The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Not yet there

    Not yet there

    • #AFCON2025 has come and gone, but CAF must address the challenges that almost marred the event

    The 2025 African Cup of Nations (#AFCON2025) was hosted by the Kingdom of Morocco who won the competition for the first time in 1976, and hosted it, also for the first time, in 1988.

    Senegal won the most recent competition by defeating the hosts, Morocco 1-0 at the 68,095-capacity Complexe Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, Morocco, on January 18.

    The stadium has state-of-the-art facilities and was inaugurated in September, 2025.

    The Moroccan huge investment in football infrastructure has paid off handsomely for the growth and popularity of the game. The investments in infrastructure like roads, railway, stadia and hotels were evident even if there still exists room for improvement, given the 2030 World Cup they would be co-hosting with Spain and Portugal. The complaints in the area of hospitality by some fans and players must be addressed.

    The Atlas Lions, the Moroccan male football team, made history in Qatar 2022 World Cup by being the first African nation to make it to the semi-finals while their female team, the Atlas Lionesses won a silver medal at the 2025 CAF Women’s Africa Cup of nations which they hosted.

    The country has been enjoying economic rewards for hosting several FIFA competitions in the last few years; 2013, 2014 and 2022 FIFA Club World Cup, 2025 Under-17 Women’s World Cup and 2025 CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). These hosting rights speak eloquently of the Moroccan efforts which enjoy FIFA’s endorsement for the development of the game.

    However, as each of the nations that was in Morocco settle back in their countries at the end of the game, we feel that with the kind of chaotic finals between Senegal and Morocco, which the whole football world watched with outrage and disappointment, a lot needs to be done by both the nation of Morocco, their Royal Moroccan Football Federation (RMFF), the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA itself.

    Towards the end of the final game, the Senegalese team actually walked out of the pitch in protest for a penalty award to the host team after what the referee, Jean-Jacques Ndala from the DRC saw through the video assistant referee (VAR) as a foul against a Moroccan player.

    Just minutes before then, a goal by the Senegalese team was disallowed without the referee verifying from the same VAR. The coach and players protested and actually walked off the pitch.

    The final game chaos was not the only complaints that trailed the #AFCON2025 in general. Many teams and fans complained bitterly about the refereeing at the AFCON 2025. We feel that while referees are not expected to be infallible, there are professional international standards below which certain professionals should not go.

    The 2026 World Cup is almost here and it might be the same old story of minimal or no African referees officiating despite the fame of African players in the world of football. The last Ballon D’Or was won by Ismail Bembele of PSG.

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    If Africans can earn laurels and represent the continent at every stage of the game, referees must be better trained, monitored, sanctioned/rewarded when necessary to act appropriately. CAF must do some introspection.

    It must demand better host-country responsibility and hospitality. Reports of substandard hotels for some teams, transportation and security issues should be unacceptable.

    There were glaring cases of racist and disrespectful actions from some Moroccan officials, players and fans. Nigerian goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali, had his towel removed several times, including by the Moroccan/PSG star-player, Achraf Hakimi. Nwabali was once thrown a banana, generally interpreted as racist imagery. The Senegalese keeper, Edouard Mendy, suffered too. The reserve goalkeeper, Yehvann Diouf, had to fight off attacks to keep the keeper’s towel away from errant ball-boys that attacked him.

    CAF as a confederation must not, through actions and inactions, undermine African football. There must be no trust deficit as that brings chaos. They must be seen to be totally firm and not permissive in certain circumstances. They must avoid actions that appear ambiguous. Appointing certain referees and replacing them after protests is very self-indicting. They ought to understand the sentiments and politics of the game in ways that emotions are not stirred up with

    biases and prejudices.

    On the part of Morocco, investment in infrastructure should not be done without requisite social re-orientation. There are allegations that Moroccans often tend to subtly deny their Africanness, often tilting towards the Middle Eastern Arab bloc and Europe, only to claim Africa during sports competitions like football. They have the right to choose where to belong but nothing empowers them to unleash racist acts on players and fans. The fact that some Moroccan journalists were unruly towards the Senegalese coach, Pape Thiaw, during the final post-match press conference, and some fans insulted black players, should be sanctioned.

    Malian journalist Mohammed Soumare and Cameroonian journalist Audrey Ibohin Ngoh, both died under what has been alleged as mysterious circumstances after they had media analysis criticising CAF and the Royal Moroccan Football Federation’s actions.

    While the world awaits the autopsies of the two journalists, the allegations are telling. We hope that CAF and the Moroccan Football Federation would be transparent with investigations surrounding the journalists’ deaths. Journalists are huge actors in the game of football and must not be endangered doing their job.

    However, one positive from the competition is the fact that African coaches seem to have proven their capacity to own their space. The three countries with medals, Senegal, Morocco and Nigeria are being coached by Africans.

    However, the Senegalese coach, Thiaw, seemed to have dropped the ball by ordering his players off the pitch after the controversy over Moroccan penalty. That was a failure of leadership, even if we understand the tense circumstances. He must be seen to lead by example.

