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  • Wealthy Africans often don’t pay tax: The answer lies in smarter collection

    Wealthy Africans often don’t pay tax: The answer lies in smarter collection

    By Giovanni Occhiali

    Faced with some of the worse debt levels in over a decade, African countries are struggling to find ways to balance their books. Increasing revenue sources from their citizens is an obvious place to look.

    A good starting point for African countries would be to focus on the tax contribution of wealthy citizens. This is because the most underperforming taxes across the African continent are those bearing on the income of wealthy individuals, namely personal income and property taxes.

    The reasons for this are twofold: People who are better off in some countries often remain invisible to tax authorities. This is even though they have higher tax liabilities. Compare this with citizens who have formal labour contracts. Think of public school teachers or supermarket clerks. Their taxes are withheld by their employers. This makes tax evasion impossible. Most taxes on personal income in Africa are paid by citizens in these forms of employment.

    In contrast, prior to 2015, only one of the top 71 Ugandan government officials and 17 of the country 60 most successful lawyers paid any personal income tax. Similarly, only 16% of all landlords identified in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, during a registration drive in 2021 had registered for taxes.

    This shows that wealthy Africans face lower effective tax rates than average citizens, replicating a trend already demonstrated for the relative tax burden of small and large companies.

    This situation is disheartening. But there are immediate steps that African revenue authorities can take to address this unfairness.

    Research led by the International Centre for Tax and Development, to which I have contributed, shows that revenue increases from wealthy citizens can be obtained by focusing on better enforcement of existing taxes rather than by introducing new ones or hiking tax rates.

    An effective approach to increase wealthy citizens’ tax contribution relies on three strategies:

    • Their identification

    • A simplification of tax compliance processes, and

    • The effective enforcement of existing taxes.

    While these suggestions might seem banal, they can lead to some quick revenue gains: as much as US$5.5 million in Uganda or US$900,000 in a single Nigerian state in one year, or tripling property tax revenue collection in Sierra Leone.

    But these improvements require changes in the way African revenue authorities operate.

    Tax collection services need change of focus

    Revenue services in all African countries need to be better resourced. A typical tax officer on the continent might be responsible for as many as 10 times the number of taxpayers than a tax officer in the Global North.

    First, their efforts need to be redirected away from the registration of small informal businesses. These efforts have been shown to contribute little revenue in countries as diverse as South Africa and Sierra Leone.

    Instead their efforts should be directed a developing a definition of high-net-worth individual appropriate for their domestic context. In Uganda this includes criteria such as having performed land transactions of approximately US$300,000 over five years, or earning approximately US$150,000 in rental income in any given year.

    Due to its federal structure, criteria in Nigeria vary across states, for example including a yearly income above N2 million in Borno and Kano states, with the threshold rising to N15 million in Imo State, N20 million in Niger State and N25 million in Lagos State.

    However, in both countries criteria also cover less directly measurable assets, such as owning high-value commercial forestry or animal ranches in Uganda, or having received contracts from the government in Nigeria’s Kaduna State.

    Property taxes are especially important. Research in Ethiopia and Rwanda shows that investing in real estate represents one of the main strategies to store wealth when inflation and foreign exchange fluctuation make bank deposits unattractive.

    These properties then contribute to increasing the income of wealthy citizens who rent them out or resell them for profit. While we lack granular data on capital gains or rental income taxes, there are good reasons to think they are also significantly underperforming. Capital gains refers to the additional value which an investor accrues when disposing of assets such as houses or companies share previously bought at a lower price.

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    Second, this should be followed by the creation of an office to follow the affairs of high net-worth individuals. This already happens for large taxpayers. Most countries, including the majority of Anglophone African countries, have a dedicated office following the tax affairs of large companies active in their territory.

    Having dedicated resources for high net-worth individuals would be useful because using the international definition (a net worth of US$1 million) might be hard to operationalise. The reason for this is that most revenue authorities lack detailed data on assets owned by their taxpayers. Even when they know some information, such as the number of houses, estimates of their market value might be lacking.

    African countries are better off relying on data already in their possession as they seek to collect further useful information on their taxpayers. This allows the establishment of a set of multiple core and non-core criteria.

    Third, high-net worth individual units require substantial backing. In the first instance from revenue authorities’ senior management, who in turn needs to have the support of the government in pursuing often well-connected individuals. This backing is needed for actions as apparently easy as obtaining data from other government agencies, without which identification efforts could be quickly thwarted, and becomes crucial when it’s time to move to enforcement.

    However, a cooperative approach should be the initial choice. One approach is voluntary disclosure programmes with associated tax amnesties. These are useful to obtain information about the assets of wealthy citizens. Additionally, they contribute substantial revenue – as much as US$296 million in South Africa and US$192 million in Nigeria.

    Fourth, requiring candidates running for public office to obtain tax clearance certificates can also be an important source of information and revenue. This has been shown to work in both Uganda and Nigeria.

    This set of actions represents an optimal starting point for African countries looking to improve the tax contribution of wealthy citizens.

    Efforts to produce suitable guidance for wealth taxation for low-income countries by the United Nations, or to introduce a global wealth tax on billionaire by the Brazilian G20, are important to highlight the role of fiscal redistribution in addressing inequality. But many African countries are better off by first being bold about the basics of their tax systems, which can already make them more effective and progressive.

    •Occhiali is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, United Kingdom. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. https://theconversation.com/wealthy-africans-often-dont-pay-tax-the-answer-lies-in-smarter-collection-expert-252437”

  • A blight known as Effurun

    A blight known as Effurun

    • By Chike Okolocha

    From whatever direction you enter or leave Effurun, the headquarter of Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State, you are astounded by the intensity of blight, congestion, disorder and physical chaos. The experience is the same as you drive within the city. It is all too obvious that, from all parameters, Effurun is overurbanised, having outgrown its carrying capacity by far and is in urgent need of attention from everyone, inclusive of government.

    Prior to the creation of Uvwie LGA, Effurun lived under the shadow of Warri. The emergence of the new LGA thus signposted the formal geopolitical divide between the two cities, a schism owed largely to heady ethnic identity politics by which Effurun sought to differentiate itself, at least geographically from Warri, a more famous city with which it has merged imperceptibly. The merger itself is owed to unprecedented in-migration and rapid urbanisation after the Nigerian Civil War, prior to which Warri-Effurun lived under the shadow of Sapele. The point of mergence between the “twin cities” of Effurun and Warri was said to be at a place popularly known as Marine Quarters along the arterial Warri-Sapele Road. Presently there are no markers to identify the boundary, yet, in our minds, Effurun is different from Warri.

    To whom or to what can we attribute the anarchy in Effurun? Nigerians typically lay all blames on government but can Effurun complain of neglect by government? With the presence of ample public oil-sector investments, it seems that Effurun can claim parity with Warri as an oil city. Similarly, Effurun is one of the better endowed cities in terms of road networks and, as a link to Ughelli, Ovwian-Aladja, Ogbe-Ijo and (of course) Warri to the southeast and south as well as Sapele to the west, it should be a transportation hub. Effurun is also well endowed with public educational institutions including the historic Urhobo College, University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE) and the all-important Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) as well as other ill-maintained public and private schools.

