The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Xmas; Lottery: Use sold tickets only; Fela; MEXAHANIA

    Xmas; Lottery: Use sold tickets only; Fela; MEXAHANIA

    Today is Christmas Eve. Christmas = Christ’s Mass celebration, marking the birth of Jesus Christ. In safer times, it was at midnight mass and at 12 midnight, ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’ would ring out . It was a privilege, a right and a rite of passage for midnight to ‘meet you in church’. Xmas was introduced by Greek scribes from the 15th Century and even 1010 AD [Google] as shorthand form of ‘Christ’ [meaning ‘anointed’] which in Greek starts with X representing ‘Chi’, followed by Mas. So, Xmas is not a heathen plot against Christ or Christmas. It is merely historical shorthand for which the ancestors can be referenced and not evil IT. We pray against violence targeted at Christmas and New Year events. But prayer is not enough. We must be vigilant. We must also assist the poor.

    There is a ‘Naked Christmas Tree’ movement not to add any decorations to the Christmas tree. The first Christmas tree had no lights obviously. It was the ancestors of today’s ‘event managers’ and ‘content creators’ who added expense and decorations.

    Powerball jackpot in the US is $1,600,000,000 a 1:292million chance of winning according to CNN. After tax, it will still be $700,000,000. Mad money even though Elon Musk has $800,000,000,000 – $800b-madder money.  Sadly, study of winners of huge fortunes less than  $700m – $1.6b rarely found such money brought real happiness and joy. Rather big money can bring big suffering.

    In a country with wealth, t here is poverty manifest by millions doing 2-3 jobs and an army of homeless.  Google records 771,480 US people as experiencing homelessness one particular night in 2024. Paradoxically and coincidentally, the $700m mentioned above would give each of them almost $1,000,000, $1m/head.

    Imagine if the lottery draw each month must be drawn until won and not rolled over. In 2026, why not automatically record all sold tickets and restrict the draw to only sold ticket numbers with many smaller $1-200,000 prizes so as to reach more citizens quicker with useful, meaningful winning.

    Nigeria must not follow current misguided mega-wealth creation lottery schemes. Nigeria’s lottery system should also tackle poverty all around.

    The Nigerian Lottery Commission should take this up so as to ensure that lotteries in Nigeria are handled so as to utilise only actual lottery numbers sold to help distribute winnings wider to contribute to the reduction of poverty by reaching many more citizens.

    Fela has at last been inducted into the 2026 Grammy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award as the first African to be so awarded. Fela Anikulapo Kitu, who died in 1997, the masses’ musician, decibel defender of democracy and musical menace to the military, will be laughing from wherever he is. Just last year his famous record Zombie was inducted into the Grammy Award 2025 Hall of Fame. When Fela returned to Nigeria sometime in 1964+/-1 year, he came to play his saxophone in St Gregory’s College, Ikoyi, Lagos, where I was in boarding school. Our housemaster asked us to clap for him even if we did not like him, just to encourage him as he had recently returned from the UK after music studies.

    Highly energised, we needed no encouragement to clap wildly unaware we were in the presence of a man at the beginning of an adventurous long road signposted with the Koola Lobitos, Africa 70, Egypt 80, and massive record hits en route international greatness, musical majesty and real royalty.

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    Of course, he suffered greatly in advancing the causes of the citizenry to the extent of a 1984 20 months out of five years imprisonment under Buhari and released by Babangida, 200 arrests, having his home Kalakuta Republic burnt and his mother, the aged Mrs Funmilayo Ransome Kuti being thrown from the second floor by the infamous Unknown Soldier, later a ‘record’ of the event and sustaining a broken leg and dying shortly thereafter.

    Songs like Water no get enemy, Shuffering and Smiling, Yellow Fever, International Thief Thief, Trouble Sleep, VIP, Yanga Wake am, Unknown Soldier etc are so fundamentally right that Fela could do no wrong even though he encouraged the free use of marijuana in his Shrine and married 23 wives and often went around scantily clad, and used his Range Rover to carry firewood to spite the wealthy and their favourite vehicle of oppression.  Sadly, he succumbed to the rage of the time – AIDS. There is only one Fela.

    Having known Fela since the late 60s ‘Sunday Jump Days’ in Surulere’s Africa Shrine, my friends and I never inhaled, though now marijuana is being seen less as a demon drug and more medicinal in the West and spreading into the USA. Long after Fela has gone, the jury on this is still out among the medical profession in Nigeria, of which I am a member. Personally, I believe there should be a serious health warning regarding unrestricted marijuana use. As my father, Yaba Psychiatric Hospital Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Abayomi Marinho warned me in 1965, for the vulnerable, just one inhalation can permanently alter the brain, while for those with marijuana tolerance or resistance, there may be little permanent effect of repeated use. Only inhalation will separate the two. Dare you and yours take the risk?

    Wishing you a  ‘MEXAHNYIA’=  ‘MErry Xmas And Happy New Year In Advance’. Amen!!

  • Donation? N200b? Herder-farmer

    Donation? N200b? Herder-farmer

    Terrorists do not usually work alone. They have collaborators or force people to cooperate in their murderous activities.  

    There has been a doctor arrested and others indicted for colluding with terrorists. There are many more participants but some will be unwilling collaborators, acting under threats. Terrorists often ‘know where you and your relations live’. Terrorists need support systems for fuel, food, transport, financial, medical and even education support to the terrorists.            

    To the secret service investigation in those areas, the identification of a doctor and a petrol station involved are important and the security agencies are to be encouraged to spread their net wider as the revelations are just the tip of the iceberg of complicity in exposing the vast network which supports the works of terrorism. For example, it has been repeatedly reported that helicopters have been seen and heard supporting terrorist activities in the ‘bush’. Have we investigated enough to prove the efficacy of helicopter incidents or know the origin and destination of such helicopter incidents and the identity of the funders, the operators and personnel involved?

    Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, recently unsuspended, after serving a six-month suspension from the senate has made huge waves positive with her Amazonian achievements with her available funds from good use of the Salary and Perks of office of a serving Senator of Nigeria. It is not yet confirmed if the funds used included the much-abused constituency project funds which most Nigerians want abolished due to poor transparency and apparent misuse as they do not have a stellar track record of usefully using such huge funds for their constituents. Instead, there is a reported poor impact with little good for the citizenry under almost all the members of the National Assembly, (NASS).

    Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan really stands out as someone who demonstrates political concern of the economic progress of her constituents. This cannot be said of most NASS members as they would be hard-pressed to demonstrate any marked value added to the community in proportion to the funds made available to them. Such politicians would rather plaster their outsized mugshot photographs on bags of food consumables for distribution to the needy.

