The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Politics, governance and the value of time

    Politics, governance and the value of time

    Governance requires effective time management to thrive. Unfortunately, political systems often waste this precious resource, compromising citizens’ well-being and national prosperity. As a universal currency, time is equally distributed but unequally valued, with marginalized communities frequently bearing the brunt of temporal inefficiencies.

    At the politics-time intersection, power dynamics emerge, shaping lives through prioritization, policy and resource allocation. To maximize productivity, strategies like prioritization and goal-setting are crucial, lest poor management leads to missed deadlines and lost opportunities. Historically, societies aligned tasks with natural rhythms, highlighting the tension between short-term gains and long-term benefits, thus underscoring the need for intentional time management in governance.

    In Nigeria, the value of time is often perceived as a luxury that only the affluent can afford. The average citizen is caught up in a daily struggle for survival, where time is a scarce resource. The chronic fuel scarcity, endless traffic jams, and inefficient public transportation systems all conspire to waste valuable time. These issues substantially impact the economy, with estimated losses of $1 billion annually

    Time plays a critical role in both political participation and environmental sustainability. It is a scarce resource in modern society, and its value is often overlooked until it’s too late. In today’s fast-paced world, we’re constantly reminded to ‘make every second count’ and ‘time is money.’ However, this mantra can lead to burnout and exploitation, as seen in the gig economy, where workers are pushed to work long hours without adequate compensation or benefits. Low-income households spend significant time managing finances, accessing social services and waiting in lines, resulting in severe time poverty. In stark contrast, effective time management can transform lives, as seen in the biblical examples of Joseph and Daniel.

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    Joseph and Daniel epitomize wise time management. They highlighted the importance of using time effectively to achieve success and fulfill one’s purpose. Despite imprisonment, Joseph interpreted dreams and rose to Egypt’s second-in-command. Daniel devoted himself to study and prayer, interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams and gained prominence in Babylon. In contrast, Esau, the Prodigal Son, and the servant with one talent squandered their time and ultimately regretted their choices.

    Remote work blurs work-personal life lines, while systemic inequalities perpetuate disparities in incarceration rates, opportunities, and marginalized communities’ potential. Governance failures exacerbate this vulnerability, as seen in high-profile cases like the unresolved Chibok girls’ abduction, which has devastatingly contributed to Nigeria’s economic and security shocks. Globally, COVID-19 and ‘Black Lives Matter’ also highlight the unequal distribution of time, underscoring its value and the need for intentional governance.

    As a matter of fact, every 14- or 15-year-old student learns in Economics O-Level about the ‘time-value of money’. The principle has its broader applicability beyond financial calculations. It also drives political economy, leadership and governance. Governments allocate and expend resources, which is inherently time-bound. Governments have a limited window to make a meaningful impact, making every moment count. Consequently, evaluating a government’s tenure – essentially an interregnum – hinges on its ability to optimize limited time.

    Effective time management requires preparedness, as The Boy Scouts’ motto goes. Unfortunately, governance in Nigeria, like the rest of Africa, falls short due to military interruptions and lack of research. Moreover, most Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), humorously described as political parties, assume office without thorough preparations, largely due to the absence of data-driven insights. Coincidentally, Nigeria’s once-thriving Research Departments associated with pre-independence and post-independence political parties have vanished, thus hindering their ability to drive meaningful development and sustainable growth. Is it any wonder why today’s SPVs prioritize personal gain, jobs racketeering and other self-serving interests? While exceptions exist, they are few and far-between. This scenario exemplifies a concerning reality of which structured leadership intervention is crucial to prevent Nigeria’s losing traction and impact.

    Nigeria needs leadership that prioritizes economic growth through production and modernization, rather than merely focusing on consumption and jobs for favoured individuals. Presently, Nigeria’s manufacturing sector contributes only 8.23% to the country’s GDP, compared to 25% in South Africa. For a paradigm shift, this leadership should allocate at least 60% of the budget to capital expenditure, guided by performance-based planning and devoid of graft and waste. This is the only way to avert the comic tragedy we have seen in the past few days in Borno State where human negligence, ineptitude and incompetence other than natural forces have triggered  off  a disaster of monumental proportions.

    Governor Babagana  Zulum has demonstrated effective administration of resources in Borno State. Nonetheless, the recent disaster necessitates an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the causes of the avoidable disaster. As fate would have it, all the Biblical disasters of yore have now been shown to not be ‘plagues and pestilences’ but the results of human error, incompetence and policy distortions. The Borno catastrophe, which is bound to be replicated in other locations, has demonstrated the need for preparedness and a new approach to governance, based on technical competences and the proactive framework methodology. There’s no alternative!

    In today’s interconnected world, governance efficiency is closely tied to technical proficiency. The UK Government showed this foresight when it established the Government Economic Service (GES) in 1964, under Prime Minister James Harold Wilson. This initiative has not only become a cornerstone of governmental efficiency in the UK but also inspired similar efforts globally. To stay competitive, Nigeria should establish a Government Economic and Technology Service, to modernize governance, boost revenue and eliminate waste. Building on this initiative, a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s trade and tariff policies is also essential as we enter the Artificial Intelligence era, this is the minimum expectation.

    Specifically,  the Board of Trade and Tariffs, chaired by the Federal Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, should be restructured to include diverse stakeholders, such as representatives from the government, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Organized Private Sector, Civil Society Organizations and Labour. This diverse membership will enable the Board to effectively counteract the manufacturing slowdown and prevent the exit of long-standing companies, some of which have been operational for 75 years. Dangote Refinery’s debacle partly demonstrates how trade and tariff policies are often misinterpreted,

    In any case, that Nigeria faces complex governance challenges, which also require a multifaceted approach, is no longer news! For example, the country ranked 145 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perception Index. Also in our very eyes, the powerful continues to exploit time to maintain control while the culture of ‘African time’ has refused to shed the toga of tardiness and inefficiency.

    To get out of the woods, Nigeria must strengthen institutions, combat corruption and promote transparency. Singapore’s economic transformation, driven by strategic planning and institutional reforms, now serves as a model. Technology integration, like Estonia’s e-governance model, which has saved citizens over 1400 years of working time annually, can also help Nigeria boost efficiency and transparency.

    In a memorable statement made on December 20, 1948, Cliff Gladwin proclaimed: ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man.’ With this in mind, President Bola Tinubu has a historic opportunity to navigate the complex challenges and balance the competing interests currently troubling Nigeria’s destiny. On this sacred space, the president must fight injustice, punish evil and prioritize the needs of ordinary Nigerian, whose existence has been hung up in a long vigil of socioeconomic despair. Surely certainly, few leaders get to operate in a context of disaster and change. For Tinubu, this makes this moment crucial!

    May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!

  • Edo elections: the die is cast

    Edo elections: the die is cast

    Nigeria’s brand of democracy is a very unique but complex one. Even though the politicians are often very proud to associate themselves with the American presidential system, very few structural similarities exist. While the American brand of democracy has two major ideologically different political parties in the Democratic and Republican parties, Nigeria has multiple political parties with no identifiable political ideologies. While political party leaderships operate behind the scenes, Nigerian political party leaderships wield too many powers and influence which often distort democratic precepts.

    Political parties in Nigeria had been described by the former political scientist and late Senate President,  Chuba Okadigbo as mere gatherings of groups of people. Even though the description on the surface might appears  a bit extreme, it is somewhat an apt description of the political parties in Nigeria. There are no ideological differences.  Most politicians merely see political parties as vehicles that drive them to opportunities of influence and power.

    Many politicians in Nigeria at different times move from one political party to the other depending on the opportunities they envisage such political platforms can guarantee them. Since 1999 return to civilian democracy, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Nigeria’s Peoples Party (ANPP) were the two dominant political parties until politicians started moving from one to the other and started creating alliances.

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    A party like the Action Alliance (AD) was dominant in the South West while the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was seen as the South Eastern Party as they had accessed power in Anambra state consistently and once in Imo state during the Rochas Okorocha first term as governor. He later completed his second term under the All Progressives Congress (APC). He took a break-away group of APGA to form an alliance with some other parties to form the APC in 2015. The ANPP somewhat coalesced with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) before forming alliance with the Action Congress to form the APC in 2015.

