Category: Wednesday

We live in unusual times and in an uncomfortable space in which killers strike everyday, sending innocent souls to untimely death and creating misery and fear for their families and friends in particular, and, indeed, for Nigerians in general. As a result, farmers are afraid to go to their farms. Travellers are afraid to get on the road, on the train, or on the plane. The fear that the situation might get worse by election time is behind the clamour for modifying established constitutional requirements to sort things out.

There are two distinct groups of killers-violent killers and symbolic killers. Neither group is monolithic. One subgroup of violent killers uses weapons-guns, machetes, explosives, and other instruments of physical destruction. This subgroup is made up of those we call terrorists, bandits, gunmen, and kidnappers. When these killers operate in the North, the Nigerian press generally describes them as terrorists (especially in the Northeast) or bandits (especially in the Northwest). When a similar group operates in the South, especially in the Southeast, the press often (but not always) labels them as gunmen. These distinctions are tenuous at best. They are all terrorists. They may not be competing for territory like Boko Haram once did; but they all create fear and uncertainty across the entire population as there is no state in which one or the other of these killers has not operated.

The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect lists Nigeria as a population at serious risk. It is on the verge of another notorious title-the terrorist capital of the world. In its March 1, 2022, report, the Global Centre asserts that “increased attacks by armed groups, as well as continued attacks by Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa, leave civilians at risk of mass atrocity crimes”. Focusing on five-year data for just one killer group in one region alone, the report affirms that “more than 5,000 people were killed in the north-west by armed bandits since 2018”.

When the data were stretched back to 2009 to include Boko Haram, which launched its insurgency in that year, the Centre found that at least 35,000 people have been killed in northern Nigeria alone and at least 2.2 million people are Internally Displaced Persons in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states, all in the north-east. And these are reported cases only. One can now imagine the size of the casualties, if data were aggregated for the entire country. The casualties include traditional and religious leaders, legislators, university professors, businessmen, and schoolchildren. They have killed old and young, male and female, rich and poor, Muslims, and Christians. And they are still killing as I write.

Similarly, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the security situation in Nigeria has resulted in a humanitarian emergency, “with more than 8.7 million people requiring urgent assistance”. This includes the IDPs and others whose farms and villages were plundered.

The other subgroup of violent killers consists of explosive oil pipelines and illegal refineries. Of course, their operators do not intend to kill or maim anyone; but they engage in dangerous activities in order to make quick money. These are greedy thieves who vandalise oil pipelines to steal oil, some of which end up in illegal refineries. From time to time, this illegal business becomes a weapon that kills them and others. The most recent case occurred in an illegal refinery in Imo state, which led to over 100 deaths and severe property damage.

The second group of killers consists of symbolic killers. It is made up of politicians, civil servants, and contractors. They do not carry guns like terrorists and bandits. Their weapon is corruption, that is, the mindless misappropriation of public funds for personal gain. True, not all politicians and civil servants are corrupt. But you will have a hard time identifying saints among the present generation of public and civil servants. If they don’t steal public funds, they at least engage in wasteful spending or embark on elephant projects of little or no benefit to the citizens. Just go to Abuja and see how public funds have been used to build humongous homes, sometimes in unlikely places in the city.

Why do I regard corruption as a symbolic killer? Because it is a silent killer, often misrecognised for its invisibility. Unlike a gun, which kills instantly, corruption kills gradually over time, often through deprivation. It has killed millions of Nigerians since independence, by depriving them of needed security, education, healthcare, and infrastructural facilities that would have enabled them to live happy, healthy, and fulfilled lives. These deficits account for the short life expectancy of about 55 years for the average Nigerian today. They also account for Nigeria’s low ranking on all international indices.

It is not the case that Nigeria lacks the funds to make life more abundant for her citizens like Chief Obafemi Awolowo sought to do in the old Western Region. The problem is that even more than the amount needed to achieve this purpose has been stolen.

