The Nation Newspaper

Category: Niyi Akinnaso

  • Miracle man Jimmy Carter

    Miracle man Jimmy Carter

    “Jimmy Carter for me was something of a miracle … It is hard for me to understand just how you could be President from Plains, Georgia … He was a minority in Sumter County, but he became the friend of the majority …  I have known President Carter for more than half of my life and I never cease to be surprised, enlightened, and inspired by the little deeds of love and mercy he shared with us everyday of his life. It was President James Earl Carter that for me symbolized the greatness of America. He may be gone, but he ain’t gone far”.

    —Rev Andrew Young (92), in his funeral oration for President Jimmy Carter, January 9, 2025.

    Reverend Andrew Young was not speaking of the Biblical miracle. Rather, he was trying to portray President Jimmy Carter as someone who did extraordinary things and to whom extraordinary things happened. He spoke of two of such things in the opening quote: First, it was extraordinary for Carter to have become President of the United States from a small rural village in the Deep South and in a County in which Blacks accounted for about 80 percent of the population.

    Second, growing up as a minority in such a community at the height of racial segregation in which his father even partook, it was extraordinary for Carter to have embraced Blacks as much as he did. Carter shared this trait with Fidel Castro of Cuba, who grew up on his father’s sugar cane plantation, but hated the way Blacks were treated by his father and other Whites. This experience fueled Castro’s rebellion against the establishment and pushed him to socialism.

    However, operating within a democratic system, Carter was not anti-establishment, but he embraced minorities that the establishment has ignored. He employed more Blacks and women into office than all Presidents before him combined. Andrew Young was one of those minorities. Carter appointed him as  the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

    As it turned out, it was not only minorities within the United States that Carter embraced. As his presidency and post-presidency activities showed (see Jimmy Carter, January 8, and Jimmy Carter’s post-presidency, January 15, both in The Nation), Carter embraced humanity, focusing on the poor, the homeless, the insecure, and the oppressed across the globe. His ultimate goal was social and human development for which he considered education, healthcare, peace, and security as necessary requirements.

    Carter was the first “unknown” (that is, not nationally recognised candidate) to become President. No one expected him to win the Democratic primary, but he did, largely by relying on popular folk musicians to raise money for him. With their help and his plain talk, focusing on the truth (in contrast to the lies of the Nixon era before him), he went on to win the presidential election.

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    Carter had an aversion to wealth, stemming from growing up in a rural village without electricity and running water. So, he went into office with a vow that he was not going to enrich himself. He even fought legislators on pork barrel (budget padding) practices, even to his own disadvantage. When he lost reelection, he went back to his farm in Plains Georgia, and lived in the bungalow he and his wife had owned. He was now a debtor, because the farm he had put in trust four years earlier had been run aground. He had to sell the farm’s warehouse to raise money to save the farm. He put the farm in the hands of caretakers again, when the now famous Carter Center was built in association with Emory University in Atlanta, which became the base of his global charity work until death. The only other property in his name was his presidential library in Atlanta, built on donations. He owned a small office/bedroom, where the bed is a foldaway, which flushes with the wall when not in use, to the amazement of the reporter, who interviewed him there.

    Carter did not just do extraordinary things. Some unusual things also happened to him. Every member of his family—father, mother, and three siblings, died of cancer. His father and all three siblings died of pancreatic cancer in their fifties, except one sister, who lived to be 63. His mother first had breast cancer, which then moved to her pancreas and killed her at 85. Jimmy Carter also had his bout with cancer. Shortly after turning 90, he was afflicted with metastatic melanoma, a skin cancer with less than 10% survival rate! Miraculously, you would say, nonagenarian Carter became cancer-free, following radiation therapy and treatment with a cancer immunotherapy.

    He would go on to live beyond 100–the longest lived President with the longest (action-packed) presidency in American history.

    There are several dualities in Jimmy Carter’s life: A White minority in the middle of a Black majority. An unknown rural farmer defeating a wealthy Ford as candidate of the other party. An unlikely peace maker, who settled decades-long conflict between two adversaries (Israel and Egypt). The most powerful man in the world becoming a carpenter, building homes for the homeless and providing healthcare for millions across the globe, including Nigeria. A candidate, who never forgot the musicians that propelled him to the White House—he invited them to the White House time and again, even against the advice of close friends and the White House staff.

    To conclude that Carter was probably propelled to do good by White guilt is to disregard the man’s soul in the assessment. Here was a Christian, who taught Sunday School until 95 and vowed to live by his creed, by doing good for humanity. Rather than see Black and White as distinct races, he saw a common humanity, and pushed his country toward global interdependency.

    Carter’s political career hold three big lessons for politicians: One, make hay while the sun shines—Carter’s major achievements during his presidency came within the first two years of his administration. Two, Carter did not see power as a means of personal enrichment; rather, it should be used to facilitate fair and equitable access to political goods. Three, his post-presidency shows that the job of a President is for life, not in terms of the paraphernalia of office but in terms of continuing to serve humanity in meaningful ways.

    It was the totality of his contributions that the Nobel cited in his award for peace in 2002 “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The Nobel Committee would be pleased to know that Carter continued with “untiring effort” for two decades after the award.

    Of course, Carter’s political opponents did not always like his humanitarianism and forward-looking programmes, when he was President. They even hated his elaborate post-presidential achievements even more, and they are bent on wiping them out. As a result, his immediate successor, President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, reversed his environmental policies, by removing solar panels Carter got installed on the roof of the White House to cut costs. The present President, Donald Trump, and his men are moving to close down the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Education, both of which Carter established. The Republican party continues to deny climate change and has been challenging the necessity for the Department of Energy, also established by Carter.

    No matter what they do, however, Carter’s sterling achievements have been written in stone. It is unlikely that any President could match his longevity, his humanity, his love of peace as a necessary condition for development, and his global outreach.

    Andrew Young said it all: “He may be gone, but he ain’t gone far”, either from our memories or from the pages of history.

