The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Look inward

    Look inward

    As leading oncologists have suggested, it is time to come up with homegrown control measures for cancer in Nigeria.

    The campaign to have cancer specialists look inwards with a bid to checking the frightening spread of the disease is one that deserves the support of all. One area that is considered dreadful and avoided, even in discussions here is cancer treatment. There are about 80 clinical oncologists in the country to treat about 124,000 patients; that is those who reported at medical facilities. Others accept the cancer as their fate, taking the diagnosis as death sentence. Some are too content with treating a disease that has not even been diagnosed, believing that the enemies must be at work.

    The opportunity for clinical and radiation oncology training in Nigeria is said to be very limited, thereby putting so much strain on the few who manage to go through the process and took up the challenge of caring for those down with the disease now known as the Big C. If oncologists are so few, researchers in the field are even fewer. This prompted the National Institute for Cancer Research and Training to resort to taking awareness campaign on the need for doctors to look more in the direction to all parts of the country.

    When those in the South West converged on the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, the focus was mainly to draw attention to raising a new generation of researchers and caregivers. Besides, they beamed the searchlight on homegrown method of treatment. This is the only way forward. Nigerians, indeed Africans, cannot be content with lapping up whatever comes from the West and think it will go well. So many things are influenced by the environment and orientation that make it inevitable for researchers to look inwards and be innovative.

    Unfortunately, the communiqué from the institute’s deliberation at OAU was not made available for public consumption, leaving us with the little that their leader, Professor Olusegun Alatise, said at the opening ceremony as a guide to how they intend to make the plan work.

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    We fully support the plan for homegrown research for a number of reasons. First, it is likely to trigger the interest of more medical graduates to proceed to local postgraduate medical training institutions for training. Second, it is likely to make training more economical. All aspects of the clinical research and treatment, ranging from chemotherapy to radiotherapy, and others, are very expensive. If more lives are to be saved, cost must be cut down, and this may not be pushed to the government alone. It would be unrealistic given the rate at which people come down with the various cancers these days. Third, findings would have more profound effect and be relatable to the immediate environment. Cases would be drawn from local medical centres, thus deepening experiences.

    This would necessitate the governments and funding bodies to earmark more fund to this plan. Although there is a new National Cancer Control Plan, the new direction of research would involve more intense probe into causes and treatment of the disease that is said to be the second most deadly globally. We are racing against time; Nigeria should not be playing catch-up with the rest of the world all the time. Even in Africa, experts say that Egypt has about 1,000 clinical oncologists, more than 10 times what is available in Nigeria. Yet, the Nigerian population is more than double the Egyptians’.

    On the prevention side, so much needs to be done, especially in terms of our diet and its relationship with causes of cancer. Which of our local food could predispose people to cancer, and which could help in preventing the possibility of coming down with the disease? What foods have nutrients that could inhibit the growth when people are already diagnosed? It has been discovered that men are prone to prostate and colorectal cancer, while women are disposed to having breast and cervical cancer. How do these relate also to some tropical diseases and their treatments? These are things we hope would be probed into when the experts choose to look inwards.

    It is when a country begins to use local human and material resources to fight local battles that it could be said to be developing. Nigeria has so many experts who are highly regarded in other lands and could be attracted to help in developing the country through research and treatment. Government has the duty to rally these highly skilled human resource for the purpose of development. It should also ensure that the haemorrhage through the brain drain is halted. Otherwise, the more specialists are trained, the more they may be prone to be attracted by the better life available abroad. It is not enough to train them, it is necessary to device means of retaining the doctors.

    Nigeria is a blessed country. All that is required is to enhance and manage what is available.

