The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • The Tinubu administration at mid-term (1)

    The Tinubu administration at mid-term (1)

    It’s hard to believe that two years have gone by since that heady day at Eagle Square, Abuja, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu casually declared ‘subsidy is gone!’ It was a statement that set off reverberations across the country; changing life as we knew it for many Nigerians.

    He had promised to take tough decisions to reset the economy and put it on the path to recovery and enduring prosperity. Well, this was as bold as they came! It’s wasn’t for nothing that his predecessors skirted the issue, waiting for the next person to act.

    Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, once spoke of how he and like minds made the case for removal of petrol subsidy to then President Muhammadu Buhari. He would listen patiently as they made their presentation, nod sagely as statistics laid bare how the country was bleeding to death financially. Still, he did nothing about the killer.

    Every administration that tried to terminate the subsidies faced confrontation from labour unions, opposition parties and civil society groups. The average man had come to believe that low-priced petrol was the only way the government was impacting his life. He didn’t care who was paying for the commodity to stay cheap. Taking that away was the most unpopular thing any administration could do. They all chickened away at the first sight of political trouble.

    Petrol price in Nigeria as at May 29, 2023 was N198 per litre but would jump to over N500 within days of the removal of subsidies. It would then breach the N1, 000 mark in 2024.  This action, along with the unification of multiple naira exchange rates, set off a wild inflationary spiral – the likes of which had not been witnessed for decades.

    Many ordinary people could not make sense of the harsh new realities of life. No amount of explanation by officialdom could assuage their pain because someone somewhere in the past had chosen to sustain their false life, paid for with borrowed money.

    Read Also: Wike declare 19 days of project commissioning for Tinubu’s second anniversary

    Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, who used to the Central Bank Governor, captured the situation of the country in 2023 this way: “This particular government inherited a dead economy from a microeconomic point of view; this government inherited a dead horse that was seen standing but people didn’t know that it was dead. I think it’s important for Nigerians to understand this.”

    He was talking about how the country maintained a fuel subsidy regime that gulped $84.39 billion between 2005 and 2022. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which was the sole importer of petrol, had piled up trillions of naira in debts from carrying the payments in its books.

    The nation was spending 97 per cent of its revenue servicing debt, with little left for recurrent or capital expenditure. The previous government had resorted to massive borrowing to cover such costs. Today, that ratio is now in the region of 65%.

    To ensure Nigerians continued to enjoy cheap naira, the exchange rate was also being subsidised by the government, with an estimated $1.5 billion spent monthly by the CBN to ‘defend’ the currency.

    But this policy led to the abuse of the arbitrage gap, with thousands of BDCs and corrupt public officials feasting on the multiple exchange rates. The power of CBN officials grew as they flexed their muscles in allocating scarce forex to those they chose to. Nigeria was soon failing to fulfil its remittance obligations to airlines and other foreign businesses, such that FDIs and investment in the oil sector dried up.

    To address the crisis, the government resorted to floatation of the naira – a move that saw the currency almost breaching the N2, 000 to the dollar barrier. Today, rates have stabilised to a little south of N1, 600. This is still a world removed from the artificial rate of N460 circa May 29, 2023.

    To say the first year of the Tinubu administration was tumultuous would be an understatement. The new president was not afforded the customary honeymoon – a period where every sin was easily overlooked. From day one he was in the eye of the storm, fending off attacks from the unions and others enraged by the removal of subsidy. Barely a month in the government was already facing threats of nationwide strikes.

    Many battled to feed as outrageous prices kept food out of their reach. Official response was to address the stopgap with a slew of palliative measures while hoping short term initiatives would quickly take effect.

    Such was the gravity of the economic challenges in that initial period that the government searched frantically for hope in every new positive economic data. It was hard to imagine that some form of stability could be achieved within four years, such that Tinubu could look voters in the face and say give me another term to finish the job of reshaping the economy.

    That’s why, in grading his performance as president, any honest assessor must admit that the storms of the first 12 months have, to a large extent, been stilled. Certain benefits may not have reached the most vulnerable in society, yet there’s no denying that progress is being made.

    History will forever record the incumbent as the man who slew the fuel subsidy sacred cow and buried it. This was thought to be an impossible task. Even in the face of intense political pressure and harsh criticism he refused to return to the status quo. Now, the benefits are beginning to show.

    Federal and state governments now have more money at their disposal to spend on infrastructure and other programmes. It was recently revealed that public debt had dropped from $113 billion in 2023 to $94.2 billion currently after the central government paid $19.2 billion. States have been able to clear N185 trillion which they owed.

    There was even better news from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) showing that Nigeria had cleared her legacy debts. All these things have been made possible with money which would have been frittered away, but is now available to clear the overhang.

    It may look like an intangible, but one of the great achievements of Tinubu in his time in office is changing the mindset of people. Gradually, they are shedding the entitlement mentality that assumes that because we produce crude oil refined petrol has to be sold at giveaway prices. Nigerians are adjusting to paying the appropriate price for the commodity and embracing the reality that market forces would determine pricing. That is totally different from a time not too long ago when some anonymous government official would fix prices arbitrarily.

    In other positive news, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, disclosed that the economy has witnessed four consecutive quarters of growth, exchange rate stability, and resurgence in private sector confidence.

    Central Bank Governor, Yemi Cardoso, equally boasts that after a period of turbulence, the economy has stabilised. “Investors don’t go where there is instability. Investors don’t go out to lose money, they go out to invest because of the stability in an economy, and they can plan,” he said.

    “We obviously have been through a long period of instability, and I think that clearly what is being recognised is that the Nigerian economy is now stable and there is interest in those who want to invest, to now invest.” 

    While these statistics may be cheery for the president and his team, his greatest challenge now lies is seeing how the ordinary man can testify of stability and improvement in his own economy. There’s so much that’s been done that’s still not trickling down to the weakest in the population.

    That’s something he must address as he enters the critical third year of his presidency.

  • The 2025 JAMB technical glitch

    The 2025 JAMB technical glitch

    It was as if that was what detractors had been waiting for—the server glitch that affected the results of a small fraction of the 2025 UTME candidates, specifically in CBT centres in Lagos and Southeast states. The detractors included ethnic jingoists, cheaters, unreflective critics, and university autonomy advocates.

    The criticisms came pouring in as soon as the results were released, showing a high failure rate in which nearly 78 percent of the candidates scored below the 50 percentile mark of 200 out of a total of 400 possible marks. It must be JAMB’s fault, they proclaimed. No one wanted to admit that JAMB had succeeded in cutting down on exam malpractices, by setting up CCTV cameras in CBT centres, by establishing various malpractice detection methods, and, above all, by eliminating so-called Miracle Centres, where standard exam protocols were suspended for a fee.

    Moreover, critics overlooked the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on educational outcome: The majority of the UTME candidates this year were the high school students in JSS1 in September 2019, who missed school for two or more years because of the pandemic. The rough patches of their foundation years in secondary school could not but take a toll on their performance down the line.

