The Nation Newspaper

Category: ARINZE IGBOELI

  • Unity Schools for the rich

    Unity Schools for the rich

    All across the federation, the motto Pro Unitate rings all over the Nigerian Federation, for years it has served as one of the nation’s  experiments in the attempt to foster unity among Nigerians following the end of the Nigerian/Biafran War.  These Federal Government Colleges have  been the melting points for all Nigerians of various ethnicities as well as from all walks of life, giving their children and wards not only a qualitative form of education  enabling most of its students to not only fully develop  as well as harness social, emotional, cognitive, and communication skills

    but also acquire a viable form of experience of the Nigerian way of life and it’s rich diversity.

    Though the colleges have long clambered down from their Olympian heights owing to the decay in the infrastructure within such schools as well as the slip in the quality of teaching there, the Federal Unity Colleges have not drifted much like their state and missionary counterparts.

    These federal  government colleges have served as educational models for educating the Nigerian child with its students going on to excel in all spheres of life.  Most parents and guardians wanted their children and wards in them as its studentship was almost a guarantee for top notch education for such children.

    Sadly today,  the government of the day seems intent on removing from millions of Nigerians the opportunity to provide such quality education to their children as without any prior notification jerked up the fees of such schools from N45,000 to a N100,000, a whooping 122 percent increase.

    The increase which was somewhat gleefully announced via a memo from the Federal Ministry of Education directed all Principals of Federal Unity College on the new school fees.

    Such an increase bears the idea that it will cater for the already known aspects of the Unity Colleges, including tuition and boarding fees, uniforms, textbooks, deposits, exercise books, prospectus, caution fees, ID cards, etc.

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    Now, while it is unambiguous that with the recent removal of subsidy as well as the floating of the Naira, the prices of most goods and services ( Including educational services) will rise for the time being, I still cannot fathom why the ministry of education will have to jerk up the fees by such an alarming percentage.

    What then becomes the fate of so many bright   Students who’s parents cannot afford such a steep rise in the fees presently demanded . It means that a parent will cough out per session the sum of N 300,000 for a ward, an amount higher than what a number of Federal and State universities are charging now! Imagine the situation of a parent with four children in these colleges? This is outrageous and should be immediately suspended. Why on earth should a secondary school like the Federal Government Colleges  charge higher than a federal or state university student who has the option of seeking a student loan? Or is a case of “to your tents and with your fledglings oh Mama Etembom, Iyobosa, Sikiratu, Anayo and Bashir” children of the lumpen proletariat!

    Are Federal Unity Colleges now for the rich? After all, one man once told Nigerians that the poor man had no business owning a telephone in Nigeria, perhaps maybe the government mandarins, silly persons behind such a policy have adopted Senator David Mark as a sterling model!

    As a one time student of a Federal Unity College, I am aware that the federal government pays annual subventions to these colleges. What will then happen to such? Is the Federal Government going to shirk away from its responsibilities and allow such be borne by the rich and a very few poor people. Come to think of it, at a time when the Federal Government now has immense funds from the removal of subsidy, should the government not now fulfill its promise of channeling such funds back to a number of sectors including education and the funding of these colleges?

    Pray, was this the  brain wave behind the  now popular phrase of President Bola Tinubu’s “ Let the poor breathe”? No, such dissonance would be unpresidential and portray the Tinubu presidency in bad light:

    Thankfully, the policy did not originate with the Tinubu administration, though many would readily point out that the removal of subsidy too didn’t originally have his imprimatur. This leaves Tinubu and his new set of ministers for education the wriggle room to review this policy for the sake of these children and their parents.

    It was Horace Mann who once stated that “ Education, then, beyond all other divides of human origin, is a great equalizer of conditions of man-the balance wheel of the social machinery. For me, the Federal Government Colleges serves as one of such balance wheels.

    Was it not the same President Tinubu who announced to Nigerians that education was Nigeria’s foremost tool against poverty? How then can we achieve such when we discourage such children from such opportunities with such an ungodly increment?

    God help us…

  • The odds with Fayemi’s alternative politics

    The odds with Fayemi’s alternative politics

    Former Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi is one Nigerian politician after my heart. A rare breed, he is the combination of an intellectual and statesman in one mould and has repeatedly demonstrated this wherever life’s moments have placed him.

    An authority on issues, Fayemi reminds me of Plato’s description of the Philosopher Kings, men to whom Plato suggested that matters of state be handed over to, leaders who would combine the vast knowledge of the philosophical with statecraft, it is therefore alarming that even with his likes, the Nigerian State has continued to totter where it ought to be sprinting towards development.

    I however must disagree with Fayemi’s latest contribution to the national conversation. Recently , the former Director of Radio Kudirat has made calls for the proportional sharing of offices after every election based on the proportion of votes garnered by the individual parties in such an election. Stating this while delivering a key note address in a discourse celebrating the 60th birthday of Dr. Udenta Udenta, Fayemi argued that the situation where the existing structure allowed for one party to control all government structures alone despite chalking up a meager percentage of the general votes was not healthy and needed a proportional sharing of political offices by all parties based on their performance at the polls.

