The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

Ikeja Electric, ‘I wan port, but…’

I saw it coming. I knew it was going to happen when, suddenly, we started experiencing a phenomenal and seemingly sustained power supply increase in my area a few weeks back. But I did not know that the improved power supply was a function of our forced migration from ‘Band B’ to ‘Band A’. This was apparently because I still had a lot of credit units in my meter. I told my people that Ikeja Electric was rehearsing how to take us to their second premium (I guess I am right) band. I was still empathising with those who were reporting their own experiences concerning the forced migration when mine came. That was on September 13. I paid N20,000 into my meter account, expecting to be credited with the usual 297 units. But I had only 88 units. That was when it dawned on me that I had been migrated from ‘Band B’ to the elite ‘Band A’. Unsolicited!

If only I had known, I would have vended (the electricity distribution companies’ (DisCos) terminology for recharging) about N100,000 the last time, even if it meant obtaining a loan to pay for it. I know you would say but that too would finish someday. Yes. But it would have lasted beyond the period that the last payment did. By now, I still would have been enjoying the benefit of being on ‘Band B’.

This piece ought to have come out on September 15 but I could not be talking about electricity ‘banding’ when that was the date Nigeria was to make history with the commencement of sale of petrol by Dangote Refinery. Also, for reasons beyond my control, I could not write last week. But my writing today has turned out to be a blessing in disguise somehow; with my personal experience of Tuesday, September 24.

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That would seem to have provided what I can now call a litmus test for the migration to this second upper echelon of power consumers. Last Tuesday, power supply was interrupted in my area. By the time it returned, we did not have electricity in my apartment. I contacted Ikeja Electric. The next day, they came but their official who came told me that my meter was burnt and that must have happened due to overload. For me, only one of the two cables that take electricity to the meter was burnt at the top but the meter was still working; it was at least still reading; just that it was not supplying power. I said where would the overload have come from? None of the air conditioners in my apartment was installed; they are all still in their compartments. Second, as a rule, my wife would never allow anyone use both microwave oven and freezer at the same time; her own way of cutting cost. On my part, I do not even like using the microwave oven often because of fears of cancer that some people say comes with it. So, it was a thing we sparingly use. We iron clothes once in a while, yes. We don’t even use electric kettle as we have been used to using gas for that purpose ever since the days when electricity was scarce commodity in my area. That was quite some time now, though. So, where did the overload come from?

Anyway, it was after the Ikeja Electric official had left that I got in touch with someone who should know who told me the cable to the meter could also get burnt due to partial contact arising from the failure of the person who installed it to tighten it properly, and that that was what could have happened because he is fairly used to my place. He has an idea of the electrical appliances that we use.

The Ikeja Electric official said he would connect me directly and that they would have to take the meter away for a new one which I have to pay for. Grudgingly, I accepted direct connection but opposed the idea of making me pay for the replacement of the meter because, one, I was not even sure it was that serious, and two, even if it was, how do you prove overload in view of what I am cock sure I have on the meter that cannot in any way constitute overload, unless the meter is substandard or fake? He said it was neither. Anyway, I reluctantly agreed to direct connection because I know the tug of war that Ikeja Electric and I had in the days when they were still doing estimated billing in our area. I fought the company for one year and was without power supply for the period because I was convinced of the strength of my case. We went to NERC Forum and they were asked to connect me immediately when I told the forum that I had been yanked off the national grid for certain number of months then. We eventually settled the matter and my so-called debt then was substantially reduced, a thing that I settled not because I was convinced I owed but just to let sleeping dogs lie. That is why I don’t want any estimated billing again.

Anyway, since I have not had power supply up till now since Tuesday, I guess I may not have it until, tomorrow earliest, if not Wednesday, since Tuesday is public holiday. That would make it at least six consecutive days of darkness. I do not think this is right. Premium tariff deserves premium service. That is one of the problems I have with policies in the country. There should be timelines for some of these things. The point is; I am paying for a certain number of hours of power supply daily, a thing that the company, in fairness to it, has kept faith with in the past few months. But now that there is an issue, I do not think the customer should be left in darkness for this long; forget the fact that my meter is, after all, not reading. I want it to be reading so I can get light.

If electricity workers are regarded as people on essential services, I do not think they should have anything like public holidays or weekends. There should be internal arrangements as to how they organise themselves to give optimum service to their customers, especially now that they are making them pay higher tariffs.

In the lighter mood, however, which was supposed to be the mode of this write-up before the occurrence of September 24, I have always known that one can only enjoy the White man to the extent of one’s pocket (bi owo ba se mo ni eniyan se maa gbadun Oyinbo mo)! Ikeja Electric should have been patient and let me mature before imposing ‘Band A’ on me. But for my faith, I would have rejected it outright and in fact led a protest of those of us whose fundamental human right to freely choose the power band that we like has been eroded.

I would have loved to ‘port’ to another DisCo, but I can’t. Like telecommunications, it should be possible. But it is not, at least not yet. Even if it is, I know the difference would not be clear.

Meanwhile sha, I have claimed ‘Band A’ in Jesus’s name; but I still look forward to tariff reduction! I have always believed our people waste electricity a lot because it is cheap. But this tariff regime is also particularly killing.

September 29, 2024
Petrol: The buck stops here!

Long before Dangote Refinery came on stream, Nigerians were hopeful that once the refinery takes off, the era of petrol importation would be over and that we would enjoy cheaper fuel prices. Both appear to be becoming a mirage, going by the developments since the refinery started selling petrol on September 15. This should not be so. At least we should be sure of steady supply of petrol now if we cannot guarantee rock-bottom pump price for various reasons.

Whenever I think of the rigmarole about pricing and availability of the product, I keep asking the question: how come things that give other people joy elsewhere end up giving us melancholy in Nigeria.

I started entertaining fears the moment the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd (NNPCL) got involved in the matter. This is an entity with four refineries and none has worked for years. Yet, it is not bothered that the country is paying workers in those refineries. One would be wondering if those managing the NNPCL would have been paying workers who are not working for years if they were to pay from their own purse.

I doubt if people running our petroleum sector can ever know of any price or production template for locally produced fuel. They have been so used to importation; they know the various components of imported fuel pricing.