  • Justice for Osinachi

    Justice for Osinachi

    •Death sentence on her husband is appropriate, but governors hardly sign death warrants

    Three years after her controversial death, popular gospel singer Osinachi Nwachukwu got justice as the Federal High Court, Abuja, found her husband, Peter Nwachukwu, guilty of culpable homicide in connection with her death and sentenced him to death by hanging.
    Osinachi, who died at an Abuja hospital on April 8, 2022, was aged 42 and a lead singer at the Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Abuja. She was featured on the 2017 hit gospel song ‘Ekwueme,’ which has more than 136 million YouTube views.
    After her death, Nwachukwu was arrested and charged with culpable homicide, spousal battery, cruelty to children and criminal intimidation following complaints from her relatives and friends who accused him of domestic violence leading to her death. He had allegedly kicked her in the chest, causing her to be hospitalised. In his defence, he had said: “What killed my wife was cancer of the lungs; I didn’t hit my wife.”
    Two of the couple’s four children were prosecution witnesses during his trial. The prosecution had alleged that he deprived the deceased of her liberty by restraining her movement and locking her up in the house. The prosecution also accused him of subjecting her to emotional, verbal and psychological abuse.
    Justice Njideka Nwosu-Iheme convicted him of the 23 charges, saying the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt. Apart from the death sentence, he was also sentenced to prison, ranging from six months to three years on several other counts, and was fined a total of N700,000.
    The case attracted public interest on account of the singer’s prominence and the dimension of alleged domestic abuse. It further highlighted the problem of gender-based violence in homes.
    After Osinachi died, her relatives and friends said they had pleaded with her to leave her husband, but she was opposed to separation and believed he would change. Her husband was described as domineering and perhaps envious of her success. The case demonstrates that victims of domestic abuse should be able to identify when it is no longer safe to be in the relationship, and self-preservation demands that they leave.

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    A gender rights activist and founder of DOHS Cares Foundation, Ololade Ajayi, was reported saying it was “a clear case of femicide — violence against a woman with the intent to kill. It is rarely a one-off incident, but usually a pattern of abuse that eventually leads to death.” The organisation engages in activities that “guarantee the rights of women, children and vulnerable people” and has proposed a Feminine Bill that is currently before the National Assembly.
    The punishment in this case should send a strong signal against domestic abuse. It should also encourage victims of gender-based violence to speak up. Cases of domestic violence in the country, with women usually on the receiving end, include battery, beatings, torture, acid baths, rape, and possible death. Many of the victims remain silent about violations of their rights.
    There are concerns that incidents of domestic violence are increasing in the country. Punishing abusers will act as a deterrent.
    Osinachi’s mother and her twin sibling are said to be raising the couple’s children. Sadly, with their mother dead and their father sentenced to death for her death, the children may well need therapy to live with the reality of their situation.
    Nwachukwu has the right to appeal. However, his death sentence raises an issue: Nigerian authorities rarely implement the death sentence. That is why there is congestion on death row.
    For instance, in March, the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) said the number of prisoners on death row had risen from 3,590 in September 2024 to 3,688 in March 2025. This represents an addition of 98 prisoners within six months. The then Acting Controller-General of NCoS, Sylvester Nwakuche, gave the figures when he appeared for screening before the Senate Committee on Interior.
    Given the problematic execution of the death sentence in the country, it remains to be seen if justice for Osinachi will be justice indeed.

  • Jola Ogunlusi (1934-2025)

    Jola Ogunlusi (1934-2025)

    •Although he contributed more to unionism, he was nonetheless a versatile journalist, having worked in several newspapers of his era

    The Nigeria Union of journalists (NUJ) as an industrial union has produced several leadership stars since its founding in 1907. What has now grown as an industrial union started off as one of the unions associated with the advocacy for Nigeria’s independence in 1960. The association seemingly birthed many other protest groups that felt that the colonial government of the then British empire had overstayed its welcome. The union has grown exponentially to more than 30,000 members with influence and grit in a post-independence Nigeria.

    For the union to have grown to its present size and influence can be linked to the dedication of the various leaderships that have headed the association in its history. The union has had sparks of stars in unionism and core journalism as well. Among them was the Late Pa Jola Ogunlusi, who rose from an Assistant Secretary of the Lagos State Council of the NUJ in 1976. In 1977, he served as the protem secretary of the union without pay. This exemplary sense of voluntarism marked him out as a unionism gem for decades.

    Born on September 25, 1934, in Esun Ekiti, Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Pa Ogunlusi had his early education in the state. On his 90th birthday in 2024, he had revealed that he actually set out to become a medical doctor but was unsuccessful. It seems then that he poured his dedication and humanity into being the best he could be in both unionism and journalism.

