Category: Editorial

• MAN thirsts for cash.  FG thirsts for tax.  That explains the row behind the 2023 fiscal policy measures

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) just railed against the 2023 Fiscal Policy Measures (FPM), with its “excessive” hikes in excise on beverages and tobacco; and a new tax on single use plastics (SUP).

Still, what ails MAN to balk at these hikes is exactly what ails the Federal Government to hanker after them: MAN wants more of its cash to survive a harsh business environment.  The government wants more revenue for socio-economic investments, to birth a better milieu.

However, whatever the government’s motives, it shouldn’t resort to policy panic that could torpedo industries’ medium-term plans.  

That, ab initio, is the idea behind multi-year excise road maps, the first of which, according to MAN, ran from 2018 to 2021 without a hitch. That very idea this 2023 FPM appears to have ripped. 

Besides, a policy yo-yo on excise badly hurts the strategic direction of the outgoing Muhammadu Buhari Presidency.  Its good investment record in infrastructure shows an iron determination to re-awaken the local real sector, from the import-push SAP economy, embedded since 1986.  But hiking excise — especially in a harsh business environment — will definitely hurt that strategic goal.

Still, it is intriguing how both sides employed careful optics to wage their wars. 

It is no accident that the Federal Government went after tobacco — the clear “bad boy” of manufacturing — and the beverage sub-sector: beer, carbonated drinks, alcohol, etc.  

On health grounds, tobacco and the high sugar involved in beer and “soft” drinks manufacturing always get the flak of public health advocates (against diabetes, etc); and anti-alcohol moralists.  The tobacco sub-sector has for long been forced to run with a virtual disclaimer of its own products.  As for plastic, its environmental notoriety, particularly in this era of severe climate change, is getting well established.

So, the government must have thought those three sub-sectors were quite soft spots to raid for sorely needed cash, since they are unlikely to attract much public sympathy.

But MAN has hit back with high-octane jeremiad, showing the stark danger of such “excessive” excise.   Though it stacked its cards a little, it fully captured the harsh environment in which manufacturing operates.

Francis Meshioye, MAN president, said that in Q1 2023, the brewing sub-sector lugged a -169 % decline in profit before tax, due mainly to sustained scarcity of the Naira (no thanks to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s mismanaged currency redesign policy), scarce and limited access to forex and a record inflation.  Yet, this same brewery sub-sector is expected to cough up new excise in a virtual ambush!

In another catalogue of woe, Mesioye said MAN had a 36 % dip in profit margins from 2021 to 2022 and yet had to contend with more than 400 % hike in energy costs — no thanks again to vanishing electricity power and the humongous cost of diesel: the alternative that mostly powers factory power generators.

Tobacco, the other sub-sector caught in the new excise web, is also reducing export production because it reportedly has N39 billion, from the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) incentive, which the Federal Government is yet to release to it.

“This is coming against the backdrop of the huge tax burden on the tobacco and beverage sectors,” Mesioye lamented, “with the tobacco industry being taxed five times more than the average for other industries.”

Indeed, the tobacco tax culture is hardly new, since there is a deliberate fiscal policy to discourage — if not outright deter — its consumption, for high public health goals.  That is not peculiar to Nigeria.  It’s pretty much standard fare the world over.

Still, no one can ignore the general parlous manufacturing outlook.  Yet, it holds the key in re-creating mass jobs, towards a re-birth of the real sector, which can employ millions of Nigerian youths.  

So, the spectre of spiralling overheads and dried-up operating expenses, which could then lead to job losses and factory closures, must be avoided.  That could be quite a stumble for a sector trying to rev into life again.

But beyond the government plotting new taxes and MAN balking at its virtual impossibility, it is a question of fairness and planning.

The government has a right to taxation to deliver its mandate, just as manufacturing has a right to fair cash to do its business and deliver value to its customers and shareholders.

With neither side sleeping on its right, the government has clearly erred by virtually springing the 2023 FPM on MAN and its members.  Taxation must be applied in such a way that it does not kill off the firms supposed to pay those taxes.  That is the gloomy picture MAN paints — and that picture appears credible, even if MAN stacked its cards.

That is why there is some merit in MAN’s call for the suspension of the 2023 FPM, to make for more dialogue on when it can be better re-introduced.

