The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Drug abuse: Nigeria’s silent epidemic

    Drug abuse: Nigeria’s silent epidemic

    By Abdullahi Yola

    SIR: In the midst of Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges, an insidious pandemic quietly infiltrates our communities, threatening the very fabric of our nation. The Nigeria Governors Spouses Forum and the Senate, in separate but harmonious declarations, have sounded the alarm on the disturbing rise of drug abuse and trafficking, calling for a decisive and urgent state of emergency.

    As the nation grapples with this silent epidemic, the question is: Is Nigeria ready to confront the harsh realities of a burgeoning drug crisis?

    With an estimated 14.3 million drug users in the country, according to recent reports, the scale of the problem cannot be overstated. These aren’t just statistics; these are lives unravelling, futures dimming, and a nation at risk of losing its youth to the clutches of addiction. The proliferation of drugs within our borders, fuelled by porous entry points, transforms Nigeria into a transit hub for traffickers, exacerbating an already dire situation.

    Reports indicate that in the last three years alone, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has seized over 7,500 tons of narcotics, a staggering figure that should send shockwaves through the conscience of every right-thinking member of our society. This unprecedented haul is not merely a testament to the vigilance of the new NDLEA, it is a chilling revelation of the sheer volume of drugs circulating within our borders.

    The call for a state of emergency is not just a plea for attention; it is a desperate cry for action. The consequences of inaction are too severe to ignore. Drug abuse has become intricately linked to the rising tide of criminality, school dropouts, social and health issues, and the alarming surge in violent extremism, kidnapping, banditry, and terrorism. It is not just a public health concern; it is a threat to our national security, our economy, and the very essence of our society.

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    The porous borders, which facilitate the unhindered influx of narcotics, demand immediate attention and a strategic approach to bolster our national security. The NDLEA’s efforts, commendable as they are, cannot stand alone; they need the full support of the federal and state governments. The governors’ wives rightly advocate for the declaration of a state of emergency as a means to mobilize the necessary resources for a coordinated and effective response.

    It is not just about arresting traffickers and seizing drugs; it is about addressing the root causes, fostering good parenting, and dismantling the social and economic structures that perpetuate drug abuse. The proposal to establish standard drug rehabilitation centres across the nation, particularly in each senatorial zone, underscores the need for accessible and stigma-free treatment for those grappling with addiction.

    The call for a state of emergency on drug abuse is a potential turning point that echoes the urgency needed to wrest our nation from the clutches of this silent epidemic. Such a declaration signifies a seismic shift, a departure from the lethargy that has allowed the drug menace to fester unchecked. It is a clarion call to transcend bureaucratic entanglements and confront the issue head-on, mobilizing unprecedented resources and national resolve.

    As we confront this silent epidemic, the narrative must shift from condemnation to compassion. Drug abuse is a symptom of deeper societal issues, and any solution must involve a holistic and empathetic approach. The senators’ suggestion to include drug education as a compulsory subject in Nigeria’s basic education is a step in the right direction, acknowledging that prevention is as crucial as intervention.

    Nigeria stands at a crossroads, and the decision to declare a state of emergency on drug abuse is not just an administrative formality; it is a moral imperative. Our future as a nation hinges on our ability to confront this silent epidemic head-on, with unity, empathy, and an unwavering commitment to the well-being of our people. The time to act is now, for inaction would be a disservice to the generations that look to us for leadership and guidance.

    • Abdullahi Yola, Jimeta, Adamawa state

  • Still on the matter with the constitution

    Still on the matter with the constitution

    • By Chiedu Uche Okoye

    Sir: To say that our country’s constitution is long overdue for change is to say the whole and incontrovertible truth. Among the things said against the Nigerian constitution is that it is more unitary than federal. Given Nigeria’s heterogeneous nature, federalism is the type of government that is suitable for our country. Nigeria needs a truly federal constitution to take care of its complexities and diversities. So the strident calls for the discarding of the constitution should be heeded.

