The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Aisha Yesufu’s fulminations

    Aisha Yesufu’s fulminations

    She rode on the back of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign to some public renown. It was of course a worthy cause, a cause that sadly remains an unfinished business, with more than 90 of the 276 Chibok, Borno State, schoolgirls abducted in 2014 unaccounted for. Aisha Yesufu, human rights warrior and co-convener of the campaign, joined other activists in Abuja to pressure the federal government into bringing the abducted girls back home. A few of the campaigners later secured public appointments, while those who remained, including Mrs Yesufu, were thought to be principled and too committed to the abduction cause to afford political distractions. She was overhyped.

    Read Also: Why many marriages, relationships fail – Aisha Yesufu

    The last election cycle exposed the grime under Mrs Yesufu’s human rights activism. She is as political as they come, a revelation underscored by her superfluous embrace of Peter Obi and the Labour Party. She was in fact the head of the Obi presidential campaign fundraising team, and at various times conducted herself as Mr Obi’s spokesperson, often deploying vitriolic words against opponents. She is proud that she is not politically neutral. But the months and years ahead will determine whether her chiding of reason was a smart move. She may not be the only opinionated activist and politician in the country, but hers takes the biscuit.

  • National Health Fellows Programme: Tinubu’s CPR for healthcare sector

    National Health Fellows Programme: Tinubu’s CPR for healthcare sector

    Last week was rather a short one, being loaded with not less than three days of holiday in commemoration of the Eid-el-Fitr, the Muslim festival that follows the holy month of Ramadan. With three of the seven days of the week gone to Eid-el-Fitr, two more as traditional work-free days, being weekend days, Nigerians were only left with two days of official activities: Monday and Friday.

    Mr President spent those days of the week in Lagos, his home state and where he would naturally always prefer to celebrate any of the religious festivities. Of course, as it would be expected, there was not much of official engagements during the week on his desk, although he hosted a very busy season, granting audiences to all shades of guests, including leaders of the corporate world, senior politicians, technocrats and other visitors, who paid him sallah homage.

    However, as scarce as official activities were during the week, President Bola Tinubu still found time to do and say things that are focused on achieving his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda substantially. From Sunday evening when he left Abuja for Lagos, only the State House workforce that was not on the trip will be able to describe what holidaying these last few days felt like, for those who were in Lagos with the President, especially the media, they can only talk of the ‘excitement of work during a holiday with Jagaban’.

    Five days of the week being work-free, notwithstanding, Asiwaju managed to pull some strings that made the news. For example, on Monday, the Presidency announced that President Tinubu had granted the establishment of the National Health Fellows Programme, a financial and administrative monitoring mechanism for the health sector, starting with the primary healthcare facilities across the country.

    A statement issued same Monday by Special Adviser to the President on Media And Publicity, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, said the President’s idea for the fellowship, which will engage young Nigerian fellows in all the 774 local government areas in the country, is to use it to focus on upgrading service delivery at all the primary healthcare centres across all council areas of the country.

    “The well-trained fellows will serve as fiduciary agents to monitor and track Primary Healthcare Centre development and performance, which is to be assiduously measured against all financial inflows to the centres nationwide. The fellowship programme will be domiciled in the Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) coordination office under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. The fellows will be recruited, renumerated, and equipped with appropriate tools to track the performance of Basic Health Care Provision Fund-supported health facilities across the nation”, was all the clue provided on the fellowship programme.

    First thought that came to my mind when the announcement was made was what could the President be playing at? But then I remember that in December last year, while unveiling Nigeria’s Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative and the signing of the Health Renewal Compact by the federal and state governments, and then development partners, the President had announced that his administration would be prioritising and improving the healthcare sector through massive investment.

    Speaking at the event, which was organized to coincide with the commemoration of last year’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day, President Tinubu had then noted the importance of primary healthcare in building a resilient, integrated healthcare system and announced plans for a comprehensive revamp of physical infrastructure, equipment, and the re-training of frontline health workers starting from 2024. So it dawned on me that this was another promise kept by Jagaban, who had on December 12, 2023 said “delivering improved quality health is an underpinning factor in my promise of Renewed Hope to Nigerians. That hope is ignited here today with the support of all multilateral partners and agencies; health is back on the front burner”.

    In summary, the President used the establishment of the National Health Fellows Programme to prove two points: first, it further confirmed that his avowed interest in the younger generation is not just mere mouthing, it is indeed a deep rooted and genuine interest to see that Nigeria is not raising a wasted generation, a generation with education, but without fields to practice its trainings. Just like he has demonstrated with encouraging the youth through many appointments into key positions and empowerment programmes, President Tinubu’s love for the Generation Next is proven to be real. 

    The second point, to me is the fact that our President is very alert, nothing ever escapes him, especially things he has said with his mouth. It seems like he keeps a bucket list of his plans for Nigeria, which he ticks each time a mile is achieved. Like he recalled in December, he said he had plans to achieve improved quality health for Nigeria, as part of his campaign promises, now this week, he showed us that he has not forgotten that promise and that he is intent on its achievement. Here we have the National Health Fellows Programme.

    Though it was a week of few activities, made so, particularly by the Eid-el-Fitr, which had to be extended by one more day because the moon tarried a little longer than anticipated, President Tinubu still had much to do. It was another opportunity to engage with Nigerians, talking to them directly on the role they need to play in the current journey to El Dorado. You will recall how he made adequate use of the Ramadan, through the Ifter dinners he held with various groups, throwing well thought out and calculated messages about re-packaging our nationality and nationhood, especially because of the kind of future staring the global community in the face. Something like readying the country and its people for emerging realities.

    On Tuesday, which was the first day of the holiday, he sent his sallah message to Nigerians, asking them to rededicate themselves to the task, along with all that consider themselves stakeholders of this country, of building the kind of Nigeria that is desirable to all. In a statement by his spokesman, Ngelale, Jagaban reminded all citizens that “we are the sculptor, and Nigeria is the clay; we build it the way we desire”. So besides greeting them for the festival, it was an avenue to ginger everyone to joining him in the ‘Build An Enviable Nigeria Project’.

    Then on sallah day, being Wednesday, after the Eid prayers, which was held at the Dodan Barracks, he made a bold nationalist call to Nigerians, asking them to put their faith in his administration to do right by them, to achieve the hope and good life his campaigns were all about. Besides the call for trust, he repeated the call he has been making all along; that all Nigerians must learn to love and protect Nigeria. There is no hope for us if we cannot love our country. There is no way you will love Nigeria as a citizen and want to sabotage the economy, sabotage government and reduce the nation to a mini war front. 

    Read Also: Nigeria’s digital healthcare sector to increase to $3.3b by 2030

    “We must love our country more than any other country, because that is the only one we have. We must continue to protect the integrity of our government and leadership. The Renewed Hope Agenda is alive, well and fine, and Nigerians should continue to be very hopeful. Without hope, there is no salvation. Without hope, there is no development. Without hope, there is no life. Eid Mubarak”, he told journalists as he was leaving the Eid ground.

    Only two days were available to work in the week, but knowing the Jagaban for who he is, holiday can never be a reason not to dispense of whatever needs to be dispensed with. Besides the announcement of the establishment of the National Health Fellows Programme and his Eid-el-Fitr outing, his schedule, though unofficial, was still very busy. It was a time to receive all those who would pay him the sallah homage. Among those he received were Alhaji Aliko Dangote on Wednesday. On Thursday he received, among others, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu, Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, and the NNPC GCEO, Mele Kyari.

