The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • On the recent Campaign for Ndigbo to leave Lagos (2)

    On the recent Campaign for Ndigbo to leave Lagos (2)

    Like the pogroms against the Jews, particularly those organized within the 19th and the 20th Centuries, the groundswell to such litany of traumatic events began with such campaigns as declared by these “agbayas”. 

    I am stating this in response to those who believe that my column as well as a number of comments from well meaning Nigerians was merely giving strength to such an ugly campaign of which these few felt ought to be ignored, sadly this was the same train of thoughts prevalent in those days, however like that small fire sweeping through the harmattan bush,  we all know what was witnessed next.

    Again, it may be #IgboExit or #Igboleave today, what about tomorrow, it may be #BiniJade and #Itsekiribyebye, or HausaFulaniNagode and #Oyinbomalojare, such madness could even reach fevering heights with campaigns such as #LagosforLagosians , #IbadanforOluloyesonly, #IlorinforOmoAfonja’s #AbujaforGwaris and #AbaganaforAbagana, since we all may love to be mad like the proponents for #Igbomustgo!

    One is even forced to ponder on what NdiIgbo may have done to warrant such; we have contributed our quota and are still contributing, not only to the state’s growth and development but also that of the nation. We have called Lagos and every other place home , going by our philosophy of “Ala wu otu”  we have built resplendent homes, established businesses, developed virgin areas and even intermarried producing offspring who share dual heritages. I for one grew up in Surulere and mixed up with the Femis, Tundes, Moshoodis , Tokunbos, Azeezs and Kabirus, we ate together, schooled together, played street football and disturbed the hell out of the neighborhood, not once did we see the each other as different because of our different ethnic backgrounds, today we still interact with each other while I hold dear my Lagos memories!

    It is not in doubt that we have complimented our Lagos,Yoruba and other brothers in that melting point and mini Nigeria of sorts called Lagos, we have combined our entrepreneurial drive with the lavish hospitality of our Lagos hosts giving it its rich potpourri and mishmash: Like a collection of jigsaw pieces NdiIgbo ,together with other ethnic groups, we have formed interlocks of meaningful socioeconomic and sociopolitical puzzles giving beauty to this mini Nigeria also known as Lagos.

    Have NdiIgbo refused to pay taxes or have we sought to subjugate all known forms of constituted authority in Lagos? Have we married off the pretty Lagos damsels and refused to pay dowry? Have we attempted to discriminate against any other ethnic group in any of our establishments warranting such a response which is obviously extreme! What then is our crime?

    Even if NdiIgbo accept to go, what happens to those of mixed marriages, perhaps traveling back to the early years, some producing grandchildren and great grand children? Will these children of such mixed marriages be told to just go too or will these agbayas conduct DNA tests to determine which gene is generally dominant in these persons? They should be prepared to conduct over millions of tests.

    Whatever these persons championing such a campaign are  seeking to achieve, we ought to impress it upon them that just as the likes of the Agudas or the returnees from Brazil and Cuba such as the Cardosos, the Pedros, the Da Silvas and the Dohertys did adopt Lagos as their home, did make a living and have remained in Lagos for countless generations, so also is any ethnic group free to choose the land of aquatic splendor as their own home including the Igbos!

    Read Also: On the recent campaign for Ndigbo to leave Lagos (1)

    It is even believed that a number of persons asking NdiIgbo to leave Lagos and Yoruba land are not even Lagosians per se, and cannot be said to be more of stakeholders than other ethnic groups that have lived in Lagos! Even at that, these persons calling for Igboexit seem to be bereft of history, otherwise they would recall that despite the competitive nature between the Igbo and the Yoruba, the two major ethnic groups seem to have more in common with each other than with other ethnic groups in Nigeria. Do they know that Zik of Africa was a political son and disciple of the Wizard of Kirsten Hall and an Omoluabi of Lagos in the person of Herbert Macaulay? Whilst Awo was in prison, did the NCNC not enter into a political marriage with the Action Congress to preserve what was left of Awolowo’s legacy which was on a daily basis besmirched by the renegades who had entered an alliance with the Northern People’s Congress? Have they forgotten the supreme price paid by an Ekiti man in Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi who would rather die than see his Supreme Commander whisked away from his own domain where the former had played host! Even in their intense rivalry, Zik and Awo accorded each other such respect  as greats with each commanding impressive followership in each other’s  region. The likes of Adeniran Ogunsanya another core Lagosian readily comes to mind.

    Lastly, at a time like this when nations are removing certain barriers and are forming regional and continental blocs to enhance solidarity, promote free trade , enhance economic and scientific progress and to eradicate poverty and disease, a few grownups are tinkering with an idea that could spark civil strife in a country much desirous of peace, we should sound the alarm bells now and bring such persons to book, as the Nigeria of the 21st Century has no place for ethnic bigotry if we must remain relevant as the true Giant of Africa.Like the pogroms against the Jews, particularly those organized within the 19th and the 20th Centuries, the groundswell to such litany of traumatic events began with such campaigns as declared by these “agbayas”. 

    I am stating this in response to those who believe that my column as well as a number of comments from well meaning Nigerians was merely giving strength to such an ugly campaign of which these few felt ought to be ignored, sadly this was the same train of thoughts prevalent in those days, however like that small fire sweeping through the harmattan bush,  we all know what was witnessed next.

    Again, it may be #IgboExit or #Igboleave today, what about tomorrow, it may be #BiniJade and #Itsekiribyebye, or HausaFulaniNagode and #Oyinbomalojare, such madness could even reach fevering heights with campaigns such as #LagosforLagosians , #IbadanforOluloyesonly, #IlorinforOmoAfonja’s #AbujaforGwaris and #AbaganaforAbagana, since we all may love to be mad like the proponents for #Igbomustgo!

    One is even forced to ponder on what NdiIgbo may have done to warrant such; we have contributed our quota and are still contributing, not only to the state’s growth and development but also that of the nation. We have called Lagos and every other place home , going by our philosophy of “Ala wu otu”  we have built resplendent homes, established businesses, developed virgin areas and even intermarried producing offspring who share dual heritages. I for one grew up in Surulere and mixed up with the Femis, Tundes, Moshoodis , Tokunbos, Azeezs and Kabirus, we ate together, schooled together, played street football and disturbed the hell out of the neighborhood, not once did we see the each other as different because of our different ethnic backgrounds, today we still interact with each other while I hold dear my Lagos memories!

    It is not in doubt that we have complimented our Lagos,Yoruba and other brothers in that melting point and mini Nigeria of sorts called Lagos, we have combined our entrepreneurial drive with the lavish hospitality of our Lagos hosts giving it its rich potpourri and mishmash: Like a collection of jigsaw pieces NdiIgbo ,together with other ethnic groups, we have formed interlocks of meaningful socioeconomic and sociopolitical puzzles giving beauty to this mini Nigeria also known as Lagos.

    Have NdiIgbo refused to pay taxes or have we sought to subjugate all known forms of constituted authority in Lagos? Have we married off the pretty Lagos damsels and refused to pay dowry? Have we attempted to discriminate against any other ethnic group in any of our establishments warranting such a response which is obviously extreme! What then is our crime?

    Even if NdiIgbo accept to go, what happens to those of mixed marriages, perhaps traveling back to the early years, some producing grandchildren and great grand children? Will these children of such mixed marriages be told to just go too or will these agbayas conduct DNA tests to determine which gene is generally dominant in these persons? They should be prepared to conduct over millions of tests.

    Whatever these persons championing such a campaign are  seeking to achieve, we ought to impress it upon them that just as the likes of the Agudas or the returnees from Brazil and Cuba such as the Cardosos, the Pedros, the Da Silvas and the Dohertys did adopt Lagos as their home, did make a living and have remained in Lagos for countless generations, so also is any ethnic group free to choose the land of aquatic splendor as their own home including the Igbos!

