The Nation Newspaper

Category: Segun Ayobolu

  • BAO, wisdom and governance

    BAO, wisdom and governance

    Even without meeting him personally and just observing him from a distance, one cannot help but be impressed by the aura of humility and simplicity that the governor of Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO), exudes. It is not an easy feat to wield the immense executive powers of a governor in our system, where there is an imperial air to the position, and retain one’s consciousness of the frailty and fallibility that is the inalienable portion of mere mortals. But the impression I and not a few other observers of governance under Oyebanji’s leadership in Ekiti have is that of the cultured restraint and elevated moral breeding characteristic of the true Omoluabi in Yoruba culture.

    This was amply confirmed when the governor featured in an interview on TVC’s programme, Journalist’s Hangout, during the week. Of course, he spoke at length on his achievements in diverse sectors, including agriculture, health, education, road infrastructure and security, among others. Not given to propaganda, this interview with Oyebanji is the only one I am aware of since his assumption of office. Yet, there were believable visuals to back up the claims made by the governor on the programme. For instance, I was impressed by the extent of work done on the Airport project in Ado Ekiti. When this project was conceived and commenced by his predecessor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, I was inclined to believe its critics who argued that it was superfluous and wasteful, with an airport already cited in nearby Akure in Ondo State.

    But Oyebanji explained convincingly why the project will add significant value to Ekiti State and the extent his administration has gone to engage professionals with the requisite expertise to make Ekiti a vibrant aviation hub in the zone. Once again, this demonstrates the beauty, especially of policy continuity despite inevitable changes in government personnel. But beyond the undeniable developmental impact his government is making, is the wisdom and maturity that BAO brings to governance. For instance, he sees his leader, Dr Fayemi, not as an imperious godfather, but a mentor from whose experience he can benefit for the good of the state.

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    In the same way, he has cultivated close relationships with all of his predecessors – Chief Niyi Adebayo, Mr Ayo Fayose and Engineer Segun Oni. He says he strives to benefit from their strengths and experiences but also to learn from their mistakes. He reaches to leaders and stakeholders across Ekiti irrespective of their party affiliations, which explains the unprecedented air of peace and harmony that pervades the state today. BAO served as Secretary of the Committee that was at the vanguard of the struggle for the creation of the state when he was in his twenties. He held several critical positions in the administrations of both Niyi Adebayo and Kayode Fayemi and was thus eminently prepared for the job of governor, which is a great credit to Fayemi.

    But is there a cultural factor to the kind of wisdom and modesty deployed by BAO in the governance of a highly enlightened state like Ekiti? Could the crisis that has resulted in a shipwreck of governance in Rivers State have been avoided if the suspended governor, Similaiyi Fubara, imbibed just a little bit of these attributes? Would he have been able to manage his predecessor, the tempestuous Nyesom Wike, better? But in Rivers, Rotimi Amaechi as governor fought his predecessor and mentor, Dr Peter Odili, to a standstill in a no-holds-barred Titanic battle. Wike, as governor, engaged in unending brutal political warfare with Amaechi, his predecessor and mentor. And Fubara and his estranged godfather and predecessor, Wike, who did everything to ensure the former ‘s emergence as governor, are currently engaged in a seeming battle unto death for the soul of Rivers. It is inexplicable.

  • Dr John Ekundayo’s mirror on Tinubu’s trajectory to Nigeria’s Presidency (2)

    Dr John Ekundayo’s mirror on Tinubu’s trajectory to Nigeria’s Presidency (2)

    Proceeding from his incisive theoretical dilation on the intricacies and interstices of the concept of leadership and the intertwining theme of the dynamics of leadership -followership relationship, which was the focus of the first part of his treatise on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ‘trajectory to the throne’, Dr John Ekundayo in subsequent chapters of the book, dwells in concrete and exhaustive detail, on the diverse sociological, political, psychological, organizational as well as spiritual facets of the Jagaban of Borgu’s epochal ascendancy to the apex of the country’s political leadership. The book is a veritable rendition of the history of progressive leaders, parties and forces in contemporary Nigerian politics and traces Tinubu’s ideological disposition and philosophical orientation to the Chief Obafemi Awolowo -led school of progressive political thought and praxis in the First and Second Republics respectively.

    Dr Ekundayo sketches in vivid and pungent prose Tinubu’s transition from the corporate world of the multinational oil conglomerate, Mobil Nigeria Ltd to the slippery and unpredictable terrain of partisan politics in Nigeria during the protracted and tortuous political transition programme of the military President,  General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, his election to the Senate on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), from the Lagos West Senatorial District, his active, front line role in the SDP primaries in which M.K.O. Abiola emerged as presidential candidate of the party as well as the campaigns that culminated in the billionaire ‘s triumph at the polls in the historic June 12, 1993, presidential election.

    He documents Tinubu’s courageous record at the vanguard of the momentous struggle that was waged by pro-democracy forces after the capricious and unjust annulment of the election, widely perceived as the fairest and freest in the country’s history, both for the actualization of the June 12 mandate and the withdrawal of the military from the political terrain to ensure a restoration of civil, representative governance. In this struggle, Tinubu proved his mettle as a committed fighter for the liberal values of open, plural democratic mode of governance, the sanctity of democratic rights and the rule of law as well as a society predicated on equity, justice and respect for human dignity.

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    Dr Ekundayo sees his baptism of fire at this stage of his political career, a phase in which, like many others, he had to flee into exile as the goons of the Abacha military dictatorship fire-bombed his house on Victoria Island, Lagos, and sought to take his life as critical signposts on the path of his political evolution and the eventual fulfillment of his destiny as President of Nigeria.

    The author dissects with clinical and meticulous care, the next phase in Tinubu’s political career when he emerged as elected governor of Lagos State in 1999 and served for two terms which came to an end on a euphoric and triumphant note in 2007 with the widespread acknowledgement that he had laid a solid foundation for the resuscitation and future accelerated growth of a once dormant commercial nerve center of Nigeria.  The re-enginering of the state’s finances; overhauling of the public service orientation and functioning through innovations in Information, Communication and Technology; massive infrastructural modernization, expansion and renewal;  the drawing up of a 25-year development master plan for the state and the establishment of several new parastatal organizations to enhance greater efficiency in critical sectors including transportation and traffic control, urban planning, security, building control and safety, environmental protection among others all attract the critical evaluation of Dr Ekundayo.