    He also made efforts to connect with some Nigerians on a more intimate level, mourning some who passed away and celebrating some who hit new milestones. For instance, on Thursday, he joined other Nigerians to mourn the first civilian governor of Old Abia State and immediate past Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, while on Wednesday, he had expressed sadness over the deaths of ace Kannywood actress, Saratu Gidado and the traditional ruler of Isolo, Oba Kabiru Adelaja Agbabiaka.

    In the same vein, he celebrated the Minister of State for Youth, Ayodele Olawande, who turned 35 years on Monday; celebrated Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, who turned 67 years old; Chief Ayo Adebanjo, who marked his birthday; and the traditional ruler of Ikate Kingdone, Oba Saheed Ademola Elegushi, who also marked their birthday, all on Wednesday. 

    Now that the holidays are over, more activities are expected back at the Villa, then we can hope to expect more positively awesome actions from the IDAN himself. Hang on.

  • The Faye phenomenon and its lessons

    The Faye phenomenon and its lessons

    Senegal’s new President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has confounded pundits with his unanticipated characteristic entry on to the world stage. He is 44 years old, officially married to two wives, and was born and raised in the small community of Ndiaganiao, where, in an Al Jazeera account, “in 2022 … [he] campaigned to become the village mayor but lost.” Until 14 March, 2024, just 10 days before the presidential election which took place on 24 March, he had been in prison for 11 months on charges of defamation and contempt of court.

    Faye’s Facebook protest, for which he was imprisoned, was against the incarceration of thousands of pro-democracy Senegalese, including his political mentor, Ousmane Sonko, who is now 49 years old and who has been described by voanews.com as a “popular opposition figure and mentor”, and, by Al Jazeera, as “a firebrand with a soft tone and a sharp tongue.” Sonko created a political party, PASTEF (African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity), in 2014, and according to Al Jazeera, “the party attracted middle management civil servants who felt frustrated and powerless as they watched their superiors steal money and receive kickbacks with impunity.” In the 1999 presidential election, he contested and came third. Due to Sonko’s conviction, he could not stand for election in 2024, and so, in November 2023, while both of them were still in prison, he chose in his stead Faye who has been widely described as “largely unknown to the public”.

    As Al Jazeera further noted, “overwhelmingly funded by the Senegalese diaspora from Europe and North America, Faye and Sonko ran an American-style campaign, campaigning as a duo ‘Diomaye Sonko’ on a pan-African ticket. They filled up stadiums and lit up the sky with fireworks.” Moreover, in the words of Al Jazeera, “They crisscrossed the nation, surrounded by bodyguards holding back frenzied crowds of young people wanting to get a glimpse of the men – as if the two were rock stars and not former tax inspectors.”

    In addition, Al Jazeera recounted: “The crowds sang the anthem to their campaign: ‘Sonko is Diomaye, and Diomaye is Sonko.’ Broom in hand, [Faye] promised ‘sweeping’ change from a new currency and the renegotiating of oil and gas contracts to changing Senegal’s relationship with France and the French language. Faye promised he would put ‘Senegal first’ and make the Senegalese his priority.”

    The opposition was also deep-thinking, clear-headed and pragmatic in its agitation for change. When the incumbent President at the time, Macky Sall, declared amnesty to all those who had been linked with criminal acts related to the struggle, the opposition saw it as the President’s tactic to protect the government’s goons who had been alleged to have committed acts of violence, including murder, against the opposition. But the opposition also recognised that opposing the blanket amnesty would mean keeping Sonko and Faye longer in prison and thereby progressively weakening the democratic agenda to change the government.

    The opposition’s dilemma was like what is captured in the Yoruba proverb, “Ó só síni lẹ́nu ó bu’yọ̀ sii: ìṣó nìyí kò ṣeé gbé mì; iyọ̀ nìyí kó ṣeé tu dànù.” (‘They farted into one’s mouth, but added salt to it; the fart is not pleasant to swallow and the salt is not desirable to spit out.’) This is another case in which ‘compromise’ is not a dirty word. So, the pro-democracy agitators reluctantly accepted the “win some, lose some” dictum as a veritable principle of life.

    Faye’s hypnotic transition from prisoner to President has immense significance for Africa, especially her youth. His relative youthfulness and that of his political mentor indicate that if the youth present themselves and are seen as a credible alternative to the elders they mean to upstage, the masses would give them unflinching support. Though Sonko and Faye were not known to have been stupendously rich, a wide range of Diaspora Senegalese trusted them enough to provide the funds to facilitate their success.

    The trust and financial support may have been earned due to the fact that the Sonko-Faye movement had an unambiguous message which resonated widely. The clear message was that the old political order must change, and the objective consistently remained just that all through the struggle. Moreover, the Senegalese struggle had a discernible charismatic leader and a complement of credible compatriots. So, in or out of jail, the struggle had its set of trustworthy figures and rallying-points, and they were focused and dynamic enough to ensure that once any of them was legally-incapacitated, a replacement could be seamlessly designated.    

    This set of attributes was lacking in the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (#EndSARS) protests of 2020 in Nigeria. The protests were initially hugely successful, but soon manifested the rapid burst of bubbles as happens with “Andrews Liver Salt”, using the imagery favoured by opposition politician Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso. In Yoruba, this same effect is described as “Ò hó sùkùsùkù dá wáíwáí.” They started off as protests against police brutality, and according to BBCNews, “the demonstrations rocked the country for two weeks – and led to the government agreeing to disband Sars and set up judicial panels of inquiry to investigate the widespread allegations of abuse by officers.” Dazzled by this accomplishment, the protesters naively changed their goal-post and started demanding an end to the democratically-elected government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Legitimate questions therefore started to be asked about the real motives of the #EndSARS protests. Were they truly to stop police brutality? Did they have an ethnic agenda, given the desecration of the palace of Elékó, the Yoruba traditional ruler of Lagos? And given the live virtual directing of parts of the protests by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the secessionist Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) that had been declared as a terrorist group by the government and the live reporting of the progression of the protests to Kanu by Igbo protesters? Was it also ethnically-motivated considering Kanu’s call for and the subsequent wanton destruction of properties in Lagos by Igbo protesters targeting Yoruba assets (especially those of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu)? Were the #EndSARS protests also an opposition design for regime change, given the transmuting of the slogan from #EndSARS to #EndBuhari? Could that have been the reason for the anti-#EndSARS protests in Abuja?

    Moreover, there was no clear leadership for the #EndSARS protests. So, there was nobody or credible set of people to articulate an enduring noble anchor vision to feed the minds and consciousness of the protesters and energise them towards an unshakeable goal. In the circumstances, the protests were sustained by hedonistic t’ọ̀funlọ̀ràn (‘gut-propelled’ or ‘Where belle face’) needs. And food, drinks and reveling were provided in abundance while the protests lasted.

    Besides the #EndSARS protests, concepts such as “Third Force” were created to wrest power from the major political parties, especially the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). However, personal promotion made agreement on a consensus presidential candidate difficult to reach by the parties constituting the “Third Force”. In addition, those who vociferously claimed to be advocating for youth takeover of politics in Nigeria were people who did not have credible democratic antecedents. In fact, they had put themselves up as unabashed ethnic and religious jingoists in the past. So, the overwhelming, politically perceptive segment of Nigerian youth refused to be swindled by the self-appointed puppeteers.

    Read Also: Faye presidency wake-up call for Nigeria, Africa — Prof. Chris Imumolen

    The same fate bedeviled the Ebi n pa wá (‘We’re hungry’) phenomenon which was related to the tough economic situation of the country. Protests, possibly powered by some members of President Tinubu’s Yoruba ethnic group who never wanted him to contest or win in the first place, rocked the Yoruba heartland of Ibadan. Northern Youth, possibly angered by some of the President’s decisions which were deemed to be anti-North, also took to the street complaining about hunger and burning the nation’s flag. For some reasons, there were no notable Ebi n pa wá protests in the South-East. Some members of the Northern elite interpreted this as a reflection of the Igbo unpatriotic lack of concern for the fate of Nigeria and Nigerians.

