Category: Tunji Adegboyega

This is a question for individual ministers because, ultimately, everyone would bear his father’s name. But Tinubu carries the can

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday, last week, swore in 45 of his 48 ministers. Senate President Godswill Akpabio said after the conclusion of the screening that only three of the nominees had not been confirmed. According to Akpabio, “El-Rufai (Kaduna) and two others have not been cleared by security checks.” The two others were Stella Okotete (Delta) and Danladi Umar (Taraba).

President Tinubu has done the best possible in the circumstance. He has helped the ministers secure the jobs, or, as we say here in Nigeria, he has called them to come and ‘chop’. Here, such jobs ‘na gbaladun’ (enjoyment galore) to paraphrase the Late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. It is now the duty of the ministers to determine how short or long they intend to ‘gbaladun’. But it is also an opportunity for those with something to offer to showcase their talent.

However, there is a saying in Yoruba land that you can only help someone to get a job; you cannot do the job for him/her (a ma nba eniyan wa’se ni, a kiba se). Understandably, those who helped the party secure votes must be rewarded one way or the other. But I hope the ministers know the limits of such reward and patronage. If they don’t, I expect the president to. I do not expect President Tinubu to sacrifice merit and competence for anything under the sun. His government cannot afford that luxury. Failure is out of the question because, as I said (I think shortly after the election results were announced), he may be the last politician of their era to sit on the coveted presidential chair; the last man standing, so to say.

So, what exactly am I saying? I don’t expect him to keep non-performing political appointees, particularly ministers and those in sensitive positions, like former President Muhammadu Buhari did, simply because they helped him secure votes or assisted him during the political campaigns. It was as if Buhari had covenanted with his ministers that he would not replace them, whether they performed or not. I think the former president fired only two of his ministers when it was visible even to the blind that the incompetent members of the cabinet were more in number than those that knew their left from their right hands. It was baffling that a president would keep an array of incompetent ministers for eight years, thereby wasting the country’s scarce resources on people who not only consumed unproductively, but also wasted the lives and time of millions of Nigerians.

So, you can see that I knew what I was saying when I said in one of my write-ups on this page some months back that Buhari’s incompetent ministers lasted that long because they got the original of whatever they used to hypnotise him.

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Anyway, this piece is not necessarily about setting agenda for the new ministers. Many people have been doing that traditional assignment and I am sure many more will still do. Ministers in need of such an agenda should look out for such pieces of advice. I am rather going to focus more on the road that very few would want to travel by devoting only a little space to urge the ministers to perform but more about the need for decorum in all they do. This is a piece to caution them against unguarded utterances and conducts likely to put them into trouble after the government they serve would have exited. It is a big deal for only 45 people to clinch such a job in a country of more than 200 million people. So, they should count themselves extremely lucky.

Only those that were not cleared would better appreciate my point. Even if things change tomorrow and a man like el-Rufai eventually scales through (because in Nigeria, all things are possible, at least as far as political considerations are concerned), it won’t alter anything I am saying here.  Those intending to serve Nigerians must guard their words and actions. That is, in addition to rendering stellar performance.

El-Rufai had served as Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration. To crown it all, he was among those in the forefront of agitations for zoning of the 2023 presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the southern part of the country; a decision that facilitated the coming of the Tinubu administration.

So, in several respects, he was eminently qualified for ministerial appointment, even if only for the indelible marks he left at the FCT in his time and his support for a southerner to emerge president. But the FCT is now a shadow of its former state, thus necessitating the appointment of the former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, to go and restore the sanity of the Abuja master plan. If you even ask me, el-Rufai probably deserved the offer of first refusal.

But then, the former governor is too loquacious. Moreover, the better part of his eight years as governor was crisis-ridden. Southern Kaduna people would not forget his reign in a hurry.

Perhaps by our low standards, this would not have been enough reason to deny him ministerial slot. I guess the last straw that broke el-Rufai’s back was his insensitive comment that the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC was an Islamic agenda; that those who failed to vote for him in Kaduna State because of this regretted their decision, as he refused to develop their region. The governor reportedly said Muslim-Muslim ticket would rule Nigeria for the next 20 years. Without doubt, this is more of a declaration of war on Christians in the country.

Nigeria does not need such a person in the cabinet. We don’t need religious bigots in a country that is supposed to be secular; one in which everyone respects the religious choice of others.

What el-Rufai was quoted as telling the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is divisive and potentially explosive. It is indeed a bigger threat to national security than some other requirements needed by the security agencies to clear people for ministerial appointments. El-Rufai is a time bomb waiting to explode. So, the security agencies could only have cleared him at Nigeria’s peril.

But, as we will see shortly, el-Rufai is not alone. Even if it is a question of different folks, different strokes. The problem with many public officials in the country is what one of my seniors in the secondary school referred to as acts of ‘I don’t caritism’ (Yoruba people would call it ‘I do n kia’), simply I don’t care. Sometimes, this has to do with pride, which goeth before a fall.  Moreover, many of our people easily forget that power is transient; they carry on as if they were born in their positions and would die there. Otherwise, how could someone have said he refused to develop some parts of his jurisdiction simply because those there did not believe in a particular religious agenda?

