The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • Return of an old malignancy

    Return of an old malignancy

    It is Nigeria’s wild season. It is a season, when the more you try to make sense of what is going on, the more muddled up things get. Were things to be judged by the fiercely uncivil discourse that has gripped Elon Musk’s X-dom – (or is it twitterdom) in the wake of the blowout of the feud between Chief Afe Babalola, SAN and Barrister Dele Farotimi, some Nigerians might be tempted to imagine that the long-predicted third world war has actually begun.

    Most probably, only a minority few could claim to have taken note of the disquisitions (which are by now wearisome) on the subject of ‘civil defamation’ and what qualifies for criminal libel’ in the context of Nigeria’s constitutional guarantee of free speech. The greater majority obviously have few kind words to say of the Ekiti State Police Command, perhaps less for the Ekiti State judiciary; so it is for the entire of criminal justice system as a whole, not excluding the federal government; they are already deemed complicit even if merely by default. It isn’t sufficient that the self-appointed life benchers in the trenches have shown utter disinterest in interrogating the issues outside the traditional comfort zones of mindless activism, following which they and the misguided mob in the internet have since pronounced that Nigeria it is, that is on trial?

    This, in my view, is where things get interesting. That some Nigerians are unduly worked up over what they consider as an egregious ill-treatment of Farotimi is certainly understandable. They are entitled to raise hell about his ‘abduction’ and ‘illegal arraignment’ even, as they equally alleged, the status of the statute under which he was being charged was somewhat unclear! I guess these legitimate issues to raise.

    I have also come across some specious readings and interpretations of the law, the kind that would strip a titan of Chief Afe Babalola’s stature of his right to seek remedy in the circumstance of the injuries he complained about and by every means permissible by the law. Nothing at this stage has been said about the ignoble conduct of a counsel for whom a private battle must needlessly be pushed into the domain of public interest, using the crudest language possible?

    The irony in all of these is that the grave injuries complained about actually came about in the course of a legal tussle. Yes, the two parties had their days in court and a final verdict given. We are talking here of a private matter that ran through up to the Supreme Court – a court, which in the words of the late Jurist, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, is ‘final not because it is infallible but infallible because it is final’.  In this instance, rather than a graceful acceptance of the verdict as would be expected by a practitioner of law, one chose a path that could be deemed as defecating in the communal pond.  Indeed, while it would seem ordinarily ‘strange’ that the counsel would go as far as to write a disparaging book to attack both the opposing counsel and the high officials of the apex court, the greater tragedy is that the institutions of the bar and the bench appeared to have allowed the finagling of this strange practice into its rather conservative orthodoxy!

    That is where we are today. Yes, Nigerians have a lot worry about in what appears to be grave issues of rule law and due process thrown up by the Farotimi matter. They are in order. But also are the grave moral and ethical delinquencies exhibited by the accused now branded victim no less deserving of interrogation. They surely have greater worry in those!

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    I don’t know how many Nigerians have read the book. I haven’t beyond the snippets currently being shared online. For a lawyer, the language is not only offensive but quite frankly atrocious – the kind that would undermine any argument. My suspicion is that those leaders of the Bar and Bench who have read the book would have found it appalling. Those who have read it and still chose to do nothing have certainly done a great disservice to their noble profession. Today, the joke is on all of us without exception as the global audience regales in the cesspit that the Nigerian judiciary has sunk.

    The good thing is that not everyone regards the development as mere storm in a teacup. As the eminent lawyer, Jiti Ogunye would care remind us in his Channels TV interview, Farotimi’s alleged statements against the Supreme Court justices certainly carry grave consequences. Yes, Farotimi didn’t just take the Supreme Court Justices to the cleaners; he called them names, accusing them of being corrupt.  Such grave accusations, he reminded, constituted solid foundations for criminal contempt charges against him. So also are the unsubstantiated claims against the Lagos State Judiciary, particularly the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Lagos State Lawal Pedro SAN. The latter, he said could potentially sustain additional charges. One hopes that he knows what he’s talking about in the end!

    Talk of the resurgence of an old malignancy. Once upon a time, a lawyer actually dared to look an innocent judge in the eye and accused him of demanding a $10 million bribe in an open court! Although the claim turned to be absolutely without foundation, the lawyer nonetheless got away with a slap on the wrist! His client would later turn round to ask the judge to recuse himself, since, in his view, the judge could no longer be trusted to be dispassionate in his matter! Yes, it happened before our very eyes!  

    This is where those Nigerians currently framing the duel as one between David and Goliath as neither helpful to his cause nor to the cause of the justice system. To the extent that truth and truth only constitutes his main defence, the least is that he’ll begin to spill them out at trial. Otherwise, he’ll do well to prepare for long, dark nights. 

    Unfortunately for the old man, it seems unlikely that anyone would believe that he’s done nothing wrong, beyond protecting his well-earned reputation, that is. Reminds of the old African fable of the tortoise and his in-law: It’s a messy business in which no one is guaranteed to win!

  • Reputation versus liberty

    Reputation versus liberty

    The battle cry of the 1789 French Revolution was liberty, equality and fraternity. At the cusp of that revolution, France was divided into the First Estate, made up of high ranking members of the Church and privileged class; the Second Estate, comprising the Nobility and lesser privileged class, and the Third Estate, which was the aggregation of peasants in the countryside, as well as the wealthy bourgeoisie merchants in the cities, plus the unprivileged class. The First Estate was answerable only to God, they paid no tax, and their words were law, however unreasonable.

    Some commentators have tried to frame the ongoing legal dispute, between a doyen of the legal profession and educationist, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, and human rights activist and politician, Dele Farotimi, as akin to a fight, between a member of the privileged class, and the unprivileged class, respectively. Because of that framing, majority of Nigerians have extended their sympathy to Farotimi, who is seen as the underdog in the fight. Even with the efforts by Chief Babalola’s legal team to redirect the deluge of sympathy, this column doubts if success has been achieved.

    At the beginning, many had thought that it was a government official that came after Farotimi, the widely acclaimed spokesperson of the Labour Party and her presidential candidate, in 2023, Peter Obi, (Okwute). Those who had political and economic grievances against the Tinubu led administration, post-haste took up arms, ready to storm the ‘Bastille’, on the belief that the regime had overreached itself. Piles of press releases, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the human rights activist, became a tome, before the reason for the arrest was made public.

    Alas, it turned out, the fight was between a citizen seeking to protect his reputation from being battered and shattered and another citizen who believed he exercised his liberty to fullest limit. Since no government official was involved, some sheathed their swords, while a significant number refused to be placated. For some, since police was used by the privileged citizen to arrest in Lagos, transport and detain the less privileged person in Ekiti, the hand of government must be involved, one way or another. The argument that both parties are lawyers, and as such belong to the same class does not cut ice, with that trenchant group.

    While the argument rages on in the court of public opinion, whether the offence of criminal libel, is still in the statute books of Ekiti State, there is the likelihood, that those asking Chief Babalola to sue for the Tort of Defamation, simpliciter, may well get what they are asking for. While this writer has not read, and does not intend to read Farotimi’s book, the snippets quoted extensively by social media pundits and public commentators, have done enough damages to the sense of propriety.   

