Category: Editorial

•Who should get post-oil subsidy palliatives and what ideal sharing formula?

It long last, the Nigerian government is badgered into removing fuel subsidy — no thanks to pressure from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and their local acolytes. 

Indeed, near-total is the shift of elite temper, in the matter that every major presidential candidate, during the 2023 presidential election, made subsidy removal an electoral pledge. That could make good or sound paper economics.  But the pains it would sure cause, by soaring costs, would be bad social economics; with hardship assured new wings to soar; and poverty, new bites and depths.

Which explains the grand irony of grand compassion coming from the unlikeliest of places: a World Bank US$ 800 million facility to be shared as petrol subsidy removal palliative, among some 50 million Nigerians, spanning some 10 million poorest-of-the-poor households.

If the World Bank/IMF realise subsidy removal indeed deepens poverty — and that is clear from this World Bank facility — why are they so inflexible on that drug even if, as President Muhammadu Buhari reminded the western enforcers of these Bretton Woods institutions, how they too subsidise aspects of their economy?

Another legalism making the removal a done deal, from June 1, is the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).  ”There’s a provision that 18 months after effectiveness of the PIA,” Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, finance minister, told the media, “all petroleum products must be deregulated.  The 18 months take us to June 2023.”

So, the Federal Government secured the World Bank facility, having at the ready a disbursement register.  It is that used for the monthly conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme, to the poorest of the poor among Nigerians, built under the Buhari government’s National Social Investment Programme (NSIP).

“Today,” the minister said of that cash roll, “that register has a list of 10 million households, which is equivalent to about 50 million Nigerians.”  Not a few Nigerians have scoffed at the CCT register, expressing doubt, mostly based on hunches, about how effective it is to get the stipends to the poor folks that desperately crave them.  

But if the World Bank has enough confidence in the register, perhaps those fears are over-rated or grossly unfounded.  At any rate, a safety net for the most vulnerable of Nigerians, wracked by fresh hardship because of subsidy removal, is a wonderful idea. Still, 50 million is the number the palliative would target.  What is the fate of the remaining 150 million Nigerians?  Has the government taken proper statistics of the percentage of this number, wealthy enough to cope with the resultant soaring costs?

While there appears no straight answer to this query, the minister hinted that the palliative regime was multi-layered.  Organised Labour, for instance, might be hammering out some mass transit fleet for its members: unionised workers.  That is no crime, but how the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) managed similar schemes in the past is of utmost concern.

Outside organised Labour, however, how would others, particularly in the huge informal sector, be taken care of?  Any palliative, aimed at cost-push inflation, is to cool off the economy, until a new-found equilibrium, at which demand can happily meet supply, at the most mutually beneficial point.

Can this goal be attained shutting out the bulk of the remaining 150 million Nigerians, even after relieving 50 million poorest of the poor?  That is doubtful — and that is why the Federal Government should consult more widely and apply deeper thinking into a fair, legitimate and more inclusive palliative “sharing formula”.

Many have also suggested the outgoing government leave any disbursement of funds to the new government.  That makes sense — but only from its over-simplification of the matter.  The no-subsidy regime starts on June 1.  The new government comes into office on May 29.  It is clear not much can be done in three days.

Which logically impels some cross-administration collaboration and planning, for such a vital policy.  Besides, the same party is continuing in power; and whatever hand-over planning needed can be handled by the transition committee, already in place.  An effective transition committee would do no less, even if power were passing to another party — if there is no bad faith.

Still, let all the talks about palliative make us not forget the basic: “oil subsidy” arose, ab initio, because of a ruinous policy of liberalising petroleum downstream by importing refined products.  It was a brainless scheme that was fated to collapse, no matter how long.

The ultimate solution, therefore, is local refining.  Fortunately, Nigeria approaches the dawn of local crude refining again, more than at any time in its recent history, with the progress being made on building new private sector refineries and reactivating public sector ones, under the care of the new Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd.

So, what to do is to re-energise efforts at delivering these new assets — most of them preferably before May 29.  If not, then no farther than six months down the line.  

Local refining is the only logical precondition for the viable deregulation of petroleum downstream.  Any other path would further ruin the economy.

Coming a year after Sterling Bank’s raises questions about the relevance of agencies vetting adverts

Religion of any hue is an integral part of the human being across continents and it is a practice that is next to the basic human needs of shelter, food and clothing, in terms of parental provisional nurturing.  Most adherents of the different religions begin from birth to initiate babies into their religion. The moment a child is born, even the names he or she is given is often rooted in the religion of the parents.  Some religions have religious rites and rituals performed at the birth and the different phases of a child’s life.

Indeed, there is always a great sense of devotion and passion with which humans view their different religions. The world’s most popular religions due to the plurality of their practitioners are; Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. However, some reports insist there are about a thousand religions.

The spiritual nature of religion is reason adherents are so passionate about it. All religions believe in the existence of a superpower that is divinely superhuman and that the soul of man after death gets to meet that supernatural. This accounts for the deep commitment and passion adherents express about their religion and they often try their human best to observe the tenets and protect the rites and rituals as rites of passage.