If you have not understood my point, the picture will get clearer when I discuss the example of someone else who shook the entire nation with an ill-conceived and ill-delivered cashless policy. I am here talking about our hitherto powerful governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele. Emefiele was not a minister, but he was by virtue of the position he occupied (from which he is now suspended) more influential than several governors and ministers put together. The man needs not much introduction. If any Nigerian did not know Emefiele before, his cashless policy advertised him in Nigeria and beyond. Even babies in the womb requiring medical attention that their dad and mum could afford but still could not provide because of Emefiele’s idea of cashless economy; knew who the man, Emefiele, was. The way he enforced (yes, enforced) this policy, one would think his tenure would never end. He talked as if he did not care about the pains the policy was inflicting on Nigerians. Not even reports of some people slumping in banking halls because they could not collect their own money, courtesy Emefiele’s cashless policy, could make him rethink his stance. Even when the courts gave him opportunities of soft-landing, he ignored the opportunities, simply because he thought all he needed then was the protection of President Buhari. He ought to have delivered whatever errand he was sent as a free-born, even if he was sent to deliver it as a slave. His indiscretion is what has brought him the kind of opprobrium that all the hyssop soap on earth and in heaven can never wash him clean from.

I could not believe my eyes when I saw the same Emefiele that behaved as if he never heard of the biblical story of the king that would come that would not know Joseph, clutching a copy of the Holy Bible in court after he was suspended. So, people like him still remember God? It’s not surprising though; our big men remember God only when they run into trouble. Imagine the same Emefiele who ignored the courts and indeed trampled on their orders in the name of cashless policy, appealing to the same courts to save him from prolonged detention. It was amazing seeing the same Emefiele who loved to pose for photographs in the newspapers and coveted appearances on television that had to be covering his face in the court, to prevent photojournalists from capturing his new look for the world to see. Allau akbar! It reminded me of my annoyance whenever the man went to give reports on the useless policy to the then President Buhari. Emefiele was always smiling even while Nigeria burned.

A word, I guess, should be enough for our new ministers. I assume they are wise.  Nothing lasts forever. 

I wish them whatever they wish themselves.

Except for Professors Olatunji Dare and Adebayo Williams that I had known previously, I met virtually the remaining senior citizens on the Editorial Board of ‘The Nation’ at the newspaper’s Fatai Atere Way, Lagos, headquarters, where we used to meet physically without fail, come rain, come shine every Wednesday, until the coronavirus pandemic  revolutionised the way we now conduct the weekly ritual. Just as it did redefine how the entire world works or plays, or does several other things that we used to do physically.

I am here talking of Professors Oluropo Sekoni, Jide Oshuntokun and Ambassador Dapo Fafowora. These are all great names that I had been hearing a long time before our paths crossed at this newspaper’s inception in 2006.

I have had the opportunity of writing on all these men except Prof. Sekoni. Today, he takes the centre-stage. The retired Professor of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies clocked 80 on August 10, thus becoming a member of the Octogenarian Club from that day.

Read Also: Dapo Fafowora at 80

When on July 26, I received the invitation to Prof’s (that’s what we call him and other professors on the board) birthday bash from his wife, I promised nothing would stand between me and the ceremony. This was for the simple reason that I had missed the one he celebrated when he turned 70 in 2013. That was at the Lagos City Hall on Lagos Island. That birthday was preceded by presentation of Prof. Sekoni’s book, ‘Federalism and the Yoruba Character’, as well as the launch of his Yoruba Insight and Innovation Initiatives (YIII) on Wednesday, August 7, 2013. The birthday party followed on Saturday, August 10. It could not have been otherwise for a man of Sekoni’s stature.

How time flies! I cannot believe it’s 10 years since.

Although I was not at that 2013 birthday party, my wife and daughter who attended came back with the report of how grand the occasion was. How guests were spoilt beyond description with virtually everything under the sun. –  choice cuisines, exotic wines, good music, etc., all in a convivial atmosphere. Their situation report on the event made me determined to be at Prof’s 80th birthday, God sparing our lives.

But it was not to be. Again, an impediment. And one which was probably even more compelling than the one that made me miss his 70th birthday party.

But my wife was there as usual. Indeed, as I drove her to the venue of the party at their beautiful Abiola Gardens home, I was tempted to drop and at least say ‘hello’ to the celebrator. But then, what was on ground was such that I could not afford to because I knew I would be tempted to stay longer than I could imagine. But I could feel the aura of what was happening in the compound even from outside because the gate was wide open, apparently for the day. It is usually under lock and key. That is what the country’s security situation demands.

Prof Sekoni’s stewardship on the editorial board of this newspaper is remarkable. As I always say when writing about the people of their generation (that those of us who are younger, in some cases their former students in the university) are privileged to sit with at least once a week to deliberate on ‘burning national and international issues’, the benefit of hindsight that the opportunity provided is unquantifiable. As the elders say, ‘b’omode ba laso bi agba, ko le lakisa bi agba’ (if a child has clothes like the elder, he cannot have as many rags as the elder). I guess the proverb explains itself. Clothes are good; still, rags too have their own uses that we cannot use clothes for.

I can’t quantify what we gained by way of the knowledge and experiences of these great men on the editorial board. The ease with which they recalled events that ended up further enriching discourse on the board is confounding. Despite the fact that we all see the editorial board meeting as serious business (sometimes we had hot arguments, depending on the topic and individual member’s position on it), we usually ended on a happy note. The meeting was hardly ever drab, what with the sometimes salacious jokes more often by the senior citizens! I must confess COVID-19 has robbed us of the presence of these eminent personalities.

With regard to Prof Sekoni specifically, he ceased to participate in editorial board meetings since July 2021 when his cardiologist “decreed that, given my cardiovascular situation, I had to stop all activities requiring deadlines”.

Of course the cardiologist’s ‘decree’ also affected his column. Thank God the ‘decree’ came after Prof had contributed about 700 Sunday columns and 40 draft editorials. He also attended a total of 600 weekly editorial meetings —face-to-face or online, in his 15 years stay with ‘The Nation’. If this newspaper is heavy and rich in incisive intellectual stuffs, we do not have to look too far for the reason/s.