    Nigeria, as it is currently constituted, is too big to be ruled from the centre. The sub-national governments should be strengthened and empowered, constitutionally, to perform some of the functions, which are currently listed in the exclusive list. This will enable them to play big roles in our national development and in the maintenance of law and order in the country. The sub-national governments’ existence as mere appendages to the central government does not augur well for our country.

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    In the same vein, the agitations for the creation of more states in the country, which are borne out of the agitators’ self-interests, should not be heeded. Most states in the country are not economically viable; they are always financially insolvent. So why should more states be created?

    Rather than create more states, local government areas should be created so as to bring the government nearer to the people. An efficient local government system would be a fillip to national development. And the local governments should be given autonomy to run their affairs instead of the state governors administering them through appointees. Sadly, today, the state governors have appointed their cronies and lackeys to perform the functions of local government chairmen on interim basis. This is in itself a democratic aberration or misnomer.

    Moreover, the matter of state police should be speedily resolved. Policing Nigeria from the centre is a gargantuan task given the humongous population of Nigeria and her large landmass. Today, Nigeria is grossly under-policed. So having state police will be a panacea to our security challenges. With state police, personnel will be deployed in areas with which they are familiar. Those personnel can effortlessly gather information and intelligence from the locals (people) because they have the same cultural affinities and beliefs as the locals. In today’s world, information and intelligence is central to the prevention of the perpetration of crimes by hoodlums and the arrest of criminal elements.

    We need a constitution which has emanated from the people. And such constitution should address our national problems and our country’s complexities and diversities.

    •Chiedu Uche Okoye,

    Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State.

  • Women agricultural empowerment – Open letter to President Tinubu

    Women agricultural empowerment – Open letter to President Tinubu

    • By Babangida Malabu

    Sir: Nigeria has the highest population of youth in the world and a median age of 18.1 years. About 70% of the population is under 30, and 42% is under the age of 15. The overall quality of life for the population is at risk of food insecurity made worse by the prevailing economic situation of the country.

    As an ardent follower of yours during the campaign, I am enthralled by the promise succinctly elucidated in your Renewed Hope manifesto titled “Plant the right seeds, feed an entire nation.” As a northern youth, we have first-hand experience of the impact of agriculture on the socio-economic development of our rural communities despite government neglect. Agriculture was the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy before the discovery of crude oil. From 1960 to 1969, the sector accounted for an average of 57.0% of GDP and generated 64.5% of export earnings. From 1970 to late 2000s, the sector’s contribution to GDP and export earnings steadily declined, because Nigeria’s focus shifted to petroleum exploration.

    In 2023, agriculture contributed to 30% of GDP. Aside being key to Nigeria’s economy after oil, agriculture provides livelihood for many Nigerians whereas the wealth generated from oil is only restricted to a privileged few.

    Mr President, at every farming season, chemical fertilizers are distributed to farmers across the country albeit late into the farming season with insignificant impact on food production and an overarching degradation of our land. Lands which were hitherto fertile and produced healthy crop yields have been rendered non-productive. Chemical fertiliser contributes to soil acidification and soil crust, thereby reducing the content of organic matter, humus content, beneficial species, stunting plant growth, altering the pH of the soil, growing pests, and even leading to the release of greenhouse gases. And these have been the only alternative provided by various agricultural intervention programmes across all relevant agencies in the country. These chemical fertilizers are outdated and would not give the necessary yield to help curtail the hunger crisis in the land within this raining season.

    Your proposed ‘Agbado revolution’ must be run disruptively to provide the needed result amidst this biting hunger in the land within the shortest period possible time and must be sustainable. Women and youth should form the core of this project that must include backyard farming, cluster farming etc. all year round that can engage over 15 million youth and women across the 774 local governments in Nigeria with immediate results.

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    Mr President, with a growing population like ours and a fragile economy with food inflation rate hitting almost 30% – an all-time high, the situation leaves the country susceptible to crisis at any time. No palliatives could quell the lingering crisis; most certainly, palliative will not and can never be a sustainable solution to help build our GDP and solve our immediate food insecurity by Q2 2024.

    Our coalition is calling on your good office to initiate a presidential special project for women and youth Agri-preneurs, using organic fertilizers, and home-grown approach to make every youth productively engaged in food production within his/her backyards, gardening or using any available free spaces to produce high yielding food and cash crops devoid of any threat of insecurity to farmers, particularly in the north.

