The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Growing old: Personal testimony

    Growing old: Personal testimony

    General Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) was reported to have said old age is like a plague which affects everyone. The meaning of this statement is clear because whether one likes it or not, and if one is lucky to reach old age since only eight percent of the world’s population reaches that age bracket, one is bound to go through several experiences before the curtains are drawn.

    I was in France collecting data for my PhD when General de Gaulle made this statement around 1968 when he was already 78 and had been holding leadership positions of the French people since becoming leader of “Free France” from 1944 to 1946 and had been president of France for many years from 1958 to 1969. He witnessed the radical students uprising of Daniel Cohn- Bendit and Rudi Dutschke in 1968 and he could not really understand why anybody would resist his regime. He tabled a reform programme and asked for its confirmation in a referendum, threatening that if his program was not approved he would resign. The French people just got tired of him and rejected his program of reform and he simply resigned and literally went home to die in his village of Colombey Le deux Eglises. He was apparently battling with some illnesses before the referendum.

    General Charles de Gaulle made many statements that are not easily forgotten. I was in Canada as a graduate student when in 1967 he visited Montreal in the French-speaking province of Quebec in Canada and emotionally said “Vive le Quebec libre” which was the language of French Canadian secessionists. This thoroughly embarrassed him, France and Canada. When he was asked if he understood English, he said he understood enough to understand Mr Winston Churchill’s poor French!

    One thing that no one can forget about him was his Gallic pride and arrogance which made him almost feel he was France. But his comment on old age is so cryptic that one cannot easily forget and these days as an old man I always recall it.

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    It was not until I turned 80 that I really began to feel the years God had granted me in my journey of life. Apart from one half-sister of mine who was over 80 before she passed on to the great beyond, I am the longest living person in my family. Both my grandparents and my mother lived over a hundred years but my father died when he was 60 and I was nine then and it was the grace of God and that of my brother, Chief Oduola Osuntokun that saw me through primary and secondary schools.  All my highly distinguished brothers died before they reached 70 years and I did not expect to live long on the account of my siblings’ short lives.

    I went to the University of Ibadan on scholarship and to graduate school first on University of Ibadan scholarship and when I got the Canadian Walton Killam Trust Memorial Graduate Students Award, I relieved the University of Ibadan the burden of paying for my PhD degree. I have had a very successful academic life which took me to teaching at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada as an assistant professor from 1970 to 1971, lecturer in the University of the West Indies 1971 to 1972. I came back home  in 1972 and  the University of Ibadan, my Alma Mater sent me along with other young people to Jos to establish what was then known as the University of Ibadan Jos Campus. Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed the place because it gave me and others, opportunity to know our country and to shape the destiny of our younger compatriots.

    Unfortunately on a personal note, my  young wife  lost two pregnancies  in Jos due to inadequate health facilities which forced me to leave Jos for the University of Lagos in 1974 and where I retired from  in 2005. I however went for some public service in the National Universities Commission 1978-1982, University of Maiduguri 1982 to 1984, Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1988-1991, ambassador to Germany 1991 to 1995. After retirement, I helped my church with the establishment and running of the Redeemer’s University Ede from 2005 to 2016. I also served my state as Pro-chancellor and chairman of the governing Council of Ekiti State University from 2011to 2014 and finally retired from active service in 2016 because of old age and since then I have been in what the English would call “splendid isolation”.

    I don’t want to start saying I have been here and there which is not the point of this piece. Perhaps I should say the most important thing in my life since my wife joined the Saints triumphant in 2003, is that by the grace of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God ordained me, first as a Deacon, and later as an Elder in the church and I am committed to doing all that lies in my power towards the advancement of the church and the gospel of Jesus the Christ.

    My experience as an old man is varied. Some establishment like GTB, one of the best banks in Nigeria gives elderly people the privilege of being first served before others when we go there for banking transactions and I must say I find this very satisfying. This was particularly the case during the Godwin Emefiele-induced change of currency and disappearance of money during the exercise. Nigerians easily forget things. What we went through under Emefiele was simply unforgivable. Old age in Nigeria, unlike abroad generally speaking, does not confer advantage on the elderly. In the UK and at least in some parts of the USA, once you are a citizen over 65, one is exempt from paying for public transport.

    In our culture the elderly are respected as repositories of wisdom. But it is not uncommon to see old people derided nowadays as those who caused the problems confronting Nigeria which young ones are now facing. They may be right but even the youngsters are more corrupt and smarter in it than their fathers that some of us are just overwhelmed when we see what young people do nowadays. With the exception of a few states where you can still find old people running the show, most of those in power at the national and sub national levels are under 65.

    Let me go to the physical degeneration aspect of being old, with my situation as an example.  When my son was nine in the 1970s, I always gave him a physical advantage by asking him to stay in front me for a distance of about twelve or so yards when running just to encourage him. But suddenly when he was nine and I was 40 plus, he told me if I want to run with him, we should start together. Of course when we started together, he always left me behind. I dare not try this with my son’s son in football or any race. I tried to engage Finn, one of my grandsons in long tennis march and was surprised when the young man diplomatically asked us to go home because I simply couldn’t get the ball over the net in several of my service games!

    There was a time we went for bicycle ride in Atlanta and to my chagrin, I found riding a bicycle extremely difficult and I had to ask my son and his family not to wait for me because I wasn’t fit enough. The last experience I had with one of my daughters’ family was when they took me for a canoe expedition on river called “Beautiful” an estuary of Lake Ontario. We had to paddle the canoe over a distance of eight kilometres. I was in a separate boat with my son in-law while my daughter and her daughter were in another canoe and my grandson had a separate boat where he was sole sailor. It took hours for us to reach our destination. Despite the fact that my son-in-law did most of the donkey job of paddling our boat, I was so exhausted that I couldn’t get out of the canoe unassisted when we reached our destination. I slept for about 10 hours that night because of the exhaustion.

    These days, the most rigorous exercise I am comfortable with is walking. I used to swim as a young man but I hardly do it with pleasure now.

    Loneliness can sometimes be good for our souls. This gives me time to ruminate about events in my country and to be obsessive about finding solutions even when nobody asks for my views and opinions. If the infrastructure were good, this is the time for people like me to sit down or up to write their memoirs and share their ideas for the future with men in power today and those who would come later.

    Finally apart from the cost of travelling, I am now no longer interested in travelling. It is a hazard going through the airports and immigration desks in foreign countries and queuing up for visa interviews in embassies and the tedium of hours in flight. Sleeping on strange beds in hotels and even in my children’s homes is not the best for me at this stage of my life. Reconciliation of one’s desire with one’s strength is the greatest challenge I feel as I grow older day by day and I have to sustain myself with medications which thank God I can afford but which the general Nigerian population can hardly afford.

  • Only losers cry

    Only losers cry

    Losers In Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State are still wailing, more than five days after the exercise. This is not a surprise. It would have been shocking if they had accepted the outcome of the poll. They are acting true to type by their refusal to accept the fact that they lost fair and square. Elections always end on this note in Nigeria. Winners rejoice, losers cry. It was the second contest in four years between Governor Godwin Obaseki and his predecessor Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who picked him above others for the plum job, in 2016.

