The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Second Civil war?

    Second Civil war?

    • Ohanaeze wants all-out war against anarchists in Southeast

    The situation in the Southeast is becoming a source of worry to well-meaning people in and outside the region. Daily, human beings are converted to mere statistics by enemies of the Nigerian state and people. The trend has continued unabated despite attempts by security agents to curb it.

    Besides the killed and the maimed, many are being consigned to the heap of  economic destitution as schools, shops, factories and general movements are prohibited every Monday. In addition, any day Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) is arraigned in court, economic activities are forbidden across the five states of the region. Anyone who disobeys the order pays with his or her life or limbs.

    We join the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze, in condemning the trend, and call on the sub-national governments in the area to step up efforts in mobilising against the nihilists, many of whom were not born before the 30-month gruesome civil war that spelt doom and retardation for the zone. The effects of that war are still felt today as it sowed division among Nigerians, poisoned social relations and has promoted suspicion in the country.

    It might be frightening when Ohanaeze joins others not only in openly condemning the retarding actions of the anarchists, but deprecates it in the strongest terms as declaration of another civil war that must be swiftly checked. This is a wake-up call on the new administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his security chiefs. Previous authorities had failed to check the festering sore that later became cancer threatening to take down the whole people, especially those in Anambra, Enugu and Imo states.

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    There is a need to review the security system, both the kinetic and non-kinetic approaches for better results. When non-state actors determine when and how people should exercise their fundamental rights, it is an early sign that the state is about failing. This must be checked, if only to imbue confidence in citizens that the government is capable of protecting their lives and properties from attacks by rogue elements whose next action would be to impose taxes within the area. Already, the security forces are stretched thin engaging daring criminals in the Northeast, Northwest and parts of the Northcentral who, at a point, deposed and installed traditional rulers, imposed taxes and took whatever caught their fiendish fancies off hapless citizens.

    It was former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Theophillus Danjuma, who once declared that no country can survive a second civil war. We hope current leaders would not allow this to happen under their watch as history would not be kind to whoever is in the saddle whenever this happens. All leaders and authorities, formal or informal, must be involved in efforts to bring the situation under control. The Southeast region is too important to be lost to a bunch of criminals who are out to test the strength of the state.

    Mr. Simon Ekpa who seems to lead a more murderous faction of IPOB should be brought to book urgently. He cannot be allowed to stay comfortably in Finland preying on people’s ignorance and causing mayhem in the land. There is enough evidence to bring his nefarious activities to the attention of the Finnish authorities with a view to getting him repatriated to Nigeria to answer for his crimes. Nigeria is not so much a minion in diplomacy as not to know what to do in the circumstances. We have enough friends in the international system to run rings round the outlaw. When this is not done, it suggests to the people that they have been abandoned by their government.

    Nigeria has lost so much human and material resources to the carnage in the Southeast such that no effort should be spared henceforth to bring perpetrators of the evil to book. When the state shows it is capable of drawing from its enormous resources to secure its territory and demonstrate that it has a monopoly of using force to enforce law and order, things will fall in place, and the feared slide into a civil war would be halted.

    Nigeria, the famed giant of Africa by its population and resources, should no longer be depicted as a giant with clay feet.

  • SERAP’s timely warning

    SERAP’s timely warning

    • NASS members must learn to live within the country’s economic realities

    The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has advised the 10th National Assembly to temper their self-serving budgetary allocations, and we concur to its submissions. SERAP emphasised that “while N70 billion ‘support allowance’ is budgeted for 306 new lawmakers, only N500 billion worth of palliatives is budgeted for 12 million poor Nigerians. N40 billion is also allocated to buy 465 Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials.” We urge the National Assembly to heed the advice of SERAP in support of the economic reconstruction plans of the new administration.

    There is no doubt Nigerians are scandalised by such humongous expenses for exotic cars when about 137 million Nigerians are said to be living in multidimensional abject poverty. Instead of such ostentatious lifestyle, SERAP advised that the money should be channelled to more benefiting projects. It therefore requested “President Bola Tinubu to present a fresh supplementary appropriation bill, to redirect the N110 billion to address the situation of the over 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, for the approval of the National Assembly.”

    As we have argued on this page over the years, the National Assembly holds the ace to accountability in government, through the constitutional oversight functions provided for in section 88 of the 1999 constitution (as amended). But to succeed, the august body must first remove the spec in their own eyes before they can see clearly the log in the eyes of the executive arm. The members ought to know that the determination of their entire remuneration, including allowances, is within the purview of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission as provided in the Third Schedule to the 1999 constitution (as amended).

    Read Also; Taraba leads in highest petrol price in June

    Though, regrettably over the years, past senators and representatives acted dishonourably by using their power of authorisation of expenditure from consolidated revenue fund, as provided by section 81 of the constitution, to feather their own nest. More so, with the provision of the first alteration act, authorising that money standing to the credit of the National Assembly should be paid directly to them, members of the previous assemblies inserted whatever pleased them in the appropriation act, and such money was shared for their comfort and extravagance.

