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  • Ariwoola and his indelible footprints

    Ariwoola and his indelible footprints

    • By Lateef Fagbemi (PIX)

    A cursory surfing of the internet harvests and produces comprehensive biographical details about our Celebrant of today, the 17th indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honourable Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, GCON. One should not be surprised about the avalanche of information available on the web about my noble Lord because our exiting CJN himself is always at home with the internet as he is Information Communication Technology savvy. I attest to the fact that My Lord is an internet prodigy and a guru.

    My Lords, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen; my Lord, the Hon. Justice Kayode Ariwoola is an embodiment of humility, hope, steadfastness, and determination, who by divine providence worked through the rungs of the judiciary up to the peak as Chief Justice of Nigeria.

    From his humble beginning as a young school teacher in Iseyin, Oyo State, to now retiring as the leader of the Bench in Nigeria, aptly mirrors the essence of hope and unwavering aspiration to ascend to greater heights in life. As an indigene of the Pacesetter State, Oyo, it is noteworthy that my Lord is the first graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University from Oyo State to be appointed to the Court of Appeal.

    My Lord Ariwoola started his educational career in his home town, Iseyin at the Local Authority Demonstration School, Oluwole in Iseyin Local Government of Oyo State between 1959 and 1967. He was in the Muslim Modern School in the same town between 1968 and 1969 before proceeding to Ansar-ud-Deen High School, Saki in Oyo North of Oyo State. His Lordship studied law at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile Ife and bagged his Bachelor of Laws degree with honours in July 1980. In July 1981, Olu Ariwoola was called to the Nigerian Bar and got enrolled at the Supreme Court of Nigeria as a Solicitor and Advocate soon thereafter.

    His Lordship was a State Counsel on National Youth Service (NYSC) at the Ministry of Justice, Akure, Ondo State and later as Legal Officer in the Ministry of Justice of his home state Oyo  until 1988 when he voluntarily left the official bar of the State Civil Service for private practice. His Lordship briefly worked as Counsel in-Chambers of Chief Ladosu Ladapo, SAN between October, 1988 and July 1989, after which he established Olukayode Ariwoola & Co – a firm of legal practitioners and consultants in Oyo town in August 1989 from where he was appointed in November 1992 as a judge of Oyo State Judiciary. Hon. Justice Ariwoola was born to the Ariwoola family of Iseyin at exactly 70 years ago today. His Lordship must have something to do, in a way, with figure two (2). While His Lordship was born on the 22nd August, he was sworn in as a Judge of the High Court on 2nd November, 1992, as a Justice of the Court of Appeal (JCA) on 22nd November, 2005 and again was sworn in as Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria (JSC) on 22nd November, 2011. Justice Ariwoola served as Chairman, Board of Directors, Phonex Motors Ltd – one of Oodua Investment conglomerates between 1988 and 1992. He also served as the Chairman, Armed Robbery and Fire-arms Tribunal in Oyo State between May 1993 and September 1996 when he was posted out of the headquarters, Ibadan to Saki High Court. His Lordship served on the election tribunals in Zamfara and Enugu states in 1999 and on Election Appeal Courts in Port-Harcourt, Enugu, Benin, Yola and Ilorin at various times.

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    Before his elevation to the Supreme Court, his Lordship served as Justice of the Court of Appeal in Kaduna, Enugu and Lagos divisions. My Lord is also a fellow of the International Dispute Resolution Institute (FIDRI) having been inducted in Dubai, UAE in 2014. His Lordship has attended many national and international conferences and workshops in France, Atlanta Georgia, United Kingdom and Dubai, UAE. My Lord Ariwoola is happily married with children and he loves reading, listening to good music, photography and shopping.

     I am a very proud member of Ibadan bar and also a Patron of that great branch of the Nigerian Bar Association which unarguably is the first organised Bar in Nigeria, hence it is the real Premier Bar in Nigeria. As a rookie lawyer, I cut my very good and sharp teeth in the law firm of that great and renowned Avatar, Colossus and legal icon, now turned Educationist of repute, Chief Emmanuel Afe Babalola, CON, OFR, SAN, FNIALS, D. Litts etc. The prestigious and illustrious law firm is no other than Afe Babalola & Co., Emmanuel Chambers situate at No. 80, Adekunle Fajuyi Road, Adamasingba, Ibadan. The law firm is reputed for producing several great jurists and Senior Advocates of Nigeria.

    Lest I be accused of too much deference to the Afe Babalola Chambers, it goes without saying that in those good old days, Ibadan bar boasted of legal giants in the moulds of Chief Richard Akinjide, SAN; Chief Folake Solanke (Alabukun Chambers), Chief Olisa Chukwura, SAN; Chief Bamidele Aiku, SAN; and Chief Oladosu Ladapo, SAN, amongst many others, who all sharpened our legal teeth in these remarkable years. It was during my formative years at Ibadan bar that my path and that of our retiring CJN first crossed each other. Without being immodest, all lawyers and jurists of note must have had professional interactions and engagements with lawyers in Emmanuel Chambers either as “Appearing with me Counsel” or as  Opposing Counsel in litigations or as a judex in matters which we have been privileged to offer our cutting edge professional legal services to our diverse clients all over the country, and it was in the course of some of those vast nomadic legal practice that I met My Lord., the CJN who was a diligent  State Counsel in the Ministry of Justice, Oyo State.

    Our engagements in court became more frequent shortly afterwards when he left the services of the state to join us in the private legal practice when he set up his law firm known as Olukayode Ariwoola & Co., (Mako Allah Chambers) situate at No.1, Iseyin Road, Owode, Oyo town in Oyo State. It is pertinent for me to add that the CJN then took over that chamber which hitherto belonged to his kinsman, Mr. S. L. Popoola, upon the latter’s appointment as a Judge of Oyo State High Court in February 1982. As a private legal practitioner, my Lord was very ubiquitous in all the courts of various jurisdictions, including the Supreme Court.

    My noble Lord’s erudity and versatility in courts including his comportment, carriage and integrity did not go unnoticed by the judges of the Oyo State High Court at that material time and also the senior members of the bar who promptly recommended him for preferment as a Judge of the Oyo State High Court on 2nd November, 1992 alongside with five others namely:

    •Hon. Justice Kareem Jimoh, appointed from the old Rivers State Ministry of Justice where he was then the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary and who was from Ibadan zone of Oyo State;

    •Hon. Justice I. O. Olakanmi, then the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice of Oyo State who later rose to become the Chief Judge of Oyo State, also from Ibadan zone of the State;

    •Hon. Justice Afolabi Adeniran of Ogbomoso zone of Oyo State but who was a successful private legal practitioner in Yaba, Lagos State and who later rose to become the Acting Chief Judge of Oyo State;

    •Hon. Justice Lambe Olajire Arasi also of Ibadan zone who was also appointed from a very busy and successful private legal practice in Ibadan, Oyo State;

    •Hon. Justice John Olagoke Ige, another very successful private legal practitioner in Lagos who hailed from Igbo-Ora in Ibarapa zone of Oyo State. Hon. Justice J. O. Ige also rose to become the Acting Chief Judge of Oyo State; and

    •The last but not the least, but the youngest of the six  being my Lord, Honourable Justice Olukayode Ariwoola also a private legal practitioner based in Oyo town, Oyo State, but who hails from Iseyin in Oke-Ogun zone of Oyo State.

    Their appointment was made when the judiciary of Oyo State was under the leadership of Honourable Justice Timothy Adebayo Adeniran Ayorinde as the Chief Judge of Oyo State.

    My Lord’s pronouncements and interventions on the bench are variously contained in several landmark judgments delivered by His Lordship during his very purposeful and highly impactful sojourns on the benches of our High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, most of which are permanently recorded in our various law reports for posterity. No doubt, my Lord’s indelible footprints are very noticeable and manifestly seen in his contributions to the growth and the development of our jurisprudence and constitutionalism. These decisions are too numerous to mention here and, in any event, I prefer to leave that brief to the biography as I am aware that most of the judgments are already chronicled in various books in honour of my Lord, the Honourable Chief Justice of Nigeria.

     My Lord, the CJN is a workaholic and a very outstanding jurist, but not many are aware that My Lord is also a great community person and has great communal value that is second to none. My Lord was once prevailed upon by his people of Iseyin to leave his private legal practice, temporarily, to represent their federal constituency in the Federal House of Representatives at Abuja during the military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida political adventures. My Lord politely declined the offer and remained focused on his legal career.

