The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Baba Lekki dismantles Okon

    Baba Lekki dismantles Okon

    Okon has been painting the city red. After making some money from his new business of human trafficking which he chose to call Mass Transit Across Lagos Rivers by Man-Made  Ferry (MASTMAMF), the crazy boy has been huffing and puffing all over the place, boasting that he would soon be in a position to liberate himself from domestic bondage.  The loony one hinted darkly that the day of judgment was at hand and that as a man of means, he was in a position to acquire more wives. “Oga sebi dem yeye Yoruba charge and jail baba say I dey commit bi-gamey, him go see tri-gamey soon soon”.

    After tiring of his idle drooling, snooper told the mad boy to go to hell.

    “How about throwing in the towel to go and enjoy your money?” snooper asked.

    “Oga, abi you think say I be foolish man? I no dey throway my towel like dat. I must to see something first. If to say you bring better Yoruba woman now, I fit do dat”, the crazy boy retorted with a sly wink.

    “Okay, take a leave of absence then”, snooper snapped.

     “I no get problem with dem leave of absence, na absence of leave dey worry man”, the mad boy rallied with expansive flourish.

    Perhaps Okon had carried his yanga business to Baba Lekki and the old man decided to teach him the lesson of his life. After a day of drinking and carousing around Obalende, Idumota and Obun Eko, the old man took Okon to Banana Island to view some vacant property. It was a mansion recently put up for lease or let by a hard-pressed politician who had exhausted his fortune in a hare-brained political venture. Cleverly and with devilish aplomb, the old crook had inserted an “i” in the signboard reading To Let.  He then told Okon to go in and ease himself before they could begin negotiations. Foolishly, Okon agreed but before he could unzip his fly, irate guards fell on him and beat him to a pulp.

    It was a deflated and thoroughly disfigured Okon that lumbered home that night. He was sporting a black eye and some hideous facial bumps like somebody who had been trapped in a bee cave.

    “Okon, what happened?” snooper screamed but secretly delighted.

    Read Also: Okon survives an assassination attempt

    “Oga, na dem mad Baba Lekki. He come take man to dem obonge house for Banana and dem to let sign come become toilet. Him say make I go pee. I no even comot blokos before dem godogodo people come beat Okon to nonsense”, the chastened chap moaned.

    “So where is Baba Lekki?” snooper asked.

    “He come vamoose like them Opobo ghost”, Okon muttered in pains.

    “I see”, snooper noted with a comic frown.

    “Oga wetin be Caveat Emptor abi na Epsom Salt?” Okon demanded.

    “Ha, it means buyers beware”, snooper replied suspecting another scam.

    “Kai, kai, na God go punish dis dem Yoruba people. Baba come take me to dem Yaba house and him come change dem sign to Cave Empty and him come tell me na Irunmole dey get am before before and I fit get dat one for small change. Dem senior Yoruba digbolugi no sabi say I don pass dem place before with dem sign. Naim I come pick race”.

  • One year of Tinubu

    One year of Tinubu

    In three days, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be one year in office. He will likely be scored low by public commentators, many of them young and impressionable, and Nigerians at the receiving end of the economic turmoil his economic policies have triggered. He has wisely not really commenced his agenda of social and political re-engineering of Nigeria. Tackling the massive rot and stagnation on the economic front has been disruptive enough; adding any other programme to it on a substantial scale would create seismic waves that even he, as stoical and politically adept as he is recognised to be, would be unable to manage. So, largely, he will be scored on how successful he has been in dealing with an economy that, even at the best of times, has been difficult to rein. In the past one week, his ministers have made heavy weather trying to burnish the administration’s scorecard. They have not been very successful, especially with inflation resistant to control, exchange rate unamenable to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s best efforts, insecurity yielding a yard and taking back a foot, and the administration itself quite unable to get its act together as manifested by disquieting reversals in varsity council appointments, tax policies, and expatriate employment levy, among others. Indeed, fewer Nigerians are optimistic that his economic reset agenda will yield fruit in the near future.

    But the reason a presidential term is four years is to give room for rebuilding foundations, setting building blocks properly, and constructing durable economic and political edifices. The period also allows for missteps, some inconsistencies, even if fundamental, and the rethinking and rejigging of sundry but impactful policies in all areas of national life. The harshness and rapidity with which the Tinubu administration has been judged in the past few months, despite the four-year term provision, may not be unconnected with the manner of his emergence and the controversies that smothered the last elections. The country is largely divided along ethnic and religious lines, and divisive champions, given fillip by a giddy and obstreperous social media, have had a field day. Those passing judgement will not wait for his term to end before sentencing him; they will continue to harry his administration and hope he will be flustered and susceptible to mistakes. Those who don’t like him will continue to loath him whatever he does. And those who love him will have their faith tested severely on account of the trenchancy and widespreadness of his critics.