    While it is not illegal to change political parties, in most other stable democracies, changing political parties is often based on issues of ideological disagreements. On the other hand, Nigerian politicians do not see anything wrong with moving from one political party to the other sometimes more than once  in one electoral circle. That says something about most of them. Again in a developing country like Nigeria, most politicians are rarely held accountable. Most of them operate as emperors and as such, respecting the voters is not very common.

    As Edo people go to the polls tomorrow to elect a governor that would succeed governor Godwin Obaseki of the PDP, the hope is that all partes will paly by the rules. Edo elections has always been, like most others very competitive. Edo state under former governor, now Senator Adams Oshiomole was always in the news sometimes for the wrong reasons, there was their Edo House of Assembly that was re-christened Edo house of commotion as it had changed speakers several times during his tenure.

    While many states have had turbulent houses of assembly, Edo state seems to take the cake. Again some past governors and their deputies have shown that the constitution of Nigeria is flawed when it comes to the duties and privileges of the deputy governors. Adams Oshiomole ‘s deputy, Philip Shaibu moved from APC to PDP with the now governor Obaseki. They’ve had a cat and mouse relationship

    There was a triangular movement of both governor Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shuaibu that was deputy to Adams Oshiomole under APC. They both moved from APC to PDP and the deputy allegedly later moved back to APC in principle even if staying as deputy to a PDP governor. There have been legal actions taken by the deputy against the governor that has resulted in the Supreme Court reinstating him as the deputy governor of Edo state.

    The chaos in the political firmament in Edo state has given the citizens reasons to fear that tomorrow’s election might be marred by violence. The rhetoric in the campaign trail amongst the political parties seems scary. There are allegations and counter allegations between the chieftains of the two major political parties, the PDP and the APC. The idea that in Nigerian most politicians have no fidelity to their political parties and no allegiance to the voters who ought to be the mandate givers is one of the destabilizing forces of Nigerian democracy.

    Nigeria runs a faulty political system where individuals wield more powers than state institutions including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The electoral body often seems overwhelmed as politicians often do not practice intra-party democracy. More often than not, candidates are handpicked by strong politicians in terms of financial muscle and influence.  The discontent by citizens over the lack of transparency and fairness during party congresses and primaries often spill over the electioneering period as those feeling shortchanged ferment all sorts of trouble.

    The three top contenders in the governorship elections coming up today are, Senator Monday Okpebholo of the APC, Asue Ighodalo of the PDP and  Olumide Akpata of the Labour party. The three contenders are all well-known individuals. Monday Okpebholo is a senator representing Edo central in the 10th Assembly. Asue Ighodalo is a lawyer and the former Chairman of Sterling bank and former economic adviser to Senator Adams Oshiomole when he was governor. Olumide Akpata is the former Chairman of Nigerian bar Association.

    Ordinarily people would assume that given the admirable professional and political history of the three, elections in the state would be a pick of the best in the fairest and freest political environment. But sadly, in Nigeria, certain things don’t have logical conclusions and electios is one of them. In most cases, candidates are not the ones threatening fire and brimstone, there are always the party apparatchik, the surrogates and the so called party chieftains displaying their power .

    Governor  Obaseki has been in the media focus since his quarrel with his deputy, Philip Shuaibu. There has been no love lost between the two and their different supporters. The deputy is alleged to be working for the APC from where he moved to from the PDP. The governor seems ready to show him where the power lies. On the other hand, Senator Oshiomole having crossed paths with the present governor is out to support his party’s candidate, Monday Okpebholo.

    In the process of campaigning for the APC candidate, Senator Oshiomolo had crossed the civility line by publicly mocking the governor’s wife, Betsy for not having a child and failing to adopt one. Many Nigerians felt he had crossed the line of decency in making such remarks about the first lady of his state who by the way did not speak directly to him to have warranted such vile tirade. Many women in the state felt it was a personal attack on every woman battling with infertility.  That singular incident puts him on possibly the same pedestal as the present Republican Party candidate, J.D Vance and his ‘Childless  Cat Lady’ rhetoric.

    The governor of Edo state and his PDP party feel that the appointment of a relative of the federal capital territory (FCT) minister Nyesom Wike as an INEC official might imply there might be no transparency as he might try to influence the election to favour the APC. On the other hand, the Labour Party candidate allegedly feels that both the APC and the PDP might use the incumbency factor  at both federal and  state levels to their advantages. Governor Obaseki has been reiterating that the election is a do-or-die affair which even though he insists that it must not be taken to imply any violence but that his party will do every legal to win.

    Election everywhere in the world is not a tea party. We are confronted by the political rhetoric of the Democrats and the Republican in the coming US elections . However, the functional electoral system in viable democracies is the difference between developed and underdeveloped democracies. Nigeria has one of the most litigious elections because of flawed electoral and party systems that disrupt electoral processes. Nigeria since the return of democracy in 1999 possibly has more judicial interventions in post-election petitions than anywhere else in the world.

    What post-election litigations do to the socio-political perception by the people and the international community is that the system is seen as unreliable and unproductive. Sometimes post-election cases go on for years distracting both the seemingly elected and the litigants. As the saying goes, when this happens it is the people that suffer. The assumed winner often spends tax payers’ money for legal fees and the people do not get the needed governance value as the candidates concentrate more on winning their cases than working for the people. Sometimes cases go on for as much as three years of four-year tenure.

    The Roundtable Conversation recommends that the political elite think more about development and the people rather than personal egos and gains. There is a very huge trust deficit between governments and the people. Even though such situations exist in other climes, we know that the  bane of nigeria’s democracy is the lack of a functional political structure.

    As the Edo people go the polls today, the hope is that the people’s voice will prevail. There must be no influence-peddling by anyone or group of people. Again the people must be peaceful and cast their ballots for their choices because governorship election is truly local and the decisions the people make would impact their lives for the next four years. The candidates have sold their programmes and policy directions and the people must focus on capacity and the integrity of the candidates having known each of them for some years now as public figures. May the best candidate win.

    • The dialogue continues…

  • The people are the answer

    The people are the answer

    In his rumination on ‘Latest China-Africa Summit’, published in his column in this newspaper this week, eminent historian, diplomat, administrator, author and statesman, Professor Jide Osuntokun, discussed partly the pertinent lessons that Africa and Nigeria in particular can learn from China’s near-miraculous trajectory from the backwaters of humiliating underdevelopment to modernity and economic as well as military global power status in a few relatively short decades. According to Professor Osuntokun, “The phenomenal development of China within a living memory should be what our people should try to emulate. Borrowing money and opening our markets to all kinds of junks was not the Chinese way to development. The way the Chinese mobilized its huge population should be an example which a country like Nigeria can follow rather than importing all kinds of Chinese goods into our country. Instead of wasting our time and the little money we have on constitutional debates and writing and rewriting our constitutions, we should take our ploughs, hoes and cutlasses and go to farms with the aim of not only feeding ourselves but the rest of the world”.

    The Chinese,Japanese or Indian transformational miracles are replicable here if we have the right leadership that can harness, mobilize and unleash the energies of the vast but trapped potentials of the Nigerian people to actualize this goal within the shortest possible timeframe.

    Coming to power at perhaps the most critical and difficult period in the socio-economic and political history of Nigeria, the President Bola Tinubu administration, more than any of its predecessors, has the responsibility to mobilize the mass support of the people behind its manifesto tagged the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’. The administration is implementing two far reaching economic reform programmes – removal of fuel subsidy and substantial merger of the hitherto existing parallel foreign exchange markets- that have had unsavory consequences for the majority of Nigerians in terms of escalating inflationary spirals as regards cost of essential items like food, transportation, drugs and electricity among others and the consequent abysmal drop in living standards.

    The hunger experienced by large number of Nigerians has been exacerbated by continued large scale insecurity that has kept millions of farmers off their farms in the agriculturally fertile zones of the country. While a not insignificant number of Nigerians understand that the administration’s reforms are inevitable and that, in any case, all major political parties during the campaign for the last election, promised to remove the fuel subsidy in particular, the degree of current hardships make it easy for rabble-rousing opposition figures and their conspiratorial allies to sow seeds of alienation between the incumbent government and the people. It is therefore critical that the administration demonstrate beyond any scintilla of doubt in its expenditure patterns that it feels the pains of the people and that those in government are making sacrifices just as they are asking the people to.

