The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • ‘Soul-winning’

    ‘Soul-winning’

    This 11-letter word got one of the anchors of a programme on ARISE NEWS unduly excited penultimate Monday. He had seen the word in the headline of a story on page 26 of this paper that day. The headline was:

    •President gets kudos for ‘soul-winning’ national broadcast

    Interviewing a guest on the August 4 broadcast by the President, with the two other anchors, Rufai Oseni gushed: “how do you assess the speech? The Nation described it as ‘soul-winning’. It is ‘soul-winning’, according to The Nation. Was that speech ‘soul-winning’?” He asked, bellowing repeatedly: ‘The Nation’, ‘The Nation’, with a sheepish smile on his lips.

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    Of course, the guest saw through Oseni’s rants and answered the question as best as he could. It is elementary journalism that the headline must mirror the story. Which was the case in this instance. The word was not The Nation’s but that of someone, who reacted to the President’s broadcast. Oseni should have known that as the word was quoted in the headline.

    But he was blinded by the urge to get one up on this paper. He misfired. Two days later, he made another gaffe, by swearing that Deji Adeyanju was one of the organisers of the August 1-10 Protests. That same Wednesday night Adeyanju was on Newsnight, ARISE’s flagship bulletin of the day, to puncture Oseni’s ‘empirical’ lie. Adeyanju said he was not one of the protests’ organisers, but a lawyer to a group within the coalition of planners. When you believe that you know everything, you commit monumental blunders. And no empirical data can save you!

  • Social and political rebellion in Nigeria and UK

    Social and political rebellion in Nigeria and UK

    Almost around the same time at the end of July till August 10, there were demonstrations going on contemporaneously in Nigeria and the UK particularly in England and Northern Ireland but not in Wales and Scotland. The demonstrations against tough economic situations in Nigeria were concentrated in the northern parts of Nigeria while there were scattered eruptions in the south. This is because the poverty in Northern Nigeria is more severe than in the south not because the present government wanted or caused it but because of historic reasons of aversion to western education and resultant opportunities and consequent greater impact of unemployment and poverty.

    In the UK, the protests were concentrated in more economically deprived and depressed areas like Liverpool and the Midlands while the urban areas like Manchester, Birmingham and London were spared. The protests in England began after the killing of three young white children in a school by a deranged 17-year old boy whose parents came from Rwanda. News went round that he was a Muslim boy presumably from Pakistan or an Islamic country. This was the signal for general uprising in several pockets of land in England and Northern Ireland with the rising war cry of “Pakistan go home” directed at the large Asian communities in the Midland and South East England. Happily the urban centres were spared. The people doing this were mostly the small shop keepers, rural poor and the unemployed who have been left behind by the fiscal measures of 15 years of conservative governments. They found the immigrants as scapegoats because they are visible minorities and as targets, they were easily identifiable and were physically attacked.

    Hotels harbouring asylum seekers were targeted and some were burnt. Their places of worship like mosques were torched. Once mobs became mobilized against foreigners, everyone was vulnerable including students from foreign countries. The new prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer who had had prosecutorial background took on those after the immigrants. He empowered the police and the courts to do their jobs and put rioters and vandals behind bars. The rioting went much longer than anybody would have expected but gradually the work of the police and the courts worked and the attacks on the immigrants began to simmer down.

    The reason for this social and political revolt was due mostly to misinformation spread by people using the internet to peddle rumours about the coming of Islam to their homesteads. This led the prime minister to say that proper legislations will come before parliament on how to control incendiary propaganda using the internet. Secondly the new Labour government has promised to put measures in place that would take care of social and economic deprivation that had festered during the years of Tory rule. Finally, the new government is ready to tighten the screw on the loophole on immigration to ensure that immigrants do not constitute a nuisance to society. 

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    To rub it in, Senator JD Vance, the vice presidential running mate to Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate recently on a visit to England disparaged the government’s efforts on immigration by saying Britain is going to be the “first  Islamic  country with nuclear bombs”, forgetting that Pakistan already has the bomb. His comments were not helpful because it casts Britain as a helpless country overrun by Muslim fanatics. This is of course far from the truth but this is the kind of statement that people like Nigel Farage and his UK Reform Party would twist and run with, thus firing up anti-immigrant hatred. This has had direct impact on immigrants coming to the UK particularly students in large numbers from India and China and some from the Middle East and Africa with consequent reduction in resources available to British universities which benefit from international fees paid by foreign students.

    Many doctors, nurses and other workers in the care sector of the National Health Service are staying away from the UK which people see as an unfriendly place prone to violence. The riots have therefore damaged British reputation at home and abroad and destroyed Anglophile sentiments among students who are future leaders of countries which found British education useful.

    The demonstration in Nigeria was against grinding poverty, insensitivity of the politicians who, while calling on the people to tighten their belts because of the serious economic problems facing the country, are not ready to make any financial sacrifices. They give themselves humongous salaries and allowances and financial perks that make them look as if they were in a different country. Many of them have conditions of appointment that make the mouth water.

    Knowledgeable people of course know the country is almost bankrupt but the lavish consumption by the political elite make them bitter opponents of government policies to the extent of wanting to want to bring the edifice down on their heads. Unfortunately, many of the demonstrators have been edged on by failed politicians who might have been cheated and manipulated out of the greasy financial benefits of political and public appointments. The rest of the crowd of protesters were disillusioned patriots, regional and religious bigots who seemed to feel they and nobody else must be at the helm of government. These people were those who were shouting in Sokoto at the palace of the Sultan calling on the military to seize power as if the military has a magic wand to solve the serious economic problems facing and destroying Nigeria.

    One of the things I do not understand was the fact that even before the commencement of the protests, the government showed defeatist and helpless posture which was unlike what happened in England. It is after the whole thing died down that we are beginning to hear in muffled voices about investigation of the rioting that accompanied what was said to be a peaceful protest.  The waving of Russian flags calling on Russia to take over their country was most concerning. It is however remarkable that throughout the protest, the army was not deployed in large numbers on the streets except as means of deterrence in one or two places. Casualties were also kept low and it seems food prices are beginning to come down not necessarily because of government measures but because harvests are gradually coming to the markets to drive down the cost of food. Throughout the period of demonstrations, very little was said about the role of subnational governments of the state in tackling some of the problems facing the ordinary Nigerian. What we kept hearing is what the president has done or not done as if there are not 36 state governors in the country.

    As far as I know, Nigeria remains a federation of coequal governments each with its own area of jurisdiction and economic status and responsibility. This has led to the subnational governments having a free for all kind of corruption and squandermania with little or no control or oversight by the puny state legislatures that are mere structures rather than serious organs of government.

    The emphasis this government is placing on local government administration (LGAs) will even compound the problem with replication of what is going on at state levels at the local government level. If this happens, perhaps the next protest will not be national but state and local in concentration.

