The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

Mo Abudu’s War; Akeredolu & Amotekun – film, cartoon, heroes?

Please watch Netflix’s Mo Abudu’s ‘War’ for an accurate reflection of the bad happenings in one part of Nigeria today and also including the sad massacre of over 200 normal Fellow Nigerian for the land sitting on minerals now soaked in their God-given blood. It reminds us of Plateau and Kaduna states’ recent terrible history. With a simple change in dialogue, this film can be applied as a template right across every single state and Federal Capital Territory (FCT)  – all facing some serious ‘INTERNALLY GENERATED MAYHEM’, caused usually by ‘greed’ orchestrated to be masqueraded as carefully targeted and funded political, civil service, private sector, ethnic and religious instigations.

We witness the sad passing, while in office, of the fiery Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, at 67 who magnificently played the leading role in what led to the foundation of the current security architecture instrument in the defence of the Southwest, Amotekun, against the type of state invasion so accurately portrayed in Mo Abudu’s War.

It should be only a matter of time before screen writers, if they have not already done so, tackle the research, recording and projection of the complex causes and results of personal, spousal, family, social, political and financial implications for themselves and society of the incumbent national and state politicians dying, denying dying, actually dying, dying but being incapacitated, dead but being on life-support, dead-not-alive, alive-not-dead.

Nigerians, already experienced in coping with the moral and other aspects of governor and presidential ‘rumour of death’ and ‘actual death’, are taking front-row seats in the already unfolding, real-life drama in Ondo as the new governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who was the immediate former and sometimes embattled deputy governor, has rightfully and legally, taken over and asks questions vis-à-vis the more recent executive activities attributed to the late governor.

Nigerians are also hoping that the new Ondo State governor will not follow the disgraceful, unproductive and financially ruinous bad example of so many Nigerian governors and even presidents. That bad example is to stop, without any good reason except ‘I-have-the-power’, good ‘people projects’ initiated by Governor Akeredolu. Such actions suspend the lives of the citizens and waste funds.

Of course, he may metamorphose into a formidable fighter for Ondo State so in need of stability of their ship of state, which was so savagely, so lethally, rocked by illness.

We pray that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa will be ‘legacy wise’ enough to continue the good work of further empowering Amotekun as one firm foundation for the curtailment of Southwest terrorism. Amotekun must be entrenched and above any political change, unless that political change is to further empower it. Amotekun must be above politicisation. It must serve the citizens. It will not pay the Ondo State government to disregard, diminish, destroy or denigrate late Governor Akeredolu’s role in the Ondo State Amotekun Legacy. Even dead heroes deserve their space.

The Ondo State  Amotekun Legacy is a really bright life-saving red beacon of light in the Nigerian forests of murderous local and international terrorists. It is a powerful historic legacy requiring to be immediately included in the curriculum of our schools. Our children need role models like Amotekun even as they are daily bombarded by FBI, CSI and personal, news and social media accounts of death and destruction from terrorist attacks.

By now the exploits of Amotekun and the armed forces and the police against the terrorists should be in comics and even on the screen in many movies and not just the one or two we find them in. Note that the federal government, the National Orientation Agency and state information agencies have collectively failed to observe one glaring fact in winning the war of motivating hearts and minds. Almost every film nowadays, even African, has the support of several host government, international agency or film foundations except in Nigeria where politics consumes every kobo but can spend billions on campaign mega-billboards!

Read Also: Amotekun arrests Ondo drug lord one week after release from prison

It is obvious that Ondo State, with its scenery, amazing history and being almost the birthplace of Amotekun should have no hesitation in allocating funds in the 2024 budget for investment in writers, film makers and funding of Amotekun-based blockbuster films, comics, cartoons and such to motivate citizenry and recruit the right personnel and elevate Amotekun. Nigeria is still in search of non-political heroes. Nigerians wear the names of other people’s heroes, foreign flags and cities. Even Nollywood actors prefer foreign T-shirts. But fame comes from publicity. It was a huge repetitive churning out of historical programming that brought American heroes to a hero-hungry world. Nigeria must promote Nigerian heroes. TINAPA was touted as  a giant step forward. But the subsequent governor did not share the vision and shut it down costing the citizens millions in stagnant wasted funds. Look at Nollywood great success even without TINAPA. Congrats of Funke Akindele and A Tribe Called Judah grossing N1billion+. Imagine if Nollywood had had TINAPA all along?

Schools in enlightened states must seize the right to educate their students about how to negotiate the new threats and traumas the youth and their parents face. Beyond the rush at entrepreneurship, youth deserve to be much more ‘security empowered’ for survival. The danger is no longer just bullying!

Government appears serious in its attempt to rake back multiple billions of forex and naira funds disbursed to companies during the last 10 years…fraud, an astute system 10 years ago should have prevented.

January 10, 2024
Goodbye Aketi (1956-2023)

Few knew about the arrival in this world on July 21, 1956, of a baby, who was later known as Rotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, SAN, CON, popularly known as Aketi. However, millions knew about his departure in the early hours of Wednesday, December 27, 2023, exactly one week ago. He was 67 years old.

The publicity of his death stemmed from three major factors: (1) his status and role as the incumbent Governor of Ondo state; (2) controversies over the temporary governance crisis in the state due to his illness and subsequent disagreements between him and his Deputy; and (3) negative perception of the role of his family over his illness and in the affairs of the state.

Preoccupation with these issues have led to mischaracterisation of Akeredolu as a person and as Governor. Yet he was a rounded figure: Christian, unionist, Kegite, lawyer, politician, husband, father, and cherished anchor to his network of friends. He would be remembered for his legacies in these roles.

