Category: Tunji Adegboyega

• Behold our ‘brand refurbished’ democratic icon, Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo!

We did not need any seer to tell us that the result of the presidential election held on February 25 would be contested, however it went. Ordinarily, there is nothing wrong with this because the aggrieved have the right to seek legal redress. The snag in our situation is that we have terribly bad losers who would always contest anything and everything, even when it is obvious that their cases are standing on wobbly pedestals. A benign contestant like former President Goodluck Jonathan who conceded defeat even when the results were yet to be officially announced are few and far between in our kind of country.

So, we can understand the case of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr Peter Obi, his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, who came second and third, respectively, in the presidential race that was won by the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If the electoral umpire failed to deliver on a promise for one reason or the other, those who are aggrieved have the right to challenge the result in court. But what many people cannot understand was the call by former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the cancellation of the election in areas where they did not “pass the credibility and transparency test” in order to avert looming danger. How could a former leader be peddling, unsubstantiated, such pepper-soup joint rumour? Those who know Obasanjo well know he is merely talking about where his favoured candidate has not done well.

Obasanjo had written several other letters at various times, expressing his opinion on certain national issues. As a Nigerian, he is entitled to this. And as a former head of state, he is eminently so. But, to ask that the president stop an electoral process at the point of announcing the result has no place in our constitution. President Muhammadu Buhari or any Nigerian president under our extant constitution has no such powers. Obasanjo ought to know this.

But, for Obasanjo, it is one thing to know something, it is another to be guided by it. Obasanjo has never been a democrat and he has not succeeded in pretending to be one. By asking that the process be aborted at the point he did, Obasanjo merely told the world what he would have done if he was in President Buhari’s shoes. He would have cancelled the elections irrespective of the fact that he had no such power under the constitution. That would not be the first time he would be trampling on the grundnorm.

In Obasanjo’s eight years as president, at least four governors were removed unceremoniously and unconstitutionally in 2006 alone, mostly with the connivance of the Obasanjo government. In January 2006, 18 of the 32 members of Oyo State House of Assembly ‘impeached’ Governor Rashidi Ladoja. Even then Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State that Obasanjo is now championing his cause was similarly ‘impeached’ on November 2, 2006, without the requisite  number of the state legislature. Barely 11 days later, on November 13, Governor Joshua Dariye of Plateau State was also ‘impeached’ at 6.00 a.m. by five of the 24-member legislature. Mind you, by Nigeria’s constitution, governors can only be impeached by two-thirds majority of the state assembly.

In Ekiti State, the Obasanjo presidency imposed a state of emergency and appointed Brig-Gen. Adetunji Olurin as administrator on October 19, 2006, just because the state house of assembly refused the presidency’s bidding to impeach the then governor, Ayodele Fayose. Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State who would have been the fifth victim of Obasanjo’s lack of respect for the constitution or rule of law was only saved by the National Assembly. Mercifully, the courts eventually quashed most of the kangaroo impeachments.

But it was not only governors that tasted the undemocratic part of Obasanjo. His party’s chairmen were also victims. Because the former president wanted everything in his own image, he changed his party’s chairmen as women change their wrapper. Not long after becoming president in 1999, Obasanjo shoved aside Chief Solomon Lar who was chairman at the time the party won the presidential election in 1999. Lar barely spent a year in office. Then came Barnabas Gemade who was similarly frustrated out of office by Obasanjo. Then Audu Ogbeh who became chairman as the party was preparing for the 2003  general elections; he suffered the same fate. Meaning that Obasanjo dispensed with the services of three party chairmen that he installed in less than four years; plus Lar that he inherited.

Of the lot, Ogbeh’s ouster was particularly dramatic. Obasanjo went to his house with fully armed security agents and requested for pounded yam. After eating, he brought out a letter that he gave his host to sign. It turned out to be Ogbeh’s resignation letter. After signing the letter, apparently under duress, Ogbeh handed it back to the president who left along with the security agents, only to return about 30 minutes later for him (Ogbeh) to date the letter of resignation written by the president himself!

But, for Obasanjo, this uncharitable and undemocratic attitude did not start from ‘abroad’. It started from home during the selection of the 14th Olowu of Owu in 2004, where the former president, sensing that his preferred candidate, Prince Adegboyega Olusanya Dosunmu, was losing to another candidate. Obasanjo tore the result sheet. The former president cannot stand seeing anyone he is supporting lose any contest. He eventually muzzled his way through.

Perhaps the height of Obasanjo’s perfidy was his attempt at third term. It was the vigilance of Nigerians and the resoluteness of the National Assembly that frustrated that inordinate ambition. Even though Obasanjo denied this, it was clear he said and did everything towards that even though he did not directly utter it. Some people paid for that failed bid because Obasanjo is like an elephant, he neither forgives nor forgets.

So, Nigerians who know Obasanjo’s antecedents must have smelt trouble when he allegedly said before the election that anyone who attempted to rig Obi out would have him to contend with. “The only thing that can stop Peter Obi from winning the 2023 election is only when they rigged him out; but I am here to show the world and Nigerians that once a soldier is always a soldier…it’s no longer Obi but me”, the former president was quoted as saying.

This is one of the reasons why we cannot blame Obi for weeping on national television claiming that he won the presidential election. Obi probably sees Obasanjo as an oracle and with such oracle supporting him, he must have felt he has arrived politically. But Obasanjo does not have the kind of political value that matches his threat. He has always lost his polling booth.

True, the former president, one must concede, has always gone overboard when it comes to elections and is almost always fanatically involved when he supports a candidate. The fact is, as an elder statesman that he should be, he ought to know the limits of such fanaticism. I always recall how he tore his membership card of the PDP in the open before the 2015 elections, to tell the world that he did not believe in the party anymore. Only people in the PDP would have problem with that. But, to go to the extent of predicting that your candidate, in whom you are well pleased and which is an open secret, could only lose an election if rigged out even when the election was yet to hold is taking both fanaticism and mischief too far.

If our youths do not know these facts, it is not their fault. Perhaps this was the kind of pervasive ignorance the former president wanted to spread in the country which made him to cancel History as a subject in our secondary schools. If the youths had the benefit of studying History, they would have known Obasanjo’s role in our democratic struggles. Now that he is posing as a democrat, it is the youths themselves who would know he is fake and tell the teacher not to teach them nonsense.

There is no doubt that Obi has done well, being a first timer in the race. But to now be claiming he won the election is, as far as I am concerned, far from it, despite the support base that he has, especially among the youths who are disenchanted with the situation of things in the country. And rightly so. But Obi would do well to be wary of such godfathers because they probably have their own motives other than free and fair elections. Indeed, Obi has President Buhari to thank for his ascendancy. Just the same way corruption and ineptitude made the Goodluck Jonathan administration to beget the Buhari presidency, the incompetence of the Buhari administration enabled the LP candidate to gain the kind of attention he had at the polls.

With due respect to the former President, he is one of the least qualified persons to be sanctimonious on democracy. He can continue to pretend to our youths that he is one of them, or that he is at least young at heart, or a democratic champion, those of us who have been around for some time know that Obasanjo has little or no regard for democracy.

I almost forgot Obasanjo’s elections of 2003 and 2007, both of which were marred with irregularities that even international observers could not but notice. The 2007 experience was particularly awful that the beneficiary, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, himself was honest enough to openly admit that there were issues with the election, necessitating his setting up of the Justice Mohammed Uwais panel to review the country’s electoral process. No former head of state carried placards calling for cancellation of that election to avert Armageddon then. They all knew the procedure. Now, see the kettle calling the pot black.

The truth of the matter is that, since 1999 when our present civil rule took off, I have not seen any incumbent president who made things difficult for his party’s presidential aspirant as President Buhari did to his party’s flagbearer, Tinubu. Is it the fuel crisis that we want to talk about? Or the self-inflicted Naira crunch? Yet, Tinubu waded through the landmines to clinch the gold medal. Interestingly, it is the same people who were applauding Buhari for starving Tinubu of money to bribe voters in Lagos (which they claimed made Tinubu lose the state) that are now crying that they have been rigged out of the election when the final presidential poll tally did not favour them.