    Simply put, Fayemi wants to put an end to the former “winner takes it”  where the party victorious at the polls takes up all the “spoils” in governance while keeping the other parties at bay and in opposition mode for a spate of four years in which another election will take place. Fayemi however offers that power should be shared among all political parties based on their performance during such polls arguing that it is not fitting for one party to score 21 per cent of votes and wants to rule 100 per cent. Rather, a party scoring 21 percent should take 21 percent of the slots and allow a party that scored one percent to take its own one percent.

    My knowledge of government and basic politics indicates that Fayemi is hinting that we adopt the Proportional Representation type of electoral system  (PR) in which subgroups of a society’s electorate are reflected in numbered proportions in the elected body. The crux  of such a form of electoral system  applies mainly to political divisions among voters in which all votes casted help contribute to the result and not the basic plurality.

    PR electoral systems are basically proportional to both population (seats per set amount of population) and vote share (party-wise).

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    Fayemi further argues that such a process will help reduce the level of adversarial politics which has ensured that the nation remains divided along party lines.

    What Fayemi has not considered is the fact that such a system cannot be implemented within the Nigerian political environment. For example, the Nigerian political system is quite different from what Fayemi is tinkering with. First, how do we share such positions among the various parties? Let’s take three parties and allot 40, 35 and 25 percent of the votes in an election, how do we ensure what percentage of government we assign to them? Asides number of slots, how do we ensure that the other parties with percentages are allotted meaningful cabinet positions? Since it’s all politics what informs Fayemi that the average Nigerian politician will allot to the opposition juicy positions in government in which such a party could push its agenda and use such to earn the votes of the electorate in subsequent elections?

    Second, would such a process not even bring much more adversity in the polity invalidating Fayemi’s major reason for its proposition? Since these parties possess much different manifestos and ideology, what’s to say that there wouldn’t be policy clashes in governance? Since Party A may have promised quality education whereas Party B may present a template for free education? How would such be reconciled and isnt this why many parliamentary governments are naturally unstable? Particularly  those that form alliances with each other but fail to agree on what set of agenda to implement given the fact that such  parties have basically different set of agenda?

    The process could also have  adverse effects on the quality of opposition ,imposing a tyranny of sorts  on the nation, since all a party would then need to do is to secure a percentage of votes to get in to the next government. Parties may  even choose not to campaign outside their various strongholds which in turn would create or enhance the allure of regionalism or ethnic politics to the average politician a reason we jettisoned the parliamentary system in favour of the presidential system.

    History itself has shown that the concept of power sharing in Nigeria has much beeng the death knell for most opposition parties! Many will recall what happened to the 2nd Republic when the NPP and the NPN could no longer continue their marriage under the Accord Concordia arrangement of 1979. The same thing happened to the opposition parties that went into the government of national unity in 1999 and 2007 in which government positions were used to whittle down and decimate the opposition. It is instrumental to point out that the refusal of the Action Congress to take up such an offer led to it becoming the major opposition party in Nigeria eventually building a coalition into a merger that ousted the PDP from power.

    What the Nigerian political system really  needs is simply the existence of quality institutions and the removal of whatever allure political offices hold, Fayemi may mean well for Nigeria but his prescription will only gift Nigeria a Tower of Babel’s bedlam in the near future.

  • IBB’s legacies of contrasts

    IBB’s legacies of contrasts

    The last two weeks have seen Nigerians from all works of life either celebrate or bash the former military ruler and self styled “Evil Genius”, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babaginda as he clocked 82 years of age on this planet.

    Newspaper adverts, articles and even a TV sponsored program, The IBB Legacy Dialogue in which a number of Nigerian intellectuals including two of my Ogas in the persons of Kaseem Afegbua and Tope Fasua sat down to analyze the Babaginda years as military ruler.

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    It is not in doubt that the IBB years as Nigeria’s numero uno citizen or president as he styled himself were filled  with legacies and imprints of one who had the trapping of a Hero Statesman, he but for one or two reasons may have been described as the most successful Nigerian leader since the nation’s independence, arriving the nation’s leadership on a crest of enormous goodwill from both the Nigerian elite and the lumpen proletariat, a rather rare occurrence for any Nigerian leader.

    IBB also started well, he had the grace of a Gamal Abdul Nasser, easily winning over new friends both domestic and foreign to his administration’s purported ideals, he pretended to be different from past military rulers initially doing away with the repressive Decrees 2 and 4 which had initially been enacted by his predecessor as means to gag the Nigerian press as well as disbanding the Nigerian Security Organisation, NSO which had harassed innocent Nigerians, splitting them into the  State Security Service (SSS), Directorate for Military Intelligence, DMI and the National Intelligence Agency, NIA.

    That was not all, he released all political prisoners and promised that never again would Nigerians not be hounded in their own country, the nation happened to buy such an assurance but not for too long.

    Here’s the twist, the same IBB was to shut down newspaper publications, expel a foreign journalist by name William Keeling for reporting the Babaginda administration’s failure to come clean on its earnings following the Gulf War 1.

    In addition to this, the administration which had earlier frowned on the incessant arrest of political opponents and activists by its predecessors was to jail the likes of Gani Fawhehinmi, Balarabe Musa, Femi Falana, Shehu Sani and Omoyele Sowore as well as numerous members of the academia and student unions. The same man who told the world that his administration would uphold academic freedom because he in his own words “regards academic freedom as an indispensable ingredient of all the freedoms” did everything in his power to whittle it down.

