The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Mental health of inmates

    Mental health of inmates

    Incarceration should not be an impediment to proper healthcare for inmates with mental health issues. However, many people who are incarcerated in the country lack access to mental health professionals because they are in short supply.     

    “We have 8,246 inmates with mental health conditions in our custodial centres,” according to the Assistant Controller General of Corrections in charge of medical services, Dr Glory Essien. She gave this figure during the third public hearing of the Independent Investigative Panel on Alleged Corruption, Abuse of Power, Torture, and Other Inhumane Treatment by the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), held in Abuja, on August 12. 

    From her explanation, the mental health of these inmates had been impacted by their incarceration. She said: “From the moment someone is brought in—those who have seen a custodial centre know what I mean—the police escort them to the gate, it’s opened, they’re admitted, and then that gate locks behind them.

    “That instant loss of freedom can trigger something. Some begin to show signs of disturbed behaviour almost immediately, as if something in their mind has shifted.”

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    When this happens, the shortage of mental health workers complicates the problem.  “If you’re in a facility housing 500 to 1,000 inmates, and you’re the only attending doctor, nurse, or psychologist, it’s simply not possible to monitor everyone individually,” she observed.

    The prison system, therefore, trains some inmates to assist the staff in identifying those showing signs of poor mental health, she added. According to her, they are “trained to alert the staff when they notice concerning behaviour. They might say, ‘This inmate seems dazed, hasn’t eaten, hasn’t spoken to anyone.’  Such observations help the staff to “intervene early,” she said. But she noted that these efforts are inadequate in dealing with the scale of the problem. 

    Two other speakers at the event gave further insights into the issue. The Assistant Controller General of Corrections in charge of pharmaceutical services, Mohammed Bashir, said there were 81,122 inmates in 256 correctional facilities nationwide, adding that specialised consultants “usually go to about 12 designated custodial centres that have a large number of these cases.” This is concerning.  Correctional centres with a small number of such cases also deserve attention.

    The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Dr Magdalene Ajani, noted the maldistribution of mental health professionals, saying, “Let them not only be centred in Abuja and Lagos; we need them to go out to the fields. Because if we even put two in the states, it will help them.”

    The authorities need to address this aspect of conditions in the country’s correctional centres. 

  • Momodu’s strange doctrine

    Momodu’s strange doctrine

    Dele Momodu, the famed publisher of Ovation magazine, isn’t getting much ovation, over his controversial theory, on the abiding confusion in the opposition camp — or is he?

    Momodu, a former left-of-centre political player, who once was a Labour Party (LP)/ National Conscience Party (NCP) presidential wannabe (2011), and also received no less crushing failure, scoring zero vote, in his right-of-centre PDP presidential primaries for 2023.

    In his new camp — PDP or ADC: aren’t both different sides of the same troubled coin? — he’s dabbling into political punditry, albeit of a most primitive hue.  Seeing the route to the Presidency being radically changed, with mass anti-PDP defections in both the South East and the South-South, Momodu now roots for a “northern” response.

    In his grand opinion, President Bola Tinubu, ahead of 2027, seems to be sewing up the entire South, with defecting PDP governors, the latest being Enugu’s Peter Mbah and Bayelsa’s Duoye Diri, though the exiting Diri has not quite said where he would berth.

    Momodu, himself a flamboyant southerner from Edo, is urging the “North” to retaliate, and also back a “northern” candidate of their own!  His campaign is for ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, of course.  Atiku had declared himself the candidate of the “North” in his failed run of 2023.  But now, Teflon Atiku isn’t so sure!  But to Momodu, Atiku, as adopted “northern” candidate, is a “sure banker”, as pools betters would say!  Well, we’ll see!

    It’s curious though how Momodu verbalizes the sheer panic in the PDP/ADC camp. PDP tries to put a sheen on its long-running nightmare, envisioning some strange utopia and rebirth in its November convention.  But the route to that haven is paved with nothing but tempest. 

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    ADC, on the other hand, after what in the streets they call “initial gra-gra” — o that picturesque phrase! — is settling down to a crippling monotony.  Why, even Atiku, said to have committed cash and goodwill to snatching ADC as special purpose vehicle for his umpteenth run, is yet to fully commit by formally joining ADC!

    Less than two years to destiny time in 2027 may well be near-eternity in politics.  But Momodu’s panic-stricken bluster just shows vanishing hopes in the opposition camp!

    Still, Momodu’s theory, of a northern tribal response, echoes the second US-Iraq War.  The doomed Saddam Hussein laid much store by his Republican Guard, formidable in all its analogue might!  But before Saddam could mutter Hussein, he saw the elite guards blown away by an elite digital force!

    Those that plotted base, mass, northern bad-mouthing of others are finding out you can’t step in the same river twice: with the rapid political changes in the old Eastern Region.  In panic mode, maybe Momodu evokes more pity, by his emotive punditry.

    As they say, in the pidgin high street, “jungle don mature”!

  • Terrible state of Ibadan/Ife Expressway

    Terrible state of Ibadan/Ife Expressway

    Sir: Democracy is instituted across the countries willing to be fast developed. It aims at giving voice to the voiceless and to facilitating bringing dividend of democracy to the citizens. One area where dividend of democracy can easily be reflected in the life and dealings of the citizens is the provision of critical infrastructure such as electricity, road/highways, power to mention but few.

    The highway connecting Ibadan (Oyo State) with Osun down to the two other Southwestern states of Ekiti and Ondo is in deplorable state. It is understatement to say deplorable, if not impassable and awful. The situation of the highway from Celica Junction in Ibadan down to Asejire River which serves as Oyo and Osun boundaries is visible right from this section.

