The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

Manmohan Singh (Sept. 26, 1932 – Dec. 26, 2024)

Manmohan Singh was educated at Hindu College and Punjab University in Chandigarh India. He later went on to St. John’s College Cambridge in 1957. In 1960, he started a doctoral program in Nuffield College, Oxford that explored India’s export performance in the 1950s. After a stint with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Manmohan Singh taught briefly International trade at the University of New Delhi. He joined the civil service in 1972 as Chief Economic Adviser to the Ministry of Finance and in 1982, he became governor of the Reserve Bank of India, that is, the Indian Central Bank.

According to him, he was surprised in 1991 when the then Indian prime minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, who had succeeded Rajiv Gandhi who was assassinated while trying to make peace in neighbouring Sri Lanka between the majority Sinhalese and the Tamil minority and had been engaged in a brutal civil war that had lasted for years . From these preambular statements, we can see that Manmohan Singh was an accomplished academic, economist and bureaucrat who was drafted into politics by the Indian National Congress at a time the country was going through severe economic crisis and a non-politician was needed to straighten things out. The Indian National Congress Party was headed by Sonia Gandhi, the Italian wife of Rajiv Gandhi and traditionally whoever was head of the Congress Party after electoral victory headed the government as prime minister but Sonia Gandhi felt her Italian origin would be exploited by Indian nationalists and that was how Manmohan Singh became prime minister on the instigation of Sonia Gandhi, the Italian widow of Rajiv Gandhi in place of her murdered husband who had been prime minister of India. .Manmohan Singh was the first Sikh prime minister of India a symbol of the liberal disposition of the Indian Congress Party that was even prepared to make Sonia Gandhi, an Italian lady, executive head of the government of India but perhaps on second thought, demurred and made a member of a religious minority, the Sikhs, prime minister.

He embarked on swift economic reforms that turned India into an economic global powerhouse although critics say there were still hundreds of millions of Indians left behind in a country of 1.1 billion people. One of the mainstays of his regime was internal development of India and reconciliation with Pakistan with which India related with mutual hostility if not hatred leading to constant wars three of which were fought between 1947 and 2004. This was because of border conflicts especially over the ownership of Kashmir. Kashmir and Jammu formed a province inhabited by mainly Muslims but whose pre-colonial ruler was a Hindu maharaja. The agreement partitioning India and Pakistan was based on the principle of “religion of the prince being the religion of the people” and since Kashmiri ruler was Hindu, it did not matter if all Kashmiris were Muslims. This has been the basis of the permanent and recurrent enmity between India and Pakistan. Although Manmohan Singh recognized the insolubility of the problem, he still felt a modus vivendi between India and Pakistan was necessary in the interest of their people who shared ethnic and cultural similarities except in two different religions.

Singh himself was born in Northern Punjab which later became part of Pakistan after the murderous migrations which followed partition of the British Indian RAJ into India and Pakistan in 1947 after independence. Although he did not succeed in the reconciliation of the two most important countries in the Indian sub-continent, but he gave it his best shot especially knowing the two countries were nuclear weapons states and were probably able to use nuclear weapons against each other in the face of defeat and slaughter by the victorious nation.

Singh came into prominence in 1991 as minister of finance after having served as governor of the Central Bank of India. He was responsible for reforming the foreign exchange system, deregulating the Indian economy and systemizing it and opening the vast Indian market to foreign and local investment. As finance minister, he pursued the policy of liberalization which facilitated the introduction of cell phones even though their allocations and those of coal mining licences were marred with accusations of corruption. But there is no doubt that the opening of the over bureaucratized Indian economy created millions of white collar jobs and the emergence of a much bigger middle class in the country of about 1.1 billion people.

As prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014, he presided over a coalition government but with strong backing of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty which had ruled India for about 38 years since independence beginning from the first Indian Prime Minister, Jawarlal Pandit Nehru, who was prime minister for 16 years. The fact of a coalition government did not prevent him from bringing in economic reforms that were eventually to leapfrog India to a country whose economy was to be reckoned with that of her giant neighbour and competitor, the People’s Republic of China. This has led to Manmohan Singh being justifiably compared with Deng Xiaoping of China. His reconciliatory efforts with Pakistan came to an abrupt end in 2008 when a jihadist terrorist group, the LASKAR -el TAIBA, based in Pakistan launched a three day assault on targets in Mumbai which killed 171 people. Nationalists in India called for retaliation and bombing the location where the terrorists had their base. The government of Pakistan denied involvement claiming that the terrorists were Indian Muslims who had chaffed under Hindu majority humiliation over the years. Singh remained withdrawn for most of the time when the Indian nationalists headed by Narendra Modi, his successor called for his head. He later argued that a great leader cannot afford to surrender to emotions. Despite the crisis, the Indian National Congress Party which put him in his position was returned to power in 2009. The introverted and quiet prime minister in 2014 said he was no longer interested in heading the government. His exit probably facilitated the rise of Narendra Modi, the unabashed Hindu who was ready to dismantle the liberal religious secular tradition of India championed by the Nehru-Ghandi dynasty and their party, the Indian National Congress for decades with an open claim that India was a Hindu country.

Singh was not a regular Indian politician. He was not even an elected member of the LOK SABHA, the lower House but a nominated member since 1991 of the UPPER HOUSE the RAYJA SABHA. His government achieved what no Indian government had achieved before him, a phenomenal annual economic growth of 9 percent. During his premiership he had good relations with Washington and even Beijing and was supportive of Afghanistan to which he extended economic grants.

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He will be remembered in his country as the man who laid the foundation for modern Indian economy that has catapulted the Indian economy to number three ahead of Russia, Germany and Japan and coming after those of the United States and China. Singh was prime minister in 2009 when BRICS was established linking economic cooperation and coordination of Brazil, Russia, India and China and later joined in 2010 by South Africa to challenge the hegemony of the American dollar in global exchange and trade relations which even though not totally eclipsing the American dollar, is however giving people in Washington DC some headaches..

Manmohan Singh was an important leader of the Commonwealth of Nations and a strong advocate for democracy. When he left government in 2014, he went back to the University of Panjab as professor of economics where he constantly warned Indians not to put populism above democracy for the long term interests of India was in democracy not in what the Indian nationalists called strong government.

I first met him in the summer of 2003 when he was still finance minister. He headed a Commonwealth Secretariat’s committee on pro-poor government in which I had the honour to serve. This was shortly before the December 2003 CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Governments’ Meeting) in Abuja. He supervised a short book we prepared for the Abuja adoption and declaration on pro-poor government challenging the Commonwealth to focus on the poor in their development plans as strategies. I witnessed his simplicity, quiet demeanour and self-abnegation while heading the committee and speaking with the confidence of a man who had managed the economic destiny of over a billion Indians.

When I visited India when he was prime minister in 2004, he invited me to his home for breakfast but which I couldn’t attend because of flight schedule. He left a great impression on me especially while talking about peace in Africa and suggesting coldly that Africa must learn to be on its own and that to expect help from others was unrealistic.

In all we do on this continent and in this country, we must take into account of the realistic advice of this man who knew his onions so to say. African countries should desist from shamefully filing up in Beijing, London, Paris, Washington, Berlin and Tokyo to be cajoled and patronized by the chief executives of those countries.

January 9, 2025
Rivers: Is the law silent?

