The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • A stitch in time…

    A stitch in time…

    • •NDPC needs to be steps ahead of hackers to check cyber fraud

    Last week’s disclosure by the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC), that it is investigating 17 major cases of data breaches and violations has merely confirmed a concerning development, which although often underreported, has grave implications for national security. We refer here to the growing theft of confidential data such as names, email addresses, passwords, banking details, etc. – from a system, usually a hacker— without the knowledge or authorisation of the owner.

    According to the NDPC’s Chief Executive Officer, Vincent Olatunji, over 1,000 complaints were received from concerned individuals and corporate bodies about data infractions. The data breaches and violations are said to spread across financial institutions (banks), technology, education, consulting, lottery and gaming services, as well as logistics services, among others.

    Concerning as the revelation appears, the truth however is that this is actually nothing new. Last year, Surfshark, an Amsterdam-based cybersecurity firm, reported in a study that covered the first quarter of 2023, that Nigeria actually ranked as the 32nd most breached country in the world with a whopping 82,000 leaked accounts, representing a 64% increase from the previous quarter. This was at a time Check Point 2023 Mid-Year Security Report, reported an eight percent surge in global weekly cyber attacks in the second quarter of 2023 – said to be the most significant increase in two years. Needless to state that the yawning gap, between the global average and Nigeria’s, ought to stoke alarm.

    To bring the reality closer home still, we recall the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) once complained about the commission’s result viewing portal coming under attack from hackers during the Ekiti and Osun states’ governorship elections. INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, had at a stakeholders’ conference on election result management in Abuja, disclosed: “Our engineers reported several cyber attacks on the portal during the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections; some of them from as far as Asia. I am glad to note that all of them failed. We have tasked our engineers to do everything possible to fully protect the IReV and all our web resources.”

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    Ironically, similar incidents were to be reported on a larger scale during last year’s general elections.

    Whether at the level of the individual, business or even government, the truth is that cases of compromises of data – from personal information, financial records, medical data, to other identification details – as indeed of identity theft, financial fraud, and reputational damage are not only on the rise but are increasingly common-place. If we may borrow the words of cybersecurity analyst James MacKay, the breaches have morphed from mere cyber security issues to instigators of huge financial losses, reputational damage, legal troubles, regulatory clampdowns, with far-reaching consequences in the erosion of consumer trust. So grave and frightening are the portents that no country can afford to be seen to treat them with levity.

    Having alerted Nigerians to the dangers, the big question is, what is the NDPC doing about them? With hackers known to deploy every tactic to infiltrate, expose and profit from sensitive information, does the commission have the resources, sophistication and the capacity to outpace the perverts in their game? Investigations and punishments are certainly not enough. The recently signed Data Protection Act 2023 which places a fine of two per cent of the gross revenue of any company found guilty of data violation is no doubt an important instrument. However, beyond what amounts to chasing after the offender with the prospect of a hefty fine, there has to be a more embracing strategy to ensure that all the players in the data value chain are not only aware of their responsibility but are seen to match that with the requisite investments to prevent possible compromises. And given that governments at all levels are no less vulnerable to data breaches, they should also be willing to provide the requisite leadership. This seems to us another instance when a stitch in time will save quite a handful!

  • Below board

    Below board

    • Corruption in EFCC: who polices the moral police?

    Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman Ola Olukoyede recently deplored what he called “craze and quest for gratification, bribes and other compromises” by some of the agency’s investigators in the course of their work. He said he had set a process in motion to fish out and penalise such operatives.

    In an address to staff members of the commission at the headquarters in Abuja, the chairman said public opinion about EFCC investigators was low, a situation he described as embarrassing to the anti-graft agency. He warned that corrupt tendencies would not be tolerated under his watch, and threatened the big stick against investigators caught in such act. Olukoyede said: “Public opinions about the conduct of some of our investigators are adverse. The craze and quest for gratification, bribes and other compromises by some of our investigators are becoming too embarrassing and this must not continue. Let me sound a note of warning in this regard. I will not hesitate to wield the big stick against any form of infraction by any staff of the commission.” He added that “the Department of Internal Affairs has been directed to be more ardent in its work and monitor every staff in all their engagements. The image of the commission is too important to be placed on the line by any corrupt officer.”

    Not that the staff are expected to uphold unblemished morals without commensurate incentives, as steps are already being taken to improve their welfare. “I may not talk about specifics. However, the new year promises to bring smiles on the faces of staff across all the commands. We will continue to do our best to put all of you at your best. However, to whom much is given, much is expected,” Olukoyede said.