    Taking particular note of the fact that of the six governors of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the Southwest, it was only Tinubu that survived the PDP’s electoral Tsunami in the 2003 elections, Ekundayo sees this as another significant milestone in the evolving political journey of Tinubu which was perhaps inevitable to help forge in him the steely disposition and fortitude necessary for him to triumph over adversity in higher and more sensitive stages of his political ascendancy especially given the formidable obstacles he constantly had to contend with on his onward March to the making of history. Thus, beyond the technocratic focus on governance in Lagos State under Tinubu, which incidentally is one of the author’s sphereres of specialization as an expert in project monitoring, management and control, Dr Ekundayo beams his searchlight on Tinubu’s emergent politics at this time.

    He describes as a function of his vision and foresight, Tinubu’s decision to stay on in the decimated AD even when he remained the only governor of the party in the country, the last man standing, rather than engage in political vagrancy and peregrinations. He submits that “Thereafter, due to irreconcilable differences and his strategic insight and foresight, he jettisoned AD to form the Action Congress (AC), which later metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). At that time, some people thought it was a political miscalculation on the part of Asiwaju to have seemingly abandoned the platform that got him elected. Candidly, he saw what many others, especially his peers, at that time, did not see”.

    Dr Ekundayo illustrates how the experience garnered by President Tinubu in rebuilding the progressive political base of the Southwest, following the electoral routing of the party in the region in 2003, facilitated his capacity to be at the forefront of helping to build a strong political platform to provide a viable alternative to the erstwhile behemoth, the PDP, that had become a liability to itself and the nation after 16 years in power by 2015. Thus, Tinubu played a critical catalytic role in forging, with other key leaders such as former President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Ogbanaya Onu, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, the transformation of a loose coalition of the ACN, Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), as well as factions of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and PDP into the All Progressives Congress (APC) which has displaced the PDP as the ruling party at the centre since 2015.

    As he puts it, “However, to many top-notch of PDP, the political savvy, skillfulness and sagacity of the enigmatic and Titanic Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) is the nexus ensuring the huge success of seemingly rag-tag ‘strange bedfellows’ that later culminated as the APC”. Quite apart from the skills in bridge building and networking across diverse ethnic, regional, partisan and religious cleavages in a complex polity like Nigeria, a necessity to meet the stringent conditions to win a presidential election, the author cites Tinubu’s ingenuity in identifying and nurturing talents who he aided to develop their leadership skills and, in turn, assume leadership positions as governors, Ministers, local government Chairmen, State commissioners, head of parastatal organizations, members of the state and national legislatures and key positions in the private sector,  as another factor that later constituted an asset in his path to the presidency.

    This was because in addition to being able to enjoy the support of these strategically placed individuals in his bid for the presidency, his role in mentoring and being a role model for them deepened his own political leadership skills and human resource management capacity in preparation for the challenges of the daunting challenges of President of the federal Republic of Nigeria. The author examines the contention in some quarters that, given Tinubu’s role as a ‘king maker’  with his facilitating the path to power for political actors at the sub national and national levels, he should not aspire to be ‘king’ as obtains in traditional African political systems where king makers do not ascend the throne.

    He traces the root of the concept of ‘king maker’ in modern politics to the 16th Earl of Warwick in 1599 through its occurrence in countries like South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore and concludes that “Any aspirant could have a dream: you cannot stop a person from dreaming but followers in Nigeria should be interested in the trajectory of such personalities to the throne”.

    Other factors analyzed in the book include controversies arising from the APC ‘s Muslim-Muslim ticket in a charged multi-religious polity like Nigeria, the several obstacles placed before Tinubu by powerful elements within his own party opposed to his ambition and his famous ‘Emilokan’ declaration during his campaign stop in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, signalling his determination to persist in the race and actualize his goal. In many parts of the book, the author serves us a scintillating political thriller that makes for exciting reading. He does not approach his writing in this book like a detached political analyst who strives to be emotionally distant from the subject of his inquiry.

    Rather, he comes across as a convinced and passionate progressive ideologue himself who is personally deeply impressed in the struggle to actualize Nigeria’s potentials through active political participation. A key and recurrent theme that runs through the book is that even more critical than the requisite type of development-oriented leadership is the necessity for a vigilant, responsible, patriotic and public-spirited followership that holds leaders to account.

  • Dr John Ekundayo’s mirror on Tinubu’s trajectory to Nigeria’s presidency (1)

    Dr John Ekundayo’s mirror on Tinubu’s trajectory to Nigeria’s presidency (1)

    Nigeria’s 2023 general elections was one of the most critical, eventful and competitive contests in the country’s electoral history. It was a contest in which the the country’s three major ethnic groups, the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba, had three formidable candidates in the race – now President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abubakar Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP). President Tinubu ‘s tortuous and epochal path to his eventual victory presents a vivid scenario where reality unfolding before our very eyes often seemed stranger than fiction.

    His path was laden with mines. Granite boulders were hauled in his path by forces determined to abort what the tenacious political gladiator obviously saw as his manifest historical destiny. A number of books have already been written on Tinubu’s singleminded pursuit of his purpose, his deft side stepping of booby traps and delicate manouvering to dodge poisonous arrows aimed at destabilizing, knocking him off course and  cutting short his dream. And many works both on the historic contest and the man, Tinubu, by contemporary and future writers from diverse specializations and perspectives will continue to be turned out.

    Not many analysts can confidently and honestly aver that they envisaged Tinubu’s victory both at the APC presidential primaries and the election proper on February 27, 2023. But in his book on the election titled ‘Tinubu: Trajectory to the throne’, published in 2022, a year before the election, Dr John M. O. Ekundayo, obviously wrote with the confident expectation that the incumbent President would prevail in the fierce battle. Spanning 262 pages, the book is divided into three major parts, which are further subdivided into 25 chapters and seven annexures. Given the author’s variegated educational background, cross-cutting, disciplinary intellectual nurturing and enriching professional experience, it is not surprising that he brings fresh and unique perspectives to bear on his interrogation of what he calls ‘Tinubu’s trajectory to the throne’.

