The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Nigeria @ 64; Governors: Serve, not steal

    Nigeria @ 64; Governors: Serve, not steal

    Happy National Day October 1, yesterday. Has politics passed its GGE, Good Governance Examination @ 64? Which of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals did we achieve? The SDG chart should be in every government office and addressed daily! On the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index Nigeria @ 64 scored 25 % and placing 145/180 countries. The ‘pride of the nation’- its currency, the naira, is drowning below the value of a sheet of toilet paper. Petrol is N50K-100K/tank, while N70k is monthly minimum wage. Who is holding Nigeria back when we have so much to spend or steal?

    Historical Fact check:  South Africa’s apartheid, anti-black, delivered 45,000Mw of electricity in the 70s. Nigeria @ 64 with years of politics promise struggles with 5,300Mw and the cost and losses to education and work productivity of constant blackouts and millions of generators. Shame! Obviously a corrupt milito/politics since the 60s is worse than apartheid as the power deficit remains uncorrected despite a corrupted multi-billion naira power roadmap including the Mambilla debacle. Will the Siemens Plan bring succour or be forced to feed political greed, further depleting the electricity grid? The Oct 1, 2025 Nigeria @ 65 exams will tell.

    What is the dark secret of our low election turnout vs high voter cards numbers? Look at the Edo election turn-out. Approx. 562k out of 2.2m voters registered i.e. 25%. Where were the remaining 1.6million voters? Do they actually exist? How many voting cards are fraudulent? How many of the 562K votes were just criminally thumb-printed? Perhaps actual voter numbers were lower by 1-20%. A frightening thought.  

    From Nigeria @ 64 our governors and LGAs must step up to ‘Save our Souls’. Nigerians ask: “What is the economic or criminal problem with our governors? Are they broke on arrival and swear to be multi-billionaires on departure? Are they financially exhausted from the election and must spend 4-8 years recouping the expended fund to the neglect of the oath to the state children? Why do many governors leave office and proceed on invitation directly to the EFCC office which ‘suddenly discovers’ the disappearance of huge sums accompanied by huge jubilation with chants meaning ‘Hurray! The thief is gone, gone, gone’?

    A governor is primus inter pares, the first citizen out of 2-15million citizens of the state with responsibility and hopefully respect for each and every state citizen and passing traveller.  During 4-8 years, the governor swears to take responsibility for the education and health policies and provisions of the children and youth he, the governor, chose to become leader of. Disgracefully we see many governors accused, if not arrested, prosecuted and convicted by EFCC and the citizenry of stealing multiple billions of the state’s funds. Governors are known to fight hard to secure the ‘Safety of the Senate SEAT’ after office, while accusing EFCC of corruption, party vendetta, incompetence and even with power to interview and intimidate the candidates for EFCC and the Chief Judge. Yes, most governors usually manage to escape criminal charges often on irresponsible court summersaults like legally illegal jurisdiction and absolutely unbelievable irresponsible technicalities but the deplorable condition of most states in terms of Sustainable Development Goals assessment backs up the question ‘where did all the money go?’ Yet these people are from their intra-state tribal grouping, and not from federal or another state where ethnicity could be blamed but not excused for mega-criminal activities like theft of billions. 

    Read Also: Nigeria @64: Our Nation is woven together with resilience, creativity – May Edochie

    Yes, Mr Governor, these state citizens especially the beautiful children are your own flesh and blood who as governor you sent yourself to undertake to provide maximum social services to as ‘Papa OF ALL THE STATE CITIZENS’. Is it not enough for you to have 4-8 year unknown pay and perks and ridiculous pension and 4-8years of secret security vote. Do not forget to add the avalanche of personal gifts and presents of office given by all and sundry for ‘congrats for becoming governor’ and governor’s family events like for 4-8 annual rounds of birthday presents, 4-8 rounds of wedding anniversary [x number of wives] presents, 4-8 rounds of children’s birthdays, children’s weddings while governor, the odd family parental mega-funeral [for the illustrious papa or mama governor or his wife/wives] replete with presents and fat envelopes and cash boxes from towns, LGAs and every Ministry, Agency and Department very appropriately abbreviated, not by me, to MAD. Then let us add every contractor etcetera. No need to steal!

     States have 50-100% Federal Allocations increase added to the increased Internally Generated Revenue. Even though the naira has been rubbished, governors do not impress the citizenry in need. Excellent public schools should be among minimum standards expected from Nigeria’s ‘Excellency’ governors. A good education system brought praise of Chief Awolowo. His jurisdiction as Western Region Premier is now under 5-7 governors. Yes, the numbers of children has exploded but so have the resources. After all EFCC accuses many governors of stealing N27-80b. 

    Citizens, governors and wives please imagine what 27 or 80 separate allocations of N1billion each would have done to standard projects like sports equipment, scholarships, libraries, classroom books, computers, educational posters, hospital and clinic equipment, pothole filling, water and sanitation, and security provision in the state schools and communities where the governors offered to serve, not steal.

    Governors @ 2024: There is more glory serving than stealing. No governor will ever have enough to spend. Honest governors steal their people’s hearts. A stealing governor steals his people’s future.

  • Why it is necessary to devolve powers now

    Why it is necessary to devolve powers now

    Nigeria is one of 57 countries that have adopted the presidential system of government in which the President is the head of government. All 57 presidential systems are republics. Thirty-seven of these countries do not have a Prime Minister, while twenty have opted to have a Prime Minister along with the President. In such a case, it is the President, who chooses the Prime Minister. Nigeria, like the United States, is among the twenty countries in which there is no Prime Minister. Instead, there is a Vice-President, who is chosen by the President. All presidential systems are republics.

    However, in terms of structure of government, not every presidential system is a federation, that is, an entity in which partially self-governing units exist, be they regions, states, provinces or known by some other name. In a typical federal structure, each of these units makes its own constitution and controls its resources and the administrative units below it.

