The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sanya Oni

  • LGs: Freedom at last?

    LGs: Freedom at last?

    Majority of Nigerians have been literally over the moon ever since apex court delivered the landmark judgment restoring the fiscal powers of the local governments to elected officials last Thursday. To fellow citizens long exasperated by the apparent parting of ways between justice and common-sense, the judgment, delivered in flowing, unambiguous prose, and with a nary a wiggle room for the typical political elites’ silly manoeuvres, came as the perfect answer to that class challenged by understanding. It was a case of a Daniel come to judgment.

    Without a shred of doubt, it was one moment that our governors, with their penchant to play the monarchs in a supposed republic, and their supine legislative allies, went home bloodied.

    Unfortunately, if I personally thought that the judgment merely restated what we already know about the impropriety of the states in appropriating what clearly does not belong to them, the revelation about this point being lost on Nigerians all of these while only came after the judgment.  Hence the rejoicing in most parts of the 774 entities across the federation that their day of financial freedom has finally come!

    Yes, effective that Thursday of the judgment, local governments, by this I mean those who have elected administrators in place, would collect their allocations directly from the federation account.

    That is the obvious part of the judgment. Less obvious, and yet seems to me of a greater import, is the reasoning of the judges while referencing the section of the constitution which mandated the states to maintain a joint account with the states. The judges, to their credit, barely stopped short of pronouncing the account dead. Affirming the primacy of justice in the face of apparent conflict between the text which mandated the account and the law’s intendments on one hand, and the opportunistic exploitation of the lacuna for fiendish ends, the judgment, mercifully, spared the citizens of the verbiage for which our courts have chosen to be grandmasters! 

    It reasoned, rightly and common-sensically in my view, that since paying the councils through the states has not worked, “justice demands that local government allocations from the federation account should henceforth be paid directly to the local governments”.

    Like it or not, that is judicial wisdom in its finest colours!

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    And it did not even stop there. In an emphatic, undisguised censure, the judges also decried the penchant by state executive/legislatures to issue whimsical decrees bordering on life and death for elected councils, which it observed were usually accompanied by the imposition of caretaker committees to run their affairs. Drawing strength from the unambiguous provision of Section 1(2) of the constitution provides that “the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not be governed, nor shall any persons or group of persons take control of the government of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of this constitution”, the apex court described what the governors have been doing all along as not only unconstitutional but amounting to gross misconduct!

    For me, I think it is rather shameful that it took the action of the federal government to get us to this point. For while there might be areas of ambiguities in the constitution particularly on the issue of the joint accounts, there are sufficient provisions in the larger body of the organic document that leaves no discretion for the kind of arbitrariness that the nation has seen in the last few years under the direction of the governors. Knowing how creative some of our emergency federalists could sometimes be, I would certainly not be surprised if the federal government is further dragged before ECOWAS court or other supra-national arbitrators to explain why the judgment should stand in the face of the federalism as practiced in other jurisdictions!

    That takes us to the matter of our ‘puritan federalists’.  Again, I have made the point in an earlier contribution. If I understand their frustrations which I consider as being largely born of their obsession with their two-tiered federal apple cart and which in their opinion the judgment has clearly upended, their inability to recognise the weighty issues of propriety, law and constitutionalism which the governors in their sanctimoniousness would prefer to keep in abeyance in their appropriation of powers neither envisaged nor granted by the constitution, would seem just as utterly unforgivable. To argue, one of their leading lights actually put out at the weekend, that the Supreme Court judgment merely sought a solution to a problem that didn’t exist or if it existed at all, was at best a mirage, is crassly opportunistic if not delusional.

    How did we get here, if we may remind ourselves? Is it not because our local governments, as presently constituted have remained at best shadows of what they are supposed to be? Autonomy or not, where in the law is the provision that the governors can run them as they pleased? Given the joke that many of the governors have made of their states, what is the basis of the assumption that governors are better administrators and so know what is best for the local governments under them?

    Although this writer is yet to read the full judgment, suffice to say that yours truly is yet to find anything in the reportage of the well-considered judgment that could be deemed to offend the fundamental principles of federalism. The governors after all, being neither monarchs nor all-knowing autocrats are expected to govern by the strictures of the constitution and the law; the same law that mandates an elected body to take charge of activities at the grassroots going as far as to impose a duty of ensuring that a democratic character is maintained by our gubernatorial lordships at all times!

    How does that move by the federal government to ensure that the funds standing to the benefits of the councils are utilised under the direction of those elected to administer them be deemed as anything but a worthy public service?

    Let me state that the battle to restore the local system as touch points for service delivery points is far from over. The key, operative words here are service and delivery. That is what they exist for and that is what the people deserve. Ensuring that funds meant for their operations actually reach them seems only the logical point to begin the process. Given that local government authorities are not expected to serve at the pleasure of the governors but the people from whom they derive their mandates, the next challenge is to ensure that those in charge truly have the mandate of the people are allowed to govern. Here, if the charade that local government elections under the so-called States Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) have become is anything to go by, the latter would seem a tall order; yet it seems to me the one challenge that Nigerians must fight but fight to win!

  • The economy: A promise made!

    The economy: A promise made!

    If there was still any doubts about the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration’s understanding of the fierce urgency of the times, last week’s inauguration of the 31-member Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PECC)  should ordinarily be proof of how it views what is unarguably, a concerning situation. A body composed of the president himself, vice president, the senate president, Speaker of the House of Representatives, 13 ministers, the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Yemi Cardoso, the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, and chieftains of manufacturing and finance among others, its inauguration cannot but herald a new momentum in the arduous task of giving the economy the long expected fillip.

    Understandably, there will be hordes of critics who would argue whether the recycling of familiar faces and their well-worn orthodoxies are what is needed. They cite the plethora of committees sworn to the same basic task of not only identifying the problems but giving directions on what is needed to get the economy running as proof. Many more wonder what the latest body would do that others before it could not do. And given that the roots of the problem are largely historical, some others, still, have equally wondered whether there is anything new that is not already known, in which case the administration only needed to take practical measures to get the job done as against on-boarding a motley assembly of disparate cooks thus potentially messing up the broth!

    These positions are persuasive no doubt.  What is also incontestable is that every administration is entitled to its understanding of the problem and the strategy to get things done.