    Oshiomhole stepped on the toes of his allies by his action. But they forgave him and teamed up to work for Obaseki. What they feared most happened a few years later. As governor, Obaseki developed wings. He was no longer the political greenhorn that needed support for reelection. With Philip Shaibu, his now estranged deputy, on his side then, they confronted Oshiomhole, who to them had become a political godfather whose “excesses” could no longer be tolerated. “No godfather in Edo”,  “Edo no be Lagos”, they and their supporters chorused. Obaseki knows better now. The duo were reelected without Oshiomhole in 2020. In the process, they defeated his candidate, the mercurial Pastor Ize Iyamu.

    Oshiomhole took the defeat in his strides, waiting for a rematch, which he knew would come one day. For him, that day was last Saturday, and “Oshio Baba” threw everything that he had into the fight. Yes, it was a fight, not of fisticuffs, but of popularity and followership in the “Heartbeat of the Nation”, as Edo is known. The forces were arrayed for battle. But Obaseki and Shaibu were no longer together. His erstwhile loyal deputy has switched camps and returned home where he truly belongs. The return of the ‘prodigal son’ was not without drama. He knelt down publicly at a campaign ground to beg for Oshiomhole’s forgiveness.

     Shaibu whose impeachment was instigated by his principal who he hitherto fondly referred to as “my elder brother” dealt the outgoing governor a blow by returning to Oshiomhole and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The cause of their friction was the governor’s refusal to back Shaibu’s governorship aspiration. Obaseki favoured a lawyer and businessman, Asue Ighodalo. He threw the Edo North Senatorial District ticket at Shaibu. That was a ploy to knock Oshiomhole’s and Shaibu’s heads together in the contest for that senatorial seat. Oshiomhole and Shaibu are from the senatorial zone. Shaibu saw through Obaseki and insisted on running for governor. He was denied the ticket. The governorship election was therefore a battle royal between Oshiomhole and Obaseki. Shaibu rode a shotgun to Oshiomhole, making them a formidable team.

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    Everything was thrown into the battle, with Oshiomhole spearheading the campaign of APC’s candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo aka Akpakomiza . Okpebholo and Ighodalo are from the same Edo Central which comprises the Esan speaking parts of the state. Since the late Prof Ambrose Alli served as governor of the old Bendel State (now Edo and Delta) between 1979 and 1983, no other indigene of the zone has held the office. Prof Oserheimen Osunbor, who is from the zone occupied the post between 2007 and 2008 before his election was invalidated. So, in the face of the law, Osunbor, a professor of law, was never governor. Oshiomhole succeeded Osunbor and ran the state till he handed over to Obaseki in 2016. Obaseki knew that getting his successor elected was going to be an uphill task following his fallout with Oshiomhole.

    This was why he started crying wolf ahead of the election. He made many claims against some individuals and organisations, especially the police and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Anugbum Onuoha. He caused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Ighodalo not to sign the peace accord ahead of the election. Obaseki was prepared for war and he almost caused one by going to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) secretariat  in Benin, the state capital, when results were being collated. To do what? Only the man who cut a pitiable picture as the results were trickling in shortly after the poll on Saturday can say. He was walked out of the place by Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Frank Mba, who was in charge of the election security team. Obaseki did not stop there. He later teamed up with his Adamawa counterpart Adamu Fintiri and Ighodalo to announce some results of the election, in contravention of the law.

    Now that the election has been won and lost, Obaseki is still dazed by the defeat. He is more pained by the loss than Ighodalo who was on the ballot. He is claiming that Ighodalo was rigged out, an allegation that the candidate himself has given vent to. According to Ighodalo, his mandate was stolen. By who? This is what he has to prove in court. Does he have what it takes to do that? His camp is claiming that results were mutilated and that votes were bought. As a lawyer, Ighodalo knows that these are not allegations that should just be mouthed, they must be proven to get an election voided. Election monitors and observers may turn out to be worse than the social media crowd, if they continue the way they operate in the developing world, especially, Africa.

    Their role in the Edo election beggars belief. Some of them, as a coalition, have issued a statement, calling for the invalidation of the election. Just like that? Is that their main job? Is their job again not to monitor and observe elections, write a report and make recommendations on how the exercise can be improved upon in future? It calls for concern when election monitors and observers descend into the arena and are seen talking like, or doing the bidding, (of) those that lost. How can an election observer, like Yiaga Africa, say categorically that “some biased INEC officials altered results during collation”. Did it witness the alteration? Where is the proof?

    Election monitoring and observation by local and international groups should not be used as an excuse to undermine the sovereignty of Nigeria or any other country for that matter. Where were these election monitors and observers when former President Donald Trump went wild over the United States (US) presidential election four years ago? They kept mute. The same Trump is on the ballot in the US again for this year’s presidential election. Just imagine – if it were to be Nigeria – the monitors and observers would have gone haywire, spewing inanities and telling the world that such a person is not fit for office.

    Come to think of it. Yiaga Africa only deployed 300 stationary and 25 roving observers in a representative sample of polling units across the 18 local government areas of Edo. On the basis of this deployment for an election that held in 4,978 polling units, Yiaga Africa is in no position to make a fair and accurate assessment of the poll. It will be futile to rely on its report, no matter how scientifically it was reportedly compiled. It is a shame that it is not worth the paper it is written.

  • Freeloaders’ creed

    Freeloaders’ creed

    It is a curious thing, isn’t it? The ease with which a society can hold out its palms, demanding honey from the hive it has not tended. Once again, I find myself at the front seat of this perennial circus—a boisterous affair where the ringmasters are the very citizens who brazenly dodge taxes, yet demand effective public services. It is the Nigerian penchant for freeloading, a national pastime disguised as survival.

    The story is as old as the first misstep of our fledgling republic. But the truth bears repeating because the wound festers still, growing deeper with each cut. While reporting recently on this very topic, I found myself drawn yet again to the performance and unholy alliance between the common man and the bureaucrat—each playing his part in a silent sabotage.

    A recent tour of Lagos brought me face to face with the latest act in this ongoing drama. Electricity marketers and technicians spin their webs, bypassing meters as deftly as any thief might pick a pocket. The people nod approvingly, grateful for the temporary relief. The electricity they siphon becomes not a crime, but a necessity, a balm for their daily hardships.

    “We had no choice,” they say, the mantra of a thousand justifications. But beneath this veneer of desperation lies a stark reality—every stolen kilowatt-hour is a dagger thrust into the heart of the nation’s future.

    Francisca Pajok, a hairdresser in her mid-thirties, is one such character in this unfolding tragedy. In the dim light of her salon, her idle hands tell the story of a business that has learned to steal its survival. Her generator hums softly outside, its power fed not by the legitimate flow of electricity but by a covert artery—her tampered metre. Pajok feels no guilt, no shame, just revulsion over being found out and disconnected. She is a product of a society where it is not theft if it is survival.