    An agreed percentage of tax and revenue from other sources is paid to the central government by each federating unit so it can perform its constitutional role. There are at least 26 such federations in the world today, distributed as follows: Europe (6); Asia (6); Africa (5); North America (4); South America (3); and Oceania (2).

    Nigeria is one of the twenty-six federations in the world, but more in name and theory than in practice. The most vexing issues include security and the distribution of resources and powers among the federating units. True, Presidents in all presidential systems are powerful, but the Nigerian President is excessively powerful, because the constitution gives him too much power, by allocating more functions to the centre than to the federating units. Besides, Nigerian Presidents have expanded their sphere of influence over the years, for example, by setting up new universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education all over the place. In the process, it bit more than it could chew.

    A distorted resource allocation formula may have been a motivating factor. The central government in Nigeria has the lion share of national resources, cornering as much as 52.6 percent, while the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory share only 26.7 percent and the 774 LGAs 20.6 percent. The distortion is further demonstrated by the existence of a Federal Ministry of Agriculture when the federal government has neither land nor farmers.

    Read Also: Akpabio urges Edo governor-elect, Okpebholo, to be magnanimous in victory

    The continued agitation for self-fulfillment and the twin problem of insecurity and economic hardships has led to increased demand for devolution of powers to the states. The recent direct link between the federal government and the local councils has further raised the questions about the status of local councils in relation to federating units.

    It would appear, however, that the recent Supreme Court ruling that  local councils’ revenue allocation be paid directly to them by the revenue allocation committee stemmed from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s attempt to curb the excesses of state Governors, who have cornered local councils’ resources over the years. It is important to fully understand the atrocities of state Governors. Many of them are known to have suspended local council elections, as provided for in the constitution, and instead appointed so-called caretaker chairpersons and councillors. Some Governors are alleged to have cornered as much as N40-50 million every month from local council funds. For these reasons, some have argued that power should not devolve to the present crop of Governors.

    However, power devolution will survive the present crop of Governors. Besides, there are stronger and more pressing reasons why the exercise should take place now, bearing in mind that the legislative work may take some time. First, the states have to take more responsibility in implementing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic policies by making citizens see state Governors, and not the President, as the ones in charge of their economic destiny. Anger and protests have been directed at the President because citizens do not view their Governors as equally culpable. Citizens will begin to hold their Governors accountable the moment they realise that Governors are directly responsible for their economic destiny.

    There is also an urgent need to complete the process of ensuring that each state is empowered to recruit and manage its own police force in order to strengthen security at the local level. There is no substitute for local knowledge, which local police may possess, especially if they speak the local language and have lived in the community, even before enlisting in the service. Fortunately, this process has begun. It needs to be completed.

    Second, there is an urgent need to redistribute resources so that each state could attend to its peculiar needs. Accordingly, the allocation formula should be modified in favour of states. This will reduce the belief that Abuja is one giant ATM machine from which money could be withdrawn at any time.

    It is well known that oil is the major revenue earner for Nigeria. It is also well known that there are those who think that the devolution of powers will adversely affect them. Such people need to be assured that they stand to gain, rather than lose, from devolution of power and resources. For example, states and their citizens stand to gain a lot more from a modified allocation formula that gives, say, 60 percent to states and local governments instead of the present 47.4 percent. Such a development will encourage those who look to Abuja for one thing or the other to start looking to their state governments.

    Third, it is high time Nigeria operated as a true federation like the others in which the federating units are the first and, in many cases, the last point of call for redress on most issues. In the United States, for example, states are the federating units. Each one has its own constitution, police, and system of justice. The police are distributed across the state—to government institutions, including primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions and to major entertainment centres, such as sports complexes and film studios.

    Fourth, devolution of powers should go side by side with the return of many tertiary institutions to the states in which they are located, including the ones forcefully taken from them by military fiat. It will be up to the states to decide on what to do with them. As of today, the federal government owns 62 universities, 37 polytechnics, and 27 colleges of education. For decades, they all have been under-funded. By contrast, the United States government owns only nineteen federal academies, 14 of which are for training the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, and Coast Guard. Some of these academies are dedicated to postgraduate training. The remaining five non-military academies are for training specialised federal workers, such as the FBI, Firefighters, and Foreign Service personnel.

  • Edo: One poll, two referendums

    Edo: One poll, two referendums

    In many jurisdictions, off-cycle or mid-term legislative and gubernatorial elections are cast as referendums on the government at the centre. Where the administration is struggling, usually the ruling party’s flagbearers at different levels are punished. Last Saturday’s governorship poll in Edo State was set against the backdrop of a lingering cost of living crisis that has put many on edge.

    Some of the shock that trailed the victory of Senator Monday Okpebholo, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), flows from this. But it confirms that politics is not as straightforward as solving a mathematical equation; it’s more complex. It reaffirms the old truism that all politics is local.

    Many will recall that the February 2023 presidential election was held against a canvass of harsh measures taken by the then President Muhammadu Buhari administration. Those actions had observers questioning whether APC was really keen on winning the poll. In January, it unveiled the naira swap policy that vacuumed the currency out of circulation. An irate citizenry, unable to access their funds through the banks, were primed to unleash fury against the ruling party.

    As if the currency change wasn’t bad enough, fuel pumps also ran dry across the country – triggering a spike in prices. At the height of the crisis an exasperated APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, blurted out at a campaign stop in Abeokuta, Ogun State, that the measures were aimed at stopping him from winning. They were believed to be engineered by forces within his own party who weren’t too thrilled at the prospect of him becoming president.

    He then declared defiantly that even if every naira note was recalled or fuel taps shut, Nigerians would vote and he would be elected. His prophecy came to pass: the rest is history.

    Again, many who were incredulous at APC holding on to power last year, despite the blowback arising from its badly-timed policies, forgot that the dynamics which determine poll outcomes are unpredictable. Elections are not always won by the most pleasant, eloquent, educated candidates; building roads, bridges, schools and hospitals is also no guarantee that an incumbent would be returned to office. Sometimes, mundane matters like likeability, gender, misinformation, ethnicity, hate make the difference.

