Category: Editorial

• •Nigerian leaders must join the led in making sacrifices to avoid chaos

Once again, the ostentatious lifestyle of many Nigerian leaders in the midst of the mass poverty in the country has been criticised. It was indeed the focus of the Eid-el-Kabir message of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI). The leader of the group and Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar(111) urged the leaders to remember that it is not only the ordinary Nigerians that should always be called upon to make sacrifices for the nation’s survival adding that those in leadership positions too must lead by example, and shun extravagant lifestyles.

This admonition was contained in a statement issued by JNI’s secretary-general, Prof. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, to felicitate  Muslims on the occasion of the Eid. “On this joyous occasion, JNI would like to extend its felicitations to the new leaders at all levels in the executive and legislative arms. They should be mindful of the trust reposed in them by Allah and humanity on which they will be asked to give account on the day of judgement”, the statement said in part. It added that “It appears that only the common Nigerians are making painful sacrifices to keep the nation moving but the leaders are perpetually living in affluence to the detriment of the malnourished commoners. The JNI, therefore, calls on the leaders to cut their extravagant lifestyles, make adjustments and come up with policies that will make the life of the common Nigerian a bit comfortable.”

The group pointed out that Nigeria was at a crossroads in virtually all areas and urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other leaders to do something fast to ameliorate the suffering in the land. Dwelling on the significance of sacrifice to the Eid and Islam generally, JNI said “This auspicious occasion serves as a reminder of the values of sacrifice, compassion, and unity that are at the core of Islam. As we gather with family, friends, and loved ones to observe the Eid, let us reflect upon the importance of selflessness and generosity.”

The Sultan is not the first person to make such call for sacrifice on the part of the country’s leaders. We will be happy if his appeal would be the last.

Over the years, and even during the military years, there has never been any year when the word ‘sacrifice’ did not feature in many of the country’s national or state leaders’ speeches, either during festive seasons like this, or in their annual budget. Synonyms like ‘hope’, ‘better tomorrow’, ‘belt tightening’, etc. have also become all too familiar at such occasions.

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The common denominator in all of these is that there would always be light at the end of every tunnel if only the people could make the appropriate sacrifices. And, like obedient servants, Nigerians have almost always complied, often willingly, and at times by coercion through governments’ programmes and policies.

Unfortunately, while Nigerians continue to offer sacrifices, many of the country’s leaders live ostentatious lifestyle that runs contrary to their admonitions to the governed. The impression is thus perpetually given that the sacrifices that the leaders crave from the led is only good for the latter. In other words, the leaders are exempted from making sacrifices.

Apparently, political contests have become do-or-die battles because many people have realised that holding certain political appointments is a license for exemption from making sacrifice. So, they do everything possible, including the unthinkable, to clinch the job. It is also the reason why people keep recycling themselves in government once they get in.

The immediate past Muhammadu Buhari administration which came on the mantra of change and which, ipso facto ought to have corrected this wrong impression concerning making of sacrifice only by ordinary Nigerians, or at least lay the foundation for sacrifice by all, both the leaders and the led, failed woefully in this regard. If that opportunity for reorientation on the part of our leaders was lost in the past, now is the time for genuine and enduring change. As a matter of fact, the country’s economic situation today calls for nothing less. Gone were those days when our leaders would go about in large convoys, disrupting economic activities and burning fuel that no longer comes cheap. Gone were those days when politicians would have a retinue of personal aides all paid and catered for at the public expense.

The point must be made, and strongly too, that this expectation of sacrifice being good for the led alone but bad for the leaders is unsustainable. It is an open invitation to chaos. Indeed, it is in order to avoid such chaos that the Sultan and others who have been asking for change of attitude on the part of our leaders are offering the nation this noble piece of advice. Experiences in other lands have shown that it is better to let the reform start from above.

There is a huge difference between making sacrifices and being made sacrificial lambs. Asking the people to make sacrifices while the leaders not only live ostentatious lifestyle but flaunt same is insensitive and ungodly. It is a terrible mindset that is long overdue for change.

• Whatever the answer, ritual killings for whatever purpose deserve stricter sanctions

In an investigative feature story published on June 25, this newspaper beamed the searchlight on the reported upsurge in the penchant for internet fraudsters in the country, popularly known as ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ boys, to resort to the killing of fellow human beings, most times close relatives, to make money. There is obviously a certain irony to this phenomenon. Cybercrime, through which those who perpetrate them defraud individuals and organisations of humongous amounts of money, is a high-tech affair presumably grounded in the field of science, albeit for criminal intent in this instance. Ritual killings on the other hand are savage, atavistic practices predicated on presumably superstitious, primitive and pre-scientific orientations.

