The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • A new way to fly

    A new way to fly

    • Minister Keyamo’s relocation order is best news at MMIA in a long time

    Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo caused a stir as a marker of his new job when he ordered that all operations be relocated to the new terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA). According to the order, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria should comply with this with all airlines by Independence Day, October 1.

    By the instruction, the old terminal will cease to operate completely pending its rehabilitation. The old terminal started operation in 1979.

    “The new terminal that is underutilised, we spent a lot of money building it and we have to use it. The old terminal is a total eye-sore. Since I came into office, I have heard complaints upon complaints. The central air condition is not working, the carousels are not working, they broke down quite often and the approach into the airport is smelly, it is totally unwelcoming to people coming into Nigeria and that is the gateway to Nigeria,” he said while inspecting the airport.

    The new facilities of the new terminal like the airside, runways, international terminals, including terminals, stand out with bells and whistles. Yet, airlines have not revved into action. Nigeria owes billions of Naira in Chinese loans to the new edifice.

    The old terminal has been described as leaky, decrepit, smelly and out of fashion. One of the triggers for the change was a fire outbreak, which shows the old facility can endanger lives of passengers and staff. Apart from its ominous safety concerns, it could imperil passenger movement. Passenger check-in points, a critical part of air travel process, are 60 in the new terminal, none of them in use.

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    The order has raised two concerns. One, it may lead to haste and stumbles. Two, the new terminal designers did not envision big airline carriers. The minister has therefore set up a task force, made up of persons with expertise in the field, to shepherd the relocation. The mandate is to manage passenger concerns, including safety, to minimise discomfort and ensure effective public communication.

    We commend the minister for his ruthless decision and short deadline. This will rouse the FAAN and airlines from lethargy. We urge the task force to avoid rash decisions, since passenger comfort and safety are too delicate to be treated with impulse.

    We wonder, like the minister, why the new terminal was built without sizing up the big airlines. Hear Kayamo: “The problem with the new terminal was that they did not take into consideration the big airplanes that will come in and anchor with the avio-bridges that will take passengers into arrival. The space is not enough, and I have said that why the space is not enough is because there are private hangars there that cannot allow the planes to come in and that is why we are not enjoying our new terminal.

    “And the question I have asked is, why did somebody approve such a project? Why will somebody approve such a project without approving the total reconstruction of the place where the big body planes will anchor and disembark passengers So, as a stop gap measure, we have said, just like it is done in so many countries, we are going to get buses, do some emergency procurement so that we can, in an orderly manner, board passengers and disembark passengers and also bring them to arrival and through departure to the aircraft. That is what we want to do for now as a temporary measure,” he said.

    In the process, he has also ordered that unserviceable aircraft be removed within three months, so as to give room for easy services and aircraft that are of use.

    We expect that the minister lives up to his threats and rework air travel at MMIA that has been an embarrassment for the country for too long.

  • Curious alarm

    Curious alarm

    • Northeast governors should do the needful rather than lament over traditional rulers’ complicity in banditry

    Nigeria is a country of striking paradoxes and contradictions. Nothing proves this more than the fact that governors of the Northeastern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe, at their last meeting, issued a communiqué alleging that some traditional rulers and local government officials were collaborating with bandits by providing them shelter. The communiqué was signed by the forum’s chairman, Governor Babagana  Zulum of Bornu State.

    Banditry and kidnapping, among other criminal activities, have in the last ten years crippled the socio-economies of not just the Northeastern states, but nearly the entire country. That region of the country used to be a vibrant agrarian zone whose economic output contributed to food security in the country. But with the effects of banditry and other insurgency activities, the region is almost like a begging bowl personified. The region presently has more people in the poverty bracket, more illiterates and more out-of-school children and gender exclusion in politics due to a myriad of reasons. The region also has the highest number of Internally Displace Persons (IDPs). This has hugely impacted on the development economics of the region and its people.

    Nigerian governors wield unbelievable powers. They collect huge security funds on a monthly basis, and that has been very controversial because much of their accomplishments do not justify the security funds and other international aids and grants that they receive to help  citizens of their states. The essence of government is protection of lives and properties. Many governments in Nigeria do not live up to this expectation and we believe things must change.

