The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Tomorrow’s off-cycle polls

    Tomorrow’s off-cycle polls

    • Stakeholders have to play by the rules for credible elections

    Nigerians in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states would go to the polls tomorrow to elect their governor, other things being equal. This is about the first time that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be conducting three off-cycle governorship elections simultaneously across different geo-political zones.

    Governorship elections are supposed to be conducted not earlier than 150 days or later than 30 days before the expiration of respective term of office, going by Section 178(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). Two of the incumbent governors – Douye Diri of Bayelsa and Hope Uzodimma of Imo State – are seeking reelection while Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State is to hand over to a successor, after completing the two possible tenures of four years each, as enshrined in the constitution. The elections would hold in 10,510 polling units spread across 649 electoral wards in 56 local governments.

    About 5.1million permanent voters cards (PVCs) had been collected in the three states out of 5.4million voters registered, with over 239,746 PVCs uncollected. According to the electoral commission, out of 1,056,862 registered voters in Bayelsa State, 1,017,613 collected their PVCs, leaving 39,249 cards uncollected; in Imo, there are 2,419,922 registered voters out of which 2,318,919 collected their PVCs, with 101,003 uncollected; and in Kogi, there are 1,932,654 voters on roll out of which 1,833,160 collected their PVCs, leaving 99,494 PVCs uncollected.

    Coming barely eight months after the general election, these off-cycle elections are crucial. Crucial because the general elections were not without their own peculiar challenges, with the presidential election outcome ratified by the Supreme Court only on October 26, eight months after the elections were conducted. Tomorrow’s elections are most crucial because of the political volatility of the states, with Kogi being the hottest, followed by Imo, and lastly, Bayelsa.

    Against this background, it is an understatement to say that these off-cycle elections are a litmus test for INEC. The commission said it has delivered all non-sensitive election materials to the states and had trained various categories of ad-hoc staff that would participate in the exercise. The commission added that its facilities were all set for the polls.

    But, no matter the assurance from the commission, many Nigerians remain worried about the state of violence in the country, especially in the three states. We are equally worried.

    Without doubt, there are security concerns in virtually all parts of Nigeria, but we are worried more about the states where the off-cycle elections are holding tomorrow.

    Imo State has recorded several cases of political violence in recent times. Indeed, it got to a head only last month when Labour Party’s  (LP) governorship candidate in the state, Senator Athan Achonu, addressed a press conference where he accused the state government of being responsible for the killing of some politicians in the state. He implored President Bola Tinubu to wade into the matter. The state government, on the other hand, dismissed the allegation of state-sponsored violence and said that it was Achonu who had a case to answer for the violence.

    The situation is hardly different in Bayelsa where politically related violence seems to be the lowest among the three states, with each party passing the buck.

    But we are particularly worried about Kogi where violence seemed to have assumed a frightening proportion. The state has experienced repeated challenges in its off-cycle polls, including violence, and the use of political thugs to unleash mayhem. During the latest political campaign, violence had been recorded most in the eastern part of the state. Places like Dekina Local Government Area, Ejule, Kotonkarfe; Igalamela/Odolu Local Government Area, Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency, and Yagba East are regarded as flashpoints of political violence that should be carefully watched during the polls. There are other areas that have been identified as den of cultists, who later  metamorphose into political thugs. Indeed, the interference of thugs in places like Anyigba and Dekina during the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections led to the threat of cancellation of the polls in those places by INEC.

    Read Also: Kogi, Imo, Bayelsa polls: Military warns miscreants against violence

    The question now is: what actually went wrong, because Kogi used to be a safe haven in terms of security, even during the present governor’s tenure? This is a poser that no one can satisfactorily answer. Yet, it has to be answered so that the challenge could be well situated and frontally tackled. While the state government and the police persistently lay the blame of the political violence at the door of the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) candidate, Muritala Yakubu Ajaka, the  SDP has in turn accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the state government of being behind the violence. This is troubling in a state that the present government once ran armed robbers out of town and maintained security and peaceful coexistence. 

    But the state police command has always accused Ajaka of undermining security efforts with his failure to honour invitations and refusal to inform security agencies of his activities. 

    Elections should be about serving the people. If this is true, then, it should not be a do-or-die affair. Without doubt, there would always be controversy concerning the performance of incumbents at any level. No matter the efforts of the incumbent, the party waiting to take over will always find something to criticise in its programmes and policies or projects in order to prove that it can do better. So, while some analysts have said that the incumbent Kogi State Governor Bello has achieved a lot in education, infrastructure, health and particularly security, those intending to succeed him see things differently.

    This is normal. That is why political candidates sell their programmes to the electorate whose final decision would now depend on their perception of the party and candidates.

