Category: Opinion

There simply is no getting away from social media these days as one is pursued by all manner of unsolicited material all round the clock. Unfortunately, most of it is utter falsehood or childish nonsense so that one has to devise a filtering mechanism to protect one’s sanity or at least maintain a sensible equilibrium. And yet, one cannot hide away from the intrusion which social media represents if one is to be part of an ever changing or evolving world; one in which trends change so quickly that a few days away feels like months of isolation from social trends. Whatever my feelings are about the nuisance that social media involvement in daily living is, there are times when it represents the only window on the world which is worth looking out of in order to maintain a connection with the rest of the world, no matter how unreal what can be seen through that window is.

Perhaps the most compelling message I received recently was part of a Ted lecture concerning the unpreparedness of Africa for the coming of artificial intelligence, which was described as the fourth leg of the Industrial Revolution, one which is bound to change the world in a fundamental fashion over the next few years. It is actually not a phenomenon of the future but one whose time has come. According to that lecture, only a small part of which was sent to me, there are now several processes that are being actively prepared to be driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a great deal of money is being committed to the development of it in other parts of the world outside Africa. But, can Africa afford to be left behind in the race to a New World which is already upon us? At the time of the original Industrial Revolution in the middle of the eighteenth century, Africa was conspicuously absent at the table even though the impetus for that event was provided by the profits from the slave trade which was ravaging the continent at that time. Subsequently, colonialism as well as neo-colonialism robbed Africa of the opportunity of being truly part of the industrial world, clinging as we have done to a fading agrarian past which has not given us any form of satisfaction.

As with all revolutions, this brush with artificial intelligence has descended to the earth with astonishing speed as machines which produced all manner of astonishing artefacts have now been modified to participate in the industrial production of all those wonderful gadgets which bring comfort to a large proportion of the earth’s inhabitants. When Henry Ford established the assembly line in his motor car factory in Detroit, it was regarded as the height of a revolution which allowed the production of what was regarded at that time as a complex piece of machinery that was the motor car in numbers large enough to be affordable to the man on the streets of American cities, towns and even villages. This revolutionary method soon spread all round the world, especially in Europe where the factories were soon rolling out lethal manufactured goods in the shape of tanks, cannons and guns of various dimensions with which they set the world on fire in two wars into which Africa was drawn by their respective colonial overlords. Africa could do no more than provide the combatants with oil to lubricate their machines and pay large sums of money for the privilege of having a feel of those wonderful machines that were making the post-war period boom in other parts of the world. But the world was going to be pushed into another age in the immediate aftermath of World War ll when the transistor which launched the world into the electronic age was discovered.

When the Americans were probing into outer space in the sixties, they, as well as the Russians were using human calculators to solve all the mathematical problems which they had to contend with in their endeavour to land men on the moon and bring them back home safely. We know that for this purpose, the United States relied on a group of black women to do all their calculations for them even if these extraordinary women were not officially or publicly acknowledged for their effort until well after they had served their country with so much honour and dedication. Today, there is no need for any such group of people as machines which we refer to  as computers have since become available not just to science but to all everyday projects. Without these wonderful machines, the world would be a completely different place as the internet through which billions of messages, some of them mundane, others verging on the insane, fly around the world fuelling what we have come to know as social media. The internet is no more than what we have come to know as the information super highway within which a lot of information is passed and stored for future reference. These bits of information can be retrieved by computers and can be arranged in such a way that they become available to other machines which can be configured to carry out tasks which before now could only be carried out by intelligent human beings, knowlegible enough to make sense of the commands given to them. Nowadays however, intelligence has been packaged in such a way that it can be managed by machines which have the capacity to respond like human beings to the quanta of information made available to them and respond in much the same way as human beings. Not being human, such an arrangement has been described as artificial intelligence. Not only do these machines understand commands, they are able to do the work which in times past were reserved for human beings such as those that worked on Henry Ford’s assembly lines at the turn of the last century. They are now filled by robots and have been given the capacity to do specialised work which because they are dangerous, sensitive or so finely specialised that they can no longer be trusted to human beings to carry out.

In the last few months, it has become clear that machines have now been developed to such an extent that they pose a threat to the livelihood of human beings who must now begin to entertain fears of professional or occupational redundancies. A great many people are professional drivers all over the world. In some places, the most common occupation is as a driver for all kinds of vehicles ranging from the ubiquitous taxi to the largest trucks. Artificial intelligence has now been developed which will take over the work now being carried out by millions of drivers all over the world. To make matters worse, these machine drivers will do the work better and more safely than the humans they are on the verge of displacing. Doctors, as exalted as that profession is, are not safe as machines which are capable of making diagnoses to an accuracy level which will be the envy of the most capable doctors will soon be able to take up their position in doctors’ offices all over the world and people are already engaging artificial lawyers who will plead their cases better than the most successful human lawyers.

There are now very many ethical issues to be ironed out in the brave new world which is lurking just around the corner. Students can now turn to machines to do their studying for them so that when a student turns in an assignment, there is every possibility that the marks awarded to the student should indeed be passed on to his computer. In any case, many of the courses which the students are now struggling to pass will soon be passed on to some machine which is considerably more proficient in doing the work. At this point in time therefore, there are a lot of people right round the world who are living in fear of the gale of unemployment which is bound to sweep through the world in the not distant future. The other day, someone posted the story of a brilliant sermon which was composed and delivered by a robot-priest. The fear expressed in the video that was posted was that how could a sermon delivered by a machine which is manifestly without a soul be of spiritual use to a man, also manifestly superior to the robot in that he has an immortal soul. Such contradictions are lying in wait in the age of artificial intelligence which awaits us and are causing a great deal of existential dilemma to the extent that many thoughtful people are absolutely terrified of how to handle this technology which is on the verge of being thrust on a largely unsuspecting world.