    Permit me to use this occasion to state that the Present Bola Ahmed Tinubu led government is irrevocably committed to massively change the course of narratives within our country’s justice sector. Nigeria’s justice sector shall continue to witness several massive turn-arounds, initiatives and projects that would restore, transform and reposition our justice sector and place it as the best in the global legal community. As a government, we shall eradicate all forms of obstacles militating against the modernisation, effectiveness and efficiency of that critical sector. Recently, the President has assented to the Act which granted upward review of the salaries and allowances of the country’s judicial officers by 300% which we strongly believe would enhance and promote not only the independence of judiciary but will also properly place and position our judiciary as the true and real last hope of the common man and indeed a renewed hope for all and sundry to get from our various courts not only judgements well delivered but justice in action. The Federal Government under the able leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is very much aware and conscious of the present hardships in our country and the hard times that all the citizens of the country are presently undergoing. The government appreciates the resilience of all Nigerians and appeals to our people to kindly bear with the government and be assured that the ongoing hardships are very temporary and will soon give ways to era of prosperity and real growth and developments in Nigeria. The government has put several measures and economic policies in place that would soon mature and transform our country into one of the top economies of the globe.

     For my Lord, the Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, today marks the end of a most memorable and impactful judicial career, which spanned a period of 32 years, from when he was first appointed a High Court Judge of Oyo State in November, 1992. Indeed, His Lordship came, saw and conquered (veni, vidi, vici). He has made his mark and left indelible imprints in the annals of the Nigerian judiciary and the legal profession in general. I must remark that the outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria is a stabilising factor who mounted the saddle at a challenging moment for the apex court and he has creditably sustained the sanctity of this hallowed court both as a court of policy, final arbiter and regulator of the justice sector.

    As His Lordship takes a well-deserved bow today, permit me to specially appreciate him for providing leadership, guidance and his firm commitment to improving the wellbeing of the judiciary, which he contributed to immensely.

     This has culminated in the harmonisation of retirement age of 70 years for judicial officers, attainment of a full complement of 21 justices for the Supreme Court, and the enactment of the Judicial Office Holders (Salaries, Allowances, Etc) Act, 2024 which was recently assented to by H.E. President Bola Tinubu, GCFR in order to usher in a 300% increase in the remuneration of our noble lordships. The foregoing signposts the commitment of the present administration to promoting the independence and capacity of the judiciary and advancing judicial reforms.

    The government is also working on other reforms in terms of policies and constitutional amendments to increase access to justice, transparent appointment process, ensure speedy adjudication of cases, increase public confidence in the judiciary, insulate the judiciary from undue interference, etc. I must note that some of these reform initiatives are part of the resolutions reached at the end of the National Justice Summit held in April 2024, which enjoyed the strong support of Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.  Indeed, the President is committed to a radical transformation of the judiciary in line with rule of law and administration of justice components of the administration’s roadmap for national development.

    The government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu shall at all times protect and promote the rights of all Nigerians and shall not tolerate any infraction and or breach of same by any person(s) and agencies under any guise whatsoever except as provided by the country’s constitution.

    It is also pertinent to state that constitutional democracy and governance has laid out its peculiar features and attributes. I must restate that elective and legitimate governments entrusted with the mandates of the people can only be changed constitutionally and legally by the electorate at the end of its term of office as prescribed by our laws and the Constitution of the country which is the groundnorm.

     Any other mode or means of attempting to change a democratically elected government except as provided by our laws and the constitution is nothing but a clear case of treason and subversion of democratic governance. The laws of our land as well as the constitution have made copious provisions for dealing with same and bringing the full weight of the laws on such treasonable felons.

    Our Government commends and remains grateful to our apex court in the land, the Supreme Court of Nigeria for living up to its status as both a court of justice and as a policy court in their landmark judgement that emancipated, liberated and set free our local government system in Nigeria from the claws, tyranny and  oppression of those who had held them by the jugulars over the years which has led to almost total stagnation and absence of development and governance in our 774 local governments all over the country.

     We are not unaware of the threats and noises of reprisal by some (not all) of the principalities affected by that epic and locus classicus judgement of the Supreme Court who are threatening fire and brimstone in a matter that has been settled and laid to rest finally by our apex court. The point must be made that their action in this regard amounts to hoovering round the precinct of contempt of court. I urge the Attorneys-General of the affected states to educate and offer sound legal advice, even though very trite and too elementary, to their principals that there can be no appeal against the decision of the Supreme Court.

     They should therefore abide by the principles and the doctrines of the rule of law which is the bedrock of Constitutional democracy. We have no doubt or illusion that our country shall now witness a new dawn and era of purposeful governance across all our 774 local governments. We urge and appeal to all citizens of this country, professional bodies and associations to be alert and watchful of how the local government are utilizing their allocations for growth and development. Our law enforcement agencies too must also monitor all governments and bring the full weight of the laws to bear on any erring government, ministries, departments and or agencies in confirmed cases of misappropriation and or embezzlement, particularly for those who don’t have immunities under the constitution like our democratically elected local government executives, officers and personnel.

    I must attest to the fact that my Lord, the CJN, dispensed justice authoritatively and in his role as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, he discharged his duties passionately in Court and to the Country. He also fostered good relationship among the Bench and strived to protect the integrity and image of the Court. He insulated it from politics and reinvented the image of the courts as the last hope of the common man. The relationship between the Bar and the Bench was very cordial during his tenure. His two-year leadership at the nation’s apex court will be forever remembered.

    My Lords, Distinguished guests, it is obvious that my Lord is a highly accomplished jurist and held a distinguished career in the Nigerian judiciary. Inevitably, the time has come for my Lord to draw the curtain on his decades of meritorious service to the country, not because he is weak by any measure, but because of constitutional requirements. My Lord is merely stepping into the background from where he will have the responsibility of mentoring, advising, and shaping the younger ones. Therefore, we should not be sad that he is retiring because we shall now begin to enjoy another phase of his leadership and fatherly role.

    My Lord, I know you are eager to retire to your lovely family and away from public life, but I want to plead with you to be available to us. The judiciary, in particular, and the country at large will continue to reach out to you to tap into your deep wisdom and wealth of experience.

    At this juncture, I want to extend my gratitude to the family of my Lord. My Lord is not just an accomplished judiciary icon, he is also an accomplished family man and a father-figure to many. He is happily married to his lovely wife, Mrs. Ariwoola, and their marriage is blessed with children. They have endured the burden that comes with the arduous demands of judicial service. They have sacrificed their needs to allow my Lord to effectively discharge his duties as a jurist for over three decades. The intermittent late nights, absences, inconvenience that comes with postings and the requirements of the job; they have endured all, and for that we celebrate your love and sacrifices.

    My Lord, this is a day of celebration. We have gathered here not to say goodbye, but to celebrate you and the lofty goals and achievements you have accomplished. We are here to celebrate your dedication to public service and your immense contribution to nation-building. We are proud of you. The country is proud of you and is indebted to you. You have left indelible marks in the sands of time. Your legacy is eternal and remains a model for our jurists and legal practitioners. We are not happy leaving you to retirement, but I must say that I am personally pained that the bench is going to miss the wisdom and erudition of my Lord, Justice Ariwoola, CJN, but we are nonetheless consoled that he is handing over the baton to a worthy successor, the Ag. CJN, her Lordship, Justice Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun, CFR who incidentally, was the classmate of My Lord, Justice Ariwoola

    •Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Prince Lateef Fagbemi delivered this speech at the Special Valedictory Session of the Supreme Court to mark the retirement of Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Olukayode Ariwoola in Abuja.

  • Beyond the seizure of Nigeria’s presidential jets

    Beyond the seizure of Nigeria’s presidential jets

    • By Mike Kebonkwu

    Many patriots may have been furious that a fleet of Nigeria’s presidential jets was seized in Paris, France over a failed contract between a Chinese Firm, Zhongshang Fucheng and Ogun State government on the orders of French court.  We are not just talking about national carriers but presidential jets which are symbols of our sovereignty. Not one of it but three presidential jets were impounded and sequestrated in satisfaction of debt arising from arbitral award over a breach of contract.  This   national odium and embarrassment raise some pertinent questions which we cannot afford to gloss over; no politics! 

    What was the mission of three presidential jets all at the same time in faraway France? Information coming from government has it that the jets went for routine maintenance.  Three jets, for routine maintenance at the same time! 

    The seizure speaks to the prestige of Nigeria’s diplomatic standing in the comity of nations.  Nigeria no doubt enjoys diplomatic and bilateral relationship with China.  By the action of the French court, Nigeria is stripped completely of its sovereign immunity and statehood under international law and diplomacy.  The Chinese government is certainly complicit in this transaction and including the litigation.  This is because it is a common knowledge that most Chinese corporate outfits are veils for the Chinese government business model. 