Interestingly too, it is both the PDP and Labour Party that are now claiming victory in the presidential election. Yet, the contest could only have produced one winner! That the political parties which came second and third, respectively, are both claiming that they won is enough evidence that there are many adulterated results of the polls flying all over the place.

Well, I leave you with an online comment by a Nigerian, that we should not be surprised about Baba’s outbursts on the February 25 presidential election. That Baba is only helping his kith and kin by putting the Obi presidency on his head. The anonymous commentator said blood is thicker than water. I don’t get this. Someone help me!  

It is easy to pontificate from comfort zone. But he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches

Fashioned after the better-forgotten Coronavirus (COVID-19), ‘Korowona virus’ literally translated simply means ‘can’t find money to spend virus’. Trust Nigerians, they are highly imaginative. The only place yet to feel the impact of their creativity is in government. It’s like that is a jinx; they seem to have covenanted with bad leadership. And only God can break that jinx.

What we have been having since the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, came up with the not novel idea of redesigning our currency has debunked a Yoruba saying that when we say we have not seen this before, we are only saying so to frighten the person concerned (mi o ti ri iru eleyi ri, a fi nderuba oloro ni).

But, in all honesty, I have never witnessed a situation where one would voluntarily take his or her money to the bank and lose access to such legitimately earned income simply on account of an ill-digested government policy. Such a thing could only have happened in a war situation but we are not in one now.

That is why I get particularly shocked whenever those who are not affected by this policy comment on it or threaten people who are the direct beneficiaries of the negative consequences.

The latest threat came on Wednesday, when the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Usman Alkali Baba, warned governors and others who he claimed are making ‘inciting comments’ on the misbegotten Naira policy. The IGP must have been inspired to issue the threat on the assumption that all governments mean well for the people all the time. Or that governments cannot make mistake. Yet, nothing can be more fallacious. If successive Nigerian governments have been doing well, we would not have taken our national currency which used to be stronger than the American Dollar to the present situation where we have to assemble more than 760 Naira to get one Dollar. For countries that have made progress, part of the reason for their success is that people in those countries did not keep mute in our kind of situation as Mr Baba would have wanted.

Even then, what is ‘inciting comment’? The government came up with a policy which may (I said ‘may’, and advisedly so) have been well intended but it has ended up with catastrophic consequences. People, high and low, have lost their lives in their efforts to access the money they legitimately earned and kept in the banks, which is now trapped as a result of the government policy. We read last week the story of Mr Johnson Ademola, an officer with the Lagos State University ((LASU), who slumped and died in a banking hall while waiting to get hand-outs from his legitimate savings.

We have read stories of other persons who died due to apprehensions as to whether they would get enough money to settle their bills; these included pregnant women and others requiring emergency medical attention. They are not looking for loans but their personal savings. I do not even want to mention those that have been killed in the protests that followed the policy so that Mr Baba would not book me for ‘inciting comment’. Our policemen know how to split charges. Before you say Jack Robinson, they would have slammed you with many charges.

What I have not been able to understand is why some people would think people who are not beggars should keep quiet in the face of the untold torture and humiliation they have been subjected to, their only sin being that they kept their money in the bank where they had thought ants and termites could not reach.

What is more disappointing? President Muhammadu Buhari had at least twice told Nigerians he could feel their pains and that he would do something. We are yet to see that something. Yet, when presidents speak, it is like an oracle has spoken. Something must happen. The Council of State whose meeting was well advertised and people had thought would get them out of their morass has not achieved anything because the circumstances have largely remained the same more than two weeks after.

At any rate, what are we even talking about? We are talking about a situation where the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, was disobeyed by the president who countermanded its ruling over the deadline for the expiration of certain old notes. Some people, including lawyers, governors and my humble self believe that we are neither in a jungle nor under a monarchical system of government where the king’s word is law, or where the king is the state (apologies to Louis XIV)). The governors told their people to obey the Supreme Court which had ruled that the said old notes remain legal tender pending the determination of the substantive suit before it, rather than the president, because that is the right thing to do.

What is playing out, that is a situation where the government can cherry-pick which court orders to obey and which not to obey is rather sad. It is sadder still that this is happening with a lawyer as attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice.

I have no doubt that the Federal Government would have held on to the Supreme Court ruling if it had favoured it. And those of us that would have disagreed with the ruling would have been branded as law breakers. Now that it didn’t go its way, it chose to muzzle its way through. We cannot continue like this in a so-called democracy.

The truth of the matter is that Nigeria has gone beyond a situation where people can be gagged on a policy that is done seamlessly elsewhere but has claimed limbs and lives in their own country, either because it was not well thought out or because it had other ulterior motives behind its conceptualisation and implementation. Or both. How do you explain the many failed transactions on banks’ apps and other electronic channels? I have almost lost count of such transactions that I experienced in the last two weeks, with my money trapped in transit. Suppose I had nothing else to fall back on?  Many Nigerians trooped to shopping malls since they had no cash, in order to buy virtually everything, from meat to rice, beans, groundnut oil, gari and so on, but left the malls empty-handed and dejected as they had to abandon what they had picked since the transactions were declined. Meanwhile, like me, their accounts were debited on the spot. But for my wife’s ATM card that eventually went through, we too would have left the mall empty handed. So, what do you tell the children at home who are eagerly waiting to welcome you and the foodstuffs that you went to buy? To rub salt on my injury, one of the banks just informed me I have to wait till March 1 for resolution because their networks are congested. What of millions of Nigerians without alternative? What do Mr Baba and other privileged public officials want them to do in the circumstance? Yet, what all of these ugly experiences tell us is that the Naira redesign was faulty, ab initio. Otherwise, we would not have had the magnitude of failed transactions that would have congested the electronic channels.

One has to chronicle some of these personal experiences, perhaps they would enable public officials like the police inspector-general to remember that they are also human beings with blood flowing in their veins. Secondly, they would know that what is happening is not from some movies but real life stories.

We would not have democracy today if threats like Mr Baba’s had worked in the past. I understand the IGP joined the police force in 1988, meaning he must be conversant with the history of our democratic struggle.

I can understand if Mr Baba is only trying to impress his masters that he too must be seen to be doing or saying something, at least to keep his job. But if he meant his warning, then he has misdiagnosed the issue. He therefore cannot get the appropriate remedy for it. It is good that the police boss realised that there is nothing he can do to the governors who are only protecting their people’s interest. Moreover, they are also obeying the Supreme Court. Being closer to the people, they can hear the people’s loud groans. Those in Abuja are too far and detached to hear such cries or feel such pains. Rather than threaten those of us crying as we are being spanked, Mr Baba should be thinking of arresting those who put us all in this mess.

As a matter of fact, rather than threaten, Mr Baba should thank the governors because what they told their people reduced the workload of his overstretched men who would have had to be drafted to the northern states if the governors had not found a pragmatic solution to the suicide road that the Federal Government wanted Nigerians to travel, without grumbling about its cashless policy. This would have been the natural path for the people in the south too if they had not heeded the government’s call to swap their old notes, not knowing that the government’s plan was not to swap but confiscate their money. You can’t have money, old or new, and then say you want to honour a government’s invitation to suicide. I don’t know whether Mr Baba read the story that some Nigerians are spending cedis in the country?

Moreover, Mr Baba is from the northern part of the country. In his part of the country, there is also a popular saying literally translated to ‘it is he who had experienced it that can tell how it feels’. If someone suffering a particular affliction is complaining aloud and someone who has never experienced such sickness or trauma is trying to belittle the pains, the sufferer would ask the person if he ever experienced such a thing before. If the answer is no, then the sufferer would tell him to keep quiet because it is only someone who had experienced such a thing that is competent to talk about it.

