The Nation Newspaper

Category: Niyi Akinnaso

  • Killing democracy one lie at a time

    Killing democracy one lie at a time

    I have listened to many an opposition politician cry to high heavens that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is destroying democracy by turning Nigeria into a one-party state, because some Governors defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress to which the President belongs. One of the proponents of one-party-state even took a leap into prophecy: President Tinubu wants to rule forever!

    Not one of them provided any evidence of pressure on the defecting Governors by the President, only speculations and innuendoes. Nor did any Governor complain of pressure as each of the defectors gave reasons for their action. Proponents of one-party-state are willing to deprive the defecting Governors of freewill, of the ability to make their own independent decision. Yet, the proponents themselves are in one or the other of the 19 registered political parties in Nigeria, many of them having defected from one party to the other, some several times! Their hypocrisy is further illustrated by their continuing effort to recruit more members from other parties into their own.

    The point here is that this phantom of a one-party-state is yet another political gimmick to undersell our democracy by portraying it in bad light, all in the attempt to incite voters against President Tinubu, preparatory to the 2027 general elections. It all started in 2022 as preparations were underway for the 2023 elections. Candidates used a variety of tactics, including false allegations of certificate forgery, corruption, drug trafficking, exploitations of ethnic and religious tensions, allegations of electoral malpractices, exploitation of electronic voting failures, and baseless legal challenges. Throughout the campaign, social media were mobilised to spread misinformation, disinformation, trolls, and manipulated images, all to discredit Tinubu and delegitimise his election. The concerted attack on INEC was a strategy to achieve this goal. To be sure, INEC did have its shortcomings during the election.

    Nevertheless, there was nothing about the election that could have changed the overall results. The outcome of the unanimous verdict of the Supreme Court, in which judges directly chastised the petitioners for the baselessness and frivolity of aspects of their cases, further highlighted the validity of the election. Of course, the petitioners turned around to insinuate that the judges were bought, all of them. By the time the election and litigation were over, all major institutions had been discredited.

    The misinformation about the person and candidacy of Tinubu and outright lies about various aspects of the 2023 elections prepared the grounds for two major developments that followed the presidential election. One, foreign media bought into the lies and further propagated them. Some supporters of a losing candidate even went to the White House in Washington, DC, to protest the Nigerian presidential election results. They thus pushed election denialism to then President Joe Biden, whose opponent had used similar tactics to deny his own election. It was easy for Biden and Western leaders to see through the shenanigans of Nigerian election deniers.

    Two, the exploitation of the Muslim-Muslim ticket by Christian candidates, their supporters, and Christian religious leaders laid the foundation for false claims of genocide against Christians. The escalation of conflict over land in the Christian South, accompanied by herdsmen clashes with farmers over grazing land, worsened the narrative. But domestic proponents of the narrative knew too well that Muslims were also killed in large numbers in the Muslim North, where conflict rages between land and cattle owners, involving banditry and kidnapping for ransom. But what the world knows is what we portray about ourselves in the media.

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    One consistent negative portrayal of ourselves is in the economic sector. So much negative propaganda about the economy is spewed that it is hard to believe that Nigeria could survive. It is as if President Tinubu came to destroy the economy, while he has been doing the best possible to revive it by following the road not taken (see Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, Follow Who Know Road, The Nation, October 15, 2025). True, the tripartite measures he had taken to revitalise the economy—removal of fuel subsidy, unification of the exchange market, and overhaul of the tax system—came at a cost to consumers. Nevertheless, the coast is gradually clearing. There is an interesting irony here. While political opponents see a dying economy, foreign observers—the World Bank, the IMF, and rating organizations—see a revamped economy on the way to full recovery. This is one area where statistics truly don’t lie: the Naira has stabilised, fuel cost is at least 50 percent cheaper than it was at the peak of the crisis of fuel subsidy removal; inflation is down by over 30 percent of its peak; and food prices are coming down gradually.

    However, nothing better illustrates the desire of political opponents to destroy our democracy than their insistent call for a military take-over. It’s a call they have been making since the election results were announced. The cancellation of 65th independence anniversary celebrations last October gave room for their conspiracy theory that the cancellation was to avert a military take-over. The same people who would have chastised the government for celebrating in austere times quickly turned to a phantom military coup.

    Incidentally, the ongoing disciplinary action against some army officers for various offenses provided the leeway for their conspiracy theory. It took the Defense Headquarters to deny coup rumours trolling online. It explained (1) that the investigation of some officers was to instill discipline and professionalism, rather than in reaction to a coup plot and (2) that the cancellation of the anniversary celebration was to allow President Tinubu to attend a “strategic bilateral meeting”, which he indeed attended, and has since returned.

    There is no doubt that a military coup would have been the death of democracy as it was for over 30 of the 65 years of independence, when the constitution was suspended and full dictatorship was established. Why detractors of President Tinubu would want that situation to reoccur is beyond sanity. Assuming that many of their social media supporters had no idea what military dictatorship looked like, it is a shame that the elders among them who know are willing to cut their nose off to spite their face.

    It will be more profitable as the next election season approaches for our politicians to focus on policies and solutions to national problems than to keep destroying our democracy by lying about it.

  • Towards a new Nigeria

    Towards a new Nigeria

    There have been many suggestions on how to build the Nigeria of our dream beyond the rhetoric of politicians, who promise to build bridges where there are no rivers. The Nigeria I have in mind is one where the constitution meets the people’s aspirations, by providing a workable federation structure and processes of governance that take the diversity of the country into account. It should be a constitution that provides opportunities for self-fulfillment for various groups, thereby making separatist agitations undesirable. What is still unclear is a word picture of how such a new Nigeria might look like.

    While, despite liars and saboteurs, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been working hard to stabilise the country through globally acclaimed economic reforms, the debate rages on the kind of Nigeria he should aim at building. There are two major suggestions.

    The constitutional approach

    The constitutional approach has been the default approach, with two distinct groups leading the advocacy. One group argues that there really is nothing wrong with the 1999 constitution (as amended). The problem, they argue, is with the implementation. The country would be fine if only political actors respected the constitution they swore to obey. True, the constitution is flouted here and there, but that is only part of the story.

    The other group argues that the constitution is so flawed that it must be thoroughly reviewed. Once the constitution is amended properly, they argue, all our problems will be solved. However, despite many attempts at reviews, including two major constitutional conferences, the constitution stays flawed.

    There are far too many problems with the constitution, two of which are paramount. One, it lacks legitimacy, because it was a military imposition, which adopts the American presidential system in appearance but not in details or in practice. It was an attempt to give an acceptable face to the unitary system of government first imposed by the military after the notorious coup of 1966 and then codified into the 1979 constitution.

