The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • Unending insecurity, corruption, and hypocrisy

    Unending insecurity, corruption, and hypocrisy

    • By Oluwole Ogundele

    Good governance is anchored to responsive leadership and mature followership. By this token, it (good governance) is a collective enterprise in the service of humanity as if robustness matters.  But it is most disturbing, that the Nigerian society since its post-colonial existence, has failed to rise above primordial sentiments, with all their associated ugly underpinnings of humongous proportions. Consequently, socio-economic development on a sustainable scale remains a mirage.

    Today’s Nigeria is too crisis-ridden to be a respectable component of the global village, and yet our leaders (with a few exceptions), do not care a hoot. Descendants of the colonial overlords are making a mockery of Nigeria. They (including the international bureaucracies) have the audacity to tell us that a full-scale re-colonisation of Africa is imminent. According to them, African leaders lack the sophisticated mental capacity to successfully manage their affairs. In actuality, Africans are shameless, uncritical consumers of what foreigners produce despite our huge, enviable natural and cultural resources.

    Again, Nigeria has become an abode of deadly criminals who kill innocent people like chickens. Some of them came from as far afield as Mali and Burkina Faso. There was/is a conspiratorial engagement between these demons and some local, glorified beasts masquerading as leaders. These criminals are making Nigeria unliveable by all noble standards. Certainly, this is not the Nigeria of our dreams. Before the commencement of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, kidnappers and/or bandits became sacred cows, as if nobody was in charge of the Nigerian leadership space. No scruples! This shameful scenario sent many innocent people to their early graves. What a country!

    Several factors were/are responsible for this ugliness/godlessness. They include a cultural colonisation agenda. The recent past administrations refused to nip the crisis in the bud, even as the blood of innocent Nigerians continued/continues to flow across the land. This was/is one tragedy too many! Indeed, the attitude was most unprecedented in the Nigerian leadership engineering.

    Today, kidnapping and/or banditry are/is a form of lucrative business probably second only to the playing of politics in Nigeria, a country where an upstart can become a multi billionaire overnight.  Ours is a country where we do not ask for the source of the wealth of a person. Anything goes! Nigeria now has several kidnapping training centres. They would soon start awarding diplomas and degrees to their products (enemies of humanity), if we were not vigilant enough. Our forests are no longer exclusively for agricultural operations and other legitimate activities. It is a monumental shame that some politicians and community “leaders” are involved in this act of unbridled lawlessness and/or godlessness of gargantuan dimensions. Indeed, Nigerians must shun smelly, evilly politics!

    According to a Yoruba proverb, “all kinds of flies usually visit a person who stays too long while defecating in a place.” The previous administrations (especially in the last 10 years) had created a huge amount of insecurity and economic challenges for the entirety of the country. Therefore, PBAT inherited a thoroughly troubled geo-polity. If some of the newspaper reports in recent times were correct, then the sponsors of bandits, kidnappers, and other criminals could not be easily separated from the good citizens. Certain beasts masquerading as foreign investors are colluding with some heartless, gluttonous Nigerians to destabilise our fatherland. They have turned excessive materialism into a fetish.  Only a magician would be able to successfully solve this myriad of problems overnight.

    As the Yoruba people often say, “legs of cattle and those of humans are now mixed up”. This does not mean that the intelligence gathering facet of our security architecture has totally collapsed. It is just about the complex, cumulative character of the security challenges facing Nigeria.

    Today, illegal foreign miners and some ugly Nigerians are having a field day, as they violently displace or kill innocent rural settlers. Nigerian mineral resources such as gold and uranium are being carted away (allegedly in choppers by foreigners). Bribery and corruption are killing Nigeria slowly. It is becoming a curse as opposed to a blessing, for most people to belong to mineral-rich localities. Illegal mining and insecurity are now intertwined.

    Read Also: Insecurity: FCTA impounds 130 rickety vehicles

    The above situation in Africa is of considerable antiquity.  DR Congo is a good illustration of unfettered economic imperialism. Its political independence from Belgium in June 1960, is yet to be translated to economic freedom on a sustainable scale. About 70 percent of the world’s cobalt is produced in Congo, and yet the country remains one of the poorest geo-polities in the globe. Aside from Europe, China is seriously (and cheaply too) tapping DR Congo’s mineral resources like cobalt and diamond.

    Currently, China has a full control of 15 out of 19 cobalt-producing mines in Congo. Chinese firms in collaboration with some local leaders (who have sold their souls to Satan), are exploiting more than hitherto African resources in exchange for infrastructural projects. This is an anathema to decolonisation.  Nobody is saying that Africa (with about 40 percent of the world’s mineral reserves) should not participate in the global community. The world has always been about giving and taking to create new socio-cultural and technological identities. But internationalisation has to be done in a critical fashion, in order not to disturb the equilibrium of a country.

    Although President Tinubu told us not to pity him, given the enormity of the tasks to be done, but obviously he cannot solely take Nigeria out of the woods. He is not a magician! Nigerians must hold the state governors accountable. This is in addition to local government chairmen who are the key grassroots leaders. We need to have all hands on deck. These sub-national leaders are subtly sabotaging the efforts of Mr. President. Despite the much greater allocations the governors have been getting since the inception of the Tinubu administration, there is no positive impact on the people. For instance, a state in the southwest is yet to pay the gratuities of retirees since 2014.  States’ resources are being swallowed up by pythons masquerading as leaders while the led continue to groan more than hitherto. Governors must spend their monies or allocations to crush the monster called insecurity. The Amotekun security outfit in the southwest has to be properly funded. Members of this organisation have to be motivated. The forest guard system must be quickly revisited.  Let us begin to look inward instead of condemning Abuja on every issue. The dilapidated state roads have to be rehabilitated. But despite all these aberrations, thumbs up for the governor of Oyo State – Engr. Seyi Makinde, for running a people-sensitive administration. His colleagues across the country need to emulate him. The culture of looting our public treasury must stop. This is the time to regain the lost spirituality and of course, humanity. Nigerians are tired of little-minded leaders.

    • Prof. Ogundele is of Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.
  • AFCON: Celebrating mediocrity

    AFCON: Celebrating mediocrity

    • By Fan Ndubuoke

    As a stakeholder and more importantly a concerned Nigerian, I religiously followed our preparation for the recently concluded AFCON tournament up till the day the team was hosted by President Bola Tinubu.

     I deliberately kept mute watching the whole event with keen attention and interest like a movie reeled out by its producers in seasons or episodes. And traditionally, I wasn’t disappointed by our usual gullible ways of accepting anything and everything that comes our way. It is a part of our peculiar nature and character as a people and a nation.

    We sweep vital issues of national discourse under the carpet. We let go important things that ordinarily should help shape our nation positively and we ignore pressing matters capable of rocking the boat of our national existence.

    It hurts to see us turn a blind eye to reality and realities thus, embracing illusion. We chase shadows just as we seem to chase away those who speak the truth yet possess the solutions to the problems starring us in the face even as we pretend the problems do not exist.

    AFCON tournament has ended. I hope the Technical Department/Committee in conjunction with Jose Peseiro will prepare a report for the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) which should serve as a working document cum tool towards making the next AFCON which is about a year away successful. This suggests that we must win it.

    Such report if at all it will be prepared should summarize Super Eagles performance and participation in the tournament, the technical input and capacity of the Jose Peseiro-led technical crew and above all, tell Nigerians if the NFF is satisfied with the team’s performance.

    Permit me to speak as someone who had been involved and who had helped midwife Super Eagles to win AFCON tournament in 1994 and qualified the team for its first ever World Cup appearance in USA ‘94. It will be a disservice to the football loving public of Nigeria for anyone to suggest let alone say, he or she or Nigerians as a people are satisfied with the overall performance of Super Eagles leading to a runners-up finish in Cote d’Ivoire.

