The Nation Newspaper

Category: Gabriel Amalu

Unvaccinated Southeast

The news item last week that 10 states in Nigeria are laggards in the vaccination race that has convoluted the world, following the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, elicited a sense of pity in this writer. As with other developmental challenges that bestride Nigeria like colossus, I took it for granted that all the affected 10 states would be in the beleaguered northern part of the country.

But alas, five out of the 10 states are in south-eastern Nigeria. Since I read the headline, I have been wondering what could make the entire south-eastern states become laggards on such an important public health issue. I have asked myself, whether it is the burgeoning insecurity in the region that is to blame for the low number of the vaccinated, as reported by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)?

If not the insecurity, could be that the southeast is suffering marginalisation in the supply of vaccines by the federal government, as is the region’s experience in political appointments under President Muhammadu Buhari’s government? If it is not marginalisation in the supply side, could it be that the governments of the region are not as aggressive as their colleagues elsewhere, in pushing for vaccination amongst the people they govern?

If the problem is within the states, could it be that majority of the people are not convinced about the need for the vaccine, and are therefore contemptuous of the efforts of both the federal and state governments? If they are unconvinced about taking the jab, could it be that those concerned are predominately ignorant of the advantages of the vaccine, or they are just sceptical like the argumentative anti-vaccine lobby scattered across the world?

For this writer, it is important for the governments in the southeast states and even the relevant federal authorities to investigate the reason or reasons for this seeming anomaly. Understanding the psychology of the people is important in mobilizing them, and consequently delivering the dividends of democracy, as our leaders usually frame such benefits. For if the World Health Organisation (WHO) has adjudged a disease a pandemic, not to talk of the massive disruption of lives across the world, and went ahead to recommend mass vaccination, it should worry leaders that some people do not heed the grim statistics.

Of significance is that all the states in the southeast are amongst the laggards, not some, but all. If it is a coincidence, then it is an intriguing one. If on the other hand the slackness is contrived, then those responsible should be known, and be treated as enemies of the region. And if it is self-inflicted, then it is tragic, particularly if it is as a result of poor governance. But if it is the people that are denying the obvious, then it should be a case study on group psychology.

It is also important to note that Nigeria as a country is amongst the least vaccinated countries in the world, and even within the sub region. According to data from the Multilateral Leaders Task Force on COVID-19; as at January 10, only about 2.2% of Nigerians are fully vaccinated. Comparatively, most advanced countries have vaccinated about 80% of their population. Of course, the vaccine sceptics would argue that despite the high percentage, the fourth wave still predominates in their countries.

For this column, those arguments are puerile, because before the advent of COVID-19 vaccines, people were dying in thousands daily across America and Europe. So, if the argument is that vaccination has not fully stopped the spread of the disease, the simple answer is that thousands are alive today because of the vaccines. Again, while it is likely that our weather and local medication may have saved the poor continent of Africa from annihilation as feared, it will be unfortunate to treat such a scientific development with contempt of an ignoramus.

So while Nigeria, nay Africa and other third world countries worry about the causes of the low level of vaccination in their countries, the governments of southeast should understudy why the region contributed so much to this development. That worry should be regardless of whether or not, they belong to the anti-vaccine lobby. I push for that study, as it would help the governments know the causes of the failure of the people of the region to vaccinate, and what they can do to ameliorate the situation going forward.

But since the challenge cuts across all states in southeast, it requires a common confrontation by all concerned states. Such common challenge underscores the need for a South East Development Agency (SEDA), which would act as a think-tank for the governments and peoples of the region. It is such an organ that can follow through on the issues raised here, and come forward with reliable data of what went wrong. Of course, such an organ would also provide intellectual power for other developmental challenges facing the region.

As I have argued here on other occasions, the southeast governments should be planning ahead of the current dissonance in our federal system of government, and be ready when federalism returns. To only live in the present and remain reactionary to the reactionary forces that have seized our country by the jugular since 1967, is to be unstatesmanlike. Even the blind can see that the quasi-federalism we are practising is unsustainable, and would surely give way to a workable practice of federalism, if the nation is to survive.

So, the region needs to keep putting in place the building blocks for a regional development agenda. After all, before the military intervention in Nigeria’s governance, the entire eastern Nigeria was governed from Enugu, and one could see the organisational structure of developmental programmes across the region. There was a synergy between the agricultural, industrial, technological and commercial belts. Who says that an effective intellectual organ cannot provide knowledge driven collaboration opportunities between the states?

What simply needs to be done is for each state to rely on the comparative advantage it has, and link that to other member states’ advantage. That is the way to the future of the region, and our governors should see such collaborative endeavour as a legacy project. They should work to gift the southeast such a development think-tank, to put in place a blueprint for collaborative development. And such a body will gain funding from local and international organisations, and could even link the universities in the region to research on some regional challenges.

If such a body existed, it would have told us why the southeast is lagging behind in the vaccination programme. The governments of the southeast must not brush aside the NCDC data on COVID-19 vaccination.

January 18, 2022
Buhari on state police

In a recent interview on Channels Television, President Muhammadu Buhari stated emphatically that “state police is not an option” as solution to the myriad of security challenges facing the country. As far as Mr President is concerned, Nigerians should be more worried over the management of the relationship between the state and local governments, than the incompetence of the federal police.

The president urged Nigerians to: “Find out the relationship between local government and the governors. Are the third tier of government getting what they are supposed to get constitutionally? Are they getting it? Let the people in local government tell you the truth, the fight is between local governments and the governor.” While truly the local governments are subdued in their relationship with the state governments, the situation is no better between the federal government and the states.

So, instead of trying to deflect the glaring challenge posed by our nation’s reliance on a centralised police structure, the president should own up that he hasn’t got the nerve to change the status quo. After all, he is not the only one afraid of federalising the police; as his predecessors, including the bombastic former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, was also afraid of tinkering with that anomaly, not to talk of the lily-livered former president, Goodluck Jonathan.

But as I have argued on this page on many occasions, the dragon of insecurity plaguing our country may consume it, because we are afraid of the lesser evil associated with possible abuse of state police by indulgent state governors. Unfortunately, President Buhari, perhaps because of his military background, appears to see the contest of alternative positions on state police as a fight, instead of a contest of ideologies.

