Forty-three years down the line, Ajaokuta Steel Complex (ASC) is yet to fully take off, having been bogged down by one problem or the other. The latest was the contractual dispute between Global Steel Group and the Federal Government which had, since 2008, been pending at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris. The company, Global Steel Holdings Limited had sued the Federal Government for breach of contract. However, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said about two weeks ago that the dispute over the share purchase agreement between the government and Global Steel Holdings Limited had been resolved. But that is at a hefty sum of about $496million that Nigeria has to pay the company.

The minister wants Nigerians to celebrate this as a feat, being about 90 per cent reduction in the claims the company filed against the Federal Government. It was in this light that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration accepted to pay the money and thus draw the curtain on the matter. But, this, clearly is an avoidable cost the country would not have incurred at all in a sane country as we would soon find out.

Indeed, this is a sad commentary for a project that was said to have been 84 per cent completed as far back as 1983, and on which between $8billion and $11billion had been spent, depending on whose statistics one is quoting. Just like most other projects in Nigeria, there is nothing that could point to how much exactly the country has committed to the project to date. Ajaokuta has thus turned out to be one of the numerous drain pipes that Nigeria has continued to spend on without returns. It has not produced any steel since its inception.

Nigerians who know the history of the steel rolling mills in the country, particularly the ASC), would be wondering whether Nigeria is under some perpetual spell, seeing how otherwise good dreams usually end up as mirage in their own country.

My membership of the Steel Writers Association of Nigeria (STEWAN), a group that was formed in the late 80s or early 90s by some journalists who felt there was a vacuum in the coverage of the then nascent steel rolling mills in Nigeria opened my eyes to the possibilities and prosperity that those companies portended. It also opened my understanding of why, one after the other, they collapsed such that today, Nigeria imports virtually all its steel needs, losing about$4billion annually.

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I still remember the trips we had round the steel rolling companies then, including the Katsina Steel Rolling Company, Katsina, Katsina State, Jos Steel Rolling Company, Jos, Plateau State, Delta Steel Company, Aladja, Delta State, Osogbo Steel Rolling Mills, Osogbo, Osun State, as well as ASC. The trips were quite educative. Iron and steel was the in-thing then; it was as prominent as the power sector and we had a nice time going round these new-found love of Nigeria.

The trip to Ajaokuta was the most fascinating. I remember how we were transported by road and rail within the steel complex, underground and overground, on seemingly unending trip because of the sheer size of the company. Ajaokuta, founded in 1979, is sitting majestically on some 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres). It was established to serve as the bedrock of industrialisation in Nigeria.

The plight of ASC further exemplifies the way Nigeria silently kills the dreams of its youths. As a matter of fact, the thing did not start today. It’s been on for quite some time. I remember, albeit with nostalgia, how some of my friends who  were employed as middle level manpower for the steel companies were sent abroad in the late 1970s and early 80s by the Federal Government, after finishing their school certificate examinations, when the idea of the country joining the league of global steel players was still given priority by the country’s government. By the time they began to return, the jobs they got in the steel companies were the envy of many of us, seeing how they were pampered then. Indeed, working in the steel companies then was like working in the telecoms or oil sector today. In a matter of months, our friends were able to buy some of the good things of  life. It was difficult for any lady desirous of having a fairly good beginning in marital life to reject them. Unfortunately, the honeymoon did not last. Within a few years, things started to change for the worst for them, with the steel companies already having all manner of challenges that eventually ended up consuming them. Soon, they became shadows of their former selves. Soon, the young men and ladies who had looked forward to a prosperous career in the sector began to experience existential hiccups and that was how many of them ended up constituting a nuisance to themselves and the society since they had a rigid training in steel production; fitting into other places was therefore almost impossible.

But, it is not difficult to know why this bad fate became the lot of our steel sector. I remember the embarrassing story we were told by one of the steel rolling companies’ chief executives in the course of STEWAN’s  tour of the companies that I mentioned earlier. The man told us in confidence what happened in one of the meetings of the highest ruling body in the military era how the then head of state exhibited what could pass for the highest form of ignorance when he asked his subordinates at the meeting why the sector was attracting the kind of attention they were giving it. In other words, what is the importance of steel to the country’s economic development?

With such level of ignorance at that level, is it surprising that the steel sector is virtually dead in the country? By extension, are we surprised that Nigeria is work in fits and starts? Are we still surprised that the country is where we are in spite of the huge resources that the nation is endowed with?

Anyway, to conclude the story on the country’s leader who did not know how important the steel sector is, the steel company’s chief executive said they had to start explaining to him like they would to a kindergarten pupil that the seat on which he was sitting had steel components; his wrist watch, the cars on his entourage, not to talk of aeroplanes, railway, ships, etc, all have steel components. It was at that point that he realised the importance of the steel sector!

When we look at the various trajectories of the steel sector as well as other sectors in Nigeria, we would have a clear sense of why Ajaokuta in particular is still-born. In Nigeria, only five percent of the people know, 30 per cent think that they know while the remaining 65 per cent, including many of those driving programmes and policy options in government do not even know. There is no problem with the five per cent that know and even the 65 per cent that do not know and acknowledge their limitation. The problem is with the 65 per cent that think that they know. Our penchant to put round pegs in square holes in terms of public appointments also worsens matters for us.

It is this kind of ignorance and pervasive corruption that led us to the situation where we are now going to cough up a whopping $496million in settlement of a trade dispute that ought not have arisen in the first place if only those who decided on the wrong policy option on our behalf had put the country’s interest above other considerations.

This is the reason why I am in support of the calls on the Buhari government to probe the circumstances surrounding this needless, even if benevolent settlement. It is immaterial that the settlement is coming at a terribly bad time for the country’s economy, even if that makes our plight as a people more precarious. This probe is important because, as The Punch noted in its editorial on September 15, “Regularly, Nigerian officials deliberately sign contracts that disadvantage the country and give advantages to foreign or local companies. Buhari and the NASS should investigate how a company that, as Malami admitted, “appeared unable to pay the first tranche for the Ajaokuta shares before the first anniversary of the agreement,” and could have been liable to pay $26 million to the Federal Government if the latter had waited for just 55 days, has emerged triumphant.”