    Before the tournament commenced, only a liar would say he or she knew, thought or believed Super Eagles would reach the final let alone win the trophy. This speaks volume of how bad the team was and still is….and a far cry from the Super Eagles we used to know.

    Aside the search for a quality goalkeeper, we could hardly name the first team or first 11 of the team. A strong team presents itself in the mind of its fan(s) who could readily tell the first 11 even before the team files out for a game. This cannot be said of this team even after winning a silver in Cote d’Ivoire. It tells the capacity of the man heading the technical crew of the team. I’m talking about Peseiro.

    It was glaring to all football minds that Peseiro either lost the trophy in the final game to tactical ineptitude or he simply sabotaged his employers, Nigeria. No serious football manager or coach would start a final game with the trophy starring you in the face, by defending till the very end of the game.

    Through that game, Peseiro told the watching world that he had never heard of ATTACK BEING THE BEST FORM OF DEFENCE. Peseiro equally didn’t bother to see the video of the match where Cote d’Ivoire conceded four goals against Equatorial Guinea in the group stage. That video would have given him clues on how to beat Cote d’Ivoire. Equatorial Guinea attacked from the first minute till the 90th minute. They didn’t relent even after scoring four unreplied goals. Poor Peseiro, he didn’t see or learn from that.

    Without a strong team, Peseiro struggled till he stumbled into the final and even when the trophy would have been won convincingly if Super Eagles had taken the fight to the host team, his tactlessness blew Nigeria’s chance of a fourth AFCON title.

    His formation was very faulty. If you want to sit-back and rely on counterattacks, you would need an energetic midfielder with skills who can pick up loose balls run into space, motivate his colleagues and create chances. Certainly, Alex Iwobi who Peseiro gave that responsibility doesn’t possess the requisite qualities to make things work.

    Peseiro should have known his squad and the capability of all the players. Counterattacks are for teams with pacy players who can dash to the flanks running wide with the ball to create openings in the middle thus confusing the opponents who obviously would be in desperate need to stop such flow of blazing attack thereby committing more blunders.

    Peseiro made a mess of Super Eagles in that meaningless strategy to soak up pressure from the Ivoriens who kept raiding the Eagles defence till it crumbled. Thankfully, Peseiro himself confessed that his strategy and formation failed hence Super Eagles lost the game to Cote d’Ivoire. If that was an apology, it is unacceptable because the damage had been done.

    Read Also: TIMELINE: 12 African coaches who won AFCON

    I am not surprised that some persons are calling for Peseiro to be handed a new contract. Those involved in this campaign failed to ask how a make-shift indigenous coach, Emerse Fae led an almost rag-tag Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire team to defeat Peseiro, Super Eagles and Nigeria.

    They failed to ask those in charge of the sport, why it’s difficult to appoint an indigenous coach? Or don’t we have coaches more qualified than Peseiro and Ivorien coach, Fae? Everything here is looked at from the perspective of politics, religion and ethnicity. At a point, the Ivoriens knew that their white coach isn’t thinking right in the tournament, they gave him a boot. The result of that decision the world eventually applauded. Quality and swift decision is the hallmark of a serious football playing nation. But you must equally have good thinkers with experience and pedigree to come up with such decision.

    When a coach takes 24 foreign based players out of the stipulated 25 to a tournament, it tells you his mind-set or how he views the domestic league. It tells you how he views the country. It is tantamount to saying there are no important people here. That’s a big insult on the Nigerian people and population.

    It was from this same league that late Stephen Keshi picked six players to join 17 of their foreign based counterparts to win AFCON in South Africa 2013. It was from this league that Clemens Westerhorf took almost an entire squad to Algiers ‘90 AFCON and finished runners-up behind host Algeria. Needless reminding us that the 1980 AFCON winning squad was entirely made up of home based players. So what is Peseiro telling us?

    But come to think of it, isn’t it part of his briefing, schedule and obligation to help develop the league, monitor local players and invite those good enough for the Super Eagles? Or is Peseiro suggesting to Nigerians that no single on-field player is good enough for his team yet Cote d’Ivoire who won the trophy had home based players? Same as South Africa, Egypt, Senegal, Morocco among others.

    Honestly, I think whoever hands Peseiro a new contract is an undertaker ready to bury the Super Eagles and by extension Nigeria football. Such decision must be condemned and rejected.

    To note that six Nigerians including a prominent politician and a businessman lost their lives while watching Super Eagles in this AFCON due to high blood pressure tells how much the team and football means to Nigerians. Government should take note of this.

    The easiest means to kill a Nigerian is by ensuring Super Eagles play badly in a tournament. That suggests that government should do the needful to fix sports generally and football in particular. It is the heartbeat the nation. It is the life-support of a nation battered by political and economic troubles.

    • Ndubuoke, former board member, NFF, is immediate past executive chairman, Imo State Sports Commission.
  • Much ado about governance system

    Much ado about governance system

    A group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives recently initiated a bill to revert Nigeria back to parliamentary model of governance from the presidential system presently being operated. The 60 representatives, who tagged themselves the Parliamentary Group, introduced a constitution alteration bill for transition to parliamentary system of government at House plenary penultimate Wednesday. They thereby stoked a national debate on the desirability or otherwise of the proposed model, which was what the country started with in its nationhood experience but discarded upon the collapse of the First Republic in 1966.

    Led by Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP, Rivers), the group comprises lawmakers cutting across party lines including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). At a briefing of journalists following presentation of the bill, a spokesman for the group, Abdussamad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto), voiced frustration of group members with huge costs associated with the presidential system and overbearing powers of the president. “Over the years, the imperfections of the presidential system of government have become glaring, despite several alterations to the constitution to address the shortcomings of a system that has denied the nation the opportunity to attain its full potential,” he said, adding: “Among these imperfections are the high cost of governance, leaving fewer resources for crucial areas like infrastructure, education and healthcare, and consequently hindering the nation’s development progress; and excessive powers vested in members of the executive, who are appointees and not directly accountable to the people.”

    The bill passed first reading in the green chamber of the National Assembly (NASS) and is expected to be gazetted for second reading, before being referred to the House’s ad-hoc panel on constitution review for further legislative action. The timeline proposed for the model switch is 2031, and Dasuki made it clear that the group’s intention is to stimulate national conversation from now towards realising that end. He came from a familiar path in recent history. In December 2018, barely three months to the 2019 general election, a group of 71 lawmakers in the green chamber initiated a similar bill seeking return to parliamentary rule. Besides Dasuki, other lawmakers in the group include Nicholas Ossai (PDP, Delta), Tahir Monguno  (APC, Borno), Ossey Prestige (All Progressives Grand Alliance, Abia) and Chinda (PDP, Rivers). Dasuki at the time said the bill was deliberately brought in the thick of electioneering so that Nigerians could ask questions during the campaigns. That bill died with the eight NASS and is apparently being resuscitated early in the 10th assembly to allow ample time for its processing.

    Arguments plied for the previous bill are of the same species as the current one. The lawmakers said parliamentary system of government would promote economic growth and development in the country. “We…feel that the parliamentary system of government promulgated by the Lyttleton Constitution of 1954 is the best for Nigeria since the presidential system has reduced us to the poverty capital of the world,” the lawmakers had said, arguing that parliamentary system helps in quick passage of economic bills due to the fusion of power that it entails. “Studies have shown that countries run by presidential regimes consistently produce lower output growth, higher and more volatile inflation, and greater income inequality relative to those under parliamentary ones,” they argued, adding: “Presidential regimes consistently produce less favourable macroeconomic outcomes which prevail in a wide range of circumstances, for example in Nigeria. Due to the excessive powers domiciled in one man under the presidential system, consensus building that is often required for economic decision is always lacking. The level of liability and volatility of presidential system makes it difficult to achieve economic objectives.” According to them, parliamentary systems promote inclusion and collaboration that are “critical for equality of income distribution and opportunities.”

