Category: Editorial

• It is better to address the socio-economic conditions that led to street begging

News of 217 street beggars, street boys and vagabonds sent back to their home states by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), on April 2, yet again evoked the high level of poverty in the country. It is disturbing that destitution is a known major cause of street begging in the country, among other factors.

The Director, Department of Social Welfare Services, Social Development Secretariat of the FCTA, Alhaji Sani Amar-Rabe, was reported saying they were to be returned “mostly to Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Jigawa, Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi states.” He added that “this time around we have some from Abia, Imo and Delta states,” which meant that such expulsions from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, were not unprecedented.

But the approach is not an effective solution to the problem because the affected beggars could return to the capital and continue street begging.  

About a year ago, over 150 beggars, said to be mainly women, children and aged men, were arrested at various locations in the city by the enforcement squad of the Social Development Secretariat.

Amar-Rabe said “they consider the FCT safer and economically viable, especially those from the North West and the North East. So, people from these zones move to Abuja for survival.” He urged FCT residents to stop giving alms to street beggars “because it is encouraging them to continue to remain on the streets and constitute a nuisance to the city.” This perspective is simplistic.

Identified factors that encourage street begging include customs and religion, poverty, indolence, unemployment, physical disability, psychiatric disorder, lack of spouse or family and uncontrolled rural-urban migration.

Beggars drawn to the federal capital, believing it is “flowing with milk and honey” like the biblical Canaan, reflect poor socio-economic conditions in their states.  

Notably, Abuja is not the only city in the country facing the problem of street begging, which shows the scale of the issue.  For instance, in August 2020, the Kogi State government, in a move to remove street beggars from the state capital, Lokoja, returned more than 70 beggars to five northern states, Katsina, Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi and Zamfara.

Also, in January 2015, the Kano State Hisbah Board announced that it had facilitated the return of 52 street beggars to their state of origin. Its spokesperson explained that “The street beggars were arrested by the Lagos State Government which banned street begging and sent them back to Kano. The Kano State government then directed the board to return some of them to their respective states of origin.”

Arresting beggars is not the same thing as arresting poverty, just as expelling beggars is not the same thing as expelling poverty. This explains why street begging by destitute persons is still a big issue in the country.

According to Amar-Rabe, those sent back to their home states “showed no interest in learning vocational skills. But those who have a good mindset embrace skills acquisition for empowerment.” It is commendable that the FCTA runs a vocational and rehabilitation centre in Kuchikon Bwari, as part of efforts to tackle street begging. This is a useful approach.  Other states facing the same problem but lacking such a facility should establish similar centres.   

However, there is a need for a holistic approach focused on improving socio-economic conditions in the country.  The national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in November 2022 said 133 million Nigerians, over half of the population of Nigeria, were “multidimensionally poor,” and “high deprivations” were “apparent nationally in sanitation, time to healthcare, food insecurity, and housing.” Three out of five Nigerians live in poverty, according to the report.

Data from MPI and Monetary Poverty Measurement (MPM) calls into question the anti-poverty efforts of the Federal Government, and also raises questions about the seriousness of state and local governments in the fight against poverty. 

Ultimately, street begging, which is mainly connected with poor socio-economic conditions, demands governance-driven solutions beyond ritualistic expulsions of street beggars.

• Interim government is alien to our constitution 

Before the February 25, 2023 presidential election,  some muffled voices came up with a strange call for an interim government.  An elderstatesman, Chief Afe Babalola, a prominent Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was one of those bandying the concept on the grounds that there was cause for constitutional rearrangement of the country that the Buhari administration could no longer handle before the time specified for handover to another government.

Specifically,  he called for a return to the parliamentary system of government and the collapse of existing states into regions.

However sincere and patriotic he might have been at the time, it was obvious that it would have been a dangerous route to take. Nigeria operated the system in the First Republic and it collapsed within six years. Then, why did Chief Babalola wait for the last minute to make the call at a time that politicians were already jostling for positions and so much had been spent by the Independent National Electoral Commission  (INEC) in preparation for the elections?

