The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Adamolekun reflects on governance, development

    Adamolekun reflects on governance, development

    This is only a forerunner of a 239-page book by Professor Ladipo Adamolekun, NNOM, titled, Reflections on Governance and Development in Nigeria, published in April 2025, by Caligata Publishing Company Limited, Ibadan. The book will be launched tomorrow, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Akure, Ondo State. A more detailed review will follow the book launch later.

    It is important to recall that Professor Adamolekun is an Oxford-trained expert in public administration and development and had a nearly 20-year stint at the World Bank, after meritorious service as Dean of the Faculty of Administration, University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, Nigeria. His expansive scholarship, typified by the publication of many books, monographs, and journal articles on administration and development earned him the award of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) twenty years ago. Yet, he never slowed down. The present book is the latest testimony.

    The book sets out to answer three basic questions:

    •What are the major fundamentals of, and impediments to, good governance in Nigeria?

    •What are the major impediments to development in Nigeria?

    •How might good governance and development be achieved in Nigeria?

    In his elaboration on the first two questions, Adamolekun delved into the six central issues featured prominently in the development literature, namely, (1) electoral legitimacy; (2) rule of law; (3) civil liberties (to which human rights is central); (4) accountability and transparency (including anti-corruption measures; (5) administrative competence; and (6) development-oriented leadership. These issues are discussed in relation to the Nigerian situation but also set within African and international contexts, where necessary. These issues recur in various discussions on governance and development throughout the book.

    In addition, Adamolekun also raised a seventh issue, bearing in mind the peculiarities of the Nigerian federation—the issue of a devolved federation as a key macro-governance issue. This issue would later feature prominently in his recommendations discussed briefly below.

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    After teasing out these issues in several chapters, he goes on to provide answers to the third question. In order to fully appreciate his recommendations, Adamolekun sets Nigeria’s performance records since 1999 against similar data in African countries, using the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance. Nigeria never reached 50% score in the years data were available, nor did it rank higher than the bottom 20 poor performers every year, except in 2018 when it was ranked in the bottom 25, despite its biggest size and highest GDP. Adamolekun’s conclusion is not surprising: “The verdict is clear and unambiguous, the quality of governance in Nigeria is poor.”

    Although solutions to poor governance and development problems are embedded in several discussions throughout the book, Adamolekun brought the recommendations together in the book’s concluding chapter, titled, Path to achieving improved governance and good development performance. The recommendations are made with particular reference to Nigeria.

    Unsurprisingly, the recommendations centre on improvements on the central issues in the development literature elaborated upon at the beginning of the book and foregrounded in the third paragraph of this essay. Rather than summarize the recommendations here, I leave it to readers to read them in full and make their own judgement.

    Nevertheless, I find it necessary to provide my own assessment, especially since Adamolekun and I agreed that only a devolved federation could aid good governance, channel necessary development, and provide self-fulfillment to Nigerians. This convergence of opinion has different roots. Adamolekun came to this conclusion from the perspectives of administration and development and I from the perspectives of linguistics and anthropology.

    We both recognize that Nigeria is a multilingual, multiethnic, and multi-religious state. Atop these primordial divisions are geographical and administrative groupings—North vs South; Zone vs Zone; State vs State; and Local Government vs Local Government, each in competition with the other.

    Of course, the divisions are not neat as they are either colonial or military creations for administrative convenience. True, Muslims are concentrated in the North and Christians in the South, but they are both found in every region or state, each with its own base of traditional religion. Similarly, many ethnic groups find themselves scattered across regional, state, or even local government boundaries.

    But whatever “convenience” was meant to be achieved by the geographical or administrative divisions never came to fruition, partly because of the lopsidedness in the creation of the geographical or administrative divisions. For example, Lagos and Kano have comparable populations (Lagos is even believed to be more populated), but Lagos has only 20 Local Governments, whereas Kano has 44! By the same token, Ondo has only 18 Local Governments, whereas Osun has 30; yet, both states have comparable populations.

    Yet another source of lopsidedness is the over-concentration of powers and resource allocation in the central government. This has had two damning consequences for governance and development. First, the powers of the central government make it the locus of fierce competitions for political power. In the process, electoral legitimacy and the rule of law are undermined or believed to be so.

    Second, the central government has been the locus of corruption since the attainment of independence. Corruption was institutionalized by military dictators and escalated since return to civilian rule in 1999. Even while corruption is also rampant in the states, protests are often directed at the federal government because of its perceived powers. Similarly, separatist agitations are directed at the central government, because it is viewed as the locus of injustice and inequity.

    It is within the above contexts that a devolved federation is recommended as panacea to Nigeria’s governance and development problems. Adamolekun prescribed the following characteristics of the desirable devolved federation for Nigeria:

    • the existing six geopolitical zones as federating units instead of the existing 36 states, many of which are not viable;

    • the assignment of functions between the central government and the federating units, using the same principle of subsidiarity as in the 1963 Constitution;

    • the allocation of resources consistent with the imperative of fiscal federalism and increased functions for sub-national governments.

    I agree with Adamolekun that “A devolved federation is a necessity, not a choice,” and that “only a devolved Nigerian federation can become a well-performing state that is capable of achieving good development performance.” It is no wonder then that Adamolekun ranked it over his other recommendations.

    The issue of how to get there has been a major clog, despite several attempts at moving forward on devolution. We have had two major national deliberations, the 2005 National Political Reform Conference and the 2014 National Conference. However, their far-reaching recommendations were either selectively appropriated for selfish political agenda or totally ignored.

    I have always argued that, if a one-off comprehensive approach is not feasible for political reasons, a gradualist approach could be adopted to achieve the same result over time. It is within this context that the bill on state police now before the National Assembly should be expedited to combat insecurity. It may well be a first step toward a devolved security structure and the allocation of required resources for that purpose.

    But make no mistake about it. A devolved federation should happen sooner than later, if good governance and development were to be achieved, including a successful outcome of ongoing economic reforms.

  • Wages; Solar; Happi; 145; CSR

    Wages; Solar; Happi; 145; CSR

    Why is the West not increasing its minimum wage and cancelling its subminimum wage as a way of lifting their lower classes instead of blaming others for their poor and homeless people?

    Lagos State is setting up or approved a lithium battery plant costing $150m. Around 22 years ago, President Olusegun Obasanjo approved the tobacco factory in Ibadan built 21 years ago. Educare Trust objected and requested that he approve a cell phone factory instead. We lost the opportunity and today more people have and are addicted to totally imported cell phones than to locally produced cigarettes and smoking. Who lost?

    Federal government is banning solar panels. How soon? What is the solar panel production capacity today versus demand? This could just make life 100% harder for Nigerians in search of independence from the irresponsibly low 5-7Mw power supply when we need 100Mw for our population.   

