The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

Stamp duty impunity

(First published on Saturday, April 21, 2018, this piece has acquired renewed resonance in the face of the fresh controversy on the non-remittance of huge revenues running into trillions of Naira accruing from stamp duty deductions into the Federation Account allegedly for several years now. The protracted economic crisis and attendant crash crunch which the article cited as necessitating urgent action to retrieve the funds for the benefit of the Nigerian people has worsened accompanied by a bludgeoning of the country’s debt burden and the further immiseration of the Nigerian people. As noted in the piece, this newspaper was one of the earliest to publish not just an investigative report but also an editorial as well as at least two columns on the then-emergent stamp duty crisis. We reproduce the column to refresh the minds of our readers on the pertinent issues in contention).

Almost three years into the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, Nigeria continues to walk a fiscal tightrope. The punitive wages of economic recession from which the nation has only just fragilely emerged was partly the result of the horrific corruption of the preceding PDP years of the locusts, which was compounded by the initial political inertia and policy lethargy of the emergent All Progressives Congress (APC) administration at the centre. Despite the Buhari administration’s substantial stanching of the massive haemorrhaging of public resources through its anti-corruption strategies as well as its herculean efforts to diversify the economy and enhance self-reliance, millions of Nigerians still remain in the stranglehold of mass immiseration.

As the Federal Government has no choice but to intensify its quest for foreign loans in the face of its largely inherited fiscal crisis, the World Bank this week raised an alarm over the country’s rising external indebtedness along with other African countries. A majority of state governments owe several months of workers’ salaries, allowances and pensions and are unable to meet other obligations to the general public. The virtual paralysis of federal health institutions nationwide as a result of the ongoing strike action by aggrieved health workers over unmet demands illustrates the near state of emergency into which governance has been thrown in Nigeria due to severe financial denudation.

Against this background, is it not utterly scandalous that about N20 trillion, being revenues from Stamp Duties which ought to have been long paid into the Federation Account for onward disbursement to the federal and state governments, continue to be illegally withheld by the requisite financial institutions and authorities that ought to know better? It is significant that the creative professional and financial engineering ingenuity that led to the generation of this fund is that of Nigerians and not any foreign experts. Specifically, the credit goes to the School of Banking Honours (SBH), an Innovative Enterprise Institution (IEI) and monotechnic registered under Nigerian law to research banking operations and collaborate with banks and the government on banking matters. On September 11, last year, this newspaper published an exhaustive investigative story by the Group Business Editor, Simeon Ebulu, detailing how the government and people of Nigeria had for several years been denied the opportunity of benefiting from the humongous funds reaped through stamp duties from the banking public but shrouded in suspicious bureaucratic secrecy. In the report, the SBH’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Tola Adekoya, disclosed how, in pursuit of its mandate, the institution’s Job Creation and Research Department discovered that the country was losing gargantuan amounts of revenue, which ought to accrue to the Federation Account, as a result of the non-enforcement of relevant provisions of extant Stamp Duty laws as well as the Federal Government Financial Regulations (2009).

To plug this loophole and correct the anomaly, the SBH approached the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) on 20th April, 2012, and intimated the latter of an unexploited opportunity in the Stamp Duties Act, 2004, to increase its internally generated revenue by affixing adhesive stamp on banking receipts as provided for in the law. On the basis of this initiative, the SBH entered into a Masters Services Agreement with NIPOST on September 14, 2012, to help facilitate the collection of Stamp Duties on banking receipts in compliance with the Stamp Duty Act, 2004. Armed with the Master’s Services Agreement with NIPOST, the SBH approached the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for authorization to engage Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and other qualified institutions as collecting agents in the stamping and remittance of legally stipulated stamp duties. The CBN gave the required approval on December 3, 2012. And on October 15, 2015, the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) issued the SBH a Copyright Certificate (No. LW1023) affirming its copyright ownership of the initiative on stamp duty collection.

Before the initiative of the SBH, stamp duty on all Cheques with a value above N500,000 had been paid to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) since 1993 with the revenue allegedly not remitted to the Federation Account over the years as required by law. With the intervention of the SBH, however, the scope of the Stamp Duty was vastly expanded to encompass N50 per banking transaction covering manual and e-transfers from N1000 and above. The mandatory stamp duty payment was also extended to cover Local e-transfers, international transfers, internet-banking, ATMs, Point of Sale and e-mobile all covered under the CBN Act, 1991, but inexplicably overlooked until the lapse was pointed out by the SBH.

Apparently exhausting its patience after waiting for three years with no stamp duty revenue reportedly remitted to the Federation Account and its legal entitlement on the project not met, the SBH issued a Demand Notice to the NIBSS dated 10th March, 2015, entitled ‘Stamp Duty on Electronic Receipts (2013-2014)’ alleging that the sum of N7.719 trillion accruing from stamp duty on electronic cashless transfer between 2013 and 2014 had been illegally kept with the NIBSS rather being transferred to the Federation Account for the benefit of the federal and state governments. According to the SBH, the over N7 trillion in question represents an average of N160 billion realized daily from the specified banking transactions in only five states in 2013 and 2014.

The institution estimates that when account is taken of the amount that has inevitably accrued on stamp duty over an additional three-year period (2014-2017), the unremitted revenue to the Federation Account stands at about N20 trillion. This implies that the 36 states will be entitled to no less than N200 billion each from the first tranche of the inexplicably withheld revenue.

In an editorial on the issue published in its 18th September, 2017, edition, this newspaper wrote: “For a country just getting out of the throes of recession and needing every kobo it can get to accelerate the rate of economic recovery and further growth, the SBH’s allegations are too serious to ignore. The appropriate authorities must urgently look into the issue with a view to unearthing the truth and recovering any due amount into the Federation Account if the SBH’s claims are found to be credible”. And true to his anti-corruption credentials, President Buhari reportedly authorized that the issues in contention be investigated and the verified facts made available to him expeditiously.

It was certainly on this basis that the presidency on 12th October, 2017, approved the retention of the SBH in partnership with Messrs. International Investment Law & Arbitration LLC as the legal Stamp Duties recovery Agent/Consultant with a mandate to “recover over N20 trillion from Nigerian Inter Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) to the Federation Account in line with your patent right now in force”. While the Presidency assured the SBH that “the Federal Government will provide you and your partner (International Investment Law & Arbitration LLC) with adequate security during the assignment”, it however stated that “your consultancy fee is 7.5% of the total amount recovered as against 20% earlier agreed in the Master Services Agreement with the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST)”.

And obviously to underscore its seriousness on the matter, the Presidency followed up with a written directive to the Central Bank Governor on 19th October, 2017, stating the official role of SBH and International Investment Law & Arbitration LLC in the recovery of “the sum of N20.0 trillion Stamp Duty through the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc. (NIBSS)” and stressing that “The Consultants will introduce a sustainable template to meet the CBN directive of 3rd December, 2012, for Messrs. School of Banking Honours to sweep Stamp Duty accruing from banks and other financial institutions into Government coffers, as patented under the Law”. The apex bank was further mandated to “direct the Management of NIBSS, Banks and other Financial Institutions to cooperate with the Consultants to access all records relevant to the success of the assignment”.