Another group that made the call before the elections was the Chief Ayo Adebanjo-led Afenifere. The group canvassed the need for an interim government of sorts or an extension of the tenure of the current administration to allow time for rearrangement of the nation’s geo-political structure. When the call did not receive popular support, Afenifere was quick to endorse the candidacy of Mr. Peter Obi of Labour Party. 

Neither Chief Babalola nor Chief Adebanjo has said anything on this after Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress  (APC) was declared winner of the poll by the electoral commission. 

However, the Department of State Services  (DSS) in a release last week frightened the political establishment and the general public when it said that some people were plotting to install an interim government. This, clearly, would be illegal as the route to be taken in recruiting leaders and inaugurating governments is clearly spelt out in the 1999 Constitution. It does not contemplate any method outside elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

We agree with the DSS  that anyone severally or jointly planning anything different is subversive of the constitution and good order in the country.

As the security agency said, such acts are treasonable and punishable under the laws of the land. It is unfortunate that the DSS had made such calls in the past with nothing done by the state. The outcry was followed by neither arrests nor arraignment, thus leading citizens to doubt the authenticity of the declarations. One of such occasions was when the agency said, in 2021, that it had uncovered financiers of terrorism in Nigeria.  It said they would soon be arraigned in court. Nothing has been done till date. 

The only time we had an interim government installed was in the wake of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election. The departing military government of General Ibrahim Babangida hurriedly put together an illegal contraption called Interim National Government  (ING) led by Chief Ernest Shonekan. The government lacked legitimacy and fell like a pack of cards in three months. The contraption was declared illegal by Justice Dolapo Akinsanya of the Ikeja High Court. It was therefore not just a political failure as it could not achieve the purpose of obliterating the achievement of Chief MKO Abiola from people’s mind. It was also a legal failure as there was no way something could have been built on nothing.

In this case, we call on the DSS, working in concert with other security arms of government,  to swing into action swiftly and prove its assertion. Treason is not a matter to toy  with at a time like this. The state must show that it cannot only bark, but bite. May 29 has been slated for inauguration of the Tinubu government and it is sacrosanct. If DSS has truly done its homework well, it is necessary to prosecute the alleged plotters to deter any other person or group making such attempts in the future.

• Stakeholders need government’s intervention

Poultry farmers in the country have continued to count their losses since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2019, even though the pandemic has since subsided globally. Other factors have raised their ugly heads, further compounding the woes of the farmers. These include forex challenges, the naira redesign crisis, cashless policy, avian influenza, insecurity and cost of feeds, all of which are taking heavy tools on their operations.

In specific terms, the sector lost N1.5trn to COVID-19. This is as per statistics released by the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN). “Factories were forced to bury their day-old chicks because they could not sell them, and eggs were buried because they were not picked up from the farms due to lockdown, which is unfortunate.

“Even the chicks that managed to come out of the factories, died because of suffocation; farms were forced to sell off birds due to the cost of feed.

“Then for the feed millers, even getting the raw materials became a big problem. So conservatively, what we can quantify in terms of loss, is about N1.5 trillion for the poultry industry,” Dr Onallo Akpa, PAN’s Director-General said, while expatiating on the impact of COVID-19. 

Again, just like the other sectors, the poultry farmers also lost significantly to the Naira redesign and cashless policy, both of which have left the Nigerian economy in the doldrums in the last three months or so. Cumulatively, about N30billion was said to have been lost to both policies. The poultry farmers claim this resulted from lack of cash to purchase eggs and their other products. According to them, the industry was “on the verge of total collapse and extermination because of the negative and devastating consequences of the currency swap on the industry.” About 20 per cent of their eggs, for instance, they claim, have not been off-taken because of “the near absence and lack of Naira”.

