The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • A prosperity emergency

    A prosperity emergency

    • Solid minerals minister Alake opens our eyes to sores and opportunities

    It was a different narrative but no less chilling. When the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, spoke to lawmakers recently about the requirements of his ministry and its challenges, it was not a routine revelation. He announced that the surge of illegal mining, and associated banditry in the country, emanated not just from foreigners, but from within our community as a nation.

    Hear him: “These are not your artisan miners. They’re not the people who pick gold on the ground. These are heavy and powerful individuals in our country. They’re Nigerians, and not foreigners.”

    He proceeded further: “Yes, you can see foreigners as symptoms, but they’re not the basics. Nigerians are the powers behind those foreigners that you see on the streets. We’re identifying them and employing various strategies, both kinetic and non-kinetic.

    “The non-kinetic with the artisan miners, I gave them an ultimatum that they should form themselves into cooperatives because every Nigerian has a right to life and necessities and if the government cannot provide these necessities, we cannot push them into the bush.”

    For long, Nigerians were fed with a line that the culprits behind illegal miners were solely foreign businessmen with local collaborators. From the lips of Alake, we now know that they are locals with foreign collaborators. So, the locals are not symptoms but basics as the minister framed it, or shall we say the underlying disease. The foreigners constitute the symptoms. It is the vermin in the system opening the ulcerous sores to the flies buzzing over our patrimony. He added that even the foreigners lack proper immigration documentation.

    It is not just a matter of criminals, but big criminals. If it is about big criminals alone, then it is a big crime.  Big crime does not just tease a little resource from our commonwealth but big and frightening chunks. It violates our vitality, depletes our resources and compromises our potential to fund a robust nation and a lifestyle for our people in education, nutrition, healthcare and basic infrastructure.

     No amount of money has been estimated, and for how long, from the depredation, but it tugs the heart with trepidation to even imagine it. Since it is a big crime, it is a mighty affair for the state and nation. It is not an issue for the minister alone. It concerns the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the National Economic Council (NEC), the national security adviser, the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and other security outfits in the country and, of course, the president and commander-in-chief. It is a raw material for policy makers and thinkers, journalists and researchers, the citizens and elected officers. It is an invasion from within.

    Alake says the government is bringing together a list of the criminals. The government should not just compile the names but also expose and prosecute them. They are not just stealing our treasure for their own dubious luxury, but they are immiserating a nation and ruining a generation. It will ultimately be a disservice to the nation if these agents of plunder remain in opulent anonymity, and not brought to disgrace and separated from their false prosperity and celebrity.

    The minister reiterated what he saw as the financial potential of that industry and put it at $700 billion, which we see as conservative. He himself asserted that if the legislature assents to his budget proposal, his ministry will rake in a bountiful harvest. “We can return trillions to the coffers of this country as revenue if we are given such a budget as proposed,” he said. He did not disclose if the trillions will be in naira or dollars.

    He listed 44 major solid minerals in the country, although the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) had put the number at 30. The minister’s figure may be new and improved data, and that should only cheer our hearts if they do not just lie impotent under the bowels of our earth or get stolen by elite bandits. Exposing them is not the minister’s alone but the task of the government.

    Read Also: Emulate Chinese approach in tackling Japa syndrome, US group tells FG

    Indeed, all local governments in this country have one form of mineral or another, and that only underscores why, as a nation, we should never lack or borrow. It is not our poverty that makes us suffer but our wealth. Many think we only have gold or crude oil or limestone. We also have such unfamiliar ones as magnetite, mica, quartz, rutile and kaolin. Also lying cosy beneath us are precious metals like sapphire, topaz and aquamarine. Gemstones or not, we have to make the most of the 44 because they are all part of our commonwealth. The minister listed seven with the highest demand in the world, including lithium, gold, cobalt, barite, bitumen and coal.

    Alake has said that investors are coming “in droves,” although not many of the names of such investors have yet been disclosed. This must arise from the series of exploratory and marketing trips he has undertaken since he became the helmsman of that ministry. It is good news, but we await the harvest.

    Sounding both sanguine and evangelistic, Alake said, “We have not even explored a quarter of the potential of what we have. Therefore, the entire budget of N24 billion is a non-starter if we are to achieve the stated objectives of the sector. We need nothing less than N250 billion for exploration if we are to achieve the mandate of this sector. The sector should contribute not less than 50 percent to the nation’s GDP. That N24 billion is a non-starter.”

    One critical thing to enhance investment, he noted, is the restructuring of the Nigerian Mining Corporation. He wants it to follow the track of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) but with a different equity portfolio. He is calling for less government equity of about a quarter while companies and citizens will gobble up the rest. “Nigeria will also have its equity,” he explained, “adding that this would mean that no government could destabilise the structure.

    Mining cannot be fruitful without calm at the sites. For now, it is a free-for- all-affair with many youths crowding the sites to work for pittance for the peacocks exploiting our failure to secure the mines. The minister spoke about deploying technology. He mentioned the use of artificial intelligence so as to refine the deployment of forces by reducing them and making them efficient. In that sense, he also met with the Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru, and we commend the proposed introduction of specialised mining police.

    We have witnessed hordes of bandits ravage the northwest, including schools. The kidnap of many innocents is normalising as a scourge. It has been a harrowing part of our lives for the past few years. It is a paradox that the nightmare intersects our source of wealth.

