The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Amnesty and peace in Niger Delta

    Amnesty and peace in Niger Delta

    • Emergency rule in Rivers deserves support to complement other initiatives in the region

    Before the decision of the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua to engage the Niger Delta militants in dialogue to resolve their grievances against the Federal Government and the Nigerian State, the entire region that is critical to Nigeria’s crude oil production and sales was engulfed in a cauldron of violence and instability. Aggrieved militant groups engaged in bombing and sabotage of oil pipelines, destruction of other vital oil facilities in the region and kidnap of oil workers for ransom, all with negative consequences for a national economy dependent on oil sales from the region for at least 90 per cent of her revenue earnings.

    With oil production from the Niger Delta dropping, at a point to less than 700,000 barrels per day, the country faced a severe revenue crunch which the introduction of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) by the Yar’Adua administration to address the grievances of militants in the region began to address.

    Under the PAP initiative, which has been in existence for 16 years now, no less than 29,000 militants had come out of the creeks to surrender their arms in exchange for being empowered to engage in entrepreneurial activities, receive an education or be gainfully employed. 

    Earlier, the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Y2000 had also contributed significantly to addressing grievances of environmental degradation in the region due to oil extraction activities and the perceived general marginalisation of an area responsible for a resource on which the country substantially depended.

    But one of the key achievements of the President Bola Tinubu administration has been the considerable ramping up of oil production and sales due to greater intensity and efficiency of the security agencies and enhanced utilisation of ex-militants who are familiar with the creeks to secure critical oil facilities.

    It is however sad to note that PAP, despite its lofty goals, had declined in influence and relevance.

    Yet, while other programmes like the NDDC take care of the larger societal needs, PAP focuses on individual needs. And, in our kind of environment where people believe more in what is in it for me, as opposed to what is in it for us, it is difficult to discount PAP’s contribution, alongside others’, to whatever peace has been recorded in the region, which is key to the realisation of the current 1.8m barrels of crude oil daily production that the country has achieved.

    President Tinubu seemed to realise this individual perspective to the region’s challenges when in March, last year, he appointed Dennis Otuaro to head the programme.

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    “The President anticipates that the new administrator will bring his requisite experience and know-how to this role to revamp the Amnesty Programme and advance the realisation of its founding purpose and vision,” a statement signed by the then special adviser to the president (media and publicity), Ajuri Ngelale, had stated.

    The fact of the matter is that the programme has, especially in the last one year, taken away from the streets quite a number of the ex-agitators and engaged them productively.

    It has also recorded significant achievements, including prompt payment of ex-militants’ stipends while their other welfare concerns are being attended to speedily.

    Also, at least 2,700 Niger Deltans have been offered scholarships to study various courses in universities at home, and 60 others are on scholarships abroad to pursue courses relevant to the needs of the region, in the last one year.

    In addition, there have been several training programmes by PAP, especially in the vocational and marine sector, for many of the youths, as well as many stakeholder engagements.

    Of course, the programme, like others in the region, has its own challenges, it is important for the government and the people to ensure that nothing derails the current efforts at bringing about lasting peace in the region, in the interest of its people, and in the larger interest of the country.

    Of particular concern in this regard is the political crisis in Rivers State which, but for the wisdom of the president that proclaimed emergency rule in the state, was capable of snowballing and bringing out the youths that would hitherto have been kept busy by the amnesty and other intervention programmes in the region.

  • Global gas market

    Global gas market

    • Nigeria has potential to do more than it is currently doing

    Nigeria has more abundance in natural gas, than in crude oil, and some experts believe it ought to become a major European supplier of gas, following the Russian-Ukraine war.

     The plausible argument being that since Russia, which had 40 per cent market share of the European gas market was entangled in a war with Ukraine, Nigeria stood a chance to partly fill in the gap, as a major supplier to Europe.

    Speaking at a meeting of energy stakeholders on the challenges facing the energy sector, convened by a law firm, Perchstone & Graeys, the Chairman of the International Law Association (ILA), Dr Tolu Aderemi, urged Nigeria to raise its gas production capacity.