    However, some of the members of the Igbo elite argued that the Igbo suffered more excruciating hunger during the civil war, and this made the present hunger child’s play, and it would be pointless for them to embark on any protest now. Other members of the Igbo elite also argued that Igbos were not crying Ebi n pa wa, because Igbos were enterprising and survivalist, and could find a way out of any existential problem. Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, the President of Ohaneze Ndigbo – the main Igbo socio-cultural group – also warned the Igbo not to take part in any protests, because such participation could lead to the singling out of Igbos for sanctions thereafter.

    In a further ethnicisation of the Ebi n pa wa agitations, some Yoruba supporters of the President asked why there were no hunger protests when the currency-change initiated by an Igbo Governor of the Central Bank and a Fulani President, before the 2023 elections, inflicted unprecedented pain on a wide range of Nigerians. They asked whether the protests, especially as it concerned the Nigeria Labour Congress led by an Igbo man, who is also a Labour Party chieftain, were not driven by those who wanted to destabilise the government headed by a President who is Yoruba.  The ethnicisation and politicisation of the protests therefore made effective common action difficult to undertake or sustain.

    Perhaps the most noteworthy lesson of the Faye phenomenon is that he has not shown any desire to supplant his mentor. The legal encumbrance Sonko suffered by virtue of his conviction did not inspire Faye to want to distance himself from him, and neither did his choice as the replacement presidential candidate by Sonko make Faye receptive to sycophantic flattery which has the tendency to rationalise and euphemise ingratitude. Accordingly, one of his first major presidential actions was to appoint Sonko, on whose back he rode to global fame, as Prime Minister.

    The Faye fate has reaffirmed the fact that liberal democracy is working in Africa. Moves by the incumbent government of Macky Sall to postpone the presidential elections, which were widely interpreted as a ploy to gift himself an unconstitutional third term in office, were vehemently opposed at high personal and social costs. Graciously, the opposition got the support of the judiciary, and, as AP News described him, “a previously little-known” Faye defeated the ruling coalition candidate, Amadou Ba, who was the country’s Prime Minister until 6 March, 2024. Ba called Faye, conceded defeat and congratulated him, even before the results were officially declared.

    Now, would Senegalese get the premium good governance for which they have struggled so much and risked life and limb? Time will tell. Meanwhile, fare fair, Faye.

  • Energy Subsidy: Nigeria is exception within civilised world

    Energy Subsidy: Nigeria is exception within civilised world

    As president Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appealed to Nigerians not to talk ill of our country and, truth be told, nothing can be more unpatriotic, even nauseating, than a Nigerian disparaging Nigeria because, as Major – General Mohammadu Buhari once put it, we have no other country to call our own  adding, in fact, that “we shall all remain here and salvage it together”.

    For that reason, not one word in this piece will portray Nigeria  negatively.

     All I’ll be

     doing here is bring to the Federal government’s attention, the fact that her policy on energy subsidy is the very opposite of what obtains in developed countries which we are, forever, trying to copy, as well as suggest some ways out of our perennial problems which have actually transmogrified to a conumdrum.

    Therefore, since Nigeria is not in outer space, but on terra firma, it will be good if our government will tell us why her policy on power subsidy is not in tandem with what obtains in those countries which  dominate, and control, the Bretton woods institutions – the World Bank and the IMF – whose dictates they obey to the letter even when it means doing things

    which their home countries would dare not try.

    These  institutions that come to terrorise  governments in the Third world, Nigeria in particular, know only too well that they do not mean well for us.

    Whereas some Nigerians – they call them Band A – customers, have just had inflicted on them a power bill increment from N66 to N225 kilowatt per hour – an absolutely  unkind, very astronomical, over 300 per cent increase, all because IMF frowns at subsidies on anything, whatever, in the Third world, education inclusive, hereunder is what obtains in the developed countries – thanks to a trending WhatsApp post which will be treated mutatis mutandis.

    Good enough,  Power Minister, Bayo Adelabu, has now apologised to the suffering Nigerian masses about his gaffe on fridges and freezers which he probably thinks we should not even  operate at all. We must thank God for small mercies.

    Happy reading.

    “Energy subsidies jumped to $15.6 billion in fiscal year 2022 from $7.4 billion in 2016 in the United States of America. Subsidy was  highest in China at  USD 2.2 trillion in 2020. On June 8, 2023, the U. K government  reported that it has paid about 40 billion pounds in energy subsidy since it began assisting households and businesses to cope with the surge in power bills consequent upon the Russian invasion of Ukraine on July 8, 2023. Italy is not lagging far behind as it approved a $5.4 billion package to soften energy costs on March 28, 2023.

    According to the 2nd May, 2019 IMF report,  Canada paid US$43 billion in 2015 in post-tax energy subsidies;  representing 2.9 percent of her GDP –  an expenditure of US$1,191 per capita.

    Indeed, all the 7 most advanced economies of the world, that is, the G7 – subsidise electricity in their various countries”.

    If Nigeria removes energy subsidy, the few remaining factories will certainly collapse, and the rise in crime will be absolutely unimaginable. Whatever  money government may think it is saving from subsidy removal will, certainly, not be enough to handle the consequent increase in the level of insecurity, something Nigeria has been battling with now for well over a decade, without success.

    So even though the Power minister  brandished a N350B subsidy which he said was carried over from 2023, that will pale into insignifance compared to the complete mayhem that could engulf the entire country as a result. You can mentally add the human suffering, given the rising cost of living in the country.

    Countries all over the world, India,  Egypt etc, all  subsidise energy”. Indeed, in May 2023,

    the German Economy and Climate Protection Minister, Robert Habeck, announced

    plans to earmark about 4 billion euros ($4.40 billion) annually, to subsidise electricity prices for energy-intensive industries to support an industrial move away from fossil fuels, as well as, discourage firms from moving offshore.

    “How come then that the Nigerian case is  different when it is not the fault of the poor Nigerian masses that almost all government departments and agencies are owing the electricity companies huge bills? Why increase the poor man’s yoke?”

    Yes, granted that the recent increase is on Band A alone, with about 1.5 million customers affected, according to the minister, who can deny the ripple effect  on the poor, many of who are bound to lose their jobs as these customers are the hens yielding the golden eggs?

    “Between 2020 and 2021, the government of South Africa, here on the African continent, spent $10.4bn subsidising electricity, from fossil fuel, to hydropower etc”.

    “The countries subsidising power are not unwise, they do so to protect the local industries which produce the goods they export to us here in Nigeria, thus

    rendering our own industries idle, and further decreasing the value of the Naira; the very opposite of what a government should do to protect, and promote productivity for domestic consumption and export”.

    What the Nigerian Government should do.

    Rather than removing subsidy, government should first address the reasons it is having to subsidise  energy at at all.

    The most fundamental of the reasons is the massive disparity in the management of payment  for power consumption in Northern Nigeria and the South.

    Below are some of the problems which those familiar with, and are knowledgeable about the industry have identified and these are the things government must first endeavour to solve:

    1.Against all economic rationality, the North insisted on National Grids that prioritise distribution to the North on the basis of Population and National character, rather than on demand and ability to consume, and pay, for such power; which ability, as clear as day, is not available there.

