The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Oloyede in editorials

    Oloyede in editorials

    Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, the incumbent Registrar/CEO of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), reached the age of 70 on 10 October, 2024, and retired, on that day, from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State, where he has been a Professor of Islamic Jurisprudence. To mark the occasion, the high and mighty, including newspaper editorial boards, have been pouring encomiums on him.

    An editorial board is an assemblage of the crème-de-la-crème of a publication consisting of elite in-house writers and invited respectable members of society whose characteristically profound and highly influential opinions on a wide range of issues represent the collective positions of the publication. The editorial boards of different publications are often varied in their positions, and they cannot be easily railroaded into adopting a common perspective. Together, their editorials reveal the pulse of a nation. It is for this reason that this column today focuses on the views of an array of editorials published on 10 and 11 October, 2024 on Professor Is-haq Oloyede.

    The 11 October, 2024 editorial of The Nation is titled “JAMB’s rare breed is 70″ and read in part: “Professor Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede, the registrar/chief executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has every reason to celebrate at 70. At the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, where he was once vice-chancellor, his achievements remain indelible. … Oloyede’s profile has continued to soar, not only because of the sanity he has brought into the conduct of the UTME but significantly by the astute manner he has been managing resources, human and material.”

    The editorial also noted: “One of the very first things he did as chief executive was reduce to the barest minimum human interaction in the conduct of the UTME. Today, the processes are largely seamless and devoid of human interface, with concepts like the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) that he introduced, which automates the admission process; IBASS, the Integrated Brochure and Syllabus System for prompt delivery of admission requirements, E-Ticketing for complaints, E-Slip, and use of biometric authentication to confirm validity of registration, etc. It is now mandatory for Computer-Based Test centres to have CCTV cameras to monitor the examination and registration, real time. All of these have helped considerably in checking examination fraud. The board has also instituted various schemes to make life easy for people with disabilities sitting the UTME.”

    Furthermore, the editorial observed: “From year one, he had been remitting billions into the Federal Government’s purse. This was unprecedented in JAMB’s history. Even the then Minister of Finance could not believe that such a profit was coming from JAMB which had in its 38 years before Oloyede’s coming on board relied heavily on government subvention. To date, JAMB has paid more than N55bn into the government’s coffers since Oloyede assumed office. And all of these despite reduction in application fees! In a rare show of transparency and accountability, the board has been publishing its income and expenditure weekly in its bulletin for possible public perusal.”

    Read Also: Frills of festival of fervors for Oloyede at 70

    The 10 0ctober, 2024 editorial of The Punch titled “Laurels for Oloyede at 70” also declared as follows: “Oloyede entered the national limelight after his appointment as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin in 2007. During his five-year tenure at his alma mater, the institution became Nigeria’s preferred destination for university candidates. Interestingly, his achievement at Ilorin was not a fluke, it gave him the platform for higher national service. This became clear when he took up the gauntlet for another cause: in 2016, the then President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him the Registrar and Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.” The editorial further notes: “Under him, JAMB has introduced technology … to enhance its operations. Results are quicker; cheats are exposed faster.”

    The editorial continued: “Although a religious person, Oloyede is a realist. … Advising Nigerians on the interplay between religion and success, he said, ‘We are too religious, and we are not that godly. We are in love with prayer, but we don’t know the difference between prayer and hard work. Too many prayers without work is part of our problems in Nigeria. …’ For a country that has lost its moral compass, Nigeria can learn solid lessons from Oloyede’s life of service, rectitude, and selflessness. Nigeria needs more Oloyedes and his determination to succeed in daunting assignments without losing focus offers hope for the country’s future.”

    The Nigerian Tribune, in its 11 October, 2024 editorial titled “Ishaq Oloyede: A profile in excellence” asserted: “IN a badly governed clime like Nigeria, there usually aren’t many heroes. But even the strictest of analysts would readily admit that Ishaq Olanrewaju Oloyede (CON, OFR), Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), is a hero by any standards. An academic and administrator par excellence, Oloyede comes across as one of those few Nigerians who have left giant [footprints] on the sands of time and hewn for themselves a pride of place in the history of nationhood.”

    The editorial continued: “At the helm of affairs in JAMB, an examining body whose leadership was at a time associated with mindboggling, monumental sleaze, Oloyede has earned plaudits as an administrator unflinchingly dedicated to the cause of probity, accountability and forthrightness, and as he turns 70, his story is one that inspires by the sheer resonance of its beauty, a shining light, as it were, in a dark terrain, and we join millions of Nigerians in acknowledging and celebrating his genius.”

    Moreover, the Nigerian Tribune editorial noted: “In his birthday tribute to Oloyede, President Bola Tinubu said: … ‘His impactful tenure at the University of Ilorin, during which he introduced landmark ideas and innovations that helped the institution attain enviable heights, is on record … Perhaps more remarkable is Prof. Oloyede’s transformative leadership at JAMB. He pioneered and sustained a series of reforms and technological innovations that have made the admission process in Nigeria transparent and credible. In his eight years of stewardship at the board, thus far, Prof. Oloyede has demonstrated an uncommon commitment to financial integrity and accountability in public service. He has also raised the bar in administration and management.”

    According to the editorial, “The president’s submission is hard to fault. As JAMB Registrar, Oloyede is credited with the creation of the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG), a body tasked with ensuring that no one is discriminated against at any point in the board’s assessment and admission process on account of mobility challenges; the computer-based test, and the nine-key initiative, which simplifies the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination by ensuring that candidates use only nine computer keys.”

    In addition, the Nigerian Tribune editorial declared: “[I]n a country where the ministries, departments and agencies of the government have acquired notoriety as cesspools of corruption, Oloyede’s JAMB has been a refreshing departure from the norm. The JAMB registrar has been keen to prove the fact that even today, honesty, as they say, is the best policy.”

    In its own 10 October, 2024 editorial titled “Prof Is-haq Oloyede at 70”, Vanguard said: “If you ask any discerning Nigerian why [their] country is backward instead of occupying its rightful place at the top in Africa and beyond, they will blame it on three factors: poor/bad leadership, corruption and lack of willingness or capacity to faithfully implement policies and plans. Prof Oloyede in his over 40 years of public service, has demonstrated sound leadership, capacity and integrity, and thus made the difference wherever he has found himself.”

    The editorial further noted: “Before his appointment as JAMB’s Registrar on August 9, 2016 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, Oloyede was known more for his outspoken and strong views as an Islamic scholar and activist. Indeed, many worried Nigerians read conspiratorial meanings into his appointment, especially given Buhari’s perceived religious and sectional tendencies. However, within one year, Oloyede’s administration at JAMB started making the news – surprisingly good news.” The editorial then remarked: “We appreciate Prof Oloyede, a Vanguard Newspapers exemplary public service award winner, for his services to the nation, and wish him many more happy birthdays.”

    According to the 10 October, 2024 editorial of The Sun titled “Is-haq Oloyede at 70,” “Some of the good qualities that stand this Professor of Islamic Studies out are his honesty, diligence and accountability. … In 2023, news went round that a young girl called Miss Joy Mmesoma Ejikeme had the highest score in that year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). She purportedly got 362 over 400. JAMB debunked the news, but Miss Ejikeme and some of her supporters drew daggers with the institution. Painstakingly, JAMB explained the examination processes and how Ejikeme falsified her results. When it dawned on the candidate that there was no escape route, she owned up to her forgery and apologized. This is part of the fruits of the sanitization of the admission processes into our universities which JAMB under Oloyede instituted.”

    The 10 October, 2024 editorial of Blueprint, titled “Tribute to Ishaq Oloyede at 70”, also stated: “Oloyede’s leadership is characterised by a commitment to merit, transparency, and accountability. His approach to governance appears to be deeply influenced by his background as an Islamic scholar and his strong spiritual convictions. These qualities, combined with his personal attributes of humility, humour, and sincerity, have earned him widespread respect and admiration.”

    The editorial further observed: “Oloyede’s contributions to education and public service have been widely recognised. He is a recipient of two national honours: Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in 2014 and Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 2022. His other accolades include the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award and the Nigeria Excellence Award in Public Service (Education Category) in 2022.”

    The editorial then concluded: “Blueprint wishes Oloyede a joyous 70th birthday celebration. We express our gratitude for his continued meritorious service to Nigeria and humanity at large. His life and work serve as an inspiration, demonstrating the profound impact that integrity, dedication, and visionary leadership can have on public institutions and society as a whole.”

    The media have often been accused of propagating negative views about Nigeria and Nigerians.  It is as such gratifying that, with respect to positive performance by Professor Is-haq Oloyede, there is a rare consensus among four newspaper editorials published on his birthday, on 10 October, 2024, and two published the next day. This is apart from the several columnists who have been extolling his virtues. This is a testimony to the solidity of his reputation. It is thus hoped that a critical mass of Nigerians would find Professor Oloyede’s model attractive and easy enough to adopt to raise the quality of life in the country and enhance the nation’s international profile.   