    However, a close look at the 1999 constitution shows how far away it is from the American model. For example, the American constitution guarantees relative autonomy of the 50 federating states, including control over their own local governments, resources, education, agricultural activities, elections, and police for security. The 1999 constitution does not guarantee such level of autonomy to the 36 states and even recognizes 774 Local Government Areas, thus raising questions about their status as political units and complicating the power of states to control them. Moreover, the distribution of the LGAs is far from the realities on ground. For example, Osun and Ondo states have comparable populations, but Osun has 30 LGAs, while Ondo is given only 18!

    Two, the 1999 constitution over-concentrates power in the federal government, by giving the centre exclusive control over education (via UBEC, JAMB, NUC, NBTE, TETFund, and so on); elections; domestic security via unitary police; and many others. The constitution also gives the centre a greater share of resources as well as control over the sharing of resources generated by the federating states.

    Dr. Joe Abah succinctly outlines the negative consequences of over-centralisation of power and resources in a recent lucid essay (see Rebuilding Nigeria through devolution and decentralisation, The Daily Times, October 1, 2025). They include wasteful spending; corruption; and impunity. Worse still, states depend on monthly federal allocations, leading citizens to overlook states and blame the federal government for everything. This is the dilemma faced by the Tinubu administration, which continues to be blamed, despite providing states with more than double their previous allocations.

    The devolution approach

    The devolutionists believe that the present arrangement has three major shortcomings. One, the structure of the federation is so unworkable that a new arrangement is needed that provides the incentive for federating units to look inwards rather than to the federal government for sustenance. Less than half of the existing 36 states could be regarded as viable in that sense. Many of them are unable to pay the new minimum wage, while also owing salary and pension arrears.

    Two, it is imperative that power and resources devolve from the centre to the federating units in order (a) to encourage the federating units to manage their affairs more productively and empower their residents to strive for self-fulfillment; (b) to allow the federal government to concentrate on its core duties of national defense, economic policy, and citizen welfare; and (c) to shift the blame game from the federal government to the federating units, thereby making both more accountable to the people.

    Two tasks must be accomplished to achieve these goals. First, the federating units have to be delineated into manageable entities, while reducing the expensive overhead costs the present 36-state structure entails. Moreover, the new units must be empowered to manage their own affairs for reasons well articulated by Chief Bisi Akande, himself a fervent advocate of devolution of powers and resources: “Federating units or subsidiary units are usually the theatre of action. That is where you have the land, the forests, the farms, the schools, the hospitals, the manufacturing industries, and even the roads and the citizens, together with daily economic and social activities.”

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    There are two competing suggestions on what the federating or subsidiary units would look like. One group advocates a return to the old regions. The advocates of this approach tend to be older citizens, who grew up during the old parliamentary system in which three or four regions were the subnational governments. Critics of this approach cite the large but unequal size of the old regions and the trapping of minority populations within them.

    The other group advocates the reconstitution of the present six zones into federating units. Among the advocates of this approach are internationally recognised administration and governance experts, including Dr. Abah and Professor Adamolekun, who has even authored a book on the subject (see Reflections on Governance and Development in Nigeria, published in April 2025).

    However, the above task is not achievable unless the constitution makes it possible. Hence, the present constitution must be replaced by one in which the citizens are invested, and which changes the structure of the federation into one in which the present zones are the federating units. The zones would become states, to be known by their geographical nomenclature as Southwest, South-south, Southeast, Northeast, North Central, and Northwest or by some other agreed names. Each state will decide on what to do with the various units within it. However, there should be relative uniformity in the nomenclature. In the United States, for example, the political unit immediately below the state is the County. However, subunits of counties are known by various local names.

    A critical aspect of the new constitution should be the allocation of resources. Dr. Abah has suggested a 20-30 percent share for the federal government, while the subnational units receive 70-80 percent. I align with Professor Adamolekun’s suggestion of 35:65 share as in the 1963 constitution.

    As indicated at the beginning, state allocations have more than doubled because of President Tinubu’s economic reforms. Yet the evidence of the bonanza is scanty across many states. Unless steps are taken to make the subnational governments more responsible and accountable, it will be difficult to sustain the gains of the reforms. A devolved federation along the lines suggested above is sorely needed to make the subnational governments more responsible and accountable, while making “life more abundant” for the citizens, in the words of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

  • Why many university graduates are jobless these days

    Why many university graduates are jobless these days

    Whenever I reflect on graduate joblessness these days, I cannot but recall the good old days when there were more jobs than graduates. My employment history reflected the spirit of the times. Upon my completion of secondary school education at Olofin Anglican Grammar School, Idanre, the School Principal, the late Mr. Titus Adeola Oke, gave me a hybrid employment to teach literature in form two and also assist him in his office, even before the West African School Certificate examination results were released.

    Years later, after completing my degree in English at the University of Ife, a job was waiting for me at the same secondary school. However, by September of that same year, I was called back to Ife to start my university teaching career. These early encounters with the job market were replicated over and over again throughout my career. I was headhunted for all my teaching and research positions at home and abroad. The truth is that every graduate I knew at that time had a job waiting for him or her somewhere. With only five or six universities in Nigeria at that time,  there were more job openings than there were university graduates to fill the vacancies. What is more, a number of my contemporaries in secondary school, who did not go to the university, aquired enough transferable skills and self discipline to study via correspondence tuition to become accountants, lawyers, and what have you, and they eventually rose to the top of their professions.

    Of course, the population has exploded since my undergraduate days, and higher education institutions have mushroomed out of control. Today, there are 307 universities and 812 Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions in Nigeria, according to latest figures from the National Universities Commission and the National Board of Technical Education, respectively. The TVET institutions include 194 polytechnics; 32 Colleges of Agriculture; 131 Colleges of Health Sciences; 154 Colleges of Nursing Science; 181 Innovation Enterprise Institutions;153 Technical Colleges; and 98 so-called Specialised Institutions. Altogether, there are 1,119 higher education institutions in the country, churning out hundreds of thousands of students every year.

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    It is estimated that 50 percent or more of graduates from these institutions today are unemployed or underemployed. There are many factors responsible for this unpleasant outcome. First, the unplanned multiplicity of higher education institutions has produced graduates far more than available jobs.

    Second, many factories and manufacturing industries, which are major employers of labour, have been shutting down in response to a slowing economy, high interest rates, poor or inadequate infrastructure, and insecurity.

    Third, educational standards have been on the decline due to numerous factors, including inadequate staffing, poor remuneration and incentives, lack of necessary equipment and facilities, decrepit infrastructure, and over-population of teaching spaces and labs.

    Fourth, institutions have not been keeping their curriculums relevant to the needs of the job market. To complicate matters, today’s graduates are hardly equipped with proper career orientation, which often makes it difficult for them to find a suitable job that matches their qualifications.

    Fifth, our graduates are victims of a skills gap. In other words, there is a serious mismatch between the skills and competencies our graduates have and the skills employers need for job vacancies. Such skills or competencies should normally be identified at the beginning of a class lesson, a lab work, or a workshop so that students are keyed into them. Students also should be trained on how to transfer skills from one area of knowledge to another in order to solve a new problem or adapt to a new job situation.

