-way, over which it claimed exclusive right, with Lagos.  Lagos, under Governor Bola Tinubu, was planning own urban rail network.

    If the head was rotten, in any case, fatally distracted, the five PDP Governors couldn’t have been any more focused.  So, they passed up an epochal legacy.

    Still, SWDC presents a fresh opportunity for integrated South West rail, now that the South West is a politically a mixed zone: four APC governments against PDP’s two.

    The region could have leveraged the tighter DC, though.  By that, it could have spent far less on overheads and sundry bureaucracy, than this duplication with SWDC.  Nevertheless, the new SWDC offers a rare chance to birth a South West rail network.

    The South West should follow the cue from coastal Lagos, and introduce a regional rail hub.  That would be a game-changer for its economy, aside giving tourism and safer, and more comfy travel, a jab in the arm.

    Rail could also prove excellent investment for other geo-political zones, though each should be free to locate its felt critical needs.  But even with that, rail should prove a top pull, in this season when petrol is gold.  Kaduna, under Nasir El-Rufai broached urban rail.

    Still, rail or no, the regional development agencies must add value to the real sector — not just tools for elite dispensation of patronage.

    Otherwise, they would end as scarce money blown on needless pork.

  • Markets and the burden of regulation

    Markets and the burden of regulation

    That Nigerians are not amused by the across the board tariff increases at a time of shrinking disposable incomes is merely stating the obvious. With the vicious, battering forces of the market as unfriendly as can be, and with services providers across the board barely managing to keep a steady course, the irony isn’t just that the Nigerian consumer, who ordinarily should be the king in normal circumstances are left with the short end of the stick, but also that the service provider whose primary duty is to make that happen, being themselves increasingly enfeebled, have more often than not, gone on a ruthless binge of extortionate pricing, to survive.

    Admittedly, no sector of the economy, has been untouched by the headwinds. Thanks to the Tinubu administration’s valiant efforts to reset the economy, to unchain it from the wasteful subsidies and the discretionary, but transparently corrupt foreign exchange regime that have held it down, it has been a slow but painful adjustment across the board.

    From basic household items to food, transportation services to raw materials for industries, no sector has escaped the gale. Currently, the inflation rate, aside ranking among the highest in Africa has seen food prices in particular, balloon; so also are transportation costs and the cost of housing; until lately, they have all been on a steep increases. Again, raw material prices as indeed the cost of industrial spares, thanks to the new forex pricing regime and the attenuating devaluation of the naira, have shot up. Overall, the ease of doing business or the mere prospect of it has remained daunting whether for entities small, medium of even large scale.

    Between the fabled Scylla and Charybdis, the Nigeria economic actor – whether as a consumer or a producer of goods or services – has suddenly found himself caught up in the maelstrom of the forces over which he little or no control.  

    Just like the Good Book is wont to say, it may well be the case that the parents were the ones that ate the sour grapes, it is the children’s teeth that are set on the edge! Nigerians, long impervious to such concepts as ‘cost recovery’, ‘appropriate tariff’ and the long maligned ‘market forces’, are not only now waking up to the dawn of a new reality, but are finally, it seems, learning the lessons the hard way too.

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    And so the current pressure by service providers for across the board tariff reviews. From the telecommunications companies that claim to require it so bad that any contemplation of an alternative or even a delay in granting their request can only be at the cost of their survival as an industry. Imagine; last year alone, the MTN Group reportedly posted a staggering $414.7 million loss; the same with the electricity sector which continues to guzzle billions of naira of taxpayers’ money post-privatisation (the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission puts the subsidy largess in the first 11 months of 2024 at N1.91tn), hence the buzzword today being that tariff reviews have become somewhat inevitable. 

    Now, the latest in the tariff quest is the entertainment company, MultiChoice, the operator of DStv and GOtv, which Monday February 24 served notice of its intention to hike subscription prices, effective March 1. Again, as with the other corporates, the reason as given by the company’s Chief Executive Officer, John Ugbe is, ‘higher operational costs’. 

