Category: Tunji Adegboyega

Tunji Adegboyega

It is true that some of the #EndSARS protesters’ demands require time to meet, there are others that can be met immediately, if only to show genuine concern and identification with the protesters’ demands, beyond the usual political rhetoric. We have not forgotten that the protests were only sparked by brutality of some officers and men of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS); there are also demands concerning good governance. For me, again, this is the crux of the matter. It was the reason I did not comment on police brutality last week. It is for the same reason that I am still holding back on the matter this week. Police and policing is not perishable; that is to say, it will remain topical one way or the other, anytime.

There won’t be police brutality on the scale we have in the country today in an atmosphere of good governance because abuses would be punished immediately they occur. Many of the state governments that are now moving swiftly to set up judicial panels on SARS brutality would have been doing that a long time ago if the good governance mantra had been our philosophy. Many other things that are wrong would not have been so if the country had been well governed. The outrageous pay of National Assembly members is a symptom of bad governance which ought to have incensed Labour because it is simply inhuman. The same is Labour’s incessant quest for pay rise; the worthlessness of the N30,000 minimum wage (which is even yet to be paid in some states) that is now worth only a bag of rice, is a function of bad governance! Yet, our minimum wage would not be this worthless if Labour had played its role well in the past.

The lacuna created by the absence of a vibrant opposition, either by way of political parties, or civil society organisations is what is responsible for the impunity of the ruling elite, including and not limited to the outrageous pay that our national law makers award themselves. It is like it is only one civil society group that is taking them to task. This is much unlike what happened in the military era, when we had vibrant civil society organisations taking on the military then. Many of us who fought the good fight to secure democracy from the soldiers simply withdrew thereafter, leaving the political space in the hands of all manner of people, and the result is the bad governance that has continued to define our nation for decades.

Lest we forget, the #EndSARS protesters had hinted that the next phase of their struggle would be the National Assembly where the law makers pay themselves monthly, outrageous and insensitive monies that have no bearing with the hardship in the land. The protesters have not said anything new by hinting that their next focus would be the National Assembly. Many of us have been telling the law makers that their pay is unsustainable in a country which is the poverty capital of the world. Even in very prosperous countries, they don’t pay their law makers that much. British parliamentarians take public train; they live in modest apartments. The same applies to American legislators. Those who made laws for us in the First and Second republics did so fantastically without tearing our pockets. Today, our National Assembly members want some of the best exotic cars, they want luxury apartments, ungodly pay and what have you, all paid for by poverty-stricken Nigerians who elected them.

The National Assembly has thus become a thriving industry producing nothing in particular. Yet, it is a fertile ground, so fertile that many of our governors look forward to having their quiet retirement there; some after serving two terms, and after awarding themselves unconscionable retirement benefits which they pay themselves promptly, while subjecting those who toiled for 30 years or more in the civil service to verification exercises without end, before they can get their own stipends called pensions. Everybody that already has still wants to partake of the free funds in the National Assembly.

It is such an intriguing place to be that even many of our hitherto respected professionals – engineers, medical doctors, lawyers, etc. who have been there easily forget where they are coming from, or what they spent years in the university to study; they want to be referred to as ‘honourable senators’! The kind of rent they get in the place is what is responsible for the do-or-die battle to make it to the National Assembly, and not necessarily the eagerness to serve the people.

I have to return to this matter because I have heard the National Assembly’s leadership speak severally since the #EndSARS protest started but they hardly mention good governance, in spite of the fact that this is one of the essential demands of the youths. They (National Assembly leaders) have always been suing for calm and that government has started to attend to police reforms. Whereas the youths have already given notice that their next port of call is the National Assembly. The law makers do not have to wait till another round of agitations begins on the matter before running helter-skelter to shed this inhuman weight. It is a variant of corruption which can be stopped immediately where the law makers are sincere about the need for reforms, which are better when they come from above. Perhaps our law makers can be given till the end of the year to enjoy the honeymoon. They should be given time to prepare for lawmaking only on terms and conditions prescribed by the appropriate commission; the days of barefaced rip-off are numbered.

And, as if to further rub the impunity in, the legislators are seeking immunity for their leaders. They do not seem to know that Nigerians only grudgingly allowed this even for the President, Vice President, governors and their deputies that presently enjoy it. Where else do legislators’ leaders enjoy immunity from prosecution? The immunity they have on the floor of their chambers is enough. Whoever is not satisfied with this should go back home. I am not aware there is anyone in the National Assembly that their constituency went home to beg to represent them. We are complaining that they are too many and even contemplating a unicameral house, they are busy looking for maximum comfort when those they claim to represent are barely existing.

Those of them who have seen the arithmetic done by the former Governor of Central Bank, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, concerning the number of Nigerian graduates that half of what they take home monthly will transform their lives for better, as well as seen the repercussions of the #EndSARS protests, should by now have announced to Nigerians that they are ready to shed weight, to kickstart the changes that the government said the youths should be expecting. But for the National Assembly’s leaders to be talking about the protests in terms of #EndSARS alone does not show they have learnt any lesson from the protests.

Yet, the protests must have taught us all some lessons – the youths, workers, traders, governments at all levels, and even the so-called hoodlums. I had cause to tell some people who were angry with the protesters for stopping them from going to their places of work that, much as I sympathise with them, the point is that they are lucky to have workplaces to go to. What of these youths that we have asked to go to school and they did, but are still living on their parents five, six years after graduation? Are they not entitled to jobs after paying their dues? I know of a widow with four graduates, all of them jobless. She single-handedly trained some of these children after the demise of her husband. I learnt they are about being ejected from their rented apartment because the shop where the woman used to sell had been destroyed and they cannot afford the rent.

Would anyone now blame such young men and women for barricading roads? It is true that where their own freedom to protest stops, others’ begins. But then, we are all human beings and almost all of us have the tendency to vent our spleen on the wrong persons.