    Nigerian governors have almost imperial powers. They are the chief security officers of their states. The traditional rulers derive their powers from the states and receive their staff of office from the governors. The lamentation of the Northeast Governors Forum about traditional rulers and some council officials conniving with bandits to us is curious. If they know that traditional rulers and some other people are conniving with bandits to ground their economies to a sad halt, what stops them from legally stripping such persons of their offices and prosecuting them?

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    Governors rely on traditional rulers for help in mobilizing the populace for elections. How come they cannot perform the simple task of making sure those found complicit in abetting banditry are prosecuted? Why are they issuing a communiqué about dubious traditional rulers instead of getting the work of punishment and reward through constitutional means done?

    We see the communiqué not only as a sneaky alibi, but a sign that many political and traditional – sometimes religious leaders – in Nigeria often do not understand what their offices entail constitutionally and more. How can anyone explain the fact that traditional rulers who are the custodians of the mores and ethos of their communities would in any way provide succor – not to their people but to those who scourge those people?

    We are equally worried that while governors have resolved to stop making deals with bandits, some traditional rulers may have taken up the baton apparently because they are not happy with what is going on. It is not beyond contemplation that traditional rulers concerned may have found themselves compelled to enter into negotiations with bandits as a way of helping their communities in the absence of government protection.

    Whatever the situation, we are concerned about the safety and productivity of the people, and leaders everywhere must do their best to protect the lives of their people.  Leadership comes with great responsibility, and that means we expect leaders at every level to do the needful in safeguarding members of their respective community. Banditry is an ill-wind. Both the people and leaders should collaborate to protect respective community from the tyranny of miscreants.

    We expect that the governors will sit back and re-evaluate their strategies. The challenge they face is not rocket science, and as such they should spare no effort to protect the people. Government exists for the people and all hands must be on deck to secure their lives and property, while trouble makers in any shade, form or title should be prosecuted when they break the law. The law is no respecter of persons.

  • Nigeria’s due

    Nigeria’s due

    • Quest for G-20 membership is apt and should be given favourable attention

    The G-20 Leaders’ Summit 2023 with the theme ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’ may have come and gone. Nonetheless, one of the lingering echoes of India’s presidency of the summit is the question of the membership of the continent’s largest economy – Nigeria. The G-20, an assembly of the top global economies has 21 members. These include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union (EU) and lately the African Union (AU).

    Said President Bola Tinubu while addressing world leaders at the summit of Nigeria’s continuing exclusion at the table: “Nigeria is poised, able, and willing to be a major player in this family of the G-20 and in shaping a new world, without whom the family will remain incomplete.” 

    Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs would, during an interview on the sidelines, amplify the quest: ”We feel that Nigeria should be included as well. Being the most populous country in Africa and the largest economy… We want that future to be democratic and the family should be democratised and more inclusive. So, 15 percent of Africans should be included in the same way that the EU and other European countries are included. We feel that there is room for the EU and Nigeria at the same time.”

    The above is putting things mildly. If only on account of her historic roles in major global issues in the past, not least its sheer size and voice in regional and continental matters, Nigeria could ordinarily claim to have earned some bragging rights at the table. Moreover, to the extent that her gargantuan infrastructural and other socio-economic challenges have neither vitiated nor diminished her pre-eminent status as the continent’s economic power house, the biggest Black nation on earth, the G-20 is only made poorer by the absence of the famed African giant.

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    Yet, it is equally true that membership of the body is not just for the picking. It requires a leadership that appreciates what it takes to be a member; one that knows what needs to be done, and hence willing to project it with the required verve and suasiveness. Whereas the Obasanjo administration with its globalist orientation did this with relative success, successive administrations, often times distracted by local challenges, were unfortunately too steeped in inexplicable provincialism to entertain any grand ambitions. 

    It is a good thing that the Bola Tinubu administration with its suave salesmanship has picked up the gauntlet. The other good thing is that global leaders across the board are not only paying attention, but showing inclination to engage Nigeria’s new leadership on its developmental aspirations.

    However, that that is only the beginning. Truth is that while the world has never been in doubt about Nigeria’s potentials even if what they see and hear are tales of dysfunctions of its government and key institutions, corruption and industrial scale heists, stories of antediluvian infrastructure and the wave of de-industrialisation, which together have diminished her image, thus rendering her a laughing stock among serious nations in the world. They read of ordinarily simple agreements either not followed through or subverted on the altar of self-interest and utter lack of patriotism.

