The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Tinubu, academics and professionals

    Tinubu, academics and professionals

    As nations begin to face seemingly intractable, essentially existential challenges, academics and professionals in whom the nations have invested heavily are faced with the moral duty of putting their expertise and experience at the disposable of the leadership of these nations. Nigeria is at present in one of those critical moments and expects nothing less from the country’s academics and professionals. Rather than pre-occupy themselves with whining and producing doomsday prognostications from fertile imagination or even working actively to undermine the nation, one group of academics and professionals asserted their critical stake in Nigeria by rising up to the challenge of critically interrogating and analysing the nation’s problems and proffering pragmatic solutions based on the patriotic vision that this nation can and shall thrive.

    This group, the P-BAT Academics and Professionals, consists of former Members of the Governing Councils of Universities, former and current Vice-Chancellors, Professors and other categories of Lecturers across the academia in Nigeria and the Diaspora, seasoned administrators in the public and private sector, former and serving public office-holders, and professionals of various callings within and outside the country. The group has been organising in-house “Pre-Conferences” and “Mini-Summits” which have produced “Policy Advisories” which have been invaluable to different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) administration.

    On 15 February, 2024 in Abuja, the group, which, out of public view, had been intervening in a number of ways to make the country work better in the interest of all, convened a one-day summit with the theme, “Activating the Policies and Promises in the PBAT Renewed Hope Agenda.” The Renewed Hope Agenda has eight components. According to President Tinubu, in a Statehouse publication of 28 November, 2023, “The Renewed Hope Agenda of my administration is defined by our commitment to unleashing our country’s full economic potential, by focusing on job creation, access to capital for small and large businesses, inclusiveness, the rule of law, and the fight against hunger, poverty and corruption.”

    The task which the P-BAT Academics and Professionals volunteered to embarked upon, with funds raised among themselves, is, in the words of the National Coordinator of the group and Convener of the summit, Professor Yemi Oke of the Faculty of Law at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, “to continue to volunteer in deploying our intellectual and professional advantages to influence and/or ensure the success of the Tinubu Administration … [through] our Clusters in line with the 8-point Renewed Hope Agenda.”  Professor Oke further noted as follows: “At inception, the Group tasked itself with the sole objective of generating critical, intellectual inputs to support [then-candidate] Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to win the Presidential primaries and the general election to become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

    The 8 clusters around which the summit deliberated include agriculture, water resources, applied science and high technology; power, oil and gas, environment, sustainability management and transportation; healthcare, citizens wellbeing and housing; economic development, public finance, trade and investment and foreign trade relations; national security, defence and communication; national orientation, information, youth and sports development, and culture, creative arts and tourism; education and training; and justice, law and order, constitutional reform and public governance.

    Dignitaries at the 15 February, 2024 summit included, among others, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, the Honourable Minister of Budgeting and Economic Planning; Professor Ayo Omotayo, Director-General, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, who was the Keynote Speaker; Professor Tunji Olaopa, the Honourable Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission; Dr. Tope Fasua, the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs in the Vice-President’s Office; Dr. Olajumoke Oduwole, the Special Adviser to the President on Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC); the Chief of Air Staff, represented by Group Captain Duke Daniels; the Inspector-General of Police, represented by Commissioner of Police Ihebom Chukwuma; and the Commandant-General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), represented by Commandant Charles K. Opara.

    Moreover, the Senate President Chief Godswill Akpabio was represented by Chief Femi Odere, the Senior Legislative Aide to the Senate President on Stakeholders’ Engagement and Mobilisation, and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, was represented by Mr. Daniel Akwari, the Special Adviser (Politics) to the Deputy Speaker.  The programme was also given royal affirmation by the presence of Her Imperial Majesty Olori Ambassador (Dr.) Omolola Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi who represented His Imperial Majesty Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, the Ooni of Ife.    

    In his keynote speech, Professor Ayo Omotayo remarked that “the easiest thing to do is to criticise,” and that he was impressed that while others had opted to engage in vexatious criticism, P-BAT Academics and Professionals had decided to own the government and come together to ask, “What can we do to make government succeed?” He further noted that as a country, “we are not bereft of policies. What we are bereft of is policy coordination.” In his view, this lack of policy coordination or “silo-mentality of MDAs” has led to the deleterious trend of different MDAs manifesting mutual distrust and engaging in “unnecessary protection of territories”. He noted that this tendency eventually leads to each MDA pushing its personal agenda as national policy, and creating policy summersaults. According to Professor Omotayo, such lack of “policy carry-through” is accentuated by uncritical public pressure arising out of communication problems or lack of awareness of public policy or available opportunities. This, in his opinion, could be addressed by e-governance.

    According to the United Nations (UN), “E-government can … be defined as the use of ICTs to more effectively and efficiently deliver government services to citizens and businesses. It is the application of ICT in government operations, achieving public ends by digital means.  The underlying principle of e-government, supported by an effective e-governance institutional framework, is to improve the internal workings of the public sector by reducing financial costs and transaction times so as to better integrate work flows and processes and enable effective resource utilization across the various public sector agencies aiming for sustainable solutions. Through innovation and e-government, governments around the world can be more efficient, provide better services, respond to the demands of citizens for transparency and accountability, be more inclusive and thus restore the trust of citizens in their governments.”

    Asked to deliver his goodwill message shortly after the keynote address, the Minister, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, was reported to have said that he would prefer to listen to further paper presentations first. In this regard, the compere of the ceremony noted, with admiration, that the Minister took notes all through the expert presentations that followed the keynote speech. In his remarks thereafter, the Minister appreciated the P-BAT Academics and Professionals for going beyond teaching and research and beyond criticising, and coming together to show how the products of their work can help to solve specific problems confronting the nation. According to the Minister, “it is the ability to stand up before a group such as yours that gives us energy.” He then assured that his Ministry was available to engage any stakeholders who show interest in advancing the cause of the country. Further appreciating the efforts of the P-BAT Academics and Professionals in organising the summit, the Minister remarked, “We are humbled to be reminded that we can do better.”