    Where is the dignity in cunningly first taking the citizens’ money from them through ‘legally but morally illegal’ i.e. legally-illegal means and misappropriation gimmickry as budgetary hyper-allocations and then the politicians ‘returning’ a tiny part of that money with items plastered with the so-called donor’s mugshots and lots of press?

    For years we have been insulted and abused by the misused statement that the president/governor/ LGA chairman ‘donated this or that’ when in fact it is our money they are using and so they cannot donate it back to us. ‘Our mumu don do’ as Charlie Boy/Man/Baba would say! Over many years, the media usually celebrates and perpetuates this misconception, cementing it both in the political lexicon and in the psyche of the citizenry who now have been misled and schooled by the media to ‘appreciate and eulogise and even deify’ the misnamed ‘donor’ and the donation. Seriously the media must take responsibility for not sufficiently protecting the impressionable public by interrogating the origin of such funds and widely publishing the same.

    There are only two types of funds that politicians can use and it is not nuclear physics for journalists creating a news item to quickly research and conclude on the nature or type of funds being made available for the correct reporting of each such event.

    For maximum fiscal accountability, funds are either ‘Public or Personal’ so instead of blanket ‘donated funds’, the media must begin to distinguish between the two and speak out in their headlines. ‘On behalf of the people, the president/ governor/LGA chairman released the sum of ABC millions. Ask if money is merely an ‘allocation’ from public funds ‘on behalf of the citizens’ or ‘a personal donation’. The source of all funds tricking down to the citizenry is important and the media should demand that such origins should be made clear in all circumstances or reports will be withheld so as not to give undue glory to someone who was acting as a ‘public fund conduit for good’ and not as a donor of personal funds.

    The media needs to also know and point out that politicians seem to have lost a sense of perception, purpose, position and even currency value along with their moral compass and a singularly high degree of excessive self-worth in security and financial terms.

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    For example, a head of government is reportedly suing an international media outlet for $1b. Even though he is a multibillionaire, the amount appears preposterous. In contrast, and to put it in economic context, imagine a Nigerian politician who proudly approved a mere N70,000 as minimum wage [but many millions for fellow politicians monthly] reportedly suing a colleague, for N200billion i.e. N200,000,000,000.  Think please. N200b is a month’s salary for 2,857,143 citizens or a N70,000 monthly salary for 238,095 years. Is this degree of self-importance a red flag requiring personality disorder analysis? Remember that it was the politicians charging N100m for the party presidential nomination form that triggered kidnappers immediately demanding N100m/ person for ransom.  What will this N200billlion translate into in the terrorist world? 

    Regarding the media, we used to report herder-farmer clash placing the initiator as the herder. Gradually it is now farmer-herder clash reversing the blame. We should revert to the herder-farmer clash nomenclature.

  • Sudden deaths

    Sudden deaths

    Approximately 173,000 deaths occur daily in 2025. As the year runs out soon, it is estimated that about 64 million people would have died this year alone, based on a global crude death rate of 7.67 deaths per thousand population. Of this number, about 15 million were sudden deaths. Whether we like it or not, we will be part of the statistics some day.  

    We may accumulate all the wealth we want now, eat the best foods money can buy, use the best doctors and healthcare facilities in the world, or pray or sacrifice all we want, we cannot avoid death. It is the only certainty we know for sure. That is why at the news of someone’s death, the Yoruba would say ojó á jìnnà sí’ra won o. It is a way of praying for longevity, knowing full well that our turn will come. Nevertheless, we still mourn deaths, especially sudden deaths. This particularly true of the death of someone we saw or spoke with hours ago, who was otherwise hale and hearty and was not involved in an accident. Within the past few months, many such cases have made the news in Nigeria alone.

    Nine months ago, I wondered why more young people were dying prematurely (Why more young people are dying these days, The Nation, March 12, 2025). Today, my focus is on the rise in adult sudden deaths in the world at large but particularly in Nigeria.

    By adult sudden death, I mean a situation in which an apparently healthy adult (say, 50+) suddenly dies, often from natural causes, rather than from an accident. I use the word “apparently” advisedly: There are often undisclosed or unknown underlying causes.

    The most prevalent underlying cause of sudden death has to do with a heart problem. Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops working. When this happens, the person suddenly loses consciousness. If CPR is not available there and then, the organs needed to keep the person alive will stop working because the blood has stopped carrying oxygen to them. As a result, death can happen within minutes, or at most within an hour of onset.

    I always remember a close friend, who was alert enough to get behind the steering and start driving. After driving for about 30 minutes or so, he noticed that he was getting rather weak. He wisely parked his car off the road to take a brief rest. He leaned on the steering wheel and passed on minutes later. What he did not realize was that his heart was shutting down and his organs were failing, even when he felt no pain.

    There are many heart diseases that could lead to cardiac arrest, such as coronary artery disease (for example, due to high cholesterol), plaque disruption, abnormal heart rhythm, and faulty heart’s electrical system. There are also non-cardiac causes of sudden death, such as a massive stroke or blood clot. When clotted blood breaks, small lumps can travel to block the passage of blood to the heart, the lungs, or the brain, depending on the location of the clot and how far it is able to travel.

    In addition to medical conditions, lifestyle, diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, and irregular or no medical check-ups could trigger or conceal any of various underlying conditions.

    It is possible to die suddenly without a clear symptom. However, some individuals may experience palpitations, chest pain, dizziness, fatigue, or shortness of breath before sudden death. These individuals often have underlying heart or lung problems that are either unrecognized or ignored. Others may have have stopped taking medication for high blood pressure, asthma, or any other medical condition. In such cases, sudden death is a possibility. That’s why anyone experiencing any of these problems is advised to see a doctor at once, especially those who know that they have one underlying condition or the other.

    The possibility of sudden death is heightened by lack of self awareness of their body and health problems; unwillingness to disclose medical problems to those who could help; lack of, or delayed, access to medical care; misdiagnosis; sheer ignorance; poverty; and illiteracy.

    Although precise worldwide data on sudden death varies, depending on data collection methods, autopsy rates, and documentation culture. However, it is estimated that over 15 million people die suddenly every year and that many cases are unreported. Sudden cardiac arrest accounts for about 5 million cases of sudden deaths worldwide.

    Reliable statistics are hard to come by in Nigeria. Nevertheless, a study published in 2013 showed that cardiac arrest accounted for about 50 percent of all cases of sudden death between 2003 and 2011 at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital. While only 4 percent of the cases occurred in less than 24 hours after admission, about 72 percent of cases occurred out of hospital. The data derived from case notes and autopsy reports of cases of sudden death.