    Rather than mature into a transportation hub, Effurun has inherited mayhem as virtually all the roads and streets have been turned into motor parks with the tricycle (keke) as the default mode of transportation. In addition to intracity passenger movement, keke is used in haulage, towing and even in intercity movement of men and materials. Motorists in all parts of the city are constantly harassed by keke whose operators’ dare-devilry is complemented by their rudeness and uncouthness. The vital PTI Road is particularly clogged, with keke probably outnumbering passengers. Indeed, Effurun has a keke problem.

    Although every road junction in Effurun is a passenger pick-up and drop-off zone for keke and other commercial vehicles, there are actually three major boiling points in the public transportation chaos. First is the approach into the city from Sapele on the A2 Federal Highway. This area starts from about 3km up to the Effurun Roundabout. It includes a public and several private motor parks as well as the recently introduced shanty market by the Army Barracks. The next is by Eku/Osubi Junction on the Ughelli-Patani carriageway. But the most intense area is Enerhen Junction, perhaps the busiest spot in the city. These are three hotspots of traffic confusion as pedestrians, keke and other commercial and non-commercial vehicles, petty traders, POS operators, vagrants and touts, food vendors and hawkers, cart pushers, buyers and passengers all jostle for priority and space without consideration for each other. At times, overwhelmed traffic control officials merely watch the disorder in consternation. Air pollution is said to be worse at Enerhen Junction than anywhere else in Effurun. Motorists who attempt to avoid these three hotspots will encounter less intense chaos in other parts of the city.

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    The euphoria of the election of an “Effurun-boy” as the governor of Delta State has been rounded-off with the inauguration of a “flyover” bridge project through which motorists will fly over the traffic bottleneck between Effurun Roundabout and DSC Roundabout. This is very commendable. But virtually all the existing roads are infested with potholes. In fact potholes in the approach to the first flyover bridge built by the state government have negated the expected benefits of the bridge and further confounded the traffic bottleneck at Effurun Roundabout. Priority ought to be given to the patching of these ill-maintained roads. Effurun has a huge road maintenance problem.

    This problem dogs all infrastructures in the city. For example, the debacle of waste management is perceptible even to the blind. Uvwie LGA to which waste management is statutorily assigned seems to have no idea of what to do while the Delta State Waste Management Board has been apparently slumbering since its creation in 2004. The dumpsite at Edjeba Road measuring only 520m by 245m is grossly inadequate, yet it continues to receive well over 100 tonnes of mixed wastes every day. These wastes are unsegregated and untreated and the dumpsite is a veritable health hazard. If this hazard is known to the Delta State Environmental Protection Agency, no visible remediation has been initiated.

    The waste management calamity in Effurun explains the ubiquity of all manners and sizes of waste dumpsites in all roads and streets in the city. The streets are hardly swept and waste collection is tokenistic even in the medium-density Effurun GRA, and as nothing is done with the minuscule quantity of waste collected. The impact of private metal and plastic waste collectors has not been assessed but obviously things would have been worse without them.  

    Because Nigerians have agreed with government that it cannot provide water and electricity, Effurun is eminently challenged by shortages of these utilities. Lack of potable water explains why the Effurun environment is choking with empty plastic water bottles and sachets of “pure” water. Self-help in water supply has resulted in the construction of hundreds of boreholes for domestic water supply. In addition to the health hazard of drinking raw water from boreholes, there is no consideration for the increasing vacuum being created underground.

    And in spite of symbolic solar-powered street lights, Effurun is verily in darkness every night. Noise from the thousands of electric power generators is only one aspect of heavy environmental pollution in Effurun. Other sources of pollution include exhaust fumes from the self-same generators and motor vehicles, burning of wastes and tyres, etc. A casual observer cannot fail to see the “gaslight” from the flaring of residual gas at the petroleum refinery. All these have added up with sundry pollutions from petroleum exploration and exploitation activities to give rise to annual toxic acid rains in Effurun and other parts of the Niger Delta during the lengthy rainy season. It does not seem as anyone is taking note of this danger or doing anything about it.

    Away from infrastructure and environmental pollution, Effurun is notorious for the omnipresence of “area boys” who charge themselves with enforcing development levies (popularly known as deve) which invariably end up in private pockets. Deve includes all manners of levies (and government rates) imposed on motorists, tricyclists, market men and women, artisans, petty traders and hawkers, cart pushers, waste collectors, POS operators and even unwary pedestrians. Deve is usually enforced by uniformed or plain-clothed operatives who ply their nefarious trade in the presence of “helpless” police and other officials. Intimidation and violence are their watchwords and woes betide anyone who resists deve. This situation has turned Effurun into a lawless terror zone and, indeed, deve has exacerbated recent spikes in insecurity occasioned by banditry and kidnapping for ransom.      

    Having participated in the clearing of the shanty market at the present site of Shoprite in 2004, I affirm that the new shanty market by the Army Barracks near Effurun Roundabout is a case of history repeating itself. It will certainly require more effort and resources to clear the new shanty market when government decides to do so in future as it must. Therefore, the time to act is now.

    The lethargy of town planning and development control officials is directly implicated in the Effurun urban tragedy. They look the other way while myriads of illegal structures and buildings are tucked into all corners and traders’ shacks are built right onto the road, in some instances covering drainage gutters. Indeed, the minor gains of the 2004 clearance of illegal structures have been reversed and the prospects of restoring physical order in the city are very grim.  

     In the second decade of the Urban Century, Effurun is obviously negating the role of the city as a harbinger of economic development and modernity. The city ought to be taken seriously and its spontaneous degeneration into a shantytown ought to be halted immediately. The first step in this direction should be the revision of the Warri-Effurun Master Plan which expired in 2019. Thereafter, there ought to be a conscious effort to implement the revised plan. To do this, the plan ought to be accepted by the generality of the people against the backdrop of accepted principles of modern urbanity.

    •Prof. Okolocha is of Social Science Academy of Nigeria (SSAN), Abuja.

  • IBB and Evans Law of Political Perfidy

    IBB and Evans Law of Political Perfidy

    A few weeks ago when Ibrahim Babangida launched his book, “A Journey in Service”, he seized the opportunity to announce that MKO Abiola won the presidential election of June 12, 1993 which he annulled to the dismay of Nigerians. But announcing the result of an election 32 years after it was lost and won is meaningless. In any case, it is not the responsibility of a president, past or present, retired or serving, to announce the result of an election he did not conduct. It is the duty of the election manager, the person who conducted and superintended over the election.

    This particular election was conducted by Professor Humphrey Nwosu. On August 15, 2008 Professor Nwosu had at a public event at Sheraton Hotel in Abuja announced the result of that election and declared Abiola as the winner. That was and that remains the only authentic statement about that election because he was the man in charge of the election.