Despite the unequivocal presidential directive, the SBH claims it has met a brick wall in its efforts to commence work on its mandate particularly from the NIBSS. While the SBH met with legal representatives of the CBN on February 1st, 2018, its meeting with the NIBSS scheduled for 5th February, 2018, was reportedly aborted with the latter claiming to be still awaiting a directive from the CBN on the issue. As millions of Nigerians continue to wallow in ever deepening poverty, it is unconscionable to allow N20 trillion that ought to be paid into the Federation Account to ameliorate the plight of the people to continue to lie idle for no apparent just cause.

If the NIBSS has alternative facts to render the claims of the SBH nugatory, it should make them available for the consideration of the presidency. To continue to stonewall as the NIBSS seems to be doing in the face of the SBH’s legal claims and the clear position of the presidency is an act of intolerable impunity.

December 31, 2022
NPFL’s colony of clowns

The problem with administering sports in Nigeria rests with the fact that those who eventually get the jobs lack the capacity to see through the desired changes being envisaged for the industry. Yes, people learn on the job and perfect their trades. But those who run sports in the country always choose to flex muscles for simple exercises which are easily resolved by looking for what the laws provide for. One isn’t surprised, considering the pedigree of those who influenced their appointments for the jobs.

Otherwise, how do you explain the setting where club owners who claim to be experts in the administration of league football don’t know the body recognised by FIFA to administer the game here? The truth is that the NFF holds the game in trust for FIFA with all the rules and regulations in the confines of the Dankaro House’s chieftains in Abuja.

Club Owners who are representatives of the participating teams shouldn’t also be the organisers of the league competition. Such a setting encourages match-fixing which tarnishes the image of the game here to the world. Of course, you cannot be a judge in your matter. No wonder, we have seen different interpretations of simple laws of the game whenever infringements are committed. For neutrality’s sake, it is appropriate for the owners to hand off the administration of the game for fairness and equity.

The Club Owners’ claim that opting for the abridged league format would amount to taking the game back by ten years must tell us what has happened to the doctrine of necessity. They cannot claim not to know that the year 2023 is an election year in Nigeria, so anyone planning for anything involving the people must factor in their safety within the electioneering period.

Indeed, would the Club Owners say they didn’t participate in the December 21 meeting at the Sandralia Hotel in Abuja, where it was resolved that; ”the IMC will inform the NFF on the decision to organise the draws for the 2022/2023 league on the 28th of December 2022 and that the league will commence on the 8th of January 2023 on Abridged League Format…” Isn’t this what the rules say? Why are they crying wolf where there isn’t now that the NFF has endorsed the agreement by the IMC and Club Owners in their December 21st meeting to adopt the abridged system since there was enough time to run a 38-week league format, knowing the implications if Nigeria fails to field winners of the league across the board by June?

How do we field players to represent those teams if the competition ends after CAF’s stipulated registration period? How would the teams strengthen their squads when there isn’t a transfer period for them to complete such tasks which are done both within and outside the country? If the IMC didn’t recognise the Club Owners’ role in the administration of the game by inviting them for the December 21st meeting, tongues would have wagged. However, it really wasn’t necessary since the Club Owners aren’t recognised in the laws of the game, we have been told. IMC, a body assigned to organise the league this season did the right thing by informing the Club Owners about the NFF in a memo where it was stated that: ”The purpose of this letter is to convey the approval of the NFF to organise the draws on the 28th of December 2022 and the League will commence on the 8th of January 2023 on an Abridged League Format”.

If the Club Owners doubted the IMC’s information, they ought to have sought NFF’s intervention to authenticate what they were given rather than to show how uninformed the body was about the rules governing the beautiful game here. The owners of the game here are the NFF not the Club Owners whose threat not to participate in this year’s league because of its format is not only laughable but idiotic.

What the Club Owners have done with the erratic conduct is to make Nigeria the laughing stock in the comity of soccer nations in the world. It also shows that they aren’t abreast with the rules of the game. One isn’t surprised because the laws of the game have no roles for them. So, why did the IMC relate with the so-called owners?

The Chairman of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) Hon. Gbenga Otolorin Elegbeleye told Nigerians in a live radio programme on Kennis Radio: “We met with the club chairmen twice and we told them that we have the mandate to finish the league in May to align with the International calendar so Nigeria will not be left behind among the nations in terms of football activities.” Isn’t this submission for a change in the league’s calendar fair enough since it would ensure that our league is in tandem with other leagues in the world? Can’t we see clearly that these owners don’t know their onions or do they?

Elegbeye disclosed further on Kennis Radio’s Sports Salsa: “We told them to pick any format of their choice, they came back and said they want the league to end in July and gave us 2 options. The first option they (club chairmen) provided, was the league will end in July and when the CAF ask for representatives we should give them the top 4 at the time they ask for the list. But we said how can we nominate teams that will represent us without finishing the league?

”Also the top 4 teams we pick might not even be among the top 4 teams by the time we end the league. It means we gave slots to teams that did not merit them. The second option is that for those clubs that represented us last season we should give them the automatic ticket to go again. We told them we want competition and a league that would finish in July.

“They said we should go to the NFF, but NFF insists we should finish the league by May which means we should go for an abridged league, by our calculation, we will not finish this league if we go full-blown.”

The Club Owners were either absent-minded during the meetings or just wanted to be mischievous with the empty threats not to attend the draws held on December 28. Thankfully, the draws were held on December 28 with Nigerians eagerly waiting for the January 8 kickoff date. One cannot understand why the Club Owners are resisting change when they know that the league body is indebted to the referees with the figure put between N350 million and N500 million. One is excited to hear that the IMC isn’t making this debt a reason to bandy words with the defunct LMC. The IMC has secured sponsor(s) who would credit the accounts of referees before games are played. One is, however, worried over the stoic silence by the IMC on the issue of ensuring that players’, coaches’, officials’ and backroom staff’s outstanding allowances and wages are paid before the commencement of the competition on January 8.

Players, coaches, officials and backroom staff can’t perform optimally on empty stomach. IMC chiefs shouldn’t gloss over this issue of paying all the outstanding debts before January. After all, this aspect forms part of the club licensing requirements among other factors. This IMC should tell us their plans towards ensuring that the players’ welfare package is good enough for them to play games as if their lives depend on them.

It won’t be out of place for the league to have an official insurance sponsor, and an official medical firm to take care of everyone associated with the league including the fans at the stands during games. Not forgetting the need for the match venues to be adequately secured before, during and after matches. I sincerely hope that the IMC chairman can effectively educate the state governors, the real owners of these clubs to embrace the new trend of encouraging states from funding clubs. And this dream can’t be achieved by these set of club chairmen. They have no business plan and have refused to embrace change. Chairmen who owe the players, coaches, officials and backroom staff as and when due should be shown the exit door.

December 31, 2022
For Nigerian women, political exclusion deepens

As the year draws to a close, the 2023 elections in Nigeria draw nearer. The campaigns are hitting up but of the 18 presidential candidates, only about four are popular with a large percentage of voters possibly due to their pervasive media presence. Of the four presidential candidates, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) none is a woman, none has a woman as vice presidential candidate.

Of the 36 states, only the APC is a major political party that nominated Aishatu Binani, a female candidate for the Adamawa state governorship election. The other three major political parties have no female governorship candidate. The APC was equally the first major political party to nominate the late Aisha Al-Hassan popularly referred to as Mama Taraba as its governorship candidate in 2015.