However, the two roles for which he was widely known were lawyer and politician. He birthed both roles at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). As a law student at Ife, while I was teaching there, Akeredolu was popularly known as an activist and a strong member of the Student Union. He successfully ran and won the election as Vice-President of the Student Union in 1975/76. Akeredolu was also a visible and proud Kegite (that is, a member of the Palm Wine Drinkards Club) of which he later became a Grand Patron. It was also at Ife that he met Betty, who would later become his wife. The coterie he developed as an undergraduate remained as his permanent friends till death.

The commingling of law and politics at Ife would persist throughout Akeredolu’s life. After a stint as Attorney General in Ondo State, he contested and won the presidency of the Nigerian Bar Association. After joining other top lawyers, including his law partner, Akin Olujimi, SAN, and Wole Olanipekun, SAN, to help rescue the stolen mandate of a number of politicians in the progressive fold, Akeredolu opted for the rough terrain of “real” politics. But it was not until the second attempt in 2016 that he won the governorship election in Ondo state under the banner of the All Progressives Congress.

I did not support Akeredolu on both occasions. Nevertheless, I supported his administration and reelection in 2020. I also had several conversations with him throughout his tenure, admonishing or praising him and offering tips, where necessary. For example, I admonished him over the scuffle with Osun delegates in Akure in 2017 and advised him to close ranks with then Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state just as I also advised Aregbesola to do the same. They both met in Abuja and closed ranks.

Regardless of the assessments of armchair columnists and social media bugs, Akeredolu’s stewardship as Governor was good in comparative terms. His stellar projects featured over 500 kilometres of roads, including a virgin link road between Akure and Idanre via Ijoka and dualised roads in major towns; the Ore flyover at the intersections of Sagamu-Benin Expressway and Ondo-Okitipupa roadways; the flyover at the Onyearugbulem junction in Akure; the ODIRS Building Complex; the Technology Hub; the conversion of two major State Specialist Hospitals in Akure and Ondo to Teaching Hospitals and the construction of a 200-bed Complex in each one; the development of Ore Industrial Hub; and advanced plans for the construction of a deep seaport in the state.

Akeredolu’s stature grew beyond the state, when he took on herdsmen encroaching on farmlands and the state’s forest reserves. He pushed against open grazing and the detectable activities of herdsmen, notwithstanding criticisms from Northern quarters and even the presidency. He gave the herdsmen a seven-day ultimatum to vacate Ondo forests; banned under-age, night, and highway grazing in the state; and, as Chairman of the Southwest Governors’ Forum, he ultimately led other Southwest Governors to establish the Amotekun Corp to defend their states against criminality.

Another national issue he boldly took on was the advocacy for political parties to honour the established convention of zoning the presidential ticket to the South in the name of equity, justice, and fairness after an eight-year tenure of a Northerner. These major positions on national issues came as a capstone of Akeredolu’s preoccupation with fairness, equity, and justice, all of which he honed during his undergraduate days at Ife.

Nevertheless, all was not rosy for Akeredolu. Like most others, he had his own albatross to contend with. What was exceptional in his case was the conjunctive pressure of three albatrosses, namely, a debilitating illness; over-ambitious Deputies; and an immediate family beyond control.

The details of Akeredolu’s illness were never officially revealed. Rumours pointed to leukemia and prostate cancer, but the family only named the latter after his death. If that was the case, Akeredolu should have known that prostate cancer was detectable through periodic medical checkups and was treatable. However, like breast cancer, it had to be caught early before it spread beyond the prostate. Even leukemia is treatable, if diagnosed early, usually before blood blasts begin to accumulate.

Read Also: Why Tinubu govt can’t avoid borrowing, by Osoba

Akeredolu’s first Deputy, Agboola Ajayi, was so over-ambitious that, like Atiku Abubakar, he was planning to supplant his boss during the latter’s reelection in 2020. Once the details of his plans were uncovered, he got ostracised from government until he resigned from the APC and later joined the Peoples Democratic Party. He jumped over to the Zenith Labour Party, when he lost the PDP primary. He eventually performed woefully in the election.

Ajayi’s replacement, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, allegedly took advantage of his boss’s illness to spy on his medical records and to begin planning to replace him, hoping that he might die sooner. He also began to plan his election in 2024 once power was transferred to him while his boss was on medical leave between June and September. His actions paralysed governance in the state for three months. Aiyedatiwa’s media aides, who broadcast all sorts of negative stories about Akeredolu’s illness, were dismissed on Akeredolu’s return from medical leave in September. The relationship between the two men became so frosty that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had to intervene twice.

It was during Aiyedatiwa’s latest stint as Acting Governor that Akeredolu never returned as Aiyedatiwa had long hoped. His anxiety to become Governor became even more evident when he greeted his supporters in Yoruba, “A ku ori ire” (roughly, we thank God for His blessings) as soon as he was inaugurated as Governor on the day Akeredolu died.

It was also during Akeredolu’s illness that the shenanigans of his wife and son, Babajide, became even more evident than before. However, I will not go into the details here in deference to Akeredolu’s memory and the agony of family members, who just lost a dear one.

Goodbye, Aketi.

January 3, 2024
Business succession planning: crafting lasting legacy
- By Bukola Seun-Oloruntuga
The Adedejis and the Martins were not just families. They were stewards of family businesses deeply rooted in their community.

As they journeyed through life, they faced the critical task of planning for the succession of their businesses, ensuring a seamless transition from one generation to the next.

For the Adedejis, their family bakery has been a beacon of comfort and joy for generations.

The tantalising aroma of freshly baked bread and the warm smiles that greeted customers were part of the bakery’s legacy.

Similarly, the Martins’ factory had served their community for decades, providing affordable household items, employment, and an irreplaceable sense of community.

These businesses were not just sources of income; they represented the labour of love the families had poured into them.

The families realized that preparing for the future of these businesses was not only a financial matter but also a matter of preserving their legacies.

This is where succession planning comes in.

Business succession planning involves planning and executing the transfer of leadership and ownership of a business from one generation to the next.

