The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • N-Power probe

    N-Power probe

    • This is necessary for accountability and review, for more efficiency

    Established in 2016 by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the N-Power Scheme was conceived as part of that government’s comprehensive National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), to mitigate poverty.

    Its major objectives include creation of jobs for at least 1.5 million unemployed youths in its graduate and non-graduate components, as well as providing capacity building to enhance entrepreneurship and targeted tenured employment resulting in sustainable career paths for participants. 

    Other tranches of the NSIP include the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, Government Enterprise and Investment Programme and the Conditional Cash Transfers to the most vulnerable segments of the population. Citing sundry irregularities observed in its operations, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, last week announced the indefinite suspension of the N-Power Scheme, saying this was necessary to enable proper investigation, restructuring and ultimate expansion of the scheme.

    According to the minister, it had been discovered that many participants in the scheme are often absent from their places of primary assignment while still demanding to be paid purported outstanding monthly allowances. Again, it was found out that a number of beneficiaries in batches one and two who ought to have exited the scheme in 2021 and September, 2022, respectively, to make way for new entrants, are still on the payroll. It has also been stressed that there is the need for the ministry to accurately ascertain the total number of participants in the scheme and how many of them are being owed allowances.

    Indeed, the issue of unpaid allowances is a major reason for the impending probe into the N-Power Scheme. Some participants are reportedly owed stipends for eight to nine months. In a statement, the National Programme Manager, N-Power, Dr Akindele Egbuwale, disclosed that “Preliminary findings of our audit have shown that some consultants are holding on to beneficiaries’ funds disbursed to them long ago even though their contracts ended in March, 2023, without any renewal.

    Read Also: N-Power: FG announces date for payment of nine months backlog allowance

    “We condemn this practice and will not tolerate it, going forward. Work is ongoing to identify those involved, understand why the payments didn’t get to the final beneficiaries and recall the funds to pay those owed”.

    While the idea of the NSIPs, including N-Power, had been widely commended, concern had always been expressed as regards the lack of a reliable database of beneficiaries to ensure effective actualisation of its objectives and the opportunity for corrupt enrichment that this could create. The ongoing updating of the National Social Register by the ministry should help clean up the register, eliminate ghost participants and reduce fraud. So much scarce public resources have been committed to the NSIPs; so, all avenues for their corrupt diversion by unscrupulous officials must be blocked.

    According to the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouk, in February, this year, over N1.358 trillion had been invested in various aspects of the programme since 2016.

    We commend the ministry for the planned restructuring and expansion of the programme to go beyond the previous age limit of 35 to reach persons between 18 and 40 years old. Apart from expanding the scheme to encompass new programmes in education, health, works, agriculture, technology, fashion, skill acquisition and employability, the ministry has set a new target of five million beneficiaries in five years, at a pace of one million beneficiaries per year.

    The potential benefits of the N-Power Scheme are immense and indisputable. For instance, the N-Power assessment report prepared by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that in 2017, 200, 000 youths were engaged in the scheme, reducing youth employment from 23.6% to 16.6%. In 2018, another 300,000 youths were engaged, again reducing youth unemployment from 23.6% to 29%. We urge the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to conduct its investigation, restructuring and expansion of the scheme as swiftly as possible without compromising thoroughness and efficiency so that the N-Power Programme can quickly get back on track.

  • Ajaokuta steel

    Ajaokuta steel

    • A mirage soon to turn final reality? That’s the task before the Tinubu government

    An odyssey of unrealised dreams? That is the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL), its sorry tale so long it is a clear and painful saga: conceived in 1958, before Nigeria’s independence; started in 1979 (by President Shehu Shagari), 21 years after its conception; yet to be completed in 2023,  44 years after it was started!

    Yes, Vice President Kashim Shettima, on a campaign jaunt in Kogi State, just  announced it was 98% completed.  But you don’t know if that should make you laugh or make you cry — and Wikipedia provides a clue: ASCL was already 84% completed by 1983, when President Shagari’s government was toppled; and the Second Republic (October 1, 1979-December 31, 1983) was buried under its rubble.

    The military regimes that took power after pushed the completion level to 98% in 1994 — 11 years after 1983.  Compare and contrast that to Shagari’s whirlwind 84% record in four years, to the junta regimes’ 14% addition in 11 years: a conclusive proof of the dysfunction of military governments, when it is critical infrastructure as ASCL?

    Wikipedia broke down the ASCL 98% completion rate, by 1994, in practical terms: 40 of the 43 plants had been built.  Between 1994 and now, have the three outstanding plants also been built? 

    The Ministry of Steel Development should provide a clear answer.   Nigerians need to know how really close are we to ASCL’s final realisation, with its alluring promise of 500, 000 jobs.