    This drama raises issues about the sovereign immunity of a state under international law and the hidden terms of the international finance capital and liability of state parties in commercial transaction in contract.  Why would a country be held responsible for commercial transaction entered into between a foreign company and state government or any other entity without the country’s direct involvement as a party? Where does the immunity of a country lie in the event of failure in contractual obligation that it did not enter into directly as a party with a foreign company or entity? 

    This is a very low point for our foreign relations and reputation as a sovereign nation. This is the bitter lesson that other African countries that go cap in hand to collect all manners of loans from foreign companies and international financial institutions and government should learn.  What is uppermost in the consideration of our so-called foreign partners is always their commercial interest rather than niceties about diplomacy. Our leaders do not care about national integrity, morality and honour whenever they are rushing for foreign loans which they can hardly account for.  Some of the foreign borrowings are used to pay salaries and buy exotic cars and ostentatious living not investment.  When the loans are tied to any project, more often than not, the project is abandoned before the ink dries on the contract paper it is made.  At home, government officials are serial lawbreakers.

     Something just did not add up in this whole drama.  Was Nigeria a state party or privy to the contract between the Chinese Firm and Ogun State government?  Did the Ogun State government pledge Nigeria’s asset abroad as guarantee or collateral for the contract? The act of the Chinese firm and the French Court is an attack on the sovereignty of the Nigerian state capable of eliciting diplomatic row with China and France.  Again, we do not have the appetite for a diplomatic fight with any nation great or small because we are humble supplicant for life-lines from the same Chinese government for all manners of loan as mendicants. 

    This is the reason up till now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has failed to speak strongly to this national embarrassment by so-called friendly nations.  To one’s chagrin, the president proceeded on a working visit to France.  If it was a scheduled visit, it ought to have been called off or cancelled as a mark of protest; and if the president’s minders did not see this, there is certainly a dereliction of duty on their part which requires not just admonition but sanction. 

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    Whatever the narrative, the incident leading to this action is a pure commercial transaction between a company and a state government and unless the Nigerian state is privy and probably guarantees the loan or offers its assets abroad as collateral; it is despicable to seize Nigeria’s asset abroad in fulfilment of the obligation of a state government.  If the state government in the course of transaction had made Nigeria’s assets abroad collateral, then the matter should be investigated because they ought to have been clearance from the Ministry of Justice and Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and, or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When that is not done, the government should proceed immediately to deal with the individuals behind this deal and there should be consequences.

    Almost all the state governments in Nigeria without exception carry portfolio to foreign companies and international lending institutions to borrow or take loan which they can hardly account for leaving the states pale and anaemic.  This is just the beginning of what we are going to experience with many more lending agencies and companies that will be watching for the outcome of this bizarre drama. 

    This also brings one to what the government at different levels have been doing with expatriates and foreign companies operating in Nigeria.  For instance, Chinese companies have taken over virtually every major construction work in the country and the mining industry. Some of them are fronts of government officials deepening the corruption in the system.  They treat Nigerian workers with disdain and nobody cares; in our own country!  These Asians treat the black like sub human apes and we watch it.  Without sounding an alarmist, the Chinese government reticent mute over this incident is such that in no distant future, it will move in any court in foreign land to take over Nigeria over mounting unpaid loans and debt servicing. 

    We depend on expatriates because we do not have confidence in our local experts and fail to invest in human capital development.  We are fighting corruption half-heartedly and refuse to develop our infrastructure.  This is the price we are paying with this national embarrassment. 

    Moving forward, government officials and functionaries should begin to see public office beyond personal estate and respect every lawful contract and obligations entered into as in the Latin phrase in international law; “pacta sunt servanda” (agreement must be kept).  Government functionaries should stop acting like emperors because they occupy public office; they are to act with fidelity at all times.  We should hold public officers accountable for every acts and omissions that affect the State and public image of our country.

    •Kebonkwu Esq, an Abuja-based attorney writes via mikekebonkwu@yahoo.com

  • Tears in my eyes

    Tears in my eyes

    • By Olawale Oshun

    There was a time immediately after October 7, 2023 that you would think Aljazeera must have harboured a sinister agenda in her detailed reportage of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza. In recent times however, a conscientious observation and trajectory of reportage by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and to a lesser extent by America-based CNN indicate that Aljazeera is indeed right in focussing on the carnage and what now is appearing to unbiased observers as sustained massacre of Palestinians in the Gaza region.

    Only stone-hearted hearts would not shed tears at each news reportage. I used to think one could get used to seeing these horrors but each hourly news reportage by any of these international news sites cannot but draw tears from the eyes. Discerning observers cannot but recall the intelligence failure in Israel on October 7, 2023 which consequently enabled the Hamas’ incursion into Israel and the loss of more than a thousand Israeli lives. Certain as morning and night is the belief that Israel, the master aggressor even when unprovoked, would be difficult to restrain in her retributions. This has led till date to the loss of more than 40,000 Palestinian lives. And the number is still rising. What a retribution, if one dare say so.

    My focus in this piece however is the Hamas incursion into Israel on October 7, 2023 and the Israeli reactions since then. A sane observer would wonder what the Hamas hierarchy sought to gain or thought it could gain from such a frontal affront to Israel, knowing fully well that Benjamin Netanyahu is a supremacist and as right wing as anyone who could be. For all he cared, he would goad all living Palestinians into the Dead Sea if it were possible so to do. Each time he spoke about destroying Hamas, he just could be speaking of his intention to destroy all Palestinians wherever they could be found. Hence what did Hamas think could beneficially be secured when it decided on the October 7 incursion?

    On the other hand, could full blooded human beings be in perpetual bondage and relish the bondage without a whiff? Aren’t there some in the Arab world who wonder at the temerity of the Israelis who overtime had become the overlord of all that territory comprising of Palestine, and who only bids for that time when the Arab Palestinians are either driven into all adjoining Arab nations or if the whole world closed their eyes into the Dead Sea. In speaking of the whole world closing its eyes, does it really matter, once the Americans have closed their eyes? After all, Joe Biden the American president only moments ago spoke of the magisterial imperialism of America. He said it’s “America’s duty to lead the world”, and dare I add to “control all its resources”.

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    With that mind set, is it any wonder that America alone standing behind the Israelis, the latter could spurn the whole world, weave electrified walls around Palestinian settlements, and power heavily armed (Israeli) soldiers to man towers and many times breathe fire and brimstones down on defenceless or better put, unarmed Palestinians. As a balanced observer, let me even conclude that both the Israelis and the Palestinians have sustainably hurt one another. In also concluding that they both carry baleful instincts against one another, one must admit that the Israelis are more lethal and could rely upon the never failing support and supply of deadly Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) from the Americans.

    But why would the Israeli Palestinian conflict draw tears from my eyes, ensconced couple of thousand kilometres from the theatre of war? First, if it is true that God created us all in His image, then those sustaining the carnage against children some as young as a day old, those supporting the endlessness of the carnage, preferring that no settlement is ever attained are not of God image but of devil incarnate. Infrastructures can be rebuilt, but the lives of defenceless children, women and men cannot be returned.

    Why are the Israelis in recent times not keen on finding a final settlement to the crisis? Why are the Americans flagrantly flaunting their WMDs, which if valued for the current October 7 war, can redeem the hopelessness and the poverty in at least one of the two afflicted continents in our world? Aside from Joe Biden the US president boasting that Israel would receive ‘whatever she needs” to execute its war against Gaza, the US provided Israel with US$3-8b in military aid in 2023 as against providing the whole of Africa humanitarian aid of just US$1.1b during the same period.

    We in Nigeria need to learn a lot from the on-going debacle in Palestine. Aside from all other human frailties, the issue at stake subsists simply around land ownership. Quite substantial banditry in Nigeria is being linked to control of land or put simply, linked to power over land. The herdsmen, be they Nigerians or of illegal migrants from diverse countries outside our shores, have the temerity to swamp into farms of others and destroy crops at will. There are other migrants who believing that the Nigerian Constitution confers upon them rights of movement all across the country believe that right could be exercised without due respect and or concern for their hosts. Their subterranean moves to usurp property rights and dislocate existing cultural values impinge and irritate their hosts.

    Immigrants even by international rules better respect the laws and values of their host and in many instances are obliged to acculturate for enduring peace between indigenes and settlers to reign. Where immigrants deliberately set out to violate the cultural values of the indigenous owners, then there would exist, strains and if not managed violence might be inevitable. More so if the settlers are claiming ancestral and or ethnic affinity with the Israelis, their hosts should be wary. This is not scare-mongering for the seed of violence rarely takes long to germinate.

