The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

Nigeria since the return to democratic governance

General Olusegun Obasanjo came back to power in 1999 when General Abubakar Abdul Salami after a rapid transition and transfer of power to what looked like a civilian regime. Obasanjo appeared to be divinely chosen to impose some form of disciplined stability on the country having suffered and survived Abacha’s humiliation and possible plot to get rid of him permanently, but the problem however strong he might have been, seemed to defy solution. He assembled a team of experienced people some of them with global financial experience and expertise and also local experience. He succeeded to get rid of the debt overhang that made reforms difficult. He also brought into being special anti-corruption organizations like the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). There were other fighting instruments in the police and other bodies but the two new committees were established to give teeth to the president’s fight against corruption. The president also got a reduction of Nigeria’s external debt by substantial reduction while paying off what was left so that Nigeria could begin all over again. In the eight years of the regime, all seemed well even though the internal infrastructure of the country appeared to have been neglected and in the euphoria of not having been bogged down by the debt overhang, the president seemed to have been obsessed with getting the whole of Africa along with his development scheme with his South African colleague Thabo Mbeki forming institutions to pull Africa toward development.

Ironically the scheme was tied substantially to western financial development grants and foreign direct investment if Africa cleaned up its administrations, purged of corruption and policed by African governments calling corrupt regimes to order. This was to be called New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) which was to ensure the flow into Africa of billions of dollars. Some $60 billion was estimated as what Africa needed in investment and grants to develop its primitive infrastructure.

It was premised on Africa attracting this huge amount for ten years. At the end of one year, little came in since the capitalist western world must have laughed at this ambitious program running into billions of dollars yearly for say about 10 years to develop African infrastructure while African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM ) was designed to monitor each country’s performance and call to orders the guilty or laggard.

Much time was needed for the maturation of this grandiose new scheme. Not much investment came in the first year and soon the program ceased being a serious scheme as soon as Obasanjo and Mbeki left the stage followed by a sick but well-meaning Umaru Yar’Adua in Nigeria.

He was succeeded in office following a national movement led by Pastor Tunde Bakare that Yar’Adua’s vice president Goodluck Jonathan should be made to succeed the deceased President Umaru Yar’Adua. The Jonathan regime’s unsure hold on power made it dependent on pressure groups mostly from the East and the North without solid national support until edged out in 2015 by General Muhammadu Buhari whose eight years of its stay in power was remarkable for its corruption, effeteness and additional burden for the future by borrowing foreign loans with little to show for them. The president was not in control of his government because he was hobbled down by illness and constant traveling to London sometimes for months.

It is too early to pass judgement on the Bola Ahmed Tinubu government except to say if it succeeds on its infrastructure drive of building trans-Nigerian roads from Lagos to Calabar and Badagry to Sokoto, it would have made serious impact on the economic development where its current record of stabilizing the national economy and the Naira marks a great departure from the free fall of the economy during the Muhammadu Buhari era. There is however the challenge of making this macro-economic success translate into micro-economic success and money in the pockets of Nigerians.

Unfortunately the two recurring decimals of corruption and tribalism are as high as in previous years. There is also an attempt to create regional bodies to diffuse more power from the centre to the periphery but it is on top of the 36 states and the 774 local governments administration areas creating another layer of administrative organs in already over bureaucratized country all dependent on federal funding and whose staffing demonstrate all the signs of political jobbery. What this shows is that there is a need for wholesale review of the present constitution to move away from the concentration of power into the hands of a pooh-bah in a plural country. There is so much emphasis on politics in this country and little or no emphasis on the economy.

There is ever a thriving discussion on sharing of the national cake and very little discussion on baking the cake and yet it is clear to all intelligent observers that if we expand the economy and there is work for those who want to work, it would not matter who occupies what office because people will be too tired after work that what they need is rest after a hard day’s work. What we have in today’s Nigeria is that we abdicate the demands for work and pray for breakthrough in our churches and mosques and we talk about making heaven when we have not made a much easier success on earth!

The founder of the CITADEL Church publicly presented a plan for economic development for this country in which he emphasized the role of Biblical Joseph in saving ancient Egypt at the time of global famine. It was based on dividing the country into economic zones and each zone producing on the basis of economic advantages. It made so much impression on me that I hope the managers of our economy would factor it into their plan for economic revival of our country. There is much to be done in this country and little time left for us to do it. We should learn from countries like India, Russia and Canada whose vast territories and complex linguistic diversity did not hinder their development and countries like Germany and Japan which were destroyed by the Western allies during the Second World War and having no natural resources but depending on the grey matter of their people and their grit and determination, pulled out of economic ruin because they paid more attention to merit than any other consideration.

Nigeria is not devoid of this and we owe it to our people and those coming after us that there is nothing wrong with our stars but only with us. We can do it only if we plan to succeed. We may be an artificial country yet most countries are like us, there are very few countries that were created naturally. Think about this.

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Finally I have decided to leave the issue of our country’s relevance in the comity of nations till the last on the basis of the fact that a country’s foreign policy, power or influence is linked with how the country is doing at home; in other words, there is a link between the domestic power of a country and its influence abroad. When Nigeria fought the civil war, substantial portions of the international community were appalled at the suffering of children, women and the elderly. The French under General Charles de Gaulle was so touched that but for the British pressure, France would have recognized Biafra. The British were on Nigeria’s side because of the economic ties between Britain and Nigeria and the influence Nigeria‘s presence in the Commonwealth of nations. But for British influence on our side, President Richard Nixon of America would have swung to the side of Biafra because of the powerful influence of Biafran propaganda in the west. The Egyptian pilots who flew the MIG29 jets sold to us by the Russians were probably driven by Islamic motive. Whatever were the motives of each nations involved in the Nigerian-Biafran civil war, the underlying work of diplomats was very important. It is true that global communication advances are eroding the traditional influence of diplomatic representations but we must not completely cut off ourselves from showing the flag where it truly matters. The current economic situation in our country may not make full diplomatic representation at the highest level wise but we can rationalize our representation to our traditional trading partners and to the capitals of the greatest powers in the world starting from the capitals of all members of the Security Council of the United Nations and to the UN itself. We can reduce the crowd of representatives in African countries and have double representation – accreditation in most of them on regional basis.

I do not believe that we should leave all our embassies manned by charge d’affaires ad interim. It sends the wrong signals that our country is bankrupt and cannot be taken serious by economic actors where it really matters. At our level of development, we cannot afford to be taken as a basket case.

The reasons why the Tinubu administration does not have principal representatives of the country is understandable but not overwhelming. Our African brothers are beginning to lose interest in us and we cannot afford this at the same time we are batting for influence in the world and claiming that a reformed UN must have African representation on the UN Security Council. We have put our country forward as the natural African leader. We have to work to earn the leadership of Africa and the Black world.

October 9, 2025
They will not tell you it’s a trap

Every deadly storm starts with a drizzle. Thus, Nigerians must exercise greater caution in their civic agitation, lest they are slaughtered as sacrificial lambs by rights activists baiting a revolutionary flood.

Let us be guided by the parable of the maleficent rainmaker, who summons the rain from his safe spot at the mountaintop, knowing only the valleys below will get submerged in flood.

Right now, it is pouring slogans and expletives at the summit of Nigeria’s civic space. Leading the proceedings are civic actors luring Nigerians to frolic in their rub-a-dub of rage. Think of them as witch-doctors inciting the populace into a primordial dance with unknown gods; when the beat segues to a bloody tempo of rage, they will disappear without a trace. As the consequences manifest, no magical chant will save us.

