Category: Editorial

• •We commend Lagos State’s Alternative Dispute Resolution system to other states

The Lagos State government has organised a sensitisation programme on a new initiative in criminal justice delivery referred to as Victim/Offender Mediation (VOM). A variant of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism, the VOM programme enables a willing victim of an offence meet the offender in a secure environment, for the purpose of a restorative justice. Unlike the common retributive justice system, where the state is viewed as the victim, while the real victim is alienated, VOM enables the real victim, the offender and the impacted community to be part of the resolution of the criminal act.

Though new in Nigeria, the VOM programme otherwise known as Restorative Justice has been in practice in many other jurisdictions for over 30 years. So, we commend the Lagos State government for championing the introduction of VOM programme in Nigeria, and urge other states to adopt it.

Speaking at the ceremony which held at the Magistrate Court, Samuel Ilori Court House, Ogba, Lagos, the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey, said the VOM will help decongest the less serious cases in the dockets of the court, as well as the correctional facilities.

She noted that: “In restorative justice, its processes are mindful with just one goal which is justice and healing for offender, victim and society”. In her keynote address, the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, represented by Justice Modupe Nicol-Clay emphasised that Restorative Justice will ensure peaceful and quick resolution of disputes. She noted that the traditional justice system has led to a lot of setbacks “with evident increase in the rate of crime, long prosecution process and overcrowding of correctional facilities, amongst others.”

Clearly, the VOM programme has a lot of advantages. It is fast. Once the victim is willing to meet the offender, the matter can be dispensed with in a matter of days. It also brings healing to the parties, as each party is offered an opportunity to suggest a reconciliation approach best suited in the circumstance. Where restitution will assuage the victim, VOM allows for that. As for the offender, he has an opportunity to apologise and make amends, and hear from the victim and the community the impact of the crime.

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As part of reconciliation, the community may require community service from the offender, and once that is done, there is a healing for those most affected. The offender is also healed after he or she has assuaged those impacted. VOM is also less costly than the traditional criminal justice system. Instead of putting the offender in a correctional facility and feeding him or her, after a laborious trial, a more beneficial arrangement to the society and the victim is arrived at, through the victim/offender mediation.

This beneficial aspect of VOM was emphasised by the Director, Community Service, Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Tomi Bodude, who said: “Court-ordered community service requires an offender to perform a specific number of hours of free work for a charitable agency, non-profit organisation or governmental agency’’ as an alternative to incarceration. She explained further: “a non-violent offender is assigned to community service, and careful screening must occur to ensure that the offender is appropriate for the site and vice versa, while ensuring public safety.”  The Coordinator, Restorative Justice Centre, Mrs. Adenike Oluwafemi, explained that under VOM “the victim and offender are brought together to repair the harm while the offender is reintegrated back to the society to achieve a sense of healing for both parties.”

While the VOM programme is appealing from the explanations given by stakeholders, we hope that the process will not allow hardened criminals escape punitive justice. Hopefully, other states will emulate Lagos and help decongest our correctional facilities and the courts.

•This is necessary to pave way for unfettered investigation

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s suspension of the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, in order to pave way for unfettered investigation of the allegations of abuse of office levelled against him is quite in order. A statement from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), signed by the Director, Information, Willie Bassey, on the night of June 14 said the suspension was to allow for “proper investigation into his conduct while in office. “This (suspension) follows weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him,” the statement said adding that “Mr Bawa has been directed to immediately hand over the affairs of his office to the Director, Operations in the commission, who will oversee the affairs of the Office of the Chairman of the Commission pending the conclusion of the investigation.”

Bawa’s suspension came barely a week after the suspension of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele.

Indeed, this coincidence gave room to speculations in some quarters that he was suspended because President Tinubu and those around him were unhappy over the role played by Bawa in the naira redesign policy of the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government. The naira redesign and cashless policy were ostensibly touted as a means to address monetary and fiscal issues, but some politicians believed it was targeted at them and Tinubu in particular, so as to deny them access to the money they had allegedly stashed outside of the banking system for the purpose of bribing voters during the elections.

But not a few questioned the sincerity of the exercise considering its timing, and especially the government’s refusal to reverse the policy weeks after it was glaring that it had failed, and in spite of the pains it inflicted on Nigerians and the destructive disruptions to the economy. Bawa himself had a few months ago lent credence to the story of some governors making attempts to pay salaries in cash to defeat the purpose of the exercise.

Such insinuation of a vendetta suspension can only make sense in the context of the banana peels that had dogged several of Bawa’s predecessors. True, it is not easy to fight corruption in a corruption-ridden country like ours without corruption fighting back. It may also be true that successive governments had found it convenient to remove the EFCC boss they met on ground and replacing them with their own candidates.