Some of us who own cars (no matter the age of the cars or jalopies) suffer the same fate in the hands of ‘area boys’ who see you as their problem. They resent you on the streets as if you are the one that made them what they are and are ready to take their frustration on you at the slightest opportunity. They do not know you also have your own frustration with the system despite the fact that they think you are comfortable. Maybe you should be on your own fourth or fifth car, given your academic qualifications and attainments, but you are still managing one.

The ‘area boys’ or hoodlums have the same problem with young graduates that they see as some shade better than themselves, just as the latter have contempt for the ‘area boys’ that they also see as lazy or never-do-wells. But it is not all the ‘area boys’ that we see on the streets that ran away from school willingly. Some could not go to school or dropped out because they had no one to sponsor them. Government neither provides scholarship nor bursary again to assist indigent students. These are different from those whose parents were ready to train but deliberately rejected western education.

Yet, the truth of the matter is that all of us are in a mess because of a common problem: bad governance, meaning government is the cause of our various predicaments. Rather than come together to speak with one voice to that challenge, we spend quality time fighting ourselves, thus giving the respective governments the opportunity to continue ruling us according to their whims and caprices. The earlier Nigerians sank their differences, the better for us all.

When I asked those complaining that the protesting youths were disturbing them on their way to work whether it was all of them in their establishments that started together this year that are still there, many of them said no. They said many of them had been sent home in the last few years, not necessarily due to COVID-19 which started only this year, but because of the ever-contracting economy. I told them that only a thin line separated them from their colleagues that had been sacked due to no fault of theirs, and that they should bear with these youths if they too did not want to be jobless sooner than later. We need such protest to wake our sleeping government from its slumber. Surprisingly, some of them saw reason.

The youths too should understand that there are people who cannot afford to stay at home for more than two days, unless they want to starve.

What I am saying is that we must put an end to divide-and-rule tactic if the country is to make progress.

Above all, however, it is our governments that should learn the most profound lessons. A lot of things has gone wrong and must be fixed as early as yesterday. Yet, the Federal Government in particular keeps working as if it has all the time in the world. Rather than prioritise its policies and actions, it keeps jumping about doing a little here and a little there, many of which do not directly touch the lives of the people. If the Buhari government must be told again, the protest was just a mirror from which it should see itself. Its spokespersons should learn to accommodate criticisms. They are too comfortable to feel what the average Nigerian feels. They will do better to listen more, and talk less. And when they talk, they should bear in mind that they are not talking to robots. Even a deaf and dumb government would have realised by now that the land is indeed troubled.

The massive destruction of the last four days is enough indication that Nigeria plays host to too many sad Sams. It tells us that governance mode has to be fine-tuned; that too many Nigerians are hungry and therefore angry. It tells us that, we are indeed on tenterhooks.

 Tunji Adegboyega

Were the Labour leaders blackmailed to suspend the strike they called   to force the government to reverse the increases in fuel pump price and electricity tariffs barely a few hours to its commencement on September 28? Were they persuaded by what the government brought to the table and were therefore led by patriotic instincts to suspend the strike? Or were they induced to do so? We may never know what really happened until sometime in the future. For now, we should work with what we know on the issue.

We know that the Federal Government finally ended the subsidy regime on petroleum products early last month. Almost simultaneously, it also gave its nod to the upward review of electricity tariffs. Like most rational human beings, Nigerians rejected these increases, especially coming at a time many people had been rendered jobless by the economic downturn occasioned by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its attendant lockdown. They wondered why their own government would be asking them to pay more for these essentials of life whereas in some countries governments were taking measures to reduce the pains of the economic downturn  on their citizens.

It was against this backdrop that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) representing organised Labour,  and the civil society organisations teamed up to call for the strike. Labour gave a two-week ultimatum to the Federal Government to revert to the old prices of fuel and power tariffs, or face industrial action. Then the strike was called off in the wee hours of the day it was supposed to start. According to Labour, the suspension was for two weeks, to enable both parties see what progress would have been made within the period on the measures they both agreed on to lessen the burden of the price increases on Nigerians. Labour will then decide whether to begin the strike, this time without notice to the Federal Government. This was after the series of meetings held to resolve the matter, including the one brokered by the governors, were deadlocked.

The meeting between the government and Labour resolved that government would suspend the new electricity tariffs for two weeks, in the words of the TUC President, Quadri Olaleye, “in view of the need for the validation of the basis for the new cost-reflective tariff as a result of the conflicting information from the fields which appeared different from the data presented to justify the new policy by NERC; metering deployment, challenges, timeline for massive rollout.” They also agreed on other palliatives. They stressed the need for the urgency of increasing the local refining capacity with a mandate to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to ensure a speedy rehabilitation of the country’s four refineries. A validation team comprising representatives of the NNPC, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, NUPENG and PENGASSAN would be established to monitor and advice on progress of the rehabilitation of the refineries. About 240,000 workers are also to benefit from agricultural aid, with the government also assisting with about 133 buses to ensure that transportation burden is also reduced. As part of the palliatives, low income earners are to be exempted from taxation, among others.

On paper, some of these agreements look good. But, we have always known that in our country, agreements with government are hardly regarded as binding. Even at that, the problem with the country is not about lack of ideas but implementation. Given that some of these agreements are to be implemented in about a year from now, we can, from experience with similar promises by past governments, predict the outcome.

Be that as it may, one or two points should still be noted, especially with the President’s October 1 Independence speech. It is not that there was anything new in it, but the fact that the government keeps saying the same thing at all levels without bothering to examine the other side of the story is annoying. Nigerians are not as brain dead as the government thinks we are, or expects us to be, such that we would be swallowing whatever it says without questioning. As a matter of fact, it unsettles many of us when government continues to compare incomparables. How, for instance, do you single out fuel cost in other countries when comparing the prices in those countries with Nigeria? What of other essential indices? The Federal Government said fuel is costlier in Saudi Arabia than in Nigeria. But how much is minimum wage in that country? In spite of the serial bad governance this country has suffered in the hands of successive governments, I doubt if many Nigerians would be complaining if they earn half of the about $800 (about 300,000) monthly minimum wage the Saudis earn, even if they are asked to pay what the Saudis are paying today. To compare standard of living between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia is akin to comparing death with sleep. Or, if I won’t be accused of extravagant exaggeration, it is analogous to comparing heaven and hell.