    This book is part historical narrative of the various events, incidents and episodes culminating in Tinubu’s eventual electoral triumph; it is part political analyses which x-rays the assorted political factors, variables and dynamics at play in the diverse power struggles in which Tinubu has been involved in his political career and evolution; it is part psychological investigation of the kind of steely disposition and determined mindset that propelled and motivated Tinubu to victory against phenomenal odds; it is part study of organizational politics and dynamics particularly with regard to Tinubu’s tenure as governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, a period that was a critical phase in Tinubu’s systematic political evolution; it is part philosophical dilation on the purpose and essence of leadership and also part audacious spiritual, prophetic projection of a Tinubu victory that the author envisaged but which had not manifested at the time he was setting down his thoughts in writing.

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    The author, Dr Ekundayo, obtained a B.Sc degree in Civil engineering from the then then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU and holds Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Organizational leadership from universities in Singapore and Malaysia. His academic interest in the dynamics of leadership -follower relationship substantially informs his study of President Tinubu’s politics and leadership and makes this book a unique intellectual offering and not another hagiogaphic sycophancy. Although a serious and rigorous work particularly in the essentially theoretical first part, Dr Ekundayo writes in the breezy, readable style of a seasoned columnist. His scientific cast of mind is evident in his clinical systematization and methodical dissection of his subject matter.

    In the first two chapters of the book, Ekundayo explores various definitions of leadership while systematically guiding the reader through the assorted leadership models and styles identified in the literature on organizational and managerial leadership. These leadership typologies he discusses include transformational leadership, teansactional leadership, exemplary leadership, servant leadership, and situational leadership. He then goes on to focus on the elements of strategic leadership offering enriching insights into the processes of developing and nurturing appropriate driving visions on the part of leaders, motivating followers, charting a steady course, setting and achieving set targets, the essential nuggets of strategic planning and the psychological dimensions of organizational and political leadership.

    Examining leadership as a dialectical “relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow, he succinctly defines leadership as “the process of influencing and facilitating an individual or group, within a context, to understand what what needs to be done to accomplish a mutual goal”. In the words of the author, one of the aims of the book is to provide “a window to learning strategic leadership as simplified and exemplified in practice by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in steering the ship of State in Lagos, especially in the adept and adroit manner he employed and exploited a robust combination of financial engineering and information communication technology (ICT) to shore up the economy of Lagos”. This theoretical framework offers the context within which the author goes on to examine in the book Tinubu’s navigation of the delicate pathway of power and politics in Nigeria’s complex polity.

  • Pastor Tunde Bakare and the state of the nation

    Pastor Tunde Bakare and the state of the nation

    Understandably, the nationally televised address by former presidential aspirant and head of the Global Community Citadel Church based in Lagos at Easter, has generated widespread and diverse reactions as his public interventions always do. Aiming severe blows at the President Bola Tinubu administration, the fiery critic contended that an urgent change of course in the government’s policies on security and the economy was imperative to avert a popular uprising in the country. In the light of renewed killings in states like Plateau, Benue, Zamfara, Adamawa and Borno, to cite a few, Bakare, rightly, warned that the country is being driven toward the brink. But inexplicably, he attributed the resurgent violence and insecurity to “the motor park brand of politics nurtured by the old brigade politicians and, in recent times, by President Bola Tinubu“.

    Pray, what exactly is this ‘motor park brand of politics’? The good cleric does not give a definition or description. He asserts but makes no attempt to demonstrate logically or empirically. If we knew what this motor park politics actually is, for instance, we would know how to relate it to newly rising cases of herders attacks on farming communities in the North Central, Boko Haram violence in Borno or Banditry in parts of the North-West. It is a largely unhelpful and unproductive criticism. Is the pastor saying that the Tinubu administration has folded its arms and done nothing whatsoever to tame insecurity that has persisted for nearly two decades and worsened steadily as the country’s economic fortunes continually declined? But the administration has scaled up budgetary funding of defense and security including procurement of new military equipment and enhanced use of science and technology to safeguard lives and property.

    And the result has been evident in the course of the first nearly two years of the administration with the rapid decline of extremist religious violence, banditry and the unleashing of bloody violence on farming communities by rampaging herdsmen who unconscionably feed planted and harvested crops to their cattle. So what is responsible for the recent deterioration in the security situation? Is it that the security forces have lost steam and let down their guard? Can this new escalation of destabilizing insecurity be at the instigation of desperate and disgruntled opposition politicians out to discredit the current government as the race towards the 2027’general elections intensifies? These are questions the administration must find answers to if it is to get to the root of the matter and provide effective and sustainable solutions.

    In one of his recommendations to address current national problems, Pastor Bakare advocated “restructuring security into local, state, and zonal forces” as well as “empowering a nonpartisan Directorate of National Intelligence’. Here, he strikes the nail on the head. It is overwhelmingly agreed that there must be urgent restructuring and decentralization of the security architecture to make it more effective, efficient and efficacious for a federal society. The nation faces an existential crisis and the prevailing security structure is obsolete and all too obviously not fit for purpose.

    Pastor Bakare forcefully condemns the declaration by President Tinubu of a State of Emergency in Rivers State. He sees it as unwarranted, unconstitutional and undemocratic. Unfortunately, he is not privy to the security reports which must have been key to the President’s decision on the matter. But even then, that at least two pipelines were blown up as earlier threatened by pro-governor Siminaliyi Fubara youth elements if impeachment proceedings were commenced against him, is in the public domain. And in an interview on national television last week, a key actor in the Rivers State crisis, the FCT Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike, said that his preference, but for the state of emergency, was the outright removal from office of Fubara through impeachment.

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    That would surely have led to stiff resistance from Fubara ‘s supporters particularly given the ethnicization of the crisis with the real possibility of plunging a state so critical to the national economy down the path of anarchy. It is doubtful if Tinubu’s decisive and swift resort to emergency measures to check the downward spiral can still be credibly questioned against this background. It is also curious that, as a lawyer, Bakare appears to be quite at peace with the demolition of the premises of the State House of Assembly by the executive to thwart a suspected bid to impeach Fubara and the subsequent running of the state by the governor with four out of 32 members of the House. This followed the farcical invalidation of the seats of the 27 pro-Speaker Amaewhule members by the minority In four members for allegedly decamping to the APC. Being human, the radical pastor’s position on some issues is also so obviously influenced, perhaps subconsciously, by partisan inclinations.

