The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Sale of power plants

    Sale of power plants

    • Several questions begging for answers

    With a projected deficit of between N11.30 trillion and N12.41 trillion in the 2023 fiscal cycle, it comes as no surprise that the Federal Government has resorted to desperate measures to get the year’s fiscal plan off the table. One of the measures being considered is the sale of five of the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs) plants conceived in 2004 by the Obasanjo administration to address the issues of insufficient electric power generation and excessive gas flaring in the Niger Delta.

    According to the Director-General (DG), Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh, the Federal Government has secured an agreement with the 36 state governors to sell off the plants, located at Geregu, Ajaokuta (Kogi State); Omotoso (Ondo State); Olorunsogo (Ogun State); Calabar (Cross River State) and Ihovbor (Edo State). The assets, built with funds sourced from the federation account, and which are currently being managed by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), would on the completion of the privatisation process deliver some N260 billion into the federation kitty, with the proceeds to be shared between the Federal Government (47%) and the states/local governments (53%).

    It is worth noting that this will not be the first attempt at selling the entities. It is also worth recalling that an earlier attempt saw Seoul Electric Power Limited, win the bid for the Geregu plant with $690.2 million in 2014; same with the Calabar and Ihovbor plants won by EMA Consortium with bid prices of $625 million and $580 million, respectively. Olorunsogo plant was won by ENL Consortium Limited with a bid price of $751.24 million, and then of course, the Omotosho plant won by Omotosho Electric Power with a bid of $659.9 million. 

    Read Also: Why Senate is probing bid to concession Zungeru Power Plant, by Lawan

    Obviously, the so-called imperatives are as old as the arguments have become all-too- familiar: the entities on which millions of dollars of taxpayers’ funds have been spent not only continue to post under-performance but that the country’s long term interests would be best served by keeping them in the hands of private sector operators. The arguments, as one would imagine, are usually more strident with every cycle of fiscal busts, with the governments at all levels, suddenly hard pressed for cash, touting it as some kind of silver bullet to address their immediate fiscal challenges.

    Nigerians for the most part would appear to have gone past the debate on whether or not the entities should be in the hands of the government or private entities. Surely, if the outcomes of previous privatisation exercises offer any suggestion going forward, it is how misplaced such expectations can sometimes be. Indeed, where the government’s hands are not being forced to offer financial guarantees to some of those so-called private sector operators to keep them going as was the case with the distribution companies, we are now at a point where a good number of the assets earlier sold under the initial phases are being recovered by the same government on the grounds of inability to deliver.

    This time around, the most logical question to ask is – what happened to the 2014 exercise? Why were the sales not consummated? What is the current worth of the assets? How did the government arrive at the N250 billion being touted as possible proceeds in the absence of open and competitive bidding? These, among others, are begging for answers.

    Much as we have nothing against the current plan, the minimum expectation is that the government will, this time around, not only ensure transparency but that the nation is offered the best deal possible.

  • Let varsities be varsities

    Let varsities be varsities

    • …and polytechnics, polytechnics

    With effect from 2026, polytechnics, monotechnics and allied institutions awarding degrees in the country would no longer  be able to do so. This Federal Government’s decision was conveyed to the heads of the affected institutions via a circular marked TEB/PRO/E/12/Vol.11/132 dated December 1, 2022 issued by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). The circular expressed the Federal Ministry of Education’s dismay at the increasing number of tertiary institutions offering programmes that they were not originally designed to offer. 

    According to the circular, “Polytechnics and other technical institutions in the country should immediately stop admitting students into degree programmes. Similarly, polytechnics and allied institutions awarding Nigerian Certificate in Education should restrict themselves to technical courses.”

    The directive takes effect in 2026 when the last batches of students admitted for such programmes are expected to complete their programmes. “Institutions have been given a period of four years (up to 2026) to graduate their last set of students for such programmes,” the circular added. 

    We welcome this decision. 

    At the last count, about 20 polytechnics and allied institutions have been upgraded by some governors and the National Assembly. If the trend is not stopped, it would get even more embarrassing. The truth of the matter is that even as polytechnics or colleges of education, most of the states could not effectively fund those institutions, thus making them glorified secondary schools, so to say. This led to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to cry out over what it viewed as proliferation of universities. Even polytechnic teachers under their umbrella union, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) saw the upgrade more or less as a way to “bury” the essence of technical education in the country.