    It is certainly no exaggeration to submit that the situation in Nigeria today is difficult to distinguish from a polity at war. There have been the sustained pitched battles resulting in a near stalemate between the armed forces and other security agencies on one hand and an assortment of criminal elements including terrorists, religious insurgents, kidnappers and bandits on the other. There is also the low-intensity warfare between the architects and managers of the administration’s economic reform agenda and entrenched vested interes determined to continue to benefit from a continued depreciation of the value of the Naira for instance. One must also mention the ferocious battle waged against thousands of innocent persons by an inclement and hostile weather and climate in many states in the country.

    Writing about his experience in managing the country’s economy during the civil war (1967-1970), the then Minister of Finance and Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, stated that “In any situation similar to the one in which we found ourselves where recurrent revenue trails behind fleet-footed expenditure, the obvious first line of attack is to economize, and maximize available resources. Unless this was in done and done with draconic firmness, it would be futile to raise additional revenue; and any claim to prudent financial management would be sheer reference”. The Tinubu administration and all sub national levels of government must take this admonition to heart.

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    For Nigeriia and other African countries experiencing similar conditions of debilitating and humiliating underdevelopment, what is the most critical factor necessary to overcome this obstacle to maximizing human potential m their respective jurisdictions? It certainly cannot be the variety and abundance of natural resources in the bowels of their earth. For,if that were the case, Africa should be one of the most developed areas of our contemporary world. Neither can it be the superfluity of liquid financial assets in their coffers. For, a military leader of Nigeria once declared that the country’s problem was not the availability of money but how to spend it. Yet, the humongous amounts reaped over the years by the country particularly from

    petroleum revenues have been either stolen or mindlessly squandered.

    Chinua Achebe, the great novelist and thinker, wrote nearly five decades ago that the singular most critical problem with Nigeria was a deficit of visionary leadership. Yet, there are those who contend that a follower-ship that does not demand higher ethical value and performance standards from its leaders is no less to blame for our continued tragic romance with backwardness. Even when we have had brilliant and competent leaders, their inability to inspire, motivate and mobilize their followers towards aspiring to and achieving a higher national developmental purpose is critical to understanding the persistence of underdevelopment in our polity.

    The title of this piece is an adaptation from that of an address to the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA) by the renowned political economist, Professor Okwudiba Nnoli in 1984 when he served as its President. It was a period immediately after the collapse of the Second Republic when prices of essential commodities hit the rooftops, the International Financial Institutions were advocating the removal of subsidies on social services including the pump price of fuel, tuition fees in higher institutions as well Medicare costs in the sector and governments at all levels were laying off workers in droves.

    Even as experts of all shades and hues were recommending a potpourri of sophisticated solutions to a national economic crisis that had become intractable and unresponsive to the policy medications of civilian administrations and military regimes alike, Professor Nnoli’s solution was simply and concisely captured in the title of his aforementioned presidential address: ‘The masses are the answer’. But all too often, members of our well educated elite classes look down on the masses and dismiss their political consciousness and awareness as inferior. Thus, the depository of developmental energy innate in them remains dormant, untapped and unexploited and the nation is the worse for it.

    As Nnoli graphically and vividly painted the picture of the plight of the Nigerian masses at the time, “The people are battered and buffetted. They are cheated and defrauded by the Royal Niger Company; killed, pacified and then insulted as primitive and barbaric «natives» by the colonialists; mesmerized and cynically manipulated by the petty bourgeois nationalists; sold to the cabinet system of government, bought back by the military, and resold to the presidential system; used as cannon fodder ,in a fratricidal war for petty bourgeois advantages; whipped with kobokos and assaulted in various dehumanizing ways by law enforcement agents; and fed with unappetizing propaganda meals of Operation Feed the Nation, Green Revo- lution, Ethical Revolution, War on Indiscipline and other illusory concoc- tions. They are socialized into the norms of philistinism and opportunism, bribed into disbelief and cynicism, and thoroughly alienated from their work

    and society. Today, they are an empty shell of themselves. There is no food, no water, no light, no drug, no education, no security. Simply nothing! They live a life of nothingness. And tomorrow? The beat goes on. Cheers for the music”.

    Does Nnoli not sound as if he is speaking of the poorest of the poor in contemporary Nigeria? Yet, the distinguished professor uttered those words four decades before the emergence of the Tinubu administration. The incumbent administration can thus not be blamed for its inherited multidimensional problems that weigh down the country. Yet, the great expectations that ushered it into power places on the Tinubu administration the responsibility of effectively mobilizing the currently inert millions of Nigerians to contribute their quota to the actualization of his Renewed Hope Agenda.

    Surely, the people appreciate the distribution of palliatives in the form of basic but expensive food items to them when these are allowed to reach the target groups of vulnerable Nigerians by a largely cynical and selfish political elite. But more importantly, the people can be mobilized on a large scale to grow food items in abundance not only for domestic consumption but also for export to earn ample foreign exchange. It is inexplicable and inexcusable for a country to possess large swathes of arable land as well as conducive weather to plant a wide variety of crops in diverse zones and yet have a sizable proportion of its able bodied young men and women idle, unemployed or chronically underemployed.

    In a number of states especially in the North, substantial numbers of civilians have signed up as members of joint civilian-military task forces to fight terrorists, bandits and religious insurgents. A good number of these volunteer civilians have perished in the course of service to their fatherland because they are poorly armed and motivated compared to the enemies of the country that they have sacrificed their lives to fight. Surely, the people can be better organized and equipped to be at the forefront of Nigeria’s dire quest for security of lives and property across the length and breadth of the country.

    The great sage, Obafemi Awolowo, averred four decades ago that “The crucial point, which I want our rulers, planners, and official advisers to note is that man is the sole dynamic in nature; and that accordingly, every individual Nigerian constitutes the supreme economic potential which this nation possesses. It is axiomatic that man can create nothing. But, by an intelligent and purposeful application of the exertions of his body and mind, he can exploit natural resources to produce goods and services for immediate consumption and for capital outlay. Therefore, other things being equal, the healthier his body and the more educated his mind, the greater will be his morale and the more efficient and economical he becomes as a producer and consumer”.

    This is why man must be the centerpiece, the be all and end all of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. As time rolls remorselessly on towards the administration’s second term in office, it must do everything to get the people, not ethnic entrepreneurs or zonal godfathers on its side. This will be a function of its fidelity to its manifesto, the boldness and creativity of its policies and the efficiency of their implementation as well as its transparency, accountability and prudence in resource management. Ideally, the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress(APC) should be the administration’s closest link with the people and the most critical agency for mobilizing the grassroots in its support. But a party with organs that function only perfunctorily and haphazardly making it no more than an election-contesting machine can hardly play this role. But luckily for the ruling party, the major opposition parties do not appear to be any better in this regard.

    •To be concluded

  • Chop I chop Nigerian clubs

    Chop I chop Nigerian clubs

    Do the real proprietors (not those who masquerade as club owners who take instructions from their state governors) of domestic clubs in Nigeria care about the returns on the investments in the state-owned teams? Does it worry these State governors that those in charge of their teams run the place like a gaming machine rather than as thriving businesses with succession plans?

    No wonder, these governors throw open the gate of stadiums to all and sundry, anytime they are in town with their politician friends. What a country!

    Clubs in Nigeria apparently forbid exploring open channels to increase revenues by registering their enterprise in the Nigeria Stock Market. They have this siege mentality of running teams as boys’ clubs where emphasis rests on how well you have ended the season without referencing their books for auditors to peruse and ask critical questions on incomes, expenditures, and other related accounting sub-heads. Need I say that those governors who bankroll clubs heavily do so as a political tool to win votes during elections? The reason when they vacate their positions, the teams crumble like a pack of cards?

    When governors lay waste to match venues by throwing the stadium’s gates ajar, why won’t their boys in such managements allow the clubs’ supporters of varying fanatical groups to man the gates?

    A tidier setting would have been to sublet the aspect of manning the gates to experts in such business. That way, the clubs would know the games that fetch them money each season and plan to maximise profits each new season. Time was when clubs sold their matches involving rival teams to business-minded people. It helped such clubs increase their revenue outlets. Not so anymore.