    Part of the statement from the company read: “Due to prevalent economic factors leading to increased operational costs, we have unavoidably had to adjust the prices of our DStv and Gotv subscription packages”.

    As Dataphyte, the media, research and data analytics company would note: “Over the past nine years, Nigerians have dealt with a series of price increments on DStv subscriptions. The increments have become more frequent in recent times and the reasons for increment has (sic) always been due to the rising operational costs in the country.

    Expectedly, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), has since taken up the challenge with the latter not only raising concerns about what it described as ‘recurring unilateral price increases’, including serious questions about ‘fairness, market abuse, and potential anti-competitive practices’ but requesting a meeting to discuss the matter.

    As it is, it is hard to see any part of the FCCPC invite as anything but legitimate public duty. MultiChoice is, after all, not just another fringe player in the entertainment sector of the economy, its dominance is unequalled, or if you like, unchallenged. 

    Surely, this will not be the first time MultiChoice will duel with the regulators or even the parliament. Yet, as with every duels past and present, the issue(s) have remained basically the same issues of inflation and rising costs and how this impinges on the service delivery and prices, and then the question of how it responds to it, not just in the market place, but in the context of its status as a lead player in a sector in which it has remained, inexplicably, a dominant player.

    However, while the issue has remained somewhat intractable and so doesn’t lend to easy answers, it is not necessarily because the roots of the problem are unknown but because they are out of control!

    Surely, I understand the case that the FCCPC is eager to make: it doesn’t accept that the tariff review by DSTV makes any sense any than the extremely short notice of barely five days served on the subscriber fair; needless to add that it considers both to be, not just injurious, but antithetical to consumer interests and to that extent demands some regulatory action. Not only is this reasonable, it may well be the right call to make in the current circumstances. This, as indeed, the alleged monstrosity of a dominant player in a country of over 200 million population being legitimate questions that Nigerians have had to raise in times past, but for which concrete answers are yet to be found, precisely because the solutions, although in plain sight, are not easy to deliver, are live issues!

    To put things simply:  Nigeria’s case is akin to that of the proverbial bird perched, delicately on rope; neither the bird nor the rope could claim to be at ease!

    Therein lies the burden of the nation’s competition and consumer protection body. The body has certainly done a yeoman’s job of pounding the streets in the bid to bridge the perceptible animus between the different set of actors in the economy, producers and consumers alike. Sometimes the body has found itself, reading the riot act, to those for whom the issue of fair, just and equitable market prices would remain an alien concept. In all, it has done well to raise the stakes for the consumer and the service provider alike. But then, as far as the matter of tariffs go, the case of the service providers may well be an instance of those creating value being forced to carry more than they can capably bear.

  • Quack street judges

    Quack street judges

    There is the custom of quackery in nearly every profession on earth. There are even quack messiahs, who claim to be what they are not. There is a story of a fake Jesus in Targaryen Kenya who refused to be crucified like Christ when his congregation asked him to die the way the original Jesus died on the Cross of Calvary. There are also quack lawyers who usually get caught when they appear in court, to pass off, as real lawyers. 

    But the resurgence of what this writer has chosen to call quack street judges in our country is very worrisome. Of course, disagreeing with a judgement of the court and even criticizing same, is a legitimate right, consistent with fundamental human rights, enshrined in the 1999 constitution (as amended). Section 39(1) provides: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.”

    So, it will be unconstitutional, to seek to abridge that right except in the manner and for the purpose envisaged in section 45 of the same constitution. Thus, for example, no person can, in pursuit of the provision of section 39, hold the opinion and espouse the claim that an analgesic is a drug for aids. There are multiple examples of what one cannot do in the exercise of the right “to hold opinion and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.” 

    But a quack street judge is a different kettle of fish. To make matters worse, these quack street judges do not operate in the courts. They are on televisions and in some cases, have greater influence on the masses than the real judges in courts. The Nigerian space is afflicted with many such quacks, misinterpreting and reinterpreting the judgment of the courts, especially cases rooted in political disputes. In recent times, the several judgements with respect to the political disputes in Rivers State, have thrown up all manner of quack judges.