Another challenge of the poultry farmers is bird flu. The unexpected increase in the number of outbreaks of bird flu, that is highly contagious and lethal, particularly in domestic poultry, has led to the shutdown of over 300 farms in three months.

These challenges have made the National President of PAN, Chief Sunday Ezeobior  and Dr Akpa, its director-general, to appeal for assistance. There is no doubt that the poultry farmers have suffered severe losses, with some of them closing shop and several others merely managing to keep afloat. This has wider implications not only for the economy generally, but more especially food security, particularly the vital nutrients required for balanced growth.

The poultry farmers claim that their sector is “one of the most consolidated subsectors of the Nigerian agriculture, contributing about 25 per cent of the Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (AGDP) of the economy and employing over 25 million Nigerians directly and indirectly.” Whether we agree with this or not, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)  of the United Nations says Nigeria has the second largest chicken population in Africa after South Africa, producing 650,000 tons of eggs.

This means the potential, even from egg production alone, is huge.

There is no doubt that, like their counterparts in other sectors, poultry farmers need assistance, especially in the face of the unexpected and peculiar circumstances that they found themselves. For instance, no one could have contemplated that a policy as simple as cash redesign could lead to the kind of disruptions that we experienced in the last three months, which greatly affected the purchasing power of Nigerians. It is a situation of vicious cycle when goods produced cannot be bought because people can’t have access to their money in banks.

Governments must look into practical ways to intervene to cushion the effects of these challenges on the poultry farmers. This would not be a new thing whether in Nigeria or the world at large. We agree that sometimes, subsidies could be counterproductive. For instance, in wealthy nations subsidies promoted the overconsumption of meat whereas it encouraged the consumption of low-nutrition staples like rice, in the developing countries. Still, governments continue to subsidise farmers. At least $540 billion was spent by governments globally on agriculture subsidies between 2013 and 2018, according to a study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

We are here not talking about subsidies by throwing money at the problem the way government did to other sectors in the past, without much to show for it. Rather, the intervention should be carefully pursued to ensure it gets to the real beneficiaries, with specific areas of need in mind, for meaningful results.

• Why would a 75-year-old grandma set her son and his family ablaze over food?

Although the 75-year-old grandmother, Iforiti Oloro, who set her son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren ablaze in Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State is now dead, the story would linger, not only  in the Aponmu community, a suburb of Akure, the Ondo State capital where it occurred, but in the minds of those who heard about it. The incident was bizzare as it was thought-provoking.

The son of the septuagenarian, Victor Oloro, his wife, Rachael, and children, Toluwani and Blessing, could never have imagined the fate that befell them that fateful Friday, March 17. The man had returned home from work and had dinner with his wife and children before retiring to bed, with the two children. The wife later joined them after saying her night prayers. A few hours later, the grandmother carried out her devilish plot: she set the house ablaze. The couple shouted for help while the children were unconscious. Neighbours rallied round to salvage the situation as well as prevent the fire from spreading to neighbouring houses. But it was late; much harm had been done.

One of the rescuers who was also close to the Oloro family, Mr Michael Korede, said they had to break one of the windows in the house to get to the victims when they heard the shout of the deceased from their apartment. He said “After several attempts, we were able to break the small window in front of the building and first rescued the two children. We later brought out their parents. They were already badly affected by the fire. So, we got a vehicle that midnight and rushed them to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the General Hospital, Akure.

“But when we got there, the medical doctors and nurses on duty rejected them. They told us they cannot treat them due to the degree of burns, and advised us to take them to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owo.

“At Owo, they were quickly attended to but the next day (Saturday), the man and his wife died. The two children are still in the hospital but one of them is in a serious condition and we are praying he survives.”

If the act of the grandma was bizzare, the reason for her action was grotesque. She reportedly said she set her own blood ablaze because they were starving her! The first reaction of whoever heard about the incident would be to ask whether anyone in his or her right senses could ever have done a thing like that simply because of food. Not much has been heard on the matter from neighbours, so there is a limit to how far one could go beyond speculating.