    Still, Nigeria’s current economic struggles were a gift which the opposition parties could have made a meal of. But it wasn’t an issue that resonated. All those who had been waiting to write the obituary of the Tinubu presidency were left scratching their heads – even predicting that if the trend continued, he might be very difficult to dislodge in 2027.

    Read Also: Abia govt to implement new minimum wage for civil servants in October

    If one side failed to make the poll a referendum on the performance of the ruling party, their rivals successfully turned it into payback time for outgoing Governor Godwin Obaseki who had managed to transform everyone he could find into political foes.

    If the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) who are making the usual noises about Nigeria’s democracy being in ICU would be honest, they were defeated not account of rigging, but because they came to the fight with a divided house, one whose arrowhead had been successfully defined as the villain of the piece.

    It wouldn’t be a Nigerian election if there were no allegations of manipulation and vote buying. Unfortunately, none of the leading parties – including the distraught losers – is in a position to point fingers.

    The PDP lost this election because its outgoing state leader Obaseki, forgot how he won a second term. Orphaned by the APC on whose platform he had served his initial term, he ran to the likes of former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, who accommodated him and handed him a party ticket that seemed to be heading to former House of Representatives member, Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama.

    Denying Obaseki the APC gubernatorial ticket in 2020 split the ruling party. Buhari and the governors wanted him to be the flagbearer. When this didn’t happen, the governors turned their backs on the Adams Oshiomhole-supported Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. They boosted their colleague financially and morally away from public scrutiny. It was so bad that the party couldn’t hold its grand finale rally due to the coldness of the governors. The result was the comprehensive defeat of the APC slate.

    Unfortunately, in less than four years, Obaseki’s desperate need for control saw him scattering the intricate coalition that sustained him in power. He was a one-man wrecking ball.

    He quickly fell out with Wike and his supporters in the so-called Legacy Group of Edo PDP led by Chief Dan Orbih. This group also included Ogbeide-Ihama who had sacrificed a ticket that was virtually his. The governor humiliated and hounded his erstwhile deputy, Phillip Shuaibu, out of office because he didn’t want him as his successor. This was the same fellow who betrayed his benefactor Oshiomhole to join forces with those who secured the governor a second tenure.

    Anyone who knows anything about the Binis knows how much they revere the Oba of Benin. Constitutionally, the governor may have the whip hand over the monarch, but many a politician has learnt the hard way that crossing the palace is a one-way ticket into the power wilderness. But Obaseki would have none of that – as he engaged the Oba in a well publicized public dispute over custodianship of returned artifacts.

    By election time last weekend, the governor had managed to assemble and unite a stellar cast of formal and informal opposition whose common interest was defeating him, and everything he represented. Even Oshiomhole who had failed in his bid to install his choice as APC candidate, ate humble pie and fell in line, just for the sweet pleasure of seeing his upstart godson fall. Little wonder the rally cry of the governor’s foes was ‘Ofonee’, – ‘It is finished’ in local parlance.

    Obaseki was not a candidate in the election but it was really all about him. He ensured the party picked his preferred candidate, Asue Ighodalo, much to the bitterness of local politicians who felt they were more qualified and had better pedigree to win an election in Edo.

    It wasn’t as if Ighodalo was a bad man. If anything, his profile was such that any party would have been glad to have him under different circumstances. He is a well-heeled corporate lawyer and boardroom titan. But his very identification with the governor became his undoing. In the course of trying to woo back disaffected PDP members he was told bluntly that they had no issues with him but the person behind him.

    The election has been won and lost fairly – never mind the standard noise. A united opposition could have made it a referendum about 17 months of Tinubu’s administration, instead the APC successfully turned it into one about Obaseki’s divisive eight-year rule. He wasn’t on the ticket yet his shadow loomed so large over the real candidate such that those who would vote, could not because of Ighodalo’s qualities overlook the outgoing governor’s sins. They had become joined at the hip.

    This election may not have been perfect but it is a marked improvement on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) efforts in recent years. Last year, so much mischief was made of the commission’s failure to post results seamlessly on iREV. By 11.00pm last Saturday over 97% of results had been put up for viewing. Less than 24 hours after, a winner was announced.

    This was a poll over which not one person has been reported killed! As far as Nigerian elections go that’s just amazing. There might have been the usual logistics delays in places but these things happen.

    INEC is always a convenient scapegoat, one to be blamed by diabolical politicians. But it is perhaps time to turn the spotlight in the right direction. Those who buy votes or send thugs to snatch election materials or just wreak havoc, are politicians. It doesn’t matter if the best arrangements are made, they would always find a way to discredit the process. Perhaps, it dulls the pain of losing somewhat for them. Imagine for one moment if the outcome had favoured them. The supposedly abysmal performance of the poll organizers would have been swiftly ignored. Such revolting hypocrisy!

  • Oct 1: $50billion birthday present

    Oct 1: $50billion birthday present

    Oct 1: time to give back a $50billion birthday@64 present. We used to say that Nigeria had only one disaster,  a greed-driven politics and its misleading selfish political class- 100% subsidised by the citizenry! We reached this conclusion because Nigeria has for years been saved from the other disasters plaguing the world. We thanked God that Nigeria did not experience wildfires, earthquakes, droughts, floods, famines and murderous conflict- all of which would have compounded our problems and crippled us further as a nation by adding millions to the list of suffering with massive material and economic losses. So, we had no excuse for the poor delivery of services as the money for health, education, transport, justice and security was available, but sadly was always misused or abused or overpaid for with massive padding of contracts or just boldly stolen with impunity under the ‘immunity clause’.

    Today however the confluence of political and climate change catastrophes, like the ongoing Maiduguri floods with more than two million displaced, unites in an explosion of poverty. 

    Corruption and consequent poor political service and Social Development Goals (SDG) delivery have been compounded by a poor political and inadequate military response to terrorist and bandit attacks with thousands dead, 5+ million Internally Displaced Persons IDPs, and millions made broken in spirit and financially. These victims, through family and business losses are now dependent on anyone especially passers-by at traffic lights, road junctions and social functions nationwide where the avalanche of desperate poor is threatening national security at every victim/passer-by contact point. This has made transport and travel nightmare events. The traveller feels very uncomfortable and in danger of physical attack if a financial token is not immediately paid.

