The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Pipeline vandalism as symbolic violence

    Pipeline vandalism as symbolic violence

    Most discussions of insecurity in Nigeria have focused on physical violence, perpetrated by terrorists (Boko Haram and ISWAP), bandits, armed robbers, kidnappers, cultists, and gunmen (as they are called in the Southeast). Recently, however, as the nation’s resources dwindle and the debt profile rises, attention has shifted to symbolic violence as another manifestation of insecurity.

    Symbolic violence is often misrecognised, either because it occurs out of public gaze, such as political corruption, or because it is mischaracterised, such as verbal abuse. Like physical violence, symbolic violence is a form of insecurity because it also deprives citizens of access to necessary goods the state should have provided. In the final analysis, both forms of violence cause physical, emotional or psychological pain in varying degrees.

    Pipeline vandalism is a good example of symbolic violence being perpetrated by thieves, who engage in the diversion of the nation’s oil resources largely by drilling holes in the oil pipes and connecting their own pipes, which ferry crude or refined oil to their depot or to illegal refineries from which stolen oil or fuel is sold. The pipeline breaks affect both crude oil and refined products across the country, with a high concentration in the Niger Delta area.

    In addition to loss of revenue, the cost of pipeline vandalism includes fatalities, asset destruction, environmental degradation, collateral damage to national image, and loss of investor confidence. The revenue loss is huge indeed. Recent estimates indicate that nearly 50 percent of the nation’s oil has been stolen by pipeline vandals, thus reducing possible total oil revenue by half.

    This has put citizens in double jeopardy. First, it deprives citizens of billions of dollars that the state could have used to fund education, healthcare, infrastructure, housing, and other state projects.

    Second, in the absence of necessary funds, the state is pushed into heavy borrowing to the tune of over N40 trillion within the past 8 years alone! In order to understand the implications of heavy borrowings on the future of the nation’s economy, it is better to broaden the scope to 20 years. According to the 2021 Statistics Bulletin on Public Finance of the Central Bank of Nigeria, published in May 2022, the Nigerian government has borrowed N225.93 trillion in the 20 years between 2001 and 2021. This amount is nearly double the nation’s earnings of N114.464 trillion within the same period.

    Although part of the recent borrowings has been used to fund infrastructure, the rest has gone either to defense (to fight terrorists, bandits, and other security threats) or to pay wages and fund selected social protection programmes, such as school feeding. Little or nothing has been spent on the productive sector. As a result, the revenue from which to pay off the debt remains limited. The implication is that the future of our children and their children’s children has been mortgaged. Unless the borrowing binge is checked and the debt is paid off, the future of the Nigerian economy will remain bleak at best.

    That’s why it is important not only to catch the oil thieves but also to stop future stealing. But this is exactly where the problem lies. The truth is that the network of oil pipelines across the country is expansive enough to make detection difficult. There are well over 5000 kilometers of pipelines across the country, most of which transport refined products. However, as we shall see, the size of the pipeline network does not absolve the government from blame.

    According to an oil executive, who had worked for various oil companies in Nigeria for over 30 years, pipeline theft has been a constant problem in the oil industry. According to him, various reports have been submitted to various governments, indicating the extent of the problem. However, little or nothing has been done to curb the menace. This has led to suspicion of government complicity.

    That’s why the critical question now is not how much oil is stolen but who are the oil thieves? According to various reports, fingers are being pointed at highly placed individuals in government and business circles. Like herdsmen breeding cattle for powerful Fulani cow owners, there are pipeline vandals fronting for yet unknown or undisclosed Big Men.

    Read Also: Suspected vandals blow up Agip’s gas pipeline

    In this regard, the recent revelation by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is very pertinent. During its recent clampdown on pipeline vandalism, the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, disclosed that the company uncovered an illegal 4-kilometer pipeline from Forcados terminal to the sea as well as a loading port that has operated undetected in the last nine years! He further revealed that 395 illegal refineries, 274 reservoirs, 1,561 metal tanks, and 49 trucks were deactivated, destroyed, or seized during the same period.

    The purported discovery has raised eyebrows, more so when Kyari disclosed in the same breath that “oil theft in the country has been going on for over 22 years”! Why did it take so long to clampdown on the thieves?

    That’s why a thorough probe, like the one made into fuel subsidy years ago, should be conducted into pipeline vandalism and their sponsors revealed. However, before such a probe is conducted, it is important to carry out a thorough inspection, including excavation if necessary, of the entire pipeline network across the country and expose all the breaks by pipeline thieves. If so much was uncovered within six weeks, imagine how much more will be uncovered in six months of intensive investigation.

    Against the above backgrounds, NNPC Limited deserves praise for looking into pipeline vandalism whereas previous administrations have looked away. This new enthusiasm no doubt comes from the privatisation of the company. Its predecessor, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to investigate pipeline vandalism or act on reports of such activities, because it was only a government agency, which behaved like similar agencies by looking away from the theft of government property.

    However, unlike its predecessor, which was notorious for losing money, NNPC Limited is anxious to make profit. It is not surprising, therefore, that it has been looking for ways to curb losses. Curbing pipeline vandalism is an important step in that regard. The company should be assisted and encouraged by the media to pursue it to its logical end.

     

     

     

  • Nigeria@ 62; Wanted: ‘Unity’ not a ‘Unitary’ birthday present

    Nigeria@ 62; Wanted: ‘Unity’ not a ‘Unitary’ birthday present

    •Continued from Oct 5 …

    Yes, we have a 40-year late Second Niger Bridge nearing completion and a strangely still uncompleted mere 110 kilometre refurbishment of the 15-year old ‘under rehabilitation’ 1970s Lagos-Ibadan road prone to robbery and murder prompting a move to new railways sadly also subject to terrorism. But why should Nigeria have to choose between this or that project when probity, shedding the weight of the yoke of politics strangling Nigeria and a serious anticorruption drive with pre-emptive preventive measures stemming the tidal wave of corrupt outflows from government funds would have doubled available fund.

    Meanwhile as repeatedly promised by governments and particularly this Buhari government since 2015, honesty would have created enough income streams for an honest government to have ensured all projects could have progressed at the same pace. And PROJECT 1 in all intelligent countries is EDUCATION, PROJECT 2 IS EDUCATION and PROJECT 3 IS EDUCATION IN ALL ADVANCED COUNTRIES.

    It is strange that our leadership chose to suppress or keep education on the backburner right up to today’s 62nd anniversary. Visit any school and measure ‘Missing Infrastructure’   and also see the massive negative ripple social, economic and moral and morale impact of the ASUU strike’s eighth month of non-resolution due especially to the unworkably unjust ‘No work No Pay’ for strike time.

