The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tunji Adegboyega

  • Adelabu’s ‘bandwagon’

    Adelabu’s ‘bandwagon’

    The minister should understand that his predecessors made the same promises he is making today; he should tread softly.

    It would seem the Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, does not understand where Nigerians are coming from with regards to power supply. That was why he would think his statement about the power sector collapsing in three months if he was not allowed to carry out his reforms in the sector (a critical aspect of which was the phenomenal increase in the tariff by the ‘Band A’ electricity consumers) had meaning to many of the people he was supposed to be addressing.

    The increase that took effect on April 3, saw power consumers in the band who enjoy between 20 to 24 hours of electricity daily paying N225 kilowatt per hour from the former N66. Many Nigerians had criticised the rise, which is almost 300 per cent hike, especially given the economic crunch that Nigerians are currently facing, with cost of living rising daily amidst a static wage structure.

    The criticism of the tariff made the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to reduce it by 8.1 per cent. This did not change the perception of Nigerians on the matter as they saw the reduction as too meagre, considering the percentage rise. Many people demanded for a complete reversal of the increase.

    This was the situation until May 13, when the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) picketed NERC offices and the electricity distribution companies (DisCos), to press home their demands.

    There is no doubt that I have reservations on this idea of ‘banding’. Every power consumer should be entitled to 24 hours daily supply of electricity.

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    Maybe, just maybe it would have been a different thing if there are devices attached to each meter to enable electricity consumers decide which band they want to belong to. I probably would have accepted the idea. But a situation where birds of different feathers find themselves flocking together compulsorily simply because they are attached to the same feeder is, to me, not good enough. Being on the same feeder doesn’t mean people are equally endowed. A policy like this pains me because  it is discriminatory.

    Indeed, I was astonished when the minister gave the impression that majority of those who joined the picketing train had no business being on the trip. Hear him: “But one thing that I want to state here is, from the statistics of those affected by the hike in tariff, the people on the road yesterday  (Monday), who embarked on the peaceful protests, more than 95% of them are not affected by the increase in the tariff of electricity. They still enjoy almost 70% government subsidy in the tariff they pay because the average costs of generating, transmitting and distributing electricity is not less than N180 today.

    “A lot of them are paying below N60 so they still enjoy government’s subsidy. So when they say we should reverse the recently increased tariff, sincerely it’s not affecting them. That’s one position.”

    Where did the honourable minister put the common saying that ‘an injury to one is an injury to all. That is part of the reason people ‘band’ together for collective bargaining. Moreover, Christians know that we are to cry with those who are crying and rejoice with those that are rejoicing. Again, if some people are on ‘Band A’ today, others would join them tomorrow. It’s only a matter of time.

    If it would interest the minister, I was so concerned when the ‘Band A’ tariff was announced that I quickly went to check out where I belong. This was a thing I had been trying to check for so long but couldn’t due to one reason or the other. I came close to compulsorily doing that in January when DisCos seemingly unilaterally increased tariffs, giving me 148 units as  against the 201 units that N10,000 used to give me before the tariff increase.

    I was uncomfortable when I was told that our area is in ‘Band B’. It then dawned on me that people in my category would be the next to swallow the kind of bitter pill that those in ‘Band A’ are now groaning over. ‘Abi’, is it not B that comes after A?

    Honestly, this is troubling the more for the simple reason that I do not know any of the DisCos that can meet targets even despite the categorisation. Indeed, if you ask me, not even those on the so-called ‘Band A’ will forever have light 24/7. Why? Because there would be faults that would take longer than envisaged to fix. Then, there is also the problem of the collapsing grid, etc. which does not recognise ‘banding’. What we would have to be contending with now is a situation where all attention would be paid to ‘Band A’ consumers. We have stayed so long with these DisCos not to know how they think. At any rate, what is the incentive for them to attend to others if they have faults requiring attention at the same time with those in ‘Band A’? It makes business sense to give priority attention to those that are paying premium tariffs.

    The ‘Band B’ that my area is said to be is supposed to have light for 16 to 20 hours a day.

    I wrote on this page a few weeks ago on the attitude of many of the DisCos’ personnel. I accosted two of them who came to my area for disconnection sometime ago, even as we did not have power supply for some days then; their response was shocking. They wondered why I should be bothered about whether there was light or not since I have prepaid meter; after all, my meter had not been running since there was no power supply to our area! If that is the mentality of their average workers, I wonder how that of those running the DisCos would be different.

    The point is; many of them were inherited from the dysfunctional National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and it is that same NEPA mentality that they brought to the DisCos.

    As a matter of fact, I had cited the story of some personnel of the DisCo serving Ayobo area in Lagos some years back who knocked at the gate of a building and when those inside asked who was at the gate, they said “NEPA”! Even they too knew that all they had was a change of name and not a change of heart that ought to come with the change of name and their new owners.

     I do not know how, given the scenarios I have just painted about the DisCos :banding’ would not be a recipe for complacency for them. Someone told me in the office on April 16 that what is now happening is that only those in Band A are being focused on and that in their area, they do not even qualify to be in Band E, since they now cannot boast of five hours of electricity per day.

    One thing about Nigeria is that even when otherwise good policies are replicated here, their ‘Nigerianisation’ makes them turn out badly. Not to talk of a not-too-good policy like ‘banding’.

    I said not-too-good because every power consumer should be entitled to 24 hours a day unless by personal choice.

    There is no doubt that many Nigerians waste electricity as the minister noted sometime ago. I have always believed too that the reason many shop owners would be in their shops in the daytime and leave their security lights on is because power is cheap. Maybe. But I disagree with his advice that Nigerians switch off their freezers for some time after the items in them have completely frozen, for the simple fact that, with power supply in Nigeria, nobody can be sure of anything. The minister’s advice could only have been tenable in a situation where regular power supply is guaranteed all-year round. If you try that in Nigeria, you are on your own. It could be the day you decide to switch off your  freezer that you begin a long walk into darkness. I cannot remember the number of times I had suffered economic losses as power would suddenly become erratic in my area the very day we stock our freezer with perishables.

    Unfortunately, ours is not the kind of country where you can easily drag the

    DisCos to court for recompense in such situation. I dragged the one serving my area to the NERC Forum some years back and won; but it took such a long time to get justice. It was very expensive too. Not many Nigerians can afford what it cost me to stay without public power supply for one whole year: money I spent on rechargeable this and that which I powered with my generator in daytime and enjoyed at night till daybreak. But that was in the days of cheap petrol.

    Mr Adelabu might have vowed within himself that he would make a positive difference in the power sector. But he should understand that there are no sweet words or assurances that he is making that his predecessors never made before. In the end, the changing never changed. That was why he met the poor state of power supply that he inherited. We all know the maxim: ‘once beaten, twice shy’. With regard to power as indeed with other spheres of life, Nigerians had offered themselves to be beaten not once, not twice, but several times that even if angels come from heaven and either threaten or promise to turn the power sector around,  they would merely take the threat or promise not as any gospel truth but at best with cautious optimism.

    The minister will continue to have problem with Nigerians if all he is trying to sell is his goodness or good intentions without factoring in the fact that he is dealing with people who had been literally raped over and again, only to end up with bruises from the bitter experiences.

    Minister Adelabu will do well to tread softly. Let his magic wand begin to give us at least incremental improvement in power supply. It would be catastrophic if we end up with the usual experiences after paying through our nose for power, especially when millions still don’t have prepaid meters. When we notice stable improvement in power supply no matter how incremental, we can then begin to talk of the kind of jump in tariff he is looking at in the power sector to take us to the Promised Land.

    For now, the government has merely transferred the financial burden from itself to ‘Band A’ power consumers, there is nothing yet to suggest that it would work sustainably, especially if more people get ‘promoted’ to the band. That is why many Nigerians are not in a hurry to jump into the minister’s wagon.

  • That workers may breathe Nigeria’s current wage structure is a lie and recipe for unending corruption

    That workers may breathe Nigeria’s current wage structure is a lie and recipe for unending corruption

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last month took a significant step towards increasing the salaries and allowances of judges by passing a bill titled ‘A Bill for an Act to prescribe the salaries, allowances and fringe benefits of judicial office holders in Nigeria and for related matters’, to the National Assembly. If approved, it would see to it that the monthly salary of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) moves up from about N3,363,972.50 annually (or N280,331 monthly) to about N5.3m monthly (yes, you heard me right, those are the figures), and that exclude several other allowances and a severance package of about N80,775,707 to be paid “after successful completion of tenure”. Of course, the salaries of other judges are to follow a similar pattern in the package.

    For instance, other Supreme Court judges are to be earning N4.2million monthly from the extant annual earning of N3,363,972.50 and a motor vehicle loan of N13,455,890 annually. President, Court of Appeal is to earn N4.4million monthly, and so on and so forth.

    That these proposed revolutionary packages are coming from Tinubu is not novel. The judiciary became a pace setter in his time as governor. So, we should commend him for aspiring to replicate such better life for our judges at the national level.

    I would have said those who came up with the miserable pay that our judges are earning up till now are wicked but for the fact that at the time they did, the remuneration might have been reasonably okay. The problem might be with successive administrations that kept our judges in abject poverty. Yet, they are supposed to be the custodians of the courts that should be the last hope of the common man. No wonder many judgments are compromised where they were not purchased outright. And we have the mouths to be complaining that we are  having too many conflicting injunctions from courts of coordinate jurisdiction.

    Chief Gani Fawehinmi in one of his books, ‘The way the law should go’ told a very pathetic story of a judge who left his court after hearing a matter and had to wait by the roadside for taxi. He was

    eventually given a lift by one of the litigants whose case he just heard, in an exotic car that the judge would never be able to own if all he relied on was his monthly stipend called salary. Tell me, it takes some courage for that judge to forget that simple help of saving him from either the scorching sun or threatening rain.