I am not envious of Mr Baba if he is not feeling the biting effects of the cashless policy; thousands of his men are. As a matter of fact, some of them would have told their boss to his face that it is easy to pontificate on a matter like this when one is not affected, but for the fact that, like Mr Baba, they too still want to keep their jobs. While one may not expect the IGP to openly side with the people against those he perceives as his paymasters (because, ideally, Nigerians, not President Buhari, are the ones paying his salary), there are times when silence is golden. EndSARS was bad enough for the Nigeria Police Force. Mr Baba’s predecessor knows better about this. To add that an IGP stood against the people on this ill-fated policy would seem one other error of judgement too many. In other climes, public officials resign over such failed policies. Just that Nigeria has not developed to that stage. Elsewhere, even Mr Emefiele would have long been replaced since he cannot be a man by resigning, seeing the problems his policy has caused.

Meanwhile, where is Dina Melaye? We need the ‘Ajekun Iya’ exponent urgently to give us a befitting tune to take the heat off our zone. He must beware though that this is not the time for those rascally tunes of his. It seems the government would prefer a lullaby. Something to make Baba snore away our cashless-ness so that Mr. Baba too would not threaten us again.

Mr Dina Melaye, over to you for this urgent assignment of national importance.

• Nigerians remain cashless nine days after Council of State meeting, and three days after presidential address

Still on our wobbling and fumbling Naira redesign tragedy. I was somewhat fascinated by what thecable.ng quoted Femi Adesina, special adviser, media and publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, as what former President Olusegun Obasanjo said during the Council of State meeting on the matter on February 10.  Chief Obasanjo’s position is worthy of attention because the Buhari administration has always taken on the former president whenever he expressed his usual candid opinion on some of the government’s policies.

One thing you cannot take away from Obasanjo is the fact that he does things the way they seem to him. He has had cause to criticise the Buhari government several times, like any rational human being. Whereas where we were as a country before the currency redesign made that imperative, our situation today, barely three months to the exit of the administration, makes it even more so. That there is no love lost between Obasanjo and the Buhari government is public knowledge.

But the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Buhari government conveniently forgot that the same Obasanjo openly tore his membership card of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) when he was fed up with the stench that became the defining characteristic of the then Goodluck Jonathan administration. Lest we forget, PDP is not just Obasanjo’s political party, it was the party that fetched him the presidency in 1999. At the time the man tore his membership card of such a party in the open, it was sweet music in the ears of the APC-in-the-waiting government then. But the Buhari government seems not to reckon with the wise saying that a man who tramples on his own clothes would not mind tearing someone else’s (eni to te aso ara e mole, o le ya teni eleni). If it ever did, it would not have had the guts to criticise Obasanjo whenever he says the present government is not doing well. And is it?

It is the same way that the government took on Transparency International in our current corruption rating. As this paper said in an editorial on this aspect, such attacks should not be the right mindset. It is true the government has succeeded in jailing some politically exposed persons and what have you, the point remains that a lot still needs to be done on anti-corruption. If the war had succeeded, banks would not be messing up the currency redesign, at least that is the claim by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele.

Against this background of the Buhari government/Obasanjo cold relations, therefore, whatever made the government to single out Obasanjo’s comment from the lot must be worth interrogating, especially if the headline actually reflected the story: “Femi Adesina: Obasanjo commends Buhari on Naira redesign, says ‘resistance to change is normal’. Adesina did not cast the headline. I guess those who did must have done that for attention-getting purposes. And I must confess I am one of those that the headline compelled to read the story. Has Baba been bought over? I must equally confess that after reading the story and some of the quotes, I was not disappointed. Baba still dey kampe!

“Change was necessary from time to time, and resistance to change is normal”, Adesina reportedly said, in Obasanjo’s words. This is true. As a matter of fact, Adesina said Obasanjo cited the raising of feeding fee in the universities in his time as military dictator in the 1970s, leading to violent protests in the country as an example. Although I have always disagreed with this decision, I leave my reservation on that to another day.

For me, the most important thing, that is, what I see as takeaway from Obasanjo on the matter of Naira redesign at the council’s meeting was “The Naira change is good, but implementation is the issue. If there’s inadequate supply, let’s have more. If there are unscrupulous people sabotaging the policy, let’s deal with them.”

That is Obasanjo for you.

It could not have been better said. And this is what many of us who are not politicians are saying. As a matter of fact, this was my position in my very first article on this matter. I have no problem with the government aspiring to stop voter-inducement. I have no problem with the government redesigning currency if it is convinced it would reduce kidnapping or lead to strengthening of our currency. But I have a problem with the implementation of what seemed a policy that was not well thought-out, hence the various problems the ordinary Nigerian has been going through since its implementation began.

Unfortunately, it seems the government is only interested in listening to itself by ramming down the policy in spite of the huge cost to the economy and the country at large.

As a matter of fact, the desperation to continue on this seemingly wicked route is making more people to begin to believe that the policy was designed to achieve some ulterior political motives rather than the reasons the government put forward for introducing it. If for instance, you say you want to stop politicians from buying votes, is it across board or a selective matter? Even for me, the selective nature of the policy is becoming apparent. What I may not tell for sure now is whether President Buhari is part of the plot or he is just working on the ostensible benefits of the redesign as sold to him by the CBN and the cabal in his government. Again, if the intention is also about checking the influence of money in politics, I do not think it is working because of the mammoth crowds at political campaigns, especially those of the major parties. I guess the government believes such crowds can only be procured. In that case, where did the parties get the money to procure such crowds, in view of the noose-tightening on the banks and the economy generally?

If there are no other motives behind the ones advertised, the government should have gone beyond what it has done to assuage the pains of Nigerians. What we have been going through in the past few weeks of the redesign is worse than what we suffered during the Coronavirus pandemic. At least COVID-19 was a global experience which seemed to be beyond human comprehension until man was able to get the vaccine to combat it. What makes the Emefiele experience worse is the fact that it makes it impossible for Nigerians to access their bank accounts. Since my secondary school days, I had been taught in the Economics class that money confers liquidity on its owner. As in most things typically Nigerian, that popular belief was demystified by Emefiele. We have a situation where money has failed woefully in this regard. Both the hardworking and the indolent in Nigeria are now suffering the same fate. Not for one week, not two, not three. Nigerians who never begged their entire lives, no matter what, suddenly became beggars overninght.

And in the midst of the untold sufferings, the government is asking people to bear with it without any concrete solution in sight. Today, Nigerians are still refugees in the banks where they have their hard-earned money. So, of what use was the meeting of the Council of State, if nine days after their resolution, things have largely remained the same? Nigerians are still awaiting Emefiele’s elusive cash; even the N200 notes that the president magnanimously approved are nowhere to be found. Emefiele says it is temporary pain. In Nigeria, no pain is temporary. It is only enjoyment that is temporary. If many public policies brought enjoyment to Nigerians, then there must have been a mistake somewhere.

At any rate, can Emefiele face those who have lost their loved ones during this avoidable crisis and tell them that their loss is temporary? Would that sermon have made sense to Emefiele and his co-travellers (who have been so long in government that they don’t know what those outside are going through), if they were the ones that lost their sons or daughters or other loved ones, either directly from the bullets of security men unleashed to protect the evil agenda, or indirectly through the pangs of hunger or inability to access own money for emergency medical attention?

Yet, it doesn’t seem to me that the government is in a hurry to make cash available to Nigerians. Otherwise, banks would have opened on Saturday and yesterday as they did when they were collecting people’s cash. Perhaps there is no cash to dispense because these days, you don’t know when government is saying the ruth and when it is lying.

Emefiele said bankers that he superintends are the ones frustrating his policy. How many bank chief executives are facing the music? Holding the small fry alone is not enough. But that is the problem with Nigeria. Instead of facing those frustrating enjoyment of subsidy by Nigerians, government believes in punishing the ordinary people for its incompetence and lack of political will to deal with the thieves. But this luck should not be overstretched so it does not become ill-luck. What is on ground now is worse than police brutality that caused EndSARS  in 2020.