    It is this sentiment, this collective shrugging of responsibility, that has become the hallmark of our national psyche. Nigerians feel aggrieved, wronged by a system that promises much but delivers little. And perhaps, they are not entirely wrong. After all, the labyrinthine corridors of public governance in this country are filled with bureaucrats fattening themselves on the spoils of corruption. To dwell too long on their deviousness would be to digress—today’s focus is not the thieving civil servant but the citizens who have mastered the art of dodging their dues while loudly demanding services of the finest quality.

    Yet, we cannot ignore the symbiotic relationship between the corrupt official and the citizen who thrive in the shadow of their malfeasance. For every Pajok bypassing her metre, there is a public utility official turning a blind eye, a hand outstretched for a cut of the spoils. This quiet complicity erodes the very foundations of our state. The roads crumble, the hospitals run dry, and the schools rot from within. But still, we demand more.

    And what of the taxes, those lifeblood contributions every citizen owes their nation? Ah, taxes—the ultimate taboo in a country where everyone wants to benefit, but no one wants to pay, even corporate citizens, especially while profit is steady. This sentiment is shared by many, who feel the government is a monolith of ineptitude and corruption, undeserving of their hard-earned naira.

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    They argue, with some merit, however, that taxes are squandered by public officials who live in obscene luxury while the rest of the country suffers. But in this tangled dance of evasion and entitlement, we forget the simple truth: a government starved of revenue cannot function. Every dodged tax is a school unfunded, a hospital without medicine, a bridge left unbuilt.

    The freeloading infects every corner of society, from the slums to the boardrooms and illicit black markets. Mohammed, for instance, lived off the widening gap between official and parallel exchange rates, amassing a fortune as he arbitraged Nigeria’s currency crisis. But President Bola Tinubu’s floatation of the naira has shrunk those margins. “It’s impossible to make any profit now,” Mohammed laments, blind to the larger truth—that his wealth was never built on real value, only on the quicksand of speculation.

    Mohammed’s loss, like Pajok’s silent theft, is symptomatic of a larger sickness—a nation addicted to shortcuts. Instead of building real industries, creating sustainable businesses, or investing in infrastructure, Nigerians have long preferred the game of quick gains. The naira has become a mere token in this game, a fragile thing bet upon like dice in the hands of gamblers.

    This, then, is the heart of the issue: a society caught in the cycle of evasion, from taxes to currency, from responsibilities to realities. Economic analyst, Tope Fasua, paints a bleak picture of a society betting against itself, citizens hoarding dollars and rooting for the collapse of their national currency. “When citizens lose faith in their own currency, all is lost,” he warns. The wealthy few who stockpile dollars cheer at the naira’s devaluation, blind to the ruin they are hastening. Their gains are short-lived; their profits, like smoke, vanish as inflation eats away at the nation’s lifeblood. Meanwhile, the masses—those without access to foreign currency—suffer the most, as the price of food, fuel, and basic necessities skyrockets.

    Fasua’s words ring with eerie prophecy: “In time, the man with millions of dollars stashed away won’t be able to step out of his house, for there will be zombies waiting to devour him.”

    It is a vivid metaphor for a society that has turned on itself, where the rich barricade themselves behind high walls, while the poor—zombified by poverty—lurk just beyond, hungry and desperate.

    We have built for ourselves a fragile illusion, a fantasy where the government is an inexhaustible well of resources, and we are mere bystanders in the unfolding drama of national governance. But this illusion is crumbling.

    Change must begin at the top. President Tinubu, in his sweeping reforms, has begun to address these issues. The removal of the fuel subsidy and the floatation of the naira are painful but necessary steps toward a more sustainable economy. But for these reforms to truly take root, the government itself must lead by example.

    It is unconscionable to ask Nigerians to tighten their belts, while lawmakers and civil servants grow fat off the public purse. The salaries of public officials must be slashed, their perks curtailed. Only then can the government stand on moral ground when it asks its people to do their part. For as long as the ruling class lives in gilded bubbles, untouched by the stringent economic policies, the cycle of evasion will continue. Pajok will continue to steal electricity. Mohammed will find new ways to game the system.

    The road to redemption will not be easy. It requires sacrifice—not just from the government, but from every Nigerian. Taxes must be paid. Services must be earned, not stolen. The freeloading must end. The light that Pajok steals is not just electricity; it is the future. The currency Mohammed traded in shadows is not just money; it is the potential for real growth that was squandered. The taxes they evade are not just funds—they are the schools, the roads, the hospitals that could lift this nation from its knees.

    Nigeria’s future lies not in entitlement but in the hard work of every citizen, paying their dues, owning their responsibilities. Only then can we rise from the ashes of our own making.

  • Haunted by Nkrumah’s ‘politics’

    Haunted by Nkrumah’s ‘politics’

    “When I was in the private sector, I used to say if only we can get the economy right, everything will be alright; but now with my benefit of working in the public service, I say if we do not get the politics right, nothing will be alright”. – Shamsuddeen Usman.

    Dr Usman is a respected Nigerian economist, banker, technocrat and an accomplished public servant. He has played a leading role in every government’s economic crusade since the Babangida era. As the pioneer Director General of the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, now the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) (1989-1991), he supervised the sale of about 88 public enterprises in slavish obedience to the IMF and the World Bank that claimed such self-destructive act would ‘free government of financial burden of financing public enterprises’.

    Usman, the man with the Midas touch was at different times  the chairman of Citibank Nigeria Limited, executive director , United Bank for Africa, Managing Director of NAL Merchant Bank, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Finance Minister(2007-2009,)  and Minister of National Planning from (January 2009 to September 2013). He played a critical role in the establishment of the Sovereign Wealth fund. As the alternate chairman of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Limited (NSPMC), he oversaw the introduction of N500 and N1000 notes. 

    Charmed by his allure, like his predecessors, when President Tinubu wanted “consistent attainment of the highest returns possible on all investments made in trust of the Nigerian people”, Usman, who started the sales of public enterprises, became his best choice as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI).

    Surveying his string of achievements not too long ago, Usman, blowing his own trumpet, declared triumphantly:  “I had taken on so many mafias; I had taken on the customs mafia, I had taken on the tax concession mafia who are draining this country out of its revenues. …I took on the oil importation mafia; I took on the ports system mafia”.

    Reminiscing on  his over 30 years of economic wars and periodic pyrrhic recently, Usman  came to the sad conclusion that engaging in economic crusade before addressing our political problem is like putting the cart before the horse. He has, as a committed intellectual therefore decided to share his discovery to the wider audience through the book titled, Public Policy and Agent Interests: Perspectives from the Emerging World, a unique publication on both the impetus for, and impediments to growth and development in emerging economies he co-authored with “carefully selected, technocrats based on their impressive records in the public and private sectors.

    The book which is also ‘an account of the interactions between the government, its agencies and the private sector will, according to Sadiq Usman, chairman of the launching committee provide “a fascinating and penetrating insight into the workings of government and the boardroom, in terms of policy formulation and implementation…economic management as well as the overall growth paradigm in the developing world, with Nigeria as a case study”.