    Congratulations to Professor Christian Happi, named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Personalities worldwide. Google him to review his massive CV and contribution to African health through international laboratory upgrades and genome research. The falling funding for such health scientific work from the West is due to internationally politicised negative funding changes in science appreciation, application and responsibility. In addition, there is the West’s urgent requirement for diverting such allocated funds to increase budgets for weaponisation to meet the falling weapon support and falling funds from the sole Western umbrella traditional arms supplier in order to meet the increasing belligerent threat of a European war from the East.

    Africans and African banks declaring trillions in annual profit must be interrogated, graded, awarded on the ability to meet the Gold Standard of CSR 1% contribution. There is need to interrogate their over-glossy but usually poor-content Annual CSR Reports and grade them for their contributions to the arts, sciences and research versus self-advertorial jamborees – masquerading as Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR.

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    Nigerians raised N17-20b for Babangida’s Library. As an un-voted military president; is he entitled to a ‘Presidential Library’? This N17-20billion, added to the  trillions in profit by banks, added to the several EFCC revealed mega-government corruption scandals, each over N100b, cumulatively tell us that, properly motivated and monitored, there are hundreds of billions that can, with a strong political and anticorruption will, by committed to underfunded budgets for Nigerian and African Scientific, Medical, Arts, Research and Training -SMART, to take on the responsibility to fill the void in funding Nigerian and African research.

    Now, 145 and counting are the Fellow Nigerians murdered by so-called ‘land grabbers’ supposedly paid by ‘unknown financiers’ who want what is under their land. The land was owned since time began by the families of the killed and was lovingly tilled and handed down intact by the ancestral owners of those so callously slaughtered by machete, gun and dagger. These killing are not just random killing to satisfy vampire terrorists, spawned political criminality or escalated interethnic squabbles or even the bloody trail of herder-inflicted mayhem of communities nationwide that we know have killed over 150,000 and displaced over five million IDPs.

    This latest assault on the innocent hardworking, unappreciated and unrecognised ‘common man, woman and child has wiped from the earth a generational memory. All know which ‘big’ person dies, but nobody knows even the names of poor people when they die. If they are many, they, Fellow Nigerians, are consigned to a mass grave filled to the brim with ‘unknown’ or at most ‘unnamed’ citizens, killed for being citizens in a country which deliberately disarms them before the ‘kill’. So, we can add ‘unarmed’ to ‘unknown’ and ‘unnamed’ or dare we call them ‘unwanted’ Fellow Nigerians. We must reverse our apparent deliberate policy of underestimating, underpreparing for and under-weaponisation of our troops, before we are all eliminated.

    We should have the humanitarian responsibility to actually identify by name every victim, and humanise each person in an OBITUARY LIST, published widely in every media outlet and method. They deserve that we are forced to know their names and something of their lives. Surely that is documentary journalism? We ignore the very obvious security threats until the day after citizens are killed and then we miraculously discover enough security to swamp the place with a post-mortem security party for the cameras. But there is no obvious ‘First 24 hours hot pursuit’ of the murderous marauders while the trail is still hot. Perhaps politicians do these post-killing visits to each other, as high government officials, as mere photo-ops. Yes, they try to comfort and support the surviving citizens with compassion and or cash. But what can replace an entire family lost in a night? War has been declared on us for many years but our responsibility has been meek and weak. Security recruitment is a politicised challenge. A too high percentage of the undermanned police service provides exclusive security for the same VIPs, Nigerian and foreign, sadly including handbag and briefcase carrying, who may visit the deceased and the survivors, leaving very few police to keep us alive when the next attacks occur. We must get our ‘first 24 hours strategies’ up to scratch. Instead of chasing away, we should surround and capture the murderers once and for all. 

    When will this blood flow, civilian and military, started so long ago cease? How many more innocent Fellow Nigerians must, merely for owning their property and sometimes defending it, join our fallen gallant security forces who have paid the supreme price for being Nigerians?

  • Itinerant hunters in southern forests

    Itinerant hunters in southern forests

    At the height of the herders-farmers conflicts across the country, we were told that cattle-rearing is the Fulani way of life. That is historically true.  Many ethnic groups in Africa were traditionally nomadic pastoralists, from the Mursi and Hamar of Ethiopia, through the Maasai and Karamojong of Uganda, to the Shona of Zimbabwe, the Fulani (or Fula) of Senegal, and the Fulani of Nigeria.

    However, while many pastoralists in other countries have adopted ranching or transitioned to communal livestock production, as in Zimbabwe, Nigerian Fulani herders have insisted on nomadic pastoralism. The result has been, and continues to be, fierce clashes with farmers, whose crops are eaten up or otherwise destroyed by cattle. What is worse, farm owners are killed, their wives raped, their children molested, and their property destroyed. Only last week, over 50 such victims were given mass burial in Plateau state. The atrocities of Fulani herders and Boko Haram have earned Nigeria a top 10 position on the Global Terrorism Index.

    Recent events would suggest that another group from the North has emerged in Southern forests. There was initial controversy as to their identity. However, if we go by their history, the Hausa, and not Fulani, were agriculturalists, fishermen, blacksmiths, hunters, salt-miners, and traders. The group’s self-identification as hunters lends support to their identity as Hausa.

    From news reports, they did have the paraphernalia of hunting, notably dane guns (and not the notorious AK-47 guns associated with Funani herdsmen) and dogs. It was a group of over twenty people in a trailer, which was double-crossed on a tip by another truck near Uromi, after refusing to stop for inspection by an earlier group of vigilantes. 16 of them were gruesomely murdered by the locals, who took them for gun-touting Fulani herders, kidnappers or bandits. Even if they were kidnappers, the law does not allow for extra-judicial killings. That’s why the murderers should be apprehended to face the full wrath of the law.

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    The anger from the North over the incident is understandable. Any ethnic group in the country would protest over the killing of their own. If the men were indeed Hausa, then the protest by Fulani leaders was hypocritical. These are the same Fulani leaders, whose cattle plunder Hausa-owned farms on their own ancestral land and would not allow any Hausa politician to be one, just one, of the 19 Governors from the North.

    Be that as it may, the background to the sad Uromi incident must also be fully understood. Here’s how the problem was summarised by Vanguard Newspaper, after a thorough investigation: “More than 24 other communities in Edo Central, Edo North, and Edo South senatorial districts have been sacked and under siege by criminally minded herders from northern Nigeria. The same could also have arisen in over 30 communities in Delta and Bayelsa States, where the residents, especially farmers, are terrified to go to farms because of some brazen Fulani herders who invade their farms, uproot crops they planted and feed their cows, rape women, and take the villagers hostage for ransom” (Uromi Killings: Untold story of how villagers identified some of them as kidnappers before lynching, Vanguard, April 5, 2025). The story went on to detail specific incidents within the Local Government and beyond.

