The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

World Bank’s prefectural role in Nigeria

For decades, the World Bank has played an overweening role in the economic affairs of many developing countries, advising on public finance as well as lending money. Nigeria has not been insulated from the prefectural grip of an agency many Nigerians love to hate, a grip manifested in the kind of advice they gave last week to Nigeria to audit the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, even as they also passed judgement on Nigeria’s ongoing reforms and warned about deepening poverty. Their preening was not evident only during the Ibrahim Babangida military regime when they lauded the massive shift in Nigeria’s economic orthodoxy, the Bank’s condescension has in fact continued to have significant impact on public policy since then.

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It is not certain that, other than sticking to the global financial organisation’s orthodoxy, Nigeria can do much in the near term to satisfy all the yearnings of the World Bank. But the longer the Nigerian reforms take to impact the lives of the people, the more the Bank will continue to sound pontifical. Increasingly, the results so far suggest that the reforms need to be perfused with local concentrates. The reforms may look nice on paper, but until they begin to aspirate local content, as indeed many developing countries which transited to developed status have discovered, the crisis may be prolonged and Nigeria could be predisposed to instability. Worse, should the crisis be prolonged, the World Bank would also become more probing, prefectural and condescending. It is time to pivot away from that ghastly desire for foreign approvals.

October 27, 2024
No-Fly Zone lands Okon in police soup

As earthly political dueling takes an aerial hue with reports of strange mishaps in the skies , Okon, the once and future presidential candidate, has taken urgent steps to insulate himself from the murderous antics of desperate politicians. One morning, snooper woke up only to find a huge “no-fly zone” banner erected in front of the house. When the crazy boy was questioned as to the reason behind his antics, he retorted with a scornful glare.

“Oga, even dem Asari Tokunbo dey dare dem military helicopter with him wotowoto. Him say him go bring dem down with him nakannakan and gbamugbamu. You wan make dem mad politician come finis me, like dem Israel come finis dem Hamas?”

“But you can’t do this. This is a violation of federal space”, snooper pleaded.

“Oga, I no know book, but I sabi bomb, and I sabi dem Ogbunike. Na dem mad Biafra boys wan finis obodo again. He get one man for Biafra dem dey call Air Raid. Na him be Bomb Scare”, Okon screamed.

   One morning, the police came for the rogue and promptly charged him with disrupting the smooth flow of air-traffic. Snooper followed at a safe distance.

   “Why I am here?” Okon suddenly thundered.

   “You wan drop president plane with dem local catapump. Dat one na treason”, the desk sergeant hollered with a sinister frown. Okon was momentarily flustered but he quickly regained the initiative.

“Hmmmm. Sebi you no say I be cook?”, he demanded.

“Hen he, hen he so what?”, the irate corporal roared.

“And dem cook office be dem kitchen?” Okon pursued.

“And so?” the corporal thundered.

“So, if dem cook come put notice say make fly and dem insect no come kitchen, dat na treason?” Okon demanded with his nostrils flaring contemptuously.

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“Kai, kai, wonna na real kata and katakata boy. Just release dem crazy crook”, the sergeant ordered, shaking his head in stunned disbelief.

“No, no, no, you must to pay me compensation”, Okon raved.

“Compen wetin? Okay put am back for cell and let dem mad man from Mushin shit for him stupid mouth. Dat na compensation”, the sergeant who looked like a deranged hippopotamus ordered.

“Na shit go be your pension”, Okon cursed as he stormed out of the station.

October 27, 2024
The imperative of greater equality

It is just as well that the acute disparities in wealth and wellbeing between the rich and advanced nations in the world and the hellholes that litter the rest of human civilization are back on the global agenda. An intellectual generation earlier, Samir Amin, the notable economist of Egyptian and French extraction, had devoted considerable attention to this phenomenon which he proposed as the reality of unequal exchange between the western nations and the rest of the world, particularly the late colonies on the African continent. At the moment, the world is on the cusp of great and dramatic changes. What with the prospects of a settler-colony on the verge of transforming into a new-type of colonial imperium as it brings areas and entities outside its jurisdiction under its dominion by force and by fire.

How Israel will harmonize and reconcile the vast cultural, ideological and religious differences that exist between it and the people of Palestine, Gaza and Lebanon without resorting to brutal violence and the mindless terror of colonial occupation remains to be seen. To put things simply but starkly, the growth of inequality is principally due to inequality of growth. This can also be extended to new vistas of war and weaponry. In the history of war and human evolution, the lead societies always play the leading violin. When certain parts of the world are left behind in terms of their capacity for productive development and progressive self-enhancement, they also fall behind in the indices of civilization. But this is not usually the end of the story. Gangrene has a way of fatally spreading and to other parts of the body if not promptly treated. In the end, it is human civilization that is threatened.

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Hunger and famine kill faster than Alfred Nobel’s dynamite. They are a sad testimony to human capacity for regression, a tragic reminder that the hunter-gatherer phase of human existence is never far away for a significant number of the human community. Once again, the Nobel Committee in Sweden has performed a yeoman’s task for humanity. Like all human gatherings, it is not a perfect commune. Some of its past prejudices and current predilections are as lamentable as they are regrettable. But it gets by from time to time, showing nobility of judgment and a passion for political equity which are rare and uncommon in the contemporary world. By awarding the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Science to three outstanding economic theorists who have devoted time and quality thought to the issues of how wealth is created and why some human communities seem to perpetually lag behind in economic self-actualization, they have directed our attention to the institutional, historical and political enablers of fast and vast growth as well as the multi-segmented impedimenta that blocks off developmental capacities.

Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economics Sciences, is on song: “Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time’s greatest challenges. The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for achieving this”. This is a pitch for democracy and understandably so in a world in which democracy is losing steam and in which the passion and infectious optimism for government of the people by the people and for the people that the world witnessed with the ascendancy of democratic rule after the struggle against Communism and Fascism might have waned considerably. But more importantly, it is also a cogent plea for the liberalization of opportunities between the rich and endowed global North and the impoverished South; between the First World and its fairly well-heeled proletariat and the Third World and its beleaguered working forces and within nations where elites plunder and pillage national resources at the expense of the generality of the people.

