The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • The debate on electricity tariff

    The debate on electricity tariff

     The ongoing debate about the increase in electricity tariff could not have peaked at a worse time. First, after about two weeks of steady Naira appreciation, dollar scarcity precipitated slight depreciation of the Naira. Second, delayed arrival and offloading of petroleum-laden cargo ships led to petrol scarcity, leading to a further hike in the pump price. All of a sudden, already high food prices began to rise again. This latter development could only heighten the problem of energy poverty in the country as typified by perennial fuel shortages, inadequate power supply, and rising costs of both sources of energy.

    The discussion about electricity tafiff has been very useful in letting the public know that about 10 percent (N2.8 trillion) of the national budget is spent on electricity subsidy. Believe it or not, this is the first time that many Nigerians are learning that electricity is subsidised. The direction of the discussion so far is to the effect that electricity subsidy should not be removed within the same year that fuel subsidy was removed. If that were to happen, more people will be thrown into abject poverty.

    The problem now is that the government is between a rock and a hard place. Should it remove electricity subsidy outright so it can save money enough to revamp the power sector, which is said to require about $10 billion annually for ten years? Or should it continue with electricity subsidy and still be able to improve on the infrastructure, generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity? It would appear that the government is meeting each of these challenges halfway: Charge Band A consumers higher tariff but continue with subsidy for other consumers. Then work gradually on improving the power sector.

    Thus, recently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed an agreement with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to have Siemens inject 12,000 megawatts of electricity into the national grid. Regulations are also relaxed for state and local governments as well as the private sector to supplement the government’s Rural Electrification Project in generating electricity for rural areas.

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    For years, the Federal Government has been struggling to improve the infrastructure, generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity with minimal success. It is universally acknowledged that corruption has repeatedly dampened the efforts. That’s why, today, the maximum electric power generation capacity the government could boast of is only about 14,000 megawatts. However, with grid collapse every now and then, only about 5,000 megawatts of this capacity has ever been in use. This is abysmally low for a population of over 200 million. The result is that nearly half of the population, living mostly in rural areas, has no access at all to electricity. Of those who have access to electricity, about 80 percent do not have a supply of more than 10 hours a day. This implies that most households and businesses do not have access to electricity for more than 10 hours a day.

    If, according to international standards, a population of 1 million people needs at least 1,000 megawatts of electricity, then Nigeria needs at least 200,000 megawatts of electricity for its present population. Good planning would require that this number be doubled in less than 30 years, when the country’s population is also expected to have doubled.

    There are at least three reasons Nigerians have been complacent with low electric power output. First, those who can afford it find an alternative power supply in diesel- or petrol-fueled generators and/or solar powered backup units, while others limit their energy consumption to kerosene, cooking gas, and, of course, raw firewood, all used for cooking.

    However, with a steep rise in the cost of petroleum products, due to the removal of fuel subsidy and multiple exchange rates, many households are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to keep up, while many businesses, including manufacturing industries, are closing down. It is within this context that a hike in electricity tariff has been meeting stiff resistance from various quarters. Although it was stated at the outset that only Band A customers (that is, those getting up to 20 hours of electricity supply daily) would be affected, most Nigerians were not sure whether it was not a ploy to increase the tariff across board.

    Second, older Nigerians have been used to hard times. Whether it was the Electric Corporation of Nigeria, Nigeria Electric Power Authority, or Power Holding Company of Nigeria, epileptic or no power supply had been their lot.  For most of them now, it is a case of nothing is new under the sun. However, the younger generation is more intolerant and restive. As this restive population grows in number and in age, the government can expect a revolution, if the present trend of poor electric power supply persists.

    Another reason for complacency is the periodic distribution of palliatives by federal, state, and local governments as well as by individual politicians, especially those currying favour for the next round of elections. But palliatives only provide temporary cushions for the poor in harsh economic times. They do not fix the energy deficits.

    Today, however, complacency is challenged by the digital world we live in. We must charge phones and computers. Industries must power the assembly line, including sophisticated robots. As we move from fossil fuel to electric cars, such as Tesla, electricity supply has become more crucial than ever.

    Nevertheless, caution is needed on electricity tafiff at this time. A hike in electricity tafiff, no matter the category of consumer, will jolt an already destabilised economic situation. The government currently has the sympathy, although not necessarily the support, of the majority of the population on its economic programmes. Nothing should be done to incur their distrust.

    That’s why the government has to come out in clear language about the direction it is taking on the energy crisis, especially on electricity tariff and petrol supply. Admittedly, NNPCL has spoken on the delay in supply and assured the public of supply in no distant time. However, the Minister of Power has not been the best messenger regarding electricity tariff. Rather than explain the government’s position in clear terms, he resorted to blaming the consumers for their electricity consumption patterns. Besides, till today, the idea of Band A customers is jargon to the roadside welder, who hears about tariff hike and gets nervous. The government surely needs to do more on retail communication of its programmes. It must be realised that government programmes are supported or rejected, depending on how they are presented and understood by the public.

  • Bobrisky; Immunity; POS; Bullying; WAEC; Corruption

    Bobrisky; Immunity; POS; Bullying; WAEC; Corruption

    Happy May Day! We need  to ‘fight’  six wars :

    A high manpower, high tec ‘Surprise, Surround, Neutralise’ War on Terrorism. 

    A National Orientation Agency driven ‘honesty rewarding’ War on Corruption strengthening the naira!

    An NOA-driven pre-emptive, Anti-Bullying & Anti-Beating War -to prevent further mental and physical injury, including eye injury, and deaths among students.

    A Decentralising Restructuring ‘Policy Change’  War.

    Much ado about immunity. Immunity is  not from personal corruption. You are not ‘forced to be corrupt’ just because you are a public figure! Immunity is protection for ‘public interest political policies and practices’. Corruption should be anathema and not the hallmark of politics. The young, male and female,  are not immune from corruption.

    Bobrisky imprisoned 6 months for ‘abuse’ of naira. She/He already apologised! A monetary fine and an apology is justice with a human face. No one wants to see Her/Him with a 6-month prison beard. 

    Meanwhile the permanent death-stars of the ‘Nigerian Development Show’, the imposed  ‘WE THE PEOPLE DO NOT’  1993 CONSTITUTION, no-go areas and antidevelopment Exclusive List monopolies championed by  feudal ethnic beliefs precipitate regressive  polices caging the Mighty Elephant, Nigeria, which can only trumpet through its trunk -the media- about its potential if unleashed. Electricity regulation was abuse of Nigeria, deregulation will restore normalcy. We suffer cycles of South-led progress followed by  regression imposed by the feudal section of the North, criminally forcing the youth to remain ignorant and servile. The criminal negative effect is reinforced in too many politicians, contractors, bankers and civil servants from both North and South, who collectively steal or divert trillions but are paradoxically treated like royalty. We should not  ‘Stand up! Stand Up for the thieves!!’ when they enter the room. How does one person divert or steal N1- 100,000,000,000, N100billion= N1,250 from every child.