Prof Sekoni used both his column and editorial contributions to promote the cause of the Yoruba nation and federalism generally in the true sense of the word, in sharp contrast to the 1999 Constitution foisted on us by the departing soldiers.

Sekoni is not a politician. But he has been a silent contributor to the democracy we have today. Or to the civil rule we now enjoy, if that would make those of us who do not think it is yet democracy in Nigeria, happy. Yet, when you see him, you can hardly notice he has such a fighting spirit. Indeed, his mien betrays his great contributions alongside other well-meaning Nigerians who helped push the soldiers away from the political scene after decades of their dictatorship.

In Nigeria, we hardly celebrate silent achievers. Rather, we focus attention on politicians, many of whom have contributed in no small measure to the sorry pass that the country is in today.

Of course, I had always known that Prof was a part of the democratic struggle. That he was a member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), that thorn in the flesh of the country’s sit-tight generals who kept shifting the goal post of returning the country to civil rule. But I didn’t know the extent of his involvement. He told aspects of the story: “Activism for change or improvement of existing situations had always driven my life from my primary school days till the days of struggle for de-militarisation of the Nigerian polity under the aegis of NADECO.”

Sekoni was chairman of Action Group for Democracy’s (AGFD) Political and Strategic Committee, one of the sister organisations of Egbe Isokan Yoruba in Washington. In that capacity, “I became involved in the mobilisation of members of Yoruba cultural organisations within North America, South America, the Caribbean, and the West African region. My remit in this respect was to encourage Yoruba cultural groups where they already existed and stimulate new ones to participate in the struggle for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria.”

 I was also asked to serve as the editor of AUTONOMY ALERT, a weekly newsletter, and to assist Professor Gbadegesin in a weekly shortwave radio broadcast on two themes: restoration of the presidential mandate of Chief MKO Abiola, the restoration of full federalism in Nigeria through political and economic restructuring.”.

A native of Ondo in Ondo State, Prof visits his home base frequently. Born on August 10, 1943, Sekoni taught at both University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State, and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, for about 15 years. He had also served as secretary and acting president, respectively, of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). He was also at a time editor of ‘Ife Horizon’ (ASUU newspaper) and later of Citation of Lincoln University’s branch of American Association of University Professors (AAUP), upon his relocation to the United States. Prof has also had to train ‘The Nation’s’ reporters on use of English. There is still a lot to say about Prof Sekoni. But space would not permit.

Other eminent Nigerians in the NADECO train included Chief Anthony Enahoro, Lt-General Alani Akinrinade, Senator Bola Tinubu, Dapo Olorunyomi, Chief John Oyegun, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Chief Amos Akingba, Mr. Wale Oshun, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to name just a few. The team played a key role in the restoration of democracy or civil rule that we have in Nigeria today. Tinubu is now President of the Federal Republic.

Prof, you will celebrate 90, you will celebrate 100 and beyond in good health and prosperity. I said 100 and beyond because I don’t want to limit your existence on earth in view of the experience of one of our former governors, (now late), who had years before his death thought he was still a long way to 70 when he said if he was lucky to clock 70 years, he would be grateful to God and be ready to go, only to later realise that that is when one actually begins to enjoy what he called the ‘mudun-mudun’ of life. I think that was on his 70th birthday. He then longed for an extension which he never had as he died only a few months after his 70th birthday.

If my understanding of the Yoruba language, a language that is rich in meaning, culture and wisdom, is not failing me, ‘mudun-mudun’ that the late governor meant is beyond good food and exotic wines or cars. But it is also far beyond what can be described in a family newspaper like this!

A friend of mine would simply capture all I had told in the epistle by the former governor thus: it is only when orange is not sweet that one would be satisfied after sucking only one. But there is nothing to fear in sucking as many as 200 if the oranges are sweet!

So, Prof, all I am saying is that you will continue to enjoy the ‘mudun-mudun’ for as long as it pleases God Almighty. You will also continue to reap the fruits of your labour.

Congratulations. Happy birthday and many happy returns sir.

• But thank God, all is well, at least for now.

Last week was one week that was dreaded in the country. Dreaded because of the initial threat by organised Labour to shut down the country; but this was later changed to nationwide protests, to register workers’ displeasure with the economic challenges that Nigerians are going through. Labour backed down on its strike threat due to a subsisting court order restraining it from going on strike. Given the banging of the head against the wall by the Labour leaders on the protests, one would think that heaven was going to fall. But thank God, here we are today. Sanity eventually prevailed.

There is no doubt that things is hard in the country. Nkan le. There is no doubt too that this did not just start. It had been hard even before the Buhari administration. Just that that government did not have an idea of how to get things a little better. By the time the government was through with its second tenure, it became obvious that his successor was going to have a lot to chew to reposition the economy and the country at large. And that is exactly what has happened.

The Bola Tinubu administration came on board on May 29, after a tough election in which everything was skewed against the incumbent president. Although the result of the election is still being contested by both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate that came second at the polls and Labour Party (LP) that came third, the incumbent has been in the saddle since the exit of General Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, the court case notwithstanding. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Ipso facto, Tinubu has had to take some tough decisions that his government believed must be taken if the country is to find its feet again. Two of these are the merging of the exchange rates with the aim of having a convergence between the official and the parallel market rates. This would eliminate the idea of people buying foreign exchange at the official N470 per dollar only to resell at the black market at over N700 per dollar. Thus, the country was producing a few people who became rich overnight without lifting a finger.

The other policy measure was removal of fuel subsidy. This has taken pump price from about N195 per litre when Tinubu assumed office on May 29, to its present N586. Again, the intention is to bring to an end the era when Nigeria was being creamed off by unconscionable thieves who took more subsidy than actual fuel imported and supplied. Both policies led to soaring inflation, thus making nonsense of whatever salaries workers earn.