    The Federal Government had, in 1987, awarded the contract to build Nigeria’s first standard gauge railway, linking ASCL to the iron ore mines at the neighbouring Itakpe, but with the rail line connecting the Atlantic Ocean in Warri, Delta State, to ready ASCL for business, after roaring into life.

    Read Also: BBC insists Tinubu’s CSU certificate not forged

    Over the years, however, the Warri-Itakpe rail track fell into disuse, with a section of it vandalised.  But former President Muhammadu Buhari restored the track from 2016, as part of his government’s rail renaissance programme. 

    By November 2018, test runs on the redeemed track had begun.  On September 29, 2020, the former president inaugurated the Warri-Itakpe-Ajaokuta line, and has been busy ever since, trucking passengers and cargo. This critical rail support is part of ASCL’s 98% completion rate.

    Ironically, as dysfunctional as military governments are, Ajaokuta suffered its worst fate under three elected governments, starting with President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), all through the ruling years of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) — no thanks to a debilitating law suit that literally froze the project.  That legal freeze wasn’t sorted out until December 2022, by President Buhari.

    The debacle started in 2005, when President Obasanjo, as part of his “reforms”, firmed out ASCL as concession to Global Steel Holding Limited (GSHL), an Indian firm. The terms included not only resuscitating the plant — which not a few not unfairly judged was moribund — but for the concessionaire to operate but later transfer, after the agreed number of years, on a Resuscitate-Operate-Transfer (ROT) basis.

    Though the unions kicked against the deal, it all appeared in sync with the Obasanjo-era “lean” government, with its acute thirst for “foreign direct investment”.  But it soon proved an epochal abandonment of duty, with how things panned out.

    After GSHL was accused of alleged asset stripping, among sundry violation of the concession terms, President Umaru Yar’Adua terminated the deal.  The government also claimed GSHL lacked the financial and technical clout with which it pitched for its ROT.  To replace GSHL, the Yar’Adua government emplaced an interim management committee (IMC).

    GSHL’s response with a 2008 suit, claiming compensation for US$ 5.258 billion, began a long, long night for ASCL, during which about everything was frozen.  That lasted 14 years — until both parties agreed to a US$ 496 million settlement, after arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in London.

    But despite the agreement, the repossession of the plant by the Nigerian government and the 98% completion claim, much harm had been done. 

    Again, Wikipedia gave a dire assessment: “Three-quarters of the complex have been abandoned, and only light mills have been put into operation for small-scale fabrications and the production of iron rods.” 

    Among the abandoned critical segments are the internal railway network and large-scale equipment factories and foundries, without which Ajaokuta cannot produce the steel flat sheets, which would help galvanise local heavy industries, with harvests of skills and factory floor jobs.

    That tantalising prospect must have driven Vice President Shettima’s zestful remark that 500, 000 jobs could be coming from that corridor soon — and that is even discounting sundry other indirect jobs, since the Ajaokuta-Itakpe steel/iron ore corridor will soon assume the international status of a free trade zone.

    The big question, however: how soon is soon? 

    The good news, despite the legal freeze: the light mills — for small-scale fabrications and iron rods — debuted in 2018. 

    But when will Ajaokuta finally roar into life as an integrated, socioeconomic-enabling plant?  That is the critical task before President Bola Tinubu, his steel development minister and indeed, the entire economy coordination infrastructure and manpower.

    During electioneering, the president promised a credit-powered economy, in which citizens need not fork out cash, each time they want to buy cars, furniture and sundry needs, so long as they have jobs.  Besides, such credit would propel consumption —  most of it locally produced — limit pressure on wages and salaries, improve access to mortgage and help productive firms decongest their choking warehouses.

    For auto and steel-driven goods, Ajaokuta holds a critical thrust. Indeed, it is no hyperbole to hold that a humming ASCL captures the core of a new Nigerian economy, where the real sector belts out most of citizens’ needs, the Naira returns as undisputed king of the local market and the dollar is no more than a peripheral exchange unit at the fringe.

    Besides, Ajaokuta holds the ace to mass credit in the future car mart.  Such a huge market should trigger local car manufacturing and foreign car assembly plants.  With ASCL as local steel backbone, Nigeria should save a lot from steel imports. 

    Between January and September 2022 alone, Nigeria spent N1.038 trillion to import steel and sundry iron products, according to the National Bureau of Statistics’ foreign trade numbers.  A ready steel supply from ASCL should reduce such bills and further strengthen the Naira.

    The not-so-good news though is that Nigeria appears still very far from the alluring threshold, that Ajaokuta’s “98%” completion claim would seem to suggest. 