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But that cannot entirely explain Bawa’s case.

The clamour for his removal predates the Bola Tinubu administration. Several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had been protesting against the continued retention of Mr Bawa in office based especially on alleged disregard of court orders. Indeed, as recently as February, this year, some of the NGOs protested in Lagos over this issue as well as an alleged politicisation of the commission’s activities. Both Bawa and the former Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, were notorious for such disobedience to court orders. That the country’s chief law enforcer was disregarding court orders with impunity was bad. It was equally bad that a commission whose motto is “No one is above the law” was trampling on the same law with impunity. Unfortunately, rather than take action against them, the government that they were serving continued to condone their illegality.

Perhaps the last straw in Bawa’s case was the allegation by former Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State who accused him of demanding $2m bribe. Although Bawa has denied the allegation and had instead accused Matawalle of brazen looting of Zamfara State treasury; the former governor insisted he had enough evidence to nail the EFCC boss.

There is no doubt that these are weighty allegations on the parts of the two parties. Did Bawa actually demand  $2million bribe from the former governor? If it was true, then what would the former governor want to conceal that would have warranted the demand for such a hefty bribe? These are matters of public concern that should not be swept under the carpet. The public has the right to know the truth and nothing but the truth in a matter as grievous as this, especially where the country’s anti-corruption czar is involved. The office of EFCC boss is such a delicate one and whoever is occupying that office must, like Caesar’s wife, be above board. It becomes problematic when that office is being tarred with mud.

We have nothing against the call for reforms in the appointment and removal of the EFCC boss to remove him from the apron strings of those he is supposed to check their excesses. Indeed, the instability in the leadership of the commission since inception calls for nothing less.

But this does not preclude the fact that only an unfettered investigation can unravel the truth in Bawa’s case, and this cannot be done with him sitting pretty in office.

•Govt must heed advice of Concerned APC members on project monitoring if it wants to succeed

The Concerned All Progressives Congress (APC) members that urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to set up a task force on his government’s policies and programmes must have taken some lessons, albeit informally, from the Nigerian democratic practices, at least in the last 24 years.  The practice has been a situation where elections are won by political parties and they go ahead to give appointments to individuals who are expected to work to actualise the programmes and policies of such governments but who often fail to deliver.

However, the closest that any administration came to any attempt to coordinate the duties of some ministries was during the Goodluck Jonathan administration that the now Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was then Nigeria’s finance minister also acted as the coordinating minister of the economy. Despite her efforts, she met stiff opposition, especially from some governors most of who were equally of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In some weird way, democracy in Nigeria has not achieved a very coordinated performance level where the party members or any political party and those appointed to offices appreciate that their political parties would be judged by their fidelity to their campaign manifestoes. It has been largely cases of discordant notes and some people in governments behaving like there is nothing at stake.

This attitude has not augured well for either the political parties or the nation’s economy. It is therefore commendable that the Concerned Members of the APC under the aegis of Patriotic and Concerned APC Members are pushing for a team that can assist President Tinubu to diligently monitor the team he would choose to help his administration actualise the policies and programmes that can improve the economy.

The group believes that the task force will have its work cut out for it as its focus would be to make sure that there is a departure from the past style where appointees did not work hard enough to assist the president to deliver on his party’s promises. We agree with the group that only people of integrity should be appointed into the monitoring team. It believes that the Buhari administration fell short of expectations  because the team seemed to have worked at cross-purposes.

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Such a task force would add value if well planned. Its duties should be clearly spelt out and  offices well-funded. Moreover, there must be synergy in all its operations. It must be ready to hit the ground running and be alert to project implementation and supervisory roles to maintain standard and work with time.

The President’s appointment of Hadiza Bala Usman as Special Adviser on Policy Coordination is in line with the appeal from Concerned Group and we want to believe that she is up to the task. However, the President should set up an independent body to assist her because one person might not be in a position to coordinate every sector effectively, given the scale of work to be done.

The last eight years of the Buhari administration left the economy in a very precarious state. The new administration must take the road less travelled for better result on policy implementation.  Political and economic experts believe that Nigeria has never lacked sound policies, the basic problem has always been in implementation. Even beyond implementation would be the question of strategies, cost and processes. All these steps need diligent and consistent monitoring and periodic reports and evaluation for success to be achieved.

The President would be in a position to enforce compliance based on reports by those charged with monitoring. These can form the bases of evaluation of those appointed to head ministries and agencies. If well-coordinated, there might be an end to the lethargic attitude of many public officers who hitherto derailed government’s policies and programmes over the years. We recommend that APC governments at the state level and other political parties should adopt these measures even at all levels because it would aid national economic development and accountability.