Without doubt, these measures would hurt those that had been benefitting from the two abnormalities. Unfortunately, they were not the only victims. The average Nigerian has turned out to be the ultimate victim because he is the one at the receiving end of the stick. The result of the Federal Government’s decisions was loss of purchasing power on the part of workers. And when this happens, Labour has its job cut out for it.

I am not one of those who would want to believe that Labour, particularly the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), overreacted on the matter because of its support for Peter Obi’s LP. It may jolly well be true. But the ground was made the more fertile for that by the government. As a matter of fact the president himself said that much in his state-of-the-nation address last week Monday.  ”Sadly, there was an unavoidable lag between subsidy removal and these plans coming fully online. However, we are swiftly closing the time gap. I plead with you to please have faith in our ability to deliver and in our concern for your well-being.” It is only the government that would see the timelag between subsidy removal and palliatives as ”unavoidable”, not the people who have started suffering in advance.  Poverty or hunger does not discriminate. It has nothing to do with ethnicity, same faith, or political affiliation..

I was happy that Labour was able to hold its protest rally on Wednesday. It is their inalienable right in a democracy. I am also happy that the protest was largely peaceful nationwide. But something of significance during the protest in Abuja was the pulling down of the National Assembly gate. I do not know if many other Nigerians thought the way I did when that happened. But, that is not a matter for today.

However, one of the highlights of the Labour protest that I love most is the promise by President Tinubu that the Port Harcourt Refinery would resume production by December. This, for me, is good news. It is rather sad that the Buhari administration could not ensure the resumption of local refining of petroleum products in the eight long years it was in power. Indeed, it is incredible and sad. Disappointing, to say the least, given the high hopes that Nigerians had about that government’s ability to deliver.

I am one of the diehard supporters of subsidy retention. Not that I did not understand its implications for the economy, but because I felt it was government’s responsibility to rein in those profiteering from the arrangement at the expense of the poor masses. The other reason was that I did not see any sense in any government in Nigeria being in office for as long as eight years without ensuring that our local refineries resumed production.

Indeed, no one would hear what the Buhari administration wasted on turn-around maintenance that never turned anything around beyond corruption; and other expenses, that would not feel sad for this country. According to Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, that government spent more than $19bn on the refineries. “Look at how much the President Buhari administration spent on fixing the refineries. In the eight years, he spent more money than the $19 billion that Dangote spent in building a refinery. That is one and half times the size of our three refineries combined”, the governor said on Channels Television sometime in June.

To think that this was the same Buhari who in March, 2015, lambasted Goodluck Jonathan, his predecessor, for neglecting the refineries, leading to the country becoming a major importer of petroleum products. “But over the last several years our refineries have declined, and we are at the mercy of imports,” he had said. Was Nigeria at the mercy of exports in his own eight-year reign? It is only unfortunate that an action like this is not criminalised in the country. Otherwise, some of our leaders would rot in jail. Nothing under the sun can justify a major crude producer exporting the crude oil at rock bottom prices only to import the refined products at cut-throat prices.

So, as a latter-day convert of fuel subsidy removal, you can understand my interest in this aspect of Tinubu’s response to the labour protest. Economists and other analysts have been commenting on several other policy options that he has outlined as palliatives to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal.

It is good that Labour was able to extract the commitment to get at least the Port Harcourt Refinery functional by December. Otherwise, we may have a situation where four years down the line, we would still be talking about not being able to refine crude locally, with government still spending on the moribund and unproductive refineries.

Now that the president has given his word on this matter, he should make his word his bond. I have always maintained that when presidents talk, it is like an oracle has spoken. But Tinubu should not be under the illusion that the people that made those refineries not to work for decades because it pays them to do so would be pleased with his decision that has ended their honeymoon. So, he should be ready to fight them too. Riba dun. I mean cheap money is sweet. So, those making it would not want to give up without a fight.

Doesn’t it know that law making is serious business; so our NASS lawmakers certainly deserve
more than the little comforts they are asking for?

I wonder what the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) hopes to gain from persistent criticism of our democratically elected leaders. Whenever they hear that the Federal Government wants to spend some huge sums of money, they kick. When our lawmakers in the National Assembly want to spoil themselves on our behalf, SERAP would complain. It is as if the essence of the group is always to kill the joy of our very important personalities.

The latest problem of the group will shock you to the marrow. SERAP is threatening our National Assembly (NASS) members that they should perish the thought of buying very good cars for themselves. As a matter of fact, they told our almighty Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and the House of Representatives Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, in unequivocal terms to drop the idea of spending “N40 billion on 465 exotic and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials and N70 billion as ‘palliatives’ for new members”.

Just hear the deputy director of the busybody group, Kolawole Oluwadare: Akpabio and Abbas must “repeal the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act to reduce the budget for the National Assembly by N110 billion, to reflect the current economic realities in the country and address the impact of the removal of fuel subsidy on the over 137 million poor Nigerians.” That is not all. SERAP also told the senate president and the speaker to “request President Bola Tinubu to present a fresh supplementary appropriation bill, to redirect the N110 billion to address the situation of the over 20 million out- of-school children in Nigeria, for the approval of the National Assembly.” So, the group even knows the solution to our country’s out-of-school children better than our honourable lawmakers? What effrontery?

Perhaps if the group had stopped here, the duo won’t have felt too offended. But the group still continued: “While N70 billion ‘support allowance’ is budgeted for 306 new lawmakers, only N500 billion worth of palliatives is budgeted for 12 million poor Nigerians. N40 billion is also allocated to buy 465 Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and bullet-proof cars for members and principal officials.”