    A Sadio Mane that was neither a captain nor a coach showed the sterling leadership qualities that speak loudly about his values, in remaining calm and thinking beyond self to the general African football image.

    Mane has shown that tags and positions do not imbue anyone with leadership. Leadership is earned through actions that depict integrity, altruism and humility. He stands today as a legend of the beautiful game whose beauty goes beyond the pitch to even outside the game, given his investment in schools, hospitals, football and other activities in his country. He demonstrates to the young ones what is achievable through hard work, humility and altruism.

    One profound lesson that Morocco and the football bodies must learn from #AFCON2025 is the fact that the world has so developed in ways that technology and the internet have impacted every life. The idea that every action and inaction was captured and shared by millions must tell everyone that there is no hiding place anymore. The game must be insulated from politics and royalty…two institutions that often represent divisiveness.

    FIFA already has too many scandals and must be seen to redeem such an image that devalues the beautiful game. There must be sanctions in areas where laws were broken by the host Morocco, CAF, teams, officials, fans or hotels. Justice must be seen to have been done. The global celebration of Morocco’s loss tells a story.

  • Yakubu Mohammed (1950 – 2026)

    Yakubu Mohammed (1950 – 2026)

    •Another journalism icon is gone

    In what turned out to be his last interview, in September 2025, veteran journalist Yakubu Mohammed told “The Niche”: “I have no regrets picking journalism. If I have to come back to this world again, I will be a journalist. Journalism was my passport into the wide world…That I am known today has to do with journalism.”

    Two months later, in November 2025, he launched his memoir, “Beyond Expectations,” in Lagos. It was his first book, and stands as a primary source for understanding how independent journalism was born in a time of military dictatorship.

    He said in the interview: “I thought that the stage I have reached in my life and career, it is about the best time to write a book… It is a sequence of events that have shaped my life thus far from primary to secondary school, university and getting to the peak of my journalism career.”

    He, indeed, attained distinction as a journalist.

    His passing in Lagos on January 14, aged 75, marked a significant loss to the Nigerian media industry. He was a member of the distinguished quartet, including Dele Giwa, Dan Agbese and Ray Ekpu, that co- founded “Newswatch” magazine in 1984, a brand that revolutionised Nigerian journalism with its investigative flair and presentational style.  The magazine’s success and appeal inspired the founding of several other magazines fashioned after its model.

    Ekpu, the only living member of the legendary founding quartet, in a posthumous tribute described Mohammed as “a reporter’s reporter.”

    Born in Ologba, Dekina Local Government Area of present-day Kogi State, Mohammed studied Mass Communication at the University of Lagos (1972-1975), and later attended Glasgow College of Technology, Scotland (1978-1979).

    He worked at the “New Nigerian,” where he rose to the position of managing editor. He joined “National Concord” in 1980 as deputy editor, and became editor two years later.  “The period – 1982 to 1984 – was a critical time in ‘Concord.’ I did a lot to transform the newspaper and I increased the sale of ‘National Concord’ from 99,000 copies daily to over 400,000 copies in just two years,” he recalled.

    In a move that changed the face of journalism in the country, he left the newspaper to co-found “Newswatch” magazine in 1984. By 1985, the magazine had achieved a staggering weekly circulation of over 150,000 copies.

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    He underlined the significance of his leap of faith: “If I didn’t resign from ‘Concord,’ there wouldn’t have been any ‘Newswatch’ and all the things that came after ‘Newswatch’ couldn’t have happened – ‘TELL,’ ‘TheNews,’ all the newsmagazines were offshoots of ‘‘Newswatch.”  He became managing editor of the magazine in 1986; and, from 1994, served as deputy chief executive officer of Newswatch Communications Limited.

    He was vice president of the League of Nigerian Columnists (LNC), founded in 2018; and was credited with shaping the league’s institutional direction and providing mentorship to younger writers and columnists. In its posthumous tribute, the group highlighted “the core values he exemplified: unwavering intellectual honesty, a steadfast sense of public responsibility and the judicious use of words in service of society.”

    Beyond his role at the LNC, he was also a former pro-chancellor and chairman of the governing council of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

    Fired by a journalistic instinct for social transformation, he entered politics in 2011 and unsuccessfully contested for the Kogi State governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). After his first attempt, he failed again when in 2015 he vied for the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Reflecting on his adventures in politics and the sobering state of the nation, he observed in his final interview that the political class “will not allow certain kind of people to go near power because they can’t trust you and the reason that they can’t trust you is that you are not ready to steal money or allow somebody else to steal.”

    Ultimately, his “outsider” status in politics solidified his legacy as a “statesman of the press.”

  • Horror!

    Horror!

    •A brazen murder at noon got Kano outraged. But it’s good the suspects are in the can

    Two incidents undermine the revulsion and outrage that Kano — and the rest of the country — feel for the January 17 murder of a young mother and her brood of six.