•Due process must be followed in the rift between ex-Gov. Matawalle and his successor

After his unsuccessful re-election effort in March, the immediate past governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has faced one problem after another. He is being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) “over allegations of monumental corruption, award of phantom contracts and diversion of over N70 billion,” the anti-graft agency’s director of communication, Osita Nwajah, said.

On June 9, the police “stormed the residence of the former governor, where over 40 vehicles were impounded,” according to an explanatory statement issued by the state government under the new governor, Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The state government said the police “acted on a court order and a search warrant was obtained for the operation” following an ultimatum to the former governor and his deputy to “return all the missing vehicles within five working days.”

The police raided “Matawalle’s residence in Gusau, Maradun Local Government Area, and another unidentified hideout,” the statement said, and “over 40 vehicles were recovered including three bulletproof vehicles and eight SUVs.” The government presented the matter as a case of unconscionable acquisitiveness, and stated that “recovering the proceeds of crime and public assets is a critical part of our rescue mission.”

 Matawalle claimed that the security agents raided his private homes unlawfully, and “went as far as impounding some items belonging to my family.” He explained that he had been a car dealer for a long time, and most of the seized vehicles “are those that I bought from America long before I became a governor.”

 He also said: “The vehicles they impounded at Maradun were those donated to me by well-wishers and were all branded with my images and that of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”  It is curious that the branded vehicles were said to belong to the state government.  The branding of the vehicles suggests that they were for political campaign purposes. Tinubu was the APC presidential candidate, and won the presidential election in February.

Power has changed hands in the state, and the new governor is a member of a different political party. But party rivalry should not be the basis for actions against the former governor. He should not be victimised.  

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The police said it was “investigating a complaint of missing Zamfara State government vehicles,” and advised “persons who feel their vehicles were wrongfully taken” to “produce proof of ownership to claim such vehicles.”  Indeed, Matawalle needs to show evidence of ownership of the vehicles he claims belong to him.

It is commendable that the former governor chose the path of the law, and took legal action against the police, the Inspector-General of Police, the Commissioner of Police, Zamfara State; State Security Service (SSS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

The Federal High Court in Gusau, Zamfara State, on June 15, directed the security agencies involved in the raid on Matawalle’s residences in Gusau and Maradun to, “within 48 hours,” produce a comprehensive inventory of all vehicles and personal property of the former governor and his family members taken away.

The court also ordered them to produce and domicile the property within the premises of the court, “and under the control of the Deputy Chief Registrar, Federal High Court, Gusau Judicial Division, pending determination of the applicant’s substantive originating motion in this matter.”

This kind of conflict involving a former governor who allegedly took away government vehicles and a successor who wants to recover such vehicles is disturbingly familiar in the country’s political sphere. Due process should prevail in this case, however;  there should be no suggestion of foul play.

•Additional measures are necessary to boost forex supply and value of the Naira

With the global investment community currently focused on Nigeria, one question that keeps popping up is: how far is the Tinubu administration willing to go, given the myriad of reforms that need to be in place if only to give the economy the much-needed breather?

The global investment community and Nigerians may have been served yet another snippet of the shape of things to come via the announcement of the unification of all segments of the Nigerian forex market by the apex bank.

Announcing the unification of all segments of the forex market Wednesday, last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s director in charge of financial markets, Angela Sere-Ejembi, stated: “All segments are now collapsed into the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window”.

“All transactions will now be done through the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window, where the exchange rate will be determined by market forces. Applications for medicals, school fees, BTA/PTA, and SMEs would continue to be processed through deposit money banks”, she further stated.

That was not all. Days after, the apex bank would also announce the removal of cash deposit limitations on domiciliary accounts, saying account holders can withdraw up to $10,000 per day.

“Domiciliary account holders are permitted to utilise cash deposits not exceeding USD$ 10,000 per day or its equivalent via telegraphic transfer. DMBs shall provide returns to the CBN, including the “purpose” for such transactions”, the announcement stated.

None of the two developments could be described as unexpected; after all, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had, during his inaugural speech left no doubt that a monetary policy reform was in the offing.

That the latest measures had become imperative is certainly beyond debate. Truly, if Nigerians accepted the exigency of multiple exchange rates as one of the barely tolerable correlates of the 2016 recession with all the headwinds which occasioned it, the overall outcomes, both in terms of efficacy and intendments, have been costly, if not entirely disastrous for the national economy. From interminable wait by end-users for forex, to all manner of shady, corrupt practices in the allocation chain, the corruption and associated culture of wealth without work would appear as the most heinous of them all. And all of these because the market’s traditional allocative power was supplanted by the apex bank rules and enabled by a band of unlicensed shadowy players.

