Category: Letters

Sir : On Monday May 29, President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure as president will come to an end with Bola Ahmed Tinubu taking the oath of office as president.

Buhari’s political odyssey began in 2007 when he contested the position of president under the platform of APP. That bid was unsuccessful as late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua emerged president under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) banner. Subsequent quests in 2007 and 2011 were futile. It was not until 2015, when progressive politicians came together to float a new and strong opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, that his bid became successful.

In all of these times, his campaign promises were premised on fighting insecurity, corruption and above all formulating good policies to stabilize the country’s economy.

Now that the administration is making its exit, the posers begging for answers are: Have these promises been fulfilled? Has the country’s security situation improved in the last eight years?

What about the war against corruption and the condition of our battered economy? Have these areas fared well under Buhari’s watch?

To the credit of the Buhari administration, the war against Boko Haram insurgents recorded tremendous and appreciable success. The dreaded and murderous group has been largely tamed by our gallant soldiers with the remnants resorting to attacking only soft targets. However, while Boko Haram has been degraded in the northeast states, the emergence of bandits in Northwest, killer herdsmen in north-central and IPOB in Southeast have exacerbated tensions in the country. Non-state actors and other terrorists have continued to unleash terror on hapless Nigerians. The attendant consequences of their incessant attacks are humanitarian and food crises. Farming communities have fled their ancestral homes due to frequent and coordinated attacks from these criminals.

President Muhammadu Buhari enjoys the reputation of being a no-nonsense leader who corruption. This quality has endeared him to many Nigerians. Regrettably, corruption appears to have blossomed under his watch. Indeed, some of his ministers have been fingered in multi-billion corruption. The corruption charges against the former Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, are one among many.

While the anti-corruption agency, EFCC and its sister agency ICPC, have been allowed to operate without let or hindrance, the pardon granted to former Plateau and Taraba State governors, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame shocked Nigerians and mocked the administration’s war against corruption. Undoubtedly, official corruption has risen astronomically under Buhari eight years.

In the last eight years, the administration initiated and implemented various social investment programmes through CBN and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, yet poverty has reached its frightening peak. The multi-dimensional poverty index report which puts 133 million Nigerians below poverty line attests to this. Unemployment has jumped up exponentially. The inflation rate has also risen to unprecedented levels, thus eating up the purchasing power of Nigerians.

On the economic front, the Buhari administration has performed woefully and below the expectation of Nigerians. Added to the burden of our fragile economy is huge foreign and domestic debt incurred by the government.

No wonder, President Buhari recently asked Nigerians for forgiveness. True, the eight years he spent in power have failed to transform the country into an Eldorado.

The incoming administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu should brace up for the challenges ahead. Interestingly, his antecedents as tax guru who governed and transformed Lagos State to a mega city speak volume about his capability. If the giant strides recorded in Lagos could be replicated in the country, Nigeria will achieve greatness within the shortest period of time. This is possible, if he can hire and assemble competent and capable team to help him to drive the country forward. The challenges of insecurity can be tackled through massive recruitment of security personnel. There is no gainsaying the fact that job creations and poverty reduction are elixir for building a resilient and prosperous nation. The president-elect needs to embrace this formula wholeheartedly.

•Ibrahim Mustapha,

Pambegua, Kaduna State.

Sir:  When Bello Matawalle, the outgoing governor of Zamfara State accused the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa of requesting for bribe, I knew we were in for another possible cycle where the commission’s heads usually get ‘embarrassed out of office as a result of one scandal or skirmish or the other. This is an early smoke to a usually heavy fire that would follow, if the commission’s historical trend is anything to go by.

Groups of ‘civil society’ organizations have also published damning allegations against the chairman, calling for his head immediately. The chairman’s supporters will be quick to call the recent campaign as corruption attempting to fight back, since the outgoing governor of Zamfara, is said to be under investigation by the commission, for the possible diversion of N70 billion of the pillaged state’s funds.

What is readily obvious about his outburst is that, while the governor is apprehensive about spending days in the commission’s detention centre and answering series of queries, he would rather that the commission also queries members of the outgoing federal government. Moreover, even the chairman of the anti-money laundering watchdog is not clean, according to him. By this logic, we would have in our hands an ‘orgy’ of detentions and investigations, so much so that his accusation will be hidden under bigger scandals. This is being clever by half.