    On the fateful day, the trailer ferrying the ill-fated group failed to stop for the first group of vigilantes at Ubiaja, which then sent a distress signal to the group in Uromi. The latter group then used a tipper with a full load of sand to double-cross the trailer. It was then discovered that the men in the trailer “covered themselves with a tarpaulin in a truck filled with palm kernel shells”. Suspicion began to mount. Tensions rose when weapons and dogs were discovered. Nevertheless, according to the Vanguard report, mayhem was said to have been let loose only when one of the men in the trailer “stabbed the vigilante with a dagger”. At the end of the day, 16 “hunters” were gruesomely killed.

    True, Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo state moved quickly to douse tension following the incident, he could only provide temporary succour to affected families and prevent possible backlash. But his amelioration job was hardly completed when another set of four hunters was intercepted by the Edo Security Network “with three dane guns, six empty cartridges, three half filled cartridges, four cutlasses and two daggers” (Another Set of Hunters Arrested in Edo, Daily Trust, April 13, 2026). Like the first group of hunters, the new set was also travelling to Kano for the Sallah holidays.

    What is needed now is an enduring solution to this hunting problem before it escalates like kidnapping and banditry or turns into either or both. There are those who question the movement of hunters from faraway Kano to hunt in Port Harcourt. Would they just enter the forest without the knowledge of the landowners or host communities? If they are registered hunters, were they hunting in Port Harcourt with Kano hunting license or with one from Port Harcourt?

    Ideally, hunters should not cross state lines. However, if they must hunt across state lines, then it is necessary to device a measure by which such itinerant hunters could easily be identified. One way of handling this problem is to require itinerant hunters to register their weapons with the police station nearest to their hunting areas. Another method is to require them to register as hunters at the Local Government headquarters within the hunting area.

    The truth is that, given the precarious security situation in the country today, anyone carrying a weapon in any community could easily scare people, by raising the suspicion of being a kidnapper, bandit, or armed robber.

  • Maintenance; NNPC; NOA drug education

    Maintenance; NNPC; NOA drug education

    Travelling on the newly refurbished Lagos-Ibadan Expressway glaringly demonstrates the beginnings of how decay creeps quickly in to destroy the best of projections and plans. After all those billions, we ask where are the few millions to keep the road clear of dirt which is already growing healthy sized weeds.

    At the Ibafo/Mowe area, there is a pedestrian bridge and beside it on the inbound Lagos side, there an avalanche of mud invading the outer lane expressway as there is a major water control area totally ignored to date by the road monitoring team from the Federal Ministry of Works and the contractors. Hopefully this will be attended to before there is a major accident at the area.

    The observer will also notice there are clearly visible tracks gauged by heavy duty vehicles into the tarmac of the Lagos-Ibadan side noticed just north of the Abeokuta Interchange and also again just before entering Ibadan. Both areas were under the same north of Sagamu contractor. This is suggesting the terrain was very difficult or the work was not up to the standard of the other contractor who executed the south of Abeokuta part of the contract. The same heavily overweight articulated vehicles ply both contractors’ jurisdictions. It is already time for the Federal Ministry of Works to reassess the work, so recently completed and explain why there are these dangerous ruts gauged out of the road – the Abeokuta Ibadan section. Yes, vehicles are severely overweight. But the road south of the Abeokuta intersection is strong enough to withstand the weight. Why is the road north of Abeokuta intersection not strong enough? Is it the difficult terrain in the area or a different standard of work ethic?

    The pain when reading the horrendously callous, careless and maybe, corruption-driven massive financial economic and administrative failures  revealed in the 2021 NNPC Plc Audit Report can only be compared to the pain of learning about the plight of 18 million out of school children. It is urgent for the federal government to open simultaneous audits for the last three years 2022, 2023 and especially 2024 in order to quickly establish and identify criminal patterns and procedures that can be immediately stopped, now for the remaining part of 2025. It must be understood that we have multi-layered and multifaceted corruption probably running from top to bottom of such huge unaudited companies with no punishments of  the guilty at all levels of the company. There are probably many corruption points quite independent of, and unknown to, each other. It is the audits which will bring out the facts.  The country has suffered hugely for the mismanagement of the oil sector over many years. We have yearned for change without results. Indeed, we have had negative growth specifically related to budgetary failures related to failed budget targeting quite apart from the non-oil sector corruption.

    Read Also; FAAC shares N1.578tr March revenue to FG, States, LGAs

    The NNPCL audit for 2024 is even more urgent in the light of the Tariff Trump’s created ‘tariff bomb’ turmoil throughout the world and the resultant rumble in the oil sector with tumbling oil prices. We must protect, interrogate and sanitise the oil sector in our own interest and for the 18million out of school children. We cannot afford another episode of ‘frequent fraud findings’ without any action. The audits are urgently required. We must stop, learn and act positively to begin the recovery of Nigeria from the precipice of poverty and fiscal fraud.  We cannot have another combination of mindboggling corruption in NNPCL and poor petrol prices internationally.

    Nigeria cannot endure this level of unbridled corruption combined with international collapse of oil prices. Stop the corruption by all means necessary so that the only thing we need to grapple with is the falling oil price and we will survive.

    The increase in Boko Haram activities and other terrorist organisations are a major cause for concern nationwide. To add to this dire situation, we must add local drug use as deliberate policy of cartels and others aimed at polluting the youth environment. Indeed, Nigeria desperately needs a huge impact in the fight against drugs and corruption, ensuring the protection of NAFDAC forces.

    The deadly Nigerian drug scene is growing and it will take a specific campaign at youth everywhere – in and outside formal education. The size of the drug seizures is a tribute to the security agencies but also speaks to the extent of the problem. Daily, we are all exposed to witnessing some youth somewhere exposed to the effects of drugs. These effects should be introduced into the curriculum of education institutions from an early age and certainly from secondary school. The School Assembly Talks can also be used to drive the message home. Health talks by NGOs are good but they are random and miss out a huge chunk of vulnerable youth. However, if the drug education programmes is ingrained in the curriculum for all students, a sizable population of youth will be enlightened enough to educate the other half out of school during social contacts. The out of school youth will have to depend on National Orientation Agency to get the message to them in markets and communities. At LGA level, funds need to be allocated to get to the grassroots about the dangers of drug abuse along with the unfortunate growing trend of sexual and other physical and mental abuse.  

  • Monarchs, murder and ethnic baiting

    Monarchs, murder and ethnic baiting

    There’s no question that whatever happens in Kano often has implications for the way Nigeria’s unending game of thrones play out. Five years ago when then Governor Abdullahi Ganduje dethroned Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Emir, he thought he had consigned him to history’s dustbin.

    He probably expected the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to retain power in the state and sustain his legacy. Instead, the reverse happened. The New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) led by his one-time leader, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, seized power and the new governor Abba Yusuf immediately took a sledgehammer – literally and figuratively – to everything his predecessor held dear.