• In-coming government must change direction for effective result

With inflation rate rising for a fourth straight month in April, there can be no prize for guessing the direction of interest rates as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets Tuesday, this week: another MPC rate hike – the seventh straight one – seems imminent.

Here’s how the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its report released on Monday captured the situation: “…the headline inflation rate rose to 22.22 percent relative to March 2023 headline inflation rate which was 22.04 percent”… an increase of 0.18 percent points.

For food inflation, it was 24.5 percent in March; April was 24.6%. Summary: headline inflation rate, on a year-on-year basis, is 5.40 percent points higher (April 2022 rate was 16.82 percent).

However, whereas the trend is one of sustained price increases across the board with key contributors said to be the prices of oil and fats, gas and air transport, that the latest rate is actually the highest level since September 2005 must be deemed as not only concerning, but call to question, government’s understanding of the roots of the menace and, by extension, the appropriateness of the tools being deployed to fight it.

No doubt, the rest of the world could look in the direction of the on-going war between Russia and Ukraine and their spiral effects on the global economic scene as a major factor in the current crisis. Yet, much as no country in the world is spared of the biting effects of the war, particularly coming closely in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Nigeria’s case, the problems are of a different kind. Most of the problems, we daresay, are not only structural, they predated the latest cycle of global economic crisis. In fact, they mirror the endemic failure of governance on the one hand, and the fixations with policies, most of which have little relevance with current challenges or realities on the other.

The consequence has been faulty diagnoses, hence solutions that are best ineffectual.

Clearly, it requires no rocket science to appreciate why the current situation persists. Even with the modest efforts of the current administration, the infrastructural situation remains parlous. The port system remains shambolic several years after the much touted reforms. The road and the railways infrastructure are no different; they are still light years away from what a modern economy requires to run. Electricity supply has remained as it was a decade ago – unreliable. For a leading oil producer, we export our crude and use a part of the proceeds to import refined fuel. Unable to crack the riddle of domestic refining, the country is caught in the web of importation hence the premium it has to pay to deliver fuel to the pumps.

While all of the above together have made Nigeria’s economy a high-cost one, they are at the heart of the inflation problem and so now particularly deserving of the utmost attention of the incoming government.

The same of course applies to the food situation. Despite the best efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria to boost output through improved financing, the supply situation has been severely hampered by the spectre of insecurity across the country. Even the closure of the borders, which the government announced would help boost domestic food production while stemming the tide of smuggling, has merely exacerbated the supply gap, thus compounding the inflationary spiral.

The supreme irony is that the CBN, whose unbridled monetary interventions and irresponsible accommodation of the Federal Government’s reckless spending actually contributed to the crisis, continues to be fixated with a policy that sees monetary tightening as something of a magic.

Of course, the country needs a new approach to tame the inflation monster. Boosting food output to significantly bring down food inflation must be seen as top priority. A good way to begin is to tackle the intractable security challenge facing the country headlong. Related to this is more investment in mechanised agriculture.

In fact, we would urge the in-coming government to pay greater attention to those already identified critical infrastructure without which the nation’s quest for enhanced productivity and self-reliance would remain a pipe dream. Monetary policy tools are certainly important; but then, only to the extent that they serve as complement to other governance tools. What we saw in recent past of an unelected CBN virtually running ring around an elected government should be regarded as an aberration. It is something the in-coming administration should avoid. 

• It is sad that embassy workers on humanitarian mission could be murdered for no reason.

As the government of President Muhammadu Buhari prepares to hand over to President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu on May 29, just a few days away, the killing of two US Embassy staff  and their two police escorts on a humanitarian mission in Anambra State appears to reinstate the horror that the last eight years have been to many Nigerians. No Nigerian administration at peace time, either military or civilian, has presided over more bloodshed than the Buhari administration. The saddest part is that there have been no statistics of the dead. There has been no honouring of the dead or conclusive investigation and prosecution of suspects in many cases.

The killing of the United States Embassy staff and two policemen at Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State has made headlines across the globe. The police authorities, as usual, have promised to ‘leave no stone unturned in order to apprehend the suspects’ but Nigerians are unconvinced about the promise because there have been countless such promises in the last eight years that have been unfulfilled. The great irony in this particular case is that the victims who were brutally killed and their corpses mindlessly burnt were on a humanitarian mission to the state.

