The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Rivers: Is the law silent?

    Rivers: Is the law silent?

    Gone are the days that the law spoke from both sides of the mouth – unclear, confusing and misleading the public. Then, it spoke one language in peace time and another during war. Take peace for democracy and war for dictatorship. In the military era, Nigerians saw what happened as the junta used the obnoxious Decree 2 to silence critics and non-critics alike. That was our war time and two leaders best exemplified the period – Babangida and Abacha.

    The courts were silenced. They resorted to “blowing muted trumpets” on cases where their voices should have rung out loud and clear. It was that great orator Cicero, who noted in 52 BC that in the times of war, the laws are silent. That was centuries ago. The world has come a long way since then. Can the laws ever be silent in the world we are in now? They can never be. Happenings during the first and second world wars showed that might has no place in the global community, no matter how powerful a tyrant may be.

    No matter the sentiments of rights activists about the Nuremberg Trials that followed the world wars, the major takeaway from them is that there is no hiding place for tyrants. There can never be. No matter how far they run, they can never run faster than the law. The long arms of the law will catch up with them one day. Those behaving like tyrants today and treating court orders with contempt should remember that the day of reckoning is at hand. That day, ‘monkey go go market, he no go return’.

    The thing about the law is that it grinds slowly and steadily. Yet, it is no respecter of persons as Lord Atkin observed in the popular 1942 Liversidge v Anderson case in the United Kingdom (UK). Those trampling on the law today because they are governors will do well to study that case. There is a lesson in it for all men of power who turn tyrants, using their positions to oppress and suppress others. It was Atkin that turned Cicero’s saying on its head when he held in that case thus:

     “I view with apprehension the attitude of judges who… show themselves more executive minded than the executive… In this country, amid the clash of arms, the laws are not silent. They may be changed but they speak the same language in war as in peace…” These are immortal words. They speak to the situation we find ourselves in some states today as they did to the UK of Atkin’s day.

    Rivers stands out among the states where the law is being trampled upon by, even, judges who work hand in glove with the governor. Many of the judges of the state high court are in the pocket of Governor Siminalayi Fubara. They are helping him to wage war against their own constituency by undermining the Court of Appeal. It is unimaginable for a high court judge to overrule the Court of Appeal.

    It goes against the principle of hierarchy where the high court is below the appeal court. It is a cardinal sin for a lower court to overrule a higher court. Every judge knows the limit of his power. When they cross the line, they also know what awaits them. But many of them no longer care because of filthy lucre. It was a sad day for the judiciary on December 20 when Justice Sika Aprioku of the Port Harcourt High Court quashed the Court of Appeal’s verdict that the Victor Oko-Jumbo-led three-man House of Assembly is an aberration.

    Read Also: FG pledges adequate compensation for displaced Zungeru communities

    The appellate court had described the Oko-Jumbo assembly’s action in passing the state’s N800 million 2024 budget as a joke taken too far and ordered Fubara to re-present the proposal to the Martin Amaewhule-led 27-man assembly. The governor not only disobeyed the order, he on his own reversed it when he described the Oko-Jumbo group as the ‘authentic assembly’. The implication of his statement is not lost on the people, and that is, he will continue to deal with the Oko-Jumbo group, despite the appeal court’s decision.

    Fubara is fast becoming a tyrant in his determination to stamp his authority on Rivers. He can do that without being contemptuous of the court. He is carrying his fight for the leadership of his party in the state too far by treating the court with contempt. Lest he forgets, he cannot take on the judiciary and win. The earlier he realises this, the better for him and those benefiting from his impunity, lawlessness and rascality. How can he discard the judgment of the Court of Appeal stopping him from dealing with a three-man assembly and obey that of a high court which gave a contrary order?

    Fubara can fight his estranged godfather Nyesom Wike, and the Amaewhule-led assembly for as long as he likes, but he should be mindful of dragging the judiciary into it. Why make the judiciary suffer collateral damage in a political dispute that it knows nothing about? It is the more worrisome that a section of the judiciary too is openly flirting with him by overreaching itself.

    Fubara will lose nothing more than his position if he goes down in his fight with Wike and the Amaewhule group, but Justice Aprioku risks losing all if he joins a political fray that he knows little or nothing about. How can he explain it that he overruled the Court of Appeal in a matter? No wonder his judgment was shrouded in secrecy for over a week before it was made public after Fubara’s so-called presentation on December 30 of the 2025 budget to Oko-Jumbo and co.

    How can he be so audacious as to present the 2025 budget of N1.19 trillion to the same Oko-Jumbo assembly despite the subsisting appeal court’s order that it is not a properly constituted law making organ? Fubara’s position is that the Amaewhule group has defected from PDP to APC and so they can no longer be members of the assembly. That should be an issue for the court to determine and not for him to exercise a judicial power that he does not have.

    It is a slap in the face of the judiciary for him to use a court, a lower court for that matter, to justify his unjustifiable action of presenting this year’s budget to an assembly already found to be improperly constituted. Rather than advise him, those who should know better are hailing him for his contemptuous action. Let us assume that the governor acted in ignorance, but that cannot be said of the judge who should know his law inside-out.

    But then Fubara did not act in ignorance, he intentionally did what he did. It is left for the judiciary to respond in kind so that these governors will stop seeing themselves as being above the law.

  • The ultimate sacrifice

    The ultimate sacrifice

    The earth is littered with the bones of potentates who believed they were eternal. History thrives on their ruin or renown. Let this guide every Nigerian in public office. No matter how highly placed they are, providence eventually halts their pompous strides and yanks the rug from beneath their pretentious ideals.

    Fresh from the Yuletide, Nigerians must reexamine their commitment to the continuance and survival of the Nigerian project.

    There is no gainsaying the prevailing economic hardships counseled a low-key celebration, with sober recall of the ultimate sacrifices necessitated by President Bola Tinubu’s surgical approach to recalibrating the country’s economy.

    Through our sober recall, it is pertinent to ask if we are ready to salvage this country. We must understand that by saving Nigeria, we ultimately save ourselves.

    We need patriots willing to bleed for the country not those eager to bleed it dry. From insecurity, economic distress and the baleful shadow of indefinite strike, Nigeria has a lot to contend with.

    Last year, the Joe Ajaero-led labour union demanded a minimum wage of N250,000, only for negotiations to whittle it down to N70,000. Still, state governors balked, claiming they could not afford more than N60,000. Nigerians, in turn, questioned why public officers continue to draw extravagant salaries while ordinary citizens are expected to tighten their belts.

    The truth is stark: fewer than ten states can comfortably afford even the previous N30,000 minimum wage. Yet, Nigeria’s public officials—lawmakers in particular—live in opulence, draining resources from an already fragile economy. In the legislature, an obscene dichotomy unfolds daily: while lawmakers revel in luxury, the citizens they represent languish in deprivation.

    The federal government and the National Assembly must make concerted efforts to reduce the astronomical cost of governance, for the current profligacy is unsustainable and morally indefensible.

    The bicameral legislature, a relic of an era that imagined endless bounty, is an anachronism in today’s Nigeria. The maintenance of a Senate and House of Representatives, with their attendant expenses, is no longer a luxury we can afford.

    The numbers are damning. In 2024 alone, Nigeria reportedly budgeted about N724 billion on its National Assembly and 36 State Assemblies. This includes N50 billion for salaries and allowances of lawmakers at both federal and state levels, N294.7 billion specifically for the National Assembly and related bodies, and N379.28 billion for the state assemblies.

    This renders futile, the former Senate President, Ahmed Lawan’s previous argument, the monthly salary of a senator is N1.5m, while that of a member of the House of Representatives is N1.3m, stressing that the alleged N13.5m monthly salary was actually their quarterly office running allowance.