    Perhaps, one of the most prominent quack street judge on the Rivers State imbroglio is Ugochinyere Michael Ikeagwuonu, also known as Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, a member of House of Representatives, representing Ideato Federal Constituency. Ikenga, is also reputed as the spokesman of CUPP. A lawyer by training, Ikenga, under the guise of press conferences, ingeniously engages in misinterpretation and reinterpretation of judgments of court as a business. One of such judgments was the Supreme Court ruling dismissing the appeal filed by Governor Siminalaya Fubara, after his lawyers filed a notice of discontinuance of a matter, in which the parties have joined issues before the court.

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    In the interview, Ikenga kept hammering that Fubara’s lawyers, in their notice of discontinuance, said the matter had been overtaken by events, and so the court struck it out. Throughout his interview, Ikenga never used the word used by the Supreme Court which is that the matter has been dismissed. As a lawyer, Ikenga Ugochinyere knows that there is a difference between dismissal and striking out a case. In Okereke vs N.D.I.C, (2002) F.W.L.R pg 1406, the Court of Appeal held: “There is a difference between an application which has been heard on the merits and dismissed and another which is merely struck out.” The court further held “When an appeal is withdrawn “wholly”, it presupposes that the appeal is withdrawn in its entirety. In such a situation the appellant cannot come back again on the same appeal.” 

    Ikenga, contends that Governor Fubara can transact legislative business with the four-member gang led by Victor Oko-Jumbo, despite the proviso to section 91 of the 1999 constitution. It says: “provided that a House of Assembly of a State shall consist of not less than twenty-four and not more than forty members.” Ikenga and his fellow quack street judges, keep urging Governor Fubara to continue conducting legislative business with the four-man gang, ironically claiming to be advancing constitutionalism. 

    Another strange argument of Ikenga and his likes, is the misinterpretation of section 109 of the constitution. Section 109(1)(g) provides: “A member of the House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if – being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which the House was elected.” This much quoted provision has a proviso, which says “provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or a merger of two or more political or faction by one of which he was previously sponsored.”

    There is also, sub section 2 which provides that “the speaker of the House of Assembly shall give effect to subsection (1) of this section, so however that the Speaker or a member shall first present evidence satisfactory to the House that any of the provisions of that subsection has become applicable in respect of the member.” Sadly, despite these clear provisos, which even require the affirmation of the courts, the quack street judges keep saying that section 109(1)(g) is self-executory.    

    Again, few days ago, the Supreme Court made far reaching decision that Governor Siminalayi Fubara is engaged in gross constitutional misconduct by relying on the four-member gang to conduct legislative business of the state. The court held that monies from the federation account should not be released to the state government until the governor presents a budget before the legislative assembly led by Martins Amawhuele. The apex court also nullified the local government election conducted by Fubara, few weeks ago, in disregard of the order of a Federal High Court.

    Despite the very far-reaching implications of the judgment, Ikenga again interpreted the judgment as he wished. According to him, the judgment of the Supreme Court that Amaewhule is the speaker of the state House of Assembly, should be disregarded until a specific case, at the Court of Appeal, on the issue of cross-carpeting of Amaewhule, is determined by the Supreme Court. As if an oracle, he declares that the government of Rivers State will continue to run smoothly, despite the obvious danger ahead.

    Sadly, Ikenga, usually emphasises that they are fighting for constitutionalism. Even when he has not defined who the ‘they’ are, it can be assumed that he has subsumed himself and his gang, as one and the same, as the government of Rivers State. Surprisingly, Fubara and his illegal attorney general, Dagogo Iboroma, SAN, have continued to act as if the provisions of section 188 of the constitution, on the removal of a governor from office, does not matter. Fubara, should pray the state House of Assembly does not go that way, for his sins are legion.

  • Foreign fraud cells in Nigeria

    Foreign fraud cells in Nigeria

    The alert by Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukayode on the existence of foreign fraud cells in the country opens a new dimension of threats to our national security.

