The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Wedding highs

    Wedding highs

    •NDLEA boss’ counsel of drug tests before marriage is worth the try

    This is not the first time Nigeria’s drug czar would raise the concern. And it should not be the last. Burba Marwa, chairman of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), said recently that some form of mandate should be put in place to make couples undertake drug tests before marriage.

    Using a Nigerian idiom, he said parents should guard against “one chance” scenarios with their children. In order words, they should not be blindsided by suitors who might entrap their daughters, and in some cases sons, in a lifetime of deviance and its consequences.

    The NDLEA boss explained that if parents and religious bodies insist on medical tests like HIV, the same courtesies should go to drug tests.

    “The wedding as we all know it is a short time event while marriage is intended for a lifetime. It is therefore important we pay attention to preparing for the marriage and one of such ways is through pre-marital counselling and drug test. This prepares the couples very well and has the ability to reduce domestic violence, divorce as well as increased happiness and longevity in marriages,” he once asserted.

    In another instance, he turned dramatic. “I must take advantage of this audience. Please, how many of you will like your daughters to marry drug addicts? Raise your hands.” Cheered by the response, he then urged, “Before wedding, we always do HIV test; we do genotype test. I appeal to you, please, let’s also have a drug test before wedding.”

    But the suggestion might not find immediate traction in the society. It may call for social sanity, but it has to contend with legal and cultural encumbrances. One of the drawbacks is that it has no mandate in the constitution. The idea that a couple may be asked to do a test may be fanciful and even idealistic.

    The 1999 constitution can be cited as calling for the dignity of the Nigerian citizen, and a drug-free society enhances this. But conventions are the best places to enforce such sentiments. For HIV, for instance, parents have objective evidence of its danger, especially because it carries stigma. Drugs do not immediately show in a debonair soul, yet it can ravage a person quickly.

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    Marwa must be talking from a position of knowledge. What he can do is ratchet up a campaign with anecdotes. Drug abuse leads to abuse, lack of productivity, poorly raised children, maiming, estrangement and deaths.

    The family, being the basic unit of society, can damage the rest of the country. Many young men are into kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery and organ harvesting, etc. It is exactly because of its spinoff to other aspects of society that Marwa is focusing on pre-wedding tests. He has also noted that it should extend to the National Youth Service Corps and other institutions.

    In matters like this it is convention that outplays the law. A sense of restraint and caution can build on a campaign by the NDLEA to sanitise bloodstreams before marriages. Yet, some legislatures may want to take a step like the Adamawa State House of Assembly that enacted a law mandating drug and alcohol tests a precondition for employment. Some lawyers have questioned it because there is a variety of drugs, and it is difficult to legislate it, especially in a world where some get high on gutters.

    Perhaps hence a coalition of 18 political parties under the aegis of Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) rejected the proposal. The coalition described it as outrageous and a deliberate attack on the sensibilities of lovers of democratic governance in Nigeria.

    In the end, it may be that society has not appreciated the danger because it kills us softly.

  • Death for Ayanwola’s murder

    Death for Ayanwola’s murder

    •Killer-BRT driver must get his deserved comeuppance

    It was yet another case that resulted in a death sentence, further raising questions about the rare implementation of capital punishment by Nigerian authorities. Justice Serifat Sonaike of the Lagos State High Court, Tafawa Balewa Square Annexe, on May 2, sentenced a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) driver, Andrew Ominikoron, to death by hanging for the murder of 22-year-old Bamise Ayanwola in February 2022. She was a fashion designer found dead “in a naked state” on Carter Bridge, Lagos Island, nine days after she was declared missing after she boarded a BRT vehicle.

    The shocking case of rape and murder gripped public attention from the beginning till the verdict was delivered. Ayanwola was going to Oshodi from Ajah, and was said to have observed that she was the only passenger in the bus and the driver was not picking up other people on the route.  She was suspicious and fearful, and was said to have sent voice notes to her friend, describing her situation. Information she had provided helped in locating the bus and the driver after she was declared missing.