    I believe that it was on the basis of that declaration by Nwosu that President Muhammadu Buhari decided in June 2018 to declare June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day. He went further. He conferred posthumously on Abiola the national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), an honour that is conferred on heads of states only. Abiola’s running mate, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe was decorated with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). So it can be said that the June 12 matter had been settled, done and dusted years ago.

    Babangida’s recent attempt to revisit it was therefore an exercise in futility, locking the barn after the animal had escaped or shifting the goal post after the goal has been scored. It was a time wasting exercise. Closure had been brought to June 12 years ago. What remains to be done now is for President Bola Tinubu to confer a national honour on Nwosu for conducting the fairest and freest election in Nigeria’s history. That will be a source of motivation for all managers of elections in Nigeria.

    IBB has apologised to Nigerian for the annulment. Apology though belated is accepted. He has also accepted responsibility for that wrong doing. That, too, is accepted. But the amazing thing is that he shifted the blame to General Sani Abacha. No matter how powerful Abacha was perceived to be, he could not have been more powerful than the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

    So, Nigerians must reject the blame game. Babangida must bear full responsibility for his rash decision which, in any case, was consistent with his maradonic moves to keep elongating military rule to the discomfiture of Nigeians.

    Abiola and Babangida were friends; some people would say close friends. Abiola was a very successful entrepreneur. That gave him an awesome source of granite strength. He worked on several projects with the military and made tons of money and he became friends with some of them, especially Babangida. During the December 31, 1983 coup organised by IBB and Co, it was rumoured that it was Abiola that financed that coup. The reason given at the time was that Abiola needed to deal with the NPN which had treated him badly by denying him the party’s ticket despite his exertions for the party. In the Concord newspaper, that speculation about Abiola’s association with the new military leaders was strong too. Three of us, Dele Giwa, Yakubu Mohammed and I had got an appointment to interview the new Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari in February 1984.

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    We did an interesting 60-minute interview with Buhari which we ran in seven issues of the Concord. Abiola was happy with us for securing an interview with the new leader but he kept complaining that he had not even met the new leaders yet. We suspected that he must have had something to do with the coup otherwise what entitled him to seek to meet them or to think they had ignored him. When he kept repeating that he hadn’t met these new leaders, Yakubu Mohammed and I approached Dele Giwa and requested him to arrange for the chief to meet the new men in power. Dele Giwa was close to Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon, the powerful number two man in the system. Dele booked an appointment for the chief to meet Idiagbon. Dele also accompanied Abiola to the meeting. Abiola did not complain any longer of being ignored by the new men in power.

    Abiola had money, plenty money but he also needed power, political power. So he thought that with his friend IBB in the saddle, he had a chance to seek and possibly secure political power. So he joined the SDP, one of the two parties decreed into life by IBB. He probably did not reckon with the Evans Law of Political perfidy. That law states that, “When our friends get into power, they are not our friends anymore”.

    Perhaps IBB allowed Abiola to run for the presidency either because he didn’t think Abiola would win or because if Abiola won, he would know that he had a friend taking over from him. No one is certain why IBB allowed Abiola to run.

    Abiola was a man loved by people in various parts of the country. He spent a lot of his money to build friendship and relationships. He built mosques and churches, distributed thousands of Korans and Bibles to support the two religions. And when he picked Kingibe, a fellow Moslem as a running mate, people still supported him because he was not a religious irredentist. He deployed plenty money and technology in the election fight, covering all the 774 Local Government Areas effortlessly. Those who followed the trend of his campaign knew with pulse-pounding certainty that Abiola would win.

    As the election results tumbled in, it was clear that Abiola was heading to Aso Rock as the elected President of Nigeria. Then the unexpected happened. Babangida halted the further release of the results. The country was thrown into a paroxysm of fear. Turmoil took over. We drifted to the edge of the precipice. We knew that Babangida had brought down his bag of tricks and was searching for more tricks to pick from the bag. He had banned some politicians for no just cause. He had shifted the handover date several times over a period of eight years. Now, he had done the ultimate, scuttled an election that everyone said was conducted very fairly and very freely. That action confirmed what Lord Acton said that, “Power is Poison” Babangida used his power in a poisonous manner. He poisoned the Nigerian democratic system in a manner that brought mayhem and madness to Nigeria. Riots, demonstrations, sit-ins, sit-outs, Nigerians protested that insane action in a number of ways. That action prolonged the struggle for democracy for another six years.

    Nigeria is 25 years old as a democratic country today. Abiola’s party is in the news now. The former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai who was an APC man has now crossed carpet to the SDP. He wants to use the SDP to overthrow Tinubu in 2027. He thinks that the reason that Abiola won the 1993 election was the SDP. No.

    Abiola won the election because of Abiola, a man of might. It wasn’t the party that gave him victory. It was Abiola that gave Abiola victory.

  • How small businesses can help economy this time

    How small businesses can help economy this time

    By Timi Olubiyi

     The number of small businesses keeps growing in the formal and informal sectors of the Nigerian economy, due to the role of small businesses as the live-wire of any economy and the backbone of major developed economies the world over. Though Nigeria rely majorly on oil and revenues derived from it, from context observation the economy is largely supported by small businesses covering almost all spheres of activities including skilled and unskilled within the country, ranging from Nano, kiosk, and Micro businesses most importantly.

    A visible reference usually includes the vulcanizers, corner shop owners, single retail marketers, repairers, painters, business centre operators, restaurants, market women, and men in the various open markets, among others. and the formal operations such as the law firms, accounting firms, consulting, fintech, and real estate companies, and so on in the country.

    The small business economic activities in Nigeria play an unrecognized but important role all across the country and can equally contribute largely to the growth of the non-oil sector, employment generation, and in the creation of more sustainable entrepreneurship if well harnessed. For instance, the popular computer village in Ikeja, Aba Ariaria market in Abia State, Kano Kurmi Market in Kano State, and Onitsha market in Anambra State all consist of clusters of mostly nano, micro, and small businesses with huge economic engagements, however without much involvement by the government.

    Arguably small business represents a large chunk of private businesses in the country and contributes to more than 50% of employment in Nigeria. Small businesses in Nigeria account for 48% of the national GDP in the last five years. They account for about 50% of industrial jobs, 96% of businesses and 84% of employment in the country, and nearly 90% of the manufacturing sector, in terms of the number of enterprises according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

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    As it stands and relying on the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report, the total number of enterprises in Nigeria was estimated at 41.5 million, spread out across the 36 states in the country. The breakdown further shows that micro-enterprises constitute a high 99.8% (41.4 million) of total SMEs. The country enjoys a high presence of small businesses and this form of business predominates any other form of businesses in the country.

    Why is that? The simple reason that comes to mind is largely due to the many advantages small businesses present. From a survey conducted amongst small business owners, independence is the key driver and this gives the advantage for entrepreneurs to be their own bosses and be self-reliant. This singular attribute makes the total financial gain (100%) be that of the entrepreneur or the business owner. Small business gives the operator the total business control without any form of dilution from external investors, which is a form of prestige for the operators according to the views gathered from the survey conducted.