    It is instructive that the EFCC boss acknowledged corruption within the agency whose raison d’etre is to root

    out corruption from the Nigerian society. The red flag he raised fell in line with his long avowed leadership agenda to ensure the staff of the anti-graft agency live above board, so they would have a solid moral ground to tackle corruption in the body politic.

    In December, last year, he vowed to punish officers of the commission for infractions traceable to unethical practice. In an address in Ilorin, Kwara State, during a walk to mark the 2023 International Anti-Corruption Day, he stressed that professionalism, as well as adherence and commitment to the rule of law would enable Nigerians to contribute to the country’s economic growth, and EFCC staff must lead the way in that regard. “I want every EFCC operative to be more diligent and resourceful concerning our assigned tasks. My leadership will punish infractions traceable to unethical practices. We will ensure that the right things are done at all times,” he said.

    Earlier on, in October, shortly after he took the helm at the commission, Olukoyede directed staff members to immediately declare their assets in line with civil service regulations and procedures, saying fighting corruption required those at the vanguard to be above board. “All of us are going to declare our assets, from Level 17 downwards. I did mine, so there’s no reason for anyone to be afraid to do the same. Even the commission’s secretary did. You all may also have done it in the past, but there’s a need for all of us to do it again. We will declare our assets, and we are going to investigate them,” he told senior staff members of the commission in Abuja, adding: “We must live above board by setting the pace with good examples. As anti-corruption fighters, our hands must be clean.”

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    Olukoyede was right in demanding exemplary conduct from EFCC personnel, because an age-long maxim says he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. It is a sad irony that operatives of the anti-graft agency are under suspicion of fighting corruption with hands soiled with corruption. This has been such that about all of past chief executives of the commission – perhaps with the sole exception of the pioneer chairman – were forced out of office under a cloud of controversy relating to graft allegations. It’s been a case of the society’s moral watchdog needing a watchdog over itself.

    Now that the new sheriff has raised the alarm, we must hope there will no more be hiding place for corrupt elements in the anti-corruption commission. The agency also needs a rebound in its integrity quotient. One way of ensuring this is for Olukoyede to report back on findings from those investigations he talked about, and follow through with diligent prosecution of any EFCC personnel found culpable.

    There is a morale booster for the nation’s anti-graft drive in Nigeria’s improved ranking on Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2023 published last week. The index shows the war on graft can be won if harder fought, only that those leading the charge must have high integrity asset to be effective.

  • ECOWAS and prodigals

    ECOWAS and prodigals

    The bloc should stick to own rules but use diplomacy to brush off pullout threats

    Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, a trio ruled by military juntas, just announced their “immediate” withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).  That should not cause any panic, spawn a rash of doomsday analyses, or even spark emotive blusters that ECOWAS has outlived its usefulness.  It has not.

    If anything, West Africa’s Anglophone-Francophone gulf would appear to have closed somewhat, since ECOWAS’ birthing treaty: the ECOWAS Treaty of Lagos, signed on May 28, 1975, though “complete” integration is still clearly a work-in-progress.

    As partnering sovereign states, the core principle of the collective is voluntary entry and exit, on perceived national interests, as judged by those that occupy power in the 16 respective states.  It’s a moot point though if soldiers, with no democratic mandate, can lay claim to their people’s authority, as different from junta whims, to exit from such a body – Africa’s biggest regional bloc today: 5.2 million square kilometres; a combined GDP of $734.8 billion; an estimated population of 300 million.

    Still, the limitation of soldiers, vis-a-vis elected governments, to make such pivotal decisions, is not quite an open-and-shut case.  ECOWAS itself birthed when many of the 15 founding countries were under military rule.  Ritualised elections — often skewed in many African states to steal power — don’t, open sesame, equate a democracy.  So, rulers can steal power by the ballot, as much as they can by the gun.

    Nevertheless, there is a double jeopardy for junta rule. Whereas elections can be rigged, coups are never a choice.  Rather, they are savage suppression of the majority, by the infinitesimal few, by official arms.  Worse: coups strait-jacket the power-grabbing soldiers and their sorry nationals, with near-no way out, except by counter-robbery by the gun!

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    That ECOWAS, many of its founding fathers though ruling soldiers, has today turned a radical apostle for democracy, shows an admirable bid to learn from past ruins.

    Military rule has been a plague everywhere.  Look no farther than Nigeria.  Its military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, was host-in-chief when the ECOWAS treaty was signed in 1975.  But its current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, proved the opposer-in-chief to coups in the region, with Nigeria’s fierce opposition to the 2023 coup in Niger Republic, despite the cultural bond and fraternal ties between Nigeria and Niger.