    Justice Sonaike said she “died from severe cerebral injury and blunt force trauma, and his actions and inactions led to her death.” The judge also said there was proof of a rape attempt and “the resultant death must have ensued when she resisted the defendant.” She noted that Ominikoron “admitted he was alone with her in the bus and where her body was dropped and failed to return to the place to help her and ran away to another state without reporting the case.”

    The driver, said to be 47 at the time of the incident, was on the run when he was arrested in Ososa, Ogun State.  He said some gunmen had taken Ayanwola away after forcing him to stop around Carter Bridge, Lagos.  “I picked her from Chevron and I picked the other three guys at Agungi; when those guys showed me a gun as I was driving, fear came over me, so whatever they asked me to do, I did,” he narrated after his arrest. He said they ordered him to stop on Carter Bridge, asked him to open the door and “they started dragging her. I saw her crying for help but I was helpless. When the issue happened, I ran away because I was afraid.”

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    In addition to the death sentence for Ayanwola’s murder, the court also found him guilty of rape involving one Nneka Maryjane Ozezulu and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The incident happened in November 2021.  He was also found guilty of sexual assault on one Victoria Anoke and sentenced to three years imprisonment. The incident occurred in December 2021. Justice Sonaike noted that the rape incidents occurred within three months, describing him as a “serial rapist who took advantage of his position.”  Indeed, she further noted that there might be other rape victims “who for fear or shame failed to come forward and give evidence against the defendant.”

    It is disturbing that the incidents were linked to Ominikoron’s work as a driver of a government-owned bus.  Importantly, his trial raised serious questions about public transportation security. The authorities need to send a reassuring message to the public on the issue.

    Notably, during the trial, Ominikoron had explained that when BRT drivers pick up passengers illegally after their official hours, they usually tell them to sit at the back of the bus so that monitoring officials would not see them in the bus and sanction the drivers. According to him, this practice is called ‘Korokpe.’  This was the context when he picked up Ayanwola on February 26, 2022, around 7pm, near the Conservation Centre, Lekki-Ajah Expressway, Lagos.

    It is commendable that the state government ensured his prosecution. It is significant that the judge described the case as “an eye-opener for everyone.”

    The state government needs to review its driver recruitment process as well as its bus monitoring system to ensure passenger safety at all times.

    The convict has the right to appeal, and may well do so. However, in the end, if the verdict stands, the authorities should let justice take its course.

  • Ransom reality

    Ransom reality

    •ECWA’s N300m payments a wake-up call to redouble efforts on kidnapping

    Nigeria’s security agencies may deny awareness of payment of ransom to kidnappers and bandits for their victims’ release, but those who have paid ransom know how much they paid in order to regain freedom for their loved ones in various kidnappers’ dens.

    Similarly, some organisations keeping track of some of the payments have reeled out various huge amounts as estimated figures that those in the illicit business have got from their unfortunate victims.

    But if the security agencies keep living in self-denial on the matter, the disclosure by The Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), that it has spent more than N300 million to kidnappers to secure the release of their church members in captivity once again reinforces the fact that payment of ransom is a sad reality in the equation to get loved ones held captive by kidnappers freed.

    Yet, the church has lost many of its members to the abductors, even as it is still busy negotiating for the release of no fewer than 50 that are still in captivity.

    Addressing reporters in his office in Jos, Plateau State, the church’s general secretary, Rev. Ayuba Asheshe, said “On the night of Tuesday, February 4, 2025, three communities – Majagada 2, Majagada 1 and Tsohon Garin Binawa – were targeted, resulting in the kidnapping of 16 individuals, the killing of six and injuries to four others.”

    The incidents in Kwassam and Binawa “are but two examples of the numerous kidnapping crises affecting the wider ECWA family across Nigeria”, he added.

    Of course many individuals and organisations have made such claims on ransom even as the security agencies continue to feign ignorance.

    But we may ask the question why ECWA seems to have become a soft target, of sorts, for the kidnappers, afterall there are many other churches in Kaduna and Plateau states where its members are regularly being abducted? Could the abductors have focused more on the church because they are sure of getting ransom at the end of the day, thus supporting government’s position that ransom payment to free people abducted should be discouraged?

    Or, could it be that other churches are similarly affected but they prefer to tell their stories to God rather than man or the media?