    It is even believed that a number of persons asking NdiIgbo to leave Lagos and Yoruba land are not even Lagosians per se, and cannot be said to be more of stakeholders than other ethnic groups that have lived in Lagos! Even at that, these persons calling for Igboexit seem to be bereft of history, otherwise they would recall that despite the competitive nature between the Igbo and the Yoruba, the two major ethnic groups seem to have more in common with each other than with other ethnic groups in Nigeria. Do they know that Zik of Africa was a political son and disciple of the Wizard of Kirsten Hall and an Omoluabi of Lagos in the person of Herbert Macaulay? Whilst Awo was in prison, did the NCNC not enter into a political marriage with the Action Congress to preserve what was left of Awolowo’s legacy which was on a daily basis besmirched by the renegades who had entered an alliance with the Northern People’s Congress? Have they forgotten the supreme price paid by an Ekiti man in Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi who would rather die than see his Supreme Commander whisked away from his own domain where the former had played host! Even in their intense rivalry, Zik and Awo accorded each other such immense respect  as greats with each commanding impressive followership in each other’s  region. The likes of Adeniran Ogunsanya another core Lagosian readily comes to mind.

    Lastly, at a time like this when nations are removing certain barriers and are forming regional and continental blocs to enhance solidarity, promote free trade , enhance economic and scientific progress and to eradicate poverty and disease, a few grownups are tinkering with an idea that could spark civil strife in a country much desirous of peace, we should sound the alarm bells now and bring such persons to book, as the Nigeria of the 21st Century has no place for ethnic bigotry if we must remain relevant as the true Giant of Africa.

  • Tunde Adeniran and the politics of WS (1)

    Tunde Adeniran and the politics of WS (1)

    Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, whose landmark birthday fell on Saturday, 13 July, has continued to be celebrated and serenaded in diverse circles within Nigeria and across the world and there is no sign the joyous drum beats will cease anytime soon. Indeed, it is instructive that the University of Abuja, under the aegis of its immediate past Vice Chancellor, Professor Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, established a Centre of Wole Soyinka studies just as it did for other phenomenal thinkers like Chinua Achebe, Kolawole Omotosho and Usman Dan Fodio’s daughter, Nana Asmaou. Soyinka has become a legend even in his lifetime. Although the book, ‘The Politics of Wole Soyinka’ by Professor Tunde Adeniran had been on my bookshelf for a couple of years, it is perhaps unsurprising that it was in July that I commenced reading what turned out to be a seminal offering on the life and times of the literary colossus.

    There are so many interesting aspects to this book, published by BOOKCRAFT, which spans 241 pages and is segmented into 13 chapters. Although a political scientist specializing in international relations, Professor Adeniran is himself a literary writer who has written four volumes of poetry and two novels, and a keen enthusiast of the arts and various dimensions of culture. His work on the politics of Soyinka makes as exciting reading as the epochal life he has chosen to focus on. The author had actually written the book to commemorate Soyinka’s 60th birthday on 13 July, 1994, and updated it with an additional three chapters when the Laureate turned 80.

    As Adeniran notes in the preface to the first edition of the book, “Questions about Wole Soyinka will persist even after volumes have been written about the man, his life, his times, his works and so on. The decision to zero in on one aspect of his life was informed by the need to acknowledge the role he has played in that aspect of human endeavor whose antenna sends out and receives the kind of electromagnetic waves that determine the quality of human existence”. It is impossible to write about the politics of Nigeria without giving a sizable place to the role and contributions of Wole Soyinka who has been a prominent actor in many of the episodes of the country’s unfolding national drama.

    Of course, Adeniran’s book does not limit itself to Soyinka and the politics of Nigeria. Rather, as he writes, “Soyinka’s personage locates him in many “worlds”. He is black, he is African and he is a human being. To be a black man and an African requires black and African consciousness, an involvement in the type of literary creativity through which creative actions are processed for effect through the written word”. Again, in his words, “Wole Soyinka, with his massive creative imagination, would be expected to demonstrate, quite clearly, not only his awareness but an understanding of the implications of these which sum up to constitute the African condition, for his society and the human race”.

    As a political scientist, Adeniran analyses in considerable depth various themes in the political thought of Soyinka such as justice, power, equality or liberty as exemplified in the literary works and life of the writer. It is interesting that Professor Adeniran himself is a leading politician who had served as Ambassador to Germany and later Minister of Education in the government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo as President. He has held several other positions at diverse levels and never had his name or integrity tainted by the sordidness and venality that characterizes public life in Nigeria.

    Read Also: Eulogies, encomiums as Yemi-Esan bows out as Head of Civil Service

    In the preface to the second edition of the book, Adeniran writes about his meeting with Soyinka in the process of his preparations to update the first edition. He notes that “His anguish at Nigeria’s leadership deficiency and current state of the nation was palpable. In spite of this, he was pleased that I had not given up on campaigns for the National Secretary of my political party (the Peoples Democratic Party) and was ready for any legitimate actions on his part that could enhance my chances”. The politics of WS is far more nuanced and complex than often unfairly insinuated by those who thoughtlessly try to clothe him in partisan garb.

    It is perhaps inevitable that a work on the politics of WS cannot be indifferent to the spiritual elements of his thought for the writer can be said to be deeply spiritual and, perhaps unconsciously esoteric, even if strongly irreligious. Thus, as he prepared for his interview with WS, Adeniran avers that “My mind was made up that I would neither ask WS questions about God nor debate his ‘The Credo of Being and Nothingness’ or man’s religious affairs generally…But, based on the ceaseless change throughout the universe and the impermanence of thought even concerning self, I was instinctively contemplating checking the extent that age had accelerated or mellowed his religious skepticism and indifference”.

    Adeniran refers to a statement credited to WS at an event at Hay Xalapa that “If religion was to be taken away from the world completely, including the one I grew up with, I’d be one of the happiest people in the world. My only fear is that maybe something more terrible would be invented to replace it, so we’d better just get along with what there is right now and keep it under control”. Interestingly, Adeniran had the intention nevertheless that “since he was always interested in my career and well-being, I was going to testify to the word of God as my weapon and Jesus Christ, the Doctor of my soul, Mediator and Father in Nigeria’s deadly politics where we constantly witness a distressing disregard for God as a working hypothesis”.

    In the first chapter of the book, Adeniran examines the role of ‘The Artist as Politician’ across time and space. He takes a panoramic view of the role of artists – writers, sculptors, painters, architects etc in the politics of the societies and eras in which they practiced their art. The relative obscurantism of this chapter reminded me of Professor Adeniran’s international relations classes at the University of Ibadan which I always found overly abstract and difficult to follow, perhaps partly because that area of politics was not particularly my favorite. But I remember that his office was clustered, alongside his collection of books, with diverse art works and graphic images of his favourite artistes and revolutionaries.

    Much more accessible and pleasurable to read are chapters two and three where he focuses on the early years of WS, the political influences he was exposed to early in life, the forces that shaped his emergent political and social consciousness as well as the roots of his strongly non-conformist disposition first at Government College, Ibadan, and later was to glow into full bloom at the University College, Ibadan, where he was admitted in 1952.

    In three subsequent chapters, Adeniran interrogates WS’s politics through his plays, poems and novels. He quotes WS in an interview with John Agetua in 1975 where the writer submits that “we haven’t begun actually using words to punch holes inside people. But let’s do our best to use words and style when we have the opportunity to arrest the ears of normally complacent people, we must make sure we explode something inside them which is a parallel of the sordidness which they ignore outside”. That succinctly encapsulates the use to which Soyinka has deployed his art as a vehicle for societal change many times necessitating risky political activism on his part.