  • Repositioning TVET in Nigeria

    Repositioning TVET in Nigeria

    From the inception of formal technical and vocational training in colonial times to the adoption of the modern phase of TVET in the country, the goals of such training have been the same: (1) to employ practical, hands-on approaches in training learners toward various career paths so they could help in filling the skills gaps in the job market and (2) to impart such necessary competencies and entrepreneurial skills in the learners that would aid in their career preparation and employability. The ultimate goal is to train those would contribute to economic growth by ensuring that they acquired practical skills, knowledge, and attitudes relating to occupations and careers in various sectors of the economy.

    The history of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Nigeria is as enduring as its projected benefits. Vocational training could be said to be rooted in traditional apprenticeship training in precolonial times. However, it has been integral to the Nigerian school system ever since its incorporation into the school curriculum in forms such as farming, crafts, carpentry, and so on, leading to the establishment of technical institutes and trade centres. Eventually, by 1976, “science, technical and vocational education was incorporated into the National Policy on Education. This gave birth to the establishment of the National Board of Technical Education in 1977 to oversee technical and vocational education. Six years later, when the 6-3-3-4 system of education was introduced in 1982, it was envisaged that 30% of primacy school leavers would enroll in technical colleges; 10% in trade and apprenticeship programmes, and the remaining 60% would continue training in conventional secondary schools. Beyond secondary schools, the focus of TVET has centred on polytechnics, which federal, state, and private proprietors have been establishing here and there at a frenetic pace. Today, the NBTE lists 41 Federal polytechnics on its website, not to speak of countless state and private polytechnics.

    The failure of the preceding systems to meet the country’s middle-level manpower needs was used as a ploy to introduce the 9-3-4 system in 1999. It was another case of substituting form for function, as if changing the structure of the education system would automatically produce desired results. Spurred on by the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, established in 2015, and UNESCO’s prompt, the Nigerian government has since been making moves to advance TVET education in the country. True, many polytechnics and vocational schools have since been established, but the noble goals of TVET have remained elusive. Rampant unemployment has pushed many a youth to violent and fraudulent activities. More and more citizens have become poor or poorer.

    What went wrong?

    In answering this question, I focus on the plight of Federal polytechnics. There are five major problems. One, there is a serious funding gap, deriving from the paltry budgetary allocation to education by the Federal Government over the years. Besides, only a fraction of the polytechnics’ approved budgets is released every year. There is also a high degree of unevenness in the release of funds: Some institutions get over 70 percent of their funds released, while others get a paltry 30 percent or less. It is suspected that this unevenness has to do with backroom dealings.

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    The saving grace for most of the institutions today has been TETFund, which has been providing funds for capital projects, equipment, and training to the polytechnics. In order to bridge the funding gap, each polytechnic should establish an advancement office to raise funds beyond the tuition and fees collected from students. Each institution should also set up a venture to produce and sell products and services to the local communities. Moreover, the polytechnics should develop self-help projects, including small-scale building projects, landscaping, and fence construction. This could be done in collaboration with practicing artisans within the local communities.

    Two, there is a dearth of necessary infrastructure and teaching facilities in the polytechnics. Older polytechnics are suffering from dilapidating structures and overstretched facilities, while some newly established polytechnics have had to run around to borrow equipment to satisfy accreditation requirements. At the end of the day, students are exposed to theory in the classroom but limited or no practical experience in the appropriate tools of their trade.

    Three, the curriculum in the polytechnics and the focus of each polytechnic have to be revisited or established. No industrialised nation practices a one-size-fits-all curriculum for its educational institutions, although certain standards or expectations could be set. Given the variable locations and environments of the nation’s polytechnics, each one should decide on what its unique focus should be and what, at the end of the day, each polytechnic wants to be known for. Nevertheless, given the rural location of many of the polytechnics, agriculture and local commercial and artisanal  practices should feature prominently. Bricklaying, plumbing, carpentry, welding, electrical installation, tiling, automobile and generator repairs, and so on, should feature in both the curriculum and experiential learning. Accordingly, polytechnic managements should take a census of local enterprises for on-site experiential learning for their students. The focus on “industrial attachment” is futile where there are no industries and where the few that existed have folded up. Local banks, hotels, construction sites, and other local enterprises are good alternatives. There is an urgent need to domesticate so-called industrial attachments for experiential learning.

    Four, there is a dearth of appropriately trained and skilled teachers across the polytechnics. It is one thing to have an excellent curriculum on paper; it is another to have an appropriate teacher to implement the curriculum. It is simple pedagogical truism that no curriculum is better than its teacher and that students hardly know  better than their teachers. There is an urgent need to inculcate the mission of polytechnics in the teachers and provide regular and adequate human capital development opportunities. As I indicated earlier, TETFund has been outstanding in funding such opportunities. However, such training should be retooled to suit local circumstances.

    Fifth, there is an urgent need to streamline the supervision of polytechnics in the country. It is a chaotic system by which polytechnic managements are summoned to Abuja every now and then or have four or five different visitations from various arms of the Federal Government (Education, Budget Office, Accountant General’s office, the legislature, and others). There have been occasions when Rectors, who had just returned to base from Abuja, were summoned back by another arm of the Federal Government. Besides the time and energy expended on such trips, the resources wasted on road and air transport, hotels, and duty allowances could be put to better use. The NBTE should step in here to establish some order!

    The newly appointed Minister of Education is determined to change the fortunes of federal polytechnics. He should realise, however, that TVET is an expensive educational venture as it needs constant adaptation of its facilities to changes in technology and technical equipment. It also requires that training be constantly adapted to the needs of the market in a changing world. That’s why it will be necessary for the Federal Government to pause the establishment of new polytechnics until the existing ones are well funded and retooled to make their graduates self-sufficient to create new jobs or are good enough to fill the job gaps in a changing market. 

  • Jimmy Carter’s post-presidency

    Jimmy Carter’s post-presidency

    Despite significant legislative achievements, especially in education, energy, and environmental protection; peace-making deals, notably between Israel and Egypt; and historic diplomatic breakthroughs, particularly with China, President Jimmy Carter’s presidency was not favorably considered by pundits and voters alike.