    These and indeed several other questions would naturally arise in an effort to contextualise the ECWA experiences. But, the truth is that we cannot blame the church for paying ransom in the circumstance.

    Afterall you can only continue to win the souls of the living. So, if some people are already in the ‘Ark of Noah’ that churches should represent, all efforts should be made to keep them there alive till the end. This is especially as we are talking about people who have lost their conscience and are therefore ready to kill when ransoms are inadequate, delayed or even refused entirely.

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    We have even had instances where kidnap victims were killed after ransom had been paid.

    So, these are not the kind of human beings to take any undue chances with.

    But, there may be a need for thorough investigation to be sure there is no collusion on the part of some of the church’s members who may be benefitting from the loot that the ransoms represent. Afterall, we have had many instances where children arranged their own kidnaps so as to extort money from their parents. Even churches are not spared as some priests had been caught in the process of orchestrating their own kidnap.

    Beyond the ECWA incidents, however, is the need to redouble efforts to rid the country of the criminals involved in these abductions. It is shameful that a crime like kidnapping would continue to grow in the country despite the opportunities that technology offers. This is a crime in which abductors communicate on telephone with the people they believe would want to keep their relatives in captivity alive at all cost.

    It is true that the security agencies have recorded some successes in tracking the criminals, using technology. But more needs to be done.

  • Grim projections

    Grim projections

    •World Bank’s report on poverty in Nigeria is only for the attention of the federal and state governments

    It is a subject that Nigerians have long been familiar with: the World Bank and its allied Bretton Wood institutions’ routine projections about Nigeria’s economy. The last Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC would prove to be no exception. Although the World Bank noted that Nigeria’s economy showed stronger growth in late 2024, particularly in the non-oil sector, it noted, rather curiously, that deep-rooted challenges related to resource dependence and fragility are expected to push more Nigerians into poverty.

    It specifically projected that poverty rate could soar by three percentage points to 56% by 2027, while calling for urgent, decisive and coordinated action to reverse the trend.

    Surely, a lot has been written about the underlying metrics being employed by the World Bank and allied institutions as being too limited to have reasonably and comprehensively reflected the unique character of the Nigerian economy and its intricate dynamics. Perhaps far more, however, is the World Bank’s apparent penchant to recycle the same old assumptions that serve merely to reinforce their fixations with traditional orthodoxies even when these are known to fall miserably short of capturing the nuances of the nation’s socio-economic fabric.

    Far from being alone in this, Nigerians would recall that the IMF had similarly questioned the Federal Government’s reforms and its impact on poor Nigerians at the end of its Article IV consultation mission to Nigeria, held between April 2 and 15 – the same measures, which ironically, both institutions are on record to have endorsed as being critical to ensure Nigeria’s long-term, balanced growth. While Nigerians increasingly wonder what purpose(s) the grim predictions are meant to serve, suffice it to state that there’s nothing new, let alone sacrosanct, about such projections. Not even its underlying call, which the government has long acknowledged, and which informed the boldest reforms ever undertaken by any administration.

    Still, much as the bank considers it its duty to periodically call attention to whatever it considers to be wrong with the economy, particularly the issue of non-inclusive growth, such a dire prophecy could not be said to be helpful, let alone charitable, coming at a time the economy has begun a steady cruise after a major reset, a period during which far-reaching poverty-alleviating measures are being progressively undertaken by the government.

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    This latter point, which underscores the concerns of most Nigerians, was aptly captured by Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, the senate representative at the World Bank parliament meeting in April when he criticised the IMF over its “negative comments that lack supporting data” about Nigeria’s economy, to which the institution’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, has since been quoted as expressing apologies.

    Surely, Nigerians recognise the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), for what it is: a call to action. With the 2024 MPI at 63 percent, there is no denying that the Nigerian situation truly qualifies for an emergency, the reason the current administration has for the most part treated it as one. Unfortunately, had the World Bank and the IMF been less picky in their recommendation of conditional cash transfer over which opinions remain divided – hence its apparent frustration of what it considers its slow pace, it would have seen wisdom in ongoing developments that are no less fundamental in nature.