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    In the immediate past administration for instance, we saw an administration that was not only ‘brain dead’ but thought little of outsourcing the management of critical sectors of the economy to a coterie of players with limited understanding, if not entirely poor judgment, about the critical choices that the country had to make at a difficult moment. From a the fiscal side of governance that was effectively AWOL – to use a popular military lingo – to a monetary management team that went rogue, dishing out as many ‘intervention funds’ for all manners of activities that catches their fancies under the sun, Nigerians only needed to recall the crisis of monumental abdication and institutional indifference of that particular era to appreciate the current tragedy that has befallen us.

    The same could be said of the private sector players of that era. So hopelessly detached were their chieftains from the ordinary day realities facing the people that a well-conceived initiative to mitigate the ravaging impact of Covid-19 pandemic was botched by them in such a manner that raised questions about their social conscience if not relevance.

    How many now remember that era of palliatives when many of our governors, while behaving like Ali Baba, opted to treat the so-called palliatives as something of a freebie, which they disbursed as they deemed fit?

    Clearly, if there are lessons to learn, it certainly would not be about the number of panels or even hands needed to be on the decks but whether the ship’s captain is not just in charge in a figurative sense but is seen to be truly hands-on. The other would be whether or not the leader had a keen awareness and understanding of the issues at stake and with it his actionable plans.

    I guess this is where the former president, Muhammadu Buhari, as indeed the administration that he led, fell miserably short. With the leader providing neither clarity of thought nor the benefit of a coherent working document to guide his team, governance was run in silos with each actor doing as their whims dictated. From a finance and national planning ministry that was a little more than a cash office to the apex bank playing the Robbin Hood to all comers, the seed of today’s decay was effectively sown and with it the mess that the country is currently engulfed in.

    With the current hands-on presidency, things are already turning out to be different. Which begs the question of what his PECC team will do differently?

    True, President Bola Tinubu has since set the ball rolling with an ambitious N2 trillion package to stimulate the economy. The package, whose operations straddles such ministries as health and social welfare (N350 billion), agriculture and food security (N500 billion), energy and power sector (N500 billion) and general business support (N650 billion) is expected to create 4.7 million direct and indirect jobs, improve access to finance, and enhance economic growth.

    More specifically, it envisages the redeployment of 20,000 healthcare workers to provide services to 10-12 million patients in areas where they are most urgently needed, increasing on-grid electricity to homes and businesses from about 4.5 to six gigawatts in six months; making essential medicines available at lower cost for 80-90 million Nigerians and a facility that will support the construction of additional 25,000 housing units, among others.

    However, setting out the lofty goals would seem the easier part. The harder part is putting the PECC team to work and on such a pace that matches the president’s, as indeed, Nigerians’ expectations. Again, I look at the similar high-powered bodies in the past and wonder whether any expectations of performance would not be misplaced. For even as a purely advisory body, nothing in the profiles of the 31-odd member PECC give away anything that is not already known of their orientation or anything for that matter that could be described as not commonplace – a case of more of the same! 

    The other source of worry is the bureaucracy, that ill-fitted contraption with neither the appetite for performance let alone efficiency. Can it be trusted to change its old ways of doing business? Currently, if Nigerians are less exultant on the fresh promises of exaggerated performance by their government and its institutions, they only need recall how long they have dwelt on this Ease of Doing Business thing of which progress – meaningful progress that is – has remained marginal if not entirely abysmal. 

    These are the odds that President Bola Tinubu and his PECC are up against.

    So much for the administration’s pre-occupation with the macro-economy and with it the quest to win big. Will it be too big to add railways rehabilitation to the bucket list – as task without which the nation’s dream of wholesome logistical and supply chain would remain a mere illusion?

    Wouldn’t that be a good strategy to rev up the economies of those once thriving railway towns along the rail corridors east and west? How about that as an effective strategy to bring down the cost of transportation, particularly agricultural produce from one part of the country to another?

    By the way, I read somewhere that Lord Frederick Lugard actually built principal lines from Lagos to Kano in a record time of 15 years. With the current state of technology and know-how, it shouldn’t require an eternity to get those old contraptions moving on their tracks, again.

    For an extraordinary body that PECC is, Nigerians expect that no stone would be left unturned in the quest to make life more bearable for them in the shortest possible time. After all, is it not said that a promised made is a promise kept?

  • LG autonomy: A lost quest

    LG autonomy: A lost quest

    Nigerians have quite interestingly been locked in debates ever since the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN dragged the 36 state governors and the FCT minister to the Supreme Court over what should ordinarily, be a non-contentious issue of the operation of the local government system. Merely by the way the debates have been going forth and back, it does get tempting to imagine the matter as one borne out of a constitutional lacuna when it is in fact yet another manifestation of elite pathology.

    Some have argued that the contentions merely extend the frontiers of what they consider to be our anomalous three-tier federalism in the expectation that the country will somehow take in the lessons and so return to ‘pure federalism’, in which the states as the legitimate second tier in the federation would determine the fate of local governments.

    My colleague on this page, Republican Ripples’ Olakunle Abimbola apparently couldn’t make the point hard enough on this when he stopped short of dubbing the quest for local government autonomy as bunkum. 

    “Autonomy from who?  States, of which councils are integral parts? How can you seek autonomy from yourself?” he had asked in his last Tuesday piece with the same title.

    He thinks the matter of local councils – in logic and creation – was flawed from the beginning and so the federal government had better back off – as if that would make the gubernatorial indulgences – from the mindless interference in the day to day operations of the councils to the expropriation of their funds – somewhat tolerable!

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    Not surprisingly, countless others have chosen to see things differently. Using the constitution as the point of departure, they say that the very letters of the document, not only recognises the local councils as separate, governance entities, it prescribes that their structures and operations must be in alignment with its express provisions. And because the functionaries in the states are sworn to that constitution, theirs, in the circumstance, isn’t much one of a choice but a duty to give effect to its operations at that level of government.

    My other colleague and Saturday columnist, Segun Ayobolu actually introduced a new dimension to the debate when he argued that there is no such a thing as pure federalism or even unitarism and that each country would somehow have to adapt to them to their different circumstances.

