The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Ending female genital mutilation

    Ending female genital mutilation

    Sir: For the first time in a long, long time, Nigerians well and truly have a mother in Oluremi Tinubu, Nigeria’s First Lady and Wife to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. As First Lady, she has been available and accessible to Nigerians of all shades and stripes. So far, she has embarked on numerous projects to make life better for  Nigerians intervening again and again through the Renewed Hope Initiative to soften the blows for Nigerians as they navigate what is their toughest transition yet since democracy returned to the country in 1999.

    The First Lady has distributed packages to families across Nigeria to strengthen social security. When devastating floods ripped through Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, reducing lives to wreckage, the First Lady was at hand to donate hundreds of millions to affected Nigerians.

    She has a particularly soft spot for vulnerable groups in Nigeria who would otherwise be relegated to the shadows. This is most clearly seen in yearly outreach to older Nigerians. During the just concluded yuletide, the First Lady distributed about N1.9 billion to older persons across the country.

    Now, the First Lady is on a mission to end one of the most harmful and harrowing practices known to man — female genital mutilation. According to the World Health Organization, female genital mutilation comprises all the processes of all the procedures that involve total or partial removal of the external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs for nonmedical reasons.

    The WHO further reveals that more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where FGM is predominantly  practiced. FGM is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15  and is  is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

    According to the WHO, treatment of the health complications of FGM is estimated to cost health systems US$ 1.4 billion per year, a number expected to rise unless urgent action is taken towards its abandonment.

    Apparently, the First Lady has made tackling FGM a goal close to her heart. She was at hand to reiterate this in a statement commemorating the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, which was held on February 6.

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    As harmful and as harrowing as FGM is, it is heartbreaking to see that many girls  continue to experience it. Left at the mercy of families and communities steeped in dangerous superstition, these girls are often left with no option but to submit to a life-threatening practice with proven life-long physiological and psychological  consequences. This can simply not be allowed to continue.

    If Nigeria is to proceed on the path of development, women, and girls must be protected and provided opportunities to thrive. Giving women and girls opportunities to thrive necessarily means discouraging and discontinuing every practice that puts them in grave danger.

    At a time when women and girls in many countries of the world are taking the lead in breaking new grounds and putting those countries on the path to prosperity, it speaks volumes that some countries are still grappling with extending full protection and recognition to the rights of women and girls.

    •Kene Obiezu,keneobiezu@gmail.com

  • For a vibrant Nigerian press

    For a vibrant Nigerian press

    Sir: By the statute establishing the press as the Fourth Estate of Realm, the press has a joint role with the government to build a peaceful, virile and responsive citizenry. It is in the interest of both the government and the press to collaborate to secure good governance.

    The watchdog role of the press on behalf of the people is neither to discredit the government nor expose its inadequacies; rather the oversight role of the press is to keep the government on its toes to be responsive to its duties and responsibilities to the electorate that voted it to power.

    Edmund Burke, the 19th century British parliamentarian and astute politician, was so satisfied with the role of the press that he advocated for the enactment of a law making the press the Fourth Estate of the Realm. Today, the British press in addition to performing its traditional role of watchdog and oversight, also sees itself as a veritable part of the government. The institution of good governance in any worthwhile democracy requires the unwavering collaboration of both the press and the government.

    Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the world’s greatest war strategists, described the pen as mightier than the sword. And this is real truth because quite many governments have fallen to the heroic power of the pen than the booming of the guns.

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    Since 1859, when the first Newspaper “Iwe Irohin for the people of Egbaland and its environs” was established by the staunch Anglican cleric, Rev Henry Townsend, the Nigerian press has been in the vanguard of building a virile and sustainable Nigerian estate. Like any other industry or enterprise, the press is also feeling the current excruciating rising prices of raw materials and other items required for the printing of newspaper. Both the cost of production and delivery of newspapers to appropriate areas of the country have also escalated as a result of removal of fuel subsidy by the government.

    With the death of all the newsprint industries, the press, especially the print media, now relies on imported newsprint with rising foreign exchange. All of these have hiked the price of newspapers beyond the reach of ordinary Nigerians. This is coupled with rising unpaid salaries by newspaper houses owing to paucity of funds arising from poor sales. The problem is further compounded by the recent minimum wage which newspaper staff are also entitled as a matter of right.