    Over the years, Nigeria has realised more income from the its crude oil transactions than from its gas, yet the country is more endowed with natural gas than crude oil. Nigeria earned over N50 trillion from crude oil in 2024, while it approximately generated N8.6 trillion from natural gas production, in the same year. In terms of natural endowment, the country has a proven reserve of 37 billion barrels of crude oil, while it has a whopping 209.26 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserve. 

    While not wishing ill to the warring parties, experts argued that “the blow-up of Nord Stream 1 and 2 in 2022 and other events have kneecapped supply from Russia, forcing the United States to increase its supply in several folds to plug the hole.” They argued that but for Nigeria’s poor investment in critical infrastructure, the war presented an opportunity for the country to become a leader in the gas supply industry.

    We believe that even without war in Russia, Nigeria should work for greater market share of the gas industry.

    Without doubt, Nigeria would benefit exceedingly should it invest the needed resources to develop its gas value chain infrastructure. While the country may not have the resources in its bank, it can create the enabling environment for foreign direct investment in that sector. The Nigerian LNG Plant in Bonny, Rivers State, is a testament to what private investment can do in that sector. A joint venture, with Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited holding 49 per cent, Shell Gas B.V. 25.6 per cent, TotalEnergies 15 per cent and Eni International 10.4 per cent, the company has six operational trains, with a capacity to produce 22 million tons per annum.

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    Notably, the seventh LNG train is in the works, and it has the capacity to increase the production capacity from 22mtpa to 30mtpa, with the estimated investment cost of about US$6.5bn. The benefits accruing from every train are enormous, whether in terms of employment opportunities for skilled and non-skilled personnel or the secondary opportunities for small and medium scale industries that service the production train. We imagine the enormous impact should there be multiple trains going on simultaneously in several communities.

    We acknowledge that one of the major challenges facing the LNG market is the availability of market, well in advance of the production timeline. And from statistics, there are few existing local industries with the capacity to utilise huge portion of the gas when liquefied. Again, there is the issue of pricing, which experts argue is a major disincentive to investment in that sector. While acknowledging these challenges, we believe that with the right mixture of policy and buy-in by stakeholders, those challenges can be surmounted.   

    As long as investors are assured of return on their investment, the direct foreign investors would flow into the sector. The planned Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline, which is estimated to cost about $25 billion dollars, if actualised, will enable Nigerian gas have direct access to Morocco and potentially to European markets.

    And for Nigeria and other countries that the pipeline will pass through, the potential benefits are enormous.

  • Probe Kogi jailbreak

    Probe Kogi jailbreak

    • The escape of no fewer than 7,000 inmates from various correctional centres in Nigeria since 2010 is a cause for worry.

    From Kuje in the Federal Capital Territory, to Koton-Karfe in Kogi State; Owerri in Imo State; Benin City, capital of Edo State; to Bauchi in Bauchi State; Ado Ekiti in Ekiti State, and Akure in Ondo State, it has been demonstrated over the years that the prisons are not safe.

    In many cases, it is well-coordinated attacks, while on other occasions, some criminals take advantage of poor security to scale fences. After each break into the correctional centres, promises are made by the government, but nothing really changes.

    Now that there has been another break into the Koton-Karfe medium term prison, it is time the Federal Government took serious action to secure the prison, whatever the name we choose to call them today. In the latest jailbreak, 12 inmates broke loose, but the security agencies were said to have captured and returned five. Releasing seven possibly hardened criminals into the society is dangerous as had been demonstrated in the past. Prisoners who broke loose had been implicated in more heinous crimes, even sometimes going after those who reported them or gave evidence against them in court. Government has a duty to protect the innocent.

    While the current government has promised wide-range reforms, not much has been done. Simple technology such as Closed Circuit Television is still unavailable in many of the custodial centres, perimeter fencing is either nonexistent or very short in many, too.

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    Officers whose lives are on the line each time there is a breach of security in the centres have cried out that they are underfunded. Yet, the hardworking Minister of the Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has not been able to find solution.