    There were at least two major reasons for the poor assessment. One, the economy had taken a downturn, due in part to fuel shortages, which led to a hike in pump prices of petrol, and uncontrollable inflation. Two, Carter’s tenure was consumed by conflict in the Middle East (Israel vs Egypt; Israel vs Palestine; and Iran vs Iraq); Cold War between the United States and the old Soviet Union; and the Iran Hostage Crisis involving 53 American hostages held for 444 days in the American Embassy in Tehran. Unfortunately, Carter’s mission to rescue the hostages ended in disaster due to poor weather and the crash of one rescue helicopter, which killed 8 service members.

    Voters reacted so negatively to the economic and hostage crises that they denied Carter re-election in November 1980 and gave a landslide victory to his Republican opponent, President Ronald Reagan, who assumed office in January 1981.

    Nevertheless, whatever credit Carter missed as President, he got back in unprecedented post-presidential achievements. More than any other American President before and after him, Carter had the widest range of activities and the most global reach after leaving the White House. To be sure, he was aided by his longevity: He was the longest-lived President in American history, at 100 years and 89 days. He also had the longest post-presidency, at 43 years and 344 days.

    Upon leaving the White House in 1981, Carter went back to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, and returned to the family farmland to tend to peanuts, cotton, soybeans, grain, and pine trees. However, as he got increasingly involved in other activities, he soon phased out his farming duties and relied on partners or renters for all farming activities.

    For coordinating those post-presidential activities, he used the Carter Center, which he and his wife, Rosalynn, set up in 1982 in collaboration with Emory University in Atlanta. He and Rosalynn also collaborated with Habitat for Humanity International, a global nonprofit housing organisation, established in 1976, to provide affordable housing across the United States and in at least 70 other countries around the world.

    Working with these two institutions, Carter and (for the most part) Rosalynn visited at least 145 countries. They worked on healthcare, agriculture, peace, human rights, conflict resolution, promoting democracy by monitoring elections, and building homes for the poor around the world. Carter also pursued his interests in carpentry, woodworking, painting, and writing, while Rosalynn pursued her pet project on mental health. In the last chapter of his bestselling book, A Full Life: Reflections at 90 (Simon and Schuster, New York, 2015), Carter provided a summary of each of these activities as of 2014. He still worked even until 95!

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    The central focus of their healthcare project was to eradicate or at least reduce the incidences of malaria and five “neglected tropical diseases” afflicting millions of people in Africa, South America, and Asia. They include river blindness, filariasis, trachoma, and guinea worm. The Carter Center has been credited for working for nearly 40 years to eradicate guinea worm. This mission has been achieved in at least 17 countries. As of June 2024, only three human cases and 297 animal infections were reported, almost 100% reduction from an estimated 3.5 million cases in 1986, when the Carter Center took on the disease.

    Their work on peace and conflict resolution took them to dangerous places. According to Carter himself, “These choices are not always popular, because they put us in contact with unsavory people or groups. They have included Maoists in Nepal, the Communist dictator Mengitsu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia, Mobutu Sese Sekop in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), Radovan Karadzic in Bosnia and Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, Kin Il Sung and his successors in North Korea, the Castro brothers in Cuba, Omar al-bashir in Sudan, and leaders of Hamas in Gaza and other places.” On many occasions, he was invited by these leaders, because he had acquired a solid reputation as an impartial mediator, and he succeeded in mediating most of the conflicts.

    One of the projects Carter really enjoyed to the fullest was his job as a Distinguished University Professor at Emory. He lectured in different departments and schools during the academic year. The subjects included history, political science, environmental studies, theology, African American studies, business, medicine, nursing, and law. For over 30 years in a row, he started each academic year with a town hall meeting with several thousand students, “where I answer unpredictable questions.” His appointment to this role illustrates the elasticity of the American academic tradition. It does not require the NUC’s obnoxious type of “you must have a doctorate degree” to teach in a university, thereby cutting off people with talent and experience like Carter and many others like him from sharing their expertise and experiences.

    Carter discovered his love of writing, especially after buying his first word processor after leaving the White House. He authored at least 33 books, mostly bestsellers. He wrote on a variety of subjects, from history to religion, from personal reflections to a focus on his father, from his village of Plains to the White House in Washington, from war to peace, and from the boyhood years to adulthood and aging. None of Carter’s books could be pushed aside.

    In the next contribution, Carter’s character, philosophy, and what President Biden described as “simple decency” will be analysed.

  • Jimmy Carter

    Jimmy Carter

    Jimmy Carter: Village Boy, Naval Officer, Peanut Farmer, State Senator, Governor, President, University Distinguished Professor, Human Rights and Peace Advocate, Nobel Laureate, and a Centurion (1924-2024)

    When Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States (1977-1981), died on Sunday, December 29, 2024, two months after turning 100, I felt like I lost someone I knew very closely, although I never met him one-on-one. I created a bond with him because he was the first American President, whose career and election as President I followed very closely during my early years in the United States. I was attracted to him because his humble beginnings as the first son of a peanut farmer in a small village mirrored mine as the first son of a cocoa farmer in a small farming village. Moreover, each of us owned a small portion of land on our father’s farm on which we planted the same crop as our father’s. But that’s where the comparison ends! Carter rose from these humble beginnings to become the most powerful man in the world. The long title of this piece provides a trajectory of his progress through life. I focus here on his rock-and-roll presidency.

    Carter became President in 1977 at a time of uncertainty in American politics, following the Watergate scandal and the fallout from the Vietnam War. Carter was a Washington outsider, unknown to the wider political establishment beyond his home state of Georgia. Nevertheless, voters quickly bought into his straight talk and “I will never lie to you” mantra, drawing a sharp contrast to Nixon’s Watergate scandals. He pledged to restore a sense of morality to domestic and foreign policy and pursue the maintenance of world peace.