    The government must come to the aid of Nigerian press by revitalizing the various newsprint industries that now lie comatose. Newsprint forms the major raw material of the newspaper and their availability locally will go a long way to reduce the cost of production. In fact, but for advertorials which many papers are relying on to cushion the effects of high input costs, it is clear that only very few and negligible members of the educated public can afford to purchase a newspaper based on current cover prices.

    Newspapers are sources of information about government and about society; now people increasingly cannot afford to buy them due to high production costs. It is a reason for the preponderant rate of fake news that litters our domains and this should be of great concern to the government.

    Finally, government should also patronise the press like in the past when government departments subscribe to buying copies of newspapers daily as source of information.

    •Sunday Olagunju,Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Budget interrogation

    Budget interrogation

    As Nigerians await the National Assembly’s approval of the 2025 Appropriation Bill, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) claims to have detected 254 “frivolous, inappropriate, unclear and wasteful expenditures” that should be eliminated. The number is concerning.

    The alleged suspicious items include N5.492bn budgeted for the annual maintenance of the Presidential Villa and N6.042bn also budgeted for annual routine maintenance of mechanical/ electrical installation, building/civil and environmental services within and around the Villa facilities.

    Also, the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning budgeted N230m to provide clean and potable water in 774 local government areas, “which is far from its mandate.” It also budgeted N115m for purchase of UPS, desktops and laptops.

    The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security budgeted N2bn for the provision and installation of solar power streetlights in rural communities in the six geopolitical zones, without specific location and no identification of beneficiaries. The organisation said “this is a replication of a project which is handled by the rural electrification agency.”

    Similarly, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy budgeted N952.075m for innovation and coordination of the ministry’s policy programme. 

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    The Ministry of Water Resources budgeted over N1bn for the purchase of utility and Hilux operational vehicles. It also budgeted N450m for the construction of rural access roads nationwide, “which clearly is outside its mandate.”

     Apart from some of the allegedly questionable items stated, the organisation said “the budget includes vague allocations under service-wide votes, such as N4.409tn, which lack clear specifications on how the funds will be utilised.”

    CSJ lead director Eze Onyekpere was reported saying, “the reasonable expectation is that every available resource in the 2025 federal budget proposal should be targeted at concrete deliverables aimed at reducing poverty, creating jobs, improving infrastructure and stimulating economic growth.”

    Indeed, Nigerians do not expect a wasteful budget. President Bola Tinubu recently requested an increase in the 2025 budget by N4.5tn, bringing the total from N49.7tn to N54.2tn.  The request was based on additional revenue from some government agencies in 2024, including the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) which raised an extra N1.4tn, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) which contributed N1.2tn, and other government agencies which collectively generated an additional N1.8tn.

    The observations of the CSJ are thought-provoking. These critical questions must be asked:  What is the integrity of the proposed budget?  Is it a truthful reflection of projected spending? How transparent is the process by which it was created? Does it contain any provisions that could facilitate corruption?

  • A porous country

    A porous country

    • By Ike Willie-Nwobu

    Sir: Just how porous are Nigeria’s borders? The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) appears to have the answer that continues to elude Nigeria’s ministry of interior and immigration authorities. According to the agency, each of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas has been infiltrated by illegal migrants.

    Given that Nigeria’s paucity of data makes the exact number of legal migrants in Nigeria difficult to keep up with, it is impossible to know just how many illegal migrants are in Nigeria.

    The revelation by NAPTIP paints a harrowing picture of a country whose borders are breached at will; one that cannot account for all those who have set up camp within it, and one who cannot make demands of all those within its borders because it does not even know who they are or where exactly they are.

    No country can survive or grow when it cannot regulate the number of people who come and go out of it. No country can guarantee the security and welfare of its citizens when it can neither keep a lid on those who come and go from the country or the distribution of very scarce resources.

    Resources are indeed very scarce in Nigeria. With more than 200 million people distributed into families of different sizes, multiple security challenges, a fumbling economy, weak leadership and  absence of strategic national planning, even those that are recognized as citizens of the country cannot get enough to lead quality lives.