    The fierce debate over performance led to the revelation of a computer glitch, which affected about 380,000 out of a total of 1,955,069 candidates, who sat for the examinations. 206,610 of the affected candidates wrote their exams in Lagos, while the remaining 173,397 wrote theirs across the five states of the Southeast. At the height of the outcry against mediocre performance, JAMB Registrar, Professor Is’ahq Oloyede, quickly advanced JAMB’s usual post-test review, detected the error, and summoned a press conference to reveal the findings. In the process. Oloyede took responsibility, apologised, and even chocked on the apology. Besides, he offered immediate remedies, including the retake of the exams by the affected candidates.

    Regrettably, some critics still lost their bearing completely. Some professors, legislators, and armchair pundits from the Southeast ethnicised the problem, by claiming that the Yoruba Registrar, was motivated by ethnic considerations. A Professor specifically claimed that the Igbo in the Southeast and Lagos were the target of his mischief.

    A respected columnist ignored Oloyede’s apology, by claiming that Oloyede had put the blame on God. The columnist merely parsed the title of JAMB’s post on X, which reads “Man proposes, God disposes.” It was an unfortunate heading because it is subject to variable interpretations. The said columnist opted for the literal meaning. However, as an English proverb, it basically means that even the best-laid plans can fail.

    Read Also: EFCC hands over 753 housing units seized from ex-CBN Gov to ministry

    In this particular case, Oloyede went to great lengths in explaining how human error, not God, caused the glitch: “A major operational flaw was uncovered during the implementation phase (of changes introduced to promote system efficiency). The system patch necessary to support both shuffling and source-based validation … was not applied to the LAG (Lagos) cluster, which services centres in Lagos and the South-East … As a result, 157 centres operated using outdated server logic that could not appropriately handle the new answer submission/marking structure. This affected an estimated 379,997 candidates.”

    Ethnic sympathisers are not the only ones who ignored Oloyede’s explanations. There are also university autonomy advocates, who argued that JAMB should be scrapped to give way for the University Senate to conduct admission examinations through their admissions offices and admit students who meet their criteria. Their central argument is that universities are stifled by the Big-Brother role of JAMB on admissions and the NUC on curriculum, admissions quota, and even teaching qualifications.

    I chorused such arguments until my post-retirement stint as Program Director or member of Governing Councils in some universities. The level of decadence I observed is unprintable. Suffice it to say that the level of corruption and the erosion of values I noticed within the universities led me to wonder what would happen to higher education in the country, without the oversight functions of the NUC and JAMB. Rather than scrap either or both, the focus should be on further streamlining their functions in order to enhance the role of University Senates and their respective admission offices. Moreover, membership of University Governing Councils should be less politicised so that their members could exercise effective control over the University Management.

    Operators of Miracle Centers also jumped on the bandwagon of JAMB critics. The JAMB computer glitch offered a golden opportunity for criticising the institution that has all but eliminated their source of income. It was once reported that Miracle Centers charged as high as N200,00 per candidate for the UTME. Incidentally, those Miracle Centres were said to be rampant in the Southeast at the time when some states there produced among JAMB highest scorers.

    Ardent critics of JAMB also included some parents, especially those who patronised Miracle Centres, bribed invigilators, employed exam takers, or besieged admission offices on behalf of their children. To be sure, some of them had genuine complaints this time around, but many joined the bandwagon of critics for selfish reasons.

    The real problem is that this year’s JAMB computer glitch may have sowed the seed of distrust that may erode confidence in JAMB’s work as in other government institutions. Nevertheless, those who may be thinking along such lines should pause to reflect on two major developments. First, it should be recalled that Oloyede brought significant technological improvements to JAMB’s operations, expanded its physical infrastructure, and imbued the organisation with uncommon culture of transparency, accountability, and effective service delivery. Above all, under his leadership, JAMB had remitted nearly N60 billion to federal government coffers as against a paltry N55 million in the 40 years before Oleyede came on board.

    The second development has to do with computer technology. Who among us has not experienced a glitch or two on our computer, printer, tablet, or phone? Hasn’t your phone or an App frozen on you before? If a glitch could occur on an individual’s mobile phone, imagine the ripple effects of a glitch on a network of computers on a large scale.

    Such was the case with this year’s SAT exam, taken across the globe. On March 8, 2025, a glitch in the Blue-book App used to keep time, among other services, caused the digital SAT to automatically submit tests early. An incorrect setting in the software caused the glitch, leading to the submission of tests at 11:00am local time, regardless of whether students had finished. The error made its way across the globe. The College Board, which administers the exams, responded promptly, by offering students a full refund and a voucher to retake the exam in as early as two weeks.

    A similar fiasco befell Chinese students in 2023, when their computer screen abruptly froze on them while taking the Advanced Placement examinations. On detecting the error, the authorities organised a makeup exam for those affected by the glitch.

    In both cases, no one politicised the error and no one asked for anyone’s head. Everyone understood that computer glitches could occur anywhere and at anytime. Oloyede’s JAMB acted in line with international best practices. He should be commended, rather than condemned.

  • JAMB lessons; Emefiele’s forfeited estate

    JAMB lessons; Emefiele’s forfeited estate

    The poor showing in JAMB-2025 is another tragic signpost demonstrating the difficulties on the very tortuous road to providing a better education environment for our youth. With so many not getting the marks they require, we have created another army of undereducated youth to add to the 18m Out-Of-School Youth already out there.

    Youth require to be coaxed, led, forced and directed towards acquiring an education they often resent. Our youth cannot be expected to educate themselves. No matter how eager they are, they need massive educational support on the journey. But judging from the lack of content, and poor infrastructure in most of our schools, our youth are required to contribute far too much of themselves to cover up for the gaps in equipment and professional skill.

    A picture is worth 1000 words, except in Nigerian Classrooms, which are almost as if as a policy, are not supplied with pictures, posters, maps et cetera -the standard ‘wall decorations’ in all advanced country school walls. In Nigeria, would you believe, teachers are not allowed to ask students to bring anything to school for fear that an opposition political party will claim the government failed to provide adequately for the students.  Abroad, students are asked to bring books, magazines, newspapers from which articles and pictures may be extracted as educational aids mounted in the walls.

    Youth need dedicated well-paid, well-motivated, well-equipped, modern technique equipped teachers teaching in an encouraging atmosphere -A TEACHER AND STUDENT FRIENDLY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING SANITATION AND TOILET FACILITIES.

    We must never get tired of suggesting and offering improvements in the learning environment. This most recent JAMB2025 is a huge wake-up call to the huge task of achieving AN URGENT 2025 EDUCATION UPGRADE.

    Every day’s delay will add to the failure rate. The yardstick of success in schools and education is a simple one – passing examinations. If the students do not pass the examination, the preparation for the examination system has failed them and the components of the system need to be overhauled, re-examined and upgraded.  If not, the failure rate will be an annual recurring figure.  That figure, more than one million, is actually one million youth with dashed hopes.

    Read Also: Nigeria recorded 75,000 maternal deaths in 2023, says MRHC

    It must be pointed out that JAMB authorities have done a good job in fighting the cheaters who used mercenaries and other cheating methods like ‘miracle centres.’ But just like the fight INEC has against violence and corruption in elections, corrupt parents and teachers and students fight back.     

