The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Inclusive governance

    Inclusive governance

    • Appointment of aide on disability is step in the right direction

    President Bola Tinubu’s appointment of an aide to further open space for the persons with disability is to be hailed as it marks fulfilment of another campaign promise. This is in line with global best practices that accommodate all sectors of the society: the youth, women and the physically challenged.

    In Nigeria, the National Population Commission (NPC) puts the percentage of those with disability at 9.6, thus deserving of a say in the running of the society. They have often complained of being left out of policy decisions. 

    In tertiary institutions,  only very few are able to create space for themselves as there are no special opportunities created for them. In public examinations, there is very little provision made for braille for the blind. When offered admission, no special place is provided for them in the overcrowded lecture theatres, nor is access made for them into the halls of residence.

    If there is little consciousness of the special needs of the disabled at the Tertiary institution level, the situation at primary and secondary levels is even worse. Other students are known to make jest of them and there are very few schools for special education.

    It is within this context that the President’s appointment of Mohammed Isah, a graduate of Public Administration from the University of Maiduguri, is particularly welcome. He has been involved in canvassing opening up the space for the challenged for more than a decade; and had even extended his activism to other parts of Africa and international fora. 

    As one who has confronted the obstacles at different times, he is most fitting to lead the campaign, and regularly present the difficulties of the physically challenged, at the highest level of government. He is expected, as the Presidency pointed out, to liaise with the National Commission for Persons with Disability (NCPWD) to come up with an acceptable framework to make life better for those facing the challenges.  

    One immediate expectation is that his office and NCPWD would work together with the lawmakers to amend the Discrimination Against Persons with Disability Act, as may be deemed to give effect to its provisions.

    Another duty assigned the new Senior Special Assistant is to engage the governments of the federating units to buy into the national vision to improve the lives of our citizens living with disability.  We expect states to also create offices, headed by the same set of citizens, to bring them to the table.  They sure would know where the shoe pinches!

    Every Nigerian is important, but unless we expand the bracket of representation and improve on the overall sense of belonging, we will be short-changing the country of the contribution that all sectors could make. Despite the contritions in the system, there are professionals who could make valuable contributions to nation-building, but are deprived the opportunity. 

    Read Also: Yobe PDP lawmaker defects to APC

    If Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, could run a country as vast and complex from the wheelchair, why should Nigeria, that needs all hands on deck, shut the door against persons living with disability, irrespective of their educational attainment and skills? 

    Beyond the appointment, President Tinubu has to be personally involved in driving the process. He has the power to break the mould of cultural discrimination, and also getting federal legislature, as well as the subnational legislative chambers, to cooperate with his efforts at expanding political inclusivity. 

    Whereas the law provides for six months jail term or a paltry N100,000 fine against any form of discrimination, hardly has anyone been sanctioned.  It is time Nigeria joined the league of countries breaking bigotry against people with special needs.

    A good point to start, for the new presidential aide, is to work with all the 36 states to domesticate the Discrimination Against Persons with Disability Act. Every state should also establish a replica of the Commission for Persons Living with Disability. 

    That is the way to go — and Mohammed Isah has his job cut out for him.  It is both doable and commendable.

  • Exit a Titan

    Exit a Titan

    • Gen. Aderonke Kale (1939 – 2023)

    A striking posthumous tribute captured her place in history.  She was ”renowned for reshaping the face of women and gender mainstreaming in the Nigerian military,”  said the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja

    The army, with its emphasis on masculinity, discouraged femininity.  But Aderonke Kale was not intimidated. A trained psychiatrist, she joined the Nigerian Army in 1972, a rarity for a female at the time, particularly such a medical professional. She soldiered on in the male-dominated setting, and attained unprecedented heights. 

    Kale, who died on November 8, aged 84, had specialised in psychiatry at the University of London, after earning a degree in Medicine from the former University College, Ibadan. She joined the army two years after the Nigerian Civil War.  Her expertise in psychiatry was especially useful to the military at the time because of the many cases of soldiers traumatised by the war. She became consultant psychiatrist in 1973, and chief consultant in 1982. 