    Ogunlusi was one of the pioneer practitioners of journalism in Nigeria, having started off as one of the pioneer staff of late Rev.Henry Townsends’s, Iwe Irohin, the first Nigerian newspaper founded in 1859. From there he crossed over to Nigerian Tribune, then to Daily Sketch and from there to New Nigeria newspaper. For one that joined the profession in his own word, “by accident”, having had his eyes on medicine, the late Pa ogunlusi left an indelible mark in the field of journalism and unionism, even if his imprints are deeper in the latter than the former.

    Pa Ogunlusi, through personal dedication, training and deliberate ambition to be the best in anything he set his mind on became a poster-child of unionism for a very long time. According to records, he became the soul of the NUJ, running the secretariat as a full-time employee. As pioneer secretary, he worked with a string of NUJ presidents most of who were not even born before he started practicing journalism.

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    He did not just revel in becoming one of the notable journalists of his time or the pioneer secretary of the NUJ whose track record would be celebrated for years as long as the union exists, he documented his experiences in books and interviews one of which is , “A History of the Nigerian Press”.  As controversial as the book was at the time of publishing, it is as riveting as ever, as it was what he saw as his factual documentation of his role as NUJ secretary under some NUJ presidents.

    As the great NUJ secretary transits, he goes with eternal pride to his legacy as the pioneer secretary of the union, known for his dedication to duty and love for journalism. He is a vivid example of the value of dedication and integrity in leadership. He is not just being celebrated in death, he had always attracted admiration and celebration amongst other trade unions, journalists and affiliated unions like the Veteran Journalists Association that kept celebrating him, even last year during his 90th birthday.

    He was as dedicated to his unionism as he was to community service. He was not just the face of traditional journalism in Nigeria, doing the yeoman craft before better qualified journalists with the help of better education and technology joined the profession. He excelled in community service also, marking him out as a humane veteran with the vintage African value of community involvement.

    He was a sterling president of Festac Residents’ Association. Through his community activism, the association got the government to create the Amuwo Odofin Local Council Development Area (LCDA) which has metamorphosed to a full local government council serving the community.

    Pa Ogunlusi’s legacy in unionism outweighs his journalistic exploits but that is the hallmark of dedication and sense of service. For one whose heart was with the medical profession but was sadly thwarted by his failure of chemistry, he nonetheless served humanity through unionism and community service.

    He left the stage at 91, but his footprints remain indelible. Adieu!

  • Sabotaging NELFUND

    Sabotaging NELFUND

    • Implicated institutions and individuals should be sanctioned appropriately

    The motto of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is: “increasing access to higher education.” According to the official website of the Fund, “The Student Loan initiative is a program established by the Federal Government of Nigeria to break financial barriers in higher education”, with its specific benefits including “interest-free loans for tuition fees”, “equal access to higher education for all eligible candidates”, and “reduced financial stress on students and families.” NELFUND is therefore a programme designed to have far-reaching ripple effects; and is a critical index of good governance.

    To ensure efficiency in the administration of the fund, NELFUND states that it is collaborating with 267 “esteemed institutions”. Ironically, it is here that the problem lies. Contrary to expectation, some of the “esteemed” tertiary institutions with which NELFUND has been collaborating have started to betray the trust that the nation has reposed in them.

    The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, consequent upon the agency’s investigation, disclosed: “We … heard of some schools that charge some fees, processing or so-called fees, for the students to access the funds. Something that [the schools] played no role in. … We see a lot of students complaining that it is only after they have made payment that they discover that NELFUND has paid for the tuition. And schools did not inform them. We had to relate to NELFUND, and we found out it was not news to NELFUND, and NELFUND was actually dealing with the issues already. As I speak, the anti-corruption agencies have been put on notice by NELFUND.”

    The director-general also noted: “Now, students can track from application to disbursement by themselves; schools cannot do that anymore. It is so sad that any institution would be involved in this kind of thing. It is like sabotaging the citizens; let’s not even talk about the government. It is about sabotaging ourselves.”