    I noticed this knowledge gap in my encounter with some graduates while conducting a workshop for teachers of English in a secondary school. I was astonished that a graduate of English had difficulty reading, understanding, and teaching a literature textbook outside the ones she studied before as a student. I also came across a graduate of statistics, who lacked the basic skills to assist in the analysis of data obtained in an opinion poll.

    Sixth, many Nigerian graduates are not sufficiently computer literate for today’s job market. They complete their education without adequate computer skills beyond the use of the telephone and social media Apps. They can use of Google to search for answers to homework assignments all right or hack into other users’ data for fraudulent purposes. But they lack basic knowledge of how computers work and can hardly use productivity software. That is why today, the integration of technology, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation, even in knowledge-based sectors, is displacing workers and contributing to graduate unemployment.

    Finally, and I blush each time I must repeat this: Most Nigerian graduates lack basic communicative skills in English, the official language, and the language of white-collar workplaces. This is especially true of graduates of public universities and even worse for polytechnic and other TVET graduates. Sometimes, I wonder whether English was their medium of instruction at all or how they succeeded if it was!

    I must add, however, that the various problems discussed above are not peculiar to Nigeria. These same factors also account for graduate unemployment across the globe. Nevertheless, the problems vary from country to country. So is the rate of unemployment. For example, on the one hand, university graduate unemployment rate is relatively high in the United States, where the rate is now about the same as the unemployment rate for those without university education.

    On the other hand, university graduate unemployment in Britain and the European Union is lower than that of the United States, with significant variations from country to country. A major reason for the difference is in the alignment of skills acquired in European universities and the job market.

    What is important for Nigeria is to tackle these problems headlong. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has taken several major steps in this direction. First, he put a seven-year moratorium on the establishment of universities in the country to halt the overproduction of university graduates. The moratorium should be generalised across all higher education institutions. Besides, a thorough survey of all higher institutions in the country should be carried out with a view to closing failed institutions or merge failing ones with more successful or bigger institutions in order to consolidate resources.

    Second, President Tinubu has ordered the final revision and implementation of secondary education curriculum to better prepare students for entry into higher educational institutions.

    Third, he ordered a focus on TVET education, with attention on skills acquisition. Under the astute management of Professor Duke Okoro, the Rector, the young Federal Polytechnic, Orogun, Delta State, has invested in skills acquisition and skills transfer from the beginning, which enabled the institution recently to win first place in national engineering competition on “Applying Engineering Solutions to Tanker Explosion and Fire Outbreak.”

    But a lot more still needs be done. The remuneration of teachers across the education sector is long overdue for upward revision in light of current economic realities. There should be more effort on job creation through greater investment in infrastructure beyond road construction. More attention should be given to power and water supply as well as recreational facilities.

    The need to enhance security is also critical to attracting investment and creating a path to reindustrialisation. Still more effort should be made to make state and local goverments more responsible for education.

    Finally, it is necessary to inject new blood into the civil service and encourage old hands to retire quietly. This is one way to initiate changes in existing civil service culture with all its problems, while also creating jobs for new graduates.

  • A way out for the North

    A way out for the North

    I have been drawing attention to the Northern problem in Nigeria since 2020 (The Northern question in Nigeria, The Nation, September 16, 2020). The comparative analysis presented in that article concluded that the Southern problems in Italy, as outlined by Antonio Gramsci in The Southern Question (1906), provides a theoretical basis for analysing the Northern problems in Nigeria. I revisited the Northern problems in 2024 with statistical data (The Northern question in Nigeria—Facts unknown or ignored, The Nation, June 26, 2024). Both articles were updated and republished within the last one month.

    Many respectable Northerners and journalists have since reechoed the Northern problems. For example, Suleiman lamented: “Northern Nigeria is in tatters, politically, economically and socially. Almost everywhere you turn, the news is of death, destruction and despair as if we were a rudderless and leaderless people” (Suleiman A Suleiman, The North in tatters, Daily Trust, July 1, 2024)

    Lukman similarly lamented: “The living reality in Northern Nigeria is very explosive … Indices of poverty, unemployment and inequality are beyond description. Conditions of schools and hospitals are, to say the least, depressing. The civil service, in virtually all the 19 states, is only a shadow of itself, with hardly any public service activity taking place … Few industries exist in the region. And on account of insecurity, agricultural activities, the mainstay of the economy of the region, is highly on the decline” (Salihu Mohammed Lukman, Open letter to Northern politicians, Daily Trust, July 1, 2024).

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    At various times in the last few years, these Northern problems were also highlighted by the former Governor of the Central Bank and Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai; and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote. In all the articles and statements, the blame was put squarely on Northern leaders, particularly politicians.

    History tells us that the Northern problems in Nigeria date back to colonial times. Indeed, the erstwhile separate Northern and Southern Protectorates were merged into a single colony in 1914 to ease the use of economic and human resources from the South to sustain the North.

    It is against the above backgrounds that the complaints by some Northern leaders about the neglect of the North is viewed as disingenuous, especially when they are presented as if the neglect was caused by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, which only recently marked two years in office.

    There are at least three major reasons why the cry of Northern neglect is viewed as politically motivated at this time. First, the complaints are being orchestrated with the activities of opposition politicians as they coalesce in the buildup to the 2027 presidential election.

    Second, it looks like political propaganda for Northern leaders to cry neglect under a President, who has spent only 2 years and 3 months in office, while a Northerner (military or civilian) has led Nigeria for at least 46 of 65 years of independence. If the solution to Northern problems existed only in the centre, why would they linger over 46 years of Northern leadership, and by what magic would they be solved in just over two years by a Southern President?

    Third, the distribution of resources relative to each state’s contribution to the national purse disproportionately favours the North at the expense of money-making Southern states. For example, in the first quarter of 2025, VAT records show that the three Northern zones (Northwest, North Central, and Northeast) benefited much more than the three Southern zones.

    For example, Lagos state alone generated N819 billion VAT revenue, which is more than the remaining 35 states combined. Yet it got back only 28 percent of its contribution. By contrast, each of the 19 Northern states got between 30 and 55 percent more than it contributed. For example, the six Northeastern states contributed N30 billion but got back N124 billion, that is, more than four times their contribution.

    It is a similar story with contributions to Gross Domestic Product. The top ten contributing states are in the South, while the bottom 10 are in the North. Again, Lagos state alone contributed more to GDP than all 19 Northern states combined. In general, the South is home to the nation’s largest money earner, oil revenue, which is now being displaced by tax revenue (thanks to the Tinubu administration’s ingenuity with the newly passed Tax Bill).

    Yet even though the bulk of the Federal Government revenue is generated in the South, the North keeps near parity with the South in Federal allocations. For example, between January and June 2025, the North received N2.6 trillion, while the South got N2.7 trillion. Only one state in the North (Gombe, N93.47 billion) received less than N100 billion, while there are two such states in the South—Ebonyi, N99.63 billion, and Ekiti, N97.7 billion.