    SERAP is asking the 10th National Assembly to be different, and change the old ways of legislators for the better. Even when the change mantra was not used by any of the parties in the last election, we urge them to change for the better. As rightly posited by SERAP, “It is a fundamental breach of their fiduciary duties for members of the National Assembly to arbitrarily increase their own budget and to use the budget as a tool to satisfy the lifestyle of lawmakers.”

    We recall how the houses built for the 4th and 5th National Assembly with tax-payers money were sold for paltry sums to members in the name of privatisation; while Nigerians were meant to believe that thenceforth lawmakers would fend for their accommodation, going forward. What they lost by way of houses they have gained through stupendous allowances that have no relationship with the economic reality of the country. Even in more economically viable democracies, like the USA, legislators live within their means, as some sleep in their offices.

    We urge SERAP to follow through its demands for a more accountable 10th National Assembly. Legislators cannot live like oil sheiks, while other Nigerians squelch in abject poverty. The admonition of SERAP that “it is a grave violation of the public trust and constitutional oath of office for members of the National Assembly to unjustifiably increase their own budget at a time when over 137 million poor Nigerians are living in extreme poverty exacerbated by the removal of fuel subsidy” is apt. Our legislators must begin reforms from above to avoid the chaos that comes with reforms coming from below.

  • Food emergency

    Food emergency

    • A good idea but it must be matched with action for optimal result

    In a week that most Nigerians were still engrossed on the debate on the appropriateness or otherwise of the interventionist mechanism of cash transfer to households to mitigate the impacts of both the fuel subsidy removal and the new foreign exchange regime, the Tinubu administration would take on a more dire problem –by declaring a state of emergency on the unprecedented inflation that has made basic foods unaffordable and pushing up malnutrition rates.

    According to the president’s spokesman, Dele Alake, the president had ordered –”That all matters pertaining to food and water availability and affordability, as essential livelihood items, be included within the purview of the National Security Council.”

    Specifically, the president is said to have ordered an immediate release of fertilisers and grains to farmers and households to mitigate the effects of the fuel subsidy removal. Also, are plans to ensure all-year round farming just as the administration seeks to emplace special purpose vehicles like commodity boards to liberalise the food production value chain. Also in plan is an immediate activation of land-banks across the country (some 500,000 hectares of already mapped land are said to be waiting for deployment), introduction of government-managed ranching to terminate the age-long and problematic nomadic animal husbandry.

    In all, the plan envisages synergies not only between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to ensure adequate irrigation of farmlands and to guarantee that food is produced all-year round, but also the on-boarding of critical stakeholders in the commodity exchange, research institutes, agro-processors and the likes to ensure a more integrated, cohesive value chain.

    The administration, most certainly, has its heart in the right place. Moreover, the measures, if carefully implemented, can help drive down food prices in the short to the medium term. They will most certainly boost employment. What remains is for the Federal Government to spell out the role of the states and the local governments in the emergency in some greater detail. 

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    However, optics aside, the emergency declaration, surely, cannot be faulted going by the findings of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The body in its report titled “Crop Prospect and Food Situation” had projected that some 25.3 million Nigerians would face acute food insecurity during the months of June to August. The picture, interestingly also aligns with that of the National Bureau of Statistics about the steady surge in food inflation from 24.32 percent in January to 25.25 per cent in June – a situation now exacerbated by the removal of the fuel subsidy.

    Yet, if the lessons of multiple interventions in the agricultural value chain of the past eight years are anything to go by – and by this we refer to the billions of naira pumped into various agricultural interventions, all of which have largely failed to deliver either on their set targets or any appreciable synergy among the players in the value chain to make the interventions enduring – it is how mere emergency declarations are never sufficient. Simply put, the declaration must be matched with sustained action.

    And what are those deliverables Nigerians expect to see? Foremost of course is a boost in agricultural output. The obverse side of that is less wastes from post-harvest losses. While both have the benefits of boosting farmers’ incomes, they are easily achieved through improved seedlings and the provision of enabling infrastructure of storage and transportation. Moreover, if only in line with President Bola Tinubu’s promise to overhaul the commodity marketing boards, we expect to see greater cohesion among the disparate players and this under a new framework that delivers excellent values to the macro-economy in terms of price stabilisation while ultimately decelerating the rate of food inflation.

    Additionally, we expect our typically laidback research institutes recharged to become solution centres in line with their mandates; also, our moribund agricultural extension services should be given a fresh lease of life while our farmers are allowed to pull their weights in an atmosphere of enhanced security with the requisite enablers of infrastructure provided to make their labour less tedious. The incoming marketing boards and the agro-processors would, in like manner, need to be afforded not just a competitive field to play but proper regulation to ensure fair-play. The end game is to get every single player in the value chain to stand up to be counted in these difficult times.