    Recent findings revealed that the Nigerian Senate President actually receives N2.48 million as basic salary while other senators receive N2.26m monthly. Even so, the quarterly office allowance (running cost) for a senator amounts to N52m per annum, while the N8m for a member of the House of Representatives amounts to N32m in a year.

    Switching to a unicameral or single-house legislature at the federal level could lead to substantial savings. Let’s assume we keep the House of Representatives, which has more members. By removing the Senate, we could save about N8.67 billion in legislative salaries and allowances. Moreover, the Senate’s operating costs amount to about N49.14 billion. If we cut overlapping functions and streamline operations, we could save around N50 billion more.

    Another way to cut costs is to make lawmakers part-time and pay them only for the days they actually work. This could cut another 30-40% of the remaining costs, because we wouldn’t be paying regular salaries and many allowances. This approach not only saves money but also incentivises productivity, accountability, and efficiency among lawmakers.

    Nigeria could save around N250 billion every year. This money could be redirected towards improving healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

    This is a pragmatic approach to governance reform that aligns with the country’s economic realities and developmental goals.

    It is never enough to funnel palliatives and incentives to mitigate economic distress. Democracy does not naturally spring forth from the soil of free markets. It must be grounded in self-sacrifice. A healthy democracy must frequently challenge the economic interests of the elites for the benefit of the people. Yet government officials and corporate actors address the economic crisis by funnelling funds and resources into the financial sector because they are conditioned to maintain and manage the existing system rather than transform it.

    Saul observes that the initial objectives of the corporatist movements in 1920s Germany, Italy, and France, which later evolved into fascism, were to transfer power directly to economic and social interest groups, to promote entrepreneurial endeavours in domains traditionally governed by public institutions. And to erase the distinction between public and private interests thereby undermining the concept of the common good. The resonance with our current situation is unsettlingly clear.

    Nigeria’s economic unraveling, exacerbated by speculative commercial interests draining the national treasury, has plunged the working class into unprecedented despair. Crime, a natural corollary of economic distress, escalates daily. Yet, it is not the insurgents or bandits who pose the greatest threat; it is the corrupt civil servants and the money-guzzling legislators, alongside complicit ministers and governors, who undermine the state’s stability.

    President Bola Tinubu must recognise the gravity of the economic despair and respond with a governance ethos grounded in transparency and compassion. No matter what his advisers might counsel, dismissing the miseries of the masses with the platitude “the end justifies the means” could seem prejudiced and perilous.

    Every presidential expenditure, regardless of its justifications, must avoid ostentation and disconnect to a populace burdened by stringent economic policies. Even certifiably modest expenditures are susceptible to misinterpretation and will only amplify public discontent.

    Read Also: Why Nigerians must support President Tinubu’s reforms, by LP Rep

    The government must lead with empathy, ensuring that every presidential expenditure—no matter how justified—is seen as prudent rather than extravagant. Tone-deaf governance risks igniting public outrage.

    His ministers must temper their public statements with restraint and tact, in recognition of the fragile social fabric and potential for incendiary rhetoric to ignite unrest.

    Perhaps the most heartbreaking subplot of Nigeria’s travails is the erosion of the middle class. Inflation, unemployment, and taxation have squeezed this demographic, leaving many struggling to maintain their status. Historically, the middle class serves as the backbone of any nation, driving consumption, innovation, and economic stability.In Nigeria, this group has become increasingly vulnerable, caught between rising costs of living and stagnant incomes.

    Reviving this social stratum will require intentional policies: affordable housing, access to quality healthcare, and educational reforms that prioritize skills for a modern economy. Without this revival, the dream of shared prosperity will remain elusive.

    The political class must also understand that the rage brewing within the disenfranchised working class forebodes a dangerous backlash. My visits across Nigeria have revealed former manufacturing towns now ghostly remnants of their prosperous past, their residents engulfed in gloom.

    This pervasive hopelessness drives many into the arms of demagogues and charlatans, who peddle utopian fantasies to a desperate populace. Unless we swiftly re-enfranchise these workers and provide tangible hope, our democracy teeters on the brink of collapse.

    It is incumbent upon us to implement humane reforms with urgency and conviction. The federal government and the National Assembly must work together to reduce the cost of governance, transitioning to a unicameral legislature and part-time legislative roles perhaps.

    Only through such measures can we hope to restore trust, alleviate the people’s suffering, and stave off the impending crisis that threatens Nigeria’s very foundation.

  • Obasanjo and NNPCL war

    Obasanjo and NNPCL war

    Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, a veteran of war, and proponent of ‘do or die politics’ that sees politics as war by other means, is set for war against NNPCL. Obasanjo, a formidable opponent with intimidating credentials is an adversary who says “nothing embarrasses him”, a warrior who routinely cuts deals with enemies of his enemies, or “an incredible opportunist” to borrow retired Brigadier General Alabi Isama’s phrase in his “Tragedy of Victory’. NNPCL must also be warned that Obasanjo is a fighter who in the words of his friend, Andrew Young, former US permanent representatives at the United Nations (UN), “pursues his goals with great tenacity without caring about who he made mad”.

    But this is not to discourage NNPCL; I will in fact encourage NNPCL to accept Chief Obasanjo’s challenge. After all, it is not as if NNPCL, regarded by many as ‘a cesspool of corruption, an organization deficit in character and honour and the scourge of Nigerian fuel consumers has much to lose in a battle over honour. It was only  two days ago that the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) was asking through its letter dated January 4 that the Group Chief Executive Officer of the body, Mele Kyari, to explain the disappearance of over N825 billion and $2.5 billion allegedly deducted from crude oil sales between 2020 and 2021 ostensibly for refinery repairs.

    All Obasanjo – who cannot stand being proved to be imperfect – wants is for NNPCL to stake its honour by confirming that Port Harcourt and Warri refineries are indeed working. And now with  a television station mischievously waking up trouble that was hitherto deep asleep, the die is cast. It is one more opportunity for a vindictive Obasanjo to prove he alone is infallible, the fact he tried hard to establish in his war memoir “My Command” and in his “Olusegun Obasanjo, The Presidential Legacy 1999-2007”.

    His current battle is anchored on the following syllogism: He had as president invited Shell International to buy equity or run our refineries for us on its own terms, offers Shell turned down. Aliko Dangote, the apple of his eyes, was able to put a team together and offered government $750m to run the refineries on Public/Private Partnership basis (PPP) His successor, the late Umaru Yar’Adua refunded Dangote’s money following undertaking by NNPCL to manage the refineries. NNPCL ended up frittering away billons of naira without giving relief to Nigerians since he, Obasanjo left office. Therefore, NNPCL’s claim that both Port Harcourt and Warri refineries are now working cannot be true.

    Read Also: Tinubu gave Niger Delta best NDDC management team, say Ijaw stakeholders

    Obasanjo might have not provided enough empirical facts to validate its thesis beyond NNPCL’s past records which seem to provide additional ammunition to consolidate what Obasanjo considers as an unassailable position.

    But that was until Femi Falana, the respected human rights lawyer, who besides Obasanjo who wears his “PDP’s award of ‘Father of Nigeria’ title like St Christopher’s cross, is in my opinion, one Nigerian, that is deserving of being called “Mr. Nigeria”, stepped in to provide the missing link.

    According to him, the cancellation of the federal  government’ Public, Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement for the management of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries approved by the Obasanjo government in 2007 was attributed to the questionable circumstances surrounding the deal. First, it was alleged that Obasanjo “in utter breach” of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act, side-lined Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), and “took over the privatisation of a number of public enterprises.”

    These include Obasanajo’s sale on May 17, 2007 of a 51% stake in the Port Harcourt refinery to Bluestar Oil for US$561 million and on May 28, 2007, sales of 51% shares in Kaduna Refinery at a cost of $160m to the same Bluestar, a consortium of three domestic companies, including Dangote Oil, Zenon Oil and Transcorp in which Obasanjo had acquired large shares through ‘blind trust.’