    This is especially so with recent EFCC intelligence suggesting that foreign fraudsters are also illegally importing arms into the country using cryptocurrency as a means of payment. The fraud syndicates are also said to be establishing criminal cells in our cities, recruiting young Nigerians into cybercrimes including cryptocurrency fraud.

    Special operations carried out in Lagos recently by the agency led to the arrest of 194 foreigners in the heart of Victoria Island, Lagos. Among them were Chinese, Filipinos, Eastern Europeans, Tunisians and others; all in a single building. Some lacked valid visas and most of their financial activities were conducted through cryptocurrency.

    That was not all. Some of the arrested foreigners were ex-convicts in their home countries who had escaped prosecution and sought refuge in Nigeria and some other African countries.

    The EFCC further interrogated the flow of arms and ammunitions into the hands of terrorists, bandits and sundry criminal elements in the country and established a link between money laundering and national security threats. It is seeking the cooperation of all the security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and Africa to deal with this potent danger.

    Two distinct but closely related challenges were thrown up by the EFCC’s alert. The first is the existence of foreign fraud cells in the country recruiting young Nigerians into cybercrimes and cryptocurrency fraud with dire repercussions for national security.

    The other with no less lethal consequences for the nation’s security is the intelligence suggesting that foreign fraudsters are illegally importing arms into the country using cryptocurrency as means of payment. That again, raises issues on the integrity of cryptocurrency as a credible means of transaction. Before now, Nigeria has had a running battle with one of the leading cryptocurrency companies operating in the country-Binance. Two of its officials were arrested after they flew into the country following a ban on their website. The arrest and detention followed investigations which implicated Binance in money laundering and terrorism financing activities conducted on their currency exchange platform.

    Curiously, one of the detained officials escaped in very questionable circumstances while the other was released after the prosecution dropped the charges against him following pressure from his home government. But the sabotage of the national economy through cybercrimes and cryptocurrency fraud by foreign nationals never abated.

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     As scary as the revelations by EFCC are, it is by no means the first-time foreigners are being implicated in cybercrimes and cryptocurrency fraud. Just last November, the Nigerian Police Force arrested 130 suspects comprising 113 foreign nationals primarily of Chinese and Malaysian origin and 17 Nigerian collaborators for alleged involvement in high-level cybercrime, hacking and activities that threaten national security. The arrests followed the raiding of a building at the Next Cash and Carry area of Jahi, Abuja.

    And a fortnight ago, 17 Chinese nationals and a company Genting International Co. Ltd were arraigned before the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos for fraud. They were among the 792-member cryptocurrency investment and romance fraud suspects arrested by the EFCC in a sting operation. One of the charges against one of the suspects spoke volumes on the dangers cybercrimes and cryptocurrency fraud pose to the health of the country.

    The Chinese was accused of having, “willingly caused to be accessed, computer systems which were organised to destabilise the social and economic structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria when you secretly procured and employed several Nigerian youths for identity theft and other computer related fraud”.

    There are recurring issues in the arrests by the EFCC and the police. The first is the large number of foreigners-Chinese nationals – involved in these criminalities. The other is their recruitment of young Nigerians as collaborators in cybercrimes and cryptocurrency fraud.

    There is also the dimension that many of the foreign suspects were ex-convicts and criminals escaping the justice systems of their country only to take advantage of the porosity of our borders and our law enforcement weaknesses to continue their nefarious activities.

    Again, in the two major but separate arrests, all the suspects were apprehended in one building. That also says a lot on the procedure followed by property owners in renting accommodation to prospective tenants.  In saner climes, such fraudulent activities cannot go on for long without the property owner suspecting something amiss.

    It is really amazing that the only business conducted in those buildings is suspected cybercrimes and cryptocurrency fraud with the foreign nationals at the head and young Nigerians as their employees. One can begin to understand why such devious criminal technologies are growing in geometric progression among the youths of this country.