    Read Also: NUC working with ICPC to flush out illegal varsities, says executive secretary

    Even though the government would seem to have a point in justifying the upgrade on the need to accommodate more young Nigerians craving university education, that was not the right way to solve the problem. In the first place, universities and polytechnics were established for different purposes. Secondly, why are more and more students after university education, thus leading to significant drops in the number of people seeking admission into the polytechnics and allied institutions? 

    The main reason is the age-long belief that university certificates are superior to the ones given by polytechnics or colleges of education. Unfortunately, governments across-the-board seemed to have strengthened this belief with their discriminatory treatment of holders of both certificates. ASUP’s National President, Anderson Ezeibe, puts the issue in perspective: ”HND is no longer as attractive as it used to be to Nigerian youths because of the age-long dichotomy. Why? Because, according to him, 

    “Policymakers have made it a rule that once an individual has an HND, he cannot attain the peak of his/her career, then why are they continuing to force it on people, why don’t they phase it out and replace it with Bachelor of Technology?” In other words, ASUP is not quarrelling with the award of degrees by the polytechnics and allied institutions; its problem is with their upgrade into degree-awarding institutions. The union feels this would veer them away from their very essence.

    This is the very reason we agree with the government’s order that polytechnics and allied institutions awarding degrees should desist henceforth and face their core duty of providing middle-level manpower badly needed for the country. Polytechnics, by their mandate, are supposed to produce graduates with hands-on experience as against university graduates who are seen more as better grounded in theory. There are even claims in some quarters that some establishments prefer products from these polytechnics to their university counterparts, especially in IT and similar areas on account of this hands-on experience. They should keep this up.

    Perhaps what those who are seeking parity between university graduates and their polytechnic counterparts need to work more on is the discriminatory treatment against the latter, especially in the workplaces. Holders of the Higher National Diploma (HND) should be able to aspire to the highest position in the workplace if they have the requisite experience and have proven their mettle over the years.

    But let universities be universities; and polytechnics, polytechnics. They were established for different purposes. It is those causes of stigma that must be removed, not laughable upgrades that would in the end accelerate the extinction of the polytechnics and the dream behind their establishment.

  • Again, budget delay 

    Again, budget delay 

    • It is shameful that we still cannot meet the January to December cycle 

    If Nigerians ever thought they were done with the annual ritual of budget bickering, the Federal Government’s 2023 budget has proven that that ritual is far from being over. As, against all expectations, and against its oft-stated promise to deliver a clean copy of the appropriation document before the end of the year, the National Assembly failed to pass the 2023 Appropriation Bill.

    The first indication that all was not well was when the budget report failed to appear on the National Assembly’s Order Paper in the week preceding Christmas. At plenary, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, didn’t mince words: the executive arm of government, he said, not only submitted the budget proposal to the National Assembly very late, even the draft presented to it by President Muhammadu Buhari contained such grave errors that made reconciliation difficult, if not nigh impossible.

    He would further note: “the Appropriation Bill came to the National Assembly with some hurdles and when our Committees on Appropriation in the Senate and House started to reconcile the figures of what we have done and what was presented, the hurdles became obvious and they were not easy to deal with and therefore, our committees had to start a process of cleaning up the Bill first.

    “That process also engaged the executive arm because the problem came from there. It was concluded only yesterday and our committee secretariat are (sic) not able to finish processing the budget for us to take today because this is Christmas period.”

    Of course, that high level operatives in the executive branch could make a mess of the budget document is hardly anything new. In fact, the latest accusation would probably constitute the least of the possible infractions that have been labelled against the executive branch in recent time. At least not with the most recent but scandalous accusation of budget padding levelled against the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.  The latter had accused the former of padding its vote by N206 billion which the finance ministry later passed off as a case of “wrong coding”. Interestingly, similar charges of surreptitious insertions made equally against the finance ministry by the ministries of health and defence were similarly dismissed on flimsy technical grounds. The National Assembly leadership was therefore saying nothing new that Nigerians are not already familiar with.

    Clearly, if the nation has real cause to worry that an executive branch with a Budget Office with full complement of bureaucratic support has, over the years, not been able to get something as basic as getting its sums right, the greater tragedy must be the penchant by highly placed officials to conflate their private interests with those of the public. We hold that the factor, more than anything, is largely responsible for the mess that the budget process has tended to become.

    Even then, there are loud whispers about the position of the National Assembly as not representing the whole truth; and that the other unspoken factor in the tardiness is the issue of the lawmakers’ so-called constituency projects.  Specifically mentioned in this regard is the failure of the executive branch to accommodate their constituency projects in the N819.5 billion extra budget bill submitted by the president. It is as shameful as it is disgraceful.

