Category: Opinion

By Temitope Ajayi

The removal of fuel subsidy and the convergence of the foreign exchange markets, the two major policy objectives President Bola Tinubu has committed himself to since assuming office, inevitably came with economic cost to the people who have had to bear the pains of higher cost of living. 

The jump in pump price of fuel and devaluation of naira in a bid to close the gap between the bank and parallel market rates meant higher transportation cost, higher food price and higher cost of doing business for small business owners.

There is no doubt that the people, most especially the poor,  are hard pressed and seeking succour from a President who promised them a better life during his electioneering campaign. 

The pain, albeit uncomfortable, is only temporary; but necessary. From the President’s most recent national broadcast, one thing stands out, our beloved country, Nigeria,  is simply in a catch-22 situation. The President must find the most pragmatic way to deal with the two ugly elephants in the room that have distorted our economy for decades, promoted humongous corruption via rent seeking and has kept the poor, even poorer.

For over seven years, Nigeria has consistently held the appalling title of the poverty capital of the world, according to the World Bank, overtaking India with a population of about 1.5 billion people. Nigeria’s population is only a little over 200 million.

Nigeria has, in the last 40 years, progressively wasted trillions of naira that would have been better spent on social services, human capital development and critical economic infrastructure that should support productivity and growth to give citizens cheap fuel. The culmination of these has, no doubt,  stunted the growth of the nation and its people.

Read Also: BREAKING: Ex-Govs Lalong, Oyetola, Matawalle, others make Tinubu’s additional ministerial list

We must deal with the albatross of continuously funding fuel subsidy, which only a small group of people benefit from at the expense of the larger populace, even when our country is teetering towards fiscal collapse.  Rational and economic logic and equity dictate that those trillions of naira be put to better use in the service of the people. It is highly imperative to  re-channel the funds into better investment in public infrastructure, education, health care and other productive ventures that will materially improve the lives of millions, as the President said in his inaugural speech.

Having seen the distortions fuel subsidy and preferential foreign exchange policy have caused for the country, I am persuaded that we must get out of this decades-long conundrum. From a fiscal standpoint, the consequences of retaining these policies longer than when it was finally removed by President are not pretty. The social and material condition of the poor masses that some ideologues pretend to be fighting against will get worse than it currently is if Nigeria sinks into a bottomless pit.

In pandering to popular sentiments, two major national newspapers in their recent editorial positions severely criticized President Tinubu for taking this less travelled road. Leaders before him only kicked the can around, in matters of fuel subsidy removal, without having the boldness and the courage to bite the bullet.  

In a front page commentary on Monday, July 24, Daily Trust Newspaper called for the reversal of the subsidy removal because it is strangulating the poor masses. 

The newspaper also accused the government of chaotic handling of the policy because all the issues around palliatives should have first been resolved. Daily Trust wants the Federal Government to keep the ruinous subsidy regime because of momentary inconvenience without regards to the fact that within two months of this removal, the country saved over N1 trillion which would now be better utilized to benefit the masses directly.

Toeing the same path with Daily Trust on same day, Punch Newspaper charged President Tinubu to change course before he “loses the plot” of his new administration. Punch Newspaper went further to berate him for executing the two policies on whims without undertaking “a critical assessment of the economy nor the implications of his hasty subsidy removal, and the unification of the naira exchange rates.”

What I found rather bizarre in the Punch Editorial was a quote credited to Mr. Francis Meshioye, President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, who reportedly said his members thought subsidy removal would only lead to a one-off price increase and not “a skyrocketing one.”

I am at a loss why a MAN President who was one of the strident advocates of free market economy and a major proponent of fuel subsidy removal and unification of multiple exchange rates think his prescriptions will only lead to one-off price increase. I am still struggling with that level of contradiction. It also didn’t matter to Daily Trust and The Punch Newspapers  with their editorial stance that, in the past, they used their influential platforms to call for the removal of the subsidy, citing abuse and corruption.

The points of current pains on the people as canvassed by the two newspapers as a necessary fallout of the policy decisions of President are factual and can’t be argued against. However, the point must also be made that the benefits of these two decisions far outweigh the cost.

Fuel subsidy removal means that Nigeria will no longer lose over ¦ 4 billion daily on subsidised fuel that is smuggled to neigbouring countries. It does not make sense that a country that is struggling to provide universal basic education to her children and suffering from high maternal mortality rate spent ¦ 21 trillion subsidising fuel that added marginal value to the lives of millions of its poor inhabitants between 2005 and 2023.

