Category: Editorial

Nothing could be more illustrative of the severity of the ongoing economic crisis in Nigeria than a recent report, which indicated that over 2 million Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) collapsed between 2019 and 2021 across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. This dismal situation became public when the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) disclosed to the media that in a census of SMEs it conducted in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2017, 41 million of such businesses were recorded. However, when another census of the SMEs was undertaken in 2021, the number had slumped to 39 million, implying that approximately two million of these SMEs were out of business.

Given the time frame within which these surveys were carried out, 2019 to 2021, it is obvious that there is a linkage between the high rate of collapse of the SMEs and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 with severe negative implications for the economies of both poor and advanced economies across the world.

However, this sector of the economy was already faced with strong challenges. One of them is inadequate electricity supply. Most business are thus forced to rely on generators to power their operations with the attendant increase in production costs which the big businesses are able to absorb better. Another factor is the huge infrastructure deficit, manifesting in bad roads and chaotic traffic that hinders movement of people and goods in large parts of the country. This situation has been compounded by the chronic challenge of insecurity with large numbers of farmers, for instance, unable to go to their farms and cultivate their crops in the major food-production parts of the country.

Experts have always stressed the importance of SMEs to the economic performance of countries generating jobs on a large scale and contributing significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to a survey on SME’s in Nigeria, these businesses contributed 48% to the country’s GDP, accounted for 94% of businesses and are responsible for 84% of employment. It was revealed further that SMEs created 7.4 million jobs in the last few years, accounting for 50% of industrial jobs and nearly 90% of manufacturing sector employment. Any country that desires accelerated economic growth and financial prosperity for its citizens cannot therefore afford to treat the SMEs sector with levity. It thus follows that if government is indeed committed to the revival of the SMEs and maximizing its tremendous potential for the benefit of the economy, it must act fast to address the current difficulty of SMEs to access adequate capital to sustain and grow their businesses.

While the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased the interest rate from 11.5% to 14% in the last few months, an expert survey report on SMEs in Nigeria indicates that over 39% of these small businesses have obtained loans to stay afloat and mitigate the effects of inflation on their production costs with the implication that they will pay higher costs to service their loans at the current rate of interest. Their hopes of passing on these production costs to the consumer may be dashed as the generality of Nigerians today tend to be cash-strapped and may not be able to afford the costs of higher prices for goods and services. Matters have been worsened by the current rate of exchange of the dollar to the Naira, which hovers at N430 – N470 to the dollar at the official rate and about N650 to the dollar in the parallel market.

Thus, government has the responsibility to think out of the box and come up with creative solutions to the challenges confronting this critical sector of the economy particularly with a view to cushioning their production costs as well as facilitating their access to loans at affordable interest rates to keep their businesses above water. It is true that in recent months there have been marked improvements in power supply while the government is also now demonstrating a greater resolve to deal with the challenges of bandits, kidnappers, terrorists and other criminal elements. We urge the government to sustain this tempo as it will have salutary effects not just on SMEs but on the economy as a whole.

Politics should be about offering oneself for sacrificial service. But in Nigeria, it is characterised by desperation of actors seeking offices by fair or foul means, and inability of losers to concede defeat in the spirit of sportsmanship. These tendencies have been the bane of mainstream conduct of our democracy, perhaps owing – if only in part – to long years of military rule. The same tendencies characterise electoral contests at the level of sub-groups in the polity that ordinarily should offer hope for future redemption of the national culture.

The recent election in the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) is a case in point. Following that poll, a student of Federal University, Dutse, Usman Barambu, was declared elected as the new president of the students’ body. That declaration has, however, been controverted by Umar Faruk Lawal of Bayero University, Kano, who also claims the office. In media interviews, both contenders have separately dismissed the process that produced the other as manipulated and fraught with irregularities, while purporting to have the legitimate mandate of electors. It is a sad commentary on Nigerian politics.

For his part, Barambu said he picked up the hotel bills of about 80 percent of the delegates for seven days amid delayed accreditation that preceded the voting. “Faruk was among the people who proposed that the convention be shifted because he was aware that I was accommodating a large number of the delegates. He made that proposition hoping that I would be tired and send the delegates out of their hotel rooms, so that he could use that against me. But glory be to God, we were able to accommodate them till the end, although I am indebted to the hotels as I speak,” he told Sunday Punch. Among other things, he denied buying off some other candidates “because they had also spent much (money) to get to that stage,” and accused his rival of being the one who has been seen courting partisans in the larger society for financial support. On the other hand, Faruk alleged sundry irregularities in the election, including his rival’s camp purportedly doling out N20,000 to “charlatans” from whom he procured votes. He, however, confirmed that contestants footed the bills of delegates, saying: “Student leaders from the universities could not access funds because of the ongoing industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities; it was we, the contestants, that managed to mobilise them, paid their transportation fares, and they also relied on the candidates to pay for hotel accommodation.”