    Yet, paradoxically politicians and civil servants and contractors even wallow in latest weapons for their personal protection, want the latest cellphones, drive the latest limousines and jeeps with the latest armoured protection, fly the latest jets and seek to stay in most expensive highest rising roof-garden apartments and hotels world-wide, all with money extracted from the citizen’s budget. This is the ‘Political Extractive Industry’ at its worst! And it is at a time when politicians around the world are economically tightening their political belts just to justify the expenses of their jobs and keep their jobs.

    Most of Nigeria’s political class are born with a sense that the citizens owe them a living and an extremely greed-driven living merely for being politicians. They cunningly forget that all the creations and gadgets they lust after and illegally inflate their salaries and perks or contracts to ‘legally-illegally’ or criminally acquire, are in reality the products of excellent, high quality, expensive public and private or government-supported scholarship-driven education which created top well-educated brains grown in the vibrant, competitively creative womb of schools and universities of intelligence and technically driven developed countries.

    Meanwhile, back home in backward driving Nigeria, we unrealistically seek a developed world life while we close our own academic facilities for eight months which has wasted millions of ‘Brain Days’. With 2.1m undergraduates and over two million in public universities the ASUU strike and intransigence of government, the Brain Days lost amount to 2m x 6 of 30 days each month of working and study =180×5= 900 days x 2m= 1,800,000,000 =1.8billion Brain Days lost.

    Read Also: TIMELINE: $23m, $311m, other Abacha loots recovered so far

    Two quick examples of how Nigeria shoots itself in the foot or is in self-destruction mode: Even ‘Africa Studies’ is better funded and taught in UK, USA and Germany than in Ibadan, ABU, UNN, OAU and UNIBEN. Nigerian companies and government cannot even adequately fund African Studies yet billions are declared as profit and trillions disappear annually. That corruption is the true modern African Study needed in 2022- HOW CORRUPT NIGERIANS & CORPORATE NIGERIA FAILED AFRICAN STUDIES’. You can widen ‘African Studies’ to encompass the whole of education. Remember that from our National Library to the National Archives to every library and every subject in school where corruption prevents good books getting on booklists.

    SECOND EXAMPLE:  Nigeria still lacks Inspirational Museums and Exhibitions Centres to ‘Guide Our Youth Aright’ even in its ‘Gardens and Parks’ which should be ‘Gardens, Parks and Museums’ to inspire the youth. Such centres could easily have been built and maintained by the many billions of naira wrongly invested in the malignant moral dilemma, some call tragedy, that the advertising and entertainment industries have joined forces to create – the morally questionable youth targeted instant millionaire programmes best illustrated by ‘Big Brother’ (BB).

    Imagine what the money expended on BB over five years could have done for the same watching youth if it had been spent on enduring youth targeted projects in sport, academics, scholarships. This was a huge miscalculation by business and a lost opportunity when money was actually available. It was a huge additional loss for the youth of Nigeria, who lack any sense of belonging to a country which also treated them as children long into adulthood-taking away part of their rights to be adults.

    In fact almost all Nigerians, lost the sense of belonging due the imposed un-voted for 1999 constitution, a unitary constitution not unity governance with abandonment of ‘True Federalism’, abandonment of impartial and meaningful ‘Federal Character’ and a consumptive class of politicians, businesspersons, contractors and civil servants totally lawless, lacking supervision.

    How else can they not get caught while stealing the first M1m, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000m. To add insult, Abacha Loot is still being returned to Nigeria 20 years too late and his progeny seek national office. And the recent Ac’COUNT’ant General is PLEA BARGAINING to see which part of N109,000,000,000, N109b of our children’s money he can keep? Or is plea bargaining to reduce sentence when money has been recovered?? Our 20m CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL and their 40m parents seek an urgent answer and restitution.

  • 2023 and the youth vote

    2023 and the youth vote

    For the first time in a while, we are seeing the younger segment of our population who are dissatisfied with the state of things, increasingly energised by governance issues. This trend been noticeable in the last couple of years.

    At the end of the last continuous voters registration exercise, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reported 10.49 million new registrants. Eighty four percent of these, at well over eight million people, are 34 years old or younger.

    It remains to be seen how many would eventually pick up permanent voters’ card (PVC), which is what really matters. Still, the numbers tell the story of growing interest and desire not just to have their voices heard, but to actually get their hands on the tiller.

    For a lot of these young people, their rage is driven by a sense that the older generation has failed them and the entire country. Instead of delivering a prosperous nation when they had numerous opportunities to do so, the leaders only succeeded in producing a country from which many are fleeing as captured by the so-called japa phenomenon.

    Suddenly, we started hearing talk suggesting that perhaps our salvation lay in enthroning leaders who can bring youthful energy to the assignment. People above 50 became objects of derision; those older than 60 aspiring to public office were dismissed as ancestors who deserved to be entombed in some museum. On top of tribalism, nepotism and sundry negative isms, we added ageism to our national discussion.

    These young people who are angry over lack of opportunities and hope for a better tomorrow, would have us believe that things would change positively if they were at the helm of affairs. But this picture of total exclusion isn’t necessarily correct. Closer examination would show that their demographic is already part of the governing system in the country.

    Aside the president, vice president and many governors, the bulk of legislators at federal and state levels, local government chairmen, heads of parastatals are people 50 years old or younger. Still, their respective areas of authority are not exactly shining lights in a nation looking for good examples. If Nigeria is a mess, we should be honest and admit that almost every age bracket has taken turns to stir the pot.

    The undue focus on the offices of the president and his deputy, gives the impression that in this federation it is only from those platforms that leaders can make a difference. Nothing is father from the truth. In every other field save politics, our people across all age brackets are excelling around the world. So, there is something we haven’t hit on that’s the problem and it’s not just simply age.

    As things stand none of the top four presidential candidates is a spring chicken. Labour Party’s Peter Obi is 61, the New Nigerian Peoples Party’s Rabiu Kwankwaso is 65, the All Progressives Congress’ Bola Tinubu is 70 and the Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar is 75.

    The youths have been served a fait accompli; they are not going to get one of their own as president in 2023. So, rather than wasting time and energy frothing at the gill, they should be concerned about the agenda of the contenders for their age group, if truly they are worried about the future.

    Read Also: Why Tinubu is the right choice for 2023

    For instance, universities have been shut for the better part of a year. How do the candidates plan to end this and ensure it doesn’t recur in the future? What are they going to do about unemployment, about entrepreneurship, about helping young couples just starting families to own homes?