    Read Also: Electricity subsidy removal, a peculiar mess

    2. The North, they conclude,  do not pay electricity bills resulting on the South, especially the SouthWest, having  to bear the burden of recouping costs by the electricity companies; allegedly why the companies are reluctant to install meters in the SouthWest.

    3. When a Willing Buyer Willing Seller solution, allowing independent power suppliers to grow and provide power through micro grids was proposed, it was alleged that the North got angry, claiming it was aimed at destroying the North.

    Even when the Distribution companies negotiated special power supplies with industries at a higher rate, but guaranteed supplies, the North still got these agreements  canceled.

    4. Investors, it was reported, know  that power supply in Nigeria is unworkable because if you Invest in generating so much power, which you could sell locally, but are forced to sell into the Grid that is unable to accommodate the products, who then pays for the unsellable power?

    After all, they argue,  you cannot store power after you have produced it. It is a sell or lose it business.

    All efforts to correct these anomalies during the Mohammadu Buhari administration were reportedly frustrated through the auspices of the Villa Mafia.

     Special advantages like this to the North, is one of the main reasons restructuring Nigeria has been impossible.

    But I believe that if any government could do it, it is the President Tinubu- led government.

    Why?

    This is because President Tinubu is astute, even- handed,

     rational, fair minded and will, certainly, not sign on to any inequality.

    I sincerely believe that unlike many who believe that whatever advantages the North has been enjoying hitherto should be summarily yanked off, at restructuring, Tinubu as a result of his wide  network, and friendships, which connect him intimately to every nook and cranny of the country, will  appreciate very clearly, why restructuring Nigeria must, willy nilly, be a win – win affair. More than any other politician, he can also be trusted across board.

     From his wide experience, he would know that to do otherwise, and go out intending to hurt the North, would only tantamount to making the mistakes of the  Treaty of Versailles whose inherent inequities were the building blocks of Hitler’s subsequent escapades, especially World War 11, which resulted in the death of some 75 million people, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians.

    Many civilians also died as a result of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation.

    Restructuring, while it may not be a cure – all for all of Nigeria’s problems, will put her on an even keel, and recalibrate it, once again, towards the competitive democracy of  immediate post independent Nigeria.

    It is the way to go; if not now, as soon as PBAT defeats the immediate security and economic problems.

    PS

    To show that I am not merely assuming my positions about PBAT, I shall, by the grace of God next Sunday, get published again, my article of 25 March, 2012 on him.

    It was captioned:The Contemporary Non – Pareil at 60.

    That is 11 years before he became a resident of the Presidential Villa.

  • Class formation

    Class formation

    Virtually every literate person knows or should know that in the autumn of the year 1066 of the Christian calendar, William better known to the world as William the Conqueror but also as William the Bastard, as he was born out of wedlock, backed by his followers in more than two hundred ships, crossed the English Channel from Normandy in Northern France.

    William and his men did not come on a joy ride nor were they in England on a picnic. They had come to wrest the English crown from Harold who at the time was regarded by many as the legitimate king of England. William the Conqueror had come across the Channel because he disagreed with the consensus concerning the legitimacy of Harold’s hold on the throne of England. According to William, the former king, Edward the Confessor, his uncle who had died without producing a heir had promised him the crown. On this basis, he was convinced that his own claims to the throne were not only legitimate but were superior to those of Harold. A polite request that the status quo be resolved in favour of William was no less politely rejected by Harold leading to the launching of those ships bringing William and his troops to settle matters violently.

    At that time Harold’s cup was full to overflowing with trouble as he had to take his army to the North East of England to confront a Viking army which had come to  relieve him of his crown. The two armies clashed at what has come to be known as the battle of Stanford Bridge, a battle which Harold won and by doing so, brought the centuries old confrontation with the Vikings who raided the coasts of England from time to time, to an end.

    Before going further with the story of William the Conqueror or the Bastard, it is useful to look at the antecedents of his people, the Normans. Originally, they were Vikings, bands of vicious raiders who arrived on the shores of European settlements in Britain, France and adjoining countries raping, pillaging, and spreading terror all round. Such was the fear they struck all over their hunting grounds that the Roman Catholic Church offered special prayers to God beseeching him to save them from the fury of the Norsemen who blew in from the North sea, not to settle but to pillage and gather hoards of treasure. They found churches particularly attractive targets for their depredation because they were repositories of gold and silver ornaments and being pagans, the Vikings attached no stigma to stealing all those glittering artefacts from unguarded churches. Eventually however after centuries of catching fun at the expense of Christians, they went through the pain of conversion to Christianity themselves and became domesticated. Consequently, they began to settle down in parts of their former stomping grounds which is how a large group of them was able to force the king of France to cede part of his kingdom to them. This is how the duchy of Normandy was created a little over a century before the attention of William was turned on England only a few miles off the coast of Normandy. Thus it was that Harold was assailed at the same time by different groups of Vikings and former Vikings from the north and south of his kingdom respectively. On this occasion, he saw off the invaders from the north and immediately wheeled his army around to face his adversaries closing in on his kingdom from the south. The two armies clashed in what has come to be known as the battle of Hastings, an encounter that proved to be a bridge too far for Harold. Towards evening, as the closely fought battle began to swing in favour of the invaders, an arrow pierced Harold’s eye and killed him instantly. Following his death his army disintegrated around their positions and the battle was lost. England fell to the Normans and William the Conqueror also known as the Bastard , grand father of the reigning king of England twenty six times removed was crowned king of England.

    William’s claim to the throne of England was supported by a band of nobles who came on that adventure with him. It stood to reason that all of them were entitled to fair shares in the booty that was England after their comprehensive victory at Hastings. Consequently, all the land in the kingdom was distributed among these nobles, all of them moving in smartly to take over the lands allotted to them. Everything on those lands and below ground now belonged to them. They went ahead to build formidable castles, stuffed them with soldiers and laid down the law in their respective domains. Their law had jurisdiction within their domain and that of the king dubbed the Common law held sway throughout the kingdom. There were only a few dozen of these nobles and each of them had very sizeable portions of land but none of them had enough power to threaten the power and awesome majesty of the king. However, acting together, they could form a formidable opposition to the king when their collective interest clashed with his. This is why they were able to force the king to sign the Magna Carta, the famous document which curbed some of his power in 1215. Today, the Magna Carta is erroneously hailed as victory by the common man over kingly privilege and tyranny. Nothing could be further from the truth as the concessions squeezed out from the king were restricted to the pleasure of the dukes to the total exclusion of the common people who lived under the suffocating shadow of the nobles. It has to be said however that many years down the line the breath of fresh air which the Magna Carta generated wafted down ever so gently to the oppressed commoners and brought a little relief from their drudgery but, it has to be said that any such relief was minimal. The life of the common man in England continued to be circumscribed by the whims and caprices of their rulers right until recent times.

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    Each of the nobles had a dukedom which was passed down to their respective descendants who today are still deriving a great deal of wealth from their inheritance and together, form the ruling class in England, many of them retaining the French names they brought with them from Normandy. Their enormous wealth is not derived from any form of work but from the rent they collect and have collected over close to one thousand years and will collect for another thousand years. The wealth they have is for them to spend whichever way catches their fancy. More than anything else, their wealth confers on them a level of amorality, the consequences of which is far beyond the comprehension of those who do not belong to their class. They have blue blood in their veins and stand above the common herd in the way that the sky stands above the earth.