    I have heard all kinds of panaceas being suggested by armchair economists who say instead of grandiose capital projects like Lagos-Calabar express road and Badagry-Sokoto express road, government should concentrate on feeding the people. The question one would ask is after eating what next? Has it occurred to people saying this that the projects would employ hundreds of thousands of people and would open up the country for development and production thus leading to an increase in national wealth? It is not the duty of government to feed the citizens; rather what government should do is to provide security and inputs for agricultural production and transportation facilities to move goods around. Our governments in the last decade have not been able to do this and the government can be charged with dereliction of its duties and responsibility. This is a legitimate charge and government should work hard to fulfil its duty to the people. It is very unpopular to say that we need to be patient and allow government policies to work towards their end goals. Of course, government must not expect the people to wait for ever.

    The demonstrations in England and Nigeria at the same time have clearly shown how interconnected the global economy is. The people in England are protesting against higher costs of food and accommodation and are pointing wrongly to immigrants as the people causing the problem. Generally in Nigeria, the people are pointing accusing fingers to the government and people in power while forgetting their roles in bringing their country down. We are all guilty in differentiated degrees whether in England or Nigeria. The solutions to our problems must be well thought out and application of the preferred solution must be gradual and not abrupt. Calling for revolution is cheap and unintelligent and some lawyers and members of the intelligentsia playing revolutionaries may find out that revolutions tend to consume their own children.

  • Vandals of Renewed Hope: Ruling class, journalists as saboteurs

    Vandals of Renewed Hope: Ruling class, journalists as saboteurs

    It’s hard to fall in love with a country that relegated your parents to pauperdom while confining you to the breadlines. It’s hard to counsel patriotism to children birthed in squalor and trapped in shanties, where dreams asphyxiate under the weight of despair.

    Good luck persuading such youths to embrace their marginalisation while they watch the ruling class luxuriate in opulence and privileges of proximity to power.

    Millions of disgruntled youths find themselves pitted against a political class grossly insensitive to their plight. It hardly matters if a great number among them personify the same ills depicted by the ruling class they despise – all that matters is their entitlement to grief and rage.

    As President Bola Tinubu embarks on a radical re-engineering of the economy and social institutions, it becomes increasingly difficult to counsel patriotism or faith in his vision. How can he preach patience and love for a country that has thus far reduced millions of youths to mere statistics of deprivation?

    To these youths, the admonition to “be patient” resonates as a cruel joke. Patriotism, once a shared language of citizenship, has fractured into two vastly different dialects: one spoken by the privileged few who navigate the corridors of power with ease, and another by the masses who endure the daily indignities of poverty, joblessness, and insecurity.

    Patriotism is indeed a hard sell to those confined to the fringes of a society, where the ruling class and their children flaunt their wealth and privileges on social media. It’s no surprise that the masses, feeling abandoned, would prefer to see Nigeria break and burn, rather than watch it evolve into a paradise that excludes them.

    To the latter, Tinubu’s gospel of “Renewed Hope” feels hollow when their daily reality is characterised by soaring food prices and hardships that outstrip their means.

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    The government’s plea for patience and understanding falls on ears tuned to the dirge of unfulfilled promises. And yet, in the corridors of power, there is a dissonance, a belief that the suffering masses can be appeased with empty words. How can they be? The man who cannot afford to eat today will not be consoled by promises of a feast tomorrow.

    The perception that Nigeria is only for the elite—those with connections to cabals, and powerful friends—has become entrenched. So, when President Tinubu’s apologists proclaim that he is doing so much that goes unappreciated, the millions who bear the brunt of economic hardships have no patience for such an excuse. They will not listen to appeals for understanding and stoic acceptance of hardships while the ruling class enjoys obscene privileges and spoils from the commonwealth.

    The removal of the fuel subsidy was expected to stabilise the economy, to provide the funds needed to rebuild a crumbling nation. Since the subsidy was lifted, the states have seen a significant increase in their monthly revenue from the Federation Account Allocations Committee (FAAC). Bauchi’s, for instance, rose by 51.5%, and Nasarawa’s by 185.3%, yet nothing has changed. In Enugu, Anambra, Bauchi, Delta, among others, the masses have yet to enjoy any corresponding benefits even as they see efforts to ameliorate their pains get sabotaged by state governors, civil servants, and their cronies. Many governors have refused to pay salaries, backlogs of arrears and pensions to retirees. Where are the new roads, the improved hospitals, the schools that could lift a generation out of ignorance? Instead, the governors divert their increased allocations to purchase mansions abroad and secure their children’s future in foreign lands far from the misery they preside over.

    This widening chasm between the FAAC’s soaring allocations and the stagnation of progress at the state level is a bitter pill to swallow. If the ruling class persists down this path, the seeds of discontent they sow will eventually bear bitter fruit. If the masses resort to anarchy, there will be no country left to loot.

    But while the ruling class has much to answer for, the citizenry, especially the more literate and insightful among us, must display greater tact and caution.

    Journalists, in particular, must desist from inciting the populace and inflaming the polity with partisan views and fabrications. They must understand that the dubious demagogues pulling their strings—those who lost at the 2023 elections—have second and third addresses abroad. If Nigeria implodes, they will flee, leaving us to bear the brunt of the chaos they helped incite.

    Nigeria must avoid the fate of nations afflicted by the Arab Spring, where the promise of revolution gave way to brutal dictatorships. President Tinubu must take more proactive steps to humanely engage with the people. He must counsel his political class to make grand gestures of sacrifice in identification with the people’s plight while enforcing accountability at all levels of governance.

    Federal interventions can play a critical role in state accountability. State access to local and international funds must be tied to certain performance benchmarks in delivering public services and meeting financial obligations. Poor-performing states should see reductions in allocations or complete loss of aid, with those funds redirected to responsible local governments or projects. Travel bans and asset freezes on corrupt state officials can equally serve as effective deterrents.

    President Tinubu’s bid to decentralise power by strengthening local governments with more control over their resources is laudable as a means of reducing the risks of state-level corruption and bringing governance closer to the people.

    Despite these efforts, the youths’ angst is understandable amid a clime where elected leaders treat them with contempt. But rage will not save Nigeria. Rage, if unchecked will devastate the present and hopes for the future.

    Nigeria must learn from the Afghan experience. In the wake of the United States-backed NATO’s sudden withdrawal from Afghanistan, Gaisu Yari, an Afghan refugee, now a grantee of the Open Society Foundation (OSF), recalled his flight from his homeland as his darkest hour.

    As the U.S. and NATO commenced their hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan, he had just four hours to pack up the life he had created in Afghanistan into one suitcase. He had to decide, without wasting time, what to take and what to leave behind—knowing that he might never see anything left behind again.

    Thus, in barely four gruesome hours, he anxiously stuffed a few belongings in his bag and parted with his life, his work, and everything that made him Afghan. In a pain-filled memoir, Yari revealed that he cried all through his perilous trip to the Kabul airport. He hadn’t enough time to say goodbye to loved ones.