    Now, the states and local governments have more money in their kitty to energise their local economies. A good number of the states have already picked up the gauntlet, notably in the areas of agriculture and rural infrastructure. We have also seen a host of federal initiatives such as the students’ loan, consumer credit and the school feeding programme spring up to address the historic and structural nature of the current poverty. So is the steady redirection of the economy away from the curse of oil through the ongoing tax reforms.

    Of course, the point bears stating that whereas the World Bank projection of gloom as against progress would naturally be dispiriting, nothing in it makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy. At the very best, it is a mere advisory that the states and the Federal Government will do well to pay attention to.

  • Ageing diseases

    Ageing diseases

    • Longevity is a function of many factors and not always all about what experts say

    Ageing comes with all the paradoxes and contradictions humans often do not think about as young people. Everybody wants to grow old but many do not often think about the challenges that come with ageing. The body change manifestations like weaker veins, grey hairs, various disease manifestations such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, eye and dental issues, arthritis, etc., all point to the fact that the body must undergo certain undeniable changes.

    How people age or manage the resultant diseases depends on how much they care about healthy lifestyle and concern for their old age.

    This was pretty much the conclusion of Professor Bade Omololu, an Ibadan-based orthopaedic surgeon who said that despite the fact that his father battled two otherwise terminal diseases, diabetes and prostate cancer; he still lived for more than 100 years, having died at 105 years. Prof. Omololu believes that more awareness about healthy and conscious healthy choices can prolong lives and help in managing age-related or non-age related diseases.

    He advises that people must begin planning for their retirement from the first day they start to work. This way, retirement does not automatically translate to a desolate, unhappy and unhealthy retirement and aging.

    Retirement sometimes comes with varied health challenges, including various diseases, depression, slow metabolism, loneliness and many other health challenges. The antidote to most of the challenges is a good plan, healthy diet, exercises and companionships, especially in an age of mass migration (socially referred to as the ’Japa’ syndrome) that often leaves parents with empty nests as children and grandchildren are often scattered across continents, seeking better life.

    While he acknowledges divine grace, good genes as contributory factors to longevity in some cases, he believes that good choices of active physical and mental life can help individuals ward off certain diseases that are often seen as terminal and easy killers. Reading, communal associations, physical bonding with offspring and the extended families are very therapeutic in an internet age where gadgets seem to have displaced human connections, especially at the core family levels.

    Fatalism and religious fanaticism can never replace nature or on their own cure or prevent diseases. This then means that the human must make efforts to stay healthy and prevent or control the impact of diseases not just as young people but in old age too. Regular medical checkups, especially of the vital organs; heart, liver, lungs, kidney , eyes, etc., and adhering to the advice by medical doctors can help people prolong their lives because, as the saying goes, ‘a stitch in time saves nine’. Seeing doctors must be supported by dietary control (as metabolism slows down with age) and regular exercises.

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    The black race is particularly vulnerable to various old age diseases. However, managing old age seemed easier in the past when communities were together and bonding was more effective. A time of phones and social media seems to be very isolating, and with it comes the problems of isolation and depression. Children must also realise that money and materials can never replace human connections.

    We marvel at the miracle of Pa Omololu’s longevity despite having been saddled with two much-feared diseases. Presently in Nigeria, there seems to have been an epidemic of both in the last few decades. Sadly, there have been several victims of both who never lived to be 50 due to a variety of factors.

    More often than not, a diagnosis of either is seen as death sentence and, in most cases, most people mentally give up, caring less about management of the diseases.

    This very amazing story seems to indicate that there is more to life than scientists often make us believe. The key factors however remain that making healthy choices, adhering to doctor’s advice, exercising, and regular medical checkups can help individuals manage their health not just when they are old but choices must be made very early in life because as they say, ‘prevention is better than cure’, and, in the case of Pa Omololu, even if you can’t prevent these diseases, try to moderate your lifestyle following a diagnosis. It all just shows that information is power and we must embrace it.

  • A peculiar payroll fraud

    A peculiar payroll fraud

    • 217 persons with identical BVN!

    Giving a report on the outcome of the biometric verification exercise it had undertaken to ascertain the accuracy of workers on the payroll of its public service, the Kano State government has revealed that it discovered irregularities showing that 240 employees were receiving double payments and another 217 had identical Bank Verification Numbers ((BVN).