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    Nowadays, motorists are left with no choice than to drive at the top speed even at facing the oncoming vehicles. From Ikire, Ayedade Local Government Secretariat axis, the motorists had to go through the agony of sharing lane with oncoming vehicles from Ife to navigate their ways to Gbongan interchange.

    Initially, you see some physically-challenged individuals attempting to do some patches at Wasimi Town, with the hope of recouping some Naira from the drivers and other road users. These, days, the situation has gone beyond their little intervention. Of note is a series of accidents that have claimed lives of individual such as the former SSG Ondo State, some undergraduates of UniOsun among others.

    It is worrisome that political office holders including the governors of these states pass through this highway especially when they need to catch up with local and international flights in Lagos.

    Before now, an intervention that looks like rehabilitation used to be on this expressway; however, reverse is the case in the last two years. I wish the governments of the affected states can team up to get this road fixed. Specifically, governors of Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo should team up to get the road fixed without waiting for the federal government. The situation has gone beyond discriminating federal from the state road, after all, it is meant for the use of Nigerian citizens, the taxpayers and others. This is a clarion on the government. Please, help out in fixing the highway before the situation gets out of hand. I could see a lot of write ups in this direction, without any meaningful corrections. I hope this write up will not go the way of others.

    •Dr Abiola Hamzat,Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Healing the minds of youth

    Healing the minds of youth

    Sir: Nigeria stands at a dangerous crossroads, one defined not only by economic hardship and insecurity but also by an invisible epidemic eating away at its future: the mental health crisis among its youth. With 27% of the population aged between 15 and 35, and nearly 58% under 30, the psychological state of young Nigerians is not a niche concern; it is the lifeblood of the nation’s tomorrow.

    Behind the energy, creativity, and resilience that define Nigerian youth lies a hidden struggle. Depression, anxiety, and substance abuse are spreading quietly, threatening to erode the very generation expected to rebuild the country. The signs are everywhere, on university campuses, in secondary schools, in bustling cities, and rural communities alike.

    A June media report revealed alarming data from Enugu State: 30.7% of secondary school students showed signs of depression, 36.4% exhibited anxiety symptoms, and 8.4% admitted to suicidal thoughts. A 2025 preprint study estimated that behavioural disorders affect 15.1% of Nigerian adolescents, meaning roughly one in six young people are living with serious psychological distress.

    Nigeria’s suicide rate, about 17 per 100,000 according to the WHO, remains among the highest in Africa. Yet over 90% of Nigerians with mental health conditions receive no treatment. Only about 250 psychiatrists serve a population of more than 200 million, a staggering ratio of one psychiatrist per 800,000 citizens. The WHO recommends one per 10,000.

    The crisis is not merely medical; it is deeply social and economic. With youth unemployment and underemployment rising, many young Nigerians face a crushing sense of hopelessness. The repeated and ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have left countless students stranded, fueling despair and delaying their dreams.

    Economic pressure meets emotional fragility in a toxic mix. Social media, while a tool of expression, often worsens this burden. A 2025 UNICEF report found that more than 80% of Nigerian youths feel greater pressure to succeed than previous generations, as curated images of wealth and success online amplify feelings of failure and inadequacy.

    Substance abuse is both a symptom and a coping mechanism. The rise in the use of tramadol, codeine, and synthetic cannabinoids like “Colorado” reflects how many young people self-medicate their pain. A study among adolescent inmates in North-Central found that 82.5% had at least one psychiatric disorder, and 15.8% had substance use disorders, illustrating how untreated trauma spirals into addiction.

    Cultural stigma remains one of the greatest obstacles. Mental illness is still widely viewed as a sign of spiritual weakness, laziness, or moral failure. Families often choose prayers over treatment, while faith leaders dismiss clinical depression as a lack of faith. The language of “madness” silences those in pain and prevents timely help.

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    The state’s response has been tragically inadequate. Despite the Mental Health Act of 2021, which replaced the colonial-era Lunacy Act of 1958, implementation has been slow. Only Lagos and Ekiti states have domesticated the law, and the Mental Health Fund is yet to materialize. Less than 3.5% of Nigeria’s health budget is allocated to mental health, and over 90% of that goes to psychiatric hospitals, leaving almost nothing for community care.

    The workforce crisis compounds the challenge. With fewer than 300 psychiatrists, limited psychologists, and minimal psychiatric nurses, most Nigerians, especially those outside Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, have no access to help. Rural communities are left in silence, often resorting to traditional or spiritual remedies that worsen rather than heal.

    Nigeria must act decisively and urgently. At least 10% of the national health budget should go to mental health, with a focus on prevention and community outreach. The Mental Health Act must be fully implemented nationwide. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and counsellors must be trained and retained, and mental health services integrated into primary healthcare.

    Schools and universities should employ trained counsellors, establish safe spaces for therapy, and include mental health education in curricula. Digital platforms and mobile outreach units must reach rural areas, while communities and faith leaders should be sensitized to treat mental health as a legitimate medical concern, not a spiritual punishment.

    Nigeria’s youth are its greatest national asset, but untreated mental illness is fast turning that asset into a liability. Ignoring their mental well-being is not only a moral failure but a developmental disaster.

    With a life expectancy of just 54.9 years, Nigeria cannot afford to lose its young to despair. Healing the minds of the youth is not charity; it is a national emergency. The time to act is now before silence becomes the loudest sound of a broken generation.

    •Olasubomi Sangonuga, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

  • Kaduna’s worthy example in school feeding programme

    Kaduna’s worthy example in school feeding programme

    Sir: School feeding programme is a noble policy which every government in Nigeria must endeavour to practice. Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the first to introduce school feeding policy as premier of Western Region 1954 – 1959. In 1955, his party, the Action Group, introduced the compulsory free primary education in the Western Region and free feeding of pupils was one method the party used to win the hearts of parents to release their children and wards to enrol for primary education.