    The LAUTECH data cited above were collected over a decade ago. In the last five years, coronavirus hangover, environmental stress, economic pressures, ultra-processed foods, and self-medication have complicated our lives. Besides, silent killers, such as cancers and other noncommunicable diseases, have been on the rise.

    That is why it is important to take certain precautionary measures to avoid premature or sudden death. The usual precautions include (a) a heart-healthy diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and low in salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats; (b) avoid alcohol and self-medication in managing stress; (c) exercise regularly—walking and stretching will go a long way in toning the body and the heart; (d) keep blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and complete blood count in check—you should track your base white cell, red cell, and platelet counts; and, above all, maintain regular medical check-ups.

    My heart goes to families who have lost a family member to sudden death. For those who are still here, ojo á jìnnà sí’ra won o. For those on the other side, may their souls rest in peace.

  • Aliko Dangote goes to war

    Aliko Dangote goes to war

    Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, often comes across as mild-mannered and personable. But you don’t become a billionaire and stay ahead of the chasing pack by being sentimental. On the contrary, most businessmen in his class are ruthless in taking decisions to protect their interests. It is not for nothing that through the years he’s battled to stave off accusations of being monopolistic in disposition.

    But say what you like about the man, you cannot deny that he’s a visionary given to outlandish dreams. One of such is the 650,000 barrels per day refinery which was first announced in 2013 but didn’t start production until September 2024. The facility was originally supposed to be completed between 2018 and 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic and other logistical challenges ensured this goal wasn’t met.

    Although, one man’s outsize dream the facility has become intertwined with Nigeria’s economic future. A nation rich in oil and gas has for decades suffered from non-existent local refining capacity – leaving it at the mercy of an army of importers of all manner of petroleum products. Conspiracy theorists even say that the demobilisation of the nation’s four refineries is a function of consistent sabotage on the part of those whose interests are helped by sustaining the regime of importation.

    Different estimates put the amount Nigeria has spent on turnaround maintenance of the government-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna – from 2000 to 2024 – at between $18 billion and $25 billion. Despite sinking this fortune into what are increasingly looking like expensive junkyards, there’s no hope in sight that production would start on a consistent basis in any of them soon.

    So, when an enterprising individual pulled off what a whole nation and successive administrations couldn’t deliver he was celebrated as a hero. Dangote has harped on the fact that his facility has the capacity to meet the petrol needs on the entire West African sub-region. In other words, there was no need for further importation.

    His position was seen in certain quarters as self-serving. After all, a man who had poured $20 billion into a project would be desperate to recoup his investment and pay off loans.

    Before the coming of his behemoth, there were players in that space who also invested heavily in tank farms, trucks and other assets. The coming of this massive refinery was bound to disrupt their businesses as it is also doing to markets across the world from which Nigerian and other African importers hitherto sourced products. Surely, they would be less than enthused about something that was bound to put them out of business sooner than later.

    What would follow the take-off of Dangote Refinery was an early dispute with the regulator, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA, on the refinery’s preparedness and product quality. Mediatory meetings temporarily pushed this row to the back burner.

    The battle would soon turn to the fact that the authorities still left the gates wide open for all manner of importers despite the presence of the infant facility that could supposedly meet local consumption.

    Conscious not to be seen as enthroning a monopoly, and also worried as to whether Dangote could actually cover Nigeria’s local requirements despite his claims, the government never imposed any ban on importation.

    Perhaps to show that it was truly in favour of empowering local refiners, the administration briefly toyed with the idea of a 15% levy on imported petroleum products. The idea was quickly shelved in mid-November, leaving the status quo in place. Whether this was done to please importers or just to ensure that a competitive edge remained in the market is anybody’s guess.

    Clearly, the situation wasn’t pleasing to all players – Dangote being one of them. Things boiled over on Sunday with the billionaire businessman levelling a series of grave allegations against NMDPRA and its chief executive officer, Farouk Ahmed.

    He accused the agency of undermining his refinery, sabotaging the economy and urged the government to probe its activities.

    He claimed NMDPRA’s leadership was colluding with international traders and oil importers to frustrate local refining through the continued issuance of import licences for petroleum products.

    Stating that Ahmed had been living above his means, he pointedly alleged that the public office holder had spent $5 million training four of his children in posh schools in Switzerland. Dangote said the bills being picked by the NMDPRA boss raised serious questions about potential conflicts of interest and the integrity of regulatory oversight in the downstream petroleum sector. It was akin to detonating an improvised explosive device (IED).

    Just yesterday, he followed up with a full page advert in major newspapers which he personally signed, doubling down on the corruption allegations against Ahmed. In a further escalation, a petition has now been filed with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) calling for the investigation, arrest and prosecution of the NMDPRA boss for living above his means.

    These are very serious allegations made by no ordinary whistle-blower. The shockwaves have swept through the oil industry and government circles. Already, the House of Representatives has plunged headlong into the matter, vowing an investigation.

    Curiously, while Dangote has been hurling devastating missiles in his direction, the silence from Ahmed and the NMDPRA has been uncomfortably loud. These are very grave allegations against a senior government regulator by the country’s preeminent business figure. The dispute is playing out before local and international audiences. That’s why silence isn’t an option. Those being accused should either rebut the charges with facts or confront the implications of what’s been said.

    Not too long ago, the erstwhile Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, found himself in the eye of a storm over claims he lied about graduating from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. For days the scandal raged. The minister tried unconvincingly to respond to the allegation but was forced to step aside when the matter became an embarrassing distraction for the administration.

    The dispute between Dangote, the NMDPRA and its boss isn’t going away soon given that the accuser has plumped for the nuclear option. His allegation that regulatory actions are being deployed in ways that undermine his refinery while protecting entrenched interests in fuel importation is not a casual complaint about red tape. It is an accusation of regulatory distortion – one that questions the integrity of institutions created under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

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    The danger of government silence in moments like this cannot be overstated. In countries with strong institutions, allegations against regulators trigger one of two responses: a public defence backed by evidence, or a transparent inquiry.

    Silence won’t stop the raging debate. Instead, it hands it over to the loudest and most powerful voices. The nation’s reputation is also not helped by such unresolved accusations.

    Dangote’s allegations, whether true or false, shape perception simply by being made. Silence allows those perceptions to calcify. If he is right and no investigation follows, it confirms the suspicions Nigerians hold about regulatory capture and protection of rent-seeking interests.

    This episode also tests the credibility of the PIA itself. It was sold as a clean break from opaque oil governance – a framework designed to professionalise regulation and insulate it from informal power. Allowing one of its flagship institutions to be publicly splattered with mud without response undermines that promise more effectively than any hostile foreign report could.

    Nigeria’s real problem is not conflict between powerful actors. It is the state’s regular reluctance to arbitrate such conflicts openly. Too often, elite disputes are sorted out quietly through political “settlements” that produce temporary calm while leaving institutions weaker and public trust eroded. That path may defuse tension, but it poisons reform.

