The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

Minimum wage dispute approaching end game

Hammering out a new minimum wage deal will not be easy despite the enthusiasm and willingness of the federal government to pay workers a living wage. The 37-man tripartite committee set up since January to secure the deal has made very heavy weather of the negotiations. They now have barely a month to determine by how much they hope to supersede the current minimum wage of N30,000, which has lasted much longer than anticipated. Organised labour is asking for N615,000 monthly pay for workers; but they know full well that they cannot get it, not even if they embark on one-year industrial unrest. The federal government has not given a specific response, but governors, who are members of the wage committee and important stakeholders, have suggested that they would only agree to a wage increase they can pay sustainably. Already, they struggle to pay the appallingly unrealistic current minimum wage, while many states still owe their workers.

If negotiations were not stalled, or did not suffer hiccups, a deal should have been reached in less than four months. Though the government has promised to backdate the deal to April, and administration spokesmen are curiously optimistic about reaching a deal acceptable to all, organised labour and observers have decided to keep their fingers crossed. The unions have a concrete case by indexing their demands to inflation rate, and the federal government, despite organised labour’s skepticism about state governors’ priorities, is a little more wary about its capacity to meet union expectations. Nothing at the moment suggests the governments can go as high as a quarter of the N615,000 demanded by the unions, but perhaps the federal and state governments have a joker they are keeping close to their chests. May 2024 will, therefore, be tough, and June harrowing. Hopefully industrial unrest can be averted. But if not, whatever deal is secured by ‘arm-twisting’ will be, in the words of the governors, difficult to implement.

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The unions insist that if employers, particularly governors, reorder their priorities, states should be able to pay the living wage eventually agreed. But what of private sector employers, many of whom are struggling to stay afloat and have had to cut staff and rationalise costs? It is unclear the unions will have a ready answer to this dilemma, especially in view of their proposal that any organisation which employs five workers and above should pay the new minimum wage. Tough time lies ahead, both for the government which has struggled to rein in expectations and the unions which have exuberantly raised expectations. Costs are rising, inflation is raging with unabating severity, and the general economy, not minding the reeling global economy, is in dire distress. Before June, the situation will be much clearer, whether a deal is reached and can be reached or not.

One of the reasons for the troubled relationship between the government and the unions, regardless of the NLC’s politicisation of union grievances in the past few months, is the abnormal structure of the Nigerian polity and economy. Until the country’s structural imbalance triggered by the 1966 coup d’etat is corrected, the recurring wage disputes and other battles between the government and organised labour will not abate. Quite apart from the dangers of NLC immersing itself in politics and diluting as well as distorting its raison d’être, the problem with the stalled wage negotiation is actually not the salaries demanded or the ability of states to pay. The problem is that more than five decades of running the country along stifling unitary lines unattenuated by democratic governance have imposed gross inefficiency and waste upon the system and produced a slew of unimaginative governing elite. The problem is worsened by a sense of entitlement which a section of the ruling elite has adopted as its philosophy.

Until the country is politically recalibrated and economy restructured in line with federalism to put an end to the command and unitary Nigerian structure, the federal, state and local governments will always assemble in Abuja every month to share revenue. Revenue allocation is an abominable system that encourages inefficiency, indolence, sense of entitlement, and warped politicking. Since the various tiers of government will always have a pool of money to share, there will be no incentive to elect a competent president, governor or local government chairman. Worse, the worst kind of lawmakers will populate the parliament, and servile and groveling judges will be appointed to subvert and pervert the justice system. The current Nigerian structure is not working, is unworkable, and no matter how much tinkering it is subjected to, will still not work. If the current administration can muster the courage to do something about the structure and build a consensus across the regions, it may be possible to redress decades of inefficiency and wrongs that have skewed the economy and impoverished the country. In his contributions to the debate on minimum wage, former Edo State governor and one-time labour leader, Adams Oshiomhole, suggested that the unions must look beyond the single objective of getting wage adjustment to advocating policies and programmes that would promote sustainable wealth creation and conduce to industrial harmony and peace. The Edo North senatorial district representative can’t be righter.

The current set of labour leaders falls far short of the example set by the Sen. Oshiomhole set, but they have and are pursuing a justifiable cause. They may lack depth and substance, and have little understanding of the nexus between peace and development, seeing how they are fixated on their singular goal of either winning political office or simplistically pursuing wage adjustment with little understanding of its dynamics, yet they have the public on their side. If a deal is not reached this month, and inflationary pressures continue to hammer Nigerians, the public will likely rally behind labour. However, the silver lining is that Nigeria has a president who understands the issues and possesses the boldness to implement reforms and redirect the system. If he gets the national cooperation he needs, and can buy time with a fairly amenable wage deal, he will probably leave the country far better than he met it despite years and tons of vilification.

May 5, 2024
Prof Akintoye’s emancipation letter

In an open letter dated April 17 addressed to President Bola Tinubu, the duo of Banji Akintoye, a History professor, and Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, insisted it was time the Yoruba of the Southwest became self-governing. They claimed to be acting on behalf of the Yoruba Self-determination Movement (YSDM). Their letter came about five days after Modupe Onitiri-Abiola, the self-described widow of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, MKO Abiola, declared the founding of the Democratic Republic of Yoruba in Ibadan, Oyo State, after dozens of Yoruba Nation agitators stormed the State House of Assembly to actualise a mandate they claimed to have received from the United Nations. For nearly a decade, a number of self-determination groups had weltered in the Southwest anticipating that republic. But if Mrs Onitiri-Abiola’s declaration was messianic and amateurish, Prof Akintoye’s open letter was both mistimed and misdirected.

The eminent historian, taking Mr Igboho in tow, anchored the letter on the disruptive tendencies of Fulani herdsmen in the region, and their January threat to ‘respond’ to the incarceration of the Miyetti Allah leader, Bello Bodejo, who was arrested for allegedly establishing and arming a Fulani militia in Nasarawa State. The YSDM letter also insinuated that the Fulani, having failed to install their kin, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, in office, have promised to make Nigeria ungovernable for President Tinubu. The three signatories to the letter, which included Ola Ademola acting as the Vice-Chairman of YSDM, did not indicate why they thought Fulani-baiting should suffice as a reason for secession, but they seemed to treat the agitation cavalierly by zeroing in on the Fulani and even going as far as transforming them into a sort of ethnic fulcrum upon which national stability rests. They seemed exasperated that no one could stop the destructive zeal of the Fulani, a zeal they asserted even the ameliorative act of restructuring the country could not contain.