Every revolution, in the end, manifests with a torrent of storms: protracted anarchy, maniacal rape of women and children, ethnoreligious conflict, and widespread disillusionment. They will not tell you it’s a trap.

Any patriot inciting you to violent insurrection must be seen and treated as an enemy of the people. There is a reason the ‘woke’ activist affects a dramatic rage tailored for camera lights. His visions of social justice are often conceived, like a blind Homer, fiddling epic arcs of cinematic light. Always camera-ready, his every thought and action seem streamlined for media coverage.

This is their familiar modus operandi: a failed politician, NGO-entrepreneur or crusading journalist likens himself to a rights activist cum revolutionary. His followers call him a truth-sayer and the voice of the youth. Thus, several youths idolise him. He is the romanticised revolutionary, who transfigures by patriotic ecstasy and defeats all odds hurled at him by the predatory ruling class.

To achieve this, he assures them that Nigeria must implode and, through that implosion, welcome him as the messiah who would rescue all from the stranglehold of the incumbent political class. But for a snag, this romanticised revolutionary is also a predator.

His activism is funded, inspired by shady non-profits and diplomatic actors, and supported from the war rooms of intelligence agencies abroad and foreign consulates on Nigerian soil.

Like a situational hero sculpted of spunk and spittle, this self-styled patriot-activist invites the ambling spectator and spiritless wanderer to admire his votive rant against the incumbent political class. No doubt, there is a lot to accuse every incumbent government of. History, by default, absolves him of his righteous rage, as Nigeria wilts to policy failure, unemployment, nepotism, farmer-herdsman conflict, organised crime, ethnoreligious carnage, terrorism – all ushering the country to the precipice. Nonetheless, the ageing leadership hold tenaciously to power, never letting go. When they do let go, they reinsert themselves via stooges, their children and sworn associates.

This is what the revolutionnaire promises to dispel. In his world, citizenry angst and disillusionment with the ruling class are frantically poked into patriotic rage. Thus, he turns disgruntled citizens into pawns. And this is how he creates a cult-following. It’s frantic populism at its finest.

In time, there is a split. There is always a split, as the masses soon find out, as they did during the Arab Spring, that regime change through violent protest is never what it’s cracked up to be.

Revolutions throw up hierarchies, thus new castes are dramatised in the noisy climax of every sloganeer. The castes are scary. Rather than sound off on a fallacy, Nigerian youths will do well to sensitise themselves to a more visionary, peaceful revolution, founded on altruistic ideals. And this brings us to the quality of youth mooting #RevolutionNow, #10DaysofRage, among others.

Let it be known that if Nigeria ever implodes Nepali-Gen-Z-style, many of us would have to live in closer quarters and with less protection from the monstrosity we dread. The Nigerian tragedy persists because it is a human tragedy and not a quirk interred in some mythical ‘system.’ Some Nigerians, for instance, are beasts in the closet. Left to their devices, they display unforgivable inhumaneness and lack of character.

Who will forget in a hurry the dastardly murder of Favour Daley-Oladele, 22, who was decapitated and had parts of her eaten up by her supposed boyfriend, Owolabi Adeeko and his mum, in fulfilment of a money-making ritual. Of course, the Adeekos and their spiritual father, Pastor Segun Phillip, are ‘ordinary people.’ You could hardly ascribe such grotesqueness to them, close up, or from a distance. Of course, Owolabi is hardly the poster image of the Nigerian youth, but he projects the burgeoning mentality driving hordes of Nigerian terrorists, kidnappers, advance fee fraudsters (Yahoo Boys), call girls, armed robbers and political thugs in their youth. This is the quality of the youths we’d all be forced to live with if anarchy were to persist in contemporary Nigeria.

A casual surf of the World Wide Web will reveal the magnitude of disillusionment affected by the citizenry towards the political class. And in apparent counteraction to their angst, growing support for the President Bola Tinubu-led administration subsists. Yet, a curious dissonance persists, even as you read, between anti-government and pro-government forces, thus rendering cyber-Nigeria a toxic space.

The youths’ angst is understandable in a clime where elected leaders treat them with contempt. But rage will not save Nigeria; if unchecked, it will devastate the present and hopes for the future.

Nigeria must avoid the fate of nations afflicted by the Arab Spring, where the promise of revolution gave way to brutal dictatorships. President Tinubu must take more proactive steps to humanely engage with the people. He could counsel his political class to make grand gestures of sacrifice in identification with the people’s plight while enforcing accountability at all levels of governance.

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Federal interventions can play a critical role in state accountability; state access to local and international funds must be tied to certain performance benchmarks in delivering public services and meeting financial obligations. Poor-performing states should see reductions in allocations or a complete loss of aid, with those funds redirected to responsible local governments or projects.

President Tinubu’s bid to decentralise power by strengthening local governments with more control over statutory funds is laudable, but even this measure seems dead on delivery, no thanks to sabotage by state governors.

Yet, while the ruling class has much to answer for, the citizenry, especially the more literate and insightful among us, must display greater tact and caution in our push for social justice. Journalists and rights activists, in particular, must desist from inciting the populace and inflaming the polity with partisan views and fabrications.

They must understand that the dubious demagogues pulling their strings—those who lost at the 2023 elections—have second and third addresses abroad. If Nigeria implodes, they will flee, leaving us to bear the brunt of the chaos they helped incite.

And no foreign intervention is worth our attention if it comes seeded with carnage. Nigerians must wholeheartedly refute and avoid the discursive mechanisms through which they seek public support for the cause – be it #10DaysofRage, #RevolutionNow, #EndSARS or #OurMumuDonDo – their language of revolt often buries the possibility of citizen death and a descent to worse conditions of living.

Of course, Nigerians possess the inalienable right to protest against perceived oppression and governance failure. But whenever and wherever this must be done, it must be done right. The language of civic activism must never be used as a political and cultural tool to validate and make mass atrocities socially acceptable.

October 9, 2025
Food for thought for Northern Nigeria

“Woe betide a society whereby their dead leaders are better than their leaders that are alive” … Dr. Yusuf Maitama Sule CFR, the Late Dan Masanin Kano, and Former Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations

For the record, I am from Northern Nigeria, a Muslim, and a patriot of Nigeria. I am currently not a member of any political party. However, I am worried that our narratives and posturing as northerners will not change our collective situation for good unless we tell ourselves the truth and take the necessary actions.

By the way, while I am talking about northern Nigeria, the people from other regions in Nigeria should also take my message as a mirror for their regions, so that they can also make progress. Because we all have similar tendencies.

The Crux of the Issues.

It is proper and very important for interest groups of northern Nigeria, like other regional, ethnic, and religious groups in Nigeria, to continue advocating for good governance and pushing for more equitable leadership and representation at the federal level, while keeping the fee of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to fire.

However, in my view, the issues bedeviling northern Nigeria and the actual solutions will depend on how we, the northern elites and establishment, view the issues, our sincerity of purpose, and the actions that we take to address them. The root causes of most of the challenges facing Northern Nigeria are more regional and local than federal. Therefore, we must refocus, expand our vision, and change our mindsets if there is to be any hope of redemption, growth, and development.

Living in denial and blaming trade will only complicate and exacerbate our situations. The combined ticking time bombs of tribalism, ethnic jingoism, religious extremism, religious bigotry, hypocrisy, poverty, jealousy and envy, greed, hatred, erosion of our core values, corruption, etc., are part of the multi-dimensional issues that we must address as our realities. Indeed, we must also accept that the issues are mostly self-inflicted, either deliberately or inadvertently.