    Her career in the army was spectacularly trailblazing, both as a medical expert and a military professional. She was the commanding officer of Military Hospital, Ibadan, from 1980 to 1985, the first woman to command a military hospital in the country. She held the same position at Military Hospital, Enugu, and also Military Hospital, Benin. 

    After her elevation to the position of deputy commander, Nigerian Army Medical Corps (NAMC), in 1991, she became the first woman commander of the corps (1994 to 1997), with responsibility for the healthcare of all Nigerian soldiers at all levels. 

    Her rise in the military hierarchy was equally notable. She became a lieutenant colonel in 1978, and a colonel five years later. By 1990, she had risen to the position of brigadier-general, the first woman to attain that status not only in the Nigerian Army but in West Africa. She surpassed her own record when, in 1994, she became the first female major general in the history of the Nigerian Army, and also in West Africa. 

    Read Also: I’ve never taken alcohol, smoke cigarettes- Akpabio

    She retired from the army in 1997, after an impressive career during which she set several remarkable records. It is a testimony to her creditable military service that the female hall of residence of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, was named after her in 2011.

    Outside her contributions to the military, she was actively involved in the activities of a number of organisations connected with her medical background, including the Nigerian Medical Council, the West African College of Physicians, the Institute of Management Consultants, the Nigerian Medical Association, the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria, and the World Psychiatrists Association.

    Her donation of a piece of land towards the founding of the Bodija-Ashi Baptist Church, Ibadan, showed yet another side of her, beyond the history-making and record-setting medical doctor and soldier.  

    In word and deed, Kale encouraged women to be success-conscious, and inspired them to pursue success. Her own success story, professionally and domestically, was evidence that women could soar above patriarchal dominance and socially limiting conditions. It is a lesson not only for the girl-child but for all women in the country facing disadvantages connected with their gender. 

    On how women can achieve her own kind of multidimensional success, she once said: “Be conscious of the fact that you have responsibilities to your career, to your husband and to your children, and must strive to discharge them to the best of your ability.” In 2021, Kale was honoured at the launch of a book on her at the MUSON Centre, Lagos. The book, titled Major General Aderonke Kale (retd.) -The First Nigerian Female General, was written by Prof. Bolanle Awe, a well-known professor of oral history. It was a defining work on the amazing woman and recipient of the Nigerian national honour: Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR). 

  • Alaba Lawson (1951 – 2023)

    Alaba Lawson (1951 – 2023)

    • An outstanding ‘Iyalode’ who touched several lives

    She held two traditional titles that underscored her standing as a woman of substance. Interestingly, her mother was opposed to her selection for the position of Iyalode of Egbaland because she felt her daughter was rather young and such a title should go to an elderly woman. She was 48 at the time. It took the intervention of the then Alake of Egbaland, Oba Oyebade Lipede, to get her mother’s backing. She was installed in August 1999. Nine years later, in August 2008, the then Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, made her the first Iyalode of Yorubaland.

    “Iyalode means prime minister of the womenfolk. It requires someone who has integrity and who is hardworking. You must be loved by all,” Chief Alaba Lawson explained in a published interview that gave an insight into her status among the Egba people of Abeokuta, a Yoruba subgroup in present-day Ogun State, as well as her importance among the entire Yoruba people in southwest Nigeria.   

    Honoured with the award Amazon of Yorubaland by the reigning Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Lawson, who died on October 28, aged 72, achieved notable heights in various sectors, and played significant roles beyond her ethnic base.  

    She was born in Abeokuta, where she had her primary and secondary education, and attended St. Nicholas Montessori Teachers’ Training College, England, in the early 1970s. She was the first African student to earn a first-class diploma in Education with distinction at the college. After she returned to Nigeria in 1977, she established her own school called Lawson’s Childcare Nursery and Primary School, starting with three pupils. This small seed grew to become the Lawson Group of Schools, including Crèche, Pre-Nursery, Nursery, Primary, Junior School and College. Apart from founding these schools, she gave scholarships to brilliant but disadvantaged children. “That is what I want to be remembered for, education,” she once said.

