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Category: Columnists

  • Dangote on my mind (III)

    Dangote on my mind (III)

    One of the highlights of the first, so-called, civilian government after our painful dealings with military rulers was the selling off of many of our joint assets to the friends, cronies and surrogates of the government that was soon to reluctantly vacate the corridors of power. In the process of gathering where they did not sow, they had injured each other severely. And so, by the time they were leaving office, the most powerful members of that government, together with their gangs of hangers-on were no longer on speaking terms. So deep were the antiparthies within and between them that today, two decades after the great falling apart, they are still in the habit of taking pot shots at each from deeply entrenched but hardly concealed positions.

    On the eve of their departure from office, they somehow contrived to sell the four government owned crude oil refineries at a price which for its paltryness, does not deserve to be mentioned at this time. The buyer then was none other than Aliko Dangote, now the proud owner of the largest single train crude oil refinery in the world. This sale was,for any number of reasons, prevented from being consummated by the incoming government and the deal fell through. What has happened to those refineries since then is a catalogue of sorry history. In the end, the ownership of the refineries reverted to the NNPC for further mismanagement and twenty years later they are still swallowing huge chunks of dollars for nothing. In the meantime, the country has been suffering from an energy deficit that is wholly incompatible with development.

    Read Also: Tinubu assures northern Christians of fairness

    Ever since 1974 when in the wake of the Yom Kippur war, the Arabs wrapped their fingers tightly around their oil pipelines, crude oil has figured prominently in global discussion about the future of the world. The immediate consequence of the Arab control of their oil was to send the price of crude oil into a steep upward trajectory. Whilst the rest of the world groaned under pressure of increased oil prices, Nigeria and other oil producing countries were floundering under the weight of the petrodollars which poured into their coffers in what appeared to be a never ending stream. Prominent among these countries was Nigeria. So much money was coming into the country that the military head of state at the time declared that money was no longer our problem but how to spend it. And how badly we spent it on all manner of baubles that caught our fancy. We spent that money with so much ferocity that it was gone within no more than five glorious years. And then, we became poor but not before we picked up a slew of intolerably bad habits which since then we have found impossible to shake off. Chief among these habits was corruption and following very closely behind was our disdain for work of any kind, not to talk about work of the hard variety. Money was to be had in government coffers and many people had unfettered access to government money, in and out of government owned facilities. True, the governments of the day made some attempt to provide some facilities for public use, it was soon apparent that government spending was no more than a smoke screen under which a lot of money was simply diverted into private pockets, to be used for the purchase of their very own domestic comfort. The result of the confluence of those effects is that the government has become an avenue for the provision of loot on a grand scale for all those who had access to it. Nowhere was this more glaring than in the oil and gas sector of what passes for the Nigerian economy. A class or entire corps of players in our economy has arisen to feed on the rest of us. These people have become so used to enjoying their criminal privileges that they will stop at nothing to protect their interests.

    Throughout the period of endemic fuel shortages, the mechanisms of the oil market were under the control of the NNPC. It is the largest government owned oil company in Africa and with assets north of $150 billion, it is a powerful player in the global oil industry. Since its formation in 1977, the NNPC has assumed the role of a government within the government of Nigeria. It is that powerful and whoever is in charge of it is most certainly a person of distinction within the Nigerian power structure. To put it bluntly, this company gradually but purposefully acquired enough clout to become a law unto itself.

    It is a company whose accounts were not, or indeed could not be audited for years. It operated behind a screen of opacity so that the harder you looked, the less you could see or discern. Given this situation, this company can be compared to the mafia. Everyone knew they existed but hiding under a corporate fog, their existence could not be proven. Their final cloak was provided by successive Presidents who also retained the post of Minister of Petroleum Resources. After all, with the sale of crude oil providing all the fuel that powered the economy, keeping direct control of the NNPC was crucial to the health of that economy. However this has not enhanced the performance of this company and the consequence of this has been seen in the endless queues at petrol stations all over the land, a phenomenon that had become endemic over a period of fifty years.

    The last straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was when the authorities of the Central Bank, joined in the operation to sabotage the national economy. To be fair, no collusion between the bank and NNPC has been discovered but between the two bodies, the nation was brought to its knees around Christmas in 2022. As usual, there was an acute shortage of fuel but even if there was fuel, there was no money in circulation to buy the fuel with. And this because the Central Bank had withdrawn all currency notes from circulation even as new notes were being printed to replace them. A humongous sum of money was set aside for this purpose, money that could and should have been set aside for more productive ventures. This was at a time when the NNPC had contracted debts the servicing of which included money from the sale of crude oil which was not due to be pumped out of the ground for many months into the future. The country was flat broke even though political parties were campaigning seriously for support in the imminent general elections for which hopeful politicians were burning off billions of Naira as they wooed a shell shocked electorate. The government that was eventually elected rewarded the bemused electorate with the double whammy of a near five times increase in the price of petrol and the exposure of the fragile Naira to the gale force winds of the unforgiving market place. The good people of Nigeria were caught in a vicious bind from which escape has been impossible since then.

    Throughout this period of discomfiture, the only light from the East was the persistent rumour of the imminence of the commencement of a refinery that was being built in Lagos by Aliko Dangote. But there was little room for hope because the building, equipping and commissioning of that refinery appeared to have taken forever to become reality. In the midst of our vast desert, it was becoming apparent that it was at best a mirage and at worst a giant hoax. After all, the project was first mooted in 2013 and due for completion in 2016. Seven years later, petrol was yet to come out of the refinery and our collective hearts sank when the NNPC, broke and broken as it was, announced that it was going to take a 20% stake in the refinery. Finally, in September of 2024, the news broke that petrol was finally coming out of the refinery and we heaved a collective sigh of relief. Little did we know at the time that the struggle for home refined fuel was only just beginning.

  • Re- inventing Nigeria

    Re- inventing Nigeria

    Jeremiah 29:7 says, “Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have exiled you, and pray for it, because your prosperity depends on the prosperity of the city”

    The above passage encourages God’s people to seek the common good of their  communities,(countriies) even in exile, and to be agents of peace and prosperity very much unlike what you see the El Rufai’s, the Atiku’s and the Obi’s do daily, either crying revolution, revolution or  importing Fulani terrorists into Nigeria when they are not spreading other negativities that  easily feed into AI negative data repository on Nigeria.

    One person who has allowed that biblical injunction to guide his thoughts, and actions towards our country, even though we are not in exile in Nigeria,  is Pastor Poju Oyemade, using the instruumentality of his ‘The Platform Nigeria’, to continually interrogate critical issues affecting the country at well publicised global media events.

    Not in any way suprising, therefore, the latest of these, held 1 October, 2025 had as its theme “Rebuilding Our Nigeria”, which subject

    speakers were brought in from as far afield as Kosovo (from where the First Female President, Atifete Jahjaga, was tapped) to join a group of Nigerian Public Intellectuals to interrogate.

    It is time more Nigerians emulate the Visionary Pastor as he has himself urged.

    Introducing the event, Pastor Oyemade wrote:”Our journey so far represents a reflection on the past in order to fashion out the right policies for the future. Every Nigerian, knows that the country is in a strategic place where the opportunity to take the country into the League of Nations with a strong upward trajectory, is largely based on us— the citizenry”.

    As an aside, let me quickly say that I have always been fascinated by The Platform, Nigeria as I recall briefly discussing, on these pages, Prof Charles Soludo’s appearance as guest speaker a while ago.

    This year’s theme particularly fascinates me as it is a subject I have not only thought deeply about, but have actually taken time to write about.

    In the article:”That Nigeria May Survive These Precarious Times”, published Sunday, 13 September, 2020 and now reproduced on pages 228 -231 of my book:’Simply a Citizen Journalist'(Amazon link:https://a.co/d/dXnfY77).

    Read Also: I never said Buhari was linked to Boko Haram, Jonathan clarifies

    I wrote as  follows in a piece which I will sincerely urge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take a hard,  and sympathetic  look at, since the economy, under his able guidance has since turned the corner, as he did not fail to inform Nigerians during his Independence day speech; a fact with which the Bretton Wood institutions as well as some other international financial agencies agree.

    Happy reading.

    Anyone who does not yet admit that the unworkable unitary constitutional arrangement of Nigeria is the tap from which all the miseries being lamented flow, and that the solution lies in turning off the tap instead of mopping more vigorously, is either irredeemably dishonest or hopelessly ignorant. Nigeria’s problem is structural and not the Leadership problem being bandied around. The former is directly responsible for the latter and the solution to Nigeria lies in the fundamental reconfiguration of it’s damaged constitutional basis,  not in changing its leadership bandwagon.

    It is a monumental disaster that those who should know these are still discussing political party reconfiguration (ie Restructuring of Political Parties) instead of Union Reconfiguration (Restructuring of the Country)” – Tony Nnadi.