    He tore down multi-billion naira properties – public and privately owned – for the flimsiest of the reasons, only to have the courts slam billion naira penalties on the state for his recklessness. But monuments that became rubble were nothing; the real prize was scrapping five emirates that had been created at Sanusi’s dethronement.

    To rub salt on injury, the ogre that Ganduje thought he had banished into some anonymous corner of Nasarawa State would soon be strutting with all his peacock glory within the precincts of the Kano palace. While Sanusi accepted his removal fatalistically, his replacement, Aminu Bayero, has put up a legal fight that has created the surreal situation of one city with two kings vying for supremacy.

    In restoring the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor to his role as monarch, the state government blithely ignored an existing court injunction. Much was made of whether the ruling was given by a judge on vacation, who supposedly gave an order from outside the country. That matter is still tied up at some stage of a serpentine judicial process.

    The state government has protested vehemently that it had power under the constitution to appoint traditional rulers. Not many dispute that. However, from day one there had been suspicion that agents of the Federal Government or powerful Kano politicians now opening out of Abuja were invested in frustrating whatever the Yusuf administration was trying to accomplish.

    Hours after his unceremonious ouster, Bayero came back to Kano aboard an aircraft allegedly provided by National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu. He was said to have been led to an annex palace by an escort of troops. The claims soon had a furious Ribadu threatening legal action against those who made them.

    Despite the ferocity of his denials, elements of Kwakwanso’s NNPP and the state government swear that the Presidency and especially Ganduje are determined not to see Sanusi restored as emir. Not much proof is provided beyond the usual peculiar interpretation of judicial rulings and interventions by security agencies.

    Shortly before last week’s Eid-el-Fitr celebrations, the state police command imposed a ban on Durbars and other processions ostensibly because of security threats. Such religious holidays are occasion for the emir to parade through the streets in all his finery. But now there were two monarchs laying claim to the throne, with the very real prospect of the competing marches turning into a test of strength and popularity.

    While Bayero has largely stayed out of sight, Sanusi has carried on business as usual. On his way home after the Eid prayers at the popular Kofar Mata Eid prayer ground in Kano on Sunday; violence broke out within his entourage. By the time the dust settled, one Surajo Rabiu, a vigilante had been stabbed to death, while another sustained injuries.

    The police invited a senior title holder, Wada Isyaku, the Shamakin Kano, for questioning over defiance of the ban on durbar-related activities. What would make headline news was when a similar invitation was extended to Emir Sanusi requiring him to come for questioning in Abuja.

    A vortex of criticism was automatically unleashed with many opposition figures accusing the police of being misused to oppress the monarch because of political loyalty. It was clear the criticism hit a raw nerve because shortly before the emir was to keep the Tuesday appointment, the invitation was withdrawn. The Police issued a defensive statement explaining their action was devoid of any political undertone.

    What many critics found objectionable was having the traditional ruler travel to Abuja when his account about the violence could very easily have been obtained by the state command. For others, such an invitation should never have been issued given his eminence.

    The fact is the police and other security agencies out of overzealousness blunder from time to time. The Sanusi summons is a reminiscence of the Kogi State government and police command banning all rallies simply because Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan announced she was visiting her hometown. But by intervening the way they did, they opened the door for her defiance, reinforced her image as a victim and thoroughly embarrassed themselves when her full house rally held without a hitch.

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    The Police in Abuja may have deescalated tensions, but they emerged from this episode not looking good. They look like they can be very easily pushed around or buckle very easily in the face of a little heat.

    But that said, the impression must never be created that certain persons cannot be held to account when crimes have been committed because of their lofty positions in society. Let’s not forget that someone died during a procession that the police had banned.

    There’s no evidence anyone went to court to challenge their right to hold such events. Having seemingly acquiesced to not holding them, whoever authorised it surely has questions to answer. Even if there had been no death or violence, questions should be asked as to why one party obeyed and the other defied the order.

    But it isn’t only the police who have emerged from this not smelling of roses. Some political leaders in their desperate need to criticise something have gone overboard. Take former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, for example.

    It is common knowledge that Sanusi and El-Rufai are very close pals. When the emir was languishing in his internal exile home in Nasarawa, it was the former Kaduna governor who travelled there by road to ferry him home. So, it is only natural that he would take more than passing interest in what looked like fresh trouble for his friend.

    That perhaps explains why on April 6, 2025 he posted on his X handle an article purportedly written by one “Chuks Emeka” which trashed what the author referred to as the “Yoruba-led federal government’s” complicity in the police’s actions against Sanusi.

    Questions have been asked as to whether “Chuks Emeka” exists anywhere other than in the imagination of the former governor – the suggestion being that this was just a convenient pen name to be blamed for unwholesome opinions. By referring to the “Yoruba-led federal government”, the supposed writer was engaging in the most despicable form of ethnic baiting. By ventilating his toxic views on his handle, El-Rufai was identifying with the same condemnable hate.

    Another quote from the supposed “Emeka” piece reads suspiciously like something the 2025 vintage of the former Kaduna governor could have said or written. “And it is being carried out under a Yoruba presidency, one that many of us across the country supported out of hope for national healing, restructuring, and competence.”

    It is amazing what bitterness can do to a man who would love to be seen as enlightened. It is especially sad that a politician who clearly aspires to one day lead a nation cannot see how he’s diminished by launching low attacks against an important ethnic group within the whole.

    Perhaps El-Rufai and the “author” whose piece he admired so much that he had to reproduce it on his handle need to be reminded that even in the Southwest, Bola Tinubu didn’t win 100% of votes in his home region. Out of a total of 4, 350,987 votes cast at the presidential election in the zone, he received 2, 542, 979 – about 58.4%.

    In the Northwest where a total 6, 468, 492 votes were cast, he received 2, 652, 235 – about 41%. This was better than Abubakar Atiku’s 33.9%. The president actually got 30 percent of his total votes from this zone.

    He became president by after meeting constitutional requirements and picking up a pan-Nigerian mandate. Referring to his administration as the “Yoruba-led presidency” would be as fair as calling Muhammadu Buhari’s regime the “Fulani presidency.” No amount of bile should make one descend that low.

  • Audit NNPC 2022, 2023; Gridlock; 18m

    Audit NNPC 2022, 2023; Gridlock; 18m

    Mismanagement is a word deliberately misapplied by nefarious Nigerians to cover up deliberate fiscal failures and the premeditated financial operational calculated chaos aka systemic corruption when a Nigerian politician or appointee of a government, state or LGA in a Ministry, Department or Agency, MDA, or preferable Ministry, Agency or Department, MAD, knowingly corruptly decimates our resources. Such acts cumulatively amount to losses in the trillions of naira depriving the citizenry including our 18million out of school children and their families through a deliberate mismanagement strategy.

    The funds are corruptly removed from servicing our suffering poor, making them poorer. The theft or mismanagement particularly reduces the quality and quantity of facilities available to the needy. Such funds could have built a conducive learning environment for all including Nigeria’s 18million out-of-school youth denied quality education-a Nigerian birth right required for personal empowerment and Nigeria’s survival.