All through human history, man has had to adapt in one way or the other to new technology. It is not difficult to imagine that the first men who had to deal with fire would have been not fearful but terrified to have to deal with a force of that magnitude and destructive power. They may even have been convinced that the world was going to fall prey to a combustible force which was going to burn down their world. The first workers to confront the challenge of the wonderful machines which came in with the Industrial Revolution went round smashing the machines for fear that they were going to lose their livelihood to those unfeeling machines which could do the work of hundreds of men in no time at all. On the face of it, their fear appeared to be justified but in the end rather than take their jobs, the machines created even more jobs. This is what has happened with each evolving technology and although it is not clear at this point in time what the overall influence of this new technology will be some way down the line.

Whatever challenges Artificial Intelligence will pose, it is clear that this is the way the world is going from here and the point of that Ted lecture which I listened to is that the rest of the world outside Africa is now preparing to be part of that world in which we will soon be living. We were not part of the world of the original Industrial Revolution and if the truth be told, we were actually victims of the technology from which the Europeans and the European Diaspora benefitted immensely.  China, perhaps the most aggressive promoters of Artificial Intelligence in the world have announced their intention to spend the humongous sum of $150 billion over the next twenty years to develop their AI industry and other countries are following the Chinese example even if they are not pledging as much money to that project as the Chinese. Nigeria and indeed no other African country has taken any step towards investing in AI and this is a potential tragedy which is waiting to fall on the continent quite soon. Now is the time to join the rest of the world in preparing for the coming of AI.

By Tunji Olaopa

Posthumous tributes are always so difficult and traumatic to write. The one who feels the weight of writing such tributes is left to wonder whether she is giving credence to the Yoruba saying that we are only deified when we die; humans are not worth anything alive (Ìjóò a bá kú là ñ dère; èèyàan ò sunwòòn láàyè). Did we really fathom the worth of Prof. Malomo while he was still here with us and rearing to offer his entire capabilities for the sake of his beloved country? Or are we only now just realizing what we have lost in the distinguished scholar, patriot and visionary?

This is one death that touched me at a personal level. And the reason goes beyond the fact that I am a bona fide part of the Irelewuyi royal family of Eripa in Osun State by adoption, and through my lifelong friendship with a dear brother for all time, Oyetunji Irelewuyi, an unusual chemistry in friendship which earned me and my family the bond of love of Broda Siyan and Sister Jibola Malomo from the campus of University of Ife (now OAU) and in perpetuity. This relationship with Oyetunji and the Irelewuyi family, sealed during my first encounter with late Papa Prince Emmanuel Oyetade Irelewuyi, a contemporary of my late uncle, Chief Alfred Adejumo Olaopa, in 1981, is a story for another day. The more significant issue is the fact that Nigeria has lost a genuine and formidable reformist and intellectual in Prof. Malomo. And this is especially saddening because his expertise is most needed in Nigeria’s mineral sector, that underrated and under-utilized sphere where Nigeria’s development agenda could take a significant cue in her bid for industrialization.

Compared to her oil and gas reserves, Nigeria’s solid mineral resources has only received 30% of national exploitation, leaving 70% of these resources still lying in the ground. So, if only 30% of the exploited minerals could earn about $89 billion annually, how much will the exploitation of 70% contribute to the totality of Nigeria’s infrastructural development? I do not know what motivated the late Malomo, but what else could motivate an outstanding professor who could have sought a better professional life elsewhere to go where even angels fear to tread? Any desire to serve within Nigeria is fraught with dangers, occasioned by what we call the Nigerian factor. There is, for instance, the complacent acceptance not only that “Sebi this is government work,” but also that once you are working for the government, it is an instant avenue to instant wealth.

And yet, Prof. Malomo not only accepted to work for the government, he seconded his expertise to a sector that has suffered neglect in the shadow of the oil and gas. I understand this lonely figure of the reformer working where no sense of self-gratification is needed, and by someone who does not want to self-gratificate in the first place. As permanent secretary, I had been seconded to ministries where some had felt sorry for me, and that, because there is nothing “sumptuous” about those ministries. For an institutional reformer, what is seen is not the prospect of the loot but the dysfunction that could be corrected for national and institutional renewal. That was what Prof. Malomo saw in the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) years before the agency was recognized constitutionally. From 2003 to 2006 when the NGSA bill was passed, and he became the pioneer Director-General, on till 2013, Prof, Malomo toiled with a vision to transform the solid mineral sector as a viable component of Nigeria’s development agenda.

His reformist vision enabled him to triangulate successfully his unwavering commitment to NGSA, his professional and scholarly distinction as a geologist, and a pragmatic structural networked connection with geological institutions from Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society to the Geological Society of Nigeria. And at that without any underestimation of his commitment to his family and societal obligations and duties as husband, father and other multiple social roles. Rarely, it has been argued, do you see scholars and intellectuals making the most of administrative acumen to transform their contexts. But then, Malomo is an exception in a long line of exceptions that range from Kenneth Dike to Ojetunji Aboyade, all excellent scholars and successful administrators. And unfortunately, all late.

Malomo embodied the very essence of the reform-minded public servant Nigeria needs to make a steady transition out of the woods of underdevelopment. Lee Kuan Yew once remarked, when asked about his runaway success with statecraft that transformed Singapore, “I had some very powerful minds working with me.” Prof. Malomo qualifies as one of such minds that facilitate change within the change space of any country. His range of experience alone is awe-inspiring, and sufficient to bring a resounding expertise to the dysfunctional postcolonial context like Nigeria. Handing over to him the technical backend of the mineral cum mining sector was a very smart institutional move by the government. An institutional similitude of Malomo in every critical sector of the Nigerian governance space—education, health, economy, internal affairs, employment, security, etc.—is all that is needed to bring a drastic transformation to Nigeria’s policy architecture. Prof. Malomo instantiated what it means to be a public servant, a person who serves with public spiritedness and professionalism and patriotism.

When the federal government unveiled the litho-structural map of mineral resources in Nigeria—the Airborne Geophysical Survey Digital Data—in 2008, we immediately see the pioneering genius of Malomo and his cadastral instinct that necessitated mapping Nigeria’s underground resources as the precursor to the policy intelligence and political will to diversify the Nigerian economy away from oil and gas. And that mapping had continued in 2012 and 2016. The idea behind the survey mapping is to search and find those minerals Nigeria needs to jumpstart its comparative advantage and fuel its development agenda. Prof. Malomo drove the NGSA into constitutional reckoning, and into a full-fledged agency that had to fulfil its constitutional and development responsibility as a critical sector.