    One: Governor Abba Yusuf, on a condolence visit, told the mourning widower, Bashir Abubakar, just brutally cleaned of his family of seven, that he would not hesitate to sign the death warrant of anyone found guilty of the outrageous crime.

    Two: Mallam Auwal, elder brother of Fatima Abubakar, and father of one of the three murder suspects, has called for a swift execution of his son, for killing his aunt and her children, should the courts find him guilty.

    In a jurisdiction that has suddenly grown soft on capital punishment — one of the reasons being that it’s so final there is no margin to correct an error, should the doomed have been wrongly condemned — this anger is very significant.  But that might be because, from the information available in the public space thus far, it seems an open-and-shut case.  What horror!

    “Umar, please don’t kill me …” the chilling, yet impassioned plea by the late Fatima, just before Umar and the two other suspects moved in for the kill, would haunt the Chiranchi neighbourhood, in the Dorayi area of Kano, for a long time.  What horror!  And to think Bashir, Fatima’s husband and father of the ill-fated children was out, unable to protect his family!

    The gory count: Fatima (35), her two daughters: Maimuna (17) and Aisha (16), and her four sons: Bashir (13), Abubakar (10), Faruk (7) and Abdulsalam (one) — all battered and left lifeless in the pool of own blood.  A report said the killers used a sewing machine head to smash the skulls of the victims!  Horrible!

    The police have already arrested three suspects: Umar Auwalu (23) — Fatima’s nephew — Isyaku Yakubu (40) and Yakubu Abdulaziz (21), all three from Kano.

    They have earned praise for the swift and timely arrest of these suspects.  What is left is for a swift but thorough investigation to unearth the motive(s) for the murder.

    Indeed, what could have pushed a nephew to unleash such bone-chilling violence on his aunt and her defenceless children?  Was there a family feud?  Even if there was, must it be settled in such a gory way?

    Or was it out-and-out greed, since the Umar gang have allegedly confessed to an earlier violent crime?  The savagery that led to the untimely despatch of the seven — did hard drugs have anything to do with it?  Is it all a function of disintegrating family units as we used to know it?  Is it the youth, ever hopeless about tomorrow, turning into sheer barbarism?

    Even as the society craves swift trial and justice — as it must be for every crime and punishment — thoroughly probing the detailed circumstances of this macabre crime will help to prevent similar future felonies.  After that, and with the completion of the judicial process, the state can deliver swift justice, however the courts rule.  Civilised society can do without such murderous scum!

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    With the burial of the seven, and the now childless father and widower, with his kith-and-kin, mourning their dead, the society should spare nothing to nurture the mental health of Bashir. We doubt how anyone can console a man that just lost his wife and six children.  But we can still reassure him that it need not be the end of life.

    Which is why Governor Yusuf should be commended, apart from committing himself to a swift dispensation of justice for the murdered.  He has also unfolded a thoughtful welfare package for the widower and bereaved father: the gift of a new house: to banish the shattering memories from the old, and murder scene; a spiritual recharge, via a Kano State sponsorship for Bashir to go on a twin-pilgrimage of Hajj and Umrah to Saudi Arabia, and sundry welfare support to get his life back on track.

    Bravo!  That is the mark of a caring government.  So, the governor should go ahead to walk his talk. But it should also ensure that Bashir lacks no medical support that could help re-set his ruptured psyche.  The government should assist him with every medic and paramedic — at no cost — that can help to restore his wellness.

    Still, ultimately, prevention is better than cure.  In the absence of a formal state police, Kano State should maximise its Neighbourhood Watch corps to ferret out such heinous crimes, even before they are hatched.

    If Dorayi is as trouble-free as post-crime reports suggest, then an effective neighbourhood watch ought to have picked out signals of big trouble. That could have averted this senseless homicide.

  • Untidy tack

    Untidy tack

    • Kaduna mass abduction another reminder that the time is ripe for state police

    Last Tuesday, the Nigeria Police confirmed that a mass abduction took place  at Kurmin Wali, a remote community in Kajuru council area of Kaduna State, after initial hesitation by governing authorities to acknowledge that the incident did occur. Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun ordered deployment of critical operational and intelligence assets comprising tactical units, intensified patrols, targeted search-and-rescue operations and other measures aimed at protecting lives and property and restoring calm to the affected area.

    Force Public Relations Officer Benjamin Hundeyin, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), said in a statement that subsequent verification from operational units and intelligence sources enabled the police leadership to establish that the incident indeed occurred. “The Nigeria Police Force, therefore, activated coordinated security operations, working closely with other security agencies, with a clear focus on locating and safely rescuing the victims and restoring calm to the area,” he stated.

     He acknowledged that reports of the abduction had generated widespread concern, and explained initial hesitation by authorities to simply roll with the alarm on need to prevent heightened panic while the facts were yet being verified. According to him, now that checks had confirmed the mass kidnap did occur, security response has been activated to rescue the abductees and restore calm to the affected area.