    The task before the minister is the task of a nation. Solid minerals are a big treasure trove. Crude oil has blinded us to its gem. It is high time we saw it as a prosperity emergency.

  • Calming Rivers

    Calming Rivers

    President Tinubu‘s intervention should be seen as a chance for peace, not advantage

    The pact between the governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara and the federal capital territory minister Nyesom Wike, has drawn a gratuitous controversy. The deal, brokered by the president, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has brought, at least, a semblance of calm to a state that was turning into a quicksand.

    Some, including Edwin Clark, described it as unconstitutional. He and others of his bias have also seen it as giving former Governor Wike an upper hand in the balance of power between his forces and those of the sitting governor.

    This perspective comes from those who seem to profit from the turbulence. There is no doubt the two sides will benefit from this agreement. And there is no doubt that it is not a perfect deal. When there is dispute, resolutions are often delicate, and the two sides often have to find areas where they have to agree to work together for the greater good of both parties and others who will enjoy a balm of peace or suffer collateral damages. In this case, who will gain and suffer? The people of Rivers State, the rule of law and, of course, democracy itself.

    One of the early objections was the idea that the president should intervene. It was asserted that it was not in the interest of a federal system since states are not sons of the federal government but equal stakeholders. The governor does not report to the president. He reports to the citizens of his state. But that argument is misleading. It forgets that every citizen, whether in the state or local government or ward, is also under the constituency of the president. His is the only position, including the vice presidency, voted into office by every citizen in every part of the country. So, President Tinubu is a stakeholder in the state as much as the governor, even if the state is the immediate burden of the governor.

    Read Also; ‘The world is quiet while we die’ (3)

    So, President Tinubu has a stake in the peace and democracy of Rivers State. Second, other than the constitutional his obligation, the president should wield a paternal canopy over the country. This is not just what the law emboldens, but what our culture applauds. It is not a case of an interloper if he uses that soft power for the good of the state. That was what he did by requesting their meeting at the state house in Abuja where both parties as well as a former Rivers State governor and a man who projects an avuncular image in the state, Chief Peter Odili attended. There is nothing more noble than for a third party to seek as middle course in a conflict. It could be argued that since Wike is a member of Tinubu’s executive council, the president could show some bias for him. That is possible and inevitably human.

    But the agreement brokered has evinced a balance not seen by those who would rather have a storm. Prior to the pact, a number of things happened. One, the governor razed down the state’s symbol of democracy, the building of the state house of assembly. Two, he deprived the lawmakers of their constitutional financial entitlements. Three, he presented a budget to four men. Four, twenty-seven members of the house instituted an impeachment proceeding. Five, the same lawmakers defected from the People Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Six, over half a dozen members of the Fubara cabinet voluntarily resigned. No doubt, the state was in turmoil.

    Some accused Wike of strong-arming his successor. Wike retorting by saying he did not, but he objected to Fubara’s embrace of the enemies of the group that made him governor. Others have asserted that Wike was making away with part of the state’s internally generated revenue. No evidence has been adduced, and Wike has denied any claim of financial blackmail.

    What is known with facts are the issues in the public domain, namely the ones that President Tinubu addressed in the meeting. An eight-point document was signed by both parties, and the highlights are now in the public sphere. The main issues were that Wike and his men should withdraw their impeachment case. The commissioners should return to their offices and the budget re-presented to the lawmakers. Fubara should also withdraw his suit against the 27 lawmakers. He should restore the elected members of the local government councils.

    Fubara signed this as well as Wike and chief Odili. Warmongers went to town with untruths and are trying to make the state restive by encouraging acts that contradict the constitution. At the beginning, one group claimed the governor signed it under duress, without evidence. Also without evidence, another group claimed Fubara did not sign it and the signature circulating from the meeting arose from impostors.

    Fubara has since debunked such claims and asserted that no price was too much to pay for peace. Without peace, development will paralyse. The flamethrowers who are organizing rallies and threatening to undermine constitutional order should be aware that a mob cannot upturn the law without anarchy.

    They forget that if the crisis festered without a pact, there was a real chance that Fubara could be edged out of office and replaced. That would not give comfort to come people, but it would be constitutionally valid. The quibble over whether the 27 defections have a place in law is a moot point, and the matter has not been defined in the courts. The last judgment on this matter favoured the 27. They have the numbers. By the deal, at least for now, Fubara can govern without a sword over his head. It is his choice to make peace with a people whose political family he was a member until about six months ago.

    The lawmakers also can now get their allowances and other constitutional entitlements that the governor denied them without any backing in law. The pact is a blueprint for peace, and provides both parties a new berth to work together.

    Recall that the president did same in Ondo State, but rather than fight, everyone is looking for ways to bring calm instead of qualms. Rather, the naysayers are saying it is a win for Wike and his men. They forget that a berth of peace allows the governor time to consolidate rather the option of being stormed out of power.

    The peace deal is an opportunity. It gives them an option for harmony among the elite in the interest of the people and progress in development.

  • Primitive husband

    Primitive husband

    • We commend Akwa Ibom governor for steps to hold wife abuser to account

    Domestic violence has been a recurring evil in Nigerian society. Not that it is new, and not that it is peculiar to our society, but it is gaining currency because of the increasing prying eyes of the social media. We have no clear statistics to show it is worse now than before. Social media has however piqued us with its urgency.

    It is not always about spousal abuse, but its various forms have not failed to fascinate and puzzle psychologists and sociologists. It could be between father and son or daughter, mother and child, uncle and niece or nephew, or it could involve grandparents or aunts. But what intrigues is that it is happening in the smallest unit of the society, which is the family. When the family is in plague, the society at large is in pain.