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    Taking extreme and conclusive positions, or deductions that may not be beyond mere speculation, is an alchemy I do not want to share with Farotimi. When he is quoted to have written, some of the unprintable words against the integrity of the Supreme Court, Chief Babalola, his firm and other lawyers, as alleged, in cold prints, this writer fears that Farotimi could be defending himself in court for the rest of his life, over plethora of self-inflicted defamatory suits.

    If not that Farotimi appears regularly on television where he uses extremely vile words to describe those who hold opposing views from his convictions, before the release of his book, I would have disregarded the quotes ascribed to him, as totally unbecoming. But there the quotes are, and those strenuously defending him, unfortunately spare no sympathy, for the reputation Chief Babalola has spent nearly a double lifetime, by Nigeria’s life span standard, to build. If it was a street urchin that uttered words similar to what was allegedly written by Farotimi, many would have questioned the mental state of the utterer.

    There is also the likelihood that Chief Babalola would spend the rest of his life ruing over having anything to do with Farotimi and even the law suit, the casus belli of the entire imbroglio. According to public record, in the petition by Chief Babalola, his firm claimed their client undermined them over their fees and now an opposing counsel, who lost the legal battle, had chosen the slippery court of public opinion to exert his pound of flesh. And for the most loquacious traducers of Chief Babalola, including lawyers, the old man should be hanged for all that is wrong with our criminal justice system. I don’t agree.

    In the Law of Tort by Ese Malemi, Libel is defined as a defamatory statement made in a visible or permanent form, such as written or printed statements, for instance in books, newspapers, notes … and so forth. Clearly, in criminal law, defamation is also a crime, and it is outlawed, because “it tends to incite breaches of peace.” In Beauharnais v Illinois 343 US 250, referenced by Malemi, the defendant had called upon the “one million self-respecting white people in Chicago to unite …” so as to halt the invasion of white neighbourhoods by Negroes.

    According to the majority decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, such talk played “significant part” in creating tensions between the races, and on some occasion had resulted in race riots. The court held that such libellous statements were not “within the area of constitutionally protected speech.” Whether Farotimi, who allegedly published defamatory statements for which he has been charged for criminal libel amongst other charges, meet the threshold of the necessary ingredients of a criminal libel, will be determined by the courts. So, also is whether the courts have the jurisdiction to hear the suits.

    Interestingly, there are many defences to a claim of defamation. They include justification or truth. If the words authored by Farotimi against the reputation of Chief Babalola are justifiable or true, he will be set free, and may even take out an action for malicious prosecution against the legal giant. If he raises the defence of fair comment, and the court agrees with him, Farotimi will be a free man. Of course there are other potential defence which can set him free, from the vice grip, of one of the best legal minds in the country, even though age may have caught up with him.   

    For most laymen, in the court of public opinion, Chief Babalola falls within the rank of the privileged Nigerians, who like the First Estate of the pre-revolution France, are the casus belli of all the problems in our country. If they can have their way, Farotimi, should have his liberty immediately so he can luxuriate in the touted proceeds from the book that allegedly decapitated Chief Babalola’s reputation.

  • Season of bad faith

    Season of bad faith

    Much to its credit, one burden that the current leadership of the National Assembly has somewhat managed to discharge quite admirably, is standing firm in the face of what is inarguably orchestrated but certainly uninformed opposition to the four fiscal bills sent by President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly for consideration. Interesting how four different bills – the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2024; The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, 2024; The Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, 2024 and the Nigeria Tax Bill, 2024 are being presented as one in moments of expediency.

    For the Senate in particular, save for the noisome few like Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno) and Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi), last week’s session could be said to be remarkable both for the eagerness of the distinguished members to be open to all shades of opinion on the four bills but also the uncommon resolve of the members to dive deep into its nitty gritty particularly after the club of the so-called northern governors had pronounced a fatwa on them.

    The same, quite interestingly, could be said of the House of Representatives; while the latter may not have proceeded with the same speed, it’s not hard to discern the inclination of the body to doing justice as would be expected in the circumstance. Both of them, have apparently gone beyond accepting that the current tax laws are obsolete but have come to share with the executive branch the conviction  that the broad reforms which the bills are anchored on are such that the country could not afford further delay. 

    The same, most certainly, could not be said of the state governors with their cheap, opportunistic gamesmanship. For the most part, theirs has been a revelation in executive chicanery, bad faith and, as one might imagine, inverted nationalism. For the northern governors in particular, most, it would seem, would prefer to hold on to the old, unimaginative, parasitic, do-nothing, development paradigm that has bred destitution and the poverty currently ravaging the region. Little wonder the communique, which came from their Kaduna meeting on the issue, read more like a declaration of war on the presidency than a sober call for reason and engagement. Said Governor Yahaya of Gombe State on their behalf: the tax bills are against the interests of the North and so northern lawmakers should reject them; period!

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    Such directives to  parliamentarians, though unhelpful, would seem a familiar territory. Majority of them, after all, control, not just their parliaments but the purse and everything else – although through means that the constitution neither donated nor conferred under conventions known to modern governance. The best one could say of the powers is that these were assumed in moments of unquestioning acquiescence by an oftentimes ignorant, pliant and/or pauperised citizenry.

    In this particular instance, what must have come across as new and which Nigerians could not have imagined is the governors’ attempt to export their brazen contempt for their state lawmakers to their elected representatives in the National Assembly; so also is the resort to cheap blackmail and raw threats that would trail the president’s simple but corrective call on those opposed to the bills to follow the route prescribed by the constitution to push their dissent. 

    For while it is understandably in the character of the out-of-control governors to seek to control the presidency through the back door –such as the so-called resolution by the National Economic Council (NEC), directing the president to withdraw his bill for further consultations, it seems unlikely that they bargained for the subtle lecture or shading on due process and constitutionalism.

    The issue is, it is not an open secret that the northern governors had, before this time, taken a position to reject the bill, (whether they took time to read and digest the provisions of the four bills is a different question).  As for the issue of how the governors managed to persuade their southern counterparts to adopt their position at NEC–we can only hope for a full accounting in no distant time. And also the bit about a NEC meeting presided over by the vice president, whose FEC not only initiated the tax reforms but ensured that the bill which emerged from the work of the expert committee set up by the administration was transmitted to the National Assembly for consideration, could effortlessly rubber-stamp the wish of the governors without any known record of dissension. Never mind the manifestation of bad faith and opportunism in full colours, all of them, to be sure, elements of the history in the making.

    This is where the president was right, in my view, to have pointed out that the National Assembly, whose responsibility it is to enact it into law, remained the best place to table whatever concerns anyone might have, on the bill. It is the path of due process and constitutionalism. And that is precisely what the two chambers of parliament are set to do. Anything outside of that would have been out of order.

    Will that settle anything? That seems unlikely. True, the governors and their NEC may have beaten a strategic retreat; the battle has only shifted with a certain Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State coming along to lead the charge. Along with his fellow Borno native, Senator Ndume, the government not only thinks that the timing of the four bills is inauspicious, he has apparently convinced himself, if not his Borno people, that that the entire tax reform is anti-North, a scheme to further impoverish their region – a section of the country current lagging behind its counterparts in the federation.