    Accordingly, early in his administration, Carter issued presidential directives to simplify the management of foreign policy and to focus on the maintenance of peace, nuclear non-proliferation, the pursuit of human rights, and international cooperation. He advocated going beyond East-West concerns to focusing on the developing world to fully harness global interdependencies.

    Carter’s major domestic and foreign policy achievements came within the first two years of his administration. He began with bold domestic policies. He pardoned protesters and resisters of the Vietnam war and those who dodged the draft to fight in the war. He killed funding for the B-1 bomber plane to signal his peace advocacy. He also pushed for a comprehensive bill to protect consumers. Following his dislike for backroom dealings rampant in Washington, he opposed “pork barrel” bills (like Nigerian budget padding), which legislators often attach to major bills. Carter labelled them as wasteful and corrupt, which left a bad taste in the legislators’ mouths. This laid the seed of a frosty relationship with Congress.

    Nevertheless, he pushed ahead with innovative bills. He established the Department of Energy and created a national energy policy on a tripod of price control, conservation, and technology. He even installed Solar panels on the White House to demonstrate his commitment to alternative energy sources. He also promoted energy conservation measures, including automotive mileage standards and reduced industry’s use of fuels.

    Carter also created the Department of Education with promises of equity, excellence, and upward mobility. Moreover, at a time when little was known about climate change, Carter pushed through Congress important legislation on environmental protection. He also got legislation through on transportation to deregulate the airline, trucking, and railroad industries, which resulted in lower transportations costs for consumers.

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    Carter’s foreign policy successes also came early in his administration. He successfully negotiated several historic agreements and diplomatic relations, which endure till today. First, in 1977 and 1978, he negotiated two agreements with Panama over the Panama Canal, one of which would transfer the Canal to Panama by 1999.

    Second, in September 1978, he successfully mediated an historic peace treaty between Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, and Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, which led to the normalisation of relations between the two countries.

    Third, on December 15, 1978, after months of secret negotiations, mediated by Carter, United States and China, recognised one another and agreed to establish official diplomatic relations.

    Fourth, this was followed the following year (1979) by the successful negotiation of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II (SALT II), which was signed between the United States and the then Soviet Union to limit the number of nuclear weapons each country owned. However, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan later that year forced Carter to delay Senate ratification of the treaty, which has remained unsigned till today.

    Carter’s progress with governance was eventually limited by four factors. One, the frosty relationship he had developed with Congress, including leaders of his own party, soon limited his ability to get bills through Congress. His veto on some bills was even overturned by Congress.

    Two, although the economy was in stagnation when Carter assumed office, it dipped further because of petrol price hike, following high increases in oil price by OPEC. As a result, inflation hit food and commodity markets, and unemployment figures dipped even further. These problems did not abate even as his reelection drew close.

    Three, the Iran hostage crisis consumed the last quarter of his administration. Iranian students, who supported the Iranian revolution, which led to the deposition of the Shah of Iran, had held 53 American Embassy workers and visitors hostage over the asylum granted to the deposed Shah, who was receiving cancer treatment in the United States.

    Finally, Carter’s administration suffered from trust deficit in some members of his cabinet, including his Budget Director, the Treasury Secretary, and his Chief of Staff, each of whom was accused of one unsavoury practice or the other. Although the charges against some of them were shown to be false, the damage had already been done. Carter’s poor media image further complicated matters. His speech on the economy (dubbed the “malaise” speech), in which he blamed the crisis of confidence on the American people themselves, received negative press coverage and poor public reception. The firing or redeployment of some cabinet members was interpreted as acknowledgement of failure.

    At the end of the day, public perception of Carter’s leadership did not correspond with the reality of his performance as he pushed through Congress more legislation and successful presidential initiatives than those of his immediate predecessors and successors. No wonder then he lost reelection in a landslide to Republican Ronald Reagan. To this day, Republicans have continued to seek ways of dampening Carter’s record of accomplishments. For example, President Reagan removed the Solar panels from the White House on assumption of office, and, recently, President-elect Donald Trump promised to take back the Panama Canal and even abolish the Department of Education.

    On their return to Plains in 1981 after losing re-election, Carter and Rosalyn moved back into their two-bedroom bungalow. He first resumed the family peanut business, which had been run down while he was in the White House. In the meantime, he got the Carter Center built in collaboration with Emory University in Atlanta, where he was offered, and accepted, a University Distinguished Professorship in 1982.

    The concluding part of this piece will focus on details of Carter’s post-presidency; the work of the Carter Centre; the contributions of his wife; global perceptions of his contributions to humanity; and my own analysis of the man and his accomplishments.

  • The global erosion of moral values

    The global erosion of moral values

    The decline in moral values is a universal problem, although the extent and causes of decline vary slightly from country to country and from generation to generation. For example, a recent Gallup poll showed that Americans’ poor ratings of the state of moral values in their country have fallen to the lowest point in Gallup’s 22-year trend. The study showed that 54% of adult Americans rated moral values in the country as “poor”. It was the first time that the majority has expressed this level of concern about the erosion of moral values in the country.

    Americans are not alone. Recent survey data published in Nature magazine also showed a declining trend in moral values. The survey data were collected from 12 million people between 1949 and 2021. Like the Gallup findings, the results showed that the decline in moral values was at its worst level in the most recent study.

    I cite these international polls as a backdrop for understanding the erosion of moral values in Nigeria, even in the absence of survey data on the subject. In all the studies, the decline is traceable to escalating social, economic, and political problems as well as environmental pressures across the globe. These problems are interconnected. For example, poor governance can trigger economic problems, which, in turn, can trigger social problems. Similarly, environmental pressures, such as climate change, can cause economic hardships, which can also trigger social problems.

    I will discuss these problems only as they relate to Nigeria. Although there are no statistical data on the decline of moral values in the country, all adult Nigerians I have interviewed on the subject have one complaint or the other about moral values, especially when discussing the behaviour of youths. To be sure, there is no one definitive answer to why moral values are declining in Nigeria, but there are many factors at play.