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    What makes people, God’s creatures, morally bereft and fiscally corrupt, create citizens’ suffering, deprivation and death? Murderers, not thieves?  ‘Corruption wrong’ everywhere does not make ‘corruption right’ in your case. Can nothing overcome corruption? The media has weekly frenzies at each new financial crime.

    Accused have been charged, tried, and too infrequently convicted of financial crimes like money laundering and corrupt enrichment. Read about the bank driven POS scam and add it to others like sale of new notes, and roundtripping forex trading, the 20,000+ man aboki-bloated black market.

    Corruption prosecution cases should list the loses, deprivation of scholarships, students failure in underequipped schools, the murder of women and children dying from absent staff, medication, electricity and equipment in hospitals, and finally for the hospital stays, rehabilitation, job losses, murders and vehicular damage  on potholed roads.

    The investigation agencies are barely coping with crimes already committed and seem unable, underfunded, undertrained or too politically shackled or ethnically fearful to prevent corrupt practices except at the Humanitarian affairs ministry manned to its ‘death’ by three ladies. These investigation agencies are under fire for doing their job as corruption fights back. The multiple billions of developmental naira, huge amounts in our raped and robbed country, under investigation, if used properly, would have preserved the naira value at N1:$1.5. Nigeria’s fall from financial grace to naira ruin lies with the ‘Nigerian Cult Of Greed-over Need’ by ‘Nigeria’s Financial Axis of Evil’ Nigeria’s costly natural disaster.

    Never have so few abandoned responsibility for and directly done physical evil to so many citizens by denying them electricity, water, child-friendly school environments, scholarships, clean patient-friendly hospitals and instead stealing and misappropriating their patrimony. The proceeds they converted into obscenely legally illegal, immoral huge pensions and payments for jets and even future school fees. Such quantum of theft decimated the pensions of every single family, destroying the first African family bank in Nigeria -the Nigerian Extended Family. 

    Note the poor results of the WEAC just released. Who is solving the problem? Is it nuclear physics? Too few books in schools? Inflated book and classroom construction costs? Monetised or ethnically politicised education decision making? Education worldwide requires 11-15% of budgets to maintain standards. For Nigeria to catch up we require increased budgets to 20% for 10 years but spend 5% deliberately creating an army of disadvantaged youth. Look at any Chibok or any rundown public school near you. Thank God for the Old Students other Associations and NGOs like Educare Trust, Nigeria or the results would have been worse. Corporate Nigeria prefers billboards, social media frenzies and Big Brother to equipping schools for Generation Next.  

    You are not corrupt but who inflates the cost of 1 textbook or kilometre built reducing total books bought or roads built?. No country grows if corruption is above 10%. Remember an airport completely funded with  no airport seen yet 100% corruption?  We would have built Nigeria x10-20 times without corruption.

    Then add investigative hurdles like political interference, complicity or incompetent, insincere and deliberately delayed prosecution and judicial connivance. Imagine not knowing the court of jurisdiction?

    All these, together the politically-driven epidemic of post-arrest sick leave, demands to travel abroad for ‘sudden’ post-arrest illnesses confound courts. The accused are never ‘too sick to steal’, only ‘too sick to stand trial’ and create tragicomedy Nollywood quality medically coached certified ‘Corruption Case Court Accused Collapse’ with props like wheelchair, crutches, plaster casts, neck brace and moaning. Can someone like NOA drum it into the ‘Corpus Corruptus of Nigeria’ that there is no survival of the larger extended family and community with the current high levels of corruption.

  • The APC governorship primary in Ondo

    The APC governorship primary in Ondo

    The APC governorship primary election in Ondo state may have come. But it appears it is not gone yet, and it may not go for years to come. It should have been an uncontroversial victory for the declared winner, incumbent Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, had he and the party leaders handled the process differently. Instead of prosecuting it as a primary election, the Governor of Kogi State, Usman Ododo, who led the Primary Election Committee, allowed it to degenerate into a primary selection process, or perhaps that was his mandate. So did the co-aspirants and many voters across the state conclude.

    These two theses, namely, how Aiyedatiwa was declared winner and the role of the Ododo-led Primary Election Committee, need further clarification. Aiyedatiwa was said to have won in 16 of 18 local governments. He lost only in Ilaje, his own local government, to Olusola Oke, SAN, who hails from there as well. There was no election in Ifedore local government as Aiyedatiwa’s thugs were said to have scared voters away.

    At the end of the day, 48, 569 votes were allocated to Aiyedatiwa, while Samuel Akinfolarin was placed second with15,343 votes. Oke was said to have come third with 14,915 votes. It should be remembered that the same Akinfolarin had collapsed his support and organizational structure into Aiyedatiwa’s days before the election. The terms “allocated”, “was placed”, and “was said” signify the views of co-aspirants and voters, who alleged that there was no election, only concocted results.

    Read Also: Tinubu approves routing of 20% palliatives through religious, traditional leaders

    This leads to the second thesis. The Ododo-led Committee was said to have done a hatchet job: The guidelines set out by the committee were not followed. Voting materials were not distributed as promised. Officials to supervise the election did not show up, and the few who showed up did so very late. Voting did not take place in many places, either because there were no voting materials, or officials did not show up, or voters were scared away by thugs. In a rerun election scheduled for Sunday in Okitipupa, which other aspirants had boycotted, the counting process was a novel mathematical exercise. In a viral video of the counting process in Okitipupa, the figures for Aiyedatiwa moved quickly to over 600 in a line of less than 100 people! Only the Election Committee could explain why a rerun was scheduled for Okitipupa alone and not for other local governments, such as Ifedore, where no votes were recorded due to violence. Why the election was scheduled for Sunday, when Christians would still be in church, is another matter.

    The truth is that the election need not have gone that way. On the one hand, Aiyedatiwa did not need all the fuss to win, because he was far ahead of the other contenders in many respects. One, he is the incumbent Governor in control of the states’ levers of power, from quid pro quo appointments to the state’s treasury. Two, he has more access to resources, including state resources. Over N30 billion had accrued to the state since he became Governor. Three, he has been running for Governor since he became Deputy Governor on February 25, 2021. Whether as part of his routine function as Governor or as part of his campaign, he has had opportunities to go round the state.

    As the campaign peaked, he allegedly bought several endorsements and covert support from state elders and party leaders to prospective voters, including youths and women. Fourth, he was much more visible than any other candidate throughout the state through billboards and paid advertisements. On many occasions, his thugs destroyed opponents’ billboards in order to maintain high visibility.