    But this piece is not necessarily about judges’ pay. It is just about the example that the proposed pay package for the judges seems to set. The proposed new minimum wage should follow this same pattern. What is required now is a revolutionary salary structure that would truly reflect economic realities. It is not about saying we raised the minimum wage by 100 per cent or one seemingly laudable percentage. Hundred percent of what? What does that translate to in ‘mudu’ of gari or cups of rice? Let us even leave electronics and other comforts of life. May be those are no longer for the people earning minimum wage. But we should realise that it was not like that in the past. Many Nigerians were proud owners of electronics even as recently as the 1970s. I remember how we used to celebrate whenever we bought ‘sound systems’ in those days with our school certificate salaries. We would be comparing the capacity of the loud speakers because the sound must really be ‘gbam gbam dim dim’ and be shaking the entire building to qualify for proper ‘washing’. If that is no longer feasible, the minimum wage should at least be able to take the workers home and put the least balanced diet on their dining mats.

    The truth is that whatever pay most Nigerians are getting today cannot take them home. It is not enough for many to even feed let alone send children to school. If a man gets even N70,000 per month today, what is that worth? The man is expected to feed his wife, send his children to school, pay his rent, give them money for transport, buy fuel for his ‘I better pass my neighbour’ generator, etc. Obviously, this cannot get anywhere. And we don’t expect them to steal? Only angels would not be tempted, with such peanuts called salaries.

    My point is that Nigerian workers can be better paid. In fact, they should be better paid. Daily, we keep hearing stories of billions being stolen here and there. We are so awash with idle funds that sometimes we do not know these monies had been stolen until several years later.

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)

    President Joe Ajaero was at some media houses last week to campaign for support for the new minimum wage. Despite whatever reservations I had about him, (as a matter of fact, I did tell him that he was too calm for my comfort because of the way he comported himself during his visit to this newspaper on Thursday). I saw a different Ajaero, calm and carefully choosing his words during the question and answer session. I indeed asked if he was sure he didn’t rehearse that cool mien over and again before embarking on the media tour.

    If truly Ajaero’s mission is to get the best for Nigerian workers, I support him. I believe in the cause to get reasonable pay for workers.

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    He made some valid points that cannot be dismissed. One, he said while some governors suddenly remember that their states are poor when it comes to paying others or doing some programmes and projects that will benefit the generality of the people, we hardly see any such difference between the governors of the poor and rich states. They all live in affluence. We hardly see any difference in their glittering jeeps. And, lest we forget, just to demonstrate that where there is the will, there will always be a way, some of these governors got money to pay workers’ salary from the Muhammadu Buhari government but diverted the money into other things, where it was not stolen outright. Perhaps this was why Ajaero told ‘The Nation’s’ senior editors who received him on Thursday that the governors can pay if they want to. “But on the issue of whether the states can pay, yes, they can if they get their priorities right,” the NLC president said. He was here talking about the NLC’s N615,000 monthly minimum wage proposal to the Federal Government. Without doubt, when he broke it down into brass tacks, as in having a home of six comprising daddy and mummy and maximum of four children vis-a-vis their needs – feeding, school fees, accommodation,. transportation, and other basics, you can hardly fault the logic behind the proposal.

    But we all know this is not feasible. It is what one of my friends would call a good idea but it is not implementable. So, some jaw-jaw still has to take place.

    One other point that he made has to do with the National Assembly (NASS) members. Hear the NLC leader: “In fact, National Assembly’s wages have almost tripled. If you come to an economy and we are having this argument of affordability, everybody must be disciplined.”

    True, Nigerians are yet to see the expected discipline from this privileged class to convince them that this hardship is affecting everybody, including the people in the NASS. People who are ploughing the best life can offer towards themselves while saying that things are hard and that other Nigerians must make sacrifice. Yet, it took a lot of efforts for Nigerian workers to extract the extant N30,000 minimum wage from them. There is God o!

    The outcome of the coming minimum wage is going to be interesting. NLC has demanded N615,000. It has also said this may increase or reduce depending on other variables. Like if compressed natural gas (CNG) is popularised and transportation cost comes down, or something. But if things turn out edgy, then the political class is to blame. There is nothing to show on their own part that

    things are hard. When Mahatma Gandhi asked Indians to buy India, he himself was going about in sandals made in India. Here we are with legislators who (rather than lead by example as people that are representing ordinary Nigerians and feel the economic crunch), would be pointing accusing fingers at those in the executive branch that they are also living big whereas they (lawmakers) have the powers to tame the executive branch by refusing to approve money for flamboyant lifestyle for the ministers and the others, provided of course that they are ready to live by example too. The problem is that the lawmakers are not ready to go low profile themselves.

    Even in the days of the Obasanjo military government when the country’s currency was very strong, the government compelled public officials to use Peugeot brand of vehicles locally made and that was it! Now that our currency is going through its most difficult moments, those who said we elected them to serve us are rejecting made-in-Nigeria cars. What a bundle of contradiction! We may not be asking them to behave exactly like Gandhi, but we expect them to be more sober than they are and to be more prudent with public funds.

    I don’t have problem with anyone who is calling for sacrifice where necessary, but I can’t understand people who are feeding fat while calling on ordinary folks to tighten their belts. I detest such double standards and absolute contempt for the people.

    I support Labour’s agitation for better pay for workers. What I don’t know is whether all attention should be on them. What of the millions of other Nigerians? They are also feeling the effects of the economic challenges that the country is  currently facing. They need to be provided for too.

    Ultimately, however, as I always say, good governance would always yield better result than incessant increases in workers’ pay.

    All said, the buck on the new minimum wage stops at President Tinubu’s desk. He has promised not to take the patience of Nigerians for granted. He has also promised that he would give workers a living wage. I cannot remember when last Nigerian workers got one. President Tinubu should offer beyond the tokenism that his predecessors offered as minimum wage.

    Minimum wage must be reasonable for workers to be able to tap into some of his government’s credit schemes, whether for personal cars, homes or even health. It is where salaries are sufficient that one can talk of saving for the rainy day. Today, workers are already borrowing in anticipation of the next pay, as early as the middle of the current month.

  • Samuel Adefila Abidoye (1920-2023)

    Samuel Adefila Abidoye (1920-2023)

    C and S Movement Church has lost an inspirational spiritual leader

    It would not be proper if I fail to bid the immediate past Spiritual Father and Chairman of Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church (CSMC) Worldwide, Prophet Samuel Adefila Abidoye, also known as ‘Baba Aladura’, a befitting farewell on this page. I have had cause to comment on him on at least two occasions in his lifetime. The last being on July 3, 2022. Baba Aladura Abidoye was born on June 26, 1920, as a prince at Omu Aran, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. He was installed the fifth ‘Baba Aladura’ of the church in 2006 and died at about 10.00 a.m. on November 12,  2023, aged 103. He was buried on April 27, 2024.

    My first close personal contact with him was during the inauguration and enthronement of Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church, 84, Old Ota Road, Orile Agege, Lagos, as Emmanuel District in June, 2013. I was chairman of the publicity sub-committee of the occasion, arguably one of the most glorious moments of the church. Part of the sub-committee’s mandate was to organise media tours of three major national newspapers — ‘The Nation’, ‘The Punch’ and ‘The Guardian’. We were able to cover the first two, even though they were all ready to receive the ‘Baba Aladura’. I had to apologise to ‘The Guardian’ management when it became obvious we would not be able to make it to their organisation. That was the time the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was still under repairs and travelling on it was nightmarish, hence we had to call off ‘The Guardian’ visit to reduce the stress on the ‘Baba Aladura’.

    What intrigued me most about Prophet Abidoye was the alertness he demonstrated at both newspapers when answering their reporters’ questions.

    My second close contact with the late ‘Baba Aladura’ was apparently informed by the success of our assignment on the enthronement sub-committee.

    Sometimes (I guess) in 2017 or so, I was told that Baba Abidoye wanted to see me at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Lagos, where he lodged during his visit to Lagos. I immediately knew why. And I also knew it was going to be tough to reject what I envisaged he was going to ask me to do for him, even if I also knew that accepting it would mean accepting what I would not be able to do well, given the demands of my job.

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    I was ushered straight into Baba Abidoye’s apartment as soon as I got to the hotel. I greeted him and from the sitting room we proceeded to his bedroom, with only myself and about three senior members of the church, including Most Senior Apostle Abiodun Akinbusuyi, then of Lagos Television, Special Apostle S. A. Dansu of the Ilasamaja, Lagos, branch of the church.

     It was a defining moment I wished never came. Baba told me he wanted me to be his media adviser. I looked to the left, then to the right and finally made for the canvass (to quote one of our former sports editors, now late). I mean I prostrated as I politely told Baba Abidoye that I could not take the assignment due to job constraints. I however told him that I would always be available for his or the church’s service anytime I was called upon.

    I guessed he saw beyond my reason and then invited me to sit right beside him on the bed and started telling me stories about his life, his odyssey at the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), his sojourn abroad and how he became ‘Baba Aladura’, a thing he least anticipated. As he said in an interview: “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.”

    He respected my decision without any ill-feeling. Baba Abidoye was not the kind of person you would meet and want to leave in a hurry. We eventually had to part, at least to allow him attend to some of the multitude that was waiting to see him. The post of ‘Baba Aladura’ in Cherubim and Seraphim churches, and especially so in the CSMC (unarguably the most elitist of the brand) is not just respected, it is revered. That is why you would always see multitudes wherever the ‘Baba Aladura’ is at any point in time.

