The Nation Newspaper

Category: Barometer

  • Sowore, Charly Boy, Ezekwesili and August protests

    Sowore, Charly Boy, Ezekwesili and August protests

    It is a tribute to their nuisance value that the organisers of the August 1 – 10, 2024 protests have triggered tremors high on the Richter scale in the corridors of power. The whole populace, government, and security agencies are awake, agitated and waiting for doomsday as it were. Meanwhile the protest organisers, full of rhetoric and bombast, are sleeping blissfully here and in far-flung places. They will keep playing the same protest card and doing the same thing over and over again until the whole protest saga becomes farcical. The 2020 EndSARS protest was erroneously thought to be leaderless, and despite the damage to the body politic and the enormous complication it brought to ethnic relations in Nigeria, the browbeaten authorities allowed it to end ‘leaderless’ by not prosecuting anyone.

    The August 1-10, 2024 protests are a different kettle of fish. Unable to resist the lure of being recognised as one of the leading organisers of the August protests, Omoyele Sowore, founder of the controversial online medium, Sahara Reporters, has appropriated to himself a leading role. He is one of the inspirations behind what he described as a movement: Revolution Now. His medium has published fiery, inciting and unsubstantiated news about the ‘ignoble’ roles he believes some Nigerian leaders are playing in trying to forestall the protests, including making allegations of bribery and subversion. A few days ago, the medium published the list of the protesters’ demands, and followed up with their risible requests concerning the execution of the protests in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. In the lengthy list of demands, the promoters hubristically conflate their opinions and grievances with those of Nigerians and the youths.

    Among the demands are the following: “Scrap the 1999 Constitution and replace it with a People-made Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria through a Sovereign National Conference immediately followed by a National Referendum.

    “Toss the Senate arm of the Nigerian Legislative System, keep the House of Representatives (HOR), and make lawmaking a part-time endeavour.

    “Pay Nigerian Workers a minimum wage of nothing less than N250,000 monthly.

    “Invest heavily in education and give Nigerian students grants, not loans. Aggressively pursue free and compulsory education for children across Nigeria.

    “Release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally and demilitarise the South East. All #ENDSARS and political detainees must also be released and compensated.

    “Renationalise publicly owned enterprises sold to government officials and cronies.

    “Reinstate a corruption-free subsidy regime to reduce hunger, starvation and multidimensional poverty.”

    Read Also: Foreign mercenaries involved in planned protests, says IGP

    The online medium followed up with another farcical and badly written letter signed by one Damilare Adenola, Director of Mobilisation for the Take It Back Movement (TIB) in Abuja, and directed at the Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike. The letter asks for “access to the Eagles Square between August 1st and 10th, 2024, for our #DaysOfRage, #EndBadGovernance protest.” Affronting every rule of civility, and indicating the poor intellectual background of the activist, he continues: “This request entails using this national asset day and night for the duration of the historic protest. Also, note that the protest may be prolonged beyond ten days as we embark on the protracted crisis occasioned by the ruling party. Further, your office must also ensure the provision of a 24-hour power supply, toilet facilities, water, and security for the convenience of Nigerian citizens who will be camped out at Eagle Square. In short, we ask that the protesters are accorded the courtesy accorded to foreign and local official dignitaries who have frequently used the space.” Then he concludes magisterially that, “In addition, we request that the outer wire mesh barrier facing the Aso Rock Villa be removed in the meantime, as protesters may decide to visit the Presidential Villa during the protest. It is our sincere hope that this request will be granted expeditiously.” There can’t be a worse upbringing. Is this what Nigerian youths have become?

    Both the demands and the letter indicate just one thing: that Nigeria has fared very badly in building the next generation of responsible citizens to run Nigeria and take it to great heights. The demands indicate a galling sense of entitlement, a disgraceful opportunistic desire to be cast as the leader of a potentially destructive and ‘historic’ protest/revolution, and shallow reasoning of what constitutes statecraft and how modern economies are run. It is this concatenation of drivel from Messrs Sowore and Adenola that the unreflective Charles Oputa, aka Charly Boy, and the angry and implacable former Education minister Obiageli Ezekwesili are investing their names and reputations. It is pointless analysing the protesters’ demands and the letter published in Sahara Reporters. They show, even at first view, that the protesters have no real reasons to protest. They see the hunger in the land, imagine that the government is lax in dealing with the crisis, and hope that if somehow they can trigger a revolt of indeterminate end, they can benefit from a future arrangement.