    So much for the inscrutable ways of the National Assembly; here is a budget that was actually presented to the National Assembly early October – some three months back. During the period, heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were required to make their defence and for the relevant committees to ensure thorough vetting of the estimates. So, at what point did those errors complained about become a major hindrance to its smooth passage? And what is the job of the lawmakers if not to spot and address errors and assumptions in the official estimates? Is that not what the process is all about?  

    In any case, here is a National Assembly that has been known to stress the point that the revenue and expenditure profiles presented by the executive are mere proposals and that the prerogative of what eventually gets passed into law belongs to them. If Nigerians suffered apprehensions about such expansive interpretations of their powers given how these have been serially abused by their members in the past, more astoundingly is their continuing failure to get the jobs entrusted to them done in a tidy and expeditious manner. Clutching to an alibi long after committing to the January to December budget cycle not only amounts in our view to a betrayal of public trust, it is akin to a shirking of an important responsibility which is unacceptable.

    Yes, we are worried about the failure of both branches of government to read the national mood correctly. Where is the evidence of their understanding of the dire emergency in which the nation is currently locked? Or is it that the unemployment rate, currently standing at 33 per cent, the highest level ever, is not troubling enough? What of the staggering 21 percent inflation rate? Or even the infrastructural environment which, despite the billions poured into the sector in the last seven years has remained at best, parlous. When shall we begin to see the hard, diligent work required to ameliorate the situation – as against the recurrent but fruitless mind games over the budget instrument?

  • A good gesture

    A good gesture

    •Federal Govt’s insurance cover for workers will enhance productivity

    The approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of the disbursement of N9.24 billion as premium for insurance companies handling insurance of all federal civil servants whose salaries are treasury-funded for Y2022/2023 will go a long way to boosting the morale and enhancing the productivity of the workers. This is particularly so if the initiative is efficiently and diligently implemented. According to the Head of Service of the Federation (HOSF) Dr. Folasade Esan, who presented the memo for this purpose to the council, the activities of the mandated insurance companies will be closely monitored by her office to ensure that stipulated procedures are scrupulously followed and claims promptly paid. 

    The gesture will engender a positive feeling among beneficiaries that their employers care about their welfare, and reduce their anxiety about the wellbeing of their next-of-kin and family members in case of unanticipated occurrences such as untimely death.

    That the government began an awareness programme in 2021 on requirements to benefit from the insurance package for all categories of federal civil servants to enlighten workers on their entitlements is a commendable indication that the authorities are committed to ensuring the success of the initiative. According to the Office of the HOSF, to access the payment, the next-of-kin of deceased workers who lose their life in active service are required to provide pay slips of the affected persons, means of identification as well as a death certificate. When these have been presented, the insurance company concerned will issue a discharged voucher for the next-of kin to fill and return, after which the insurance is expected to be paid within three to five working days. For this arrangement to work as seamlessly as expected, proper documentation and record-keeping is essential on the part of all the stakeholders. 

    Shedding further light on the policy, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, told reporters that “This is an insurance cover for the period 2022/2023 and covers all government officials in all government agencies, paramilitary and intelligence agencies. The insurance will take effect from the date of payment and in Nigeria, by our laws, the insurance cover is 30% of the annual emolument of any staff of government that is deceased and this cover is paid by the insurance company to the beneficiaries of the deceased staff”. This is obviously in fulfillment of the Federal Government’s obligation as provided for under the Pension Reform Act of 2014 that public and private employers should maintain a life assurance policy for employees for a minimum of 30% of the annual total emolument. Towards this end, it is noteworthy that the Office of the HOSF has reportedly been paying the backlog of death benefits incurred before the introduction of the 2014 Pension Reform Act.

    Extensive insurance coverage for the majority of the citizens has become a key feature of ameliorating poverty and enhancing the wellbeing of substantial numbers of the populace. In this regard, it is essential that not only the Federal Government is alive to its responsibility to its employees on this score but also the state governments and private sector employers. Federal and state government employees who are mostly covered by current insurance policies constitute a small minority of the population, which makes it imperative for renewed efforts to extend coverage to private sector employees. In the case of health insurance, for instance, the National Health Insurance Authority Bill was signed into law in May, 2022, to strengthen the mechanism for financing health-service delivery to the poor and vulnerable. The available records indicate that less than 5.3 million Nigerians are beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) established under the Act and these are mostly public sector workers.