    IBB came to power in a post-civil war Nigeria suffering from the divisions foisted upon the country by the politics of the first republic and the scars of the civil war. His appointment of Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe as his Chief of General Staff and number two man suggested that his was going to be an inclusive administration, sadly IBB succumbed to the politics of Hausa -Fulani feudalism, firstly humiliating Ukiwe by siding with General Abacha who was then the Chief of Army Staff, and was reportedly engaged in  superiority battle with Ukiwe as CGS. IBB was to later relieve Ukiwe of his office  on the account of Ukiwe’s refusal to lend support to Nigeria’s attempted membership of the Organization of Islamic Countries, OIC.

    He offered a new political order and did experiment much with his many ideas while returning like an expert juggler to an original position after wearing out the crowd with amazing ,weird and naive juggling positions. For example, he toyed with the banning, unbanning and re-banning of several politicians in a space of six years. He encouraged the formation of political movements all over the country before dissolving these movements and the creation of a two party system, namely the Social Democratic Party, SDP and the National Republican Convention, NRC. He also tinkered with dates, promising to hand over in several dates before the annulment sham of 1993 and his forced exit in that same year.

    Dan Agbese, veteran journalist and co founder of Newswatch in his book ‘Ibrahim Babaginda ‘ characterized the IBB transition programme as possessing the regular features of shock treatment. IBB in his desire to leave Nigeria as a model for democracy in the third world kept shocking the nation until his annulment of the June 12 elections, a shock that roiled a nation into blood letting chaos and a reversal of every gain such a distorted transition programme was meant to achieve.

    Till date, IBB is yet to offer this nation and generations to come cogent reasons for such an annulment of an election reputed to being the nation’s freest and fairest election, now despite his many legacy contrasts, the June 12 elections offered IBB the chance to leave his indelible mark as the nation’s Hero Statesman, sadly he jettisoned such an opportunity for a number of ungodly reasons which until this very day remain speculative.

    What about his economic policies? One that saw the nation move more towards the capitalist bent via the deployment of the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP as an economic tool for his numerous economic reforms which began the phasing out of the   the nation’s middle class and changed the Nigerian economic structure from a three class zone into two, the extremely rich and the extremely poor!

    Indeed a couple of other legacies surely exist and are untainted by his Machiavellian contrasts, such legacies can be seen in the nation’s foreign policy under his watch in which the nation projected strength as a regional player on the African subcontinent of West Africa. This saw Nigeria involve and at least attempt to pursue its foreign policy goals via its interventions in both Liberia and Sierra Leone.

     This as well as the creation of a number of timely institutions, agencies and departments that were needed to enhance the quality of life of the average Nigerian citizen. Sadly though the Wushishi born general failed to score high points on issues that really mattered preferring  to readily succumb to these contrasts while he held sway as President!

  • The trouble with patriotism in Nigeria

    The trouble with patriotism in Nigeria

    Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country- John Fitzgerald Kennedy JFK

    The quote above were words spoken by the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy as he gave his inauguration speech to the American People who had just voted in the closest election race ever. Kennedy, a serving  Senator prior to his emergence as president was regarded as a new generation leader who via that speech was seeking to reinvigorate the American populace to do more for the nation.

    “This generation of Nigerians and future generations have no other country but Nigeria, we shall remain here and salvage it together. “

    Now, this quote were the very last words of the  takeover speech of a former military ruler of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari, a favorite of mine, this quote too was somewhat a rallying call for Nigerians to salvage the mess that past Nigerian administrations had plunged the Nigerian nation into, a call many Nigerians barely answered.

    Herein lies the difference between these two societies; the call to patriotism  by two new generation leaders of two different nations and the aftermath. One society remains progressive building upon such patriotism to expand the nation’s frontiers, the other grappling from one conundrum unto another, doing what a renowned professor described as the “Forbaki” dance of progress, where it takes two steps forward and ten steps backward!

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    In one we have had a rising spate of patriotism alongside progress, though such patriotism is worriedly springing up some sort of nationalism as a counterforce to the rising liberalism/diversity tendencies of the American  society but then that is a discussion for another day and in the other, there appears to be a dwindling spate of patriotism, one where there is no shared passion with the aspiration of the state, conversely there is seemingly no meaningful progress in the affairs of such a state.

    Today, on numerous skits and on social media platforms in Nigeria we repeatedly see where the nation is reportedly bashed by its citizens, yes we know that the country hasn’t been on a path or track that she was destined for but then should that make the nation the butt of jokes? No is the music here!

    The United States of America is not the only respectable exemplification of what patriotism is or should be, other nations such as Germany, Israel, India, The United Kingdom, China, Pakistan, Namibia and Ghana are natural examples of a people that take pride in their national status, yes they may have had their issues with their governments but you will never see them jeer at their nation’s pride.

    It is this level of patriotism that is translated into all works and spheres of life of these nations! From the leadership to the ordinary man on the streets of these nations we see a compelling need to put the interests of their nations before anything else, little wonder these nations are remarkably making fleeting progress!