    As if to show that Prophet Abidoye had no hard feeling about my rejecting his bidding, I was handed an envelope with some cash in it when I was leaving the hotel. My initial instinct was to reject it outright, but then I remembered the admonition by the Late Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola to one of his editors who had rejected a similar offer from a very rich and influential Nigerian. I was told Abiola asked the editor to go back to the old man and accept the gift that he earlier rejected. Unknown to the editor, the old man had called Abiola to inform him that one of his editors rejected his gift. Armed with this experience, I opened the envelope and took N1,000 note, and returned the rest as offering to the church.

    I doff my hat to this immediate past ‘Baba Aladura’ for his humility, candour and respect for others’ views, all of which I felt during our meeting.

    And, as if to stamp all of these attributes as his real self rather than a mere fluke, Baba Abidoye again earned my respect after my piece on him on July 3, 2022. I lauded his many achievements since becoming the ‘Baba Aladura’ in 2006. But I was also highly, even if respectfully critical, of some of his administration’s shortcomings. After all he is human.

    Here, I am talking specifically about titles in the church. The liberalisation of titles is, to say the least, alarming. When I was young, titles, especially in the then C & S Church (Movement) were few and far-between. When in those day you saw those old men and women holding one of those top titles, you would love to be a member of the church, rising through the ranks. Not any more. What you see these days will simply put you off because titles have been commercialised in the church. My father died a Special Apostle in the church, so I know what I am talking about. In those days, whatever title you paraded in the church was honoured anywhere, both home and abroad. I hear there is discrimination now as some churches do not honour titles that seem to them that the holder does not deserve. I don’t know how that is determined but it only tells you that all animals may not be equal even if they parade the same title. It tells you the flaw in the title processes and procedures.

    But Baba Abidoye won my admiration the way he accepted this criticism. I learnt he took the decision on giving out titles the way he did as a revenue drive for the church. But, my question is: how much is the entire C & S churches worth in spite of this process of revenue generation? Probably a fraction of what one Pentecostal church would give away without blinking an eyelid. And without offering or selling otherwise spiritual titles. Meaning the church must look elsewhere for funds rather than sell titles that have spiritual significance.

    Some other persons would have taken such criticism in bad faith. Not Baba Abidoye. I wrote the critical piece on Sunday, July 3, 2022. In the night of Wednesday, July 6, that is barely three days later, my phone rang. I think Baba Abidoye’s attention was drawn to the piece by one of his aides who Pastor Sanya Balogun told about it. When I was told it was ‘Baba Aladura’ that wanted to speak with me, I thought he was going to behave like some of our southwest politicians who would not see the praise you lavished on them in a full page article, but rather pick holes in just one paragraph or sentence that they did not like in it.

    It was the lawyer in Baba Abidoye that spoke again. May be his radicalism too. Again, hear him: 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.” I was surprised that, in spite of the criticism, he started praying for me on phone. I cherished that much, beyond the envelope that was given to me at Lagos Airport Hotel.

    Although I was told that Baba Abidoye promised to do something about the proliferation of titles, I did not know how this can be done without leading to schism in the church. This is especially so in a church whose members worship titles. There is no gain-saying that the C & S church would be one of the greatest churches in the world if the members worship God 50 per cent as they worship their titles.

    Be that as it may, for me one of Baba Abidoye’s greatest legacies is the movement of the seat of power of the church from Kaduna to Galilee, in Orile-Igbon, Oyo State, “which has now become a mega city”.

    As I noted in the July 3, 2022 piece, “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…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…” These have increased exponentially over the years.

    There is no doubt that Baba Aladura Abidoye’s achievements will continue to speak after him. There is no doubt that he came, he saw, he fought and conquered. May his soul rest in perfect peace.

    I seize this opportunity to wish Prophet Emmanuel Alogbo to whom he has passed the baton as the 6th ‘Baba Aladura’ and spiritual head of the church a successful tenure. He already has his job cut out for him. May God almighty grant him the strength, knowledge, wisdom and understanding required to administer the various centripetal and centrifugal tendencies in the church.

  • Prof. Ibiyemi-Bello at 60

    Prof. Ibiyemi-Bello at 60

    Matters miscellaneous beyond the academia

    It was in Bolaji Sanusi’s ‘The Liberation News’ that I first got the hint that Prof Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, the ninth  vice-chancellor Lagos State University, Lagos, would be 60 last week Tuesday, through a piece by Louis Odion titled ”Bouquet for the Amazon of multi-tasking at 60”. It came out in the April 18 edition of the online newspaper.  After reading Odion’s academic treatise, and the piece by Prof Olatunji Bello’s media assistant, Seun Gbaja, celebrating this scholar at 60, also aptly titled ‘Diamond toast to Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello @ 60″, you would wonder what else to say about this woman that Sanusi himself referred to as “TB’s inestimable jewel” in the advertisement that he generously used to lighten up Gbaja’s piece on Tuesday, April 23, the exact day that she turned 60.

    Let me warn from the beginning that this is not going to be strictly speaking about Prof. Olatunji -Bello’s academic attainments. Many people, including this writer had dwelled extensively on that, either now or before. What you are going to find on this page today may look like a wedding anniversary tribute rather than a birthday tribute.

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    Please do not blame me. Their 35th wedding anniversary is around the corner, the wedding having been consummated on June 3, 1989. That was some 35 years before. I will return to that shortly.

     Different things interest different people.

    One thing that intrigues me most about the Tunji Bello’s family is not the impressive rise of the man and father figure of the family, Tunji Bello (known among friends and colleagues simply as TB), especially in public administration in Lagos State that has thrown him into limelight, or the pedagogy of the wife, Ibiyemi-Bello that many people celebrate also with her steady rise in her teaching career in the university.

    Rather, I am intrigued, first by the continued togetherness of the couple in about 35 years of their marriage despite their ‘Muslim-Christian ticket’. Tunji is a Muslim while his wife is a Christian, as a matter of fact, a senior pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, to boot. I guess part of the secret of her successes at home and in life generally is her choice of service to the Lord. It is worthy of note that her pastoral ministry is reflecting positively in her home and the diverse external publics that she must necessarily encounter in the course of duty.

    Indeed, I marvel at how the two of them have managed to stay together for this long despite belonging to two different religions. I marvel because in our country, too many of us are religious but we do not let the tenets of these two religions reflect in our lives. Imagine how the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Tinubu and Kashim Shettima almost tore the country apart. Imagine how on every street churches and mosques are mushrooming and competing for attention. Yet, imagine how the country is today despite our religiosity. Most of us profess our love for God but our hearts are far from Him. In spite of our love for God, our country has remained only potentially great ever since I was born over six decades ago and is still potentially great with over 20 million out-of-school children and about 133 million reeling under the yoke of multi-dimensional poverty.

    But that is not where I am going today. So, I don’t want that to pollute my mind or the minds of readers that may have been enjoying this tribute.

    Tunji-Bello’s marriage is 35 years and is still intact. I was there at the very beginning with our then deputy editor of ‘The Punch’, Chris Mamah. That was in the struggling years of the newspaper, so, we went to the event in Mamah’s official car, a Volkswagen Beetle. I still remember vividly some of the things that transpired at the time. Please do not blame me if I sound proud to say I was at their wedding. I am like any other rational human being who wants to be identified with success. Only failure is an orphan.

    I know so many marriages that were contracted long after theirs that have since collapsed despite the fact that both husbands and wives belong to the same religion. So, what is the problem? The problem definitely is not in the religions but in the people professing to be practicing them.

    Of course it is not that if you ask the Bellos they won’t have stories to tell about down moments in the marriage, but that they were able to weather the storms further buttresses the fact that the problem is with the human beings involved in the failed or successful marriages, and not the religions.

    Second, the kind of unhealthy competition or rivalry that you find among couples that are both doing well in their endeavours is palpably absent in their union. This tells a lot about  tolerance, home training, etc. especially on the part of the woman. This piece is essentially ‘matrimony-centric’ because yes, the man may be the head of the home; the woman is the one who is actually holding the pillars. Where the woman takes her home seriously, the result on the children is spectacular. Odion, in his birthday tribute on her attests to this thus: ”…The heavy burden of raising their children according to Godly values fell largely on the professor. It is to her credit that they have all turned out to be successful, adorable and well-behaved today”. This notwithstanding, though, it is TB that would now be claiming those children. In our society, good children belong to the father while ownership of the bad ones is foisted on the mother. Odion goes ahead to amplify on the attainments of the children, which is equally encouraging, especially in a country and perhaps world where most women now run after material attractions, at the expense of their children.

    It is not only on the children that you feel the impact of a good mother, it rubs off on the husband too. When I read Odion’s piece on her, I could see the invaluable contributions she had made in the life of TB. I said that much last week when I wrote about the First Lady and her contributions to her husband’s political and other successes. If TB has been able to come this far, it is because a great woman is also by his side. When you see a man that is nice and approachable, look to his left, that is beside him, you would most likely see the imprints of his wife, and vice versa. This is not to say that there won’t be some exceptions, though.

    On all of these scores, one must give kudos to the couple for their ability to navigate the ups and downs in marriage. Yes, I said the two of them eventually because it takes two to tango. A marriage crumbles when one of the parties decides that enough is enough. As the late Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola used to say, you cannot clap with one hand. A marriage begins to get ‘k-leg’ when one of the parties is tired of it. That none of them is tired of it shows their resilience and ability to tolerate one another. It shows the level of trust in the marriage. I can tell you for free that it is not easy to sustain a marriage, especially given the levels that both parties have attained in life. Tunji is commissioner-emeritus in Lagos State after being a successful journalist. Prof too has attained the pinnacle of her career. There would have been several temptations both ways; that neither has succumbed to them is laudable.