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The truth of the matter is that there can never be an end to the kind of crisis that we are having as to why Dangote Refinery’s coming on stream is not having the desired impact on Nigerians unless we replace people with such mindset. It does not seem to me that they ever wanted local refinery of fuel to work, and, to that extent, they cannot be happy that we now have a private company that has come to provide an alternative to what they have been giving the impression was not possible.

I have said it before; and it bears restating that if Dangote Refinery’s coming on stream would save the country about 35 to 40 per cent of forex, then, it is not a thing we should joke with, irrespective of whatever misgivings anybody may have about the man, Aliko Dangote.

Although hope has now shifted to October 1 when NNPCL would begin sale of crude to Dangote and other local refineries in Naira, but, if care is not taken, we still would not get any reprieve. Nigeria is like the typical person in whose mouth bean cake has become bone because he has lost his teeth (akara denu akayin, o di egun).

How can a country be host to one of the world’s largest refineries and its people would still be suffering for fuel as we are now? Something must be fundamentally wrong with us.

But the buck ends on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s desk. He was the one Nigerians voted for. If the impact of Dangote Refinery is still not being felt as it should, he is the one that Nigerians would keep asking why.

The president should resolve the logjam in Nigeria’s interest.

September 29, 2024
Edo poll: the morning after

No one in Edo State thinks Governor Godwin Obaseki is a democrat or a liberal. His loss of the September 21 governorship election, much more than the loss by Candidate Asue Ighodalo, is a fitting rebuke to his person and politics. No one will shed a tear for him, or for the fractious and divided Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which reluctantly rallied behind the governor and the party’s candidate. In the weeks ahead, Mr Obaseki will discover how severely isolated he is and how vulnerable he has become in ‘enemy’ territory, especially after he ill-advisedly drew the ire of the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II. Edolites were not in any confusion as to how deeply they resent Mr Obaseki’s politics; but they appeared somewhat uneasy about the seemingly genial Mr Ighodalo. However, convinced they could not isolate the candidate from his backer, they opted to err on the side of caution by throwing both of them out two Saturdays ago. It is good riddance.

The PDP knew they went into the election a divided house, with the legacy PDP, upon which Mr Obaseki clumsily grafted his defection, alienated and resentful of his obtruding style. They also knew that the itinerant and defecting members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with whom he rode dashingly into the PDP had been left disgruntled. But despite the transparency of the defeat and the irrefutable manner the cards were stacked against Messrs Obaseki and Ighodalo, party leaders, including Adamawa State governor Umaru Fintiri, nevertheless went through the routine of nitpicking the election to fulfill all righteousness and to give the impression that their defeat at the hands of the disfavoured opposition was caused by factors completely extraneous to the poll itself. But defeat is defeat, especially when irregularity alleged by the ruling party in the state has been difficult to substantiate. Mr Obaseki’s attempt to transmute into a godfather of his own came a cropper thereby taking with him campaign funds he will find difficult to balance or reconcile in the books as well as dooming the chances of the hapless PDP candidate.

After eight years of orchestrating a thoroughly unpopular and antidemocratic government in Edo, Mr Obaseki and his supporters should be ashamed of the stories the election tells beyond revealing the losers and winners, not to say the quantum of disgrace they will face in the weeks ahead. Eight years of Mr Obaseki’s damning and depressing rule, yet only about 11.67 percent of Edo’s 4. 8m population felt enthusiastic enough to vote. Even as a percentage of those who registered to vote, only about 25 percent of 2.249m mustered the will to vote. But it gets much worse. As a percentage of Edo population and percentage of registered voters, only 5.18 percent and about 11 percent respectively endorsed Mr Obaseki’s candidate and point of view, while about 6.11 percent of the total population and about 13 percent of registered voters voted APC. Should the statistics be interrogated further, of those who voted PDP, whether as a percentage of total population or registered voters, fewer than one-quarter would be willing to fight to reclaim what party leaders said without evidence was a stolen election.

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While the APC victory is emphatic, at least vis-à-vis the PDP loss, it is still not flattering overall that less than 13 percent of registered voters and 6.11 percent of total population endorsed APC candidate, Monday Okpebholo. In the foreseeable future, the contest in the state, and in the entire country, will be generally limited to the two leading parties. The Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections was an upstart and a spoiler, probably more the latter than the former. But as this column has maintained, the LP, regardless of the outcome of the internecine conflict in the party, will be an insignificant factor in the next elections. Its former presidential candidate, ex-Anambra governor Peter Obi unleashed the demons of religious division from the pit of hell to savage the ballot last year. He failed, though he and his running mate, the cantankerous and hysterical Datti Baba-Ahmed, mendaciously argued they won. In every election since that 2023 debacle, the LP has foundered badly. Once again, in the Edo governorship poll, the LP and its convivial candidate, Olumide Akpata, experienced a shellacking, beaten black and blue with only 22,763 votes out of 561,704 votes secured by the first three parties. The LP’s taking of 1.01 percent of registered voters or 0.48 percent of Edo population was a humiliating and devastating loss. The party has no future in the state, and it is not too early, especially in light of its lack of ideology and unity, to prognosticate that it has little future elsewhere.

By repudiating Mr Obaseki and his candidate, Edo sends a clear signal about the kind of politics they expect of their leaders. In 2020, when former governor Adams Oshiomhole plotted to deny the governor a second term, Edolites were swindled by Mr Obaseki’s pithy catchphrase ‘Edo is not Lagos’ to submit to the fear that the former governor was a true mimic of the classical godfather. But in the September 21 poll, the state saw through the gimmickry, judged that their governor lacked the democratic ethos and unifying politics to govern the state, and were also dismayed by his highhandedness and aloofness. If Mr Okpebholo disappoints them in the years ahead, they will also punish him. Their voting record may have been awkward in the past, being a mixed grill of electoral adroitness and blatant self-immolation, but today, Edolites seem prepared to slay their giants in equal measure with punishing their minions. For Mr Akpata, he obviously exaggerated the value of Mr Obi in the poll. After September 21, he and perhaps the former LP presidential candidate must have come to the painful reality that Edolites suffer from no such exaggeration, nor indeed suffer fools gladly.

