The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Controversial clemency

    Controversial clemency

    Government should tidy up the list in time to assure all that it is in control of the process

    The uproar over the exercise of the President’s Prerogative of Mercy is yet to die down. Many in the legal community and the politically aware have raised objection to the rather large number of those convicted for drug-related offences and the case of Maryam Sanda who murdered her husband and got sentenced to death by hanging. While no one could query the President for complying with the constitution by receiving recommendation by a panel for the purpose and duly passing same to the Council of State for approval, the feedback from the public is quite helpful.

    The task of public review of policies has been left to the government and a few activists for too long. As long as we practice democracy, the people must be at the centre of all government activities and all decisions should be subjected to intense scrutiny, despite the fact that some could do so from narrow subjective angles. While, in this case, the government could be commended for listening to the public outcry, it must be said, too, that any institution of state saddled with such and similar responsibilities should be more thorough before coming up with its recommendations.

    It would appear that due diligence was not exercised in this process. Before the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), appended his signature to the list and passed it to the President, he ought to have done a thorough review. It is expected that the recommendations would be accompanied case-by- case with reasons for the advice. Had this been done, when the criticisms mounted, they would have been met with acceptable explanations, rather than capitulation.

    We hope that the attorney-general who assumed the office as a learned silk would take time to personally review the final list after it might have been compiled by his subordinates. And, it should be realised that passing a list that had not been vetted to the President is an embarrassment, especially when the Council of State had to approve. Now that it is being further reviewed, should the improved list be re-presented? Everything that has the imprimatur of the President should have the mark of near perfection.

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    For the avoidance of doubt, the law that empowers the President to grant pardon does not limit him in anyway. He could grant a hardened criminal, a political prisoner or anyone long gone, especially in cases where injustice is established in the process of conviction and or sentencing. What we are saying is that presidential pardons are usually controversial, even in advanced countries.

    In the United States of America, President Joe Biden, in 2024, just before his tenure expired, elected to pardon 39 persons and commuted the sentences of about 1,500 others. One prominent name on the list was Hunter Biden, his son. The convicts were those jailed for non-violent crimes. Each case had a short description of how and why the pardoned got their sentences and reasons for the pardon.

    Biden’s successor, Donald Trump, who had been indicted for inciting his supporters to invade Congress on January 6, 2021, got all the convicts pardoned. This generated public uproar but it had little effect because the President acted within his constitutional powers.

    In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari granted clemency to former Governors Joshua Dariye of Plateau State, and Jolly Nyame of Taraba State, who were convicted for corrupt enrichment. The reasons given were found even more ridiculous. Claiming that both were ill and getting old did not cut an ice with the public who argued that there were more persons in jail who had no access to appropriate medical care and were older, yet did not catch the attention of the President.

    With regard to Herbert Macaulay, a foremost nationalist who was also pardoned but whose family felt he should not have been lumped with ‘’all manner of characters’’, the Federal Government may want to consider the family’s request for a separate pardon for him in the coming review of the list. This is notwithstanding the argument in some quarters that Macaulay’s sentence was under colonial laws and therefore irrelevant; the optics is good.

    To formally cleanse such an iconic figure of any possible stain is commendable. Indeed, it would not be out of place to now follow the presidential pardon with the conferment of the nation’s highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, on him.

    We call on the state and federal chief executives to constructively use their prerogative of mercy to free as many deserving persons awaiting trial in the various correctional centres in the country. The congestion that has formed the crux of eyebrows of managing criminal justice in the country should receive more than the occasional pardons. Since correctional centres were moved from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent, state governments have been reluctant to take up the responsibility. This should change.

    The attorney-general of the federation, must now ensure that the chapter on the list just released is closed as soon as possible. It helps to assure Nigerians that the engine driving management of the justice system is still working effectively.

  • Cooking gas scarcity

    Cooking gas scarcity

    •The experience is no doubt avoidable; it should not happen again

    Nigerians are groaning as a result of the pains occasioned by scarcity and high cost of cooking gas. Long queues of consumers have been reported across the country, with many bemoaning the economic implications to private homes and other businesses that use gas.