    Scandalously, the deals were consummated in the last days of the Obasanjo administration despite the four-day protests by National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) which also alleged that the nation had been short-changed as the shares acquired in the Port Harcourt refinery for $516 million were worth US$5 billion.

    Obasanjo’s case is not helped by the National Assembly awful report on the privatization programme he supervised. The World Bank for instance had defined privatization as a programme for middle-income countries ‘with a competitive market, a market-friendly environment with a good capacity to regulate. But as victims of cultural imperialism that ape everything, including policy thrust that have no chance of survival in our own environment, our leaders sheepishly followed Britain and France’s privatisation of the eighties.

    First to be launched was the Babangida’s Privatisation and Commercialisation Act of 1988, the Bureau of Public Enterprises Act of 1993 and Obasanjo’s Privatisation and Commercialisation Act of 1999. They were all doomed to fail.

    We don’t need any other proof than the 7th Senate report of November 30, 2011 which directed that the National Council on Privatization rescind the sale of Abuja International Hotels Limited (Nicon Luxury Hotel) for failure of the core investor to deliver on  some of the fundamental provision of the Share Purchase Agreement/Post Acquisition Plan; that the sales of assets of Daily Times Nigeria Pic by Folio Communications Limited and its directors should be investigated by anti-graft agencies and the sold assets recovered; that the former Directors-General, Nasir El-Rufai, Julius Bala and Irene Nkechi Chigbue be reprimanded for seeking approval directly from the president instead of the NCP as stipulated in the Public Enterprises Act 1999; and that   the Director-General, BPE, Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa be relieved of her appointment for gross incompetence in the management of the Bureau of Public Enterprises and for illegal and fraudulent sale of the 5 % FGN residual shares in Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited (EPCL).

    Privatisation of the power sector by President Jonathan, his godson was also a rip-off. In August 2013, 15 companies made up of 10 Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and five Generation Companies (GENCOs) paid $2.238b to take over 60% of unbundled PHCN after an injection of between $8-$15b of tax payer’s money.

    Commenting on this on the occasion of the 11th Bola Tinubu Colloquium that took place in Abuja, Tinubu had then observed that “The PDP administration shared our generation, distribution and transmission to their friends and cronies without very deep and thoughtful research and evaluation. It has now become pork chops. It was his view that “for a more constructive reform to improve generation, transmission and distribution, “the privatisation must be reviewed”.

    Unlike our one-eyed kings who had no faith in themselves, it is on record that Obafemi Awolowo and his colleagues who laid the foundation for the Western Region, today regarded as the most educated part of Africa; Ahmadu Bello, who put together the biggest business conglomerate in Africa, south of Sahara and Michael Okpara and his group credited with running the fastest growing economy in the world in the early sixties, did not quarrel with  the economic model foisted on them by the colonial masters. All they did was to adapt mixed-economy model/public enterprises to the peculiarities of their own environment and the special needs of their people.

    It was also unfortunately lost on our one-eyed kings that we have no capitalists in Nigeria but parasitic elites who have no stakes beyond taking whatever they can get from the state. We see this play out daily with importers of labour of other societies including substandard goods and drugs while thousands of our highly qualified youths scrambled abroad in search of greener pastures. We also see this among unpatriotic sponsors of violent armed immigrant herdsmen who illegally occupy our ungoverned forests in the north from where they visit periodic violence on subsistence farmers, killing, maiming and sending survivors to IDP camps while houses, farm lands and villages are forcefully taken over.

    Whereas Western societies are owned by powerful individual capitalists who in early eighties under Margaret Thatcher decided that public enterprises had fulfilled its historical mission of repositioning the impoverished poor of the post World1 and 11 period as average workers  Their historic mission was to guarantee system survival without posing a threat to the highly stratified class social system by being able to build a house without mortgage or sending your children to the university without loan.

    And for Obasanjo and his crusading colleagues who falsely claim ‘for our today they sacrificed their tomorrow’, we now know patriotism sometimes is not without altruism. It was Babangida, who annulled the most credible election in our nation’s history, in order to remain in power or swap position with Abacha, who put and sustained him in power through military coups. Obasanjo’s boys also spoke of alleged bribe with tons of naira stocked in ‘Ghana must go’ bags in pursuit of derailed third term agenda, Obasanjo has continued to deny.

  • Jimmy Carter: An unforgettable global citizen

    Jimmy Carter: An unforgettable global citizen

    The 39th United States President, James Earl Carter junior (October 1, 1924 -December 29, 2024) lived a full life and there is no doubt that his Christian faith influenced his long and exceptionally successful and impactful life. I had wanted to write about the late prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh (September 26, 1932 – December 26, 2024) who died three days before President Jimmy Carter at the age of 92. He too was a man of faith, a Sikh by birth whose simplicity, scholarship and devotion to duty touched the lives of millions of Indians.

    Of course Jimmy Carter’s life and death are of greater significance in terms of reach and impact because of the power of the United States. What is significant in their lives is the longevity; Carter lived over a hundred years while Prime Minister Singh lived over 90 years in a world where the average life span ranges between 50 and 60.

    Jimmy Carter was born in a small village of Plains in the backwoods of State of Georgia in America in what is regarded as the Deep South of the country usually associated with slavery and its enduring legacy of racism, segregation and intolerance. He rose against this background to the height of the American presidency, a position which he imbued with compassion, tolerance and collective governance in which he gave positions of prominence to black people like Andrew Young, whom he made ambassador to the United Nations and gave black people a feeling of belonging and presence in the United States.

    There is something interesting about American history and politics especially as they concern the progress of black peoples in the country. The presidents who made more impact on the lives of black peoples are usually from the Southern part of the USA. Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the USA from 1963 to 1969 was very pivotal in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 which enfranchised millions of Black Americans and gave them a voice in politics. It is not only Democrats that should be commended in this regard .Presidents George H. Bush and his son, George Bush gave blacks prominent positions in their governments but it was President Carter who opened the way although Presidents John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson had laid the foundation of Black empowerment.

    I lived in Montgomery county,  Maryland  more or less a stone throw from the White House during  the presidency of Jimmy Carter  and I was privileged to see the influence of President Carter in the unfolding liberalism in the United States even though he himself was regarded as Conservative evangelical Christian from the South which was regarded as the bastion of lingering racial prejudice against blacks.

    His fairness and honesty showed their effect in his foreign policy. He brought the Jews in Israel and the Arabs together  in the Camp David Agreement negotiated over a week between President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978 under the prodding of President Carter. This led to peace agreement and exchange of ambassadors between Israel and Egypt which have endured until today. It also led incrementally to peace between Israel and the kingdom of Jordan. Although President Anwar Sadat was assassinated for this by Muslim die-hards but this peace accord has remained the corner stone for which an eventual peace in the Middle East may revolve.

    Read Also: I’m focused on building a model nation for future generations — Tinubu

    President Carter also signed with President Martín Torrijos of Panama series of treaties in 1977 which eventually led to the transfer of the Panama Canal Zone to the government of Panama in 1999, a treaty which the coming President Donald J. Trump is threatening to revoke because he feels that American shipping interests are not receiving fair treatment vis a vis Chinese shipping.   President Carter also in December 1978 normalized relations with China following the tentative steps of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He realized how important it was for America to have normal relations with the People’s Republic of China despite America’s commitment to the defence of Taiwan.  He also felt proper relations with China would give the US opportunity to have triangular relations with China and the USSR. This step, President Carter in his reminiscence, said was his greatest achievement of his presidency.

    President Carter also signed in Vienna in 1979 with the USSR president Leonid Brezhnev the so-called SALTII treaty proposing a limit of the number of missiles with multiple independent nuclear warheads. Even though the treaty failed to limit the arms race, it however proved that the two superpowers were willing to reopen negotiations on nuclear arms limitations. The treaty was however not ratified because of the opposition of Republicans and conservative Democrats. The invasion of the Soviet Union of Afghanistan shortly after in December 1979 after the abortive SALTII treaty led to a freeze in American-Russian relations culminating in the American-led boycott of the Olympics games in Moscow in summer of 1980.