    Charly Boy is 74 years old. Apart from being foul-mouthed in his peevish statement on the impending protest, he also managed to reveal his true intention. Unmindful of the prevailing and troubled world economic system from which Nigeria is not insulated, he voiced this incitement: “Nigerian youths don’t ever back down. If dem no fear us, dey can never respect us. Nonsense. Dia fathers.” So, the rest of Nigeria, and particularly the leaders, must fear them in order to respect them. And then the expletives – all coming from a 74-year-old presumed leader of thought, a man who desires to shape a new Nigeria. Well, if Charly Boy had always being disrespectfully anarchical, what of Mrs Ezekwesili, a former minister of the federal republic? Hear her: “I hope that our politicians and public officials will heed counsel and allow themselves the humility of listening and learning from their citizens at a time like this. I wish the protesters a well-organised, orderly and peaceful protest.” She is obviously also a closet revolutionary whose dualistic us-versus-them worldview leads her to view the government as arrogant and ignorant.

    It is not clear how long Nigeria can stave off disaster. From the cantankerous views of so many young people itching for a fight to the stolid indifference and speciousness of the so-called leaders of thought, Nigeria is caught in a bear hug. Hopefully, the country will still have enough breath left in their lungs to rethink and strategise their way through the thicket of untenable political system and costly and garish governance which they superintend.

  • Nyesom Wike’s alibi

    Nyesom Wike’s alibi

    For all his faults, the chief of which is impatience in the Rivers State imbroglio, former governor and now FCT minister Nyesom Wike cannot be accused of not being lionhearted or of lacking in imaginativeness. Many governors have responded admirably to the protest threat consternating the country, but some others, particularly in the Southwest, have been laid-back. Not Mr Wike. After spending billions building and upgrading infrastructure in Abuja, he fears that any protest that gets out of hand would imperil his work and the city itself. So he has fixed a sort of mini festival for Abuja, an alibi to coincide with August 1.

    Read Also: Election losers want to overthrow government through protest, says Wike

    According to him, “That is the day FCT has set aside for the entire area councils to jubilate and give out certificates of recognition to their traditional rulers. We will not allow that day that FCT has set aside to honour their traditional rulers for their people to rejoice, and then somebody will come and disrupt that day. We will not allow it. That day is not available for those who want to protest, and FCT is not available for the protesters.”

    A test of wills is afoot. But Mr Wike has repeatedly proved he is adept at squaring up to every foe, however that foe is described. What is clear is that the protest organisers will not get the Eagle Square for their revelry. They will perhaps hope that the streets will be more accommodating. August 1 will tell.

  • Kano, Rivers and culture of rhetorical violence

    Kano, Rivers and culture of rhetorical violence

    Kano and Rivers States have become the new poster boys for rhetorical violence. Kano always seemed combustible, and has in the past two or three weeks proved its mettle in boisterous politics, but it was Rivers, with its immense talent for both rhetorical excesses and engaging burlesque, that got Nigerians transfixed for the past few months. It is somewhat quiet now on the Rivers front, albeit the quietude of the graveyard, but who knows tomorrow? On its own, after achieving what is probably a contrived judicial stalemate after two heady weeks of monarchical war games, Kano is lapsing into unearthly somnolence. But it won’t be for long. Something or someone will break the logjam, not only in Kano, but also in Rivers. It is the way things work in these parts. Just when they teeter between war and peace, suddenly they regain balance and move on much steadily than anticipated.