The crowning glory of his effort, as the D-G of NGSA and as co-chair, was the publication of the “Roadmap for the Growth and Development of the Nigerian Mining Industry” by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development in 2016. The grand objective of the critical document is to “Build a world class minerals and mining ecosystem designed to serve a targeted domestic and export market for minerals and ores.” And this is to be achieved through (a) rebuilding confidence in the minerals and mining sector, (b) expanding the mineral asset processing industry, and (c) return to the global mineral and ore market as a formidable competitor. The document is a well-laid out framework with the capacity for transforming that sector as a significant development agent. But as the late Malomo and the other co-chair of the committee stated, “The report detailed a comprehensive set of initiatives, which the committee believes, if implemented, will drive growth of the sector in Nigeria for years to come.” The key issue here, as in the case of many other beautiful roadmaps in Nigeria, is policy implementation—and the devil in the details.     

But no reformer could ever hope to succeed as a lone ranger. I have many battle scares to back up this assertion, and claim my position as a kindred spirit with the late indefatigable geologist. A fully functional and optimal NGSA is just one agency in the sea of dysfunctional others. And one solidly committed and patriotic Malomo is just the exception within a landscape of greed and gratification. In the final analysis, the institutional reformer would have resigned himself to the maxim of doing the best one can and letting others pick up from there. And yet, such a reformer is not comforted by the assurance that the ones taking over has the same breath of competence and patriotic stature to stay as focus and carry forward the task of institutional transformation. I wonder if Prof, Malomo struggled with the messianic syndrome. I wonder what weighed heavily on his mind when he was leaving NGSA, with the knowledge of the Nigerian governance situation and Nigerian factor. I wonder what weighed on his soul as he laid sick on his deathbed, reflecting on time gone by and what could have been done.

If Prof Siyanbola Malomo had written a memoir, like the late Prof. Akin Mabogunje did, we would have been treated to a narration of the commencement optimism of a charged scholar surveying the Nigerian geological predicament and brimming with confidence. The narrative would have included a section that detailed his struggles within the corruption-soaked mineral sector of the Nigerian economy. And, being an incurable reformer, like Mabogunje, Prof, Malomo would have buckled down in more optimism about what Nigeria still has the chance of becoming if we are careful enough to move beyond the digital data mapping of the mineral resources of the Nigerian state—the blessing of providence for national development and greatness—and carefully and with political will take the bull by the horn and push beyond our hesitancy in giving policies the firm push and competent execution they need to become tangible infrastructural demonstration of good governance. I hope the Nigerian leadership will become the manifestation of the third part of Malomo’s unwritten memoir.

• Olaopa Retired Federal Permanent Secretary & Professor of Public Administration  – tolaopa2003@gmail.com 

By Femi Ogbonnikan

Whether good or bad, anyone capable of mischief can do anything under the sun and stand firm to defend it. It is all about conscience. There is no worse sin than one against his conscience. Conscience is the inner light that guides the conduct of all humans. It is a higher court than courts of justice as it supersedes all sense of judgments. Whatever you do, deep below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice will tell you something is out of tune.

But there are always a few exceptions. Those whose heart is firm and whose conscience approves of their conduct will pursue their selfish goal till the end. Either they ignore its right dictates or consign them to their innermost souls.

Former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, falls into this category. With a friend like OGD, you don’t need an enemy. Some of his recent tirades against Governor Dapo Abiodun serve as a sad reminder of the old lyrics of the late Bob Marley: “Your best friend can be your worst enemy and your worst enemy could be your best friend.” Years after the demise of the Reggae maestro, that philosophy still remains an eternal logic of how to deal with the unpredictability of human character.

I have read several sponsored articles, interviews, and commentaries about the perceived frosty relationship between OGD and Abiodun and I shuddered. I did because of the mischief, deliberate lies, and outright distortion of facts that were deployed in the negative media campaigns being promoted against the innocent governor.

The one that stunned me most is where a Professor of Philosophy, Onigbinde, went beyond the call of duty, ascribing the victory of Governor Abiodun in the March 18 governorship election to the support of Senator Daniel. As I read the submission he made about the presumed popularity of Daniel in an interview with a national newspaper, I cringed. I recoiled in disbelief because of fallacies, gaffes and willful distortions of facts coming from an intellectual giant such as Akin Onigbinde. He rubbed the lies on our faces as if we have forgotten how Daniel went into political oblivion immediately after the woeful defeat of the ruling PDP and his anointed governorship candidate, Gboyega Nasiru Isiaka (GNI), by Senator Ibikunle Amosun of the defunct ACN in the 2011 general election. GNI, a satisfied Chartered Accountant, with all his intimidating career experience and pedigree, lost the election not because he was not popular but for Daniel’s liabilities. People saw him as the face of the ignominious eight-year reign of OGD.

Regrettably, Onigbinde turned logic upside down when he declared that Daniel’s support gave Abiodun victory in the last election. But upon further investigation into the antecedents of the renowned don, before I could draw a conclusion, I realised that there was a sinister motive behind the barefaced lie.

In retrospect, Professor Onigbinde was a former Consultant to Daniel on Research and Documentation. Without prejudice to the right of Onigbinde to express his personal view, the submission he made in his interview about Abiodun’s victory is laced with bias, myopic, and absolutely lacks merit. It is devoid of objective analysis of the real situation. As a scholar of note, he should have been more circumspect in making unsubstantiated claims that run counter to objectivity and critical analysis of the issue.  

Now, to the basics! Why didn’t OGD pick the ticket of the PDP on whose platform he contested and won the governorship election twice-2003 and 2007 if he knew that his popularity was as overwhelming as Onigbinde was trying to make us believe? Who put gun to his head when he in 2014 as the Director-General of the Atiku Campaign Organisation announced his resignation from PDP and made a public declaration of his intention to take full retirement from active politics to take on “new challenges”? This was after his failed bid to be the chairman of the party.