    No fewer than 177 residents of Kurmin Wali were said to have been abducted last Sunday from a Catholic church, an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) congregation and a Cherubim and Seraphim (C&S) church. Some others abducted were said to have escaped the kidnappers’ hold. Reports cited eyewitnesses saying the bandits struck at about 10:00a.m. local time. “Some people tried to run, but they couldn’t because the armed men had surrounded the village,” one eyewitness said, adding: “They (bandits) gathered people together and later forced them to march into the bush.”

    Hundeyin explained that upon receipt of report of the mass abduction, state Governor Uba Sani convened a meeting of the Kaduna State Security Council at the Government House in Kaduna. At that meeting, some individuals from the affected local government area allegedly disputed the report despite its having been earlier confirmed by the police, describing it as false. “This created uncertainty and reinforced the need for caution and thorough verification by the police and other security agencies before making conclusive public statements on such a sensitive matter,” the force spokesman said.

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    He clarified comments made by Kaduna State Commissioner of Police Muhammad Rabiu during a media interaction, saying the remarks were aimed at preventing panic while facts were still being verified. “Those remarks, which have since been widely misinterpreted, were not a denial of the incident but a measured response pending confirmation of details from the field, including the identities and number of those affected,” Hundeyin said.

    On Monday, police commissioner Rabiu had told journalists: “We got a report that 300 people were kidnapped in Kurmin Wali and we sent our officers, soldiers and vigilante. And at this time, there is no evidence to suggest that a kidnap happened.”

    He challenged those claiming that abduction took place to “list the names of the kidnapped victims and other particulars.”

    The police boss’ cynicism was reinforced somewhat by the chairman of Kajuru Local Government Area who said security forces had been sent to the area but found no sign of a kidnapping. “We visited the church where the so-called kidnap took place. There was no evidence of the attack. I asked the village head, Mai Dan Zaria, and he said that there was no such attack,” the council chair stated.

    That could well be the refutation by individuals from affected council area that Hundeyin referenced in his statement. But you would wonder why the police got swayed by this denial when, according to the force spokesman, it had earlier confirmed the kidnap report.

    Residents of Kurmin Wali community released a list of 177 persons said to have been abducted in the incident, saying the list was compiled by families and church officials in response to the public challenge by the Kaduna State police commissioner. According to reports, the CP visited the area Tuesday morning on a fact-finding mission following the controversy generated by the incident.

    It was also reported that families had established contact with the kidnappers and were aware of the general location where the victims were being held. “If they want, the escapees are on ground to testify. The location of the others has been established,” a community source was cited saying by this newspaper, in response to initial official skepticism. Sources also noted that security operatives couldn’t move swiftly to pursue the abductor towards rescuing the abductees because of the initial position that no abduction took place.

    The chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the North, Reverend Joseph Hayab, echoed this view in an interview on Channels Television when he argued that the initial denials slowed down rescue operations. “Look at the time they used in denial. That time they were supposed to be using in pursuing the bandits, but they chose to allow the bandits to have gone far before they are coming to acknowledge that the information we give them is true and remain true,” he said.

    We think there is no question that the response tack by the police was shoddy. In a situation where time is of critical essence, security operatives should have gone in pursuit of the alleged kidnappers first and double-check the doubts later, to prevent allowing the kidnappers a headstart as it seems to now be the case.

    It was momentary living in denial and delayed response by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan that allowed Boko Haram insurgents a comfortable headstart, which eventually complicated rescue efforts in Nigeria’s first experience of mass abductions, namely that of the Chibok schoolgirls in 2014.

    Kurmin Wali is a remote Kaduna State community and apparently unreached by routine security surveillance. It was unhelpful that the police debated the Save Our Soul report from community residents while bandits made away with abductees from the community. Having allowed that time lapse in response, the onus lies on the security machinery to pursue and overtake the bandits, and recover all abductees.

    The Kurmin Wali abductions highlight the urgent need to carry through with plans for state police. When a security emergency in a remote corner of the country is left to the centre to process, response time is inevitably delayed and knowledge of terrain peculiarities too foggy to allow for effective and quick counter-measures. Nearly all state governors are reported to have bought into the state police proposal. We urge that everything necessary be done to surmount other procedural delays, so to speed up its implementation. Nigeria is grossly under-policed with the current unitary structure of the force, and state police should largely redress that challenge.

    While awaiting the creation of state police, state governments should invest on formation of informal grassroots outfits that could act as first responders in security emergencies.

  • Justice for Timothy Daniel

    Justice for Timothy Daniel

    •Killer of minor at crossover service must be brought to book

    What threat could a 13-year-old have posed to warrant being shot to death just after leaving church? That is a question for military authorities to answer, or they should bring the soldier who allegedly shot the minor in cold blood to firm justice.