    The percentage of classrooms and toilets and laboratories and libraries in schools that are fit for the use of our Fellow Nigerian Youth is very small. It is not expensive to render a good environment for our youth. All over the country, and especially in Lagos, we see thousands of street urchins and older youth, some sent by their parents and others by gang leaders to beg, or steal in broad daylight at street corners and in traffic jams. The JAMB results have no effect on those Out-Of-School youth. But ask yourself how that street urchin trying to clean your windscreen in today’s traffic jam would have done if he or she had been given the opportunity to go to school. No one will know until and unless those youth are sent to school.

     The final forfeiture of the 753 duplex or 1506-unit massive estate in Abuja linked with Emefiele, the disgraced CBN Governor, to the Federal Government, raises several issues. The effrontery of the accused to even try to claim legal ownership is mind-blowing. Congratulations to EFCC on this fantastic achievement which has given 1506 accommodation units to the Government. The battle will now be how to finish the construction of the estate and how to manage it when it is finished. Government is not a good manager of such estates. Will the estate be sold in toto or will part of it be sold to raise funds to complete the remaining houses? Who or which organisations will the houses be allocated too?

     Please try and find out exactly where Emefiele actually got the funds from to carry out this huge megalomaniacal egocentric project. If it was stolen from an international loan or grant, then the funds raised should be used to pay back the loan. It is certainly money from somewhere. Was it a massive bribe? If so, please release the details of the bribe, and which contract was inflated, and which contract it was deducted from, so that it can be refunded to the project.

    We do know that Government officials and political appointees tend to be too greedy, and it is likely that they are already lining up to stake a claim to one or more of the houses. We are so used to never hearing about the fate of forfeited property and funds once the court case is over, that Nigerians will soon lose interest in the matter.

    However, Nigerians need to be informed of every stage of the fate of this estate. There is a need for office space and also residences. Beyond the needs of civil servants and Ministries, Agencies and Departments, MAD, Sports, the Mentally and Physically Challenged and NGOs are also in need of assistance and office and subsidised accommodation. Let the 1506 apartments go round, by lottery, if necessary, to fulfil the needs of the needy, not the politically greedy.          

  • What exactly does Pat Utomi want?

    What exactly does Pat Utomi want?

    Patrick Okedinachi Utomi, popularly known as Pat Utomi, is a professed intellectual, who has been walking the corridors of power and business since his twenties. Born in 1956, he was drafted into politics early to serve in the Shehu Shagari administration (1979-1983). He would later serve in the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Along the line, he also served on the management or Boards of various companies, beginning with the defunct Volkswagen of Nigeria Limited, where he was Assistant General Manager of Corporate Affairs. He was not even 30 yet.

    Now at almost 70, he cannot imagine himself far from either corridor, especially the political corridor to which he has turned maximum attention in the last 20 years or so. No one doubts that Utomi wants the best for Nigeria. However, genuine intellectuals often cringe when they find him inserting himself in discussions about power and even seeking political power for himself. It makes observers think that the best he wants for Nigeria is to create room for himself or his associates in power.

    This is one of several reasons why the criticism of his newfound approach to speaking truth to power has been vociferous. Of course, the power he wants to criticize is the one held by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, who defeated the candidate of Utomi’s party, the Labour Party, in the 2023 presidential election. Nothing, of course, is wrong with the Labour Party, and other opposition parties, criticizing the government in power.

    But there is something wrong with Utomi’s novel approach. Noticing that LP, his latest political party, was crumbling, he chose to go beyond it, instead of helping to rebuild it. Observers quickly read through him and concluded that such a use-and-dump approach is consistent with Utomi’s political trajectory—the tendency to run away from a political party that does not, or may not, favour him anymore.

    Read Also: Shettima to IsDB: Nigeria is ripe for investment 

    Utomi’s political trajectory speaks volume in this regard. In 2007, he was the candidate of the African Democratic Party for President. He lost. In the following election in 2011, Utomi had moved to join another party, the Social Democratic Mega Party, and was adopted as its presidential candidate. He lost in the general election and the SDMP died with that election. Sensing that the presidency might not be his lot soon, he veered to the governorship. So, in 2019, he joined the APC and obtained the governorship ticket of a faction of the party in Delta state. Eventually, that faction was discredited.

    Back to the presidency again. In 2021, in preparation for the 2023 presidential election, Utomi joined with others in seeking to form yet another mega party. At the end of the day, however, he joined a fourth political party, the Labour Party, to contest for its presidential ticket. He claimed he stepped down for Peter Obi during the primary. He would later join him in the campaigns. Now that the Labour Party is in turmoil, Utomi sensed that it may no longer be an appropriate vehicle for him to criticize the President. He needs a clean slate!

    Now you might ask: What alternative golden ideas just occurred to Utomi on the eve of President Tinubu’s midterm mark, when the political tempo has been rising toward the 2027 presidential election? There’s nothing bad, of course, in criticizing an administration at anytime. What is rather strange about Utomi’s plan is the process. He began in April with what he termed “Freedom Converge”, a mobilised group of 7.2 million Nigerians to converge on Abuja to reclaim the country from “entrenched systems of state capture and self-serving leadership”. The protest, he emphasized, will last nearly one month. And here’s a real threat: “If they try to stop us, somebody may stop them. Let them be sure of that.”

    But before the planned protest, another idea. Within three weeks of announcing Freedom Converge, Utomi launched the “Big Tent Coalition Shadow Government” as a “national emergency response” to President Tinubu’s policy failures. The group, drawn from various opposition parties, would meet every week to deliberate on policy failures in every sector of national life and propose alternatives. All well and good. But why Shadow Government in a presidential system? Even in parliamentary democracies, where the concept of shadow cabinet belongs, members of such a cabinet hold elected political positions in their party, but their party is not in government. No matter your status in the opposition party, you cannot belong to the shadow cabinet unless you have been elected. Any shadow cabinet or shadow government beyond this established norm is viewed as subversive.

    Of what use is a name that raises eyebrows which may obscure whatever good intentions may be behind the formation of Utomi’s group? Developments like this one that make many a professor cringe at Utomi’s actions and pronouncements.

    Some fellow professors have argued that Utomi really has little or nothing to offer beyond drawing attention to himself. When I argued otherwise, they directed me to his old columns and TV programme, named Patito’s Gang. Before he made his point in his columns, he would take you to the latest country he visited, the latest political figure he met, his most recent conference at a topflight university, or the most recent book he read! A similar tactic pervaded Patito’s Gang, his defunct TV programme.

    While these media outings may brand him as a public intellectual, his political participations betray his intellectual disposition. An elder statesman once asked me, “How many true professors can you name who jumped from one political party to another three or four times in search of a presidential or governorship ticket? What’s the difference between Utomi and Atiku Abubakar in that respect?”

    These are questions that raise other questions: What exactly does Utomi want? He alone can answer that question.

    As I indicated last week, no political noise should be ignored as election time approaches. Some noises are full of sound and fury but they signify nothing. Other noises are symbolic in that they stand for something else. In politics, neither type of noise should be ignored. In particular, Pat Utomi’s political noise should not be ignored because it is more than noise.