Gone are the days that the law spoke from both sides of the mouth – unclear, confusing and misleading the public. Then, it spoke one language in peace time and another during war. Take peace for democracy and war for dictatorship. In the military era, Nigerians saw what happened as the junta used the obnoxious Decree 2 to silence critics and non-critics alike. That was our war time and two leaders best exemplified the period – Babangida and Abacha.

The courts were silenced. They resorted to “blowing muted trumpets” on cases where their voices should have rung out loud and clear. It was that great orator Cicero, who noted in 52 BC that in the times of war, the laws are silent. That was centuries ago. The world has come a long way since then. Can the laws ever be silent in the world we are in now? They can never be. Happenings during the first and second world wars showed that might has no place in the global community, no matter how powerful a tyrant may be.

No matter the sentiments of rights activists about the Nuremberg Trials that followed the world wars, the major takeaway from them is that there is no hiding place for tyrants. There can never be. No matter how far they run, they can never run faster than the law. The long arms of the law will catch up with them one day. Those behaving like tyrants today and treating court orders with contempt should remember that the day of reckoning is at hand. That day, ‘monkey go go market, he no go return’.

The thing about the law is that it grinds slowly and steadily. Yet, it is no respecter of persons as Lord Atkin observed in the popular 1942 Liversidge v Anderson case in the United Kingdom (UK). Those trampling on the law today because they are governors will do well to study that case. There is a lesson in it for all men of power who turn tyrants, using their positions to oppress and suppress others. It was Atkin that turned Cicero’s saying on its head when he held in that case thus:

“I view with apprehension the attitude of judges who… show themselves more executive minded than the executive… In this country, amid the clash of arms, the laws are not silent. They may be changed but they speak the same language in war as in peace…” These are immortal words. They speak to the situation we find ourselves in some states today as they did to the UK of Atkin’s day.

Rivers stands out among the states where the law is being trampled upon by, even, judges who work hand in glove with the governor. Many of the judges of the state high court are in the pocket of Governor Siminalayi Fubara. They are helping him to wage war against their own constituency by undermining the Court of Appeal. It is unimaginable for a high court judge to overrule the Court of Appeal.

It goes against the principle of hierarchy where the high court is below the appeal court. It is a cardinal sin for a lower court to overrule a higher court. Every judge knows the limit of his power. When they cross the line, they also know what awaits them. But many of them no longer care because of filthy lucre. It was a sad day for the judiciary on December 20 when Justice Sika Aprioku of the Port Harcourt High Court quashed the Court of Appeal’s verdict that the Victor Oko-Jumbo-led three-man House of Assembly is an aberration.

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The appellate court had described the Oko-Jumbo assembly’s action in passing the state’s N800 million 2024 budget as a joke taken too far and ordered Fubara to re-present the proposal to the Martin Amaewhule-led 27-man assembly. The governor not only disobeyed the order, he on his own reversed it when he described the Oko-Jumbo group as the ‘authentic assembly’. The implication of his statement is not lost on the people, and that is, he will continue to deal with the Oko-Jumbo group, despite the appeal court’s decision.

Fubara is fast becoming a tyrant in his determination to stamp his authority on Rivers. He can do that without being contemptuous of the court. He is carrying his fight for the leadership of his party in the state too far by treating the court with contempt. Lest he forgets, he cannot take on the judiciary and win. The earlier he realises this, the better for him and those benefiting from his impunity, lawlessness and rascality. How can he discard the judgment of the Court of Appeal stopping him from dealing with a three-man assembly and obey that of a high court which gave a contrary order?

Fubara can fight his estranged godfather Nyesom Wike, and the Amaewhule-led assembly for as long as he likes, but he should be mindful of dragging the judiciary into it. Why make the judiciary suffer collateral damage in a political dispute that it knows nothing about? It is the more worrisome that a section of the judiciary too is openly flirting with him by overreaching itself.

Fubara will lose nothing more than his position if he goes down in his fight with Wike and the Amaewhule group, but Justice Aprioku risks losing all if he joins a political fray that he knows little or nothing about. How can he explain it that he overruled the Court of Appeal in a matter? No wonder his judgment was shrouded in secrecy for over a week before it was made public after Fubara’s so-called presentation on December 30 of the 2025 budget to Oko-Jumbo and co.

How can he be so audacious as to present the 2025 budget of N1.19 trillion to the same Oko-Jumbo assembly despite the subsisting appeal court’s order that it is not a properly constituted law making organ? Fubara’s position is that the Amaewhule group has defected from PDP to APC and so they can no longer be members of the assembly. That should be an issue for the court to determine and not for him to exercise a judicial power that he does not have.

It is a slap in the face of the judiciary for him to use a court, a lower court for that matter, to justify his unjustifiable action of presenting this year’s budget to an assembly already found to be improperly constituted. Rather than advise him, those who should know better are hailing him for his contemptuous action. Let us assume that the governor acted in ignorance, but that cannot be said of the judge who should know his law inside-out.

But then Fubara did not act in ignorance, he intentionally did what he did. It is left for the judiciary to respond in kind so that these governors will stop seeing themselves as being above the law.

January 9, 2025
The ultimate sacrifice

The earth is littered with the bones of potentates who believed they were eternal. History thrives on their ruin or renown. Let this guide every Nigerian in public office. No matter how highly placed they are, providence eventually halts their pompous strides and yanks the rug from beneath their pretentious ideals.

Fresh from the Yuletide, Nigerians must reexamine their commitment to the continuance and survival of the Nigerian project.

There is no gainsaying the prevailing economic hardships counseled a low-key celebration, with sober recall of the ultimate sacrifices necessitated by President Bola Tinubu’s surgical approach to recalibrating the country’s economy.

Through our sober recall, it is pertinent to ask if we are ready to salvage this country. We must understand that by saving Nigeria, we ultimately save ourselves.

We need patriots willing to bleed for the country not those eager to bleed it dry. From insecurity, economic distress and the baleful shadow of indefinite strike, Nigeria has a lot to contend with.

Last year, the Joe Ajaero-led labour union demanded a minimum wage of N250,000, only for negotiations to whittle it down to N70,000. Still, state governors balked, claiming they could not afford more than N60,000. Nigerians, in turn, questioned why public officers continue to draw extravagant salaries while ordinary citizens are expected to tighten their belts.

The truth is stark: fewer than ten states can comfortably afford even the previous N30,000 minimum wage. Yet, Nigeria’s public officials—lawmakers in particular—live in opulence, draining resources from an already fragile economy. In the legislature, an obscene dichotomy unfolds daily: while lawmakers revel in luxury, the citizens they represent languish in deprivation.

The federal government and the National Assembly must make concerted efforts to reduce the astronomical cost of governance, for the current profligacy is unsustainable and morally indefensible.

The bicameral legislature, a relic of an era that imagined endless bounty, is an anachronism in today’s Nigeria. The maintenance of a Senate and House of Representatives, with their attendant expenses, is no longer a luxury we can afford.

The numbers are damning. In 2024 alone, Nigeria reportedly budgeted about N724 billion on its National Assembly and 36 State Assemblies. This includes N50 billion for salaries and allowances of lawmakers at both federal and state levels, N294.7 billion specifically for the National Assembly and related bodies, and N379.28 billion for the state assemblies.

This renders futile, the former Senate President, Ahmed Lawan’s previous argument, the monthly salary of a senator is N1.5m, while that of a member of the House of Representatives is N1.3m, stressing that the alleged N13.5m monthly salary was actually their quarterly office running allowance.