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    It is just as well that it is Usman in whom President Tinubu has so much confidence that is now confirming what many, including Kwame Nkrumah, the late President of Ghana and foremost African nationalist and the author of “Neo-colonialism – The Last Stage of Imperialism had pointed out when he admonished African leaders to first seek the kingdom of politics after which every other thing would follow. Nkrumah was largely ignored.by less endowed African leaders.

    Back home, Nigerians opinion leaders as well as leaders of ethnic nationalities have been agitating since the collapse of the first republic for peaceful resolution of the national question. The latest push came from The Patriots, who a few weeks back took the battle to President Tinubu in the presidential villa.

    Unfortunately we have passed through this sorry path before. Ibrahim Babangida even after a national debate and consensus, insisted on driving he nation through his structural adjustment disaster and this was not until he had compounded our crisis of nation-building through creation of states and local councils without rhyme, that he in the name of IMF inspired “Structural Adjustment Programme’ sold Nigerian thriving public enterprises to politically exposed individuals that ran them aground.  Obasanjo on his part sold in the name of ill-implemented privatisation programme, Nigeria’s total investment of over $100b for a paltry $1.5b to party stalwarts. And of course eight years of Buhari’s own economic crusade has been described not by a few as a period of economic suicide when the nation was servicing its external and domestic debt by as much as 95% of her earnings.

    The first scourge of African leaders and by extension African nations, are the western trained economists who as victims of cultural imperialism, do not believe African nations whose societies’ social system was more organised than those of atomised Europe ruled by bandits who came to carry them as slaves, can become masters of their own fate by rejecting western orthodoxy such as capitalism or their new god, globalisation which defines their society even today as that of masters and serfs.

    Yet at the time of first contact with Africans, Yoruba nation, using urbanisation as index of measurement according to PC Lloyd, and Benin, with her walled cities and paved roads adorned with street light were more developed than Europe.

    Our recent history has shown that by looking inward, we can become masters of our own fate.  Our golden era of 1954 to 1964 was made possible by the leaders who built their development paradigms around the culture of their people. Awolowo and his group having realised that there were no capitalists in Nigeria as in Europe where bandits raised capitals from slavery and theft of African resources, the state assumed the role of capitalists setting up companies and banks whose profits were then deployed to prosecute free health services, free and compulsory education which then provided a level playing ground for children of the rich and the poor.

     In the east, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe in line with Igbo culture, encouraged communities to contribute to the education of their youths while Dr Okpara’s pragmatic socialism rather than oppose capitalism reinforced the competitive nature of Igbo society with the Igbo nation becoming the fastest growing economy in the world. Ahmadu Bello exploited the feudal system in the north to build the famous ‘groundnut pyramids’ which provided the funds with which he built the biggest economic conglomerate in Africa south of the Sahara.

    We also listed as scourge of our African nations, top bureaucrats who pretended not to understand the policy thrust of the colonial administration whose staff as birds of passage, moved from one Commonwealth country to the other, and were therefore given furnished houses in reservation areas.

    Unfortunately, our new inheritors of power see this as status symbol and so they cut themselves off from those they are employed to serve. This explains why not many ministers or lawmakers fully understand what ordinary Nigerians are currently going through. That Usman is today actively involved in providing education and health services to the people of Kano through his foundation is evidence of failure of governments’ 30 years of economic crusade.

    The fourth enemies of our people are the lawmakers.  For instance, if there is one state institution whose support President Tinubu needs for successful prosecution of political crusade, it is the National Assembly. Who else can amend the constitution or reverse the aberration where about 60 items in the concurrent list were whimsically transferred to the exclusive list or where a federal constitution has no residual list, but the legislature?

    It has been widely acknowledged by stakeholders including the 36 state governors that the answer to cattle rustling, banditry, terrorism and kidnapping for ransom and illegal mining in the rural communities is state/local policing.  One and half years into President Tinubu’s administration, the National Assembly has continued to play the ostrich.

    Like most other African nations, we are greatly endowed. Our problem as Usman the celebrated economist with Midas touch want us, including President Tinubu, his principal to know, is politics and not economics.

  • Politics, race, ethnicity and tribe

    Politics, race, ethnicity and tribe

    Broadly speaking, there are four major races in the world namely: white/Caucasian, Mongoloid/ Asian, Negroid/ Black and Australoid according to Carleton Putnam who acquired some measure of fame and notoriety for writing a book with the title of Race And Reason in which he argued that blacks are inferior to whites and that they need not live together or attend same schools in the USA. This book was published in 1961. He of course was not the only author who wrote on the place of race in politics. This issue has a long historical gestation since the 19th century.

    The issue of race and politics reached its apogee with Adolf Hitler who industrially murdered six million Jews during the Second World War between 1939 and 1945. But the issue will just not go away. There are politicians today who built their careers on race baiting. These characters are found predominantly in the Western world of Europe and the Americas both North and South.

    In Britain in 1963, we had Enoch Powell, a retired Brigadier in the British Army intelligence and later a professor of Classics in one of the British universities and a minister in the Conservative government of Harold MacMillan and later as shadow minister of defence in the Conservative Party of Edward Heath from 1965 to 1968 who raised the scare of war between English people and Indians in his Wolverhampton constituency if the government did not stop Asian immigrants coming to Britain. Nigel Farrage is building on this legacy and he adroitly used the fear of immigrants in forcing Great Britain out of Europe, a policy which may affect Britain negatively in years to come. The recent rioting in England is a variant of the racial reaction against non-white peoples in England which does not augur well for racial harmony and understanding in modern Great Britain’s society.

    Variants of refusal to accept immigrants into European society are found in the Netherlands where the party of Geert Wilders   has become probably the largest party in the country on the account of its championing anti-immigrant proclivities and on wider canvas in France in the National Rally of Marine Le Pen which is perhaps the party of the future of France. This kind of tendency is seen in Hungary under Viktor Orban who has been prime minister for almost a decade and an avid supporter of Donald Trump’s nationalist (MAGA) Republican Party in the USA. The Rightist racism is in saddle in Italy only moderated by the feminist apparel of Georgia Meloni is of the same variety only masquerading as a Conservative Party while celebrating the ideas of Benito Mussolini.  The “Alternative” openly racist anti-immigrant party in Germany because of the history of the country poses a much more fundamental challenge to peace in the country. The Alternative party of Germany is destined to be the second national party in Germany eclipsing the Social Democratic Party, SDP which has become very unpopular since coming into power with the GREENS and the LIBERALS after the 16-year rule of Angela Merkel. If this party were to come to power in Germany, the political history of Europe will take a different trajectory from what it has been since 1945 which may take Western Europe into direct potential conflicts with aggressive Russia. We might see a resurgence of the kind of the 19th century struggle between pan-German feelings and pan Slavic struggles for domination of Europe based on some spurious racial competition.

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    The racial feelings of superiority of the whites over the rest of mankind is assuming dangerous proportions  as manifested in Trump’s Republican Party in American domestic politics and dangerously in its foreign policy. Were Trump to become president again after the November 4 election, his politics and politics may pose serious threat to the stability of the world. His refusal to accept the rise of China and, the general refusal of America to accept the inevitability of Union of Taiwan with Mainland China and its threat to defend Taiwan in a war with the mainland is a sure recipe for the liquidation of the world. Even though this policy is not that of Trump alone but that of the two parties, the Democratic and Republican parties and are basically a variant of inability to accept the equality of the Chinese and white American race in what Professor Samuel P. Huntington called “clash of civilizations”.