    That is why President Tinubu should, with whatever funding infrastructure possible, complete ASCL as urgently as his government can manage.  It’s good Shuaibu Audu, the steel development minister, just spoke of a steel development roadmap.  He should crack into action without delay.

    Ajaokuta is a long-in-coming legacy project that could well turn a radical socioeconomic game changer.  The Tinubu government should grab it, with both hands, for its Renewed Hope agenda.

  • Katsina Community Watch

    Katsina Community Watch

    • Other states should follow suit

    Last week, the Katsina State government deployed 1,466 newly trained Community Watch Corps to seven frontline local government areas of the state that are plagued by insecurity. The state governor, Dikko Radar, also launched 70 patrol vehicles and 700 motorcycles to be used in the fight against banditry in the state. The governor said: “During my campaigns, I visited the 351 wards in the state and I saw the evil effects of banditry. Despite current efforts, 22 local government areas in the state have security challenges.” That is nearly two-third of the 34 local government areas in the state.

    We commend the state governor for his proactive effort to tame the gnawing insecurity in his state, which has further pauperised the north-west region, that accounts for the highest poverty rate of 77.7% in Nigeria. The governor was on point when he said: “I will also admonish other states in our region with similar security challenges to embrace our efforts.” Perhaps, Katsina would join the growing league of those agitating for state police, as the constitutional limitations on carrying of arms makes his effort a half measure.

    Governor Radar’s call should be heeded by Zamfara, Sokoto, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kaduna and Kano states that make up the north west region. Because collaboration is key to defeating the bandits who move from one state to another, depending on the challenges from security agencies. The region can borrow a leaf from the south west, which established Amotekun Corps, which has reduced the incessant kidnapping in the region to barest minimum. Again, Katsina can also learn something from Lagos, in modelling the Community Watch Corps.

    As we have severally argued on this page, our country is ripe for the decentralisation of the police. We consider it anachronistic for our federation to operate a unitary police structure. We may likely be the only nation which professes federalism, but yet has a single centralised police structure. The resultant challenges are enormous, and the manifestations are the sundry security challenges we face across the country. But despite the refusal to legitimatise state police, nearly every state has one form of quasi-police force or another.

    Read Also: Police arrest 1,005 suspects with 853 cases in Katsina within four months

    The nation is behaving like an elder, who claims that he does not eat dog meat, but is ever willing to use his teeth to share it for children. That is playing the ostrich. While the nation pretends that state police is not healthy for the country, banditry, insurgency and other forms of violent crimes are almost torpedoing the country’s security. There are security challenges in all the regions, and the police personnel of about 370,000 is grossly inadequate for the country’s estimated 220 million population.

    While the United Nations recommends one police for every 450 citizens, Nigeria in effect has one police for every 594 citizens. Even where we may choose to cut our dress to our size, the challenge is that the police have 923,768 square kms to cover. The police are also grossly underfunded. The 2023 budget for the Nigeria Police Force, is estimated at N805.5 billion, and at the budget defence last year, the former Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Mohammed Dingyadi, lamented that the amount was grossly inadequate.  

    If the constitution is amended to allow states to establish their own police, the challenge of inadequate police personnel would be solved. Also, the funding would significantly increase, considering what many states are already earmarking for security in the present unconstitutional template. We hope the Katsina State launch of Community Watch Corps will provide a further impetus for necessary constitutional amendment, to solve our nation’s burgeoning security challenges. In the meantime, the Federal Government should support the collaborative efforts of states on security, as requested by Governor Radar, at the launch.

  • Justice served

    Justice served

    • Christmas Day killer-cop gets the death sentence

    Lagos State High Court on Monday condemned suspended Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Drambi Vandi to death for fatally shooting a pregnant Lagos-based lawyer, Omobolanle Raheem, on December 25, 2022. Justice Ibironke Harrison held Vandi guilty of a one-count murder charge, contrary to Section 223 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015, brought against him by the Lagos State Government. She ordered that he  be hung by the neck until he dies.

    The verdict climaxed a 10-month-long trial in which the prosecution called 11 witnesses. Vandi, who was attached to the Ajiwe Police Division in the Ajah area of the state was the only witness to testify in his own defence.

    Omobolanle was returning from a Christmas Day outing with her husband, Gbenga Raheem, and other family members when they encountered a police checkpoint at Ajah roundabout in Lagos, where she was shot with a gun which the court held that Vandi fired. Two days after the incident, the killer-cop was suspended by the police, and the Lagos State government subsequently preferred a murder charge against him, and arraigned him in court. Since the trial began in January, the deceased’s husband and sister who were in the car with her when she was shot, a pathologist, a police armourer and seven other policemen, including two team mates of the defendant, testified against him. The prosecution also tendered 27 exhibits.

