The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Imperative of Local Govt. elections commission

    Imperative of Local Govt. elections commission

    Sir: Since the recent Supreme Court judgement granting financial autonomy to local governments in Nigeria, state governors have been racing against time to beat the court deadline and avoid stoppage of grants by the federal government. So far, many states have conducted their local government elections while others have set time for it.

    However, it has remained debatable whether the elections conducted by those states have passed the integrity test and reflected the wishes of electorates or not. Those who have been monitoring the outcomes of the elections are of the opinion that the elections are a sham and far from being free and fair. The win-it-all syndrome usually characterised the conduct of local government elections did not only play out but become worse in most of the elections conducted recently by SIECs. State governors ensure only candidates from their parties are declared winners. We have seen how PDP won all the chairmen and councillors seats in Adamawa State and same played out in Benue State in which the ruling party swept all the elective positions.

    If you are still optimistic about the conduct of local government elections in Nigeria, what happened in Rivers State will compel you to change your mind. An unknown political party with the name APP was declared winner of 22 local governments in the state. While Governor Sim Fubara might have cleverly planned the whole scenario to outsmart his political godfather, Nyesom Wike, one imagines how APP managed to coast to home to victory in a PDP stronghold within few months of its existence in the state.

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    When Senator Sani Musa (Niger South), sponsored a bill for the creation of Local Government Independent Electoral Commission, Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief. According to the bill, the body will be an autonomous body to organise, oversee and conduct elections for the office of local government chairman and councillors in all 36 states and the FCT.

    The Bill could never have come at a better time than now when majority of Nigerians have passed vote of non-confidence on the local government elections being conducted by SIECs. Not only do the SIECs dance to the tune of their governors, unwholesome practices have dampened the morale of electorates and created huge voters apathy.

    In order to deepen democratic participation at grassroots, accelerate development and above all reduce poverty, there is the need for quality leadership at local governments. To achieve this, there is the need for free and fair elections hence the call for the creation of Local Government Independent Electoral Commission to conduct seamless and transparent elections across the 36 local governments in the country.

    •Ibrahim Mustapha,Pambegua, Kaduna State.

  • The monsters in the Middle East

    The monsters in the Middle East

    Sir: Israel’s ongoing offensive against Palestinians in the Lebanon and the Gaza Strip is plunging millions into impossible situations, exposing the fairness of all in war as an atrocious injustice.

    Who is the monster in the Middle East? It should be Hamas, the militant Iran-backed pro-Palestine group. On October 7, 2023, it launched an unprecedented attack against Israel, breaching its supposed impenetrable security, killing 1200 Israelis and taking many others hostage.

     The monster in the Middle East should be Israel, which has since the attack launched an unprecedented crackdown against the Gaza Strip. More than 42,000 people have been killed, thousands more injured, and life irreversibly altered even for unborn Palestinians.

     The monsters in the Middle East should be the US and UK which continue to back the devastating Israeli offensive — and the international community, which choosing the easy escape route of international law, prefers largely to stand by.

     The monster in the Middle East could yet be Iran, which backs Hamas, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has been drawn into an increasingly complicated war. 

    The monster in the Middle East could yet be the vagaries of history, which seems to give each of the parties in the renewed hostilities a slice of justification for digging it their heels and putting millions of women and children in harm’s way.

     The monstrous conflict in the Middle East is a product of warped histories and complicities which are conspiring to sentence innocent Palestinian women and children to a living hell.

     But of all possible monsters in the conflict in the Middle East, Israel stands out for its complicated engagement with the history of the region and its egregious refusal to countenance any arrangement that may bring lasting peace to the region.

    Israel has starkly and strenuously refused to make significant concessions for peace, stubbornly clinging on to the land it has annexed, and blindingly branding all who disagree with it as enemies.

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     In this expedition of enmity, it has been actively backed by the US in what is actively a collaboration of death against many innocent women and children.

    No matter how superior a party to a war is, once the first shot is fired, there is no certainty how it will end or who would suffer what casualty. This is what makes the unpredictability of war so dangerous.