     Race has always been a dominant theme in American domestic and foreign politics. George Wallace’s third party attempt in the 1960s and 1970s to capture power was rooted in white racism. Nothing really has changed since then. The only difference is that overt racism is now not generally tolerated but the feelings are still the same. This is why Trump would say he prefers immigrants from the Scandinavian countries rather than from “shit-hole countries” in Africa. Donald Trump’s statement that Haitian immigrants are capturing and eating people’s dogs and cats in Springfield Ohio is coded words aimed at the black racial background of his opponent Kamala Harris. Using racism to demean opponents is as American as apple pie.

    Racism has risen sky high in America since what we all thought was progress as manifested by the Obama presidency. But according to President Jimmy Carter, it has only exacerbated racism in America. It has now risen exponentially since Donald Trump entered into presidential politics in America and no one knows how it will end but it is only likely to end in tragedy.

    It is of course not the western world alone that is afflicted by racism and indeed it is all over the world in one form or the other. The feeling of white superiority is a product of western colonial and political dominance over the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. That feeling is also the product of European white slavery and the slave trade in which whites saw Africans as property to be sold used and discarded and dispensed with when no longer needed. The white mentality continues to hark back to this sad period of history. This was what largely influenced the policy of apartheid in Southern Africa and the aftermath of it can still be seen in race relations between blacks and whites in South Africa. Racial arrogance is at the root of relations between Arabs and Africans in the Sudan and Egypt and between groups in Ethiopia where the lighter you are, the more preferred you are for political appointments unless you belong to the group in power.

    Even though Palestinians are Semites like the Jews, the Israelis do not consider them as equal. If they did, they would not be slaughtering them like they are doing in Gaza and the West Bank with America weapons of war despite the protestation of the whole world. In this case, race has become defined as religious differences rather than the usual biological differences because it will be difficult to find any biological differences between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

    In Asia generally, religious differences are the underlying racial or tribal differentiation.  The current prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, built his movement on the primacy of Hinduism over Islam as well Hindu India’s supremacy over Muslim Pakistan. The Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis and allied groups like the Nepalese and Sri Lankans are basically the same but separated by religions of Hinduism and Islam. Relations between Indians and Pakistanis are as strained as if they belonged to different races and at a time it seemed probable that two countries could fight using nuclear weapons against each other to the horror of the whole world.

    Sometimes tribal differences replace in Asia and Africa racial differences in the western world. Tribal politics in Africa are as condemnable as racial differences in other parts of the world. The injury this does to economic and political development are huge and sometimes incalculable. If this problem is not tackled on the African continent, the place is doomed to political instability and economic underdevelopment and possibly to collapse.

    What it is to be done?  With increasing knowledge of the common threat to mankind presented by global climate change and environmental degradation and need to protect a common heritage, man may be forced to realise a common humanity. This has to be based on research of human biology archaeology and interconnected history of human evolution and development away from social and political demagoguery. The United Nations should be strengthened to defend the humanity of all men. A development based on shared prosperity should be embraced and not the current unity of the horse and its rider. It is obvious that we all seek the best for ourselves and our children. We all want to live in decent buildings and move around without difficulty and be in positions to take care of ourselves when we are ill. A world of shared prosperity is attainable if we work at it. Peace is the basic desiderata of development and mankind that wants to explore the space should first conquer our habitat earth.

    Unfortunately feelings about racial, tribal, religious differences will never disappear but they need not be a burden to us. Let us recognize our differences and try to live with them, after all, the differences between us and animals is that we are endowed with reason and we are in a position to know that why we are different. The subject of race is complex and it is not easily defined.  Many people nowadays prefer to talk about the human race despite external mostly skin pigmentation and or physiognomy. All people of whatever race or colour or religion are currently classified by anthropologists as belonging to one species, Homo sapiens. Because they are common species, they can intermarry and interbreed and they share as much as 99+% in common genetic materials which mean division of mankind into different races is subjective.  We may be black, brown, yellow or white outside but we are all red inside.

  • Obi and his patron saints

    Obi and his patron saints

    Politicians surround themselves with all manner of people – the good, the bad and the ugly. They do not discriminate against the crowd around them because politics is not only a game of numbers but also of force, cash and being known in the streets and areas where angels fear to tread.

    The boys take care of the streets, while the men are in charge of the cash. But both of them work symbiotically for the common good of the candidate. The boys are expected to deliver the candidate when things are rough, the men are to provide the cash for them to do so. So, everything works together for the good of all.

    The 2023 election was none like any other before it. It was the first time a mass movement took over the political scene, using the social media as its weapon of campaign and mobilisation for former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, who flew the presidential flag of the Labour Party (LP). The youths were in the vanguard of the movement which styled itself as Obi-dient. Some old people too joined the Obi-dients to drum up support for Obi, describing him as a fresh of breath air.

    Truth be told, there is nothing fresh about Obi as a person and a politician. He is part of the established system and has been a major beneficiary of it. The youths did not know this because they do not know the history of their country. Obi, sly and cunning as ever played on the ignorance of these youngsters, tagging along with them and carrying out their wish. They were strong, very strong in social media, but weak, very weak on the field – where elections are won and lost.

    Most of them do not have voters’ cards. Those who have do not know their polling unit. All the same, they contributed financially to Obi’s campaign. Sources said the donations fell like rain in pounds, dollars and euros from all corners of the world. But there was a snag. The management of the funds became an issue between Candidate Obi and the party. It was learnt that the new generation of Obi-dients did not want the old breed to touch the donations and it gave specific instructions to that effect.

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    After much rumination, Obi, who knows how to play this kind of games, immediately came up with a formula for managing the funds. Though the arrangement did not go down well with the party’s leadership, they went along with it since Obi was taking good care of them. The truth is now out, with the centre no longer holding between Obi and the party leadership. Embattled LP Chairman Julius Abure said  Obi settled for the loquacious Aisha Yesufu and Pastor Itua Ighodalo to manage his campaign funds. These patron saints of Obi are being called out today to account for the management of the funds.

    Obi and Abure were close until they fell out for reasons best known to them. Obi has now aligned with Abia State Governor Alex Otti, who has always maintained that he did not owe his election to the Obi-dients, as in the Obi factor, but won on his own steam having contested in the past on other platforms. Between them, they have sacked Abure as LP chairman, and put in place a caretaker committee headed by Senator Nenadi Usman. Abure is not ready to go down alone.

    He is pulling everything along his path down with him. The main targets are the managers of the party’s campaign funds. Abure has washed his hands of the management of the funds and called out Yesufu and Ighodalo to render accounts. Will the duo take up the challenge? Will Obi ask them to show transparency and openness, some of the attributes which he claimed will be the hallmarks of his administration if he won, by throwing his campaign books open for public scrutiny?