Read Also: ASUU strike: NANS protests, grounds Lagos-Ibadan expressway

Where students got funds for such huge expenditures is a question that underpins their accusation of each other as having been funded by partisans in the mainstream political space. Why they undertook the expenditures is another poser that highlights how student unionism has become bereft of Utopian ideals of the past and has become thoroughly mercantilist, just like politics in the larger society. The trend suggests a motivation to seek political office for pecuniary benefits rather than societal ideals. Meanwhile, this same trend in recent history characterised elections in other elitist sub-groups like the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).

The beginning of the end of the glorious days of student unionism came with the proscription of former National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS) in 1978 by the military following the ‘Ali Must Go’ protests against hike in fees. NANS had a few good years before it lost its idealistic fervour, such that NANS is perennially factionalised and susceptible to partisan manipulations. Even with the protest on Lagos-Ibadan expressway a couple of days back against seven-month-old ongoing strike by ASUU, student unionism remains a pale shadow of its past. The tragedy is: reinvention seems a long shot.

Intolerance, impunity and intimidation by governments at various levels have been part of our political culture since the First Republic. Whoever exercises his or her fundamental right to identify with a political party other than that in government is marked for bullying in various ways.

This came to the fore again in Niger State recently as civil servants who were deemed to be in support of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in local government areas where many members of the ruling All Progressives Congress  (APC) defected to the opposition party were reportedly served suspension letters. In addition, their salaries were seized.

This is against the tenets of democracy, and barbaric. Governor Sani Bello who is said to have given the order as leader of the APC in the state should rescind the instruction with immediate effect. Neither the governor nor the government over which he presides has such power under the constitution.  First, the government claims that it is investigating the allegation. If this were so, why was it not being discreetly probed and action taken after guilt has been established, that is even if it were illegal.

Second, the officials who have resorted to such barbaric means were highly educated both at home and abroad. They know the standard practice elsewhere, and yet failed to adhere to it.

Third, Niger State is one of the states most buffetted by the menace of terrorism. Governor Bello, whose father was a miilitary governor, had cried out many times to the Federal Government for support, giving the impression he was helpless and frustrated. This should have been the preoccupation of the Niger State government. That being so, the primary responsibility of government being guarantee of security and welfare of the people, Governor Bello and agencies of the government ought to be busy mobilising the people sgainst terrorists and bandits that he would have no time identifying what party anyone supports.

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The 2023 elections being so close, this iniquitous practice ought to be nipped in the bud now. In other states where the practice is rife, or where the chief executive has proclivity to intimidate the opposition, the Federal Government, media, security forces and civil society organisations should be vigilant and point out the menace as soon as such steps are being taken.

In February 2018, Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, ordered the demolition of Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi’s house on the ground that he had not paid ground rent for eight years. The house, located on Sambo Street in the heart of the city, was also said to have violated urban and physical planning law. Yet, the house had served as party secretariat when the governor was contesting in 2015. The law was only exhumed when Hunkuyi served as rallying point for a different faction of the ruling party.

In Oyo State, the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi, too, got a radio station belonging to gospel musician Yinka Ayefele partially demolished when it became critical of the government. It took the intervention of the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria  (BON), the civil society and well-meaning members of  the society to get the government to rebuild the station.

More than 20 years into the Fourth Republic,  Nigerian democracy ought to have become more refined. It is obvious that our politicians are unwilling to effect necessary changes that would strengthen institutions of state. It would thus take a mass movement of the enlightened to force such reforms. This we must do as another general election approaches.

It all sounds like deception. In a recent workshop on security, the director-general of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) gave the impression that the Buhari administration just found the formula to unearth terror kingpins in the country.

The DSS boss, Yusuf Magaji Bichi said, “The ever-changing nature and sophistication of threats makes it imperative for security operatives to be critical thinkers in order to fashion out better and efficient ways to tackling threats. Among the evolving global crimes, is money laundering and terrorism financing, which requires the development of a working National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime for the country.”