    Many parents withdrew their children from the farms to enrol in the free education programme and the gesture of free feeding became the catalyst for increased enrolment. Such policy till date gave the now Southwest its leadership educationally over and above all other states of the country.

    It is gratifying that Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State seems to be replicating that same old idea of the former Western Region where he has elevated the school feeding programme into a model of inclusive development. By providing daily meals to thousands of children, the Kaduna State government has succeeded in improving the nutrition of the children, increasing school attendance and enrolment, empowering women who daily cook and prepare such meals and also empowering farmers who supply the needed foodstuffs on daily basis.

    It is a chain of advantages for which Governor Uba has been praised and commended largely for such rare vision, leadership quality and as a bridge builder. The idea of school feeding programme goes beyond mere provision of food; it is a bridge to learning, a shield against poverty and a sheer promise that the state government will never abandon the children to the vagaries of unpalatable socio-economic and political circumstances they found themselves.

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    In Kaduna State, the slogan by children is no longer that I am disadvantaged, but the slogan is am I willing to take advantage of the available opportunity now at their beck and call to grow and achieve destiny? Other states of the federation should also copy and embrace the lofty ideal of school feeding programme as practised in Kaduna State so as to build up also the future of the children in those states.

    More than 60years after the free education in the West, beneficiaries continue to thank those responsible for such initiative and they remain eternally grateful to the proponents even in death. Finally, in the words of the late South African president, Nelson Mandela, “Education is the best legacy either parents or governments can bequeath to nation’s children”. Training of children is training future generations. Children are future leaders of any nation.

    A nation that fails to train its children will also fail to reap their future benefits.

    •Sunday Olagunju, Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Where are the saboteurs?

    Where are the saboteurs?

    Dangote Refinery has added a twist to its controversial internal reorganisation, which reportedly led to a conflict with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN). It was reported that the trouble arose following the company’s alleged sacking of 800 workers.

    But a different narrative by the Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, changed the picture. He told journalists on October 17: “They said we have an issue with PENGASSAN; it is totally false news.”

     He presented a completely different story during a media briefing at the Dangote Refinery in Lagos. He said: “When we had a meeting with the minister and security agents, I made it clear that we don’t have any issue with PENGASSAN.”

    He revealed shocking information, saying the company “started facing incidents of sabotage,” and that they had documented 22 such incidents.

    According to him, “There were attempted fire incidents. We have the dates, the unit where it was done, and when it was done. All are documented with us. Because we went to the master control room, you know that all the data is completely captured there. And in the same way, they are trying to bring down the equipment.”

    He added: ““Fortunately for us, by the grace of God, it’s a very ultra-modern refinery. So, when somebody starts a fire somewhere, the fire protection system is so good, it is immediately controlled.”

    In essence, his narrative shifted the reason for the staff dismissals, which the company had described as a “small number,” from a labour dispute to a critical security issue aimed at protecting the multibillion-dollar facility from internal threats.

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    News reports had said there was a mass sacking due to unionisation. PENGASSAN had responded by declaring a nationwide strike, including directives to halt crude oil and gas supply to the refinery. The dispute was eventually resolved following government intervention.

    Tagged as the largest single-train refinery in the world and the seventh-largest oil refinery in the world, the Lekki-based facility in Lagos was inaugurated in May 2023. It is expected to ease availability and affordability of petroleum products in the country, and help end Nigeria’s reliance on fuel imports.

    The refinery is, therefore, vital for lowering fuel costs, which is expected to ease the country’s cost-of-living crisis.

    In this context, the company’s claim of 22 incidents of sabotage is a serious one and must not be glossed over.  Since the company also claimed to know the alleged saboteurs, it should expose them and they should be prosecuted.  What is it waiting for, if the information is correct?

  • Local Govt Service Commissions, local govt autonomy reform implementation, and challenges ahead

    Local Govt Service Commissions, local govt autonomy reform implementation, and challenges ahead

    In delivering the keynote address at the just concluded 2025 National Summit of the Local Government Service Commissions (LGSCs), I was compelled to observe the significance of the Summit coming on the heels of the 2024 reconvened National Council of the Civil Service Commissions of the federation as well as the Biennial Assembly and Conference of the African Association of Public Service Commissions (AAPSCOMMSs) which held in Nairobi, Kenya, also in 2024. These meetings and events signal the possibility that the public administration communities of service and practice in Nigeria might be waking up to their gatekeeping responsibilities in a collective bid to strengthen the profession of public administration in Nigeria and on the continent. This is a very good signal. And it is one that the Federal Civil Service Commission is ever ready to extend and partner with the Association of the LGSCs in concretizing.

    This emerging awareness is crucial given that all across the globe, there is consensus regarding the significance of local governance and the strengthening of democratic governance through the devolution of powers to local authorities. This growing awareness is even more important for developing contexts like Nigeria where democratic governance must necessarily constitute the means for activating development. This immediately reveals the ideological dimension of the ongoing discussion in Nigeria around the necessity of reforming the local government as the formidable third-tier of democratic government as well as grant it autonomy to deliver on local and grassroots governance. Successfully reforming the local government is therefore the way to go in placing the grassroots and its potentials at the center of democratic governance in Nigeria. There is no doubt whatsoever that the grassroots, aside its democratic potentials, also possess the natural resources and the requisite capabilities that could be harnessed to lift millions of Nigerians out of crippling multidimensional poverty. The grassroots possess the social capital that enables the people in the various rural communities to organize themselves around the available resources that could facilitate inclusive growth and development. This could therefore enable the government to mobilize local governance as a complement for achieving democratic governance, as well as consolidating, for example, the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The implication of all this, and especially of the government’s reform that grants financial autonomy to local government, is that there is now a larger imperative –involving the LGSCs—that focuses on the significance of local governance and its capability readiness for the national development and democratic projects in Nigeria.