A recent report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) shows that whereas N13.7 trillion was spent on subsidy between 2005 and 2021, N8 trillion was spent between 2022 and the first half of 2023 alone.

Nothing captures our sorry state of affairs more than the NEITI report which indicates the colossal sum that private individuals have taken away from our commonwealth on the back of payment for subsidy. The report shows that in 2005, starting year for the survey, N351 billion was spent on fuel subsidy payment while the figures for 2006-2010 were N257 billion, N272 billion, N631 billion, N469 billion and N667 billion. In 2011, which was an election year, spending spiked to a whopping N2.3 trillion.

For the years 2012-2017, spending on subsidy was N1.36 trillion; N1.32 trillion; N1.2 trillion, N654 billion, N240 billion and N154 billion. From 2018 to the first half of 2023 government spent N1.1 trillion; N508 billion; N864 billion N1.43 trillion, N4.4 trillion and ¦ 3.6 trillion. The NEITI report further reveals that spending on petroleum products by the five income groups in Nigeria, the richest 20 per cent consumes 75 percent of petrol in the country while the poorest 20 per cent consumes just one per cent of the product. From the figures, it is obvious our poorest people are not getting any real benefit.

Removing the drain pipe is the best way to stop the bleeding. Individuals should not become so filthily wealthy at the expense of a nation to the point of being in a position to compromise all the institutions of state while the majority wallow in extreme poverty. President Tinubu was right in his Monday evening broadcast when he pointed out the danger of having few people who have amassed so much money to the extent of becoming “a serious threat to the fairness of national economy and the integrity of our democratic governance.”

With his boldness and decisiveness, President Tinubu ushered in a regime of deregulation. This will foster competition and transparency in the downstream sector, eliminate NNPCL importation monopoly, encourage investments in local refining capacity and expansion of downstream infrastructure that will create thousands of jobs. From the Central Bank records, 30% of foreign exchange demand in the past decades was for fuel importation. The removal of fuel subsidy is a good silver lining that will catalyze more investments in local refining. Already Dangote Refinery will soon come on stream and BUA Group is making a bet of over $8billion on 200,000 barrel per day refinery in Akwa-Ibom that will be commissioned within the next 4 years. This is apart from existing modular refineries already in operation.

At the moment, our country is at the epoch where the citizens must exercise some patience and cooperate with the President and his team to turn around the fortunes of the country. We are all bearing the consequences of decades of distortions and mismanagement of the country and it certainly won’t be easy to turn the tides within few days and months for any government. The demand of this period is not needless posturing but that of concerted efforts and determination to revamp an economy that is tailspinning into a disaster. 

As President Tinubu concluded in his speech, he is back at work to ensure that not only that a looming disaster will be averted but Nigerians will have cause to be happy with the new, inclusive economy based on prosperity for all that is his campaign promise.

Ajayi, is Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity

By Charles Onunaiju

In its 90 points communique at the end of the meeting in Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization claimed that it “is a defensive alliance… unique, essential and indispensable trans-Atlantic forum to consult, coordinate and act on all matters related to our individual and collective security.” The 31-member military alliance, looking forward to welcome Sweden shortly, as its 32nd member claimed further it “will continue to ensure our collective defence from all threats, no matter where they stem from…”

A cold war relic and dinosaur, the US led Western military alliance has no real or actual threat, except the one it manufactures and invokes by itself and in seeking justification of why it continues to exist even when the historical reason for its existence no longer suffice, it has always invented “threats.” With the collapse of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) its main historical adversary and the dissolution of the then Soviet-led Warsaw military pact, any ominous “threat” for which NATO exists to contend, evaporated. USSR, chief successor state, the Russian Federation even made spirited attempts to join NATO, so that the military alliance could mutate into more broadly security framework to advance wider consultation, but Washington aim to use the alliance as a tool of global hegemony stood in the way. Not contented with the “geographical catastrophe” of the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Washington instigated an array of virulent anti-Russia “coloured” revolutions across many member Union of the former USSR, who suddenly became sovereign states and further set about the notorious eastwards expansion of NATO. To consummate the strategy of strengthening and expanding the military alliance, Russia has to be defined as the “threat” despite Moscow’s strenuous effort to integrate into mainstream Euro Atlantic community through several outreaches.

