The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Saving the Naira

    Saving the Naira

    • We need to produce more at home to curb imports

    Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) governor, Yemi Cardoso, has blamed the continued decline in the value of the naira on two critical sectors of the economy: health and education that many Nigerians now find convenient to seek abroad.

    Cardoso who spoke on Tuesday when he appeared before the plenary of the House of Representatives reeled out huge amounts spent in pursuit of both sectors abroad. He was invited by the House to shed light on the issue.

    According to Cardoso, Nigeria spent $28.65bn on foreign education and $11.01bn on medical tourism, between 2010 and 2020. The cumulative $40 billion exceeded the total current foreign exchange reserves of the apex bank.

    The currency recorded an all-time low on January 29, 2024, when it traded at N1,348.63/$ in the official window. Two days later, precisely on January 31, the highest exchange rate of N1,530 was recorded against the dollar at the parallel market.

    The figures reeled out by Cardoso are frightening. While there were about 15,000 Nigerian students abroad in 1978, the figure jumped to over 71,000 by 2015 and 96,702 in 2018.

    The same applies to medical tourism.

    We agree with the apex bank’s governor that “mitigating a significant portion” of the forex demand “could have resulted in a considerably stronger naira”. But only partially agree with him that what is required is attitudinal change on the part of Nigerians.

    Nigerians did not cause the craze for foreign education and medical tourism. Yes, the figures spent on both are high, but then, the money is only a symptom of more serious problems.

     Forex demands for medical tourism and foreign studies have continued to soar because the governments left the education and health sectors to suffer, like they did the power sector, such that there was no addition to power generation for decades despite increased demand for electricity.

    Many Nigerians would attest to the fact that we had several foreign students in some of our universities even up to the 1980s. That was because the standard was high and relatively compared with that of many universities abroad. Over the years, however, the rot that permeated virtually all sectors of the economy soon afflicted the universities.

    Read Also: Advancing FX liquidity with reforms for naira’s recovery

    Lecturers went on strike at will, sometimes for long periods; funding to the universities progressively fell, etc. Soon, the impact began to be felt in the universities. Standards dropped. Academic calendar became unpredictable such that students could end up spending six or more years for programmes that should normally be concluded in four years.

    This was the genesis of the surge in Nigerians travelling abroad in search of the proverbial golden fleece. And, unlike before when they only went to study, these days, they leave without the intention of returning to the country, again because there is nothing for them to do at home. Another problem created by lack of ideas on job creation on the part of successive governments.

    The same applies to the health sector where we started losing some of our best doctors and specialists to foreign countries as far back as the mid-’80s. Our hospitals which at a time were well patronised even by prominent foreigners soon lost their allure with successive governments’ lukewarm disposition to the welfare of doctors and medical equipment. It was therefore a matter of time too for the doctors and other medical specialists to find succour outside the country, a thing that we are experiencing even to date.

    Because nature abhors a vacuum, Nigerian governments and their officials, rather than fix the problems in our hospitals, began medical tourism, again, with serious consequences for our hard-earned foreign exchange.

    To reverse the trend, governments must lead the way. We need good and responsive governments that would gradually take us back to the relatively comfort zone where we are coming from. Even the National Assembly law makers who summoned the CBN governor contributed to the slide in the fortune of the naira by rejecting vehicles made in Nigeria, preferring imported ones instead.

    We must intensify efforts at local production of goods and services like we used to do in the automobile, textile, agricultural and other sectors, to reduce the stress on forex. That way, we would be able to impact demand and supply of forex in a way that would be favourable to our currency.

  • The crunch

    The crunch

    Biting reforms should not lead to cynical politicians milking people’s pains. Yet, FG too should tweak the reforms to minimise mass hardship

    It’s the crunch: policy reforms bite hard, the gloves are off and cynical politicians home in with tales of the Apocalypse — it’s end times for Nigeria because the ruling order deliberately saps the populace with harsh policies. 

    That is not true, though no one can seize the democratic rights of the political opposition to talk down the government, in order to enhance their own cause. 

    Indeed, were the present rulers in opposition, there is no guarantee they would bad-mouth the government any less, especially if there were popular pains and anguish to be milked — as indeed, there are, in the present case. 

    It’s an unfortunate pathology of Nigerian politics; and why there must be a shift to better, reasoned exchanges across the political aisle. That way, clinical dissection of policies would hallmark public discourse, not milking bile and emotions.