    Young Timothy, a Junior Secondary School (JSS) 2 student, was fatally shot in the early hours of New Year Day,  after attending crossover service with his relations at Mount Zion Church, Ette community in Ikot Abasi council area of Akwa Ibom State. Reports said he was shot by a soldier among servicemen on guard duty at a local petrochemical firm neighbouring the church. Timothy’s elder sister, Miracle Daniel, said the family, based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, had only come home to Ette community for Yuletide celebration.

    The killing of Timothy sparked community outrage, with residents staging a protest during which roads were blocked and some vehicles belonging to the petrochemical company where the suspected shooter-soldier was on guard duty torched. Army authorities acknowledged the incident and announced that the soldier suspected to be involved had been detained. The headquarters of 2 Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Uyo said it had launched official investigation to establish the facts.

    In a media interview, Miracle said she was the one first molested by the accused soldier before her brother fell victim. According to her, people were celebrating the dawning of the New Year when she felt pressed and stepped aside somewhere nearby to relieve herself. It was as she sought to do this that the accused soldier came over from his duty post in the premises next door and allegedly assaulted her and her sister who was giving her cover. “The next thing he did was to slap me. My younger sister asked him if he was supposed to lay his hand on a woman as a security officer, but he also slapped my sister,” Miracle recounted.

    The 26-year-old further narrated the circumstance of Timothy’s killing. “Another man came and apologised on behalf of the soldier. I don’t know if he is a military man, but he came from the other end where military officers were. He was not putting on any uniform,” she said, adding: “We then left the crowd, but as we were leaving, the next thing I heard was a gunshot. I didn’t know what was happening at first. I told my sister the soldiers had begun to shoot. So, we decided to run away. We ran to a place where we saw a group of people telling a soldier that he had killed someone. We were able to identify the soldier as the same person who had harassed us earlier. We soon realised it was my younger brother the soldier shot. That was when I held to his shirt and said, ‘Do you know that you have killed my brother?’ The soldier now put his hands on his head and said he never meant to kill anybody. While we were holding him, other soldiers came and forcefully took him away.”

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    Army authorities, according to her, subsequently reached out to the family. “They came to us on Sunday (New Year Day was the previous Thursday) and said they were not happy, and that through their investigation, they found out that my brother was innocent.” She added that the authorities assured that the soldier suspected to have killed young Timothy would not go scot-free and would face the law.

    In a statement, the Nigerian Army regretted the incident, but said no conclusion had been reached at this point in its investigation. The statement by Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Headquarters 2 Brigade, Uyo, Captain Lawal Muhammad, explained that ongoing investigation is to establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident. It urged the public to refrain from speculation or commentary that may prejudice investigation, adding that the outcome of the probe would be made public upon its conclusion. “The Nigerian Army expresses sincere sympathy and condolences to the family and loved ones of Timothy Daniel and commiserates with them over his loss,” the statement further said.

    The authorities’ plea for restraint in commentary is well noted, but the matter is of public interest and cannot be avoided. The army must ensure service commitment to professionalism and rules of engagement in the conduct of its personnel in the probe, and must therefore bring the erring officer to account. A trigger-happy and power-drunk officer is a danger to society. Besides, everything necessary must be done to relieve the pain of the bereaved family, and prevent a recurrence.

  • Kudos to Fed Govt

    Kudos to Fed Govt

    •Hefty allocation to pensions in 2026 budget will put smiles on the faces of pensioners

    Other things being equal, Federal Government pensioners have cause to smile this year, going by the N1.376 trillion that the government has proposed for pensions, gratuities and retirees’ benefits in the 2026 appropriation bill that is currently before the National Assembly.

    Of the amount, N94,538,656,847 is for civilian pension under the Office of the Head of Civil Service; military pensions and gratuity (DMP), N486,039,965,366; National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) – military retirees, N3,571,846,330; Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) civilian staff pension and gratuity, N6,610,178,920 and  Department of State Security, N28,611,520,421.

    Others are the Nigeria Intelligence Agency, N23,538,022,433; Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, N285,586,345,534; Police Pensions and Gratuities, N18,533,472,973; Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Office, N18,409,612,175 and  universities pension, including arrears, N13,120,357,752.

    Parastatals’ pension and railway pensions are projected to consume N194,686,375,535; NELMCO, 17,548,870,129; National Pension Commission (PENCOM), N427,039,429,838  and other pensions N20,964,110,103.

    The money covers rising obligations to retired public servants as well as long-standing arrears across civil, military and paramilitary institutions.

    We commend the Federal Government for striving not only to pay current pensions but also gradually clearing the arrears.

    For decades, governments, federal and several states, have treated retirees’ matters with levity. It’s as if people currently in service forget that they too will retire someday, the way they treat pensioners. Until recent times, we used to see pensioners subjected to all manner of traumatic experiences just to collect what is their natural entitlement. Due to delayed payment of their entitlements, many were ejected from their rented apartments; many had their children withdrawn from schools due to their inability to pay school fees while many died as a result of sicknesses that they could not go to hospitals to treat for lack of funds. Many others died in the course of travelling long distances and staying on queues endlessly for equally unending verification exercises.