    Since the beginning of the military era, starting with the Majors’ coup of January 1966, the shock of deaths gripped the nation like never before; it escalated with the pogrom in the North and peaked with the civil war. It was the beginning of the devaluation of human life on a large scale. With the advent of civilian rule in 1999, political tensions increased, especially around election time, with thugs maiming and killing voters. There have been cases of political assassinations as well.

    These political killings were complemented by insurgency, led by Boko Haram, the terrorist group, killing and destroying property at will. More recently, cattle herders began their onslaught on farmers and their farmlands, while cattle rustling, banditry, and kidnappings took their toll on various populations. The political implications of these killings went beyond setting one ethnic group against another. They also laid the foundation for trust deficit in government as it did not meet citizens’ expectations of resolution of the wanton killings.

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    However, a much worse political problem, which reached its peak during the last presidential election, is political polarisation, which set political parties, ethnic groups, and different religious organisations against each other. The polarisation continues till today, setting  up an environment in which divisive rhetoric and actions breed a breakdown of social cohesion and shared moral values.

    What is worse, large scale political corruption, which began during the military era increased exponentially with the advent of civilian rule in 1999. Today, corruption has become endemic and normalised by various government institutions and their agents. Corporate bodies and business enterprises have also doubled down on corrupt practices.

    Corruption has institutionalised the drive for materialism, leading to various unethical practices. For example, restaurant owners and roadside hawkers have devised their own methods of cheating their customers. The story has been told of plantain chips “chefs” who mix clinging nylon film with vegetable or palm oil to make the chips remain hard and crunchy for a long time! There are fake wine and soda (soft drinks) factories. There are Yahoo Boys, who specialise in cyberfraud, with a subset (Yahoo Plus) engaging in ritual killing for quick money. And there are email and social media platform hackers, who use your account to solicit funds from your contacts as well as fake old friends or distant relatives, who send SOS messages or call for money to get out of difficult situations.

    These political and economic developments have been aided by globalisation and social media. Globalisation exposed Nigerians to political practices, cultures, and values that challenged local traditions and moral values. For example, classical juju music tradition popularised by Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Ade (born in the 1940s) gave way to new genres of music amplified by Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, and Kizz Daniel (all born in the early 1990s). These imported practices were spread by social media, which were used to amplify negative behaviours. Following American influences since Trump’s run for President in 2016, social media have been employed in partisan politics to distort information, misinform, and create negative perception of political opponents.

    These developments have taken a toll on moral values, creating a cultural shift in which social norms began to shift radically. Nigeria is in the throes of this shift. Unemployment, underemployment, and a surrounding culture of excessive materialism of politicians have driven today’s youths out of their parents’ moral zone. The model for our youths is dead, where parents help their children to cheat in JAMB exams or beg for their children’s admission to higher institutions; where teachers sell their crap notes or dumb books to their students for money, ask female students for sex in return for grade or ask students for a fee to assess their dissertation; and, above all, where politicians put self interest above public good by diverting public funds into private pockets.

    To be sure, moral values are not static. It is also not uncommon for different generations to have different values. There is, however, a problem when a society is sharply divided on the scale of values. Such a division is fast becoming a serious issue in Nigeria today as elsewhere.

  • Why are more young people dying these days?

    Why are more young people dying these days?

    Almost a decade ago, I reviewed a book, titled, The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease, by Daniel Lieberman, a Harvard University Professor of anthropology and evolutionary biology. The book, first published in 2013, does four things, among others: One, it charts a chronology of our biological evolution up to the time that we have our present bodies. Two, it shows how our cultural evolution has transformed our environment, the way we live, and what we eat. Three, the book then delves into how the “mismatch” between our biological and cultural evolutions has caused many modern-day diseases, such as the various non-communicable diseases killing us today. By mismatch is meant that there is a conflict between the conditions of modern life and our prehistoric bodies. That is, we were not adapted to where and how we live our lives today as well as what we eat. This leads to the prevalence of various diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, back pain, depression, and so on.

    My mind went back to Lieberman’s book as I reflected on the recent deaths of many young men and women between 35 and 50 years old in an age when hygiene and modern medicine have made it possible to live long. Some of them were sons or daughters of close friends, while others were friends of our family or mere acquaintances. Some of them died of one type of cancer or the other or of sudden organ failure. Others died of unknown or undisclosed causes.

    You do not have to be an anthropologist or an evolutionary biologist to follow Lieberman’s argument, even if you may know little or nothing about human biological evolution. However, the idea of cultural evolution should not be strange, even to a lay person. There have been three major cultural transitions in human history that have major implications for our bodies. The first transition was the agricultural revolution, when we began to settle down to farm our own food instead of hunting and gathering. The second was the industrial revolution, when we began to use machines to replace human work. The third transition, an offshoot of the technological advancements of the second, was the digital revolution, when we began to replace physical meetings with virtual ones and social media networking. In many advanced economies, more and more people are now working from home.

    Each of these transitions came with advantages and disadvantages. For example, agriculture brought predictable food supply, but farmers were susceptible to famine and food shortages as well as contagious diseases.

    The industrial revolution brought science and technology as the major driver of human activity. Social and economic institutions were reorganised, factories began to produce on a large scale, and the economy of delayed return replaced the economy of immediate return of the farming age. Human populations exploded with progress in medicine, sanitation, and food storage. As a result, there is much more food variety than the average farmer could provide. However, the varieties and the surpluses came at a cost. Most of what we consume today is processed and shipped by machines, and they contain huge amounts of pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, and antibiotics. Worse still, processed food contains more sugars and starches, causing spikes in blood sugar levels that our bodies were not designed to deal with. Even the fashionable non-stick pots with which many of us cook contain PFAS chemicals, which can lead to serious health problems, when the coating is damaged or overheated.

    The digital revolution may have brought radical changes to how we communicate. However, it has also made us more sedentary and less physically interactive. The implications for our bodies are still being studied. But the social implications of social media on our social lives and political participation are no longer in doubt.