    There seems to be a multiplicity of likely reasons cooking gas suddenly became not just more expensive but unavailable. Some claim that the recent strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Workers of Nigeria (PENGASAN) over alleged lack of local content consideration by the Dangote refinery caused the high prices and scarcity.

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, seemingly promised to intervene by clamping down on marketers hoarding or exploiting consumers. Chairman of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers Branch of PENGASSAN, Ayobami Olarinoye, alleged that Dangote refinery sold at a certain price to some off-takers and major distributors who in turn allegedly inflated the prices.

    Sources from Dangote refinery however claimed that while they sold at N715/kg, some distributors sold at between N1,500-N2,000/kg.

    We are worried that Nigerians are now the ones suffering as two elephants fight. For a country as blessed as Nigeria with gas deposits and crude oil, this is unacceptable.

    The claim that the sad situation was caused by the three-day strike by PENGASSAN at the Dangote refinery and the ongoing maintenance activities at the Nigeria LNG Train 4 facility should be unacceptable to the country’s economy managers, given its effect on the economy.

    Economies must not be run as though people don’t understand the larger implication of negligence and lack of adequate planning. The government must plan better. The system is globally the same and the interruptions experienced in Nigeria in the oil and gas sector seem peculiar to Nigeria. There are sectors that operators must be bound by very implementable guidelines beyond which penalties would apply.

    While we support labour laws that guarantee industrial actions, we do not support the weaponisation of industrial unions in ways we have seen in the past in the country. Industrial arbitration and other forms of negotiations are usually more functional than the style that the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and PENGASSAN have both often adopted in the country, given the value of their sector in the economy.  The government on its part must be in a position to implement agreements that it negotiates with unions to avoid the disruptions often experienced.

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    The wider implication of the fallout of the disruption in gas supply in the country is unimaginable. In an era where poverty rates are increasing, disruption in some sectors can be destabilising to the economy. We cannot imagine the productive man-hours that are being lost as Nigerians scamper around looking for gas even if at very exorbitant prices.

    For a people who have decided to embrace the use of gas as a way of fighting deforestation in a world battling with climate change and acute global warming, it is discouraging to consumers to continue to depend on an irregular and expensive gas usage option.

    The prices of cylinders, many of which seem to be substandard, can be discouraging to a population that is impacted by high cost of living. The government must adopt a more sustainable process that meets the demands of the consumers.

    Leaving the prices at the mercy of LNG, Dangote refinery and other forces of marketing is an ill-wind that blows no one any good. There must be a process of serious monitoring of all the ancillary units of production and marketing to ensure that consumers are not short-changed.

    Oil and gas are fundamental to development in today’s global economy. Therefore Nigeria must maximise the resources available and ensure the people live the good life as other oil-producing countries. It amounts to a mockery of the natural endowments of the country to continually have the people living under the strain of official bureaucracy and trade unionism.

    We suggest a more hands-on regulatory action that puts the people’s welfare first in the sector; even as producers and marketers make their profit.

  • Christopher Kolade (1932 – 2025)

    Christopher Kolade (1932 – 2025)

    Remarkably, he was a respected public figure whose name was a byword for integrity, professionalism and civility. A man of many parts, Dr Christopher Kolade consistently demonstrated and promoted these values.  His death on October 8, aged 92, highlighted his enduring virtues. Whether as a teacher, broadcaster, administrator, boardroom giant, diplomat, academic or public servant, he exemplified those virtues.

    He was born in Erin-Oke, in present-day Osun State.  After his education at Government College, Ibadan, and Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone, he worked as an education officer in Nigeria during the colonial era.

    He later entered broadcasting, and rose to the position of director-general of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in a media career that spanned 18 years, from 1960 to 1978.

    His time at Cadbury Nigeria Plc, a food, sweets and drink company, where he was managing director/chief executive officer and later chairman, showed that his media success was no fluke. The period is regarded as a golden era of the company.

    A champion of good corporate governance, he shared his knowledge and experience with students at Lagos Business School where he taught Corporate Governance, Leadership and Human Resources Management, initially from 1995 to 2002.

    When he served as Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2002 to 2007, it was yet another terrain for him. He was no less successful as a diplomat. The country benefitted from his image as a man of integrity.