    The promise to decongest the prisons has not been accomplished as most of the centres in the urban areas are still overcrowded. We hope the plan to move 29 of the prisons from city centres would be accomplished very soon.

    Amendment of the law to allow states establish their own prisons is yet to yield any result. This would have been a logical move since states have their own laws, courts and are likely to be permitted to establish their police force soon. Why should all convicts then be accommodated by the Federal Government?

     One major factor is the discontent of the inmates, with many of them still awaiting trial. More than 69 per cent of those locked up and subjected to inhuman treatment have not had their day in court. This cannot be justice. Successive governments have merely been paying lip service to prison decongestion. The solutions are well known, but not much is being done. What prevents Nigeria from having

    alternative custodial system such as the parole? There are so many people in our prisons who are kept for years for offences that would have attracted not more than one year if trial does not travel at a snail’s speed through the courts.

    It is not enough to beef up security around the jail houses, there is a need to undertake thorough investigations into most recent breaks. It is not enough to probe the jailbreak, the report should be made public and measures being taken with timelines, too, should be presented to the public for scrutiny. Neither is it enough to make a few officers scapegoats. As many as may be found culpable should face appropriate disciplinary measures.

    A society riddled with so many security threats will continue to face so much challenges with terrorists and insurgents in the prisons. These are daredevil criminals who would go to any length to free their comrades apprehended by law enforcement agents. All tiers of government, therefore, have the duty of ensuring that security improves in all parts of the country.

    Really, enough is enough. We cannot continue to have criminals recycled in our custodial centres without an assurance that the Nigerian state is capable of securing lives and property of its citizens and officers.

  • Consumer credit

    Consumer credit

    • Slowly but steadily, some progress is being made in this regard

    While the phrase – making haste, slowly – may seem apt to describe the Tinubu administration’s on-going bid to democratise access to consumer credit for Nigerians, equally unmistakable, and certainly praiseworthy, is its resolve to create a framework for its sustainability.

    On January 1, President Bola Tinubu had in his New Year speech, promised to establish the National Credit Guarantee Company to expand risk-sharing instruments for financial institutions and enterprises. The initiative, he said, “will strengthen the confidence of the financial system, expand credit access, and support under-served groups such as women and youth. It will drive growth, re-industrialisation, and better living standards for our people”.

    Only last week, this newspaper gave an update on the initiative: four Federal Government-owned institutions would come together to fund the proposed National Credit Guarantee Company (NCGC). They are the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Bank of Industry (BOI), Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), and Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP).

    Proposed to be a joint venture entity by the four institutions, private sector players and multilateral institutions, the company is expected to commence operations in the second quarter of next year.

    The NCGC, at its coming, is expected to play the role of a guarantor of loans granted to borrowers, thereby reducing the risks of the lenders. It will also be expected to work with other credit guarantee schemes such as banks, insurance companies, and other relevant institutions. In all, it has as its overall goal, to enhance the quality and effectiveness of credit guarantees in the financial system.

    Just as the idea of a consumer credit administration would seem unthinkable without the enabling structure of an institution to guarantee and share the risks, we cannot but laud the rather measured approach being adopted by the government since the take-off of CREDICORP a little less than a year ago. Rather than the institution biting more than it can chew, we consider it a measure of its institutional wisdom that the scheme actually started on a pilot, test-run basis, starting with federal civil service employees, whose data base are not only readily available but also largely adequate.

    The bigger problem of course still lies ahead. Indeed, as critical as enabling infrastructure of credit guarantee is to its sustainability, the glaring inadequacies in our national identity management system have remained just as impregnable. For instance, it’s been 13 years since the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), which claims exclusive authority for managing the national identity infrastructure, deployed the National Identity Number (NIN). Shortly after, that is in 2015, it set September 2015 as commencement date in which all transactions involving the identification of individuals must be done with the NIN. This was long after the banks, long-pressed for the enabling infrastructure of data for credit and ancillary matters, had evolved their own unique, fit-for-purpose Bank Verification Number (BVN).