The newspaper had in an earlier report expressed fears about the country losing over N7trillion in damages and other avoidable expenses on several other projects like the Ajaokuta debacle. We have many other bottomless pits that the government keeps funding even as we have areas that the country could make huge amounts of money from but are ignored, apparently because oil money comes so cheaply.

It is important to say that what we now have on our hands contradicts what we thought we knew as authentic state of affairs on the moribund ASC. For instance, a senator of the Federal Republic, Smart Adeyemi, had nine years ago told us that “the Federal Government has recovered the Ajaokuta Complex from Global Steel without any attendant financial obligation whatsoever.” Adeyemi should know. He had served on several committees in the senate, including that of privatisation. Moreover, five years ago, the Minister of Steel Development, Kayode Fayemi, had at the Second Annual Nigerian Mining Week given the impression that ownership of Ajaokuta had reverted to the Federal Government back then, with the signing of a “modified concession agreement.” According to Fayemi: “ownership of ASC has now reverted to the Federal Government, and we can now proceed to engage a new core investor with the financial and technical capacity to run the company.”

This new twist about paying Global Steel $496million is therefore curious. The Federal Government must investigate what actually is wrong about these conflicting  information, coming from officials who are serving the same government. And if foul play is detected, those involved must be named and shamed.  Where the Buhari government maintains its characteristic silence on the matter, Nigerians should ask questions and demand action. After all, it is their hard-earned money that is being frittered away.

As soon as I began drafting this piece, I remembered a book that I reviewed for a friend, George Nkwoji, in the year 2000, ‘The undotted scriptures’. My friend, now publisher of Nigerian Moment Newspaper, was then an elder in Olumba Olumba’s church, Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (BCS). Nkwoji said he left his Anglican Communion for Olumba’s church because the Anglican Church was “poorly lit”. Today, my friend is wiser. He has retraced his root back to his Anglican Communion. He must have discovered that no matter how “poorly lit” the Anglican Communion is, it cannot be compared with Olumba Olumba’s church.

But the problem is really not about a poorly lit church in Nigeria. Many churches in the country today are simply in total darkness and a few that have a semblance of light are indeed poorly so lit. And that is creating a lot of problems for the church.

Please let no one get me wrong. I am not going to blame the church authorities for this. Rather, I may wish to join issues on the basis of faith that we profess. Moreover, whatever I say also pertains to me as a Christian. But I am bothered because it appears the churches are too preoccupied with other existential matters at the detriment of the spiritual, hence, some of these measures that do not reflect what we are told always about certain events in the Bible concerning how to exercise our faith. We are always reminded on the pulpit how the wall of Jericho fell after the Israelites had shouted and danced round it. We are also always told about how God killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers overnight for the sake of His people. There are several such examples in the scripture.

What is missing today is that old-time religion and this is not about any particular sect or denomination. It is missing across board. Otherwise, why would vigil be cancelled just because of threats from some bandits and terrorists? Something must be wrong with our faith. Yes, the government, because it is a secular arrangement, can fret over such a threat and take panicky measures. Not the church. That should tell us that definitely, something is wrong somewhere.

Indeed, there must be something wrong with a nation with churches and mosques in virtually every nook and cranny, yet is about the headquarters of ritual killings and other heinous crimes in the world. There must be something wrong with a nation that has converted virtually all its erstwhile profitable  industries and commercial warehouses into churches, yet is so far from God. There must be something wrong with a nation that so much professes to love God but is more notorious for doing the biddings of the devil.

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What I can smell here is that our churches are simply unsuspecting and this is unfortunate. In the height of the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic in December 2020, several states in the country banned vigil and other night programmes in churches and mosques as well as other places of worship. In fact, the Federal Government’s ban on nocturnal activities had effectively taken care of such activities; what several state governments did was merely to reinforce that ban. As a matter of fact, Sunday worship was suspended for some time as a result of the pandemic; the measures were later relaxed.

The point I am making is that while it was the governments, federal and states, that proscribed night worship back then, this time around, it is the churches themselves that suspended vigil. I find this scary, considering the fact that churches sing of the old-time religion and want God to continue to relate with Christians today as He used to in the years of the early Christians, yet, many Christians (including myself), are not ready to go through the rough mills and baptism of fire that Apostle Paul and others went through in the course of propagating the gospel.

The fact of the matter is that the town and the cassock have found a confluence of sorts, and both seem to be enjoying the romance. That is what you see in many churches today.

If we are suspending vigil for fear of terrorist or bandit attacks, did the June 5, 2022 massacre at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, happen in the night? Was it not in broad daylight that at least 40 worshippers were killed in the church and several others injured? So, what are we talking about? With the suspension of vigil, the impression we are giving is that if we have a repeat of the Owo daylight attacks in any other place, it is Christians themselves that would ask Christians to stay at home on Sundays, not the devil, or government.

I know that when it gets to that point, it would be ‘to your tents, oh Israel’. Most of the churches that would ignore such calls for boycott of Sunday services or vigil would do so not necessarily because of their love for their members or even for God but because of the bottom-line. In many churches today, it is work and eat. There is no food for lazy man or lazy pastors. So, if only for the church authorities to smile to the bank the day after service, many of them would not be favourably disposed to the idea of suspending Sunday services, no matter the extent of potential threats from any quarters, unless they are compelled by the government to shut their doors.

Again, this is not necessarily to blame the churches for suspending vigil. I do not think they have a choice in the circumstance. That is the level of faith they have planted in their members; again, including myself. And this is what I am holding them responsible for; their inability to imbue in their members the kind of faith that would make them shrug off terror threats and declaring, like Queen Esther, that “If I perish, I perish”. Where else is it more glorifying to perish if not in the house of God? Where is that old time religion? Where is that old time faith?

I have heard many people criticise our stinking rich pastors who go about with all manner of security escorts like our politicians, and yet would be telling their members that Psalms 23 and 91 are all they need for protection. None of them has satisfactorily answered that question.

Many of our church leaders celebrated Leah Sharibu when we all learnt that she became Boko Haram captive simply because she refused to renounce Jesus Christ. How many of our church leaders would not have denied Christ at the time Sharibu clung to him in spite of the looming danger, if only to enjoy their freedom, even if they would spend weeks fasting and praying for forgiveness thereafter?

The altars are cold because, just as it is in town, money is what is being worshipped in many churches today. There are many examples out there. But I would cite one which I may also have shrugged off but for the confirmation about a similar experience from, incidentally, a bishop in another denomination.