    Interestingly, he returned to teaching at Lagos Business School after his ambassadorial stint. He was quoted as saying, “I love to teach and if it is one more person I can convert to my way of thinking, then it would be well worth it.”

    The Christopher Kolade Foundation (CKF), which he founded in 1997, focuses on education, particularly girl-child education (specifically science, technology, engineering, mathematics, music and agriculture), leadership and governance education, Christian and theological education and education in inter-faith relations. It is a commendable approach to giving back to society.

    It was a reflection of his role in education that he became pro-chancellor and chairman of the Governing Council of Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, and chancellor of McPherson University, Ogun State.  The Christopher Kolade Centre for Research in Leadership and Ethics (CKCRLE), at Lagos Business School, bears his name “in recognition of his unwavering commitment to leadership, ethics and education.”

    Professionally, he was a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, the Society of Nigerian Broadcasters, the Nigerian Institute of Management, where he was president from 1985 to 1988, and the Institute of Personnel Management in Nigeria, where he served as president from 1988 to 1993.

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    He also promoted business integrity in Nigeria through his chairmanship of Integrity Organisation Ltd GTE and The Convention on Business Integrity Ltd GTE.

    His sense of integrity was driven by his religious conviction. “Many people,” he said, “would avoid doing certain things if they think they would be caught or if those things were to be in the open. That is precisely the point with me. I believe everything is in the open with God.”

     In 2000, he deservedly received the Nigerian national honour, Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), for his contributions to the development of the country.

    His badge of integrity earned him an appointment as chairman of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme Board, in January 2012, under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. He resigned in 2013 as he approached his 81st birthday, saying, “I am now old and I need to wind down some activities that take some of my energy.”

    His thought on leadership remains relevant as Nigeria struggles to find the right leaders to drive development. “Leadership is a responsibility,” he said. “And unless you are carrying out that responsibility, you are failing as a leader. Unless you know your responsibility and achieve the result expected from your leadership, you are a failure.”

  • Self-mockery

    Self-mockery

    • Slamming a 10-year ban on Nigerian felons abroad is unequal justice

    The National Assembly should reconsider its stand on Nigerian crime abroad with the consequence of a 10-year passport ban on any perpetrator.

    On the surface, it seems an attractive option, given its potential to clean up the Nigerian act abroad. But it drips with contradiction.

    We do not say we condone Nigerian crime anywhere. Nigerians commit crimes at home and abroad, and in both cases when they are caught, they suffer consequences.

    In fact, the criminal in the international community is more likely to suffer penalty for wrongdoing than the homebound felon. This does not imply that we discountenance the anxiety of the lawmakers over the tendencies of a few Nigerians to sully the reputation of their homeland.

    The sponsor of the bill is Senator Bello Abubakar of Niger North Senatorial District, but it was presented by Senator Ogoshi Onawo from Nasarawa State.

    “This is a deterrent and a signal that Nigeria will not condone criminal conduct that soils her image,” Onawo said.

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    “This proposed amendment will redeem, preserve and elevate the image and integrity of our dear country. It is also an opportunity for us to demonstrate our commitment to good governance and stance against crimes and criminality,” noted Onawo.

    “The green passport is increasingly discounted. Its sovereign pride has been severely diminished. That is a national emergency,” he warned.

    Indeed, Nigerians have been arrested and convicted abroad for a slew of offences, including drug trafficking, financial fraud and identity theft.

    It is not news that even high-profile names have fallen into the nets of foreign countries. A Nigerian monarch is the latest. An Osun Oba, the Ipetu of Ipetumodu, Joseph Oloyede, was convicted and jailed in the United States for four years for Covid-19 relief fraud.

    A lawmaker and deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, was also publicly tried and jailed in the United Kingdom for organ harvesting. Roman Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi, wove a cause celebre for fraud and identity fraud.

    “The implication of the proposed amendment is that where a Nigerian commits any of the foregoing offences in a foreign country and is convicted for the crime, the international passport of the convict would be withdrawn for 10 years. This measure serves as a veritable deterrent to the commission of crime in a foreign country,” he said.

    Mr Onawo listed countries such as China, Turkey, Canada, France, Egypt, Germany, Ethiopia, South Africa, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates as examples of where stringent visa restrictions have been applying to Nigerians.