  • Sports isn’t witchcraft

    Sports isn’t witchcraft

    The ongoing Olympic Games have lived up to its reputation of humbling unprepared countries such as Nigeria. Previous champions in earlier editions at the Olympics were left wheezing for breath as new kids emerged in an astonishing manner. Upsets reigned supreme across all the Olympic sports, with many fairy tales brushed aside when push came to shove. Experience isn’t enough for athletes to grab medals. Not even luck could guarantee victory as athletes spared no trick during the games to earn winning points.

    How does one explain the situation where a cyclist was bold enough to tell the world that she forgot her bicycle in the camp hence, she had to borrow it from her German counterparts? She revealed further that her race was called earlier than anticipated. Nobi juju be that? The questions to ask would be where were her coaches and handlers not to know when her event was scheduled to be held? Shouldn’t she have been assigned a vehicle for training for daily practice before the event was held?

    Nigeria’s female basketball team,  D’ Tigress was one of the fairytale teams in Paris, beating world number three in the female version of the dunking game, Australia, losing to the French and beating Canada to earn a place in the quarterfinals against the United States of America (USA) on Wednesday night.  Nigeria lost 74-88 with Kalu, Musa an Okonkwo raising hopes of the D ‘ Tigress being a team to look out for in the next edition of the Olympic Games. Of course, the Americans knew what to expect from the Nigerians and resorted to the three-pointers while ensuring that Kalu was closely marked to stop her making the big three-pointers which she did with aplomb.

    D’ Tigress’ quarter-final feat was the first time any African team (male and female) would qualify at that level. The Nigerians planned for this showpiece by reporting early to the camp in Germany where they had top-quality friendly games against Serbia and Germany which they lost. But the vital lessons arising from their losses were not lost on them. They went back to the courts to brush off the rustic aspects of their game. Of course, no prize for guessing right that the Australians were beaten in the opening game of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games’ basketball event in Group C.

    Di Tigress’ two friendly losses served as the fillip for what they showcased before Wednesday’s quarter-final game. Did I hear you, dear reader say ”last bus stop for Nigeria?” The Americans have made basketball their fortress. It is the opium of the Americans. Not forgetting the impact the game has on the average American. The sporting world stays awake to watch the breath-taking games in the NBA which has now dovetailed to the women’s version, WNBA. How else can anyone measure growth in sports other than with Americans’ love for basketball?

    Pundits who predicted good tidings for Nigerian wrestlers relied on Igali’s expertise and experience as a gold medalist and an Olympian. But age played a trick on the wrestlers, many of whom should be told that their retirement time beckons. Igali gave them the best of training drills and the required pep talks to galvanise them to glory. But their better days in wrestling are falling short of the basics of the game.

    Read Also: Olympics: Nigeria and the muddling up of Sports

    Igali is the face of the future of wrestling in Nigeria and the sports minister would be energising any new system he is planning to adopt going forward if Igali serves as the pivot. Igali isn’t just anybody in wrestling and his inputs in practical terms have grown the game in Bayelsa State. What wrestling needs now is the spread of the game around the 774 Local Government Areas through regular wrestling competitions to increase the level of interest among the over 200 million people in Nigeria. The old names in wrestling are bowing out gracefully and they could be engaged gainfully as state and national teams’ coaches.

    A sport isn’t witchcraft. Winning medals, plaques, trophies, etc in sports comes with a lot of planning targeted at the grassroots in such a country, beginning with the primary, secondary, and polytechnics, universities etc . Sports in other climes are drawn on workable models where camps are situated in catchment areas whose topography encourages the discovery of athletes of particular games. Jos, for instance, should be where Nigeria can identify, train, and expose long-distance athletes to bigger competitions such as the Olympics. Have we exploited that area for rookies in the long-distance races?

    The catchment areas serve as the foundation for the games’ growth at all levels. The models provide the templates to make the project work, with the parameters set for the recruitment, training, and re-training of coaches, games masters, teachers’ training schools, and Colleges of Education with specialties in producing good coaches on the rudiments of the game. These educators in sports are sent to the catchment where they would introduce such games to the young ones.

    These catchment areas are otherwise known as the nurseries for identifying, training, and exposing the good ones to the bigger platforms starting with the different inter-house sports competitions at primary and secondary schools, Hussey Shield and Lady Manuwa Cups of yore, Morocco Clark Shield, etc.

    Isn’t laughable that Nigeria attended the 2024 Olympic Games in a year when the National Sports Festival didn’t take place in the years preceding the Olympics? Wasn’t the National Sports Festival meant to be the cradle to discover new talents in the 774 LGAs in the country? Where are the talents discovered in previous festivals and how well have we nurtured and exposed them since they were discovered?

    Pray, we are specialists in recycling athletes. It suits our administrators to celebrate athletes who attended six to seven Olympic Games without winning a medal of any colour. Other countries celebrate athletes who have participated in several Olympics winning gold, silver, and bronze medals. Most of these successful athletes would have won more silver and bronze medals than the gold medal. But the beauty about their medals’ winning feats is that they span through Olympic cycles showing that they went through the mill as young boys and girls when they won their first medals.

    Perhaps, the bitter lesson to be learned from the Paris Olympic Games is for the Sports Ministry to host the National Sports Festival in Abuja rather than allow state governors mess up the essence of the competition which to discover athletes who would represent the country in major tournaments. After, all isn’t that the only competition they organised in the past before the festival was bastardised with its rotation around the country which has suffered several postponements due to lack of cash?

    Not so in Nigeria where our athletes flaunt sworn- affidavits as their birthday records which all the time fail to stand the test of time. It takes at least two to three Olympic cycles to discover, nurture, and expose talents from the grassroots to stardom. So, when such a talent comes in with fraudulent sworn-affidavits as documents for their ages, it wouldn’t come as a surprise why such a talent won’t blossom. Sports isn’t rocket science? It also isn’t witchcraft. 

    Nigerians covered their faces in anguish as Ese Brume finished fifth in the women’s long jump event – one of the medals our officials counted for Nigeria before the Olympics. Shocked? Don’t be. Brume has been nursing an injury and wasn’t 100 per cent fit to win any medal. And it showed her performance. Pity.

    Will Nigeria win a medal at the Olympics in Paris? You tell me.

  • Thinking ahead of the next rage

    Thinking ahead of the next rage

    Anyone who thinks that the obvious failure of the planners of the lapsed ’10 days of rage’ to achieve their real objective – descent into absolute anarchy and consequent regime change – means that there will be no further attempts at national destabilization is utterly deluded. Head or tail President Bola Tinubu’s administration cannot win with its sworn adversaries. Many leading columnists, television and radio show anchors and public intellectuals contend that the President’s speech did not address the demands of the protesters adequately. Yet, there was no corresponding rigorous analysis of the content of the largely farcical demands. What was the President supposed to make, for instance, of the demand for the abrogation of the 1999 Constitution, fuel price of N100 per litre or a minimum wage of N300,000?

    True, there is intense hunger in the land. The inflationary spirals particularly in fuel, transportation, food and healthcare costs stem essentially from the administration’s painful but inevitable reform policies. But far from being actuated by sympathy for the hungry and suffering masses and finding concrete solutions to their plight, the planners of the protest sought to exploit the current pains to provoke rage, rampage and regime change. They thus deliberately drew up a list of demands that were utterly impossible to meet so as to manufacture the conditions for the realization of their anarchical designs. It can be said that they succeeded in large swathes of the North while failing abysmally in most parts of the South where there was no destruction of lives and property despite protests against hunger in a few states that lasted one or two days.

    In the North, the destructive rage was on display in Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Jigawa, Gombe, and Borno among other states. Public buildings were gutted, critical assets destroyed and private businesses ravaged. The raising of the Russian flag in a number of the states and open calls for soldiers to dislodge democracy indicated that the rage was less against hunger than a desire for the termination of the Tinubu administration and by implication of democratic governance. For, the states and local governments which, apart from the soaring of their allocations since the removal of the fuel subsidy, have received humongous amounts from the federal government to cushion the pains of their people, have more questions to answer for the perpetuation of hunger than the centre.