    Nigeria operated the parliamentary system pre-independence and in the First Republic before the 15th January, 1966 military coup which truncated that republic. Thereafter, the country came under a 13-year-long military interregnum. Precedent to restoration of democracy by way of the Second Republic in 1979, a constitutional conference of 49 ‘wise men’ led by the late legal luminary, Chief Rotimi Williams, in 1978 proposed the presidential model for the country, which formed the framework for the constitution that then outgoing military regime of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo handed down. This constitution has been periodically amended but not reformatted from the presidential framework.

    Unlike the presidential model where you have a president as the head of state, with separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government, the parliamentary system has a prime minister, who is a member of the legislative arm and chosen by parliamentarians from among themselves, serving as the head of government. Under the parliamentary system – particularly the British model that Nigeria is familiar with – the executive branch derives legitimacy and authority from the legislative branch because other than the prime minister tapped from the parliament, ministers of government are also parliamentarians first voted by the electorate into constituency seats from where they get chosen into ministerial offices. Because the prime minister is nominated from the parliament, he is directly accountable to the parliament and has only vicarious accountability to the electorate, such that if parliament votes to remove him as premier, he would yet retain his constituency seat in the legislature until the electorate vote him out or recall him from the seat. Ministers of government under the parliamentary model are as well directly accountable to the legislature; but they also have vicarious accountability to the people because unlike in the presidential system where ministers were appointed at the sole pleasure of the president and derived no mandate from voters, ministers under the parliamentary system were first elected to constituency seats by voters. This is unlike the presidential system where members of the executive arm typically don’t belong to the legislature and vice-versa; though there is a point of convergence in the United States where the vice president is the titular president of the country’s senate and exercises voting right in that chamber.

    Read Also: 65 CSOs pull out from planned Labour’s nationwide protest

    Proponents of the parliamentary system would argue that besides close interconnection between the executive and legislative arms, which allows for efficient decision-making and policy implementation, the model is less expensive because officers of the executive arm are sourced from the legislative arm and aren’t add-ons to government bureaucracy as would bloat the overhead. Opponents would, however, point to Nigeria’s experience whereby the parliamentary system polarised the country in the First Republic, especially as the prime minister was chosen by parliament and did not have to be acceptable to the majority of citizens. Besides, a favourite argument by proponents that the parliamentary model is not prone to corruption was not borne out by Nigeria’s practice of the system in the First Republic. The collapse of that republic owed in large part to political instability that resulted from electoral malpractices and disregard for rule of law, such that when the military struck in 1966, they cited endemic corruption as a major motivation for their intervention. Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, who was one of the coup leaders, said: “The aim of the Revolutionary Council is to establish a strong, united and prosperous nation free from corruption and internal strife.” He added: “Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, men in high and low places who seek bribes and demand 10 per cent…those that have corrupted our society…”

    Just like the Parliamentary Group wanted, the proposed constitution amendment bill sparked a debate. Supporters like Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, not only want parliamentary system restored but canvassed that commencement date be 2027 rather than 2031. Middle Belt Forum (MBF) chieftain, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, said while the parliamentary system would be cheaper for Nigeria to run, the presidential system currently in place could yet serve the country well if adapted to its peculiarities. Kano tycoon, Aminu Dantata, believed parliamentary system would be the answer to Nigeria’s problems while a civil society group, the Parliamentary Advocacy Network (PAN), argued that the model isn’t suitable for Nigeria’s diversity and complexity. There was broad agreement, though, that the country’s wellbeing lies in implementing true federalism.

    I would argue that the trouble with Nigeria isn’t the system of government but the people operating whatever model is in place. Reform the political culture positively, and whatever system we run will serve the country well.

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

  • Nigeria’s expectations at WTO 13th Ministerial Conference

    Nigeria’s expectations at WTO 13th Ministerial Conference

    • By Doris Uzoka-Anite

    As the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) approaches, Nigeria stands poised and actively ready to contribute to global dialogue and negotiations. With a commitment to fostering international trade, cooperation, and inclusivity, under the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led administration, Nigeria looks forward to playing a key role in shaping positive outcomes for MC13.

    The upcoming MC13 scheduled to hold from February 26-29 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), will convene trade ministers and delegations from around the world, to update the WTO’s agreements on trade policy, review the functions of the multilateral trading system (MTS), and define the agenda for the WTO’s future work.

    The Ministerial Conference (MC) of the WTO is an international meeting of the organization’s 164 member governments, directed to make decisions on the multilateral rules underpinning the international trading system. The Ministerial Conference is the highest-level decision-making body of the WTO, and under the Marrakesh Agreement, the group is obliged to meet every two years.

    This year’s conference presents a crucial opportunity for Nigeria to participate in negotiations for, among other issues, Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) that developing country members can receive in trade agreements. Notably, the agenda of the ministerial conference includes discussions focused on both the environment and inclusivity in trade policy. The fact that these issues are squarely on the agenda is a positive step in how the multilateral trading system defines its role in the world, and Nigeria is dedicated towards contributing constructively to discussions that will impact the future of global trade.

    While Nigeria continues to grapple with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and seeks collective solutions for sustainable development, digital trade and food security continue to stand out as top priorities. Our participation at the MC13 paves the way for us to achieve concrete positive outcomes in the WTO agriculture trade reforms negotiations which we believe should be approached from a food security and livelihood perspective.

    We call for the continued review of the trading rules for agriculture with a view to achieving equitable rules that enhance food security, by providing the necessary policy space for augmenting production and productivity and protecting livelihoods in developing countries, along with diversifying and stabilizing the global supply of food products by achieving reductions in inequitable trade distorting subsidies.

    In this regard, the MC 13 work programme must pave the way for the adoption of decisions on critical food security instruments of Public stockholding for Food Security Purposes (PSH), and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for developing countries. In addition, it must foster negotiations on modalities to address trade distorting domestic support especially with regards to levelling of the playing field.

    Regarding digital trade, we continue to call for the e-commerce work programme and moratorium to be approached from a development perspective. This will enable us to explore the appropriate policy instruments within the WTO toolbox that could be deployed to foster the development of ecommerce ecosystems in developing countries. On the moratorium, we believe that issues regarding the scope and the definition of the moratorium should be taken up post MC13 and clarified so members can understand the scope of their commitment.

    Furthermore, with respect to the moratorium on imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions, Nigeria is of the view that it should be extended temporarily. Nigeria holds this view for two important reasons. First, the non-renewal of the moratorium would undermine the predictability of the global e-commerce environment, and this would negatively affect businesses and consumers. Next, it will undermine the competitiveness and growth of our MSMEs who would be unable to access intermediate content at cheaper prices.

    Moreover, another priority for Nigeria at MC13 is finding an amicable solution to matters relating to fisheries subsidies, we welcome the increasing number of ratifications of the MC12 Fisheries Subsidies Agreement (FSA) and encourage members who are yet to conclude this process to expedite action.

    We also welcome the WTO Fisheries Funding Mechanism and call for it to be made easily accessible for developing countries to invest in their fisheries management systems. We are optimistic that MC13 would deliver an SDG14.6 consistent agreement on the outstanding issues, including overcapacity and overfishing (OCOF) that focuses on the most harmful subsidies with effective special and differential treatment for developing countries that are not responsible for OCOF and exemption for small players whose share of global marine capture is below 0.8%. In addition, artisanal and small-scale fishing should be excluded from the scope of application of the discipline.