    On the other hand, the Election Committee did not help his case by bungling the process and depriving it of needed transparency. A situation in which aspirants had to pay the annual dues of members so they could participate in the primary election leaves much to be desired. While that happened even before the Committee was set up, the allocation of resources and votes by the committee further deepened suspicion as the gap between Aiyedatiwa and the rest of the field did not match the reality of the competition. Why Okitipupa Local Government with three aspirants, including Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, was deprived of personnel and material resources on the day of election was baffling. Even more inexplicable was the Committee’s decision to have a rerun election in Okitipupa and not in other LGAs, where voting did not take place. Worse still were election returns in places where voting did not take place at all.

    There are many lessons from the Ondo primary election for the APC as a political party, for Ondo voters, and for our democracy. This is the second controversial governorship primary election in a row. Both of them could have been avoided had the party leaders followed due process and allowed for a transparent procedure. There is nothing wrong with a direct primary. However, in this age of vote-bying, voting by secret ballot should be better than standing to be counted without regard to accuracy of figures.

    Democracy thrives on the ability of party leaders to ensure internal democracy and allow for a transparent process whereby party members go through a fair process of election or selection as a party nominee for elective office. Where a competition is allowed to take place, as in Edo and Ondo, the process should be fair, just, and credible, and be seen to be so.

    Two recurrent killers of our democracy are two apparently contradictory factors, namely, greed and poverty. Those who have are never satisfied. They want more. Those who don’t have want something. And what better time to satisfy both groups than election time, when consent and support are bought rather than earned?

    Fortunately, Ondo voters have moved beyond the provocation of a botched primary election as they await the governorship election in November. However, dissatisfaction festers among many contenders in the primary, some of whom are calling for the cancellation of the exercise. How the party handles their complaints may indicate whether or not Ondo state will join Ogun, Osun, and Oyo states, where the APC is riddled with factionalism. To be sure, their anger is directed more at the party than at Aiyedatiwa, the declared winner. Nevertheless, how Aiyedatiwa himself handles the victory allocated to him will be the beginning of his preparation for the November election. In this regard, he has lessons to learn from how the prostrating Ekiti State Governor, Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, turned a rancorous APC in Ekiti state into one amicable family.

  • Onakoya: Teaching Youth Need Vs Adult Greed

    Onakoya: Teaching Youth Need Vs Adult Greed

    Learn from Tunde Onakoya’s generosity and dedication to help Nigeria’s youth.

    It is disgracefully late but not too late to change Nigeria’s child damaging, insufficient, poor exam-success percentages, inadequate education ways in most schools and even homes. Just look at the abysmally shameful educational quality seen in Chibok and Kuriga. How dare a country hold its school children in such low esteem as to deliberately deprive them and their teachers of ‘WEAPONS TO WIN THE EDUCATION WAR’ while  our politicians choose jeeps and stealing billions in humanitarian funds over classroom content of its 25m eligible children!! ‘CHESS IS A WEAPON TO WIN THE EDUCATION WAR’.

    We must go back to ‘good old school days’ in schools and get parents and community business involved again in education through vibrant voluntarily contributing PTAs and committed Community Boards of Governors. Thank goodness for Secondary School Old Students Associations but we urgently need PRIMARY SCHOOL OLD STUDENTS ASSOCIATIONS ALSO.

    The Guinness Marathon Chess Record of 60 hours  credited to 29 yr. old Tunde Onakoya playing  Shawn Martinez, an American Chess Champion,  in Times Square, New York is a great achievement. Congratulations.

    Tunde Onakoya is a child education advocate and founder of Chess in Slums to motivate, empower and uplift the too-often abandoned, materially denied, underutilised, understimulated, underchallenged and underrated young minds of often underprivileged children in deprived living conditions, be they slums on land or huts on waterways. Hurray and congratulations to Onakoya/Martinez. And congratulations to Tunde Onakoya,  selflessly working towards raising $1million for his Chess organisation’s Nigerian need children, while most Nigerian politicians are better known for financially ‘miraculously’  owning a private jet or becoming the principle star of yet another of  the ‘Not Nollywood’ films titled  ‘Multibillion Naira EFCC/ICPC Investigation And A Long Never-To-Be-Convicted Multiyear Multi-Court Marathon Trial’. Different strokes for different folks.

    Read Also: Tinubu approves routing of 20% palliatives through religious, traditional leaders

    Incidentally Morgan Stanley the multibillion financial mega-institution has donated $5k and $110K has been raised elsewhere. We await more than ‘nothing but good wishes’ to be donated by Nigeria’s ‘rich, famous and infamous’ to fund the difference.

    This effort seeks to fill the void of ‘co-curricular activities’ for the youth. When we were younger such games were available, along with track and field sports, and board games like scrabble and were the backbone of ‘free time’ activities. These co-curricular activities have suffered with the massive rise in government corrupt practices stealing the funds.

    But the thieves and administrators of such funds ignore the internationally confirmed fact that investment in educating youth in co-curricular activities is an essential part of the Western  education curriculum and skill identification. This has been also championed by Educare Trust for 30 years and other NGOs and targeted at making the youth occupy their ‘free time’ with mind expanding, body strengthening, skill acquiring, mind broadening, emotionally calming, healthy-habit inculcating and strong moral fibre  activities.

    Without education in co-curricular activities, NECO and WEAC  academic subjects are inadequate, and we abandon our youth to complain, singing the YOUTH ANTHEM OF ‘I AM BORED’.  BOREDOM IN YOUTH IS A PREVENTABLE DISEASE  REQUIRING TREATMENT. Fortunately, the youth will show signs and even talk about being bored. Ignoring the disease is a parental, school, community and government failure to provide needed cocurricular activities and community facilities like Youth Centres, sports stadia and frequent and challenging tournaments where the youth can identify their talents, be coached by role models with adequate equipment to develop fully to be able to compete at every level up to international level. The Great Hogan Bassey taught us defensive boxing at Abalti Barracks, Yaba in the early 60s.  

    We forget that cocurricular activities are essential in equipping youth adequately in the arena of ‘MENTAL & Physical & Social HEALTH’. Team and individual Games teach youth brains how to be noble, humble, magnanimous and generous in victory and encouraged even in defeat to avoid depression, suicide and violence against others with constant malicious but baseless claims of cheating. We must eliminate the bully in all of us.