    Justice Harrison, in her verdict, analysed the witnesses’ evidence and held that though none of the eyewitnesses actually saw Vandi pull the trigger, the circumstantial evidence was sufficiently overwhelming to convict him. “The court finds that the ammunition of the other officers who were on patrol with the defendant remained intact, but two of the defendant’s ammunition was missing,” she said, dismissing Vandi’s explanation that the shortfall in his ammunition was because it was counted in his absence. The judge also rejected the defendant’s argument that the bullet tendered in court was not his own, noting that he constituted himself into a ballistician-pathologist without tendering a certificate of qualification to that effect. She held that the prosecution proved its case beyond every reasonable doubt and there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence that it was the defendant who fired the shot that killed the deceased. “The death of the deceased was instantaneous. There is no other explanation, it was the gunshot that shattered the side glass and pierced the victim’s chest. It was the defendant who had an AK-47 rifle whose ammunition was missing after the armourer counted it,” Justice Harrison said.

    Read Also: Diezani’s UK trial: Justice abroad?

    During the trial, Vandi had pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the one-count charge of murder, following which the court granted accelerated hearing. His two team mates, police inspectors Matthew Ameh and Fiyegha Ebimine, had testified that they were on stop-and-search duty when the incident occurred, and that when they flagged the Raheems’ car down, it failed to stop until it approached Vandi, who was further away and who shot at it. Ameh had testified that the deceased was killed in a Toyota car that had no number plate. But Justice Harrison noted that Vandi had not said he brandished the gun as warning to compel or scare the vehicle occupants to obey the order to stop at the checkpoint, and neither that the shooting was an accidental discharge, which could have earned him a lesser sentence for manslaughter. “Therefore, the defendant is found guilty of the one-count charge and sentenced to death by hanging. He should be hung until he dies,” she ordered.

    The Lagos high court verdict marked another blow against the tendency of abuse among security agents  who, having been armed with public funds to protect members of the public, rather turn those very arms against the people they should be protecting with the arms. This tendency gets more prevalent among police personnel on – many atimes, unofficial – highway duties. It is commendable that the police establishment offered Vandi no hiding place and swiftly suspended him, besides supplying the bulk of witnesses who testified against him at trial. Wayward security agents should learn from the Vandi case that the legendary service esprit de corps would not avail to harbour them when they violate established rules of engagement for their services while dealing with the civil populace.

    Still, what will ultimately become of Vandi down the line is moot. He has the right to seek a review of his sentence at appellate levels, and state governors rarely sign execution warrants even where all litigation is exhausted. In factual terms, therefore, he joins the ballooning death row that has become a sociological crisis in the country.

     We have canvassed on this platform a reappraisal of the capital punishment provision in our statute books, and consideration of maximum prison sentence for high crimes, instead. Besides the ever-present possibility of justice being miscarried with finality by way of capital punishment, the possibility of rehabilitation of the offender is foreclosed. More significant is that capital sentence really does not provide closure, because the unwitting ‘injustice’ of non-implementation of the punishment against an offender could rankle with the offended. This is, thus, another juncture to consider a review of this provision in our laws.

  • Obasanjo’s misdiagnosis 

    Obasanjo’s misdiagnosis 

    • It is unfortunate that the former president tried to justify coups to young Africans who visited him

    Against the background of the sudden resurgence, in the last few months, of military coups in Africa, coming when many were optimistic that the era of violent overthrow of governments on the continent had been put behind, it is understandable that the subject of democracy and military interventions in Africa was the focus when former President Olusegun Obasanjo received a group of African youths at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Sitting governments, most democratically elected, have in recent times been displaced by the military in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Gabon, reigniting debates on the prospects of democracy in the region.

    Speaking at an interactive session on public service and governance with members of the Africa for Africa Youth Initiative drawn from Botswana, Benin Republic, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, Obasanjo subtly but dangerously tried to justify military incursion into politics by submitting that bad governance was the fundamental cause of the recent coup d’e tat in some African countries. This appears to be a hardly disguised and mischievous attempt to rationalise military coups and mislead the young minds Obasanjo was speaking to into believing that perceived bad governance could be an acceptable and plausible reason for accepting military coups. Nothing could be further from the truth.

    True to type, rather than point out the intrinsic evil, lawlessness and ultimate inefficacy of military rule in promoting good governance and development, the former President cited a purely personal reason for his purported hatred of military rule. He referred specifically to his bitter experience at the hands of the military dictatorship of the late General Sani Abacha, when he, alongside some other persons were jailed in 1995 for what many believed was a phantom coup plot charge. Despite this, however, he averred that it was the maladministration of many African leaders that was making citizens seek ‘alternative liberators’ beyond the government of the day, resulting in a wide acceptance of coups by the populace of affected countries. According to him, it was the practice of democracy without integrity, bad governance, nepotism and favouritism amidst sit-tight syndrome that are fuelling coups in Africa.