    That, coming from an academic, a supposedly scientific mind, an acclaimed agricultural engineer, an individual that was once touted as representing the new face of northern leadership, is what makes the latest development truly sad.

    To conclude: I do not claim to know what the future holds for the four bills. The best that one can hope for is that reason prevails in the end. Whether passed or dropped, what is certain is that things would never remain the same.

    As they say, there is nothing new under the sun. Today, it is 19 governors driving a hard bargain. In 2021, it was Nyesom Wike, then Rivers State governor taking on the federal might. In 2024, the government seeks to overhaul the whole gamut of the tax system to ensure its simplicity, fairness and equity. For Wike in 2021, it was all about fair and equitable distribution of VAT. He actually sought the order of a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State to restrain the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) from collecting value-added tax (VAT) and personal income tax (PIT) from his state. Today, the government seeks a better way to collect tax dues and to ensure that everyone benefits under a more transparent system. Nigerians wait to see who wins.

  • Enugu is airborne

    Enugu is airborne

    The Governor of Enugu State, Barrister Peter Mbah, at his inauguration, in 2023, promised to transform the state economy to a $40 billion economy. Many had wondered, and still wonder, how he can do that. With the presentation of the 2025 budget proposal to the state House of Assembly last week, Enugu State, which is commonly referred to as a civil service state, after the state lost its economic shine, since the Coal Corporation became moribund, appears to be on the march again. The state capital, Enugu, otherwise known as the Coal City, developed around the business of coal, and evolved to become the capital of Eastern Nigeria.

    The colonial master, Britain, which needed coal as the source of energy, ensured that railway was built to evacuate the product through the sea to Europe. But with the rise of relatively cleaner hydrocarbons, oil, as the alternative major source of energy, there was gradual death of the coal business. As the coal economy nosedived, the economy of Enugu State, the ultimate successor of the Eastern Nigeria, shrank, until the state was substantially sustained by the fuel, from the federation account.

    In 2023, the state got a total of N133.29 billion from the FAAC, ranking number 25 out of the 36 states in Nigeria. That year, the state budget was initially N166,602,416,770 before it was revised to N224,697,899,063, making the budget reliant on the FAAC, about 80 percent. In 2024, with Mbah, fully on the saddle, the budget tagged ‘Budget of Distributive Economic Growth’, more than doubled to N521,561,386,000, out of which it expected to raise N252.7 as Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.

    Significantly, the projected IGR for 2024, was more than the entire budget for 2023. Last week, the governor literally shot the state economy into the stratosphere with a budget of N971,844,000,000, called ‘Budget of Exponential Growth and Inclusive Prosperity’, for the year 2025. Interestingly, the Capital Expenditure component of the proposal, is N837,944,000,000, while the recurrent expenditure component is N133,140,000,000. Between IGR, VAT and Grants, the state expects to raise N692,179,000,000.

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    At the presentation, the governor said: “In crafting this budget, we have sort to continue to lay the right foundation in Enugu to enhance the economy and attract even more private investment.” He went on: “In spite of the dreary economic environment across the country, for us here in Enugu, we have elected to remain bullish in our aspiration, and to double down on our commitment to elevate our state to top three status in terms of GDP nationally, and eradicate poverty from our midst.”

    Considering where the state was in 2023, it is reasonable to wonder where the state would get all the resources to achieve its very ambitious budget proposal. Agreeably, the removal of oil subsidy has seen the federation account balloon, but not with the same leap as the state’s proposed budget. From N224 billion in 2023, it moved to N521.5 billion in 2024, and now N971.8 billion projections for 2025. The figure reeled out by the governor, at the budget presentation, are indeed ambitious. 

    The governor said: “In the area of our revenues, we estimated that total recurrent revenues during 2025 will amount to N692,179,000,000 as against the approved revised provision for 2024 of N383,789,000,000.” He continued: “The recurrent revenues for 2025 are broken down as follows: opening balance – N32,000,000,000; Internally Generated Revenue, IGR – N509,947,000,000; statutory revenue – N48,749,000,000; exchange rate differential – N26,559,000,000; and Value Added Tax, VAT – N74,924,000,000.”

    If the state can pull this budget off, it would join the top sub-nationals in the country.

    One unequivocal area of interest for the governor is education. He said: “As we all know by now, education is both our ‘sword’ and ‘shield’ in this battle to achieve economic growth in our state and banish poverty and want among our population. Consequently, we are maintaining the ambitious direction we charted in 2024 by voting N320,000,000,000 for that sector. This represents 78 percent of the social sector of the budget and 32 percent of our Capital Expenditure this year.”

    An excitable angle, that first drew my attention, is the proposal to acquire four additional aircraft to expand Enugu Air, which inspired the title of this piece. The budget proposal for that is the sum of N41,132,436,000,000. Mbah said the state will be consummating the concession of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, as well as the construction of an international cargo terminal. The state will also float a new taxi scheme, in collaboration with the private sector, to modernize, urban and inter-urban transportation, in the state.  

    Talking about the 2024 budget performance, one understands that the governor’s optimism, is not merely in the air. For instance, the state’s IGR in 2022, was N26.8 billion, and it grew by 39 percent to 37.4 billion in 2023, but as at September 2024, had drastically increased to 144.7 billion, representing a 286.2 percent increase. He was optimistic that it would hit N200 billion by the end of the year. In terms of budgetary performance, he said, “the total revenue realized in the state as at October 2024 came to N459,851,39,396.47, which comes to a budgetary performance of 88 percent.”

    On the performance side, the budget has also performed up to 88 percent. He also said: “As at October, these inflows had been applied to expenditure with N382,427,929,564.00 as Capital Expenditure and N76,546,09,116.18 as recurrent expenditure. These translated to a budget performance of 88 percent.” This column agrees with the state House of Assembly, that the governor and his team have shown enormous capacity to live the state’s avowed mantra that ‘tomorrow is here’ and so agrees with the members that the budget should be expeditiously passed by them.

    While the state ranks in the middle of other 36 states in the country with respect to revenue from the FAAC, it definitely pushes to be amongst the top five states in terms of budget estimate for 2025. And yet the state is not an oil producing state, which gets extra federal allocation receipts, from FAAC. So, to achieve the ambitious plan to turn the state into a top three state economy, in the country, the state must be ready to diversify its revenue sources, hence the Enugu Air.

    Post haste, the governor has promised that the state airline will lift Ndi Enugu home as the 2024 yuletide, beckons. With Akwa Ibom State, seemingly making a huge success of its Ibom Air, who says state run enterprises cannot be a success? Last week, Governor Mbah was amongst President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s federal government’s delegation to France, where the Solid Mineral Ministry, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, with France, for the revival of 2000 abandoned mine pits, in Nigeria. Hopefully, the Coal City, Enugu, will benefit, and her several abandoned mines will roar back to life.

  • Gowon, Obasanjo, Buhari

    Gowon, Obasanjo, Buhari

    A former Nigerian leader just blundered onto the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum, at Yale University, USA, squealing state capture and screaming insane governance!

    He wasn’t Gen. Yakubu Gowon, “the nation’s poster face of probity in public life”, by Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah’s estimation.