    Let us remember the old time when it was compulsory to belong to two or more of the organised bodies like  Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Red Cross, Blue Crescent, Man O’ War, school clubs like Literary and Debating and Maths and Drama Clubs, school bands, athletics and football, basketball, netball, cricket, swimming, gymnastics, weight lifters, wrestling, boxing, judo, taekwondo, dancing and other teams and individual activities in school based and community based operations. Today we add ROBOTICS AND COMPUTER CLUBS. In today’s Nigeria there are too few  public and even private schools with enough of these opportunities.

    Please recall that since 1994 Educare Trust’s suggestions over 30 years have been for  a YOUTH CENTRE per WARD as the 8,813 wards are the political unit of Nigeria. At the very least we should have a LARGE NONPOLITICAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA YOUTH CENTER-Just 774 in number. Imagine if these Youth Centres had been created 30 years ago, there would have been much needed funding focus and locally available support for  the youth across our country, regardless of terrain and  1 There are too few Youth centres where the advantaged and disadvantaged youth can meet for equal opportunity, and mutually respectful competitive and cooperative voluntary activities. No parent, community leader or politician can buy such camaraderie with money but money is required to provide any and all the needed facilities identified above and many others like regularly updated school libraries.

  • No ID CARD now; BAND A??

    No ID CARD now; BAND A??

    The tragic news of the expected birth of the next in a long line of very monstrously expensive, very individually time- consuming and very poor value-for-budget ID cards is again raising its ugly head on the immediate agenda of the current government , pregnant with so many good, bad and ugly ideas. All 160m+ Nigerians [can we really be ‘over 200m’ when they seem unavailable or disappear at voting and school time] fervently pray that this government sticks to the good inexpensive masses-upliftment ideas that it has which can make Nigerians ‘happy people’ again quickly after years of pillage, budgetary rape, robbery  and devaluation of our formerly precious currency, the naira.

    If the multibillion naira planned to be spent on a card supposed to improve our financial security, is spent instead on our massive physical security problems, more electricity, more security, more good roads, many more Nigerians, likely to be murdered in their villages, farms and on roads this year, would probably live. Nigerians are reeling under multiple creative taxation including for generator, for ‘open space use’, for LGA something? Why would this government, doing amazingly well on the naira value recovery front, plunge citizens into another ‘chaotic card’  situation. Good or bad idea, it is 2-3 years too early and wrong timing!

    Nigerians are among the most patient and most frequent IDed and prayerful citizens  world. But we are paradoxically also among the top corrupted countries. Remember that the best IDed countries also groan under  corruption, bank fraud and identity theft in spite of their CCC ‘Cards, Cameras and Computers’.

    Let the Auditor General report to Nigeria how much ‘Contracts for ID cards’ have cost Nigeria so far. Nigeria’s cards are too short term, requiring too frequent renewal, another ploy to extort from citizens. Drivers Licence, Voters Card[x?6], BVN, NIN, TIN, Passports et cetera  Government wastes a huge amount of the citizen’s time having to renew official ID documents and periodically comes up with a new one for to dance to all over again. Yet Nigeria still does not have the most basic Course 1-0-1 FINGERPRINT AND FACE-MUG-SHOTS IN ALL OUR POLICE STATIONS AND A NATIONAL CRIMINAL DATABASE over 100 years after use in England. Nigeria’s Crime Laboratories are among the least equipped worldwide. This condemns police to use measures other than evidence.

    Read Also; Nigeria’s security architecture stretched beyond elastic limits, says Tinubu

    Government would be more appreciated if it was announcing a National Crime Data Base for fingerprints, facial  recognition and body and limb scarification and tattoos photo-records to better professionalise policing.

    Government would have been applauded if it announced that all existing databases were now available to police and financial crime investigators for cross-referencing. Government needs to tell us that our databases are valuable, available and well-protected from hackers, perhaps by using local language proverbs of the small, lesser-known ethnic groups as passwords in firewalls.  

    Government could not stop the NASS embarrassing itself publicly by buying N160m jeeps for its 360 politicians at a time of 70-80% nationwide poverty. But Government can stop its enthusiastic officials from embarking on yet another multibillion expensive adventure just to ‘give’ us a new ID Card, which, hehehe, we will all have to pay double for. Surely a levy of N5-10,000 will be demanded even though all government money is our money, making us pay twice!

    In conclusion, this Multipurpose ID/cum Mastercard Scheme may be good but it is ill-advised when all the schools lack water, books, laboratories, toilets, sports equipment and security; and life is so insecure. Let us postpone it until certain goals are reached. Until all the farms are accessed in safety for farmers, families and property; when all the bandits and terrorists have been neutralised; when Nigerians are made naira-proud; when we have $50b in Foreign Reserves and a less than N400:$1. Let us put food on Nigerians’ tables, smiles on faces, books in children’s hands; terrorists and bandits neutralised; jobs for  youth and fingerprinting and mugshots in police stations. Reorder Nigeria’s priorities please with our limited funding.    

    Nigeria will never be great again if it keeps recycling the same old failed ID Projects, same old policies, same old roads and bridges, same old bookless schools and healthcare-less hospitals and clinics. That ID card multibillion naira could be used in far better ways to help Nigeria achieve  the SDGs.  Yes, ID and financial inclusion and fiscal security are problems but they do not kill like violence, crime, and hunger do. In Nigeria today a multibillion-naira new ID Card Scheme is not a life-saving priority. Let us abandon the scheme for now lest it’s almost guaranteed poor implementation and escalating cost will be seen as a scam hung around the government’s neck.

    Band A IS THE NEW SONG IN TOWN. CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN THE BUSINESS LOGIC OF PAYING MORE PER UNIT PRICE FOR INCREASED SUPPLY? Buying more makes you a better valued customer and should bring a discount for turnover volume, abi no be sooo? The more you buy the cheaper it becomes. Common business sense, teach the power holding companies. Some favoured groups of citizens never pay for services and these fees are passed on to those who actually pay their exorbitant fees. It was so for NITEL, NEPA and IDD, International Direct Dial phones. Has anyone you know ever had 20 hours/day power. Power companies should CHANGE THEIR CUSTOMER UNFRIENDLY BUSINESS MODEL AND GET A NEW ‘BAND AID’ TO PLAY A DIFFERENT MORE HONEST ELECTRICITY TUNE.

  • When will prices begin to come down?

    When will prices begin to come down?

    The most recurrent response to my column last week on the appreciation of the Naira was a question: When will prices begin to come down? The question presupposes that Naira devaluation alone was responsible for rising prices. The investigation reported below shows otherwise.

    The good news, however, is that prices of some commodities have begun to adjust in line with the appreciation of the Naira, but only for certain products and only in certain areas. For example, Financial Derivatives Company Limited reported over the weekend that the prices of rice, flour, and noodles have begun to fall, although at varying rates. The Company’s Managing Director, Bismarck Rewane, added that prices will continue to reflect the Naira appreciation as more businesses begin to stock up at the new Naira/$ rate.