    As you read this not a few Nigerians are now convinced that restructuring Nigeria is, in fact,  too little, too late, but not this columnist who many have accused of being an incurable optimist for believing not only that the country can still be salvaged, but that it can, indeed, still rise to glorious heights as well as take its place among the comity of civilised Nations.

    I admit though, that time is of the essence for an ailment left untreated can be fatal.

    As a historian, I am neither forgetful, nor unmindful of what this country was in its days of competitive federalism; the pre ’66 days before the military mangled its essence, and a period that witnessed growth and development in every sphere of the economy, and in all parts of the country.

    Agriculture – not this oil boom turned doom, was the country’s mainstay. In education, not only did Chief Obafemi Awolowo  give the West free education, each region established a University which has since been taken over by a predatory federal government. Industrialisation went apace with textile industries copiously established in the North, and saw the very beginning of industrialisation in the East which has since emerged about the most industrialised part today, not forgetting Awo incredibly turning Ikeja and Apapa into a giant industrial complex. Among those myriad of  industries is the roofing number one company in Nigeria today , Nigerite Ltd, a Belgian – Odua Ltd jointly owned company yours truly was privileged to have headed its Board of Directors.

    In healthcare delivery, the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, ranked amongst the best hospitals in the entire Commonwealth. Fiscal freedom  facilitated all these, and more, to the extent that regions had their own envoys in overseas countries.

    All these now read like ancient history  but with restructuring, and a return to the pre ’66 era – though  with some minor adjustments here and there – Nigeria cannot only be salvaged but could very well rise gloriously to become a great country; not the perennially feuding one we now have with a slew of  truly murderous groups now ferrociously battling the federal government for control of large swathes of territory.

    It is in remembrance of  those days that I made it  celebration galore on these pages last Sunday as I wrote on  how, patriotically, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) spoke on behalf of corporate Nigeria. , cogently presenting to the government of President Mohammadu Buhari what things it must now do  to reverse the country’s  galloping drift  to Golgotha.

    Although my enthusiasm was, unfortunately not shared by many, I remain persuaded, that restructuring is the way to go to keep Nigeria not only united but solid.

    Not a few, especially in the South, believe that NEF was merely out on a decoy,  just trying to lull the rest of us into a non- existent revelry. They asked, for instance, how many times I heard former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, by far the most enthusiastic  Northern supporter of restructuring, mention restructuring in the region during the last presidential campaigns.

    They believe that the North unduly enjoys, by far, too many  unfair  advantages to care, and that indeed, popular as President Buhari is in the North, his party would suffer massively there, if he toys with the idea.

    I, however,  believe that a man who could defend  his country on the battlefield, thus demonstrating his preparedness to pay the utmost price in its service, should not be put off by such puny ethnic considerations from doing that which will stabilise his country to an era of  peace and development.

    I do not believe that the President needs any further lessons in patriotism.

    For ease of reference, l reproduce , in bold relief, some of NEF’s prescriptions for sustainable peace and progress  in Nigeria.

    It opined as follows: “Nigeria’s future  rests largely on its willingness to address major constraints to Equity and Justice (or where is equity when most consequential appointments go to only one section of the country, incidentally their own), have a functional structure, (not one being bigger than the rest, put together), with consistent good governance, security for all citizens – (not when fissiparous tendencies are now  truly alarming), with a credible electoral process(the least said the better since the return of democratic governance in ’99), enjoys a growing understanding between, and among all groups (unlike herders and farmers) and an economy that grows, and narrows inequalities between classes and regions”.  Were this the situation, 82 million Nigerians will not be living below poverty line).

    “The Forum then recommends the alternative of leaders of thought, elders, groups and professional organisations and representatives of government, to freely discuss every element of our co-existence as a country under principles of voluntarism, genuine representation – preferably by election – mutual respect and integrity of the process”.

    Specifically, it said: “A Nigerian Peoples’ Conference on Review of the Constitution will benefit from past work in this direction in addition to contemporary challenges, which the country needs to address in a context that allows free and productive engagements without pre-determined ends.”

    “The outcome of this conference, it concluded, should be submitted to the two arms of government, which should provide for a referendum in the constitution so that Nigerians can directly decide on how they want their nation to be structured and function”.

    In making a case for restructuring to the Buhari government, even though the APC  disdained the Jonathan 2014 National Conference, I am not asking President Buhari to re- invent the wheel. Should he not wish to proceed along the lines  suggested, or being  canvassed by the Northern Elders Forum, itself  an essemble of reputable Northerners who do not love the North less than he does – (since many believe that his attitude to restructuring derives from his fear of the  North losing some advantages it currently enjoys) – or just in case he does not agree with certain portions of the suggestions, then he should, at the very least, be able to  order that the report of his party’s El Rufai Committee on Devolution of  Power, be exhumed from whatever cooler it  has since been consigned.

    The committee, while submitting its report to the  APC National Chairman , Chief John Odigie – Oyegun, in January 2018, told Nigerians that  it was making several  recommendations, based on the opinions of Nigerians.

    Some of these are: resource control, making local government an affair of states, constitutional amendment to allow merger of states, state police, state court of appeal and independent candidacy, amongst others.

    These recommendations were so well received, nationally, that not only was then Bayelsa state governor Seriake

    Dickson, though of the opposition PDP, euphoric about it, stalwarts of various  Niger – Delta movements equally commended it.

    It was therefore a rather bewildering  surprise that  despite these  positive vibes, and the fact that the party’s National Executive Committee allegedly approved it, the party still decided to remit it to a sub committee where it has been gathering dust, all in deference to the President’s body language, if not say so.

    Nigeria does not deserve to splinter because the Northwest looks like dead set on continuing with the axyphisiating status quo. Apart from the wholesale advantages to the citizenry, a United Nigeria has too much to offer the world, especially Blacks all over the world, who see it as Motherland (Ghana has already extended an official invitation to Black Americans to come and settle there) for a few people, or one man, not to allow Nigeria to blossom and attain her destiny.

    The story has become cruelly unendifying, talking about how Nigeria was at par with most   South East Asian countries at a point in time, some of which have now graduated to the First world while Nigeria continues to wallow at the very nadir of the Third, and shamefully dubbed the Poverty Capital (PC) of the world. This becomes more nauseating given its  natural endowments and stupendous  human resources.

    As the BBC recently reported on January 25, 2020 there are about 4000 Nigerian doctors practicing in the USA, with another  5000 currently registered in the UK .The remaining are reportedly spread across Canada and Australia.

    As the Northern Elders Forum  has shown, no section of this country, or least of it, an individual, has the right to unnecessarily hold her down . Not only has the presidency prevaricated, the National Assembly, though taking a large chunk of the country’s resources, has once surprisingly voted against Power Devolution.

    President Buhari must now, once again, demonstrate his love for the country  by  setting in motion the process of convoking a national committee, preferably  along the lines suggested by NEF, to further add value to the recommendations of the APC  Power Devolution Committee”.

    These musings are, as relevant today, as when first written in 2020.

  • Independence Blues: Nigeria at 65: A broken promise?

    Independence Blues: Nigeria at 65: A broken promise?

    Sixty-five years ago, on October 1, 1960, the green-white-green flag was hoisted in Lagos amidst jubilation and boundless hope. With pride Nigeria stood at the threshold of greatness, a giant awakening from its colonial bonds.  The air was thick with promise—promises of prosperity, unity, and continental leadership. Recently, as we marked another independence anniversary, those promises still ring hollow, echoing through the years a collective disappointment, like a dirge for dreams deferred.

    The indices tell a story our patriotic songs and anthems cannot drown out. A nation blessed with abundant crude oil reserves remains trapped in fuel queues. A country with some of Africa’s most fertile lands cannot feed its people. A populace that produces some of the world’s brightest minds watches helplessly as millions of its youth flee in waves of desperation, seeking dignity in foreign lands. This is not the Nigeria our founding fathers envisioned. This is not the beacon of black excellence that Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Nelson Mandela and millions across the African diaspora looked toward with anticipation.

    The most painful indictment of post-independence Nigeria lies squarely at the feet of our political elite and leadership class—a brotherhood that has consistently chosen self-enrichment over nation-building. From military dictators to civilian kleptocrats, Nigeria’s leadership has exhibited a breathtaking capacity for plunder and an equally stunning deficit of vision.

    Our leaders inherited institutions, infrastructure, and an economy that, while nascent, held promise. What have they bequeathed to succeeding generations? An educational system in ruins, where universities are shuttered for months due to strikes while politicians’ children study abroad. A healthcare sector so decrepit that those who govern it flee to foreign hospitals at the first sign of illness. An infrastructure deficit so profound that businesses generate their own electricity, build their own roads, and provide their own security—essentially paying taxes for services never rendered.