Recent findings revealed that the Nigerian Senate President actually receives N2.48 million as basic salary while other senators receive N2.26m monthly. Even so, the quarterly office allowance (running cost) for a senator amounts to N52m per annum, while the N8m for a member of the House of Representatives amounts to N32m in a year.

Switching to a unicameral or single-house legislature at the federal level could lead to substantial savings. Let’s assume we keep the House of Representatives, which has more members. By removing the Senate, we could save about N8.67 billion in legislative salaries and allowances. Moreover, the Senate’s operating costs amount to about N49.14 billion. If we cut overlapping functions and streamline operations, we could save around N50 billion more.

Another way to cut costs is to make lawmakers part-time and pay them only for the days they actually work. This could cut another 30-40% of the remaining costs, because we wouldn’t be paying regular salaries and many allowances. This approach not only saves money but also incentivises productivity, accountability, and efficiency among lawmakers.

Nigeria could save around N250 billion every year. This money could be redirected towards improving healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

This is a pragmatic approach to governance reform that aligns with the country’s economic realities and developmental goals.

It is never enough to funnel palliatives and incentives to mitigate economic distress. Democracy does not naturally spring forth from the soil of free markets. It must be grounded in self-sacrifice. A healthy democracy must frequently challenge the economic interests of the elites for the benefit of the people. Yet government officials and corporate actors address the economic crisis by funnelling funds and resources into the financial sector because they are conditioned to maintain and manage the existing system rather than transform it.

Saul observes that the initial objectives of the corporatist movements in 1920s Germany, Italy, and France, which later evolved into fascism, were to transfer power directly to economic and social interest groups, to promote entrepreneurial endeavours in domains traditionally governed by public institutions. And to erase the distinction between public and private interests thereby undermining the concept of the common good. The resonance with our current situation is unsettlingly clear.

Nigeria’s economic unraveling, exacerbated by speculative commercial interests draining the national treasury, has plunged the working class into unprecedented despair. Crime, a natural corollary of economic distress, escalates daily. Yet, it is not the insurgents or bandits who pose the greatest threat; it is the corrupt civil servants and the money-guzzling legislators, alongside complicit ministers and governors, who undermine the state’s stability.

President Bola Tinubu must recognise the gravity of the economic despair and respond with a governance ethos grounded in transparency and compassion. No matter what his advisers might counsel, dismissing the miseries of the masses with the platitude “the end justifies the means” could seem prejudiced and perilous.

Every presidential expenditure, regardless of its justifications, must avoid ostentation and disconnect to a populace burdened by stringent economic policies. Even certifiably modest expenditures are susceptible to misinterpretation and will only amplify public discontent.

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The government must lead with empathy, ensuring that every presidential expenditure—no matter how justified—is seen as prudent rather than extravagant. Tone-deaf governance risks igniting public outrage.

His ministers must temper their public statements with restraint and tact, in recognition of the fragile social fabric and potential for incendiary rhetoric to ignite unrest.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking subplot of Nigeria’s travails is the erosion of the middle class. Inflation, unemployment, and taxation have squeezed this demographic, leaving many struggling to maintain their status. Historically, the middle class serves as the backbone of any nation, driving consumption, innovation, and economic stability.In Nigeria, this group has become increasingly vulnerable, caught between rising costs of living and stagnant incomes.

Reviving this social stratum will require intentional policies: affordable housing, access to quality healthcare, and educational reforms that prioritize skills for a modern economy. Without this revival, the dream of shared prosperity will remain elusive.

The political class must also understand that the rage brewing within the disenfranchised working class forebodes a dangerous backlash. My visits across Nigeria have revealed former manufacturing towns now ghostly remnants of their prosperous past, their residents engulfed in gloom.

This pervasive hopelessness drives many into the arms of demagogues and charlatans, who peddle utopian fantasies to a desperate populace. Unless we swiftly re-enfranchise these workers and provide tangible hope, our democracy teeters on the brink of collapse.

It is incumbent upon us to implement humane reforms with urgency and conviction. The federal government and the National Assembly must work together to reduce the cost of governance, transitioning to a unicameral legislature and part-time legislative roles perhaps.

Only through such measures can we hope to restore trust, alleviate the people’s suffering, and stave off the impending crisis that threatens Nigeria’s very foundation.

January 9, 2025
Managing Nigeria’s youth challenge

For too long we’ve been told how Nigeria is a nation bursting with potential. You only have to look at our population of well over 200 million people. With wherewithal, this is potentially a massive market for virtually all products known to man: from food, to healthcare to housing, it should be attracting entrepreneurs and global corporations like moth to light.

But a closer look at the figures throws up another reality. Seventy percent of that population are 30 years and below. Of that demographic, 42% are under the age of 15.

In 2022, the Federal Ministry of Youth Development projected that up to 35% of young people between 15 and 34 years were unemployed. With an explosion in the last 20 years of public and private sector education investments, every year the country churns out millions of ‘educated’ youths – some employable, others unfit for employment – but all looking for work that’s unavailable.

Every couple of months an additional layer is added to the multitude of the frustrated who left school thinking their shiny new certificates would deliver to them a better life. They would soon get rude reality checks after discovering those with superior paper qualifications who have been on the queue for ages.

For years, many leaders didn’t realise the dangerous situation they were creating. Scores of universities owned by state and federal governments or private individuals and institutions were casually approved, with no thought to how the multitudes that would emerge from them would find fulfilment. Even with the nightmare now our reality, approvals are still being given for more tertiary institutions.

Little wonder that in the last five years, the contraction of opportunities has created a new wave of migration by young people – the so-called ‘japa’ (Yoruba for escape) phenomenon. There are no clear figures but reasonable estimates would put the number of those who have fled in search of a better life in the high hundreds of thousands.

Social media is awash with celebratory posts from those who successfully landed in their new havens – much to the envy and anguish of those still trapped in these parts, plotting how to outsmart visa authorities of some European country.

Many were not so lucky; they never got to gloat on Facebook, TikTok or Instagram, because their japa dream ended in the watery belly of the Mediterranean; others in the anonymous dunes of the Sahara Desert. And yet for many others who felt anywhere else was better than home, they discovered that hell has levels after suffering extreme maltreatment in the likes of Libya.

Throughout history economic adversity has driven people to other lands in search of a better life. So what is happening in Nigeria at this historical juncture is not unique. What should concern us is doing something so that our homeland isn’t a place people – young or old – flee from.

In the end no country, no matter how welcoming, is going to open its borders for an unending inflow of desperate migrants from the ends of the earth. We are already seeing that resistance. During the campaigns for the U. S. presidency last year, the Republican candidate and now President-elect Donald Trump, made the anti-immigrant message central to his sales pitch. It worked a treat as millions of Americans swept him back into office despite his moral baggage.

Across Europe, we are also seeing many countries that were quite accommodating to outsiders now electing parties whose main attraction is their hostility to immigrants. That’s why it is pitiable seeing the desperation of young people who think that salvation lies only in escaping from Nigeria, not knowing that slowly, but surely, the door is closing to that option. The only truly viable alternative in making your home liveable, not wasting valuable time despising it.

Unfortunately, for years not too many youths have taken an interest in things related to politics and governance. Seduced by the easy pleasures of entertainment and whatever distractions social media offered, many focused on getting easy money any which way.