In a letter dated March 14, 2019, addressed to the National Chairman, he stated that the decision was personal and he wanted to “rejuvenate” his charity-based organization, the Gateway Front Foundation (GFF), and to also resuscitate the “non-partisan Political Leadership Academy (POLA)”, which was “established some years ago as a platform of political education to our citizens”.

While playing the intrigue, he indeed failed to reveal the real reason for his exit when he stated further in the resignation letter thus: “Notwithstanding these widely acclaimed achievements, however, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party ran into trouble waters towards the end of our administration (about the year 2009) which led to the sad loss in the election of 2011, and regrettably ten (10) years after the party has been unable to resolve those internal disputes and challenges.”

Everything is rooted in deception as well as his vaulting ambition to achieve power relevance. The truth is that having failed in his bid to assume the chairmanship position of the PDP he knew that he had reached the nadir of his political career. And to achieve that, he needed to latch on to the popularity of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State under the leadership of Governor Abiodun.

But as if we have all forgotten how he was running from pillar to post to gain admission into the party, Onigbinde told us that Abiodun would have lost his re-election bid without the support of OGD. Who is supporting who?

And what has changed in the political arrangement between now and then? Nothing! The fact of the matter is that Abiodun has been too generous to have tolerated his (Daniel’s) overt and covert infidelity till this time. As the leader of the party who holds the knife and the yam, he could have denied him admission into the party. But he generously conceded everything in respect for the former National Secretary of the APC, Senator Iyiola Omisore, former Governor Olusegun Osoba, and the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru  Kayode Adetona, whose intercession ultimately led to the concession that gave him Ogun East Senatorial ticket of the party. 

Now, having been rehabilitated with the Senate election, his way of saying thank you is the media campaigns he has been promoting against Abiodun to cover his act of betrayal in the last election.

 Who could now blame former governor Ibikunle Amosun who declared him  ‘persona non grata’ in the Ogun State all through his eight-year in office?  Isn’t it an error of judgment that APC readmitted him back into the progressive fold forgetting how he betrayed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2003 and pitched tents with the PDP?  Is it a crime for Abiodun to ‘say let’s forget the past and forge ahead? Is it really a fault to show clemency and pardon a wrongdoer? These are and many more are questions left to the conscience of Daniel to answer as he pursues his selfish personal agenda at the expense of the people who trusted him with their votes.

 With his eyes on the 2027, OGD has got it wrong and he tacitly went back to his vomit by supporting the candidate of the PDP, Oladipupo Abiodun, against the APC’s standard bearer, Prince Abiodun. By his action, he is fully back in the trenches, playing the spoiler’s game.

For the APC faithful who feel unhappy with the turn of events, the best way to deal with the present situation is to accept the reality of his betrayal and treat him as a lost member of the party. He became a lost member the day he sealed up a clandestine agreement to work for Adebutu. And history will judge.      

Birds of the same feather, they say, flock together. While some APC stakeholders are still in shock over the latest intrigues from the OGD camp, another lie from the pit of hell came from Adebutu. Adebutu, who is on self-exile, in a statement he personally signed claimed that his family had been supporting Abiodun’s political activities since 2019 with funds.

 It reads: “How callous and ungrateful can someone be to his benefactors? The same OGD for the sake of Remo-Land favoured him over me in 2019, by rallying his entire political forces behind him when it was obvious Kunle  Akinlade – the APM Governorship Candidate was going to defeat him. Ditto my Dad- Sir Kesington Adebukunola Adebutu CFR-Odole Oodua of the Source who willingly gave hundreds of millions naira in 2019 to both our political structures, because he regards both of us as his sons from the same Iperu Town. Furthermore, Odole continued to support his government with huge donation during COVID-19 pandemic and several other projects in the State. I am sure Mr. Governor will not deny this.  How has he acknowledged or appreciated these gestures?”

What gesture? Is it the gesture of funding your political opponent?  Well, this is a game of politics; the unthinkable can happen. But not to the extent of funding your perceived enemy. Who is that gullible to believe such a telltale?  Anyone who believes this can believe anything. As for the Ogun state electorate, they are too sophisticated to take such a weird tale of generosity hook, line and sinker. It calls for some sense of reasoning.    

Those with pernicious minds can go to any length in their mischief-making. They can join forces, conspire and conjure up all manners of lies against the innocent governor whose preoccupation is to leave the state better than he met it. In the final analysis, regret, disappointment, and disgrace will be the end game of their plot.  

By Felix Oladeji

The recognition of the role of the tourism sector in spurring growth towards achieving the economic diversification, especially in countries rich in natural resources, is gaining momentum. This is a result of the capacity of the sector to generate employment and revenue and positively contribute to infrastructural development and overall economic growth.

Resource-rich countries have a long history of strong dependence on a narrow range of commodity resources as the driver of economic activities and as source of foreign exchange earnings. Nigeria, for instance, has long concentrated on crude oil, as the main source of revenue generation and the principal component of total exports. Consequently, its economy has been highly susceptible to both internal and external shocks from vandalization of oil pipelines which limits production capacity, and reduction in oil prices at the international market, respectively. The concentration on a narrow range of export products and structural stagnation has been linked with fiscal policy instability and jobless economic growth.

Today, the tourism sector has not just become one of the world’s fastest-growing sectors but has also turned out to be one of the prime sectors capable of spurring overall economic growth and engendering economic diversification. The tourism sector is a dynamic one and has been acknowledged as a sunrise sector capable of transforming the growth trajectory of an economy and switching it on for sound and inclusive growth. That the sector, thought to be hypersensitive to shocks, has continued to witness sustained growth despite occasional shocks of global violence and terrorism, political uprisings, health pandemics and other natural disasters, is signal to its strength and resilience.

In pursuit of regional and global agendas such as the African Union Agenda 2063, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), countries are fast realizing the huge potential of tourism activities in driving the economy and giant strides are being made in the development of and investment in the sector. This is evident in the fact that the tourism sector was the world’s third leading sector in foreign trade in 2018, contributing 10.4% to global GDP, trailing behind chemicals and fuels but ahead of automotive products, accounting for 30% of global service exports (UNWTO, 2019).