In 2014, Washington-led eastward expedition birthed in Kiev, when the elected government of Victor Yanukovych was toppled in a coup and extremist anti-Russia regime was installed. The Kiev regime set out on cleansing of ethnic Russians in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine and consequently precipitated a civil war. A negotiated settlement of the conflict on the basis of Minsk I and II agreement was signed and overseen by key Western powers, who would later confess that the settlement of the conflict was never intended but rather that the period of lull in the conflict offered by the Minsk I&II agreements was actually designed to arm Ukraine’s regime, a ploy that came a full circle when Moscow declared its special military operation to purge Kiev of excess militarization and cleanse it of NAZI toxins. NATO strategy of luring Kiev into the alliance is to ostensibly have a direct firing line at Moscow and bludgeon her to acquiescence in a larger plot to balkanize the vast territory of the Russian federation. From a dream of this potential scenario, NATO has stumbled into a nightmare of what Robert F. Kennedy, a US presidential candidate called a “futile geopolitical fantasy,” in reference to Washington-led NATO declared aim to defeat the Russian federation in the current conflict with Ukraine. Kennedy charged that “rather than acknowledged failure, after the America’s foreign policy establishment has manipulated Ukraine into war,” the Biden administration might be readying for a direct war with Russia, a recipe for the end of humanity.

Read Also; Atiku, PDP confused, President tells tribunal

The Ukraine’s NATO quagmire in which Kiev is bogged down highlights the limited reach of NATO despite its ambitions. It would be inauspicious and even irresponsible should Moscow be snoring away while it encircles it, with the Kiev regime acting the role of the NATO arrow head to contain it. It would be practically unthinkable for Washington to be flipping pages of international law and the charter of the United Nations, while the Moscow-led Warsaw military alliance prods Mexico to join it, deploys its arsenal in the US Southern neighbour and putting Washington in its direct firing line.

NATO’s reinvention of Russia as its strategic adversary, despite that the country is in many ways different from the former USSR and the context of the contemporary international system is vastly different from the icy cold war which the Washington-led alliance was founded and largely thrived is curious.

Despite its essential geographical and political definition as a trans-Atlantic alliance, and defying the contemporary trends of emerging multi-polarism and the practice of multilateralism, NATO is busily inventing new “threats” and extending its tentacles to the pacific, middle-eastern and even Africa regions. In 2011, NATO orchestrated the melt down of Libya after overseeing the gruesome murder of its president. The collapse of Libya unleashed a chain of instability in the region, feeding the budding extremist insurgency in Nigeria and the Sahel. The Boko Haram murderous insurgency in Nigeria was directly aided by the wash of weapons and personnel from the Libya’s heavy armour. Without NATO’s open meddling in Libya and the spread of weapons which emboldened insurgency in the region, the devastation which has morphed to assorted kinds of criminality would not have gripped the region and especially Nigeria. This is how the dinosaur from the cold war has left a trail of destruction in any region it operated.

At its Vilnius Summit, it had in attendance Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Republic of Korea. The strategic aim for this outreach is crystal clear; to encircle the People’s Republic of China as it did against the Russian federation with the Eastern Europe expansion. Claiming that “strategic competition, pervasive instability and recurrent shocks define our broader security environment, it further formulated that “The People’s Republic of China’s stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values…” adding that the “deepening strategic partnership between the PRC and Russia and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interest.” In a world of multiple values and civilizations that should ordinarily interact in mutual dialogue and respects for each other, NATO’s claim of values and interests to be pursued in hostile exclusion of others is a recipe for global chaos and disorder conducive to the type of “threats,” NATO manufactures. However, while the NATO bureaucracy and it’s out of touch political elites ensconced themselves an any of the capitals they choose to meet and engage themselves in rhetoric flourish, the one billion citizens they purportedly speak for, are clearly unravelling in an economic crunch hardly known to their generations. In the UK, senior doctors’ consultant physicians went on their first strike, with banners demanding for increased wages and better working conditions. Germany, France, Netherlands and across the Atlantic, working people are staging protest at the prohibitive cost of living and poor wages and working conditions that could hardly cope with it. The irrepressible Hungarian Prime minister Victor Orban said recently that the world is facing its biggest power shift in decades and the US is poised to lose its leading positon to China. He warned that Washington must accept that it cannot remain the preeminent power “forever.” In his words “China has become a manufacturing power house and is now overtaking America,” and added that “in just 30 years, China has undergone the industrial revolution that took the West around three centuries,” and warned that major nations have to “accept that, today, instead of American dominance, there are two suns in the sky”.

Nevertheless, this is not exactly how the Chinese frame it. China sees the emerging trends of multilateralism leading to the building of community of shared future for mankind in the framework of international intercourse driven by extensive consultations, joint contributions and their shared benefits.” It is doubtful if the Chinese want to be the only sun in the sky or a part of two exclusive suns in the sky. President Xi Jinping’s proposed key global initiatives – development, security and civilizations – are trained on the broad framework of extensive consultations across the world with a view to advance the vision of a community of shared future for mankind.