Since he sees the relationship between the state governors and local government authorities as “a fight”, he would also believe that pushing for state police, amounts to fighting his authority, as president. And being a military General, he should crush the idea, instead of examining what is best for the nation. With that mind-set, the president is unable to critically examine the argument of his state governor, Aminu Bello Masari, who has asked Nigerians to arm and defend themselves.

Of course, the Kastina State governor is voicing his frustration over the inability of the central police to effectively engage in police duties in the home state of Mr President. By asking for individuals to arm and defend themselves, the governor is asking for even a greater decentralisation of policing in the country. And considering that the governor is a loyal party man, the president should appreciate the signal to him that the centralised police structure has failed woefully.

In AG Lagos State vs AG Federation & 35 Ors, (MJSC) 2003, 7 July. P.18; the Supreme Court held: “By section 2(2) of the 1999 Constitution, Nigeria shall be a federation and by the doctrine of the federalism, which Nigeria has adopted, the autonomy of each government, which pre-supposes its separate existence and its independence from the control of the other governments essential to federal arrangement. Therefore, each government exists not as appendage entity in the sense of being able to exercise its own will in the conduct of its affairs free from direction by another government.”

Read Also: Buhari: Journey so far

If the above erudite judgment is a true interpretation of the federal system of government which we are supposed to practice, how can a state executive governor exercise the powers vested in him by the constitution, when he has no control over the police, which is the most basic enforcer of constitutional authority? For many, the recent spat between the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and a middle ranking police officer sent to Lagos State from Abuja underpins the state of anomaly.

While some commentators like the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, who authorised what Lagos State government regarded as invasion of the state by police from Abuja, have contended that the governor has no powers to interfere in the execution of a judgment, the fact remains that other state governors have been victims of the recalcitrance of the federal control of a centralized police, which is not submissive to state government’s authority.

The point that there should be delineation of powers between the federal and state governments, was amply stated in the AG Lagos State vs AG Federation & 35 Ors, mentioned above. The Supreme Court in that case further held: “Neither the National Assembly nor the president has the constitutional powers to regulate or interfere with the exercise, by a state governor, of his executive functions. It would also not be competent for a state assembly or a governor to regulate or interfere with the exercise by the president of his executive functions.”

Without gainsaying, the exclusive control of the centralised police structure by the president is a direct interference with the exercise of the executive functions of the state governors. It is therefore legitimate to question how the governor can exercise the executive functions vested in him by section 5(2) of the 1999 constitution, particularly “the execution and maintenance of this constitution, all laws made by the House of Assembly of the state and to all matters with respect to which the House of Assembly has for the time being power to make laws.”

To the chagrin of any fair-minded person, the same constitution in section 214(1) shackled the powers enumerated above, by providing that: “There shall be a police force for Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force, and subject to the provisions of this section no other police force shall be established for the federation or any part thereof.” To fully emasculate the state governor, the proviso to Section 215(4), derogated the power earlier granted him to give lawful directives to the state Commissioner of Police, with a leeway that the commissioner can opt to seek the further directive of the president or the IGP.

Of note, Section 4 of the Nigeria Police Act 2020, particularly sub-sections a, b, c & d, provides for the primary responsibilities of the police, and a reading of it, exposes the constraint of an executive governor, who has no control of a Police Force, which is necessary to enforce the constitutionally guaranteed executive functions. The sub-sections provides that the Police Force shall prevent and detect crimes, and protect the rights and freedom of every person in Nigeria; maintain public safety, law and order; protect the lives and property of all persons in Nigeria; and enforce all laws and regulations.

If President Buhari appreciates the enormous national security challenges, attenuated by a centralised police structure foisted on the country by the military, he would not say that state police is not an option.

January 11, 2022
New year wishes

In the days of yore, when a new year unfurls, it is meat to make new-year wishes. Depending on one’s position in life, the list may include the mundane and the serious. If one is an old bachelor for instance, the list may include a wish to settle down with a lady that is the apple of one’s eye before the end of year. If one is an unemployed graduate, it will include a resolution to gain employment in the preferred sector of the nation’s economy.

If one was heavy on booze, he would be encouraged to make a wish to go easy in the new-year. Where there is an important thing to catch up with, which requires piling-up resources, the wish will include saving more so as to achieve the desired goal. The list of wishes is endless, and it was rare not to have a list of new-year wishes at the beginning of the year.

But in the present time, with the challenges facing Nigerians, one may not wonder far what could be the new-year wishes of the average Nigerian. I believe at the top of such list would be to survive the year 2022. There is no doubt that the days ahead are going to be tricky, whether we are talking about a rural folk in Katsina State or an urban folk in Imo State for instance. Of course, what is true of Katsina and Imo states are substantially true of majority of the states in our country.

While in Katsina, the Nigerian will be mortally living in fear of the bullets of the armed bandits who have graduated from cattle rustlers and forest bandits to urban terrorists; in Imo State, the ordinary folk would live in fear of stray bullets from the smoking guns of government goons who are either pursuing IPOB members or the real and imagined enemies of the state governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma.

In Katsina, as advised by the state governor, the wish list may therefore extend to saving money to buy guns, which interestingly are allegedly available for few thousands as a result of the fall of Libya and the crisis in the Maghreb region. One challenge though would be that while the Presidential Task Force on control of small arms would be chasing the gun sellers, and driving up the prices, poor Katsina people would have to contend with the higher prices or getting caught by security agencies for illegal possession of fire arms.

Another item that is likely to be on top of the wish list for majority of Nigerians in 2022, is how to survive hunger in the year. Especially for rural folks in northern part of the country, putting food on the table in the year ahead would be a tricky one. While many of them are in the Internally Displaced Persons camps at the mercy of inept and corrupt government officials, the rest need to pay tax to armed bandits, before they can access their farmlands.

The urban poor across the country would also have to rely on ecclesiastical succour when hunger pangs strike in the New Year. So, amongst their new-year wishes would be for God’s intervention to save them from hunger. For, while inflation has already made mincemeat of the meagre salaries and wages the poor folks earn, the federal government has concluded plans to increase the cost of petrol, which can be likened to throwing an inflationary banga as a new-year gift.

Read Also: Uzodimma blames opposition, criminals for Imo crisis

Perhaps, one of the new-year wishes will be for President Buhari to find mercy in his heart, to refuse the economic push to increase the price of petrol which will instantly increase the cost of transport, food, housing, health services, you name it, in the new-year. But can he resist the push? Not likely. For while he may wish the extremely poor who are the majority in the country he governs a better life, the economic development under his care is indicative that he has no means of taking care of their needs.