    However, the imperative of statesmanship and the benefit of his vast political experience demands that President Tinubu utilize the authority and influence of his office to facilitate an enduring and speedy resolution of the Rivers crisis so that democratic normalcy can be speedily restored and there will be no need to extend the emergency. This will entail getting Wike in particular to toe the path of restraint, rectitude and wisdom given the triumph of his side in the absolutely avoidable power struggle.

    Its approval of the President ‘s emergency declaration in Rivers is one of the reasons for Bakare ‘s savage put down of the National Assembly as spineless, unprincipled and no better than a pliant and pliable rubber stamp of the executive arm of government. A combative, adversarial and confrontational legislature continually up in arms against the executive would apparently be more to the pastor’s liking and more in tune with his own radical and activist temperament and disposition. But the legislature has the institutional and democratic right to opt for the strategy of constructive engagement with the executive without recourse to rancorous but unproductive populism. After all, we can still recall how Bakare ‘s seemingly preferred adversarial style, adopted by the Dr Bukola Saraki-led 9th National Assembly, created paralysis in governance for the President Muhammadu Buhari administration with negative implications for national development.

    Interestingly, the same National Assembly, so scurrilous denounced by Bakare, in approving the declaration of the State of Emergency in Rivers, modified the Presidential proclamation by removing the supervisory authority over the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, from the purview of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to an ad hoc Committee of the House of Representatives. The 20-member Committee set up to supervise Ibas, headed by the Leader of the House, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, has had an interactive session with the Sole Administrator in Abuja and he has promised to furnish the legislators with a detailed report of his activities so far at the next scheduled meeting. This is not an irredeemably pro-executive legislature after all, despite its admitted  shortcomings like all human organizations not excluding Pastor Bakare ‘s Global Community Citadel Church.

    The pastor rightly highlights the current harsh existential conditions in the country with poverty levels rising higher as a result of the implementation of ongoing economic reforms such as removal of the fuel subsidy and merger of the previous parallel foreign exchange markets to eliminate opportunities for corruption -laden arbitrage. He is intellectually honest enough to state that much of the economic problems were inherited as well as being systemic while also acknowledging some of the gains of the reforms. However, in parts of his address, he seems to insinuate that there are viable alternatives to these reforms but does not concretely specify what these are.

    The relatively detailed policy alternatives he outlines appear to me to be sophisticated and fashionably attractive repackaging of some of the measures already being implemented in pursuit of the reform agenda. However, he makes the pertinent point that corruption is still prevalent and that humongous amounts of corruptly acquired resources still lie in private hands. Bakare ‘s suggestions as regards retrieving such stolen resources and utilizing them for national developmental purposes, which in my view is an urgent imperative, appear not only lacking in concreteness but are idealistic and romantic. But for his quite inexplicable and frankly unfruitful diversionary forays into partisan politics, Bakare ‘s often clinical, passionate and patriotic interventions in public course would have been significantly more impactful. Thus, it was so easy for instance, for the relentless Reno Omokri to attribute his fiery denunciation of the Tinubu administration as arising from bitterness engendered by Bakare ‘s loss to the President in the APC presidential primaries.

  • Needless alarm on one party state

    Needless alarm on one party state

    As at June 30, 2007, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in control of 31 of the 36 states in the country. The defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) produced the governors in Yobe, Kano, Bauchi and Borno states while the defunct Action Congress (AC) had Lagos State. Between them, the opposition was in power only in five states. In one of the worst ever elections in Nigeria’s history in 2003, the then ruling PDP rampaged to power in the Southwest with hurricane PDP sweeping five defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) off their gubernatorial perch. Despite the 2003 general elections turning the country virtually into a one-party dominant state, with the PDP further consolidating its political dominance in the no less brazenly rigged 2007 elections, there were  no alarmist outcries of the ruling party turning Nigeria into a one-party state. PDP stalwarts at the time gleefully asked those who felt aggrieved by its undisguised electoral Banditry to “go to court”.

    As the only man standing as a governor on the platform of the AD in 2003, the Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, did not whine and throw tantrums. PDP chieftains particularly in Lagos State boasted that the country’s Socio-economic nerve centre and commercial capital would be ‘captured’ in the next electoral cycle and that Tinubu would have no choice but to cross to the ruling party. But Tinubu stayed the course. He remained firm and steady in opposition. Working with the former AD governors, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Chief Bisi Akande, the late Alhaji Lam Adeshina and the late Chief Adebayo Adefarati, the Jagaban Borgu led the way in wresting the Southwest back to the progressive fold.

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    In the North, former President Muhammadu Buhari stood strong in opposition first in the ANPP and later in the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). Buhari and Tinubu ultimately led a merger of political forces that included part of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and aggrieved faction of the ruling PDP to form the APC that dislodged the PDP from power in 2015. With the recent root and branch relocation of the entire PDP structure to the APC in Delta State,the alarm bells that President Tinubu is turning Nigeria to a single party dictatorship have reached a crescendo. It is needless and time wasting. Tinubu and his party are not expected to turn away those flocking to them. There is nothing new about opposition politicians rushing to join the ruling party. It is a key feature of our political culture which was manifest even during the PDP’s 16 years in power.

    The PDP still has scores of loyal, committed and credible members who have not abandoned the party. They include Bode George, Sule Lamido, Lyol Imoke, Tom Ikimi and so many others. They should rally to confront and transcend the party’s current paralysis in the interest of Nigeria’s democracy. The existence of a viable and vibrant opposition – not just temporary ramshackle contraptions to win elections – cannot be compromised.