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Prof Akintoye and his co-signatories are right about the menace constituted by herdsmen to Southwest farmers and the exceptionalism which the Fulani have consistently claimed and displayed as a birthright. As argued in their letter, the agitators had placed the same demands and observations before President Tinubu’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, to no avail. They are tired of going round in circles, they groaned, and are adamant about negotiating their exit from Nigeria. The letter may not be quite convincing, given the paucity of reasons they adduced for Yoruba self-determination, but the arguments of the three gentlemen touch on very sensitive contemporaneous experiences of the Yoruba, particularly the aspect of rampaging herdsmen and pillaged farmlands. The timing, too, appears hideous – barely one year into the presidency of a Yoruba politician who embodies the federalist and secularist principles lionised by the Southwest, and less than a week after the amateurish insurrection perpetrated by Mrs Onitiri-Abiola and her blundering and farcical agitators entertained the polity.

Prof Akintoye and his co-signatories asked for the constitution of negotiation teams between the federal government and YSDM not later than June to look into the grievances raised in the letter as well as ultimately give effect to the call for Yoruba independence. The storm troopers of April 12 and the April 17 letter writers will, however, not be heeded, for the Yoruba in general and the Tinubu administration have no illusions about the presumptuousness of the agitators. For years, a feeling of angst and a wistful expectation of what an independent Yoruba could accomplish had wafted across the Southwest, but they had never conducted a plebiscite to give concreteness and legitimacy to their disparate and formless aspirations. It is true that some groups had briefly toyed with open rebellion in the region, but that feeling had ebbed and flowed with the mood and spirit of the times. On the whole, and this is where Prof Akintoye and his co-signatories erred very badly, the dominant Southwest leadership elite have never really advocated separation, not during the coup madness of the First Republic, nor even after the disgraceful and counterproductive annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, and interestingly not during the recent rampage of herdsmen. The Yoruba are adamant about fighting for what they believe, including things as esoteric as principles and ideologies, not to talk of their detestation of cheating and unfairness, but they have really never unanimously talked about secession or even self-determination.

Prof Akintoye’s letter will not gain traction, any more than Mr Igboho’s activism and Mrs Onitiri-Abiola’s humiliating insurrection will cause significant ripples in the region or in Abuja. The agitators presumed to know what the region wanted, but refused to sensitise it sufficiently enough to get a critical mass of followers. Mr Igboho tried to do some sensitisation of his own, but his efforts were desultory, megalomaniacal, theatrical, and ultimately futile. It was clear he lacked the experience, intellect, and temperament to inspire the Yoruba. He, however, seemed to recognise his shortcomings and sought to mitigate them by associating with the eminent professor, but he came to grief much quicker than he had the chance to remedy his failings. Mrs Onitiri-Abiola, however, dispensed with all niceties and pretensions and went slam-bang into full-scale rebellion. It was unsurprising that she came an appalling cropper as melodramatically as her inflated delusions blew up. Prof Akintoye should know better, particularly because of his age and learning, but he also fared badly in those tasks from the beginning. Held hostage by his lack of restraint, impatience and poor team play, his campaign to rouse the Yoruba into rebellion was inevitably doomed.

Decades of being rooted in political opposition could not prompt the Yoruba into secession. Now that one of their sons is in office, they will even be less inclined to countenance any kind of insurrection. It is shocking the Yoruba Nation agitators failed to appreciate these linkages. The late Chief Abiola showed how the Yoruba could transit from opposition to the presidency, and made it look simple. Another of their sons, President Tinubu, simply dusted the late chief’s rule book, single-mindedly applied it, and was able to dismantle the barricade that stood between the region and the presidency. He is today sitting pretty in office, probably contemplating how to remake Nigeria along the lines of his ideological and political leanings. That task, had it fallen into the hands of the gifted Obafemi Awolowo, former Western Region premier, would still have been onerous. In the hands of both Chief Abiola and President Tinubu, the task would be no less easy. But years of tutelage under leading national political heavyweights and decades of forming and servicing friendships and associations all over the country may have helped them acquire skills and virtues capable of promoting real and quantifiable change. Success is of course not guaranteed, but failure is remoter than when such skills were either absent or widely denigrated.

If remaking the wobbly Nigerian structure seems impossible, it should lead Prof Akintoye and those who think like him to review and rejig their activism and agitation templates. The wheel cannot be reinvented, it is said. But the agitators, now fortunately led by a historian, should search out examples and experiences around the world that best fit the Nigerian model. Nigeria is not the former Soviet Union which broke apart into 15 states in 1991 under the dead weight of economic stultification and ideological retardation, thus freeing many subordinate states and satellites. Nigeria is also not Czechoslovakia whose founding in 1918 towards the end of World War I was rooted in the politics of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the ineptitude of its leaders that prompted the 1989 Velvet Revolution, and the final breakup in 1992. Instead, the Yoruba Nation agitators might wish to look at the history and politics of Canada, Switzerland and Belgium in order to derive inspiration for their self-determination agitation.

Prof Akintoye may also wish to cite the inspiring example of the Republic of Estonia (Pop., 1.5m), the first Soviet satellite state to declare independence in 1988 even before the USSR disintegrated. As this writer noted two Sundays ago, Nigeria and President Tinubu must not be complacent by regurgitating the vexing mantra of ‘Nigerian unity is non-negotiable’. Nigeria is and should be negotiable, and sooner rather than later it must be renegotiated if only to steal the thunder of agitators. Until 1966, Nigeria was a fairly balanced republic anchored on regionalism. That federation was the product of a negotiated constitution. Unschooled in the art of politics and ignorant about the conceptual underpinnings of nations, the military scrapped federalism as a veritable anchor of nationhood in 1966. The agitations of people like Prof Akintoye and Mrs Onitiri-Abiola, and of groups like the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Boko Haram and bandits are sending coded messages to the country: reform/restructure or die. It is up to the current political elite to decipher those coded and laden messages if the country is not to sunder.

May 5, 2024
Press for the planet

What’s the link between Press Freedom and addressing the triple environmental crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution?

Nigeria’s Minister for Environment, Dr Iziaq Salako has the answer for those who must have been wondering why the theme for this year’s World Press Freedom Day is “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis”

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Friday to mark the Day, Dr Salako noted that press freedom is indispensable to promote transparency, accountability and social justice; critical to communicating the threat posed by the climate crisis and making informed decisions to be more environmentally responsible.

While noting that there was a need to reaffirm the collective commitment to the principles of a free and independent press as a sine qua non for effective climate journalism, he said through investigative reporting, insightful analysis and compelling storytelling, journalists can shed light on the pressing issues of environmental crisis facing the nation and the world which can inspire mass action towards positive change.