    Another lawmaker ratchets up the logic by saying that non-Nigerians obtain the green passport. Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who is impressed by the bill, recounts an incident in Dubai when some blacks with Nigerian passports were caught for robbery only to discover they were not our citizens.

    The issue is that those who commit the offences are already punished, so what is the point adding another penalty? Official blowback for their offences has not deterred others from committing crimes abroad, so how can the prospect of not having passports stop them?

    If foreigners can obtain our passports, who says the convicts cannot obtain new passports under false identities? That foreigners obtain our passports shows the absurd contradiction of the bill in that we cannot slam 10-year ban on foreigners.

    Again, if people commit crime in Nigeria, they do not get 10-year passport bans, if the same offences. It means a Nigerian fraudster can obtain a passport who commits a crime at home but the NIgerian who commits the same abroad cannot. That permits, as it were, the homegrown killer to go abroad and do same. It is how absurd it sounds. It is unequal justice. It is legal self-mockery.

  • Good step forward

    Good step forward

    General Elections holding six months to swearing-in is salutary, but a lot depends on our lawyers and politicians

    National lawmakers are pushing to have the next presidential and governorship elections hold six months ahead of the expiration of current tenures in 2027. This, according to them, is to allow time for conclusion of all petitions arising from the polls before May 29, 2027 inauguration of new tenures.

    The legislators proposed the change as part of amendment of the legal framework currently being processed by both chambers of the National Assembly (NASS). Draft amendments to the Electoral Act 2022 were tabled last Monday at a one-day public hearing jointly organised by the Senate and House of Representatives committees on electoral matters in Abuja.

    Under the proposed Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2025, “elections into the office of the President and Governor of a state shall be held not later than 185 days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of the office.” If enacted into law, the polls would fall in November 2026 – some six months before the end of the current administration’s tenure, as against the schedule that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has drawn up for national elections to hold in February 2027 and state elections a fortnight later.

    By the same token, lawmakers proposed that elections into federal and state legislative seats “shall be held not later than 185 days before the date on which each of the houses stands dissolved.”

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    The lawmakers said the amendment was aimed at allowing sufficient time for resolution of election disputes before winners are sworn in. House Committee on Electoral Matters Chairman Adebayo Balogun said the amendment would help prevent situations where court cases linger after persons declared to have won elections had assumed office.

    “We are proposing that all election litigations be concluded before the swearing-in of declared winners,” he said.

    To achieve the goal, it isn’t only the election timeframe being proposed for adjustment, but also the litigation timeframe. Balogun said NASS planned to amend Sections 285 and 139 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to shorten timelines for election petitions: reducing tribunal judgments from 180 to 90 days, while appellate and Supreme Court decisions should take 60 days rather than 90 presently prescribed.

    Bottom line, according to him, is ensuring that the entire judicial process does not exceed 185 days precedent to inauguration date.

    Lawmakers, however, noted that the amendment alone may not be enough unless the judiciary is strengthened to handle the volume of election cases. “In a situation where a rerun is ordered by the Supreme Court at the end of 185 days, can we have vacancy in the office of the President?” the joint committee asked, stressing the need to address judicial challenges to cope with increasing litigation.

    There are other amendments being proposed in the reworking of the electoral law. These include a profound alteration of the Act to make electronic transmission of results mandatory, with penalties prescribed for non-compliance.

    The proposed Section 60(5) of the law reads, “The Presiding Officer shall transmit the results, including the total number of accredited voters, to the next level of collation both electronically and manually.” Failure to comply would attract a penalty of one-year imprisonment, N1million fine, or both. This differs markedly from the current framing of the law that permits any procedure prescribed by INEC.

    The new draft amendment also proposes early voting by certain categories of Nigerian electorate like security personnel, electoral staff, accredited journalists and election observers, who could be allowed to cast their ballots up to 14 days ahead of election day.

    Stakeholders at the Monday hearing, including INEC, broadly endorsed the proposals, describing them as potentiated to improve Nigeria’s electoral credibility, strengthen institutional efficiency and ensure that post-election litigations no longer overlap with new tenures.