    The truth is that we live in a world of new handicaps and new diseases, which never afflicted our prehistoric ancestors. Unfortunately, many of us overlook or are unaware of some common sources of today’s diseases. Many of these sources became prevalent only recently, coinciding with the appearance of today’s youths on the food scene. The sources include preservatives and additives in processed foods, chemicals in plastics, non-stick pots, makeup and hair products, asbestos, and formaldehyde in building materials.

    Today, in part because they care less about safety, the younger generation is ultra-exposed to these sources, most of which are associated with one type of cancer or the other. They consume a lot of ultra-processed foods, which are associated with a higher risk of gastrointestinal cancers, regardless of their weight or body mass index. Youths are particularly susceptible to exposures to toxins in the environment and in many everyday goods listed above, which are also known to cause cancer.

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    Youths are also victims of modern lifestyle changes, which involve less physical exercise, and less or interrupted sleep. Recent medical research shows that sleep and circadian rhythms are important components of health. Getting less sleep may be a factor in developing colon, breast, ovarian, or prostate cancer. Although genetic inheritance remains a predictor, but many cancer patients these days have no such history.

    It is not the case, of course, that older adults over 60 are inoculated against these diseases. My focus on youths is motivated partly by the losses mentioned at the top of this essay and partly by a recent meta-analysis by the American Cancer Society, which found that 50 percent (17 of 34) of the most common cancers are occurring more frequently in younger people. Worse still, while death rates are dropping for colorectal cancer patients over 65, they are increasing among younger patients, partly because colonoscopies are not recommended until after 45. The problem with youths is that cancers are often not caught until it is too late for treatment. All we tend to hear is that X or Y was rushed to the hospital two days ago, but he or she did not make it.

    Perhaps at no time in human history is Lieberman’s “mismatch” theory more relevant than today. Our bodies were not designed for what we do and consume today. And our youths, who consume any and everything, are the greatest victims. Many of them began early with processed baby food, continue with ultra-processed food, and consume sugary and alcoholic drinks. They stay on the phone till 2am or later and have little or no time for regular physical exercise. And the killer of it all—they shrug off symptoms and only seek intervention when it may be too late. Lieberman’s fourth major contribution, therefore, is to create awareness of the mismatch between our bodies and what we do and consume.

  • What Orunmila wanted me to do to my new car

    What Orunmila wanted me to do to my new car

    In order to understand the story I am about to tell, it is important for readers to have an idea of my background. Briefly, I was brought up in the Ifa tradition, and the first school I attended was an Ifa divination school. Neither of my parents could read or write. But they were very successful farmers. True, my father eventually bought the Bible and Catechism, neither of which he could read, and attended church on Sundays, the remaining weekdays were devoted to Ifa worship. No child was taken to the church or the pastor for being sick or for needing help in any way. Rather, it was to the Babalawo (Ifa diviner) my father took us. He alone had the authority to diagnose our problems and seek Orunmila’s help in prescribing the right sacrifice and necessary antidote.

    I had many memorable encounters with the Babalawo, because my father would take me to him at every turn in my health situation or career. And so, we went in 1972 to seek protection for me and my new car on the roads. I had just bought a new Volkswagen Beetle from Mandilas and Karaberis, located at Oke-Bola in Ibadan. The discounted price of the car was £900. The discount was in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the M&K dealership in Nigeria.

    My father had given the Babalawo advance notice. He knew about the car already and had prepared the necessary etùtù to ward off danger. So, as we stepped into his divining paraphernalia-filled room, he consulted Ifa again to reconfirm what Orunmila had told told him earlier. He thereafter beckoned to me to kneel down before him. Very quickly, he grabbed my head and made seven small cuts, known as gbere, across the top. He then robbed some concoction into it, mixing it with blood from the cuts. I had had gbebefore. So, it was not strange to me.

     The next activity moved to the car outside. With some powdery substance in one of his palms, the Babalawo began some esoteric incantation, followed by prayers in Idanre dialect: oko yí e ní kolu’gi. oko yí e ní kol’ope. oko yí e ní kol’òkúta. oko yí e ní kol’ènìyàn. oko yí e ní kol’oko ’loko. okomúen e den níí kolù ú. (May this car never collide with a tree. May this car never collide with a palm-tree. May this car never collide with a rock. May this car never collide with a person. May this car never collide with another car. And may another car never collide with this car). To every prayer, we said Àse (So shall it be). He blew the powdery stuff across the car, leaving some portion for the four wheels.

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    I had thought that was all. But no. The Babalawo beckoned us inside. It was time he told us the sacrifice Ifa had prescribed in order to fully protect my life and safeguard my car. Instead of speaking directly to me, the diviner turned to my father. Ifa says your son should remove all the four tyres of his car and burn them before nightfall tomorrow.

    I had thought to myself at the time that the sacrifice was a punishment too severe for my purse. How much was I earning as a young lecturer at the University of Ife at the time? I later complained to my father but he said I should not worry. My life was more important than my worries. He then told me that the diviner confided in him that jealous and envious eyes had settled on the tyres, wishing them to burst in motion and derail.

    I did not believe in the connection between jealous and envious eyes and the tyres of my car. But then, my father had made it possible to get a car loan from the Cooperative Society, by standing as my guarantor. When he sensed my hesitation about the loan payments, he offered to pay it off. He was a highly productive cocoa farmer.

    I decided to offer the sacrifice to please him. So, off to a known vulcanizer in Akure I went. I negotiated with him to remove my four new tyres and keep them until I came back for them. In the meantime, however, he would give me eight from his pile of used tyres. He agreed for a small fee. So, he removed the four new tyres and replaced them with old ones. The remaining four old tyres were kept in my car.

    My father and I went back to the diviner in the village to offer the sacrifice. To the diviner and my father, we had removed the hands of the devil. To me, it was an uncomfortable experience.

    But, as fate would have it, the whole experience played out in real time about five weeks later. I experienced my first major car accident on my way back from Abeokuta, where I had gone to spend a weekend with a close friend. I was trying to remove a cassette from the player and insert another one in its place. Unfortunately, I took my eyes off the road for a moment and the car veered off the road into a roadside ditch. The car was stopped by a log of wood at the base of the ditch, which dented the front fender. In the confusion, I quickly got out of the car and left it running. Three other drivers had stopped their vehicles to help me. We managed to get the car out of the ditch, and I was able to continue my journey. My two hands were on the steering wheel and there was no music whatsoever until I got to Akure. I left the car with a mechanic there and went to Idanre in public transport.