  • Monday Sit-at-home: where are Southeast leaders?

    Monday Sit-at-home: where are Southeast leaders?

    The so-called ‘unknown gunmen’ are not unknown as they claim to be but are yet to be exposed because they are being pampered by landlords and other stakeholders…Criminals kidnapping people for ransom, killings and destruction are not agitating, but engaging in lucrative criminality. We know where these criminals are… It is not agitation, but a criminal activity” – Governor Charles Soludo.

    “Their modus operandi involves sporadic shooting, abduction, maiming, arson, jailbreak and extrajudicial killing. Their targets include private citizens, business owners, politicians, government institutions and business organisations. Their activities are carried out in rural and urban areas; in daytime or at night. The aftereffect of such attacks is the destruction of life and property, piles of dead bodies, displacement, torched villages, maimed victims, lots of casualties, an increase in internal displacement, forced migration and food shortages. Attacks by unknown gunmen. These attacks also have economic implications as the means of livelihood of several Nigerians have been destroyed, while foreign investors have been scared away from such volatile areas”

    – Victor Chukwugekwu Ebonine, Iyase Osariyekemwen Ambrose in ‘Unknown Gunmen and Insecurity in Nigeria’.

    Writ large on my mind when a few weeks ago I flew a kite regarding a Marshall Plan for Northern Nigeria, was a situation where the deployment of huge funds could be used to banish the crawling poverty in that part of the country by socially, and infrastructurally restructuring the region – get millions of out of school children heading to schools, tens of thousands of the citizens who are waiting to be  recruited by all manner of criminal gang’s, getting gainfully employed just as several agro- allied industries are established to process its more than abundant agricultural products. I had

     equally believed that seeing these possibilities, at least one or two, if nòt many more,  of the hundreds of Northernern billionaires would not only react to the article, but actually initiate the process of getting the Plan in place.

    But for where?

    I had forgotten  that many had become so stinkingly rich through government patronage, while those of them who are actually engaged in productive activities make their millions of dollars, on a daily basis, in Southern Nigeria where things are far less restive, and that their concern for the deleterious consequences of  the large scale insecurity convulsing their homeland does not go beyond  palliatives.

    Unfortunately, the reaction of Southeastern leaders – Obis, politicians, its world acclaimed Igbo intellectual, merchants of all manner of enterprise – has also shown that Northern leaders – Emirs, Generals, especially retired, super rich businessmen and the equally world acclaimed Northern intellectual, forever holding conferences all the year round, on all manner of subjects – do not have a monopoly of treating their homeland with benign neglect.

    I did my humble little in ‘It is Time For a Marshall Plan For Northern Nigeria’ (The Nation. 15 September, 2024) to prick the conscience of the average Northerner, to see what hell on earth their people are going through, being daily subjected to Boko Haram activities, banditry, sporadic shootings, abduction, maiming, arson as well as sundry extrajudicial killings.

    Unfortunately, not a whimper was heard in reaction.

    Today, I shall be turning my gaze Southwards to the Southeast where, for years, things have not been much better than we see in both the Northeast and the Northwest.

    Below, for instance, is a typical iteration of the Southeastern condition as reported by several newspapers this past week:

    “The Defence Headquarters on Thursday said Troops of Operation UDO KA at FOB Orsu in a sting operation apprehended a terrorist leader identified as Mr Pius Iguh after troops conducted an offensive operation in Orsu and Obubra LGAS of Imo and Cross River States respectively. Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba revealed while addressing media at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja that Troops also made contact with IPOB/ESN terrorists in Arochukwu LGA of Abia State.

    General Buba said the arrested Mr Pius Iguh is an IPOB terrorist founding father responsible for Orsu general area in Imo State. He also added that Troops conducted a sting operation and arrested IPOB/ESN terrorists in Ehime Mbano, Oguta and Orsu LGAs of Imo State as well as Udenu LGA of Enugu State respectively. In a separate development, troops at FOB Amaruku conducted a raid on an IPOB commander. The raid was successful and led to the arrest of the Commander identified as Emmanuel Onwugu in Mbano LGA of Abia State. In another development, troops and security forces conducted a combined sting operation. General Buba said the operation led to the arrest of a notorious cult leader named Ifeanyi Rock and 10 of his combatants in Arochukwu LGA of Abia StateOverall, troops of Operation UDO KA neutralized 24 terrorists, arrested 12 violent extremists and rescued one kidnapped hostage. Troops recovered 10 AK47 rifles, 15 pump action guns, 153 rounds of 7.62mm amongst other items.The ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations of the armed forces has dealt significant blows to terrorist capabilities. Troops have denied these terrorists from accomplishing their strategic objectives…”

    Now which of these ought to mean nothing to the average Igbo, especially its leaders: that after the slaughter of millions of Igbo youth in the unfortunate civil war, countless numbers of its very vibrant youth are, again now putting themselves to this needless death? Or the fact that not only are businesses unnecessarily disrupted weekly by the activities of these young men and, to quote the researchers we already referenced at some length: “the destruction of life and property, piles of dead bodies, displacement, torched villages, maimed victims, lots of casualties, an increase in internal displacement, forced migration and food shortages, a humanitarian crisis with an increase in the number of internally displaced persons, student abductions and wanton killings?”

    Why then has the Igbo leadership not moved, like one man, into some meaningful effort to stanch this horrible daily experience of their people?

    Read Also: Suspected sit-at-home enforcers kill two in Aba 

    I do not come into these issues, North and South, because I am some good Samaritan; rather it is simply because I can see what peace, Pan – Nigeria, can do for this currently thoroughly beleagured giant of Africa.

    I also do not intend to patronise Igbos when I say they are rigorous, brilliant, courageous and, above all, highly resourceful. But is all that only as far as money making is concerned, and nothing else matters?

    What is stopping Igbo intellectuals from acting if their politicians are playing timid, fearing they might lose their highly profitable sinecures?

    I once raised this question with a younger Igbo friend of mine, a professor.  He wisely told me that given what is going on in the Southeast, with hardly any respect for human life, it is only reasonable to wait and watch. Of course, I agree with him  because it is common knowledge that many Igbos, visiting from abroad, do not go beyond Lagos, or  have an occasional visit to Abuja, before going back. And if they must go home at all, they would have to pay protection money to whichever criminal gang controls their area.

    Were my advice sought on this matter, I would go straight to the words of Anambra state governor, Professor Charles Soludo when he says:“these are criminals kidnapping people for ransom. Killings and destruction, he emphasised, are not agitating but engaging in LUCRATIVE CRIMINALITY.

    We know where these criminals are… It is not agitation, but a criminal activity”.

    Now I am going to a very risky territory because I know how Igbos idolise their ‘young kings’ who, they actually believe, are the messiahs who will take them out of Nigeria, back to Israel since they claim they are Jews; these very boys oiling criminally in Igbo land. To touch them, as I am now doing, is to open oneself to a barrage of infantile name calling on social media. But what would that profit them? Besides, I’ve  been on this column since 2006 – do the arithmetic – and name calling has not succeeded in removing a strand of hair from my head.

    But what does the bible say about a people whose kings ( rulers/leaders) are children?

    Says Ecclesiastes 10:16-17-“Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!”.

    These ‘young Igbo messiahs’, well aware of the Igbo psyche, always emerge, posing as freedom fighters but governor Soludo knows them.

    First was Ralph Uwazuruike who, thanks to a WhatsApp post which trended some months ago, we now know is a  multi- millionaire. From nowhere emerged the charismatic prince, Nnamdi Kanu, ever flamboyant, and blessed with the gift of the garb, who soon seduced every Igbo so much Igbo National Assembly members, fearful of losing election, literally worship him. One of them even signed up for him as surety, never believing the strong man could ever vote with his feet. The Nigerian government had to, creatively, bring him back home (rendition) from Kenya; an action already adjudged illegal by a court of law. And now the latest, and perhaps the most dangerous of them all – who singlehandedly, successfully shamed Nigeria by exposing her diplomatic impotence to the entire world.

    Simon Ekpa, ensconced in Finland now for years, instigating all manner of criminalities all over the Southeast, and only last week inviting the Nigerian Army to a contest of  weaponry, “if the Nigerian Army could dare”, has made mince meat of any influence the ‘giant of Africa’ may claim to possess as Nigeria has failed dismally to get Finland to move against him.

    But how do their activities advance the cause of the Igbo or how does the massive insecurity benefit Igbo businesses or life in general?

    If the answers to the questions above are all in negative territory, as they are, then when would Igbo leaders, its opinion leaders, their politicians, if they can be trusted, all get together, and say enough is enough?