    Without doubts, this form of business is easy to set up and enjoys low or no serious regulatory requirements, unlike large enterprises. In fact, it is usually made up of 1-3 people, with even less than N100,000 initial capital outlay to operate. This form of business structure in most cases provides direct services. Hairdressers, fashion designers, dry-cleaners, artisans, kiosk point of sales (POS) operators, and event planners to mention a few, provide services directly to customers, and with that, they enjoy quick patronage and easy payments. The administration of small business services is not cumbersome; the problem of coordination and communication which is a major setback to the operations of large firms is therefore easily solved in small businesses. They conveniently give keen interest and personal attention to the particular requirements of their customers who in some cases are willing to pay something extra for the special and urgent services rendered. Some customers are tied to these small businesses because of the exciting long relationship and personal attention they enjoy in the business.

    Further to this is the decision-making and taking process, because most owners of the small businesses are the operators or managers, there is hardly any problem in the decision process. Unlike the large enterprise approval processes, decision processes and dealing with customers can take a lot of time but with small businesses, the structure is simple with less bureaucracy.

    The vivid truth is those small businesses enjoy agility and flexibility because of the ease with which the businesses can transmute and transfer capital to other sectors or industries, just in case the business operators need to react quickly to opportunities. In short, small businesses can dramatically change their business model to align with new opportunities, which is the prime driver of innovation and creativity.

    The survey also led to the conviction that focus is another important advantage of running a small business. The focus of the operators is relatively narrow, and this appears to be a good trait. While large enterprises have to search far and wide for opportunities, small businesses tend to know exactly where they have the most competitive advantage. Therefore, with all these attributes, a well-functioning small business sector would add more value to the economic fortunes of the country, sustain livelihoods, reduce poverty by creating more job opportunities in the economy than any other sector. Furthermore, these attributes can also give small businesses a competitive edge over large corporate entities and can help shape their success.

    The government should get more involved in the growth, development, and sustainability of small businesses within the country. The government needs to realize and recognize that small businesses are crucial to job creation, economic diversification, innovation, poverty reduction, wealth creation, and income redistribution in their policy-making activities. If this sector is well harnessed in Nigeria, it can be a huge catalyst in transforming the country economically. On a final note, governments and financial institutions can support small businesses through funding, training programs, and business-friendly policies, including access to tax incentives, and reduced regulatory barriers because small businesses can be a great tool to reduce the increasing unemployment rate in the country. Investing in small business growth is a strategic approach that President Tinubu led government can use to achieve sustainable employment levels.

    • Dr. Olubiyi, is an Entrepreneurship & Business Management expert.

  • Imagine Rivers State without a State of Emergency

    Imagine Rivers State without a State of Emergency

    By Bayo Onanuga

    Imagine a Rivers State where President Bola Ahmed Tinubu hesitated to declare a state of emergency. The political standoff between the state House of Assembly and Governor Siminalayi Fubara could have continued and degenerated into violence. Impeachment threats might have spurred attacks on lawmakers by the governor’s supporters, while militants in the creeks—primed to sabotage critical oil infrastructure—could have plunged Nigeria’s oil production back to pre-2023 lows. Sensational reporting of the crisis by journalists and opportunistic litigation would have inflamed tensions further, paralysing governance and risking lives. Schools and hospitals would shutter; investors would flee. We can only imagine the human and economic toll.

    Today, thanks to the president’s intervention, Rivers State can breathe again. Political tensions have eased, banal headlines have quietened, and stakeholders—encouraged by the newly-appointed administrator—are charting a path to lasting peace. Critics who argue the crisis “did not yet warrant” emergency rule ignore a stark truth: waiting for the breakdown of law and order to escalate into anarchy before acting is like withholding firefighters until a house burns to ashes.

    A responsible leader like President Tinubu, who swore an oath to protect the constitution and corporate existence of the country, cannot fail to act when a constituent part of the federation is careering towards the precipice. The political crisis in Rivers State between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and members of the state House of Assembly who owe allegiance to the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, that blew open barely six months into the administration of the governor has degenerated by March 18. A chain of events since the war of attrition started 14 months ago among the combatants had indeed paralysed the government of Rivers State to the point where Fubara, copying from the bad book of former Governor Godwin Obaseki in Edo, emasculated an arm of government entirely. This reality informed the Supreme Court’s damning verdict about the absence of government in the state as enshrined in the 1999 constitution of Nigeria, as amended. The court also excoriated Fubara for acting like a despot.

    Rivers was in a grave situation, as the combatants refused to allow reason to prevail, even after the Supreme Court judgment, before President Tinubu declared a state of emergency on March 18. The president took action in the best interest of the people of the state, who had become victims of the warring politicians, the people they elected to serve them. President Tinubu needed to act. He chose prevention over cure.

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    Section 305 of constitution empowers the president to act when the nation faces a breakdown of law, order, and economic security —precisely the case in Rivers, a bastion of Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy. Intelligence confirmed militants, told by Fubara to await signals, were already targeting pipelines, risking a collapse in output and a Niger-Delta domino effect. Historical precedents, such as the past emergencies in Plateau and Borno and the doctrine of necessity, support the president’s proactive measures to avert disaster. The president’s oath demands he must not fail in his sacred duty to safeguard national stability, not watch idly as partisan strife strangles our democracy and the material well-being of Nigerians, whose prosperity depends on the social and economic interdependence of every part of the country. Rivers State is a significant hydrocarbon economic artery in Nigeria, and any dislocation and politically motivated disruption of the oil industry in the state will have ripple effects on the national economy.

    Answering the critics

    Critics claim the emergency rule in Rivers undermines democracy. Their position misrepresents reality. The intervention is temporary, surgical, and aimed at restoring—not replacing—democratic institutions. The suspension of political actors for six months is no power grab; it is not a permanent removal but a reset to disarm warring factions. Notably, the same critics who assailed the president’s action for suspending the political actors remain silent on Governor Fubara’s refusal to collaborate with the legislature, exposing their partisan bias. Democracy cannot thrive amid lawlessness—anarchy is its antithesis.

    The appointed administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok Ibas (Rtd.), has already convened a meeting with traditional leaders in the state as one of his first steps to forge lasting solutions. This intervention ensures Rivers’ people retain their democratic rights while shielding the Nigerian and Rivers State economies from collapse. It is worth repeating that President Tinubu acted within the law and his executive powers under the constitution until the Supreme Court says otherwise.

    President Tinubu and the National Assembly remain committed to lifting the emergency once stability returns and also ensuring elected officials resume their duties.

    The 18th-century English philosopher Edmund Burke once warned, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” President Tinubu chose courage over complacency. His action prioritised Nigeria’s interest over political expediency, averting a more profound crisis. To those who brand him a democrat turned “tyrant,” my response to them is simple:  Which democracy prospers in chaos? Rivers’ newfound calm vindicates President Tinubu’s resolve. He deserves commendation, not condemnation, not calumny for his statesmanship. Rivers and Nigeria are safer for it.

    •Onanuga is Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy.