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President of the World Bank Group, David Malpass, had earlier in the month reminded on the scale of the problem thus: “The economics on parallel exchange rates is clear: they are expensive, highly distortionary for all market participants, are associated with higher inflation, impede private sector development and foreign investment, and lead to lower growth.”

Yes, President Tinubu has acted with uncommon swiftness in suspending Godwin Emefiele, under whose watch the apex bank became a special purpose vehicle for all manner of ends except its core mandates of monetary policy management. Surely, it is no time for his administration to be tardy on the other phases – particularly the restorative work on the institution itself, with particular focus on its needless, opportunistic forays into the trade policy terrain. We expect to see concrete steps taken in this direction in the coming weeks.

The above however is not to understate the pains that Nigerians will be forced to bear at this initial stage. Just as was expected, the value of the naira has plummeted somewhat in the wake of the announcement. Then is the prospect of higher inflation flowing from the inevitable hikes in costs of doing business, given the import-dependent nature of the economy. These and many more are to be expected.

Over all however, we expect to see things calm down in the near term both from the steady boost in inflow and the attendant curbs in demand from the quarters of those known to profit from arbitrage.

One fact that bears stressing at this point is that the problems are far more complex than the current measures seek to solve. For, while the need to ensure optimal allocation of the limited supply makes eminent sense, of greater importance is the need to boost the supply of forex. And the route to this is certainly not far-fetched: the fundamentals of the economy need to be worked upon. We need to ensure improved productivity, increase our export earnings and thus grow our external reserves, especially through renewed focus on the non-oil sector. 

Above all, we need to terminate the current regime of importation of petroleum products. Only through those deliberate measures would the goal of forex rate unification prove enduring. Indeed, in those lie the challenges ahead.

• Ex-IGP a bad role model for rule of law

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun, the new acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), should be wary of the way his predecessor, Usman Alkali Baba, wracked up contempt charges from the courts. The National Industrial Court (NIC) in Abuja had recently ordered his arrest along with Force Secretary, Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) Hafeez Inuwa, for disobeying its order, which the court deemed as being in contempt. This latest verdict was in regard of some police officers forcefully retired from the service, but who the court ordered reinstated.

The retired police officers who were graduates of Courses 33, 34 and 35 of the police academy had approached the NIC seeking an order nullifying their compulsory retirement from service. The court on April 19, 2022, ordered that the IGP, the Police Service Commission (PSC) and the Force Secretary reinstate the officers. But in a ruling on June 8, 2023, by Justice Oyebiola Oyewumi that was made public last week, the judge berated Baba for refusing to obey the court order despite advice to do so from relevant stakeholders in the police establishment.

The court said it had it on record that following the April 2022 order, the PSC, which is “the statutory body that is vested with the power to appoint, promote and discipline the judgement creditors/applicants” mandated the IGP to comply. “It is equally noteworthy that the CP, Legal, the Head of Department of the Nigerian Police Force, had also issued a legal advice urging the Inspector-General of Police to comply with the order of this court vide a letter dated and (which) the Inspector-General received on 27/7/2022, yet he has refused to obey or comply with the judgement of this court,” the judge said, adding: “This is an officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who swore on oath to uphold the rule of law, and same law he has now failed or refused to obey.” According to him, the IGP and Force Secretary were given ample opportunity to show cause why they were not to be held in contempt, but despite being served severally with the enrolment order, “they both deemed it fit to flout the order of this court and desecrated this hallowed chamber and temple of justice.”

Justice Oyewumi apparently couldn’t help getting personal, saying: “Justice is not only for the affluent, it is for the poor and vulnerable also. I pause to say that I wonder what type of head of an enforcement agency…the Inspector-General of Police is if he finds it so difficult, or so difficult it seems for him, to obey a simple order of court.” He accused the police boss of setting a bad precedent by electing to flout the court’s order despite being advised to comply, saying: “It is in the light of all stated, which are in sync with the records of this court, that I hold the Inspector-General of Police Usman Alkali Baba and the Force Secretary AIG Hafeez Inuwa as being in contempt of this court. They are to be arrested and be produced before this court for necessary action.” The court adjourned the case to October 9, 2023. Unfortunately, Baba won’t be the one to continue with the case as he was retired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu alongside the service chiefs and others on Monday. The ball is now in Egbetokun’s court.

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This latest ruling echoed another by the Federal High Court in Abuja on November 29, last year, committing the IGP to three months in prison for presumably defying a valid court order. His committal followed a suit filed by Patrick Okoli, who was unlawfully and compulsorily retired from the police. Justice M. O. Olajuwon ordered that the police boss be detained in custody for a period of three months, or until his office obeys an order by the court that Okoli be reinstated made since October 21, 2011. The judge noted that whereas the PSC recommended Okoli’s reinstatement – a decision that the court affirmed – the IGP’s office refused to comply with the order. “If at the end of three months, the contemnor remains recalcitrant and still refuses to purge his contempt, he shall be committed for another period and until he purges his contempt,” the judge had ruled.