    Ibiyemi-Bello was born in the Olowogbowo area of Idumota on the Lagos Island on April 23, 1964. She attended Anglican Girls Grammar School in Surulere, Lagos, between 1970 and 1974 and Methodist Girls’ High School, Yaba, Lagos, between 1974 and 1979 for her junior and senior secondary education, respectively.

    She then proceeded to Lagos State College of Science and Technology, Lagos, and thereafter to the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology in 1985. She later went to the University of Lagos, Lagos, where she got her Master’s in the same discipline. Thereafter, she proceeded to the University of Texas at San Antonio, Health Science Centre, San Antonio, United States of America, between 1994 and 1998.

    She was as an assistant lecturer at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the first professor of physiology of the institution in 2007. She also served as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Lagos State University in 2008,  served as its acting vice-chancellor before her appointment as the 9th substantive vice-chancellor in September 2021.

    Needless to say that Ibiyemi-Bello had also served in various other capacities and bagged many awards in the course of her assignments.

    Nothing I have said should be taken to mean that Ibiyemi-Bello is flawless. No mortal is. My advice to her is to keep doing those things that have been earning her accolades even as she makes room for improvement concerning constructive criticisms.

    It is not easy to be ‘oga on top’ anywhere, not in the least a university setting. But if she has survived this far, not even the sky is her limit.

    If you see this piece as a birthday tribute, fine. And if you see it as a wedding anniversary tribute in advance, no problem. It was intended to be both, even if the original idea was to congratulate the celebrator who has refused to roll out the drums to celebrate her diamond jubilee despite its being a landmark. We had looked forward to a celebration where rice and stew would be very plenty. We had no choice than to accept the ‘ko sina dida nbe’ (nothing much) that the Bellos saddled us with.

    I congratulate Prof Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello all the same and wish her more fruitful years on earth.

  • Help from beside

    Help from beside

    For Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, the saying that behind every great man there’s a great woman strictly adheres. It takes an exceptional woman to be married to a man like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who can never be deterred from pursuing any goal that he sets his mind on. Considering the man’s audacity, many women would have ‘chickened out’ or done everything within their powers to stop such husband from pursuing especially the kind of political ambition Tinubu has been involved in, especially during the years of the locust that military rule represented for Nigeria.

    Is it the hide-and-seek game with security agents in the course of the struggle to return the military to their barracks that we want to talk about? Or life in exile where he fled to alongside other patriots when the heat was too much at home? Or even the many struggles that he has had to wage on the political terrain before he became Governor of Lagos State? The many back-stabbings by hitherto close associates and friends on the bumpy road to the presidency? As the Late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang: “how many, how many, how many we go count? Many, many.”

    It is no mean task for ordinary mortals to surmount these seemingly insurmountable difficulties. And the role or place of a supportive spouse cannot be discountenanced in all of these.

    As Tinubu was busy building bridges and extending handshakes across the Niger, the wife too was doing same across the country, especially with the womenfolk. Her main vehicles being her pet projects that spread across the country, with charity beginning of course from home, Lagos.

    As First Lady in Lagos State (1999-2007), she initiated, through her New Era Foundation, the Spelling Bee Competition for secondary school children in the state. The winner was then made One Day Governor of the state, and children who are not Lagosians had won this competition and occupied this seat at one point or the other. As a matter of fact, the winners of the maiden edition and the second — Master Ebuka Anisiobi, Maryland Comprehensive High School, Maryland, Lagos, (2001), and Miss Otiti Ovuewhorie of Lagos Model College Badore (2002) — were not Lagosians.

    Many of those who became One Day Governor then as youths have now become men and women, and as I learnt, they still find time to come together to share their thoughts. There are some experiences that remain evergreen in the minds of children. There is therefore no doubt that such people would not forget their experiences for the one day they acted as governor, with many of them telling Lagosians their plans and vision for the state. They would for a long time continue to remember the platform that conferred the privileges they enjoyed as winners of the competition and the person behind it. Many of them would have been in the vanguard of flying Tinubu’s flag in his political odyssey.

    Of course, Mrs Tinubu in her capacity as senator representing Lagos Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly from 2011 to 2023 also had some compassionate interventions in the lives of many Nigerians.

    And, since becoming the country’s first lady, she had also initiated some laudable projects to empower the womenfolk. In keeping with its mandate of empowering Nigerian women with enabling skills, her arm of the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) graduated the first set of beneficiaries of its Women ICT Training and Empowerment Programme last year.

    About 35 women drawn from across the FCT participated in the programme and were, upon graduation in August, presented with a brand new laptop and N100,000 intervention grant each.

    Also, in September, last year, the initiative distributed N500 million relief packages to about 500 families affected by communal conflict in six local government areas of Plateau State. There are others too numerous to name.

     So, what she is doing currently as the country’s First Lady is not new to her. She is walking on a familiar terrain, with the experiences she had gathered along the line, that are expected to be brought to bear on her present elevated assignment.

     I am talking about her agricultural support programme for women farmers under the larger umbrella of her husband’s RHI, in several parts of the country. My initial take was to see it as one of those projects, but it became a topical issue worthy of attention on this page when I saw that the project was not just taking place in a state but in several states in virtually all the geopolitical regions of the country simultaneously, except the south-south zone. It was launched last week.

    At this point, it became for me like the proverbial elephant that only the mischievous would pretend not to have seen and so would say ‘it seems something just walked pass’! An elephant is beyond ‘it seems’; when we see one, we should acknowledge it. I mean a project the magnitude of that undertaken by the wife of the President is worthy of attention and mention. Here, one is not talking about the quantum of resources but more in terms of the effects it would have on food security if faithfully implemented.

    Read Also: Varsity teachers jailed in Cameroon seek Tinubu’s, Reps’ help to regain freedom

    Speaking during the flag-off of the initiative on Tuesday in Jos, the Plateau State capital, the First Lady said the programme was currently ongoing in other regions in the country. Represented by Salamatu Gbajabiamila, wife of the chief of staff to the president, Mrs Tinubu said the south-south was the only region where the project was yet to be launched.

    Twenty women in each of the north-central states of Niger, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kwara and Kogi would share N10 million; that is N500,000 apiece. The aim is to boost food security as well as empower women in agriculture, hence the beneficiaries were mainly women involved in animal husbandry, poultry and fish farming. Only about 25 per cent of beneficiaries of the empowerment are men.

    “Today, we are flagging off the Renewed Hope Initiative Agricultural Support Programme for the North-Central Zone, in fulfilment of our promise to continue to promote the womenfolk, particularly farmers across the nation”, the First Lady was quoted as saying.

    She added: “Therefore, RHI’s commitment to supporting women farmers nationwide aligns with the broader national agenda to strengthen the agricultural sector.”

    Mrs Tinubu urged “all stakeholders, including government officials, community leaders, and non-governmental organisations, to work hand in hand to support local farmers to ensure food security in our communities and nation at large.”

    Helen Mutfwang, wife of Plateau State governor and the state’s coordinator of RHI, who was represented by Kachallom Gang, commissioner for higher education, noted the challenges that women in agriculture face, including limited access to resources, lack of training and education, and gender-based discrimination. She added however, that “this support will enable the women to reach their full potential and contribute to the growth and development of our agricultural sector.”

    This was the situation in all the other states where the launching was taking place simultaneously, with the wives of governors serving as coordinators of the project in their states.

    With this particular programme, she is not only lending a helping hand to her husband’s administration, she is also contributing to Nigeria’s efforts to fight hunger in the land. And when hunger is taken out of the poverty question, the problem is partly solved. One needs to eat and be alive to aspire to anything. Women have a lot to contribute to the efforts to feed the nation. Their attention is sorely needed to address the problem of food security in the country. This is why we should applaud Mrs Tinubu’s choice of the vulnerable, yet indispensable segment of the population, for this equally important assistance.

    However, for the grants given to bear fruit, and for similar efforts by governments and others to be meaningful, the government must be ready to guarantee security on the farms. The security agencies are trying but they need to redouble their efforts. Peace is sine quanon to any endeavour, farming inclusive.

    Moreover, transportation, especially in the hinterlands must be worked on. We do not have to concentrate efforts at constructing roads in urban centres to the detriment of the rural areas where the food we eat comes from. There should be easy access to and especially from the farms. The storage problem too must be addressed. The farmers should not be left to their devices after producing the crops. The best way to encourage them and therefore ensure stability of prices of foodstuffs is to buy off the products from them to cut their loss.

    Truth is, women are more dependable when it comes to money matters. One can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that the women that have been given the grants, or the ones still expectant would better utilise the funds than men. Empirical evidence has proven that over and over again. Many men who got such funds (or even loans) in the past spent the money to acquire more wives, among other frivolities. Even if women would be so much in love to want to shower such money on their lover, the tendency to do that would be very low.

    International agencies focus more on women empowerment schemes and projects affecting children, women and poverty for understandable reasons.

     It is heartwarming that Mrs Tinubu’s agricultural empowerment for women falls under this category and has therefore given it the endorsement of the United Nations (UN) that has expressed its readiness to work with the First Lady through the RHI in addressing challenges confronting the nation, particularly in these critical areas.

    Dr. James Emmanuel Kwegyir-Aggrey (1875-1927), a Ghanaian scholar and

    one of this century’s greatest educators it was who said: “if you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a family (nation)”. This is true even beyond the realm of education, and the reason for this is simple: women are naturally kind-hearted and compassionate. The woman knows that when trouble comes, she and the children are usually the most vulnerable victims. So, she would be willing to do everything to avert that victimhood. Mrs Tinubu’s empowerment scheme has addressed some of the issues encountered by women in agriculture. It must be sustained and monitored for optimum results.

  • Air Peace

    Air Peace

    It’s Nigeria’s duty to ensure a deserved air of peace for this airline. It cannot survive the present aeropolitics all alone.