    Presently if there can be any talk of progress, it is, at best sub-par and painfully slow. In the first place, if Nigerians expected a seamless integration of the NIN and the BVN, this has proven difficult and challenging. Even the performance of the NIMC has been at best sub-par with a mere 110 million enrolees as at September, last year, in a country of more than 200 million people. Perhaps, the only thing that could be said to be worse is the situation in which the banks with their 38 million BVNs and the NIMC with its 110 million-odd enrolees have continued to operate in silos.

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    These factors, which appear to be the heart of the current situation in which the country continues to suffer the denial of the critical platform on the basis of which a single, harmonised and truly multi-purpose registry can truly be developed, needs to be addressed and urgently too. We expect the NIMC to step up to the plate as the country’s number one agency in identity management.  

  • Another arms cache

    Another arms cache

    • We need the masters, not the minions, to eliminate the crime

    If criminals in the country are trying to fly without perching, to paraphrase Chinua Achebe, it would seem the police and other security agencies too are fast learning to shoot without missing, given the rate at which all manner of criminals are being caught in spite of their various ingenious tactics to beat security operatives. Drug peddlers, arms smugglers and sundry criminals are not only getting increasingly desperate, they are also becoming increasingly sophisticated.

    The latest of such suspected criminals is one Nuhu Aminu, a 32-year-old man from Katsina, Katsina State, who was allegedly intercepted by policemen in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in collaboration with officials of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), at the Nyanya Bus Terminal in Abuja.  Aminu was arrested with a large cache of live ammunition that he cleverly hid in jerry cans filled with palm oil.

    The command spokesman, Josephine Adeh, said in a statement last week Monday that , “The FCT Police Command, in its unwavering commitment to public safety and proactive crime prevention, has intercepted a major illegal ammunition shipment and apprehended a suspect in connection with the crime.

    “Acting in synergy with officials of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, police operatives from the Nyanya Division, FCT Command, tracked and arrested Nuhu Aminu, a 32-year-old man from Katsina State, at the Nyanya bus terminal, on March 24, 2025.

    “The suspect was caught in possession of 488 AK-47 live rounds of ammunition, ingeniously concealed in two 25-litre jerry cans filled with palm oil, to evade detection.”

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    Adeh said Aminu confessed that he was recruited for N100,000 by one Yakubu Kachalla, a resident of Funtua, in the state, to collect the illegal cargo from an unidentified contact in Nasarawa State and deliver it to Katsina.

    We commend the police for this significant effort to make the FCT unsafe for criminals, especially with regard to proliferation of illegal arms that fuel violent crimes. It is gratifying that the suspect is already in police custody, even as investigations continue, with a view to arresting Aminu’s accomplices and ‘’uncover the full extent of this arms-smuggling operation,” as Adeh promised.

    We urge the security agencies to sustain, and even raise their level of vigilance. Crime wave in the country is getting increasingly unbearable. Hardly would a day pass without all manner of crimes being perpetrated in different parts of the country, from kidnapping for ransom to rape, ritual killings and, to some extent, armed robbery. All of these require arms and it is almost certain that it is through sources like the one under investigation that the criminals source the weapons with which they terrorise their victims. If only for this reason, we must all be sufficiently alarmed at the rate such illegal arms are smuggled into the country, before ending up in the hands of criminals.

    Equally commendable is the role of the NURTW officials whose collaboration with the police led to the interception of the suspect and the arms cache. Security men cannot be all over the place at the same time. They need information from members of the public. So, when we see something, we should say something. We never can tell. Maybe if the NURTW officials had not done their bit, the suspect would have escaped with the arms, thereby posing danger to innocent members of the public.

    Gratifying as it is though that this time around, the suspect was caught with the arms, we do not know how many other such arms escaped the eagle eyes of our security agencies. This is a major reason why the security agencies need not go after the minions involved in these illegal operations since they lack the resources to embark on such crimes. They would do well to trace the arms to their masters. That is one sure way of reducing to the barest minimum, if not eliminating, outright, such criminal activities.   