    ECOWAS has declared military rule an anathema, a stance this newspaper absolutely shares.  So, the body should not flinch from imposing that rule on any errant member, a category into which Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger fall.  It has started well by suspending the trio; and trying to engage them to announce a reasonable timetable back to credible elections.  It must insist on that, and not succumb to any threat to pull out.

    The reason is simple.  If 12 out of 15 members embrace a protocol as sacred and inviolable, why should they succumb to a pullout blackmail threat, by misguided few, with the mindset of might-is-right?  The three juntas claim ECOWAS has departed its original goal; and is allegedly selling out to foreign interest.  But how? Simply because it disallows an anathema in its collective? Rich!

    If anything, these military rulers project the ire of a child chasing a vanishing lolly, but throwing tantrums to veil his panic.  Or how do you reconcile the trio approaching the ECOWAS Court for some remedy, faced a logical rebuff — suspended members can’t seek relief from the common court — but returned, three weeks later, with the threat of “immediate” pullout?  It’s a classic case of short-gun thinking from a short-fused junta!

    Yes again — as sovereign states, they reserve the right to be in or out.  But even that right is rules-bound; and “immediate” pullout is strange to that rule.  Mauritania, one of the 15 founding states, withdrew from the bloc in December 2000.  But that couldn’t start until December 2001, because by ECOWAS statute, it had to give a one-year notice — which it duly did.  By August 2017, however, the same Mauritania had signed a new agreement with ECOWAS as associate member.

    There is always strength in regional economic blocs that enjoy common trade protocols and sundry benefits, especially for land-locked countries, as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — a clear advantage the trio are now throwing away in a fit of anger.  But those benefits must have been the pull for Cabo Verde — though a cluster of tiny islands on the Atlantic Ocean off the West African coast.  It joined as the 16th member in 1977.

    Yet, it must be stressed that Africans are people scattered across borders.  Different  colonial masters imposed different colonial languages on them — no thanks to the arbitrary carving out of territories by the colonial powers.

    Indeed, the close and intricate relationship between the Hausa, Fulani and Kanuri with kith-and-kin in Niger (Nigeria’s immediate northern neighbour), is akin to the bond of ethnic Yoruba across Nigeria, Benin — and to some extent, Togo and Ghana.  That cross-border kinship is also replicated between the Igbo and sundry ethnics massed along Nigeria’s south east border — with Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

    That, therefore, makes ECOWAS not just a cut-and-dried case. Whether it holds or splits is not clinically settled by law, conventions and protocols.  There are deeper cultural bonds that predate these latter-day laws.  That was why the military option against Niger, to restore ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, was hugely unpopular in the North, even while the Nigerian government, whose President chairs ECOWAS, considered it a rather serious option.

    So again, ECOWAS should not abandon its rules for a junta triad that just declared itself upset.  But it must find ways, beyond these temporary holders of power, to engage the people: using cultural and religious links to dissuade these countries from their arbitrary decisions.  For this, there is a thriving network of monarchs, religious leaders, and even distinguished families that straddle these countries. Such consultations could make the juntas and ECOWAS understand one another better.

    Then, ECOWAS itself is overdue for very stringent peer review, in terms of elections and good governance.  Only that will strengthen its stand that democracy, in West Africa, must be inviolable.  It should not only work hard on clean elections, it should also develop community-wide protocols that vet governance across borders, without breaching the sovereignty of member countries.

    There is also this question of Guinea.  Though one of four countries under military rule, it has been the least arrogant and badly behaved among them. It seems to have taken its sanctions in good faith.  For that, ECOWAS should encourage it and nudge it toward re-democratisation.

    Still, there is no fetish about democracy.  The government voted into power must add value to the people.  If it doesn’t, it should be voted out — as performing ones are rewarded with fresh terms — in elections not only transparent but clearly seen to be so.

    That is the challenge before ECOWAS and its dream of democracy, development and prosperity — and here failure is no option, just as military rule is never one.

  • Double abominations

    Double abominations

    • The killing of Ekiti monarchs and kidnap of pupils and their teachers signpost a dreadful trend

    Perhaps nothing represents the grief of most Nigerians like the public weeping by the House of Representatives member representing Oye/ikole-Ekiti Federal Constituency, Akin Rotimi, who broke down in tears while reporting to the house the killing of two Ekiti monarchs and the abduction of school children and their teachers.

    This sad narrative is coming barely weeks after the people of Plateau State, again as in the last few years, experienced the perennial killings in several communities, with more than 100 people slaughtered in cold blood. Before the blood that soaked the land could dry, more attacks claimed dozens of lives there. The number and magnitude of attacks make some other kidnappings and killings around the country somewhat pale into insignificance.