    She will also be remembered for her business life. She established Capricorn Stores Ltd. in the late 1960s, which was a distributor for Nigerian Breweries Ltd., Nigerian Bottling Company Ltd., Guinness Nigeria Ltd., and West African Portland Cement Ltd., among others.

    She joined the Abeokuta Chamber of Commerce in 1982, according to her, “as an ordinary member.” She became its executive secretary, financial secretary, treasurer, deputy president, and finally president in 1995 till 2000 when she served as the president of Ogun Council of Chambers of Commerce till 2002. In 2009, she established Abestone Microfinance Bank to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

    When she became the first female national president of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA) in 2017, it was not only a personal accomplishment but also a triumph for women in the country who are marginalised in a patriarchal context. She was also the first female president of the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FEWACCI), which showed her international relevance. 

    Read Also: Iyalode of Yorubaland, Alaba Lawson to be buried Dec 8

    She encouraged women to pursue personal development, and sought to uplift rural women and the needy through the Iyalode Egba Foundation, a non-profit making organisation she founded as a way of giving back to society. She was close to the grassroots, and inspired local traders to form trade associations and cooperatives to enhance their access to finance. Several groups embraced her as a pillar, including butchers, blacksmiths, welders and iron benders, palm oil sellers, fish sellers, and herbs and roots sellers.

    In her active years, the high-profile positions she occupied also included chairman of the board of the Governing Council, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Ogun State; fellow and council member, Institute of Directors (IoD); council member, Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC); chairman, board of trustees, Nigerian Quality Infrastructure Forum (NIQIF), and Ambassador of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal.

     The ultimate tribute from her country came when she received the Nigerian national honour Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR), in 2004. 

  • Epidemic of fire

    Epidemic of fire

    • Canadian high commission, Samsung outlet join long list of buildings razed in Abuja

    Every year, Nigeria loses billions of naira to fire disasters in virtually all parts of the country, with markets, public and private buildings as well as equipment usually razed, and the fire service unable to check the spread.

    Last week, it was the turn of the Canadian High Commission and Samsung showroom near the popular Barnex Plaza. While efforts were made to promptly alert the Federal Fire Service (FFS), little could be done to salvage the situation that claimed two lives at the high commission.

    In the first half of this year alone, the Controller-General of the FFS disclosed that the service intervened in no less than 1,000 fire disasters, with many lives rescued. Both the immediate past Minister of the Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, and his successor, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, have however taken a number of measures to improve the equipment for fire fighting at the federal level. Dr. Tunji-Ojo recently commissioned 15 Rapid Response Fire Fighting Vehicles and six heavy fire fighting trucks. This was in response to the spate of complaints by victims of the disasters that the response time was poor.

    Unfortunately, the poor response is not only at the federal level, or in the Federal Capital Territory. 

    In the same first half of 2023 in Lagos, the country’s commercial capital, the state fire fighting and rescue service was invited to combat more than 1,600 infernos. 

    In response to the common allegation of failure to promptly show up to assist the victims, or sometimes come without the needed water and reagents, the fire fighters have always complained about lacking adequate manpower, modern equipment and budgetary support. 

    This calls for urgent attention. 

    The supervising ministry should take measures to get the service covered in the appropriation acts. In recent times, it appears that the duration is improving, but much more need be done. Training at home and abroad should be stepped up for the personnel. Nigerians deserve much more. Given the size and population of the country, government should do enough to ensure good coverage, especially in a country where insurance is not fully embraced. 

    Read Also: Fire claimed 12 lives in 10 months

    Besides, the fire service should come up with preventive measures. All markets, malls, multi-storey buildings, secretariats, tertiary institutions, among others, should have more than the inadequate provisions usually made for them. Each should also have personnel specially trained for fire prevention and combating purposes. Fire drills are few and far between in public and private entities, thus rendering lives and property exposed.

    The Federal Ministry of Information and its state counterparts, the National Orientation Agency, as well as other institutions involved in information dissemination, should step up public enlightenment on what to do in case of fire disaster. Many Nigerians are ignorant about what is required, and rather than help the process, they constitute themselves to a clog in the process. They crowd the way, thus prevent access to the scene. In some cases, they attack the fire fighters during which period precious time is lost. 