    We too think the proposals are helpful, if enacted into law in good time, to be implemented. The idea of exhausting election cases before inauguration date, in particular, is revolutionary because, on one hand, lawyers have complained of inadequate time to ply election petitions and, on the other hand, the present arrangement allows office holders to exploit incumbency to their advantage. For instance, they’ve been accused of using public funds to fight against petitions.

    But the real challenge, in our view, isn’t with timeline. It is with the political culture. Six months is ordinarily long enough to prosecute a case; but when lawyers at the instigation of political clients waste time with frivolous interim applications, even the newly proposed timeframe may be found inadequate. Many Nigerian politicians are bad losers and highly litigious. There will be less stress about timeframes if we learn to be more sportsmanly in our quest for political office.

    Perhaps there’s also need for amendments to prescribe stiff penalties for glaringly frivolous petitioning, and there should be harsher penalties stipulated for electoral offenders who provide the ecosystem warranting endless electoral petitioning.

  • Students’ loan

    Students’ loan

    •We deplore arbitrary fee hikes and sharp practices that render NELFUND’s projections useless

    Recent arbitrary increases in tuition fees in our tertiary institutions, apparently due to the fact that students now have access to loans provided by the Federal Government for that purpose should be expected. We say this given our experiences with how some Nigerians make nonsense of otherwise laudable government projects and programmes.

    The Bola Tinubu administration set up the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to assist indigent students financially to at least see them through higher education and later repay the loan when they start working. The essence, according to the government, is to ensure that no one is denied higher education simply because his or her parents are poor.

    Many Nigerians commended the initiative which came decades after students loan and scholarships were either few and far between, or non-existent. Even bursary awards that university students used to enjoy from their state governments have vanished into thin air.

    Unfortunately, the loan scheme, barely 16 months after its take-off, seems to be running into stormy waters. The latest of these are the arbitrary increases in tuition fees by several tertiary institutions, particularly for programmes such as Medicine, Nursing, and Law that have been hiked by some institutions ranging between 20 and 522 per cent.

    A report titled ‘Report on Framework to Mitigate the Impact of Increased Institutional Charges on the Fund’s Operations’, lists some of the institutions where these anomalies are recorded. These include: University of Ilesha in Ilesha, Osun State, that raised its Nursing programme fee by about 55 per cent from N825,000 to N1.276 million, while its Law programme rose from N1.276 million to N1.526 million, a 20 per cent increase.

    Ekiti State University in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State,  increased its Medicine and Surgery fee from N797,000 to N1.132 million, representing a 42 per cent hike while Edo State University, Iyamho, Etsako West Local Government Area, Edo State, raised the same programme’s fee by N1 million, from N3.250 million to N4.250 million.

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    These arbitrary fee hikes are placing significant financial burden on students as well as render the fund’s projections useless.

    While we agree that some of these increases might be justified given the country’s economic situation; several others are just out of tune with reality. How, for instance, could a higher institution have raised its fee by about 500 per cent in so short a time?

    It would seem that some of these institutions have seen in the students’ loans a new growth area from where they could make profit. This is unfortunate as it is scandalous. Universities should be solution centres and not hubs of problems. There are tidier ways by which they could grow their revenues, even if we admit that they are not equally endowed.

    NELFUND should move swiftly to sift the wheat from the chaff.

    Perhaps it might be necessary to have an arrangement whereby the tuition fees could be determined by a particular body that would comprise stakeholders like the institutions, parents’ bodies and others, for standardisation. We know the environments are not the same; so there would be some variations in the arrangement to take care of the schools’ local peculiarities. But this would be better than individual institutions fixing their fees arbitrarily.

    We support the fund’s recommendations, including stopping disbursements to schools with extreme increases pending review, capping loans for affected institutions until a long-term solution is finalised, or temporarily halting loans to institutions where fee hikes exceed 100 per cent until a thorough review is conducted. We are also in support of the Federal Government’s decision to audit the universities over the TETFUND grants.

    The 51 institutions that had been implicated in illegal deductions and exploitation of the scheme should be appropriately sanctioned without negative impact on the beneficiary students because they are not responsible for the infractions. Indeed, the officials involved must not be spared either. That is the only way the government can demonstrate its zero tolerance for corruption on the arrangement.