    Certain schools of thought will however criticize my train of thoughts, laying landmines on why patriotism is lacking in Nigeria and possibly attempt to justify such. They will make known examples of how the Nigerian State has reportedly failed its people and how it’s leadership, like a recurring decimal has repeatedly dashed the hopes of the Nigerian people while dishing out slogans and maxims that left the nation poorer while they enriched themselves! They will point to how national leaders became tribal champions undermining the Nigerian spirit for the allure of regional or prebendal politics, they will refer you to the lives of those who gave their all for the love of country and place a picturesque contrast with those who didn’t and how these persons have fared after be it in life or in death. Nigeria I have repeatedly heard is “not worth dying for!”

    They argue that if we are to indeed exhibit patriotism, then the leadership class must be the bellwether of such an act, they state that it is unfair to place such burdens on the people while the leadership class fritter away the nation’s commonwealth.

    One might be forced to agree with such thinking save the solemn fact that every nation deserves the kind of leadership it gets, therefore if the leadership class has fallen short of the patriotism benchmark then it is because the people too have exhibited such.

    I may also agree that while nations like Pakistan, India and China had single national hero leaders, leadership such as Al Jinnah, Nehru and Mao who’s philosophy have sought to guide their people into finding the path unto national salvation whereas compared to Nigeria, where we had a motley of leaders who    were reportedly more of regional or ethnic champions than nationalists complicating our march unto national unity and its salvation, but then the United States and the UK cannot be ascribed to a singular hero leader, rather they have had a cast of them each repeatedly seeking to lift the nation even as peers and as rivals, again is such an argument not lame in the fact that it’s been sixty years since the nation got her independence from her colonial masters, to continue to dwell on such is indeed laughable! Again, are we a country of over 200 million people now short of heroes?

    The answer like the title of that Catholic hymn is indeed blowing in the winds!

  • On Obasanjo’s new role as Heaven’s gateman

    On Obasanjo’s new role as Heaven’s gateman

    Former president and two time leader of this nation of ours, Olusegun Obasanjo has recently found a new role as Heaven’s gatekeeper! The Otta chicken farmer and letter writer was in the news recently where he declared that only Sunday Mbang, a one time Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria would be the only Christian leader to make heaven in Nigeria!

    Stating this at Mbang’s funeral in Uyo, Obasanjo noted that the late Prelate was not only forthright but he was also not a man of emotions.

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    One then wonders when Obasanjo was assigned this new role of Heaven’s gatekeeping, surely the Ebora Owu must have sat for an interview with the Great Architect, meeting all the criteria required to ward of those not found worthy to enter heaven. One thinks he must have submitted his credentials, one of which was his barring of dogs and journalists from his country home. Surely, one who could bar roaming canines from coming to eat up his chickens as well as nosy journalists who may have missed the turn of the road to his farm in Otta, would surely guard Heaven’s gates! Besides, the man has been ‘Watching’ over the period of the years, taking upon himself the role of a chief critic to every administration that has governed Nigeria, just that he did not watch for himself  the way he ‘watched’ for others while he served as the nation’s paramount leader.

    His self imposed/ constructed messianic status may also have featured as a selling point to earn him such a job. In a country where his saintliness saw his administration committing godly works such as the massacres in Odi and Zaki Biam, the violently rigged elections of 2003 and 2007, as well as the impeachments of the likes of Ladoja, Dariye and a host of other malfeasance. Yes all these earn Obj the right to determine which man of God will see heaven.

    The same Mbang that Obasanjo seeks to praise to the highest of heavens was somewhat Obasanjo’s Man Friday in his eight years as the nation’s helmsman, notably after his second term elections which were fraught with all sorts of electoral malpractices and shades of violence. The likes of Mbang dispelled any idea that the 2003 elections were superbly rigged! I recall calling out the late prelate for his remarks on such a shambolic election in an article in the Vanguard Newspapers then accusing him of sounding more like the PDP’s Campaign Director than the spiritual leader of one of the oldest churches in Nigeria.

    Can Obasanjo give us a hint of what was the late Mbang’s disposition to the many ills that his administration perpetuated against the Nigerian people? As President of CAN, what did Mbang say when thugs under the protection of the Obasanjo led Federal Government torched several government buildings in my home state of Anambra? What did the Prelate say when 5 legislators in Plateau State under the sponsorship of the same Obasanjo administration formed a quorum for the Plateau State House of Assembly and went ahead to impeach the sitting governor, Joshua Dariye? Lastly, what was Mbang’s reaction to the same Obasanjo’s attempt to foist himself on Nigerians as a President for Life via his Third Term Agenda?

    One  cannot however  begrudge Obj from seeking to apotheosize his friend, I only hope that subsequently Obj would also avail us of numerous Nigerians, soldiers and politicians alike of whom he is so too sure would also make heaven. I mean one wouldn’t be surprised if the likes of the late Ibadan strongman Lamidi Adedibu and Tony Anenih are beatified by this new gateman of Heaven. We would not also be too shocked to see a number of perpetuators of all sorts of evils on the Nigerian people during the hey days of Obasanjo’s leadership, with the likes of Chris Uba leading the entourage on that list . Now, my readers shouldn’t get me wrong as I am in no way suggesting that the aforementioned cannot truly make heaven. I am only saddened at the brazen attempt by Obasanjo to pass himself as a puritan of sorts.