    The Abure challenge is an opportunity for Obi and his majordomos to show how clean and honest they are by living up to the creed that they hold the present administration to. The creed of accountability, responsibility, transparency, openness, simplicity, candour and truth. It is easy to see the moth in others eyes, while ignoring the log in yours. This is because criticism comes easy, but biting the bullet  is hard.

    Yesufu and Ighodalo have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to write their names in gold by rendering account of their management of the Obi/Datti Presidential Campaign Fund. Their stocks will rise if they do this, but if they do not, it will portray them as living a lie all these years. That they are not different from those they criticise. It is not a matter of asking anyone to go to court. If they have nothing to hide, they should simply do the needful, by coming out clean with the public on this matter. It is their party’s money, no doubt, but they should remember that it was donated by some people.

    It was funny watching Akin Osuntokun, the spokesman of the Obi/Datti Campaign on television on Wednesday, struggling to explain his role in the saga. Did he collect N600 million as alleged? All he needed to say was either yes or no. But he demurred. Instead, he went on rambling about how it pays the government to destabilise LP, which is the only party that can challenge it in 2027 . Is that the issue at stake? Nigerians are wiser than that. Nobody can pull the wool over their eyes on this matter.

  • Bread and circuses: Nigeria’s sports illusions (2)

    Bread and circuses: Nigeria’s sports illusions (2)

    Nothing quite parallels the dizzying mania that sports elicits in the hearts of men. Charles MacKay, in his immortal musings, captured a fundamental truth about this collective madness: “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” Nowhere is this mass madness more vividly illustrated than in the fevered obsession over global sports events. Millions cheer, weep, and even fight over tournaments that, when the dust settles, have done little to salve the wounds of a world beset by far graver concerns. The game is but a fleeting balm, a placebo offered to a populace, as governments across the world gleefully embrace the distraction as their most potent tool.

    The medieval Romans mastered the art of subduing the masses with “bread and circuses,” and though their empire crumbled long ago, their strategies remain very much alive in the hands of modern rulers. The gladiatorial games, once a spectacle of bloodshed to sate the people’s primal thirst for violence, have been replaced by grand sports tournaments. The essence, however, remains unchanged. In a Machiavellian dance of power and distraction, global sporting events are designed not merely to entertain but to divert attention from the festering rot within. Corruption, inflation, insecurity—these words evaporate from public consciousness when the whistle blows and the world gathers for yet another tournament.

    In Nigeria, the drums of this deceptive spectacle beat just as loudly. The nation, beleaguered by misgovernance, insecurity, and endemic corruption, joins the feverish race for sports glory with an enthusiasm that borders on the absurd. For every football match won or Olympic medal dreamed of, the agonies of its people are momentarily forgotten. Yet the problems—unemployment, poverty, terrorism—loom ever larger, like shadows ignored in the heat of celebration.

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    In 2024, the absurdity assumed worrisome dimensions, when breakdancing was officially recognized as an Olympic sport. The Paris Games, wildly touted as the pinnacle of human athletic prowess, was graced by a spectacle hitherto restricted to a street corner, far from the international stage. To compound this betise, a Nigerian NGO, in partnership with the United States Mission in Nigeria, launched an initiative to promote breakdancing among Nigerian youths. Workshops, masterclasses, and webinars—each a cog in this bewildering machine of misplaced priorities—were held in Abuja and Lagos. American breakdance experts Macca Malik and Jacob “Kujo” Lyons even graced the land, engaging with the Nigerian Olympic Committee and organising workshops for northern Nigerian breakdancers. The sheer audacity of it all was laughable—teaching young Nigerians to breakdance while their homes burned, their stomachs ached, and their futures crumbled.

    At the School for the Deaf in Kuje, a breakdancing club was established, as if such a frivolous pursuit could soothe students living in a region ravaged by terrorism and banditry. It is a cruel joke, a gleaming mask to hide the ugliness of the country’s abandonment of its youth.

    In a nation where basic needs go unmet, where the cries of the impoverished are drowned out by the sound of government coffers being emptied into bottomless pits of corruption, to spend time and resources on such a thing as breakdancing is to willfully dance on the grave of national potential.

    And yet, the charade persisted. In Lagos, the American envoys conducted more masterclasses and promised careers in breakdancing, as though this spectacle of motion could truly lift anyone from the quagmire of poverty. Two champions, plucked from this initiative, were announced as Nigeria’s hopefuls for the Paris 2024 Games, ready to dance their way into international fame. But what did any of this matter? What tangible benefits could this bring to the fishermen of Sankwala, the farmers of Obafemi Owode, or the displaced families of Konduga and Madagali? Their soil remains barren, their rivers dry, their homes unsafe. The spectacle of breakdancing is but a gaudy distraction from the tragedy of their lives, a glamorous bait to reel in the next generation of pawns in this grand confusion.

    It would be amusing if it were not so tragic. Sports in Nigeria has become a golden calf, worshipped with blind devotion while the real gods—education, infrastructure, security—are left to decay in the shadows. When the Nigerian contingent returned from Paris in disgrace, without a single medal to their name, the Minister of Sports, John Enoh, issued a public apology. “We owe Nigerians an explanation,” he declared, puzzled by the abysmal performance. Yet, no apology could suffice for the N12 billion sunk into this ill-fated venture. This colossal sum, which could have provided education, healthcare, or job opportunities for countless youths, was instead squandered on a futile race for fleeting glory. No medals, no victory parade—only the bitter taste of failure and the nagging question of what that money could have achieved if spent wisely.

    When the Super Eagles came second at AFCON 2024, the nation erupted in fevered joy. Yet, as the euphoria subsided, reality dawned with crushing weight. The footballers returned to their cushy contracts, the NFF and sports ministry officials pocketed their bonuses, and the rest of the country remained in darkness—both metaphorically and literally, as power cuts and economic despair persisted unabated. What lasting good did the Super Eagles’ valiant effort bring to Nigeria’s suffering masses? None. The unemployed youth of Ajegunle, the impoverished farmers of Madagali, the destitute families of Waasimi—all were left no better off than they were before the tournament began.

    The truth is that sports, in Nigeria, has become a smokescreen, a tool of mass deception. When Nigerian athletes defect to other countries and win medals for their adopted homelands, the media erupts in scripted vituperation, accusing Nigeria’s leadership of fostering such betrayal. Yet, the real betrayal lies not with these athletes but with a government that fails to provide them—and millions of other citizens—the opportunities to thrive within their own country. As Nigeria hemorrhages talent, its leaders stand bewildered, offering empty apologies for poor performances while failing to address the systemic rot that drives so many to flee.

    Nigeria must get its priorities right. Sports is not an essential industry, nor is it the cornerstone of national development. The country can do without international sports glory if it means redirecting resources to where they are most needed—building roads, electrifying communities, eradicating insecurity, and providing the youth with real, tangible opportunities for success. The nation’s obsession with sports is a reflection of how much Nigerians prioritise spectacle over substance, distraction over development.

    President Bola Tinubu’s administration must steer Nigeria away from this madness. The empowerment of the country’s youth through education, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure must take precedence over the thrill of competing on the international stage. Patriotism lies not in cheering for a football team or a breakdancing champion but in building a nation where every citizen can thrive. Frantic rationalisation about what gains could be had from hosting and participating in sports tournaments is absurd and insensitive.  The N12 billion wasted on Paris 2024 could have funded countless small businesses, empowered thousands of youths, or revitalised communities devastated by terrorism.