    Two notorious examples that readily come to mind here are the highly flawed multi-billion dollars Process & Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) contract and the Mambilla Hydro Power Project, both of which not only came to naught but have tied the country down to embarrassing, costly litigations.

    This time around, Nigerians expect things to be different. Much as the G-20 aspiration has great merits, it comes with great expectations of performance and demonstrable proof that the country is not only ready, but has something tangible to offer. This is where the Tinubu administration can make a huge difference. 

    To the ordinary Nigerian however, sitting at the G-20 table can only be a means to an end. To them, what counts is the number of factories that are enabled, the millions of high paying jobs created, and measurable improvements in their standard of living.

  • Blue peril

    Blue peril

    • With stricter control, boat mishaps could be reduced to the barest minimum

    Aloose tree stump, a boat collision and a gory harvest of 30 lives, most of them farmers on honest daily hustle! 

    That’s the sickening picture of blue peril: Nigeria’s inner waterways as fatal accidents waiting to happen! 

    That about captures the anatomy of the September 10 disaster in Mokwa local government area of Niger State.  Casualty figure: 30 dead; 30 rescued.  Even among the rescued, can you imagine the near-death trauma?

    Which is why you don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the explanation given by Hussain Ibrahim, spokesperson for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA).

    “The … river was recently dredged …,” he told The Punch.  “In the process  of this dredging, some trees were cut down but not completely down … So, when the water rises, you will not see these tree stumps. The boat,” he further explained, “had a collision with a tree stump; and it was what caused the breakage of the boat and caused it to capsize.”

    The detailed cause-and-effect of the boat capsize is clear.  But what on earth does cutting underwater trees but not completely cutting them down mean?  Dredging is universally presumed to make navigation easier. Where else do people talk of post-navigation fatal stumps as some routine navigational hazards? 

    That speaks to the Nigerian loose attitude — if not outright contempt — for standard and regulations. If the NSEMA rendition is true, why would the dredger get away with a shoddy work that just claimed 30 innocent lives?

    Still here, neither NSEMA nor its spokesperson is blame-worthy.  They have done own emergency duty. Those that have grave questions to answer are the regulators: the Nigeria Inland Waterways Agency (NIWA), for instance. 

    NSEMA’s account appears to show gaping holes in NIWA’s dredging standards and its loose enforcement. Or how else would anyone explain underwater stumps after dredging — dredging that is supposed to give a safe navigation all-clear?

    Incidentally, George Moghalu, NIWA’s managing director, just sent condolences to the victims, referencing both the Niger and the Adamawa mishaps. The Adamawa capsize claimed 15 lives, out of the 23 passengers on board.  It was on Njuwa Lake, in Yola South local government area.

    “No doubt, what happened at Gurin River, a suburb of Fufore local government area, Adamawa State, as well as at a river in Gbajibo, Mokwa, Niger State, was very unfortunate and saddening,” he said in his condolence statement.  “I hereby wish to commend life-saving work of the first rescuers, local divers and police marine at the scene of the two incidents.”

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    The condolence should be lauded. Still, NIWA should do more in strictly enforcing basic navigational regulations for water travellers: sound boats and ferries, strict manifests to capture everyone on board, compulsory wearing of life-jackets, NIWA cadres or the marine police to enforce adequate loading at loading bays, travel  lifeguards to rescue passengers during possible accidents and quality dredging that leaves no fatal underwater stumps — as in the Niger case. 

    Were all of these in place, NIWA would find itself pushing out less condolence but many more safe routes to attract more passengers, develop domestic water travel to create more job opportunities, ramp up capacity in local boat and ferry building technology and boost the percentage of water travel, as a sub-sector of transport, in Nigeria’s GDP.

    So, NIWA should be done with appeals.  Instead, it should stoutly enforce standards.  It’s either stakeholders — both boat transporters and travellers — shape up or shape out. Already, too many lives have perished in Nigeria’s avoidable blue peril.