    While it is true that the Igbo republican nature makes them independent minded, it is an undeniable fact that these Unknown Gun Men who Soludo told us are known, but not yet arrested, as they sure would, do have parents. Since Soludo also described what they  are doing as lucrative criminality, I make bold to say that if Igbo leaders are not being influenced by consideration for the huge fortune their ‘young kings’ are making, especially from Diasporan Igbo, then the time is now for the entire race to get together and say enough, because as things stand, Igbos are literally destroying themselves.

    With iron clad determination, they should be able to put an end to all these killings and economic strangulation in their homeland because, unlike in the North where the bandits, Boko Haram elements and the criminal Fulani herders tormenting the region are multinational, those ravaging Igboland are Igbos. Igboland can make do with a modicum of peace.

    I wish them all they wish themselves.

    “The so-called ‘unknown gunmen’ are not unknown as they claimed to be, but are yet to be exposed because they are being pampered by landlords and other stakeholders…Criminals kidnapping people for ransom, killings and destruction are not agitating, but engaging in lucrative criminality. We know where these criminals are… It is not agitation, but a criminal activity” – Governor Charles Soludo.

    “Their modus operandi involves sporadic shooting, abduction, maiming, arson, jailbreak and extrajudicial killing. Their targets include private citizens, business owners, politicians, government institutions and business organisations. Their activities are carried out in rural and urban areas; in daytime or at night. The aftereffect of such attacks is the destruction of life and property, piles of dead bodies, displacement, torched villages, maimed victims, lots of casualties, an increase in internal displacement, forced migration and food shortages. Attacks by unknown gunmen have led to a humanitarian crisis with an increase in the number of internally displaced persons, student abductions and wanton killings (SPD, 2021, p. 1). These attacks also have economic implications as the means of livelihood of several Nigerians have been destroyed, while foreign investors have been scared away from such volatile areas”

    Victor Chukwugekwu Ebonine, Iyase Osariyekemwen Ambros and in Unknown Gunmen and Insecurity in Nigeria.

    Writ large on my mind when a few weeks ago I flew a kite regarding a Marshall Plan for Northern Nigeria, was a situation where the deployment of huge funds could be used to banish the crawling poverty in that part of the country by socially and infrastructurally restructuring the region – get millions of out of school children heading to schools, tens of thousands of the citizens waiting to be eagerly recruited by all manner of criminal gang’s  getting gainfully employed as many agro- allied midlevel industries are established to process its more than abundant agricultural products.

    I equally believed that seeing these possibilities, at least one or two, if nòt many more,  of the hundreds of billionaires in that part of the country would not only react to the article but actually initiate the process of getting the Plan in place.

    But for where?

    I had forgotten  that many had become so stinkingly rich through government while those of them who are actually engaged in productive activities make their millions of dollars, on a daily basis, in Southern Nigeria where things are far less restive, and that their concern for the deleterious consequences of  the large scale insecurity convulsing their homeland does not go beyond sending palliatives.

    Unfortunately, the reaction of Southeastern leaders – Obis, politicians, its world acclaimed Igbo intellectual, merchants of all manner of enterprise – has shown, conclusively, that Northern leaders – Emirs, Generals, especially retired, super rich businessmen and the equally world acclaimed Northern intellectual, forever holding conferences, all the year round, on all manner of subjects – do not have a monopoly of treating their homeland with benign neglect.

    I did my humble little in ‘It is Time For a Marshall Plan For Northern Nigeria’ (The Nation. 15 September, 2024) to prick the conscience of the average Northerner, to see what hell on earth their people are going through, being daily subjected to Boko Haram activities, banditry, sporadic shootings, abduction, maiming, arson as well as sundry extrajudicial killings.

    Unfortunately, not a whimper was heard in reaction.

    Today, I shall be turning my gaze Southwards to the Southeast where, for years, things have not been better than we see in both the Northeast and the Northwest.

    Below is a typical iteration of the Southeastern condition as reported by several newspapers this past week:

    “The Defence Headquarters on Thursday said Troops of Operation UDO KA at FOB Orsu in a sting operation apprehended a terrorist leader identified as Mr Pius Iguh after troops conducted an offensive operation in Orsu and Obubra LGAS of Imo and Cross River States respectively. Director Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba revealed while addressing media at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja that Troops also made contact with IPOB/ESN terrorists in Arochukwu LGA of Abia State.

    General Buba said the arrested Mr Pius Iguh is an IPOB terrorist founding father responsible for Orsu general area in Imo State. He also added that Troops conducted a sting operation and arrested IPOB/ESN terrorists in Ehime Mbano, Oguta and Orsu LGAs of Imo State as well as Udenu LGA of Enugu State respectively. In a separate development, troops at FOB Amaruku conducted a raid on an IPOB commander. The raid was successful and led to the arrest of the Commander identified as Emmanuel Onwugu in Mbano LGA of Abia State. In another development, troops and security forces conducted a combined sting operation. General Buba said the operation led to the arrest of a notorious cult leader named Ifeanyi Rock and 10 of his combatants in Arochukwu LGA of Abia StateOverall, troops of Operation UDO KA neutralized 24 terrorists, arrested 12 violent extremists and rescued one kidnapped hostage. Troops recovered 10 AK47 rifles, 15 pump action guns, 153 rounds of 7.62mm amongst other items.The ongoing counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations of the armed forces has dealt significant blows to terrorist capabilities. Troops have denied these terrorists from accomplishing their strategic objectives…”

    Now which of these ought to mean nothing to the average Igbo, especially its leaders: that after the slaughter of millions of Igbo youth in the unfortunate civil war, countless numbers of its very vibrant youth aarenow putting themselves to this needless death? Or the fact that not only are businesses unnecessarily disrupted weekly by the activities of these young men and, to quote the researchers we already referenced at some length: “the destruction of life and property, piles of dead bodies, displacement, torched villages, maimed victims, lots of casualties, an increase in internal displacement, forced migration and food shortages, a humanitarian crisis with an increase in the number of internally displaced persons, student abductions and wanton killings?”

    Why then has the Igbo leadership not moved, like one man, into some meaningful effort to stanch this horrible daily experience of their people? I do not come into these issues, North and South, because I am some good Samaritan, rather it is simply because I can see what peace, Pan – Nigeria, can do for this currently thoroughly beleagured giant of Africa.

    I also do not intend to patronise Igbos when I say are rigorous, brilliant, courageous and, above all, highly resourceful.  But is all that only as far as money makinggis concerned, and nothing else matters?

    What is stopping637 Igbo intellectuals from acting if their politicians are playing timid, fearing they might lose their highly profitable sinecures?

    I once raised this very question with a younger Igbo friend of mine, a professor.  He wisely told me that given what is going on in the Southeast, with hardly any respect for human life, it is only reasonable to wait and watch. Of course, I agree with him  because it is common knowledge that many Igbos, visiting from abroad, do not go beyond Lagos, or  have an occasional visit to Abuja before going back. And if they must get home at all, they would have to pay protection money to whichever criminal gang controls their area.

    Were my advice sought on this matter, I would go straight to the words of Anambra state governor, Professor Charles Soludo when he says that: “these are criminals kidnapping people for ransom. Killings and destruction, he emphasised, are not agitating but engaging in LUCRATIVE CRIMINALITY. We know where these criminals are… It is not agitation, but a criminal activity”.

    Now I am going to a very risky territory because I know Igbos idolise their ‘young kings’ who they actually believe are the messiahs who will take them out of Nigeria back to Israel since they claim they are Jews; these very boys oiling criminally in Igbo land. To touch them, as am now doing, is to open oneself to a barrage on infantile name calling on social media. But what would that profit them. Besides, I’ve  been on this column since 2006 – do the arithmetic, and name calling has not succeeded in removing a strand of hair from my head.

    But what does the bible say about a people whose kings ( rulers/leaders) are children?

    Says Ecclesiastes 10:16-17-“Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!”.

    These young Igbo messiahs, well aware of the Igbo psyche, always emerge posing as freedom fighters but Soludo knows them.

    First was Ralph Uwazuruike who, thanks to a WhatsApp post which trended some months ago, is now a  multi- millionaire. From nowhere emerged the charismatic prince, Nnamdi Kanu, ever flamboyant, and blessed with the gift of the garb, who soon seduced every Igbo so much Igbo National Assembly members, fearful of losing election, literally worship him. One of them even signed up for him as surety, never believing the strong man could ever vote with his feet. The Nigerian government had to, creatively, bring him back home (rendition) from Kenya; an action already adjudged illegal by a court of law. And now the latest, and perhaps the most dangerous of them all – who singlehandedly, successfully shamed Nigeria by exposing her diplomatic impotence to the entire world.

    Simon Ekpa, ensconced in Finland now for years, instigating all manner of criminalities all over the Southeast, and only last week inviting the Nigerian Army to a contest of  weaponry, “if the Nigerian Army could dare”, has made mince meat of any influence the ‘giant of Africa’ may claim to possess as Nigeria has failed dismally to get Finland to move against him.