    On Wednesday, the Tinubu administration will be one year in office. But consumed by either hatred for his person or loathing for his economic and financial policies, some Nigerians may have failed to appreciate the biggest value of the administration in the past 12 months. Far beyond his economic policies, some of which may be misplaced or even conflicting, and far beyond his tentative social and political reengineering of the republic, is the great service to national unity and cohesion which his election and inauguration have occasioned. That Nigeria is still standing today and not embroiled in anarchy or, worse, war, is an acknowledgment of the calming effect the election of an ‘outsider’ has brought upon the country. At first consideration, he was the most suitable for the presidency among the three leading aspirants who vied for the presidency in 2023. Electing former vice president Atiku Abubakar would have elongated and perpetrated Fulani rule over Nigeria after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari. It would also have entrenched the hegemony of the uniformed services. Electing the flighty and clearly unprepared and opportunistic Peter Obi would have jeopardised the stability of the country for many reasons, chief among which was his capacity for politicising religion and his predisposition to becoming a hostage to powerful interests and his militant supporters.

    By 2022, many Nigerians, including some who are close to the president today, had concluded that after former president Goodluck Jonathan’s inimical administration, the North would not relinquish power. That self-defeatist sentiment was predominant in the PDP and nearly the entire South, including the Southwest; and given the insularity of the Buhari administration, it was widely believed that he would certainly not hand over to a southerner. Worse, it was also affirmed in many quarters that the military would rather let a paramilitary officer take office than a ‘bloody’ civilian. Then, there were the two clinchers suggesting that Asiwaju Tinubu was the most hated politician of the time, a man described as so inflexible as to be unamenable to control and discipline, and that the electoral and arithmetical dynamics of Nigerian elections did not conduce to the victory of someone not sponsored by the ‘owners of Nigeria’, or the massive votes of the North, or the support of the two main religions. President Tinubu’s victory shattered myths and preconceptions, and like MKO Abiola’s election in 1993, opened the gates for a robust civilian or a southern secularist to win the presidential election on his own merit and by dint of his own permutations. The election and one year in office reinforce self-belief in political aspirants that victory is possible if they play their cards adroitly.

    The 2023 presidential election may to a large extent have destroyed the hegemonic proclivity of the North which had before the poll promoted and embraced northern and military exceptionalism. President Tinubu’s inauguration, despite calls for a preemptive coup d’état or celestial intervention to murder him, may gradually begin to nurture in the North a feeling of living and letting others live, and a feeling that the idea that one group owns Nigeria is atrophying. In four years, and possibly eight, the idea of inclusive politics may begin to take root in the psyche of Nigerians, infusing confidence in anyone bright and bold enough to aspire to the highest office. In the years ahead too, neither the Yoruba nor the Fulani, nor yet the Igbo, among other ethnic groups, would propagate the conviction that one group owns the rest. It may take a little more time to deracinate the poisonous and retrogressive roots of Islamic fundamentalism and evangelical fervour in Nigerian politics, and a few more years before the last gasps of military obtrusion as exampled by the Okuama misadventure and Abuja Banex Plaza profligacy are heard. But, clearly, the Tinubu election and presidency, not to say his bold and independent though sometimes conflicting and ineffectual policies, have reinvigorated the tentative belief in the concept of Nigeria.

    Read Also: Tinubu embarks on projects commissioning spree for one-year anniversary

    President Tinubu may not have got or done everything right in his first year, but he has been an unheralded instrument for the rethinking, regeneration and renewal of Nigeria. There is thus a celestial tinge to his presidency. His main ministerial cabinet may have been a mixed multitude of the brilliant and the comical, and his kitchen cabinet a little worrisomely uninspiring and devoid of a steely and coherent core, but it will be a mistake to use these partial failings to define or obfuscate the real value of his election and administration, not to say his one year in office. Some analysts, using the precedent of his stewardship as governor in Lagos, have described him as a slow starter. There is nothing to be ashamed of regarding his speed. What matters is that in his second year and third, he needs to pick up speed in terms of the outstanding existential issues assailing Nigeria, and to consolidate in those things in which he has shown great promise. He will be pressured to deliver a restructured country, a peaceful country cranked into life by a political engine that is well oiled and serviced. He has not shown a lack of courage in his first year in office; but it is now time to demonstrate that intuitive and almost metaphysical grasp of the possible that galvanised him into office last year. Kano and Rivers in their kingship battles and godfather complex respectively have shown a disturbing predilection for dictatorship, if not messianic complex. However, especially in light of the agitation for state police, President Tinubu has a duty to rein in bungling and combative governors before they begin to govern their states as if they are independent republics devoid of the rule of law and are accountable to no one. The next elections may have crossed his mind, and many around him, particularly the obsequious, may begin dropping hints; he will do well to resist their blandishments and instead focus on the urgent task of rebuilding the country’s economy, politics and self-esteem battered by poor leadership and tyranny.

  • The Age of Reversion: Kano emirate, Atiku

    The Age of Reversion: Kano emirate, Atiku

    Former vice president Atiku Abubakar is full of recantations. It took him barely one week before he recanted his decision to support Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the last election should his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), or a putative coalition of angry political parties, decide to zone the presidency to the Southeast and pick the former Anambra State governor as candidate. He would have no problem supporting the coalition’s candidate, he had said gamely, insisting, “This is to anybody that thinks there is going to be a misunderstanding between me and Obi; let me assure you that not even a small issue is going to happen between us.” Well, the coalition has not yet been cobbled, and neither aspirant had yet been called to altruism, but Alhaji Atiku is already recanting, and doing it pluckily and with considerable indifference.