    Read Also: Tinubu celebrates Aisha Buhari on birthday

    Commending the P-BAT Academics and Professional’s invaluable volunteering effort, Group-Captain Duke Daniels remarked: “Stakeholders must find their roles, taking it upon themselves to make contribution to make sure that governance benefits the citizens.” He further noted that the Air-force was a highly technological service, and that sustained efforts were being made to equip personnel appropriately to contribute effectively to tackling the issue of insecurity in the country. Responding to calls at the summit for the establishment of State Police as a means of battling insecurity, CP Ihebom Chukwuma, who is a Commissioner of Police in-charge of Community Policing, stated that the establishment of State Police was a political decision, and that if the decision was taken by the political leadership to establish it, the Nigerian Police Force would key in. Commandant Charles K. Opara also commended the efforts of the P-BAT Academics and Professionals and noted that the NSCDC has established an Agro-Rangers unit which would, among other functions, address the incessant farmers-herders’ conflicts.   

    Understandably what was of paramount importance to Her Imperial Majesty Olori Ambassador (Dr.) Omolola Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi was the steady erosion of our culture, a culture which ironically is increasingly gaining patronage outside Nigeria. She said she hoped that the nation would not have cause in future to have to buy back these cultural assets at a huge price.

    Dr. Ademola Rabiu, Ex-Officio Member and Organising Secretary of the Management Team of the P-BAT Academics and Professionals, who is also the MD/CEO of Africa Rays Consulting in Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa, was full of gratitude to the distinguished personalities and all who contributed to the huge success that the summit was. According to him, the summit was a response to President Tinubu’s appeal that all hands must be on deck to steer the ship of the Nigerian State ashore. Referring to the Honourable Minister Atiku Bagudu’s observation that spending on education in the Nordic countries was exemplary, Dr. Rabiu noted that it was important for Nigeria to adopt, as far as practicable, what was working in those countries whether it be in education or the economy.

    It is remarkable that while the P-BAT Academics and Professionals summit was going on, President Tinubu was meeting with state governors to review the current difficulties Nigerians have been facing and take coordinated steps to bring about relief. This is important, because many Nigerians have criticised the majority of state governors who appear to have been largely unconcerned about the pains being suffered by citizens and inhabitants of their states in spite of the significantly increased financial allocations from the Federation Account. The moral burden which governors bear in this regard is placed in bold relief by the deliberate emasculation of Local Governments by many state governments, thereby aggravating the despondency of the citizenry. 

    The pains Nigerians are currently suffering have also been attributed to deliberate efforts to undermine the Tinubu administration. Those who are deliberately sabotaging the policies of the current administration should realise that government is a continuum and that if such saboteurs continue in their perverse ways, by the time the people they like get into power, the problems of the nation may have mutated so much that their darling administration may not be able to effectively solve them.

  • War on hunger/insecurity: Tinubu says to governors ‘Come, let’s reason together’

    War on hunger/insecurity: Tinubu says to governors ‘Come, let’s reason together’

    The last few weeks have been especially remarkable for both the Nigerian state and the man at the head of the state. This last one was especially so. We all remember how this very curious ‘food crisis’ saga almost tumbled overboard in some cases, sparking pockets of protests in a couple of states. That very suspicious reaction was particularly embarrassing for members of his administration, but even much more for President Bola Tinubu.

    The hardship, occasioned by the removal of a petrol subsidy, which has run for more than forty years, and an attempt at restructuring the foreign exchange system, which has favoured rent-seeking for ages, and which is supposedly responsible for the protests, is easily a stain on an enviable record, like the one Asiwaju advanced his premise for contesting the Presidency on. But then, like they say, no good thing comes easy: every child is born through blood and pains, just as the fine gold was burnished by some high degree furnace to become wearable.

    As I pointed out last week, from a claim made by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), these protests, justified as they might seem, have not really been spontaneous. As a matter of fact, the idea that devious elements in the position have hijacked the situation and decided to weaponize it to blackmail the administration, something that has become coined as the ‘Jonathan Treatment’, is already becoming public knowledge, tilting towards exposing the intents and schemes of those who never minded subjecting the people to horror in their bid to play morbid politics. From intelligence, this orchestra of doom do not just sponsor protests, they also sponsor hoarders of essentials as well as muscle men for dark and dirty businesses. 

    Despite the heat being bellowed on the system, President Tinubu and his team will not be daunted. As a matter of fact, Baba has taken steps targeted at easing the pains the people feel. He continued with that task in the just concluded week. Since the vicissitudes of fortunes for Nigerians have been primarily two-pronged (economic and security), the President has been deploying appropriate action plans, just as he has been engaging various stakeholders on parts that everyone has to take.

    On Thursday, he held an elaborate meeting with the governors of the thirty-six states and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at the Villa on the situation. That was the second time he was convening such a meeting since he became President, the first time being in July 2023, at the inauguration of the National Economic Council (NEC), under his administration. Thursday’s all-important meeting with, which had to come before he would depart for the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was devoted to the issues at hand.

    Primarily, it was an environment for him to get the buy-in of the governors, who were led to the meeting by the Chairman of their Forum, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State, into the various steps that will be required to achieve peace, security and comfort for the people. It was also an opportunity for him to urge them to key-in to the welfarist ideology he is well known for and before the end of the meeting it seemed he was able to achieve success. At the end of the meeting, there were agreements on steps on make food available across the country, including going after hoarders and those whose interests only border on collapsing production and reverting the system back to importation. Everything needed to banish the ‘ebi n pa’wa’ chorus.

    Kidnapping and some other forms of criminality recently rose to a very embarrassing crescendo that it almost seemed like the various reports and incidences were actually some rehearsed drama performances. Some of the most annoying of such occasions happened in Ekiti a couple of weeks back, when some criminals kidnapped school children, their teachers and the driver of their school bus. On the same day, in another part of the state, another set of criminals waylaid traditional rulers who were coming from a meeting, killing two of them in the process.