  • Corps members’ stipend

    Corps members’ stipend

    It is salutary that govt has renewed its promise to pay. But it should do so quickly to demonstrate commitment to youth matters

    For National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, the announcement by the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Oluwande, that the newly- approved monthly allowance of N77,000 would be paid ‘despite months of delay’ is good news. The Federal Government had last year increased the allowance from N33,000 to align with the new minimum wage, after years of agitations by corps members and their parents, given the inflationary trends and increased cost of living in the country. 

    The announcement came as a soothing balm to the corps members, especially given the furore and outrage that followed the viral video of a corps member, Ushie Aguamaye, lamenting the high cost of living on the old NYSC allowance. Following her outburst on the social media, there has been a series of support for her plight and condemnations of her wrong use of words , after which a member of the staff of the NYSC called her to take down the video.

    We believe that despite the brouhaha that trailed the viral video, her action might have influenced the announcement by the minister. Even if he maintains that the payment might not be immediate, he assured that the backlog would be paid to all deserving corps members.

    The Director of the NYSC, Brigadier- General Olakunle Nafiu, had earlier last week promised that the payments would begin by the end of March. The minister had claimed that the delay in the payments was basically due to budgetary and administrative processes.

    We commend the Federal Government for acting on the understated demand that underlined the viral video which bordered on both disrespect and frustration. This shows a matured response in line with the nurturing restraint that parenting and care for the young in the country entail.

    The NYSC was instituted in 1973 by the Gowon administration as a post-war unifying strategy for Nigeria’s young graduates. More than 50 years later, there have been applauses and knocks for the scheme. Some people believe it has outlived its value given the minuses that have trailed the process while others want it to continue but its lapses corrected.

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    The NYSC scheme is an admirable initiative that over the years has produced innumerable good results. Given that the scheme comes immediately after graduation as a one-year service to the country, it serves as a stop-gap before the graduates seek employment. It is a way of re-orienting young graduates across the nation, thereby enhancing social networks and dismantling religious and cultural biases that are often divisive. Many talents and inter-ethnic marriages have been some of the good outcomes. Many outstanding corps members have been rewarded with awards and instant appointments.

    However, it is pertinent to say that the incident that triggered the intended disbursement of the new allowance to the NYSC members might have been avoided if the ‘budgetary and administrative processes’ were handled with the urgency and precision needed under such circumstances. This is just one of the outcomes of tacky red-tapism that has huge impact on the socio-economic lives of citizens.

    A supplementary budget should have been worked out to take care of the upward review of the corps members’ stipend when the announcement was made last year, knowing full well that many of them had been posted to places far from their home states; instead of waiting for another budget cycle.

     The welfare of children and young people is often not being handled with the seriousness and precision it demands. Administrative lethargy keeps impeding development and this must stop for us to make progress. Issues that concern the youth who are the future of the country must be prioritised at all times because it is akin to watering flowers for the country to bloom.

    The enthusiasm being expressed by many young people following the viral video is just indicative of the mood of the young ones. Even if there were processes that impeded the implementation of the new allowance, simple communication might have pre-empted the young lady’s public video that seems to have now sparked off the #30DayChallenge which seems a direct outcome of the young people as a vent window.

    Our policy makers and implementers must, with the benefit of hindsight, remember their own days as corps members who were referred to

    colloquially as “government pikin”, a social coinage that embodied the fact that corps members earned full care (often bordering on excessive pampering) from governments that were hands-on in taking care of the NYSC members. That was a period that inspired patriotism and high productivity. These were some of the reasons the scheme was set up in the first place.

    The value of the attention to the NYSC scheme at this time must be in the adjustments by governments and its agencies to shape up and be more proactive on issues that are not just about NYSC members but all children and youths, in line with international best practices. More care must be seen to be shown about not just the allowance but their general care.

    There is presently a huge skepticism about the scheme, as, over the years, deaths, kidnappings and certain careless treatment of corps members have been discouraging. These should not be compounded.

    However, now that the government has decided to pay, it must ensure that those in service as at the time the announcement was made also benefit, in line with its promise, irrespective of the number of months they deserved.

    There can be a new beginning aimed at re-inventing the scheme if only because of its many positives.