What happened was that the children of a female member of the particular church wanted to do final burial programme for their departed mother and they approached the church with the aim of doing the service there. The reverend in charge gave them a long list of requirements they were supposed to bring before the church would conduct the service. I don’t want to bore you with the details. But by the estimation, the expenses would conservatively be in the region of N250,000-N300,000. And these, according to the minister in charge, must be brought for inspection at least two hours to the commencement of the service! The woman’s children could not understand this because their late mother served the church meritoriously in her lifetime.  How come the church would forget this so soon, they wondered. They then decided on an alternative venue for the service. As I said before, I had thought this was an isolated case until I was told during a discussion with a bishop in another denomination, of a similar experience in the same denomination under reference. They did not even consider that the fellow is a fellow man of God.

So, when gold rusts, what would iron do? If the church cannot accommodate the poor, who then will take care of them? Is the church denomination in question not aware that some people do not even have N250,000 to splash on any ceremony? How can such people have a budget that size for the church alone?

But this is only a minuscule of the terrible things happening in some of our churches today. Where in the Bible did Jesus Christ levy people for anything before rendering any service or help? We see pictures of Yahoo-Yahoo boys in the social media splashing Naira rain on some pastors and shepherds who dance ecstatically to welcome the fortune that has arrived for them from the pit of hell. We hear pastors preach against corruption, yet they take its proceeds from politicians and other corrupt elements that some of them are on their payroll.

How, in the midst of all these can the church truly live to its billing as church? How can the church get the power to confront the enemy, not to talk of defeat it?

I have no issues with churches deciding on precautionary measures such as procuring body scanners, engaging adequate security men, good perimeter fencing, etc. in addition to being generally security conscious. After all, even the scripture enjoins us to watch and pray; not pray alone. But to ban vigil in the name of insecurity does not seem to me the right thing to do. Again, as I said earlier, there is no way the church can do otherwise in the circumstance because that is how far their faith can go.

But suspension of vigil can only be an interim measure. Otherwise, it is the church that would ultimately kill Christianity through its own lukewarm attitude or undue fears about the perceived enemy whose weapon is only carnal. What the church should do during the interregnum is for its leaders to be interceding for it so that when the country is safe again in its estimation for a return to vigil, it would be a return with a bang. A great revival, so to say. To sit back and do nothing is dangerous for the church and Christianity in the country.

The average Christian knows that most evil plans and works are concluded in the dead of night, even outside of the Christian realm. If you now place an embargo on vigil, how do you confront such challenges vigil-for-vigil? The fact is that many Christians cannot do vigil on their own in their respective homes. It won’t take long before they start yawning.

If indeed, His Grace, the Baba Aladura of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church (CSMC), The Most Revd (Dr) Prophet Samuel Adefila Abidoye has a thousand tongues, they are not enough to praise the Lord. If all the hairs on his head are tongues, they are still not enough to sing His praise. For a man who was told he would not live beyond 26 years, Baba Abidoye has every reason to be thankful to God. He is now 100 years plus. Although this was common with ‘Aladura’ church members of old, these days, it is a feat.  “God is the one that gives long life. I am still alive through His grace”, the spiritual head had said in an interview.

That grace of God has not only seen him through to old age, it has always been manifesting in major trajectories in his life. About 1922, when he was born, there was nothing like Christianity in his town, Omu-Aran, in Kwara State, where he started his primary education at the Native Administration Primary School. Indeed, it was not until 1929 that Christian Missionary Society (CMS) got there and he joined. In 1936, he was baptised. That same year, Prophet Ayo Babalola, founder of the Christ Apostolic Church, visited Omu-Aran in the rainy season and it was raining heavily. Babalola reportedly prayed and the rain stopped. This confounded the teachers who there and then decided to allow the pupils to choose whatever denomination they wanted to belong to. That was how Abidoye opted to become a member of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, at that time apparently unaware of the consequence of that singular decision.

Today, that young man who became a Christian by default is the fifth spiritual father/chairman, Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church Worldwide. It was, apparently the fulfillment of a dream he had in 1937, when he had told someone in the dream that he wanted to become the head of a church, in response to that person’s question of what he wanted to be in life. His response was amazing because, coming from the Odetulu Abegunle Royal Family of Omu-Aran, he should have wished to mount the throne in the town, someday.

Becoming Baba Aladura came as a surprise to him because of what he called his radicalism. As he noted, “Well, I was worried at the beginning. First of all, I never imagined that I could become the spiritual father (Baba Aladura) because I was a bit radical. I have written five books on the church. In one of them, After Moses Orimolade—What next?, I criticised some of the church’s doctrines like the problem of not wearing shoes in cold countries like Europe where I stayed for so long; among others.”

That he has been able to lead the church successfully in the last 16 years further testifies to his divine mandate. It is not easy to run an organisation. Not in the least one as complex as a church, with all the centrifugal and centripetal tendencies.

I first came in contact with the Baba Aladura in June, 2013, during the inauguration and enthronement of CSMC, 84, Old Otta Road as Emmanuel District. As chairman, publicity secretary of the ceremony, my main responsibility was to take him to three major newspapers — The Nation, The Punch and The Guardian. We were able to make it to only two. We could not make it to The Guardian because of time constraints, and also the stress, especially for Baba Abidoye.

That was some nine years before.

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What struck me during the visits to the two newspapers were his alertness and the relative ease with which he responded to questions during the press briefings, despite his advanced age.

The success of this assignment apparently informed my second close contact with him. That was in December 2017 or so, when he requested to see me. Venue was the Lagos Airport Hotel on Obafemi Awolowo Way in Ikeja, Lagos, where our links person, Most Senior Apostle Abiodun Akinbusuyi, then of Lagos Television, and about two other very senior members of the church, including Special Apostle S. A. Dansu, led me into his chalet. The day’s experience was instructive. It laid bare one of the main challenges the CSMC is facing today.

I am here talking about the liberalisation of spiritual titles.

I met a multitude waiting to see the Baba Aladura, including some of them with the very high titles in the church. I could read their minds: “who is this small man that they are clearing the way for to see Baba when we have been here for so long without seeing him”? But, the truth is that Baba Abidoye could not have seen many not to talk of all of them, not out of contempt but because it was not humanly possible.

