The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • The Mokwa flood tragedy

    The Mokwa flood tragedy

    Another lesson in prevention being better than cure

    For the people of Mokwa Local Government in Niger State, the paradox of this year’s May 29 Democracy Day will remain indelible in their history. Instead of the usual celebratory ambience of the day, there were reportedly hundreds of deaths, cases of missing persons and destruction of property as a result of massive flooding and an alleged broken dam, giving the state one of its worst flooding in 60 years.

    We regret this tragic incident which sadly adds to the gory statistics by the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) that reported that from 1969 to 2022, flooding incidents in Nigeria have resulted in approximately 21,000 deaths, with a national loss of about US$17billion. For a developing country like Nigeria, these statistics are huge.

    The most recent devastating effects of flooding across the country were recorded in 2022 when, from Kogi to Bayelsa, Kebbi to Kwara, and indeed across all geopolitical zones, people died, farmlands were washed away, families joined the ever growing number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country. That year’s flooding, apart from the huge loss of lives contributed a great deal to the food insecurity that subsists even till today, as many farmlands were washed away and some farmers lost their investments, as most of them had borrowed money from banks.

    We acknowledge that flooding is a global problem as nature would always take its course in addition to human errors and negligence that ought to mitigate the huge impacts. However, what makes the difference between Nigeria and other climes is that there is almost total amnesia about incidents such as flooding here. A lot of effort is put by governments in other climes into mitigating the impacts of natural disasters such as flooding, given the huge impact of human-induced climate change.

    The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) had on February 20, 2024, warned about chances of early rains and flooding in some states during its 2024 Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) in Abuja. In early 2025, the agency again warned about flooding in some states. Surprisingly, no noticeable efforts have been made by most governments to prepare for either public enlightenment, cleaning up of the environment, re-evaluation of the state of dams, relocation or evacuation of people from flood-prone zones or indeed any actions that could mitigate disasters such as the Mokwa case.

    We are surprised that there are conflicting figures of the dead, the missing and the displaced in Mokwa. This, to us, is unacceptable. Human lives are involved. Understandably, there are no current census figures for accuracy but we expect that the tiers of government that collect revenues from these people should have records. The politicians that hold leadership positions often know about voting numbers from each ward and community, they have grassroots representations, why then are there opaque details about the dead, the missing and the displaced?

    Governments at all levels exist to ensure the welfare and security of lives and property. We are tempted to ask what all the elected officials assume their roles are in a democracy. Is it just to care about their votes? While we acknowledge that no single politician can be held responsible for disasters such as this, we are compelled to remind them that they ask for votes from the people and are very familiar with the environment in ways that their being elected gives them the mandate to be hands on in making and executing policies that can either prevent or ameliorate the devastating impacts of some of these disasters through better planning and strategic engagements.

    Human negligence in developing countries often go unpunished because there are often no impactful systemic accountability. While we mourn and count losses in Mokwa, many other flooding incidents may still catch us napping, with devastating outcomes. The last NiMET predictions indicated that about 30 of Nigeria’s 36 states would experience massive flooding with the onset of rainy season in 2025. We wonder at this time what actions the governments, through their various agencies have taken to prepare the people to be safe as the rains increase?

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    The ministries of environment, lands and housing, works and urban development and water resources exist at both state and federal levels. What do they do with their allocations? Why are our dams always collapsing? Why do they not work towards getting ready for environmental disasters, especially with the repeated problems with bordering countries like Cameroon? They keep warning about letting water out of their dams that often exacerbate the flood problems across the coastal areas.  Just few months after the Alau Dam collapse in Maidugri in September 2024 caused havoc, why didn’t the ministries mentioned take action to assess the state of dams in the country?

    The fact that Nigerian agencies do not plan well for seasons is a great contributor to flooding incidents. Most of the agencies are interlinked in their functions. The ministry of urban planning and housing should be able to properly regulate buildings and urban planning to prevent blockage of canals and water ways. The ministry of environment must make sure the people obey environmental laws that lead to the blockages that cause flooding. The tiers of government must be willing to create enough awareness for the citizens to prevent the serious effects of environmental disasters.

    The concentration of the agencies of government in cities and state capitals leaves the rural areas that have the majority of citizens vulnerable to nature’s fury. There must be more proactive actions that can help reduce the number of deaths and property loses. There must be more awareness for citizen participation in caring for the environment. There are ecological and social factors that increase the dangers of flooding and the governments must not only wait for emergency relief periods to act. Prevention is always better than cure.

    We regret also that most victims in Nigeria are often nameless and faceless even when governments at the state and federal levels often promise to send palliatives to victims’ families. This is a failure of data and statistics. Accountability is a great part of development. Citizenship is enhanced when government gives every individual a sense of belonging and value. The Mokwa victims are as usual mere statistical guesses.