September 29, 2024
Nigeria at 64 and missed opportunities

Put dramatically, Nigeria entered old age four years ago. By this time next year, it will be well into that age classification, its strength drained by divisions, in-fighting, religious extremism, structural and political dystrophy, populism, and entitlement. But that is one year away. Will there be a change for the better, a reversal of the lethargy that has stagnated and disoriented it? No one can tell. Indeed, there are chances things might get worse, given the country’s predilection for majoring in minor things. In the 1950s and 1960s, Nigeria was as primed for development as the four Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, all of which put premium on exports, industrialization, and integration into the world economy, emulating Japan and growing at over seven percent. Decades later, and despite the slump of 2008, they have sustained their prodigious leaps, more or less.

On the other hand, after one military intervention or the other, a civil war that is yet to produce a closure, and deepening cleavages underscored by ethnic rivalry and poisonous infusions of religion into politics, Nigeria has continued to reel under its self-inflicted limitations. Tomorrow, it will be 64 years old. It ought to have outgrown its colonial past, but it has sunk deeper into neocolonialism. It proclaims secularism offhandedly, but it has acted more non-secular than many theocratic states, and funded religious travels, practices and observances with reckless abandon. If its cloud is to have a silver lining, it must show capacity to take the wind. So far, for more than six decades, Nigeria has mastered the art of disowning the opportunities nature and circumstances gift it. Nigeria does not lack skilled economists or seasoned administrators, but at every turn in the past, just when the silver lining appeared, it had seemed fated to self-destruct.

In the past 64 years, Nigeria repeatedly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Gifted a federalist constitution anchored on regionalism and the Parliamentary system at independence in 1960, Nigeria’s idiosyncratic impatience, poor appreciation of the salient issues of the day, and indiscipline of the highest order led to a military takeover, arrest of democracy, enthronement of a unitary system of government, and a civil war. Were any lessons learnt? None whatsoever. What of those who played key roles in destroying the First Republic? They remained remorseless and justificatory of their roles, and until their dying days refused to accept responsibility. In fact, the bitterness and ethnic suspicion instigated in the system have become gangrenous. Alarmingly, in recent years, social media has accentuated the divisions and fuelled national distrust with inflammatory language. The problem appears set to worsen.

Gifted another chance to make a fresh start in 1979, the country seemed unanimous in believing that the structure, rather than the political actors, was the problem. Parliamentarianism was, therefore, peremptorily jettisoned, and the American-inspired presidential system was adapted in a disjointed and bastardised form. There was little federal about the constitution, not to talk of its many unfounded suppositions and pretences; in fact it retained many essential elements of a unitary system of government. The departing military government simply projected its command structure worldview upon the Second Republic constitution and thus weakened it from the beginning. Nothing was done to create an enduring template for leadership recruitment, and though some attempts were made to export and industrialise and integrate the economy into the world economy, there were no safeguards to prevent the vitiation and ultimate abandonment of the progress of the 60s and 70s.

Many more incompetent military leaders followed until circumstances offered the country yet another chance in 1993 with the election of business mogul Moshood Abiola as president. In one fell swoop, his election held the promise of obliterating religious and ethnic divides, two cankerworms gnawing at the national fabric and exposing the country to instability and retardation. But even before the last ballot was counted, the oligarchs of the day subverted popular will by annulling the poll and retaining power in the hands of unimaginative military leaders with no sense of history or politics, or even sense for sense. It was unremittingly bad. The same elements who acted against popular will in the 1990s have begun their politics of brinkmanship again. Eight years, presumably, of Chief Abiola would have ended in 2001, and power returned to the North, with democracy nurtured and strengthened. Instead, those years produced a mimic civilian leader, another bloodthirsty military ruler, and finally a foisted former soldier elected as president. That great chance of 1993, which produced an elected person on his own merit, was lost, to be replaced by an imposed president incapable of appreciating democratic norms and, worse, beholden to a cabal.

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But sometimes, nature can also exceed expectations. It is not only capable of producing destructive hurricanes and storms, it is also adept at gifting second, third and fourth chances. If Nigeria was good at self-destruction and other excesses, nature was even better at offering redemption. In 2023, after welcoming a slew of lethargic and visionless presidents, Nigeria was again gifted with the election of the self-made Bola Tinubu as president who ran on same-faith presidential ticket. Rather than sense the redemptive value of a ticket capable of again dealing massive blows to religious interference in politics, nearly half of the country rose up in arms against the ticket. But just as nature conspired to produce an unlikely victory after the poll, some Nigerians disavowed the election, tried to instigate a coup d’etat, prophesied doom and death for the victorious candidate, and recklessly pushed the country to the brink. They proved incapable of recognising nature’s gifts, and in order to avert a Tinubu presidency, they shockingly announced they were indifferent to the collapse of the whole national edifice.

Despite their worst efforts, President Tinubu was inaugurated. It was a godsend to encourage faith in the country that anyone, even if not beholden to a cabal, could win the highest office. Apart from inaugurating a man who believes in himself and has had the courage to take actions and make appointments without recourse to special interests except political mobilisers, the election also helped to tame the influence of religious considerations in electing the president. In addition, the election averted the damaging potential of regional and ethnic self-succession, and then also offered the opportunity to reset the country’s economy, in the first instance, and greatly attenuate the sense of entitlement that has weakened the country’s productive base. More, it seems set to realign the value of the Naira with production in a move that will revivify the country’s industrial base of the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. Ten more years like the last one year, with of course the pain of adjustment considerably reduced, should make Nigeria re-imagine and recreate the Asian Tigers. But, notwithstanding all the opportunities offered by the unusual 2023 political outcomes, many analysts are still fixated on the old and dying economic templates that have made Nigeria uncompetitive – fuel subsidy, fixed and unrealistic exchange rate, suffocating monthly federal allocations, and overbearing political centralisation. If Nigeria does not change, it will collapse, especially having atrophied for some 64 long and distressing years.

September 29, 2024
Israel, Iran, Hezbollah and World War III

In the past few weeks, and up till the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a Beirut strike, Israel has almost completely decapitated the leaderships of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. But in doing so, it has made the imminence of all-out regional war in the Middle East nearly inevitable. Shiites in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza will probably unite against Israel, deploying indiscriminate force. For the Iranian-led axis of resistance, success will, however, be qualified. Iran itself will be more calculating, undoubtedly chastened by how the ’empire’ it was attempting to carve out in the region is being taken apart. If it miscalculates, it could also become a direct victim, particularly its armament programme, including its nuclear bomb project. After the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Israel learnt its lessons from the one-month war and began to prepare for the next conflict in Lebanon they knew would be unavoidable. The effort bore fruits in the manner it penetrated the Hezbollah leadership and dismantled it in a matter of weeks.