    Said he: “It is not enough to assert that local government councils must mandatorily be subordinated to states as an inevitable logic of the federalist ethos perhaps as handed over to us by some constitutional deity whose word is law and must be obeyed. The same argument that makes this case for states’ autonomy can also be made for local governments and may even be considered to be a deepening of the federalist logic”.

    And if I may add – in which other jurisdictions – save Nigeria – do federating entities embark, on monthly pilgrimages to their national capitals to share rents?  Is it a case of one ‘federalist’ anomaly being more tolerable than another? By the way, if the governors couldn’t spend a dime of their revenue without appropriation by their legislatures, where on earth do some (not all) of them derive the power to impound the allocations meant for the running of their councils which they spend as they pleased? And what is it that makes the demand that elected officials at that level be accountable for funds in their care a repudiation of the federalist principles?  By appropriating what does not belong to them, have the offending governors advanced the course of federalism?

    The other day, we saw a governor hand over to local council chairmen, motorcycles and Dane guns for onward distribution to local vigilantes – all in the name of security! Don’t ask me if it was part of the state budget or charged direct to the councils accounts!

    Years before – in the same state, the governor thought it was his duty to purchase prized SUV toys for the use of his council chairmen at a time local government workers were several months in arrears of salaries!

    So much about the federalist argument about the states better placed to know what their people want; in this instance, it would seem the governors know far better than what the democratically elected leaders know of the needs of their people!

    I do understand the federal government’s dilemma as indeed what the suit filed by the AGF sought to achieve. My take however is that the suit in its entirety is somewhat superfluous.  The issues at stake on the local councils autonomy question are such that require no extra doses of avant-garde jurisprudence beyond what the nation’s organic law has already provided and settled in simple English. 

    One imagines that the express provisions of Section 7 (1) of the constitution which provides that “the system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is guaranteed under this constitution” and further that “Accordingly, the Government of every State shall…ensure their existence under a Law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils” being self-explanatory, yields little or no room for obfuscation.

    So much for the unhelpful hair-splitting legalese, the suit certainly speaks to nothing new outside of what Nigerians do not already know – which is that the failure to observe those provisions not only smacks of a heinous delinquency, but borders on brazen outlawry; what that knowledge means, and the question of whether the governors, in their wilful violation could plead justification in baleful ignorance are however different matters on which Nigerians are entitled to their impotent opinions! Trust me; Nigerians can do all the fancy talk; the all-powerful state governors would still have their way; they will in the end still retain those powers neither donated by the constitution nor the courts of the land, to perfect their will.

    After all, what is sacking local government structures compared to the sacking of a parliament or even judges as we have seen happen in the past? Have we not seen some governors take down the roofs of parliament buildings and appointing the place where only favoured members could sit and heavens did not fall? Two members of the governors club went as far as to appoint minority lawmakers to pass laws to allow them govern as they please(d). In the first instance, 14 members in a 24-member house were shut out throughout their entire tenure with the remaining 10 allowed to carry on and no whimper was heard. Now we have a three-man gang shutting out 27 others while pretending to make laws for their beloved governor. And this, while they are yet to get their own separate police service!  That is what you get in a clime when actions do not carry consequences!

    To our esteemed attorney general and minister of justice, I will say – you have done well. Unfortunately, I wish you are dealing with a club most of whose members could be described as gentlemen!

  • Fubara: A twist in the tale?

    Fubara: A twist in the tale?

    Finally, it does appear that Governor Siminalayi Fubara and company may have rejoiced too soon given yesterday’s judgment of the Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt. For a party that have been in wild, non-stop celebrations over the vanquishing of their supposed foes, the lucid, unambiguous and certainly uncontroversial judgment of Justice Okogbule Gbasam of the Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, as reported by this newspaper, would come close to a deadly blow to the solar plexus. Clearly, Fubara’s nightmare, as indeed those of his hordes of irreverent supporters, may have only just begun.

    Now, the sum total of the judgment is that Martin Amaewhule and 26 other members of the Rivers State House of Assembly are still members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Being members of the PDP of course means that they could not have lost their seats in the House of Assembly. In other words, everything that the 27 lawmakers have done in the course of their legislative business is deemed to be proper in the eyes of the law; which renders the ‘gang of three’ who have been carrying on in their place at the prodding of the governor, as impostors!

    And the court didn’t stop there. As if to clear the fog of possible ambiguity on the status of the group of 27, it made clear that membership of a party is only proven by being listed on the party’s register, or by membership card, and that television ceremonies and or verbal statements, were not part of the equation. Some other accounts (not The Nation) ominously, (at least for the all-conquering party), quoted Justice Gbasam as saying that the Rivers State government is bound to obey all laws passed by the 27-member assembly.

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    For the hitherto all-conquering party, the latest twist must have been somewhat devastating. However, while the option of an appeal is still open, what is apparent is that the room for judicial shenanigans have since narrowed considerably. The best the governor and his team could do at this time is play for time; even at that, it seems unlikely that the appellate courts will overlook the constitutional aberration of his anointed three-member parliament carrying on with the business of law-making while the matter drags through the tortuous process. Surely, the courts couldn’t be such an ass!

    And while it seems still early to speculate on what the future bodes for the governor, what is increasingly unlikely is the erstwhile gung-ho, self-help and undisguisedly scorched earth tactics earlier pressed for service by the governor, will further avail him. And with the political option midwifed by President Bola Tinubu cynically shredded in the moment of assumed invincibility, and the same judicial cum constitutional path, which the governor and his team have disdained have suddenly come to constitute a burden too heaven to carry, never rule out more sinister, devious and equally desperate measures from the quarters of a man whom I referred to in this column of May 14 as emperor!

    Which leads yours truly to another minor plot in the intriguing play: the response of the state government to the judgment as reported in most newspapers and the television yesterday. Again, as reported by this newspaper’s online edition, the state government is said to have described the report of the judgment affirming the 27 as members of the PDP as ‘misleading and false’. The report quotes the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Dagogo Israel Iboroma, as saying that the suit before the court did not seek to declare the seats of Amaewhule and 26 others vacant.

    Who to believe?