    Nigerians surely must be sick and tired of Obasanjo’s hallowed or holier than though disposition from which is fed into his looming megalomania, since we had a foretaste of his eight years stint as president which cast long and dark shadows not only on the nation’s political and economic progress as a nation but also on his person.

    Let us share the grace!

  • Super Falcon! Shameless NFF!!

    Super Falcon! Shameless NFF!!

    The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), the nation’s governing body for football has for ages acted as the Trojan Horse of the development of the sport in Nigeria! Funny isn’t it, that the body that ought to harness the nation’s soccer talent and nurture such talent into teams that would compete and win laurels for the nation and other benefits remains the biggest undoer of the nation’s capabilities in that sport!

    The NFF, formerly NIgerian Football Association remains a cesspit of corruption bearing in its ranks the many beneficiaries of such years of sleaze to the detriment of the growth and development of football in Nigeria, effects of which have perpetually put the nation in embarrassing light.

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    The most recent of such embarrassing ordeals brought upon our national imagery by the NFF is the recent standoff with the Super Falcons, the nation’s apex women national team over outstanding allowances owed the women. The football house has shamelessly owed the Falcons for over three years now, dating back to the poor reception the team had received after the 2018 Women African Cup of Nations, then came the 2019 protests following the failure of the the NFF to pay match bonuses of the France tourney. to the year After the 2018 WAFCON, the team revolted over the shabby treatment they got from the management. Also after 2019 World Cup, they protested again over their unpaid bonuses, bonuses which were promised them despite their standoff but then never honored.

    Baffling as it appears to be, it seems that the NFF takes immense pleasure in owing the Falcons. The NFF have adorned themselves as “Alajo Somolu” to the Super Falcons only to transmute into “Awon Alajeshekuu” when the time for such thrift to be paid comes up , culling a thousand and one tales for its inability to then pay up.

    For example, prior to the World Cup tournament in France, these ladies were owed bonuses to the tune of about $5,600 U.S. for games earlier played against Gambia and Senagal. These ladies were also owed five days of what was their daily allowance while at that tournament. it is shameful to note that some of these allowances dated back to 2016, three years before the France 2019 FIFA Women World Cup.

    The France tourney wasn’t the first time the NFF embarrassed the nation after a global sporting event. As at 2004, the team following its 6th win at the tournament staged a “sit abroad “ protest refusing to travel back to Nigeria unless their bonuses were paid. This was to reoccur in 2016, this time around in their hotel in Nigeria shortly after returning from Cameroon with their 10th Nation’s Cup trophy.

    Ian Wright’s tweet following Oshoala’s screamer in that match against Australia and the alleged interaction between Fatima Samoura,FIFA’s secretary-general,

    with the Super Falcons, in which Samoura had hinted that FIFA would pay bonuses  and other monies directly to all the players, exposes much the rot in NFF where these administrators who do little or nothing for the development of football in the nation have an array of flashy cars, mansions and coterie of girlfriends, monies amassed from such ill gotten proceeds such as the aforementioned bonuses.

    What we have in the NFF and I have no apologies for such an assertion is a class of rent seekers who have plunged the nation’s soccer development to submarine levels compared with a number of other nations. Aside’s from withholding bonuses from our players and coaches, these fellows have an initiative of taking money from players or godsons or goddaughters in order to ensure that they get places in the nation’s call up to play even when some of these players are unfit as hell. Nigeria as a football loving nation, which can easily field six classy national teams in any tourney at most times presents its fourth eleven, small wonder we end up doing poorly in most of these tourneys.

    It is this level of corruption that has not only denied the nation, the would be progress in football  development, it has also denied talents from identifying with Nigeria if they can as well as the much needed investment to give our nation the much needed fillip it needs to even compete with nation’s like Egypt, Tunisia and recently South Africa.

    Even the level of patriotism shown by Nigerian players on-field when playing for Nigeria, compared to the same player’s exertions at club level, reveals much of how the NFF manages football in Nigeria, I can recall a statement from an argument, I had with some friends over the level of patriotism shown by a couple of NIgerian foreign based stars and someone quipped “ Who wan die for Nigeria?” “Wey Sam Okparaji? “

    Yes, it is a thing of honour for one to fly the nation’s colours in such tournaments and the Nigerian color is no less that of the any other country. However, it is unfair for the NFF to deny these ladies what is rightfully theirs, it is shameful that such gallantry is displayed by these ladies earning the nation global acclaim and yet we rubbish such efforts! Such trends can even affect the psychological performance of such players!

    One is even forced to wonder why is it always the  Falcons that must bear such a brunt on a reoccurring basis, one is even forced to suggest that what we have in the NFF may be a bunch of misogynists.

    Lastly, it is imperative for the government to wade into such a matter, who ever becomes the Minister of Sports should put this national or international embarrassment on its front burner, perhaps even the First Lady, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu should somewhat wade into the matter and see that these ladies receive what is rightfully theirs!

  • Thoughts on the President’s speech

    Thoughts on the President’s speech

    I watched President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s speech on the economic challenges been presently experienced by Nigerians as a result of the twin policies of the removal of fuel subsidy and flotation of the Naira administered by the Tinubu administration.