    In an even more detailed and more specific 29 April, 2025 account of the rot, titled “51 varsities, others embroiled in illegal deductions from students’ loans,” The Guardian (Nigeria) showed how the managements of no fewer than 51 universities and other tertiary institutions have been exploiting different categories of students financially. Some institutions have also been accused of inflating the tuition or institutional fees which they have been submitting to NELFUND for payment in respect of the loans’ beneficiaries’.

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    Where students have struggled to pay their tuition fees because of the fraudulent non-disclosure of prior NELFUND payment to the institutions, students have found getting a refund herculean, with some institutions reportedly ignoring students’ requests for such over-payments outright.  It is further worrisome that banks, as institutions which have trust as an essential element of their contract with customers, are being implicated as collaborators in the financial travesty.  

    The institutions concerned have put themselves in the unedifying position in which the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has now pledged to undertake their own investigation of the different tertiary institutions to reveal whether they are implicated or not, and to determine the nature and extent of culpability. This has created the weird situation in which the tail would be wagging the dog.

    The offending institutions have been described as swindling students-in-need. They have also been undermining the fundamental purpose of “increasing access to higher education” and “reducing financial stress on students and families.” The fraud has, in addition, given impetus to cynics of the students loan scheme who now have cause to sneer. Moreover, the financial heist amounts to sabotaging the present administration which has been holding up the beautiful students loan scheme as one of its early star achievements.

    It is commendable that NOA has been remarkably eagle-eyed, NELFUND’s monitoring has been sufficiently efficient, and processes have started to be put in place to forestall the kind of financial improprieties that have been identified. More of these fraud-preventing measures and structures should be put in place.

    Meanwhile, the institutions and individuals found culpable in the ongoing investigations should be handed stiff punishments.

  • CBEX tragedy

    CBEX tragedy

    • Regulatory agencies to blame for the huge loss

    It branded itself as a sophisticated, modern, forward-looking, AI-driven and tech-savvy trading and wealth building platform with the requisite expertise to help investors achieve prosperity by magically multiplying their initial investments within incredibly short periods. With its aggressive marketing model, deploying teams of canvassers to bars, hotels, malls, restaurants, church halls, higher institutions, markets and work places, among others, to sell the attraction of its product, Crypto Business Exchange, popularly known as CBEX, attracted no less than 600,000 investors in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos and adjoining areas of the Southwest, within nine months. Its selling point was the promise to double investor’s funds within 30 days.

    CBEX promised its patrons a daily Return-On-Interest (ROI) of 3.5% compared to an annual interest rate of about five per cent that obtained in the market. It was an offer too tempting to resist in a tough economic environment characterised by high inflationary spirals and pervasive poverty. It claimed to utilise a “compound interest” model which involved trading a minuscule one percent of an investor’s balance daily portrayed as risk-secure and efficient.

    Lured by marketers motivated by high commissions paid on each new customer brought in, hundreds of people invested their life savings, diverted capital from their businesses, sold valuable property or borrowed money from assorted sources into what turned out to be no more than another expansive financial fraud scam.

    On the night of April 15, 2025, the bubble burst. CBEX collapsed. Its sponsors vanished into thin air – its telegram channels were blocked, its WhatsApp groups restricted and websites obliterated. Hundreds of thousands of investors were left wailing and gnashing their teeth, with an estimated total loss of over $935 million (about N1.5 trillion) which had been either trapped or had vanished. The loss was colossal, compounding the economic misery that the investors were misled to believe they were being freed from. Businesses have been lost, lives ruined and hopes devastated.

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    For an outfit that, as initial investigations indicate, was not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), CBEX operated with amazing audacity and impunity. That such an illegal and criminal outfit could function normally and openly without suspicion or detection for nearly a year is an inexcusable failure, both of national security and institutional, regulatory efficacy. Notably, the China Beijing Equity Exchange, which CBEX claimed ties with obviously to gain legitimacy, has denied being involved in digital assets training or any other operations in Nigeria.

    It is unfortunate that public figures, influencers and celebrities allowed themselves to be used to promote such an unregistered investment scheme without undertaking the requisite due diligence to ascertain its legality and professionalism. This is certainly a serious infraction and the agencies regulating such commercial transactions must ensure appropriate sanctions are applied. It was inappropriate for such supposedly credible personalities to help build public trust in a scheme that was no more than a criminal enterprise.