  • The ECOWAS education question: CSR (2)

    The ECOWAS education question: CSR (2)

    INVEST IN THE YOUTH AND WATCH YOUR DIVIDEND GROW!

    More GOVERNMENT BUDGETARY MONEY and MORE CSR by Corporate ECOWAS is required for uplifting primary education – to give a rock-solid foundation. Do not wait till secondary school. A rocky primary school leads to high poor quality dropout rates and poor-quality students seeking secondary school admission. We need primary school Robotics, AI, IT, good practical agricultural education.      

    THE BILLBOARD MANIA PARADOX: Our corporate bodies erect ‘international standard’ hugely expensive mega-billboards often with pictures of footballs and admired footballers paradoxically contrasting with neglected neighbouring braindead schools, requiring corporate petty cash for FOOTBALLS and books to change their educational trajectory. It is a corporate no-brainer Advertising Strategy Course 101 that for every N20-50m billboard, N2-5m must be spent in donating ‘with fanfare’ 1000 branded balls (foot, basket etc.) and 1000 library books to schools in the dark shadow of the billboards which shamefully have NEVER had a real football from the usual suspects- government, corporates, PTAs or Old School Associations.

    To DISCOVER INNER TALENT youth must have access, NOT TO BILLBOARDS, but to balls, paper, paintbrushes, musical instruments, the science lab today. Can we demand a BILLBOARD TAX FOR SCHOOL EQUIPMENT? The 1,000 footballs would give publicity, improved mental health, opportunities to shine and meet others as an anti-drugs and anti-cult strategy.

    IN ECOWAS CSR SHOULD BE ELEVATED TO AN AWARD-WINNING ANNUAL CEREMONY/COMPETITION FOR NOBLE CAUSES and not a HQ media frenzy, gimmick event, to steal, trickling through a waste pipe tap. CSR should cascade far beyond the HQ like a shower reaching everywhere through branches, distributors, employees, customers, contacts, old schools, neighbourhoods & customers’ families and communities.

    IN THE ECOWAS THE CSR REPORT MUST BE UPGRADED, SUBMITTED, EXAMINED AND GRADED DURING ANY CORPORATE/GOVERNMENT CONTACT/SHORTLISTING/CONTRACT AWARDING PROCEDURE.

    It is May. IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS there will be THE ANNUAL MOCK Exam. The MOCK indigent failures, without funds for private teachers, usually fail WASC or NECO. We require a standardised system in which GOOD MOTIVATED teachers teach the indigent students POST MOCK as well. IN EDUCARE TRUST we achieved a 60 percent PASS RATE FROM SUCH A SCHEME FOR 160 STUDENTS. Most of our ECOWAS youth require a little help to avoid failure. Empower the education workforce and improve the environment -posters, books, sanitation, toilets and running water. A school’s 300 students and teachers will visit TOILETS 3-900 times a day. Remember that please when you are thinking about CSR. 

    ECOWAS School Curricula need to include material taught by NGOs – CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES   

    TO REALLY HELP, The ECOWAS Chambers of Commerce and Industries must AS A POLICY EXPAND CSR COMPLIANCE AS AN ANNUAL RE-REGISTRATION REQUIREMENT WITH PRIZES & should police its own.

    SPREAD THE CSR SCRUTINY TO ALL PROFESSIONAL GROUPS AND CONSULTANCIES INCLUDING ENGINEERING, IT/AI, LEGAL, ACCOUNTANCY, MEDICAL.

    THE CSR REPORT SHOULD BE SUBMITTED AND EXAMINED DURING ANY PARTNERSHIPS CONTRACT AWARDING PROCEDURE EVEN WHEN TAKING ON AN AUDIT, ACCOUNTING AND LEGAL TEAM.

    Read Also: ECOWAS Court to member states: bring justice closer to people

    EDUCARE TRUST WAS BEGUN TO INSERT CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ESPECIALLY THROUGH SOCIAL MESSAGING in public schools. TODAY CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES are key to IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS BUT THEY RARELY GO AROUND. When you think of currency, please think of children. Corporate petty cash changes the lives of nearby children. Think stocks and shares, also THINK PROVIDING YOUTH EMPOWERMENT SERVICES. Thirty years ago, we started THE ET HOLIDAY SCHOOL -HOLISCHOOL -to occupy the youth, physically and mentally, during holidays in co-curricular and CURRICULAR progress. At our prompting and to the credit of Educare Trust, now, EVERY PRIVATE SCHOOL RUNS A HOLISCHOOL PROGRAMME. Great, BUT GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS DO NOT RUN SUCH PROGRAMMES. WHO LOSES? THE POOR ECOWAS STUDENT.

    WHY ARE WE SHOOTING OUR YOUTH IN THE BRAIN, DESTROYING OUR FUTURE?

     ECOWAS may obtain Commerce and Industry Achievements, overcome challenges to business success but if the youth are under-equipped there will be no successful future, only frustration, insecurity and violence. Education is not a guarantee for development or an inoculation against corruption but it is a better stepping stone, than ignorance, towards Peace & Security.

    The Youth Question is an explosive but surmountable Challenge requiring Solutions like increased Government budgetary and Private Sector CSR input. ECOWAS will lose if it mismanages this Opportunity and Responsibility to lay the foundation for future Peace and Security, prerequisites for economic development.

    Our ECOWAS youth, for REGIONAL INTEGRATION need INCREASED EDUCATION BUDGETS AND CLEAR 2025 CSR GUIDELINES ACROSS ECOWAS NOW, FOR A BRIGHTER TOMORROW.          

    ASK THE MODIFIED JF KENNEDY QUESTION

    ASK NOT WHAT THE YOUTH, POTENTIAL CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS, CAN DO FOR YOUR COMPANY NOW, BUT… WHAT YOU CAN DO, WITH CSR, TO KEEP THEM ALIVE, LIVING LONGER TO BENEFIT YOUR COMPANY LONGER BY BUYING YOUR PRODUCTS LONGER?

    THE YOUTH EDUCATION QUESTION —SUMMARY:

    NONPOLITICISED YOUTH CENTRES IN EVERY POLITICAL UNIT

    IMPROVE PRIMARY SCHOOLS WITH OLD STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATIONS

    EXPAND & ELEVATE PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION CONTENT

    INCREASE EDUCATION BUDGETS AND CSR CAPTURE

    Aim for AN OPTIMUM STANDARD TEACHER AND STUDENT FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT

    DISBURSE CSR TO THE PERIPHERY –WIDELY

    SCHOOL NEEDS LIST –ANNUAL

    BALANCE DIRECT CSR vs BILLBOARD COSTS

    FUND TEACHERS FOR INDIGENT STUDENT POST-MOCK EXAM INTENSIVE COACHING

    THE CSR REPORT MUST BE ASSESSED FOR PARTNERSHIPS/CONTACTS/CONTRACTS/SERVICE PROVIDERS

    INCLUDE SERVICE PROFESSIONALS IN CSR ASSESSMENTS

    FINALLY, PLS TAKE AND TEACH AT EVERY BUSINESS MEETING AS A YOUTH DEVELOPMENT/ANTI-EXPLOITATIVE STRATEGY: ‘INVEST IN THE YOUTH AND WATCH YOUR DIVIDEND GROW’

  • Atiku’s unfulfilled Nunc Dimittis

    Atiku’s unfulfilled Nunc Dimittis

    The original Nunc Dimittis were the opening words of a canticle or song, credited to Simeon, a Jew, who had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. Faithful Simeon was there when the baby Jesus was presented to the Temple in Jerusalem for the ceremony of redemption of the firstborn son. He took Jesus in his hands and uttered the words now famously recognised as the Nunc Dimittis. As recorded in the Vulgate Bible in Luke Chapter 2, verses 29-32, Simeon, fulfilled that he had seen the Messiah, is reported as saying, “Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum.” This roughly translates to “Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace, just as you promised.”