    Besides, NIWA should probe the NSEMA account of the Niger accident to establish any dredging negligence, prosecute the contractor(s) and secure conviction after a fair trial. Lives of Nigerians are too previous to be left to the whims — and greed —of wayward contractors.

    Also, Gboyega Oyetola, the Marine and Blue Economy minister, should take a healthy notice of these unfortunate disasters. His ministry must compel NIWA to enforce its safety and navigation standards, to further mainstream water travel in the Nigerian transportation mix.

    That way, Marine and Blue Economy will push for higher share of GDP, with Aviation and ‘Transport’: the three federal ministries now in the Transportation sector.  That is lift the economy craves.

  • Labour loss

    Labour loss

    • Workers union should sheath its sword to allow government to settle down

    There is no doubt that the cost of living in this country has shot through the roof. It is also true that since the subsidy on premium motor spirit was removed on May 29 by the new government, things have become even more difficult for all citizens. However, strike as a weapon of negotiation with government should be sparingly applied in view of the fragility of the economy.

    Embarking too frequently on industrial action will do more harm to those whose interests Labour claims to be protecting. If employers in the private sector already at the borderline of survival find it difficult to keep the workforce, they may be forced to downsize. This would make everyone – government, employers, employees and the economy – the ultimate losers.

    We advise the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to tread carefully. Strikes are effective when sparingly used, not when it is perceived to have been instigated by partisan motivation. Many believe that the NLC, in particular, operates as an affiliate or the parent body of one of the opposition political parties. On many occasions, the said political party’s leaders had been invited for the Congress’s events. This was what fuelled speculation that the last warning strike of September 5 and 6 was timed to coincide with determination of the presidential election petition by the Court of Appeal panel. The NLC  has the burden of dispelling this speculation, if it was a mere coincidence.

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    There is a valid reason for Labour to be agitated as obtains in other countries, even in the developed world. But the interest of other Nigerians, including those in the informal sector, the artisans and the burdened small scale businesses, should be paramount if Labour is not to be considered as selfish. Governments at the federal and state levels have demonstrated that demands of people generally affected by the policies that have spurred inflation are being considered. Ministers who will drive the process and see to implementation of the policies, harmonising fiscal and monetary instruments, have been in office for barely two weeks.

    We call on the NLC leadership to ceasefire and allow the affected ministries and ministers settle down. The Federal Government has outlined policies to alleviate the suffering of the people. Beyond the food palliative, policies on food security meant to boost productivity have to be monitored and allowed to deliver on promise. Loans and grants to be advanced to nano, micro and small businesses all over the country are expected to be disbursed soon; this should interest the labour movement whose ranks would also be thus boosted. No society develops by focusing only on immediate needs, forgetting the medium and long terms.

    We all need Nigeria to become viable, strong, and assume its rightful place as the giant of Africa. Africa is waiting for us as the most populous and materially blessed country to play the role Japan and China played as blessings to Asia.

    Building Nigeria of our dream, and as envisioned by the founding fathers at Independence is a task for all. The new government should be given the benefit of the doubt rather than be stampede to take actions it may regret later. The NLC should take a cue from the Trade Union Congress (TUC) that has behaved more maturely,  giving the federal and state governments time to demonstrate good faith. It should be obvious to all that importing 3,000 buses, converting vehicles from using petrol to compressed natural gas, as well as boosting productivity cannot be conjured or achieved by waving the magic wand. These are measures that would take some time to materialise. What we expect of Labour and government is to make the tripartite committee set up work without any party putting a gun to another’s head. Achievable timeliness should be outlined and keenly monitored by all, and reported to the public. To demonstrate good faith, NLC should lift the threat of indefinite strike.

    What this time calls for is cooperation. Adversarial tactics will do no one any good.

  • Red card

    Red card

    • Minister has an arduous but worthwhile task cleaning up the solid minerals sector

    Launching his ministry’s seven-point agenda for the development of the solid minerals sector in Abuja recently, Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Dele Alake, revealed that boosting security to combat the current large scale of illegal mining and smuggling of precious national assets will be a cardinal priority of the President Bola Tinubu administration. Towards this end, he unfolded plans by the Ministry to introduce a Mines Police as well as a Solid Minerals Security Surveillance Task Force to check criminal activities in the sector and stem the country’s loss of huge revenues to illegal miners and smugglers.