We condemn the heinous crime like we have always done but the tragedy of the Nigerian state of insecurity is that the obnoxious titles – bandits, unknown gunmen, insurgents, Boko haram, Kidnappers, murderous herdsmen and all such tags – have become too familiar in the Nigerian socio-economic lexicon and acquired some life of their own. In a wry way, they seem to sit pretty alongside governments and institutions that most observers are scared that except the in-coming government takes some road less travelled by the present administration, more tragedies might just await the nation.

We find it very ironic that a group on a mission to save lives lost their own lives in the process. It is a dramatic irony of monumental proportions but again, the wanton murderous ambience that the country has experienced in the past eight years has not discriminated against the targets and victims. The murderous incidents across the country have affected innocent victims going about their normal duties across the nation: school children, expatriates, farmers, travellers, Christians, Muslims, politicians, intellectuals, diplomats, doctors, etc.

The South East region has become a security nightmare in the last eight years like never before. Some people blame the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and the other agitation groups for the killings in the region. It is often alleged that the group and the splinter groups before and after it have been using violence to pursue their separatist ambition. Some believe that the high level of insecurity is sponsored by politicians to achieve certain goals. Another school of thought believes that there is a deliberate effort by some interests to destabilise the region for some socio-political reasons.

We however believe that no matter the permutations, the governments at state and federal levels have not paid serious attention to curbing the tragedy of insecurity in the region, given the level of destruction of lives and property. Even more tragic is that there seems to have been little investigative efforts to arrest and prosecute suspects. Both the federal and state governments have failed so far. The Federal Government has the levers of security and ought to have been more proactive in stemming the tide but it does appear it is either ambivalent or lacks decisive capacity.

The free reign of the murderous ‘unknown gunmen’ is a clear sign that governments in Nigeria and the region underestimate the impact of insecurity on an economy that is already on the edge of the precipice. It is a known fact that there has been huge capital flight and that Nigeria is losing foreign direct investment (FDI) due to the insecurity in the country. This has had far-reaching implications for the socio-economic life of the region.

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The epicenters of the killings in the South East seem to be Anambra and Imo states where prominent citizens like late Prof. Onyemelukwe, Prof. George Obiozor and Dr. Chike Akunyili, amongst many others, have been victims. Onitsha is a West African commercial hub, Imo State has a hitherto thriving hospitality and agricultural industries but the insecurity in these two states has negatively impacted not just the economies of these states but the nation as a whole. The growing level of poverty, food insecurity and unemployment in the nation is traceable to the insecurity that has driven farmers and investors away.

The main purpose of governments is the protection of lives and property of citizens.  It is then a failure of governments if they cannot protect lives and property of citizens. No meaningful activities can take place without citizens feeling safe. While no nation is devoid of insecurity, we also know that the difference between Nigeria and other nations is that cases of insecurity are handled with dispatch in terms of prompt and thorough investigations in other countries. On the other hand, Nigerian criminals seem to have a free rein as not a reasonable number of cases are successfully investigated and prosecuted conclusively to ensure justice is served for both the living and the dead.

We appreciate the efforts made by men of the National Joint Task Force (NJTF) in the North East as they have substantially repelled the Boko Haram insurgents. While they seem not to have achieved total success, they have made a progressive difference in the region even though the conflict area seems to have shifted to the North West. We recommend that a similar task force be established in the South East to restore normalcy but not in the mold of the notorious Operation Python Dance that seemed to have escalated the violence in the region, leading to further loss of innocent lives.

Federal and state governments must realise that security is sine qua non to development. Non-state actors must not hold the people hostage in their own country. Everyone can notice the sense of commitment the United States has shown for their embassy staff. The Nigerian state as a whole seems not to care about its own citizens. There is no verifiable census to confirm the number of citizens, alive, dead or injured. There is no human accountability and that is not good for development. The Anambra State incident should serve as a serious wake-up call for governments to show that citizens’ lives matter. After all, the people are the nation.

• Nigerians await Guinness World Records’s review as Hilda Baci sets new record in marathon cooking

Not surprisingly, 26-year-old Hilda Effiong Bassey, popularly known as Hilda Baci, grabbed the headlines as she cooked continuously for over four days in pursuit of a world record.