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    The idea of the civil service commission (CSC) came out of the Northcote-Trevelyan civil service reform of the British civil service in 1885. It was meant to serve as the gatekeeping mechanism for preserving and protecting the merit system, professionalism and the vocation of the civil service. Its responsibility is to ensure that the system only recruit, train and absorb those who have the public spiritedness which insists on deferred gratification in the service of the public. In the Nigerian case, and beyond the emergence of the FCSC and CSCs of States, the LGSC came out of the 1976 local government reforms with the constitutional mandate to standardize the administrative and personnel practices, maintain professional standards conducive for efficiency at the local authority level, as well as overseeing manpower planning, assessment of staffing requirements, career management, training and capacity development, and so on. And the most fundamental criterion for evaluating the efficiency and the capacity of the LGSC to not only manage the affairs of the local government is now to also monitor and guarantee the degree of local autonomy enjoyed by the LGAs.

    The Local Autonomy Index, for example, provides a barometer that speaks to the level of autonomy enjoyed by any local authority: Is the leadership of local councils locally and freely elected? Is local revenue available for the use of the local governments? Do LGs generate and implement their own budget? Can LGs seek legal redress if any other tier of government breaches its enabling law? Do LGs enjoy administrative autonomy to control their management systems, in terms of the recruitment and appointment of own staff, etc.?

    The autonomy issue intersects the deepening of democratic governance in Nigeria because granting the third tier its governance autonomy implies allowing it to deploy its resources and national revenue accruing to it towards catalysing poverty reduction, wealth creation, and economic development. All these in turn become the bedrock for the transformation of the economic basis of the Nigerian state itself. Indeed, the Ojetunji Aboyade Committee on Revenue Allocation of 1977, by assigning a share of revenue allocation from the Federation Account to local governments and like the other two tiers, had set it in good governance stead to become a focal point of significant development activities that require high-calibre professional personnel to manage. And given the recent Supreme Court judgment on local government fiscal autonomy, there is the serious possibility that an era of robust and vibrant local governance is about to dawn in ways that takes the local governments away from its low fiscal responsibility towards a model of developmental efficiency.

    Even putting the autonomy issue in this optimistic frame must anticipate serious issues that intersect with the current problems attending the nature and status of the local government as the third-tier of government in Nigeria. One reality is that many of these local government areas were created not because of any concern for administrative viability, but more importantly to service political patronages and necessities. In coming to terms with the realization of local government autonomy in Nigeria, therefore, the LGSC has to first confront structural, systemic and constitutional issues that complicate the possibility of bringing it to pass. First, there is the acute politicization of the local government autonomy that hinges on the overlordship of the state government. In other words, there is a constitutional and legal conflict arising between, on the one hand, the guarantee of section 7 of the 1999 Constitution legislating the existence of democratically elected local governments, and on the other hand, the legal capacity of the state government to create laws and policies that regulate the local government system. Second, there is a constitutional ambiguity with regard to the status and role of the local government as the third tier of the federal government which has been hitherto exploited to facilitate the politicization mentioned earlier.

    Third, and based on the many years of neglect, political patronage and bureaucratic and political corruption, the local government authority has developed a deep-rooted institutional capability and capacity deficit that manifest in the form of poor pay and compensation structure, non-competency-based human resource management standards and procedures, weak or even virtually non-existent internal management control, degraded rating, and more, that together have reduced the local government to the lowest bottom of public perception. Lastly, there is also the conflict of interest and loyalty that result from local government staff who pay allegiance to the state government rather than to the local councils that employ them. This has implications for the possibility of designing and implementing local policies.

    The LGSC therefore confronts the urgency of supervising the emergence of Nigeria’s own indigenous model of local governance that will in turn supervise and harness the grassroots and community-based structures of social capital, networks and subsidiarity as the nodal service delivery points in terms of, for example, community policing, waste management, etc. This will require that the LGSC will also be prepared to service the high-end capacity, capability and professional competence that local autonomy will demand in terms of the management of the local government councils. This now brings us full cycle back to the LGSC and its fundamental role in gatekeeping the reform of the local government councils and authorities.

    In facilitating its gatekeeping constitutional responsibility, the LGSC first has to manage its own existence and authority placed under the watchful control of the state governments. It is therefore centrally situated at the eye of the storm to mediate the challenge of achieving autonomy.

    This situation concretizes the significance of the LGSC as the structural and administrative node for connecting local governance to democratic governance in Nigeria’s political context. This only then means that for the institution to succeed in its gatekeeping mandate, it demands a deep-seated reconceptualization of its objectives, mandates and modus operandi. Reconstituting and reforming the LGSC demands a lot in terms of constitutional enabling and structural capability. This will affect the leadership and stakeholder composition as well as the dynamics of its operations. For instance, the LGSC would have to operate not only with a renewed and redesigned manifest of delegated powers and functions involving local government chairmen and councillors, it will also need new schedules of duties and responsibilities that connect the local government to the citizens as end users.        

    What then are the key reform requirements that will facilitate this reconceptualization of the LGSC as a key institution in the transformation of local governance in Nigeria? Aside the imperative of restructuring the LGSC to facilitate the emergence of new stakeholder and a robust mandate and modus operandi, the administrative autonomy of the institution must be ensured. This is the crucial first step in the responsibility of enabling it to work towards the re-professionalization of the local government councils in ways that ensure its efficient productivity. This administrative independence allows it to streamline recruitment, appointment and personnel administration without undue and distracting interference from the state and from the local government leadership. 