    The political elite have perfected the art of primitive accumulation. They loot treasuries with impunity, stash billions in foreign accounts, and when caught, receive mere slaps on the wrist. They weaponize ethnicity and religion to divide the populace, ensuring that Nigerians fight each other rather than demand accountability from those who govern. They have transformed public service into private enterprise, viewing political office not as a call to duty but as an opportunity for wealth extraction.

    Read Also: Tinubu assures northern Christians of fairness

    Perhaps most tragically, this leadership class has failed in the fundamental task of nation-building. Sixty-five years after independence, Nigeria remains a mere geographical expression—a collection of ethnic nations held together by the fragile threads of mutual suspicion and the strong-arm of federal might. We have built no shared national identity, no unifying ethos beyond, corruption,  the naira and the Super Eagles. Our diversity, which should have been our strength, has been cynically exploited by leaders who benefit from our divisions.

    Yet, in this tale of national tragedy, the Nigerian citizen is also complicit, yes! You and I cannot claim innocence. We are not merely victims of bad leadership; we are, in many ways, its enablers. We have cultivated a political culture that rewards mediocrity and celebrates brigandage. We applaud politicians who throw rice and cash at us during campaigns, then act surprised when they steal billions once in office.

    The average Nigerian condemns corruption loudly—until their kinsman is the one being investigated. We demand merit and competence—except when it disadvantages our ethnic group or religious community. We cry out against injustice—unless we are the beneficiaries of that injustice. This moral schizophrenia has created a society where wrong is right if it favors “our own,” and right is irrelevant if it doesn’t serve our immediate interests.

    Our tolerance for dysfunction has become legendary. We have normalized the abnormal. We celebrate citizens who provide basic amenities in their communities—water, roads, electricity—things that governments should provide as a matter of course. We have become so accustomed to failure that we praise minimal competence as extraordinary achievement. We have set the bar so low that it now lies buried underground.

    Furthermore, too many Nigerians have become complicit in the system of exploitation. From the civil servant who demands bribes to process legitimate documents, to the police officer who extorts motorists at checkpoints, to the lecturer who demands gratification for grades—corruption has metastasized from the political class into the social fabric. We have created a society where cutting corners is celebrated as smartness, and integrity is dismissed as foolishness.

    But Nigeria need not remain trapped in this cycle of mediocrity and failure. The dreams of our founding fathers—Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, and others—were not foolish fantasies, nor were they tales of Sugar Candy land. They were achievable visions grounded in Nigeria’s enormous potential. What we lack is not resources or capability, but the political will and moral courage to build the nation we deserve.

    The founding fathers believed in Nigeria. Marcus Garvey dreamed of it. W.E.B. Du Bois anticipated its greatness. Millions of black people worldwide once looked to Nigeria as proof that black self-governance could succeed, that we could build nations rivaling any in the world. That faith, though battered, is not dead. But it requires resurrection through action.

    This resurrection demands transformative leadership that prioritizes education, healthcare, infrastructure, and security. It requires leaders who understand that development is not about white-elephant projects but about creating systems that work for ordinary citizens. It demands an end to impunity and the establishment of true accountability. Most fundamentally, it requires a commitment to building a genuine nation where every citizen, regardless of ethnicity or religion, feels valued and protected.

    Sixty-five years of failure is enough. Nigerians deserve better. Africa deserves a Nigeria that fulfills its promise. The world deserves a  black nation that will raise it’s brows at the maltreatment of any black man in any part of the world. The question is whether those in positions of power and influence—political leaders, business elites, traditional rulers, religious leaders, and every citizen—have the courage to make it happen.

    The independence blues need not be our permanent state. But changing the tune requires each Nigerian to demand more from our leaders and from ourselves. The giant of Africa must finally awaken, not to rhetoric and empty promises, but to purposeful action and genuine transformation. Our founding fathers lit a torch sixty-five years ago. It is time we stopped letting it flicker and instead let it blaze, illuminating a path to the Nigeria that was promised, the Nigeria that is possible, the Nigeria that must be.

  • Tinubu’s retelling of Nigeria’s 65 years of pain, progress, gloom, bloom

    Tinubu’s retelling of Nigeria’s 65 years of pain, progress, gloom, bloom

    It was a week of commemoration, a week of recollections, and a week of sober reflections. Nigeria turned 65 on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, and as expected, the season brought with it the predictable cacophony of voices – the idealists who speak of what could have been, the cynics who amplify only the failings, and the hopeful who insist that in the balance of our national journey, progress has not eluded us. In this chorus of perspectives, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu chose, in his Independence Day broadcast, to reframe the narrative, not in denial of the challenges, but in recognition that Nigeria’s story has been one of both adversity and advancement.

    From his residence in Lagos, where he has been since returning from the coronation of the 44th Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Olawolu Ladoja, the President’s words were as much a call to perspective as they were a commitment to perseverance. He insisted that Nigeria has neither failed nor stagnated, but has, like all nations, travelled a road marked by gains and losses, victories and setbacks. And significantly, he affirmed: “The worst is over.”

    The President’s Independence broadcast was not an exercise in romanticising history, nor was it a blind indulgence in pessimism. Rather, it was an attempt to broaden the lens of national memory. He asked Nigerians to view the last 65 years not only through the prism of disappointment, but also through the prism of achievement.

    Using data as anchor, Tinubu recalled that at independence in 1960, Nigeria had just 120 secondary schools. Today, that number has grown to more than 23,000. From a single university at Ibadan and a technical college in Yaba, Nigeria now counts 274 universities, 183 polytechnics, and 236 colleges of education. Life expectancy, healthcare access, physical infrastructure, financial services, telecommunications, aviation, and IT have all expanded exponentially.

    Of course, he did not ignore the dark chapters—the civil war, decades of military rule, insurgencies, and recurring economic distortions. But the point was clear: Nigeria’s 65-year history is not a tale of collapse, but of survival and renewal. “Yesterday’s pains,” the President said, “are giving way to relief.”

    That line struck at the heart of his larger message: the tough reforms of the last two years—removing the fuel subsidy, ending multiple exchange rates, stabilising the naira, expanding tax collection, boosting oil production, and diversifying exports—are beginning to yield results.

    Read Also: Tinubu assures northern Christians of fairness

    Yet, the Independence broadcast was not an isolated performance. Two days earlier, in Owerri, Imo State, the President had delivered what sounded like a prelude. There, while unveiling a book authored by Governor Hope Uzodinma and commissioning projects, Tinubu addressed a brewing storm—an attempt at international misinformation.

    American television host Bill Maher had claimed that Nigeria was a theatre of “systemic genocide against Christians.” The President was unequivocal in his rebuttal: there is no such genocide, and Nigeria would not permit a foreign narrative designed to manufacture chaos as a prelude to resource exploitation.

    By taking the battle to the open, Tinubu demonstrated that he is not merely reacting to domestic concerns but is alert to international propaganda. His Owerri speech was a message to Nigerians and to the world: nothing escapes the attention of Nigeria’s leadership, and under his watch, the country would not be mischaracterised to suit external interests.

    That clarity of response aligned with the earlier statement issued by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, but by owning the rebuttal himself, Tinubu asserted authority. He showed he is fully in charge, not just of policies, but also of Nigeria’s narrative.

    If the Owerri outing was about defending Nigeria’s integrity, his Monday meeting in Lagos was about rallying resources for Nigeria’s future. Tinubu sat down with Bayo Ogunlesi of Global Infrastructure Partners & BlackRock, and Hakeem Belo-Osagie of Metis Capital—two of Nigeria’s most prominent global investment figures.

    The symbolism was rich. Just as the Japanese Meiji Restoration of the 19th century mobilised all national forces—farmers, merchants, samurai, and the diaspora—to rebuild Japan into a modern power, Tinubu is reaching out to Nigerians everywhere. He is enlisting the financial warriors of the diaspora to channel their expertise and capital into critical infrastructure, energy independence, and sustainable financing.

    “Nigeria remains ready to partner with credible global investors, especially sons of the soil and Nigerians in the diaspora,” the President said after the meetings. The message was unmistakable: rebuilding Nigeria is not the work of government alone, but of all her children.

    In that sense, Tinubu is attempting a national mobilisation unprecedented in Nigeria’s history. By summoning Ogunlesi and Belo-Osagie, he reminded the world that Nigeria’s brightest minds abroad are not detached spectators, but potential builders of the homeland. It is a Samurai move—recalling every sword, every shield, every strategist—for a collective rebirth.

    The week’s symbolism reached a crescendo on Wednesday evening in Lagos, when Tinubu officially inaugurated the renovated National Arts Theatre, now renamed the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts.