    The speech appeared to be reminiscent or modeled somewhat after the popular fireside chats of President Frederick Delano Roosevelt, FDR who in his drive to restore the then depression battered US economy back to health. Roosevelt held these fireside chats as a means to address citizens of the United States on the reasons behind a number of his policies whilst ameliorating their fears and concerns about such policies or the drive to restore the American economy to the times of

    prosperity prior to 1933. President Tinubu was merely having his own fireside chats with Nigerians, one many considered as timely.

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    The president appeared to exude confidence, despite this, he however did not attempt to sound brash or assertive, by taking a “You must accept this set of policies by fire or by force” but compassionate, understanding clearly that Nigerians were presently enmeshed in serious pains and needed that assurance from the administration that had taken them down this path.Nigerians deserved such a conversation and the President did have to mount the soapbox to lead such!

    As the president described it, the philosophical thrust of his economic policies is built on three pillars: reversing the waste that had allegedly gone into subsidizing fuel and putting an end to the ownership and existence of the rent seeking enterprises in both the fuel subsidy scheme and currency speculators.

    Tinubu unlike his predecessors in Obasanjo, Jonathan and Buhari seemed to have finetuned his pitch on the economy, whilst reeling out the palliative measures to help ameliorate the sufferings-of millions of Nigerians. The measures perhaps the skeletal  of what many would presume  “Tinubunomics” appear to be a well thought out set of measures primed towards the economy and setting it unto a period of growth.

    The palliatives regime seems to be much rooted in the simple idea that Nigeria will need to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle up and not from top to bottom: The funding of 75 major industries to the tune of N75bn for a period of nine months in order to enable these industries increase their capacity,expand their markets and create jobs.

    Also, the plan to energize the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the informal sector as planks for the growth of the Nigerian economy to the tune of N125 billion is commendable.  Of the 125 billion, N50 billion will be used to target a million nano businesses all over the federation, while another sum of N75Bn will be targeted at the funding of

    a 100,000 MSMEs at an interest rate of  9% interest per annum and at a repayment window of 36 months.

    Other measures also include a boost to the agricultural sector such as the release of 200,000 Metric Tonnes of grains from the strategic reserve to households, (farming households ) across the 36 states and FCT to moderate prices. In addition to this is the plan to provide 225,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer, seedlings and other inputs to farmers.

    The enhanced  cultivation of 500,000 hectares of farmland and all-year-round farming practice is also one of the fundamentals of the “Tinubunomics” plan to get the economy working with the administration earmarking N200 billion out of the N500 billion for the cultivation of 150,000 hectares of rice and maize at the cost of a N100 billion. While another N100 billion will be earmarked  for 100,000 hectares of wheat and cassava. The very fact that such an expansive agricultural programme will be piloted through small-holder farmers and leveraging large-scale private sector players in the agric business should be seen as a boon to the agricultural sector.

    Lastly, the deployment of the proposed Infrastructure Support Fund for the 36 States of the Federation appears to be the “ Icing on the Cake”

    The fund provides states with the wherewithal to intervene, invest and upgrade infrastructure in critical areas such as healthcare and education. Likewise rural access roads are also to be be targeted enhancing the movement of farm produce to the markets with much ease. This is somewhat a calculated effort that could make most states of the federation more competitive making Nigeria the most innovative economy in Africa.

    The issue of mass transit was also mooted and this should help bring down or reduce the burden of the increase plan to invest a N100 billion in nine months in which the administration would have acquired 3000 units of 20-seater CNG-fuelled buses and distributed to major transportation companies in the states, using the intensity of travel per capital.

    Overall, the speech turned away the brewing pessimism against the President’s economic direction, this became obvious when the president announced that the nation  had saved over one trillion Naira, money which would be channeled unto more productive sectors for the benefit of a majority of Nigerians.

    Now, while there are questions to be asked, particularly on the modality on how such funds are to distributed to the would be beneficiaries, well meaning Nigerians would naturally agree that the speech depicts the fact that the Nigerian economy is much very central to the President’s “Renewed Hope” agenda.

  • Reviewing the proposed N8,000 cash transfer

    Reviewing the proposed N8,000 cash transfer

    A number of my readers responded to my piece last week, notably, one of them who I presume must be an academic wrote in that the N8,000 was to be an addition to what this people earned and thus was a suitable amount, he also made the suggestion that states could also wade in.  He also attacked the other plank of my argument on the allotted six months , stating that palliatives ought not to last longer than a specified period of time, otherwise they (the beneficiaries) would never want it to stop.

    I appreciate the thinking that went into the reply, but I will still disagree with the academic and my reasons are numerous. First of all, yes the N8,000 is indeed a palliative, to support their meager incomes. The question now is this: Will the N8,000 be enough to support these families on their meager earnings which the hikes in fuel price and its inflationary trends will have on the purchasing power? Given the fact that these families are amongst the poorest of the poor, will #8,000 provide three or even two balanced meals? Can it afford to provide quality education for children within these households? What about healthcare provision?