  • Nigeria’s security conundrum

    Nigeria’s security conundrum

    Over two years in the life of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, the grave insecurity challenge which it inherited from previous successive governments was evidently concretely being ameliorated. Kidnapping, which had been an almost daily affair in many parts of the country, had largely abated. Intense military onslaughts, especially relentless bombardment by the Nigerian Air Force, had bandits’ backs to the wall in the North-West and their efficacy substantially blunted. In the North-East, Boko Haram had been effectively checkmated, and the extremist religious/terrorist groups’ epicentre, Borno State, was fast regaining its serenity, vibrancy and vitality. Herders-farmers violent clashes in the North-Central, which used to claim lives on an industrial scale, had significantly receded. The administration understandably sounded from the rooftops its accomplishment in scaling up the capacity of the state to safeguard lives and property, which is its primary reason for existence, in less than two years in power.

    All of a sudden, however, all the successes recorded in the security sphere appear to be fast receding, especially over the last several weeks. This is particularly evident in the large-scale killings in ethnic-inspired communal violence in Plateau and Benue States. There have also been gruesome murders in Adamawa while Borno State governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, recently had cause to cry out that Boko Haram is on the rebound in the state with several communities reportedly oçcupied by the insurgent sect. It certainly is not the case that the government has lost the political will to demonstrate and enforce its control and authority over every inch of Nigeria’s vast territory or that the security agencies have slackened in their resolve to live up to their constitutional responsibility to protect the country from internal implosion and external aggression.

    Rather, the problem is with the prevailing security architecture, which can hardly be expected to perform better than it is at the moment, no matter how much resources are poured into security or how desirous the government is to prevail over destabilizing non-governmental actors posing so grave a threat to lives and property across the country. With approximately 400,000 personnel, the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) is clearly insufficiently manned to effectively and efficiently maintain internal security in a complex polity of at least 200 million people. Thus, the military, which should focus on protecting the country’s territorial integrity from external intrusion, has been drafted to enforce law and order in virtually every state in the country through a multiplicity of military task forces. This distracts the military from its core responsibility and stretches it thin in terms of manpower and other resources, thus weakening the potency of its response to threats of terrorism and religious extremism that endanger national security and stability.

    Thus, with the existing security architecture, the nation is rendered vulnerable both to internal criminality and the danger of external infiltration and destabilization. Luckily, the solution to this undesirable and unsustainable situation is right before us and enjoys near-unanimous support across the length and breadth of the country. It is in the urgent decentralization of the security architecture as it is all too clear now that a unitary security system, particularly a police force centrally controlled which is deficient in manpower adequacy, modern equipment and financial viability, cannot effectively maintain security in a sprawling, ethnocultural, federal polity like Nigeria.

    Instructively, under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the Northern and Southern Governors Forum, respectively, as well as the Nigeria Governors Forum, unanimously gave their support to the creation of the State Police. Indeed, in response to the widespread clamour for the amendment of the Constitution to accommodate the State Police, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) set up a committee headed by former Kaduna State governor Mallam Nasir ‘El Rufai to deliberate and report on the issue. The committee not only recommended the introduction of State Police but came up with draft constitutional amendments to help give effect to the realization of this objective. Unfortunately, not much more was heard of the issue after this.

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    The responsibility to nurture this idea to fruition now rests with President Tinubu especially as all other efforts to tame the monster of insecurity are so obviously not yielding the desired dividends. However, governance under our presidential constitution is collaborative despite the immense powers vested in the Office of the President. Thus, governors, who are most affected by insecurity in various states, must urgently seek an audience with the President to press the issue. In the same vein, the leadership of the National Assembly should prioritize immediate consultation with the President to deliberate on modalities for the requisite constitutional amendments to address a security conundrum that has become an existential threat.

    Of course, the fears of decentralizing policing in a fragile and easily combustible polity like Nigeria, where many governors are inclined to behave like emperors, is real and palpable. How, for example, would a governor who readily demolishes the State House of Assembly complex to prevent suspected impeachment or pulls down multimillion Naira structures owned by his opponents, use or abuse the control of State Police? This danger can be averted by meticulous and careful drafting of the law establishing State Police with necessary checks and balances built in. It has been suggested, for instance, that State Police can be patterned after the judicial system where there is an organic, intricate and interwoven relationship among federal and state judiciaries with ultimate responsibility for appointments and discipline resting with the National Judicial Council (NJC). It is an idea worth considering.

    The benefits of the State Police far outweigh its demerits. State Police outfits will be manned by personnel from the state who are well acquainted with its geographical terrain and linguistic as well as cultural peculiarities. They will have access to funding by the respective state governments thereby freeing the NPF from obligations to the states and thus enabling it to benefit more from federal funding. In any case, state chapters of the NPF are currently being substantially funded by the states. Again, operationally, the State Police will be able to act decisively and timeously to combat crime without having to wait for the approval of a distant centre with all the attendant bureaucratic delays.

    But beyond the security architecture, urgent attention ought to be paid to the structures for intelligence gathering across the various security agencies. Deficient intelligence gathering is clearly a key problem in effectively protecting lives and property in Nigeria. For one, the various criminal elements and groups operate with embarrassing freedom and boldness, obviously treating with utter contempt the intelligence-gathering capacity of the security agencies. With an alert and vigilant intelligence network, most of these acts of violence would have been nipped in the bud before being actualized. Besides, there is a strong possibility that much of the recurrent violence is sponsored by aggrieved political partisans to destabilize the country and discredit the government. Without the requisite intelligence network, it will be impossible to track the activities of such disgruntled and unpatriotic elements and bring them to book, no matter how highly placed.

  • Rivers State’s sole administrator so far 

    Rivers State’s sole administrator so far 

    It is certainly not due to his will or machination that Vice Admiral Ibok-Eke Ibas (Rtd) is Sole Administrator of Rivers State today for an initial period of six months following the state of emergency declared in the oil-rich state by President Bola Tinubu. There is no way that he can be held responsible for the inability of both former governor of the State and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, and his successor, Sir Siminaliyi Fubara, to settle their differences amicably in the light of reason with the best interest of the people of the State at heart. To make matters worse, elder statesmen and influential leaders in the state took sides in the crisis and added fuel to an already blazing fire rather than calming nerves and facilitating a peaceful settlement. This column disagrees with those who allege bad faith, abuse of power and a violation of democratic tenets by President Tinubu in declaring the state of emergency, suspending democratic structures in the state and appointing a Sole Administrator for six months in the first instance.