    What are their policies that would stop people going on the deadly run through the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean? Why are youths not challenging politicians to present concrete proposals, rather than throwing around empty “I will do this, I will do that” promises?

    You would think that these and similar issues would engage them. But we are seeing the direct opposite. The fallout from the recent Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) conference where candidates spoke about their agenda was instructive. For days afterwards what trended on social media was APC Vice Presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima’s dress sense. All the talk was about his choice of shoes, length of his tie and size of his suit. This, supposedly, from people concerned about their tomorrow.

    Even when they attempt to discuss the serious issues it soon dissolves into an orgy of insults, with each side trying to outdo the other in obnoxiousness. The ethnic slurs start flying. Soon, it hits you that the younger ones are not better than their forebears in that they have inherited all their hate and prejudices.

    Youths, like every other demographic, agree that things are tough. What they would never agree on is what the solutions are, or who their champions should be.

    That’s why those who have already donated the youth vote to one candidate or the other are engaged in ignorant generalisation, simply deluded or just eager to believe their own hype. But they are welcome to inhabit the parallel universe they’ve created if it makes them happy. However, a little bit of recent history might help.

    Late in 2020 the country convulsed under the #EndSARS protests. It was a youth-driven uprising against police brutality because most victims were young people profiled by the anti-robbery squad as criminals. They were targets of suspicion because they were surrounded by trappings of affluence. Their frustration boiled over in street protests across the nation.

    But as the demonstrations went from days to a couple of weeks an interesting dynamic became noticeable. While across the South the protests retained their anti-police brutality flavour, up North they soon began to be seen as an attempt to destroy a key security agency and bring down the government. Soon there were counter protests supporting the police and the administration.

    The cynical may argue that these pushback demonstrations were sponsored by pro-government agents. What cannot be denied, however, is that the ferment that grounded Lagos and several other cities was largely absent in the North.

    That is why it would be presumptuous to think any party or candidate has the youth vote locked up, or that people in this demographic in different parts of the country would hold the same political positions or back the same candidate going into the next elections.

    However, the youth can still make a difference by refocusing the discussion on the things that matter, rather than on inanities like who wore the suit better or regurgitating bile on social media. If they can’t do better than this then we can all throw up our hands and admit all hope is lost.

     

  • Atiku and the Atikulated

    Atiku and the Atikulated

    The 2023 presidential election cycle has generated a host of new terminologies, especially for social media enthusiasts. For example, supporters or followers of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, are known as the Batified. Those of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, are known as the Obidients, while those of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, are said to be Articulated. The terms are coined, using the initials BAT for Tinubu and the real names of Atiku and Obi. So much has been said or written about Batifieds and Obidients but little or nothing about the Atikulated.

    Yet, Atiku himself is like an articulated vehicle, which, typically, has two compartments conjoined by a hinge or some other device. A typical articulated vehicle on Nigerian roads is what is locally known as a trailer with the driver’s cabin hinged to the load cabin for flexibility of movement. Usually, when one compartment derails, the other typically follows or is forcefully separated. Just like Atiku himself.

    The point is that there are two Atikus conjoined by a single purpose-the ambition to be President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The ambition dates back to 1993 when he first ran for President under the banner of the Social Democratic Party. He was not even the runner-up in the primaries.

    Since the return to democracy in 1999, Atiku has had his eye on the presidency ever he was made Vice President to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in that year. Indeed, his alleged ambition to torpedo Obasanjo in 2003 after one term in office was said to have set Obasanjo scamping for support the Nigerian way. That experience and other factors anecdotally mentioned by Obasanjo himself led to the strained relationship between them, which led Obasanjo to oppose him as his successor within the PDP fold in 2007. Since 2007, there has been no presidential election in which Atiku did not run, either as aspirant or as flag bearer.

    Atiku quickly left the PDP and joined the Action Congress in that year and was given the party’s ticket. Again, he was not even the runner-up.

    He returned to the PDP to run again in 2011. He lost in the primaries.

    He left the PDP again in 2015 to join the APC principally to run for President again. He lost in the primaries and left the party two years later to rejoin the PDP

    He succeeded in 2019 in securing the ticket of the PDP through some last minute maneuvers, allegedly with the aid of some powerful Generals. But he lost in the presidential election to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari. Unconvinced about his loss, which was clear to all observers, he pursued litigation over the election to the Supreme Court, which validated earlier court rulings that he lost the election. He subsequently moved to Dubai.

    Then came another presidential election cycle, beginning in 2022. Atiku roared back and somehow manipulated his way through the PDP primaries to become the flag bearer. The manipulations during the primaries and subsequently may well join other factors to cost him victory again.

    All the actions described so far, including the presidential runs, were taken by Atiku One, the overambitious and desperate Atiku, who wants to be President by all means. His competitors should be wary of a desperate co-contestant.

    Read Also: Ohanaeze dismisses Atiku’s succession promise to Southeast

    In a nutshell, he sidelined the zoning rule of his party. He did little or nothing about the lopsidedness of top offices in the party, with the presidential candidate, the party chairman, and the Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, all coming from the North. Moreover, he got a Committee set up to assist him in choosing one of three Governors as his Vice President. 14 of 17 members of the Committee chose the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike. Without getting back to the Committee or at least inviting the person chosen for a chat, he went ahead to choose another person, namely, the Governor of Delta State, Ifeayin Okowa.

    Now over to Atiku Two, whose duty it is to follow through on the manipulations by Atiku One by prosecuting the campaign. The choice of a running mate is the conventional starting point of the campaign. Besides, it gives an indication of the choices you are like to make along the line. Among other reasons, Okowa was chosen as running mate, because he is Igbo. His choice was Atiku’s attempt to placate the Igbo people, who have been clamouring for the presidency. But some Igbo leaders felt that Atiku should have crossed the Niger to choose an Igbo from the mainland. Others felt that if he truly believed in an Igbo presidency, he should not have usurped the turn of a Southerner, which could possibly have given an Igbo aspirant a chance. To placate them, Atiku went to Enugu to tell them that he would be the “stepping stone” to Igbo presidency in 2027. What audacity! Is the position his to give out? But wait.

    A few days later, Atiku Two reportedly told Wike in a private meeting that he would support Wike for president in 2027. One Atiku: Two presidential candidates in 2027. One Igbo; one Ikwerre. Hmnnn.