    Earlier on in February 1979, the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran, a long-time American ally was overthrown and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, an anti-American cleric replaced him and subsequently, the entire American Embassy staff was captured and imprisoned within the embassy. This was a terrible embarrassment which the president had to do something about. President Carter was advised by his military and intelligence staff to use force to free the embassy staff. The military air-borne embassy rescue attempt failed miserably with the loss of seven American servicemen on April 24, 1980. This sealed the fate of the president who lost the presidential election to Ronald Reagan, the governor of California who promised strength compared with President Carter’s weakness against American enemies. At the same time, American economy was suffering from rampant inflation affecting the whole world. With his apparent failure abroad and inflation at home, President Carter was defeated in a Reagan Republican landslide in November 1980.

    This was not the end of the Jimmy Carter story. He set up the Carter Centre in Atlanta Georgia and buried himself there turning out tomes of highly regarded books on the environment, peace in the Middle East advocating a two state solution. He was very fair in his assessment of the Israeli/ Palestinian issue unlike what President Biden has done in which he gives the Israelis weapons to annihilate the Palestinians while shedding crocodile tears about the starvation of the Palestinians. President Carter’s centre also went round the world ensuring proper elections and counting of votes so that democracy would have genuine roots in the will of the people. He teamed up with the non-profit organization, the HABITAT, to build thousands of houses for homeless people all over the world. The Jimmy Carter Centre was with other organisations responsible for eradicating Guinea worm disease in Africa and Asia.

    He was also involved in the control and eradication of other bacterial and viral diseases all over the world. He was for 40 years after leaving office, the unofficial face of American diplomacy in Russia, China, North Korea and other places where the official US diplomatic reach was not welcome. He was a man of peace and he won the Nobel Peace prize in 2002. The world has lost a great man and humanity has suffered an irreparable loss.

  • Time and chance

    Time and chance

    Just Like that, 2024 is gone. It went in a twinkling of an eye. When did we start the year that is now gone for good, paving the way for 2025 that rolled in yesterday? In no time too, 2025 will roll out just like it rolled in, 24 hours ago.

    Before then, as it is the tradition, I wish you a happy and prosperous 2025. It is that time of the season that we shout out to our neighbours and friends across the fence or street and from the balcony of our high-rise apartments: “Happy New Year” and the ringing response is usually: “Same to you”.

    The late irrepressible social critic, Dr Tai Solarin, had a different way of doing it. Solarin had a morbid sense of humour which reflected in all he did. Sixty-one years ago on the dawn of a new year like this, he wrote an article published in the old Sunday Times, which in its apogee, had a print run of half a million. The title of that widely acclaimed piece was: “May your road be rough”.

    What manner of man wakes up on new year’s day, of all days, and sends such a message to people? The public reacted in different ways to the article which I first came across in my English class in secondary school in 1973. It was one of the Comprehension we were expected to read and answer questions on in our New Practical English textbook for Form 1 pupils. As minors, I do not think that we actually understood the message in that thought-provoking article. We were just struck by what we believed were the article’s swear words, which many in the public, perceived as a curse.

    Who entitles a New Year message as “May your road be rough”. Only a man like Solarin who thought ahead could do that. His message was only asking his readers to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and be ready to work hard for success. Nothing good comes easy, he was saying. “May your road be rough”, he began. “I therefore repeat, may you have a hard time this year, may there be plenty of troubles for you this year… Our successes are conditioned by the amount of risk we are ready to take”.

     As it was in January 1964 when Solarin wrote that piece, so it is now in 2025 as we embark on another new year journey. Beyond the traditional wishes and resolutions that greet every new year, how prepared are we as institutions and individuals for the tasks ahead? Did we keep the resolutions that we made in 2024? If not, why? Yes, I know, you will blame it on the economy. Was the economy like this in 1964 when Solarin asked us to be ready for the worst in our search for our daily bread?

    He was only preparing us for a day like this, yet he was not a seer. We have boarded the vessel, MV 2025, which will take us through the ups and downs of life. The time to plan for what we wish to do in the course of the year is now. How can we improve our lives? How can we better the economy? The President has laid out his plans for the nation. For the umpteenth time, he promised to serve the people and make life more livable for them. Again, he acknowledged the hardship of the past 19 months, declaring that in 2025 there will be positive changes in many areas of life.

    Read Also: I’m focused on building a model nation for future generations — Tinubu

    President Bola Tinubu, just like Solarin knows that there is no magic wand to success. The road will be rough and things will be tough, but as long as we burn the midnight oil, we will achieve our goals. Success comes to those who work for it. And time is of the essence in attaining any goal. The race may not be for the swift nor battle for the strong, as time and chance go a long way in determining people’s fates on earth. We should be ready to grab the chance that comes our way. No opportunity must be allowed to slip away. Why?

    Not everybody gets a second chance in life. Some are lucky that they not only get a second chance, they even get a third and a fourth. This is why any chance that comes one’s way must be grabbed with both hands, especially at a period like this. The English bard, Williams Shakespeare, put it succinctly: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune…”

    When the tide flows our way, we should be ready to flow with it. It is by so doing that success can be guaranteed. In the face of the prevailing challenges, there is a ray of hope for a better future. The last few months of the just gone year signposted what to expect in 2025. The auguries are that things will work for the good of the nation this year and beyond. As they say, tough times do not last, tough people do. We must remain tough as individuals and a nation to overcome these tough times.

    There are no two ways about it. It is either we take the hard decisions now for the sake of our tomorrow or we do not and remain rooted to the same spot until the reality of our indecision dawns on us in future by which time it may be too late to do anything. Generations yet unborn will not forgive us for that. Let us travel the hard and rough road now for a meaningful and brighter future for our children’s children. After all, a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children. May you have a prosperous and fulfilling

  • 2025: Beyond ruin and rebirth

    2025: Beyond ruin and rebirth

    As we set out in 2025, shall we aspire to the possibility of rebirth? This minute, our collective persona as a nation manifests in the governor who stole $4.2 million from his state’s coffers and stashed it to fund his vanities abroad, not minding what good such loot could do in resolving the educational, healthcare, and infrastructure woes of his state.

    It is reflected in the shenanigans of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor who is seeking a plea bargain to escape punishment for his alleged conspiracy to perpetrate procurement fraud running into billions of naira, among others.

    It is reflected in the former female Minister of Petroleum, who raped Nigeria silly until we suffered the industrial strokes of scarcity and recession. Yet she frantically fights to walk free and her cronies are eager to let her off with a pat on the back. Thus the protracted drama of her prosecution at home and abroad.

    Lest we forget the governors looting billions of naira via “security votes” and hyperbolic capital projects, outrageous life pensions, among other frills,  even as poverty, policy failure, and insecurity devastate the citizenry and crucial social institutions on their watch.

    Our collective personae flourish in the antics of youths feverishly flying ethnic flags in support of their ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ lawmaker, governor, minister, and ex-CBN governor irrespective of the atrocities committed by them and the criminal charges levelled against them.

    Public officers in the executive, legislature, and judiciary embody our frantic culture of dubious citizenship. They legitimise our culture of being, which enables and justifies a public officer’s immediate descent into a basement of opportunism right after emerging as an elected representative.

    The latter locks himself or herself in that amoral cellar, against the ethical rungs and wise counsel of sterling statesmanship. As the citizenry sinks in wretchedness, he embarks on a quest of inordinate acquisition and counts his spoils in material possessions.

    He is, however, a mere fragment of our bigger cultural dilemma. Think of him as the pointed end of the spear of in our coliseum of greed, feverish pillaging, and criminality. Think of him as the trigger in our gunnery of violence, ethnoreligious carnage, and sexualised menace.