    The second most significant reform issue concerns funding. This is where administrative autonomy connects with fiscal responsibility of the LGSC. A crucial dimension of its personnel administrative responsibility is manpower training and development. Without these, then the entire gatekeeping architecture collapses. The imperative, confronted by the LGSC, of gatekeeping personnel and human resource function, managing performance improvement and capacity reprofiling demands that the funding necessity must go beyond the meagre allocation that would hitherto accrue from the erstwhile State-Local Government Joint Account. Without a consistent source of significant funding, then the significance of the LGSC is crippled.  

    The importance of the LGSC in the public administration dynamics of local government and local governance in Nigeria cannot be underestimated. In constitutional and political terms, it is caught in a dilemma between what the Constitution mandates, and what the reality of state legal capacities demand. It requires a formidable reconceptualization in ways that will enable it give birth to a developmental model of local governance that Nigeria urgently needs to capacitate its democratic governance and national development. A good starting point is for the federal government to revisit the constitutional measures for inter-governmental relationship and partnership that make the state government a key stakeholder in local governance without in any way undermining the crucial local government autonomy as the third tier of government. This constitutional vigilance of the federal government, armed with constitutional safeguard, will ensure that the LGSC become the structural negotiation of a win-win relationship between the state and the local government to facilitate the emergence of the grassroots as a formidable site for progressive development that empowers the citizens and strengthens Nigeria’s democracy.  

    Prof. Tunji Olaopa Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission & Professor  of Public Administration,  Abuja. (Being text of the Keynote Address delivered at the 2025 National Summit of the Association of Local Government Service Commissions of Nigeria held in Abuja on the 15th of October, 2025)

  • Much ado about a presidential pardon

    Much ado about a presidential pardon

    By Tunde Rahman

    The past week showed how people can easily misconstrue well-intentioned actions of the government. After the presidential pardon and clemency were handed down to some Nigerians and a few foreigners, intense controversy had erupted. Indeed, some commentators and analysts have been so vocal against the clemency, particularly as it relates to drug trafficking and capital offence convicts.

    Following the consultation with the Council of State on Thursday, October 11, President Bola Tinubu granted some reprieve to 175 persons. The reprieve was based on the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, headed by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi.

    Pardoned posthumously by President Tinubu were foremost nationalist Sir Herbert Macaulay; poet and soldier Major-General Mamman Vatsa; the writer and environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight fellow Ogoni activists, as well as the four Ogoni leaders considered his antagonists. Also pardoned were some jailed illegal miners, public officials found guilty of corruption, remorseful drug offenders and capital offence convicts, including Maryam Sanda, who is on death row for killing her husband in 2017 in a matrimonial row. The last two categories are the most controversial. I will dwell on them shortly. 

    The list of beneficiaries of the presidential reprieve is long and comprehensive. The committee went as far back as what transpired during the pre-independence era. For instance, the pardon granted to Macaulay corrected the historic injustice done to him by the British Colonialists. The case of the Ogoni 4 and Ogoni 9 killings that occurred in November 1995 during the military dictatorship of late General Sani Abacha was to engender complete reconciliation in Ogoniland. This presidential gesture has been widely applauded in Ogoniland and the entire South-South geopolitical zone.

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    Presidential Spokesman Bayo Onanuga had explained in the statement announcing the pardon that President Tinubu granted the clemency because most of the convicts had shown sufficient remorse and good conduct. Others were due to old age, acute medical conditions, acquisition of new vocational skills or enrolment in the National Open University.

    It must be pointed out that the presidency fully disclosed the pardon as a matter of full disclosure and transparency. Some other governments will typically mask the complete list, knowing it would generate controversy. This open gesture signifies that the Tinubu government has nothing to hide. Contrary to the erroneous suggestions by some people, there was no ulterior or political motive to the pardon.

    However, whether in Nigeria or other jurisdictions where presidents have the power to exercise the prerogative of mercy,  the exercise is always controversial.

    A similar storm was ignited during the Second Republic when President Shehu Shagari pardoned former warlord Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu for his role in the country’s 30-month civil war. Public outrage also greeted the full and unconditional pardon granted in 2013 by former President Goodluck Jonathan to his former boss and ally, the late Bayelsa governor Diepreye Alamieyesiegha, who was convicted of stealing millions of dollars.

    The presidential pardon and the response it usually elicits are no different internationally, particularly in the United States. President Bill Clinton reportedly signed 140 pardons on January 20, 2001, his last day in office. This included one for his younger half-brother, Roger Clinton, who was convicted in 1985 for cocaine possession and drug trafficking.

    According to Newsweek, such was Roger Clinton’s notoriety that the US Secret Service codenamed him “Headache” because of the constant trouble he gave President Clinton in office.

    Former US President Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, after he had publicly pledged not to do so. Hunter Biden was convicted between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024, of offences, including gun running. President Biden also reportedly pardoned his other relatives who were convicted of sundry offences. 

    In his first term, President Donald Trump, in December 2020, pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, who is married to his daughter, Ivanka Trump. Jared Kushner was convicted of illegal campaign funding, tax evasion and witness tampering. All the pardons were intensely controversial.

    Back home, the present clemency for some drug offenders, along with that of Maryam Sanda, has emerged as the most contentious. For instance, in his seeming desperation to nail the government over Maryam Sanda’s pardon, last Tuesday, October 14, a columnist in Leadership newspaper, Abdulrauf Aliyu, went overboard in an article centred on Sanda’s pardon. It was titled “The Theatre of Presidential Pardon.” The columnist lied that the pardon was granted to Sanda before the final determination of the case, claiming that the case was still pending before the Supreme Court. 