    There is no excuse for this to have been allowed to happen again since there had been several cases of Ponzi schemes in the past which collapsed catastrophically, resulting in the loss of humongous amounts of money and many devastated investors even committing suicide. These included the Mavrodi Mundial Money box MMM, which crashed in 2016, the NNN Nigeria, MMM Cooperation, GCCH, RevoMoney (2017), Racksterli, Eagle Cooperative, 86FB, which collapsed between 2020 and 2021, FIN AFRICA, Royal Q ( Nigeria), and Oviaoza, other criminal entities which collapsed in 2022, among others.

    This latest incident portrays an unacceptable laxity and complacency by financial regulatory as well as anti-corruption agencies. It also indicates a high level of financial illiteracy, necessitating intensive and sustained public enlightenment to educate the public adequately on the pertinent issues.

    Above all, it illustrates once more the question of greed and compulsive quest for wealth accumulation without exertion, which is definitive of our value system. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has a responsibility to help ensure that as many investors as possible who have suffered loss get a reasonable share of their money back.

  • Inevitable crackdown

    Inevitable crackdown

    There should be no room for fake institutions and certificates

    The order by President Bola Tinubu that the regulatory authorities of institutions of higher learning in the country should live up to their responsibility of shutting out unapproved schools should be taken seriously. It is already long in coming as the mushroom universities and other tertiary institutions have been taking undue advantage of Nigerians’ thirst for tertiary education over the years.

    The more the authorities close down the schools, the more others intent on deceiving and living off the sweat of others spring up. That the President could call attention to the menace at the convocation of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is an indication that things have been getting worse.

    As he called on the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) and other regulatory bodies in the education sector to step up their activities of sanitising things, it has become a marching order on the embarrassing situation.

    Recently, some Nigerian nurses who went to the United Kingdom with Nigerian certification were found to be fake and needed to be deported to save their health sector from pollution. Equally, many institutions that Nigerian students flood in Benin Republic and Togo were found to be fake, and a committee set up by the Federal Ministry of Education established the motive for establishing such schools. They were set up offshore by fraudulent Nigerians who did not even bother to apply for accreditation by the host countries, let alone the Nigerian government.

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    But it is not enough for the President to give such instruction; he should hand over the monitoring to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation who should give him periodic report until the practice is stamped out. The task of enhancing quality of education in the country, especially at the tertiary level, is so important and urgent that it would take more than just a speech to achieve the desired result. Besides, all those behind the establishment of such schools and issuance of fake certificates should be arrested by the appropriate law enforcement agencies and prosecuted. When others see the fate that has befallen them, they would retrace their steps.

    It is also not enough to concentrate on the tertiary level. While the constitution has placed secondary and primary education on the concurrent legislative list, the President could direct the Minister of Education to urgently call a meeting of the National Council of Education that comprises all states commissioners responsible for regulating the sector for a meeting, at which a decision to enhance quality at the lower levels would be taken. There are more unapproved schools at that level, and unless we are able to bring sanity to that sector, we would be treating mere symptoms.

    In addition to these measures, the store laid on certificates in the country should be relaxed. Little do we realise that we need to raise the quality of knowledge acquired by artisans if we are to stem the spate of building collapse and even enhance care for our automobiles. Technical colleges should be adequately equipped for secondary school graduates who could not secure admission to tertiary institutions. With adequate training, mentorship and funding, many of them would, in no time become the cynosure of eyes. This, indeed, is one way to de-emphasise the desperation for university certificates and connect with the youth who constitute the largest demographic in the country.

    This is the age of knowledge-driven societies, and unless we tackle these obstacles on the way and bring genuine computer education to schools at the primary and secondary levels, we would just be moving in circles. Time has come for Nigeria to rise to the challenge of the moment.

  • Bands of occupation

    Bands of occupation

    Benue State must be saved from the barbarism of foreigners

    It is an emergency in the local communities, if the rest of the country does not feel it. But the story as told by the governor of Benue State should generate empathy enough.

    Bandits are overrunning citizens and the homes they have known since antiquity. They cannot move, breathe and have their beings in places that have conferred on them the legitimacy as natives.