    What exactly would the President have been expected to do as the Wike-Fubara crisis relentlessly pushed the state to the very precipice of implosion, especially with at least two critical oil pipelines blown up after Fubara had openly and tactlessly called on youths to await further instructions which he did not state but was open to varying interpretations in an ever-escalating climate of fear? Had the President refrained from acting to prevent a descent to anarchy in Rivers, his critics would still have pilloried him for weakness and indecisiveness. Many, still smarting from the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, would have rejoiced inwardly if the breakdown of law and order in one state had spiralled to become a nationwide crisis, especially with the destruction of oil pipelines with catastrophic implications for the national economy.

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    But having come to hold power as Sole Administrator due to circumstances, not his making, it is entirely the responsibility of Ibas to ensure that he plays the role he has been assigned with wisdom, restraint and utmost humility. He should not directly or indirectly create the impression that he is happy about the situation that compelled the declaration of a state of emergency in the state. He should play his role as unobtrusively as possible focussing essentially on maintaining security, promoting stability and facilitating greater inter-communal harmony towards the successful restoration of democratic governance in the state at the end of emergency rule.

    This column does not see the wisdom in the Sole Administrator undertaking the initiation of new projects for instance. And to run the local government councils, he could have utilized the senior leadership of the local government bureaucracy or quietly posted senior civil servants to oversee the councils in a manner that is non-obtruding. While he is not in a position to interfere in the political crisis that gave rise to the emergency, he can help bring about much needed healing in inter-personal and inter-group relations that Rivers so urgently needs now. But he is right in demanding the return to the Rivers State government of the N300 million donated by the Fubara administration towards the hosting in Port Harcourt of the 2025 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). The NBA’s claim that the money is an ‘unconditional gift’ is immoral and unconscionable.

    The House of Representatives deserves commendation for setting up a 20-member oversight committee to oversee the actions of the Sole Administrator during the emergency period. This is because unaccountable power can easily be corrupt and subject to abuse. Equally heartwarming is the fact that the committee is headed by the cerebral and principled political scientist and leader of the House, Professor Julius Ihonvbere. Much is expected from the committee, and it should not let the people of Rivers State down.

  • FCCPC and corporate accountability

    FCCPC and corporate accountability

    In largely underdeveloped capitalist systems such as Nigeria with relatively low levels of institutionalization, weak judicial structures and processes as well as fragile law enforcement, the role of regulatory agencies established to mitigate the negative effects of the operations of market forces, check corporate abuse and irresponsibility and safeguard the interests of consumers and society at large is critical. The leading agency in Nigeria in this regard is the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), which was established through the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 to facilitate fair, rule-guided business practices while protecting the interests of consumers.

    As lucidly expressed in its mandate statement, the FCCPC’s oversight function is “geared towards promoting competition within the Nigerian economy while preventing any practices that could lead to the abuse of market dominance or monopolies, all for the benefit of consumers. In addition, it investigates anti-competitive practices, including price fixing, bid rigging, market allocation, and the abuse of dominant market positions, for possible legal actions against the involved parties”. Central to its operations is addressing consumer complaints and grievances as regards perceived exploitative prices, substandard goods and services and imposing sanctions or taking legal action against persistent corporate infractions.

    Under its current Chief Executive Officer/Executive Vice Chairman, Mr Olatunji Bello, renowned journalist, editor, lawyer and administrator, who assumed office in June 2024, the FCCPC has significantly scaled up its activities aggressively holding corporate organizations to account while meticulously addressing consumer complaints and grievances. In the statement announcing his appointment, President Tinubu had mandated Tunji Bello to “ensure the holistic realization of the Commission’s mandate of protecting and promoting the interest and welfare of Nigerian consumers, and ensuring the adoption of measures to guarantee the safety and quality of goods and services”. The role of the FCCPC has acquired added significance against the background of the economic hardships attendant on the painful but inevitable economic reforms of the Tinubu administration particularly the removal of fuel subsidy and the merger of the parallel foreign exchange markets that had engendered high inflationary spirals that are only gradually beginning to recede.

    Citing high operational costs, corporate organizations in different sectors have increased their tariffs to the consternation of already hard hit consumers despite the fact that many of them continue to report high profit levels. In the telecommunications sector, for instance, there has been a 50 per cent hike in tariffs. In the electricity industry, the regulatory authorities approved an increase in tariff for Band A customers from N68 KWh to N225 KWh but which was later pegged at N209.50. Banks have increased the cost of transacting on Automated Teller Machines (ATM). The Nation newspaper columnist, Sanya Oni, recently cited the example of the private entertainment company, MultiChoice and its subsidiary,  DSTV, and their penchant for arbitrary and incessant price increases.

    In the words of Oni, “For instance, in May 2023, premium package subscribers were hit with a 51.23% increment from N16,200 to N24,500. Six months after, another major increment of 20.41% would follow, pushing the price to N29,500. Yet again, in another six months, that is, in May 2024, the service provider would be back with a new price of N37,000, a leap by another 25.42%; and the latest adjustment effective Saturday, March 1, taking the package to N44,500, a 21% increase – representing over 300% increase using 2015 as a base year”.

    The new resurgent and activist FCCPC, under Tunji Bello, has not been dormant in the face of seemingly whimsical price increases by various corporate organizations. Some of them, unused to having their excesses challenged, have pushed back, outrightly flouting the regulatory agency’s directives or engaging it in legal duels.

    For instance, on Thursday, February 27, the FCCPC directed MultiChoice Nigeria not to effect any new price increases as it had announced until the conclusion of the Commission’s ongoing investigation into the proposed price hikes. It had earlier directed the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr John Ugbe, to appear before its investigative hearing to justify the envisaged increases. The FCCPC had stated that “Pursuant to this, MultiChoice is expressly instructed to maintain the existing price structure as of February 27, 2025, pending the Commission’s review and final determination on the matter. Maintaining the status quo on pricing is essential to prevent any potential consumer harm during this period”. However, in a reckless display of the highest disregard and contempt for not just the regulatory authority but Nigeria’s legal system, MultiChoice Nigeria proceeded with its price increase on March 1, 2025.