    Which brings the matter to two separate events in two states, where the public protested the current harshness. One protest was in Minna, the Niger State capital, where citizens seized a popular highway, and crippled traffic. The other was in Kano, Kano State, prompting Governor Abba Yusuf to promise a pilgrimage to Aso Rock Villa, to seek special palliatives for Kano, to halt the extensive suffering of Kano people.

    The two protests could have passed as normal — or spontaneous — until Niger Governor, Umar Mohammed Bago, started levying allegations of the opposition wilfully baiting the rumbling tummy of citizens, to allegedly settle political scores.

    The governor even went as far as claiming the protest organisers had the sinister plot of looting and diverting foodstuffs — which was in a convoy of trucks heading towards the blocked highway, to further allegedly subvert the government’s efforts to tackle hunger. The foodstuffs were programmed palliatives.

    But for the government’s intelligence that exposed the alleged plot, claimed the governor, the food trucks could well have been looted under the guise of “protest”. Well, the governor should submit his evidence to the security agencies. Whoever is found culpable should be taken through the grill of the law, until legal conviction.

    Still, even the Niger governor would admit that, even if there was a plot, that plot registered with too many grumbling mouths and rumbling bellies. That is the chilly reality all sitting governments — federal, states and local councils — must fix, if they must turn the ugly tide.

    Meanwhile, on the basis of this allegation, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been clashing with opposition voices, from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the Labour Party (LP). 

    The ruling party insists the opposition voices are playing crass politics of the belly. The opposition counter the reform policies are too harsh, even if both PDP and LP, at the 2023 elections, pledged themselves to similar reforms, should they win the presidential mandate: removing fuel subsidy and finding a market-determined parity for the Naira, against the dollar and other foreign currencies.

    However the Federal Government feels, even it would admit the pain and misery in the land. To be fair, President Bola Tinubu loses no moment to acknowledge citizens’ pains; and how he and his policy suite are working hard to improve things. 

    But until gains are clear and manifest, the opposition would not be robbed of its democratic right to gloat; and to paint a doomsday scenario to push own message. What the government must do in the circumstance, is to own up to its policies; be more clinical in thinking, less pissed in emotions, and try to periodically tweak the policies to bring citizens progressive relief, without surrendering the ultimate goal of the reforms, so long as it feels that is the hard and straight path to economic rebirth.

    Here, there are two fundamental policy pillars: subsidy removal and finding a market-realistic parity for the Naira. Both have been responsible for soar-away inflation. It rose in December 2023 to 28.92%, from 28.20 % in November 2023. It was 22.41% in May 2023, when the Tinubu Presidency was inaugurated, citing National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data.

    One of the two pillars, however, has a possible soft-landing nest. With local refining of petrol taking off, the pump price of all grades of petroleum products should moderate in months, other things being equal. 

    That should temper inflation, if it happens — and there is no reason it should not, if we deal with market forces. Besides, forex spent on importing products should seriously reduce — and freed for other productive uses — thus easing the dollar-shortage crisis.

    So, what the government should do is to further pressure the ready local refineries to start business and push out products for the local market — and effectively share its efforts with the public via a vigorous partnership with the media. Fortunately, the Federal Government has stakes in both the Dangote Refinery and the Port Harcourt Refinery, both ready to start pumping fuel.

    The second leg of the policy pillar would appear not so predictable — not with executive and street rogues, from the banking halls to the hustling lane, barricaded to game the system, fatten selves but bankrupt the majority. Such a roguish mindset makes the market even more imperfect, leading to a Naira free fall, not on the basis of sound economic activity but out of system rigging, by those who should play the game by the rules.

    To deal with such a greedy and irresponsible elite, the government must get very aggressive: clamp down on these thieves, treat them as the economic saboteurs that they are, hand them their harsh comeuppance according to the law and publicise these corrective activities to act as deterrence to others. 

    Still, at the earliest, all of these will yield result in the medium run — given Nigeria’s leisurely pace of prosecution and trial. To complement that, however, the government could embark on a media blitz, combined with deliberate activities that forcefully discourage these criminal conducts, stressing the stiff penalties such would earn, while the Central Bank should not hesitate to roast the executives of the errant banks.

    Aside, the government should carry out a vigorous tracking of the exchange policy, tweaking it from time to time, to ease the pains on the citizens. The idea here is to be flexible, not adopt a rigid orthodoxy that could put the Naira sinking in a bottomless hole.

    Meanwhile, the Federal Government should speedily dispense with whatever dissonance and drama with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, so that monetary transfers to the poorest and most helpless among Nigerians can resume — if indeed, it ever stopped.