    Experts estimate that 70% of Nigerians are not covered by health insurance and most of these, who are informal sector workers and rural dwellers, have no option but to strive to pay out of pocket for their health needs, which they invariably cannot afford. Incidentally, the Lagos State government is showing a worthy example for others to follow with regard to insurance for workers. In 2021, the Governor Babatunde Sanwo-Olu administration disbursed over N2 billion as insurance premium covering life and non-life insurance for about 73,000 civil servants. Stressing that the state has made insurance compulsory for all its civil servants, the commissioner for finance, Mr. Rabiu Olowo, stated during its last Civil Service Insurance Week that “this gesture is in line with the present administration’s commitment to ensuring adequate care for its workers while serving and after retirement…We saw the benefit of engaging insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic and the #EndSARS protests”.

  • Political violence

    Political violence

    •A threat that must be stopped before it stops the Fourth Republic 

    In a democracy, people look forward to elections, full of expectations that another opportunity had come to make progress. But, in Nigeria, elections are approached with trepidation because they are usually accompanied with hate speech, threats and attacks.

    This year’s general election is not different. Unfortunately, this time, the threats are not limited to the supporters. Candidates — presidential, governorship and others down the line — are not left out. Desperation breeds violence, verbal or physical. If we are to avert bloodbath and compounding of our social crises, this is the time to call the politicians involved to order.

    The feeble but patriotic attempt by the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee in making all national chairmen and presidential candidates of the political parties sign a peace accord that has now become a ritual has been of little effect. Despite the candidates being made to commit themselves to concentrating on issues and plans, insults, unfounded allegations and innuendos are constantly hurled across party lines. This is dangerous to the polity and the nation. 

    President Muhammadu Buhari has voiced out his concern over the possibility of violence affecting the next elections.  Although he assured  that nothing would be allowed to impede the February 25, 2023 presidential and National Assembly polls and the subsequent ones, it is obvious that political violence and general insecurity could stand in the way of credible, free and fair elections. 

    As the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission  (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has pointed out, about 50 of the commission’s facilities have been razed in 21 states. This has imposed an additional liability of producing afresh 65, 699 voter cards ahead of the elections. We agree with Professor Yakubu that, if the trend continues, the commission might be unable to cope, at least as and when expected. This could pose great danger to the health of the nation as some may contend that it is a ploy by the incumbent government to extend its tenure. Fire from the ensuing constitutional crisis would be too strong to put out in the face of the crisis of confidence in the North, Middle Belt, East and West. As Professor Yakubu said, the attacks on the commission’s facilities have been recorded in all parts of the federation.  We should be concerned.

    It is even more frightening hearing from the President that there have been 32 violent incidents in 22 states within one month. Anyone familiar with the country’s political trend knows that conflagrations are not limited to the pre-election period. Thugs hired by unscrupulous politicians could even be more deadly on polling day after being unleashed on opponents of their principals, and sometimes instructed to disrupt polls in the opponent’s strongholds. They are used to snatch sensitive materials or frighten poll officials. Then, there’s the post-election violence as we saw in 2011 in parts of the North. While the election conducted by the Professor Attahiru Jega-led INEC was adjudged largely free and fair by both international and domestic observers, as well as journalists, street urchins held states of the North by the jugular, attacking known opponents of their preferred candidate who lost to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). By the time the dust settled, Human Rights Watch report put the casualty figure at 800, while thousands were injured and many properties torched, especially in Bauchi and Gombe states.

    Election violence is not a Fourth Republic phenomenon.  The First Republic created the atmosphere for the military to take over when the Western Region became ungovernable as a result of poll rigging and the consequent bloodletting. The Second Republic, too, failed following post-election violence in 1983. Not only were many lives lost, all investments in the election and Republic were lost. Even the short-lived Third Republic was not spared the paroxysm of wild protests as the clear-cut election of Chief Moshood Abiola was annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida military administration.

    History beckons again. If Nigeria is to be spared the experience and avoidable losses that characterised and destroyed the previous Republics, all stakeholders must behave responsibly. President Buhari should not stop merely at promising fair polls, he should demonstrate the resolve to achieve it. This Republic must be saved by all.

  • New Safe-Schools Plan

    New Safe-Schools Plan

    What happened to the previous one?