For the seventh consecutive year, global tourism exports have outgrown merchandise exports, helping to reduce trade deficits in many countries. The sector, apart from forming linkages with other sectors, such as entertainment, transportation and housing, also contributes significantly to employment generation, providing one in ten (10%) of all jobs globally. Besides, the 2030 projections of the sector indicate that it is expected to continue growing rapidly, through consistent increase in global tourist arrivals, which stood at 1.4 billion in 2018, and forecast to reach 1.8 billion by 2030, representing a forecast of 3.3% yearly growth (UNWTO, 2019). This clearly illustrates the growing size of the global tourist market.

Although the global tourist market is still dominated by rich countries, such as France, Spain and USA, the share of African and other developing countries in international tourist arrivals and receipts is experiencing rapid growth (UNWTO, 2019). For instance, international tourist arrivals in Africa in 2018 totalled 67 million (7% growth), generating international tourism receipts of about $38 billion (2% growth) and contributing about 8.1% to the total GDP on the continent (UNWTO, 2019; WTTC, 2019). The rapidly growing tourism sector in Africa could be attributed to the continent’s strategic intervention in the sector through the Tourism Action Plan (TAP)2 adopted in 2004, which was a strategy for ensuring sustainable tourism on the continent. The TAP recognises tourism as one of the priority sectors for catalysing growth and development on the continent and, thus, intended to turn Africa into tourists’ choice destination.

However, in order for tourism to grow in any country, certain requirements such as decent roads, reliable power, and clean water has to be available. In all three categories, Nigeria has failed to deliver. Movement will be hampered if the roads are terrible. According to data, the majority of Nigeria’s famous tourism destinations are in rural areas that lack these essential infrastructures. This lack of has proven to be a significant deterrent to potential tourists. As most of our tourist locations are inadequately managed, there is also a lack of management of existing infrastructure. Our beaches are overcrowded and other tourist destinations lack basic amenities that ensure guest comfort and contentment. 

Nigeria has become one linked with terrorism, robbery, and kidnappings over the years. These vices have exacerbated Nigeria’s tourism-related concerns. Following similar difficulties, other countries have issued warnings to their nationals about the hazards of visiting Nigeria.

Zamfara State actually has some breath taking tourist attraction such as the National Gallery of Art, Kwiambana Forest Reserve, Kiyawa City Walls, Bakalori Dam etc. However, considering the persistent issues of insecurity, no one in his or her sane mind will opt for such a state and by extension that would have deprived the nation of prospective revenue generation. The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation is no exception to the fact that Nigeria has very strong legislative policies on paper. The difficulty has always been in putting the plan into action.

Back in 2016, the Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Lai Mohammed had disclosed that the government plans to establish arts and craft centres across the 774 local government areas of the country and that the federal government had concluded arrangements to retrieve all artefacts and portraits stolen from ancient Benin Kingdom and sold abroad which were found at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Fast forward to 2021; your guess is as good as mine on the implementation of the above federal disclosures.

Given that the wealthy upper class (mainly political figures) travel abroad for medical treatment on a regular basis, it is not unusual for tourists to be put off visiting Nigeria. There is a persistent dread that in the event of an emergency, the country will not be able to save a foreign national’s life.

As, the global tourism industry is witnessing significant growth, it remains undeniable that, when fully developed, the tourism sector can significantly contribute to employment, revenue and overall economic growth.

Unfortunately, the performance of the Nigerian tourism sector has been unimpressive, with an insignificant contribution to employment and economic growth, to the point that Nigerians now pay more for international tourism than what the country receives from both domestic and international tourists. Indications are that this could be the result of sub-standard tourism assets and the underdevelopment of the Nigerian tourism sector in general, in terms of policy framework and uniqueness of the assets the country is blessed with. In any case, the infrastructural development is key to tourism development, especially security, electricity and air transport infrastructure which are positive determinants of tourism development.

Despite the insignificant contributions of tourism to economic development in Nigeria, the sector should not be written off. Instead, the focus should be on resolving the underlying challenges hindering its development. The sector should be given adequate attention to fully maximise its potential and contribute to the economic diversification drive of the government.

• Oladeji writes from Lagos.  

By Tayo Ogunbiyi

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s achievements in his first tenure in office as the governor of Lagos State made him one of the most outstanding governors of the era. The margin of his re-election victory as well as the myriad of awards both in local and international platforms are ready pointers to this.

The creativity, ingenuity and passion with which has implemented programmes and policies that positively impacted Lagosians, as encapsulated in his administration’s T.H.E.M.E.S (acronyms for Transportation and Traffic Management, Making Lagos a 21st Century Economy, Entertainment and Tourism and Security and Governance) Agenda (now T.H.E.M.E.S Plus), has left no one in doubt of his ability and capability.

Visible achievements in terms of roads and bridges construction, environmental regeneration, employment generation, health care delivery, upliftment of the youth, upgrading of public infrastructure, among others, have created a sense of relief among Lagosians that the governor is leading a government that is capable of delivering the Greater Lagos of our collective aspirations.

Under his visionary leadership, Lagos leads in terms of putting in place a concise and precise infrastructure development vision and programme in the country.  He has demonstrated sincere resolve to tackle the power situation in the state through the delivery of embedded power and energy solutions.

Similarly, the state is presently implementing a concrete intermodal transport vis-à-vis the promotion of all the three available modes of transportation namely road, rail and water. In terms of housing provision, in the last four years, the state has delivered 21 housing schemes.   

Likewise, the Sanwo-Olu administration has delivered four Mother and Child Centres (MCCs) at Eti-Osa, Igando, Badagry and Epe. The commissioning of the four MCCs amply demonstrates the administration’s resolve to enhance residents’ access to healthcare.

Each of the centres has five clinics for mothers, babies and children, neonatal unit for premature babies, labour ward with delivery room, emergency clinic and a theatre for Caesarean sections in complicated deliveries among others.

In agriculture, the state has multiplied increments in agricultural outputs in the area of poultry, fishing, vegetable and agro-processing such as rice and cassava milling and transportation among others. Of particular note is that the Sanwo-Olu administration has commissioned the 32-metric tons per hour Lagos Rice Mill in Imota, Ikorodu.