    This brings to the fore a recent incident in Akwa Ibom State involving a lawyer, Ekere Ebong. The man, on a recent night, subjected his wife, whose name is not in the public domain, to physical torture. The man, in the full bloom of a feral temper, inflicted blows on his wife, and the screams of the wife disturbed the neighbours. That aggression drove the wife outside the home, and forced out the neighbours who rescued her from her assailant.

    They made pleas to Ebong to leave his wife alone, especially as the woman was screaming because she was writhing with pain. Ebong seemed to derive a sort of demoniac delight from threatening the woman by asking her to return home, apparently because he still wanted to unleash more assault.

    The woman was half naked, and was bleeding on the floor outside of their home. Ebong defied calls by neighbours, all male, who first entreated him to restrain himself and later threatened to hold him to account physically. In fact, one of the neighbours found a perch for her to sit across the road, even as the woman sobbed. They started looking for clothing for her.

    It was a naked show of machismo by a man who had no sense of propriety. It attracted the attention of the governor of the state, Umo Eno, and a statement by his chief press secretary, Ekerete Udo, described it as “a despicable act of violence and spousal abuse…from a man who otherwise should be the one to protect her.” The state government has therefore vowed to “ensure that justice is served in line with the provisions of the law against gender-based violence.”

    Read Also: Prioritise your health, strengthen bonds with loved ones, God – First Lady tells elderly Nigerians

    On the governor’s order, the culprit was arrested, and his picture in handcuffs should be a lesson to all those who deploy immunity because they can exercise power. The state government has vowed to charge him to court, adding that Ebong’s primitivity was out of sync with “our culture.”

    We also, like the governor, urge the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to institute disciplinary measures against Ebong so that a punishment can show him that the professional should not act with such reckless rage.

    Ebong belongs to a class of men with patriarchal hubris who believe the woman has no place in a decent home unless the man allows her. This is a hark back to a time when men were above the law, and their manliness and base instincts were the metrics of a real man. He did not show a good example of family in the presence of his children. A longtime neighbour said, in the viral video, that Ebong was a perpetual abuser and had been beating up his wife for years.

    Ebong is not a good father or husband. He does not even deserve to be called a man.

  • Olanrewaju Adepoju (1940 – 2023)

    Olanrewaju Adepoju (1940 – 2023)

    • Oral poet per excellence exits the stage

    At one time, his unusual silence under a particular Nigerian dictatorship generated whispers that he had been bribed to keep quiet. This expressed his reputation for speaking truth to power. He later explained why he was mute when Gen. Sani Abacha was in power, in the 1990s, saying, “Abacha was a terrible officer; we knew he killed so many Nigerians and I was not prepared to die just like that.” This did not necessarily reflect lack of courage but the wisdom of a fighter who wanted to live so that he could fight another day.

    Yoruba oral poet Chief Olanrewaju Adepoju, who died on December 10, aged 83, courageously fought several battles for social change. His weapon was the Yoruba poetic genre known as Ewi. He demonstrated not only the power of poetry but also the power of the poet. A statement on his death, by his son, noted that “His life’s work was dedicated to making our country a more just and compassionate place.”

    How he became a celebrated, politically combative oral poet and musician is a story that highlights talent and social consciousness. He was a broadcaster at the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service, which had radio and television facilities in Ibadan, in the late 1960s and 70s, after a stint as a newspaper proofreader.  “In my broadcasting days,” he recalled, “I introduced a programme called Ijinji Akewi, which was always broadcast at 6:15am.  I used to comment on happenings in the country… because of my poetic effusions I became the darling of every Yoruba listener and my talent began to show.”  At some point, he also produced other Yoruba programmes, Gbele Gbo and Tiwa nti wa.

    After he resigned from the broadcasting corporation over copyright issues, he became an independent poet and record producer, and released his works on vinyl, cassette, and compact disc.  Credited with about 100 ewi albums, he was a pioneer recording artist in that category.    

    According to him, “My most popular album, Obafemi Awolowo, was released in 1979. It was accepted everywhere and it brought me to the limelight.” Another album that boosted his profile, he said, was “the one after the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed; it was a bilingual record waxed in Yoruba and Hausa.” 

    A number of times, his social criticism attracted blows from the authorities. He said: “After the death of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, I waxed another record Iku Obafemi Awolowo; the flip side was Nibo La Nlo? That particular record infuriated the military junta and they arrested me. They also prosecuted me on that occasion before I was set free by the court.”

    Read Also: Yuletide: Don’t think of vacation this season, we’ve burden of Nigerians on our shoulders, Shettima tells NEC

    He was a passionate advocate of good governance. Before Nigeria’s 2015 presidential election, he released an album titled Buhari Ti De, supporting the candidacy of Muhammadu Buhari, who later won the election and became president. Adepoju said Nigerians should be thankful to God because “we now have the right man at the helm of affairs.” It was a subjective conclusion, but it showed his desire for social progress.

    Born in a village called Abà Òkè Pupa, in present-day Oyo State, he rose above the disadvantages of his early life to earn recognition. His words: “One thing that may sound incredible about my life is that I never went to school; I did not even go to kindergarten school… I have never experienced any classroom education in my life…I have no certificate from any institution.”