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Indeed the climate crisis which the world is battling is an existential issue which the media cannot afford to pay less attention to as it does for other areas of coverage like politics, business, sports and entertainment. Journalism practice in the face of environmental crisis is also threatened and more than ever before reporting the environment should be prioritised for the good of all.

Beyond occasional reporting for the issues of flooding and rainfalls that cause damage, journalists need to understand the larger ramifications of the climate crisis and provide more informed reporting which can ensure that the government and all concerned take necessary actions.

Over the years, some journalists and media organisations have been committed to reporting the environment and deserve commendation for their incisive reporting which has helped in mitigating circumstances that could have been more devastating.

As the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk counselled in his address to mark the Day, environment journalists must continue to hold polluters accountable for the damage and devastation to the environment by separating facts from lies and propaganda to push for evidence-based policy decisions on the climate crisis that the world urgently needs. Other journalists need to join them in mainstreaming environmental issues across the various beats they cover.

For the media to live up to the new expectations regarding ensuring a safer planet, an enabling environment must be provided to access information on the true state of the crisis and what needs to be done. There is a need for stronger commitments from government and media managers to protect environment journalists from attacks, hate campaigns and physical and legal harassment.

Government departments and agencies must be ready to respond to media enquiries and be accountable for complying with global best practices regarding environmental matters.

At a recent press briefing on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project, the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi’s response to the question by a Correspondent of Arise News, Laila Johnson-Salami regarding the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was somehow dismissive. He did not envisage the critical question of the EIA and would have been happier if the journalists did not question any aspect of the government’s plan despite the likely environmental impact the project would have.

If the government has indeed taken all necessary environmental precautions, it should release the EIA report for the project to show its sincerity and commitment to standard practice beyond policy announcements.

Beyond environmental issues, press freedom must be guaranteed for journalists in Nigeria to enable the media to perform its roles without hindrance.

May 5, 2024
NERC, DISCOs and vexatious tariffs

On the surface, the new electricity tariff approved by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) should help address the massive subsidies tearing the power sector apart. Between 2015 and 2023, says the commission, the nation subsidised electricity consumption by about N348trn. This is exceedingly huge, though the agency does not quite show how it arrived at this figure. But it argues that if the new tariff regime, begun since April 3, is allowed to work, some N1.14trn would be saved this year in subsidies, a sum significant enough to begin changing the dynamics of the power sector. In order to anchor this policy, only 15 percent of electricity consumers classified into Band A would bear the burden of the new tariff regime. Instead of the previous N66 charged per kilowatt/hour of consumption, they are to pay N225 per kilowatt/hour. The steep rise in tariff has predictably triggered a bad-tempered debate on the timing and propriety of the increase.

Apart from the public which has generalised the increase, instead of limiting it, as NERC has done, to a category of consumers, the House of Representatives has also waded into the skirmish by asking NERC to stay action on the increase. Whether the commission will heed the lawmakers is unclear. But in addition the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on May Day gave NERC an ultimatum to reverse the increase or face industrial action. But the hunch of most Nigerians is that the real public dissatisfaction with the new tariffs will manifest when the first bills come out in early May. The lower class will discover their bills have been minimally affected, while the upper class consumers, including factories, who by the way influence and shape public discourse and instigate actions, will be numbed by their new bills. It is also not known why NERC advocates this humongous leap in tariff in one fell swoop instead of gradual increments. May 2024, it is now clear, will determine everything, especially as this eerie month seems to crystallise policies inflicting hardship on the people.

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As the Bola Tinubu administration battles with resetting the economy, particularly doing away with a whole regime of subsidies unwisely and incompetently implemented over the decades to the immense distress of the economy, it must find the ingenuity to contend with the drawbacks of the electricity tariff increases. Two major things are wrong with the new tariffs, and they invite the administration to reconsider the cost and benefit of the policy. Firstly, the policy is poorly timed. The Power ministry, NERC and the administration should have waited until the NLC minimum wage agitation was resolved before adjusting the tariffs. Now, even though they are agitating against the tariffs, the labour unions have nevertheless factored the increases into their wage demands. They are justified. And considering that Nigerians are still struggling to cope with, or recalibrate their incomes to meet, the new demands on their household incomes, and recognising also that the economy could not be completely or significantly reset in two years, let alone in a few months, the administration should have both phased its war against subsidies as well as synchronised the responses of the ministries to the distressed and disarticulated economy.

Secondly, Power minister Adebayo Adelabu simply fails to understand the main problem with the new tariff regime. The problem is not whether tariff should be adjusted upwards; it is long overdue. The problem is also not whether discriminatory pricing of electricity consumption should be instituted; NERC has always done that anyway. The chief problem, however, is how the increases and discriminating tariffs are conceived and implemented. The capacity to pay or income of the consumer should never, ever be tied to the amount of electricity supplied to a consumer. By tying supply, in this case 20 hours for Band A, to the ability to pay, is iniquitous, discriminatory and unfeeling. A better approach is to ensure uninterrupted supply to every consumer, while discriminatory pricing should then follow and be specific to neighbourhoods. To give more hours of supply to the rich and fewer hours to the poor is a bad policy unmitigated by public sentiments for and against subsidies. Indeed, the administration must be careful about policy overload, particularly policies that eat away at the people’s disposable income and further impoverish them.

NERC and the DISCOs have put the cart before the horse with discriminatory pricing. They will not only contend with inflation certain to accompany manufactured goods, they must also contend with angry Nigerians who see the administration as unfeeling and contemptuous of the poor. This is a case of an ordinarily great policy badly and callously executed. NERC and the Power ministry should seize the opportunity of the House of Representatives motion to remedy the poorly considered policy. In the end they may not need to reduce the tariffs by a substantial margin or lose overall in terms of revenue. In fact in the end, if they are patient and reasonable, they will be the chief gainer.

May 5, 2024
Edo, Ondo polls: a tale of two states

Both Edo and Ondo States have completed their governorship primaries. In Edo, after a false start, the All Progressives Congress (APC) finally in February managed to get its aspirants to unite into a ticket hosting both Monday Okpebholo, a senator, who polled 12,433 votes during the repeat primary, and Dennis Idahosa, who was initially declared winner of the first primary, but scored 6,541 votes at the repeat primary. They seem to be prepared to forge ahead in the face of a rancorous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whose candidate, Asue Ighodalo, is alleged by dissenters to have been foisted on the party by Governor Godwin Obaseki. Incumbency will only be partly relevant in Edo, but significantly relevant in the Ondo poll where a sitting governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, not the outgoing governor Mr Obaseki, is contesting the governorship.