As if all these are not insulting enough, SERAP threatened the lawmakers with law suit if they did not do its bidding within seven days. “We would be grateful (pocket your gratitude) if the recommended measures are taken within seven days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter…” Please let me stop here. Despite not being the one that SERAP wrote, I am already losing my temper over the group’s impudence and lack of respect for our lawmakers.

Is SERAP not aware of the saying that ‘all animals are equal but some are more equal than others’? What current economic realities is it talking about? What is new anywhere under the sun? What realities are Nigerians facing now that other people have not faced in other parts of the world? So, because the average Nigerian has been relieved of the burden of fuel subsidy which they were all the while carrying for a few over-pampered thieves in the country, and they are now carrying it for and by themselves, SERAP thinks that is enough reason for all Nigerians (including our lawmakers) to be living like paupers in a perpetually potentially rich country like ours.  SERAP please stop this rude joke.

How can anyone in his right senses be asking our own lawmakers to use made-in-Nigeria cars, for example? Pray, if such very important personalities use locally made cars, what will ordinary Nigerians use? What is wrong if the ‘ogas’ at the top in the NASS have bullet-proof cars? Is SERAP not aware that it is only for the less privileged that life has no duplicate? Does the group know how much it costs Nigeria to produce one NASS member? So we should not make provision for more than one life for the ‘ogas’ there, having invested so much to be national lawmakers? Haba SERAP! We should even be grateful that they are not asking for bullet-proof cars for every member of NASS. SERAP and their co-travellers who don’t agree with this prudent decision had better retrace their steps before our lawmakers change their mind and decide to buy bullet-proof cars for all of them. Such antagonists should remember that the NASS members would take the cars away when they are leaving and we would have to make provision for the latest model for their successors.

At this juncture, I implore all well-meaning Nigerians to join me in tendering an unreserved apology to Akpabio and Abass on behalf of SERAP. The almighty senate president and speaker should not mind the youthful exuberance of supposedly mature executive officers of the group. They should realise that no matter how good a child knows how to eat wrapped pap, it would always mess up his hand.

At any rate, it would seem this is a season of apologies. Our own Mmesoma Ejikeme, the one who suddenly woke up on Sunday, July 2, and told us that she topped the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) with 362 marks finally apologised for lying to the world on Wednesday, at least two clear weeks after we had all known that she lied. She actually scored 249.

I guess those who were tutoring her saw the danger in her not apologising, hence her change of mind. There was first the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) ban for three years which was dangling over her fate like the sword of Damocles. Her tutors also probably realised that this was even a slap on the wrist compared to the sentence Mmesoma would face if the matter went to court. Afterall, at 19, she is no longer a minor.

If our NASS members did not reject this apology (mind you the ‘truce’ between JAMB and Mmesoma took place right in the NASS), there is no reason why they would not accept the one I am tendering on behalf of SERAP for its executive members’ audacity to talk to them as if they were talking to their mates.

The problem is that some people do not seem to understand the limits of democracy.  They think democracy confers on the people the right to run their mouths ‘sho sho sho’ all over the place.

My dear Senate President and Speaker, it is you I have to plead with. The kind of insult that you got from SERAP is not uncommon with people like you. But you have to understand that your exalted positions have more or less made you a dunghill where all manner of people come to dump all manner of garbage. At a critical juncture like this, you have to sip from the well of patience. I can understand how you feel. In fact, but for your loving kindness, the SERAP people who don’t know that honour must be given to whom it is due would have been cooling their heels somewhere now, eating half-boiled beans with gari and coconut. I promise on their behalf that this would be the last time that such  a thing would happen from the recalcitrant group.

Ordinarily I should have marched them to the NASS straightaway so they can use their own mouths to apologise. But I must be assured your anger has simmered down. Who will such happen to that would not feel sufficiently embarrassed? SERAP’s director would lead the apology train with the letter of apology whose content has to be to your taste and in your humble image, followed by his deputy, Oluwadare, who behaved like the turning stick that does not know how to reject errand, by signing the insulting letter addressed to you.

As a matter of fact, the apology visit would be well publicised. The world’s media leaders, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and our own local media would cover the great event live, with the SERAP leader and his team prostrating while giving you the letter. They would remain in that position until you tell them to get up. The lesson from Nigeria should reverberate around the world; other recalcitrant persons and groups wherever they may be under the sun must have something to learn about how to respect people in power. If that must be Nigeria’s contribution to such topic, it is jolly well worth it.

As I always say, a hunchback cannot appreciate what people who stand straight unaided go through until he decides to do same. My dear senate president you have to know that these people are behaving the way they are because they don’t know what it takes to have been governor for eight years in our kind of country where it is easier to make paradise than it is to survive the do-or-die battles that people fight before getting to such offices. Not only that, you had been minister; not one in charge of admin where all you deal with are files and piles of files, but in a juicy one like the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs which also is no mean feat. Now that you have, in the tradition of some of your predecessors, gone to the next level, instead of congratulating you for making it to this point, some misguided elements are not even allowing you to settle down to know what is where before threatening you with an ultimatum.

I learnt you people are already contemplating quitting the office if this is the reward you will get from an unappreciative people who do not know the sleepless nights you suffer to make Nigeria great. But you can’t do that. The country still needs your service.

You see, I am not worried about the larger NASS members because I know once both of you forgive SERAP, your colleagues know the group stays forgiven. Kindly fix a date for this great event. Even SERAP and its leaders are looking forward to it. I can tell you, Mr Senate President and Honourable Speaker, they are now remorseful. They have realised their mistake and would come not only with a letter of apology but also individual undertaking never to do such again.