    Even if all the airlines on the Nigeria-U.K route lower their fares below the present rock-bottom now, it does not detract from the fact that Air Peace is the reason. The fact speaks for itself. Before the commencement of the airline’s Lagos-London route on March 30, foreign airlines dominated the highly lucrative route. Of course, this also gave them the opportunity to exploit Nigerian travellers that were made to pay the highest fares in the region, while air travellers in neighbouring countries like Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic paid very low fares

    These exorbitant fares peaked after about $800 million of their proceeds was trapped in the country. Mercifully, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has paid up these trapped proceeds, or at least a substantial part of it.

    Before March 30, the two British flag carriers, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic were charging between N13-N15 million and N3-N5 million for business and economy class tickets, respectively, for the route. Nigerian air travellers suffered the same fate in the hands of other foreign carriers like KLM/Air France, Air Maroc, Delta Airlines, Lufthansa and even Ethiopian Airlines.

    The implication of the financial pressure that the exorbitant fares inflicted on Nigerian travellers became so unbearable that many of them were forced to suspend international trips while some, like students, looked in the direction of our neighbouring countries where relatively lower fares obtained.

    It is instructive to note that before these astronomical air fares, economy class tickets on the Nigeria-UK route was between N400,000 and N650,000, depending on the booking period, while business class was between N800,000 and N1.2 million.

    However, these exorbitant ‘gang-up’ fares fell like a pack of cards the moment Air Peace joined the Lagos-London route. The airline’s announcement of N4 million and N1.2 million for business and economy classes on the route, respectively, was the game changer. It confirmed the belief that Nigerian air travellers were simply being exploited by these foreign airlines. In addition to this was a 15 per cent rebate that Air Peace granted Nigerian students abroad. Most of them had hitherto been scared stiff of travelling back home because of the high fares.

     The reduction in fares on the Lagos-London route by Air Peace made its maiden flight to Gatwick Airport fully booked, as Nigerians could not believe that such fare reduction was possible.

    But no sooner had Air Peace taken this obviously patriotic step to meet the aspirations of many Nigerian air travellers than the other airlines began to slash their fares. Air France, for instance, asked passengers to book between May 15 and June for economy class on the Lagos-London route with N907,782 as against the more than N2 million it was hitherto charging. Ditto British Airways that slashed its fares on the Abuja-London Heathrow from over N3 million to N1,394,536 for economy class. Virgin Atlantic also slashed its fares on the Lagos to London route from N2,353,200 to N980,654 for economy class. Virtually all of these fares, except that of British Airways, are lower than the N1.2 million that Air Peace charges.

    But this development that saw the foreign airlines have their fares slashed twice within a month should naturally give not only Air Peace but the Federal Government and every patriotic Nigerian some concern.

    Although one must factor in the value of the Naira that has been rising in the last three weeks or so; that alone cannot justify what is happening with regard to these air fares. There is no doubt that if Air Peace had not come with lower fares, the foreign airlines would have on their own decided to be so magnanimous to slash their fares the way they have done. At any rate, they do not have any reason to, after all they are business entities operating in Nigeria solely for profit motive. But we should understand that they will operate in our country the way we want them to. If we want them to obey our laws, they will comply, and if we give them the latitude to operate as they wish, they will do likewise.

    This is where I feel sufficiently concerned.

    Air Peace has been shouting loud

    and clear that although these fare reductions were primarily aimed at it, they would ultimately hurt Nigeria. The airline’s chairman and chief executive officer, Allen Onyema, said “If they take out Air Peace prematurely, this country will pay dearly for it 10 times over, billions will be lost, there will be another heavy strain on the naira.” He added that It’s a very devilish conspiracy”.

     “All of a sudden, (foreign) airlines are underpricing, below the cost, it’s not up to one month, an airline was advertising $100, another one $305, $350. Fill up the entire aircraft and carry people on the wings, it’s not even enough to buy your fuel. So, why are they doing that? Their governments are supporting them because Nigeria has been a cash cow for everybody.”

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    The Federal Government must be interested in this allegation that is grave, if true; especially as it may seem harmless to the uninitiated about the aviation sector who may assume that competition is always positive. I hear even the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) frowns at certain rock-bottom fares in the sector. It would be nice if the Federal Government follows up on the matter as it promised. And it must ensure that only credible persons represent Nigeria at any forum the matter is tabled if it must get to that. We cannot leave the matter in the hands of the same officials who had been silent over the years despite the imbalance in the Bilateral Air Service Agreement( BASA) between

    Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

    I am particularly worried because Air Peace is not the first Nigerian airline to fly Lagos to London. Before the airline’s maiden flight on March 30, some local airlines had travelled that route with varying degrees of success. But they no longer do. These included Virgin Nigeria which started the route with only an Airbus A340-300 aircraft on June 28, 2005. Four years later, it terminated operations. Arik Air soon followed on December 15, 2008 with an Airbus A340-500 aircraft wet-leased from Hi Fly. It eventually stopped, under the receivership of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, following financial challenges.

     Med-View Airline became the last indigenous carrier to operate on the route in 2017.

    That means it is only the foreign airlines that have been reaping from this lucrative route in the last seven years. How come? Is this the result of their competence, better customer relations, the type and quality of their aircraft, services, etc. or what? We need to find out that they did not unfairly muzzle out the Nigerian airlines from the Lagos-London route the way Air Peace is crying they want to suffocate it.

    One must feel sufficiently concerned given, for instance, the experience of Air Peace, even in securing approval for Gatwick Airport. Onyema, said negotiations for  the route had been a long process and he had initially negotiated for any of London’s prime airports like Heathrow 2, 3, 4 or 5. It was when all of these failed that he had to accept the Gatwick Airport option.

    Even after that, it took almost two weeks for Gatwick Airport to officially welcome Air Peace. It is however heartwarming that the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, although welcomed the belated welcome, he made it clear to them that this ought to have come earlier.

    All of these may be a pointer to what Air Peace may eventually be encountering on that route, with time. But it should not be discouraged. Just as the Federal Government must be ready to support it even if it means applying the principle of reciprocity as may be permitted under best practices in the aviation sector.

    As Sindy Foster, principal managing partner at Avaero Capital Partners, reportedly told ‘Vanguard’ after Air Peace’s maiden flight, it was long overdue for a Nigerian airline to operate in the London route. “The Bilateral Air Service Agreement, BASA, between UK and Nigeria has been lopsided for too long. This isn’t just beneficial to the aviation industry, the reduction in fares, by increased capacity and competition, is beneficial for passengers. A Nigerian airline flying this route will also be beneficial for the Nigerian economy.” It keeps the money within unlike the foreign airlines that must repatriate their profits.

    However, one of the things we must have learnt from these significant air fare reductions is that sometimes this thing is not always about demand and supply. It is not just about economics. Other extraneous considerations sometimes come into play and displace economic considerations. The exorbitant fares that Nigerians paid for this lucrative route, one of the busiest in the world, before Air Peace pulled the wool off our eyes was just sheer exploitation that the supervisory agencies in Nigeria were, unfortunately, either ignorantly oblivious of, or simply chose to be blind to.

    Unfortunately, when some of us say that yes, the Naira may be troubled, it is not to the extent that we see in

    certain sectors of the economy, some Bretton Woods economists try to make it look like we don’t know what we are saying.   

    All said, what Air Peace needs now is encouragement. However, as Foster said: “Service is a product differentiator, and a high level of service, both inflight service and across operational services, are highly regarded by passengers. Air Peace has entered into a very competitive market and it would need to operate to an international standard in every aspect of its operations, it requires an elevation of standards.”

    Air Peace must also realise that international routes are more competitive and there is no room for laxity. The airline must be ready to demonstrate its typical Nigerian hospitality to differentiate it from others.

    Keyamo also spoke of wet-leasing of aircraft that many airlines are benefitting from but which Nigeria cannot due to past abuses. The Federal Government must do the needful to make Nigeria airlines benefit from such initiative. Air Peace has paid its dues, using its substance to bail out the country in times of trouble. Its present travails in the hands of hawks in the aviation sector should be payback time.

    With a lucrative route like Nigeria -U.K., we should not be timid in lawfully promoting and protecting our own. Everybody else does the same, and understandably so. The aviation sector is a trillion dollar economy that represents 3.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) worldwide (2.7 trillion US dollars); it has created 65 million jobs globally.

  • Students loan at last

    Students loan at last

    Tinubu replaces the ladder that wicked govt officials removed to deny the poor of educational opportunities

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on April 3 signed an executive bill titled “A Bill for an Act to repeal the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023 and Enact the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Bill, 2024 to Establish the Nigerian Education Loan Fund as a body corporate to receive, manage and invest funds to provide loans to Nigerians for higher education, vocational training and skills acquisition and for related matters”.

    The President struck the appropriate chord at the occasion when he said that

    “This is to ensure that no one, no matter how poor their background is, is excluded from quality education and opportunity to build their future.” The ceremony took place at the State House, Abuja.

    Under the Students Loan Fund, interest-free loans would be given to eligible Nigerians for higher education.

    Ordinarily, this should not be news, not to talk of attracting the kind of attention that the occasion got in the media. In saner climes, students loan is routine. But this is Nigeria where governments either do not know their raison d’etre or simply do not care. They therefore leave undone those things that they should do and focus on things that they otherwise should have left undone.

    It is against this sickening background that President Tinubu signing the students loan bill becomes significant, if not historic. 

    Nigeria’s first attempt at such a facility was in 1972 when the Nigerian Students Loans Board was established. The board reportedly provided loans of about N46 million between 1973 and 1991 to help Nigerian students finance their university education, either in the country or abroad. Unfortunately the rate of loan recovery was low and this apparently killed the otherwise laudable scheme.