It’s a journey fraught with challenges and emotions because of financial considerations, family dynamics, and the preservation of the business’s values and traditions.

The Adedejis and the Martins recognized that a well-thought-out succession plan would secure their businesses’ future, strengthen their family bonds and honour the work of previous generations.

One key aspect of business succession planning is preparing the next generation to take over the reins.

This process requires deliberate efforts to impart knowledge, skills, and values.

The Adedejis’ eldest daughter, Kikelomo, showed a keen interest in baking from an early age. Knowing this, her parents encouraged her to learn every aspect of the business, from baking techniques to financial management.

Similarly, the Martins’ son, Daniel, spent his weekends at the factory, learning about different products and engaging with the workers and distributors.

This hands-on experience equipped him with practical skills and helped him to nurture a sense of ownership and responsibility.

It is important to note that family dynamics play a critical role in business succession. The reason is simple. Emotions can run high as family members grapple with their dual roles as business partners and relatives.

The Adedejis and the Martins understood this and the importance of open communication and conflict resolution, so regular family meetings became a forum for discussing business decisions, clarifying expectations, and addressing concerns.

With these meetings, it was easy to set clear roles and responsibilities for each family member involved in the business, prevent misunderstandings, and foster a sense of unity.

Read Also: Full list of blacklisted foreign universities in Nigeria

Furthermore, both families recognized that seeking professional advice was essential to navigating the intricacies of succession planning.

So, they engaged with business consultants and legal experts in business succession planning. These professionals helped them create comprehensive plans that addressed legal, financial, and emotional aspects.

For instance, the families explored different business structures, such as partnerships, limited liability companies (LLCs), or corporations, to determine the most suitable fit for their circumstances. They also addressed tax implications, ownership percentages, and contingency plans for unforeseen events.

The Adedejis and the Martins also wanted their businesses to remain integral parts of the community, continuing to provide the same quality and personalized service that had endeared them to their customers.

Consequently, they integrated their family values and mission statements into their succession plans. This included guidelines for maintaining product quality, customer relationships, and community involvement. These elements served as guiding principles for the next generation, anchoring the businesses’ legacy in the face of change.

Finally, as the Adedejis and the Martins embarked on their respective journeys of succession planning, they realised that the process was about business, love, dedication, and a commitment to something greater than themselves.

By thoughtfully grooming the next generation, fostering open communication, seeking professional guidance, and preserving the businesses’ core values, they were securing their families’ financial futures and ensuring that their legacies would continue to flourish.

The Adedejis and the Martins remind us that beyond the products or services our businesses provide, they are a testament to the determination, passion, and love the founders pour into them.

As we celebrate the success of our businesses, let us also recognise the importance of succession planning and the role it plays in upholding these cherished legacies for generations to come.

•Seun-Oloruntuga, a lawyer who specialises in estate planning, is also a career and executive coach. She can be reached at bso@morecraftlaw.com
January 3, 2024
Achieving a really Happy New Year 2024

Happy New Year 2024. A Happy New Year does not just happen by greeting or prayer alone. It is product of ‘Greeting, Prayer and Good Decisions’. Good honest decision especially in our lives, work and environment around us. Many did not cross over due to the evil machinations of Fellow Nigerians and some foreigners, who decided to do evil over good.

The loss of, and injury to over 200 Fellow Nigerians in Plateau State to the evil attacks of land grabbing terrorists or bandits is indeed a horrendous attack on Nigeria’s sovereignty. Any murder or attack is an inexplicable act of callousness. Imagine the impunity, arrogance and hatred involved in the initiating, planning and execution of such an evil plot resulting involving over 200 Fellow Nigerians. Imagine the meetings, coordination, reconnaissance, weaponisation and ‘We-are-going-to-kill-innocent-families’ travel to and from such massacres.

We all mourn the losses. But mourning will not help the dead or bring a Happy New Year, HNY, to the surviving Fellow Nigerian family members deprived of love, economy and support. What has HNY got to do with the families of those mistakenly killed by bombings three weeks ago? What has HNY got to do with the thousands of Okada victims? What has HNY got to do with the thousands of dead, deprived and socially diminished as a result of the historic multi-year plague of corruption including the currency collapse?

What has HNY got to do with the miserably lives of the terror traumatised  5million+ Internally Displaced Persons in and out of IDP camps and scattered across Nigeria? What has HNY got to do with the 80% of citizens in poverty – poverty to be laid squarely at the feet of a long selfish political and civil servant and contractor classes?

What has HNY got to do with victims and the families of the many other Fellow Nigerians caught in road attacks and house robberies, at checkpoints etc. across Nigeria? What has HNY got to do with victims of high maternal mortality? Have you ever witnessed the trauma around a kidnapping with difficult-to-find huge sums from schools, tertiary institutions and the communities across Nigeria?

We are told that a Happy New Year 2024 awaits us. And we believe! But we cannot expect a different outcome if we do what we did before 2024 or are subjected to the same perpetually historic pre-2024 Corruption, Incompetence, Neglect and Selfishness, CINS.

We will not ever have a HNY unless the ‘Combined Thieves of Nigeria’ unclasp their stranglehold around the neck of Nigeria for one year, 2024, at least. We seem to think that our own Personal Corruption Corner or Collective Corruption Corner, involving friends or co-workers has no negative impact, while the corruption of others is the cause of the near collapse of Nigeria. Unfortunately, the corruption is pervasive and systemic.

But corruption is not a building or institution; it is in the individuals in the building.  In fact, a non-corrupt action is seen as so rare as to require celebration as amazing, like the return of money left in a car or doing an assignment for no reward. However millions of honest Fellow Nigerians do these. Congratulations to them and HNY. The requirement is to make individuals change their ‘greed to need’ and ‘attitude to gratitude’ and jointly ‘kill corruption’. A simple human decision ‘I WILL BE HONEST IN 2024. WILL YOU BE HONEST’ for each of us to ensure Nigeria creates a HNY2024 and survives to 2025.