Depending on their conception and articulation, all human strivings and struggles for a better world have their timeline and historic clock-out. Sometimes, old struggles are reimagined and cloaked in new garbs which give them fresh impetus. At some other times, it is entirely unanticipated new developments that outflank old struggles and retire them without pension. For example, it no longer feels like the Second International of Karl Marx and Georg Plekhanov where workers of the world were expected to come together across national divides and societal gulf to fight their common oppressors but a new commonwealth based on mutual understanding and humane compassion for the plight of others. Even the old warriors of socialism in one country have all repaired to their ancient balconies and postcolonial balustrades.

According to the Nobel trio, where revolutions helped and still help is that the mere threat of them often forces recalcitrant and obdurate elites of poor countries to embrace the democratization process rather than lose everything in a showdown with the irate masses. The tragic irony however is that in the absence of ideal and enabling conditions for revolutions, some predatory elite groups in certain nations have become so obdurate and irredeemable that not even the thought of looming revolutions could move or sway them to the path of rectitude and fiscal sanity. They are debauched and dehumanized beyond redemption.

Consequently, they push their countries towards anarchy and the total breakdown of the semblances of state institutions that survive. Haiti, the first Black country, has been at it for quite some time and has become a horrendous wasteland of human existence. A few African countries are hard on Haiti’s heels. According to the new Nobel laureates settler-colonies tend to do better than colonial dominions because the settlers are more inclined to build better and more inclusive institutions since they have to live with the consequences of their own creation. To corroborate this insight, we focus on the startling contrasts between Haiti and its next door neighbors, the Dominican Republic.

   In the case of Haiti, the colonialists departed in a huff having suffered a humiliating defeat in the hands of a ragtag military force led by the descendants of Black slaves captured from Africa. Famously dubbed the Black Jacobins after the original French revolutionists by CLR James, the great Trinidadian journalist, intellectual and cricket enthusiast, they overturned the conventional expectations of war by trouncing the better equipped and better trained imperial army of France. They were the precursors of later-day struggles for emancipation and national self-determination by nationalists in Indonesia, Indo-Asia, Algeria, Vietnam and South Africa where native people often fought off their colonial tormentors with bare hands.

But the imperialists made sure Haiti paid heavily for this contumely. Not only did they subject Haiti to a crippling naval blockade, they imposed impossible war reparations on the new country. Far more damaging is the fact that they made sure they denied the new country the institutional nourishments and state nutrients capable of transforming the stricken enclave into a truly modern nation, knowing fully well that there was no tradition of nation-building and statecraft to full back upon. The new nation of America, despite its revolutionary proclamations about the unalienable rights of humanity, could not be of any help for fear of providing its restive Black populace with a revolutionary leitmotif. Consequently, while the Dominican Republic has managed to transform into a modern nation with relative stability, passable institutions and a functioning democratic arrangement, Haiti is a veritable black hole driven into existential perdition with its harried and harassed denizens fleeing to the Dominican Republic in droves.

   We must thank the 2024 Nobel laureates in Economic Sciences for raising these important issues in an impassioned but uncontroversial manner and for reinserting the subject of global inequities into the hegemonic discourse of Western discursive formation. What they have to say is far more important than how they have to say it. As Fredric Jameson famously avers, “ history will not ignore us however much we choose to ignore it”. By adopting the language of professional academics, the Nobel triad has contextualized for us some of the important dynamics that power the imbalance of economic opportunities and the historical reason behind the continuing hegemonic domination of western societies in our epoch in a way and manner that shun needless controversies and unwarranted opprobrium.

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson owe a debt of obligation to scholar titans and writers who have trodden the same path much earlier. For example in a landmark PhD thesis for Oxford University, Eric Williams, the former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, argued convincingly and with a surfeit of data that the abolition of slavery by Britain was not the act of altruistic nobility and exemplary humanism it purports to be but an act of economic pragmatism dictated by the changing dynamics of slave acquisition in an increasingly competitive international market. Earlier in his memoir, Olaudah Equiano, an eighteenth century liberated slave, was so filled with anger and contempt for the civilization and religion of his abductors that he described himself as “a nominal Christian”. Not only that, he made sure that he invested himself with such cosmic and supernatural powers that made it possible for him to rescue and prevent floundering white sailors from perishing at sea.

   As modern day readers, the hugely allegorical nature of Equiano’s outlandish literary conceit should not be lost on us. If western civilization and its purveyors as the acknowledged saviours of humanity are themselves in need of rescue at sea, what is the fate of their transplanted political institutions and colonial nations strewn everywhere across the modern world? Just because something happened in the past does not mean the same pattern will be repeated in future. Unlike the earlier epoch of human civilization, emerging global trends suggest that there is no super-hegemon nation or society in the horizon capable of re-imposing order on a fractured and fissured world. America is limping, badly hobbled by internal contradictions. In an attempt to restore its geopolitical supremacy, Russia is reduced to fighting a local war which it has not been able to win after two years. Compare this with the great Soviet Union. China is cautiously peeping out, occasionally sabre-rattling but acutely aware that its mighty army remains largely untested. Meanwhile, Israel is busy supervising the Last Supper against a background of huge fireballs of savage destruction in the entire region.

   In the circumstance, viable nations and forward-looking societies are drawing on their inner reserves of strength and visionary energy to plot their way out of the cosmic void. This is why there is so much commotion abroad as each society or group of homogeneous nations try to fashion out what is best for their people. While rooted in current global economic inequality, the contribution of our Nobel laureates is also an unintended nostalgic evocation of a past dominated by the Western consensus. Despite the massive hiccups, western hegemony was good for the modern world. It gave us a new type of nation-state. It also strengthened liberal democracy and its institutions on amenable soils. Unfortunately, despite its posse of creative minds and surfeit of outstanding academics, postcolonial Africa has not been able to throw up its own organic intellectuals. This is the real challenge of the Sweden investiture.

October 20, 2024
Mama Igosun returns to familiar haunts

You remember her, the old amazon and dreaded warrior from the rural precincts of the sprawling and ungainly municipality of Ibadan? If anybody is thinking that the old girl had been long dead and buried or had succumbed to some fatal frailties or comorbidities of the Covid-19 scourge, such a person had better have a quick rethink. The old lady, fierce and implacable descendant of highly valued and much lionized pre-colonial warriors, was not for turning. The transition from octogenarian to nonagenarian status had been quite traumatic for her.

Nobody has made that epic landmark in the recent history of the family. Complicating the trauma for her was the loss of her surviving daughter, Mama Kinkinyiun, a scintillating local beauty in her youth who had been forcibly married off to a famous elephant hunter and crack herbalist whose gentle visage and dovish mien belied a capacity for spectacular malignancy. He lived in the bucolic and idyllic village on the bank of the Ishasha River where fish and venison were aplenty in the good old days.