    Remarkably, he was able to learn to read and write in Yoruba and English, despite the hurdles. He published a collection of Yoruba poetry titled Ìrònú Akéwì in 1972, and a novel, Ládépò Omo Àdánwò, in 1975. The novel was made into a movie in 2005. A notable promoter of Yoruba language and culture, he was Aare Alaasa of Ibadanland, an honorary title that signified his status as a cultural giant.

    There was no question about his preeminence among Yoruba oral poets. His exit significantly depleted the exponents of a genre in apparent decline.

  • Abusive service

    Abusive service

    • There’s more abuse than correction going on in the Nigerian Correctional Service

    Nigerian prisons – they call it correctional service – are a nest of human abuse. Now we know that dogs are better fed in that world than human inmates, and that is official policy. Controller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Alhaji Haliru Nababa, lately confirmed that the service spends N800 daily to feed a security dog, as against N750 daily expended on feeding an inmate, beasts over humans.

    Speaking in a defence of the service’s 2024 budget before the National Assembly (NASS) Joint Committee on the Interior in Abuja, Nababa disclosed that the service holds 81,354 inmates nationwide, out of which 53,352  inmates are awaiting trial – meaning they’ve not even been ascertained to have committed an offence and, in the eye of the law, are innocent until proven guilty by a court. 

    Responding to interrogation by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, he said: “We feed each inmate with N750 daily and they are fed three times daily (i.e. @N250 per meal). We have 900 security dogs and to feed a dog each day, we spend N800.” He further said in the course of his presentation that the effective allowance for each inmate was N720 after VAT and tax deductions.

    Shocked by that disclosure, Oshiomhole, who represents Edo North, wondered how inmates could be fed with such an amount. “One thing that has come out is that an unconvicted Nigerian is being fed with N750 and you feed each of the dogs under your care with N800 per day. So, a dog is better fed in the Nigerian prison than an innocent Nigerian in your custody,” he observed. The committee chair said he was unhappy with the services NCoS was rendering to inmates. “Your organisation has transformed from the Nigerian Prison Service to Nigerian Correctional Service, but you have yet to change in your attitudes toward inmates. It’s not just your fault, because the government appropriates little money for you. It is either you don’t feed the inmates, or you feed them only once. Even at that, it’s with very miserable food. This is why they are completely emaciated and some can never live a decent life again, even when they did not commit an offence.”

    Read Also: No noise, please

     To contextualise, he spoke against the backdrop of innocent Nigerians held in prisons and who battled health issues their whole lives thereafter. Notables among these include the late legal icon, Gani Fewehinmi, and ace unionist, Frank Kokori, who passed on most recently.

    Oshiomhole, a former two-term Governor of Edo State, questioned whether government was deliberate in allocating more funds for feeding animals than for human beings in prison custody. He canvassed a re-evaluation of the policy and stressed the importance of prioritising the welfare of incarcerated persons. “It is a policy issue: whether it is the intention of the government to appropriate more money to feed animals than to feed human beings. It is a major policy issue for us,” he said.

    But there is a context to the NCoS boss’s disclosure that must not be glossed over by mere populist indignation if the challenge with feeding allowance for prison inmates would be addressed. He told the lawmakers that the service had previously requested a review of the daily feeding allowance for inmates, but is yet to get approval. “The NCoS has written to the Minister of Interior requesting a review of the amount we are using to feed the inmates from N750 per day to N3,000 per day. We are still waiting for approval. We are therefore seeking the assistance of the  National Assembly to approve the increment,” he told the NASS panel. That is a challenge the lawmakers must act upon if they’re truly concerned.

    One thing to notice regarding the prisons feeding budget is that ‘illegitimate’ inmates – that is, detainees awaiting trial and thereby not confirmed as due candidates for prison custody – constitute nearly 70 percent of the custodial population and are using up the resources that should have been available to ‘legitimate’ inmates, namely the convicts. But it’s not as if that is by their choice. It is abusive enough that convicts are kept on miserable ration, but doubly so that non-convicts too. Oshiomhole perhaps had this in mind when he said: “About 53,352 or more are not convicted yet, they are awaiting trial. They are not guilty of any offence known to law, they are innocent under our laws. For an innocent Nigerian who is being held in a correctional home, N250 per meal is grossly inadequate. I wonder what you are feeding them with. They are obviously underfed.” He added: “The Minister of Interior said yesterday that the NCoS, rather than being correctional is dehumanising. I am surprised that the 2024 budget is based on old figures. I am surprised that the C-G cannot, based on market costs, present before us a realistic amount that could feed an innocent Nigerian who has not been pronounced guilty by any court.”

    The conversation at the NCoS budget defence once again highlights the gross injustice of the congestion of the Nigerian prison system, sustained by a bloated rank of awaiting trial inmates (ATIs). We have several times canvassed reforms to decongest the prisons of ATIs as priority, and also put convicted inmates on parole upon meeting set conditions. Oshiomhole called out this injustice when he told the NCoS boss: “A lot of  Nigerians under your care are innocent, they are in prisons courtesy of big men and women who want to  ‘teach them a lesson’. Many of them are there for an offence they knew nothing about. However, the system has put them under your care… Our prisons are meant to correct the behaviours of the people; they are not condemnation centres, they are not to dehumanise.”

    A more troubling aspect is that many inmates have been awaiting trial for years and are not getting closer to being put through trial, to confirm their guilt or otherwise, because their case files are lost in the system. 