However, for the 2023 general elections, the United Nations Women Office in Nigeria recently disclosed that out of a total of 15,307 candidates that would take part in the 2023 elections, only 1,553 are women. This, the agency said, amounts to a mere 10.1 percent of the total figure. This is very abysmal for a country dealing with about 20 million out-of-school children and a 133 million of its population (according to the National Bureau of Statistics) living in multi-dimensional poverty.

UN Women Programme Manager in the country, Desmond Osemhenjie stated this during a chat with media executives in Lagos organized by the agency in partnership with Women Radio. According to Mr Osemhenjie, when compared with the 2,968 female candidates that participated in the elections in 2019, women participation is getting progressively worse. Of the 18 presidential candidates, only one is a woman.

There is however a silver lining in Lagos which leads with the highest number of female candidates for the 2023 general elections. APC has 102 female candidates while PDP has 72 female candidates. This means that Lagos state is doing much better than other states in gender inclusiveness. The economy of the state is equally proof that a high level of inclusiveness promotes development.

Nigeria trails most African countries in female representation in parliament. With Rwanda with the global highest of more than 60%, the economic growth of Rwanda rising from a 1994 genocide shows what inclusion can do for economic development. The level of poverty in Nigeria shows that the patriarchal system has had negative impact on the economy and ironically women suffer the most the effects of poverty.

The Roundtable Conversation had followed the congresses and primaries of political parties and discovered that male dominance seem not to be waning anytime soon. There is still the male stranglehold on leadership positions in the political parties and women are still left with the “Women Leader” positions across the parties. To us, that is a veiled affirmation of the second-class citizen that women seem to be consigned to at different levels.

Ironically, the essence of the Women Leader position is merely to organize fellow women to vote for men. The issue is, why do we not have Men Wing of political parties? In some states, there are no women at all in the houses of assembly and so if there are Women Affairs ministries, they are run by men. The issue remains, how do men handle issues like reproductive health and other issues that are best handled by women themselves?

The poverty index in Nigeria can be reduced when the men in politics realize that complimentary leadership pays off in the long run when the best of men and women access leadership. The global economy has shown that the countries with least women empowerment lag behind developmentally. With the level of poverty in Nigeria, it is surprising that men still have ways of sidelining women in politics. The gender equity bills that were thrown out by a majority male parliamentarians significantly tells the story of the political monopoly that men enjoy in Nigeria not out of competence but rather as a result of mere physiological reasons that amounts to nothing in productive terms. It is surprising however that women excel in sectors where merit is the criteria for growth like in the corporate world, the academia, sports, entertainment etc.

As the election of 2023 draws near, the Roundtable Conversation believes that the conversation must not stop. We cannot raise our voices enough and we can sound like broken record but we must try to salvage a very bad situation. Nigeria is too endowed with both human and material resources to be where it is economically. Political power is the compass that leads to economic development. Leadership matters and if that is the case, then action must be taken by all good people of all genders to right the wrongs as soon as possible by all legal means.

The Roundtable Conversation feels we can do the best we can with the candidates of the various political parties to get more women into appointive positions given that the elections are almost here. Women and other excluded demographics can then re-strategize towards 2027 elections. The equity we seek must be backed with a tireless push to let the men understand that a single broom stick cannot sweep better than a bunch of broom.

We had a chat with a Rights Activist and the Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria and the Convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Ene Obi. We started by asking her what women can do at least to make the political parties be fair in appointive positions after the elections seeing that talk is cheap and most of the political parties in the past have reneged on their promises during campaigns about either obeying the constitutional provisions about being fair and equitable or keeping their own political party promises about appointive positions for women as a way of making sure women have a voice and contribute their quota in development of the country.

Ene believes that women now have technology on their side in the sense that today, speeches can be recorded on video and documents can be preserved in many ways so that women henceforth can begin to hold male politicians accountable. Each elected official must be held to account by being reminded of their pre-election promises. She recalls that President Buhari must be reminded that in 2018,in seeking for a second term, he promised to give women 40% representation. This has not happened.

Women must begin to hold men accountable. The ratio of women to men in the coming election is very poor and there are fears that it might even go lower if women refuse to act. Women must according to her deftly re-strategize for 2027. Women and other demographics like the youths and those living with disabilities must work together to achieve better results. The agencies of both women and the youths can collaborate and choose their political parties which might not necessarily be the frontline political parties that seem to have ignored the voting blocs.

Women can decide to join a particular political party if there is a firm agreement about inclusiveness that is absent at the moment in the so called big political players. Ene believes that the major problem of women in the country is that they seemingly do not have a loud voice in the parliament. Nigeria has a male-dominated parliament with less that 10% of women. Women voices are muted because they cannot be heard in parliaments were the laws are made.

A country like Kenya for instance has seven female governors because of a constitutional amendment that makes it illegal for any gender to have more than two third representation in any election. That can be done in Nigeria with the willpower of women getting into the National Assembly and even state houses of assembly. Women should stop organizing votes for men through the Women wing charade by political parties. They should aim at occupying more empowering party leadership positions like the Chairperson or secretaries of the political parties. Women need to educate and enlighten more women about the essence of active participation in political parties.

To her, the problems in the country are multi-faceted and women in a way bear the bigger burdens of poverty. With unemployment/underemployment for instance, less young men are able to marry and start families. What that means is that for women that have biological clocks, they might be frustrated and not have children in their prime. This is very concerning because families must grow for an assured future of our country. Women must reclaim our country through active participation.

Women must insist that the imbalance in the National Assembly where the laws can be made and corrected must continue so that women can be at the table for the development of our country. To Ene, women should never back down. Men are the ones gaining from the imbalance and as such would never voluntarily yield power, women must be ready to legally fight for seats at the table given that women bear the heavier burden of bad governance. Re-orientating women must be all inclusive not just with the young but with even grandmothers and retired female civil servants because it is a development fight that must be won to ensure a drastic reduction of the pervasive poverty in the land.

The dialogue continues…

December 31, 2022
2022 Man of the Year: ‘A three in one’

It is not always the case that the last day of the year falls on a day that this column comes out and that is why feel delighted that I am choosing my Man of the year really at the very end of the year 2022 this Saturday . It has indeed been an historic year , especially with the death of the Queen and the emergence of a new King in England the former colonial power that once bestrode Nigeria like a Colossus as Cassius spoke about Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s epic play of that name . It was the year of the most unexpected but bloody Russian Invasion of Ukraine for which Time Magazine has already chosen the president of Ukraine Zelensky as its Man of the Year for its cover , although I find it difficult to understand how a leader still at war is being honored for a victory or war that is still work in progress and a very unpredictable one at that too . It was a year of presidential primaries and the emergence of aspirants as well as the setting of the stage for Nigeria’s much expected 2023 presidential elections which so far has lived up to its billing in terms of expectations of voters , the controversial nature and idiosyncrasies of Nigerian politics , its volatile   political terrain and its mercurial ,   highly flamboyant   political class and leadership .

I follow the well known dictum of Time magazine in choosing my Man of the Year . That usually is to pick someone who has influenced world event in that year for good or bad . I however find it difficult as I have done in recent years to pick just one candidate , hence my addendum to the headline today of – ‘ A three in one’ which is explicit enough . I have taken the liberty to pick a leader who has influenced global affairs in that vein , as well as a leader from the Nigerian environment as charity should indeed begin at home . I have ended up with the choice   of a brainy and most successful innovator who has seized   global technology literally to show that     real power , democratic or not , flow    not mainly    from the ballot boxes , the wishes of the masses , or violently from the barrel of gun,   but that technology can be used or misused for the self interest of owners of new technologies as well as governments , and   as their paraphernalia and accouterments of office in the pursuit   of political power.