How do we know? In 2019, it was widely reported that between N582 billion (Chatham House) and N600 billion (The Economist) had been stolen from Nigeria since independence. Four years earlier in 2015, our own EFCC confirmed that about $20 trillion had been stolen from the treasury by those who had access to the nation’s funds between 1960 and 2005! (Vanguard, March 25, 2015).

What better examples of such people than the Accountant General of the Federation and the former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, who were arrested last week by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, for allegedly misappropriating over N80 billion and N47 billion of public funds, respectively.

It is against the above backgrounds that the plight of Nigerians today must be understood. This plight is accentuated by the current government’s debt profile, which amounts to mortgaging the future of the citizens for years to come.

It is bad enough for Nigeria to be the poverty capital of the world. It would be worse if it became the terrorism capital of the world, a notoriety it may soon acquire if the present trend remains unchecked. But for now, if you are lucky to escape the terrorist’s gun or being kidnapped and tortured, you may not escape the social and economic consequences of corruption, the silent killer.

Nigeria is a nation on trial and at no time in the nation’s history has negative evidence mounted this high, especially against the lead defendants—the federal government of President Muhammadu Buhari and the political parties, especially the one that he leads, namely, the All Progressives Congress. Fortunately, for you and me, we, the voters, are the jury, while the judges are the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Courts. The prosecutors are Civil Society Organisations, rights activists, and a team of people’s lawyers, led by Femi Falana (SAN). Judgement has been fixed for several days in February 2023.

But the road to 2023 has been very rough, with evidence mounting by the day against the lead defendants and key institutions in the land. The evidence straddles all spheres of national life, most especially security; the economy; education; and the electoral process. I will discuss these sectors but not in any particular order.

The nation’s economy is in shambles. The federal government has borrowed heavily to fund its budget and pay workers’ salaries! The states have done the same, even when many of them still owe months of workers’ salary arrears. According to the Debt Management Office, the nation’s combined external and domestic debt portfolio stood at nearly N40 trillion as of December 31, 2021.

It is said that as much as 87 percent of the nation’s revenue earnings is now spent on servicing the debt. To be sure, no nation on earth—not even the United States, reputedly the most powerful nation—is completely without debt. They all borrow. But none uses up her reserve and then borrows trillions against unforeseeable revenue like Nigeria. And only Nigeria uses as much as 87 percent of her total revenue earnings on debt servicing. Let’s hope that creditors will not laugh at us as the Speaker of our Parliament mobilises fellow Speakers on the continent to ask for debt forgiveness.

It is one thing for a nation to borrow heavily. It is another for citizens to see concrete evidence of the loans in projects that have direct impact on their lives. Although you may not have felt it directly in your area, the impact of the loans is undeniable in the infrastructure sector, especially transportation facilities, notably roadways, railroads, and airports. There is also modest growth in the local production of certain food items, such as rice. But at what cost, when inflation and commodity prices are at an all time high?

Similarly, questions remain on why there has been noticeable spike in insecurity across the country, despite repeated borrowings to enhance the nation’s security architecture. True, Boko Haram may have been decimated to a reasonable extent, but bandits and kidnappers now routinely attack schools, villages, farmlands, worship centres, roadways, railroads, and even airport tarmacs. While the Southeast has been struggling with IPOB’s stay-at-home order, a no-farming order is raging in Zamfara state in the Northwest. To complicate matters, the nation’s power grid collapses from time to time, while petrol tanker, gas, and pipeline explosions occur frequently, reflecting the poor governance model adopted by the government.

While the security sector may have been overfunded, but with poor results, the education sector is grossly underfunded. Instead of funding existing universities, the federal government has been busy establishing new ones. The federal government has been sitting on billions of Naira of education tax in UBEC and TETFund, which the managers of basic and higher education have difficulty in accessing. The deteriorating condition of nursery/primary, secondary, and tertiary education has led to the mushrooming of private institutions across the sector. University teachers have been on strike for months over funding issues, and there is no end in sight.