    The renewed hope we campaigned and voted for was our path towards economic and agricultural sustainability across the country and we still believe in your ability to turn things around despite the hunger and excruciating hardship in the land. The Arewa youth want to go back to farming using modern tools and cutting-edge approach and we believe in your encouraging statement during the commissioning of tractors provided by Governor Umar Bago of Niger State.

    Mr President, if the National Assembly can approve ₦212 billion to install 1150 streetlights, then voting a ₦100billion for this intervention would be a worthy investment in food security for the nation. We have the potential to be the food basket of Africa and the world with the right interventions and guided by proper implementation.

    •Babangida Malabu

    Coalition for Arewa Youth Forum, Abuja.

  • Nigeria must defend its defenders

    Nigeria must defend its defenders

    • By Ike Willie-Nwobu

    Sir: In life, there are those rare occasions when might is right and force is fair. One such occasion has brewed in Okuama Community of Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State. On March 17, four officers and 12 soldiers from the 181 Amphibious Battalion were killed when they responded to a distress call between two warring communities of Okuama and Okoloba. The soldiers who were said to have been ambushed apparently had no chance against crude and callous criminals who no doubt knew every crevice in every creek in the area.

    The death of the soldiers also reopened old wounds in a country wounded all over. In April 2021, 11 soldiers were similarly killed during a peace keeping mission to Konshisha Local Government Area of Benue State.

    Attacking a people, though grievous, may be forgiven. But to attack their defenders is grave and unforgivable.

    For the communities whose youth were involved, the calculation should be simple: give up the killers and be rinsed of guilt as much as they can in the circumstances. The killers, regardless of who they are, must be given up. In a country about to be overrun by criminals, to so callously cut down some of those making a courageous last stand in the name of the country cannot and must not be forgiven. History and memory will not forgive Nigeria if it refuses to do nothing.

    Again, it must be asked, since when have Nigeria’s young people, who are the fabled future of the country, become cold-blooded killers of their brothers and sisters who have chosen to defend them? Since when have Nigeria’s young, bloodied and battered by the difficulties in the country, become killers. There is only crime, and there can be no excuse for such a crime.

    The Bomadi region which has now been indelibly smeared by human blood, sits immovably in the heart of the Niger Delta region. These killings would have the unfortunate effect of reinforcing the tropes about the Niger Delta youth as indolent, irresponsible, vicious and violent.

    At a time when criminals have mocked Nigeria by decapitating and dismembering its soldiers in the line of duty, no force would be disproportionate in fishing out the killers. No hand will be too heavy.

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    Social media has been awash with alarm that the army is burning down houses in the affected communities. But it is no time for alarm. Those who fetch firewood, infested ants must gird themselves for the visit of lizards.

    Nigeria must react to the iniquitous crime. It must show force, even disproportionate force, to deter future criminals. But this force must not be reserved for Delta State alone.

    After a lull in their activities, presumably to test the will of the new government, kidnappers have resumed their ruinous routines in Kaduna State. In the last week alone, close to 400 persons have been kidnapped in different locations in the state. Beyond the lure of leprous lucre, the kidnappers must have the Chief of Defence Staff in their sights. The elaborately staged and chillingly audacious kidnappings appear carefully orchestrated to humiliate him in his home state.

    It is extremely worrisome that pockets of insecurity are breaking all over the country and ruining people’s desperate hopes that they were finally safe.

    The criminals in Delta State who dared to murder and mutilate Nigeria’s intrepid defenders and responders have called for a response. Unless the country responds, it may soon find itself in a situation where it will call for help and no one will answer.