    This spectre of irregular migration that is now endemic across all 774 local government areas of Nigeria also feeds and flows from human trafficking which the agency is legally equipped to deal with.

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    While human trafficking and irregular migration do everything within their power to reduce Nigeria’s security architecture to dust, they also do a lot to strip Nigerians of their dignity. Women and children who remain extremely vulnerable remain its biggest victims.

    While NAPTIP may be taking its mandate seriously, the problem of human trafficking and irregular migration appears to be growing more serious by the day.

    The grave challenges confronting many Nigerians make it easy for human traffickers and irregular migrants to operate in the country, watering the grounds for many crimes that erode human life and dignity.

    Experience has shown that human trafficking is usually fueled by ruthless syndicates whose insatiable quest for money make them care nothing for human life or dignity. To break them up, to end the hideous spectacle of human trafficking, Nigeria has to do better. It has become an emergency.

    •Ike Willie-Nwobu

    Ikewilly9@gmail.com

  • Does Nigeria need more states?

    Does Nigeria need more states?

    • By Kene Obiezu

    Sir: Many Nigerians experience a sharp increase in the racing of their hearts whenever the question turns on the creation of new states. Could it really happen? Can Nigeria have more than the 36 states it has had since 1999?

    These questions have always engaged the mind of keen political observers and even the not so keen. Can names like Muri, Katagum, Okun and Apa suddenly become washed in the milk of statehood in Nigeria? It is not impossible, even if it seems more improbable by the day.

    One of the reasons it doesn’t appear like it will happen anytime soon is that almost every Nigerian seems to want a state. If the floodgates are opened, every community, no matter how remote, may just want to become a state.

    The House of Representatives suddenly stirred from its slumber to pass a motion calling for the creation of 30 new states across the country.

    State creation has always been one of the thorniest questions in Nigeria’s constitution. Indeed, the hurdles placed on the path of those who would create more states in Nigeria by the 1999 constitution make it as seemingly insurmountable task. Those who try soon abandon the Sisyphean task.

    When the drafters of the 1999 constitution sat to draw up Nigeria’s penultimate paper, it appears they deliberately decided that Nigeria would be fine with 36 states. To secure Nigeria’s 36 states, they strung into the constitution the stingiest and most stringent conditions for the creation of new states. That these strings, as fragile and legal as they are, refused to snap in the face of the cyclone of agitation for new states means that the drafters of the constitution predicted they would come and stopped them even before they came.

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    For those angling for the creation of new states, the provisions of section 8, subsections 1 to 3 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate, the House of Representatives, State Houses of Assembly, and local governments to create a new state has remained a bridge too far.

     Does Nigeria need more states?

    The question that must however engage the minds of Nigerians as this question has come up again is whether Nigeria needs more states. In other words, is Nigeria fine with 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, or does it require more states?

    The question is not an easy one to answer, but the chaos that has unfolded in many states since 1999 makes it far from an impossible one. While the federal government and all the presidents Nigeria has had have failed to lift Nigeria to the heights it can hit, the states have not covered themselves in glory either.

    With many state governors playing god, brazenly bludgeoning through their state resources and showing laughably little regard for laws and institutions, many Nigerians have hardly felt the impact of their state governments.

    People in the rural areas have fared worse. With many state governors content to sit tight and sit in on local governments and their allocations, rural dwellers are often without basic amenities to compound the harrowing experience that is government in Nigeria.

    The solution to this kind of invasive incompetence is not the creation of more states. Far from it. Nigerians should be more invested in getting the existing states work and work well. Nigerians should channel their energies into fine-tuning the constitution to get existing state performing, instead of creating more states that will only deplete resources that should be committed to development.

    •Kene Obiezu,

    keneobiezu@gmail.com

  • Future of Nigerian education has arrived…but will it work?

    Future of Nigerian education has arrived…but will it work?

    • By Ejinkeonye-Christian

    Sir: For decades, Nigeria’s education system has been in dire need of reform. Outdated models. Undertrained teachers. A system that pushes students through school without real preparation for life. Now, the federal government has introduced the 12-4 Basic Education Model—a bold shift that could redefine learning in Nigeria.

    But the real question is: Will this be just another policy on paper, or will it truly change the game?