In effect then, my ‘Three in one ‘ Man of the Year are Joe Biden , the 46th president of the USA , the presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria ,   Jagaban Bola Ahmed Tinubu , and , Elon Musk , the new owner of Twitter who has just released the Twitter Files in the best tradition of the Deep Throat of the Watergate Scandal   that destroyed the Richard Nixon presidency in 1974 . These are leaders who in the last year have shown unique boldness , creativity and tenacity in achieving the goals and objectives for which they have in a trio of brilliance , like stars   in their various milieu      been   chosen ,   for   their   dogged pursuit of the collective good of their various societies without counting the cost or countenancing whose ox is gored .Their opponents may not see the virtues I will highlight in making them a three in one Man of the Year . That really is the funeral of such opponents . My reason   for picking each one is my duty to narrate today as I doff my hat in   sincere admiration for the roles they have played in deserving this 2022 Man of the Year Award . I will do this first in a single sentence and then go on to highlight the nitty gritty of their achievements in 2022 for good, while leaving it to their opponents to fashion our a counter argument to my observations and clear admiration of their roles .

First , with Joe Biden the American president . At 90 , he can claim to have used big government expenditure to cushion the grim deprivation of the covid pandemic to bring about the biggest welfare package for social welfare and infrastructure to the American people especially in terms of diversity ,   inclusion   and equality in the midst of high inflation . With the Jagaban he has shown that old wine taste    better even   in Nigerian politics with the level of acceptability he has garnered all over the nation in his Meet the People tours while harvesting the empathy of his indignant outburst on the eve of his party’s primary that it is his turn to lead both party and nation . With Elon Musk he has shown that he can come down to earth from   the cloudy skies of   space , satellites    and electric cars and use    his   unprecedented wealth to save democracy and freedom from the clutches of big government and big tech companies   in order to create transparency and fairness in public discourse and freedom of speech in   not only his nation but the world at large . Now let me put flesh on the bare skeleton of my single sentences on this trio of distinguished leaders for the 2022 Man of the Year Award .

Again , I go back to Joe Biden , the gerontocratic’ old man of the sea ‘of American politics who served as representative of his state Delaware for 47 years before being elected   president during covid when he defeated Donald Trump in what Trump has dubbed the ‘stolen presidential election of 2020 ‘.   In spite of Trump’s disparagement of the integrity of his election, Biden has remained unperturbed and has kept a cool   head confident that his party , against all odds , would do well in the 2022 mid term elections and he was proven right . He has   shown in 2022 that nothing can derail him from fulfilling his election promises on climate change , promotion of minority interests like the woke culture and gender transformation which as an African I really do not buy . But then , Biden is a Catholic and is firmly for the right of abortion for women which his church condemns . He has shown clearly that he is an old fox set in his ways   and even though he played second fiddle to a younger president for 8 years in Barak Obama , he has shown that he believes far more in terms of action for a strong welfare state such that his Republican opponents now fearfully accuse him of turning hitherto free market US into a socialist state . In action the 46th US president has shown that he is a pragmatist to the core and campaign promises are to be kept and seen to have been kept by elected leaders in a democracy . He has my salute on that score for 2023 .

Now we go to the Jagaban and his bid for the presidency of Nigeria under the auspices of his   party the ruling APC . His main rival is   from the party of the   last president in power before the present incumbent   . This week the incumbent president declared that it is his duty to campaign for the Jagaban which to me is a tautology because that is to be expected   given that they are both from the same party . However given the context of the Emi Lokan outburst on the eve of the party’s presidential primaries this year , the incumbent president was trying to avoid any ambiguity on his solidarity   with , and loyalty to his party’s chosen presidential candidate hence his declaration   to campaign fully for the Jagaban .This same week it was reported that former president Goodluck Jonathan supporters are to campaign for the Jagaban in the SE and SS of Nigeria . More importantly five PDP governors hostile to the party’s candidate Abubakar Atiku are said to be flirting with the Jagaban at a meeting in London . With the party of his main rival at daggers drawn with its governors it is apparent that the Jagaban is the man to beat in this coming 2023 presidential election .He has shown immense guts , determination and commitment to his objective of claiming the presidency in 2023 and again I claim it for him that truly it is his deserved turn .Really his campaign slogan should be Emi Lokan translated into all Nigerian languages . I wish him well .

On Elon Musk it is apparent that the Twitter Files may turn out to be the Watergate scandal   or the Achilles   heel of the Biden presidency in the US . This is because the files have shown that both the FBI and Twitter management then ,controlled and promoted the Biden presidential campaign at the expense of his opponent then .In addition , the suppression of revelation of the contents of the laptop of Biden’s son Hunter on the eve of Joe Biden’s election as president cast aspersion on the integrity of that election as well   as the impartiality of the FBI in the performance of its public and security functions in the last presidential elections . With the Republicans in control of the US House of Reps in 2023 it is apparent that the Biden presidency is about to learn that like Macbeth   he has ‘ murdered sleep ‘ and like Macbeth would ‘ sleep no more ‘ That grim prospect is due to Elon Musk’s   propitious and timely acquisition of Twitter . Only a man of the caliber of Musk can have the foresight , the mettle and means to acquire Twitter at this time . Musk has been the avenging angel of free speech and transparency in US democracy in 2022 . He has used his unique brain and wealth for democracy this year like   no other man in this world . He has my unbridled admiration and I say kudos to a great man and Greetings ! .

December 31, 2022
The poverty blame game (2)

So even when President Muhammadu Buhari was magnanimous enough to allow the states to direct the administration’s social intervention programs, a direct departure from what previous administrations had been known to do with such instruments, one could still see that a majority of these governors rather chose to play politics with these programs. In my state, a former governor turned the matter into a party affair; allotting slots to their party henchmen rather than the real poor, the program obviously had lost its initial objective at that point.

In defense of the states, building flyovers and airports is not entirely a bad idea per se as these projects are likely to stimulate economic activity and open up the economies of such states to further investment opportunities. As research on public works have shown such labour intensive public works programs help to create a short-term social protection function and help implement more pro-growth labour market policies as they quickly

quickly provide employment opportunities to many individuals for a short-term, nevertheless, there is also need to focus much more on opening up the rural areas and meeting their development needs as the people living in these areas matter too and not only during election periods.

Under the last argument, that is about opening up the rural areas a number of impediments do arise, chief amongst such is the way the Federation is presently structured which makes the incidence of poverty in Nigeria a predetermined event. A situation where the states all troop to Abuja like institutionalized almajiris to collect federal allocation on a monthly basis and depend on such for even the most basic of functions is likely to encourage rent seeking within the states.

A closer look at the states except Lagos, Rivers, Kano and Kaduna reveal that a number of these states cannot even pay their civil servants salaries without depending on the allocation from the centre, now remove control of a number of resources from the exclusive list or reduce the lion share allocation lapped up by the centre and allow the states to manage such resources. Oil produced in Anambra or Rivers should see the producing states control a bulk of such resources, while allotting a smaller portion to the centre or even an equal ratio to the latter.