    Apart from this, 1,335 workers had reportedly failed to show up for the exercise for over six months, thus raising the possibility that these names on the payroll could be most likely fictional.

    These anomalies were uncovered in the process of scrutinising the payroll of the state public service, the local government service, as well as the primary health care employees.

    Chairman of the local payroll government standing committee, Alhaji Umaru Idi, revealed that of 247 suspicious names on the local government and primary healthcare payrolls, only eight appeared physically before the committee to authenticate their employment status. The implication is that a substantial number of those drawing double salaries were ghost workers.

    According to Umaru Idi, “The removal of the remaining 239 names has resulted in a monthly savings of N27.8 million, which will be returned to the state and local governments’ joint accounts”.

    It is a matter of concern that the issue of ghost workers and other illegalities associated with payroll administration continues to recur despite several well publicised exercises to eliminate fraud, sanitise personnel records and enhance efficiency and transparency in public sector wage administration at both the federal and sub national units of government.

    While officials of the Kano State government were upbeat about the positive implications for the public service of the elimination of names of non-existent workers from the payroll, nothing was said about punishing those workers who are saddled with the responsibility of ensuring the integrity, credibility and security of salary administration structures and processes.

    There is certainly no way the payroll can be infiltrated and polluted with the insertion of fake names, manipulation of employees’ BVN data or duplication of payments without inexcusable ineptness, laxity or outright collusion by staff in such critical departments and units as personnel, accounts, administration and audit. Unless a thorough investigation uncovers the culprits so that they are brought to book, it will only be a matter of time before new payroll criminalities are perpetrated in a debilitating vicious cycle.

    Even more alarming is the news that as many as 217 employees had identical BVN numbers when the latter is supposed to be a foolproof security measure protecting the banking information details of millions of Nigerians and therefore confidential to each Nigerian.

    The discovery of the vulnerability of the BVN in the Kano State public service should signal alarm bells spurring the requisite regulatory authorities in the banking sector to urgently reappraise its operations with a view to eliminating loopholes and strengthening security of banking details across the country, to avoid catastrophic consequences.

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    However, the Kano incident only brings to the fore what is obviously a national malady that cuts across the federal and state public services. For instance, in August, 2024, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) announced that it had discovered 22, 000 suspicious personnel on the Federal Government payroll despite the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which was introduced to eliminate fraud and ensure transparency in the management of the federal public service payroll.

    A report by the ICPC revealed that the Federal Government paid substantial sums to these suspicious workers spread across various ministries, departments and agencies, with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) identified as being most affected.

    The ghost workers syndrome thus results in humongous resource-leakage at a time of severe fiscal crisis when the country needs all the funds it can muster to meet serious developmental challenges.

    There is the urgent imperative for governments at all levels to deploy more effectively modern technology that is all too readily available to protect the integrity of personnel and payroll data.

  • Of rats and men

    Of rats and men

    •If we secure our corpses in refrigerated morgues, ritualist speculations will run cold

    Is it human perversion or wayward rodents? Whatever it is, we cannot justify the desecration of the dead in some of our mortuaries. Corpses trusted to morgues are turning up defaced, distorted and parts missing.

    For instance, in Jos, Plateau State, the late Mrs. Angela Nyam’s family arrived

    the mortuary at the Jos University Teaching Hospital to pick up her body for onward conveyance to the Evangelical Church Winning All, Rusau village.

    The family did not expect what they saw.

    “It wasn’t the way we left it. We opened the casket after she was prepared for the funeral service, and parts of her face were gone,” one of the older family members, who was barely able to hold back tears, Joy Nyam, recounted. Her lips and parts of her eyes appeared mutilated.

    This led to protests and ripped up the scab of repressed rage over its recurrence. While some suspect foul play, some others looked beyond humans for the unusual development.

    “It wasn’t human tampering; it was rats. Rats have been chewing on their bodies. The cold rooms broke down in 2015, and nothing has been done since. We have no electricity. No working freezers. We are doing our best with embalming, but it is not enough,” said an attendant anonymously.

    A senior hospital worker supported him. “It was done by rats. That’s the truth. The family accused someone of trying to remove an eye. But both eyes are intact. The management knows this.”