 Following her attention-grabbing performance from May 11 to May 15, the Guinness World Records (GWR) team, in a statement, said the Nigerian chef “began cooking on Thursday and continued through to Monday, reportedly whipping up 55 recipes and more than 100 meals in a whopping 100-hour stint.” Her goal, they said, was to “snap up the record title for the longest cooking marathon (individual) which currently belongs to Lata Tondon (India) with a time of 87 hrs. 45 min.” This record was set in 2019.

Hilda’s ‘cook-a-thon’ is over, but its electrifying effect lingers. The turnout at the venue, Amore Gardens in Lekki, Lagos, exceeded her team’s projection. By the second day, “the number of physical attendees reached over 8,000,” and “the online audience had surpassed one million,” according to the project lead. Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was at the venue, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo phoned her, President Muhammadu Buhari and President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu praised her, and a number of celebrities associated themselves with the project.  These were testimonies to the public interest the cook-a-thon generated in the country.  

The British reference body said its officials “look forward to reviewing the evidence and hope to be able to verify Hilda’s efforts as a new record very soon.” It is unclear how long this will take. Notably, it was reported that Hilda’s team did not invite certified officials from GWR, which could have helped to speed up the verification.

The cooking marathon was a different experience for the Akwa Ibom State native and owner of ‘My Food by Hilda’ restaurant, who in August 2021 won the ‘Jollof Faceoff’ competition. She has a degree in Sociology from Madonna University, Okija, Anambra State. 

She cooked round the clock in a transparent, open kitchen, and had a 5-minute rest per hour. Reports said she got a 30-minute break every 6 hours, which she spent in a medical van close by, within which she could take a nap, use the restroom, and also get a medical assessment or checkup by the medical team available on the spot.

There are other sides to her, actress, TV presenter, and talk show host; but she said in an interview, “I have been crazy about cooking.” In the interview published in March, she explained what led to the idea to set a cooking marathon record: “I used to be obsessed with watching the Guinness Book of Records on TV and YouTube… About five years ago, I said to my brother that I had not seen anyone doing the longest cooking marathon. It was always the biggest pizza, the largest this and that. So, I imagined someone cooking for a really long time, and my brother said that it was a really good idea… I now inquired about it to know if a record like that was existing.

“At the time, the current record holder just hit that record. I think that I kind of forgot it for a while. But, then somehow, I didn’t stop thinking about it. It was on my mind; it was something that I really wanted to do. I told my friends and family members, and here we are.”

Her story is a mix of passion, imagination, craft, creativity, determination and self-belief. The event was not only a food festival but also a celebration of positives. 

It is noteworthy that the National Orientation Agency (NOA) said her record chasing performance “shows that there is dignity in labour and that everyone can do well in his or her endeavour.”

GWR is expected to confirm her record as official, and list it among world records of human achievements. That will underscore the significance of the record attempt.

• We disagree with court judgment barring NBC from imposing fines on broadcast stations, but…

The judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, presided over by Justice James Omotosho has thrown the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) into a quandary. The judge held that NBC has no power to impose a fine on erring broadcast stations, as it is not a court. The judge held: “The action of the respondent qualifies as excessiveness as it had ascribed to itself the judicial and executive powers.” We wonder whether the judge is saying that administrative agencies cannot be imbued with quasi-judicial powers?

If such is the view of the court, we doubt if the judgment will stand, considering there are several administrative agencies imbued with adjudicatory or quasi-judicial powers. They include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Security and Exchange Commission Tribunal, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), amongst others. Justice Omotosho held that such imposition contravenes the provisions of sections 6(6) and 36 of the 1999 constitution, which deal with the exclusive powers of the court to hear and determine disputes between parties, and the right to fair hearing, respectively.

Of course we are not by any means justifying the excessive imposition of fines on broadcast stations for offences that may not stand the scrutiny of the courts of law, as in the instant case. In the case brought by the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda, Justice Omotosho voided the N500,000 fine imposed by the commission on 45 broadcast stations on March 1, 2019. The court also restrained NBC from further imposing fines on broadcast stations.

Indeed, courts and learned authors have posited that adjudicatory powers of administrative agencies derive from section 36(1) and (2) of the 1999 constitution. Sub-section 1 provides for fair hearing by a “court or other tribunal established by law and constituted in such manner as to secure its independence and impartiality.” In sub-section 2, it confers on “any government or authority power to determine questions arising in the administration of a law that affects or may affect the civil rights and obligations of any person….”

