The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • Who is afraid of EFCC?

    Who is afraid of EFCC?

    By Osifisan Kehinde

    Recently, there have been simulated hues on the activities of the nation’s foremost anti- corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Since the appointment of Olanipekun Olukoyede as chairman of the commission in October 2023, there is no doubt that the fight against corruption has taken a new vista. A new Sheriff is in town! The EFCC under Olukoyede has recorded unprecedented success in the recovery of looted funds and prosecution of suspected fraudsters, high and low alike. Never in the history of the commission has such a humongous amount of money in national and international currencies recovered from looters.

    In fact, the EFCC added another chip to its bulging shoulders recently when a whole university, found to have been established with the proceeds of corruption, was permanently forfeited to the federal government! A whole university, forfeited on the basis of corruption? That’s unheard of!

    EFCC is so dreaded now that even a former chief security officer of a state for eight years is unbelievably scared-stiff of going to court for mere arraignment by the EFCC. The EFCC is now seen by the corrupt even in their sleep! To sum it up: The fear of the EFCC is now the begging of wisdom.

    Of course, one does not expect to throw a heavy punch without a response, especially when your opponents have a heavy purse and are highly placed and connected? The attacks are rolling in barely disguised.

    Read Also: N2.1b unremitted tax deduction: CSO urges EFCC, ICPC to sanitise NSITF

    Never in the annals of the EFCC has the commission faced a barrage of simulated, sponsored and coordinated attacks, especially in the media, by people whose filthy toes have been marched and their hedonistic ego punctured by the EFCC.

    What is actually EFCC’s calling? Established on April 10, 2003, the  functions of the EFCC include: investigation of all financial crimes including advance fee fraud, money laundering, counterfeiting, illegal fund transfers, futures market fraud, contract scam etc.; the coordination and enforcement of all economic and financial crimes laws; adoption of measures to identify, trace, freeze, confiscate or seize proceeds derived from terrorist activities and adoption of methods to eradicate the commission of economic and financial crimes.

    The EFCC was also created to statutorily collaborate with government bodies both within and outside Nigeria to ensure the eradication of economic and financial crimes; and to also engage in education and enlightenment campaign against the evil of economic and financial crimes within and outside Nigeria.

    It is true that one may not totally rule out some form of overzealousness by few operatives of the commission in carrying out their statutory functions, even in minutest cases; but that is why the laws are enacted and the courts created. Whoever is displeased with the activities of the commission should be bold enough to seek redress in the court of law instead of turning copious sponsored advertorials into articles to attack the EFCC.

    There are, litany of cases where the federal government has been reprimanded and made to pay damages for human rights infringements, let alone the agency created by the federal government.

    The commission has made unprecedented strides since the assumption of office of the new chairman less than one year ago. These strides must be supported by well-meaning people and the flame of the new EFCC must not be deemed.

    So far, EFCC is reported to have secured 3,175 convictions and recovered N156,276,691,242.30 between May 29, 2023 and now . Foreign cash seizures are also as follows $43,835,214.24, £25,365.00, €186,947.10, ₹51,360.00, C$3,750.00, A$740.00, ¥74,754.00, R35,000.00, 42,390.00 UAE Dirhams, 247.00 Riyals and 21,580,867,631 Crypto Currency. These are mind-boggling figures that have kept the mouth wide open.

    Blessed is the one who does not commit financial crimes, covet public funds, harbour proceeds of corruption or sits in the company of fraudsters.

    For those who do not want water to be splashed on them, they should stay away from the river bank. A lot of noise is being and would continue to be made against EFCC but they will remain what they are: Noise!

    The federal government, on its own, has demonstrated exemplary posture in supporting the renewed fight by EFCC against corruption. A minister in the Federal  Executive Council (FEC) has been excused and suspended from office pending investigation by the EFCC; commendably so. Other serving top government functionaries have not found sanctuary in the Tinubu administration. Therefore, people alleged or accused of corruption must be ready to voluntarily aid investigations, keep their dates in the court and clear their names or face the music.

    For the EFCC, it is better to be feared, abused and detested by people facing corruption allegations than to be praised. The hope of victory over corruption will dim the moment the corrupt start to praise the EFCC.

    As the saying goes: “A clean conscience fears no accusation”. At the end of the day, the question remains: Who is afraid of EFCC?

    •Osifisan, a public affairs analyst based in Abeokuta sent this piece via osifisankehinde269@gmail.com

  • Bala Bello, neither bigotry nor nepotism

    Bala Bello, neither bigotry nor nepotism

    By Uchenna Kalu

    The Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bala Bello, has been trending for a while. He was accused of being an ethnic bigot, a nepotist and more. For whatever reason, his traducers attributed the recent firing of some staffers of CBN to him as if he has such powers to unilaterally act. They say the gale of sack was in bad taste and was targeted at some persons from the southern part of the country while staffers from Bello’s north were exempted. This has turned out to be utter falsehood.

    The apex bank has explained reasons for the rationalisation and it has nothing to do with one man, not even a deputy governor. But the apex bank’s explanation has not doused the acerbic pelts at Bello. His critics insist he is an ethnic jingoist. Bello is none of this. He is a nationalist and much more a philanthropist whose deeds resonate across the nation.

    Philanthropy is an integral part of humanity. Philanthropists are those who open their hands for others. Some philanthropists are garrulous with their deeds; others play their philanthropic cards silently. Bello is in this class. He is a man of good deeds. Not many Nigerians know this about him. Over the years, he has managed to keep his charitable works away from public space, especially the media. It’s the stuff of genuine philanthropists; those who give as a matter of empathy, and not on the basis of public acclamation or to be celebrated of men usually with vainglorious titles and societal epaulets as reward.

    Though a proud son of Taraba State, his charity works extend beyond the primordial boundaries of religion and ethnicity. To him, humanity is one. And the inside of a hungry child is the same, irrespective of race, religion or ethnic nationality. When want and destitution strip a people to their bones, they are the same colour in the dark; they bear the same pain in their bodies and equal measure of emotional torture.

    Read Also: Emefiele printed ‘his own Naira’, ignored design approved by Buhari, says Ex-CBN director

    Bello understands this and he has taken to the noble path of philanthropy just to add a veneer of smile to the faces of the abandoned and broken children. And he does this without recourse to ethnic configuration of the beneficiaries of his gesture or their religion. In a country where some persons, especially public officers and those seeking public positions, give for what they can get, Bello gives without expecting.