Yet, there are numerous routinely reported cases in communities across the country of youths who had earlier taken to Yahoo Yahoo criminality in pursuit of wealth to also engage in ritual killing for the same purpose. In many instances, those who indulge in these fetish practices, at the behest of native doctors supposedly endowed with supernatural powers, are known to have lost their minds or resorted to abnormal, bizarre behaviour, and several examples are cited in the report.

What cannot be disputed is that there has been a steady rise in cases of youths perpetrating Yahoo Yahoo internet fraud in both rural and urban areas of the country, while a surge is also obviously noticeable in the number of this category of the population involved in money-making ritual killings. One particularly gruesome case specified in the report is that of a 29-year old internet fraudster, Amos Olaleye, arrested in May, this year, in Lagos, for allegedly killing his sister for money-making purposes. In his statement to the police, the culprit stated partly that”My mother was the one who took me to a native doctor. He said I would have to sacrifice one of my siblings if I wanted to be successful. He said the one to be sacrificed must be the one I loved most”.

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Continuing, he said “I am into Yahoo business. The native doctor also instructed that I must sleep with my sister’s corpse and suck her (private part) before throwing the corpse into a river”. It is astounding that Olaleye actually complied with the native doctor’s barbaric and nauseous instructions until the offensive odour from the decomposing corpse attracted neighbours who raised an alarm. But then, such difficult-to-comprehend narratives have become commonplace in media reportage in the country. This has prompted the question: ‘Is ritual killing as a means of wealth acquisition a superstitious myth or a reality?’ There is no unanimity of opinion on the matter.

For those of a modernist, scientific cast of mind, it is sheer nonsensical and meaningless regression to savagery. As a Lagos-based lawyer, Tayo Douglas, put it in the report, “There is nothing like money rituals and overnight prosperity. It is the situation of the country’s economy that has provoked the madness in our society “. But the traditional ruler of Ode Ule Kingdom of Legunseland, Remo North Local Government Area of Ogun State, Oba Adedayo Adekoya, Erinsibi 1, disagrees. In his words, “The way it is done is that all the wealth one is supposed to accumulate over one’s lifespan is pushed into one within a very short period of two to five years and then one dies mysteriously. It is no myth. It is reality”.

For Dr Andrew Eromensele, a sociology lecturer at the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, also quoted in the report, “there is empirical evidence to show that money rituals do exist, going by the stories of contemporary youths using their relatives, mothers, girlfriends and others to make money”. And a Pentecostal pastor, Yemi Olaojo, of Fellow Citizens Christian Centre, explains the link between Yahoo Yahoo boys and ritual killing thus, “Look at the Yahoo boys, for instance, the rituals they do help them to convince their victims in releasing their funds to them. These victims are hypnotised. –  that is demonic”. It has also been explained that with greater security searchlight on Yahoo Yahoo fraudsters, many of them are finding an alternative to money making in fetish practices. Again, some of them reportedly take to ritual killings to protect themselves from arrest by law enforcement agents or attack by perceived enemies.

While the jury is still out on the myth or reality of ritual killings for money, and as we await further investigations by specialists into the phenomenon, the undeniable truth is that internet fraud, ritual killings for quick enrichment without honest labour, the prevalent massive corruption in public office, the monetisation of religion, among others, are all fallouts of a society enslaved to acquisition of wealth at all cost. It is this pervasive materialistic orientation of society devoid of commitment to ennobling moral and spiritual values that must be addressed.

In addition, the security agents must also be on the lookout for ritual killers for whatever purpose. It is not only a sin but also a crime for someone to take another person’s life for whatever purpose, except, perhaps, in proven cases of self-defence. Perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted so that others intending to toe that path would learn the appropriate lessons.

• •Sokoto State govt must move against those who kill in the name of religion

Usman Buda, a butcher has become an addition to the statistics of those extra-judicially killed in Nigeria. He was reported to have been stoned to death in Sokoto, Sokoto State, for alleged blasphemy against Islam’s Holy Prophet Muhammad. His tragic death came almost a year after a student, Deborah Samuel, was also stoned to death for alleged blasphemy in the same state.