    However, investigations in Akure, the Ondo state capital, reveal limited corroboration, according to my team of investigators. The team investigated prices in various markets and stores, including three popular food markets (Isikan Market on Ondo Road, Shasha Market on Owo road, and the sprawling Oja Oba Market near the Oba’s palace); Supermarkets (notably, Shoprite, Ceci, and Vigeo); and various Household goods stores for electronics, electrical wares, plumbing, and furniture.

    Prices remain high everywhere. Prices of rice and flour have not adjusted for Naira appreciation in the Akure markets, but the price of noodles, especially the Indomie variety, has come down a little. It was also noted that certain items are cheaper in certain markets than in others. For example, fresh fruits and vegetables are cheaper in Shasha than in the other markets. Generally, Shasha prices are lower for foodstuff and meat products, because Shasha Market is a dropoff point for trucks bringing foodstuff from various locations. Even at that, Shasha prices now are higher than ever before. However, once foodstuff and fresh veggies make it to fancy shelves in Supermarkets, such as Shoprite, they get particularly overpriced. Prices of imported goods remain very high, much higher than similar goods produced locally. However, both are much higher than they were six months ago.

    Read Also; Nigeria’s security architecture stretched beyond elastic limits, says Tinubu

    The more interesting findings, however, are why prices are not being adjusted in line with Naira appreciation. Some retailers, such as local market women are not aware of Naira appreciation, while others are skeptical. One retailer insisted that the whole Naira appreciation story is a gimmick. Another one, more informed, thinks that we should wait to see if Naira appreciation will be sustained. “I don’t want to lower my price today and have to raise it again tomorrow”, he said. When I explained that even Goldman Sacks, a global financial institution, has praised the Central Bank Governor, Yemi Cardoso, for his policies, and even predicted that the Naira may exchange for less than N1,000/$1 by the end of the year, the response was that they don’t know the Nigerian government.

    Some of these responses have their basis in trust deficit in government (see Trust deficit in Nigeria, The Nation, March 13, 2024). Others demonstrate the poverty of information from the government to the people, especially the non-reading public and the illiterate market women. If politicians could reach this population for votes, then the government should find ways to inform them of impactful activities.

    Another interesting finding from the investigations is that the value of the Naira is only one of several factors responsible for rising prices. Another major factor is the high cost of fuel, following the removal of fuel subsidy. Fuel is needed for transporting goods to the market and for powering generators in the absence of regular power supply. For example, fish sellers and cool drinks sellers from roadside kiosks insisted that they needed to add the cost of transport and refrigeration to their prices in order to make some profit.

    Since high fuel cost is a direct result of the removal of fuel subsidy, it follows that what traders need is beyond palliatives. They want the government to find a way to moderate the high cost of fuel in order to bring down food inflation, just as it has moderated the exchange rate to enhance the value of the Naira. This could be achieved by doubling up on local refineries. In this regard, Dangote and Port Harcourt refineries are welcome developments. Already, Dangote is said to have lowered the cost of diesel. Hopefully, it will reflect in price tags soon.

    There is yet another problem affecting the costs of foodstuff. Desertification and climate change are affecting farmers’ productivity in the so-called food basket zone, including Benue, Kogi, and Nassarawa states. In Benue State, for example, dry season farming is no longer profitable. A recent report in Premium Times shows how a previously fertile land has turned arid due to extreme heat, caused by climate change (Nigeria’s ‘food basket’ faces new foes, Premium Times, April 6, 2024). As a result, farmers are left to lament poor yield, like this farmer, cited in the report: “How can you cultivate 32 hectares of yam farm and you will not even be able to get up to 100 tubers of yam that you will sell?’. You can imagine that whatever this farmer is able to sell from his farm will attract a high price tag, regardless of fuel cost and the value of the Naira. Here again is an invitation to the government to provide more than fertilizers to farmers. Those in the food basket zone and up North want the government to pay more attention to climate change and provide solutions to their farming problems.

    There are at least two striking conclusions from this analysis. One, more patience is required for prices to come down, because there are many factors at play that have been driving up prices. In this regard, it is important to view food inflation in Nigeria today against a global trend in the last 25 years. Virtually nowhere have prices come fully down once they go up.

    Two, it would appear that the government is expected to do everything, partly in the belief that it caused the present problems with its policies and partly because of the dearth of infrastructure as a result of government negligence over the years. This is where banks too should be under the spotlight for their contribution to the seriously challenged economy from which they have managed to make astronomical profits. The 2023 financial reports of just six banks —Access, Zenith, GTCO, UBA, Stanbic, and Wema—show that, despite serious economic challenges, they generated profits worth over N3 trillion! All on our back, one way or the other.

  • The long walk to 2027

    The long walk to 2027

    The 2023 electoral cycle is the one that never ended. Even after the Supreme Court dismissed the cases brought before it by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party’s (LP), Peter Obi, it was clear that for the two men, there was no closure.

    They never accepted defeat, never congratulated the winner President Bola Tinubu, and showed by their reaction to final judicial defeat that they were ready to relitigate the matter – this time in the court of public opinion.

    Standard behavior – even in politics – accepts that there’s time for everything; a time to campaign, a time to govern. The changing of times is usually marked by the termination of legal hostilities at the apex court. But in an age where denialism has become reality, nothing is the same.

    The only outcome that would have been acceptable to either Atiku or Obi was one in which they were declared winners. Since it is impossible to have three winners on one contest, they have grudgingly accepted the fact that there’s a president sitting in Aso Rock, while they are skulking around in the opposition wilderness. This is just a restless, holding position.

    Everything they have done since points to the fact that they are warming up for a repeat of a contest that is at least three years away. Take Obi for example. While his performance at the polls last year surprised many by its reach into largely Christian areas of North-Central, it also exposed the weaknesses of his presentation and how his candidacy was perceived.

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    He would have loved to be seen as a pan-Nigerian figure whose message resonated with a younger demographic, but the lopsided results in the Southeast made him out to be an ethnic project. His performance in the Southwest was anaemic – with the exception of Lagos where a complex mix of religion and ethnicity delivered a famous win for him in the presidential poll.

    By choosing the same-faith ticket, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Tinubu, opened the window for his rivals to weaponise religion. While Atiku attacked the ticket will all the gusto he could muster, it was Obi who really made a meal of it. He traipsed through mega churches the length and breadth of the South with the rallying cry ‘Christians, take back your country!’ Such exhortations were often greeted with exuberant cheers.

    His determined attempt to cement himself as the Christian candidate in an environment where the Muslim-Muslim ticket had been demonised would end in a scandal after his fawning ‘yes daddy’ phone conversation with Pentecostal grandee, Bishop David Oyedepo, was leaked.