    Continuous awareness programmes would help. We do not agree, as the FFS has requested, that there is need for Fire Police Service to clear the way for them and ward off hoodlums who besiege the scenes to scavenge materials. The instruction by the incumbent minister that the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) should always accompany fire fighters when going on operation should be tried since both agencies are under the Ministry of Interior.

    The National Assembly has a duty to step in to save Nigerians the agony that usually accompanies fire disasters. Under the oversight function of the lawmakers at the federal and state levels, they can conduct public hearings on what should be done to combat the epidemic. As is sometimes done in serious circumstances, a summit could also be convened to give experts an opportunity to make suggestions on the way out. The times are hard enough for citizens without fire disasters, being confronted with the additional burden of fire could be crippling. This is appropriation season; so, this issue should reflect in the most important act of the legislature. 

  • Delicate balancing

    Delicate balancing

    • We commend Lagos’ decision to reconsider stand on total withdrawal of rebate on transportation

    The Lagos State government has restored 25% rebate for regulated bus and rail transport, after the public reacted negatively to the end of the 50% rebate put in place by the government as palliative since August, to temper the economic hardship occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy. Without doubt, the economic reengineering programme of the Federal Government has occasioned inflationary pressure on goods and services, and the 50% rebate was hailed by Lagosians as a sign that they have a listening government.

    But after three months, the government felt that some form of normality has returned, necessitating the need to terminate the 50% rebate. 

    Obviously, the inflationary pressure on people’s income has not abated, instead, it appears to have increased, and the government must have seen it, to prompt the restoration of 25% rebate, instead of total removal. 

    We agree that the challenge faced by the government in maintaining the 50% rebate is significant, as it would have to use tax payers’ money to pay for services enjoyed only by those who use such public transport.  

    In a manner, the rebate is a form of subsidy, and if the government has removed petrol subsidy because it creates economic distortions, the same logic would apply to justify the removal of the rebate. 

    However, unlike fuel subsidy, which allows petrol to be stolen and resold at higher costs, the end users of transport enjoy the benefits. The challenge would however recur, if the transport companies use phantom services to rip the government off. 

    Again, unlike petrol subsidy which gulps humongous resources, the transportation rebate should be more manageable. 

    We however hope that Lagosians understand that public transportation is a business which can only be sustained if it is viable for investors. While, as some have argued, transportation is a form of social service, its long-term sustainability can only be assured, if it is profitable. So, we urge for a balance between manageable and realistic costs, to allow the fairness for businesses and users.

    Read Also: Tinubu committed to improving lives of vulnerable communities – Shettima

    For, when fares charged are beyond the reach of the income of the average user, the business owners suffer from low patronage. Also, when what is charged is abysmally low, the businesses collapse from lack of profitability. So, a scale for balancing is required, especially when the business owner is not government. And even when the business is government owned, subsidising such businesses has proven to be counter-productive in the long-term.

    The ultimate solution is for the national economy to rebound, and with the measures being put in place by the Federal Government, that may soon happen. For, if inflation is tamed and disposable income increases for both wage earners and businesses, commuters would be able to pay a fair wage for services received. Again, if the inflationary pressure on food items slows down, the people will have more disposable income for other essential services, including transportation. So, the solution lies in improved economy, particularly the taming of inflationary pressure on income.

    The Lagos State government deserves praise for the significant improvement in social services, particularly transportation. The blue rail line running from Mile 2 to CMS Lagos, deserves the commendation of every Lagosian. The plan to extend same to Okokomaiko, gives hope that the cost of transportation in that axis would slash by more than 50%, and that can only happen if there is sustainability in the fares charged. There are also plans for the Fourth Mainland Bridge, as well as the red rail line.

    We urge users and potential users of this modern transportation services to give maximum support to these laudable projects, which pay them more in the long run.

  • Minor wickedness

    Minor wickedness

    • Killing of FUT don by 14-year-old house-help mirrors the depth of moral depravity in the land

    Dr Funmilola Adefolalu, a lecturer at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, has been allegedly killed by her 14-year-old home-help, Joy Afekafe, in connivance with two of her friends, Walex and Smart, who are on the run. Incredible as it sounds, the sad incident is a pointer to how common social ills have become. If the main suspect is merely 14 years old, it means that her alleged accomplices are also minors.

