The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Telcos’ tariff threat

    Telcos’ tariff threat

    Telecommunications operators, at the close of last year, raised a red flag about their operational costs. They threatened disruption of their services in parts of the country from early this year if their demand for tariff review is not earnestly met by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

    It is debatable that the telcos had not already started defaulting at the time on their responsibility to ensure quality operations, going by the experience of wonky services by many telecom subscribers. But let’s play along with stated timelines.

    Speaking on the platform of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the telcos said the sector’s survival and sustainability depended on immediate tariff review to reflect economic realities involved in delivering telecom services. ALTON Chairman Gbenga Adebayo, an engineer, said in a statement on New Year eve: “If nothing is done, we might begin to see in the new year grim consequences unfolding, such as service shedding. Operators may not be able to provide services in some areas and at some times of the day, leaving millions disconnected. There will be significant economic fallout because businesses will suffer from a lack of connectivity, stalling growth and innovation.” He added: “There will also be national economic disruption (whereby) key sectors like security, commerce, healthcare and education that rely heavily on telecom infrastructure will face serious disruptions.”

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    Adebayo’s logic is that bloated overhead stemming from soaring energy costs, volatile exchange rate and relentless inflationary pressure place a huge burden on network operators whereas tariff have remained stagnant. He argued that resources needed to maintain, expand and modernise telecom networks are  no longer available, and without intervention “the future of this sector is at grave risk.”

    Despite the threat, the NCC foreclosed tariff hike – at least this January – saying the procedure for that recourse was rigorous, data-driven and evidence-based. A source within the regulator body was reported outlining the steps, which would take a while to conclude. These include getting the approval of NCC management board that is presently not in place, engaging consultants who will undertake a study on price review, and calling a stakeholder forum that will consider the economic indices that would come to play in a tariff hike. None of these steps has been taken. The source, however, noted that there’s a window for tariff adjustment by individual telco in the existing price template that they aren’t exploring owing to price competition.

    Cartel approach to tariff review is really a blackmail. Telecoms is a deregulated sector and operators can individually take their chance with subscribers on tariff adjustment within the already approved price template, rather than hold a gun to the nation’s head. But NCC also must realise it is an economic and not a political issue: hyper-inflation is real and needs be tamed by the authorities.

  • A poor sense of duty

    A poor sense of duty

    Narratives of police officers demanding money from members of the public before going after kidnappers in order to rescue kidnappees are increasing, and the issue is increasingly concerning.  

    The case of the seven-year-old girl kidnapped by her mother’s male customer in Sango, Ogun State on December 23, 2024 is still fresh. When her mother reported the incident, officers at a police station in Sango demanded “N10,000 to report the case,” and N30,000 for the police to track the kidnapper’s phone number.

     The spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, Omolola Odutola, acknowledged that “the police officer who received the complaint from the counter acted unprofessionally.” Furthermore, the Public Relations Officer for the Nigeria Police Force, Muyiwa Adejobi, said the policemen who demanded money in this matter “have been arrested and are now in detention for disciplinary action,” adding that “The girl will be found as soon as possible.”  There is no news that she has been found.

    A similar case highlighting police corruption made the headlines following the account of the Spiritual Director of Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke, Anambra State, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Obimma, about a priest who was kidnapped and how he paid N1m to the police to get him rescued.

    He presented the priest, identified as Rev. Fr. Nonso, to the congregation on December 30, 2024. He said Nonso was kidnapped on December 17 and spent a week in captivity in a forest. 

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    “I approached a state outside Anambra and begged them to use their tracker to find my brother priest,” Obimma narrated. “They tracked him and sent the full location to me. I sent it to security people and they asked me what I wanted them to do with the information. I told them to go after the kidnappers and rescue our priest, but they told me they don’t usually go into the forest.

    “I volunteered to lead the operation. I called the Chief Security (Officer) of the Adoration Ministry and told him to assemble his men, let those who have cutlasses bring their cutlasses and those who have guns should bring them, I would lead the operation. When they saw that I was serious, that was when the police told me I should not worry that they could rescue him, just that they lacked logistics. I had to send N1m to them.” He added that the payment was “for mobilisation.” It is unclear how Nonso was rescued.

     “We are aware of the allegations,” the spokesman for the Anambra State Police Command, Tochukwu Ikenga, was reported saying, adding that the Commissioner of Police, Nnaghe Itam, “has directed the investigation.”

    Such narratives are bad for the image of the police. It’s worse that they are increasing and further exposing a poor sense of duty. 