We might have thought that the Federal Government had turned the corner in its search for the shadowy figures prodding the goons to slaughter.

Even the agency’s director of operations, Joseph Dashwap, reinforced that tone.  Hear him: “On its part, the DSS, as the premier domestic intelligence agency saddled with the mandate to detect, prevent and investigate threats to national security, is aware that any effective counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency strategy begins with the recognition that money/logistics are like oxygen to the survival and effectiveness of terrorist organisations.”

He went further to state that the country had enacted legal frameworks to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. But all these are no news. We have had the laws lurking between the covers of dust-covered statute books.

We also know that the technology has been at the disposal of the Federal Government and its agencies forever. Armed with law and technology, what has been missing is the will.

The inter-agency cooperation made it possible to record some gains recently, and we are witnessing what seems a lull in the rapine and hysteria of bloodletting. Many Nigerians are not sure if it is for real or some sort of barbarian siesta to be followed by more savage episodes of murder.

Read Also: DSS accuses Tukur Mamu of aiding, abetting terror groups

Nigerians are happy to accept a lull over a tragedy any day while hoping that it lasts as we have seen that the Federal Government has now taken the battle to the bandits in the forests and their lairs, evidence the combing of the forests around Abuja and the confrontation of some of the gangs in parts of the north, including Kaduna State.

Yet, it does not answer why no major terror name has sullied the courtroom ear.

We must recall that the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, had said earlier in the year that the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) had recorded major headways in sighting the culprits digitally.

”For its part, the analysis by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, in 2020-2021, revealed 96 financiers of terrorism in Nigeria, 424 associates/supporters of the financiers, involvement of about 123 companies and 33 bureaux de change, in addition to identifying 26 suspected bandits/kidnappers and seven co-conspirators. The analysis has resulted in the arrest of 45 suspects who will soon face prosecution and seizure of assets.”

He revealed further that “The NFIU has also sent 1,165 intelligence reports on cases of corruption, money laundering and other serious offences to 27 domestic agencies for investigation, prosecution and asset recovery.”

So we had the capability all along, which makes Bichi’s apparent revelation disingenuous. We know that the NFIU has intelligence exchanges on Boko Haram, ISWAP, banditry and kidnapping with 19 countries, according to reports.

We also know that six persons were convicted in the United Arab Emirates in 2020 for transferring funds for terror in Nigeria and two curious names, Alhaji Saidu and Alhaji Ashiru, were mentioned. We have had no prosecution.

Not when the attorney-general Abubakar Malami said 400 bureaux de change operators had been arrested in Lagos and across the north. We waited in vain when a court date was set last year for their appearance. No name or face of significance has met the public eye.

When we are serious about justice for the kingpins, we will not need Bichi or Malami for evidence.

It seems the Federal Government has now decided to go beyond its lamentation and wringing of hands on the vexed issue of crude theft, with its order that all anti-vandalism teams of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) nationwide be dissolved with immediate effect. Dr Ahmed Audi, the corps commandant-general who ordered the dissolution, said at a media briefing and emergency meeting with state commandants in Abuja that the action followed an order from the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola. The dissolution was sequel to investigation of allegations of corruption against some personnel of the NSCDC.

According to the corps commandant-general, the dissolution became necessary “because there are insinuations that security agencies act as accomplices and because we want to redeem the image of the service due to reports received about our officers on the field.” He added that “you are to note that all anti-vandal teams nationwide are hereby dissolved. All roadblocks mounted by such individuals should also immediately be dismantled.”

This is to pave way for reorganisation of the anti-vandalism teams. The intention is to move the personnel round, particularly those who have served six months upwards in the Niger Delta, to check what Audi described as “over-familiarisation” that could compromise the personnel. Fresh blood would thereafter be injected to reinvigorate the teams for greater efficiency.

This is a welcome development. Tongues have for years been wagging about security personnel’s collusion with the nameless elites that the Federal Government has been blaming for the massive crude theft. Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, said a few weeks back that Nigeria loses about 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily to the very important thieves. This translates to about $40million loss daily. This is huge by any standard and Nigeria is probably one of the few countries that could have tolerated such hemorrhage for this long.