It is for the same spirit of either incompetence or lack of capacity to do the rightful that the government is now  blaming politicians for the protests that have been caused by the elusive cash. Does the government expect people who have their money trapped in banks to simply fold their arms at home and wait for death? Does it not border on sadism to be flogging someone without expecting that person to cry? As far as Nigerians who are the direct beasts of burden of this inhuman policy are concerned, the government would do better by ordering the CBN to ask the banks to serve whosoever comes for their personal money again Gamalin 20 or Sniper, so they could drink and die, instead of constituting public nuisance to the government by pouring to the streets when hunger strikes. At least that would put an everlasting end to their misery.

And, in case it is true that there are some people in government who have other motives beyond the general elections and think they had perfected their plans, they should not lose sight of the fact that God has His own ways of destroying the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent. But those who are now pricking Nigerians with pins should first try it on themselves.

Permit me to end this piece with the prayer or wish I had been avoiding since the crisis started: those responsible for all the plagues (I mean ALL, as in ALL) that have been visited on ordinary Nigerians in the name of this policy would also at one point or the other experience the plagues. The only saving grace is if they actually did what they are doing to make Nigeria better.

I don’t need to tell you to shout a loud ‘Amen’ because I can hear the thunderous ‘Amen’ even from afar.

One can only hope Emefiele’s Naira redesign does not create worse permanent problems than it was meant to solve

Here is what one of the banks pushed out as announcement that easily gives away the sham in the Naira redesign process:

“Following the recent CBN directive on the Naira redesign policy, we are pleased to inform you that CBN has extended the deadline for the use of the old notes as legal tender from 31st January to 10th February, 2023. Our branches will open on Saturdays and Sundays between 10am and 3pm to receive your old notes.

As an alternative to the daily cash limits, please explore our convenient channels to meet your transaction needs; our 100% Digital Bank, OneBank, and the magic code *822#.

 We will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.”

Although this is for my bank, it is the same with other commercial banks. The deceit in the wordings is glaring.

For God’s sake, how does this information (which one of my lecturers in the university would refer to as ‘say-nothing’) address the immediate concern of the average Nigerian who is looking for the elusive redesigned Naira notes? One, extension of the deadline for use or submission of the old Naira notes is itself useless if all the banks do is open their branches to collect old Naira notes. If commercial banks must work meaningfully on Saturdays and Sundays, it should be to exchange the old notes for new ones. All the banks are clever by half by dodging this all-important part of their information to the hapless banking public. And will the CBN say it is not aware of this crucial omission in the banks’ public notices?

The solution does not even lie in banks being ordered to pay the new notes on the counter. This can only bring more embarrassment as banks would simply shut their gates, claiming they don’t have the money to pay, thus turning their customers into refugees outside their premises. That is what you have when there are no sanctions.

If, truly, the apex bank has released adequate new notes for the banks, how many of their managing directors or even lesser mortals has it held for the unavailability of the redesigned notes? It is true we have read reports of the arrest of some bank officials who connived with outsiders to trade with the new notes, if I know Nigeria well, that is going to be the end of the story. And, if anything is done by way of prosecuting these minions, how about the big fishes in the banks without whose support such economic sabotage would not have been possible?

Meanwhile, the redesigned notes that Nigerians are looking for were seen on a social platform being ‘sprayed’ in bundles at a social party! I saw another clip where the new notes were being ‘sprayed’ and stepped upon with impunity at another social party. I wonder if Mr Emefiele and his co-travellers see these things which tell us that the orders upon orders barked out by the CBN to banks on the issue are being obeyed in the breach. Meanwhile, it is the ordinary Nigerians that are suffering. I hope the President Buhari administration is not over-stretching its luck.

Recall that on January 15 when I first wrote on the issue, I said I had not got a single of the new currency. That was seven weeks after the redesigned notes were introduced to the public. Mercifully, about 48 hours after the article was published, I strayed into one of the commercial banks in my area and was lucky to get the N1,000 notes. It was as if I never saw money before. I watched in awe as the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) vomited the brand new N1,000 notes, consecutive numbers. I collected Ñ20,000. I tell you, I still keep a little fraction of it as souvenir because it was like I knew Nigeria fairly well as a country where nothing works. I was damn right. Ever since then, I have not been able to get the new notes again.

Unfortunately for me, like most Nigerians, (who upon hearing the rumbling of rainstorm emptied their water tanks) I quickly spent the few old notes on me in order to beat the initial January 31 deadline, when the notes would cease to be legal tender. This is Nigeria where you can only be sure but never cock sure of anything. This is much more so when you don’t know the real motive of those behind what is happening.

I no doubt supported this Naira redesign when I wrote on it on January 15, but with a proviso. And that was that there has to be tremendous improvement in the supply side. To date, there is little to suggest this is so. Nigerians still run from pillar to post in search of their own currency, not British pound sterling  or American dollars or even Japanese Yen. I know there is so much suffering in Third World countries where Nigeria would be the permanent chairman if such a group comes together to form an association. But I doubt if fellow Africans, even in very backward African countries suffer like this just because their currencies are being redesigned. I always wonder why bean cake becomes bone in Nigeria. How could currency design become a source of anguish to long-suffering Nigerians?

As is the case with other situations where demand outstrips supply, all manner of speculators have sprung up to exploit the situation. Just last Sunday when I wanted to buy fuel from a filling station, I asked whether their Point-of-Sale (POS) machine was functioning. One of the attendants clutching one said yes but that it would attract charges! I drove out of the place in annoyance. Now, get me right. I was not put off by the price of the fuel, as a matter of fact, I never asked them for it. I have always referred to that filling station as a Shylock station because their price per litre whenever there is a minor disequilibrium in fuel supply is always on the high side. So, I knew what I was likely to meet per litre. But to now ask me to pay charges on POS after paying cut-throat price per litre was like taking a bad joke too far. I was annoyed because I did not want to see that as another new normal in the Buhari era. We already have a surfeit of such abnormal new normals that we would be recuperating from long after the Buhari years. Anyway, I eventually bought fuel elsewhere for N240 per litre with my ATM without paying any POS charges.

Many POS operators have hiked their profit margins because they claim they also did not get the new notes cheap as before. I said in my piece on January 15 that in those days, just anyone could walk out of banking halls with brand new notes. Those were in the days when some sanity still prevailed in the country.

Today, sanity has gone to the dogs, completely. New bank notes are now exclusive preserves of politicians, the well-connected elite as well as those selling them to people who intend to ‘spray’ them at social parties. What does this tell us about almost eight years of anti-corruption war? Emefiele has been counting the phantom benefits of his creation; what of the social dislocations?

If it is true that the banks have been provided adequate redesigned notes and Nigerians are still going through this excruciating pains to get them, it shows that the CBN has lost its grip on the banks and this did not just happen.

If the apex bank had successfully stopped those trading in the Naira before now and made examples of many colluding bank officials, we would not be in the mess we are in today.

With the crisis of this so-called redesign, I don’t know what Emefiele and those emboldening him in this path to perdition really want. But to think that Nigerians are going through all of these hardships simultaneously in a month of general elections is somewhat instructive. Whoever is behind these multidimensional sufferings cannot be said to wish the country well.

Adieu, Prof Olukotun

Prof Ayo Olukotun and I happened to have served as external consultants on the information and strategy committee of the then Ogun State governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel (OGD) when Niran Malaolu was commissioner in charge of information and strategy. As a matter of fact, that was where we became more than mere acquaintances even if I had long been hearing about him.

The strategy committee met at least once in a month with the governor during which we rubbed minds on how to make Ogun State great. He had robust, professorial contributions to many of the issues at the time. That was in the early years of the OGD years.

Most times we travelled to Abeokuta together in his car for the monthly session with the governor. We usually met at his Ashogbon Street residence off Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, Lagos, from where we took off to Abeokuta in those early years of the OGD administration. This is a fact of life that has refused to get out of my mind. Whenever I pass through Adeniyi Jones Street after his death, I would suddenly remember how he used to describe Ashogbon Sreet to me, using the Mother and Child Hospital opposite the street as landmark.