Following the earlier order, Force Public Relations Officer Olumuyiwa Adejobi had said Okoli’s casefile predated the tenure of IGP Baba and he needed to be properly apprised of the facts of the case. The IGP also challenged the court’s arrest order and it was eventually rescinded. But now, there’s another order.

It was unhelpful enough for the rule of law that the former IGP was found in contempt of court; it was worse that he was a serial contemnor. Justice Oyewumi was right in noting that it sets a precedent hazardous to society’s health. Reason is: when the police boss flouts court orders, how shall we cope with disrespect for courts by other personnel of the force? If there is any reason why a court order can’t be obeyed, the court remains the best place to ply that reason. It is unhelpful also that the IGP compels the court to make an order almost in futility: because as he is to be arrested, who will effect the arrest? An officer of the law mustn’t be seen to be in flagrant disobedience of the law, otherwise societal order collapses.      

The acting IGP must not toe his predecessor’s path on matters of rule of law. Now that he has inherited these cases, he should promptly deal with them as appropriate. This is the irreducible minimum that is expected of him as Nigeria’s chief law enforcement officer.

•More states should emulate FIRS’, LIRS’ cooperation on tax administration and compliance

Against the background of Nigeria’s protracted economic crisis characterised largely by sharp revenue shortfalls, particularly as a result of severe decline in oil export earnings, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) to drive improved tax administration and compliance by both agencies could not have come at a more appropriate time.

Maximising the still substantially untapped potential of non-oil tax revenues to break the unhealthy dependence of the economy on earnings from the petroleum sector with its inherent destabilising price volatility has become imperative within the context of what is clearly an economic emergency that the country has been grappling with, especially in the last decade.

As explained by the executive chairmen of the FIRS and LIRS, Mr Muhammad Nami and Mr Ayodele Subair, respectively, the overall objective of the collaboration between the two entities is to improve tax administration on their part by reducing tax compliance cost and enabling ease of doing business in the country. The imperative of close tax administration cooperation between the Federal Government and Lagos State, the country’s industrial, commercial and financial nerve centre has been long realised. Thus in 2001, the then Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue (BIR) had organised a tax retreat in Lagos, in conjunction with the FIRS, to forge a closer working relationship between the two in the discharge of their separate but interrelated mandates.

Throwing light on the necessity for the MOU entered into by the two agencies, Nami said “the cooperation would enable the two authorities to work as a team in sharing relevant information that would assist both parties in their tax administration and enforcement roles as it would also provide capacity building between both tax authorities”. And according to Subair, the initiative was informed by the realisation of the fact that “Tax compliance and good governance are expected to co-exist as the indivisible social contract that binds citizens and governments anywhere in the world”. This implies that it is not just enough to improve the efficiency of tax collection, this must necessarily be accompanied by delivery of concrete dividends to tax-compliant citizenry.

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The MOU indicates that a joint FIRS/LIRS Audit and Investigation Team (AIT) will be set up to conduct a collaborative joint audit or investigation exercise within a given timeframe. In the words of Nami, “We will carry out a joint audit and investigation as a team, we will also conduct an automatic exchange of information for the gathering of data for the purpose of tax administration. With that information we will be able to carry out tax administration seamlessly”. Through leveraging on their existing distinct competencies in tax administration to cooperate in the areas of information exchange, harmonisation of an integrated tax system and joint tax audit or investigation, the two entities aim to optimise tax revenues to the federal and Lagos State governments, respectively.

It is noteworthy that systematic and sustained tax reforms have already had salutary effects on the revenue performance of the federal and Lagos State governments in recent years. For instance, Nigeria’s tax revenue performance rose by 56% in 2022 to N10 trillion ($22 billion), reported to be the FIRS’s highest attainment so far. In 2021, the FIRS deployed a new automated tax administration system that has boosted tax collection with non-oil taxes now accounting for more than half of total taxes collected. The agency collected N5.27 trillion tax revenue in 2019, a figure which dropped to N4.95 trillion in 2020 due to the combined effects of the COVID-19 lockdown and economic recession but rose to N6.4 trillion in 2021.

In its case, Lagos State, the country’s highest tax revenue earner, earned N390.46 billion in tax revenue in the 2021 financial year and as of the 2nd quarter of 2022, the state earned N256.13 billion in personal income tax. Lagos State is widely reported to record the highest Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) among states in the country and this is largely a function of continuous tax administration reforms over the years since 1999.

However, the tax administration collaboration should encompass more states working with the Federal Government to maximise the gains from such cooperation. Other states such as Oyo, Rivers and Kano can generate far higher tax revenues than they are currently doing if they embrace necessary reforms.