The matter is particularly pathetic in that the country cannot even meet the quota allotted it by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). In effect, the government’s ability to perform its responsibilities to the citizens is hampered due to the fact that money that should have accrued to it is going into private pockets. Indeed, Nigerians are today reeling under the weight of the cash crunch that has become the lot of the once prosperous nation as a result of the activities of the crude thieves: irregular power supply, bad roads, shambolic healthcare, unemployment, insecurity and a massive debt overhang, to name a few.

Read Also: NCC, NSCDC partner to fight telecoms crimes

So, whatever lawful measures the government takes to stop the bleeding is welcome. As a matter of fact, the shocking aspect has been the government’s inability to move against the criminals in the security agencies who have been colluding with civilians to defraud the country.

But, disbanding the anti-vandalism units of the civil defence corps is not enough. Since the shakeup is the product of allegations of collusion against some of the corps’ personnel, such personnel must be arrested and prosecuted.

Although the civil defence corps is supposed to, among other functions, protect critical assets and infrastructure like the oil and gas pipelines as Audi noted, crude theft cannot be perpetrated by NSCDC personnel alone. Other security agents including the army, navy and Air Force, etc. are equally complicit. So, the searchlights should be beamed on them as well if the country is genuinely interested in finding a lasting solution to the problem. Such officers and men cannot remain anonymous. They should be named, shamed and prosecuted.

Indeed, the officers and men arrested can also be of assistance in identifying the personalities behind such a huge fraud. The Federal Government should stop the habit of threatening to expose and prosecute those troubling the country’s peace. Keeping such persons’ names under wraps is not helpful to the country.

The appropriate lessons can only be taught and learnt when such criminals are flushed out of the service and they and their civilian accomplices, no matter how highly placed, are made to pay for their sins.

Ordinarily, the arrest of a suspected supplier of arms to bandits in Niger State following a tipoff should be cheering news. But it raised more questions than answers.

The posers include: Who supplies the supplier with arms? How do arms enter the country illegally? What are the security agencies doing to prevent arms from getting into the wrong hands?

The suspect, Umar Shehu, 31, was reported saying he got the arms from one Abdulmani in Taraba State, who was killed by a security squad in Kaduna this year. He also said he had supplied arms and ammunition to bandits in Madaki forest, Katsina State, and in Maidaro forest, Kaduna State, as well as to a terrorist in the Kwamba-Maje area of Suleja, Niger State. For every 500 rounds of ammunition delivered to bandits, he was paid N100,000, he said, on September 6, at police headquarters, Minna, Niger State.

Two days later, the Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Musa Danmadami, also supplied information on the arrest of some alleged arms dealers linked with terrorists while briefing journalists about the activities of the Armed Forces of Nigeria from August 25 to September 8, 2022.

He said troops arrested a suspected foreign arms dealer and “logistics supplier” to Boko Haram/Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), named Mallam Abatcha Bukar, an alleged Boko Haram informant named Mamuda Usman (aka Bado) in Asokoro, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and another suspected arms dealer named Hamza Dogo in Zamfara. He added that Dogo was caught with two AK47 rifles, eight magazines, and 200 rounds of 7.62mm.

These arrests are commendable. But this is not the first time such arrests have been made in response to increasing insecurity in the country; and previous reported arrests of this kind have not de-escalated insecurity.

So, it is not enough for security agencies to announce the arrest of suspected suppliers of arms to bandits and terrorists. Such arrests should lead to prosecution of the suspects, and also be a means of gathering intelligence that would advance the country’s fight against banditry and terrorism.

Read Also: Buhari blames militants, Boko Haram for drop in oil revenue

Last year, for instance, there were some striking reports of arrests of suspected suppliers of weapons to bandits. They included a then 60-year-old man, Umar Muhammed, whom the police said used his vehicle to transport hidden guns from one place to another. He was caught with weapons.

In another case, policemen on patrol stopped four men suspected to be bandits on motorbikes on Tsaskiya-Ummadau Road, Safana Local Government Area of Katsina State.  The police found N3.4m, and their leader was said to have revealed that they were gun suppliers and had received the money from a notorious bandit, Tukur Rabiu, for six AK-47 rifles delivered to him. He said he got N100, 000 as commission for each weapon he supplied. The police said the suspect also confessed to being a gunrunner for one Abu Rade, another notorious bandit.

Also, members of a group that allegedly supplied drugs, bread and other food items to bandits operating in Zaria, Kaduna State and its environs were arrested.

Even, in one attention-grabbing case, a housewife identified as Maryam Abubakar in Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State was arrested for allegedly supplying women, including her daughters and nieces, to bandits in Galadimawa forest to satisfy their sexual needs.