    The tragedy and paradox is that the lecturer is dead and by the accounts from the Niger State Police Public Relations officer, Wasiu Abiodun, the home-help is now a homicide suspect. She had allegedly confessed to the crime because the late lecturer had sacked her for indiscipline just after three weeks of her employment, which came with a promise of sponsoring her education.

    The prime suspect is an SS2 student of Day Secondary School, Gidan Kuka in Niger State. She had told the police that they decided to kill their victim because they feared she would report them to the police if they left her alive. They had gone to her house with a knife and equally used the knife from the victim’s kitchen.

    We regret that the lecturer had to die so cruelly in the hands of these teenagers, but this incident points a torch to the level of moral decadence in the society. There has been loss of both family values and societal mores and ethos. Teenage criminal activities have been on the increase in the last few years. Indeed, there has been a plethora of reports of teenage drug abuse, cult activities, robberies, ritual activities and other social vices.

    This particular case has many dimensions. How did a 14-year-old girl end up as a domestic help? She is a minor that still needs the nurture and care of parents or guardians. It is too early for a life of servitude. The state seems to have no law that criminalises child labour even when Nigeria is signatory to International Labour Organisation (ILO) Treaties and Acts protecting children. The late lecturer was literate enough to understand that. The tragedy brings to the fore the anti- child-labour acts that go on in the guise of education sponsorship, even if this victim had good intentions.

    Read Also: 40% IGR deduction: Burden will be passed to parents, colleges of education union warns FG

    The criminality of the three suspects, no matter the surrounding analysis, is worrisome. How did the society degenerate to a level that even children can blatantly be so daring and violent? 

    No matter how the society may want to analyse the incident, it might never be divorced from the impunity and violence they see around. There is too much violence around and children act out what they see. The country has in almost all their lives been mired in the reportage of violence and violent activities by adults.

    In the last few years, the same Niger State had seen a series of abductions, many violent deaths due to kidnappings and in some cases explosions caused by bandits that are never arrested. Even a reverend father had been brutally murdered in the parish house. No account of his killers is anywhere. 

    If we are to take the lead suspect’s confession about their intention for killing the lecturer, it was to run from the long arms of the law. Invariably, they have learnt that there have been no due diligence in nabbing criminals.

    There has been a litany of employers killed by their domestic help across the country and we would imagine that employers of such labour should do better background checks rather than just employing individuals based on some vague reasons or pure sentiments. We recommend that future employers do better character and integrity searches to limit such incidences of employing criminals.

    The police must do everything to arrest the other two suspects. They are minors and might not have too many options of where to run to hide.

     We must revisit the issue of CCTV  and constant electricity around the country. These ‘riddles’ are better solved with the help of CCTV. We wish that the law would be applied for justice for the living and the dead lecturer. 

  • Imo/NLC crisis

    Imo/NLC crisis

    • Even though nothing can justify the attack on labour leader Ajaero in Imo, his strike threat was equally uncalled-for

    One of the most powerful and potent weapons in the hands of any trade union organisation is that of declaring a strike in pursuit of the protection and welfare of workers. It is a critical democratic right without which no society can truly be said to enjoy the fullness of liberty and the dignity of human rights. But the efficacy and effectiveness of the power of the strike is substantially dependent on the sense of restraint and responsibility with which it is exercised, which makes it important that it is not wielded frivolously. 

    To its credit, the various organs of the Nigerian Labour movement in their decades-long illustrious history of struggles to protect the interests of their members have mostly utilised the power of the strike with commendable maturity and restraint.

    The unfortunate and avoidable collision between the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Joe Ajaero, the Imo State government and some other largely undefined elements in the run-up to last Saturday’s governorship election in the state may, however, be attributed to an increased tendency to trivialise the strike option, as well as immerse trade unions in partisan politics. 

    Mr Ajaero had arrived Owerri, the Imo State capital, on Wednesday, November 1, to lead a strike tagged ‘Occupy Imo Plan’. The action was hinged on the allegation that the state government owed outstanding salary arrears to workers for over 20 months, as well as alleged intimidation and harassment of workers by the state government.