    The consistency of attacks, kidnappings and killings seem so overwhelming.

    Just last month, the six daughters of a family were kidnapped, one killed and ransom allegedly paid for the release of the other five. Another family lost a nursing mother. In the army housing estate in Abuja, two individuals were kidnapped, giving the impression that even the core security providers for the territorial and domestic areas were themselves vulnerable and seemingly helpless.

    We are saddened by the fact that the problem of insecurity in the country keeps worsening, with the attendant multi-faceted outcomes of socio-economic proportions. Government’s main purpose of existence is to ensure the safety and welfare of citizens. If governments at all levels fail in this, then the people would be in trouble and, by implication, the socio-economic imperatives become direr.

    The loss of lives, citizens’ discontent, the economic and social implications of high level of insecurity, inflation, unemployment, food insecurity, are too serious and the security agents must take more decisive actions to stem the tide. There is no country with absolute security, but every country tries to minimise insecurity through overt and covert measures.

    Insecurity is costing the nation a lot. The kidnap of school children that was highlighted by the abduction of the Chibok girls, many of who are still unaccounted for, brought into focus the bizarre angle to the activities of terrorists and other non-state actors in targeting children and other vulnerable demographics in their daily lives. The social ill has so far spread across the country. In Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna and some other Northern states, the abduction of school children seems to have become a norm rather than an aberration. In the South East, the obnoxious sit-at-home often brutally enforced by non-state actors has been disrupting economic and social activities, including academic calendars.

    The farmers in the North have continually complained about being scared away from their farms by bandits. The effect of this is being felt across the country, as food insecurity is biting hard, with farmers too scared to risk their lives going to farms. At some point, there were lamentations about some communities losing their farm lands or being forced to pay ransom to bandits and terrorist groups before they can go to the farms.

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    For a country with the highest level of out-of-school children to be bedevilled by school abductions is too serious to be ignored.  The Safe School Programme seems to have failed, as no child in the country must be afraid of accessing the basic rights enshrined in the constitution and United Nations treaties concerning the rights to freedom and education. No child should be abducted for wanting to get education. Parents should not have to choose between education and living children.

    The government has to be very decisive to stem the tide of insecurity. The cultural shock of the violation of children, traditional and religious institutions is unacceptable. The two monarchs killed in Ekiti merely joined the long list of monarchs that had suffered such tragic fate across the country. That the culprits are hardly apprehended, not to talk of face prosecution, in a way strengthens the criminals.

    While we await the rescue of the Ekiti school children and their teachers, barricades must be seen to be set for non-state actors holding the nation hostage.

  • Onaiyekan at 80  

    Onaiyekan at 80  

    • We wish the respected moral voice more glorious years

    It was fitting that on his 80th birthday, on January 29, he visited Pope Francis in Rome. In an interview with Vatican News after the visit, he said: “Whatever I have been able to do, or whatever services the Church has made it possible for me to perform, I have now reached the end of the day.”

    It was positive news about Nigeria when John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan was made a Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in November 2012, demonstrating that the country was not without redeeming features, after all. The singular elevation, which made him qualified for election to the exalted seat of the Vicar of Christ, was indeed a tribute to his devotion and exemplary priesthood.

    Pope Benedict, in January 2013, appointed Onaiyekan a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and a member of the Presidential Committee of the Pontifical Council for the Family, positions he could hold until his 80th birthday.

    He was among the cardinal electors in the papal conclave that elected Pope Francis in 2013.  He has had a remarkable journey on the road of faith since he completed his religious studies in Rome in 1969, and was ordained as a priest in August of that year. He earned a doctorate in 1976.

    He became Bishop of Ilorin in 1984, and was the first Archbishop of Abuja from 1994 to 2019. He is Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja.

    Elected President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria in 2000, and President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) from 2007 to 2010, he made the headlines following his nomination for the globally respected Nobel Peace Prize in 2012. His nomination was even more striking on account of the status of his co-nominee, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, Nigeria’s foremost Muslim spiritual leader. Both religious leaders were prominent among top picks for the award for having “spoken out against the misuse of religion in legitimating conflict.”

    In addition to his efforts in promoting inter-faith harmony in the country, which was a key aspect of his tenure as CAN President, Onaiyekan’s virtuous conduct in the public space, his dignified personality and absolute lack of ostentation, are noteworthy and praiseworthy.

    A respected moral voice, in 2005, he notably counselled the then Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, to “resist the deadly temptation to want to remain in power perpetually by hook or by crook,” during a service with the president in attendance. It was a courageous intervention at a time the country’s democracy was threatened by an exposed plot to give the president a third term. 