    Why do powerful Nigerians callously steal so much from poor Nigerians as to cause pain, depression, deprivation, disease and death? Why do most Nigerians in authority get so greedy, depriving the needy?

    The effects of mismanaging the MDA/MADs electricity bill and pension fund payments monthly As-And-When-Due, AAWD, are two burning examples of the suffering caused when leaders from governors etc. fail to pay legitimate  service charges AAWD, monthly, but prefer to ‘mismanage’ or corruptly ‘disappear’ the funds for self-serving corruption-driven projects with zero outcomes; or steal the money outright only to blame innocent pythons, other snakes, rats and cockroaches for eating the money meant for hospitals and schools for the 18m out of school youth and others.

    EFCC has accused an ex-governor that he so loved his own children, to the detriment of the youth, and that he took government money to pay his own children’s school fees, in dollars, for years in advance. Did he include his infants in primary school zero, or some unborn babies? The governor ignored his self-imposed responsibility for educating millions of Nigerian children with that money. If confirmed, what mismanagement/corruption!! Calculate the loss and suffering among Nigerian children made ignorant by absence of that money. Did someone die? Perhaps, because money does save the uncertain lives of mothers and their unborn babies today, instead of being stolen to guarantee the educational future of only the governor’s offspring.

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    Most leaders across MDA/MADs have similarly self-enriched and failed Nigeria. Too few managed without stealing.   Nigeria’s vast resources would have carried Nigeria higher up the ladder of development measured by the UNs MDGs and SDGs, the Transparency International Index, Corruption Perception Index etc. Foreigners since forever, release petty funds to fill the huge financial hole dug by pathologically fraudulent MAD ‘leaders’.   

    Of course, the developed world powers ensure Africa remains hungry ‘consumptive’ and ‘developing’, servile and dependent on the West. However, unasked, most African political elite under-develop their countries, and Nigeria leads by massively mismanaged Nigerian MDAs. Foreigners hardly mentioned Africa. That shows even Giant of Africa Nigeria’s ‘receivership status’ no matter how flamboyant Nigerian social functions are. We do know that foreign powers, white and yellow, snigger at us as we collect loans to steal to save in their banks. However, it is unlikely that the foreigners will take out a governor who refuses to steal or be corrupt and instead develops his state with every kobo of state income from IGR and FAAC allocations. So, what is our Nigerian leadership’s motivation to constantly steal from our children? 

    The ‘Great Lagos Traffic Jam’ of Wednesday April 2 precipitated by the ill-timed closure of one bridge is typical MDA mismanagement/corruption with misplaced power of governance. It demonstrates numerous costly, multi-billion naira loss lessons. Firstly, we see ‘Cause and Consequence of actions’. Here we clearly see cause i.e. closure, and consequence i.e. citywide 10-hour gridlock costing billions from shop closures, vendors losses from millions of office workers and trapped transporters. Secondly, we see a ‘Ministry of Road Arrogant Power’-, not a ‘Ministry of Road Service’.  Thirdly, we see no ‘Time and Motion’ studies, essential to anticipate impact and prevent ‘Action -Reaction’ traffic catastrophes.

    Disgracefully, such traffic catastrophic failures are commonplace. We have experienced it, without apology or sympathy or ministerial or press outrage, on the ‘Lagos Ibadan non-expressway’ for 15 years, ameliorated only in the last few months. Lagos, welcome to our ‘Traffic Suffering Club’ which was punished by the contractors and ignored for 15 years by the Ministry of Works when it took 6-12 hours to traverse.

    The Auditor General’s 2021 Audit revelations of NNPC Plc reveal the DISGUSTING BUT EXPECTED ‘MEGA-MISMANAGEMENT’ AKA CORRUPTION ‘DISCOVERED’ IN THE NNPC Plc. AUDIT DEPRIVING OUR 18M OUT OF SCHOOL YOUTH OF THEIR FUTURE . How dare MDA/MADs AUDIT be so illegally late? We will only see the end of multi-billion diversions when we have immediate audits and criminal charges. All federal and state funds earned should go to rescuing citizens and strengthening our murdered currency value. The federal government should order immediate simultaneous 2022 and 2023 audits and introduce an in year Quarterly Auditor-General Report to prevent MEGA FRAUD AND MISMANAGEMENT. We need such audits to force our MDA leaders to STOP STEALING THE FUTURE.

    AN 18M WEAK YOUTH ARMY, BRAIN STARVED, WILL MUTATE INTO A DESTRUCTIVE STRONG ADULT ARMY OF DESTRUCTION AND FUTURE EVIL. ANTI-CORRUPTION AUDITS ARE CHEAPER THAN FIGHTING AFTER MISMANAGEMENT CORRUPTION HAS TAKEN PLACE.        

  • Breeds of chickens and egg prices across the globe

    Breeds of chickens and egg prices across the globe

    I got interested in breeds of chickens early in life, while living with my grandmother in the 1940s and early 1950s. She raised chicken in the backyard solely for meat. I was always fascinated by her attempts to protect the little chicks from being snatched by hawks, usually just before nightfall. The behaviour of the hawks got me interested in ornithology. The interest crystallized during my Senior Fulbright Scholar Exchange year at the University of Wisconsin in the 1986/87 academic year. I spent time observing swallows in the course of their north-south migration across the Wisconsin skyline, often in response to food availability, weather changes, and habitat issues. I have since always wondered how much people knew about birds in general and about chickens in particular beyond eating their meat and eggs.

    Breeds of chickens

    There are over 100 breeds of chickens across the globe, divided into 9 broad categories. In the past, some were unique to particular localities. However, in our globalized world, many of them have been transported beyond their original habitat as part of international commerce. Nevertheless, some survive better in a particular climate than others, while others mature faster than the rest. Today, poultry farmers have improved on the methods of raising chickens on a large scale. So have scientists introduced genetic engineering as they seek new ways of growing chickens faster so they could produce more eggs and more tender meat. In the process, more is known about different categories of birds and their peculiarities.

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    The ten categories of chickens have varying memberships: Brown Layers (22); Colored Layers (7); White Layers (10); Bantams (11); BBQ Special (12); Crested Breeds (6); Ornamental Breeds (5); Rare Breeds (18); Unusual Breeds (16). Indigenous Nigerian breeds belong to one or the other of the above categories. They include Naked Neck, Featherless Wing, Rose Comb, Wild Type, and Frizzle Feather. In my part of Nigeria, these indigenous breeds are known, respectively, as Abolorun, Opipi, Onigbaogbe, Ibile, and Asa. The various breeds raised commercially in Nigeria today belong to one or the other of the 9 categories listed above. They are mainly dual-purpose breeds for meat and eggs.