    It’s about time Nigeria withdrew from the global sports circus, to refocus its energies on more productive ventures. Let the world chase after medals and trophies. Nigeria must chase after prosperity and peace. For when the applause fades and the lights dim, it is not the gold around a victor’s neck that will heal a nation’s wounds but the steady, patient work of building a future for all.

  • Kukah’s faux pas

    Kukah’s faux pas

    Last Sunday at a security summit on the Edo State Governorship Election, which is 48 hours away, the Convener of the National Peace Committee, Bishop Matthew Kukah, claimed that President Bola Tinubu did not sign the peace accord in 2023, ahead of that year’s presidential election. He was trying to justify the action of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo that refused to sign the peace accord ahead of this Saturday’s poll. Other parties and their candidates signed.

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    Is it true that Tinubu did not sign the peace pact in 2023? No, it is not. He signed as shown in this above February 24, 2023 picture of the Vanguard newspaper. Pictures, they say, do not lie. Kukah is doing a sensitive job. So he should be careful not to send out the wrong signals with his remarks. May the Edo election be peaceful and may the best candidate win. Whether the winner is Ighodalo, or Senator Blessing Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress or Labour Party’s Olumide Akpata, what the people want is a good and empathetic governor.

  • NNPCL and marketers conspiracy

    NNPCL and marketers conspiracy

    There is hunger and anger in the land. This is because of high cost of food items and transportation, the fall-out of removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the nation’s currency, measures government says will free us from economic slavery we were thrown into by short-sighted leaders who embarked on massive foreign borrowing, crude oil swapping and local borrowing through ‘ways and means.

    No one can blame President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for having the courage to try to change the narrative before the nation’s descent to Venezuela’s status. But equally, no one can blame angry and hungry Nigerians who, as victims of elite conspiracy embarked on protest which was sadly hijacked by sore losers who will not mind truncating the democratization process that brave Nigerians fought and died for while they hobnobbed with the military dictators.

    I think what hungry and angry Nigerians are saying is that since government policies are made for the people and not the other way round, they must have human face if they are to meet the aspirations of the people they are designed to serve. I don’t think this is too much to ask for.

    If you therefore ask me, I will say the enemies of President Tinubu and by extension of Nigerians, are not those who believe government policies should have human face, many of who by the way, voted for President Tinubu in 2023, but are today united with Tinubu’s erstwhile political foes since hunger, high transport fair and spending hours queuing for fuel know no discrimination.

    I think those the president should fear are those in government whose needs are met by the state and therefore totally cut off from reality.  They are all victims of cultural imperialism who believe market forces is the only way forward  forgetting comparison can be odious. In the home of capitalism, few individuals owned their society while the rest serve as serfs living just to sustain the system in which they cannot afford to send their children to universities or build houses on their own without further enslavement by the state. Here we have no capitalists. As Professor Bolaji Akinyemi once pointed out, most Nigerian billionaires made their monies through the state.

    Those who are therefore hawking the comparative costs of a litre of fuel in Britain, US, China, South Africa are missing the point. President Tinubu signed a social contract with millions of self-employed Nigerians. This distinction is important for those who could not understand the policy thrust of colonial masters who as birds of passage lived in reservation areas, provided with furnished residential houses and like a conquering army lived on spoils of war. This is why our politicians whose needs are met by the state are today cut off from reality of majority of Nigerians.

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    Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is perhaps the next most dangerous enemy of President Tinubu and by extension, Nigeria. It was set up for the purpose of is harnessing Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves for sustainable national development. It was also to profitably and efficiently market refined petroleum products in the domestic market and ensuring products supply efficiency either from domestic refining or from importation.

    Unfortunately NNPC not only failed, it has remained a cesspool of corruption outwitting successive Nigerian leaders over the years.

    Incidentally  Olusegun Obasanjo while serving as military head of state in 1977, had set up a tribunal to investigate the operations of the Nigerian National Oil Company (NNOC), which metamorphosed into NNPC). Perhaps, based on his experience, he, as elected president (1999-2007), decided to run NNPC as a sole administrator.

    Under his watch, millions of dollars budgeted for the refurbishment of our four refineries was frittered away. With no work done, NNPC created artificial fuel scarcity, a ploy that led to the creation of an all-purpose body through which party stalwarts and their siblings with the active connivance of some NNPC officials defrauded the nation of trillions of naira through fuel subsidy scam without importing a pint of fuel. He sold the refineries before his exit from power in 2007, a decision his successor Umaru Yar’Adua reversed.

    President Goodluck Jonathan told Nigerians he was in possession of the names of those sabotaging Nigerian economy through NNPC. While the list never saw the light of the day, NNPC became a source of massive fraud by Diezani Alison-Madueke, Jonathan’s petroleum minister (2010-2015). She has been charged with bribery offences in the UK, with the US Department of Justice recovering from her assets totalling $53.1m.

    President Muhammadu Buhari was not unfamiliar with monumental corruption in NNPC. During his tenure as Federal Commissioner of Petroleum and Natural Resources, he was falsely linked by Ibrahim Babangida who toppled his government with, US$2.8 billion which allegedly went missing from the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Midlands Bank in the United Kingdom. He was however found innocent by the Crude Oil Sales Tribunal of Inquiry headed by Justice Ayo Irikefe.  

    This experience might have influenced his decision to appoint himself Minister of Petroleum while serving as elected president between 2015 and 2023. This however brought little relief as NNPC remained a cesspool of corruption.

    Toeing the line of his predecessors, President Tinubu also took over the petroleum ministry. Tinubu unarguably was not into the game of popularity contest in view of the biting effect of his economic policies, what he however did not bargain for was to be portrayed as an unfeeling and uncaring leader that deliberately visited hardship on his people.

    He had directed that crude oil be sold in naira to Dangote Refinery. Dangote had thanked him for his support and faith in local manufacturers and predicted era of relief for Nigerians who spend hours on queues at filling stations. Dangote’s message of hope was coming amidst artificial fuel scarcity created by NNPC that claimed to owe $6b to international fuel suppliers a few weeks after declaring a whopping profit of about N3 trillion.

    On September 3, 48 hours after Dangote’s promise of a new dawn in oil supply to Nigerians, NNPC that had for months denied payment of subsidy by government, jacked up price petrol pump prices from N585 to N897 per litre.  And then by strange coincidence, fuel supply to the filling stations suddenly eased without telling Nigerians the source of their new supply.  

    I am sure President Tinubu, a seasoned politician by all accounts, understands that he is the target. Imagine; the NNPC, the regulator – the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NIMDPRA) that had a week earlier tried to question the quality of products from Dangote refinery which they claimed had excess sulphur, even when they did not have standard testing laboratories.