    If the economic reforms are the bones of his Renewed Hope Agenda, and the diaspora mobilisation its sinews, then this cultural rebirth is the soul. By naming the centre after Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate, Tinubu underscored that national pride is not only in GDP figures or infrastructure, but also in the creative genius that has carried Nigeria’s name to the world.

    “Uncle Wole Soyinka is one of the most talented and creative minds,” the President said at the inauguration. “It could not have been anyone else.”

    The N68 billion renovation, funded by the Bankers’ Committee under CBN Governor, has turned a decaying relic of 1970s architecture into a modern hub for arts, culture, and creativity. Tinubu urged the creation of an endowment fund for its sustainability, insisting that it must not fall back into neglect.

    In renaming the theatre after Soyinka, Tinubu also sent a message to Nigerians who indulge in speaking ill of their country: national heritage must be celebrated, not ridiculed. “This country will succeed,” he said. “Lift Nigeria, believe in Nigeria. Put Nigeria first.”

    Beyond symbolism, Tinubu backed his optimism with data. His broadcast highlighted concrete milestones of his administration’s reforms: record non-oil revenue exceeding N20 trillion in 2025, months ahead of target; debt-service-to-revenue ratio cut below 50% from 97%; external reserves at $42 billion, the highest since 2019; tax-to-GDP ratio raised to 13.5% with relief for low-income earners; five consecutive quarters of trade surplus, with non-oil exports now nearly half of the total; oil production back to 1.68 million barrels per day and domestic PMS refining for the first time in 40 years; stabilisation of the naira, with multiple exchange rates scrapped; N330 billion disbursed to eight million vulnerable households; mining growth surging, with coal rebounding by 57.5%; major rail and road projects advancing; sovereign credit upgrades and a booming stock market; and the Central Bank cutting interest rates after five years, signalling restored confidence.

    This catalogue was not a self-congratulatory scorecard but evidence of a turning tide. If 2023–24 were years of bitter medicine, then 2025 is the year Nigerians begin to feel the healing.

    The convergence of these events—Owerri’s rebuttal, Lagos investment meetings, the Independence broadcast, and the Soyinka Centre inauguration—reveals a President in full control of his agenda. He is not lurching from crisis to crisis, but following through on a coherent vision: defend Nigeria’s reputation, mobilise national and diaspora resources, reform the economy, and restore national pride through culture.

    Critics may argue about pace or pain, but even they cannot deny that Tinubu has steered Nigeria into a new chapter. He is not only rewriting the country’s economic story; he is also reframing its self-perception.

    At 65, Nigeria is neither a failed project nor a finished one. It is, in Tinubu’s framing, a nation in progress—tested, tempered, but still moving forward. The worst, he insists, is behind us. The future, he assures, is one of growth, renewal, and pride.

    The 65th Independence anniversary was more than a date on the calendar; it was a mirror held up to the nation. In that mirror, President Tinubu invited Nigerians to see not only the scars of their journey, but also the strength. To see not only what is missing, but also what has been gained.

    Even beyond the headline events of the Independence anniversary, the outing in Owerri, his engagements with global investors, and the inauguration of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s other activities and messages during the week were not insignificant; they too told parts of the Nigerian story.

    On Monday, the President extended warm felicitations to the Minister of Defense, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, celebrating him as a consummate administrator and a dedicated public servant. The tribute underscored Tinubu’s continuing emphasis on recognising loyalty and service within his team, particularly as the Defence Ministry remains pivotal in the fight against insecurity.

    Tuesday was marked by both solemnity and firmness. The President condemned the killing of Arise News anchor Somtochukwu Maduagwu in Abuja, directing security agencies to fish out her killers swiftly. The strong tone of his directive reinforced the administration’s zero-tolerance stance on violent crime. On the same day, Tinubu announced new appointments across three key agencies — the National Biosafety Management Agency, the Investment and Security Tribunal, and the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation — signalling his intent to fortify institutions that touch on safety, economic justice, and culture. He also joined in celebrating human rights icon Dr. Tunji Abayomi at 75, extolling his sacrifices during the struggle for democracy.

    Midweek, the President saluted Speaker Tajudeen Abbas at 60, describing him as a worthy partner in governance and praising his stabilising influence in the House. In the wake of the Ibaji boat tragedy, Tinubu urged water transport operators to put safety above profit, a reminder that governance must also speak to everyday tragedies and responsibilities.

    On Thursday, he commended Kresta Laurel Limited on its 35th anniversary, recognising enterprise discipline as vital to Nigeria’s economic growth. By Friday, his schedule turned personal and spiritual as he traveled to Jos for the funeral of the mother of APC National Chairman, Professor Nantewe Goshwe, with plans to also meet church leaders across the North.

    From Lagos to Owerri, from boardrooms with diaspora investors to the cultural halls of Iganmu, Tinubu projected sobriety, strength, and symbolism. Sobriety in recognising the mixed history of the nation. Strength in confronting misinformation and mobilising investors. Symbolism in honouring Soyinka and uplifting Nigeria’s cultural pride.

    It was, in every sense, a week of commemoration that pointed not backward, but forward—a week in which the President widened the national gaze from gloom to hope, from survival to revival.

    At 65, Nigeria has not arrived, but neither has it collapsed. And in Tinubu’s words and actions, Nigerians were reminded that the journey, though long, is still worth the walk.

  • The oil unions we knew

    The oil unions we knew

    The sector’s labour leaders must realise that the dynamics are changing and they must change tactic or die

    Anyone conversant with how our oil sector functions would have known that the purported truce brokered by the Department of State Service (DSS) early last month between Dangote Refinery and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) would not last because what is on the surface is not just the issue. There is high-wire financial and other considerations that led to the impasse between the refinery and the union

    That explained why, almost immediately after the resolution of the dispute between the refinery and NUPENG, the other major union in the oil sector, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) began its own strike. The strike was initially called, again, over Dangote Refinery’s alleged sack of 800 Nigerian workers for joining PENGASSAN, and replacing them with foreigners.

    The refinery confirmed the job cuts and described them as a “reorganisation exercise” aimed at improving efficiency. But it said it never replaced Nigerians with foreigners as alleged by PENGASSAN, which was joined in solidarity in the strike by NUPENG.

    I knew there was not going to be any respite after the NUPENG and Dangote deal. Even now, it does not seem to me that we have got to the end of the matter, despite the deal that made PENGASSAN to suspend its two-day strike started September 28, and ended on October 1.

    I saw all of these coming because one does not have to be a prophet to know that what is rearing its ugly head in the oil sector would eventually come to pass. That was why I had asked several times on this page, somewhat rhetorically, why things that are as soft as bean cake in the mouths of people in other parts of the world become tough bones in the mouths of Nigerians, when Dangote Refinery and the former management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) quarrelled shortly before the then group chief executive officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, was sacked on April 2. The flip-flop policies of the NNPCL started causing disruptions in the price of fuel which had started to decline and stabilise. Things only took a dramatic turn as the NNPCL refused to renew the naira-for-crude deal with Dangote Refinery.

    What I am saying is that what we seem to be having, even now, is peace of the graveyard. As a Yoruba proverb says, ‘oku te sin leekan, ese e si wa nita’ (the legs of the corpse you buried are protruding outside the grave).

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     When the present crisis began about three weeks ago, some allegations were made against the unions in the oil sector. One that stunned me most was the one that NUPENG collects about N70,000 on every loaded truck at the NNPCL depots.

    Some experts have done the calculations of the average number of trucks loaded daily and multiplied by the N70,000 or N75,000. I couldn’t believe my ears when I first heard about this and the first question that came into my mind was ‘owo kinni’ (what is the money for?)

    ‎Weeks after, I have not seen anyone deny that allegation or say what the money is all about. Mum has been the word from NUPENG until PENGASSAN came up with its own strike. ‎ Ordinarily, our anti-graft agencies should have been interested in this and call for NUPENG’s books for scrutiny.

    The truce reached on the two occasions between the oil unions and Dangote Refinery reminds me of the joke a colleague used to crack many years ago about an undergraduate student who was suspended for breaking one of the university’s rules. The young man was asked to bring his parents. It happened that only the father went with him, and he was a stark illiterate.

    When they got to the vice-chancellor ‘s office, he told the father what the son did. The father agreed that his son did not do well and simply asked him to prostrate and apologise to the vice-chancellor. As soon as he did, the father asked him to take his bag and baggage to his hall of residence and sin no more, and thanked the vice-chancellor for his magnanimity! Is that how it works?

    If the unions in the oil sector were truly patriotic, with power of strike that they deploy at will, our refineries should not have been dormant for the decades they have been. How else do you explain it: refineries are not working and the workers were getting paid for doing nothing? I saw figures that some experts quoted as what they collected as salaries and other emoluments running into trillions of Naira, for doing practically nothing over the years. As a matter of fact, they were still going on trainings abroad, according to some accounts, and NNPCL under successive governments was releasing funds for the travels and other emoluments.