    But it needed not be so. Just that governments in this part of the world are characteristically lazy and corrupt. What needed to be done was to examine the template of the scheme to see the loopholes and plug them. Nigerians are not necessarily worse than most other nationals when it comes to loan repayment. The problem is that, unlike other nations, Nigeria does not have the necessary data with which to monitor loan defaulters.

    Until very recently, the country’s attempt at providing Nigerians with National Identity Number (NIN) had continually failed. This would have solved a lot of identity problems.

     Since the death of the 1972 loan scheme, I do not think there has been any genuine attempt at revamping the scheme until now.

    Therefore, we must commend the Tinubu administration for being this thoughtful. The idea of students loan was one of his campaign promises and it is praiseworthy that he is working assiduously toward making it a reality.

    The scheme would have taken off since last year but had to be postponed to fine-tune it in line with present realities and make its impact better felt by the beneficiaries and the country.

    Even in Nigeria’s golden era, there were different sources for students to get money and therefore have hitch-free academic pursuits. Some had both scholarships and loans, some had more than one scholarship, etc.

    I guess what many of us grew up to know were bursary awards that some state governments used to give to augment the resources of their students in tertiary institutions. At the University of Lagos where I graduated, students looked forward to their bursaries and everybody around knew that money was not the problem of the students but how to spend it when they had collected the bursaries. I never got bursary but that was by choice.

    But if ever there is a time that students need assistance to further their studies in Nigeria, it is now. What with the skyrocketing cost of living that has made things difficult for most people. Even the nouveau riche are also groaning under the present economic stress.

    Whenever I see what many of our university students are going through these days, I pity them because, even if my generation did not have the best of life in our university days, it was not completely bad. We still had something to write home about. One, we still looked forward to decent meals in our cafeterias for as cheap as 50 kobo per meal! A month’s meal ticket in the universities then was N45.00 (forty-five naira only!) On Sundays, we had jollof rice (I mean jollof rice, not concoction) and chicken to boot, for lunch. Nobody dared serve you chicken legs or other unworthy parts of the chicken. I was even luckier in my own case as I had already gotten used to that right from my Higher School Certificate days at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo, where I did my ‘Advance Level’ programme. We were always served the same menu on Sundays.

    In other words, some of us still met the remnants of what our seniors enjoyed before the source of those good times dried up. My children and the children of many of my contemporaries always listened with awe whenever we tell these stories. They could never imagine that Nigeria was still talking about kobo as legal tender as recently as the late 1980s. Today, we do not even know what the kobo looks like because it cannot buy sweets or biscuits for babies.

    The wickedness in high places in Nigeria that I am trying to point out is that

    many of those who killed scholarship, bursary and loans to indigent Nigerians had life so easy in their own time in school. But, having got to the top, they removed the ladder, thereby denying others its use. The President alluded to the fact that those of them at the signing ceremony are in their respective positions because they were “helped” to get education: “We are here because we are all educated and were helped…”

     It was that ladder (read help) that Tinubu replaced on April 3.

    Education is the bedrock of development. Many other countries that we were together on the back bench of development a few decades ago have since moved forward and abandoned us to our fate. Our country is perhaps the place where the phrase ;’moving the country forward’ is parroted most in the world; but it has become a cliche because this is not from the heart of hearts of those saying it.

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    We have seen what lack of education can cause with the banditry, terrorism, etc. that we have been dealing with, especially in the northern part of the country. What is painful is that those who mortgaged the future of these youths who have been depriving others of their sleep in the name of culture and religion are still roaming the streets free, enjoying their ill-gotten wealth, while the entire country is paying the price of that elite that ate their youths’ future yesterday. This, for me, is the most painful aspect of it all.

    It is however gratifying that some of the states in the north seem to have realised the importance of education and are trying everything possible to encourage their children to go to school. The truth of the matter is that many of these children are brilliant; what they lack are opportunities to pass through the four walls of schools. They should be encouraged to join other parts of the country to take advantage of the students loan scheme.

     One can only imagine what would have been the fate of the numerous educated elites that the defunct Western Region produced if Chief Obafemi Awolowo had not introduced free education in the region. This is the kind of ‘help’ that Tinubu mentioned while signing the document. Yes, many parents in the region were, having known the value of western education, ready to do everything to send their children to school, even far back as that time. Some even sold their property because they knew that a child that was not educated would end up selling whatever property that is bequeathed to him (for peanuts). There is no time I write on this topic that I forget to recall the tribute that one of my seniors in the university, one ‘Perrow’ (not real name), paid to his parents in his final year thesis. He said he would forever be grateful to his parents ‘who gladly embraced poverty to give him Western education’. You may consider it an oxymoron, but that was what many parents literally did in the Western Region about five decades ago. Parents all over the country must buy this idea to lift the country from the abyss to greatness.

    I am happy that the new bill also provides for vocational training and skills development programmes. Not every child can make it to the university and not every child would be interested in tertiary or university education. That some children would not want tertiary education or cannot get it should not deprive them of realising their dreams.

    One other thing that gladdens my heart about this scheme is that it would mop up a lot of money that forms the basis of the humongous stealing in government. It is because there is a lot of idle funds in government coffers that people find it easy to steal in billions what should have been spent to provide services or infrastructure for Nigerians. This cannot be the case in a situation where government literally ‘scavenge’ for funds to finance their programmes and projects.

    Also, the terms and conditions for the loan seem satisfying. At least they addressed a lot of the inadequacies and fears of the earlier bill. For instance, family income threshold is no longer important, likewise guarantor; also, applicants may apply for loans to cover tuition and other fees payable to the school and maintenance allowance payable to the student, among other improvements on the previous iteration.

    But we all know that Nigeria is never bereft of good ideas. The problem has always had to do with implementation. That is my fear even on this loan scheme. I have a feeling that some criminals in the country would be getting ready to corrupt the process. I therefore urge the government to give the managing authority all the desired support to keep its data safe because that would be key to the success of the scheme.

    Moreover, revamping the economy must be the focus of government while security and power supply should also be improved upon. It is when all of these are done that jobs would be available and loan beneficiaries can be able to repay their loans, thus enhancing its revolving nature.

  • Tinubu: when apology would not do

    Tinubu: when apology would not do

    Ever before Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu became President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, his birthday has almost always been celebrated with fanfare. And when I say fanfare, I mean fanfare.  I have had the privilege of attending many of those occasions. At least since the country’s return to civil rule in 1999. It was an occasion that media houses in Nigeria looked forward to because of the deluge of adverts that the occasion usually attracts. This newspaper in particular has always remained a major beneficiary of such adverts. We usually smiled to the bank days after the March 29 celebrations because the adverts kept coming. Several other newspapers do, even if in varying degrees.

    That was when Asiwaju was ‘Oba lola’ (future king). If newspapers had such a deluge of adverts when the man was not yet president, you can only imagine what would have happened adverts-wise in his first birthday as President. Friends and foes alike would have been falling over themselves to congratulate him. That is Nigeria for you. Success has many parents; only failure is an orphan. It would have been such a harvest of adverts that vendors would have to look for truck-pushers to help them carry their newspapers on Friday, last week, when President Tinubu clocked 72 years.

    But, while many newspapers were finalising details on advert placements for the occasion, the President released the equivalent of a bombshell: no fanfare this time around. No congratulatory adverts. No fanfare, I can understand. Public funds should not be spent to congratulate him. Again, that is fine by me. But what is the President’s problem with people who want to celebrate him, I mean corporate and private individuals? Why stop those ones?

    Just follow the release: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will turn 72 on Friday, March 29, 2024. The day will be another important milestone in his life as a leader and a statesman.’’ Good talk.

    “During an auspicious occasion as this, it is customary for family members, friends, and associates to celebrate him in different ways.’’ Yes, yes.

    Then the seeming bad news: “As the leader of our country, President Tinubu, in deference to these challenging times, will not host any birthday event and does not want any of his associates and numerous well-wishers across the country to organise any celebratory event on his behalf or in his name”, the statement read. One would think the message was clear enough at this point. But the presidential spokesman went on: “President Tinubu appreciates the honour of being the leader of Africa’s leading nation at this time and he is working very hard to make life better for the generality of our people.

    “According to him, because of the present mood of the nation and the recent killing of the officers and men of our army and police in Delta State and the recent spate of security breaches by criminal elements in different parts of Nigeria, there should be no form of birthday event and placing of birthday goodwill advertorial messages in newspapers. Goodwill messages should not be placed on radio and television stations either” (for effect and so radio and television stations would not want to take the lacuna of their brand of the mass media not specifically mentioned to carry congratulatory messages on the occasion).

    This was a huge blow to several newspapers that had been waiting in the wings to pluck whatever providence made their lot through the birthday adverts. As they say, ‘at all, at all, na im bad’. It was really devastating because of the huge gap it would leave in the revenue of the newspapers. Even if they take speedy ‘recofa’ drug, many of them would not recover for some time to come.

    As a matter of fact, in this newspaper, we counted our loss as a result of this singular decision at some meetings we had on Monday and Tuesday, last week. We went down memory lane and tried to project how much we could have made this year if we were able to rake in so much this time last year when Tinubu’s fate was still hanging in the air; as in when he was not yet in power. Although he had as far back as March 1, 2023 been declared winner of the presidential election quite alright, there were still several court cases that could make his position uncomfortable. Today, he is not just in government, he is also in power.