    In an environment marked by abject poverty, high level of youth unemployment buoyed by greed, it is not surprising that a lot of our young men will be attracted to the illegal employment offers by the Chinese. Such people may ‘see something but refuse to say something’ because it is in their survivalist interests to conceal.

    So that sense of patriotism and commitment which the government expects of her citizens may be difficult to secure in a situation of near hopelessness which many of our youths find themselves. That is the uncanny dialectics.

    But we are confronted with searing questions on how these foreign nationals with seemingly no value to add to the national economy found themselves into our shores. What business profile did they present when they applied for visas that qualified them entry into the country? This poser is raised because of the high number of Chinese nationals regularly featuring in sundry criminalities.

    The impression we get is one of flawed screening and processing procedures at the visa issuing points in our embassies. Or how do we explain the high number of crime suspects from China including ex-convicts that feature each time the law enforcement agencies make arrests?

     China shares no border with Nigeria. Her citizens do not pose the challenge of identification as some of our foreign neighbours that share geographical contiguity, cultural and religious affinity with our country.

    And we are being told that some of those arrested for cybercrimes and associated fraud have no valid visa to enter the country. It is either such people entered the country illegally or they overstayed their visas. Whichever the case, this exposes the weaknesses of our law enforcement systems. But the nation bears the brunt of these official lapses or corruption. For a country assailed by all manner of security challenges, the addition of the threats of cybercrimes and cryptocurrency will be too heavy to bear.

    Boko Haram insurgency affiliated to ISWAP, banditry and the insurgency of killer herdsmen are security infractions that exert undue pressure on the national economy, overstretching the capacities of the government to maintain law and order. Ironically, foreigners were also fingered in their unceasing lethality. The nation is yet to come to terms with the toll in human and material capital and threat to national security they present.

    And when you factor in the revelation by the EFCC that cybercriminals import arms and ammunitions for non-state actors via cryptocurrency, the enormity of the challenge becomes more glaring. Cybercrimes and cryptocurrency fraud are serious national threats and may account for the unceasing tempo of insecurity in the country. It requires concerted action to stem the scourge.

    It is one thing to recognise the lethal threats such hi-tech crimes pose to the health of the country and another ball game for the government to roll out effective responses to tame the monster. The visa issuing processes in our embassies and high commissions need urgent overhaul. A system that allows people of questionable character or no genuine business easy entry into the country cannot but nurture the multiplicity of foreign sponsored crimes that assail national security.

     Beyond this, our policy makers must take more serious interest in the propriety of the cryptocurrency trade. There is everything to indicate that its operations are working at cross purposes with our national security interests. The escape of an official of the Binance organisation in very questionable circumstances exposes the extent official neglect or compromise can go in scuttling national security objectives. A decisive war on corruption and its manifestations in public offices is a desideratum.

  • Akpabio’s ‘harassment’ headache

    Akpabio’s ‘harassment’ headache

    It is striking that Senate President Godswill Akpabio, 62, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is at the centre of another case of alleged sexual harassment. In 2020, he had faced the same accusation.  He was then Minister of Niger Delta Affairs.  The accuser was a former acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Joy Nunieh.

    Their fight happened in the public square. That was the boxing ring. The spectators were members of the attentive public. There was no referee to determine what was fair or foul.   There was no predetermined number of rounds. So, the fight could go on for as long as the pugilists could keep going and keep the fight going.  

    Nunieh had been sacked in February 2020 for alleged insubordination.  Their fight happened mid-year, in the middle of a corruption-related legislative investigation and forensic audit of the commission. 

    There was a dramatic exchange of punches.  Akpabio threw the first punch. He said of Nunieh: “I wish she would go to a hospital, see a doctor and then get some injections and relax. I am not saying something is wrong with her, I am saying something is wrong with her temperament. You don’t need to ask me, you can ask about four other husbands she married.”

    Nunieh hit back. After pointing out that Akpabio was wrong about her love life, she stung him, saying: “Why did he not tell Nigerians that I slapped him in his guest house at Apo? I am the only woman that slapped Akpabio. He thought he could come up on me. He tried to harass me sexually.