    Consequently, on March 5, the FCCPC instituted legal proceedings against MultiChoice Nigeria and its Chief Executive Officer, John Ugbe, “for violating regulatory directives, obstructing an ongoing inquiry and engaging in conduct deemed violations of the provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPC). According to the FCCPC, “By disregarding the FCCPC’S directive and implementing the price hikes before appearing before the Commission’s investigative hearing on March 6, 2025, MultiChoice has not only flouted regulatory processes but also demonstrated a pattern of conduct that undermines consumer rights and fair competition”.  In any self-respecting country,  there should certainly be severe consequences for such contemptuous impunity especially by a foreign entity.

    Earlier, a shareholder of MTN Nigeria who is also a legal practitioner, Emeka Nnubia, had instituted legal proceedings against the FCCPC seeking to halt the regulatory agency’s investigation into suspected potential anti-competitive practices by the MTN. Nnubia contended that the FCCPC’s request for information from MTN violated data protection laws and that regulatory authority over MTN resided with the National Communications Commission (NCC) and not the FCCPC. In his ruling on February 7, 2025, Justice F.N. Ogazi, of the Federal High Court in Lagos, affirmed the statutory authority of the FCCPC to regulate competition and consumer protection across all sectors of the economy and that the regulatory agency’s request for information from MTN did not violate any data protection laws but was undertaken within its statutory powers.

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    When the NCC approved a 50% adjustment in telecommunications tariffs, the FCCPC warned that “Issues such as network congestion, dropped calls, inconsistent Internet speeds, unusual data depletion, and poor customer service have remained prevalent concerns. It is, therefore, crucial that tariff adjustments directly translate into demonstrable and tangible service enhancements for consumers.”. The FCCPC took on the Ikeja and Eko electricity distribution companies (IKEDC and EKEDC) when they contemplated charging consumers for the cost of replacing ‘obsolete’ meters insisting that the Discos must comply with the order by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) that “meter replacements must be prompt, without disrupting service and at no cost to the consumer; and ensuring that consumers are not subjected to estimated billing due to delayed installations”.

    The FCCPC had also, at various times, engaged other corporate giants like Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) and Air Peace on alleged violations of consumer rights. It is certainly a new and welcome season of ensuring corporate accountability in Nigeria in the best interest of consumers and society at large.

  • Dame Abimbola Emmanuella Fashola @ 60

    Dame Abimbola Emmanuella Fashola @ 60

    My dear Abimbola, I celebrate you as you commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of your birth for a life that has been well-lived, especially in the service of God and humanity. On this diamond anniversary, it is fitting to acknowledge how, like a diamond, you have sparkled and lit up many lives, including mine and our children’s. Beyond us, the spark of your existence has ignited many other lives from far and near. Like the diamond, you are valued, treasured, and much sought after. Most especially, you wear value and humility with ease. Above all, like the diamond, you possess an inner strength that has been a rock for all of us. I pray for many more years of a very healthy and fulfilling life for you”.

    That was the former governor of Lagos State and Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), a man with a coldly logical and clinical legal mind waxing passionately poetic and lyrical in celebrating the 60th birthday, last Sunday, April 6, of his beloved wife, Dame Abimbola Emmanuella Fashola. Stepping into the large shoes of her predecessor as First Lady of Lagos State (1999-2007), Senator (Mrs) Oluremi Tinubu, CON, now First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs Fashola played the role with uncommon grace, disarming modesty and simplicity as well as quiet dignity. Her NGO, the Leadership Empowerment and Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N) has contributed immensely to enriching, transforming and adding value to lives in pursuit of the common good.

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    Her wisdom, deep spirituality and emotional support were no doubt a critical factor in the outstanding success of Mr Fashola both as governor and Minister. In his felicitation with Mrs Fashola on the landmark occasion, President Bola Tinubu described her as “a steadfast pillar of support for her husband, offering tremendous help during his tenure as Lagos Governor and Minister of Works and Housing “. The President lauded her contributions as an experienced administrator in education management and as a passionate advocate for health and Socio-economic issues while acknowledging her impact on public awareness and sensitization campaigns on children’s and women’s health. This column joins Dame Fashola’s numerous well-wishers in praying for many more years of good health, continued success, divine wisdom and God’s abundant grace for a woman of immense virtue and value.

  • Peter Obi and the limits of populism

    Peter Obi and the limits of populism

    A video that went viral during this year’s Muslim Ramadan fast was that of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential general elections, Mr Peter Obi, breaking the fast with some urchins in a community in Northern Nigeria. There was Obi, a veritable billionaire, sitting legs outstretched on a mat with some Muslim youngsters scooping rice and choice protein into their mouths from the same plate. As Sam Omatseye observed in a commentary on the episode, the quality of the fried rice and chicken being devoured in the brazen politicization of what was supposed to be a sober religious observance was definitely not what the northern youths dining with Obi and members of their community were accustomed to. Indeed, the trademark designer French suit worn by the former presidential candidate stood in sharp contrast to the humble apparel of his Ramadan hosts even though Obi would want them to believe that he is in disposition, outlook and inclination one of the downtrodden members of the society who is wholeheartedly committed to their cause.

    Yet, the discomfiture of Obi at being forced to be a key actor in this farcical Ramadan breaking of fast theatre designed to score cheap political goals was all too obvious. Deep within him, the wealthy and hugely ambitious trader would have loved to be somewhere else but for the desperate need to correct his past electorally fatal missteps and carve a new political image for himself in preparation for another bid for the presidency even though he swears that he is not desperate to be President of Nigeria but only in contributing to actualizing the common good for her people. Before now, there had been another widely publicized visual in which Obi was seen in another northern Muslim community joining adherents of Islam in washing his feet in preparation for prayers, although it is not clear if that was during the fasting period.

    These antics of Obi illustrate vividly the superficiality of his politics of cheap populism devoid of deep convictions and firmly held principles. To Obi, image matters far more than substance. Like the chameleon, he changes to reflect the colour of his environment, and it is difficult to place who he really is in reality. During the campaigns for the 2023 presidential election, Obi had politicized religion to a degree never before witnessed in Nigerian politics. To whip up the support of Christians, which he successfully did to a considerable extent, he engaged in what was popularly called ‘church tourism’, going from church to church, particularly among the large Pentecostal congregations on some occasions, melodramatically calling on Christians to “take back your country”. Those Christian clerics and their delirious congregations who rapturously cheered his every word must be wondering now if this is the same man washing his feet to participate in prayers in mosques and breaking the Ramadan fast in Muslim communities.