    To signal the government’s seriousness in this regard, the Minister served a 30-day ultimatum on illegal miners to formalize their participation in the sector by joining institutionally recognized miners’ cooperatives or quit the industry. When this deadline expires, illegal operatives who fail to comply with the directive will face the full wrath of the law. In Mr. Alake’s words, “From October, a rejuvenated security regime will become active in the solid minerals sector. This will include the Mines Police sourced from the Nigeria Police and specially trained to detect illegal mining and apprehend offenders. The new Mines Surveillance Security Task Force will coordinate the Mines Police and proactively address incidences of breach of mining laws.”

    True, the Ministry’s seven-point agenda encompasses such components as generating relevant data on specific seven priority minerals and their deposits; comprehensive review of all mining licenses; creation of six Mineral Processing Centres to focus on value-added products and the creation of a Solid Minerals Corporation to enter into joint ventures with mining multinationals to maximize the potentials of the sector. However, the Minister is right to place a premium on drastically curbing the unacceptable level of illegal activities in the sector which is costing the country humongous revenue loss and creating serious environmental, social and health challenges for communities where solid minerals are located in commercial quantities.

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    Given the current severe economic challenges facing the country and paucity of funds for government to meet its obligations to the citizenry, Nigeria must not only take decisive steps to stop the present sizable resource leakages in the solid minerals sector, purposeful action must also be taken to optimize the sector’s largely unrealized capacity to contribute more significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While the World Bank estimates Nigeria’s mineral resources to be worth between $700 billion and $1 trillion, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), in an investigative report by Premium Times, states that unlike countries like Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo where mining contributes substantially to the GDP, the sector in Nigeria accounts for 0.3% of national employment, 0.02% of exports and less than 1% of GDP.

    In 2021, for instance, it was estimated that Nigeria exported gold worth $157 million and became the 84th largest exporter of the commodity in the world. Yet, a former Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Uchechukwu Oga, revealed that the country loses $9 billion annually to illegal gold mining and smuggling. Mr. Alake should expect that there will be serious resistance to his efforts to sanitize and reform the sector. It has been reported that many of these illegal miners are foreigners who work in connivance with unscrupulous security personnel to rip the country off. Indeed, another former Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite, was quoted by the media as saying even when arrests were made in the past, efforts to prosecute the illegal miners and smugglers were frustrated by influential persons working in concert with them.

    It is thus important to ensure that those who will constitute members of the Mines Police and the Mines Surveillance Task Force do not see their enlistment as an opportunity to collude with these criminal elements to accumulate wealth. Again, the Minister must not discount the fact that some staff of the ministry, both high and low, may indeed be on the payroll of illegal miners and smugglers and provide them with sensitive information to enable them operate above the law. He should be prepared to take proactive measures to deal with such possibilities.

    Beyond the huge loss of revenue to the country, illegal mining activities also harm host communities through environmental degradation such as soil erosion, deforestation and water pollution, loss of jobs as well as encouragement of criminal activities such as banditry, kidnapping and illegal gun-running. It is a menace that must be urgently and uncompromisingly checked.

  • BASA: One good turn…

    BASA: One good turn…

    • UK’s refusal of Air Peace should attract reciprocity from Nigeria

    In 1976, at the extra-ordinary meeting of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, former Nigerian Head of State, the late Gen. Murtala Mohammed, delivered his famous ‘Africa has come of age’ speech, thereby telling the rest of the world to treat the continent with respect. Perhaps, it is time for Nigeria to look the United Kingdom (UK) in the face and tell her that Nigerian airlines have come of age, and should be treated fairly as provided for by the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) signed between the two countries.

    At the just-concluded Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) conference in Abuja, eminent lawyer and activist Femi Falana condemned the unfair treatment of Air Peace by the United Kingdom, which barred the airline from flying directly into the country, whereas British Airways and Virgin Atlantic jointly enjoy over 21 frequencies into Nigeria. Falana rightly noted that such practice is against the provisions of the BASA, and enjoined Nigeria to stop the two airlines from entering Nigeria until the reciprocity is restored.