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    To fob off opportunistic partisans preying on public rage, such monetary succours are absolutely imperative. It should also complement this step with palliatives from the national strategic grains reserves, as President Tinubu reportedly just ordered, to tamp down food inflation and assuage mass hunger.

    Still, a palliative economy is no long-term solution. It’s only a reminder that the basic problem is still there. Palliatives are only short-term tinkering, which should give way, when the economic fundamentals are much better.

    Besides, removing subsidy and floating the Naira, thus risking this current massive devaluation, are supposed twin-tactics to avoid further debts but instead attract venture capital by global investors. 

    Inasmuch as it is fine to critique the policies, it helps a great deal to at least try to understand the policy framework. That way, it would be critical but constructive critiquing, not blind blusters. Such wild blusters not only traduce or criminalise policy makers for whatever motives, they add zero value to policy review and improvement.

    Such, unfortunately, would appear the din that today drives policy discourse in the public space. Even if politicians are way too wayward to achieve such rigorous heights, the media should aim at it, being the esteemed Fourth Estate. 

    Why? A more rigorous media tracking will help to curtail hell raisers and rabble rousers, with suspect public interest value. Besides, every nation goes through rough patches and lean times in its history — and most navigate through it. So, it’s not every difficult time that Nigeria faces “Armageddon”. 

    The media has a pivotal role to put things in proper perspectives. It cannot afford failure in that bounden duty. We, after all, have no other country beyond Nigeria.

  • Jimi Solanke (1942 – 2024)

    Jimi Solanke (1942 – 2024)

    • The master story teller is gone

    Notably, the celebration of his landmark 80th birthday in July 2022 was enriched by the release of a compilation of his complete musical works and unveiling of a 127-page photo journal titled ‘The Grand Master: three months later. The two-in-one event at June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State, was a collaboration between the Ogun State government and Evergreen Musical Company Limited, Lagos, which produced the compilation and the journal.

    It was a fitting tribute to Jimi Solanke, who was also known honorifically as ‘Baba Agba:, a Yoruba expression that captured his advanced age, veteran status and giant height as a multi-dimensional performer. 

    He took his profession seriously. Whether he was playing a role, making music, dancing, or telling a story, there was no question about his creativity, professionalism and enthusiasm. He wore various artistic hats: actor, composer, singer, dancer, folklorist, storyteller, poet and playwright. Ever conscious of his Yoruba and African roots, he was a genuine cultural ambassador till his death on February 5, aged 81. 

    His creative life started early. As a student at Odogbolu Grammar School, in present-day Ogun State, he formed a music group called Koroba. The band performed folk songs using iron buckets as musical instruments. He wrote songs in secondary school, including ‘Onilegogoro’, :Ore Titan:, ‘Na Today You Come’, and ‘Khaki No Be Leather’, for Highlife star Roy Chicago. He also worked with Highlife greats Eddy Okonta and Chris Ajilo. One of his popular songs, ‘Omiyale’, which was inspired by the Ogunpa flood in Ibadan many years ago, is still relevant today as parts of the country are faced with flooding problems. 

    He was among the first diploma students in Nigeria’s first school of drama, which became the Department of Theatre Arts in the University of Ibadan, Oyo State. It was there his voice was trained and his spoken English polished. He was, in his words, “trained in all the ramifications of theatre” and “arrested by the spirit of drama.”

    By this time, he was already known as a singer and his songs were being played on radio. He began his professional acting career in the early 1960s, in Ibadan, and was one of the pioneer members of the Orisun Theatre Company founded by Wole Soyinka, the distinguished Nigerian playwright who, in 1986, became the first black African to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. He later joined the Ori Olokun Centre in Ile-Ife.

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    When he moved to America, he formed a performing group called The Africa Review, which promoted African culture. The group performed mainly in schools, and was well known in Los Angeles, California, for dancing and storytelling. “That was where I actually started telling stories,” Solanke recalled.

    Described as a “master storyteller” by CNN, he created two popular children’s television shows based on storytelling, Storyland and African Stories, after he returned to Nigeria in 1986.

    He acted in films by Wole Soyinka, Ola Balogun and Tunde Kelani, all big names, which spoke volumes about his value. “But my own interest is not in film making,” he declared. “I’m made for stage roles.” On stage, he played Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, Kurunmi, Elesin Oba, and Sizwe, in well-known plays.

    Nothing perhaps better illustrates Solanke’s passion for thespianism, and devotion to its promotion, than his arts centre which was still being built at the time of his death. The place he was building in his hometown, Ipara, Ogun State, he said, “is a centre for creative and performing arts enhancement.” Called Ibudo Asa, it is, he explained, designed to teach “the rudiments of stage presence, voice mastery, acting, and total theatre experience for continuity of live stage performance.” 