    These bandits come like barbarous hordes, fully armed with AK-47 and AK-49. They don’t carry the visage or the accent of any Nigerian. Hear the governor of the state describe them: “They don’t speak what we speak,” he intoned.   “Their Hausa is one sort of Hausa, not the normal Hausa we Nigerians speak.”

    Citizens who have seen them and heard them are authentic witnesses of the attacks, and they say they are Malians.

    “They come in as they kill, as they maim, as they push people away. They just keep killing, and then they run back,” said Governor Hyacinth Alia.

    When they lay siege to a number of villages, they betray savage readiness and willingness to take anything “walking or breathing out.” Anything or anyone on their way is not spared.

    In a recent onslaught, as the governor narrates it, “by morning, 72 deaths were confirmed—29 in Ukum, 27 in Logo, three in Katsina-Ala, and others in hospitals—along with countless injuries.

    ‘’They grab the land, they chase the people out, and they stay in the land. That’s what’s going on because there are some local governments here, and these people have occupied them in the last 15 years.

    “These occupied areas serve as bases for repeated attacks. Those are the areas you hear of constant attacks, because they hit and then they go back into the local government hinterlands.’’

    One of the big consequences of these activities drew a dire warning from the state’s chief executive.

    “The attackers also target food security, with herders in their group destroying stored crops. They would now open the barns, destroy the food, cut the yams and whatever. They cut the guinea corn and maize and throw them to the cows to eat.”

    Benue will no longer be known as the food basket of the nation, if this persists. They are also grazing on the farmlands while their victims are in internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps.

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    The fraught local government areas include Ukum, Logo, Katsina-Ala, Kwande, Guma and Gwer west. Some of the communities have fallen to these cruel bands for up to 15 years. In Plateau State, the governor said 62 communities are under their control.

    The uniformed men and women seem overstretched. So, the locals, rooted in the sentiment and history of those places, want to protect “our turf.”

    This hits straight not only at the survival of these communities but the livelihoods of many Nigerians outside the state.

    It is therefore urgent not only to protect these Nigerians but to flush out these interlopers who have colonised the legitimate homes of our fellow citizens.

    The decision to take urgent steps was emphasised by the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun. He wants to deploy the Police Mobile Force (PMF) for intervention in the trouble spots. But he has raised an important issue about the abuse of these forces by VIPs.

    “The foundational mandate of the force has been compromised over time. A significant number of PMF personnel are deployed as escorts, guards or aides to private individuals and VIPs. This diversion weakens our capacity to respond where needed most,” said Egbetokun.

    “Effective immediately, each PMF squadron must maintain at least one fully equipped, combat-ready unit on standby for tactical interventions,” he emphasised.

    We hope that the Benue emergency will be treated as such.

  • A good reversal

    A good reversal

    Gov. Sani right in revoking sale of school properties by previous administration

    In our kind of clime where many governors take decisions based on their personal whims and caprices, particularly against the backdrop of their hatred or love for their predecessors, it is necessary to distill many of their decisions before drawing conclusions.

    We are not unmindful of the fact that there is no love lost between the incumbent governor of the state, Senator Uba Sani, and his predecessor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, even as we take a position on the revocation of the sales of properties in some public schools in the state by the Senator Sani administration.

    The properties, including structures and land, were sold by the immediate past administration of Malam el-Rufai.

    Secretary to the Kaduna State Government, Dr AbdulKadir Mu’azu Meyere, who announced the revocation in a statement said it had been approved since last year and that steps are being taken to refund monies paid by the allottees.

    “The Kaduna State Government, under the leadership of His Excellency, Senator Uba Sani, has revoked all previous sales of institutional houses and land allocations within Alhuda-Huda College, Zaria; Queen Amina College, Kaduna; and Government Commercial College, Zaria, in the overriding public interest and for the common good,” Meyere said.

    It is noteworthy that the old students of Queen Amina College, Kakuri-Kaduna, had earlier petitioned the state government to reconsider the former government’s decision to sell the school’s staff quarters and other land on the premises. The association rightly noted that this portended grave consequences for education in the state, with many of the teachers and other essential workers being forced to live far away from the school.