    I must commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for this major step in addressing the cracks in our education system. The strength of any nation lies in the quality of its education, and this new model presents a great opportunity. Extending basic education from nine to 12 years without breaks means stronger foundational learning, fewer dropouts, and a curriculum that aligns better with global standards.

    If properly implemented, this could make our students more competitive, both locally and internationally.

    But here’s where we must tread carefully. A longer education system does not automatically mean a better one. If we do not fix the root problems of our old system, this 12-4 structure will simply become a longer version of the same struggle.

    One of the biggest problems in our schools today is the lack of trained teachers. This is not just about having a degree—it’s about having the right training to teach, guide, and shape young minds. Too many schools, both public and private, are filled with teachers who have no background in education, no knowledge of child psychology, and no real grasp of effective teaching methods. And we wonder why students struggle.

    If we want this 12-4 model to work, we must get serious about teacher training and certification. Every teacher in this system should be properly trained, tested, and licensed. No shortcuts. No compromises. A student cannot rise above the quality of the education they receive, and the education they receive depends on the quality of their teachers.

    For too long, we have treated vocational and technical education as an afterthought. Every country has its strengths, and Nigeria’s lies in the talents and creativity of its people. But what have we done with this? Instead of equipping students with practical skills, we have built a system that glorifies white-collar jobs and side-lines those with hands-on talents.

    This 12-4 model should not repeat that mistake. We need to fully integrate vocational and technical education into this system—not as an optional subject, but as a core part of the curriculum. Our students should graduate not just with certificates, but with real skills—skills that empower them to create, build, and contribute meaningfully to society.

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    Imagine a Nigeria where students leave secondary school not just knowing theories, but knowing how to do something tangible—from fashion design to coding, from carpentry to robotics. This is how we build a nation that thrives—not just one that survives.

    Now, let’s talk about one of the biggest missing pieces in our education system—guidance and mentorship.

    It’s not enough to teach students subjects and send them off into the world clueless about what to do next. We need a structured system that helps students understand their strengths, explore career paths, and make informed decisions about their future.

    I wish such a system had existed when I was younger. It would have saved me from wasting years figuring out the right path. Many Nigerians can relate to this struggle—finishing school only to realize they were never really guided towards their purpose. We must do better for the next generation.

    If this 12-4 model is to succeed, we need a mentorship and career guidance structure within it. Students should graduate not just academically ready, but personally and professionally aware of where they’re headed and why.

    The 12-4 education model is a welcome development, but its success depends on how well we implement it.

    Longer schooling is not the solution—better schooling is. If we simply extend the years without fixing the system, we will end up with students who spend more time in school but gain little from it.

    The federal government must prioritize teacher training, vocational education, and student mentorship if we truly want this reform to count. Otherwise, we will look back years from now and realize that we simply created a longer road to the same destination.

    Nigeria has an opportunity to get this right. The question is—will we?

    •Ejinkeonye-Christian,

    Nsukka, Enugu State.

  • Feb’s 28 days and subscription

    Feb’s 28 days and subscription

    How many days are in a month?  Not even is there a common answer in nature — or, more correctly, nurture, as it tries to capture nature in the Georgian calendar.  Some months have 30 days, others 31.  

    Even then, February is the most fortuitous.  Most times, it boasts 28 days.  But once in four years, it pops an additional day, which makes those one-in-four-years a leap year!  That makes those born on February 29 leap for joy only once, in four years, for their birthdays!

    So, as per the month, the Georgian calendar speaks from many sides of the mouth.  So does, it appears, DSTV, the subscription powered pay-TV, in calculating its subscription rates.

    The pay-TV rather conveniently picks a standard 30 days, even if only April, June, September and November — only four out of 12 months — to calculate the validity of its monthly subscriptions.  That means it enjoys a one-day “jara” (bonus) for January, March, May, July, September, October and December — seven solid months out of 12.

    February?  That’s the story.  February 2025 has 28 days.  So, how come a subscriber renews his subscription on February 1, yet is told by DSTV that it expires on February 28? 

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    In other words, by DSTV’s own standard of 30 days — already a “surplus” for seven months that have 31 days, out of 12 — shouldn’t the subscription have expired on March 2, for a new deal to start on March 3?