    But what is going on in the Gaza Strip cannot even rightly be described as a war. Rather it is a genocide perpetrated by the colonizer against the colonized. This oppression and operation streaked with blood has been decades in the making.

    Israel’s annexation and subsequent occupation of Palestinian lands did not inspire as much horror in the rest of the world as it should because of the staunch support of the USA and UK, and the unflinching hypocrisy of the international community.

     But it was always going to inspire fierce resistance from a people suddenly turned to strangers and slaves on their ancestral lands. That is undoubtedly what has happened.

     Through invasions, displacement, curfews, embargoes, airstrikes, horrific psychological and emotional persecution, generations of Palestinians have been born into the struggle, lived through it and died in becoming generations of martyrs for their cause.

     There have also been poets like Mahmoud Darwish and Fadwa Tuqan who have deployed literature as resistance, resilience, and rebellion against a ruthless foe with Darwish famously asking, “where should we go after the last frontiers, where should the birds fly after the last sky?”

     Much like the Rohingya who have been left at the mercy and butchery of the immeasurably cruel state of Myanmar, the Palestinians have been left at the mercy of Israel, a state that does not know what mercy is.

    Peace is the only option that can guarantee lasting security for Israel in the region. Experience has shown that those fighting for their land are willing to continue writing their names with scarlet steam to achieve their cause.

    The hostility and humiliation of the world will not break them neither will the hypocrisy of the international community.

    •Kene Obiezu,keneobiezu@gmail.com

  • Is Nigeria’s problem one of failure of leadership?

    Is Nigeria’s problem one of failure of leadership?

    Sir: Every Nigerian seems agreed on this: that the trouble with Nigeria is squarely a failure of leadership. It was Chinua Achebe, the novelist and iconic writer who espoused that thesis in his pocket-sized book, The Trouble With Nigeria.

    We all know that good, purposeful, visionary, competent, and accountable political leadership is a fillip to a country’s development. The absence of good political leadership in a country will cause the country to experience economic recession, technological backwardness, slow industrialization, infrastructural rot and deficit, and political stasis. There is always a nexus between national development and good political leadership.

    Thankfully, now, we have enjoyed, uninterruptedly, twenty five years of democratic leadership in Nigeria. But we have no concrete achievements to show for those long years of democratic governance. Since 1999, when the fourth republic dawned in Nigeria, each new civilian government seems to have fared far worse than its predecessor.

    So it seems that bad political leadership is at the roots of our national malaise. Truth be told, the successive civilian governments, which have led Nigeria from 1999 to the present time, have failed to transform Nigeria, positively. Those successive civilian governments could be likened to the Abiku phenomenon: the democratic government has kept on dying and reincarnating in different grotesque and malevolent forms, bringing sorrows and suffering to us.

    However, much as almost every Nigerian has concurred that Nigeria’s underdevelopment is traceable to bad leadership, which has been our lot for six decades, I beg to differ with those, who espouse that thesis. The reason is not far-fetched. If the citizens of a country have moral scruples, they can band together to thwart the efforts of their leaders to game and pervert the systems of doing things in their country. A morally regenerated populace can constitute a counter-force to a tyrannical, corrupt, and soulless civilian government that is bent on ruining their country.

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    But that is not the case in Nigeria. Millions of Nigerians, who are deeply religious, acquiesce in our leaders’ definition and perception of political leadership. In today’s Nigeria, millions of people, who are outside the loops of political power, view the political and moral degenerates, who masquerade as our political leaders, as clever and smart persons. And they are waiting their turns to become political leaders in order for them to start looting our collective financial tills. Here, in Nigeria, good is perceived as bad; and bad as good. As a result, corruption, which is the cankerworm choking life out of Nigeria, has become normative in our country.

    Nigerians are so morally bankrupt that they can’t turn down inducements given to them by occupants of exalted political offices. For a loaf of bread, a Nigerian, who professes either Christianity or Islamic religion, will help a corrupt politician to power. We circumvent the processes for securing government jobs by offering bribes to those who are in charge of recruiting workers for government establishments. Meritocracy has been dethroned by mediocrity in Nigeria because we are without moral scruples.