    The Thursday meeting proffered solutions to these kinds of horrendous security dramas. At least, the President and the governors managed to agree on the need to adopt a more organic security architecture, which takes the structure of each community into consideration, systems like community policing and giving better equipment to forest rangers. At the end of the day, committees were agreed upon to give finer looks at agreements. In fact, he rounded off urging that agreements be speedily considered and appropriate steps taken, in the interest of Nigerians, who are going through these harrowing experiences and who are almost turning into puns in the hands of devious politicians.

    “My position at this meeting is that we must move aggressively and establish a committee to look critically at the issues raised, including the possibility of establishing state police.

    “From Kano, we have read reports about large-scale hoarding of food in some warehouses. The National Security Adviser (NSA), the Inspector-General of Police, and the Director-General of the Department of State Services should coordinate very closely and ensure that security agencies in the states inspect such warehouses with follow up action. We must ensure that speculators, hoarders, and rent seekers are not allowed to sabotage our efforts in ensuring the wide availability of food to all Nigerians.

    “What I will not do is to set a price control board. I will not also approve the importation of food. We should be able to get ourselves out of the situation we found ourselves in, because importation will allow rent seekers to perpetrate fraud and mismanagement at our collective expense. We would rather support farmers with the schemes that will make them go to the farm and grow more food for everyone in the country.

    Read Also: Tinubu celebrates Aisha Buhari on birthday

    “We must also look at the rapid, but thoughtful implementation of our livestock development and management plans, including dairy farming and others”, the President stated.

    Meanwhile, the President had earlier in the week given a hint on his plan for the growth of the agriculture sector. He told the leadership of Global Tijaniyya Movement, led by Khalifa Muhammad Mahe Niass, who visited the State House after their annual Maulud in Abuja Sunday evening. The President said his administration’s agricultural plan is focused on expanding food production, through aggressive mechanized farming and make Nigeria a net food exporting country, outlining plans to bolster agricultural productive through various initiatives, including the expansion of farmlands, the provision of low-interest loans to farmers, and significant investments in irrigation infrastructure.

    It was not all about dealing with the unpleasant parts, the week also saw Jagaban expressing Nigeria’s appreciation to our national football team, the Super Eagle. At a very elaborate ceremony on Tuesday, planned for ‘our boys’, who went through the 2023 CAF African Cup of Nation’s (AfCON) tournament in Cote d’Ivoire and were only short of winning the gold, President Tinubu delivered a massive message of appreciation to the heroic Eagles, letting them know that their compatriots appreciated their efforts and the fact that they could clinch the second best spot.

    As part of the thank you message, Baba conferred the national honour of the Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) on all team members, even the non-Nigerians among them, like their Coach, Jose Peseiro, who lamented not achieving his dream of delivering the AfCON Cup to Nigerians. There were other goodies like the promises of houses and lands from the federal government to the Eagles.

    The most significant part of the hosting for the Eagles was actually not the gifts and conferment of national honour, but the unvoiced messages to the various categories of citizens and to us all, collectively, as Nigerians. One, no effort put into making the nation great will go unnoticed under Tinubu’s watch. Two, every young Nigerian has the room to express himself and show what he can do, in whichever field, to be a star and be celebrated, both home and abroad.

    “You started the tournament as if Nigeria would not assert itself, but you progressed to the finals. Through all the challenges and dealing with great humidity in the host country, you left your clubs and honoured your country. You gave us great excitement. You were determined. We salute your resilience. You lifted our spirits, and you made us proud. You made us smile as Nigerians”, was how he encouraged us to make sacrifice to the fatherland.

    He had other engagements during the week also worth noting. For instance, on Wednesday, he received the leaders of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) at the Villa. While NANS, led by its President, Lucky Emonefe, thanked him for his sharpened focus on making education easily accessible, he assured them that the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund) will start in about two weeks.

    Then on Thursday he appointed new management leaderships for agencies and parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. On Friday, he approved immediate upgrade for sixteen healthcare facilities across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

    Remember he left for AU Summit in Addis Ababa on Thursday. Well on Friday, his appointment as the AU’s Champion for Human Resources for Health and Community Health Delivery Partnership, in recognition of his outstanding investments into the health sector in the country. At least, there is something to clink glasses on. Congratulations to the Jagaban Borgu.

  • Reparation and repatriation

    Reparation and repatriation

    • Towards a new national ethos

    After the binge comes the inevitable hangover. Nigeria is in a stupendous alcoholic haze, full of groaning and grieving, filled with bitter regrets and sick recrimination. As every certified alcoholic will testify, the purgatory that must follow overindulgence is marked by drowsiness and dizziness; an overwhelming stupor accompanied by acute discomfort.

    So, what do we call this peculiar Nigerian affliction, an economic calamity of the greatest order which devastates everything in its wake? It may feel like it, but it is certainly not the Dutch Disease, an economic distortion which arises when a society is suddenly flush with huge revenues from a novel and unexpected source leading to a dramatic appreciation of the national currency but also the loss of a competitive edge in other critical sectors of national productivity.

      The Dutch people, a proud race noted for their Calvinist restraint and rectitude, quickly reordered their national priorities. It is to be noted that sixty years after the Dutch liberated themselves from Spanish rule, the merchants of Amsterdam were already sending goods all over the world from their low-lying redoubts.  Meanwhile, their former Spanish overlords had blitzed their way into irreversible national decline as a result of ruinous inflation driven by free gold from the evil mines of Potosi.

       The Nigerian economic disorder can also not be equated with what came to be known as the Norwegian Paradox. For a long time, economists were puzzled and confounded to no end by the Norwegian economic miracle of a high-performing economy that was not known to be based on innovative technology and cutting edge developments in Science and AI.

     The Norwegians, modest and averse to technological modishness, went on to surprise everybody by creating the Sovereign Wealth Fund made of the nation’s entire earnings from petroleum resources. The vast holding would have insulated the nation against poverty, austerity and the vagaries and volatility of the market for the next two generations. It is to be noted that the Nigerian parody of this fund was burglarized in no time, leaving the nation at the mercy of the elements. 