    Remember that most travellers are not particularly well-off because most people are also having financial troubles and there is a conflict between the desire to help and the reduced financial ability to help the needy poor who multiply as soon as any cash appears for one victim.

    The poor value of the naira, the key component of our nationwide economic suffering and main cause of the current backbreaking fuel and electricity price crisis, must be laid at the feet of the serial criminals in and out of political office backed by an irresponsible banking structure. This banking structure revels in annual mega profits from round tripping and super-high bank charges for little actual banking services delivered and a high level of ‘criminal banker’s  silence’ over even hugely suspicious high volume bank account movements. These excesses have rubbished the economy over more than a generation.

    It is hoped that the EFCC is truthful and not just idle talk or deceptively boastful, when it says it is investigating the banks and bank account holders as a new key to unlock new doors to financial crime detection and deterrence. But the EFCC has been around for many years.

    Read Also: We feel your pain, economic challenges will soon be over, Akpabio begs Nigerians

    Why did past EFCC officials neglect its sworn duty to prevent economic crime by preventive surveillance like reports of strange and large deposits? Even if it did not want to or was prevented from going after political figures, there are thousands of non-political financial criminals who could have been caught or cautioned long before Nigeria fell into this sorry economic state and terrible exchange rate. EFCC needs to sit down with economists and discover and redraw its strategy, responsibility, opportunity and remember it has a huge role in raising the foreign reserves.

    Raising funds for a foreign reserves of $50b, $60, $70, $80, $90, $100b, could have and should have been done long ago by nation building politicians. Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth must be distinguished from Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth has been given away as oil blocks to individuals. This crime was committed by our civilian and military leadership and has helped impoverish the country while making the recipient owners into dollar billionaires, by being dashed oil blocks or bidding for them. This personalisation of public wealth, oil blocks, is something alien to most oil producing countries worldwide. The oil block owners form just one single group of dollar billionaire beneficiaries of Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth. There are other groups of dollar billionaires including bankers, and some business moguls. They often benefitted from loopholes, tax breaks and even illegalities often at the expense of the poor citizen.

    Sadly, today we witness the despair, desperation and demands of countless adult and child beggars, living and facing the dangers, day and night, in the terrifying corners and crevices of the roadside. Close your eyes and imagine their lives at night! We should remember we are witnessing a possible impending massive poverty driven breakdown of law and order at the traffic lights and road junctions countrywide. We must do something urgently to alleviate this hunger for food and justly paid work.

    The various groups of Nigerian dollar billionaires, many at the expense of the other citizens, should give an October 1 present to Nigeria and collectively meet and decide to lend or donate or give back or return $20-50billion back to the country through the CBN. Sounds stupid? Really? Predicting the degree of poverty today sounded stupid when we warned that 100% corruption would kill the country 100%. Just as you look out of your car window at poverty; poverty is looking in through the same window. Be warned! Oct 1 IS TIME TO GIVE BACK and give or loan Nigeria@64 CBN a $50b Birthday present.    

  • Nigeria’s money-making practices

    Nigeria’s money-making practices

    In Nigeria today, fat money is made from party politics, religion, petroleum, and a variety of activities, including kidnapping, banditry, and robbery. Moreover, bank owners make fat money from excessive profits, some fraudulently. Besides, the youth also believe that quick money could be made from fraudulent activities, including internet fraud and money rituals, both associated with Yahoo Boys.

    The majority of Nigerian politicians who contested elections since 2003 could be said to have done so with the intention of serving themselves at the expense of the people, who elected them into office. I exclude those who came into power in 1999 after 30 years of military dictatorship. Many of them, such as Chief Bisi Akande of Osun state, went into politics to serve the people and not themselves. They had goals and worked hard to achieve them. Chief Akande’s 4-year government in Osun constructed the state secretariat complex, which remains in use till today. What is more, he ran the government with less than a dozen commissioners, and did not borrow a penny throughout his tenure.

    However, those who took over from them or continued in office after rigged elections, took electoral heist into state treasuries and started looting them. The records of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission alone bear testimony to this conclusion. They show that huge amount of money has been stolen from national, state, and local government treasuries in the last twenty-one years. Undetected and overlooked leakages from the three tiers of government are equally huge. This is particularly troubling at the federal level, which gets as much as 52 percent of total federal revenue.

    Petroleum, which is the primary source of government funds, is also a primary site of fat money. The Nigeria National Petroleum Commission, now constituted into a limited liability company as NNPCL, has been in the eye of the storm over stolen oil, unremitted funds, and controversial petrol subsidy. Even after the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu removed the subsidy, the controversy continues along two dimensions. On the one hand, some argue that subsidy really has not been (fully) removed. On the other hand, others argue that its removal is the primary cause of hunger and anger in the land, because of the effects of the hikes in petrol price on the cost of living.

    The belief in the money-making power of petroleum products, especially petrol and motor oil, is behind the mushrooming of petrol stations across the country. Today in Idanre, my hometown, some ancestral homes have been converted into petrol stations. Many petrol dealers are known to hike their prices beyond the recommended limit. In order to achieve their goal, they sometimes create artificial scarcity, leading consumers to buy at their set prices.

    Read Also: APC chieftain urges FG to implement price control policies to combat inflation

    Religion is another source of making money in Nigeria. To be sure, there are those who really believe in God and go to church for that purpose. However, the mushrooming of churches and pastors is linked more with its economic than spiritual returns. This is particularly true of pentecostal churches, which preach prosperity gospel to their congregation. However, the pastors themselves are the ones who prosper from donations from their congregations and other sources.

    Like church founders and pastors, who make money on the back of their congregations, bank owners also make money on the back of their customers. It is only in Nigeria that depositors pay to withdraw part of their money. President Tinubu’s policy of unifying the exchange rate further exposed how banks engaged in high stakes speculations by keeping foreign currencies in their vaults, and later selling to buyers at exorbitant rates. This practice is nothing short of white collar fraud.