    Simeon’s case provides only a partial analogy to Atiku’s. Like Simeon, Atiku may have been promised by his Marabout or Spiritual Leader that he will not die until he has become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The problem with Atiku is that he may never become President, because, unlike Simeon, who consistently stayed with the same Temple to which baby Jesus was presented, Atiku did not stay loyal to the same temple of politics. He has been moving from one political party to the other so much so that the spiritual promise could not shift with him.

    In less than 20 years, from 2007 to date, Atiku had moved from PDP to AC (2007-2011); back to PDP (2011-2014); then to APC (2014-2019); and finally, to PDP. Each move was motivated by a run for President. Whenever he failed with one party, either in the primary or in the general election, he moved to another. Starting from 1992 to date, Atiku had run unsuccessfully for President six times. He failed three times in the primaries and three times in the general elections.

    Atiku’s desperation to validate the promise of his Spiritual Leader led him to go to any length, including far away Chicago State University in the United States, fishing for evidence to disqualify Tinubu, the same Tinubu, who gave Atiku his own party’s ticket to run for President in 2007!

    Not satisfied with his sixth failure in 2023, Atiku is at it again. He is building a coalition he hopes to ride to victory in his seventh attempt, when he will be 81 years old. If he is so blinded by ambition that he cannot reflect on why he failed six previous times, aren’t there people around him who could do so for him?

    Well, let me offer some insight. Atiku seems to lack the ability to build and keep a coalition as well as the ability to nurture supporters and followers, who could be loyal to him. After the 2023 presidential election, Atiku’s political shortcomings led me to invoke Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, by showing how President Bola Ahmed Tinubu attained power by building and keeping a coalition of loyalists and supporters over several years (see How to become President of Nigeria, The Nation, March 8, 2023).

    The problem with Atiku is that he never stayed long enough with any political party to build a coalition, nor could he keep one that he met on ground. In 2014 or so, he aligned with a group of PDP Governors and career politicians to join the coalition of various political parties in the newly formed APC. Once he failed in the party primary in 2015, he ran away, only to resurface in 2019 as candidate of the PDP with Peter Obi as his running mate. By 2022, Peter Obi and his supporters had left Atiku, who could not even keep a coalition of PDP Governors that Nyesone Wike, former Governor of Rivers State, had built for the PDP. The prolonged disagreement between them and Atiku led to a rebellion of the G5 Governors against Atiku. In the same 2023 presidential election, Atiku and Obi ran against each other, and together against Tinubu. They both lost to Tinubu. Not a few thought that both would have been formidable had they run as a team against Tinubu in that election. Atikun’s political misfortune was more than electoral loss. His major spokespersons left him after the election to work for the APC in separate roles.

    Read Also: Okowa: I regret accepting to run with Atiku in 2023

    Having belatedly learned about the usefulness of a coalition in the attainment of power, Atiku is now trying to build one. However, a political coalition built in emergency is like a house built with snowflakes. It melts and crumbles at the slightest increase in temperature or wind. But Atiku’s coalition seems to be crumbling from the very foundation. PDP Governors have come out to disavow the coalition.

    Former Governor Nasir el-Rufai, a former Tinubu electoral ally, who recently became an Atiku ally, has moved on to join the SDP. But, on their part, SDP leaders have told him and others who might contemplate joining their party that no one could come to lord it over them: “Look, you guys who are coming newly should study our ideology, don’t try to impose anything on us. We don’t need anything from you, just join the party and start behaving well … if you plan something out there on how to wrest power, don’t come here.”

    Obi on his own is building a coalition of Obidients at home and abroad. He recently launched an online registration portal and identity cards for members of his Obidient Movement at home and in the Diaspora. Perhaps to show the spatial dimension of his appeal, each member would have the country of residence on the identity card.

    Since it is fast becoming a season of coalitions, the New Nigeria People’s Party is also trying to forge a coalition with the African Democratic Congress. Other small political parties are making their own move too.

    But Tinubu, the Master Builder of coalitions, has not been idle. He and his party, the APC have been busy receiving defectors into their party. Ignoring talks of coalition by opposition political parties, some are crying wolf over defections to the APC. The wolf cry reached a crescendo when the entire Delta State PDP structure—government, party, and all—defected to the APC along with the immediate past Governor of the state. APC is turning Nigeria into a one-party state, they cried. But have they forgotten so quickly that APC itself was built from the coalition of various political parties and that some members, including Atiku himself, defected from the PDP to join them? In any case, which political party do the wolf criers know that rejects defectors?

    These political maneuvers are indications of the politics of power grabbing, rather than of ideological realignment. In the politics of power, no movement should be ignored. Who knows, for example, whether, behind the scenes, the forces that seem to have gone their separate ways have been meeting, or may meet, to forge an alliance? This is the more reason Tinubu, too, should continue to broaden his alliances. That is the path he rode to power. There is no need to abandon it now.

    As for Atiku, he may never become President. As a result, he may be unable to utter the like of Simeon’s canticle, because the sacred promise of his Spiritual Leader may be unfulfilled.

  • Revisiting Adamolekun’s Reflections on Governance

    Revisiting Adamolekun’s Reflections on Governance

    It is noteworthy that Professor Ladipo Adamolekun’s latest book, Reflections on Governance and Development in Nigeria, was launched last Thursday, April 23, 2025, not before a motley crowd of politicians and businessmen, but only before a select group of academics from various disciplines and journalists from major newspapers. It was not a traditional Nigerian book launch, where a copy would sell for a billion times its cost and maybe two billion times its worth. No Chairperson. No Royal Father of the Day. No moneybag book launcher. Instead, it was a festival of ideas about how to make Nigeria better, which is the central theme of Adamolekun’s book. To further celebrate the uniqueness of the launching ceremony, everyone in attendance got two copes of the book free of charge!

    The need for the devolution of political and financial powers to subnational governments dominated the discussion at the book launch (for my pre-launch review, see Adamolekun reflects on governance, development The Nation, April 23,2025). This happened because there was unanimous consent that Nigeria needs a devolved federation as recommended by Professor Adamolekun.

    There are several oddities about the Nigerian federation today. First, the political status of local councils is unclear in the Constitution, unlike the case of Brazil, where the Constitution explicitly names municipalities as part of the federal union, granting them political autonomy and equal status with states and the Federal District. In that case, municipalities are not merely subdivisions of states but rather independent entities. The lack of clarity in the Nigerian case underlies the criticism of the federal government and the Supreme Court for bypassing states in granting financial autonomy to local councils, even while they are still integral parts of the states to which they belong. State governors’ unhappiness with the direct financial link between the central government and the local councils within their jurisdictions is understandable.