It immediately dawned on me that this was one of the fallouts of the liberalisation of spiritual titles in the church. This would not have been so in the days of yore, when the top-ranking titles in the Movement were few and far between. Then, a Most Senior Apostle was so seen and respected anywhere in the church, whether in Nigeria or overseas. These days, I hear some churches discriminate regarding which title holders to accept as ‘bonafide’ holders of whatever titles they parade, and which not to honour.

It is unfortunate that a thing that the Baba Aladura devised as a means of raising money for the church has turned out to produce these apparently unintended consequences. The good news is that the church itself appears sufficiently worried about this phenomenon, and I hear it is looking in the direction of solutions to it.

The point must be made though that what is lacking, that is driving this attitude is that the people are yet to be ‘hit’ by The Word, as Bishop David Oyedepo always says. They will always do the right thing without expecting titles when they are so ‘hit’ and the CSMC will never know lack. This is one of the secrets of the prosperity in the Pentecostal churches that are about the richest in the country today.

Be that as it may, only about six of us entered the bedroom with Baba Abidoye — Akinbusuyi, Dansu, and may be one or two other persons. I must confess that, despite the fact that I was not taken unawares, declining the offer to become Baba Aladura’s Media Adviser was not particularly easy. I immediately prostrated, appreciated him for the confidence reposed in me but regrettably, told him I could not take the job. There was no point taking an assignment I would not be able to cope with.

After explaining to him the reason, Baba Abidoye asked me to sit down on the bed with him. He then told me aspects of his life story; his days at Nigeria Railways, sojourn abroad and how he became Baba Aladura (a thing he least expected), and all that, apparently to convince me that some things happen, even if one does not like them. I however told him to always count on me if he had any assignment that he would want me to carry out for him relating to my job.

It was the lawyer in Baba Abidoye that was talking. I could feel his warmth; his liberal-mindedness was equally palpable. He was not annoyed with my refusal to accept his offer. Some people would feel offended.

So, if the church has witnessed the kind of phenomenal progress it has since his assumption of office in 2006, this liberal approach to issues must be one of the reasons. When he came on board, he conceived the idea of ‘Project Hephzibah’, which has remained like a blueprint of his programme for the development of the church. He brought in a group of young and vibrant men to help bring this into fruition. To the glory of God, the project has achieved significant successes, visible in several aspects of the church.

Baba Abidoye’s tenure has changed the face of the prophetic ministry in the church. Without doubt, the activities of prophets dominated every other thing at Kaduna. His tenure has also seen to the ordination of pastors in CSMC. Until now, only prophets were in charge. This is with a view to giving the congregation a deeper knowledge of the scripture. It is expected that the ensuing division of labour between pastors and prophets would yield good dividend for the church and members at large. People not only need to rely on prophecies and predictions alone, they should also know enough about The Word. It is also significant that when the Baba Aladura was installed in 2006, there were 47 districts. But as at last year, the church had expanded; it had 96 districts and 31 model parishes.

His exploits at Orile-Igbon which has since 2018 become the International Headquarters of the church has not only given the sleepy town some spiritual significance, they have also transformed the socio-economic lives of the people as a result of the many of the church’s activities that are held there from time to time.

All said, this is not necessarily about celebrating the Baba Aladura’s achievements in the church but essentially to congratulate and wish him more successes for as long as it pleases God to keep him in that enviable position.

But for the urgency demanded by the Owo massacre of June 5, and the June 8 All Progressives Congress’s (APC) presidential primary which held the nation spell-bound because of the preceding intrigues; this piece ought to have been published two Sundays ago. The headline tells it all: ”Teenager brutally murders mother and child in Adamawa”.  Some newspapers added the rider that the teenager killed the two after a failed attempt to rape the woman!

According to the Adamawa State Police Public Relations Officer, Sulaiman Nguroje, the suspect attacked the victim by the riverside, where she went to take her bath alongside her child. ”The Adamawa State Police Command on June 6, 2022, apprehended an 18-year-old suspect for the brutal murder of one Talatu Usman, 36, and her one-year-old child, in Lamurde Local Government Area”, Nguroje said.

He added that the suspect (Volamu Kalbes), overpowered the suspect and pressed her down into the water when she resisted being raped. The woman eventually died. This, ordinarily, should have scared the suspect out of his blind ambition. But no. Like someone possessed, he also went for the victim’s one-year-old baby who was now crying uncontrollably on the river bank, and pressed him into the water until he too died.

Newspaper reports did not give further details. For instance, we were not told how the failed rape attempt leaked, leading to the suspect’s arrest. Did the suspect report himself after committing the crimes? Did he leave clues that eventually gave him up? It would have been interesting to know how the husband and father, respectively, of the victims, got wind of what happened.  Nguroje simply said that “… the suspect was arrested by the command operatives attached to Lamurde divisional police headquarters, following a report received by the victim’s husband, Alh. Usman Abdul, who is distraught over the loss of his wife and child.”

We must be sufficiently alarmed that an 18-year-old who ordinarily should be in school is already obsessed with sex such that he would not even mind becoming a serial killer in the course of meeting his sexual desire. Apparently the suspect killed his victims to conceal his crimes. Apparently, too, as in such rape cases, he must be well known to them, particularly the mother. But why would he also kill a year-old baby? The same guilty conscience that that one too could spill the beans?

But this incident is not only about the real savage story of some of our youths today; it is not only about the influence of all manner of drugs, including aphrodisiacs that they have cheap access to; or wrong peer influence alone, it is also about the primitive living conditions prevalent in several parts of the country, particularly the rural areas. The victims would not have had cause to go to the river to have their bath if they had access to water, even if well water, at home. But in many of our rural areas, the rivers that people get water from are usually lonely, making those who go there, particularly women and children vulnerable to all kinds of dangers, especially these days when the nation has lost its innocence. This was the fate suffered by Talatu and her baby: they must have been shouting when the man was pressing them down the river but due to the loneliness of the place, no one came to their rescue. The young man must have been monitoring the movements around the river to know when best to carry out his lustful desire. Whether he specifically had the victim in mind or she just happened to have come handy at the time is a thing the police should also be interested in. But governments must work on provision of water in all the nooks and crannies of the country, or at least ensure that there is enough security, to reduce, if not eradicate the kind of fate that befell these hapless victims.