Truth then is that both the Federal Government and the states are the blind men who were asked to feel and describe an elephant from different points, on the plank of which side is responsible for the poverty that we have experienced there are no absolute truths; the two tiers are both the harbingers of the nation’s poverty woes! Both are complicit in the immersion of the nation into poverty’s wash basin. Again a focal look at the 2022 multidimensional poverty index confirms this, matter of fact most of these indices suggest that they are not only within the purview of the federal and state governments but also within the purview of the most neglected tier, the local government.

The local government or council administration in Nigeria is a sick joke , state governors and their cohorts have turned this tier into their private chattels, appointing lackeys and yes men into these positions from which they siphon funds meant for these councils into their private pockets under what is called the Joint Account Allocation Committee, JAAC.

Local governments were created to ensure that governance penetrated the grassroots, however its dynamism as a system was lost when the 1979 constitution gave legal backing to the reforms of 1976 which somewhat crippled the system.

The local government system has suffered so many violations that even its democratization which ought to be sacrosanct is in most states subject to governor’s whim and caprice, matter of fact only Lagos, Kano, Rivers and Kaduna to the best of my knowledge have maintained for quite some time now a regular schedule for LG elections, which at best is nothing but a forced referendum of the ruling party in the state as most seats are swept by the ruling party.

So while the states can rightly blame the centre for the skewed federating system, the local governments in turn can rightly blame the state governments for plunging plunged the local government system into a state of limbo.

Here lies the crowning thrust of my thoughts, which is that the main cause of the nation’s poverty levels can be traced to the basic neglect of the Local Government system in Nigeria. It is simple logic, since these are the closest form of government to the rural areas and the people within these areas, then a properly federated system which grants full autonomy or grants a status where the local government is an equal federating unit in the constitution, with its powers and functions clearly spelt out, would see local government areas as development hubs with each competing for resources, talent and ideas.

Imagine the force of ideas that would be unleashed in each and every local government area should these units operate on a level that has a guaranteed form of autonomy? Imagine the fueled fire of development?

It has even been proven in other climes that true development clambers from bottom to top, even China, a state with centrist tendencies much spurred towards economic growth using its county tier which shares similarity with our own Local Government Areas. Whereas these counties have flourished and together with the provincial and central governments have helped lift 98.99 million people out of extreme poverty, ushering development into over 900 counties, our local government areas have floundered dragging millions of Nigerians into the doldrums.

Thus the blame for the nation’s continuous plummeting into poverty definitely resides within the domains at the centre and the states. It is as simple as ABC!

December 31, 2022
The police Nigeria deserves

Most policemen in Nigeria are fine gentlemen: educated, well trained, cultured, matured, pleasant, dynamic, hardworking, competent, knowledgeable, experienced, smart, conscious, clean, neat, reliable, and dependable.

They are pillars of security that enforce the law according to the law, and they avoid inducement. They are psychologists and very conversant with the geography and sociology of the environment, which are critical to intelligence gathering.

Due to their professionalism, some people have developed affection for the law enforcement agency on the premise that “police is your friend”.

But the deviants have soiled their names and the hitherto good image of the force. Their untoward behaviours and nefarious activities engender public distrust of this essential security institution.

Unfortunately, policemen who misbehave and soil the image of the force are no longer few, even though most of their misdeeds don’t always become public knowledge. Corruption has become endemic in the force.

But there are still many officers and men who exhibit discipline, decorum, ethics and fidelity to the profession and the country. Paradoxically, when the deviants misbehave, the entire force is held in high opprobrium. The wheat becomes morally inseparable from the chaff.

Many patriotic policemen have risked their lives for the nation. Despite their limitations in getting modern tools to fight modern crimes, many of them have excelled in bursting armed robberies, detected myriad of intricate crimes, enforced law and order and rekindled public confidence in the prospect of an orderly society.

In Nigeria, policemen have found millions of naira on the road and in other areas of operation, kept the money and returned it to the owners. When Nigerian policemen go abroad for peacekeeping, they return with laurels, to the credit of the country.

Competent officers have contributed to the resolution of criminal cases through diligent prosecution of culprits and aided effective functioning of the judicial process. Some of them have made sacrifices for the country in many ways; in many cases, they have paid the supreme price.

But the bag eggs are like the lone rotten groundnut chewed with many delicious ones. They leave a bad taste in the mouth. When the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was still operational, its members oppressed many law-abiding citizens with graft.

The repercussions were borne by both the innocent and the guilty. Many people were not spared during the unprecedented protests that rocked Lagos and other major towns and cities in the frenzy to consign the squad into the dustbin of history for its innumerable atrocities.

The bag eggs in the police force epitomise bribery and corruption. They are rotten. They are skilled in graft and theft. Their olfactory bulbs sniff around for money. Such policemen prioritise illicit pursuit of money in place of the constitutional duty they are trained to perform for their fatherland. Those are the money conscious, impatient, drunk, wayward, scruffy-looking policemen that wear moral indecency like a badge of honour.

You find them mounting illegal checkpoints where they solicit bribe from motorists and arrest innocent passersby they brand “suspects” in order to extort them for the filthy lucre. Those are the “give us our daily bread” policemen, who have established the culture of daily fleecing.

But the trend is not really new. For long, some policemen have worked as spies and consultants for men of the underworld, hardened criminals, armed robbers, emergency tax collectors and oppressors of the neighbourhood, among others undesirable elements.

In the days of notorious armed robbers, some policemen were found culpable. They aided and abetted crimes, having veered off from their professional path. The case of George Iyamu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) who aided the reign of terror that notorious armed robber Lawrence Anini unleashed on Benin, the Edo State capital, in 1986, will linger in our memory. There have been many others afterwards.

Some years back, a singular act of policemen made an innocent person to spend 14 years in jail, or what is called “awaiting trial”. The individual gave a repairer his spoilt standing fan for repairs. The repairer sold the fan to a policeman after completing the job. The aggrieved owner went to the police station to report. The policeman on duty was the buyer.

It was a test of integrity for the policeman. He chose to fail it. Although he knew that he bought the fan unlawfully, the policeman turned the heat on the owner, who was promptly arrested and taken to Kirikiri Prison, Lagos, where he developed serious ailments. He spent 14 years in detention.

When he was released, he was taken to a rehabilitation home set up by Evangelist Kayode Williams. Narrating his ordeal to reporters, the innocent convict said a teenage girl accompanied his wife to receive him as he was leaving detention. The girl resembled him so much. He, therefore, affixed his gaze at her. A relative told him in a voice laced with emotion that “that is your daughter”. Unknown to him, his wife was already one-month pregnant before he was arrested and detained. He wept over the agony of wasting 14 years for a crime he did not commit.

A former commissioner narrated a similar experience about his relation, who was seized on the road for what the police described as “wandering”. The policeman turned a deaf ear to pleas for the offender. The man showed his identity card, but the policemen ignored it. After three days in police cell, the detainee suddenly remembered that he had a former commissioner as a relative. He requested for his phone, saying he wanted to call a family member to bring money. He was obliged by the policeman. He reported his experience to the former commissioner, who contacted the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) who ordered his release.

The aggrieved former commissioner advised him to go to court. He rejected the advice, saying: “I don’t want to do anything again with the Nigerian police. I thank God for my freedom after three days.”