    But of course, Hausa language is highly nuanced, and literal translations can be a quicksand for first speakers of the language, let alone second speakers. Alhaji Atiku gave both interviews where he spoke about his aspiration or non-aspiration in Hausa. In the first interview, on BBC Hausa Service, he suggested that he was still interested in the presidency but would back Mr Obi if the coalition he and others were envisaging declined to give him the nod. Was anything lost during the translations? It seems unlikely. The translations, assuming media establishments engaged the task simultaneously and independently, were probably excellently done. What seemed lost, but was actually hidden between the lines, was his determination to contest the presidency a seventh time, not to talk of his cynicism about a putative Obi candidacy. He knew without a shred of doubt that Mr Obi’s candidacy, as far as the North was concerned and despite the former Anambra governor’s new-found syncretism, would be anathema. For someone who had shamelessly exploited religion and deployed the church as a political tool and also pledged to serve as its battering ram against other faiths, standing for election and hoping to secure the northern vote was idealism taking to its farcical limit.

    Alarmed that his real political intentions were entangled in the BBC Hausa Service translations, particularly their emphasis on a possible support for Mr Obi, Alhaji Atiku took to the VOA Hausa Service to bury the idiomatic nonsense read into the other interview. For as long as his health held up, he swore, he would continue to contest the presidency. Now, dear reader, cut to the chase, and don’t take refuge in any idiom or nuance: what the former vice president is saying is that as long as he is on his feet, good health be damned, he would vie for the golden stool. What is not clear is at what point he experienced the epiphany of seeing number seven as a magical number, and tying it to former United States president Abraham Lincoln whom he said contested for the American presidency a seventh time before winning. Alhaji Atiku is allegedly famous for reposing trust in the arcane services of marabouts; now he is speaking mystically about the metaphysics of numbers, insisting that he would keep contesting until he wins. At 81 years old? Nothing and no subject is inviolate when the former vice president engages his recantations; but on his ambition to run for the presidency a seventh time, and notwithstanding the misinterpretations of his earlier BBC Hausa Service interview, he can be trusted to want to run for office except God preempts him or someone else more astute and less controversial steals his thunder.

    Still on the subject of reversions, Kano State has demonstrated once again that it is no laggard. Perish philosophy, perish common sense. During the last governorship elections campaign, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, leader of the Kwankwasiyya movement politicking on the hijacked platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), took his personal fight against former Kano State governor and now chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, to a new and unsavoury height. He answered every barb shot at him by the APC chairman with unfathomable biliousness and a determination to erase anything connected with his sparring partner. One of the victims of the fight is the Emirate Council of Kano, previously divided into five emirates about four years ago, but three days ago again unified by a piece of legislation from the State House of Assembly repealing the former law. After accenting the legislation unifying the balkanised emirate, Governor Abba Yusuf angrily deposed the four emirs of Gaya, Rano, Bichi, Karaye, and then added the deposition of Emir Ado Bayero as icing on the cake. Many analysts suggested such mass depositions would be fraught with a lot of uncertainties, but neither Mallam Kwankwaso nor the governor could be bothered. They had made the repeal of the Gov Ganduje Emirate Council law a campaign promise, they asserted grimly, and they would stop at nothing to fulfill that promise.

    Read Also: First Lady raises the alarm over waning values among youths

    It is the courts that will, however, determine whether the five emirs were duly appointed by law, and whether that law was legitimate or otherwise. The reinstatement of Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II as Emir of Kano a second time, thus becoming the 14th and 16th emir, can also only be viewed from the perspective of the law. But the Kwankwasiyya group has claimed the repeal of the law and depositions accord with the law. They have mocked the court order staying action on the deposition, suggesting that it was procured outside Nigeria and out of time, despite the regnancy of e-proceedings. They are in short presenting Kano with a fait accompli. But the courts will eventually determine whether Emir Bayero was queried or given fair hearing. Indeed, unlike the deposition of Emir Sanusi, there was no allegation of wrongdoing against the deposed emir, let alone a query or an inquiry. And, worse, there was no involvement of the kingmakers other than a nebulous ‘consultation’ with them. If the Kwankwasiyya group was so adamant about reversing the balkanised Kano emirate, could they not adhere to the rule of law? And why the haste?

    The mass deposition controversy is now in the courts. It is hard to see how the Kano State government would justify the abridgement of due process. They could get away with demolishing the multi-million naira Golden Jubilee monument erected at a roundabout in Kano last year into which they had insinuated a Christian symbol only visible by a drone, but they will need far more ingenuity, if not legal sleight of hand, to justify the deposition of five emirs in one fell swoop anchored on a curious interpretation of the Kano Emirate Council law. No anger justifies a government acting as rashly as Kano State government has done, or as Rivers, which sees itself as an independent entity unconstrained by the law or constitution, is doing. If the courts in Kano have any regard for the constitution, the country might yet be spared from a replay of the unbridled nihilism overtaking Rivers State.

  • SNAPSONG  220 

    SNAPSONG  220 

    Do you still remember

         That 500 billion naira

    Which missed its humanitarian road

         Landing pat and pretty in Sikira’s bank account?