    For many years, he has been a pillar of The Wanted Children Foundation (TWCF), a charity organisation spearheading the transformation of the lives of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Nigeria. TWCF was founded in 2005 and registered as a Canadian charity in 2006 through a public-spirited woman, Courtney Anderson. Ever since, the organisation has weathered several storms to become the hope of the orphaned and the forsaken. Bello has silently been supporting TWCF and has played major rule in its sound footing in the country today.

    Starting out from its initial Children’s Home in Amaba community in Isuikwuato Local Government Area of Abia State, TWCF has moulted its old weak skin and has transformed to a reliable refuge for OVC where the children are cared for, loved and walked through healing processes for those traumatised by their state of abandonment. Some acquire skills while others are given the opportunity to go through the basics of cognitive learning.

    Today, through the support of pillars like Bello, TWCF has moved to its permanent site at Eluama, another community in the same Isuikwuato, a place they now call “home”.

    Let’s make it clear. TWCF is located in Abia State. Bello is from Taraba State. It did not matter to him that a majority of the beneficiaries of the benevolence of the charity organisation would be persons from Abia and the southeast. It did not matter to him that his home state, Taraba, being part of a country with broken homes, broken children and millions of out-of-school kids also has need of such home. Bello did not influence the relocation of such home to Taraba, to his community. Never did. Instead, he continued to support the noble cause of a humanitarian organisation whose mission is to assuage the pains of children.

    As a full-blooded Igbo man and someone who has lived in the north for many years, I sincerely salute the nationalistic spirit of Bello. Nigeria needs men like Bello; men who are detribalised; men who are not swayed by ethno-religious considerations but who believe in the oneness of the country. A man from the north who could wholeheartedly support a humanitarian organisation in the southeast in the manner Bello is doing deserves a national medal. It is for such persons that the lyrics of the National Anthem, ‘Though tribes and tongues may differ, In brotherhood we stand,’ assume its full essence. Bello is not a slave to tribes and tongues. He is bound by the spirit of brotherhood, the spirit of one indivisible Nigeria.

    Those close to him say this is the same nationalistic fervour that underpins his actions where ever he goes. And he has been to many places, functioned at several stations in high-ranking capacities. In all of these stations, he acquitted himself as a nationalist, not one sucked into the cesspit of nepotism. This defeats the trending thesis on social media that he was engaging in ethnic cleansing in his new station as Deputy Governor of CBN. Far from it.

    Bello is not a bitter man. He acknowledges the benevolence of Providence in his life. Nigeria, his fatherland, has done him good. And he loves his country; he loves Nigerians of all tongues. He has no reason to engage in any form of ethnic victimisation or to undermine any authority.

    This article is not about his storied corporate career, it’s about his devotion to charity, his humanity and his blazing spirit of nationalism. And if you think Bello has abandoned his people back home in Taraba, perish the thought. His We The People grassroots movement has become the rallying hub of development, empowerment and a meeting point between the poor and the rich. Through the movement, the virtues of unity, understanding and tolerance have been fostered among people of all ethnic nationalities and many have been lifted out of poverty.

    Truth be told, Bello does not deserve any tongue-lashing, he deserves lotus for his nationalism, patriotism and humanitarian service.

    •Kalu, businessman/public policy pundit, writes from Umuahia.

  • What 10th National Assembly should focus on

    What 10th National Assembly should focus on

    By Bonniface Lancelot

    The 10th National Assembly has spent its first year in office. It was a first year of mixed feelings, more of not meeting the people’s expectations than being above board. It was a first year of little to show in terms of legislative support for the attraction of the Foreign Direct Investment (FID) our economy needs to get out of coma. Instead, there are steps it has taken that are capable of instilling fears in investors and making them to look elsewhere.

    Its leaders, Senator Godswill Akpabio and Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, aren’t neophytes. Both men have been ranking members of the National Assembly. Aside this, they are also well-educated and being grassroots politicians, they know where the shoes pinch the Nigerian people. They are aware of the hardship Nigerians are going through.

    As the 10th National Assembly enters its second year in office, its focus should be on the Nigerian people and not on what individual members can get for themselves. It can do a lot in terms of legislative efforts to cushion the hardship Nigerians are facing.

    Read Also: Senate passed 25 Bills, 115 resolutions in one year, says Bamidele

    It can also lead by example by cutting its expenses. So far, it has exhibited some nonchalant attitudes. We’ve seen obscene amounts being expended on cars and we’ve seen money being deposited in members’ accounts for them to enjoy ‘vacationing’.

    We have also seen it dabbling into areas I need to be convinced are in the interest of Nigerians. One of such areas is dictating to private businesses how to run their affairs.

    The first time the National Assembly confused me was over Multichoice Nigeria, the operators of DSTV in Nigeria. We all know Multichoice as a private company and what business the National Assembly has with its pricing of its products and services remain a mystery to me. I have the same feeling about its involvement in Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited’s affairs.

    Yes, the government of Nigeria, through the NNPC, has shares in the NLNG but the controlling shares remain with multinationals that also run and determine its leadership. But, not a dollar of the money being spent on Train 7 came from the Nigerian government. The company sourced the funds for this all-important project, which will lead to the increasing push for energy transition from fossil fuels to new energy sources.

    For years, Nigeria’s LNG growth was stunted because of the government’s failure to take the Final Investment Decision (FID) on this project for which it was not expected to pay one dollar. When the Muhammadu Buhari government eventually took the needed decision, the NLNG swung into action so that it will maintain significant market share in the global gas market and reap the potential benefits in the market.

    On July 3, the National Assembly joint committees will reconvene over its inquest into the $4.451b Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Train 7. Its last sitting, days ago, led to a rowdy session. The joint committees’ grouse is about contract variation and not even NLNG Project Director Ali Uwais’s explanation that the fluctuation in foreign exchange rates is a principal cause of contract variation would convince them.

    “The overall progress of the project is at 67% completion, made up of engineering at 97.9%, procurement at 95.5% and construction at 52.5%,” Uwais had said.

    Uwais noted that the project was already delivering on one of its benefits with over 9,000 Nigerians working on the project on Bonny Island, and numerous indirect jobs and businesses emerging and booming because of the construction.

    But for the committees, a mountain must be made out of a molehill and they urged the NLNG, a private company, to halt further variations in the $4.451,731,937bn contract.

    The Train 7 will lead to more foreign exchange for Nigeria, monetise gas, curb gas flaring and also create value in the domestic LPG sector.

    Since construction began, the Train 7 has achieved over 45 million man-hours without lost time to injuries and other incidents and it is about 66% overall completion with approximately 10,000 personnel engaged. About 55% of Train 7’s engineering activities and procurement have been done in Nigeria.