So President Buhari may inevitably have to sanction increase in the price of petrol, if he wants to continue to pay salaries and prosecute the wars-without-an-end-in-sight, across the country. The wish list for the urban government working class in our country will therefore include uninterrupted payment of salaries during the year. They would have to pray that the state governments don’t run into the kind of hot water that splashed them few years ago, when they had to go cap in hand for bailout from the federal government, to be able to pay salaries to their workers.

Another item likely to be on the wish list is for ASUU not to go on one of their prolonged strikes. For while the federal government is claiming to have met most of the demands of the university teachers, the leaders of the trade union are claiming that the government officials are lying. With the president and members of his cabinet training their own children in foreign universities, they will likely not join other Nigerians in the desperate wish that ASUU should not go on strike.

For the economic elites, on top of their wish-list is for stability in the post COVID-19 pandemic, so that there would be no disruption of the aviation sector. Apart from missing the foreign holiday resorts, and enjoying medical tourism, there will wish to have uninterrupted opportunity to visit their children schooling abroad. Most of them would therefore pray hard for 2022 not to be like 2020, when both the rich and the poor were put on the same level of existence, following the shut-down of the aviation space across the world as COVID-19 ravaged the world.

On the wish list for politicians, especially potential candidates in the 2023 general elections, is to gain the favour of those who will determine the candidates for major political parties, in the upcoming elections. With the refusal of President Buhari to sign the amended Electoral Bill passed by the National Assembly, top on the wish list of the legislators would be to find favour in the sight of the governors. Those of them who had staked their cards on direct primaries by political parties, may already be in hot peppered soup.

With the national economy on topsy-turvy, it may be suicidal to put marriage on the wish list, regardless of one’s age, unless the person wishing that is an acolyte of a politician who is eyeing a second term in office. With the 2023 in view, there is hope that that political economy will rebound. But no doubt, the wish-lists in the present times will be so different from that of the days of the yore.

January 4, 2022
KSM as exemplar

Christmas is a season of joyfulness. Some may ask, can there be joyfulness amidst the clatter of arms, fear and trepidation that has overwhelmed many parts of our dear country? Indeed, as a metaphor to the grave challenges of our time, the most protected citizen of our country, President Muhammadu Buhari, was threatened by bombers as he planned to visit Maiduguri, Borno State, last week.

But interestingly, amidst these challenges, this Christmas maybe the most joyful and most memorable for some. Amongst this group, are those who may have a life-changing experience during the season. For example, those who may gain freedom from imprisonment, those whose excruciating medical bills are paid off, those who receive food, clothing or shelter during the season, or those who are visited in the hospital by loving strangers, or those consoled while they mourn. Perhaps, what makes Christmas most joyful is the opportunity to give gifts; or is it to receive gifts?

If I may ask, is the aphorism that it is more blessed to give than to receive entirely correct? For every giver receives, and every receiver gives. When one gives material gifts, he receives the gratitude of well wishes, prayers and respect. And even more importantly, the giver ogles the blessings of the ultimate giver, the omnipotent God. Truly, many give in great expectation of receiving from God, the owner of limitless abundance.

Of interest, the reason for the season, Jesus, was the master giver. One can say that the entire ministry of Jesus was one of giving. If he was not giving spiritual food, he was giving physical food. If he was not giving freedom to the captives from their earthly masters, he was giving prisoners of ill-health or spiritual attacks freedom from their bondage. If he was not giving justice to the oppressed on earth, he was giving the gift of eternal salvation.

Indeed, his birth was a gift to the world. As the Bible phrased it, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him, shall have eternal life.” So, Christmas is the celebration of the ultimate gift. And since our material possessions are gifts from God, what we give is a mere fraction of what we have received.

Perhaps, it is in recognition of this truism, that the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba, Nigeria (KSM), recognises charity as a cardinal pillar of its doctrinal principles. Founded by a Catholic Priest and monk, Very Rev. Fr. Anselm Abraham Isidahome Ojefua, of blessed memory, the Order was established on June 14, 1953, with two sub-councils. Presently with over 274 sub-councils and 23,000 members, the Order was founded upon the principles of Catholic Action and modelled after the Sacred Order of Catholic Knighthood.

The cherished values of the Order explains its doctrinal principles. These include working towards the welfare and spiritual development of members; working towards a high sense of order and discipline within the society; cooperating with other Christian denominations and persons of goodwill without compromising catholic doctrines and principles; being sensitive to the needs of the poor and giving succour to the destitute, the disadvantaged and the oppressed in the society; trusting in God always rather than in man or material possessions; working for justice always and everywhere for the benefit of mankind; and living exemplary Catholic life, defending the Catholic faith and loving one’s neighbour as oneself.

Of the core values, the two preeminent ones are the fourth and the sixth, which makes them exemplars in this season of joy to the world. The fourth, being sensitive to the needs of the poor and giving succour to the destitute, the disadvantaged and the oppressed in the society is perhaps closest to the mission of Jesus Christ, the reason for the season. In this respect, I believe the Order has been outstanding.

As a neophyte Knight, few years ago, yours sincerely was intrigued at the Order’s interest in the monthly charity activities of her members. And occasionally collating the members’ return for Amuwo Odofin Sub-Council, led by Worthy Brother Joe Nnodum, where I belong, I became aware of the enormous charity that members engage in, every month. And what is true of our sub-council, is true of the 274 sub-councils and the 23,000 members that make up the Order of Knights of St. Mulumba, Nigeria.

Of interest is the sub-heads of the charity work that members are encouraged to engage in. Apart from supporting the priests and religious, and the pious charity of visiting the Blessed Sacrament, there are provisions to visit the widows, the sick and the imprisoned. And as those who are materially blessed can shoot up gifts to the poor and less privileged in naira and kobo, the less endowed could jack up their charity work, with long hours of visit to the sick and imprisoned.

Another exemplary business of the KSM is their prison ministry outreach. In the Lagos Metropolitan Council, made up of all the sub-councils in Lagos Ecclesiastical Province, there is a standing rule that every sub-council must visit a prison during the yuletide. Before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a physical visit to the inmates, with gifts of evangelism, food, money and emotional succour.