    Whether for long or merely episodic, what seems to define the politics of Kano and Rivers is their almost total embrace of rhetorical violence. They enjoy it, and are indeed cavorting in it. In Kano, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, a protégé of the founder of the Kwankwasiyya movement and former governor of the state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, had just railroaded a bill through the House of Assembly two Thursdays ago to repeal the Kano Emirate Council (Repeal) law. That law sacked the five emirates of Bichi, Gaya, Rano, Karaye and Kano created by the previous administration of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. But on that same Thursday, a Kano kingmaker, Aminu Babba Danagundi, who is also the Sarkin Dawaki Babba, brought a motion before the Federal High Court, Kano, headed by Justice Abdullahi Muhammad Liman, to impede the return of dethroned Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II to the unified Kano throne. Since then, injunctions and interim orders from various courts have been flying around in the state.

    READ ALSO; Kanu’s freedom will bring peace to Southeast, says IPOB

    The multiplicity of injunctions is of course bad enough, causing giddiness among security agencies and the Kano populace, but much worse is the rhetorical violence thundered by interested parties, including, sadly, the state government, and even former vice president Atiku Abubakar. Last week, rather than call for restraint in the tussle for the Kano throne, the former vice president warned that anarchy was imminent and asked Nigerians to hold President Bola Ahmed Tinubu responsible. What about the governor, the state’s lawmakers, acerbic government officials, lawyers, and the emirs themselves? Nonsense, implied Alhaji Atiku; the buck stops at the president’s desk. Mendacity and truth have become hopelessly inextricable, nerves are frayed, and the combatants have dug their heels in. Bilious and trenchant statements by sundry interested parties began flying around warning of anarchy, disorder and doomsday. Nearly everyone wants the president to intervene. How? By sanctioning the courts, stifling the rights of citizens to seek relief in the courts, hamstringing the state government, or issuing diktats to the emirate council?

    Some commentators have gone as far as suggesting that because former governor Ganduje was involved in the creation of the five emirates, which Governor Yusuf has now unified into just one Kano Emirate, then President Tinubu must be a party to the dispute, perhaps subtly on the side of the former governor for political and electoral reasons. Other commentators accuse the current governor of preconceived bias in railroading the repeal law on the grounds of his and the Kwankwasiyya movement’s campaign promises. Since the idea of one big Kano Emirate still holds attraction for many Kanawa, it was also suggested that the other side enamoured of the split emirates must be evil. Positions have hardened, and fiery, unforgiving statements are flying round and complicating the tussle for the throne and obfuscating electoral extrapolations. Everyone, left or right of the spectrum, gives the impression that war is imminent. They would in the end be disappointed if war does not break out in line with their wishes nurtured since the end of the last president poll.

    The situation in Rivers is more farcical but no less truculent. There the courts are also naturally involved in issuing orders and counter-orders, of course complicating the severe and ongoing political tussle in the state. The Rivers tussle is much simpler, however. Governor Siminalayi Fubara fell out with his benefactor and predecessor, Nyesom Wike. Unlike the Kano Emirate tussle, the Rivers crisis was a hasty and unnecessary struggle for dominance. Wisdom should have dictated a different course of action, but as some commentators in the state observed, Gov Fubara embarked on a rapprochement with some political actors who opposed his election and who fought his predecessor to a standstill. In the eyes of Mr Wike, the peace march was a ploy to hijack the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) structure in the state and turn it over to the ‘enemy’.

    Very quickly, the frontline took shape and positions became ossified. A peace deal was struck early in the war of control at the behest of the president, but after some so-called state elders intervened and deconstructed the deal, in almost similar circumstances to the pre-civil war Aburi Accord fiasco, Mr Fubara ‘saw the light’ and became intransigent. The fight began in earnest, State Assembly building was torched and soon demolished, and the suspended and minority lawmakers of four legislators soon became the de facto Assembly appointing speakers, making laws, and vetting commissioners. More, the minority legislators sat in Government House, turning over the control and inspiration of the legislature to the state executive. In days, dithyrambs were composed and all manner of troubadours began writing classical and jazz music, complete with provincial ensembles and orchestras. Unusually fecund for producing musical scores, Rivers State began churning out virtuosi rhetoricians, including the governor himself, who could play with words and phrases as well as energise rhythmic musical expressions. But they soon began speaking violence, warning about the enemies of Mr Fubara plotting to set the state, nay the country, alight should the president fail to intervene and restrain Mr Wike. As recent as last Wednesday, the courts were still belching out injunctions, creating a situation where many wondered whether they would have any left before the year runs out.