    It would, most certainly, have been a different matter had the attorney-general denied that suit in question was ever heard in the Port Harcourt not to talk of a judgment proceeding therefrom. Rather, what he, an interested party, did amounted to his own interpretation of the judgment on Monday.

    Do I believe him? What’s in the credibility of a so-called officer of the law, whose appointment is not just tainted with illegality (he was screened by a three-member parliament) but, going by the governor’s declaration, is actually a Man Friday, sworn to fight the enemies of the governor? Nigerians, surely have better things to do than pay attention to the rather specious effusions of that central figure in the travesties going on in the court-rooms of the famed Garden City!

    And lest we forget how we got here: We had a rumble in the parliament and so the edifice had to be torched ostensibly to prevent a worse disaster from happening; a governor, sworn to the public interest thought nothing of rolling out the bulldozers to finish the job; all of these in desperate acts of self-preservation. Now, we are told that the state government has approved N19.6 billion to put the building back. Yes, the governor and his government have been carrying on in flagrant defiance of the law.

    Meanwhile, a majority elected by the people can’t sit because the governor deems them to have abdicated; he thinks a three-member parliament is just fine because he says so. And the good people of Rivers are cheering him on because their beloved governor appears to be winning his self-appointed war against the godfather!

    Soon, it would be daybreak! 

  • Still on Labour’s impetuousness

    Still on Labour’s impetuousness

     When I read your piece on NLC and TUC strike Tuesday June 4, I simply chuckled. It is as if you were reading my mind.

    It is insightful and demonstrates how low organised Labour has sunk since the ascent of Joe Ajaero and his side kick, Festus Usifo as President.

    What Ajaero has been doing is pure brigandage bothering on a treasonable felony against the Nigerian State, daring President Tinubu to bare his fangs. So far, the president has been restrained and I commend him.

    For crying out loud, how can you begin a negotiation by insisting on the consolidated salary of the highest ranking public servant on Level 17 as the acceptable minimum wage (600k plus) and then drop to the equivalent of Level 16   step 7 (the last step on the level-400k plus) as your best take on the issue?

    Truth is Labour is intent on destabilising the present government to achieve a predetermined agenda.

    As Labour was strutting about its touted minimum wage, public servants were having a big laugh wondering if Labour was actually ready to get a deal for them. Even before I retired in April, speaking to a cross section of different cadres, I got the same feedback: Is Labour actually ready to have a deal with the government on the new minimum wage?

    On my part, I knew they were bent on “shutting down the economy” as a way to demonstrate their new found “power” under the present government during which it has been declaring strike actions on the drop of a hat.

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    I have witnessed strike actions in my time and never ever has the Labour union forcefully shut down the national grid, throwing the entire country into darkness. Or locked up the airports forcing private carriers to incur undue charges and passengers incalculable stress and losses in terms of cancelled pre-arranged business transactions across the country.

    This is gangsterism at its highest and economic sabotage that should be punished to avoid recurrence. Labour cannot and should not continue to hold the country ransom in the guise of fighting for the course of workers.

    Indeed, strike action for Labour under Ajaero and Usifo is now the First resort not the Last resort. For crying out loud, public servants on the directorate cadre are barred from participating in strike actions and so government offices were never locked by Labour in the course of any strike to allow skeletal services to go on.

    This age old tradition has been desecrated under the new Labour leadership. I believe it is time to reconsider the issue of decentralisation of NLC and TUC. Truth is, when the smoke clears, only the Federal government can pay whatever is finally agreed. Many State governments except a few would be able to pay the new minimum wage. Ask public servants in many of the States when they started earning the old minimum wage of mere N30,000 years after it came into effect! I expect Labour to declare another strike action whenever this is proposed but it is the way to go moving forward.

     Labour cannot pretend to be fighting for all workers in the country, whereas at the end of the day, many State governments will not adhere to the outcome and the Organised Private Sector would look the other way, even though it is usually part of the Tripartite negotiating team  that holding it to ransom is no longer acceptable..

    •Oji Onoko,Lagos.

  • A note to Ajaero and company

    A note to Ajaero and company

    For a leadership only too eager to display how much bite (as against reason) it could muster, I was not particularly surprised that the organised labour finally hit the nuclear button on Sunday night. As if to prove that they meant business, they have trained their attacks on vital public utilities in what could only have been a calibrated measure to blackmail and thereby force the hand of the government.

    Confirming the swoop on the company’s facility in the wee hours of Monday morning, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)’s General Manager, Public Affairs Ndidi Mbah cited the Independent System Operations unit of TCN as reporting the shutdown of the Benin Area Control Centre with their operators driven out of the control room while those staff that resisted were beaten with some wounded in the course of forcing them out of the facility. The TCN spokesperson also named other transmission sub stations affected as those in Ganmo (Kwara), Benin, Ayede (Ekiti), Olorunsogo (Ogun), Akungba (Ondo) and Osogbo (Osun). The ensuing disruption led to the Jebba Generating Station shutting down one of its generating units with three others in the same substation subsequently forced to shut down on very high frequency. The high frequency and system instability would later eventuate in the shutdown of the national grid at 2:19am.

    There have been similar reports of the air space being closed to traffic as a result of the strike by air traffic controllers and allied workers. As at 5 pm yesterday, no single domestic airline was reported to have flown while the fate of international flights remained uncertain. For the financial services sector, it was a mixed grill with banks in Lagos carrying as if nothing happened; those in Port Harcourt were said to have complied with the directives of their union to join in the strike. Health and other social services, for the most part, are still in a wait-and-see mode – with those whose gates are still open working sub-optimally. Over all, the reports across the country were of substantial compliance with the NLC/TUC decreed shutdown, the costs of which in the long run, would be difficult to determine. And all of these because organised labour could not find a common ground on the issue of the new minimum wage. 

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    Unfortunately, whereas the leaderships of both the Nigeria Labour Congress and its Trade Union Congress counterpart have all been too eager to press the point about the rightness of their cause as against the assumed obduracy as indeed what they perceive as lack of seriousness on the part of the federal government to address concerns that had become somewhat existential; what Nigerians daily see are their unbridled lawlessness and contempt for the rest of the silent majority.  As if being out of touch with reality is not bad enough, their specious understanding if not entirely lack of grasp of basic economic issues is as revealing as it is astounding. 