The sub-councils are also encouraged to work with the Catholic Prison Ministry, and the National Association of Catholic Lawyers, to set the prisoners free, by paying fines imposed by the courts, or hiring lawyers to pursue their cause of freedom. The past year, the Lagos Metropolitan Council took the challenge a notch higher, as it engaged critical stakeholders on how to set men and women, who are in jail for offences they have not been convicted of, euphemistically called awaiting trial men, free.

With the recent election of a new Supreme Grand Knight, Sir Dr. Charles Mbelede, PhD; who is the ultimate head of KSM in Nigeria, and a new head of the Lagos Metropolitan Council, Sir Don Eze, the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba is expected to grow in leaps and bounds in its vocation of bringing joy to the world. In his Christmas message to the Sub-Councils in the Lagos Metropolitan Council, the Metro Grand Knight, Sir Don Eze, captured the exemplary conduct of KSM succinctly.

He said: “It is on record that so many of you, worthy brothers and sisters of various sub-councils organised elaborate Christmas charity outreach by way of significant food distribution to the less privileged. I sincerely thank and commend you all. You have indeed started our Metro “feed-the-hungry” Apostolate in a very inspiring manner, ahead of its formal launch in the New Year. Your sacrifice and love for the needy will surely be rewarded by our Almighty Father.”

December 28, 2021
Prince of peace

As we carol towards Christmas, the story of the three wise men from the East, who went in search of the new born king, the child Jesus will resonate in the old Eastern Nigeria. Amidst several other titles, the child Jesus is also known as the Prince of Peace, and this column believes that the best Christmas gift to the people of the old Eastern Nigeria will be the return of peace to the region.

For obvious reasons in the first instalment, and obscure reasons in several other instalments, the old Eastern Nigeria has been on the boil for the past few years. The obvious reason was the rampaging attacks of armed herdsmen, coupled with the marginalisation of the region in key political cum security appointments, which feeding each other, mutated into allegations of a sinister plot by the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari, to overrun and subjugate Nigerians to his ethnic interest.

While moderates amongst the easterners were arguing that such a plot does not exist, and even if it is nursed, would fail woefully, the die-hard believers in such a plot, decided to take their fate in their hand. And before one could say jack, the east was suffused by emergent armed defenders of the region. With President Buhari ignoring calls to have a more inclusive national security council, the propagation that a hideous agenda to Islamise and Fulanize Nigeria, apologies to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, became rife even amongst some moderates.

The balkanisation of Nigeria, championed by the Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), reborn on the cusp of that traumatic national development, overnight became the de facto anthem in the region. With the rambunctious leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kalu, peremptorily detained and eventually sprang to safety, the Buhari presidency was put on the back foot. Loquacious and intelligent, the IPOB leader through his Radio Biafra, pummelled the Buhari presidency relentlessly, even as he raised a burgeoning army of young men, who are ready to lay down their lives at his command.

Raising the ante a notch higher, the IPOB members began to organise in such a manner that put fear and discomforted the political leaders of the region, not just the presidency. While the governors of the region were still dillydallying over what to do concerning the menace of the armed herdsmen, IPOB inaugurated their Eastern Security Network (ESN). And when the governors of the southeast eventually came up with their Ebubeagu security organ, it was alleged that ESN members attacked them, tagging them saboteurs.

With the emergence of Hope Uzodimma, as governor of Imo State in controversial circumstance, it seemed as if that development further infuriated the young men, and suddenly Imo State became the hotbed of what amounted to insurgency for the government officials, and liberation struggle for sympathizers of the IPOB movement. Kidnapping of politically exposed persons, maiming and killing them, and burning and destroying their properties, became the ethos of those mortally sworn against the status quo.

By a sleight of hand, the leader of IPOB was allegedly captured in Kenya, and forcefully brought back to Nigeria, to face his trial, which was aborted when he jumped bail and fled the country. The objection raised by his counsel that his extraordinary rendition renders his continuing trial unlawful, under international law, awaits the decision of the court. In the meantime, IPOB devised a means of keeping the agitation in the national consciousness, by ordering a sit-at-home, every Monday of the week in the East.

As the Anambra State election came to the fore, the insecurity headquarters temporarily moved to the state. In the second instalment, a new security challenge entered the mix, as unknown gun-men literally took over the East, killing, maiming and raining havoc on the people. It got to a stage that it was reported that riding with police escorts and blaring siren, had become a dangerous gambit, because of the unknown gun-men.

With the crisis exerting a heavy toll on the economy and social life of the people of the region, it was time to seek a political solution to the crisis. Leading the charge is the sole-surviving First Republic minister, Mbazulike Amaechi, a veteran political pugilist, who led a delegation to President Muhammadu Buhari, asking him to release the leader of IPOB and bring peace to the Eastern Nigeria. This column has argued in favour of that move, and is hopeful that as the Christendom celebrate the Prince of Peace, the president will harken the wise man’s counsel.

No doubt, there is no better time to take all necessary steps to bring peace to Nigeria than a period like Christmas, especially in the Southeasrt where the celebration is the highest feast every year. At the last Sunday service, which is the fourth Sunday of Advent in the Catholic calendar, the priest reminded the congregation of several types of gift, which one can give at Christmas. One of such gifts which suits this piece is the gift of forgiveness.

For President Buhari, he needs to forgive the IPOB leader for the many insults and abuses which he hurled at him, whether for good or bad reason. After all, one of the detriment of being a leader is being the object of ridicule, abuse and insults. So, the president should take in his stride all the tirades hauled at him by Kanu, his followers and sympathisers, who at a time where pedalling the rumour that the president was long dead, and what we see, is a fake Buhari.

On their part, the people of the East should also forgive the president for his glaring marginalisation of the region, in political and security appointments. After all, as we have seen over and over again, political appointments mainly benefit the appointees, and not the people. Indeed, if occupying a very important position is the solution to the many challenges confronting the people, Kastina State where the president hails from, would have been a haven of peace, since their son is the commander-in-chief of the nation’s security apparatus.

With the 2023 elections soon to take over the national consciousness, the president should begin to look at what will be his legacies on national cohesion, when he leaves power. Would history be kind to him, if he bequeaths a fractious nation to his successor? And despite the sweet music that his communication henchmen render to his ears, he should know that his style of leadership heightened the demand for separatist movement.

In conclusion, while President Buhari is a Muslim, his religion accords a pride of place to Jesus Christ, and this column urges him to learn a few tips from the Prince of peace. From this column, happy Christmas dear readers.