    Rising costs

    However, for Nigerian housewives today, the major concern is about the rising cost of eggs rather than knowledge of types of chicken. The cost of eggs has more than doubled since early 2023, which is why some housewives use it as a reference point for asking for doubling or tripling the amount of food allowance. The problem is that they complain about the rising price of eggs in their local markets, without knowing about the price of eggs across the globe. Worse still, like everything else, they put the blame squarely on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    The truth, however, is that the price of eggs has been rising across the globe for some time now. This has given rise to the economic concept of eggflation.

    Recently, a survey was conducted on the price of one dozen eggs across 127 countries. According to the data, Nigeria is No 96 on the list and the average cost of a dozen eggs in the country rose from $0.40 (about N600 with pre-Covid exchange rate) to $1.92 (which translates to under N3,000). In Africa, only seven countries have cheaper egg prices than Nigeria. They are Morocco ($1.89), Uganda ($1.83), Cameroon ($1.80), Algeria ($1.73), Kenya ($1,59), Libya ($1.47), and Egypt ($1.45). These are countries in the bottom quarter of the price ranking. Rounding up that quarter is India at No 127. It is the only country in the survey, where a dozen eggs costs less than a dollar (at $0.97).

    By contrast, the top one quarter (30) countries with the highest prices for a dozen eggs include many European countries, such as Germany ($3.60), Italy ($3.77), UK ($3.84), France ($4.06), Greece ($4.25), Netherlands ($4.54) and Switzerland, where the cost of a dozen eggs is highest in the world at $6.81. In South and North America, the cost of a dozen eggs ranges from $1.68 in Paraguay to $3.36 in Canada and $4.16 in the United States. However, there are variations from one province or state to another within these countries.

    Critical factors

    The critical question is why are egg prices going up? It is all too easy to blame President Tinubu’s policies for inflationary pressures, which contributed to higher prices for eggs and many other products. But what about the other countries, where inflation is only in single digits, and the price of eggs is two, three, or more times higher than in Nigeria? The answer calls for global explanations.

    First, the Covid years dealt a major blow to feed production as activities were scaled down, leading to increased prices, felt in the markets as from 2023.

    Second, global events, such as the war in Ukraine, caused disruptions in the supply chain of feed ingredients, such as corn and wheat. This has caused major producers of chicken feeds to reduce or curtail production, leading to reduced supply and, consequently, higher prices.

    Third, across the globe, climate change has impacted both feed and egg production. Virtually every part of the world has experienced extreme weather (too hot or too cold) in the last few years. The impact has been felt by both feed producers and poultry farmers alike. The result is higher egg costs.

    Fourth, there have been disease outbreaks in some countries, such as the United States, where the avian flu disrupted egg supply, leading to shortages and higher prices.

    Fifth, immigration policies in the United States and some European countries have caused labour shortages, which have impacted egg production, leading to higher costs.

    The bottomline

    The bottomline is that the rising cost of eggs is a global phenomenon, and it is symbolic of increased prices of most consumer goods across the globe. Consumer illiteracy, limited knowledge of the world, untruthful politicians, and social media liars have made everything look like Tinubu’s fault.

    But then, the presidency has done little or nothing to properly educate the public about global events and the place of the administration’s policies within them. Even now that some of the policies have begun to yield some dividends, the administration has restricted its public communication to responding to criticisms, founded or unfounded. Now that the 2027 general election has begun to smell in the political air, the administration had better start preparing a robust midterm report, now that the midterm is barely two months away.

    Finally, it is high time it was made a central government policy to reduce Nigeria’s reliance on global feed supplies for chickens. Until chicken feeds are locally produced in abundance, the price of chickens and eggs will remain high.

  • Reduce corruption and political costs

    Reduce corruption and political costs

    We want an end to tanker crashes and explosions and loss of lives. The National Orientation Agency animated ‘anti-scooping petrol’ campaign must get to every Nigerian needy citizen. The high climate change temperatures may cause tyres to burst and also increase the pressure in the tanks making them potential bombs. Good, qualified responsible driving and quality maintenance of the hugely expensive vehicles, and good roads, not for increased and dangerous speeding, but for a smooth drive, are essential. 

    Following the closure of USAID etc., developing countries must quickly grow up and become self-sufficient through higher standards of political and private sector financially accountable and conclusive anti-corruption investigations to find funds to fill the huge financial hole created by disasters like the earthquakes in Bangkok, Thailand and Mandalay, Myanmar, with over 1,600 deaths. These demonstrate life’s fragility and are tragic for the millions affected.

    In Nigeria, we claim to be relatively natural disaster free. Nigeria has witnessed worldwide, stories of devastation and misery caused by droughts, floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and now another earthquake. Please add the huge cost of man-made conflicts and wars. However, we have our own problems costing us more than the cost of the above-mentioned natural and manmade disasters.

    We are all aware of the sad and distressing half century of oil pollution. We do have floods. There is also the plight of our IDP-Internally Displaced Persons even though many have helped ameliorate their suffering. Thanks, but more is needed to empower them to return to former social respectability and economic empowerment in their ancestral homes. This can only be done with successful, effective and permanent elimination, not mere interstate relocation, of terrorism and the widespread herder-caused conflicts with local farmers causing such high tensions resulting apparently in the killing of herders said to be in transit. The armed forces have been empowered but they need more support in equipment, drone coverage and personnel, in welfare, medical care of the wounded and family support. Hopefully all pension arrears have been met by recent presidential directive. PENSION PAYMENTS SHOULD START THE MONTH AFTER RETIREMENT, NOT 6-12 MONTHS. DELAYS ACCUMULATE AND BALLOON PENSION DEBT.

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    Even without many natural disasters, our Nigerian governments  and Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, have still not all lived up to the fiscal responsibility and financial fundamentals for governance repeatedly sworn to when taking office. Why are politicians boastfully blind to the responsibility for payment of legally-binding outflows for pensions, salaries and running cost like utilities? When did they stop being a sworn and sacred duty and monthly, first line deduction, responsibility of accepting to serve or lead, depending on the mind-set of the political climate. It was a disgraceful abandonment of responsibility for governments and MDAs in the past to have failed to pay pensions resulting in a mountain of debt to armed forces and other pensioners. Yet the past leaders have escaped without censure or even explanation. Nigeria is just recovering from the shocking exposure of officials refusing for years to pay electricity charges for years, plunging many government arms including military formations and teaching hospitals into darkness precipitating misery and mortality-CITIZENS DYING IN DARKNESS IN A COUNTRY WHERE BANKS DECLARE TRILLION NAIRA PROFITS?????

    Most Nigerian doctors have operated with torches on pregnant women or performed abdominal surgery for gunshot wounds. Hospitals require electricity 24/7 to run theatre, laboratory and blood banks and darkness is synonymous with death and demonstrates impotence to help save life – thus failing the very reason the hospital was provided. The serial failure, over years, of hospital management or the supervising ministry to pay past electricity bills immediately, month end, or as-and-when-due is a crime against Nigeria’s patients and the medical personnel condemned, without medical tools, to care for sick citizenry from conception to the cemetery. Modern warfare requires 24/7 electricity to power combat equipment and installations.