    Yari relives the agony of saying goodbye to his tearful mother on the roof of an old house.

    He eventually evacuated to Poland, landing with his family in a refugee camp with scarce food or resources. Yet every day he rues the misery of refugee life, the pain of sudden flight, those stolen moments with his mom, and the ache of being abandoned.

    Every new dawn he spends abroad lacerates and leaves a thick welt on his psyche as he lives some of his darkest days after fleeing his homeland.

    Would Nigerians learn from the sad fate of the Yaris of the world? Despite their initial patronage by the bleeding-heart foreign press, Afghanistan has faded from global news headlines.

    Let us be guided by the Afghans’ experience. Nigerians must shun the lure of anarchy. We must avoid poisonous interventions from foreigners, whose major interest is to abolish our sovereignty, plunder our resources, and strip us bare to devious elements.

  • Tinubu, learning from the past to build the future

    Tinubu, learning from the past to build the future

    With high prices of food items even as the purchasing power of Nigerians continues to diminish in response to what is believed to be IMF-inspired fuel subsidy removal and floating of our local currency, not many will deny there is hunger in the land. That ‘we are hungry’ was the  battle cry of protesting  “Endbadgovernace’ youths across the federation before it was hijacked by ‘Almajiris’ and ‘regime change’ campaigners did not therefore come as a surprise. The irony however was that the president’s ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ was designed to “unleash our country’s full economic potentials by focusing on job creation …the rule of law and the fight against hunger, poverty and corruption”.

    It will therefore be uncharitable to assume President Tinubu who had long prepared for his current job, was short of ideas upon assumption of office. One clear evidence of this was the humongous amount he raked in from the removal of fuel subsidy and from taxation, the major source of government revenue.

    The problem however is that neither the minister of power nor finance has tried to rationalize the arbitrary increase in electricity tariff nor give reasons for the unprecedented increase in ports charges. They allowed hungry and angry Nigerians to get away with the wrong impression government was out to deliberately inflict sufferings on the people through over taxation.

    Based on our past historical experiences, President Tinubu must understand he cannot take the loyalty of his ministers, fellow political elite members as well our economic, intellectual and military elite who have at different times in the past betrayed our nation, for granted.

    Driven by greed and not living by their creed is often the source of credibility deficit of our educated elite. And it was for this reason Obafemi Awolowo who lived ahead of his time, once observed that “given a choice between Nigerian educated elite, traditional leaders and the colonial masters, Nigerians will choose in reverse order”. For our educated elite, greed for power or living in denial is the name of the game.

    Let us start with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the most influential figure in the nationalist struggle after Herbert Macaulay. As an outstanding student of political philosophy, he was the most equipped to know that the federal system is the most appropriate for a multi-ethnic and a heterogeneous society like ours.  Curiously, Zik and his NCNC vigorously campaigned for a unitary system until 1959, labelling proponents of federalism, tribalists. As his political foes later pointed out, the only plausible explanation for Zik’s decision to live in denial was a desire to sustain the strangle-hold of his Igbo dominant group on the minority groups in the east, notably Ibibio, Efiks, Ijaw Anang Kalabaris etc.

    In the west, we had SLA Akintola and Fani-Kayode. The latter was the leader of AG violent youths group which nicknamed itself ‘the mosquitoes”, the former was Awo’s instrument of terror and intimidation against the colonial administration as well as Balewa’s government. All that was needed to prove they had no abiding faith in neither in democracy nor in their leader were Fani-Kayode’s loss of two consecutive elections in Ife and SLA Akintola’s constitutional removal from office. Both, driven by greed for power did not hesitate before going ahead to destroy the giant strides the West made between 1952 and 1962.

    There was similarly little relief from the intellectual elite from whom much was expected.   Dr. Ben Nwabueze, the foremost Nigerian constitutional lawyer betrayed the country by drafting Aguiyi Ironsi’s Unification Decree 34 of 1966 that ended Nigeria’s first experiment in federalism. Before his death, he expressed regret for working along with Chief Rotimi Williams to remove 50% of the items on the concurrent list to the exclusive list thereby reducing the states to parasites. In his own words:  “Then, what did we do to achieve our misguided objective? We took away 50 per cent of the items on the concurrent list and gave it to the centre, much of the money also went to the centre and so by action, we destroyed what is called fiscal federalism.”

    We can also not easily forget the duo of dyed-in-the-wool advocates of market forces driven economy model- Chief  Olu Falae and  Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, who along with Babangida, their principal foisted Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) on Nigerians. Both at the period insisted ‘there was no alternative to SAP’. Several years later, they sang a different song. Kalu Idika Kalu, former Minister of Finance and Economic  Planning  who also headed a 22-member of National Refineries Special Task Force told Zebulon Agomuo, deputy editor of Businessday, that SAP was neither put together the way he conceived it nor implemented accordingly’. ( Businessday 15, June 2014).

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    For Olu Falae, the scapegoat was the exchange rate. “We had allowed the naira to be overvalued. We were also importing too much non-essentials”, he recently told a reporter. Today the nation continues to suffer the consequences of Kalu Idika Kalu and Olu Falae’s arrogance and total disregard for public opinion.

    There was also Professor Omo Omoruyi who assured Babangida that political parties could be decreed. Babangida later went on to allocate billions to his two decreed political parties, towards building of political party headquarters that were later taken over by reptiles across the nation. He also misled his principal to believe democracy could be taught in classroom leading to establishment of their short-lived university of democracy in Abuja.

    Of course the military elite instead of the promised “vision of a good society”, they brought nothing but pain to Nigeria. For instance, Awo had canvassed for a federal arrangement with about 12 of the major ethnic groups as building block as against an unwieldy multiplicity of states that will make the state so week and betray the essence of federalism. With the exit of Gowon who had surrounded himself with Nigerian visionary leaders from power in 1975, Murtala Mohammed and Obasanjo found themselves in the saddle in 1976. What Awo feared was about to happen with their foisting of a 19-state structure on the country. It was to get worse with Babangida’s creation of two states (Akwa Ibom State and Katsina) on 23 September 1987, nine states: ( Abia, Enugu, Delta, Jigawa, Kebbi, Osun, Kogi, Taraba and Yobe) on 27 August 1991 and Abacha’s Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Gombe and Ekiti in 1976.

    Again as in politics, so it is in economics. We have refused to retrace our way back to where the rain started to beat us. Obasanjo took off from where Babangda and Abacha left us. He sought and secured debt forgiveness only to start piling up new debt before he left office.  Privatisation was what IMF said would secure 700 jobs for Nigerian youths and end our economic woes.

     Ignoring the fact that the golden period of our nation was the time we adopted public enterprises model, Obasanjo sold off Nigeria’s total investments of over $100b put together between 1959 and 1988 for a paltry $1.5b to incompetent, politically exposed Nigerians who ran most of the industries they bought aground.