    It is only in Nigeria that professional league games are played without figures telling watchers of the game the best attendance per week and also releasing the correct figures from the gates. When made public, the figures help investors target their brands and services to stadia whose clubs have massive followership. I cringe when I see the inner perimeter fences of stadia in Europe decorated with adverts with rolls through the circuit to add ambience to the place on match days.

    If our club owners had such plans, it would have been easier for them to have sponsors for different expense heads they have which in turn helps in making such a team solvent, irrespective of what their proprietors cough out seasonally.

    These are some of the reasons clubs in Nigeria always go cap in hand-for cash seasonally. How would Nigerian clubs be buoyant when their owners pay lip service to such an important aspect of club administration as gate-taking?

    At match venues, the entry points are always crowded, yet when you get inside the stadium, you are confronted with empty stands with few people who openly tell you that it is forbidden for them to pay gate fees.  Some clubs with good methods of manning the gates, and getting the fans to pay, don’t know when to stop selling tickets to avoid overcrowding the premises.

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    Most of the terraces in stadiums in Nigeria are cemented with others having broken seats which could serve as flying objects of mass destruction when the unpleasant need arises. The overcrowding of the stadium speaks to the fact that their owners don’t know the seating capacity of the premises. Other times it is because such clubs’ managements are greedy, with the league body having a department whose duty is to ensure that clubs don’t sell tickets above the seating capacity of the place.

    There have been instances where club management top shots wear the jerseys of their favourite foreign clubs to watch their teams on match days. Rather than flood the venues with their club jerseys, apparel, umbrellas, small fans, stickers etc. What you find are hawkers of sachets water, toxic spirits, cans of alcoholic beverages etc. The sports outlets surrounding the club’s stadium hardly sell kits of such teams. Rather the shops are flooded with wears of foreign clubs which some fans buy and flaunt with glee.

    Isn’t this the reason Nigerian clubs don’t encourage their players to exchange their jerseys with their opponents after games? Most Nigerian clubs play games without name tags because it is convenient for them to give such jerseys to another player to wear with the organisers oblivious of such a heinous tendency. How many clubs in Nigeria wear home jerseys distinct from their away kits during the season? I  support Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City, and the only way I can get the club’s jerseys to buy would be to buy it anytime I’m in Edo State and the team has a game. Not so, if I want to buy Liverpool FC of England shirts.

    Except for clubs such as Remo Stars, Enugu Rangers, and perhaps one or two where you can truly buy the club’s jersey on match days, it would be easier for the proverbial Carmel to pass the eye of the needle than to get their clubs’ jerseys to buy. Clubs hide their figures to keep the tax mechanisms in the States otiose. Will State governors allow independently-minded people to run their clubs as businesses, not just a recreational hub?

    I lost interest in watching games in Lagos when I noticed severally players hurrying to the stadium because their bus broke down or they were stuck in traffic. This second option of transportation logistic difficulties is common but is handled intelligently by delaying the commencement of such games. It is always laughable seeing players running onto the pitch panting. Let’s not waste space to playback in our mind’s eye how European teams storm the stadium with swagger inside state-or-the-art air-conditioned buses with the players either in suits or the club’s attires for that game. The game’s frills get to you as the buses literally crawl towards the venue’s entrance. Did I hear you say, dear reader, why don’t we have such buses here?

    In saner climes, some of the clubs would have gone to Innoson Motors with irresistible packages that would convince the proprietor to do business with them. In no time, Innoson buses would populate such countries as the official buses of the league. Of course, GAC Motor Limited’s management would want to key into the novel developments. The spiral effect of this competition would be massive. My heart sank when I saw the picture of the seemingly rickety bus in which former Nigerian international goalkeeper, Christian Obi lost his life. How could such a bus be cleared for an intra-state picnic let alone a trip outside with the state’s sports ambassadors? Imagine the late Obi sitting inside one of these marvelous buses in Europe, he would still be alive. Good night, Obi, my friend.

     Yearly, our representatives in the CAF inter-club competitions complain of the lack of matches to keep their players in competitive form as the reason for their early exits. Why the NFF executive board members have turned deaf ears to this disturbing trend beats one’s imagination. It doesn’t matter if the country’s representatives take turns being eliminated from every round of the competition. What insults our sensibilities is the yearly explanation after the teams must have crashed out that we would do something and nothing gets done about it.

    It should worry the current NFF executive committee members that no Nigerian club has won a continental trophy in their reign. Are the members waiting for the time when state governors would decline to sponsor their clubs because of their ill-preparedness? The way things are going, a year would come where there would be winners but no sponsors with our opponents coming to Nigeria to walk over our teams.

  • Empowerment assumes new low in Bauchi

    Empowerment assumes new low in Bauchi

    In the heady days of the sour relationship between former Senate President David Mark and former Benue State Governor Daniel Ortom, the former once carpeted the latter for distributing wheelbarrows to farmers in the name of empowerment while Ortom’s Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike, was busy commissioning roads and bridges.

    If only the former Senate President knows of the ridicule to which the concept of empowerment has been subjected elsewhere, he would probably go on his knees and tender a profuse apology to the former governor for underestimating the weight of his generosity.

    In Kano State, for instance, Governor Abba Yusuf reportedly empowered the people of the state with wheelbarrows and shovels. And while mouths were still agape as to the inherent lack of imagination the gesture suggests, the wife of a member of the House of Representatives from the state hit the ground running, distributing sugarcanes to the constituents as a source of empowerment.

    Not surprisingly, the gesture has drawn more condemnation than commendation as everyone wonders if sugarcane is the best gift befitting the constituents when the lawmaker gets hundreds millions of naira for constituency projects.  Wonders, surely, will never end!

    Edo governorship: Obaseki sees in Wike what others can’t

    Theirs is a case of the instability of human relationships. In the build-up to the second term election of Governor Godwin Obaseki four years ago, he was the best of friends with the current Minister of the Federal Capital territory, Nyesom Wike, who then was the governor of Rivers State and in the same political camp with the Edo State governor.

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    Today, the beautiful bride of 2020 has become a monster in the eyes of Obaseki, who has not spared any opportunity to lampoon him.  The Edo State governor has not only called for the redeployment of the state’s Commissioner of Police and the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state on the grounds that they are allegedly close to Wike,  he has been shouting the minister’s  name as the biggest threat to PDP’s success in  next Saturday’s governorship election. On Thursday, he directed his party and the governorship candidate,  Asue Ighodalo not to sign the peace accord brokered by the committee led by former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar because of the two Wike’s allies, among other reasons.

    The question on the lips of observers now is what does  Obaseki know about Wike that other Nigerians don’t ?  The FCT Minister is neither a member of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) nor President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. How then does he constitute a threat to PDP’s bid for success in the election? What is this Wike phobia all about? Does Obaseki believe there is a magic Wike is capable of when it comes to elections? Was it the magic that swung the pendulum for him four years ago? Is he living in fear of the timeless saying that what goes around comes around?

  • Tunde Adeniran and the politics of WS (3)

    Tunde Adeniran and the politics of WS (3)

    After dwelling exhaustively and incisively on the politics of WS as depicted through his literary works, Professor Tunde Adeniran in other sections of the book focuses among others on associations as vehicles for the pursuit of Soyinka’s political goals, politics as a means of public service for the laureate as well as the episodes of crusading activism that routinely characterize his politics. Adeniran interrogates the tension between the characterization of Soyinka’s politics as highly individualistic and exemplifying personal acts of daring heroism and the numerous examples of the writer acting through associations of varying degrees of structural formalism or hierarchical rigidity to achieve set goals.

    Adeniran quotes the author’s late close friend and contemporary , Bola Ige, as averring that “He is an iconoclast…Wole is passionately patriotic but does his things his own way. He would take on a cause that he considered just and pursue it to any extent without caring whether you are with him or not”. He continues, “Yemi Ogunbiyi’s assessment of Wole Soyinka was similar to this, but he went further to assert that Soyinka was incapable of collective actions, illustrating with specific examples and with reference to his work that projects individual heroes or the heroic acts of some individuals”. And for another close friend of Soyinka, the late eminent economist, Professor Ojetunji Aboyade, he classifies the playwright “as an idea rather than an organization man”.