    Nigeria is reeling over the dismissive attitude to payment of land use dues in Abuja as revealed in the recent past. Government and private sector impunity seems to know no bounds.

    Of course, we, the non-politically connected, pre-pay through A,B,C,D extortionary electricity bands. Remember we produce a microscopic 5-7000 Mw of power for 160+million, not 200m+, when other counties have more than 60,000Mw for a 60+million population elsewhere in Africa. China adds power to its grid at the rate of 30,000MW/year.  Nigeria cannot afford to continue to carry the huge corruption burden or the huge price tag of Salaries and Perks of political office.  The destruction of a building, costing millions in state citizens’ money, just to prevent legislators from sitting, is an unacceptable price to pay in steps to solve political problems. Converting it temporarily to an orphanage would have been a wiser move, but probably illegal. The excesses of political office and the unlimited budgets are counterproductive considering our poverty level. POLITICIANS – PUT A POVERTY PHOTOGRAPH ON YOUR WALL.

    The struggling Nigerian citizen demands a reduced cost of governance with such savings applied directly to poverty alleviation strategies especially improved and widespread education facilities and electricity access- keys to development and self-empowerment jobs. Politics and the private sector must deliver more fiscal discipline with wider population impact and not just Forbes Africa Rich List winners and trillion naira bank profits while we have fiscal losers like 18million Out-of-School youth denied quality education-a birth-right required for future empowerment.

  • Rivers: The many uses of an emergency

    Rivers: The many uses of an emergency

    President Bola Tinubu truly set the cat amongst the pigeons when he declared emergency rule in Rivers State a week ago. Given that few saw it coming, initial shock was soon followed by reactions of volcanic proportions – along predictably partisan lines.

    We saw this movie and fallout in 2004 and 2006 when then President Olusegun Obasanjo interrupted democratic arrangements in Plateau and Ekiti States. It would be fair to say that the current action follows the template he put in place in those instances.

    Obasanjo’s action was met with cries that the apocalypse was upon us and democracy as we knew it was dead and buried. It should surprise no one therefore that in an already polarised country, Tinubu’s move would be greeted with an even more deafening chorus of disapproval in certain quarters.

    The critics would have you believe that the president is incapable of acting altruistically where the politics of Rivers State is concerned. They argue the emergency is a contrivance to neutralise Governor Siminalayi Fubara and empower his foe and former benefactor, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike.

    In reality, the six month suspension was really a stay of execution that has preserved his status for foreseeable future, with prospects that he could even see out his tenure. Without that intervention, in a matter of weeks he could have become an ex-governor.

    The 27 pro-Wike members of the House of Assembly who had been waiting for over a year to take their pound of flesh from a man, who turned their temple into a pile of rubble, suddenly saw their quarry snatched from their grasp. They were set for the kill; the last thing they expected was intervention that gave the enemy second wind.

    Although, they had the numbers to achieve their goal, the impeachment process is unpredictable because lawmakers are not the only players. The easy part for them is drawing up gross misconduct charges. That notice has to pass through the Chief Judge who the constitution empowers to set up a panel of respected, impartial, apolitical people to review the accusation.

    He’s not under any obligation to pick those who would help the assemblymen achieve their ends. He can empanel those who would clear the embattled governor of all the allegations – bringing the process to a screeching halt.

    Just days before the president’s surprise announcement, Wike declared at a Port Harcourt reception that he wouldn’t stop the assembly from carrying out their constitutional duties. If it meant the impeachment of his successor, he assured his auditors the heaven wouldn’t fall.

    Amidst the din of criticism many can’t see that the president has done both sides a massive favour. For while the lawmakers could push the impeachment process forward, there was no guarantee that it would have delivered their preferred outcome. At the same time, Fubara was on the ropes, subjected to daily humiliations by those he once humiliated.

    Things were not going to get better with two sides determined not to work together. The governor’s praise singers at a point when he felt he had an upper used to chant ‘Dey your dey!’ – Pidgin English for stay in your lane. It was a ditty the legislators quickly adopted for mockery after the Supreme Court verdict which restored their power.

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    I am certain that those who criticise the emergency declaration wouldn’t have been any more enthused had the assemblymen pulled off the impeachment. Constitutional questions are being raised around the power of the president to suspend a governor. It should be pointed out that the Supreme Court skirted issue in the Dariye legal challenge. It would be surprising if they got themselves further entangled in a provision that gives the Executive sufficient space for discretion.

    The legality of the impeachment alternative, which no one disputes, wouldn’t have made it more palatable, given that unlike suspension, it involves a permanent separation from a powerful office.

    Tinubu insists he acted as any responsible president would to ensure peace and protect the nation’s strategic economic assets. His opponents argue his intervention was unnecessary and just part of manoeuvring towards the 2027 general elections. Anyone who understands Nigeria’s politics knows that to prevail in the presidential contest you must control at two least of three vital voting hubs – Lagos, Kano and Rivers States.

    Of the three, only Lagos is currently in the hands of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Kano is run by Rabiu Kwankwaso’s New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), while Rivers is held by a divided Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). This makes it a plum prize for those eying the next electoral contest.

    Seen from this context, it is tempting to view emergency rule as part of some Machiavellian scheming. But rather than convey any clear advantage to a side that favours him, what the president has done is deny the Wike group a winner-takes-it-all victory. Impeachment would have removed Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, clearing the way for Speaker Martins Amaewhule, to step in.

    The president could have allowed this outcome that favours his political ally and claim he only allowed the constitutional process play out. That would have been more helpful towards his 2027 ambitions.

    The fallout from the emergency declaration has been useful for an opposition struggling to get a bearing. Conventional wisdom suggests the only way to terminate APC rule is for all other parties to come together through a merger or in form of a coalition. It’s a typical ‘me-too’ idea that seems attractive because the current ruling party deployed a similar template to topple PDP in 2015.

    Key promoters of the idea like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, saw in the firestorm an opportunity to energise their project. They hurriedly called a press conference to announce a coalition that obviously hadn’t coalesced. The cast of characters at this pre-unveiling event was sufficiently underwhelming you have to fear for the long term viability of the offspring they would birth.

    This was also an opportunity for the army of Nigeria’s would-be saviours to sing their usual dirge. It’s the same croaky rendition about the demise of democracy and all things good from undertakers who had their opportunity to make a difference. It’s almost as if by joining in the attacks their legacies would suddenly be washed clean.

    A case in point in Obasanjo who patented the declaration of state of emergency in Plateau and Ekiti States. He suspended the Joshua Dariye in the former and Ayo Fayose in the latter, naming sole administrators in their place. You would have thought he would stay out of this controversy given his past. No way!