There is however the proviso that there must be “an opportunity for the persons whose rights and obligations may be affected to make representation to the administering authority before that authority makes the decision affecting that person.” As different bodies of journalists have argued and we agree, a body to regulate the media industry must have journalists as members, and must be constituted in a manner to secure its independence. The law establishing the NBC does not imbue it with such independence.

As presently constituted, it is no more than a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.  The mode of appointment of its members and the authority to remove or sanction the appointees is squarely with the president through his minister. There is no way such a body would operate independently of the appointing and approving authority. That explains why the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and many Nigerians hailed Justice Omotosho’s judgment as saving the industry from the stranglehold of executive authority.

We restate that administrative authorities should have powers to exercise quasi-judicial powers, but the NBC does not have the independence to guarantee fair hearing. That is the position of the NGE. In a statement signed by its president, Mustapha Isah, and general secretary, Dr. Iyobosa Uwugiaren, they said: “Our position has always been that an independent body or institution should be the one to examine any perceived infraction by the broadcast stations, which should be given the opportunity to defend themselves”.

The judgment of Justice Omotosho provides the Federal Government an opportunity to review its position and propose a law for an independent regulatory body for the broadcast industry.

• We welcome Lagos State govt’s partnership with the police to give them befitting barracks

Lagos State government has done a lot for the Nigeria Police  Force, especially through the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) established in 2007. Virtually all sections of the Lagos State Police Command — Mobile Police, Marine Police, Mounted Police, Rapid Response Squad (RRS), etc. have sipped and are still sipping from the state’s well of generosity. In 2021 alone, the state government spent a whopping N3 billion to equip the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), in its quest to ensure the safety and security of Lagosians.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu disclosed this at the 15th Town Hall Meeting on Security organised by LSSTF at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, with the theme, “Re-conceptualising Safety and Security In Lagos State.” He said the government would continue to play a leading role to secure the state adding that it had demonstrated the commitment in the past and would remain resolute in its quest to enhance peace and security throughout Lagos State.

It is in keeping with this tradition that the government decided to take the support for the police force a notch higher by collaborating with it in rebuilding, regenerating and remodelling 25 dilapidated barracks in the state. Force spokesman, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the essence of the new barracks is to give officers and men befitting accommodation, and that it is an initiative of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba. Such projects, he said, had started in some states where some houses had since been inaugurated.

According to Adejobi, barracks to be rehabilitated in Lagos include Adekunle, Agege, Alausa, Area F, Bar-Beach, Bourdillon, Falomo, Federal Highway Patrol, MTX Highway and Ijeh Police Barracks. Others are Ijora, SQ MTX Ijora, SQ MTX Iponri, K 9 Police Barracks, Kam Salem, SQ MTX McCarthy, Mopol 2 Keffi, Mounted Troops, Obalende Barracks, Police Officers’ Mess Obalende and Women Barracks, among others.

This is a commendable initiative. That some houses under it had even been inaugurated in some states make it much more so. Police barracks in the country are about the worst of all barracks in the country. Many of them were built several decades ago and they are hardly well maintained. They have therefore become accidents waiting to happen. Indeed, some of them had collapsed in Lagos and Ibadan. We do not have to wait until more barracks give way, with the possible loss of lives and property, before doing something about the situation. As a matter of fact, the Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA, had certified some of these barracks in the state as unfit for habitation.

It is also heartwarming that the police force seems to have made adequate arrangement for the officers and men to be affected by the exercise. They were expected to start vacating their apartments from May 1, 2023, after they would have been mobilised to seek alternative accommodation, pending the conclusion of the projects, hopefully in two years. Where the projects extend beyond two years, more money would be provided for the personnel to take care of the extended period. On paper, everything about the arrangements seems okay. We however implore the police to scrupulously adhere to the laid-down arrangements.

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A befitting accommodation is one of the essentials of life. When policemen live in a conducive environment, it would enhance their productivity. There is nothing as good as having a good place to retire to after a hard day’s job. Moreover, befitting barracks would also  make the police officers and men to know that they are appreciated by the governments, and impact positively on how they relate with the public as well as public perception of them. 

It is good that more state governments are seeing what the Lagos State government saw many years ago which made it to be partnering with the Federal Government and the police force in improving the working condition of the force. There is no doubt that the state government’s support to the force, especially since the creation of the LSSTF, has significantly contributed to the relative peace and security it enjoys, despite its status as the hub of commercial and economic activities in the country.