A lot has been said of this great mind that I used to call a minimalist because of his simple lifestyle. Not for him the usual worries about the glamour of this world. Prof. was a gentleman to the core. Sometimes you found it hard to link his looks to his exploits. He was a thoroughbred academic who used his intellect to try to bring about change in the polity. His incisive column in The Punch was a must read.

A Professor and Chair of the Department for Governance and Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Olukotun was an erudite scholar who had impacted many people at the various universities where he taught.

He was well loved by many people who came in contact with him. Little wonder his friends and former classmates rallied round him in his hours of need. But God knows best. His death, on January 4, aged 69, was shocking as many people, including President Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, among others, have observed.

Prof, you’ll be sorely missed. Rest in peace.

Buhari commissions Sanwo-Olu’s landmark achievements

President Muhammadu Buhari obviously had his hands full during his two-day official visit to Lagos State on January 23 and 24, during which he commissioned four major projects. It was, indeed, a ‘festival of commissioning’ as the Lagos State Government tagged it. How else do you describe the inauguration of gigantic projects that cover the transportation, agricultural, maritime and cultural sectors, in two days? Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu must have been at his ecstatic best to showcase to the president some of his landmark achievements in his about four years in the saddle.

The President arrived the state on January 23 and commissioned the $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Sea Port and the Lagos Rice Mill at Imota. The next day, it was time to commission the first phase of the much-talked-about Blue Line Rail of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) and the JK Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History.

The size of the vessels  that would be coming to the seaport , according to Sanwo-Olu, could be up to four times the size of vessels that currently berth at both the Tin Can and Apapa ports. It is said to be one of the  largest seaports in the country and one of the biggest in West Africa.

Imota Rice Mill is said to be the largest rice mill in the entire sub-Saharan Africa and one of the largest in the world. Sanwo-Olu said the mill is part of Lagos State’s contribution to the Buhari government’s food revolution. With  2.8 million pounds of 50kg rice per annum, this is also a massive project. The mill is particularly strategic because it addresses the problem of a national staple food whose price has shot beyond the roof. Like the saying goes, when food is out of the poverty problem, then there is no more poverty (bi onje ba kuro ninu ise, ise buse). It is thoughtful of the governor to have prioritised this project. It could not have been otherwise for a staple that used to sell for between N8,000 and N10,000 a bag about eight years ago and now goes for between N35,000- N37,000 a bag. An incredible leap.

The JK Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History is part of an urban regeneration programme of the state government. Governor Sanwo-Olu puts it better: “The John Randle Centre is the first of many initiatives aimed at the preservation of the heritage of Yoruba through the celebration and preservation of history and culture, the regeneration of decades old public green space, public recreation facilities and the restoration of civic pride.”

And the Blue Line Rail. My favourite of all.

Each of these projects in its own right is both a job and money spinner. The seaport, for instance, is projected to provide about 190,000 direct jobs and inject not less than $360 billion. Imota Rice Mill will create at least 250,000 jobs directly and thousands of indirect jobs.

Please pardon me if I appear biased in my focus on the Blue Line Rail project. As a matter of fact, I had thought I was going to devote an entire piece to it, not knowing that the project would be commissioned alongside others.

Transportation has remained a knotty issue in Lagos, particularly since the 70s. I remember how I used to trek from Iddo to, first the United Nigeria Insurance Company (UNIC) and later, Kingsway Stores, both on the Marina, where I worked after my school certificate, as a result of traffic gridlock. That was at least better than sweating (suffering and smiling, apologies to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti) inside Bolekaja and Molue buses that would be held up in traffic, sometimes for hours. Then, there was no Third Mainland Bridge. As a matter of fact, the then military regime in the state came up with the idea of ‘odd and even’ number policy under which vehicles could only ply the roads in the state on alternate days, depending on whether their numbers started with odd or even figures. Soon, people found an answer to the policy by buying two vehicles and ensuring that one was odd and the other, even number. That tells us that that was not the panacea to the traffic gridlock.

Many other things came up for trial to ease the traffic snarl, all to no avail. Even now with the Third Mainland Bridge built by the Babangida regime in 1990, traffic situation to and from the Lagos Island is sometimes a nightmare.

That has been the situation until 1999 when the present ruling party took over the affairs of Lagos. We have seen Oshodi transformed, we have seen the modernisation of the Agege/Pen Cinema axis; not forgetting the Abule Egba overhead bridge, among several other projects aimed at making commuting in the state memorable. Right now, attention is on the perennially problematic Ikeja axis as well as Apapa Road and Oyingbo areas, again, among others, where other road and bridge projects are ongoing. The Fourth Mainland Bridge is also in the offing.

Of course, one could see, over the years, relentless efforts by successive administrations in the state to be abreast of the traffic situation. But, the more they try, the more people come from other parts of the country, thus perpetually over-stretching the infrastructure. So, the matter has become like that of an Abiku whose parents have learnt the secrets of burying since the child too has learnt to die over and again.

The Lagos State government is now attacking the traffic situation from all possible fronts with its transmodal transportation strategy. It is developing ferry services, thus taking advantage of the abundance of waterways in the state; the government, as already mentioned, keeps on working on roads. Now, it is adding train services.

This is novel not because Lagosians have not been moving in trains but because the new experience is the contemporary one as it would be powered end to end by high voltage electricity, supplied by delegated independent power with a back-up system.

 As Sanwo-Olu noted at the inauguration, “The completion of the Blue Line here, the first rail system by a sub-national in Africa, is a sea crossing. It’s a testament that indeed, the dark days of oppression are behind us as a government and what we will be commissioning here today (Tuesday) is the first phase.” This phase covers some 13 kilometers from Marina – Mile Two and would carry about 25,000 passengers per hour. Apart from reducing pressure on the over-stretched roads and putting the state on the pedestal of other cities around the world, it would also reduce travel time from the present one to two hours, to about 15 minutes. Some of the people who risk their lives travelling on Okada even on such highways because they think it is faster now have an even faster, saner and safer alternative in the trains.

With this train service, the Lagos State government has set another record for others to emulate in the transportation sector. Lest we forget, the dream of a metro line for Lagos was conceived by the Lateef Jakande administration in 1983 but aborted by the then General Muhammadu Buhari regime, ostensibly because of cost. It is instructive that it is the same Buhari, now as civilian president, that has commissioned a similar project about 40 years after. Not only did he commission it, he also flagged off the second phase of the project, from Okokomaiko to Mile 2. The Blue Rail is about 27 kilometer stretch when this second phase is completed and the passenger traffic would increase to 500,000 daily. The president also gave the state government waivers for the trains to be imported.

What we have seen at play in Lagos that has led to the phenomenal developments in the state since 1999 is the beauty of continuity in government. Without doubt, continuity in government can both be functional and dysfunctional. Fortunately, Lagos is a good example of continuity that works. I congratulate Lagosians for remaining steadfast with the political party that has been delivering the dividend of democracy to the state, particularly since the country’s return to civil rule on May 29, 1999. Despite the metamorphosis in the names of the political party that is responsible for this transformation of the state since 1999, from its initial Alliance for Democracy (AD) to its present All Progressives Congress (APC), the state has continued to witness monumental development in all spheres of life, from education to health, housing to roads, traffic management to waste management, security, etc. Indeed, the state has remained work in progress ever since and the consequence is the continual inflow of people from other parts of the country where development seems an abomination, to Lagos, which is known as ‘the city’ to most of the other Nigerians coming to live in the state.

Since achievements should play a major role in determining the fate of elected political office holders, Sanwo-Olu has creditably discharged his obligations to Lagosians. This year’s governorship election, coming up barely six weeks from now should be payback time for the governor who has in the last four years kept faith with his social contract with Lagosians.

It is not about the state having money. There are some other states in the country that have the money with so little to show for it. And, if Lagos is awash with cash; it is probably more awash with people. Even then, the cash that Lagos State has did not just land on its laps. It is the result of creative thinking on the part of those managing the state, especially since 1999. From a paltry N600 million monthly internally generated revenue (IGR) in 1999, the state now boasts about N45 billion per month.