    The oil unions saw nothing to go on strike over all those years of the locust. Their members were getting salaries and the bank alerts were coming by way of check-off dues paid by the members, which, really, seemed the basic concern of the unions and their leaders.

    It was so easy for both the unions and the respective managements of the NNPCL to be chummy because, again, permit me to fall back on another Yoruba proverb: ‘ko s’aremo lomo elede, gbogbo won lo nyi’ra mere’ (there is no difference between the first and last borns of pigs as they all play happily together in the mud).

    Both the NNPCL officials and the unions were all united by the monies they all made off Nigerians’ misery, despite the fact that the refineries were not working.

    If care is not taken, the oil sector unions may be looking forward to such abnormality of ‘oga ta, oga o ta, owo alaaru a pe’ (it is not the truck pusher’s business whether his client sells or not; his (the truck pusher) will get his money complete even now that the sector has been fully liberalised!

    And, before you say Jack Robinson, the unions would call their members out on strike, saying it is not their members’ business whether Dangote Refinery is functioning or not. They would be deaf and blind to the reality that they are no longer dealing with a government entity. It is only government that can continue to spend public funds the way the unions are used to: paying salaries without productivity. As we all know, government’s money in Nigeria is like a mad man’s leg which anyone can always go to cut a piece from because it belongs to no one in particular! Or, is the mad man himself not ‘government pikin’ in our country?

    It would be naive, mischievous or simply fool-hardy for anyone to expect Dangote Refinery to leave distribution of its products in the hands of NUPENG as we now know it. That would tantamount to committing business suicide. Even at a point, the Federal Government began to buy fuel tankers because it did not want to leave that in the hands of unions that would declare strike overnight and cripple its activities over mundane matters.

    The owner of the refinery has studied the sector very well; and you cannot blame him. You don’t invest over $20billion in a project and some people without a dime in it would come and ruin it for you, just because they are involved in the distribution of the products.

    I had said it before, that we would see strange developments in the oil sector because, one; many of the players in the sector have been so used to importation and all its trappings and they cannot imagine how all of that would end overnight. The old regime profited them and it is impossible for them to contemplate that all that is over now. Seeing fuel pumps dispensing fuel for one year without disruption is enough to give them heartache. We cannot rule that out in the strike we just witnessed.

    The fact of the matter is that it can no longer be business as usual in the oil sector because of the dynamics of ownership that has changed hands.  

    Newspaper owners in the country would not forget their experiences with newspaper agents; people who have no investment in the multi-billion business but want to determine what happens in the business, including how much the newspaper should be sold, just because they are involved in the distribution process.

    With the refinery investing N720 billion on 4,000 tankers, the signal should be clear to the oil unions that they are dealing with someone with the muscle to drive his company with little push, that not even the labour unions would wield any significant influence beyond getting their check-off dues from their members, not from the refinery or Nigerians that would bear the N75,000 per truck that they claim NUPENG alone corners.

    Ordinarily, these trucks would not have been necessary if successive governments had maintained the oil pipelines in the country.

    Without doubt, NUPENG has turned full cycle from the progressive NUPENG of the Frank Kokori’s days to what it has become today.  The NUPENG that Kokori led from 1982 to m1999 was one that fought on the side of the Nigerian people against our military overlords who were not ready to gift us democracy in spite of their rhetoric to do same. Unlike today’s union leaders, when the union called workers out for strike then, the nation caught cold because it was not used like a toy that it has become. Nigerians would not forget the heroic role the union played in the struggle to send the soldiers to their barracks, leading to the democracy that we enjoy today.

    In spite of the fact that the NUPENG’s leadership did suffer in the course of the democratic struggle, they lived a Spartan lifestyle. We never heard they collected huge sums on every truck of fuel. Not so today’s labour leaders; the very extravagant lifestyle that they condemn the politicians for, they are also living in their own fiefdoms. 

    In fact, if the NUPENG and PENGASSAN leaders think deeply, they would realise that Nigerians no longer see them as the pristine conscience of the nation that they used to be, especially in their ongoing fight with Dangote Refinery. Ordinarily, they should have been the toast of the man on the street, with the full weight of Nigerians behind them. Fighting for Nigerians is not the same thing as fighting for selfish or parochial interests.

    The earlier the unions in the oil industry realised that things have changed in that industry from one in which government was the dominant player and adjust accordingly, the better for them. ‎At the rate they are going, it is only a matter of time for them to demystify themselves, preparatory to their inglorious slide into irrelevance and obscurity. 

    Labour leaders in the oil sector should thank God for democracy. In some other climes, they would be in the dock for economic sabotage.

    Now, you may ask me; where do I place monopolistic tendencies in all of these? That is a business left for the Federal Government to address. It is its duty to seek a delicate balance between some spoilt unions and business investment, not Dangote’s.

  • Nigeria: 65 years after…

    Nigeria: 65 years after…

    The picture of school children lining the streets holding the green-white-green flags of newly independent Nigeria tells the story such  pictures tell; a million stories, of contentment, happiness and hope in an endless tomorrow and a faith that the political leaders of the time would keep them safe, happy and progressive. Somehow the dream was truncated barely a few years after with the military coup of 1966, the power play, the counter coups and the three year civil war that brought the country to its knees.

    As the then head of state, General Yakubu Gowon declared after the war, ‘No victor, no vanquished”. As it turned out, his promise of the three Rs; Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction was not only vacuous given the events that continues to date, it has been a promise not kept. It is often seen as contradictory and a mark of personal flaw that Gowon who claimed there were no victors and no vanquished in one breath promise the three Rs in another.

     Most political analysts describe him as not only immature given his age (32 years at the time) also as one with weak sense of personal judgment considering that he had boastfully but tactlessly said that ‘Money was not the problem of Nigeria but what to do with it’ given the petro dollars that accrued to the country during the oil boom era. The extravagant exuberance of his time in government seems to have laid the foundation for the profligacy with resources that persists till date. The coups and counter-coups ushered in different military governments that violated the democracy that came with Nigeria’s independence.

    A flawed military incursion into Nigerian leadership has been the albatross of Nigeria’s development.  It’s been a case of one step forward and three steps backward. The military governments clearly corrupted the political class with some seeming authoritarianism that revels in lack of accountability and leading with little recourse to the core tenets of democracy.

    Because political power is next only to that of the almighty God in any religion or language, Nigeria’s issues about development have been a product of the mismanagement of power given the dominance of the military goons that had seize power through undemocratic means for a better part of the 65 years since independence. The legacies left by the military dictators are at the root of Nigeria’s underdevelopment. In a way, it is not a misnomer to conclude that Nigeria’s political class has not been weaned from the examples the military left in their trail.

    Nigeria has had an uninterrupted 26 years of civilian democracy. Even though there have been many developments in the economy across the country but many analysts believe that without military interregnums, the country might have made much higher progress. However, the Roundtable Conversation is not excusing the political class in any way because all political actors are adults and have the opportunity to make better choices. However, the military system of command and control, their total disregard for democratic processes keeps rearing its head in the politicians’ modus operandi.

    That certain key sectors like education, health, gender equity and agriculture have received below United Nations’ benchmarks are all signs of political class that are disconnected from the people since 1999. In a way, politicians often display the nonchalance copied from the military. The need to please the people because of elections often does not matter.

    The violence during elections in Nigeria since 1999 is surely a by-product of military leadership. Coups are not cocktail parties. They are planned and executed through violence and without recourse to the wish of the people. Nigerian elections have become one of the most litigious in the world because the political class bring with them the military mind-set of ‘merely grabbing power’ for its own sake.

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    The misuse of security agencies is one legacy of the Nigerian military. The violence during elections is often done under the supervision or protection of the military who are often invited to provide security during elections. When elections are won and lost, the elected leaders often revel in the extra security protection they can avail themselves which often includes soldiers. This right there is the zenith of the military mentality displayed by Nigerian politicians.

    The Nigerian political space in the last 65 years has continued to suffer from military hangover. The violation of electoral laws with little consequences for the violators is one of the legacies of military rule that the politicians fin attractive. The ‘do or die’ mentality that often translates to violence from ward, state to federal elections might appear as non-issues but it has dented the democracy Nigeria practices.

    On the face of it, this analysis might appear as though the military is to blame for the woes of Nigeria. The truth is that sometimes, solving any problem starts when the truth about the causative factors is told. If Nigeria must make progress, the political class must look in the mirror. Mind-sets must change; there must be introspection and a readiness for reorientation that reaffirms patriotism and commitment to the tenets of democracy as government of the people by the people and for the people.