    The above data show (a) that the North has been profiting immensely from Federal transfers, (b) that its leaders have done little or nothing to serve their people and (c) that Northern leaders in an out of government want to continue to ride on the ignorance, poverty, and illiteracy of their people to continue to amass wealth for themselves and their families at the expense of the masses. To be sure, many Nigerian politicians today could be described as self-centred, but the case of Northern leaders is exceptionally so.

    A two-prong approach is needed to solve the Northern problems. One is to educate Northern masses to demand accountability from their Governors. The other is to reduce the dependency of their leaders on the centre. I have addressed the latter approach elsewhere (see Your governor has your money, ask him for it, The Nation, September 3, 2025).

    The first approach has two advantages: One, it will require Northern leaders to look inwards, rather than to Abuja, for the development of their states. Two, the more autonomy is granted to the states, the less blame will be heaped on the federal government. However, such an approach requires the cooperation of the President, the National Assembly, the Governors, and their Assemblies to work on the devolution of powers that will grant political and financial autonomy to the states.

    A gradualist approach appears to be underway by which power is ceded by the centre to the states in specific spheres of statecraft. For example, each state can now generate, transmit, and distribute electricity to its citizens. Already, Lagos state has again blazed the trail by jumping on this development and Enugu state has followed.

    Second, work is in progress on the decentralisation of the police force to enhance local security architecture. Since Southern Governors have long endorsed the project, it would appear that the delay is from the North, which ironically needs state police the most to combat prevalent insecurity.

    Besides, the recent establishment of zonal Development Commissions appears to be a precursor to the emergence of the six zones as major federating units. Each of the six Commissions is meant to coordinate the activities of its zone toward development. Although the Federal Government currently funds the Commissions, they should eventually become independent and prop their zones to political status. Rather than relapse into the old regions as federating units, the zones should be excellent candidates, if the Commissions do their work well in forging alliances among member states through shared values and zonal projects.

    The last time the North had a stint of development was when there was a combination of political and financial autonomy and effective leadership. That was the era of regional government between 1954 and 1966, when Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, was the Premier of Northern Region. With various social, economic, and educational, policies, Ahmadu Bello put his region on a path of development to catch up with the Western and Eastern Regions.

    It is also important to remind Northern leaders that they cannot be more Islamic than the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirate, and Qatar. These are countries, which put social and economic advancement over religion and ethnicity in developing their countries.

  • Your governor has your money, ask him for it

    Your governor has your money, ask him for it

    When last did the Governor of your state call a press conference to give an account of the situation of the state, beyond occasional appearances, for example, to address the insecurity situation or launch a project? Has your Governor ever disclosed how much money came into the state treasury from Federal allocations and Internally Generated Revenue the previous month, quarter, or year? In short, how accountable has your state Governor been to the people he was elected to serve?

    There are many factors responsible for the Governors’ lack of accountability. First, there is no standardised system of evaluating state governments or otherwise hold them accountable. Governors exploit this lacuna to maximum advantage through deception and other mischievous exploits. In the absence of a system of evaluation, the electorate are supposed to use elections as a system of evaluation. Those who look promising are voted in, while those who performed are reelected. Not in Nigeria, though, because such evaluation is mitigated by other factors, including ethnicity, religion, vote-buying, vote inflation, and other under-the-table deals.

    Second, lack of accountability encourages Governors to have a free rein with the people’s treasury. In many states, contracts are awarded to put money back in the Governors’ pocket, often through surrogates. Take, for example, the case of Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau (2015-2023), who claimed that he bought 400 tractors for N5.6 billion for farmers in his state as part of the state’s agricultural production scheme, even after each participating farmer paid a deposit of N1.5 million to the state for the equipment. However, upon investigation by Premium Times, it was discovered that only about 90 tractors were bought and fewer (just 40) were displayed when President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the project in 2018. Yet, the unknowing electorate were recruited to sing and dance on the occasion in praise of the Governor (see The true story of ‘400 tractors’ ex-Gov. Lalong claimed his govt bought for Plateau, Premium Times, July 4, 2024).

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    Third, illiteracy prevents the public from pressing for accountability. I use the term illiteracy here in two senses: One, in the sense of stark illiteracy, that is, inability to read and write, which applies to about 40 percent of the Nigerian population, much more so in the North than in the South, and the other in the sense of political illiteracy, despite the dual ability to read and write. Many literate Nigerians are politically illiterate in this sense. Some of them may know that Governors should be accountable, but they will not hold the Governors to account, either because they are “eating” or because they hope to “eat” from the Governors’ government or they don’t care at all. Both groups of illiterates take part in singing and dancing in praise of Governors for doing their duty, such as tarring a road or building a public facility, such as a school, hospital, or clinic. This practice has the inverse effect of making the Governors feel they have achieved, and they use the praise singing as a surrogate for accountability.

    Fourth, poverty also prevents voters from holding their Governors to account.  Poverty makes them satisfied with tokens, such as rural roads, boreholes, or a poverty alleviation measure, such as N5,000 or a scoop of rice. Many of them have no idea that whatever they get from their state government is their right and that it is the Governor’s duty to provide them. Unfortunately, the illiterate and poor electorate have been led to believe that whatever problems they have are from Abuja, and that their enemy is the federal government and not their Governor or state government. That’s why protests are directed at the Federal Government instead of state governments.

    It is the dual scourge of illiteracy and poverty that makes vote-buying central to our electoral practice. Save for occasional investigative journalism and a few civil society organisations, which demand accountability, sometimes by going to court to demand some records, little or nothing is heard about the performance of state governments.

    Any wonder then that corruption is rampant in the states, and it takes various forms, including bribery, inflated contracts (to disguise cutbacks), and outright embezzlement of public funds, often through diversion into private or business accounts associated with politicians, political appointees, civil servants, and/or their surrogates. To be sure, corruption is not unique to Nigeria. It is everywhere across the globe. What is peculiar about corruption in Nigeria is threefold: (a) the impunity with which corrupt practices thrive; (b) the degree to which corrupt practices are condoned, especially by the respective local communities of the politicians, political appointees, and civil servants in question; and (c) the pervasiveness of corruption across all strata of society.

    Most state Governors are corrupt. Once elected, they are either looking for campaign funds for reelection or for running for Senate or for supporting a Presidential candidate for expected reward, such as a Vice-Presidential pick or ministerial nomination. Some even accumulate funds to run for President. For incumbents, the state treasury is often the starting point, using various methods, including the so-called security vote, which, in some states, is as high as N1 billion a month, which the Governor is not bound to account for.

    Some of them may also want to retire from active politics once they feel that they have accumulated enough money to sustain them and their family for the rest of their lives. Remember that, besides their savings, they are treated to a fat severance package and monthly pension, which varies from state to state. In addition, they keep several vehicles, drivers, police escort, kitchen staff, and other assistants for which their states or the relevant government agency, such as the police, allegedly continues to pay.