    So, for us, the hope of raking in the ‘mother of all adverts’, the kind that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard (to paraphrase Bishop David Oyedepo), was dashed with the President’s order or directive banning congratulatory adverts for him on his birthday. Ordinarily, though; 72 years is not a milestone and so might not have attracted a deluge of adverts; but the birthday was his first on the throne. That reminds me of something that is trending at popular pepper soup joints all over the place; that the President should be thinking along the line of having at least an Abioye (a child born during his father’s reign). If that is not already in the works, the President would do well to kick start the process as soon as some of the troubles in the land subside. I mean when election losers must have finally accepted their fate, and birds begin to sing like birds, and rats cry like rats. But that Abioye must be from the source; I mean the official source. I need to make myself clear so that neither the President nor the acclaimed source would misconstrue an otherwise genuine piece of advice. I don’t want somebody to look at me with one kind eye when I have the opportunity of visiting the seat of power. No matter how long it takes, women don’t forget such things! So, ‘Olorunsogos’, beware! ‘Surulere’ is in charge! I mean no vacancy.

    I digress.

    This newspaper may have been the major loser in the ‘don’t-congratulate-me-with-advert’ ban, other newspapers also suffered to certain extents.

    As a matter of fact, it was such that when the paper’s managing director was addressing us at our regular meetings last week, and he parroted the same message, it was like ” what is this man saying? If people brought personal adverts for the president’s birthday or a corporate person did the same unsolicited, why should we turn them down”?

    It however turned out that many people and organisations obeyed the president’s directive, as only a few newspapers made some three or four pages of congratulatory adverts on the president’s birthday, apart from Tantita Security Services that went full blast to do as it often does on occasions when it feels like making a point.

    Hope is not lost, though. The President has promised to apologise later and I know he knows how to apologise very well. So, I don’t intend to lecture him on that. For now, the newspapers (that I here represent) have temporarily accepted the apology. In other words, we are GRATE. When the ‘mother of all apologies’ finally comes, we will then add the FUL, to complete the word grateful. I know that knowing Tinubu very well, the latter apology will be greater than the former. I mean the ‘apology’ would be heavily laden!

    Read Also: NUEE urges Tinubu to declare emergency in power sector

    While we earnestly await the President’s latter apology, I must say that his decision on the celebratory adverts was the best in the circumstance. Money is not everything. As a matter of fact, a Yoruba proverb says if someone is going in search of money and meets honour on the way, it is better for him to turn back because, after getting the money, it is honour that he would spend it on.

    Be that as it may, there is a lot to say for the President’s decision. And the presidential aide also did a good job of crafting the piece: simple, sweet-flowing prose. No contours. The land is indeed troubled. The economy is not smiling. Insecurity, including its political variant, is yet to be nipped in the bud. Power supply is still epileptic. Youths are roaming the streets in search of non-existent jobs, etc. A sensitive President cannot pretend to be blind to all of these. And, even though the government is taking actions to ease the pains, the fact is that government cannot in all good conscience pretend that all is well and celebrate the President’s birthday with the usual pomp and pageantry like when he was a private individual. His actions are expectedly more under public scrutiny today than ever before.

    As a matter of fact, I do not know how meanings would not have been read into the celebration if the President had not made the announcement, especially with the gruesome murder of 17 officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army in Okuama, Delta State, on March 14. That was exactly two weeks to the President’s birthday. The soldiers were only buried on Wednesday, 48 hours to the President’s birthday.  An elected President must be sensitive to the fact that these slain soldiers meant several things to several people. They were husbands to some women, fathers to their children, children to their own parents (for those of them whose parents are still alive), brothers, uncles and nieces to several others, etc. The President could not have been in celebration mode when all these bereaved people would still be mourning their losses.

    I must confess that I am impressed with the President’s performance at the burial of the military personnel on Friday. The different awards he gave to their families, his personal presence at the funeral. All of these would go a long way in assuring the families that the country the soldiers served is ever there for them. It would also incentivise those still in service that even if they die in the line of duty, their dependents would not suffer. But the government must follow up on the promises to the dependents to ensure that none is trapped in the military bureaucracy.

    May their souls rest in perfect peace. And to the President, too, happy 72nd birthday.

  • Lesson not learnt

    Lesson not learnt

    Okuama elders must expose those who killed the 17 soldiers

    After Odi and Zaki-Biam, one would have thought that those who hide under all shades of appellations to commit crimes, especially murder  —  militants, cultists, bandits, hoodlums and whatever, would have learnt that you don’t mess up with the military and expect to get away with it. But Okuama has proved that the lesson is yet to be learnt. But neither the youths of that community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State nor their elders have been at peace since March 14 when some of their misguided youths committed something akin to sacrilege by killing 17 military personnel in the most horrible manner. Those misguided youths have now brought calamity to their parents. That is why their community has suddenly become a ghost community. And the elders too are beginning to count the number of days they have gone without food and have had to flee their communities for fear of reprisals by soldiers whose officers and men their youths killed.

    But before further confusing those of the youths in Okuama and other parts of the country who may be wondering what Odi and Zaki-Biam mean, or is all about, let’s go down the memory lane. We need to do that to properly situate the Okuama murders in relation to Odi and Zaki-Biam. It is true most of our youths have access to tonnes of materials online, but most times, they are in the wrong sites. That was why one of them who was schooling in Ikenne, Ogun State, the hometown of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, replied some years ago in response to a question as to whether he knew or has ever heard of Chief Awolowo. The student replied that he did not know Chief Awolowo and that the only Obafemi he knew was Obafemi Martins! That is the level of the ignorance of many of our youths today. It is that bad. It may not entirely be their fault though; the study of History was for some time banned in our secondary schools.

    So, it is for the benefit of such youths that we have to briefly travel to both Odi and Zaki-Biam before returning to Okuama.

    Read Also: El-Rufai’s burdens

    First Odi. Dateline: November 20, 1999. The Nigerian Armed Forces, said to be acting on the orders of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, invaded Odi, a predominantly Ijaw community in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, killing many people and burning down several houses in the process. The attack was the military’s response to the ambush and brutal killing of 12 policemen, including a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who were passing through Odi. The soldiers were brought in to enforce law and order after the killings. They too were ambushed.

    Days after the soldiers’ invasion, many people in the community were killed while Odi was completely destroyed, with decomposing bodies lining the streets. Those that were lucky to have survived fled. Such was the severity of the devastation that some people referred to the attack on Odi as a ‘massacre’. But, one thing that Odi elders did not do that later brought calamity to their community was that they all the while knew about the so-called  ‘Asawana boys’ who killed the policemen but did not do enough to get them off the community until it was late. According to Goddey Niweigha, the community development chairman of Odi town in an interview with Premium Times in 2019:  ”We forgave the army because at those initial times when those hoodlums were coming into the community, we were supposed to stop them but we didn’t. We did not even know that an incident like this will come much later, so, by the time we feel let us go and deal with them “water don pass garri”. So we also blame ourselves somehow.” It is instructive that the gang also had some youths from Odi as members.

    Then Zaki-Biam. This happened in 2001 when troops invaded the town located in the Sankera axis of Benue State, and several other communities on that path, including Gbeji, Vaase, Iorja, Tse Adoor, Kyado, Anyiin and Ugba, following reports of the murder of no fewer than 19 soldiers who were sent to maintain the peace over a lingering crisis involving communities there. As it was in Odi, the troops reportedly reduced the place to mere rubble.

    The stories are too long to be summarised here and those not conversant with the events are advised to go and read them up. But, no one would expect that any community would allow a repeat of the kind of things that happened in these two places that brought untold calamities to the victims in Odi and Zaki Biam.

    Unfortunately, here we are talking about the killing of 17 soldiers, including four officers on March 14, in Okuama. The officers and soldiers of the 181 Amphibious Battalion, were deployed on a peace-keeping mission to quell community clashes between the people of Okuama and Okoloba when they were gruesomely murdered.

    They were Lieutenant -Colonel AH Ali – commanding officer, 181 Amphibious Battalion, Major SD Shafa, Major DE Obi, Captain U Zakari, Staff Sgt Yahaya Saidu, Cpl Yahaya Danbaba, Cpl Kabiru Bashir, LCpl Bulus Haruna, LCpl Sole Opeyemi and LCpl Bello Anas. Others were LCpl Hamman Peter, LCpl Ibrahim Abdullahi, Private Alhaji Isah,  Private Clement Francis, Private Abubakar Ali, Private Ibrahim Adamu and Private Adamu Ibrahim. Col. Ali, from reports, had distinguished himself in the theatres of war in the northern part of the country. He did not die in those battles, only for him to be killed like chicken by some rag-tag murderers.

    What is annoying is that it is after some criminals had committed heinous crimes that people would now be talking of restraint on the part of the military that is aggrieved. Even if the soldiers are only interested in getting those who committed the crimes and not necessarily reprisal, the fact is that people in the communities where such killings of soldiers were done would never believe the soldiers would not come for them sooner or later. Maybe they learnt this from experience. But, this is the more reason why the Okuama elders and entire community indeed must cooperate with the military to fish out the criminals. Unfortunately, rather than do this, they continue to shield them for whatever reason.

    This was what happened in Odi. It was what happened in Zaki Biam. It is the same thing that is happening in the northern parts of the country where terrorism and banditry have continued unabated. The terrorists, bandits, etc. live among the people. They interact with them; do social and commercial activities with the people and what have you. Yet, the people are not ready to blow the whistle on their identities.  

    We often forget that, yes, soldiers have signed to die for the country, that does not include premeditated butchering that happened in Okuama and other places earlier mentioned. We also forget that these soldiers killed were husbands, brothers, children, cousins, etc. to some other people. Attempts to reduce them to mere statistics must be rebuffed. They also have blood flowing in their veins.    

    Do those irresponsible murderers at Okuama have an idea of the fortune this country spent to train those military officers, locally and abroad? The country cannot afford to waste human resources that way.