The rice mill is a 22-hectare facility with two warehouses, 16 silos with a storage capacity of 40 metric tonnes each,  water treatment plant, effluent processing plant, staff quarters, administrative block, car park and firefighting facility amongst others.

But then, the governor is not just about bricks and mortars. He also has excellent human relations skills. His humility can easily disarm a prowling lion!

For many who have had the rare privilege of connecting with him, Sanwo-Olu is a man through whom the milk of human kindness flows ceaselessly. Empathy is an integral part of his nature. He cannot just close his eyes to the sufferings of others. His heart is full of compassion.

The main lesson from the democratic experience paying off in Lagos is that a political leader, who is truly interested in rendering service to the people, can always excel no matter seemingly insurmountable odds.

The leader may lack the ingenuity to deliver the Ginsburg Address of President Abraham Lincoln; he might be excused for lacking the personality or charisma that endears him to the hearts of the people, but he cannot be excused for lacking courage.

The good changes we are savouring in Lagos today are the fruits of dogged courage. If Sanwo-Olu had been overwhelmed by the myriads of problems in Lagos (and they are countless with COVID-19 and the destructive aftermath of the EndSARS protests being the major ones) and postponed governance till 2023, if he had sat down quietly in the comfortable air conditioned ambience of the State House, admiring the drawings of the Greater Lagos project, a lot of the remarkable changes we are witnessing today would not have taken place.

It is gratifying to note that the governor has since forgotten his landslide victory at the poll and moved on to other useful things. For instance, a day after his victory, he was already on the street inspecting projects! This is why Lagos is working!

That, indeed, is why Sanwo-Olu’s second coming portends great news for the residents. The first phase of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit Blue Line rail system will open for passenger operations in August.

Recall that the 13-kilometre metro line’s first phase of the railway transport system was inaugurated last January by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Since its commissioning, different groups of people across the state have taken part in a series of test-rides aimed at getting them acquainted with the workings of the rail system. Now, the coast is almost clear for full scale passengers’ operations.

In what looks like a double dose of good news, the first phase of LRMT Red Line (Agbado to Oyingbo) is also nearing completion, and will commence testing and passenger operations around August.

A wide range of transport infrastructure has been offered to investors for branding and Out-of-Homes advertising. This will shore up revenue for the sustainability of the Lagos State Transport Network.

In rail transportation, the government is seeking partnership in the management of advertising and Out of Homes (OOH) concessions within the stations, construction and management of multi-level car parks, and skywalk bridges at Ikeja and Marina, while also looking forward for concessionaires for the Green and Purple lines which have a combined distance of 133 kilometres.

If things work according to plan, the Fourth Mainland Bridge will be completed within four years at the cost of $2.5 billion. Messrs CCECC-CRCCIG Consortium won the bid for the project, while Mota-Engil (Nigeria and Africa), China Communication Construction Company and CRBC Consortium emerged as reserve bidders. Fifty-two bidders initially indicated interest in the project, out of which 32 were responsive.

The Bridge, which is designed to have three toll plazas and nine interchanges, is a partnership between the government and the construction company. When completed, it is expected to remove gridlocks on the Carter, Eko and the Third Mainland Bridges and open up the state for future developments.

Other projects that the Sanwo-Olu administration is poised to deliver in the next four years include  the second phase of the Blue Line from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko; completion of eight Stadia across the five IBILE divisions to facilitate youth development, engagement and community sports; continuous construction and rehabilitation of schools to significantly improve access to quality education and completion of the 130-Bed New Massey Hospital that will be the largest specialist children’s hospital in sub-Saharan Africa.  

Others are completion of the ultra-modern 280-Bed General Hospital, Ojo (currently at 47% completion); completion of the Mental Health Facility in Ketu-Ereyun in Epe Local Government; completion of the Opebi Link Bridge to Maryland that will significantly improve travel time and provide alternative route options in the axis and the rehabilitation/upgrading of phase II of the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway Project from Eleko T-Junction-Abraham Adesanya among others.  

Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, says that excellence does not come by accident; it is achieved by habit and conscious commitment to one’s goals and objectives. From May 29, 2019 till date, the nation’s ‘Centre of Excellence’ has been blessed with a leader who is committed to the entrenchment of excellence across all sectors. That, indeed, is why Lagosians are excited by Sanwo-Olu’s second coming.

• Ogunbiyi is Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

By Fabian Agekameh

The ‘CBN (Customer Due Diligence) Regulations, 2023’ was recently published in the federal gazette by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The regulations direct all Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to obtain comprehensive information about their customers, including details of customers’ social media handles as part of ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) procedures.

KYC requirement for banks in Nigeria is a global best practice and an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measure that places an obligation on banks to properly identify customers, verify their identity and assess the financial risk related to each customer. The ultimate aim, beyond record keeping and credit profiling, is to prevent illegally obtained money (or money intended for illicit purposes) from entering the financial system. It is not new to the Nigerian financial sector.

However, the provision mandating banks to obtain details of social media handles of customers as part of KYC requirements is a new development; and it has led to some uproar.

According to a CBN circular dated June 20, the regulations are made pursuant to the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 and the CBN AML/CFT/CPF (Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Countering Proliferation Financing) Regulations 2022. This, on the surface, presupposes that the aim of the regulation and its additional KYC requirements is to better assess financial risk and prevent fraud, money laundering and terrorism financing. This move should ordinarily be lauded as a positive step in the right direction, especially as Nigeria was rated as a high-risk country for money laundering and terrorist financing by the Basel Institute on Governance last year. On the contrary, it has been met with scepticism by a populace who are weary of overbearing government regulation.

Particularly, the legality of section 6 of the regulations that require banks to obtain social media handles of individuals and corporate entities (Sub-sections a (iv) and b (iii) respectively) as part of KYC measures has been called to question.

The core mandate of the CBN, displayed conspicuously on its website, is the overall control and administration of the monetary and financial sector policies of the federal government. The principal objects of the CBN, are set out in Section 2 (a)-(e) of the CBN Act 2007; it includes the promotion of a sound financial system in Nigeria (sub-section (d)), amongst other things. The Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020 is also a key legislation that makes the CBN the chief regulator of banking activities and empowers the CBN governor, in Section 56, to make rules and regulations for the operation and control of all institutions under the supervision of the bank – that is, all financial institutions.