    Adeniran deftly summarizes and synthesizes these perspectives and it is difficult to disagree with his submission that “The greater percentage of Soyinka’s work certainly puts some emphasis on heroes and heroic acts but he has also shown persistent interest in organization, in the establishment of actualizing some political ideas. We do not wish to confirm or contest the validity of the view that his works reflect his personal choice, but an examination of the use to which Soyinka has put associations is vital to a fuller understanding of his own politics”.

    As Adeniran had noted in his reflections on Soyinka’s early years, the playwright’s political consciousness was partly nurtured and shaped by his close observation as a child of the Egba

    women organize and mobilize for rebellion against perceived injustices of the colonial and traditional authorities. The importance of efficient and effective organization in the attainment of set political goals could thus not have been lost on WS as he evolved both in chronological age and politically.

    It is pertinent to note in this regard that as a young undergraduate at the then University College, Ibadan, Soyinka inspired the formation of the Pirates Confraternity as an unorthodox association of students to fight against the stifling conventionalism, hypocrisy and colonial mentality prevalent on the campus at the time. The Pirates noted for their patriotic outlook, nationalist inclination, discipline and high ethical standards have survived the decades with their foundational values largely intact even when the idea of student confraternities has been substantially abused and perverted through the formation of what have been described as secret cults across institutions without the moral and philosophical motivations that undergirded the associational aspirations and value orientations of the pirates.

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    Despite some of his political interventions that seem reflective of daring acts of individual heroism such as his ‘invasion’ of the premises of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation and replacing at gun point a recorded broadcast of his own for that of the much despised SLA Akintola administration which had mindlessly rigged the Western Regional elections, WS was certainly not acting as a sole Rambo Superman. Rather, in that and other acts of audacious resistance to the creeping fascism that had led to widespread anarchy in the West, in which Soyinka was a leading actor, he was always supported by a close knit circle of associates and collaborators who shared his political values and enjoyed his absolute trust.

    In organizing to resist and thwart the unhidden determination of Akintola’s unpopular Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) to rig the 1965 Western Regional elections irrespective of the will of the people, Adeniran writes that “Returning from the Commonwealth Arts Festival in Dakar to meet this situation, Soyinka who by then had changed base from the University of Ife to the University of Lagos, put an ad hoc group together to counter the plan or resist the dangerous imposition. He moved temporarily to Ibadan which was the main theatre of action and linked up with all categories of operatives (the police, telephone operators in different locations etc) which could facilitate the effectiveness of his group that comprised of individuals who distrusted politicians and their contrivances, and abhorred the NNDP in particular for all it stood for”.

    Adeniran cites some of the associational groups with which Soyinka was involved at various times to achieve specific political goals to include the ‘Third Force’ conceived to oppose the two belligerent sides during the Nigerian civil war and come up with an alternative plan to avert war and unite the nation; the Organization for Solidarity, Home and Abroad (OSHA), to demonstrate against the visit of then Head of State, to Great Britain in June 1973; the African Democratic League (ADL) established to promote political values or the Socialist Action Black Africa (SABA) created and nurtured in the early seventies to promote the political interests of Africa and the continent’s wellbeing.

    It is difficult to pigeonhole Soyinka in terms of the character and color of his politics which is why those who seek to taint him pejoratively as politically partisan are too often well off the mark and their efforts hardly credible. Soyinka’s politics is more pragmatic than ideologically doctrinaire. Though fully supportive of the 1964 national workers strike, for example, Adeniran writes that he was exasperated by leading Labour leaders “who maintained that bourgeois Nigeria had not attained the level of economic transformation that would make a take-over by the proletariat inevitable”. Soyinka’s response to those who argued this way was that “…You are text-bound…You ignore the special conditions of our post-colonial society; this is one revolution that will skip the bourgeois phase, and the moment is now, while the post-colonial order is not firmly entrenched, the power structure feeble, and mass discontent at its highest since independence”.

    Soyinka has been one of the most trenchant and acerbic critics of military rule in post-colonial Nigeria. Yet, he was known to be a close confidante of the former military governor of the Western Region after the January, 1966 coup, Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, who was known to have progressive and enlightened inclinations. Again, he agreed to serve as the founding Chairman of the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) under the General Ibrahim Babangida regime and utilized the opportunity to establish the corp as one of the most efficient, effective, disciplined, and productive public sector organizations in Nigeria. He threw all his energies and talents into his passion for drastically reducing the horrendous scale of deaths on our highways even though he voluntarily opted not to collect any salaries or allowances.

    Yet, once Babangida annulled the results of the June 12, 1993, presidential elections described as the freest and fairest in the country’s history and won by Chief MKO Abiola, thus effectively torpedoing the transition to democracy, Soyinka became one of the most vehement and uncompromising critics of the annulment and also of continued military dictatorship. From exile into which he had to flee from the hounding goons of General Sani Abacha, Soyinka deployed his immense intellect, moral integrity, and global goodwill at the forefront of the struggle to dislodge military rule and help restore democratic governance in Nigeria.

    Even though he was an ardent admirer of the great sage and unparalleled developmental and transformational leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Soyinka never joined any of the parties formed by the latter. Rather, in the Second Republic, for instance, he along with his compatriot and contemporary, Chinua Achebe, opted to join Mallam Aminu Kano’s Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) which had the most radical manifesto of the five registered political parties of the period. As we continue to celebrate WS’s epochal life at 90, Professor Tunde Adeniran’s reflections on his politics and the associated themes of power, justice, liberty, human rights, and dignity as well as social equity and the rule of law that characterize Soyinka’s thought, will surely offer rewarding and emancipatory reading.

  • Ogbomosho, Warri and Africa’s triple spiritual heritage

    Ogbomosho, Warri and Africa’s triple spiritual heritage

    It was the late great Ugandan political scientist, Professor Ali Mazrui, who dilated extensively on what he described as Africa’s triple spiritual heritage attendant on historical encounters that made the continent home to the three religious traditions of Islam, Christianity, and the diversity of African traditional religions. In Nigeria, Yoruba land is widely acknowledged as that part of the country where adherents of the three spiritual faiths enjoy harmonious and peaceful coexistence even within the same families. Yet, despite the impressive religious liberalism and tolerance obtained in the Southwest, there are still instances of tensions and complications among these three religious heritages that are critical to the analysis and evolution of society.

    The received religions of Christianity and Islam, which are by no means monolithic faiths but each encompassing contending sects and tendencies, have evidently edged the traditional religious practices to the background being essentially proselytizing and evangelizing spiritualisms contrary to the largely non-expansionist and lethargic disposition of the indigenous religions.

    Yet, substantial numbers of Nigerians and Africans still subscribe directly or indirectly to one form of traditional religious practice or the other. Diverse forms of occultist practices are rife in African societies. There are those who, often surreptitiously, practice assorted forms of syncretism that combine aspects of different religious observances. They are simultaneously at home in the church, with Islamic mystics, and can be found consulting Ifa priests and occult practitioners at odd hours. The resurgence of traditional religions in the Southwest is manifest in the recent decision of governments in the zone to formalize the celebration of ‘Isese Day’ which is a public holiday dedicated to the veneration of the various deities that make up the pantheon of Orisa worship.

    One interesting aspect of the cohabitation of the triple spiritual heritages in the Southwest is the growing number of traditional rulers who are ardent Muslim or Christian adherents. In several cases, the faith and religious practices of such traditional rulers who embrace one or the other of the received religions conflict with the ritualistic, primordial indigenous spiritual traditions that constitute the foundation of the ancient thrones. The most recent example of this kind of situation is the emergence of the new Soun of Ogbomosho, one of the key prestigious thrones in Yoruba land, Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye, Orumogege 111.

    The new Soun had been a senior pastor at the RCCG before his call to the throne and installation on September 8, 2023. He was said to have accepted to vacate his pastoral calling to assume the role of monarch of the ancient community after immense pressure from those who had faith in the tremendous modernizing potentials his experience and talents portend for Ogbomosho. No less critical in the monarch’s decision to commence his new life trajectory was the go-ahead he received from his spiritual mentor, the revered General Overseer of the RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye.