    The old girls said the college already had issues of severe overcrowding, inadequate sanitary facilities and dilapidated infrastructure. According to them, “Each dormitory houses an average of 180 students, with three girls often forced to share a single six-inch spring bed — conditions worse than sardines in a can.”

    We do not know whether it was the protest letter of these old girls that reminded the government of its decision to revoke the sales of the properties on the schools’ premises, since it said the decision had been taken as far back as last year. But, whether it was or not, the good news is that those who bought those properties have now got their well-deserved quit notices. We can only appeal to the government to refund their money as soon as possible.

    We dare say that the decision to sell off parts of these legacy schools was one of the most reckless decisions by the el-Rufai administration.

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    It showed its contempt for knowledge and education. How on earth can anyone justify selling off school staff quarters? It cannot be for the purpose of making money because the consequences of that singular decision are too dire to be denominated in naira and kobo.

    That some of these schools are legacy schools that should be preserved as model institutions compounds the contempt.

    The revocation is a warning to other governors to exercise discretion in disposing of government land. It is a good lesson that nothing is permanent. A bad decision can be reversed anytime in the future.

    We agree with Governor Sani that “effective learning can best take place in a conducive atmosphere without distractions and sundry interferences.”

    And, as the governor further noted, education is not just a leveller but also a ladder for upward mobility, with the capacity to transform lives and improve livelihoods.

    These are good reasons why governments must sleep over programmes and policies meant for the sector before implementing them. Schools without an environment conducive for learning can only produce half-baked graduates at all levels and this is bad enough for any society that is hungry for development.

    We commend the governor for revoking the sales of the schools’ properties. A policy like the one under consideration can only compound the volatility of Kaduna State and a governor who has invested so much in education should not close his eyes to something that can bring his efforts to naught.

  • Basic education

    Basic education

    New initiative for teachers a step in the right direction

    Established through the Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act of 2004, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has the broad mandate to provide basic education for all all children in Nigeria, from primary to Junior Secondary School (JSS) while also declaring basic education compulsory and a fundamental human right for all school age children.

    Specifically, the commission aims to reduce the number of school drop-outs and out-of-school children, improve quality and efficiency of basic education, as well as promote the acquisition of fundamental literacy, numeracy, life skills and values for life-long education and useful living.

    Sadly, the general condition of basic education remains parlous and desultory despite impressive efforts of a pathetically few states to build classrooms, provide libraries and furniture as well as offer free meals to make education attractive. No less than 13 million Nigerian children remain out-of-school. Teachers in public primary and secondary schools are poorly motivated and do not benefit from continuous training.

    There is a dearth of instructional materials and gross insufficiency of classrooms, laboratories and basic infrastructure. Indeed, basic education in the country is dysfunctional, has virtually collapsed and in need of urgent rejuvenation.

    It is against this background that the Federal Ministry of Education has unveiled a new initiative, the UBE School -Based Management Committee- School Improvement Programme (SBM-SIP) for Teachers Professional Development (TPD). Among others, it is designed to address the out-of-school challenge, advance girl-child education, expand access to education for school age children, create an enabling environment for learning, enhance teachers’ capacity as well as improve learning outcomes by strengthening teacher quality.

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    To achieve these goals, it will harness data and digitalisation as well as strengthen quality assurance to meet global standards.

    The immediate target of the programme is the construction of 7,200 new UBE facilities, provision of 1,600,000 furniture pieces,  extensive renovation of 195,000 classrooms and the provision of 22,900 classrooms and 28,000 toilets across schools. Although commendable, relative to the number of schools across the vast expanse of the country, this is a drop in the ocean and thus can only be the beginning.

    This underscores the need to get the states and local governments actively involved in the implementation as the Federal Government is clearly unable to solely bear the burden effectively. In this regard, the requisite authorities should investigate reports that many states fail to provide the mandatory counterpart funding to their State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB) necessary for the release of federal funding for projects and programmes. This problem must be urgently addressed.

    Equally critical is the issue of sustainable funding of the programme, a responsibility which is envisaged to be borne by the Federal Government which statutorily transfers to the states, annually, two per cent of its budget through the UBE Intervention Fund managed by UBEC.