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    Perhaps predictably, as a high-profile Catholic cleric, he publicly opposed the controversial Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) before Nigeria’s 2023 elections. Also, he was reported to have described the party’s victory in last year’s presidential election as “discredited.” The negative views he expressed concerning the election, and the winner, triggered adversarial reactions that questioned his objectivity.  For a man, who, as CAN leader, worked harmoniously with the Muslim leader, the Sultan of Sokoto, S’aad Abubakar III, shocked many for his lack of empathy in the nation’s fractious and religious hour. He exhibited fierce partisanship even after President Tinubu emerged victorious.

     Nevertheless, President Bola Tinubu, whose election he had bad-mouthed,  lauded him as an “exceptional religious leader,” in a birthday tribute. He also praised him for “fighting for the downtrodden and speaking out against the ills in society,” and for remaining “unbending in the pursuit of peace and unity in Nigeria.”  The statement demonstrated Tinubu’s benignity, and also that Onaiyekan’s landmark anniversary was impossible to ignore. 

    The priest from Kabba, Kogi State, has been a worthy ambassador of his place of origin as well as the larger Nigerian society. In the interview with Vatican News to mark his 80th birthday and 40 years as a bishop, he stressed the importance of “a minimum of good governance,” and observed that “Nigeria is becoming very unsafe for everyone.” He complained about political leaders who are “only playing games” and “have no time to even start thinking of how to solve the problems of the poor people.”

    We congratulate Cardinal Onaiyekan as he enters his octogenarian years, and wish him more years of service to humanity.

  • Mangled bodies

    Mangled bodies

    • Mangu Local Government Area in Plateau State deserves peace after the slaughter

    There is no greater irony about the crisis on the plateau than food shortage. The two fraught local government areas have been the lush parts of the state and they serve as significant food baskets not only for the north but also for the whole country, with such produce as tomato, potato, maize and wheat.

    Yet, the combination of sectarian and tribal anger is undermining prosperity in the region and threatening nutrition and commerce in the rest of the country.

    So, when the problem arose in the yuletide period last year, it was a country destroying its own jugular. Farmers have been uprooted and the farmlands lie fallow.

    The pictures and videos of the killings that took place in Plateau State call for extreme vigilance. Not only that, it compels accountability. It is seen as vastly revanchist case, in which tit-for-tat takes prominence. The issue of herders attacking innocent citizens, especially women and children, is not only savage, it is cowardly. Both churches and mosques have fallen in bonfires.

    Hiding under religious or ethnic veil to slaughter a fellow human has no place in Christianity or Islam, and those who perpetrate them ought to face the enraged majesty of the law.

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    We have not seen that yet. There is progress, it seems though.  The director of defence media operations of the Nigerian Army, Major-General Edward

    Buba, reported that the soldiers engaged them in January when they defied a curfew established by

    Governor Caleb Mutfwang. He said they killed 94 terrorists, arrested 171 of them, and were able to rescue 29 hostages. In the process, they recovered 10 AK47 rifles, 210 rounds of 7.62 mm special ammunition, five mobile phones and 29 rounds of PKT ammunitions.

    The army also said they had a sting operation that yielded five arrests in Mangu, recovered 168 weapons and 2,757 assorted ammunitions.

    He pointed out cattle rustling, a perennial escalator of rage, as the source of renewed violence. Hear him:

    “The Mangu crisis of 23 January, 2024, was triggered by cattle rustling and killing of a Wangagu man by herders’ militia. The Wangagu man riding on motorcycle ran into the militiamen who killed him, triggering a reprisal from the locals. We witnessed burning of places of worship, giving a religious slant to the Mangu crisis.”

    When one man’s sin turns into the murderous calamity of whole villages, such sense of justice must meet extreme official retaliation. Nothing to justify cattle rustling. But the hell man’s revenge is insane. Those who steal cattle ought to be called to order by their communities as well. One man’s sin, communities mutual hate. That is not the path of the civilised.

    The army also has been on the defensive from a charge by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) chairman at Mangu, Reverend Timothy Daluk, that the soldiers are biased against them. His charge went viral and it led to reports that the Nigeria Defence Headquarters was going to engage him. No report confirmed it.

    Rather, the army denied their bias claim and said they had arrested quite a few of the culprits. The state is smarting from a breakdown of a template for peace that the former governor Simon Lalong put in place. It worked for most parts.

    Now, it seems the governor ought to work out his own parameter for peace based on mutual understanding and respect. The first condition is vigilance but the Directorate of State Security has been failing in this regard.

    Sanctity of human lives has been ebbing away in society as we are witnessing a spiral of abductions, killings, and harassments from bandits and other forms of criminals. The nation’s capital has joined that ignoble list.