    Nigeria is blessed with rich national and material resources and there must be a willingness to maximize both. Nigeria at 65 must wean itself from the very destructive style of the military aberration in leadership. The political elite must realize the value in investing in the human capital that the country is blessed with. Political participation must be about service and not an opportunity for self-aggrandizement and influence-peddling that has stagnated development.

    Despite the developments since 1999 in many sectors, the Nigerian story can be different with better focus by the political elite. Nigerian politicians must look beyond the immediate and begin to behave in ways to reassure the people in ways that can diminish the trust deficit in the political class. The political parties must be seen to be structured to be functional and viable. Taking excuses with the presumed nascence of Nigerian democracy is self-defeatist. At 65, Nigeria is no longer a baby.

    The political parties must be run with standards befitting of the system we have chosen. The present style of fluidity must be discouraged because it makes the people very sceptical of a class without principles, oscillating between several political parties just for political expediency does not tell a good story about the integrity of our politicians. There must be clear ideological lines that political party members can be identified with as is the case in most developed democracies. There must be an inclusivity that caters to all demographics. For now, it seems to be about male dominance. The poverty index an underdevelopment challenges tells the entire story about Nigerian democracy.

    The political party leadership must be inclusive in ways that no one gender dominates or has exclusive privileges. There should be a level playing field that affords every citizen the opportunity to participate in a functional democracy. For now, political parties appear as a male exclusive club in terms of party administration. Women still see themselves as outsiders with, ‘Women Wing tokenism’. Competent women and men must be allowed to try their chances at political party administration.

    Political campaign funds must be strictly monitored in ways that no individual or group takes financial advantage of the system. For now, Nigeria has not got it right. The word; party chieftain, party financier, god-father etc., are all indicators of a flawed system of running political parties. There must be a structure that can moderate campaign funding returning power to the people.

    Democracy being a government of the people, by the people and for the people must be run according to the rules of engagement and those who breach the rules must be made to face the consequences as deterrent to others. Presently, many people get away with blue murder literarily. Democracy without the rule of law will only produce a dysfunctional system that impedes development.

    Make no mistakes about it, the journey has been very challenging and progress being recorded in some areas but we must evaluate whether the development is satisfactory given the human and material resources available to the country. The fact that other countries keep creating incentives to take out our resources an even our human capital must tell us something. The fact that citizens that were trained with tax-payers money can so easily seek jobs in countries outside Nigeria must tell us that only the best brains get to be ‘drained’.

    Nigeria at 65 is no longer a toddler. It is time to stop and re-evaluate how far we have come. We can acknowledge the challenges of colonialism, slavery, coups and military incursions into leadership over some decades but we must have little excuses after 65 years. The human capital development must be an urgent priority as ideas and technology, now rule the world.

    There must be a renewed effort to meet the UN benchmarks on key areas like health and education. Insecurity is affecting, foo security, investment and tourism. While we celebrate our anniversary, we must introspect and like legendary Achebe said, learn where the rain started beating us as a people. Happy 65th independence anniversary, dear readers. 

  • A country without lawyers is blessed

    A country without lawyers is blessed

    Any patriotic Nigerian would be bothered by the pensive mien of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, as he addressed a gathering of legal eggheads, including the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, at the Supreme Court complex in Abuja on Monday. His low and shaky voice betrayed the weight of the embarrassment he felt from the shame and disgrace some lawyers have brought to the bar in recent times.

    “It is for this reason that my office has now taken the unusual step of verifying the authenticity of this and other complaints with a view to referring them to the appropriate disciplinary bodies,” he said. The AGF was referring to a recent incident involving the alleged inglorious bid by flamboyant lawyer, rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome, to take possession of a London property belonging to the late former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lt-Gen. Jeremiah Useni.

    As the story goes, the property, House 79 Randall Avenue, London NW2, was purchased by Useni in 1993, using the name ‘Tali Shani’. But following his death in January this year, Ozekhome moved to take ownership of the property and, in the process, got himself entangled in a messy case that bordered on forgery, impersonation, corruption and conspiracy.

    Trouble began when Ozekhome sought to register the said property, which he claimed was transferred to him by the owner, ‘Mr Tali Shani’, in August 2021 as a gift and out of gratitude for the many legal services he (Ozekhome) had rendered to him in the past. Unfortunately for the SAN, another ‘Tali Shani’, a female, represented by her solicitors at the London tribunal, had also laid claim to the property.

    Thus began a legal battle with claims and counter-claims that exposed both parties as nothing but two bands of impostors desirous of reaping where they did not sow. “The final outcome of this case, therefore, is that both parties have failed. Neither ‘Tali Shani’ was who they said they were… The real owner, via a false name, was General Jeremiah Useni,” the judge declared, leaving the activist lawyer and his rival crestfallen.

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    Of course, any well-meaning Nigerian would be disappointed with what transpired at the London tribunal, but only a few would be surprised, knowing that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the umbrella body of lawyers to which Ozekhome belongs, has hardly conducted itself in a more dignifying way in recent times. Put more succinctly, its public conduct in recent times has fallen far short of the expectations of patriotic Nigerians.

    A few months ago, the body was up in arms against Ibok Ete Ibas, the administrator appointed for Rivers State in the aftermath of the state of emergency declared by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for daring to complain that it collected a whopping N300 million from the state government but failed to honour an agreement that its annual national conference would be held in the state. Instead, the conference was moved to Enugu State, where another huge sum must have changed hands.

    Rather than show remorse for what was an obvious act of betrayal, the body brazenly declared that the money in question was a gift from the Rivers State Government and not something concomitant on any form of obligation! The situation has caused many to wonder what would be left for governance if every professional body becomes a recipient of such gifts.

    Sadly, the NBA thinks nothing of the aforementioned scandals, but was quick to demand a probe into Ibas’ tenure as the administrator of Rivers State as well as the recent Afriland fire outbreak that claimed some lives in Lagos recently.

    On the basis of its antics, the only reason the NBA has not been tagged a political party is that it is yet to officially register as one. Every of its gathering is laced with campaign, especially against the administration of President Tinubu as was witnessed during its recent conference in Enugu where, in a partisan theatrics, Channels Television presenter Seun Okinbaloye led the lawyers in an open ridicule of the President and his government. It was a repeat of the caricature they made of Vice President Kashim Shettima as the running mate of Tinubu and guest at their annual conference in the build-up to the presidential election in 2023.

    Law, it must be said, is nothing but an assemblage of moral values and the consequences for their violation arranged in sections and sub-sections. Without ethics, it is nothing better than a car without an engine. That, unfortunately, is the lot of Nigeria with NBA’s scant regard for morality. It would not be a surprise if the people charged with designing the academic curricular of universities and law schools are already contemplating blacking out ethics the same way former President Olusegun Obasanjo directed that History be wiped out from schools.

    The special treatment accorded two new entrants into the legal profession, Dino Melaye and Deji Adeyanju, over and above established lawyers with immense contributions to Nigeria’s legal jurisprudence during a recent gathering of the body is danger signal that worse days await the bar unless there is proper re-orientation of the new generation of lawyers. AGF Fagbemi’s declaration on Monday that he had started a probe into the messy property controversy in the United Kingdom could be a good starting point.

  • Lessons of 65-year journey to nationhood

    Lessons of 65-year journey to nationhood

    Sixty-five years after attaining Independence, Nigeria is still struggling to fulfill the vision of its founding fathers. The consolation is that there is now hope on the horizon for the country, from all indications, under the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.

    The supposedly African giant has not been static since October 1, 1960, when Independence was restored after 75 years of colonial subjugation. Under successive indigenous leadership, much progress has been made across the sectors. But many errors have also been committed, which have limited the pace of development.

    As a complex heterogeneous country, Nigeria has been assailed by multiple crises of nation-building bordering on identity, political and economic participation, legitimacy of government structures, and divisive distributive politics.

    While the world powers predicted that by the mid-seventies, Nigeria would have become a medium-ranking power with a commanding influence in world affairs, the prediction has not been fulfilled.

    The failure of Nigeria to live up to expectations, despite its vast natural endowment and huge human capital, has wiped smiles from the faces of its citizens. The sad turn of events has also denied Africa a clear and towering leader who could lead and strategically champion the cause of the continent on the global stage.

    The journey of nationhood has passed through hills and valleys. There have been challenges and traumas; there have also been moments of jamboree and jocundity.

    The future was bright in 1960, but within six years, Nigeria ran into turbulence. The battle for political control through foul means, ethnicity and monumental corruption on the part of the early leaders led to the collapse of the First Republic.

    Up came the self-styled modernisers – the non-accountable power-thirsty soldiers – who toppled civilian authorities and pushed the bewildered country into a prolonged nightmare. Their methods were dictatorial. With the barrel of guns, they foisted on Nigeria a centralised system of government that was antithetical to the federal principle.

    The 1966 military coup deepened the distrust and suspicion among the unequal regions. The Unification Decree marked the beginning of a prolonged journey in national comatose.