December 21, 2021
A free judiciary

A free judiciary no doubt is the antidote to tyranny. In The Federalist Papers, the men who drafted the United States of America’s constitution stated that the “independence of judges is equally requisite to guide the constitution and the rights of individuals.” So, without an independent judiciary, the constitution however well-crafted is imperilled and rights of members of the society are abrogated at the whims and caprices of those who wield political power.

Unfortunately, since the advent of the present republic in 1999, both the executive and the legislature have treated the judiciary as the weakest partner of the presidential tripod. But all that may soon change if the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Hon. Justice Ibramim Tanko Muhammed, carries out his threat. The CJN spoke at the special session of the Supreme Court to mark the commencement of the 2021/2022 Legal Year and the swearing-in of new Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs).

He thundered: “with time, those taking the judiciary as a mere weakling will soon realise that it is from the calmest seas we often experience the fiercest storms. The time to oppress, suppress, and intimidate judicial officers is gone.” While the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo was notorious for ignoring court judgments, it is under President Muhammadu Buhari that embarrassing the judiciary became a pastime. The height was the sacrilegious manner the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, was ignominiously removed from office.

To compound the query on the integrity of the present government with respect to disgraceful treatment of judges, the former CJN, Justice Onnoghen, laid a weighty allegation that he was removed from office because of an unfounded allegation that he met the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in Dubai to plot strategy to nullify the re-election of President Buhari in 2019. This column is not aware that the presidency has refuted the allegation.

While the present CJN may have benefited from the impudence of the executive which removed the immediate CJN from office in an unlawful manner, he has vowed that such shenanigans would not be allowed again. His worries are well founded if the latest executive rascality against the judiciary is a pointer. With the manner a low ranking judicial officer – a magistrate was subpoenaed by hideous forces in the executive branch to embarrass the second highest ranking judicial officer, Justice Mary Peter-Odili, it is obvious that the forces of evil are not far off from the door steps of the apex court in the land.

In the words of the CJN: “I must say, we were jolted with embarrassing news of the invasion of the official residence of one of our brother Justices, Hon. Justice Mary Peter-Odili, on Friday 29th October 2021, by men suspected to be security operatives, acting on a search warrant purportedly obtained from an Abuja Magistrate Court under questionable circumstances.” He went on: “I must make it known to all and sundry that we have had enough dosage of such embarrassment and harassment of our judicial officers across the country and we can no longer take any of such shenanigans.”

To further embarrass the judiciary, the executive branches at state levels have refused to give effect to the constitutional provision granting financial autonomy to the judiciary. Despite an executive order by President Buhari, the governors continue to act in complete disregard of the Fourth (Constitution) Alteration Act, 2017, section 121(3)(b) which provides that “any amount standing to the credit of the judiciary in the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state shall be paid directly to the said bodies respectively; in the case of the judiciary, such amount shall be paid directly to the heads of the courts concerned.”

From the foregoing, there is no doubt that the CJN is justifiably angry over the treatment of the judiciary and should feel threatened by the callous indignity meted on his constituency by the executive branch. But the CJN has indicated that he is not helpless. He said: “The silence of the judiciary should never be mistaken for stupidity or weakness. By the nature of our work, we are conservative but not conquered species and should not be pushed further than this by any individual, institution or agency of the government.”

In what one may term the clincher, he hollered: “No one, irrespective of his or her status or position in the country, should test our will because the consequence of such unwarranted provocation will be too dire to bear.” As a citizen desirous of the benefits of an independent judiciary, and a legal practitioner, who needs judicial independence to ply my trade, I must confess that my sympathy lies with the recent activism of the CJN to defend the independence of the judiciary.

But I believe there are limits to what the judiciary can do to safeguard its independence and autonomy as guaranteed by the constitution. While no doubt the judiciary has enormous constitutional powers, it can only determine the issues raised in matter brought before it. The judiciary does not have the liberty of the other arms of government to act mala fide. For instance, it cannot by itself with intent to punish, call up the issue of the election of the governors earlier adjudicated upon, and nullify same to teach the executive a lesson.

Again, it cannot by itself concoct a false allegation or even a genuine claim against a member of the executive, who has been trenchant in subjecting the judiciary to ridicule, and commit the person to jail, or at least publicly embarrass him. For instance, the judiciary cannot by itself, summon those who engaged in the dastardly act of invading Justice Peter-Odili’s home, put them on trial and punish them. To bring the culprits to account, the judiciary must wait on the executive branch to act.

Perhaps, such limitation may be one of the reasons why some clamour for the separation of the office of the attorney general from that of minister or commissioner of justice, in the constitution. They argue that if the office of the attorney general is made a non-political appointment, the appointee can then in deed and act, be the chief law officer of the country or the state, as the case may be. If there is such an office holder, he would have since brought those who invaded the houses of the justices of the court, and all those who disobeyed orders of court since 1999 to account.

So, to guarantee a free judiciary, we must turn enact adequate laws to safeguard the judiciary. After all, both the governed and the governors need a free judiciary to succeed. More so, we should save the CJN from the lamentations of the biblical Rachael.

December 14, 2021
Restructure Nigeria

A significant development took place last week at the Third National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Sector, held at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja, with President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Mohammed in attendance. In the report, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) relayed the recommendation of the Budget Office that restructuring Nigeria into six regions will reduce the cost of governance, ensure growth of the economy and enhance infrastructural development.

Coming from a key government agency, we hope that President Buhari would now see restructuring as a panacea to most of the challenges facing Nigeria, and, hopefully do something about it. This column agrees with those who believe that Nigeria as presently structured would continue to stymie in underdevelopment quagmire, until a radical approach is employed to change things. While this columnist is not an economist, he can say without equivocation that the national economy despite all the fancy claims has continued to deteriorate, since the end of the oil boom in the 1980s.

The simple indices even for a non-economist is that the value of the currency upon which the nation’s economy is denominated, has continued to plummet year on year since about 1980.

In the past few years under President Buhari, despite his avowal to fight corruption, engender efficiency in governance and enhance infrastructural development, the nation’s currency has continued to suffer attrition unabated. For the common man, the most significant indicator is the worsening cost of living. Indeed, despite the fact that corruption was writ large during the regime of the immediate past president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, many now look back with nostalgia to that inept regime; and that means that Buhari’s regime is adjudged worse than that of his predecessor.