    This is why the temptation to frame the current fight solely as Dangote versus Ahmed must be resisted. The issue goes beyond personality; it is process. Does Nigeria have regulators who can enforce rules transparently? Is government willing to defend its institutions publicly – or discipline them when necessary?

    Demanding a response is not asking for capitulation. Dangote does not deserve special treatment because of his wealth or size and usefulness of his refinery to the country. But neither does any regulator deserve immunity from scrutiny. Accountability cuts both ways, and credibility is earned through openness.

    Dangote has spoken. Serious allegations are now in the public domain. The government must decide whether it believes in the institutional order it has built. It must move swiftly to get to the root of this oily wrestling match between two Sumo wrestlers.

  • Incompetence or ‘curse’ on Lagos-Ibadan expressway

    Incompetence or ‘curse’ on Lagos-Ibadan expressway

    The Lagos Ibadan expressway is an enigmatic symbol of Nigeria. Great potential but poor ability to follow simple professional maintenance and supervision rules. Is this incompetence or a Lagos -Ibadan expressway ‘curse’? Yes, there are contractors making pedestrian flyovers and repairing bridges. Good! But did they know that tens of thousands of vehicles of every description, size and speed driven by drivers of every temperament and degree of arrogance ply the road? After all, those drivers have collectively endured 15 years of broken promises and serial 2–12-hour delays on that same road which has a history of other contractors often treating the motorised public like dirt.

    We all thought the delays were over.

    Clearly the suffering continues. Are the delays a deliberate power play by the contractors for more money?  There is little or no sense of purpose or urgency on the part of the hard-hatted contractor staff, often working on ones and twos apparently unsupervised. The past week has shown a sad reality of our management capacity and demonstrated the well-known yawning gap in our management capacity. We just do not appear to care. Do they know about quality of work and time management? Sadly, last Saturday at the narrowed-to-two lane spot were two stationary vehicles with their drivers standing between them and arguing spiritedly. As vehicles were now forced from 3 to 2 and then just one lane, the accumulated traffic quickly grew to 4-5 lanes and stretched four kilometres. It was like witnessing a tragi-comedy seeing the easily preventable causes of the reduction of the road lanes from 3 to 2 and then from 2 to1 by recalcitrant drivers.

    The FRSC were never there and were elsewhere interrogating some vehicles, unconcerned with the need to free the bottleneck. Certainly there are no traffic drones in FRSC Command and Control Centre yet.

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    After this terrible weekend, we know that the authorities are alarmed and are stepping in. Really? Do the authorities not do preventive ‘possible scenarios’ and ‘possible catastrophes’? For construction work, do the authorities not alert FRSC to man the narrow points for quick pre-emptive resolution of road-conflict issues? Do the authorities not run ‘traffic games’ to identify what consequences to plan for in case of a traffic complication during the work of the contractor? Do the authorities not insist on the speediest methods of roadworks to keep disruptions at zero or at least a minimum as happens when such works are done in other countries worldwide? Do the authorities even consider the road users when they are doing their job?

    Recently, the forest accumulating within the road median and the actual narrowing of the road by accumulated dirt and weeds in some places was pointed out in this column to the authorities. We await a serious regular maintenance and clean-up in keeping with best road maintenance standards in oversight of a recently rebuilt multi-billion naira road. It is shameful to see the dirt accumulated and sometimes corn growing in it and the road actually yielding a whole lane to accumulated dirt at the side of the road.

    There must be a maintenance contract and the winner of that contract has woefully failed to achieve the goal – road cleanliness. It has previously been suggested on many occasions that because the federal government has been proven repeatedly incapable of managing the micro-cleaning of roads, the road should be divided into five or 10km segments and given to the surrounding community to maintain. If this is done, the officials of the federal government have merely to drive up and down the road once a month and write report scoring the maintenance level and indicting those who failed to complete their assignment.

    Periodically in the past, road maintenance units for inspection and maintenance have been announced on the political horizon, hailed as breakthrough, billions allocated and then a few vehicles appear on the political stage as ‘Instant Road Works’ saviours. This has been all ‘sound and fury, signifying nothing’ permanent for the joy of road users.  For how long will we behave with such ignorance of the true value of predictive planning, maintenance and supervision and preventive measures in our life? Meanwhile, our citizens sit, stuck in needless traffic jams in a country struggling to become a country-sitting ducks for criminals? At the minimum, the authorities need to immediately contact and recruit FRSC to the areas of potential traffic problem during construction work. Secondly, the authorities need to get contractors to expedite their work with removable road barriers which are mostly to protect their lives. The blockage should be removed every evening when there is no work and no one to protect overnight. There is a danger that some vehicle will run into those barriers and that would be a tragic preventable crash.

    As we face the current onslaught of terrorists and kidnappers and the increasing boldness of armed robbers in the towns and cities across the country, we must recall that the greed of the political class has had a negative impact on criminals. That greed has set the political class apart from the citizenry. It is time for politicians to, rein in their greed and publicly cut their salaries and perks,  and cancel the much abused constitutional projects from the national budget. We look forward to one National Assembly house, not two.

  • Banditry: Sheikh Gumi strikes again!

    Banditry: Sheikh Gumi strikes again!

    In September 2021, I argued in this column that noted Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi’s proposal that the state negotiates with bandits as panacea for peace in parts of the North, was downright dangerous.

    If I understand correctly, these gunmen are not going to disarm and ride off into the sunset, but would remain a permanent feature of our landscape – albeit under terms agreed by all sides. Nigeria is a special country, but I am yet to find any sane society committed to law and order that would countenance such an idea.

    Four years on, as the country battles to rein in these amoral killers spreading across the landscape like a rash, Gumi is at it, again, preaching his doctrine of deadly cohabitation.

    Speaking in an interview with the BBC yesterday, he maintained that negotiating with bandits is a necessary approach because the military cannot defeat these bands of unconventional gunmen.

    A virtual fountain of controversial theories, Gumi further argues that the kidnapping of schoolchildren is a “lesser evil” compared to killing soldiers – insisting that Nigeria must negotiate to prevent greater bloodshed and end terrorism.

    In my piece titled “Sheikh Gumi and the politics of dialogue”, I stated that his proposals were illogical and impracticable. That article is reproduced here today as a riposte to what the influential cleric is hawking.

    ***Sheikh Gumi and the politics of dialogue

    (First published September 8, 2021)

    Two words often used to describe Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, are respected and controversial. The adjectives – especially the latter – are well-earned.

    He’s had a lot to say about the violence ravaging the Northwest. His positions often verge on the outrageous and illogical. Sometimes, he’s just one breath away from sounding like an advocate for the bandits.