  • Obasanjo’s platitudes on Tinubunomics

    Obasanjo’s platitudes on Tinubunomics

    Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has surprisingly been tame taking the Bola Tinubu administration to the cleaners over the current economic crisis. But at the Paul Aje Colloquium last week, he was scathing all the same, accusing the administration of being less than savvy in responding to the economic challenges of the day. He acknowledged that the administration had correctly identified the country’s economic problems, but he insisted that its response left much to be desired. It was necessary, the former president admitted grimly, for President Tinubu to tackle the issue of fuel subsidy and exchange rate crisis. However, instead of focusing on “production and productivity, which belief and trust in government leadership will engender,” the administration had been unable to “gain the confidence and trust of investors who have alternatives.” In short, the former president was simply being platitudinous.

    Read Also: FULL LIST: Govt agencies for disconnection over electricity debt

    On the exchange rate crisis, Chief Obasanjo said “Tinkering with the exchange rate is not the answer. The answer is consistency and continuity in policy to ensure stability and predictability.” This was again more platitudes. If, as he said, productivity and production had yet to be revved up, how on earth could the administration avoid some ‘tinkering’, if indeed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was tinkering? In short, Chief Obasanjo had nothing to say. He of course has the right to speak up on national issues, part of it from experience. But whatever he says must make sense and carry weight. Did he, for instance, consider how complicating to the country’s economic crisis the over N30trn printed by the previous administration was? As he said in his contribution, there are no short cuts; but his platitudinous statements were exactly that.

  • Death for drug traffickers: a superfluous bill

    Death for drug traffickers: a superfluous bill

    Weeks ago, the Nigerian Senate passed an amended bill prescribing death penalty for persons who, without lawful authority; imports, manufactures, produces, processes, plants or grows the drugs popularly known as cocaine, heroin or any other similar drugs. The bill, which the House of Representatives also promised to pass, seeks to amend Section 11 of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act. When the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, headed by Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno North) worked upon the bill, there was no mention of the death penalty. During a consideration by the Committee of the Whole, Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) brusquely proposed the death penalty, and presto, it was carried.

    Read Also: Senate okays death penalty for drug traffickers

    Nigeria undoubtedly has a drug problem, like many other countries, but not more hellish than banditry, insurgency, kidnapping, etc. Has the death penalty solved these other crimes? After the infamous and controversial judicial murder of Lawal Ojuolape, 30, Bernard Ogedengbe, 29, and Bartholomew Owoh, 26, in April 1985, during the brief military regime of Muhammadu Buhari, no administration has contemplated the death penalty for drug offences. The original amendment by the Sen. Monguno committee made strong proposals for revamping the anti-drug war. The House of Representatives and the federal government should stick to those proposals and expunge the unworkable and clearly outsized death penalty. Thousands of condemned criminals are on death row all over Nigeria with no prospect of being executed due to unsigned warrants. Adding hundreds more will be foolish and wasteful of court time.

  • Edo poll: PFN, CAN have learnt nothing

    Edo poll: PFN, CAN have learnt nothing

    A little over one year after the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) unwisely and combatively plunged into Nigeria’s presidential election fray, and got their fingers badly burnt, the Edo State chapter of the two leading Christian bodies in the country, CAN and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), have remorselessly pledged to reenact the rashness. Responding to the campaign overtures of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September governorship election, both the PFN and CAN have promised to vote the state’s ruling party candidate Asue Ighodalo as governor. He is an example of a good Christian, they chorused. And the other also Christian candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Benson Idahosa? Well, he is either stingy, a liar or an untrustworthy man used by the devil.