  • Housing provision for Nigerians achievable

    Housing provision for Nigerians achievable

    By Tunji Olajumoke

    For the sake of this discussion, I would agree with the figure of 28 million housing deficits announced by the federal government in 2023, but chances are that the figure might be more than that, considering the number and the rate at which we turn out graduates from the universities, the polytechnics and other tertiary institutions every year and the fact that these individuals and several other categories of Nigerians would be needing accommodation to settle down for the challenges of life.

    Population growth, especially of the urban centres, and major cities of Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Lagos, with its attendant increase in demand for housing is another issue worth noting.  As regards how we got to where we are, I would blame some of the previous administrations in the country for paying lip service to housing development and provision.

    Some of the previous administrations did not give the important issue of housing the attention and the priority it deserves. And expectedly, the situation became aggravated and worsened, as a result of failure to put in place a strategic agenda to address the crucial issues of housing development, the process of its delivery, the funding that must accompany it, high cost of construction, legal framework and regulatory bottlenecks, difficulty in acquiring land for housing development, the land tenure system and lengthy process of securing titles, the technological process, the availability or otherwise of building materials, and technical know-how that should be galvanized in a holistic manner.

    Funding has always been a major problem. Mortgage facilities are not there, in which case, people have almost always depended on private savings that they could muster for home ownership.

    What can we do to quickly address the housing challenge in the country then? To all intent and purpose, the response of the government has been quite lukewarm and unsatisfactory. In practical terms, the government should show more political willingness to address the challenge; otherwise the problem would remain unresolved. But if and when the government realizes the need to urgently address the challenge, it should initiate and encourage Public Private Partnership (PPP) such that would be able to harness resources for housing provision, we all know that housing development is capital intensive.

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    Invariably, there would be collaboration between the public and the private sectors of the Nigerian economy, stakeholders in the housing delivery process, the professional associations, the builders, the research institutes, the academic environment, bilateral organizations, and other concerned bodies should put heads together to discuss and proffer solutions to the housing challenge, but at the apex, the government should be the umbrella for these organizations and stakeholders to be able to initiate a positive and effective housing policy for the nation, and to promptly implement same appropriately.

    We should acknowledge that the issue is multifaceted. In other words, you can’t address the issue of funding without addressing the issue of land tenure because if you are providing land, you also have to think of how you are going to secure the tenure that you are going to give to the people who are being serviced and without the availability of affordable building materials, it would be a herculean task to meet the housing need of Nigerians, particularly the common people.

    Professional associations in the building industry have crucial roles to play. The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers for instance could take the lead, to raise funds among members, keep the pool of funds somewhere, establish a board to manage or administer the funds, acquire land, develop model structures, go to the market, do bulk purchase for building materials and as much as possible, use locally available materials, and by the time this is done, modest structures such as three bedrooms, two bedrooms with conveniences and road networks, electricity, infrastructure that would enable  house owners to have access to their sites and housing units would be in place. There could be communal boreholes instead of individuals having to drill their boreholes, in which case, we would be encouraging communal living.

    Cooperative movements can be involved; the tertiary institutions should start encouraging research into housing such that it would be amenable and easy for some people who have also done researches to start providing solutions to the myriads of problems confronting the populace.

    I will continue to emphasize the need for willingness on the part of government to address this issue as a front burner issue and with the involvement of everybody through sensitization, advocacy, constructive engagement, collaboration, networking, I’m sure the problems are not insurmountable. All hands must be on deck, outside this, nothing can be achieved, and we will just be dancing round figures.

    There is no straight jacket solution. It should be an aggregation of solutions, some solutions could be applicable in Yobe State, but might not be applicable in Oyo State because the demand for housing in Lagos State is not the same as the demand in Osun State. So every state will develop a model that is suitable for its environment. Through that, we will be able to get over the herculean challenge.

    The mortgage sector which has been comatose should be re-positioned to assist prospective home owners. There is an urgent need to recapitalize the FMBN, the need to put funds into the FMBN for the Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMI) to access, because if we want the PMI to go to the same capital market to source for funds at cut-throat rates of returns and expect them to grant loans to prospective house owners on long term basis, whereas they are getting funds on short term basis, it would not work.

    Who would use short term funds to fund projects on long term basis? Should you do that, somebody will question your ingenuity or intelligence as a professional, so we should encourage government to fund the FMBN and the mortgage refinance company should also be strengthened to wake up to its responsibilities such that the PMI would have a fallback position, they would be able to lean on the mortgage refinance company. It is that kind of networking that would help us, but if you want the PMI to compete with the banks in the same market, it would not work. Who would give a deposit and would not think of a good and quick return on investment? This is what I think the government should do, and I think there are steps in that direction and we are hoping that it would pay off

    In addition to this, the cooperative movements are vital and virile areas where funding can be expected. Nothing stops the government from addressing the Pension Commission such that a percentage of what they are keeping should be devoted to housing. What about the banks too! In enforcing this, there has to be an agency to be in place to compel the banks to abide with whatever regulations that might be put in place under a well-defined National Housing Policy that would be championed by the federal government. These are strategic steps that should be adopted so that funding would no longer constitute a problem.

    • Olajumoke is an Estate Surveyor and Valuer in Lagos.

  • On wild claims about Birnin Kebbi Aviation Fuel Depot

    On wild claims about Birnin Kebbi Aviation Fuel Depot

    By Abdullahi Usman

    It is always good to hear that evident improvements are taking place in one’s dear state. The March 12, press statement by the Kebbi State Commissioner of Information and Culture, Yakubu Ahmed BK, on the commissioning of a dedicated 180,000 litres capacity Aviation Fuel Depot at the Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport (SABIA), Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, is one such example.

    Granted, government press handlers have this general tendency to want to always make their principal look good at every opportunity, even that needs to be done with some reasonable degree of decorum, which has sadly not been the case here.

    This piece seeks to correct some of the obvious errors in his entire narrative around the said aviation fuel depot at SABIA. To do that, we need to dispense with his ludicrous claims about the reported transformation of SABIA “from an unrecognized terminal to a hub of global aviation where flights now land, not just for pilgrims, but also for refuelling from various International destinations”.

    When exactly did SABIA Birnin Kebbi become an international hub, or a hub for global aviation, to use his exact words? Apart from the annual Hajj airlift operations involving a few dedicated flights as approved by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), and perhaps the occasional chartered Umrah flights here and there, which other international airlines land in Birnin Kebbi? Again, which international destinations do those flights connect from there?

    I do not regard myself as an expert on aviation fuel refuelling operations by any stretch of the imagination. But having headed the nationwide refuelling operations of a major oil marketer for a number of years, during which I also doubled as the Secretary of both the CEOs Forum and the Aviation Managers Forum of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), I should be in a position to say a thing or two about the subject.

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    The aviation industry is one of the most regulated industries in the world for obvious reasons, and aircraft refuelling operations are no less so. There are strict sets of standards, processes and procedures guiding the establishment and operation of aviation depots globally, which the industry regulators and the airlines themselves do not joke with.