    No thanks to the NLC/TUC alliance, Nigerians are increasingly told that might is right; that a party in a negotiation is at liberty to hold the gun to the head of the other party so long as it is convinced that its case is just. Never mind that there is a third party –a silent party whose acquiescence is not only expected to count, but whose nod is expected to make the outcomes effective and enduring. 

    Yes, it’s been a little more than five months since the 37-man Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage was inaugurated by the federal government. The committee, chaired by the former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Goni Bukar Aji, has members of the organised labour, the private sector, the federal and state governments represented. Surely, if Nigerians understood that the work of the committee would not be easy, it is most certainly, a far cry from suggesting that it is not doable. Nigerians, not least the governments across all levels, surely understood and still understand the imperatives of a fairer deal for the producers of wealth.

    Of course, they do not disagree that the current minimum wage has become obsolete, or that it has, in the current circumstances of unprecedented inflation and the generalised spiral in the cost of living, become a joke. The main issue in contention is what the parties in negotiation are able to agree as reasonable, fair and affordable.

    Fair is of course what those who pronounce on it says it is. In other words, it is subjective. But then, we do know also that what is fair may not necessarily be reasonable. From what we know, the organised labour has oscillated between an initial 615,000 to N494,000, which it considers both just and reasonable. The government and the other interested party – the private sector – on their part have put up differing figures of N60,000 and N57,000 respectively – which they deem to be fair and realistic. Even that government’s offer, which is 100 percent above the current one, will, according to Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, cost the federal treasury a hefty N500 billion. This is against labour’s proposal, which by comparison, would cost the federal government a whopping N9.5 trillion annually for its 1.2 million-odd army of workers.

    Not too long ago, the NLC President Joe Ajaero was on a courtesy visit to this newspaper. His explanation on the occasion of how the NLC and TUC came up with their figures was as interesting as it was fascinating. What his team did, he explained, was to draw a bucket list of the basic needs of a typical household with figures attached to them to arrive at their proposal on minimum wage! Talk of a specious econometrics, which proposes a 1,547% increase on the wage bill, being sold as product of rigour by a once-upon-a-time fire-brand labour movement – a body once powered by a research department that could, at a time hold its own as a beacon of scholarship?

    I imagine the top brass at the Labour’s elite training institute – the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies – shaking their heads in wonder at the depth to which negotiation and collective bargaining have sunk! 

    If one may ask – where will the funds come from? And all of these to pay those on the federal payroll – representing 0.006 percent of the population? Assuming the federal government can afford to pay – which is doubtful – can the states – most of whom are struggling to pay the old rate – afford it? What of the private sector currently reeling under the inclement operating environment; would they be able to pay? Has the NLC and its TUC agitator-counterpart considered the possible effects on inflation, which ironically is one of the fuels at the heart of their agitation?

    So much for the Unions and their love for drama; labour’s weaponisation of the strike tool at every turn cannot be acceptable any more than their penchant to scoff at the laws to press their cases is tolerable. It is time, in my humble view, for new tools and perhaps new rules of engagement if they desire to be taken seriously. No one denies that they have every right to voice their displeasures on everything under the sun – from wages of political office holders to the outrageous executive compensation by occupants of our corporate suits. What NLC/TUC cannot do is burn the edifice just for the pleasure of getting their way! Yesterday’s shutdown of the power grid and the air space comes dangerously close to that!

  • PBAT: 365 days after

    PBAT: 365 days after

    The knives, as one might expect at a time like this, are out! It is less than 24 hours to the Bola Ahmed Tinubu first anniversary in office. Clearly, if Nigerians understood the depth of the rot that the administration inherited and so were initially prepared to give the administration the benefit of the doubt in those early days, trust a good chunk of that number, increasingly unable to see the possibility of that tiny flicker of light on the horizon anytime soon, growing weary over time.

    Today, it seems the best time ever to remind Nigerians of how the journey began if only to appreciate the larger picture of the current happenings in what should be a productive mission to stimulate the discussion on where the country should be headed.

    It shouldn’t surprise that some self-appointed jurors have already gone out to pronounce what could only have been a jaundiced verdict. It seems a necessary rite of opposition by the same elements known to be resolute in their ill-will against the administration and by extension, the republic. After all, they have since sworn that it is either their way or hell’s highway!

    Imagine one particular individual – the acclaimed letter-writer whom I prefer to call headmaster – known to have openly called for civil disobedience as soon as it became clear that his preferred candidate had lost in the last presidential election, lately holding court to pronounce judgment on an administration that has had barely 12 months to do a job that he, had a whole of eight years to do but left mostly undone. He is not only pontificating but asking to be taken seriously!

    Hear him: “Our economy has consistently suffered from poor policies, lack of long-term sustainable policies, discontinuity, adhocry (sic) and corruption firmed on personal greed, avarice, incompetence, lack of knowledge and understanding and lack of patriotism.

    “For instance, the statement and proposed actions given 45 years ago to stop fuel scarcity are the same statement and action being touted today. I recall when I made the statement that the refineries will not work, the sycophants and spin doctors of this current administration went out to castigate me as not being a petroleum engineer and that I did not know what I was talking about.

    “They forgot that the attempt that was made in 2007 to partly privatise the refineries was made by me after a thorough study of the situation. But the decision was reversed by my successor and the 750 million dollars paid was refunded.”

    How about that, coming from Chief Olusegun Obasanjo!

    By the way, he forgot to say that he actually ruled for nearly 12 out of the 45 years; or that he could have, if he was so minded, taken those same measures he is accusing others of neglecting to do in his two terms of eight years! An administration that wasted taxpayers’ money to import gas turbines for electricity generation only to discover on arrival at the ports that the main bridges to the site could not carry the weight of his import! 

    Who will tell this individual that his beloved Nigeria is where it is because he, in particular, failed to do what is right by her!

    That is not what this piece is all about!

    Today, it is about charting the path forward. Yes, the past 12 months under President Tinubu, have been terrific, breath-taking. The president has taken some tough measures – measures that those before him knew were right but which they could not do because their nerves, for whatever reasons, failed them. Never mind that those previous administrations understood them to be albatrosses that they were but did nothing about them.