    Families might never have closure as even the rescue mission was hampered by many factors like lack of equipment and access to the communities. Many countries invest in training and sea and air rescue strategies like specialised rescue boats and helicopters. We just hope that the Mokwa tragedy can be a wake-up call for other susceptible states. We can’t continue to invest in emergency relief materials without planning for prevention, which is often more impactful. Development comes from citizens who are well taken care of to be productive.

  • Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938 – 2025)

    Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938 – 2025)

    •A prolific writer, author of ‘Weep Not Child’ and other great works is gone!

    He was often mentioned as a contender for the most prestigious literary prize in the world. He never won it. But the fact that he was considered worthy of winning the Nobel Prize in Literature spoke volumes about his stature as an African writer. Indeed, in 2010, he was seen as a likely Nobel winner, and photographers had positioned themselves outside his home. According to him, after another writer was named winner, “I was the one who was consoling them.”

    Kenyan writer and academic Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who died on May 28, aged 87, was the first published English language novelist from East Africa. His first novel in English, ‘Weep Not Child,’ was published in 1964, a year after he earned a first degree in English from Makerere University College in Uganda.

    He was studying for a master’s degree at the University of Leeds, England, when his second novel, ‘The River Between,’ was released in 1965. His third novel, ‘A Grain of Wheat,’ which marked his embrace of Marxism, was published in 1967.  His early novels dealt with the colonial situation in his country.

    He subsequently stopped writing in English and dropped his English name, James, which he considered manifestations of colonialism. This was the beginning of a literary phase informed by an overt ideological position. His writing, from this point, was driven by his fierce anti-colonial stance, his commitment to decolonisation of the mind, and his advocacy for African languages and cultural self-determination.

    Two of his works, published in 1977, underlined his new literary and ideological direction: ‘Petals of Blood,’ the last of his novels to be written first in English, and his Gikuyu language play ‘Ngaahika Ndeenda’ (‘I Will Marry When I Want’), co-written with Ngugi wa Mirii.

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    The play, which covers post-colonial themes of class struggle, poverty, gender, culture, religion, modernity vs. tradition, and marriage and family, was revolutionary in nature. It was part of a project that sought to create an indigenous Kenyan theatre and present a form of theatre which would refrain from “mystifying knowledge and hence reality.”

    Under the Kamĩrĩĩthũ project in Kenya, the play was hugely popular, and was performed for six weeks running before the government stopped it.

    Kenyan authorities found these works provocative, and ordered his arrest. He was detained in a maximum-security prison for a year without a trial.   It was in prison that he wrote the first modern novel in Gikuyu, ‘Caitaani mũtharaba-Inĩ’ (‘Devil on the Cross’), published in 1980.  He wrote the manuscript on toilet paper provided by prison officials because he lacked access to proper writing materials.

    Upon his release from detention in 1978, he could not return to his position as professor at Nairobi University, Kenya, and fled into exile. He was Visiting Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Yale University, USA, between 1989 and 1992. He became a professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at New York University, USA, and Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, USA, where he was also the first director of the International Centre for Writing and Translation.

    A prolific writer, he published novels, plays, short-story collections, children’s books, memoirs, essays, and critical non-fiction. His notable works include, ‘The Trial of Dedan Kimathi’ (1976), which centres on the Kenyan freedom struggle; ‘Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature’ (1986); ‘Matigari ma Njiruungi’ (Remains of Bullets) (1986); and ‘The Upright Revolution, Or Why Humans Walk Upright’ (2016), described as “the single most translated short story in the history of African writing.”

    He strongly argued that African literature should be written in African languages, and practised this, from the late 1970s, by first writing in Gikuyu, his native tongue, and then self-translating the writing into English. There could have been no better proof of his commitment to his philosophy of writing.

    Critics accused him of “dragging politics into art,” which was a result of his practice of socialist realism, a politically ideological approach to art based on a concrete socialist perspective. He was unapologetically pro-people, a legacy that will endure. 

  • Inexplicable contrast

    Inexplicable contrast

    •State governments are not doing enough for their vulnerable people, in spite of increased revenue allocations

    A key undeniable fall-out of the removal of the fuel subsidy by the President Bola Tinubu administration at its inception on May 29, 2023, has been the substantial increase in revenues accruing to the Federation Account for distribution to all the three levels of government. According to a report by the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the 36 states and the 774 local government councils received a total of N9.58 trillion from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) in 2024, in contrast to the N6.16 trillion they received in 2023 and N4.79 trillion which accrued to them in 2022.

    This access to a significantly higher quantum of revenues has had salutary consequences, particularly at the state level of administration where, for instance, many state governments that could not pay the old minimum wage of N30,000 apparently have less difficulty in meeting the new minimum wage obligation of N70,000.