Given the location of educational institutions in the states, the Federal Government should have no business in education other than setting policies on standards and promoting special programmes, such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. This is the kind of education that would enable the youths to derive maximum benefit from the Technology Hubs being set up by the government. It is not enough for our youths to be consumers of tech innovations. They should be producers of such innovations, by focusing on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics education in the Technology Hubs.

The cumulative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ASUU strikes has produced the longest out-of-school experience for the youths. Lack of gainful employment and pervasive corruption in the society has pushed them to criminal activities, including recruitment into banditry and engagement in fraudulent money-making ventures. Rampant killings by bandits and kidnappers, apparently without repercussions, may have encouraged Yahoo Plus, a subset of Yahoo Boys, to turn to money rituals, involving killings of girl friends and relatives. The end result is a serious puncture in the moral fabric of society.

Unfortunately, however, federal and state governments have gone into the lame duck session. Governance is on hold as they focus on the 2023 elections. Yet, the road to the elections has been the most bizarre in the nation’s history, with political parties changing their tactics and moving deadlines as the process unfolds. The convention of rotational presidency, adopted since 1999, has come under attack. As a result, the two major political parties now have over 40 aspirants between them.

What is more, the two political parties have raised nearly N44 billion from selling nomination and expression of interest forms to the aspirants. While Civil Society Organisations were calling for a probe into the sources of these funds, the EFCC arrested the Accountant General of the Federation (that is, the administrative head of the Treasury), Ahmed Idris, in connection with the alleged diversion of funds and money laundering, involving N80 billion. There can be no better metaphor for corruption than this one.

With the nation’s Treasury now being viewed as Corruption Incorporated, observers are already wondering why the search light should not extend to the Central Bank of Nigeria, whose Governor, Godwin Emefiele, dilly-dallied on running for President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, even while still in office.

These then are the backgrounds against which the 2023 general elections will be held. The common saying during election seasons in the United States is “The economy, stupid!” In our own case, the major bane of our economy is the duo of corruption and poor governance. Effective fight against corruption will free up resources and good governance would deploy such resources judiciously. Can 2023 produce a President up to these tasks?

I had always known that town (society) had infiltrated gown (university) in various ways. What I did not know was how much of the rot from the Nigerian society our universities had imbibed. Until last week, when I found out that Vice-Chancellors’ wives are also being treated like First Ladies in their respective universities just as Governors’ wives are known as First Ladies in their respective states. The discovery led me to examine various ways in which our university Vice-Chancellors have taken after the nation’s politicians.

I do not take this comparison lightly, because I know both town and gown very well. I have spent over 50 years of my adult life within the university system. I have also been around politicians, attending meetings with them or advising them since my undergraduate days at the University of Ife in the 1960s. The group of politicians I worked with before I left the country in 1986 was markedly different from the group of politicians I encountered when I returned in 2012. Similarly, the crop of VCs I was familiar with in the 1960s through the 1980s is qualitatively different from the crop I encountered on my return. The earlier politicians and Vice Chancellors knew and upheld the sanctity of the office they held in trust for the people. Not so anymore.

Today, more than ever before, the universities are firmly in the hands of politicians, who have other priorities than education. The appendage of the universities to the political system is rooted in their sponsorship by the state and the appointment of VCs and Pro-Chancellors by politicians—the President in the case of federal universities and the Governors in the case of state universities. With a few exceptions, these are the godfathers and their social network that applicants for these positions lobby for their appointments, just as today’s politicians lobby political godfathers and their social network for their selection or election.

Over time, especially since 1999, Nigerian university VCs have imbibed and even normalised the corrupt practices and despised behaviours of politicians, forgetting that their key mission is to provide intellectual and administrative leadership to fellow academics and administrators. Like Governors, many Vice-Chancellors today ply the road in an escort with the accompaniment of police and siren. I did not encounter a VC who had a police or siren escort before I left the country in 1986.