    England was not empty when the Normans arrived but for the influence that the former inhabitants exerted on the kingdom thereafter, they might just be regarded as having been absent. They were only useful to the kingdom as tillers of the soil and hewers of wood. The Normans created and maintained an apartheid system every bit as brutal if not more so, as anything the Boers practised in South Africa several centuries later. They were reduced to the status of serfs whose daily life was as circumscribed as that of any slave on a cotton plantation in the Civil War period in Alabama. For five hundred years the language of the English court and nobility was French and today, there are at least two words for anything in the English language, one of them derived from French and the other from an Anglo-Saxon word, not to talk of words borrowed or stolen from Latin, Greek and other languages. And right there you  have an explanation for the word density and beauty of the English language. After all,  every cloud however dark has a silver lining no matter how thin it is.

    On the opposite end of the English social register are members of the working class. These are the direct descendants of the serfs who served the ruling class in the capacity of workers on the manors many hundred years before. Their descendants still carry the names which described their roles on manorial grounds; Fletcher, Thatcher, Cook, Smith, Hunter, Bowyer, Taylor, Baker, Fowler, Cooper, Miller, Milner and of course many more are all examples of roles played by their ancestors who served the nobles ensconced in their castles with enforced diligence over many generations. Passing through successive generations of servitude has bred an endearing docility in the English working class who like their ancestors offer nothing other than the labour of their hands. They had little more than the most elementary possessions to call theirs and even the little they had was at the pleasure of the lord at his ease in his impregnable castle, waited upon hand and foot by a large retinue of servants each of them bred to provide service to their lord.

    Apart from anything else, they were used to taking orders and because of this they made good, obedient soldiers who were used against members of their class who entertained any notion of rebelling against their lord and master. They were also used in many wars abroad, principally against their nearest neighbours, the French. They were therefore used in the service of the ruling class at home and abroad and they performed these tasks faithfully and for little reward.

    ●To be continued.

  • Air Peace

    Air Peace

    It’s Nigeria’s duty to ensure a deserved air of peace for this airline. It cannot survive the present aeropolitics all alone.

    Even if all the airlines on the Nigeria-U.K route lower their fares below the present rock-bottom now, it does not detract from the fact that Air Peace is the reason. The fact speaks for itself. Before the commencement of the airline’s Lagos-London route on March 30, foreign airlines dominated the highly lucrative route. Of course, this also gave them the opportunity to exploit Nigerian travellers that were made to pay the highest fares in the region, while air travellers in neighbouring countries like Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic paid very low fares

    These exorbitant fares peaked after about $800 million of their proceeds was trapped in the country. Mercifully, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has paid up these trapped proceeds, or at least a substantial part of it.

    Before March 30, the two British flag carriers, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic were charging between N13-N15 million and N3-N5 million for business and economy class tickets, respectively, for the route. Nigerian air travellers suffered the same fate in the hands of other foreign carriers like KLM/Air France, Air Maroc, Delta Airlines, Lufthansa and even Ethiopian Airlines.

    The implication of the financial pressure that the exorbitant fares inflicted on Nigerian travellers became so unbearable that many of them were forced to suspend international trips while some, like students, looked in the direction of our neighbouring countries where relatively lower fares obtained.

    It is instructive to note that before these astronomical air fares, economy class tickets on the Nigeria-UK route was between N400,000 and N650,000, depending on the booking period, while business class was between N800,000 and N1.2 million.

    However, these exorbitant ‘gang-up’ fares fell like a pack of cards the moment Air Peace joined the Lagos-London route. The airline’s announcement of N4 million and N1.2 million for business and economy classes on the route, respectively, was the game changer. It confirmed the belief that Nigerian air travellers were simply being exploited by these foreign airlines. In addition to this was a 15 per cent rebate that Air Peace granted Nigerian students abroad. Most of them had hitherto been scared stiff of travelling back home because of the high fares.

     The reduction in fares on the Lagos-London route by Air Peace made its maiden flight to Gatwick Airport fully booked, as Nigerians could not believe that such fare reduction was possible.

    But no sooner had Air Peace taken this obviously patriotic step to meet the aspirations of many Nigerian air travellers than the other airlines began to slash their fares. Air France, for instance, asked passengers to book between May 15 and June for economy class on the Lagos-London route with N907,782 as against the more than N2 million it was hitherto charging. Ditto British Airways that slashed its fares on the Abuja-London Heathrow from over N3 million to N1,394,536 for economy class. Virgin Atlantic also slashed its fares on the Lagos to London route from N2,353,200 to N980,654 for economy class. Virtually all of these fares, except that of British Airways, are lower than the N1.2 million that Air Peace charges.

    But this development that saw the foreign airlines have their fares slashed twice within a month should naturally give not only Air Peace but the Federal Government and every patriotic Nigerian some concern.

    Although one must factor in the value of the Naira that has been rising in the last three weeks or so; that alone cannot justify what is happening with regard to these air fares. There is no doubt that if Air Peace had not come with lower fares, the foreign airlines would have on their own decided to be so magnanimous to slash their fares the way they have done. At any rate, they do not have any reason to, after all they are business entities operating in Nigeria solely for profit motive. But we should understand that they will operate in our country the way we want them to. If we want them to obey our laws, they will comply, and if we give them the latitude to operate as they wish, they will do likewise.

    This is where I feel sufficiently concerned.

    Air Peace has been shouting loud

    and clear that although these fare reductions were primarily aimed at it, they would ultimately hurt Nigeria. The airline’s chairman and chief executive officer, Allen Onyema, said “If they take out Air Peace prematurely, this country will pay dearly for it 10 times over, billions will be lost, there will be another heavy strain on the naira.” He added that It’s a very devilish conspiracy”.

     “All of a sudden, (foreign) airlines are underpricing, below the cost, it’s not up to one month, an airline was advertising $100, another one $305, $350. Fill up the entire aircraft and carry people on the wings, it’s not even enough to buy your fuel. So, why are they doing that? Their governments are supporting them because Nigeria has been a cash cow for everybody.”

    Read Also: Air Peace’s entry sparks airfare war on Lagos-London route

    The Federal Government must be interested in this allegation that is grave, if true; especially as it may seem harmless to the uninitiated about the aviation sector who may assume that competition is always positive. I hear even the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) frowns at certain rock-bottom fares in the sector. It would be nice if the Federal Government follows up on the matter as it promised. And it must ensure that only credible persons represent Nigeria at any forum the matter is tabled if it must get to that. We cannot leave the matter in the hands of the same officials who had been silent over the years despite the imbalance in the Bilateral Air Service Agreement( BASA) between

    Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

    I am particularly worried because Air Peace is not the first Nigerian airline to fly Lagos to London. Before the airline’s maiden flight on March 30, some local airlines had travelled that route with varying degrees of success. But they no longer do. These included Virgin Nigeria which started the route with only an Airbus A340-300 aircraft on June 28, 2005. Four years later, it terminated operations. Arik Air soon followed on December 15, 2008 with an Airbus A340-500 aircraft wet-leased from Hi Fly. It eventually stopped, under the receivership of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, following financial challenges.

     Med-View Airline became the last indigenous carrier to operate on the route in 2017.

    That means it is only the foreign airlines that have been reaping from this lucrative route in the last seven years. How come? Is this the result of their competence, better customer relations, the type and quality of their aircraft, services, etc. or what? We need to find out that they did not unfairly muzzle out the Nigerian airlines from the Lagos-London route the way Air Peace is crying they want to suffocate it.

    One must feel sufficiently concerned given, for instance, the experience of Air Peace, even in securing approval for Gatwick Airport. Onyema, said negotiations for  the route had been a long process and he had initially negotiated for any of London’s prime airports like Heathrow 2, 3, 4 or 5. It was when all of these failed that he had to accept the Gatwick Airport option.

    Even after that, it took almost two weeks for Gatwick Airport to officially welcome Air Peace. It is however heartwarming that the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, although welcomed the belated welcome, he made it clear to them that this ought to have come earlier.