    His latest intervention denounces the military offensive against criminal elements terrorising Zamfara and surrounding states. He argues it’s akin to pouring petrol on the flames.

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    In a statement titled ‘Zamfara: The Flaring of Crisis,’ he said in part: “Let us face the reality, these herdsmen are going nowhere, and they are already in battle gear, and we know our military very well, so before things get messy, we need cold brains to handle this delicate situation. It’s common sense that if you allow your neighbours to be your enemy you are already conquered. Because they can easily be used against you by other forces.

    “Military actions in the past have worsened the situation stimulating herdsmen resistance. Any more action will push them closer to religious fanaticism. It gives them protection from discrediting them as thieves and also reinforces their mobilization of gullible young unemployed youth as we saw with BH (Boko Haram).”

    He suggested that unless an amnesty programme like that given militants in the Niger Delta is instituted, bandits are “going nowhere.” Sadly, the immediate victims of those “going nowhere” are Gumi’s fellow northerners.

    His amnesty envy is another way of saying “give us our own hand-outs or the killing and the maiming will continue.” It’s prescribing the same medication for different ailments just because the symptoms are similar. It’s an approach that’s not only ignorant but dishonest.

    The uprising in the Niger Delta was the result of decades of environmental degradation of the land and creeks – denying the people of their livelihood; worsening poverty in a region whose oil is the mainstay of the economy.

    The militants targeted economic assets of the Federal Government and foreign oil companies. They were not engaged in indiscriminate killings, or abduction of women and school children for ransom. They didn’t invade rural communities, burning scores of homes for no just cause.

    When the attacks on oil facilities were almost grounding the economy, government quickly worked out interventions to address the region’s issues. In addition to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) created by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, a ministry and amnesty programme were unveiled by the successor Yar’Adua government.

    The amnesty was to wean the fighters from illegal bunkering and other criminal acts. It was only a part of a larger package that reached out to other ordinary citizens.

    But let’s not forget that the Nigerian military and security agencies fought the militants for several years because they took up arms against the state and its interests.

    Any solution to what’s happening in the Northwest must honestly address its roots. Why have these people resorted to violence? There’s widespread consensus that lack of economic opportunities flowing from failure to develop the region is to blame.

    Bandits in Zamfara are in the forests because crime pays huge dividends. Ransoms are in the multimillions. Illegal mining is lucrative, while cattle rustling is another route to quick riches.

    The Boko Haram insurgency, on the other hand, was driven by the radical religious teachings of the late Mohammed Yusuf summarised in the proposition ‘Western education is evil.’ They didn’t become fundamentalist because government dealt harshly with the sect; they were that way from the get-go.

    But Gumi now argues that the bandits, who are just thieves with AK-47s, could be driven to embrace religious extremism by the military offensive. That’s laughable; it’s manufacturing a raison d’etre on the go, one that fits the moment.

    He says dialogue is the only way out because the military don’t have a monopoly on violence. Ridiculous! There are many other violent criminals confronting security agencies across the country. Why not apply the same solution to them so we can experience total peace in our time? Why make a special arrangement for bandits?

    Have we lost all sense of what constitutes a crime, good and bad? How should the state react when errant citizens violently attack others, dispossessing them of their properties or denying them liberty?

    There’s a time for everything and the time for negotiations will come. But to suggest there should be no military intervention even when killings and abductions are occurring daily; when bandits have built capacity to bring down an Air Force jet and strike within the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), is truly shocking!

    With certain enemies dialogue isn’t an option because they aren’t amenable to reason. Bandits are neither honourable nor reasonable. The only option is to defeat them by force of arms, while intervening socially and economically in their operational environment to deny them a recruitment pool.

    Perhaps Gumi needs to have a quiet chat with Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, who came to office with the dialogue singsong. Where has it gotten him? Not long ago he was moaning about how his efforts haven’t yielded fruit and the situation was deteriorating.

    There’s also Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, another one-time advocate of dialogue who famously posed for photos with an AK-47-totting bandit, but has since forsworn the option. He has acknowledged with exasperation that the word of a criminal is worthless.

    In all the time Gumi has been preaching to bandits how many have repented and renounced violence? The conversion rate could help convince cynics that his way is best.

    Unfortunately, even after his well-publicised interventions in major abductions in Zamfara and Niger States, the gunmen blew a lot of hot air but still collected their ransom. Dialogue stopped nothing because kidnapping has become a meal ticket in the region.

    The ongoing military action may not be a perfect solution but it puts pressure on the gunmen and deflates their momentum. There’s an urgent need to beat back the threat they represent and create a level of stability that allows for other governmental action.

    If the military don’t substantially degrade their capabilities they would come to any dialogue with a strong hand and guns pointed at our collective heads.

    Bandits are bullies hiding behind big guns to perpetrate atrocities. Psychologists will tell you appeasement empowers the bully, while confrontation stops him dead in his track. Resisting the evil in the Northwest is long overdue. Gumi can preach the rest of his sermon to the marines!

  • Corruption; Insecurity

    Corruption; Insecurity

    As we wind down the year 2025 and Christians celebrate Christians and all mark the end of the year and beginning of a New Year 2026, it is once more an opportunity for all to take the individual decision to the change the moral aspects of their lives for the better. No matter the profession, no matter the designation, no matter the age, no matter the sex, our society’s citizens see, face or are victims of corrupt citizens daily. Corruption is not really an unwanted disease like malaria or cancer which infects people without their consent. Corruption is like a poisonous pill that citizens can choose to avoid, throw away, dismiss or deny access to their brain and body.  Or they can take it and become ‘corrupted’ and corrupt others in their turn.

    In other words, the buildings where you work, shop, play and pray are not corrupt. In fact, the buildings rest innocently in peaceful honesty after office hours only to be corrupted again when citizens practice corruption of thought, word and deed the next day. We mistake corruption to be money related but it can be decisions, actions, lack of action, advice or wrong advice.

    We all recall the number of armed forces members who were court-martialled for corruption over the years. That corruption is particularly relevant at this time as it sowed the seed which has led to the huge tree of insecurity including complaints of problems with obtaining adequate equipment to face the onslaught of well-armed terrorist groups like Boko Haram, ISWAP. This has been contributory to the difficulties faced by our gallant troops. It is corruption that has led to the diversion of funds needed to adequately empower our gallant armed forces personnel over many years.

    The decision for-or-against corruption in every profession is personal but it has widespread consequences across the citizenry. The ongoing insecurity is the obvious consequence now. The countries we do business with also have corruption but how does the corruption level in those countries match up with our own home-grown corruption across every single endeavour and enterprise, especially government?