    The unreasoning scourge of destruction in the North and the waving of Russian flags in an undisguised solicitation in Nigeria of the kind of coups that country is believed to have instigated in Mali, Niger, and Bourkina Faso is reflective of the high level of illiteracy, poor political education and the menace of thousands of out of school children in the region. Most of those who perpetrated the violence and waved Russian flags were underaged children. Interestingly, in Kano State, for instance, where governor Abba Kabir Yusuf openly encouraged the protesters, he ultimately had to take desperate steps to prevent the government house from being consumed in the conflagration and stem the tide of destruction from continuing on its ruinous path for the state. The lesson here is that an irresponsible political elite that seeks to weaponize illiteracy and hunger – consequences of its incompetence and venality – for partisan political ends can easily be consumed by unanticipated fallouts of its mischievous machinations.

    But then, despite the tame and measured nature of the protests in those parts of the South where they took place, the horrendous #EndSars violence that rocked the region in 2020 indicates that there are also hordes of disoriented, disillusioned, distracted, and idle youths there who constitute a ticking time bomb for social explosion. What we have on our hands is thus the utter failure of a decadent political class across ethnic, regional, religious, and party boundaries to utilize the abundant resources of the country to empower the vast majority of her people with jobs, food availability, healthcare affordability and other necessities of life more abundant. Rather, a microscopic minority has utilized state power to accumulate humongous wealth thereby compounding the challenges of poverty and inequality that were the focus of this column last week.

    Read Also: Ogun to encourage wet, dry season food production

    Professional anarchists and opportunistic activists who do not necessarily operate on a higher moral pedestal than those they criticize in government will always seek to exploit these conditions of poverty and inequality as opportunities for self-promotion and projection through inciting agitations rather than sitting down to do the hard thinking necessary to finding realistic and enduring solutions to identified problems. It is much easier to plan and mobilize for mass violence and mindless rage than to do the hard, back-breaking work of organizing serious and efficient political parties to seek to attain power and offer alternative well thought out policies through the ballot box. The attempt to fuel ten days of destructive and destabilizing rage nationwide has failed this time around but it will only spur more meticulously planned attempts in future. And the security agencies must be as alert and vigilant as ever as the next attempt will most likely be spontaneously instigated without notice.

    As amply demonstrated in the President’s speech, the administration has conceptualized and set in motion policies to curb food inflation in the short, medium and long terms as well as stimulate micro, small and medium enterprises to boost profitability and employment. It will take time for these to begin to bear fruit. It is impossible for the President to magically conjure stones into bread to assuage current hunger. But the administration must treat with greater urgency the need for the requisite security re-engineering to make our communities safer and get thousands of farmers back to the farms.

    The current mechanism for getting food and other palliatives to vulnerable segments of the population must be overhauled for better effectiveness and efficiency. Above all, the federal government must set the pace and show the example in terms of substantial and visible cuts to the cost of governance so that other levels of government can be compelled to fall in line. The government has a responsibility to govern in such a way that those who will inevitably seek to stir up future rage will struggle to find credible reasons to indict the administration and arouse mobs to madness.

    Once it curbs excess costs in governance and adopts a zero-tolerance stance towards corruption with a demonstrated commitment to retrieving humongous amounts of stolen funds in private hands, the government must more boldly tackle those who have hardly disguised their determination to destabilize the polity and derail democracy. Perhaps because of the highly competitive and contentious nature of the elections from which it emerged, the Tinubu administration has treated with kid gloves those whose actions and utterances are difficult to distinguish from the treasonable.

    Open calls for coups, threats against judges, and denigrations of its legitimacy have all gone without requisite legal sanctions. This has emboldened those perpetrating these atrocities to ever-increasing acts of anti-government audacity. The sewing and waving of Russian flags in Kano and Katsina states, for instance, cannot be the brainchild of hardly literate tailors and ignorant street urchins. It is the responsibility of the security agencies to fish out, expose and prosecute their influential sponsors.

  • Tunji Bello’s new challenge

    Tunji Bello’s new challenge

    Four years after then governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s first term as governor of Lagos State in 2003, the environment was not one of the strongest areas of achievement of his administration. His government was still the target of criticisms and attacks by the media and the political opposition as regards the menace of refuse and other elements of environmental degradation in the state even though some improvements had been recorded compared with the ruinous environment he inherited. For his second term, the then-governor appointed a seasoned journalist, editor, and columnist, Mr Olatunji Bello, as Commissioner for the Environment. The appointment was not just a challenge to TB as he is fondly called as a person, but to the media as a whole which had been at the forefront of hauling missiles at the administration with regard to the environment.

    Luckily for the media, TB put his hand to the plough immediately and set about the challenge of more effectively and efficaciously implementing the administration’s elaborate programme for environmental renewal and regeneration including an expansive network of drainage channels for flood control. So successful was TB in actualizing Tinubu’s vision of an environmentally elevated Lagos that he went on over the succeeding years to serve at various times as a two-time Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, and Secretary to the State Government.

    It is not surprising that President Bola Tinubu as he strives to reposition and redirect Nigeria in difficult times has tapped on the proven abilities of TB who he has appointed as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice-Chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), a key parastatal within the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, which is the highest federal competition regulator in Nigeria.

    The Senate readily cleared TB to assume office as is constitutionally required. There are high expectations that the experienced administrator and environmentalist who holds a B.Sc degree in Political Science from the University of Ibadan, an M.Sc in International Law and Diplomacy as well as a Bachelor of Laws degree both from the University of Lagos, will excel as he has in previous assignments and justify the confidence reposed in him by the President.

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    As the lawyer and progressive public intellectual, Gabriel Amalu, wrote in his column in this newspaper on Tuesday, “The FCCPC has a role to play in making life better for Nigerians if it pursues vigorous consumer protection policies. While taming inflation is principally the domain of finance and economic management ministries and agencies, fighting unbridled anti-competition practices, importation and distribution of fake products and artificial price manipulations, which also cause inflation, fall within the domain of the FCCPC. So, in the new Nigeria that PBAT promised Nigerians during his campaign, and reiterated to the disillusioned protesters, the FCCPC has a significant role to play”. It cannot be more appropriately articulated. This is wishing TB all the best in this new challenge.

  • Security agencies and psychology of protest management

    Security agencies and psychology of protest management

    In a democracy, protest is a legitimate means of ventilating grievances. It is a right guaranteed in the constitution. But the law is also not silent on the responsibility of organisers to stick to the rules.

    The rights and responsibilities of citizens, however well enunciated in their national laws, become deeply inane where some of the citizens lack knowledge about acceptable conducts. You cannot, for instance, find a lawyer getting drunk in public. A professional conduct is in tandem with the tenets of his calling.

    In some parts of the country, especially in the Southwest, most families emphasise good conducts among their members. They impress family etiquettes, the Omoluabi ethos on their sons and daughters. The values are passed to generations to ensure their name is not soiled. Members of such families conduct themselves impeccably, no matter the profession or vocation they find themselves. Where some individuals fail to imbibe such values, the society suffers some consequences.

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    This is why there is a nexus between human conducts and the psychological dispositions of individuals. Human beings, being rational creatures, have the senses for positive and negative thoughts. The thoughts give birth to consequential actions. Both senses are ignited by circumstances. In times of peace and crisis, human beings conduct themselves in different ways based on their psychological dispositions.

    All human beings are teachable where appropriate means of communications are available. But a lack of requisite channels to enlighten the mind results in misdemeanor. 