Security is a collective responsibility and the earlier governments at all levels and the citizens generally see it as such, the better. This is especially so in our country where the central government is unwilling to have state police. This should not be a reason to abandon the police force for the Federal Government which owns it even as it is becoming clear by the day that it cannot fund it alone.

Several other promises had been made as part of measures to ensure a hitch-free process of reconstruction of the barracks and rehabilitation of the legal occupants after. For instance, Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Housing, Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka, promised that the barracks would be delivered complete with befitting modern facilities, and that the buildings would be constructed to acceptable standards. These should be strictly observed. We have heard all manner of stories of corruption in the police; we do not want this otherwise laudable exercise to be marred by such corrupt practices and favouritism.

We also implore the stakeholders to complement the befitting accommodation with other welfare packages that can help transform the police to the force of our dream.

• Are we ready for the down sides?

The Senate, on Tuesday, signed off on the Constitution Alteration Bill No. 58 providing for independent candidacy in all levels of Nigerian elections. It directed the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA) to transmit the bill along with bill No. 46, which seeks inclusion of presiding officers of the National Assembly in the membership of the National Security Council, to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent in line with the provisions of the Authentication Act.

The two bills were part of constitution alteration bills transmitted to state houses of assembly for concurrence last year, but not among the 35 that secured required concurrence of 24 out of the 36 state assemblies. The national parliament had earlier transmitted those 35 constitution alteration bills to the president for assent, out of which he signed 16 into law and rejected 19.

Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege, in a motion during Tuesday’s plenary, informed his colleagues that Gombe State assembly had just approved constitution alteration bills 46 and 58 and forwarded its resolution to the National Assembly (NASS). Omo-Agege, who is the chair of Senate Ad hoc Committee on Constitution Review, said with Gombe assembly’s approval, the bills on independent candidacy and inclusion of NASS presiding officers in the National Security Council had met the provisions of Section 9(2) of the Constitution for passage. The Senate adopted his motion and directed the CNA to transmit the bills to the president.

On independent candidacy, the proposed alteration bill provides that for any Nigerian national to contest presidential election as an independent candidate, he/she must obtain verified signatures of at least 20 percent of registered voters from each state of the federation, provided that a registered voter shall not sign for more than one independent candidate in respect of the same office. For governorship poll, the independent candidate must obtain verified signatures of at least 20 percent of registered voters from each of the local government areas of the state; while anyone willing to contest NASS elections as an independent must obtain verified signatures of at least 20 percent of registered voters from each of the council areas in the respective senatorial district or federal constituency. The bill further empowers the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to prescribe payment of administrative fees by independent candidates for respective election, and mandates the body to waive 50 percent of the administrative fees for female candidates.

The proposed legislation undoubtedly promises to further liberalise the electoral space and allow for wider participation by political actors. But there are peculiarities of this country’s political culture that must be taken into account in assessing its overall impact on our nascent democracy. The Nigerian electoral space has always tended to be unwieldy. There are currently 18 registered political parties on INEC’s roll, but it’s been a tortuous way to getting that number for better manageability of the electoral process by the electoral body.

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In 2020, the commission axed 74 parties for non-performance in line with statutory provisions and merely clogging up the system. That measure was challenged by 22 of the parties and the case dragged through all levels of litigation until the Supreme Court, in March 2022, upheld the commission’s power to do what it did. There was a time this country had about 100 political parties owing to liberal terms prescribed for registration by the legal framework. Only that rather than add value, fringe parties often constituted themselves into spoilers and spanners in the electoral wheel. With the predilection of  Nigerian political actors for litigation, there were endless cases filed in courts for adjudication on countless issues posing hurdles to election management. The catch here is: considering the unwieldiness of the party system as it were, it is scary to contemplate the same syndrome being downloaded to individual contenders.

The expanded space also invariably has implication for what this country will be laying out on conducting elections. With just 18 parties, the national treasury funded the 2023 polls to the tune of N355billion. When independent candidates join up, ballot papers will be considerably more expansive, more ballot boxes will be needed, with more accoutrements for agent accreditation required, among other election-related essentials that must be scaled up. Inevitably, the cost of litigation borne by INEC and funded from the common treasury will multiply. In short, the country will have to pay more for conducting elections. Besides, independent candidacy is certain to fuel instability in political parties as gladiators who can’t have their way opt for going solo; and this would deepen the moneybag syndrome as such gladiators pay through to getting the signature endorsement required. Meanwhile, it is debatable that individual candidacy will make much difference from the present scenario of parties that are largely individualistic – beyond merely individualising the individual, that is.