For days after the death of her daughter, Mama Igosun would lay still in bed, frighteningly still, as if she was about to join her ancestors. Strange women in snow-white apparel would appear by her bedside ministering unto her in her last moments and wishing her sweet and speedy transfer to the arrival hall of transition. Yours sincerely received more than ten urgent messages alerting him of the imminent departure of the last of the remarkable Osungbemileke sisters. And then the old lady would pull back dramatically, moaning for food, softly at first and later with increasing belligerence. More remarkable was the fact that the amazon suddenly regained her Girls Guide gait and bounce as well as the lustrous glow of her timeless skin which further accentuated her deep set Abaja tribal marks. At over a hundred, Mama Igosun looked like a forty year old beauty queen and young women gave her wide berth over rumours that she was indulging in a prehistoric ritual of non-invasive stem engineering where all she had to do was to direct an icy stare at luckless daughters of Eve.

Last Friday, the matriarch struck just before dawn banging the gates ceaselessly and claiming that she got a ride from a military convoy at Omin-Adio. She had heard the rumour that after the historic deluge, the ocean and lagoon had expelled their best kept secrets from their murky depths and the markets were flooded with all manner of strange creatures and culinary pabambari and other ecological exotica. One woman was selling hippo meat all the way from Jigawa and another was advertising the choicest parts of a so called mammy water hooked by an intrepid fisherman off the Ejinrin deep sea. There was also the reported sighting of the hump of a butchered Supo, a prehistoric monster bird thought to have been hunted into extinction in the seventeenth century. Why all these strange creatures were assembling as if preparing for a historic commune remains a poser to be answered.

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Mama Igosun immediately headed for the kitchen to raise a local palaver with Okon.

“ Hunger dey wire me like dis and dis yeye Kukuruku boy still dey sleep. Him dey snore like dem Egbeda thieves”, the old woman screamed at nobody in particular. Okon, wide-eyed and wide awake but distraught at the prospects, wound up further in bed like a disturbed millipede. Very soon the smell of aromatic herbs and other medieval condiments invaded the place. The old woman was preparing Sukuniyan and Kokoruwa, an ancient delicacy favoured by the people of the interior. Then she exploded.

“Oponu, abi wetin be dat your funny name again? I give you five minutes to dress up and go market at Majidun for me. Buy crocodile meat, buy Eja abami and hippo for me, and, and..” Okon decided to cut her short.

“Ha mama, oga no leave money for dat kind thin”, the crazy boy retorted.

“Meaning what? And wey dem foolish oga?” the old woman raved.

“And oga don go work.”

“Which kind yeye work be dat?” the old woman demanded in swooning rage.

“Ha, oga don become part-time barber for Toyin Street”, Okon sneered.

“Oosa Anlugba!!! I told dis boy to return to the village!” the old woman wailed and collapsed in a rumpled heap on a nearby sofa. She didn’t wake up until the following morning.

October 20, 2024
States bluffing their way through crises

Just like Nigeria is trying to bluff its way through global economic crisis, most of Nigeria’s 36 states are also trying to bluff their way through the 1999 constitution, with the local government elections and revenue allocations constituting the triggers. Decades of destroying the nation’s industrial base and flinging doors open to all manner of imported goods, thus putting enormous pressure on foreign earnings, have pushed the country into a cauldron of rage, discontent and even rebellion. Submission to poor corporate governance culture, gross indiscipline, expensive taste for imports, and a sense of entitlement spawned by excessive reliance on oil exports have sadly not led the country to find remedies but to all manner of efforts to bluff the way through the ongoing global economic crisis. So far, the bluff has not worked.

It is in the midst of Nigeria’s existential crisis that the states have also adopted the policy of bluffing their way through the Supreme Court judgement on local government financial autonomy. Miffed by how the federal government dragged them to the Court due to decades of fiddling with federal allocations to local governments, and deeply angered by how easily they lost the case, states have decided to take the battle to the feds. A little over a week ago, some 16 of them jointly took issue with three or so mainly anti-graft federal institutions, insisting that their enabling laws were constitutionally defective and based on inappropriate conventions. The states give the impression that the said agencies, to wit, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) have become a harassment tool in the hands of the federal administration. They want the Supreme Court to declare the three agencies illegal.

The battle between the three tiers of government is now fully joined, and the gloves are off. On the one hand are the feds and the councils which want federal allocations to local governments paid directly to the local government; and on the other hand are the infuriated states who insist that the autonomy indirectly granted the councils will create needless friction in the states as well as promote insubordination. A few states have thus begun to enact laws to return the councils to full state control, thus subverting the recent Supreme Court judgement. Those who are not directly re-enslaving the councils have developed political strategies to return the councils to status quo as loyal and obedient servants. The battles ahead – for there will be many before the smoke clears – will no doubt enthrall blood sport enthusiasts.

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Fighting on one front does not, however, appeal to the states. They are determined to open many fronts until they overwhelm the feds. In an apparent attempt to obey the court judgement circumscribing their powers over the councils’ finances, the states have unleashed a procession of local government elections to grudgingly satisfy public expectations. They know they can’t defy Abuja as Lagos did when President Bola Tinubu was governor. Under his governorship, he creatively engineered the states’ finances to cope with the federal siege which played out in withheld federal allocations to the 20 local government areas. The state and LGs did not go broke. Today, states are struggling to breathe financially and will thus be less inclined to any kind of constitutional adventurism. So, they have devised a better way of circumventing the court judgement. They will have the elections, but it will be on their own terms, with only loyalists and the state’s ruling party victorious. The states are determined to have the last laugh. They snicker at the Supreme Court, knowing it will be unable to determine how the ‘meddlesome’ feds can guarantee the integrity of the council polls.

Will the states’ counterattack work? It is hard to predict. What is clear is that they won’t let go of the LGs easily. They have been compelled into burdensome council elections so that council allocations would not be withheld, but they are feverishly designing political weapons of their own to wipe the smile off the face of the feds. Going forward, they will keep throwing punches, and fighting tooth and nail to keep their snouts locked on the council’s trough. They have the staying power, the number, and the artifices. If they can hold on until the next elections, they think the feds will sue for some kind of peace. While it may not be clear that the states will win outright, it is nearly certain that they will compromise the potency of the Supreme Court judgement by weakening it as well as leaving legal and constitutional purists exasperated or deflated. The states may be bluffing their way through the constitution, and riding roughshod over the local governments, but everyone knows that the federation can hardly be the better for the ridicule of its constitution.