    How much does politics play in corrupting the society? Did you notice how much the terrorists demanded for each of the over 250 children so viciously seized from the boarding school? It was N100,000,000 , N100m each. Where did they come up with such a ridiculously huge and outlandish amount? What was their fiscal reference point? Was it they themselves or their secret advisers, since they were often foreigners unfamiliar with naira value or have lived in the bush and small villages most of their terrorist lives?

    Perhaps they were told by their sponsors or handlers to demand the amount N100m such a ludicrous figure. More likely, they got it from the media, recording the much boasted about outlandishly corrupt ‘N100m Presidential Nomination Form’ for a particular party which instantly devalued our currency. The people, all the people, including terrorist people, listen to politicians when they are setting their arrogantly politicised financial standards for themselves and many citizens feel they should be at the same or a better standard than politicians have set for themselves far above the people.

    In a way, the N100m is a good value for the life of a Nigerian citizen, but not in the way the terrorist thinks. The value should be the value the Nigerian government places on its citizens, like the value placed on the life of an American citizen by the American government which would go to any length to free captured citizens and home or abroad. But of course, in spite of this, there is still homelessness and poverty America. Nigerians deserve a far better security architecture than currently exists. We need far more armed forces personnel. We need a larger police force much better insulated from the plague of corruption accusations facing them on the streets from the fleets of keke, danfo, okada and private vehicle with or without tinted windows.

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    Our universities and the private sector should be on some kind of ‘war footing’ and need to be encouraged, equipped and even directed to redirect the training of our youth to become ‘drone developed’ with heat sensor and weapon-delivering capacity. This combination -technology +AI- is key to keeping the mortality among our gallant armed forces and the police down.

    We were told that 100 thousand police had been withdrawn from ‘VIPs’.

    We are thankful to see the armed forces success with rescue of some victims. Whether this is due to external pressure or not, we urge a far tougher logistic and strategic policy effort to surround, entrap and capture the terrorists rather than merely drive them from one LGA to another and claim that as a military victory when in fact, they flee to open a new front in the nearby LGA. The kidnapped children must all be returned as soon as possible with no one left behind to become the next Leah Sharibu. No one can return the life of the schoolteacher and others so violently killed merely for wanting to teach the children of Nigeria the way to a better brighter future. Fortunately, some escaped and rescued. Those children and their parents will need proper, long-term counselling as part of their rehabilitation to prevent emotional, even physical, breakdown.

    NARD is said to have ‘suspended’ its strike. We hope their justifiable demands for restitution and commensurate remuneration are met.

  • Nnamdi Kanu as political football

    Nnamdi Kanu as political football

    Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has been a busy man lately. Yesterday, he huddled with President Bola Tinubu in the recesses of Aso Villa. Three days ago he visited jailed Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, at the Sokoto Correctional Centre where he’s serving a life term for terrorism.

    All the toing and froing is ostensibly to facilitate the release from prison of a man who was sentenced barely two weeks ago. The governor grandly assured him his plight would be resolved administratively and the convict set free.

    Otti isn’t the only prominent Southeastern political leader to make such promises. Shortly before the Abuja High Court presided over by Justice James Omotosho was to deliver judgment, 44 members of the House of Representatives largely from the Southeast released a statement urging Tinubu to invoke his constitutional powers and spring Kanu from detention.

    They asked him to convene a roundtable to find a lasting political solution to the trial of the secessionist leader which had lasted ten years.

    Given that the president has no powers under the constitution to halt to an ongoing judicial process, the lawmakers’ statement was clearly targeted at something other than justice. Inevitably, judgment was handed down in a trial which had seen Kanu jump bail and flee the country at some point.

    Much has been made of his extraordinary rendition from Kenya without speaking about his flight from justice. In the end he was convicted on seven terrorism charges.  The verdict rested on evidence from broadcasts inciting violence, recorded instructions encouraging attacks on security personnel and civilians, threats against foreign missions, and incitement to manufacture weapons.

    At that moment, one might have expected the debate to pivot toward rehabilitation, peace-building, and reintegration. Instead, what keeps popping up are open calls for Kanu’s release, as though political calculations can erase a terrorism conviction resulting from mountains of evidence and testimonies of witnesses who lived through the tragic chapter in the Southeast.

    Some said his imprisonment amounted to jailing an entire ethnic as though his agenda and methods had universal approval throughout Igboland. This is nothing more than cynical opportunism – a ploy to turn tragedy into political currency. It bears pointing out that for every noisy call for easy solutions, there was also the pregnant silence of uncountable powerful voices.

    The trial was neither cursory nor symbolic. It spanned a decade: initial arrest in 2015, bail and subsequent flight, re-arrest in 2021 via extradition from Kenya, multiple hearings, defence and prosecution, and a full judgment.

    In the final days in court, the IPOB leader sacked his lawyers and repeatedly shunned appeals by the judge to defend himself. Rather than do so he chose theatre: parading through court each time screaming “Show me the law. You don’t know the law!”

    With the benefit of hindsight it was clear that Kanu and the sentimental brigade had no defence for his actions, nor rebuttal for what was presented in court as evidence. The only way left for them was to politicise the trial – a dodge that failed spectacularly in the end.

    So why then – only days after the verdict – are some Igbo leaders saying “all hope is not lost,” promising a “political process” to secure Kanu’s release? Clearly, for them, Kanu was never primarily a man or a movement – he was a bargaining chip.

    What the “political solution” rhetoric does is keep them relevant. In a region grappling with insecurity, disillusionment, and weak political structures, invoking Kanu’s name draws attention – especially among younger, aggrieved Igbo and the diaspora.

    It allows them to profit from emotion. Sympathy, outrage, anger are powerful mobilisers. For politicians and some “elders,” they translate into leverage: whether for electoral campaigns, appointments, contracts, or diaspora fundraising.

    But the same people now demanding “justice” never stood up when violence raged, property was destroyed, livelihoods disrupted, or citizens killed in the wake of IPOB/ESN sit-at-home orders. Their insistence on a “political solution” is a refusal to confront Kanu’s culpability and a denial of the deeper structural failures of the region.

    When militants or criminal gangs ravage communities elsewhere in Nigeria, these same elites demand swift law enforcement. But who will deliver justice for the likes of the late Dr. Chike Akunyili, presidential aide Ahmed Gulak, Okechukwu Okoye – a member of the Anambra State House of Assembly kidnapped and later beheaded in May 2022.

    Who will atone for Harira Jibril and her children: a pregnant woman of Hausa descent and her four young children ambushed and murdered in Anambra State in May 2022. What about Justice Stanley Nnaji – a former judge of the Enugu State High Court shot and killed in May 2021?