Sokoto State has a very admirable history in Nigeria. It is the seat of the Caliphate, which is also known as the Sultanate of Sokoto. It was founded by the revered Uthman Dan Fodio in 1804. The Sultan of Sokoto is regarded as the custodian of the Islamic religion in the country and he commands considerable traditional, Islamic and political influences.

It is apposite to recall the place of Sokoto in Islam in Nigeria because its history stands it out as a beacon for others to follow in the country that is struggling for development. Nigeria is a country that practices democracy and one of the powerful tenets of democracy is the rule of law. The rule of law means that anyone accused of breaking any law must be subjected to the due process.

While we do not in any way condone any form of violation of religious or other laws, we believe that even in Islam, there are laws that surround blasphemy. Jungle justice is not admirable even in Islam. Then, if Nigeria is practising democracy, we must be seen to abide by the laws of democracy so that no part of the country would descend into anarchy.

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The killing of the butcher in Sokoto barely a year after a global outrage at the stoning to death of student Deborah puts Nigeria on a global pedestal because no matter how we claim to be independent, there are global treaties and conventions that must be abided to by member states. There is the civil and human rights that each citizen must be granted. Jungle justice under any guise is not acceptable, whether nationally and globally.

We must uphold the rule of law that guarantees the innocence of a suspect till proven guilty by a court of law.  It is curious that some colleagues of the dead Usman had alleged that he might have been falsely set up due to sundry reasons and subjected to mob action. We just wonder when mob action became state policy. We are shocked that despite the videos and pictures of some of the suspects that publicly admitted to lynching Deborah, no conclusive prosecution has been carried out by the state whose primary duty is the protection of lives and property.

The agony expressed by the family of Deborah at how they had to spend so much to take her corpse for burial sends a very sad message to our values as a nation. The role of every religion is to preach through the actions of adherents the human values of love, charity and compassion. All religions in the country must abide by the rule of law because that is what unites the people.

The Nigerian state on its own must determine what it wants for the country’s development. The rule of law is for the state at all levels to uphold. The country is a federation but the federating units must not just be for the allocation of resources. There must be clear-cut determination to hold each federating unit to account by making sure everyone respects the constitution.

The country is almost on the edge of the precipice given the attitude of politicians at fanning the embers of ethnicity and religion. There must be a deliberate effort by the present administration to uphold the rule of law. We might just have a Hobbesian state in our hands where life is brutish, nasty, poor, solitary and short.

We equally find it curious that in all these extra-judicial murders, the police whose primary duty is the protection of lives and property have always shown up after the fact. We wonder the type of policing that goes on in Sokoto State that, despite the uproar that seemingly goes on with such dastardly mob actions, the police always arrive very late. As Reverend Martin Niemoller once lamented, if we all keep quiet because we are not affected by the immediate, there might be no one to speak for us when they come for us.

We hope proper investigation and prosecution will happen this time to stand as a deterrent to future mob actions.

• Government must do everything possible to ensure more manufacturers do not leave due to inclement business climate

The alarm by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) that more multinational manufacturers are planning to leave the country because of unfavourable business environment should elicit positive response from relevant authorities. The president of MAN, Francis Meshionye, speaking to a newspaper, warned that if the power distributors implement the planned 40 per cent tariff increase by July 1, 2023, there would be an exodus of multinational manufacturers out of the country. He noted that among the factors of production, power is a major driver in terms of cost.

Mr Meshionye emphasised that manufacturers spent at least N144.5 billion on sourcing alternative energy in 2022, a rise from N77.22 billion in 2021. He called for reduction in the cost of power, noting: “anything to reduce this energy cost will be very beneficial both to manufacturers and the masses in general.” He went on: “It is one of the things that make some manufacturers to seek to move their business to another region and site their factories there. It is not the only reason, but of course, it is one of the major ones.”

We join MAN to ask power distributors to tame their hunger for more profit, at the expense of their customers, whether manufacturers or private consumers. As noted by Mr Meshionye, it is sad that while tariff has increased by about 186% in the past eight years, there is no corresponding increase in the quantity of electricity supplied. And the result is about 87 per cent increase in the cost of access to alternative energy sources for manufacturers within a year.

With such challenges in sourcing energy, many manufacturers seek greener pastures elsewhere. We recall a time when notable manufacturing companies such as Dunlop, Berec Batteries, Michelin, and several others were operating from Nigeria. There is no gain saying that when the companies left Nigeria, jobs and capital followed them. The level of unemployment in the country is a reflection of the state of deindustrialisation, and the new government must do everything humanly possible to reverse the trend.