The point must be stressed again; the Federal Government cannot continue to award itself pass mark when Nigerians are saying across the country that it has not done well enough. As a matter of fact, it is not in a position to assess itself. Only lizards congratulate themselves when they jump down from a fence or wall and people do not applaud what the lizards see as a feat. It is true we are seeing improvements in railways in the country. Indeed, the government has even taken this to the ridiculous extent  of exporting it to Niger Republic at a humongous cost, a thing many have rightly criticised as misplaced priority, given what the government keeps harping on as the dwindling resources at its disposal.

We are being constantly told statistics of the quantum of rice produced in the country. Again, no doubt some interventions in the agricultural sector, especially by the Central Bank, have led to improvements in several farm produce, but you cannot be celebrating when prices are far above what they were two, three not to talk of five years ago.

President Buhari may have an axe to grind with his predecessors who messed up the country as he rightly observed. But Nigerians can only take ‘judicial notice’ of the evil deeds five years after; nothing more. They expect the President to fix the problem; that was why they rejected the People’s Democratic Party which had been ruling at the centre since the return to civil rule in 1999, thus truncating its dream of ruling the country for at least 60 years as its leading lights had boasted before their defeat at the polls in 2015. Nigerians knew the party was incapable of clearing the mess on ground.

In all honesty, I must confess I was not disappointed with the October 1 speech because I wasn’t expecting much from it. When the president was still telling a foreign president recently that we are having farmers’ herdsmen’s clashes in 2020 because of cattle routes carved out 60 years ago, I knew we still have a long way to go concerning issues, not only of governance, but also of modernity. Where in the progressive world is anybody still talking about cattle routes in the 21st century?

All said, we are already one week into the two weeks that the strike would be put on hold. Given the gargantuan job to be done, it is doubtful if this can be concluded within the time frame, unless they are not looking forward to doing a good job.

But the issue is beyond Labour being represented on the committees or boards (as proposed) to oversee some of these reforms or palliatives. It is about the capacity of the Labour representatives; their sense of responsibility, and, above all, their integrity. This point must be well stressed because those Labour representatives too are not just human beings, they are also Nigerians. So, chances of compromising them are very high.

But, one can only hope the government is not preparing our minds for higher pump price of petrol as obtained in some of our neighbouring countries, (even if the present crude price and exchange rate subsist), the way government keeps saying our fuel is the cheapest as if it is a sin for Nigeria to be the reference point for cheapest fuel prices  among the oil-producing countries due to its efficient running of the sector as well as its zero-tolerance for corruption? This fear is legitimate given that smuggling of fuel to our neighbouring countries has always been touted as one of the main reasons why Nigeria has to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry. This means if nothing is done about making the Nigeria Customs Service more efficient beyond government harvesting its huge revenue (the bulk of which ends up in the cesspit of corruption because the central government has too much money that it cannot monitor), the excuse of smuggling would still come in handy even long after the deregulation. This is why Labour must insist on government doing its job instead of continually regaling us with stories of cheap fuel in Nigeria.

And this brings us to the point I have always been making, especially whenever minimum wage comes to the front burner of national discourse. Labour has to be interested in national issues generally; not just matters of wages directly affecting workers. It should be interested in government policies and programmes because what government does or fails to do has implications for the polity, national security, the economy and general well-being of the people. When successive governments abandoned power facilities for decades without expanding them, it should have dawned on Labour that there would be consequences. The same thing applies to the refineries. It is the consequences of the neglect and corruption of the past (perhaps the present, too) that we are now paying for. If some of these issues had been faced squarely, with Labour in the vanguard, perhaps things would not have got to this sorry pass in the country. Of course some Labour leaders would face some tough times from government, but that is part of the sacrifices of leadership.

So, let Labour collaborate with CSOs and other pressure groups to serve as checks on the excesses of governments and their officials before things get destroyed beyond repairs, instead of threatening strike after the harm has been done as it is now doing.

Again, as I always argue, governments would find it easy to continually grant Labour minimum wage than have it serve as checks and balances on their activities. How many other countries review wages as we do, sometimes almost doubling the previous rate? Where is the new minimum wage taking us in the light of this experience?  That was how we got to a situation where our currency that used to exchange one-on-one with the strongest international currencies is now going for 400 or more to some.

All said, I do not believe much can come out of the arrangement bringing Labour on board some of the government bodies in whatever capacity, especially with the invitation coming from government when it did. For me, it looks more like an arrangement to buy time. That is if the Labour representatives do not start speaking in incoherent tunes after being spoiled a little with government largesse.

Aluta discontinua!

Tunji Adegboyega

Nigeria is a metaphor for the world that God created in a perfect condition. He gave us everything we need to be great: human and mineral resources, a good climate, name it. The only thing He did not give us was a good head: leadership. And that is what has recreated and condemned us to being a potentially great nation since Independence on October 1, 1960.

Indeed, the miasma of despair over Nigeria today, barely four days to its 60th Independence anniversary, is enough evidence of that missing link. More distressing is the fact that we do not see any hope of getting out of the mess, given the debt mode that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has activated as the way out, barely 15 years after the Olusegun Obasanjo administration took us out of debt peonage. The prognosis is indeed frightening.

That the country has been geometrically deteriorating despite successive governments’ promises is exemplified by the fact that the write-ups and editorial opinions written on Nigeria’s Independence anniversaries in 1990, 2000, 2010 only need little adjustments if we want to repeat them today. Very little has changed, compared to the resources that we have made from crude oil alone  in the last 60 years.