  • NUJ at 70 

    NUJ at 70 

    • A storied association now watches on as pillage goes on

    It is cheery news that the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has hit its seventh decade because it is a testament to professional courage and professionalism.

    Many have hailed it as a champion of free speech, and the stalwart of democracy for a set of professionals often described as the fourth estate of the realm. Since its founding on March 15, 1955, journalism has had many phases, many trials and inevitably many triumphs. We cannot also escape its failures and failings.

    Journalism, as history has shown, often stives more in a time of distortion and injustice than in halcyon epoch. The birth of the NUJ was an epic of an epoch.  Early 1955 was in the middle of the struggle for independence, and the siring of the body can be viewed in the context of the birth of nationalist bodies. Some of them like the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) were purely and unapologetically political, thriving in the elan to set the country free from the thralldom of the white man.

    Yet, what was the state of the journalist association? It was not truly a professional body, but a trade union, and that problematised its identity. The journalist was more interested in their condition of service because the pay was awful. This was partly because the minimum qualification, unlike today, was basic literacy and the ability to write, edit and the zest for the current of news and opinions. Some of the members were not strictly reporters or editors but information officers with the Department of Information in the colonial government. One of such persons was Chief Olu Oyesanya.

    It is thanks to his early gusto that the body came into being, and he worked with others like Chief Bisi Onabanjo and Mobolaji Odunewu, who became its first president. Onabanjo, who became popular as a reporter and writer, wrote a popular column known as ‘Aiyekoto’. He later became a politician under the Unity Party of Nigeria and an Awoist and ran Ogun State in the Second Republic as governor.

    One of its earliest challenges was the perception of its regional emphasis, and that ruffled the feathers of the north journalists but reconciliation came as Sidi Ali Sirajo had a common cause with the union, and it truly became Nigerian, although about 85 percent of the journalists in the country resided in Lagos. It would later spread as branches were opened in Ibadan, Enugu and Kaduna. Today, there are over 740 chapels nationwide.

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    In 1977, it became a truly professional body and an industrial union. It has also led to more specialised bodies like the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) and the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN). Many more have developed. It is a credit to the mental fertility and the audacity of men and women of the profession that the industry thrived from despotic rule through the corrupt times of the republican eras.

    The union also witnessed the educational advance in the entry qualifications of journalists. The Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) began as a prestigious diploma programme and it emphasised the primacy of training.

    But in the 1980’s, the university graduate started as reporters and the quality of the professional held its own against any profession.

    The downside is that, in spite of this, the condition of service has remained abysmal. The NUJ must accept it as one of its failures so far. The result has been that many who love the profession have looked elsewhere for the lease of life. The battle for quality of life is connected, unfortunately, with dignity in the eyes of a public that sometimes treats them as subordinate professionals.

    One of the challenges today is online perversion in which anyone is a comer. They experience the larceny of the sweat of hard-earned work by interlopers. The NUJ as well as other bodies, like the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) watch as though impotent as the professional pillage worsens.

  • George Foreman (1949 – 2025)

    George Foreman (1949 – 2025)

    • One of the boxing greats passes on at 76

    Nicknamed “Big George,” he achieved big things in the boxing ring.  He was twice the world heavyweight champion (1973–74, 1994–95). He became, at age 45, the oldest world heavyweight champion in history, 20 years after losing his title for the first time. He broke the record for the champion with the longest interval between his first and second world titles. At the time he finally retired from boxing in 1997, at age 48, he had a career record of 76 wins (68 by knockout) and 5 losses. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.

    American boxer George Foreman, who died at a hospital in Houston, Texas, USA, on March 21, aged 76, was a devastating puncher and knockout expert.  Boxing analyst Steve Bunce was quoted as saying, “If Big George hit you, you stayed hit. It was as simple as that.” Boxing promoter Frank Warren described him as “part of that holy trinity of boxers, with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.” The International Boxing Research Organisation rates him as the eighth-greatest heavyweight of all time.  