    The Ighodalo endorsement, which took place at the PFN’s 2024 Edo State School of Ministry at the PCU-PFN administrative headquarters along Benin-Auchi Road, was hearty and total. In what seemed like an annual general meeting, the Edo State chairman of the PFN, Pastor Dr. (Mrs) M.O. Agbonifo, enthused over the candidacy of Mr Ighodalo and his running mate, and averred that the Christian body had no iota of doubt that the two gentlemen were what the state needed at the Government House. And seeming to second the motion, the State CAN Chairman, Apostle Irekpono Omoike, then formally voiced the endorsement and anchored prayers for the victory of the PDP candidates at the election. Still flush with excitement, probably at the coup they had pulled off in their one-sided endorsement, Mrs Agbonifo sarcastically dismissed the APC candidate for pledging what he could not deliver. Seizing the opportunity of that corrosive statement by the PFN leader, Governor Godwin Obaseki’s wife, Betsy, who was at the event, donated a coaster bus to the Christian body in a mockery of Mr Idahosa’s failed promise. According to her, no one should trust a man who could not redeem his pledge to God.

    The Edo PCU-PFN programme, like many contemporary religious programmes in Nigeria, easily transformed into an auctioning event, indicating that conscience can be bought and sold unabashedly. Sensing the impact of the materialistic drift of the pastors, and caught up in the frenzy, Candidate Ighodalo himself pledged a 100KVA generator to power the administrative centre of the Christian organisation. Impressed, younger brother of the candidate, Ituah Ighodalo, pastor of the Trinity House Church, also pledged N5 million to fuel the generator when it is bought. It is striking, if not demeaning to the church, that while Candidate Ighodalo and his brother Ituah were hedging their bets, the PCU-PFN took the entire body of Christ in Edo State and pledged it to a materialist and secular cause, with the Trinity House Church pastor even likening the September governorship contest to a battle between light and darkness. Of course, the PDP candidate was the light and the APC candidate anybody’s guess.

    The shameful politicking that unnerved the church in the 2023 presidential poll has obviously continued apace. They have learnt nothing, and forgotten nothing. In last year’s election, the church seized upon the APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket as an alibi for their troubled conscience to throw caution to the wind and eagerly, uncharacteristically, and unwisely immersed itself in politics, sadly fighting one another. In Edo’s September governorship poll, both leading candidates, not to talk of that of the Labour Party (LP), are Christians. But having swallowed the hook, PCU-PFN sees no handicap in swallowing the line and sinker by persisting in politicking, preferring one Christian over another. Once a demon gains a foothold, it beckons on a legion. The fear of Islamisation, with which many churches spooked voters last year, turned out to be a bogeyman. But there were no apologies for desecrating the church, for cursing fellow Christians who showed a different preference, and for finally and shamefacedly realising that the APC ticket had in 2023 turned out to be more secular than the theocratic tickets of LP and the PDP.

    Read Also: Ondo 2024: Ayeka community backs Aiyedatiwa candidacy

    Clearly, today, as the Edo election is finally illustrating, today’s Christian leaders are less inclined to evangelising and showing the light, and manifesting temperance and love: they are politicians who have brought the world into the church. It was remarkable at the PCU-PFN event in Edo that Mrs Obaseki even declared tongue-in-cheek that the inability of the APC candidate to redeem his pledge was a sacrilege. What is more, the PDP candidate was emphatic in declaring that should he win, he would remake the state along the vision of his Christian backers. Said he: “Permit me to express my profound gratitude to this august body of Christ. I am really humbled by the trust and confidence reposed in me. And I promise you, I won’t disappoint you or let you down. I wish to say this, too, that Edo State, like some other states, should have an Ecumenical Centre as a further step to fostering unity within the Christian faith in Edo State and we will ensure everybody has the freedom to practice and observe his faith without let or hindrance. More also, we will institute an Edo Thanksgiving Day, a day set aside in the year to thank God for everything.”