  • Fake aviation fuel?

    Fake aviation fuel?

    • Incredible but true. Rules must be tightened and those responsible identified and punished

    Fake or adulterated fuel is danger waiting to happen wherever it is used. It had led to partial or full replacement of some vehicles’ engines in the past. If adulterated fuel is this bad for motor vehicles, the consequence for aero planes is even more dire.

    This is why we welcome, wholeheartedly, the decision of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to investigate the root cause of the contamination in the fuel tanks of some aircraft in the country. The authority’s director-general, Musa Nuhu, disclosed this during a meeting with domestic/international operators, aviation fuel suppliers, and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Thursday in Abuja.

    Just last week, NCAA suspended Max Air Boeing 737 (Parts A3 and D43) over safety concerns. A statement by the authority’s general manager, public affairs, Sam Adurogboye, said “The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended with immediate effect the Parts A3 and D43 in the Operations Specifications of the Boeing B737 aircraft types”. The suspension was the NCAA’s reaction to some security breaches by the airline over a period.

    As a matter of fact, the authority chronicled some of these, including “An air return by aircraft B737-300, Registration Marks; 5N-MHM to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) due to duct overheat indication in the cockpit on the 11th of July, 2023”. There was also the incident of the “Fuel contamination of the main fuel tanks of aircraft B737-300, registration marks; 5N-MHM, leading to the auxiliary power unit (APU) shutdown on ground at Yola Airport on July 7, 2023.”

    Read Also: NDLEA recruits 2,428 personnel

    Indeed, Max Air, according to TheCable, recorded 1,013 delays out of its 1,565 flights in the first quarter of this year; one of the highest in the period. So, its suspension should not come as a surprise. We do not have to wait till disaster strikes before activating preventive measures. Max Air noted the security concerns and promised to resolve some of them within a week. We wonder why it would take the airline its suspension before addressing what it acknowledged to be safety issues.

    We commend NCAA for this proactive measure in order to avoid unpleasant consequences. Everything about air travel has to do with safety. Of all the modes of transportation, air transportation is perhaps the most risky because, unlike other transportation systems, there is no contact between airplanes and the ground except during landing. Many of us were living witnesses to the several incidents of plane crashes in the country, especially in the early 2000s. Then, airplanes were just dropping off our skies like toys.

    These included the January 5, 2000 Skypower Express Airways Bandeirante 111A plane that crash-landed in Abuja killing 17; the May 4, 2002 EAS Airlines’ BAC 1-11-500  aircraft with 105 people on board that crashed in Kano, killing 76 people on board and 72 on the ground; a twin engine Boeing 737 belonging to Bellview Airline that crashed at Lisa Village, Ogun State, on October 22, 2005, killing  all the 117 persons on board. There were also the Sosoliso Airlines flight 1145 that crash-landed in Port Harcourt on December 10, 2005 in which 109 passengers, including 60 students of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, died, as well as the October 29, 2006 Aviation Development Corporation Airline  Boeing 737 with 104 on board which  crashed minutes after take-off from Abuja airport. Only six of those on board survived.

    We do not want a return to that better-forgotten era when air passengers literally had to say their last prayers before boarding their flights. A little carelessness here, a little sloppiness there are all it takes to have accidents which we admit might sometimes be due to other factors beyond human control. But accidents would almost always  be minimised when we have taken away or dealt with the preventable aspects.

    This is why we welcome the planned collaboration among the relevant stakeholders — NCAA, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), NMDPRA, Nigeria Safety Investigation Board (NSIB), airliners, pilots, fuel depot operators, aircraft maintenance officers, in the committee that would be set up to ensure standards in the supply and use of aviation fuel.

    Meanwhile, the source of the present fuel contamination must be identified with a view to ensuring such never occurs again. Where lapses are detected, there should be due sanctions. The other time, adulterated fuel was imported into the country and no one was punished despite the harm it did to several vehicles and the economy. We cannot make progress with this kind of attitude.

    More important, the NCAA must come up with safety guidelines on aviation fuel that must be binding on all airlines.

  • ‘Loan sharks’

    ‘Loan sharks’

    • Govt’s hammer dangles on digital lenders abusing consumer rights

    The Federal Government is reported to have threatened the death knell against any loan app that harasses customers and violate their privacy in its loan recovery drive. Government’s oversight agency, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), said it would delist such apps and as well ask Google to permanently take them down from its app store in furtherance of efforts to protect Nigerians from illicit tacks of some digital lenders.

    No fewer than 180 apps have full or conditional approval by the FCCPC to operate in the country, and the commission’s chief executive officer Babatunde Irukera was reported saying there would be no hesitation to shut down the operations of errant apps if investigations proved them liable. He noted, however, that apps yet indulging in the abuses were mostly not registered by the FCCPC and also not hosted by Google, but rather they use below-the-radar channels to engage consumers.