    •Ike Willie-Nwobu,

    Ikewilly9@gmail.com

  • Ningi’s outburst and need to end budget padding

    Ningi’s outburst and need to end budget padding

    SIR: Senator Abdul Ningi, representing Bauchi central, has stirred the hornets’ nest with his allegation of budget padding to the tune of N3.7 trillion in the 2024 budget. Ningi’s outburst has further put the integrity of the 10th National Assembly at stake.  Senators are constitutional empowered to make laws, approve budget and carry out oversight function etc. However, since the inception of democracy in 1999, the hallowed red chamber has been under scrutiny from Nigerians for wrong reasons. It was the former FCT minister, Nasir El-Rufai, who first in 1999 opened up the Pandora box. El-Rufai, then a ministerial nominee, had accused the senators of demanding bribes before they could screen him. Though the senators denied demanding anything from him, the weighty allegations against them that time, did not only paint the red chamber black, but would shatter its integrity.

    Much later, the late Senator Nuhu Aliyu, from Niger State would throw another bomb shell. Aliyu, who was a retired Deputy Commissioner of Police, alleged in 2007 that many of the serving senators were ex-convicts and that he arrested many of them but was surprised to see them elected as senators.

    The issue of budget padding has become a recurring phenomenon in Nigeria with the executive branch accusing the legislature of padding the spending plan almost every fiscal year.

    Nigerians will recall when Honourable Abulmumin Jibrin, the then House Committee Chairman on Appropriation, blew the whistle of padding in the 2016 budget. Jibrin had alleged that Yakubu Dogara, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, his deputy, Yusuf Lasun, House Whip, Alhassan Doguwa, and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, inserted projects worth several billions of naira into the budget.

    In 2018, President Buhari accused lawmakers of budget padding when he signed the 2018 budget noting that the projects inserted by the National Assembly would be “be difficult to execute.”

    Similarly, President Buhari on January 2, 2023 signed the 2023 Appropriation Bill into law with aggregate expenditures of N21.83 trillion, an increase of 1.32 trillion over the initial executive proposal for a total expenditure of 20.51 trillion. Buhari would equally note that the National Assembly introduced new projects into the budget proposal totalling N770.72 billion while also increasing the provisions made by Ministries, Departments and agencies (MDAs) by 58.55 billion.

    Senator Abdul Ningi is certainly not a first time senator; which means that there must be an element of truth in his outburst. Instead of suspending him, the senate president should have constituted a committee to investigate his claims. Little wonder, since his outburst and subsequent suspension, the Bauchi-born lawmaker has been receiving sympathy and applause from some Nigerians.

    Despite the fact budget padding is a recurring phenomenon, it seems about time President Bola Ahmed Tinubu put an end to it. Amidst dwindling revenues, insertion of fictitious or non-existent projects worth trillions of naira can only further push the economy into the precipe.

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    Although the constitution confers the powers of appropriation on the NASS, such powers are not absolute. Lawmakers have no right to introduce new projects into budget proposals, especially projects that have not undergone environmental impact assessment. Projects require planning, feasibility tests, land acquisition and buy-in by state and local stakeholders. There should be an identified source of funding. Budgeting is an executive document which contains the priority projects of the executive.

    However, when priority projects are removed outright and unplanned projects of lawmakers are introduced arbitrarily, this frustrates the agenda of the executive and renders budgets un-implementable. Annoyingly, lawmakers never care about funding sources when inserting spending items or creating new ones. There should be an end to the padding. One option is to take the matter before the Supreme Court for determination.

    Padding can also be tackled from the crime and law enforcement perspective. Lawmakers and civil servants implicated in budget padding should not be spared. Failure to prosecute offenders has sustained corrupt practices, emboldened, and enriched the perpetrators. The anti-corruption agencies should pursue offenders with tenacious efficiency. The Public Procurement Act and other extant laws and regulations should be faithfully adhered to; complicit civil servants should be identified, punished, and flushed out of the service. These are some of the silver bullets the Tinubu’s administration should deploy to stop budget padding that benefits few vested interest to the detriment of millions of Nigerians.

    • Ibrahim Mustapha, Pambegua, Kaduna State.
  • On the resurgence of mass kidnapping

    On the resurgence of mass kidnapping

    SIR: In just one week, bandits and Boko Haram terrorists have abducted scores of students, female IDPs, and other citizens across northern Nigeria.

    On February 28, bandits killed two residents of Anguwan Auta in Gonin Gora, Kaduna State and kidnapped 16 others. The kidnappers are demanding a ransom of N40 trillion, along with 11 Hilux vans and 150 motorcycles, for their release.