Read Also: Osun APC blasts Aregbesola, says ex-gov dishonoured agreement by Tinubu, Akande

It should frighten us that even as we say HNY2024, others are planning and praying for more nefarious activities using intimidation, bullying, bribery, budget padding, contract tampering, outright stealing and robbery – political, authoritarian, judicial, monetary, medical, land, identity, possessions, professional corruption et cetera.

A sad example of how we misunderstand ‘need over greed’ is the 2022-2023 Nigerian Railway Corporation NRC Report that 150,000 rail line clips were stolen endangering millions. It is not nuclear physics for the police and NRC to locate the criminal masterminds who must be ironmongers and iron smelters. Who removes rail line pins? What criminally minded person finances and organises the hard noisy physical work of removing rail line pins?  We must find him or them -perhaps an ex-rail line pin pinner employee and a person seeking smelted pins in the background?  What use can un-smelted or smelted pins be used for? Who is buying the end products? NRC cannot put CCTV on its tracks and if the track is removed overnight, a crash would kill passengers the next day. Sabotage!

Perhaps several N1million rewards for whistle blowers will catch the thieves and masterminds. Urgent effort should be made internally by NRC engineers, university engineering departments and the Society of Engineers to secure the rail line pins better. If not, our railways will kill, we will remain a railway-less country, and never move most container and tanker traffic by rail, saving roads from damage from overweight vehicles and high transport costs. Could the saboteurs be in the haulage business? Remember the saboteurs of the refineries.

To have a Happy New Year2024-the good in each Fellow Nigerian must overcome the evil. Can good overcome evil in the Presidency, the Judiciary, National Assembly, at your work, home and in your community? Even the tax man must be honest and not create ‘fictional tax figures’ or problems to demand ‘reduction gratification’.

PLEASE WORK FOR A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024.

January 3, 2024
APC 2, CBN: Kill corruption, not Nigerians

So, Christmas has come, but the Christmas spirit should not be ‘gone’ just because ‘December 25’, is gone. It is obvious this is the first Christmas/New Year with this new version government, aka APC 2, of a 2015-2023 previously in power political party aka APC 1. Many Nigerians cannot understand why APC 1 has not apologised for unleashing several kleptomaniacal scandalous actors in high places, and the immediate past ‘CBN cabal’ on Nigeria. Granted that the APC 1 Buhari government inherited some, but not all, of the failed high office holders from the PDP 3 Johnathan government.

In the light of the Emefiele CBN investigation revelations, probably leaked to prevent it going missing and before it is laundered into a clean copy, it is clear that, moving forward, the country desperately requires a leadership willing to audit its top and middle level staff to ensure citizenry-beneficial activities.

Why do governments make it a habit of offering second terms of office to senior office holders of unproven fiscal and moral responsibility, who break simple laws applicable to all business in Nigerian- an AUDITED ANNUAL ACCOUNT? These laws are designed to prevent the thought of fraud and detect fraud early before it crippled the ‘company’, in this case the citizenry and country?

Surely when a high office candidate comes up for tenure renewal, there should be a detailed FORENSIC account of stewardship, reviewed by an honest government panel- if available. Government must enforce its sworn obligation and administrative responsibility not to REAPPOINT ANYONE FOR A SECOND TERM WITHOUT A FORENSIC AUDITOR’S REPORT AND A PROGRESS REVIEW. Nigeria should know that, had this review been diligently executed in every case by APC 1 and the previous PDP governments, savings in multiple billions of naira would have been made by reducing the size of ‘ACHIEVABLE FRAUD’ involving ministers, accountants and auditors general and heads of MDAs- ‘MEMBERS OF THE N100+BILLION FRAUD CLUB CABAL’.

Read Also: BOOK REVIEW: The story behind the glory

There are many new meanings of the acronym CBN following the ‘leaking’ of the devastating CBN Investigation Report. Every Nigerian has incurred major financial, income, business, emotional, social status negative impact with many lives lost to the corrupted cashless policy and precipitous fall on the naira crippling access to food, healthcare and drugs. Historically, The Presidency, NASS, and CBN all have a traditional track record of poor support for the Naira value. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said as much when NASS shot down a Sovereign Wealth Fund start-up. Corrupt Bank of Nigeria or Cancerous Bank of Nigeria are alternative names as the actions of the key personnel have had severe, life-threatening, and life-shortening effects on every Nigerian – direct manifestations of the mismanagement at CBN.

CBN is probably the most important government institution to Nigerians. Those entrusted with control of such an important national asset as CBN, should realise that it should be immune from or protected from and above the evil proclivities of any group of individuals practicing anti-country activities. We the people employed them by proxy through the presidency and the National Assembly and therefore the Presidency and the National Assembly in APC 1 have culpability and responsibility to us for the fraud at CBN. The CBN’s past excellent reputation was built under the supervision of dedicated Boards of Directors led by great men sadly followed by some not-so-great men who allowed the naira to depreciate under pressure.

We know banks worldwide even in 2023, managed by Nigerians who have deservedly achieved fame. We pray the new CBN governor will guide us through the inherited quagmire and lead the naira to rock-based ground. Amen.

Nigeria must stop appointing high officials and then abandon them to their corruption-driven devices for four or five years – and then renewing their evil appointments. Unchecked, even a saint will be tempted to steal. Such abandonment has led to impunity, arrogance and ‘Mentally Unstable Corruption’ in 100s of millions of naira. Nigerians are tired of spending lifetimes working hard to make Nigeria great only to have our lives, livelihoods and even pensions and potential earnings decimated by the mega-corruption of a few. THE CRASH IN CURRENCY VALUE IS MORE CORRUPTION DRIVEN THAN MARKET FORCES DRIVEN. Now we are approaching N1200:$1 rubbishing the lives of all non-stealing Nigerians.