My concern today, therefore, is the Buhari administration that history has made to be around at this point in time, not any stupid sectoral analysis. I am not going to be uncharitable by saying the government has done nothing in the last five years. Or that it created the mess. No. My worry is that the administration doesn’t seem to have a handle on the solutions. Worse still, five years down the line, it has begun to manifest the same signs that led to the inglorious exit of, particularly, its immediate predecessor.

The Asian Tigers that were our underdevelopment mates in the 1970s and ’80s have since abandoned us to our fate when they saw we were not serious. The only difference between us and them is leadership. And, we cannot be serious for as long as we are bogged down by the military mentality of unitary government. We would have been better off if each region had been left to develop at its immediate post-independence pace. Unitary system is why railways is centralised and its development stalled until President Buhari at the centre is convinced that the country should be linked by rail. It is this unitary government mentality that is propelling the so-called Water Resources Bill by the same central government that is incapable of coping with the basics of governance but is still hankering after water resources.

I don’t know any other country whose public officials make a mantra of moving their countries forward like Nigeria. Yet, Nigeria is not moving forward. It is only in Nigeria that citizens are perpetually and unabashedly told by successive governments to sacrifice to make the country great in return for a rosy tomorrow, which never comes. Nigeria is perhaps the only country where only hardship comes immediately to the people; goodies are in the realm of the future. It is one of the few countries that, instead of  reining  in its few elite subsidy thieves, would rather the voiceless millions are deprived the subsidy.

Nigerians hinged so much hope on the Buhari administration in 2015 because the Goodluck Jonathan administration had sufficiently defecated on the seat of power for the people not to notice. That we cannot expect much from the present government too is unfortunate. A government that detests criticisms cannot go far. The same way a government that delights in counting its chickens before they are hatched.

I will amplify.

A few months after the government came on board in 2015, there was slight improvement in power supply, the president was beating his chest that he had not even done anything but his body language was already bringing results; apparently alluding to his much-talked-about tough stance in government. Then, Boko Haram. We have not forgotten too that the government had been claiming it had decapitated the terrorist sect since about four years ago. We know better today.

One cannot deny that the anti-corruption war has achieved some result. At least for the first time in a long time, otherwise untouchable big men, including governors, have been sent to prison over corrupt practices. For me, this is sweet music despite criticisms in some quarters that the war is selective. Yes, the best anti-corruption war is one sans borders. But if we cannot get that, let us do with what we have. If the Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Jonathan governments had dealt with corrupt elites in the opposition, Nigeria would have been saved the agony of still having such a huge number of them tormenting our treasuries and truncating our destinies. I think what should bother us more is that those being accused are thieves and they should be diligently prosecuted and not persecuted because of their political or other leanings.

Now to criticism. That the Buhari government cannot brood criticisms was seen in its attack on former President Obasanjo when he and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka took on the government on the state of the nation. Obasanjo, whatever his motive, has merely expressed the view of many Nigerians about the Buhari administration. Perhaps what government officials conveniently forget is that people who stick out their necks the way the former president did for candidate Buhari in 2015, even tearing his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) membership card in the open, have every reason to be pained when the presidential hopeful they supported begins to derail.

Without being prophetic, I can see a lot more paranoia from the government as 2023 draws near. When you have a government that believes it is trying its best, which the people say is not enough, and glaringly so; and that government, rather than begin to review its activities, continues to fish for enemies or excuses, the chances of its ending well are very slim.

Part of the problem of the Buhari administration is its being over- distracted by irrelevances. All Nigerians know what this country’s immediate challenges are: the economy, corruption, terrorism, banditry, unemployment, power supply and dilapidated infrastructure. A serious government would face these issues squarely rather than keep spreading itself thin on all fronts, and in the end fail in its core mandate.

This government should not give the impression that it has reached its wits’ end on the very serious challenges facing the average Nigerian and is therefore looking for distractions in contentious, inconsequential  issues. Soon, the government would have to contend with the consequences of the distraction that the Water Resources Bill  2020 represents, given the statement from its information minister that it is the elite who have access to the media that are opposed to the bill. What could be more fallacious? The point is; the rural people that the minister said are going to benefit from the bill can no longer be deceived because they have most of their graduate children roaming the streets of major towns in search of nonexistent jobs. They would rather vote for these children that they gladly embraced poverty to train to be gainfully employed; they want light, they want good roads to transport their farm produce to the cities, etc. Water Resources Bill is the least of their problem. However, we wait to see on whose side the National Assembly members will be on this matter that has been sufficiently poisoned by the distrust that Nigerians have for the government, especially as a result of its seeming accommodating attitude to issues affecting herdsmen.

But, no matter what the government is touting as advantages of the bill, the rural Nigerians know that it is not from water resources controlled by the Federal Government that they will get benefits they could not get from the petro-dollars that Nigeria has earned these past 60 years. Worse still, they are the ones directly at the receiving end of the killer herdsmen’s brutality.

I have good news for Nigerians who are worried that our governments are blind to other mineral resources apart from oil. They should see this as divine intervention that should be sustained until we have a government that would not throw the money away like they did our petro-dollars. I mean those who will actually run the country well as distinct from those who think they are running it well and are therefore not amenable to correction.

And, as if to further demonstrate that the country is really bogged down by distractions, President Buhari was only a few days ago making a case for Africa to be represented on the United Nations Security Council. For God’s sake, how is that the next thing for the continent that is world’s poverty headquarters; a continent which has not been able to solve the basic needs of human existence? Despite the criticism that Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of need lacks scientific basis, do we need anyone to tell us that Africa is still a long way from such dream? What will a continent harbouring governments whose policies reek of ethnic and parochial tendencies, leading almost inexorably to civil wars and ethnic cleansing be doing in the Security Council? A continent that cannot tame terrorists and bandits?