    But how does that advance the cause of the Igbos or how does the massive insecurity benefit Igbo businesses or life in general?

    If all the answers are in negative territory, as they are, then when would Igbo leaders, its opinion leaders, their politicians, if they can be trusted, all get together, and say enough is enough?

    While it is true that the Igbo republican nature makes them independent minded, it is an undeniable fact that these Unknown Gun Men who Soludo told us are known, but not yet arrested, as they sure would, do have parents. Since Soludo also described what these criminals are doing as lucrative criminality, I make bold to say that if Igbo leaders are not being influenced by consideration for the huge fortune their ‘young kings’ are making, especially from Diasporan Igbo, then the time is now for the entire race to get together and say enough because as things stand, Igbos are literally destroying themselves.

    With iron clad determination, they should be able to put an end to all these killings and economic strangulation in their homeland because, unlike Northern Nigeria where the bandits, Boko Haram elements and the criminal Fulani herders tormenting the region are multinational, those ravaging Igboland are their own Igbos. Igboland can make do with a modicum of peace.

    I wish them all they wish themselves.

  • A petroleum economy

    A petroleum economy

    I have always insisted that there is nothing that can be described as the Nigerian economy if only because all economic activities in this county defy the basic laws of Economics. One could argue however that Economics not being exactly a hard science would leave holes in its laws wide enough to drive a fully loaded tanker through. Also, unlike all those other scientific areas of study; mathematics, physics, chemistry and so on, economics is a fairly new area of study even though it’s origins have been traced back more than three thousand years, to Aristotle and his students.

    The acknowledged father of the study of modern economics is Adam Smith who in conformity with the Greek origins of the subject was a philosopher.  Several other early economists including Karl Marx were also philosophers who saw the world through different prisms and have scattered their light in several different directions and broken it into different colours so that observers see various versions of the same thing depending on which ground they choose to stand on. This has led to the development of different schools of economics. The point with Nigeria however is that wherever you stand in respect of our national economy you are never going to be able to see anything with the desired level of clarity.

     Over the years, there have been several schools of economics, perhaps the most influential at least for some time, the Chicago School under Milton Friedman, ardent supporters of the power of the market who swear by the purity of the forces unleashed by the blind folded market to push national economies into the plush oasis of prosperity. Such was the recognition given to these Chicagoans that joining the Department of Economics in Chicago was for a long while, a guarantee of the Nobel prize in Economics at no distant future. The fact that the Nobel Prize situation has changed suggests that the work coming out of Chicago at that time was no more than a fickle item of contemporary fashion supported at the time by the terrible economic twins, Reagan and Thatcher, who extolled the dubious virtue of human greed as a means of driving national economies to universal prosperity.

    Whilst it is true that market forces are clean, they bear little relations to the universal human condition, except for the few who are in a position to exploit the market in all forms that catch their fancy. It is instructive that the two prime promoters of the free market forces as the driver of individual prosperity, Reagan and Thatcher, both succumbed to dementia later on, suggesting that even at the height of their powers their mental powers such as they were, were already much diminished by the condition which was going to prove fatal later on.

    The popularity of the theory of growth could only have  been severely damaged when the main laboratory within which the seeds of market forces were germinated was Chile. This was a country under the iron heel of Augusto Pinochet who committed so many crimes against humanity that he was only saved from prison by ill health and death. It is not surprising that one of the choice epithets hauled at this man of violence was beast, if only because his support for the righteousness of market forces was deadly, to say the least. The lesson to be learnt from this is that political interventions into the affairs of any society must have a recognisable human face if only to appease the sensitivities of the human beings who live at the sharp end of those policies. After all the economy should be at the service of human beings and certainly should not be the other way round.

    Read Also: Russian BRICS Summit and its impact on the Nigerian economy

    Having started this article with the admission that I am not convinced that there is anything to be neatly packaged as the Nigerian economy, I must qualify that by saying that at least there is a market in operation in Nigeria in which there is a great deal of buying and selling, even if there is no discernible pattern to the madness that runs that market. This is because the productive arm of a market economy in Nigeria is only conspicuous by it’s absence. We do not have people making things on an industrial scale which means that most of the goods in our market are produced overseas, separated from our chaotic market by vast distances. A prime example is what goes on in our oil and gas sector, the behemoth that drives what is supposed to be the Nigerian economy.

    For some forty years we have imported every drop of fuel with which to stoke the fires which have warmed our so called economy from a mythical land called Faraway. This means that we have been spending a fortune just to bring ashore what we need to power our so called economy. Furthermore, we have been paying vast sums of money in what has been described as subsidy to a gaggle of faceless people who have inserted  themselves into the unreachable crevices of our fuel equation.  They are referred to as a cabal but since they operate outside any government or government approved institution, they do not qualify to be called a cabal. I must leave their correct title to your imagination.

    The bottom line here is that for forty years or so, a tiny band of tape worms have attached themselves with  suckers of steel to our collective alimentary canal and had appropriated to themselves all the nourishment which could have been used to put some muscle on our emerging national economy. It is not too much to say that the likelihood of building an economy has been reduced to zero by the activity of those who are the modern equivalent of those who for many lifetimes were responsible for selling millions of Africans to what Bob Marley in his infinite wisdom decided to call merchant ships. The merchandise in this case being men, women and children most of them at the very prime of life. Like their criminal grandfathers these modern slave traders are fanning their outsized egos with baubles such as fancy garments and ridiculous vehicles including those that fly in the skies above. They leave these baubles to their children who have developed an insatiable appetite for things of little tangible value, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves as best we could but mainly unsuccessfully.

    Whatever you say of the Nigerian economy perhaps the most visible item within it is the petroleum industry. Nigeria is regarded as one of the largest producers of crude oil which in the good old days was injecting more than 2.4 million barrels of the black stuff into the world market everyday that God sent. We have mismanaged that process to such an extent that we are now producing and delivering less than half that volume, much of what is produced is simply blatantly stolen and cooked in makeshift refineries which are more dangerous than useful. The situation in the Middle East suggests that the price of crude oil is going up soon. However, we would not be able to benefit from this because in real terms we have little oil left to sell. We must not forget, painful as it is that the last time we had a windfall of twelve billion dollars under similar circumstances, the whole thing just went up in smoke, never to be seen or even heard of  any more. Crucially, that humongous sum of money never did land in the Nigerian market for the benefit of our economy.

    For forty years and more, we have been using scarce and increasingly precious foreign exchange to buy fuel from Faraway. Ships have been bringing in refined petroleum products from overseas even though we had  no less than three refineries which could have been refining crude oil for our benefit but for reasons known to the managers of the oil sector, they are still much more interested in importing petrol than making the product available for our consumption.  Even now with availability of a refinery capable of supplying all our fuel needs, some powerful people are still fighting a tenacious rear guard action in defence of the uneconomic status quo.

    Things get really interesting when the fuel lands in Nigeria. It is first, weather permitting, offloaded from the mother ship into smaller sister ships from where they are pumped into tanks. And then nearly half of it simply disappears, smuggled to neighbouring countries where it fetches a temptingly high price. The rest is pumped into tankers, many of them in vintage condition and then sent several thousand kilometres around the country. Our roads are fairly infested with these fully loaded contraptions most of them accidents waiting to happen and too many of them happening. There are too many of those trucks experiencing very inconvenient  brake failures which are the cause of what Nigerians call ghastly accidents leading to fatalities in the hundreds. This is an eventuality which becomes reality far too many times. Far too many times too, these tanker accidents are followed by conflagrations which lead to the incineration of people and a great deal of property. Unfortunately, that is the Nigerian way. Each accident in which a ridiculous number of people die is a photo opportunity for overdressed government officials. They arrive at the scene of the gory event, make sympathetic but ineffectual comments and are then wafted away from the scene in a whirl of rotating helicopter blades. The dead are swiftly buried and life goes back to normal if the conditions now governing our lives can be described as normal. A panel of investigation is set up to find out the remote and immediate causes of the accident. Their report, painstakingly cobbled together is lost in the bureaucratic swamp which surrounds such incidents.

    Close to two hundred  Nigerians were recently roasted to death in Jigawa state in the aftermath of a tanker accident. That accident is representative of the current Nigerian situation as it could have been avoided altogether or the effects could have been minimised. The tanker carrying a full load of petrol took off from Kano 110 kilometres away en route Nguru along a typically unlit expressway. Where else would you expect to have an expressway covered over completely with a pall of darkness outside of Nigeria? It is not only that the road is dark but it is also lavishly decorated with potholes that need to be avoided if the journey is not to come to an abrupt end. The driver, why is he on that dark road a little before midnight with only the fear of armed robbers for company? That is a personal question to which even he may not have an answer but under the circumstances, I feel justified in asking it. To return to the journey, the tanker is moving along at a fair clip, moving faster than it should be going when for some reason it has to avoid something on the road. The lethal combination of darkness, speed, obstacle on the road jamming with driver fatigue or loss of focus causes the driver to lose control of a tanker fully loaded with petrol and inevitably the tanker ends up on its side in a ditch, it’s volatile cargo liberated from its fractured tank. Alive to the danger of his situation, the driver, he thinks only about how to make a quick escape and he flees the cabin at great speed which he maintains as soon as his feet touch the ground in an attempt to put a great deal of distance between himself and the ticking bomb lying in the ditch.