And truth be told: using basic human development indices, life is worse off presently than it was under that regime. Of note, when the regime of President Jonathan is compared to that of President Obasanjo, since President Yar’Adua was like an interregnum, the cost of living was better under Obasanjo’s era compared to Jonathan’s. The basic indices referred to include, the cost of food, shelter, clothing, education, health and social infrastructure. Though not an economist, one can say without equivocation that the cost of living from 1999 to the present has quadrupled.

The latest atomic bomb about to be detonated on hapless Nigerian public is the astronomical increase in the cost of petrol by more than 100%, from the first quarter of 2022. From N164 per litre, the federal government is threatening to increase the cost of fuel to about N345. Again, one does not need to be an economist to know that there would be commensurate rise in the cost of all the basic indices indicated above, which presently is strangulating the poor masses of the country.

So, what is the cause of this obvious lack of impact on the nation’s economy despite the best efforts of President Buhari, just as it was for his predecessors? One of the major causes is that the cost of governance has continued to balloon and exacerbate. By the account of the Budget Office rendered at the event President Buhari attended, the recurrent expenditure of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) rose from N3.61 trillion in 2015 to N5.26 trillion in 2018 and N7.91 trillion in 2020.

The report added that our country has about 934 MDAs, with duplicated functions and lamented that the cost of governance has generally been on the rise. It therefore called on the government to “prioritise completion of ongoing projects, restructure Nigeria into six regions and reduce the number of ministries, and build a more efficient civil service and conduct periodic staff audit.” The Budget Office is therefore saying that unless the recommendations mentioned above are addressed, the nation would remain underdeveloped, corrupt and infrastructure deficit.

If you add the geometrical increase in the cost of governance to the devaluation of the naira, and the stratospheric inflationary pressure on basic goods, one will appreciate why the cost of living will become akin to a death sentence, for the poor. In essence, the talakawas who reputedly voted President Buhari into power in 2015 because of believe that life would become better for them have ended up worse off than they were when he came into power.

While President Buhari, just like his predecessors, bears significant blame for the deterioration of the economy, he has on many occasions claimed that he was doing his best to make the economy better. So, if despite his best efforts, there is no significant progress, it is legitimate to extrapolate why the economy is worse off than when he took over. The answer may have been provided by the Budget Office that the cost of governance has jumped from N3.61 trillion in 2015 to N7.91 trillion in 2020.

The report presented to President Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria complained about bloated cabinet size, high cost of elections, corrupt budget practices, multiplicity of Ministries Departments and Agencies and high number of political office holders and aides. With politics being the surest way to gain wealth in our underdeveloped economy, the challenges named above would continue to increase, and the next government would end up leaving Nigerians worse than they would meet it.

So, perhaps after listening to his own aides, President Buhari would have a rethink on his opposition to restructuring as a panacea to underdevelopment. For instance, if the recommendation on restructuring the nation into six regions is carried out, the cost of governance would plummet. Again this column has argued on the need to wean Nigeria from over dependence on the oil in the Niger Delta. And the only way to do that is to return the ownership of all mineral resources to the regions, which would exploit and pay taxes to the federal government.

Without gainsaying, there is no doubt that the country’s overdependence on oil is at the root of the many afflictions afflicting Nigeria. Despite the touted diversification of the economy, before the recent resurgence of oil prices, the federal government was financially hapless and the states unable to pay salaries of their workers, and the country has been relying on massive borrowing to survive. If our population continues to increase in geometrical proportion, while as the report indicated, huge recurrent expenditure continue to constrain the provision of good roads, steady power supply, health care services, quality education and quality shelter, the state of affairs can only get worse.

It is therefore, important that President Buhari hearken to the advice of his aides in the ICPC and the Budget Office on restructuring Nigeria, if he hopes to leave a positive legacy behind.

December 7, 2021
Ikpeazu and governance

For reasons this columnist may never know, the governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, is the butt of jokes in social media circles. Compared to his colleagues in the other four states in the southeast, his traducers see him as the poorest performer. The most recent rave of jokes is that he said on a national television programme last week that he would pay N500 to every Abia woman who is delivered of a baby.

If truly he said so, that is scandalous. How on earth can he make a promise to pay a paltry N500, which can only buy two small tubers of yam, in the rural Umudike of Abia State, famous for farm settlements and a university of agriculture? It would have been better he didn’t mention any sum as an incentive, instead of the embarrassing amount. After all, Nigerians are not asking to be rewarded whenever they have a baby as in some parts of Europe and North America.

But this columnist listened to the part of the interview where he talked about how he is handling the challenges facing the Abia State University, the state University Teaching Hospital and the state polytechnic. It was his rather unsatisfactory answers to the germane questions by the Channels television anchor that gave impetus to this write up. While the governor may have his other competences, his answers to the questions portrayed him as an incompetent administrator.

Asked in different ways how he is handling the prolonged crisis in the institutions, as a result of several months of the non-payment of salaries, he came across to this writer as someone who has abdicated his responsibility as state chief executive, and acting frustrated. In his answers he claimed that the university, its teaching hospital and the polytechnic are income-generating institutions and as such should substantially solve their financial problems. While the claim is debatable, he laid allegations that they are wasteful and merely stewing in their mess.

What this column finds disagreeable is that the governor by his own account confirms that the management of the institutions are engaged in corrupting and debilitating activities, and all he could do is to complain and do nothing. In one instance he mentioned that the institutions have a bloated workforce, and are totally unaccountable for the internally generated revenue. When reminded that resident doctors where owed for several months, he said that the teaching hospital generates income and could have used it to pay them.

When pushed by the anchor that the university and polytechnic staff where owed for several months, he repeated the same reason that they generate income, are over staffed and are unaccountable. In fairness to the governor, I didn’t hear all he said till the end of the interview, and as such cannot confirm whether he modified his views subsequently. But listening to him repeat the lame excuse of the institutions being income generating and unaccountable, I made up mind to call out the governor on this column.

If Governor Ikpeazu’s answers to the debilitating challenges faced by the named institutions, which by law he is the overall chief executive, is his presentation on Channels television, then one is tempted to believe some of the ridiculous assertions in the media, both social and traditional. First the governor must realise that he is the chief executive of the state, and as such the overall supervising chief executive of all the institutions, and parastatals that is owned by the state.