    In concert with like personae prowling Nigeria’s corridors of power, he reinvents with creative malice, the penetrative outcrops of our national maelstrom. Optimists would call them salvageable ogres from our primeval wild but their cruelty attains jarring resonance thus stifling the possibility of rebirth.

    They are our decadence. Our disease. Like the millions of citizenry they supposedly represent, they are products of our moral void, the sickly stems bearing our poisonous petals. Little wonder we suffer a carnage of incarnations.

    Yet even as we have rightly identified their emergence as an affliction of the eye and disease of the mind, our chances at healing are hindered by chinks in our surgical armour: the fissures of ethnoreligious bias, illiteracy, willful degeneracy, greed, poverty, savage ego, and sheer malevolence.

    These constitute severe impediments to our healing. Thus, as usual, we corrupt the debate on our complicity. We should be discussing and taking decisive steps to rid governance of their savage afflictions but they continually hoodwink Nigerians into a thick emotional fog over several issues of governance and nationhood.

    At the slightest prompt, the citizenry engage each other in intense bickering, often in defence of their ethnic brothers and sisters, irrespective of the latter’s misdemeanour. The people fall for their gimmick, threatening war and secession from the Nigerian enterprise in solidarity with their dubious representatives.

    Read Also: I’m focused on building a model nation for future generations — Tinubu

    It’s a familiar scene, a Nigerian reality that often resounds like the fable of the doomed Odysseus and the labouring ships. In the backdrop of these shameful proceedings, the argument persists in academia, social and political circuits, that the future is blurry and bleak due to youth absence in politics. But the youth had been in politics as armed thugs, assassins, arsonists, and internet trolls for several years.

    Lest we forget our more “youths” in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, controlling the country’s ruling and opposition political parties.

    Their clannish pride bequeath the country’s leadership to their wards to sustain their legacies even as they draft boondocks young as cannon fodder and enforcers of their never-ending cycle of sleaze and mayhem.

    But the youth are hardly the prey they are thought to be. They are often willing participants in a dehumanising ritual of violence and bloodshed.

    This minute, the image persists of the nation’s youth as dispensable tools of specific and random politicians. Unlike the artist’s immobile masterpiece, sculpted in bronze and stone, such youths evolve like plasticine, easily malleable and amenable to devious plots.

    Some have attributed their afflictions to structural banes and the perverse culture of citizenship by which they are weaned and ushered into adulthood.

    In the wake of plausible and often far-fetched analyses, too many ‘patriots’ conveniently absolve themselves of blame. Some propound the tragic theory of Nigerians as being innately incapable of self-determination and self-governance.

    These arguments have over time attained a language of their own and thus evolved as a dialect of dissent and exaggerated self-abnegation. The nation’s elite frequently marshals clashing precepts as solutions and in condemnation of the status quo according to their biases.

    A more damning view identifies the youths’ persistent claims of victimhood as a consequence of their sense of entitlement. Between hyperbole and informed sophistry, Nigeria suffers the affliction of intellectual miscreants and promising youth-turned-fetal-adults.

    The coordinated tragedies afflicting our consciousness daily, append the only real structure to our lives as impoverished Nigerians. From burdensome realities of fast-slipping youth, and recurrent rites of bigotry to the ethical quandary of coping with strict moral codes of adulthood and ideal society, our lives obscure in purpose and meaning. Thus the scorning of ethics by the youths for fast, illicit riches even as ripples of their actions keep hundreds of millions more in binds of despair.

    Consequently, the revolutionary dissent that sprouts from oppression is pitiless and unbending. It radically splits our world into ‘insensitive ruling class’ and ‘clueless lower class,’ ‘elite’ and ‘downtrodden,’ ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ It fosters even more fragmented discord that continually pits Nigerian Christians against Muslims, Hausa against Igbo, Igbo against Yoruba, and Itsekiri against Urhobo.

    While this piece too may resound as hackneyed howl and lamentation, it needs to be said that our ultimate solution subsists in our capacity for introspection and change that comes from within.

    Can any of the existing political parties foster a progressive nation? Pundits aver that they are programmed to a recurring cycle of self-destruct and rebirth while showing occasional flashes of brilliance and daring against familiar odds. But it’s all smoke and mirrors.

    Greening the Nigerian pasture is not achievable in a sprint or marathon. Think of it as a cross-country run. It is not a race winnable in four years. But who cares?

    As we advance, President Bola Tinubu’s administration must rid Nigeria of a culture of public governance dependent on administrative corruption and lifeboat solutions. To truly empower the citizenry, his administration must actualise a stable electricity supply and a better road and marine infrastructure; revive the agricultural economy, and ensure that all the refineries deemed to be currently working are not eventually sabotaged.

    Systems thrive by their human elements thus Nigerians humanise our systems and dehumanise them. The President must also be wary of the human factors that hinder the successful implementation of most policies and Social Intervention Programmes (SIPs).

  • Why we must probe Buhari’s zealots

    Why we must probe Buhari’s zealots

    Many Nigerians believe President Buhari, a veteran of war, lost the war against insurgency because of his mismanagement of leakages in the armed forces. Generals whose primary duty is the defence of the territorial integrity of the country lost focus and started competing as to whom among them would build the biggest university in his village. While the president remained indecisive, the war rapidly spread from its Middle Belt epicentre to the Northwest with the insurgents repeated threat to take over the president’s Katsina State driving many to seek refuge in neighbouring Kano State. With increase in daily harvest of death and seizure of victims’ land by immigrant herdsmen while the president writhe his hands, many, including governors of affected states, could not resist suspecting the president was complicit in the tragedy that befell their people.

    But President Tinubu made it clear during his last week chat with some selected journalists that he was not going to waste his time on probe, because of his respect institutions. President Tinubu, it must be admitted, knows what he is doing. He is in charge. As one journalist puts it after the presidential chat: “the president is in control”.

    But if you ask me, I will say beyond President Buhari’s mishandling of the insurgency war, associated suspected leakages and even the economy, I will say one area that calls for urgent probe is acts of impunity, which has come to define not only current political actors but the successive leadership of our country from Zik to Balewa, Ironsi, Gowon, Babangida Obasanjo and Buhari.

    A journey through memory shows acts of impunity has been tragic for political actors and the nation. Zik and Balewa’s act of impunity in interfering in the affairs of Western Region in 1962 led to the death of the Prime Minister, the collapse of the first republic and the subsequent civil war. Shehu Shagari as interior minister, in total disregard for the constitution, also ordered the deportation of Dingle Foot, a British lawyer, representing Awolowo and his 26 fellow accused, from the airport despite having a license to practice in Nigeria.

    NPN’s 1979 victory secured through Obasanjo’s act of impunity was short-lived. The party’s 1983 victory, secured through Walter Ofonagoro’s warped theory of “landslide and sea slide victory in opposition strongholds” was also short-lived as violence in Ondo and Oyo states forced the military to return to power.

    Once again, besides politicians who hardly learn from history, the major casualty was Nigeria’s thriving economy where Nigeria Airways had a fleet of over 30 aircraft and where the naira was stronger than the dollar. By his own act of impunity, Obasanjo destroyed an inherited healthy economy built through Gowon’s five year development plan and midwifed by pre-independence Nigerian visionaries including Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro, Aminu Kano, Edwin Clark, J.S Tarka etc.

    Ibrahim Babangida came in 1985 and in share act of impunity, hilariously declared himself president without elections, decreed two political parties, frittered away billons on building party headquarters, introduced Structural Adjustment Programme(SAP) that opened our country to imported goods that eventually killed our budding industries. He went on to annul the 1993 election won by MKO Abiola and whimsically imposed a short-lived interim contraption called Interim National Government. His perfidy signaled the end of his military and political career.