    Gradually, the religious ossification many observers ascribe to the North is percolating into the South. It may be irreversible, especially in light of some of the bewildering judgements coming out of the courts from jurists tainted by religious prejudices, and the reluctance of the federal government to tackle hate crimes and religious intolerance propagated in Ilorin and other places against traditional religion worshippers. The church, it was initially believed, would help shine the light to defeat the gross darkness overtaking the country. Instead, it has capitulated; and some Edo politicians and church leaders are proud to be numbered among the ‘heathen’. Will the PCU-PFN endorsement make a difference in Edo? It is unlikely; other factors will probably determine the outcome of the vote in September. But whether the church wins or loses in Edo, few people will forget the inglorious and unscriptural agenda they are pursuing, an agenda angry Pastor Ituah himself did so much to foster in Lagos during the last poll.

  • Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye bungles it again

    Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye bungles it again

    Woman Affairs minister, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has an enduring predilection for rushing in where angels fear to tread. This is putting it finely. She also interprets her intrepidity as wisdom, and her instinctive passion to correct perceived wrongs as affirming her drive to sanitise all issues concerning women, in addition to curiously viewing every girl or female in Nigeria as part of her remit. The news had hardly reached the public about the impending mass wedding of one hundred girls in Mariga local government area in Niger State when the minister flew off the handle and engaged in attack mode. She had concluded that a grave wrong had been committed. She insinuated that the girls were underage, were being married off against their will, and perhaps because the weddings were to be sponsored by the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, there was also official seal to a constitutional infraction or to social and cultural perversity.

    Characteristically and remorselessly, Mrs Kennedy-Ohanenye has spoken up another storm, barely a few weeks after she rammed her siege weapons against the Lead British International School affair. On that occasion, and citing a few other needless interventions by the minister, this columnist had observed that Mrs Kennedy-Ohanenye had no sense of boundaries. Writing under the title Women Affairs minister and controversy, Barometer had on April 28 declaimed as follows: “It is not clear where Women Affairs and Social Development minister, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, got her power to shut down the Lead British International School in Abuja over the bullying case involving some female students. Immediately the matter was posted on social media, the minister dived into the controversy and shut the school for three days until the matter should be investigated and possibly resolved. Shutting down any school in Abuja is supposed to be that of the Education ministry or the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). But Mrs Kennedy-Ohanenye is no stranger to controversy and impulsive actions and statements.

    Read Also; I’m amused seeing those who said Asiwaju had no chance now gallivanting around him – Gbenga Daniel

    “Last September, she redefined sexual harassment in the University of Calabar case involving Cyril Ndifon, a Law professor and former dean, who is being tried for alleged sexual harassment of students. She was forced by a coalition of 500 women’s rights group to apologise. Last October, she also threatened to sue the United Nations for not properly accounting for the monies sourced from donors for Nigeria. Of course she had no locus. Then in February 2024, she admonished women to shut up when arguing with their husbands if the case was not to degenerate into violence. The ministry could defend the wives, but could not replace lost eyes, she said sarcastically.

    “Mrs Kennedy-Ohanenye is clearly instinctive and impetuous. She will keep leaping from one controversy to another if no one restrains her. But in the absence of the hilarious Dame Patience Jonathan, it is probably a great idea to have this Women Affairs minister in the cabinet to give the country comic relief and relive stressed ministers bent over by the tedium of their tasks. Hopefully, the president can put her on a gentle leash lest she traipse over her boundaries.”

    It is unlikely the minister reads newspapers or minds public unease over her misbegotten interventions. Had she read the news as her public service requires of her, and had she possessed the capacity to be mortified by public rebuke, she would probably be more restrained rushing into public controversies, any controversy. But she is propelled on the wings of instincts. This is probably why there has not been one major policy initiative or intervention from her that drew public acclaim or satisfaction; instead there has been a string of bungles followed by public dismay and incredulousness. Her UN litigation threat is abandoned; her intervention in the University of Calabar harassment snafu ended in an apology from her; and her misjudged view on British International School is of course ending up in smoke. In all the cases, there was not one instance when she did her homework well before rushing into the fray. In the Niger State mass wedding case, she simply followed the news and took umbrage, imagining that minors were being, perhaps ‘characteristically’ of the North, wedded off.