    This should be true of all elections; not just the one coming up in Kogi State tomorrow.

    INEC has said it is prepared to conduct the polls. The security agencies too say they are ready. As a matter of fact, the police have deployed about 90,000 officers and men, as well as 220 new patrol vehicles for the elections; it would seem they are actually ready for the polls even though we feel sad that this huge number of security personnel is required to conduct off-cycle elections in only three states of the federation. Elections are normal routine in several other countries.

    However, much as we appreciate the deployment of the men and vehicles and other equipment they may require, we must hasten to add that free and fair elections would not be guaranteed by the number of personnel and/or equipment but by the security officers playing according to the rules. We therefore urge the security personnel to be fair in their treatment of all the stakeholders, irrespective of party affiliation.

    Again, while we acknowledge that INEC’s warning not to count votes in polling units where violence is recorded in the election was in good faith; we must point out the possibility of the loser at the polling unit masterminding the violence just to discredit the victory of the winner. So, we would urge a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding the violence before INEC takes decisive action against the perpetrators.

    We wish the best candidates victory in the three states.

  • Gallant rescue

    Gallant rescue

    • Soldiers’ retrieval of suicide bidder from Lagos Lagoon is act of heroism

    Soldiers in the 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, on Monday, said they stopped a woman who plunged into the Lagos Lagoon in a bid to kill herself from committing suicide. The woman, identified as Mrs. Francesca Spark, jumped into the lagoon close to 81 Division Officers’ Mess in Marina, Lagos, but gallant officers of the Army plunged in after her and fished her out.

    A statement by Acting Deputy Director of Army Public Relations, Lieutenant-Colonel Olabisi Olalekan Ayeni, said troops of 65 Battalion of the Army deployed at the officers’ mess sighted Mrs. Spark as she plunged into the lagoon and swiftly applied their military riverine skills and ingenuity to rescue her. The exact date of the incident was not made clear, but a masked picture of the rescued woman was shown. According to the Army spokesman, the woman “was given first aid and stabilized by the battalion medical team. After stabilization, the family was contacted and she was handed over to her husband, one Mr. Spark Oghene Ovie residing at Awoyaya, Lagos.”

    The Army statement further said the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 81 Division, Major-General Muhammed Takuti Usman, praised the soldiers for being observant, and for their ingenuity, courage and gallantry. He expressed pleasure that soldiers brought their training in disaster management to bear in a critical situation where the life of a fellow citizen could have been lost, noting that the rescue was a military operation other than war as gets conducted during emergencies or natural disasters.

    By all means, the soldiers deserve all the applause they can get for the great act of gallantry in plunging after Mrs. Spark after the suicide bid. And there are many to applaud the officers for: their eagle-eyed alertness that saw the woman take the plunge, their selfless composure in swiftly plunging in her trail to rescue her, and the alacrity in applying medical care that stabilized the embattled woman. It is also to be highly commended that the military restored Mrs. Spark to her family rather than pursue the controversial line of applying the law that criminalises attempted suicide, which amounts to double jeopardy for the suicide victim.

    Read Also: N2.17tr Supplementary Budget will be judiciously applied – Tinubu

    What could have led a person to consider all life’s options so foreclosed as to resort to suicide is a matter for mental health medics to properly interrogate. But we recall that in February, last year, the ninth House of Representatives processed a private member bill that sought to decriminalise suicide by replacing the stipulated penalty of one year imprisonment for attempted / failed suicide in the Criminal Code Act, 2004 with sentence to compulsory counselling and community service for a period not less than six months. In his argument for the proposed amendment bill, its sponsor, Rep. Francis Waive (APC, Delta) noted that mental health challenges such as depression, long term substance abuse, schizophrenia, mood disorder, psychosis and other psychiatric disorders are the most common risk factors linked to suicidal behaviour. He said inter alia: “Research has also shown a strong link between suicide and mental illness/disorder. However, it continues to be treated as a crime in Nigeria. This means that a person who survives a suicide attempt will be harassed, arrested and punished by the state with an imprisonment term of up to one year. This (amendment) bill suggests that suicidal people are in need of effective treatment, counselling and assistance, not punishment. Penalising attempted suicide is hardly a prevention method, instead the law should direct the appropriate authorities to assist the traumatised attempters…”

    We are not certain how that amendment bill eventually ended up in the last assembly, but we agree totally that suicide bid, rather than being a criminal act, is an act of desperation and misguided cry for help in acute distress. We argued before that what the suicide bidder needs is care, not punishment; and rather than that any form of penalty be stipulated against him/her, the bidder should be referred for mental health attention. That is where we slightly differ from Army personnel in the case of Mrs. Spark, highly commendable as their acts are. Handing the lady back to her husband may not adequately address her challenges – especially since it was under the husband, apparently, she piled up destructive venom and headed out to the lagoon unchecked. The woman needs urgent mental health care and socio-economic therapy as would assuage the conditions that motivated her to suicide attempt.