    Nigeria seeks a result-oriented MC13 where ongoing reforms within the multilateral trading system will be adapted to avail developing countries the policy space to support sustainable industrialization, economic diversification, and structural transformations, including through enhancing domestic production and value addition.

    Read Also: 65 CSOs pull out from planned Labour’s nationwide protest

    We therefore call on Members to prioritize reforms that would address simultaneously the longstanding development issues on the negotiating agenda of the WTO, together with issues of commercial significance that foster inclusive growth, create jobs, and widen the circle of prosperity.

    In preparation for MC13, Nigeria has conducted extensive consultations with various stakeholders, including other WTO state members, government agencies, private sector representatives, and civil society organizations. These collaborative efforts aim to ensure that Nigeria’s positions are reflective of diverse perspectives and contribute to the collective goals of the WTO.

    As the world gathers for MC13, Nigeria looks forward to fostering meaningful discussions, building consensus, and working towards a positive outcome that benefits all members of the global community. We are of the view that MC13 must build on the success of MC12 and deliver outcomes that proffer solutions to the food, livelihood and development challenges of WTO members as well as respond to the challenges of the ever-changing global economic landscape. Consequently, all hands must be on deck in the collective effort to revitalise the WTO and enhance its role in global economic policymaking.

    •Uzoka-Anite, CFA is Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment.

  • Ekiti: Time to silence the guns (3)

    Ekiti: Time to silence the guns (3)

    As an avowed Federalist, Nigerians expected Tinubu to have sent a Constitution Amendment Bill to the National Assembly with a view to tinkering with dozens of items on the Exclusive List in favour of the devolution of powers, state policing and the like. But it is too early in the day to say that it is too late! Since Ekiti is an APC-controlled state, Oyebanji can lead the process of putting the national government on its toes. The neutrality and/or objectivity of the various arms of the security services and interfaith community will also help tremendously in determining the distance of Nigeria’s road back to Egypt or threshold of informed choices that have in them the capacity to take dear fatherland to the Next Level of her development.

    To overcome the distressing curves of insecurity in Nigeria, the government at the centre must embark on ‘the actualization of the eight important priorities in the 2024 budget: security, job creation, poverty reduction, infrastructure development’, etc. Besides, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) must be alive to its responsibilities. Lest we forget, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) also has important roles to play in selling the Nigeria project to the people, for it’s the belief in her as a nation that can make her work.

    For Nigeria to make it intelligencewise, she must be prepared to undo what former President Ibrahim Babangida did to the Nigerian intelligence apparatus immediately he seized power from Buhari in 1985. Granted that Nigeria’s security situation had become a victim of compromise by a bunch of corrupt public officers, the aftereffects of that deliberately devious and particularly unpatriotic act by the ‘evil genius’ did contribute to the intelligence flip-flop in which Nigeria has been conveniently immersed.

    A Yoruba adage says: ‘Bí ikú ilé ò pani, t’òde ò leè pani!’  (If the death at home does not kill, the death outside will not). If truth be told, the decline in Nigeria’s security situation also demands internal checks on her security hierarchies and systems. Theories of conspiracy and culpability amongst some of our security officials demand concrete efforts if confidence must be rebuilt in the system. What do I mean? Well, there was a time in Nigeria when getting Lawrence Anini’s criminal syndicate busted could be likened to a camel passing through the eye of a needle, until Etim Inyang, the then Inspector General of Police (IGP) brought a special intelligence to bear on the security architecture of the old Bendel State. Of course, that was the only charm Nigerians needed to demystify Anini’s purported voodoo powers – that they were fake, all fake; and that the notorious Judas in the Force was one officer called George Iyamu.

    Some quarters allege corrupt practices along our borders. Well, it is not enough to say that our borders are porous and that arms and ammunition get into the country illegally without taking proactive steps to mitigate the menace. Talking seriously, it’s not in the place of successive governments to transfer their inability to man up and own up to their constitutional responsibility of securing our borders to the hapless citizens. In the spirit of regional security therefore, let the Southwest governors stand together and spearhead the arrest of this madness. For now, let politics be suspended for serious, collective actions. Let them put machineries in place to provide water-tight security at our borders. In close collaboration with the DAWN Commission, let them adopt appropriate operational strategy that’ll put a stop to arms proliferation and bring culprits to justice to serve as a deterrent to others.

    Again, this is where determination comes in. This is where sincerity of purpose plays an important role. The Police, Army, Customs, Immigration Service, the Department of State Services (DSS), Banks and other paramilitary organizations must be thoroughly investigated, if we truly want to heal our land of the senseless killings and abductions. Specifically, financial institutions in Nigeria must subscribe to the national salvation machine. For example, if criminals do not have easy ways of lodging and spending their ransom and loot, kidnapping-for-ransom will drastically reduce. But, if one may ask, why can’t our security agencies trace telephone calls and/or movement of money? Well, the simple interpretation is that Nigeria is not yet a state!

    On their part, the traditional rulers have been trying in their respective domains but they need to do more. In any case, in a country where a secondary school certificate-wounded Local Government Chairman is more powerful than a first class traditional ruler, there is little room for integrity.

    Read Also: Ekiti moves to halt rising prices of goods

    A cross-section of Nigerians held the notion that Buhari gave Boko Haram terrorists an opportunity to officially infiltrate the military through the amnesty or rehabilitation programme. A school of thought also opined that the recruitment of the Civilian Joint Security Task Force, aka Civilian JTF, into the army also looked somehow untidy. For instance, who knows if the so-called repentant terrorists are currently in the army, most probably studying its weaknesses and pivoting its strengths so that when next they strike, it’s gonna be devastating? Besides, while the Civilian JTF is fighting for the same cause as the Federal Army, does it have an ideology similar to that of the military? Isn’t it an ideology which supports decimation based, merely, on differences? If prevention is the best form of protection, the onus is on Tinubu to correct these avoidable anomalies to avert damaging consequences in the future. Recent events in Plateau State have demonstrated that there is no political correctness in an atmosphere of national turmoil.

    At a time like this, the collapse of the Civilian JTF into the Hunters Association of Nigeria cannot but be a welcome development. If we truly mean business going forward, all issues relating to night guards and vigilante groups should be handled by this newly-reformed security architecture more so as it will enhance crime detection, crime prevention and prompt response in case of occurrence.

    Yours sincerely join other Nigerians in commiserating with the families of Herbert Wigwe and others who lost their lives in a chopper accident recently. May God rest their souls and comfort their families! Nigerians owe Tinubu a debt of gratitude for not only personally signing a condolence message on their behalf but also calling the grieving Wigwe’s parents to “provide them with comforting words.” By so doing, the president has again demonstrated the commendable empathy expected of a statesman and the leader of a nation in trying times. Of course, that’s the Bola Tinubu we knew as Lagos State Governor; and in subsequent years. Indeed, that’s one good reason Nigerians were prepared to die for the ‘Emilokan’ cause during activities leading to February 25, 2023. It can only get better! Although, nobody prays for tragedies, they can’t but play their assigned roles in the life of a nation even as death is a necessary end which must strike in its own time and on its own accord.

    To conclude, Sàngó Oba Kòso, Ògèdèʼngbé Agbògungbórò, Fábùnmi Òkè-Ìmèsí, Kúrunmí Ìjàyè, Morèmi Àjàsorò and other ancient Yoruba warriors, the precious land you fought for, and died for is under siege. Yorubaland has become a beautiful metaphor for terrorism and banditry and your people are looking up to those who are providing leadership for succor, reassuringly! But isn’t it time we consulted Àràbà Ifayemí Elebuibon to lead the process of invoking your spirits, our forebears? At least, ‘bí iwájú ò bá seé lo, èyìn a seé padà sí (if we can make progress as a people, it is better for us to go back to the drawing board).