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    Daddy GO reportedly admonished the Oba that his Royal calling was his God-ordained purpose on earth which he could not rightly seek to evade. Those who support this perspective believe that the ascension of a ‘born again’ Pentecostal Christian, a pastor of a major denomination like the RCCG for that matter, would be instrumental in containing and mitigating the influence of what Christianity perceives as the ‘heathen’ beliefs and practices associated with traditional African religion.

    It is noteworthy that several traditional rulers from the Southwest routinely attend the Holy Ghost services of the RCCG with their presence well publicized. These royal fathers also habitually grace the annual ‘Shiloh’ spiritual gathering of the Winners Chapel at Canaan land in Ota, Ogun State. But can those of these monarchs who claim to be genuinely ‘born again’ condone age-long traditional fetish practices in their domain, even if they do not directly participate in such, and still retain the integrity and sanctity of their newly proclaimed faith in Christ as Lord and Saviour?

    Let no mistake be made about it. The Pentecostal variety of Christianity is absolutist and ‘totalizing’ in its claims on the believer. Jesus Christ was uncompromising in his unparalleled declaration that “I am the truth, the way and the life and no one can come to the Father except through me”. No mortal ‘Kabiyesi’, which translates to he who cannot be questioned can coexist in Pentecostal Christianity with the supreme Kabiyesi, the creator and immortal monarch of the universe.

    Those I have discussed the monarchical politics of Ogbomosho with in the context of emergent spiritual developments around the throne affirm that Oba Ghandi Olaoye enjoys the unalloyed support and loyalty of the vast majority of his people. The only crisis faced by the throne is the conflict between the Pastor/Oba and the Chief Imam of Ogbomosho, Yunus Ayilara, which has resulted in a legal suit seeking the removal of the Muslim cleric as Chief Imam of the community. Rather, the monarch has appointed Ayilara as Chief Imam of the palace which implies that there is a vacancy for the post of Chief Imam of Ogbomosho.

    Declaring his support for Yunus Ayilara, another monarch, the Olugbon of Orile-Ogbon, Oba Francis Alao, submitted that traditional rulers lack the powers to sack religious leaders. The often extremist Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) described the Soun’s moves regarding the issue of Chief Imam of the town as a “subterfuge to weaken Islam, a strategy to enslave Muslims and a chicanery to exploit Muslim population of Ogbomosho.”There is no indication that the majority of Muslims in Ogbomosho support MURIC’s incendiary rhetoric.

    Yet, I am intrigued by Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye’s understanding of the implications of Africa’s triple heritage for inter-religious relationships,  particularly the traditional institutions in Yorubaland. Speaking on the occasion of the installation of the new Chief Imam of the palace, the Soun was reported as emphasizing the importance of religious harmony stressing that the throne of Soun of Ogbomosho was rooted in traditional religion. In his words, as reported in this newspaper, “The throne is that of the traditionalists. Soun Ogunlola who founded the throne was a pure traditionalist; he worshipped Ogun deity. We Christians and Muslims are just intruding so to say; it originally belonged to the traditional religion worshippers so we should encourage religious harmony. It neither belongs to either of us Christians nor Muslims, they are only lending us the throne.”

    But with this profound insight, why would the Soun jettison a pastoral career to save souls for Christ that had spanned over 32 years to embrace a far less significant calling to be the monarch of his town; an institution that he admits rests on pre-Christian traditional worship? This is no less bothersome than those men of God such as Pastor Tunde Bakare or Reverend Chris Okotie who at various times have expended humongous financial resources, energy and valuable time in comically quixotic bids to become President of Nigeria.

    In my view, the divine call to be a fisher of men and a shepherd of human souls is far superior and of infinitely greater significance than any secular calling no matter how prestigious or highly placed. The divine and spiritual calling has eternal and not just temporal consequences and implications for man and society. Yes, the importance of politics cannot be underestimated. But eminent statesmen and women across the world in both advanced and underdeveloped countries are so obviously seeking in futility for solutions to the protracted problems endangering the future of humanity. We have all too many examples of intellectual giants who are pathetic moral pygmies and help compound rather than proffer workable solutions to the challenges of contemporary man.

    Citizens of the most scientifically and technologically advanced countries in the world confront dilemmas of purpose, significance, and meaning that generate social crises and destructive moral perversions on an industrial scale. I may be biased by my own spiritual inclinations but I believe that as the world, like the ill-fated titanic, hurtles at full steam towards disaster, the message and mission of Jesus Christ remain the most pertinent, relevant, and efficacious in resolving the human dilemma. Those entrusted with propagating this message must never underestimate or compromise the incomparable significance of the assignment.

    It is instructive that the first courtesy visit by the new Soun outside his domain, was to the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse 111. Although not a pastor, the Olu is an ardent Christian who sees no conflict between his faith and his traditional role. His immediate predecessor, Ogiame Atuwatse 11, a staunch member of the Foursquare Gospel Church had, pursuant to his Christian faith, in 2018 issued a declaration that “Henceforth I submit and present the title ‘Ogiame’ to God the creator, who made the sea and rules over all. Therefore, no Olu or person may bear the title or worship that now belongs to God. I nullify all tokens of libation poured on the land and the seas or sprinkled into the air in Iwerre land. In conformity with the new covenant through the blood of Jesus, I release the Royal bloodline, the chiefs of the Iwere Kingdom, the Iwere people, and land, waters and atmosphere of Iwere Kingdom from all ties to other spiritual covenants and agreements” . This was copiously commented on by Segun Adeniyi in his column of 7 March, 2018.

    Of course, the immediate past Olu faced a near revolt from the majority of his tradition-bound people and the matter had to be resolved diplomatically to allow the people continue to adhere to their age-long traditional religious practices. The current Olu suffers from no such spiritual conflicts or contradictions. Thus, he told his guest, the Soun, that the traditional thrones and Christendom can coexist harmoniously playing complementary roles of promoting communal development.

    Indeed, in an interview on another occasion, the Olu, Tsola Emiko, says he was instructed by the Holy Spirit to stand before the oracle during his coronation. According to the monarch, “For instance, when it came to standing before the oracle, a lot of people felt that because I am a Christian I would not do it. However, I prayed about it and the Holy Spirit made it very clear to me not to be afraid. I was told to go and stand before it and I stood. I believe that the spiritual world can be accessed by anyone of any faith. If one shies away from the spiritual world because one is afraid or because one is not aware of how it operates, one will lose out on a lot of good things that God himself has destined for one”. Can the canons of Pentecostal Christianity coexist harmoniously with perceived fetish practices of traditional religion at the core of Royal institutions? That is one of the dilemmas of Africa’s triple spiritual heritage.

  • Truth crushed to earth…

    Truth crushed to earth…

    Those who do things unsparingly to suit their interests without reflecting on the consequences, always forget that the law of Karma exists. Simply put,  the law of retributive justice. Indeed, those who manufactured the contraption where a relegated team was given the right of first refusal when a vacancy popped up with the disqualification of a promoted team from the lower rung to the elite class, now have rotten eggs smashed on their faces.

    The hitherto relegated team due to its shambolic outings last season was beaten groggy at home by a better-prepared and deserving elite side in the first game of the new season. Of course, the cooks of the laughable law must be cursing their tough luck. Would it not have been better and more sensible for them to have promoted the next best team atop the lower league’s table than to reward a failure with another chance to fail again? Shame!

    What can’t happen in Nigeria doesn’t exist. These are some of the flaws of the domestic league that dissuade investors from supporting the beautiful game here. A league competition where winners emerge from the boardroom decisions and not from the results of games on the field of play over the season is unacceptable. Rules mustn’t be interpreted when there is a crisis. It smacks of match-fixing. One only hopes there are no two teams with single ownership. Let us set the records straight with the league in its second round of matches this weekend.

    The opening two matches for the 2024/2025 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations provided the elixir for growth for the beautiful game in Nigeria. We have long seen worthy domestic league coaches who did well in the previous season being rewarded with a coaching role in the country’s premium team, the Super Eagles. That decision has helped to cement a veritable link between home-based coaches and our foreign-based players, most of whom developed their skills playing on the dusty streets, parks, public fields, and stadia in the country after they were spotted by the eagle-eyed local games masters in the 774 Local Government Areas (LGA) in Nigeria.