Consequently, political grandstanding and gaslighting will not help us but only make our matters worse. The population growth rate of northern Nigeria, the preponderance of out-of-school children, rising unemployment, youth restiveness, rising social vices, insecurity, etc., in northern Nigeria reflect our dire situation, which calls for sincere and sober reflections. Without decisive actions to contain the ugly trends rather than blaming trade, we will be doomed.

Some questions for all of us who are Nigerians from the northern region are as follows:

Having produced the highest number of Presidents and Heads of State in Nigeria, and having been key stakeholders in the political evolution of this country, how many banks are owned by northern Nigerians? How many media houses are owned by northern Nigerians? How many manufacturing plants, or factories, are owned by northern Nigerians, apart from Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Alhaji Abdulsamad Isyaku Rabiu, and a few others? How many industries or factories in Nigeria are operated or managed by northern Nigerians? How many of the former State Governors of northern Nigeria have even a “pure water” factory where they have employed 10 people? How many of all former State governors of northern Nigeria, former and serving Senators, and Members of the House of Representatives are actually employing people or that actually have scholarship programs/systems whereby they are supporting children from their constituencies, with their own money, or the money they have taken from us? How many of us own or are managing (at top level) the insurance companies, and other private financial institutions, corporate organizations, apart from the Non-Executive Directorships that we are occasionally given, to give a semblance of national outlook for Companies that are owned majorly by southern Nigerians in which we have no real stake, etc.? These are the critical indicators that will tell us whether we are moving in the right direction or not. Today, most of the masses in northern Nigeria are “on their own”, with no help from the elites.

Most times, we, the elites, only speak out loudly when it comes to issues that directly affect us or our children, but not really for the common good. How did we allow our region to slide into the abyss of over 80 million out of over 133 million multi-dimensionally poor Nigerians? Are these issues entirely the fault of a President, i.e., President Olusegun Obasanjo, President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, President Goodluck Jonathan, President Muhammadu Buhari, or the incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Why do we have to shout all the time about issues that we are also responsible for? For example, we have a situation whereby a former northern State governor, who was a governor maybe 15 years ago, has become a glorified personal assistant to a current state governor. This speaks volumes to how we are making progress as northern Nigerians, or as Nigeria in general, because, by the way, this is not just a northern Nigeria issue.

Certainly, if we are able to speak truths to ourselves, we may start moving in the right direction. Most of our leaders block their ears, close their eyes when they are in power, whether as Presidents, Vice Presidents, State Governors, Deputy Governors, Federal and State legislators, Judges, Chief Executives, Civil Servants, etc., but they shamelessly become “latter-day activists” when they leave office, having failed to deliver good governance during their tenures. It is time that we, the people of Northern Nigeria, start calling out such leaders.

For the past 65 years in Nigeria, from independence to date, in every administration, northern Nigerians have been given the opportunity to lead or to serve. Whether the number is enough or not is not the issue. Recently, the late President Muhammadu Buhari was the President for eight years. How did our northern leaders, who were given the opportunities, perform? How did they change the fortunes of northern Nigeria within those eight years? Not long ago, during the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan, most of the top government officials who were found blameful or responsible for the diversion of the funds that were appropriated and disbursed for the procurement of weapons to fight terrorism were from Northern Nigeria. They were found to be in cahoots with misappropriating money that was meant to save/ protect their people, other Nigerians, and residents from being looted, kidnapped, raped, maimed, and killed daily in thousands. What This is the height of wickedness! Shame! What did the northern elders, elites, or citizens do, or what are they doing to stop these menaces and evil tendencies of self-service?

Currently, the two Ministers of Defense, two Ministers of Agriculture, the Coordinating Minister of Health, Minister of Information, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Transport, the National Security Adviser, etc., are from northern Nigeria. It does not matter what political party is in power at the federal level; we always have a significant share of power and the highest number of representatives in the power dynamics of Nigeria. Therefore, what should matter is how we perform and how we utilize the opportunities.

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Self-Service OR Sincere Agitation?

For instance, months into the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, there was agitation by the Northern elites that there was a plan by the administration to sack northerners from CBN, etc., when 70% of the children in the CBN are our children, i.e., children of the elites. What about the children of Shoe shiners or peasant farmers, etc? Are we addressing the issues of almost 70% of our public primary and secondary schools that are dilapidated, with our children that sit on bare floors, in open areas? How about the teeming Almajiris that we maltreat? Is that the responsibility of the federal government? We all know that the State governments are primarily responsible for primary and secondary schools’ education, and yet we have over 10 million children and youngsters out of school. How are we, the elites, also speaking truth to our state governors to ensure that they do the needful? So, these are the posers for us to address as Northern Nigerians.

Moreover, 70% of the leaders from North and indeed from Southern Nigeria came from humble backgrounds. But most of them forget where they come from, only when they need their votes. The fact is that about 60 or 50 years ago, they were given opportunities by leaders like Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, etc., and yet most of them have abandoned their people. Most of them were like the Almajiris of today, and yet they were given those opportunities to excel and become leaders in their Country. Now, all they think of is themselves and their children. Yet here we are blaming all our woes on any President who is in power.

Therefore, I urge our political, religious, traditional leaders, top leaders, intellectuals, and the entire elites to have a moment of introspection.

In the subsequent episode, I will continue expounding on the issues bedeviling northern Nigeria and how I think we should best address them.

October 8, 2025
Free ectopic pregnancy & CS; ID Politicians

Happy World Teachers Day. May we empower, equip and pay them to better win the education war. Amen.

Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN pledges to introduce clean naira notes. Good. Hopefully the good work of the Tinubu government and governor of CBN, Yemi Cardoso and his team to service proper mechanisms for proper use of available funds, naira and dollar, and the efforts to prevent fraud in the supply and service chains like customs and the oil sector, will also improve the value of the clean notes.

At the behest of the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, the bank moguls, often rightly vilified for their greed, collectively released N60b of funds earned from Nigerian citizens’ money in the very profitable bank balances of trillion naira-a-year banks for the refurbishment of the Wole Soyinka National Theatre. Hurray for Sanwo-Olu’s wisdom in choosing to leverage on and actually create a Mega-Public Private Partnership. This is most likely the largest in Nigeria and the way forward. Congratulations to the bank moguls and all involved. However, the curse of most government projects and some in the private sector is poor maintenance.

Hopefully, having expended such a huge sum in resuscitating the WS National Theatre, these same bank moguls have an adequate maintenance blueprint. We have just refurbished the multibillion-naira Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and already, as reported recently in this column, a chronic lack of political will and civil service supervision and maintenance has resulted in thousands of islands of weeds and grass growing along the concrete barrier. Shame!

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The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, SOGON, and women’s groups should together fight the danger of death from ectopic pregnancy. Hospital frontline staff and administrators should be ordered to release ‘GUIDELINES FOR ECTOPIC PREGNANCY CASES’. Ectopic pregnancy patients bleed inside, not outside. No blood is seen by the staff to alert them to the serious situation. The patient can deteriorate very quickly, within five minutes and collapse and die while the staff are selfishly haggling with the patient or the family over the patient’s insurance or ability to pay. Even with money some patients are turned away to avoid ‘inconvenience to the staff or hospital’. Maybe the staff want to close or are just coming on duty.