    It is against the above backgrounds that the Governors’ performances since May 29, 2023, should be assessed. It is pertinent to emphasise that since fuel subsidy was removed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the inception of his administration, state allocations have more than doubled. To further aid accountability at the local level, citizens can not go directly to their LGA offices to make enquiries about their performance now that LGA funds are being paid directly to them. Yet, there have been no corresponding improvements in people’s lives, despite the distribution of funds and other resources for palliatives, including cash distribution, agricultural development, transport facility, and infrastructural development.

    How will the Governors and LGA Chairs be made accountable? The answer lies with residents of each state and LGA. It is necessary for the Ministry of Information and National Orientation to alert citizens down to the LGA level of their rights to seek information and to demand accountability of their Governors and LGA Chairs. Unless this is done, the President’s Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme may remain so only on paper. Going to the street or court has its usefulness but direct involvement with government officials often yields faster results. Of course, where credible information of infringements is available, the road to the EFCC or the ICPC is always open.

    •An earlier version of this essay first appeared on September 3, 2024

  • Why do Northern problems persist?

    Why do Northern problems persist?

    Northern Nigeria is in tatters, politically, economically and socially. Almost everywhere you turn, the news is of death, destruction and despair as if we were a rudderless and leaderless people …

    The Bank of the North building in Kano, the Turaki Ali House in Kaduna and other tall buildings erected in several northern cities and towns in the 1960s and 70s were a sky-is-the-limit statement for the future of the northern private sector. That future is here, but we might as well return to the 1960s because Sardauna’s heirs now know only to erect silly flyovers in a region where the predominant means of township travel remains the human foot.

    —Suleiman A Suleiman in The North in tatters, Daily Trust, July 1, 2024

    The living reality in Northern Nigeria is very explosive. If anyone is interested in finding the practical meaning of the Hobbesian description of life being ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’, just look at what life is in Northern Nigeria. Indices of poverty, unemployment and inequality are beyond description. Conditions of schools and hospitals are, to say the least, depressing. The civil service, in virtually all the 19 states, is only a shadow of itself, with hardly any public service activity taking place. Our illustrious and respected traditional institutions have been devalued and reduced to a state of hopelessness. Most of our religious leaders and centres are far removed from God’s way of life. Few industries exist in the region. And on account of insecurity, agricultural activities, the mainstay of the economy of the region, is highly on the decline.

    — Salihu Mohammed Lukman, in Open letter to Northern politicians, Daily Trust, July 1, 2024

    The courage to provide a comprehensive analysis of the prevailing realities in Northern Nigeria has been a rare commodity, especially when the speakers or writers are Northerners themselves. But the two writers cited above were hardly the first to point out the Northern problems in Nigeria. At different times, but largely in passing comments, highly influential Northerners had highlighted in various ways the multiple problems besetting the North. The list includes former Governor of the Central Bank and controversial Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai; and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote. However, none had addressed the issues as comprehensively as Suleiman and Lukman.

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    But, as I pointed out earlier on this column, the Northern problems in Nigeria date back to colonial times, when the erstwhile separate Northern and Southern Protectorates were merged into a single colony in 1914 in order to use the economic and human resources from the South to sustain the North (see The Northern question again: Facts unknown or ignored, The Nation, June 26, 2024).

    In the last two decades, these problems have been complicated by the scourge of insecurity that continues to decimate the region’s homes and farmlands. The social, economic, and political underpinnings of the region’s backwardness today, which Northern leaders have continued to ignore, provided the basis for the scathing rebuke of the present crop of Northern leaders by Suleiman and Lukman. In the light of this rebuke, how much shame do Northern leaders wish to endure over their negligence in developing their region all these years?

    But the most critical question now is what to do to solve the Northern problems and, by so doing, solve Nigeria’s problems. What should be done to make Northern leaders look inwards, rather than to Abuja, in order to develop their region? Let’s go back again to history.

    According to Suleiman, the glorious North existed when it was a region by itself, following the foundation laid by Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, who was the Premier of Northern Region from 1954 until his assassination in a military coup on January 15, 1966. With various economic, educational, and political policies, Ahmadu Bello put his region on a path of development in order to catch up with the Western and Eastern Regions. The opposite has happened since his death.

    Hence Suleiman’s historical references in the opening quote and this one in the body of the essay: “… none of the North’s two layers of leadership – the federal government and the 19 state governors – has proven capable of reimagining in 25 years what Sardauna achieved economically for the region in 10”. Embedded in this comment is Suleiman’s rebuke of former President Muhammadu Buhari in the same essay for looking away while the North was being decimated under his watch, despite his campaign promise to unify the region. Never mind that Suleiman left out decades of military rule under Northern leadership, which did next to nothing to improve the fortunes of the region.

    An interesting takeaway from Suleiman’s reference to Sir Ahmadu Bello is the fact that there was a time in history when the North was on track for development, championed by Sir Ahmadu Bello himself. This implies that the North has lacked leadership for 25 years since the return to democracy.

    A close look at the bahaviour of Northern Governors reveals several findings. One, each of the 19 state Governors has turned his state into a small fiefdom and then, with a few exceptions, milked the state’s resources dry. They are not bothered that, vis-à-vis the rest of the country, their state or region as a whole has the lowest literacy rate, the highest number of out-of-school children, the highest poverty rate, the highest unemployment rate, the lowest contribution to GDP, the lowest Human Development Index, and the most insecure.

    Two, the Governors allowed insecurity in their region to fester until it got mapped unto old historical wounds between Fulani and other groups, who owned the land and farms. The result is unbridled herder-farmer clashes, cattle rustling, banditry, kidnapping, and other crimes. Some of these crimes have since spread across the country.

    Three, the same Governors and insecurity have compromised possible interventions by traditional rulers in their region, who are either threatened with deposition or kidnapped.

    Urgent solutions are necessary, which will require presidential and legislative actions. But that will be the subject of another essay in the coming weeks.

    •An earlier version of this article was published on July 10, 2024

  • The Northern question again: Facts unknown or ignored

    The Northern question again: Facts unknown or ignored

    Early in the colonial period, Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria were administered as two separate colonial territories under British control. However, right from inception, the North had posed serious problems to the British government. Chief among the problems was economic—the territory was being run at a budget deficit. The Northern Protectorate was also an administrative nightmare. According to colonial records at the time, the Northern protectorate was “predominantly Muslim and animist”, whereas the Southern protectorate was largely Christian and aggressively “westernizing”. The early adoption of Western education produced surplus personnel to assist the colonial administration. That was not the case in the North, where Western education was resisted. The colonial government also wanted better ways of moving people and goods across the two protectorates.

    The colonial government’s solution to these economic, administrative, and commercial problems was the infamous amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates of 1914. The merger allowed the colonial administration to use the budget and personnel surpluses from the South to run the two territories together. But the Northern problems persisted.

    This was particularly evident in the education sector. The resistance to Western education persisted so much so that, on the eve of independence in 1959, less than ten secondary schools were located in the entire North, whereas about 150 were already functioning or taking off in the South.