    Many loan apps, famously dubbed ‘loan sharks,’ which underprivileged Nigerians are forced to patronise because they can’t access credit from standard banking institutions, are notorious for their constricting loan tenors and outrageous interest rates that compound the loaned capital and render it a debt trap; and in their bid to recover the loans, the digital lenders usually invade the data of their customers to get phone numbers of contacts to whom they post defamatory messages about those customers, just so to harangue them into paying back. It would be understating things to say they make life miserable for those hapless borrowers.

    Earlier this year, the FCCPC directed loan apps to register with it and has thus far listed 180 operators. Google also recently made it known that loan apps would not be allowed on its app store without regulatory approval; and in April, it announced that loan apps on Play Store would lose ability to access users’ contacts or photos from May 31, 2023.

    Read Also: Students’ loan scheme: What next?

    Only last year, the FCCPC in collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Nigerian Police raided and shuttered some financial firms located on Opebi Road, Ikeja, Lagos, that were behind the online apps. The consumer protection commission, at the time, explained that the raid was in response to customers’ complaints of malpractices by the operators. Irukera said customers had accused the operators of violating their privacy in their debt recovery drive, following which his agency began investigating the allegations since 2020. He ascribed the rise in patronage of online lenders to the COVID-19 lockdown, saying: “Sometime ago, when the country was on lockdown in 2020 due to the pandemic, we started seeing the rise in money lenders. Because there was lockdown due to the pandemic, people needed small, easy loans, which is understandable. But over a period of time, people started complaining about the malpractices of the lenders, so we started tracking it.”

    The FCCPC boss identified two major malpractices by affected online lenders. “The two key things that were subjects of concern were what seems to be the ‘naming and shaming’ violation of people’s privacy with respect to how these lenders recover their loans. Secondly, the interest rate seems to be a violation of the ethics on how lending is done,” he said, adding that the commission set out to interrogate the charges and eventually found the lenders guilty. The FCCPC uncovered other lapses in the financial operators. Many of them, according to Irukera, had no fixed address to which they could be traced and were only operating online. Besides, some of the loan firms were neither Nigerian companies nor were they registered in the country. “We found out that most of these companies operate from the same place. We also found out that many of them are actually operated by the same person. They are not Nigerian companies, they don’t have an address in Nigeria and they are not registered in Nigeria with the Corporate Affairs Commission, and they do not have any licence to do their business,” the consumer protector said. It was upon such discovery that the commission wrote app giants, Apple and Google, and requested them to suspend the operations of the online lenders; it as well secured a court order to shut down those with purported offices, among other measures. Irukera noted, though, that not all digital lenders were involved in the sharp practices.

    We hold that government has taken a good lead in cleaning the Augean stable. It is now for prospective customers of digital lenders to ensure they restrict themselves to approved operators that can be easily tracked and sanctioned in the event of breaches of operational rules. Towards this end, the FCCPC needs to better publicise the approved loan apps. But this should also be a wake-up call to banking regulators to make the formal channels of credit better accessible to down-the-line compatriots who also need lifelines every now and then for their operations and survival. 

  • A worthy cause

    A worthy cause

    •NASS, other states should support Lagos Assembly’s quest for state police

    Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA) has asked the 10th National Assembly to commence the process of altering the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to allow for the establishment of state police. At its first plenary session, Speaker of the LSHA, Mudashiru Obasa, moved the motion for such constitutional amendment and it was overwhelmingly supported by members of the 10th state assembly. Obasa said state police would help stem the high level of insecurity across the country.

    We support the call by the Assembly, and urge other states to join in the demand for constitutional amendment to allow for state and other levels of policing. We hope lessons have been learnt from the opportunities missed by the previous assemblies at the federal and state levels. Without doubt, despite the best efforts of the federal police, security situation in the country has continued to deteriorate and unless critical steps are taken, it will get worse.

    Currently, according to available data, Nigeria has about 371,800 police officers for a population of over 200 million. While the United Nations recommends one police for every 450 citizens, Nigeria has an estimate of one police for every 540 citizens. To meet the recommended standard, a police report in 2017 said the country needs to recruit 30,000 police personnel annually for the next five years. Apart from poor numbers, Nigeria also faces the challenge of poor policing by personnel posted to strange environments.

    To stem that challenge, the country initiated the community policing model. Last year, speaking at a capacity building workshop for stakeholders, the immediate past Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, said: “community policing is undoubtedly a way to go in a drive to effectively address the complex and dynamic challenges of crimes and mitigate the challenges of internal security realities.” That police initiative was launched in 2017, with the intention to recruit 10,000 police constables at a budget of N13 billion for the programme.