Individual candidacy promises greater liberalism, but we must weigh whether we are as a country ready for the flip sides. If utterly imperative, we suggest that a phased and guided implementation of the option be considered.

• Reward system must be improved to minimise quackery in teaching

Seventy percent of teachers in private schools in the Southwest zone are not qualified. So says the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), which is the regulator of the profession in the country. TRCN registrar, Professor Josiah Ajiboye, reported the dismal state of affairs.

According to the regulator, this pattern is replicated across the country. “When we conducted our survey, we observed that 70 percent of teachers in the Southwest are not qualified. A large number of teachers in private schools in Nigeria today are also not qualified,” Ajiboye said at the signing in Abuja of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the TRCN and INSTILL Education, a South Africa-based educational firm. “Unqualified teachers are not only cheating pupils and students, they are cheating the education system in its entirety. They are not registered with the TRCN because (they) lack the prerequisites to be registered by the council,” he further said.

The registration council boss noted that the quantum of unqualified teachers in the Southwest contradicted a general notion about standards in private schools, adding that a large number of teachers in Nigeria had never been exposed to training and had been using outdated equipment for illustrations. He stressed that the point of the collaboration between TRCN and INSTILL Education is to equip Nigerian teachers with 21st Century skills, as the MoU would help teachers develop professionally and enhance learning outcomes. “The major component of the MoU is to retrain in-service teachers and enhance their capacities and skills. A large number of teachers have never been exposed to a single training programme since they were employed, thereby making them doing the same thing the same way,” he said.

A primary criterion for anyone to be registered with the TRCN is possession of teaching qualification, whether a degree or certificate in Education, in addition to whatever other qualification may be held. Ajiboye apparently was referring to throngs of ‘emergency’ teachers who have found themselves in the profession as a last resort, and not because they were trained teachers or persons who opted for the career by premeditation; and they have held back from going for teacher training perhaps because they have not made up their minds to settle for the profession and see themselves as birds of passage. Of such, Ajiboye said: “There is a difference between teachers and cheaters; if you are not a teacher, you must be a cheater.”

The trend observed by the regulator highlights the failure of standardisation in the teaching profession. The population of accidental teachers by far outpaces that of committed ones, and this obviously has had hugely negative impact on the quality of education being dispensed. It is not difficult to figure out why there is a preponderance of unqualified teachers in the private school system. Commercialisation of education makes  proprietors, who are businesspersons, to settle for manpower available at lesser costs so as to optimise profit from fees paid  by pupils. Meanwhile, the general perception is that private schools offer better standard of education than public schools, and parents pay through the nose to access what they deem to be on offer. But the perception isn’t helped either by the pervasive condition of public schools where structures are ramshackle and classes overcrowded, even though teachers in that system are generally more qualified because of better standardisation at the point of recruitment. In some cases, the defective standard of education being dispensed is dissembled by commoditisation of certificates whereby parents fund ‘ways and means’ of procuring ‘good’ results for  their wards, as distinct from good education. It is a complex mix of factors that leaves subscribers to the nation’s education system with the short end of the stick.

One reason why there are more quack teachers than originals is the reward system. Not much has changed from the ancient code of a teacher’s reward being in heaven. During the commemoration of the World Teachers Day in 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari announced new incentives for teachers which include a bumper and specialised salary structure, upward review of their retirement age from 60 to 65 and years of service from 35 to 40, payment of fees of teachers’ children and provision of low-cost houses for them. Other incentives promised include increase in rural posting allowance for teachers, science teachers’ allowance, peculiar allowance, automatic employment for Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) and Bachelor of Education (B. Ed.) students upon graduation, prompt payment of teachers’ salaries and timely promotion to eliminate stagnation, and sponsorship of teachers on skills enhancement trainings. Many of those bounties remain what they were: promises, with fulfilment awaited till date.

To attract willing and qualified practitioners into the teaching profession, the reward system must be made comparable with other professions whose practitioners are products of teachers.