    One whole century plus eleven years later, the Northern question remains the Nigerian problem. This is manifested today in many ways, four of which are paramount and interrelated.

    First, the legendary educational underachievement of the North persists. True, there are now many highly educated Northerners, but the North lags seriously behind the South in literacy rate. One distinctive feature of education in the North is its limitation to the children of the elite in their bid to reproduce themselves in power. In the colonial and early postcolonial periods, the children of the elite predominated in the few secondary schools in the North, such as Barewa College in Zaria. Today, the elite outsource the education of their children to foreign institutions in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. The vast majority of the talakawa are left largely uneducated.

    Today, none of the 19 states in the North has attained 50 percent literacy rate, whereas all Southern states are beyond 50 percent. For example, according to the latest UNESCO data, the top three Northern states and their percentage literacy rates are Kwara (49.3); Kano (48.9); and Plateau (46.6), while the bottom three are Taraba (23.3); (Katsina (21.7); and Borno (14.5). However, on the other hand, the top three Southern states are Lagos (92.1); Ekiti (80.0); and Ondo (75.1), while the bottom three are Bayelsa (62.0); Ebonyi (53.0); and Imo (53.2). On the whole, the average literacy rate across the North is 34 percent, whereas the average literacy rate across the South is 68 percent.

    Poverty is the second major drawback for the North. The World Poverty Clock currently has Nigeria at 71 percent poverty level. The bulk of the poverty burden is borne by the North. As with high illiteracy, poverty is at its highest level in the region. According to World Bank and NBS data, the North accounts for 87 percent of Nigeria’s overall poverty level, whereas the lowest poverty rates are to be found in the South. Poverty is so pervasive in the North that as many as nine states have poverty levels in the nineties!

    The third burden the North has made Nigeria carry is insecurity. Boko Haram, banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling, and other violent crimes are rooted in the North and continue to draw the North and the rest of the country back. As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu indicated on Monday, June 24, 2024, some of the conflicts underlying insecurity in the region are rooted in “historical injustices” that have torn communities apart. Others are rooted in religious fanaticism, mass illiteracy, and hunger.

    What is really mystifying about insecurity in the North is that the region has produced two Presidents (Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, 2007-2010 and Muhammadu Buhari, 2015-2023), both from Katsina state. Their state and region remain largely illiterate, poor, and insecure. Since he became President in 2023, Tinubu has focused on insecurity in the region, by repeatedly drawing attention to the problem and by deploying resources and homegrown personnel to the region. Thus, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Defence Minister, the Minister of State for Defence, the National Security Adviser, the Vice President, and more are all from the North. Besides, all the Governors of the 19 Northern states are all from the region. Moreover, as many as ten Northerners have been Prime Minister, Head of State, or President for a total of 44 years since Nigeria became a republic in 1963, whereas only four Southerners have occupied any of the positions for a paltry total of about 18 years.

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    A fourth major problem confronting the North is malnutrition, leading to stunted development among children and women of childbearing age. Malnutrition has been a lingering problem in the region. That is why there are many Northerners, including children, begging for sustenance on the streets across the country. Yet, most Ministers of Agriculture and Health have come from the North since independence. Today, UNICEF’s data point to Nigeria as home to the second highest burden of stunted children worldwide. The North carries the brunt of this burden. For example, according to the FAO, as many as 3.7 million children are malnourished in the three contiguous states of Yobe, Borno, and Adamawa alone. Borno is Vice President Shettima’s state and Adamawa Atiku’s.

    The conjunctive implications of these problems in a single region could be overwhelming. Illiteracy limits employment opportunities. Insurgency feeds on illiteracy, poverty, and unemployment for recruitment. Rampant insecurity hampers farming and food security, which further deepens the poverty level. To be sure, there are a few factories here and there in the North and the region continues to supply some foodstuffs to the South, but the region still depends largely on resources from the South, distributed as federal allocations. At the end of the day, the North is still a huge burden on Nigeria, recalling the economic burden on the colonial government, which led to the amalgamation of the North with the South in 1914.

    It is unfortunate that Northern leaders are now crying wolf and shifting blame, when they allowed the wolf to fester and grow. This is particularly true of their state Governors, who are the Chief Security Officers of their states. It is a shame that, instead of focusing on the problems of education, poverty, insecurity, and malnutrition in their states, Northern leaders have been busy chasing power, complaining of this and that every election cycle. Their recent complaints about the Tinubu Administration fall flat in the face of the facts (see, for example, Sam Omatseye, Who loves the North?, The Nation, August 18, 2025). What is striking about Northern leaders’ complaints is the neglect of the problems outlined above, which have been plaguing the region before Tinubu came to power.

    Our elders say that you do not count the number of fingers of a nine-fingered person to his or her face. However, if a section of the country continues to lag the rest of the country for over a century, it is high time the problems were highlighted for their historical depth and persistent neglect.

    •An earlier version of this article was published on June 26, 2024

  • The Northern question in Nigeria

    The Northern question in Nigeria

    We have the largest number of poor people in the world, most of them in Northern Nigeria. Nigeria also has the largest number of out of school children, virtually all of them in Northern Nigeria.

    —Nasir el-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, at the Northern Youth Summit on Saturday, July 6, 2019

    In the North-western and North-eastern parts of Nigeria, more than 60 per cent of the population live in extreme poverty … the 19 Northern states, which accounts for over 54 per cent of Nigeria’s population and 70 per cent of its landmass, collectively generate, only 21 per cent of the total sub-national IGR in the year 2017.

    —Aliko Dangote, speaking at the Kaduna Investment Summit on Wednesday, April 3, 2019.

    From time immemorial, regional problems have been central to the formation and development of kingdoms, empires, and modern states.  However, the nature and effects of regional problems vary across time and space. In some cases, the problems are complicated by religion. In other cases, ethnicity is a key factor.

    There are also cases where social and economic divisions loom large just as there are others where the desire to preserve people’s rights and liberty is foregrounded.  Sometimes, one or the other of these factors could be highlighted to mask the others. Any of these factors could derail the unity or development of a kingdom, empire, or state. A convergence of two or more factors could pose even more serious challenges.

    For example, in the Southern United States, the desire to preserve slavery for economic reasons led the 13 Confederate states in the South to fight a bitter civil war, although apologists of the war often couch the reasons in terms of the preservation of liberty and independence. Residues of the division between the South and the rest of the United States loom large today, especially in race relations and democratic politics.

    The regional problem is even more pronounced in contemporary Italy. It was Antonio Gramsci, who problematized the regional issue in that country in his now famous The Southern Question, published in 1926.

    In the essay, Gramsci not only highlighted the social problems of Southern Italy, where he came from, he also outlined a theory by which class-regional alliances were employed by the Fascist government to maintain a hegemonic hold on power. The alliances involved creating a bridge between the Northern proletariat and the Southern peasantry.