    She hissed and huffed

         When asked how the billions

    Meant for the people’s need

         Were caught and cornered to feed her greed

    “The money missed its way

         The first, second, and third time

    Three unfortunate mistakes

         Completely beyond my watch”

    But why this fuss over a common practice

         Have you forgotten our Apex Bank boss

    Read Also: First Lady raises the alarm over waning values among youths

    Who printed 685 million naira notes with 18 billion

         And the brand-new stuff never found

    Their way to the nation’s vaults

         Or where is that Lilliputian Governor

    Who emptied his state’s treasury

         To pay his children’s fees

    Now holed up in his village

         Amidst loud drummers and adoring praise singers,

    Beyond all reproach, beyond the Law

         In our own dear native land, Corruption is king. 

  • Nigerians must say no to government’s intent to borrow from Pension Fund

    Nigerians must say no to government’s intent to borrow from Pension Fund

    I know government was targeting pension funds when it moved against Pencom. Instead of increasing the pension of retired workers in these difficult times,  the best the government can do is  deep its hands in the purse of poor pensioners. Soon and very soon, there will not be enough money to fund the pension scheme and pensioners will be back to square one” – Esther Bolade on Facebook.

    Only this past week, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu acted the statesman, once again, when he stopped the commencement of the harebrained cybersecurity levy which the National Security Adviser, not the Central Bank of Nigeria as was initially wrongly believed, was eagerly trying to inflict on all Nigerians, even those now living on palliatives.

    But here we are again, this week, with another of their endless schemes targeted at  poor Nigerians.

    Wale Edun, the Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, at the end of last week’s meeting of the Federal Executive meeting on Tuesday, 14 May, announced to Villa correspondents, “a move by the Federal Government to rev up economic growth by unlocking N20 trillion from the nation’s pension funds and other funds to finance critical infrastructure projects across the country”.

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

    These are like the same sweet words with which President Muhammadu Buhari sent us all into slumber, amassed tonnes of  loans from China, and built a Nigerian railway from Kano all the way to Marafi in Niger Republic so that, in his words, “the people of Niger Republic will enjoy affordable transportation”, even if today Nigeria alone is encumbered with the debt.

    As should be expected,  Nigerians are already talking, warning government not to dare touch that fund; that sole remaining hope of millions of Nigerians who have nowhere else to turn in an era of a rampaging cost of living palaver.

    The following intervention accurately, even if not completely, sums up the umbrage of Nigerians at the mere suggestion:

    “My attention has been drawn to a disturbing disclosure by the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, as he addressed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, 14 May.

    There is, according to the Minister, a move by the Federal Government to rev up economic growth by unlocking N20 trillion from the nation’s pension funds and other funds to finance critical infrastructure projects across the country. The Minister has indicated that although “the initiative is expected to attract foreign investment interest over time”, domestic savings are his ‘immediate focus’ for now.

    He provided no useful details, such as the percentage of the funds to be mopped up from the Pension Funds, for example. Even at that, this move must be halted immediately!  It is a misguided initiative that could lead to disastrous consequences on the lives of Nigeria’s hardworking men and women who toiled and saved and who now survive on their pensions having retired from service.

    It is another attempt to perpetrate illegality by the Federal Government. The government must be cautioned to act strictly within the provisions of the Pension Reform Act of 2014 (PRA 2014), along with the revised Regulation on Investment of Pension Assets issued by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).

    In particular, the Federal Government must not act contrary to the provisions of the extant Regulation on  investment limits to wit: Pension Funds can invest no more than 5% of total pension funds’ assets in infrastructure investments. I note that as of December 2023, total pension funds assets were approximately N18 Trillion, of which 75% of these  are investments in FGN Securities.

    There is NO free Pension Funds that is more than 5% of the total value of the nation’s pension fund for Mr. Edun to fiddle with. 

    There are no easy ways for Mr. Edun to address the challenges of funding infrastructure development in Nigeria. He can’t cut corners. He must introduce the necessary reforms to restore investor confidence in the Nigerian economy and to leverage private resources, skills, and technology”.

    Although the above quote almost says it all, there are many reasons Nigerians must tell the Tinubu government to simply perish the mere thought of tampering with the fund.

    For one thing, the minister did not come clean with Nigerians on the real reason for this proposed foray into a fund which for the sanity, if not the very life, of millions of Nigerian workers, active and retired, must be strictly protected from the government. It appears to be the same reason several officials of this administration are coming up with all manner of taxes and levies on the citizenry.

    However, what he failed to tell Nigerians, both the IMF and the Bank of America have since done when IMF, in a release corroborated by the latter, released the following statement:

    “Nigeria’s reintroduction of  fuel subsidy is expected to guzzle almost half of its projected oil revenue this year.

    The implicit subsidy will cost Africa’s largest crude producer an estimated 8.43 trillion naira ($5.9 billion) of its projected 17.7 trillion naira of oil revenue for 2024″.

    The above is why Mr Edun wants to borrow from a fund that must always be kept far from  government because the history of the unreliability of successive Nigerian federal government is unmatched.