    But didn’t the same Atiku claim much earlier that he chose Okowa because he is a man ready to step into the Presidency any minute? Unless Okowa is the Igbo he had in mind in Enugu, then there may be three candidates for President in 2027, all sponsored, or is it chosen, by Atiku.

    There may be a reason Atiku is desperate this time around, wading through a maze of breaking party rules and making promises that are outside his power to make. He might have felt that time is running out on him. Perhaps he thought that he would be President on his fourth try in 2015 all because he got elected as Governor of his state after a fourth attempt in 1999. Now that he is already into his sixth attempt to be President, he might have concluded that he should throw everything at it.

    Well, good luck to the Atikulated. But they should be prepared to get a President in 2023 that they did not vote for.

  • Nigeria@62.  Wanted:  ‘Unity’ not a ‘Unitary’ birthday present 

    Nigeria@62.  Wanted:  ‘Unity’ not a ‘Unitary’ birthday present 

    Oyo State gives productivity and merit awards to civil servants and parastatal staff.  This is a good motivational activity and should be copied honesty, faithfully and justly by other states and the federal government which has given merit awards including CON to Professor ABO Desalu, 90year old anatomist, and my teacher. Congratulations to all awardees.

    October 1, Nigeria@62. Someone asked ‘Independence: What Independence?’. ‘What’s there to celebrate?’ The 20milion out of school and the 50 million looking for jobs also ask. I have written numerous anniversary poems many performed at the Annual Oct 1st Concert in University of Ibadan’s Trenchard Hall. The poems highlighted the ever-repeated political and developmental problems against the easy solutions that would bring the hope for a bright future to the hundreds of undergraduate and youth eyes and hearts in the audience celebrating Nigeria again and again -a Nigeria which seemed annually sinking further in pain.

    For example, in 1988, Nigeria was 28 years old and I wrote the poem ‘Objection!’ about Nigeria defending herself before a judge. The judge asks ‘Did you ‘Objection’ / When 53 suitcases passed/ Through the eyes of the needle/ And 317 ‘Olympians’ baggage/ But no medallion? / When $2.8 billion in oil money missed monitoring? / When health care eluded the common man? / And education become a political weapon?/ When cut-off points left goats in school / And the gifted at home? / When railways rotted and rusted?/ When your people dined from dustbins? / And kwashiorkor came calling on the kids?  Sound familiar? Nigeria has been good to us. It is some Nigerians who have spoilt the country.

    HELP SAVE NIGERIA and PLEASE: ADHERE TO THE NATIONAL ANTHEM: LOVE(x2), SERVE, FREEDOM, PEACE(x2), UNITY, JUST-ICE(x2), TRUTH, HONESTY & RE-PLEDGE to be FAITHFUL, LOYAL and HONEST, UNITY. Note and teach others especially political aspirant before 2023 elections that ‘UNITY’ is a feeling of belonging and friendship and is not ‘UNITARY’ a dangerous and persistent military relic of authoritarian power and domination and deprivation.-the most unfortunate inheritance even worse than the financial corruption of the military coup/regime era evidenced by the still returning Abacha loot in the face of which a son sees no shame in seeking public office-a point ignored by the electorate.

    Nigeria needs a president and allies who accept the difference between ‘unity’ and ‘unitary’ and will work to get rid of Nigeria’s unitary wounds creating an unwanted inheritance imposed on it by selfish archaic militaristic forces.

    Today’s struggling Nigerian nationhood’ statistics are not ‘nation-good’ but ‘nation-bad’ and damning. They need remedies only politicians are empowered to provide. How do we put politicians in their place and take away the sense of entitlement to the people’s money in the budget from those politicians, and civil servants and contractors and middlemen, and women of course among them, who see themselves as victorious pillagers and political warlords and occupiers of a captured war zone to rape and rob before the next election. How do we make them servants of citizens-the meaning of ‘minister’? How do we make them all human, humane and not above the citizens and the professionals who advice and work with them? How can Nigeria educate politicians, that beyond elections, they need to learn that politicians also need to be taught and learn by reading the achievements and failures of great political generals and through university 1-3 month sandwich courses of diplomas in political governance about role models, responsibilities and roles of politicians in corruption, achieving Social Development Goals, SDGs, Transparency International standards, education and health parameters and other basic human development indices?

    The evidence of major political criminal complicity in Nigeria’s failure to progress as a nation is there. So much income, so little progress… like a company forced to pay its managers all and more than its income and then has to borrow to pay the staff salaries only to lose that money to theft by some workers and managers. The result will be no development.

    In spite of our current debt profile of N42.84tn or $103.31bn, Nigerians need to remind themselves that the country will also be expected by all 2023 politicians to pay them back every kobo spent or claimed by imaginative politicians to be spent on the 2023 election including nearly 30 party presidential aspirant forms at 100m each i.e. N3billion, not to talk of hundreds of party senatorial and representative aspirant forms. So right now, Nigeria will owe politicians between N10 and N15b, some say N20b ‘election expenses’ with nothing to show for that money except some people sitting in political offices extracting their ‘fair share’ of the N10-20b investment in politics with an additional huge interest rate from the already weak and inadequate budget. This is a major election cycle cause and source of our corrupted polity and our resultant collective penury and lack of development.

    To know where we are, match the nearly highest paid national assembly politicians and the highest selling ‘Declaration of Interest’ forms, up to 100m, in presidential, senate and house of representatives and governorship political offices and the highest ransoms, 100m, for kidnap victims in the world and the highest number of multi-billion corruption cases against the highest number of high ranking politicians and presidential appointees in court in the world and the highest percentage of oil theft, 50-90% against the approximately 20m children out of school. To be continued…

  • Àwa ló kàn: Yoruba elite and 2023 presidential politics

    Àwa ló kàn: Yoruba elite and 2023 presidential politics

    From their traditional system of monarchical administration in precolonial times through the modern presidential politics, the Yoruba elite has been in the forefront of representative democracy and progressive politics in Nigeria. Historians and anthropologists noted their system of representative democracy by which monarchs were elected by an electoral college of kingmakers. With the advent of partisan politics toward the end of the colonial era, Chief Obafemi Awolowo popularised progressive politics based on the motto, Freedom for ALL, Life More Abundant. The ultimate goal was to bring the greatest benefits to the maximum number of people.

    At the same time, however, the Yoruba elite also have engaged in the most competitive and often divisive politics among themselves. In precolonial times, they were divided along sub-ethnic lines (Oyo vs Ijebu vs Egba vs Ekiti, and so on). While sub-ethnicity continues to play a divisive role, it has been supplemented with religion and partisan politics. Today, echoes of divisiveness are heard everywhere. To be sure, disagreements and debate are central to the democratic tradition. But where disagreements are based on rumours, innuendoes, and selfish interests, democracy is no longer at play.