Despite how the 31-member Washington-led NATO military alliance want to frame their relevance, the alliance has become a grudge organization, largely to rein-in and contain emerging centres of competing powers but any success in this regard will not depend on the NATO alliance but how the world evolves. Despite the objective constraints to its avowed strategic aim, the alliance still poses considerable threat to emerging multilateral order. It is establishing outreach office in regions far from its original geographic catchment. In the Middle East, it hopes to establish office in Jordan. The region that is recovering from the trauma of Washington “regime change” is expected to come under the gaze of NATO.

However, the good news is that the grand rapprochement of the main two regional powers – Iran and Saudi Arabia – former bitter adversaries, might considerably constrain the NATO manipulations of  the region.

•Onunaiju is research director of a think tank in Abuja.  

By Oluwole Ogundele

Nobody knows the exact origins of religion, even though archaeologists and palaeo-anthropologists are generally of the opinion (based on hard evidence), that a group of early humans known as Neanderthalers in Europe had one or two belief systems. This was between 430,000 and 40,000 years ago. The Neanderthalers also believed in the concept of “life after death,” as they buried food items and arrow heads among other materialities with their dead relatives. Their contemporaries in Africa were doing the same thing. These early African Homo sapiens were called the “Rhodesian man” populations.

Despite the different theological approaches, every religion tries among other things, to develop an understanding of the nature of God. No religion is superior to another. Therefore, humility including openness is sacrosanct. Islam was introduced to Nigeria as far back in time as the 11th century. In Nigeria, religion is an important component of our inherited cultural traditions. Religion and everyday life including the people’s observation of the environment were/are very intricately interwoven. 

In the 15th century, some Portuguese introduced Christianity to the territory later christened Nigeria. Both Islam and Christianity tried to submerge the indigenous religions. However, this mission could not be completely accomplished, even though the injuries sustained as a result of this collision are with most Nigerians up to now. The major goal of these foreign belief systems was to destroy the self-confidence and self-esteem of the citizens. This was/is a good illustration of mental, spiritual subjugation which makes sustainable development unachievable. Such a scenario promotes cultural and economic imperialism.

The Nigerian ethnicities had their local deities or saints/divinities long before the collision with Islam and Christianity. These deities were usually charismatic humans who had added some great values to the lives of the people. Shango and Ogun among the Yoruba of south western Nigeria are good examples in this connection. Up to now, similar deities exist among the Igbo, Itsekhiri, Ijaw, Urhobo, Edo, Igala, Berom, Tiv, Hausa, and Kanuri. Contrary to popular thinking, Nigerians do not refer to these deities as gods.  They are intermediaries between the supreme God and humanity. By the Western cultural standards, we can legitimately be calling them Saints Ogun, Shango and Amadioha.  The only God is called Olodumare in Yorubaland and Tamuno among the Ijaw. There is only one God across the universe. But there are thousands of local divinities to intercede with the creator God on behalf of the ordinary humans. In addition, spirits of lineage ancestors are also respected because of the belief that they work for justice and equity. Evil people in a given extended family are punished accordingly by these spirits. Spirituality occupies a conspicuous position in African religions. It is also a social control mechanism. The Yoruba call these deities Orisha. “Orisha-ness” is an exclusive preserve of the extra-ordinarily charismatic members of a region.

Read Also: INEC can decide how it transmits results, says Appeal Court

It is not a family chieftaincy title or political office for a pretender (bereft of elementary wisdom) masquerading as a leader. Indeed, saintliness could not be bought with money. It was about somebody’s uncommon service to humanity and God.

Are the above scenarios not parallel to those two world religions that have robbed us of the capacity to think sophisticatedly? Thus, for example, why do most Catholic Churches have Joseph or Marian shrines or grottoes? These are designated sacred spaces with images for prayers to God. What is the difference (aside from aesthetics) between each one of these grottoes and the Ogun or Amadioha shrine? 

In my opinion, both religious heritages are fundamentally the same. The Arabs and Europeans cleverly planted seeds of discord in Nigeria as elsewhere in Africa, so that the locals could continue to wallow in material and to a limited extent, spiritual poverty. Ignorance is a dangerous disease! Not surprisingly, Nigeria continues to experience serious social disruptions including political/economic turmoil of huge proportions.  Nigeria has been pushed towards uncritical interdependence or poisonous global integration, via the lens of cultural/religious collision or indoctrination. Many Nigerians remain almost incorrigibly Arabo-centric or Western in their country of pluralistic essence.