October 20, 2024
The adamant inciters of Nigeria

About two weeks ago, when former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi spoke condescendingly to Nigerian youths about their reluctance to promote insurrection as a solution to the hardship they were experiencing, it was widely condemned as incitement. He could not be bothered. Self-righteous and entitled, especially after having spent 24 continuous years in public service, the former governor may in fact be suffering from withdrawal syndrome. In his view, the policy reforms of the Bola Tinubu presidency had brought untold hardship and hunger upon Nigerians, and the administration should be requited with street actions to show public dismay and anger. Not only was he surprised, as he put it, that youths could not sustain their protests, he dismissed them as feeble and vacillating.

Mr Amaechi is not the only one inciting youths to rage; the social media is also incandescent in urging popular revolt. No day passes, and no platform is excluded, without stories and essays, many of them exaggerations or outright falsehoods, encouraging an inflexible and implacable approach to public discourse. Policies are prejudged, and positions hardened in the hope that one day, the incitement would reach a critical mass until an explosion follows. The incitement is cloaked as free speech guaranteed by the constitution.

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What neither Mr Amaechi nor the social and traditional media have pondered is why no effort has been made to weigh the policies and issues causing grave distress in the land against the style these notable critics and inciters have adopted to mitigate the crisis bedeviling the nation. Why have they not done any introspection on their style of public engagements, particularly the manner they view their opposition to government policies as a zero sum-game? Protests in many countries are often geared towards defeating or modifying public policies; but in Nigeria, which also operates a democracy with periodic elections, they are often geared towards violence and regime change. That is where the problem lies. That is why Mr Amaech is disconsolate about what he sees as youth lethargy or indifference; that is why the social media repeatedly called for a coup d’etat after the 2023 elections; and why the impatient political opposition, unmindful of the sacrifice necessary for the sustenance of democracy, keeps dreaming that massive revolt could neatly position them to assume power. What if the romanticised revolt leads to something far worse.

October 20, 2024
From Oyingbo to Agbado

• Sanwo-Olu’s commissioning of Red Line Rail is another promise fulfilled

October 15 was yet another historic day for Lagosians, with the inauguration of the Lagos Red Line Rail by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The Red Line would move passengers from Platform 2 in Oyingbo Station to Agbado, a suburb at Lagos boundary line. It has stations in Yaba, Mushin, Oshodi, Ikeja, Agege and Iju. Governor Sanwo-Olu signalled the beginning of commercial operations of the service at exactly 5.20 p.m. The governor, who personally made the boarding announcement and announced the approach to each station was accompanied by two members of the state executive council —Oluwaseun Osiyemi and Gbenga Omotoso — commissioners for transportation, and information and strategy, respectively; lawmakers, including chairman of transportation committee of the state house of assembly, Temitope Adewale; corporate executives, journalists and some Nollywood stars, led by Jide Kosoko. Yomi Fash Lanso, Segun Remi (Kanran), Olu Omolade, and Femi Davies also witnessed the inauguration alongside many members of the public who were equally excited by the inauguration of the facility.

Sanwo-Olu said at the occasion: “The train is slow and steady and we are happy that all sectors of the society are here with us, including the Guild of Actors.

“With the commencement of this train service, tomorrow (today) we shall flag off this service in full. LAMATA has released their schedule of the train service.”

Coming seven months after the rail infrastructure was completed and commissioned, and 13 months after the commissioning of the Blue Line Rail running between Mile 2 and Marina, the Red Line was another promise kept by the state government.

It is instructive that the same Muhammadu Buhari, who, as military head of state stalled the metro line project that was initiated by the Lateef Jakande administration in the 1980s was the same person that commissioned the Blue Rail Line and other projects in the state last year, as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. May be that was why he did not make any speech at the commissioning of the project. But it is to Buhari’s credit that he granted the state permission to go ahead with the project even at a time when rail transportation was still in the Exclusive Legislative List, meaning only the Federal Government could embark on rail projects in the country. It was a good opportunity for him to redeem his image which was badly affected by the cancellation of the metro line, with heavy cost to the country. And he did, at least in that regard.

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Advantages of the Red Line, just like the Blue Line are virtually the same. Four minutes after take-off at Oyingbo, the train arrived Yaba Station. It thereafter stopped at Mushin before proceeding to Ikeja, where the governor and his entourage disembarked approximately 34 minutes after leaving Oyingbo. This was a feat, so to speak. There is no way anyone could have commuted from Oyingbo to Yaba in four minutes by road. The governor put it more succinctly: From Oyingbo to Agbado normally, you will spend about two hours and thirty minutes by road but ”on our train, you will spend just about one hour.” So, this is a major advantage of the rail system.

Sanwo-Olu described his experience at Ikeja where he disembarked with his aides as “smooth and outstanding”, noting this significant reduction in travel time. “This is an experience that we believe will not only help in solving issues around public transportation in Lagos, but will also improve connectivity and reduce the journey time for commuters in traversing the city. From here in Ikeja, the train proceeds to Agege before finally halting in Agbado.

“The general public can now feel what we have done in mass transportation. We have fulfilled our promises, especially on the Red Line, just as we did on the Blue Line. From this evening, there will be regular scheduled train services from Agbado to Oyingbo and back.”

Another advantage is in the area of transport fare. A trip from Oyingbo to Agbado costs N1,200 while from Oyingbo to Ikeja or Agege is N500. This is something to cheer because it is costlier than that by road now, especially with recent increases in the price of fuel.

Then the convenience, the safety and even security are things we cannot quantify in monetary terms. The stress of having to run after a moving bus is also eliminated. Also, there are no policemen or other road safety agencies asking the driver for particulars, thereby wasting valuable time in the process.

Another major advantage is the capacity of mass movement of passengers. With a population of over 22 million, Lagos sure cannot be served by road transportation only. How many passengers can even the BRT buses carry at a time, not to talk of ‘Danfo’, ‘Korope’ or ‘Keke Marwa’? There is need for intermodal modes of transportation; a thing the state government realised as far back as the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu era as governor (1999-2007) and went to the drawing board to fashion out a blueprint on how to go about meeting the transportation needs of ever-increasing Lagosians.

Prior to the Red Line inauguration, Sanwo-Olu, in successive months, commissioned five separate T-shaped bridges built by the state government along the rail corridor to limit vehicular interference on the tracks.