    Since the return to democracy in 1999, successive Nigerian governments have not lacked policy initiatives. What has been glaringly absent is systemic implementation plans and the willingness to faithfully continue certain projects they met on ground. There seems to be a disconnect that points to a certain refusal to see government as a continuum, especially with certain core development projects.

    Perhaps no sector in Nigeria has shown the world why the country is the poverty capital of the world than the education sector. As at October 2022, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Nigeria had about 20 million out-of-school children. In 2020, just two years ago, United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF) had recorded that about 10.5 million children were out of school. Invariably, in two years, the number has almost doubled.

    This dire situation did not arise because the children did not want to go to school or their parents are unwilling to send them to school.  The state and federal governments have continually gone below the United Nations budgetary benchmark of at least 26 per cent budgetary allocation annually for education. No government in Nigeria since 1999 has exceeded 10 per cent. Even then, much of the little that is so budgeted ended up being stolen or misapplied.

    In addition to poor funding of education, multi-dimensional poverty, conflicts resulting in large numbers of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),  abduction of school children and sundry reasons have either kept children out of school or discouraged new entrants as parents would rather have their children alive and illiterate than be in school and be abducted or killed, especially in the Northern part of the country.

    The insurgency in the North East and the banditry in the North West, the height of which was the abduction of the Chibok girls, Zamfara school girls, the Kaduna School of Agriculture abductions, the arson in the dormitory of the Birnin Kudu boys hostel and the Dapchi school girls of which Leah Shaibu is still the metaphor, are all cases in point.

    Poor funding of education that has led to incessant strikes by tertiary institution teachers and the near total destruction of the public school culture have all in a way necessitated the Federal Government launching of the Safe School Initiative (SSI) in 2014. It was aimed at enabling children and teachers affected by conflicts and insecurity to continue their education in a safe environment.

    Despite the number of committees set up to facilitate the programme, and in spite of the willingness of independent countries and the United Nations through its Multi- Partner Trust Fund  (MPTF) and other public and private sector partners, it does seem that not much has been achieved despite the intention being the advancement of multi-stakeholder partnerships for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, at the recent launch of the Safe-Schools Plan 2023-2026 in Abuja said that the total investment size is N144.8bn. According to her, it is meant to help in the reduction of out-of-school children, and improving Nigeria’s rating in the Human Capital Development index in the long run.

    While we commend any policy that can positively impact the education and human development sector, we are curious about the request for financial support from state governments, agencies, the private sector, and development partners in implementing the National Plan on Financing Safe schools in 2023-2026. We expected the minister to give statistical update of the past investments by development partners. Requesting that states contribute to the fund makes us wonder how that would happen when the states that ought to fund basic education at the primary and secondary levels have not really done well on their own.

    We would have wanted the minister to give an update of the past investments in the Safe Schools Initiative since 2014 as an incentive to both the private sector, agencies and development partners.

    We again wonder how well the ministry had managed the pooled trust funds in the past to encourage more contributions. Have all the stakeholders been working together and amalgamating their successes as invested stakeholders, contributors, participating agencies or organisations or programme country representatives? Ideally, pooling investments and action through multinational partner trust funds reduces the number of patchy interventions and enhances joint results.

    Education must be taken more seriously in the country and as such just launching initiatives and calling for funds cannot do the magic. The minister must understand that accountability, budgetary adjustments, good coordination of programmes and improved welfare of teachers and security around the country are all needed to assure the preconditions for safer schools for learning and teaching. The ministry must go beyond inaugurations and requests for funds. It must follow the UN MPTF guidelines for more tractable outcomes.

  • Justice in pendency

    Justice in pendency

    •Keeping convicts endlessly on death row is itself rights abuse

    Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed lately restoked the age-long debate about the applicability of the death penalty. He said he would soon begin to sign death warrants of condemned criminals in his state because the number outstanding has become bloated; besides, justice needs to be taken to a logical conclusion.

    The essence of justice, obviously, is for it to be served. And the whole purpose of litigation through the courts is for justice to be delivered to offenders, so to assuage or appease offended persons. For whatever reason this is so, Nigeria retains the death penalty in her statute books. But the penalty has become justice in pendency because the courts keep handing down the sentence to convicted offenders, whereas state governors who have the statutory mandate to give effect to the warrants refrain from doing so. This has left the death row in the country bloated – now estimated at more than 2,000 condemned persons nationwide.