    That is precisely why there are stipulated mandatory daily early morning checks in place that must be carried out by the jet fuel suppliers at their respective depots, along with the usual parameter tests at the foot of the aircraft that must be witnessed, recorded and signed off by the airline representatives before each refuelling operation. International airlines, on their part, do also carry out scheduled annual or spot inspection audits of the depots, the refuelling vehicles, technically known as bowsers, and record keeping, amongst others, to ascertain continuing adherence to the stipulated standards for such technically sensitive operations.

    Even before those routine visits by the airline customers happen, the IATA Fuel Quality Pool (IFQP) inspectors, comprising a group of airlines that actively share fuel inspection workload and reports globally, must have inspected and certified the depot handling and refuelling operations and processes. The audit findings are then published on the International Air Transport Association (IATA) portal for all member airlines to see. The initial and subsequent routine annual IFQP inspections are done using the Joint Inspection Group (JIG) standards, which is an international organisation that monitors and ensures that the transportation and storage of jet fuel is done in a safe manner across the world’s largest airports.

    The IFQP inspection and eventual certification, without which an international airline will never patronise refuelling operations, remains one of the most eagerly anticipated and challenging periods for any aviation manager. It will be great to hear from the commissioner when that IFQP audit inspection and certification took place in the case of the new aviation fuel mini depot at SABIA.

    Away from the quality side of things, there is also the small matter of the constant availability of the product and its regular and timely replenishment, which can only be guaranteed by the relative size of a marketer’s secondary storage facility at the airports. The relative proximity of secondary storage to the primary storage facilities at the jetties is also a huge factor. And the farther away one is from the other, the bigger the secondary airport storage necessarily needs to be to guarantee a reasonable stockholding of a minimum of six days’ supply to contracted airline customers on average at any point.

    To address that all-important airport storage issue in a more cost-effective and holistic manner, marketers have been known to come together to jointly build and operate shared common storages like the Joint Users Hydrant Installation (JUHI) at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, and the Joint Aviation Facility (JAF) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, for example. Just recently, on October 17, 2024, the Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, commissioned the long-awaited 15 million litres capacity JUHI 2 in Ikeja, capable of supplying 150 million litres of jet fuel monthly, which adds to the JUHI 1 and the respective marketers’ individual storages there.

    Again, the standard practice is that all airlines, both local and international, do have in place executed fuel supply contracts with the respective marketers that are renewed annually through an open and transparent bidding process, even though some small operators and one-time visitors do make ad-hoc purchases occasionally. As a rule, the airlines execute such contracts with more than one marketer to spread their risks, as opposed to putting all their eggs in a single basket by having only one dedicated supplier. That way, if one supplier runs out of Jet Fuel or Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK), as it is also called, the other(s) can easily supply them.

    I struggled to rationalise the outrageous claim by the Kebbi Commissioner of Information and Culture where he stressed, for emphasis that “it is on record that aircraft on international routes land at the airport for the sole purpose of refuelling and moving on”. Apart from the requirement of the IFQP certification and the prerequisite of a subsisting business relationship between the depot operator at SABIA and the individual airlines that are both required to make that possible, the miserly 180,000 litres capacity storage does not even support such a claim.

    For one, it will not even earn the operator of that facility an invitation to bid for a supply contract even where international flights routinely land there, which is certainly not the case as we speak. More so, when there are numerous other marketers-owned and operated storage facilities with combined capacities running into millions of litres at the nation’s major international gateways in Abuja, Kano, Lagos and Port Harcourt, where these airlines usually land and operate from.

    With such readily accessible ample storage facilities at these four strategically located major airports across the country, I wonder what will push any serious international airline pilot to make a detour to Birnin Kebbi just to refuel at its mini depot that is the equivalent of only a few of fuel tankers in terms of capacity. Aviation refuelling is not your typical petrol or diesel refuelling activity, where the Danfo minibus or Molue commercial drivers may be at liberty to break their journey at will to refuel at any available roadside filling station, en route their respective destinations.

    Plus, the average ATK volumes consumed by these international flights in a single refuelling operation are such that SABIA’s 180,000-litre capacity storage will not even be attractive enough. Just by way of illustration, a DHL Cargo flight from Lagos to Johannesburg will take an average of 65,000 litres of jet fuel during refuelling, for example; a British Airways flight to London Heathrow with require around 70,000 litres; just as a Delta Airlines non-stop flight from Lagos to Atlanta will consume between 120,000 to 130,000 litres. Pray, what quantity will be left for the depot operators’ local airline customers after a single refuelling operation?

    The fact that one or two local airlines flying into Sokoto might have ran into a possible stock-out situation at the Sir Abubakar III International Airport and proceeded to Birnin Kebbi to take a few thousands of litres is not enough justification to make those wild claims about international airlines refuelling there. If it holds true, the commissioner should please release the names of those airlines and the respective dates they stopped over just to refuel.

    •Usman writes via <usmanabd@gmail.com>

  • Rivers and burden of leadership in times of crisis

    Rivers and burden of leadership in times of crisis

    By Taminu Yakubu

    Throughout history, leadership has never been measured by mere occupancy of office but by the ability to act decisively in the face of disorder. From the ancient philosopher-kings of Plato’s Republic, tasked with safeguarding justice, to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which emphasizes pre-emptive action against internal threats, it has been clear that governance is not a passive role but an active duty. John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government reminds us that when those entrusted with power begin to subvert the institutions that sustain governance, superior authority must intervene to restore order.

    It is in this context that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s intervention in Rivers State must be understood—not as a political manoeuvre, but as a constitutional necessity to prevent the descent into anarchy. His actions, in invoking Section 305 of the Nigerian Constitution, affirm the fundamental role of the presidency: not as a bystander to disorder but as the ultimate custodian of constitutional integrity and national stability.

    Assault on democracy: A governor’s betrayal of democratic institutions

    Democracy is fragile, not because of external threats alone, but because of the paradox it creates: it can elevate to power individuals who, under its very banner, seek to undermine it. Aristotle, in Politics, warned of democracy’s vulnerability to self-destruction when those elected to govern refuse to be governed by laws. This paradox has played out in Rivers State, where an elected executive governor, entrusted with the duty of upholding democratic governance, has instead orchestrated the systematic dismantling of the legislative arm of government.

    The illegal removal of 27 duly elected legislators, replaced by a token assembly of four loyalists, is not just an abuse of power—it is the subversion of constitutional democracy. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America foresaw this risk, noting that “when the legislative power is annihilated, the executive alone remains to dominate, and tyranny becomes inevitable.” The governor of Rivers State has thus sought to establish personal rule within a democratic structure, a perversion of the very principles that justify his mandate.

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    The role of a governor is not to manufacture crisis to prove his popularity. Electoral legitimacy does not grant immunity from the rule of law. The premise of democracy is not just winning elections but governing within the legal framework that sustains democracy itself. Even the most popular leader ceases to be legitimate the moment he subverts the institutions that check executive power.

    The looming economic and security catastrophe

    Beyond the assault on democracy, Rivers State faces an existential threat to its economic and security stability. The wanton destruction of critical oil and gas infrastructure, allowed to fester under the governor’s watch, threatens not just the state but the entire Nigerian economy. Rivers State is an economic artery of the nation—its oil wealth is not just local revenue, but a pillar of national fiscal stability.