    Neither was he former President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), who the northern street had long canonized “Mai Gaskiya” — the Honest One — even while still alive.

    It’s rather the ever-noisome Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, ex-head of state and two-term elected president, who loves to row, thinking his eternal screeching would bury his rot!

    General Yakubu Gowon (90), General Olusegun Obasanjo, GOO, (87) and Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, GMB, (81) were all former military heads of state.

    GOO postures as the holy Pope of this best forgotten military era of sheer venality.  Yet, he stands out, like a sore and rotten thumb, for gaming the state for self-benefits. 

    His regime’s Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) morphed into his post-military power honeypot: Obasanjo Farms Nigeria (OFN) — with a fulsome harvest of choice lands, all over the country! 

    Ay, the same Land Use Decree, forged to drive his regime’s OFN, also came in handy to drive his personal OFN!

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    Gowon and Buhari sit on a moral crest, though military rule was rotten — rare drivers on Army rule’s straight and narrow way.  Still, they grate at no one.

    Yet,  Obasanjo galloped into the Chinua Achebe USA show, wearing his OFN medal, screaming “state capture!” A global self-trial was never more severe!  But the irony was totally lost on him!

    Clearly, Obasanjo has learnt nothing, in decorum or modesty or humility or probity — either from Gowon, his senior, or from Buhari, his junior.

    But he wants to teach everyone the ABC of honest leadership.  Did Fela, the immortal Abami Eda himself, just growl from the grave: Tisa, no teach me nonsense?

    Gowon’s bid to be elected president sank with General Ibrahim Babangida’s transition to nowhere, with the ever-flippant Obasanjo even mocking the doomed run of his old commander-in-chief.

    But the hypocrisy in GOO bobbed up with the panicky Army Arrangement that thrust him forward for President in 1999.  He didn’t ask his sponsors what he had asked Gowon: what did Gowon forget in Dodan Barracks to go pick up?  But dived into a self- serving cant: how many presidents would you make out of me?  Sheer humbug!

    In contrast, GMB’s unassailable probity, even among wild military-era thieves, paved his way to becoming PMB, like Obasanjo, for two terms.  In 2015, Nigerians craved an upright superman to help clean up the Obasanjo-led PDP-era mess.

    Again, to boot: while Obasanjo exited power in 2007, clutching another illicit medal — the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library and Resort — PMB bequeathed the Lagos-Ibadan medium-gauge rail, with its Wole Soyinka Abeokuta Station virtually facing off, in stern rebuke, Obasanjo’s private gold mine of OOPL! 

    Between quiet but honest public service and loud but rotten self-service, nothing could be starker!  After PMB and Obasanjo are long gone, the WS station and OOPL, would scream, for posterity, the real state captor — and a ruthless one at that!

    But beyond OOPL and WS Train Station, Obasanjo comes up short, against PMB, on many fronts.  Yet, PMB is as taciturn as Obasanjo is garrulous — the one over golden traits, the other over vice packaged as virtue.

    After two terms as president, Obasanjo craved an illicit third. At a similar juncture, PMB declared he couldn’t wait to get as far away from Abuja as possible!

    After the great third term crash — which he denies till this day — the Ebora Owu’s response was an election he bragged would be “do or die”; and indeed, it was do or die: very gory, in every material particular: in hewn limbs, bashed skulls, lost lives!

    Contrast that to PMB’s declared loyalty to his party, but telling people to freely vote their choice; and to the security agencies to guarantee the vote.

    As president, PMB delivered far much more in infrastructure (even with a parched pocket), and gave agriculture a rebirth, away from the reckless food imports of the Obasanjo years — an APC-era legacy President Tinubu has followed and reinforced. 

    Contrast that with Obasanjo paying US$ 12 billion, in crude windfall, to buy “debt forgiveness”, while critical road arteries — Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Second Niger Bridge, etc; not to mention modernized rail — wailed for attention. 

    As outgoing President, Obasanjo told the INEC chair, the best forgotten Prof. Maurice Iwu, to help deliver his “do or die” polls — a chilling nightmare for the opposition.

    PMB’s call, at a similar juncture, was on INEC chair, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, to push technology — the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS), which asserts genuine voters, by reading the permanent voter card (PVC) with its in-built computer chip; and the INEC Result-viewing (IReV) portal — to achieve better elections.

    That delivered the closest election in Nigerian political history.  But it also triggered wild but empty bad-mouthing from the loser camps, well represented by Peter Obi and co, at the Achebe Yale University show. 

    That explained Obasanjo’s open traducement of Prof. Yakubu; and his reckless call for the sack of the INEC chair.  If Yakubu is fired for delivering 2023, what then would have befallen Obasanjo’s Iwu, for his eternal disgrace of 2007? Banished for life?

    It’s clear: despite his constant huffing and puffing; and empty pontifications, Obasanjo has little sense of fairness; talk less of justice.  But God is great!  As he opens his mouth to judge others, he condemns himself even more!

    And, yes: post-power, Obasanjo pulls down everyone.  PMB supports his successors.

    So, if the Ebora Owu came so venomously after “Baba-go-slow” (PMB) and “Emilokan” (President Bola Tinubu), it’s again his patented opportunism to milk people’s pains to hawk counterfeit empathy. 

    There’s nothing to it — except for President Tinubu to know the pains of his policy reforms: removing petrol subsidy and floating the Naira, bite hard. He should move fast to tweak them.

    Many a charlatan would milk extant pains for instant political gains — and so would the present order too, were they in opposition! 

    But therein lies Obasanjo’s big fall — from a supposed statesman to a cheap, hustling politician.  But has he ever scaled such noble heights, with his eternal penchant to pull others down?

    It’s instructive, though: Obasanjo’s umpteenth pastime pushed the Tinubu order to benchmark themselves from 2015, rather than from 2023.  Had they been doing that, the difference between the PDP and APC eras would have been crystal clear, leaving little space for well-known Obasanjo cynical howls, and sundry opposition opportunism.

    Not a few marvel at Obasanjo’s many unforced, self-slaying outbursts.  It’s a purgatory: for early life rots, spinned as strengths, to which he is fated.  Pity!

    Ripples goes on leave

    It’s that season again to go rest and re-tool.  It’s been a fast-paced year and thanks for being part of that journey.  See you, by God’s grace, in 2025.

  • Ultimatum on minimum wage

    Ultimatum on minimum wage

    The threat of strike, from the 1st of December, by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), in states that are yet to agree on when to start paying the new Minimum Wage, of N70,000.00  is reasonable. The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act, 2024, was enacted by the National Assembly, on 29th July 2024. The Act increased the minimum wage from N30,000.00  and reduced the review period from five years to two years.

    Before the Bill became an Act, it was robustly debated by the relevant parties ;  made up of the federal and state governments, the organized private sector, and the representatives of the NLC. Though  most state governments had shown lethargy during the debate, they eventually came on board, and the bill was passed. Considering the galloping inflation, the Labour representatives, initially asked for outrageous wages, but following negotiations with the team set up, by the federal government, they kept coming down, until President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, intervened to help the parties agree to what the payers can afford to pay, and what could tamper the inflationary pressure on wages.