Specifically, he commissioned the Mushin Flyover, the last of the five overpasses built along the Red Line Rail corridor on October 12, barely three days to the inauguration of the Red Line. The project was undertaken by Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA).

The governor had earlier opened four other bridges in Yaba, Oyingbo, Ikeja and Agege, to create new connectivities along the Lagos Rail Mass Transit Red Line, which spans 37 kilometres from Agbado to Oyingbo.

One government agency that has played significant roles in this transformation in the public transportation sector in the state is LAMATA. The agency is an example of government agency that works. As I said in my piece on Ish’aq Oloyede, the registrar/chief executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in a tribute on his 70th birthday, government, last week, Oloyede’s management has proved that government agency can work where round peg is put in round hole. It is instructive that LAMATA has been playing a great role in this transportation revolution that has been transforming Lagos, especially with projects like the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) that it started years ago.

As I always say when talking about developmental strides in Lagos, it is better for other states to emulate some of these developmental projects so that we have an even spread rather than having their people congest Lagos in search of opportunities. I know there are some cities in several parts of the world that play the kind of role Lagos is playing in the country; but it is still better not to abandon everything to Lagos as if it is its responsibility to cater to the needs of all Nigerians.

Some people talk of money that Lagos is, in their view, literally awash with. Apart from this being fallacy considering the load the state is carrying; many other states can do far better than they are doing with committed and responsible leaders. So much money is being wasted on frivolities in many states. Unfortunately, instead of their people holding their governors accountable, they simply pack their bag and baggage and come down to Lagos where they begin to demand rights and privileges they failed to demand from their state governments. It would have been a different ballgame if many of these people remember to support Lagos’ clamour for more revenue from the federal pool to take care of the overstretched infrastructure. Many of them ask for the basis, forgetting that there is hardly a family that does not have a representative in Lagos from all over the country.

I must however say that the state government has to do a lot more about older infrastructure or facilities. This is important because the facilities like the rail lines that we are celebrating today would become somewhat old in the future and the initiators would not be happy if such facilities are abandoned or neglected for whatever reason.

Here, I am talking about the many street lights that are dead in Lagos metropolis. For example, the ones on Fatai Atere Way where this newspaper is situated worked last in the early part of the Akinwunmi Ambode years. That was five years before. I can count many others in that category that are in the central parts of the metropolis. Many of the megacities that we adore today are so loved because of their beautiful scenery at night. And lighting contributes a lot to this beauty. And if we are not going to put street lights for purposes of aesthetics, they should be functional at least for security purposes. I know this would cost the government a lot of money but there must be a way out so that the street lights would not just be there for decoration as they are in many places in the city today. When we keep on constructing monumental infrastructure like these rail lines and their accompanying facilities without proper lighting, it is like someone who lit a candle and put it under the table.

The same applies to some of the major roads in the metropolis. Mercifully, local governments have now got their financial autonomy; and some of these roads fall under their jurisdiction. It is hoped that we would see improvements in this aspect because the local governments are closer to the roads and the people and they know where attention is sorely needed.

All said, I once again congratulate Governor Sanwo-Olu for successfully seeing through the second intra-city rail project in the state. This is certainly the Lord’s doing; and it is marvelous in our eyes. Since the reward for hard work is more work, I, on behalf of the over 22 million Lagosians urge the government not to rest on its oars yet. We look forward to the Purple, Orange and Yellow lines, hoping these transformation would come according to schedule.

October 20, 2024
The road

I went to primary school at a time when history was taken very seriously in schools all over Nigeria. This is why I developed an early interest in the subject and that interest has grown over that long period that now separates me from the time of my introduction to the subject which has influenced my overall career tremendously. You may say that there cannot be a connection between history and Pharmaceutical microbiology but, believe me, there is. Besides, I make bold to say that without my knowledge of history, I could not have been able to sustain my forays into the world of opinion writing in the various newspapers that I have been associated with over these many years.

Basically, history is concerned with telling the story of what people as individuals and as a collective have interacted with each other to create in the past, leading up to the present. In other words, in order to understand the present and plan for the future, you need to understand the past and the roles which certain individuals and events have played in shaping that past.

One historical figure who captured my imagination in those early days, as long ago as it is, was Marco Polo. Unlike most of the outstanding men mentioned in history, Marco Polo did not fight crucial military battles and did not rule over any empire. The man was just a merchant but not an ordinary merchant. He was a merchant who moved around a great deal and saw the world around him in real time. He was not the first European who went all the way to China and back. His father and uncle were but he was the first to tell the story, or if you like, the history of his journeys to the East over a period of more than twenty years. He spent a great deal of his life on the road, trading, acting as a royal emissary and other things besides these. This is why he is given prominence in this piece about the road.

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One of the buzz words we now live with is globalisation; a word that we imagine describes our contemporary experience. But when you think of it, it is a word that describes human experience over many centuries. The thread of globalisation started over fifty thousand years ago when mankind began to spread out of Africa to all other parts of the world. Like today, people from distant areas of the world have been interacting with each other over the physical distances that separated them. It is not difficult to imagine that at the centre of this experience is the road, in one form or the other over land, sea, in the air and now over the world wide web which has created a means of instantaneous communication, reaching out to all corners of the world at the touch of a button. This is many worlds away from the experiences recounted by Marco Polo who felt the earth beneath his feet throughout his many journeys which covered fifteen thousand miles (twenty-four thousand kilometres) over a period of more than twenty years. Today, a journey of fifteen thousand miles can be covered in a day or two by air and would be described or even dismissed as unremarkable. That is how far man has come since Marco Polo wore out his shoe leather on the Silk road and it’s many tributaries.

Even now, with all the journeys undertaken by man on the wings of modern technology, the lure of the road is still able to capture our collective imagination, maybe because just about anything is still liable to occur to anyone out there on the road. Not long ago, a modern day Marco Polo, a fresh faced young lady completed a solo journey by road all the way from England through France, into Morocco, through the desert and down through several West African countries before her triumphant entry into Lagos, Nigeria. Many people, young and old were so fascinated by the sheer weight of her ambition that they followed her virtually every step of her journey. I was not one of such people but in spite of my lukewarm attitude, I still tuned in to the journey from time to time. It was at the end of her journey when I saw the flimsy contraption she called a car in which the epic journey was made that I was bowled over by the size of her ambition and the dazzling quality of her achievement, or what can be described as her audacity. Personally, I would not have dared to put that car on the road, if you can call what we have there a car, from Ilesa to Ibadan, let alone anywhere further down the road. What we now have is a story of her achievement. One can only hope that she would turn that story into history by following up her journey with a written account which would be read any number of years into the future in the way that Marco Polo did so many centuries ago.