    I refer here to monstrous regime of fuel subsidy which takes from the poor to subsidise the rich – an unquestionably regressive system that sucks out nearly N3 trillion in a year to shadowy elements, and the multiple exchange regime which fostered the culture of wealth without work while actively encouraging corruption and crony-capitalism!

    But then, like everything Nigeria, those bold measures which even the worst critics of the Tinubu administration have long admitted was necessary, have, suddenly, like the headmaster’s cane become the scourge to whip the administration. As they say – all is fair in war…

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    Without question, the measures taken by the Tinubu administration have engendered the spiralling inflation with food prices in particular hitting the roof tops. The food supply situation in particular, would seem a case of double jeopardy: the farmers claim they can’t undertake their business due to insecurity while the harvest can’t reach the market no thanks to the unbearable cost of transportation. The same with the naira: with the best of the efforts by the current government to tame the inflationary spiral, the national currency is still, at best unstable. No thanks to naira’s devaluation, everything from basic household items – whether imported or not – is badly hit.

    Now, the question is – has the administration done enough in the past year?

    Interesting, isn’t that everyone somehow believes that the government possess some kind of magic wand to decree hardship out of existence in one fell swoop. We are talking of problems that the Great Obasanjo himself has admitted has endured in 45 years!

    Most certainly, I will agree that there is a lot that the government can do – and if I may add, is doing – to make a difference. Surely, there are is a sense that the administration is steadily tackling the issue of insecurity more robustly. That obviously gives a lot of room for hope.

    I have much earlier on this page argued that the current understanding of food insecurity suffers a crisis of definition. Even with the current internal security challenges, we have not reached the point of crushing shortage of food that could be described as crisis. And there have not been widespread reports of crop failure to warrant any panic. Yes, the prices have gone up beyond the reach of the common folk. Like I said, this is because the costs of transporting them from the hinterland to the markets have gone astronomically high. The government, both states and federal, have to crack the conundrum of rural access roads. I understand that a lot is being done already. So we should see thing coming down soon.

    Let me close on the subject of the naira – our beloved currency. Surely, those looking up to Yemi Cardoso and company to work some magic on forex rates miss the point. The apex bank is merely the banker to the federal government. Its job is merely to process the bills of exchange; it has no power to mint the dollar or any other foreign currency for that matter. Yes, no one should lose sleep over the current forex rate; what should worry is whether the right things are being done to boost domestic production and exports while curbing our appetites for foreign goods.

    I believe that the administration is well on course to doing something big in these areas.

  • Fubara: An emperor at work

    Fubara: An emperor at work

    “Is the Assembly quarters not part of my property? Is there anything wrong in going to check how things are going on there?

    “You are aware of the developments. We have a new speaker, and I went there to see for myself how things are. There might be a few things I might want to do there for the good of our people. (Italics mine).

    The above were straight from the lips of Siminilayi Fubara, the Rivers State governor moments after staging the psych-op that could well have passed for Nigeria’s variant of the Storming of the Bastille.

    Students of History would remember that revolutionary moment, when on the morning of July 14, 1789, hundreds of Parisians stormed the state prison, seizing 250 barrels of gunpowder and freeing its prisoners. A pivotal moment in the French Revolution, its consequences would not only reverberate in France, but also beyond its borders for years after.

    Today, if anyone still needed a crash lesson in semiotics to appreciate the gravity of those words in the context of the turf war between the executive and the legislative branches in the Rivers State capital, they only need to stretch their memory to a related event of October 29, 2023, when the parliament, the symbol of representative government, was razed to the ground by elements (anarchists), who, supposedly for the loved for their governor, threw the niceties of law and legalism into the sewers. And that was just few days before the governor, in an unparalleled demonstration of executive delinquency and self-help, moved in the bulldozers to complete the rite of destruction on an edifice that was built with taxpayers’ money.

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    That was last year. Today, Nigerians, are already familiar with the intriguing power-play starring Nyesom Wike, the godfather and his now estranged governor-godson, Fubara. I mean the high drama of the godfather wanting the godson out and the inevitability of the actors along the divide lining up behind their principals; the account of the lawmakers, one-score and half of them, and their mission to impeach the governor with the governor’s supporters doing what they had to do – razing the complex which served the parliament – to stave off the process. And then the governor, if only to be certain that such a dream would never recur again, moving in bulldozers as if to complete the job begun by the arsonists!

    Lest we forget, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was at some point, urged to step in. And he did at the end of which an agreement was signed and sealed. Don’t ask me if the parties implemented the terms of the agreement to the letter. There was just about enough of bad faith on both sides to scupper the deal and with it the end to the truce.   

    Unfortunately, while the good people of Rivers State have no idea of how long the current drama will last, even more inconceivable, at least at this point is the cost that would be put on their necks as the horror drags on!

    To understand why fancy treatise on ‘rule of law’, the imperatives of constitutionalism’ and such other nuances of public order is unlikely to make sense to the feuding parties is to appreciate the true character of the elements in that combat particularly their contempt for the law and critical institutions designed to breathe life into society as an orderly, organic entity. As it was in the post-succession era of Peter Odili, so it has been till date. It has all these while being a case of– to borrow the words of The Nation’s revered columnist, Tatalo Alamu – the end justifying the meanness!

    However, while it seems bad enough that these elements sworn to neither hold prisoners nor listen to voices of reason, and who see politics as war by other means are perennially in the forefront, what must alarm is the ease with which the nation’s organic law – the constitution – is being shredded under a false indignation by the same elements who think it is either their way or hell’s highway.

    In this, Fubara, with his changeover from being the underdog to the deal breaker and now lawbreaker, has of late, proven to be more sinning than sinned against (in matters of public peace and decorum) – with Wike – the tormentor-in-chief doing no more than throwing jibes from his Abuja redoubt on occasions! 

    Ways back, a Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, Angus Chukwuka, had darkly hinted of the days ahead: “We have illegality challenging illegality; I don’t know whether one will cancel the other. But it’s important that the state actors take caution that what they are doing will actually draw the state into unnecessary crisis”.

    The good lawyer may have understated the looming anarchy. No thanks to the army of conflict entrepreneurs, the state, surely, has entered a new phase of an executive-induced anarchy. The governor, now battle-charged would appear not only ready to take on his enemy, but the constitution at whose behest he still pretends to hold his office.

