The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Yam SSA and the rationale

    Yam SSA and the rationale

    A council area chairman in Enugu State has just shown how creative one could get dishing out political appointments. Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area Chairman Eric Odo appointed senor special assistants on agriculture with respective designation for yam, garden egg and pepper production; and he insists it is one of the brightest ideas to be unveiled in modern-day governance.

    Letters that went viral online lately revealed Odo’s appointment of Nwodo Ugonna and Ezeugwu Ogbonna as Senior Special Assistant on Agriculture to the local government chairman. Ugonna’s letter specified that he was being appointed SSA on Agriculture (Garden Egg and Pepper), while Ogbonna’s appointment letter designated him as SSA on Agriculture (Yam and Pepper).

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    Following criticisms that trailed the appointments, Odo defended his action, saying it was aimed at boosting food production in the council, meet local demand and explore export opportunities. Addressing journalists at the council headquarters in Ogbede, last week, he dismissed critics as uninformed and politically motivated. “These appointments are strategic,” Odo explained. “Igbo-Etiti has a comparative advantage in cultivating these crops, and we need individuals with the expertise to help farmers maximise their potential. This initiative is about enhancing productivity, improving market access and increasing farmers’ income,” he added.

    The council chairman described the appointments as part of a broader vision to create a thriving local economy rooted in agriculture. “The appointments will ensure that farmers receive the resources, support and expertise they need,” he said, adding: “This initiative, which has been misunderstood by disgruntled individuals and opposition figures, underscores my determination to harness Igbo-Etiti’s agricultural potential for economic growth and sustainable development.” According to him, the dual motivation for the appointments is improving agricultural productivity and create jobs within the community.

    Odo made a good attempt at being persuasive. But we could ask how many aides he needs to boost agriculture in just his council area amidst concerns over bloated cost of governance in this country. The aides are to liaise between him and the farmers; they aren’t the farmers themselves, and it is arguable how much expertise the farmers lack and would need be filled in for by political appointees. Besides, potential replication of the initiative at other tiers of government is an unwieldy scenario to contemplate. Just imagine the Governor appointing a commissioner for tomatoes, another for yam, and yet another for palm produce rather than a single agriculture commissioner at the state level. Or, indeed, the President appointing a minister for rice, another for beans and another for kolanuts at the federal level. The possibility for job creation is limitless, of course, but so also is the cost of governance.

  • Happy puppets,happier puppeteers?

    Happy puppets,happier puppeteers?

    With jet pumps of emotion sprucing clean the “children’s” alleged crime, Hardball can be pardoned to think it is all right for teens to grab foreign flags, do heartless torching of government facilities and loot private shops — all as “democratic” right to protest!

    And shame: it’s the same mealy-mouthed lobby that ab initio canonized “legal protest” — no crime — but refused to take responsibility for the destruction that inevitably follows — big crime!

    Indeed, at no better time has a cynical push for “human rights” become a brazen push for “human wrongs” — and that lobby is not even sorry, given the court arraignment drama that has birthed this latest racket of conspiratorial sympathy!

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    But thank God: after the equal opportunity destruction that the EndSARS riots brought Lagos, including the torching of a fleet of near-brand new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) coaches at the Oyingbo terminal, aside torching the most iconic and historic skyline of Race Course and Broad Street, dating back to when Lagos was Federal capital, the courts did well to limit protesters — vandals? — to two spots.

    That was how and why Lagos escaped the wilful fire that time.  But Kano, Kaduna and other parts of the North were not so lucky.  The most tragic, of all these states, was Kano.  A gallery-playing Governor Abba Yusuf gamely invited fire to own thatch roof, playing the cynical “democrat”, deluded he would hurt no one but Abuja.

    The governor’s folly harvested a band of court-burning, rod-wielding and shop-looting “children” — a self-destruct fire that laid Kano prostrate!  What was more?  That band, in merry treason, was wielding the Russian flag and baying for military rule!  Are we then supposed to forget all that, because they all were “children”?

  • Anambra’s revenue collectors

    Anambra’s revenue collectors

    Importantly, the Anambra State government must investigate the incident in which two alleged Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) collection agents of the Governor Chukwuma Soludo administration were burned alive by a mob in Onitsha. A viral video showed the mob hitting the alleged revenue collectors with different objects before setting them ablaze. The shocking incident happened at Old Market Road in the commercial city.