    The scheme deserves the support and cooperation of all stakeholders. The schools must understand that the money is not freebie; it is loans that the beneficiaries would repay sometimes later. They therefore need to be sympathetic and considerate in all they do.

  • We, too, can

    We, too, can

    •Nobel Prizes are still within our reach if we try enough

    Every October the world looks forward to genius. It is because it waits on the wise men of Stockholm who announce the year’s winners of the Nobel Prizes in important areas of human endeavours and civilisation.

    Nigeria has no acclaim this year. We have not had one since Professor Wole Soyinka received the prize for literature in 1986. As the world acknowledged our own preeminent man of letters, so we do every year for those who are selected by the committee each year. It is a humanist award, a validation of years of toil when ideas and empathy meet.

    This year, a new list illumines the world. The first is for Physiology or Medicine. Three researchers won it “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.” It is about how the body protects itself from diseases and has been helping in such afflictions as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The winners are Mary E. Brunkow, 64, of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, United States; Fred Ramsdell of Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco in the United States; and Shimon Sakaguchi of Osaka University in Japan. Kudos!

    For Physics, the accolades go “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.” These colourful words reflect their feat for MRI and making better cell phones and computers. The winners are John Clarke, 83, of the University of California at Berkeley, United States; Michel H. Devoret, 72, at Yale University and John M. Martin. A nod for them!

    In Chemistry, it is awarded “for the development of metal-organic frameworks” that lay the groundwork for paradoxically sucking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and harvesting moisture for desert and dry environments. It is a hit for saving the planet. The laureates are Susumu Kigawa, 74, of Kyoto University in Japan; Richard Robson, 88, of the University of Melbourne, Australia; Omar M. Yaghi, 60, of the University of California at Berkeley. The world doffs its hat!

    For Literature, it goes to Hungarian novelist Laszlo Krasznahorkai, 71, “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” The writer is one of the writers of recent times that was on the prediction list and was able to get the committee’s mind right this time. His writings are noted for their bleak air and a sense of humanity’s compulsion to injustice and disaster. His works like Satantango and the Melancholy of resistance are representative of his genius. Cheers for him.

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    For Peace, the committee chooses Maria Corina Machado “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness” in her country Venezuela. She has been in hiding, yet she has been the rallying point and cry for a divided opposition, and has hounded the Maduro dictatorship with her grace and vision.

    The nation’s ruler Nicolas Maduro has subjected her to suppression and held the country in his iron grip. Her award was coveted by the United States President, Donald Trump, who made a drama of giving her call and almost insinuating in dubious humour that she might want to hand him the prize. A pacific applause for her!

    The last prize goes for Economic Science “having explained innovation-driven economic growth.” This is a paean to ideas that explicate the various ways that economies prosper.

    The winners are Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University in the United States as well as Eitan Berglas School of Economics; Phillipe Aghion of the College de France and INSEAD in France as well as the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom; and Peter Howitt of Brown University, United States. Hurrahs to them.

    If we must join this list, we must encourage research, and it begins with government. If one of us could get it, others also can.

  • Name-change not enough

    Name-change not enough

    •Excel Disco and IE Energy must prove they have something better to offer

    Lagos State Electricity Regulatory Commission (LASERC) formally issued distribution licences to two companies – Excel Distribution Company Limited and IE Energy Lagos Limited, on October 2, to herald their takeover of electricity distribution operations from Eko Electricity Distribution Plc and Ikeja Electric Plc, respectively.

    With the development, the two entities will now restrict their operations to Lagos, to the exclusion of Ogun State where both had held sway before now. Far from being symbolic therefore, the development can be said to mark a new phase in the on-going restructuring of the sector, particularly at the level of the sub nationals.

    This development had long become inevitable under the new Electricity Act signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in 2023, under which the states were expected to set up their regulatory bodies to superintend the activities of the service providers.

    In furtherance to this, seven states, Enugu, Ondo, Ekiti, Imo, Oyo, Edo, and Kogi states are said to now control their electricity markets in accordance with the Electricity Act 2023, with Anambra, Ogun, Niger, and Plateau states said to be gearing up to assume the responsibility.