    There is, however, an inexplicable contrast in the impact of the surge in the funds available to state governments in the aftermath of the fuel subsidy removal. On a positive note, most states have been able to considerably reduce their dependence on borrowing, with many of them demonstrably defraying large percentages of their debt burden.

    Figures made public by the NOA indicate that in the 18 months between June 2023 and December, 2024, the domestic debt stock of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), dropped from N5.82 trillion to N3.97 trillion, signalling a reduction of N1.85 trillion.

    Thus, the five most highly indebted states paid off considerable portions of their loans in the period under consideration. Delta State paid N265.836 billion of its N465.4 billion debt; Lagos State paid N96.23 billion of its debt; Cross River State paid N85.91 billion of its debt stock; Imo paid N84.70 billion of its debt while Ogun State defrayed N82.35 billion of its debt obligation. A particularly striking case is that of Jigawa State, which paid N41.8 billion of its debt stock of N43.13 billion, thereby reducing its debt burden by 96 per cent. Also notably, Ondo State cut its debt of N74 billion to N12 billion, after repaying N61.6 billion.

    Ironically, however, some other states reportedly increased their debt burden in this period despite their access to higher revenue allocation just like those which succeeded in drastically cutting their debts. For instance, Niger State recorded a debt increase of N18.79 billion between June, 2023 and December 2024; Enugu State reportedly borrowed additional N26.09 billion while Rivers State increased its debt by N138.89 billion in the 18 months under review.

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    It is impossible to make authoritative pronouncements on this increase in indebtedness despite enhanced revenue accruals without requisite information on what the funds were expended on. However, the need for utmost rectitude, discipline and sense of responsibility in the management and utilisation of funds at all levels of government cannot be overemphasized, especially in the light of greater developmental challenges confronting the country at all levels.

    Ordinarily, the ability of most states to offset huge proportions of their debt obligations due to higher revenue receipts would suggest healthier fiscal balances and stronger economies at the sub- national levels of government. It is thus difficult to understand why, despite reported savings amounting to about N3 trillion, state governments have been unable to effectively cushion hunger and hardships among their people in any appreciable way.

    State governments are closer to the people at the grassroots than the central government, so they are expected to have more impact in ameliorating poverty and boosting quality of life in local communities. This is especially as state governments allegedly continue to divert funds meant for local governments, thus limiting the capacity of the latter to undertake any meaningful grassroots development.

    It is true that most states routinely advertise in the media stories and visuals of projects being executed across their urban and rural communities. But it is doubtful if most of these meet the most pressing problems of their people and address critical areas demanding poverty alleviation. In the absence of reliable and accurate data bases, there is no way that governments at any level can distribute palliatives, conditional cash transfers or provide services to the most vulnerable members of society in a transparent and accountable manner, devoid of corruption.

    We urge state governments to accord priority to areas such as intensive food production, basic health care services, education, water supply, supporting micro businesses among sectors that have a bearing on the quality of life for most Nigerians.

  • Time to stop it!

    Time to stop it!

    The people of Southeastern Nigeria are known to be industrious. In trading and general business, they probably tower above others. However, for about four years since the open and loud separatist clamour for Biafra has been on, a lot has been lost to the enforced sit-at-home instruction by the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB). The group, led by now incarcerated Nnamdi Kanu, has insisted that nothing less than full independence from Nigeria would be acceptable to the Igbo in the South East.

    This has led to confrontation with law enforcement agents, especially since the sit-at-home order was proclaimed in 2021. Many lives have been lost. A conservative estimate puts it at about 700 in the five states of the region.

    Those who have borne the brunt include pupils, students and school proprietors. At a point, they experimented with appropriating Saturday for lessons, it did not really work. Traders were perhaps the most impacted. Unable to transact business on the first working day of the week, they have lost so much and, any attempt to defy IPOB’s order was met with brutal enforcement.

    School buses are known to have been set ablaze, commercial drivers and commuters met with untimely death whenever they heeded government assurance that adequate security would be provided for them, and government property bore the full fury of the terrorists.

    Things got worse when a breakaway faction of IPOB was established. The leader, Simon Ekpa, who has always dished out orders from Finland, appears to be even more hot-headed than Kanu. He would not broach any form of rapprochement, even when the mainstream group insisted that it was ready to back down.

    While police and military personnel have been mercilessly mowed down by the bloodthirsty militants, most of those who have paid the supreme price have been the ordinary people. A number of indigenes have fled the region, and those who remain have become less adventurous and innovative.

    In Imo and Anambra states, the development has further kept away decent people from politics as the politically exposed have also been targeted during the conflicts.

    How many investors, local or foreign, would be willing to come to such area? Security is a major factor in deciding where capital is directed. It must be acknowledged that the current set of political leaders in the region has been sensitising the people on the deleterious effects of the murderous activities of the group.