Well, I am neither among the EFCC chairman’s supporters nor that of the governor’s. I am more concerned about the strength and integrity of the watchdog as the protector and regulator of the country’s ‘economic sanity’. If elected governors can be justifiably protected from prosecution by the immunity clause of the constitution, why are there no provisions to protect the anti-corruption agency from undue political interventions, distractions and intimidation?

The EFCC is not only engaged in fighting with and recovering funds from thieving politicians and civil servants, they are effectively in charge of protecting the economy of the country from sabotage and mismanagement. Terrorism, human trafficking and illicit drug dealing deal more with funds than in anything, which falls more under the jurisdiction of the EFCC more than any other agency.

It is agreeable that the agency, just like any other organization, is bound to have bad eggs, which could include its head. This does not in any way imply that the EFCC as an institution should be dragged into the mud. No individual should be free from prosecution; as a matter of fact, however, some positions should be immune from probe and intimidation. The EFCC perfectly fits this profile. Therefore, Bawa may be prosecuted for any allegation, but not while he is chairman of the EFCC. This protection should last for the duration of his tenure as chairman, of course.

In England, for example, the National Crime Agency (NCA) which is in charge of the response to serious and organized crime, set up an agency akin to our EFCC, called the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), which also contains several other law enforcement agencies that collaborate to fight economic crime. What this sort of formation does is that it has effectively (or inadvertently) eliminated any ‘figure heads’ that may be an easy target for political attacks or interferences.

Moreover, a mix-grilled inter-agency collaboration will also mean that each unit will act as watch-dog over the other, and also under another anti-corruption centre, and not reporting to their original law enforcement agencies.

What am I implying? The EFCC needs to evolve and match these challenges of political interference and possible executive excesses, to make the agency very complex and difficult to access. Giving the commission a complex, multi-level and non-linear organogram, for starters, will assist in achieving that. Each member of the organogram will have a clearly defined performance indicator and reporting line which should be simple enough to fathom. At the same time, the powers of the chairman or head of the commission are protected, as well as monitored.

• Aliyu Sulaiman,

Katsina.

SIR: In the run-up to the 2023 general elections, the Federal Government launched a new mobile application known as ‘N-Alert’ to help monitor and report criminal activities such as election fraud, vandalism, and fire outbreaks. 

The app allowed users to send real-time reports of any irregularities to the relevant authorities, which helped to ensure that the elections were conducted fairly and transparently.

The app also allows users to report any incidents of vandalism, floods or fire outbreaks in their local areas, which helps law enforcement, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and fire services to respond quickly and prevent further damage.

effectiveness in reporting incidents.

Developed by a group of young tech enthusiasts from the Federal Ministry of Interior, N-Alert has already gained significant popularity among the public, with thousands of downloads reported in just a few days of the announcement. 

With the app, voters were able to report any form of irregularities, such as ballot box snatching, voter intimidation, and other electoral malpractices, which helped to ensure free and fair elections.

Users uploaded pictures and videos of any suspicious activities or incidents, and the data was sent directly to the security agencies control centre. This allowed the authorities respond quickly and efficiently to any issues that arose and ensured the integrity of the election.

Read Also: President supervised credible elections, says Gambari

According to the developers, N-Alert is a simple and user-friendly app that can be used by anyone with a smart phone. The app uses GPS technology to track the user’s location, enabling the authorities to respond quickly and efficiently to the reported incidents.

Once an incident is reported, the app uses real-time GPS technology to pinpoint the location of the user and send the report to the nearest emergency response unit.

One of the key features of the app is its ability to provide users with real-time update on the status of their report. Users are able to track the progress of their report and receive notifications once the issue has been resolved. This feature has been particularly helpful in situations where response time is critical, such as during a fire outbreak.

The N-Alert app has received positive feedback from users, with many commending its effectiveness in reporting incidents and aiding the authorities in responding promptly. With the app, citizens are taking proactive steps towards ensuring their safety and the safety of their community.

While being described as a timely intervention in the fight against crime and other emergencies in the country, the success of the app has inspired other Nigerian tech entrepreneurs to develop similar apps to address other societal issues.

•Ukopono Ukpong,

Abuja.