In Nigeria like many colonised countries, the African traditional religion suffered a beat down as a result of the entrance of the colonialists. However, as conquered people, the people accepted two basic religions, Christianity and Islam, even though their original religion continues to be practiced, especially by the uneducated.

Curiously though, Christianity and Islam that are not indigenous to Nigerians have been some of the basic reasons for the polarisation in the country, especially in the political field. Besides this, we believe that the average Nigerian still relates well with each other socio-economically.

Beyond the political field, it does seem that some companies in Nigeria’s corporate world are bent on treading on a very divisive route recently, with the kind of corporate adverts that have been published during some significant  Christian festivities.

First was Sterling Bank that in 2022 Easter advert used the image of a ‘rising Agege’ bread to symbolise the risen Christ. Many Christians were outraged about the very distasteful symbolism that reduced the symbol of their religion to a local bread that has a comical bent to it given that it is a brand consumed by the lower class and hawked by itinerant women in the suburbs of Lagos.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) protested the denigration of the symbol of Christianity during a most important and highly significant day – Easter. The seeming imagery of a rising loaf of ‘Agege bread’ was as disrespectful as it was insensitive. Some Christians called for the sack or resignation of the Managing Director of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman. The bank later issued an apology. In the spirit of Christian tenet of forgiveness, the bank was forgiven.

On this year’s Good Friday, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria PLC, makers of Peak milk products in Nigeria, again came out with a very distasteful advertisement showing their liquid evaporated milk tin looking squeezed and spilling its content with a caption, “BRUISED AND PIERCED FOR US” #GOODFRIDAY. For a very solemn day like Good Friday, that insensitive advert to us was in very bad taste and totally disrespectful of all that Good Friday and Christianity stand for. To draw a very wry parallel between Jesus’ Crucifixion and a tin of milk is very appalling and disrespectful of Christianity and Christians.

Again, CAN has condemned the very inappropriate advert and has threatened a boycott of the products if the company does not apologise. Even though the company has apologised, we see the repeat of the very odious advert by the milk company as corporate irresponsibility. We are shocked that after the Sterling Bank incident about a year ago, WAMCO PLC had the effrontery to assault the Christian community in Nigeria with such an insensitive and almost predatory advert.

But these two companies, Sterling  Bank and WAMCO PLC, are not alone. Telecom giants, MTN, equally participated in the show of shame. Their Easter advert was equally in bad taste. We however cannot understand why corporate bodies in Nigeria are churning out very insensitive adverts during Christian festivities. It smacks of total disrespect to create such nonsensical adverts when many adults in the world understand the biblical stories too well, to toy with the core festivities around Christendom.

We wonder what the professional and government agencies like the Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria (AAPN), the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), and others are doing. Are there no regulatory frameworks that guide the activities of those they supervise their activities? Which companies produce those adverts with total lack of creativity? Why do media houses accept to publish such distasteful and insensitive adverts? Does it mean that companies operating in Nigeria do not have functional media or corporate affairs offices that should vet adverts going into the public space?

Our questions are legion but we know that the answers lie in a dysfunctional system where laws exist but are often obeyed in the breech because there is no diligent prosecution of cases to serve as deterrent.  Laws only work when they are enforced. But our system is too weak to uphold diligent prosecution and force companies to play by the rules. It is disappointing that companies like WAMCO and MTN that have their parent companies in Netherlands and South Africa would be publishing those insensitive adverts in Nigeria whereas they cannot do that in their home countries. We hope this Peak milk advert would be the last disrespectful advert to Christianity or indeed any religion by corporate bodies that rely on the same adherents to make profits.

The relevant governments and their agencies must wake up to their responsibilities before these companies incite the public to self-help. We expect appropriate action to be taken against WAMCO to serve as deterrent. Sterling Bank went free and that empowered Peak milk producers to do same. CAN must do more to register its displeasure with these errant companies.