    He proceeded on that wrong premise and argued that the government tempered the law for mercy. Nothing can be further from the truth! This is a rather sad commentary for a columnist who should know better. The Supreme Court has since affirmed the judgment of the Appeal Court confirming Sanda’s conviction.

    Sanda’s pardon is well-intentioned. Apart from the reports that Sanda had shown remorse in prison, it has also emerged that her father-in-law, Alhaji Ahmed Bello Isa, the father of the late Bilyaminu Bello, sought clemency for her. Alhaji Isa has disclosed that he personally appealed to both Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu to grant her pardon so she can take care of the two children left behind by his son. He said the continued stay of her daughter-in-law or indeed her death would not bring back Bilyaminu.

    Also, the convicted drug offenders have spent time in jail. Some of them have even enrolled in the Open University or learned a new trade. It would be unfair to argue that former drug trafficking offenders who have shown remorse and turned a new leaf do not deserve mercy or forgiveness. Clemency for them, in my view, does not mean the war against drug trafficking has been compromised.

    The law remains that anyone indulging in illicit drugs will have a date with the law. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) under General Buba Marwa (rtd) is doing a yeoman’s job trying to ensure drug traffickers are brought to book and the country is free of hard drugs and their menace. 

    Instructively, the AGF and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, whose committee recommended the pardon, has affirmed that the list is still subject to review. None of the pardoned inmates has been released. He said the process is undergoing the final administrative review to satisfy the required legal and procedural standards before the release instruments are signed and issued. The list of those pardoned has to be gazetted by the government. Until that is done, there is still ample room for review. President Tinubu will not be averse to any required review

    The President was moved by compassion and his legendary kind-heartedness in approving the pardon. There is no evidence that he has an offspring, blood relation, or known associate on the pardon or clemency list. The opposition politicians, who have also been very strident in criticising President Tinubu over the pardon, will continue to do so even when confronted with the fundamental justification for the action. However, those who benefited from the pardon and their families will continue to appreciate the President’s humane gesture. 

    *Rahman is Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Media & Special Duties.

  • A Nigerian oil sector fable

    A Nigerian oil sector fable

    By Damilola Badru

    Once upon a time in the Republic of Renewed Hope, the people awaited a miracle — not the biblical kind, but something even rarer: an increase in oil production.

    Every week, the palace couriers announced new “strategies,” “frameworks,” and “optimization blueprints.” Each came with glossy PowerPoints, expensive consultants, and carefully worded optimism. Yet, the oil barrels refused to appear.

    At the center of it all was the palace’s Energy Whisperer — a well-spoken, self-declared “reform-minded” visionary with a fondness for roundtables and buzzwords. Her mission? “Unlock value from legacy assets.” Her method? Endless committees, task forces, and memos promoting block level divestments.

    She spoke of transformation, restructuring, and sustainable optimization. But in the oilfields, the wells yawned in boredom. Rigs sat idle, workers sighed, and the only thing growing was the stack of memos evocating a personal (not national) agenda.

    Meanwhile, the nation’s Chief Barrel Keeper, a seasoned hand who understood the gritty mechanics of the industry — the pipelines, the reservoirs, the corrosion, the crude realities — watched helplessly as committee meetings replaced drilling plans.

    “Madam Whisperer,” he once muttered, “barrels only appear by well-work, get out of the way and let the work be done.”

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    But the Energy Whisperer was undeterred. She launched Project Hope 2.0, followed by The Petroleum Cost-Effectiveness Initiative (PCEI), and then the crowd favorite, National Asset Protection and Regulatory Summit (NAPRS). Each launch came with a fresh logo and a new promise that “production will soar.”

    And yet, two years in, production remained flat — not from sabotage or OPEC cuts, but from pure neglect and self-interest disguised as reform.

    Soon, whispers began to spread across the land: perhaps the Whisperer’s energy was better spent whispering than producing energy. Her PowerPoint slides and memos had become the new oil — endlessly refined but never sold.

    The Chief Barrel Keeper grew tired of the noise. “Let’s drill,” he said. “Let’s maintain. Let’s produce.” But every time he tried, a new “presidential directive” arrived from the palace, signed in gold ink and filled with buzzwords like “synergy,” “stakeholder realignment,” and “value unlocking.”

    But in the time, the kingdom had achieved something extraordinary: the greatest missed opportunity for oil production growth in the land’s history raged unfettered.

    When the Energy Whisperer stood before the press, she smiled proudly. “We are repositioning for sustainable value creation,” she declared, as the production graph quietly slid down the page behind her.

    In the villages, the people nodded politely. They had learned long ago that in the Republic of Renewed Hope, under the aegis of the Energy Whisperer, words flow faster than oil.

    And so, new barrels remain elusive — not underground, but under bureaucracy and unnecessary distractions.

    Moral: In a land where strategy replaces substance, and directives replace drilling, the ground may be full of oil — but the treasury will keep running on empty.

     • Damilola Badru is an oil and gas industry expert and keen commentator on Nigeria’s oil sector —politics, policies and paradoxes.