Read Also: Ikpeazu urges Buhari to intervene in failed federal roads

The executive powers of the state governor is eloquently provided for in section 5(2)(a) & (b) of the 1999 constitution as amended. Section 5(2(a) provides: “Subject to the provisions of this constitution, the executive powers of a state: shall be vested in the governor of that state and may, subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by a House of Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the deputy governor and commissioners of the government of that state or officers in the public service of the state.”

Sub-section (b) further provides that such powers: “shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this constitution, all laws made by the House of Assembly of the state and to all matters with respect to which the House of Assembly has for the time being powers to make laws.” The above provisions are the fulcrum of the executive powers exercised by Governor Ikpeazu, just as it is for his other brother governors. Those powers are extensive and extend to dealing with the challenges he spoke helplessly about, last week on Channels television.

The constitution which imbues him with those powers expects him to use it to serve as the chief executive of the institutions, albeit indirectly through the supervising officers of the university, polytechnic and the teaching hospital. He cannot be heard to wring his hands in helpless surrender, when he enjoys the trappings of the office and answers the executive governor. I have no doubt that the laws establishing the institutions recognize his overall supervisory roles and provides him the opportunity to exercise his powers.

As the chief executive of the state, if there are no enabling laws to dutifully do his duties, he is entitled to approach the House of Assembly to enact laws for effective exercise of his executive powers. Of course, this column does not expect him to micromanage the institutions, but he must effectively supervise them through the commissioner for education, the heads of the institutions and its other officers. Where those in charge are ineffective, it is his responsibility to hire competent hands to do the job.

It will be unfair to the ordinary people of the state, who use the services rendered by the institutions, or who work in the institutions, or who are proud indigenes of the state or who voted him to govern the state, to hear him give the lame excuses he offered on Channels television. Of course, this column is not asking him to behave like a bull in a china shop, but rather to exercise his executive powers under the due process of law, to make the institutions deliver on their core mandates.

In his book, Principles of Administrative Law, D.C.M. Yardley wrote: “The kernel of administrative law is the control of power within its lawful compass … The law is employed not just to disqualify unlawful exercise of power but also to compel the performance of legal duties which have been neglected.” Governor Okezie Ikpeazu must take up the mantel of his executive powers, exercise the powers granted him by law, and render nugatory all the scurrilous allegations against him, as a do-nothing governor.

November 30, 2021
#EndSARS panel report

On November 15, the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution of Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters submitted its report to the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. While some states had set up similar panels at the behest of the federal government after the tragic denouement of the protest that rocked many state capitals in October 2020; all eyes are on the Lagos panel, since the Lekki Toll Gate, the epicentre of the protests, is in Lagos.

And even as the state government’s white paper is being awaited, the leaked report of the panel is already in the public domain and generating controversies. No doubt, it is the measure given to the Lagos State judicial panel’s report that will determine the measures to be accorded the other reports across the country. If the Lagos report is treated shabbily and discountenanced to worth a few penny, other states’ reports may likely follow suit.

While this column agrees that the protest in Lagos and even across the country was hijacked for evil motives by forces yet to be identified, there is one fundamental fact, which must never be glossed over. It is the fact that the Lekki protest was peacefully organised, and even patriotic in its manner of operation (waving national flags and singing national anthem); yet some dark forces operating in the military went to the scene and shot at the protesters in a manner showing that their lives does not matter.

Luckily, the Lagos panel’s report is said to have identified senior military officers who should be held accountable for the despicable conduct of the military personnel that went to the Lekki toll gate to shoot at peaceful protesters on that night of October 20, 2020. For this column, while the payment of damages is a sine qua non for a wrongful tortious act, it behoves on the federal government to identify the military culprits, and make them answer for their criminal conduct.

Even more insidious are the criminal elements, who joined the rampaging military to clear the mess after the shootings and attempt to hide the fact of the shooting. Unfortunately, many respectful voices, has sworn on their lives that nobody was killed, because of the mastery way the military and their collaborators did a near perfect job of attempting to hide the truth. Uncharitably, the respected news media, the CNN which used scientific measures to confirm that the military used life bullets and killed protesters was vilified as harbingers of fake news.

Now that the leaked report of the Lagos State panel confirmed that patriotic Nigerian youths were mowed down at the Lekki Toll gate by their own army, I hope everyone of the those who promoted the so-called massacre without bodies, would own up to their error and marshal as much energy expended to promote the falsehood, to excoriate the military and ask that those responsible be held to account. Of course, the chief promoter of the falsehood was the minister for Information, Lai Mohammed.

Perhaps, because of how the minister is perceived by the public with respect to the manner of how he defends the government he serves, many may not give him the benefit of doubt as they would other persons who promoted the falsehood that nobody was killed at the Lekki Toll gate that night of Tuesday. To show how much he is vilified by many, there are already calls for him to resign for misleading Nigerians, and if he fails, that he should be sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari, who appointed him.

While his resignation and sack is far-fetched considering the disposition of the government to such public opinion, the least the minister and his fellow defenders of the falsehood in government should do, is to own up to their error and ask for forgiveness of their sins. Those who killed defenceless Nigerian youths committed atrocity, and anyone who knowingly defended the evil, is accessory after the fact. Luckily, the first is not only evil, it is a crime, and the government of President Buhari owes it a duty to bring those involved to account.

So, while President Buhari’s government can legitimately await the state government’s white paper, to buy time, the buck will eventually stop at the president’s table. Those who shot at the young Nigerians demonstrating at the Lekki Toll gate are members of the Nigerian armed forces and the Police, who are under the command and control of the president. Without doubt, the governor of Lagos State or indeed, the other governors have no control to initiate the trial of such culprits, and it will be unfair for the president to push the buck to the governors.

Perhaps, with the information in the public domain that the military shot at the peaceful protesters, it is time for the federal government to set its own judicial enquiry to find out those culpable. Who gave the order to go to the scene with life bullets, who asked the soldiers to shoot, and the shooters should be dealt with in accordance with the law. Again, who are those who cleared the mess and tried to hide the facts from the public and the government? They too deserve to be exposed and dealt with as accessories to the murder.

Unless of course the president had known all the while about the killings and the effort to hide it. If not, then the president should be interested to know how far up those in the know of the criminal actions concerning the killings at the Lekki Toll gate. To assuage the conscience of his government, President Buhari should take political responsibility for the misdemeanour of his officers and men and publicly apologise to the youths of the country and beg for their forgiveness.