It is evident in the rapid spread of online financial scams involving mostly young people. Each month the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) parades hundreds of freshly arrested suspects. But the more they are apprehended, the more they multiply, damaging the image and reputation of the country around the world.

Many of these youths have long since lost their moral compass. They are content with blaming those in government for messing up the country without accountable, or getting involved in the process of running things.

The finger pointing conveniently ignores their own roles in tarnishing the country’s reputation and damaging its credit. They blithely ignore the fact that those above voting age who fail to engage the process by which they are governed as just as complicit as those who have mismanaged Nigeria.

A turning point of sorts was probably the #EndSARS protests which began nobly as an uprising against police brutality, but terminated under a cloud of controversy at the Lekki toll gate. An action that staggered the authorities, triggering the dissolution of the infamous Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), was hijacked by external forces with diverse agendas.

Although the protests ended as a heroic failure, they were a pointer to young people who drove it, that with better organisation, they could achieve great things politically. Two years after the protests, the campaign season leading to the 2023 polls saw the involvement of more youths in the political process. Many were first time voters. They were also naive and saw their desire for change manipulated by Machiavellian politicians who were only interested in riding on their backs to power.

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One of their big errors was a sense of entitlement that assumed they were ready to govern solely by belonging to the largest demographic in the country. Public office requires preparation and voters would not easily hand the highest ones to novices. Another mistake was deluding themselves that, somehow, they didn’t contribute to messing up the country. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

There are scores of politicians under 40 who have held political office at state and local government levels and contributed to the making of our current condition. Many were in state assemblies or even the House of Representatives. One of the brightest stars of the Bola Tinubu administration at its onset was Dr. Betta Edu. She was young, bright and beautiful; and obviously being primed for greater things. But she would crash down in the corruption controversy which engulfed her ministry early in 2024.

The starting point to unlocking the potentials of Nigeria’s huge youth population is a humble acceptance that all have sinned against this country. Secondly, we must acknowledge that young Nigerians have the ability to do great things even if they are resident in this country. Some of the biggest entertainment stars to come out of Africa – the likes of Wizkid, Burna Boy and Davido – are all Nigerians. Their compatriots are also doing great things in sports, fintech and filmmaking to mention a few.

This is why any wise government would turn attention to harnessing what this demographic can offer. In his Independence Day speech last year, Tinubu proposed a 30-day youth summit supposedly “to address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting our your people.” On New Year Day he promised that the Youth Ministry would rollout modalities for the conference in the first quarter of 2025.

On the face of it, the intervention shows an administration that understands the country has a huge challenge on its hands. The worry is how to ensure that this doesn’t end up as another jamboree for the usual windbags to bask in the limelight for a couple of hours. At the end of the day billions would have been spent with not much to show for the splurging.

There is also a question as to whether we need 30 days to discover what we already know. It’s not rocket science understanding that young people are looking for opportunities, jobs, help with funding their education and starting businesses. Many are equally looking for a country where things work; a country whose leaders are role models.

That said, the government deserves credit for this initiative just as it should be commended for others like student loans and credit schemes. It should, however, ensure that the proposed summit which supposedly is to produce an actionable template for unlocking the massive energy of our youths doesn’t end up as another Nigerian horror show.

January 8, 2025
Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter: Village Boy, Naval Officer, Peanut Farmer, State Senator, Governor, President, University Distinguished Professor, Human Rights and Peace Advocate, Nobel Laureate, and a Centurion (1924-2024)

When Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States (1977-1981), died on Sunday, December 29, 2024, two months after turning 100, I felt like I lost someone I knew very closely, although I never met him one-on-one. I created a bond with him because he was the first American President, whose career and election as President I followed very closely during my early years in the United States. I was attracted to him because his humble beginnings as the first son of a peanut farmer in a small village mirrored mine as the first son of a cocoa farmer in a small farming village. Moreover, each of us owned a small portion of land on our father’s farm on which we planted the same crop as our father’s. But that’s where the comparison ends! Carter rose from these humble beginnings to become the most powerful man in the world. The long title of this piece provides a trajectory of his progress through life. I focus here on his rock-and-roll presidency.

Carter became President in 1977 at a time of uncertainty in American politics, following the Watergate scandal and the fallout from the Vietnam War. Carter was a Washington outsider, unknown to the wider political establishment beyond his home state of Georgia. Nevertheless, voters quickly bought into his straight talk and “I will never lie to you” mantra, drawing a sharp contrast to Nixon’s Watergate scandals. He pledged to restore a sense of morality to domestic and foreign policy and pursue the maintenance of world peace.

Accordingly, early in his administration, Carter issued presidential directives to simplify the management of foreign policy and to focus on the maintenance of peace, nuclear non-proliferation, the pursuit of human rights, and international cooperation. He advocated going beyond East-West concerns to focusing on the developing world to fully harness global interdependencies.

Carter’s major domestic and foreign policy achievements came within the first two years of his administration. He began with bold domestic policies. He pardoned protesters and resisters of the Vietnam war and those who dodged the draft to fight in the war. He killed funding for the B-1 bomber plane to signal his peace advocacy. He also pushed for a comprehensive bill to protect consumers. Following his dislike for backroom dealings rampant in Washington, he opposed “pork barrel” bills (like Nigerian budget padding), which legislators often attach to major bills. Carter labelled them as wasteful and corrupt, which left a bad taste in the legislators’ mouths. This laid the seed of a frosty relationship with Congress.

Nevertheless, he pushed ahead with innovative bills. He established the Department of Energy and created a national energy policy on a tripod of price control, conservation, and technology. He even installed Solar panels on the White House to demonstrate his commitment to alternative energy sources. He also promoted energy conservation measures, including automotive mileage standards and reduced industry’s use of fuels.

Carter also created the Department of Education with promises of equity, excellence, and upward mobility. Moreover, at a time when little was known about climate change, Carter pushed through Congress important legislation on environmental protection. He also got legislation through on transportation to deregulate the airline, trucking, and railroad industries, which resulted in lower transportations costs for consumers.

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Carter’s foreign policy successes also came early in his administration. He successfully negotiated several historic agreements and diplomatic relations, which endure till today. First, in 1977 and 1978, he negotiated two agreements with Panama over the Panama Canal, one of which would transfer the Canal to Panama by 1999.

Second, in September 1978, he successfully mediated an historic peace treaty between Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, and Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, which led to the normalisation of relations between the two countries.

Third, on December 15, 1978, after months of secret negotiations, mediated by Carter, United States and China, recognised one another and agreed to establish official diplomatic relations.

Fourth, this was followed the following year (1979) by the successful negotiation of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II (SALT II), which was signed between the United States and the then Soviet Union to limit the number of nuclear weapons each country owned. However, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan later that year forced Carter to delay Senate ratification of the treaty, which has remained unsigned till today.

Carter’s progress with governance was eventually limited by four factors. One, the frosty relationship he had developed with Congress, including leaders of his own party, soon limited his ability to get bills through Congress. His veto on some bills was even overturned by Congress.

Two, although the economy was in stagnation when Carter assumed office, it dipped further because of petrol price hike, following high increases in oil price by OPEC. As a result, inflation hit food and commodity markets, and unemployment figures dipped even further. These problems did not abate even as his reelection drew close.

Three, the Iran hostage crisis consumed the last quarter of his administration. Iranian students, who supported the Iranian revolution, which led to the deposition of the Shah of Iran, had held 53 American Embassy workers and visitors hostage over the asylum granted to the deposed Shah, who was receiving cancer treatment in the United States.