    His dream must not be allowed to die. This legacy project was a way to give back to society. Government bodies, cultural organisations, culture-friendly companies and individuals, for instance, can help bring Solanke’s dream to fruition. 

  • In public interest

    In public interest

    • Society’s health will benefit from NAFDAC ban on alcoholic drinks in sachets

    A ban by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on alcoholic beverages packaged in small sachets and pet bottles came into force last week. The agency said it had since December 2018 struck a deal with stakeholders to stop production of the beverages in such packages and gave manufacturers a five-year window to phase them out. It was after the grace period lapsed that enforcement of the ban kicked in on February 1.

    Following the deadline expiration, operatives of NAFDAC have been moving in on alcoholic beverage-producing factories not in compliance to seal them off. NAFDAC Director-General, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, said the ban was not a sudden thing, but rather the outcome of an agreement by a multilateral committee that the policy be implemented in phases. Under the pact, production was to be cut by 50 percent by 2020, while outright ban was to take effect on January 31, this year. Given that decision, the regulatory agency had not issued licence renewal beyond last month to any manufacturer.

    At a parley with journalists in Abuja, the NAFDAC helmswoman said the agency resorted to eliminating alcoholic beverages in sachets because of the negative effects on public health, especially underage children. According to her, the beverages were being packaged in pocket-friendly sizes and at affordable costs, which made them accessible to children, among others, with susceptibility to addiction. She recalled that the decision to eliminate the packages stemmed from the recommendation in December 2018 of a panel involving the Federal Ministry of Health and NAFDAC on one hand, and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), industry stakeholders represented by the Association of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), as well as Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN), on the other hand.

    Adeyeye outlined sundry hazards to public health constituted by the packaging being eliminated. “The people who are mostly at risk of the negative effect of consumption of the banned pack sizes of alcoholic beverages are the under-aged and commercial vehicle drivers and riders,” she said. According to the NAFDAC boss, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has established that children who drink alcohol “are more likely to use drugs, get bad grades, suffer injury or death, engage in risky sexual activity, make bad decisions and have health problems. The WHO also stated that harmful consumption of alcohol is linked to more than 200 health conditions, including infectious diseases (tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS) and non-communicable conditions (liver cirrhosis and different types of cancer). It is also associated with social problems such as alcohol addiction and gender-based violence.” She added: “To curb the menace of abuse of alcohol, the WHO recommended some actions and strategies to policy makers that have shown to be effective and cost-effective. These include regulating the marketing of alcoholic beverages (in particular to younger people) and regulating and restricting the availability of alcohol.”

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    We are in total agreement with the regulatory czarina that sachet-pack alcoholic beverages have been hugely detrimental to public health in the country; hence, the clampdown is a welcome step that portends great benefit to society. And this isn’t just in the area of health. The heightened crime wave presently being experienced has been found to involve more of youthful persons, with their emboldening most likely stemming from easily accessed stimulating drinks and drugs that society would be better off getting out of reach. Safety on our roads will also be positively impacted because drunk driving by commercial drivers is largely attributable to easy access to sachet alcohol at motor parks.

    Organised labour was reported raising opposition to the NAFDAC ban and shutdown of production lines of companies manufacturing alcoholic drinks in sachets and small bottles below 200ml. Protesting workers, led by labour leaders to NAFDAC office in Lagos, complained that no fewer than 45,000 jobs and billions of Naira in investments were at the risk of going down the drain. But it is pertinent to note that these producers had a five-year window to readapt their production lines, which they didn’t avail themselves of. Labour should encourage such re-adaptation now rather than fight the laudable policy of NAFDAC. Adeyeye was bang on point when she said the future of Nigeria superseded other considerations in the enforcement of the policy, and that saving Nigerian children and protecting the health of the larger society was paramount to the agency. We can’t agree more.

  • Unexplained wealth

    Unexplained wealth

    • It’s time to strengthen laws on illicit asset acquisition

    Given the alarming rate of corrupt enrichment in Nigeria, the country should join others that have introduced laws empowering anti-graft agencies to seize assets by public officers known to be living above their legitimate incomes. Countries that have introduced such legislations are Kenya, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, among others.

    Last October, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), restated its call for the National Assembly to come up with a law that would strengthen its hand in combating corruption in the country. For years, Transparency International (TI) has rated Nigeria as one of the most corrupt in the world, while surveys have rated public agencies such as the Nigeria Police Force and Nigeria Customs Service as the worst culprits. Only last week, President Bola Tinubu ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), to remit all incomes into the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), owing to public outcry about the opacity of the organisation.