    We agree with the learned senior advocate that Nigeria needs to stand up for her contractual rights as provided by the BASA agreement. The agreement which is founded on reciprocity enjoins contracting countries to give similar access as they receive from the other party. So, as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are enjoying 21 landing rights, the minimum access they must grant Nigerian airlines is also 21 frequencies.

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    Anything short of such reciprocity should be unacceptable to Nigeria. We therefore call on the new Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo SAN, an eminent lawyer, to examine the various BASA agreements Nigeria has signed and demand for the country’s full rights. Clearly, Nigeria has been treated unfairly by many other countries who take advantage of the absence of a national carrier and recurring poor leadership of the Aviation ministry to exploit our air space, to the detriment of Nigerian travelers.

    In the matter of the United Kingdom, available report shows that Air Peace has been designated by relevant Nigerian authorities to enjoy the benefit of the BASA, and the airline has shown itself ready for the market. The airline is reputed to have many long-haul and regional aircraft that can match those owned by foreign airlines. Currently, its aircraft fly to such countries as China, India, Israel and South Africa. So, why have aviation authorities in the UK refused Air Peace the reciprocity provided for in the BASA?

    Luckily, the new Minister, Mr. Keyamo, is eminently qualified to undo the many entanglements in the aviation industry, especially as it concerns the stillborn Nigerian Air. While interrogating  the crooked expenditures incurred by the erstwhile Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika, Keyamo should seek to deliver a Nigerian airline unencumbered by the debilitating missteps of the defunct Nigeria Airways. It is a shame that 24 years after the return of democracy and several presidential cycles, birthing a Nigerian airline has remained a mirage.

    Air travelers have discovered that it costs less to travel through a neighboring country, because the tickets are enormously cheaper. Again, it is absurd that a ticket purchased from the same airline in the UK, for the same class, for a London-Lagos route is far cheaper than a ticket purchased in Nigeria for the Lagos-London leg from the same airline. Some commentators have attributed this absurdity to corrupt connivance of Nigerian regulatory authorities with foreign collaborators.  

    We urge the new minister to painstakingly examine all the issues that allowed foreign airline to exploit Nigerian travellers and airlines. In the meantime, we support Mr. Falana’s recommendation that: ”If Air Peace is not allowed to fly to London, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic should be stopped from flying to Nigeria.”

  • Lagos-Abuja superhighway

    Lagos-Abuja superhighway

    • A big dream of entrenched infrastructure; a clear peep into Nigeria’s economic future 

    The idea of a Lagos-Abuja superhighway, doing the trip in between four and six hours, cannot but excite travellers.  The 717.7-kilometre journey now takes no less than 12 hours.

    The very idea, from the Works and Housing minister, Senator David Umahi, former governor of Ebonyi State, is an affirmation of President Bola Tinubu’s continuity of the acute infrastructure focus of his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari.  Umahi’s sizzling talk is matched by his glittering infrastructure record in Ebonyi State.

    It is also a grand vision of what an infrastructure-powered Nigerian economy would be in a few years, if the Tinubu government walks the minister’s brilliant and visionary talk.  Infrastructure, after all, is not only the spur but also the backbone of the economy.

    How would Lagos to Abuja (and vice-versa), even in six hours, feel?  For starters, halving the 12-hour travel time.  If it’s four hours, that is two-thirds reduction of the present travel time.  That’s almost magical!

    Then, look at value, both private and business.  A traveller after six hours is definitely fresher than someone on the road for 12 hours.  Then, cargo: less time on the road delivering bulk is clear reduction in costs.  That, other things being equal, should reduce inflation.

    Then, human wellness: the shorter a driver spends en route to his destination, the higher his ability to stay alert; and the rarer, needless road crashes.

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    Besides, the choice of infrastructure ministers: that Umahi is succeeding Babatunde Fashola, who like Umahi also distinguished himself in infrastructure, both as thinker-governor of Lagos and as Works and Housing minister, just shows the federal emphasis on infrastructure is not about to shift.  That’s good and welcome news.

    But away from individuals and ministries: Umahi’s proposed superhighway opens a riveting prospect of mutual cooperation and healthy competition in core project deliveries, by the cluster of infrastructure ministries: Transport, Works and Housing, Aviation and Marine economy.

    A Lagos-Abuja superhighway speaks to a Lagos-Abuja super speed train, perhaps in no more than four hours too.  A part-answer to that is already in the Lagos-Ibadan-Kano standard gauge rail.  The standard gauge is designed for faster trains.