    An analysis of the #EndBadGovernance protest has thrown up issues about the handling of the protest, which was hijacked, and degenerated into arson, looting, vandalism, destruction of public utilities, maiming and killing.

    It is settled in law that protesters do not need a police permit to hold rallies. Yet, citizens have the right to be protected by security agencies during demonstrations. This legal provision is challenging in a country like Nigeria where the number of policemen is inadequate to effectively carry out this function, especially during nationwide public rallies.

    The matter is further compounded by the frosty relationship between protesters, mostly human rights crusaders, who perceive the police as state agents for brutalisation of civil societies, with the police also perceiving the societal agitators as trouble makers. It is a carryover of the right activists’ perception of the Nigerian police and military as a colonial or neo-colonial institution aptly dedicated more to regime protection than the much flaunted commitment to the defence of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

    What is most striking is that peaceful protests are usually rare these days, except they are organised by experienced academic union leaders and labour organisations whose intentions are not to wreak further havoc on the society. Most protests organised by youths are characterised by the usual exuberance peculiar to their adolescent period of adventure, impatience, storm and stress. Up to now, the pains of the wounds inflicted by the #EndSARS protests of October 2020 have not healed. The scars remain indelible.

    It becomes more problematic when protesters are called out to the streets by faceless planners who may later lose control of the crowd they had mobilised. It is now obvious that the arrowheads of protests can hardly control or persuade the crowd to stick to the rules of the action. It is usually a mixed crowd of actual agitators and area boys who were not party to the planning.

    In fact, the miscreants do not understand that a protest should be conducted within the bounds of reason. To them, a protest is an opportunity to display their unruly behaviours. When hoodlums hijack protests from the original mobilisers by easily infiltrating the ranks of genuine and peaceful protesters, there is derailment and the fundamental objective is defeated.

    When protesters refuse to be confined to parks for legitimate protests and they insist on staging rallies on highways to deliberately disrupt the flow of traffic, thereby causing confusion and mayhem, criminal elements unknown to the planners have dominated the show.

    More worrisome is the tacit support given to protest by opposition politicians seeking a pound of fresh from the ruling chief executive. The growing partisan feeling that only violent protests are more impactful is  more worrisome.

    If state police was in vogue in Nigeria, maybe, the local, community or state policing structure would have been more effective in preventing the riots. The assumption is that the District Police Officer (DPO) and his men may have knowledge of the hyperactive youths in the locality and fish them out while attempting to hijack a lawful protest.

    Also, many believe that intelligence gathering becomes relatively easier because policemen operating in specific area are conversant with the geography, sociology, tradition, and demography of the environment.

    Many protesters see policemen as enemies that thwart their action. In some instances, they deliberately provoke the police, abusing and calling them names. Many policemen have lost their lives during riots and, in most cases, society did not bother about the implications of their demise for their bereaved families and loved ones. When they are pushed to the wall and they shoot, they attract public rebuke. No matter the extent of arson or violence perpetrated by protesters, the public expectation is that in the event of police intervention, there should be no single casualty; there should be no firing of shots and no life should be lost.

    There are puzzles: how can the wheat be separated from the chaff in that moment of tension when an orderly march turns bloody and miscreants become the companions of genuine agitators?

    Should security agents allow the disruption of public peace to continue by those whose activities threaten national security?

    If the violence perpetrated by hijackers is not curtailed on time, would the public spare law enforcement agents for not coming to their rescue? Would the police not be accused of dereliction of duty?

    How should policemen or soldiers, in extreme cases, respond to invasion of private property and public utilities, and the carting away of valuables under the guise of hunger protest?

    How should security agencies restore normalcy without casualties, especially among recalcitrant agitators?

    Two eminent Nigerians – former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka – raised objections to the police management of the protest. Soyinka felt that it fell below expectations. Atiku complained about the use of lethal arm. It is reassuring that where a policeman was found culpable in the death of a protester in a northern state, the officer was made to face prosecution.

    As violence erupted and tension rose, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, even warned that soldiers might come to the rescue, if police efforts became inadequate. The ‘Aid to Civil Power’ is offered as a last resort by the military, following the glaring failure of police action. It is a special operation, and the civil method of the police may have to give way to optimal ruthlessness. Whenever this method is adopted, it is obvious that the nation is on edge.

    Nationwide protests do not occur suddenly. Organisers usually give a notice of intention. This gives security agencies an opportunity to also issue their warnings against violence. The danger is that unscrupulous elements that cause violence often resort to using peaceful demonstrations as cover.

    Policemen drafted to the scene should be specially prepared through short training for management of protest. Coordination of intervention is also crucial. From the psychological point of view, there could be a rush of emotion. Indeed, handling protests by policemen could be stressful.

    While the use of teargas, rubber bullets, and hot waters could be acceptable to disperse protesters, the temptation to use live bullets should always be avoided. Force could be used to disperse rioters but not necessarily to punish or repress demonstrators. The global acceptable standard appears to be that lethal weapon should not be used where there is no clear threat to safety of life and property by protesters.

    Policemen should understand that protesters may be associated with minor violations that do not constitute a great infraction or real threat to public security. For example, in the protest environment, mass gathering may momentarily cripple vehicular movement, thereby constituting a negligible infringement on other people’s freedom of movement.

    Also, instead of focusing on arrest, detention and use of force, policemen could also use psycho-social skills. For example, the Lagos State police commissioner deployed his human relations skills while managing the recent protest at Ojota.

    While protesters wanted to invade the Ojota/Ketu highway, thereby causing traffic snarls, he employed persuasion. They listened to his pleas, knowing that he was on the ground to protect them.

    The police public relations skill extended to cracking jokes, serving water and some snacks. Even, policemen occasionally joined the crowd in dancing along with them to show a sense of solidarity. The sustained flow of communication between the policemen and protesters engendered a sort of mutual trust. There was no molestation by the policemen. There was, therefore, respect for the sanctity of life.

    The police boss demonstrated wisdom and tact. Aided by the court injunction, he was able to restrict many of the protesters to the Gani Fawehinmi Park, which was prepared as protest ground. When some of them stayed on the highway, he deployed his men for traffic control. The result was that, unlike the disastrous #EndSARS protest, public utilities were not destroyed and no life, either of a policeman or protester, was lost. There was no casualty.

    The protest would have achieved its major aim across the country if there was psychological understanding and trust among the agitators, government officials and the security agencies.

    The government – at all levels – needs to embark on a wide public enlightenment campaign on the need for peaceful conducts during agitations. The government of defunct Western State employed this method to enlighten the people even where there was only one radio station and a television station in the region. That approach could be brought back in a modernised way.

    It is easier to destroy than to build. Infrastructure that was built for years takes only minutes to bring down in a moment of uncontrolled fury. Prevention, we all know, is better than cure.

  • On the recent campaign for Ndigbo to leave Lagos (1)

    On the recent campaign for Ndigbo to leave Lagos (1)

    Understanding that the socio-political landscape of Nigeria is a tapestry woven from its numerous and also diverse ethnicities,and histories. Since it’s amalgamation, through to the days of independence and post independence, the experiment or Geographical Expression called Nigeria as adduced by Chief Obafemi Awolowo has continued to experience struggles between the ethnic groups that make up the sum total called Nigeria. Even after independence, such struggles continued leading to a number of crises, culminating into the first and second coups and the civil war. The declaration of “No Victor! No Vanquished!” as well as the experimenting of constitutions and the presidential system, Nigerians have continued to grapple with the cankerworm of ethnicity and tribalism that from time to time the drive  at national unity which had starry eyed dreamers like Nnamdi Azikiwe and young Nigerians like myself buying into such an idea continues to be rocked by the seismic upheavals of tribal and ethnic conflict questioning again and giving many a sceptic reasons to doubt the authenticity of the Nigerian Dream.