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Iran has sounded the bugle for its regional allies to join forces in eradicating Israel. Only its allies will heed the call, perhaps taking cognisance of the Sunni-Shiite divide. The other powers in the region deeply distrust and loathe Iran’s regional ambition. While they may sound concerned about Israeli aggression, they will only pay lip service to the mustering of a countervailing force. For them, Israel wants to defend its territory, while Iran wants to be the dominant regional power influencing and meddling in Middle Eastern affairs. They will choose carefully, just as they feigned neutrality during the Iran-Iraq war. They are wary enough to know that it’s all about politics, not strictly religion or territorial dispute.

Could the all-out war in the region lead to World War III? It is unlikely, even if the United States is sucked in. What is happening is that Iran is being baited to be destroyed, particularly if it joins the fray directly. Should it take up the gauntlet, it may in fact take Yemen down with it, but the crisis will in the end be contained. The Israeli-Gaza-West Bank-Hezbollah affair will in the years ahead recrudesce if no solution is found after this round of fighting, while the Middle East, and particularly Lebanon, will change in profound ways reminiscent of the era when the United States blundered into Iraq in the long-running Shiite-Sunni battle for regional supremacy.

September 29, 2024
CONNECT

I sought your steps

In the forest of the sun

   Every leaf told me

   You had gone

      The way of the wind

I sought your face

In the mirror of the lake

   Every fish told me

   To seek you out

   In the roar of the waves

I sought your voice

In the house of Memory

     Every echo craved your ear

     In the distant chambers

     Of our forgotten fragments

The ear longs for

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The company of the mouth

Bony consonants crave

The flourish of fleshy vowels

The bird thirsts for

The melody of the song

Deserts pine for

The advent of the rain

The Moon is mother of the Sun

The Sun surely is the father of the Moon

Life’s precious meaning flows

Quietly from the terror of Death

September 29, 2024
Yahaya Bello and unending EFCC saga

Last week, Kogi State’s incredibly ingratiating House of Assembly weighed in on the running saga between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and former governor Yahaya Bello. Even for the most servile of Houses of Assembly, the language deployed by the Kogi State legislature was excessive, unflattering, demeaning and provocative. The lawmakers alleged that the ordeal faced by Mr Bello amounted to persecution. Worse, they also asserted, a plot to assassinate the governor, Usman Ododo, and former governor was afoot. Not satisfied with that unique hyperbole, the lawmakers then went ahead to equate the attack on the former governor with an attack on the entire Kogi people. In their haste and immoderacy, the lawmakers did not query what their governor was doing escorting the former governor to the EFCC office, obstructing justice, or shielding him from the law.

Nigeria’s Houses of Assembly were once worth their weight in gold, possessing an inspiring capacity to hold the feet of governors to the fire. But as years go by, they lost their luster and gradually and inexorably became lapdogs to governors, with some Speakers even representing governors at public functions. Since the advent of the Fourth Republic, the Kogi legislature has been unable to make a name for itself, and has lacked the courage to stand up to virtually all the governors. Indeed, its undistinguishedness and legislative indolence, not to talk of its second-rate principal officers, diminish it in the esteem of Nigerians and Kogites, and make it incomparable to any fair and competent House of Assembly around. Too much farce is at play in the Kogi saga. It, therefore, makes it difficult to weigh whether the Kogi lawmakers were not luxuriating in the same farce, and issuing statements they very well knew to be both farcical and fallacious.

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Of what use is a former governor described as larcenous by the EFCC to anyone dead? The Kogi lawmakers probably know they exaggerated their view on the former governor. They know he is not been persecuted, and they know no one, let alone the EFCC, wants to assassinate a former governor they would like to see humiliated in the courts for the punishment he inflicted on the state when he was in office, and the unrelenting tyranny he unfurled upon the state for eight undistinguished years. What gave the Kogi Assembly the liberty to give free rein to their appalling imagination is the incomprehensible slothfulness of the EFCC in arresting and prosecuting Mr Bello. They probably assumed the former governor had a sense of shame, and was incapable of enacting incalculable farce. Shortly after the EFCC first trained their guns on him, he produced a string of magical administrative and legal ploys to thwart the agency. When there was nothing left in his magic bag, he orchestrated another round of tricks to foil his arrest and prosecution. It was clear two Wednesdays ago that Mr Bello simply put up an act, together with Governor Ododo, to deceive the country. He had no interest in being taken in to custody, not to talk of trial. But he had accomplices. The EFCC must not assume that the public cannot read the chicanery. They ow the public to come clean on what transpired at its offices when the current and former Kogi governors strolled in to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja and left moments later, feigning compliance with the law. Nigerians await an explanation.

Last week, Barometer had puzzled over what was clearly a farcical drama between the EFCC and Mr Bello. Said this column: “If it was true that Mr Bello was ready to turn himself in, and had indeed, according to his story, turned himself in, why would he resist arrest a few hours later, assuming the EFCC unprofessionally changed its mind? Shakespeare would be flummoxed. The former Kogi governor had spent tons of documents and arguments in self-exculpation. If he was persuaded of his innocence, and there were no grey areas in his stories, surely he would not be opposed to proving it to the EFCC officials, even if they were dimwitted investigators. After all, regardless of how many days they keep him, and notwithstanding how many years he carefully curated his image as a whiz-kid politician, the matter would still end in court, where he would have all the latitude and lawyers to establish his innocence.

“The bigger puzzle in all the EFCC/Bello drama is the involvement of Mr Ododo in the appalling farce. It is true that he is beholden to Mr Bello. It is also true that the governor’s unique personality triggers considerable genuflection before his benefactor, a fact he proved when, at his inauguration as governor last January, he prostrated before a beaming Mr Bello. He seems perfectly like one who would eternally be grateful for small acts of kindness. After all, the former governor had shown him great kindness by making him governor which he did little to merit either by dint of intellect or by demonstration of character. The question Mr Ododo has, however, refused to contemplate or answer is why his self-abnegation must involve willfully frustrating the constitution and obstructing justice. He has immunity, but he seems irrationally to be conferring a part of his immunity on the former governor who no longer has immunity. Sadly, Mr Ododo appears to be lending the image of the entire State to the service of a poltroon, a man who feigned overweening courage as governor, and even the dashing bravado of youth, but is at bottom no match for his own posturing.