    While he was pursuing the strategy of locking up the Christian vote North and South, he forgot the downside of being seen as anti the other side of the religious divide. It was no surprise therefore that the LP flagbearer made only the most perfunctory of attempts to canvass votes in the far North. It was a factor that would deny him the national spread required to win the presidency.

    It is clear the man recognises the mistakes made and has been taking baby steps to remedy them. For instance, the same person who wanted Christians to take back their country one year ago, was sighted in a couple of gatherings during Ramadan breaking fast with Muslims.

    Social media was also agog with images of a poorly executed borehole project bearing his name somewhere in Zaria. Many were quick to conclude he was was rebranding ahead 2027. Such were the extremes to which he went in 2023 that he would need more than these photo-ops and posturing to reverse the damage.

    As for Atiku, he has never hidden the fact that for as long as he has breath, he would pursue his dream of becoming president. So, next stop, 2027. But with the former Vice President there’s been noticeable change. Gone is some of the arrogance that misled him into thinking he could win the last election without the support of the Nyesom Wike-led G-5 rump of the PDP.

    The same man who preferred to hang on to the questionable electoral asset called Iyorchia Ayu rather than work with five state governors, is today feverishly marketing a grand coalition of opposition parties as the only way of toppling the ruling party at the next election. For inspiration, he points to the victory of the 44-year-old Bassirou Diomaye Faye at the recent Senegalese presidential poll as evidence of what’s possible when parties work together.

    It can be taken for granted that all things being equal, the incumbent will run again. At least he made that obvious when at the inauguration of Lagos Red Line rail project in February, he taunted Joe Ajaero and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to wait until 2027 if they were interested in political power.

    The trouble for Tinubu’s rivals is that while the next elections represent a window of opportunity for those who wish to supplant an officeholder with a record, they would be reduced in that time to merely carping on the sidelines watching the president wield power.

    They may wish he stumbles from error to error – providing them with ammunition to attack his record. But the reverse is also possible; that he could go from win to win – becoming more presidential as the days go by. Critically, he’s taken some pivotal and very unpopular steps early in his tenure, giving him sufficient time to ride out any negative blowback. Early signs point to the fact that fuel subsidy removal and the forex reforms were the right calls needed to unlock the economy.

    Given what we know about the evolution of political power in these parts, it’s going to take more than opposition name-calling to bring about regime change at the next election – especially if the pace of reforms is sustained and the economy rebounds and becomes stronger. PDP, LP and others would then have to make a compelling case as to why voters should dump a tried and tested model for a pie in the sky.

    In the days when the British Tory Party seemed to have a lock on power, going from one electoral triumph to another, it was a young Tony Blair who warned his comrades in the then far left-leaning British Labour Party about the need to develop policies and an image that would make them electable. He argued that no matter how well-meaning a party’s policies were, they could do nothing about them except they found a way to get into power. He would then push Labour to be more centrist and eventually electable.

    At least the Labour Party was not just a cohesive platform, it was perceived by British voters as a credible alternative to the Conservatives. Today, the PDP which in its days in power appeared invincible and even dreamt of governing non-stop for 60 years, is on the ropes – riven with factions. This week it would hold crucial meetings that would affect its future. It is a measure of how much confidence Atiku has in it that he’s desperately marketing a joining of forces with other parties.

    The same affliction has paralysed the Labour Party which is locked in an internecine feud with NLC which claims to own it. Such is the bitterness of the dispute that it promises to be long drawn – rendering it largely useless to anyone hoping to ride it to power.

    Perhaps, the most credible challenge to APC rule lies in an opposition coalition. But its prospects are dead on arrival because of the ambitions of the would be promoters and partners. The day Atiku sacrifices his ambition for Obi or the NNPP’s Rabiu Kwankwaso or vice versa, is the day to begin to take such a project serious. Until then, any visions of power these perennial contestants may be having are nothing short of a mirage.

  • Cardoso and renewed hope in the CBN

    Cardoso and renewed hope in the CBN

    Accept my hearty congratulations for your brilliant performance on ARISE TV today. The cadence and tone of your responses, added to your executive carriage, conveyed an image of the CBN we have not witnessed for a long time. You offered superior education to the nation and confidence to the international community. Well done!

    — Congratulatory message from me to Yemi Cardoso, Governor of the Central Bank, on his impressive appearance on Arise TV on February 5, 2024.

    Thank you, Prof.

    — Response from Yemi Cardoso on February 6, 2024.

    I begin with this brief exchange of SMS messages with Yemi Cardoso, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, for several reasons. First, I thought it was necessary to diffuse the overly critical stance of the press toward government officials, especially of the present administration. Yet, by initially refusing to understand the thrust of the policies Cardoso stated in his interview exchanges with Boason Omafaye, Anchor of Arise Xchange, on February 24, 2024, critics missed the clear outlines Cardoso provided for (a) removing distortions from the forex market in order to stabilise the Naira; (b) ensuring transparency and accountability; (c) controlling inflation; and (d) working toward necessary synergy between monetary and fiscal policies. They also missed or ignored his carriage, thoughtfulness, and tone of voice. I immediately wanted him to know that there were viewers, who listened to him with open mind. Appearing on Arise TV, generally regarded as adversarial to the ruling All Progressives Progress, was a very bold move, more or less like a Democrat (politician or political appointee) appearing on Fox News in the United States. It was even more creditable that Cardoso did so with candour and executive carriage. Credit also goes to Omafaye for probing, yet non-adversarial, questions, which elicited desired responses.

    Second, I wanted to use the exchange between us as part of the context for my assessment of what transpired since the interview. The assessment should be understood against the wider context of the malpractices that nearly wrecked the Central Bank under Cardoso’s immediate predecessor, Godwin Emefiele, and drove the economy aground. It should be recalled that Emefiele violated or abused the CBN Act in various ways, including abuse of Ways and Means to the tune of over N30 trillion; mismanaging intervention financing; loaning money to selected customers; redesigning the Naira, without going through proper processes; throwing the nation into cash scarcity with ill-advised currency swap; depleting the foreign reserve; accumulating a backlog of $7 billion in foreign exchange; and growing inflation from 8.2% to 22.41 %. Besides, Emefiele caused dislocations of monetary transmission, which often truncated the decisions of the Monetary Policy Committee. He also allowed liquidity challenges in the forex market to cause a significant gap between official and parallel exchange rates.

    However, to Cardoso’s credit, the only infraction he mentioned was in response to a question about a $7 billion uncleared foreign debt he met on ground. As of the time of the interview, Cardoso confirmed that he had cleared $2.4 billion of the debt, leaving only a balance of $2.2 billion, after forensic audit identified various infractions and irregularities with a whopping $2.4 billion of the supposed debt. Cardoso refrained from name calling on the debt; instead, he promised that the legitimate balance of $2.2 billion would soon be cleared.