  • Cash crunch and crunchers

    Cash crunch and crunchers

    In the heady days of the infernal policy of currency redesigning by former Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele, the hardship experienced by Nigerians was in a large part the handiwork of bankers who hoarded cash. Now, we are back with the hoarders even there’s apparently no cause to withhold cash from circulation.

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently had occasion to impose a N150million fine on a commercial bank for failing to dispense cash through its Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). A report by this newspaper, The Nation, cited sources saying the big stick was wielded following an unannounced inspection by the apex bank that exposed cash hoarding and ATM manipulation by the erring money deposit institution. The CBN sources revealed that the sanctioned commercial bank was caught disabling its ATMs, thereby denying customers access to their funds while prioritising cash disbursements to select high-heeled clients.

    An official of the CBN was cited stressing that the regulatory bank would not tolerate such practices. “The (CBN) will not spare any deposit money bank caught in the act of hoarding cash or found favoring VIP customers over other customers,” the official stated. Consequently, the apex bank was said to have intensified spot checks on banks nationwide, uncovering various illicit cash-handling practices by unscrupulous financial institutions.

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    It was reported that the CBN was for now imposing fines on defaulting banks, but would consider upscaling the sanction in the next phase of enforcement to include naming and shaming offending banks and prosecuting implicated bank officials. “This fine is just the beginning. The CBN is determined to hold banks accountable for any action that undermines public trust and the integrity of the banking system,” the official added. Another senior official was reported saying the apex bank nevertheless remained committed to promoting cashless banking in the country by intensifying efforts to encourage use of electronic channels for transactions.

    Hardball thinks the CBN’s financial penalty is rather light for the damage defaulting commercial institutions do to the financial system and the misery caused ordinary Nigerians who deposit their hard earned money in those banks and can’t now access the money because banks are hoarding cash. In the Emefiele days, people died in the struggle to get cash while some banks were discovered to have stockpiled same commodity without giving it out to  customers in desperate need. Some banks loaded their ATM machines with notes whose wrappers were not peeled off, just so the machines would be blocked from dispensing what was available. Now, mint notes are available with street hawkers when these are a scarce commodity at the banks.

    The CBN needs to be more heavy handed in dealing retribution to unscrupulous bankers and complicit institutions and, if possible, flush them out of the system.

  • NAFDAC’s burden

    NAFDAC’s burden

    Notably, the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, gave an insight into the troubling scale of production and sale of fake drugs and unwholesome foods in Nigeria when she highlighted the agency’s recent enforcement actions across the country in her New Year message to Nigerians.

    She said the agency, on December 11, 2024 “destroyed expired, unregistered drugs worth N11 billion in Ibadan, Oyo State.” Also, in November 2024, the agency “seized N300m worth of fake medicines during a raid of Tyre Village, Trade Fair Complex, Lagos State,” and “bust counterfeit alcohol packaging centres and seized items worth N2 billion in Lagos.”  She added that the agency had received reports of “illegal revalidation of expired alcoholic beverages at the Trade Fair Complex in Lagos.”

    Details of the agency’s enforcement actions in Nasarawa State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja demonstrated the widespread activities of makers and sellers of fake medicines and unwholesome foods in the country. In Nasarawa State, on December 19, 2024 the agency “sealed a factory and eight shops for packaging and distributing counterfeit rice, valued at approximately N5 billion,” she said.  The operation had targeted a facility named Ninjur Ventures on Abacha Road, Karu.  Also, at Wuse and Garki markets in Abuja, the agency “confiscated over 1,600 bags of counterfeit rice worth about N5 billion where counterfeit rice was being repackaged in branded bags.”

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     The “mop-up operation” in the FCT and Nasarawa State coincided with a two-day operation in Aba on December 16 and 17, 2024.  A total of 150 shops at Eziukwu Market in Aba, Abia State, were shut down following an operation during which the agency “uncovered large-scale production and distribution of fake and expired goods including beverages, carbonated drinks, wines, spirits, vegetable oils, and revalidated food items such as noodles, powdered milk, and yoghurt with a market value of N5bn.”

     According to the NAFDAC boss, “In total, over N120bn worth of seized products were destroyed by the agency in six months (July-December) in the six geo-political zones and FCT.”

    Clearly, the destroyed products posed a serious threat to public health. However, the agency must go beyond destroying such products. Those involved in producing them and those who knowingly sell them to the public must be arrested and prosecuted for a deterrent effect.  The high scale of their dangerous activities suggests that the agency is not doing enough to deter them.  