    Yet, despite the Italian government’s investment in the South to pull up the region, its backwardness relative to Northern Italy continues to stand out.  As indicated below, many factors are responsible for the fate of Southern Italy, making it one of the less developed areas in Europe.

    If Northern Nigeria and Southern Italy were flipped, then the Italian situation would provide an instructive analogy to the regional problem in Nigeria, where the focus has been on the Northern question. To be sure, certain features are unique to each of the two regions in their respective countries, but there are interesting shared features to justify such an analogy. Correspondingly, Northern Italy compares to Southern Nigeria in developmental strides, including industrial growth, per capita income, contribution to GDP, and so on.

    First, both Southern Italy and Northern Nigeria share higher unemployment and poverty rates than other regions in their respective countries. On the one hand, the unemployment rate in Southern Italy has ranged between 15  and 20 percent in the last five years, while the average unemployment rate in the country as a whole is about 9 percent.

    On the other hand, the average unemployment rate of over 35 percent across Northern Nigeria has been consistently higher than the rest of the country at about 27 percent. When underemployment figures are factored in, over 30 percent of Southern Italians have little or no employment, while over 50 percent of Northern Nigerians are in a similar category.

    It is not surprising, therefore, that the poverty rate in Southern Italy and Northern Nigeria is much higher than the rest of their respective countries. Furthermore, the risk of poverty is also considerably higher in both regions than the rest of the country. That risk is accentuated by relative lack of education.

    Second, both Southern Italy and Northern Nigeria are more educationally backward than the rest of the country. They contain the majority of out-of-school children and school dropouts in their countries. Unfortunately, the situation has been getting worse, rather than better, in Northern Nigeria, as indicated in the opening quotes.

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    A recent letter by legendary Civil Servant, Ahmed Joda, to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, shows that the situation in Northern Nigeria is rooted in history as it is in Southern Italy. According to Joda, who was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education in 1971, only 250 candidates from the North were found qualified and were awarded Federal Government Scholarship in that year, whereas 2,750 candidates from the South got the same award.

    Of course, Northern leaders cried lopsidedness then and the Federal Government, controlled by Northerners most of the time since then, has used several methods to “compensate” the North. Almost 50 years later, the change has been for the worse, rather than for the better.

    Again, el-Rafai sums it all up in his speech to the Northern Youth Forum: “Northern Nigeria has become the centre of drug abuse, gender violence, banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism. We have also been associated with a high divorce rate and breakdown of families.” The situation compares to some extent with Southern Italy noted for organized crime, drug abuse, and “underground” economy, often controlled by the Mafia.

    Yet another feature shared by Southern Italy and Northern Nigeria is a state-dependency mentality by which the people wait for government largesse—government jobs or share of government funds. The result is unbridled corruption and appalling lack of transparency. The almajiri image of begging for food with bowl-in-hand is symbolic of the state-dependency mentality of the region. While the Governors and Emirs distribute the largesse in Northern Nigeria, the Mafia does the same in Southern Italy. The result at the end of the day is little or no development of the region.

    Dangote’s injunction to Northern leaders is now more urgent than ever: “Northern Nigeria will continue to fall behind if the respective states governments do not move to close the development gap”.

  • The gifts

    The gifts

    It is well known that giving gifts to others allows us to set up or reconfirm our connection with them. It is also true that gifts are used to communicate our feelings and appreciation for the recipients. It was French anthropologist and sociologist, Marcel Mauss (1872-1950), who first developed a theory of exchange in which the gift occupied centre stage. He proposed that early exchange systems center around the obligations to give gifts, to receive them, and, most importantly, to reciprocate. In ancient societies, he further argued, gift exchange was central to the maintenance of reciprocal obligations between individuals or whole communities.

    In ancient societies, gifts took the form of material goods or labour. Women were also exchanged as wives to establish or cement relationships between families or communities. For example, my lineage history had it that there were two great male friends in Idale Quarters at Oke-Idanre. During one rainy season, Friend A’s roof was leaking profusely. The son of Friend B was returning from the farm with palm fronds. When he noticed a detached palm frond from Friend A’s roof, he stopped, climbed the roof, and replaced the detached frond with two of his own. The leak stopped. Friend A was so delighted that he went to Friend B the following morning to praise him for raising a good son, who, out of his own freewill, repaired his leaking roof. In the exuberance over the occasion, Friend A promised Friend B that he would give his daughter to Friend B’s son so that the relationship between their families would survive for generations. I am a product of the union of the ensuing young couple.

    In modern society, however, money has become the primary item of exchange, although material goods and labour are still part of the modern exchange system. Besides, rather than express feelings or appreciation alone, the modern economic exchange system focuses on the use of money in exchange for goods and services.

    Within the past week or so, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu invoked the age-old gift exchange system, but used a trifecta of exchange tools, both old and new—a bungalow or flat, money, and the award of the National Honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger. The gifts were an expression of a nation’s appreciation for two different teams of young women, who excelled in their sports. They were also meant to inspire the teams to do more, by making the nation proud in future tournaments.

    One, the Super Falcons, won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations football trophy for the 10th time and automatically qualified for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The other, D’Tigress, won the basketball trophy for the seventh time, five of them in a row, and qualified for the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.

    So much has been said about the President’s gesture, especially about what many commentators, especially online, view as excessive cash gift in a struggling economy. Here’s how one of my Abuja friends, Samuel Eka, puts it: “This administration told us that now is the moment of sacrifice, with the fuel subsidy removal. So, in such moments of national sacrifice, I think our expenditures and government spendings should be in line with the reality on ground. The whole nation should not be starved and few people who, by luck and privilege, went to play in a single tournament … get this kind of rewards without considering the economic situation in the country.” Eka, about the age of one of my children, is a bright young man, a graduate of Economics, who is self-employed. The sentiment he expressed is widely replicated by other commentators.

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    What is often forgotten, however, is that the President’s gifts to the teams were symbolic gifts from a nation to its ambassadors in sports. As such, they carry deep meanings, sentimental values, emotions, and wishes that transcend their cash value or material form. Presenting the gifts to the Super Falcons, the President put it this way: “You have inspired millions, especially young girls who now see proof that their dreams are valid and achievable. You have inspired me, too. And it’s great for a nation to have assets that are the hope of today, tomorrow, and the day after. You represent that hope. You ignited that hope. And we will continue to encourage you, the next generation, and other generations after you.” Noting how the team worked hard to come back with a victory from a 2-0 deficit at halftime, the President added: “Your victory represents more than a sporting accomplishment. It is a triumph of courage, determination, discipline, and consistency.”

    The conclusion is incomplete that the players were rewarded for only playing in a tournament and getting such huge gifts. These are professional players, who have devoted their lives to their sport. The gifts were not limited to that single tournament, but they also recognised the team’s achievement in winning the tournament for the tenth time.