    Major industrial and trading cities like Onitsha, Nnewi and Aba have failed to live up to their previous billing as great attractions to Nigerians from other parts of the country. Thus, many of the young people who would have found employment in their own homeland have remained either jobless or forced to move elsewhere, thus leading to inter-ethnic feud in many parts of the country, as a result of a scramble for inadequate resources.

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    So many Nigerians, especially respectable elders from the embattled zone, have canvassed for the release of the IPOB leader as the way out of the crisis. The late elder statemen Mbazulike Amaechi and Chukwuemeka Ezeife led delegations to former President Muhammadu Buhari to release the warlord to them, but the Federal Government insisted that since the matter was being adjudicated by the courts, the law must take its course.

    In view of the carnage resulting from the enforcement of the sit-at-home order, it appears obvious that a political arrangement may have become inevitable.

    In addition, the feeling among the people of the South East that they are being marginalised politically should be deliberately addressed by the national leaders. The Igbo leaders, too, should take steps to assure other parts of the country that releasing Kanu would not lead to an escalation of the crisis. They should prevail on IPOB to dismantle the Eastern Security Network (ESN) that has led to undue bloodletting and arson of government property. Disarmament has become inevitable as only state agencies have the monopoly of bearing arms in an orderly society.

    Nigeria has bled for too long; it is time to work consciously towards ensuring that peace reigns in all parts of the country.

  • School fees abroad

    School fees abroad

    Kaduna State governor’s action should be followed by other states to end the scandal

    The action by the Kaduna State government to pay off all the outstanding school fees of its students on scholarships abroad has shown how to handle the subject of sponsoring students looking for knowledge in other lands.

    The solution is simple. Pay off the debts. If you cannot pay, discontinue with such scholarships.

    This is emphasised by the decision of the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, to stop scholarships to foreign lands when such skills can be acquired in our local institutions.

    In Kaduna State, a statement provided a breakdown of the payments, as follows: Debrecen University (UK/Hungary) received $51,400.00 (N84.8 million), while the University of Wollongong in Dubai got $13,827.08 (N22.8 million). Also included is the Medical University of Havana that was paid $164,010.00 (N270.6 million), while KIU IUIU Uganda received $17,998.00 (N29.7 million).

    “Governor Uba Sani has directed the Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board to liaise with all foreign universities where Kaduna State students are studying to ascertain the status of their tuition fee payments,” the statement said.

    The fiscal courage of the Kaduna State government is highlighted by the economic crunch Governor Sani met and led to a turmoil and labour union umbrage. It is a testament to discipline and imagination.

    But the failure to pay off such schools abroad has become common, and a number of states still deal with this scandal of sending our young men and women abroad, and abandoning them to the horror of unpaid fees.

    So terrible is the situation that the students are unable to pay for the basics of existence. They cannot pay their rents, transport themselves even to school and they cannot feed. In some cases, they have to take up menial, often demeaning jobs, to move from day to day.

    Where there are strict laws barring students from working, the Nigerian students are reduced to destitutes. Even the frustrated ones who are fed up with their plights and want to return to a manageable misery back home cannot return because they cannot afford their transport fare to their homeland.

    Some, like in Kano State, where they have finished their education, cannot obtain their certificates for want of completing the payment of their fees.  Kano State had earlier liquidated debts amounting to N2,240,000,000 owed to the Cyprus Near East University for its students dating back to when Rabiu Kwankwaso was governor.

    In some cases, the students are shut out of the classrooms until they pay the fees. This leaves them in limbo, and in some cases, it takes years. They neither learn nor leave.

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    Education minister said the tragedy is that some go abroad just for the sake of schooling out of our shores. It smacks of what some still call colonial mentality or inferiority complex because our elites still believe that a foreign certificate has more value than the local one.

    Alausa justified his cancellation of foreign scholarships partly on that ground as some go abroad to study disciplines like English, psychology, and sociology in countries where those subjects are not taught in Nigeria’s primary languages. Such programmes are more efficiently and effectively delivered by local universities. He described it as an unsustainable and inefficient use of public funds. Hence, he ended the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA), a diplomatic agreement with countries such as China, Russia, Algeria, Hungary, Morocco, Egypt, and Serbia.

    It allowed hundreds of Nigerian students to pursue higher education overseas on government sponsorship.

    “I reviewed the courses—some students went to Algeria, a French-speaking country, to study English. That is simply illogical. These are courses we teach better in Nigeria,” he said.

    Governor Sani’s step also shows that governors ought to be wary about sending students abroad when they cannot sustain payments.

  • Treason!

    Treason!

    • Service (wo)men that sell arms to terrorists deserve the stiffest penalty under the law

    It is trite and clear: soldiers that sell legal arms to bandits, terrorists and insurgents know that is tantamount to high treason.  They should take whatever comes their way — death sentence or life imprisonment.