     President Jonathan continued with privatization programme selling PHCN after injection more of payers’ money to party stalwarts. He also continued with Obasanjo’s monetization policy through which properties inherited from the colonial era, kept in their custody for our grandchildren, were sold at give-away prices to civil servants.  Buhari and Emefiele’s variant of market forces driven economy was an outright disaster.

    With President Tinubu, not much has changed. We subscribe to various institutions including the WTO designed to impoverish those who have nothing to offer the rest of the world. This is why I think it is time to borrow a leave from China by also closing ourselves up and resurfacing only when we  have something to offer the world.

    Opening our huge market to importation of the labour of other societies as directed by IMF since 1986 has brought only grief. It cannot be any worse closing ourselves, giving incentive to local manufacturers and companies who will find our huge market irresistible if reassured there will be no unfair completion from importers of fake and substandard goods.

    The problem is that we as students of social sciences are all victims of cultural imperialism, a reality Claude Ake once called our attention to. We see everything from the western perspective. Tragically, for most Africans, market forces-driven economy is nothing but slavery. In fact it was through slavery Africans were first integrated into the so-called world economy. And the difference between slavery, capitalism and globalization, the new god they insisted we must worship is in paradigm.

    One clear evidence that globalization is in fact the worst form of slavery by those who sold the theory of comparative advantage to us is that  the total annual revenue of Ivory Coast, the world’s highest producer of cocoa is less than 10% of the annual profit of just one chocolate manufacturer in the United States.

  • Sports as important part of cultural Diplomacy

    Sports as important part of cultural Diplomacy

    Sports have replaced the old fashioned way of spreading influence but not power as was the case with force of arms in the past. Everyone knows the traditional way of state relations by diplomacy and war can be very expensive. It is so expensive that not all states have diplomatic representation in many parts of the world. Poor states and not-so-poor states have to rationalize their diplomatic representations according to their means. This is why states with little financial muscles restrict their representation either to their key economic and trade partners and in some cases to the United Nations itself and countries where its special agencies are located like New York and in the case of specialized agencies like Geneva where the World Health Organisation, WHO is located or Vienna where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or Washington DC where the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are located to mention a few.

    The idea is to rationale resources so that personnel of a regular embassy can also liaise with agencies of international organizations. Diplomatic representation is meant to represent government-to-government views on bilateral relations and happenings in the global arena for the purpose of coming to the same approach on issues of global peace and understanding among nations.

    Countries have found ways of promoting international understanding outside the normal protocols-ridden diplomatic relations. One of this instruments of promoting global relations and understanding is cultural diplomacy in which sports, literature, drama, music, art, museums, fashion and the whole gamut of cultural displays play significant role in fostering human relations and understanding even if sometimes imperceptibly.

    The ongoing Olympic Games in Paris and its winter variant just as the World Cup in soccer provide nations opportunities to show their accomplishments in relation to one another. Looking at the competitors, the way of their dresses, and their patriotic representation of their countries and their defence of their national flags, it shows the strength of their nations.  Politics is divorced from the games whether it is the Olympics or World Cup officially but we all know that politics is present in any international celebrations that bring the world together. It is therefore a pity when some countries are noticeably not adequately represented.

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    The Arab countries are noticeably not adequately represented and when they are represented at all, it is by what I will call hired athletes mostly from sub Saharan Africa. Women from these countries except Morocco are also absent and so is India vastly underrepresented. With a population of 1.4 billion people, one would want to see India take more robust part in the Olympics and global soccer competition. The reason for this near absence of these countries may be cultural when it concerns particularly their women folk. The role of religion, particularly Islamic countries, may be responsible for the low presence of most of these countries including countries with majority or substantial Muslim population like India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Afghanistan, the Arab countries and Nigeria too. One noticeable poor performance at the current Paris Olympics is Germany which in the past commanded noticeable attention in previous Olympic Games.

    The eastern part of Germany, the former GDR, used to command much attention by the number of the gold medals it won before its merger with Western Germany after unification in 1994. The number of gold medals the GDR used to win was only second to the USSR in communist Eastern Europe. It seems German sports including its soccer team is in downward spiral these days. The situation in Nigeria, the most populous country, is simply deplorable. One wonders why the Ivory Coast and even the Gambia are prominently represented in the sprints than Nigeria. Unlike the poor show of Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda Botswana and Republic of South Africa are massively represented. The few athletes representing Nigeria are poorly clad and from a layman’s observation, poorly trained and poorly coordinated. They are also too few compared with our population. It seems some of the Nigerians who show up for international sporting representation are those from Nigeria’s diaspora. This is not totally wrong because other countries do it but the dragnet is not wide enough to reach all the good ones who might want to carry the national flag as proud Jamaican athletes resident in the United States do.  I am sure if we have a programme targeted at them they will respond.

    We also need to brush up our governance system to make Nigerians resident abroad proud enough to want to carry our flag inside or outside the field of play. This is very important because people who are not at home yearn to see their sportsmen and women showing class and beautiful performance that they all can be proud of. Nigerians in the current Olympic Games are by their name recognition are representing Great Britain, the United States, Canada, the USA, Italy, even the Philippines and several Arab countries. This means that people are being attracted by either money, better training facilities or promise of future if not present employment opportunities.

    One of the noticeable things in these games is the universal presence of black and people of mixed race in countries that had no colonial contacts with Sub Saharan Africa. There are such people representing not only American, Canadian and European countries but countries in Asia like the Philippines, Japan  and Australia which gives the impression that despite the rise of racism in the world, the global population is increasingly being mixed and in a hundred years’ time, people will become more mixed than they are now.

    What should Nigeria do to recognize the importance of cultural diplomacy like sports for the future? Sports are not the only relevant thing in cultural diplomacy. There is a wide spectrum of cultural achievements like cultural artefacts, literature, drama, films and all aspects of cinematography, music and dancing and all the intangible manifestations of cultural achievements that we should share with the world to show the indigenous level of our civilization before contact with the outside world. Our government should, like other countries, encourage our authors to write about Nigeria and we should subsidize the publications so that they can be sold outside our country. Promotion of sports and supporting sports men and women can be expensive. We need to put in place the source of revenue for sports which will not be affected by the vagaries of rise and fall of annual budgets. Tax deductible funding of sports by the business sector of the economy can be a way of getting adequate resources.

    Other countries have monthly lotteries which yield large sums of money if well and honestly managed. Sports are huge sources of funds for domestic income and for generating massive employments for young people. It’s a win-win situation. We can use sports to promote the interests of the country cheaply which the traditional way of doing it expensively cannot attain or achieve. The kind of positive publicity countries gain through active participation in global sports meeting is too much to be underestimated. Investment in sports by all countries including the poor ones yields inestimable dividends at the end of the day. Nigeria should pay more attention to this aspect of cultural diplomacy now and in the future.