    But if the workers confirmed it, the authorities projected a different reality.

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    “The attention of the Management of the Jos University Teaching Hospital was drawn to unfounded rumours… This is to clarify that the rumour has no basis,” stated the hospital’s protocol and public relations officer, Bridget Omini.

    If the Nyam family buried her in a subdued ceremony, the same cannot be said of a mortuary between Afoukwu and Abayi Okoroato village, along the Aba-Ikot Ekpene highway, in the Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State. This was not a case of defacement. A body’s testicles were missing. Three mortuary attendants narrowly escaped being lynched by youths over it. The community did not blame any animal other than man.

    They had their own reason: ritualism. “Now, we have seen what he has done and why his business is flourishing. He was operating his mortuary business in that abandoned filling station. He and his attendants will answer for their crimes,” said a local echoing a widespread sentiment.

    The three attendants were arrested. But unlike the Jos incident, this crossed into taboo.

    “We didn’t know that this mortuary was involved in such evil practices; people had been suspecting them. It is an abomination in Igbo land to sever the body part of a dead person,” said a family member.

    Ravenous rats are responsible for up to 90 per cent, said some experts.

    It may be right in citing poor infrastructure, inadequate funding, substandard embalming chemicals like formaldehyde. This substance forbids any rodent near a corpse because it is poisonous and will kill the rats.

    If rats account for 90 percent, what of the remaining 10 percent?

    Three mortuary attendants, Michael Olusegun, Oluseyi Olamide, and Adetunji Aliyu, were accused of stealing a dead woman’s heart and her wrists at a hospital in Ikorodu, Lagos, in 2018.

    But scientists believe that rats are no carnivores and could not feast on flesh the way they have portrayed in the incidents. Yet, we cannot discount the negligence of officials who use poor chemicals, some of them without the potency to stave off rats.

    This is a society that believes in rituals as sources of power and prosperity. But if we do take care of the mortuaries, there will be no ground to wonder whether it is the act of ritualists. But first, the bereaved should go beyond their tears and ensure that the morgues have enough cold to give them comfort about their departed.

  • FCCPC floors Meta

    FCCPC floors Meta

    •That tribunal upheld $220m fine confirms commission’s due diligence in the matter

    The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has been proactive in the execution of its mandate of protecting the interest of consumers, and we commend it. The commission had, on July 19, 2024, issued a Final Order imposing a $220 million administrative penalty on Meta Platforms Incorporated (Facebook) and WhatsApp LLC, after concluding a 38-month joint investigation initiated by the FCCPC and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) into the conduct, privacy practices, and consumer data policies of Meta Platforms and WhatsApp, started in 2020.

    The investigation revealed that the companies engaged in discriminatory and exploitative practices against Nigerian consumers. Dissatisfied with the fine imposed by FCCPC, the companies had approached the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal, for adjudication.

    In its ruling, the tribunal affirmed that the commission complied with prevailing laws, discharged its mandate, and exercised its powers within the confines of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). It further held that the multiple actions by WhatsApp and Meta, for which the commission made findings of violations, were correctly identified, and that the commission was right in making those findings. The tribunal upheld major aspects of the final order issued by the commission and awarded the sum of $220 million against Meta Platforms Incorporated and WhatsApp LLC as an administrative penalty.

    It further awarded $35,000 to the FCCPC as cost of investigation. The tribunal held that the commission in its quasi-judicial responsibilities, duly exercised the constitutional requirement of fair hearing, as it afforded the companies the opportunity to defend themselves. The tribunal further held that the commission has power to regulate competition in regulated industries, and as such it acted within its mandate to regulate matters of data protection and privacy.

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    Another interesting finding of the tribunal is that some of the privacy policy of the companies offended Nigerian laws. This is particularly interesting, as it is common practice for online companies to use their so-called privacy policy to strangulate the rights of consumers. And many times without reading or understanding the clauses, consumers quickly agree to them.

    The finding of the tribunal is in agreement with the judgment of a Federal High Court in Lagos, which earlier this year affirmed that FCCPC has statutory authority to regulate competition and consumer protection, across all sectors, including telecommunications.