    Even critical pillars of the civil society — as this newspaper that always maintains a philosophical opposition to death sentences — may just have to re-assess their stand in this particular case.  Service rules call.  Besides, it’s high state security.

    Indeed, it is the meanest form of treachery:  to be trained by the state, at premium costs; and sworn to a strict oath of allegiance, yet turn your back against both.  High treason, indeed.

    It’s the most serious strain of lack of love for one’s country; and crass irreverence for its institutions, which must be ruthlessly punished.

    Major Gen. Ibikunle Ajose, the general officer commanding (GOC), 8 Division of the Nigerian Army and sector commander of Operation Fasan Yamma tackling banditry and allied terror in the North West, just announced that soldiers convicted of collaborating with bandits or terrorists would face severe penalties.

    “Severe penalties”, in this case, mean either a death sentence or a life imprisonment.  Here, the military high command has our endorsement.  This is because this proposed penalty is right and just.  Such high-voltage sabotage is a clear danger to all.

    Besides, traitors within the security system deserve the stiffest strictures under the law.  The only proviso is that the trial of such should also be finically fair and just.

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    Still, the question is why is the military just proposing these measures now?  Shouldn’t such have been routine, to be applied at the ready, given how condemnable such acts are?

    It’s a legitimate question.  But the military too might have a legitimate answer: chances of selling state arms to terrorists and insurgents are a very recent possibility.  Until the first eight years of the current 4th Republic, Boko Haram terrorism was inconceivable. 

    A segment of the Borno political elite armed thugs to muscle elections, between 1999 and 2007.  But it took the murder, in police custody in Maiduguri in July 2009, of Mohammed Yusuf, the thugs’ leader, for the angry band that felt cheated, to morph into Boko Haram terrorists.

    The banditry crisis in the North West would come even far later, with the bungling of the crisis between Fulani herders (complaining of industrial-scale cattle rustling) and Hausa farmers (scoffing against herder murder and violence).  That bungling turned banditry into a catastrophe, in the hitherto tranquil North West, even years after the North East had convulsed in Boko Haram terrorism.

    This twin-catastrophe could have fuelled alleged cases of service (wo)men trading  sacred arms and ammo,  with terrorists and bandits, for the quick buck.  It’s a very unfortunate development.  But nobody can blame the military for equally stiff measures to quell it.  Better late, they say, than never.

    Gen. Ajose just reported the progress made on the Fasan Yamma front, particularly checkmating the criss-crossing of the Lakurawa terror group — a Boko Haram wannabe — from Niger Republic into Nigeria, and vice-versa.  He also reported the smashing of Lakurawa camps in Sokoto and Kebbi states.  That is great news!   Whatever the military needs to sustain these successes should be done.

    Still, there is the question of the alleged misuse of social media by troops on the terror front.  Such, by hurting soldiers, have often put the Nigerian military in bad light, with troops casting their commanding officers as selfish and uncaring, luxuriating in comfort, while throwing the troops in harm’s way.  That does not justify the misuse of social media by troops and those culpable should desist, or they could face summary dismissal.

    But the military too loses nothing by probing into the truth or otherwise of these reports, though from unconventional channels.  That way, it would prove itself worthy of taking seriously, the welfare of troops under its care. 

    Besides, it would be prevention being better than cure.  If troops are well cared for under service rules, then the tendency of social media deviancy would be greatly reduced.  That could also avert the illicit sale of arms and ammo to anarchists.

  • Subsidy fraud

    Subsidy fraud

    • Ex-PDP chair’s son’s conviction a good deterrent. But what of the many others?

    The years that scammers masquerading as fuel importers ripped off the Nigerian treasury through fraudulent subsidy payments can appropriately be referred to as the years of the locust. Perhaps, for lack of courage to remove fuel subsidy, Nigeria descended into a bazaar of fraudulent fuel importation, as a major business for well-connected criminals, during the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    This tragedy was so prevalent that those who were well-connected to those in government saw it as the quickest way to become rich. Usually, without lifting a litre of fuel, those well-heeled criminals with the connivance of some unscrupulous government officials, presented fake import documents claiming to have imported millions of litres of fuel.

     In many advertised instances following investigations, after the end of the regime, some vessels which were listed as the carrier of the fuel imported were discovered to have been moored for years, in far way countries, rotting away. Yet, with such fraudulent claims, the scammers got paid millions in foreign and local currencies. 