    The Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, who made strenuous efforts to get the 9th National Assembly to pass a bill on unexplained wealth has also pointed out that the easiest means of making the rich accountable is for the President to sign an Executive Order to that effect.

    He explained that all politicians, public servants and civil servants should have the light beamed on them, and whoever is unable to justify the source of his wealth should have same forfeited to the state as a way of sanitising the public sector.

    We agree with the EFCC chairman and the Senate Chief Whip. A situation whereby people who had nothing before being elected to represent their constituency in the federal legislature are bold enough to display exotic cars on the social media should be halted.

    The government should also stop encouraging corrupt leaders found culpable but allowed to slip through by applying a mere slap on the wrist through what is now called plea bargain. Whoever stole public fund should be made to feel the full wrath of the law.

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    When Senator Ndume stridently argued for passage of the bill in 2021, the argument of his colleagues who stalled it was that the government in power could use it to haunt the opposition; the same reasons always adduced in attacking attempts to strengthen the anti-graft agencies and laws. It must be understood by all that a country in the condition that Nigeria is, where opulence stands in violent contradiction to abject poverty and squalor; where unemployment, especially youth unemployment is so rife that anger is very visible on the faces of the oppressed and deprived, cannot continue to be run as business as usual.

    In Nigeria today, many see the elite as enemies and, should the opportunity present itself, wanton destruction of public and private property may just be lurking in the corner.

    If Senator Ndume who has been in the National Assembly for about five terms cannot push such a bill through, we wonder who can. President Tinubu who has been warning that he would wrestle public corruption to the ground should sign an Executive Order to this effect immediately. The Order would complement fiscal and monetary policies already announced to reverse the rot in the system.

    The task of rescuing the economy from parasites and pests is so urgent that it should not wait for an extra day. President Tinubu should seize the momentum to do what has become inevitable  –  sign a law that would free the battle against corruption from the complex criminal prosecution process. Nigeria is too blessed for her resources to be surrendered to the corrupt ones who in turn flaunt the ill-gotten wealth in the most offensive manner.

  • No pension

    No pension

    • It is disheartening that 26 state govts are yet to join the current pension scheme.

    The underlying principle of a pension scheme is that when workers have diligently served an organisation, establishment or government, and these workers reach an advanced age at which their strength begins to wane, those they have so dutifully served would show appreciation of their service and reciprocate by helping the erstwhile strong workers to cope with their new or emerging vulnerabilities. It usually involves paying a regular sum of money to the affected staff.

    In this country, as governance started to fail, one of its most unconscionable indices became the failure of governments at various levels to honour their pension responsibilities to their retirees.  Retirement therefore started to be something to look forward to with apprehension. Some have argued that the desire to avoid the miserable existence that had come to characterise post-retirement life in Nigeria is one of the factors predisposing workers to corruption, as a means of feathering their nests and making hay while the sun shines, so to say.

    To mitigate the pains of post-retirement life, which resulted from, among other problems, the dependence on unreliable budgetary allocations, various measures have been emplaced. One of such remedial and preventive policies is the introduction of the Pension Reform Act 2004 which had as a component the Contributory Pension Scheme that required both the prospective retiree and the employer to make payments into a retirement fund for each worker. The Pension Act 2004 was revised, repealed and replaced with the Pension Reform Act 2014. One salutary feature of the scheme was to remove bureaucratic bottlenecks and the misapplication of pension funds and thereby make pension matters largely business transactions between pension administrators and beneficiaries, guided by protective legislation to make the process fairly transparent and more accountable.

    It is however discomfiting that as many as 26 out of the nation’s 36 states have not fully subscribed to the more worker-friendly scheme.  This failure continues to subject pensioners to avoidable humiliation and pain, and perpetuates the travesty in which the pledge to pay pensions or pension arrears has now become a veritable election campaign promise by sundry governors.  Pension payments are now therefore at the whims and caprices of these governors.

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     The co-option of some labour union leaderships by scheming state governors has been identified as a reason for the widespread perpetuation of the anti-worker tendency. This is unacceptable and the defaulting states should post-haste join the league of state governments that have, like the Federal Government and the private sector, started implementing the more beneficial pension policy, while necessary revisions of different aspects of the policy continue.