Gone are the days when Nigerians totally relied on the police for protection and safety. Yet, police is indispensable. Without the police, modern society is incomplete.

But more confounding now are the tales of killer-policemen who want to turn the institution into a “nest of killers”.

In the past, unwarranted killings due to negligence were attributed to “accidental discharge” or errors committed in the line of duty. Bereaved families usually bear the grief and sorrow. The culprit may be suspended, dismissed or jailed, but life has already been sniffed out. Nothing can replace the vacuum created by the irreparable loss.

A drunk policeman would threaten innocent drivers and commuters with a gun. Gripped with fear, the passengers would chorus: “Answer him o; give him what he wants.” They are acting from the vantage point of experience. Judging by police brutality, only a thin line separates the living and the dead in Nigeria. Our citizens are at the mercy of bullets bought for police with tax payers’ money.

With impunity, killer policemen are now on the prowl in Lekki-Ajah corridor. Mrs. Omobolanle Kareem, a lawyer and expectant mother of a set of twins, is the latest victim. She was shot on Christmas Day by a police officer, identified as Drambi Vandi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), leaving her mother, husband, children, other relations and loved ones in perpetual agony. The pains will linger. The scars cannot fade away.

The killer-cop is not a baby policeman, having put in 33 years of service. A report said he never showed remorse as he threatened to shoot and kill more, when he was challenged for committing murder on duty. If policemen had learnt useful lessons from a similar fatal error, barely a month earlier, perhaps, the recent tragedy would have been averted. Or, is the Nigerian police assailed by collective amnesia? Then, a young man, Gafaru Buraimoh, was shot dead. The killer remains unknown. The family is still in agony.

On assumption of office, Police Inspector General (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba promised to make a difference. He has been boosting the morale of officers with inspirational advice and strategic directives.

But recent developments have confirmed that he faces an uphill task. If Nigerian policemen go abroad and return with accolades, it means the environment in those foreign countries is conducive for the job. This means a society gets the kind of police it deserves.

The police in Nigeria need a lot of training, re-training and new orientation. There may be need for some psychological or even psychiatric tests for deviant policemen to ascertain their mental fitness. But, it is also advisable that citizens should cooperate with the police for effective law enforcement. It is in public interest.

Crime is growing in geometric proportions. The grave security challenges mean that policemen should be well equipped with new skills and tools to combat criminality. It is sad that policemen usually bow to superior weapons from today’s armed bandits.

There should special training focusing on improved capacity for intelligence gathering. Nigeria should go back to the good old days when policemen were friends of the people.

Reforms in the police should also focus on recruitment. Many youths apply for police job, not based on interest but out of frustration and desire to escape from the scourge of unemployment.

The police, as currently constituted, is not the pride of the nation. It is demoralised, impoverished, underfunded, and insufficient. It has been said that the country’s current police strength is still a far cry from the global standard.

The police force is always in want of critical tools to work with, and suffers from poor remuneration. Many policemen are not proud of their calling. Their presence, unlike before, does not evoke respect in the community.

The image of the police is that of an over-worked agency that is denied the motivation to perform effectively.

Funding is critical. The take-home pay should be jacked up to motivate the rank and file as well as the top echelon. This will not encourage them to cut corners at checkpoints and within the confines of their stations. Also, those who sit on and embezzle police pensions should face clear ignominy and legal prosecution to serve as deterrents to others thinking of treading the same ignoble path.

There should be special training focusing on improved capacity for intelligence gathering. Nigeria should go back to the good old days when policemen were friends of the people.

The bad eggs in the police should be flushed out by the IGP to prevent contamination with the patriotic elements in the system. Discipline should be vigorously enforced.

The Police Service Commission (PSC) and the IGP should not work at cross-purposes. There is the need to recruit more Nigerians into the police to bridge the manpower gap.

The police/public collaboration should be reinvigorated. Security is a collective enterprise that should unite policemen and other citizens.

An over-centralised police structure is incompatible with the spirit of federalism.

State governors have been providing guns, patrol vehicles and other tools for the police. But, policemen are only accountable only to the power-loaded Federal Government.

Governors should be able to issue directives to police commissioners in their states, instead of the current practice where the police chiefs must first get clearance from Abuja before compliance.

What is the essence of posting a Kanuri as a policeman to police Ijebu or Egba in Ogun State? How can a policeman of Enugu origin perform excellently while on duty in Nupe, Tiv and Hausa/Fulani states? Will language not be a barrier? Does he know the geography, sociology and customs of his place of assignment?

Is devolution of police not the solution? Is state or community policing not the answer? Unless these lines of reforms and restructuring are pursued, the police may not live up to expectation in the maintenance of law and order.

Happily, for a start, IGP Baba has promised to send the newly trained 10,000 constables to their communities for effective community policing, after their election duty in 2023.

President Muhammadu Buhri has also accepted the recommendation of a panel that has recommended state police. The onus is on the President to now approach the National Assembly with a Bill to make it a reality.

State police can only become a reality, if there is a constitutional amendment by the parliament in that direction.

December 31, 2022
Jandor: A mole in his own house?

Weeks to the 2023 general election, and at a time when other governorship candidates are working hard to convince voters to support their aspiration, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer in Lagos State, Dr. Abdul-Azeez Adediran, aka Jandor, is still battling for acceptance by his own party men and women.

Checks by Sentry revealed that he spent the better part of the Yuletide period visiting aggrieved party chieftains and groups to refute claims that he’s not serious about winning the gubernatorial contest.

“Not only that, he also spent time during each visit to reassure party leaders and members that he’s not an agent of the ruling party as he is being painted in some quarters,” a member of the State Executive Committee revealed.

“To many PDP members, it will be a waste of time and energy working for Adediran ahead of the general elections. They have been made to believe that he’s an All Progressives Congress (APC) mole in PDP. These allegations are so strong that he and his team could no longer ignore them.”

While Sentry was still wondering if it could be true that a candidate is still being suspected of spying on his very own platform barely a month to a crucial election, the man in the storm personally confirmed the reports.

Speaking during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, he denied being a mole and insisted he is strongly determined to end the ruling party’s reign in the state.

Jandor wondered why it is still being insinuated that he, a former APC chieftain and former leader of the Lagos4Lagos Movement, is close to the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, when in actual fact he has never met with the former governor.

He said it would be illogical for him to be APC’s mole and be giving the party ‘headaches’ in his campaigns. “Though I was in APC for some years until January 2022, I had not had a one-on-one meeting with Tinubu. It might be difficult for anybody to believe.”

“I have not set my feet on his Bourdillon house. Yes, I was coming from APC, but I have never been elected or appointed. I have only been a consultant on that corridor,” Adediran said while struggling to convince his party members to believe him.

While Sentry is not in a position to determine whether he’s telling the truth or not, it’s just amazing trying to imagine how a man can be a mole in his own house. If Jandor is a spy in PDP, who actually is he spying on? Some of the party’s leaders in Lagos should kindly provide answers to this pertinent question as soon as possible.

December 31, 2022
Osun: Day monarchs lectured governor on governance

GOVERNOR Ademola Adeleke of Osun State is fast learning on the job since assuming office. And not a few people think this is good for him. “It is better for him to make mistakes and be corrected than for him to keep bungling as our governor,” a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ikire, told Sentry on Friday.

The Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, commended the governor for starting his administration on a good note by meeting with traditional rulers to discuss the debt profile of the state.

Checks by Sentry revealed that Adeleke’s meeting with the traditional rulers turned into a tutorial session as they took time to lecture the new governor on some aspects of governance as well as the expectations of the people from government.

Sources at the meeting said the governor left the meeting in a not-too -good mood as a parley he probably planned to use to ‘expose’ his predecessor turned out in a manner he least expected.

“The governor wasn’t pleased with some happenings at the meeting, especially the way some of the monarchs dismissed his allegations against Oyetola,” another source claimed.

Apart from hammering that there was need for circumspection in the debt issues between him and his predecessor, monarchs advised the new governor to leave politics to his party and face the huge task of governing the state.

At the meeting, Adeleke revealed that the state was indebted to the tune of N407.32 billion beside debts owed local contractors. The Olowu of Kuta, Oba Adekunle Oyelude, did not waste time before urging the governor to concentrate on governance with a view to delivering on his 100 days in office as promised during his electioneering campaign.

In his own speech, the Oluwo pointedly told the governor that Oyetola was not the type of person that will amass the kind of debt Adeleke was talking about. He said he was not disputing facts presented before the monarchs, but Oyetola as governor couldn’t have borrowed such huge amount.

He said: “Since you said what you presented today is from the Accountant-General, I don’t want to discard it. If somebody has put us in this mess question him, let’s give room for fair hearing. I don’t want to jump to conclusion. But I know Oyetola cannot do such. But if he has done so, according to what was presented today, the former governor should tell us. We deserve to know the truth.”

Well, whatever happens, the governor must have learnt a lot from the monarchs as he promised to meet them regularly henceforth. You can now see that there is actually no harm in speaking truth to power sometimes.

December 24, 2022
The poverty blame game (1)

NIGERIA’S poverty indices are quite startling; according to the 2022 multidimensional poverty index survey for 2022 about 63% of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) are multidimensionally poor with our National MPI standing at 0.257. Now given our nation’s poor standing when it comes to data integrity , many would take theses figures even in their very dismal nature with a pinch of salt.

What these figures portend is that there is somewhat a failure of government and its agencies to lift its people out of poverty which is the Cardinal goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, a road map to entrenching development goals within member states of the United Nations. Since 1960, every administration has sought to tackle the issue of poverty head on while the 70’s and 80’s and 90’s saw a number of administrations develop programs dedicated to ending poverty among Nigerians. Even recently, the outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari while taking his second and final oath of office as an elected civilian president hinted at the drive by his administration to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty,so much for what may appear as a sincere policy motive fall flat on its face, perhaps reasons can be adduced for its failure- the emergence of COVID 19 which slowed the global economy and much affected the nation’s economic fortunes and unfortunately Putin’s mad war in Ukraine which has raged for ten months now and has put the global economy in peril’s sights.

The 2022 multidimensional poverty report has anyway sparked a form of healthy debate between the two tiers of government, namely the Federal Government of Nigeria which presides at the centre and the its counterpart tier at the lower levels, the state governments. The debate or poverty blame game as I have styled my title followed the opening salvo by the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba where he attributed the huge poverty rates to state governments which were on a somewhat voyeuristic flight of grandeur constructing infrastructure such as airports, skyscrapers and flyovers in a number of capital cities in such states whereas a number these states had a number of rural areas which were wallowing in poverty and were bereft of any form of attention by these state governments.

According to Agba, 72 percent of the nation’s poor are resident in the rural areas who then produce 90 percent of what the nation eats but then lose about 60 percent of what they produce due to the poor state of infrastructure in these rural areas which naturally stymies whatever efforts these rural poor have made producing such crops. This then reduces the amount of produce available in the markets which then makes such products expensive whereas they ought to be cheap as well as produce immense returns for the rural farmer this however is not the case. According to Agba, these skyscrapers, airports and flyers vets do not put food on the table, this is indeed very true.

Responding, a couple of states smarting from the attempt by the federal government to robe them in poverty causing drapes, responded by blaming the government at the centre for the nation’s poverty woes, a number of these governments who spoke through their designated spokespersons rather blamed the federal government for the poverty conundrum facing the nation. Citing a number of areas where they accused the federal government of failing, areas such as insecurity, subsidy payments, high exchange rates and the insincerity of the Buhari administration’s poverty alleviation programs which they alleged end up favoring a number of politicians in Abuja with little or nothing getting to those the funds were originally designated for.

Understanding the premises upon which these states have responded, issues such as insecurity particularly within the rural areas where n a number of these states have practically deprived these rural poor from farming. In a time where we have witnessed increased attacks by non state actors whether it is Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen or bandits, farmers who are based in the rural poor areas will be scared to visit their farms and thus not even produce any yield.

Other issues such as subsidies and the non performance of the anti poverty programs of the FG cited by the states have all been victims of that hydraheaded monster called corruption. While the central government’s intentions on subsidies are ideal, the system has become so corrupted that many are doubting our subsidy figures which have quadrupled to $15.7bn. Now when such figure trumps the budgets of the 36 states of the federation put together, then we are in a real dilemma.

Reports also have it that a number of FG schemes for the same rural poor have been high jacked by politicians who then have turned such schemes into a settlement program for loyalists, children, concubines and girlfriends. While a number of these programs at the initial stage stuck to their target audience who were indeed the poor, a look at such programs today show that there has been some form of derailment. Even when the Buhari administration in its desire to remove politics from such programs and gave state governments irrespective of their political alignment control over such programs, these state governments in turn used such programs to build their own political bases in their respective states.

December 24, 2022
Obi, the church and politics

WHO exactly is Jesus Christ, the rock solid foundation on which Christianity rests? Some say he was a great man, a moral exemplar, an inimitable teacher or a gifted story teller among other perceptions. When Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?”, they replied that some said he was John the Baptist, others that he was Elijah or one of the prophets. However, when Jesus asked who the disciples themselves thought he was, Peter responded by saying that Jesus was the son of God and the expected Messiah of mankind. Impressed, Jesus said this truth could only have been revealed to Peter by the Holy Spirit.

For those who perceive the Lord Jesus in mere human terms as morally good or as one of the great out of the many great personages of history, Professor Clive Staples Lewis, one of the brightest minds of the 20th century, a former atheist turned Christian, affirmed in his book, ‘Mere Christianity’, that “I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God’. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God or else a madman or something else…But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that door open to us. He did not intend to”.

It is astonishing that with a substantial number of Nigerians still unreached with the message of the gospel of Christ, and many more ranking among the billions in the world who remain completely at sea as regards who the man of galilee is, many Nigerian Christian leaders are so obviously preoccupied with and distracted by partisan politics especially in the run-up to next year’s elections. But the prime and most critical mission of the church is to preach good news of salvation through Christ and win souls into God’s kingdom. It is in this sense that the Lord Jesus described the church as the salt of the earth. But of what use is salt when it has lost its saltiness, Jesus asked?

Is the church losing its saltiness by descending into the arena of partisan politics? This appears to be the case sadly. But the church is not a political organization. It is first and foremost a spiritual body. A situation in which churches take partisan political positions and even some trying to corral their members to follow their choices by declaring on their altars that those who vote against a Christian candidate would go to hell, could have long run deleterious consequences especially because membership of churches comprise people of different partisan preferences.