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Nothing is, however, predictable in Ondo State. The Ondo primary reportedly witnessed a lot of manipulations inspired and orchestrated by the governor’s supporters. The election appeal panel headed by former Bauchi State governor Mohammed Abubakar, however, said it found no substance in the petitions by aggrieved aspirants. Except the aggrieved pursue the legal option or gang up together to subvert the APC campaign as the PDP may experience in Edo, there may be no stopping Mr Aiyedatiwa in the November governorship poll. Will he make a great governor should he win? It is doubtful. What is more certain is that his judgement will not be sounder than it is poor already.

And for Edo State, it is ironical that Mr Obaseki who campaigned for a second term on the basis of ‘Edo says no to godfatherism’ has done nothing since the past one year other than to act the godfather. He barred his former deputy, Philip Shaibu, from contesting, and then went ahead to virtually foist Mr Ighodalo on the PDP. Will he succeed in also foisting him on the state? This is even more difficult to determine. Notwithstanding these apprehensions, both Ondo and Edo elections will certainly stir up the emotions of voters and either raise, dampen or dash their hopes.

May 5, 2024
May Day for Labour

Last Wednesday, Nigerian workers, like their counterparts the world over, marked the International Labour Day. It was a day reserved for celebrating the heroism and dignity of the average worker and for affirming the intrinsic nobility of human labour. There were vigorous and animated protests at the universal plight of workers and imperialism in different parts of the world.

In Nigeria, amidst unprecedented hardship occasioned by the dwindling purchasing power of the national currency, crippling fuel shortage, savage power cuts and nation-wide food insecurity, the few remaining members of the vanishing workforce, relics of a glorious and heroic tradition, trudged out in ritual obeisance rather than genuine conviction. The Nigerian labour hegemons have lost a lot of legitimacy, authority and credibility to their shilly-shally and namby-pamby posturing in recent times.

Since we live in a world full of incredible ironies, we might as well point out that May Day is also the ultimate distress signal from ships and aircrafts close to disaster. It is a modish and modernized version of the old SOS. For some time, the labour union in Nigeria has been letting out loud distress signals, particularly since the advent of the current administration which the labour leadership did its best to prevent from winning.

The situation became tragically absurd after its current leader, against wiser counsel, allowed himself to descend into the rowdy arena of partisan politics in his home state where he was promptly pounced upon by irate party honchos and henchmen. His reward was a nasty and bulbous black eye which he displayed like an unworthy trophy. So far, there has been no reaction from the teeming eponymous masses of Imo proletariat. His opponent romped to victory with an unprecedented majority.

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Never one to let go of the political opportunity arising from unforced errors, the president, a tested grandmaster of political chess, baited Joe and his accomplices mercilessly and a tad gleefully asking them to shelve the garb of labour and join partisan politics but with the ringing proviso that elective offices are no longer available until 2027. With the PDP in terminal disarray having been displaced from its center right national positioning by the ruling party, labour has become the most recognizable opposition to the dominion of the APC behemoth.

It is a measure of how far the labour leadership has taken a plunge in public esteem. This degenerate drama of a national leader of labour being pounced upon by party partisans would have been unthinkable in an earlier epoch or during the era of distinguished icons of labour such as Pa Michael Imoudu, Alhaji H.P Adebola, Wahab Goodluck, Hassan Sunmonu, Malam Ali Chiroma and a host of others. But in fairness to labour, it is also unthinkable that earlier-era civilian governments would appear to be so blase and cack-handed about the fate of the nation’s workforce.

Let’s face it, Labour has paid its universal dues. All the glittering monuments associated with civilization, from the Egyptian pyramids, the spectacular palaces of oriental kings, the alluring and enchanting architectural wonders of multi-faith worshipping to the dazzling skylines of the modern metropolis, are tributes to the powers of human labour often enacted in tragic and gruesome circumstances of toiling and sometimes the most demeaning and dehumanizing of conditions.

In Nigeria, the colonial workforce consisting of able-bodied men and women as well as physically precocious children were often assembled at gun-point and dragooned to provide the cheap labour for the building of roads, bridges, rail lines and jetties to facilitate the evacuation of colonial plunder and rapine. Many perished.

King Leopold’s Free State of Congo remains the most cruel example of this genocidal Leviathan of primitive labour. Millions died and many more had their hands lobbed off for refusing. Almost two hundred years after, the Congo remains essentially what it was under the monstrous Belgian king: an apocalyptic landscape of horrendous suffering and human wastage.

The tragedy of labour that we have been tracking suggests a global overhang to things after all. As we have repeatedly canvassed in this column, the national trajectory to tragedy is unique and country-specific. Every unhappy country is unhappy in its own unique way. What labour was in Nigeria about forty years ago is not what it is at the moment.

The current Nigerian labour aristocracy is a poor and miserable copy of its old self. Compare for example, the carriage and comportment of Joe Ajaero with the fiery, uncompromising swagger of Pa Imoudu, the patrician polish of Alhaji H.P Adebola, the cerebral self-confidence of Hassan Sunmonu, the shrewd conviviality of Wahab Goodluck , the forbidding austerity of Ali Chiroma and the savvy political gaming of our good friend, Adams Oshiomhole.

Since history is permanently unfurling, you cannot blame the epigone for lacking the heroic virtues of his forebears. It is like condemning Soyinka’s Elesin Oba for lacking the will to follow his sovereign to the grave, or blaming Achebe’s Nwoye for not being a proud and manly warrior like his famous father. It is the telltale sign of a society in the throes of turmoil and unmanageable contradictions. The solution normally comes from antagonistic logic supplied by conquering outsiders or by internal reconfiguration.

Every ascendant protagonist must reflect the material, spiritual and political basis of the society that has thrown him or her up. In the last forty years and as a result of a combination of global economic adversity and internal mismanagement of resources, there has been a de-industrialization and de-education in Nigeria which have impacted negatively on the workforce as a result of the closure of many thriving industries and the very quality of labour leadership and its mode of apex recruitment.

You cannot plant cucumber and expect to harvest cocoa yam. Sometimes, it is better not to be educated at all than to be miseducated. Here comes the double jeopardy. When many of our labour barons are sent abroad for further education in western power sanctuaries, they lack the intellectual discerning and the ideological nous. Consequently, they come back mouthing the same shibboleths and neo-liberal redundancies responsible for the original plight of their country.

Labour lost the plot a long time ago when Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan romped home to emphatic victories in their respective countries. Both were unabashedly rightwing warriors and ideological militants who felt the arrowheads of western civilization were in danger of being overwhelmed by the Soviet empire. This infiltration of western ramparts, they insisted, was aided by anti- Christ leftwing elements using privileged and over-pampered trade unionists and the loony Stalinist press.