Lamentably, these arrests led nowhere. The same thing may well happen regarding the recent one involving the alleged arms supplier in Niger State. These suppliers help bandits and terrorists to sustain their criminal activities. Not surprisingly, the police had accused the arrested suppliers of criminal conspiracy.

The fight against banditry and terrorism should be not only against bandits and terrorists but also those who aid them. This includes their financiers too. The case of the 400 alleged Boko Haram financiers who were reported to have been arrested in April 2021 remains a puzzle as they have not been tried more than a year after.

Failure to prosecute and punish arrested insecurity enablers cannot encourage public confidence in the fight against banditry and terrorism. Ironically, it even suggests that the authorities are enabling insecurity.

Beginning from this week, the Edo State Government said it would implement its long touted policy of holding parents of out-of-school children liable. Governor Godwin Obaseki said his administration would start arresting and prosecuting parents or guardians of such children from the new academic session that commenced on September 12.

According to the governor, necessary machinery had been put in place to enforce free and compulsory basic education in Edo State. He made known that his administration had, in partnership with the judiciary, set up special courts to prosecute perpetrators of sexual and physical abuses of school-age children. “If we find any child under the age of 18 years being used for manual labour, the parents will be prosecuted,” Obaseki told journalists in Benin City last week ahead of the new session. He thanked the state’s chief judge for setting up the special courts that will be used in prosecuting “any offender who perpetrates violence against any child or gets involved in sexual defilement or physical abuse in our school system,” adding: “From 12th September when school resumes, any child found loitering or hawking during school hours will be arrested and the parent or guardian will be prosecuted… We have specially trained people to observe and watch over our children to ensure no child is abused in Edo State. School resumes on Monday,  12th September, and teaching must commence same day. I will send out a special squad to monitor schools across the state, I will also monitor the schools myself alongside the commissioner for education.”

The Edo State government had long announced plans to crack down on parents or guardians of out-of-school children. Early in May, the governor said: “We believe that basic education is the right of every child in Edo State; it’s their right and it’s free and compulsory. We will link education with street begging and street children. In the next few weeks or months, we will not allow street begging in the state anymore. We have farm settlements and we need hands and labour to cultivate food. People arrested from where they are begging will be taken to the farm settlements to work, and if they don’t want to work, they will be sent back to where they came from.” He spoke against the backdrop of government notice dating back to 2018 that it would arrest and prosecute parents/guardians who violate the child rights law, especially those who deny their children or wards access to education.

Edo State had since 2007 domesticated the Child Rights Act and the Obaseki administration, in 2017, inaugurated the Family Court to try cases  pertaining to violation of the law. How effective it has been in doing that is debatable, but the latest push is fresh boost for that objective.

The state has an estimated population of 80,000 out-of-school children, which is among the lowest per-state out of a national population of some 20million out-of-school children according to recent data by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). It is laudable that the government is strongly committed to further roll back the figure, to the point of holding parents/guardians of affected children liable. It isn’t beyond contemplation that the Edo State government learnt bitter lessons from the state’s notoriety for adolescent trans-border trafficking for sex, and is hence determined to prevent school abandonment by the underaged from festering. Whatever may be its motivation, the initiative is noble and worthy of emulation by other states, especially those with much higher populations of out-of-school children.

The selling point in Edo’s approach is that parents historically and typically see their children as personal assets to be deployed as they deemed fit, including to chores that hinder the children from going to school. But state governments must devise means of coercing these children back to school. If parental liability would help to achieve that end, so be it.

SIR: Nigerians must have welcomed the news that Horniman Museum in London would be returning over 70 artefacts looted from the ancient Benin Kingdom at the twilight of the 19th century.

Personally, I am not too excited about the development.

First, there are concerns about our notorious maintenance culture. If and when these artefacts are given back, how decently would they be kept? Are there provisions for the oils and perfumes that should be regularly applied on them for them to maintain their beauty and durability?

What about the museums that would house them? Are they well maintained? Do the citizens appreciate such arts, or some people just want to use their political offices to tick some achievement boxes?

The National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) Lagos revealed it receives less than 50,000 visitors annually with a little above 80% of them students and just 2% foreigners. What this indicates is that, but for school excursions, a museum located at the heart of Lagos hosts less than 10,000 adult Nigerians yearly. One can only imagine how much less would be touring exhibition sites farther away from airports with much fewer populations and hotels.