    While we commend the states that have taken up the challenge, we can only urge the others to move with speed, if only to fulfill the cardinal desire of Nigerians for an unbundled and truly liberalised electricity market. In fact, it would amount to a willful dereliction should any state be found to be shirking in this responsibility.

    But then, the development itself raises some salient questions. What will happen to Ikeja and Eko distribution companies now that their subsidiaries are in control of Lagos electricity market? Will the two entities still retain their jurisdictions over the Ogun State segment as it is most likely be the case?

    In other words, are we expecting separate subsidiaries to be carved out specifically for that segment while they – Ikeja and Eko Discos – sit atop as parent companies? Wouldn’t the changes amount to mere superficiality – a case of two diseased peas in the same pod? And how will that bode for competition and the long sought after efficiency? 

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    To Nigerians, the more fundamental issue is what the changes would bode for service delivery. After all, it’s been nearly two decades since the Electric Power Sector Reform Act became law.  Yet, it remains the same old story, the same old plagues of undercapitalisation, inefficiencies, corruption, poor service orientation and a complete inversion of everything that a utility company should be.

    Of course, we understand how critical the need to devolve the power of regulation to the states is. It seems the surest way to get the electricity distribution companies to discharge their duties responsibly as one might expect of a corporate organisation.

    Surely, the idea of a Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), sitting somewhere in Abuja and serving as an overseer to the activities of the electricity distribution companies is not only absurd but illogical.

    Yet, those state regulatory bodies would at best be another critical milestone in the long journey to equitable service delivery. In other words, they represent a means to a desirable end.

    For, while we are in no doubt about regulations as being a critical part, Nigerians’ expectations, however, go beyond them or even the nameplate changes as it appears to be the case in this instance. What Nigerians have long yearned for – and which they seek demonstrable evidence – is a crop of players who know what to do; who have the ideas and the financial muscle to get things done; and who will not look up to electricity consumers to supply everything, from service cables to transformers and even, pre-paid meters.

    The country, as it appears, is not there yet.

  • So help them, God

    So help them, God

    •Our prayer on governors’ renewed pledge to speed up development in states

    The last National Independence Day messages from the state governors were heartwarming, as they resonated with the renewed hope mantra of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration. Without doubt, the governors and even local government administrators need to use the enormous resources accruing from the increased revenue from the Federation Account to make life more meaningful for the people they govern.

    So, when they made promises in their broadcasts, Nigerians are hopeful, because they have the financial muscle to deliver.

    From a meagre N700 billion shared by the Federal Government, states and local councils from the Federation Account before the removal of fuel subsidy, the allocation rose to N2.2 trillion in August. One item that reverberated in the addresses by the governors was the promise of shared prosperity.

    None of them engaged in the hitherto lamentations about the lack of resources to pay salaries, pensions and or to develop infrastructure. The labour unions were also not marching on the streets, over unpaid salaries and wages.

    Of course, the nation still has a long way to go, to lift the majority of Nigerians out of poverty. The most recent pointer is the controversial figure of 139 million Nigerians that the United Nations claimed are suffering from multi-dimensional poverty, as against the Federal Government’s claim of 88 million. Regardless of which projection is more accurate, the fact is that governments at the three tiers must work harder to drastically reduce the poverty level in the country.

    Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State put it succinctly: “As patriotic citizens, let us continue to support the laudable reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose bold steps have set a template for sustainable development.

    As a nation, we are reaping the fruits of his courage.” Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State was also candid: “In two years of the administration, Nigeria has been freed from the chaos of long fuel queues, and from the satanic subsidy rackets, which siphoned our national wealth and left the masses in abject poverty.”

    He went further: “The Renewed Hope has also expanded our economy and freed the states from having to queue for bailouts in Abuja before they could pay workers’ salaries. That era is over. We can only be grateful for these and other interventions of the Tinubu administration.”

    Governor Mbah of Enugu State praised “the bold reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that brought stability to the economy.” He affirmed that: “The sacrifices may be huge today, but the end will vindicate the decisions if we stay the course.”

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    Indeed, the governors need to engage in bold poverty alleviation programmes that would help alleviate the economic hardships, some of which are the direct fall-out of the economic programmes that have put more money into their pockets. They cannot leave it to the Federal Government alone. They should establish social registry of the poorest segments in their states who should receive monthly allowances to reduce the percentage of those living below poverty line.