    Banditry, kidnapping, and related criminal activities thrive, because they are ways of making quick money for the perpetrators of these crimes. Hundreds of millions of Naira are known to have gone into ransom payment to kidnappers, while cows worth several millions of Naira have been rustled. There is a sense in which the occasional destruction of villages and state structures is a way of creating fear and subsequent submission to ransom seekers, who then use part of the ransom to buy weapons to be used in the continued creation of fear.

    Growing in these money-making practices and observing the materialist orientation of society, many a youth have latched onto their version of these practices. The results are internet fraud and money rituals. The decline in funding, infrastructure, staffing, and learning tools in educational institutions has created a ready context for truancy and fraudulent activities. The joblessness of many graduates of tertiary institutions further amplifies this context.

    A much wider context for all these practices is endemic corruption in Nigeria, where politicians sowed and continue to nurture its seeds. A dimension of corruption in the corridors of power that has received little or no attention is the sale of government positions by a few gate-keepers close to the President. These are people in a position to advise the President or are responsible for transmitting the President’s decision to appointees in the form of letters of appointment. Some appointees are known to have paid between N5 and N25 million Naira to be nominated to serve or to collect their letter of appointment.

    Other state agents take advantage of their position to extort the public. For example, the police and the army do theirs at checkpoints. In the final analysis, Nigeria has been turned into a huge money-making machine for the few at the expense of the masses. It will take more than the government to break the corruption bubble. There are laws, alright, but what about enforcement? Sermons are also unhelpful since pastors themselves operate within the corruption bubble. It is easy to say that it will take the cooperation of the masses to break the bubble. But how? It is a question in need of serious consideration.

  • Before Nigeria @64 October 1 speech

    Before Nigeria @64 October 1 speech

    Do politicians in new governments have a ‘right to recoup’ funds reportedly expended on the election – ‘The Election Deficit’? Most governors immediately announce a mega-project believed to have ‘The Election Deficit’ built in.

    There is often also an exit plan to fund the next election by similar fictional project funding to create a so-called ‘Election War Chest’. In short, it is not politicians, but the people who pay for elections. Most of the politicians must admit the source of wealth is illegal through the government purse, a mega-subsidising of politicians themselves.

    In contrast to this double theft, elections of the US, UK etc. are funded by non-refundable voluntary donations from citizens, in and outside the party and the private sector. No federal or state fund theft! We refused to learn correct democracy methods and take wrong turns including stealing real public funds for sham democratic elections.

    The world now knows that some countries are playing with ‘disgraceful democracy dynamite’ set to explode the myth of superpower democratic principles. We have political and governance problems created by the undemocratic among us who seek to manipulate everything or smash the world around. This serial ‘greed above need’ caused our national disgraceful economic failure to meet the development plans, Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) and now Social Development Goals (SDGs) and the power supply needs since 1960.

    Another October is around the corner and no doubt new promises, new dreams and new directions will be pointed out to feed the spirit if not the bodies of the needy 80% living in poverty with political rhetoric to fill their empty stomachs. However, we are brought to October 1, in wheelchairs, on stretchers, hobbling on crutches and walking sticks, drop-ups from schools and health system failures, being led and cared for by carers who are increasingly turning to steal from and murder their employers.

    Read Also: Presidency debunks CBN Governor’s rumoured resignation

    Already, farm workers have a very low reputation for honesty.  The police have struggled with a similarly tarnished reputation. Even rich politicians steal, but has anyone addressed the wages of these groups of workers, or are they kept low because the teaching is that they would steal even if much better paid?

    Those preparing to listen to the rhetoric on October 1 are mostly reeling from unmitigated fall in their quality of life and the truncated pleasures of life due to a miserable financial situation. Before the speeches, it may be wise for speech writers, speech givers and advisers to mingle with the poverty struck masses, visit representatives of the millions out of school, the occupants of the IDP camps and growing army of desperate hands knocking persistently on car windows for something to eat-or else! They witness, participate in, or are victims of the unbelievable pain and suffering across the land from the multiple deep cuts of an arrogant and growing menace of terrorism, fruition of secret plots displacing entire generational and ancestral populations to the grave or the IDP camps for years in order to seize possession for mining as well as political control, unpaid salaries and pensions, maiming or murdering many millions, underpaid for work done.

    Almost no one earns a living wage outside the political class and upper echelons of the private sector. As we approach October 1, what type of speeches, and what manner of content, do we expect from our president and governors come October 1, Nigeria@64. Certainly 64 years is long enough to get Nigeria the same electricity power as South Africa. Look at the Asians, penniless in the 60s at their independence and now so good that they are called Asian Tigers. Any African Tigers? Certainly, we have many politicians, bankers, corporate leaders who are billionaires at the expense of the people but their contribution to the economy is little beyond a few underfunded or misguided Corporate Social Responsibility projects with a few exceptions.

    October 1 speeches need to deliver uplifting real solutions to our politically precipitated problems which have mutated into severe economic hardship nationwide. Now add terrorism and floods! Even the rich are suffering as masses of needy staff, family, friends and strangers explode in number and desperation. The call to help the masses is ringing from every corner and will not be silenced.

    Disgracefully, speech or no speech, ten million Fellow Nigerian children will not go to school-an ignored ‘National Child Social and Educational Emergency’ and unimaginable collective political insult on Nigerians and a failure. Tens of millions of other children this week are resuming in schools that their parents can no longer afford to continue to send them to. And this does not include the astronomical increase in fuel cost of transporting school children. Everyone is afraid of everybody especially domestic staff, drivers and even security staff and passers-by. Nigeria is descending into a fear state. We all remember giving rides to strangers as a social responsibility for years. Like you, I have done it tens of times. It was what defines our humanness, our morals – to help the accidented, the injured, the broken down and the hitch-hiking policemen on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway travelling merely to collect their criminally or negligently withheld salary for months after a transfer. Now you are warned to do ‘none of the above’.