    While there are patches of success, the scheme has not drilled any hole in the massive crust of insecurity weighing down on states across the country. Kidnapping for ransom, farmers-herders clashes, banditry, insurrection, armed robbery and sundry criminality are upending the nation’s wellbeing, and so, there is urgent need for a review of the nation’s security architecture, without further delay. With a large chunk of the police guiding very important personalities (VIPs), what is left of the 371,800 is not enough to effectively police the 923,768 sq. km. of Nigeria, with all its complexities.

    Read Also: Lagos Assembly seeks constitutional amendment to allow state police

    At a current estimate of over 200 million, Nigeria’s population is projected to grow to 400 million people by 2050, and unless efficient and effective policing is put in place, the present security nightmare would become a child’s play in the nearest future. For 2023, the budget proposal for the Ministry of Police Affairs and agencies under it was N871 billion, and the former minister, Alhaji Muhammadu Maigari, at the budget defence lamented that it was grossly inadequate.

    No doubt, funding remains a major challenge for the police, necessitating the intervention of state governments. Over the years, the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, established in 2007, has helped to augment funding of security agencies in the state. Nearly all other states have had to buy equipment for police in their state, as the Federal Government is unable to provide the needed funding. Unfortunately, despite the massive state funding, a governor has no operational control over the police, and that affects efficiency.

    Considering the challenges which have made policing ineffective across the country, and the urgent need to secure every inch of our land, the 10th National Assembly should heed the call by the LSHA and further amend the 1999 Constitution to allow for state police.

  • The end of MT Tura 11

    The end of MT Tura 11

    Although the crude theft vessel has been destroyed, perpetrators should be prosecuted

    Everyday for the thief, one day for the owner’. This time-tested cliche is true of the vessel, MT Tura II (IMO number: 6620462), arrested on July 7 by Messrs. Tantita Security Services Nigeria Ltd, with about 150,000 metric tonnes of stolen crude oil valued at about $86.8million. Tantita Security Ltd., a private security contractor engaged by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is owned by former militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo. The vessel, said to be owned by a Nigerian registered company, Holab Maritime Services Limited, with registration number RC813311, was heading to Cameroun with the cargo when it was intercepted. It was alleged to have been in the illicit business for about 12 years.

    Garba Muhammad, NNPCL’s spokesman, said in a statement that the vessel was apprehended at an offshore location at latitude 5.8197194477543235° and longitude 4.789002723991871°, with the captain and 12 other crew members on board. Neither the vessel nor its content, said to have been sourced illegally from a well jacket offshore Ondo State, had any valid documentation.

    It is an open secret that some highly influential Nigerians as well as international oil companies (IOCs) are into this illicit business of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region. Given the scope of their operations, it is not a job for minions. This much was confirmed by a retired deputy comptroller of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and vice-chairman, Senate Committee on Customs and Excise in the 9th Senate, Francis Fadahunsi.  ”Some international oil companies and highly influential Nigerians are behind the crude oil theft in Nigeria. It did not start today; the practice has been on for a long time.

    “Unfortunately, the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is doing nothing spectacular to stop the theft”, Fadahunsi said. He added that “Each of the affected IOCs has separate channels with which they are siphoning crude to waiting vessels on the high seas with the active connivance of the military and security operatives saddled with the responsibility of protecting the nation’s oil assets.”

    The arrest of MT Tura 11 should signal a radical departure from the past where government officials only made pious commitment to rid the country of the menace of crude theft.

    “The illegal trade of stolen crude oil not only inflicts significant economic losses on Nigeria and legitimate stakeholders in the oil industry, but also perpetuates a cycle of corruption, environmental devastation, and social instability”, the statement by Muhammad said.

    Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva said last year that Nigeria loses about 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily to oil thieves. The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) early this year disclosed that the country lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25trn ($46.16bn) between 2009 and 2020 to oil theft. This is huge.

    One would have thought that these economic losses would have prodded successive governments to go after these rogue elements with all the might they could muster, to put a stop to their illegal activities. But no. Rather, government officials only wringed their hands in frustration as if they did not know what to do to stem the tide.

    We commend Tantita Security Ltd for a sting operation clinically executed. The company’s executive director, technical and operations, Captain Warredi Enisuoh, said, they had been monitoring the activities of the vessel for long before apprehending it, sequel to the credible intelligence they got about its activities. He added that the vessel had once been arrested for the same crime but disappeared in mysterious circumstances. “We are here with the same vessel committing the same atrocity”. Apparently the greed of the criminals involved in this business ended up being their nemesis. Imagine just one illicit business that would have fetched the perpetrators a whopping $86.8m! Imagine the number of times they would have operated, either without being caught or being caught but later left off the hook, and how much they must have made from their past operations? But that is usually the way of criminals, particularly those whose activities fetch them huge pecuniary gains. They are like Oliver Twist: they always crave for more.