  • Season of ferment

    Season of ferment

    Many parts of the country are astir. Aroused by violence, looting and death. It is the worst of times. Though that was not the intention, the fear had been there that these things might happen. No, nothing of the sort would happen, the public was told. The promise givers could not keep their word. Now they are pointing fingers, pinning it all on infiltrators. Welcome to the world of the August Protests!

    The 10 days they fixed for the protests lapse on Saturday. Many cannot wait for that day to come. The planners insisted on going ahead with the protests, rebuffing all entreaties to shelve the action. It was either their way or no other way. The support of some prominent politicians, lawyers, civil society organisations, and the backing of the law, which says they needed no permit for the protests, strengthened their resolve.

    From being faceless planners as individuals, they have collectively become popular protesters in a negative way. Their popularity stems from the death and destruction left in the wake of the protests. What have they achieved? Their demands, many of which are political and impractical, are still begging for attention. They remain on the paper they are written and on the flyers they are printed – long, windy, and largely unrealistic. The only good thing in the charter is their grievance about the prevailing economic hardship.

    Every Nigerian acknowledges that fact. Things are tough and rough. The administration also admits that its policies have not had the desired effect, so far. They are still in their gestation period, it says, and begs for time for the policies to mature for the people to benefit from them. The admimistration made this point in the run-up to the protests. It did all it could to stop them, but to no avail. The protesters were adamant.

    It was not all about the rising cost of living; it was more about the person of the President. It was like: “we will show that we can protest against him”. “Didn’t he lead or fund protests against others?” “So, why can’t we protest against him?” There is no leader that cannot be protested against. They have no immunity against protest. Protests happen everywhere even in advanced countries. The reasons for them may differ, but they still happen. We have seen them happen in the US (the widespread protests against Israel’s pounding of Gaza) and in the UK (the killing of three children in Southport). The world also saw how both countries handled the protesters.

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    Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not hide his disgust over the protesters resort to violence. He vowed to bring them to book. The opposition rallied round him in UK’s interest. In America, the police used force where necessary to disperse the protesters in different parts of the country. Their people supported them. But in Nigeria, some people would prefer that the police go out with biscuits in their pockets to confront the protesters even when they are violent. It is only in our country that protesters who tagged their show: “Days of rage” will seize a police armoured personnel carrier (APC) and still be treated nicely. The public expects the police to be civil, and the protesters, uncivil. Haba!

    The story now is that the protests turned violent because they were hijacked by hoodlums hired by the state. The truth is that the planners did not have what it takes to pull off a peaceful protest, despite all their assurances. Protests, like elections, are not about going on social media to make the loudest noise. Results are never achieved that way. It takes painstaking planning to hold a peaceful protest anywhere in the world. Why? Crowd control is not easy, and it is crucial to having such a protest.

    The protesters had an opportunity to close shop four days ago but they allowed it to slip through their fingers. By now, the protests should have long been suspended, if the protesters were tactful. The President’s decision to meet them half way on the fourth day of the protests when he broadcast to the nation came at the nick of time. There was no better time than that for them to sheathe their swords and let reason prevail. But what do you get when you have a loose and amorphous group leading a protest of that magnitude? Everything will break down. This is precisely what happened.

    Even before the President’s broadcast, the lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), who wrote to the Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun on their behalf, had advised them after the first day of the protests to suspend the action. One of their leaders Omoyele Sowore, who is ensconced with his family in America, countered Adegboruwa. He said the protests would go on. Another of its leaders, Damilare Adenola, said on national television that Adegboruwa was not their lawyer. For effect, he said, the lawyer was not a poor person but a man of means who could afford the good things of life. At what point did he realise that?

    The President was conciliatory in his broadcast. He spoke openly, truthfully and directly to the youths. He said he had heard them “loud and clear”. But they ignored his plea. All they wanted from him was an immediate end to the prevailing economic hardship. They wanted him to reduce the prices of foods, goods and services by fiat. Is that possible? No leader in the world can do that. The most the President could do and which he did was to give them hope of a better future in no distant time.

    To them, he was dishing out the same, old story. What they did not realise is that there are no quick fixes anywhere in the world. What next after the protests? The President’s offer of dialogue is still on the table. It is up to the protesters to take it up so that their grievances can be addressed at the right forum.

  • Delusions of Revolt: Unmasking the ‘Days of Rage’

    Delusions of Revolt: Unmasking the ‘Days of Rage’

    It is the subterranean anthem of the ongoing “Days of Rage,” that President Bola Tinubu be toppled via anarchy or a military coup.

    The protesters incited to mayhem as a rite of riddance of our immeasurable miseries, demand a swift reversal of Nigeria’s economic hardships among a list of farcical demands.

    Thus, on the eighth day of the “1o Days of Rage,” the protest flounders for lack of ethical bent and ideological juice. The most visible achievements of the protesters, so far, manifest in mindless looting, armed robbery, destruction of public facilities and avoidable deaths.

    Some of the protesters have called for a military coup by the Nigerian Armed Forces. Some have called for the invasion and conquest of the country by the Russian military. Amid the chaos, certain opposition figures and self-styled activists egg the demonstrators on, inciting them to grind Nigeria to a halt.

    Whatever the slant of disillusionment triggered by prevalent economic hardships, we must acknowledge that the incumbent administration has set out to tackle them with the right policies.

    Of course, the job isn’t half done. Yet as President Tinubu serves the second year of his tenure, many accuse him of failure already and threaten to burn Nigeria to rubble. In truth, they seek to cut our noses to spite our faces. They are pawns on the leash of dubious demagogues, scheming to barge onto the corridors of power through the trapdoor of anarchy or a military coup. Nigerians will do well to reject them and their doomsday plot.

    Now that I have incited your wrath, what colour is your indignation? Is it “onion brown, hell-red, or currency-green? What’s the price tag? For you won’t be fulfilling that sublime quality of Nigerianness, if your choler isn’t partisan or paid for.

    Amid prevalent hardships and disillusionment, Nigeria stands on the precipice of upheaval, driven by an undercurrent of anguish and simmering dissent. Dubbed the “Days of Rage,” the ongoing protest ostensibly aims to topple the edifices of bad governance, yet it is imperative to unveil the theatrics behind this spectacle.

    How telling it is that those who orchestrated this movement absconded from the nation’s shores before the first chants of defiance echoed in the streets. This grand act of cowardice reveals a bitter truth: the masses, in their fervour, are but marionettes, manipulated by puppeteers who retreat into the shadows at the first hint of danger.

    As the banners of revolt flutter, it is sobering to recognise the tragic irony of the lives lost in these fervent clashes. These souls have been sacrificed upon the altar of avarice, their blood the ink with which political actors and self-styled activists rewrite and renegotiate their access to power and privilege. The architects of this turmoil, far from the frontlines, exploit the threat of anarchy as a bargaining chip in the corridors of power. Among their ranks, a prominent journalist—an intellectual thug—laments in private that he can no longer endure the hardships of political opposition. His confession reveals the hollow core of this supposed revolution, driven not by ideals but by personal gain and opportunism.