    Recently, an Ikeja High Court ordered the release of three men after they were held for nearly six years without trial until a counsel who took interest in their case filed for enforcement of their fundamental rights. Justice Oyindamola Ogala, in separate judgements, ordered that they be “released and discharged forthwith if there are no pending matters in other courts.” 

    Another instance was that of a 73-year-old man arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and held in custody for 13 years and eight months, awaiting trial until a court put him on bail last October. A rights group that secured his release, Headfort Foundation, said the man got arrested when he was 60 years old; and when the foundation picked interest in his case, it found his casefile was missing and hadn’t gone before any court since 2019. In applying for his bail, Headfort undertook to produce the man in court on next adjourned date, and that was how he got freed from incarceration. 

    The food budget may not be so high and inmates so underfed if the inmate population was not bloated with so many whose cases have been pending for years. It is a self-inflicted wound.

    We suggest that there should be a time limit or sunset date set to free suspects of particular or lower cadre of crimes if their respective cases do not get adjudicated by the courts within that time. Some of them may have even served their time before their day in court. Such cases like petty theft and wandering form a preponderance of the inmates. Time, as they say, is a great healer.

    Prison reform is an imperative that successive governments in Nigeria have neglected. The current administration has accorded the issue some attention, but it needs to do much more. We cannot have the paradox of a so-called correctional service that ends up needing correction and dehumanising inmates. Prison congestion does not only leave most inmates in a state of permanent social misalignment, it also afflicts them with ailments that may be lifelong. That is not a flattering performance record.

  • Looting a lot

    Looting a lot

    • The boss of the National Lottery Trust Fund must account for N6.3 billion

    It was a sorry sight on the floor of the Committee on Finance of the Federal House of Representatives. The chief executive officer of a well-known agency gave his stewardship, and it was a travesty. The National Lottery Trust Fund CEO Bello Maigari stumbled to answer a simple question.

    How did it generate a whopping N6.3 billion and suffered a deficit of N255 million? This happened when all its bills, including salaries and allowances, have been paid by the Federal Government.

    Maigari, smiling with apparent discomfort, knew he had been exposed, and how did he not know that his math was a scandal? The point is that he knew and he probably thought he could get away with it. Or, perhaps, he thought he would not be found out. After all, more cases than not of financial brigandage have gone below the radar.

    Even those open impunities manage to fizzle out and the criminals do not only go free but often repackage themselves into icons and heroes and even get elected into offices.

    We have seen sessions before like the recent one between the House Committee of Finance and the chief steward of the NLTF. They disappeared out of memory like a soap bubble.

    In other societies, the story would make screaming headlines and the name of the agency’s head would fall into obloquy. But few know the name of Maigari. It is testament to a public weary of such news, and that is a tragedy.

    It is such feeling of ennui and aggravated indifference that continue to encourage persons like Maigari to handle public trust like a family fiefdom. What did he do with the N6.3 billion? Maigari claimed he spent the money on matters like education, sports development, social services, public welfare and disaster management.

    Those were not his responsibilities. The Federal Government, in its annual budget, covers the NLTF in both the payment of salaries and allowances. Even its capital expenditures were also covered.

    The NLTF was trying to curry compassion by claiming that it devoted the money to higher causes. It was a cynical exploitation of noble causes for personal gratification. The finance committee chairman, James Faleke, reflected the mood of his colleagues and any person of integrity when he railed at Maigari.

    “It’s like the government opened this agency for you and your family. That is what you are saying. That is the meaning. You generated almost N2.5 billion and you spent the N2.5 billion on the last kobo.” He spoke with sarcasm and disguised contempt.

    “We are going to carry out a status enquiry on the Nigerian Lottery Trust Fund. Status enquiry means we are going to bring in an external auditor to audit your accounts, your books, all your income, and expenses from day one to date. We would send our report to the plenary and if you are found guilty, you will be made to refund all expenditure and any other punishment thereof,” he declared.

    The House session mirrored the state of our agencies and how rotten it has been. It shows why some Nigerians scramble for political appointments. They see the positions as opportunity to fleece the nation and thumb their noses at those who brandish ideas about the urgency of public service.

    Few knew until this revelation that the NLTF made such money. In this case, it was lack of finesse but brazen robbery that exposed it. When Ishaq Oloyede and Dakuku Peterside took over the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), respectively, it was a change of guard that exposed those who had hidden and stolen our treasure for decades.

  • Liability

    Liability

    • Police incur N3.1bn judgment debt on national treasury for agents’ misdeeds

    A federal high court in Port Harcourt lately ordered the Nigeria Police to pay N3billion in damages to Victor Ogbonna, a spare parts trader at Ikokwu market in the Rivers State capital, for having been brutalised by members of the disbanded Eagle Crack unit of the state police command. It was the fourth judgment against the force in a series of fundamental rights abuse litigations brought by the Ikokwu market victims, one of who died from alleged torture in police detention.

    Ogbonna had filed a fundamental human rights suit against the Inspector-General of Police and eight others over his experience at the hands of operatives of the disbanded police squad. In his verdict, the trial judge, Justice Stephen Daylop-Pam, held that the plaintiff proved a case of torture and inhuman treatment against the police and thereby awarded N3 billion as damages in his favour.

    Previously, different justices of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt slammed the police with damages: Justice James Omotoso awarded N5 million in favour of Ifeanyi Osuji; Justice Phoebe Ayua awarded another N5 million in favour of Ifeanyi Onyekwere; and Justice Mark imposed N75million damages in favour of the family of Chima Ikwunado – one of the tortured traders who died in police custody.