    So, after that rigorous endeavour, to achieve an agreeable Minimum Wage, no state has any reason not to pay, what has become a law. After all, the economic reform policies of the federal government have been putting more monies into the state coffers. According to reports, the statutory federal allocation to states in 2024, will increase by 69 percent. In 2024, the states are expected to receive N2.2trillion more than the N3.3 trillion they received in 2023. The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), reported, that 36 states of the federation shared N1.51trillion, in the first half of 2023, compared to N2.59trillion in 2024. Of that humongous amount, the oil bearing states, got 626.33billion. So, why should any state, delay on the payment of minimum wage?

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    The states which are yet to reach an agreement with their respective state NLC, on the implementation of the minimum wage, are Katsina, Cross River, Zamfara and Imo States. The concerned states within the first quarter of this year, got the following :  Katsina – N60.58bn, Imo – N58.06bn, Zamfara – N48.08bn and Cross River – N40.08bn. In 2023, before the removal of fuel subsidy, Katsina State, got 85.00billion, and after, 106.43billion, making a total of 191.43billion. Zamfara State, before the removal of subsidy got 52.57billion, and after 66.6billion, totaling N119.17b. On its part, Imo State, got 68.49billion before, and 83.90billion after the removal, making a total of 152.39billion.

    While the four laggard states are not amongst the highest state earners in the country, they are not amongst the lowest either. So, again I ask, what could be their reason for delaying the implementation of the National Minimum Wage? Such reason cannot be altruistic, considering the by- product  of the necessary, but painful reform programs, of the federal government, which is yielding the extra monies accruing to the states.

    The major by- product of that reform, is the inflationary pressure on goods and services, especially food items. With inflation at 33.9 percent in October, no fair minded State Governor, would hesitate for an extra day, to pay the new minimum wage. Considering the effect of inflation on the cost of living, some state governors have reduced the working days of the state civil servants, to three days, and some have introduced some other measures, to cushion its impact on the citizens. Some states also established special markets, where basic food items, are sold to civil servants at subsidized rates.

    Another major impacted social need, is the cost of transportation, which further increases the inflationary pressure. An outcome of the deregulation of fuel price, from which the more-money comes, movement of goods and services have become a big cause for worry, for Nigerians, whether in the rural areas or the urban centres. I wonder how state workers, still paid the old minimum wage, afford to go to work, feed and pay for other essential needs. One of the laggard states, Zamfara, reportedly implemented the old minimum wage, enacted in 2019, only this year.

    Surprisingly, Imo State which is an oil bearing state, is reputed among the laggards, as I write. Those who know Governor Hope Uzodinma, said he does not do things in half measure, especially when it has to do with infrastructure development. I hope he is aware that former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, years ago, educated those who were more educated than him, that stomach infrastructure, is one aspect of infrastructure development. And minimum wage if implemented, is not only about stomach infrastructure, both could lead to other forms of infrastructure development.

    A well motivated  work force, is a sine qua non for economic prosperity of the state. While the workers would become more productive, if their welfare is assured, with more money in their pockets, they would have more disposable income, which also impacts the economic prosperity of the state, as there would be increased payment for goods and service. Some states have even agreed to pay more than the National Minimum Wage, and on the top chart are Lagos and Rivers State, which will pay 85,000.00 every month.

    This column agrees with the fundamental principle, for the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira, despite the severe economic hardships occasioned by the policies. Indeed, it agrees with the position that there are no real alternatives to those policies. To do otherwise, was to keep postponing the evil day, which was already at the nation’s doorstep. What is,  however,  hampering the full success of the programs is the structural inefficiencies, which allows corruption to continue to thrive. Sadly, political office holders still find it easy, to pilfer public resources, without consequences.

    Considering the antecedents of PBAT, in governance, it is hoped that he will incrementally rein  in public corruption, by using technology and the law to tighten the loopholes, through which public resources are pilfered. Expectedly, the federal government has given effect to the new minimum wage, and the current wage will be due for upward review, in the next two years. As I have argued in the past, what requires to improve is the public and private wages, and not subsidy on fuel and the national currency, which benefits a few persons within the national economy.

    Hopefully, the NLC will stare down the state governors, who are dillydallying on the payment of the new National Minimum Wage, and use labour tactics, to compel them to pay what the law says. As they pressure the states, the local governments must be pulled along, and of course, the private sector. The Nigerian economy can only make progress, if it modernizes. And the era of a privileged few, getting the benefits of misguided subsidies, must give way to economic certainties, which drives genuine economic progress.

  • Educating the Almajiris

    Educating the Almajiris

    The decision of the Ministry of Education to collaborate with the National Commission for Almajiri and Out of School Children Education (NCAOOSCE), to mop-up out of school children around the federal capital territory and send them to school, points the way for states afflicted by similar challenge. The report indicated that the new Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, and NCAOOSCE, formally handed over the children to the FCT for enrolment. This is refreshingly different, from what looked like the flagship program of the former Minister of Education, who expended his energy on how old a child should be, before he or she, can enrol in the university.

    From hindsight, the sacked minister, Professor Tahir Mamman, would wish he had concentrated on this ‘Back2School’ enrolment drive which he had launched earlier in the year. The collaboration between the Ministry of Education and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, will see the children get absorbed into schools, at no cost to the parents. This enrolment, if pushed to a logical conclusion, will help rid the FCT, of child beggars, who are mainly, Almajiri children, that also constitute security challenges.

    Hopefully, similar collaboration would take place in the states. Even if the minister and NCAOOSCE have to pressure the state governors, the federal government should extend the program across the states. According to the UNICEF, there is a whopping 18.3 million children between 6 and 14 years, who are out-of-school in 2024. Among the states with the highest numbers, include Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, Yobe has the lowest literacy level of 7.23 percent, followed by Zamfara at 19.16 percent, Katsina 10.36 at percent and Sokoto 15.01 at percent.

    One report indicates that Kano has 39 percent out-of-school children, higher than the national average of 28.7 percent. Kano is reputed as the most politically conscious state in what is popularly regarded as the core-north. Truly, over the years, the state has trodden its own political part, regardless of what is happening in other states in the northwest zone. Hopefully, Kano, one of the most afflicted by the Almajiri crisis, would key into this project.

    This column urges political leaders, especially in the educationally blighted states to make the education of the out-of-school children the cornerstone of their political manifesto. For instance, Yobe State last year, by one account, budgeted less than 10 percent of the 2023 Budget, for education, unlike Sokoto and Kano which allocated about 30 percent to education in their respect budgets. If the allocation, which is higher than the UNESCO benchmark of 26 percent, is maintained over the years, the out-of-school children will diminish, in those states.

    Trump trumps pollsters

    As the result of the United States of America’s elections rolled in the penultimate week, this writer who had relied on the so-called renowned pollsters to predict that Kamala Harris would win the US presidential election was flummoxed as Trump trumped the prediction. If it were in Nigeria, the headlines would have read, ‘Trump wins by landslide’.  While the results were trailing in and this writer was expressing surprise, the office secretary, dismissed my exertions in one sentence: “Oga, you listen too much to CNN”.