    Who will help the needy of Nigeria now? Last week a person reminded me that I had given him a lift 45 years previously. No more? Or just less humanity?    

  • Nigeria: Stop subsidising politicians

    Nigeria: Stop subsidising politicians

    We wish Ajuri Ngalale a good outcome on his family emergency. We urge an urgent full-scale assault on terrorists everywhere. 

    Understanding subsidy necessity: Economists, if not politicians, know that economic power depends on worldwide honest subsidies which are the weapon of the ‘good politics war’ to keep the economy going especially with unliveable minimal wages. The rich need no subsidy. They pay for their needs, and greed. Politicians cannot pay but force themselves into this rich class by abusing the system to get riches often as self-awarded perks of office –‘free’ housing, security, generator power, vehicles, free staff and huge corruptly calculated Salaries, Allowances, Perks and Pensions.

    Think carefully. All these seized political benefits are actually dishonest subsidies taken forcefully from the citizens’ budget. Please cut every political income by 75%.   Politicians, with too few exceptions – immediately ostracised for breaching the ‘Political Greed Code’- are often poor in mind, morals and material wealth and are not born rich. In office these politicians abuse their control of administrative buttons to disproportionately allocate unto themselves budgetary billions, constituency and contract projects, specifically to make their own personal income, connections and opportunities enrich themselves more than the ‘legitimately’ rich. 

    On election, most politicians spring out of poverty like out of a pool of blood-thirsty piranha. They run up the economic ladder, like lizards with fires in their tails, ascend palm trees, leaving the miserable poor people behind. They abandon their political responsibility to uplift the people. The politicians refuse to travel, shop, use medical or educational services; rely on grid-electrify or live within budget or reduce the people’s poverty burden. They refuse to adequately raise workers’ salaries to counter the negative effects of currency collapse or reduce the cost of living by providing affordable essential services.

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    Yet, delivering such services by very definition requires the government to identify, absorb or input the cost differential-called a subsidy. That is what government is for – to make decisions favourable for country and citizenry survival and not to satisfy political greed and corruption demands. 

    The massive figure called corruption built solely by the dishonestly subsidised political class, though it blames the citizens, grabs all the funds from essential services the citizen needs. Good governance demands that government provided running water, electric power, motorable roads, health, security, education and entrepreneurial opportunities-with honest subsidies.    

    Every nation needs a citizen survival lifeline from government, even the richest. Interestingly, the richest countries have such lifelines in quantity providing honestly subsidised health care, power, water and other services. We know agricultural, health, road, educational and energy subsidies throughout the developed world and all with under 10% corruption.

    But to do this successfully, governments must keep corruption at bay, usually under 10% in each project.  Where massive political corruption scams take social, salary, transport networks, electricity, pension services schemes hostage with minimal, unworkable or unearnable wages, then social disaster explodes.

    Social disaster turns back the ‘Human Behaviour Clock’ precipitating society collapse! The 12 o’clock good citizens become 2 o’clock bad citizens, the 2 o’clock bad citizens become 4 o’clock criminal citizens, the 4 o’clock criminal citizens become 5 o’clock harmful citizens and 5 o’clock harmful citizens become 6 o’clock murderous citizens and the 6 o’clock murderous citizens become 7 o’clock terrorists and kidnappers.

    Since the 80s, diplomats and IMF and World Bank officials have condemned our dishonest fuel subsidy as abused by massive corruption, transportation across our deliberately porous borders, oil theft, and with only a trickle of benefit reaching the citizenry. Agreed, but the citizens were also getting their God-given gift -cheap fuel. This guaranteed cheap fuel reduced transport, food, housing, healthcare and access to services and even pocket money and home-school-home costs. No subsidy, no cheap fuel, just suffering. Period!

    The citizens cannot provide military, customs manpower to police borders, monitor often politician owned border petrol stations, prevent petrol tank columns crossing known smuggler border points, stop round-tripping fuel tanker ships with zero fuel off-loaded, mega-oil theft, and other para-oil industry corrupt practices like killing Nigeria’s refineries. These are government jobs but corrupt government people benefit. These are Nigeria’s permanent, deliberately orchestrated, security failures. Period!

    But why should the citizen pay for government corruption? The citizens should not pay with ‘removal of subsidy’ considering the already poor-quality service delivery with poor family life, hunger, thirst, starvation and inability to afford medical and education bills, all victim to a fall in income and pension value and job losses.

    Cheap fuel was that God-given lifeline, forever corruptly squandered by our politicians, which helped keep most other costs just endurable and life just bearable. Without the safety net of government regulated energy, all the other safety nets-salary, pensions, services- are exposed as inadequate and may collapse. It has been clearly demonstrated, against foreign predictions of no effect, now that cheap fuel helps keep food and transport within reach. Hospitals, schools need cheap fuel to work. Every private sector shop, home (most Nigerians live in private housing -except politicians), factory and building needs cheap fuel to offer services. Every child, worker and socialite needs honestly subsidised fuel to achieve for daily success.

    Dishonestly subsidised politicians subsidise their children every day until they can earn for themselves. But most parents cannot provide and will require honest subsidies until incomes, the naira, foreign reserves and Sovereign Wealth Fund recover enough to require the honest subsidy cancellation. We require honest petrol subsidy with maximum anti-corruption security. 

  • The noise about petrol price

    The noise about petrol price

    All over the world, the opposition is known for its role in criticising the government of the day in the hope that citizens will vote it out in the next election. Nigeria is no exception to this political practice. The problem with the opposition in Nigeria is their duplicity and the inability to provide alternatives. They criticise the government for removing petrol subsidy when they promised to do the same thing in their campaigns. They also criticise the implementation of the policy without suggesting better ways of going about it. What is worse, they mislead poor and illiterate masses through misinformation and lies. Even the educated but ignorant masses are deceived via social media trolls and lies. I have debunked some of these lies circulated on social media, especially WhatsApp, even by highly educated Nigerians. Unfortunately, the government has not done enough to fill the knowledge gap (see, for example, my piece, How we got here, The Nation, February 14, 2024).