States in the country may not be equally endowed, but God is so magnanimous not to leave any state helpless (Olorun o pa enikankan lekun). But rather than put on their thinking caps, many governors would rather be complaining perpetually about how barren their states are, content with crying to Abuja for handouts. Lagos would not have been this bouyant if that had been the spirit of those managing it since 1999 when Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu took over as the democratically elected governor, after about 16 years of military interregnum. It is on the foundation laid by Tinubu, the financial reengineering and all, that successive governors have been building and Lagosians have been the better for it.  

A line of caution, though; everything must be done to ensure that these major projects do not suffer the fate of several others in the country. The deep sea port, for example. It must not go the way of the ports before it. They must all be essentially private sector driven. That is the only way they can endure and continue to post substantial beneficial returns in line with the dreams of their founders.

Unless the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reviews its deadline for Nigerians to bid bye to the extant currency notes in circulation, it is fast becoming obvious that its January 31 deadline is unrealistic. The apex bank had shocked Nigerians when, on October 26, 2022, it announced its intention to redesign the currency. CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, had said then that the action became necessary to enable the bank take control of the currency in circulation. He was apparently not comfortable with the fact that the bulk of the currency notes in circulation was outside banks’ vaults.

The redesign, according to him, would affect the highest denominations of N200, N500 and N1,000 notes and the new notes would be in circulation by December 15, 2022, alongside the present notes, while the old ones would cease to be legal tenders from January 31, this year.

 “As you all may be aware, currency management is a key function of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as enshrined in Section 2 (b) of the CBN Act 2007. Indeed, the integrity of a local legal tender, the efficiency of its supply, as well as its efficacy in the conduct of monetary policy are some of the hallmarks of a great Central Bank”, Emefiele said. He added that “In recent times, however, currency management has faced several daunting challenges that have continued to grow in scale and sophistication with attendant and unintended consequences for the integrity of both the CBN and the country.”

In the face of these daunting challenges, no one expects an apex bank properly so called to just fold its arms and allow such a situation to continue.

Indeed, a situation where the country’s currency was easily counterfeited is bad for the economy. Yet, this was the experience with the current Naira notes; a thing that is being facilitated by the advancement in technology. Second, only Nigerians who want to deceive themselves would say they are not aware that a lot of the country’s currency notes was being hoarded in some mansions, farms, water tanks, etc. Or, have we forgotten the case of the $50 million cash stashed in fire-resistant cabinets behind a false wall in an apartment in Ikoyi, whose alleged owner denied ownership of the building? So, as it were, the money germinated in the place! There are many such fertile buildings, water and septic tanks producing such billions in the country whose owners would deny their ownership if discovered because they cannot explain how they came about the huge funds. We have seen videos of Naira notes that have decayed as a result of the fact that they had been warehoused for so long. All of these in a country where millions are living from hand to mouth!

For these reasons and probably more made redesigning of the currency imperative. Perhaps a reason that has been omitted so far in all of these is the aim to cripple the activities of politicians who had hitherto warehoused a lot of money, with a view to opening their private vaults when the elections begin to use the ill-gotten money to buy votes and or permanent voter cards (PVCs) from gullible members of the public.

When a policy like this is implemented in our kind of country where so much money is out of the banking system in spite of the cashless economy that is being developed continually, it is bound to be resisted. I doubt if there is any other country where cash is being displayed and spent with reckless abandon like Nigeria. The most common way to own properties in many other countries is by mortgage. But Nigeria is one of the very few places where people buy multimillion Naira properties and pay in cash. This is one way outsiders recognise Nigerians because they are the only people who make such payments in cash, even outside the country. Obviously the reason is to obliterate such expenses to make tracing of the source of the funds difficult.

Moreover, politicians who have been banking on using some of the money to influence votes would not keep quiet in the face of their political castration that the policy portends.

Yet, there is nothing wrong in redesigning a country’s currency. This, indeed, should be a routine, every five to eight years. We have not redesigned our currency in the last 20 years or so. So, what is the noise about redesigning all about?

What I am saying in essence is that I am for the redesigning. The problem is that the apex bank did not appear to have robust input before rolling out the policy that was launched by President Muhammadu Bubari on November 23, 2022.

At the outset, the CBN set maximum weekly withdrawal via the Automated Teller Machines and Point of Sales (PoS) at N20,000 per day for individuals subject to N100,000 per week. Over-the -counter (OTC) cash withdrawals by individuals and corporate entities were pegged at N100,000 and N500,000, respectively. “The maximum cash withdrawal per week via Automated Teller Machine shall be N100,000 subject to a maximum of N20,000 cash withdrawal per day, the bank said adding that “Only denominations of N200 and below shall be loaded into the ATMs.” The bank said it arrived at the amounts after studying the withdrawal trends over a period.

Many Nigerians, including PoS operators kicked, saying that the policy would strangulate them. Some politicians even saw the policy as a thing aimed at the opposition parties. For once, the National Assembly members would seem to rise in the interest of their constituencies. The noise against the withdrawal limits became too strident to be ignored and the apex bank was forced to adjust the limits to N500,000 for individuals and N5million for corporate entities. Banks were also directed to halt over-the-counter payment of the new notes. Rather, they were to load their ATMs with the N200 notes and below to boost circulation of the new notes.

The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of Nigerians do not have N500,000 in their bank accounts; so, they could not have had any need to withdraw N500,000 weekly. So, we can properly situate where the noise against the limits was coming from.

Be that as it may, where I am going is that the new notes have refused to circulate. It is either the CBN has not released enough to the banks (even though it claims they have more than enough) or the banks have continued to hoard them for their high net-worth customers, or sell them as usual to their clients who resell same to Nigerians for the purpose of ‘spraying’ them at social parties. These are honey pots for some bank workers and they cannot be expected to jettison something that they had reaped bountifully from over the decades just like that. Even before the redesigning, hardly could ordinary Nigerians get new notes from the banks, particularly the N100 and N200 notes.

As at the time of putting this piece together on Thursday, last week, I had not touched a single new note.  At our Editorial Board meeting in the week, I discovered I was not alone. Yet, we are in Lagos. Yet, we still fall somewhere among the fast-disappearing middle class. I can imagine the number of Nigerians in our shoes. Yet, we are being told that the notes we have been using for the past two or so decades would cease to be legal tenders two weeks from now!

Somebody somewhere must be joking.

I have told myself that I won’t stress myself in order to have the new notes. That is not my responsibility. At any rate, why should  I behave like the groom whose wife was being taken to him but was too impatient such that he broke his neck in the process of trying to catch a glimpse of his bride?

My point is that only another Miracle of Dammam can make the new notes available in the desired quantity between now and January 31. The failure or inability of the CBN to rein in erring banks that openly flout its directives over the years is now coming to haunt the apex bank. The bank had issued what could pass for progressive directives several times but it hardly had the will to enforce those directives. It had, for instance, warned several times against selling new notes to people by bankers but the practice still goes on unabated. In those days, anybody, just anybody could walk into banking halls and emerge with new notes; anybody, whether rich or poor. It was a matter of luck. It is no longer so. The luck that would work in your favour these days is for you to be connected with some senior bankers and you get all the new notes you can resell in the open.

Again, the CBN has asked banks to load their ATMs with the new notes and they have largely not complied. Even here in cosmopolitan Lagos, how many banks have the new notes in their ATMs?

So, Mr Emefiele must come to terms with reality. He has to appreciate what he is up against. When preparing the kind of dish he has prepared with this kind of policy, he must not forget to reckon with the devil. It seems so far, he has not. And he is therefore going to run into problems if he insists on January 31 deadline on this matter.  

If indeed a major objective of redesigning the currency was to prevent politicians from using the money that some of them have stashed for election, I am afraid that is late in the day. The elections are barely one month away from the January 31 deadline. At the rate the new notes is circulating, it is doubtful if they would go round before or by that date. So, let the government leave the judgement for those who kept money at home (such that some of it is even decaying)  for the purpose of bribing voters, to God. If God was part of the new agenda, He would have laid this new policy in the heart of the government for implementation earlier than now. And may be He did; but the government foot-dragged. In which case, the government has itself to blame for reserving such sweet wine to this late hour. It should have served it much earlier. Even many Nigerians, as a result of grinding poverty, are looking forward to getting what they see as their fair share of their stolen wealth, a thing that only happens at election periods. Many of the people have this wrong notion that it is only at election times that they see many of their political leaders and so, they should take full advantage of it to collect whatever the politicians offer now that another general election is approaching.