Clearly, the CBN is the chief regulator of banking activities in Nigeria and it has the power to make regulations in that regard. The question then is whether the CBN is, perhaps, over-extending its powers in relation to section 6(a)(iv) and 6(b) (iii) of the recently published regulations.

One quarter from where there has been audible criticism of those provisions is the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), which has declared that the provisions in the CBN regulations go against proper legal procedures. The leading objective of NDPC’s establishing Act, the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) (Signed into law by President Tinubu on June 12) in Part 1, Section 1 of the Act is to “safeguard the fundamental rights and freedoms, and the interests of data subjects, as guaranteed under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. It is noteworthy that “Data Subjects” in the Act refers to individuals to whom personal data relates. The NDPC, in a signed statement, raised some compelling issues with the CBN regulations, when the commission made reference to “purpose limitation” (Section 24(1)(b) of the NDPA) which means that the purpose for data collection must be clearly stated and “data minimisation” (Section 24(1)(c) of the NDPA) which means that data cannot be collected beyond the purpose for which it was intended. The offending provisions of the new CBN regulations fall short of this legal requirements as it does not satisfy those two key pre-conditions. There is also the requirement for a data privacy impact assessment mandated in section 28(1) of the NDPA which has apparently not been complied with.

Furthermore, the published CBN regulations in Section 6 places an obligation on banks to “identify” customers and obtain information, including social media handles, but in section 7, it is silent on verification and confirmation of social media handles, whereas measures for verification and confirmation of other obtained information like date of birth, identity card, passport, residential address, phone number etc. were provided for. This again calls into question, the rationale behind the inclusion of social media handles and it exposes the CBN’s awareness of the unreliability of such data.

This leads to another question: Why include it? As a social media user, it is evident that individual handles are unreliable and often do not carry any personal identification markers of the users behind them. Besides, as the description implies, ‘social media’ exists for digital social interaction by individuals and corporate entities; and it is largely unregulated; although governments, including in Nigeria, have demonstrated a desire to increase regulation in this area.

The subject of regulation of social media brings to mind the seemingly aborted “Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill, 2019,” otherwise known as the Social Media Bill. The Bill was strongly condemned by Nigerians, but it had a sizeable number of supporters, particularly amongst public office holders that saw social media users as excessively abusive and disrespectful, citing other reasons like the spread of fake news as reasons for passage of such a bill. One curious case was that of the young northern student in 2022 who was tracked down and prosecuted by the Department of State Security (DSS) for his insulting comments on social media about the wife of former President Buhari, Aisha Buhari. It was a taste of how state power can be misused in a clime of stronger social media regulation. As such, tying social media handles to bank accounts can spell a bad omen for individual rights, freedom of expression and association etc., especially when the CBN regulation is vague on purpose and usage of this information.

Another consideration on this issue, from the government point of view, re-opens another scar on the nation’s consciousness; the EndSARS protests in 2020. The protests were largely mobilized via social media, from where large amounts of money was sourced, collated and deployed to sustain the protests that shook the heart of the government. In the aftermath of the protests the leading figures in the protests, who operated through social media, revealed how their bank accounts were frozen during the time of the protests and in the immediate period after the protests. The un-official leaders of the protests, who were mainly young adult females referred to as the Feminist Coalition would later be accused of fraud and the diversion of $51,000 in bitcoin raised during the protest. It is not a wild guess that the government and regulators, including security agencies, were paying close attention to the developments at the time.

Could this new CBN regulation be a move by the government to deter such bold steps in the future through the instrumentality of social media? Although there may be facts to hide behind in justification by the CBN, it appears that the benefits of such deterrence far outweigh the economic costs to Nigeria.

Available data simply does not encourage this directive by the CBN. According to a 2021 KPMG KYC survey, as at December 2019, Nigeria’s financial inclusion rate stood at 63.2%. This was a massive improvement from pre-2013 levels before the CBN introduced the 3-tier KYC system in 2013 that allowed low and middle income Nigerians open bank accounts with minimal requirements. The CBN itself has set a target of 95% financial inclusion by 2024 which it may not reach if its directive excludes people with no social media presence, as should be their right. Added to this is the cost and burden of compliance by banks with ever increasing CBN regulations, as they are already burdened to very identity of customers in disparate systems in immigration, road safety, INEC, etc. because of the lack of a unified identity management system. According to Statista, only about 31.6 million social media users exist in Nigeria as at January 2023- which is equivalent to 14.3 per cent of the total population. The wisdom of collection of social media handles as part of KYC requirements for solely banking purposes is thus questionable.

In the end, it is unlikely that terrorists, fraudsters and corrupt public officials would foster their illicit desires publicly on social media; nor is their social media handles likely to feature in any payment or transaction advice. Perhaps the CBN needs to educate Nigerians on what this addition hopes to accomplish; and in the least, it must satisfy the requirements of the NDPC.

In his 23-year hold on power, Russian President Vladimir Putin woke up to the most rattling test of his iron clad rule penultimate weekend. He faced a day-long mutiny by forces of Wagner Group, a mercenary army led by Yevgeny Prigozhin. The mutiny not only progressed nearly unchallenged while it lasted, it was called off by Prigozhin on concessional terms extracted from Putin that were widely viewed as caging his dreaded sting. Much to the disappointment of his many foes, Putin survived in power. Only he did at the cost of coming across as demystified and vulnerable, rather than impregnable as was hitherto assumed. Effectively, the Putin mystique was dented, but it may be a long way yet from being ended.

Paramilitary Wagner Group had been a major fighting force for Russia in her invasion of Ukraine that elicited worldwide condemnation and was met with robust alliance with Ukraine by the West to thwart the expansionist aggression. It may be tangential but nonetheless noteworthy that the group’s rebellion fell on the 16-month anniversary of that invasion, which Russia launched on 24th February, last year.