“If Mr Ododo, as a former auditor-general for local governments in Kogi State, was not involved in any financial shenanigans with his predecessor, it is time he dissociated from Mr Bello and struck a new path for himself. His repeated abnegations, not to say his open participation in his predecessor’s farcical dramas, need to come to an end. Had he not been governor, it would have been okay for him to continue groveling before anyone that catches his fancy. There is nothing in the constitution, not to talk of even his private principles and morality, should he have both, that encourages him to obstruct justice. It is tragic that Nigerian security agents are also ridiculing themselves before the world by protecting a fugitive under the guise of protecting the governor, an overlap encouraged by Mr Ododo himself. If the governor chooses not to respect the constitution, the heads of the security agents shielding Mr Bello should be directed forthwith to give him up for the law to take its course. Replicating farces in Kano, Rivers, Edo and Kogi should not become the hallmark of the Fourth Republic.”

In the name of God, the federal government must bring the nonsense playing out in Kogi and Abuja over the Bello/EFCC saga to an end. Kogi governor Ododo may have immunity, but the Government House does not. The federal government does not need to be advised how to pick up a fugitive hiding in plain sight. Enough of the ridicule.

September 29, 2024
Disaster relief fund: Transforming a thought into reality within a week

When the Presidency announced that President Bola Tinubu would not be attending the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79) in person and that his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, would be attending in his place, the media handlers did not fail to give a reason for the President’s decision to skip such an all-important international engagement.

The UNGA is considered the ace space for all nations of the world to gather and do their most important exchanges, it is like the number one diplomatic and political market. The UNGA is a period everybody everywhere awaits to enter New York City, the UN headquarters that hosts the meeting, to demand for freedom, protect what they have, as well do any other thing that advance the individual interests of their various countries.

Before proceeding to the reason for President Tinubu’s staying back and what his stay back has achieved, it must be noted that Vice President Shettima has not failed to impress and live up to expectations. Besides other meetings and engagements he attended on the instruction of his principal and on behalf of all Nigerians, the Vice President’s demeanour while delivering the Nigerian national statement has been praised as starling. Shettima shone line a star for Nigeria. May be I should make the point that Shettima would be the first Vice President in the twenty-five years of the current democracy to lead the nation to the UNGA, exhausting all the itinerary of the President, including the presentation of the national statement to the full assembly.

However, the lot to go represent Nigeria in New York fell on Shettima when President Tinubu, according to a statement issued on Thursday, September 19, by the his spokesman, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, said he “wants to focus on domestic issues and address some of the country’s challenges, especially after the recent devastating flooding”.

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Specifically because things were happening back home posing challenges to Nigerians, people he campaigned to and promised that he would be having their back, now here they are facing challenges, many of which are beyond their control, one of such challenges was the flooding disaster in different parts of the country.

The thought on his mind would have been something like “if we promised to bring them relief and renew their hope, it is at a time like this that we should be found by their side, lending our shoulder and deploying all available resources”. So he stayed back, apparently to lead the relief and recovery efforts, starting with the visit to Maiduguri at the beginning of the upper week. It was in Maiduguri he hinted of an alteration to his United States (US) trip, when he met with the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Garba. He was actually scheduled to head straight to the US from abroad: “I know I have to cut off (the trip), I was going directly to America, but I have to be with you, even if it’s just for five minutes”.

It was in the same Maiduguri where he first publicly spoke of the need for a ready intervention fund for times of crises and challenges as we are currently facing. While sympathising with the Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Zulum, over the disaster, the President suggested that Nigeria should be better ready for future disasters, especially natural ones like the case in Maiduguri. By the way, the flood in Maiduguri was occasioned by the overflowing of Alau Dam, which was also said to have over-flown as a result of unusual amount of rainfall, a vestige of climate change.

“After my visit to the Shehu of Borno and the IDP camp, I have been reflecting on how to tackle this kind of disaster and the effects of climate change. There must be a disaster relief fund. I will invite the private sector to team up with us and help rebuild the affected areas. If we take a small percentage from FAAC and put it as disaster relief fund, which will include all of you, we will be activating and strengthening our sense of belonging,” he said.

So the President thought up an idea on Monday 16 in Maiduguri and by the next Monday, being September 23, that idea became an Act of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). He did not just stop it at being a thought, it became a national discuss, to which every segment of society will have an opportunity to contribute to. By the time he broke down what his vision of the Disaster Relief Fund should be like and why it has become necessary for Nigeria to set one up to his cabinet, all members of Council bought it.

At the end of the Council meeting on Monday, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, explained the President’s reason and the objective for the fund to the media. Edun said the fund aims to build greater resilience against disasters, which are increasingly frequent due to climate change. Although Nigeria already has the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Flood Relief Fund, set up in 2012, the President recognizes the need for a more substantial and separate fund focused on financing disaster response efforts

“We were in agreement with the decision of Mr. President to start today’s FEC with the devastating situation of flooding in Maiduguri in Borno State. At the end of that discussion, which we started the meeting with, Mr. President did direct that a Disaster Relief Fund be set up. We know that there is NEMA, the Flood Relief Fund. The President feels that in this era of climate change and events and that from time to time, no matter the prevention measures, there will be disasters that will occur. We need to build greater resilience in a form of a substantial Disaster Relief Fund, separate from the agencies that intervene in disasters. This will focus on the financing.

“From the federal to sub-national to local level, private sector and even international organizations, it will be led by top cooperate governance, including leadership by the private sector at an appropriate level, in order to build for Nigeria a resilient response that is adequate size, skilled and quality and able to respond to such occurrences as we have had in Borno and elsewhere. We know no matter how we pray against it, we know this will happen from time to time so we need to be ready”, Edun said.