    Speaking while signing the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) bill and another bill for establishment of the Bauchi State Penal Code, 2022 into law, Mohammed explained why state governors were reluctant to sign death warrants and served notice of his own readiness to sign. “We will soon be signing some death sentences because there are many, and because justice has to be taken to a logical conclusion,” he was reported saying, adding: “I know some governors are running away from signing the death sentences because they exercise restraint on the basis that there may be some element of error. But for me, I will leave it to my lord (the judge)… It’s not my fault. If it is brought to my attention, I will do it.”

    The governor spoke against the backdrop of a statement by his Kano State counterpart, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who vowed to sign the death warrant of a convicted killer of five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar in the state. A high court in Kano had in July sentenced to death Abdulmalik Tanko, a school proprietor who confessed abducting and killing Hanifa, who was a pupil in his school. It is not certain if the convict has appealed the high court verdict.

    Under Nigeria’s law, death sentences handed down by the courts must be signed off by state governors, who also have the prerogative of mercy, before such can be effected. For years on end, however, governors have refrained from signing death warrants. Besides exercising restraint owing to the possibility of miscarriage of justice, as explained by Mohammed, the governors are also obviously concerned for their political image. The death sentence has always been opposed by civil society actors and international human rights watchdogs, who would readily upbraid any governor who signs off on a death penalty warrant. When former Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole signed the death warrants of some condemned prisoners in 2013, he faced a backlash of criticisms by such interest. So did his successor, Governor Godwin Obaseki, when he signed the death warrants of three condemned prisoners in December 2016 after being newly sworn in.

    But neither are the governors exercising their prerogative of mercy to commute death sentences, thereby leaving condemned persons on a ballooning death row and increasingly congested prison facilities. Last July, Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola had to call on governors to sign death warrants in order to decongest the prisons. Civil society actors, however, disagreed with the minister, saying the death penalty should be replaced with long-term imprisonment. In the past, civil society actors argued that the death penalty undermines human dignity and is not even a deterrence to perpetration of crime. “If two-thirds of countries have abolished the death penalty why should Nigeria be applying it, especially in a country where innocent people may be easily executed due to inherent challenges in the administration of the criminal justice system,” Director of Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Idayat Hassan, once said.

    There is nothing more harrowing than waiting endlessly for the hangman, hence life on the death row is by itself human rights abuse. If the Nigerian justice system is uncomfortable with the death penalty, the laws should be reworked without delay to knock it out so that not only offenders know what they are due for, also offended persons know the score on which to find closure. If, however, the penalty would be retained in our statute books, governors should sign death warrants so that justice is taken to a logical conclusion – for both the offender and the offended. The present scenario of justice in pendency is unjust to everyone.

  • Raheem’s murder

    Raheem’s murder

    •Again, need for holistic police reform

    In yet another case of unprofessional and irresponsible policing, 41-year-old Mrs Omobolanle Raheem, a lawyer, was shot by a policeman at a checkpoint in Ajah, Lagos, on Christmas Day. She was pronounced dead at the third hospital she was taken to after the shooting. Her mother was reported saying she “was pregnant with twins.”  This means that the shocking shooting resulted in three deaths.

    Her sister, who was also in the car driven by her husband, gave a chilling eyewitness account. “Just under the bridge, a policeman said stop and we were on the other side which means we cannot just stop abruptly,” she narrated.

    “We needed to clear off the road and to do that, we have to give way to oncoming vehicles… While still trying to navigate this process, we heard stop and the next thing was a gunshot.

    “I thought the man just broke the windscreen on my sister’s side since she was in the front passenger seat and I was right behind her. My four children and her daughter were sitting at the back too.”

    But the victim had been hit by a bullet and said so.  The witness said the policeman who fired the shot “was trying to run into their vehicle to escape with the others.”  She added: “When I told him you’ve shot my sister, he cocked his gun and wanted to shoot me too but those boys came and held him.”

    Predictably, the incident triggered public outrage.  President Muhammadu Buhari and Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu condemned the shooting, and demanded justice.  Even Lagos State Police Command spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin said it was an “avoidable incident” and “condemnable,” adding that the policeman that shot the victim and two other policemen who were with him were in detention.

    The alleged killer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Drambi Vandi attached to the Ajah Divisional Headquarters of the Lagos State Police Command, was said to have been in the police force for 33 years. It was unexpected that a policeman who had served for that long would be so irresponsible.

    The police notably described the shooting as “one too many, especially bearing in mind that a similar incident occurred at the same location less than three weeks ago.”  Earlier in the month, a young man, Gafaru Buraimoh, was also shot dead by a yet-to-be-identified officer from the same division.