    Finally, it is not worth the intellectual effort to compare the Nigerian economic ailment with the Russian oligarchs’ dystopia. After the collapse of the Soviet Empire and under relentless pressure from the west for market reforms, the Russian economy went into a tailspin. The Russian oligarchs, a consortium of assorted crooks and con-men, had a field day plundering the immense resources of their nation with merciless rapacity.

    But they did not reckon with Vladimir Putin, a former KGB apparatchik and pan-Slavic supremacist, emerging from the woodwork of Stalinist repression. Putin, who nurses a visceral hatred and contempt for western values, made sure the oligarchs paid for all their infractions against their fatherland either with their life or long jail sentences.

    The Russian economy responded to Putin’s severe therapy and quickly became a major global player all over again. Just as it was said of Josef Stalin before him, Putin has driven economic barbarity out of Russia by sheer barbarity. National character is national destiny.

    As it can be seen from the preceding passage, Nigeria is in the grip of a uniquely baleful economic disorder. It is a severe ailment that is not responding to conventional treatment. Expectedly, people are coming up with different solutions and from different perspectives.  This past week, Afe Babalola, legal luminary and founder of the innovative and groundbreaking Afe Babalola University, pleaded with the international community for substantial debt forgiveness for the nation.

    On the face of it, this noble and patriotic call reminds one of the mid-nineties and the reparation lobby mounted by MKO Abiola. It was a massive assault which lacerated the conscience of the west and sent its ideological storm troopers into a panic mode. Abiola was not known to do anything in half measures. Those who mattered in the global sanctuary of power took note.

       This writer at that point in time took a strong exception to the reparation campaign and made sure that the objection was felt in the right place. In a well-syndicated piece titled, Reparation or  Repatriation, we argued in details why Nigeria needed more repatriation of money stolen and salted away  by the political elite as opposed to fiscal reparation for the historic crimes of colonization and international slavery, a crime against humanity which had continued in one guise or the other till date.

      Our well-judged suspicion at that point in time was that the whole reparation boondoggle might well be a cynical ploy by the Nigerian plutocrat to draw attention away from the epic state banditry that was unfolding in Nigeria on the watch of his military friends. It will be recalled that Margaret Thatcher famously opined at that period that judging from the humongous size of their overseas holdings, one or two Nigerians could actually offset Nigeria’s foreign debts with change to spare.

     Since then, only the blind will fail to notice that state larceny has deepened into an All comers’ buccaneers’ bazaar with international complicity. Nigeria has been stolen blind by its political elite. It has reached a point where even an MKO Abiola would weep in his grave at the plight of the nation. We have finally arrived at Ground Zero.

     A Nigerian government official this past week has noted that despite every appearance to the contrary, Nigeria is a very poor country indeed. His statistics cannot be faulted. The problem with statistics is that they can be used to arrive at dissimilar conclusions. Nigeria is not a poor country but a poverty-stricken country. Poverty is not natural to the country but has been inflicted on it by a derelict political elite. It is induced poverty which has now seen the nation rightly inducted into the hall of infamy as the poverty capital of the world.

    To be sure, countries with smaller and more competitive population often fare better than much bigger nations when it comes to feeling the impact of natural resources. This is why the Saudis, Qataris, Norwegians, Libyans, Kuwaitis etc. appear to do much better than countries with humongous populations with equal natural resources. A huge population without commensurate knowledge and without adequate educational empowerment cannot participate in the creation of wealth which is a sine qua non for the advancement of human societies.

    Read Also: CBN: Foreign oil firms prohibited from 100% repatriation of FX revenue

    This is in fact when huge populations become a disadvantage. But it is not a natural disadvantage. A population teeming with the medically unfit, unlettered peasantry and barely literate artisans cannot be expected to have the mental resources and the economic savvy to contribute to the harmonious growth of the society. Instead, they are a ticking social time bomb.

    This is why sane and sober countries devote considerable amount of resources to the development of human infrastructure and what Obafemi Awolowo has called the mental magnitude of their citizenry. No country has ever been richer than the sum total of its people. 

      The galloping growth of population ahead of human capacity-building and economic development puzzled and perplexed early economists to no end. In a celebrated treatise, Thomas  Malthus, who is regarded as the father of modern Economics, advocated a winnowing of the population through population control or outright curling of the populace.

    According to the great econometrician, it is war, famine, mass emigration and natural disasters that do the surgical operation for humanity at that point in time. Despite the clinical rigour of his analysis, Malthus has been berated for the misanthropic glee and putative violence inherent in his moody prognostications. In a satirical contribution titled A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift advocated the killing off and consumption of children in infancy.

    In our modern world, the Chinese have demonstrated how huge populations can be turned into huge blessing through a combination of scientific birth control and a radical re-education of the populace as well as its economic empowerment. They have achieved in a generation what will take other societies a millennium to achieve. It must be admitted that the terror and revolutionary retribution that accompany this type of radical transformation is not feasible in fractious, multi-ethnic colonial nations without core values and a core identity. They will quickly dissolve into their anarchic components.

    With the preceding observation we have reached the primal issue and the core of Nigeria’s ailment as a political and economic entity. With that we have also reached a dialectical modification of our own earlier position. Yes, reparation and some substantial debt relief have become imperative for Africa. But even better and more imperative is the repatriation Nigeria’s stolen money from abroad. There should be a national reprieve or amnesty for those who willingly let go.

    The justifiable cynicism and reluctance of the west in tracking and repatriating looted funds is predicated on the belief that the proceeds will be looted once again. This is where the political and psychological conditioning of the people matter a lot.

    It is obvious that all the nations we have been tracking are conditioned by core values and national character to withstand and overcome debilitating economic crises. The Dutch and Norwegians with their Calvinist prudence and restraint, the Russians with their Slavic sense of self-worth and implacable pride, and the Chinese with their hardihood, innate discipline and effortless sense of superiority.

    Until Nigeria develops a strong national identity matched by core values which are in tune with the dictates of political and economic modernity, all will be in vain. What we have for now as a substitute is a pan-Nigerian hedonism common to all the dominant fractions of the political elites which privileges consumption of western luxury goods at the expense of local production.