    Wrote Jide Oluwajuyitan only this past week in his column in The Nation:”But in truth, no one can blame incredulous Nigerians. They have in the past been serially betrayed by false prophets. Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa adored for his simplicity and golden voice betrayed promise of nationhood of “Our dear native land where tribe and tongue may differ but in brotherhood we stand with our flag serving as a symbol that truth and justice reign”. Aguiyi Ironsi was a master of mischief and intrigue. Gowon thought he was fighting a war to keep Nigeria one. Murtala Mohammed and Obasanjo destroyed the foundation of society – the academia and bureaucracy.  Babangida laid the foundation for our current socio-economic travails by opening our country to the labour of other nations.  Abacha, besides stealing the country blind waged a five-year war against us. Obasanjo, in spite of his “I only listen to God and not advisers” turned out to be obsessed by term elongation. Buhari, a prophet worshipped by some unquestioning 12 million ‘talakawas’ from the north left Nigeria worse than he met it because of his cronyism and provincialism.The paradox however is that despite serial betrayal, our survival as an organised society depends on politician’s versatility, brinksmanship and skilful exploitation of man’s infirmities. Who else can reconcile private affluence with public squalor or give ‘hope which rises eternal in the human breast’ but the politician”.

    If Oluwajuyitan wrote that of past governments, it is a truism that government is a continuum and there’s no reason to believe that with regard to reliability, Tinubu’s government will be any different from its forebears.

    Without a doubt what PBAT is presently dealing with is largely the consequences of President Muhammadu Buhari’s profligate government, but unfortunately, the Tinubu government itself has demonstrated only a little  difference. Otherwise, how come it thought nothing of wasting about N40B buying exotic cars for a people already being extravagantly overpaid for a job that should ideally have been part- time, and in a single chamber?

    Thank God a change to a parliamentary system is under serious consideration. For one thing, that will not have within it persons who are under serious investigation by anti- corruption agencies especially for fiddling with their state’s finances.

    Still intent on sending us to sleep with sweet  words, Wale Edun intoned, “the Tinubu government has

    “unveiled a strategic plan to harness the N20 trillion pension fund and other locally available resources for infrastructure development in Nigeria”. As shown above, however, Nigerian history, ancient and modern, has taught us that  these are nothing but mere words.

    We must, therefore, all in one voice, rise and stand ramrod against government tampering, in any manner or shape, with what remains the last hope of millions of Nigerians.

    It is,  therefore, apposite to repeat that the minister must brace up and “introduce the necessary reforms to restore investor confidence in the Nigerian economy”, rather than eye a pension fund which should be treated as sacred for the well- being of the millions whose entire livelihood depend upon its invulnerability.

  • Land

    Land

    One of the most interesting historical figures I know about is Mark Twain even if that is not his given name as he  was named Samuel Clemens at birth. He however decided to become known as Mark Twain when he took his licence as a river boat pilot on the mighty Mississippi river. He spent two difficult and expensive years studying towards his licence, a certificate he cherished so much that he changed his name to fit this significant proficiency. The Twain in his new name refers to two fathoms, the least depth that would permit the movement of his boat all along the length of the river. Why he chose to be called Mark, I really don’t know except that today Mark Twain sounds grander than Samuel Clemens, I think. Still on the subject of this change of name, it should perhaps not be totally unexpected because river boat pilots of Twain’s era were glamorous figures who not only had a difficult and demanding job but were paid handsomely for doing it. This is also apart from the fact that boat pilots were popular throughout the one thousand, two hundred mile length of the Mississippi river.

    As proud of his accomplishment as he was, Twain spent only a short time on the Mississippi did not exceed two years before the American civil war shut down trade on the river and put an end to steam boating on the Mississippi. Twain left the river and became known for sundry other things including an unfortunate proclivity for making bad investments. This paved his way into insolvency and bankruptcy but he survived in every sense of the word including paying up all his debts even after declaring bankruptcy.

    Before anything else, Mark Twain had embarked on a journalistic affair and later on, whatever else he tried his hand at, he became a writer of such influence and quality that long after that career ended,  he was garlanded with the title of ‘father of American literature’ by no less a personage than William Faulkner, winner of the Nobel prize for literature and an outstanding American writer in his own right. Mark Twain left such a distinguished mark on literature that if you have not yet read any of his books you are advised quite strongly to get up close and personal with Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as soon as you can.

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

    Twain was a great writer both of fiction and nonfiction but what stands out in all his writing is his unfailing good humour. There was always something humorous lurking in every page written by Mark Twain and although he died all of one hundred and twenty years ago, his humour is as fresh today as it was when he was alive. It is fitting that to celebrate his literary achievements the Mark Twain prize has been instituted for American comedy. This prize, coveted by all American comedians is held in great reverence and esteem by them in the same way that the Oscar is held by the Hollywood crowd.

    I have chosen to start this conversation with Mark Twain, not because he is the primary subject of discussion but because I want to borrow one of his witticisms to anchor my musings about land. This quote is short and to the point.

    ‘Buy land. They are not making it any more.’

    This is very good advice from a man who had the unfortunate tendency of making a series of patently unsound financial investments. From this point of view, this is a prime example of doing what I say, not what I do. This may be so, but in this case, there is no arguing with the soundness of this advice which is anchored on truth.