    If the truth must be told: the matter is not about transparency. This is all about the NLNG and its principled insistence on international best practices. Contracts on the Train 7 project are not awarded on regional basis, but on established/proven capabilities, a development that politicians hardly like. But this is international standard and since it is not a government project, geo-political considerations aren’t required.

    The National Assembly can help the federal government by encouraging private sector operators like the NLNG that are crucial to the Federal Government’s Decade of Gas initiative. Train 7 aligns with the country’s gas development aspirations, which made the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration separate the administration of gas from crude oil. The Train 7 will support the diversification of the country’s revenue sources, revenue generation during the energy transition, and aid the country in achieving a net-zero future. With an estimated over 200 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of proven reserves, projects such as this will enhance gas monetisation in the country.

    The administration, we all know, needs all the cash it can get in order to renew the hope of Nigerians, which it promised during the campaigns. The National Assembly should focus on helping President Tinubu achieve this instead of focusing on probes that will unearth nothing.

    I will be the last to be against legislative oversights but we are all witnesses to history. Probes such as the ones on private businesses are waste of public funds. Even many of the ones on public institutions have not served the interests of Nigerians. They have been more noise, less action. They have been more drama, no action. They have, to be fair, been grandstanding. The reports are just gathering dusts!

    So, I urge the 10th National Assembly to, in the name of God, refrain from actions that will steadily frustrate investment in future large scale projects like Train 8!

    The 10th National Assembly in its second year must work for the Nigerian people, work for Nigeria as a country and work for a Nigeria that will be the envy of the global community. The second year should be for serious legislative support for the Bola Tinubu administration’s renewed hope agenda and the National Assembly should get into the train or risk being crushed by it.

    •Lancelot, a public affairs commentator, writes from Ikeja, Lagos.

  • Africa’s Continental Criminal Court can no longer wait

    Africa’s Continental Criminal Court can no longer wait

    By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

    Less than a decade ago, the detention centre of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Scheveningen on the outskirts of The Hague could easily have been mistaken for a committee meeting of leaders of the African Union. One of its long-term guests was Laurent Gbagbo, a former president of Côte d’Ivoire. From neighbouring Liberia, Gbagbo’s contemporary, Charles Taylor, kept up a punishing schedule on the tennis courts of the facility. With them there also was former Vice-President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Jean-Pierre Bemba.

    At about the same time, Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta; and his Deputy and future successor, William Ruto, were suspects on trial before the ICC. For over five years before that, since 2009, the Court had an arrest warrant still outstanding for Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.

    Even as the ICC advanced towards an arrest warrant for Sudan’s then dictator, the African Union (AU) complained somewhat vainly that “abuse and misuse of indictments against African leaders have a destabilizing effect that will negatively impact on the political, social and economic development of states and their ability to conduct international relations.”

    The month before the ICC authorized the arrest warrant against Omar Al-Bashir, in February 2009, the summit of the African Union’s Heads of State and Government requested the Commission of the African Union “in consultation with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to examine the implications of the court being empowered to try international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and report thereon to the assembly in 2010.” In the wake of the onset of the crisis in Libya, the African Union decided that the ICC’s focus on the African continent was “discriminatory.” In Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, in June 2014, the AU adopted a treaty to confer on the court jurisdiction over international crimes. This treaty is known as “the Malabo Protocol”, after the city where it was adopted.

    Read Also: First year: Tinubu steadily turning the tide

    It was the assessment of the AU then that the Bashir arrest warrant would “seriously undermine the ongoing efforts aimed at facilitating the early resolution of the conflict in Darfur.” More than five years after Omar Al-Bashir’s ouster and one and a half decades after the ICC’s arrest warrant for him, the current metastasis of atrocities in Darfur provides reason to reassess the African Union’s fears.

    At the time when the AU first voiced its fears and suspicions about the ICC in the first decade of this millennium, they were largely greeted with derision. This attitude was foundational to the existence of the ICC. At the adoption of the statute establishing the court in 1998, then UK Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, infamously sniffed that “this is not a court set up to bring to book prime ministers of the United Kingdom or presidents of the United States.”

    This colonial superciliousness did not preclude African countries from recognizing the opportunities in the ICC. The continent was the single largest source of resilient support to the project and process that culminated in the creation of the court. With 33 of the 124 member states of the ICC, Africa provides over 26.6% of the signatories to the Statute establishing the Court, the largest single bloc of any continent. In January 2004, when few trusted the court to exercise its functions with skill or responsibility, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni voluntarily referred the situation in the country to the court, yielding up the first case received by it. By the end of the first decade of its operations, the prosecutorial docket of the ICC read like a political geography of Africa: Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Sudan, Uganda.

    A senior lawyer practising at the ICC accused it of being “a vehicle for its primarily European funders, of which the UK is one of the largest, to exert their influence and, particularly, in Africa.” For a long time, fundamentalists of the ICC dismissed this view as lacking in credibility.

    As the current prosecutor of the court, Karim Khan, prepared to turn his attentions to the atrocities in the ongoing crisis in Gaza earlier this year, however, all the suspicions about the targeting of Africa by the court were confirmed. In a high profile interview with the Cable News Network (CNN) last month, Khan disclosed that an unnamed senior Western official seeking to dissuade him from seeking an arrest warrant against Israel’s prime minister, had told him that the ICC was “built for Africa and for thugs like Putin.”

    At about the same time, it emerged that the head of Israel’s much feared foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, had “allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation.” According to The Guardian in London, this was part of “an almost decade-long campaign by the country (Israel) to undermine the court (ICC).” In the wake of these disclosures, those who issue gratuitous lectures to Africa about the impunity and accountability have seen nothing and said even less.

    The Prosecutor whom they threatened was Fatou Bensouda, Gambia’s current High Commissioner to the United Kingdom whose courage in defending the independence of her office as the second prosecutor of the ICC made her the subject of punitive sanctions by the United States.

    In the Malabo Protocol, the African Union, tired of protesting the pigmented project of the ICC, decided to endow an African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights with jurisdiction over 14 crimes of an international or trans-boundary nature on the continent. These include aggression; war crimes; crimes against humanity; genocide; trafficking in persons, in hazardous wastes or in drugs; terrorism, corruption; money laundering; mercenarism; piracy; illicit exploitation of natural resources; and unconstitutional changes in government.