    The Abuja-Kaduna rail is a section of the Lagos-Kano rail — indeed, its first completed segment, with former President Goodluck Jonathan earning the credit, for his government completed the project in December 2014, though President Buhari inaugurated its commercial shuttle service in July 2016.

    So, whatever challenged Umahi to work on the Lagos-Abuja superhighway should also challenge Mu’azu Jaji Gambo, the transportation minister, to work on the Lagos-Abuja rail.  

    The 312-Km Lagos-Ibadan section is already in service.  Incidentally, a Lagos-Abuja high-speed train (615 km) is already embedded in the plan — and the Lagos-Ibadan section has already taken more than half of that.

    So, the new transportation minister (his job pared down to just rail and auto) has his job well cut out for him.  If he cannot surpass the passion of Rotimi Amaechi, the Buhari-era rail czar, he has no business not matching it.  The health and future of the Nigerian economy may well depend on his drive.

    Just imagine the value the delivery of cargo by rail, its likely cheaper cost, aside from longer lives of Nigerian highways!

    But the utmost driver of core infrastructure is funding.  President Buhari did most of it by tapping into the debt market — with its sweet-sour — including Sukuk bonds, and leveraging recovered stolen funds.  

    President Tinubu would have to look for more sustainable funding: a bigger tax haul, right pricing to generate revenue from already existing rail shuttles — human and cargo; highway maintenance tolling, and corporates’ road building from tax rebates (a funding strategy embedded under Fashola which is still in practice) — and maybe a smaller size of the debt market too.  Mass rail, if well managed, can always pay its way, with Nigeria’s ready and booming market.

    Still, thinking of cluster funding, Marine and Blue economy could prove a game-changer to fund infrastructure, if somehow it embraces smart revenue-harvesting practices.  Its operation is basically revenue-spinning.  A part of its earning could be devoted to infrastructure funding, after upgrading ports’ infrastructure.

    Umahi’s Lagos-Abuja superhighway dream is more than just roads.  It’s a metaphor for infrastructure as a spur of the economy and its sustainable funding.  It’s the right focus and direction to go.  All that is required is fresh — and critical — thinking.

  • Borrowing without anchor

    Borrowing without anchor

    • The President’s charge to refund Anchor Borrowers Programme money is an urgent matter

    When the International Monetary Fund (IMF) observed in March that only 24 percent of loans collected by farmers under the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) had been repaid and that any suggestions that agricultural credit had significantly impacted on output was patently erroneous, few Nigerians could claim to have paid attention.

    Six months after, it is now official. The ABP, which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had claimed a success story, is not only enmeshed in fraud, it has become yet another typical Nigerian story of impunity, lack of adherence to established rules and conventions. Those are aside being a costly and perhaps one of the most ruinous ventures conceivable by a financial services sector regulator and a supposed lenders’ bank. Topmost of these is the staggering balance of N577 billion of the ABP disbursement said to be unaccounted for. Rather than being an investment, it is becoming a charity case.

    According to Vanguard newspaper, the development has since attracted the attention of President Bola Tinubu, who has since directed security agencies to take all necessary measures to recover the huge amount outstanding against the defaulters on or before September 18. 

    The newspaper reported the concerns of the president over the clear abuses of the scheme by powerful players prominent among which are commercial and microfinance banks, state governments, farmers’ associations, individuals, corporate entities and other sundry players. The president, was according to the newspaper, told of how a CBN subsidiary and a commercial bank, acting as intermediaries between the borrowers and the CBN, chose to divert N255 million of the funds instead of making them available to the intended beneficiaries – a case of double jeopardy as those for whom the funds were intended never got them and yet the funds were never returned to the treasury. In all of these, the ordinary farmers for whom the initiative was originally advertised were not only consigned to play the second fiddle, but were left at the short end of the stick.

    The revelations are hardly surprising. They merely derive from the leadership style of the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the activities which they birth, all of which are currently under investigations. However, whereas the high point of the Emefiele era was the untrammelled power of the apex bank one of whose derivatives was to throw money at any and every problem, the development only needs to be appreciated in the context of the absentee leadership at the time, one whose hallmark was one of leadership by abdication.