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

    • Concluded.
  • Making our daily bread daily

    Making our daily bread daily

    • By Olabode Lucas

    In view of the prevailing situation in our country, where food prices are soaring and most Nigerians cannot feed themselves and their families adequately, one can say that the daily bread is no longer daily for most people in the country. In fact, some commentators with some justifications have described the situation bluntly by saying that  there is ‘hunger in the land’ and some with religious bent have likened the present situation to Biblical times where ‘famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt’ Recently, we have witnessed demonstrations against high food prices in many states in Nigeria.

    When something goes wrong in Nigeria, the people blame the government rightly or wrongly and expectedly now many people are blaming the eight months old Tinubu’s administration for the dire food situation in the country. The Emir of Kano, Alhaji  Bayero, a few days ago broke protocol to advise publicly the first lady, Senator Remi Tinubu  to tell her husband, the president that there is hunger in the land. Many well informed commentators felt that the Emir should have used a more appropriate way to inform the president about his concern about the food situation in Nigeria.

    Few days later, the most prominent traditional ruler in the northern part of the country, the Sultan of Sokoto lamented while addressing the traditional rulers in the northern part  of the country, that Nigeria was sitting on a keg of gunpowder as a result of joblessness and food shortage. He ended his speech by reminding the federal government that a hungry man is an angry man.

    In the past, we have had occasions when we had food crises in the country. The Punch of Friday November 10, 2006 had at its back page a frightening headline titled “Over 12 million Nigerians have no food”. By conservative estimate this figure has risen  to 50 million by 2022. In my own candid assessment, it will be unfair to blame the present administration wholly for the present dire food situation. Any agricultural professional like my humble self knows that signs of hunger have been with us for a long time. In other words, we saw it coming and we took very feeble action to combat it.

    The question is how did we come to this sorry pass as a well-endowed agricultural country?

    During the colonial era, the British gave attention to the cultivation of crops like cocoa, oil palm, rubber, groundnut and cotton so that they could get raw materials for their factories in Britain. Little attention was given  to food crops like maize, cowpea, sorghum, cassava and millet, which were needed to feed the people. Despite this, Nigeria did not experience famine like India and other Asian countries during the colonial era. Nigeria escaped hunger during the colonial era because of the ability and dedication of our small-scale farmers who through the years toiled day and night in their small holdings to produce food for the populace with little or no encouragement from the colonial authorities.

    Just before and after the attainment of independence, successive governments in the federation, whether civilian or military, gave the impression that agriculture had pride of place in the schemes of things in the country. Many agricultural policies and programmes were initiated to boost food production so as to prevent people from starving. From 1956 to1991, a period that could be regarded as a golden era of food production in Nigeria, we had 19 of such programmes/projects. They included among others farm settlement schemes in the former Western and Eastern Region (1956), the National Accelerated Food Production Programmes (1973), the Procurement and Distribution of Fertilizer project (1973), Subsidies on Fertilizer, Seeds, Agro-Chemicals and Tractor Hiring Services (1976), National Seed Service (1976), Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund(1976), River Basin Authorities (1977), The Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank (1978) and the Opticom  Programmes in Southwestern States (1979).

    These laudable programmes and others helped to make Nigeria to have food sufficiency and prevented starvation among the people. Unfortunately, with time these programmes suffered setbacks as a result of our innate corruption and embezzlement. Consequently, the programmes became unsustainable and they failed to make the desired impact on food production. Some programmes such as Green Revolution set up in 1983 and Directorate For Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructures (DFRRI) set up in 1986, Peoples Bank set up in 1989, and National Agricultural Land Development Agency (NALDA) set up in 1991 made meaningful impact on food production in other countries in Asia but failed abysmally in Nigeria due to corruption and mismanagement.

    The lack of innovative policies in agricultural production since the golden era of agriculture and food production in the 80s and 90s no doubt had a negative effect on food production in the country. Also the unending prevailing insecurity in most food producing areas of the country also has a grim effect on food production in the country. Despite these negativities on food production, reliable statistics show that there are increases in the production of staple crops in the country. Rice, maize cowpea and sorghum production are reported to have recorded annual increases of 7%, 5%, 3% and 4% respectively. In our markets, it is also difficult to conclude that there is a shortage of foodstuff in the country as most markets are full to the brim with assorted foodstuffs like garri, beans, rice, maize, tomatoes, pepper and yam.

    From the foregoing, there is apparently no scarcity of food in Nigeria; the problem from my own perspective stems from the exorbitant prices of foodstuffs which are presently beyond the purchasing power of most Nigerians. It is difficult to imagine how a worker on a minimum wage of N30,000 can feed himself and his family with satisfaction. For an average worker and by extension and average Nigerian, to have a regular daily bread, the government must take drastic action to bring down the prices of foodstuff. The surest way to carry out this action is to bring down the cost of food production in the country. In the golden era of food production in this country, the government subsidized the cost of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, herbicides, seeds and tractor hiring. This action went a long way to lower the cost of production of food items and this made food to be available on our tables.

    Read Also: EFCC arrests 48 students, two others for cybercrime in Kwara

    Subsidy has always been a detestable word to international organisations like World Bank and IMF especially when they are dealing with developing countries like Nigeria. Events in the world have shown that no government can exist in peace without any form of subsidy for items necessary for the welfare of its people. In Britain, food and transportation are heavily subsidized even during the Second World War. Subsidy in Nigeria usually fails because of our usual lack of transparency and congenital corruption. To me we cannot put food on our tables at affordable prices without having subsidy in agriculture.

    Another way the government can stop hunger in our land is to increase the purchasing power of the people especially the civil servants through salary increase. There is food in the market but no money to buy it. This is the simple truth about the food situation presently in our country because the purchasing power of the people is abysmally low.

    No government, no matter its good intension can succeed if the people are hungry. As Napoleon Bonaparte said “the army moves on its stomach”. The people also thrives well when the stomach is full. Social discord and disorder will always pervade in a nation where people are hungry as hunger knows no ethnic, religious and political affiliations. A happy nation is one in which the daily bread of every citizen is guaranteed.

    •Prof Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.

  • Biakolo, Ijewere and Wigwe: A peerless triumvirate

    Biakolo, Ijewere and Wigwe: A peerless triumvirate

    • By Oma Djebah

    I have been deeply distressed, pained with the shocking death of three valuable exemplary figures who were behemoths of the finest tradition in their respective crafts! Emevwo Biakolo, a colossal literary scholar and founding Dean of the School of Media & Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Emmanuel Ijewere, a foremost chartered accountant and former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), and Herbert Wigwe, co-founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Ltd, all passed away at a most difficult period. It is unimaginable!

    With the sad, unsettling, calamitous demise of these peerless ace professionals, Nigeria has lost three invaluable gifts to humanity! Indeed, one remarkable element that distinguishes these three extraordinary men is that they were not only giants in their respective fields, having attained the very peak, commanding heights of their excellent, illustrious careers, but also that their  exceptional accomplishments will continue to serve as glowing lighthouse in an era of vanishing values!

    Ironically, Biakolo and Wigwe passed on same day while Ijewere’s demise was a little over a month ago. 