Wagner’s mutiny began penultimate Friday, 23rd June, with Prigozhin, a long time Putin ally, threatening an armed rebellion against Russia’s military leadership after accusing Russian troops of shelling his forces from the air earlier that day. Reports said 30 Wagner fighters were killed, while the force shot down a Russian fighter jet. “There are 25,000 of us and we are coming to sort things out… Those who want to join us, it’s time to finish with this mess,” the mercenary warlord was reported saying. But that was only a trigger event, because Prigozhin had for some while questioned the Kremlin’s motives for the war in Ukraine and accused Russian military chiefs of incompetence in prosecuting the war. He dismissed the government’s justification for invading Ukraine, blamed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for the country’s military shortcomings and accused him of conducting the invasion for the benefit of Russian oligarchs; he indeed demanded Shoigu’s removal by Putin. Prigozhin had also rebuffed alleged plans by the Russian leadership to disband Wagner. Tensions between him and Russia’s military had been rising for months, and hours after his remarks about Russian attack on Wagner forces, officials denounced him and opened an investigation against him for plotting armed rebellion.

It was perhaps in making good what he was being accused of that Wagner fighters under Prigozhin’s command, on 24th June, seized control of the southern Russian city of Rostov, a military hub on the country’s border with Ukraine, and deployed a column of hundreds of armored vehicles towards Moscow. The convoy reportedly came within 200 miles of the national capital before Prigozhin called it off after he struck a deal with the Kremlin to end the operation through a pact brokered by Belarus President Alexsandr Lukashenko. That Saturday evening, state media in Belarus reportedly announced unexpectedly that the country’s leader had negotiated Prigozhin’s consent to halt his forces’ advance on the Russian capital, with the Kremlin also having agreed to drop charges against the mercenary chief and allow that he flee to Belarus. Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, was reported saying the pact was struck to “avoid bloodshed, avoid an internal confrontation (and) avoid clashes with unpredictable consequences.” He did not indicate that the uprising would result in any changes in the Russian military leadership as Prigozhin had demanded, and he said Russia’s military operations in Ukraine would continue. Analysts argued, though, that Belarus’s Lukashenko, who is a protégé of Putin, moved swiftly to mediate a truce because his own staying power relies heavily on the Russian leader. Had Putin fallen, Lukashenko would also have become vulnerable, so in aiding his patron, he also aided himself.

Prigozhin kept low on Sunday, a day after he was seen driving away from the military headquarters in Rostov that his forces had seized during the uprising. He was cited saying, however, that his goal was never to seize political control of the Kremlin and overthrow Putin. According to him, Wagner forces marched on Moscow to protest the failures of Russian military leadership in Ukraine and push back against a planned dissolution of the private army. He explained that Wagner fighters did not attack any Russian soldier “on the ground,” but that that they fired back on those who allegedly attacked them from the air. Russia watchers said it was unclear how safe Prigozhin might be in Belarus, given Putin’s track record of pursuing those whom he believes have betrayed him, whether in Russia or abroad. As if to mark that point, a Kremlin television channel reportedly broadcast a day after the mutiny an old clip of the Russian leader saying the one thing he never forgave was “betrayal.” As of Monday afternoon, Prigozhin was speculated to be staying in a hotel in Minsk, the Belarussian capital, that did not have any windows.

In his first public comment following the mutiny, President Putin said Russia was united against it. Speaking in a brief televised address to the nation, he denounced the organiser of the uprising as a traitor without referencing Prigozhin by name, saying perpetrators would be “brought to justice” and that the Russian military would have put down the rebellion anyway. “This is a criminal activity aimed at weakening the country, this was a colossal threat,” he added. He, however, thanked those involved in the mutiny “who made the only right decision: they did not go the whole hog into fratricidal bloodshed (but) stopped at the last line.” Apparently reaffirming the terms of the deal that upended the mutiny, he said Wagnerites who did not participate could sign up with the Russian military, while any mercenary who chose not to join the Russian army could follow Prigozhin to Belarus or simply “return to your family and friends.” Putin’s decision to grant unilateral clemency to the Wagner mercenaries following what amounted to an attempted coup seemed out of character to Russia watchers, given the strongman image of the Russian leader and his reputation for tackling down critics of his rule, not to mention militants.

The Wagner mutiny not only took the world by surprise, it also dredged up a taboo question in Russia as to whether Putin’s hold on power might not be as gripping internally as it looks from the outside. Besides, the rebellion, though aborted, could have the effect of diminishing Russia’s global standing as foes would have noticed the chink in her armour while partners, like China, should feel the need to reappraise the strength of Putin’s authority. Worse is that the aborted mutiny and the fact that Prigozhin’s army appear to have gotten away with it – reports later last week gave indications they were already regrouping in Belarus – could bolster courage unto rebellion among disenchanted elements of the Russian military itself. After all, it is notorious that many in the military ranks aren’t any longer enthusiastic about the war in Ukraine that has become a deadly drag and turning out to be a monumental miscalculation by the Russian leader. Analysts argued that although Prigozhin called off his men from the mutiny, the damage had been done, not the least because his blistering criticism of Russian military chiefs as incompetent raised questions about the Kremlin’s justifications for invading its neighbor in the first place and undermined Putin’s aura of infallibility.

But it will be hasty to write off the Russian strongman yet. He’s always projected himself as the guarantor of his country’s stability and uncompromising protector of its statehood; and, bruised as he was from the mutiny, he retained a semblance of that persona. He sent Prigozhin away and ultimately achieved what he had wanted ab initio, namely disbanding – or, at least, displacing – Wagner forces. Few strongmen would end up accomplishing an objective through the very threat of opposition plied against that objective, thereby adapting the threat into an endgame of sorts. That was peculiarly Putin brinksmanship. “Stability” was the Kremlin’s refrain during the 2020 referendum that cleared the way for Putin to serve two additional terms until 2036, and he looked like he lived up to the billing though by the skin of the teeth. Besides, amid the 16-month-long war with Ukraine, the Russian leader has sustained appearance of  normalcy at home: he resisted hardline calls to declare martial law or to close the country’s borders; and for the elite, the sting of Western sanctions has been compensated by new business opportunities of wartime economy and a domestic market suddenly free of competition from Western businesses. You’ll see, Putin isn’t finished just yet.

• Please join me on kayodeidowu.blogspot.be for conversation.