    That better- forgotten era resonated last week, after Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court of the High Court of Lagos State, sitting in Ikeja, convicted and sentenced Mamman Ali, son of former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmadu Ali, to 14 years imprisonment, for his involvement in a N1,480,074,125.61 oil subsidy fraud. Sentenced alongside Mamman Ali was Christian Taylor, an oil marketer, who also bagged 14 years imprisonment. The convicts were charged for conspiracy to obtain money by false pretences, obtaining money by false pretences, forgery, and tendering false documents which contravene the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006, and the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

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    Between them and two others still at large, they obtained the sum of N1,480,074,125.61 from the Federal Government, which they fraudulently represented as subsidy accruing to Nasaman Oil Services Ltd, under the Petroleum Support Fund, for the importation of 20,492,982.50 litres of premium motor spirit (PMS).

    There are many like the son of the former PDP chairman who creamed billions of naira from the coffers of the Federal Government. Sadly, only a few of those involved in that despicable rip- off of our nation’s treasury have been brought to justice.

    In his judgment, Justice Dada held that the convicts, by their nefarious actions, “undermined the integrity of Nigeria’s oil subsidy programme”. After sentencing them to 14 years imprisonment each, the judge also ordered them to forfeit all their identified assets and accounts linked to the crime, to the Federal Government. The court issued bench warrants for the arrest of Oluwaseun Ogunbambo and Olabisi Abdul Afeez, two suspects still at large.

    We commend Justice Dada who took over the matter, for concluding it, and serving the defendants with their just deserts.

    We also commend the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for painstakingly pushing the matter through the various courts until conviction. It is regrettable that these matters lingered in courts for about 13 years.

    The EFCC had originally arraigned the convicts before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo on a 49-count charge, but the judge later withdrew from the trial.

    Ali and his partner were then arraigned on a 57-count charge before Justice Dada. While the delay portrays our criminal justice system in bad light, it is better late than never. Now that Ali and his partner have been convicted and sentenced, we wonder what happened to several others indicted with regards to similar fraudulent businesses during that ignominious period?

    We urge the EFCC and the courts to ensure that each of them enjoys their deserved comeuppance without further delay. Those who delivered hardship to Nigerians instead of the fuel they were paid to deliver, deserve their day in our courts of law.

  • New economy?

    New economy?

    •The spread of current CREDICORP beneficiaries is impressive

    The number, 83, 236, is not so great, given the huge number of waiting beneficiaries, even if it’s at the very start.  But the spread is exciting and bodes good.  All taken, the intrusion into the Nigerian economy, of structured and deliberate consumer credit, seems to have taken off to a promising start.

    To this new scheme, to help navigate a reform-era stringent economy and hopefully become the fundamental pillar of a new economy, the Tinubu administration has committed N200 billion “wholesale capital”, as Uzoma Nwagba, CEO of the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP), put it.

    CREDICORP’s wholesale capital, its credit guarantee (the prospect of sharing risks), and the concessionary rates at which the partner banks access the capital, boost the participation of financial institutions.  It also ensures that the interests on the credit are reasonable.

    From the data CREDICORP just released, 83, 236 Nigerians (as at May 26) have so far tapped into the credit facility.  Out of this number, 50, 438 — a clear majority — do not work for the government, federal or state.  The remaining 32, 798 beneficiaries do.

    This 60:40 spread, in favour of many in the informal economy, is not only a good path to tread by the new consumer credit policy, it also bodes well for formalising, even if gradually, a good chunk of Nigeria’s staggering informal sector. 

    If this sector is progressively captured, it would also be good news for spreading the tax net, and boosting government revenue with fair and equitable taxation.

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    That data, after a year of CREDICORP operation, also broke down the percentage of credit disbursement that went where: education and medical needs (37%), conversion to compressed natural gas (CNG) and electric vehicles (13%), home upgrades and appliances (12%), energy solutions (13%), digital services (14%).

    A further beneficiary breakdown include 11, 451 teachers, 8, 671 paramilitary personnel, 457 administrative staff members and 4, 109 doctors.  Though the scheme was structured to help the “underserved and financially excluded”,  it seems shaping up into a large baobab tree, which massive shade can cater for all, excluding none. 

    That would appear an improvement on its original mandate, though it’s too early in the day to make a definitive conclusion.

    That the credit — still from the stats available — also trends towards the younger segments of the population, is a putative gauge that consumer credit could power the future economy. Nearly half of the current beneficiaries (45%) age between 18 and 35.  The main belt —  53% — age between 36 and 60 years.  Those above 60 only account for two per cent.

    Indeed, a credit economy appears a new dawn with deep ramifications.  If young workers know they can access essentials like furniture, necessities like cars for mobility in places underserved by public transportation, aside sundry basic life comforts as sound systems, there may be less corruption and graft.

    Still, CREDICORP must ensure a tight data base and strict monitoring of the process, both at disbursement — to ensure unscrupulous banks don’t slam on desperate beneficiaries unreasonable interests — and at repayment: to shut out unconscionable debtors, who might try to avoid payment.  It should erect a fair but doughty credit score system that all but blanks out such bad institutional players and also blacklists cynical debtors.