    But how can they, this is a country where a sitting Governor did declare that a particular ethnic group are global citizens and thus can choose to settle anywhere in Nigeria and claim ownership of that area, or where a sitting Senator, elected by sane Nigerians argue that Cows are citizens of Nigeria whilst arguing that another particular ethnic group which invests heavily in a particular business are not interrupted from setting up such business? This is a country where certain persons ganged up against a duly elected mandate of Chief Moshood Abiola for a number of flimsy reason plunging the nation into another round of crisis.

    Today, it is the campaign advocating for the Igbo people to relocate from Lagos, a city that has so epitomized both opportunity and turmoil for many Nigerians and a city they the Igbo have contributed immeasurably to. This campaign which has emanated on an X account of @Lagospedia wherein Lagosians and South West stakeholders are been cajoled to engage in a massive protest of #IgboMustGo from the 20th of August to the 30th.

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    The campaign has also called on Igbos in the South West one month to leave and relocate their business from all the South West states and for all Yoruba living in the South East to vice versa return home.

    Those who seem to be behind this seem to do so from a blend of socio-economic challenges, historical grievances, and contemporary political discourse. To understand this movement, one must navigate the historical context of the Igbo people, their relationship with Lagos, and the factors influencing this recent campaign.

    The Igbo, one of Nigeria’s three dominant ethnic groups, predominantly occupy the southeastern region. Their migration to Lagos can be traced back several decades, primarily driven by economic opportunities and educational pursuits. Historically, the city has served as a melting pot, attracting individuals from various ethnic backgrounds, including the Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo, all hoping to harness the city’s economic potential.

    However, the dynamic between the Igbo community and their Yoruba hosts has been fraught with tension. This relationship has been shaped by historical events, such as the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970), which pitted the Igbo against the Nigerian state. The aftermath of the war led to significant societal scars, with issues of marginalization and distrust lingering within and outside the Igbo community. NdiIgbo readily blame Chief Obafemi Awolowo for Biafra’s collapse, they also accuse Awo of betraying the Biafran cause by siding with the Nigerian State and serving as its Federal Commissioner for Finance. Awo’s financial wizardry readily crippled the Biafran cause, moreso his comments that  starvation as a legitimate weapon of war did not amuse the hundreds of thousands who starved and perished in such manner.

    The campaign to encourage the Igbo to leave Lagos much began in early 2017 when a character who goes by the name Adeyinka Shoyemi also known as Adeyinka Grandson and his Young Yorubas For Freedom, YYF.  Grandson, who was jailed by a Southwark court in the United Kingdom had readily sowed the seeds which began germination in the course of the 2023 elections in which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu defeated Mr Peter Obi. That election alongside the guber polls shamefully exposed the country’s susceptibility to ethnic politics with both tribes hurling ethnic slurs at each other! The elections did come and have gone but the scars remain unhealed and certain persons irked by what they term the boldness of their so called “tenants” to attempt to chart a new political trajectory for the state have decided to use such  ploy to reduce the voting influence of the Igbo people in Lagos, a sad commentary in the Lagos I grew up in.

    The campaign has drawn condemnation within Nigeria, with even the President reading the riot act to the call a few days ago. Other notable Yoruba and Lagos leaders have also joined the fray condemning the call. This has exculpated the Yoruba and Lagos Elite but was this not the same posture they took when thugs invaded polling units in Lagos and asked that those intending to vote that “Omo Igbo” should leave the polling unit? What has happened to such persons who led the charge ? Have they been punished ? Will this not serve as a pat on their heads and the encouragement to do more while the elite continue to add to the carbon dioxide by merely talking?

  • Olympics: Nigeria and the muddling up of Sports

    Olympics: Nigeria and the muddling up of Sports

    Modern sports have become a multi-trillion dollar business. What with the global attention on the variety of competitions at school, community, national, regional, sub-regional, continental and global levels. Sports have moved from fun and entertainment levels for physical fitness to skills-training and the polishing of individual or team talents. Teams often compete for entertainment and to win prizes, medals, national and personal pride and everything in between.

    The Olympic Games is the greatest sporting even in history for almost  3000 years. Its origin is in ancient Greece with the Olympian games from the 8th century BC to 4th century AD. It takes place every four years. Even though there are various stories about the history of the modern Olympic games, one thing is sure, the Olympics is the most anticipated and admired sporting competition in the world.

    The symbolic logo of the Olympics, the inter-linked multi-colored rings represents the colors found in the flags of most countries across the globe. In modern times, there have been plans for stateless citizens and even refugees to take part in the Olympics. The humans living with disabilities are incorporated in the Paralympics that happens just after the summer Olympics. The Olympics has developed to a level where what counts is not always the winning of country or individual medals but the beauty and excitement of participation.

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     Participating in the Olympics is the pride of every portsperson and nation. Beyond national pride and patriotism, individuals win medals for themselves and break and create records that stand in their names. So competing in the games goes beyond national pride to personal glories and the joy of participation. The global Olympic body is the International Olympic Committee (IOC) while serious countries often have their own local Olympic Organizing Committees (OOC) aimed at organizing and strategizing for the games.

    Winning medals by most countries during the Olympics is always a direct result of the level of sports development and interest in various sports across the world. It is interesting to see how certain sports when well-coordinated are signature sports of certain countries given their  physiology and practice. Individuals of African descent often show superiority in athletics and football, the Chinese often excel in swimming, table tennis and precision games, the Scandinavians and Europeans often show strength in hiking, cycling and similar sports. The Americans are often excellent at gymnastics, basketball and athletics.

    The Roundtable Conversation is really not totally surprised that at the time of this piece, the 9th of August, Nigeria, a country with the largest black population in the world has not won a single medal of any category. The only surprise has been that brilliant and spectacular Tobi Amusan did not qualify for her 100 Meters hurdles. Former Olympic gold winner at the 1996 Los Angeles Olympics, Chioma Ajunwa expressed her heartbreak at the unfortunate loss for a place in the finals just like many Nigerians.

    Earlier in the games, Nigeria suffered series of embarrassing moments. Favour  Offili whose name was missed out  by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria  (AFN) inTokyo’2020 suffered again at  Paris’24 Olympics, her name did not appear in the list for qualified athletes. The AFN failed to register her for the Olympics despite her qualifying. She cried and was heartbroken. It was such an embarrassing moment for the nation.

    Just as Nigeria was reeling from that embarrassment, the Nigerian Cycling federation seems to have failed Ese Ukpeseraye as she was seen on social media thanking the German Track Team for providing her with a track Bike after she received a late call up for the Keirin and Sprint events at #Paris’2024. She was wearing Nigerian jersey and riding a track bike provided by the German Team that had a spare.

    Nneka Annette Echikunwoke, a Nigerian American hammer Thrower was disappointed by the tacky preparation for the Tokyo’2020 Olympics. She had prepared to represent Nigeria in Japan but was failed by the Nigerian federation citing what they termed, ‘administrative error’. They had missed the doping tests and as such many Nigerian athletes were disqualified from competing.

    For #Paris’24, Nneka decided to fly the flag of her second country, the United States of America. She made history for Team USA, becoming the first ever Olympic female medalist in Women’s Hammer with a top throw of 75.48 meters winning Silver. She might have flown the Nigerian flag but the country lost out of the chance. As I write, the country has no single medal!

    The Olympics is not just the area of international sports competition that the sports ministry or other sports bodies have embarrassed Nigeria while disappointing the athletes. In football, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has been one huge house of commotion. If it is not owing the coaches and players, it is messing up the kitting of the team. At a certain FIFA competition, NFF forgot to carry the designated jersey and had to improvise by cutting the tracksuits for the team to compete in.