We hear of a former minister on trial in a UK court who has accused a former private bank director, now a state governor, of holding on her behalf ‘MENTALLY UNSTABLE MONEY’ -MUM – A new dis-honour in Nigeria. If true, it is one more multibillion naira/dollar scam crippling the naira. Add refinery scams, old and new.

Nigeria has been pillaged, raped and robbed post-colonially. APC 2 Tinubu must stop corruption in government ranks. The EFCC and ICPC are post-crime investigators and giving away half of the stolen assets in a plea bargain is a crime against the people. A plea bargain is around the type of charges and potential jail sentence time and the not the return of stolen loot which must be 100% total. Presidency must enforce PREVENTIVE CRIME MEASURES- AUDITS, quarterly and annual, FORENSIC AUDITS AND MORE MONITORING CONTROL. OFFER ONE TERM to key appointments to reduce fraud and give more Nigerians the opportunity to save this struggling ship of state. All Nigerians including APC 2 Tinubu & CBN must pre-emptively identify and kill corruption at source, not after four, five or eight years in office.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024. MAY WE BE INVISIBLE TO THE ENEMY. AMEN

December 27, 2023
2023: The year of Emefiele

Two of Nigeria’s leading newspapers – The Nation and Leadership – just chose President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Person of the Year for 2023. In the tradition pioneered by the American news magazine Time in 1927, this award goes to “a person, a group, idea, or object that “for better or for worse… has done the most to influence the events of the year.”

In most election years in the United States, whoever is elected president becomes the magazine’s Person of the Year. So, Tinubu’s selection by the aforementioned newspapers reflects the traditional pattern.

But well before his election in February and inauguration on May 29, there was a powerful individual whose actions had the potential to influence the outcome of the general elections and impact the economic wellbeing of millions of Nigerians. His name is Godwin Emefiele, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

There are different ways to measure how much progress a country is making. You could look at the GDP, how many people are living below the poverty line, literacy level, state of public infrastructure and so on.

Another way is to examine the conduct of people in public office. This is especially important given our history that speaks largely of incompetence, mismanagement and corruption. Emefiele’s actions earlier this year exemplified much that is wrong Nigeria – impunity and decay of institutions.

Late in 2022, the CBN served notice that it would introduce new designs for certain naira denominations and set a date in January 2023 for which this task must be accomplished. The initial excuse for the action was that the bulk of the nation’s cash was floating outside the system. The swap was supposed to vacuum all of that money back into bank vaults.

But as we would all soon learn there was more to it than economics. In reality, it was a move designed to frustrate certain political figures who the then administration felt had stockpiled an unbelievable amount of naira for vote-buying.

While the desire of having an electoral process that wasn’t compromised by cash was laudable, the currency swap was not only ill-timed, its execution was disastrous. There was a stampede to returned old notes with very few new ones to replace them.

Read Also; Be decisive in tackling building collapse, Architects tell Sanwo-Olu

ATM’s were empty; banking halls became battles zones. We were told to go cashless using online transfers. The problem was most banks lacked the infrastructure to support this. It was the perfect Nigerian nightmare produced and directed by Emefiele.

If the fallout from the naira redesign fiasco was just about inconvenience, it would have been pardonable. There were more deadly consequences. People actually died as result of inability to access cash for treatment of their loved ones. Many small businesses shut down and as of today no one really knows how much was lost to this hare-brained scheme.

Such was the degree of suffering that at its height, Professor Wole Soyinka, accused the former CBN governor of crimes against humanity. Speaking on Channels Television, he blamed then President Muhammadu Buhari for enabling him.

“Emefiele has committed a crime against humanity, over and beyond even any electoral mago mago (foul play),” Soyinka said.

“He struck at the heart of the subsisting survival principles, minimal needs and entitlements of the ordinary people in the street.

“Don’t bully me. Don’t take my voice away. Don’t take my economic potential away, my economical entitlements. Don’t throw me on the mercy of sadists like Emefiele.”

Despite the well-documented chaos in the banking system, despite mass suffering, the government of the day and CBN chief pressed on regardless. It was as if their actual goal was to allow things fester until there was a countrywide breakdown of law and order that would have necessitated the postponement of elections – just to prevent a feared outcome.

Initially, it sounded like a conspiracy theory but, in reality, the nation was sleepwalking into a constitutional crisis. That was until elements within the All Progressives Congress (APC) woke up with a start. What followed was the curious situation of three ruling party governors dragging the Buhari federal government before the Supreme Court.

That was not all. Speaking at a campaign stop in Abeokuta, Ogun State, APC presidential candidate Tinubu denounced the currency swap which he alleged was targeted at him. He declared defiantly that even if fuel taps were shut and all naira notes locked away, the nation would vote and he would be elected. The rest is history.

The passage of time hasn’t lessened the intrigue around the currency swap. In a recent interview Buhari claimed credit for authoring the redesign. He wanted to ensure his “integrity was unquestionable.” But in the last week leaked portions of the report of Jim Obazee, Special Investigator probing the CBN, suggested the former president’s aide, Tunde Sabiu, may have been the driving force.

What is clear is that but for the intervention of the apex court, nothing would have moved Emefiele and the forces behind him to change course. Nigeria’s saving grace was that the government stopped short of openly defying the Supreme Court.

Emefiele has been a very unique CBN governor, and not necessarily because he was good at the job. A former Deputy Governor of the bank, Kingsley Moghalu, reacting to the Obazee report leaks, made these withering comments in a lengthy X post: “My views on Emefiele’s performance as CBN Governor have been a matter of record even when many now opining on the matter of his performance on the job were mute.”

“He is, without debate, the worst and most damaging Central Bank Governor in Nigeria’s history – incompetent and ill-prepared for the role, and from all available information from his actions, doubtlessly severely challenged with integrity.”