    Still, CREDICORP would be mere novelty stuck in old economic rut, if it did not elicit a thunderous response from the supply front of goods.  Which is why this is exceedingly good news: to scale up the scheme, CREDICORP has partnered with 23 financial institutions and 150 local manufacturers.

    The local manufacturers are the stress here: of cars, furniture, electronics and even drugs.  What a ready market — with credit-empowered buyers — does is to power production, with the near-surety that goods would not be warehoused for long.

    That ready relay of frenetic transactions could rapidly expand the economy, and position it for the dream US$ 1 trillion GDP.  Still, without rapid advance in the power sector, that might remain a pipe-dream.  So, as CREDICORP struts its stuff, the government must push for constant electricity. 

    Electricity is the spark — and spine — of manufacturing; and only thunderous local manufacturing can make consumer credit worth its while.

  • Stolen assets

    Stolen assets

    •No culprit should go unpunished

    One of the concrete examples of stolen assets in recent times is the estate of 753 duplexes recovered in Abuja and reportedly stashed away until the vigilance of the law exposed the scandal.

    This was apparently in the mind of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he swore that it was an act of duty to recover stolen assets, including funds.

    “It is about restoring the people’s trust and ensuring that every kobo of our national wealth works for the common good,” said the president.

    He is right that asset recovery like the Abuja estate “sends a clear and unwavering message that there will be no safe haven for corruption in Nigeria and it serves as a deterrent, a symbol of accountability and a practical tool to rebuild national confidence in public institutions,” he said.

    He made the point of the value of such a fight, as he linked the recovery of such funds to the financing of critical infrastructure such as the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway, the Second Niger Bridge and the Abuja-Kano Expressway.

    We can recall that the National Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) that has given over half a million students the opportunity and encouragement to attend higher institutions has drawn substantially from money recovered from the thieves of our till.

    The issue also raises questions of our assets that lie fallow and untapped, and these assets are being taken advantage of because of official incompetence and lack of vigilance. These are liquid accounts as well as physical properties that the Federal Government has left abandoned. Some government officials are believed to have, over the years, sustained government indifference while rackets have profited from them. For instance, there was a story of a $27 million property that was sold off without accountability. The bottom of the scandal remains unresolved today even though the Nigerian envoy at the time denied ever authorising the sale.

    That is why it is encouraging that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) must be commended for some of its work, while noting that much has to be done to get to the level of recovery. The attorney- general of the federation and minister of justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), explained this recently.

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    “In 2024 alone, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is reported to have reclaimed over N248 billion, 105 million dollars, and 753 duplexes in its asset recovery efforts,” he said.

    “The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) is also reported to have recovered N29, 685 billion in cash and 966,900 dollars in assets.”

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) is not left out in this intervention as many properties linked to illicit drug trafficking have also fallen into the government net.

    He said the Federal Ministry of Justice has, from 2017 to date, been collaborating with its counterparts and international partners in the US, United Kingdom, Bailiwick of Jersey, Ireland, Switzerland, to facilitate the execution of various agreements.

    “This led to the payment of fines, recovery and repatriation of assets in the sum of $763,734,000 dollars, and 6,472,610 pounds.

    “Of these sums, a total of 102.88 million dollars and 2, 062,000 pounds (Galactica Assets 52.88 million dollars, Glencore Fined 50 million dollars, Useni/Miner 2,062,000 pounds) was recovered from 2024 to date,” Fagbemi said.

    The keys to winning such fights are consistency and transparency. One of the great scams of this country was related to the oil industry and what accounted for the removal of subsidies. Some of the culprits are said to be fighting back the removal by undermining the efforts of the Tinubu administration to enforce the policy. They ought to be tackled just as the thieves of crude oil are having a difficult time on the high seas.

  • Crackdown

    Crackdown

    • Government’s big stick against exam malpractice welcome, but there’s more to do

    Hard times await perpetrators of examination malpractice, courtesy of a new move by government to deal them a heavy hand. Government, last week, said students caught cheating in any national examination face a three-year ban across all external examination bodies in the country, while any school or computer-based test (CBT) centre involved in examination malpractice will be blacklisted and de-recognised for a number of years to be determined by the examination body concerned.

    Education Minister Tunji Alausa ordered the sanctions, which were unveiled in a circular issued by the communications advisor of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Dr. Fabian Benjamin. The policy is said to be part of wider measures to curb examination malpractice and send ‘miracle centres’ packing from Nigeria’s education system. Miracle centres are tutorial outfits run principally with commercial motive to put candidates through examinations, which in a bid to deliver sterling outcomes often resort to fraudulent methods to get touted results for their registrants who in most cases are ill-prepared for the examinations. Parents and candidates, of course, pay exorbitantly for the ‘service.’