No medical service with the capability to perform emergency surgery should be allowed to reject such patients. The patient has a high chance of dying while being conveyed to another hospital which also could also reject her if she arrived alive. That second rejection will almost certainly be a death sentence. When I was in practice, I introduced the 15-minute rule for ectopic pregnancy patients. It meant that from diagnosis in the casualty or clinic, to rushing the patient to theatre for knife-on-skin, it should not take more than 15 minutes.

Some patients’ families will run away, deserting the patients resulting in zero hope of recovering the funds expended on surgery. It is also true that sometimes the medical personnel are unfairly and wrongly burdened by conviction or compassion, with raising the ‘lost’ surgical funds.

Unknown to readers, many doctors throughout the country and probably widely in the developing world, pay towards drugs, investigations and surgery procedures for many needy patients, rather than have those same patients abandoned, refused admission or discharged to suffer and even die because they were financially challenged. Delay in ectopic pregnancy care is a death sentence. Period.

We heard a lot around a ‘FREE CAESARIAN SECTION’ policy. Hurray! We await its introduction to help level the financially uneven delivery ground for what is the ‘MOST DANGEROUS DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WOMAN AND CHILD’ in the ‘LABOUR WAR-D’. Why not decisively deal politically with these twin maternal medical emergencies at the beginning and end of the pregnancy spectrum and introduce a ‘free caesarean section and free ectopic pregnancy for those who cannot afford them’?

When implemented countrywide, ‘FREE CAESARIAN SECTION & FREE ECTOPIC PREGNANCY FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT AFFORD THEM’, will bring comfort to millions of families, noting that 70% of the citizenry are poor. It is a worthy investment in the health service delivered to women and in families especially when we consider the amount of money stolen as attested to by the huge sums for which many politicians are taken to court for by ICPC and EFCC, even if they are not convicted due to technical and other loopholes.

For years it has been advocated that Nigeria should have adopted a warlike stance against Boko Haram and its fellow terrorism travellers years ago. It did not and now we are facing a serious low and high tech, including terrorist drone, escalation. Certainly, Nigeria should adopt a much more warlike attitude to acknowledge the cost in our millions displaced, injured and killed and our security heroes past who have fallen fighting Boko Haram since 2009. A warlike footage must cut cost of politics, including the ludicrous cost of political forms for the coming elections and diverting such funds to the military and psychological defeat of the terrorists.

A warlike stance against Boko Haram and other terrorists can only become a reality if we take seriously the combined past and present plight of our dead and more than five million Internally Displaced Persons. We demand a new pressure group – ‘INTERNALLY DISPLACED POLITICIANS’ – IDPOL- made up of politicians who cannot go back home, because of terrorism and Boko Haram. Nigeria must defeat terrorism, Amen

October 8, 2025
Towards a new Nigeria

There have been many suggestions on how to build the Nigeria of our dream beyond the rhetoric of politicians, who promise to build bridges where there are no rivers. The Nigeria I have in mind is one where the constitution meets the people’s aspirations, by providing a workable federation structure and processes of governance that take the diversity of the country into account. It should be a constitution that provides opportunities for self-fulfillment for various groups, thereby making separatist agitations undesirable. What is still unclear is a word picture of how such a new Nigeria might look like.

While, despite liars and saboteurs, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been working hard to stabilise the country through globally acclaimed economic reforms, the debate rages on the kind of Nigeria he should aim at building. There are two major suggestions.

The constitutional approach

The constitutional approach has been the default approach, with two distinct groups leading the advocacy. One group argues that there really is nothing wrong with the 1999 constitution (as amended). The problem, they argue, is with the implementation. The country would be fine if only political actors respected the constitution they swore to obey. True, the constitution is flouted here and there, but that is only part of the story.

The other group argues that the constitution is so flawed that it must be thoroughly reviewed. Once the constitution is amended properly, they argue, all our problems will be solved. However, despite many attempts at reviews, including two major constitutional conferences, the constitution stays flawed.

There are far too many problems with the constitution, two of which are paramount. One, it lacks legitimacy, because it was a military imposition, which adopts the American presidential system in appearance but not in details or in practice. It was an attempt to give an acceptable face to the unitary system of government first imposed by the military after the notorious coup of 1966 and then codified into the 1979 constitution.

However, a close look at the 1999 constitution shows how far away it is from the American model. For example, the American constitution guarantees relative autonomy of the 50 federating states, including control over their own local governments, resources, education, agricultural activities, elections, and police for security. The 1999 constitution does not guarantee such level of autonomy to the 36 states and even recognizes 774 Local Government Areas, thus raising questions about their status as political units and complicating the power of states to control them. Moreover, the distribution of the LGAs is far from the realities on ground. For example, Osun and Ondo states have comparable populations, but Osun has 30 LGAs, while Ondo is given only 18!

Two, the 1999 constitution over-concentrates power in the federal government, by giving the centre exclusive control over education (via UBEC, JAMB, NUC, NBTE, TETFund, and so on); elections; domestic security via unitary police; and many others. The constitution also gives the centre a greater share of resources as well as control over the sharing of resources generated by the federating states.

Dr. Joe Abah succinctly outlines the negative consequences of over-centralisation of power and resources in a recent lucid essay (see Rebuilding Nigeria through devolution and decentralisation, The Daily Times, October 1, 2025). They include wasteful spending; corruption; and impunity. Worse still, states depend on monthly federal allocations, leading citizens to overlook states and blame the federal government for everything. This is the dilemma faced by the Tinubu administration, which continues to be blamed, despite providing states with more than double their previous allocations.

The devolution approach

The devolutionists believe that the present arrangement has three major shortcomings. One, the structure of the federation is so unworkable that a new arrangement is needed that provides the incentive for federating units to look inwards rather than to the federal government for sustenance. Less than half of the existing 36 states could be regarded as viable in that sense. Many of them are unable to pay the new minimum wage, while also owing salary and pension arrears.

Two, it is imperative that power and resources devolve from the centre to the federating units in order (a) to encourage the federating units to manage their affairs more productively and empower their residents to strive for self-fulfillment; (b) to allow the federal government to concentrate on its core duties of national defense, economic policy, and citizen welfare; and (c) to shift the blame game from the federal government to the federating units, thereby making both more accountable to the people.

Two tasks must be accomplished to achieve these goals. First, the federating units have to be delineated into manageable entities, while reducing the expensive overhead costs the present 36-state structure entails. Moreover, the new units must be empowered to manage their own affairs for reasons well articulated by Chief Bisi Akande, himself a fervent advocate of devolution of powers and resources: “Federating units or subsidiary units are usually the theatre of action. That is where you have the land, the forests, the farms, the schools, the hospitals, the manufacturing industries, and even the roads and the citizens, together with daily economic and social activities.”

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There are two competing suggestions on what the federating or subsidiary units would look like. One group advocates a return to the old regions. The advocates of this approach tend to be older citizens, who grew up during the old parliamentary system in which three or four regions were the subnational governments. Critics of this approach cite the large but unequal size of the old regions and the trapping of minority populations within them.

The other group advocates the reconstitution of the present six zones into federating units. Among the advocates of this approach are internationally recognised administration and governance experts, including Dr. Abah and Professor Adamolekun, who has even authored a book on the subject (see Reflections on Governance and Development in Nigeria, published in April 2025).

However, the above task is not achievable unless the constitution makes it possible. Hence, the present constitution must be replaced by one in which the citizens are invested, and which changes the structure of the federation into one in which the present zones are the federating units. The zones would become states, to be known by their geographical nomenclature as Southwest, South-south, Southeast, Northeast, North Central, and Northwest or by some other agreed names. Each state will decide on what to do with the various units within it. However, there should be relative uniformity in the nomenclature. In the United States, for example, the political unit immediately below the state is the County. However, subunits of counties are known by various local names.