    This incident serves as another wake-up call to communal sensitivity. Mrs. Spark must have betrayed some signs of her acute desperation before heading out to the water edge, but nobody including her husband noticed. Shame! And there is as well the onus on the power elite to work at making living conditions conducive to lessen the disposition to suicide.

  • Patriot and victim

    Patriot and victim

    • Killing of corps member on posting to Kaduna is totally unacceptable

    The danger of being a girl-child or a woman in Nigeria seems not to be going away anytime soon. Gender-based violence seems to have increased in the last ten years, the seeming climax being the mass abduction of hundreds of Chibok school girls in April 2014. Some of the girls are still in captivity till date. And since that abduction, many other girls have been abducted from different schools from Nasarawa to Kaduna, and from Yobe to Zamfara states amongst others. Leah Sharibu of the ill-fated Dapchi school girls incident  is still in captivity.

    Abductions of female students and women from schools, homes and farms are just few of the varied forms of violence perpetrated against the female gender. More women are being killed through domestic violence and in other places outside the homes. In the last few years, cases of murdered, kidnapped or raped women have been on the increase.  However, even though many men have been killed under same circumstances, the number of women killed or made collateral victims continues to be underreported.

    The recent murder of a serving National Youth Service Corps member in Kaduna State, Miss Chalya Silas, has attracted the attention of Nigerian lawmakers in the House of Representatives and they have called on the Inspector-General of Police to ensure thorough investigation and prosecution of whoever is found to have had a hand in the murder of the young graduate of Rehabilitation Sciences of the University of Jos, Plateau State. She was allegedly murdered while jogging within her service community in Kaduna. Her case was brought up by Beni Lar, a Reps.  member from Plateau State.

    We condemn this very heinous crime against a defenseless young lady that was serving her nation, but had to meet her tragic end as she merely jogged around the area of her primary assignment. House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abass has charged House committee on the police to investigate the murder and the committee on youth development to review the safety of corps members. We consider that action necessary, yet rather belated. Reports about the death and abduction of corps members have been on the increase in recent times. The late Miss Silas is not the first corps member to die during their service year, other corps members have been victims of different kinds of misfortunes. Only a few weeks ago, about eight corps members were abducted by bandits in Katsina State, and while the terrorists have released a few of them, others are still in captivity.

    Read Also: Atiku appeals to voters in Kogi, Imo, Bayelsa to vote PDP candidates

    We do not believe that deaths have to be recorded before lawmakers would be awaken to engaging the issue. The whole essence of national youth service is national integration. With corps members getting hazarded just because they decided to obey the laws of the land, it amounts to failure of the state to leave them to vagaries of communities they are posted to serve.

    As Rep. Lar who initiated the motion on Chalya Silas noted, girls and women continue to be victims of violence possibly because other cases of violence, rape and murder go uninvestigated, or investigated half-way and abandoned even after government and the police had pledged to ‘leave no stone unturned’ to locate and prosecute perpetrators of such evil acts. Increasing violence against citizens – whether male or female – shows how insecure the Nigerian society has become.

    The death of Miss Silas is one death too many, and her assailants must be fished out and prosecuted accordingly. The tragic end of such young lady must be a sad and depressing thing for her parents, who must have invested much in seeing her through school. She had her whole life ahead of her and had only submitted to serving her country when she met such tragic fate.

    We hold that it isn’t enough to condemn incidents after they occur, but rather to take concrete steps towards preventing future reoccurrence. Nigeria is grossly under-policed and it is commendable that there are plans to recruit more people into the force. Meanwhile, we hope that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) management has functional insurance coverage for corps members, and that there is a scheme by which support could be provided for parents whose children die under such tragic circumstances. More importantly, the parents must be allowed some closure through prosecution and punishment of suspects after due investigation. That should also serve to deter other criminals.

  • Prank or crime?

    Prank or crime?

    • Police should thoroughly probe attempted arson by two Ogun primary school pupils

    No one would imagine that a day would come when primary school pupils would be arrested for suspected arson. But that was the case last week in Isheri-Olofin community, Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State.

    A six-year-old, Wahis Musa, and seven-year-old Malik Iliasu were said to have been caught in the act of setting one of the classrooms on fire using books left behind by some pupils and their teacher. Residents who noticed the unusual fire on Sunday October 29 rallied round to put out the fire before it could get out of hand, and thereafter alerted the Ojodu Divisional Police Station.