Not all of the President’s events and engagements were opened to the media. In some cases, the messages passed out on such events and activities were what sufficed. For instance, on Sunday he ordered a crackdown on cybercrimes, transnational movement of stolen goods. The President strongly affirmed “Nigeria is not a destination for stolen vehicles and a haven for illicit wealth from foreign countries”.

You will recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Edo State governorship election, Monday Okpebolo, and his running-mate, Dennis Idahosa, winners of the previous day’s election. On Thursday the President received the victorious candidates at the State House, Abuja, and it was another moment for him to speak about the concept of democracy, a way of governance he has spent his adult life to advance, champion and defend.

Of course, as the leader of the winning party, he had to charge the governor-elect and his deputy to be ready to provide leadership for all the people of the state and meet them with the developments and advancement they have always yearned for, but even beyond that, he took the time to prepare their minds for the challenges of not just governance, also those of democracy.

“You have earned the victory. Democracy is difficult, particularly in emerging democracies and economies like ours. If you hear complaints from places like America, you know how difficult it is to navigate democracy. But it remains the best form of government”, he told the new team to lead Edo State.

On Friday, he joined Muslims from across the country to observe the Jumat Service in commemoration of the nation’s 64th Independence Anniversary ceremony at the National Mosque in Abuja. Later in the day, he appointed seven new Executive Directors for the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

Taking another look at the week, it seemed to me like President Tinubu deliberately left his schedule scanty so that the media give adequate attention to the activities of his deputy, whom he sent on a national assignment to UNGA, so they could be visible enough for all to see. Go back to the Presidency’s reports during the last week, you will discover they were mostly those of the new grounds Nigeria was breaking in New York. Besides the national statement and other publicized activities of some of the Ministers who traveled to the event with him, Shettima participated in a number of events that led to the attraction of foreign investments and reaching new agreements with various interests, diplomatic, economic and humanitarian.

This week is that of our Independence Anniversary and it all will climax with a presidential broadcast and a parade at the State House on Tuesday. The already know itinerary of the Independence Day events, the part involving the President, will add up to other events that are yet to be known. Like I said last week, a lot should be expected from the table of the President, decisions and plans he brewed up while in seclusion. The new week is already here, just stay on and pay attention.

September 29, 2024
Umahi: Underestimating Ugliness?

‘. . . the derelict condition of the federal roads was a source of concern …’ – Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO) (The Nation, 30th January 2024)

Ab initio, it will be worthwhile starting this essay from an unassuming position in order to drive the point home. In this regard, cognizance will be taken of explaining to the readers the true meanings of key words making up the alliterated topic just as in searching out desired topics in research studies, key words play a vital role. Be that as it may, underestimating something is to regard it to be smaller, less important or of lesser value than it is really is. With appropriate diction, similar words that can be used to drive the meaning home are: play down, underrate, miscalculate, de-emphasize, etc. In the same vein, ugliness can be defined, depicted or described as the quality or state of being extremely unattractive in appearance. Going further, ugliness rhymes with such words as hideousness, offensiveness, unseemliness, unsightliness, etc.

Criss crossing Ekiti, a land of pleasant undulating terrain, agrarian in content and context, with a titillating or tickling tourist appeal, are litany of federal roads that are mostly in parlous state over the years. It is instructive to note that vehicular traffic in Ekiti is on the upward swing on the state roads that are newly constructed and/or upgraded. Most worrisome is the issue of diversion of heavy trucks and trailers from deplorable federal roads to state highways resulting in shortening the intended or designed lifespan of such state roads. This is all at the State’s expense; and a pull at the paltry resource accruing to Ekiti. One cannot but perceive the generational neglect. One may be tempted to ask whether the sins of Ekiti were ingrained or embossed in a hard stone that have occasioned generational neglect hitherto? It is seemingly puzzling or perplexing to many Ekitikete commuting inter and intra town highways bearing the imprints of federal roads.

It would be recalled that at his inauguration on the 16th of October 2022, His Excellency, Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, was greeted with unpleasant situation of federal roads linking Ekiti State with neighbouring states of Osun, Ondo, Kogi and Kwara. It was then in the news. Virtually, all arterial roads entering and exiting Ekiti were impassable; odiously in parlous state! Many would have forgotten, but this writer as then a public affairs analyst and columnist at that time remembered the yeoman effort of Governor Oyebanji in adopting immediate palliative measures to make the road passable. In addition, his numerous trips to Abuja, the federal capital, to parley or confab with officials of government, though stridently criticized, overtime yielded fruits. Thereafter, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) came in to ameliorate the deplorable state of some of these roads.

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Of recent, the state’s helmsman succinctly stated that the ‘deplorable conditions of some federal roads in the state is a source of concern to him.’ He did not fold his arms like some other state chief executives are wont to. His administration is spending humongous amount of money on the Ado – Iworoko – Ifaki Road, a major link road connecting Ekiti Central to Ekiti North Senatorial Districts. This is despite the state’s meagre resources. One thing that could not be taken away from Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (admirably called BAO by Ekitikete) is his profound reference for President Bola Tinubu. This writer was present with the Governor at the 70th natal anniversary of His Royal Majesty, Oba Ayorinde Ilori Faboro, at Ido Ekiti, recently. It was on a Saturday. It was surprising that Mr. Governor, upon his return from the event, embarked on project inspection of the Ado -Iworoko – Ifaki Road project which is up to 70% completed. This is the first time that the dual carriageway is being laid with some portion stabilized with hardcore, standardized granite base course and quality asphalt of specified thickness. The Office of Transformation and Service Delivery (OTSD), which this writer oversees, has been previously on project monitoring inspection to that site and can attest to quality and timely delivery. Referring to this project, Oyebanji was upbeat on the speedy completion, he stated inter alia: “that road is going to cost us N15b. We are able to embark on a project of this magnitude because of the strong support from the Federal Government of Bola Tinubu. This is our modest contribution to complement Mr. President’s infrastructural development and we hope the Federal Government will compensate us after its completion to encourage us so we can fix more roads and further enhance the economic development of the people.” The no-refund policy of the Federal Ministry of Works, though inherited by the incumbent Minister, Engineer David Umahi, needs an urgent review if the state Governors will want to touch federal roads in their state with a ten-foot pole! It is high time it was reviewed with strident terms and conditions that will be win-win for both the state and federal governments. It would be recalled that past investments on federal roads in Ekiti were not reimbursed, and can one fathom another humongous amount of N15 billion on the Ado – Iworoko – Ifaki Road project going the same route? Governor Oyebanji is embarking on this because of the love he has for his people coupled with the goodwill of Mr. President towards Ekitikete. It is hoped that the gracious gesture will be compensated appropriately and adequately by the federal authority.