    Russian-flag

    Nigeria’s leadership must heed this chaos as a deafening cry for attention, a tragic testament that it often takes the spectre of anarchy to force the government to acknowledge the plight of its people. Yet, it is equally crucial to understand that the citizenry’s scepticism towards promises of peace and dialogue is deeply rooted in a history of unfulfilled assurances. To earn the trust of the populace, leaders must demonstrate tangible sacrifices, slashing the exorbitant salaries and allowances of public officials by half or even abolishing them entirely until the nation’s fortunes improve.

    Those who clamour for violent street protests must pause to consider the harrowing lessons of the Arab Spring. While these uprisings toppled despots, they failed to instil lasting ideological or revolutionary changes. The aftermath has been a relentless litany of chaos and anarchy, with the torchbearers of rebellion swiftly fading into oblivion. In a nation as ethnically and religiously volatile as Nigeria, the descent into an Arab Spring-style upheaval would unleash a maelstrom far more catastrophic. A true revolution, the kind that transforms a nation, lies not in bloodshed but in the collective power of the ballot.

    Change must also blossom within the psyche of the Nigerian citizen. To eradicate bad governance, one must also eradicate bad citizenship. The loud proclamations of rights must be matched by a steadfast adherence to responsibilities. Nigerians must interrogate their governors about the expenditure of federal allocations and the misuse of state funds. In an era where more resources are being funnelled to state and local governments, the scrutiny of their utilization must intensify.

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    It is a grotesque misallocation when states like Cross River allegedly budget N1.47 billion for luxury vehicles for House of Assembly members or when Zamfara reportedly plans to spend N19.3 billion on kitchen equipment and a mere N6.1 billion on public schools amid severe economic hardships. Although the Zamfara government subsequently denied the report, the populace must question such priorities, demanding transparency and accountability from public officers. The fixation on federal governance must give way to a rigorous evaluation of state and local officials. The cost of governance must be slashed, with resources redirected towards practical, people-centred policies in housing, industry, and agriculture.

    For instance, it is a stark misjudgment for Kogi State to allocate 25 per cent of its N400 billion budget to the government house, an entity that generates no revenue. If the protesters were truly driven by patriotism and integrity, they would direct their ire towards state governors who have mismanaged over N570 billion intended for livelihood support. President Bola Tinubu’s recent disbursement of these funds, meant to alleviate the hardships of vulnerable citizens, underscores the need for vigilant monitoring and accountability at every level.

    Yet, the sad reality persists: public officers connive with representatives to divert aid meant for the people. In Taraba, palliative rice allocated to local councils has been hoarded and sold to those it was meant to help. In Katsina, the DSS recovered 2,000 bags of rice out of the 20 trucks donated by the federal government, diverted by corrupt officials. This betrayal underscores the need for a failsafe mechanism to ensure aid reaches its intended recipients.

    President Tinubu must understand that highlighting remedial measures is not enough. A pragmatic, fail-safe system for monitoring and evaluating implementation is crucial to prevent sabotage by corrupt elements.

    It’s about time he pruned his team to the patriotic and courageous few required to implement a radical and progressive overhaul of the country’s economy and social institutions. But he can’t achieve this without politically literate youths and the electorate.

    President Tinubu must constructively engage with the youths, and avoid the selective distribution of access, contracts and appointments to children and stooges of the political class.

    Tinubu’s policies are expected to trigger the re-emergence of spirited and upwardly mobile middle- and working-class divides. Failure to achieve this will render greater segments of the youths as primary fodder for the goons, militias, and thugs deployed by anarchists like the masterminds of the “Days of Rage.”

    The revolution Nigeria needs is not one of chaos and anarchy but one of civic responsibility and vigilant oversight. Only through such a transformation, rooted in accountability and driven by a collective will for genuine progress, can the nation transcend its current woes and stride boldly into a brighter, more equitable future.

  • ANALYSIS: Protest and Public Order Act 1979

    ANALYSIS: Protest and Public Order Act 1979

    Enacted 45 years ago, the Public Order Act 1979 regulates assemblies, processions and meetings in public places. The essence of the law is to ensure peaceful conduct on such occasions. The Supreme Court has since settled the matter on the propriety or otherwise of  such gatherings. Potential protesters are always quick to point at the apex court’s decision which outlawed the practice of obtaining police permit before holding any gathering.

    Organisers of the August Protests too fell back on the judgment to justify their plan for the nationwide action. The court’s verdict was simply an interpretation of Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which states:

    “Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of his interests”

    There is a caveat to this provision, which is titled: “Right to peaceful assembly and association”. It says:

    “Provided that the provisions of this section shall not derogate from the powers conferred by this Constitution on the Independent National Electoral Commission with respect to political parties to which that Commission does  not accord recognition”.

    The emphasis on “peaceful” gatherings by the law may be deliberate, apparently because of human nature. The right to protest, like every other right granted by the Constitution,  is not absolute. It must be exercised in a manner not to breach the public peace. This was why the public order laws of the respective states were repealed and replaced with the 1979  Federal Act  “for the purpose of maintaining public order…”

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    Section 1 (1) of the law empowers the governor of a state to direct the conduct of any gathering,  prescribe the route and time for it. It reads:

    “For the purpose of the proper and peaceful conduct of public assemblies, meetings and processions and subject to Section 11 of this Act, the governor of each state is hereby empowered to direct the conduct of all assemblies, meetings and processions on the public roads or places of public resort in the state and prescribe the routes which and the times at which any procession may pass”.

    Perhaps, it was in exercise of this power that Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Lawal Pedro (SAN), acting for the governor, went to court on July 30 and obtained a preemptive interim injuncton restricting the protests in the state to Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, and the Ketu Peace Park.

    The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) also obtained an order restricting the protest in Abuja to the Moshood Abiola National Stadium.

    But in recognising the right to peaceful gatherings, the law warned of the consequences of breaching it in Section 5.

    The provisions stipulate:

    (1)  Any person who at a public assembly, meeting or procession acts in a disorderly manner for the purpose of preventing the transaction of the business for which the assembly, meeting or procession was called or formed shall be guilty of an offence.

    (2) Any person who incites others to commit an offence under this section shall be guilty of an offence.

    (3): Any person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on conviction on a first offence to a fine… or imprisonment; and for a second or any subsequent conviction, to imprisonment for 12 months without an option of a fine.

    It also warned in Section 8 against carrying “offensive weapons” during such gatherings to avoid the wrath of the law. The provisions state:

    (1) Any person who, while present at any public assembly or meeting, or on the occasion of any public procession, has with him any offensive weapons or missiles, otherwise than in pursuance of lawful authority, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for 12 months without the option of a fine

    (3) In this section, “offensive weapons or missiles” include any cannon, gun, rifle, carbine, machine gun, cap gun, revolver, pistol, air gun, air pistol or other firearms (whether whole or in detached pieces), bow and arrow, spear, cutlass, machete, knife, dagger, axe, cudgel, horsewhip or any piece of wood, metal or other material, or stone capable of being used as an offensive weapon or missile and includes tear gas, corrosive, inflammable substances or any other thing that is capable of being used to inflict or cause injury.