    Read Also: Tinubu’s CSU certificate not forged, BBC clarifies

    It is instructive that some of these ills identified by Obasanjo as being responsible for the new resort to military coups in Africa were also features of his administration during his eight-year stint as elected President of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007. Many analysts contend that his administration was grossly negligent in laying a solid foundation for democratic governance in the country, fought a hypocritical war against corruption, even as the menace thrived under him and compounded its impunity by Obasanjo’s brazen attempt to impose himself on the country for an unconstitutional third term, a move that was checkmated by a pro-democracy coalition. It is unfortunate that he foisted his characteristic dishonest selection of facts and skewed analysis on the young minds that certainly sought wisdom and enlightenment from a supposed elder statesman.

    Playing the emotional card and seeking to exploit the sentiments of members of his young audience, Obasanjo referred to the desperate attempts by boys and girls from Africa to go across the Sahara and Mediterranean in a bid to get to more developed climes, particularly in Europe. In his words, “When you see and hear that kind of thing, what do you do? Yes, I love democracy, having suffered in the hands of Abacha, I will never love military rule; but if it has to come, what can we do?”. Here is Obasanjo at his pretentious best and his disdain and contempt for democracy is demonstrated more starkly when he told his visitors, “Secondly, we are told that democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people, but you may ask, which people? And what does this democracy deliver?”

    Obasanjo’s statements to his young visitors were a complete misdiagnosis of Africa’s political problems and the challenge of coups on the continent. True, every democratic government must aim at good governance which promotes political stability and economic development. However, perceived bad governance cannot be a justification for unconstitutional change of government through military force. The lesson of our history is that most military governments that overthrow elected civilian ones due to purported bad governance end up providing even worse governance themselves. The people through free, fair and credible elections, and not the military, must determine the fate of extant governments as provided for by the constitution. Obasanjo is probably yet, despite his democratic pretentiousness, to live down his own personal trajectory as a past beneficiary of military coups in Nigeria.

  • A governor’s plea

    A governor’s plea

    • Works minister should heed Governor Oborevwori’s call over the Warri-Benin expressway

    It is not the first time that cries have rung out for help on that artery of the country. This time, its resonance is high and its decibel wrings with agony. On top of the outcry was the voice of a governor to the Federal Government. The Delta State governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, made the plea.

    It happened a few weeks ago along the Warri-Benin expressway, but its tragedy was that it did not live up to its name. It did not operate like an expressway. It often crawled, and for far too long, it suffered a standstill.

    The road, especially at the place called Ologbo or specifically the Koko Junction, a tanker bearing petrol tumbled. That was bad enough, and it might have worsened the already snail-like traffic. But a Nigerian factor often associated with such tanker mishap played up. Some youths saw the accident as an opportunity. They decided to swarm the tanker and began to scoop fuel.

    However, the opportunity turned into a tale of deaths. A spark resulted in an explosion and some persons died and properties were incinerated.

    Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Bright Edafe, in recounting the incident said, “while they were at it, an explosion erupted and the fire from the explosion engulfed the whole area.

    “At the event of this outburst, the scene was visited and bodies of the victims were evacuated to Oghara General Hospital mortuary.”

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    The deaths were man-made, from petty greed. Governor Oborevwori also made the point. Said he: “While we blame the lack of timely intervention by the Federal Government, we must reiterate the warning to all those who take advantage of such accidents to avoid scooping fuel.

    “I also use this medium to advise our people to refrain from the dangerous act of scooping fuel from a fallen tanker because of the highly inflammable nature of the product.”

    He confirmed the deaths, saying two tankers, five trailers were among vehicles razed. He said: “In the fire incident that occurred, we recorded five deaths; eight buses, two tankers, five trailers, two cars and one motorcycle were burnt completely.”

    This was an unnecessary waste. If the road was in even a fair shape, the tanker may have not had to topple, and the rail of destruction may have been averted.

    “While I mourn the deceased, I use this medium to reiterate my earlier call on the Federal Government to save the lives of our people from these harrowing experiences,” said Governor Oborevwori after the incident.

    The Koko Junction of the expressway has been a tale of horror for many who take the route, especially those travelling between Delta and Edo states. There have been tales of those who had been trapped there not for a few hours. A testimony once put the experience to as long as 13 hours on a journey between Benin and Warri that should not last between an hour and half on a true expressway.