    The suits stemmed from the arrest in 2019 of five traders by operatives of the disbanded police unit for allegedly driving against traffic. Following the arrests, the police accused the traders of being cultists and reportedly brutalised them while holding them in custody. The death of one of the arrested suspects, Ikwunado, resulted from that experience, eliciting condemnations from the public, especially human rights groups. Ikwunado, a mechanic, died in the cell at Mile One Police Station after being tortured; while surviving victims, including Ogbonna, sustained physical and psychological injuries. The arrested traders were eventually discharged by an order of a court, which held that they were arrested on mere suspicion.

    In the suit by Ogbonna, the court found that the police personnel’s actions constituted torture, inhuman treatment and a violation of his fundamental human rights and awarded him N3 billion in damages to compensate for his suffering.

    Counsel to the traders in the separate suits, and vice-chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Port Harcourt branch, Emmanuel Okpala, expressed satisfaction with the verdicts, saying: “These judgements show that the courts will hold police officers accountable for their actions.” We can’t agree more with him that the serial judgments should serve a strong signal to security operatives in uniform on the imperative of being civil in their dealings with members of the public while bearing arms with which they are expected to protect the public.

    Read Also: Police nab couple trafficking one-month-old baby in Onitsha

     Even where there are mild infractions of the law by citizens, global best practice is that security operatives should, with as much civility as is appropriate, guide such citizens back to the path of rectitude; and where affected citizens are unamenable to being helped to retrace their steps, they should be properly arraigned before courts of law. In other words, police personnel should under no circumstance constitute themselves into the accuser, prosecutor, judge and nemesis of a suspect.

    The verdicts by the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt constitute a potent vote for the sanctity of human rights. Such vote is very helpful for our polity where there has been a seedy culture of sub-civilisation that encouraged abuses of rights. The volume of judgment debt in the case by Ogbonna is also significant in underscoring judicial severity against rights abuses by security operatives.

    To avoid incurring such liabilities in the future, the police leadership will have to get the rank and file into line to conduct their routine operations with decency and civility.

    But there is also the question of how the judgment debts will be paid. The police force is an agency of the Nigerian state and its liabilities invariably translate to national liabilities to be borne from the common treasury kept in trust – even if only in principle – for all Nigerians, including beneficiaries of the judgment debts.

    A media report last August said the current administration of President Bola Tinubu would likely spend some N341.23billion on settling judgment debts between 2023 and 2027, going by listings as promissory notes in a document titled ‘Schedule of Promissory Notes Issued by Category as at September 30, 2022’ by the Debt Management Office. Section 4 of the Government Promissory Notes Act provides that government promissory notes are to be paid from the general revenue and assets of the federation. Fresh judgment debts compound this burden on the national treasury and must be avoided by all agencies of government, including the police.

  • An avoidable crisis

    An avoidable crisis

    • Akeredolu bows to reason; finally hands over to deputy

    Thankfully, the crisis that nearly engulfed Ondo State has ended peacefully, with the parties allowing the provisions of the 1999 constitution (as amended), to prevail. The ill-health of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu deserves our sympathy and that of all well-meaning Nigerians. Indeed, his service to Ondo State and the country stands him as a statesman, who should be treated with respect and dignity for his contributions to national development.

    Until struck by ill-health, Governor Akeredolu was the leader of the Southwest Governors Forum.

    Before he was elected as a governor, he was a respected past president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). And before and after then, he was one of the finest legal minds that devoted his learning and capacity to progressive causes as a sterling champion of the rule of law and the dignity of the citizens. As governor, he has discharged his responsibilities with competence and candour. He spoke on national issues without fear or favour, and when the people he was elected to govern were threatened by retrogressive forces, he rallied his region to establish the Amotekun Security Corps.

    It would have been sad, if these achievements were sacrificed on the altar of holding on to power, at all cost. An aberration he fought against, as NBA president. In fairness to Governor Akeredolu, on other occasions that he travelled out of the country, he handed power to his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, without any fuss, including when he travelled for medical treatment.

     The crisis of confidence started when his deputy was alleged to nurse a subversive hubris was orchestrating a plan to supplant him. An allegation his deputy denied.

    Apparently, at the risk of his health, he returned to Ibadan in Oyo State, instead of Akure, the capital of Ondo State, and regained his governorship position, when he could not effectively discharge the responsibilities. Before that return, his deputy appeared impatient to become a governor. He was fingered as responsible for leaking to the press that Governor Akeredolu was too ill to return to power. Unfortunately, the governor’s immediate and political family compounded the problem by taking matters in their own hands.

    A game that f browbeating erupted between the two camps in an existential duel.

    Read Also: Clark to CJN: correct grave anomalies in judiciary 

    The governor on his return stoked the fire by sacking the media aides of the deputy governor believed to have planted the story about his debilitating ill-health in the media. On his part, the deputy governor dug in and proceeded to obtain a court order to forestall any impeachment process against him, while the state House of Assembly started an impeachment process against the deputy governor. The state became polarised. Those belonging to the deputy governor’s side stoked the fire that he was being maligned because he comes from a certain part of the state. The Nigerian idiosyncrasies of tribe and clan overshadowed a mere issue of the rule of law.