    While it is not clear yet what prompted the act, the anti-crime unit of the State Police Command has been invited to investigate the matter. We agree that this is the way to go.

    Were the children merely playing pranks or acting out a script written by some adults? Whichever it may be does not portend well for our society. Are children as young as six and seven years able to plan such acts, and what could have motivated them? The matter is a bit complicated to handle, as keeping the children perpetually with the police has its challenges. But should they be released to go home to their parents who apparently failed in the duty of grooming them ab initio; or would they be kept in police cell where they could be hardened by seasoned criminals? Or in the alternative, should they be kept in a borstal home until they are old enough to be released? What purpose would it serve to arraign such children? These are posers to be carefully considered by child psychologists, sociologists, criminologist and officers of the welfare section of the police. If the Ogun State command is unable to tackle the intricate matter by itself, the Commissioner may seek assistance from the Headquarters in Abuja or sister commands in neighbouring states.

    The Police should not only be thorough in the probe, but discreet given the tender ages of the children and the need to safeguard their future.

    We do not agree with those suggesting that the matter be put down to children merely acting their ages. There have been cases of children under 10 known to be members of notorious gangs. They are squeezed through available spaces in gates or fences to make way for older and more experienced gang members.

    In August, Commander of the Amotekun Corps in Ondo State, Chief Adetunji Adeleye, told journalists that a 16-year-old had been nabbed for serial burglary and housebreaking.  The boy, Sunday Ojo, was said to have confessed to more than 40 robbery incidents. He was said to have been apprehended three years earlier. He was then 13.

    Read Also: Crimes against journalists threaten democracy, undermine press freedom, says Lawan

    It could be said that while teenagers are known to be discovering themselves and in the age of adventure, it is a new low to have six-year-old and seven-year-old making a foray into that sphere. Given the rate at which children drop out from, or shun school, they are potentially easy recruits by crime gangs and cults. From becoming apprentices to artisans, they are at very young age being initiated into crime. The Federal Government should get experts to probe into this particular case with a view to curbing the trend.

    Incidentally, there is nothing to suggest that the two pupils are into crime. But as the police and residents of the area have suggested, there is a need to grill both the children and their parents. Could they have acted at the prodding of their parents?

    The Dapo Abiodun administration in Ogun State has its work cut out for it. The state is becoming a beehive of many untoward activities, the government should therefore take more than passing interest in this issue in the overall interest of the people.

  • Job scramble

    Job scramble

    • Giddy rush for police appointment raises red flag on unemployment rate

    Nigeria is one of the most under-policed countries in the world. The current estimated number of police personnel in the country is about 370,000 to a population of more than 200million people. The United Nations (UN) recommends a ratio of one police officer to every 450 citizens. Nigeria thus has a personnel deficit in its police force. This deficit has gone on for so long and the consequences have been huge and diverse.

    The new Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun has proposed an increase in police manpower recruitment from the present level of 10,000 yearly to 20,000. He suggested that Nigeria needs at least 190,000 additional police personnel to meet its policing needs.

    The Police Service Commission (PSC) in conjunction with the Nigeria Police had recently announced the beginning of recruitment of interested and qualified Nigerians for enlistment into the force as constables. The age limit for applicants is put at between 18 and 25, and must be physically and psychologically fit and not less than 1.67m for males and 1.64m for females.

    Curiously, just a week into the six-week timeline for the recruitment, almost three hundred thousand applications have been recorded, meaning we might be counting applicants in millions at the end of the six-week period. This speaks to a lot of realities and possibilities. There is a high level of unemployment in the country for this number of young people to rush in applications just one week into the period, and government should take note.

    The police is not the most admired security agency within Nigeria. Even though they have proven over time to be worthy of their training through excellent performances especially when posted out of the country for international law enforcement duties, they are poorly paid and their conditions of service deplorable. Police barracks are nearly the most deplorable living spaces in the country, with run-down infrastructure that  is often the butt of jokes. Their welfare is not the most admired in the country. They attract very little respect from the public who they are meant to serve and protect. The average policeman is seen as an adversary rather than the usual mantra that ‘the police is your friend.’

    That young people in their most productive phase are scampering to be recruited into the force should be a thing for governments at all levels to introspect on. Who are these applicants and what is their interest in joining the police? The security agency across the world is highly prized and personnel well-catered for, given the sensitivity of their work in society. This, therefore, means that police recruitment must be a search for the best and most committed and not just people looking for meal tickets or cronies of people in high places. There must be an innate passion than fires the individual to live a life of sacrifice.