    As he led a picketing at the airport, the NLC President was physically assaulted by people he described as political thugs working in concert with the Imo State government and allegedly supported by the police. The state government has denied any involvement in the incident while the state command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) said its intervention was to rescue Ajaero from his attackers and place him in protective custody for his safety. 

    Furthermore, Imo State governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, has denied that workers in the state were being owed any salary arrears and, to the best of our knowledge, the Imo State chapter of the NLC has not controverted the governor. It is thus doubtful if there was solid ground for the planned strike/protest in the first place, even though this does not in any way justify the attack on Ajaero.

    Read Also: UPDATED: NLC, TUC declare strike, ask members to stay away from work

    In an escalation of the crisis, the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC), in protest against the attack on Ajaero, made a five-point demand, including the removal of the Imo state Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Bello, threatening a strike, paralysis of air travels in and out of Owerri, the state capital, as well as electricity and fuel supply cuts to the state, beginning on November 8, if the demands were not met. This, the labour leaders warned, would be graduated to a nationwide strike if necessary.

    To its credit, the NPF deployed the Commissioner of Police, obviously to ease the tension, even though no investigation has established any culpability on his part. But it is difficult to understand the timing of the NLC’s attempted strike/protest in Imo State just days before last Saturday’s election. The widespread perception of Ajaero, an indigene of the state, as surreptitiously trying to manipulate events to favour a particular party in the election no doubt played a role in the unsavoury turn of events in the state. This is another indication of the need for Labour leaders to exercise the highest degree of discretion and wisdom even as they exercise their undeniable right to participate in politics.

    That the threatened strikes by the NLC and TUC did not hold and is unlikely to does little good to the image and credibility of the Labour unions. There have been too many such ineffective strike threats in recent times. The strike weapon is a powerful one and must always be utilised with the utmost sense of responsibility rather than being the action of first resort.

  • Cash crunch

    Cash crunch

    • The FG should protect local manufacturers in NMMP 2. But the real disease is that DisCos are undercapitalised

    That the Federal Government still owns 40% of DisCos explains why the World Bank (WB) is funding Phase 2 of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), worth US$ 155 million, to produce 1, 250, 000 meters.

    WB is the public-sector arm of the Bretton Woods UN global finance-support system.  The private-sector arm is the International Finance Corporation (IFC).  Had DisCos belonged fully to private investors, IFC could have been the funding partner.

    So, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), NMMP’s implementation agency, should re-tweak terms with WB to ensure foreign firms don’t gobble up the expected 1, 250, 000 meters, for “free” distribution to DisCo customers, thus risking local jobs, in this dire season of high unemployment and soaring inflation.  

    That is imperative because local meter makers are screeching that terms attached to bids for a share of the meter pie is rather harsh: from the prescribed cash flows, from Lot 1 to Lot 5, on offer: US$ 4, 465, 000 (Lot1), US$ 5, 105, 000 (Lot 2), US$ 5, 285, 000 (Lot 3), US$ 5, 885, 000 (Lot 4) and US$ 4, 950, 000 (Lot 5).  

    Cross-lot bids even require a higher outlay of cash flow, putting the lower capitalised local firms at a clear disadvantage.  “Cash flow” here is the average yearly sales for the last three years.

    To be fair, the other bid “conditionalities” appear routine hedges to ensure every firm involved is robust enough not to default in repaying its loan; aside from being a lawful and civic corporate citizen: a five-year audited financial statements, replete with balance sheets, cash flow statements, auditor’s reports — all of which must assert both the bidder’s robust current financial health, aside from long-term profitability.

    Still, without prejudice to WB’s right to protect its investment, the NMMP original goals should not be sacrificed: to promote and protect indigenous smart meter firms, deepen local capacity, conserve foreign exchange by local manufacturing and create some one million direct jobs and three million indirect ones.  

    The Muhammadu Buhari Presidency framed NMMP on these very critical components.  There is no pressing reason the Bola Tinubu administration should depart from that path.  Involving local manufacturers in NMMP Phase 2 should be treated as a national economic emergency — a strategic policy prop to prep every sector of the economy for the expected revamp, at the end of the current painful reforms.