    Despite the truly capacious scope contemplated by this treaty, a sustained international campaign frightened most African states into losing their sovereign nerves about the establishment of the court. The current scandal around the skulduggery and double standards in relation to the ICC’s efforts to address Afghanistan and Palestine has finally persuaded African countries to return attention to the project of an African competence on international crimes.

    On May 31, Angola became the first country to ratify the Malabo Protocol. That leaves 14 more to do so before the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights can be established. That cannot happen too soon. When it does, the new court will have 15 judges who will sit in three sections. The General Affairs section will handle cases on mostly trade, regional integration and continental institutions. The section on Human and Peoples’ Rights will focus on human rights cases. There will also be a section on International Criminal Law which will have a pre-trial, trial and appellate chamber. The new Court will house one prosecutor and also one registrar.

    Fundamentalists of the ICC mock the idea of an international crimes instance for Africa. In truth, in the period of just over two decades of its operations, the record of the ICC has been largely underwhelming. It can do with all the help that it can get. The continental criminal instance proposed by the AU should be seen as a pay-down by Africa on precisely that kind of assistance. Ten years after its adoption, there is no longer time to wait; Angola’s leadership in the push to bring the Malabo Protocol into force deserves to be quickly complemented by other African countries.

    •A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu

  • Revolutionising Nigeria’s supply chain

    Revolutionising Nigeria’s supply chain

    By Obiora Madu

    In the quest for economic growth and development, Nigeria faces a critical challenge: the inefficiencies in its supply chain infrastructure. As Africa’s most populous country with a rapidly growing economy, Nigeria’s supply chains are crucial for ensuring the smooth flow of goods and services. However, the current state of these systems is fraught with challenges, hindering the nation’s progress. Addressing these issues through a supply chain revolution could pave the way for unprecedented economic prosperity and social well-being.

    The current landscape

    Nigeria’s supply chain infrastructure is characterized by significant deficiencies. Poor road networks, inadequate storage facilities, and limited technological integration are some of the critical issues. According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, over 70% of the country’s roads are in disrepair, severely impacting the transportation of goods and leading to increased costs and delays.

    Agriculture, a vital sector of Nigeria’s economy, suffers greatly due to these inefficiencies. The lack of modern storage solutions results in post-harvest losses of about 20-40% for fruits and vegetables. This not only affects farmers’ incomes but also exacerbates food insecurity.

    Read Also: New York Times’ jaundiced report on Nigeria’s economy

    Technological advancements in supply chain management remain limited. Many businesses still rely on manual processes, which are inefficient and prone to errors. The adoption of digital supply chain platforms, data analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT) technology is minimal, further contributing to operational inefficiencies.

    Additionally, bureaucratic bottlenecks and corruption pose significant hurdles. The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report highlights Nigeria’s low ranking in customs efficiency, with businesses facing delays and high costs related to import and export activities. These challenges collectively impede the competitiveness of Nigerian businesses on the global stage and stifle economic growth.

    The imperative for change

    An efficient supply chain extends beyond economic benefits, enhancing food security, improving healthcare delivery, creating jobs, and reducing poverty. In agriculture, for example, better supply chain management can significantly reduce post-harvest losses, increase farmers’ incomes, and ensure a steady supply of food to urban centres. In healthcare, an efficient supply chain ensures the timely delivery of medical supplies and equipment, thereby improving healthcare outcomes.

    Countries like India and Brazil have demonstrated the transformative impact of supply chain improvements. India’s implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) streamlined the movement of goods across state borders, reducing logistics costs and delivery times. Similarly, Brazil’s investment in modernizing its ports and logistics infrastructure has significantly boosted its export capacity. These examples highlight the potential benefits that Nigeria can achieve through a supply chain revolution.

    Key components of the supply chain revolution

    To achieve a supply chain revolution, several key components must be addressed:

    First is infrastructure development. There is an urgent need for substantial investment in infrastructure, including the construction and maintenance of roads, ports, and airports. Modernizing the railways can also play a crucial role in reducing transportation costs and improving efficiency. Public-private partnerships can mobilize the necessary resources for these projects.

    Second is technological integration. Integrating technology into supply chain management is essential for enhancing efficiency and transparency. Digital supply chain platforms can streamline operations, reduce errors, and provide real-time data for better decision-making. Data analytics can help identify inefficiencies and optimize logistics processes. Additionally, adopting IoT can improve inventory management and tracking of goods throughout the supply chain.

    Third is policy and regulatory reforms. Policy and regulatory reforms are crucial for creating an enabling environment for supply chain improvements. Streamlining customs and import/export processes to reduce delays and costs, reducing bureaucratic hurdles, and combating corruption are essential steps. The government must work towards policies that support business growth and foster a competitive market environment.

    Fourth is capacity building and education. Building capacity in supply chain management through education and training programs is vital. Developing a skilled workforce equipped with the knowledge and expertise to manage modern supply chains is necessary. Promoting best practices and encouraging innovation within the industry can drive continuous improvement and adaptation to changing market dynamics.

    Case studies and success stories

    Successful case studies from other countries provide valuable lessons for Nigeria. India’s GST implementation and Brazil’s logistics infrastructure modernization highlight the transformative impact of supply chain improvements. In Nigeria, improving cold chain logistics can reduce post-harvest losses in agriculture, enhancing food security and increasing farmers’ incomes. Streamlining customs processes can enhance trade efficiency, making Nigerian products more competitive in international markets. The potential benefits are immense and can drive sustainable economic growth.

    Strategic roadmap for implementation

    To achieve the desired supply chain revolution, a strategic roadmap must be established, outlining short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals with clear timelines and milestones. Collaboration between the government, private sector, and international partners is essential for successful implementation. Public-private partnerships can mobilize the necessary resources and expertise for infrastructure development and technological integration.

    Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms should be put in place to track progress and ensure accountability. Regular assessments can help identify challenges and make necessary adjustments to stay on track. By setting achievable goals and continuously monitoring progress, Nigeria can steadily move towards a more efficient and robust supply chain system.

    Conclusion

    The need for a supply chain revolution in Nigeria cannot be overstated. An efficient supply chain is the cornerstone of a thriving economy, driving economic growth, reducing poverty, and improving the quality of life for all citizens. By addressing current challenges and implementing the key components outlined, Nigeria can unlock its full economic potential and achieve sustainable development.

    It is imperative that all stakeholders, including the government, private sector, and civil society, work together towards this common goal. The time for action is now. Let us seize this opportunity to transform our supply chain systems and build a prosperous future for Nigeria.