    Read Also: ‘How to achieve effective police reforms’

    We commend the idea of increasing the number of police personnel, especially considering the UN benchmark and the fact that society needs excellent policing in an era of not just national insecurity, but a global one too. We however must say the practice whereby politicians and other people with capacity to pay monopolise the services of the few trained police personnel available must be discouraged. To be policed is a right of every citizen and must not be restricted to only those who can pay for the services.

    Politicians are paid to serve in different capacities and must through laws and policy measures make the country more secure for every citizen in ways that they won’t need to pay for extra protection from the people they ought to serve. While we recognize the need for those in leadership to be protected, we also know that most of them are over-policed to the detriment of those they ought to serve. This is often the reason the few police personnel fail the people.

    We hope the recruitment process will meet up to global best practice, such that the most qualified and passionate for policing job would be the ones to be recruited. There are international standards and policing is said to be everyone’s business in ways that every citizen is a beneficiary of an excellent policing process.  Nigeria must comply with the UN benchmark while making efforts to make the country more secure and the police better trained and cared for to ensure maximum output. 

  • Moment of truth

    Moment of truth

    • Urgent remedy is needed on failed privatisation of the power sector

    For President Bola Tinubu, it was no time for equivocation: the power sector privatisation, which the nation had pinned its hopes on for a turnaround, has failed to deliver. At the 2023 NESI Market Participants and Stakeholders Roundtable with the theme: ‘NESI privatisation and its 10-year milestone: the journey so far, opportunities and prospects’, the president, represented by Special Adviser, Energy and Infrastructure, Office of the Vice-President, Sodiq Wanka, told his audience: “10 years on, I believe it is fair to say that the objectives of sector privatisation have by and large, not been met. Over 90million Nigerians lack access to electricity. The national grid only serves about 15 percent of the country’s demand. This has left households and factories to rely on expensive self-generation, which supplies a staggering 40 percent of the country’s demand.”

    He added: “What is worse, the total amount of electricity that can be wheeled through the national grid has remained relatively flat in the last 10 years.”

    The president didn’t stop at that. He also noted that: “Preliminary analysis shows that DisCos today, are undercapitalized to the tune of at least N2 trillion.”

    He bared his thoughts going forward by saying: “The poor performance must not continue to drag the sector down. All licensees must not only have the technical capacity to deliver on their licence but must also have the financial muscles to invest to improve their operations.

    “We must facilitate the reorganization of the sector, the subsector, and the recapitalization process that brings new partners and capital to jumpstart performance in this critical sector of the value chain.”

    While the president had merely stated the obvious, we cannot agree more with his prognosis that a new operating creed has become an imperative.

    In fact, it is beyond debate that Nigerians’ expectation of massive gains in terms of improved services from advertised injection of investments and new technologies have most disappointingly come to naught.  Not even the unbundling of the old Power Holdings Company of Nigeria (PHCN) into disparate units changed anything; electricity consumers are still required to buy, in some instances, transformers and other service accoutrements under the same old archaic business models. And this extends to electricity meters. The burden of providing this basic device, so critical to revenue collection by the service providers (the electricity distribution companies), has long been shifted to the electricity consumer under a most nebulous arrangement conceivable by a so-called regulator.

    Read Also: Why technology will play crucial role in sanitizing mining sector, by Alake

    Meanwhile, in the absence of demonstrable capacity by the operators, trillions of public funds continue to be poured in to maintain stabilisation. Even that itself has failed to make any appreciable difference in terms of service and other operational improvements. We recall that the Federal Government actually considered repossessing 10 of the electricity distribution firms as one of the options to rescue the nation’s beleaguered electricity industry sometime in 2019. In fact, it actually pronounced all the 11 Discos as ‘technically insolvent’ at the time.

    It must be said also that the wholly government -owned transmission company has fared no better. It has been a case of serial missteps with grid collapses now becoming its defining feature. According to Business Insider, Nigeria has experienced a total of 46 grid collapses in the country, spanning the period from 2017 to 2023.

    Although the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has clarified that the licences of the 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) will expire in 2028 and not 2023 as earlier reported in some newspapers, the main issue is whether the country can further endure the luxury of counting on the current structure long after the government itself has pronounced on their incapability. For us, the nation has reached the point where the government must do all that is necessary to rescue the sector from the current set of actors.

  • Police reform

    Police reform

    • Proposed recalibration of the police is right way to go if followed through

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision to carry out a comprehensive reform of the Nigeria Police Force is a step in the right direction. Though it may be argued that reform is not necessarily the only problem with the institution, the fact is, it is key to having a more efficient police force under our current unitary arrangement.

    The president’s decision to reform the police was announced by Bauchi State Governor  Bala Mohammed while speaking to State House correspondents at the end of a meeting of the Nigeria Police Council on Tuesday. The meeting, at which previously Acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun was confirmed as the substantive IGP, was chaired by President Tinubu.