    The consequences of inaction are clear: reduced crude oil output, loss of investor confidence, and further strain on the nation’s already fragile economic recovery. Edmund Burke’s timeless warning remains relevant: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Tinubu’s action is a reaffirmation that the president of Nigeria cannot afford to be a spectator while a reckless governor drives the nation toward economic ruin.

    The justification of presidential authority

    The Nigerian Constitution provides not only the framework for democratic governance but also the mechanisms to prevent its collapse. Under Section 305, the president is empowered to declare a state of emergency when a governor’s actions threaten the stability and security of the nation. This provision exists precisely to address situations like Rivers State, where a state executive, instead of governing responsibly, manipulates political structures, incites disorder, and enables economic sabotage.

    Tinubu’s intervention is therefore not a threat to democracy but a defence of it. It is in line with the Magna Carta’s principle of accountable governance, which asserts that rulers must govern within established laws, and it echoes the U.S. presidential model, which Nigeria emulated, wherein the president, as Commander-in-Chief, is duty-bound to intervene when state governments violate constitutional order.

    A statesman’s duty in the face of disorder

    History has shown that nations that fail to check lawlessness at its inception often descend into irreversible chaos. The fall of the Roman Republic, the collapse of Weimar Germany, and even the military takeovers of Africa’s post-independence era all share a common pattern: the refusal to act when democracy was first undermined.

    President Tinubu’s action in Rivers State is not an overreach—it is a necessary assertion of the principles that sustain Nigeria’s democratic experiment. Leadership demands firmness in the face of disorder, decisiveness in times of democratic subversion, and unwavering commitment to national stability. By stepping in before Rivers State spiralled into full-scale anarchy, Tinubu has acted not as a politician, but as a statesman—a custodian of Nigeria’s democratic and economic survival.

    •Yakubu is the Director-General of Budget Office, Abuja

  • Countering misinformation and promoting truth

    Countering misinformation and promoting truth

    By Disu Kamor

    Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC) is compelled to address the recent testimony of Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Benue State, before the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Africa Subcommittee, on 12th March, 2025. The Bishop’s testimony contains many unsubstantiated allegations and dangerous claims. One of the most outrageous allegations of the Bishop is that Christians in Benue State, which is governed almost entirely by Christians, has 98 per cent Christian population (according to the Bishop), is under existential threat from “Islamist extremists”. The logic of this allegation is that 2 per cent of the population, is terrorizing, and poses an existential threat to the 98 per cent of the population that is totally in control of all the aspects of the life in Benue State, including the control of resources and security apparatus. This allegation on its own deserves scrutiny. The idea that 2 per cent of the population can pose an existential threat to the remaining 98 per cent is mathematically improbable. It defies logic to assume that such a small minority can exert such significant influence and control to the point of posing an existential threat. The bishop’s narrative, unsupported by any empirical evidence, overlooks the complex systemic issues that contribute to violence and insecurity in Benue State, such as poverty, inequality, and political marginalization.

    Bishop Anagbe also alleges that Nigerian Muslims are together implementing a stealth agenda to Islamise Nigeria through violence and terrorism, and in some cases, as he implied, with the connivance of the Nigerian government. He further alleges that:

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    •“A long-term, Islamic agenda to homogenize the population has been implemented, over several presidencies, through a strategy to reduce and eventually eliminate the Christian identity of half of the population.”

    •“The quest to Islamize the land appears high on the agenda of some of the powerful and influential Muslims.”

    •Nigeria’s Muslim population, through “many presidencies” have utilized “Islamist extremists” as a tool to change “the traditional social dynamics of tribe, ethnicity, religion and social status in Nigeria, as elsewhere in Africa.”.

    Sadly, the Bishop engaged in all these Islamophobic tropes just to provide propagandist justification for United States to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) – for the 2nd time, each time during President Trump’s terms in office. The utterances, actions, and manipulations of these leaders of faith make a normal person wonder what exactly are their motives and perceived gains to see Nigeria sanctioned, and its Muslim population demonised?

    But there is a pattern to this action. In June 2020, another group of Nigerian Christian leaders went to London, armed with a similar propaganda materials and flawed arguments that Bishop Anagbe took to Washington, to urge support for their agenda through the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, an informal cross-party group. Similar to the script being played now, the APPG issued a 56-page report titled NIGERIA: UNFOLDING GENOCIDE? to express its findings and recommendations. The Chair of this group, Jim Shannon of the Democratic Unionist Party, unable to steer clear of bias, wrote a fanciful commentary as a forward to the report. In it, he expressed his sorrow that Nigerian Christians alone have become the purposeful victims of a murderous campaign by the Fulani Muslims who are orchestrating the tragic conflicts as a precursor to a genocide. He went further to state that the Boko Haram cultists have targeted only the Christians during its entire campaign of terror and concluded that Christianity in Nigeria is facing an existential threat. Curiously, one of the recommendations of APPG to the UK government was that Nigeria should be sanctioned.

    Contrary to the flawed claims of these Christian leaders and their foreign collaborators who are always ready to help with the argumentative heavy lifting, eager to declare Muslims guilty of all charges, the facts speak for themselves. By all accounts, Muslim Nigerians have been the greatest victims of terrorism in Nigeria with many killed, displaced, and traumatized by Boko Haram and other extremist groups. There are also numerous newspaper reports of Christian terrorist groups, sometimes dressed in Muslim attires, caught planting explosives in churches or attacking Christian populated areas. According to various reports, the majority of those affected by terrorism are Muslims. Other reports suggest that both Christians and Muslims have been affected by violence and terrorism. For instance, according to the US Department of State’s 2022 International Religious Freedom Report, Boko Haram’s violence has affected both Muslims and Christians, resulting in numerous deaths. In light of this grim fact, we hold the firm belief that it is crucial for faith leaders to rise above ancient enmity and ethnic prejudice to promote national peace and reconciliation, especially through interfaith cooperation and understanding.

    While we work together to address the root causes of insecurity and terrorism, faith leaders must not be seen to be engaged in driving destructive and divisive agendas that are not motivated by any actual evidence of deliberate and concerted action that threatens their existence, peace and safety, thereby perpetuating harmful stereotypes, deception and misinformation about others.

    As the Muslim Public Affairs Centre, we remain committed to promoting peace, understanding, and cooperation among all faith communities in Nigeria. We urge all stakeholders to join us in this effort and to reject hate speech and Islamophobic rhetoric of those driven by theology of hate, religious supremacism, and ethnic hatred.

    In conclusion, we urge Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe to retract his unsubstantiated claims and to join well-meaning Nigerians of all faiths in building sustainable peace, national reconciliation, interfaith cooperation and understanding. His testimony is a prime example of how misinformation and biases can be used to fuel divisions, perpetuate harmful stereotypes, and aid the cause of the terrorists. It is essential to approach such claims with critical eye and demand evidence-based narratives that promote understanding and reconciliation. Together, we can work towards a more peaceful and harmonious Nigeria, where all citizens can thrive regardless of their faith or ethnicity.