    While the imbroglio lasted, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s détente policy which the parties agreed to, was breached. Now, the parties have agreed to observe the provisions of the First Alteration Act section 190(1) which provides: “Whenever the Governor is proceeding on vacation or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, he shall transmit a written declaration to the Speaker of the House of Assembly to that effect, and until he transmits to the Speaker a written declaration to the contrary, the Deputy Governor shall perform the functions of the Governor as Acting Governor.”     

    So, Aiyedatiwa is now the acting governor. He should match his desire with action. While he may be adjudged as impatient, he has declared his intention to work for the peace and unity of the state. He has also acknowledged that the recent crisis was avoidable. We urge him to always bear in mind the frailty of the human frame and the fragility of fate. What happened to his principal, Rotimi Akeredolu, could happen to anyone, and that power, however alluring, is transient. He should not seek vendetta against those who opposed his desire to become the acting governor, and must ensure his supporters observe similar decorum in the interest of peace in the state. He is not the acting governor of a cabal or trust but the conscience of Ondo State, whose people yearn for fruits of gubernatorial labour.

    Ever since the present republic, some deputy governors serving with puffy and unaccommodating governors have had a rough deal. What nearly happened in Ondo, happened during the time of Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State. It happened in Enugu State under Sullivan Chime. At the centre, it happened during the presidency of Umaru Yara’Adua. Perhaps, the lawmakers may have to further tinker with our laws, to chasten vaulting ambitions and give deputy governors responsibilities and protection so that they would not be seen and treated as disposable high flyers, executive pariahs, partners and spare tyres. The post has grown a fraught phenomenon in this republic. To avoid this sort of drama, we must address the issue outright.

    In the interest of Ondo State, the acting governor must rally the people of the state behind the government. He should concentrate his efforts on governance instead of strategising for the next election. We urge the political elites in the state to give the acting governor the benefit of the doubt, and support him to exercise his responsibilities with minimal distraction.

    Ondo State citizens would benefit from peace and tranquility within the executive arm of government.

  • Simply the best

    Simply the best

    • Osimhen, Asisat, Chiamaka and Super Falcons wins upend our tribal and religious covens

    The 2023 Confederation of African Football (CAF) awards in Marakeesh, Morocco, brought with it the much needed elixir for Nigerians, as only the beautiful game of football can. In that moment when the awards were given, Nigerians characteristically were united in their joy and the silent and loud applauses were seemingly heard in the orthodox and social media globally and on the streets of Nigerian cities and villages.

    Victor Osimhen (MFR), the Nigerian golden boy of Serie A club, Napoli, and  one of the best strikers in the world was crowned the African Footballer of the Year, an award coming after 25 years of Kanu Nwankwo’s win in 1999 when Victor was barely one year old.

    Asisat Lamina Oshoala (MON), Nigeria’s ‘Agba Baller’ won her historic sixth title as African Female Footballer of the Year. Super Falcons goalkeeper, Chiamaka Nnadozie, won the Best Female Goalkeeper in Africa while the Super Falcons won the Best Female National Team in Africa.

     For a country that seems to have been divided by the antics of politicians in the 2023 general elections that saw some politicians sounding the ethnic and religious gongs, the victory of these three football players appears like a balm on the wounds inflicted by divisive politics.

    The national jubilation that followed these highly coveted continental awards, both within and outside the country, points to the value of sports in national unity and integration. It didn’t matter that Osimhen is from Edo State, Oshoala from Lagos State and Nnadozie from Imo State. They are all Nigerians doing their best in the game of football and every Nigerian is happy at their success without attaching any ethnic tags to them. They are simply Nigerians doing the country proud on the continental and global football stages.

    However, while we congratulate the trio for their achievements and awards, we must recall that they all started their football careers in the country. Osimhen started off with the Lagos-based Ultimate Strikers Academy before being selected for the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup. His sterling performance during the tournament attracted the management of VFL Wolfsburg where he started his professional career before moving to Belgium, France and to his present club, Napoli in Italy.

    Oshoala has unarguably become the most successful African female footballer. She honed her skills in two Nigerian clubs, Rivers Angels and FC Robo. She then moved to Arsenal in 2015, from where she went to Liverpool, and later the Chinese Club, Dalian. In all these clubs, she showed class and commitment, with trophies to show. She presently plays for FC Barcelona in Spain. She has a string of firsts in her career, becoming the first African to score in a UEFA Women’s Champion’s League Final. Asisat has had a sterling career that has seen her global, continental and national recognitions, with a variety of awards.

    Nnadozie also started her career with the Rivers Angels in 2016. She then moved to France and was outstanding in the last FIFA Women’s World Cup co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia. She has been recognised for her excellent goal-keeping that has earned her global recognitions.

    Osimhen is today Nigeria’s most talked- about player even though he plays outside the continent. He is one of the most successful footballers in Europe, helping Napoli win the league they last won 33 years ago. He has come a very long and successful way since winning the Golden Boot in the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup. He is presently the African with the highest ranking in the Ballon D’Or awards at the eighth position. 

    Read Also: Chelsea unperturbed by Osimhen’s new Napoli contract

    These global recognitions of Nigerians in football should be very instructive to the governments at all levels. Sports and entertainment are the best unifiers in the country. In these two sectors, the best progress; so excellence is rewarded without nepotism unlike in politics and education. Success in sports is purely on merit.

    The fact that these young Nigerians started off in Nigeria and  are now plying their trade in Europe must spur some introspection. Nigeria has the human resources, why are these talents being lost to other countries and clubs? Why can’t Nigeria put her money where her mouth is? Why is sports not having enough investment in infrastructure to nurture and retain the best? Where are the school sports where talents were hitherto discovered?