It was the last hurray of old labour and the old left. In a famous advert which spelt doom for the embattled Labour Party, Saatchi and Saatchi came up with the ultimate slogan of wartime evisceration: Labour Is Not Working. It struck a chord and resonated widely with the British people. Once in power, Margaret Thatcher carried the battle to Arthur Scargill and the trade unions. She did not leave the trenches until they were completely routed. No one has heard from them ever since.

Margaret Thatcher, the thrifty, piously restrained daughter of a Methodist alderman, could not understand how a society founded on the Calvinist principles of thrift and self-denial could succumb to such degeneracy and abject self-indulgence. She was initially dismissed as Thatcher the milk-snatcher. She would end up snatching more than unmerited milk.

However, if the dynamics that power the political evolution of western society are closely examined, it will be seen that whenever the unrestrained enthusiasm of leftwing governments for equality and economic empowerment of the lower masses carry them too far in a particular direction, there is always a rightwing backlash which claws back the lost ground often by bending the stick in the other direction.

Sometimes, the British resort to a typical political fudge such as when they go for a deodorized and demilitarized version of Thatcherism represented by Tony Blair’s reconditioned Labour Party. As part of the make-over, the original owner of the new Franchise, the dour and doleful but far more intellectually gifted Scotsman, Gordon Brown, was persuaded to step down for the smarmy blue-eyed English public school boy.

Our readers may be wondering what the collapse of leftwing ideology and the triumph of Thatcher and Reagan have got to do with the situation in Nigeria as at that point in time. That is precisely the point. Absolutely nothing, but that is if we had responsive, responsible and right thinking governments and political elites. It would have been difficult to fault the impressive data and the clinical clarity of the analysis which made western governments to embrace market fundamentalism.

The Keynesian economic revolution with the state as the arrowhead of massive intervention to revive a comatose western society and an infrastructure devastated by the Second World War had run its course leaving in its wake a near bankrupt state, the collapse of private initiative, infrastructure in dire need of revamping and an over pampered and overprotected work force in need of a shock therapy.

The situation and circumstances in Africa and in particular in Nigeria could not have been more different at that point in time. Emerging from the trauma of colonization with a weak state, weaker institutions and massive infrastructural deficits, what was required was not market fundamentalism and a harsh rolling back of government but a state fundamentalism such as practiced till date in China, Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and others in which government takes a driving seat in pushing all aspects of national development and the empowerment of citizens.

If the federating governments of the First Republic, particularly the Awolowo-led Western Region, got this right, it is unfortunate for Nigeria that it was at that point in time that a succession of authoritarian military regimes fell prey to the blandishment of the IMF and the Bretton Woods lobby.

Even at that, monetarist dogmatism has subsequently been pursued half-heartedly and with a lack of conviction except in its punitive anti-people aspects. It has led to a severe economic decline, a sharp accentuation of class divides and grave social consequences for the nation.

So when next old Joe Ajaero calls out his remaining labour faithful in his perennial confrontation with the federal authorities – which could be as early as this week – the platform will be swarmed not by the old disciplined cadres of labour but by the urban déclassé made up of a teeming mass of city vagrants and hobbledehoy spawned by de-industrialization and de-education. Who knows, they may even give him another black eye. But if the situation tips into anarchy, we may be talking of something nastier.

May 5, 2024
The Socrates of Oworonsoki

As the rogue fuel shortage began to bite harder during the week, and as bodies of able men spilled into the streets hunting for the rare stuff the way frenzied pigmies hunt for rodents, our mind went back to the old man. He has been incommunicado for some time.

But as the fuel crisis entered its third day, snooper learnt of a major scam that bore all the imprimatur of the old devil. A man in Oworonsoki was claiming that he had turned water into petrol and was offering the stuff for sale at a heavily subsidized rate. We immediately smelled a rat, and our old friend. And to Oworonsoki we headed, on a bleary day when the sky blew its top.

A human snake of a queue had formed from the Ogudu end joining the one coming from Alapere to form a serpentine confluence of distraught humanity. With much pluck and daring, snooper wangled his way through the queue. In a situation of near total anarchy where everybody is afraid of everybody, the gutsy fellow is usually a winner. When there is general disorder and insecurity, the person who has the mantra of order and security can get away with murder.

And lo, it was the old man indeed. He had set up shop at the weedy intersection of the multiple over-archs. In the marshy background, the brackish and murky water of the Lagos lagoon foamed like fresh palm wine. The old man eyed everybody with amusement and weary contempt. Then he saw me.

“Ah Agbadagbudu boy, long, long time. You come for the show, too?”, he crowed.

“Bros, what is this?” I whispered.

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“Ask the fools. Sebi na dem want cheap fuel?”, he screamed with much hilarity as he gestured wildly at the crowd. My fear at this point was that he could be lynched by the irate crowd if it was discovered that it has all been a cruel hoax. To my utter surprise, the old man seemed to be enjoying the discomfort of the crowd. In a show of sublime disdain, he even changed the topic as desperate men and women swarmed all over.

“Congratulations on your boy”, he opened.

“Which boy?, I asked him in alarm.

“Okon”, he replied point blank.

“So you know about Okon?” I asked as I jumped up.

“Of course I read everything. The masquerade knows you even if you don’t know the masquerade. The boy may be an impossible rogue but he says all the right things. When you listen closely to his rant you know why the Niger Delta is in ferment.” At this point, the crowd became rather unruly. A man who looked like a spare parts baron began to complain aloud.

“When are we going to get this thing now, abi na dis kind yeye talk-talk we come for?” he growled.

“Shief, ankali fa, he who must drink hot pap must exercise patience”, an Ogbomosho man with deep tribal marks cautioned the increasingly agitated fellow.

“Shut up, Zebra crossing. Am I talking to you?” the increasingly agitated mogul scowled at the man. At this point, the old man decided to intervene.

“Listen, you fools”, he said and suddenly jumped up. “Have you idiots ever asked yourself why everything horrible and hideous in the world has a black adjective to qualify it? Black sheep, blackguard, blackmail, black spot etc. And now you want cheap black market petrol? Se mi ni baba yin ni? (Am I your father?) Yeye people. Just go and hide your head in shame.”

“Chineke!!! This crazy man has fooled me again!!!” the spare part magnate groaned as the crowd began to disperse in sullen despair and displeasure. As the last of them slunk away in defeat, the old man fixed snooper with an unnerving gaze.

“See how meek and docile your people have become and you are expecting great changes. You have a revolutionary situation at hand but no revolutionists on hand. People are just making stupid noise all over. Human fuel shortage, that is the real problem, and it leads to paralysis and impotence in the face of evil, but…”

“But we must start from somewhere…” I ventured.