    The good news is that Cardoso has kept his word on the inherited foreign debt: By the end of March 2024, the verified balance of $2.2 billion had been cleared. The effect was felt right away with the lowering of fares on foreign airlines, steady inflow of foreign investments, and remarkable increase in daily forex turnover.

    How did Cardoso mininize distortions in the forex market and achieve remarkable improvement in the value of the Naira? He developed several measures, four of which stand out. One, banks with large dollar holdings were given an ultimatum to put them back in the market and recapitalize their profit. Banks and forex dealers were also warned against reporting false exchange rates. More recently, the CBN also instructed banks to stop accepting foreign currencies as collateral for naira-denominated loans.

    Two, the CBN revoked the licenses of over 4,000 Bureax de Change Operators for failing to observe regulatory provisions. Furthermore, hundreds of illegitimate forex operators were closed down with the assistance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

    Three, Money Transfer Operators were encouraged to send money through the formal channels. As a result, recipients of money transferred in foreign currency would receive the money in Naira, instead of the foreign currency denomination, which often drove recipients to BDCs for forex exchange. The new measure further reduced the access of BDCs to the dollar, and, therefore, the ability to manipulate the exchange rate.

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    Four, the duly registered BDC operators were allowed to buy a limited amount of dollars from the CBN every week, with a cap on how much they could sell to consumers. In the latest sales on Monday, April 8, 2024, the CBN sold $10,000 to each BDC at N1,101 to the dollar. It also directed BDC operators to sell the dollars at a spread not more than 1.5 percent above the purchase price. By closing the gap between the official and parallel market rates in the direction of the official rate, the Naira began to appreciate in value.

    As a result of these measures, the Naira now exchanges for only about N1,200/$1 in the parallel market, instead of a rate that went as high as 1,917/$1. With regular communication with banks, BDCs, and the public, CBN activities are getting more transparent than before.

    Reading between the lines, the measures taken so far by Cardoso’s CBN reveal some of the culprits behind the volatility of the foreign exchange market. They include banks and BDCs. The two institutions are largely responsible for the widening gap between official and parallel market rates. We now know why BDC operators parade banking halls, engaging in transactions with banks and their customers alike. We also now know that the humongous annual profit reported by banks comes largely from foreign exchange dealings. The game has changed as a new CBN policy now requires BDCs to report their forex sales at stipulated times, by paying in Naira to designated accounts. Sanctions also await banks, which engage in hoarding foreign currencies.

    With the Naira sharply appreciating in value as a result of these measures, critics, such as Peter Obi, must have regretted their premature forecast that “the (CBN’s) action will further escalate and worsen the exchange rate situation in the country”. Poor Obi; he recycled the same word-of-mouth recommendation—change the country from consumption to production, without explaining how, and why controlling forex volatility should not be the starting point.

  • Lessons for ‘mock’ failures; Air Peace

    Lessons for ‘mock’ failures; Air Peace

    We are in the period of mock exams requiring urgent state and federal NUT-driven intervention with a POST-MOCK TEACHING ONE MONTH PROGRAMME IN EACH SCHOOL TARGETTING THE STUDENTS WHO FAILED. The failed students should be detained for after-hour classes and during holidays and tutored, not mentally tortured, for the systemic neglect and failure of adequate education support. Our SSS3 teachers must be praised for intervention and be especially morally and monetarily motivated and encouraged to put in the extra hours for poorly performing and especially economically poor students who cannot get extra lessons and who will fall through the education net. Such an extensive nationwide effort will increase the pass rate in national exams into the 60-70% and reduce the partially and under-education ‘exam-failure’ burden on society.  But time is already running out for our failing youth.

    The success of Allen Onyema’s Air Peace getting a slot in the UK reviving the almost ignored ‘reciprocity’ clause in all international airways’ arrangement is commendable. As the CEO said, it has been difficult for Air Peace in the UK and sadly even in Nigeria with unsupervised officials obstructing progress by not cooperating when all Nigerians should be proud of the Air Peace’s slot. No, it is not the moon landing, but for Nigerians, it is a major economic achievement as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and others have already been forced to crash their cutthroat ticket prices.

    Yes, it is a post-independence economic colonialism that the Lagos-London route is the most expensive, per kilometre, in the world, just like our road construction costs. The foreign airlines ‘blamed’ high local charges for parking and taxiing, hotel bills for crew and ground staff, and hidden charges, as reasons for their high prices. But we use much cheaper ‘two landing and take-off’ European airlines which stop at Paris, etc. and hop to London, twice as many landings and take-offs. They pay the same landing and taxiing costs in Lagos as BA and VA, and also additional ones for landing and taking off in Europe and finally in London. BA and Virgin Atlantic planes do not have more leg room or better on-board services than the other airlines. [At six feet+, leg room is important to me]. So, could their argument be simple arrogant maximum-profit business sense?

    There is no empathy for ordinary Nigerian families seeking to travel for reasons of health, education and holidays. When Virgin first started, the story goes that it wanted $300/seat at a guaranteed 80% occupancy. Its local partners bought all the tickets at $300 but sold to passengers at just under the British Airways rate then of $5-700. This negatively impacted the philanthropic spirit of Richard Branson to help Africa and combat British Airways which had already paid almost $3.9m in damages and legal fees for shady business practices aimed at obstructing his business. If true, it demonstrates our own Nigerian attitudinal contribution to the airfare problem. Of course, the European airlines have upped their fares and are just reducing them now that Air Peace is operational. But Air Peace had predecessors like Nigeria Airways, Arik which all managed to fail.

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    In the early 70s, we proudly flew on Nigeria Airways ‘Summer Flight’ Holidays from university, proudly flashing our Green Passport at respectful London immigration officials and visited tourist attractions like Q Club in Paddington. Nigeria Airways died partly because of the civil servants and politicians’ failure to pay for their travel vouchers. Till today they hardly ever pay their legitimate bills. Look at the electricity ‘no bills paid’ problem hindering health care causing deaths in teaching hospitals and also in military barracks and Aso Rock. Yet instead of electricity corporations collecting the billions outstanding, we are asked to pay a fourfold increase in electricity fees in a ‘20 hour a day A band’. Where in Nigeria does anyone get 20 hours power a day?

    Of course there was serious corruption in the Nigerian Airways. In 1966, there was an enquiry into Nigerian Airways corruption by Mr Justice Olu Omololu, and in 2002, the Justice Obiora Nwazota Panel found N60billion  stolen in an orgy of airborne fraud. Google it for the accused leadership who freely stole millions of pounds. So, corruption is endemic.