    A witness for the Department of State Services (DSS) testified in court that between 170 and 200 security agents, including police officers, soldiers, and personnel from other agencies died due to incitement to violence by Kanu and his soldiers.

    Orji Uzor Kalu, who represents Abia North constituency at the Senate, recently lamented that secessionist agitations tied to the activities IPOB and Kanu, led to the death of over 30,000 people and destruction of businesses across the Southeast. Don’t the lives of these mostly Igbo victims matter? Who accounts for the devastation of their livelihood?

    What is profoundly shocking is the indecent haste of so-called leaders and influencers who cannot even allow for a period of reflection before shoving their political solution down everyone’s throats. It is now evident that they would gladly shut their eyes to IPOB atrocities to appease Kanu.

    Just as they are pressuring Tinubu, they made similar demand for Kanu’s release to former President Muhammadu Buhari. He replied that they had asked for a hard thing seeing as the matter was before the courts, but he would consider their request. It was a diplomatic way of saying “no!”

    A political solution so soon after a criminal conviction is a mismatch. What would be the occasion for it? That sort of intervention only happens under certain conditions. For one thing, there’s no groundswell of pressure for it either from the Southeast or rest of Nigeria.

    People can’t pretend not to notice Igboland didn’t go up in flames because Kanu was jailed. Where was the outpouring of anger on the streets if truly there was a connection with the goals and methods of IPOB? Instead what we’ve seen is people carrying on with their lives.

    The president isn’t under any pressure to free the convict and there’s no political gain for him to do so. One celebrity bar man warned that he would receive less than 10,000 votes in the Southeast in 2027 if he failed to release Kanu. But Buhari and Tinubu have proven there’s a pathway to the presidency without winning the zone. So, there’s no incentive for the president to needlessly pick up a hot potato when the judiciary has given him a convenient way out.

    There’s no pressure on the rest of the country because Kanu and IPOB focused their violence on their own people and home territory. They didn’t bomb the Southwest, South-South or North. They couldn’t export their every Monday economic paralysis to other regions. So what’s the incentive for other zones to split hairs over his legal troubles when they have no bearing on their lives?

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    Kanu spent much of heydays denigrating other sections of the country. Unfortunately, for him any so-called political solution would require national consensus and the buy-in of a country he repeatedly referred to as a zoo.

    When socio-economic adversity hits Igboland, his apologists are quick to cry marginalisation and demand redress. But when his broadcast fuels terror and disruption, they call for “mercy,” “dialogue,” and “political solution.” This selective deployment of indignation reveals a deeper hypocrisy. For many of these figures, the rule-of-law applies only when it serves their interest.

    What was evident in court was that Kanu isn’t remorseful for his actions and those of his followers. Even if the so-called “political solution” somehow secured Kanu’s freedom, it would deliver neither justice nor stability. It would simply reward a man and an organisation convicted of terror, by lifting him back onto a platform of martyrdom.

    What the region needs is not a convenient political bypass, but healing – some sort of truth commission. The elite should be talking of an inquiry into the tragedy that tore communities apart and led to the loss of thousands of lives. The region also needs a genuine political strategy – infrastructure investment, economic inclusion, good governance, security reform, and credible dialogue rooted in statecraft, not theatrics.

  • Lessons from Delta’s century of flight (2)

    Lessons from Delta’s century of flight (2)

    Delta began operations on the Lagos-Atlanta route in 2007 just as it was coming out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after completing the reorganization of the company. Delta has serviced the route continuously for 18 years. Today, it is one of their most profitable routes. From its Atlanta headquarters and main operational hub, Delta can take Lagos passengers to nearly 300 other cities in the United States and, indeed, many other cities worldwide. It is, therefore, a very convenient port of entry into the United States for Nigerian travelers.

    By contrast, Nigeria’s national carrier, Nigeria Airways, was liquidated in 2004, having gone into total bankruptcy the previous year. At the time of its death, Nigeria Airways had only one serviceable plane, over 4,000 staff, and owed over $500 million. The deceases were classic and typical of Nigerian government ventures—corruption, mismanagement, overstaffing, and heavy debt. Part of the management incongruities of Nigeria Airways was the disjuncture between its management headquarters in Abuja and its main operational hub in Lagos.

    Delta’s operation in Nigeria is defined by several features. One, the operation is headed by a Nigerian and run by Nigerians. This facilitates smooth transactions between the Nigerian workers and the Nigerian customers. Compare that to a time when Nigerian Airways had to hire staff from TWA or KLM to manage its operations, despite having thousands of Nigerian staff on its payroll.

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    Two, although tickets may be sold in local currency, Delta has an agreement with the government, as do other foreign airlines, to collect airfares in dollars. To Delta’s credit, the airline never stopped operation on the Lagos-Atlanta route when the Nigerian government defaulted on payment before the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu paid off the arrears. Delta’s capacity to absorb such shocks is due to the volume of its operations and high profitability: In 2024 alone, the airline operated over 4,000 flights a day and declared a record high revenue of $57 billion. The pretax income stood at $5.2 billion and free cash flow at $3.4 billion.

    Three, to be sure, Delta makes astronomical profit from its Delta One and First Class fares, not only in Nigeria but worldwide. For example, Delta One fare for a return flight from Lagos to Atlanta over the holidays, ranges between $8,000 and $10,000, depending on the dates and how soon the ticket is booked. Nevertheless, Delta’s profitability on the Lagos-Atlanta route is not limited to passenger load alone. Delta also makes money from cargo freight, taking advantage of the huge volume of trade between Nigeria and the United States. To date, Delta has flown about 2 million passengers and about 25,000 tonnes of cargo in 18 years on the Lagos-Atlanta route.

    Four, Delta is not just pocketing the profit. It also spends on improvements to the aircraft, passenger comfort, and overall customer experience on the Lagos-Atlanta route. For example, this year alone, Delta switched to its flagship, wide-bodied, long-haul jet, the A350-900, offering more comfort throughout its four-cabin setup.

    Earlier in July 2025, Delta opened a premium lounge at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos. The problem, though, is that it appears to be an exclusive lounge that admits only Delta One and certain VIP travelers, for example, in the oil and gas industry. I once enquired from an agent at the reception counter if the Delta Skymiles American Express Reserve Card was good enough for access to the lounge as it is for other Delta and Centurion lounges worldwide, provided the traveler has a same-day Delta ticket. I was shocked by the negative response, but I hope the agent was wrong, because the card comes with a very high annual fee to compensate for all the perks that come with it, including 15 annual visits to Delta lounges. Such cardholders are admitted, without question, to such lounges in the United States and whereever Delta flies. How could the few Nigerian holders of the Delta Skymiles American Express Reserve Card be discriminated against in their own country, when the same card admits them to similar lounges in the United States?