    The truth is that there are only two named levels of power in every other federation. These are the central government and the federating units, named variously as states (United States and India), provinces or territories (Canada), cantons (Switzerland), or emirates (United Arab Emirates). This leads to another oddity about the Nigerian federation—the lopsidedness in the political and financial powers of the central government, so powerful that state governors and heads of federal educational institutions look up to the central government for sustenance. The dependence on the central government partly accounts for the inability of states and federal institutions to generate enough funds internally. The result is that many states cannot nurture their own residents to self-fulfillment, leading to separatist agitations.

    Another oddity is the centralization of the police force, which has compromised the security situation in the country. On the one hand, the police central command cannot effectively monitor the forces assigned to different states. On the other hand, states have no direct control over the police assigned to them. Politicians and others who can afford it exploit this gap by hiring police officers as bodyguards. In other federations, such as the United States, there is no such thing as a central police force, although there is relative uniformity in the guidelines underpinning police training across states.

    These oddities were explored in Adamolekun’s book and his presentation during the book launch. His recommendation is unmistakable: “Only devolution can unleash the forces for consolidating democracy and achieving accelerated socioeconomic progress in Nigeria. The alternative to devolution will likely be the death of the federation”. Hence his political credo for Nigeria is “Devolve or Die”.

    After the entire audience agreed that a devolved federation would serve Nigeria better, the first question that followed was: Why has devolution been impossible to achieve, even after two national conferences and numerous attempts at constitutional review? The answer to this question hovers around politics and political will. We know that those who view the central government as their industry may be reluctant to support a devolved federation in which the power of the central government is reduced. What they don’t remember is that they fared much better when they were administered as a region. Besides, they have become so engrossed in the present that they fail to remember what was and what can be after devolution of powers and fiscal federalism.

    The question remains as to what form the federating units would take. Professor Adamolekun elaborated on his answer in his presentation: There should be six federating units, based on the existing six geopolitical zones. He also suggested that functions and resources should be shared between the central government and the federating units in ways similar to the shared formula in the 1963 constitution. Specifically, he recommended a 35:65 formula for the reallocation of powers and resources between the central government and the subnational governments.

    Read Also: Nigeria ‘ll soon begin crude oil extraction in Ogun Tongeji Island – Senator Adeola

    Professor Adamolekun also raised a critical question about two institutions recently established by the Federal Government, which he thinks are antithetical to devolution. One is the establishment of Development Commissions, one for each zone, and the other is the creation of a Ministry of Regional Development (a renaming of the Ministry of Niger Delta Development). However, if the existing zones are adopted as federating units, then the Development Commissions could become coordinating units for the various development activities across the zone. At such a time, the Ministry of Regional Development would become redundant.

    A critical issue raised during the discussion was the neglect of Chapter II of the Constitution, which specifies the duties and responsibilities of government; the duties and responsibilities of the press; and the duties and responsibilities of the citizens. A close reading of the chapter shows clearly that none of the neither the government nor the press not the citizens have lived to the expectations of the Constitution. To be sure, we do not have a perfect Constitution. No state really has. The problem with us is that we have lived far shot of the ideals of the one we have, imperfect as it may be.

    This again takes us back to the lopsidedness in the allocation of duties and resources between the central government and the federating units. The truth is that the present Constitution concentrates too much power and resources in the central government. It is difficult to achieve effective governance in a multilingual, multiethnic, and multi-religious federation like ours in the present setup. It is also difficult to keep in check such an amorphous federal government, which has spread its tentacles across the country. A devolved federation will avoid such a problem by bringing people with similar orientations or shared backgrounds together, thereby allowing those at the margins to get nearer to the centre of action at a level close to them.

    The key lesson of the book launch was clear: The earlier Nigeria became a truly devolved federation, the better for the country and its people.

  • An anatomy of the Delta PDP defections

    An anatomy of the Delta PDP defections

    Commentators are running out of adjectives to describe the emptying of Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, and the entire Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) family – root and branch – into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Their erstwhile party hastily summoned a meeting of its National Working Committee (NWC) to make sense of the punch it had just taken in its gut. Across the country the political firmament is reeling.

    Even the local APC appeared just as stunned by its sudden good fortune – the unexpected influx of yesterday’s foes, now turned overnight comrade-in-arms. In one move, aspirations and ambitions were shredded.

    Take the case of former Deputy Senate President and the party governorship candidate at the 2023 election, Ovie Omo-Agege. He was believed to be shaping for another run in two years and loved to sign off his press statements as ‘APC Leader, Delta State.’

    Vice President Kashim Shettima who led the ruling party’s team to receive the new entrants, pronounced Oborevwori the state party leader at the defection ceremony in Asaba. “Now that you have come, we are all co-owners because according to the constitution of the party, the governor of the party is the leader of the party in the state. This is now as much as your party as it is ours,” he said.

    In one unscripted moment, uncontrollable political forces knocked Omo-Agege off his perch and handed his ‘title’ to another. I doubt he was particularly amused. But the options open to him are limited: lick his wounds, accept the new reality or consider his future within the ruling party. Unfortunately for him all the structures that matter have united under the APC umbrella in Delta. Pulling in a different direction hardly makes sense at the moment.

    Read Also: Nigeria ‘ll soon begin crude oil extraction in Ogun Tongeji Island – Senator Adeola

    On the national scale, the impact of the defections on the opposition is both numerical and psychological. Leading lights like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, have repeatedly argued that their best chance against President Bola Tinubu was to combine resources in one mega platform. Their appeals to the PDP have been rebuffed by the party’s governors. What they’ve tried to sell as an unstoppable coalition now looks like a giant balloon pierced by a sharp object.

    The alliance was supposed to be a magnet for all those unhappy with the president and his APC government. You would, therefore, expect a haemorrhage of support from the ruling party based on all the surrounding negativity. Strangely, the defection traffic has been going the wrong way. Those heading to APC are breaking out of the closet by the day; the ones purportedly rallying behind Atiku’s special purpose vehicle remain a mystery.

    As of April 23, and without a ballot being cast in anger, APC now controls 22 governorships – up from 21. PDP is down to 11, while the likes of the Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) all have one apiece.

    Delta is no ordinary PDP state – it’s a dyed-in-the-wool one which the party has held effortlessly since 1999. To lose it is akin to the heart being ripped out of the organisation or, more appropriately in this case, the organ being handed out by a willing donor.

    This was the state that produced Atiku’s running mate at the 2023 elections. Less than two years after he has now spoken of his regret accepting the nomination. He told Arise TV: “Even when we were campaigning, I realised our people were not interested in having another northerner come into power. But the decision had already been taken at the federal level by the party (PDP) and I had been nominated. Still, in retrospect, I now believe I should have gone with the will of my people.”

    His selection destroyed Atiku’s relationship with former Rivers State Governor turned Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, as well as upended PDP presidential challenge. The same man has now turned around to repudiate the very basis on which the ex-VP ran.