    My adrenalin shot up watching our foreign-based stars interface with Enugu Rangers FC’s manager, Fidelis Illechukwu, and Daniel Ogunmodede, coach of Remo Stars FC of Ikenne, both on and off the pitch. I wondered what they must have been discussing, especially as most of them would be meeting with the two homegrown coaches for the first time. I know for a fact that our foreign legions’ perception of the domestic league would have changed for good. If we sustain this pattern, in no time our foreign legion would embrace the ideals of the local coaches knowing that they could return home to coach their state’s soccer teams.

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    This is one of the best ways to sell the local league to our Europe-based players. In other climes, it is almost customary for their established stars to return to their domestic leagues and end their playing careers in blitz and glory. The multiple effects of having these retirees playing international matches for their boyhood teams are immeasurable. One only hopes that the suggestion to pick Illechukwu and Ogunmodede was Austin Eguavoen’s which I’m sure NFF’s board members embraced wholeheartedly. If yes, a welcome change has been introduced to the Super Eagles, going forward.

    This week, this writer thought he could celebrate the NFF for once until they chose to hide under one finger by asking Eguavoen to recant on his decision to step aside (no thanks to General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, Nigeria’s former military Head of State), having effectively prosecuted the two matches assignment given to him whilst the federation’s chieftains continued to grope in the dark in search of a foreign Technical Adviser for the Super Eagles. NFF’s directive to Eguavoen about his role in the team was unambiguous. He was tagged to perform an Interim Super Eagles role. Perhaps, as a tacit warning not to nurse any ambition of hijacking the job from the European coaches, one of whom, German Coach, Bruno Labbadia took a walk unceremoniously from the job after NFF announced him as the new Super Eagles Technical Adviser.

    No prize for guessing right that NFF’s directive to Eguavoen wasn’t documented because Eguavoen equally told the international media that he didn’t lobby for the job. It was normal for Eguavoen to have stated the facts properly. So, for NFF, the interim coach’s statement amounted to the truth and would have been held against him if he refused to quit with good results.

    In the eyes of the NFF management, Eguavoen was a placeholder for the next European manager. It didn’t matter whatever he said to the contrary. What the NFF people didn’t take into consideration was the likelihood of the team doing well under Eguavoen’s tutelage to elicit support for his retention. Pronto, the federation whose hierarchy rose from their slumber to pressurise Eguavoen to recant on his post-match interview where he said his two-match mandate had been done and that he would discuss the next move with them.

    Perhaps, the NFF people forgot that Eguavoen was the body’s Technical Director, making it absolutely impossible to hold two positions at the same time. They raced to the international media to say that: “He remains with the team and he is an employee of the NFF which has drafted him to the Super Eagles. He remains there until the federation takes another decision.”

    Is it now dawning on the federation that he is their employee, yet they celebrated and announced an interim status for a senior staff member? Eguavoen is the body’s Technical Director. NFF knew the fixtures which included the double-header against Libya at the same time as those of Benin Republic and Rwanda, yet they gave Eguavoen a two-game mandate. If indeed, this view is right, why didn’t the NFF ask Eguavoen to handle the four games and not two, if they weren’t being mischievous?

    Eguavoen has been the most criticised coach but one who has brought stability into the team in difficult times. Eguavoen is a victim of a game where if the team wins, the players play according to instructions. But when the team fails, the coach must go. Coaches’ cross. If the NFF must be taken seriously, we need to know Eguavoen’s status in the team, especially if he would also prosecute the remaining qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup ticket. Our players must begin to see the country’s qualification matches as a priority. They should, henceforth, report to camp early and not saunter into the camp as if it is a discotheque. Sadly, these latecomers to the Eagles are the first set of players to board flights back to their European clubs to avoid sanctions. Is that fair?

    After all, most of them got their exposure to international platforms by playing for Nigeria’s soccer teams at big FIFA, CAF, and other friendly and inter-club matches. Or do they want to be treated as children by sending them back to clubs without fielding them? In fact, our players need these Nigerian games to keep their club places. These European clubs pay so much on the country’s international stars and would waste no time declaring unserious latecomers in their payrolls.

  • Nigeria in a lean period (2)

    Nigeria in a lean period (2)

    This year has been remarkable for pain, anxiety and fear. The nation-state is suffering from the cumulative effects of past leadership failure: ineptitude, inaction, misplaced priorities, errors of corruption, lack of vision and foresight, and general maladministration.

     Yet, as some discerning people have argued, the trial, test and travails are inevitable. Nigerians may need to pass through the current “thorny path” for the country to survive. The government and the governed are paying the price for past mistakes, which the current corrective economic policies are meant to address.

    Most Nigerians agree that fuel subsidies should be removed. It was the highlight of the campaign promises of the major presidential candidates in last year’s general election. The budget inherited from the past administration laid the foundation for the removal. But it is now a major bone of contention. Even past presidential candidates are employing it to blackmail the Federal Government and accusing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of inflicting pains, deliberately, on  Nigerians.

    Subsidy curators and beneficiaries are mounting a propagandist campaign to tarnish the government’s image. But it does not distract from the fact that these oil barons have forfeited the monopolistic opportunity to hold the country by the jugular. The privileged few have lost the chance to milk Nigeria through manipulative oil business.

    Also, although the floating of the naira and its consequential devaluation have compounded the economic logjam, they are not obstacles to an economic recovery, which the administration is pursuing with its reform agenda. A man of courage, the Commander-in-Chief has decided to take certain hard decisions in the national interest. The fruits are coming in the long run.

    President Tinubu has no antecedent of an aloofness or insensitivity to the plight of the common man whose interest he has devoted his entire political career to defend. Yet, no explanation would be rational or tenable to the ill-informed critics who claim to fight for the ‘hungry and angry’ masses who have slid further into deep penury.

    Despite their access to state resources, those in government are not having peace of mind. They are inundated with complaints about the diminishing standard of living, the high cost of goods and services, and the gap between the promise of relief and the reality of a potentially disastrous downturn. Citizens want immediate or prompt solutions to long-standing problems, oblivious that managing an already dilapidated economy is not a tea party. Thus, appeals for more patience, sacrifice and perseverance fall on deaf ears.

    The agitations of poor Nigerians are not without some justifications. Three square meals are no longer feasible. A feature of the adjustment is meal skipping. A particular culture is fading in Yoruba land. After meals, parents don’t usually ask their children if they have their fill. The period of surplus contrasts sharply with this moment of austerity.

    Comfort in most homes is a tall order. Convenience is a luxury. People now take new lessons about the scale of preference and money management. The boring social condition has turned some fine gentlemen into executive beggars in urban centres. Many are adjusting to the reality of want and inadequacy wrongly.

     Households are in turmoil. Couples argue and fight over money for housekeeping. The wife returns from the market grumbling about the exorbitant prices of consumables. The pitiful and exhausted breadwinner appeals to her to manage, explaining that he is still on the same salary level. The wife protests angrily and accepts her fate.

    Certain expenditures are inevitable: school fees, rents, transport fares, utility bills. But workers complain that their salaries cannot take them home. Dependents suffer. May people not fall sick in this period. Hospital bills are on the high side. The cost of medication is burdensome. More people now patronise herb dealers. Others hold on to the efficacy of prayers.

    Many car owners now dust their shoes. They leave their cars at home and join public transport. Others trek to work. It is a forced exercise. Inter-city travelling drains the purse. Either at the local bukateria or city eatery, food is expensive everywhere. They are not just affordable. Money is scarce. Bank customers withdraw more times than they save. Job losses are on the increase. Both employed and unemployed are united in agony. The difference between the two categories is thin.

    The quality of living is on perpetual decline. Poverty is growing in leaps and bounds. Kids of those at the lowest rungs drop out of schools in droves. Global bodies are concerned about the turn of events in the education sector.

    As people compare and contrast, many are disillusioned. There is nostalgia for the good old days. Sadly, many still prefer the past, which cannot rekindle a memory of happy times. More worrisome to them is the prospects of a bleak future. Indeed, there is fear about tomorrow.

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    It is because the economy is on crutches; the Nigerian economy is limping. It has been battered and forced into a coma. It is not productive. Until recently, the government’s programme of diversification was hanging. It is a mono-economy, which exclusively thrives on oil that has been described as a blessing and a curse. At a time when electricity is stabilising, indeed, at a huge cost to stratified consumers, the petrol crisis is wiping away the meagre gains.