    When I later told my father the story of the accident, I was surprised that he quickly got up dancing and praising Ifa for saving my life. And where is your car now? He asked. It is outside, and it has been repaired. I was not used to arguing with my father. You couldn’t even argue with your father when I was growing up. But I told him Ifa was not there to save me and that kind passersby helped me out. He laughed! My son, what if you did not offer the sacrifice? But I still had an accident in spite of the sacrifice, I responded. My son, you don’t understand.

    Fellow anthropologists later replicated my father’s analysis of the situation, when I narrated the experience at an international conference. Many agreed with my father that my skepticism notwithstanding, my compliance meant that the sacrifice worked, and Ifa was justified. His belief in the system, not necessarily mine, made it work.

    My father belonged to the age when the belief system that Ifa worked was at its peak. I belong to the transition period, when some of us believed in Ifa and some didn’t. Those of us who went to school had gone to Christian schools and adopted Christian ways. But my skepticism was not about Ifa alone. I later dropped the Christian baptismal name my father got bestowed on me in his church.

    Today, Ifa has been relegated to near oblivion by Islamic fanaticism, evangelical Christianity with unbridled prosperity gospels, and a youth population lost to cultism, cyber fraud, and irredeemable materialism.

    Yet, Ifa is a major repository of Yoruba knowledge, epistemology, philosophy, and precepts for the omoluabi ethos. It is for these reasons I have gone back to Ifa again and again as an anchour of Yoruba values and good behaviour. This is the context within which I later reinterpreted Orunmila’s prescription of sacrifice and my father’s joy at following through on the sacrifice.

  • When last did you hear from your Governor?

    When last did you hear from your Governor?

    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. They include (a) lack of an effective system of accountability; (b) illiteracy; and (c) poverty.

    There is no standardised system of evaluating state governments or otherwise hold them accountable. In the absence of such a system, the electorate 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. Governors exploit this lacuna to maximum advantage through deception and other mischievous exploits.

    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 was 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).

    Illiteracy prevent 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.

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    Poverty also prevents voters from holding their Governors to account.  is poverty, which 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 twofold, namely, the impunity with which corrupt practices thrive and the degree to which the practices are condoned, especially by the respective local communities of the politicians, political appointees, and civil servants in question.

    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. 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 be made accountable? The answer lies with residents of each state as the Federal Government has no power under the constitution to interfere in the affairs of the states. True, the EFCC and the ICPC are under federal control, but neither institution can act in the absence of credible petitions or prompted enquiries. It is time for citizen action, not necessarily to go to the streets but to seek alternative ways, including litigation, to make their Governors accountable.

    •An earlier version of this essay was published on September 4.

  • Push and pull on devolution of powers

    Push and pull on devolution of powers

    It is becoming increasingly clear that Nigeria, as currently structured, is ungovernable. It is equally becoming clear that much as we all know where the solution lies, its attainment has been elusive since the National Political Reform Conference of 2005 whose far-reaching recommendations were ignored for political reasons. The truth is that there are far too many centrifugal forces pulling the diverse groups or nationalities in the country in different directions on key issues. These centrifugal forces include region, religion, ethnicity, language, class, gender, and other social features. That is why the call for unity is nothing but political talk, which politicians themselves know is unattainable.

    What is more, President after President has been driving increasingly toward unification, while also projecting the propaganda of unity. True, the forces of unification are ever present—a common country called Nigeria to which we pledge citizenship; a common flag; a common national anthem, which maintains that “in brotherhood we stand”; and a common purse from which oil money is shared among the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory, and the 774 local councils. Nevertheless, unity remains elusive owing to the power of the centrifugal forces highlighted above.

    Ironically, on the one hand, the call for devolution of powers is rooted in the desire for self determination and fulfillment within each group’s own geographical, cultural, and economic space. The more powers are devolved to the federating units, the lighter the burden on the Federal Government to satisfy every group.

    On the other hand, the attendant reduction in the powers and resources of the central government is viewed by parasites of the state as a move toward disintegration. It is a false view that hides their fear of losing dependency on the centre, given their age-long inability to manage independence.

    Yet, there appears to be no better time to devolve powers to the federating units than now, because it is the only way the federating units and their residents could begin to look inwards for survival and development rather than outwards to the centre, some for plums and others for crumbs. True, major hardships have accompanied President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic policies, the measures taken by his administration to ameliorate the hardships have been obscured by non-performing Governors. Yet, most citizens are unaware that state allocations have more than doubled since the removal of fuel subsidy and the establishment of more efficient tax collection practices. This knowledge gap has led them to keep directing their anger and frustration at the Federal Government.

    The question now is what will the federating units look like, given the large number of states, some of which are struggling to survive? Not a few people thought that the outline of the federating units was emerging when each of the six geo-political zones established a Development Commission. Each zone also is working together through its Governors Forum, which allows for shared ideas on security and economic development.

    But while this looks like a step forward, raising the hope that the geo-political zones might become the new regions, the Federal Government established a new Ministry of Regional Development to oversee the various development commissions. Some observers view this as another layer of bureaucracy and another step toward centralization.

    Earlier in the year, the financial autonomy granted to the local councils attracted criticisms, because it also was viewed as another step toward centralization. It is a case of a curative medicine with debilitating side effects. In this case, the disease was state governors’ habit of sitting on local council funds and misappropriating them. However, a direct link between the centre and local councils raises serious questions about the power given to the states in the constitution regarding the control and financing of local councils within their jurisdictions.