“Shut up!” the old man screamed as he charged at me with his massive pipe.

● First published on this page in May, 2007

May 5, 2024
Samuel Adefila Abidoye (1920-2023)

C and S Movement Church has lost an inspirational spiritual leader

It would not be proper if I fail to bid the immediate past Spiritual Father and Chairman of Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church (CSMC) Worldwide, Prophet Samuel Adefila Abidoye, also known as ‘Baba Aladura’, a befitting farewell on this page. I have had cause to comment on him on at least two occasions in his lifetime. The last being on July 3, 2022. Baba Aladura Abidoye was born on June 26, 1920, as a prince at Omu Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. He was installed the fifth ‘Baba Aladura’ of the church in 2006 and died at about 10.00 a.m. on November 12, 2023, aged 103. He was buried on April 27, 2024.

My first close personal contact with him was during the inauguration and enthronement of Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church, 84, Old Ota Road, Orile Agege, Lagos, as Emmanuel District in June, 2013. I was chairman of the publicity sub-committee of the occasion, arguably one of the most glorious moments of the church. Part of the sub-committee’s mandate was to organise media tours of three major national newspapers — ‘The Nation’, ‘The Punch’ and ‘The Guardian’. We were able to cover the first two, even though they were all ready to receive the ‘Baba Aladura’. I had to apologise to ‘The Guardian’ management when it became obvious we would not be able to make it to their organisation. That was the time the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was still under repairs and travelling on it was nightmarish, hence we had to call off ‘The Guardian’ visit to reduce the stress on the ‘Baba Aladura’.

What intrigued me most about Prophet Abidoye was the alertness he demonstrated at both newspapers when answering their reporters’ questions.

My second close contact with the late ‘Baba Aladura’ was apparently informed by the success of our assignment on the enthronement sub-committee.

Sometimes (I guess) in 2017 or so, I was told that Baba Abidoye wanted to see me at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Lagos, where he lodged during his visit to Lagos. I immediately knew why. And I also knew it was going to be tough to reject what I envisaged he was going to ask me to do for him, even if I also knew that accepting it would mean accepting what I would not be able to do well, given the demands of my job.

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I was ushered straight into Baba Abidoye’s apartment as soon as I got to the hotel. I greeted him and from the sitting room we proceeded to his bedroom, with only myself and about three senior members of the church, including Most Senior Apostle Abiodun Akinbusuyi, then of Lagos Television, Special Apostle S. A. Dansu of the Ilasamaja, Lagos, branch of the church.

It was a defining moment I wished never came. Baba told me he wanted me to be his media adviser. I looked to the left, then to the right and finally made for the canvass (to quote one of our former sports editors, now late). I mean I prostrated as I politely told Baba Abidoye that I could not take the assignment due to job constraints. I however told him that I would always be available for his or the church’s service anytime I was called upon.

I guessed he saw beyond my reason and then invited me to sit right beside him on the bed and started telling me stories about his life, his odyssey at the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), his sojourn abroad and how he became ‘Baba Aladura’, a thing he least anticipated. As he said in an interview: “Well, I was worried at the beginning. First of all, I never imagined that I could become the spiritual father (Baba Aladura) because I was a bit radical.”

He respected my decision without any ill-feeling. Baba Abidoye was not the kind of person you would meet and want to leave in a hurry. We eventually had to part, at least to allow him attend to some of the multitude that was waiting to see him. The post of ‘Baba Aladura’ in Cherubim and Seraphim churches, and especially so in the CSMC (unarguably the most elitist of the brand) is not just respected, it is revered. That is why you would always see multitudes wherever the ‘Baba Aladura’ is at any point in time.

As if to show that Prophet Abidoye had no hard feeling about my rejecting his bidding, I was handed an envelope with some cash in it when I was leaving the hotel. My initial instinct was to reject it outright, but then I remembered the admonition by the Late Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola to one of his editors who had rejected a similar offer from a very rich and influential Nigerian. I was told Abiola asked the editor to go back to the old man and accept the gift that he earlier rejected. Unknown to the editor, the old man had called Abiola to inform him that one of his editors rejected his gift. Armed with this experience, I opened the envelope and took N1,000 note, and returned the rest as offering to the church.

I doff my hat to this immediate past ‘Baba Aladura’ for his humility, candour and respect for others’ views, all of which I felt during our meeting.

And, as if to stamp all of these attributes as his real self rather than a mere fluke, Baba Abidoye again earned my respect after my piece on him on July 3, 2022. I lauded his many achievements since becoming the ‘Baba Aladura’ in 2006. But I was also highly, even if respectfully critical, of some of his administration’s shortcomings. After all he is human.

Here, I am talking specifically about titles in the church. The liberalisation of titles is, to say the least, alarming. When I was young, titles, especially in the then C & S Church (Movement) were few and far-between. When in those day you saw those old men and women holding one of those top titles, you would love to be a member of the church, rising through the ranks. Not any more. What you see these days will simply put you off because titles have been commercialised in the church. My father died a Special Apostle in the church, so I know what I am talking about. In those days, whatever title you paraded in the church was honoured anywhere, both home and abroad. I hear there is discrimination now as some churches do not honour titles that seem to them that the holder does not deserve. I don’t know how that is determined but it only tells you that all animals may not be equal even if they parade the same title. It tells you the flaw in the title processes and procedures.

But Baba Abidoye won my admiration the way he accepted this criticism. I learnt he took the decision on giving out titles the way he did as a revenue drive for the church. But, my question is: how much is the entire C & S churches worth in spite of this process of revenue generation? Probably a fraction of what one Pentecostal church would give away without blinking an eyelid. And without offering or selling otherwise spiritual titles. Meaning the church must look elsewhere for funds rather than sell titles that have spiritual significance.

Some other persons would have taken such criticism in bad faith. Not Baba Abidoye. I wrote the critical piece on Sunday, July 3, 2022. In the night of Wednesday, July 6, that is barely three days later, my phone rang. I think Baba Abidoye’s attention was drawn to the piece by one of his aides who Pastor Sanya Balogun told about it. When I was told it was ‘Baba Aladura’ that wanted to speak with me, I thought he was going to behave like some of our southwest politicians who would not see the praise you lavished on them in a full page article, but rather pick holes in just one paragraph or sentence that they did not like in it.

It was the lawyer in Baba Abidoye that spoke again. May be his radicalism too. Again, hear him: I have written five books on the church. In one of them, ‘After Moses Orimolade—What next?’, I criticised some of the church’s doctrines like the problem of not wearing shoes in cold countries like Europe where I stayed for so long; among others.” I was surprised that, in spite of the criticism, he started praying for me on phone. I cherished that much, beyond the envelope that was given to me at Lagos Airport Hotel.