They have now known that people like you who represent others are there to enjoy on behalf of those you represent for better for better, for richer for richer, and in good health alone. The ‘for worse’ is reserved for the hoi polloi. SERAP and its co-travellers must realise that our lawmakers can only give their best when they have the comforts of life that SERAP in its ignorance wants to deny them. Lawmaking is enervating. Good lawmaking, like the one we have been having in Nigeria, is even more so.

Less than two months into a four-year round of enjoyment in the first instance, and some people are already complaining. What kind of people are we? Please let no one truncate this ‘enyoyment’.

• Critics should wait for the full package of subsidy palliatives before condemning cash transfer

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu‘s announcement of N8,000 cash transfer monthly for six months to 12 million Nigerians to cushion the effects of petroleum subsidy withdrawal has been received with mixed reactions. This should be expected. Both its supporters and those who are opposed to it have their points. The president himself would have expected such mixed reactions before making the policy public last week. This is because his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, did the same thing when he was in power. Then too, not a few Nigerians criticised it.

Tinubu had, in his inaugural address on May 29, announced the removal of fuel subsidy, a thing successive governments had seen its negative effects on the economy but lacked the courage to stop because of the possible backlash. The best some of them did was try to reduce the quantum of the subsidy. Interestingly, despite successive reductions, the subsidy figures kept ballooning. At the last count, it was said that Nigerians consumed about 66 million litres of petrol daily, a thing many Nigerians knew was just impossible. The subsidy payment as at the time Tinubu stopped it was said to be in the region of N7trn per annum.

As usual, the Labour unions and civil society groups kicked and threatened to shut down the country should the government go ahead to implement the subsidy removal. Needless to say that the impact of the total subsidy removal was huge; as fuel prices skyrocketed by over 200 per cent, from about N189 to about N500 per litre or more, depending on the part of the country the commodity is being bought. This immediately translated to increases in the cost of virtually everything as transportation is key in the movement of virtually all commodities.

The president’s reaction was to assure the Labour unions and others that were threatening to ground the economy that government would do some things to cushion the effects of the subsidy withdrawal on Nigerians generally, and the most vulnerable, in particular.

It was in furtherance of this that he wrote to the Senate on July 13 seeking approval for $800m palliative loan from the World Bank. “You may also wish to know that the purpose of the facility is to expand coverage of shock-responsive safety net supports for all and vulnerable Nigerians and the cost of meeting basic needs,” Tinubu said in the letter to the senators.

He also explained how the funds would be disbursed. “Under the conditional cash transfer window of the programme, the Federal Government of Nigeria will transfer the sum of N8,000 a month to 12 million poor and low-income households for a period of six months, with a multiplying effect on about 60 million individuals.” He added that “In order to guarantee the credibility of the process, digital transfers will be made directly to beneficiaries’ accounts and mobile wallets.”

The objective is to “stimulate economic activities in the informal sector and improve nutrition, health, and education outcomes for beneficial households.”  The president had earlier written the House of Representatives for the same purpose.

One of the first objections on the part of those opposed to the policy had to do with the fact that the money for the payment was a loan. Loans, given our experience, will most likely be shared by public officials. We had a number of loans obtained for certain projects in the past and the money was disbursed. Yet, those projects never took off.

Moreover, not a few wondered whether it is economically wise to borrow for consumption which, truly, is what the cash transfers seem to represent. Of course we are well aware of the aphorism that it is better to teach a man how to fish than giving him fish. Many Nigerians believe the money should have been spent on regenerative purposes rather than merely disbursing it to people, to enable them cope with the inflation caused by subsidy removal.

Then there is the issue of accurate data which is a major problem in the country. We do not even know how many Nigerians there are. A country where such reliable estimates are not readily available cannot in all honesty be said to have the capacity to begin a demographic analysis of its population, not to now talk of knowing the poorest-of-the-poor; the people that the cash transfers actually target. One is however comforted here by the fact that the World Bank said it was pleased with the template that the Buhari administration used for the same purpose, when it ran a similar programme. Hopefully, it is the same template that would be used now.

Even, assuming that we readily know the beneficiaries, how many of them have bank accounts? It is common knowledge that the money in the informal sector of the economy is huge. Many Nigerians simply prefer to keep their money with themselves or because there are no banking facilities in some of the remote areas of the country where most of the beneficiaries of the cash transfers reside.

Then the amount to be disbursed. Other critics feel even if the policy was good, N8,000 in present-day Nigeria is valueless.

Of course we should not forget the giant in the system: corruption. As far as many Nigerians are concerned, the money is simply pork for the boys. It is money meant to be shared by politicians and those close to them.

However, we cannot dismiss any of these fears with a wave of the hand, given where we are coming from.

But one can chip in one or two things, especially on some of the criticisms. The first is whether borrowing for consumption makes sense. Many economists would probably say no. But not in all circumstances because, really, nothing is cast in stone. In the instant case, the effects of withdrawal of fuel subsidy was immediate. It is almost six weeks old. While the impact of the inflation it triggered varies, there is no doubt that some people are feeling the pinch more than others. There is an urgent need to quickly fix the problem of the most vulnerable. This cannot wait, especially where the prices of a thing like foodstuffs have already increased. Even if the government has declared food emergency, it would take some time for the farm produce to materialise. What happens to the vulnerable in the interim? This is a big question. Yet, food is a basic need of man. A hungry man, as they say, is an angry man. The problem of poverty would be less when food is out of the question. Unless we want to suggest importation of food (which for me is indeed no solution because we have comparative advantage on the essential staples consumed in the country). Why then should we waste scarce forex on food imports? For me, a way of meeting the challenge half way is to give the beneficiaries some cash to take care of the immediate while medium and long-term plans continue. The beneficiaries can then spend the money on essentials like food, pending when other measures mature. A man that is being taught how to fish needs to feed while learning the art of fishing, lest he dies before mastering it.