      Yet our forefathers were never like this. It shows that something fundamental has gone wrong. The problem is that the rampaging mobs are closer than we can ever imagine. We can either choose to watch the irreversible slide into decay and death or do something urgent about it.

  • A near occurrence at Third Mainland Bridge

    A near occurrence at Third Mainland Bridge

    In a world in which living and dying walk hand in hand like inseparable companions and like tested and testy comrades, it is sometimes impossible to separate living from dying, or in fact factual occurrence itself from fiction for that matter. Human society is full of strange and outlandish characters and even stranger and more outlandish occurrences.

       Can any of our readers remember reading a short story titled, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge? As a callow impressionable youth, yours sincerely remember reading the gripping stuff.  But age and the passage of time have so denuded memory and the capacity for instant recall that one is no longer sure of what is actual fiction or sheer imaginative concoctions.

    Fortunately, where human memory fails or falters, robotic intelligence takes over. A Goggle engine search has rendered further speculations nugatory. The fiction is for real. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge written by Ambrose Bierce is an outstanding work of fiction. Haunting and memorably crafted, it is the story of the American civil war and a plantation owner in the deep South who was hanged for impeding the movement of Union troops.

     Farquhar thought he had escaped the hangman’s noose by jumping into the river. We follow him as he evaded the dragnet until he got home and was about to embrace his beloved wife. That was when the whole thing turned out to be a hoax, a piece of posthumous gallivanting. Farquhar was actually dead and his crumpled body lay by the side of the bridge.

       Last week, it felt very much like an Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge while yours sincerely was traversing The Third Mainland Bridge in the dead of the night after attending a reception in honour of our aburo, Arch Tayo Babalakin, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.

    As the vehicle approached the loneliest stretch of the elongated wonder which curls and slithers its way through the murky waters of the Lagos lagoon like a massive anaconda, a loud explosion was heard from the rear of the vehicle, shattering the stillness of the night. Perhaps afraid of the shadows and his own shadow, the driver refused to stop. The vehicle trundled on for another kilometre before one barked firm instruction for the driver to stop.

      An eerie silence ensued.  Marked by bumps and distending asphalt, it was a particularly nasty spot to stop. None of the speeding cars, out of a natural instinct for self-preservation, was willing to test fate and their luck. The driver was shivering. Our spouse was palpitating with premonition. Yours sincerely asked her to get out of the vehicle, but she firmly declined. As one jumped out of the car, one concluded that this might be a divine way of preserving one crucial leg of the family.

     The sense of foreboding became overbearing. It was as if one was having an out of body experience. The rear tire had been blown to shreds and smithereens revealing the grim rim. It was only a question of time before men of the underworld or the underwater materialized. One remembered our friend, Ibrahim Babatunde Jose, who often joked with another friend that the pomp and aplomb with which one plies the Ife-Ibadan road, particularly around the Majeroku-Akiriboto perimeter, can only suggest that one was a kingly part of the kidnapping and extortionate ring on the route.

    Read Also: Shut Third Mainland Bridge worsens gridlock in Lagos

    The men of the underworld and under-bridge garrets duly materialized out of the shadows. Two completely crazed druggies wearing official overcoat of some state agencies. There was something intensely menacing and sinister even about their deferential manners.

      One quizzed them whether they were government officials and they both shook their head in rebuttal.  So, if they are not government officials what were they doing in that place in the dead of the night wearing government labels? They came to repair a vehicle, they both chorused. Meanwhile, there was no vehicle in the distance.

      In a jiffy, the more purposeful of them had crawled under the vehicle after collecting the tool kit from the driver while his companion began controlling traffic by raising his overcoat. On the massive steel bulwark where one perched the waves swept pass underneath making some frightening noise like a monster owl. One had imagined being plucked by an unseen talon into the watery catacombs below. The real drama was just about to begin.

       “Baba e se owo wa ni fifty. (Make our money fifty thousand) ,“ the first one drawled after crawling out. Yours sincerely exploded in a make or mar psychological duel.

       “Are you both mad? Do you know that if I get into my vehicle without paying you a kobo, there is nothing either of you can do?” yours sincerely shouted as he made to enter the vehicle.

      “Ha, alaiye baba, we are your children ooo!!!” they chanted.

        “Then behave yourself!” one growled as one pushed ten thousand naira on them and ordered the driver to speed off. It has been a near occurrence on the Third Mainland Bridge.  

  • Labour Party torn apart by discord

    Labour Party torn apart by discord

    Whether they like it or not, Labour Party (LP) leaders must now openly grapple with the ethical miasma that has smeared their party for many months. On Monday the party’s treasurer, Oluchi Oparah, raised critical moral issues afflicting the running of the party, particularly its controversial bookkeeping laxity long denounced by the Lamidi Apapa and Ayobami Arabambi faction. The party’s contentious chairman Julius Abure had engaged in endless tussle with Mr Apapa and Dr Arabambi during and after the last elections, with party leader and former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, signaling his unflinching support for the status quo. Both Mr Obi and Mr Abure continue to bask in their messianic complex, believing that the survival and integrity of the LP rests on them. Questioning them has thus become very risky, if not impossible.

    The vociferousness with which Mrs Oparah questions the party leadership’s financial dealings may yet create tremors in the LP. But she will acknowledge, though perhaps will remain undeterred, that Mr Apapa’s faction has failed spectacularly in denting the reputation and standing of the party leadership, despite having sturdy legal legs to stand on. Mrs Oparah rests her disenchantment with the party’s leadership style on the following: 1. Provide documentation for the N3.5 billion raised from the sale of forms for the 2023 elections and explain why Edo State proceeds went into private accounts.

     2. Account for the N958 million raised from off-cycle elections in 2023. Also provide paper trails and documentary evidence of adherence to due process.

    3. Declare every single dollar raised from the 2023 US fundraising tour and provide documentation on where donations were warehoused and how same was appropriated.

    4. Explain the source of funds for properties bought in Nigeria and abroad between 2022 and 2023. Provide paper evidence.