    The next chapter in the tragedy follows as news of the accident reaches town and the inhabitants eager to make profit from the accident arrive on the scene of the accident bringing with them all kinds of vessels with which to cart away as much of the accessible fuel as possible. In their thinking, anything that can somehow be converted to liquid cash was not to be allowed to go to waste. In spite of the sensible cordon thrown around the stricken tanker, people trample over each other as they struggle to salvage precious fuel from the tanker. Inevitably a spark is somehow generated and everyone and everything around are engulfed in hot flames and nearly two hundred souls are companionably liberated from tortured bodies and pass into a body of unpleasant history. This is an occurrence we have to live with at this time in our dystopian communities.

    Thanks to Miss Abayomi Morolake Lamikanra who suggested that I write this story.

  • Voice of the voiceless

    Voice of the voiceless

    • FCCPC’s intervention in meter replacement is good for power consumers

    Nigeria’s power consumers must have been asking if they heard right when Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) on October 11, asked its customers using the Unistar brand of prepaid meters to replace them latest by November 14, if they wanted to continue to vend and enjoy electricity supply. About two days later, Ikeja Electric (IE) issued a similar ultimatum to its own customers too. The customers were to visit the respective websites of the DisCos for replacement of the meters, a way of telling the customers that they were to bear the cost of replacement.

    This decision by the DisCos would

    perhaps qualify as the latest example of the blue murder that some entities, public or private, commit in Nigeria. Why should power consumers pay for the replacement of meters that allegedly are not upgradeable?

    To start with, meters should be the property of the DisCos. They should ordinarily be in the package that the DisCos should provide for their customers as part of their contract with them from the onset. It is because of the peculiar mess that some of our leaders put us that made electricity consumers to be buying meters for DisCos.

     The DisCos would not be behaving like over-pampered children as they are today if they had been compelled to do the right thing from the onset.

    Unfortunately, successive governments kept treating them like eggs that must not break, preferring instead to make their customers the beasts of burden.

    It was clear, ab initio, that the DisCos never wanted to meter any consumer, preferring instead, to be giving them estimated bills which give them the latitude of arbitrary allocation of figures as electricity bills. And they did everything to frustrate metering.

    When it seemed they could not have their way on the matter, they reluctantly started issuing meters to consumers. Even then, some of their officials would hoard the meters and only give to consumers that were ready to play ball.

     When the government saw that the metering process was slow, it decided to intervene with a million meters that were, again, unfortunately given to consumers simultaneously with those being sold by the DisCos. That was a terribly big mistake on the part of the government, especially in a country where corruption is rampant and where, especially, the institutions involved belong to a sector that had severally been rated as one of the most corrupt. I have a feeling most of the meters would have been sold one way or the other, both those belonging to the government that should be free, and the DisCos’ that were for sale to people who were eager to quit the estimated billing conundrum. Sadly, the present government seems to be following in that tradition.

    Just as the government acquiesced on metering by assisting supposedly private companies in more ways than one, so it seems to have done with regard to tariffs.

    I don’t know if there is anybody that can tell for sure if the tariff we are paying through our nose today is right or inflated. In Nigeria, as I have always said, government property is like a mad man’s leg that anybody desirous of a piece of the action can just go and get his or hers from.

    Read Also: Five years of giving voices to voiceless women

    Many Nigerians did not  bother about how much they were being charged per kilowatt of electricity because, until early this year, it was the government that was subsidising electricity. Nigerians are now bothered because government has stopped the subsidy and that skyrocketed electricity tariffs by more than 200 per cent. Thus, N20,000 which hitherto entitled the consumer to about 297.7 units of electricity would now fetch a paltry 88.8 units, that is for those in ‘Band A’. To bring the picture vividly home, a power consumer that consumed an average of 240 units of electricity per month would pay less than N20,000, compared to about N54,000 for the same quantum of energy that he would cough up, post-subsidy withdrawal in the same ‘Band A’.

    The point I am making is that the same amount that was paid when government was subsidising (which I am not sure much work was done to ascertain its fairness, since it was government that would pick the bill) is what was transferred to consumers. Nigerians are about the easiest to cheat in most contests, whether between them and government, or between them and government agencies or even private concerns. When the government weighs the options, it eventually boils down to the people carrying the can.

    We necessarily need to travel down this memory lane to understand how we got to this sorry pass of DisCos threatening consumers that their meters would stop functioning on November 14, if they did not get them replaced at the consumers’ expense. These were meters that the DisCos themselves approved for their operations. So, if they have outlived their lifespan, how is the customer to blame for that? Where else is that possible, except Nigeria, where the maxim, ”the customer is king” has lost its essence. Here, the DisCos are kings.  When they sneeze, Nigerians catch cold, instead of the other way round.

    The truth of the matter is that the DisCos don’t want to make any investment if they had regulators to connive with. Customers have had to replace several transformers for them, they have had to buy electricity poles for the DisCos, of course that of prepaid meters has now become the norm for the reason I mentioned earlier, among several unjust expenses imposed on the hapless power consumers. Where they don’t play ball, they are left in darkness.

     If you go to the websites of the DisCos, they tell you specific period you would get prepaid meters after making payment. This is observed in the breach. So are several other obligations clearly specifying deadlines for them. But they don’t tolerate such laxity from their customers who must pay, even for services not rendered.

    We are now talking about replacement of Unistar meters apparently because of the huge number of consumers involved. There are several people whose prepaid meters have had to be replaced for one reason or the other. The DisCo officials simply come to inspect and give verdict: meter to be replaced at customer’s expense. Just like that! No proof beyond showing you the burnt part of the meter. Whereas the meter could have got burnt due to no fault of the customer. The problem could have been power surge or whatever. The meter is then promptly retrieved while the customer is returned to the ‘Egypt’ that estimated billing connotes.

    It is against this backdrop that I welcome the intervention of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) in the meter

    replacement process. The ordinary Nigerian needs protection from Shylocks all over the place, waiting, like hungry lions, for people to devoir. I know price control is out of it but we must guard against price gouging. A lot of the latter exists. Even in a place like the Redemption Camp where one would think people there should be heavenly conscious, I was told the pathetic story of a woman selling soft drinks and water that got harassed into submission for selling at a cheaper price than her colleagues in the place. It is that bad.

    A statement by FCCPC’s director, special duties and strategic communication, Ondaje Ijagwu, said “In line with its mandate to protect consumers and promote fairness in the Nigerian marketplace, the FCCPC is actively engaging key stakeholders, including the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), and the eleven (11) DisCos. The goal is to make the metering process transparent and accountable while protecting consumer interests.”

    The point was made abundantly clear by the commission that the DisCos are to bear the cost of replacement of the Unistar meters that the DisCos want to phase out. This is the kind of thing Nigerians want to see and hear.

    Even before the FCCPC’s intervention, the sector’s regulator, NERC, had echoed a similar opinion. Without doubt, NERC too is trying but I guess it is overwhelmed. In terms of rules and regulations, they are mostly there. Just that, as I said earlier, they are largely observed in the breach by the DisCos.

    We also have the NERC Forum set up by the commission to entertain appeals from decisions of Customer Complaints Unit (CCU) of the DisCos. But NERC Forum can only work in a sane country where institutions have the purest of intentions to do the rightful, not in our kind of clime where many institutions are desperate to milk consumers dry by getting paid even for services they never rendered. I once benefitted from NERC’s ruling against my DisCo a few years ago but it took about three months for justice to come.

    NERC definitely needs a helping hand in this kind of situation and it is good that FCCPC is taking up the challenge. FCCPC can’t regulate the sector but its mandate is essentially safeguarding consumers’ interests.

    The DisCos must be coming from Jupiter or Mars to ask Nigerians who are yet to recover from the high electricity bills imposed on them, to cough up about N150,000 for single phase meters in a time like this. They did not even deem it fit to inform their regulator before taking such a decision with overarching ramifications.

    Meanwhile, the manufacturers of Unistar prepaid meters have said their meters are upgradeable. According to Niyi Adewoye, Head of Communications at Unistar Hi-Tech Systems Ltd: “Our meters are upgradeable.” Apparently, something is fishy somewhere. But that, for now, is not our headache. Our concern for now is to ensure that DisCos do not ride roughshod over voiceless Nigerians.

    The FCCPC’s intervention should somehow douse anxiety of consumers that this time, the government appears serious about not making the Nigerian electricity consumers the beast of

    burden that must, willy-nilly, carry whatever load the DisCos want to put on their heads.