A critical aspect of the new constitution should be the allocation of resources. Dr. Abah has suggested a 20-30 percent share for the federal government, while the subnational units receive 70-80 percent. I align with Professor Adamolekun’s suggestion of 35:65 share as in the 1963 constitution.

As indicated at the beginning, state allocations have more than doubled because of President Tinubu’s economic reforms. Yet the evidence of the bonanza is scanty across many states. Unless steps are taken to make the subnational governments more responsible and accountable, it will be difficult to sustain the gains of the reforms. A devolved federation along the lines suggested above is sorely needed to make the subnational governments more responsible and accountable, while making “life more abundant” for the citizens, in the words of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

October 8, 2025
What verdict on Mahmood Yakubu’s decade at INEC?

Like most of his predecessors as chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has been the recipient of acidic criticism over the handling of elections under his watch. He, more than most, having stepped into the saddle against the backdrop of unprecedented political change.

He was appointed in 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari who, along with his All Progressives Congress (APC), had pulled off the hitherto unthinkable feat of toppling an incumbent president. The losing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is yet to come to terms with its defeat, and spent the last ten years blaming the commission for its woes.

But that’s understandable given that no one ever loses elections in Nigeria; it’s always down to INEC’s ‘rigging’. Even no-hoppers indulge in this national pastime of blaming the umpire. Way back in the Second Republic, the hapless chairman of the electoral body, retired Justice Victor Ovie-Whiskey, famously retorted that he would faint if he saw N1 million in cash. This was in reaction to unending allegations that he and his team had been bought off by the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

To that extent, no one should be too shocked by the Yakubu-bashing, nor swallow hook, line and sinker ever accusation against the election management team.

This is not to say that the current commission, or its previous incarnations have delivered perfectly on their mandate. I doubt whether there’s any national institution for which that sort of generous claim can be made. While there’s much to be criticised, sometimes the criticism is way over the top; devoid of the generosity of spirit which acknowledges where progress has been made and innovations introduced.

Over the last decade, our elections have evolved from the dark days when the primary beneficiary the 2007 election, late President Umaru Yar’Adua, shockingly admitted that the process that threw him up was fundamentally flawed. For all the attempts by the aggrieved to paint the chairman as a devil in professorial garb, no one can say that the Yakubu period ever plumbed the scandalous depths of 18 years ago.

And that’s saying a lot, given that aside the general elections of 2019 and 2023 the commission under him also managed countless by-elections in that 10-year space. Virtually all parties – from the largest to fringe ones – at some point emerged enjoyed the feeling of being victors: in some instances in places where their triumph was considered an upset.

A case in point is the narrow defeat of APC and its candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Lagos, a place long considered his impenetrable fortress. In those instances, the victors would hail the commission to high heavens whilst the losers would curse them to the pits of hell.

This October, the curtain is set to be drawn on Yakubu’s decade-long leadership. But we must not forget that his tenure was not just about elections, it also involved transforming the institution and reforming the way our polling processes are managed – getting them aligned with global best practices.

Take away controversies about particular election outcomes and fair-minded persons cannot but admit that the Yakubu years have been transformative. Those with short memory forget that once upon a time ballot box-snatching and other Stone Age malpractices were consequential in determining electoral outcomes.

Today, with the embrace of technology, much of those abuses have become redundant. So much so that on polling days citizens can now track emerging results from polling units up to ward level and beyond on INEC’s portal same day.

One key achievement for which his time would be remembered is continuity and institutional stability. This is down to the fact that he’s the commission’s first chairman to have served two consecutive terms. In that period he oversaw the largest number of elections ever conducted in this country – two general elections, 19 governorship polls, hundreds of bye-elections, and three FCT council elections.

To guarantee enduring institutional memory, he initiated Nigeria’s first Election Museum to preserve the nation’s democratic history. He regularised election dates, creating certainty and predictability. Improved investment in modernised election infrastructure resulted in the building of State Collation Centres across the federation and initiation of a new INEC Headquarters in Abuja.

You cannot discuss Yakubu’s legacy without talking about the Commission’s embrace of technology. Two key items have become household names in political discourse. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) with fingerprint and facial recognition was introduced in place of the flawed manual processes. Equally, the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) came into being, allowing Nigerians to view polling unit results in real time.

Technology has also revolutionised voter registration through IVED and ABIS, eliminating 2.7 million fraudulent registrations. Digital portals for candidate nomination, party agent registration, observer accreditation, and media access are now available. In a first on the African continent, INEC has introduced the Artificial Intelligence Division, with an eye on the future of election management.

Other achievements of the Yakubu tenure include expanding the Voter Roll by institutionalising Continuous Voter Registration (CVR). This has created year-round opportunities for people to register. Since the introduction in 2017, over 23 million new voters have been added.

In the face of persistent calls for legal and regulatory reforms, the Commission worked with the National Assembly to deliver the landmark Electoral Act 2022, heralding electronic transmission of results and stricter party regulations.

He would be remembered for making inclusion a core part of his agenda with the establishment of the Department of Gender & Inclusivity to give structure and voice to representation. Quota slots were reserved for women in senior management, breaking long-standing barriers.

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Also introduced were assistive voting devices like Braille ballots and magnifying lenses. He created and implemented legal frameworks for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to vote, safeguarding rights even in times of crisis. To actually walk his talk, persons with disabilities were hired within INEC.

Deepening of stakeholder engagement has been achieved through quarterly consultations with political parties, civil society, security agencies, and the media. A Code of Conduct for security personnel on election duty, ensuring professionalism in the field has been introduced. Partnerships with traditional rulers, faith leaders, and the National Peace Committee have contributed to a more peaceful electoral process.

Yakubu’s impact has been felt in the area of electoral diplomacy and regional leadership. He revived and presided over ECONEC (ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions), positioning Nigeria as a hub of electoral thought leadership. He has also driven solidarity and peer-learning missions across West Africa, providing technical, material, and moral support to sister commissions.

Demotivated staff can become a danger to electoral credibility as they become vulnerable to manipulation by politicians and parties. Understanding this, the INEC boss has addressed staff development and welfare by introducing merit-based promotions and gender quotas for directors, rewarding excellence; rolled out welfare packages: hazard allowances, bonuses, medical aid, and funeral grants; built a crèche for nursing mothers, supporting staff with young families; instituted Long Service Awards and Staff Recognition Nights.

As he departs from a seat which many have dubbed a poisoned chalice, INEC’s low key, self-effacing chair can look back with pride at the technology-driven, reform-oriented, and people-focused institution he’s leaving behind. Perhaps with time he will get the credit he deserves for laying the foundation for deeper public trust in the integrity of our elections.

October 8, 2025
2027: Different strokes

Different folks, different strokes, goes that rhyming, still rather jaded cliche. But it is as sharp as any to paint the government/opposition contrast towards 2027.

The one reeled out stats to prove potent antidote is here to fix endemic problems. The other serenade the economic doom, as treasured electoral tool.

A soapy serenata of doom and gloom is, after all, much easier than rigorous policy alternatives: to gyp the naive, rile the angry and push the pressured!

How’re they so blest, you’d say! Trouble, though: the situation is dynamic. What if the government’s stats bloom into a pleasant reality? Checkmate opposition? Ha!

Still, before conking the opposition tactics — or none — perhaps the government too, as opposition, would have trodden that same cynical path!