    It is in this respect that the variously brewing ethnic animosities, be they economic and or racist, socio-cultural intolerance and of political dominance have to be viewed. Various governments since the return of civil rule in 1999 have been beset with all sorts of constitutional and sovereignty issues. The three southern zonal sub-nationals have demanded one time or the other to exit the Nigerian state. The three northern zonal subnational units have bred one level of terrorism or the other that indicated either a total rejection of the domineering sovereign called Nigeria or more plausibly that they could only be satisfied dominating and manipulating the country however they wished. 

    Quarter of a century on, from the 1999 return to civil rule, the country has thrived in permanent discord, and why she had not tipped the precipice is known only to her founding fathers, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello and Nnamidi Azikiwe. Is it not time then that we seriously start re-working our constitution to reflect the realities of our co-existence? Do we really still desire to co-exist under one sovereign and under what terms of engagement?

    Or do we as the various signs are showing that it is becoming quite realistic to consider the concept of a confederal set up where each nationality or mutually agreed nationalities can thrive on their own term rather than under a Lugardian trap that is all but torn into shreds?

    The Israeli Palestine century old war of grit, blood and supremacy started somehow. Will it ever come to an end? No one can say for even Kamala Harris the US Presidential hopeful I her nomination acceptance speech this morning spoke from both sides of her mouth. And that is how wars of supremacy always get treated. It is therefore better not to start, for how does it end.

    President Bola Tinubu, the time is ripe now for you to confront the Constitutional and Sovereignty issues in Nigeria. Quarter of a century down the slope of the return to civil rule, none of the preceding administrations had achieved anything close to healing Nigeria’s fractures. Neither Olusegun Obasanjo nor his immediate successor Umaru Yar’Adua could do much. Obasanjo allowed his self-interest to subjugate any constitutional vision he harboured and all were thrown into the dust bin following public scrutiny of the National Assembly role. We never would know what Yar’Adua would have done for the cold hands of death snatched him early in his rule. Ebele Jonathan dithered, and waiting for a second term that would have been a surprise, he failed to act when he should. Buhari in his own case, never hid his intention that his clan has a supreme obligation to dominate Nigeria, hence healing Nigeria’s spatial fractures and uniting the country was inconsistent with his self-defined mandate.

  • Nigerian electricity sector: Way forward

    Nigerian electricity sector: Way forward

    • By Femi Joseph

    The Nigerian power grid has collapsed more than four times in 2024 as of July 2024, which represents a nationwide blackout every quarter. How can a nation as populated as Nigeria struggle to revamp her electricity network and bring it to full reliable capacity? Year over year, Nigerian governments have failed in their promises to ameliorate the debilitating state of the electrical system. The national grid as it is, boasts of a meagre 5000MW available generation capacity for a teeming population of about 200 million people. 

    This is highly shameful to say the least. Are we going to lose out again on the vast resources that we have? The cheapest and most reasonable ways to improve our electricity sector abound, but we can’t utilize them because the wrong hands have been engaged in the critical affairs of our dear nation. Are we about to be blind again the same way we lost opportunities in the gas sector. Recently, a past president of the country was lamenting about how we lost great development opportunity in gas, but instead we were flaring these gases, which polluted our environment simply because we do not have the think-tank that can deliberate and see solutions within us. Is the same loss of vast potential about to happen again in the electricity sector?

    Can the government get serious for once and start engaging experts who understand the technical know-how? The truth is we don’t need to break a sweat, the opportunities abound. Time is of the essence; this is a period to think outside the box and take swift action.

    While the effort by the government to increase generation is laudable, it should be noted that these are high capital cost, long term projects which at the end may not serve the need due to the reducing transmission line capacity, low efficiency of the already degraded transmission network, inadequate real-time supervisory control mechanisms and thermal overload constraints leading to low frequency excursion.

    In recent years there have been advances in the power system leading to a change and modifications in government policies around the world that promote renewable energy integration and energy storage.

    For example, in the United States, the federal government through the Department of Energy formulated policies that enabled increased penetration of solar PVs in the grid, in the form of distributed energy resources (DER) at the industrial, commercial and residential scales. Residential and commercial customers that have solar rooftops are encouraged to export excess energy production to the grid via the bi-directional net energy meter (NEM), which is achievable by a grid following/grid forming dual-mode inverter.

    The dual mode inverter ensures that the customer has the option of utilizing their installed generation sources with or without grid connection. During loss of utility source, the customer inverter configuration can switch to an independent micro-grid mode to serve its local load.

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    The economic disadvantage of this mode is that the converter algorithm is programmed such that the solar power generated is limited by the real-time load demand, however, when in grid-connected mode, the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm of the converter commands the maximum output of the installed solar photovoltaics under the rated insolation, whereby exporting the excess unused power to the grid.

    At the end of each billing cycle, the customer either receives a very low bill or a cheque/credit from the utility company while putting the distribution cost of exporting on the utility lines into consideration. In addition, a special tariff regime known as feed-in tariff (FIT) can be employed for these behind-the-meter (BTM) customers in order to promote renewable grid integration. If similar policies are made within the Nigerian power sector, with some slight modifications, then we can have a system that is on her way to prosperity by having the electricity sector fixed by increasing distributed energy at the medium voltage class with the overall benefit of reducing stress on the transmission network.

    The utility distribution network benefits from the reliability that this technology would add to the system as low voltages often observed on the system and usually at the end of long feeders are improved. It is even more advantageous to the utility is the retail cost of buying local electricity is less or equal to the wholesale cost from the GENCOs.

    An average Nigerian will agree that once the electricity issue is solved in Nigeria, then more than half of the country’s problem will be solved, especially when it is affordable  the end consumers. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is highly disjointed from the DISCOs, their nature of relationship is not entirely transparent, and this is greatly hurting businesses and individuals. The proposed solution should address this gap, as it will be customer inclusive through the incentives.

    The Electricity Act that was signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023, is a step in the right direction and if enforced will enable faster implementation of the proposed energy solutions in a way that offers more consumer engagement and transparency.

    Furthermore, it will foster more government visibility of activities in the utility companies, and then drive a more effective state-focused regulatory scheme as required by each state of the federation.

    •Dr. Joseph writes from University of Pittsburgh, USA.

  • Kano: A governor’s many detractors

    Kano: A governor’s many detractors

    By Mu’azu Adamu

    “Our dear state, Kano is one of the oldest in Nigeria, a state with rich culture and history, a state that enjoys tremendous amount of respect all over the world. A state that sets all the good examples for others to follow. All these were thrown to the winds by the last administration… This perception has to change. And the time to change it is now. We shall work together to change this narrative and promote Kano positively.”

    These were the words of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf before an unprecedented crowd of supporters and well-wishers just after he had taken the oath of office, at the Sani Abacha Stadium on May 29, 2023. True to his belief, I believe that there is a breath of fresh air around Kano within the one year three months of his stewardship of arguably the most populous state in Nigeria. Citizens and residents of Kano now have the comfort of seeing so many ongoing infrastructural projects that cut across different sectors, the peace of knowing that their resources are judiciously used for scholarships, gratuity and pension and empowerment initiatives. Most importantly, the people of the state now know that every point of order they raise regarding the handling of the business of leadership goes straight to the right ears and is not met by a tone-deaf leadership that feels to obligation to be accountable to its people.

    After a fierce seven-year struggle, the NNPP-led government came in with a lot of promise to right the wrongs and instil a new sense of hope and confidence in the elected authority in Kano. Governor Yusuf made the Kano State Reformatory Institute, Kiru, his first port of call after inauguration. This institute, established by the Kwankwaso-led administration to reform and reintegrate drug addicts had been abandoned for long. This was the story of other specialized institutes all over the state between 2015 and 2023. Governor Yusuf has now successfully renovated the institute with enrolment to begin soon. This has been replicated for the 25 other institutes in the state.

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    One thing that stands out for the Yusuf-led government is its dedication to education. The first major initiative that the government pursued after its inception was the sponsorship of over 1000 first-class graduates to different institutions in India and Uganda. This will not only add to the pool of excellent masters’ degree holders in Kano, but will open them to being gainfully employed in different sectors around the world. The declaration of the State of Emergency on Education by the governor exposed two attributes of himself; the admission that a problem exists is not something you could easily get out of many of the present crop of leaders that we have in this Nigeria. The open desire to embrace the shortcomings and correct them is also a demonstration of uncommon leadership.