Collaboration between the centre and the states as well as among the various states in the country must be more wholistic and all-encompassing in order, for instance, to drastically curtail such debilitating ills as unnecessary multiple taxation. Boosting their respective economic capacities while at the same time enhancing their tax administration capabilities can make every state in Nigeria a major revenue generation centre to the benefit of the overall economy. 

• •The student loan law is a great opportunity for a generation

To be poor should not be a death sentence to ambition. That is the essence of the Access to Higher Education Bill signed into law as one of the first acts of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

It is significant on a number of levels. One, it was one of the major planks of President Tinubu’s campaign promises, and it is cheering that he has converted rhetoric into substance as he appended his signature to the bill. It shows that election promises should not be hifalutin moments on the political calendar but bonds of integrity.

Two, it was a long-running bill initiated ironically by the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila. He is now the chief of staff to the president, and he stood beside the nation’s number one citizen as his autograph turned his dream into law. Gbajabiamila had initiated this bill with persistence since 2016 before he mounted the speaker’s chair. But it never scaled through as the idea of a loan scheme to help indigent students was seen as fanciful by many in the society and even lawmakers. He had reintroduced the bill in 2019 before its clincher in 2022.

The idea gained traction during the presidential campaign, and President Tinubu highlighted it as his favourite campaign promise. So, it is potent that he promptly signed it to law. While it is a sign of legislative brilliance and doggedness on the part of Gbajabiamila, we cannot but reflect on the coincidence of vision and opportunity in the speaker’s efforts and the president’s signature.

Although it is not, in theory, a new idea, this is the first time we have had this law in such a comprehensive and ambitious term accommodating every poor family in the country. It also embraces a time of surging youth population and fiery thirst for education in the country. Even today, the spaces in the universities, colleges of education and polytechnics cannot absorb all the youth who want higher education.

The act challenges an economy of mammoth deficits and long years of waste and corruption as against previous eras when abundance of funds beckoned such an expensive programme. The rigour that characterises its conception and thought evinces how this country, in spite of its immense financial dry patches, shows that governance in Nigeria as in everywhere else has less to do with plenty than with plenty of imagination.

The funding will derive from a number of apparent honey pots in the system. One, it will gulp one percent of profits from oil sales in the country as well as other mineral resources. It will also take one percent of taxes, levies and duties from the Inland Revenue Service, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), education endowment funds schemes. It will also tap from public goodwill and patriotism as regards donations, gifts, grants, etc.

The statistics as to how much these sources will chip in have not been published. It might not have been worked out. We expect the research sections of government to make this available. We shall also want a projection of how many students will benefit. These details should be worked out in due course, especially as the programme takes off in September.

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This sort of programme, because of the priority of integrity, the number and calibre of people involved and the amount of money to defray, calls for not only trusted persons to manage it but it expects the beneficiaries to demonstrate good faith.

The applicant is expected to be poor, and it means the family does not earn more than N500,000 annually. This is intricate given the instability of inflation and the value of the naira. This government probably hopes to stabilise the nation’s currency and rein in inflation. Otherwise, the law might have to be reviewed in this regard in consonance with cost and standard of living.

The board will have such high-profile names as the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as chairman, a secretary selected by the chairman, the ministers of education and finance or their representatives, the auditor-general of the federation. This represents the officials of the government. The civil and other parts of society will sit on the board. They include the chairman of the National Universities Commission, representative of the vice chancellors in the country’s universities, representatives of the rectors of the polytechnics and the provosts of the colleges of education, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

This gives the board a democratic coloration and seems to guarantee accountability and fairness, especially as it limits the tenure of the members to when they hold the various positions that entitle them to be members. It also forecloses any tolerance for convicted felons of dishonesty and fraud or even unsound mind.

There were some outcries online from some youths over the penalties for defaulters and it includes a N500,000 fine or a two-year jail term. Such complaint only derives from those who want to commit the offence. Nigeria is yet to have the sort of database of countries like the United States where student loan can easily be monitored and the culprits punished with measures like garnishment of wages, charging of social security accounts, notification of credit agencies, or loss of tax refunds.

We therefore need good faith from the youth. The idea is that repayment can help swell the funds that will benefit generations after them. It is a sacrifice that requires gratitude, not criminal manoeuvre.

The document betrays a lot painstaking effort to ensure that those who apply are poor, and that they actually are in school. Hence, the board will not sign off on any scholarship unless it is approved by the vice chancellor, rector or provost. And the guarantor must be a recognisable figure like a justice of the peace, an experienced lawyer of not less than 10 years of practice, a civil servant of not less than level 12.

It is also fair on the loanee as they have to breathe after two years of the mandatory National Youth Service Corps scheme before they can start to pay back.