    According to an eye-witness account, six “revenue collectors” were chasing a tipper driver “over a certain amount they asked him to pay.” Some of them tried to take control of the vehicle, which led to a struggle.  “In the process, the tipper driver lost control and rammed into a bystander, killing him instantly. Immediately the revenue collectors saw the damage they had caused, they tried to flee the scene.”

    The witness said an angry mob “set two of the revenue officials ablaze while four others managed to escape.” He added: “It was one death too many as this had been going on in Anambra in the last two years. The person the tipper driver rammed into is a known person. We cannot continue like this anymore. These revenue touts of the state government have killed more Ndi Anambra than non-state actors who are disturbing the peace.” The mob went too far.

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    However, a government official was reported saying the alleged revenue collectors were not government agents. Spokesman for the state police command Tochukwu Ikenga said they “responded swiftly” on receiving the news of the incident, adding, “We are already working with the relevant authorities to ascertain what happened.”

    It is disturbing that residents of the state were reported to have complained about the activities of revenue collection agents working for the state government, particularly their aggressive methods. The Soludo administration should look into this accusation and take action to ensure that its revenue collectors do their work without aggression.

    In March, Soludo, while speaking about his achievements two years after he became governor, said the state’s IGR was “N1.4bn to N1.5bn a month” at the beginning of his governorship but “now, we are getting to a little under N3bn.”  “That’s not where we want to be,” he added. “Our target this year is to be able to exceed N4bn, and Anambra has the potential to get up to N10bn on a monthly basis.”

    Improving the state’s IGR should not involve acts of aggression. It is condemnable that three lives were lost in this incident. 

  • As cheap as Kwankwaso

    As cheap as Kwankwaso

    Were a teacher, searching for a fresh simile to teach a set of kids, on gripping political behaviour, that simile would be “as cheap as Kwankwaso”!

    Indeed, there’s no cheaper stunt, or reckless political grandstanding, or just empty posturing, than Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso’s cheap gibberish of personalities, real or phantom, pocketing Kano; and Lagos “colonizing” the North.

    And to think this bloke just ran — and could, in future, run — for president of the Federal Republic!  What balderdash!

    The former Kano governor, addressing a gathering at Skyline University, Kano, went on and on, on a conspiracy theory that would put Donald Trump, the unfazed master of that genre, to shame!

    “Lagos wouldn’t allow us to choose an Emir,” he wailed, “Lagos young men are working so hard to impose taxes and take away our taxes from Kano!”  How cheap!

    To cut to the chase: Kwankwaso refers to the four consolidated tax bills, now before the National Assembly.  A lobby from the North wants the bills stepped down.  But President Tinubu has countered that whoever has any complaint should lodge them as part of the democratic law-making processes.

    So, that legitimate act passes for “Lagos boys” taking “away our taxes from Kano”!  So, Wale Edun, the Finance minister, and tax reformers working under him are now “Lagos boys” — and that bunkum to graduating university students!  Does Kwankwaso think they have sawdust as grey matter?  What disrespect!

    The current Emir of Kano tussle would appear gnawing at his ever restless soul!  Still, why this verbal panic? Does it write a bold handwriting on the wall?

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    Governor Abba Yusuf, Kwankwaso’s political sidekick, had rushed through a process to replace the Emir of Kano.  That has spectacularly back-fired, with two Emirs laying claim to a sole Kano stool, even as the case drags on in court.

    As the saying goes, a bad artisan blames his tools.  So, for that fumble, Kwankwaso now blames “Lagos” (read President Bola Tinubu) because the Emir that felt short-changed didn’t sleep on his right. 

    Rather, he is challenging the matter in court. But because Kwankwaso, Abba and co can’t bully the Police to rush the second Emir out of town, the President, because he is commander-in-chief, is now Kano’s colonizer from Lagos!  Haba! 

    Did this guy even pause to listen to his wild talk?

    This is a new low, coming from a former governor, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, former senator of the Federal Republic and a likely future candidate for the presidency! 

    It’s infra-dig.  Nothing can justify such loose and reckless talk.  Kwankwaso and ilk should stop giving the North a bad name, on the altar of cheap and desperate politics!

  • Stranded students in Cyprus

    Stranded students in Cyprus

    Zamfara State Government has 88 students stranded in Cyprus, and it needs to be more earnest with relieving their distress than it is at the moment. Affected students are those left of 93 students sent on scholarship to Cyprus International University since 2020, but whose welfare was neglected – exposing them to harsh living conditions and threat of deportation owing to expiration of their travel documents.