The attempt to conflate the peaceful #EndSARS Lekki Toll gate demonstrations with the mindless criminality, involving unconscionable incidents of organised arson targeted at public and private properties, in Lagos and across the country rankles. Those who give the lame logic that the peaceful demonstration led to the arson miss the point. The youths peacefully demonstrating what many have admitted as the criminal excesses of the special anti-robbery squads cannot be held accountable for the failure of the police to rein in criminal elements lurking around to cause mayhem.

With the quality of the members of the Lagos State panel, the government of Lagos State has demonstrated their determination to unearth what happened at the Lekki Toll gate last year. What remains is to issue a white paper on the panel’s findings. For this column, it is only the federal government that is a position to hold those who shot live bullets at peaceful demonstrators to account.

November 23, 2021
Soludo solution

An election billed to last for a day, lasted for three days. And the result expected to be birthed within 48 hours of the first ballot, had a longer birth pang that lasted for over 96 hours. Logistical challenges, trepidation ruled Anambra State, in the last election. Even some of the midwives surrendered to fear, and bolted from the labour room, compounding INEC’s wahala. Weak-kneed men and women stayed in their cocoon, while some ran out of the state for fear of attack, by the ubiquitous unknown gunmen.

But a modern day heroine was born. She is Mrs Eunice Onuegbusi, the voter who reportedly rejected an offer of N5,000 from a political party’s agent and opted to vote her conscience. Her candour has made her a millionaire – courtesy of a gift from Anambra State governor, Willy Obiano. Another interesting angle is that the election was adjudged to be transparent, courtesy of the new BVAS, whose malfunction in some areas was a nightmare for INEC and the voters.

Interestingly, the major political parties have accepted the result and congratulated the winner, Professor Chukwuma Soludo. Of note, while APC in the state has congratulated the winner, the party’s flag bearer, Senator Andy Uba has reportedly rejected the result. The insinuation is that he may head to the court, potentially to achieve the feat of the governor of Imo State, Chief Hope Uzodinma, who was declared winner by the Supreme Court, in controversial circumstance.

On the side-lines, strange elements with strange names, masquerading as freedom fighters, are springing-up, at least in the social media, claiming to be the protectors of the same people Soludo and his brother governors have been elected to govern, and threatening to deal with the region’s political leaders. The stragglers, dressed in funny military camouflage are also threatening the rave of the social media, Obi Cubana, for his relationship with the disgraced police chief Abba Kyari.

So, Professor Chukwuma Soludo will be expected to tame the insecurity in his state and galvanise her to economic renaissance. Can Soludo deliver on the great expectation? For this writer, yes he can. As far back as 2008, this writer and Emeka Agbayi, in their book, Service Above Self, coined what became the campaign slogan in the recent election: Soludo Solution. It was the sub-title of the part of the book we wrote, which explained Professor Soludo’ exploits as governor of Central Bank of Nigeria and presidential adviser on economic matters to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

At his televised acceptance speech after the results were announced, Professor Soludo, wore a fez cap, with that bold inscription: Soludo Solution, and I was proud that we had coined that word. No doubt, Soludo is amongst the best his state, the southeast, and indeed our country Nigeria can put forward for the position of governor of a state. So, I urge him to gird his loins and provide untrammelled excellent political leadership to his state, the southeast and Nigeria.

He must offer the best that is possible in public service to his people. He must never engage in the common shenanigans, like the predators in power, who see politics as prebendalism. As his state acronym says, he must become the light of the nation, in exemplary political governance. Perhaps, the greatest challenge facing him is the insecurity in the southeast region. As a professor of developmental economics, he must use economic development to help solve the insecurity ravaging the region, whether caused by external or internal forces.

Read Also: ‘Soludo on divine mission to emancipate Ndigbo’

Professor Soludo must also find solution to the unemployment challenges that feed the security challenges, and the dysfunctional economic structure of love for wealth without work, that many cuddle in his state. Luckily he is an epitome of the goodness of education, so he must help to reverse the paradigm that education does not pay, which is popular amongst the younger generation in his state. While not relegating the industry and doggedness of his people even when they possess minimal education, he should celebrate the extra shine that radiates when such self-attributes are attenuated by education.

As governor of the central bank, he engineered the consolidation exercise, which was initially vilified by the ignorant, but became the saving grace when economic shocks stratified many financial institutions across the world, some years later. So, while it will be a difficult call, this writer urges Professor Soludo, to engineer economic policies that will bind the southeast together economically. This writer had proposed on this page, years ago that the region should develop an agro-allied economic belt running from Anambra through Enugu to Ebonyi State, and another from Imo to Abia State

Borrowing from the era of the great Dr. Michael Okpara’s administrative wizardry, Professor Soludo should use his intellectual wealth, to galvanise his brother-southeast governors to revitalise the great agro-industrial estates of the former Eastern Region. If the federal government would give the southeast and south-south their due in the railway revitalisation projects, the industrial revolution Professor Soludo promised his state will tie back to the agro-allied industrial revolution of the agricultural belt, to gift Nigeria great potential as exporters of agro-industrial products.

With his pedigree, Professor Soludo can deliver the industrial revolution he promised ndi-anambra. Luckily for him, the present governor, Willy Obiano, has laid some infrastructural foundation, with the completion of the cargo airport in the state, and President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government has almost completed the much needed second Niger Bridge. There is also the mini-port at Onitsha, which is increasingly becoming more active, and if the water channel is properly dredged, can receive from and feed the Onne Port in Rivers State.

So, if security challenges are resolved in the state and southeast, with the help of the federal government, and electricity deficiencies in the region are reversed, even if they have to rely on Independent Power Projects, the budding international industrial and commercial centres in Nnewi and Onitsha axis, could catapult the state into the modern Dubai of Nigeria. Indeed, the state has all it takes to become an industrial hub for the southeast and the hinterland of Nigeria.

What is required of Professor Chukwuma Soludo is purposeful leadership, and he has the training and capacity to yield same to ndi-anambra, ndigbo and Nigeria. During his tenure as governor of central bank, he showed the will. He gave the Soludo solution to the ailing industry, and I dare say that if late President Umaru Yar’Adua had not yielded to political expediency, and allowed Professor Soludo a second term as governor of CBN, Nigeria’s economy would have been the greatest beneficiary. I urge Professor Soludo to serve above self, and gift Anambra State, the Southeast and our country Nigeria, the Soludo Solution.

November 16, 2021