If by a stretch of imagination the continent is given the chance, it is the people that will continue to suffer as the continent’s power cartel will abandon them to join the rat race to produce the representative. They then begin to list that as part of their achievements. Meanwhile, their peoples are hungry. Thank God representation at the Security Council is not a chieftaincy title. If Africa needs it, let it work for it, and the place to begin is home, by giving good governance. It is by that time that its demand for Security Council seat can become effective, if not automatic.

All said, once again, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has another golden opportunity of introspection. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was availed the same pieces of advice which it dismissed like the APC is now doing, to the former ruling party’s chagrin. Nigerians rejected PDP mainly because of corruption. APC is going to be judged even by stricter measures when the time comes because of the huge investment of hope that Nigerians committed into its being. So, the party needs prayers and a change of direction in order not to end up like the Yoruba proverbial Omoye that had already got to the market naked ahead of the cloth sent to her. In Yoruba mythology, once a mad person enters a market naked, the madness is irreversible.

It had happened severally in the southwest, it happened in Edo State on September 19. It can only be averted in 2023 if the Buhari government changes its governance mode.

If we are still potentially great 60 years after Independence, when will we be great in the real sense of the word?

By Tunji Adegboyega

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State is going to be in the news once again for some time, with his signing into law of the State Penal Code (Amendment) Law 2020, on September 16. Under the law, people who rape children under 14 will, on conviction, be surgically castrated, before being executed. On the other hand, those convicted of raping children over 14 will also be castrated, after which they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. Their female colleagues who rape under-14 children will have their fallopian tubes removed. According to the governor, “drastic penalties are required to help further protect children from a serious crime.”

Thus, Nigeria becomes the first West African country with execution as punishment for rape, even though castration exists in some places, and some studies have suggested that rapists who have undergone surgical castration are unlikely to commit the crime again. While the Czech Republic offers voluntary surgical castration to violent sex offenders, several American states have legal provisions for chemical castration. Indonesia too. As a matter of fact, India too has okayed the death sentence for those who rape under-12 children, irrespective of whether the victims die or not. What this tells us is that countries have been reacting to the rape pandemic in diverse ways, depending on their peculiarities and experiences.

Expectedly, the new law in Kaduna State has attracted both praise and knocks, depending on which side of the fence one is sitting. While some see it as “legislative sadism”, it is sweet music in the ears of those who had been sexually assaulted, as well as many Nigerians who have been clamouring for tougher sanctions against people who cannot control their libido.

There is no doubt that rape cases have been on the upswing in the country, especially in recent years (or is it its reportage?) The Minister for Women’s Affairs, Paulen Talen, gave a dreadful statistics in December, last year, when she claimed that two million women and girls are raped in the country every year. The figure, according to her, had tripled by last June, no thanks to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which provided the time and space for the rapists who in turn took advantage of their staying idly at home to perpetrate their nefarious activity. That people who are complaining of lack of money during the lockdown still had the presence of mind and the stamina to rape should fire our curiousity. Yoruba people say it is the inner strength that we use to support the outer one (okun inu la fin gbe tita) =Ø“Þ=Ø“Þ! In the same June, governors, worried by the rape trend, said the matter constituted a state of emergency.

The truth of the matter is that today’s rapists in Nigeria operates sans borders. They do not have ‘no-go’ areas. Anything in skirt will do. From months-old babies, to under-aged children, to teenagers, undergraduates, hawkers, to their mothers’ age mates. Some are even pinning septuagenarian women to the floor to have carnal knowledge of them. For God’s sake, what pleasure does anyone want to derive from sleeping with toddlers or women of their grandmothers’ age? Worse still, some of the rapists now rape and kill the victims, apparently to cover their tracks.

One can therefore understand Governor el-Rufai’s frustration on the rape epidemic, particularly as it affects children, who constitute the most vulnerable segment. At the rate we are going, Nigeria risks becoming the rape capital of the world if drastic steps are not taken to make people pay for their irresponsible sexual behaviour. This, added to our being the world’s poverty capital will definitely not be a good emblem even for the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Long before its second coming though, we had won the title of being the happiest people on earth. Those who gave us the unenviable title did so decades after the legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang “Suffering and smiling’’, a tribute to our infinite capacity as a people to absorb the most unimaginable shocks, without complaining.

Moreover, this paper was sufficiently worried about the rape pandemic that it made “Rape” its ‘Man of the Year 2019’. We did so not in celebration of the act of rape or the rapist, but to draw attention to the rising number of reported cases in the media, the dimensions, as well as give possible suggestions on ways to stem the tide. Hardly did any day pass last year without stories of rape dominating the media headlines.

However, without trying unnecessarily to dismiss the new law in Kaduna State, the law, particularly as it pertains to execution, has the grave consequence of irreversibility. It does not leave room for redress or correction once the sentence has been pronounced and carried out. Life already taken cannot be restored. This has always been one of the central points of people opposed to the death penalty. The difference between my position and theirs, especially where rape of whatever hue is concerned, is that I am not going to say whether death sentence will curb rape or not, or whether it is too harsh for the crime. I am more concerned about the finality of the punishment. Even in the best of climes where they have the wherewithal for diligent prosecution of cases, there have been miscarriage of justice in several instances. The possibility of that happening here is even higher, given all the inadequacies of our judicial system. Where life has not been taken, it is still possible to make restitution no matter how long it takes to realise that justice has erroneously been miscarried if the victim is still around.

What I am saying in essence is that the the previous law of a maximum penalty of 21 years imprisonment for the rape of an adult, and life imprisonment for that of a child, is adequate. The problem with the rape issue in Nigeria is not basically about the inadequacy of the law. There are issues of stigmatisation whereby rape victims are reluctant to come forward to report their ordeals. There are issues of the two months time frame for rape cases to be reported, after which they are statute-barred; there are issues of policemen who should show compassion but rather make jest of victims. There are issues of blood-stained clothes or pants to produce as evidence to prove forced penetration, etc.