    The administration of former Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle, currently Minister of State for Defence, sent them to Cyprus and abandoned them there; but it is incumbent on the current administration of Governor Dauda Lawal to urgently succour them because government is a continuum. Blame game and finger pointing will have their place later. The present task is alleviating the students’ plight.

    Parents and civil society stakeholders recently bemoaned the fate of the students who are stranded over unpaid tuition, accommodation and feeding allowances, and improper documentation. They are reported to be facing severe hardships having been evicted from their hostels and denied access to classrooms, besides other essential services due to outstanding fees. The males among the students are said to have mostly resorted to sleeping out in mosques, with many taking to menial labor for basic sustenance. “The students are at risk of exploitation by employers due to lack of legal documentation,” the chairman of a civil society group known as Zamfara Circle Community Initiative, Dr. Aminu Lawal, was cited saying. According to him, their visas and passports have expired. “Living in a foreign country without legal documentation puts them at risk of imprisonment and deportation,” he explained, adding: “Already, one of the students has suffered this fate and was deported to Lagos in handcuffs. Another student remains in prison.”

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    The Dauda Lawal administration acknowledged the plight of the students and said it was working strenuously to redress their situation. But it seemed more keen on laying the blame on the former Matawalle government that sent the students on scholarship and left them in the lurch. Education, Science, and Technology Commissioner Wadatau Madawaki, at a press conference in Gusau, said the Matawalle administration reneged on its commitments regarding the sponsorship of the students, thereby exposing them to the hardships. “These students were simply left at the mercy of the university authorities by unpatriotic elements who cashed in on the poor arrangement to make fast money. Five of the 93 students left the university, remaining 88,” he added as he detailed measures the current administration had undertaken but which were yet to relieve the students.

    Hardball insists that more needs to be done, and more earnestly too. The Dauda Lawal administration must cut through all red tape to get needed funds to the students and salvage them from the deprivations they face. After the swooping hawk is beaten back, there will be enough time to rebuke carelessly wandering chicks.

  • Deflating inflation

    Deflating inflation

    Yet again, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicate that the cost-of-living crisis in the country is unrelenting. According to the agency, the inflation rate rose to 33.8 percent in October from 32.70 percent recorded in September.

    The Statistician General of the Federation, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, provided further information in a statement. He said:” The rise in food inflation was caused by an increase in the average prices of palm oil, vegetable oil, etc. (oil & fats class), mudfish, croaker (apo), fresh fish (obokun), etc. (Fish Class), Dried Beef, Goat Meat, Mutton, Skin meat, etc. (Meat Class), and Bread, Guinea Corn flour, Plantain flour, Rice, etc. (Bread and Cereals Class).

    He also said: “The highest increases were recorded in prices of Bus Journey within the city, Journey by motorcycle, Bus journey intercity, etc. (under Passenger Transport by Road Class), Rents (Actual and Imputed Rentals for Housing Class), Meal at a local Restaurant (Accommodation Service Class), and hair cut service, woman hairbrush, women’s hairdressing, etc. (Hairdressing salons & personal grooming establishments Class).

    The narrative has not changed. The prices of staples keep increasing. The same thing is true regarding housing rentals, transport, and medical services. 

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    Notably, the Director of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf, observed that the identified main factors driving inflation, “the depreciating exchange rate and surging fuel price,” were “yet to be effectively subdued.”

    However, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, recently declared that “The two critical reforms on market-based pricing of Premium Motor Spirit and foreign exchange are now at the stage of results delivery.”

    At an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Finance, he was reported saying, “These two pillars of the economic reforms… have taken positive shape,” adding, “I think we need to commend Nigerians for staying the course to this stage of getting benefits.”

    Many Nigerians who are still struggling with the cost-of-living crisis will not agree with the minister that the country is at the stage of benefitting from the economic reforms. The minister’s assertion is not supported by the increasing prices of goods and services reported by the NBS. 

    When inflation is deflated, the authorities will not need words to communicate that better times have arrived.

  • Reforms and respiration

    Reforms and respiration

    Disturbing figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated relentless inflation in the country. According to its latest Consumer Price Index report, month-on-month food inflation rate, for instance, increased in September, notably affecting prices of staples such as rice, maize, beans, and yams. There were also significant price increases in housing rentals, transport, and medical services.