    It speaks volumes of the patience of the government that the law was not thrown at the protesters even before the protests started on August 1. They started on a wrong premise by tagging the action: “Days of rage”. By giving it such a tag, they, ab initio, breached the Constitution which mainly grants every citizen the “right to peaceful assembly and association”. Rage is not by any means peaceful. It is a call to arms and violence.

  • Between government, the governed and people’s heroes

    Between government, the governed and people’s heroes

    If I were to choose between self-proclaiming peoples’ heroes- (journalists, human right lawyers and civil society groups), the governed and government, I will without hesitation settle for government that is today under vicious attack from which it cannot adequately defend itself.

    I cannot see any evidence that peoples’ heroes currently fuelling the fire of EndBadGovernanceinNigeria, Tinubu must go campaign took some pains to understand the nature and character of Nigerian society. It is also of little relief that  the  public faces of the nationwide EndBadGovernanceinNigeria, campaign which include Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN) Deji Adeyanju and Demilade Adenola, from their outbursts are perhaps the most uninformed when it comes to the sociology of our nation.

    First, they tried to draw an absurd parallel between western developed democracies and our society that harbours millions of out of school hungry and angry children who never knew love, thousands of orphaned victims of insurgents in IDP camps and thousands more that could not read and write as a result of ‘bad governance’ in the respective states that unleashed them on Lagos. They then self-conceitedly dismissed fear expressed by government and our security apparatus that the planned protest could be hijacked by criminals. The trending videos of bare-footed underage children vandalising public property or invading private property confirmed government fears. The governor of Borno State also admitted most of those involved in violent demonstration in Borno State were under-aged.

    The governed, who in the main are insane, are in a world of ‘the survival of the fittest’, fortune seekers. And surreptitiously leading the governed in its current confrontation with government, are those who after taking more than their proportionate share of our natural resources, now seek freedom to preside over an empire of slaves.

    For the informed, it is difficult not to sympathise with the government which is saddled with the onerous challenge of keeping man who as we pointed out, is insane, under control. Besides its primary responsibility of protecting lives and properties of its citizens, government also has the misfortune of having to protect the wicked, the evil doers and others sworn to pulling it down either through reasoned argument by heroes of society and if that fails, through rioting and social dislocation in the guise of protest over hunger and hardship occasioned by government’s harsh economic policies

    But to the governed, government is a Leviathan- a huge fearful sea monster responsible for all their woes including the hungry, the jobless,  husband seekers,  philandering husbands and warring wives, the deprived and depraved. We also have those who want to live questionable lives, enjoy freedom without responsibility with rights to questioning government’s exercise of power and authority.

    But this is not to say that government as an institution run by a few ‘ordinary’ people does not sometimes shoot itself in the leg because of the ephemeral nature of power and the paradoxical nature of politics which may change a leader from a saint to Satan overnight, the reason why we have very few politician-statesmen.

     For instance, while there is a consensus that many of the rampaging mobs involved in looting of houses and shops in Kaduna and Borno last week and their sponsors do not understand the nature of our crisis of nation-building, it is difficult to fault their demand for the resettlement of those condemned to IDP camps across the country by Boko Haram insurgents and herdsmen terrorists. For many Nigerians, that would have been the cheapest and shortest route to justice, fairness and equity for those violently uprooted from their ancestral homes. Unfortunately that was the route President Buhari refused to traverse all through his eight years in office.

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    If for eight years, Buhari played the ostrich while pandering to the threat of Miyetti Allah’ (patron of cattle farmers) to make the country ungovernable unless their demand for open grazing across federating states in Nigeria was allowed, most Nigerians had thought President Tinubu would not have such constraints. But that the president had to be reminded of the imperative of justice for those condemned to IDP camps by demonstrating youths last week was evidence enough that the president has also become hostage to northern politicians who were behind his 2023 presidential victory.

    But in spite of some evil men in government and the imperfection of ‘little men’ that run it as an institution, none including our self-proclaiming peoples’ heroes who never provide rational argument to back up their demand for government protection, the governed who is incapable of making a fundamental distinction between rights and obligation of citizens while questioning governments power and authority, can do without government.

     Between Sanwo-Olu and Igbo Caucus of the NASS

     Governor Sanwo-Olu on Sunday acknowledged a post by Lagospedia that called on the Igbo to vacate Lagos and Southwest of Nigeria and brace up for a massive hashtag #Igbomustgo protest from 20th to 30th August. The governor however has distanced government and good people of Lagos from ‘the reckless, divisive and dangerous rhetoric’ while assuring everyone that ‘Lagos remains home to every Nigerian citizen regardless of their ethnic nationality’.

    Finally, “Governor Sanwo-Olu dismissed the reckless and divisive post as an attempt to sow a seed of discord between the Yoruba in the Southwest and other tribes, especially those who have made Lagos their permanent place of abode.”

    The governor was right. It is not in the character of the Yoruba to be hostile to strangers in their midst. That was why sociologists describe their culture as ‘social’. I am not sure if it is because of Igbo votes, but I deeply feel Sanwo-Olu missed an opportunity to advise our Igbo brothers to respect the values and cultures of their host communities.

    I grew up in the village, knowing only Uncle Uncle Sunday who handled the oil palm inside my father’s cocoa plantation. At home, his room was opposite my father’s. He participated in all our social and cultural activities. When he eventually left us, it was as if we were all bereaved.

    Similarly, today our Ekiti Southwest LGA is made up of three major towns. The biggest shops in each of the three towns are owned by Igbo. There has never been any problem between them and their host communities.

     If the people of Ikorodu or Lagos Island want to invoke Oro (spirit) to avert impending doom in their communities, I don’t think the Igbo in these communities have anything to fear. As the saying goes, “When in Rome, behave like the Romans”. No one should also begrudge Igbo for observing their culture. The other day, fearing Yoruba could go to war over the annulled June 12 1993, Igbo in Lagos trooped back to the East ostensibly to celebrate New Yam festival. A quote in Chinua Achebe’s “No Longer at Ease” ‘where he said “we are strangers in this land. When calamities befall the owner of the land, we return home leaving behind the owners of the land who know how to appease their own gods” captures this aspect of Igbo culture.

    While some Igbo youths organised One million March in Abuja singing ‘Abacha today, Abacha tomorrow Abacha forever”, the Yoruba relied on her culture to wage a five year war of attrition against Abacha.

    National Assembly’s Southeast Caucus had earlier raised concern about what it described as “dangerous ethnic profiling of Igbos”.  The statement concluded by asserting that :“ It was such profiling that led to the millions of deaths in Nigeria from the 1950’s to the unfortunate civil war in 1967 to 1970”.