    Hon. Sarkindaji has shot back in fury, denouncing the Women Affairs minister for threatening to sue him as well as reporting the matter to the police. She could not know his constituency as much as he does, he fumed, and she could not know the background of the culture of the community and the orphaned girls as well as the traditional and religious institutions in those places. He explained that his constituency had asked him to sponsor the weddings on the grounds of some of the girls having lost their parents to banditry or were too poor to underwrite the expenses of weddings. Indeed, riled by her presumptuousness, the traditional and religious elite of the community, under the aegis of the State’s Imam Forum, have given the minister a seven-day ultimatum to apologise for affronting their culture. They insist she must withdraw the suit or face legal action. The weddings will go on as planned, they roared, as more than N10 million had been raised for that purpose.

    It is not clear how the administration views the minister’s impetuousness. If they are impressed by her needless meddling in extraneous issues, they should at least try to get her to do her homework well before rushing into an inferno. Yes, as this column said in April, she provides comic relief, but it will be more helpful to the administration if her farcical interventions don’t cost the administration an arm and a leg.

  • FEC wrong on airport tollgates fees

    FEC wrong on airport tollgates fees

    The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management, Festus Keyamo, announced last Tuesday that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had overruled his proposal to exempt the president and vice president from paying access or toll fees at the airports. Everyone must pay, he quoted the president as saying. The minister had persuaded the two-day Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting last week that his ministry fell short of the N10bn expected revenue from airport tollgates because very important persons, the rich and powerful, don’t pay tolls. It is not clear whether he listed the security and law enforcement agencies in his original computations of the numerous exemptions that had stultified revenue collection at the airport access gates.

    Read Also; Governance began only three months ago due to Rivers crisis – Fubara

    The FEC is right to put an end to the waivers. Everyone should pay, and by including himself and the VP, the president is probably sending signal that it would be foolhardy for any other person, no matter how highly placed, to seek exemption. It makes sense, especially in view of the availability of e-tags to facilitate seamless movements in and out of the airports. However, they must hope that the electronic infrastructure at the tollgates never break down, or that every vehicle in their convoys would always have e-tags. Is it, however, not possible for the administration to insist that everyone should pay while the president and vice president be exempted for security reasons, which was probably the point Mr Keyamo was making? Everyone should pay, yes, but exempting the State House vehicles will not thwart the revenue generation efforts of the Aviation ministry on a scale that is injurious to the administration. They need a second look, mainly on the ground of security. Too many things can go awry.     

  • FG and media: A troubled relationship

    FG and media: A troubled relationship

    Two Saturdays ago, at the NUJ Press Freedom and Good Governance Awards in Abuja, Information minister Mohammed Idris struggled to uphold the Bola Tinubu administration’s promise to ensure press freedom. He was only partially successful. The past few weeks have seen the police and the military launch assaults on press freedom on a scale that replicates the era of military dictatorship. First was the March 15 arrest by military operatives of Segun Olatunji, General Editor of FirstNews, an online newspaper, for a story published in January detailing corruption allegations against the president’s chief of staff, Femi Gbajabiamila. He was released after two weeks in detention. On May 1 the police followed suit by arresting Daniel Ojukwu, a reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ). He was released after 10 days. In both arrests, the law was discarded in its entirety. The military had no power of arrest, but it did anyway. The police, too, simply ignored the provisions of the law by keeping their captive for 10 days without arraignment.

    But at the Press Freedom awards, Mr Idris insisted that the administration had kept its promise on press freedom. The evidence flies in the face of the promise, regardless of the motives for the abductions, regardless of the provocations, and regardless of the injuries to reputations presumably authored by the alleged offenders. According to Mr Idris, “The Nigerian press will continue to be free. Their work will continue unhindered and interrupted. The message that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has given you right from the time I was appointed as minister is that he is also a product of free press and therefore he would not allow during his tenure for free press to be trampled upon.” But he also cautioned: “I keep telling us (media) also, reminding us that your freedom also has to go with enormous responsibility. You cannot allow purveyors of disinformation and fake news to occupy your space.” He insisted that his boast about press freedom would be upheld.