    Here, we can count on the renewed activism of the FCCPC, especially since the assumption of office of Tunji Bello as its Executive Vice Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer, in July. It has been organising town hall meetings with the view to making Nigerians realise the essence of the commission and the need to bring sanity to bear in pricing so that cartels and hoarders do not continue to take undue advantage of hapless Nigerians.

    That is the least the government owes Nigerians in the country where  consumerism awareness is low or non-existent.

  • Snapsong 236

    Snapsong 236

    Soundprints of the rolling drums

    (for Wally Serote, Teller of the Tough Tale)

    Let the drums roll

         Let songbirds  unfurl their wings

    Let a rallying chorus spring forth

         From the music of waiting proverbs

    One sigh, one sky

         One night, a thousand stars

    One purple laughter above the hueless whisper

         Warm handshakes across the oceans……

    The winking night

         Plods towards a cloudless dawn

    No matter how wide the wanderer’s ways

         History is never far from the home address

    Bridge over the gulf

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         One mouth, many tongues

    A million, million rooms

         In the house that friendship built

    From the South to the East

         From the Blue Mountains to the Yellow River

    Let the rolling drums possess the wind

         Let willing legs obey their accents

    and References to A  Tough Tale,  The Night Keeps Winking, and History Is the Home Address, three of Serote’s collections of poems.

  • Capitalism and modern slavery

    Capitalism and modern slavery

    • On the enslavement of nations

    Historical projects, more often than not projects of conquest and domination, are often forced to assume new forms to protect their hegemony. No new historical development ever jumps on the world stage fully dressed, well-rehearsed and ready for action. They would have been incubating somewhere else in rudimentary or elementary forms, awaiting the cue or signal that their appointed hour with destiny is at hand. With the arrival of AI and other precursors of a new age of technology that are unlike anything the world has seen before, some early barons of ancient factories and hand-wrought artifices would be wondering whether there is any correlation between what they handed down to us and what we have made of it. If Charles Dickens with his plethora of bleak novels about the social disequilibrium and the horrors of human degradations of his time were to be shown a glimpse of the modern factory, he would have thought that we had truly reached the end of history and the advent of a new type of humankind.    

    By the same token, historical developments do not terminate abruptly or cease suddenly with a resounding thud. Sometimes under the pressure of other developments, they undergo a slow transformation of their inner essence. At other times, their outward form and formula begin to wear off revealing new possibilities. It is like the dialect of a particular language which after a prolonged estrangement by distance from the mother tongue or protracted isolation due to circumstances of geography and evolution becomes a new language in its own rights and takes off in a novel trajectory of its own.

      Some developments in the past fortnight lend credence to the claim that the phenomenon of slavery has not completely ceased but has merely assumed new forms in order to deal with historical emergencies. While the restructuring of the fundamental categories of capitalism proceeds apace, the whole notion of forcible labour, enforced migration, the substitution of persons for ownable property and the selling and transfer of such property in the new international slave markets also indicate an ongoing radical reset of the operative parameters of human toil. How else does one explain the sheer audacity of the World Bank Chieftain, a man of Indian extraction himself, who came here to tell us that there would be at least fifteen more lean years before things normalized in the country? Is this how they do it in his home country?

    But there are other developments across the globe that indicate how the international showdown between hegemonic capitalism and the nascent and contradictory forces arraigned against it is shaping up. First, the new Labour government in Britain spurned once again the idea of reparations for what has been adjudged as the complicity of the British Empire in the international slave trade which led to catastrophic displacements of populations, unimaginable suffering and irreversible demographic distortions. The British argument is that it is better to work for a new dawn of progress for humanity rather than to dwell on the errors and mistakes of the past. But the past does not cease to haunt us just because we have decreed its banishment from the imagination. Shortly after the British dismissal of reparation, King Charles on a state visit to the former colony of Australia was pounced upon by a Native female senator who heckled and pilloried him to distraction. She told him to his face that she did not recognize his sovereignty over her either now or in the past. A few days after this at a gathering of Commonwealth dignitaries of the Caribbean section of the association in Samoa, the selfsame King Charles was politely informed despite the highly convivial and literarily intoxicating atmosphere that massive reparations for the injuries of the past could not be off the cards.

      What are the main drivers of this new surge of resentment against the well-heeled nations and affluent societies of the western world emanating from the peripheries and hell-holes of humanity? In the first three decades of the twenty first century and despite hiccups here and there, the relative prosperity of core western nations appears undisturbed while other societies in Africa, Asia and Latin America have plunged deeper in the catacombs of catastrophes and human degradation. In countries such as Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and most recently in the Middle East, war has torn off the veneer and comforting veil of modern civilization revealing the horrors of human regression into a savage state of nature and a post-apocalyptic world of horrific suffering.

    The last frontiers of civilization are besieged on all sides and the gates are heaving and tilting as a human tornado threatens to overwhelm them. In Central America, hordes of refugees and would-be immigrants trudge thousands of miles through the inhospitable jungles in order to reach the American border. Many never made it as their remains are eaten by wild animals. In Africa, millions of young hopefuls and other wannabes trek through the hot and scalding sands of the Sahara Desert. Those who survive are then packed in rickety canoes and sagging dug-outs  to take their chance against the intemperate seas as they clutch at anything in desperation and utter disorientation. Those who have read Simon Schama’s gripping and unforgettable account of ancient African slaves traversing the middle passage would appreciate what it means to be trapped in the belly of a ship in the middle of nowhere.

       Now, the middle passage to nowhere is everywhere. It is a site of biblical suffering and aggravated anguish. It is in Sudan where state and central authority have collapsed. It is in Myanmar where the deranged military cartel feed on native Burmese as well as the Rohingya nationals who are subject to periodic pogroms accompanied by violent expulsion. It is in the jungles of Latin America where people reenact the Chinese long trek through hostile and snake-infested territory to reach freedom. Finally, the middle passage is in the gutted, shell-shocked and drone-dismembered apocalyptic hell of Gaza, Beirut and central Lebanon where human civilization has disappeared and children eke out a feral existence amidst rubble and rubbish. Now the question must be broached. Is this what vast wealth and increased prosperity has brought the human race? Is there a nexus between modern capitalism and a new form of human enslavement which is as sophisticated as it is insidious?  Finally, does the growing disparity between some core western countries and a few outliers from the periphery and the rest of the world point at a new type of inequality that borders on modern slavery?

    Read Also: Ending modern slavery

      To answer the question we need to broaden our historical perspective. In 1944, Eric Eustace Williams, a Trinidadian of French Creole extraction, published his Oxford University Ph.D thesis with the title, Capitalism and Slavery. The original title of the thesis was far more intriguing and directly polemical: The Economic Aspects of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and West Indian Slavery. Williams’ argument was succinct enough. The abolition of slavery by western countries was not dictated by the noble and humanitarian altruism it purported to be but a function of economic pragmatism due to declining profitability. But some critics believe that this argument can actually be turned on its head in the sense that the relative prosperity might have forced Britain to take a visionary look away from indentured labour and its economic and political discontent.

      The irony of both countervailing arguments is that they demonstrate the fluency, fluidity and the extraordinary capacity of capitalism to change direction and to restructure its fundamental categories for greater efficiency. So while capitalism divested itself of its vast holdings in human toil and labour, it went ahead to acquire even more humungous holdings in national resources. In the past while it was humans who were abducted and forced into slavery, now it is nations who are dragooned into the slavery of permanent peonage and everlasting indebtedness. In the past, natives had to be hunted down and captured before being transported overseas as slaves, whereas in the current epoch it is individuals who willingly deliver themselves into modern slavery as indentured workers in modern factories. Either way, it helps the west to absolve itself and to salve its conscience. At the highest level of human endeavors, such individuals are subsequently absorbed into the social matrix of the west and are forever lost to their originating societies. Like the original slaves, it is a journey of no return but at least transplantation is to be preferred to the old plantation. Either way, capitalism is absolved of ingrained and inherent racism.

    Some elementary or rudimentary form of capital-holding and capital-dispensing has been present in all human societies since the dawn of human civilization. What has happened in the last six hundred years is that some nations, people and societies have proved more adept at valorizing and capitalizing on capital far more than others. Not only that, they have also through wise investment of resources from wars and other predatory ventures been able to build institutions capable of justifying, explaining away, predicting and rationalizing the course and trajectory of the dominant economic system they have put together for and on behalf of humanity. Framing the current economic conflict and global inequities as a war among nations rather than a war of deprived people against political, economic and religious slavery is a strategy of containment which helps to mute and modulate the prospects of global conflagration. That way, things get far less rowdy and confrontational.