  • The minds and ways of leaders

    The minds and ways of leaders

    By Abdu Rafiu

    William Shakespeare said a long time ago that there is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. That will be generally speaking. Sometimes, you hear it said: “As if he has picked my thoughts.” Thoughts are generated by the frontal brain, cerebrum, the seat of the intellect with the intellect transmitting them. The mind serves as the window to glance at the generated thoughts. But it is not given that we read them in the mind until they are expressed. Clairvoyants read forms to which thoughts give rise. Those words which tell of other things than the gross material can only arise through unimpaired cooperation of the intuitive faculty of the hind brain, and these come in pictures. In other words, the back brain is the spiritual receptive part of the brains, the prompting of the spirit in pictures passing through the solar plexus to the heart and then to the back brain. Thus, the hind brain was created for reception but the frontal brain for transmission into the earthly world of thoughts, speaking and action. When the back brain is obstructed and hindered in its activities, the man is solely dependent on the frontal brain which gathers from the earthly and the environment and is thus limited, lacking in freshness and newness of vision. Its capacity cannot go beyond time and space. Another consequence is that “the abundance of the heart” from which “the mouth speaketh” is uninfluenced by the perception of the spirit. Unguided, therefore, by the intuitive perception, so very often, there are missteps and we misspeak. Leaders and the led will always act in accordance with the varied degrees of their inner radiance or even lack of it or trammeled and dimmed.

    With distorted intellect must, therefore, ensue fraud and deception, slavery and force, sensuality and lust, discontent, envy, hatred and murder. There is sole reliance on imagination, most times mistaken for right guidance, but which flows from the combined working of the intellect and physical feeling.

    Wholesome guidance can only come from the intuitive perception — what the spirit draws from On High and is mediated in pictures ending with the hind brain.

    How do we then enter the minds of our leaders to read from therein for the face? Unfortunately, Mr. Shakespeare states there is no art to find the mind’s construction on the face. King Duncan in Macbeth was reflecting on the human nature, how deceptive it could be. He realized he had been taken in by the false loyalty of the Thane of Cawdor; he had misjudged him. Yet, we must strive to understand our leaders. We must learn their language; where they are coming from. We must be open and alert to read their body language and to sense aright. This is because we are inexorably subject to how their minds work.

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    I was reflecting on the spate of defections by governors and legislators everywhere. And I was asking myself whether the idea of opposition is no longer about competition, of ideas and beliefs so that the electorate can be presented alternative choices according to their own light. This is the stage of recognition of human beings in our development in the present time. For we would find later as we grow that, as I have stated in multiple times, leaders are born, not made; they are sent, not electable. Following the failure in the era of Divine Right of Kings, human beings discarded the ordinance placed in Creation by the Maker with which man is to be governed, and replaced it with their own devices.

    Undergirding the defections is absence of principles. It is pursuit of power for power sake; it is the pursuit of inordinate ambition, visibility and influence, pomp and emptiness. In nearly all cases, when a governor defects, he does so with all his commissioners, the Speaker and members of the House of Assembly in the state. Where in all these is honour, where is wholesomeness for the health of our land? In Edo State, the hero-worshipping has gone overboard, indeed to the depths. There, the permit to attend the state’s executive council meetings is, henceforth, the wearing of Bola Tinubu signature cap. You must flaunt it. The artistic design on it is to depict the breaking of chain which he grappled with in the years of struggle to drive back the military to their barracks. It is his symbol of freedom. Ordering that the passport to state executive meetings must be the possession of Tinubu Cap is carrying fawning to the extreme and to the ridiculous. People will always demonstrate love and loyalty to a leader they admire, but not through compulsion. These were to identify with their leaders. Of course, we had Shagari Cap; to a little extent, Buhari Cap. We had Awo Cap, but not once did anyone find it on Chief Adekunle Ajasin; Chief Bola Ige, Bisi Akande, Olusegun Osoba — all his ardent followers. These were not forced on any followers. People would wear them to copy their leaders, some for certain motives, some to bootlick and curry favours, many in false admiration to put flowers on the head of their leaders and some out of genuine affection.

    And closely related to the foregoing, are strikes. Some are justifiable such as the two-week warning dispute by the university lecturers and the strike by resident doctors. The one called by oil industry labour leaders against Dangote Refinery was uncalled for. Now, the nation has not recovered from its consequences. The price of premium motor spirit that shot up during the strike has not come down.

    Movement is driven by the Law of Motion. Where there is no motion, there is no life. Motion drives all human activities. Motion itself is triggered by heat. Absence of heat generated by the spirit is absence of movement by the body. Complex chemical substances called Carbohydrates in plant storage organs supplying energy to the body gives impetus for the movement of the body when we eat them. When the body moves it could be by walking or using automobiles. What powers automobiles in the modern world is fuel and gas. Now, through the technological wonders of this age, automobiles are also being powered with electricity. Any disruption, therefore, to fuel production and distribution is disruption to life and living, to daily rounds of activities and duties, to the economy and to political and social lives of a nation.

    It was shocking that the labour leaders in the oil industry would not give Dangote Refinery, the only one which has come to the rescue of the country in its most trying period time, to settle. The Yoruba elders would say, “Oko s’ero ni alagbede in p’oko ta!” That is, “Oh so, if it were that easy, a blacksmith would not stop at merely fashioning and producing hoes, he would go out there in the bush and till the ground himself.” Former President Obasanjo issued out 18 licences for the establishment of modular refineries. How many have plucked the courage to utilize the licences? Perhaps only Edo State Government! The public refineries have since Obasanjo era gone comatose even after humongous sums of money have been expended on them. Commonsense ought to have dictated that the unions should give Dangote Refinery time to breathe and settle down properly. Would you collect check-off dues from a non-existent refinery? Dangote, the brave one, plunged into it, giving the country a $19 billion plant. The work force is about 4,000! And he says he pays the least worker in the refinery three times the minimum wage, and what a driver earns is four times a graduate is paid elsewhere even in the private sector. Such is the success that within a year Nigeria is exporting aviation fuel overseas. And that is what union leaders wanted to pull down!!Nigerian history books

    The ASUU strike

    This column is in sympathy with the university lecturers. We must have a warped sense of equity and fairness as a people to pay a Professor N533, 000 a month and pay his product he taught in the university N29 million a month, as revealed by Professor Itse Sagay.  I am also referring to the figure of Senator Shehu Sani which put a Senator’s take-home pay at M14 million after certain deductions have been made. Even then! A former Member of the House of Representatives somehow corroborated the revelation by Professor Itse Sagay that the pay of a Rep is N21 million a month. Vice-chancellors who produce the legislators get about N1.5million a month.