    True, Chief Awolowo sought to rally the Yoruba elite to his course in the old Western Region, yet personal ambition and selfish interests still led some of them to join other political parties, while others engaged in subversive activities. Yet, others formed alliances with Northern political parties to dislodge Awolowo’s political party. Moreover, there were others who opposed him out of sheer envy. It was the totality of the subversive actions of his antagonists that led Chief Hubert Ogunde to perform his satirical play and soulful song, Yoruba Ronu, in 1964.

    At the end of the day, Awolowo never became President, despite several attempts. His attempt to reach out to politicians from other regions did not raise his party beyond its Western regional base. Not even the reincarnation of his Action Group as Unity Party of Nigeria got him the Presidency, despite the unifying outlook of the name. It is generally believed that on one or two occasions, it was another Yoruba man who stood in his way.

    The first Yoruba politician to win the presidential election nation-wide was Chief MKO Abiola, whose election was annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida military government, despite universal acknowledgement that the election was free, fair, and credible. The Social Democratic Party which gave him its platform was a truly national party, being established by the same military government that annulled the election. It was the party of choice for progressives.

    Six years later, in a bid to atone for the annullment of Abiola’s election and pacify the Yoruba, another Yoruba man, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, was made the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party. Although the PDP had a national outlook, it was opposed by the Yoruba elite, who floated their own political party, the Alliance for Democracy, and candidate, Chief Olu Falae. Like other regional political parties before it, the AD failed to make a President of its candidate.

    Read Also: 2023: Group stages 1m persons’ walk for Tinubu/Shettima in Lagos

    Although Obasanjo won the 1999 election, he quickly realised that he needed the Southwest base of the Yoruba in order to win reelection. What he did and how he won reelection in 2003 is now history that needs no retelling here.

    These developments were not lost on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who inherited the remnants of the AD, which formed the nucleus of the Action Congress, later to be known as Action Congress of Nigeria. The ACN eventually merged with three other parties with similar progressive ideology to form the All Progressives Congress. The APC eventually won the presidency in 2015 and 2019 with President Muhammadu Buhari as its candidate.

    After a coalition of APC Southern and Northern Governors successfully fought for zoning the APC presidential candidate to the South, the same Governors saw Tinubu to victory at the APC presidential primaries. At least three other Yoruba presidential aspirants in his party stepped down for him at the convention. The ball has now rolled into the court of Yoruba elders, especially the educated elite, to seize this opportunity by supporting one of their own.

    Admittedly, some of them are stakeholders in other political parties. Nevertheless, polling data have shown repeatedly that the vast majority of the Yoruba elite do not even belong to any political party. In other words, they are independents. Besides, a sizable number of them do not even vote at all.

    But the stakes are so high in 2023 and beyond that we cannot afford to fold our arms on election day. For Yoruba elders, it is time to adopt a time-tested adage in considering Tinubu’s candidacy: Omo eni kìí sè’dí bè be re, ká fi ileke sí ìdí omo elòmíràn (We first satisfy our child who is in want before we give out to charity). In a way, this is reminiscent of the airplane oxygen mask philosophy: You first apply the mask on yourself before you help others.

    However, my argument is not even about me-first or about ethnicity. It is not about omo wa ni e je o seé. No. It is about not allowing this opportunity to slip by for at least two reasons. First, there should be no excuse for not embracing one of our own after eight years of crying Fulanisation or marginalisation. Second, we have the right man for the job, considering the totality of his accounting, corporate, legislative, activist, and executive governance experiences vis-à-vis his competitors.

    My argument also is not about whether or not we like or hate Tinubu as a person. I have disagreed with him before, and it is in print. There are also one or two things I don’t like about him. However, what I do like about him is what suits him perfectly for the job of President. Ever since I have known him, and it’s been well over forty years, he has never been founding wanting in performing exceedingly well any job assigned to him. He did as an Accountant in Corporate America. He did it as an Executive for Exon-Mobil in Nigeria. He did it as a legislator in the Third Republic. He did it as a refugee representative of NADECO abroad. He also did it as a two-term Governor of Lagos State, where echoes of his legacies still linger.

  • 2023 and the old ethnicity factor

    2023 and the old ethnicity factor

    We are officially off! From today, political parties can start campaigning towards next year’s general election. Like any Nigerian electoral process, it promises to be one chaotic ride all the way to its conclusion.

    Given the very high stakes, it’s no surprise that in their bid to secure advantage, the players are already hard at work pressing the usual buttons that divide us. Take ethnicity for example. No point deceiving ourselves. In an diverse country like ours, it’s a factor that always bubbling just below the surface.

    It’s the reason why we have concepts like ‘zoning.’ It’s the reason the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), long associated with the idea, blithely junked it to produce former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its candidate to succeed the All Progressive Congress’ (APC), Muhammadu Buhari – a Northerner who would have spent eight years in office. The calculation is that on account of tribal solidarity he would inherit the incumbent’s captive 12 million vote haul.

    People always mouth their wish for the fabled “issue-based” campaigns when, in reality, many voters in Nigeria and elsewhere don’t always cast ballots on the basis of rationality, but raw emotion. Many will vote based on their belief in a candidate’s capacity and ideas; others don’t want to know if you are Albert Einstein. That’s why ethnicity would be big again.

    For the first time in a long while candidates from three of the nation’s largest ethnic groups are competing. In 2015, the Southern minority Ijaw President Goodluck Jonathan ran against the Fulani Buhari. Four years later it was two men from the same stock running against each other, making the ethnic question moot. In 2022, however, you have Atiku and Rabiu Kwankwaso from the Northeast and Northwest respectively, APC’s Bola Tinubu from the Southwest and Labour Party’s Peter Obi from the Southeast.

    In the reporting thus far, it is evident that the historic rivalry between the two big Southern ethnic groups involved in the presidential race is becoming a powerful undercurrent.

    But history tells us that popularity in one’s ethnic base can’t propel you to the presidency. The legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo religiously polled in excess of 80 percent in Yorubaland but never came to power due to anaemic support elsewhere.

    For three election cycles Buhari was the man up north but never became president until he got the Southwest in his corner.

    In the same manner it is hard to see how Obi’s popularity in the Southeast takes him anywhere near the presidency unless he can achieve the required breakthrough in the three Northern zones.