    Of course, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), took time off from its civil war to do its job as an opposition party for once by describing fuel price increase by the NNPC “as a brutal assault on the sensibility and wellbeing of Nigerians by the insensitive and arrogant All Progressives Congress (APC) administration. It accused the APC government of being indifferent and unresponsive to the struggles of millions of Nigerians who can no longer afford their daily necessities”. Unfortunately this is a message that resonates with most Nigerians going through this difficult period

    The picture of the president painted was very damaging because until it was confirmed last Sunday morning  that  the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has deployed over 100 trucks to the Dangote Refinery in preparation for the commencement of fuel loading on Sunday, with the seven major oil marketers, dealers under the aegis of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria  claiming their readiness to start lifting and distribution of refined petroleum products, it was widely believed by Nigerians that government that refused to denounce NNPC as it embarked on its game along with marketers was party to their conspiracy against Dangote and Nigerians.

  • The Anvil and the Forge: Nigeria’s Travail before the Dawn

    The Anvil and the Forge: Nigeria’s Travail before the Dawn

    In Akure, where the sun’s rays bake the tarmac hot, a tragedy unfolded as Oluwatuyi Olasoji, a public servant, got bitten by the serpent of fuel scarcity. The Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) in Akure, Ondo State, paid the ultimate price for the negligence of a system.

    Olasoji, in his final hours, collapsed while waiting to buy fuel, his body overcome by the heat and weight of waiting. He subsequently died at the Federal Medical Centre in Owo. The thin thread of life finally cut short by a preventable tragedy.

    Even in death, he is being exploited. Some, in the wake of the calamity, have turned his death into a rallying cry, a tool to incite anger and chaos. Others milk it for the currency of sympathy, a shallow river of social commentary where words often drown in the flood of outrage. But beyond the artifice, Nigeria’s path to salvation cannot be paved by rhetoric alone.

    There is a reality we must face: Nigeria is poor. This is not a new revelation, but it bears repeating until it sinks into the collective consciousness. Ben Akabueze, the former Director-General of the Budget Office, put it starkly when he compared Nigeria’s meagre budget to that of smaller African nations. It is a sobering thought that South Africa, with a fraction of our population, has a national budget four times larger than ours. Yet, our recurrent spending, allocated towards salaries and running costs, has accounted for more than 75 per cent of the public budget every year since 2011, said Akabueze.

    We are not a wealthy nation. Not yet. Still, the pain of this reality does not erase our potential. The image of Nigeria as a land of plenty was born in the fires of independence. Leaders like Nnamdi Azikwe and Rtd. Gen. Yakubu Gowon fanned these flames, promising to turn Nigeria into an African superpower. The dream persisted, even as the oil flowed and our hopes rose with it. But as the years wore on, the fuel that was meant to lift us became the very chain that bound us.

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    The myth of abundance, perpetuated through decades, strung us on lofty promises and a cavalier declaration by General Gowon in the ‘70s that “Money is not Nigeria’s problem, but how to spend it.”

    This has shackled us to an enduring fantasy. But the riches we were promised haven’t materialised the way we dreamed. And now, we are left with the skeleton of a country that can barely sustain its weight, let alone its people.

    In 2022, the tax-to-GDP ratio in the European Union stood at 41.2%, with France (48.0%), Belgium (45.6%), and Austria (43.6%) recording the highest shares. If you earned €60,000 in these countries, your tax burden would be €28,800 in France, €27,360 in Belgium, and €26,160 in Austria. In stark contrast, Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio in 2021 was just 6.7%, far below the African average of 15.6%. Though it has risen to 10.6%, the gap remains wide.

    This imbalance is worsened by widespread tax evasion, even by those who criticize the government most vocally, as exposed in the Pandora Papers. Nigeria’s oil revenues also pale in comparison to other nations. Saudi Arabia generates $350 billion annually from oil for its 35 million citizens, equating to $10,000 per person. Nigeria, with 220 million people, earns just $36 billion, or $150 per person. Qatar, with a population of 2.6 million, makes $68 billion—over twice Nigeria’s revenue.

    Thus, with low tax collection and insufficient oil revenue, Nigeria is left borrowing or printing money, which only fuels inflation.

    With such an abysmal GDP—barely 10% of it comes from taxes, one of the lowest figures globally. Yet, we expect our government to cradle us like the governments of Western countries, where taxes are the lifeblood of their economies. This expectation, this entitlement, is our Achilles’ heel. Like a child expecting a feast, we do not realise the kitchen is empty. As Reno Omokri rightly pointed out, the state cannot live on borrowed time. If we refuse to pay, we will pay nonetheless through the backdoor of inflation and devaluation, the silent tax that eats away at our pockets.

    Today, as we wait for the Dangote Refinery to deliver us from fuel scarcity, there is a painful truth we must swallow: fuel prices will increase. Once the refinery takes off, it will set its prices according to market forces. Fuel, once subsidised and controlled, will become subject to merchant whims and market fluctuations.

    President Tinubu stands at the helm of a ship tossed by these turbulent waves. His gospel of “Renewed Hope” becomes a hard pill to swallow when hope seems as scarce as fuel. His palliatives, intended to cushion the blow of his reforms, feel distant and abstract to the man in the street. The sight of a privileged ruling class heightens the appeal of anarchists and dubious opposition figures, who disguise as champions of the masses.

    President Tinubu must grasp the deep well of distrust weaponised against him. Has he truly alleviated the hardships imposed by his policies? It is not enough to announce palliatives—how do his measures resonate in the hearts of the people? How do they fare in the court of public opinion?

    State governors appear to sabotage his efforts, redirecting increased federal allocations into personal vaults – no longer able to profit from currency manipulation. Instead of fostering relief for the suffering masses, many have chosen to fund their own vanities.

    The government must reconnect with the citizenry on a relatable level, deploying resources to educate them on the true purpose of stringent reforms. The Ministry of Information, tasked with effective communication, must mobilise for the cause. The media, too, must be embraced as partners in progress while courting the psychological buy-in of the citizenry.

    And here lies the government’s challenge—it must not only preach sacrifice but demonstrate it. The executive and legislature must show, through grand and small gestures, that they understand the weight of the burden they are asking the people to bear.

    It is not enough to roll out numbers and policies; the government must reach into the heart of the nation and rebuild trust. Distrust festers like an open wound, nurtured by opposition figures who, having lost their hold on the reins of power, stoke the flames of dissent. These orchestrators of discontent, hidden behind screens and platforms, manipulate the masses for their gain. They speak of revolution, of tearing down the old order, but they are merely opportunists, waiting to carve out their piece of a fractured land.

    The government, for its part, must rise above this fray and court the citizenry, not with platitudes but with tangible proof of shared sacrifice, like a 50% slash in executive and legislative salaries and allowances. This may assuage the rising tide of frustration that threatens to sweep the country into another period of unrest.

    Yet, amid this uncertainty, one thing is clear: the hardships we face are the birth pangs of a new order. It will get hard before it gets pleasant. The time for illusions is over. We must wake from the dream of endless wealth and wrest Nigeria from bankruptcy.

    In the anvil of these trials, Nigeria will either break or be forged anew. It is a process that demands patience, endurance, and, above all, sacrifice. The government must lead the way, and the people must follow, out of a shared understanding that this is the price of progress.