There is nothing wrong with being a critical member of the modern global economy, but everything is bad for remaining a puppet with strings. No doubt, Islam and Christianity have come to stay, as a part of our incorporated and to limited degree, inscribed culture.  In fact, a few African cultural elements like drumming and dancing have been carefully embedded into these foreign religions.

However, our religious leaders need to exercise some considerable restraint in avoiding controversies capable of setting Nigeria ablaze. Nigerians should condemn the hypocrisy of these leaders who do one thing and say another.

Those who crafted the Nigerian Constitution, with a big space for freedom of religions were not moronic because the country has a multiplicity of cultural values and value-systems. But very unfortunately, fundamentalism-a relic of savagery still dominates the hearts and minds of a lot of Nigerians despite their many degrees and certificates. They need to be liberated from religious bondage which makes critical thinking an impossibility. Anybody without a thorough, critical appreciation of his cultural heritage is an illiterate who suffers from serious colonial mentality. Such a person needs some deliverance before he sets Nigeria on fire.

Sustainable development has its deep roots in robust cultural education. The Chinese, Japanese, and Singaporean economies among others, are the by-products of cultural re-orientation from the primary school level. A critical assimilation of Nigerian indigenous epistemologies is the beginning of wisdom.  Without a careful application of knowledge, wisdom remains elusive in the extreme.

 Nigerians must begin to critically assimilate their cultural traditions in order to engineer a new geo-polity enshrined in creativity and economic progress.  Nigeria was not the only country colonised by Britain. The United States of America was once a colony of Britain.  Uncritical Arabisation and Europeanisation are a roadblock to Nigeria’s progress.

National unity, peace, and progress must not be sacrificed on the altar of stone age, unfettered religious/ethnic bigotry.  Nigeria has lost many innocent people in recent times due to senseless religious teachings and actions. This country is notorious for its appalling security and economic situation leading to more internally displaced people on a daily basis. As members of Homo sapiens (thinking beings), all religious/ethnic crises must stop as quickly as possible. Our leaders across the board have to work for equity, fairness, and peace.  More and more Nigerians are dying daily out of starvation, while our self-indulgent religious and political leaders, do not show sufficient commitment to public services. Government at all levels have to take some urgent palliative measures to reduce the current economic hardships/agonies, arising basically from the fuel subsidy removal. However, a repeat performance of the “trader moni” concept should be avoided. There is a trust deficit. Our politicians should stop their hedonistic tendencies capable of provoking a storm of protest.  Thus, for example, it is callous to be talking of over one hundred billion naira for buying bulletproof cars and refurbishing offices for the federal lawmakers, when the citizens are hungrier and more hopeless than hitherto. Who will save us from ourselves?

• Prof Ogundele writes from University of Ibadan.

On May 29, 2023, Bola Tinubu assumed office as Nigeria’s president, 16th leader. Nigerians wish him success in the onerous tasks ahead.

All the same, it is important to note that President Tinubu’s Nigeria is home to an array of folks: the diligent and the intelligent, the determined and the focused, plus the great boasters and the little doers; and they cut across her socio-political geography. Tinubu’s country harbours the progressives and the conservatives, the strong and the weak, the praise-singers and the faultfinders, the slippery and the flippant, the perpetual pessimists and the embittered opposition. Above all, it is currently a grim reminder of hangover politicking, collateral wheeling-dealing and deliberate promotion of comical sincerity; and they are in abundant supply.

On March 5, 1986, Mamman Vatsa, a Major General, and member of the Ibrahim Babangida-led military government, was executed for planning a coup. Until his death, Domkat Bali, former Minister of Defence and Chief of Defence Staff, maintained that there’s no way of knowing whether or not Vatsa actually committed the crime for which he was executed by his childhood friend. But again, this is Nigeria!

Let’s quickly wake General Sani Abacha up from his eternal sleep; he must have something great to share with Nigerians. Remember Daniel Kanu and the ‘Two-million-man March’. Though Abacha won many battles with bullets and allied munitions, the ‘Maximum General’ couldn’t but succumb to the superior power of the beautifully bitter songs of ‘we’ll make the elephant king’.