    Land, even in these days of airy fairy money making schemes is the solid anchor to wealth and this is because there is nothing you want to build that will not require the acquisition of some portion of land and because nobody is making more land, its value can only go up and continue to go up until man is able to colonise some faraway planet and in doing so, make a lot more land available. In the present however, as the value of land goes up the scramble for it also goes up and up until you get to the Japanese situation in which it is said that no matter what you build on a piece of land in that country, the value of that structure will always be less than the value of the land on which it is standing. That may be an extreme example but that is the direction in which the world is going. After all, they have stopped making more land. And that is a big problem, one that defies human ingenuity. The problem of land is a universal one, bigger in certain parts than others but a problem everywhere.

    It may be very difficult for most people reading this to conceive the reality which man faced before the fortuitous discovery of the science of agriculture some ten thousand years ago. This discovery was made simultaneously in three parts of the world; the aptly named fertile crescent in the Middle East as well as parts of Northern China and Central America. This discovery was to tie down human populations to certain  areas where they could settle down to grow and harvest their crops. Before then, man, like most other animals had no option but move from place to place in small bands gathering food, mainly vegetables, nuts, fruits and the occasion small animal when they were lucky.

    They are now referred to as hunters and gatherers but in reality, they did a lot more gathering than hunting. After all, the animals which they hunted were themselves adept hunters and were better equipped for much of that time to prey on humans rather than the other way round.

    The number of people alive in the pre-agricultural world did not exceed a few million souls and they could roam around the world not necessarily at their at their pleasure, but at least not having to worry about the availability of land. After all, they planted no crops, erected no shelters and therefore could not in their wildest imagination entertain the thought of land hunger or shortage. The ownership of land was definitely not one for them  to even think about.

    The arrival of agricultural practice opened all eyes to the value that could be attached to land, any land at all because of its potential to yield crops which could be used to sustain life. With a steady supply of food available, world population began to increase rapidly laying the ground for arable land to increase in value. The amount of land available did not increase as no new land appeared on the market. Nobody was making any more land on which crops could be grown. Even from very early on, land was perceived to be a resource, actually the ultimate resource, the completion for land in its own right became acute, depending on how much land was available. Before long, it was realised that on the surface land was just that, a tract of dirt on which crops could be raised but in reality some portions of land were richer than other parts and those tracts of land which supported the growth of crops were premium and much sought after. People, at least in certain parts of the world, notably in Europe, Asia and the Middle East settled on choice portions of land and were able to generate greater food surpluses than their less able or unfortunate neighbours leading to the development of class distinctions and the separation of rich from poor, a separation which grew ever wider until some people had too much and most others had little or nothing. Under such circumstances the poor people had nothing but the power of their muscles and this they put to use on the portions of land which belonged to the lord in his castle in exchange for some reward which never rose above subsistence level. In doing this, they generated even more wealth for their employers causing class differences to widen further.

    The importance of arable land to human civilization is shown by historical experience in Egypt where no new land was formed but available land was renewed every year as the River Nile flooded it’s banks leaving thick deposits of rich soil on which a stupendous surplus of food could be produced. It is no coincidence that perhaps the greatest civilisation up till now that the world has seen, developed and flourished furiously along the banks of the Nile.

    The value that has come to be attached to land has led to the greatest crimes against humanity in many parts of the world. The original crime in this respect was the initiation of human classification which led to a situation in which men who had little or at least a restricted access to land became servants of even slaves to other men whose only distinction was that they had access to some land. The consequences of such a situation still colours human relations and with our planet needing to supply the increasing populations whose individual needs are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the problem of inequality is not only huge but growing exponentially with expanding human populations.

    As part of the growth of civilisation, mankind soon realised that the importance of land went deeper than simply growing crops. Under the visible surface of the earth, there were many useful commodities which enhanced the growth of civilisation mainly because of their utilitarian value; salt, iron ore, copper, coal, copper and tin, to mention the most common. In addition there were other minerals such as gold, silver and precious stones which because of their intrinsic properties and rarity could be used as a store of values which translated as wealth and could be used as payment for all kinds of services from people who had such services to offer. The owners of portions of land harbouring such precious minerals had the wherewithal to buy other men and used them for whatever took their fancy. Under our feet, at least in parts of Nigeria, what lie quiescent are natural gas and crude oil which have been there for millions of years until their presence was discovered nearly seventy years ago. The consequences of the discovery and subsequent exploitation of these hydrocarbon resources have determined the trajectory of the growth or the lack of it of Nigeria. More than that it has helped to create a new Nigeria in which a comfortable future cannot be guaranteed. In the meantime, a considerable portion of the lands surrounding the oil fields have been put out of commission in respect of the primary function of land, that is the production of crops. This means that not only is it that new land is not being made but some of the available land has been taken off the market by the gross pollution which accompanied the exploitation of the oil fields thereby raising the value of any available land in that region. The advice here must be, ‘don’t sell your land. People are reducing the amount of available land.’ Definitely not as punchy as the original Twain quote but it will have to do. At least for now.

    ● To be continued.

  • Adelabu’s ‘bandwagon’

    Adelabu’s ‘bandwagon’

    The minister should understand that his predecessors made the same promises he is making today; he should tread softly.