Like Governors, who micromanage everything in their states, Vice-Chancellors insert themselves into appointments, promotions, and even the selection of their successors, leading to serious crises on their campuses. Neither premier federal nor top-rated state universities are exempt from these problems. Of course, the problems would have been much less had they followed laid down rules, regulations, and procedures. Like politicians, they flout relevant rules and regulations with impunity.

Besides, accusations of financial corruption against the VCs are rife on various campuses. Two such cases pricked the nation’s conscience in 2016, leading me to examine the cases (see Corruption in the ivory tower, The Punch, November 16, 2016). Like politicians, many current and former VCs are known today, whose children are educated abroad and who have built humongous houses and bought luxury vehicles, the like of which they never had before their appointment.

To be sure, the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) cannot be said to be an imitation of the Nigeria Governors Forum, because the former has been in existence for at least 60 years. Although it is another layer of bureaucracy, it has performed some useful role. As a matter of fact, a similar Committee has existed in Britain since 1930. What is new and undesirable about CVCNU is its acquiescence to the idea of a Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities Spouses (CVCNUS!). Since such a Committee does not exist in Britain, one can only look to the association of First Ladies of Nigerian Governors as inspiration.

Investigations revealed that CVCNUS has been around for quite some time. It only came into the limelight because of the wrong timing of two related activities planned for May and July at a time when the Academic Staff Union of Universities is on strike, specifically over inadequate funding. The May event, scheduled to be held in Nigeria in May, was only a precursor of the real event scheduled for July in Turkey. The conference fee for the Turkey “international” conference is put at N1.5 million.

The circulars announcing both events were on CVCNU’s letterhead and signed by its Secretary-General, Professor Yakubu Ochefu. The circulars did not go to individual spouses of the VCs but they were addressed directly to VCs. The lame excuse by the CVCNU’s authorities that they were targeting women in academics is nonsense. How many VCs spouses are in academics and how many of them actually work in the university?

It was not only the coincidence with ASUU’s strike that many found irritating about the scheduled events for VCs’ wives. The events have been viewed as adult versions of the controversial Chrisland School’s children trip to Dubai in March to attend a purported World School Games, which eventuated into a sex orgy for some kids. Just as questions were raised about the games, for which there were no prior competitions to prepare the kids for a world event, questions have also been asked of the CVCNU, which appears to be championing the Turkey event, what exactly is meant by “leadership and management masterclass” and “fellowship induction”?  What is even worse, I did not find any such conference in Turkey, when I searched the July listings for conferences in Turkey, including International Conference Alerts, which lists international conferences by country and month of the year. The whole idea of a conference in Turkey may even have been a ruse.

Whatever it is, resounding condemnation of the idea of a Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities Spouses is all over the place, and they have come from outstanding scholars at home and abroad, from former Vice Chancellors, and even from a former Minister of Education. It is not enough to cancel the scheduled events, CVCNUS should be disbanded immediately and it should never be revived under any guise.

Rather than deplete inadequate funds on sending VCs’ wives to an unnecessary, if not nonexistent, conference in Turkey, CVCNU should focus on raising standards, by joining ASUU in negotiating with government for adequate funds so that the universities they manage could resume the quadruple mission of teaching, learning, research, and service.

The political aphorism, “All politics is local” was popularised by Thomas P. O’Neill, the highly celebrated Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987. Although the statement is rooted in American politics, it has universal applicability. Historical, geographical, religious, and ethnic considerations dominate the “local” dimensions of Nigerian politics. More recently, demographic (“Not too young to run” and “Too old to run”) and gender considerations have also featured prominently.

In varying degrees, these considerations are at play in the ongoing presidential politics in both the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party. Power rotation between the North and the South was developed to cushion the effects of these local considerations. The historical foundation of the APC puts additional pressure on the party to respect power rotation in 2023.