Generational Neglect: Ekiti NASS members to the rescue?

The Governor was positive about the impact and contribution of National Assembly members from Ekiti State. He had engaged them numerously in Ekiti and Abuja drawing their attention to the sordid state of federal infrastructure in Ekiti. Much as they are proving their mettle, our distinguished Senators (Bamidele Opeyemi [Senate Leader], Yemi Adaramodu and Cyril Fasuyi) and Honourable Members of the House of Representatives, it is imperative to remind them of generational neglect of Ekiti federal roads. Pertinent to mention was the news that emanated aftermath of the Federal Executive Council Meeting some days ago relating to the Federal Ministry of Works awarding the reconstruction of Ado -Ifaki – Ikole – Omuo – Kogi as well as Ado – ABUAD – Ijan – Ilumoba Roads. The Ekiti State Government was elated and the news was greeted with a press release same day. However, this writer was discussing with a critical stakeholder in the Ekiti project, and he took the whole thing with a pinch of salt as according to him, some federal roads had been awarded up to three times in Ekiti, in the past, with nothing to show for it! It is gladdening that the incumbent Minister of Works, Engineer David Nweze Umahi, a professional civil engineer, knows his onions in planning and constructing of critical road infrastructures, looking at his antecedents in office. I hope he will prove naysayers wrong this time around!

Umahi: Ultimate Uhuru?

Is it yet Uhuru as far as federal roads are concerned in Ekiti? The state of ugliness of the federal roads in Ekiti cannot be fathomed unless one experiences it! It is high time our dear Honourable Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, did a reconnaissance survey of some federal roads in Ekiti. The last time he was to tour Ondo and Ekiti, possibly due to exigency of office, Ekiti was left out!! This writer is appealing, much as these road projects are awarded, the Honourable Minister as a professional engineer that he is, should commence a reconnaissance assessment of these projects to ensure value for money and to make contractors and consultants to work in conformity with the specifications in the conditions of contract and enhance timely delivery. It is imperative to mention that the Federal Ministry of Work should learn something from the way and manner of contract execution in Lagos State. It was during the time of the incumbent President Bola Tinubu serving then as the Governor that the Monitoring and Evaluation Policy was initiated and enforced in Lagos. This writer once served as the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation in that state for upward of six years – spanning Babatunde Raji Fashola, Akinwunmi Ambode and the incumbent, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, eras. What are the things to learn from Lagos? This essayist will pinpoint the following: firstly, the federal ministry may need to streamline the number of road contracts per budget year; secondly, the advance payment or mobilization fee should be reviewed upward to nothing less than 40 – 50% of the total contract sum with the proviso of obtaining performance bonds from banks by the contractors; and thirdly, there should be regional monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) teams periodically inspecting and reporting on projects to the Minister. The latter, due to the diversity and vastness of areas to be covered could be outsourced to consultants so as to ensure value for money. These laudable steps could be adopted or adapted, depending on the situation of things at the Federal Ministry of Works, to aid performance and elicit value for money expended on critical infrastructures. These steps can, in a way, be a sort of checkmating contractors’ shoddiness; call attention of the ministry to act swiftly where necessary; and simultaneously provide credibility rating of contractors involved in federal projects all over the country.

Conclusively, is it yet Uhuru taking cognizance of past federal government interventions on federal roads in Ekiti, in times past, most of which were publicized with much fanfare ending up with apparently no outcome at the end of the day? However, if the Ministry of Works will expect and work at better outcomes, than previous years, things should, and must, be done differently as according to the renown German physicist, Albert Einstein, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” The time to act is now; and it is ticking!

• Engr. (Dr.) John Moyo Ekundayo, MNSE, MNICE, MNAE, a civil engineer, is the Special Adviser/Director General on Transformation and Service Delivery, to the Ekiti State Governor. He writes from Ado Ekiti.

September 29, 2024
Shettima at UNGA

In a white flowing gown topped with his signature ‘K-Cap’, Vice-President Kashim Shettima represented Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), in New York City, the United States, on Tuesday, 24 September, 2024. At that most distinguished forum, he delivered a speech on behalf of the President on the theme “Unity in diversity, for the advancement of peace, sustainable development, and human dignity for everyone everywhere.” The highlights below are excerpted from The Cable newspaper’s full transcript of the speech.

In the speech, the Vice-President noted as follows: “The theme of this year’s General Assembly leaves us in no doubt that there is still work to be done to bridge the gap between aspirations and the realities confronting our world today. It also underscores the need to remind ourselves that the United Nations stands for inclusiveness – anchored on the tripod of peace, sustainable development and human rights. … Today, these pillars of our organisation are threatened. They risk being broken by the relentless pursuit of individual national priorities rather than the collective needs of the nations that are assembled here today.”

Underscoring the point, he noted: “From last year’s summit, and indeed from previous years, we have carried over the numerous challenges of terrorism, armed conflict, inequality, poverty, racial discrimination, human rights abuses, food crises, hunger, irregular migration, piracy, global pandemics, hyper-inflation, nuclear proliferation, grinding debt burden, climate change, and a host of other vexations. The continued manifestation of these challenges testifies to our failings rather than to any lofty achievements on our part. Billions of dollars are being committed to the prosecution of wars and the fanning of the embers of conflict…. Yet, we always recoil from bringing out the resources we need to build peace and to deliver life’s necessities to people.”

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Focussing on Africa, and noting the tendency for some to be attracted to military rule, the Vice-President said: “Our people need employment. They need decent livelihoods. They desire good and affordable education and healthcare for their children and families. They need to live in healthy, safe and secure environments. They need hope and they need opportunity. They desire to live in peace and tranquility, to pursue whatever gives them happiness and contentment. When governments fail to deliver, the people are bound to question the utility of democracy and other ideals, like rule of law.” He further opined: “It is the duty of the international community to bring back confidence in democratic rule and constitutional order, by paying more attention to the needs and aspirations of the people, rather than paying lip service to human rights, sustainable development and peace.”