    Lecturers cannot maintain their vehicles. Some sleep in their offices. In some cases lecturers stand by the roadside to be picked by their colleagues to the campus, and this is alternated. To be a legislator from most parts of the country, you must have a university degree or equivalent to qualify and even to think of being a legislator. The authority to issue the degree certificates are the professors. For me, that is where we should start. We must make our university lecturers feel worthy and good.

    Over the years, the university activities with regards to providing solid education in our land have been disrupted too often. Students stay longer to get their degrees than is scheduled. The children of the rich, not being able to bear this flee to the Western world or India for quality education. Lecturers themselves are fleeing overseas in search of greener pastures. University education has become basic. Even if later a product from there becomes a mechanic, he will be different, he will make a better and an all-rounded mechanic.

    From Babangida era when lecturers were accused of teaching what they were not paid to teach and Professor Ben Nwabueze was Minister, Professor Babs Fafunwa was also — to the time of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to Buhari, and now to Bola Tinubu, the story is the same and the posture of the authorities not seeing this as an emergency to rectify the shortcomings is sickening. And there has not been any rethinking.

    Prerogative of Mercy

    There has been uproar on the prerogative of mercy President Bola Tinubu exercised recently. The exercise followed the report of a committee set up for the purpose. The committee looked into each case meticulously and with care. The most controversial of the cases, however, is that of the young lady, Maryam Sanda, 37, sentenced to death in 2020 for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, in a blind rage. The uproar is predictably so as murder is a heinous, first degree crime. The court consequently sentenced her to death. Anyone with human feelings must feel miffed by the show of mercy for her by Tinubu in view of waves of killings sweeping through the land. A great many believed the government was overgenerous to her and that the least should have been to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment. But the committee report thinks otherwise. It says she has shown tremendous remorse and has changed. If she has changed, why would we still keep her within the prison walls which we have rechristened Correctional Centres? The purpose of punishment or imprisonment is to correct, make a person see his or her errors and be a new human being, that is, change for good. President Bola Tinubu did the right thing in setting the young lady free.

    Hardly does it occur to us that the lady’s greater punishment is just beginning. How does she face her children and explain to them what happened, what she did to their father? The thought will menace her for several years to come, if not throughout what remains of her life on earth. The husband will appear to her continually in her dreams, perhaps still boiling. He may not have gone far in the beyond and is perhaps seeking an avenue to avenge his murder. Since the departed can pick thoughts, if she is truly remorseful and full of regrets, his rage may begin to give way. If she is open enough, she will feel the change in her husband as well. Sensing he is around she might wish to deepen her atonement by apologizing more profusely and regularly to him and to her children.

    There are two classifications of crime commission. A crime could be committed borne out of impulse. The other classification is when a crime is committed from out propensity and is therefore deliberate. Sanda’s case was borne out of impulse from what I read when her trial was on-going which may be why it was easy for her to recognise the enormity of her crime and she was able to quickly become remorseful and come to atonement. The remorsefulness was palpable that the Custodian Authority became impressed by her becoming a new person. The new thinking by administrators of justice in the enlightened world is that in inflicting punishment there should no longer be time-limit to how long a convicted person stays in the confines of a jail house as atonement cannot be determined in advance! It is believed that punishment without time limit offers sufficient guarantee for a complete inner change of a wrong doer for good. The new thinking being mulled is said to be already being put to test in some prisons in the United States.

    The advocates of the new thinking are saying a wrong doer should stay in jail forever until he becomes a new person, watched over by psychologists and the like along the field to monitor and test for progress and complete change. The thinking is borne out of experiences and knowledge that some felons complete serving their terms and are released without the slightest remorse and in no time they go back into crimes. All in all, the earthly laws must align with the Creation Laws. The three major Laws of Creation are what unfailingly will bring about reward as well as punishment for the human being. It is then, “we shall also understand the real purport of the words of the Old Testament, ‘To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense’ (Deut.32, 35) and “An eye for an eye and tooth for tooth’ (Deut. 19:21) whose deeper meaning has so far never been understood.” (A Gate Opens, by Herbert Vollmann). To set anyone free, it must be borne in mind that the immutable and self-acting Laws of the Creator are operative and awaiting the wrong doers unless the guilt and the attendant burden have completely dropped off him or her through genuine remorsefulness, atonement and change.

    It is also being suggested that prisoners should be separated using the Law of Homogeneity as it is automatically done in the ethereal world, the Beyond, so that prisoners will experience themselves. Out of disgust and abhorrence for the experiences there would be a longing to get out of the bind and that it would lead to atonement as the intention of the law and punishment should be to help and reform out of love. It is through total change that the threads connected to a criminal will not receive further nourishment from power centres in the Beyond. Not finding any more anchorage, the threads will simply shrivel and slide off! And the wrong doer is redeemed. There is no ascent to the Light Realm of Paradise until man’s dirty linen is washed clean.

    • This article was culled from www.radiatingthetruth.com

    • Abdu Rafiu is a renowned editor, newspaper manager and respected elder of journalism.