    “I slapped him. He tried to come on me. I am an Ogoni woman and nobody jokes with us. I showed Akpabio that Rivers women do not tolerate nonsense.”

    The slap claim became the talk of the town. Akpabio threatened to sue Nunieh for defamation, denying her allegation of sexual harassment, which he described as “false, malicious, and libelous.”

    Then the fight fizzled out.  It wasn’t clear why the pugilists stopped punching. While it lasted, it was an attention-grabbing, high-profile public fight in which they not only fought dirty but also displayed that raw killer instinct characteristic of pugilism.

    Five years later, Akpabio found himself in the same situation. This time, the fight is likely to be messier and longer. Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, 45, a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) representing Kogi Central, accused him of sexual harassment in an interview with Arise Television on February 28, following a war of words between them regarding the sitting arrangement in the Senate chamber.    

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    Akpoti-Uduaghan’s narrative: “It all started on the 8th of December, 2023, which was a day before his birthday and my birthday. We are birthday mates. We were all in Akwa Ibom, because he had a big fanfare in the stadium, myself, my husband, and a few of his close friends, we went to Akwa Ibom.

    “At first, we were at Ikot Ekpene, his house in Ikot Ekpene, then we all moved to his house in Uyo, which was about 8 p.m., and he held my hand, and said he wanted to show me around his house. My husband was walking behind us, just three of us, walking around from room to room.

    “He showed me the beautiful interior. This was done by this, by that… look how beautiful it is, and then I noticed that he hastened his pace while still holding my hand. My husband was behind, still on his phone, but he was catching up whenever he could. And then he got to this particular sitting room, and he said,  ‘do you like my house?’ I said, of course, sir.

    “Every room, beautiful, nice interior, quality taste. He said, ‘now that you’re a senator, I’m going to create time for us to come spend quality moments here. You will enjoy it.’ At that point, I just pulled away, and I was like, I don’t really understand what exactly that meant.”

    She continued: “I thought that was going to be the end. But then in February, I wanted to move a motion for the investigation on the ills of a corrupt practice in Ajaokuta Steel Company. I listed that motion five times. It was the sixth time that it was listed on the order paper that it was approved.

    “Many senators can testify to that. Each time the motion is listed, just before he takes it, he will say, oh, Senator Natasha, we can’t take this motion because the board of the Senate does not accommodate it. Or he will speak on others and then let it drag…

    “So, he kept on doing that. I went to him in his office and I said, senate president, you know how important this Ajaokuta Steel Company is to me. You know how important it is to my people and to Nigerians. I’ve noticed that you have stepped down this motion. As a matter of fact, a number of senators told me, go and see him and plead with him so that he will take it. I was like, sir, please, why can’t you take this motion? It’s very important. It’s been listed. Then it was listed a third time and stepped down. He then said, Natasha, I’m the chief presiding officer of the Senate. You can enjoy a whole lot if you take care of me.

    “At that point, I said, sir, I’ll pretend that I didn’t hear this. He said, well, the ball is in your court.”

    In Akpabio’s corner is his wife, Ekaette, who has filed a fundamental rights suit at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, claiming that Akpoti-Uduaghan’s accusation had caused her husband and children “emotional and psychological abuse.” She wants the court to order her to tender a public apology, which will be published in two national newspapers. She also wants N350bn in exemplary, punitive, aggravated and general damages, as well as a perpetual injunction barring the senator from making any further defamatory remarks against her family’s reputation.

    Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan, Natasha’s husband, said his wife “confided” in him “about her interactions with the senate president.” In a letter to Akpabio’s wife, the Kogi senator, through her lawyer, said: “We will suggest that you leave the defence of the allegations for the senate president to maintain your sanity and that of your family.” She claimed to have “concrete evidence” to substantiate her allegations.

    The drama raises significant questions about possible abuse of power, possible undermining of women’s legislative representation, and possible manipulation of truth, among others. It remains to be seen if there will ultimately be clarity regarding what happened or did not happen between the accused and the accuser.