Finally, Carter’s administration suffered from trust deficit in some members of his cabinet, including his Budget Director, the Treasury Secretary, and his Chief of Staff, each of whom was accused of one unsavoury practice or the other. Although the charges against some of them were shown to be false, the damage had already been done. Carter’s poor media image further complicated matters. His speech on the economy (dubbed the “malaise” speech), in which he blamed the crisis of confidence on the American people themselves, received negative press coverage and poor public reception. The firing or redeployment of some cabinet members was interpreted as acknowledgement of failure.

At the end of the day, public perception of Carter’s leadership did not correspond with the reality of his performance as he pushed through Congress more legislation and successful presidential initiatives than those of his immediate predecessors and successors. No wonder then he lost reelection in a landslide to Republican Ronald Reagan. To this day, Republicans have continued to seek ways of dampening Carter’s record of accomplishments. For example, President Reagan removed the Solar panels from the White House on assumption of office, and, recently, President-elect Donald Trump promised to take back the Panama Canal and even abolish the Department of Education.

On their return to Plains in 1981 after losing re-election, Carter and Rosalyn moved back into their two-bedroom bungalow. He first resumed the family peanut business, which had been run down while he was in the White House. In the meantime, he got the Carter Center built in collaboration with Emory University in Atlanta, where he was offered, and accepted, a University Distinguished Professorship in 1982.

The concluding part of this piece will focus on details of Carter’s post-presidency; the work of the Carter Centre; the contributions of his wife; global perceptions of his contributions to humanity; and my own analysis of the man and his accomplishments.

January 8, 2025
Palliative photo-trick; Carter; Noise

Another Christmas/New Year season of media-drenched political palliatives is ending. Hurray for beneficiaries. Too many got nothing this Christmas. But whose money did politicians use? The citizens’ money held by government. Government should stop paying stupid money to service the need, greed, illusionary grandeur of politicians. IT IS NOT POLITICAL PHILANTHROPY. JUST A TV/SOCIAL MEDIA FAKE POLITICAL PHOTOTRICK! Instead, government should use that money to increase budget services for accountability, Constituency Projects should be abolished and funds channelled to actual monitorable projects.

Please note the respectful, dignified execution of activities, previously well-planned, for President Jimmy Carter’s internment at 100 yrs. Why are our own activities so rowdy with photographers’ bottoms blocking us from witnessing everything from weddings to funerals? Photographers stay back, use zoom lenses! Photographers, security officials and ‘bigmanism’ disrupt the best protocol arrangements when they surround the coffin and access areas. Remember and make a plaque and wedding congratulations card stating Jimmy Carter’s happy marriage mantra of ‘NEVER GO TO BED ANGRY’ to keep marriages going longer. We must all try to imbibe and teach lessons from his life, death and internment.   Though his Carter Centre, he eliminated guinea worm. Wow! Think, as we witness real multibillionaires not doing much good. May he Rest In Perfect Peace, RIPP.

In addition, please, let us learn from President Carter to moderate music volume on the streets and at events, for health and safety reasons. Communities surrounding unmonitored lawless insensitive nightclub owners and even shops are forced to stay awake 24/7 in unpleasant house-vibrating vigil by the irresponsible music level from such clubs and shops.

It is obvious that the music is selfish, self-centred and totally lacking in discipline and sympathy for babies, mothers, children and the elderly around them, many suffering music imposed mental health issues caused by fear of going to school or to the office or even home to ‘face the music’ next door, sleeplessness with subsequent poor performance and mood at work and home, mood swings and depression. The music industry needs a rethink and re-education especially on the volume of the music and positioning of speakers at events.

A nightclub and an event centre should be soundproofed and, if it is in the open air, it should be limited by law in decibel volume allowed and time for opening especially limiting it to 9pm weekdays and 11-12pm on Friday/Saturday.

Who executes the law? Can the local area police command which already knows the terrain and polices the nightclubs for prostitutes and criminals be instructed and empowered with Sound Level Meters to measure decibels and initiate prosecution. Or will that job be for the local Environmental Protection Agency?

Also, it is laziness by the band technicians and medically dangerous to have eight speakers mounted together blaring from one side all the way to the opposite wall. Each corner should have two speakers for surround sound which can then be lowered in volume so that the guests do not have to shout into each other’s ears. Guests often go home hoarse from shouting, deafened by the music and ignorant and angry from inability to hold a simple discussion, speak or listen to friends on the same table for six hours.

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Many governments at state level are placing adverts on the TV boasting their service projects. Not one of them is exceptional-just their celebration of ‘doing their job’ and well within the-call-of-duty. Nationwide, there are several over-celebrated road and roundabouts reconstructed. In the past some of those roundabouts were decorated by historic leaders and events, like the Oritamefa Roundabout in Ibadan which Meta reports was called ‘The Horseman’ or ‘Ori Olokun’, Head of the River, designed by the Nigerian sculpture Dr Dele Jegede in 1991 . Meta reports ‘It has since become a prominent landmark and a source of pride for Ibadan and Oyo State.’ It cost citizens a huge amount to commission and put up the statue. But even Meta is unaware it was removed years ago for de-construction reconstruction. Unfortunately, after the reconstruction, The Horseman was not remounted but disappeared. Was it stolen? Who has it now? A contractor’s or politician’s garden or inner sanctum? Was it melted by workmen for spoons and machetes?

Today 2025, Nigeria’s greatest artists and sculptors are ignored by politicians as LGA, state or federal resources to beautify and landmark their localities with government commissions for inspirational works. Their jobs at the potential roundabout artistic spaces are given to commercial companies for undisclosed fees. Instead, the companies should sponsor ‘Roundabout Artists’ – a win-win situation. Yet we visit countries for selfies at Trafalgar Square et cetera which have become monuments. In Lagos, Obalende is beautified. Hurray! There are too few such monuments of historical origin and too many political mansions in Nigeria.

Please Cut and Paste on your office wall…

Remind each other daily throughout 2025 to find and work with true honest Nigerians; there ARE many, to run everything including government agencies and keep them honest in office by PREEMPTIVE EFCC MONITORING!

In 2025 RECITE AND OBEY the National Anthem, the Pledge and the Rotary FOUR WAY TEST.

FOR THE 357 DAYS left in 2025, LET EVERYONE DAILY BE FLH- FAITHFUL, LOYAL AND HONEST and OF EVERY ACTION ASK – Is it the TRUTH, FAIR, BUILD GOODNESS & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS & BENEFICIAL TO ALL CONCERNED?

IF SO, GO AHEAD. IF NOT STOP, FOR NIGERIA2025’s SAKE. Please—FOR THE CHILDREN!

January 8, 2025
NNPCL and OBJ in the news

I understand why not a few Nigerians are rightly peeved by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s latest but unfathomable voyage of self-justification. Surely, if it seems entirely in the character of this particular individual who fancies himself as next only to the Biblical King Solomon in matters of wisdom and discretion to always court attention, it seems to yours truly, a new day that this very individual, famed for taking the credit for the labour of others, has only now a straw of baleful revision to latch on to.

There’s no prize for guessing what truly ails the ‘patriarch’. Two of the nation’s refineries – those in Port Harcourt and Warri – long given up for being ‘unserviceable’ are, finally up and running. That this fundamentally undermines and renders flat, Obasanjo’s judgement would seem too much for Obasanjo to swallow.