Although I was told that Baba Abidoye promised to do something about the proliferation of titles, I did not know how this can be done without leading to schism in the church. This is especially so in a church whose members worship titles. There is no gain-saying that the C & S church would be one of the greatest churches in the world if the members worship God 50 per cent as they worship their titles.

Be that as it may, for me one of Baba Abidoye’s greatest legacies is the movement of the seat of power of the church from Kaduna to Galilee, in Orile-Igbon, Oyo State, “which has now become a mega city”.

As I noted in the July 3, 2022 piece, “When he came on board, he conceived the idea of ‘Project Hephzibah’, which has remained like a blueprint of his programme for the development of the church. He brought in a group of young and vibrant men to help bring this into fruition. To the glory of God, the project has achieved significant successes, visible in several aspects of the church.

“Baba Abidoye’s tenure has changed the face of the prophetic ministry in the church. Without doubt, the activities of prophets dominated every other thing at Kaduna. His tenure has also seen to the ordination of pastors in CSMC…People not only need to rely on prophecies and predictions alone, they should also know enough about The Word. It is also significant that when the ‘Baba Aladura’ was installed in 2006, there were 47 districts…” These have increased exponentially over the years.

There is no doubt that Baba Aladura Abidoye’s achievements will continue to speak after him. There is no doubt that he came, he saw, he fought and conquered. May his soul rest in perfect peace.

I seize this opportunity to wish Prophet Emmanuel Alogbo to whom he has passed the baton as the 6th ‘Baba Aladura’ and spiritual head of the church a successful tenure. He already has his job cut out for him. May God almighty grant him the strength, knowledge, wisdom and understanding required to administer the various centripetal and centrifugal tendencies in the church.

May 5, 2024
Poverty and insecurity in Northern Nigeria: Prof Usman Yusuf’s views beginning to resonate with region’s leaders

“I am old enough to clearly remember thirteen Administrations from that of General Yakubu Gowon (1966-1975) to the current one of President Muhammadu Buhari (2015- to date). It is safe to say that none of these administrations came to power with so much hope, expectations and goodwill of citizens and the international community like President Buhari’s.

Unfortunately, all this goodwill has been squandered by this government due to a messiah complex, intellectual laziness, bad governance, endemic corruption, incompetence, mediocrity, nepotism, arrogance of power, sense of entitlement, stubbornness, aversion to constructive criticisms, delegation of responsibility without supervision or holding anyone accountable, indifference, distance and disconnection from and insensitivity to the sufferings of our people” – Prof Usman Yusuf, a Professor of haematology-oncology and bone marrow transplantation, and former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), January, 2022.

As if just waking up from a bad dream, Northern state governors, under the aegis of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, met in Kaduna State on Tuesday, 30 April, 2024 to deliberate on the security situation and other issues in the region.

The meeting, truth be told, was not the first time a group of Northern leaders would be meeting but, given the seriousness and the wide canvass covered at the meeting, one feels convinced that, at a point in the past, Northern leaders probably decided to treat Professor Usman Yusuf’s heartfelt outcries with benign neglect, regarding his stinging clarion calls as unworthy of serious consideration.

Not any more.

The North has become a literal inferno and given the overwhelming parlous state of affairs in the region they can, no longer, afford to neglect him.

What makes the situation worse is the fact that, like forever, especially during the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the North literally had a complete lock down of all the country’s consequential appointments.

In some of his stirring ‘sermons’, Professor Yusuf listed some of such positions, even in the current Tinubu administration where the North holds the following offices:the Vice President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the National Security Adviser, Chief of Army staff, both Ministers of Defence, as well as the Minister of Police Affairs.

Yet, he went on, Northern leadership has completely failed the people, choosing instead, to look elsewhere, and blame others.

He concluded by saying that the time has come for the entire Northern leadership, whether in government or not, to look at themselves in the face and agree that they have failed the people, promising do better.

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The military, he went on, cannot bring peace to the North. Rather, everybody must get involved, and put a stop to the lingering insecurity that has completely overwhelmed the region.

Happily, his words are beginning to resonate in the right quarters as we saw in the Northern governors’ meeting referenced above. Unlike past meetings of any group of Northern elders, which were more of photo-ops, the Chairman of the forum, and current

Governor of Gombe State, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, emphasised the need for the North to now frontally confront insecurity which has made a complete mess of every part of the region, if not the whole country, but with the North as the epicentre.

He stressed the need for the economic revival of the North, if they were ever going to banish poverty and underdevelopment.

According to him, “We consider economic development as the long-term solution to our security challenges.

Continuing, he said:

“We must explore innovative ways to invest in critical infrastructure capable of unlocking the huge industrial and economic potential of Northern region”, and described as unacceptable, the huge number of out-of-school children in the region.

“It is, he said,

troubling, that Northern Nigeria currently bears the odious burden of having the highest number of out-of-school children in the entire world. This is an unacceptable reality that we must urgently address”.

Alongside other issues, it is fascinating that the meeting also discussed the touchy question of unreflecting, unrestrained and totally unplanned, childbirth, issues that combine to make the North contribute, astronomically, to Nigeria’s many existential problems, be it the poverty index, insecurity or the budgeoning population that will make Nigeria

the world’s third most populous country by 2050, according to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, overtaking the U. S.

The Professor has been such a consciencious objector to the North’s equanimity to these ills that he was once quoted as saying that:

“The deafening silence in the North to our people’s suffering is not only morally wrong but nourishes, validates and perpetuates the failings of this government. The region has now literally become an orphan…”

It is gratifying that Northern leaders now believe that “every child deserves access to quality education as well as the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to succeed in today’s rapidly changing global economic landscape”.

More gratifying is their acceptance

that, “as leaders, they have a moral obligation to invest massively in education and skills development, healthcare, and social services in order to unlock the full potential of their youth and empower future generations.”

Professor Yusuf deserves our thanks for the observable sea change in the North.

It will augur well for Nigeria.

May 5, 2024
Technology is Tinubu’s silver bullet for sabotage

It was a week offshore for President Bola Tinubu, having left the country Tuesday the previous week for official events in the Netherland and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, pursuing the economic and diplomatic interests if Nigeria. You will recall that the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, managed to get President Tinubu to reveal what inspires him to work so passionately for the Nigerian people. That was adequately dealt with in the last edition of this column titled ‘Hard decisions: Tinubu credits his courage to Nigerians’.