    Obasanjo who claims to only listen to God as president was no respecter of constitution, institutions or political office holders. He supervised rigging of elections, masterminded removal of party leaders and impeachment of governors and National Assembly leaders.

    Read Also: Presidency blasts Bauchi governor over remarks on Tinubu

    But if we must stop the vicious cycle, we have to start with Buhari’s era. Of course, Buhari unarguably is a patriotic Nigerian. He fought a war to keep Nigeria one, walking on foot form Makurdi to Port Harcourt. He served three years in prison for standing on the side of Nigeria against apostles of IMF and exporters of wheat.

    But like most of us, he no doubt, has his personal weaknesses. For instance, he has been accused of being a slave to his religion, of cronyism and provincialism and distrust of politicians. But this was a leader who in the night of many knives was betrayed by his close allies including IBB who after a consensus on policies thrust for the nation, turned around to accuse him of ‘arrogating to himself absolute knowledge of problems and solutions’.

    He also fears politicians. He had picked Edwin Ume Ezeoke, as VP candidate during his first shot at the presidency in 2003. He was however abandoned in court by Ume Ezeoke who went to join the winning party. In 2007, he picked Dr Chuba Okadigbo, a second republic senate president as VP candidate. The story was not different. Okadigbo abandoned him in court and sought accommodation with the winning PDP.

    In 2011, he picked Pastor Tunde Bakare. He was to realize too late that Yoruba as discriminatory voters, are hardly influenced by tribe or religion in a nation where Christian Bishops, Muslim Imams and traditional worshippers coexist within a family and are in fact intolerant of pastors with extreme views. Even while without “political structure, he vaulted on the back of Bola Tinubu” to power in 2015, even as Tinubu remained an outsider during his eight year presidency.

    But the act of impunity by those crusading zealots who falsely swear by Buhari’s name while serving other tendencies in his government and others who exploited his human’s frailties, is the reason why incorruptible Buhari, perceived to be above board, and whose military background was thought to have prepared him for war against Islamist Boko Haram, ended up presiding over an administration defined by corruption, that deepened  ethno-religion cleavages between  Christians and Muslims and left a legacy of kidnapping, mindless killing and insecurity.

    Topping our list is Defence Minister, General Mansour Dan-Ali. His unrestrained comment: “If those routes are blocked, what do you expect will happen? These people are Nigerians and we must learn to live together with one another. Communities and other people must learn how to accept foreigners within their enclave. Finish!” as response to the killings of over 70 farmers in Benue only emboldened immigrant herdsmen to visit more violence on innocent subsistence farmers in the north; it similarly set the tenor of response of  Mansour’s men to the demand for justice by victims of herdsmen who took over their land.

    It was perhaps this denial of justice by Nigerian security forces that   occasioned former Minister of Defence,  General Theophilus Danjuma’s 2018 clarion call on his people: “ rise to protect yourselves from these people; if you depend on the Armed Forces to protect you, you will all die”;  this ethnic creasing must stop in Taraba, and it must stop in Nigeria”. 

    There is also Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice. As against the pursuit of justice for victims of herdsmen violence, he focused on sting operations to capture and fly Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria for “inciting violence through television, radio and online broadcasts against Nigeria” and DSS’ midnight invasion of the residence of the Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo, because “he and his group, in the guise of campaign for self-determination, have become well-armed and determined to undermine public order”.

    While Malami was urging Buhari to sanction those who violated non-existing pre-independence grazing routes in the south, he was silent on the 415 grazing reserves established by the northern regional government in the 1960s “which have succumbed to pressure from rapid population growth and the associated demand for farmland, overrun by urban and other infrastructure, or appropriated by private commercial interests.”

    We can add to this list Garba Shehu, who has nothing against the setting up of 10,000 strong Sharia Hisbah police corps by northern Sharia governors who believe their priority was to arrest anyone sporting “indecent dress” but was fiercely opposed to the Southwest ‘Amotekun’ security outfit, or  “whatever name they call themselves”.

    That he picked up a quarrel with the late Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu for ordering criminal herdsmen out of his state’s reserved forest, but was silent Taraba Emir of Muri, Abbas Tafida’s  30-day ultimatum to Fulani herdsmen to vacate his forest in July 2021, speaks volumes about his true intentions. .

    We also remember Isa Pantami, who as the Director General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) was charged with developing the ICT infrastructure to counter Boko Haram despite opposition of well-meaning Nigerians. As it turned out, his promise to disrupt communication activities of insurgents had exact opposite with terrorist coordinated attacks on railway, airports and military formations and seamless negotiation of ransom with victim’s relatives.

    Impunity by our leaders and political actors has continued to be the bane of our society. We can therefore not delude ourselves by deciding to focus only on today because yesterday was gone. Today is but a reflection of yesterday. Today’s social dislocation, economic hardship, economic anarchy, unhealthy ethnic rivalries are but offspring of yesterday’s impunity of forced centralization. We have to decide the tomorrow we want today. Otherwise tomorrow when scores of other Emefieles with 11.4 billion slush fund and 775 duplexes and the likes of Bauchi’s Bala Mohammed Bello who is currently mobilizing to take over power in 2027 after telling us that all AK-47 wielding Fulani immigrant herdsmen are not only Nigerians but have the right to protect their cows against Nigeria’s subsistence farmers.

  • Quiet heroes of 2024

    Quiet heroes of 2024

    Some years are remembered for the wars they birthed, others for the peace they sustained. Yet, 2024 will be etched in Nigeria’s memory as a year of trials by flood and fire, famine and rigour.

    In the storm-tossed annals of the year, no figure looms larger than the vulnerable Nigerian—a silent warrior navigating tempests both natural and manmade. From the floodwaters of Maiduguri to the scorched remnants of Bodija; from the ruins of economic collapse to the invisible sacrifices of villagers displaced from their homes by bandits in the northwest and vengeful soldiers prowling Okuama, in the Delta; the vulnerable Nigerian has borne the weight of Nigeria’s failures.

    His most recent fate rattled in September, in the birth of a deluge. The waters rose, first as whispers, slithering through the streets of Gwange like a reptilian beast, until it became a roar that swallowed homes and histories. The collapse of the Alau Dam, on September 9, unleashed an apocalyptic flood, submerging Gwange and Maiduguri in chaos. Blind grandmother Zara Aji, plucked from the deluge by her teenage grandson, Mohammed, became a symbol of love defying calamity. Mohammed’s strength—wading through waters that clawed at him with relentless ferocity was a living metaphor for hope enduring even as the world drowned around him.

    The collapse of the Alau Dam was a calamity foretold—years of neglect had weakened its structure, and torrential rains became the final blow. What followed was not merely a flood but a merciless erasure of lives, homes, and livelihoods. The blind, the elderly, and the disabled bore the brunt of this disaster, their vulnerabilities amplified by society’s indifference.

    En route to the September deluge, Nigeria startled, on January 16, to a fire outbreak in Bodija, Ibadan, Oyo State – and this set the tone to a slew of calamities for a citizenry still grappling with a comatose economy and the austerity imposed by removal of fuel subsidy and floatation of the naira. President Bola Tinubu’s gospel of “Renewed Hope” indeed knelled emptily to a people assailed by soaring food prices and hardships that outstrip their means.

    The government’s plea for patience and understanding predictably fell on ears tuned to the dirge of unfulfilled promises by previous administrations. The man who cannot afford to eat today will not be consoled by promises of a feast tomorrow.

    Read Also: Nigeria in talks with Saudi Arabia to strengthens economic ties

    Yet amid the hardships, 2024 has been a year when survival was an act of rebellion. And in this rebellion, the vulnerable Nigerian has stood tall—battered yet unbowed, invisible yet indomitable. While the world looked toward the metropolises of power for its champions, this individual emerged as a quieter yet more profound figure of resilience from the shadows. 