Never to give up a fight even in the face of defeat and against all evidence, it is interesting how he’s been going on and on…

Never mind the crass revisionism, since his first word on the refineries way back in 1999 seems now unlikely to hit the target, he appears to have persuaded himself that only he, deserves the benefit of the last word:

“Well, you know what I said about the Port Harcourt refinery? Do you remember? I will remind you. I said when I was president, I wanted to do something about the three refineries we have. Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna. And Aliko Dangote got a team after I asked Shell to come and run them for us, and Shell said they wouldn’t.

“I said, please come and take equity. They said no. All right, don’t take equity, come and run it. They said no. Later on I called them. I called the boss of Shell then. Come and tell me what it is. And he gave me four or five reasons.

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“He said, well, first of all, we make our major profit from upstream, not from downstream. Downstream we run just to keep our head above water. Two, the refineries are too small, 60,000 barrels per day, 100,000 barrels and I think 120,000 barrels. He said at that time, the average refinery was going for 250,000 barrels per day. Three, he said our refineries are not well maintained.

“Four, he said there was too much corruption around the activities of our refinery and they would not want to get involved in that. And when anybody tells you a thing like that, what will you do? And it was after that that Aliko got a team together and they paid $750 million to take part in PPP, running the refinery. My successor refunded their money” – if I may add, for good reasons?

That is the account of the Wise One.

If Obasanjo’s handling of the process is any revelation of how he sees himself, the rest of the citizens, and the state which he was privileged to lead, the sale few days to the end of his presidency in utter breach of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act, qualifies for a study not just in the corruption of power but also the power of corruption.

Imagine: the act of returning the $750 million cheque to the Dangote Consortium could only have amounted to the unforgiveable sin for which the late president, Umaru Yar’Adua stands perhaps eternally condemned in the courts of OBJ. Presumably, the only thing worse, at least to Obasanjo, is being reminded, some 17 years after, of how fatally flawed his judgment has turned out to be. Now imagine that this ‘impossible turnaround’ is being steadily delivered under the administration of his nemesis – President Bola Tinubu! That can only be akin to a blow to the solar plexus.

Surely, only in Nigeria will a man who had the whole of eight years to take a decision on the refineries but chose to do nothing until the very month of his exit from office (or maybe he needed the aborted third term to take the decision) gloat over nothing. And if it seems ordinarily inconceivable that the individual would take to the lecture circuit to regale citizens on why the news of the successful revamp of the refineries should be treated as ‘hoax’, the limit to me must be the repulsive and the utterly self-serving anecdote of the farmer who lied about the volume of his crops during the planting season and then concluded that the truth will be soon revealed during the harvest season!

I am here referring to Obasanjo’s allegory of ‘the man who plants 100 heaps of yams and says he has planted 200 heaps, they say after he has harvested 100 heaps of yam, he will also harvest 100 heaps of lies”! Seems to me the stuff that can only be found in Obasanjo’s strange school of leadership!

The question is – who between Obasanjo and NNPCL is lying? Surely, it is for Nigerians to judge. However, whereas the institution accused of lying has dared to invite the accuser to verify the state of things at the refineries, the only response from the quarter of the accuser has been a heap of insults! So, where do we go from here?

In any case, who is NNPCL or even Nigerians to complain about Obasanjo’s legendary obtrusiveness or even conceitedness?

Should anyone ever need evidence, here is a character portrait from an individual who perhaps should know the man more than the average Nigerian: “You are one of those petty people who think the progress and success of another takes from you. You try to overshadow everyone around you, before you and after you. You are the prototypical “Mr. Know it all”. You’ve never said “I don’t know” on any topic, ever. Of course this means you surround yourself with idiots who will agree with you on anything and need you for financial gain and you need them for your insatiable ego. This your attitude is a reflection of the country. It is not certain which came first, your attitude seeping into the country’s psyche or the country accepting your irresponsible behaviour for so long… I pray Nigeria survives your continual intervention in its affairs”.

I should add – a thunderous Amen. Enough said. Don’t ask me who it was that penned those lines. Just google it!

Once again, happy new year!

January 7, 2025
Two ideas men

The front page picture of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) and Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah (GPNM) of Enugu State, shaking hands, and a seemingly counter advertorial on page 28, titled: “You lied to our president: a reckoning of deception in Enugu State”, published on this paper, on Monday, inspired this piece. While I have no brief to write a rebuttal to that advertorial, I have written several essays, in the past 15 years, in this paper, urging Nigerian presidents to show knowledgeable interest in the affairs of the Southeast.

Again, while I have had the privilege of meeting PBAT and listening to him for hours before he became president, I have not met GPNM, but have read his interviews and followed his developmental agenda, since he became the governor of Enugu State. My conclusion is that both men, are gifted radical thinkers. They are persons gifted with the capacity to see prosperity where others see adversity. Men gifted by God, like Moses, to strike a rock, and water will gush out, even in the wilderness.

In Exodus 17:1-7, the Bible tells the story of the Israelites, in the wilderness of Sin, and their thirst for water, for which they were ready to stone Moses, who had brought them out of the Land of slavery, in Egypt. In their desperation, they had questioned Moses, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” Seeing their desperation, Moses importuned God, who told him to take some elders of Israel, with him, and use the staff with which he parted the River Nile, to strike the rock at Horeb.

When Moses obeyed, water gushed out of the rock, for the people to drink, and the people were happy, and the journey in the wilderness, continued in peace.

Of course, this piece is not about theology, but about leadership and the challenges associated with it. PBAT and GPNM, like Moses, are leading their people at a very difficult period in their history. When I watched a few clips of the president’s visit, I was amused, at the convivial atmosphere surrounding the visit.

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I juxtaposed the friendly atmosphere with the war-like situation during the presidential campaign. Those who showed sympathy for a Tinubu presidency where treated as renegades and saboteurs. The argument that candidate Tinubu had history of performance on his sleeve, and should be given a chance to replicate same at the national level, was derided as a joke taken too far. But he had. The Eko Atlantic city, is one such Tinubu miracle. And there are several others which stood him out among other contenders, for the presidency.

Until Tinubu, as Lagos State Governor, wrought ideas over strong arm tactics, the federal government was pouring billions of naira, as sand and gravel, to stop the ravaging Atlantic Ocean, that was eating away, the Ahmadu Bello Way, and the prime real estates that adorned that part of Lagos. Listening to Tinubu as a potential presidential candidate in company of the incomparable Segun Ayobolu, and one other fellow, for about five hours, talk about his grand vision for Nigeria, this writer was convinced that Tinubu would be a very capable president, if elected.

Again, after reading the detailed interview GPNM granted a newspaper, and listening to his talks, this writer was again convinced that Mbah would make a great success of his tenure as governor. While not a man of grand ideas, this writer has the knack, to appreciate great ideas men, when he chances on them. Perhaps, because, though a lawyer, I had the privilege of mentoring under late Chief Charles Adebiyi, former President of Nigeria Institute of Estate Surveyors, in my formative years, in practice.

Chief Adebiyi was an ideas man, and I always marveled at his ingenuity. GPNM has shown himself such a man of great ideas, since he became Enugu State governor. The water miracle, in Enugu, within 100 days in office, still beggars belief. The rise in state IGR, from N37.4bn in 2023; to N144.7bn, between January to September, 2024, is incomparable, by a long standard. The state Budget of N971bn for 2025 for a state that budgeted N521.56bn in 2024; N166.6 plus supplementary budget of N15BN in 2023, and N1N186.64 in 2022, again beggars belief.