Remember how the Lai Mohammed ACN, and later, APC formidable machine sent the Jonathan (dis)order running helter-skelter, until it electorally ran it out of town in 2015?

Different folks, different strokes!

Still, given the impressive stats President Bola Tinubu reeled out in his October 1 broadcast, there seems a clear difference between the Jonathan plumbing; and the sense of a new rise — with very verifiable landmarks — which the speech presented.

True, the president sold a dummy, which only the alert could have beaten: that bit about Nigeria having, in 1960, 120 secondary schools to a pupil population of 130, 000; aside only two tertiary institutions: the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, and the University of Ibadan.

Sixty-five years later: a virtual, if welcome, explosion: 274 universities, public and private, 183 polytechnics, 236 colleges of education, 23, 000 secondary schools.

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But what about the parallel explosion in population: 45 million (1960) to an estimated 237.5 million (2025)?

Leaving out the youth population now clanging for school space kills any logical analogy between now and 65 years ago. With that clear gap — deliberate or coincident? — we can’t say whether educational access is better today than in 1960.

But beyond that flabbiness, most others stats are tight. They indeed give cause for hope — not happenstance hope, but hope that logically crowns gruelling, hard work.

Indeed, Premium Times just ran a fact-check through the president’s claims; and the nine were deemed true.

That second-quarter 2025 posted a 4.23% growth (against IMF’s projection of 3.4%), the highest in four years; that inflation, at 20.12% in August, has been the lowest in three years; that Nigeria’s foreign reserves, at US$ 42.03 billion, are the highest in six years: since 2019; that tax-to-GDP ratio has risen from less than 10% in 2023 to 13.5% in just over two years.

The remaining claims: aside surplus in five consecutive trade quarters grossing N7.46 trillion by Q2 2025, manufactured exports from Nigeria soared by 173%; crude oil production is up: from one million in 2023 to 1.68 million barrels-a-day in 2025; a solid mineral boom: coal mining leaping from -22% to 57.5%; better sovereign credit profile by global rating agencies; the CBN cut interest rate, if marginally, for the first time since 2020.

No one — so far — has fact-checked the president’s claim that rail infrastructure has grown by 40% and water transportation by 27%. But unlike pre-2015 when hardcore infrastructure were rare, rail and big road legacy projects are common fare.

The president said the 284-km Kano-Katsina-Moradi standard gauge rail was nearing completion. That done, the next step is to link Ibadan with Abuja, and modern rail, linking coastal Lagos-Ibadan-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano-Katsina-Maradi would be a reality!

That itself would be the deepest penetration of modernized rail since 1960. With that should come big import freight from Lagos to Nigeria’s landlocked neighbours: Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, etc.

That trade boon should translate into rail, as a transport sub-sector, contributing more to GDP. The sturdier the GDP, the doughtier the local economy, the stronger the Naira, the lower the inflation, the higher the standard of living and the lower the poverty rate.

These indices, other things being equal, signify an economy on the rebound. In any case, that’s the picture the ruling party is pushing.

But the opposition — in full panic mode or wilful delusion? — would rather luxuriate in the current blight; and wish it continued, at least for their 2027 electoral gain. That, wholesale, appears their strategy so far.

Take Peter Obi, the most prominent pretender, among the lot, to subversive data. Obi merrily hanged himself with own words, that same noose he confected for others.

Hear him: “By the end of 2007, our total debt was about N2.5 trillion, only 10% of GDP, after President Obasanjo’s government secured debt forgiveness of over US$ 30 billion. By 2014,” he added, “Nigeria had become Africa’s largest economy and was primed to achieve middle-income status.”

Yet, by 2015 — with “Africa’s largest economy”: by re-basing, that statistical wonder, by the way! — 12 states, out of Nigeria’s 36, could not pay salaries! It’s yet another manifestation of Obi’s notorious plastic approach to issues!

But the story here is not even that statistical plasticity. It’s Obi identifying with the Obasanjo ancien regime, routed under fall guy Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, as his prescribed future paradise!

The Obasanjo-era “reforms” posted dire infrastructural deficits. One reason: the US$ 12 billion, paid the Paris Club to cancel Nigeria’s US$ 31 billion debt could have been invested in infrastructure, which should have spurred the economy — a terrible opportunity cost. But post-2015 reforms are changing that infrastructure decay.

If you doubt, check out — all post-2015 — the Lagos-Ibadan standard-gauge rail and revamped expressway; and the Second Niger Bridge, into Obi’s South East homeland, which never leapt off campaign videos, all through the PDP years! Without roaring infrastructure, how can you grow an economy?

Beyond cynically skewing statistics to game the unwary; and whining over challenges instead of providing clear solutions, Obi’s thinking is bland on almost all scores!

Atiku Abubakar? The 2023 self-proclaimed “northern” candidate, strutting in glorious ordinariness which he mistakes for political exceptionalism, is busy denying non-issues instead sharing fresh ideas — which he never had — with the polity.

The other day, he would protect Yoruba interests as president. The next, he would stand down for a younger candidate! When comes the next gush of denials? Gosh!

Former President Jonathan? The good riddance to the PDP-era bad rubbish, with his electoral spanking of 2015, is busy shopping for a sure ticket, from either PDP or its clone, ADC, to re-contest in 2027! What grand achievement would he campaign on?

To be sure, the Tinubu order would face close and tight scrutiny on how harsh neo-liberal tactics have enhanced its “progressive” essence. But, from verifiable stats that the president just rolled out, its harsh surgery appears restoring the patient. With far lower food and transport inflation, it might even be singing a redemption song!

That seems more solid than self-professed people’s friends, but really fiends, praying — and fasting! — that hardship endures, for them to stand any electoral chance!

What satanic — and panic-prone — strategy!

October 7, 2025
When PENGASSAN sneezes

The former President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Peter Esele, while speaking to TVC News last week, on the importance of the quick intervention by the federal government in the trade dispute between PENGASSAN and Dangote Refinery ironically espoused the grave danger which the recent strike action by PENGASSAN constituted to the national economy.

In the words of the trade unionist: “You have seen government running in so quickly to address the issues because when PENGASSAN sneezes, we know what that means. Cutting gas supply, cutting oil supply, that is the live wire of Nigeria’s economy.” Implicit in that statement is the fact that PEGASSAN has the power to cripple the Nigerian economy if it wishes. Indeed, the union bared its teeth, and the nation shuddered when it ordered that gas and oil supply to even non-combatants in the dispute be shut down.

Ordinarily, there are parties to every trade dispute, and in the instant case, it was between DANGOTE Refinery and the members of PENGASSAN. Section 1(2) of the Trade Disputes Act, provides: “In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires – “the dispute” means the trade dispute in question; and “the party” means a party to the dispute.” Clearly, the recent dispute was between PENGASSAN and Dangote Refinery and yet when PENGASSAN wanted to cut gas supply, it did not restrict its action to the parties is dispute as provided by the law.

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So, why did PENGASSAN escalate the dispute to affect the supply of gas and crude to other companies and entities not involved in the trade dispute? Of course, PENGASSAN knows that while the right to call a strike is implicit in the Nigerian laws, the legal regime is quite rigorous when followed. Section 4 of the Trade Dispute Act, provides that before a dispute is reported, parties must first attempt settlement, and where they cannot agree, the parties shall within seven days appoint a mediator.