This programme also assumes that, one, there will be good faith from both government and citizens. Two, that the economy will handle the storms and provide the atmosphere for the students to pay by clinching jobs or doing fruitful enterprises.

Many boys and girls who have surrendered to criminal orgies such as robbery and banditry can get a new life of dignity and self-worth with an opportunity to get enlightened irrespective of their parents’ class status. It refines youth and energises our future as a country. Girls who prostitute to pay fees can hold their own against amorous older men, and boys who rob can redirect their drives to cement a good future.

This is not free education but higher education, which, even in the best of countries, is never free, except for a few countries like Germany. We may aspire to that. But this is a good start and we must hug it for its endorsement of a bright future for a troubled generation. Quality education is important, and we must follow this with a programme to make our schools models of learning. Rankings worldwide put our universities in unenviable light.

It is a great programme but it calls for a great zeal from Nigerians and their government.

Former Senator Bulkachuwa’s valedictory bluster has cast a pall of influence peddling over Nigeria’s judiciary

Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa, 83, talked himself into a storm, with his valedictory speech at the 9th Senate.  He suggested he applied illicit influence on his wife, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, former President of the Court of Appeal, to allegedly tilt electoral cases the way of some of his lawmaker colleagues.

“My wife,” the senator declared in a fit of self-incrimination, “whose freedom and independence I encroached upon while (she) was in office, and she has been very tolerant and accepted my encroachment and extended her help to my colleagues.”

Self-damnation was never so explicit, and we just wonder whether the departing senator, who lost re-election into the 10th Senate, was earnest or was just carried away in a colourful bluster, which red hot flame may yet consume him.

He spoke at that Senate’s valedictory session and could yet have added more incriminatory details, had Senator Ahmad Lawan, the former president of the Senate, not made a desperate appeal to stop him.

Still, long before her husband’s June 10 blather, Justice Bulkachuwa, in her valedictory engagement with the media, when she retired at 70 in February 2020 as President of the Court of Appeal, gave a rare view into her home.

“My husband is a politician, but politics is a no-go area in the house.  Even my children are aware of that.  No politician,” she insisted, “is invited to the house.  My husband can pursue whatever he wants to pursue as a politician but we hardly discuss politics in the house.  All these help to guard against any influence from any politician.”

She then poured ice cold water on the allegation that she received N6 billion to thwart the challenge of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in his judicial challenge to former President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election in 2019.

“There was a time when allegations were flying around that I was given N6 billion, and I laughed,” she recalled.  “So, if I was given N6 billion, do you think I would still be here?”  Justice Bulkachuwa was originally head of the five-member 2019 Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) before she yielded her place to Justice Mohammed Garba, as a result of PDP’s allegation of perceived conflict of interest, on account of her husband and son, both All Progressives Congress (APC) top hierarchs.

So, two spouses.  Two conflicting statements.  Which of the two do we believe?

The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Maikyau, has brushed aside all doubts to call for the investigation and prosecution of Senator Bulkachuwa, calling his “confession” either an attempt to pervert, or an actual perversion of, justice.

Speaking at the 102nd meeting of the National Judicial Council (NJC), Mr. Maikyau swore to write both the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) chairman to start the process.  Fair enough.

What is not fair is rushing to impugn the integrity of the retired jurist, solely on what her politician husband said, which could be true or a mere bluster, without giving her fair opportunity to defend her honour.  That appears the hasty route taken by Olisa Agbakoba (himself a former NBA president), who though was a counsel to one of the litigants, back then in 2019.

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“I represented Usman Tuggar in relation to the disputed elections between him and Senator Bulkachuwa for Bauchi North senatorial.  We lost in three courts.  Senator Bulkachuwa seems to suggest why,” he told Premium Times. 

That could be hot innuendo in view of what the senator said.  But it’s pretty cold as hard fact to try to hang suspected wrong on the wife — and the core lawyer in Mr. Agbakoba ought to have realised that.

A former chair of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chidi Odinkalu, also descended on retired Justice Bulkachuwa, reacting to her husband’s statement, as “neither honourable nor interested in justice”, during her stint as President of the Court of Appeal; suggesting husband and wife would be perceived as “trading decisions in their bedrooms.” 

That again would appear rather sweeping, from a professor of Law and a former chair of NHRC, a body formed to secure people’s rights — except, of course, the professor had additional proof he wasn’t sharing with the public by the time he reacted.

Malcolm Omirhobo told Premium Times that what the senator said “portends danger to the dignity of the judiciary” — a fair statement — even while going on to lament alleged “phoney judgments” from Justice Bulkachuwa’s Court of Appeal  while she was president.  That’s stacking of cards that should be backed by proofs.