    On March 7, 287 students, boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 15, were abducted by bandits from primary and secondary schools in the town of Kuriga in Kaduna State. The bandits have demanded a N1 billion ransom to set their captives free. They also threatened to kill the victims if the ransom was not paid in 20 days.

    On Friday, March 8, Amnesty International (AI) reported that Boko Haram terrorists abducted over 400 people, including women and children, in Borno State. Boko Haram kidnapped the IDPs from different IDP camps in the Gamboru Ngala area of the state, which is one of the least secure parts of troubled Borno State, according to some observers.

    In the early hours of Saturday, March 9, 15 Quranic school students and an elderly woman were kidnapped when bandits raided Gidan Bakuso village in the Gada Local Government Area of Sokoto State.

    Looking at outrageous demands and the targets, the bandits and the Boko Haram terrorists are all out to embarrass the government and cash out from it because most of their targets are soft and in rural areas.

    The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, was quoted as saying that President Tinubu has directed that security agencies must, as a matter of urgency, ensure that these children and all those who have been kidnapped are brought back in safety and also in the process, to ensure that not a dime is paid as ransom.

    Can the government secure the release of the hostages as soon as possible without negotiation or payment of a ransom? Have the terrorists discovered a loophole in the current approach? It appears that the bandits and terrorists are exploiting the successes achieved in certain hotspots, possibly causing security agents to focus on other areas.

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    What needs to be done is a holistic approach to the deployment of both the kinetic and non-kinetic approaches. The states, federal, and local communities should work together as collaboration is key to security management.

    Managing security in a vast country like Nigeria with inadequate modern technology for security management is difficult, and federal security operatives cannot be everywhere and anywhere at the same time. Here comes the importance of a well-designed and structured state police. They play a crucial role in maintaining law and order within their respective states by enforcing state laws, responding to emergencies, investigating crimes, and ensuring public safety. Thereby, they contribute significantly to the overall security and well-being of the citizens within their jurisdiction, while complementing the efforts of other federal security agencies.

    The hope is that the government should consider revitalising and re-strategizing both kinetic and non-kinetic security approaches as being implemented by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA). This will not only lead to more successes and breakthroughs; however, more intelligence gathering is needed.

    Community engagement and direct psychological communication with the bandits should be employed. In community engagement, communities should be made to feel like part of the solution in security management, thus providing intelligence and also acting as watchdogs for security operatives without being endangered. Secondly, the reported ongoing soft approach’ should be sustained, and in direct communication with the bandits, psychological, social media, and artificial intelligence (AI) methods should be greatly utilized. Most bandits and Boko Haram terrorists now also use social media. Therefore, a coordinated effort should be launched by the ONSA and other relevant bodies to recruit individuals who speak the languages of the bandits. These individuals can then send convincing messages to them regarding the disadvantages and dangers associated with their activities, while also highlighting the benefits of adopting a normal lifestyle.

    To enhance security for soft targets and rural schools, the government at all levels, along with security agencies and local communities should collaborate on implementing both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches.

    • Zayyad I. Muhammad, Abuja.
  • Insecurity: Focus on terror financing

    Insecurity: Focus on terror financing

    SIR: Security experts and analysts have long identified ‘funding’ as the oxygen that keep terrorists relevant in the cause of perpetrating their heinous crimes. They suggest that combating this hydra-headed monster requires cutting off their sources of finance.

    And this very important task requires a multi-stakeholder approach involving various financial and anti-graft institutions, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), commercial banks, and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), among others.

    General Christopher Gwabin Musa, Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, was recently quoted as appealing to the EFCC to track down the sources of funding for terrorists and terrorist organisations in the country with a view to disrupting their chain of activities. For while military operations and intelligence gathering are vital components of the fight, a lesser-discussed yet equally critical aspect is tackling the financial networks that fuel these organisations.

    Terrorist groups, like any organisation, require money to function. Disrupting their financial lifelines can significantly cripple their ability to operate, recruit, and carry out attacks.