    We understand that the infrastructure deficit is huge across the country and it is the effect of lack of constant maintenance of roads. This neglect allows the road to gradually deteriorate. It may develop a few cracks here, a few potholes there. But before long, a crater develops and another; and this turns a few hours travel into a long, infinite nightmare.

    The Federal Ministry of Works has its agency to maintain roads, and it should be as crucial and building new roads. It saves money, lives and ensures convenience. Bad roads, just like the Ologbo one, also enable criminals to operate with impunity and success.

    While the Minister of Works, David Umahi, has promised new and breathtaking expressways, he should not neglect the one now crawling and killing people. Or else, the new ones will follow the same path of death.

  • Laudable, but…

    Laudable, but…

    • The maiden 1XBet Cup opens a vista of community sports as youth empowerment

    On October 3, the 1XBet Cup opened in Lagos, with 40 teams split into five centres of eight teams each.  It will climax on November 10, when the winning team pockets N1 million as prize money, aside from grabbing the 1XBet Cup.

    Oluwafemi Babalola, managing director of 1XBet, a sports betting company and sponsors of the new grassroots tournament, says it is his company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) to its Lagos market, though it’s also 1XBet’s effective promo, to the Lagos community, to further deepen its business.

    Waidi Akanni, ex-Nigerian international and technical mind behind the project, talks of developing grassroots football in Lagos, to push Nigerian football to higher heights; and create livelihood for talented youngsters, which the tournament will expose.

    Established Nigerian former stars: some now coaches, others administrators, others consultants or simply former internationals, buy into this structured Lagos dream; and crave similar tourneys for Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    This Grade A list alone shows the 1XBet Cup as an idea whose time has come: Austin Eguavoen, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) technical director, George Aluo, chair of the Nigeria National League (NNL), Daniel Amokachi, Friday Elahor, Victor Agali, Friday Ekpo, Taiwo Oloyede, Franklin Howard and Wasiu Ipaye (all Nigerian ex-internationals of different generations), and Fanny Amun, iconic coach that won one of Nigeria’s five FIFA U17 World Cup titles.

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    This bevy clearly shows the tourney birthed with the right midwives.  What remains is for its organisers to deliver a breath-taking championship, and replicate such in years to come.  That way, Lagos would have had a structured frame, from which non-league players can transit to higher leagues, and later, various national teams.

    In this age of globalisation, best football talents ply their trade in the strongest leagues, anywhere in the world.  Still, the 1XBet Cup should have, as priority, the rebirth of a buzzing local football culture, with choking stadia, where zestful crowds show up week-in, week-out, for their favourite clubs.

    That wouldn’t be a novelty.  Such electric atmospheres had produced the likes of Haruna Ilerika (aka master dribbler), his Super Stores and national team teammate, Yakubu Mambo, Joe Erico, Muda Lawal, Steven Keshi and Henry Nwosu — the last two, with Ilerika, former schoolboy sensations that later broke into the national team.

    Such atmosphere also produced iconic clubs like Stationery Stores, Lagos ECN (later NEPA), ACB FC, National Bank FC, aside from rivalries — Stores vs NEPA, Stores vs IICC Shooting Stars, IICC vs Enugu Rangers, Rangers vs Bendel Insurance, Insurance vs New Nigerian Bank (NNB), etc — rivalries that packed stadia, and provided livelihood for talented youngsters and their families, not to mention rare fame.

    Back then too, there was a Lagos Football Association (LAFA) league which provided a formal platform for grassroots clubs to compete, as a nursery for more visible higher leagues.  The famous Principals Cup, among Lagos schools, was a similar nursery.  In both, however, the government had a very strong presence.

    But lo!  Everything has collapsed.  Still, the 1XBet Cup, with exclusive private sector input, holds an exciting key to a grassroots football renaissance.  It wouldn’t be a bad idea, if the yearly tournament triggered a new Lagos State-wide yearly league, with solid and regular sponsors.

    That, with NFF taking due notice, will not only help to nurture future stars, it will also tamp down youth restiveness.  Gifted talent can soak themselves in productive football, instead of wasting away in drugs, crime and other vices.

    It is from this socio-economic angle that the government itself must be actively involved.  Not in direct involvement in organising tourneys, but in support infrastructure as befitting and well-maintained community playgrounds, providing playing surfaces and neighbouring stadia, with which tournaments can continue to expand and spread to more and more communities.

    Governor Babatunde Fashola achieved a lot in providing community playing grounds — witness Campos on Lagos Island, Evans in Ebute Meta and a few others in Surulere.  Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu should seize the 1XBet initiative to resume that path to grassroots football redemption. 

    The Lagos community — and economy — will be far richer for it.