    Nigeria has become a laughing stock among the comity of nations, because of the misdeeds of Nigerian leaders. But if a majority of Nigerians insist on doing things in the right ways, and refuse to compromise on their positive morality-codes, our leaders will be compelled to turn a new leaf so as to escape the wrath and vengeance of the people. When we have chosen to live by good personal examples, and resist the temptation of perverting our systems of doing things, we will set our country on the trajectory of positive transformation.

    Nigeria’s parlous economic state, technological backwardness, and infrastructural rot and deficit cannot be divorced from Nigerians’ non-possession of moral scruples. Let us insist on doing good deeds, no matter whose ox is gored.  When we become the change we advocate, Nigeria shall realise its potential and manifest destiny, and become the true giant of Africa.

    Nigeria’s problem is not solely and chiefly a failure of leadership; we are the problem, which we seek to extirpate in our polity.

    •Chiedu Uche Okoye, Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State.

  •  How to reduce the housing deficit

     How to reduce the housing deficit

    • By Pius Evbuomwam

    Sir: Outside food, housing is the second most essential basic need of man. Housing is critical to the social and economic development of any society. It has a profound impact on the health, welfare and productivity of a man. Housing enhances one’s status. In other words, housing plays a vital role in a person’s standard of living and place in the society. In the most developed economies for instance, housing sector is an important stimulator and driver of economic growth, with multiplier effects on employment, income, access to education and health, among several other socio-economic impacts.

    Because of its importance to the development of the society, to the social, economic and welfare of the people, the developed economies made housing a priority. In Nigeria, reverse is the case; access to affordable housing has largely remained an unfulfilled dream to the vast majority, most especially, the middle and the lower classes of the society. To put it the way it is, housing deficit in Nigeria has grown from bad to worse, and successive governments from the time of Nigeria’s independence 64 years ago have been grappling with this problem, with little and insignificant outcomes. As at today, housing deficit in Nigeria is put at 28 million units, with about N21 trillion required to shore it up.

    Crucial challenges to housing development in Nigeria include non-availability of serviced plots for housing development, challenge of good title that will enhance the marketability of the land after you might have built houses on it, lack of basic infrastructures that will facilitate smooth development or a good title, challenge of finance. Housing is capital intensive and unfortunately, housing sector has been receiving very little in budgetary allocations compared to other sectors. Another challenge is the level of development in our country. We are still glued to the traditional way of mortar and bricks which takes a long time, and which does not take cognisance of the high rate of population and urban growth.

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    In other words, technology and expertise required for construction and development, technology required for mass housing for the teeming population is lacking. We lack the capacity, the technologies and system constructions that can throw up a lot of housing units at a time. To compound the challenge of finance is the absence of efficient mortgage finance system that would have granted easy access to housing. 

    Going forward? ‘Give to Caesar what belong to Caesar.’ Give management of housing sector to housing experts. Estate Surveyors & Valuers are better equipped to manage Nigeria’s housing.

    Most of those who have administered housing knew little or nothing about housing. It is not surprising therefore that housing sector and housing delivery lacks proper planning. Housing sector has suffered a great deal due to lack of proper planning and this constitutes a very big impediment to housing delivery. Allow the Estate Surveyors and Valuers to take charge and commence from the point of proper diagnosis of the problem, re-enact the land and housing policies that will guaranty access to housing on a continuous basis in Nigeria.

    •Pius Evbuomwam,

     Benin.

  • The desecration in Rivers

    The desecration in Rivers

    • By Ike Willie-Nwobu

    Sir: Nigeria’s fitful attempts to clean up its politics is suffering a seismic setback in Rivers State where bitter politics of succession is combining with the desperation of politicians to pollute the environment.

    The flames which licked up some local government secretariats in Rivers State may have only flared up on October 7, but their provenance lay in the past, in the bitter rivalry between Nyesom Wike, former governor of the state and current minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and Siminalayi Fubara, his successor and the incumbent governor of the state.