Perhaps it would also interest Mr Emefiele to remember that it took a long time for even the outgoing currency notes to be accepted in some parts of the country when they were introduced. Long after their launching, the then old currencies were still in circulation in those places. So, in other words, legal tender is what people see and accept as such; it is not something that can be decreed, especially in our kind of peculiar circumstances where so much money is out of the banking system. That is already happening, even with the new notes.

Nigeria must look in the direction of the items we export, for quality, to avoid incessant rejection

It beggars belief that we are still talking of rejection of our agro-produce despite our decades of experience in the business. The latest hint of this came from the President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, African Export-Import Bank (Afrixembank), Prof. Benedict Oramah, who said that the bank was working towards addressing the problem. Oramah spoke at the official commissioning of the Africa Quality Assurance Centre (AQAC) in Shagamu, Ogun State. He said:  “Due to poor quality over $700 million worth of agro-produce are rejected from Europe alone.” He added that

“About 76 per cent of exports from Africa are rejected annually. We are working with a lot of organisations to create the framework for the harmonisation of standards across the continent”. The Shippers Association of Lagos (SALS) estimates that 82 per cent of the country’s agro-allied products are either seized or rejected by EU countries because they are illegally exported without certification of government agencies.

It is particularly distressing that this problem persists despite the fact that the factors leading to the rejection of our agro-produce have long been identified. The popular saying that a problem identified is half solved does not seem to have meaning to us in this country. We have had a lot of seminars, workshops, symposia, etc. where all manner of solutions had been proffered and reports presented towards solving the problem; yet the challenges refused to go away. Our food products continue to face rejection at the international level.

This made the Federal Government to set up a committee inaugurated in May, 2022 by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, to look into the issue. The committee, whose members were drawn from the ministry and some parastatals of the ministry, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and select members of the private sector, was charged with the responsibility of identifying the major causes of the rejection of the agro-produce and proffer appropriate recommendations.

The committee submitted its report to the minister in Abuja in September, last year. Chairman of the committee and Director, Commodities and Export Department of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Suleman Audu, who presented the report to the minister, told the government what to do to make our products competitive in the international market. Problems identified by the committee included

concerns about food safety, technical barriers, non-adherence to best practices and disregard of basic requirements.

Some of these problems we already know as Nigerians, unless we want to deceive ourselves. The fact is that back here at home, we do not care for standards. Anything goes. It is this charity that began at home that we try to export to the outside world. Unfortunately, everybody would not be like us. I have always said it; that if we do not care much about ourselves here, others care about themselves. If we do not value human life, others do. If we  don’t have the habit of watching what we gobble as food or drink, others care about same. Much of what we consume in the name of food or drink here is poison, but we do not care. Some people would even tell you that that is the basis of our strength and resistance to diseases.

People keep dying of cancer and other ailments as a result of some of the poison we eat and drink, yet, rather than look for scientific explanations for those deaths, we keep heaping the blame on witches and wizards in the village. We hardly subject the dead to scientific tests that would reveal what killed them. I am here talking about autopsy. We rush to conclusions that many of those who die prematurely must have been killed by witches and wizards in the village. Unfortunately, the witches and wizards cannot come to claim responsibility or disown some of these claims. They don’t have the opportunity of coming forward to tell us which deaths they were responsible for and which ones were self-inflicted or caused by negligence on the part of the government or the society.

It is like the only time that our witches come to the open are election periods when they declare support for one candidate or the other. Not only do they sign press releases, they organise press conferences at which they tell the world their preferred candidate. It is on such occasions that we have the privilege of seeing our witches and wizards life and direct. I want to suggest that they should also seize such opportunities to tell the world the deaths they were responsible for and the ones they knew nothing about, with a view to straightening the records.

So much for our much maligned witches and wizards.

Still talking about standards with regard to our agricultural produce. I don’t know how many people observe while travelling on some of our highways the way many of our farmers dry some of the produce, sometimes on the bare floor by the side of the highways. I see this often whenever I travel to Oyo town in Oyo State. Many times you see cassava that have been cut to pieces and are just spread beside the road in the name of drying them before grinding them into cassava flour (elubo). I keep asking myself how the cassava would be packed without packing sand along with them. Invariably, they end up grinding stones and sand with the cassava and unsuspecting consumers would be buying half cassava and half sand and stones that would end up giving them appendicitis. Some are lucky when the surgery performed to get the sand and stones out of their systems succeed. Many others do not make it, either because they detected the problem late or due to some complications.

The question that I keep asking myself whenever I travel on that route is whether any of our agencies that should watch out for such unhygienic  method of processing some of these items do not pass that route or simply do not care and just pretend not to see what many of us usually see there. Yet, when these items eventually get to the market, anyone could be victim of the unhygienic processing of the cassava, for instance.

So, if anyone decides to bag such item for export and they get rejected in better organised countries, do we blame them for caring about their own citizens? If you don’t mind packaging and consuming poison as food, should others join you to commit suicide by buying the poison that you have exported to them? It is only fair and rational for those people to ask you to return your poison to its country of origin. I think going forward, they should even confiscate and destroy those items. They should save us from uncaring leaders who only love and want power without knowing how to use it for the general good. This is much more so because rather than demonstrate remorse and willingness to change to global best practices, our government begins to look for all manner of excuses to explain away their incompetence and lack of capacity to govern well. They either try to reject the claim that those items are not good enough, or say they have addressed the issues; a thing they only do in the media but which does not reflect the reality about those items. That is when they do not make forceful attempts to want others to lower their standards to their own level instead of their own country aspiring to the high standards that global best practices represent.

Moreover, does our government want to say it is not aware that some unscrupulous Nigerian importers specifically ask manufacturers of some of the things they import, including drugs, to reduce the chemical components so as to make them cheap? Those products end up being ineffective or even complicate matters in case of drugs or cosmetics.

If only for the Oyo highway experience that I just narrated, I agree with the committee’s submission that the government should embark on a sensitisation and awareness programme on the need for farmers and operators in the agricultural value chain, to secure and adopt Global GAP certifications in collaboration with the private sector. Global GAP, broken down, simply means “an internationally recognised certified standard that ensures Good Agricultural Practices”.

Beyond rhetoric, we should be sufficiently concerned that some countries have taken over our pride of place in agriculture and determine to reclaim our position. Rather than fight to claim or reclaim such lost areas where we used to have comparative advantage, many of our politicians only struggle to reclaim their mandate. With focused and dedicated leaders with a sense of history, they would remember that we were once a major palm oil producer, a thing now in the hands of the Malaysians, who are reaping bountifully from it now. The day we begin to work towards reclaiming such mandate, that day would be it.

Where we have to bring back some of the agencies that made things possible and profitable for us in the past, like the farm settlements, etc, let’s bring them back. A country that is broke needs all the money it can get. Oil alone can no longer sustain us, even if we know that elite oil thieves are competing with the country for oil revenue. We have the potential to make money and make our currency stronger and agriculture and agro-produce is one area we cannot continue to ignore. We have to add value to our products and ensure that they meet global standards. We do not need any bogus arrangement to do this. There are enough agencies to take us to the desired level for optimal results. Where those agencies need to be empowered financially or otherwise, let’s empower them. Where they need to be rejigged, let’s rejig them.

People genuinely interested in service won’t kill to get power. We must deal with perpetrators

It is difficult for me to continue to gloss over the recrudescence of violence on the country’s political landscape. I had for long pretended not to notice it because it has become predictable whenever elections are approaching. Unfortunately, those perpetrating it have been relentless in a manner that would make further ignoring it impossible, even if one had a heart of stone. People had been killed; forget whether they were politicians. Forget the political parties they belonged to. The fact is; they were human beings with blood flowing in their veins.