We hope the constitution amendment bill recently signed into law which enables states to generate, transmit and distribute electricity would tamper the shortcomings of the power distribution companies. No doubt, the present power generation estimated at 22,000 megawatts with a distribution capacity of 4,000 megawatts is grossly inadequate for a country of approximately 200 million people. Both the federal and state governments should collaborate to increase generation, transmission and distribution capacities, to reduce the cost of production, so that industries in the country can thrive. 

We also encourage states to individually and cooperatively tap into the benefits of the new electricity bill. States that do so would become preferred destination points for multinationals to the benefit of the local economy.

One of the major fallouts of the deindustrialisation is insecurity. Many past leaders usually say that Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder because of the level of unemployment, yet they did little to ameliorate the challenge. Such mantra without action must stop if Nigeria is ever to march forward.

Of note, the Bola Tinubu administration has promised Nigerians reforms to encourage economic growth. We urge it to match action with words, and place Nigeria on the march to economic prosperity. One of the low hanging fruits should be to invest in massive power generation, transmission and distribution. If electricity supply is stabilised, private entrepreneurs would provide the needed fillip to galvanise economic growth. Across the world, multinationals must have taken note of Nigeria’s monetary reforms under President Tinubu; a boost in electricity supply would further attract their investment.

In the meantime, we urge the power distribution companies to tarry a while on their tariff increase, so as not to impede the economic recovery that would also benefit them in the long run.

ID card for senior citizens will be helpful, but they need more

Senior citizens should begin to routinely enjoy preferential attention in service provisioning across this country, if a planned identity card scheme that will facilitate this comes on stream soon enough. The National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC) says it has gone a long way towards delivering the project, and the agency met with officials of deposit money banks and other relevant institutions early last week in Abuja to plan for production of the cards.

NSCC Director-General Emem Omokaro projected the initiative would improve the lot of elderly persons in various ways and called for public-private partnership in producing the cards. “The National Senior Citizens Centre’s vision is for a multi-purpose card that would serve as a vehicle for financial inclusion, conducive economic and social enterprise empowerment instrument and access to age-friendly physical environment outcomes for Nigeria’s senior citizens – a population most left behind,” she told participants at the parley. Citizens from age 60 upwards will qualify for the proposed card and the benefits it is expected to confer include enjoying discounts on railway tickets, public transportation fares and airline fares for domestic flights; separate counters for ticket purchases; discounts at pharmacies, hospitals, restaurants and other service facilities and as well priority attention at such facilities, including banks. The card, the NSCC  said, would be a multi-purpose card functioning as a national identity card, a bank card and a senior citizen card.

Also speaking at the Abuja meeting, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Director-General Aliyu Aziz said discussions between his agency and NSCC on production of the identity card began since February, last year, and huge progress had been made. Represented by Director, Information Technology and Identity Database, Chucks Onyepunuka, he added: “This is something that has never been done before in this country, but the NSCC is able to put this project together for the senior citizens and this is a good initiative.” On basic features of the card, another official said it would be user-friendly and would work seamlessly across all transaction channels using the National Identity Number (NIN) of the bearer.

We totally agree that the identity card idea is a laudable initiative, but it remains an apple in the sky until it is delivered to intended beneficiaries considering that the NSCC has been touting the idea since 2021. Speaking in December, that year, the centre’s boss made a compelling case for the project, saying elderly persons faced many challenges in the society such as attitudinal and physical barriers, resulting in their being discriminated against, and they do not deserve such treatment in view of what they had given to the society. Omokaro said at the time: “One of such ways the society should  give back to the elderly is by creating age-friendly services for  senior citizens. So we want to build a Nigeria where senior citizens will be dignified, we want Nigeria to see it also in the sense of financial assistance. When you go into the bank, you see older persons lined up: youths are in front, the older persons are lined up behind. This should never happen. The idea is that they should walk anywhere and get prompt service with their ID.”

It is nearly two years on, and the idea remains a promise for intended beneficiaries who do not have all the time in the world to wait to enjoy the bounties on offer. And there are other promises the NSCC had made, but which fulfilment is awaited. In March, this year, Omokaro said the centre was creating a portal aimed at  engaging, re-engineering and reactivating the capacity of elderly persons who may wish to continue offering services after retirement. She said the centre had a Continuing Engagement Bureau Programme under which the proposed portal would offer a platform for such persons who are professionals in different fields of endeavour to exercise their wealth of experience, adding that the portal would become operational latest by April. If the portal indeed became operational, it has no visibility as to make any major impact on targeted beneficiaries. The proposed identity card scheme must not suffer such syndrome. Besides, the NSCC has the greater task ahead getting economy operators to key into delivering the promised benefits to oldies.