    Two quick points here: One, the gifts might have been handed to individual players, buy they were in recognition of the team’s efforts in winning the tournament for the tenth time. True, some of this year’s players also participated in some of the earlier tournaments, but what about those players who had retired or were otherwise not playing for the team anymore, but played when they won some of the earlier tournaments?

    Two, the President seemed to have answered this question indirectly, by saying specifically that his attention was on “you, the next generation, and the generation after you.” Here, the President set up a precedent: Past players might not have been fully rewarded, but from now on, we will pay due attention to our sporting heroes, who provide entertainment to feed our eyes and emotions, while lifting up the spirit of a nation and giving hope to those interested in sports today, tomorrow, and the day after.

    It should be noted as well that President Tinubu did not suddenly come to this conclusion. Unlike the past, when our representatives in sports cried out for fees to cover their hotel bills, President Tinubu gave orders before the tournaments that all the entitlements of the players, their coaches, and the technical teams should be paid up.

    One other factor often overlooked in physical sports, such as football and basketball, is the early retirement of players, often in their thirties. In the absence of a retirement package and lack of sustainable income from commercial endorsements, players are left with whatever they can make during their careers. Given the relatively poor remuneration for home-based players, no gift is too much for those who made it to the continental championships and won.

    In Nigeria today, no sports provide as much ecstatic entertainment as football and basketball. This, however, does not mean that national attention should be limited to these sports. From now on, commensurate attention should be paid to all sports. More importantly, a sustainable reward system for all sports and athletics should be developed that would guide public expectations, while being implementable by future administrations.

  • Social media: How fake and diversionary news drowns real news

    Social media: How fake and diversionary news drowns real news

    Right from start, social media, notably, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), have played a significant role in the spread of information beyond mainstream print and electronic media. It was obvious early that their role could be positive or negative, depending on the nature of information and its consequences for political processes.

    It is well known that social media are veritable platforms for sharing information, allowing citizens to voice opinions on political issues, thereby allowing voices that were previously unheard to be heard. Social media are particularly useful in increasing citizen participation in the political process, by mobilising support for political causes. In recent years, their role in organising protests for or against governments or government programmes increased after 2010, when young Arabs organised protests across the Middle East against authoritarian regimes, corruption, economic hardship, high unemployment, and limited political freedoms.

    Today, the use of social media for this kind of political mobilisation has been taken to the extreme in democracies, which guarantee freedoms of expression and assembly, as we saw in the United States in January 2020, when supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the Capitol (equivalent of our National Assembly) and in Brazil in January 2023, when supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro invaded the Congress and Supreme Court. Trump and Bolsonaro had led their supporters to protest the elections they lost in their respective countries. So inciting were Trump’s messages at the time that he was suspended indefinitely from using Facebook and Instagram, but his privileges were restored after two years.

    Since the 2023 general elections cycle in Nigeria, social media have taken a turn for the worse in the country. The escalation of their uses in spreading fake news and falsified information during the elections has hardly abated. The BBC was so perturbed by the ubiquity of disinformation during the elections that it carried out detailed investigations. The investigators discovered three websites from which a number of fake news originated and got spread on social media. They were Podium Reporters, Reportera, and Parallel Facts.

    What’s in vogue in Ngeria today is the use of social media to divert attention from serious issues. Two politicians in the forefront of diversionary politics are Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party. They were both in the news recently. Senator Natasha (as she has come to be known) alleged that the Senate President had sexually assaulted her, but the Senate suspended her for six months for offenses other than sexual assault.

    However, all she has been talking about is the assault charge, and that’s what has been trending on social media. In the midst of the suspension and the ensuing court case, she held a big rally in her Kogi Senatorial District, using social media to draw a large crowd to the venue. To add a sensational spice, she arrived in a helicopter! It was all a ploy to attract sympathy from her political base and beyond.

    She again revived social media pandemonium, when she appeared at the National Assembly gates, knowing full well that she would not be allowed into the building. It was to energise debates about her course, with many media posts claiming that the Court had ordered her return to the Senate and upbraided the red chamber, when the Court did not. Rather, the Judge only expressed an opinion that the suspension for six months was excessive but conceded, under the separation of powers, that only the Senate has the power to revise its own rules and allow Natasha to represent her people.

    The truth is that the Judge did nor order Natasha’s return to Senate at this time. Indeed, the orders made by the Court were against Natasha for contempt, for which she was fined N5 million. While not ignoring her sexual allegation or the reasons for her suspension, it is obvious that all the helicopter appearance in her Senatorial District and the march on the gate of the National Assembly were political theatre to feed social media platforms.

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    Peter Obi’s case is different. Like Natasha, he went to Edo state to raise his supporters’ political consciousness and create social media content for them. Hence the large crowd of supporters that received and escorted him to St Philomena Nursing School, where he donated N15 million. Within minutes, it was all over social media, with some claiming he donated N50 million, while others claimed he made the donation to his alma mater. The truth is that, from the content of his speech at the event, Obi went to Edo to campaign for support.

    In no time, however, Obi’s visit, for whatever it was worth, was drowned out by what the Governor of Edo state, Monday Okpebholo, said of the visit. The Governor had cautioned Obi never to visit the state without alerting state authorities so that adequate arrangements could be made for his protection. But the way he couched the message made it sound like a threat. That was the dominant reading on social media and even on TV shows.

    Two interesting social media diversions from substantive issues were the gaffes by the Senate President and Governor Hope Uzodima, in which they swapped the name of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the late President Muhammadu  Buhari, while talking about Buhari’s death and praising Tinubu for according Buhari a superb state burial. Social media went to town with the gaffes so much so that their contexts were lost and forgotten. Several readings of the gaffes are possible. One, it was possible that Tinubu was so much on the speakers’ mind that his name was the first on their lips when they wanted to talk about a President. Two, those who wished Tinubu dead found the gaffe interesting, while those who support his work found the gaffe unwarranted from top government officials. All readings and interpretations were content for social media.

    A few days later, a Tiktoker claimed falsely that President Tinubu had seriously fallen ill from poisoning. Some claimed that the Tiktoker said the President collapsed and died, a typical amplification of falsehood. The Tiktoker was promptly arrested, but death did not appear anywhere in the court charges.

    Perhaps the greatest recent social media diversion was the viral video of Vice President Kashim Shettima opening the car door for his Brazilian counterpart, Geraldo Alckmin, as the latter left the Presidential Villa. Yet, what had happened earlier between both men was of major consequence for both nations. They signed several MOUs, covering defense, energy, culture, drug control, and food security, featuring a $1 billion Green Imperative agricultural Initiative. Social media would have none of that.

    Rather, Shettima’s courteous act of opening the car door for his guest was turned into something else: Some claimed that “The dude has serious low self-esteem and inferiority complex.” Another concluded that “After they approved their loans they act humble”! Although there were a few posts that defended Shettima’s action as mere diplomatic courtesy, the vast majority blamed him. None, however, mentioned the substantive trade agreements between the two nations.

    2027 may look far on the calendar. It is already in the horizon for social media activists. The government should begin to prepare for what is coming.