    It was only about a week ago, I received an email from the revered professor, apprising me of a pet endeavour which he was devoting his very precious time after retiring from the Pan-Atlantic University. His message was as eloquent, genial as usual, and with his customary imprimatur. Family Fortnightly, a newsletter, he had put together, was his latest adventure! But sadly, Friday, February 9, he died in his sleep in his Lekki, Lagos home! Professor Biakolo was a premier writer, an academic behemoth and a former member of the editorial board of The Guardian, whose unique storytelling style, sublimity of thoughts and elegance of prose were some of his very distinctive features. His enthralling weekly column was always a climate of captivating thoughts. A foremost writer, an iconic scholar of the finest tradition, quintessential teacher, and a true family man whose lofty deeds and towering reputation transcended boundaries! He was affable, kind, compassionate, and to boot, exceptionally principled. Biakolo was a premier university lecturer at Nigeria’s premier university, University of Ibadan and a visiting member of the editorial board of The Guardian when I first met him in 1988.

    At that time, I was in need of a temporary job at The Guardian, and a good friend of mine had casually referenced Dr Biakolo as an intensely empathic writer who would lend you a listening ear! I was equally told that the professor was, without exception, available only on Wednesdays at The Guardian for the newspaper’s editorial board meetings. Without any prior appointment, I went to the Oshodi-Isolo expressway office of the newspaper. Upon meeting him, the first thing I noticed about the venerable scholar was his infectious smile, which lightened my concerns. A great listener, with tremendous attention to details, after listening raptly to my mission, he took me straight to the office of the then managing director of the newspaper. “This young-man would make a good journalist,” he declared.  The managing director was to ask me to follow up! And thus began, my interest in The Guardian where I was to work, many years later, precisely in 1995, after Prof Biakolo had left for Botswana, as lecturer in English at the University of Botswana, Gaborone.

    Indeed, Nigeria has lost one of her most endowed scholars, treasured literary giants, and a classical Iroko whose influence resonated beyond the shores of the country!

    With his death, I have lost a very great teacher who took me under his wings some 36 years ago! He was a literary Iroko, who did not only build the School of Media & communications at PAU from its scratch but whose academic prowess and rich contributions to the body of knowledge in the field of Communications and Storytelling in the Global South, was strikingly unexampled. Until his death, he was an emeritus professor of Communication, School of Media & Communication, PAU, Lagos. Some of his ground-breaking scholarly works include; “Insurgency in Nigeria: The Niger Delta Experience’’, “Oral tradition, European Modernity and African Philosophy”, “Women in Conversation with an African Man on gender Issues”, and “Categories of Cross-Cultural Cognition and the African Condition.”

     For the late calm, charismatic and astute former president of the ICAN, past president of the Nigerian Red Cross Society and erstwhile chairman of the Institute of Directors (IoD), Ijewere, he has been like a very senior friend, counsellor for about 30 years. Our path first crossed in 1994 when I was a reporter, and we got introduced through a mutual friend. Friendly, simple and ever straightforward! I cherish deeply the privilege of knowing such a wonderful, down-to-earth business leader with immense wisdom. Each time one encountered him, one was always left with a sense of personal fulfilment and satisfaction on account of his simplicity of style and sublimity of wisdom. He also enriched my personal life with his presence at important occasions. In fact, during my wedding, Mr Ijewere and Prof J. P. Clark were among the first set of guests seated in the church, preceding many others.

    Born on October 30, 1946, in present day Plateau State, Ijewere studied in Lagos, Ijebu-Ode, Cameroon and the United Kingdom. He started his very distinguished accountancy career in 1965 in the UK, and later established his own firm in Nigeria in 1979, which blossomed and soared like an incredible eagle. Until his death, he was chairman and director of several companies with interests in banking, finance, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, logistics, etc.

    Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and Wigwe nurtured an excellent business partnership that changed the banking sector in Nigeria. Perhaps, they were both the youngest founders of a commercial bank in Nigeria’s history in 2002! It was not therefore unexpected that the news of Wigwe’s death triggered uncontrollable wave of sadness across Nigeria. My encounter with Wigwe was through Aig-Imoukhuede, founding Group MD/CEO of Access Bank. I met Wigwe’s father, Pastor Shyngle Wigwe, now 89 years of age, for the first time, at the service of songs held in honour of the first governor of Delta State, Olorogun Felix Ibru at the Federal Palace hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos in 2016!

    Read Also: 400,000 policemen not enough to secure Nigeria – Speaker Abbas

     In his years as a banker, businessman, educationist, thought leader and champion of charitable causes, Wigwe impacted many lives. Following his tragic death in the ill-fated helicopter  which crashed in California last Friday, February 9, and also claimed the lives  of  his wife, Chizobu, their son and Abimbola Ogunbanjo, a  former group chairman of Nigerian Stock Exchange Group (NGX Group) and son of the late legendary industrialist, Chief Chris Ogunbanjo, Nigeria has lost  not just a resilient banking chief but also a peerless lover of education, tireless mastermind of lofty initiatives and a boundless family man whose strong commitment to  family values was quite impressive. The transformation of Access Bank into one of the five leading, first-rate financial institutions defines Wigwe’s resilience, strength of character and clear vision.

    The fragility of life is really telling. But for these exceptional professional behemoths, I can only find solace in the enduring, eternal words of Clare Harner, a famous US journalist whose poem in 1934 entitled “ Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep” remains consoling:

    “Do not stand at my grave and weep.   I am not there.

    I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow.

    I am the diamond glints on snow.

    I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

    I am the gentle autumn rain when you awaken in the morning hush.

    I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.

    I am the soft stars that shine at Night.

    Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there.

    I did not die.”

    As professional colossi, as stars that shine peerlessly, and twinkling like diamond glints, the triumvirate-Biakolo, Ijewere and Wigwe- are not dead! Their immortal accomplishments are huge legacies that live on!

    •Djebah, is immediate past ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Thailand.

  • Ayo Deforge’s dream

    Ayo Deforge’s dream

    Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards – Søren Kierkegaard.

    Martin Luther-King’s dream was about black people becoming truly free. It is a different kettle of fish for Ayo Deforge, a Nigerian writer based in Nice, France. Her dream was to become a published novelist and she didn’t plan to shoulder the responsibility solely. But, after waiting for years for her manuscripts to become what creative writer and academic Maik Nwosu described as ‘republic of letters’, she decided to look beyond traditional publishers for her dream to come through. The result is ‘Tearless’, a novel set in Lagos and Paris and a bit in London.

    She plans to release others such as ‘Under The Rain’, ‘Swept Away’ and ‘Captive’.

    ‘Tearless’ is narrated by Lami and it follows her and her dysfunctional family. Her story tells us that the past and the present are Siamese twins difficult to separate. We also discover that because we cannot choose our parents and siblings, cohesion isn’t always guaranteed in a family and circumstances, such as sickness and death, often lead to schisms that cause irreparable damage and everlasting pains.

    In this beautiful read spiced with the right dose of suspense, we learn that “friends become family and family become strangers. It happens all the time. Family is important but you can’t always force it.”

    Even the choices we make of our own volition, such as who we marry, don’t come with warranties.

    Lami’s father, the one she and her four siblings (Wale, Lara, Fola and Tutu) call Papa, has a tsunami-like temper which sees him constantly throwing their mother out from their flat after beating her up. Lami’s father’s nastiness increases when his wife becomes terminally ill. He fails to take proper care of her only to cry the loudest when she eventually dies.

    The mother’s death does nothing to assuage his craziness thus leaving the family fractured.

    Despite all, Lami finds a way to continue with life. Her study of French helps her in navigating life and with dear friends like Ada and Nico, she is able to find meaning in life.

    However, the past refuses to be dumped in the trash can. It keeps clouding her thoughts and dreams and insisting on being settled. Year in year out, things remain the same without any signs of closure.

    Deforge’s switch between the past and present allows us to see how both are intertwined and how, despite our best efforts, separating them, most times, is never successful. This literary technique also gives us context and necessary background to current happenings.