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Perhaps there would not have been much cause for alarm if this was an isolated incident. But it is not. Nigerians are daily inundated with reports of teenagers getting involved in all manner of crimes as if such crimes are going to get out of fashion anytime soon.

On January 29, this year, two teenage boys – Wariz Oladehinde (17), Abdulgafar (19) and Lukman Mustakeem (20) — were caught in the Oke Aregba area of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, burning the head of the girlfriend of one of them, Rofiat, in a pot. The suspects reportedly confessed that the ritual crime was for the purpose of making money.

Then, on March 5, the Kano State Police Command arrested an 18-year old boy, Abdullahi Suleiman, along with a 17-year-old accomplice, Muazzam Lawan, for the alleged murder of a housewife, Rukayya Jamily, aged 21 years. The suspect had entered the deceased’s house at about 4pm on February 12, 2022, met her on her bed and took possession of three mobile phones she had with her. As is usual about such crimes, Suleiman was said to have repeatedly hit her on the head with a wooden pestle to prevent her telling the story, apparently because she knew him. Suleiman also killed the woman’s two children before fleeing the scene. If the woman was 21, we can imagine the ages of the two children that were also killed to conceal the crime.

Again, on April 14, Amotekun personnel in Ondo State apprehended three juveniles, Timilehin Femi (12), Ojo Sunday (16) and Odeyemi Ayodele (20) who allegedly specialised in armed robbery, at Ijare in Ifedore Local Government Area of the state. Guess who their models were? Three of the most notorious armed robbers known in Nigerian history: Anini, Oyenusi and Osumbor, whose names they had adopted as nicknames! Some heroes!

As if these were not enough, three boys between the ages of 14 and 15 who were caught some time ago roaming the  streets in Benin, the Edo State capital, said they were from Delta State and that they were in Benin to scout for opportunities to engage in Yahoo-Yahoo in order to make money. Of course still fresh in our minds is the story of the Chrisland school children caught for immoral sexual acts in faraway Dubai, where they had gone to participate in a sports event. We have numerous other obscene scenes in the social media, of various school children engaging in all manner of seductive dances and other salacious activities.

If we say the urge for quick money is the reason why some of our youths today engage in ritual killing, Yahoo-Yahoo, kidnapping and other social vices, what would we adduce as reason for teenagers engaging in rape? What kind of sexual urge would make an 18-year-old to kill mother and baby? If we say the boy killed the mother apparently because she could identify him and eventually spill the beans, why kill her one-year-old baby? Talk of the guilty being afraid? It is simply crazy and incredible.

But, what exactly is the world turning into? This is the question that comes into mind reading these obviously bizarre stories. Imagine an adolescent who is so sex-starved that he did not mind taking two lives, even when it was obvious he was on an impossible mission. Now, not only has his mission failed, he is likely to be arraigned for attempted rape and alleged murder of two persons. The consequence is huge, considering especially the murder angle. The question now is whether the urge for sexual satisfaction is worth such a weighty consequence even if he had had his way. The same way we can ask whether the lust for money that made others engage in ritual killings is worth the trouble. Ditto those who were caught for engaging in Yahoo-Yahoo, etc.

What these stories tell us is that the value system in the country has collapsed. There is nothing that is held sacrosanct anymore. Gone were those days when people valued good names more than riches. Gone were those days when people remembered the homes from where they came. Gone were those days when Nigerians were their brother’s keeper. All of these have gone to the dogs. All of these explain why the country itself is perpetually on tenterhooks.

The irony is that we are all to blame; from the parents to the religious leaders and traditional rulers, and ultimately the political leaders. Yet, we are all likely to point accusing fingers at the government. But ”charity”, as they say, ”begins at home”. That being so, a child begins its first lessons right from the home, before going to school where peer and other influences take over. This is where the religious leaders and traditional rulers and ultimately the larger society take over. Everybody needs to wake up if we are to reverse the trend, and if Nigeria is to make any headway among the comity of nations.

Although nothing can bring back the lives already snuffed out by these heartless fellows, the least the society owes the dead and their relations is for the police to do diligent investigation of the cases and others with a view to getting the suspects prosecuted and those found guilty jailed for their atrocities.

Worshippers attacked at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, Owo, headquarters of Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State, left their various homes for the church last week Sunday, oblivious of the danger that lurked in their cathedral. They never knew that would be the last service many of them would be having in the church. They had hoped to celebrate the Sunday, like any other Sunday, to pray, sing and dance to the Almighty God for sparing their lives to witness this year’s Pentecost Day. Unknown to them, there were other people who had come around with the sinister motive to maim, to steal, to kill and to destroy.

And, just as the service was about ending, some gunmen reportedly attacked the church in what would seem to suggest that some of them were among the congregation and were passing valuable information across to their fellow terrorists outside, who eventually launched the attack on the hapless worshippers. By the time they were through with their dastardly mission, no fewer than 38 people (as at the time of going to press), mostly children and women, were killed by the gunmen, who were said to have thrown an improvised explosive device before they started shooting sporadically. Several others were injured and were rushed to hospitals nearby. A 37-second online video showed some of the slain worshippers in a pool of blood.

The attack was apparently a reprisal of sort, against the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, for his hard stance on herdsmen of whatever extraction. Owo, the governor’s hometown, was chosen to make a point: that the herdsmen would never accept to be the ones to cry last in any situation. But Governor Akeredolu should have no apologies over that patriotic act to save his people from marauding criminals parading themselves as herdsmen. Indeed, if anything, he should resolve the more to ensure that the criminals are contained so that farmers could farm without fear of attacks by the bandits. And, if the truth must be told, this needless bloodletting can only continue to paint the Fulani as ruthless, crude and primitive; a claim which may not be true because many of them are also genuine herders who have no link with the criminality the ethnic stock is being tainted with. Unfortunately, since only one bad egg would pollute several others if mixed together, more people across the country would continue to resent the Fulani with a passion, with nary willing to accommodate them, as a result of these animalistic tendencies on the part of some of them.