    But his supporters revel in his underdog status. They and their traducers see things differently. They see possibilities where others see a bunch of dreamers. They see the 2023 election as a kind of David versus Goliath repeat match. Unfortunately, this is Nigeria and not the Valley of Elah where the unheralded shepherd boy slew one giant. Today, Obi is fighting two giants and I’m not betting on the underdog.

    That said, whatever happens in the Southeast would have a bearing on the outcome given that historically the PDP had always done well here. Now, there’s the very real possibility that their vote levels may be significantly slashed given the Obi option.

    Read Also: Tinubu will win 2023 presidency, fix Nigeria – South West Arewa community

    Again, this cycle is different because of temperament. Something interesting is going on in the zone that makes it hard to predict what would happen when people go to cast their votes in the secrecy of the polling booth.

    Today in the Southeast it’s a risky venture to speak against Obi’s aspiration. The few politicians who have been dismissive of his chances have paid a stern price as targets of abuse and bullying. Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, is one such figure who chose the wrong time to be analytical.

    Unfortunately, just days after he released his rating of the Labour Party candidate, his family ran into the organ harvesting storm in the United Kingdom. There was scant sympathy for him. He was cursed to high heavens, with some suggesting that his travails were caused by his political views!

    Many mainstream politicians quickly learnt their lessons and clammed up. They may have been silenced by the militant tendency in the zone, but what they would do at the ballot box remains a dark mystery.

    So, the Southeast has become a minefield for would-be forecasters and pollsters who may be in danger of overstating or understating support one way or another.

    It’s all too reminiscent of what played out in the 2016 US presidential contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Up till Election Day pollsters had the Democrat leading the former president with anywhere between five and ten percentage points.

    Trump had politically incorrect positions on everything from abortion to immigration which played badly with the liberal media, but went down well with the more religious and conservative strain of the population. Many were too ashamed to admit their leanings to pollsters. But on D-day they delivered an unexpected verdict. It was a blow to the reputation of the polling industry from which they are yet to recover.

    The ethnic factor would also play out in the Southwest where voters would be enthusiastic about backing one of their own. Many are predicting that given the excitement around his candidacy, Tinubu’s vote in the zone could match levels reached by Chief Awolowo.

    But that’s where the parallels end. Whereas the old Action Group (AG) and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) leader never managed to garner enough votes from other zones to win the presidency, the APC candidate’s bid more closely mirrors that of the successful candidate of Southwest extraction, Chief M. K. O. Abiola, who was able to build a North-South pathway to power on June 12, 1993.

    It is worth noting that Tinubu’s journey has had a strong northern input. For instance, when certain forces within APC were scheming to foist Senate President Ahmad Lawan on the party, it was 12 Northern governors who turned the tables with their game-changing intervention insisting power must move South. The same group, almost to a man, would go on to back him for the presidential ticket.

    Does that mean he would automatically sweep the entire North in Buhari-like fashion? The quick answer is that as long as he retains the backing of the incumbent and that coalition of governors, he remains very competitive against Atiku and with the whip hand in key states across the region.

    Conspiracy theorists who want to believe that his support wouldn’t hold firm must admit that the factors that made some PDP governors work against Jonathan in 2015 aren’t present now. The overwhelming consensus within APC is pro power shift. Seven years ago, divisions over this issue arising from Jonathan’s second term bid split the then ruling party down the middle.

    You also have to ask yourself what incentives APC governors would have to install an Atiku and become beggars at his table, as against delivering a project in which they are key stakeholders.

    As the campaigns begin today, it is safe to say that of the two major contenders, Atiku and the PDP are under greater pressure because their traditional strongholds are under threat as a result of the Obi factor. Wherever his base are they would affect the traditional PDP vote.

    Obi, on the other hand, would continue to struggle against the sentiment that says ‘we want to back a candidate who can win, not just cast our votes in protest or to make a statement.’

     

     

  • Kola Daisi@90, ‘Nigeria hAIRy-ways’ 

    Kola Daisi@90, ‘Nigeria hAIRy-ways’ 

    New: President Buhari addressed the UN as 14 Fellow Nigerians were murdered in their village. Now a second evil mass mosque massacre has occurred in September. More Presidential condolences, abi no be so?

    Hurray; the Ibadan General Gas bridge/flyover /7.2km road is finally widened and completed by ‘local contractors’. Kudos to PDP Governor Makinde for finishing the people’s project initiated by late APC Governor Ajimobi.

    Congratulations to Bashorun Kola Daisi@90 and family. Papa has towered over many fields of endeavour since shining in Ibadan Boys High School obtaining best results and proceeding to London School of Economics meeting his life-long friend and ‘twin’ Chief Subomi Balogun. After a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, he studied Law in record time and returned to Nigeria becoming a highly successful lawyer in Lagos, Ibadan and nationwide. He participated superlatively in Chambers of Commerce becoming a leading light at Lagos city, state, national, West African, continental, Commonwealth, and United Nations [UNIDO] levels. He became a banking leader and also champion of the modernizing the then Ports Authority and Nigerian Railways and Nigeria Airways even though later governments did not implement the transformational recommendations by the boards he was involved with.

    His giant impact is across many spheres of private and public sector activities. You name it, Papa has not only ‘Been -There-Done-That’ but he has uncountable times been ‘Primus Inter Pares’ in the public and private arenas with his ‘ever the gentle gentleman’ highly intellectual contributions and punctual office-holding physical presence input seamlessly transiting to the computer age from when diaries were business planners used to keep appointments worldwide. Among the beneficiaries of his service from the 60s are the OAU and ECOWAS Summits, ODUA Conglomerate [founding chairman], several International Trade Fairs, NISER and a roll call of distinguished service to and awards from several universities.

    He is a revered institution in Ibadanland both in business, socially and by his place and role in the traditional ascendency to the royal seat of Olubadan of Ibadanland, becoming Ekerin -Aare of Ibadan and later Bashorun of Ibadanland and founding president of the Ibadan Foundation. He is a member of all illustrious clubs in Lagos and Ibadan.