Moreover, in several parts of the developed world, there is one safety net or the other for the people. There are unemployment benefits in some countries; there are certain benefits for their old citizens; certain items are subsidised when exigencies demand. For instance, some countries subsidised energy cost which skyrocketed as a fallout of the Russo-Ukrainian war. We saw some countries that also gave cash handouts to their citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic, to cushion the effects of the pandemic. Nigeria has no safety net for nobody. Everybody is on his or her own.

The point I am making is that there is nothing inherently wrong with cash handouts in certain circumstances, particularly in a country like ours where everyone is unto himself and God for us all. The fuel subsidy that should have served as benefits for the generality of Nigerians was only fattening the bank accounts of a few corrupt elements.

This takes us to the amount of the transfers. Not a few feel that N8,000 a month is too small to make any impact on any Nigerian household, given the loss of value of our national currency. True, the Naira has lost significant value. But those of us passing  judgement that some amounts are ‘chicken change’ are not the ones targeted for the cash transfers. I remember when Governor Kayode Fayemi introduced N5,000 monthly such transfers for the elderly in Ekiti State in 2012, many of those of us in the towns and cities (including myself) felt the money was too small. Yet, we needed to see the impact it had on the actual beneficiaries who were full of prayers for the governor whenever they were going for the money.

I also remember that sometimes in 2000/2001 while on the editorial board of a national newspaper we had cause to discuss a similar issue when (I think) the report of a survey allegedly showed that there were some Nigerians that never had N5,000 at any point in their lives. Of course they had spent more than that cumulatively but they never had such an amount as a lump sum at any point in time, whether at home or in the bank, for those of them who could maintain bank accounts back then. The loss of value of the Naira notwithstanding, it is still a thing that those the money is meant for would somewhat appreciate. That is not to say that the amount cannot be improved upon in the future. But let’s start from somewhere. Buhari paid N5,000, Tinubu wants to pay N8,000, perhaps in acknowledgment of the fact that what Buhari’s N5,000 could buy then cannot be bought for the same  amount today because of inflation. This is not necessarily a problem caused by the incumbent administration though, but by exigencies. At any rate, there are other measures that the government is coming up with in due course, to further reduce the pains of the subsidy removal on Nigerians.

However, it is important that the government does more by way of public enlightenment on some of its policies and programmes, particularly the ones that were condemned under the previous administration. Indeed, the onus is more on the Tinubu presidency to run the government in a way that would convince Nigerians that it is no longer business as usual. This means the government must tackle corruption headlong. In view of its importance to national planning, the government must accord statistics its desired priority attention. A nation without vital statistics will only be groping in the dark. Nigeria has groped in the dark enough. The government must also robustly debate the other packages that are under way as part of the subsidy removal palliatives to ensure they would deliver the greatest benefit to the greater majority. The truth of the matter is that young as the government is, it has managed to engender more confidence in more Nigerians than it was immediately after the elections. Such goodwill is rare in our clime. It should not be taken for granted.

Time to unmask and bring them to judgement

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, took the heat off my zone when, on July 25, he urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to bring the fuel subsidy cabal that had held the nation hostage for decades to book. Dogara bared his mind while answering questions from newsmen after attending a thanksgiving church service to mark the successful completion of the six-year tenure of Rev. (Dr.) Yunusa Nmadu Jnr as General Secretary, Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Kaduna.

“We stand by him on the subsidy removal, but he must be courageous to pursue the subsidy cabals, recover all they stole from them and prosecute them accordingly,” Dogara told the newsmen

This is exactly my position; except that I had wanted to do what elders advice in a situation like this, to wit; that we should first drive away the thief before chastising the owner of the stolen item for carelessness. I mean I had wanted to recover from the shock of the subsidy removal just like millions of Nigerians before asking that the big stick be wielded on those who so demonised fuel subsidy to the point that government had to jettison it.

Whereas there is nothing inherently wrong with fuel subsidy. Indeed, there is hardly any country that does not subsidise one thing or the other. It is only a question of priority. Even the almighty United States of America subsidises agriculture, oil and energy as well as some housing, automakers and healthcare. The U.S. spends $20bn yearly on fossil fuels subsidies, with a whopping $16bn on oil and gas alone and the remaining $4bn on the coal industry. Great Britain has spent about £40bn in energy subsidies since it began to help households and businesses cope with increased power bills caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Germany, France, Canada, etc. all subsidise one thing or the other. So, there is nothing inherently wrong with subsidy. The problem is with the Nigerian bastardisation of it.

Just last week Monday, former governor of Bauchi State, and former Minister of Aviation, Isa Yuguda, too restated the obvious: that the monies being paid as subsidy on fuel products in Nigeria was a scam. Yuguda, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, during an interview added an incredible dimension to the subsidy story when he said that the subsidy cabal had become so rich that they besieged  a former president to help end the scam.

“I remember a friend of mine in the oil industry, who during a meeting of an economic think tank. He called the then president aside and said, ‘Mr President, please stop this subsidy, we are tired of making money’”. He added that “We’re bringing in this fuel at an elevated cost and half of it is exported out of Nigeria by the same people collecting money for it.

“Subsidy was claimed on pipelines that never existed. Invoice is created and NNPC just pays”

Yuguda noted that as far back as 2009, a committee headed by him had uncovered the scam and drawn government’s attention to it. Now, the scam has grown beyond tolerable limits.

“The records are all there, and there is no time limit to investigate these people. If government has the political will, these individuals can be held to account”, he said.