The auspicious event was the public presentation of my book, The Unending Quest for Reform: An Intellectual Memoir. And then, it was not surprising that the entire event erupted into an agitated atmosphere for a reassessment of the Nigerian predicament. A significant cross-section of stakeholders in the Nigerian project were there, from Chief Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar GCON (who joined online). Others were Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Dr. Kayode Fayemi (ably represented), Prof. Oladapo Afolabi CFR (online) and Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim. There were numerous senior citizens including Prof. Tunde Adeniran, Lady Ada Chukwudozie, Chair, MAN in the South-East Nigeria, Prof. Gabriel Ogunmola, past president, Nigerian Academy of Science, Prof. Pai Obanya, formerly of UNESCO and UBEC, Prof. Femi Otubanjo, my political science teacher, Prof. Olu Obafemi, Comrade Issa Aremu and Prof. Victor Ayeni. Others were the columnist Olusegun Adeniyi, Prof. Antonia Taiye Simbine, DG NISER, Prof. Sunday Ochoche, Prof. Fatai Aremu, Dr. Adiya Ode of Palladium Consulting, Prof. Nasirdeen Usman mni, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, Mr. Olufemi Awoyemi mni, Dr. Musa Rabiu, past Registrar, CIPM, Dr. Plangsat Dayil of Unijos, Olufunke Amos, Dr. Ladi Bala-Keffi, Barr. Rakiya Tanko-Ayuba mni, Dr. Kingsley Ozele, Dr. Steve Ogidan mni. Dr. Yushua Karima mni. Dr. Abimbola Alale, Mr. JK Opadiran formerly of ASCON and NIPSS. In attendance were also Amb. Godknows Igali, Amb. Martins Uhomoibhi, Amb. Olu Olusanmokun, Prof. Nicholas Damachi, Dr. Goke Adegoroye, Dr. Joe Abah of DAI, Engr. Johnny Chukwu, Mr. Chike Ogbechie, Mr. Samuel Abalaka, Dr. Lola Okwosa, Ms. Enene Ejembi, Mr. Victor Mayomi, Mazi Obi Adindu, Gani Ojagbohunmi, the representatives of the Prof. Ojetunji Aboyade clan, Arc. Sam & Arc. Mrs. Funmi Odia and Mr. Dapo Oyewole formerly of McKinsey. The Aawe natives present included Mrs. Joke Alagbe. There were others namely, Prof. Francis Egbokhare—former president of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, Prof. Isaac Megbolugbe of John Hopkins University, USA, Prof. Jide Owoeye, pro-chancellor, Lead City University and of course Prof. Toyin Falola, the global scholar and renowned historian, the huge others who joined online, to name only a very few.  And there were the formidable panelists at the two technical sessions to thrash various issues connected with making Nigeria work through the reform initiatives of the incoming administration.

The just concluded elections have been the cause for various emotional outbursts and reactions across vast sections of the Nigerian society. What has not been in doubt is that Nigeria must be remade in the image of a functional developmental state that will pick up the gauntlet in transforming the quality of life of her citizens. And so, in highlighting and interrogating the critical points and junctures of reform reflections itemized through my memoir, the various stakeholders vent their frustrations and perplexities about the stagnancy the Nigerian state had become. And yet, there was a current of solid and reasoned optimism about the capacity to make Nigeria a better place for all.

The Nextier event was put together to achieve a significant thinking process around the desirable governance dynamics required to galvanize the Nigerian state to high-end performance, post-2023, going forward. And this is even more urgent given the transitional nature of the electoral outcomes in Nigeria—we are leaving a dispensation behind and about to commence another. And so, the stated objectives of the public presentation was to use The Unending Quest for Reform as a foil to jumpstart a reflective process that will enable the incoming administration put together a governance process that (a) avoids the mistake of the past, (b) rethink the critical relationship between the government, its public service system and its capacity as a change agent to deliver public goods, (c) unravel the binding constraints that limit policy execution, (d) run an inclusive government that brings in critical stakeholders, especially the civil society as a strategic partner, and (e) harness the technical and developmental supports from international, regional and local collaborators.

From the opening ceremony to the two technical sessions, these issues raised several contestations and diagnostic analyses from all the participants who are all, in their own unique ways, embedded in the attempt to make Nigeria work and achieve her latent greatness. Of course, the issue of leadership underlies the various critical contributions—leadership at the federal, state and local level; leadership at the public service level; leadership of the MDAs and other institutional and sectoral framework around which governance revolves. In other words, the absence of leadership is the occasion for all sorts of institutional dysfunctions that holds back the optimal possibilities of the public service. All those present were agreed on the harm that the prebendal, elite rentier and predatory culture has done to the capability of the Nigerian state in becoming fully functional.

It is easy to see how this lack of a leadership focus could be the occasion for political crudity and governance rudder-lessness due to the critical defining ideological signposts by which the Nigerian state could become truly developmental. In Nigeria, elite behavior has not translated into a nationalistic consciousness hinged on an ideological framework for reconstructing Nigeria’s governance direction. On the contrary, the political class has captured the Nigerian state in a patrimonial grip that render it the private property of the elite to be dispensed and disposed according to their rentier whims.

Situate such a compromised political class side by side with an image of a ship without direction, and you get a sense of the frustration that a cross section of those at the Nextier event expressed both in their capacities as Nigerians and as critical members of the institutional and governance configuration of the Nigerian development agenda. One astute member of the audience, during the Q&A, asked the panelists how Nigeria could make sense of the unraveling fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Note that, unfortunately, Nigeria is just getting set to make an entry into the 4IR when the rest of the world is about to jumpstart the fifth industrial revolution (5IR). This question about Nigeria’s readiness to enter the 4IR is actually a question about the capability readiness of the state and its public administration system—a focus of exquisite diagnostic analysis and robust discussion at the public presentation—to backstop the performance and productivity profile of the Nigerian state as a developmental entity.

As the panelists all made clear, through personal experiences and professional narration, the future optimal performance of the public service derives from its capacity to wade through what has been called the VUCA—vulnerable, uncertain, complex and ambiguous—administrative environment in the world today. Africa has often been regarded as the most difficult administrative context in the world, and this therefore doubles the efforts required to achieve administrative, institutional and governance reforms that Nigeria urgently needs. The challenge of running the gauntlet of the VUCA administrative environment is further made daunting by the lack of political will and the abundance of a rapacious spirit that bleeds the Nigerian state into wastefulness and primitive accumulation. The public service and its apparatuses—ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs)—are therefore confronted with a herculean reform challenge: how to overcome the many obstacles to their capability readiness to birth a developmental state that could competently and effectively carry the burden of transforming Nigeria.  