    I guess it’s a small matter that the governor has withheld the account of the local governments, barred the heads of the councils from answering to the parliament aside other extra-constitutional steps taken in his self-assumed but clearly deluded expediency. He obviously believes that the law (which he also treats with contempt) is such that afford him such latitudes to do as he pleased with anyone and whomsoever.

    Surely, if the governor, before now, thought little of declaring the seats of some 27 state lawmakers void, going the extra-mile of empowering a three-member parliament to make laws for the running of his dear state; argue as you might, it seems highly unlikely that the governor and his ‘people’ ever heard of, let alone read Section 91 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which puts a minimum number of state lawmakers at 24 and maximum at 40 members.

    And now with the governor not done with implementing a budget passed by a four-member parliament, only yesterday, he actually sought to get his nominee for a cabinet position approved by a House of three odd members; those 27 lawmakers can only ignore the weekend threat to pull their official residences down to their peril.

    Does anyone still doubt that a new emperor is in town?

  • Nigerians’ nightmare

    Nigerians’ nightmare

    It’s been a little more than a week since Nigeria’s old nightmare crept upon us again. Never mind the usual rationalisations much of which range from plain asinine to the heinous about why OPEC’s leading producer of crude can’t get petrol to buy, it has become, for most citizens, a familiar window into the morass to which the country has fallen. For if Nigerians are by now familiar with the utter cluelessness of that rentier entity that once prided itself as strategic national institution, the joke out there now is how that old leopard has refused to change either in essence or in character long after the name change.

    Yes; even Nigerians with their infinite capacity to tolerate even the most heinous alibis must be asking themselves if indeed anything has changed between the past and the present. I am here referring to the transition of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the so-called NNPC Ltd. For whereas Nigerians may have long complained to end about the old contraption –NNPC –its legendary corruption, opacity and lack of strategic focus; it is increasingly apparent that the successor-entity, NNPC Limited, with the same old cocktail of excuses, is proving to be no better.

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    It could actually be said to be – in many respects – proving to be worse with some of the old vices mutating into new, perhaps more malignant ones! Imagine; NNPC Ltd treating Nigerians to the same old refrain about their need not to panic only because it claims it has some 1.5 billion litres of petroleum products available, enough to last for at least 30 days! Is that the issue? What of the question of how the system was overnight thrown into such degree of spasm and disequilibrium as currently being experienced across the country? Would that be too inconveniencing or self-indicting for comfort?

    Most probably in the NNPC Ltd book, Nigerians are expected to accept the situation as some chance occurrence over which the corporation had little or no control! Does anyone still ask whether anything has changed?

    Of course, the story out there is more complex than the NNPC Ltd has managed to put out. Surely, the number one problem is inadequate supply. As the sole importer of fuel at this time, it bears huge chunk, if not the principal responsibility for the current crisis. The fuel marketers in their emphatic push-back on the NNPC Ltd claims have since addressed the issue as forcibly as they could – which is that the country presently does not have enough fuel to go round. Outside of that, a source actually told me last week that the other factor, which no one wants to talk about, is that the NNPC Ltd, for reasons best known to it, decided to use private depots to service the system rather than its own depot for its fuel imports. The source claims that the NNPC depot would have been more robust, equitable and hence would have benefitted the system more! And so in opting for the private depots which is in fact not free, the few, mostly private but favoured outlets (with limited distribution spread) are able to access the quantity available to their heart’s delight while the others not so favoured have to pay premium to access what is on offer! In other words, a return to the same old racket where cronyism – as against market rules – rules!

    See where the problem lies?

    Yes, the NNPC Ltd may even have 1.5 billion litres of products or more. This, in itself, does not guarantee that the products will go round. To the extent that the distribution is still based on its preferred but curious model, the pressure is unlikely to ease anytime soon! Little wonder why the so-called black market for fuel has been thriving. Yes; yours truly bought a litre of fuel at Omu-Aran, Kwara State for N1,500 penultimate Sunday! Don’t ask me if I had a choice! I wish I had!

    Now, so much for the corporation’s quest for believability; Tuesday last week, its spokesperson, Femi Soneye, had assured that the current shortage would abate by May 1. Well, that has not happened. Remember that the same corporation had sometime last year promised the December 2023 delivery date for the Port Harcourt refinery. That, too, didn’t happen. Last month, it again promised that loading by marketers from that refinery would begin. Again, Nigerians are still waiting for that to happen. Now, don’t ask me whether the other Port Harcourt refinery – the older one that is – will ever see the light of day; or the one in Warri or even Kaduna – all of which the NNPC Ltd had promised would soon come on-stream! Your guess is as good as mine!

    Which of course pops up the question – why are our officials so hungry for the klieg light, even when nothing substantive are on ground to suggest a new dawn for the corporation? Hasn’t the country been sold a proverbial pig in the poke?

    Someone once ask yours truly about the role of the regulator – the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA in all of these. I wish I knew! The much I know is that whereas its predecessor, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) was once upon a time described as toothless; NMDPRA seems to have chosen to remain in the sleep mode since its establishment – leaving Nigerians to wonder if the industry’s governance framework – the Petroleum Industry Act – as sold – isn’t exactly a hoax!

    That is the situation – the sum total of the unfolding national tragedy.

    As for the Nigerian nightmare; don’t ask me if it will ever end. If I may put matters simply, there is, presently, no end in sight!  Not with the NNPC Ltd as confused as ever about its essence! Imagine a corporation that has had a whole of its lifetime playing at the margins suddenly wanting to be everything in the industry – from upstream, midstream and downstream – all at the same time!

    Even if we indulge the corporation with its fancy dream of seeking to take on the world, shouldn’t its charity rather begin with the basics – like for instance, fixing its obsolete products pipeline network so critical to its business and the industry – without which the sector will continue to limp?

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has no doubt taken a significant step to reset the industry. What is doubtful is that the current leadership actually possess the fire to give the industry not just the verve but the strategic direction that is needed at this time. Clearly, if rewards and sanctions are to have meaning in these parts, a shock therapy – from the president – may not be out of place given all that has happened in the last few days.