    In that case, a shareholder of MTN had sought the order of court that only the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has statutory authority to regulate telecommunication companies. But Justice F. N. Ogazi held that section 90 of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003 which grants NCC jurisdiction over competition matters within the telecommunication industry must be read alongside section 104 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018, which established the FCCPC as the primary regulatory authority on competition and consumer protection across all sectors.

    The exploitation of consumers and abuse of competition policies is a common practice, amongst members of the corporate Nigeria, whether private or public. Companies which have monopoly in Nigeria, engage in mind- boggling exploitations, and can only be called to order by an institutional regulator like FCCPC.

    Companies that inherited the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) are amongst the top abusers of their consumers. Again, the dominant force in the PayTv sector, the Multichoice, owners of DSTV, has been accused of abusing its monopoly of premiership broadcast in that sector.

    Some supermarkets also engage in price gouging or predatory pricing which are anti-competitive behaviours. As the commission found out sometime ago, supermarkets were practicing price gouging, in anticipation of inflationary pressure, such that prices of goods sold in Nigeria were significantly higher than what is obtainable outside the country.

    We commend the commission under the leadership of Mr. Tunji Bello, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of FCCPC, for its efforts and urge them not to relent.

  • Good twin-track

    Good twin-track

    New textile policy and livestock development plan are viable paths to re-industrialisation

    From the National Economic Council (NEC) has come a double-whammy that could well drive our much-needed re-industrialisation: the Cotton, Textile and Garment Development Board and the Nigeria Livestock Growth Acceleration Strategy.

    Actually, there was also a third leg: the Green Imperative Project (GIP), which focus is food security, via mechanised farming; as the garment/livestock policy is adding value to crop and animal farming to fire re-industrialisation.  The three are excellent proposals, begging for excellent execution.

    Vice President Kashim Shettima, who chairs NEC, which has as members all the state governors, captured the exciting policies with rather apt words: “Our goal is not just regulation,” he enthused. “It is a revival.  This is our opportunity to re-industrialise, to empower communities, and to restore pride in local production.”

    Well put!  But the government must walk its talk.  Indeed, it’s “condemned” to walking its talk, if it must provide jobs for the thundering numbers of jobless youths; and avert a social time bomb from mass poverty and unrealised expectations.

    The Cotton, Textiles and Garment Board policy alone is expected to unlock some US$ 90 billion to the local economy in value, by 2035 — that’s over the next 10 years. Textiles was a great employer of labour here.  So, we await the specific policy tactics the government is putting forward to realise this goal, and return to glorious old days. 

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    This is more so when this is not the first textiles revamp policy intervention by the Federal Government.  There was one under President Olusegun Obasanjo, which really did not make much mark.  Whatever worked against that must be x-rayed and factored into this new plan.  Otherwise, 2035 might just be another mirage, after the initial excitement.

    But the funding strategy for the Cotton Textiles and Garment Board — the Textile Import Levy, which the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) collects — is brilliant.  Let those who do free textiles imports today fund Nigeria’s future textiles self-sufficiency!  Still, the government must secure that fund by ensuring zero-sleaze by NCS collection agents.

    The government must also address the basics — mass cultivation of cotton nation-wide.  If indeed cotton can grow in 34 of Nigeria’s 36 states, then the country has no business just growing 13, 000 metric tons yearly.  The cotton board should partner the Bank of Agriculture to develop special credit packages to boost cotton production.

    The Nigeria Livestock Growth Acceleration Strategy, which NEC also endorsed, is no less critical and strategic.  This newly tweaked policy, by the new Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, is under the aegis of the old National Livestock Transformation Plan (2018-2028), which the Buhari Presidency had put in place.

    For too long, the livestock value chain had laboured under the hysteria of “Fulani herdsmen” — a media blanket that references notorious herder criminals as the entire legitimate animal husbandry trade. 

    So, it’s high time livestock, a vibrant sector in which every part of the country can invest, regained its job-creating, revenue-generating and export-focused essence.  It’s all about adding agricultural value on the livestock front. To achieve this goal, however, ranching is critical.  That should, with time, eliminate farmer-herder clashes.