    All of these may be a pointer to what Air Peace may eventually be encountering on that route, with time. But it should not be discouraged. Just as the Federal Government must be ready to support it even if it means applying the principle of reciprocity as may be permitted under best practices in the aviation sector.

    As Sindy Foster, principal managing partner at Avaero Capital Partners, reportedly told ‘Vanguard’ after Air Peace’s maiden flight, it was long overdue for a Nigerian airline to operate in the London route. “The Bilateral Air Service Agreement, BASA, between UK and Nigeria has been lopsided for too long. This isn’t just beneficial to the aviation industry, the reduction in fares, by increased capacity and competition, is beneficial for passengers. A Nigerian airline flying this route will also be beneficial for the Nigerian economy.” It keeps the money within unlike the foreign airlines that must repatriate their profits.

    However, one of the things we must have learnt from these significant air fare reductions is that sometimes this thing is not always about demand and supply. It is not just about economics. Other extraneous considerations sometimes come into play and displace economic considerations. The exorbitant fares that Nigerians paid for this lucrative route, one of the busiest in the world, before Air Peace pulled the wool off our eyes was just sheer exploitation that the supervisory agencies in Nigeria were, unfortunately, either ignorantly oblivious of, or simply chose to be blind to.

    Unfortunately, when some of us say that yes, the Naira may be troubled, it is not to the extent that we see in

    certain sectors of the economy, some Bretton Woods economists try to make it look like we don’t know what we are saying.   

    All said, what Air Peace needs now is encouragement. However, as Foster said: “Service is a product differentiator, and a high level of service, both inflight service and across operational services, are highly regarded by passengers. Air Peace has entered into a very competitive market and it would need to operate to an international standard in every aspect of its operations, it requires an elevation of standards.”

    Air Peace must also realise that international routes are more competitive and there is no room for laxity. The airline must be ready to demonstrate its typical Nigerian hospitality to differentiate it from others.

    Keyamo also spoke of wet-leasing of aircraft that many airlines are benefitting from but which Nigeria cannot due to past abuses. The Federal Government must do the needful to make Nigeria airlines benefit from such initiative. Air Peace has paid its dues, using its substance to bail out the country in times of trouble. Its present travails in the hands of hawks in the aviation sector should be payback time.

    With a lucrative route like Nigeria -U.K., we should not be timid in lawfully promoting and protecting our own. Everybody else does the same, and understandably so. The aviation sector is a trillion dollar economy that represents 3.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) worldwide (2.7 trillion US dollars); it has created 65 million jobs globally.

  • Putin’s irrational power politics

    Putin’s irrational power politics

    It has been more than two years since Russian president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in order to achieve the goal of Greater Russia. Helped by Western powers, Ukraine has beaten back the invasion and largely stalemated the war. Its chances of holding out indefinitely, in the absence of a negotiated settlement, are, however, farfetched. It was in the midst of this increasingly interminable war that Mr Putin has orchestrated a fifth electoral landslide against his mimic opponents. He will be in office for another six years, his health and safety permitting. By standing for this election and leaving nothing to chance, the Russian president has clearly indicated that he is unwilling to leave office alive. Mr Putin will be 77 by the next election, much younger than the United States president Joe Biden who, should he win the November poll, will be 85 at the end of his second term.

    Read Also: Putin, the angry man of Europe’

    No one knows exactly how the Russo-Ukrainian war will end. Should military assistance from the US resume, the end of the war may still be some way off. If not, it could end quicker than many people fear. But whether Russia wins or not, Russo-Ukrainian relations have been damaged severely. However, every rational interpretation of the war suggests that it is a vain, rather than strategic, war for Russia. Should it win, it will nevertheless be unable to keep the trophy for too long. Occupation will be costly, not only in the short term, but also in the long term. Victory will also not deter NATO, as Mr Putin expects. Five or six of its neighbours are NATO members, and some three more are pro-West. It cannot conceivably fight and conquer them all.

  • Senegal, Singapore: continuous belittling of Nigeria

    Senegal, Singapore: continuous belittling of Nigeria

    Senegal has a population of a little over 18 million people, and Singapore about six million. These very modest population figures have not deterred some Nigerians from deprecating their country of about 220 million people in light of those two countries. Senegal never came under military rule since becoming independent in August 1960 after dissolving its union with Mali (French Sudan), but it has had little to show for decades of independence other than a fairly stable democracy severely tested in the past two decades. Singapore, which is at once a city, capital and state, has been a phenomenal economic, social and political success. But it remains geographically small and demographically compact. If it must be compared with Nigeria, such comparisons must be guarded. For decades, many Nigerian social and political commentators have belittled Nigeria in terms of the Singaporean experience. Now they are also deploring Nigeria‘s democracy in terms of some perhaps transient Senegalese success.

    Senegal’s stable but sometimes troubled democracy must be lauded. But two things about Senegal should restrain Nigeria’s exuberant commentators who specialise in comparing generally unlike terms. Firstly, despite having a modest population, more than double that of Israel, Senegal’s economy has underperformed compared to Nigeria’s. According to 2023 estimates, Senegal has a nominal GDP of a little over $31bn and per capita of $1,714, compared with Nigeria’s nominal GDP of $390bn and per capita of $1,755. Secondly, despite Nigerian democracy being repeatedly truncated by inept military rulers, the country has stabilised in the past 25 years, and looks set to consolidate democratic rule. Senegal may have a unicameral legislature and run a parliamentary system, which some revisionists believe is superior to the presidential system, nothing suggests that recent political developments and appointments would give Senegal the upper hand, let alone confer greater stability upon it.

    Though Nigeria needed a coalition of political parties to win the 2015 presidential election, and losers in the 2023 presidential election are contemplating the same formula, Senegal with its presumed superiority in political development, has also thrice needed coalitions both to win elections and reelections as well as govern. Exuberant Nigerian analysts whoop over the new Senegalese president’s youthful age – Bassirou Diamaye Faye is 44 years old – but he was fairly unknown and untested, compared to his mentor whom he has appointed as prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, 49. Mr Sonko placed third in the 2019 presidential election and is well known. Mentoring each other and forming a coalition to win an election are a different kettle of fish from governing harmoniously. With Mr Sonko more tested and more charismatic, there are no guarantees that the relationship between the two would be stable and progressive in the face of dire and continuing economic hardship, especially with Mr Faye gently walking back his fiery speech and position on Senegal’s financial links with France.

    Initial appearance may be deceptive, and Mr Faye may eventually become a revelation, but for now no one can determine conclusively that both the president and his prime minister would go the long haul if the economy proves unamenable to every known panacea and the president needs a scapegoat. Mr Sonko put Mr Faye forward for the presidential election and backed him with all the powers of the coalition, but the months and years ahead will show how wise that arrangement has been and whether the cooperation between the two would not turn out to be contrapuntal. Singapore and Nigeria do not suffer the inhibitions of two heavyweights sharing office, and their political systems, parliamentary and presidential respectively, are not circumscribed by any expedient agreements or even coalitions. Indeed, Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) governs with lesser parliamentary majority than it did decades ago (about 61 percent winning tally in the 2020 election to nearly 90 percent in 1968), while Nigeria’s winning tally managed to cross the 50 percent level in the last presidential poll; but the former’s economy and to some extent its politics and military, unlike the latter’s, are inextricably and dangerously intertwined with the West.