    By focusing on these crucial elements, Nigeria can embark on a transformative journey to revolutionize its supply chains, fostering economic growth and improving the lives of its citizens.

    •Dr Madu, NPOM writes from Lagos.

  • Folly of leadership

    Folly of leadership

    Olisa Agbakoba

    The late distinguished American historian, Babra Tuchman, noted that failed leadership is of four kinds, often in combination: tyranny or oppression, excessive ambition, incompetence or decadence, folly or perversity.

    I am concerned only with the last, folly or perversity, which is the pursuit of policy contrary to the nation’s interest.

    Central to failed leadership is why holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggest.

    Surveying the vast spectrum of our recorded past, Tuchman explored this paradox and identified Folly’s hallmark: the self-destructive act carried out despite the availability of a recognised and feasible alternative.

    Why do leaders act in folly in spite of clear alternatives?

    The answer lies in wooden-headedness, folly’s chief symptom, which Tuchman says is caused by self-deception and consists of assessing a situation in terms of pre-conceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting contrary signs.

    History records Phillip II of Spain as probably the surpassing wooden-head sovereign of all time.

    No experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in its essential excellence.

    Why is it that our leaders often fail to act in our interest?

    Philip III, King of Spain at the dawn of the 17th Century was said to have died of a fever contracted from sitting too long near a hot furnace, helplessly overheating himself because the person whose duty it was to remove the furnace when summoned could not be found.

    This was a classic case of total self-deception based on the preconceived notion that the King does no work. Yet the alternative was simple.

    Folly accounts for Nigeria’s slow progress to democratic consolidation.

    Folly or perversity is at its worst when individual sovereignty shapes policy.

    Under this condition, folly’s affliction is usually total and fatal.

    Read Also: Sanwo-Olu, Fashola urge students to embrace self-discipline, technology to prosper

    Tuchman tells of a classic case of folly: Rehoboam, King of ancient Israel, Son of Solomon and David, was confronted early in his reign with revolt by ten out of twelve tribes of Israel over forced labour tax decreed by his father.

    He consulted with the old men of his father’s council who advised him to accede to the people’s demands in exchange for their renewed loyalty.

    Not to look weak and to exercise his sovereignty, Rehoboam found the advice too lame and turned to his inner council, comprised of his peers.

    They knew his disposition and, like counsellors of any time who wish to ingrain and consolidate their position, gave advice they knew would be palatable.

    “Make no concessions,” they admonished, “but tell the people outright that your rule would be not lighter but heavier than your father’s.”

    They composed for him the famous words that could be any despot’s slogan: And this shall thou say to them; whereas my father laid upon you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke.

    Whereas my father chastised you with whips, I shall chastise you with scorpions.

    That his subjects might not be prepared to accept this reply meekly seemed not to have occurred to Rehoboam beforehand.

    Instantly – so instantly as to suggest that they had previously agreed upon their course of action in case of a negative reply – the men of Israel announced their secession from the House of David with the battle cry: “To thy tents O Israel!  See to thy own house, David.”

    Not without reason, Rehoboam earned in Hebrew history, the designation “Ample in folly”.

    The twelve tribes of Israel were never reunited. But driven from their lands and forcibly dispersed into the great unknown by the Assyrians.

    The alternative course that Rehoboam might have taken, advised by the elders and so lightly rejected exacted a long revenge that has left its mark for two thousand-odd years.

    As the great historian, Gibbon, would say, it is difficult to fix the lowest point in Nigerian political history, but one of them certainly occurred when after the elections of June 12, it was annulled.

    Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, completed in 1788, contains important lessons for us today.

    No other historian has so eloquently and penetratingly portrayed the terrible magnitude of the Roman Empire’s descent into anarchy.

    This is no place to discuss Gibbon’s work but to note that leadership is the critical and essential characteristic of good governance.

    There are lessons in this for our leaders in Nigeria, our dear beloved nation.

    ●Dr. Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), first wrote this piece on July 21, 1993. He modified it on June 12, 2024.

  • Nigeria not a unitary state

    Nigeria not a unitary state

    Babatunde Fashola

    Those who were not born in 1993 or were too young to be fully cognitive will probably not understand what the big deal is. We have a right to disagree with the government, to call out governors, ministers, presidents and all who occupy our public offices, and we do not lose our liberties or lives for the sake of doing only that.

    This is what democracy has given.

    It has given us 93 million voters, who can choose who will lead at different levels of government. This was not there 25 years ago. Not only does it give these large number of people a voice, they represent the largest number of such people on the African continent.

    But democracy with all its liberties does not necessarily mean that the government will work well or quickly or that it will be good. There are other institutions that I call democratic institutions which make that happen. And of course, there is debate about what type of democracy works in what part of the world. Is it a liberal democracy which is a typical model or a less liberal one.

    Read Also: Sanwo-Olu, Fashola urge students to embrace self-discipline, technology to prosper

    Those are variants of the subjects that continue to engage practitioners and scholars on an ongoing basis. What is important is the opportunity and right to have a say in how our affairs are managed.

    That is huge

    It came at an enormous cost including the cost of life and limb. There are many who paid the ultimate price and did not even see the outcome that we gather here to commemorate. We must continue to honour their sacrifice and their memory by nurturing what took their lives more than most valued possessions.

    Those who do not know, or those who do but are impatient with democracy and therefore urge undemocratic alternatives spit on the graves of all the martyrs of our democracy and dishonour their memory.

    As I said, democracy can be tedious, this is globally acknowledged but its liberties are priceless for the preservation of the dignity of human civilization.

    The tedium of democracy understandably frustrates not a few people worldwide including Nigeria and you might’ve heard them express it in complaints about our federalism.

    They have said things like “Nigeria is a unitary state.” In my view, they are wrong.

    Many of the elements of a federal system of government exist in Nigeria by the 1999 constitution; such as multilevel systems of government by local, state and federal governments.

    Also present are multilevel legislative houses and elected legislators at local councils, state Houses of Assembly and National Assembly.

    There also exist multilevel justice systems like customary, magistrates, state and federal courts.

    We will also observe the multilevel sharing of powers in the Exclusive, Concurrent and Residual legislative lists.

    For example, the National Assembly cannot make laws on matters relating to landlord and tenant relationships or rent control; that is the exclusive preserve of the states.

    But how many states are using these powers to protect millions of their residents from Shylock demands of landlords who demand multiple years rent in advance which aggravates cost-of-living issues?

    But the more important point to make is that many characteristics of a federal type of government exist in our constitution.