  • Never again

    Never again

    • CBN governors have no business playing politics

    Efforts by the National Assembly to forbid the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from participating directly or indirectly in partisan politics is a welcome development. Last year’s moves by the former governor of the apex bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to swim in the murky waters of Nigerian politics was an eye opener. It was frightening enough to goad the lawmakers into saying, “never again”.

    Not only did Mr. Emefiele obtain the form to contest in the presidential primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC), whether in person or through friends, he approached the high court to validate his action. It was unprecedented, brazen and unimaginable.

    It is paradoxical that the head of a bank that has always argued for its autonomy was willing to dabble into partisan politics, explaining that there is nothing in the 1999 Constitution or the CBN Act of 2007 preventing him from exercising his fundamental right to vote or be voted for.

    If we were to go by the logic of Mr. Emefiele, perhaps the Service Chiefs, Chief Justice of Nigeria, and Head of Service of the Federation would be permitted to dive into partisan politics while still holding office, on the excuse that they will be exercising their rights as Nigerian citizens. Absurd.

    Nigerians should realise that morals, values and ethics play major roles in sustaining any society. They form the plank on which laws rest. It is impossible to have all things enshrined in the statute books.

    The British nation is run on the basis of conventions, judicial precedence and a sprinkling of laws. Everybody appreciates the bar and no one attempts to sneak under it. It is our politicians who are always accused of failing to keep to rules, thus necessitating the call for infusion of more technocrats to the governance structure; but the Emefiele experience has shown that there may be no difference.

    This is not the first time that the National Assembly would foresee the danger in such lacuna. Last year, the House of Representatives similarly initiated a law that would forbid the move. However, nothing came out of it until the end of the 9th Assembly. Now that the bill has scaled the first reading, we hope both chambers would be fully committed to seeing it through.

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    Besides, there are many such laws that have lacunae being exploited by public officers to trample on national values and interests. Our lawmakers should be diligent and proactive enough to locate them and introduce necessary amendments. We hope the legislators would not fail to spell out penalty for flouting the law as is the case with many existing laws.

    In line with recommendations made by the Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo, Adelabu, when he appeared before the Red Chamber for ministerial screening, this is an opportunity to whittle down the powers of the CBN governor. The previous governor disregarded every other authority, dealing only with the President, thus making it impossible to harmonise fiscal and monetary policies to the discomfiture of citizens. Mr. Adelabu is in a good position to posit on the subject, having previously worked as a deputy governor of the institution. There is the need to tweak the law to ensure that henceforth, the CBN governor is a team leader. Nigeria has found itself in a deep hole because of the manner former CBN managements handled financial transactions. The ways and means mechanism was frequently abused and the officials got away with it as no sanctions are specified and none applied.

    We do not envy the monetary and fiscal authorities at this point in time. They have come into office at a time that inflation is refusing to be reined in, interest rate has made it impossible for manufacturers and producers to meet their goals, exchange rate soared as soon as the Naira was floated, and petroleum products slipped out of control.

    All, including the President who is Chief Executive of the country, have to roll up their sleeves, set aside textbook prescriptions, and come up with policies peculiar to the Nigerian situation.

    The executive, legislature and general public must work together to get the economic vehicle that has broken down in the middle of nowhere moving again.

  • Not the solution

    Not the solution

    • Telcos’ bid to apply different tariff regimes in states will negatively affect subscribers

    Plans by telecom companies to introduce different tariff regimes for calls, data and other services, as a counter measure to multiple taxation and harsh business environment in some states, is generating a heated debate. The Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators, Gbenga Adebayo, argued that maintaining a national tariff was no longer feasible. On the other hand, the President of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATS), Adeolu Ogunbanjo, chided the operators.

    He told a newspaper: “We are not going to agree to that. We should be fighting the cankerworm (multiple taxation together), not this. Why do they want to add to our (subscribers’) burden?”

     Both sides have a good case. Multiple taxation is a business killer, and every business would take all lawful steps to ameliorate that. For the consumers, the present tariff in the face of national economic downturn is burdensome enough, and they would fight to forestall any further increase.

    So, where lies the solution? We believe the answer lies in the reduction, if not total elimination of unfair multiple taxes by states. But to justify the proposed plan to tax consumers differently, especially in the eyes of the customers, the alleged multiple taxes and the concerned states should be put in the public domain. That would help the government of those states to either tame their appetite for multiple taxes, or choose to face the wrath of the public.

    Multiple taxes are a disincentive to businesses, which in turn affect employment opportunities. We urge concerned states to desist, as a fairer tariff by telecom companies would be an incentive for citing businesses in any state. If the taxes complained about are made public, perhaps reprieve may come the way of the telecoms companies, and that would save the baying customers from further economic stress. After all, they bear the brunt of any increase.