    The recent judgment of the Supreme Court on autonomy for local government areas has apparently turned local governments in the state into charged battlegrounds for the former governor and his successor with their supporters at each other’s throats.

    What is clear is that the fiery chaos in Rivers State is the handiwork of politicians who place personal interests above principles of state policy, and the the public, defying and denying what may burn in the process which invariably is Nigeria’s fragile commitment to the rule of law. It is they now who must now  be forced to leash their rabid dogs. It is as simple as that. The Nigerian state cannot be forced to wait on them or for them as no state which works properly can afford to.

    Those responsible for the arson must be prosecuted. Only criminals burn public buildings, and they must be treated as such.

    Again, what is the governor doing conducting elections in defiance of valid court orders? As the chief law officer of the state, he should be seen complying with the law embodied in court decisions at all times rather than pulling out bag after bag of tricks and maneuvers to shirk his responsibility.

    At inauguration, every governor in Nigeria pledges allegiance to the constitution which is the law establishing courts. But like most Nigerian presidents, these governors then go on to devise crafty ways to circumvent the constitution and all those who enforce it. As expected, this does incalculable harm to the rule of law in Nigeria.

    Nigeria needs to dig deeper to pull out new ways by which the rule of law can find a real presence in Nigeria beyond what is on paper and in the lip service of extremely unreliable politicians.

    The unfortunate situation in Rivers State ominously foreshadows what is to come in many states across the country. For many years, local governments operated only at the whims of state governors with no form of autonomy, financial or otherwise. The state of many rural areas across the country is testament to the neglect those areas have suffered because the closest tier of government to them has failed to function properly for decades.

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    The Supreme Court judgment can change that, but it is only if the forces holding Nigeria to ransom allow or are forced to relinquish their hold.

    As for those young people who continue to allow themselves to be used as tools by  desperate politicians, the time for common sense is now. Folly has been extortionate for many years, and having been emboldened by indifference, it is now proving fatal.

    Why burn public buildings when it will only give thieving politicians an opportunity to dip even deeper into the public till? Why the descent into violence when they know that the parties and politicians they are fighting for don’t really care about them?

    Politicians in the country must do more to clean up their politics, and de-escalate the tension in the body politic. No one’s grievance should become projectiles raining down on public buildings, or flames burning them down.

    While Nigerians wait for the holy grail of political reforms, those in the rural areas must recognize the historic opportunity offered by the Supreme Court decision on financial autonomy for local governments. They must now play their part if the local governments are ever to wriggle free from the suffocating grasp of state governors.

    Their part begins from participating in elections into local government areas, and insisting that their votes must count.

    •Ike Willie-Nwobu,

    Ikewilly9@gmail.com

  • The charades called local government elections

    The charades called local government elections

    • By Nurudeen Dauda

    Sir: To start with, free, fair, and credible elections in Nigeria are a major challenge at all levels. It is sad to note that the conduct of elections at local government levels by the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) is the “worst” form of election malfeasance. The ongoing ugly trend is that any state governed by APC or PDP or APGA or LP and or NNPP is certain to win 100% of the local council poll. This is our sad reality!

    For a very long time ago now, our governors have been exploiting some lacunas in the 1999 constitution to appoint caretaker committees instead of conducting elections for local government helmsmen. In states where elections were held, they were often kangaroo exercises.

    The Supreme Court has now determined that section 162 of our constitution mandates direct monthly revenue allocation to only local governments with elected officials. Prior to the judgement, majority of our local governments from across the states of the federation were administered by caretaker committees. Now, every state is now in a race to replace caretaker committees with elected officials in order to avoid the possibility of their allocations being withheld.

    It is unheard of and or unthinkable even in the so-called advanced democracies to have a scenario where all contested seats in an election are won by a single political party as it does happen in our local government elections. Election is the bedrock of democracy as well as the primary source of legitimacy; it affords citizens the opportunity to have a say on who governs them.