    There is no doubt that the removal of petrol subsidy and the floating of the Naira have led to widespread economic destabilasation and deepened the existing poverty level. Although the floating of the Naira has led to its devaluation, it is the removal of fuel subsidy that has attracted the most criticism for at least two major reasons: First, it led to repeated hikes in the prices of petroleum products, especially petrol and diesel used for fueling motor vehicles and generators. The ripple effects of the hikes are felt in increases in the cost of living from transport to food and housing. Second, state Governors have continued to seat on the funds allocated to the states to cushion the effects of the increases in petrol price.

    Despite government effort to improve the economic situation by rolling out palliatives, wage increases, grains from the reserve, as well as funds for infrastructure development and agricultural expansion, the opposition and other critics of the government have continued to criticise the government for removing fuel subsidy. Some have asked the government to reinstate fuel subsidy, while others have suggested that the government should arbitrarily bring down the price of petrol. Both groups are either ignorant or mischievous: Confront any state Governor about monthly allocations since the start of the Tinubu administration. The truthful ones will confirm that state allocations have doubled. Similarly, google petrol prices across the globe and you will discover that the price of one litre of petrol in Nigeria, even at N900, is still below the average cost across Africa and the world at large.

    The truth is that, apart from a few countries in Africa, mostly oil producing, such as Libya, Egypt, Algeria, and Angola, the average price of petrol in Africa is over one dollar, that is, over N1,650. For the rest of this essay, I use the dollar price, partly because, as a universal commodity, petrol is generally denominated in dollar and partly because the dollar price makes comparisons across countries much easier.

    In West Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, and Chad produce oil in varying quantities, with Nigeria being the highest producer. While the dollar price of one litre of petrol in Nigeria is now between $0.55 and $0.60 (that is, between N900 and N1,000), the price in Cameroon is 1.37 (that is, over N2,000). The price is less in Ghana at 1.05 (that is still over N1,750.00). However, the price in Chad is 0.84. This is closer to, but still higher than, Nigeria’s price. Other West African countries in which the litre price is less than one dollar, but still higher than Nigeria’s, are Liberia (0.80); Niger (0.97); and Gabon (0.98).

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    In all other West African countries, the litre price of petrol is higher than one dollar. Here is a sample: Benin (1.12); Togo (1.15); Guinea (1.39); Burkina Faso (1.42); Sierra Leone (1.50); and Senegal (1.65). Take a look at Senegal again: In that country, the price of one litre of petrol is approaching N3,000! And that is a country where the President was attempting to sit tight the other day. And the new President can do nothing about the price. In summary, even with the double hike, petrol price in Nigeria is still cheaper than in any other country in West Africa.

    The situation in East Africa is worse than in West Africa as there is no single country in which the litre price of petrol is less than one dollar, partly because there is no oil producing country in the region. Here’s a sample: Tanzania (1.20); Uganda (1.36); Ethiopia (1.37); Rwanda (1.4); and Kenya (1.43).

    It is a different story, however, in North Africa, where the only country that pays over one dollar for a litre of petrol is Morocco (1.53). It is close to a dollar in Tunisia (0.81), but much less in the oil producing countries of Libya (0.03) Algeria (0.3) and Egypt (0.4). Incidentally, these are oil producing countries in which crude oil is also locally refined.

    However, local refinery did not save the day in oil producing South Africa, where the litre price of petrol is over one dollar at 1.21. But the story is different in Angola, another oil producing country in Southern Africa, where the litre price of petrol is only 0.36. In all other countries in the region, it is well over a dollar. For example, it is so in Malawi (1.50); Zambia (1.50); Zimbabwe (1.64); and Swaziland, which pays the highest price in Africa, at two dollars (that is, over N3,000) per litre.

    On a global perspective, fuel price is high around the world. The average price this month is about $1.40 per litre. While Iran and Libya compete for the lowest litre price or petrol in the world, Hong Kong claims the medal for the highest liter price for petrol at over three dollars.  Variations in fuel prices are generally due to variations in taxation; amount of subsidy paid, if any; level of corruption; whether or not crude oil is indigenous; and whether or not oil is locally refined or imported.

    Going by the above data, it is still good news for Nigeria that she is still among the countries with the lowest litre price of petrol in the world, despite the removal of fuel subsidy. It currently ranks among the top 15 countries in the world with the lowest litre price of petrol. True, it has taken a toll on the citizens, but the removal of fuel subsidy was good riddance, because it only benefitted a few, while it lasted.

    Let me repeat: Those who have been asking to see the savings from the removal of fuel subsidy should go ask their state Governors, who have been receiving more money as federal allocations since the removal of fuel subsidy.

  • 32 doctors kidnapped: NARD strike

    32 doctors kidnapped: NARD strike

    The citizens are struggling with the consequences of a National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) strike aimed at drawing positive conclusion to the seven-month detention of Dr Ganiyat Popoola. Dr. Popoola was not released and nor was her nephew even after her husband and child were released when N120m ransom was paid. The ransom demand is as usual outrageous as it amounts to 40 years’ salary @approx N3m annually. However, the family actually found this unrealistic sum money but still did not get their members back.

    Nigerians should note that kidnappers began demanding N100m for ransom just after politicians fixed the price for Presidential Nomination Form at N100m. No one told kidnappers that we are not all presidential candidates. Political insensitivity and greed became the yardstick of the greed of murderous criminality. Note that many victims of kidnappers are killed even after paying ransom suggesting callousness, perhaps drug-elated.

    The other day when the police and security forces successfully rescued the 20 medical students kidnapped around the Oturkpo access, the police boss did refer to the tremendous pressure from the Presidency and NSA as well as maximum cooperation from all services and communities which led to a shootout killing of the kidnap kingpin and rescuing of all 20 medical students and hopefully and neutralizing other kidnappers. This rescue is highly commendable as are all past reports of tracking, identifying and engaging and neutralizing kidnappers and releasing hostages, sometimes injured, sometimes unharmed.