    Delta has also been working since 2023 on free WiFi on their planes in association with T-Mobile, a global mobile phone and WiFi access provider. It is now available on flights on the Lagos-Atlantic route. A welcome addition to the capabilities on newer planes is bluetooth, which allows customers to sync wireless headphones for listening pleasure. The WiFi service is free for those with Skymiles account, while those without an account can purchase WiFi access.

    As indicated last week (see Lessons from Delta’s century of flight (1), The Nation, November 19, 2025), the Delta experience offers lessons in management, customer service, and staff relations. Its profit-sharing program is unparalleled in the industry. Every year they make profit, eligible employees receive a payout equivalent to about 10% of their annual pay or five weeks of pay. Furthermore, eligible employees, including ground workers receive a pay raise equivalent to 4% of their base pay. I hope Delta workers in Nigeria are availed these financial benefits.

    The principal founder of Delta Airlines, Collett Everman Woolman (1889-1966) died in 1966, but the business continued. Its management struggled to keep it afloat, wading through obstacle after obstacle until it stabilized. Today, Delta Airline is the largest airline in the world by revenue. It has received numerous industry awards, including best US airline; best US business class; and best in operational management, employer reputation, and customer experience. It is also best in innovation, including best airline App. How many Nigerian businesses have survived their founders and thrived afterwards? This is a question the Dangotes, Otedolas, and others should begin to ponder.

    I cannot but repeat my assessment of two of the airlines CEO, who, in my estimation, revived the company from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and are largely responsible for its present fortunes. They are Gerald Grinstein and Edward Bastian. The former was CEO, while the latter was Finance Director during the bankruptcy hearings. Ed took the company’s case to court to seek its protection, while Jerry defended the company before Congress from takeover by US Airways. Today, Ed is the company’s CEO. What is remarkable about both men was their recall to work again for the company. Jerry had retired in 1996, while Ed resigned out of anger with the direction of the company. Both were recalled to manage the company. Their contributions will remain indelible in the aviation industry.

  • Progressive LGAs: cooperate with institutions

    Progressive LGAs: cooperate with institutions

    While many LGAs are facing terrorist-led war-like destruction, others have new life because of two great things. One is the Supreme Court judgement reiterating the constitutionally guaranteed financial independence of the LGAs from the state governments in terms of direct allocations from the federal government. The second reason is the dedication of some LGA chairmen who service the needs of their LGAs for inner roads, Primary Health Care, primary schools and markets, some LGA chairmen are building LGA estates and providing small scale business support. Hurray!

    Of course, there are some LGA chairmen who will continue the old bad ways and just call party, political and traditional rulers to merely divide the citizens’ budget among themselves, effectively stealing development money. This disgusting action by elected officials deprives LGA populations of normal LGA-led development even though the money is there. This is outright common theft.

    We must call theft stealing and not politically palatable names like corruption, fraud, padding, misappropriation, inflation of contracts, diversion or round-tripping.

    Such criminally minded thieving LGA chairmen and their councils require regular forensic audit to stop the stealing in the bud -before N1million is missing, not when N1billion is long gone. Our citizens can no longer afford the situation where many more millions are stolen from 2025 LGAs only to be ‘revealed but not retrieved by ICPC or EFCC years after the criminal chairmen have left office and corruptly used the stolen money to illegally further ‘water the road’ of their political ambition.

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    We must catch, try and punish any criminal LGA chairmen while in power. These same wayward thieving politicians will demand that the market thieves in their LGAs are jailed.

    On the political front such wayward money-grabbing politicians need to be reminded that every project completed at LGA reduces the financial and political burden on state and federal government- exactly why the LGAs were created. The citizens need to refocus their very valuable and voluble political and financial management criticism for good governance and demonstrable financial honesty in their LGAs.

    Now there is much more money to spend at LGA level, in most LGAs at least, Nigerians and monitoring bodies need LGA based websites and citizen feedback social media, not in conflict or political opposition but in a cumulative information and action synergy, to achieve what is good for the citizenry and monitor the achievement of SDGs. 

    The vast majority of the Nigerian population lives and work in one or two LGAs. That is all they will ever see of Nigeria, and they make up their minds about every level of governance through the goings on in their limited domain. Abuja and state upheavals are WhatsApp oddities. The states of affairs in those LGAs are the focus and limit of their knowledge. Also, there is a limit to the knowledge input by staff of most LGAs which lack the engineering, architectural, administrative and technical skills to make the ‘Grand 4 or 8-year Plan for XYZ LGA SDGs’.

    Fortunately, but sadly, Nigeria is blessed with an untapped civilian army of professionally knowledgeable dedicated serving and retired -but not tired of their country- Nigerian citizens, men and women, seeking only development, who live in or are connected by family to every LGA. Forward-looking LGA chairmen should mobilise such ‘LGA Senior Citizen Think Tanks’, or the retirees should visit the LGA chairman. Their meetings should identify the top 10, 20, 30 projects which the LGA chairman would not have thought of. For example, there are many badly built or decaying bridges which could cut travel time and improve travel safety and open up new areas, if they are rebuilt, upgraded and maintained.

    Many LGAs are blessed with untapped incalculable wealth as they host, ignored or even harassed, institutions like universities, polytechnics and other tertiary schools, teaching hospitals and research institutes. Sadly, many such centres of knowledge -if not excellence- uniformly have absolutely zero consultation, interaction or impact on the host LGA, starting at the institution’s gate.

     Many years ago, I sat briefly on an intellectual committee set us by LGA chairman, Bayo Beckley. Late Professor Shridar from the University of Ibadan set up a waste management project in Bodija market – a gateway but daily time-consuming traffic bottleneck to the University of Ibadan and NISER-Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, both prestigious and iconic intellectual flagships whose staff get regularly stuck in Bodija market traffic.

    Even with the just concluded widening, reconstruction and super-upgrade of the Bodija market road, the market population still manages to fight change and shrink the road to one-and-a-half usable lanes by spreading tomatoes et cetera on the costly second lane wasting the valuable upgrade. Tomatoes on very expensive market real estate!!

    Yet the NISER, which has a transport development focus unit and brain-packed UI, could cooperate with government to address the embarrassing and needless problem of access to those VIP institutions through the Bodija market. Problem – markets and junctions everywhere cannot accommodate all traders or all okada or keke seeking a spot. Solution: Supervise, set and enforce roadside, market trader and junction okada and keke numbers; keep market traders off the new multi-billion expensive two lanes asphalt road up to 6.30pm daily. Let LGA chairman, UI and NISER and state government meet to create an exemplary off lane third lane for parking. Enforce decisions.

    Cooperation on mundane problems is the key to LGA citizen happiness with all government branches.