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    Of course, it was this insatiable quest for more illicit money that made them enter into the high seas again when they were arrested. Unfortunately, it was in the process that Tantita Security Ltd. discovered that the vessel had switched off its Automatic Infraction System (AIS), following a lead from NNPCL Control Centre. Since this was not the usual procedure, indeed it was a crime to switch off the AIS, it was easy to give the vessel away as the law breaker that it is.

    Now that MT Tura 11 had been arrested and burnt, that at least is one down for the oil thieves. But that cannot be the end of the story. As a matter of fact, it should be the beginning of a thorough investigation to get to the root of the matter. Government officials had been talking in abstract terms on this issue. Yes, Nigerians know that their crude was being stolen while their governments looked on helplessly. It was as if the criminals were invincible.

    The arrested crew members in the vessel should be able to help unravel the mystery behind crude theft.  Many questions are begging for answers. Perhaps the media too has a role to play at this point. Nigeria has for long walked on the dark path with regard to crude theft. The arrest of MT Tura 11 should illuminate that dark path.

    Who were those responsible for the disappearance of the vessel on the at least two occasions we were told it was arrested in the past? They must be apprehended no matter how highly placed and wherever they are, irrespective of whether they are still in service or they have retired. The nation needs them to tell us under what circumstances the vessel disappeared. A vessel of that size is not a needle or speed boat that can just disappear without trace.

    However, much as Nigerians are happy that a major oil thieves cartel has been busted, they cannot be happy that this feat took a private security concern to achieve. Where is the Nigerian Navy, the major security agency in charge of the country’s territorial waters, in all of these? That the Nigerian Navy is completely out of contention in this major haul is, to say the least, distressing. As the National Operations Controller, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mike Osatuyi, observed, “It’s an indictment on the Navy as far as I am concerned.”

    We share this sentiment.

    What we are saying in essence is that the new military chiefs already have their jobs cut out for them. They must realise that, as far as Nigerians are concerned, these kinds of illegal activities cannot be carried out without the active connivance of some of their personnel.  Many Nigerians who should know have said this much and there is nothing for the military authorities to defend in this. The onus is now on them to change the narrative. They now have a golden opportunity to weed out the bad eggs in their midst so that their unpatriotic activities would not continue to tar the image of the entire armed forces with mud. If the military decides today that this kind of economic sabotage would no longer be condoned, the perpetrators would look for other things to do.

    Meanwhile, we appreciate the concern of people who felt the vessel and its content should not have been destroyed. May be they have a point. But those who took the decision to burn them also have their reason. As they claimed, there is the need to send a strong message to investors who might want to toe the line of MT Tura 11 that such is the fate that awaits them. According to Muhammad: “Details of this arrest and the outcomes of the investigations were escalated to the appropriate government authorities, upon which it was concluded to destroy the vessel to serve as a strong warning and deterrent to all those participating in such illegal activities to cease and desist.”

    Enisuoh too applauded the “swift decision” to destroy the vessel.

    Moreover, the vessel is not a first offender. Twice it had been caught and twice it had escaped in mysterious circumstances. As a matter of fact, it was in order to avert a repeat of such disappearance that the military and NNPCL as well as other stakeholders on ground at the time the vessel was arrested agreed that it must be burnt on the spot and this was done despite the Navy’s alleged request that the vessel be handed over to them for destruction. The decision not to release the vessel to the Navy as demanded is commendable. Once beaten’, they say, ‘twice shy’. The vessel’s disappearance on the two occasions it had earlier been apprehended was said to have happened while it was in the custody of the Nigerian Navy. So, there is no sense in having a third experience of such mysterious disappearance.

    MT Tura 11’s arrest must not go the way of other arrested crude vessels in the country. The Bola Tinubu administration must show that it is really different by ensuring that crude theft is reduced to the barest minimum, if not eliminated. Crude robbery must be killed before it kills the country.

  • NUC curriculum

    NUC curriculum

    •The 70 percent control over the academic programmes will stifle higher education

    Uuniversity is nothing without an intellectual tradition. And there is no better way to achieve that than a robust academic programme. The tertiary level of education in Nigerian has been shown up by periodic rankings of higher institutions in the world and Nigeria.

    Although some universities have shown flashes, we have witnessed neither a consistency nor high perch commensurate with the size and promise of our population and diversity. Hence, the action by the country’s university under the aegis of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to streamline and modernise the curriculum is an opportunity.

    The point, according to the NUC, is to set a minimum standard and modernise the courses of study for a twenty first century citizen. The NUC thus moved from what was termed the Bench Mark Minimum Academic Standard (BMAS) to Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS).

    CCMAS is supposed to be more comprehensive and take cognisance of a global world with its dynamic of evolving technologies as well as diversities. It is, therefore, a system that should be tied to the future and a new world in flux.  The CCMAS comprises 17 disciplines and 238 academic programmes.

    But there are big setbacks. In setting the minimum standard, NUC has control of 70 percent of content, and gives the university senates a miserly 30 percent. This has raised remonstrations among some senates and intellectuals in the country. And for good reasons.