    Most Nigerians are sad because they are under the firm belief that if such ‘immediate intense activity’ had been applied to each and every kidnapping across the country during the last 20 years, kidnapping as a profession or epidemic would not have become so disgustingly fashionable to many criminals. To name one example, the dastardly activities of Evans, the jailed kidnapper is still fresh.

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    No kidnap victim will fully recover from the unimaginable trauma of imminent death every second during captivity with constant movement and emotional upheaval. No group of friends and family, no matter how rich will ever forget the trauma of raising such huge sums of money as are now ‘routinely’ demanded nowadays. Many kidnap victims return to a life of unimagined poverty having had their family, nuclear and extended, as well as friends and even business connections stripped of massive amounts of money and often even having lost the roof over the family head to emergency sale to raise the ransom money. Also, they live in severe mental torture including fear of anyone coming near them or being frightened at every sound and severe mental trauma for the rest of their lives. 

    So, Nigeria’s security challenges in dealing directly and decisively and publicly with each case of kidnapping from the inception of the current epidemic kidnapping is why we have this epidemic of kidnapping and consequent unrest among the potential victims; be they Fellow Nigerians or foreigners. Each one is important. 

    Most countries have a Kidnap Protocol which is implemented triggered by such events. We know that the first 24 hours is more important than the first 48 than the first 72 hours as ‘Hot Pursuit’ with quick intelligence gathering, forming concentric and widening search rings around the ground zero of the crime scene and using dogs and now drones for following scent and the heat trail of escaping kidnappers. Are we equipped and empowered for this? Nigeria has lost many gallant security personnel on rescue missions. 

    It is this frustration that has led many organisations like the NMA and NARD and other citizens groups to cry out to government for faster, firmer, more formulated action against kidnappers and to locate the funds they demand.              

    The president of the ARD at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Dr Innocent Abah, has released an approximately 32-name list of recently kidnapped medical practitioners most of them still in captivity. The strike has made it widespread knowledge but it is hurting millions. The government is hopefully acting.

    The named doctors abducted in 2021 are Dr Akindele Kayode (January 4), Dr Oladunni Odetola (April 4), Dr Solomon Ndiamaka (July 19), Dr Edmund Akpaikpe (November 19), Dr Zubair Erubu (December 9), and Dr Saidu Bala (December 10).

    Those taken in 2022 include Dr Samuel Audu (January 9), Dr Felix Ekpo (February 22), Dr Bulama (March 15), Dr Chinelo Megafu (March 28), and Dr Steven Baashaw (December 10).

    The 2023 list includes Prof. Ekanem Phillip (July 13), Dr Orockarrah Orock (November 4), and Dr Ganiyat Popoola (December 27).

    For 2024, some of the abducted doctors are Dr John Robin Esu (April 30) and much more recently, Dr Gimba’s family (June 27), Dr Steven Ezeh (August 15), and Dr Olufunke Fadahunsi (August 23).

    However, five have been released– November 22, 2022), Dr Obadiah Etito (May 13, 2023), Dr Alex Igyemwase, Dr Asema Msuega (July 23, 2023), Dr Luis Onyeukwu (August 15, 2024) and, Dr Nwoga Innocent. Prof Ekanem was also kidnapped in Calabar.

    Government has heard the NARD and other distress calls and just announced a potential security architecture shakeup to confront banditry, hopefully nationwide beyond the North. But it would have been security-wise to act before the announcement. We need massive security forces to successfully enclose, encircle, entrap and eliminate the bandit and kidnap threat. We must neutralise and not just disburse the bandits and kidnappers in 2024 to other states. We pray for release of all kidnap victims.

  • How accountable is your state governor?

    How accountable is your state governor?

    When last, if at all, 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?

    Let us think together about these questions. For a start, let’s consider a few factors responsible for the poor situation in the states and the Governors’ lack of accountability. For now, the discussion will be limited to (a) corruption; (b) lack of political literacy; (c) poverty; and (d) lack of an effective system of accountability.

    Corruption is endemic in Nigeria, 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. Nevertheless, 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.

    Corruption is rife within and across different levels of government. The focus here is on state governments. Most state governors are corrupt. There are several reasons for this. Let’s take a typical newly elected state governor. As soon as he/she realises the enormous power of the office, he/she begins to plan for a second term. By the end of the first year in office, the focus begins to shift to raising funds for reelection campaign. The state treasury is often the starting point, using various methods, including saving part of the so-called security vote, which, in some states, is as high as N750 million a month, which the Governor is not obligated to account for.

    Let’s now assume that the governor is reelected. Again, as soon as possible, he/she begins to accumulate funds for running for Senate in his/her Senatorial District. Alternatively, he/she may even want to run for President or support a presidential candidate financially so he/she may be nominated as a Minister. Some of them may also want to retire from active politics once they feel that they have accumulated enough money to sustain them 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 a couple of vehicles, drivers, police escort, kitchen staff, and other assistants for which their states or the relevant government agency, such as the police, allegedly continue to pay.

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    While corruption prevents the governors from fully accounting for state resources, because of the mismatch between revenue and genuine expenditures, political illiteracy prevents the public from pressing for accountability. I use the term illiteracy here in two senses: One, illiteracy is used in the sense of 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.

    Two, it is also used 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 because they are “eating” or hope to “eat” from the governors’ government. 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.

    Anther factor that prevents the electorate from holding governors accountable 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 has been led to believe that whatever problems they have are from Abuja, and that their enemy is the federal government and not their Governor. 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, in addition to lack of demand for accountability. 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.

    Lack of accountability is aided by the lack of a standardised system of evaluation and accountability by state governments. 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 (see The true story of ‘400 tractors’ ex-governor. Lalong claimed his govt bought for Plateau, Premium Times, July 4, 2024).

    It is against the above backgrounds that the governors’ performances since May 29, 2023, should be assessed. It is pertinent to emphasise here that since fuel subsidy was removed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the inception of his administration on that date, 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? That’s a topic for another day.