But what makes him special goes beyond questions of competence and integrity. Rather, this country has never seen a CBN governor with such overt political ambitions. First, it was whispered, and then it grew into a loud murmur that Emefiele was interested in succeeding Buhari as president.

He did nothing to squelch the rumours, offering only equivocal responses. A so-called ‘Friends of Emefiele’ group which visited him in February to discuss the 2023 presidential contest, quoted him as saying “he would leave his fate firmly in the hands of God” with regards to choice of the leadership of the country.

It was a response that sparked widespread outrage, with many demanding he resign to concentrate on his political ambitions. Just to show that he and his backers could no longer wait for God, the media soon discovered a plot in Abuja chock full of branded ‘Emefiele for President’ campaign vehicles.

It was also revealed that as sitting CBN governor he had registered as a member of APC in his ward in Delta State. It was unprecedented

But despite crossing the line so brazenly, despite compromising his position with political exposure, his boss in Aso Rock saw nothing so untoward as to require his sacking. That, again, made the man special.

As the year winds to a close, Emefiele is dominating the headlines again. The allegations in the leaked Obazee report are so grave and mindboggling that we would be listening to his explanations either through press statements or from the dock for much of the coming year.

Everyone who lived through January and February in Nigeria would remember the period as the time when the naira pulled a disappearing trick with a little help from the then CBN boss. After a short respite, the onset of the festive season with the ongoing cash crunch shows that the spirit of Emefiele is still upon us. The man didn’t walk alone and he clearly didn’t work alone. For the terrible fallout of his actions throughout this year, he is the Alternate Person of the Year.

December 27, 2023
Rescuing federal universities from excessive govt control

The excessive control of universities by the federal government has been part of the centralisation of powers by the government since the federalisation of regional universities in 1975. In that year, the federal government took over the four regional universities (Benin, Ife, Nsukka, and Zaria) and established seven more. Over the next six decades, the number of federal universities would grow from 2 (Ibadan and Lagos) in 1962 to 52 in 2023.

Within this period of expansion, three key agencies of the federal government were established to exercise control over the universities, namely, the National Universities Commission (1962); the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (1978); and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (2011, originally established in 1993 as Education Trust Fund). Periodic revisions of the functions of these agencies have increased their powers over the years.

The NUC

Originally established as an advisory agency in the cabinet office, the NUC has since taken a life of its own, beginning in 1974, when it became a statutory body and one of the parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education. Subsequent revisions of its mandate gave it a Governing Council and as many as twelve directorates.

Today, its functions include granting approval for the establishment of new universities; accreditation of all academic programmes; ensuring quality assurance of all academic programmes; and channelling government subvention and external support to Nigerian universities. The Commission has now grown into an amorphous and powerful institution.

Read Also: 50% transport rebate: FG records geometric increase in travelling on Boxing day

Under cover of quality assurance, the Commission developed curriculum templates for university courses, indicating the basic content of the courses in order to meet “minimum academic standards”. But this precisely is the function of the University Senate, which also approves results at the end of each semester and degrees at the completion of each course.

The normal procedure for creating courses in the university is for each faculty member (that is, lecturer or professor) to create a new course (if necessary) in his or her specialty in collaboration with his or her Head of Department. Such a new course would be discussed at the Faculty Board meeting before the final draft is presented to the University Senate for discussion and approval. Therefore, NUC’s curriculum intervention is a clear usurpation of the traditional function of the University Senate.

What is even worse is the sham that the accreditation exercise has become over the years. To start with, universities are charged for the exercise, although the NUC has a budget for its duties. To complicate matters, it is common knowledge that, in preparation for accreditation, universities borrow equipment, hire professors on sabbatical leave, appoint adjunct faculty, and even falsely create space for classroom activities.

At the end of the day, the accreditation team goes away with a brown envelope, after being housed and feasted for the duration of the exercise. Ultimately, many courses are accredited for which staff, equipment, and space are inadequate, if not non-existent. Yet, “staffing” and “physical facilities” account for over 50 percent of the points awarded for accreditation. To accommodate the funding gap that the NUC itself bemoans, funding is awarded only 5 percent of the points!

Numerous studies have faulted the ways in which the NUC carries out its duties as well as the lack of adequate measures for ensuring uniformity of the standards it seeks to establish across the universities. Equally missing in its supervisory role is university administration, which is critical to the implementation of university projects and programmes.

Since inadequate funding is a critical factor hampering the work of the Commission and the smooth running of the universities, it is high time the NUC told the government that neither the Commission nor the universities could function properly without adequate resources. It will not even be too much if the NUC chorused the outcry by ASUU against poor funding.

The JAMB

The JAMB is another parastatal under the Ministry of Education. Its specific function is to administer the examinations, whose results are combined with the WASSCE, NECO, or other certificates in university admission processes. However, unlike the NUC, JAMB really does not exert controlling influence on the universities. Rather, it only functions as a clearinghouse for the admission process. Contrary to popular perception, universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, not JAMB, determine their cut-off points for admission, pick their students, and only send their list to JAMB to ensure conformity to agreed standards and prevent rampant illegal admissions.

Moreover, JAMB is a self-sustaining institution that derives funds from the sale of forms for the examinations it conducts. Since Professor Is-haq Oloyede took over as Registrar in 2016, JAMB has disbursed over N50 billion Naira to federal government coffers, to capital projects, to corporate social responsibility, and to support other institutions.

It is in conducting the examinations that JAMB has been accused of excessiveness in its policing duties. Nevertheless, these were necessary in order to prevent examination malpractices. Anyone who has participated in JAMB’s annual policy meetings would marvel at the range and extent of malpractices uncovered in various Computer Based Test centres. To avert these problems, JAMB decided to build its own CBT centres across the country, rather than rely on privately owned centers.