  • DSTV: Of market and its malcontents

    DSTV: Of market and its malcontents

    You, dear reader already know where the above title was borrowed from. It is straight from Prof Joseph Stiglitz’s acclaimed work with the title Globalization and Its Discontents. Although different in their broad areas of interest, I consider the title apt to underlie what I now perceive as the culture of ceaseless hounding of corporate entities in the guise of consumer resistance.
    It was my late Professor Olatunde Oloko’s undergraduate class in the early 80s that Talcott Parson’s functional imperatives first caught my youthful imagination not just as a living concept that underlies the rationale of any organisation but as a critical factor of its survival. Those were the days of starry-eyed, binary Marxian idealism where labour and capitalist were supposedly on polar ends of the societal wealth divide, in which societal progress was measured only by the destruction of the old older and the emergence of the new. Nonetheless, it was also a measure of the profound intellectual honesty of the time that issues were appropriately framed as mere paradigms in what was truly engaging search for understanding the complexities of human evolution.
    Today, whereas the fad about Marxism and its strident denunciation of the capitalist appropriation of the ‘surplus value’ has since died, not a few still think that the pre-eminent factor of survival, in maintaining equilibrium should be thrown overboard – no thanks to market malcontents!
    So here we are – with my subconscious stirred into the theoretical excursions in the wake of Nigerians latest round of ‘holy’ tirade against Multichoice – since its alter ego – DSTV, announced another upward review of tariff last week. Trust Nigerians in such situation not to take prisoners, hell has literally, been let loose over nothing really!
    “The review is unacceptable; in fact, satanic” – I have heard some say moments after – never mind the rationale given by the broadcast entertainment outfit, which is that the forces of economics dictated the move at this time. I heard not even a few whispers that the government ‘do something’ about the obduracy of our ‘insane’ service providers – which they trenchantly mischaracterised as shylock-ism! Over all, the subtle suggestion, and that is in nearly all the submissions I came across, is not just that the Nigerian consumers should have none of it, but that that the government, through the consumer protection agency, should actually find a way to impose a price cap on a private entity so the ordinary folks could breathe!
    That is supposed to be the way of the free market economy a la Nigeriana – a clime where although some economic actors of note – from cement manufacturers, to electricity service providers, right up to the retailer next door – have justifiably exercised their rights to adjust product prices, a player like Multichoice is expected to hold things down, with the government – the same apparatus that has a hell of trouble delivering the enabling public good – expected to step in as the enforcer!
    Does it bother Nigeria’s outraged company that Star Times has also increased its tariff; or Nextflix? What of Nigerian Breweries Plc that has, this year alone, raised product prices no less than three times, or Guinness and International Breweries that have followed suit. Need I add the airlines, which, caught in the wave of the inclement operating conditions, have also had to raise fares?
    I love the way an X (twitter) user @Letter_to_Jack – thanks to Punch – captured the situation: “Electricity tariffs increased: Small rage. Cement prices through the roof: Small rage. Diesel to 1700/L at a point: Small rage. Indomie at 13k = small rage. DSTV increases prices: OUTRAGE! At this point, you’d think DSTV/MultiChoice is the only trigger Nigerians have.”
    That is framing the situation elegantly!
    Does it matter that the single common denomination in all of these is the intolerable operating conditions which those entities are forced to put up with?
    Or is it a case of some economic players expected to find the situation more tolerable than others? Does it speak to anything fundamental that the telecommunications companies also came out last week to say that they too are considering raising their tariffs?
    So much for the latest ding-dong between some vociferous Nigerians and Multichoice; the issues, hardly new, merely draws from that same the old but jaded script. Ordinarily distilled, they fall into three parts: the right of a service provider to determine its tariff based on the interplay of internal costs and environmental dynamics; the issue of pay-as-you-go which some see as a matter of value-for-money but which the service provider insists is misconceived; and that it is not technologically feasible under their service model; and finally, the field of play of the regulator in maintaining the sector’s equilibrium. Fully understood, it comes to the fundamental question of whether or not Nigerians would ever allow the same set of cherished rules to prevail for all classes of corporate players.

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    Let’s start with the first identified issue. I mean the sheer ill-logic of an external body – regulator, parliament or whatever – asserting the right to set the price on a good or service over whose input costs it does control? That would be crazy! Once upon a time, it was Babatunde Raji Fashola who, as minister in charge of housing reminded Nigerians that whereas their quest for low cost, affordable housing is legitimate, there is (as yet) no low cost cement or inputs on the basis of which that legitimate policy ‘construct’ could be formulated! Simply put: like it or not, not only does economics retain its primacy, it trumps everything else.
    I actually thought that was hitting the nail on the head! In other words, hate as Nigerians might, of the averment by that distinguished public servant, the policy makers can only afford to ignore the dictates of the market to their peril! That is wisdom.
    On the second, I do think that the matter ought to have been settled by now. Thanks to Nigerians love for their love for comparisons; it seems one instance when a service provider cannot be compelled to adopt a model that it deems not feasible any more than Globacom was compelled by the National Communications Commission (NCC) to adopt per second billing system. Competition and technology took care of that. Lest we forget: the clamour for telecoms tariff reduction was roundly rebuffed by President Obasanjo, who, unlike many of today’s hyperactive National Assembly members, understood the danger of staying in the comfy corridors of parliament to decree prices for other peoples’ products!
    In any case, no one has yet disproved Multichoice’s insistence that the whole notion of pay-per-view is actually misconceived. I add that the market out there is big out enough for anyone willing to dare.
    On the third, ought to be forgiven for conflating the concept of value for money with affordability. For whereas the former could be deemed the province of regulation, nothing of the latter, which involves a strict interplay of market forces and economic decision, and so are quietly easily resolved on the individual’s scale of preference, comes anywhere the sphere of regulation! Most certainly, none could be said to inform the perennial hounding of Multichoice over its legitimate quest for corporate survival. That was perhaps why in 2015, the two public interest lawyers – Osasuyi Adebayo and Oluyinka Oyeniji who had approached a Federal High Court in Lagos to challenge Multichoice’s right to increase tariffs could not have their way since in the opinion of the court, the duo was simply not obliged to use the company’s products!
    It seems to me time Multichoice is allowed to breathe.