    The second point of my argument lies within the fact that six months isn’t enough time to help the poor out of the fuel subsidy mess, since it is obvious that the mess is isn’t going to go away in that six months. In other climes, most governments come out with policies that succeed such cash benefits transfers, perhaps a public works program or a skill acquisition program that affords members of these households such an opportunity not only to grapple with the challenges brought about by the fuel subsidy removal but also to clamber out of the poverty trap. It is definitely not ideal to believe that a particular amount for six months is enough to cater for the poorest of the poor. The Tinubu administration is silent on these aspects and this gives skeptics the required ammunition to play down the sincerity of the administration’s palliative regime, such that even organized Labour has threatened to pull out of the subsidy committee and are even calling for a strike.

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    Thus, I would suggest that the Tinubu administration allocate to these poor households the sum of N15,000  per household and such should be extended for the period of two years and not six months as earlier proposed.

    Thankfully the administration has announced that there is more to the palliatives package than what had initially been unveiled. It is my hope that the administration will likely redress these measures and perhaps borrow or present a semblance of some of the ideas presented here.

    My second grouse is with the National Social Register which the National Economic Council has recently rejected.

    The register which was designed by the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO). and deployed by the FG’s Ministry for  Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development as a channel for its cash transfers to those captured in the register.

    The National Social Register (NSR) of Poor and Vulnerable Households (PVHHs) which is the aggregate of the State Social Registers- is the brainchild of the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO). The NSR is the sum total of the geographical targeting, and community based targeting which both identify poor and vulnerable households within these states.

    However understanding that this is Nigeria, there are many who feel that the NSR is a bogus document riddled with  fictitious names or persons. There is the argument that since the register is a collection of registers from the states it is obvious that a number of these governors filled such lists with their supporters  and relied on these supporters to bring in the votes during elections. As it stands now, there are new sherrifs in town, new governors who appear not to be too comfortable with such a list or register they had little or no input in, this may be the reason for Soludo’s declaration of near unanimity by these new governors on the issue of the social register!

    This however does not affect the fact that the register cannot pass the integrity tests required of it neither does it make the states the best channel to generate such data which owing to the peculiar Nigerian way of doing things will likely fail another integrity test.

    The best option for the Tinubu administration will be to jettison the pervious register and then create a new one via the collaboration between the concerned federal agencies, state governments and the local government administrations, this would produce a more wholistic National Social Register and confer upon it the much needed integrity, a situation we may likely not have should we leave the exercise entirely to the state governments as NEC had erroneously agreed to in their last meeting.

    Concluding, I do hope that the Tinubu administration will be able to review positively such palliative measures for the good of the Nigerian people and with the intent on cushioning the painful effects on millions of Nigerians who surely deserve better.

  • Reviewing proposed 8,000 cash transfer (1)

    Reviewing proposed 8,000 cash transfer (1)

    At times like this, there is need for every Citizen who has this nation at heart to understand that these are indeed tough times for the nation and it doesn’t matter whether we have a President Bola Tinubu or Atiku or the bombastic statistician in Obi, the removal of subsidy and other reforms of the Tinubu administration were reportedly on the agenda of the two other major candidates but then only one of can be president at this time.

    While I sympathize with President Tinubu, I somewhat disagreed  with the manner in which he removed subsidy but then that is a discussion for another session of writing as the crux of my writing will be based on the review of the 8,000 a month cash transfer to twelve million households as a means of cushioning these families from the adverse effects of the removal of subsidy.

    The 8,000 a month cash transfer benefit was one of the proposed measures by the

    Asiwaju administration to ameliorate the suffering likely to be borne by numerous households in the wake of the removal of such subsidy. It is an improvement on the initially proposed 5,000 for 10 million households or beneficiaries for the duration of six months as earlier announced by the former Minister for Finance, Zainab Ahmed.

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    To this extent, the executive had placed a request to the National Assembly seeking to borrow the sum of $800m from the World Bank for the National Social Safety Net programme.

    Such an announcement was indeed greeted with great astonishment by the Nigerian people, first there’s the issue of increasing the nation’s debt profile which as at March 2023 stood at $42.7, likewise there are also disagreements on the subject of the 8,000 cash benefits, with three schools of thought disagreeing on the policy proposal.

    The first school of thought are practically from the school of the naysayers. This school does not believe that the cash grant would solve any problem nor is it

    the best way of cushioning the inflationary impact of the removal of fuel subsidy. They would rather have such funds catering to the development needs of Nigerians; investing in infrastructure, healthcare services, education, power and water resources. This discussion on social protection based largely on the past experience of conditional cash transfer of N5,000 per month to some households under the Buhari government is the reason for such ready disagreement worse. The fact that more Nigerians were alleged to have slipped into the poverty line despite such social welfarist programs such as the N 5000or was it “Tradermoni” to an extent gives a modicum of credibility to such an argument.

    The second school of thought believes that the 8,000 will or may do, at least help the most vulnerable. They believe that as paltry as N8,000 may seem to most people, it could actually relieve a lot of pressure for a number of these persons and help them as truly highly vulnerable people. However, their angst lies with the process of distributing such funds is where the challenge is.  There is the fear that the cash-transfer benefits to fall into wrong hands given the challenges that were witnessed with such measures during the Buhari era. This fear was even mooted by Mr. President himself while discussing with his peers, fellow governors of the Class of 99. It is even alleged that the present National Social Register was a far cry from what such a register should be and that certain persons had highjacked the process enriching themselves at the expense of the people the monies were supposed to cater for.