    Deforge examines grief and how denial can be a coping mechanism for the grieving.

    “Running changes nothing; it won’t make it go away. Face it, challenge it, change it if you can, accept it if you can’t,” Nico urges.

    She also examines the role of family members in grief management, especially the mostly nonsensical advice they dish out. The politics of condolences is given ample space and the picture of how grief is exploited induces ache. The story is, on another level, an exploration of how we miss and long for loved ones when differences keep us apart. This is explored using the strained relationship between Lami and Fola, her younger brother with whom she used to wrestle for the left-over food in their mother’s food flask.

    “I was thinking about my little brother, how close we used to be as children, and how far apart we’ve grown from each other now,” Lami tells Nico.

    Deforge also x-rays darkness but not in the same manner as Jumoke Verissimo in ‘A Small Silence’.

    Unlike Prof in Verissiomo’s book, whose love for darkness is by choice, darkness overwhelms Lami and brings out what she prefers hidden. There are times sleep offers her respite from the darkness that comes with switching off the light.

    It will not be out of place to say the book centres on fatherhood, but in this case, the absence of proper fatherhood and how an abject father figure can leave a child in trauma all the way to adulthood. It also tells of how motherhood, when well-played, stays in the mind of children long after the mother is gone.

    Ayo Deforge writes sweet, delicate and layered prose. Like a good painter, she makes her emotional scenes so intense a reader’s heart may pound so loud the person sitting close by could hear it and eyes may bulge and Adam’s apple bob. When she writes about grief, she makes the reader feel it; with the right diction, she brings pictures alive and delivers cinematic effects.

    Read Also: EFCC arrests 48 students, two others for cybercrime in Kwara

    ‘Tearless’ is, in some sense, a Lagos Island novel. It shows that part of Lagos in its glory and shame; the picture that emerges is that of heaven and hell situated side by side. The author’s portrayal of places such as the Oluwo International Fish Market in Epe, Bar Beach shortly before it gave way to Eko Atlantic and Eko Hotel and Paris shows deft craft and a painstaking eye for details.

    Her description of Banana Island’s roads with “no loose stone, no pothole, not one litter” and sundry details match my encounters with one of the world’s most-expensive real estate.

    The mess that Makoko is on the Lagos cityscape also receives its due. It also paints a sincere picture of the fall of Dolphin Estate once considered a posh precinct but now reduced to a slum in Eti-Osa, one of the richest local government areas of Lagos.

    “Each block of flats had parking areas right in front, and instead of cars, rickety kiosks had been erected in many of these places. Women sold provisions, some sold foodstuffs and some sold cooked food. Others were shops for dressmakers, hair stylists, video cassette hire and shoe repairers,” the narrator observes.

    This is also a Paris novel, with London making a cameo appearance. Deforge makes us “see Paris and die”.

    With vivid diction, she makes us feel we know this city of love like the back of our palms. Deforge is a painter, but one that paints with words. She makes you see what she is writing instead of reading it. Her scenes can be felt because she takes you there with appropriate syntax.

    My final take: We can try to run away from our past, but it always has a way of catching up with us. So, for us to have a good tomorrow we need to be careful about what we do today which will eventually become our past.

  • Scourge of insecurity and leadership insensitivity

    Scourge of insecurity and leadership insensitivity

    • By Afolabi Ige

    Nigeria has become a land of anguish, fear and trepidation in the midst of uncommon blessings by God; a land given to pilfering, wastage, mismanagement and misallocation by its elite class.

    Since the advent of modern governance, even under the British colonial masters as a serf of the conquered territory that we were, never has lives been more than this insecure. Insecurity of lives, either due to the scourges of banditry, kidnapping, terrorism or, as collateral damages to anti-terrorism, the response from the state has all together made life return to stone age: brutish, nasty and short.

    Criminality has always been a part of human society no matter how rustic or refined and Nigeria has never been free of crimes and criminalities. Even under the military in the 70s, armed robbery was a star crime. Land grabbing, ritual killings and money rituals have been with us for so long that with development in science and technology particularly ICT, if we are actually progressing as a people, most of them should have become inescapable with in our society by now but not so; rather than abate, it has now graduated to a frenzy in this twilight of the 22nd century Nigeria.

    Kidnapping for ransom has become the most booming criminal enterprise across the length and breadth of Nigeria with no part of the country exempted. Just recently, the serenity and peaceful ambience of Ekiti State was shattered by a twin-tragedy of the murder of two of the royal fathers in the northern axis of the state, while a school bus carrying pupils and teachers was hijacked in the south of the same state almost same time and the occupants of the school bus held hostage in a kidnap for ransom enterprise.

    The state governor, Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji was thrown into profuse exasperation shuttling between Abuja and Ekiti to mobilize for help before the victims of the hijacked school bus could be rescued but not without losing the life of the bus driver before the release of the other occupants a week after their abduction. About the same time in the federal capital city of Abuja, a friend and a neighbour was whisked away from his fortified home in the wee-hour of the night within 30 meters radius of the military checkpoint on Bwari Road and less than 100 meters from the Godwin Abbey Army Cantonment. Until that incident, the cantonment and the check point were considered a fortress but alas, despite heavy shooting by the assailants as they struggled with the man’s fortified doors for close to 30 minutes, help did not come until he was whisked away into the forest before a contingent could arrive at the scene.

    Nigeria was returned to civil rule May 29, 1999, thus in her 25th year of unbroken civil rule. These over 24 years journey has been marred with such security threats as capable of dismantling nations except for Nigeria’s plurality standing as the retaining wall. It started with militancy, destruction of oil facilities and kidnapping of expatriates in the south-south to kidnapping the rich for ransom as criminal business in the southeast, to Boko Haram insurgency which graduated to terrorist regimes hoisting their flag in many local governments in the Northeast before Buhari came in 2015. By this time, Nigeria has started feeling the heat with bomb blasts music roaring in Abuja constantly – the major reasons Nigerians put their hopes in the analogue and rustic Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd). Buhari with his team moved to the theatre of war in the Northeast and dislodged the terrorists within six months and ensured not an inch of Nigeria soil was still under the jihadists’ flag. Since then, the rest of Nigeria has played victim-host to the dislodged terrorists, manifesting in different shades of criminality as either bandits in the northwest, herdsmen militia in the north-central displacing farmers from their homesteads or kidnappers for ransom as they move to the southwest forests. Today no part of Nigeria is safe particularly from the crime of kidnapping while the government seemed so helpless and an embarrassing failure after near 20 years of engagements against same vices with ear-deafening allocation of our hard earned resources in trillions. Unfortunately, like the Yorubas will say, “instead of the coconut leaf softening down, it is rather hardening the more”.

    Read Also: 400,000 policemen not enough to secure Nigeria – Speaker Abbas

    Talking about Nigeria’s leadership insensitivity, it is appalling that in nearly 15 years since the Boko Haram insurgency, it’s been tales of failure of intelligence, uncoordinated responses, official sabotages, and diversion of arms fund et al. The officers and men at the frontline against the terrorists have been led to desertion serially over delayed or unpaid allowances and lack of weapons for adequate response. The military headquarters has become another NNPC tower of opaqueness with layers upon layers of corruption with our generals notoriously outstanding for pot-belly acquisition. The immediate past Minister of Interior – Rauf Aregbesola, recorded the highest number of jail breaks since independence and yet still spent eight years on the seat. What a country with leadership insensitivity glorified!