    The governor immediately set to work by permanently employing 5,632 teachers under the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme, a World Bank initiative which aims at increasing equitable access for out-of-school children in Nigeria and improve literacy in focus states. The governor equally reopened all public boarding schools closed by the Abdullahi Ganduje administration. As we speak, there is an ongoing drive all around the state where classrooms are renovated, under the Community Re-orientation Committee (CRC). According to the governor, out of the 42,516 total classrooms available in basic schools in the state, a mere 22% meet the most basic standards of habitability. 

    One sector that is having a breath of life is road infrastructure provision. The first step taken by Governor Yusuf was to mobilise contractors back to work, this has enabled the governor to complete the first phase of the WujuWuju road, the fully solar-powered 5-kilometre road in Gwarzo local government is a model for rural rebirth, as work is ongoing in most local government areas of the state to replicate it. We are seeing work ongoing on important roads in the state like the Lodge Road-Race Course Road, Unguwar Dabai road, the 15km road from Madobi town to Kubarachi to Kura, and the 70km road from Madobi Bridge to Madobi town, through Yako to Kafin Mai Yaki culminating in Kiru. These are few examples of life-changing projects that the administration is currently pursuing. There is a recent resurgence of nightlife in Kano which does not come as a coincidence. Governor Yusuf has made conscious effort to energise roads all over the metropolis with solar powered streetlights; this has not only brought life and beautified roads all over the state, but helped in curbing crime like phone-snatching that was rife on the metropolitan roads. The initiative has also encouraged the people of the state to go about their legitimate business through late hours.

    All these have however not come easy for Governor Yusuf. After laying siege on his concentration to governance through the needless court battle that took more than seven good months, the enemies of Kano have found their haven in the Kano Emirate saga. On May 23, the governor, Abba Yusuf, reinstated the deposed Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, in fulfilment of his campaign promise. Yusuf also signed the bill repealing the State Emirate Council Law 2019 that gave the state five emirate councils. This move was met by an incredible opposition in Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero’s continuing occupation of the Nassarawa Guest House.

    It is therefore very pertinent that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu calls those that are providing the deposed emir with security and financial backing to order. Governor Yusuf’s tenure is just a fraction in Kano’s history, and that history will not forget if he folds his arms and allow this imbroglio.

    The good people of Kano will remember students whose tuition fees were settled by Governor Yusuf, the pensioners that are receiving their gratuities without cutting any corner, the millions of women and children that are receiving free healthcare, the thousands of farmers that got free fertiliser, the children that are finding hope in the renovation of their schools and everyone positively touched by his compassionate leadership.

    Each government comes with its peculiarity; Governor Yusuf holds a lot of promise to restore Kano’s lost glory. He is focused on the goal, and we must have his back to steer us to prosperity.

     •Adamu writes from Kano.

  • Biden’s valedictory

    Biden’s valedictory

    It was a brutal, though benignly couched rite of passage at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in the United States, last week. President Joe Biden was cheered off into history by an adulatory crowd at an event where he could well have delivered an oration at his own funeral. He had strongly pushed to stay on, and had the imprimatur of the party’s primary elections to lead Democrats into battle against former President Donald Trump of the Republican Party in the forthcoming national polls in that country. But his hands were forced by his party to pull his re-election bid, and he was at the convention in Chicago formally passing the torch to Vice-President Kamala Harris. Politics is glamourous, but it can also be cruel.

    Until he folded his campaign about a month earlier, 81-year-old Biden was his party’s presumptive nominee and had looked forward to delivering the keynote on the final night of the 2024 convention after he would have formally accepted the presidential nomination. In Chicago last week, however, he was the major act on the opening night because he had to cede the keynote spot to Harris. The ironic twist did not escape the president’s old foe, Trump, who posted on his social media handle that Democrats were “throwing him (Biden) out on the Monday night stage.”  Trump, of course, overstated things out of excessive partisan animus. But the role switch at DNC 2024 illustrated the merciless nature of politics and, as anyone with an ageing relative knows, the mercilessness of time by which tomorrow’s star fades off into yesterday’s man. Following his disastrous outing at a presidential debate last June with Trump, Democrats feared Biden was leading them to sure defeat in the November polls and party stalwarts overrode the primaries by which he earned re-nomination and pressured him to give way to someone else, which he did by endorsing Harris for the race mid-July.

    That act of self-sacrifice booked the octogenarian president a luminous spot, not just in the Democratic Party but in America’s political history. When he was at the top of the party’s ticket, his advanced age and suspected cognitive decline constituted a lightning rod that Trump and his Republican fold used to outpace him in the presidential race and edge towards a sweeping victory in the 5th November elections. But the snap substitution of Biden with Harris recalibrated the race and turned the tables on the Grand Old Party (GOP). Harris has succeeded in  redirecting the mood of Democrats from despondent anticipation of defeat to an energised pursuit of victory and she looks well on course to beat Trump to the finishing line. The drastic transformation of the race naturally won the president the gratitude of most Democrats, particularly for his instrumental role in picking a winning replacement. But it didn’t change the harsh undercurrent that he himself had been turned down and his hard-earned prize passed on to a substitute.

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    Biden’s address at the Chicago convention marked a wistful bookend to a political career spanning more than 50 years. It also offered useful lessons in the stewardship of power. In the nearly hour-long speech, he recalled a verse from a song known as the “American Anthem” that he said held special meaning for his family: “What shall our legacy be, what will our children say, let me know in my heart when my days are through. America, America, I gave my best to you,” he said.

    And he has an impressive career record on which basis he could make that claim. His political life began in 1972 when he burst into the spotlight as a youthful and energetic 29-year-old running for the US Senate, and getting elected. While serving as senator, he ran unsuccessfully for Democratic nomination for the president twice – in 1988 and 2008. Whereas the nomination eluded him again in 2008, he got tapped by Barack Obama that year to pair with him as running mate on his historic ticket. Under Obama he served two terms as vice-president, during which time he used his legislative experience to facilitate strategic deals with Congress. Despite having been vice-president, however, he was passed over by Democrats in 2016 to hand ex-First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton their nomination to stand against Trump, who at the time was having his first outing leading the Republican ticket. Trump defeated Clinton in that poll by electoral college vote count that is crucial for victory in the US electoral system, even though Clinton won the popular vote. Biden returned in 2020 to pick the Democratic nomination, went on to defeat Trump and become president. “Nowhere else in the world could a kid with a stutter and modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, grow up to sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office,” he said in his DNC 2024 address.

    Biden was heralded onto the stage in Chicago with more than four minutes of standing ovation by the party crowd who were far warmer to him as outgoing president than they had been when he stomped the hustings in his re-election drive. The president walked to the lectern smiling, pointed at no one in particular, looked pensive, smiled again and dabbed his face with a handkerchief. He appeared to wipe tears away as he hugged his daughter, Ashley, who had just introduced him on the heels of remarks by First Lady Jill Biden. The crowd cheered and chanted “We love Joe” and “Thank you, Joe” before he began his address. “I love you!” he shouted back, perhaps knowing there won’t be another night like this for him. Among those holding tall narrow signs adulating the president was ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is reputed as America’s most influential Democrat and is famously believed to have pulled the brakes on Biden and bluntly told him his time was up.

    Analysts touted the DNC 2024 platform as Biden’s last chance to articulate a case for his legacy after being forced off the helm, and he seemed fully apprised of that historic import of the moment. In sharpened rhetoric that sublimely contrasted with his doddering performance in the June debate with Trump, he recounted the accomplishments of his administration, explained why he ran for president in 2020, canvassed the candidacy of his favoured successor, Harris, and took serial aims at the Republican torchbearer like one firing on fours. At 81 years, he was often reported to be the oldest president in America’s history. But he summed up his political career in a striking one-liner: too young to get started and too old to stay on. “For 50 years… I’ve given my heart and soul to our nation; and I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the support of the American people,” he said, adding: “I’ve either been too young to be in the Senate because I wasn’t 30 yet (or) too old to stay as President. But I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you.”

    The president seized the occasion to address the elephant in the room, telling the convention crowd he harboured no grudge against party wigs who publicly and privately pressed him to drop out of the 2024 race. “And all this talk about how I’m angry with all those people who said I should step down – that’s not true,” he said as the crowd chanted “We love Joe,” to which he responded: “I love my country more, and we need to preserve our democracy.” He used a large part of his address to sell Harris, describing her as “a president we can all be proud of” and crediting her with many of his administration’s achievements. On the other hand, he labelled Trump a loser who puts “himself first and America last,” reprising the ex-president’s ‘America first’ mantra. He took particular aim at Trump’s frequent assertion that the US is in decline: “He says, we’re losing. He’s the loser. He’s dead wrong.”