For Christian leaders in the country, the Owo incident should be a reminder to set their altars aglow again. The fact of the matter is that many church altars are cold these days; the sacred places having been overtaken by mercantilist tendencies. Jesus Christ did not drive those trading in the church out for nothing. He indeed wondered why his father’s house should be converted to a den of robbers. If Christ were to be physically present today, he would have had cause to repeat the incident over and again, as many churches are now glorified public liability companies. So, instead of winning souls for Christ, they are reaping profits and the church leaders are smiling to the bank daily. Please let no one get me wrong. I am not talking about the Catholic Church in Owo; I am talking about churches in the country generally. In 2020 at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I did say this much.

Church leaders have to wake up to their true calling. In a country where there are churches and mosques in every nook and cranny, this kind of calamity should not be recurring if the true purpose for establishing those worship centres is to edify God almighty. I heard people who believe in the traditional religion recalling with nostalgia, how, in those days our fathers in Owo would have ensured that those who committed such atrocity were brought back with ‘Juju’ to come and account for their actions. The regret of people in this school is that we have abandoned those things and, in their stead, we have embraced Islam and Christianity adding that this is why the hoodlums could get away with the kind of heinous crimes they committed. If the traditional people are recalling the exploits of their fathers with such nostalgia, those of us who are Christians and even true Muslims should be able to boast far beyond this about the God that we serve. Bandits should not be able to move freely in and out of churches after murdering Christians in cold blood.

However, in addition to prayer and fasting, churches and mosques also need to be more vigilant. The criminals that attacked St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church were said to have first disguised like worshippers who came for the Sunday mass, only to show their true colour after gaining entrance into the church premises. Those coming for service or jumaat must be thoroughly screened to ascertain their mission. Even the Holy Bible enjoins Christians to watch and pray; not just pray alone. As a matter of fact, watch comes before prayer. This is important.

More important, it is high time the government took security matters more seriously. The terrorists who invaded the church in Owo took advantage of our cavalier approach to security matters. They know that we usually react after the fact; we shut the barn door after the horse has bolted. The lax security manifests in several ways, including how our policemen position themselves at checkpoints and even in their stations. The expected alertness is hardly there. Their vulnerability is very glaring. At checkpoints, their attention is focused more on what motorists drop as bribe, with many of them taking mental record of proceedings at that end rather than concentrating on what is happening in their immediate environment. That explains why they are often caught napping by criminals who are usually alert and more business-like. It is probably the reason the bandits were able to wreak so much havoc in Owo as elsewhere that they had left their usual trail of blood and death.

In a country that is security conscious, at least some of the criminals would have been arrested or gunned down. It is not too late to go after them. This was an incident that happened in what could pass for the heart of the city, a place less than 200 metres from the palace of the Olowo of Owo. It happened in broad daylight, at about 12pm. If we were unable to apprehend just one of the bandits in these circumstances, what would have happened if the attack was in some remote part of the state, or if it took place in the night?

Perhaps the real reason the government has to rise to the challenge is because it is getting close to a situation where the people would lose faith in the ability of the state to protect them. When it gets to that, it would be a clarion call to all to protect themselves. After all, no ethnic or religious group has a monopoly of violence. It is most unfair for people who expended huge resources on themselves and their children to be murdered by people who see themselves as hopeless and the wretched-of-the- earth who have nothing at stake in Project Nigeria. These senseless killings are becoming too much for a section of the country to continue paying for the country’s unity.

It has often been argued that provision of security is the primary responsibility of government. Even then, it is a collective responsibility. The bandits, terrorists and other criminals live in the midst of people in their respective communities. They are some people’s relatives. We have to pay more attention to what is happening around us and report suspicious movements and activities to security agencies that should also take such reports seriously, no matter how frivolous they may seem.

President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned and even cursed the bandits. But that is not enough. He should follow his promise that “No matter what, this country shall never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never overcome light. Nigeria will eventually win” with concrete action. And, one way to do this is to begin to think of state police. Although Amotekun is in Ondo State as in some other parts of the south west, it could not rise to the occasion in this instance. In the meantime, that is, pending when the idea of state police would gain root, Amotekun and other regional security outfits should be well funded and equipped to enable them cope with the ever-increasing security challenges confronting their regions.

With effect from June 1, commercial motorcyclists popularly known as ‘okada’ will no longer be allowed to operate in six local government and local council development areas of Lagos State. It was obvious that it would one day get to this. It seemed the riders have now stolen so much for the owner to notice. They have no regard for anyone. They want to operate without being checked. They ride against traffic. It is abomination for them to obey traffic lights. Many of them, I am sure have never seen a copy of the Highway Code, not to talk of understand its contents. Above all, they are quick to organise and pounce on other road users at any given time whenever they have issues with them. It is immaterial whether they are right or wrong. As a matter of fact, they are always right. Even if they are wrong, they are right. They vent their spleen on anyone at sight. It is as if it is other road users that are responsible for whatever they consider to be their miserable plight. As if others too do not have their own grievances against our wobbling system.

For the ‘okada’ riders, the day of reckoning came on May 12 in the Admiralty area of Lekki, Lagos, when some of them descended on David Sunday, a sound engineer. Actually, it was Sunday’s colleagues, Frank, a saxophonist, and Philip, a keyboardist, who boarded an ‘okada’ to the venue where Sunday was setting up for a show, that had an issue with the rider over N100. The argument degenerated into a fight and other ‘okada’ riders joined the fray in support of their colleague. The ensuing melee alerted Sunday who rushed to the scene and the riders pounced on him, gave him a thorough beating until he fell down, motionless. He was then doused with petrol and set ablaze.

Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed that “The incident was over N100. So, it degenerated into a fight and the motorcyclists ganged up against the person that was killed and burnt. On the day the incident happened, we arrested four persons that were positively identified by people living in the area.”

This would look like a scene from a movie; but it was for real. As a matter of fact, even those people living in the area would still be wondering whether what they saw was for real. Sunday and his friends too would be imagining whether they were dreaming when Sunday was being brutalized. But that is the way many  ‘okada’ riders behave in Lagos. They have become law unto themselves. They consider an attack against one of them as an attack on all and they unite to assault whoever is having issues with their colleague. But setting someone with whom you have a minor argument ablaze would seem an imported culture to Lagos and a new low.

Indeed, anybody who read the story or watched the video recording of the mob action against Sunday and his colleagues (that were later rushed to hospital over injuries they sustained during the fight) would agree that this new low was definitely one too many. It must not be allowed to become the new norm in cosmopolitan Lagos. It seemed the Lagos State government felt that much, too.