    And to the naysayers, I can only apply the famous duck test which says: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

    Therefore, with regard to our constitution, I say that because it says we are federal, because it shares powers like a federal system, and has multilevel Government like federal one, it is most certainly federal.

    Is it perfect? Certainly not.

    Which makes me obliged to commend the  Lagos State of Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa for convening this event and choosing the topic ‘Federalism, the Quest for the Perfect Union’.

    This is the holy grail for many federal nations and Nigeria cannot be an exception. Whether a perfect union is even possible is debatable but the quest for it remains a most noble undertaking.

    Since Nigeria tasted federalism in 1954, under the Lyttleton Constitution, its appeal has remained irresistible and this is understandable. It is understandable because a multi ethnic and multinational country like ours can only optimize its diversity in a federal arrangement.

    History is not wrong about this

    As our world changes with technology and innovation advancements, we will learn more about our world, about ourselves and seek to alter our governance arrangements. These are some of the things that have happened in the last 25 years and continue to happen today.

    Our constitution continues to change by judicial intervention such as the famous resource control case, the creation of local government case, the case about the rights of states to control physical and urban planning in their territories in the same way that some constitutional amendments have brought those changes in the search for a perfect union.

    Embedded in the quest for the perfect union is the quest for more resources, more representation, more political and economic power and so many other demands.

    It is a hallmark of our civilization that we can achieve all of these changes with our large population and diversity without bringing down the house.

    Electric power generation, transmission and distribution, railway operations, and correctional systems which were firmly and exclusively under the grip of the federal government have all opened up to states’ participation in our pursuit of a more perfect federal union.

    It is hoped that wages and salaries will join them in no distant future as we currently find our way through the maze of wage review to make life better for millions of our vulnerable compatriots.

    The missing component of multilevel law enforcement by way of state policing is happily now on the conversation table. This is another step towards a more perfect union.

    Hopefully, the control of internal waters, lagoons and creeks which are the blood vessels of coastal states for commerce will join the list.

    And I can only remind us of how tedious the process can be, because the matter of creation of local governments remains outstanding and unresolved in spite of the valiant contributions of the Supreme Court to the efforts.

    There is certainly a lot of work to be done and we must not surrender to revisionists or anarchists because it is tedious.

    We must roll up our sleeves in or out of government, we must make our voices heard in a civil and temperate way in this household and family conversation.

    The quest for a perfect union is a most worthy cause. It is, for a federal community like ours, the call to nation building, we must heed the call and embrace the task with all our might.

    This is a noble way to celebrate the sacrifice and memory of the martyrs of our democracy.

    Let us re-dedicate ourselves to the task in earnest; and those who come after us will look back with gratitude for what we have done

    •Fashola, former minister of Works and Housing  delivered this keynote speech  as Guest Speaker at the  Lagos State House of Assembly Cocktail to commemorate Silver Jubilee of Democracy in Nigeria at the  Lagos State House of Assembly Complex, Alausa, Ikeja

  • Local government autonomy: Who benefits?

    Local government autonomy: Who benefits?

    • By Ayodele Okunfolami

    Last Thursday, June 13, Justice Garba Lawal, who led the seven-member panel of Justices of the Supreme Court reserved judgement on a suit filed by the federal government against the 36 state governors on the autonomy of local government areas. The Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), had gone to the apex court to issue an order prohibiting state governors from embarking on unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders. The AGF also wants the Supreme Court to make an order permitting the funds standing in the credits of local governments to be directly channelled to them from the Federation Account as against joint accounts created by governors.

    This move by the AGF of the federation is not the first. Talks on granting financial autonomy to local government councils have been ongoing since the advent of this fourth republic.

    The local government councils are seen as the closest to the people and so the word on the street is that if granted autonomy, the move on the dial for upward development would be made. However, things are not as direct as that. It is akin to the recurring arguments of state policing, federalism, changing to parliamentary system of government, electoral reforms and other Nigerian topics that get us full throated. Now, some overpaid hands have brought back the dim-witted proposal of a six-year single term rotational presidency. Besides these things having a way of distracting us from the more urgent issues, it slyly absolves the elected leadership of its failures which in my opinion is the problem.

    Before we give financial autonomy, we need to be concerned about the people we directly want to hand this money to. The quasi-democratic way local government chairmen and councillors are being (s)elected leaves much to be desired. There is usually acute voter apathy during grassroots polls. The electorate seem to be more interested, vocal and assertive too about the personality and performance of the president, governor and National Assembly members but indifferent when it comes to local government affairs. But do we blame the voter? These elections are so predictable in favour of the party of the sitting governor that is why we see no difference between a “democratically elected” chairman and an imposed sole administrator. Local council polls are seen more like a rigged referendum in favour of a sitting governor than a fair competitive exercise to pick a chairman. Take the optics of it for a moment: is it not an oddity that a strong political party would win more than a third of the votes in the general elections across a state but can’t win a counsellorship seat in a ward within its political stronghold?

    Opposition political parties don’t help matters either. It is common practice to have grand rallies on the eve of governorship elections where party bigwigs from all around the federation converge on any square, ground or stadium to support and raise the hand of the party’s flag bearer in order to woo voters. This is absent in local government campaigns. The individual candidates themselves often don’t take their push beyond the uninspired, only to cry foul after the results don’t go their way. At least at my own end of town, I have never witnessed door-to-door drives for votes in the fairly small sized administrative territory.

    Some have suggested that the Independent National Electoral Commission be given the mandate to conduct the grassroots elections instead of the States Independent Electoral Commission. I think this constitutional proposal negates the principle of true federalism that the AGF is proposing. Also, the INEC-conducted local council area elections of the Federal Capital Territory over time have followed the low-voter-turnout and ruling-party-victory patterns observed by elections conducted by SIECs. In other words, it is beyond who conducts the election. Just as INEC was knocked in the past for its questioned impartiality but is becoming more credible, the SIECs should also be given some time to be built up as strong independent institutions.

    Fiscal self-sufficiency for the lowest tier of government is another hot potato that affects local governments as going concerns. If allocations meant for this level of government continue to pass through the state government, it becomes awkward demanding accountability for primary school education and primary healthcare from the chairs or councillors. Do the councillors even have appropriation bills or laws? We are in a society where we consult and demand more from traditional leaders ahead of local government chairs over community matters putting further dent on the roles of the so-called tier of government.

    The AGF should remember that both chambers of the National Assembly had voted about two years ago for local government autonomy in one of its perennial constitutional amendment exercises which was rejected by no fewer than 11 states. We should rethink this thing.