    Harris made a surprise appearance on stage after the president concluded his speech. “I love you,” she could be seen saying as she hugged the president, who himself hugged Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, before welcoming his own children and grandchildren onto the stage while the convention crowd gave him an emotional standing ovation. The atmosphere was evidently electric with affection. But as a one-term president, Biden didn’t attain the fulfilment he desired from his long political career. He ought to have headlined the 2024 convention, but as the last cheers faded on the first day, he was on his way back to Air Force One for a flight through the night to California for vacation. He was neither seen nor heard from the rest of the week. He’ll be president until January 2025, but his time has passed.

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

  • Kamala Harris and the last glass ceiling

    Kamala Harris and the last glass ceiling

    By Alade Fawole

    With the formal anointing of Kamala Harris as the presidential flag bearer of the Democratic Party for the November 5, election at the just concluded Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the stage is now set for an epic electoral battle for her to shatter the proverbial glass ceiling, the very last one. Having previously shattered two invisible glass ceilings – to become the first ever female vice president, and now the first female of colour officially as presidential candidate – the hope is high she just might also shatter the last one. Indeed, and inescapably so, the election will be the most consequential in contemporary US history.

    First, a Donald Trump victory will definitely set America back more severely than we can fully conjecture at the moment; a defeat for him would, on the other hand, create unimaginable chaos, much worse than the January 6, 2021 insurrectionary attacks on the US Capitol to prevent the validation of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory, and possibly to hang Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as icing on the cake. Neither Trump nor his large army of fanatical supporters would accept the verdict, nor would he himself go quietly into the sunset. He had vowed a bloodbath if he loses. That is not an empty threat, going by the aforementioned January 6 insurrection.

    Secondly, a Kamala Harris victory would see her shattering the last proverbial glass ceiling to become the first female ethnic minority president of the United States of America. It would be truly historic, with consequences far beyond the shores of the United States, and would be the subject of intellectual disquisitions for generations to come. This must not be construed as endorsement of Kamala Harris for I’m convinced that no matter who occupies the White House, American presidents are all the same.

    As is most often the case since America became a global hegemon at the end of the Second World War, its periodic presidential elections have caught, if not dominated, global attention the way no other country’s election have or could. The world is already waiting, and watching with concern, who, between former President Donald Trump and incumbent Vice President Kamal Harris, would be the next occupant of the White House. Initially billed to be a contest between incumbent President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the permutations have since changed rather dramatically the very instant Biden “dropped out” of the race and Kamala Harris became the presumptive flag bearer for the November election. Prior to this, expectation had been quite high that, owing to concerns about Biden’s age and health, and his disastrous performance at the televised debate, Trump was poised to win big, a prospect that caused justifiable apprehension among America’s European allies and partners wary of the return of the mercurial, unpredictable, transactional and congenitally ill-mannered Donald Trump. That mortal fear, according to an American analyst, had compelled them during NATO’s 75th anniversary celebration in Washington DC to pre-emptively ‘Trump-proof’ the alliance to forestall the likelihood of unilateral American withdrawal should Trump return to power.

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    Well, with Biden out of the presidential race and Kamala Harris now the official flag-bearer, the mortal fear of a Trump victory is being replaced with exuberance and great expectation that the US might eventually have its first ever female president! The prospect of a glass-ceiling-shattering Kamala Harris, a mixed race woman of immigrant ancestry (a Black Jamaican father and an Indian mother), appeals to adherents of the current ideological fad of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and for those who foresee the inevitability of America’s embrace of multiculturalism. If she eventually shatters that ceiling to become America’s first female president, it will be a truly historic first. Hillary Clinton had previously attempted this feat but the Electoral College acted whimsically against rationality to award victory to Donald Trump, despite that she had three million popular votes more than Trump.

    Apart from hoping that Americans might for once see their way clearly to elect a woman for its historic importance, I have no further expectations that it would make any difference whatsoever to US domestic, national security and foreign policies. She is not likely to be any different from previous presidents. Actually, I think she is poised to be the archetypal US president.

    I will explain. I had occasion to characterize in an article in this paper four years ago Biden and Trump as mere two sides of the same bad coin! Would Harris be different from all previous US presidents? My simple, honest answer is NO.

    Any expectation that she would make a difference, change America’s domestic and foreign policies is futile, for it is only a theoretical assumption that it is the occupants of the White House and members of the US Congress that decide policies. To debunk that assumption, former US Supreme Court judge, Felix Frankfurter, asserts: “The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes.” (1952) The invisible hands, that is, the oligarchs and the ‘Deep State’ that control the levers of power behind the curtains are the ones who decide major government policies and actions in their own favour, even those that lead to foreign wars and invasions, assassination of foreign leaders to cause destabilization and regime change in the narrow capitalist quests for wealth accumulation. In all that they stand for, the protection and advancement of the welfare and wellbeing of the American people is the least important, though they make occasional references to those in speeches and public statements, purely to hoodwink the people.

     In reality, the mega-billionaires and their trillion-dollar corporations (big pharmaceutical corporations, major armament manufacturers, giant tech corporations, mega multinational banks, powerful international oil corporations, and other special interests like the Israel Lobby, the National Rifle Association, etc.) that control the government are no longer invisible, contrary to Justice Frankfurter for they publicly endorse and bankroll presidential and congressional candidates that would do their bidding. This is not new, however, for President Dwight Eisenhower, knowing what he knew even back then about the insidious power of the unholy alliance of arms manufacturers and the armed forces, had warned America in his January 1961 valedictory address of the dangers of “the military-industrial complex.” That “complex” is in contemporary times much more complex, much stronger and infinitely more treacherous than in Eisenhower’s days. Kamala Harris, like Trump, being bankrolled by these same billionaire oligarchs, would be at their beck and call when in office.

    It became public knowledge recently that Donald Trump gathered several billionaire oil industry power-brokers together at his residence and unashamedly asked them for a billion dollars in campaign donations, promising to roll back the current administration’s restrictive environmental and green regulations in their favour. This confirms the popular joke inside Washington D.C., the nation’s capital, that it is the donors that elect, not the electorate; that the US president and members of Congress are mere errand-boys, only the public face of the real powerbrokers operating from behind the curtains!

    Implication: regardless who is elected, neither Trump nor Harris can stray from the wishes of those who put them in the white House!

    • Prof Fawole writes from Ikire, Osun State

  • It’s production, stupid!

    It’s production, stupid!

    By Sonni Anyang

    Over the last two or so decades, the view seems to have taken root in Nigeria that we can somehow sing, dance, code, post, brand and speculate our way into meaningful development.  This is an illusion; it is not going to happen—certainly not soon enough to make much of a difference in the conditions under which most of us live.

    A country of over 200 million people who must eat, clothe themselves, shelter from the elements and carry on with life in the 21st century, has no alternative to making the tangible things that support life in this day and age.  In other words, Nigeria must urgently privilege production over everything else, if it is to make sustainable progress.

    It is difficult to locate the exact point in time when the focus of national energy shifted from making things to services.  Since such changes rarely happen overnight, the pivot likely took place without apparent notice over many years.  Looking back however, we can identify some moments in the regression.

    One such moment was the introduction of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) by the Ibrahim Babangida regime in 1986.  SAP ushered in trade liberalization, market-driven exchange rates, financial deregulation and privatization.  The immediate aftermath was, of course, an explosion in the financial services sector.  Everybody in Nigeria and his uncle went into wheeling and dealing. We all became operators of banks, finance companies of all types and brokerage houses. The best brains and the bulk of available investment capital went into the making of money from money, turning the country into a giant financial bazaar.  Thus did bankers and speculators become the toast of the Nigerian society.

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    The next big, identifiable moment, was the arrival of Donald Duke as governor of Cross River State.  The young governor as he then was, got the entire country—from President Olusegun Obasanjo to nominally staid bankers and the general populace—charged up about the prospect of turning his state into a veritable tourist paradise. Programmes and projects like the Obudu Cattle Ranch, the Mountain Race, Tinapa Resort and of course his crowning glory, the Calabar Carnival, initiated by Duke, sold the entire nation on a vision of boundless prosperity that an endless stream of tourists would bring to Cross River State and thence to the rest of the nation. 