Hence, barely six days after the gruesome murder, precisely on May 18, the state government responded by placing a fresh ban on ‘okada’, this time on the six LGAs and LCDAs, namely: Ikeja, Surulere, Eti-Osa, Lagos Mainland, Lagos Island and Apapa. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu who announced the ban said  “After a critical review of our restriction on ‘okada’ activities in the first six LGAs where we restricted them on February 1, 2020, we have seen that the menace has not abated. We are now directing a total ban on ‘okada’ activities across the highways and bridges within these six local government and their local council development areas, effective from June 1, 2022.”

Perhaps the state government is just doing what should have been done before: a phased ban on the activities of these hoodlums masquerading as commercial motorcyclists. Sanwo-Olu added: “This is a phased ban we are embarking on this period, and we expect that within the short while when this ban will be enforced, ‘okada’ riders in other places where their activities are yet to be banned can find something else to do.” For me, the most painful thing about these criminals is that most of them came to Lagos from far-flung places where their state governments have abandoned governance, making their people to leave in droves in search of greener pastures in Lagos. There is no problem with this. But at least they should learn to comport themselves in a civilised manner even if they are doing a not-too-civilised vocation. As a matter of fact, many of them came from places where their state governments have banned ‘okada’; they did not protest there. They did not ask their governments why they should not be sending people to untimely graves or render them invalid through the careless manner they ride their motorcycles. They just looked for the next available means of getting to Lagos where they hope to continue their business dangerously without consideration for other road users.

I always mention the experience with a governor of a south-south state that a colleague and myself went to interview some years ago when writing about ‘okada’ riders. In the course of the interview, the governor told us how he just woke up one day and decided that enough was enough with the riders in the state capital. All he did was to give them a deadline which expired on December 31 of that year, within what could be considered a short notice. The order was unambiguous: he said he did not want to see any ‘okada’ in the state capital from January 1 of the following year. He said he himself was not sure the ban would be effective but that on the January 1 that the order took effect, he decided to drive round the city himself. No escort, no driver. Just himself, his aide de camp and may be one or two of his children. He was surprised that the clampdown was effective; the ‘okada’ riders simply evaporated into thin air. And that was it. Easy does it!

By the following week, the operators in the state capital simply migrated to a neighbouring southeastern state where they also became their usual menace. Several other states, including northern states, have also banned ‘okada’ for security reasons and heaven did not fall. All these people simply shifted base to Lagos and again, soon became a nuisance to Lagosians.

It was in order to curtail their excesses that the Babatunde Raji Fashola administration in Lagos decided to restrict their operations to certain parts of the state. In line with common sense, they were not to be seen on highways and expressways in the state. But because it is their usual mannerism to be lawless, they soon abused the state government’s magnanimity, plying places they were not supposed to ply, thus leading to a showdown with the no-nonsense Fashola administration which strengthened the state’s road traffic law to contain their menace and also whip other recalcitrant motorists into line on Lagos roads. By and large, that administration was able to contain the excesses of the ‘okada’ riders through an unrelenting enforcement of the traffic laws, and at least sanity prevailed. The heat turned on them in Lagos made many of them to shift base from Lagos to neighbouring Ogun State.

However, all the gains of that era were eroded by the time the Akinwunmi Ambode government that succeeded Fashola took over. Because of that government’s permissiveness, obviously for political gains, ‘okada’ riders returned to Lagos roads with full force. Not that they completely disappeared at any time before; but they were at least conscious of the zero-tolerance the Fashola administration had for their excesses.

It was this mess that the incumbent Sanwo-Olu government which also succeeded the Ambode government inherited in 2019. The government had made some attempts to remove the ‘okada’ riders from areas where they were not supposed to ply, to no avail. Enforcement of the law has been somewhat ineffectual. As a matter of fact, the riders became more daring in breaking all known laws. They hijacked the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor meant only for BRT buses. On the ever-busy Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway and other highways, they ride against traffic so as to make it difficult for task force men to arrest them, putting their lives and those of their passengers and other road users in danger. It got to a point when Lagosians were asking aloud if the state government had capitulated to the ‘okada’ operators. The answer to that question, which seems a capital no, came on May 18 with the fresh ban in the six LGAs.

It is only unfortunate that it took someone’s life for that tough stance to come. But it is still better late than never. No government properly so-called would close its eyes and allow a band of lawless individuals seize power from it the way ‘okada’ riders want to do in Lagos as in other places where they are being barely tolerated. They were on the verge of making the state a jungle where brutality and disregard for the sanctity of human lives reign supreme. If not, how can human beings, with blood flowing in their veins, beat another human being to a pulp over N100 and thereafter set the person ablaze? Those who did that are brutes in human skin and they should be so treated, irrespective of where they came from. They are not fit to live in any decent society.

The Lagos State government should not take this matter lightly. The point must be well made that no one has a right to take another person’s life, not to talk of setting the person ablaze. What point are such criminals trying to make? The other day, some people descended on a lady in Sokoto over what they called blasphemy and not only killed her but also set her ablaze. It’s high time the governments concerned took drastic measures against such murderers because that is what they are, before setting people ablaze also becomes a new normal in the country. Ignorance is no excuse in law.

At any rate, nobody needs anyone to tell him or her that it is bad to kill a fellow human being for whatever reason. That is why we have government and the law. An aggrieved person should go to court rather than dispense jungle justice unilaterally.

Even if we must admit that failure of governance over the years at all levels gave birth to ‘okada’, that cannot be a reason to let hoodlums set new low standards for us. They must never be allowed to entrench jungle justice as a way of life for us. While we agree that some places are better blessed than others, there is no doubt that the country would be a far better place for all if most other Nigerians insist on good governance in their own states rather than fleeing to Lagos to insist on having what they could not force their home governments to do.

Meanwhile, however, the Lagos State government should expedite action on its multi-modal transportation programmes. It is a sure way to drastically reduce ‘okada’ presence in the state. There is no civilised country where ‘okada’ is celebrated as a commercial means of transportation. It should not be celebrated as indispensable in Lagos.

All said, there must be justice for Sunday. It is only by visiting those who commit such grievous crimes with the appropriate punishment that the appropriate lesson can be taught and learnt, that no one has the right to visit jungle justice on another. This ban must not go the way of previous ones. It must be systematically enforced.