    Responding to the NBS report, the Director of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf, was reported saying, “The reality is that the dynamics driving inflation are yet to be effectively subdued.” He observed that these factors include “the depreciating exchange rate, surging fuel price, rising transportation costs, logistics and supply chain challenges, high energy cost, climate change including resultant incidents of flooding, insecurity in farming communities and structural bottlenecks to production.”

    Taming inflation demands tackling these challenges, which are mainly the consequences of reforms introduced by the President Bola Tinubu administration.  The World Bank recently said the reforms were crucial for the country’s long-term stability. “Turning back or opposing the reforms would only make things worse,” said Ndiame Diop, World Bank country director for Nigeria, at the launch of the Nigeria Development Update (NDU) report in Abuja.

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    Predictably, the World Bank’s position drew public criticism in a country struggling with a crushing cost-of-living crisis. However, Diop added that the ongoing reforms “must be accompanied by reforms enabling the private sector to create more and better jobs. With targeted support to youth and women.” This was a way of saying that the hard results of the Federal Government’s reforms can be softened. The World Bank report also noted the need for structural reforms, such as reducing trade barriers, improving infrastructure, improving the business environment and supporting household businesses for inclusive growth.

    If the ongoing reforms were inevitable to achieve a better future for Nigerians, the authors and promoters of the reforms should understand that it is counter-productive to carry out such reforms without considering and implementing sufficiently ameliorative measures.

    The alarmingly deteriorating cost-of-living crisis in the country is a bad advertisement for the Federal Government’s reforms. It is important to ask what the three levels of government have done, and what they are doing to save Nigerians from hardship occasioned by the reforms.  They are expected to urgently find solutions to the cost-of-living issues in the spaces they govern. 

    No argument that reforms negatively impacting Nigerians are a necessary means to a positive end will make sense if the people can’t breathe.

    This article was first published on October 21, 2024 

  • Multichoice, multi-laments

    Multichoice, multi-laments

    For DStv, which content name goes by MultiChoice, it’s multi-laments — and about time too!  Same goes for Gotv, the “dog” — in marketing parlance — thrown at competition, at the low end of the market, to preserve its premium DStv brand.

    DStv/Gotv just announced that it lost 243, 000 subscribers within six months — as at September ending.  The response from the seething market has been predictable — good riddance!  That’s hardly surprising for DStv/Gotv are not the most popular brands in town!

    Now, DStv is an operational monopoly — operational because no law bars competition from giving it a stiff fight for market share.  But since the collapse of HiTV, competition has been feeble, if at all.  For that, DStv has strutted its near-sole giant market dominator status as some Hercules — with no less giant hubris!

    First, its cavalier billing attitude.  No matter how clean and faithful your subscriber record and history are, DStv yanks you off, that very second your subscription is off — no story.  No empathy.  Just grab the money and go — was that why DStv named its low end of the market brand Gotv?

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    Then, that hubris to just raise subscriptions at whim, thumbing its nose at wailing subscribers!  When DStv gets into that mode, no one matters — not the subscribers that sustain it, not the judiciary that tries to adjudicate fair deals for everyone. 

    DStv would have its way and everyone else can go to hell.  No wonder, a piqued subscriber base is telling DStv to go to hell too, in its hour of need! 

    Though the South African company’s subscriber loss wasn’t limited to Nigeria alone — it also posted a subscriber loss in Zambia, with indifferent growth elsewhere — Nigeria is its biggest market. So, that cut runs deep.  Which makes it strange why DStv often takes its Nigerian subscriber base for granted — and in many areas.

    First, it rains down product adverts and  warns of dire consequences should subscriptions lapse, like some harsh village headmaster.  But it seldom does any worthwhile pitch on subscriber appreciation.  Besides, on the technical plain, at the slightest hint of rain, its signals vanish!

    Then, the very offensive Southern African clannishness!  Before the last Olympics, only athletes from that belt were good enough for pre-Olympic promotions.  DStv has a penchant for what looks like black-on-black apartheid.  Its sports promotional choices almost reflect the notorious xenophobia of post-Apartheid South Africa, against Nigerians especially, even if Nigeria stood firm with South Africa, in its painful years of white minority rule. 

    Reversed but aggressive inferiority complex?  It’s really nauseating!

    Still, blame less DStv that often behave like fortune cowboys, with the collusion of their Nigerian partners.  Blame more the industry regulators that have been too lazaire-faire about content. It’s time to read the riot act.  MultiChoice must stop injuring Nigerian viewing sensibilities, while Nigeria remains its cash cow.