    Terrorist organisations employ a diverse range of methods to raise funds through various means, especially criminal activities. Kidnapping, extortion, drug use, and human trafficking are all common sources of income. These activities not only raise money but also instil fear and disrupt communities.

    For example, bandits who abducted 16 residents of the Gonin Gora area of the Kaduna metropolis recently demanded a ransom of N40 trillion, 11 Hilux vans, and 150 motorcycles for their release. It is obvious that if paid, a larger percentage of the money will go towards financing another cycle of terrorism.

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    Terrorist organisations often use financial incentives to attract new members. Disrupting funding makes it harder to recruit and retain fighters, thus weakening their foot soldiers.

    No doubt, terrorist groups rely on money to spread their message and maintain public support. By cutting off their funds, their ability to influence public opinion diminishes, thereby weakening their propaganda efforts. Similarly, money is needed for transportation, communication, and safe houses. Disrupting financial flows hinders a group’s ability to operate and plan attacks effectively.

    Therefore, implementing robust anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regulations is crucial. This includes stricter monitoring of financial transactions, better information sharing between banks and law enforcement, and improved customer due diligence.

    There is also a need to educate the public about the dangers of terrorist financing and how to identify suspicious activity, which can help prevent individuals from unknowingly contributing to these groups.

    Because financial disruption is crucial, it must be coupled with efforts to address the root causes of terrorism, such as poverty, social exclusion, and lack of opportunity.

    •  Mukhtar Ya’u Madobi, ymukhtar944@gmail.com
  • Another national embarrassment

    Another national embarrassment

    By Debo Adeniran

    SIR: The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, calls on the Presidency to come out clean on the allegation of budget padding currently making waves in the country.

    There is something fishy when a sitting senator raises a damning accusation against the senate and the executive concerning how the commonwealth of the generality of the people of the country is being spent and till now we don’t have a concrete statement from both the senate and the executive concerning this allegation.

    We believe the Accountant General of the Federation, AGF should have documentary evidence to either support or reject this allegation or at least come out with verifiable evidence(s) to assure the people that the government is on the right track as far as the national budget is concerned.

     We at CACOL find it difficult to believe that allegation of budget padding could raise its ugly head again at this crucial point of this administration’s tenure. We would like to affirm that the allegation, if true, represents the pinnacle of gross misconduct and an obvious negation of every modicum of the principles of transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility. In fact, it is a shame that despite being tagged as one of the most corrupt in the world, the issue of budget padding is still reeking out from government quarters, that is supposed to champion anti-corruption effort in the country.

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     We would like to inform the representatives of the people currently in government that power is transient and that it very dishonourable to betray the trust of the millions of Nigerian citizens by misappropriating the money they are entrusted to manage on behalf of the people.

    Considering the battered state of the economy today, the worsening devaluation of the naira which has led to reduction in the purchasing power of the people, and the throes of biting hunger that has pervaded the land, it would be wrong for any one in government to add insult to injury being experienced by innocent and hapless Nigerians by mismanaging the revenue of the country and spending it in the most illegal and illegitimate means possible.

    We would therefore use this opportunity to call on the various anti-graft agencies to look in to this allegation as quickly as possible with a view to bring the perpetrators if any, to book.

    • Debo Adeniran, cacolc@yahoo.com

  • Abdul Ningi and the hornet’s nest

    Abdul Ningi and the hornet’s nest

    In the comfort of his most private moments, that is, if he finds comfort anywhere or in anything these days, Abdul Ningi, the senator representing Bauchi Central in the National Assembly may be forced into a rethink. With the aid of a sober reflection, he may be compelled to lament the situation where he levelled allegations of budget padding at Nigeria’s premier legislative institution.

    Could he have shown more respect? Did his fidelity to his constituents in Bauchi Central and the Senate where he is a ranking member warrant that he show more respect to authority?

    Now that he has cupped himself a three month suspension from the powers that be in the senate, he will surely have enough time for introspection and circumspection.

    What did Ningi say that has not been said previously? Budget padding used to be a taboo word, but not anymore. It was discovered long ago that some Nigerian legislators with extensive networks in the   National Assembly, and nothing but loyalty to their private pockets had perfected the art of manipulating the chief instrument of public finance.