    The circular from the matriculation board, which cited the minister’s directive as being in line with Sections 5(1)(c)(iv) and 6 of the JAMB Act, said students involved in examination malpractice would henceforth be barred for three years from sitting any external examinations in Nigeria, including those conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the National Examinations Council (NECO) and the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB). This, it noted, is to serve as a deterrent to other students and complicit parents.

    The three-year ban on students caught cheating will be enforced through the National Identification Number (NIN), which is a mandatory requirement for all candidates sitting any national examination.

    The new policy also targets schools and CBT centres that aid malpractice. “Any school / CBT centre involved in examination malpractice and/or acting as a miracle centre should be de-recognised for a number of years. The duration will be determined by the examination body,” the circular said, making clear that examination bodies must work together to enforce the penalty across board. “If any school / CBT centre is de-recognised by any examination body, other sister examination bodies should follow suit and de-recognise the same school / CBT centre for the same number of years to run concurrently. This will send a very strong signal to the operators of these miracle centres,” it stated.

     “This directive is also in accordance with Section 16(2) of the Examination Malpractices Act,” the JAMB statement said, citing the particular provision that empowers examination bodies to withdraw recognition from centres involved in malpractice and share the names of such centres with other examination authorities for coordinated cross-body sanction.

    According to the circular, the measures take immediate effect and aim at curbing rife examination malpractice as well as restore integrity to the secondary level education system. JAMB called on the public, especially parents and students, to take note.

    The new policy came against the background of the menace of abuses that have hobbled the conduct of examinations in this country. In a report published early in May, JAMB stated that of 1.95 million candidates that sat the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), 97 were found involved in direct examination infractions, while 2,157 others were being investigated for suspected malpractice. The matriculation board also said it was working in collaboration with security agencies to investigate some CBT centres, warning that any CBT centre found violating regulations would not receive payment. Although an initial sum of more than N3billion had been released to accredited centres as part-payment for services during the 2025 UTME, JAMB reserves the right to recover funds through legal means from centres implicated in investigations.

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    WAEC, for its part, threatened to cancel the results of candidates found to have posted or received live questions / answers via social media in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) that began last month.

    The examination body also said the matter might be referred to the police for investigation and prosecution of persons involved.

    According to WAEC, in a statement last week, some people undertook to perpetrate fraud during the examination. It therefore solicited stakeholder collaboration to ensure that the activities of the unscrupulous elements are frustrated, so to avoid hazarding the labour of serious candidates who prepared tirelessly for the examination. The council reaffirmed its policy against malpractice, saying it had deployed technology to expose those who patronise rogue websites and use materials from there in examinations.

    Examination malpractice assumed syndicated form with the hacking of JAMB’s computer-based examination system during the last UTME, over which no fewer than 20 people had been arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police as at the previous weekend. The apprehended suspects were reported to be members of a cybercrime syndicate that is notorious for targeting digital infrastructure of key examination bodies like JAMB and NECO, among others.

     Security insiders said the culprits admitted deliberately compromising JAMB’s computer-based test platform in a bid to damage the board’s credibility and create doubt about the effectiveness of CBTs in future WAEC and NECO exams. One of the suspects allegedly exposed the modus operandi, saying the group developed and deployed a malicious software designed to infiltrate and take control of JAMB’s servers from remote locations during examinations.

    Reports said the hackers installed specialised routers near designated CBT centres, enabling them to bypass JAMB’s security and transmit examination answers to candidates who had paid them. The rogue software allegedly compromised JAMB’s system by misaligning candidates’ answers with corresponding questions – an act believed to partly account for widespread failure in the last UTME. According to reports, the hackers were mainly operators of private schools and miracle centres that perpetrate fraud to guarantee high scores to candidates who patronise them. Their ‘services’ allegedly attracted a princely tag, with candidates paying between N800,000 and N2million for proven results. For some centres, it isn’t the technology dimension but the ability of operators to compromise the supervisory procedures to allow room for candidates to cheat.

    It is a good thing that government has come up with the policy to crack down on exam malpractice. But we think it isn’t enough that only indicted candidates and centres are targeted, parents of candidates concerned should also be directly penalised. It has been shown that in many cases, parents were the drivers and active sponsors of the schemes to cheat. Reports indicated that some parents go as far as paying bribes to teachers and invigilators to allow their children cheat during examinations; others hire mercenaries to write examinations for their children. And so, if it is proven that a parent actively participated in the malpractice a candidate is cited for, such parent should also be sanctioned under the new policy, in our view.

    Ultimately, we think there is need for societal reorientation about paper certification. Some parents put pressure on their children to score high grades in examinations by hook or crook because it is believed to be the only way to progress in life. It is high time the focus shifted to practical aptitude and demonstrable skills, rather than paper certification and it is government that should lead the way in that regard.