       In the final analysis, only nations that cock a snook at the west either militarily or economically have managed to spring the trap of economic slavery or what has been aptly described as “the development of underdevelopment”. Numerous examples spring to mind: Russia, China, North Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, India, South Korea and Indonesia. These nations, either through military hell-raising or through an adaptation of what they consider to be benign and beneficial about western capitalism to aspects of their own indigenous cultures, have managed to reprieve their people and their countries from the clutches of poverty and millennial misery. On his way to becoming the founding prime minister of his country, Eric Eustace Williams suffered many tribulations. He was denied prestigious teaching positions on account of what was considered his earlier intellectual contumely. As prime minister, he successfully fought off an Anglo-American conspiracy to seize a chain of islands belonging to Trinidad and Tobago. After a haughty face-off, even the Russians told him to stick to what his country was best known for which is Calypso and Steel Band. But he remained proud and defiant till the end.

    Given the tradition of some form of communitarianism in virtually all African indigenous cultures, African economists should come together to fashion out an authentic economic system for the continent which is distinguished by inclusive growth and a concern for the plight of the poor and the most vulnerable in the society. Without this, it is as sure as daylight that postcolonial Africa is willingly knocking at the gates of economic slavery all over again.

  • Badaru and the secessionist scarecrow

    Badaru and the secessionist scarecrow

    After many months of inscrutable silence as Defence minister, Mohammed Abubakar Badaru has stirred the hornets’ nest by his peremptory decree against secessionist movements. “The Federal Government will not entertain (such) demand capable of causing division and disaffection among Nigerians,” he bellowed. “Therefore, living together is not an option but an obligation. This is evident in Mr President’s firm resolve to fight any secessionist agenda in any part of the country.” It is understandable why every president seems dead set against balkanisation, for none of them wants to be seen, in the mould of Mikhail Gorbachev of the former Soviet Union, as the last president or ruler of a united Nigeria. But to denounce self-determination as giddily as Mr Badaru has done and offhandedly characterise every call for secession as evil is to sweep the problem under the carpet.

    Read Also: ‘17.5m orphaned children in Nigeria living in vulnerable conditions’

    It is good that the minister has just woken up and is now stirring himself to his duties, but he needs to bridle his tongue and put his best foot forward. On the surface, there is nothing wrong advocating unity, but it is unclear whether this can be done by fiat or by suffusing it with propaganda. Without a workable political structure anchored on federalism agreed to by the people, and without a sound economic structure that enables the federating units to develop at their own pace, it is hard to convince them that staying together is an obligation. No, for now, whether the government likes to hear it or not, and irrespective of the instruments of coercion at its disposal, staying together is in fact optional. Until the government can inspire a solution to the national question and make unity attractive, it is insulting and uninformed to describe living together as an obligation.

  • Military and Nigeria’s coup advocates

    Military and Nigeria’s coup advocates

    No one has thought it proper to determine how old the videos were, but last week, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) reacted to a viral video of some protesters calling for a military overthrow of Nigeria’s elected governments. The protesters had said: “We want the army to take over Nigeria. We want the military to take over Nigeria.” In some of the videos, commentators who appeared pleased with the video even looked forward to a January/February 2025 date for the coup. It mattered little to the commentators that the protesters were so ignorant that they confusedly used the army and military interchangeably. The protesters hinged their anger on the twin policies of fuel subsidy removal and naira floatation, which they blamed for Nigeria’s socio-economic malaise. Neither the commentators nor the protesters indicated whether they hoped elected state and local government officials should be spared, or whether President Bola Tinubu was their primary target.

    What is certain is that there has been no closure to the last elections, particularly the presidential poll. Nor, from all indications, will there ever be a closure. Many analysts, and perhaps, too, the Tinubu administration, are now looking beyond the issue of closure. They are forging ahead despite all misgivings and policy hiccups. Indeed, in recent weeks, administration spokesmen have begun to ignore the campaign for a forcible overthrow of the government. They know a thing or two about the enormous complications that would bring, and appear certain that Nigeria has moved beyond the tactics of the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. They leave the job of dealing with treason and insurrection to the relevant security agencies. But rather than just warning protesters to mind their language, the DHQ has appropriately called on the relevant security agencies to take action on the coup advocates. The DHQ may have the Department of State Service (DSS) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in mind.

    Two things, however, mitigate the DHQ request to get the generally reactive law enforcement agencies to act against the coup advocates. One, as the last three major protests that convulsed the country in the past few years show, Nigeria has an appalling track record of prosecuting protesters and offenders who go beyond their constitutional freedom of protesting against unwanted or unpopular policies. During the massive 2020 EndSARS protests, violence was visited upon public infrastructure on a scale seldom seen, and deaths, complete with video evidence, were recorded. Prosecution was not only few, it was slow, desultory and prolonged. The August 2024 protests, though violent in many states, also attracted the same lethargic official response. Worse, incitement, manipulation and twisted accounts of the protests, including the promotion of deliberate falsehoods about casualty figures, have neither been sanctioned nor even deprecated.

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    Two, law enforcement agencies have little appetite to diligently track or investigate destabilising acts, let alone serious offences like treason. And with a justice system generally but perhaps indirectly complicit in perverting the cause of justice, it is unsurprising that offenders, many of them repeat and even career offenders, get away with murder. Unwilling to be described as intolerant or dictatorial, the government also shies away from firmly applying the law. It is thus browbeaten by civil society organisations, the media, and opposition figures who all appeal to the international community, chorusing what they allege are the administration’s deplorable human rights records. Shortly after the 2023 elections, some protesters, undoubtedly instigated by vested interests, advocated for a military takeover even without alleging polling irregularities. Since the government of the day failed to act on the treasonable campaign, other protesters, particularly last August, again called for a coup, this time flying foreign flags. It was obvious some powerful individuals were behind the plot. The call for a military takeover is unlikely to stop anytime soon.

    The DHQ appears to have had enough. But what of the DSS and the Police which are directly mandated by law to deal with such outrage? Could they by any chance see the calls for coup as exercising free speech, unsure whether the constitution permits advocacy for its own overthrow? It remains to be seen whether the two law enforcement agencies will take up the gauntlet, damn the consequences, and do their job. History indicates they might again pull their punches, but until they act in support of the constitution, even in the defence of an unpopular government, they may be disposing the entire country to instability. The constitution has provisions for the sacking of an unpopular government. Adopting extra-constitutional measures to achieve desired political ends may prove dangerous and its consequences irreversible. The country must be disciplined enough to allow constitutional provisions work, regardless of the enormity of the economic challenges, if protesters and their puppeteers are not to expose the country to violent and unmanageable outcomes.

    It is difficult to understand why any Nigerian would campaign for a coup d’etat, given decades of inept, violent and dictatorial military rule, and regardless of the enormous progress made in many states. It is a reflection of the shallowness of Nigeria’s democratic rule and experience that at the first hint of a major economic crisis, protesters are calling for the abortion of civil rule. The freedom they are exercising today which enables them to call for the overthrow of the constitution will be the first casualty under military rule. Assuming they can guarantee that a forcible change of government would not careen out of control, it is almost impossible to predict who would be consumed by the forcible change. It is also a sign of massive ignorance, if not illiteracy, that so many Nigerians still fail to appreciate the enormity of Nigeria’s economic crisis, its origins, and the difficult panaceas needed to retool the system. Coup is the easy, shortsighted and impracticable way to redeem years of profligacy, indulgence, and misshapen economic and political structures. It is time the law enforcement agencies, as the DHQ has said, made coup advocacy unattractive.

    Twenty-five years of practicing democracy, despite many imperfections and counterproductive cultural infusions, should have dampened any unhealthy fascination with coups. That it has not, and the even more worrisome fact that the call finds glib expression among the cognoscenti, should bother everyone. Yet, there are no indications that the fascination with destroying democracy is limited to a younger generation which had no recollection of the far-reaching evils military rule brought upon the country, including a civil war. Much more tragic is the fact that a few former Nigerian leaders appear to hint that there could indeed be justifications for a military takeover. This worrying dimension to the country’s economic crisis, which is being ventilated in the call for coup, indicates the lack of depth of those former leaders as well as the massive ignorance that permeates the younger generation.

    It is hard to understand why about twenty-eight turbulent, bloody, and corruption-ridden years under the military should not be enough to dissuade the cheap talk about a military coup because of barely two years of hardship and economic turmoil. The coup call is not altruism. It is clearly an insane and sinister political agenda by a few individuals exploiting the gullibility and sufferings of Nigerians. Many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, India and many others, did not seize upon the excuse of years of great economic depression, societal chaos, and deepening fissures and alienation to call for the overthrow of their constitution. The reason this tragic campaign has lasted for months in Nigeria is simply because the government has been lax in prosecuting those who advocate military coup. Hopefully, the relevant agencies will heed the DHQ call and take the necessary steps to rein in the madness. No sensible person who has lived under military rule by soldiers not trained to govern complex societies will advocate a military takeover. Except of course he is a glutton for punishment or he has lost his mind.