I hear it is not only in Nigeria that the police turn cases of rape reported in their stations to wall clock jokes by asking the victims whether they enjoyed the act while it was being perpetrated, or they merely endured it because that was the best they could do in the circumstance. In other words, were the victims groaning or moaning when the rapist was having his way? I hear it is the same way rape cases are handled by the police in other rape-endemic countries like India and South Africa, among others. For me, this should also be treated as a crime against policemen who crack such expensive jokes in the face of a grievous matter as rape. Policemen are also human beings, and, ipso facto, they should empathise with rape victims because they are also fathers or brothers, or whatever. How would they feel if their daughters or sisters are raped? Are they going to be asking the same stupid questions they are asking other rape victims if the victims are their own blood?

All of these and probably more are the clogs in the wheel of securing justice for the rape victim. They will appear to be the reason why we are not making headway with rape, and their ilk breeding like rats.

We need to continue to encourage rape victims to report. As a matter of fact, many people believe this is one reason why it seems we are having a harvest of such occurrences these days. They contend that it is the fact that more victims are now coming out openly to report their ordeals that gives the impression that the incidence of rape is on the rise. Our policemen need a complete reorientation on how to handle rape cases.

As for me, no punishment is too harsh for people who think the only way they can assuage their thirst for sex is to pin down unwilling people, including babies or even the aged.

So, I am not going to reject the Kaduna law simply because some people feel it is a product of what they consider cheap populism that is incompatible with the country’s constitution. Neither do I subscribe to the prediction that it will lead to fewer rapes being reported. I am not even bothered about why rapists would be castrated as a prelude to their being executed. I think only people who had suffered both the trauma and indignity of being raped are competent to make such comments. As the Hausa people would ask if someone is commenting on anything, say an illness; they will ask whether the person making the comment had suffered from the ailment before. His opinion will matter to them only if his answer is in the affirmative. Otherwise, he should keep his opinion to himself. It is easy for us to regard victims of some unfortunate incidents as mere statistics. Many of us change position when such a thing happens to us or to someone close to, or dear to us.

Having said all of these, however, my fear on the new law is that castration, execution or whatever will still go the same way of the previous law if some or all of the issues I raised about being impediments to deterrence to rape cases are not addressed. I can understand Governor el-Rurai’s reason/s for what looks like a draconian answer to a festering sore. But, unless he is going to have a separate police, separate courts, etc. as part of the mix in the new law, specifically dedicated to rape cases of minors, he will soon discover that his new law will be nothing more than a paper tiger.

Sex, as I have always argued, is a thing to be enjoyed by both parties. It was not designed by God to be endured. Even in its bastardisation, as in unmarried people are also engaging in it these days, there must still be honour. That honour is in both parties consenting to the act. And, for this to happen, both parties involved must be of age and sound mind regarding what they are about indulging in. Minors are not in a position to determine such consent.

Nigeria’s rapists sans borders must be reined in. But how the Kaduna law eventually pans out, especially in a region with one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, is yet to be seen.

Tunji Adegboyega

It was clear, ab initio, that the Federal Government was not comfortable with the idea of local, state or regional police, as it were, to complement the activities of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), despite the glaring inadequacies of the force. I used the word ‘inadequacies’ advisedly. Some people may choose to use incompetence or unprofessional, corrupt, etc. to describe the force. All of these may be true. But then, the police force still boasts some good officers and men who spring surprises despite the challenges bedeviling the force. In fact, these challenges: poor pay, inadequate working tools, lack of motivation and what have you are indeed some of the reasons why many of our policemen cannot perform their functions professionally. Which in turn leads to the need for complementary law enforcement by the other component entities because security is the primary function of any government.

Yet, there is nothing novel in having more than a central police. Perhaps President Muhammadu Buhari’s reluctance to approve state or regional police properly so called is the product of his military background. Perhaps it is more than that. Some would even attribute it to hegemonic tendencies in some quarters. But what we know is that our military officers, or should I say our soldiers generally, seem reluctant to make sophisticated weapons available to the police force. Many Nigerians would remember how the military reportedly frowned at the attempts by the Inspector-General of Police in the Second Republic, Mr Sunday Adewusi, to acquire some sophisticated weapons for the police at that time because it was feared that if the police could match the military in terms of weapons, they could abuse such. The possibility of this happening then was high, especially given the sweeping powers the then inspector-general gave to the mobile arm of the police, known then as ‘kill and go’.

But the point is that, today, it is not a question of whether the president likes the idea of state police or not; it is an idea whose time has come, and there is no denying that fact. Nigerians have been clamouring for state police as an integral part of what they call ‘true federalism’ (I have always asked if there is ‘false federalism’ to now warrant the need to add ‘true’ to the concept to make it whole or distinguish it from federalism as practiced in other places) for years. But the renewed clamour for it, which led to the reluctant presidential approval for the formation of Amotekun was the product of senseless killings by rampaging herdsmen who were ready to kill in areas where they were resisted or told that other people’s freedom begins where theirs (the herdsmen’s) stops. The unfortunate part of it is that the Nigeria Police initially looked helpless in the face of these gruesome killings by herdsmen, a thing which emboldened them to commit even more grievous harm in the name of cattle rearing.

This would appear the last straw that broke the camel’s back. It was also one of the perceived weaknesses of the NPF, which fuelled the calls for regional police. That the police merely looked the other way when many Nigerians expected them to demonstrate their impartiality and professionalism confirmed the widespread impression that they could not act because they took a cue from the president’s body language on the issue. In fairness to them, it took President Buhari so long a time to show concern on these killings. I said in fairness to them (the police) because, in our kind of clime, the saying that ‘he who pays the piper dictates the tune’ holds true. In other climes where institutions are strong, the police do not have to read anybody’s body language before doing their job.