    The academic disciplines covered include, Administration and Management; Agriculture; Allied Health Sciences; Architecture; Arts; Basic Medical Sciences; Computing; Communication and Media Studies; Education; Engineering and Technology; Environmental Sciences; Law; Medicine and Dentistry; Pharmaceutical Science; Sciences; Social Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine.

    One of the drawbacks is the sense that critical stakeholders did not take part in the deliberations that produced the new document. Academic programming is supposed to be collaborative, and from what the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has observed, the decision seemed to be an imposition.

    The 70 percent control by the NUC takes away the ability of the universities to innovate and create their own characters. It is an obsession with uniformity. Academics is nothing if not creative, and when the centre gives institutions only a narrow room to assert their individuality, it implies a system only a little better than rote.

    Read Also: NUC’s Core Curriculum for Nigerian universities

    Not only that, some of the new courses either show a watering down or lack of touch with the real world. For instance, the University of Ibadan queries that “there are no Chemistry courses for students of B. Sc. Physics. Apart from Departmental and General Studies (GES/GST) courses, the 70% CCMAS has left out all other Faculty or University courses like Engineering Mathematics for Engineering students, Statistics for Science students, Philosophy and Sociology of Education courses for Education students, etc. Almost all departments reported one major deficiency or the other in the CCMAS.

    “Contrary to the stated intentions, the current 70% CCMAS documents have left out essential courses in university programmes which would render Nigerian graduates globally uncompetitive! There are omissions of core and mandatorily required contents of courses in the old BMAS from those of the 70% CCMAS; raising serious questions about the competence of the so-called experts who executed the “contracts”.

    In the field of mass communications, it seeks specialisation by breaking it into many parts. But that may be good for a post-graduate programme, not a first degree that should exhibit a breadth of knowledge.

    Again, if 30 percent is all the “locals” have, how could they pursue the idea of institutional flexibility and specialisation? How much room would a University of Sokoto have to differentiate itself from Delta State University, with all the beauties of their immediate cultures and environments.

    We call on the CCMAS to be reexamined.

  • Worthy collaboration

    Worthy collaboration

    • •We welcome NDLEA’s partnership with UK’s crime agency to fight drug cartels

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) deserves support, nationally and internationally, to battle drug cartels operating in the country and the sub-region. We therefore commend the partnership between the NDLEA and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA). Under Brigadier-Gen. Buba Marwa as Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, the NDLEA has made giant strides, including bursting an international drug syndicate warehousing 2,139.55 kilograms of cocaine in Ikorodu, Lagos, last year.

    Speaking at the signing of the renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the NDLEA and NCA, Gen. Marwa said: “This renewed MoU will definitely and inevitably propel High Intelligence Driven Operational Tentacles that will seek out the most complex organised criminal networks, no matter their hiding place, to face the wrath of the law.” On his part, the Regional Manager, West Africa, NCA, David Cater, said the MoU will “enable us to take the battle to the enemies, that is, the cartels.”

    The NDLEA also recently launched the Aletheia eye-based lie detector system, installed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. The innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology facilitates fast and accurate truth detection based on the analysis of the human eyes. According to the agency, the lie detector has been useful at border crossings, airports and seaports around the world. The agency also has a toll-free drug abuse call centre, which attends to Nigerians suffering from Drug Use Disorder, and is manned by experts in counselling, psychotherapy, psychology and psychiatry.

    Speaking at the commissioning, Gen. Marwa said: “The provision of this toll-free helpline is a milestone in our resolve to broaden access to quality health care for drug users in the country. This has become a necessity and a strategic intervention in our determined effort to bring under control the increasing cases of drug use disorder and related health concerns.” The NDLEA emphasises that the call-centre guarantees anonymity, confidentiality and safety for those in need of help, but are unable to access conventional treatment centres.

    Read Also: NDLEA seizes 4,560kg of skunk in Lagos, Adamawa, Osun

    No doubt, under Gen. Marwa, NDLEA has made giant strides, but a lot more work needs to be done. We note that as society evolves, the types of abusive substance also mutate. It is public knowledge that dangerous illicit drugs can now be manufactured just about anywhere, as witnessed recently with the bust of manufacturing syndicates in Lagos and Anambra states. A house serving as production factory for methamphetamine, as well as a warehouses for Tramadol 225 mg, were recently bust in Victoria Garden City, Lagos.

    Sadly, the factory-made illicit drugs have become a major affliction for the younger generation of Nigerians, and every effort should be made to curb the spread. The criminals engaged in the production site their factories sometimes in remote villages and with just one dubious pharmacist in their employ, they churn out death and madness-inducing drugs to the detriment of the young generation. There is also widespread cultivation of Indian Hemp in remote villages in some parts of south-south and south-west.