    The implementation of the new pension policy is not the right occasion for exercising the constitutional right of states not to necessarily do what the Federal Government is doing. Therefore, it is hoped that in order not to create the unflattering impression that Nigeria’s state governments are principally a scourge to workers and the citizens at large, the different forums of state governors should begin to demonstrate that they are platforms for sharing and encouraging the adoption of best practices on how to serve the people. They should be forums for advocating for the promotion of the people’s welfare  by ensuring that all state governments adopt the new pension scheme along with supporting such noble policies as granting local governments due autonomy.

    While commending the state governments that have already started implementing the equitable pension policy, it is important to note that adopting certain complementary measures would make the policy to serve the retirees better. Such measures include retirement-targeted housing schemes by state governments and counselling on and facilitation of post-retirement investment opportunities.

  • For minimum trouble

    For minimum trouble

    • The quest for a living wage is what is at stake

    Minimum wage is one of the wracking questions of the day as the country, with the Bola Tinubu administration, tackles inflation and foreign exchange puzzle. It is not whether we want a new wage for workers, both in public and private spheres, but what that wage could be and whether we can afford it. It is living wage.

    The crisis is emphasised by the lingering inability of some state governments to pay the last wage agreement between governments and organised labour in October, 2019. It is relatively easy to peg the minimum wage, but the real problem often is to understand that the minimum wage implies payments of wages in grades above the least-paid. That means the higher it goes, the hotter it becomes for both the Federal Government and the private sector.

    What has happened over the years is that workers in states have come to resign themselves to a bad choice in which they either accept what is possible, which is the old pay, or the fantasy of new pay that the employer will turn into promissory note.

    In his maiden address this year, President Tinubu promised to review the wages in a note of inevitability. Since last year, though, the organised labour has been fulminating and has embarked on strikes of paralytic consequences over the effects of the removal of fuel subsidies and the collapsing of the exchange rates.

    About a month after the President’s speech, Vice President Kashim Shettima inaugurated a 37-person tripartite committee comprising the Federal Government, the private sector and the organised labour. Such committees tend to raise both hope and anxieties. Hope because it implies the Federal Government has demonstrated action. Anxiety because it is an opportunity for organised labour to huff and puff and grandstand. It is understandable; too, that such committees tend to defray tension and stir cynics and critics to think it is the government’s way of kicking the can down the road and buy time.

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    Whatever the case, the Federal Government, with the voice of Idris Mohammed, Minister of Information, has said the present template of wages ends in April when the new one kicks in. That shows perhaps why Vice President Shettima called for the committee to work in earnest speed to ensure that its work kickstarts a new berth for Nigerian workers.

    The 2024 budget seems to have anticipated a new structure of wages with N24.66 trillion allocated to salaries, overheads and pensions for 2024 to 2026. How this will fit into the committee recommendations is keenly awaited.

    Some elements of labour have started to ratchet up expectations by asserting that N200,000 is too small as minimum wage. It may be so. But can companies that even barely pay N30,000 afford it? Can the Federal Government afford it? A minimum wage of that level would make quite a number of people to earn over a million naira a month. Is that not open sesame for inflation? The state governments may see it as mere promise.

    The cost of living is indeed challenging today. Matters are not helped by politicians who politicise virtually everything in the country, like the politically motivated cost-of-living protest in Minna, Niger State, on Monday. There is an urgent need for the Federal Government to quickly sort out the confusion surrounding the humanitarian ministry to enable the much-ballyhooed palliatives become reality in homes across the country.

    The promise to turn the tap of local refineries is making some impatient because of shifts in launch dates of both the Dangote one in Lagos and the Federal Government one in Port Harcourt.

    It is heartening though that we are not in a state where the government is stalling and making labour into a boiling plate.

  • Import dependency

    Import dependency

    • This is killing local drug manufacturing companies

    Obviously concerned to address the problem of astronomical rise in prices of critical drugs and other aspects of healthcare, President Bola Tinubu has issued a directive that the health authorities come up with an action plan to enhance local drug manufacturing in the country, as a key step to achieving this objective. A major contributory factor to the current general high poverty indices in Nigeria is the escalating cost of healthcare, which is in turn largely a function of the large-scale import dependency in pharmaceutical and other vital products in this critical sector.

    In a disclosure that indicates the serious and dangerous dimension of import dependency in the health sector, the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, lamented the low demand for locally manufactured syringes in the country. She spoke against the backdrop of the agency’s discovery of over 1.5 billion unsold units of the product in just a single local factory. Yet, the country expends humongous amounts of scarce foreign exchange in importing these and other domestically produced medical products.

    Quite apart from the pressure which this kind of avoidable expenditure exerts on the value of the Naira as well as creation of job opportunities abroad that could have been generated at home, Professor Adeyeye expressed disappointment that facilities of a number of local pharmaceutical companies were not necessarily inferior to those of foreign companies whose products we prefer to import.