    Global Sports is one huge talent/skill developer and money spinner that Nigeria with its huge youth population has consistently failed to leverage on. Sadly, it is not strictly for lack of finance. It is more of a systemic dysfunction where a lot is taken for granted by government agencies and ministries.  The appointment of those who run sports at all leves are often not merit based. Nigeria at the last Women’s World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand caused a scandal when it needed the intervention of Ian Wright to pay the girls.

     Successive Nigerian governments through the Sports ministry have often been one huge contradiction in the development and organization of sports in the country. Beyond the Olympics, there is no serious systemic investment in grassroots sports through which children are caught early and their talents groomed for global relevance and skill-polishing. Nigeria is one of the most blessed with human and material resources but visionary leadership in all sectors seems to be lacking.

    The number of Nigerians across the globe representing other countries in various sports or even playing at the different football leagues across the world speak of the talents Nigeria is endowed with. Some sportsmen and women have been lured by other countries across the world and they typically excel with training infrastructure and good welfare. The lack of punishment and reward in the governance structure in Nigeria is reason the country seems to be retrogressing especially in sports.

    For a country with the number of talents like Nigeria not to plan for the benefits that come from the sporting world is very embarrassing. The teeming young people that would be gainfully employed through the various agencies that run the different associations is just a tip of the benefits that come from well-run sports ministry and their agencies .

    Countries that understand the value of sports invest heavily in sports development. This investment is always backed by competent management that are not political appointees. Professional in the different sports are not rare. The football leagues across the world have thriving academies that groom young footballers that ecell in their games. Football across the world is now a multi-billion dollar business that serious countries are investing everything to have a slice of.

    Youth unemployment in Nigeria can be cut in half if local, state and the federal governments invest in grassroots sports development. Investment in sports is not just about budgeting for competitions, it involves getting the best strategic plans to develop all sports especially those ones like athletics, football and weight-lifting, boxing etc. that the country is blessed in abundance with.

    Development of talents must be taken seriously in ways that talents can be caught young like in other countries or even as it was in the immediate post-civil war era in Nigeria in the 70s, 80s and 90s that now seem like centuries back when Nigerian flag  flew high at global competitions including the Olympics. How is it that Nigerian glory at the 1996 Olympics with all the gold medals in long jump and football cannot be replicated anymore? There seems to be little or no progress.

    Human capital must be developed for it to be fully functional and rewarding. Those running Nigerian sports seem very uninspiring. Why do we continue to export talents and not benefit from what we have? Why is the average footballer or athlete in Nigeria wishing to go to Europe or America or just about any country but Nigeria? It is the loudest voice about the environment that has been failing to develop and sustain talents.

    It is very ironical that most of the very impressive Tigress basketball team that proudly won the Afro-basketball tournament last year are made up of Nigerian-Americans with the very successful Rena Wakama, herself a Nigerian-American as their coach that led them to set an African record at the #Paris’24 basketball team. Tobi, the very successful hurdler, Brume the Long jumper and many other athletes are all based outside the country and benefitting from the good facilities and good coaches.

    Nigeria must for the first time have an audit of the performance of the Team Nigeria that allegedly  had a huge budget of N2.6 billion for the #Paris’24  alone. What value did Nigerian tax payers get from the outing? Is it just a regular jamboree or did the sports ministry and the local Olympic Committee put in the necessary efforts? It’s a shame that smaller countries with fewer resources managed to perform better than Nigeria not just in medal wins but in the organization of events that didn’t embarrass either the athlete or their countries. We all have a stake in sports as the most unifying sector of the nation. We must do the needful. Heads must roll if we are serious.

    • The dialogue continues…

  • Poverty, inequality and the fierce urgency of now

    Poverty, inequality and the fierce urgency of now

    When in 2022 the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released figures indicating that at least 63% of people living in the country, about 133 million persons, were multidimensionally poor, fresh posers were raised about how that fate of mass immiseration could be the reality of a country as abundantly endowed in human, natural and mineral resources as Nigeria. The abysmally pathetic living conditions of the vast majority of Nigerians is a protracted challenge that has faced the country for the best part of her post-independence existence and one that inexplicably worsens rather than being ameliorated as time unfolds.

    It becomes more and more evident with the passage of time that Nigeria is essentially, beneath its mosaic of multiple ethnicities and rival spiritualisms, a class society bifurcated into a few enormously monied and propertied elite and the vast majority of the citizenry striving at the fringes to eke out some sort of meaningful existence. The erosion of a comfortable and not insubstantial middle-class stratum that began with the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) by the General Ibrahim Babangida regime in 1986 has continued apace with the effluxion of time such that the obscenely affluent and desperately poor stand in relatively sharp contradistinction to one another in today’s Nigeria.

    But how did the Tinubu administration perform the feat of removing the fuel subsidy in one fell swoop by a final ominous presidential pronouncement that ‘fuel subsidy is gone’ without eliciting instant mass uprising? There was clearly a consensus across party lines during the campaigns towards the 2023 polls that the humongous corruption associated with the fuel subsidy was no longer sustainable. Hence the presidential candidates of the major parties had promised to remove the subsidy immediately upon assuming power. The key International Financial Institutions (IFIs), the IMF, and the World Bank were also strong advocates of instantaneous removal of the subsidy. With the benefit of hindsight, however, it would appear that the fuel subsidy played a greater role than most assumed in preventing the escalation of food, transport, and costs of many other items beyond the reach of the common man.

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    But the Tinubu administration went beyond fuel subsidy removal to also announce the bold initiative of merging the then-existing parallel foreign exchange markets thereby eliminating the opportunity its existence created for those well connected at the Central Bank to buy cheap at the official rate and sell exorbitantly at the parallel market to reap huge dollar dividends without an iota of labour. These twin reform platforms had severe implications for the value of the Naira and heralded stiff inflationary spirals that worsened poverty levels.

    It was, of course, only natural that political opponents of the administration would strive to blame all the current hardships on its economic policies and refuse to admit that these were measures that ought to have been taken years ago by preceding administrations that lacked the courage to seize the bull of economic reforms by the horns. Given the bitterness that characterized the 2023 election campaigns, the refusal of many to come to terms with the reality of the loss of their candidates at the polls, and the desperate attempts to denude the Tinubu administration of any veneer of electoral legitimacy, it is surprising that the government was given the respite of over one year in office before the current attempts to instigate national protests against the economic hardships attributed by propagandists to ‘bad governance’.

    It is obvious that the disguised faces behind the planned ’10 days of rage’ against economic hardship between August 1 and 10 were motivated by events in Kenya where attempts by the William Ruto government to introduce new taxes spurred widespread protests and riots that left large-scale destruction of private and public assets in its wake. But Nigeria’s experience with the #EndSars destructive protests over four years ago, a rage of violence from which many parts of the country particularly Lagos are only gradually emerging, no doubt made many people unwilling to lend their support to a repeat of such havoc anywhere in the country.

    But the fact that a not insignificant number of people in some states heeded the call of the ‘unknown’ organizers of the protests to hit the streets in anger is an indication of the immense hardships caused by the unceasing escalation of fuel, transportation, food, electricity and costs of drugs over the last one year. The less than enthusiastic response to the instigation to engage in ’10 days of rage’ in many parts of the country, however, is due to the significant dose of goodwill the Tinubu administration still enjoys despite the excruciatingly stringent economic realities experienced by the majority of Nigerians.

    For one, the administration has made humongous tranches of funds available to the sub-national units of government for the provision of palliatives to the most vulnerable sections of the populace. Again, some of its measures such as the students’ loan scheme, financial succor for micro, small and medium enterprises, waiver of import duties on some essential food imports, removal of import duties on essential pharmaceutical commodities and drugs, distribution of truckloads of grains to states from the national reserves, institution of an over N1 trillion commodity credit scheme to enhance the purchasing power of citizens and support for compressed natural gas vehicles among others are evidence of the administration’s determination to provide a cushion of support for millions of Nigerians in hard times. What is of critical importance now is the efficient implementation of many of these measures to achieve the desired outcome.