The fabled Silk road along which Marco Polo travelled was a thread that connected China, or Cathay as it was known at the time, to virtually all parts of the known world; South Europe, many parts of Asia, the Middle East and East Africa. The Silk road or route joined vast areas of the world together as it enhanced the movement of men, goods, philosophies, religions and sundry ideas over a wide area. True, the Silk road was not along a straight line and there were parts of it which were less than narrow tracts in the desert but it was a conduit through which merchandise, armies and so many other things passed to and fro. The recognisable parts of the road measured more than five thousand kilometres but it is quite possible that nobody actually succeeded in traversing it from one end to the other. That did not really matter as goods travelled in relays. One group of merchants took their goods as far as they could go before exchanging those goods with merchants coming from the opposite direction who then moved the goods to the next point of exchange until it got to a final destination where it was utilised for whatever purpose it was designed to be used. Conditions along the Silk road were so uncertain in some places that it took a great deal of courage and determination to undertake any journey along it. As with all roads, people of diverse intentions did their business along the road and there were probably as many merchants as rough and ready men whose major preoccupation was to dispossess people of their goods and when necessary, their lives. There were others who needed live captives to sell into slavery so that as can be seen from this, venturing out onto the road could not have been for the faint hearted.

For about fifteen centuries, trade and ideas moved up and down the Silk road simply because it was fulfilling a recognisable and constructive need for a large number of people. From China, the main article of trade was silk, the sensuous textile which for quite a long time was manufactured only in China. The Chinese had learnt to cultivate silk worms which extruded fine threads which were nevertheless stronger than steel. The threads were then woven into the exquisite silk textiles of which the Egyptians, Greeks and then the Romans could not have enough. For quite a while, the Chinese had a monopoly on silk and could therefore charge very high prices for their silk products. Even when the Europeans cracked the secret of silk manufacture, the quality of Chinese silk was so far ahead that their profits from the trade were hardly dented. Apart from silk, other products of Chinese manufacture were going down the Silk road in all directions. These included fine porcelain wares, dyes, tea and later on gun powder and paper. Going into China from all over the place were horses, camels, dates, wine and even frankincense from the area we now call Somalia.

The Silk road knitted the old world together mainly for the better but also for ill as along with all those exotic goods, deadly microorganisms were also exchanged as disease spread from place to place, carried unconsciously on the bodies by those intrepid travellers. These organisms were exchanged in the same way that wares were exchanged and then taken a thousand miles to innocent populations far away from the point of primary exchange in a deadly relay. It is said that what later on came to be called the Black death came to Europe along the Silk road. Millions of souls perished in the plague and the demography of Europe was fundamentally reset for ever.

The Silk road was not purposely built by anyone or group of people. It started out as an idea which grew to include a large area containing many people who over time developed a common interest in long distance economic relationships which turned out to be profitable all round. There was no blueprint drawn up anywhere by any government fiat. It simply developed a life of its own and began to spread in the same way as a cancer because all it could do was spread to fulfil its destiny.

The Silk road was a template for other roads which existed at the same time but nowhere were roads as effective as those built by Roman engineers all round the massive Roman empire. Roads were of such massive importance to all aspects of Roman rule that without them the Roman empire would have remained a figment of an overactive imagination. Unlike the Silk road, the roads built by the Romans was built through public enterprise and purpose. It was along those roads that Roman authority flowed. Through those roads Rome sent her legions to maintain the Pax Romana, peace maintained by the sharp points of countless spears. Some of those roads, complete with bridges and drainages are not just visible today but are still in use, testament to the quality of the roads that Rome built.

As with all roads, those Roman roads were multipurpose. First, they were lines of communication along which people, goods, ideas, law and a unity of purpose poured in an endless stream to create a common identity. The notion of unity within the Roman empire was so strong that all those roads were oriented towards Rome, so that all roads in the empire were said to lead to Rome in such a way that all the vanquished enemies were brought in chains to the city and entered it through the Appian way in the wake of their conquerors who entered the city, in triumph and great acclamation of countless multitudes come out to witness the triumph of Roman arms.

The roads that Rome built survived the fall of the empire through the sheer quality of their construction. Unfortunately, the conquerors of Rome had not come to inherit an empire but to plunder what had been built over a long period of time. They showed the importance of road maintenance. Their neglect of the roads was part of what led to those unproductive years now called the Dark ages, a period of regression during which virtually all traces of civilisation were wiped off the map and anarchy was never far below the surface, a lesson that has not been learnt in many places including Nigeria where roads are regarded as lengthy nuisances which are built reluctantly and abandoned to wrack and ruin within a short while to the far from tender mercies of pot holes and bandits of every description. Kidnappers set their traps along roads which are pitch dark at night and are an obstacle track by day. This is why it is never safe to set out at dawn and the prayer on the lips of travellers is the supplication to diverse gods and divinities that one should not set out at all on those days when the road is hungry for human harvest and thirsty for blood. Forlorn prayers not answered distressingly frequently.

October 20, 2024
New Anambra Local Government Law: Desperate attempt to fiddle with state’s LG funds

Master of obfuscation, governor Charles Soludo of Anambra state last week, on the occasion of his signing the state’s new Local Government Law which would compel all local governments in the state to remit a portion of their federal allocations into a consolidated account to be controlled by the state government

declared, without a shred of evidence or, as if Anambra is the only state in the country, that:”Absolute autonomy for local governments would mean that each LG would have its own primary education policy, employ its own teachers, and pay them whatever it can afford and whenever it can do so”.

“This, he said, would be a recipe for humongous chaos, not only for the administration of local government and pensions but more so in the primary education and primary health sectors.”

The question that readily comes to mind is whether the governor ever sought the advice of his state’s Attorney – General and Commissioner for justice before deciding to act as an Appellate court over a decision of the Supreme Court.

Or shouldn’t it be a no brainer for the governor to know that he cannot, by himself, set aside a high court decision, talk less, that of the Supreme court?

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I was, however, not in the least surprised when he came up fulminating against the Supreme Court judgment in the lawsuit filed by the Attorney – General on behalf of the Federal Government, seeking full autonomy, and direct funding, to all the 774 local government councils in the country.