Some of the projects PBAT commissioned in Enugu, will be transformational, if followed to the letter. The most significant, is the SMART GREEN schools that the governor is building across the states. What was shown complements the governor’s mantra that tomorrow is here, for the people of the state. In 260 wards across the state, the government is building schools that would transform the learning trajectory in the state. The plan to infuse Artificial Intelligence, virtual reality and mechatronics, in primary schools in the rural and urban cities, would give unprecedented equal opportunity, to every child in the state.

So, when PBAT went to Enugu State, last Saturday, this writer was excited that a knowledgeable president was visiting a knowledgeable governor. Instead of a clash of ideas, there will be a synergy of ideas. While PBAT is pushing to deliver $1 trillion national economy, GPNM is working to move the state economy from N4.4bn to N30bn. Clearly, in terms of big ideas, the governor thinks like the president, and that may have influenced the decision of PBAT, to visit the state, first, in 2025.

This writer has written essays on this page, urging the southeast governors to help the region track back to its accustomed giant developmental strides, which made the Eastern Nigeria, a beacon of development, before the Nigeria-Biafra civil war truncated everything. It is inconceivable that despite the huge national investments in gas infrastructure, there is currently no gas pipeline, in the southeast. Almost, similar to the railways. Happily, the president has made promises to revitalize the Imo River Basin authority, with its potentials for the region, and push forward the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri railway.

Arguably, a rail line, linking the southeast to Lagos, would be the most economically viable, in the country, and there is no reason why it should not happen under a PBAT presidency that dreams big. This writer has urged the southeast, to support PBAT presidency and is excited that there are signs that the political leadership in the region appears to think similarly. The handshake across the Niger is desirable, even when the people, like the Israelites, complained against Moses, seek for their immediate needs.

In Numbers 20:2-13, the people of Israel again quarreled with Moses and Aaron, when they could not provide them with water, or grain, or vines, or pomegranates. The Nigerian economy is tough, and life is difficult, and the people will legitimately complain. But with ideas, tomorrow is assured.

Happy New Year, dear reader.

January 7, 2025
Obasanjo and NNPCL war

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, a veteran of war, and proponent of ‘do or die politics’ that sees politics as war by other means, is set for war against NNPCL. Obasanjo, a formidable opponent with intimidating credentials is an adversary who says “nothing embarrasses him”, a warrior who routinely cuts deals with enemies of his enemies, or “an incredible opportunist” to borrow retired Brigadier General Alabi Isama’s phrase in his “Tragedy of Victory’. NNPCL must also be warned that Obasanjo is a fighter who in the words of his friend, Andrew Young, former US permanent representatives at the United Nations (UN), “pursues his goals with great tenacity without caring about who he made mad”.

But this is not to discourage NNPCL; I will in fact encourage NNPCL to accept Chief Obasanjo’s challenge. After all, it is not as if NNPCL, regarded by many as ‘a cesspool of corruption, an organization deficit in character and honour and the scourge of Nigerian fuel consumers has much to lose in a battle over honour. It was only two days ago that the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) was asking through its letter dated January 4 that the Group Chief Executive Officer of the body, Mele Kyari, to explain the disappearance of over N825 billion and $2.5 billion allegedly deducted from crude oil sales between 2020 and 2021 ostensibly for refinery repairs.

All Obasanjo – who cannot stand being proved to be imperfect – wants is for NNPCL to stake its honour by confirming that Port Harcourt and Warri refineries are indeed working. And now with a television station mischievously waking up trouble that was hitherto deep asleep, the die is cast. It is one more opportunity for a vindictive Obasanjo to prove he alone is infallible, the fact he tried hard to establish in his war memoir “My Command” and in his “Olusegun Obasanjo, The Presidential Legacy 1999-2007”.

His current battle is anchored on the following syllogism: He had as president invited Shell International to buy equity or run our refineries for us on its own terms, offers Shell turned down. Aliko Dangote, the apple of his eyes, was able to put a team together and offered government $750m to run the refineries on Public/Private Partnership basis (PPP) His successor, the late Umaru Yar’Adua refunded Dangote’s money following undertaking by NNPCL to manage the refineries. NNPCL ended up frittering away billons of naira without giving relief to Nigerians since he, Obasanjo left office. Therefore, NNPCL’s claim that both Port Harcourt and Warri refineries are now working cannot be true.

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Obasanjo might have not provided enough empirical facts to validate its thesis beyond NNPCL’s past records which seem to provide additional ammunition to consolidate what Obasanjo considers as an unassailable position.

But that was until Femi Falana, the respected human rights lawyer, who besides Obasanjo who wears his “PDP’s award of ‘Father of Nigeria’ title like St Christopher’s cross, is in my opinion, one Nigerian, that is deserving of being called “Mr. Nigeria”, stepped in to provide the missing link.

According to him, the cancellation of the federal government’ Public, Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement for the management of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries approved by the Obasanjo government in 2007 was attributed to the questionable circumstances surrounding the deal. First, it was alleged that Obasanjo “in utter breach” of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act, side-lined Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), and “took over the privatisation of a number of public enterprises.”

These include Obasanajo’s sale on May 17, 2007 of a 51% stake in the Port Harcourt refinery to Bluestar Oil for US$561 million and on May 28, 2007, sales of 51% shares in Kaduna Refinery at a cost of $160m to the same Bluestar, a consortium of three domestic companies, including Dangote Oil, Zenon Oil and Transcorp in which Obasanjo had acquired large shares through ‘blind trust.’

Scandalously, the deals were consummated in the last days of the Obasanjo administration despite the four-day protests by National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) which also alleged that the nation had been short-changed as the shares acquired in the Port Harcourt refinery for $516 million were worth US$5 billion.

Obasanjo’s case is not helped by the National Assembly awful report on the privatization programme he supervised. The World Bank for instance had defined privatization as a programme for middle-income countries ‘with a competitive market, a market-friendly environment with a good capacity to regulate. But as victims of cultural imperialism that ape everything, including policy thrust that have no chance of survival in our own environment, our leaders sheepishly followed Britain and France’s privatisation of the eighties.

First to be launched was the Babangida’s Privatisation and Commercialisation Act of 1988, the Bureau of Public Enterprises Act of 1993 and Obasanjo’s Privatisation and Commercialisation Act of 1999. They were all doomed to fail.

We don’t need any other proof than the 7th Senate report of November 30, 2011 which directed that the National Council on Privatization rescind the sale of Abuja International Hotels Limited (Nicon Luxury Hotel) for failure of the core investor to deliver on some of the fundamental provision of the Share Purchase Agreement/Post Acquisition Plan; that the sales of assets of Daily Times Nigeria Pic by Folio Communications Limited and its directors should be investigated by anti-graft agencies and the sold assets recovered; that the former Directors-General, Nasir El-Rufai, Julius Bala and Irene Nkechi Chigbue be reprimanded for seeking approval directly from the president instead of the NCP as stipulated in the Public Enterprises Act 1999; and that the Director-General, BPE, Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa be relieved of her appointment for gross incompetence in the management of the Bureau of Public Enterprises and for illegal and fraudulent sale of the 5 % FGN residual shares in Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited (EPCL).