    It is quite unfortunate that we now often celebrate the brazen electoral fraud at the grassroots level in the name of local government elections. This will not take us to the promise land! For as long as elections are not credible at the local government levels, the much talked about financial autonomy granted to them through the July 11, Supreme Court judgement will mean little or nothing. State governors will continue to plant and/or impose their minions as chairmen via our usual kangaroo elections to guarantee their continuing access to local government funds.

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    All hands therefore must be on deck towards credible elections at all levels in our dear country as a necessary ingredient for good governance; credible elections often make leaders accountable and responsible. We must not settle at anything less than credible elections as the most important tool for achieving good governance.

    It is apt to state that from the year 2011 elections under Prof. Attahiru Jega to date, INEC has witnessed significant improvements in the conduct of its elections owning to the adoption of technology. In the 2015 general elections, card-reader technology was exploited by politicians for lack of legal backing and in the 2023 general elections, INEC Result Viewing (IREV) technology was also exploited for same reason.

    In my thought, the best way to improve our elections at all levels is to embrace modern technology wholeheartedly. This will certainly minimize human manipulations in our electoral process. The use of technology should and or must be made compulsory by both INEC and SIECs.

    For us to get it right, we also need electoral offences commission with a Special Court for trial of electoral offenders. There must be severe punishments for electoral offenders in our dear country in order to serve as deterrent to would be offenders.

    For the local government administration to improve, we must critically re-examine the following sections of our constitution: Section 162 sub-section (6), Section 7 sub-section 6 (b), Section 197 sub- section (1), The 5th Schedule of the 1999 constitution of the 1999 constitution as amended among others.

    •Nurudeen Dauda,

    Kaduna, Kaduna State.

  • Rivers State: Courting emergency rule

    Rivers State: Courting emergency rule

    Sir: Every horrendous development necessary to prompt an emergency rule declaration in Rivers State have occurred. There is no iota of doubt that the law and order has broken down irretrievably in the state.  

    We have a governor who has chosen to throw wisdom, maturity, caution and decorum into dustbin.

    He has continually runs the state outside the provisions of 1999 Constitution, as amended.  

    Governor Sim Fubara’s demolition of the Rivers state House of Assembly complex at the beginning of this year remains one of the most destructive and brazen attacks on the democratic institutions in the annals of Nigeria.

    He even made unsuccessful attempts to demolish the House of Assembly residential quarters in Port Harcourt.

    The governor made frantic efforts to jettison the constitution, by governing the state in denial of the existence of the legislative arm of government. 

    He practically affirmed that the House of Assembly does not exist after 27 members defected from PDP to APC following his egregious, arrogance and act of impunity in conducting the affairs of the state. 

    Before the recent fracas and political pandemonium, the governor has committed several impeachable offences so much that it has become curious and inexplicable why he’s still remain in the office.  

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    Nigerians recall that earlier this year, the president intervened in the political crisis through an eight-point resolution reached at the mediation meeting, the role to be played by the contending parties.

    Regrettably, no sooner than the governor arrived Port Harcourt, cornered and overwhelmed by disgruntled elements around him that he jettisoned the resolution.

    The crisis has since festered and assumed a colossal dimension.    

    For the avoidance of doubt, the recent pandemonium that engulfed the entire state was a direct consequence of the governor’s flagrant disobedience to the court judgment halting the conduct of Local Government elections in the state.

    Instead of the governor to respect the law of the land, he quickly stormed a court of coordinate jurisdiction in Port-Harcourt to obtain a contrary judgment.

    This was the crux of the matter.

    Of course, the ensuing election had an all APP candidates declared as victorious at his behest.

    This is why the entire state has been engulfed in violence and wanton destruction!

    Rivers State is just one of the 36 federating units; enough of this rascality and indiscretion.  As it is, the only one who can save the state and his good people from this regime of anarchy and disorderliness is the president.

    No solution would be appropriate and germane other than declaration of emergency rule.   

    • Kola Amzat (FCA, FCIB)Lagos.