In the run-up to the formation of the APC in 2013, the Action Congress of Nigeria, chaired by Chief Bisi Akande and led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was the legacy party with the biggest political clout in the merger: The ACN had as many State Governors as the other legacy political parties put together—ACN 6; ANPP 3; APGA 2; and CPC 1. With the presidential candidate coming fro CPC in 2015, in recognition of then General Muhammadu Buhari’s mass following in the North, the Vice Presidential slot went to the ACN in recognition of its political capital and contributions.

It is expected that the geography of power would swing to the Southwest in 2023 in recognition of the ACN’s firm roots in the zone and its immense contributions to APC’s successes in two consecutive presidential election cycles. This expectation was boosted by the zoning of the party chairmanship to the North. This was expected to pave the way for the presidential candidate to come from the South, particularly the Southwest, the bastion of the APC in the three Southern states.

But a different scenario seems to be playing out now. The Hausa-Fulani dominated North, which has been in control of government for about seven years and the party machinery for nearly two years, is vacillating on zoning. As recently as last Friday, April 29, 2022, the party Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, insisted that the party had yet to decide on which of the six zones would produce the party’s presidential candidate for 2023. To be sure, his statement did not rule out zoning the position to the South. What appears to be in doubt is whether it would be zoned to the Southwest.

This doubt is fueled by three significant developments. One is the reported courting of former President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP by some leaders of the APC, who were looking for a Southern candidate that would do only one term so the position could quickly rotate to the North. Another variation of this development is the reported pressure on the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to run for President under the APC banner. Neither man is from the Southwest.

While the above development still has the undertone of zoning the presidency to the South, the other two developments are totally against zoning. In an interview granted to the BBC Hausa Service on July 28, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew, Malam Mamman Daura, outrightly jettisoned zoning, by arguing that the position of President “should be for the most competent and not for someone who comes from somewhere”.

Now, fast forward to the recent position of the Northern Elders Forum, which advocates open contest for the presidential ticket rather than zoning it to a particular part of the country. According to the Forum’s convener, Professor Ango Abdullahi as recently as Thursday, April 28, 2022, “The issue of zoning or power shift is dead and buried. Candidates should be allowed to contest election on the basis of merit or their competence and not where they come from”. There is an unmistakable similarity to Daura’s position nearly two years earlier.

There is yet another contributory factor to APC’s vacillation on zoning. There are reports that the party may follow the PDP in throwing its presidential ticket open for contest across the country or wait for the outcome of the PDP’s presidential primary before deciding on its own zoning formula! It is speculated that the APC may decide to zone its own presidential ticket to the North if the PDP eventually picks a Northern candidate.

It is better to assume that none of the above positions reflects the official position of the APC party leadership except the statement by Chairman Adamu that an official position on zoning has yet to be taken. Even at that, the party has not lived to expectation. Respect for party members and the Nigerian electorate requires that decisions regarding the presidential ticket be timely, firm, and just.

Why was it easy for the party leadership to decide on a N100 million nomination fee but could not at the same time decide on zoning the presidential ticket, even after party positions had been zoned at the convention? Why would the party leadership discountenance the call by Southern Governors in both political parties for zoning the presidential ticket to the South? Why would the party leadership give the impression that it is about to betray the South in general and the Southwest in particular, by reneging on the established understanding of power rotation? Does the leadership of the APC ever realise that trampling on equity, justice, and fair-play could lead the party to lose the presidential election? This is a case in which a stitch in time could save nine.

To complicate matters for the APC in the Southwest, what seemed to be the ideal of presenting only one presidential aspirant from the zone has been breached. After one aspirant traversed the zone and consulted throughout the country for three months, three more aspirants from the same zone have indicated interest in the APC presidential ticket. One has so declared, while other two plan to do so in a day or two. Could the intention of these late entrants be to spoil the chances of the front runner, by splitting delegate votes?

The answer to this question is neither here no there, because it is the right of every frontline politician to aspire to be President. However, such selfish interest should be seriously weighed against the overall interest of the Southwest. This is where party leaders should be alive to their gate-keeping role in the choice of a presidential candidate.