    We hope the semblance of silence in Plateau State will be sustained.

  • Money palaver

    Money palaver

    • Vice-chancellors wary of appearing before house committee on TETFUND allocation

    The National Assembly is vested with the power to oversight the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government. Legislators have cited Sections 80, 88 and 89 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) as the legal basis for the performance of this duty. Section 80(3), for instance, specifically states: “No money shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly”.

    In consonance of this legal authority, the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has been reported to have directed all vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts of government institutions in Nigeria to appear before the legislators to explain, defend and obtain clearance on the disbursement of this year’s N683 billion intervention fund which the President has approved for release to tertiary institutions. This directive has not been well-received by the vice-chancellors, pro-chancellors and academic staff unions of the federal universities who consider it counterproductive in the light of the law and statutes establishing each university and also the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003 (more commonly referred to as the Universities Autonomy Act No. 1, 2007) which vest the oversight of universities’ financial administration in the respective university governing councils.

     If it were simply just a matter of law, the controversy surrounding the directive would have been easier to resolve. However, the conflict or seeming conflict between the legislators and the vice-chancellors appears to have deeper emotional, psychological and moral dimensions. The directive is perceived by stakeholders in the public university system as a ploy to extort the vice-chancellors, deliberately or inadvertently delay the implementation of the projects for which prior budgetary approval had been secured, and thereby undermine the efficiency of the application of the approved funds.

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    The climate of suspicion and deep distrust notwithstanding, and considering the ambivalence of the law, good counsel would recommend that the representatives of the vice-chancellors appear before the TETFUND Committee of the House of Representatives to advance more systematically the reasons why it would be impolitic to proceed in the manner directed by the house committee. This may happen, because the committee wrote to each of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, the Committee of Rectors of Polytechnics and the Committee of Provosts of Colleges of Education, and not to individual institutions. This is important, so that the unintended impression is not created that the heads of tertiary institutions are trying to stop corruption by violating the law.

    It is hoped that the unfortunate very recent jailing of a former member of the House of Representatives on the allegation of extortion and the public attention that has been drawn to the current TETFUND Intervention Fund approval controversy would restrain legislators who may want to tread the same dishonourable path. And should any legislator choose to continue on that path, there would be enough benefit of evidence to bring them to book.

    In all of these, the very worrisome question is “why should citizens be scared to appear before their ‘representatives’? And the more worrisome one is “if groups as elevated as the committees of vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts and even pro-chancellors could be so apprehensive of the House of Representatives invitation, and so doubtful of its commitment to rectitude and good judgement, what would be the fate of less-endowed citizens or groups?” Certainly, credible measures need to be emplaced to reassure Nigerians that the House of Representatives is not a coven of ego-tripping inquisitorial or extortionist oversight.

  • Beyond sentiments

    Beyond sentiments

    • Those crying wolf over relocation of some CBN departments as well as the FAAN headquarters to Lagos have no point

    So cogent and compelling are the reasons adduced for the decision to move some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN,) as well as the Headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), to Lagos, that the vehement opposition to this plan is difficult to comprehend. In the case of the CBN, the apex bank has announced its decision to decongest its headquarters in Abuja by deploying 1,533 members of staff to other facilities within Abuja, as well as to Lagos and other understaffed branches of the bank.

    Although the headquarters facility was constructed to hold an optimal capacity of 2,700 persons, no less than 4,233 staff currently work at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, with serious consequences for the structural integrity of the facility. At risk if the situation is not decisively arrested is the safety of the staff as well as the building itself. It is also pertinent to point out the health hazards that staff and visitors to the headquarters may be exposed to, especially due to overcrowding. Why should the CBN management continue to keep overcrowded staff at its headquarters when the organisation has underutilised facilities in Lagos and some other parts of the country?

    Those who have registered their opposition to the planned relocation of the CBN staff as well as the headquarters of FAAN to Lagos include the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and the Northern Senators Forum (NSF). The NSF said they were under pressure from their constituents to ensure that the proposed plan to relocate the affected staff and structures to Lagos is not actualised. On its part, the NEF expressed worry that the proposed relocation of the staff and some facilities of the affected institutions will have negative consequences both for the organisations and the nation itself.

    The NEF identified loss of talent, disruption in operations, reduced coordination, impaired economic development of Northern Nigeria and decreased confidence in the economy as likely consequences of the planned relocation of these facilities and staff. NEF does not tell us on what logical or empirical basis it arrived at its conclusion. For one, neither management of the two agencies has said that the proposed relocation will result in job cuts. Similarly, the fears of disruption in operations and reduced coordination are unfounded in an age in which marked acceleration in the development of Information and Communication Technology, (ICT) has made it possible for workers to coordinate and interact across vast spaces.