    That explains why the NATS is in court against the Federal Government, to strike out excise duty on telecom companies as provided for in the Finance Act. For, when the companies are complaining about harsh business environment, the impact affects their customers. But a comparison of the impact of the harsh economic condition on the people vis-à-vis the telecom companies shows who is more impacted. While the majority of Nigerians are getting deeper into multi-dimensional poverty, the telecommunication companies are declaring huge post-tax profits.

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    According to a business daily, MTN Nigeria was the most profitable Nigerian company in 2022. The company “reported a 22.12 percent increase in profit to N269.04 billion in the nine-month period from N220.31 billion in the same period of 2021.” The company also reported “N950.09 billion revenue, a 20.07 percent increase from N791.26 billion recorded in H1 2021.” Telecoms companies generally recorded N23.982 billion foreign direct investments (FDI) in Q1 of 2022, which is a 2.6 per cent increase year-on-year when compared to N23.356 billion recorded in Q1 of 2021. By the end of 2021, the FDI rose to 75.6 billion dollars.

    So, the telecoms industry has become the goose that lays the golden egg, both for the country and the shareholders of the various companies. According to the Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communication Commission, Prof Umar Danbatta, “The growth trajectory continued this year as telecoms and information services sector in Nigeria delivered a handsome N2. 508 trillion in terms of financial value contribution to the nation’s GDP, representing 14.13 per cent in the first quarter of 2023.”

    As the saying goes, sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. The Nigerian telecommunications consumers must share in the increasing wealth of the industry. A tariff increase under any guise is an unfair reward for their (consumers) contribution to the growth trajectory.

  • Nothing to cheer 

    Nothing to cheer 

    • Still a long way to stable power supply and cheap cooking gas

    In a country typically torn between the camps of those who see things as either half full or half empty, there are lessons to take from the Half Yearly Review of the Economy (January – June 2023) by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). Whereas the high point of that review is that daily electricity supply on the average increased marginally from 10.6 hours per day in the last half of 2022 to 11.3 hours per day in 2023, the modest improvement, which is a mere 42 minutes on the average, is said to have translated to a decline in total expenditure on alternative energy by 21.1 per cent during the period. In other words, MAN members spent N16.23 billion less in the first six months of the current year than it did in the preceding six months. 

    On the flip side, MAN would equally note that the average number of outages per day, rather than reduce, actually increased marginally from 4.4 times in the first half of 2022 to 4.7 times in the first half of the year. 

    For the domestic users of cooking gas, theirs is however a different kettle of fish. The cost of cooking gas has since hit the roofs. From N750/kg earlier in the year, the cost of the product has since hit an all-time high of N1,000/kg. The reasons, according to reports, have to do with such factors like the weak naira, limited bulk storage and other associated logistical issues.

    The two developments, somewhat dissimilar, at least on the surface, exemplify not just the Nigerian paradox of failed dreams and aspirations but the leadership challenge that the nation has been mired in.

    MAN is right to put it as it is. However, at a daily power supply average of less than 12 hours, what the trend starkly suggests is not just the long road still ahead in the nation’s quest to have a stable regime of electricity supply but the potential gains that a sustained improvement in the electricity sector can bring to the economy as a whole. 

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    In the circumstance, few would of course agree that there is anything to cheer. Most would probably recall that the ground-breaking legislation – the Power Sector Act – was passed into law some 18 years ago. The law is supposed to have paved the way for a new governance system and private sector-led investment in the power sector. Yes, we had the much-hyped unbundling of the old entity – the Power Holdings Company of Nigeria (PHCN) – that produced a group of anaemic operators, including the Federal Government-owned transmission company. That structure, rather than deliver on their mandates, has produced more headaches for Nigerians than they could ever have imagined.  With the so-called investors possessing neither the cash nor the expertise to turn the fortunes of the sector around, the sector has been stumbling from one crisis to another. As a result, billions of dollars taxpayers’ money continue to be poured into the sector, not only to provide stabilisation but to prevent a total collapse of the sector. Little wonder the current debates as to whether things have changed in any fundamental sense. 

    The story of the gas sector is only slightly different. For a leading gas producer, it is of course shameful that the government has, for whatever reasons, failed over the years to avail the enabling environment for gas development and to facilitate the development of the requisite infrastructure for domestic gas utilisation. The result is the current situation in which the country currently relies on gas importation for domestic use. And to imagine that the country in December 2022 alone actually flared as much as 10.027 billion Standard Cubic Feet (SCF) of gas. 

    The Bola Tinubu administration has its work cut out in the two sectors. The country has dwelt on this trajectory for far too long; it is time to turn the tide. While bold and imaginative thinking are required, more however would depend on the administration’s single-minded resolve to reverse the current wasteful and unproductive course. Surely, it can be done.