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    It is this kind of self-sabotaging disposition that is responsible for the tragic fact that one of the biggest syringe manufacturing companies in Africa was once located in Uyo in Nigeria; but has since been shut down due to low patronage and the absence of a conducive business operating environment.

    At a meeting with manufacturers of needles and syringes in the country to devise strategies for boosting local production and reducing the prices of these items, the Minister of State for Health, Dr Tunji Alausa, and his Industry, Trade and Investment counterpart, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, it was noted that there are at least five companies in the country dedicated to the production of these medical products. But confronted with low demand to compound other problems militating against efficient and profitable business operations, such as poor power supply, derelict infrastructure as well as high inflation and interest rates, there is no way these concerns can thrive.

    It is assuring that the Minister of Health, Professor Mohammed Pate, stressed the premium which the administration places on aggressive promotion of local pharmaceutical and medical essentials manufacturing in Nigeria to enable Nigerians have access to affordable and safe medicines. But it is impossible for the health sector to flourish in isolation if urgent remedies are not found for the pervasive general economic malaise. The negative consequences of the low patronage of local pharmaceutical manufacturing companies is compounded by the rise in the number of locally based multinational companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline that exited the country in August 2003, which have wound down.

    Speaking during an interaction with executives of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), the NAFDAC boss urged members of the association to put in place necessary measures to curb the importation of foreign syringes. In particular, she decried the alleged importation of unregistered containers of syringes into the country, thus endangering public safety, with the possibility of bringing in substandard products. But this also raises questions as regards the competence, capacity and integrity of both the security and regulatory agencies such as NAFDAC itself, the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA).

    It is estimated that only about 30 percent of drugs consumed in Nigeria are produced locally, with the remaining 70 percent imported mainly from China and India. The National Drug Policy formulated in 2005 as amended stipulates that 70 percent of the drugs used in the country should be locally produced and only 30 percent imported. Nigeria is not anywhere near reaching this target. Nigeria and other African countries are reported to spend at least $14 billion annually on importation of pharmaceutical products needed in the continent. Yet, given the rich flora and fauna with which the continent is blessed, the region can be a major global centre of flourishing drug and medical products manufacturing, while Nigeria has the potential to be a powerhouse in Africa in this regard.

    A major factor in Nigeria’s inability to maximise its potential in this sector is the absence of a vibrant culture of research and development (R&D) due to weak and underfunded higher institutions and research institutes, and the low linkage between the latter and local industries.

  • Ikeja Electric, what’s up?

    Ikeja Electric, what’s up?

    • NERC must wade in on the part of hapless consumers over unilateral tariff hike

    The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) should live up to its responsibility to justify its existence. We wonder why it would appear to be indifferent to the plight of consumers, who complained that Ikeja Electric may have surreptitiously increased their tariff. A report in this paper a few days ago that there is a huge difference in tariff for electricity purchased between last November and January, this year, has not elicited any response, either from Ikeja Electric or the NERC charged with approving any change in tariff paid by consumers.

    A consumer told this paper: “I recharged my meter on Ikeja Electric yesterday (January 2) at 8.15am with N5,000, and after loading the token, I was surprised to be credited with 66 units of electricity; this is like 10 units short of what I got from the same amount on November 4, 2023 when I got 76 units for N5,000.” He continued, “definitely, Ikeja Electric has increased its tariff, except the firm wants to claim there is a fault in their system warranting this difference of 10 units.”

    When contacted by this paper’s correspondence for comments, the Head of Media, Ikeja Electric, Mr. Kingsley Okotie, could not explain the difference. Instead, he quibbled about the motive for the enquiry over the discrepancies. He said: “See, I am not someone than can be bamboozled. If it is to lay complaint on behalf of a customer, then the customer can get in touch with our complaints centre, but if it is a reaction to your story, then I cannot answer you.” Despite appeals, he refused to react to the claims.

    On our part, we are shocked that a simple question about the welfare of consumers would elicit such unnecessary antagonism. More so, NERC insists that there is no authorisation of tariff increase, and the reasons offered are germane. On its website, it opined: “The commission as well as the industry is responsible enough to appreciate the state of the economy, level of power generation, how Nigerians are coping and would, therefore, not make any decision that could further aggravate the challenges faced by the power sector and the economy.”