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    Perhaps she is right. For in the past few months to the election, the televisions, at home and in the office, had been tuned near permanently to the Cable Network, to hear how the electioneering campaign in US, was progressing. And the predictions have been that Kamala Harris was surging forward while former President Donald Trump was reclining. One pollster, who claimed to have predicted 10 out of 11 past elections correctly, boasted that Kamala was going to win Trump.

    One CNN pundit after another told us why Kamala would win, even though she entered the race late, and the odds were initially against her. And I believed. Interestingly, after the election, I discovered that many around me were actually happy that Trump won the election. The Catholics were excited that Trump defeated Kamala hands down, even though President Joe Biden, her godfather is a Catholic. Other Christians told me that the promoters of the infamous LGBTQ have been defeated. Many used unprintable words to describe Biden and Kamala’s support for LGBTQ.

    Any argument that while one abjures the crazy concepts promoted by the LGBTQ folks, the potential danger posed by a Trump presidency is far more dangerous to the world is met with complete scorn. The argument that Trump hates other races, especially the blacks, is countered with the argument that he has an Arab in-law who occasionally lives in Nigeria. When one raised the danger of ‘America first’; the question is, ‘before nko?’ The supporters wonder whether as USA president, Trump is expected to put Nigeria first? When one argues that US is the policeman of the world order, the next question is, at what cost to Americans? 

    While the jury as to the wisdom of Americans, in choosing Donald Trump, as their 47th president, has four years to sit, there is the claim that the president-elect is choosing strange characters, as his secretaries and top administration staff. Some of his nominees are reputed to have parochial or little knowledge about the position they would occupy, if cleared by the Congress. 

    There is the allegation that he even wants to circumvent the standard process, of having his nominees cleared by the Congress, by resorting to a rarely used legislative process, provided for during emergencies, when the Congress is on recess for a long time. Again, the worried German and French leaders, at their recent meeting, discussed how to contain the emergence of Trump, who in his previous incarnation as president, insisted that Europe must carry its load, instead of leaving it for Uncle Sam, the USA.

    One wonders whether the Trump presidency would be as turbulent as many pundits are predicting. After my recent failure as a pollster, I am wondering if I am again, listening to CNN, more than I should?

    Congratulations Ndi Enugu

    The emergence of Chidimma Onwe Adetshina, as first runner up, of the Miss Universe 2024 pageant, in Mexico, brought joy to the Enugu State governor, Peter Mbah, and most people of the state. Governor Mbah, who has promised to increase and multiply, the state economy, many folds, described her emergence as reaffirming the resilience, brilliance, and determination that define Ndi Enugu.

    Chidimma who passed through the valley of the shadow of death in South Africa on her way, to participate in the pageant, deserves all the accolades coming her way.

  • How not to be a service provider

    How not to be a service provider

    Old habits may truly be said to die hard, but then the electricity consumer would appear to need more time to see if truly the Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) have finally made good their threat to shut out their customers using the Unistar brand of prepaid meters. That deadline, by the way, expired last Thursday, November 14. Recall also that the directive, considered by many as unjust and inequitable, had pitted Nigeria’s lead agency for consumer protection, the Tunji Bello-led Federal Consumer Protection Commission (FCPC), National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the electricity consumer on one side, and the ignoble cartel on the other.  

    With a new sheriff who not only understands the import of equitable market practices but ready to reset that delicate balance between the disparate actors in the supply and demand chain that has all along been missing, the days ahead promises to be interesting. 

    Surely, the story didn’t start last month; it only got to a head shortly after the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) and Ikeja Electric (IE) directed their customers using the Unistar brand of prepaid meters to replace them latest by November 14. The directive, as one would imagine, came with the usual arrogance that Nigerians have come to expect from a cartel lacking in the elementary knowledge of service delivery and corporate responsibility. To them, it was sufficient that those consumers still desirous of enjoying their service visit the respective websites of the DisCos for replacement of the meters before the deadline.  The measure, they claimed, had not only become imperative due to incompatibility of the Unistar card meter technology with the Standard Transfer Specification (STS) system currently in use by them, the process would involve the customer parting with N130,000 of his/her hard-earned money. Failure to comply means the customers will be unable to recharge their meters and hence no service.

    It’s been nearly two years since I wrote a piece with the title IKJDC: Ponzi as game!

    I reproduce hereunder a part of my ordeal with a supposed service provider as published on the January 3, 2023 edition of this newspaper.

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    “First week in December, my wife had gone to the neighbourhood office of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKJDC) to top up our pre-paid meter. Although she wanted N20,000 loaded on the card, she ended up being charged twice, no thanks to the glitches routinely suffered by Nigerians on the erratic payment platform. Not to worry; she was assured that the first transaction, which the official had assumed did not sail through, would be reversed in due time. Days of waiting for a reversal that didn’t happen, she went to the bank to lodge a formal complaint. Only then was she told that the two transactions actually went through and that the IKJDC account had been duly credited with N40,000 for which she was supplied proof!

    At this point, the matter looked quite simple and straight-forward: She would get IKJDC to transfer same to the card in the unlikelihood that they would want to refund the money.

    Soon after, we realised that our nightmares had only just begun. At the IKJDC headquarters in Ikeja where she went to lodge a formal complaint, the customer relations staff on duty, after perusing her documents including the bank statement admitted that the fund in question (N20,000) was in their account alright, only that this could not be loaded because the card – yes, the same card on which the earlier credit was loaded days before – was no longer supported on their company’s payment platform!

    She was then availed two options: pay for a new meter which attracts a free of N115,000; never mind the interminable waiting time for installation during which we would be thrown back to the old estimated billing system; or in the interim, do another top up on the same old card and by that forfeit the N20,000 already into their piggy bank!

    Just like that!

    I took over at this point. I told the officials that neither of the options made any sense. In the first place, I had absolutely no problem with the current pre-paid meter to warrant my coughing out N115,000 for a new one under the current difficult economic climate. Second, to the extent that any technical/operational issues that have rendered the old meter obsolete had nothing to do with me, the consumer, (need I also remind that the same meter in question was duly paid for), the cost of any proposed upgrade ought to be borne by IKJDC, not me the hapless consumer! Third and most intriguing suggestion- that I could actually load new units on the old card but that would mean forfeiting the N20,000 that was the subject of the original complaint. And all of these in the raging background on what to do when the already purchased units run out considering that Christmas and New Year celebrations were only few weeks away!

    Convinced that I could at least pull some levers to get the problem sorted out, I called everyone I knew. From their field staff to the customer relations personnel right up to some supposedly top guns in the public relations department; none, as one would imagine, could offer any practical help. Even at that, what I could never have bargained for was being taken through the lecture circuit; the customer relations officers with their standard, icy templates that left no accommodation for common-sense, fairness or equitable dealing; the antediluvian public relations directorate that suffered no pretences about being either ‘public’ or ‘relational’. In all, you are told that the system has been long on this process of upgrade, only that the electricity consumer opted to remain light years behind by neglecting to pay for the modern digitised meters!

    Summary: Either it is the ways of IKJDC or hell’s highway!

    In the meantime, I was expected to ‘comfortably’ endure the agony of spending the holidays without public electricity supply! And that’s exactly how the holidays went! And all of these for the sole prize of running from IKJDC’s pillars to their outposts!