He continued the assignment during the just concluded week, attending the World Economic Forum’s Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development in Riyadh. On the sidelines of that meeting, he held a couple of other business meetings, among which were the President and Chief Executive Officer of Samsung, Hong Namkoong, and the Chairman of Samsung Investment Global, Jungwook Kim. He also met with the Chairman of A.P Moller-Maersk, Robert Maersk Uggla.

The President also met with philanthropist and Founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, on Sunday in Riyadh, another sideline event from the Special World Economic Forum meeting. The President’s conversation with Mr Gates became especially interesting because of how it relates to the basics of the entire economic recovery campaigns of his administration: fighting off saboteurs and their antics and secure the national patrimony. This topic of sabotage has come up countless times from President Tinubu himself, his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and many other officials of the administration.

As a matter of fact, in the last week alone, both the President and Vice President Shettima spoke about it at different forums. Sabotage has been a thing in our system over the years, it has found its way into the very fiber of the Nigerian being; in the public service, the selection processes, every appointment, assignment, contract done in the name of the public suffers a sort of human interference or the other. Interferences aimed at protecting personal or group interest, at the expense of the national interest.

It always targets activities with economic focus, ending up short-circuiting public gains and funneling it into purses other than that of the Nigerian State. For instance, it is believed that the first step in the direction of an effectively run and functioning power sector, being the consumer metering system, has continued to failed because operatives of power distribution companies do not want it to work. It is believed it will take out one of the most irregular practices in the power distribution arm of the industry; estimated billing. It is believed to be one of the cash cows for individuals within that system.

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At every turn and in virtually every public space, individuals, groups and organizations have devised sharp practices through which they outsmart Nigeria and with the connivance of public officials. The malfeasance oozes from virtually every corner, everyone, in one way or the other, is guilty of sabotaging the system, especially economically, although everybody still thinks government is to blame for the wrongs they are caught up in.

So coming into the saddle, for the Tinubu administration, the way out of our growth and development crisis is taking care of ‘the bull in the China shop’, which is sabotage. This is the primary goal. Take down the ineffective petrol subsidy regime, which had over the years fed the greed of rent-takers and portfolio executives, who cannot truthfully claim to have invested anything into the ventures that gave them the prohibitive wealth they have garnered over the last decades. Petrol subsidy has been seconded over the years by foreign exchange arbitrage. The double-windowed FOREX market has made hundreds of lazy billionaires over the years, people who made unthinkable wealth from just having friends in government or at the apex bank.

On Thursday, speaking at the Second Chronicle Roundtable, themed ‘Tinubu Administration’s Economic and Social Agenda: How it Will Transform Nigeria’, Vice President Shettima, expressed pain over how saboteurs, mostly Nigerians, have worked against the public interest, even invested ill-gotten funds to shore up arbitrage for their selfish interest. He, however, noted that the administration is winning the war against sabotage, citing the recent positives recorded in FOREX market.

“Today, I stand proud to say that their (Central Bank of Nigeria’s Governor, Yemi Cardozo, and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu’s) interventions have translated into desired results and Naira’s pushback against all odds is an inspiring journey that doesn’t have to be learned in Buenos Aires, as someone wanted us to do. They were projecting that the Naira will go to as high as 5000 to the dollars. Some betted against the Naira, some borrowed mercilessly from the banks and bought dollar at a cost of 2000 to the naira. I align myself fully with the position of Dr. Shamsudeen Usman; it’s sad, it’s disheartening, it’s befuddling that some of us do not wish the nation well, they’ll rather that the nation imports. Well let it be known to them, when the rain falls, it doesn’t fall on one man’s house”, he said.

Days before the Thursday’s engagement, Monday to be precise, the President, who was still represented by Shettima, had told the meeting of African Heads of State and Government on the 21st Replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA21) in Nairobi, Kenya, that Nigeria is winning in its struggle against economic sabotage, declaring that the country has escaped the phase of sabotage.

“Since assuming office, President Tinubu has remained steadfast in fulfilling his promise to end the reign of economic saboteurs who have long exploited and hindered the progress of our nation. I am pleased to report that our economy has escaped the phase of sabotage”, he told the meeting.

Putting the background information about the target and struggles of the administration against sabotage, and the slaps that Nigeria has received from unpatriotic citizens, together will provide a context to the conversation the President had with Mr Gates. Recalling how he did it when he was Lagos State Governor, he highlighted the neutralizing effect of 21st Century technology against sabotage. So in his challenge today as Nigeria’s President, with all the blows the system had received from malevolent elements, it is still the same solution that has achieved the escape from sabotage and will still do the much that is left to be achieved.

President Tinubu said technology is a potent weapon against corruption and financial impropriety in public service, which are ways the sabotage of all forms have manifested. He is investing in technology that is tailored towards ensuring transparency and accountability in government and accelerating public-sector performance and service delivery.

“Technology is the enemy of fraud, corruption, and irregularity. We have been working hard on improving technology. There is always the initial resistance. Corruption, self-interest, and fraudulent activity will always be an enemy, but when you bend that curve, you will receive the benefit. The nation will receive the benefit”, he said.

The last week ushered us into the month of May, the first day of which is devoted to the public worker everywhere in the world. He used the occasion to assure the nation’s workforce of his administration’s commitment to achieving not just their desired minimum wage, but a living wage, which meets them at the point of their need. He used the opportunity to stretch the Olive Branch to Labour leaders and assured them of the sincerity of his intents for Nigeria.

“Great Nigerian Workers, we cannot achieve a just and equitable society that caters to the needs of every member, including the strong and the weak, without fostering peace and unity. Our shared vision for national growth and development can only be realised in an atmosphere of industrial harmony and peaceful coexistence in every segment of our country. The dividends we have promised the nation, and which you work tirelessly to ensure, can only be achieved when we all unite for progress.

“So, I call upon each and every one of you, as I have consistently done, to join hands in shaping the destiny of our nation towards greatness. Our allegiance and patriotism are the bedrock upon which our beloved country thrives. The success of our government’s policies and programmes hinges on the willingness of the workers, as the backbone of our workforce, to embrace them wholeheartedly. I appeal to you to continue using the power of the Labour movement for the greater good of our nation, fostering harmony and cooperation”, the President said.

He still related with people back home, either for celebration, like in the cases of the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, and the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who both marked their birthday on May Day. Same went for Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo, who clocked 90 years on Tuesday. He commiserated with Rivers State people and government over the tanker explosion in Eleme, which claimed four lives and destroyed millions of naira worth property, as well as a similar incident in Ogun State.

As a new week starts today, new events and activities will define what we should expect. Just hang on and follow me.

May 5, 2024