    Members of the committee to reform the police force, according to the governor, include Minister of Police Affairs Ibrahim Geidam, National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu, Police Service Commission (PSC) Chairman Solomon Arase, and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who is chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF).

    Governor Mohammed said: “The confirmation of the IGP prompted further discussion on the Nigeria Police Force and the president has formed a special committee to look at all the gaps in Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution with a view to bringing harmony and synergy, relevant technology and manpower to the Nigeria Police Force.”

    Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, who was also at the meeting, expressed confidence in Egbetokun’s ability to deliver given his academic and professional attainments.

    About a week before President Tinubu’s setting up of the committee, precisely on October 25, Egbetokun issued a circular reminding police officers and men not to arrest medical personnel who treat gunshot victims without police report. It would appear this is the umpteenth time successive IGPs would be issuing such a reminder. Yet, this keeps happening because of endemic corruption in the force. 

    Just as in the case of treatment of gunshot wounds, we are almost always inundated with warnings to policemen by new IGPs that bail is free. Yet, how many police stations grant bail for free? Again, can we say policemen who collect bribe before granting bail do not know it is wrong?

    These are the issues. While we may not excuse these misconducts, sometimes bordering on crime, because of poor pay, we must acknowledge that they do have some negative effects on the performance of our policemen.

     We have had several cases of policemen venting their frustration on hapless citizens, killing some in the process.

    Read Also: Learn to leak your wounds, APC counsels Obi

    So, we need to reform the police force to bring sanity and professionalism to bear.

    We therefore urge the committee to look into all the challenges that policemen are facing – poor welfare, inadequate kitting, lack of transportation facilities, etc. – with a view to making recommendations to improve on them. The reform should include inculcating in them the fact that safety takes preeminence over other considerations. So, it is incumbent on the hospitals to inform the police after treating such victims.

    However, much as we support the need for reform in the police, we hasten to add that we have had several committees in the past to look into the matter. Their recommendations must be gathering dust on government shelves.

    Indeed, but for Governor Abiodun’s assertion that the police force has not had any meaningful reform since its inception in 1861, we would have suggested that the government go into its archives to dust up reports on police reform for possible implementation.

    We may not be sure of the veracity of this statement. All we are saying however is that this should be the ‘mother of all reforms’ in the police force. And the government must be ready to implement the committee’s report when submitted.

    All said, while admitting that reforming the police is about the best we can hope for under the current central police command structure, we should never lose sight of the fact that state police is a more assured route out of the problems of ineffective policing in the country. The beauty of the new initiative would be in tinkering with the Constitution if that is where the impediment to effective policing lies.

  • Perish the thought

    Perish the thought

    • Importing foreign crude to feed Nigerian local refineries is self-inflicted curse

    As the stage is getting set for Nigerian refineries to refine Nigerian crude oil, it is just as well that a core regulatory agency is tackling, head on, a most critical part of the new market before it becomes a crisis — guaranteeing crude feedstock for the refineries.

    As that news was breaking, the House of Representatives also commenced action on  the National Agency for Artisanal Petroleum Refining (Establishment) Bill 2023, aimed at providing a regulatory framework for the construction and operation of small-scale refineries in the country.

    Both are good pointers to a putative and vibrant oil downstream market, so long as the foundation stones are well laid: the ready supply of crude to local refineries and setting up rigorous standards for operating refineries, no matter how artisanal — in terms of fine product quality, safe operational processes and even safer environment, in conscious environmental protection and careful disposal of wastes.

    For an unregulated market, artisanal refineries are often a tad removed from brazen criminality.  So, a law to regulate and formalise the trade is welcome.  Even more pragmatic is the prospect of grouping these small-scale players into larger cooperatives, a band that can then access funding, progressively expand their ventures and be captured in the formal tax net.  That bodes good for an integrated market, other things being equal.

    Still, among other indices, ready supply of crude is critical.  Which is why it makes eminent sense that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) just recommitted to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021  — to adequately feed local refineries, major or minor, now springing up.

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    That is reassuring — and NUPRC should move fast to fulfil that mandate, viz Section 109 of PIA: Domestic Crude Supply Operation (DCSO), enacted to ensure a regular supply of crude to local refineries.

    Nevertheless, that feeding refineries became an issue at all points to how perilously close to derailment a supposedly new dawn could have been.  That would have been more than tragic.  A ready supply of crude, within extant contractual terms, ought to be routine.  It drives Nigeria’s comparative advantage in the global crude oil refining market. 