    Read Also:CBN assures of sufficient cash supply

    It is true: NMMP was no soar-away success, thus giving way to the Meter Asset Providers (MAP) initiative, in which electricity consumers buy meters, which ironically are DisCos’ legal assets.   

    Such, however, was — and still is — the gulf in metering, aside from the galloping injustice of the so-called estimated billing system that many customers, constantly harassed by the arrogance and corruption of the DisCos’ disconnection gangs, sought relief in MAP.  

    But even with MAP and NMMP, the gulf is still there.  Many households and even small-scale ventures still don’t have meters but resent estimated billings, insisting —and rightly so — that the estimated bills are unfair and unjust.  The DisCos, on their own part, log “debts”  in their books they perhaps will never collect, thus threatening own long-term business survival.

    That is the real disease. NMMP, MAP and any future meter initiative are only the visible symptoms: the DisCos appear so badly capitalised they lack cash to invest in prepaid meters, the only tool capable of securing their revenue!

    If we were to erect a cheeky yet painfully true imagery: the DisCos put up alluring edifices as business bases.  Yet, these edifices lack robust sections for cashiers or tellers that ensure revenue flows into their till!  That has driven the recurring symptom of incapacity to meter everyone, to secure their revenue.

    That is why the Federal Government — co-owners of DisCos — must urgently address this very critical impediment, now that the DisCos’ licences are expired, though Adebayo Adelabu, Nigeria’s power minister, just “lamented” the industry regulators, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), had “quietly” renewed the licences, with the minister saying he was more concerned with signing a performance bond with the DisCos.

    That appears not a bad idea.  But performance bonds will fall flat if players cannot secure their revenue.  That is why the government must ensure DisCos are capitalised well enough to meter every customer, corporate or household.  

    Ironically, local meter makers also appear undercapitalised.  Otherwise, they wouldn’t complain over a foreign onslaught.

  • Quantum leap

    Quantum leap

    • Manufacturers groan as diesel price hits the roof

    For manufacturers, it seems it doesn’t just rain but pours. From lamenting about their spiralling expenditure on alternative energy sources in June, they have a new source of headache to contend with: the prohibitive cost of price of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel). From N1,030 a litre penultimate week, diesel price is said to have shot up to N1,300 – a quantum jump of some 26 percent all within a week. It’s simply frightening. Recall that the same manufacturers had in June had bemoaned their expenditure on alternative energy – particularly how this shot up from N77.22bn in 2021 to N144.5bn in 2022 – a whopping 87 per cent increase within a year.

    At a time of forex crisis, high interest rates and poor power supply, it is an unfortunate situation for the manufacturers as indeed any our hordes of small businesses to find themselves. Aside compounding their challenges considering that diesel is used to power their factories, the indirect impact of the development on transportation and other logistical costs are better imagined. Of course, the same could be said of households already hamstrung by the inflationary pressures. For the government and the operators, the current times are understandably, most challenging.

    Surely, the government cannot afford the option of doing nothing. In fact, something drastic has to be done if only to allow our manufacturers breathe. The situation, it must be stated, require neither simplistic solutions nor short cuts. They require bold plans. Ordinarily, the most frontal way to address the problem is for the Federal Government to ramp up power supply across the country to bring down the cost of operations. Given the sector’s disappointing performance in all of those years post-privatisation, the truth is that this is easier said than done.

    The other option is to turn to the railways system for mass haulage. Even that remains extremely under-developed for the nation’s industrial requirement. Even that, were it be in place, would not address the industries daily requirement of power.

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    There is yet a third option –for the government to introduce some subsidy of sorts at least to bring down the cost of the product. This is to the extent that the old subsidy regime is out of the question. Even here, the Federal Government cannot in fairness be accused of doing nothing considering that it had already removed the 7.5 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on diesel for six months, effective October.

    The point bears stating that the organised private sector needs all the help that it can get. Aside merely keeping their factories running, the country, surely, cannot afford any further prospects of either output contraction or job losses at this time.