Privatisation of the power sector by President Jonathan, his godson was also a rip-off. In August 2013, 15 companies made up of 10 Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and five Generation Companies (GENCOs) paid $2.238b to take over 60% of unbundled PHCN after an injection of between $8-$15b of tax payer’s money.

Commenting on this on the occasion of the 11th Bola Tinubu Colloquium that took place in Abuja, Tinubu had then observed that “The PDP administration shared our generation, distribution and transmission to their friends and cronies without very deep and thoughtful research and evaluation. It has now become pork chops. It was his view that “for a more constructive reform to improve generation, transmission and distribution, “the privatisation must be reviewed”.

Unlike our one-eyed kings who had no faith in themselves, it is on record that Obafemi Awolowo and his colleagues who laid the foundation for the Western Region, today regarded as the most educated part of Africa; Ahmadu Bello, who put together the biggest business conglomerate in Africa, south of Sahara and Michael Okpara and his group credited with running the fastest growing economy in the world in the early sixties, did not quarrel with the economic model foisted on them by the colonial masters. All they did was to adapt mixed-economy model/public enterprises to the peculiarities of their own environment and the special needs of their people.

It was also unfortunately lost on our one-eyed kings that we have no capitalists in Nigeria but parasitic elites who have no stakes beyond taking whatever they can get from the state. We see this play out daily with importers of labour of other societies including substandard goods and drugs while thousands of our highly qualified youths scrambled abroad in search of greener pastures. We also see this among unpatriotic sponsors of violent armed immigrant herdsmen who illegally occupy our ungoverned forests in the north from where they visit periodic violence on subsistence farmers, killing, maiming and sending survivors to IDP camps while houses, farm lands and villages are forcefully taken over.

Whereas Western societies are owned by powerful individual capitalists who in early eighties under Margaret Thatcher decided that public enterprises had fulfilled its historical mission of repositioning the impoverished poor of the post World1 and 11 period as average workers Their historic mission was to guarantee system survival without posing a threat to the highly stratified class social system by being able to build a house without mortgage or sending your children to the university without loan.

And for Obasanjo and his crusading colleagues who falsely claim ‘for our today they sacrificed their tomorrow’, we now know patriotism sometimes is not without altruism. It was Babangida, who annulled the most credible election in our nation’s history, in order to remain in power or swap position with Abacha, who put and sustained him in power through military coups. Obasanjo’s boys also spoke of alleged bribe with tons of naira stocked in ‘Ghana must go’ bags in pursuit of derailed third term agenda, Obasanjo has continued to deny.

January 7, 2025
A labour of love

Within three decades, they put together a primary school, a secondary school and a university. It is a labour of love and an act of faith. It is an unlikely story of how to pursue education, but it is an extraordinary tribute to tenacity.

The hero of the tale is Pastor Samuel O. Olatunji, now pro-chancellor of Trinity University. He was with a few others as students at the University of Lagos, and he kept advancing the idea of starting a school. This was against the backgrounding of lament about education and standards. The Christian faith bound them together. They were members of the Four Square Gospel Church but on campus Pastor Kumuyi was holding fellowships that would bloom into the Deeper Christian Life Ministry. Pastor Olatunji graduated and worked in corporate Nigeria, for Dunlop, UAC and ran Gateway Bank. But his love was education.

“I was not in the wrong job but I was not sure I was in the right job,” he said, advertising his ambiguity between wholesale devotion to starting a school and making a living as a finance expert.

The seed started with a secondary school, known as Trinity International College. But that sounds grand. They started with their own children. They did not have funding, and they did not have elaborate facilities. He and his friends, including Remi Lawanson and Haastrup Adenipekun, had later moved into the Redeemed Christian Church, and had raised the issue once at a church gathering. Ninety-two parents showed intention. But they started with a secondary school at Ikeja GRA. The parents of eight started with their own children. It was a boarding house. They didn’t have the cash to contract out the amenity. Rather parents and well-wishers donated the various facilities from refrigerator to kitchen materials.

From scarce resources, they kept the school going before planning a permanent site on 60 acres of land in Ofada, Ogun State. In spite of the little money, a security man carted all the amenities on a truck and fled just a week to resumption. The parents had to rally with replacements. They had about 67 students when they decided to move to Ofada. Not all the parents would risk their children to a virgin land. The number dropped to about 40.

They had to scramble for finance, even though Ofada villagers sold the lands for cheap. They had to build classrooms and hostels and teachers’ residence, within a few months between July and September, 1994. They gathered money here and there, including a five million naira loan from Owena Bank under Segun Agbetuyi. They had no collateral, no equity. The land was not worth much. But once they settled there, the principal opted out with half the teachers. It was a crisis.

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The teacher also told parents that the school could not survive. Yet, Pastor Olatunji and the others showed the resilience of the project and secured a principal. So giddy was it, that the school had six principals in five years. The real encumbrance was money. Pastor Olatunji says any time they held a board meeting, the main issue was finance. In fact, the quorum for meeting was five out of 15 but they had to cut it to three because few attended. The recurring figure was Olatunji.

Eventually, they secured Toyin Philips, from Atlantic Hall School in Lagos to head the school after years of persuasion. She held forth for 13 years, and her work was the elixir that the school needed. She prioritised the standards and welfare of others over hers. She even did not take salaries for three months. She stabilized the school. The school that started in 1994 had, by 2009, ranked third in WAEC in the country following Loyola Jesuit in Abuja.

Word of mouth spread, and the school became a magnet for children of governors, ministers, commissioners and, at one time, a family had eight children on the campus. The primary school came after the secondary school. It is known as Trinity Foundation School. At one time, they increased school fees twice in one year. They maintain a regime of discipline and decorum among their students.

Was there anytime they wanted to stop the dream? No, says Pastor Olatunji. Olatunji says he has always had the dream to start a school.

“I love books, and I love education,” he exhales, and while in the finance world, he had secretly logged in a master’s degree in education.

They had wanted to replicate the college in the east and north, but decided to focus on the university first. He was afraid that licences may become oversubscribed for tertiary institutions and the sums to acquire them may soar as we have in the banking industry. So, they applied for licence in 2010 but did not get it until 2019.

“When the Sosoliso tragedy happened, we thought if we had Trinity in Port Harcourt, some of those children might have been saved,” he recalled.

The journey to Trinity University was one of frustration from government. They started it on FFF Road in Yaba, but they have acquired a permanent site in Laloko, Ogun State. The university has now graduated two sets, and they have three faculties and 10 departments and 19 programmes. They include the faculties of nursing sciences, faculty of basic and applied medical sciences and faculty of arts and management sciences. The vice chancellor is Professor Olusegun Kolawole.

One of the reasons that the project is a success is that the investors were looking for the right returns: a good school, and not money. It was because they had money in the bank and had succeeded with their primary and secondary schools that the university had traction. More importantly, none of the stakeholders wanted money back. It is a labour of love. It confirms the words of Winston Churchill, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

At the Yaba campus, there are hostels for male and female, and they have taken over the premises of the FFF, the furniture company.

“All over the world, our students are doing well,” said Pastor Olatunji. Born in 1955, he is a man of slight build but committed energy. He speaks with a soft voice. In a moment of self-mockery, he recalls his looks years ago when the project started. Now, with grey hair and less emphatic strides, he smiles, “see what they have done to me.”

January 6, 2025