    Well, this is my story a la Ikeja Disco. I guess it captures the agonies of millions of electricity consumers in the hands of the clueless, shylock operator”.

    That was in January 2023. Has anything changed? Rather, the monstrosity is back and well – that is if it ever went anywhere in the first place. Now, thanks to the Federal Consumer Protection Commission, the ancien regime, under which the Discos could claim to have the last word, appears gone forever. And the other good news: NERC, which has all these while, been on a Rip Van Winkle sleep appears to have resurrected!

    For proof, yours truly relies on this newspaper’s report of yesterday. A part of the report referencing a statement from the commission read: “If any customer’s meter is adjudged by any DisCo to be obsolete or faulty, it is the responsibility of the DisCo to replace the meter free of charge, provided that the fault was not caused by the customer”.

    Surely, it’s a new day!

  • Katsina cabal, Lagos cowboys and sundry jives

    Katsina cabal, Lagos cowboys and sundry jives

    Whither the “Fulani herdsmen”, choice villains of southern media hysteria during the Muhammadu Buhari years, when their kin was president?  Vanished into Mars!

    Are they still as ubiquitous, as all-conquering, as absolutely notorious as when PMB was there; allegedly goading them on from mischief to mischief?  Who knows? 

    The massive media watch towers have simply moved on to other mischiefs their own; their hot gaze shifted from the herdsmen’s no-less-hated cousins, in the PMB power court: the rather formidable Katsina Cabal!

    So, where’s that cabal today, on which many a blogger foamed in the mouth with hot hate?  Maybe in Jupiter!  Again, the Observatory has moved!

    The focus now — no less fierce — is the Lagos Cowboys in the court of President Bola Tinubu.  Enter, the latest reigning royals — more of Judas! — of the grudge media!

    If there is grudge media, there must be grudge politicians, to make the grudge media rumble, vibrate and titillate, to send quaking grudge readers — viewers and listeners — into a fresh delirium, without which grudge living is absolutely unbearable!

    That has been the fate — a badge of honour? — of Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the no-retreat-no-surrender gadfly of the Afenifere clan. For the old man, it’s his way or no other way!

    “We Yorubas are not that insecure or imperialistic to covet such a monopoly of power,” the old lion roared.  “Afenifere can’t use several decades to fight against Fulani hegemony, only to support Yoruba hegemony.” 

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    But which power?  Which monopoly?  Which hegemony?  And by the way, which Afenifere?

    He was referring to Ugoji Egbujo imputing Yoruba domination of the Tinubu Presidency (Vanguard, October 26), as put by The Guardian (November 2), “of all arms of the criminal justice system (EFCC, DSS, Attorney-General and Chief Justice); the economy (Coordinating minister of the Economy, CBN, Finance, Blue Economy, Digital Economy, Trade, Industries and Investment, Bank of Industries and Investment, Solid Minerals); as well as the Forces (Army, Police, Customs, Immigration).”

    “Buhari was accused of bias for (the) North, with three regions” Chief Adebanjo caviled, “not to talk of Tinubu’s bias not for the South, but (for) a single ethnicity and single region.” 

    So, “City Boy” PBAT has proved, by his Yoruba-centrism, even a worse South West caveman than PMB was ever a pan-northern hegemon! Some hyperbole!  This old man can sure talk the talk!

    Still, some preliminary x-ray of this patriotic grumping.  PMB was accused of North-centrism, indeed!  Wasn’t that the blare of the southern media, during his eight years?

    But did that hinder his delivery of the 2nd Niger Bridge; or the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway: two critical artery-assets that his predecessors — including “arch-nationalist”, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo — laboured in vain to do, even with the gushing cash they had?  Did it also arrest the Lagos-Ibadan modernized rail?

    Did PMB’s northern dominance blot out the unmatchable passion of ChIbuike Rotimi Amaechi, as he went about his rail-modernization mission with aplomb?  Or whittle down Babatunde Fashola’s doggedness and brilliance, even as he wrestled with three “juicy” portfolios in 2015: Power, Works and Housing?

    Pray, did it cripple the plethora of funding options for roads and bridges, outside the budgetary cycle, that Fashola brought to the table, in his second term as Works and Housing minister — options now entrenched in the federal funding basket? 

    Indeed, did it stall the frenetic support to deliver the Dangote Refinery, incidentally another Lagos-private sector collaboration, by the same Lagos post-1999 order that Chief Adebanjo and co-traducers now condemn, out of blind envy?

    For that matter, is PBAT’s “Yoruba domination” killing the can-do spirit of David Umahi as Works minister; or Nuhu Ribadu, as National Security Adviser (NSA), routing the North West bandits?  

    Does it stall Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo’s enchanting passport reforms as Interior minister — or that counts for zero because the minister is Yoruba?  Or because Chief Adebanjo, pushing his democratic right to grouch, disapproves?

    But the Tunji-Ojos — or even, Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi, an ethnic Yoruba from Kwara, in the North Central geo-political zone — are not even the old man’s headache.

    His migraine would appear the “Lagos cowboy” trio of Wale Edun (Finance: and economy coordinating minister), Dele Alake (Solid Minerals) and Yemi Cardoso, CBN Governor and czar of Tinubu monetary policies.

    Though Edun (Ogun) and Alake (Ekiti) are no Lagos indigenes — only Cardoso is — they were among the pan-Yoruba policy “storm-troopers” that helped to shape Tinubu’s Lagos — and its aftermath, 25 years on.

    They also — horrors of horrors! — helped to checkmate Afenifere’s excesses — back then, just as now, driven by Chief Adebanjo’s needless pugnacity. His lobby’s gung-ho Yoruba nativism crippled the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) outside Yorubaland.  It also drove AD to premature grave — after Tinubu and co had left for AC.

    By the chief’s carping, hiding behind “Afenifere” and some fictive “Yoruba” mandate, it’s clear he hasn’t forgotten — or even forgiven — Tinubu and his Lagos cowboys!

    God knows — and readers of this column would attest — that Ripples disagrees with Edun’s and Cardoso’s double-whammy of removing petroleum subsidy and floating the Naira: twin-policy that has made the Naira a mere rag; and sent ga-ga virulent inflation, further spreading mass poverty.

    Still, the two gentlemen are honest drivers of Tinubu’s economic policies.  Yes, those reforms could be harsh.  But that doesn’t turn the drivers into quacks or villains.

    If those policies work, the people will quickly forget the pains and savour the gains.  If they don’t, the government pays the price by 2027.  That’s how democracy works, not by wilful traducement, feigning pseudo-patriotism, as Chief Adebanjo just essayed.

    Besides — and this parallel is apposite — if the “Lagos boys” stuck with Governor Tinubu, through his first two years of free Lagosian abuse and insults, only to, with him, earn glory after eight years, what stops them from repeating that feat at the federal level, even if the president’s reforms aren’t the most popular right now?

    Ripples’ riposte back then, on the so-called Katsina Cabal, was that PMB picked who he thought could deliver for him.  It’s the same response to PBAT’s Lagos Cowboys!  That (wart and all) is Nigeria’s political sociology.  It is what it is! 