However, a statement by one of the presidential candidates was the turning point that compelled me to break my silence on the issue today.

That was the statement from the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, who said his daughter used to teach in a public school in Lagos but he had to stop her for her own safety when he started his presidential campaign. In the former governor’s words: “I have two kids, but my daughter is a teacher, and she’s paid a little money as a teacher, but she still loves her teaching job. She does it because of her love for teaching, and that’s what she was doing until I stopped her when I started my campaign”. Obi added: “I did it for her safety, because she’s the only daughter I have”.

I was so touched by this statement. Yet, I am not ‘Obidient’.  But no one can blame the LP presidential aspirant. He has only done the sensible in a country where sanity, especially in the political space, continues to be a scarce commodity. There is no length some of his political enemies would not go to dampen his morale. If they couldn’t get him, they could go for his daughter in order to demoralise him and slow down his campaign. Life does not matter to some of our politicians.

At this juncture, it is only fit and proper for me to mention some of the very sad incidents that had claimed lives in the political space in recent times. These included the April 11, 2022 killing of the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Gbenga Ogbara, by suspected gunmen in his house in Igangan, his hometown, in Osun State, at about 12 midnight. According to his son, Aregbesola: “We met them (killers) on the road while returning from the shop  in the evening. Shortly after entering the house, someone knocked on the gate and my father went out to open it and, while attempting to run, he was shot severally in the back.” Not done, they came into the house, shot through the windows; the bullet hit my hand partially before they ran away”, he added. The politician’s wife was also reported to have been injured during the incident.

It is instructive that the deceased had escaped assassination attempt in 2019. Then, his house was set on fire. The Director-General of Ileri-Oluwa Campaign Organisation, Ajibola Famurewa, said Ogbara was one of the 10 members of the APC in the town who had been complaining that they were listed for assassination. More instructively, he was killed barely three months to the governorship election in the state.

Then, the women leader of LP in Kaura Local Government of Kaduna State, Victoria Chintex, who was similarly killed on November 28 when some gunmen invaded her home and shot her. Her husband sustained gunshot injuries during the attack. Edward Abumi, publicity secretary of the LP in Southern Kaduna Senatorial Zone said in a statement that “The Southern Kaduna (Zone 3) Labour Party commiserates with the party chairman and his Exco in Kaura Local Government over the untimely demise of our mother and sister, Mrs Victoria Chintex, who was killed yesterday (Monday) by gunmen in her residence in Kaura.”

The dust had hardly settled on Chintex murder when, yet, another LP politician, Christopher Eleghu, the party’s candidate for Imo State House of Assembly was killed on December 16, also in his home. An eye witness reported that “They invaded his house when everybody had gone to sleep and shot for over two hours.” The eye witness added: “They killed the man and burnt his house. They also destroyed his property. His corpse was lying on the floor with machete cuts when villagers gathered in the morning.”

In almost all of these cases, the police threatened they’ll fish out the killers. But Nigerians know better. And all of these barely three months to the 2023 general elections. Scary, if you ask me.

Add to the people who seemed to have sworn not to have anything to do with the 2023 polls in the southeast, who are now burning down INEC offices. About two weeks ago, the commission’s headquarters along Port Harcourt Road, Owerri, the Imo State capital, was attacked by gunmen. Mike Abattam, spokesman of the state police command said about 10 gunmen invaded the place, armed with petrol bombs and dynamite. Security operatives who repelled the attack were able to neutralise three of the gunmen while a policeman was also killed during the attack. One of the hoodlums was arrested while three vehicles used by the gunmen were recovered. This was the  third attack on INEC’s facilities in Imo State alone in less than two weeks. Earlier, the commission’s offices in Orlu Local Government  Area and Oru West Local Government Area had been attacked on December 1 and December 4, respectively.

In the last four years, at least 50 of the commission’s offices have been attacked. Imo tops the list with 11 incidents, followed by Osun (seven), Akwa Ibom and Enugu (five each), Ebonyi, Cross River and Abia (four each), Anambra and Taraba (two each), while Borno, Ogun, Lagos, Bayelsa, Ondo and Kaduna recorded one incident each. INEC may pretend that these attacks would not stop the elections, the fact is; they would have some negative impact not only on the elections but also the country’s finances. Buildings and other items destroyed in the process have to be rebuilt or replaced now or sometime later with public funds. Those are for the replaceable. What of innocent lives lost to the unwarranted attacks? 

The question now is why should politics be war in Nigeria? Why should political contest become a ‘do-or-die affair? This question keeps bothering my mind whenever I come across any ugly incident suggesting desperation for political power. If people are genuinely interested in serving, they do not have to go to any length in the process.

As a matter of fact, it is difficult to juxtapose the struggle and scrambling for political offices in Nigeria with the kind of situation that we are now in, the worst ever since I was born or that I can recollect coming across in any history book. It’s like many of our politicians are just interested in power not necessarily because they want to serve or because of the value they want to add to governance but because of the allures of the office, the easy money it fetches, the glamour of being this and that in society, the immunity which that confers, whether legally or otherwise, and so on. Nigeria is the only country where government keeps outsourcing its responsibilities under the guise that government cannot do this; it cannot do that. That, in fact, it is not the duty of government to be in business, yet the cost of running government, rather than reduce, keeps ballooning. Those in the private sector know too well that when a company, for instance, outsources certain responsibilities, one of the primary aims is to reduce the cost of running that organisation. How come the reverse is the case with government in Nigeria? The less the responsibilities, the more the cost of running government. It is a jigsaw puzzle; the type you can only find in a country like ours. But the answer is simple: it is only in government in Nigeria that people get easily rewarded for doing nothing. All you need do is have a complimentary card indicating that you are a politician and you are good to go once you are able to ‘break even’ in politics.

That reminds me; someone in the Obasanjo years who was close to the then president was said to be parading himself as ‘a friend of the president’, a title (or what do we call it?) that was boldly printed on his complimentary cards and that was enough meal ticket for him. He was not only welcomed wherever he went; he was indeed honoured.

I have had cause to lament on this same page the situation where otherwise brilliant professionals — journalists, lawyers, engineers, doctors, accountants, etc. prefer to be introduced as politicians, or professional politicians, to boot! That this appears to be gaining ascendancy, even in the elite southwest, with all the ‘Omoluabi’ concept that we pride ourselves in in the region, leaves a sour taste in the mouth. But those who so claim know that is where their bread is easily buttered once you are able to break through. As the Late Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola once jocularly noted, publishing is sweet, but oil is sweeter. That was after his incursion into the crude business. The professionals who now prefer to be paraded and introduced as politicians, whether professionals or amateur, know that their respective professions could be sweet, their political odysseys are definitely sweeter!

Nigeria is thirsty for selfless leaders. A politician who is in office just to produce nothing is God-fearing enough, at least in our own context. The truth is that many politicians are in government to produce bad governance and corruption. It seems we have a preponderance of them in this category. That is why we are the way we are today. If we have majority of political office holders whose ultimate aim is service, with a view to bequeathing a good legacy to the coming generations, the country would be a better place today. But the problem is not in the politicians, it is in us as Nigerians. As Shehu Malami, the Prince of the Caliphate who died on December 19 in Cairo, Egypt, said in one of his last interviews, the situation in Nigeria is “a terrible disaster, to say the least.” He added: “All of us are to blame because things were going bad slowly and we ignored them, now they have gone out of hand.” Political violence is one of the critical areas where we have failed so far as a nation. As this paper noted in its editorial on Friday, Malami’s “words are food for thought.”

We must be ready to punish the perpetrators of electoral violence. Not just the minions but the big masquerades behind them. If it has continued to fester, it is because we allowed it to. Sometimes we don’t have to wait on government as government itself would be forced to act against such crimes when it sees that the people are not in the mood to condone them. Those who want to increase our woes need not kill some of us as stepping stone. Not even politicians who want to heal our wounds should be allowed to get away with such blue murder.

Merry Christmas.