    It is essential to recognize that Nigeria’s insecurity and terrorism issues are complex and multifaceted, involving various factors such as poverty, inequality, and ethnic tensions. To attribute these problems solely to a Muslim agenda is not only inaccurate and mischievous but also counterproductive. It is now time for the Nigerian government to hold these peculiar faith leaders accountable for their utterances and actions that threaten national peace and unity. While we urge the Government to take concrete steps to address the root causes of insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria, we also expect that they will not continue to watch by as these leaders move from country to country to spread blatant lies on religious persecution or to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and misinformation about Nigeria and Nigerias citizens.

    Finally, we call on the international community to be cautious of misinformation and to verify facts before making any decisions that may harm the people of Nigeria. The designation of a country as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) should be based on verifiable evidence and credible sources, not on the basis of misinformation and propaganda by individuals who driven by Islamophobic agenda, and who would rather see the Muslims and Christians return to the period of the Crusades.

    •Kamor is the Executive Chairman of Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC)

  • The burdens of democracy in Nigeria

    The burdens of democracy in Nigeria

    By Olabode Lucas

    Democratic form of government has over the years been a fascination to mankind since the Greeks evolved it in a rudimentary form in the city state of Athens in the sixth century. Democracy as defined by Abraham Lincoln is the government of the people by the people for the people. The late legendary Sir Winston Churchill in 1947 said that democracy might be the worst form of government, but it was better than any other form that had been tried from time to time.

    Despite the sterling features of democracy, which include respect for basic human rights and rule of law, multi-party-political system, political tolerance and citizens’ participation, it was found in 2021 that only 2.3 billion people representing 29% of global population practiced this system of government. This implies that the majority of the people in our planet are under one form of authoritarian rule or the other.

    After many years of one-party rule and military rule which blighted the political landscape in Africa, Nigeria settled for a democratic system of governance in 1999. By now, Nigeria has been under democratic dispensation for the past 26 years, the longest in the country’s troubled political history. This piece is written to evaluate how Nigeria had fared under the present democratic dispensation.

    The starting point for this evaluation lies in the critical examination of how we have been conducting elections into the executive and legislative arms of the government. The electoral law of our country stipulates that elections to these two arms of government should be conducted every four years by the electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The flaw here is that the chairman and members of this body are usually appointed by the party in power and this brings into question the impartiality of members of this electoral body who are supposed to be umpires in the electoral processes.

    Over the past 25 years of democratic dispensations, we have seen some electoral umpires committing brazen electoral malfeasances in many parts of the country with some of them given deserved prison sentences. Since the present democratic dispensation started, most of our elections have been riddled with horrendous irregularities, like ballot box snatching by hoodlums, burning down of voting booths, vote buying, over voting and manipulation of results. All these cast doubt on whether those declared winners in most of our elections were the true choices of the people.

    Since 1999, the conduct of elections in Nigeria had never been above board as reputable election monitoring bodies like Carter Centre and European Union had always scored the conduct of our elections very low. The late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who was a beneficiary of election malfeasance in the 2007 Presidential election, was honest enough to tell the whole world that the election that brought him to power was flawed. He therefore set up the Uwais Commission to make suggestions on how to fine-tune and regulate future elections in the country so that elections in the country could reflect the wishes of the people. Unfortunately the good recommendations of this Uwais Commission are yet to be implemented.

    One of the unfortunate burdens made to be carried by the people by our leaders in the present dispensation, is the humongous amount we spend to maintain both the executive and the legislative arms of the government. The amounts expended every year on the executive arm at both the federal and state levels are presently very opaque. In the 2024 budget of N344.85 billion at the federal level, a whooping sum of N27.5billion (12%) was allocated alone to our lawmakers at the National Assembly. This amount is used to pay their take home pay which is in the neighbourhood of N20 million per lawmaker.  In addition, each lawmaker is entitled to constituency grants, payment for legislative aides and for other sundry allowances. In the states, the lawmakers too have bloated payments. It is an open secret that Nigerian lawmakers are the highest paid in the world.

    Recently, the chairman of Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Abduraham Sunaita from Kano State said that his take home pay was N21 million in addition to his monthly salary of N1 million a month. Apart from their munificent payments, the leadership of the National Assembly engages in obscene ostentatious living by going about in money gulping vehicular convoys terrorizing innocent people on the road. In other climes, people join politics to serve and for selfless reasons to make names but in Nigeria people join to serve themselves and to have unbridled access to the nation’s treasury.

    Apart from being maintained by a huge slice of the nation’s revenue, the output of our lawmakers is minimally low. In most cases the lawmakers at the federal level engage themselves in frivolous issues. A case in point is the present tango between the Senate President Godwill Akpabio and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan over sexual harassment issue which is now on international radar. The integrity of the senate has no doubt been brought down as a result of this unfortunate distraction.

    In the present democratic dispensation, it is difficult to see much democracy is taking place in the states. In most states, the governors behave more or less like dictators who have muzzled the legislative arms, the judiciary and the local government. The so-called state electoral body in each state has become the agent of the ruling party in the state and as a result local government elections in virtually all the states are won 100% by the party in power in the state. This is in sharp contrast to what happened during the First Republic when opposition parties could win local government elections with ease. There are certainly no democratic norms in the states of Nigeria. This is an incontrovertible fact; Nigeria cannot claim to be a truly democratic country with present emasculation of other organs of governance by the state governors.

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    With regard to the rule of law which is an important tenet in democratic dispensation, Nigeria cannot presently claim high marks in this respect. Court judgements against various governments are usually not implemented and in most cases ignored especially at the federal level. The disdain for judiciary was very common during the administrations of Presidents Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, both of them former military rulers who later metamorphosed to civilian presidents. In addition, Obasanjo meddled in the affairs of the National Assembly and throughout his regime he planted his cronies in the leadership of the National Assembly. Governors who did not do his biddings were unconstitutionally removed.  He even tried to manipulate the system in a subtle way for him to get an undeserved third term. Obasanjo, being the first president in 1999 in the present dispensation, did not leave a very good foundation for democracy to thrive in our country as he instituted an imperial presidency.

    In the past 25 years of democratic dispensations in Nigeria, while we can give the country high marks in press freedom and fundamental human rights observance, we still have a long way to go in ensuring that democracy thrives unhindered in our country.  We certainly need to improve tremendously the way we conduct our elections for all the elective offices at both the federal and state levels. The first step in this direction is to implement the Uwais Commission’s recommendations on the conduct of our elections. The humongous amount currently being used to maintain the executive and legislative arms of the government is too debilitating for the financial health of the country.

    Democracy as practiced now is too expensive and something has to be done to curb this financial haemorrhage. Our democracy will continue to be a sham as long as the local government tier of government is still pedestrian.  There is also a need to curb the dictatorial tendencies of state governors because presently they rule their states as emperors. Currently in Nigeria, the burdens of democracy are becoming too much for the people to bear because of the ways our politicians practice this well acclaimed system of governance.

    •Prof Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan, Oyo State.