    Retirement should be a thing of joy after years of dedicated service to one’s fatherland. And it was so at the beginning until things began to deteriorate in the 1980s or thereabout.

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    It was after the failure of the former underfunded Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) that the government moved to a mandatory Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) that was initiated by the Pension Reform Act of 2004. This was later repealed and replaced with the Pension Reform Act 2014 to address corruption, mismanagement, and unsustainable pension liabilities. Under the new system, regulated by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), both private and public employees contribute to a privately managed Retirement Savings Account (RSA).

    As with most things Nigerian, this too soon began to have hic-cups, with several federal ministries, departments and parastatals as well as state governments and others deducting their employees’ money without remitting same to their pension managers. 

    It is to the credit of the current administration that we are no longer seeing these ugly scenes associated with failure to pay pensions, or delay in doing same. Increased financial allocation to the state governments from the savings made on fuel subsidy withdrawal has put more money in their coffers. Although lack of funds alone could not have justified failure to pay pensions as and when due in the past; it was just a case of many governors not prioritising it. Many engage in frivolous expenditures as pensioner died on queues in the process of collecting their pension.

    Incidentally, the same political appointees who do not see pensions of people that served for decades as priority usually ensure that they get theirs on their way out of office.

    When we default in paying pensions, we are not only doing harm to the people concerned; we are also sending a signal to those in service that they need to help themselves because they would soon be left to their own devices when they retire.

    While praising the government for this caring decision to make pensioners laugh, we urge it to ensure that the arrears are fully settled within the shortest possible time, even as we urge state governments and other entities to always prioritise pension payment, to avoid the ugly experiences of the past.

  • Temporary relief

    Temporary relief

    • Military-police joint task forces cannot solve our policing problems; we must revamp and reform our police force

    Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd.), made a good observation when he said deploying soldiers to strictly police duties is weakening the capacity of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and other civilian security agencies. Buratai noted that this anomaly could only provide temporary stability.

    The former army chief said this last week in his keynote address at the 2026 Armed Forces Celebration and Remembrance Day lecture in Abuja.

    “The extensive deployment of the Armed Forces of Nigeria in internal security provides immediate stability, but it also perpetuates a cycle of dependency that weakens civil police capacity and strains defence resources,” Buratai said.

    He noted that “Internal security should be civil-driven and intelligence-led, primarily by the police and state security services.”

    General Buratai’s observations should be noted even if he has not said anything novel. Some Nigerians had made similar observations in the past. These included the former Director-General of the Nigerian Army Resource Centre, Major-General Garba Wahab, who told ‘ThisDay’ about seven months ago that “You cannot continue to use them (soldiers) in internal security because they are not meant to maim people. They are meant to kill. By deploying, you are wasting resources. It is a monumental waste we are having right now.”

    He said successive governments continue to use the soldiers because “it is cheaper, easier, faster to deploy the military”.

    Former Inspector-General of Police, Mr Sunday Ehindero, has had cause to speak in the same vein, as well as several security experts. They cannot all be wrong.

    Unfortunately, this trend started during the military era.

    We recall the ‘Operation Sweep’  that the General Buba Marwa government established to tackle the then seemingly intractable security challenges in Lagos State. Because the outfit largely succeeded in reducing crime wave, we did not seem to realise the inherent weaknesses in that initiative.

    Even after returning to civil rule on May 29, 1999, the practice continued. Indeed, at some point in time, at least about 28 of the 36 states in the country had joint military-police outfits under all manner of names, to tackle the rising crime wave.

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    Yet, the 1999 constitution is clear on the duties of both the NPF and the armed forces.

    Indeed, Section 214 of the constitution that establishes the police force outlines its responsibilities: including prevention and detection of crime, apprehension of offenders, and preservation of law and order.

    On the other hand, Section 217 of the constitution defines the duties of the soldiers: They are to defend Nigeria from external aggression, maintain territorial integrity and borders, suppress insurrection, and assist civil authorities to restore order when directed by the President, plus any other duties prescribed by the National Assembly.

    In all of these, they must remain subordinate to civilian authority.

    It would seem it is on this premise of subordination to civil authorities that the military cannot lawfully refuse presidential or legislative orders to help the police force to maintain law and order.

    But then, while this joint military-police assignment could have provided temporary relief, it cannot be a permanent solution.

    As has been severally pointed out,

    Continued deployment of soldiers for internal security is an erosion of police capacity; it overstretches the military; as well as  a misallocation of resources, among others.

    We need a permanent solution fast.

    The problems militating against effective policing are well- known: We need more policemen. We cannot get this just by recruiting, so we don’t engage the wrong persons. It has to be done systematically and painstakingly. This involves upgrading their training institutions that have been abandoned for decades.

    It is gratifying that President Bola Tinubu set up the National Economic Council (NEC) Committee on the Overhaul of Security Training Institutions late last year, to review, overhaul, and revamp the police colleges and security training institutions in the country.