    So, any talk of importing crude, which Nigeria readily produces, should stop.  NUPRC must make sure of it.  Nigeria cannot transit from importing refined products to importing crude oil.  That would be a self-inflicted economic curse.

    As many modular refineries have been complaining of scarce crude, NUPRC should double down on its efforts to further deepen the implementation of Production Curtailment and Domestic Crude Oil Supply Obligation (PC & DCSO) Regulation 2023, under the armpit of Section 109(2) of the PIA 2021.

    PC & DCSO is all about a comprehensive framework to process and approve refineries’ demand for crude, and getting no less comprehensive data from oil producing firms, on their crude oil off-takes and purchase agreements.  This will ensure local refiners are well protected, even as the oil majors feed their export market portfolios.

    NUPRC is also prompting the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA: the regulator of that segment of the oil market) to provide full information of the crude oil demands of the local refineries operating now.  As the market expands and more players come into it, that file should be updated to accommodate everyone, so long as they fulfil the willing-to-sell and willing-to-buy trading protocol.

    With adequate demand information, NUPRC should not hesitate to wield the big stick against any oil producing company, no matter how big or how small, to make the point that any form of sabotage would not be tolerated.

    “The commission reiterates its determination to apply all required penalties for default and has emphasised that a company that fails to respond to the Request for Quotation within the specified period is liable to pay an administrative fine of US$ 10, 000”, a NUPRC source told This Day, “while a company that has not complied with its DCSO, where willing buyer(s) exist will not be granted an export permit.”

    NUPRC should walk its talk.  Anything towards starving local refineries crude oil should be treated as economic sabotage.  Local refining is critical to Nigeria’s economic recovery, with forex saved from importing petroleum products plowed into physical and social infrastructure, to further grow the economy.

  • Quarterly assessment

    Quarterly assessment

    • Plan to ensure compliance with government goals in order

    The ministerial retreat to introduce members of the Federal Executive Council to expectations from them is an indication that the Tinubu administration would not tolerate sloppiness from the ministers. So much has gone wrong with the government that standards have to be set immediately.

     In almost all sectors, Nigeria has lost its pride of place, not only at the global level, but Africa.

    Public tertiary institutions are now regarded as glorified secondary schools, with many students hanging on the window panes during lectures and those unlucky to find seats at the back rows unable to hear the lecturers. Laboratories are inadequately equipped, even with basic reagents, and indiscipline is rife among students and the academic staff. Some professors are hardly available for classes as they take up appointments with other universities, especially the private tertiary schools. Without discipline, it is impossible to maintain standards.

    In the health sector, the appointment of Professor Ali Pate, a world renowned health administrator as coordinating minister excited so much passion, with many expecting that his assumption of duty would translate to better times.

    Both the President and his aides expect that the appointment of tested and trusted hands as Coordinating Minister of Finance and Governor of the Central Bank would resuscitate the comatose economy that has pushed majority of the people below the poverty line. The same could be said of the situation in the security, mining and agriculture sectors.

    President Bola Tinubu’s warning that any of his appointees who performs below par would be shoved out is welcome. We hope this would not only be in words, but action as the jury is already out for the ministers in this early days as life has become very hard for the people.

    Earlier, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Monitoring, Hadiza Bala-Usman, had given indication that each ministry would be assessed by clearly delineated parameters every quarter starting from next year. At the end of every year, she said, any minister that failed the test would not be spared the rod.

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    It is good that the President has instituted a retreat to set the ball rolling. Anyone who thinks he could not cope should bail out of the boat early enough to allow the hiring of a more suitable official. The ministers should realise that the job for which they have been employed is to serve and not lord it

    over the public. And, they are coming on board at a time that public confidence in public officers is at the lowest ebb. It is their duty to study the system fast enough, come up with how to handle civil servants whose duty is to translate policies into action, execute projects and ensure that budgets are implemented.

    It is good that the retreat has afforded all of them the opportunity of understanding the philosophy of this government. While many senior civil servants and heads of extra-ministerial departments and agencies have been in the system for long, they must adapt to the newly enunciated philosophy of this administration.

    The ministers do not work alone. As the President is giving them the charge, so should they transmit the same to their subordinates, otherwise, they would fail. They, too, have to come up with measures to assess their lieutenants and whoever fails the test for two consecutive quarters should be shown the way out.

    Nigerians are not in the mood for excuses. No appointee should be left in doubt that the country is set for a new dawn.

    The subnationals should take a cue from the Federal Government. Trade unions, religious leaders, civil society groups and the media should play the role of monitoring of the ministers and heads of other extra-ministerial groups. A journey of 1,000 kilometers starts with the first step. They should all realise that the time is ticking already.