    In any case, only five of the 17 departments in the CBN are being relocated to Lagos. And these affected departments – Banking Supervision, Consumer Protection Department , System Management Department and Financial Policy Regulations Department – engage daily with financial entities based in Lagos. A former deputy governor of the apex bank, Dr Kingsley Moghalu, in a post on his X handle, noted that the CBN headquarters in Lagos was inaugurated 12 years ago but has remained largely underutilised. We agree with his view that with regard to health and safety, the decision to decongest the headquarters of the apex bank was logical, and more so because most of the affected departments

    deal with entities in Lagos.

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    In a similar vein, a former governor of the CBN, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has denounced those opposed to the initiatives, saying that the relocation of the departments and staff would help the apex bank streamline its operations, reduce costs and become more efficient. It is difficult to dismiss offhandedly Sanusi’s allegation that children of politically exposed persons who were reportedly absorbed into the CBN as staff prefer their luxurious lifestyles in Abuja to the detriment of their duties at the bank.

    On its part, the Headquarters of the FAAN is being moved back to Lagos because no adequate arrangements were put in place in terms of office space and staff accommodation before the organisation’s movement to Abuja. According to a spokesperson of FAAN, “It was Ill-advised in the first place to move the headquarters to Abuja when there was no single FAAN building in Abuja to accommodate all of them at once”.

    In any case, nothing says all agencies in the country must have their headquarters in Abuja. For instance, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has its headquarters in Lokoja, Kogi State and the National Inland Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has its headquarters in Lagos , among others.

    Thus, the relocation of some departments of CBN as well as headquarters of FAAN to Lagos has absolutely nothing to do with North-South rivalry, and those who seek to stoke the embers of North-South hostilities should move beyond sentiments and undertake a careful consideration of the reasons for the proposed relocations.

    It is good that the Federal Government has moved decisively to debunk the mischievous insinuations that there are surreptitious moves to once again make Lagos the Capital of Nigeria.

  • Illegal intrusion

    Illegal intrusion

    • The police must not only condemn roadside seizure and searching of citizens’ phones, erring cops must be promptly punished

    It is official and just as well: no policeman has the legal right to pounce on and conduct a roadside search on citizens’ phones.  By police procedure, only the police cyber unit can do that; but even then at the appropriate station, after lawful arrest.

    “No policeman has the right to search your phone,” Fayoade Adegoke, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, declared. “If a policeman suspects anything on your phone, he will take you to the station to search the phone.  We have a cyber department that deals with all that.”

    For starters, in a democratic, 21st century Nigeria, it is scandalous that the Lagos State police boss had to formally pronounce what should have been pretty trite and routine.  Nevertheless, this clarification is spot on, given the ringing abuse by police cadres that play rogue on the road, feasting on citizens’ panic — particularly the youth.

    Still, it must be stated, and clearly too: it is not that the police have absolutely no right to search phones, particularly when there are reasonable grounds to suspect the bearer of crime.  Indeed, many phones are snatched and therefore products of crime.

    But the stress is on how such searches are abused — by overzealous police officers; or cynical and criminally minded cops — so much so that it is pretty much becoming routine; with bully cops pouncing on innocent citizens. 

    Indeed, the EndSARS protests, which claimed many lives, police and citizens included, resulted from such wanton abuse.  It started with profiling any youth that boasted an iPhone as either a Yahoo boy or girl, or a sundry criminal that must be humiliated.

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    After, the iPhone became a prime object of police extortion, with the owners, criminal or innocent, easy preys to material lusting by rogue police cadres — the suspect to buy his way out; the innocent but panicky to buy his freedom.  When SARS became an

     epidemic, a thunder of rage struck — and it was ugly in our eyes!

    Which is why it is shocking that less than four years after the EndSARS violence (it started on October 8, 2020), it would take a public announcement by the police commissioner to warn errant police(wo)men.  It’s the essential contemporary Nigeria, with near-zero institutional memory: only riveted on the present; the past is dead and buried; the future is in the womb of time!

    Even then, why would police cadres ignite yet another spurt of citizen anger when they witnessed the last volcano that not only consumed police personnel but also torched police hardware and choice facilities?  That may be because the police authorities have not been walking their talk in sanctioning erring police cadres.

    So, the police must tackle the problem anew — and make a public show of such misfits-in-uniform.  Again, Lagos CP Adegoke has earned praise for giving the public a clear line to report police misdeeds.