    So far, based on the few cases of abductions of journalists reported since the beginning of this year, the administration’s promise has been partially kept. The media have made no effort to blindly defend the abducted journalists; they have only insisted that the provisions of the law should be followed in dealing with their alleged infractions. Mr Olatunji, for instance reported that Mr Gbajabiamila was making plans to corner the proceeds of crime alleged against a former presidential aide to Muhammadu Buhari, and whom the EFCC is probably still investigating, Sabiu Tunde Yusuf. Mr Yusuf is alleged to have stolen about $30bn and illegally acquired some 66 houses. Looking closely at Nigeria’s lean financial resources, it is not clear how one man could amass so much. So, the report looked a little farfetched. Last week, FirstNews online tendered an apology to the president’s chief of staff, an apology that has riled Mr Olatunji who has since resigned his appointment and sworn that in due course the truth would bear him out.

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    Mr Ojukwu, on the other hand, is alleged to have bullied another former presidential aide, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, over contract inflation, fraudulent contracts, and outright fabrications costing the federal government hundreds of millions of naira. Mr Ojukwu’s report does not seem to contain exaggerations, and appears to have also given fair hearing to all parties involved. This may be why the FIJ went ahead to republish the report, thus daring the police and Mrs Orelope-Adefulire. The FIJ is standing by its story, and the police are yet to avail the public progress report of their investigation. However, the Information minister assured journalists who gathered for the Press Freedom awards that the matter was being resolved. But the matter, as Mr Idris should know, goes beyond the veracity or otherwise of the report. What he should concern himself with is not prevailing on the police to resolve the matter, or settle out of court, or for anyone to use his good offices to bring the matter to a close. If the minister is desirous of ensuring press freedom, he should push for the observance of the rule of law rather than the rule of man. What the military and the police have done in both troubling cases involving Mr Olatunji and Mr Ojukwu is a reenactment of dictatorship.

    There are enough laws to deal with the two cases listed above. Mr Idris should get the administration, particularly the security and law enforcement agencies, to respect the laws of the land and the constitution. Neither he nor media chiefs are expected to ‘settle or resolve’ any disputed report except feuding parties call for mediation. The law should be inviolate. That is the press freedom legacy the administration should bequeath future generations. What offended administration officials have done so far is to show contempt for the law, embark on self-help, and sidestep media regulatory organs tasked with dealing with public complaints. Unfortunately, angry officials end up giving the impression that they are disinterested in the rule of law, or worse, know nothing about the democracy President Tinubu spent half of his life crusading for before his election.

  • Cybersecurity tax runs into storm

    Cybersecurity tax runs into storm

    The inflationary pressure experienced since the removal of fuel subsidy and floating of the naira meant that any additional tax was bound to elicit anger and apprehension. It may seem disproportionate, but the controversy generated by the 0.005 cybersecurity tax on most electronic transactions directed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is bound to make lasting impressions beyond the apparent minimality of the levy. Though the tax is legal, paying N25,000, for instance, for a transaction of about N5m is straining by any standard.

    There are some 16 exemptions to the tax, according to the CBN. But despite this, the tax is expected to raise some N2trn for the Office of the National Security Adviser where the effort to combat cybercrimes would be anchored. That figure is huge, which probably accounted for why the law, enacted since 2015, and only now amended and signed in 2024, had been kept in abeyance. If accepted, and it is hard to see how it would not complicate wage negotiations, the NSA office will become very liquid in its crusade against cyber crimes. The organised labour and organised private sector are already up in arms against the tax, which they both argue is insensitive, inconsiderate and certain to compound the misery of the poor.

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    It is significant that no one has opposed the tax per se. What many Nigerians object to is the timing. They are right. In the face of pending and even acrimonious wage negotiations, it is unclear why the government would time the execution of this latest tax to coincide with electricity tariff hike, higher fuel price, declining value of the naira, and general inflationary pressures. Timing, as lawyers always say, is of the essence. Alas, the government seems to be arming its enemies against it.