    By its self-serving arithmetic, isn’t DSTV cheating subscribers every February — as the Miller, with thumbs turned golden for stealing customers’ grains, in Geoffery Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”  — by imposing 28 days, instead of its already arbitrarily imposed 30 days, even if only four months have 30 days?

    The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the industry regulators, should call out DSTV over what looks like clear sticky fingers. 

    To gyp subscribers for two days could turn out an illicit trove, if subscribers run into thousands.  But maybe DSTV has a logical explanation for its queer arithmetic in February?  That’s what NBC should find out — and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) too.

    DSTV, which content creator, Multichoice Nigeria, lost 243, 000 subscribers between April and September 2024, isn’t the most popular consumer brand in town, by its hawkish attitude to hiking subscription rates.

    That’s why both the NBC and FCCPC should ensure it isn’t cheating anyone — and if it is, make it to do quiet restitution.  Fair is fair.

  • More polytechnics needed to fight unemployment

    More polytechnics needed to fight unemployment

    Sir: The world is shifting to a skills-based education focused on practical application, while placing less emphasis on paper qualifications and Nigeria should follow suit.

    To reduce unemployment and create jobs for the teeming youth, the government should focus more on entrepreneurship and technical education to equip citizens with skills-based education. This will help Nigerian youths secure jobs during and after school.

    Just recently, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, agreed to the request of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to provide two certificates to polytechnic graduates. This is a good initiative that will add more value to polytechnics.  Professor Idris M. Bugaje, the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education is doing a good job of changing the old narratives about the Nigerian polytechnic education system. Bugaje is advocating for modernizing polytechnic institutions and reinventing better ways of improving skills in technical and vocational education. With the assistance of the Ministry of Education and the help of the current minister, much can be done to revitalize skills in industries.

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    Polytechnics are all about hands-on learning. They equip students with the actual, usable skills that employers need. Universities are not skills-oriented institutions and should not be considered as such. Evidence shows that graduates finish universities with degrees that just don’t translate to what the market wants. Polytechnics fill the jobs gap because polytechnic graduates are trained for specific industries and trades.

    Polytechnics are about creating self-employing jobs. The polytechnic institutions encourage innovation and teach students how to start their own businesses during and after the study. Through the polytechnic system, young Nigerians can access quality technical education. The polytechnics build young entrepreneurs with skills that benefit both the nation and the workers.

    Nigeria is bursting with the potentials of its youths. Our young Nigerians are smart, resourceful, and ready to work, and this government should pave the way for this demand. Let this government renew the hope of our polytechnics to curb unemployment and fight poverty for the good of the country.

    • Auwal Ahmed Ibrahim, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna.

  • Let’s return ‘Bring Back the Book Campaign’

    Let’s return ‘Bring Back the Book Campaign’

    Sir: At the twilight stage of the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, he touted the idea of bringing back the old book campaign which was the vogue in Nigeria in the sixties through to eighties. Unfortunately, he lost the 2015 re-election campaign and the lofty idea died a natural death.

    Throughout the Buhari era (2015 – 2023), he was preoccupied with the intransigencies of the Boko Haram such that for eight solid years, he lost thought of any book campaign. With a rapidly declining readership culture in Nigeria, the present government and any government whatsoever, must show considerable wearisomeness and brave up for a clear revitalization of the book reading culture vastly on decline.

    Out of the five ages of civilization namely: (i) the hunter and gatherer age; (ii) agricultural age; (iii) industrial age; (iv) information/knowledge age, Nigeria seems to have lost the four ages as a participant and cannot therefore afford in the widest imagination to lose the fifth age, which is the age of emerging wisdom. The fast eroding reading culture which had its genesis from the scarcity mentality that once pervaded the entire nooks and crannies of the country must be gradually abrogated through a conscious reintroduction of the book reading culture in the country.

    In the 60s through the 70s, and even up till the 80s there were a plethora of well stocked public libraries in cities and local government headquarters for the benefit of excitable readers. Particularly at weekends, both adults and children visited libraries to avail themselves of rich collections of both local and foreign books. The three years (1967 – 1970) Nigerian Civil War and the series of policy somersaults which rendered Nigeria’s economy and fortunes comatose seemed to have negatively impacted on people’s psyches and their desires and inclinations for attitudinal readership culture. And with the currency debacles which former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele inflicted on the entire country, many youths lost faith in their knowledge which failed to bring money into their pockets. In droves, they changed their focus to business for the purpose of earning money for survival sake. Many seem to have forsaken the urge for increased knowledge for business sake.