    It is reassuring that the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali, in a statement, said “the ugly and unprofessional act” did not “portray the Nigeria Police Standard Operating Procedure and core values.” He recommended the immediate suspension of the alleged killer policeman, and ordered a speedy investigation and prosecution of the implicated officers. Justice must be done, and must be seen to be done.

    The shooting of Mrs Raheem yet again highlighted the unprofessionalism of some policemen in the course of so-called stop-and-search duties. Reported cases of policemen at checkpoints engaging in extortion, bullying and shooting vulnerable road users, are not strange. Indeed, it is disturbing that such cases have become too frequent.    

    Police authorities need to urgently address the issue of reform of the institution. The police need a reorientation, including reviewing their rules of engagement, among other crucial reforms.

    It is noteworthy that the 2020 violent nationwide #EndSARS protests were ignited mainly by a video showing a police officer shooting a young Nigerian in front of a hotel in Ughelli, Delta State, and another report of a police officer killing 20-year-old Daniel Chibuike in Rivers State.

    The intense protests against police brutality and abuse of power that prompted the disbandment of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), known as SARS, were characterised by wanton destruction.

    In Lagos, for instance, 16 police stations were burnt by rampaging mobs across the state, and 13 police formations were vandalised as well as police posts at Mowo, Morogbo and Ikota, among others, symbolising a breakdown of law and order.

    The police should not give the impression that they have a short memory, and have forgotten what led to the #EndSARS anarchy. They should be protectors, not predators.  

  • Lesson from Ghana

    Lesson from Ghana

    •Need for Nigeria to curb its seeming insatiable appetite for foreign loans 

    If there is any proof that all is not well with Ghana’s economy, it is the country’s announcement, last week, that  it was suspending payments on most of its external debt. The suspension came barely a week after Ghana entered a $3 billion pact with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which had earlier demanded a restructuring of the country’s debt before supporting it. Consequently, payments on most of Ghana’s bilateral debt, including its Eurobond, commercial term loans, have been suspended in what the country’s finance ministry referred to as “interim emergency measure”. It however assured that it was ready to discuss with its creditors on how to make the debt sustainable. Also, the country would continue to pay its multilateral debts, new debts of any kind, as well as debts contracted after December 19, 2022, or those concerning short term trade facilities.

    This year has been particularly tough for Ghana, with credit ratings bodies’ downgrades due to fears it would not be able to issue new Eurobonds. Ghana’s public debt stood at 467.4 billion Ghanaian cedis ($55 billion) in September, 42% of which was domestic. 

    We are not merely interested in details of how Ghana got to this point for the sake of it. Rather, we are interested in the lessons for Nigeria from the Ghanaian experience as well as the experiences of other countries that are groaning under the yoke of foreign debts. 

    The way and manner the Federal Government has been contracting loans, particularly under the present administration, gives cause for concern. The first argument in favour of taking loans has always been that loans are not inherently bad, provided they are spent on regenerative purposes. The second is that countries in recession can spend their way out of it. Then, the third, the debt-to-GDP ratio. 

    From our experience, we know that we do not yet possess the fiscal discipline to pass on any of these scores. Many Nigerians would easily recall that most of the loans that ended up being problematic for the country to repay in the past, and which were obtained for certain specific purposes were never utilised for such or any other worthwhile purposes. In some cases, contracts were just awarded on paper; the project sites were not even cleared not to talk of contractors moving in. The money was just shared by unscrupulous and corrupt public officials. 

    The argument on countries spending their way out of recession falls flat on its face for the same reason of corruption. Then the argument on debt-to-GDP ratio. This was what some of our economists had been quoting until the present government got to the level it is today with regard to loans and foreign debts. Not even public officials and their apologists who were urging the government to keep taking loans because it was still safe for it to do so knew when we crossed the rubicon. Today, virtually everyone is concerned about our total public debt stock which stood at a frightening N42.84trn (about $103.31bn) as at June, 2022.

    This is inexplicable for a country that was able to secure debt relief and paid off its Paris Club debt in 2006. Although some Nigerians then queried the wisdom in such negotiated settlement, the fact remains that at least the country was able to exit the debt quagmire. We can only imagine what would have been the country’s position today if that decision had not been taken then, especially in view of the mindset and profligate disposition of many of our federal, state and even local government actors in the political space. 