     5. Allow me (Mrs Oparah) unfettered access to party accounts and records as national treasurer.

    6. Submit to an independent forensic audit of our party’s finances, to be conducted by a reputable international firm.

    7. Explain why he has deliberately undermined my authority and flouted the Labour Party’s constitution. 8. Provide evidence that he has not abused his office for personal enrichment through theft, money laundering, or abuse of power.

    She concludes dismissively: “The Labour Party belongs to its broad membership, not a single power-drunk individual. I urge Mr Abure to do the honourable thing and submit himself to a transparent process that will restore confidence, trust, and integrity in our party’s financial dealings.” Mr Abure is unlikely to give Mrs Oparah a hearing beyond perfunctory denial. He has the absolute confidence of Mr Obi, with whom he fought Mr Apapa’s faction to a standstill using lawful and unlawful means, including forcefully unsealing the locked party headquarters in Abuja.

    Read Also: BREAKING: Labour Party suspends national treasurer Opara for six months

    Messrs Apapa and Arabambi have called on Mr Obi to prevail on the party chairman to heed criticisms of his financial dealings and to open the party’s books for investigation. The former presidential candidate has consented to an audit; but nothing extraordinary will come out of it. However, Mr Abure will sniff at such calls, especially from a faction he had defeated and humiliated. Mrs Oparah’s allegations are specific, far-reaching and damaging. How convincingly the chairman will also sniff at her accusations remains to be seen. He will attempt to ignore the complaints, but he will be unsuccessful should he try to link the allegations to external political chicaneries.

    Mr Obi, on the other hand, will in the final analysis stall the matter for as long as he can, perhaps backed by insolent party members dredged up from the Obidient sewers. But if Mrs Oparah is pertinacious, and if the Apapa faction continues to shout the matter from the rooftops, it will be hard to see how far the party leader can deflect the allegations. Mr Obi does not understand the nitty-gritty of running a party, let alone a party hijacked as a special purpose vehicle, and he snorts at barbs and allegations from political upstarts challenging LP leaders’ messianic complex. If Mrs Oparah has the staying power, Mr Obi, much more than Mr Abure, will be forced to respond credibly one way or the other. That response may be unsatisfactory, indeed, will likely be unsatisfactory; but if the media, which at the moment seem tuned in favour of Mr Obi, will ask him very uncomfortable questions, and if they can dig further in order to expose the shenanigans in the party, Mrs Oparah will have the last laugh. But there are too many ifs in the LP case for any observer to draw optimistic conclusions.

  • NLC ultimatum, tardy wage awards

    NLC ultimatum, tardy wage awards

    It had to take another 14 days Nigeria Labour Congress/Trade Union Congress ultimatum issued on February 8 to ginger the federal government to promise resumption of payment of the N35,000 wage award slated to be given for six months. The agreement was reached in October 8, 2023, but was only paid for one month. In January, Minister of State for Labour, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, promised resumption of payment. But by February 8, when the unions gave the latest ultimatum, the wage award had still not been paid.

    Read Also: UPDATED: NLC protests hardship, insecurity Feb 27, 28

    Last October, the government had signed a 16-point agreement with the unions. But according to the unions, the government had breached the agreement. If there were hiccups in implementing the agreement, why was the government not proactive in taking the unions into confidence, and perhaps seeking a reworking of the terms? Neither side to the disagreement has been forthcoming on just how many of the terms had been implemented. But in general, the unions insisted that the agreements reached with the government were “focused on addressing the massive suffering and the general harsh socioeconomic consequences of the ill-conceived and ill-executed IMF/World Bank induced hike in the price of PMS and the devaluation of the naira.”

    The administration is buffeted on many sides by social and economic agitations actuated by mass hunger, rampant insecurity, and forebodings of general collapse. If the unions are not to be the explosive trigger for the tinderbox that Nigeria has become, the government must get its act together. Honouring agreements is one way to begin, especially at a time when there seems to be a threatening coalescence of fissiparous tendencies.

  • Social media and Herbert Wigwe’s death

    Social media and Herbert Wigwe’s death

    There has been a plethora of essays on the whys and wherefores of the death of Access Bank Holdings boss, Herbert Wigwe and his wife, son, and others in a helicopter crash in the United States last week. This column, not being superstitious, can offer no definitive reasons for the crash, whether mechanical, electrical, weather, or even metaphysical. But it is striking and disturbing that some social media denizens, believed to be Obidients, suggest that Mr Wigwe got his comeuppance because he supported the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last presidential poll. Really?

    Read Also: On the death of Herbert Wigwe and others

    This hypothesis is not just naivety; it is insanity. Have no Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) backers died since the polls? And will a few more not die in the coming weeks and months? Does death now have political colouration? Those who suppose that Obidients were behind such arcane hypothesis may not be far away from the truth. For, surely, no APC supporter would embrace such a far-fetched idea. Given the truculence with which the idea was trundled on social media, the traducers will have to be either LP rather than the dispirited and distracted PDP.         

  • Tinubu’s biggest cheerleader

    Tinubu’s biggest cheerleader

    Of all President Bola Tinubu’s appointees, former Rivers State governor and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister Nyesom Wike has been one of the most astounding. His remit may not be countrywide, for he would then have needed to travel over vast distances in order to accomplish national assignments and make great impressions, but probably one of the most difficult jobs any minister could grapple with is administering the federal capital, the seat of the federal government and cynosure of all eyes, including the eyes of all ministers. Mr Wike has not needed to try to settle into the job, or find his feet. Instead he has been composed, relaxed, assiduous and supremely self-confident. Much more, though he is of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and has so far managed to remain an influential factor in the party, he is mystifyingly becoming the poster boy for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The first few months of the Tinubu administration have been testy and unpredictable. The APC has been in office for about eight months, and has waged a valiant battle against the conventions and orthodoxies, not to say the detritus, of the previous administration. That battle has not gone too well, and has left many bitter and angry Nigerians in its wake. If Nigeria had credible opinion polls, they would not show the administration rising in popularity: its popularity rating would be in sharp decline because of the hardship the reforms and palliative measures have elicited. But here precisely is where Mr Wike has become a factor. Of all the ministers saddled with the responsibility of ameliorating the harsh socio-economic conditions of the people, including ensuring the fair distribution of palliatives and conceiving and implementing impactful policies, Mr Wike excels. He has been careful about mouthing the governing philosophies of the Tinubu administration so as not to be seen as demarketing the PDP; instead, he has limited himself to the president’s renewed hope agenda slogan, and his pragmatic enunciations, passionate commitment, and hard work have turned him into a consummate marketer of the administration.