Section 6 of the Act, provides that where the mediator is unable to settle, the parties shall report to the minister in writing, and the minister, according to section 7, shall appoint a conciliator to effect a settlement. Where the conciliator is unable to settle, section 9 provides, that the minister shall within 14 days refer the matter to the Industrial Arbitration Panel. Section 14 of the Trade Disputes Act, provides that where there is objection to an award by the Tribunal, the dispute shall be referred to the National Industrial Court.

Section 17 provides for direct reference to the National Industrial Court in certain special cases, and its subsection “a” provides for direct reference where “the dispute is one to which workers employed in any essential service are a party.” On what constitutes essential services, paragraph 2(a) of the first schedule to the Trade Disputes Act, provides: “Any service established, provided or maintained … for, or in connection with, the supply of electricity, power or water, or of fuel of any kind.”

Even when one concedes that the Nigeria’s legal regime may be too difficult for a trade union to follow, which is why in every settlement, a trade union extracts that no member should be punished for participation in a strike, it does not imply that a union should call a strike at the drop of hat, just because if the union sneezes, the nation will catch cold. A trade union which possess such enormous power to cripple a national economy should use it sparingly.

Indeed, while this column is peremptorily sympathetic to trade unions which ordinarily are weaker when in contest with the state, it is extremely dangerous that a trade union could be imbued with such power as exhibited as PENGASSAN. Before a union calls a strike that has the capacity to cripple the nation, it must diligently follow due process. It cannot call out Dangote Refinery for allegedly sacking its members without due process and then rely on an illegal process to bring the alleged offender and even non-offenders to account.

The way forward is for government to insist that trade unions should fully democratise and be accountable to its members. Of course, it won’t come without a fight from the officials, who have been benefiting from the current system. The trade unions must understand that where they are dealing with private companies, they wont have the luxury of eating their cake, and still have it in the fridge. The imbroglio with Dangote should be a lesson that the era of trade unions in the oil industry holding everyone to ransom may be over.

PENGASSAN, must realise that Dangote Refinery is different from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), which the government officials and the workers treat as cash-cow for themselves, rather than a business entity for the general shareholders. Members of PENGASSAN in NNPC, and its several affiliates could afford to wrestle their companies to ground knowing that those who ordinarily should ask questions about the financial health of the government owned companies, are in bed with them, jointly raping the companies.

How on earth would the corrupt ministry officials raise any eyebrow about NNPC and its affiliates, when they are in cahoots in with the unions in taking what does not belong to them? Nigerians know that the NNPC and its affiliates run opaque systems and so when the trade unions use their power to extort their own share of the proverbial national cake, they can get away with it. But the Dangote Refinery is a different ball game and the prime mover, Aliko Dangote is a boardroom shark, whose driving force is the financial bottom line.

As they would have realized, they just goaded their now former members to a cul-de-sac. The pyrrhic victory which they achieved in getting Dangote to agree to send the reabsorbed workers to its sister companies, namely the Sugar and Cement companies, automatically makes the reabsorbed workers, non-members of PENGASSAN. We wait to see how the unions in the oil industries would protect their technically estranged members who no longer belong to their unions, when the dragon turns them to ‘suya’ for lunch.

There is no reason why all oil workers should be members of either PENGASSAN or NUPENG, as that should apply to other trade unions. Section 3(1) provides: “An application for the registration of a trade union shall be made to the registrar in the prescribed form and shall be signed by (a) in the case of a trade union of workers, by at least fifty members of the union.” Also, person with the resources to set up refinery should get similar encouragement as Aliko Dangote got, to open shop. Once monopoly is killed, within the unions and the industries, Nigerians will breath freely.

October 7, 2025
Oshiomhole and union leaders

Senator Adams Oshiomhole, former Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) president, is one labour leader that has earned the respect of Nigerians. His pursuit of justice, fairness and equity for all Nigerians was perhaps behind his success in labour as in politics where he fought many debilitating wars.

Starting from his native Edo State, he retired the powerful late Chief Anthony Akhakon Anenih, regarded as PDP’s “Mr. Fixer” before taming both Chief Gabriel Igbinedion and his son, Lucky, who was later indicted by the court for financial malfeasance against Edo State.

He then moved to Kwara State where he retired Bukola Saraki, former Senate President and owner of Kwara fiefdom, before crossing over to Imo State where he ended Rochas Okorocha’s dream of establishing a dynasty in Imo Government House.

When Oshiomhole, who no doubt must have been watching the siege of NUPENG, PENGASSAN and IPMAN on Nigeria in the last few years, last week took a temporary leave from politics to return to Labour, his natural habitat, it was on the side of besieged Nigeria.

Admonishing the unions while speaking in an interview with Arise Television last Friday, he had said: “that in seeking to protect a particular set of workers, you do not then risk the jobs of several other workers. When you are pursuing a dispute, the tools you deploy must be such that they do not undermine other people’s jobs”. Oshiomhole cited his deft handling of the Union Bank crisis which ensured innocent banks did not suffer collateral damage.

Unlike the current era of terrorism, lies, bullying, intimidation etc., leaders, including those in labour in the past, earned their position through strategic planning. I first saw Oshiomhole demonstrate this sometimes in 2001 when he was invited to NUJ, The Guardian chapter, to resolve the dispute between its members and The Guardian management.

The Guardian had been shut down for two weeks over salary dispute. All efforts, including the intervention of Ministry of Labour, failed. Oshiomhole, who by his level of interaction probably knew more about The Guardian than those within, was brought in at the last minute, I suspect by his friend in the house who had thought he would be on their side.

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As soon as Oshiomhole who was hailed in settled down, he took one look at our management side led by the late Andy Akporugo, the Executive Consultant, Editorial and said “I don’t even know if you people put ‘otumopo’ (juju) in your paper which forced readers to pick your paper as the paper of first choice”. Of course, he knew we were the highest circulating newspaper and that we were about the only paper paying salaries as at when due within the industry.

Turning to the NUJ executives without showing any interest in the papers and figures they had bandied around for two weeks, he said “there is NUJ Guardian because there is the flagship. You guys cannot make a demand that will kill the flagship”. The idea that our journalists would do anything that would affect the health of the flagship was inconceivable. In truth, salary was not one of the motivations for the flagship journalists. The Guardian journalists were attracted to the paper because The Guardian gave them so much freedom to practice their profession at a period, government’s take-over of The Daily Times and New Nigerian have turned the papers into ‘government ‘views papers’. Journalists of the era were proud to work for The Guardian”. Oketunbi, leading the NUJ sprang to his feet to counter Oshiomhole, adding at the end that NUJ was returning to RUTAM House to sort out issues with the management.

And I think that was classic Oshiomhole. His commitment to just, fair and peaceful resolution of disputes and skills to negotiate, persuade and make consensus” were skills Oshiomhole promised to deploy to help the executive and legislature to find a common ground” if he became chairman of APC.

Unfortunately, what we today have are lawlessness, lies and terror tactics by noisy union leaders. For instance, NUPENG and PENGASSAN openly lied by claiming they were fighting because of some 800 staff sacked by Dangote. Those staff have since denied being sacked, claiming they were only transferred to other subsidiaries, an exercise within the prerogative of the employer.

But hiding under such lies, NUPENG and PENGASSAN that have nothing at stake, decided to, in the words of Oshiomhole, shut down facilities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other firms because of issues at Dangote – an act that was “ill-considered”.

Other NUPENG and PENGASSAN lies include their claim that Dangote sacked all Nigerian workers in the refinery even when over 3000 Nigerians, according to Dangote work in the refinery.