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    What is particularly galling is that the more the country sinks into debt, the poorer the people become. This tells us that something is still not right. Equally worrisome is the fact that data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) puts Nigeria’s debt to China alone at about $3.9 billion as of June 2022, about 83.57 percent of its total bilateral debt, and a 12.7 percent increase from $3.5 billion in the same period last year.

    China, like most creditors is ruthless where its money is concerned. Although most of this was spent on infrastructure, particularly railway which had been comatose until recently, the fact is that failure to repay the loans is not an option. Countries that have learnt this lesson in a bitter way include Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Maldives, with others likely to suffer a similar fate. Uganda perhaps remains the most cited example of Chinese ruthlessness where its money is concerned in recent times. The country recently lost control of its priced jewel, Entebbe International Airport to China, over failure to repay the USD 207 million loan it took from the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) in 2015. 

    Ghana’s finance minister has offered a belated apology to the country’s parliament, saying that the country should have rejected some of the terms of the agreement. The Ugandan public was obviously unaware of these clauses that completely put them at the mercy of the Chinese.

    Nigeria also suffers the same fate whereby some of our public officials who had signed agreements on the country’s behalf in the past jeopardised its interest, either out of incompetence or corruption, or both. This is another major reason we should be worried about some of these loans. Nigerians should be in the know before these pacts are signed, sealed and delivered.

  • NDDC issues

    NDDC issues

    •Federal  Government must be clinical in sanitising the commission

    Two developments raised questions about the Federal Government’s effort to cleanse the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).  The government announced that some NDDC contractors whose contracts were terminated, and who were directed to return monies they had received in that regard, had done so. Also, the Senate confirmed 13 of the 15 government nominees for the agency’s new board. 

    Niger Delta Affairs Minister Umana Okon Umana said “Out of over 4,000 projects directed for termination, a total of 1,250 have been so far terminated as part of the implementation of the Forensic Audit Report,” adding, “Some funds have been returned by contractors due to non-performance and other reasons.” 

    The terminated contracts, across the states that make up the Niger Delta region, include road construction, land reclamation, renovation of classroom blocks, installation of electric transformers, renovation of hospital buildings, and rehabilitation of water projects, among others.  The states are:  Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

    He explained that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was involved in the recovery of the funds. According to him, “reconciliation is still being made because the funds recovered are in foreign and local currencies… Once it is made available and the reconciliation is done, we will release the total amount.” 

    It is reassuring that he also said “The recovered funds released by EFCC to the ministry are to be utilised to fund specific critical projects and programmes in the region.”

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    President Muhammadu Buhari, in October 2019, had ordered a forensic audit of the agency’s operations from 2001 to 2019. The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on behalf of President Buhari, in September 2021, received the report from the then Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, in Abuja.

    In November, the government announced the termination of many contracts, and demanded the refund of monies received by the affected non-performing contractors, as part of its implementation of the forensic audit report.  

    The government thereby demonstrated a commendable level of seriousness regarding its stated objective of improving the standard of living of the people of the Niger Delta “through the provision of adequate infrastructural and socio-economic development.”

    Importantly, the government had said it would “apply the law to remedy the deficiencies outlined in the audit report as appropriate,” adding that “This will include but not be limited to the initiation of criminal investigations, prosecution, recovery of funds not properly utilised for the public purposes for which they were meant for amongst others.”

    It remains to be seen how far the government will go in sanctioning the affected contractors. Indeed, the recovery of the monies, which must have fallen in value, is not enough. The authorities should also consider blacklisting the concerned contractors, apart from possibly prosecuting them.    

    Ironically, the NDDC, established in 2000 by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration to facilitate progress in the oil-rich region, became part of the problem. The development agency was seen as an agent of underdevelopment.

    The Senate confirmation of the new NDDC board nominees was not without controversy, particularly the appointment of Lauretta Onochie as chair and Samuel Ogbuku as managing director.  The upper chamber said the 13 confirmed nominees possessed the requirements to be on the agency’s governing board; two other nominees were not confirmed because they failed to appear before the screening committee. 

    It is unclear why the confirmation happened despite the fact that the Federal High Court, Abuja, had ordered that all actions on the matter be suspended pending the determination of the suit by representatives of the Itsekiri Leaders of Thought and Omadino Unity Forum, challenging the nomination of the chair and the managing director.  The Senate is expected to respect the law. 

    This may well complicate matters. It remains to be seen whether the president will inaugurate the board after the Senate confirmation that was done without respect for the law. Setting the NDDC on the right track must be done lawfully, without any legal issues unresolved.