    Where other ministers and appointees have been reticent, Mr Wike has been voluble on behalf of the administration. Where they seemed fazed by the cries and agonies of the people, and were consequently careful about sounding optimistic, Mr Wike has seemed to outdo even the president himself in selling the administration’s sure cures. He has insisted that the pains are temporary, and the benefits, if the people endure for a little while longer, immense. Speaking during the commencement of the resurfacing of 189 roads in the Maitama District, Garki, and Utako in the FCT last week, Mr Wike defended the administration with engaging plausibility. He said: “To change the economy is not by mouth. So, many things will go wrong, but in going wrong, it will get right. The wrong is the effect on you temporarily… What the President is doing today will yield positive results soon. We may be having some inconveniences, we agree. But be patient. You will see the turnaround of things. I will never support what will not work. I know that whatever position or whatever policies you see today coming out is not intended to make anybody suffer. We need to pray to make sure there is good health for Mr. President, for the wisdom, the strength for him to pilot the affairs of this country. It will not be good for us only to talk about the bad. We should also talk about the good side.”

    Read Also: Sanwo-Olu to flag off N750 million ‘trader money’ for 15,000 beneficiaries on February 14

    Some analysts have described the FCT minister as mercurial, a politician capable of defending the implausible with perfect equanimity. But his remarks at the commencement of FCT road projects last week appear heartfelt and convincing. He is not just trying to keep a job; he has transferred his loyalty and commitment to a president he believes keeps his word, a president who fears no one, and indeed a president who has no airs. Convinced that the president is genuine, and persuaded that the reforms embarked upon to recalibrate an economy knocked out of kilter by previous administrations are difficult but sensible, Mr Wike has spoken energetically about why Nigerians must be patient instead of looking for quick fixes. Indeed the Wike factor is underscored by his total commitment to identifying projects beneficial to his constituency, and has promoted, sold and executed them with equal if not surpassing panache. He has not lost his governorship touch. It can be argued that other ministers had to seek funding from the federal government for their projects, a limiting factor that had generally hobbled previous FCT administrations. But Mr Wike studied the constitution and discovered a lacuna which he implored the president to resolve. Once that was done, the FCT minister had a new and secure line of funding for FCT projects, and he now runs Abuja like a state, as conceived by the constitution. Even on the matter of insecurity and kidnapping, the FCT minister has approached the matter in an aggressive and sensible manner that reassures Abuja suburbs. If only the states would borrow a leaf from him.

  • That IBB Channels interview

    That IBB Channels interview

    Some three or so weeks ago, ex-military president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was on Channels Television reiterating the need to devolve powers to the states in a restructured federation. He told his interviewer his administration had in fact contemplated that idea in 1989. It is not clear whether his government was really keen on the idea, seeing how much he loved power, but responding to a question on power devolution, he zeroed in on the absolute necessity of devolving control of the police to the states and giving them the resources to run the law enforcement agency. He is being wise after the fact. As a military dictator, he was not only infatuated with the unitary system of government, he was also obsessed with regime elongation. His refrain was the absoluteness of Nigerian unity, insisting that unity was non-negotiable.

    Read Also: Soludo, Kefas, Nnamani, Uba, others in Anambra for Offor’s birthday

    Every administration since then, whether elected or military, has been uncomfortable with devolution of power, especially regarding law enforcement and security agencies. It has taken extreme challenges to peace and security of the nation, not visionary consideration of the country’s future, to persuade most Nigerians as to the practicality of devolving control of the police. Even then there is still a lot of haphazardness and reluctance. But if insecurity is not to really threaten the peace and stability of the nation, if insecurity is not to spiral out of control, the government will have to urgently restructure the police to give states control. It took decades to convince Gen. Babangida of the absolute necessity of power devolution; it should not take the Tinubu administration many more months to recognise the long-lasting constitutional folly of centralising policing control.   

  • ‘Hardship’ protests and tangled responses

    ‘Hardship’ protests and tangled responses

    Last Monday, protesters mobilised to Minna and Kano city streets over what they described as unremitting economic hardship compounded by insecurity. Though the Minna, Niger State, protests were at a point hijacked by hoodlums, both protests in the two northern states were neither violent nor unmanageable. Days later, civil society organisations in Osun State, particularly youths, also staged a protest against rising cost of living. They said they had reached the end of their tethers. In none of the three states was the angry crowd overwhelming. But in Minna and Kano, the governors were sensitive enough to comment on the protests as well as attempt to take some remedial measures. Governor Mohammed Umar Bago of Niger State may not have taken impeccable actions to grapple with the issues raised by the protesters, but of the three states where protests broke out, he was probably the most responsive, if not proactive. Niger State is governed by the national ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    In his reaction to the Kano protests, Governor Abba Yusuf promised to meet with President Bola Tinubu to intimate him with the reasons for the protest and discuss solutions. Kano is governed by the populist New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) led by ex-Kano governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. Mr Yusuf gives the impression that the protests transcended state political and economic dynamics. In Osogbo, Osun State, where youths, including students’ union organisations, also took to the streets, the protests ended with an imperial two-week ultimatum to the federal government to address the hardship in the country. Where some human rights activists are exploring legal options to compel the government to fix prices in a free market economy, and while the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) are opting for a national strike, other groups think a massive street protest should compel an administration they say is dithering to rouse itself from slumber. With incredible casuistry, some are even advocating a revolution.