    It would seem the Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, does not understand where Nigerians are coming from with regards to power supply. That was why he would think his statement about the power sector collapsing in three months if he was not allowed to carry out his reforms in the sector (a critical aspect of which was the phenomenal increase in the tariff by the ‘Band A’ electricity consumers) had meaning to many of the people he was supposed to be addressing.

    The increase that took effect on April 3, saw power consumers in the band who enjoy between 20 to 24 hours of electricity daily paying N225 kilowatt per hour from the former N66. Many Nigerians had criticised the rise, which is almost 300 per cent hike, especially given the economic crunch that Nigerians are currently facing, with cost of living rising daily amidst a static wage structure.

    The criticism of the tariff made the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to reduce it by 8.1 per cent. This did not change the perception of Nigerians on the matter as they saw the reduction as too meagre, considering the percentage rise. Many people demanded for a complete reversal of the increase.

    This was the situation until May 13, when the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) picketed NERC offices and the electricity distribution companies (DisCos), to press home their demands.

    There is no doubt that I have reservations on this idea of ‘banding’. Every power consumer should be entitled to 24 hours daily supply of electricity.

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    Maybe, just maybe it would have been a different thing if there are devices attached to each meter to enable electricity consumers decide which band they want to belong to. I probably would have accepted the idea. But a situation where birds of different feathers find themselves flocking together compulsorily simply because they are attached to the same feeder is, to me, not good enough. Being on the same feeder doesn’t mean people are equally endowed. A policy like this pains me because  it is discriminatory.

    Indeed, I was astonished when the minister gave the impression that majority of those who joined the picketing train had no business being on the trip. Hear him: “But one thing that I want to state here is, from the statistics of those affected by the hike in tariff, the people on the road yesterday  (Monday), who embarked on the peaceful protests, more than 95% of them are not affected by the increase in the tariff of electricity. They still enjoy almost 70% government subsidy in the tariff they pay because the average costs of generating, transmitting and distributing electricity is not less than N180 today.

    “A lot of them are paying below N60 so they still enjoy government’s subsidy. So when they say we should reverse the recently increased tariff, sincerely it’s not affecting them. That’s one position.”

    Where did the honourable minister put the common saying that ‘an injury to one is an injury to all. That is part of the reason people ‘band’ together for collective bargaining. Moreover, Christians know that we are to cry with those who are crying and rejoice with those that are rejoicing. Again, if some people are on ‘Band A’ today, others would join them tomorrow. It’s only a matter of time.

    If it would interest the minister, I was so concerned when the ‘Band A’ tariff was announced that I quickly went to check out where I belong. This was a thing I had been trying to check for so long but couldn’t due to one reason or the other. I came close to compulsorily doing that in January when DisCos seemingly unilaterally increased tariffs, giving me 148 units as  against the 201 units that N10,000 used to give me before the tariff increase.

    I was uncomfortable when I was told that our area is in ‘Band B’. It then dawned on me that people in my category would be the next to swallow the kind of bitter pill that those in ‘Band A’ are now groaning over. ‘Abi’, is it not B that comes after A?

    Honestly, this is troubling the more for the simple reason that I do not know any of the DisCos that can meet targets even despite the categorisation. Indeed, if you ask me, not even those on the so-called ‘Band A’ will forever have light 24/7. Why? Because there would be faults that would take longer than envisaged to fix. Then, there is also the problem of the collapsing grid, etc. which does not recognise ‘banding’. What we would have to be contending with now is a situation where all attention would be paid to ‘Band A’ consumers. We have stayed so long with these DisCos not to know how they think. At any rate, what is the incentive for them to attend to others if they have faults requiring attention at the same time with those in ‘Band A’? It makes business sense to give priority attention to those that are paying premium tariffs.

    The ‘Band B’ that my area is said to be is supposed to have light for 16 to 20 hours a day.

    I wrote on this page a few weeks ago on the attitude of many of the DisCos’ personnel. I accosted two of them who came to my area for disconnection sometime ago, even as we did not have power supply for some days then; their response was shocking. They wondered why I should be bothered about whether there was light or not since I have prepaid meter; after all, my meter had not been running since there was no power supply to our area! If that is the mentality of their average workers, I wonder how that of those running the DisCos would be different.

    The point is; many of them were inherited from the dysfunctional National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and it is that same NEPA mentality that they brought to the DisCos.

    As a matter of fact, I had cited the story of some personnel of the DisCo serving Ayobo area in Lagos some years back who knocked at the gate of a building and when those inside asked who was at the gate, they said “NEPA”! Even they too knew that all they had was a change of name and not a change of heart that ought to come with the change of name and their new owners.

     I do not know how, given the scenarios I have just painted about the DisCos :banding’ would not be a recipe for complacency for them. Someone told me in the office on April 16 that what is now happening is that only those in Band A are being focused on and that in their area, they do not even qualify to be in Band E, since they now cannot boast of five hours of electricity per day.

    One thing about Nigeria is that even when otherwise good policies are replicated here, their ‘Nigerianisation’ makes them turn out badly. Not to talk of a not-too-good policy like ‘banding’.