TETFund

The primary function of TETFund is to administer funds collected as 2 percent tax on all companies operating in Nigeria to fill the funding gaps in tertiary institutions. However, the disbursement of these funds has been a major problem over the years. Few institutions or lecturers are motivated enough to apply for project or research funding. Others are discouraged by the disproportionate disbursement of the funds, whereby some universities in certain parts of the country get a larger share of the funds than others. Even those that are funded often have strings attached to them as indicated last week on this column. The result is that surplus funds are left unutilised year after year. A reasonable percentage of the funds should be shared across the institutions so that each one could use its share to address the most pressing needs. Special reports should be submitted on project completion and a list of funded projects and their recipients should be published annually for the public to see.

Besides these three agencies, three other ways were introduced to exert further control over the universities. They are: (1) the requirement to remit 40 of IGR collected; (2) salary payment via the IPPIS; and (3) job vacancy waivers. These are measures that easily could have provided cover for fraud, which was already going on with the job vacancy waivers. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should be commended for preventing these measures, either from taking off or from further implementation. He should order a review of the operations of the NUC, JAMB, and TETFund in order to make them more efficient and also grant more autonomy to the universities.

December 27, 2023
SNAPSONG 202

The Whisper which surprises the Shout

Soki l’obe oge

Our message this day is

     So long because it is so short

It is that smoked-dry meat

     In the mouth of the eloquent sage

That old, old proverb

     Which has seasoned countless words

Into wisdom nuggets whose grip and glow

     Traverse the ages

Make it short

     Make it long

Poem it into an eternity

     Of seamless meanings

A drop of water

     Is larger than the ocean

A penny newspaper

     Is a library of words

A spoonful of rice

     May feed a nation

One short wink

     Is a lengthy slumber

One humble step

     is longer than a marathon

A minute spent in fancy

     Is Time-without-End

*Dainty is the soup of the elegant

December 24, 2023
Christmas2023. Allow parents participate in education voluntarily

Christmas 2023 will be severe for families across Nigeria and the world at war or under economic hardship. There has been a worldwide over-commercialisation of Christmas, mostly minimising the fact of the birth of Jesus Christ and replacing that cornerstone joyful event with furious feasting, frivolous festivities, dangerous drinking, fiery fireworks, and receipt of, or exchange of, presents.

Presents graduated from being discovered in shopping bags and are now camouflaged in expensive, embellished wrapping paper making the present a guessing game, before the wrapping gets torn off with little recycling for next year. Some homes do recycle wrapping paper but most fail.

GET A RECYCLE PLAN, pls.

We used to recycle office and birthday envelopes and Christmas and New Year cards with beautiful pictures as inspiration among school children in and around Educare Trust. Recycling is much more popular now as we ‘Save the Planet-COP28’. But more must be done. Others burn the packaging and the wrapping paper which ignores our human joint responsibility to act on the wrathful writing on the world’s wasteful wall. THIS CHRISTMAS, MAKE A PROMISE TO TEACH OTHERS NOT TO BE WASTEFUL: SAVE/RECYCLE YOUR CARDS, ENVELOPES, WRAPPING PAPER AND PACKAGING for something or someone else especially orphanages, normal homes and schools. Inside every envelope and card is an unused page in every card. Make jotters for family graffiti and rough work. Our harsh economy screams for practical household solutions. Presumably, God would be pleased if the human race eventually prolonged the life of God’s earth, by contributing positively to preventing negative climate change especially if all humans participate. Merry and Holy Christmas. Recycle! Recycle!! Recycle!!! Waste not, want not!

Many Fellow Nigerians will involuntarily skip Christmas Lunch2023 and presents. Remember the N160m allocated for National Assembly, (NASS) cars and the N300m holiday expenses/senator and how much for representatives? Granted, some of the money will actually go to constituents, but only party faithful, abandoning other-party faithful to their hungry-at-Christmas fate. A criminally large percentage of the N300m is believed to be held back for personal NASS member use. So, we should cautiously cost NASS members’ ‘donatitis’. It is our money.

Fortunately, many governors and local government chairmen, corporate, community and religious leaders do ‘feed the hungry’ in IDP camps, in slums and orphanages and among the unemployed. Nigeria’s Christmas lunch table sits over 100 million hungry children and adults, all without presents and in need, not of politicians’ collective greed, but of measurable Christmas cheer.

At Christmas we feed the need of the stomach, the need of the mind for a present and contain the greed lurking in every child and adult. ‘My present is smaller/larger than yours.’ If you trust your pastor, your priest, the nearby orphanage and motherless babies’ home matron and manager, get on your phone, get in touch and SEND A CHRISTMAS LUNCH MONEY ALERT for one , two, 20 of 100 empty stomachs and hungry mouths and needy teary eyes even as you dig into your guiltily wasteful Christmas Day Lunch.

Imagine your personal pleasure as you picture 100 other mouths sitting, eating and silently thanking you as they are being fed by you, even as you eat with your nuclear family. Your children may ask why you are smiling so sweetly and you will tell them Christmas is a time for sharing God’s gifts to you and giving not getting greedily. And you must tell them who the unseen guests are at their dinner. It is part of parental responsibility to be handed to the children. That is not arrogance but merely to show a solidly good example to your children to be referred to and learnt from when they grow up and will hopefully seek to do as well as you their parents in giving and giving even more. AMEN. But charity, even Christmas charity to ‘those we know not’ seems not to be an easily transmissible gift.

Read Also: Abia to partner private educational institutions

Christmas is a time of reflection and increased care for children, those you know and those you do not know. Unfortunately, far too many millions of citizens have ignored the youth needs in their radius, during the year. Many parents will not empower and equip their children for learning. In fact, such parents are happy to hand their offspring over to the ‘government’ to educate them on government’s terms with government’s limited budgetary strength. Government hardly adequately funds even one out of three terms in a year. This suggests government has ceased to live up to role of main ‘Gatekeeper in Education’. Some governments paradoxically actually discourage, and even ban, teachers engaging even willing parents from assessing and voluntarily contributing to enhancing school academic and co-curricular activities and equipment.