Finally, unlike sponsors of Boko Haram, terrorists and bandits that have remained elusive for 15 years, Nigerians can identify their oil sector enemies: They include NNPC, regarded as the cesspool of corruption; NUPENG and PENGASSAN that bullied the Yar’Adua government into rescinding the sales of Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries for $750 to BlueStar Consortium led by Dangote in 2007 while their staff members have continued to draw salaries from dysfunctional refineries.

Those who vandalized the 4,900 kilometres pipeline commissioned in 1979, to ferry oil products from Lagos to all parts of Nigeria; IPMAN and their truck drivers who secured NNPC contract to store NNPC imported products and distribute same across the nation; IPMAN whose trucks ferry petroleum products across the border; those opposed to “the Nigeria First Policy” announced by President Tinubu, particularly that it should apply to petroleum sector and all other sectors even when America, Canada and European countries are doing the same to protect local investors, and of course those opposed to Dangote’s 4,000 brand-new compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks, capable of eliminating an estimated N1.07 trillion yearly in fuel distribution costs.

Finally, if Dangote Refinery is a national asset as argued by many Nigerians, what it urgently needs is government protection and not procrastination.

October 7, 2025
Idris and foreign media claims

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris took time out last week to interrogate characterisations in sections of the foreign media of religion-induced attacks and violence in the country. He was piqued by claims from some international platforms and online commentators that terrorists in Nigeria were carrying out a systematic genocide against Christians.

Though he named neither the offending social media platforms nor the commentators, the minister considered their claims so grave that he had to issue a statement to correct the wrong impressions created.

“The federal government strongly condemns and categorically refutes recent allegations by certain international platforms and online influencers suggesting that terrorists operating in Nigeria are engaged in a systematic genocide against Christians. Such claims are false, baseless, despicable, and divisive”, he said.

He sees as misrepresentation of reality, the portrayal of Nigeria’s security challenges as a targeted campaign against a single religious group and that though Nigeria is faced with security challenges, couching the situation as a deliberate, systematic attack on Christians is inaccurate and harmful. He is largely right.

The minister’s position seems to find further support in subsisting incidences of such attacks across the country. So, when he said the criminals target all who reject their murderous ideology regardless of faith, he is backed by facts.

But that is not all there is to the matter. Yes, the criminals target all those who reject their ‘murderous ideology’ without regard to faith. They attack Muslims who do not identify with their own brand of teaching. They also attack Christians because they belong to a different religious fate. If other people who do not belong to any of these two religions are attacked, they were caught in the course of the onslaught on the two dominant religious groups. But what is this murderous ideology? And who are its purveyors in our circumstance?

Answers to these posers may chart the part to the misinterpretation and mischaracterisation of the security challenges in the country by the foreign media. And they may well be located in the way religion-induced violence and attacks on worship places budded and escalated in the last couple of years.

The first bomb attack on worship places surfaced around 2011 when the Boko Haram insurgents attacked St Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla near Abuja on a Christmas day leaving in its trail deaths, sorrow and awe. More than 30 worshippers were killed, many others injured and properties of inestimable value destroyed.

This was followed very closely by bomb blasts at the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church Jos, Plateau State and another at a Church in Gadaka, Yobe State. Those attacks were received with mixed feelings given their targets. But Boko Haram was later to begin attacks on Mosques following mounting suspicions on its motive.

The situation became complex when the so-called bandits whose motivation has not proved different from that of Boko Haram joined the fray. In the last two months or so, bandits are known to have mounted attacks on Mosques in the northern parts of the country bringing in their wake the death of innocent Muslim worshippers.

Bandits struck in August this year, during prayer time at Anguwar Montau Mosque in the Malumfashi Local Government Area of Katsina State. At least 32 worshippers were killed in reprisal for the killing of their commanders by villagers the previous weekend. Malumfashi youths were so aggrieved by the attack that they took to protests blocking the Malumfashi-Funtua highway.

A couple of days ago, armed bandits stormed a Mosque in Yandoto community, Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State killed at least five people and abducted several others. The attack came less than a week after gunmen abducted worshippers during morning prayers at a mosque in Gidan Turbe village also in Tsafe LGA of the same state.

Before this time, a bomb attack and mass shooting during mass service at St, Francis Catholic church, Owo, Ondo State had left more than 50 people killed. The Nigerian security agencies then fingered ISWAP for the dastardly killings. Four of the masterminds have since been arrested and are facing prosecution.

Yet, herdsmen attacked St Paul’s Catholic Church, Aye-Twar, Katsina Ala, Benue State last August. Chairman of the Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association (NCDPA) Katsina Ala, Rev. Fr. Samuel Fila gave a disturbing account of the attack. According to him, “the attack has finally shut down all pastoral activities since all the 26 outstations have been occupied by herdsmen long before now.

The malevolent attach left in its wake the desecration and destruction of the parish church, destruction of the parish secretariat, the burning to ashes of the Father’s House, destruction of household items, pastoral logistic vehicles in addition to many other items” the NCDPA chairman recounted.

All these seem to reinforce Idris’ argument that the terrorists operating in the country attacks Muslim and Christian places of worship and therefore puts a lie to the narrative of a systematic genocide against Christians. What could have then, led the foreign media outfits and commentators to their conclusion? Could it be a deliberate voyage on mischief or the general biases and ignorance that sometimes blur western media perception of events in Africa and the less developed nations?

Even as the motivations of western media platforms remain a matter of conjecture, it would appear they were deceived by the profile of the terrorists. Who are these terrorists operating in Nigeria and what is their mission?

Top on the list is the Boko Haram insurgents. They are opposed to western education and propelled by the weird desire to institute an Islamic state. Islamic State for West Africa Province ISWAP is another. It broke away from Islamic State (IS) another radical religious group linked to Al-Qaida. Its name gives out its doctrinaire.

There are also the bandits whose motivations are yet to be clearly decoded. At one time, they share the same characteristics with the killer herdsmen. And at another, it is difficult to draw a line between them and the Boko Haram insurgents or other terrorist groups masquerading around. They are largely responsible for the attacks in Katsina and Zamfara among other states in the north.

Attacks on worship places also come from the insurgency of the herdsmen ranked by Global Terrorism Index as the fourth most deadly terrorist group in the world. The case of Katsina Ala is just a tip of the iceberg of such attacks and despoliations. Of course, there are other less effective ones like the Lukarawa. The proliferation of these terror groups propelled by strange religious ideological leanings could obviously send wrong signals.

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There are other forms criminalities in and around the country. But their purveyors are not engaged in mounting attacks on places of religious worship. So, it is not unlikely that the profile of these insurgents, doctrines and their preoccupation with attacks on places of worship may have influenced the foreign media platforms.

They may not have captured the real situation on ground. But the fact that such attacks could lend themselves to misinterpretation outside our shores, illustrates most poignantly the danger in the activities of insurgency groups propagating religious beliefs that run at cross purposes with the secularity of the country. That is the issue to contend with.

Admittedly, the government has been waging a relentless war against the insurgency of these extremists. In recent times, arrests of key leaders of the insurgent groups have been made. There are also copious reports of their being neutralised in huge numbers by the security agencies.

But the resurgence of the attacks as the tempo of the 2027 general elections draw nearer raises suspicions of political colouration. Data collected by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project shows there have been 43 separate attacks on Church premises this year.

This should instruct a re-assessment of the current strategy in prosecuting the war against terrorism to secure total defeat. As long as the terror groups pursue their weird religious doctrines, so long will their motivations lend themselves to misinterpretation.

October 6, 2025