    In 2024, the Nigerian people—scattered across bustling markets, flooded streets, and impoverished neighbourhoods—became a paragon of this truth. Consider the Abayomis, a family in Orile-Agege, Lagos. Once part of the middle class, they now navigate the shadowy edges of poverty. Kunle Abayomi, a civil servant, fights the relentless battle of stretching N100,000 to feed his family of six. His wife, Folasade, juggles dual roles—educator by day, trader by night—while their children, eyes wide with dreams, watch their parents’ struggle with the stoicism of veterans.

    Inflation, the silent thief at 32%, ravages the Abayomis’ earnings. Kunle’s paycheck, a mere ghost of sufficiency, vanishes like dew under the sun of escalating costs. For Wale, the eldest son, the Nigerian Dream—a vision of prosperity—has dimmed into a distant mirage.

    No doubt, the plight of those submerged by the Borno floods or left homeless by the Ibadan disaster is heart-wrenching. Yet, beyond these calamities lies a deeper wound—the pervasive economic hardship that has gripped millions. Aside from the  Abayomis, families like the Ezeigbos of Surulere fight to keep afloat in an economy where survival is a gamble. Chidi Ezeigbo, an electronics trader, and his wife, Nkem, a vegetable vendor, embody this struggle. Each day is a wager, their efforts constantly undercut by fluctuating exchange rates and rising prices.

    Across Nigeria, economic hardship did not just strain wallets; it reshaped the very fabric of family life. Traditional gender roles, long enshrined in the patriarchal ethos, began to blur as the archetypal patriarch, once a figure of unchallenged authority, now shares his throne with women who step into roles once deemed unconventional. For instance, Folasade Abayomi, Nkem Ezeigbo, and countless others are not just wives or mothers; they are breadwinners and strategists, navigating the maze of survival with ingenuity and resolve. Yet, this shift is not without its tensions. For several families, the shifting balance of financial power sowed discord, challenging long-held notions of authority and unity.

    For decades, the Nigerian Dream shimmered as a lighthouse of hope—a promise of upward mobility, wealth, and security. Today, it stands fractured, its once-clear vision obscured by the haze of economic turmoil.

    The family, once a solid institution, now stands like a cracked mirror, reflecting the distortion of a once-cherished social ideal. For many it’s prosperity, for others, its career success, stardom or decent living. The parameters for ascertaining true prosperity varies from family to family, from one individual to another.

    Gender roles have shifted, authority has been questioned, and the lines between right and wrong have blurred beyond recognition, argued Adeyinka Somide, a sociologist and retired headteacher.

    As families struggle to recalibrate their lives in the wake of economic upheaval, they are faced with the harsh truth: survival often demands compromise. Parents who once preached virtue learnt to permit some ‘harmless’ vice. Sons and daughters, once guided by the moral teachings of their homes, now wander through a world of crime and moral ambiguity, driven by a sheer will to survive.

    No one can pretend we didn’t see this coming. The signs had always been evident as the noonday sun, looming for decades. Many saw it unfold but preferred to shrug it off, imagining that the ship of state was still on course, even as it drifted towards the gorge.

    But the worst has dawned in real-time. The consequences pervade the country, palpable in the air, like a suffocating fog clinging to every breath.

    In 2024, vulnerable Nigerians become a mirror reflecting the best and worst of our collective humanity. Their lives tell stories of a country that has failed its most fragile citizenry yet relies on their silent strength to persevere.

    Let their travails remind us that our survival as a nation hinges on the survival of Nigeria’s most fragile. As the floodwaters recede and the flames die down, the scars remain—on the land, on the people, and on the collective conscience of a nation grappling with severe economic hardships imposed by surgical policy reforms. These scars are a challenge to policymakers, and aid organisations, to ensure that vulnerability does not mean invisibility.

    The government, social workers, activists, and survivors must work together to achieve systemic change: better infrastructure, inclusive disaster response plans, and targeted support for the marginalized.

    The vulnerable Nigerian stands as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, reminding us that while economic hardship and nature’s wrath may be inevitable, our response to them is not. In their survival, they teach us that resilience is not a gift but a shared responsibility. They are the epitomes of courage, the bearers of burdens, and the silent architects of hope.

    The poetry of their endurance embellishes the Nigerian narrative of 2024.

  • Y2024 as mixed bag for me and as a Nigerian

    Y2024 as mixed bag for me and as a Nigerian

    Thank God the year 2024 is coming gradually to an end. On the international scene, there have been wars in Europe waged on Ukraine by Russia, wars in Gaza and Lebanon by Israel and growing unease between Israel and Iran. All across the Sahel in the Sahara, the countries have been plagued by Jihadist insurgencies of one kind or the other. These insurgencies are mixtures of racism and fundamentalism but camouflaged as going back to the old time religion of the prophet!

    Muslims are supposed to be brothers and it is very problematic interpreting these Sahelian wars as religious. Our country Nigeria has not been spared.  In fact, for almost a decade, we have been bogged down in the far north of our country fighting rebels claiming to be fighting to purify adherents of Islam. Nigeria has coordinated its response with the republics of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin in its resistance and pacification of the distressed areas of the Northwest and Northeast. The inability of France to see to the end of these conflicts in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger as the dependent governments of those countries would have wanted, has had ramifying effects on the politics and economic situation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). There has been military coups d’état or change of governments in some of the Francophone countries and expulsion of France and the withdrawal of the United States’ military presence in Niger and Chad for example. The call for restoration of democratic rule in the ECOWAS countries has precipitated crises in the sub-region and has led to the formation of an association of Sahelian states of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and their consequent withdrawal from ECOWAS.

    We have not seen the end of the crisis yet. Wars have been raging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR) as well as the Sudan proper and in the new Southern Sudan Republic. The war in the Congo is not new and this has been going on and off for more than a decade tying down considerable numbers of United Nations troops and sometimes intervention from neighbouring countries of Zimbabwe, Angola, Uganda and Rwanda. The war in the Sudan has largely been ignored because the lives being lost in thousands are African lives that the world apparently regards as expendable because little attention is paid to it when compared with other areas of conflict in the world. It could also be the world is suffering from the ennui of African conflicts being the norm rather than the exception. In Asia, wars have broken out for almost a decade between the government and the rebels in Myanmar leading to thousands of death. Only The Americas, Australia and Western Europe have been spared the scourge of war.

    Read Also: Shettima reassures Nigerians of govt’s commitment to welfare, security

    But we can generalize that wars are still a rarity in current human affairs, while the areas termed “federations of peace “remain the norm. The world is however like the human body. When one part hurts a little, the whole body hurts. To drive this point home, the global inflation leading to human distress and hunger in many parts of the world are not unrelated to the disruption of the supply chain which the wars have affected in a closely integrated global economy. The cost of bread globally particularly in Africa, Europe and the Middle East has skyrocketed because the disruption of shipping in the Black Sea has affected the trade in wheat from Russia and Ukraine. The war itself has poisoned relations between Russia and the West to such an extent that Russia is threatening to use nuclear weapons. The situation is becoming more and more complicated to the extent that North Koreans are fighting on the side of Russia and the war in a small European theatre is taking on the colour of a global conflict. 

    The whole world is waiting for Donald Trump’s promised magic of ending the war in a jiffy when he is sworn in as president of the United States on January 20. Since the end of the Second World War, the conflict in Ukraine, apart from the Cuban Crisis of 1962, is the closest thing in which Russia and the United States have come to direct confrontation with dire consequences for global peace. The war in the Middle East between Israel and Iranian proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, may yet spill over to Syria which is in a state of political flux and its neighbours, Israel and Turkey are carving out territorial areas of influence may yet lead to more complexity in which America may be involved when President Trump assumes power in the United States in January 2025.