  • Unfair tackle

    Unfair tackle

    • Why would Justice Dattijo wait till  after 47 years  to criticise the judiciary?

    The darts thrown at the Supreme Court by retired Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, during his valedictory, on the structure and operations of the apex court, has left critical stakeholders scampering for cover. The social media that has been dragging the justices of the apex court in the mud over some of its decisions, has been feasting on what it considers as worm-infested cracks in the court.

    No doubt, Justice Muhammad’s scathing remarks have portrayed the judiciary in bad light. We urge a thorough  investigation of the issues raised by the retired justice.

    But we also wonder why it has taken this long for him to see the light.

    Unfortunately, the present Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, is made to look as the culprit for all that Justice Muhammad complained about. We don’t agree with that, however, at least with regards to some of the systemic issues raised by the learned justice.

    Some have argued that the former justice was driven by bile, considering that the system of preferment in the apex court did not treat him like a deputy chief justice of Nigeria, a position unknown to the constitution. There are also muted reports that he is angry he was not appointed to head the presidential election appeal tribunal.

    One of the issues raised by the retired justice  is the over-concentration of powers in the office of the chief justice. The retired justice mentioned important institutions like the National Judicial Commission (NJC), Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC), National Judicial Institute (NJI) and Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC), all enamoured with immense constitutional powers, which the CJN heads.

    He warned that absolute powers corrupt absolutely. We agree.

    The systemic challenge of the nation’s judiciary is further compounded by the fact that whereas we are framed as a federal republic, we are welded together as a unitary state. There are instances when state governments fall out with the centralised judicial organs, sometimes for good, and sometimes for bad, making a mockery of the federalism we profess to practice. With command and control of the federal and state judiciary in the office of the CJN, the potency of abuse truly abounds. 

    Another issue raised by Justice Muhammad is the constitutional expectation of diversity in the apex court. He narrowed his complaint to the composition of the presidential election appeal tribunal, which to us is absurd. We agree with him that more justices should be appointed as much as possible from all the zones with depleted representatives, to ensure adherence to the federal character enshrined in the 1999 constitution (as amended). As we have also complained here, the depletion in the number of justices of the apex court deserves urgent attention.

    We however do not agree with the ethnic colouration of judicial pronouncements, which should reflect the laws of the land, and not tribal affiliations. Such postulation can only do harm to the sanctity of the judicial process, since there are other cases apart from election petitions. To agree to Muhammad’s proposition will mean that when litigants approach the apex court, they should be looking at the ethnic nationalities of those constituted to hear their cases, instead of the interpretation of the law, with respect to the issues raised before the members of the panel. The integrity of judgments should depend on the integrity of the justices, not on tribal affiliations.

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    There are strong arguments that the justices of the Supreme Court should be populated by intellectuals, and those who have distinguished themselves as legal practitioners, instead of the current practice of elevating only Justices of the Court of Appeal to the apex court.

    No doubt, infusing law professors and senior advocates into the apex bench would deepen the jurisprudential potency of that institution, with grave constitutional powers.

    However, ordinarily, when Justice Muhammad, an immediate past  member of the apex court laments at his retirement ceremony that “this is not the judiciary I loved and aspired to serve in”, there should be cause to worry. Indeed, when the public make a caricature of the judiciary that should naturally be held sacred, and call out justices as delivering cash and carry justices without fear of contradiction and consequent retribution, stakeholders must awaken to the cries in the wilderness. To pretend that all is well with our judiciary is to play the ostrich.

    But more worrisome is the fact that it took Justice Muhammad about 47 years to see these logs in the eyes of the judiciary. This is the same judiciary he had served in several capacities before being elevated to the Supreme Court of Nigeria on July 10, 2012, till his retirement last month. Indeed, he was appointed Deputy Chairman, NJC in June, last year.

    We therefore see his outburst against the judiciary on his retirement as opportunistic. He would appear to be playing to the gallery because, as a top member of the judiciary for years, he was a part of the so-called rot in the system. He had ample opportunity to contribute to measures to improve on the situation but chose rather to see no evil and hear no evil while in service.

    While we agree that there are issues to be addressed in the judiciary, we think it does not lie in the mouth of Justice Muhammad to denigrate the judiciary the way he did. The issues he complained about did not just crop up during the time of the incumbent CJN. They had always been there, even when Justice Muhammad was in service.

    We therefore see his comment against the judiciary as an unfair tackle that is unbecoming of a justice of his stature.

    All said, while we do not subscribe to the practice of using executive powers to intimidate the judiciary in the guise of fighting corruption, we believe there is the urgent need to weed out corrupt judges from the system. The NJC should be at the vanguard of self-cleansing, and if it requires tinkering with the constitutional provision on its membership, then let’s do it.