Surely there is no justification for denying voluntary parental support to obviously under-equipped, underfunded, struggling schools, lacking in almost everything from library to laboratory sports and recreational equipment. To reject contributions from parents, community of commercial enterprises in the vicinity is education suicide.

In modern progressive education, the parents, in and out of PTAs, and Old Students Associations play a huge part in physical funding the schools by direct funding or provision of support material or equipment and prizes. All governments in 2024 must allow EDUCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT by allowing creation of an ANNUAL SCHOOL NEEDS LIST for willing, voluntary, contributory donations, equipment from willing parents, old students and community. NOW THAT WOULD BE A UNIVERSAL EDUCATION MERRY CHRISTMAS!

December 20, 2023
President Tinubu and Nigerian universities

With a degree from an accredited American institution, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is no stranger to tertiary education. Nor are the plights of Nigerian universities beyond his gaze, having spent more than 30 years in the tough arena of Nigerian politics as a Senator, pro-democracy activist, Governor, an alliance builder, and now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is no wonder then that he paid special attention to education in the construction of his manifesto, cited above, and reiterated it during the presidential campaign.

For example, as far back as January 10, 2023, at a campaign rally in Damaturu, Yobe State, candidate Tinubu, with former President Buhari on his side, reiterated two campaign promises: “I will extend credit facilities to university students as loans. I will make our education system, especially the university education system, more stable by dealing with the problem of ASUU strikes. There will be no more strikes in our universities.” Similarly, on February 14, 2023, Tinubu also declared at the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri, Imo State, that “There will no longer be ASUU strike in Nigeria. All courses will be finished as an when due.” It was the same pledge he reiterated on Saturday, November 18, 2023, at the 33rd convocation ceremony of the Federal University of Technology in Akure, Ondo state. It made splash news then because most people had forgotten about the manifesto and the campaign pledges on university education.

What should have made breaking news is the speed at which President Tinubu has been keeping his campaign promises to the universities and their unions. He started early with the announcement of student loans as partial fulfillment of his goal of facilitating access to university education for students who might otherwise be unable to benefit from such education.

This was followed by the partial waiver of the “no work, no pay” order on striking members of the ASUU, by releasing four of eight months of salaries withheld by the Buhari administration. True, the ASUU strike went on for far too long, but, over the years, the government has led the union to believe that a prolonged strike is the only language of negotiation that could prompt the government into some action. Unfortunately, however, the crude tactics used by the Buhari administration during the negotiations and the coercive no work, no pay order could only aggravate the situation, coming at a time when, on the hills of a general election, the disgraced CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, was also playing his own pranks on politicians with his twin policy of Naira redesign and cash swap, which led to unprecedented Naira scarcity throughout the country. Just as Emefiele’s approach affected all Nigerians, so did the Buhari administration’s delayed response and punitive approach to the ASUU strike affect all university students and their parents.

Against the backdrop of Tinubu’s economic and education policies, it is not surprising that he would move away from such punitive approaches. True, the effects of his economic policies may take some time to mature, but the payment of four months of withheld salaries brought immediate relief to university lecturers and boosted their morale. No doubt, the effects would trickle down to the students one way or the other.

One of the vexing issues during the ASUU strike was the union’s rejection of subsuming universities under the government’s Integrated Personnel and Payroll and Personnel Information System, as if university workers were direct government employees like civil servants and political appointees. It was a corrosive policy that erodes federal universities of whatever is left of autonomy for them. If the NUC takes over accreditation and the construction of the curriculum; the Ministry of Education the appointment of members of Governing Councils and Vice Chancellors; TETFund the funding of infrastructure and research; and JAMB the admission process; what else is left, if the university management cannot pay its workers directly? It was as well that, just last week, President Tinubu approved the removal of universities and other tertiary institutions in the country from the IPPS. This would allow each institution to handle staff salaries internally.

Read Also: Tinubu: I’m in forefront of changing Nigeria

Perhaps the most obnoxious government policy that President Tinubu reversed again last week was the requirement for federal government-owned tertiary institutions to seek waivers from the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation to fill vacancies in their institutions. The negative implications of this policy went beyond bottlenecks and delays to the loss of accreditation of some progammes due to staff shortages and the barring of adjunct lecturers or professors, because they are not recognised in the IPPIS. What is worse, civil servants and politicians hijacked the recruitment process. Here’s how a Vice Chancellor put it in a recent interview: “Even when you apply for the waivers, the politicians would hijack the processes by dictating who should be employed even when they are not qualified.” (Premium Times, December 14, 2023).

In this regard, my attention was once drawn to the dumping of prospective lecturers on certain universities interview and possible recruitment to some departments. The consistency of the pattern over several months indicated that some cabal or cabals must be behind the practice. It was later learned that the job candidates were charged some fees by the cabal for possible placement in certain universities. This is a clear indication of what happens when federal universities are subsumed under the bureaucracy of the civil service.

Fortunately, President Tinubu would have none of it. He is a supporter of university autonomy, which the measures discussed above seek to enhance. However, a lot more still needs to be done. The activities of other institutions impinging on university autonomy will need to be reexamined. Moreover, the budgetary allocation to education in the 2024 budget still does not keep pace with the Presidents vision for the sector, although is double allocation in the 2023 budget he inherited. In the meantime, rather than subject access to TETFund to tedious application processes only, a certain percentage of the funds should be shared equally across the universities every year so that each university could address its own unique needs. The remainder of the funds would be accessed through approved proposals. The process by which contractors are attached to projects funded by TETFund should stop. It is another shade of politicians hijacking employment waivers.

December 20, 2023