    Each state and all the local governments should develop other economic alleviation and empowerment programmes that would touch the lives of the poor. It does not make sense that while the purse of the three tiers of government is burgeoning, a reasonable number of the people whose welfare the fund is meant for, are sinking into poverty.

    Such a thing contradicts the praises showered on the economic programmes that have put more money in the pockets of the three tiers of government.

    The federal, state and local council authorities should jointly develop economic alleviation programmes that would lift a sizeable number of people from poverty every year.

    While rhetoric may lift peoples’ hope, actions would lift their lives.

  • Magic cement?

    Magic cement?

    • Imagine houses which blocks can also generate electricity!

    Sheer magic? Houses in Nigeria’s rural outposts generating own electricity? Or bridges and roads in the city, dazzling with electricity at night, just because the “living” cement used to build them has soaked up enough solar power to discharge? Sheer magic?

    No. It’s the new building technology that grafts biology onto brick and mortar. It’s early days yet, but the world could soon welcome what the scientists call “energy-autonomous buildings and infrastructure.” 

    To use the technical-speak, as reported in “Living cement: scientists turn bacteria-infused cement into energy-storing super capacitors,”, AU Engineering, on the website ingenioer.au.dk: “house facades that double as batteries. Bridges that power their own sensors. Infrastructure that lives — and delivers energy.” Another world, where buildings and structures double as solar power banks, sans solar panels and batteries? It would appear so!

    What gave “life” to the inert, conventional cement is “Shewanella aneidensis”: a bacterium that can send electrons to external surfaces, by a process known as extra-cellular electron transfer. The electron is a sub-atom that possesses a charge of negative electricity. It’s the basic carrier of electricity in solids. 

    By fusing that energy-producing bacterium with conventional cement, the world may well be on the cusp of changing building technology forever. The relative affordability will, of course, depend on how costly the breakthrough is. But with patenting and mass scaling, economy of scale should push down the cost.

    That is the exciting prospects by a group of scientists at the Aarhus University (AU), Denmark, per a new study just published in Cell Press, a scientific journal, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

    ”We’ve combined structure with function,” enthused Qi Luo, the lead researcher. “The result is a new kind of material that can both bear loads and store energy — and which is capable of regaining its performance when supplied with nutrients.”

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    But to infuse — bacterial — life into cement is one thing. To keep the bacteria alive is another — and that really is the crux of the breakthrough. For that, the team designed a system of pushing regular “food” — salts, protein, vitamins and sundry growth factors: “a nutrient solution … to keep the bacteria alive or ‘reawaken’ the system.” That way, no less than 80% of the power originally generated is recovered.

    Though the value-added to traditional cement can make the new hybrid costlier, even that potentially higher cost holds the prospect of generally lowering infrastructure costs, across the board, particularly when lighting is the question.

    For starters, this promising technology rolls back solar panels and batteries — plus the cost of their repairs. Then, the sheer magic — sorry, science! — of having house, bridge and tunnel walls power and spread electricity, to light up the immediate space, is just bewildering! And it is clean, renewable energy too!

    It’s very early days but the researchers already exposed their invention to extreme weather conditions — freezing conditions and extreme heat — and the “living” cement still stored and discharged electricity. Indeed, six living cement blocks powered alive a light-emitting diode (LED) light — promising!

    There are, of course, safety concerns. If house walls turn electric stores, might the risk of electrocution also rise? That’s not clear from the study so far, but it’s early days. Hard questions must be asked and safety guarantees secured before any mass commercialisations.

    But this Denmark feat should focus our minds on Nigeria’s local science and innovation. Denmark experiences long days of dazzling sunshine only between May and August. Nigeria does almost all-year round, even during the rainy season.

    Denmark and the rest of Europe have better housing, lighting and allied infrastructural stock. Yet, it’s Danish AU scientists — not dons from Nigerian universities — that have hit on a building innovation, that seems a perfect fit for Nigeria’s developmental needs!

    Our local scientists must challenge themselves to develop technology, as answers to local challenges. That’s the only way the proverbial gown can impact the town. But the government too should provide funding and a better environment for research and scholarship.