This is because as far back as in my article: ‘It is Good That States Have Counter- sued on Local Government Autonomy’ of 16 June, 2024, I have quoted the governor as saying that:”Some people, including some APC members, are clamouring for local government autonomy which will take Nigeria back many decades from what a true federation is”. Continuing, he had said “that there is no federal system in the world where you have three federal units. In the U.S where we copied democracy from, their counties don’t go to Washington to collect money directly. Each state must have the power to design the kind of local government system it wants. That is what is called true federalism”. That was at Platform Nigeria 24, a programme organised by Covenant Nation to mark the 2024 Democracy Day.

I quoted governor Soludo then in support of my position that Local Government Autonomy is antithetical to Federalism. I went further to support my belief with copious quotes from Nigeria’s former Attorney – General and Minister of Justice, the inimitable, Uncle Bola Ige, and concluded by saying that he, as both a lawyer and politician, would be most distraught and disappointed by the action of the otherwise cerebral Attorney – General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, on account of what I described (then) as a professional misstep”.

The question can be asked now as to why I am diametrically opposed to governor Soludo’s position on Local government autonomy, especially financial autonomy?

The first reason is that I can see very clearly how he, an intellectual giant, has cleverly subborned his Lilliputian House of Assembly members, to coyly undo the decision of the Apex court so he could continue to have his hands in the Local Governments’ cookie jar, the very practice the Supreme Court decision had sought to remove.

That this is the intention of Anambra’s new law is in congruence with the general belief that Local Governments in the country remain largely undeveloped because, to put it nicely, most state governors assume near total control of the allocations to their state’s local governments, only giving them whatever fraction of the allocation suits them.

This tampering with local government funds is usually fraudulently done by state governors.

For instance, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, September 30, 2024, arraigned former governor of Taraba State,

Darius Dickson Ishaku and the former permanent secretary, Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state, Bello Yero, for fraud before Justice S. C Oriji of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, in respect of Local Government funds claiming that they committed a criminal breach of trust in respect of the LG’s property when they dishonestly diverted the funds to their own use; an offence contrary to Section 315 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria 2007, and punishable under the same Section”.

This thus confirms the allegation that some state governors do pilfer Local Government funds.

I cannot, in light of the above, any longer, and in good conscience, support governor Soludo in his trenchant claim:”that granting full autonomy to Nigeria’s 774 local government areas will lead to “humongous chaos”.

Anambra’s new Local Government Administration Law reminds me of what, good old days, we used to colloquially describe as “stealing by style”.

How, for instance, is this new law in accord with the Apex court’s decision which, in granting LGs’ full autonomy, specifically declared that:

(a) All the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their funds themselves;

(b)that it is the local government that should receive and manage funds meant for local government.

(c)that the state government has no power or control to keep the local government council’s money or funds.

(d)grant an order of injunction restraining the states, by themselves, agents or privies from spending local government allocation; and declare:

(e)that no state government should be paid ANY money meant for the local government, while ordering “an immediate compliance with the judgement”.

Granted, as governor Soludo has not stopped saying, right on roof tops, that the Supreme Court did not invalidate Section 7 of the constitution which empowers state governments to enact laws for the administration of local government areas as a way of underscoring the importance of state oversight, can’t he see the illogic, and the illegality, of uprooting a Supreme Court decision, no matter how cleverly he tried to do it?

Also in fashioning out Laws as to how Anambra state spends its appropriated funds, did the House of Assembly, in any manner, or shape, insinuate a role for the Federal Government which it knows Anambra state is independent of? Therefore, if the hidden agenda is not for the state to control part of LG funds, why did the House of Assembly not restrict the way and manner of expenditure of Local government funds to strictly within organs of the Local Government; factoring in, separately, how they are to meet their responsibilities on Joint state/LG projects?

For me, all this is a ruse by a state governor, aimed at controlling a substantial part of LG funds through the back door, and the attempt must be fought to a standstill.

Indeed, allocations to local government Areas in the state must be stopped immediately, and for as long as the Local governments believe themselves beholden to the illegal law. Anambra state can then head to the Supreme court to try prove the legality of its new law.

Court

October 20, 2024
At NES-30, it was Tinubu’s ideas in Shettima’s voice

For the Presidency, last week shared similarities with the one before it in a lot of ways. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was abroad, rounding off his two-week working leave, and like the upper week, his leave did not impede the running of the Nigerian system. He made appearances where it was needed, albeit by proxy, and not any less impactful as it naturally would have been if he had been around in person. A couple of events where he was meant to preside went according to natural flow.

As things went by, just like the week before, there were a couple of occasions when the President came through, running the show as he usually would do. As he was yet on leave abroad, he did all he had to do to ensure nothing goes amiss, through statements and representations.

One occasion of significance during the week was the 30th Nigerian Economic Summit on Monday in Abuja, where the President found a platform to outline his economic vision and at the same time address a critical segment, which holds so much influence and meaning to what he is trying to do with the Nigerian economy; the business, economic and commercial community. Represented by his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, who all along has not failed to provide quality representation since their joint-ticket journey started in July 2022, the President emphasized the need for economic diversification, stability, and growth.

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According to Tinubu, Nigeria’s growth trajectory has been volatile, heavily dependent on oil revenues and unable to create enough jobs for its rapidly growing population. However, he said his Renewed Hope Agenda aims to change this narrative by prioritizing economic diversification. In this plan of his, key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and the digital economy will drive inclusive growth. He said investments in critical infrastructure, social safety nets, and innovation will be crucial, adding that the government has already made significant strides in addressing infrastructure deficits, regulatory bottlenecks, and ease of doing business challenges.

To show how much progress has been made, he said ongoing projects include roads, railways, and power plants to enhance connectivity and productivity, further adding that harmonizing regulatory processes will reduce bureaucratic hurdles, promoting entrepreneurship and innovation. He also said initiatives like MSME hubs and single-digit loans for manufacturers will support entrepreneurs.

However, economic growth and competitiveness rely on stability, so he acknowledged the need to address security challenges, fiscal imbalances, and implement fiscal reforms. To this end he his administration is investing heavily in security operations to combat terrorism, banditry, and other forms of insecurity. He said the administration is also expanding social safety nets, like the National Social Investment Programme and National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy. These programs protect vulnerable members of society, ensuring the economy remains resilient and inclusive.

“Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Nigeria’s growth trajectory has been volatile, heavily dependent on oil revenues, and unable to create enough jobs to keep pace with our rapidly growing population. As a nation, we must prioritize economic diversification. With this in mind, my administration, through the Renewed Hope Agenda, has embarked on bold reforms designed to create an environment that fosters sustainable economic growth and shared prosperity. Our focus is on sectors that can offer inclusive and sustainable growth, such as agriculture, manufacturing, and the digital economy.

“As such, we need to prioritize investments in critical infrastructure, enhance our social safety nets, and promote innovation across all sectors. To achieve this, we must address several key issues, including infrastructure deficits, regulatory bottlenecks, and ease of doing business challenges. The government has already made significant strides in these areas.

“As we gather here today, it is clear that no single sector or stakeholder can address these challenges alone. What we need now, more than ever, is collaborative action—where the public and private sectors, civil society, and international partners unite to drive a shared vision for growth and development.

“As we begin this summit, I would like to emphasize that the challenges before us, while significant, are not insurmountable. With the right policies, the right partnerships, and the right level of commitment, Nigeria can emerge stronger, more competitive, and more resilient than ever before. The Nigerian Economic Summit remains an invaluable platform for fostering the dialogue and collaboration needed to move our country forward. Let us use this opportunity to not only discuss but also take decisive actions that will drive growth, enhance competitiveness, and secure long-term stability for Nigeria”, he said.

In the face of all the socioeconomic vicissitudes we currently experience as a nation, President Tinubu has ensured to place himself in the heart of it all in order to prove that when he says he feels our pains and that he is not far removed from what the ordinary Nigerian is facing, he means it. That is the reason he always finds the occasions and platforms to highlight what he knows is happening to us at the moment and expresses why his government is doing all it is engaged in, one of which was his outing at the NES-30.

The President made more than just one appearance in the course of the week, he ensured to step in from time to time, showing there is a direction and that he has an answer in every circumstance. For instance, when our national honour and image got tested by rather unseemly and provocative series of events in far away Libya, besides other steps taken by government, the President personally stepped in and sent in his ‘words of the King’ by demanding justice from the relevant authority governing the situation.

You will recall that the Nigerian national football team, the Super Eagles, was meant to be playing the second leg of the African Cup of Nations’ (AFCON) qualifier in Benghazi against the Mediterranean Knights of Libya on Monday. However, the match had to be psotponed because Libya as a nation decided to be diabolical and unsportsmanlike by attempting to use other means to steal the three points of the match.

It all started with the Libyan authorities suddenly denying the aircraft conveying the Nigerian contingent landing permission at the Benghazi airport, as scheduled. The aircraft’s crew was told, despite protests that it was low on fuel, to head to the Al Abraq airport, a distance of 236 kilometres and a road driving distance of about three and a half hours. The thing was the flight was originally scheduled to land at the Benghazi Benina International Airport, but on approaching the airport, the Nigerian contingent was informed that “an instruction from way high up” had directed that they could not land where they had been scheduled to land, which was meant to be the city where the match was scheduled to be played.

At the Al Abraq Airport, our team landed to one of the most hostile receptions, even locked in the airport, not permitted to leave or be visited, a hostage situation; no water, no food, no internet and tossed up and down by officials on duty. For more than 16 hours, the situation was becoming dire and scary until God, humanity and diplomatic moves intervened and they were ‘permitted’ to leave the airport and return to Nigeria.

A lot of strings were pulled and according to the back-stories gleaned from reliable sources, it was actually President Tinubu who made most of the critical moves. How he did it, who he reached and the content of the conversations are still not public, the key thing is Nigeria managed to escape whatever it was the Libyan authorities were plotting and it all happened even with his being on leave, abroad.

Besides the steps he reportedly took, President Tinubu has called for sanctions against Libya for its unsportsmanlike conduct. This call is a significant move because the office and person of the Nigerian President control so much weight, not just in Africa, but globally. That is the person who leads one-sixth of the African population, a figure which means a lot in the global community.

In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Ononuga, on Monday, Tinubu called on CAF to do the needful by investigating the circumstances surrounding the hostage-taking of Nigeria’s contingent. Some people have even described that gruesome experience as an attempt on the lives of our representatives, a situation requiring legal action against all involved in the ugly experience.

“President Bola Tinubu, deeply moved by the inhuman treatment endured by the Super Eagles of Nigeria at a Libyan airport, warmly welcomes their safe return to Nigeria. President Tinubu expects the Disciplinary Board of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to conduct a thorough investigation and recommend appropriate action against those who wilfully violated the organisation’s Statutes and Regulations. The President commends the proactive coordination between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Sports Development in addressing the unfortunate episode and ensuring the safe return of our players.

“President Tinubu applauds the players for keeping their spirit alive despite the excruciating ordeal in Libya. The Nigerian leader recognises football’s unifying power in bringing nations and people together and views the treatment of our citizens as unsportsmanlike and inhumane, a stark contrast to the spirit of the game he deeply appreciates”, the statement said.

By the way, the Presidency cleared the air on a situation that is likely to present itself from time to time. You are aware that President Tinubu has been out of the country on a two-week working vacation and the Vice President has been on ground, running the show. Now there are events opened to be attended abroad, which fell on the Vice President to attend, on behalf of the nation.

This situation raised old dusts from the public and the question, same as when similar circumstance was encountered in the past, has been who runs the system when both the President and Vice President are offshore? Though it was not like the system grounded to a halt when it happened in the past, those raising the question, who are necessarily not lawyers, ask in order to get clarity. Well, the Presidency provided that clarity in the course of the week, in a statement issued by the President’s spokesman, Onanuga

“Following enquiries by journalists as to who is in charge of our country as the President and Vice President are out of the country, we want to clarify: It is important to note that the President and Vice President are fully engaged with the nation’s affairs, even while they are away. There is no leadership vacuum in the country. President Tinubu left the country on 3 October and is on a two-week working vacation. During this time, he has been busy answering phones and issuing directives on matters of state. He will soon return to the country before the vacation officially expires.

“The Vice President departed the country Wednesday for Sweden on an official visit, working for Nigeria. All state organs are functioning as usual. The Senate President, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ministers, and Service Chiefs are all in their respective positions, ensuring the smooth operation of the government. The Constitution, a testament to our adaptability in the virtual age, does not explicitly require the physical presence of either the President or the vice president in the country at all times to fulfill his duties”, the statement said.

October 20, 2024