    Up till now, the country has not fully recovered. The battle to keep Nigeria one was won, yet threats of secession by a certain ethnic group have not subsided.

    The Nigerian brand of federalism is on trial, confusing, divisive, provocative, and fundamentally unjust. Indisputably, the country has paled into a poor, ethnically-segmented nation-state battling to survive a unitary system, aptly foisted by military interlopers. State and local government creation was lopsided, and the census could not be held due to the fear of rigging the head count.

    There is a combative regression to the pre-independence battle cry for restructuring at a time developed countries expect the African giant to be a continental model of federal democracy.

    The defective federal principle became an albatross. It was a skewed arrangement with an in-built, lopsided, and marginalising distributive process. This heralded colossal injustice and induced intense agitation. The major bone of contention was the over-centralisation and monopolisation of power by a distant central government to the detriment of pauperised and disadvantaged component units in the highly heterogeneous country.

    Indeed, the notion of unity in diversity was displaced due to elongated perceived structural defects and institutional deformities, which denied the reality of peculiarities in a plural society.

    The military perceived Nigeria as a fiefdom, and the bitter power struggle broke out among its top echelon. They pushed the country into an avoidable civil war in which thousands of innocent lives were terminated. Coups became monotonous, and the prospects of popular rule dimmed.

    For 27 years, Nigeria was in the military cage. When the soldiers finally and reluctantly abdicated power in 1999, it was evident that they were not better than the civilian authorities they had illegitimately displaced. They were even more corrupt, promoting nepotism and stifling the growth as democracy.

    In 1999, those who took over power were also created in the same military image. They had a faulty compass – a severely flawed constitution that lied to and against itself.

    The ruling party at the beginning of the current dispensation was aptly called the party of generals for having the highest concentration of retired military officers of any other party. The ex-soldiers apparently thought it appropriate to assemble under the same umbrella to continue their jingoistic exploits. As Nigerians would say: they showed the country pepper. The then-ruling party boasted of retaining power for at least sixty years, confident that its jackboot tactics would fend off other parties from accessing legitimate democratic power.

    It was a harrowing experience. Under their leadership for 16 years, the country bled. Oil, the acclaimed black gold and blessing, became a curse. Its proceeds were grossly misused through the inordinate personalisation of power. The refineries remained moribund, despite the allocation of huge funds into their turnaround maintenance (TAM). The government was comfortable with a curious fuel subsidy regime, which was mercilessly exploited by the barons who held the country by the jugular.

    The country groaned. Life expectancy dropped abysmally. Basic amenities, including potable water, electricity, medical facilities and roads were in short supply. The quality of life among the citizens became abysmal. Youths deserted the country for an imaginary golden fleece in foreign lands. Many of them perished in harsh conditions while attempting to cross the Sahara Desert or the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in the search for scarce jobs.

    Graft and sleaze multiplied. Foreign debt piled up. Foreign reserves were depleted. The manufacturing sub-sector collapsed. Nigeria became a laughing stock. People started having a nostalgic feeling about the constitutional order of the First Republic, saying that presidential democracy had failed.

    As if the challenges were not enough to depress the soul of the nation, Nigeria started battling with insecurity, including banditry, terrorism, kidnapping for ransom, and other forms of violence.

    Ethnicity and religion became the willing tools exploited by unpatriotic elements to fan the embers of disunity. There was stiff resistance to change and progress.

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inherited the cumulative mess on May 29, 2023. It is possible that the problems he met were greater than the challenges he expected. But an experienced, competent, resourceful, and result-driven leader, he was adequately prepared for the job. The priority of the administration is to build institutions and erect lasting legacies, he has been telling his fellow compatriots.

    But to turn adversity into prosperity, the Tinubu administration had to embark on reforms across the sectors. Like a surgical operation, this has been painful. Only a bold and courageous leader like President Tinubu can take the decisive step, which has now been twisted by the cantankerous opposition as the imposition of hardship on the populace.

    Not afraid to step on toes in the national interest, the President removed fuel subsidy from day one, daring the economic saboteurs. He also dismantled corruption in the foreign exchange market. The review of the tax laws and strengthening of the revenue-generating agencies marked a clean break from the sordid past.

    More funds are now being distributed from the Federation Account to the sub-national units. If governors and council chairmen can demonstrate commitment, patriotism and discipline by channeling the money to development, all will be well.

    This is why the President urged the leaders at these tiers to wet the ground. It is puzzling to the common man, who is enjoined to be patient, that reform pains linger, and nobody seems prepared to understand the language of economic innovation that does not lead to food price affordability, no matter the macro-economic stability.

    More than a year after rail transportation was decentralised, no region in the country has taken the bull by the horns. The agitations for restructuring have continued, but, paradoxically, certain elements of devolution are either being opposed or resisted. Examples are the council autonomy and the initial reluctance of some states to welcome state police.

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    A bridge builder and detribalised leader, President Tinubu has united the country through the exhibition of national outlook and promotion of inclusive policies and programmes. These are visible in the distribution of appointments and infrastructural projects, the establishment of regional commissions, and the promotion of cordial inter-governmental relations.

    The signature infrastructural projects of the administration are road construction across the six geopolitical zones. Of more significance now are the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Badagry-Sokoto road, which will open many communities across the regions.

    Infrastructural gaps have to be bridged. A thriving and buoyant economy has to be sustained by connectivity. This is why an effective and efficient transportation system is key.

    As a corollary, reforms that can resolve the lingering energy crisis would be reassuring in light of the expected support for industrialisation or production, particularly the manufacturing sub-sector, which can yield the by-products of job creation, social progress, and high competitiveness.

    For youths, the student loan scheme comes in handy. It prevents dropouts in tertiary institutions and rekindles hope about the ability of the system to offer and guarantee succour.

    The Tinubu administration has fought terror with vigour and recorded outstanding success. The achievement has to be sustained.

    To discerning minds, the restructuring that would restore federalism has begun. The prospects of state policing or multi-level policing may be the baseline.

    President Tinubu is laying a firm foundation for a virile and better tomorrow. It is mobilising and planning for a better future.

    There are still some issues that need to be addressed collectively. One of them is that the cost of governance across the tiers is huge, often wasteful, and unaccounted for.  The current expenditure should not rival capital spending. The government’s spending should focus on productive activities.

    Also, elections are still controversial with fraud, vote-buying, and violence sitting at the heart of polls. A special tribunal or court for the trial of electoral offenders is necessary. The ballot box should not be desecrated. Also, losers should be courageous to concede defeat, as done in some advanced democracies, instead of embarking on unnecessary post-election litigations that waste the time of the court.

    If all election cases can be disposed of before the inauguration date, the nation would be the better for it

    The question now is: where should Nigeria be in the next 65 years? Would it become a technological giant, a great federal democracy, a secured country, a self-sufficient nation, a united nation-state, and a world power?   

    Nigeria should plan. It should also not fail to avert failure in the implementation of its plans. A plan is not about its name but the results it generates in the long run. Africa’s most populous nation should unleash its human and technical endowments towards building a resilient future in which the citizens will stand very tall across the world. This is the time to roll up our sleeves to accomplish the task. 

  • Why unseating Tinubu will be uphill task for Atiku, El-Rufai, others

    Why unseating Tinubu will be uphill task for Atiku, El-Rufai, others

    Saying that the opposition is living in awe of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s firm foothold on the nation’s political terrain is an understatement. More correctly, the President’s popularity is a nightmare for the likes of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai and other opposition politicians whose mission is to unseat him in the 2027 elections.

    But the harder they try, the more it is looking like unseating Tinubu in 2027 is a mission impossible. If nothing else, the obvious disarray in the opposition camp point to the mountain they would have to climb in 2027 for their dreams to materialise. Even the coalition of anti-Tinubu forces championed by Atiku and El-Rufai is yet to find its feet while the elections approach at astonishing speed.

    For the opposition elements, it is a case of the falcon not hearing the falconer as Tinubu’s influence continues to loom large in their camp. It is getting increasingly difficult, as the elections approach, to know which opposition member is truly against Tinubu as many of them are clandestinely working to ensure that he secures a second term.

    It could not have been otherwise, considering how easier life has become governors under Tinubu’s leadership. Now availed with about three times the amount of money that comes to them from the federal purse on a daily basis, many of them believe of them believe they owe him a world of gratitude, and the best way they can reciprocate his gesture and sustain their new financial status is to support the President for a second term. That is particularly the case with first-term governors who are hoping for another four years after the current dispensation.

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    A pointer to the foregoing was the recent gale of defections by opposition governors and members of the National Assembly to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as well as a melodrama that occurred at a recent zoning consultative meeting in Lagos by southern stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) opposed to Tinubu’s reelection in 2027.