    The NDLEA is also in partnership with INTERPOL and the UK Border Force, and we believe they can gain experience and technical knowhow from those more experienced organisations. Speaking at the signing of the MoU with NCA, Gen. Marwa also said: “I look forward, with great optimism, to the requisite specialist capabilities this project will provide to the CITF (Criminal Intelligence Task Force) officials to target and disrupt drug trafficking cartels in our country, the West Africa sub-region and beyond.”

    We share in the optimism, and urge the agency to redouble its effort to reduce to the barest minimum the manufacturing, trafficking and use of illicit drugs. No nation can progress under the influence of such abuses. We also urge the federal and state governments to incorporate lectures on drug abuse in the secondary and university curricula.

  • Abuse of power

    Abuse of power

    • •Security agents turning on civilians with their arms violate stewardship

    Recent incidents in the polity showed up undue high-handedness by some uniformed personnel in their engagements with the civilian populace. At least two persons were reported killed in a demonstration by natives of Afokpella community, in Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State, penultimate week. They died from gunshots allegedly fired by soldiers who intervened to arrest a breach of communal peace arising from that demonstration. Also in Edo State, in Ekpoma area, some policemen ran their patrol vehicle over a suspected traffic offender they had handcuffed.

    In the Afokpella incident, the families of Oyegwu Afoso and David Agbagie rued their loss after soldiers allegedly shot these victims in the course of a civil protest by community members over reported underemployment by two cement factories operating within the community and alleged exploitation by neighbouring traditional rulers. Youths of Afokpella community staged the protest to complain that their members in the employment of the cement factories were mere casual workers, and that chiefs of neighbouring communities were taking out 40 percent of their pay as tribute from the firms. The civil action ran into a storm, however, when the protesters sought to compel participation by members of the neighbouring communities, who for their part were bent on going to their work posts at the cement factories and therefore enlisted soldiers, along with personnel of the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), against the protesters. It was in the melee, according to reports, that  the protesters vented their grievance by vandalising a vehicle belonging to one of the cement companies, upon which the soldiers allegedly began to shoot at random to disperse them.

    Reports cited community members saying some protesters escaped unhurt, others sustained varying degrees of bullet injuries in the course of scampering to safety, while Agbagie got killed. Subsequently, the soldiers returned and allegedly marauded through the community in search for indigenes who took part in the protest; and it was in that process that Afoso, who reportedly had not even joined the protest, was felled in his house by a bullet. A community member said to be Afoso’s relation was quoted saying: “The soldiers returned and started shooting at people again. We don’t know why, because at that point we had already stopped the protest. And that was how they shot my brother who didn’t participate in the protest. We could not take him to the hospital because soldiers were everywhere, they threatened to shoot anybody they see outside, and that was how my brother died at home.” According to the reports, the official spokesperson of the Nigerian Army was not available to respond to media enquiries about the incident, while the spokesman for Edo State Police Command, Chidi Nwabuzor, a Superintendent of Police (SP), merely said he had not been briefed. 

    Read Also: Bayelsa, Borno get new Commissioners of Police

    As for the Ekpoma incident, the police confirmed that seven officers deliberately ran their patrol vehicle over a handcuffed man. The incident, which occurred on June 29 elicited public outrage. A 19-minute video clip that emerged online showed the handcuffed man lying on a road as a police vehicle – a Sienna van – ran over him. The callous act made angry bystanders to scream at the officers to stop and surge at the vehicle, upon which the driver eventually stopped and the occupants opened the car door and fled the scene.

    Force Public Relations Officer Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a statement, cited Acting Inspector-General of Police Olukayode Egbetokun saying the incident was “disturbing” and that the officers’ act was unprofessional. He ordered that the erring personnel be apprehended and brought to the Force Headquarters in Abuja for “further action.” The Edo police command, which confirmed the arrest of the officers, said commissioner of police Adamu Dankwara also condemned their action as “barbaric, inhumane and unprofessional.” Command spokesman, Nwabuzor, identified the leader of the police team as Magdalene Osayande, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), and the victim as Success Ehimare whom he said was intercepted with an unregistered Lexus car and had allegedly refused to show the vehicle’s papers to the officers. Nwabuzor added that the victim had received treatment at a hospital and was in good condition following the incident.

    Incidents cited afore showed just how the privilege of being entrusted with force of arms to keep society safe gets abused by being roguely turned on society. In the Afokpella case, the participation of soldiers in quelling a civil protest was unwarranted in the extreme; that ought to be the call of the police and NSCDC. Worse is that appropriate rules of engagement were disregarded. Operatives in all the armed services need to be properly schooled in the rules of engagement and held strictly accountable for breaches. It is heartwarming that the police often hold erring personnel to account; latest reports, for instance, indicated that the acting IGP had disbanded the Ekpoma police team and ordered disciplinary measures against officers involved. Soldiers who played a role in the Afokpella killings should likewise be fished out and disciplined. The armed services are trustees of the security of the civil populace and must conduct themselves as such at all times.