With that in mind, of what economic value would these artefacts bring to the nation when the inhabitants do not visit galleries? Would it not be better it remained in the London Museum that welcomes almost a million viewers yearly?

We cannot separate tourism from aviation. The many troubles of the aviation industry where only the Lagos-Abuja route is viable will not help tourism at all. A nation where there are more private planes than commercial planes will only be known more for terrorism than tourism.

Read Also: Nigeria’s looted artefacts should be returned home, Fed Govt tells Britain

For those Benin Bronzes and the other artefacts to attract the needed views, Nigeria needs to rework its overall infrastructure. It makes no economic justification for anybody to leave mainland Lagos to spend unpredictable hours amidst highway robbery just because he wants to visit some ancient sites in Badagry. Or due to an absence of high-speed rail, one spends over six hours from Calabar airport because he wants to visit Obudu cattle ranch. Or fear being kidnapped along between Abuja and Kaduna just because one wants to go and see Gobarau Minaret in Katsina. Until we make the cost of visiting our tourist attractions cheaper, more accessible, and safer, Benin bronzes and other related artifacts will only be in Nigeria for sentimental motives.

Truth is that Europeans ravaged Africa. However, I don’t think playing the victim card asking for the return of these items evens up things. Finally, since those Benin bronzes and other relics are of more economic value abroad in terms of people that get to see and appreciate them, and in terms of security and maintenance, I would suggest we left them there. Leaving them abroad does not mean they are not ours. People may never come to Africa, but because giraffes are in zoos outside of Africa, they get to see them. The Olympics are taken around the world, yet we all know it is Greek. In the same vein, instead of the bronzes returning to Benin where even people from Ekpoma are unlikely to see them while their value deteriorates and are at the risk of being stolen, we can bargain with the foreign authorities that are currently in possession of them that certain financial percentages be repatriated to Nigeria. That way, the millions that get to see them abroad would not only know and appreciate its origins and the people that made them, they would also pay us for it.

• Ayodele Okunfolami

Festac, Lagos.

On September 6, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) announced it had paid oil marketers and haulage firms bridging claims worth N103 billion, between December 2021 and August 2022.

That was in direct response to the northern wing of the Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria (IPMAN), dubbed the Northern Independent Petroleum Marketers Forum (NIPMF).  NIPMF claimed it was being owed more than N70 billion since 2019; and because negotiations had broken down with NMDPRA, it was launching a three-day “warning strike” from September 5.

If by September 7 the issue was still unresolved, the NIPMF threatened to go on an indefinite strike that could see the coming back of petrol queues in filling stations in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and nine northern states.

Indeed, to show the IPMAN resolve, Alhaji Yahaya Alhassan, its zonal chairman, led the media to its Suleja depot in Niger State, where he showed journalists tankers laden with products but whose drivers were sworn to not leaving the depot until the claims were settled.  Around that time, the Borno IPMAN announced its tanker drivers were staying off the road, in obedience to the NIPMF directive.

The Suleja depot feeds the FCT, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Kogi and Niger, among other northern states.

Faced with the spectre of another petroleum crisis — not because of product shortage but for claims over haulage logistics — NMDPRA moved fast to engage NIPMF.  At that parley, and with NNPC Ltd also in attendance, between September 5 and 6, the regulator announced the N103 billion disbursement to IPMAN, over a nine-month period.  That clearly negated NIPMF’s claim that it was owed some N50.5 billion since 2019.

“The authority would like to reiterate that payment of bridging claims is an ongoing process and payments are disbursed as (it is) received from marketers,” the NMDPRA release stated. “It should be noted that the authority has disbursed a total of N103, 037, 922. 91 between December 2021 and August 2022.”

It also pledged itself to prompt treatment of any future claims: “Following the extensive deliberations between the parties, the authority further commits to fast-track the settlement of all outstanding claims when received from marketers after due verification and reconciliation.”

Read Also: Petrol scarcity looms as IPMAN stops supply

Then, the NMDPRA final claim, though yet to be corroborated by IPMAN as at press time, which nevertheless suggested IPMAN might have let go of the strike: “NIPMF has agreed to work with the NMDPRA to ensure the free flow of products nationwide.”

By its seeming prompt resolution of the problem, NMDPRA deserves due praise.  But for that, a part of the country would well have now been paralysed by another petroleum product supply gridlock.  Yet, it is fair and legitimate to ask where such dispute resolution skills were before things melted down to a warning strike?