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Of course, the NSCC is a young agency and has been heading up lofty ideas to better the lot of senior citizens in Nigeria. The bill creating the centre was passed by the National Assembly late in 2017 and signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2018, but the centre took off only in June 2021 when its board was constituted. The centre is established to cater to the welfare of elderly citizens in areas such as healthcare, pensions, income security, leisure, supplementary income and other social protection safety nets. The enabling law further outlines its functions to include keeping records and statistics concerning senior citizens, and partnering with sub-national, national and international bodies in achieving its objectives. In 2021, the centre canvassed declaration of a national day of older persons in Nigeria to forerun the International Day of Older Persons that the United Nations observes yearly on 1st October.

But problems faced by senior citizens in Nigeria are numerous and go beyond symbolisms. Chief among these is the difficulty in getting their gratuity and pensions after years of service, and at a time they can no longer fend for themselves. It is either these entitlements aren’t paid, or where paid, the oldies go through repeated processes of ‘verification’ and hang out as if for doles on long queues where many have had fainting spells or fell dead in the past. Elderly persons also have challenges with specialist medicare as they need, owing to paucity of geriatricians. And largely due to cultural sensibilities, there are no homes for the care of the elderly in Nigeria. These are areas the NSCC should accord attention towards bettering their lot.

•This is a wake-up call; oil thieves must be unmasked and prosecuted

As Nigerians demand a solution to the country’s oil theft issue, Niger Delta activist Asari Dokubo has alleged that those mainly responsible for the problem were in the military, suggesting that they could be identified.

He told journalists after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja: “The military is at the centre of oil theft and we have to make this very clear to the Nigerian public that 99 per cent of oil theft can be traced to the Nigerian military, the Army and the Navy especially.” These are weighty allegations indeed. Are they wild accusations?

Director of Naval Information Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan described the allegations as “spurious and unguarded,” saying the accuser should “bring the names.”

The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, said the Army “has been vigorously engaged in the fight against illegal oil bunkering, oil theft, illegal oil refining and other sundry crimes in the Niger Delta.” He added that the Army “has zero tolerance for any compromise on the part of our troops and will not condone such acts of economic sabotage. No black sheep will be spared if identified.”

Identifying the oil thieves and their backers is the heart of the matter. The authorities should investigate the allegations. Also, Dokubo should assist the investigators, not necessarily by supplying names, but particularly to counter the view that his allegations were baseless and reckless. He can’t escape the burden of the accuser in this case.

Read Also: Asari Dokubo’s weighty allegations against the armed forces

Crude oil is Nigeria’s main export, and the country continues to bleed terribly from the effect of scandalous oil theft. Last October, the representative of the then Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, was reported saying at an event at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State: “Oil theft has denied the country of an estimated 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The adverse effect of this is the drop in the production of crude oil and decline in the national income.’’

 It is estimated that more than $3.3bn (£2.9bn) has been lost to crude oil theft since 2021. In April, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said the country lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25tn to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.

 Incredibly, more than 58 oil-theft points were discovered in Delta and Bayelsa states at some point last year following the Buhari-led Federal Government’s controversial N48bn-per-year pipeline surveillance contract with a company, Tantita Security Services, to check the massive oil theft in the Niger Delta. The company was linked to Government Ekpemupolo, popularly called Tompolo, the former leader of the militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta.

At the time, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Group Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari observed that it was “a professional job” after he saw the oil-theft facilities. He lamented that thieves had been stealing the country’s crude oil for more than 22 years and the theft had escalated to staggering levels.   

The identities of the thieves who built these theft points and ran them have not been revealed. Are they unknown, or unknowable? Tompolo was reported saying his firm was “only providing intelligence for the security people to assist to do the work.” The discovery of oil-theft spots should lead to the arrest and prosecution of the thieves. If the country’s oil thieves are not caught and punished, it implies that the authorities are fuelling oil theft.

It was bad enough that the Buhari administration contracted a private security company to monitor the country’s oil pipelines. The action amounted to an abdication of responsibility and an admission of incapacity. It was inexcusable that the administration also demonstrated weakness by failing to promptly identify, arrest and prosecute the thieves connected with the discovered oil-theft points.

Dokubo’s bombshell can be said to be a wake-up call, and should energise the Tinubu administration to go after the oil thieves, whoever they may be.