    But while re-industrialisation is excellent policy goal, food security in the instant is even more pressing.  Which is why the impending formal launch of the National Agribusiness Policy Mechanism, under which GIP is anchored, makes eminent sense.

    Cleared of all policy jargons, it means a positive policy aggression to return food production, and security against hunger, to the front burner where it belongs.  High food inflation is still a sad reality; and local rice activism of the Muhammadu Buhari years appears waning, with the influx of foreign rice, with suspect nutritional value compared with local rice.

    More worrying: price of local rice is rising.  But local production of food, in vast quantity and ready quality, holds the key to food security and eventual economic development and prosperity.  GIP must tackle these rising food crises — and fast too.

    Whatever happens on this tri-agricultural policy front must be done in close attention to fixing electricity.  Again — and this is worth restating: re-industrialising, with the current power reality, remains a pipe dream.

  • Senseless fritter

    Senseless fritter

    •The governor of Bauchi just showed why pork often equates waste

    The news was not novel but it all the same created ripples: Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi State, just appointed a fresh 168 aides to swell his political bureaucracy.

    He won’t be the first.  Nor is he likely to be the last.  But it just shows how many governors often fritter public money on political aides, at the expense of the majority that vote them into office.  It’s the classical self-first — and last — syndrome.

    Now, to the extent that appointing 168 new aides assures the beneficiaries sinecures that pay for their families’ upkeep, it’s empowerment of a sort.  But it’s empowerment of the cynical — if not sinister — kind, that lofts the governor’s political survival over the wellbeing of the overwhelming majority under his care.

    In this case, it would appear oiling a structure early enough for a future political gambit, for which foot-soldiers must have boots on the ground.  But it’s no sustainable empowerment.  Such money, thrown into frying pork, if thrown into investments that create sustainable jobs, could have served the Bauchi people better.

    Which was why the Bauchi opposition, from the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), poured ice-cold water on Governor Mohammed’s gesture.

    “We, as PRP, see these appointments as an irresponsible act by the state governor,” Wada Abdullahi, per a report by ‘The Punch’, fumed.  “At a time when the state is grappling with economic problems, we shouldn’t be prioritising political convenience over public interest.”

    But the governor’s camp — hardly surprising — countered with characteristic humbug.

    “The appointments are aimed at reinvigorating the machinery of governance and ensuring greater inclusion,” Muktar Gidado, Governor Mohammed’s special adviser on media and publicity, enthused. “The newly appointed aides, many of whom are former office holders across various levels, were selected based on merit, political experience, and leadership capabilities.” 

    Giving a breakdown, Gidado said of the new beneficiaries, five were principal special assistants (political/community relations), one principal special assistant (pensions), 60 senior special assistants (political/community relations), one senior special assistant (labour), 38 special assistants (political/community relations), and 63 personal assistants (political/community relations).  Cant — as pork — is sweet!

    Even with the Gidado sweetener of the appointees injecting vim and vigour into the Mohammed government and boosting the governor’s vision of responsive and effective government, it’s clear Bauchi could do with far less boys — and girls — for the job! 

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    The additional jeopardy here is that all of the beneficiaries are likely ruling party partisans, getting well-earned pork, for helping the governor to win power.  That’s no crime.  But there’s something awry about lavishing state resources on the partisan few in power, to the detriment of the majority, who just crave equal opportunities to live honest and productive lives.  That’s clear discrimination.

    Still, no one can in all good conscience say the governor should not reward his loyalists.  Pork and winning parties in politics go hand-in-hand. 

    In this case, however, the worry is the huge number — considering that these are unsustainable jobs — and the timing: almost two years into the governor’s tenure.  This is when he should be concentrating on improving the lot of the ordinary, apolitical Bauchi person, to secure his gubernatorial legacy.

    Besides, Governor Mohammed should be more circumspect with deploying state resources, giving Bauchi’s dire developmental demographics.  Bauchi belongs to the poorest geo-political zone in the country: the North East.  He should think more of inclusive and aggressive anti-poverty policies and programmes, rather than fattening a few cronies.

    The governor needs a healthy balance, even if he must reward his supporters.  These 168 appointments — and their timing — jar against such balance.  That’s why it’s a senseless fritter of scarce public resources.