    There is so much to be said for Nigeria, despite its chequered history. It may not have risen to the greatness and independence of say China, but it has the potential to rise phenomenally under certain conditions far much quicker and steadier and more durable than both Senegal and Singapore. At least, with high absorptive capacity and transformative review of trade policies and regulations, Nigeria retains the capacity to expand far more broadly than Singapore. Even discounting the monarchical undertones of Lee Hsieng Loong’s emergence as Singapore’s prime minister in 2004 at the age of 52 (he is the son of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew), he was like Mr Faye at 44 and Mr Sonko at 49, a young leader when he took office. Mr Loong is now 72 years old, and continues to preside fairly efficiently over the affairs of Singapore. For Nigeria’s fawning commentators to arbitrarily deploy age as a factor of governance or of winning elections is both dishonest and irrational. 

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    Analysts who continue to deprecate Nigeria are invariably endorsing sentiments, poor understanding of political science, and wild generalisations of international relations. Nigeria may be assailed by many demons, but it is unhelpful to view its prospects in terms of the neatly compartmentalised understanding of other countries, many of them far smaller geographically and demographically. Two major problems dog Nigeria, thus limiting and even stultifying its development and stability. One is its inability to devise the right political structure that should help undergird its stability and growth; and two is the related influence of a ponderous and toxic mix of ethnicity and religion. These limiting factors are not unassailable. Singapore’s storied secularism demonstrates why those negative factors can be defeated, and Senegal’s generally disciplined approach to ethnicity demonstrates why Nigeria, if it tries harder, can overcome its limitations.

  • Ondo APC primary and Aiyedatiwa’s battles

    Ondo APC primary and Aiyedatiwa’s battles

    Despite the turmoil in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, the ruling party appears poised to retain the State House in Akure. This is not surprising. Ruling parties are extremely difficult to beat, whether they are wracked by splits or weakened by ineptitude. Ondo State may again prove to be the archetype of that peculiarly dissonant kind of politics that disregards the internal combustion and failings of the ruling party. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state has strangely been jinxed, unable to summon the vigour and tenacity needed to take advantage of the APC’s turbulence and weaknesses, but the ruling party has been even more unsettled as a result of the conflict that followed the sickness and passing of their former governor Rotimi Akeredolu. Both parties are unworthy of the state, but the public will focus more on the APC, believing, perhaps superstitiously, that whoever takes the governorship ticket next weekend will win the November governorship poll. They are right, except something truly seismic occurs. But in Nigeria, whose political tectonics are fairly stable, seismic activities seldom occur, not even when a daring coalition inspired by APC dreamers and upstarts demolished the complacency of the PDP in 2015. 

    Ondo is on the horns of a dilemma. Whatever happens in the APC primary, even if the most hated aspirant should take the ticket, they will eventually rally round their hypothetical devil rather than enable the Teflon saints of the PDP to snatch the throne. The PDP fears this sombre inevitability of APC winning despite the madness coursing through the ranks of the ruling party, and APC leaders, nearly always complacent, appear to love and embrace the fact that PDP and APC infantrymen have resigned themselves to this unwholesome possibility. While the PDP has been fairly somnolent in the struggle for the ticket between former deputy governor Agboola Ajayi and Eyitayo Jegede, the APC has spewed molten magma of hate and abuse and ladled them on every passerby. As the countdown to the primaries begins, all attention is, therefore, riveted on the APC, which indigenes expect will shape for good or bad the destiny of the state for the next four years.

    There are predictably more than a dozen contestants on the APC platform. The APC is not only ruling Ondo, it is also ruling the nation. The factors of incumbencies are thus expected to be unleashed in all their fury. But of the squabbling lot, three or four contestants stand any reasonable chance of taking the APC diadem. Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, yes the same vacillating, impulsive and controversial politician, leads the pack. Hard on his heels is Jimoh Ibrahim, the mercurial businessman besotted to a string of degrees from great institutions. Then coming in their wake are the lesser-known aspirants like former Finance commissioner in the state, Wale Akinterinwa, and serial contender Olusola Oke, a lawyer and senior advocate. By sheer heft and purse, the race will likely be a two-horse fight between the governor and the garlanded Mr Ibrahim. Whoever wins between the two, or even among the four, will doubtless receive total support. It is thus a waste of time trying to determine who will win. It is far better to talk about who should not win.

    Both Mr Akinterinwa and Mr Oke, by their temperaments and sturdiness over the years, will make far better governors than Mr Aiyedatiwa or Mr Ibrahim. But regardless of what they do or say, and notwithstanding their amiableness and capacity, their chances are not very bright. Since he became governor, and some say even way before, Mr Aiyedatiwa has schemed for the November poll. He is thus the frontrunner, in far more advantageous position than the more resolute and relentless Mr Ibrahim. As governor, he has virtually neutralised or compromised the opposition to his assuming office. Nearly all Ondo office holders are working for him, and a sizable number of lawmakers who felt revolted by his audacious scheming have reconciled themselves to his aspiration. Mr Aiyedatiwa has retained in his cabinet nearly all the officials he inherited from the late Mr Akeredolu; their fate is now tied to his success, firstly in the party, and secondly and most implacably in the governorship poll. They may not like him, and continue to squirm over the manner he treated his benefactor, but their interests have now become coterminous with the governor’s. Convergence of interests has a way of concentrating minds and amplifying ambitions. The inherited officials are not immune to the blandishments of the governor or the perks of office and, as incurable optimists, are unconcerned about whether the governor will honour his word after the poll. Mr Aiyedatiwa’s private morality is perhaps as controversial as his public morality, but the inherited officials will give him the benefit of the doubt. He might very well be a saint.

    Read Also: Ondo guber: APC screens Aiyedatiwa, Ibrahim, others

    It is not impossible for Mr Ibrahim to win the primary. But that will depend on two major factors: whether he is willing to outspend the governor; or whether the APC members are sufficiently horrified by the unflattering behaviour of the governor towards his previously bedfast benefactor. The two variables are impossible to measure accurately. Unfortunately for the state, while Mr Ibrahim, should he win, will be a pig in a poke, the governor has shown little mettle and more aversion to principles. Would APC voters risk Mr Ibrahim’s behavioural unknowns or endure four years of Mr Aiyedatiwa’s dreadful judgement? No one but the APC members can tell. So, in short, Ondo APC will ruefully cast glances in the direction of Messrs Akinterinwa and Oke, but wave them away. Circumstances will make them to grimace as they weigh the governor and Mr Ibrahim on a faulty scale which poor health and death had forced Mr Akeredolu to pass on. For all his lawyerly leadership, Mr Akeredolu died intestate as far as the politics of Ondo is concerned.

    It is not clear why Ondo has been repeatedly blind to Mr Oke’s huge talent; nor does anyone but Mr Akinterinwa know about his being the late governor’s legatee, as he claimed. But both politicians occupy the lower rungs in the people’s estimation. There is, however, one thing Ondo cannot pretend not to know: Mr Aiyedatiwa’s brittle personality and poor judgement. The APC members may discount his lack of finesse and judgement, but they cannot say their connivance would not cost them dearly. If they were made of sterner stuff than the rest of the Nigerian electorate, they would repudiate the governor with all their might and all their being, and opt for a safer and more predictable future for their state. Former Rivers governor Nyesom Wike bemoans the duplicity of his successor Siminalayi Fubara, deploring the latter’s lack of gratitude. In Ondo, while the hapless Mr Akeredolu pined away on sick bed, Mr Aiyedatiwa exhibited a part of him to the world which discomfited the entire state, including the opposition, and left the ruling party truly flummoxed. Had he behaved most inspiringly, observing due political etiquette in all its grand ramifications, he would have made his election both at the primary and governorship levels a fait accompli. Should Ondo APC endorse him this weekend after all of him has been exposed in disquieting colours, the party will not get a second chance to deplore his fecklessness or show their aversion to his vulgarity.  