  • Lessons from the cabinet reshuffle

    Lessons from the cabinet reshuffle

    Finally, after months of hesitation, President Bola Tinubu has reshuffled his cabinet. Five ministers are out, and seven, including two unfilled ministerial positions by Plateau and Cross River, are in. The reshuffle gratifies the ‘bloodfest’ some Nigerians have come to expect, the restless yearning for brutal change of personnel. Quantitatively, there has been little change from the previous cabinet: there are still nearly as many ministers as there were before the change. Indeed, with the Livestock ministry added, a fact interpreted as a placatory gesture towards the North, analysts appear convinced that cost cutting was not part of the agenda for the reshuffle. And with the scrapping of the Niger Delta ministry, the oil rivers are likely to become more incensed despite the argument that the development aspiration of the region would assume better and more rational management.

    To a vast majority of Nigerians, the reshuffle was not far-reaching enough, notwithstanding the morbid excitement it elicited. They had expected a quantitative reduction in the number of ministries, in tandem with a reduction in the number of ministers and ministers of state. President Tinubu’s puristic approach to governance, which has seen him elevate efficiency and projected and calculated results above public perceptions and emotions, may continue to be controversial. He may in fact continue to be constrained by the political exigencies of appointing and keeping as many ministers as will satisfy his political base, while avoiding the ghastly cuts capable of alienating the powerful interests that propelled his election and might still drive it in the next two years should he indicate interest in a second term. Quite clearly, the kind of cuts analysts suggest are a rarity in any president’s first term, not to talk of a government yet to clock two years in office.

    There are suggestions President Tinubu has an unwieldy cabinet at a time of scarcity and economic adversity. The only way to respond to such concerns, however, will be if the cabinet somehow manages to drive the most incredible feat of economic growth rarely seen in these parts. The president appears convinced that he now has in place a ministerial council that can deliver on his promise for a better life for Nigerians. He seems sure that in the months ahead, his administration will spur growth on a level that would see the economy raising productivity, reining in inflation, strengthening and stabilising the naira, and substantially reducing insecurity. It is unlikely Nigeria will return to its previous culture of largesse and entitlement, where freeloaders needlessly burden the system and compromise the wellbeing of future generations, but it will take a lot of convincing to sensitise the public against reliving the folly of the past.

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    Whether the president likes it or not, the public perception about his reshuffle has not been ecstatic. He is to blame. Months into his administration, and apart from the initial bloating of the cabinet, it was clear he had burdened himself with a few ministerial misfits. Prompt remedial action to restore sanity would have obviated the need for last week’s ‘bloodfest’. Constant tinkering and substitutions are often necessary to renew and strengthen an administration. The president, however, waited until calls grew louder for a reshuffle. And by publicly emplacing a system that monitors and rates his cabinet members, it was unavoidable that speculations would be rife about impending movements in the cabinet. Since cabinet reshuffle has over the decades assumed a larger-than-life status in Nigeria, with many people looking forward to it, whether it makes sense or not, it is incumbent on the president to diminish its influence and role in governance.

    President Tinubu has made a noteworthy attempt to restructure his administration. It is the right thing to do, for his previous cabinet did not quite give the impression that it was scientifically constituted to achieve great purposes beyond satisfying the political interests which enabled his election. The establishment of Regional Development ministry is probably the most impactful of the changes, with the minister formerly heading the Niger Delta ministry assigned that new omnibus portfolio. How the Niger Delta people misread the enlargement of this ministry is hard to fathom. All six regional development commissions are now grouped under one heading, obviously for administrative and efficiency reasons.

    Cabinet reshuffle has become an entrenched culture. President Tinubu should, however, make it fairly routine, for no matter what he does with his cabinet, the public will either think the reshuffle has not gone far enough or gone too far. It is important to minimise expectations from a reshuffle because it is not a magic bullet to fix all administrative weaknesses or create utopia. Sometimes, as the confused reactions from the public often suggest, reshuffles even compound the crisis of governance. Nevertheless, the president now has a cabinet he appears to have some confidence in, and despite initial misgivings, he has managed to communicate his enthusiasm to many Nigerians. Let him run with it, for now, there will be no excuses, at least not in the next two years. But if he must reshuffle, future changes need to be undertaken fairly unobtrusively.

  • Obasanjo’s obsession with comparisons

    Obasanjo’s obsession with comparisons

    Former president Olusegun Obasanjo was in Bauchi last Sunday to commission road projects constructed by the Governor Bala Mohammed administration. As part of his itinerary, he visited the Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Rilwanu Suleiman-Adamu, whom he lathered with his usual sanctimonious talk about his successors’ poor leadership ability. By now, whenever the former president waxes eloquent about his administration’s ‘flawless capacity’, his hosts have learnt both to accommodate him and to even sit grimfaced through his harangues. There were a number of inviting subjects the former president could speak on, but he chose in his inimitable style to dwell on using himself as a benchmark against which his successors should always be judged.

    His statement at the palace was ostensibly to promote the relevance of community policing, but even that innocuous topic had to be exploited for his advantage. He said: “The best form of security is community policing because everyone knows his/her neighbours within the community. With that, it is very easy to identify the bad eggs. The situation of insecurity in Nigeria today is so bad, unlike during our terms in office when we prioritise the security of lives and properties across the country. We need to do something urgently about this. During our service to the nation, we did everything collectively, our decisions were taken together to have a uniform focus. My brother, Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu, is seated here, and he will bear me witness. Whatever we achieved then was a collective effort. We need peace, unity, and collective support in this country if we must move forward. Things can be right and good again in the country, all we need to do is to get united and do things collectively.”

    More than any living or even dead past Nigerian president, Chief Obasanjo has perfected the art of presidential lecture circuit, the kind Western leaders have turned to cash cows for decades, if not centuries. He is the most invited former president, and he has done admirably well not to decline most invitations. Even where they are unsure he would grace the occasion, he surprisingly honours their invitation. He is strong, vibrant, frank to a fault, and no matter what anyone says, he will still continue honouring invitations until he transitions, a destination he has prophesied is still a long way off. It is not clear what his going rate is, but whatever it is, his hosts can afford it, for he adds value and lends respectability to their gatherings. Fortunately for him and his hosts, he rarely attacks his hosts or speaks ill of them. That would demarket his brand and make invitations to be few and far between. And with inflation biting hard in Nigeria, and naira value plummeting, the hard working ex-president cannot afford to trifle with his economic interests. What is more, his main goal is not even financial. Being Nigeria’s most accomplished narcissist, a man and leader who loves to hear himself speak and others listen, he covets the therapeutic effect of circulating on the political scene and newspaper front pages as well as staying medically fit by his travels instead of mummifying in anonymity.

    Not too long after he left office in 1979 and handed over to his preferred successor, he started to sound sanctimonious, first comparing himself in his little books to the man he didn’t wish to succeed him, Obafemi Awolowo, first Premier of the Western Region. Then, soon after the mid-term of the Shehu Shagari administration, the Owu chief also began to question his successor’s governing paradigms and policy orthodoxies. It was not clear that he understood that as a practical military head of state who relied more on instincts to rule and common sense to govern, he was not in a great position to compare himself ideologically with his successor. Nevertheless, two or three more military regimes after his, the former president happened upon his epistolary masterpieces through which he excoriated one head of state after another until he came to grief during the ghoulish rule of the Sani Abacha military regime. He learnt no lessons, however. In 2007, he again foisted a successor, Umaru Yar’Adua/Goodluck Jonathan, upon the country and when the duo spurned his meddlesomness and unsolicited advice, he turned exceedingly nasty, plastering his victims with unmentionable epithets.

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    It is, therefore, not out of character that he has begun once more, under the Bola Tinubu administration, to indulge his fantasy for comparison. He is reputed to have some metaphysical grasp of political realities, and may have seen the failure of all his best efforts to prevent the election and inauguration of the Tinubu presidency as implying the need for caution, but he will continue to launch the kind of scud missile he shot at the administration when he visited the Bauchi palace. The security and economic situations he faced in 1999 to 2007 pale in comparison with the current crisis, but Chief Obasanjo has never claimed to make scientific comparisons. More frequently, he limits himself to the street drivel that has become standard fare in political discourse. Energised by the social media, both the drivel and his comparisons get more mileage than they really deserve.

    The former president made two major points at the Bauchi palace last Sunday. Firstly, he spoke about how his administration ‘prioritised security of lives and properties across the country’, probably insinuating that the present administration does not. The Tinubu government may not have achieved the kind of results it hopes, but it stands logic on its head to say the reason for any shortcoming is one of low priority. Secondly, Chief Obasanjo also spoke about how his administration did ‘everything collectively…to have a common focus’. There is nothing today to suggest that there is a lack of common focus in the battle against insecurity. It remains to be seen whether in 2027, the former president will return to his hunting ground as a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) godfather instead of limiting himself to the innuendoes he has embraced and disseminated since he left active politics.