    Commendable as these initiatives are, it is of utmost importance that the government realizes the degree of hardship being endured by the vast majority of citizens and accelerates its tempo of policies and actions toward decisively easing the pain. The government must recognize what Martin Luther King referred to as ‘the fierce urgency of now’ in tackling current economic hardships being experienced by millions of citizens.

    What are some of the urgent, ameliorative steps that the government can take in this regard? First, is in the area of security. The committee set up to map out a plan for the actualization of state police is moving at too leisurely a pace given the urgency of the situation. If that effort is being bogged down by inevitable complications and complexities, the federal government should fast track the establishment of the ‘forest rangers’ promised in President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. This will be a well-trained, armed, and motivated force that will secure forests and farmlands thus ensuring that thousands of farmers are able to return to their farms, boost food productivity, and thus make essential food items affordable for millions of citizens. It will be far more effective and efficient to bring down food costs through enhanced agricultural productivity than distribution of free food palliatives to targets that may never receive them.

    Again, the administration should intensify its efforts to retrieve back into the public purse billions of illegally and criminally accumulated funds by former and current public office holders. It has been argued that getting back these stolen funds will mitigate the need for increasing the country’s foreign debt stock while also providing funds for the actualization of the administration’s many critical capital projects. The administration need not engage in any dramatics or histrionics in this regard. All it needs to do is give the anti-graft agencies the freedom to function in accordance with the statutory laws that guide their operations. The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, for instance, has demonstrated a commendable enthusiasm to deliver on his statutory mandate. He should be encouraged.

    Recently, when the management team of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) paid him a courtesy call, the EFCC Chairman lamented, “When I look at some case files and see the humongous amount of money stolen, I wonder how we are still surviving. If you see some case files, you will weep. The way they move unspent budget allocations to private accounts in commercial banks before midnight at the end of a budget cycle you will wonder what kind of spirit drives us as Nigerians.” He was of the view that if public corruption is effectively eliminated in Nigeria, “the country would fare better than many countries of the world”.

    While the Tinubu administration had taken steps to ensure a thorough forensic audit of the CBN on the assumption of office and top officials of the apex bank are facing the law for corrupt practices and forfeiting funds and property to the government, no such measures have been taken with regard to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). Yet, many experts have contended that notwithstanding the passage into law of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the NNPCL, its other subsidiaries and the country’s oil sector as a whole remain as opaque and thus susceptible to corrupt and underhand practices as ever.

    From an initial deadline of the presumably refurbished Port Harcourt refinery to commence production in December 2023, the timeline was shifted to April 2024. We are in August now and yet there is no clear indication of when the facility will go into operation. No meaningful solution seems to have been found to the industrial scale theft of the country’s crude oil on a daily basis and even the Dangote refinery which ought to have since commenced production of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) is bogged down in accusations and counter accusations with the NNPCL. Right now, long fuel queues have resurfaced in Lagos, Abuja and a number of urban centres across the country. Something is seriously wrong somewhere. There is surely an urgent need for a forensic audit of all aspects of the country’s oil industry particularly the NNPCL if the great work that Mr. Wale Edun, Minister for Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy as well as the CBN governor, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, are doing are to yield concrete results.

    According to OXFAM International a few years ago, “Nigeria is not a poor country yet millions are living in hunger. The government must work with the international community to get food and aid to hungry people now. But it can’t stop there. It must free millions of Nigerians from poverty by building a new political and economic system that works for everyone, not just a fortunate few”. These words ring even truer today. The Tinubu administration must be as concerned with dealing with the challenge of mitigating absolute poverty as with that of reducing extreme inequality. As one report put it, “While more than 112 million people are living in poverty in Nigeria, yet the country’s richest man would have to spend $1 million a day for 42 years to exhaust his fortune”. These obscene levels of poverty and inequality demand that urgent, remedial measures be taken with the fierce urgency of now.

    A critical source of the ever-growing inequality that is a key feature of Nigeria’s economic crisis is the glaring disparity between elected and appointed public officeholders and the rest of the populace. Nigerian national legislators, for instance, are cited as being among the most amply rewarded in the world while there is little concord between their remunerations and allowances and their actual productive output. But then, this is a problem that goes beyond the legislature and applies equally to members of the executive too at all levels of government. The problem is compounded by the fact that a substantial number of the citizenry actually expect public office holders ‘representing’ them in government to criminally ‘privatize’ public funds in their care so that the constituents can also enjoy their share of the ‘national cake’. Once again, we must stress the critical importance of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to help re-orientate national values as a necessary condition for socioeconomic recovery and rapid positive transformation.

  • The broken calabash

    The broken calabash

    The air within sports circles in the country has been fouled. The stench emanating from the broken calabash is suffocating with stampede, arising from people clutching their nostrils while they search the surroundings for unpolluted areas for the breath of fresh air. As people ran for cover, having inhaled a high dosage of unhygienic air, the recurring question has been, who dun nit? Is anyone surprised that the Asians are atop the medals table? One of the benefits of hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They are winning laurels in most of the events. Why won’t they? With some of the best facilities available to them, and popper training, the world will soon be at their feet.

    It is the Olympic Games where the scorecards of all the sports federations, especially the Olympic sports, are being evaluated, including the face of the country on the international platforms; the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) is not exempted from the grading exercise. Pray, the time for buck passing beckons, people blame everyone else but themselves for a competition they knew about at least four years ago. Frankly speaking, a lot of people in the sports federations and the NOC have overstayed their welcome. They should be eased off if we truly want the desired change in the sports circles here.

    Indeed, should Nigeria have attended the Olympic Games in Paris with an 84-member contingent? This writer was asked by a very senior gentleman at The Nation Newspapers on Sunday.

    Yes, I politely responded, stating that there were qualification marks Olympic-bound athletes must attain before they could be registered to participate in the Olympic Games. Now, it is obvious that our representatives at the Olympics are not walking their pre-competition talk. Not unexpected with the kind of self-seeking administrators we have in the federations. Pity.

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    What were we expecting from boxing, for instance, where the unsubstantiated allegation revealed that the contingent’s chief coach was dropped for allegedly leaking the story of unpaid allowances to the media? He was replaced by a man who served as sparring mate to the boxers. This writer won’t also comment about Cynthia Ogunsemilore’s failed drug test because she hasn’t been found guilty with her second sample still under scrutiny in the laboratory. What is clear from the boxing federation is that the boxers and officials went to Paris as a divided house with nothing to cheer. I hope not.

    Basketball at the Olympics isn’t one of the sporting events that pundits expected much from Nigeria. Yet, our men and women have a way of upsetting the Applecart by beating some of the best basketball countries to raise hopes about the future. Why did the  D’ Tigress beat the Opals of Australia in the opening game in Group C? They were only continuing the tradition of upsets at the multi-sports event. Unfortunately, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) isn’t the one family of yore that worked for the good of the game. The members are acting like strange bedfellows with the future of the game highly threatened. One hopes that good sense prevails among the members so that they can harvest bountifully from the game, given the abundant talents available to the country in the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country.

    The Nigerian girls are WNBA-rated girls who have the pedigree and exposure to beat the Australians. Don’t forget that the Olympic Games are a leveller. A platform for upsets from new kids on the bloc eager to change the narratives of their respective sports. The Olympics isn’t a respecter for champions.

    Table tennis is one of the best games in the country given the competitions played yearly in the country in the last two decades or more. It is easily the busiest sport locally which has produced potential world beaters in the male and female categories. Indeed, the table tennis federation has the best template which has continued to produce fantastic young kids who have represented the country creditably. But this idea of the experienced hands dominating the game needs to be discouraged.