For instance, it would have been interesting to know whether the allegation was true or not because, if it was, it is possible those in the neighbourhood would be aware such a thing was happening. Again, if it was true, there would have been earlier reactions from both the daughter-in-law in particular and the woman, to indicate that there was looming danger in the house, which were possibly ignored or treated as a mere ‘family affair’ that would disappear with time. For how long had the couple been living together with the septuagenarian? Who owned the house that was set ablaze? Was there a cordial relationship between particularly the wife and the grandmother? What of the children; were they sufficiently close to their grandma? These and possibly other questions would have to be answered before a thorough appraisal of the incident can be done.

As a matter of fact, the first thing that would occur to whoever came across the story would be that the woman should be taken for psychiatric test.

Even then, is murder the solution to the problem of the allegation by the grandma? If headache is not solved by cutting off the aching head, then setting people ablaze could not have been the solution to the starvation that had been alleged in this matter.

That bordered on crime and we are not surprised that the grandma too died a few days later. It probably dawned on her that she had overreacted and she could no longer withstand the weight of the consequences of her action; whether before neighbours or even in the face of the law. She realised that the consequences of her action was death. Even if she was not killed in return, could she have been able to withstand the memory of killing her son and his wife?

It is unfortunate that she could not even be mentally examined to ascertain whether she was mentally sound or not before she died. This would have given a clue to her exact state of mind and why she had to burn her son, his wife as well as her grandchildren.

All said, couples must appreciate  the need to care for aged parents, whether those of the wife or husband, irrespective of whether they are living together or not. We feel for the children who now have to live without parents and urge that the state government takes up their matter so that they do not get punished for an offence they knew nothing about. They should be given the best of medical treatment possible. Their future is important. 

• Its $325.8m solar cells plant project is commendable and deserves support

With the laying of the foundation for the NASENI Solar Cells Production Plant in Gora, Nasarawa State, by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, last week, the country’s aspirations in solar energy production as indeed the manufacture and testing of ancillary equipment has not only received fresh impetus, its dream of diversifying its sources of power would appear to be firmly on course.

We are referring here to a project of three parts: a production and research plant, consisting of four main production sections – polysilicon section of 1,000 tons per annum; ingot section of 50MW per annum; wafers of 50MW per annum and, solar cells of 50MW per annum – cost $171.9 million; an electric power transformer production plant costing $123,990,000 and a high voltage testing laboratory costing $29,900,690. 

In all, we are talking of an investment outlay totalling $325.8 million to boost power supply and to address some of those perceptible lacunas in the power supply matrix. Whereas China Africa Development (CAD) through the Bank of China is expected to provide 85 percent of the funds, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) is expected to provide the counterpart fund of 15 percent.

The project could only have come as an affirmation of NASENI’s relevance as an intervention agency; a bold statement on the prodigious possibilities of such research institutions, provided the right conditions are availed them to do their jobs. Perhaps unlike some agencies known only for drawing from the public till even when they have nothing of value to offer, NASENI has certainly set itself apart among the class that appreciates what it means to create real and lasting value to the economy and not least to the citizens, from whom it derives its rationale. It deserves to be encouraged.

In the same vein, we commend the development partners for keeping faith with NASENI even when things proved difficult. As the executive vice chairman and chief executive officer of NASENI, Prof. Mohammad Sani Haruna, would care to remind on the occasion, things have not exactly been smooth sailing. In fact, the initial agreement to establish the plant was actually signed in July 2013; later renewed in 2018 after a series of frustrating obstacles and bureaucratic bottlenecks were thrown in the path of the project partners. Now that things have come this far, we can only hope that the issues which frustrated the initial take-off will not recur to stall the construction.

For us, the real deal is that NASENI has chosen to take on the task of harnessing energy from a source which the country is boundlessly resourced.