    Headed by Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State, the goal of the committee is to prepare the facilities for the training of 30,000 newly approved police recruits.

    We urge the committee to expedite action on its assignment which is crucial to revamping the police force.

    The police force also needs improved funding, modern policing tools, etc., decent welfare packages to perform effectively and efficiently. Not crutches that the military represents in assisting it to secure the country.

  • Ridiculous proposition

    Ridiculous proposition

    • How can Gov. Radda be thinking of freeing suspected bandits undergoing trial in the name of ‘prisoners exchange’?

    We are shocked that Governor Dikko Umar Radda of Katsina State appears to be walking the same worn-out path treaded by his predecessors, without any benefits, in fighting banditry in his state.

    Last week, news broke that Katsina State government was making plans to release 70 bandits facing charges in various courts within the state, in what a state official called prisoners exchange.

    We wonder who was exchanging prisoner with whom?

    As expected, Nigerians are aghast and they condemned what they see as an appeasement of sundry criminality by the state government.

    According to the state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Dr Nasir Muazu, the release of the suspects was aimed at consolidating a peace deal entered into between communities affected by insecurity and repentant bandits. He said: “World over, everyone knows that after a war is fought, there are usually prisoner exchanges. If you take Nigeria, for example, during the civil war, many prisoners were set free and exchanged between the Nigerian side and the Biafran side.”

    We consider the argument appallingly scandalous. Is Muazu saying the war with bandits has ended?

    He continued his putrid argument: “If you look at the issue of Boko Haram, prisoners were also released after an agreement was reached. Even the Chibok girls that were released also saw some Boko Haram members who were in prison set free too.” His clincher: “Both warring groups have prisoners they set free for the other. So, it is not an issue of whether an offence had been committed or not, so long as there is peace. The issue is that prisoner exchange is not a new thing in the history of war and peace.”

    Is Katsina State now a sovereign entity with power to set free those who have committed heinous crime against the country?

    We also wonder whether the national security hierarchy was involved in making that decision. While banditry may directly be impacting local communities, it is the national resources which could have been budgeted for education, health and other social infrastructure that is being used to fight the menace, just as enormous resources have been committed to other forms of insurgency in the north.

    The leaders of the affected states must not give the impression that they are treating banditry with kid gloves.

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    When a commissioner in a state appears to be making a decision over far-reaching national security issues, then some laxity exists. We are aware that many of the so-called repentant bandits have gone back to their nefarious trade soon after they have been handsomely rewarded to forsake their criminal activities. The so-called non-kinetic approach should only apply when remorse is established.

    When bandits claim to repent, what plans are in place to ensure that they don’t go back to their evil ways? Or, is the state merely exposing its weakness by surrendering arrested bandits in exchange for its citizens unlawfully held by non-state actors?

    We hope the state authorities have a way of tracking the activities of those let go, out of weakness. Such persons must be monitored to ensure that they do not go back to their evil ways. The state should capture their biodata and develop a data base with which to track them.

    We urge Governor Radda to seek counsel from his predecessors and those of surrounding states affected by banditry. Those who have walked the path he is currently trending will tell him that you cannot make deal with these criminals. Aminu Masari, as governor of Katsina State, after wasting resources in the name of amnesty, later regretted his actions.

    Governor Radda should not do the same. Enough of the nonsense of appeasement as a tactic to deal with bandits.

  • Good call

    Good call

    •Setting apart N1.8 trillion to pay local contractors is sound economics

    It must be a boon to local contractors, and eventually a toast to the Nigerian economy: the Federal Government, by the 2026 budget proposals, has set apart N1.8 trillion to pay indigenous contractors for work certified done.

    For a construction sub-sector used to the thick blues of delayed payment — if any payment at all — that appears a new deal: prompt payment for jobs done.

    Though it’s only a proposal, and funds projected hardly ever equate funds released — often times, there are shortfalls — it’s a good gesture towards a good cause.  It bodes well for the local economy; and could jack up the construction sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP).  More or less, it could retool the indigenous segment of the construction sector — great!

    Still, that N100 billion, of the target N1.3 trillion, has been projected to pay for work certified done in 2024 — two financial years after job completion — shows the stiff payment challenges indigenous contractors have been facing.

    By a report in ‘The Nation’ (January 14), as at June 2025, the Federal Government owes local contractors between N200 billion and N400 billion. No prize for guessing right: the pile-up has resulted from “delayed budget releases, cash flow challenges, and procurement bottlenecks.”

    Delayed budget releases and cash flow challenges starkly show the structural nature of the delayed payment crisis.  Even the sum proposed for a better deal in 2026 is subject to the same structural bottlenecks.  That means though redemption might come for past jobs done, 2026 jobs might have to wait till later years to be settled.

    The moral here is clear: no matter how huge the sum set aside, delayed payments will subsist, until the structural bottleneck is tweaked for the better: improved — nay, timely budget releases — and eased cash flow challenges.