Routine and mutual distrust would appear the culprit here.  In the heat of the moment, wild claims came from both NMDPRA and IPMAN.

NMDPRA’s opening gambit was that it had settled all claims; and that those claiming non-payments were suspect claimants, whose claims were either yet to be reconciled or could never be reconciled.  That has not been backed by NMDPRA’s own conciliatory though pragmatic release that claims, reconciliation and actual settlement take quite some time — but that it now commits to making that time lag as short as possible.

But NIPMF itself outed with an even more outrageous claim, which the NMDPRA released facts and figures, for between December 2021 and August 2022, completely shot down — that the regulatory authority had not treated its members’ haulage claims since 2019.  That is utterly scandalous, since a respectable business cartel should not be caught out making flippant and frivolous claims, no matter the heat of the moment.

Indeed, IPMAN members often take bank loans on which they pay huge interests, in advance of their claims, just to keep their business afloat. That is hugely understandable.  But even that should not excuse gross hyperboles, just to push market panic, to justify a warning strike.

Still, it is expected both sides have learnt the right lessons.  If the NMDPRA religiously follows its new template of transparency and prompt claim settlements, and IPMAN adopts the right temper of factoring in the time lag between claims, accounting reconciliation and settlement, the downstream marketing and supply sector could well be set for calm and lasting operational peace.

The economy demands no less, for oil and gas is central to the Nigerian local economy.

Nigerians would be relieved following the report that the $5.258 billion claim by Global Steel Holdings Ltd against Nigeria for the unlawful termination of the contract to upgrade Ajaokuta Steel Plant has been settled at $496 million. Global Steel had during the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo, through five major concessions and share purchase agreements, acquired rights over Nigeria’s entire steel industry. Against legal advice from the Federal Ministry of Justice, the government of President Umaru Yar’Adua, in 2008, terminated the contract, upon which the company took Nigeria to the International Chamber of Commerce, Court of Arbitration in Paris.

According to the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, Nigeria secured 91 percent hair cut on the original claim, which is commendable. He paid tribute to the President and we agree with him, for bringing the matter to an end during his tenure. In his words: “I pay tribute to President Muhammadu Buhari for his dedication to resolving this problem and wrestling back a crown jewel of our national industrialisation plans rather than leaving the endeavour to the future administration to deal with.”

While we join in celebrating the settlement of the dispute, we urge that a thorough forensic legal audit be conducted so that the nation is not exposed to similar legal quandary in future. It is important to know what made the government of President Obasanjo to enter into the five major concessions and share purchase agreement signed by that regime. Conversely, it is also necessary to find out why the regime of President Yar’Adua decided to terminate the contracts, despite the reported advice from the ministry of justice.

If the original contracts were skewed against Nigeria, who was responsible for that? Again, it is important to examine the report that if Nigeria had waited for 55 days, the company was set to default in the agreement, yet, despite the advice from the ministry of justice, the contract was unlawfully terminated. What led to such ill-conceived decision that has exposed Nigeria to a whooping $496 million in damages? It is important to know why the government of Yar’Adua took that decision and for what purpose.

Read Also: Ajaokuta: Fed Govt paid S496m in final settlement of contractual dispute, says Malami

However, with the dispute now settled, we look forward to a revamping of the nation’s “jewel” of industrialisation. The Ajaokuta Steel Plant which has gulped millions of dollars must not die. After all, the plant and the natural resources are still there. Likewise, the nation’s railway system, which the government of President Buhari has improved tremendously. Perhaps, the lot will fall on the next government to restore the glory of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant, which included all conceivable facilities of a modern city, including a power plant.

As a matter of fact, no national development plan would succeed without adequate supply of steel, and since we are blessed with iron ore, the natural resource for steel, we ought to have been a medium economic power more than 60 years after independence. No doubt, our leaders have mismanaged the enormous opportunities presented by the National Development Plan which was designed to place our country on the part of industrialisation. Of the several big ticket projects, the Ajaokuta Steel Plant is amongst the most audacious.

But Nigeria can be great again, if she is able to elect a leader with the capacity to dream big. Luckily, the administration of President Buhari has untangled the Ajaokuta Steel Plant’s legal quagmire for the incoming administration. We urge the Federal Government to diligently execute the terms of settlement. What is expected of the next administration will be to put in place an audacious plan to resuscitate the plant for Nigeria’s benefit.