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    The leadership of the Nigerian senate may feel embarrassed by Ningi’s utterances. Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President has described his actions as defying the authority of the Senate. It may be. But lest the senate argues that Ningi’s chilling revelations are an in-house matter, issues surrounding Nigeria’s budget, bogged down over the years by corruption, are very much public issues. Indeed, they take the nature of a public emergency.

    Nigeria’s flawed federalism has done nothing but cause problems for the country since a triumphant return to democracy in 1999. The executive has often proven itself grasping and greedy. The legislature has been all too easy to cow and manipulate. The judiciary has often seen its independence eroded by corruption and a lack of financial autonomy. All these have shaped into a coup against the Nigerian people.

    Nigerians have come to be defined more by hope than expectation. They barely expect anything good to come from their government. They just stay and hope that something good happens to them. This has become the fate of many people in Africa’s most populous country.

    This propensity to find purchase more in hope of the rare goodness of those who represent them in government than reasonable expectation of good governance has been the undoing of many.

    There is docility powered by resignation to a phantom powerlessness. This in turn emboldens those in positions of authority to act with irritating impunity, safe in the knowledge that nothing will happen to them.

    This approach and counter-approach will colour the conversation over Senator Ningi’s weighty allegations in the next few days. From past experience, observers can conclude that the uproar will yield nothing in a country where impunity is the intimidating insignia of public office.

    In a country where some of the most patriotic citizens have given up hope of things getting better, maybe Senator Ningi should have played it safe. He should have known that it pays to play safe in Nigeria or maybe, the passage of time has made such a veteran politician uncharacteristically careless. Time will tell.

    • Kene Obiezu, keneobiezu@gmail.com

  • Senegalese’s crushing blow on Sall

    Senegalese’s crushing blow on Sall

    • By Paul Ejime

    Sir: After taking his country and the region on a needless rollercoaster ride, President Macky Sall of Senegal has finally capitulated. The February 24 presidential election, which he had attempted to postpone by all means, will now take place on March 24, thanks to the uncompromising position of the population supported by civil society activism.

    Sall had failed to postpone the presidential election through a presidential decree and a controversial law hastily passed by the National Assembly after opposition MPs were removed from the chambers by paramilitary police.

    The Constitutional Council, which has the final say on electoral matters, had to step in to nullify as unconstitutional the decree and the law, which the opposition described as “a constitutional coup,” a malignant syndrome causing political instability in the region.

    Unfazed by the political tensions and sporadic street protests that led to the death of at least 20 people between June 2023 and last month and with dozens clamped in detention, Sall continued on his doomed project by calling a National Dialogue to fix a new date for the presidential vote after the Constitutional Council’s damning verdict.

    He also took his fight to the last ECOWAS summit, accusing the commission of acting like a civil society organization for daring to admonish his government to respect the electoral calendar and provisions of the country’s constitution.

    Sall’s dubious political game has now run its course. The Constitutional Council has since dismissed the outcome of the National Dialogue, which had fixed June 2, as the new date for the presidential election.

    The Council insists that the vote must take place before April 2, the end of Sall’s mandate.

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    Consequently, Senegal’s Council of Ministers fixed March 24 as the new date for the presidential election.

    Many Senegalese were surprised that Sall, who was a major beneficiary of the opposition against his predecessor President Abdoulaye Wade’s third-term agenda, would contemplate a similar route to prolong his stay in power.

    By April 2, he would have spent 12 years and the mandatory two terms of presidency prescribed by the Constitution, having previously served as Prime Minister and President of the National Assembly.

    His ill-fated moves had cast Senegal in a bad light, denting its democratic credentials as the anchor of stability in the politically restive ECOWAS region. Senegal often prides itself as the country of the “Teranga” (a peaceful place), and the only nation that has not witnessed a military coup in the so-called coup zone.

    Sall’s failed political adventure should also serve as a lesson to ECOWAS leaders, largely blamed for poor leadership, bad governance, and the attendant socio-economic and political instability in the region.

    • Paul Ejime,

    Abuja.