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    In the word of late American civil right activist, Martin Luther King Jnr, many developing countries are at the beck and call of misfortunes and degradations because they harbour people of sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Nigeria cannot afford to lose the emerging age of wisdom which book reading and knowledge acquisition give.

    The present government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should step up the idea of bringing back the book campaign. As president, he actually has the power to do a lot more than mere talk about it. There is a lot to do. This includes the policies that can make it possible for every single local government in Nigeria to have a library. All the 774 local governments have children, meaning they already have audiences to patronize the libraries. And because children are young, they can be encouraged to read. The focus of the reading campaign should be children who are still tender-hearted as opposed to adults many of who are already fixed in their ways.

    All the local government libraries should be stocked with pertinent books, which many organizations will be ready to supply as complement to those the government may decide to purchase. The policy alone will do a lot to sensitize and galvanize prospective children readership as the focus of the government campaign for bringing back the book reading culture lost to insensitivity and gross unawareness of years past.

    The policy can mandate the 774 local government headquarters to build a bungalow and designate it as a library for the whole local government area. Apart from children at the local government headquarters, children in other parts of the local government areas must also be given the opportunity to visit the libraries quarterly or regularly and effort must be deliberately orchestrated by the chairman of local government council. It is the cheapest any local government can undertake. It will also not cost too much to employ one or two librarians to manage the libraries on permanent basis.

    •Sunday Olagunju, Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Time Nigeria turned its abandoned assets into revenues

    Time Nigeria turned its abandoned assets into revenues

    Sir: The federal government owns thousands of abandoned and incomplete buildings, roads, dams, electricity etc. projects; vast tracts of unused land, thousands of obsolete and unserviceable vehicles, and millions of scrap machines and equipment scattered across the country. These assets, though neglected, represent significant untapped potential that could be leveraged to generate much-needed revenue.

    Both the federal and state governments are in dire need of additional funds to finance developmental and humanitarian programmes, as well as to sustain ongoing projects and programmes. The solution to this financial challenge may lie in the very assets that have been left to deteriorate. By auctioning some of these assets, commercializing others through private sector participation, and completing abandoned projects, the government can unlock substantial revenue streams.

    For instance, Nigeria has thousands of kilometres of abandoned or dilapidated federal highways. Rehabilitating and concessioning these roads through private sector involvement will not only improve infrastructure but also generate revenue for the government. This approach will shift the financial burden from the public purse to private investors, who will fund the construction or rehabilitation of the roads and recoup their investments through tolling.

    In 2022, the federal government introduced the Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI), a commendable programme that identified 19 federal highways for rehabilitation and tolling. However, recent reports suggest that the current Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, may have had a change of heart. Bismarck Rewane, Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), recently noted, “This idea was thwarted with the entrance of the current Federal Minister of Works, who came into the picture, first as a catalyst and next as a spoiler.”

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    The Tinubu administration should prioritize reviving such schemes to convert abandoned properties, highways, lands, vehicles, machinery, and other assets into sustainable revenue streams. However, the process must be meticulously planned, transparent, and supported by robust legislation and strong institutions. Without these safeguards, neither private sector players nor international investors will be willing to participate, given the history of failed concessions and partnerships in Nigeria. Examples of such failures include the Lekki-Epe Concession, the Ajaokuta Steel Company concession to Global Steel Holdings Ltd (GSHL) in 2004 (revoked in 2008), the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway concession to Bi-Courtney in 2009 (revoked in 2012), and the Nigerian Ports Concession programme, where some terminal operators failed to meet their obligations due to weak contract enforcement and poor oversight.

    Another notable case is the ALSCON (Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria) concession to the Russian firm UC Rusal, which resulted in prolonged ownership dispute and legal battles.

    To succeed, the government must learn from past mistakes and create an enabling environment that fosters trust and accountability. By doing so, Nigeria can transform its abandoned assets into a goldmine of opportunities, driving economic growth and development for the benefit of all.

    •Zayyad I. Muhammad, Abuja.