Still all of these claims, even if they come short of facts to prove them, belong to the realm of understandable outrage, which puts the Nigerian judiciary in a bad light.  That should worry everyone.

For starters, with these ugly reactions coming from lawyers themselves who feel the pulse of legal practice in Nigeria, peddling of illicit influence to swing judgments and pervert justice would appear well established. 

To be sure, influence peddling is a human foible which hardly anyone is free of — and it’s not even limited to Nigeria alone.  But with its ugliness so manifest and condemnable, everyone must work towards building a more robust and incorruptible judicial system, that would reduce, if not eradicate, such practices.  That is a pressing task that must be done, if the Nigerian judiciary must enjoy the full confidence and trust of litigants.

That is why former Senator Bulkachuwa’s reckless outpouring must be taken through the grill of clinical investigation.  It is unclear how the twin doctrines of parliamentary privilege and protection against self-incrimination would impact against such an investigation.  But definitely a serious probe must follow, to establish the truth or otherwise of the senator’s dangerous parting shot.

Facts emanating from such an investigation should compel the prosecution — or otherwise — of the senator;  or even his wife. The judiciary would be the better for it.

But not even that tantalising prospect can justify dragging the wife’s career in the mud and impugning her character, because of her husband’s loose tongue.  That would be even more disastrous for the judiciary.  No judicial officer — high or low — should be burnt at the stake of spousal rants.

•IIn a place where things work, 146 boat passengers returning from wedding reception won’t have died

In one of the great paradoxes of existence, more than 100 people from Egbu community in the Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara State have lost their lives in a boat accident as they returned from a wedding venue. It is assumed that there were about 250 people in the boat. The accident happened around the River Niger.

The Transition Implementation Committee chairman, Patigi Local Government Area, Ibrahim Liman, said all the 144 survivors apparently swam to safety. The Managing Director, Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission, Abubakar Yelwa, claimed that the deaths happened because the victims as usual refused to wear life jackets.

President Bola Tinubu, the governor of Kwara State, AbduRahman AbduRasaq, and some other governors have sent their condolences to the victims’ families and the traditional head of Patigi, the Etsu Patigi, Alhaji Ibrahim Bologi II. The governor had promised that they would send a team to Lagos State to understudy how their waterways laws work. In the interim, they intend to send about 1,000 life jackets to ‘support safe travels on the water in the area’, he said. This in a way seems like the proverbial hitting the ground when the snake has escaped.

The above statement is an eloquent testimony about the dysfunctional institutions in the country at all levels. We are appalled that it needed the death of more than a hundred people for the Kwara State government to see the necessity of going to Lagos or any other state for that matter to understudy the waterways safety measures implementation.  In any case, even though the Lagos State waterways seem to be better managed, it is not yet foolproof. The state has recorded many boat mishaps in recent years with casualties too.

The statement smacks of negligence and the laxity that run through government ministries and agencies even at the federal level. We wonder the role the transport ministry plays in the country. Nigeria has one of the global highest number of road accidents. Our waterways are not run in very responsible and accountable ways because the reports of boat accidents are spread across the country; from Bayelsa to  Taraba, Kogi to Bauchi. Some are even unreported. In all these, there are no statistics, no names to the dead or survivors in a 21st century Nigeria, despite the availability of technology for data collection and record-keeping.

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We cannot understand how governments make revenues from the waterways but cannot keep up with maintaining safety standards and enforcing compliance. The staff that is now claiming that the passengers often resist the use of life jackets  must be held accountable if ensuring compliance is part of his work schedule. This is not the first boat mishap and it will not be the last. Accidents happen but we know that if humans do their works diligently, lives could be saved.

The fact that Nigerians do not hold leaders accountable at any level is the reason people do not take their duties seriously. Of the past boat mishaps, we are not aware of any serious sanctions on those responsible. How can some staff claim that passengers refuse to wear life jackets on a boat ride? What was the capacity of the boat? What are the names of the passengers? Days after the accident, the numbers are still not conclusively accurate. Whose job is it to regulate the water transportation in Kwara State?

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) seems to act as mere undertakers rather than an emergency management agency. Where was the Kwara State branch of NEMA? What communication gadgets do they have and how do citizens in distress access their assistance? We are disappointed at the dysfunctional system we seem to do nothing about. Governments exist solely for the welfare of the people. There are too many needless deaths in the transport sector that something urgent must be done for the land, sea and air transport systems to be safer than what exists presently.

We suggest that these deaths must be a turning point in the country. There must be thorough investigations and all those who have been negligent in any way prosecuted and punished adequately to avoid more loss of lives. Nigeria must make deliberate attempts to operate government agencies with the best international standards. This is 2023 and competent and capable individuals must be appointed to do the work in ways that meet standards.