    It turned out, however, that a few hours later, some PDP governors who had attended the said meeting where they also resolved to expel FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, former Benue State governor Daniel Ortom and others accused of anti-party activities, were on board an aircraft that took them to Brazil.

    While their mission to the South American country remains a matter of conjecture, it nonetheless provoked curiousity in that it coincided with President Tinubu’s official visit.

  • Atiku, Jonathan and 2027 (2)

    Atiku, Jonathan and 2027 (2)

    For the second time within a month, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has strongly, even vehemently, affirmed his determination to contest the 2027 presidential election and that he has no plans to step down for any contender. It was obviously in pursuit of this ambition that the Waziri Adamawa facilitated the hostile takeover of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) by elements of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as aggrieved members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), who believe they have been marginalised in the President Bola Tinubu administration. Professor Bola Olateju of the Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State, most certainly thought he was doing the former Vice-President a favour when, at a recent event, he averred that Atiku was not desperate to contest the presidency but rather was more interested in the emergence of a capable leadership for the country.

    As the professor put it at the defection of some political figures to the ADC, “Atiku Abubakar’s plan is to build a better Nigeria, it’s not about being President; it’s about establishing a government that works for Nigerians – that’s why some of us are with him, not because Atiku must be President at all costs”. In a statement suggesting that Atiku was not keen to be associated with such altruistic motivation as suggested by the Professor, the former Vice-President’s media handlers brutally shut down Olateju ‘s submissions, stressing that he was not authorised to speak for their principal. Again, refuting what he described as misrepresentations in the media of an interview Atiku granted the Hausa Service of the BBC, his media Adviser, Paul Ibe, emphasised that the politician, who has been attempting to become President of Nigeria since 1993, has no intention to step down for any other candidate.

    Rather than planning to step down in favour of a younger candidate as reported by sections of the media, Mr Ibe explained that “What Atiku Abubakar clearly and unambiguously said was that young people, as well as other prospective aspirants, are free to enter the contest. He further stressed that if a young candidate were to emerge through a competitive primary, he would readily support such a candidate without any hesitation”. Of course, the problem is that with the current constellation of political forces within the ADC, it is unlikely that any other aspirant can emerge as the party’s Presidential flag bearer apart from Atiku. There is thus the strong possibility that the ADC may come to electoral grief in the 2027 election just as Atiku’s ambition put the PDP to the electoral sword in 2023.

    For the rotation of the presidency between the North and the South for periods of eight years each has become a cardinal article of faith among members of the political class across party demarcations. As we noted last week, apart from his alleged strong faith in the prophetic vision of some spiritual mystics that he is destined to be President, Atiku has not articulated any alternative economic policy agenda to demonstrate that he would perform better as President than the incumbent administration of President Tinubu. In any case, his former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, gave such a ringing and brutally unsavoury verdict on the character, competence and integrity of his former deputy in his autobiography and the wily Ota farmer has neither recanted on his savage put down of Atiku nor has he made any effort to revise and amend his condemnation of the latter as his book is still very much in circulation.

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    Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s political moves, on the other hand, appear ‘curioser and curioser’ as certain political elements, especially from the PDP, try to lure him into contesting the presidential election come 2027. Although the ebullient former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, publicly stated that she would back the re-election of President Tinubu, especially given his support for Dr Jonathan in the 2011 elections, the buck stops at the former President’s desk. The ultimate decision is his. Will he leave the certainty of his widely acclaimed post-presidency role as an African and global statesman, or will he dive headlong into the rough and tumble of politics with the record of his tenure up for scrutiny once again in the turbulent, often dirty, game of politics?

    Dr Jonathan must surely be aware that the only reason he is being offered the bait of contesting for the presidency in 2027 is because it is perceived that, having been sworn in twice before, he can only spend one term of four years before power shifts back to the North. Of course, this itself is a matter of conjecture as he may face a bruising legal challenge as regards his eligibility to contest for the highest office in the land after having taken the oath of office twice before. It is unlikely that any serious party will be willing to take such a risk with the very possibility of not being able to field a candidate for the presidential election if the courts ruled against the eligibility of the former President.

    It has been reported that Dr Jonathan has been consulting with leaders in different parts of the country before taking a formal decision. Apart from meeting former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, he also reportedly had a closed-door meeting with the Interim National Chairman of the ADC, Senator David Mark. At the latter meeting, he reportedly demanded to be presented as the consensus presidential candidate of the party, thus making party primaries unnecessary. It is not surprising that Senator David Mark is said to have turned down the request, insisting that any candidate should contest and emerge through competitive primaries. It is hardly likely that any party will grant Dr Jonathan his wish.

    But even if the PDP, for instance, indulges the former President by fielding him as a consensus candidate without primaries, there is no way he will escape scrutiny of his governance record during the campaigns for the general election. The greatest need of the hour is to have a President who will build on and consolidate the economic reforms of the Tinubu administration. Unfortunately, there is no indication that Dr Jonathan can offer such leadership. It has been claimed by some of his supporters that he would have removed the corruption-ridden fuel subsidy payments as far back as 2012 but for the vehement protests of the opposition. But that exactly is the absence of courageous leadership on the part of the former President that defined his tenure.

    Referring to Dr Jonathan’s seemingly revived ambition, the presidency, through the President’s spokesman, Mr Bayo  Onanuga, submitted that “It is his inalienable right to contest the presidency again, but any such bid would face Judicial scrutiny. The jury will determine whether Jonathan, who was sworn in twice as President, satisfies the constitutional requirements and is eligible to contest the presidency and be sworn in, if successful, for a third term in office”. Turning to the no less substantial issue of Dr Jonathan’s governance record in office as President, this newspaper reports Mr Onanuga’s statement thus, “Recounting its view of Jonathan’s tenure, the statement said the administration “engaged in frivolous spending, ran the economy aground and put the country in dire straits” claiming that key indicators declined and that “the nation’s economic downturn actually began under President Jonathan”.

    Continuing, Onanuga stated that “Some business moguls, allocated foreign exchange to import fuel, simply pocketed the dollars without importing anything and that some still face court cases”. The statement also accused Jonathan and his National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), of distributing security funds to “friends and cronies”. The presidency also noted that Dr Jonathan in 2010 inherited $66 billion ($46 billion in foreign reserves and $20 billion in the excess crude account (ECA) but left foreign reserves “below $30 billion” and the ECA depleted to $2 billion” by 2015 “despite generating record revenue from crude oil sales”. It also noted that oil prices averaged $100 per barrel between 2010 and 2013, yet by December 2014, “the federal government could no longer pay salaries to Federal Civil Servants” while “at least 28 states owed workers arrears”.

    Speaking sometime in 2023 at a birthday event in honour of Dr Udenta Udenta, former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi tendered an apology to former President Jonathan over the vehement opposition to the attempt of his administration to remove fuel subsidy in 2012. Dr Fayemi was quoted as saying that “All political parties in the country agreed, and they even put it in their manifesto that the subsidy must be removed. We all said the subsidy must be removed. But we in ACN at the time, in 2013, we knew the truth, sir, but it is all politics.”.

    Responding to Fayemi ‘s claim at the time, cerebral journalist, editor and now Executive Commissioner (Operations) of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Mr Louis Odion, submitted thus on an online platform, “Well, I think the issue is Fayemi ‘s volte face on the ACN stand in 2012. There is nothing to be apologetic about why the ACN opposed fuel subsidy removal in 2012. One, there was about zero safety net to protect the vulnerable then. With the ruling party more interested in splurging oil money on frivolity than and Jonathan using fuel importation license as patronage to party donors, there was no guarantee of any shelter for the poor. Subsidised petrol would then appear to be the only benefit the poor received from Nigeria. Two, Nigeria had a relatively healthy foreign reserve then, plus an excess crude account. So, the position of the ACN was in good faith and on behalf of the vulnerable population who would have been left stranded had the subsidy been removed then”.

    Louis submitted further that “But the situation in 2023 was quite different, necessitating subsidy removal. One, the APC government of Buhari had, between 2015 and 2023, laid out a comprehensive safety net in terms of a social investment programme, the most ambitious in Nigeria’s history. This included a cash register for millions of Nigerians who began to receive direct money transfer monthly, and also school feeding for pupils. Two, subsidy removal became inevitable in 2023 when Tinubu took over because, from a Nigeria that had over $46 billion foreign reserves in 2012, under Jonathan, Nigeria of 2023 had a net foreign reserves of $4 billion with over $7 billion unpaid immediate IOUs and the prospects of earning a kobo from crude oil virtually zero by June 2023…Worse, more than 90% of Nigeria’s earnings were already going into debt service. This was the choking economic climate Tinubu inherited on May 29, 2023”. Surely, there will be interesting policy and economic debates ahead should Dr Jonathan decide to contest in 2027.