    We are worried that entertainment and sports that are unarguably the two most lucrative and multi-trillion dollar sectors are not getting the attention they deserve in a country with a youth population that is in dire need of such vibrant sectors for the provision of jobs and the much needed revenue in local and foreign currencies.

    The lethargy in sports investments also affects the entertainment sector where many young Nigerians have taken the world by storm through Afrobeats and other genres. The infrastructure/management in the country is so poor these young people are almost booked around the globe throughout the year and the bulk of their earnings and taxes benefit other countries.

    Nigeria must realise that football is now a trillion-dollar business and more positive actions are needed to upgrade the game through real strategic engagements with global players. Saudi Arabia and Morocco are two countries that have taken advantage of the game and its many socio-economic benefits by investing hugely in, and growing it.

    Indeed, Saudi Arabia has through their great performance at the last Qatar World Cup attracted great players like Cristiano Ronaldo whose presence in the kingdom has pulled other football big weights to the country. Morocco has been reported to have invested in the game in the last 10 years and they are now reaping the benefits.

    Their performance at the last World Cup was therefore not a surprise to industry players. Moroccan football has prospered in recent years, with the men’s national team reaching the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the women’s national team reaching the round of 16 at this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, the U-17s also reaching the last 16 at the recent FIFA U-17 World Cup. They recently won the rights to co-host the FIFA World Cup 2030 alongside Spain and Portugal. Morocco is ranked 13th on the global FIFA ranking. Nigeria is now ranked 42nd,  an obvious retrogression from a fifth ranking in 1994.

    Governments celebrating and planning grand receptions for Nigerians succeeding in Europe where countries invest in the game should begin to make way for better planning and investment to keep the youth in the country and make the game more profitable with a League that will attract other countries’ players too. They should equally make it easier for private investors to run clubs more profitably. Nigeria will be better with a more vibrant sports ministry that is ready for the future.

  • Hero of the struggle

    Hero of the struggle

    • Kokori’s death a painful blow to the democratic struggle

    Conscious of his place in history, Chief Frank Kokori’s words, as he lay dying in a hospital, had the character of an epitaph. He was reported saying, “I was born a hero and I will live the life of a hero even in my death.” 

    Indeed, as a pro-democracy activist, he heroically fought against military dictatorship in Nigeria, and enabled the country’s return to democracy. His name became a byword for heroism. His death, at the age of 80, on December 7, his birthday, brought back memories of the country’s intense struggle against internal anti-democratic forces.  

    Under the malignant despotism of Gen. Sani Abacha, who sought to perpetuate his predecessor’s unjust annulment of Nigeria’s June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola, there was a fierce urgency to fight back, and the pro-democracy camp bared its fangs. Abacha had arrested and detained Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), one of the two existing political parties at the time, for seeking the restoration of his electoral mandate.    

    Kokori was the General Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Financial Secretary of the SDP. His union, in collaboration with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), in 1994, organised unprecedented nationwide strikes that crippled the oil industry, the soul of the nation.  

    “We had to mobilise because we controlled the whole system,” Kokori recalled in an interview. “The Nigerian refineries were working full-blown at that time. We were in control of the terminals that were exporting oil, the refineries, tanker drivers, and everything downstream, upstream, and midstream. So, we shut down the country.”

    Read Also; Sanwo-Olu promises medical palliatives to residents

    The resistance, which lasted 8 to 10 weeks, ended shortly after his arrest in August 1994. He had coordinated the confrontation from a hiding place. He was caged for four years, and was declared a prisoner of conscience by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Amnesty International (AI). Abacha’s successor set him free after the tyrant died in 1998.

    Nigeria’s return to democracy, in 1999, was the outcome of the pro-democracy battle in which he was an influential combatant. It is a testimony to his sense of history that his 2014 book, ‘Kokori: The Struggle for June 12’, “details the roles he and other individuals played in the quest to re-validate the June 12, 1993 presidential election.”

    Significantly, in 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari changed Nigeria’s Democracy Day, marked every May 29 since 2000, to June 12, to honour Abiola, who died in detention in 1998. The day was also declared a national holiday. It was another testament to the victory of the country’s June 12 activists and heroes of democracy, among whom Kokori was highly ranked.

    Born in Kokori, Warri, in present-day Delta State, he attended the University of Ibadan, and the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands (ISS), where he earned a master’s degree in Labour and Development Studies in 1984. Before his era as NUPENG general secretary, which lasted 22 years, he was general secretary of the National Union of Nigeria Bank Employees for three years.

    He was a recipient of the George Meany Labour/Human Rights Award by the American Federation of Labour/Congress of Industrial Organisation (AFL/CIO) for the most outstanding Labour Leader in the world in 1996; and the Febe Elizabeth Velasquez Trade Union/Human Rights Award of the Dutch Labour Federation (FNV) for the most outstanding Labour Activist and Human Rights Crusader in the world in 1998.

    He was appointed chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) in 2017, and later chairman of the board of Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies in Ilorin, Kwara State.

    About a month before he died, he made the headlines on account of his ill-health, hospitalisation, and neglect by individuals and organisations that were expected to take an interest in his wellbeing. It was an undeserved treatment for a hero of his standing, and raised questions about how the country treats its heroes. For his heroic service to bring about democracy in Nigeria, he deserves an enduring honour.