  • Students loan at last

    Students loan at last

    Tinubu replaces the ladder that wicked govt officials removed to deny the poor of educational opportunities

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on April 3 signed an executive bill titled “A Bill for an Act to repeal the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023 and Enact the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Bill, 2024 to Establish the Nigerian Education Loan Fund as a body corporate to receive, manage and invest funds to provide loans to Nigerians for higher education, vocational training and skills acquisition and for related matters”.

    The President struck the appropriate chord at the occasion when he said that

    “This is to ensure that no one, no matter how poor their background is, is excluded from quality education and opportunity to build their future.” The ceremony took place at the State House, Abuja.

    Under the Students Loan Fund, interest-free loans would be given to eligible Nigerians for higher education.

    Ordinarily, this should not be news, not to talk of attracting the kind of attention that the occasion got in the media. In saner climes, students loan is routine. But this is Nigeria where governments either do not know their raison d’etre or simply do not care. They therefore leave undone those things that they should do and focus on things that they otherwise should have left undone.

    It is against this sickening background that President Tinubu signing the students loan bill becomes significant, if not historic. 

    Nigeria’s first attempt at such a facility was in 1972 when the Nigerian Students Loans Board was established. The board reportedly provided loans of about N46 million between 1973 and 1991 to help Nigerian students finance their university education, either in the country or abroad. Unfortunately the rate of loan recovery was low and this apparently killed the otherwise laudable scheme.

    But it needed not be so. Just that governments in this part of the world are characteristically lazy and corrupt. What needed to be done was to examine the template of the scheme to see the loopholes and plug them. Nigerians are not necessarily worse than most other nationals when it comes to loan repayment. The problem is that, unlike other nations, Nigeria does not have the necessary data with which to monitor loan defaulters.

    Until very recently, the country’s attempt at providing Nigerians with National Identity Number (NIN) had continually failed. This would have solved a lot of identity problems.

     Since the death of the 1972 loan scheme, I do not think there has been any genuine attempt at revamping the scheme until now.

    Therefore, we must commend the Tinubu administration for being this thoughtful. The idea of students loan was one of his campaign promises and it is praiseworthy that he is working assiduously toward making it a reality.

    The scheme would have taken off since last year but had to be postponed to fine-tune it in line with present realities and make its impact better felt by the beneficiaries and the country.

    Even in Nigeria’s golden era, there were different sources for students to get money and therefore have hitch-free academic pursuits. Some had both scholarships and loans, some had more than one scholarship, etc.

    I guess what many of us grew up to know were bursary awards that some state governments used to give to augment the resources of their students in tertiary institutions. At the University of Lagos where I graduated, students looked forward to their bursaries and everybody around knew that money was not the problem of the students but how to spend it when they had collected the bursaries. I never got bursary but that was by choice.

    But if ever there is a time that students need assistance to further their studies in Nigeria, it is now. What with the skyrocketing cost of living that has made things difficult for most people. Even the nouveau riche are also groaning under the present economic stress.

    Whenever I see what many of our university students are going through these days, I pity them because, even if my generation did not have the best of life in our university days, it was not completely bad. We still had something to write home about. One, we still looked forward to decent meals in our cafeterias for as cheap as 50 kobo per meal! A month’s meal ticket in the universities then was N45.00 (forty-five naira only!) On Sundays, we had jollof rice (I mean jollof rice, not concoction) and chicken to boot, for lunch. Nobody dared serve you chicken legs or other unworthy parts of the chicken. I was even luckier in my own case as I had already gotten used to that right from my Higher School Certificate days at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo, where I did my ‘Advance Level’ programme. We were always served the same menu on Sundays.

    In other words, some of us still met the remnants of what our seniors enjoyed before the source of those good times dried up. My children and the children of many of my contemporaries always listened with awe whenever we tell these stories. They could never imagine that Nigeria was still talking about kobo as legal tender as recently as the late 1980s. Today, we do not even know what the kobo looks like because it cannot buy sweets or biscuits for babies.

    The wickedness in high places in Nigeria that I am trying to point out is that

    many of those who killed scholarship, bursary and loans to indigent Nigerians had life so easy in their own time in school. But, having got to the top, they removed the ladder, thereby denying others its use. The President alluded to the fact that those of them at the signing ceremony are in their respective positions because they were “helped” to get education: “We are here because we are all educated and were helped…”

     It was that ladder (read help) that Tinubu replaced on April 3.

    Education is the bedrock of development. Many other countries that we were together on the back bench of development a few decades ago have since moved forward and abandoned us to our fate. Our country is perhaps the place where the phrase ;’moving the country forward’ is parroted most in the world; but it has become a cliche because this is not from the heart of hearts of those saying it.

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    We have seen what lack of education can cause with the banditry, terrorism, etc. that we have been dealing with, especially in the northern part of the country. What is painful is that those who mortgaged the future of these youths who have been depriving others of their sleep in the name of culture and religion are still roaming the streets free, enjoying their ill-gotten wealth, while the entire country is paying the price of that elite that ate their youths’ future yesterday. This, for me, is the most painful aspect of it all.

    It is however gratifying that some of the states in the north seem to have realised the importance of education and are trying everything possible to encourage their children to go to school. The truth of the matter is that many of these children are brilliant; what they lack are opportunities to pass through the four walls of schools. They should be encouraged to join other parts of the country to take advantage of the students loan scheme.

     One can only imagine what would have been the fate of the numerous educated elites that the defunct Western Region produced if Chief Obafemi Awolowo had not introduced free education in the region. This is the kind of ‘help’ that Tinubu mentioned while signing the document. Yes, many parents in the region were, having known the value of western education, ready to do everything to send their children to school, even far back as that time. Some even sold their property because they knew that a child that was not educated would end up selling whatever property that is bequeathed to him (for peanuts). There is no time I write on this topic that I forget to recall the tribute that one of my seniors in the university, one ‘Perrow’ (not real name), paid to his parents in his final year thesis. He said he would forever be grateful to his parents ‘who gladly embraced poverty to give him Western education’. You may consider it an oxymoron, but that was what many parents literally did in the Western Region about five decades ago. Parents all over the country must buy this idea to lift the country from the abyss to greatness.

    I am happy that the new bill also provides for vocational training and skills development programmes. Not every child can make it to the university and not every child would be interested in tertiary or university education. That some children would not want tertiary education or cannot get it should not deprive them of realising their dreams.

    One other thing that gladdens my heart about this scheme is that it would mop up a lot of money that forms the basis of the humongous stealing in government. It is because there is a lot of idle funds in government coffers that people find it easy to steal in billions what should have been spent to provide services or infrastructure for Nigerians. This cannot be the case in a situation where government literally ‘scavenge’ for funds to finance their programmes and projects.

    Also, the terms and conditions for the loan seem satisfying. At least they addressed a lot of the inadequacies and fears of the earlier bill. For instance, family income threshold is no longer important, likewise guarantor; also, applicants may apply for loans to cover tuition and other fees payable to the school and maintenance allowance payable to the student, among other improvements on the previous iteration.

    But we all know that Nigeria is never bereft of good ideas. The problem has always had to do with implementation. That is my fear even on this loan scheme. I have a feeling that some criminals in the country would be getting ready to corrupt the process. I therefore urge the government to give the managing authority all the desired support to keep its data safe because that would be key to the success of the scheme.

    Moreover, revamping the economy must be the focus of government while security and power supply should also be improved upon. It is when all of these are done that jobs would be available and loan beneficiaries can be able to repay their loans, thus enhancing its revolving nature.