    In reality, for Obi, neither Christianity nor Islam is of the essence; it is his ambition that matters, and the emotions and sentiments of religious adherents are to be cynically manipulated for partisan political ends. What, then, does Obi truly believe in? It is difficult to say. Is his much-advertised commitment to frugality and material asceticism not just a clever, hypocritical ploy to place himself in sharp contradistinction to a culture of opulence and display of affluence by a decadent political elite not necessarily out of principled conviction but to promote his political aspiration? It is not unlikely. If he can exploit religion with such hypocritical cynicism, is there anything else he cannot selfishly mine in a desperate quest for political gold?

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    Quite apart from the Christian vote, the other constituency actively cultivated by Obi in the countdown to the last presidential election was that of his Igbo ethnic kinsmen. He did not have to exert himself too much in that regard. Understandably desirous of an Igbo presidency for the first time in this dispensation, the Igbo massed enthusiastically around Obi who they saw as the best and brightest opportunity to achieve this objective especially because of the cynical support he enjoyed from the likes of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the late Chief Ayo Adebanjo despite their repeatedly demonstrated deficiency of electoral value in the Southwest. And to his credit, Obi did well in achieving his objectives in the 2023 presidential election.

    Not only did he win nearly 90 per cent of the Igbo vote, he also won massive Christian as well as the large numbers of migrant Igbo votes in the South-South, Nasarawa and Plateau States in the North-Central as well as in Lagos and Abuja. But that could not provide him a pathway to the presidency with the entire far northern part of Nigeria, more than half of the country, understandably refraining from voting for a man who enjoyed the fanatical support of Christian pastors who openly denigrated both the North and Islam.

    It is that error that Obi is now cleverly trying to correct by enthusiastically seeking to project the image of a broad-minded nationalist who transcends a parochial mindset and does not discriminate against any religion. He knows that his religious parochialism and ethno-regional sectionalism cost him the last election. Yet, he is striving to cultivate a national political base, without which it is impossible to win a presidential election in Nigeria without the intellectual honesty to admit that he lost the last election because of a flawed electoral strategy.

    Rather, he has, in recent weeks, intensified his denigration of democracy in Nigeria to the extent that he contends that democracy no longer exists in the country. Yet, he has on national television and at different fora just this week subjected the President Bola Tinubu administration to scathing criticisms claiming that the government is a failure and he would have performed better if elected. Beyond doubt, he has publicly acknowledged being part of a coalition being constructed with a view to wresting power from the ruling APC in 2027. Would such expression of democratic rights of expression and association have been possible in a democracy that is dead and non-functional as Obi alleges?

    Speaking at the recent 60th birthday anniversary of Honourable Emeka Ihedioha, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and short-lived governor of Imo State, Obi launched an incendiary verbal attack on the judiciary to demonstrate his morbid thesis that democracy is in its death throes in Nigeria. According to him, he regained his truncated mandate as governor of Anambra State and went on to serve for two terms courtesy of a judiciary that once upheld the cause of truth and justice but no longer does so. His bile against the judiciary is that it did not uphold the comically deficient and flawed case presented before the various Election Petition Tribunals and the Supreme Court by his glaringly incompetent legal team claiming that Obi won an election he so clearly lost.

    He expected the judges to join him in his fantasy, make-believe world of imagined electoral victory and thus become complicit in his intellectual fraudulence and dishonesty to win his approbation and support. Obi forgets that at the time he contested for the governorship of Anambra State and his mandate was rescued by the courts, Nigeria’s electoral process was far more crude and less developed than what we have today. The kind of brazen electoral fraud that necessitated surgical judicial intervention at the time can no longer be perpetrated today, and the judiciary cannot be expected to upturn elections conducted in substantial compliance with stipulated due process.

    In a bid to position himself as the leading opposition leader, Obi this week hurled verbal tirades against the economic policies of the Tinubu administration. But he mostly engaged in rhetorical flights of fancy devoid of hard facts and convincing substance. For instance, Obi claims that Tinubu should not have removed the fuel subsidy or eliminated the parallel exchange rate markets that gave room for humongous criminal arbitrage without first improving national economic productivity. He did not tell us how he would have performed such governmental magical witchcraft had he been elected President.

    On the country’s debt profile, Obi said, “Also, we have a country that is in huge debt…The cost of debt servicing is above the budget for critical areas like health and education. 70 per cent of our primary health centers are not functioning. I would fix our PHCs and primary schools if I were President”.  But as President Tinubu said in November last year: “For us, it was a challenge when the nation was servicing its debt with 97 per cent of its revenue, it was nothing but the edge of the cliff…But today, I can report to you that we have brought that down to 65 per cent, and we have never defaulted in meeting all obligations, both foreign and domestic. We have our heads above water. All countries around us, across the world, are also facing challenges.”

    Understandably, Obi cannot see even one good thing that the Tinubu administration has done in its nearly two years in office. He is entitled to his partisanly tainted view. But being in opposition does not mean that politicians must be in denial of the achievements of incumbent governments, even when they have the responsibility to subject the ruling party to the highest standards of scrutiny and accountability. For instance, to cite an example given by Mr Tunde Rahman, Senior Special Assistant to Tinubu on Media, Publicity and Special Duties in his piece on President Tinubu’s 73rd birthday, “On Tuesday, February 4, President Bola Tinubu approved a whopping N758 billion to settle longstanding pension liabilities under the Contributory Pension Scheme for federal workers nationwide…It was the first time the Federal Government would commit funds to the Pension Protection Fund, a statutory provision designed to augment pensions for low-income earners. Apart from clearing all pension increases since 2007, President Tinubu’s intervention also settled the shortfall in university professors’ pensions, ensuring retired university lecturers receive their full salary as a pension”. Not even the most brazen opposition partisanship can obscure such landmark achievements.