    Read Also: Buhari back in Abuja after UNGA77 events 

    Unknown to many, Papa has always and very privately supported initiatives of many friends, family, acquaintances and needy, even anticipating needs. All ages sing praise at his spontaneous positive intervention. Papa has consistently used his vast business and social understanding to anticipate a need without fanfare and is embarrassed by gratitude at his generosity virtue. He would ‘just turn up’ casually and offer assistance in the family or business or professional endeavour he feels worthwhile before any request. Having repaired or prevented the economic damage and sown seeds of entrepreneurial progress in all fields of government and other people’s organisations, Papa moved to channel future good deeds and his considerable means into the Kola Daisi Foundation in 1992. Those who set up NGOs and foundations usually do so to correct a perceived wrong, chart a new and different path or give hope to many of the uncatered for or under-catered for. Papa has been led by all these altruistic goals, energised by his personal journey through life, into setting up the KDF which channeled his altruistic actions in health and education into planting 15 classrooms in his old school CAC Primary School Itabale, Ibadan as well as  the Kola Daisi Foundation Commuter Centre in the University of Ibadan, two Kola Daisi Centres, one encompassing a KDF Youth Centre catering for thousands of youth collaborating with Educare Trust, and a Primary and Community Hospital in Yemetu run by UCH, paid for by KDF.

    In furtherance of his love of the youth, inflamed by memories of his own quality education and the current decay around, and after supporting conventional universities and witnessed the bureaucracy and red tape hindering rapid decision-making, he conceived and funded the legacy KolaDaisi University licensed by the NUC in 2016. The KDU used the opportunity of Papa’s 90th birthday to commission the Subomi Balogun Hall of Residence and the Agbeke Memorial Hall, the latter in honour of Late Mrs Agbeke Kola Daisi, Papa’s esteemed late wife. We wish Papa and his family a fulfilment and completion of all their dreams and God’s abundant protection. Amen.

    Nigeria has fallen from ‘elephant powered’ grace in the sky to a mouse on grass on the ground, by accepting to give 49% of a reborn improved Nigeria Airways now ‘Nigeria hAIRy’ to successful Ethiopian Airline, the only bidder. Surely this is where Nigeria’s top 100 dollar ‘miraculous’ billionaires, mostly beneficiaries of government wavers, contracts or oil well largess to the detriment of the citizenry, should offer support. Ethiopians will, protect their flagship and do Nigeria few favours on new or old routes. Many flew with the elephant, not eagle, Nigeria Airways, with pride and appreciation. Later and specifically the Nigeria Airways was infected by the pervading cancer of an arrogant government official culture of cumulative non-payment of ticket bills and in addition corruption up and down the airways feeding chain shamelessly collapsed the money-spinning airline. Sadly, Nigeria manages to ‘deliberately’ rubbish intelligent ‘preventive measures’ and turn everything, not into gold or even good, but corrupt it into dust, dirt and despair. We refuse to put meters to measure our oil output. Name one success please. Even our successful sports persons are mostly ‘foreign trained’ or ‘foreign finished’.  What hope Nigeria Air?

  • The rising cost of airfares: a global problem

    The rising cost of airfares: a global problem

    When Canadian media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, first coined the concept of “global village” in 1964, he was writing about the impact of the newer technologies of his day, namely, radio and television. Today, the concept can be said to have truly matured with the advent of newer technologies of communication, buoyed by the satellite; rapid transport technologies by air and rail; the globalization of economic linkages; and the increasing universalisation of world bodies, such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. As a result, a problem in one region often spreads quickly to the others. Such was the case with the COVID-19 pandemic, which developed in China and quickly spread throughout the world as passenger planes hopped from one international terminal to another.

    It is not surprising, therefore, that three key problems, among others, bestride today’s world like a colossus. They are insecurity, inflation, and rising costs, including the astronomical hike in airfares. That’s why, today, all over the world, there is an ongoing outcry against high air travel costs, although, much less attention has been paid to the problem here in Nigerian than to the rising cost of road travel.

    There are two interrelated reasons for the relative neglect of the issue in Nigeria. One, air transport is considered an elite mode of travel for a truly negligible percentage of the Nigerian population. It is believed that, whatever the cost, most of the travellers can afford it. Two, there are two formidable unions, the Nigeria Union of Road Transport Workers and the Nigeria Labour Union, that are always ready to go on strike over any identifiable development that may increase the cost of road travel. Without a doubt, their activities and the

    True, the key factor often cited as the root cause of the hike in air and road transport fares is the rise in the cost of aviation fuel and so-called premium motor spirit used to propel their respective engines, but the factors responsible for the hike in airfares are beyond fuel costs. They include increasing demand for air travel; capacity problem, following layoffs during the pandemic; and bureaucratic bottlenecks, including the failure of some countries to meet their financial obligations to foreign airlines.

    The reason for higher demand in air travel is understandable. All over the world, the urge to renew social ties, enjoy vacations in distant places, and explore new business opportunities increased as the over two-year pandemic declined in spread and severity, following the production of effective vaccines. Airlines responded to this increased demand by slowly raising prices. As summer travel crept in by the end of May, the cost got even hirer. An additional factor here at home is increasing insecurity on the roadways and the railroads. Those who can afford airfares flock the airports, leading to increase in airfare.

    This gradual hike in airfare took a leap when the aviation fuel crisis hit the airlines due globally to the oil crisis resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting boycott of Russian oil by European and other nations. This problem was compounded in Nigeria by reduced output in production due to oil theft and pipeline vandalism.

    Read Also: World’s aviation unions unveil plan to end travel chaos

    Another factor responsible for higher fares is increased demand, following removal of restrictions, such as COVID-19 tests and the wearing of face masks by major airlines and hotels. This has made it possible for group travels and school trips, cancelled during the pandemic, to resume fully. Besides, business and leisure trips are also witnessing an uptake in volume.

    The pandemic came with more than reduced airline patronage. Early retirements and layoffs during the pandemic have led to labour shortages. Many airlines are meeting these shortages with trimmed summer schedule in order to ensure reliable operations. The result again is increased fare for the available seats. The revenue management systems used by major airlines are good at forecasting demand at different price levels and comparing it to the available seats to sell. When available seats are reduced, the system works by stopping the sale of low fares earlier in the sales cycle and make seats available only to those who are willing to pay higher prices closer to the flights departure. Besides, a number of airlines have raised prices to make for reduced profitability during the pandemic.

    Like most everything else, universal problems tend to get negatively domesticated in Nigeria to everybody’s discomfiture. International airfares were suddenly raised recently beyond the reach of regular travellers, not necessarily in alignment with universal trends. The Nigerian government owes foreign airlines over $500 million in unremitted revenue. Even when the government said that part of the fund was remitted recently, no airline got enough to reverse the hike in fares. Because the airlines are forced to source funds on the parallel market, where the exchange rate is much higher, airlines are threatening to sell their tickets in dollar instead of the local currency. Even some airlines, such as Emirates, suspended Nigeria flights due to $85 million trapped revenue.