    Read Also: Ikeja Electric harps on improved power delivery

    The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, late last year informed Nigerians that President Bola Tinubu stopped the implementation of a hike in electricity tariff and that the nation would continue to pay subsidy on power consumed nationwide, and according to NERC’s report, subsidy on electricity supply in the last quarter of 2023, stood at N204.59bn. So, it is pertinent to ask whether Ikeja Electric is double-dealing with consumers who are also the tax payers of the subsidy?

    We urge NERC to investigate the allegation that some electricity distribution companies (Discos) have raised tariffs without the requisite approval and transparency. The reason offered for the delay in allowing the prices of electricity to go haywire, and for which subsidy has been provided for, has not changed.

     The Federal Government cannot in one hand be offering palliatives to alleviate the economic hardship faced by Nigerians, and yet allow a crushing electricity tariff that would defeat the purpose. That is why a subsidy regime is in place.

    The refusal by Ikeja Electric to come clean on the allegation of consumers does not bode well with the public image of the company. As an enterprise that serves the public, it owes them openness, accountability and transparency. That responsibility is even more pertinent, since it receives subsidy from the government, even though a private enterprise. It cannot charge for services, and at the same time receive subsidy for the same service. To do so would make it a rogue organisation.

    We earnestly await the outcome of the investigation of NERC on the complaints against Ikeja Electric. Such report should be made public, and if there are infractions, requisite punishment must apply.

  • Let’s have state police

    Let’s have state police

    • We cannot continue to hide behind one finger by clinging to the present arrangement

    Many Nigerians, including governors believe that state police is desirable and, in fact, doable. From the north to the south, east to the west, there is the consensus that the present internal security architecture is inadequate and that it would be better if complimented with state police.

    But Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State feels otherwise. Although the governor agrees that the federal police alone cannot guarantee our security, he nonetheless believes that state governments should continue to collaborate with the present Nigeria Police Force (NPF) rather than establish their own police because many state governments cannot afford state police.

    Again, speaking on a Channels TV live programme, “Sunday Politics”, Governor Uzodinma said the clamour for state police was a needless agitation.

    Hear him: “The reason why we must align with the Federal Government is that the economy of some subnational governments is lean, the funding requirement is enormous. So, it has to be a collaboration. Even when the Federal Government has allowed the vigilante approach, how many states have been able to fund an effective and efficient vigilante organisation? State police will only work if the states are in a position to fund it!”

    Uzodinma, is Chairman of both the South East Governors Forum and the forum of governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF). That his opinion is not the dominant one either in the Southeast region or even the APC is exemplified by the fact that most of his colleagues in both groups are for state police.

    As a matter of fact, his Anambra State counterpart, Charles Soludo, had cause to disagree at a public forum on the matter last year. The occasion was day two of the 2023 Session on Traditional and Non-Traditional Security Intervention, Early Conflict Identification, Prevention, Management, and Resolution induction for re-elected and elected governors with the theme; ‘Governing for Impact (Building Sub-national Governance)‘ organised by the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in May, last year.

    Without belabouring the issue, what no one has been able to ignore is the fact that the present security architecture is not working. Kidnapping for ransom, banditry, terrorism, etc, have continued to rise, with consequent loss of limbs, lives and property.

    Read Also: Police arrest six suspected kidnappers in Abuja

    It was the inability of the federal police to adequately protect the citizens that begot regional or state security outfits like Amotekun in the Southwest. Even before that, at least 23 state governments had one form of security agency or the other to complement tbe efforts of the NPF. The states are Kaduna, Sokoto, Kano, Zamfara, Borno, Yobe, Rivers, Osun, Benue, Katsina and Cross River States. Others are Enugu, Taraba, Adamawa, Anambra, Ondo, Ebonyi, Edo, Nasarawa, Plateau, Niger, Bauchi and Abia.

    We acknowledge the fears by some Nigerians that many of our governors lack both the mental and emotional maturity to manage state police. But then, the fear can be mitigated by having proper legal framework to guide the operations of the state policemen. This is what obtains in several countries where state or even local police exist. They all collaborate with the federal police, with each having its areas of jurisdiction.

    Security is basically local and we need people who are indigenous to communities to protect their people.They know the criminals, where they live, etc.

    At any rate, we know that we are only deceiving ourselves if we say only the Federal Government is maintaining the NPF. The truth is that many state governments support the federal police annually with hefty sums to keep their states secure.

    There is therefore nothing wrong in state governments spending a chunk of this on their own police. If the state governments curb frivolous spending and corruption, some of them would still be able to maintain their own police. While those with the means have their state police working in concert with the federal police, states without resources can rely solely on the NPF. The present arrangement where governors are chief security officers of their states even while they control no ‘troops’ is not working. It must give way to a more practical experiment.