    Then there was the emergence of Nollywood in the 1990s which held the promise of turning the country into one huge movie production set, with millions earning their living therefrom while enjoying all that comes with the celebrity lifestyle of silver screen idols.  Before we knew it, film producers, directors, script writers, production companies and actors and actresses had sprouted across the length and breadth of the country. Matters have now reached the point where it appears, young Nigerians who are not movie stars or producers, aspire to be either musicians, comedians/ MCs, skit makers, social media influencers or other sorts of yet-to-be invented performance artist. Not for them anymore the unglamorous toil on farms or the anonymous drudgery of factory work.  In this immediate connection, the success of Nigerian musicians on the world stage has served to pour petrol on a raging fire and to confirm entertainment as a sure-fire route to prosperity.

    At the level of public policy, the view of entertainment and the performance arts as viable economic activities has received the tacit support and direct endorsement of governments in Nigeria. The rebasing of our GDP computation in 2013 explicitly acknowledged entertainment as an economic activity and by that simple measure, saw Nigeria propelled to the top of the GDP league in Africa. Since then, a number of government intervention measures have been announced to support movie making and related activities. NEXIM, the country’s prime export-import bank, has even established a special lending window for the creative and entertainment ‘industry’. There can be no question that Nigeria is no longer ‘playing’ with entertainment.

    Another remarkable juncture in our march to the service economy was the introduction of the GSM technology in the 1990s, powered by the internet infrastructure first laid in the 1960s as a hub for interaction among scientists but mainstreamed over time into a global loop for connection among people across space and demographics.  A truly breath-taking spinoff from the internet-GSM convergence is the so-called social media, which has taken the nation’s infatuation with services as the dominant mode of economic activity to an altogether dizzying level. Today, many Nigerians, particularly the young but also quite a few adults, including policy makers, seem to believe that the solution to mass impoverishment in the land lies not in producing material things like yam, rice, cassava, cotton, electric bulbs, chairs or even the computers and handheld devices that are required to use the internet and social media, but in developing content, posting stuff, speculating on crypto currency, playing in foreign exchange markets or going live on certain apps and generally trying to make money for nothing (apologies, Dire Straits). 

    While the pivot from production to services in Nigeria cannot be said to have been deliberately engineered, it is also the case that some people, including economists, have come to believe that the early ascendancy of services in an underdeveloped economy like Nigeria is not necessarily harmful and that services can drive sustainable growth and development.

    Observing the trend of the increasing domination of the services sector against declining production sectors (agriculture and manufacturing) in total output in mature developed economies like the US 50/60 years ago, some economists started talking about, or even celebrating, the arrival of a so-called ‘post-industrial age’ (Daniel Bell: The Coming of Post Industrial Age, 1976). It was claimed that the world, or at least, the advanced parts of it, had entered a phase in which prosperity would no longer derive from the production of tangible things but from the provision of services. Much later, perhaps encouraged by the expanding share of services in the GDP and exports of a few underdeveloped countries like India, some people started to push forward the view that such countries could successfully avoid the historical trajectory taken by the West which involved passing through a phase in which production, particularly manufacturing, provided the main impetus for growth and prosperity. Such Third World countries, it has been claimed, could leapfrog to services and thence, to developed status. As the IMF (who else?), one of the key advocates of this view put it, the premature turn to services, “need not hinder economy-wide productivity growth and the prospects for developing economies to gain ground toward advanced-economy income levels” (IMF, World Economic Outlook, 2018). 

    The leapfrog advocacy runs counter to the earlier theoretical position that for countries in the global South to stand a chance at attaining high income status, they had to rapidly expand production, especially manufacturing. It also ignores the established fact that virtually every high-income economy known to history today achieved that status on the back of production, especially through manufacturing industry. (A few small countries have attained high income status as a result of special resource endowments, tourism and offshore financial services but they are the exception that proves the rule).

    Notwithstanding the enthusiasm in certain quarters for the expansion of services as the prime driver of development or even the unfortunate reality that services are now so dominant in the national output mix, it is highly doubtful that developmental success awaits Nigeria at the end of that particular route. Our experience so far (and even that of India) suggests that an early turn to services is deeply dysfunctional to development.  By early turn here, we mean the emergence of services as the dominant economic sector at relatively low levels of development as measured by GDP per capita.

    For a poor country like Nigeria therefore to seek to skip production and to depend on services for its growth and development represents a mistake of monumental proportions. That we have inadvertently arrived at that position given the enthusiasm in Nigeria for service activities and their dominance in total output today, means that from a developmental point of view, we have seriously lost our way. Such a developmental trajectory is highly unlikely to lead us to the promised land.

    Course correction is urgently called for.  Conscious, deliberate effort is required to steer our way back to a production-focused economy, thereby generating real development.  Service activities need not be totally abandoned but their pursuit should be undergirded by extensive and intensive domestic production.

    •Anyang is a former federal commissioner at the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, a former banker and journalist.

  • Elected representatives: Servants or masters?

    Elected representatives: Servants or masters?

    “Not to know what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child.” — Cicero, 46 B.C.

    Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC-43 BC), renowned statesman, lawyer, philosopher, poet and ‘the greatest forensic orator Rome ever produced’, was right! We have to go into the past to understand today!

    The present conundrum in the National Assembly highlights just how far we have departed from many rational definitions of public service. It wasn’t always like this! From the early 1950s, with the commencement of self-rule in the regions and at the centre, parliamentarians were on allowances. This is because there was an element of public service entailed. There were no ludicrous, self-serving perks such as constituency allowance and the absurdity of constituency projects had not yet come into place. This system functioned effectively, and the parliamentarians of that era etched their inputs into the public consciousness. The same thing prevailed at the centre. Since the parliamentarians were part-time, on allowances, most of them did second jobs in order to augment their incomes. Sadly, we’ve since abandoned this approach, succumbing to a culture of underperformance and increasing irrelevance.

    An instructive historical illustration comes from France, after the collapse of the 4th Republic on October 5, 1958. When Charles de Gaulle came in as president of the 5th New Republic in January 1959, one of his executive orders was to proclaim a Decree linking every post held by political appointees to a particular post in the civil service. In this way, the Senate President, for example, has the same remuneration as the Permanent Secretary. Today, over 6,000 French civil servants earn more than the president, yet this hasn’t hindered the country’s effectiveness. Instead, de Gaulle’s reforms have fostered a highly regarded public service, attracting top talent and demonstrating that equitable compensation can coexist with strong governance.

    Characteristically, Nigeria’s political establishment has headed into the opposite direction, with predictably disastrous results. The consequences are stark: 133 million people (a conservative estimate) mired in multidimensional poverty, soaring inflation and a public service system that rewards self-serving politicians. The humongous perks obtained by subterfuge is clearly not attracting the best and the brightest into public service since the very concept of public service has been distorted and placed on its head, into not-public, but self-service.

    The furore over Nigerian Senators’ emoluments has ignited a fierce debate, exposing the yawning chasm between the political elite and the masses. It’s a tragic reminder that, in our context, public service has become a euphemism for self-enrichment. The fact that these ‘servants of the people’ have perfected the art of siphoning off public funds while their bank accounts overflow with ill-gotten gains reveals a sinister plot. It’s a twisted game of ‘trickle-down economics’ where the only thing trickling down is the Senators’ tokenistic largesse. One can’t help but ask: what’s the price tag for selling one’s soul?

    Unlike the relatively corruption-free First and Second Republics, today’s political system is ravaged by entrenched and widespread corruption. Emoluments have become a tool for buying loyalty and silence, rather than a means of compensating public servants. While previous systems had their flaws, the current excesses have reached catastrophic levels, igniting public outrage and demands for radical reforms. As Nigeria’s democracy teeters on the brink and its economy stagnates, one wonders: what concrete actions are elected representatives taking to alleviate the suffering of the masses?

    Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of simple living and selflessness has inspired generations. Gandhi believed that leaders should prioritize the people’s welfare, living modestly and selflessly. Similarly, Lee Kuan Yew advocated for modest political salaries, prioritizing public service over personal gain. Nelson Mandela embodied this spirit, living modestly and donating a third of his presidential salary to charity. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern demonstrated her dedication to public service by taking a pay cut and prioritizing citizens’ welfare, especially during crises.

    Former Uruguayan President Jose Mujica exemplified extreme simplicity by donating most of his salary to charity. Known as the ‘world’s poorest president’, Mujica lived in a modest farmhouse, and drove an old Volkswagen Beetle. In India, former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar earned the nickname ‘Poorest CM’ for his humble lifestyle, living in a simple apartment and using public transport. Without doubt, these iconic leaders demonstrated that true leadership entails selflessness, humility, and a commitment to the greater good.