It is in this sense that Prof. Francis Egbokhare, the keynote speaker, raises the crucial point of Nigeria’s reforming dynamics that have “either not yielded the desired outcomes or they have yielded unintended consequences.” And despite the repeated attempt at reforming the Nigerian institutional dynamics, since, 1960, Prof. Egbokhare insists that Nigerians have now mastered the art of benchmarking failure. What I have conceived as the bureau-pathologies of the public service system in Nigeria is embodied by the flight of meritocracy as a driver of progress from the administrative and governance context. And this becomes symbolic of the Nigerian state’s resistance to innovativeness and the culture of excellence that are the sine qua non in the evolving knowledge age that signals any state’s interest in participating in global competitiveness and the robust potentialities offered by the fourth and the fifth industrial revolutions.

From Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to the keynote speakers and the panelists, there is no easy road to public service performance and national productivity paradigm that would herald Nigeria’s transformation in terms of democratic governance. The obstacles and impediments are just too daunting. And yet, almost everyone to the last member of the audience, recognized that Nigeria could yet become the developmental state of our collective dreams. This is precisely the juncture where the new administration has a date with destiny in the real possibilities presented to it to make history through a conscious and conscientious harnessing and deployment of governance, administrative and development insights, such as those abundantly thrown up at the Nextier event, for reconstructing Nigeria and making it work better for her citizens.

At the second technical session for the day, the ideas of philosophy and ideology took the center stage as the benchmarking framework within which a national leadership and its vision and strategy could be given cogent direction. Outside of an ideological mold, the Nigerian state and her developmental agenda would keep getting entrapped by uninterrogated and non-contextualized extraverted solutions, blueprints, and paradigms recommended by the Bretton Woods institutions and the Washington Consensus. The philosophy of reform therefore makes it imperative for the new administration to adopt and adapt an ideological frame as an organizing development logic that would assist in coalescing political action away from the crippling elite bargain into a veritable development gamble Nigeria needs beyond 2023.

Realpolitik, to the extent that it is inevitable as a political necessity, must be harnessed to the vision of pushing through a constitutional vision of federalism that grounds democratic governance founded on the vitality of Nigeria’s subnational units and their comparative advantages. In other words, realpolitik cannot be understood in terms of the bad politics that generations of rapacious politicians have been playing with the lives of persevering Nigerians. In the strategy of the new administration, realpolitik must be the means to the end of governance and administrative reforms that will birth the emergence of good governance. The Tinubu administration must therefore take Aristotle and Machiavelli seriously in formulating a reform framework that will be technocratically sound and politically perspicuous.

From The Unending Quest for Reform to the brainstorming around the trajectory of moving from election to governance performance, it becomes obvious that the new administration cannot easily step into the existing framework of business as usual. The stakes are just too high for complacency: Nigerians have suffered sufficiently in underwiring with their lives the failures of elite selfishness and government’s fixation with impractical solutions. Nigeria must work as a matter of not just necessity but as critical survival salvage for her not to implode and get permanently locked into the backwater of history.

• Olaopa is a  Retired Federal Permanent Secretary

& Professor of Public Administration tolaopa2003@gmail.com        

•Handover of N27m recovered in Osun crash shows the potential of Nigerian persona

Operatives of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Osun State reportedly handed over some N27million recovered from an accident scene in which six people lost their lives last week. The state sector command of the corps said besides the six fatalities, seven other persons got injured in the multiple road crash that occurred in Ipetu-Ijesa axis on Ilesa-Akure expressway penultimate Tuesday.

According to a statement by sector command spokesperson Agnes Ogungbemi, two commercial vehicles – an Opel model and Toyota Sienna – were involved in the accident suspected to have resulted from dangerous driving and excessive speeding. The statement read in part: “Seven people were injured, six people were killed. People involved were 14 but one person was not injured. The injured victims were taken to Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa, while corpses of the deceased were deposited at the same hospital’s morgue.” The statement added that men of the corps recovered N27,171,400 from the crash scene and handed it over to the victims’ family members. Also, N21,900 belonging to the driver of one of the vehicles was recovered and handed over to the Nigeria Police Force in Ijebu-Ijesa whose personnel towed away the vehicles to their station.

FRSC Corps Marshal Dauda Biu commended the Osun sector patrol team for handing over the money recovered from the crash scene and expressed satisfaction with the good conduct, honesty and sense of patriotism exhibited by the personnel. In a statement by Corps Public Education Officer (CPEO) Bisi Kazeem in Abuja, the corps marshal said the team did not only show professionalism in doing their job, but also ensured that the integrity of the corps was preserved. According to him, the recovered money was returned in the presence of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for Ipetu-Ijesa, Seriki Owena, and the head of the Hausa community. “I want to commend the entire team for being patriotic, honest, efficient and professional in delivering the FRSC mandate. This act will never be forgotten as it is considered a great service to humanity. I charge every officer to emulate this character exhibited by the team, as good deeds pay off. The road is patient but does not forgive, “ Biu added. He lamented the crash, saying it could be avoided if motorists adhered strictly to traffic rules and regulations.