  • Rivers State of anarchy

    Rivers State of anarchy

    Sir: The ongoing political crisis in Rivers State is indisputably tending towards an episodic or cyclical political limbo and as such, if a very drastic action is not taken to curtain the brouhaha, it may degenerate to a state of anarchy.

    Prior to the just concluded local government elections of Saturday, October 5, there have been series of court judgements and counter judgements as to who owned what, did what, where, when and how?

    The back and forth political conundrum is apparently becoming laborious and tense. The two main political gladiators in the state are incumbent Minister of Federal Capital Territory and immediate past governor, Nyesom Wike and his successor and incumbent, Siminalaye Fubara. The two warring factions in the last few days have thrown Rivers State into flames.

    Harold Laswell has contextualized politics as who gets what when and how. This aphorism is incontestable with the situation of things currently in Rivers State at the moment.

    There have been several questions on the lips of so many Nigerians as to what has informed such an episodic political drama with tense atmosphere in the state?

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    Without any sense of prejudice to any of the warring parties, the just concluded Local Government election in River State was not just a charade but a complete subversion of rule of law. In fact, the shenanigans in the elections on Saturday, has incontrovertibly explained the need for federal government to as a matter of urgency, further strengthen the prerogative of the Supreme Court verdict on the local government autonomy. It is imperative to further withdraw the control of state electoral commission expediently and discourage state security agencies including the proposed state policing.

    If state governors are not stripped of this promptly, like it played out in Rivers during the local government elections, governors will incessantly abuse the immunity and take advantage of such to unleash a reign of tyranny. Truth is that most of the governors are power drunk in their respective states.

    If the entire number of registered voters of Rivers State is 3.5 million, according to the data of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and less than 10 thousand voters participated in the just concluded elections, it therefore implies that the entire process was a junk and a shenanigan.

    The most interesting aspect of the charade is that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressive Congress APC did not take in the election. Ironically, whereas the APP cleared the 22 out of 23 local government areas, the two major parties ignored the election and refused to participate.

    Sadly, more than three local government secretariats have been set ablaze in the last two days and the situation is yet to be contained entirely.

    Much as the action of the federal government in withdrawing the security agencies from the local government secretariats was a welcome development, a lot of people have equally accused the Nigerian Police to have been complacent.

    So the question I ask here is: to what advantage or favour would it be to the two warring parties, should the federal government declare a state of emergency in River State? Wouldn’t the tense atmosphere persist?

    •Adekunle Alaye, PhD.Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

  • Anambra’s LG election, Cadmean victory for Soludo

    Anambra’s LG election, Cadmean victory for Soludo

    Sir: The just-concluded Local Government Election in Anambra raises serious concerns about the authenticity and fairness of the democratic process. Was this election a victory or an echo of a lost democracy? Was it an illusion of choice?

    On the surface, the Chukwuma Charles Soludo’s government has conducted local elections that have not taken place for over a decade, a fact that, in another time, would be seen as a triumph for democracy. But in this instance, the drums of celebration feel hollow, the dance of progress a mere facade. Governor Soludo, in an unguarded moment, let slip the true motive behind the election. Standing in his hometown of Isuofia, he revealed that the poll was more than just governance; it was a referendum on his performance, a precursor to his bid for a second term in office in 2025.

    Soludo, a professor of numbers and data, understands the power of perception. As a sharp mind, he felt that a quickly arranged election would provide the statistics and validate his quest for a second term in office now that his tenure is ending. He knows that numbers do not always tell the truth in the political arena, but they can be made to appear so. However, he should know that a conclusion built on flawed data would not stand the test of time.

    There was no actual contest in the election. Soludo, wielding the power of the All-Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), ensured that his faction swept all 21 local government areas. There were no ballots, opposition party participation, or result sheets in many places. It was a dance performed to the tune of a single flute; a performance in which the outcome was determined long before the Ndi Anambra even had a vote.