    Read Also: NAF airstrike kills 80 terrorists in Katsina

    In my opinion, sovereign local governments may give us a dubious federal structure where states governments become weaker. We already have state governors passing the buck of infrastructure to the centre calling some roads federal. Autonomous local governments will now make them lazier as they would hands off primary healthcare and education. That aside, states are today claiming insolvency and inability to pay minimum wage, pensions and other fiscal responsibilities; is it local governments that have been unable to handle drainages and cholera that we expect to pay salaries?

    Will local government chairs now be given security votes to tackle insecurity?

    Have we considered the politics? We know how tyrannical the Nigeria Governors’ Forum can be; what then happens when we now have Chairmen’s Forum consisting of 774 members (more than the entire National Assembly)?! Are we now going to have 774 people marching to Abuja monthly for their allocations?

    As we anticipate the Supreme Court judgement, I would rather we looked beyond a judicial pronouncement to political and sustainable solutions. Rather than a pitch of a battle against governors, it should actually be a fight for the overall development of Nigeria.

    Finally, I propose that as an alternative to making this tier of government autonomous, we should make them administrative departments, not political entities.  What this implies is that instead of having to continuously cast meaningless votes that produce stereotypical results for handicapped executives, the state governors appoint senior civil servants to manage all the government agencies in the local council. These council managers will serve as intermediaries between the local community and government. What it also implies is that there would be no more federal allocations for local governments. What will be obtainable will just be federal and states’ accounts and those state allocations should no more be based on the number of local governments that were un-righteously balkanised by the military.

    •Okunfolami writes from Festac, Lagos.

  • First year: Tinubu steadily turning the tide

    First year: Tinubu steadily turning the tide

    • By Kunle Oyatomi

    To be fair to my conscience, he (President Bola Tinubu) has had that one-year holiday of trying to study the failures of the past administration. I have given him that one year of grace because now he has seen it and lived there…Let’s give him more time.—Bode George, opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain.

    Long time and implacable political foe of President Bola Tinubu and his politics in Lagos, Bode George is withholding his weapons of war for now to call for armistice. Many observers say this is uncharacteristic of George, an ebullient retired naval chief, now a frontline politician. His courage to criticize opponents and friends or associates is legendary, as long as it serves his convictions. Although many disagree with him sometimes, the old soldier never disagrees with himself.

    And so in the din of Nigerians marking the first anniversary of the Tinubu administration, the PDP bigwig was also sighted throwing in his contribution. He didn’t join the crowd stoning Tinubu. Appearing on Arise TV programme, The Morning Show, George called on his compatriots to sheathe their swords as they assess the president’s first anniversary. According to him, ‘Tinubu used his first year in office to (study) the failures of the past administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari…Tinubu’s administration will correct the lapses of Buhari’s administration and fix Nigeria in the next year.’

    Abubakar Atiku, the PDP presidential candidate in last year’s poll that brought Tinubu of All Peoples Congress, APC, to power, is still hitting hard at the president’s policies, refusing to see anything positive about Jagaban, unlike Bode George, who believes Tinubu has something to boast of. In other words, the elderly Bode George is beholding what the younger Atiku can’t see. Very much like the Yoruba saying: The floor-rooted older man sees beyond what the younger person on a rooftop sees.

    So what’s Bode George sighting which Atiku and the other critics are not seeing? What are Tinubu’s adversaries missing to make them believe the game hasn’t changed from what it was last year? Why are they assuming it’s business as usual? Why aren’t they believing that Nigeria can receive a new lease of life if given the right leadership? Why can’t they believe that a foundation is being laid for the building of a new Nigeria? Why are they not accepting the positive position that a new patrimony is on the way for the present and future generations to enjoy?

    Let’s hazard a few of the new developments that we’ve all witnessed under Tinubu that have moved a relentless critic in the person of Bode George to plead for a ceasefire and allow the president concentrate on his good work for Nigeria.

    First, there’s evidence that an agrarian revolution is on the way. Tinubu is going back to a wheat production scheme that is certain to satisfy our demand for the commodity in the years to come. Tinubu’s government is giving a whopping 50% subsidy to farmers who key into the programme. This is incredible as it gives stakeholders a wide berth to pump their all into the business of feeding the nation without any anxiety of looking for funding from shylock commercial banks or speculative investors. When they are so freed from distractive dependence, our farmers can face the exclusive business of tilling the land as their quota to the till. Would we then need to dip into our foreign reserves to import wheat? Not at all. We would, in addition, feed our people, create jobs, as well as export the stuff to attract strategic hard currency into the economy.

    Read Also: NAF airstrike kills 80 terrorists in Katsina

    What else have the critics seen to make them shift ground for a sympathetic look at Tinubu? Agricultural inputs are being distributed all over the states by the federal authorities from the gains of the oil subsidy removal. Some 50000 hectares of maize, sorghum, rice and cassava will be undertaken by the central government of Tinubu during this rainy and dry season. This is envisaged as a continuous process for Nigeria to become a hunger-free and food exporting land. Needless to say, when, as our people say, hunger is tamed, we would be on the way to banishing poverty from our midst.

    What else may have made critics change their mind about Tinubu? He’s putting in place the Students’ Loan Scheme. We overlooked this area of empowering this critical demographic sector. Properly taken care of with regard to their future through education, they would be poised to give back in multiples their skills to grow and develop the fatherland. This way, the government is sending the signal that the nation’s future is guaranteed.

    How about iconic infrastructure set to emblazon Nigeria’s landscape? The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Lagos-Badagry-Sokoto Highway are coming on board. Now, Tinubu is being hammered because of the former, with the argument being that it is too ambitious for our struggling economy. But they forget that a real leader of men is the one who sees through the storms of today, rides through the tide and sails the ship of state into safe anchor. He turns the tide for a smooth voyage. He’s a Vasco da Gama or Christopher Columbus who knows there’s a land to be discovered for humanity. There’s an India to be unveiled to the world; there’s an unknown America waiting to be given to man.

    I also think the critics are impressed that Tinubu does honour his promises. He said that part of cushioning the negative effects of the oil subsidy removal would be to ease transport fares through provision of non-fuel mass transit vehicles for use by the public. He’s fulfilling the promise, as demonstrated by the appearance of Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, buses in our urban centres. If Mr. President fulfilled this promise, isn’t it certain that all things being equal, he will be true to his word in other respects, as we give him time to perform?

    He showed this candour again during his June 12 Democracy Day address to the nation. He summed it thus: ‘’I will never turn my back on the people who brought me into office.’’