We join the FRSC boss in applauding the Osun sector command operatives for the exemplary honesty shown in handing over money recovered from the crash scene. The avoidable loss of lives in the accident is tragic and highly regrettable. But no one might ever have known there was such huge cash involved in the crash; and if the holders were among the fatalities, it would have been double loss – lives and resources – if the FRSC operatives had not returned the money. We need such God-fearing and honest disposition in the Nigerian persona to make this country a better place. The FRSC agents most likely did what they did without any expectation of reward. But it won’t be out of place  to reward them in some measure, if only to motivate such conduct in the services and, indeed, among the general populace. A common tendency associated with security services in this country, especially those involved in civil operations and dealing with the unarmed public, is corruption and extortion. Whenever we have examples of sterling conduct as shown by the Osun FRSC operatives, it should be applauded and commended for emulation by others.

Having said that, it is troubling that such huge sum – N27million plus – was being hauled around in raw cash in an economy that is aspiring to go cashless. And to boot, in commercial vehicles which, in a sense, endangered public safety. Only God knows why anyone would prefer carrying such money around in public vehicles rather than transact with same through the banking system. But this again raises the possibility of loss of faith in the banking system stemming from the cash crunch that attended the currency redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The acute difficulty in accessing cash for essential transactions and the fitfulness of digital platforms may have put some people off keeping available cash in the banks. Simply stated, it is policy backfire that CBN must earnestly work at to redress.

•An exemplary federal attorney-general and selfless Nigerian departs

He made his mark as a jurist, rising to the position of judge of the International Court of Justice in Hague (1991 -1994), after serving as Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice (1985 – 1991). He also left a legacy as the founder of a faith-based university, and was an unobtrusive promoter of Islam for the edification of society.  

Prince Bola Ajibola, who died on April 9, aged 89, was exemplary in several respects. Born in Owu, in present-day Ogun State, he attended Owu Baptist Day School and Baptist Boys’ High School in Abeokuta. He studied Law at the Holborn College of Law, University of London, and was called to the English Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1962.

 He practised his profession in Nigeria, specialising in commercial law and international arbitration. Indeed, in 1979, he founded the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators (NICArb). It was a measure of his professional recognition that he became the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in 1984.

After a year in the position, and before the end of his tenure, he became the country’s attorney-general and minister of justice under the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida military regime. In a posthumous tribute, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said: “As Attorney-General, he undertook perhaps the most far-reaching national justice sector reform in history.” To his credit, he achieved this under a military government.

“For six years, three months, 20 days and one and half hours, I was not taking my salary,” Ajibola said of his time in that position in a published interview.  

“In my sharing formula, I gave 25 percent of my salary to the NBA, 35 percent to the government and 40 percent to all other organisations involved in humanitarian activities. Those in want, the motherless homes and others, had the last share. I was doing all that.

“I was using the money to help the deprived, and I took no penny home from my ministerial salary. By that time, I had practised for over 23 years, and I was quite sufficiently satisfied with what I had earned for myself. I was still getting money from the dividends accruing from my investments and that was being paid to me in my office by the bank. Once I realised that I had enough to care for myself, I wasn’t prepared to have any extraordinary money.”

His time at the World Court also reflected his competence. Other high points of his career include his appointment as judge of the constitutional court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and chairman of the Nigerian delegation to the Nigerian-Cameroon Mixed Commission on the Bakassi Peninsula.

He was president of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal and headed the World Association of the World Jurists and Arbitrators, Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Dispute Commission.

Characterised as “knowledgeable” and “highly cerebral,” he was the editor of Nigeria’s Treaties in Force from 1970 to 1990 and All-Nigeria Law Reports from 1961 to 1990. He attained the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), a title conferred on those who have distinguished themselves in the legal profession in the country. He also received the Nigerian national honour, Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), and was knighted in Britain.

His education project, which he focused on after his law years, is a significant contribution to the country’s development. He was said to have “sold all his Lagos properties” in order to achieve his dream of establishing a university.

He founded Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State, in 2005, under the banner of the Islamic Mission for Africa, an organisation he launched in 1996. Described as “the pioneer Islamic university in Nigeria,” the private institution, according to its owners, stands for “scholarship, service and character.”  It is an enduring statement on Ajibola, who stood for these same positives.  

•A lot is lost when audit reports are delayed longer than necessary

An efficient, effective and transparent budgetary audit process is indispensable to any meaningful effort to curtail the menace of massive corruption, which continues to be a major factor in compounding Nigeria’s protracted crisis of underdevelopment. The query by the Senate Public Accounts Committee to 558 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) for failing to account for “intangible assets” estimated at N968 billion in the 2019 budget is an indication of the opacity and lack of openness that largely characterise the budget process in the country.