    I said not-too-good because every power consumer should be entitled to 24 hours a day unless by personal choice.

    There is no doubt that many Nigerians waste electricity as the minister noted sometime ago. I have always believed too that the reason many shop owners would be in their shops in the daytime and leave their security lights on is because power is cheap. Maybe. But I disagree with his advice that Nigerians switch off their freezers for some time after the items in them have completely frozen, for the simple fact that, with power supply in Nigeria, nobody can be sure of anything. The minister’s advice could only have been tenable in a situation where regular power supply is guaranteed all-year round. If you try that in Nigeria, you are on your own. It could be the day you decide to switch off your  freezer that you begin a long walk into darkness. I cannot remember the number of times I had suffered economic losses as power would suddenly become erratic in my area the very day we stock our freezer with perishables.

    Unfortunately, ours is not the kind of country where you can easily drag the

    DisCos to court for recompense in such situation. I dragged the one serving my area to the NERC Forum some years back and won; but it took such a long time to get justice. It was very expensive too. Not many Nigerians can afford what it cost me to stay without public power supply for one whole year: money I spent on rechargeable this and that which I powered with my generator in daytime and enjoyed at night till daybreak. But that was in the days of cheap petrol.

    Mr Adelabu might have vowed within himself that he would make a positive difference in the power sector. But he should understand that there are no sweet words or assurances that he is making that his predecessors never made before. In the end, the changing never changed. That was why he met the poor state of power supply that he inherited. We all know the maxim: ‘once beaten, twice shy’. With regard to power as indeed with other spheres of life, Nigerians had offered themselves to be beaten not once, not twice, but several times that even if angels come from heaven and either threaten or promise to turn the power sector around,  they would merely take the threat or promise not as any gospel truth but at best with cautious optimism.

    The minister will continue to have problem with Nigerians if all he is trying to sell is his goodness or good intentions without factoring in the fact that he is dealing with people who had been literally raped over and again, only to end up with bruises from the bitter experiences.

    Minister Adelabu will do well to tread softly. Let his magic wand begin to give us at least incremental improvement in power supply. It would be catastrophic if we end up with the usual experiences after paying through our nose for power, especially when millions still don’t have prepaid meters. When we notice stable improvement in power supply no matter how incremental, we can then begin to talk of the kind of jump in tariff he is looking at in the power sector to take us to the Promised Land.

    For now, the government has merely transferred the financial burden from itself to ‘Band A’ power consumers, there is nothing yet to suggest that it would work sustainably, especially if more people get ‘promoted’ to the band. That is why many Nigerians are not in a hurry to jump into the minister’s wagon.

  • 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.

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    “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.

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    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.     

  • Access roads to train stations

    Access roads to train stations

    For the first time, I had the opportunity to travel by rail in the country for the Media Leader’s Summit held recently in Abeokuta, Ogun State on May 6 and 7.

    Like me, most participants were having their first experience with the Nigeria Railway Corporation(NRC)  Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan service.

    We were pleasantly surprised about the high quality of the service by the NRC that compared well with our experiences outside the country.

    The journey commenced on schedule and arrived at the beautiful Professor Wole Soyinka Station in Abeokuta promptly. The air-conditioned coaches were very neat and the staff were very professional in their duties.

    The road journey from the station to Abeokuta however turned out to be the killjoy of our lovely experience on the train. The bus that took us to town had to pass through an untarred access road. It took a lot of effort for the driver of our bus to meander through some slippery parts of the winding road. At some points, the road was not wide enough for two vehicles.  Some passengers not on our team took commercial motorcycles to town.

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    Why would so much be spent on the rail service and access road would not be available for passengers? If the federal government failed to provide the access road, why can’t the state government where the station is located provide it since it will encourage more residents and visitors to take the train?

    I traveled to Ibadan by train last Wednesday and the access road at the Moniya station to the city by the NRC is far better. I learned that the access road at the Omi Adio station also in Ibadan has been rehabilitated by the state government.

    While the Ogun State government says it is concerned about the worn-out road considering that  it holds the promise of rendering train travel more enjoyable, it said in a statement that “we tread cautiously, refraining from vocalizing our concerns, lest it be misconstrued as making excuses.”

    “Debates ensue, tangled in bureaucratic intricacies, as this particular stretch, albeit short, falls under the purview of the Federal Government, responsible for its upkeep. To embark on reconstruction, the State Government requires permission from the Minister. However, obtaining such authorization proves a sluggish ordeal, hindered by bureaucratic inertia.”

    What the state government’s statement suggests is that it could have rehabilitated the access road but for lack of the permission required. Considering the negative impact of the bad access road on the patronage of the train service, the bureaucratic issue should be resolved promptly.

    It is bad enough that the access road is in bad condition, delaying the rehabilitation further for any reason is bound to affect the patronage the NRC hopes to benefit from. The Ogun state government should make good its promise to commence work on the access road while awaiting final approval for the sake of those getting used to travelling to the state capital by train.

    Efficient rail service would be a welcome relief for those who don’t want to go through the hassles and risks of road transportation. What is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.

    Providing motorable access roads to all train stations in the country should be a priority of the state and federal government as part of efforts to improve on transportation in the country.