    Sadly, those who hee-hawed over PMB, or even joined the emotive bandwagon of fashionable perjury, can’t now defend PBAT.  Glad to say Ripples is not of that band!

    But as Chief Adebanjo grandstands for willy-nilly relevance, he’s an impostor if he claims to be Afenifere Leader.  He’s not.  Baba Reuben Fasoranti is.

    As he lays false claim as Afenifere “Leader”, and since the old man loves to tout Awo for effect, let him remember the “Akintola Taku” — “Akintola balks” — tragedy of 1962.

    That turned Chief Akintola into an eternal pariah among the Awo clan. Chief Adebanjo risks no less, in Afenifere folklore, long after he and his doting grudge media have left the scene.

  • LG: first Soludo, now Lagos…

    LG: first Soludo, now Lagos…

    “The military correct one problem but create sundry others” —EM Forster, A Passage to India.

    The quote above is not exactly the words of one of the characters in EM Forster’s famous novel on the British Raj (1858-1947).  But it captures the exact sentiments.

    The issue here is not even the military — brave souls! — and their sweet-sour image, either in junta rule, or when unleashed beyond war and gore, their core competence.

    It’s rather applying such military tactics to the Supreme Court verdict on council “autonomy” — hailed, by many, for stopping governors’ pilfering of council funds.

    But it is also ardently questioned by a few —Ripples included. That “autonomy” makes Nigeria more unitary than federal, despite the zesty howls over a so-called “third tier” as a federating partner.  It is not.

    Beyond military whims, unfortunately codified in the 1999 Constitution, there is nothing like local governments partnering the Federal Government for the Nigerian federation — or any federation for that matter. That’s a travesty — and that explains the fight back from the states.

    First, it was Chukwuma Soludo’s Anambra.  Next, it’s Lagos — incidentally, the first under Governor Bola Tinubu (now President of the Federal Republic), to secure judicial validation for states to create and manage their local governments.

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    Back then, the Supreme Court found for the state, after bullying President Olusegun Obasanjo had seized Lagos council funds: because Lagos had the temerity to create additional 37 local governments (added to the 20 that the 1999 Constitution listed).

    The apex court upheld the constitutional right of states to create local governments. 

    But it dubbed the exercise “inchoate”, until the National Assembly passed a “consequential listing”, so the new councils could be added to the 774, which the 1999 Constitution had listed.  That Supreme Court verdict was on 9 December 2004.

    Enter then, the Lagos Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) — until the National Assembly did the needful.  But since 2004, no consequential listing had come — and it couldn’t have been otherwise.

    “Consequential listing” means the right of the new Lagos councils to draw federal cash.  By that, the matter would have morphed from law to finance: and other states, citing Lagos, would have created extra councils, for extra federal cash!

    It’s realpolitik: the ugly face of Nigeria’s parasitic federalism, in which the central feudal lord, with gruff unitary temper, feeds the states, but on its own damn terms!

    So, the LCDAs — with many states copying that concept — had stayed inchoate, until the “autonomy” verdict of 2024 (by the way, a conceptual opposite of 2004: 20 years later), which just spurred them out of their deep slumber!

    Indeed, in his November 3 back-page piece, “LGs in more trouble than Nigerians thinks,” Palladium, The Nation on Sunday columnist, moaned, griped and hissed over how governors were plotting to subvert the Supreme Court’s “autonomy” verdict.

    Palladium, as many avid fans of this judicially induced “autonomy”, see the governors as rogues; and Abuja as saint in this matter. From strict morality, maybe yes: soulless governors have diverted council funds for much too long for the owners not to notice!           

    The proof? Municipal, suburban and rural services, the core duty of local councils, have lagged behind the funding poured down there from Abuja.  Too true.

    Besides, why near-hysterical reactions, to the verdict, by some governors? Seyi Makinde, the Oyo governor, openly blew his tops. He even tried to instigate an anti-verdict road show by newly (s)elected Oyo council chairs.  Futile. Impotent.

    Latterly, Soludo’s Anambra again hit its sour anti-”autonomy” mode.  A newly elected council chair from Anambra was nabbed in the United States for alleged romantic scams.  But Governor Soludo’s Information commissioner threw the poor guy under the bus, claiming Anambra had no dog in the fight — but the man’s electors had — since councils now enjoyed “autonomy”!  Talk of chronic sour grapes!

    Meanwhile, in the same story — as told in The Nation of November 10 —  the nabbed suspect is not only a member of APGA (Anambra’s ruling party), he was also among the candidates Soludo allegedly handpicked prior to the polls, which APGA swept!  So, what APGA — and the governor — have put together, “autonomy” has put asunder?

    Before the Supreme Court’s July judgment, when the issue came up for discourse at The Nation Editorial Board, Ripples had told co-members that Abuja would likely win the “autonomy” war.  Whether it would win the peace thereafter was another question.

    So, the current challenge by the states is all about winning the peace. 

    Abuja used the courts to force out a malady crippling local government administration and development.  Noble judicial legerdemain?  Hardly ignoble!  If the states roar back, by same systemic ploys, it’s hardly ignoble — nor illegal — too!

    Indeed, it’s the real war of the federating partners, gaming each other to preserve their turf, under the equal-opportunity eye of the law!

    Besides, the Supreme Court’s verdict is hardly a theocracy’s holy grail that must be worshipped and venerated by all, at the mortal risk of heresy!  That would appear the view of the pro-”autonomy” lobby.  But that’s hardly valid in a democratic republic.

    It’s rather the latest legal document, which contesting partners, in a secular federation, can — and should — question.  It’s all about thesis and antithesis providing a new synthesis that could work for all.  In a competitive federation, that’s hardly a crime.

    Let it be clear: governors gypping local governments of their due funds are execrable. But no less damning is a long-term sweet poison to Nigeria’s federal cause. 

    Whereas the Supreme Court’s 2004 judgment backed states’ federal rights to create own local governments, the 2024 verdict — by implication — all but took away such rights: all to push Abuja’s right to monitor its cash. 

    Yes, it does solve the problem of governors pinching council funds — or does it?  But in doing that, it creates a more fundamental breach that can’t be explained away by the so-called “third tier”.  Again, beyond military caprice, that’s hardly federal.

    Take the Lagos challenge.  It rolled back the LCDAs into the original 20 councils.  But it also gave the governor the power to appoint heads and councillors for the inchoate LCDAs — to be funded from allocated federal funds to the Big 20.

    How does that appointee power play against the constitutional guarantee of elected local governments?  Yet, not even the Supreme Court could “adjudicate” Lagos out of making laws for own councils!

    Anambra already passed a law that compels its councils to deposit part of their direct federal cash in a state pool for common services.  Hardly an unreasonable move too!

    But Lagos has even thrown the LCDAs back at the National Assembly. To ensure elected local governments at LCDAs, pass “consequential listing” the LCDAs had awaited since 2004 — quid pro quo!

    This piece will end as the original salvo (See “Autonomy — against who?”, June 18): let Abuja quit its military-messianic complex, charge council funds to states and leave the states to expand — or shrink — their local councils as they deem fit.

    Councils are strictly states’ business — no one else’s.