In its report on the 2019 budget, the committee noted that “Audit observed from review of notes 36 and 36(A) (Intangible) to the Federal Government of Nigeria Consolidated Financial Statement that the sum of N969 billion was recognised under Notes 36A as Intangible Assets contrary to the provision of IPSAS 3”. The report further states that “There was no disclosure to enable the audit confirm which of the Intangible Assets has finite or infinite life” and providing a basis for deciding whether amortisation should be pursued or not.

We agree with the committee that N969 billion is too much to be cavalierly subsumed under the general category of “Intangible Assets” without a clear statement and documentation of what constitutes these assets. Such lack of transparency can offer opportunities for corrupt enrichment by officials who may hide under the rubric of “Intangible Assets” to perpetrate fraud.

The list of defaulting MDAs in this regard include even those that should be at the vanguard of championing transparency, accountability and adherence to due process in the management of public funds. Among these MDAs are the State House, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Bureau of Public Service Reforms, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Nigeria Police Academy, Wudili, Federal Civil Service Commission, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Headquarters of the Police Formation and Command as well as the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC). Others  are Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Office of the Economic Adviser to the President, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Voice of Nigeria (VON) and the Nigeria Immigration Service, among others.

It is significant that the representative of the Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Shuaibu Sikiru, in his response, told members of the committee that the template would be redesigned to “accommodate the observation in subsequent years “. This is indeed in accordance with one of the purposes of audit reports, which is to identify organisational weaknesses in the financial process and proffer remedies. In this regard, the passage by the National Assembly of the Federal Audit Service Bill, which, among other features, provides for the establishment of the Federal Audit Commission, will most certainly strengthen the country’s audit process with positive implications for efforts to curb corruption. One of the reasons for the bill, according to the Chairman of the public accounts committee, Senator Mathew Urhoghide, is to strengthen the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation and enhance its capacity “to check systemic corruption in Nigeria by checking all expenditures of the MDAs as provided for by Section 85 of the Constitution”. The Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation is very critical to the achievement of greater accountability in the utilisation of public funds and no effort should be spared to strengthen the autonomy and efficiency of the office.

Senator Urhoghide stressed that the new Federal Audit Commission “will be responsible for the recruitment of proper staff to audit the accounts of the over 797 federal agencies” and correct a situation in which “we have those who did not study accounting being employed and working in the audit department, probably for political reasons”. That the committee is just considering the Auditor-General’s report for 2019 in 2023 suggests a manpower and capacity crisis which the Federal Audit Commission should hopefully be able to address. Timely and up to date consideration of audit reports is also crucial to ensuring accountability and transparency while also enabling identified weakness and infractions to be remedied promptly.

When it takes years for audit reports to be considered, justice tends to be delayed in terms of officials indicted for financial malfeasance. Indeed, a good number of such officials may even have retired from the public service long before the Senate is able to consider audit reports concerning them. Strengthening the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation and the country’s audit process generally is key to taming corruption and ensuring a more judicious and accountable utilisation of public funds by those in positions of authority.

•Governors-elect have no business calling the shots yet

Patience remains a virtue in every sphere of life. But, incoming governors in states where the old ruling parties have been displaced have a duty to take it easy. Irrespective of what the outgoing governors may be doing to erect hurdles on their way, they should concentrate on putting together a competent team that would help in transforming the states.

While we do not support fresh contracts being hurriedly awarded and loans contracted, the truth remains that there should  be no vacuum in governance. When the administrations of the incumbent governors were inaugurated in 2019, they were for a term of four years that would expire on May 29. 

But, in a number of states, those elected last month appear too eager to wield executive powers such that they have started writing letters ordering banks to ignore requests for loans. This is clearly ultra vires as they lack the locus to  belch out such orders. Since there can only be one captain in a ship, however annoying the outgoing governors may be, their terms will soon run out.

However, the departing governors too should realise that they gain nothing by antagonising their successors as all the power,  authority and privileges conferred on the office will soon pass to the newly elected governors.

The root of disruptive rancour in states could be located in the transition process. In Abia State where a gruesome electoral battle was fought, especially by the rulling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the upcoming Labour Party (LP), Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and his successor, Mr. Alex Otti of LP, have been tearing at each other needlessly. But it is governors who have tenures, civil servants who man the engine of governance enjoy permanence. The in-coming governors should therefore begin to identify loyal and competent workers who will serve in offices such as Head of Service, Accountant-General, Auditor-General and Solicitor-General. These would then provide the clue to unlocking things coded by the outgoing governors.

In Kano State, the volcano that erupted in the pre-election period between the New Nigeria People’s Party  (NNPP) and the governing  All Progressives Congress (APC) is yet to abate. Governor Abdullah Ganduje and the NNPP candidate, Abba Umar, backed by his principal,  Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, have opened a new phase of the war. Kwankwaso, the godfather, has refused to leave any flicker of hope for Ganduje that he would be accorded any privileges under the NNPP government.

All the skirmishes are indications that personal egos take precedence over public interest. Unfortunately, it has been so for a while. Even in the same party, when Chimaroke Nnamani was to hand over power to Sullivan Chime, his hand picked successor in Enugu State in 2007, war practically broke out between the two men who had hitherto enjoyed smooth relationship as Chime was Attorney-General under his childhood friend, Nnamani.