    To win back its Nigerian market, DStv has to undergo a vigorous attitudinal change.  Right now, the market is not smiling.  So, it won’t be a swift paradise regained — if any.

  • Their lordships, the unionists

    Their lordships, the unionists

    Magistrates in Cross River State threatened a warning strike from last week Wednesday. Thankfully, it appears they’ve not followed through with the threat –  at least as of now. The two-week warning strike was projected to forerun an indefinite strike if the state government fails to accede to their demands.

    Their lordships, under the aegis of the Magistrates Association of Nigeria, Cross River chapter, issued a seven-day ultimatum to the state government penultimate Wednesday over poor working conditions. They alleged career stagnation, undue exposure to hazards and paltry allowances as some of the issues they were beefing with the government. In a communiqué at the end of their congress in Calabar, the state capital, the magistrates threatened to desert the temples of justice from 13th November on a two-week warning strike, and subsequently make the strike indefinite if their complaints aren’t addressed.

    The communiqué signed by the association’s president, Godwin Onah, and secretary, Solomon Abuo, alleged that the state government stagnated magistrates since 2015 unlike other civil servants, who were promoted by incumbent Governor Bassey Otu between January and April, this year. The association described the N15,000 monthly imprest given to magistrates in Cross River as meagre compared with their colleagues in other states who “receive between N200,000 and N250,000 monthly.” It demanded rehabilitation of magistrates’ courts across the state and provision of official vehicles to magistrates. It also deplored the state government’s failure to pay yearly robing allowance to magistrates as obtainable nationwide.

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    The association said in the communiqué inter alia: “To protect the welfare of members, uphold minimum standards and sanctity of the magistrates in the state, we need immediate action on our demands. Magistrates are seen daily on public or commercial vehicles, most times alongside litigants and criminal suspects standing trial before them. This is a security risk to their lives.” Among others, the magistrates demanded immediate implementation of promotion and regularisation of their members across all cadres with attendant financial benefits, and payment of all accrued arrears. They also wanted official accommodation for magistrates, and that government should bear burial expenses of any deceased magistrate.

    The congress resolved that failure by the state government to grant its demands within seven days would leave its members no option than go on a warning strike for two weeks “in line with the extant labour laws…and subsequently embarking on an indefinite strike action until our demands are fully attended to.”

    There is something awkward about their lordships’ recourse to the nuclear option, given the dignified insularity that typically attends their profession. But since they’re there already, the state government should act with speed to avert the threatened strike. Only that their lordships too must realise there are limitations to government financial capacity, and they should work with a more realistic time frame.

  • More inmates at large

    More inmates at large

    It is troubling that the number of escapees from Nigerian prisons who have not been recaptured has increased.  About 278 inmates who escaped from the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Maiduguri, Borno State in September are still at large. The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) had said “281 inmates were observed to be missing” following a flood that “brought down the walls” of the facility. 

    According to the police, “Not less than four suspects have been re-arrested so far and handed over to the correctional service.”  This means that more than 270 escapees have not been recaptured. The police said “efforts are still ongoing to arrest the other fleeing suspects.” 

    However, this is unreassuring.  Prison escapees in the last two years still at large were reported to be about 4,000 in February. This is a conservative estimate.  NCoS spokesperson Abubakar Umar was reported saying, “For the purpose of being very sure and exact about the figure, we cannot for now ascertain the number of fleeing inmates, but we are making efforts to do that.”  This shows poor record keeping. It is inexcusable that the agency does not know how many prisoners are on the loose. 

    Escapees on the loose pose a serious danger to society as many of them are said to be dangerous criminals.  This is a bad situation. With so many inmates on the loose, there is an atmosphere of danger, which compounds insecurity in the country. It also defeats the essence of justice. The situation calls into question the capability of the country’s security agencies. Their failure to recapture the inmates on the run reflects ineffectiveness.

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    It is curious that so many prison escapees seem to have vanished into thin air. This raises questions about public vigilance and the role of the people in ensuring security by providing information to the security agencies on possible threats to security. For instance, it is unlikely that such escapees have had no interactions with members of the public, who could expose their status. But the lack of official information on the identities of the escapees certainly limits what the public can do to assist the security agencies to recapture them. 

    The available figures show that unacceptably large numbers of prison escapees have not been recaptured. Disturbingly, the figures keep rising.    This is inexcusable. The authorities must ensure that they are recaptured without further delay. Convicted prisoners must not be encouraged to believe that they won’t be recaptured if they escape.