    Commendably, this government has shown great disposition to engage the organised private sector. It is surely the way to go. The expectation is that their concerns are not only heard through structured engagements but that factors that have the potential to further choke them as a collective are addressed promptly. Like the government did when it temporarily shelved the VAT on diesel, we expect no less in terms of fresh initiatives to mitigate those pains while they last.

    Need we again remind the government that the bulk of the current problems are self-inflicted? Isn’t it a shame that we produce crude yet import diesel and other white products to keep our economy running?  Ours is a country that boasts of four refineries none of which is working. Yes, we had the whole of the time, right from the oil boom years, to modernise the power sector, revamp our railways system and invest in road infrastructure, successive governments, for reasons best known to them, chose the path of inaction. It is the reason the country is paying such a high price. It is also the reason why all eyes are on the Tinubu administration to help reverse the course. It begins with getting the refineries working.

  • Foreign travel advisories

    Foreign travel advisories

    • Alarm over purported security threats stokes avoidable tension

    It is perhaps understandable that issuing of travel advisories by sovereign states to guide the movement of their citizens in foreign countries and safeguard their safety has become a regular feature of international relations practice in an ever-increasingly insecure and volatile world. The travel advisory and security alert issued by the United States government to its citizens in Nigeria on November 3 was in line with this routine tradition. In it, US citizens in Nigeria were warned of an elevated threat to major hotels in the country’s larger cities. Obviously actuated by the then pending governorship elections in Nigeria’s Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states on Saturday, November 11, the advisory, citing ‘credible information’, advised US citizens to “exercise vigilance” and “consider avoiding major hotels altogether in the days leading up to and during the elections”.

    On November 4, the United Kingdom followed suit when that country’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) issued a travel advisory advising its citizens against all but essential travels to Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states. But going even further, the FCDO equally admonished UK citizens against all travels to Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and the riverine areas of Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River States.

    One problem with the over generalization involved in this kind of security alert is that even when one or two instances of violence have been witnessed in a given state, seldom do whole states in their entirety collapse into anarchy, violence and insecurity. It would thus be expected that travel advisories offer their citizens more specific and scientific derived information.

    Again, a number of states listed in the FCDO advisory have not witnessed any spectacular or extraordinary incidences of violence for some time now, and it is difficult to decipher what criteria informed their listing in the first place. In any case, no human community across time and space has ever been completely crime free, as they have routinely been vulnerable to varying levels of insecurity and even those countries issuing the advisories are not devoid of their own security challenges. It would be wrong and unfair, for instance, to rely on the not uncommon incidences of deranged lone gunmen shooting and murdering scores of innocent citizens in schools and other public places in some American cities to brand that entire country as unsafe and insecure in an arbitrary manner.

    These considerations most likely informed the response of the Federal Government to the latest US advisory with the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris Magaji, at a recent media parley in Abuja, describing it as unwarranted and one likely to create needless panic and undermine efforts by the current administration to attract investors to Nigeria. In the words of the Minister, “We understand the concerns raised by the US government in their recent travel advisory but believe that it is imperative we do not generalize isolated incidents across the entire hospitality industry.”

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    Stressing that the administration has prioritized the safety and well-being of visitors to the country, Magaji cited some of the measures taken by government to improve security in the country including enhanced intelligence gathering, acquisition and deployment of additional platforms, training and retraining of personnel and increased cooperation with international law enforcement agencies.

    In reality, this kind of response to such foreign travel advisories is unlikely to serve much useful purpose. Rather, government should see the advisories as a wake-up call to redouble its efforts to enhance and guarantee the safety and security of citizens and visitors across Nigeria. As we have always advocated, the security agencies can make much better and more efficient use of intelligence gathering and advanced information and communication technology to improve their operational performance and substantially improve the overall security situation in Nigeria.

    As for those countries which habitually issue publicized travel advisories to their citizens in the country, they should also consider according as much priority to proactively sharing whatever information they have with the country’s authorities in a non-sensational manner so that timely steps can be taken to nip anticipated dangers in the bud. It is also not out of place for the country’s security agencies to issue their own security alerts and advisories to guide both citizens and visitors in cases of the existence of established credible threats.