It’s about time the National Assembly promulgated a law on transition. In Enugu State where where Peter Mbah of PDP is scheduled to take over from Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of the same party, the incoming governor has cried out that the outgoing governor has refused to invite his men for transition protocol arrangements. This is interpreted as malevolent transfer of power. If there is a law specifying what should be done in the transition period, the size and composition of the body and when it should begin work, the system would be saved the disruptions.

Twenty four years into the life of this republic,  one would have thought that smooth transition would have been institutionalised, with politicians cured of naked display of power. Everything humanly possible should be done by the incoming executive and legislature leaders to protect the system before the next general elections in 2027.

•Report that 30,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in Osun State alone is scary enough to make other states refocus on the virus

Nigeria may have to beam the searchlight on the acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), afresh, given the revelation by the United States Consul-General, Will Stevens that about 29,936 persons are living with HIV/AIDS in Osun State. The envoy made this known during the launch of Osun State HIV Treatment Surge organised by the Excellence Community Education Welfare Scheme (ECEWS), at the State Secretariat, Osogbo. The number is expected to be far higher if more people are tested.

Stevens said that,” Since the record has shown the number of people living with HIV/ AIDS, there is need to conduct more HIV tests in the state to reach out to those who do not know their status yet, adding that the purpose of the surge launch is to reach out to more people and ensure that carriers of the virus commence treatment immediately.”

We commend the Excellence Community Education Welfare Scheme (ECEWS), organisers of the project, and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which funds it through the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for their massive support for the project.

It would appear that Nigeria had been so distracted by the Coronavirus pandemic, Ebola and other diseases that we have had to relegate HIV/AIDS to the background. We had made significant progress on HIV/AIDS until some of the agencies combating the disease were enmeshed in alleged corrupt practices, like fiddling with donor funds.

The outbreak of COVID-19 and other emergencies however took HIV/AIDS away from focus. The grim statistics from Osun State has made it compelling for governments at all levels in the country to, as a matter of urgency, shift attention back to the disease before it becomes a malignant tumour. We can only imagine what the situation in our major cities across the country would be like if about 30,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in Osun State alone.

Enlightenment campaign must resume to let Nigerians know the causes of HIV/ AIDS and how they can prevent it. Just as it was done at the peak of COVID-19 when we had the rules concerning constant washing of hands, social distancing, etc., we need to remind Nigerians about what they need to do to keep HIV/AIDS away. They must avoid sharing syringes, clippers, ensure they do blood transfusion only in designated safe places, among others. And, for those who have already contracted HIV/AIDS, they must know that it is no longer a death sentence. It can be managed with appropriate medications. We have many living testimonies to this.

We urge that treatment be commenced immediately for the over 13,000 people living with the disease in the state who are yet to be put on treatment. We agree with the head of legal service, ECWS Project Director of HIV treatment for Osun, Ekiti and Delta states, Dr Okezie Onyedinachi, that those involved in the project have to change tactics where necessary. According to Onyedinachi, “we have to do things differently, entering into the communities and providing opportunities for people to know their HIV status and get treatment across Osun State.” Early commencement of treatment and strict adherence to medication and other medical advice have a way of prolonging the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS .

In this wise, as Stevens observed, “We need a community of partnership. We need the government, police, civil societies, and implementing partners. We need more hands in America to work together. It is going to take that combined effort to reach our most vulnerable citizens. Write those people who have been cast aside, those people who are often ignored and downtrodden and work together to find them.”

In addition to the state government’s efforts to get more people that are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus treated, it must also  address the question of inequality that is a major driving factor by combining “services for sexual and reproductive health with services for preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence and HIV, to design interventions that work for all women and girls…” who are the most vulnerable groups, in line with the state government’s aspirations.

As we earlier canvassed, governments nationwide must take the Osun State report as a wake-up call to resume aggressive testing for HIV/AIDS so that people can know their HIV status. This should be the starting point. Other things will then follow after ascertaining the prevalence of the virus in the communities. It is dangerous to assume that the revelation from Osun State is or can only be seen as peculiar to the state.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government must go tough on those who pilfered donor funds in the past, to reassure the donors that their funds for projects like HIV/AIDS and others would always be judiciously spent.

• 15-year-old girl gang-raped deserves justice

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) continues to be perpetrated across the country at very alarming rates. Even though there are laws meant to protect women and girls from very lascivious men, there are institutional lapses that enhance sexual violence. The institutional lapses often stem from a plethora of factors. Socio-culturally, women are often regarded as tools for the sexual satisfaction of men. Moreover, many religions see women as somewhat inferior to men and they are groomed to be submissive to men.

Politically too, there are often no strong and totally functional structural frameworks to institutionalise the investigation, arrest and diligent prosecution of sexual offenders. Even though there is a national gender policy that criminalises sexual violence and stipulates the punishment, not all the states have domesticated those laws. States like Lagos and Ondo have given some publicity to the Sexual Offenders Register through which convicted offenders’ names are listed as deterrent to others.