  • ASUU and horrid pastime

    ASUU and horrid pastime

    Hooray!  Our dons are at their favorite pastime again — declaring glorious strikes as they are wont to do!  (Applause!  Applause!).

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on September 25, issued its latest 14-day ultimatum to declare a strike.  Magnanimously, the dons’ 15-day top-up was after an earlier 30-day notice. 

    The ASUU statement said the deadline was to wean the Federal Government off its delay tactics, over negotiated but inconclusive issues, that drag on and on!  Well, you can’t blame the old and tested strikes heroes, can you?  This government — indeed every Nigerian government — only understands one language: threat or force!

    Still, anyone should be alarmed that an academic union, whose forte should be reason, is always so gung-ho over going on strikes.  What do logicians say about threats?  Is it not when you’re worsted by facts and logic that you resort to threats? 

    So, shouldn’t the rest of us be worried that the reflex of Nigeria’s bastion of reason is threat — threat of strikes that yielded pretty little in the past — because their majesties, the dons, couldn’t — and still can’t — think out of the box of ready strikes?

    Still, give the devil its due.  There are always two sides to a story.  In truth, Nigerian governments have not entirely been earnest with ASUU — in negotiations and in implemented agreements — even after ASUU jumbo strikes.  That’s to be decried.

    But ASUU’s main problem is their infinite faith in strikes — and their pleasure to often weaponize it with gusto — even when its positive impact had been minimal, supremely confident they would get paid for strikes, no matter how long they do.

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    Which is why they’d threaten to trot out on another because the Buhari government called their bluff by invoking the no-work-no-pay rule, which by Labour laws is legal and legitimate.  Though the Tinubu government compassionately paid part of that unearned money, ASUU would still cite “withheld salaries” as justification!  What gracelessness!  What rabid fixation!

    Talking of fixations, ASUU would stick to “renegotiating” a 2009 agreement, instead of putting forward fresh ideas close to economic realities today? Does that even make sense?

    Well, the Federal Government must do its duty; and fairly address ASUU’s grievances. In truth, the government can do far better implementing, to the letter, agreements with the union.  But that should start with resisting any agreement it cannot implement, no matter the immediate pressure.

    Much more: it should break this sickly cycle of ASUU bully tactics — that brazen right not to work but insist on getting paid.  This ruinous strike reflex must stop. 

    Dons are paid to teach and mould students, not to become vile power and principalities that make youths’ university experience nasty and retard their future.

  • Reign of bullies

    Reign of bullies

    An alleged case of bullying hobbled a private school in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recently. A Senior Secondary 2 (SS2) student at Beautiful Beginning Academy in Gudu District, Abuja, was shown in an online video clip tied with chain around his neck and ordered to lie on the floor in the school hostel by SS3 students, some of whom appeared in the clip while one kept in the background filming.

    The video ignited an outrage among netizens who deplored bullying in schools and canvassed urgent action by relevant authorities to end the menace. “Until a stringent measure is taken about bullies, it’s not going to end soon,” an X user said in a comment that reflected the public’s frustration with recurrence of bullying in schools. There were also demands for justice for the victim, named simply as Imtiyas, for the physical and emotional abuse he was subjected to.

    Cases of bullying have often been reported in government-owned as well as private schools across the country, with one of the most notorious being the incident in 2021 at a highbrow private school in Lagos that resulted in the death of a 12-year-old Junior Secondary 2 (JS2) boarding pupil, Sylvester Oromoni Jnr. Only last month, 13 students of the Federal Government College, Enugu were suspended for bullying one of their colleagues.

    On the heels of reports about the Abuja school, the school management issued a statement strongly condemning bullying and vowing thorough investigation, assuring parents that measures were in place to safeguard students’ welfare. A couple of days later, the management returned to dismiss the allegation of bullying in the school. School Principal Aaron Ikpe told journalists that students seen in the video were play acting but misconstrued as bullying, adding that the school had an open-door policy allowing students to share any concern with the authorities.

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    According to him, it wasn’t a case of bullying. “They staged a play. Interestingly, they did it in their hostel, and there were other students around watching,” he said inter alia, adding: “The students did it innocently, though perhaps taken to a certain level. Interestingly, the students actually arranged for the tablet they used to record it. The tablet is usually given to them during learning hours and later retrieved.”