    See the stillborn new Nigerian national carrier with spraying and de-spraying of a borrowed phantom plane but still no flight.  

    We know the federal government cannot be trusted to run an airline in Nigeria as it will again be run into the ground with huge debts passed to the citizens for non-payment of vouchers, salaries and equipment lease costs et cetera. This trajectory of fiscal incompetence and indiscipline is mostly endemic in almost all our Ministries, Departments and Agencies. High political and government officials with supervisory or oversight responsibility and the hundreds of   Directors, Deputy Directors, Board members etc.  will expect a free ticket for self and wife and seven children. The planes may face irregular diversion by NASS members for party and non-party activities like one giant air Uber taxi experience.

    Yes, government may own shares in an airline through pension fund, Sovereign Wealth Fund, and other legal means but the carrier should have an entirely professional board and hierarchy or we will go the way of the recently rescued NNPC.

    If government insists on running the new airline, there must be a strict ‘payment confirmation time frame’ even for emergency flights.

  • CBN’s SOS; Prevent school injuries

    CBN’s SOS; Prevent school injuries

    Hurray! CBN’s ‘SECRET OF SUCCESS’ has ‘Saved Our Souls’ and is working faster than internationally predicted.

     The 2024 Easter will go down in Nigeria’s history as ‘THE EASTER WITH NO NEW CLOTHES’, as they lack the traditional gift at Easter. Easter has been very financially depressing challenge for Nigerian families. But the dark cloud enshrouding the weak naira has a silver lining as it is strengthening against the dollar, recovering faster than foreigners expected and lightening the Easter general gloomy mood slightly. All credit to the CBN governor, Yemi Cardoso and his team. Cardoso is the leader in a bitter politically motivated cycle of naira recovery and naira ruin.

     What is CBN’s Secret of Success, SOS. It is not nuclear physics. It is reintroduction of age-long values of the G-O-D, ‘Good Old Days’. The newly dusted values in CBN were ignored for years and are the old values of our Oath of Office and daily mouthed without meaning by government and political office holders.

    In CBN, the current SOS, Secret of Success, is backed up by the reality of instant forensic auditing of every strategy and action. CBN’s SOS is adherence to the letters of the Nigerian National Oath to be ‘FAITHFUL, LOYAL AND HONEST’, FLH, and specifically in Project Nigeria, Project Naira and Project Fellow Nigerian Citizen. Let all Nigerians, not just Governor Cardoso and CBN be FLH in 2024.

    Years ago, this column recommended that the dominant photo in CBN should be a group of poor Nigerian children one from every state and FCT on every wall and desk to remind officials that CBN’s action daily will rescue or ruin the future for children nationwide.

    Today, the CBN, governments and agencies labour under 10–20-year-old ‘neglected debts incurred by criminally irresponsible politicians, officials, bankers, businesspersons and contractors. These failed to perform compulsory responsibilities of paying bills.

    In other countries, areas including Education, Agriculture, Health, Water, Transport and the Central Bank are untouchable by the corrupt or the countries will collapse and lose Future Manpower, Food Sufficiency, Population Health, safe Drinking Water, Human Connectivity, Currency Stability, Developmental and Sovereign Wealth Funds. Inform politicians, civil servants, MDA officials and contractors that we can no longer pay billions in ‘THEFT FEES’ and simultaneously develop.          

    The backlog of government unpaid electricity, salary, pension, maintenance and development bills demonstrates that Nigeria suffers ‘CHRONIC GOVERNMENT DELIBERATELY-INFLICTED DERELICTION of DUTY AND SERVICE PROVISION’.  The ‘unpaid bills money’ has ‘disappeared’ with no punishment for offenders.

    The naira has reawakened and may be less than N800-1,100:$1 in 2-3 months provided we stop oil theft and Dangote and other refineries work and power supply becomes stable reducing costs of living and production. We have another power grid collapse. CBN and EFCC reiterated the ban on spraying naira, and criminalised bank managers and the unnecessary army profiting from selling new notes. Wrongdoers are in court for disgracing and devaluing the naira. Has CBN eliminated the unnecessary and army of itinerant middleman currency ‘aboki’ traders paid by forex sales? Dollar undisputed debts have been paid and theft and criminal deals  between CBN top officials  and commercial banks have hopefully been terminated, which will in-turn terminate questionable trillion-naira forex trading profits for banks. WILL CBN PLEASE ALSO CANCEL OR CURTAIL the CURRENT BURDEN OF CBN-SANCTIONED & UNSANCTIONED EXTORTIONIST BANK ACCOUNT CHARGES UNHEARD OF IN OTHER COUNTRIES?

    WILL Nigerian banks at last get back to normal banking and not ‘Director-lending only’ trap? Amen.

    Money for celebrant and band must now be enveloped or transferred. Expect itchy fingers to create a Nigerian Spraying Artform going through the motions with toy money backed up by an envelope.  Watch and learn. It will be contested in court.       

    CBN Directors are not immune to temptation. Governor Yemi Cardoso and EFCC should be proactive to prevent detrimental CBN Director activity. One bad CBN Director, will ruin the entire CBN reputation. CBN, Please keep it up and keep our precious naira up. Amen.

    The amazing pictures of the brave-faced children kidnapped at Kuriga, receiving education support and school-rehabilitation promises from the relieved governor, must be seen alongside the story of their ordeal at the hands of bandit terrorists and murderers when one vigilante member was murdered and one teacher sadly died in front of the students including his own terrified son during captivity. Just imagine the psychological trauma!

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    Even if our children can escape being kidnapped, raped, brutalised and bullied and beaten in school, tragically, too many schools, teachers and students in 2024 lack current textbooks, chairs, desks and toilets and infrastructure to be stimulating  learning environments. Last week I saw four students with preventable eye injuries from a thrown stone, biro stab, pencil stab, belt beating and bullying. University students died during a stampede for poverty palliatives, preventable by crowd management. The Federal Ministry of Education and the National Orientation Agency have advocacy work to do to ‘STOP BULLYING, STOP EYE AND OTHER INJURIES IN EDUCATION FACILITIES’. Last week WAEC reported a pathetic 30% (2519 students) pass in the first ever CBT Computer Based Test WASSCE. That failure precipitates the  failure of  ‘generation next’.

    SHOULD LOSING AN EYE OR A LIFE OR A 60% FAILURE RATE BE THE PRICE OF A NIGERIAN EDUCATION? It means our EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS need to be SDG and current curriculum compliant ‘TEACHER/LECTURER AND CHILD/YOUTH  FRIENDLY SCHOOL/ EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS’ or they are not fit for purpose.