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    These apparently centralizing tendencies notwithstanding, there are discernible movements toward devolution of powers. Three such developments stand out. One is the power granted to the states to develop and manage their own rail network. Another is the power to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity, rather than rely on the national grid. Yet a third is the pending creation of state police to enhance security. While a few states have already taken advantage of the first two developments, the creation of state police is still in process. The good news is that as many as 32 states have submitted the paperwork agreed upon in the meeting between the President and the Governors in February 2024.

    What remains to be resolved is the nature of federating units. Not a few advocates of devolution of powers think that the present 36-state structure is unwieldy. Besides, some of them are struggling to meet their obligations. There are, however, two counter-arguments. First, if appropriate measures are put in place to check corruption, the struggling states may begin to stay afloat. The starting point is for residents, civil society organizations, activists, and the media to demand accountability from state Governors as well as transparency of state records. Second, reallocation of resources should go hand in hand with devolution of powers, such that states will be better funded than they are now.

    These counter-arguments notwithstanding, the cost of maintaining 36 Governors in a largely consumption economy is an avoidable burden. The wastefulness in the lifestyle of our Governors is beyond pardon. It often begins with so-called security vote for which there is neither a set limit nor accounting requirement. For example, at the governorship debate in Ondo state last Sunday between incumbent Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of the APC and challenger Agboola Ajayi of the PDP, it was revealed that the Governor was taking home N1.2 billion as security vote every month. The Governor contested the amount but wouldn’t reveal the actual figure, arguing that it is state secret.

    One can only imagine the humongous amount allocated to security votes across the 36 states. As several state officials have told me in the past, security vote often translates into the Governor’s pocket money, which he often spends as he likes. For those who have reelection ahead of them, security vote is often the starting point of raising campaign funds.

    There should be a better way of reconfiguring the federation units, if the devolution of powers were to be meaningful. That’s why some observers are advocating geopolitical zones as good candidates for federation units. It will then be left to each zone to determine how the constituent states and local councils would be managed.

    Admittedly, a major hurdle to devolution of powers is the present constitution. It has to be overhauled to accommodate necessary structural change. That is why President Tinubu needs to embark on this task as early as possible.

  • Network and power failures

    Network and power failures

    Apart from commercial banks, which have been running away with astronomical profits, the years 2023 and 2024 have been tumultuous years for businesses in Nigeria, leading some to move from the country. The reasons are not far-fetched. They include the devaluation of the Naira, due to the floating of the exchange rate; repeated hikes in the prices of petroleum products because of the removal of fuel subsidy; and high inflation, resulting from the above developments.

    It is understandable, therefore, why the trio of telephone service providers in Nigeria, MTN, Airtel, and Glo, have been suffering major losses in revenue since 2023. Their operation is further complicated by the introduction of value-added tax on tower leases in the 2023 Finance Act and repeated power grid failures, leading to power failure in many parts of the country. Nevertheless, despite these harsh conditions these telephone service providers have continued to make some profit.

    Unfortunately, consumers bear the brunt of their losses, which are passed to them in the form of poor services. Telephone calls don’t go through. Messages hang or are not delivered. Images fail to load. Yet, even for such unsuccessful deliveries, you may lose credit or data. The result is the frequency of usages, such as ‘poor’ or ‘no network’; ‘network problem;’ and ‘network failure’ among others. No promotional giveaways, such as ‘20% more data’ or ‘100% awoof credit or data’ could compensate for these inadequacies.

    Yet another reason for these problems is oversubscription by the service providers. For example, as many as 1000 users may be subscribed to a service node meant for 500 users. There is also the problem of poor equipment maintenance. For example, someone living near a mast told me that no one had come there to inspect it for over three years! Again, consumers suffer the consequences of such neglect.

    These inadequacies are particularly felt in online banking. Bank Apps crash or do not work due to network failure. Of course, commercial banks create other problems for their customers. For example, it sometimes takes hours, even days, for transferred funds to show up in the beneficiary’s account, despite instant debit of the payer’s account. Sometimes, the funds don’t even show up at all and repeated calls to the bank may yield no result until you go to a branch yourself. Worse still, ATM machines are often terribly slow, because most of them are outdated. Besides, only 10 Naira maximum is dispensed in most cases. Moreover, you often pay charges for the number of withdrawals you make.

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    The problem with network failure in Nigeria is part of a huge structural problem. The telephone service providers seem to be piggybacking on the failure of supervision by appropriate government agencies. It is also possible that, where supervision does take place, sanctions are compromised by corruption. Not a few think that the Bobrisky case and its investigations are similarly compromised.

    Yet, there are many questions waiting to be answered by the service providers and the supervising agencies of the government. For example, given the existing capacity of installed equipment, how many subscribers could each provider effectively carry without overload? How extensive is each provider’s 4G coverage? This is an important question because data download often slows down or fails completely whenever coverage drops to 3G or below on any service provider’s network.

    The truth is that we may not be able to take part effectively in the digital revolution if telephone service providers continue to perform below average. Yet our participation is critical not just for individual telephone services but also for the benefit of our institutions, especially educational and health institutions. Network connectivity is critical to digital success in these institutions. For example, college students and medical doctors learn a lot these days from online resources.

    The above observations have serious implications for the economy. So does frequent power failure. According to available data, there are about 27 grid-connected generating plants currently in operation in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) with a total installed power generation capacity of about 13,000-15,000 MW and an available capacity of just over 5,000 MW. This is a far cry from the estimated 35,000 MW needed for a population of 250 million people.

    By contrast, Brazil, with comparable population, climate, and structure of government, has an installed power generation capacity of 150,000 MW and available capacity of at least 130,000 MW! Yet the government plans to add 6000 MW of capacity every year to satisfy growing demand from an increasing and more prosperous population. That is why the government aims at investing over $100 billion over the next five years on power generation, transmission, and distribution. What is even more interesting about Brazil’s energy structure is its diversification. While Nigeria relies on natural gas and hydropower, Brazil derives its energy from a variety of sources—fossil (oil, coal, and natural gas); and renewable (hydropower, wind, and solar). Brazil did not arrive at this level in one day. It is all a result of careful planning and effective implementation from government to government.

    That is why the combination of power and network failures needs urgent attention from the government.