Perhaps the first distraction for the Christian church in Nigeria was the astounding prosperity with which God has blessed her. This has led to an obsessive materialism on the part of many church leaders that has made it difficult to distinguish the church from the world. Prosperity is not a sin and poverty is not synonymous with virtue. But the prosperity gospel can easily become a snare to the church if the emphasis is on the acquisition of wealth, the competition among church leaders to ride the best posh vehicles, fly in their personal private jets or live in the most majestic houses as well as build the most magnificent, sprawling houses of worship. I can recall the man of God who famously declared that he wished the COVID-19 pandemic could continue to rage because it was during the lock-down that he bought another private jet. Statements like this, breed distrust and discontent against Christianity and the gospel by many who believe that the Christian Ministry has become nothing but a money-spinning enterprise by men of God who have become desensitized to the poverty of many of even their members many of who, ironically, pay their tithes and offerings faithfully. But I digress.

It is the pervasive and blatant political partisanship of many church leaders, particularly those of the Pentecostal persuasion that is the potential greatest danger to the credibility of Christ’s gospel and the integrity of the church today. The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has strived more than any other candidate in the run-up to the 2023 election, to play on the Christian religious card just as former President Goodluck Jonathan did during the 2015 elections, which he nevertheless lost. Earlier this month, Obi was at the annual Convention of the Winners Chapel, Ota, popularly tagged ‘Shiloh’, where, just like in the many other churches whose events and gatherings he has attended in what can only be described as politically opportunistic church tourism, he was introduced by colluding clergy in a way as to elicit excitable applause for him.

Speaking on the occasion, the founder and spiritual leader of the church, Bishop David Oyedepo, claimed that what Nigeria needs now is not a leader but a deliverer. Unfortunately, he did not expatiate sufficiently on exactly what he meant by that distinction. Was he referring to Obi as his envisaged deliverer of Nigeria? If so, he did not state what the characteristics of a deliverer are and how Obi fits the bill. Was Obi’s performance as two-term governor of Anambra State so stellar that we can credibly rely on his record to conclude that he is Nigeria’s long-desired deliverer? It is not enough for a man of God, no matter how revered, to magisterially declare one candidate as the deliverer Nigeria needs without offering compelling logical and empirical reasons for his arriving at that conclusion.

Or, could it have been a revelation from God? If so, will church leaders who take blatantly partisan positions and speak ex-cathedra from their altars in the name of God not risk bringing God to disrepute if such political projections turn out to be wrong and misguided as has happened a number of times in the past? Bishop Oyedepo told his congregation that he warned the nation in 2015 that the nation was headed for a disastrous crisis if his voice was not heeded on the election. At that time he was one of those Christian leaders rooting for Jonathan and the PDP. He gave the impression in his sermon that the challenges the country faces today started with the APC assuming power in 2015. The truth is that the problems of today have their roots in the venality, incompetence and lack of vision of the PDP’s 16 years in power although the APC ought to have done much better in confronting these challenges including insecurity and the management of the economy. Unfortunately, the Christian leadership was implicated in the massive corruption of the Jonathan years.

It is difficult to understand how some Pentecostal pastors in particular are doing everything to influence their congregations to vote for a supposedly Christian candidate in the person of Peter Obi. This divisive campaign and its undisguised Christian religious undertone may swing a good number of votes in certain quarters to Obi but it may at the same not sway an also not inconsiderable number of Christians from voting for other candidates. On the other hand, Obi’s openly divisive campaign will definitely hurt the (LP) candidate grievously in huge Muslim voting blocs across the country.

In any case, what has been Obi’s track record in terms of his relationship with Christian leaders and the Christian church before now that he is seeking to ride on the back of Christians to occupy the country’s apex position of authority as President? Did he attend these church gatherings before now that he religiously does now? Is it true that he marginalized Anglicans and favoured Catholics as governor of Anambra State? Obi’s supporters claim that he returned Christian schools taken over by government to their owners as governor. But there is nothing spectacular about that. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu returned mission schools to their original owners as governor of Lagos State. In fact, though a Muslim, Tinubu returned more schools to their original Christian mission owners than to the Muslim missions. Again, Tinubu built a chapel at the Lagos State House at Marina to enable Christian members of staff have a convenient place to observe their religious obligations.

Before Tinubu, there was only a Mosque at the State House. His wife is not just a Christian; she is a senior pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Throughout his eight-year tenure as governor of Lagos State, the annual New Year thanksgiving service always held with the revered General Overseer of the RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, ministering. There is no evidence of Tinubu compelling members of his family to convert to his religion, which makes nonsense of the argument that a Muslim-Muslim ticket will lead to the Islamization of the country. In any case, how is that even constitutionally possible?

True, the church cannot be indifferent to the social, political and economic milieu within which it operates. But on no account must she descend into the partisan arena as a participant. Nigerian Pentecostals in particular must learn the appropriate lessons from the experience of the Evangelicals in America who had passionately backed former President Donald Trump without restraint only for the latter to lose the election to Joe Biden this year. Some Christian leaders cite the Biblical aphorism in the book of Proverbs that when the righteous rule, a nation prospers to justify their political partisanship. But who constitute the righteous? Does bearing a Christian name, attending church or even having lofty Christian titles necessarily indicative of righteousness? It is dangerous for man to seek to usurp God’s sovereignty in determining who the leader of a country or entity will be at any time even though Christians have a responsibility of using their votes and prayerfully.

It is necessary to repeat that the primary and most critical mission of the church is to help save the souls of men through the preaching of the good news. In doing so, the church does not need to have men in high positions of authority such as President or Vice President etc. to achieve its goals. In his scintillating book, ‘Jesus: The Man Who lives’, the British journalist, Malcolm Muggeridge (1903- 1990), writes, “When he was approached by someone important like Nicodemus, it never seems to have occurred to him, as it surely would to any ordinary evangelist or promoter of good causes, that, such a man, with valuable contacts and influence, would be of service to his ministry. What he had to say to Nicodemus was precisely the same as what he had to say to the meanest beggar or the most disreputable tax collector – the equivalent, then, of today’s property-developer – that he must be reborn, and become a new man”.

The Lord Jesus avoided the palaces and mansions of the rich and powerful while on earth. Anytime he accepted an invitation to the habitations of the rich and influential such as Mathew the tax collector, it was to speak words of truth to them thus leading to their salvation. He was completely aloof to the politics of the Roman Empire and the desire of the Jews for liberation from the bondage of Rome. Stressing that his kingdom was not of this world, He rejected any attempt to be crowned King of the Jews by those desirous of a secular Messiah. Yet, a small band of his disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, turned the Roman Empire upside down and caused the behemoth to succumb to the message of a gospel spread by the most humble and lowliest of men.

In his tome, ‘The Penguin History of the World’, Professor J.M. Roberts states that “Emphatically, Jesus rejected the role of political leader and a political quietism was one of the meanings later discerned in a dictum which was to prove to be of terrible ambiguity: ‘My kingdom is not of this world”. And Malcolm Muggeridge reiterates this point in his submission that “In his teachings, too, Jesus continually stressed the fallacy of looking to this world and its rulers for help and guidance in fulfilling God’s purposes…the profound distrust of power which Jesus inculcated has lived on in the hearts of those who have lost him most and served him best”.

December 24, 2022