    Okowa has confirmed what many have argued that PDP shot itself in the foot by collaborating with its flagbearer to stomp on its long-held zoning principle.

    The unique nature of the Delta defections cannot be overemphasised. We’ve seen governors decamp without their deputies following; we have witnessed ex-governors like El-Rufai quit in a huff, only to be accompanied by a handful of near-anonymous lightweights. Never has an entire political structure – from local government to governor, state legislators to federal representatives – uproot from one place to another in one fell swoop.

    It’s a psychological blow that will shape the direction of politics over the next two years – especially with dark whisperings suggesting the opposition could still lose a couple of governors to the ruling party.

    While APC apparatchik are crowing and bragging about the 2027 polls being in the bag, the opposition have been struggling to spin the defections as inconsequential. We’ve been reminded of how former LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, won millions of votes without a governor in his camp two years ago.

    Others have sneered that governors have only one vote like other citizens.  That may be factually correct, but they have the ability to influence hundreds of thousands of voters given the resources they control. Atiku picked Okowa as much as for his personal qualities as for the resources he would bring to the table. This last factor effectively neutralised whatever advantage Wike enjoyed in this area.

    We are now being told governors don’t matter, but anyone who understands Nigerian politics knows it was the defection of five PDP governors that transformed a feeble APC in 2014 into the credible challenger that broke PDP’s hegemony.

    Those seeking to use Obi’s performance to downplay the defections need to be reminded of the factors at play back then. So strong was the ethnic card two years ago that governors from other parties who should have opposed him, encouraged their supporters to engage in tactical voting across the Southeast: vote LP for president, our candidate for governor.

    It was the reason the presidential election results were so different from the gubernatorial ones in the zone. Obi scored well over 70% of votes cast in several states but two weeks later his LP platform only won the governorship in Abia.

    Today, APC has 22 governors to PDP’s 11. These numbers have been held up as signalling the demise of democracy and the onset of the one-party state. But those singing this dirge forget that historically there have been worse statistics.

    In 2003, PDP controlled 27 states, the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) eight and Alliance for Democracy (AD) one.  At the height of its powers in 2007, it had 31 governors, ANPP 3, Action Congress (AC) and APGA one each. The party also had 85 out of 109 senators, 260 out of 360 members of the House of Representatives. Yet, none of today’s mourners suggested back then that democracy was endangered.

    The 2023 election broke certain myths with the triumph of the same faith ticket. But it also reinforced the reality that no party can win the presidency without a broad base across the zones. The ongoing realignments are strengthening APC in the South-South and Southeast which PDP once took for granted as its impregnable fortresses. The ruling party is already formidable across the North-Central zone and can build on its advantages.

    The emerging political map looks dire for the opposition coalition as the only thing it’s feeding on presently is frustration among a section of the political elite in the Northwest and Northeast. Its messaging on the state of the economy doesn’t seem to be resonating as to pry people away from the ruling party.

    Even if they were to sweep every available vote in the two far North zones, the past experiences of former President Muhammadu Buhari show that isn’t enough to win. But even these two zones, Tinubu and APC have shown that they can be competitive by holding on to ground they won two years ago.

    To change the narrative, Atiku and company have to come up with their own dramatic political moments that show a broadening of appeal. As things stand momentum isn’t on the side of their stuttering alliance.

    Potentially, more debilitating for them are emerging signals the ex-VP and his co-travellers are determined to rehash their historic error of downplaying zoning. That would most likely lead to a repeat of 2023 outcomes with minimal efforts by the victors.

  • The education question: Primary schools – 1

    The education question: Primary schools – 1

    This article is a contribution made to celebrate ECOWAS @ 50: REGIONAL INTEGRATION: Gateway to Peace & Security, Trade & Investment, & Achievements, Challenges, Solutions & Opportunity. It is directed at corporate ECOWAS.

    Are all schools great? Think about caring for them all especially Internally Displaced Persons camp schools before they think about not caring for you and yours.   Where we were:

    Once upon a time a three-year old precocious child appeared, underage, in a village classroom and was told by the head teacher…    ‘Of course you need not come to school every day. Come when you feel like it …

    The young boy ‘I looked at him in astonishment. Not feel like coming to school! The coloured maps, pictures and other hangings on the walls, the coloured counters, markers, slates, inkwells in neat round holes, crayons and drawing books, a shelf laden with modelled objects –animals, human beings, implements-raffia and basket-work in various stages of completion, even the blackboards, chalk and duster…..I had yet to see a more inviting playroom……. I shall come every day,’ I confidently declared. 

    This was Africa’s First Nobel Prize for Literature 1986 winner Professor Wole Soyinka when he was three years old in 1937/8 as recorded in his autobiography Ake, The Years Of Childhood. That village classroom environment ignited his education rocket skyward on the pathway to the Nobel Prize success.  Can anyone today name an ECOWAS village kindergarten or primary school up to the Soyinka standard of 1937 in education tools?   – Do we as parents, politicians and private sector companies give ECOWAS children an education fair deal by taking responsibility for and financial commitment to the children to meet educational Social Development Goals (SDGs)?

    In my career in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OBGYN),I have accompanied thousands of women and children  on DELIVERY DAY…the most dangerous day in the life -and sadly sometimes death- of Mother & Child. And the result, a human being can end up in a poor quality school! Mother, is this the reward for your labour ward war? At delivery, I asked each baby ‘what will you grow up to be –the good 90% or the school bully, the bad and the murderous 10%?    Will you be the one to rob, or kill me in 20 years’ time?

    Every robber and murderer was a sweet screaming peeing baby once. The decision may be personal but the environment- home, neighbourhood, companions, educational, social – and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) support matters in the outcome. Do not underestimate or underutilise today personal and collective political, networking and CSR power to keep children unknown to you in good education and away from the DROP OUT or DRUG scenario that will enable them to commit a crime affecting you or your children tomorrow. 

    Thirty years ago, seeing the difference between my earlier education in St Gregory’s and what I then found, I initiated and received support towards the setting up of Educare Trust, Nigeria and ET Exhibition Centre, a youth venue. We pioneered computer literacy training over 7,000, impacted hundreds of schools and several university and polytechnics. We pioneered seatbelt, anti-smoking, breast exam, anti-bullying campaigns among others.  All ECOWAS youth deserve access to such a centre and suggest there should be ONE YOUTH CENTRE FOR EACH SMALLEST POLITICAL UNIT of the country. The centre should be apolitical in name and activities, community manned and funds and support from individuals and businesses in the area and philanthropic citizens and pensioners and other role models.    

     As ECOWAS, are we underinvesting and by implication, undervaluing education as an investment opportunity? If yes, are we nurturing undisciplined and criminally motivated armies of conventionally undereducated and unemployable youth? These youth are mostly out of school but some are technically out of school because they are in poor education delivery schools which under-nourish their brains. They will then seek alternative negative nourishment from the underworld arts and sciences of the SAD syndrome: SEX, AIDS, ALCOHOL, ADDICTION, DRUGS etc. and very employable in the alternative economy of crime and corruption and especially violence aimed at the educated. All these are bad for ECOWAS Commerce & Industry. Tomorrow’s ECOWAS WORKFORCE IS IN TODAY’S SCHOOLS. Help make them better.