Inside Tinubu’s Nigeria, the Yoruba Agenda and the difficulty of coming up with one has been an obvious phenomenon. For example, there was widespread jubilation in Yorubaland when Oba Okunade Sijuwade became the 50th Ooni of Ife in 1980. To them, the hope was that, as a man of steel and means, Ile-Ife would be transformed into paradise within months of his ascension to the throne. With his international connections and business interests spanning the global landscape, Nigerians had no doubt in their minds that Oba Sijuwade would, within a short time, turn the ancient city into mini Lagos and that, in no distant time, Ile-Ife would overtake Lagos.

Matter-of-frankly, Nigerians held the belief that, with Ooni Sijuwade on the throne, negotiating a coordinate that would bring out a dual carriageway from Iga Iduganran Street to Enuwa Square would be the least of Ife’s worries; and that there would be total industrialization of the cradle of Yoruba culture such that ‘Segilola’ would have been a project long done. But, unfortunately, none of those expectations came to reality. Instead, His Imperial Majesty was always in Abuja, either dining with the ‘evil genius’ or clinking glasses with the ‘Goggled One’. Needless to repeat that it was during Sijuwade’s reign that the Ife/Modakeke crisis raged for years; and it was as if the gods were angry!

Tunji Adebiyi was personal assistant to the late Abraham Adesanya, a foremost pro-democracy icon and leader of Afenifere, a Yoruba sociocultural organization. With the birth of the 4th Republic in 1999, Afenifere played prominent roles, especially with regard to who became governors in the Southwest. Fortunately, the progressive bent had its way as all its elected governors were from the Afenifere House of Politics. Still, nobody remembered this diligent and loyal aide until Tinubu pulled him out, during his 2nd coming as governor of Lagos State. The rest is history! When Adebiyi died in December 2014, altar calls were reportedly made for donations so that his immediate family could have a roof over their heads. Such is the plight of most of Nigerians: they get so little in return for their industry.

Once upon a time in Nigeria’s rich history, Adams Oshiomhole was on this side of the rung. But how time flies? The former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is now part of the Federal Government Delegation to the ‘subsidy-is-gone’ talks. But what has really changed? Is ‘Oshio Baba’ doing it for the love of dear fatherland, or is it because the former Edo State governor has moved from the passenger’s seat to the driver’s? Well, only God knows!

Read Also: Tinubu for mid-year coordination meeting in Nairobi

In Nigeria, politics and elections are contests: somehow fierce, sometimes deadly. Here, an educated group of people remain the most difficult set to govern. Days to go, former President Muhammadu Buhari confessed that he couldn’t wait much longer to be united with his cattle because governing herds of cattle is much easier than governing Nigerians. The question, therefore, is: when did Nigeria become so didactically disadvantaged as to have lifted up Egypt to the place of attractiveness to Nigerians?

Remember Ike Ekweremadu, the Deputy President of the 6th, 7th and 8th senate. Ekweremadu failed to understand the intricate details of the culture of the British man and he learned the bitter lesson in the United Kingdom. Those things the lawmaker had attached values and importance to in Nigeria had no effect in Britain. Take, for instance, the Distinguished Senator went to the UK, thinking that he’d command some undue respect and that Nigerians would start shivering. But there was a clash of cultures and the British law sent him to prison.

Inside Tinubu’s Nigeria is one Kamal Usman, a physically challenged JSS 3 student of STDSS, Kagara in Niger State who writes with his mouth. Usman needs help so that he can live out his dream.

As children, we were not trained to disobey the authority of the government. However, #EndSARS has brought with it the era of changing times and things. A crop of new children is growing up. Having realized that nobody is conscious of their existence, these children have come to register their presence. Interestingly too, they have realized that if the ugly trend is not arrested, it will go on ad infinitum, because one ‘cannot be doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results’. While the music lasts, the people will keep dancing, kowtowing as if all is well, whereas nothing is nice.

Lame-footed excuses! Limited understanding of institutional values! There is a trend in human behaviour that evolved almost with the creation of man. It is called blame-game! When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, the simple response to God’s query was that it was He who gave it to Eve who, in turn, gave it to him (Adam) to eat; and he ate it! For Adam therefore, taking responsibility was out of the question. Likewise in Nigeria, if a man can no longer perform his conjugal obligations, it is ‘Asiwaju’s fault. If it refuses to rain, some political gladiators will blame it on the president. If farmers’ harvests are poor due to bad agricultural policies and inclement weather, ‘na Jagaban cause am!’

From the look of things, is Nigeria a functional society? If she is, would some state governors have been into too many errors – as shown in the irreverent dabble into the traditional institutions and power relations? As the chief executives of their respective states, isn’t it better to face the many known troubles than to add traditional institution’s matters to their plates? Anyway, that’s a worthy advice which those who are collecting ‘chicken money’ from the governors won’t want to offer; and it’s for obvious reasons.