    He learned carpentry and bricklaying as a teenager and was introduced to boxing by a boxing coach. Aged 19 and after only 25 amateur fights, he announced his arrival as a boxing phenomenon by winning the gold medal in the heavyweight boxing competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

    In January 1973, after turning professional, he captured the professional world heavyweight belt by knocking out the champion, Joe Frazier, in two rounds at Kingston, Jamaica. It was a stunning victory.

    He defended the title twice before his first professional loss to Muhammad Ali in a spectacular fight tagged “Rumble in the Jungle,” in former Zaire, in October 1974. In one of the biggest upsets in world championship boxing, Ali knocked out the champion, who had been expected to crush him, by employing a ‘rope-a-dope’ style that tired Foreman out.  “From pride to pity, that was devastating,” he was reported saying after his defeat. 

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    Remarkably, he retired from the ring in 1977 and became an evangelist. He became a pastor in 1980; and under his leadership, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, Houston, Texas, opened the George Foreman Youth and Community Centre to minister to youths in the area. According to him, “It doesn’t matter what you achieve, what you accomplish in this life…The most important thing is to keep your eye on the true prize, and that’s serving God.”

    However, 10 years after he left the ring, in 1987, he returned to boxing in his late thirties. At age 45, in 1994, he won the unified World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and lineal heavyweight championship titles by knocking out 26-year-old Michael Moorer. The age difference of 19 years between the fighters was the largest of any heavyweight boxing championship fight.

    He was stripped of his WBA title in March 1995 for rejecting a mandatory title defence; he was also stripped of his IBF title in June 1995 after rejecting a rematch with a contender. “It was a great challenge for me to fight and fight, and when the time was up, I was happy about it,” he said after he finally retired.

    Interestingly, when he came back from his first retirement, he had attributed his sporting success to healthy eating. This attracted an American company, Salton, Inc., that was looking for an ambassador for its fat-reducing grill.  The result of their collaboration was the George Foreman Grill, introduced in 1995, which as of 2009 had sold over 100 million units. Salton was reported to have paid him $138 million in 1999 for the right to use his name. It is estimated that he earned over $200 million from the endorsement through 2011. Ironically, the deal earned him more money, and possibly more fame, than his boxing career.

    Significantly, his boxing career made a thought-provoking statement about the age factor in boxing. His place is assured in the pantheon of boxing greats.

  • Broke by choice

    Broke by choice

    •Unless the local government chairmen open accounts, they cannot get their money

    It was going to meet headwinds. Although it is a practical idea, governors, almost without exception, have acted as though it is an idealistic proposition.

    Since the local government bill became law asserting their independence in the fiscal sense, the governors have been the headache of implementation. This is official impunity, and the chairmen of the local governments across the country have not exercised the courage to take their own rights.

    Hence the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Odunayo Ategbero, has asked that the chairmen should make bold to take their own. He directed them to open accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

     “We are happy with the president, and I’m proud of the fact that we have not gotten to where we want to go, but we are making steady progress,” Ategbero said.

    But that note of joy does little to make the local government chairmen exhale. It is a profound irony that the chairmen are hamstrung. It shows how tradition and fear can stand between a democratic society and tyranny.

    The governors have expressed disdain for the law from the early beginning. None of them has hailed it, and yet the governors have received the increase of their allocation under the Tinubu administration with gratitude.

    Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, was the first to kick against it. The other governor to raise his voice, trying to deploy administrative reasons rather than constitutional ideas, was Anambra State governor Chukwuma Soludo.

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    Since the law was enacted, the governors have showed a false devotion to the local government concept, and they organised elections. They adhered to the law, but with half-hearted and self-serving zeal. Since the mechanics and law of the elections often lie in their control, the governors picked virtually all the chairmen. Their successes in the polls were self-fulfilling prophecies. They contested the election as a charade of a serious affair, and they won only as a technicality.

    A lot of money belongs to the local governments as the window on the grassroots. The idea of the money is to address critical issues that governors, in their high perches, may not feel as much as those who live and work there. It is a stroke for intimacy.

    “If you look at the grassroots level, abject poverty is tremendous, but with this new arrangement, we are sure that we will erase and stamp out poverty at the grassroots level,” Ategbero said.