    Mr. Principal, however, acknowledged that family members of the SS2 student did complain of bullying. “No report was made until the sisters came on Monday to tell us there was a bullying case in the school,” he said.

    The defence by the school management is curious, to say the least. How could the management have determined it was make-belief without confirming from the SS2 student concerned; and would the family have made an allegation of bullying if their ward had not told them he was bullied? In desperation to protect its corporate image, the school may be enthroning a reign of bullies.

  • Police drama

    Police drama

    An alarming tweet by one Miyakee on December 25 further highlighted police corruption.  Miyakee had tweeted, “My cousin is missing. She was kidnapped by a stranger on the 23rd of December, 2024. The mom, my aunty, does POS business at Sango, Ogun State. She has a male customer who usually comes to withdraw money and buy recharge cards…  On the morning of the 23rd, he came to the store and bought food for himself and the little girl as usual. The mom was busy attending to other customers.

    “He sent the little girl (a seven-year-old girl) to go get pure water for him. On her way back, he approached her halfway to get the pure water from her. The mom saw this and wasn’t comfortable with it but was distracted by the attention of other customers.

    “By the time she turned towards the daughter’s direction to check what was happening, the guy and her daughter were nowhere to be found. They searched everywhere for them but to no avail.”

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    The tweet continued, “She tried calling the customer (she had his phone number). He picked up and said he was at Sango under the bridge and that he was going to call her back. Up till now, he has refused to answer his call. Now the number is no longer reachable. We still cannot find my cousin.”

    Miyakee said “they have reported to a police station in Sango and the struggling mum has been asked to pay a total of N10,000 to report the case (she has done that). And to bring N30,000 for the guy’s phone number to be tracked.” According to the tweet, she “paid N8,000 to write her statement at the station and a total of N2,000 to print out pictures of the missing girl. Then to track the phone number, she has to pay the sum of N30,000 and get a court affidavit to take to MTN’s office.”

     Responding to the report of the tweet, the spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, Omolola Odutola, said it was “misleading,” and “a false narrative.” Interestingly, the officer contradicted herself by also saying, “the police officer who received the complaint from the counter acted unprofessionally.” 

    The Public Relations Officer for the Nigeria Police Force, Muyiwa Adejobi, said the policemen who demanded money in this matter “have been arrested and are now in detention for disciplinary action,” adding that “The girl will be found as soon as possible.”  The police have a duty to find the girl.

  • Emir Sanusi’s moral creed

    Emir Sanusi’s moral creed

    Emir Muhammad Sanusi II has never hidden his radical bent in the arch-conservative institutional setting. His leaning, which is quite natural to him, in past years brought him on collision course with other power centres in relation to expectations of conservative insularity from him by virtue of the royal stool he sits on. But he is who he is, and he does not make hypocritical pretensions about it: he is down to earth and offers no apologies about his blunt outlook on issues.

    The 16th Emir of Kano lived up to billing recently when he said he always told his daughters whenever they were getting married that if their husbands slapped them, he expected them to retaliate. He spoke at a National Dialogue Conference on Gender-Based Violence prevention from an Islamic perspective organised by the Centre for Islamic Civilisation and Interfaith Dialogue, Bayero University, Kano (BUK) in partnership with the Development Research and Projects Centre, and with support from Ford Foundation.

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    According to him, gender-based violence isn’t permissible even under religious guise. “You can take that verse and say that as a husband, I’ve been given this permission to beat my wife light. And nobody will deny that, nobody will say it is ‘haram’ if you comply with all the rules. But you live in a society in which those rules are never applied. Nobody who is angry remembers to look for a chewing stick or a handkerchief. They just slap these women and punch them and kick them and beat them,” he said. The emir underscored the depth of the malaise with his findings in a doctoral thesis on family law he just worked on. “I did research on nine courts, nine Shari’a courts in Kano. Forty-one percent of the cases over a five-year period had to do with maintenance. Twenty-six percent had to do with harm. And out of those, 45 percent were cases of wife beating, domestic violence,” he added.

    But his personal response is vintage Sanusi. “When my daughters are getting married, I say to them: ‘If your husband slaps you, and you come home and tell me my husband slapped me, without slapping him back first, I will slap you myself.’

    “Because I did not send my daughter to marry somebody so he can slap her. If you do not like her, send her back to me. But don’t beat her. And we must teach our daughters not to take it,” he stated.

    There must be more effective ways of dealing with the gender abuser other than disproportionate retaliation that could result in worse violence and more grievous harm to the woman. Emir Sanusi can lead the way in seeking such alternatives.