Taken together, the president has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve as the healing balm. Nigerians can only hope in the outcome of his experiments. For Nigerians, changing their beliefs won’t be out of place, as no president is capable of doing for them what they’re supposed to do for themselves.

May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!

•KOMOLAFE writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)

By Catherine Fieschi

It is extremely tempting to see the riots that spread across France recently as merely a sequel to the shocking events of 2005. Back then, 21 days of riots shook France’s “banlieues” (code for largely impoverished multi-racial communities) and made international headlines. And there are indeed long-term political, economic and social issues in France that explain why things have not improved since. Why there is more, or even worse, police violence against rebellious — but usually defenseless — young men of Arab or non-Western descent.

But the stunning disorder that’s plagued France in recent days is coming from a different place from what we’ve seen before. There is now a sense of humiliation and dispossession that crisscrosses French society, that transcends the banlieues, and transforms today’s riots into a display of shared and paroxysmic frustration. That should be deeply worrying, not just for President Emmanuel Macron, but for democratic leaders across the West.

Let’s return to 2005. Those riots were sparked after two young men were chased to their death by police, and the conversation quickly focused on the fate of the banlieues. Mathieu Kassovitz’s film La Haine had come out a decade before, and in many ways still set the conversational parameters around such events. It is through the lens of Kassovitz’s rendition of race relations and the alienation of youth in the banlieues, in combination with then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s rhetoric around “cleaning up the riffraff” in those very neighborhoods that the three-week rampage was interpreted.

This time, the riots followed the point-blank police shooting of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk after a car chase. The cost of the riots in a mere week — over $1 billion in damages to businesses — towers above that of 2005, but perhaps more notable is that the discussion of the banlieues has receded, or is mediated through, the lens of the police. (In fact, this echoes a different French film, Ladj Ly’s 2019 crime thriller Les Miserables; the last prophetic image is of a young boy beside himself with trauma and anger brandishing a gun in the face of a cop.) Today the majority of rioters don’t have an immigrant background, and most of them are minors, some as young as 12 — in other words only a few years younger than the victim. It is their extreme youth combined with what has been characterized as their hyper violence that makes headlines.

The images we see are shocking, yes. There’s almost a one-upmanship on social media that pits three burnt busses against one gutted city hall (and I’ll raise you two looted McDonald’s). The scale of the destruction is breathtaking; it’s frequently symbolic, but often merely opportunistic — and sometimes downright incomprehensible in its perversity, like the assaults on the medical personnel trying to put some of these kids back together.

A demonstrator runs on the third night of protests.

Regardless of the mindlessness of some of the destruction, the young people rampaging across French cities and towns are also expressing a deep anger rooted in humiliation that is felt across the country. | Aurelien Morissard/AP Photo

But today, despite all that is dystopian in these scenes of enraged children driven to trash their very own environment, almost everyone gets it. Few are actually surprised.

This is why 2023 is different from 2005. Regardless of the mindlessness of some of the destruction, the young people rampaging across French cities and towns are also expressing a deep anger rooted in humiliation that is felt across the country, not just in the banlieues. You could argue that for many French people, regardless of where they live, the nature of governance and decision-making in the past few years means that they all feel like “riff-raff” now.

What’s important to remember is that Macron’s governance is not incompetent — far from it. In comparison to the manner in which other major advanced democracies handled Covid, the energy crisis or inflation, France has done quite well. The trouble is that the people — the French rather than France — feel like they keep drawing the short straw when it comes to their voices and preferences being taken into account, their political and civic rights respected, their humanity protected.

From the often violent repression of the gilets jaunes (yellow vest movement) and Macron’s broken promises of a changed governing style, to the ramming through of pension reform (without a vote) in the face of massive, violent protests, the current government, despite its technocratic prowess, has given nearly every segment of French society, across all demographics and regions, cause to feel that they are governed sometimes competently but almost always with humiliating impunity. And too many have been injured or killed by police in the process; statistics show that French police kill four times more today than they did in 2010, fueling cycles of protest and repression.

That’s not to diminish the hardship and injustice faced far too often by some in French society rather than others. But the reality is, the oxygen behind these waves of increasingly frequent and increasingly violent displays is in part the fact that everyone in France has had at least a small taste of the humiliation that many have endured for decades — aside from those whose thirst for an order based exclusively on exaction and punishment drives them to the harder edges of the right.