    The third school and one to which I belong to accepts that there is need for these 12 million households to receive such payments but the issue here lies with the paltry amount of N8,000 initially suggested by the administration,the duration for such a policy, and lastly the worthiness of the National Social Register.

    For me, the sum of N8,000 to these 12 million households cannot match the rip tides brought about the waves of inflation caused by the repeated upward changes in fuel prices since such are now determined by what the capitalists call market forces.

    What can N8,000, purchase in the market today, as against the nation’s inflation rate hitting 22.79% per cent in June from 22.41 per cent in the previous month. Given the uncertainty likely to be experienced in the forthcoming months, how correct is this administration’s postulations that the suggested amount would cater for such uncertainties.

    Again, I have an issue with the timeline of six months. Why should the government believe that six months is enough to help these poorest of the poor grapple with the challenges of the removal of subsidy?  Why not a year or two and then what measures will likely be in place should such inflationary trends continue, looks more like a case of the Widow of Zarepath situation or what I call “Chop now, Quench After”.

  • 89 cheers to the bard of Ake

    89 cheers to the bard of Ake

    If we are to take a headcount of fifty notable Nigerians, I am so dead sure that Nigeria’s first and only Noble Laurette , Professor  Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, nationalist,novelist, poet and playwright. Asides these he is also a cultural exponent, a humanist as well as a voice for Africa, and the Black Race. 

    Kongi as he is also fondly called, is one of Nigeria’s intellectual export to the world, as his works have hankered on the trifecta of intellectualism, social consciousness  and the desire to speak truth to the powers that be. It was such that led him and six others to form the first known College Fraternity in Nigeria, one that frowned on the elitism and ethnic plays witnessed then in the University College of Ibadan, where having a suit  was a socially accepted prerequisite at the refectory even if you couldn’t afford one. It was on the plank of this same ideals that Soyinka did seek to challenge the sad drift of things in the then Western Region as well as see himself incarcerated without trial merely because of his humanistic beliefs that a war with the then secessionist Biafra was uncalled for. What about his commitment to the entrenchment of human rights in Nigeria and the world over, such has been largely visible in his criticism of a number of military and civilian administrations that have followed each other, most notable was his involvement in the struggle to actualize June 12 and the return of democracy to Nigeria’s shores.

    Thus it grieves me when today’s generation of  youths, unfortunately intoxicated with the hijinkery of certain ideologues and their Container Market Philosophy have attempted to rubbish Soyinka’s place in our national political history, these persons who I have dubbed as the “Kings With No Clothes”  generation  have shamelessly sought to unravel Soyinka’s mystique, but the Bard of Ake cannot experience such, not the Soyinka who sparred with Abacha administration and left it with a black eye on the international scene that the Abacha hound dogs had to start picking up members of the Pyrates Confraternity,placing them in detention under the most deteriorating of conditions.

    These are children whose parents and grandparents were yet in their diapers while Soyinka spent his early youth as a Prison Landlord. These children of hate and fascist thinking, misguided and an ill mannered lot who are yet to come to terms with the fact that wishful thinking, ethnic baiting and social media lynching does not in itself translate to victory on the ballot box, and so when a Soyinka likens a Datti’s outburst on air, one that thumps and seeks to vitiate the essence of our constitutionalism and our nation’s democratic stability, these children of little learning want him to do otherwise !

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    Even those who should know better than these irascible children sadly joined the bandwagon in chastising Kongi, it was a howling of the same logic, an election had appeared to be stolen and they as plaintiff and defender, jury and judge and not the statutory courts and tribunals could give such a verdict.

    This is not to suggest that Soyinka is a Canonized Saint , he is also human and isn’t infallible but then like that Kipling poem, Kongi at that moment refused to lose his head while others did. He refused to be drawn into the appeals of the maddened crowd, who perhaps preferring the path of anarchy may have been its early victims, he refused to build any monument to fascism!

    My mother has this favourite saying in Igbo which holds that “mmadå anaghË amåta iji aka ekpe ya na-eme agadi” ( One cannot learn to use the left hand at an old age) Soyinka, at 89 has somewhat perambulated between the roles of a literary icon, academician, social critic, activist and Pan Africanist, towering over the pseudo intellectuals who are embittered that Soyinka isn’t having their tales  by moonlight for his supper!

    At 89, the Bard of Ake has a larger than life set of legacies, cutting across the various facets of the intellectual, humanistic and sociopolitical. He may not be in the mound of the Marxist’s , Gramsci’s and Marti’s, no he is however in a mould of his own, Africa’s gift to humanity.

    Soyinka to many of us remains an embodiment of what the Nigerian intellectual or academia should be, with one hand he is ready to court our leaders with another he bashes their willful failures retaining his dignity and that of the academia which today a large category of it sadly grovels before the political class.

    Here’s to perhaps a couple of more years for the Bard of Ake and the litterateur of the voiceless, the unusual and uncommon playwright. Fair winds to his remaining sail. Happy birthday sir!