    Still, this is trite: rigorous checks for certified jobs done take a decent amount of time.  To checkmate fraud and allied sharp practices, it’s better to tarry awhile, and maintain adequate checks.  But needless delays, via casual human attitudes and deliberate stonewalling by unscrupulous officials, can be eliminated, particularly as the processes are progressively digitalised.

    Therefore, the more the government eliminates deliberate delays, the faster the entire payment chain will run.  That is the challenge before the federal — and even state — authorities, as they try to fasten payments, without giving way to fraud.  It can — and should be — done.  That’s the only way to correct delayed payments.

    There is another reason to give indigenous contractors a better deal.  By sheer capitalisation, they can’t compete with the big international firms, which capitalisation earns them the biggest jobs.  Yet, these local firms, by virtue of lower capital outlay, contend with higher interest rates from banks.  Now, having to cope with delayed payment constitutes a triple jeopardy that make them fairly uncompetitive in their own home economies.

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    Besides, by their comparatively humble capitalisation, they operate at the base of the industry.  That means their recruitment doors are likelier open to Nigerian professionals and skilled artisans, operating at that base.  Prompter payment for work certified done, therefore, will guarantee those jobs.  That not only helps to sustain their operations, it can also help them to grow their business and climb up the industrial ladder.  That can only deepen the Nigerian economy.

    Jackson Ifeanyi, president of the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria (AICAN), was openly accusatory — and understandably so — while speaking of his members’ plight.

    “We, the indigenous contractors, under the auspices of the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria,” he told ‘The Nation’, “wish to draw the attention of the Nigerian public … and all relevant stakeholders to the unfair and unbearable conditions our members are being subjected to, by the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

    The government should further attend to their grievances, following a December 2025 payment pact, which followed AICAN members’ protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja, after which the government delivered on its promise to off-set part of the bill.

    Subject to a better budget management structure, the government should follow this new and promising path in the new year — and beyond.

    If it does — and it should — the government might just save some money, from the inefficiencies built into the delayed payment regime.  Contractors are known to pad bills, in anticipation of delayed payment.

    But a new found promptitude might change all of that: tighten the purse, save some money and ensure that the available money pays more contractors than hitherto.  That would be a win-win for everyone.

  • On course

    On course

    •That we now import less fuel is something to celebrate; but govt must maintain delicate balance between local refiners and importers

    The report that importation of refined petroleum products has fallen, sharply by 54 per cent in two years, should not come as a surprise going by the milestone achievements in the sector in the last two years. Aside the most notable one which is the grand entry of Dangote Refinery into the sector in early 2024, other smaller modular units like OPAC, Walter Smith, Aradel and Duport have also reportedly joined in producing refined fuel for the local market.

    ‘The Punch’, quoting the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Balance of Payments report, succinctly captured the systematic decline in fuel imports, first from $14.58bn in the first nine months of 2023, to $11.38bn (21.9 per cent) in the corresponding period in 2024, and subsequently to $6.71bn for the corresponding period of 2025.

    The paper would surmise that, ‘‘overall, the figures show that Nigeria spent $7.87bn less on refined fuel imports in the first nine months of 2025 than it did in the corresponding period of 2023, underscoring a significant easing of foreign exchange outflows linked to petroleum product imports’’.

    At this point, it is perhaps safe to say that the transition from being a country wholly import-dependent on fuel imports to one with increasingly progressive local capacity is not only on course but has become unstoppable.

    Surely, the trend is as much a measure of the stride that has been recorded in the last two years as it is the promise of the boundless potentials still waiting to be unlocked with time.  

    Yet, much as this progress has been somewhat steady, so has the resistance been no less fierce from the traditional quarters – the cartel of fuel importers whose massive investments in tank farms and allied infrastructures for fuel imports are increasingly being laid to waste as a direct consequence; and the powerful industry unions, whose old ways of doing business potentially threatens the progress being made.

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    In all of these, our position is that the country has long gone past the debate on whether the cartel and the powerful industry unions should embrace this inevitable reality of change, or be left behind. Now, the main issue is whether a leading oil-producing country, particularly one whose natural harbours place her in vantage position as global refining hub, should continue to be stuck with the old paradigm of fuel importation, with its corrupt and inefficient playbook, for any reason. We consider the current $6.71bn import bill part of that old playbook that must be jettisoned.

    After all, Nigerians have already made clear that what they want to see happen, and this in the shortest time: more players coming on board in the refining sector to usher in the country’s emergence as a major player in a sector that she once played the laggard.

    More than that, they want to see investments cascade down to the petro-chemical sector to catalyse industrialisation, to reduce the current dependency on industrial raw materials imports.

    And, while the pioneering efforts of the likes of Dangote Refinery show how much the climate of investment has improved in the country for those willing to take the bet, the government must consider further steps to guarantee their survival through fiscal regimes that might be deemed appropriate and necessary.

    Part of that duty must include the maintenance of that delicate balance between local refiners and importers where perceived supply gaps exist, while ensuring that predatory and anti-competitive activities are kept at bay at all times.