    He has plunged in headlong, accusing members of the House of Representatives of receiving bribes to ratify the emergency proclamation. They have denied the claim and whatever evidence the former president has isn’t public knowledge yet. What we do remember is that today’s critic of legislative corruption has severally been accused of sending huge sums to effect leadership changes at the National Assembly and to prosecute his stillborn Third Term agenda. Fortunately for him Nigerians are famous for their collective amnesia.

    The emergency declaration and its aftermath has been a window for assessing the state of play in national politics as we approach the Tinubu mid-term. The constitution lays out how a president who wants to take this step should proceed. First, he makes a proclamation and then sends same with details of his programme to the National Assembly for ratification. This provision is a check against unilateral action by any emperor.

    The lawmakers must by two-thirds majority ratify his action or it is dead in its tracks, restoring power to those who had been suspended.

    APC doesn’t have two-thirds of the National Assembly members. An effective or united opposition could have halted the process, but almost all their legislators backed the president’s action. Shortly before the vote, Atiku grandly announced how he and his coalition partners were rallying lawmakers to hand the president a significant political defeat. In the end they were left with egg on their faces, quibbling about morality of using the voice vote to ratify the emergency.

    Unfortunately, this controversy has provided another opportunity for frustrated politicians and their supporters to attack the Supreme Court and others wings of the judiciary. It’s always amusing hearing laudatory comments when judgment goes in their favour and bitter jibes about compromise when it doesn’t.

    The president has acted and had his way. Emergency rule is in place and appears to be working in the early days. Legal challenges are flooding in to be adjudicated on by the same vilified judiciary. What fun it would be to hear the opinion of the critics if the courts rule against Tinubu.

  • Revisiting polytechnic education in Nigeria (2)

    Revisiting polytechnic education in Nigeria (2)

    The Chairpersons of the Governing Councils of federal polytechnics highlighted several problems facing the federal polytechnics and made recommendations to the government in a communique issued at the end of their meeting in Calabar (February 9-14, 2025). Three of those problems were discussed last week (see Revisiting polytechnic education in Nigeria (1), The Nation, March 19, 2025). The remaining issues are discussed below.

    Infrastructure

    The quality of infrastructure in the federal polytechnics is reflective of the quality of infrastructure in the country as a whole—bad roads, lack of electricity and water supply, and limited or epileptic WiFi connectivity. Although the focus of the Chairs’ recommendation is on power supply, the federal polytechnics need all these infrastructural facilities, if they were to function at optimal level. This has not been the case, however, which is why they are not able to carry out their expected mission “to produce low, middle and high-level manpower” (2019 Polytechnic Act).

    Aware of the difficulty of connecting the polytechnics to the national power grid, which has been collapsing every now and then, the Chairs recommended that the Rural Electrification Agency should be directed to power the federal polytechnics, by providing solar electrification. Fortunately, the Federal Government had recently allocated the sum of N100 billion for solar projects in selected public institutions throughout the country. Institutions, mostly polytechnics, in the rural areas should take priority in the project.

    Nevertheless, there are cases where step-down power stations only need standby technical workforce to function. As this is a distribution issue, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, should work with the DISCOs to provide the necessary personnel and equipment to get such stations connected to nearby federal polytechnics.

    Security

    There are at least three reasons to ensure the security of federal polytechnics throughout the country. First, it is necessary to protect the innocent lives of students and staff in the institutions against bandits and kidnappers now operating across the country. Second, it is necessary to protect the institutions’ property (buildings and technical equipment) against damage, theft, or vandalisation. Third, it is necessary to protect the polytechnics’ land from encroachment, which is an ongoing problem in many of the newer institutions.

    The best way to achieve this tripartite goal is to fence the perimeter of each polytechnic from one corner of the entrance gate to the other. Additional security could also be achieved by installing Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at strategic locations all over the campuses. Such cameras will not only aid in detecting possible encroachers, but they will also help in detecting infringements by internal members of the institutions.

    There also should be fully equipped security personnel at strategic locations around each polytechnic. If police personnel could be guarding politicians and businessmen all over the place, there is no excuse for not protecting federal polytechnics, which serve thousands of people at a time.

    Other recommendations

    While the retreat was going on, NBTE notified the Chairs of TETFund’s circular, indicating that federal polytechnics with less than 1000 students after three years of operation would not be entitled to intervention funds. However, the Chairs pleaded that the affected institutions were new ones, and they still needed intervention funds to make necessary progress. Besides, some of the affected polytechnics had spent only one year and had two more years to attain the 1000 enrollment figure. Moreover, it should be recognised that polytechnics are no longer as attractive to students as they used to be, because of limitations in the job market as well as discrimination against holders of HND vis-à-vis university degree. That’s why the Chairs recommended a focus on the development of entrepreneurial skills and the removal of the Higher National Diploma-B.Sc. dichotomy, by converting HND to B.Tech degree.

    Another issue in the Chairs’ communique is the appointment of Rectors of federal polytechnics. Up till now, only the Federal Ministry of Education could handle the appointment of Rectors for the federal polytechnics. This often led to the delay and politicisation of the appointment by civil servants. A review of the Polytechnic Act would be necessary to empower the Governing Councils o take on this role as is the case with university Governing Councils. After all, the Councils are much more familiar with the needs and peculiarities of their institutions and are better suited to appoint suitable Rectors.

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    Updates

    Some developments affecting polytechnic education have occurred or been accelerated, following the Chairs’ communique.

    On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, the bill to abolish the discrimination between university degrees and HND, by replacing HND with a B.Tech degree, has scaled the second reading in the House of Representatives.

    If passed, the bill would bring two critical innovations to the polytechnics. First, as indicated last week, the degree component of polytechnic education would have to be handled by the National Universities Commission to maintain parity of standards with university degrees. Second, a polytechnic Rector must have a minimum of a doctorate degree. Ideally, Rectors should be manned by Professors in order to be able to adequately drive the institution’s research agenda and enhance the degree component of polytechnic education.

    Work is also ongoing on the review of the scheme of service in the polytechnics. It is hoped that the polytechnic managements have been part of the process. Much too often, innovation trickles down from the civil service, without the input of critical stakeholders.

    Conclusion

    The state of infrastructure in the polytechnics today recalls a sociological dictum, proposed by Emile Durkheim, the father modern sociology, namely, that education can do no more than reflect society. However, in view of the need for our youths to compete not just within the local markets, but also in a global market, efforts should be made to upscale the infrastructure of educational institutions in the country to maximise their teaching and learning potentials. The Federal Government has a duty to ensure adequate funding of the polytechnics it established, beyond the funds provided by TETFund.

    In a way, the communique under discussion recalls the NEEDS Assessment of Universities of 2013. Eleven years after, federal universities remain in dire need. It would appear that the present Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, is determined to carry out the mandate of the present administration to rescue federal polytechnics from performance malaise. The starting point is taking this communique seriously.