    Issues that are dear to the grassroots will be served if the money goes to the 774 local government chairmen. They will address health, education, environment and security. They have the best intelligence of the fate and sufferings as well as the yearnings of the vast majority of the people, especially in the rural areas.

    The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has said it made no sense in a federal system for the government to channel the local government funds to state governors.

    It is also significant that this very consequential law has failed to attract the zeal and agitation of the civil rights organisations. Labour seems to be waking up on the wrong side of the bed in this matter as the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has asserted recently.

    “We have gotten the autonomy now,” said Ajaero, “I want to plead with the Federal Government not to play politics with the autonomy we have gotten. The release of funds to local governments should not be at the whims and caprices of government.” But he is directing the resentment in the wrong direction.

    It is not the Federal Government’s fault. It wants to send the money. The chairmen must open their accounts first.

  • Nigeria’s elite force

    Nigeria’s elite force

    •An idea whose time has come

    Terrorists, bandits and other criminals troubling the country are in for harder times with the setting up of an elite group of combat-ready soldiers to deal with their menace and that of other violent non-state actors. This means the criminals would no longer contend with the regular soldiers alone.

    Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru, who unveiled this on Monday said

    the first batch of 800 of the 2,400-strong team, code-named Special Operations Force (SOF), is undergoing training in Camp Kabala, Jaji Military Cantonment, Kaduna State.

     “This training has been meticulously designed to develop highly skilled personnel in special combat tactics, counterterrorism operations, intelligence gathering and hostage rescue missions”, Badaru said.

    He added that “The programme will prepare trainees for high-risk missions in both urban and hostile environments, ensuring they adapt to dynamic threats.”

    We welcome this initiative that should, if well executed, be a game changer in the country’s anti-terrorism efforts.

    For far too long, Nigeria has been held hostage by sundry criminals that are making it impossible for Nigerians to sleep with their two eyes closed.

    For instance, Nigeria has been battling Boko Haram insurgency in the last 16 years or so. Several parts of the country are being threatened by one form of criminals or the other.

    There are bandits in the Northwest and part of Northcentral parts of the country; kidnapping for ransom is spreading from the North to the Southwest, the Southeast is under the harassment of extremist members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its military wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) while oil theft and pipeline vandalism are commonplace in the Southsouth.

    These have made it impossible for the regular policemen to cope with the frequency and magnitude of crimes committed nationwide daily, hence the support from members of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

    As a matter of fact, the increased sophistication of the criminals has pushed the police to the back seat of the anti-terrorism battle. Soldiers from all arms of the Nigerian Armed Forces have taken over the terror war, with the government committing huge amounts of money into the purchase of modern equipment needed to defeat the criminals.

    Indeed, significant gains have been recorded in the war against terror, especially in recent times. The terrorists are either being killed or forced to surrender. Those who are not ready to do either have been fleeing from one part of the country to another.

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    So, why do we need the SOF if the troops on ground are pulling their weight?

    Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, who noted that the idea of the elite force could not have come at a better time provided a clue to the effect that it is Nigeria’s response to the “evolving dynamics of modern warfare and the unique challenges posed by asymmetric threats”.

    “It is pertinent to note that special operations require not only technical skills but also mental toughness and endurance”, he added.

    It must be emphasised that the establishment of the SOF does not mean less activity on the part of the regular troops. Rather, they are to complement each other.

    As Badaru noted, “Given the inter-agency nature of modern security challenges, the training will foster seamless collaboration among personnel of the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy, and the Nigerian Air Force, as well as other security agencies.”

    Many countries have such elite forces side-by-side with their regular forces. America, for instance, has the Navy SEALs. They were the ones that killed Osama bin Laden in a covert operation in 2011. Russia, the United Kingdom, etc. all have their elite forces.

    So, Nigeria would not be doing anything novel in establishing SOF.

    However, it is not just a matter of setting up such an elite force, it must be well funded to enable it deliver on its specialised mandate.

    Nigeria badly needs such an elite force that understands the different environments that particular criminal elements operate from, be it the forests or the creeks; they need to master such environments to be able to move swiftly against the criminals and defeat them.