In these early days of summer 2023, what floats above the smoldering remains of the riots, is the shared sense across French society that their problems are being systematically exacerbated by the actions of the police — and by those of a judiciary that tends to criminalize the victims and treat their families with disdain. It is an irony that this is what may finally provide a shared point of reference across French towns, communities, classes and creeds: That enough is enough and that root-and-branch police reform is not only necessary but urgent after decades of combined neglect and empowerment. But instead, as already pointed out by some, France has systematically passed legislation to further arm the police year after year over the last two decades.

The cycle of violence, from police and rioters, is taking place in a fragmented political landscape that is only going to get tougher to navigate. The riots are driving the right and far-right closer together — a tendency that is present across many European democracies and that will have profound consequences for next year’s European Parliament elections. But they also create pressures on a deeply-divided left — torn between their desires for social justice and the demands of a base that is increasingly receptive to the far-right’s promises of order.

Macron must confront this dilemma or risk making injustice and humiliation the exclusive drivers of French politics — an outcome that will only lead to further destruction and potentially catastrophic results in the presidential election of 2027.

• This article was first published in www.politico.com

By Arabinrin Aderonke

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently met with Professor Benedict Oramah, president of AFREXIM Bank, during a global financing summit in Paris, France. Among various topics, they discussed the importance of a facility crucial to Nigeria’s energy diversification and transition plan.

This facility aims to reduce the largest black nation’s reliance on fossil fuel, particularly petrol, as Nigeria moves into a post-subsidy era.

A Nigerian company, participating and receiving financing through AFREXIM Bank for a project that is a result of commitments made under a pact with France.

The initiative began in 2022 when UTM offshore signed an agreement with UK’s Kellogg Brown & Root, Japan Gas & Technip Energies for the Front-end Engineering Design. The construction phase is now imminent, with the federal government showing a strong commitment to achieving $11.4 billion in export revenue.

The Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility will have the capacity to produce 300,000 tons of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) per year and will be located 60km off the shore of Akwa Ibom State-Happy Hour State. Upon completion, it will have an LNG nameplate production capacity of 1.2 million metric tons per annum, a storage capacity of 200,000 cubic meters, and additional ancillary facilities.

This monumental gas project, known as the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline, was initiated by former President Buhari. It is regarded as Africa’s largest gas energy project and is designed to import gas from Nigeria through Morocco to Europe.

As the world transitions towards cleaner energy sources, Nigeria holds a vantage position to generate more revenue. Furthermore, a reduction in the price of gas will boost greater utilization, benefiting the population and the overall economy.

This progress signifies the encouragement of multilateral cooperation, job creation, and development in Nigeria. It also demonstrates Nigeria’s commitment to climate change goals while showcasing Nigeria’s potential for self-development by harnessing its abundant resources.

The recent visits of the president and vice president to traditional rulers during this holiday hold immense importance and offer numerous benefits.

Presidency’s engagement with traditional rulers: The importance and benefits

As part of his score card in the last 39 days, President Tinubu visited some foremost kings in Yorubaland. By acknowledging and engaging with traditional rulers, Nigerians can be rest assured that prevailing vices of dangerous citizens will become a thing of the past. It is vital to note that these kings, chiefs, and local leaders act as channels to the people, and they possess invaluable insights.

Unfortunately, since the military era, their functions have been overlooked. However, Tinubu aims to revive their roles and establish them as integral parts of governance in the country.

To the president, the inclusion of traditional rulers offers numerous advantages, and the essence of the visit is for the country to be able to secure its citizens through vital information from the locals which will help the security agencies to improve the security situation in the country which will in return enable the nation to boost its agricultural input, preserving and promoting cultural heritage, tourism promotions, commerce, and facilitating interstate business affairs.

Historically, kings have played a significant role in stabilizing and sanitizing communities. When it comes to security, their close connection to the people enables them to gather firsthand information and help to curb insecurities.

President Tinubu’s efforts aim to unite all individuals and officials, engaging relevant stakeholders in governance for the benefit of the country. Also, the involvement of traditional rulers presents an opportunity to boost tourism. By properly leveraging on this, Nigeria can generate substantial revenue from tourism, particularly when security concerns have been addressed.

By recognizing the importance of these rulers and incorporating them, the presidency can know the heart and be close to the people.

President Tinubu’s leadership in this regard showcases his dedication to fostering a secured, united, and prosperous Nigeria for all its citizens.

• Arabinrin Aderonke is an Award-Winning investigative journalist. Good Governance, Gender Rights, and Peace Advocate. She writes from Abuja.