Amotekun, and other regional security initiatives that came after it were therefore products of the inadequacies of the Nigeria Police, to fill the vacuum created by the central police force. That the Federal Government alone cannot fund its police is well known. As a matter of fact, it is no longer a secret that many state governments invest heavily in the NPF. Lagos State, which leads the pack, has even had to set up the Lagos State Security Trust Fund to raise funds in order to support the federal police. Billions have been spent by the state government on equipment and welfare of policemen in the state over the years.

Without trying to underplay the capacity of the police to sniff out crimes or criminals based on their own training, we cannot also downplay the role of the average Nigerian in assisting them with credible intelligence that had led to the bursting of some criminal gangs over the years. Indeed, the case of the 19 year-old serial killer suspect, Sunday Shodipe, who escaped from police custody recently and was rearrested is still fresh in mind. His rearrest was reportedly facilitated by local hunters.

One of the most important reasons for local, state or community police is that people know those in their immediate environments better than central policemen who are likely to be transferred from far places to terrains they are not familiar with. In many instances, these policemen are not even properly taken care of. Sometimes they squat or stay in the open, sleep wherever they can find, etc. How do we expect such policemen to give their best? The local people do not have this problem.

Moreover, when crimes are committed, it is easier for the local vigilante or police to pursue the criminals to wherever they are hiding and smoke them out. Take the Niger Delta region, for instance; the locals can manoeuvre faster in the creeks than security agents who will be posted there, with even the possibility of being transferred after a few years, may be by the time they are just getting familiar with the terrain. They therefore have to go elsewhere where they begin the whole process of acculturation all over.

The advantages of local, community, state or regional police have often been stated and we need not belabour the imperative for it here.

If it is a bad idea, so many countries would not have adopted it. Even in the developed countries with all the technology at their disposal, they have police at the county, state and federal levels. Even some universities have their own policemen. How much more a country like ours where money for contracts for surveillance cameras is embezzled in an important place like the Federal Capital Territory without anyone being prosecuted, thereby leaving our security men to be groping in the dark for crime riddles they could have resolved in no time where such cameras are installed and functional.

It is against this background that one is sad by the announcement, last week, to the effect that Amotekun, the southwest regional security  initiative, will be under the control of the Inspector-General of

Police. For sure, this was not the intention of those who conceived the idea.

Garba Shehu, President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, kicked off the latest brickbats on the security outfits initiated through the state or regional initiatives when he said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily that the operations of security organisations would be guided by the Inspector-General of Police under the community policing programme which the Federal Government has approved N13 billion to kickstart.

“Whatever name they go by, Amotekun or whatever, will be streamlined and they will be run in accordance with the structure as defined by the Inspector-General of Police,” Shehu said. He added: “…So you are going to have a single type structure of community policing permitted all across the country and whatever is not in line with this does not have a place in the scheme of things. That is my understanding.”

Naturally, the Federal Government would not expect the state governments that took their time to painstakingly establish a security outfit like the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSC) to take such a comment lightly. At least two of the governors in the region, Rotimi Akeredolu, Ondo State, and Seyi Makinde, his Oyo State counterpart, have rejected the idea of Amotekun being subsumed under the IGP’s control. According to Akeredolu, who is also chairman of the Southwest Governors Forum, “A law set up Amotekun and Amotekun operates under its own law and it’s not going to be subsumed under any set-up. No, we will work together, it is a collaboration, but not that it will be subsumed; that is not the thinking and that is not going to be acceptable.”

Makinde, on his part said: “…Amotekun is here to stay with us and it will not be under the control of the federal establishment. It will be under our control. Security of our people is extremely important, because nothing can take place, as far as we are concerned, in an atmosphere of insecurity.”

Needless to say that the duo have spoken the minds of not only the remaining governors of the region but also that of the people. It would seem the Federal Government is yet to come to terms with the fact that the country is too big to be under the control of the NPF as presently constituted. We do not need anyone to tell us that the present arrangement is not working. How then do we continue to concentrate power in an office which does not even have a handle on what it is managing right now?

The Federal Government is just coming out in its true colours with regard to Amotekun and perhaps other state or regional security initiatives. We thought we had passed this stage that the government seems to be returning us to on this matter, after the initial controversy that trailed its establishment. No sensible government will spend money to set up an outfit like Amotekun only to agree that it be subsumed under the present arrangement that is not working. The Federal Government cannot say it is giving Amotekun with one hand only to withdraw it with another. This is recreating Amotekun, not in the image of its proponents, but in the image of some other persons or interests. It is not going to work.

By Tunji Adegboyega

General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s former Head of State, was on his own when, on July 29, 1975, his government was overthrown by some junior officers of Nigeria’s Armed Forces. Gowon was then attending an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit in Kampala, Uganda. Gowon had no African country or organisation to fight his cause because the OAU charter then forbade interference in member-states’ internal affairs. But that was then. If Gowon had been overthrown in the African Union (AU) era, the situation might have been different. That he was attending the body’s summit when the coup that overthrew him occurred could have been a further impetus for the other African countries to intervene or rally round him, to save his government. Mind my words; his government and not necessarily Nigeria.

The change by African countries from non-interference in member-states’ internal affairs to interference, either on their own volition, or on invitation by a sister country’s leadership that is in trouble, has both its merits and demerits. Ordinarily though, it should be a thing to cheer if the act establishing that principle had been scrupulously followed by the African leaders. Unfortunately, like most principles or concepts that should deliver positive results, the concept of ‘sister helping sister’ in Africa has continued to yield less than proportionate returns. And the reason for this is simple: the concept has been turned upside down, perverted by African leaders who are trying to view sovereignty from a narrow, selfish and even parochial perspective.