    The threat to the world from global warming and adverse climatic change has also not abated. The extreme weather that is becoming the norm all over the world poses existential threat to the world the only habitable planet we know of. It does not seem some politicians like Donald Trump who doubt the scientifically proven case of global warming are ready to slow down industrial and human activities in order to save the environment. The series of conferences of parties on how to reverse the trend of global warming has become a global jamboree in which nothing changes because people put national economies before environmental enhancement and the tendency nowadays is to kick enhancement measures forward. In the meantime, while the climate problem confronts humanity with threat of annihilation, pandemic diseases are not far behind and it does not seem mankind is more prepared than what happened to the world with Covid-19 when millions of deaths were recorded all over the world including in the most technologically advanced economies.

    Coming home to our country Nigeria, we have had a bad patch this year to put it in a diplomatic language. Prices of everything have soared because of the geometrical decline of the national currency. It is not just the cost of imports that are beyond the average consumer, local farm produce like vegetables, fruits and other necessities of life because of the cost of transportation are also priced out of their purchasing power.

    I have sympathy for those in government who have had to bear the anger of the masses. I have had to tell people that every government would like to be popular if it had the means and that I have not seen a government that would create an unfavourable environment for itself because of the harshness of economic conditions. A dictatorship that is not answerable to the people would enjoy the people’s support, if the economy was buoyant. Having said this, any democratic government must do all it can to work for the happiness of the greatest number of its people. It is obvious to me that previous governments in this country have lived beyond their means and our people have eaten the fruits and the seeds of the harvest without investing for the future. We mismanaged our economy from the 1970s till the present economic crisis. If we had industrialized the country and developed agriculture and built an excellent infrastructure, we would not have had a national currency that is virtually worthless. With all the natural resources both human and economic that we have, our Naira should be worth more than this.

    But I can see some light at the end of a dark long tunnel. We should in the foreseeable future, never have to import refined petroleum and its products. If the roads under construction linking the North from Sokoto to Badagry and the West with the East from Lagos to Calabar reach approachable levels of development and open up the country, they should affect agricultural production and trade as long as other means of transportation like railways, other arterial roads and aviation and shipping are not neglected. It also seems that the activities of the rampaging cattle herders have been curtailed. All governments of the federation, local, state and federal, should assist businesses to create jobs to absorb the teeming population of our youth whose empty stomachs pose a terrible danger to the security of our country.

    If the country was safer than it is now, people will be traveling more than they are doing now and that will reduce the pent up tension in the country due to emotional hardship of not seeing relatives as it used to be in the past. Governments should communicate more often than now with the governed. Those in government should scale down conspicuous consumption manifesting in huge houses and retinue of staff and fleets of cars and generally lavish living which gives the impression that government is dishonest when it asks people to tighten their belts. 

    Above all ,governments must do whatever it takes to drastically bring the cost of living down so that our people will not be dying needlessly struggling to share free food donated by churches, government parastatals and non-governmental organizations. The state and local governments must be challenged by the citizens to be aware of and alive to their responsibilities as the governments closer to the grassroots and the source of the people’s problems. The people must also rise to the present challenging situation and work at getting out of the proverbial poverty Africans appear condemned to. Our hope is that the year 2025 will be better.

    Personally, I pray that I will be happier next year and not suffer the loss of any young member of my family as I have this year. The death of Jumoke, my niece but more like a daughter because I brought her up like my own child has brought the futility of life graphically to me. I feel like what an American cynic said that “life stinks”.

  • The statesman president

    The statesman president

    The hallmark of a good leader is the ability to do what you have to do at the time it ought to be done – Tinubu

    AFTER a long lull, the Presidential Media Chat (PMC) returned on Monday, with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the hot seat. Tinubu is no stranger to crossing swords with the media. He likes to talk and sell himself and his ideology to the people . But he does it with tact. He does not just go into a talk for the fun of it. It is for a purpose.

    If Tinubu chooses not to talk, it must be for a reason. Many may not know this and you would find them joining his detractors to insinuate that he is running away from a debate. Run away from a debate? Then, they do not know who the man Tinubu is. His maiden PMC should by now have cleared all their doubts about his ability to hold his own in a conversation.

    From the start to the end, the President was in charge. He took all the questions in his strides. He did not dodge any; he even went out of his way to answer certain questions, to the shock of his interviewers some of who looked askance. Their looks said it all: “Is this the same Tinubu that we have known for years?” The President carried the day, with the way he tackled the issues and comported himself. He concurred when he was told by an interviewer that he could not assess himself.

    Even though he argued that he could mark his own script, he was quick to recall the advice against self assessment and grading when he jokingly told another interviewer that he had been cautioned against “assessing myself”. There was no dull moment during the hour-long chat. He caught the questions as they were thrown at him, as the Yoruba would say. He spoke frankly and with candour. It was vintage Tinubu. It was no holds barred. The President was down-to-earth and courageous in his answers.

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    Of course, many may not like some of his answers because he was forceful and bold to a fault. Call it audacity, if you like, but one thing you cannot take away from him, is that Tinubu was presidential in his outing. He spoke like a true leader with the love of his people at heart. Everything he said centred around the people and his desire to meet their expectations. He knows that some of his actions so far have been hard, but according to him, they are decisions to be taken to secure the future of our country.

    Nigeria has been adrift for long. The President is not interested in what happened in the past. He is interested more in the present and how to make things work for a better future. “We were deceiving ourselves”, he said in his opening response to a question on petrol subsidy removal. “We cannot continue to give away subsidised fuel, while neighbouring countries benefit at our expense, like Father Christmas. I have no regrets about removing the subsidy. It was necessary. We cannot spend the investments of future generations today”.

    To him, the pains of today’s removal of petrol subsidy will be tomorrow’s gains of a better and improved livelihood for the masses who have for ages borne the brunt of the poor management of the economy. “Yes, we have taken wrong turns in the past, but I am focused on creating prosperity for Nigeria. We must think of tomorrow, starting today”, he said.

    Some analysts would say he courted trouble in some of his responses. They would have preferred that he remained politically correct by exercising restraint on controversial issues like the Tax Reform Bills which northern governors are kicking against. Tinubu is not known to do things in half measures. It is either he believes in something or he does not. Once he makes up his mind about a thing, he pursues it to logical conclusion. He has seen the good in the proposed tax reforms, which he said, are “pro-poor”.

    “The tax reform is here to stay. It is to widen the tax net so that we can have more people paying… Tax matters are subjects of debates and negotiations…”, the President said. He might also be taking up on his reaction to the stampedes in which over 60 persons were killed in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Okija in Anambra State, and Abuja. While condoling with the bereaved families, the President blamed the incidents on indiscipline and lack of organisation.

    “Losing lives in such a manner is tragic. Organisers need to ensure proper discipline and organisation in society. My condolences go to the affected families… I understand the importance of proper organisation to avoid such mishaps. It is critical that if you do not have enough to give, you do not attempt to publicise it or create chaos. This incident is a grave error on the part of the organisers, and we must learn from it”, Tinubu.

    The President can be brutally frank. That is his nature. But it does not detract from his humaneness and compassion. He is a known giver and he does so unstintingly without looking at the personal cost to himself. As the father of the nation, he might have spoken from the point of pain of losing people, his children so to say, at a season like this. A season of love, care, giving and sharing. But what has happened has happened. What we should be thinking of now, as he said, is how to avert a recurrence during future festive seasons.

    As the President said, the incidents should not ‘kill the joy of the season’. He has revived the PMC, with his incredible performance. He ended the chat with a message of hope. Urging Nigerians not to despair in the face of the prevailing challenges, the President said: “Year 2025 is very promising. I’m here to serve. I seek your cooperation at all times; I seek your understanding. I’m aware of the trouble you’ve been through. But it’s just 18 months since I’ve taken over the reins of government… The promise is there… Tomorrow will bring a glorious dawn”.

    The President’s optimism is infectious. Things can only get better after all the toils and turmoils of the past years. Despite all the stress and strifes, there is still cause to cheer. So, compliments of the Season, dear reader.