Yuguda said former President Muhammadu Buhari cannot claim ignorance of the scam because he was not only president, he also doubled as Minister of Petroleum. This would seem to suggest that the matter could not have been frontally tackled because of the caliber of those involved. I agree with Yuguda that former President Buhari cannot totally escape blame in this matter, at least in the eight years he was in power. He it was that imposed the burden of overseeing the energy sector on himself. I wonder what he knows about the industry in this century. The fact is that the oil sector that Buhari chose to oversee when he was president was quite different from the oil sector he left in the 1980s. I have had cause to refer to the president several times even when he held sway that he was an analogue president in a digital age. Times have changed. So have oil and other scams. The result could not have been different from what Buhari’s government ended up with after eight years of unmeritorious service and unmitigated disaster.

Read Also: Sultan, Niger Delta leaders back Tinubu over fuel subsidy, others

As for Yuguda’s subsidy thief friend, It is difficult to believe that any human being making money would ever want the source of that money to dry up. Money is never enough for the owner; the more you have, the more you crave for more. That is the lie in the claim that the cabal was tired of making money from the scam. The friend must have been tipsy or spoken in one of his unguarded moments as distinct from a statement from a penitent mind. If the cabal had been remorseful, or if they had truly had enough money and they didn’t want more, it would not have required government’s intervention to end the fraud.

Be that as it may, how Nigeria, a major producer of crude oil became a major importer of petroleum products bares restating even if it is well known. Nigeria has four refineries none of which has functioned for years despite huge sums allocated for their turn-around maintenance (TAM). Just how terribly wasteful and corrupt we are as a nation can be seen in what we have spent on the so-called TAM. A whopping $26.5bn over the years! This is capable of building three new refineries given the cost analysis of refinery projects across the world. Dangote Refinery, Africa’s largest petrochemical refinery and the world’s largest single train petroleum refining facility capable of processing about 650,000 barrels per day cost $19bn!

Despite not functioning, government has continued to pay workers in the refineries and pick sundry other bills. What we have spent on the TAM, according to The Guardian, is 10 times higher than our 10-year budget for education. As a matter of fact, the newspaper reports that the $1.5bn awarded in 2021 for the TAM of the Port Harcourt Refinery was higher than the total capital allocation to the health sector from 2009 to 2018.

Still, Nigeria became a net importer of fuel. At the last count, the country was said to be consuming about 60 million litres of petrol daily. We all knew this was a farce. As Yuguda noted, about half of the fuel we imported was being exported to neighbouring countries by the same people importing the fuel. That explained why our neighbours started groaning almost immediately the new regime of subsidy withdrawal took off in the country on June 1. But that shouldn’t worry us a bit because, in life, self preservation comes first. Even God did not enjoin us to love our neighbour more than ourselves. We could not have been dying in installments only because want to please our neighbours. If we fail to do the rightful on time, we and our neighbours would end up in the grave, or be forced to travel the routes we initially should have travelled but didn’t travel, at greater cost than we are paying today.

At this juncture, one cannot but ask what has become of the much celebrated subsidy probe that was conducted by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management in 2012? The report, which indicted several operators and players in the downstream petroleum sector over their roles that led to the loss of about N1 trn to mismanagement and misappropriation of funds under the Petroleum Subsidy Fund also made what could be termed far-reaching recommendations. Part of its findings was that if our refineries produce at their optimum capacity of 450,000 bpd, it is more than enough to meet the local demand for petrol, then estimated at about 33 million litres per day and 10 million litres of household kerosine (HHK). This means there would even be excess of about seven million litres of petrol, for instance.

Similarly, some companies were indicted for collecting about $$337,842,663.86 and $64,767,763.22 forex in 2010 and 2011, respectively, without importing fuel. Although the chairman of the probe panel, Farouk Lawan, was later jailed for demanding bribe from Femi Otedola, one of the people whose companies were being investigated, this should not render the whole report useless. The government may find aspects of it useful. But if the government feels otherwise, it should institute its own probe.

What is important is that we get to the root of this matter once and for all. It is annoying seeing wicked people who inflicted so much pain on fellow human beings and who should be in jail, roaming the streets and flaunting their Ill-gotten wealth.

It is just that ours is not a nation that punishes for bad governance; otherwise all those who had managed our petroleum sector would by now be facing one probe or another for subjecting a major crude producer to perpetual importation of finished petroleum products. It is their failure or refusal to do their work diligently that has led us to the point of almost criminalising fuel subsidy. We cannot continue to sustain refineries that are consuming unproductively.

Who are those Customs officials who looked the other way when tankers fully loaded with petrol were taking our fuel to neighbouring countries? Every year, we promote several Ćustoms personnel, including those at the borders. For doing what? Who are the marketers involved. Who are their collaborators in NNPC, etc?

All of them must be unmasked, even if they are ghosts, and prosecuted. We have got to the point where we cannot continue to reward idleness, cluelessness, indolence and incompetence. If the government has to set up special courts to try subsidy thieves and others who had caused us economic adversity, so be it. We cannot afford their trials in the regular courts. Of course they would have all the privileges of an accused in the special courts, except that their matters would not take eternity to be decided. There won’t be room for time-wasting legal gymnastics. Their trial and judgment would be swift and those found guilty would be served their due comeuppance. The pains they inflicted on Nigerians and even the economy cannot allow their cases to drag intermittently until we lose track of their crimes.

I agree with both Dogara and Yuguda that; as for pursue, the Tinubu administration must pursue the subsidy thieves. As for catching up, it must catch up with them; as for overtaking, it must overtake them, and as for taking back what they had stolen, it must ensure they vomit or excrete same.

This is the least the administration owes millions of Nigerians, including myself, who are latter-day converts of fuel subsidy removal. It is the least the Tinubu government can do to bring closure to the matter. The big thieves must be made to understand that a king that does not know their Joseph has come. (130  LINES).