Last week alone, at least two personalities in the country were arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over suspected frauds involving about N127billion. This, by whatever standard is a lot of money, and to think that such is suspected to have been stolen or misappropriated by just two persons is mind-boggling. But such is the case of frauds in the country. Our big people no longer find it fashionable to steal in millions. The fad now is stealing, not just in billions, but staggering billions, such that one begins to wonder whether stealing is going out of fashion; hence the need to quickly mop up whatever is available before it is exhausted. Or whether they would need whatever they stole for their upkeep in the life hereafter.

No one could have missed the news: ‘’EFCC arrests Accountant-General over N80bn suspected fraud’’. It was not palatable news, especially coming on a Monday, when many people were still wondering what ministers who had attended their valedictory session with the president after obtaining party nomination forms for various offices were still doing on their seats. But, talking about palatable news, when last did we hear one from Nigeria? Indeed, it would seem the question of whether anything good can still come out of Nigeria is perhaps more apt than something good coming from Nazareth. Just that those of us who are Christians have to keep hope alive.

Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC’s spokesman, claimed that: “Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, May 16, 2022, arrested serving Accountant -General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, in connection with diversion of funds and money laundering activities to the tune of N80 billion. The commission’s verified intelligence showed that the AGF raked off the funds through bogus consultancies and other illegal activities using proxies, family members and close associates. The funds were laundered through real estate investments in Kano and Abuja.’’ The accountant-general worsened his case with his alleged failure to honour invitations by the commission.

The second person in the EFCC net is the former Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nsima Ekere. We were yet to fully digest the alleged N80billion fraud by the accountant-general when that of Ekere also broke. According to Channels Television, Ekere was arrested over alleged diversion of about N47 billion through registered contractors of the agency. Ekere is not just the former NDDC boss; he was also the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Akwa Ibom State  candidate for the 2019 governorship election. In case we have forgotten, the NDDC has not been significantly different from its predecessors: it is also a cesspit of corruption.

Read Also: From grace to grass… AGF Idris’ alleged N80bn fraud

Remember, in July 2020, the acting Managing Director of the commission, Prof Kemebradikumo Pondei, collapsed at the Conference Room 231 of the House, during a House of Representatives Committee hearing, while he was being grilled by lawmakers investigating mismanagement of funds to the tune of N81.5 billion in the NDDC. The incident led to a brief suspension of the hearing as the acting managing director was rushed out of the hall. In the NDDC, people talk of billions!

It is good that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has promptly suspended, Mr. Idris, to allow unfettered investigations into the alleged fraud.

Although the two cases are still in the realm of allegations, and, in the eye of our judicial system, an accused is adjudged innocent until he or she is pronounced guilty by a competent court of law, the fact is that the amounts in question are too staggering to ignore. That such fraudulent activities are still possible more than seven years into the eight-year tenure of an administration that rode into power on the change mantra and zero tolerance for corruption, is indication that the anti-corruption war has achieved far less than proportionate returns. And the reason for this is simple: whatever the administration gains with the right hand, it throws away with the left. Public servants and politically exposed persons would have learnt big lessons if the war has had any serious bite in the system.

Even if we agree that what the government deems to be corruption is stealing, as in brazing pilfering of national resources, particularly money, that aspect of the success of the war has been tainted by the presidential pardon granted former Governors Joshua Dariye of Plateau State and Jolly Nyame of Taraba State, who were convicted for stealing resources belonging to their state governments and were only a few years into their jail terms when the pardon came. Apparently, it did not occur to President Buhari that that pardon in itself was an act of corruption. Or, maybe he just could not care. Whichever, it is pertinent to point out that no one can win corruption war with this kind of system. Political thieves can only determine to steal enough, knowing full well that after a few years into their jail terms, they would be left off the hook to steal again, if given the opportunity.

We may be tempted to argue that, at least, the suspects and the thieves are being arrested and perhaps being prosecuted these days more than ever before. This may be true. But then, that is only for those that have been discovered. We do not know how many billions have been stolen undetected, and which may never be discovered because of the imperfections in the system. This is where the problem lies. Unfortunately, every kobo that is stolen has implications for provision of good roads, education, healthcare, housing, taxes, etc.  So, the goal should not necessarily be about catching thieves after the act. It should be about strengthening the processes such that humongous stealing would be nigh impossible if not eliminated.

Without prejudice to whether the two men are guilty or not, we need to look seriously into our system which allows people such unfettered access to our purse and enable those in charge to bolt away with huge sums of money before we shut the barn door. Something is definitely wrong with our accounting processes. There is no system that is theft-proof though; but in many other places, hardly could public funds be stolen so brazenly because of the control measures in place. Even when such frauds occur, it does not take long for the system to detect and ensure that offenders are promptly punished.

It would appear that there is such massive stealing, especially at the centre, because the place is awash with so much idle cash which the system does not have a strong mechanism to track. This is one point that many of those clamouring for federalism hardly remember to advance to buttress their point. Those who are stealing the funds are very much aware of this and are taking full advantage of it. We often hear of ministries or other public agencies that should render their accounts annually not having those accounts audited for years. This is not just about incompetence on the part of the government auditors (even if the possibility of this is there), but more about inadequate personnel, funds and modern tools to facilitate the process of checks and balances. Whether this is deliberate or just part of our ways as a people I do not know. The lopsided revenue formula that put so much money at the centre was bequeathed to us by the military in their bid to impose a unitary system that is not working on us. We have got to the stage where the central government has to shed weight financially. It is carrying responsibilities, some of which are supposed to be carried by the states and local governments. This is the excuse for its retaining a lion’s share of the country’s revenue.

It is disheartening stories such as these that strengthen the hands of people like the university lecturers who are asking for better deal from the government, as well as asking the government to make the citadels of learning more conducive. If there is insufficient cash in its hands, or barely enough cash, the government would be able to keep track of its income and expenditure profiles and even ensure that we get value for every kobo spent.

We can say the cases of Idris and Ekere are yet to be proved in court, but what of the several others who had been caught with various staggering sums stolen from the nation’s coffers? Just a fraction of public funds in private hands would go a long way in making life more meaningful in our universities. Indeed, our lives would no longer be the same as Nigerians if some of these amounts are spent to better our lot.