    “If you feel you have been cheated by a policeman or a policeman engaged in corruption, kindly report the policeman to his DPO,” he directed. “If the DPO is not forthcoming, report to the Area Commander.  I believe your case will be solved but if you still feel cheated,” he added, “please report to me directly.  My phone is open to all Lagosians.”

    That’s the point, though.  Inasmuch as a three-layer report line showcases admirable checks and balances, that a complaint could hit the CP’s desk before remedy could be cause for concern.  A prompter, more efficient and more effective format is called for, given how routine these abuses have become.  The CP must ponder this unease.

    But beyond what the police do or choose not to do, citizens must take the matters into their hands, without breaking the law.  They must continue to exert pressure, any time such abuses are sighted.  They must maximise the use of IT — the social media — to bring every abuse into the open and insist on justice for the cheated. 

    That way, everyone will be put on notice; and the police stand a chance of being rid of their bad eggs.

  • Freedom with responsibility

    Freedom with responsibility

    • Court verdict should strengthen media’s hand to sustain society

    A Federal High Court in Abuja lately forbade the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from imposing fines  on broadcast stations for alleged violations of its broadcasting code. Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia said the commission was not permitted to exercise administrative, legislative and judicial powers simultaneously.

    The verdict stemmed from a suit instituted by a civil society group, Media Rights Agenda (MRA), against the NBC, following the commission’s imposition of a N5million fine apiece on a television network and three pay-tv platforms for allegedly undermining national security by airing documentaries on banditry in Nigeria. NBC had on August 3, 2022 imposed the penalty on Trust-Tv Network Limited along with Multichoice Nigeria Limited, owners of DSTV; Telcom Satellite Limited (TSTV) and NTA Startimes Limited for broadcasting a documentary about the menace of banditry and condition of insecurity in Zamfara State.

    In the suit filed on its behalf by an Abuja-based human rights lawyer, Uche Amulu, MRA asked the court to hold, among others, that NBC’s imposition of fine on the media platforms and Tv network was unlawful and unconstitutional, and had a chilling effect on the freedom of media to impart information and ideas. According to the group, the penalty would deter the platforms and network from reporting the true state of affairs regarding the security situation in Nigeria, and therefore constituted a violation of its right, that of its members and other citizens of Nigeria to freedom of expression, particularly their right to receive ideas and information without interference as guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. MRA also sought a declaration that the procedure adopted by the NBC in imposing the fines was a flagrant violation of the rules of natural justice and the right to fair hearing guaranteed under Section 36 of the Constitution and Article 7 of the African Charter, because the commission was the drafter of the code that prescribed the alleged offences for which the media platforms and the Tv network were punished.

    Meanwhile, the code also empowers the NBC to receive complaints, investigate and adjudicate on the complaints, impose fines and collect fines.

    Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia in her verdict, held that the NBC, not being a court of law, acted above its powers by imposing fines. She declared null and void the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code authorising the NBC to impose fines on broadcast stations for alleged breaches of the code, saying administrative and regulatory bodies could not simultaneously exercise judicial powers. The judge agreed with all of MRA’s arguments and granted its prayers, although she declined monetary awards sought as damages by the group.

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    It was not the first time the court would stop NBC from imposing fines on broadcast stations. In May 2023, Justice James Omotosho of the same court gave an order of perpetual injunction restraining the commission from imposing fines on broadcast stations in the country. Incidentally, it was the same MRA that sued. In its originating motion dated November 9, 2021, the group sought a declaration that the sanctions procedure applied by the NBC in imposing N500,000 fine apiece on 45 broadcast stations on March 1, 2019 was a violation of the rules of natural justice. Arguing the motion, MRA’s lawyer, Noah Ajare, said the fine imposition violated existing statutes because the code that created alleged offences of which the broadcast stations were accused was written and adopted by the NBC, “and (it) also gives powers to the said commission to receive complaints of alleged breaches, investigate and adjudicate the complaints, impose sanctions, including fines, and ultimately collect the fines, which the commission uses for its own purposes.”

    We commend MRA for its tireless crusade for media freedom, and applaud the court verdict on the group’s suit. The media need be shielded from arbitrary regulatory powers if they would effectively perform their constitutional role.

     But the point must also be made that there is no freedom without responsibility, and neither is there absolutism in liberty. Freedom without self-regulating responsibility would lead to anarchy. And so, we recommend that to safeguard the liberty that was affirmed by the courts, media organisations must be acutely aware of the onus – not only to stabilise society, but also to self-regulate in a way that would isolate and contain industry ethic violators. The media need to energise internal ombudsman mechanisms to curtail excesses that could hazard the freedom of the industry, which the court verdict has just reaffirmed. Partisan and jingoistic overreaches, among other base tendencies, should have no place in media space.