Concerning the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, the Vice-President declared: “We note that most developing countries are significantly behind in the achievement of these goals, largely due to a lack of resources … to finance their implementation and the burden of unsustainable external debt.” He then declared that “we must ensure that any reform of the international financial system includes comprehensive debt relief measures… Countries of the global South cannot make meaningful economic progress without special concessions and a review of their current debt burden.” He also asserts: “It is for this and other reasons that we reiterate the call by countries, especially of the global South, for reform of the international financial architecture and promotion of a rules-based, non-discriminatory, open, fair, inclusive, equitable and transparent multilateral trading system.”

He remarked further: “We are aware of the debilitating impacts of corruption on global prosperity and national progress. Proceeds of corruption and illicit financial flows constitute a huge chunk of resources needed for sustainable development. The recovery and return of such funds to States of origin is a fundamental principle of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. … Therefore, the international community must promote practical measures to strengthen international cooperation to recover and return stolen assets and to eradicate safe havens that facilitate illicit flows of funds from developing countries to the developed economies.

He continued: “Moreso, there is a need to work towards common global standards to regulate crypto-currency trading platforms. This is the most effective way to provide confidence in these new markets and limit the potential for instability. Our own experience in Nigeria, as in other countries, shows that new technologies, when not properly regulated, can facilitate organised crime, violent extremism and human trafficking. In our own case, the trading of crypto-currency helped fuel speculation and undermined macro-economic reforms.

On the issue of insecurity, he said: “We cannot build durable societies with the threat of terrorism, banditry and insurgency growing in our countries and regions. Indeed, violent extremism remains an existential threat to both national and international peace, security and development. We are making concerted efforts to contain and rollback this threat. The High-Level African Counter-Terrorism Meeting hosted by Nigeria in April 2024 and its outcome – “The Abuja Declaration” – promises to provide solutions to the challenges presented by terrorists and insurgents.”

He noted further: “[W]e have also witnessed, in rich and poor countries alike, the corrosive impact of unfiltered hate speech and fake news across social media. There is much more that we could and should do, together, to strengthen those guard rails that will help release the most progressive elements of the new technologies shaping our world – and curb those more destructive tendencies. … We are particularly mindful of the imperatives of achieving the advancement of youth and women as a factor in national development, peace and security. Nigeria has developed its own National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, as well as a National Action Plan on Youth, Peace and Security, to ensure the participation of both women and youth in the peace and security sector.”

In addition, he observed: “Climate change is a driver of insecurity, which also poses a veritable challenge to sustainable development. A few weeks ago, large areas of my country were inundated by seasonal flood waters, including one of our largest cities, Maiduguri, in the North-East. Other parts of Nigeria also experienced similar tragedies, occasioning the loss of lives and property. … We need not remind ourselves to remain faithful to the implementation of the commitments that we all gave voluntarily at the various [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] meetings. Failure to do so is merely to postpone the inevitable. No country is immune from the effects of climate change.”

Moreover, the Vice-President declared: “Conflict prevention is the main reason why the UN exists. … Today, we are all witnesses to the heart-wrenching situation in Gaza and other Palestinian Territories. We cannot discuss war and peace, conflicts and reconciliation or humanitarian imperatives today without reflecting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has been raging since 7th October last year. … Of course, the conflict predates this period and has been simmering for a better part of half a century. What this tells us is that the international community has failed to live up to the spirit and aspirations of the United Nations to rid the world of inequality, violence and domination of one people by another.”

More categorically, he stated: “Freedom is an inalienable right and a natural entitlement that cannot be denied to any people. The Palestinian people deserve their independence. They deserve to have a home of their own on territories already recognised by this very Assembly and by international law, which is being routinely ignored. Nigeria continues to urge efforts to bring back on track the ‘two state solution’ that offers the prospect for a new beginning for the region.”

With regard to reforms, the Vice-President said: “The Security Council should be expanded, in the permanent and non-permanent member categories, to reflect the diversity and plurality of the world. … Africa must be accorded the respect that it deserves in the Security Council. Our Continent deserves a place in the permanent members category of the Security Council, with the same rights and responsibilities as other Permanent Members.”

Moreover, he remarked: “Migration is a complex and polarising issue that impacts on rich and poor countries alike. Nigeria is a country of origin, transit and destination. We are a major stakeholder in the global migration dynamic, and understand the challenges and benefits it brings. Accordingly, I wish to reiterate our support for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). The GCM, which all of us should continue to support, represents our collective efforts at providing major safeguards for the treatment of migrants.”

The foregoing messages resonate with some of the other speakers at the 79th UNGA. For example, the dignitary who spoke immediately after him, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain, said as follows in the speech he delivered on behalf of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa: “Nineteen years ago, I had the honour of standing here and addressing this historic hall, where I touched on the pressing challenges confronting our world at the time: poverty, famine, deadly infectious diseases, civil wars, and weapons of mass destruction. These global challenges not only persist but have intensified. We find ourselves in a far more dangerous and unpredictable time due to major tectonic shifts in the global geopolitical order.” In other words, he questioned the utility of the United Nations in its present form.

The Crown Prince thus noted: “Today, we support the calls for reform of the United Nations to ensure that it reflects current geopolitical realities so that it is equipped to continue carrying out its important global mandate for decades to come.” He continued: “In Gaza, we see Palestinians living through an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, with over 40 thousand people killed, many of them women and children. The protection of innocent life is enshrined in international law and a moral and religious responsibility. It is clear that what is required is the implementation of an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and the adoption of an irrevocable path to the creation of a viable, independent Palestinian state; and it must happen now!”

In concluding, Vice-President Shettima recalled Nigeria’s joining of the organisation in 1960, and declared: “We remain committed to that ‘desire to remain friendly with all nations and participate actively in the works of the United Nations’, as expressed by our founding Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.” Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was affectionately called “The Golden Voice of Africa”, in admiration of his unforced eloquence. He had an unassuming carriage, and was widely respected for his frugal lifestyle, in spite of his exposure to the vast resources of the nation. As Nigeria continues to seek templates of moral regeneration, it is a fitting tribute that the Prime Minister got honourable mention in the Vice-President’s speech at UNGA 79.

September 29, 2024