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    That the country is finally finding that those ‘interventions’ so artfully conceived, are mere elite stunts in the absence of due diligence, rigour and consultations, is most regrettable; that this is only coming to light after a whopping N1.09 trillion had been disbursed obviously makes it more painful.

    We have something to add to the president’s express instructions that every kobo given out in credit be recovered as soon as possible. The bit that needs to be added is that those officials who used their privileged positions to abuse the public trust in the ABP saga equally need to be identified and punished.

    To achieve this, we have no doubt that a comprehensive audit of the ABP has become inevitable. And while at it, the investigations might need to be extended to the political farmers, those special interests who in their generosity, had promised to pool N100 million to purchase a presidential nomination form for the former CBN governor as a form of appreciation for what he allegedly did for farmers in the country. It is the least the country can do if only to draw closure.

  • Dream come true

    Dream come true

    • Lagos Blue Rail makes history but arrives at crunchy economic times

    The dream took all of 20 years (2003-2023) — or even 40 years, if you were to date the Lagos urban rail dream back to the Lagos Metroline initiative of Alhaji Lateef Jakande, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) governor of Lagos, during the 2nd Republic (1979-1983).

    Yet, it couldn’t have arrived at a more critical time — with economic reforms pushing the country after some sustainable “palliatives”, which could tide the long-suffering people over harsh times, before the tough reforms bear soft, sweet fruits.

    The Jakande Metroline initiative got consumed by the cheap politics of brutal military rule, under the junta government of Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (1984-1985).  The Metroline’s cancellation set Lagos public transportation back for decades.

    But it was the same Buhari, as elected president (2015-2023), that eased rigid attitudes over federal rail exclusivity that threatened the Lagos Blue Rail from its conception by Governor Bola Tinubu in 2003; and also its audacious implementation under Governor Babatunde Fashola.  

    Current Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s delivery of the project is indeed golden dream come true.  But the long odyssey is hard metaphor of how Nigeria often chases shadows, or pushes destructive politics, while what the polity needs are focused policies and programmes to ease life for the people and enable them to get about their business.

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    The Sanwo-Olu government deserves praise for delivering this epochal project.  But the Blue Rail, with the Red corridor virtually sprinting after it, should mark a new golden dawn of deepening urban rail as the backbone of Lagos cosmopolitan shuttle, as a modern and functional mega-city state.

    A clip of videos on lamataonline (website of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority), the immediate managers of the rail, said it all.  Thrilled passengers trooping off the trains, at one of the platforms, smiled at the camera: “We’re happy, we’re happy”, they all beamed.  Another quipped “Eko o in baje”, with a quaint accent.  Yet another, full of drama, cooed: “Anywhere you’re in Nigeria, if you’re not in Lagos, sorry o!”  

    The joy was infectious — infectious because there was, for the passengers, genuine positive excitement.  Besides, the pocket bled less.  Paying N700 from a full trip from Mile 2 to Lagos Marina, a 13-kilometre shuttle, in 15 minutes of relative comfort, is a deal, to say the least.  

    But the real deal was they paid half of the fare: N350.  That’s the practical “palliative” most Nigerians need now, to cope with the galloping inflation that further burns already razed pockets!  But how many states outside Lagos boast urban rail to move around millions daily, and gift their respective economies the economy of scale that can tamp down inflation — and let their pockets breathe?

    It’s only Lagos — and maybe Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.  Even then in both, urban rail as hub is still very tentative.  It’s as if the tough economic times are finally dictating the direction of public transportation.  Yet, see what Lagos governments, from Tinubu to Sanwo-Olu, had to face before delivering what ought to have been obvious!

    Lagos should deepen its urban rail.  With right pricing targeting volume, it could help a great deal to temper inflation and cool off the economy.  So, the state should develop the other rail corridors, using the public-private-participation model.  The huge market is there to tap.  

    Lagos State should run the rail corridors with world-class business models that not only pay back the construction loans, but also generate revenue to provide seed money to develop other corridors in the Lagos rail master plan.

    Other states too should copy the Lagos example, in urban rail, if the population can support it.  States should even partner to build regional lines.  That is a logical way to reduce transportation costs, tame inflation and boost the economy.