    At the domestic level, local airlines initially doubled their prices in response to the high cost of aviation fuel and the need to recover profitability, following the pandemic restrictions. However, as demand rose, due to the prevailing insecurity on the roads and railways, the price went up even higher. Today, you could spend as high as N250,000 on a return flight on the Lagos-Abuja or Ibadan-Abuja route, unless you book well in advance and are willing to take early morning flight.

    To be sure, insecurity, high inflation, and rising costs are universal problems, leading major world bodies to warn of impending global recession. Only those who are ignorant of global trends would blame the Nigerian government uniquely for these problems.

    Where the Nigerian government deserves blame is in insufficient or delayed action in solving the problems, leading to their escalation. How come oil thieves have escaped detection in all these years? After all, as porous as Nigeria’s borders are and as large as the country is, the Customs and the NDLEA continue to trap illegal imports and drug traffickers.

    Worse still, there is evidence of bureaucratic failure or gross ineptitude in the management of funds for foreign airlines. Or how else does one explain these airlines trapped funds, when passengers had already fully paid their airfares? Now that the present administration has effectively gone into lame duck session, it may well be up to the next administration to take necessary actions on skyrocketing domestic and international airfares.

  • Queen; ‘Uninterrupted Responsibility’ to Nigerian shareholders

    Queen; ‘Uninterrupted Responsibility’ to Nigerian shareholders

    Floods claim 92 persons in Jigawa and worse to come.

    The world, with a few political and ‘pained’ exceptions stood still these last 10 days as Elizabeth II, Queen of The United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, dead at 96 after 70 years, 214 days remarkable reign, was buried. The obsequies were truly magnificent, majestic and encompassed all imagined and real pomp and circumstance befitting the final journey of the second-longest reigning monarch after French King Louis X1V. The current clearly explained sequence of funeral events have been accompanied by a richly threaded film and photo fitted tapestry of a life well spent.  Long live King Charles III. May his reign be peaceful. Amen.

    Why does the British media report ‘Biden arrives in London’ while Nigerian media report ‘Biden arrives London’. Who stole the ‘in’ in Nigeria? Who will replace it in Mass Communication Departments?

    We are told that refineries or a refinery will be working in December 2022. Meanwhile Dangote’s Refinery, built within the lifetime of this same government is also due in December. Note that there are countries worldwide and even in Africa which have been ‘uninterrupted’ for 30-50 year with ‘Uninterrupted Electricity’, ‘Uninterrupted Education’, ‘Uninterrupted Health’, ‘Uninterrupted Political Power’ and of course ‘Uninterrupted Petroleum Refining’ taken for granted as ‘Uninterruptable Inalienable Rights’ of the citizenry and heavy ‘Uninterruptable Responsibility of Office Holders, Political and Civil Service’.

    How many times has this particular and vitally important component, self-sufficiency in petroleum products production, of our eternal calendar of financial and commercial and family survival been moved? Is it 10 times, 20 times Nigeria has faced destructive ‘Failure to Deliver’?

    Nigerians have been holding their breath since forever waiting for the Port Harcourt refinery to ‘uninterruptedly’ spit out a mere 60,000barrels of refined petroleum oil. And Nigerians should not expect cheaper than international priced products from a Dangote Refinery because Dangote is ‘renowned’ for the high cost of his cement and sugar and salt. Some say some of his products are actually cheaper in neighbouring countries than his own but who cares even if that is confirmed. So long as the shareholders of Dangote are happy, abi no be so? It is such a great and unimaginable quantity of pain to the 160+ million ‘rest of us’ the ordinary citizen shareholders of that serially failing company called Nigeria.

    Read Also: Queen’s remains interred amid eulogies

    We are a country of an inheritance of misplaced or secretly evil priorities, monopolized denied and abused opportunities and a complete leadership misunderstanding of the great national plan or else there is an unknown sectional plan-in-evolution. We are plagued by ego-driven self-aggrandizing self-service agbada/babanriga bravado manifest clearly by 40+ years of unbridled resource-sucking political houses beyond control, like an invading force, and out of touch with the reality of needlessly ‘suffering citizens’ and service and responsibility and modesty. This is compounded or led by either a devious devilish plan or severe leadership and technical incompetence and mega-greed for monetary monopoly and political power and ethnic domination.

    With these failings, mysteriously considered indispensable talents here, our authorities and many followers have spectacularly precipitated our hard won international rating to fall from a prestigious ‘gem of inestimable value’, and self-acclaimed but never earned ‘Giant of Africa’ status as the ‘largest oil producer of Africa’ rating, complete with a trio of functional refineries, respected currency and passport and citizens always hurrying ‘back home’ after even the shortest stay abroad. Today currency is worth less than a sheet of toilet roll and the green passport is not ‘Green for Go’ but almost a delayable and even an ‘arrestable office’ at many immigration entry points worldwide.

    Yes, we have slipped badly and fallen flat on our embarrassed face in that same oil. We have sunk into environmental infamy, viciously ‘legally murdering’ those who ‘spoke truth to power’ like the late great Kenule Saro Wiwa and so many living and dying babies, children, youth and adults. The unmurdered, almost merely undead, are left wallowing in oil-laced dirty polluted land, polluted water and polluted air every minute of every day and tortuously lit at night by hell-hot gas candles denying the citizenry the use of ancestral land, water and air and deprived them of fresh water, fishing security and a vegetable garden and causing disastrous environmental squalor.

    We have been historically environmentally degraded by oil companies and local oil bunkerers and are now internationally, a complete laughingstock for almost eternal inability to harness Nigeria’s gas stock and instead we flare huge quantities of our precious gas, LIKE BURNING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS DAILY, for years having ruined the lives of surrounding villagers and fishermen. Yet now, we suddenly want to accelerate the building of trans-Saharan Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline through war-torn Islamic states infested countries presumably to benefit from the international ‘gas-fightback’ against Russia’s fall from majority supplier to pariah.

    Are we thinking? Already we have refineries producing zero for billions in salaries. Nigeria is the only country which, through ‘crude oil theft’ is losing money when every oil-producing country is making money. We ‘mysteriously’ lost the $12.2b First GULF WAR OIL WINDFALL, disappeared under Babangida’s regime. We lost the Second Gulf War Oil Windfall to a corrupt frivolous, anti-saving period and poor political leadership. We are currently losing to monumental theft this Third War Oil Windfall, this time not from the Gulf but the Russian War against Ukraine.

    Can our economy, mired in debt, oil-theft and corruption be salvaged?