  • What a season!

    What a season!

    Tragically, many lives were lost in two incidents in Okija, Anambra State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, on December 21.  The deaths were even more tragic because they happened as a result of stampedes for food. Those who died had gone to where they died because they needed food for sustenance.

    The event at the Amaranta Stadium, Okija, was held to distribute rice to attendees. Hundreds of people were reported to have arrived at the venue as early as 5am. Many of them were women and children. This was an indication of the level of hunger in the land. The crowd swelled as the minutes ticked by.

     When the organisers of the event, the Obijackson Foundation, began sharing the rice, according to a report, “the crowd became uncontrollable…In the ensuing pushing and shoving, some of the vulnerable in the crowd lost their balance, fell down and were trampled upon by the others.” At least 37 people were said to have died.  Some said there were about 47 fatalities.  “The tragedy has cast a shadow over what is usually a joyous season in Okija,” the Obijackson Foundation said in a statement. 

    In Abuja, the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Maitama had planned to distribute food items, and more than 3,000 people, “mostly from Mpape, Gishiri Village, and other nearby settlements,” were said to have turned up for their share, “some as early as 4am.”  By 7am, the crowd became uncontrollable, with people “pushing and shoving one another.” The weak ones “easily went to the ground and were crushed to death,” according to a report. An eyewitness was quoted as saying at least seven of the victims were children. The Anambra State Police Command said 22 people died in the stampede.

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    Nigeria Police spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi in a statement said the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, “has called on government officials, community leaders, and non-governmental organisations to work collaboratively towards establishing a comprehensive and organised framework for distributing palliatives.” The IGP also ordered the police commissioners of the affected states to carry out thorough investigations into “these ugly incidents.”

    For the organisers of the events that caused the deaths and those who lost their lives, the festive season became a season of destructive stampedes and lifelessness.  

    Indeed, the incidents call for improved and safe methods of distributing   so-called palliatives.  But more importantly, they also highlight the issue of mass impoverishment, which explains why so many Nigerians need “palliatives.”

  • Kano schools sans teachers

    Kano schools sans teachers

    There is a crisis of teacher staffing in some schools in Kano State and it is amazing the authorities could live with it. We’ve read before about schools in some states where pupils sit on the bare floor to receive lessons, but the staffing crisis in the identified Kano schools is of such gargantuan proportion that you would wonder what lessons could be passed down to pupils under such condition anyway.

    Ungogo Special Primary School in Ungogo council area of the state has only 15 teachers for its 2,943 pupil population. And that is official. Headteacher Haladu Tanko lately outed with the crisis to the media and pleaded for urgent remediation. Tanko said the huge disparity between the number of pupils and available teaching staff had affected the quality of education, lamenting that the overwhelming student population made it difficult for teachers to give individual attention to each pupil – an obvious reality that goes without saying.

    The headteacher appealed to relevant authorities in the state government to address the staffing crisis, arguing that an increase in the number of teachers would significantly improve learning outcomes and ease the burden of the existing staff. “The situation is becoming unbearable for both teachers and pupils. The current number of teachers is insufficient to handle the large number of students, and it is negatively impacting academic performance,” he said.

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    Ungogo Special Primary School isn’t an isolated case. Operating in similar circumstance is Yelwa Primary School in Dala council area where there are just 31 teachers for the 1,164 pupil population. Headmaster Umar Aliyu was reported lamenting the staffing crisis and urging the state government to employ more teachers and train the existing ones. He also solicited infrastructural interventions like provision of more toilets and enhanced security in the school to curb rampant thefts and vandalism.

    In Sabon Layi Primary School, there are 39 teachers for the 1,764 pupil population and Headteacher Auwal Abubakar called for employment of more teachers. So also is the case of Hotoro South Special Primary School where there are only 30 teachers for the 1,432 pupil population. “We need more qualified teachers to handle the large number of pupils,” Headteacher Habibu Sani said.

    These are only schools that came into media attention. Only the heavens know how many more there are in similar or worse situation, but stewing in the dark. The amazing thing is the availability of pupils to learn, only there are no teachers to teach. The trend actually gives the lie to a historical narrative that children in a particular region of this country aren’t disposed to getting formal education. The huge pupil populations, even when there are no teachers to teach them, tell a different story.

    The Kano government, and indeed governments of every other state where there are similar cases, must rise to tackle the challenge. It is a scandal that mustn’t linger.