Yet, as important as – to quote Vice President Osinbajo – “the urgency of climate action today and the importance of developing African green energy manufacturing and solutions” is to NASENI’s mandate, those visible spin-offs in the area of skills acquisition and transfer, employment and wealth creation, affordable products – including a boost in the power pool are perhaps equal if not greater, in weight in the minds of ordinary citizens in dire need of electricity to light up their homes and to power their enterprises.

In other words, it is not sufficient for NASENI to develop and sit atop the technology throne; it must evolve a deliberate programme to ensure that relevant intermediate skills are transferred on the one hand to young Nigerians and for the rest of society on the other, products that are reliable and affordable. It is only to the extent that NASENI is truly able to deliver on those varied promises that its quest to be a game-changer would have been firmly grounded. 

For now, it is still a long way from there. Indeed, its pre-occupation should be how to move the project from foundation level to completion. That means keeping to the budget and timelines, in the end, ensuring that the country gets real value for every kobo spent to bring the project to fruition.

• We urge its speedy implementation to fetch more revenue for govt

The news that the Special Investigative Panel, headed by Maj. Gen. Barry Ndiomu, set up by the Federal Government to investigate oil theft/losses in Nigeria, has submitted its report to the National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno, is welcome. The Head, Strategic Communication, in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), while announcing the submission, said Gen. Ndiomu called for a speedy implementation of the report. We join the committee to demand for immediate implementation of the report, to curb the malignant hemorrhage of Nigeria’s oil revenue.

In a related development, a research team from the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), led by Ogoni-born professor of history, Ben Naanen, in 2022, reported that about 200,000 barrels of crude oil, or 14 percent, was stolen every day out of the 1.4m bpd produced in Nigeria. The team said that at the price of over $100 per barrel, and using N411 per dollar in the official market, the nation losses between N8.2bn and N17bn per day, making it between N30 trillion and N60 trillion loss per year.

This year, Nigeria budgeted 1.69 million barrels per day oil production benchmark, but in January and February, the country had recorded an output deficit of about 23.7 million barrels of crude oil production, valued at about N920 billion at the official exchange rate of N460 per dollar.

At a recent seminar by Defence Correspondents Association of Nigeria, the former Chief of Policy and Plans, Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Henry Babalola (retd), said: “The government is not doing enough to eradicate oil theft. Nigeria is not taking it as an emergency. Oil thieves/criminals should be charged with treason. The amount lost to this menace is humongous.”

He went on: “The $20bn said to be lost to crude oil theft by both the downstream and upstream sectors would have shored up our oil  revenue, and paid our debts. Crude oil theft will kill the nation if drastic action is not taken.” There is no doubt that our country is bleeding from the menace of oil theft, vandalisation and related challenges, and the country must do all it should to check the trend.

We hope implementation of the report would be a turning point in the fight against oil theft and its ancillary challenges. We wonder what happened to the momentum recorded when Tantita Security Service Nigeria Ltd, a company associated with the former leader of Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, was given contract to protect the oil pipelines. We recall that the company made several discoveries of pipelines running side by side with official lines.

We recall there were reports that some security officials were interfering with the work of the company. Could it be that the company has been infiltrated by the bug they were paid to take out of business, or that the security officials have succeeded in cowing them to allow continuation of the illicit trade by oil thieves? Regrettably, it seems all is quiet after the initial achievements. But, Nigerians need regular update on the activities of the private company engaged at huge cost to solve the problem of pipeline vandalisation.

The Ndiomu committee said it consulted and received memorandum from many stakeholders across the board. It identified the absence of proper reporting of crude oil production, illegal refining, theft from well-heads and diversion from sophisticated pipelines network, as causes of the enormous losses. The panel also bemoaned the absence of a robust industry-wide metering system and an unworkable security arrangement.

We reiterate the need to save our oil industry, and urge the incoming administration to deal with the challenges raised in the report.