    The economy has been bastardised by long years of mismanagement by successive managers. Critical sectors are on their knees. They are on life support in intensive care. The reality of state fragility is here, although a state failure is being averted. The burden is on Tinubu’s shoulders.

    For a long time, huge debt burdens, large-scale embezzlement, misplaced priorities, tensions arising from the ill-structured governance, flawed constitution of the complex federal country, inexplicable insecurity and lack of patriotism by sharers of political control constituted a drawback. They still make Nigeria a country of misery and adversity, despite the nation’s potential.

    A surgical operation is inevitable. That is what the current administration is doing. Sadly, the reforms also bring unavoidable pains that have triggered protests and rage. The mess and garbage being cleared are not the making of the current leadership. They were inherited. Be that as it may, government, as it is often said, is a continuum.

    Those who led Nigeria to the current predicament are its past visionless leaders who failed to lay a solid foundation for a greater tomorrow.

    Clearing the Augean stable is a herculean task. Sometimes, it is easier to build from scratch than to pull down a dilapidated edifice before rebuilding it. It is more distressing when the builder seems to lack the unalloyed cooperation and full compliments of co-builders who are in a vantage position to even sabotage the corrective measures through their hypocritical commitment.

    President Tinubu probably had a premonition of the hard tasks ahead of him. He said nobody should pity him. He applied for the most difficult job in Africa.

    But the captain needs the support and understanding of all and sundry, those who should bear in mind that today’s hardship must be endured in anticipation of a better tomorrow.

    An economic crisis, even a depression, is not forever. There will be light at the end of the tunnel.

    In the interim, individuals need to tighten their belts. Adaptation is crucial. Priorities should be got right. Tastes should be moderated. It is time for people to cut their coats according to their clothes. Unwise spending should be avoided.

    Nigerians should support the government as it searches for effective solutions to the current petrol crisis.

    The road to deregulation of fuel importation and supply is long and tortuous. The path is unclear. There are doubts. The government needs the political will to pursue and implement the policy. Private businessmen still suspect an inexplicable subsidy, making them think the coast is not clear.

    People are hopeful about Dangote Refinery. But it is not the ultimate saviour. Dangote may harbour the fear that the NNPCL price of petrol per litre is lower than its cost price of petrol.

    All government refineries should be revived fully. It is sad that Nigeria, which is the sixth largest producer of crude oil in the world, cannot boast a single functional refinery.

    The investors already granted licences to operate refineries should be encouraged to come on stream.

    Unless government refineries are fully operational, we should visualise the implications of a looming monopoly for the political economy.

    Also, the government should hasten action on the compressed natural gas initiative.

    The debate on solutions to the protracted fuel crisis continues.

  • On President Tinubu’s recent visit to China

    On President Tinubu’s recent visit to China

    In the realm of global and international diplomacy, state visits are seen as major milestones via which a nation’s aspirations, economic interests, and geopolitical strategies are strengthened, thus  President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent visit to China marks the emergence of another era of Nigeria-Sino relations, one which is assumed to be pivotal for Nigeria and it’s desire for development.

    With China’s rising as a global power, a nation like Nigeria with its strategic positioning in Africa and its unharnessed resources can gain much from such a partnership from which it can navigate through the complexities of the post-pandemic recovery arriving at the destination of economic transformation, and infrastructural development.

    Thus, such a visit offers a promising array of gains for Nigeria which stands to benefit from strengthened ties between the two nations.

    One of the expected outcomes of President Tinubu’s visit to China is the anticipated surge in economic collaborations and investments. China has long been one of Nigeria’s largest trading partners, and the visit  was very much likely to serve such an interest on a mutual basis, which could certainly   to deepen such bilateral relationship. Such discussions centred on key areas such as the bilateral currency swap agreement, which will see the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) exchange currencies to enable both countries facilitate trade and investment between each other thus removing their dependence on the US dollar, enhancing liquidity in the Nigerian market, reducing the foreign exchange  pressure and  boosting trade between both countries.

    With the renewed deal, both countries aim to increase liquidity in the Nigerian market, ease trade transactions, and reduce pressure on foreign exchange reserves.

    Other areas in which both nations are to include infrastructural development, agriculture, culture  and education ,solid minerals and technology, indeed President Tinubu did go to China with a bucket list of economic requests, i am sure he will be  coming  back a much more fulfilled man.

    This is not to say that it is yet Uhuru or that the signing of the deals will automatically foster a leapfrog like development for the Nigerian economy, afterall, six years after the signing of the currency swap deal the seems to be no curbing of the pressures on the exchange rate and external reserves of the economy, as envisaged six years ago.

    Again, the is the issue of the trade imbalance as the volume of goods  we import is more than what we export to China. How the recent visit to China will help aid improve on such an imbalance is doubtful as the Chinese are no Father Christmas and with the recent depreciation of the Naira seems not to confer any advantage too.

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    Likewise, the Chinese have been no diffrent from how the West have treated Africa as their body langiage has also shiwn that they may be more interested in exploiting our resources than helping us develop. Previous deals with China have only seen the Chinese benefit more than us, maybe it is of our doing, maybe not , however let us watch and see where this recent partnership has in stock for us as a country.

    On the.brighter side, there lies much hope in that with discipline, Nigeria can harness more from.the Chinese infrastructure  deal  as seen in the construction of railway lines and road (re)construction across the country.

     The mooted partnerships in agriculture and technology will modernize Nigeria’s agricultural sector, allowing for innovative farming techniques that could increase productivity and reduce food insecurity. By fostering collaborations with Chinese agribusinesses and tech firms, Nigeria can harness advanced technologies such as precision farming and agritech platforms, which are vital for transforming its agricultural practices.In an era where technology drives most productive sectors, the significance of technology transfer cannot be overstated. During his visit, President Tinubu emphasized the need for Nigeria to leapfrog to more advanced technological capabilities, particularly in sectors such as communication, renewable energy, and smart city development.

    By collaborating with Chinese technology firms, Nigeria could access cutting-edge technologies that enhance governance, public services, and infrastructural management. From smart traffic management systems to efficient public service delivery, technology transfer could revolutionize the Nigerian landscape.

    The focus on investment also extends to job creation, a pressing need in Nigeria where unemployment rates continue to soar. With a growing population that demands increased employment opportunities, collaboration with Chinese enterprises can stimulate job growth. Construction projects alone can create thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

    Moreover, the proposed agreement on Solid Minerals help  extends to the diversification of Nigeria’s economy. As the country continues to depend heavily on oil revenues, collaboration with China in sectors like the development of the sector as well as in  manufacturing and technology can help Nigeria reduce its reliance on oil and pivot towards a more diverse economic portfolio. The promotion of manufacturing and assembly operations in Nigeria will not only create jobs but also foster local entrepreneurship and skill development.

    Another noteworthy aspect of President Tinubu’s visit is the emphasis on education and human capital development. As Nigeria aspires to develop a more skilled workforce capable of competing in the global economy, partnerships with Chinese educational institutions can facilitate knowledge transfer and skill acquisition.

    China has taken the lead in various fields, including engineering, technology, and natural sciences. By establishing educational collaborations, Nigeria can create scholarship programs, exchange initiatives, and technical training centers. Such programs can equip Nigerian youth with the necessary skills needed in burgeoning industries, thereby enhancing employability and fostering innovation.

    Finally, beyond economic engagements, the visit serves to strengthen Nigeria’s diplomatic ties with China, a nation that holds significant influence on the global stage. By aligning Nigeria more closely with China, Tinubu’s administration may gain leverage in international platforms where Nigeria’s voice is often underrepresented.

    This enhanced relationship could also translate into Nigeria taking on a more significant role in regional affairs within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU). Given China’s interests in Africa, Nigeria can benefit from political support in various initiatives aimed at fostering regional stability and development.

    President Tinubu’s visit to China represents a significant leap forward for Nigeria in terms of development, despite the numerous k-legs in the deal , it is possible that no better deal could have been extracted, perhaps it is the price we have to pay for our own self inflicted underdevelopment, perhaps it is a lesson, this generation and future generations must hearken to, development isnt wished into, it is earned and it is worked into!