    I think the caucus should emulate the deputy speaker of the Lower House who had advised Igbo “to exhibit weakness” for a change especially in a stranger’s land.  Excessive display of Igbo in strangers land has been the bane of Igbo urban dwellers..

    With Sowore’s call for ‘revolution and day of rage” statements by Ebun Adegboruwa, Deji Adeyanju, Adenola, it was obvious the protest in Lagos was organized by Yoruba professional agitators, who the British pre-colonial administration referred to as “Lagos noise makers”. But is it not a paradox that most of those interviewed or captured by the camera arguing with the police were Igbo protesters?  The target of the 1953 northern elite sponsored Kano attack was SLA Akintola and his AG supporters. But because it was Igbo that exhibited strength in other peoples land, the 33 people killed were Igbo. And contrary to the caucus claim, the unfortunate massacre of Igbo in the north in the sixties was not as a result of ethnic profiling but because of Igbo’s exhibition of courage which found expression in unrestrained celebration of the 1966 assassination of Ahmadu Bello by Chukwuma Nzeogwu on the streets of northern cities.

  • Season of regional development commissions

    Season of regional development commissions

    In recent times, it has become fashionable for the Nigerian parliament to witness motions demanding the passage of bills about regional development commissions purporting to facilitate and accelerate regional development in Nigeria. First it was the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) that justly attracted notice because of the role of oil and gas in Nigeria’s development and the corrosive effect of their exploration and exploitation on the Niger Delta environment. So it definitely made sense in view of the cry for development in the Niger Delta and the political pressure put on the government that it must put something back in the region that holds the wealth from which the whole of Nigeria benefits from.

    Unfortunately, the history of the NNDC has not justified the targeted development focus on the Niger Delta. This is because the operation of the NDDC has been marred by rampant corruption and outright looting worse than in the country generally. Those in control of the management of the funds meant for the NDDC seem to feel they have the license to do whatever they want to do without any sense of accountability. This is the feeling of the general public outside the Niger Delta who watch the display of the various shenanigans and bad faith and outright roguery during various investigations and commissions of enquiry into the sordid operations in the Niger Delta now and in the past.

    No one is sure if other Nigerians advocating for special development outfits for their zones feel it is their turn to follow the sordid example of the Niger Delta by getting or forcing government to set up special vehicles for the development of their region so that they too as “sons” or “daughters” of the region can have a go at the funds supposedly set aside for the development of their region. It is a general mania in Nigeria for people to feel that public funds belong to nobody but to those lucky enough to be charged with the responsibility of managing it. Nigerians are generally interested in sharing the so-called “national cake” but not in baking it.

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    After the destruction and rampage of the Boko Haram terrorists and the other copy cats terrorists in the Northeast and Nigeria generally, it was easy to come to the conclusion that terrorism was the result of poverty and underdevelopment in the region.  This is despite studies that the phenomenon of terrorism is not directly linked to poverty because very rich young people from Saudi Arabia and Arab oil producing countries got involved in terrorism particularly in the USA and the West and in the recent caliphate of Abubakar Al -Baghdadi in Iraq and Syria in recent times.

    Our parliament and the government felt compelled to set up a North Eastern Development Commission (NEDC) to facilitate and accelerate development in the area presumably to show concern for the poor people in the region and to prevent them from following the terrorists in feeling that joining the apparently misguided rebels into the terrorist groups was the way of solving their problems of economic and social deprivation. Since setting up the NEDC, it was felt necessary to set up one for the equally challenged north-western part of the country.

    Members from other zones of the country are gearing up to table motions for special focus on their zones since it has been rightly conjectured that there is money to be shared! One such legislative effort going through parliament at the moment is about the Southeast. One of the reasons for this as argued by one of its proponents is the need to obliterate memories and signs of the civil war in the area. After almost half a century, if a new commission is necessary to wipe out the memory of the civil war, one wonders what the various states and the federal government have been doing since then.

    What is driving this movement to set up development commissions in all the zones is because the various state governments have shirked their responsibilities as agents of development. This failure is evidenced by the rural urban migrations into state capitals and into massive migrations to Lagos and Abuja by young people with reportedly 60% of new graduates coming to Lagos every year in search of jobs and thus aggravating housing and general urban problems.

    The question to ask is where the funds for these commissions would come from. If they are to come from the states in the zone, there will be no debate. But if the funds are to come from the federal exchequer, then there will be a problem of constitutionality.  If every zone gets a development commission funded by the federal government, the amount of money left in the federal purse for allocation for its own services and money left in  the distributable pool will be reduced while those regions now having development commissions would have had economic advantage in terms of available resources for development.  This may eventually lead to the challenge of constitutionality by the ever litigious horde of lawyers looking for cases of adjudication. This probably would not matter if the commissions’ funds are used for development and not for bureaucratic purposes and infrastructural outfit, logistical support for the work of administration with the people for which commissions are set up not seeing any benefit.

    If the states are not performing as they should do and there is need for another administrative structure to do the work of development, is this not a justifiable reason to look at the structure of the country and have zonal administration with the present states serving as units of administration with reduced bureaucratic outfit of bureaucrats and commissioners and permanent secretaries and so on and so forth? Our parliament passing all these laws establishing the regional development commissions should be bold enough to challenge the federal government to restructure the country along existing zones of six zones and if there is need for more zones call attention to it. The funding of the zonal governments should be stated in detail instead of the welter of commissions being set up without clear statements about funding them except the impression that federal funds are inexhaustible.

    The question of setting the economy of Nigeria far away from over dependence on oil and gas should be at the forefront of every discussion of creating new departments, ministries and commissions. This should be the time of merging departments and ministries to save costs. The question of cost of governance has become an urgent issue. The 774 local government administrations and 36 states and Abuja constituting a financial drain pipe should attract attention before our parliament’s penchant for establishing new institutions and departments. 

    Nigeria, if one must state the fact, is over administered! This  should lead us to begin to merge existing outfits because of prudence and cutting cost of management and administration and this should  include the universities and higher education institutions set up in the last one or so decades. Merging them would not only save costs but would strengthen their overall performance. The task of government at all levels  should be  moving Nigeria away from being mere commission agents of international oil and gas companies to a country of industrial production and manufacturing and export. This should be the government’s priority rather than duplication of administrative agencies and departments and running them from ever diminishing oil and gas receipts in a world moving away from dependence on hydrocarbons. More so in a world overwhelmingly challenged by problems of global warming and environmental degradation.

    This should be the credo of this government and all other governments coming after it rather than setting up administrative units and asking them to generate funds for their own running. We must put Nigeria on the pedestal of rational governance and orderly development. Passing bills and assenting to them by the president is easy, but developing the country and putting Nigeria where it should be as a shining star on the African firmament should be the aim of our government and those given the opportunity to contribute to the process of governance.