    Given the magnitude of the challenges confronting not just basic education but the entire sector, this level of funding can only have negligible impact. All levels of government need to work collaboratively to increase their budgetary allocations to education to at least the 25 per cent threshold set by UNESCO, or something close if this cannot be fully achieved.

    Opportunities for private sector participation in funding of basic education should be pursued in the face of severe public sector fiscal deficits. And the problem of reported widespread corruption and misapplication of resources in the sector necessitates urgent remedial actions.

    Experts across the education sector have widely commented the initiative and suggested requisite imperatives for its success. These include ensuring the commitment and participation of the sub-national units in the implementation, continuous monitoring and evaluation, active participation of beneficiary communities so that they can take ownership of the projects, carrying stakeholders, particularly teachers and students, along as well as decentralising school governance as much as possible to ensure grassroots engagement.

    Finding urgent solutions to the existential threats that poverty and chronic insecurity have become is also a necessary condition for reviving basic education.

  • Manufacturers’ lament

    Manufacturers’ lament

    • The problems require fresh thinking

    For Nigeria’s manufacturers, the perennial nightmare over multiple grid failures and unbearably high energy costs, far from over, have actually worsened with the situation costing the sector N1.11 trillion in alternative energy bills last year alone. The figure, as reported in the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Economic Review, not only revealed a significant increase of 42 per cent from N781.7 billion spent in 2023 but a quantum leap by 1,475% over a four-year period.

    Worst hit, according to MAN, is the food, beverage and tobacco sector with expenditure in alternative energy shooting up to N229.41 billion from the 2023 figures of N182.76 billion.

    For the chemical and pharmaceutical sector, energy costs reportedly doubled to N208.68 billion, with non-metallic mineral products sector’s energy costs increasing by 33.7 per cent to N118.49 billion. For the textile, apparel and footwear sector, the cost of alternative energy also shot up to N26.45 billion in 2024, from N6.97 billion in 2023.

    To MAN’s Director-General Segun Ajayi-Kadir, although the electricity supply situation to industries actually improved somewhat, with average daily supply increasing from 10.6 hours in 2023 to 13.3 hours per day in 2024, the surge in tariffs by over 200 percent for ‘Band A’ consumers significantly increased manufacturing costs, just as frequent outages and grid collapses remained a major source of concern.

    The above is however not the only headache that the manufacturers had to contend with in the past year. Rising interest rates in particular – a direct fallout of continual Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) rate hikes – would equally pose a major burden. MAN reported commercial bank lending to manufacturers at 35.5 percent rates in 2024, up from 28.06 percent in 2023, thus raising the sector’s finance costs to N1.3 trillion, further constraining their investment and expansion plans.

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    While investment overall, reportedly fell by 35.3 percent year-on-year to N658.81 billion in 2024, no less lamentable is the employment situation as the number of employees that left manufacturing companies was said to have increased from 17,364 in 2023 to 17,949 in 2024, a record labour loss of 35,313 in two years.

    To be sure, none of the factors highlighted by MAN could be said to be either entirely new or not already well documented. They amount – at the very best – to a re-presentation of an old plague. Is it the story of how the nation has remained at virtually the same level despite the stupendous expenditures poured into the sector since the Obasanjo era and the reforms that attenuated it that is new? Or could Nigerians be said to be unfamiliar with the continuing underinvestment, under-capacity and outright corruption still plaguing the sector, the result of which the manufacturing sector has remained ill-served, with the broad spectrum of the society left to put up with rationalisations following promises that came to naught?

    What of the inflation-targeting policies of the CBN that have driven interest rates to stratospheric levels, which, when combined with the power stasis, are at the heart of the manufacturers’ legendary lack of competitiveness? Or the story of the massive influx of cheap, mostly inferior goods from Southeast Asia that continues to undermine local capacity?

    The issues at stake, which are age-long and hence familiar, obviously go beyond the annual rites of lamentation. If we may dare say – not only do the problems require fresh thinking, they are such that call for bold and adroit measures both by the government and the apex bank to reverse.

    In the circumstance, our call, which isn’t exactly a new one, is for the protection of the manufacturing sector and ensuring that the environment is made as competitive as it could be to make the sector thrive.