    When he slipped at the parade ground and got to his feet again, he told his compatriots that it was his way of falling to honour democracy so Nigerians can enjoy its dividends.  In other words, this president is ready to go any length to restore the lost glory of the giant of Africa. I believe these are some of the new developments compelling critics to embrace Tinubu.

    •Oyatomi Esq.,is a member of the Independent Media and Policy Initiative, IMPI, based in Abuja.

  • Nigeria’s unexplored tapestry of heritage

    Nigeria’s unexplored tapestry of heritage

    By Oluwole Ogundele

    An attempt has been made in this article to offer a perspective on the largely unexplored cultural heritage forms in Nigeria. This is with a view to promoting a better country, capable of contributing significantly to the emergence of a richer global order, defined by fine-grained service to humanity. 

    Raising profound questions from time to time, about the essence of our existence at the personal, inter-personal, and societal levels, is critical. A considerable amount of wisdom is embedded in this existential reality. Religious and political dogma has to be thoroughly tamed because it is usually at variance with the exercise of pushing back, the frontiers of knowledge. Socio-political transformations and spiritual discoveries, are ontologically unending. Therefore, it is most worrying, that Nigeria from the dawn of independence to date, has remained an untamed juggernaut, rewarding a few political class members and their cohorts, at the expense of the toiling masses-the producers of our national wealth.

    It is very appalling that most Nigerian political leaders, are regularly in cahoots with the Western world and parts of Asia. This is due to their (politicians) maximum corruption, reflecting spiritual poverty. The ugliness has always been having a drastic domino effect on all sectors of the Nigerian economy. Ayn Rand, a Russian-American philosopher of repute, said in 1957: “When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you, when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice, then you know that your society is doomed.” PBAT must begin to reset this imbalance, through the lens of cultural revolution. This should be the top priority for him, in order to succeed as president.

    Read Also: Eid-el-Kabir: Don’t relent in prayers, Audu urges Nigerians

    No society can experience sustainable development without an appreciation and of course, appropriation of its cultural traditions. All well-organised societies around the world, developed on the basis of distinctive cultural values. Culture is an environmental and socio-historical force that propels a country into greatness. This includes agricultural systems, culinary practices, architectural heritage, conflict management systems, burial practices, marriage systems and travels. All these categories/sub-cultures are located in the sphere of performativity. 

    Indeed, this intellectual engagement entails the generation and testing of new hypotheses. In the process, some old assumptions and practices are jettisoned or modified, whenever they constitute a clog in the wheel of progress. In other words, not every aspect of our conventional wisdom is usable today. However, a lot of people, in an undignified hurry, would find the subject of cultural pragmatism very boring and even distressing. It is submitted here, that a critical assimilation of the past, is the panacea for sustainable development in Nigeria. It is a pity, that most Nigerians are victims of smugness-an encumbrance to human progress in a myriad of ways. Most parts of the world practised human sacrifice about 5000 years ago or thereabouts. These places include Egypt, China, Iraq (formerly called Mesopotamia), Britain and Denmark. For instance, the tombs of 1st Dynasty pharaohs were surrounded by graves of their domestic workers or courtiers.

    Most of these societies evolved from savagery/barbarism into civilization. Only a few human societies remain in the dark up to now, understandably because they refuse to raise foundational questions, about their cultural practices within the framework of performativity and by extension, progress. A lot of ancient Nigerians had some considerable knowledge and understanding of the interlink between science, technology and religion, with a special emphasis on iron metallurgy and good governance. That was the secret about their generally unacknowledged intellectual contributions to global civilization.

    Despite the numerous challenges arising from our colonial encounters, Nigerians can still begin to regain their lost self-confidence. Any human being without self-confidence or self-esteem, is like a log of wood. In consonance with a popular Yoruba proverb, “today’s Nigerians are eating food that has no palm oil, even though there is more than enough of it in the kitchen.” In this regard, palm oil stands for our abundant natural and cultural heritage resources. These resources have to be appreciated beyond the scope of cosmetic exercise. There is no harm in showcasing facets of our local dances and music during cultural festivals. But much more attention has to be paid to the material heritage, with a view to translating aspects of it to scientific and technological products for improving the human condition. This is in addition, to engendering the highest cultural standards for politics and by extension, human progress.

     The various Nigerian divinities are deep-rooted in spirituality. Our ancestors during the pre-colonial and early colonial times, used these deities to reduce corruption and power-drunkenness to the barest minimum. That is to say, that deities were used as social control mechanisms among other things. After swearing with the Bible or Koran on assumption of duty, our leaders (with a few exceptions) begin to loot the collective treasury. No factories are established to reduce the unemployment rate and poverty. Consequently, insecurity becomes an untamable monster. Painfully, the causes of material poverty are gullibly explained by the traumatised/dehumanised Nigerians, as the handiwork of witches, as opposed to leadership failure. We must hold our leaders accountable! For goodness sake, let us leave witches and wizards alone! 

    Unsophistication has become fully embedded in the daily life of an average Nigerian.  Not unexpectedly, many religious centres are having a field day, in a society that has its texture woven with threads of monumental ignorance or superstition.

    Our leaders have to begin to take oaths with local divinities. This is with reference to Ogun (Yoruba god of warfare and metals) and Amadiora (Igbo god of thunder and lightning). Each of these divinities is no respecter of persons. Politicians cannot bribe them. Corrupt public office holders are worse than armed robbers. In actuality, they are a glorified brand of the Boko Haram organisation, whose activities are poisonous to the hearts and souls of innocent Nigerians. Let us allow our gods to deal with them decisively. Most politicians are a personification of insane corruption-Nigeria’s deadliest enemy.

    It is time to begin to explore the applied knowledge dimension of our heritage resources in order to move forward. The president, National Assembly members, state governors, ministers, directors-general and ambassadors should stop swearing with the Holy Bible or Koran. Nemesis through this lens is too slow. African religions have no time to waste with gluttonous, thieving public officers, no matter how smart they may be.

    In addition, we should re-configure the Yoruba “juju” called Apeepa, in order to promote modern communication systems, instead of using it (knowledge system) to kill an imaginary or real enemy, even in a country as far afield as Australia. The phones we use today, were/are products of creativity and engineering by fellow humans, not some ghosts. This revolutionary transformation is possible in Nigeria, in the face of strong determination of the critical stakeholders. In this context, healthy collaboration of the government with local scientists, technologists, and cultural resource management experts, is a task that must be done.

    •Prof Ogundele is of Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.