    In Nigeria, the late Obafemi Awolowo championed modest salaries and allowances for lawmakers to keep them grounded and connected to the people. His philosophy prioritized the masses’ welfare, as reflected in one of his famous quotes: ‘The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.’ Similarly, Ahmadu Bello believed true leadership entailed serving with humility and dedication, not personal gain or aggrandizement. Both leaders emphasized the need for public servants to prioritize the people’s interests above their own.

    Obviously, the revelation of N21m-a-month salaries for senators barely raised an eyebrow, as many Nigerians suspected the figure was even higher. In a clime so blessed as ours, it’s no surprise that the senator who exposed this travesty will likely face suspension! The process has devolved into a farcical ‘boarding house’ dynamic, where the ‘housemaster’ cracks down on dissenting voices at the slightest hint of insubordination. This is not what a modern, democratic parliament looks like! Sadly, the charade will continue, unchecked by any strong moral counterforce, perpetuating the ‘development of underdevelopment’ that has held Nigeria back for so long.

    ‘Parliament’, as it is currently depicted in Nigeria, lacks the technical expertise to effectively monitor and direct affairs in a modern state. The absence of critical institutions like a Congressional Budget Office or Office of Budget Responsibility perpetuates ill-conceived and poorly monitored budget processes, resulting in unimplemented budgets and abandoned projects. This self-serving approach ensures parliamentarians lack access to vital technical inputs, relegating them to irrelevance in a highly competitive, interconnected global economy. Our downward spiral from tragedy to farce continues unabated.

    The controversy surrounding senators’ salaries serves as an unambiguous reminder of the urgent need for a paradigm shift in Nigeria’s public service ethos. Perhaps it’s time for the government to pause, reevaluate, and consider bringing in fresh perspectives from independent analysts and operators currently outside the mainstream. Contrarians can offer valuable insights during a stalemate, as the saying goes, ‘out of the mouth of babes…’ At a time like this, it behooves the government to revisit its manifesto commitments to a social market economy, embrace transparency and accountability, and strike a balance between state intervention and market forces.

    Finally, as we reflect on the examples of selfless leaders like Gandhi, Mandela and Mujica, it is clear that true progress can only be achieved when those in power prioritize the welfare of the people over personal gain. Therefore, the Bola Tinubu-led government must continually work hard to justify the mandate freely given by Nigerians and deliver on its promises. This is crucial, as the country cannot afford to stagnate.

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

  • U.S Elections: How Africa can manage its outcome

    U.S Elections: How Africa can manage its outcome

    • By Charles Onunaiju

    Whatever the outcome of the US presidential election slated for November 5, it will present to Africa with both a challenge and opportunity. Already Donald Trump, former U.S president is the formal nominee of his Republican Party and Kamala Harris, current vice president has inherited the outcome of the Democratic Party nomination of former candidate, Joe Biden and is now presidential candidate of the party. Vice President Harris is on the momentous threshold of history, if she manages to pull off a victory that will see her become the first female U.S President in the over 200 years of the country’s history.

    However, each candidate, like the previous leaders of the country, since Barak Obama, would offer very little in terms of critical tangibles in relations with Africa. That does not mean that Africa would be struck off the maps in the Oval Presidential Office, State Department (Foreign Affairs Ministry), or even the Pentagon (the Defence Ministry). It is just in the nature U.S statecraft that when there is a clash between the choice of values and interest, the rational pick is the later.

    Many countries in Africa, including Nigeria emphasize shared values of liberal democracy with the United States. While this is true, it does not in reality shape the U.S policy. Like every other nation, foreign policy is organized to generate returns of critical aggregates that translate to strength, influence and national power.

    Currently, the United States have quite a number of domestic challenges that would influence the direction of her foreign policy. Despite what appears like a gulf of differences between the candidates of the two major parties, their approach to foreign policy would be the same. The U.S post-industrial economy has failed to deliver broad dividends, thereby massively excluding a huge swath of citizens. The Republican candidate Donald Trump laments the country’s massive deindustrialization, which he said currently stand at 64%. His solution is to massively increase import tariffs in what he thinks would lure industries back to the United States. The flip side of this strategy however, is that imported finished products will be expensive for the working families, he claimed to fight for and due to labour costs and other related factors of production, product manufacturing in the United States will not be reasonably cost effective as to be competitive.  However, these basic economic facts will not deter a President Trump from launching a wide ranging trade war especially with China and even Europe, whose consequences, Africa must proactively anticipate and build the necessary resilience with a view to optimize the opportunities and minimize the risks associated with it.

    The fledgling Africa Growth Opportunity Act, AGOA, established since 2000, but has languished because of extensive political meddling by the U.S successive administrations will further drown into irrelevance as the incoming administration, whether Republican or Democratic, will erect further high walls of tariff. Meanwhile, Africa’s economic prospects of growth and sustainable development lay substantially in trade and investments and only a paltry of this essential economic oxygen can come from the United States and the global West.

    The Democratic Party’s candidate may not have starkly outlined trade policy as her Republican rival has done, but would do much of the same, with the difference being only regards to the intensity of the rhetoric.

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    With ballooning crime, gun violence and rising racial tensions in the U.S, candidate Trump sees the only solution in building high-fence border walls to deter what he called “invasion” of criminals, rapists whom he claimed are deliberately unleashed on the U.S from prisons and mental homes from across the world. He has promised to start from his “Day One” in office to deport undocumented immigrants. Despite that the United States has historically benefitted from being a melting pot, with relative open borders that attracted talents, from across the world, demonizing migrants as the cause of all U.S contemporary domestic troubles, is the new rallying point for U.S political elites across party lines. Vice President Kamala Harris has been uptick in the anti-migrant rhetoric too.

    Largely, a problem of poorly managed economic transition, that left a huge swath of the population at the bottom, the U.S economic and social troubles, for which its elites disproportionately blame on migration, with its consequent policy choices, have ramification for the expectations of U.S-Africa relations. More importantly, the critical inputs to address the structural lacunas in the U.S economy will objectively have little coming from Africa and therefore, the task and challenge of U.S economic recovery will not be considerably consequential to her relations with Africa.

    To this effect, the leadership that would emerge from the November elections will focus largely on dealing with broad range of domestic issues and the consequent foreign policy direction would be essentially transactional. However, no matter the weight and the attention to domestic issues which the administration might be devoted to, the U.S is still the world sole superpower, the wealthiest and even the most influential and therefore, relations with Washington is considerably consequential for any country or region.

    The challenge for Africa is therefore, how to maintain strategic visibility. In recent times, U.S attention to Africa has been largely on geo-political considerations with an only strategic and limited aim of cutting down or reducing what Washington considers the outsize influence and impact of China and to a lesser degree, Russia in Africa. This also offers some opportunity for Africa to leverage her strategic competitiveness as a geo-political entity of interest to major powers.

    But the opportunity for a more inward-looking America for Africa is even more enormous. Africa can pivot to vital global centres most likely to bring the tangible inputs necessary to support durable resilience in African economies for sustainable and inclusive growth.

    An inward-looking America, more pragmatically concerned with economic recovery and other essentially domestic issues, would not only be less sensitive to such pivot, but would not automatically consider such pivot as ideological heresy. Africa can leverage a less meddlesome America to consolidate on the diversification of her international partnerships.

    The U.S Presidential election in November is the country’s internal affair, with doubtless international significance not least because Washington is vital in resolving most of the big global issues. Whether is President Donald J. Trump or President Kamala Harris, what happens in Washington will continue to matter to the world, and Africa’s enormous soft power which consist in the main, the African-American community will remain an important bridge of the U.S-Africa relations. Despite several multi-layered ties with the United States, Africa must recognize that the sole superpower will have only marginal impact in the area of economic cooperation with practical results for the region.

    America’s traditional security concerns in Africa has always focused on the symptoms rather that the root causes and has consequently had little effects on the security challenges in the continent and it will be important that Africa makes the U.S to listen to her, if Washington truly want to be a credible security partner.

    One thing very discernible about America’s international behaviour is that durability of her partnership is contingent on her shifting internal politics and cannot be relied on in the long term. Africa’s long march to economic goal of sustained and inclusive growth, and stability require long-term players who can be trusted through the twists and turns of the evolving international landscape. And in this regards, Africa can borrow a leaf from the sturdy Vietnam’s “Bamboo Diplomacy” which emphasizes flexibility and pragmatism but with independence and national interests as the solid root. Bamboo is a symbol of longevity because of its durability, strength, flexibility and resilience. Africa’s bamboo tree is even sturdier with capability to bend in several directions while deeply rooted in the soil.

    •Onunaijiu is research director of an Abuja-based think tank.