    All of these explained the then President Obasanjo’s decision not to treat the Odi incident with levity. The same reason why he did not pretend not to see that something sacrilegious had happened when security men on national service were decisioned in Zaki-Biam. It is for the same reason that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could not fold his hands after the shocking incident at Okuama.

    The truth is; you don’t rubbish your military, the country’s last hope in times of war, and expect to be decorated with garlands for so doing. No government will close its eyes and watch the military being demystified the way Okuama youths tried to do on March 14. That government and indeed any country that permits that is already doomed; just that it has not yet found the person to tell it so. We can only continue to appeal to the soldiers to take it easy and go after only the criminals and not the entire community.  

    How could people who were going to mediate a dispute between two communities be so mercilessly murdered? Almost a week after, someone who claimed to be the head of the gang that killed them came out to allege that they were not in the place to mediate. Rather, they had come to take sides. How can that be? People that had come to take sides would have been armed and would have been more alert. They wouldn’t have strolled in without arms. Indeed, if that had been the situation, they would have been armed to the teeth and there would have been casualties both sides. It is going to be difficult to sell the allegation that they came to side the other community against Okuama in the situation where almost all the casualties were soldiers. Seventeen military personnel, including four officers, just killed without any strong resistance from their end? Those selling that crab should return to the drawing table to draw up more credible lies.

    Let us even assume the soldiers were coming to take sides, was that why they should be butchered like cows? Was that why their hearts should be ripped open? What manner of grievance would make any right-thinking person kill that way? Obviously there is more to it than meets the eyes.

    The gruesome manner the soldiers were killed suggested almost beyond doubts that the killings were premeditated. Giving the place of oil in that part of the country, especially the illegal bunkering and illegal refineries that used to dot the landscape, which the military and other task forces have been checkmating, it would seem the killing of the soldiers was the response of those benefitting from the illegalities to their activities that had been checked by the security agencies.

    Although the military authorities had ordered investigation into the matter, I want to agree with the view that an independent enquiry would be better given that the military is a party to the issue.

    Obviously, those who killed the soldiers were cowards. When real men commit such a crime, they stand by it. Only cowards would do such a thing and run away, only to be speaking through Tik Tok. It is the government’s duty to unmask those cowards and serve them their due comeuppance as a lesson to others that government would not take it kindly with people who delight in wasting such an important national asset. If we continue to deplete their ranks in such senseless fashion, to whom do we turn when we need their protection?

  • Blame game

    Blame game

    How to break the jinx in the power sector

    It is difficult to blame the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, if he appears to be angry or impatient with the DisCos and other players in the electricity value chain over the incessant blackout in the country. The administration that he is serving under has ambitious targets and stable power supply is a sine qua non towards attaining them.

    There is no Minister of Power that would not be worried with power supply going south at a time it is expected to be going north. It is particularly worrisome because things had appeared to be looking up in the sector up till the end of last month.

    I am a living testimony to this fact. In the Agege area of Lagos where I reside, power supply was relatively stable such that I consumed an average of about eight units per day as at December, last year. This dropped to about seven units at some point and even far below between February 2 and February 23, to a paltry 3.05 units. I had thought I was going to come up with a new formula to reduce the energy consumption in the house when early in the year Ikeja Electric hiked its tariff without informing its customers, but had to change my mind.

    Why? Power supply had worsened despite the high tariff. As at yesterday when I was putting this piece together, we have not had electricity for five consecutive days. Yet, our other adjoining areas have been benefiting from our darkness as power supply to them suddenly improved. I called Ikeja Electric Customer Care on Thursday through yesterday and the excuse they gave me was not particularly convincing but I had no choice than to take it. After all, this is Nigeria. If electricity consumers are going to be in darkness for as long as we have been in my area, then they deserve to be told so they can prepare. Rather than thinking the blackout is the usual one that would soon give way to light, when they know beforehand, they would, where necessary, postpone stocking their refrigerators with perishables. This is the least the DisCos owe their customers.

    As far as I am concerned, only an earthquake should make such long period of darkness possible more than a decade after privatisation. It speaks to the same problem of the warped exercise that saw most of the power entities in the hands of the present owners. It is important to stress that Ikeja Electric was not alone in the unilateral tariff increase though; others similarly did. At a point the minister himself was confused over this issue because he seemed to have spoken from both sides of the mouth. On one breath, he said government had not withdrawn subsidy on power and at the same time said government did not have the resources to continue to finance the sector! As a matter of fact, I had planned an article to be titled ‘Emi ni minista nwi na’ (What was the minister saying?) when he made these obviously confusing statements. Somehow, other issues of national importance pushed that out of my focus.

    Be that as it may, the big question now is: what suddenly happened that things began to deteriorate in the power sector since the beginning of this year? Is it that our power sector is particularly jinxed to be epileptic: an ‘abiku’ today and a normal child tomorrow? Is it so jinxed that we cannot even attain stability of supply for just 30 days so we too can roll out the drums that we have attained such feat? Thirty days of uninterrupted power supply nationwide? Is it not ‘washable’?

    At a time one thinks there are good reasons to be optimistic, something would just throw spanner into the works and we would be back to square one. As a matter of fact, I have learnt to restrain myself from telling people who ask me how power supply is like in my area. I don’t know the kind of coincidence, it is whenever I respond in the positive that things start to fall again.

    Read Also: 22 soldiers confirmed killed in Delta community

    But, as I earlier said that we were having relatively good power supply in my area last year, I knew of areas not too far away from us where they always had tales of woe because they would tell you that in the best of times, they hardly had power supply for four hours a day. I am talking of Tunde Lawal Street in the Abule-Egba area of Lagos. Yet, adjacent to them on the same street, the residents used to have power supply almost 24 hours a day. You can imagine how those on the ‘Maroko’ side of the street would be envying their ‘Ikoyi’ neighbours! The part that had light issues, I was told, used to have their power supply from Ile-Epo while the adjacent lucky side was connected to the Abule-Egba axis.

    Sadly, I hear the difference is no longer clear because the side without light seems to have infected the lucky side with darkness. I also know of an area where they used to have a similar problem with electricity such that they arranged to be moved from one transformer to another because those on that transformer had relatively stable power supply. Ever since they did, neither they nor those that had been enjoying steady power on that transformer before they joined them are having light now. As a matter of fact, it was as if the new comers took bad luck to those people there because their power supply had since deteriorated too. The line that they abandoned now seems to be better than where they rushed to.

    The truth is that you would get as many answers as many people you ask the otherwise simple question of what power supply is like in their areas. While some would tell you it is getting better, others would say it is getting worse. And they are both right.  So, what is the problem? When will seemingly ‘local’ issues (like the one that have kept us in darkness for over five consecutive days in my area) be handled with dispatch such that they won’t take that long to resolve? Five days and probably still counting, at least as at yesterday.

    Ours is a case of ‘the more you look, the less you see’ in the power sector.  All manner of things prevent Nigerians from having light. I remember at a time we were told that a rat clogged the Kainji system network, resulting into nationwide blackout. At another time, it is too much water at Kainji Dam. At another, it is too little water. Head or tail; we lose. We seem to get no advantage from too much of something or too little of it. At some other time, it was gas shortage. If any or some of these issues are not cropping up, vandals would be doing their thing with our expensive cables and other power equipment.

    When one minister tells us that the issues have been resolved finally, it is only a matter of time for such challenges to rear their ugly heads again. So, what is wrong with us?

    A lot.

    Yes, a lot is wrong with us, I can tell you that for free. First, the botched privatisation. It has become obvious that those to whom many of the entities were sold in 2013 lacked both the technical capability and the financial muscle to see the companies through. It was more of ‘paddy-paddy’ arrangement. That is why we are having light in fits and starts.

    Metering is another issue. A farmer that is worth the name knows the basic tools he needs in the farm. Our DisCos, for instance, do not seem to know the minimum requirements they need to operate as DisCos. If they did, we would not be where we are with metering. How could DisCos be set for operation when millions of their customers did not have meters? Yet, that was what we have been dealing with for over a decade. It is obvious the DisCos do not want to operate with prepaid meters. They would seem content with the estimated billing or crazy bills that entitled them to revenue without productivity.

    Even when the government came in to assist, the exercise was mired in corruption. You don’t blame the DisCos, though; the government too was culpable because it allowed both its own meters and those of the DisCos to be distributed simultaneously. This was recipe for fraudulent practices and we had a surfeit of it.

    Of course we also have the issue of DisCos not willing to take power even when the generating companies (GenCos) had been worked on to increase capacity. We have vandals who are making money from power cables and transformers, etc.

    All of the challenges have combined to make the power minister issue a stern warning that the licences of DisCos that fail to measure up would be withdrawn. I don’t have problem with this because we cannot continue like this if truly we want to move forward as a country. Power is pivotal to whatever greatness any nation wants to attain. But then, the minister has to be methodical by isolating the issues to be able to appropriate lay blame. For now, it is blame game galore.

    Let us deal with the problem of gas and know that we are through with that once and for all. Not that gas would be available today and would be scarce tomorrow. Let us deal with incessant grid collapses. Let us deal with vandals, however the government wants to handle them. If the punishment for their crime had to be made tougher, so be it.

    It is when all of these challenges have been addressed and we have power supply to sell to the DisCos and they still cannot deliver, then revocation of their licences would not be a bad idea. Recent developments decentralising power supply are also good. One grid for over 200 million people is putting one’s eggs in one basket; it is a recipe for disaster.

    As the minister himself had said, he would first of all sack whoever constitutes himself or herself to a cog in the wheel of stable power supply before he is handed his own sack letter. In other words, he would let something do those saboteurs before something do him. The non-performing power entities should not be the ones to survive Chief Adelabu. It should be the other way round.