SIR: The recent exchange between Bello Matawalle, the outgoing governor of Zamfara State, and Abdulrasheed Bawa, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would have been comical if it weren’t almost tragic.

Nigeria is a country burdened about corruption. That this burden as costly as it is does not generate the amount of bother it is supposed to generate speaks more to the nonchalance of a country headed for the rocks than to the extortionate cost of corruption on the country’s resources.

Before Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, the extremely perfidious military regimes of Ibrahim Babangida, and then Sani Abacha, had ensured that the foundations of corruption were firmly laid in the country.

Years of free flowing oil wealth and weak institutions embarrassed by their inability to demand accountability from thieving autocrats had set up Nigeria to always struggle to account for every kobo coming from its oil.

When he became president in 1999, Olusegun Obasanjo just like other presidents after him pledged to give corruption a nasty fight. This presidential desire was undoubtedly what led to the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2002. Upon its establishment, the commission, like a rabid dog, was immediately unleashed and tasked with going after those who, having had the opportunity, had sold Nigeria short, spiriting away humongous sums of money in the process.

Under Obasanjo, Nuhu Ribadu chaired the EFCC bringing the anti-corruption body through some of its best days. If Nigeria’s quest to recover her money senselessly stolen by criminals masquerading as public officers was always a thing of beauty, it was not always without blood.

The commission has since witnessed some brutal days in which it was left with a bloody nose as it went after the big beasts of Nigeria’s corruption. In a country where everything can be easily and effortlessly sensationalized, the commission has been caught in its fair share of headwinds in its anti-corruption mission.

Read Also: Matawalle under probe for N70b contracts, says EFCC

A lot of these headwinds have been political, the handiwork of corrupt and compromised public officers desperate to shield their loot and lackeys from the long arm of the law.

Unfortunately for the EFCC and Nigerians, pervasive politics has sometimes penetrated the highest decision-making quarters in the country to ensure that corruption got away. A case in point was in 2022, when the Council of States sat and decided to free Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame two ex-governors who had been convicted for stealing billions of Naira in office. Their trial had taken a tyrannical toll on the EFCC in terms of cost and effort.

Under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the EFCC has huffed and puffed but done little else amidst swirling allegations that it has been nothing more than a tool of political vendetta in the hands of the present administration. It has appeared like this for eight years now.

With many of the state governors counting days to leave office and thereby shed their immunity like snakes shedding skins, trepidation has engulfed many of them over their fate when they leave office, especially as they would be unable to account for how they spent money accruing to their states while in office.

The EFCC recently beamed its searchlight on Bello Matawalle, the outgoing Zamfara State governor. Characteristically, the commission has sought to sensationalize the fact that it is looking into allegations of misappropriation of public funds against Matawalle.

But Matawalle has fought back in a manner only dirty Nigerian politicians know how to. He has without mincing words accused the EFCC chairman Bawa of demanding the sum of $2 million dollars from him. Of course, Bawa has denied the allegation, hinting that Matawalle would be arrested once he leaves office.

Who should Nigerians believe now?

It would be interesting to see what happens once Matawalle leaves office, but what is obvious to many Nigerians is that a crucial anti-corruption war continues to hit unnecessary roadblocks because avoidable credibility issues plague those who should lead the fight.

•Ike Willie-Nwobu,

Abuja.

Sir: Methamphetamine addiction is a rapidly growing problem in Nigeria. Meth, also known as crystal meth or ice, is a highly addictive stimulant drug that can cause serious physical and mental health problems. The drug has devastating effects on individuals, families, and communities alike. In Nigeria, the methamphetamine crisis has reached alarming proportions and is a cause for great concern. The government must take immediate action to address this crisis before it spirals out of control.

This is a call to action for the Nigerian government and its people to come together and address this problem before it’s too late.

. According to recent reports from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), methamphetamine use has increased by over 400% in the last five years. This is a shocking statistic that highlights the scale of the problem. Methamphetamine use can cause a range of health problems, including cardiovascular and neurological damage. The drug can lead to severe mental health problems, including psychosis and paranoia. In addition to the health risks, the methamphetamine crisis is also having a significant impact on the economy. The drug trade is fuelling organized crime and corruption, which is destabilizing communities across the country.