This was one thing that Prof Bola Akinterinwa, former Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos, said on Television Continental (TVC) on Thursday, that took the heat off my zone. Many commentators on the Mali crisis which culminated in the forced resignation of the country’s president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK), in the early hours of Tuesday, August 18, seemed to be more concerned about soldiers seizing power in that country than anything else. Fine, military rule is an aberration. It is antediluvian, undemocratic and old-fashioned. But the situation in Mali should not just be about that. The country has been witnessing protests fuelled by the former president’s incompetence or high-handedness in resolving the various economic, political and security challenges in that country.

To me, many African leaders who are crying wolf over the recent developments in Mali are merely being self-serving. They are, to paraphrase an Igbo proverb, like an old woman who is never at ease when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb. They are only being concerned about the possibility of a similar fate befalling them because they are mostly birds of the same feather. Otherwise, Africa would not be the way it is today, despite the abundant deposits of riches that the continent is endowed with. Their main concern is self-preservation and not necessarily the interest of the average Malian.

The point is that sovereignty belongs to the people and not to the government. But African leaders who are asking that the former president should be released from detention and reinstated do not see this to be the case. They think sovereignty is all about them. I am afraid, that their prayers that the former president be reinstated is not likely to be heard because they have asked amiss. For keen and dispassionate watchers of the developments in Mali before the former president’s resignation, they must have known that if the soldiers took over, it was because the situation on ground was sufficiently ripe for it. The people had renewed protests against the harsh socio-economic conditions in that country under President Keita in the last few weeks. Where were these African leaders who are now crying wolf while those protests lasted?

Yet, it is not that there are no mechanisms in their protocols to ensure that there is good governance on the continent. The AU, for instance, has the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) that was initiated in 2002 but established in 2003. According to Wikipedia, “The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by the member -states of the African Union (AU) as a self-monitoring mechanism. It vwas founded in 2003. The mandate of the APRM is to encourage conformity with regards to political, economic and corporate governance values, codes and standards, among African countries and the objectives in socio-economic development as well as to ensure monitoring and evaluation of AU Agenda 2063 and SDGs 203.”

Where on the continent do you find any of the values the peer review is supposed to espouse and promote? Where on the continent do we not have corruption, economic crisis, insecurity, bad governance, etc? Just where?

Yet it is clear, even from its name that peer review is a good initiative. But, the problem with many of the so-called leaders on the continent, even in their own individual countries, is not about lack of initiatives to do good or to be good. Rather, the problem is the lack of political will to so do. I have always said it; that peer review can only make sense if one good peer reviews another. But in a continent where we have many bad peers in leadership positions, there is no way they can look one another in the face and tell themselves the truth. Nothing good can come from a situation where people who are to review themselves behave like pigs, with both the first born and the last born roughing it out in the mud.

This is the only reason why the African leaders could not take any action against Keita even with mass demonstrations against his rule for so long. We should wonder what these African leaders discuss, whenever they meet, whether under the auspices of ECOWAS or AU. The same leaders who did so little to rein in Keita are now threatening fire and brimstone by way of sanctions against Mali if their own is not released. What of the many political opposition figures that he had incarcerated? What of those that had died in the protests against his government?

It would seem the Malians are angry with both the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the AU over their handling of the issue. That probably explains the moral support and encouragement they have been giving the military since they sacked the Keita regime. And this is the way it is going to be whenever these sub-regional or regional institutions try to meddle in the affairs of member-states when they should be seen playing the role of genuine mediators. The perception of the average Malian is that those who are posing as mediators are merely trying to protect one of their own, and, by extension, their own positions. They do not see the intervention as something done in the interest of their country.

Mali, lest we forget, has a long history of political stability. So, when such a country begins to have problems with elections, something should tell us that it is a matter of time for something to snap. Keita’s matter was not helped by the severe economic deprivations prevalent in the country, which were also compounded by insecurity and corruption. When these challenges coalesce in a country like Mali, which is one of the poorest countries, the only thing to expect is what has happened there.

In the developed countries, the political leaders easily read the handwriting on the wall, and so do not waste time in throwing in the towel when their people say it is time for them to go. We see this everyday. This is aside the fact that they have well established structures to effect changes in leadership through democratic means. But it is not so in many parts of Africa. Here, political leaders so enjoy the office that they keep on returning themselves through flawed electoral processes and thus often end like the proverbial fly that enters the grave with the corpse. Since they have learnt not to leave when the ovation is loudest, they usually end up being disgraced.

Keita should have seen his exit coming. Obviously, his loyalty was more to external forces which he thought would rescue him rather than to his people. And indeed, his external friends, particularly ECOWAS,  tried desperately to save him but it is just that their efforts came too late.

Yet, a fundamental philosophical base for cooperation under the framework of the AU is the observance of certain minimum values and standards, with regards to human rights, democratic governance and abhorrence of non-constitutional change of government. To what extent were these values respected by the Keita government? And, in a situation where leaders choose to sit tight, even when it is obvious they are no longer wanted, using force to sustain their iron rule, how else do you remove such people who have outlived their usefulness? Malians had been on the streets for so long protesting against Keita, yet he stayed put. Yet his peers did not review him or his activities. Trust is an essential ingredient of cooperation. The point is; the people did not trust Keita even when he began to give concessions, following the ECOWAS intervention.

And, instead of people facing the issues, they are busy reminding us of the usual cliche of the worst democratic government being better than the best of military rule. I wonder why this mentality. I wonder why it can’t be the other way round. Let no one take my position on this matter to mean support for military rule. But we would be deluding ourselves that soldiers would not be relevant in a situation where so-called leaders keep behaving irresponsibly, especially in a country like Mali. African leaders’ power cartels can no longer ensure their longevity in office. We are all familiar with the saying that you cannot keep doing the same thing the same way and expect a different result. The earlier African leaders had a change of heart to give good governance, the better for them and the rest of us that they put in quagmire wherever and whenever they permit the kind of developments that reared their ugly heads in Mali.