    It is most curious that the 36 state governors who are supposed to be chief security officers in their respective states deliberately developed cold feet at amending the constitution to enforce same whereas they are quick to wield their influence to force the federal government to share the excess crude to states rather than building the sovereign wealth fund. These were the same governors who determine almost absolutely the members of National Assembly from their various states and these are the people empowered by the constitution to make laws for the security and good governance of the country. Once I had cause to weep for Nigeria for the greed and insensitivity of its elites as some brazenly decided to buy themselves SUV jeeps costing N160 million for each of the 469 members of the National Assembly. In a sane society, the effect of the dollar parity policy of the Tinubu administration would have been enough caution against such unbridled taste for foreign SUVs at a time the citizens are literally crying blue murder from hunger and sky-rocketing inflation. Again, it took President Tinubu practically begging the governors to “spend the money (subsidy removal accruals) to save the people and not spend the people to service their contract awarding spree for personal benefits and aggrandizement. Unfortunately these are the governors who are supposed to hear the people’s cry more than the president.

    •Ige Esq is a commentator and public policy analyst.

  • Cardoso, Tope Fasua and National Economic Recovery

    Cardoso, Tope Fasua and National Economic Recovery

    • Godswill Iyoha Iyoke

    “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”; so says the Scriptures.

    Truth is not an end in itself. It is a process. It is the process of discovering what is right. Truth is the means to an end. The end is what is right to do or to know to get desired results. In physical scientific processes, the end or result could be in the achievement of a state of matter and socially, it is a state of affairs devoid of troubles, worries or concerns. Nigeria is in troubling times and a spot of troubles, worries and concerns by the people and the government alike. The people seem hopeless, while the leaders seem frustrated, the facade of opulence, notwithstanding. Whether rich or poor; employed or unemployed; vulnerable or protected; none is immune. This is despite the nation’s rich resource endowments and the available opportunities to deploy them. Thus, our national circumstances fit squarely into the Ancient Mariner’s lines; “Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink’. This pervasive state of hopelessness and despair ought not to be so.

    Hope is the elixir to hopelessness and despair. In troubling times and troubled spots, as we are in, hope is raised when the process of truth begins. This is what seems to have been heralded by Tope Fasua, S.A on Economy in the presidency and a former presidential candidate, when he reportedly said, thus; “Honestly, in most other countries some or all of them will lose their Management. And prolly (sic) their licenses. The banks starved their customers and therefore, trade in the country. They starved students who needed to pay school fees, and sick people who needed to pay health bills. They were tripping. Simple. Declaring trillions in profit every year, even when the economy went into recession”. 

    Thus, begins the real conversation about our national predicament. The truth is not in the veracity of the entirety of the said quote, but in the fact that it draws attention to the heart of the Nigerian situation, which is the economy. The banking sector is the lubricant that oils the wheel of the economy. Just as with an un-oiled machine, a dysfunctional financial services sector leads to mechanical collapse. Until now, we have been hooked on to a boring endless blame-game between the leaders and the led. That quote, by a person in leadership, signals a transition from the noisy, troublesome and boring blame-game, to the start of the process of solution-provision. No person, people, society or nation grows beyond or above the mental state of its own leadership. Solution provision, which starts with the identification of the problem, is a function of the head or leadership, of a people, society or nation. As no government or leadership is capable of meeting every need the best to do is the creation of the enabling environment for citizens to engage socio-economically. Economic productivity is the main purpose of statehood; and the proof of political responsibility and good governance is the existence of systems, through laws, policies and functional institutions. These are the keys to a viable or sustainable economy and a strong nation.

    The assurance of systemic integrity is the main purpose of the democratic processes of politics, elections, the Constitution and legal jurisprudence. Just as the heart is to humans, so is the banking sector to the economy of any nation. The banking sector is therefore, a veritable scale in the measurement of the economic development of a nation. Tope Fasua’s quote, that; “The banks starved their customers and therefore trade in the country”, is a very weighty indictment of how Nigerian banks strangulated the local economy. Serious interrogation and understanding is necessary, if we are to begin the process of economic recovery and development, the trajectory we were on until the 80s. Tope Fasua has thus heralded a healthy development-oriented conversation towards the restoration of the Nigerian nation.

    A functional banking sector is necessary if we are to achieve the indispensable objectives of development, economic recovery and national restoration. Financial services delivery system that hoards and treats money as commodity strangulates the economy instead of lubricating. It is anti-banking. While banking reform is, therefore, imperative; however, the process is not the route of change in management, as suggested by Fasua. Efforts at banking reforms are not new. We have had several in the past 40 years. We had one aimed at prudential management under Abacha, which led to the Failed Banks Tribunals and the enactment of the Banking and Other Financial institutions (BOFI). Act. The other was under the CBN regime of Charles Soludo. Soludo’s, reforms, which capacity building reforms, which led to consolidation of banks, was misconceived, as it created the erroneous impression that share-capital is what defines the strength of a bank. This culminated in the acquisition of banks by money-merchants and ownership of banks by individuals. The integrity crisis generated thereby compelled the more purposeful far-reaching reforms of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, which reform aimed, rightly, at good corporate governance and systems re-engineering. Regrettably, Sanusi’s which would have re-invented the financial services sector was sabotaged by the tonic of religious ideology. His religious-oriented non-interest banking reforms did not only defile the financial services sector, it erected avoidable disruptive bumps on the economic terrain. It further deteriorated commercial banking system.

    The essence of reforms is to improve on existing quality or standard. In the context of banking, it is to reposition the financial services sector to be able to facilitate the processes of production, distribution and consumption. Our development crisis and national poverty reflects in all these facets of the Nigerian state. In such a needy economy, cost of funds, as high as 30% of interest (compound) or non-interest (capitalized interest), is symptomatic of economic incapacitation. It is tantamount to political irresponsibility and leadership failure to do nothing.

    Read Also: Olayemi Cardoso’s dilemma

    Banking reforms have become necessary. However, reform that is anchored or focused on attracting more investor funds, is faulty and unhealthy. Any good and sustainable banking reforms must take the following historical factors of banking into account:

    i.Just as the treasures in the goldsmith’s custody were not his own, monies in the banker’s vault are not his first instance.

    ii.Just as with the goldsmith’s capacity to lend was a function of how much gold he had in his custody, the banker’s capacity to create credit is dependent on the extent of his liquidity.

    iii.The banker’s capacity to attract deposits is a function of the trust that he enjoys and the goodwill of government of public functionaries.

    iv.Just as with goldsmiths, the idea of banking business was not originally that of merchant-ization of money, but the custody of same.

    The perverted form of banking business arose when, like the goldsmiths, greedy merchants usurped the business of financial services. Banks are sure to fail, as unscrupulous elements take over the business, as their personal vices are translated into business culture by which they operate. Thus, as banking came under the control of desperate money owners, shrewd selfish money-making practices crept into the business; at the expense of moral values. Consequently, as bankers began to own more of the money the weaker the regulatory power of the State over the banks became. Any meaningful banking reform must, therefore, take cognizance of the above facts; and indeed aim at re-establishing the sector on the foundation them.

    The source of the regulatory authority of the State over banks should be understood. It is founded on the imperative of protecting deposits, in order to mitigate the risks involved in the process of managing third-party monies in the bankers’ custody. Thus, the management integrity aspect of Sanusi’s banking reform is imperative. 

    Any purposeful reform must also take into account the nation’s survivalist economic environment. Sustainable banking reform is therefore, feasible under the duo of Tope Fasua and Yemi Cardoso, the current CBN Governor, in view of their expertise and antecedent, respectively. Fasua is an economist, while Cardoso, as former chairman of a defunct commercial bank would have experienced the rough tides of the business, against which he could not thrive. He can therefore be trusted with requisite bankers’ regulatory responsibilities with Mr. Fasua who seems to have identified the pests responsible for our anemic economy. These are necessary foundational truths, on the part of the political leadership, which are required to begin the process of economic recovery.