The issue of rape has continued to increase because a lot of social and bureaucratic hurdles influence the treatment of cases. In a patriarchal society like Nigeria, victims of rape are often further victimised by the society. Frivolous victim-shaming and stigma are often put on victims that even attempt to report to police. Some families try to conceal incestuous cases, some child-marriages are seen as part of socio-religious issues, victims are often blamed for being at places they have been raped or even the way they dress.

In many cases, security agencies that are supposed to make arrests often blame the victims or persuade the family to go and treat the crime as ‘family matter’. Even when there are identifiable suspects, status or lack of diligent prosecution deny victims justice.  It is not surprising therefore that there are many cases that have left victims without justice and in a way, emboldened perpetrators of sexual violence against women and girls in Nigeria. What the society fails to appreciate is the mortal damage that sexual violence do to women and girls forever and the way these ultimately affect even the perpetrators.

The recent pathetic case of Binta Isah, a deaf and dumb 15-year-old girl that was gang-raped in Nasarawa State in a way is a metaphor for all the victims of rape, not just in Nigeria but across the world because human emotions are the same. She narrated to the police and reporters, through an interpreter, her ordeal of being raped by 24-year-old Aminu Kashimu and 18-year-old Lukman Dogara, who ambushed her and lured her to their residence where they took turns to rape her while gagging her to mute her voice.

Binta has narrated how broken she is, how violated she feels and the fact that she is suicidal at the moment. This heinous crime by these two men is heartbreaking because the lady is also living with disability and the suspects are known to her and she had trusted them when they invited her to their house. Most rape cases are by known figures to victims who plan their crime over time. The fact that they took advantage of her vulnerability is one identifiable strategy of rapists.

We commend the police in this instance for wading in early enough. The mother was very vigilant and brave to have kicked down their door on hearing her daughter’s cries.The parents of Binta have equally insisted on justice for their daughter. The onus is now on the institutions of state to do their jobs so diligently that the justice of the case would be clear and stand as a deterrent to impending violators of women and girls. There are laws and there are institutions that must work together to protect women and girls not just in Nasarawa State, but across the country.

The state must come to the aid of this 15-year-old who is obviously traumatised such that she is contemplating suicide. She must be assisted to heal and part of the process must be her seeing the suspects brought to justice. She must be availed the services of social workers and psycho-therapists as soon as possible, seeing that the judicial process in Nigeria takes long.

We equally commend the Chief Executive Officer of Center for Care and Development in Nigeria (CCDN), a non –governmental organisation, Blessing Tulari, who has been on this and other cases in the state. We enjoin other CSOs to borrow a leaf as we try to tackle the menace of GBV in the country.

• Security votes can be disbursed largely through online platforms; we need to discourage huge cash payments

We see the kerfuffle between the state governors and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) over the modalities for the utilisation of security votes by the former as not only self-serving but utterly needless.  The NFIU’s position, as expressed in the words of one of its officials to this newspaper is certainly not hard to understand. It is in accord with public interest: “Nobody is saying the governors cannot do anything with their money. They should just do the right thing.

“Must they spend security votes in cash? If it is payment they want to do, they can do it through transfer. It doesn’t have to be in cash.”

To be sure, the latest development is coming in the wake of NFIU’s January 4 announcement outlawing the payment of cash by public entities to individuals: “any government official that withdraws even one naira cash from any public account from March 1 will be investigated and prosecuted in collaboration with relevant agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).”

While directing banks and government agencies to move fully into online payments “as all transactions involving public money must be routed through the banks for the purpose of accountability and transparency”, the agency warned: “Any government official who flouts the order will be prosecuted alongside his or her accomplices.”

The NFIU, ostensibly desirous of finding accommodation to the governors concerns, has since shifted the cut-off date till April 15.

We understand the temptation to link the development with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s bungled demonetisation policy. Nothing however in the directives can be said to be deemed as extraordinary let alone being outside of NFIU’s remit as a financial intelligence body. Unlike the demonetisation policy which puts individuals and corporate cash transactions as its chief focus and which the Supreme Court has mercifully put on hold, the NFIU directive, although complementary, is strictly about public funds that are products of the appropriation process and so are matters of legitimate public interest and hence subject to the strictest test of transparency.

In any case, we understand the directive to be an element in the mandatory provision of the global Financial Action Task Force requiring such policies to be in place to curb corruption, money laundering, terrorism financing and sundry abuses to which Nigeria is part.

We expect the governors, perhaps more than any other group or individuals, to appreciate the dire implications of neglecting to observe those global protocols and conventions to which the country is signatory, particularly those involving massive haul of cash. Even without those dire consequences, the egregious abuses to which public funds are known to be subjected by those who ordinarily should be foremost custodians of public trust are certainly grave enough to compel such a directive by the NFIU as indeed other anti-graft bodies. That any group, particularly the governors, would be seen to resist such provisions merely goes to reinforce the age-long perception about how public funds are being treated as an extension of the private coffers by those in whose charge the funds are kept.

Far from what appears to be their wholesale rejection of the NFIU’s directive, the issue ought to be whether some exceptions can be made to accommodate the governors’ concerns, particularly in the area of security, and this only in specific cases and under certain exigencies. Even then, this must come with the understanding that this cannot be open-ended as is currently the case, in which some governors have literally converted their government houses to cash centres.