    Read Also: Nigeria ‘ll soon begin crude oil extraction in Ogun Tongeji Island – Senator Adeola

    In ECOWAS, we may lose a large chunk our future workforce to the underworld and the dark side of Artificial Intelligence, AI, and Information Technology, IT, if we do not improve the quality of education to all ECOWAS children. We require to domesticate relevant SDGs and score each school, target needs and deliver its needs.

    Every school should be able to publish and distribute a ‘school needs list’

    How many ECOWAS kindergartens and primary schools are Teacher and Child Friendly Learning Environments? We have much work to do to catch up with the past in one village in Nigeria in 1936/7. We must reject minimum school and educational standards and raise the 2025 ECOWAS education stakes to optimum standards.

    WE MUST UPSCALE a very neglected  KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION CURRICULUM and CONTENT to ‘SOYINKA 1937 STANDARDS’ and beyond of course, as many children drop out ‘undereducated’ at that point. This will also get a better quality and quantity of ECOWAS children into secondary school- the springboard to a tertiary education and a career.

    ECOWAS needs to widen the list of CONTRIBUTORS TO EDUCATION to fill the gap left by CHRONIC UNDERBUDGETING, the 2025 TARIFF WAR AND European Union, EU REARMAMENT/ANTI-WW3 effort. Setting up Old Student Associations for primary schools, are a key untapped resource, encouraged by competitive performance awards by governments. (To be cont’d)

  • Rivers: One month after emergency rule

    Rivers: One month after emergency rule

    A little over one month ago, President Bola Tinubu, placed Rivers State under emergency rule, suspending Governor Siminalayi Fubara and members of the House of Assembly for six months. In the intervening period, debate has raged non-stop as to whether the drastic action was necessary.

    Those who believe the president overreacted are probably only focused on the narrow aspect of individuals losing out in a power struggle; or of scheming for advantage ahead the next elections.

    They forget that this battle was playing out in a terrain hosting a huge chunk of the nation’s oil and gas assets. For a country struggling to get its economic reset right, any major disruption of its key revenue generation sources could be disastrous.

    Tinubu cited attacks on pipelines in his broadcast announcing emergency rule. He didn’t go into too many details as to the gravity of the situation. What is clear is that late in March, ominous storms were gathering over Rivers State following the Supreme Court judgment that castrated Fubara politically and empowered his foes – the 27 pro-Nyesom Wike lawmakers.

    The apex court recognised Martins Amaewhule as Speaker and the other 26 legislators as legitimate members of the assembly. The verdict voided all that the governor had done with the so-called Victor Oko-Jombo three-man ‘legislature’ and had harsh words for Fubara for demolishing the assembly which had been bombed intentionally to prevent the initiation of impeachment proceedings in October 2023.

    While the judgment threw up clear winners in the long-running saga, and appeared to open a window for resolution, what would follow was a hardening of positions. It was obvious that the two sides had travelled too far in opposite directions – deleting the word compromise from their dictionaries in the process.

    The assembly quickly issued a string of ultimatums. The governor, clinging to whatever was left of his pride, pushed back on the ground he was stilling waiting for the certified true copy of the judgment. That would be released in short order – leaving him no further room to delay compliance.

    The days following would be humiliating. He announced plans to present the year’s budget without first agreeing terms with the lawmakers – resulting in the televised embarrassment of his convoy being denied entry into the lawmakers’ complex. He was left to make his case to the court of public opinion outside the shut gates.

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    It was just the beginning of his troubles as on March 17, Speaker Amaewhule forwarded a notice of gross misconduct allegations – the initial step in the impeachment process – to the governor and his deputy Ngozi Odu. By this very move, Rivers entered into uncharted waters.

    To say the polity was heated up would be understating things. Ethnic tensions were ratcheted up, playing the crisis as an attempt to injure the Ijaws politically. Threats of attacks against oil pipelines and other facilities were openly made. It wasn’t long before they were carried out.

    But for the emergency declaration we may now be in the post-Fubara era in the state, given the overwhelming majority held by his foes in the assembly. The only thing that could have prevented that outcome would have been the appointment by the Chief Judge of an investigating panel that would have returned a not guilty verdict – short-circuiting the process. But that wasn’t a given.

    Had impeachment succeeded, control of the state’s entire power structures would have been back in the hands of Federal Capital Territory Minister Wike – a polarising figure who is as much loved as he is reviled by sections of the populace within and outside the state. Those who loathed that outcome would have been left with only extra-constitutional means to resist, seeing as whatever legal challenges they came up with would have failed.

    Notorious for his blunt speaking, the minister recently admitted that he preferred the permanent ouster of Fubara by impeachment, something he was certain would have come to pass. He then asked those criticising the emergency declaration to go bow at Tinubu’s feet for saving their man in the nick of time. Over a month ago he had boasted there would be no blowback from the governor’s ouster.

    Interestingly, Fubara’s reaction to his rule being truncated has been relatively tame. He has asked his supporters to be calm. A few days ago he told them to keep supporting the president. That isn’t the sort of rhetoric you would expect from someone who felt hard done by. If anything, it looks like the reaction of man who has assessed his chances through realistic lens and knows he was saved by the bell.

    The same cannot be said for some of his supporters who view emergency rule as an injustice. They are the ones sponsoring women protesters to take to the streets weekly, in the process triggering counter-protests by the same gender on the opposing side. How such demonstrations help the governor’s cause is hard to understand. But such is their belief that he would somehow have survived the impeachment storm he was facing before Tinubu’s intervention.

    Whether in medicine or other aspects of life, a key goal of emergency action is achieving stability. There’s no question that for all the street protests and legal challenges, the political temperature in Rivers is much lower today than it was a month ago.

    Within days of the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), taking the reins allocations and other funds which had been frozen by the Supreme Court judgment were released by the Federal Government, bringing succour to workers who face an uncertain future while the budget standoff between Fubara and the lawmakers lasted.

    Despite criticism, some semblance of governance has been restored to local councils which have also been caught in the political crossfire as well as grounded by the apex court’s judgment. Even the much-feared sabotage attacks on oil facilities have not manifested.

    That’s why rather than split hairs savaging the president for his actions in Rivers, all reasonable people should be working to ensure reconciliation and the restoration of constitutional order. The emergency proclamation indicates that the interregnum ‘may’ be extended if the conditions that caused it remain in place. Surely, that’s not an outcome anyone wants.

    Six months may look like six years to people who are used to exercising power. But in reality that’s just what it is – six months! This point is significant given widespread reports of a meeting in London between Tinubu and Fubara during his recent two-week overseas trip.

    Credible sources say the meeting is just a first step to a larger gathering of critical stakeholders in the crisis. Having stared into the abyss all sides now appear ready to make deals that would ensure the unusual governance setup in Rivers isn’t unduly prolonged.

    These are the same compromises spurned two years ago by parties that thought they could prevail by their own strength. Hopefully, those who influenced Fubara to dump the deal brokered by Tinubu in 2023, now realise that however powerful a governor might be, in certain states there’s a balance of terror that you can only navigate by compromise.