It is essential that the government takes action to address this crisis. A state of emergency needs to be declared and resources allocated to tackle the problem. This includes investing in treatment and rehabilitation programmes, as well as increasing law enforcement efforts to disrupt the drug trade. It is only by working together that we can hope to overcome this crisis and protect the health and well-being of our communities.

Methamphetamine addiction is often caused by a combination of factors, including genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and social factors. Addiction can be triggered by stress, depression, and other mental health conditions. In addition, methamphetamine addiction can lead to criminal behaviour, violence, and other social problems.

The consequences of methamphetamine addiction are severe, and urgent action is needed to address the crisis.

One possible solution is to declare a state of emergency, which would enable the government to allocate more resources towards tackling the issue. The state of emergency could involve the implementation of a range of measures such as increased funding for rehabilitation programmes, more drug enforcement agencies, and tougher penalties for drug-related offenses. With a state of emergency in place, the government would be able to act quickly and decisively to address the crisis. It is important to note that a state of emergency is not a permanent solution, but it can provide the necessary impetus to address the issue and set in motion a long-term strategy for combating the drug problem. As a society, we must come together to confront this crisis and take decisive action to protect our communities and future generations.

We cannot afford to sit idly by and watch as our country is destroyed by this devastating drug. As concerned citizens, we can do our part by spreading awareness of the dangers of methamphetamine to our friends and family. We can also support organizations that are working to combat drug addiction and provide treatment to those who are struggling with addiction. However, it is ultimately up to the government to take decisive action to address this crisis. We cannot afford to delay any longer. Every day that we wait to take action, more lives are being destroyed by this deadly drug.

I urge the Nigerian government and all citizens to come together and take the necessary steps to address this crisis and protect our communities.

•Ikwuh John Ahmedu,

Benue State.

Sir: The Senate has approved Constitution Alteration Bill No. 58 which makes provision for independent candidacy at all levels of elections in Nigeria. The proposed alteration bill provides that for any Nigerian national to contest the presidential election as an independent candidate, he/she must obtain verified signatures of at least 20 percent of registered voters from each state of the federation, provided that a registered voter shall not sign for more than one independent candidate in respect of the same office.

For governorship poll, the independent candidate must obtain verified signatures of at least 20 percent of registered voters from each of the local government areas of the state; while anyone willing to contest National Assembly, (NASS) elections as an independent must obtain verified signatures of at least 20 percent of registered voters from each of the council areas in the respective senatorial district or federal constituency.

The bill further empowers the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to prescribe payment of administrative fees by independent candidates for respective election, and mandates the body to waive 50 percent of the administrative fees for female candidates.

One upside of this bill which has been transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent, is that it will liberalise the political space and allow for wider participation by all political actors. Popular candidates seeking elective offices can avoid falling victims to the vagaries of party politics, by going solo. However, there are numerous downsides to this bill which is largely a result of the peculiarities of Nigerian politics.

One, the cost of conducting elections would be prohibitive. We had 18 registered political parties that contested for elective positions in the just concluded polls which cost tax-payers a whopping N355 billion. With independent candidacy, ballot papers would be more expansive, more ballot boxes would be needed and more instruments for agent accreditation would be required, among other election-related essentials that must be scaled up. All of these would spike the cost of conducting elections.

Similarly, the cost of litigation borne by INEC and funded by the treasury will multiply.

Two, independent candidacy will lead to instability in political parties as those who fail to secure the tickets to fly the flags of their respective political parties at the polls, would become desperate and opt to go alone instead of accepting the verdict of party delegates in the primaries. The unwieldiness of the party system where we have a few actual contenders and numerous pretenders seeking elective positions, would now be transferred to independent candidacy.

Imagine a situation where we have 1000 candidates vying for the office of president. How will the names of 1000 independent and political parties’ candidates be put on a single ballot paper?

Three, it will deepen godfatherism as many independent candidates would have to pay registered voters so as to get the required signature endorsement needed to run. What this portends is that politicians with weak financial muscles would be unable to run as independent candidates unless they get the sponsorship of a godfather.

It is debatable that individual candidacy will make much difference in our electoral climate. A phased and guided implementation should be considered. For example, we can start with independent candidacy for elections into federal and state legislature only. Its success or failure would determine if it should be extended to all elective positions in Nigeria.

•Peter Ovie Akus,

New Jersey, USA.