    The Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC), under Soludo’s influence, played the role of the snake charmer’s assistant. They, too, performed their magic, making the irregularities disappear; at least, that was the hope. But the cracks in the performance were glaring. The absence of ballots, the delays, the low voter turnout, and the lack of electoral independence left a trail that

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    The election therefore, can be compared to a puppet show, where the strings are pulled from behind the curtains. The people are left sitting in the audience, watching a play in which they have no part, their role reduced to that of silent witnesses. The government may call it a victory, but what triumph can there be when the people, the true sovereigns of the land, are left disenfranchised, their power usurped by a process that only mimics democracy?

    Democracy thrives on the blood of credible elections, for it is through the ballot that people breathe life into governance. But what happens when people are denied their voices and their choices are reduced to a mere shadow of their former selves? A democracy without the people’s voice is like a temple without worshipers, a body without a soul. Without balloting, without the active participation of multiple political parties, can we still call that democracy?

    The government’s victory in all 21 local government areas may appear like a conquest on the surface, but is it truly a cause for celebration? Perhaps it is what the ancient Greeks would call a Cadmean victory, a win that brings more harm than benefit. To claim victory where there was no actual battle or contest of ideas is to win an empty prize that echoes hollowly in the people’s hearts. A win that seems more a selection than an election leaves behind the bitter taste of disenfranchisement, making one wonder if the government should be celebrating.

    Soludo has failed the test of authentic leadership in this. Leadership is not about manipulating the system to ensure one’s survival. It is about sacrifice, standing in the gap for the people and working for their good, even at a personal cost. But in this instance, the people were not served. They were spectators in a drama they had no role in shaping.

    Governor Soludo may think he has secured his place in history by conducting local government elections after 11 years of stagnation. But history will not be kind to those who use the instruments of democracy to subvert it. The Anambra people are too bright to be deceived by orchestrated victories. Soludo’s only hope of securing the keys to Agu Awka Government House in 2025 lies in genuine performance rather than pre-determined electoral victories. His only credible path forward is to abandon the politics of deception and focus on service delivery.

    •Pat Onukwuli PhD Bolton, UK.

  • Making the housing sector a priority

    Making the housing sector a priority

    • By Mariet Avuedaoya Igiekhume

    Sir: Though not always recognized, the housing sector plays a very key role in a country’s welfare. You would agree with me that housing affects directly the performance of other sectors of the economy, and the well-being of the citizenry, for which reason adequate housing provision has since the early 1970s engaged the attention of most countries, especially the developing ones.

    One of the basic needs of man, housing impacts positively on productivity. Workers’ health, well-being, and growth are tied to decent housing. Not only that, housing is one of the indices for measuring the standard of living of people across societies. That is why governments of the developed nations in particular, have designed programmes of assistance to enhance adequate delivery of housing. Prominent in the list of the programmes are the ones around provision of infrastructure and finance, with more emphasis on finance, because housing provision requires huge capital outlay, which is often beyond the capacity of the medium income/low-income groups.

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    Mortgage financing is a major area of concern and one of the most formidable constraints in the housing sector. Governments of the countries of Europe and America have since addressed this issue, and have put in place structures which ensures efficient and sustainable credit delivery to the housing sector.

    One of the major challenges to housing provision in Nigeria is the absence of well-established and effective mortgage administration, and until this challenge is effectively resolved, the question of housing would remain begging for answer. I am of the opinion that government and the private sector should jointly drive the mortgage system. 

    There is the overall need to maintain the macro-economic variables via disciplined fiscal and monetary policies for stable growth and low inflation to support low interest rates.  Direct interventionist policy, to promote liquidity of the mortgage industry at single digit interest rates via the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Corporation (NMRC) and Family Home Fund (FHF) is the way to go.   Key is that the private sector via mortgage banks retain the role of underwriting mortgages directly and will boost effective demand for homes, which I think is far lower than the often-touted 21 million housing shortfalls. 

    It is important to state again that the core focus of government should be on how to control inflation in the long run, to allow for single digit interest rates, rather than just intervention policies.

    •ESV Mariet Avuedaoya Igiekhume,

    Benin.