    The Niger, Kano, Osun and NLC actions may presage a massive reaction against the Tinubu administration’s policies. The ruling party is wary of the protests, and its spokesmen have insisted that the demonstrations and threats are politically motivated, especially given opposition leaders’ spontaneous identification with the protesters. The ruling party does not doubt the prevailing economic hardship, but it argues that reforms take time to gestate and bear fruits. It adds that the simultaneousness of the Minna and Kano protests indicates something sinister and premeditated. Mr Bago’s findings attributed the Minna protests to misinformation about truckloads of food items being transported through Minna, which some hoodlums had planned to intercept and ransack. Kano’s Gov Yusuf gave no casus belli for the protests other than that he planned to meet the president for a review. Overall, no one doubts the problem associated with rising cost of living occasioned by fuel subsidy removal, floating of the naira, insecurity in the countryside and on farms, and a needless centralisation of authority in the hands of the national government. When things go wrong, as indeed they have, the blame is consequently not decentralised. The president takes all the blame. And until the constitution is amended and powers devolved, the president will continue to take all the blame, justified or not.

    The protests make a few things urgent. One is that the administration has a little time left to ameliorate the hardship ravaging the country. Whether the reforms embarked upon by the government are unimpeachable or not, the hunger and hardship experienced by the poor and downtrodden make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to be amenable to the logic and niceties of economics. The first few protests should, therefore, be viewed as an opportunity for the government to familiarise itself with the feelings and pains of the public and have a little time and leeway to make amends. That the economy was battered years ago before the advent of the current administration means nothing to the hungry. Two, the protests give the government the opportunity to reassess its diagnosis of the problem and, more importantly, retool and recalibrate the prognosis. Even if the administration is cocksure about the problem, it needs a second look and second view to convince itself that there is no other way of resolving the crisis or that those saddled with the crisis are the best hands for the task.

    The third urgent task before the administration is to see whether from the disparate views of national lawmakers, economic analysts, and opposition critics there are no pearls of wisdom in following a different trajectory to solve the crisis at hand. It is possible that the administration’s diagnosis is flawless, but are the identification and execution of the solutions also flawless? History lessons show that the best of governments, not to say the best and most perceptive of statesmen, have sometimes been honestly mistaken. Costs have risen astronomically, and the dispossessed have had little or no succour: it, therefore, makes the country’s situation somewhat flammable. The protests give the administration the opportunity to review itself and the capacity and competence of officials saddled with the responsibility of helping the president to run, reform and stabilise the country. The protests, even if they were instigated by the opposition and other saboteurs, indicate that the administration cannot maintain its present course, either in terms of the solutions or in regards to palliatives. There is too much chaos in the system, particularly the economy, to obviate the forebodings many fear may be imminent.

    Read Also: Sanwo-Olu to flag off N750 million ‘trader money’ for 15,000 beneficiaries on February 14

    Notwithstanding the genuineness of the protests and the reasons that inspire them, critics, labour unions, protesters and opposition parties must mind their methods and the language they use in communicating their anger and disappointments. They have sometimes spoken and acted like they desire the collapse of the country, and with it 25 years of democracy. The security and intelligence services have sometimes been tardy in exposing and dealing with such subversive inclinations, but nevertheless, it is time the country as a whole exercised caution and restraint. Decades of economic mismanagement have brought the country to a difficult pass. Yet, the current administration has only spent eight months out of a four-year term. Wishing or, worse, plotting the administration’s collapse could produce dire and unintended consequences whose course no one can predict or manage. Leaders of the opposition have been particularly irresponsible, as if they have it all worked out how to benefit from a total collapse. And too many ignorant critics and activists are simply unmindful of the end result of their actions. They unduly romanticise revolution, and hope that if any blood would be shed, it would be other people’s blood.

    But history begs to disagree. Iranian Revolution overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979 but only managed to replace one dictatorship with another, with the Islamic Revolution a far cry from the more refined and cosmopolitan Persian Empire it has unsuccessfully tried to imitate. Russians had their own revolution in 1917 and managed to acquire close to 12 million people dead in the civil war that followed, about 1.2m executed during Stalin’s purges, and an estimated seven million dead from the famine that followed collectivisation. The French also valorised revolution and procured one in 1789, leading to the death of most of those who inspired it, replacement of their monarchy with Napoleon Bonaparte’s dictatorship which took close to six million people to early graves through needless wars. The Nigerian political opposition may loath their electoral losses, and other so-called ‘owners of Nigeria’ may still be miffed by the outcome of the February 2023 presidential election, but wishing or plotting the collapse of the country in order to mitigate their electoral losses and justify their prophecies is as foolish as the remorseless Ibrahim Babangida military dictatorship that prevented MKO Abiola from assuming the presidency he won in 1993.

    It is time the culture of protests was regulated to entrench systemic survival. Protest is a constitutional right that cannot be abridge, but it must not enable a few to instigate a catastrophe upon the nation. In any case, a single term is only four years, after which elections will be held to either endorse an old administration or elect a new one. Britain proved that point in the 18th and 19th centuries by opting for gradual change when Europe embraced revolutions. Critics and unions breathing and speaking fire must be made aware of the consequences of their actions. However, the Tinubu administration cannot pretend not to suspect that his panaceas are indeed not working the way he expects.

    It is time the Tinubu administration recognised, and perhaps started to voice it out, that much of Nigeria’s existential crisis was caused by a badly structured federation that needs a comprehensive overhaul. He may not be able to inspire that holistic reworking of the constitution now, but he needs to urgently begin to isolate, amend and implement some of the provisions of the constitution. Too many people and regions have a sense of entitlement that must be discouraged from taking further roots. Niger State governor probably realised this, which was why he took control of the protests that convulsed his state last Monday. His panaceas may be unimplementable in some respects, and his accusations of those behind the protests may be unfair, but he was smart enough to take control of the situation and deal with it the best way he deemed fit. Kano’s Mr Yusuf should borrow a leaf from Mr Bago. More, President Tinubu, whose record of democratic activism is probably incomparable, must also through constitutional and legal changes begin to encourage governors and local government chairmen to take responsibility in their states. Abuja does not hold all the aces; some of the aces, as insecurity at the local levels and in their forests show, are in the hands of proactive state and local leaders.