The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • An unusual contract

    An unusual contract

    • The mysterious death of a 21-year-old fake girlfriend is lesson to all

    The tragic death of 21-year-old Mojisola Awesu of the Kwara State College of Health Technology, Offa, has filled many with deep grief. The death of any human is a sad loss but the death of young people who have their lives in front of them brings a different level of grief. The future is for the young.

    She had allegedly gone to a hotel room earlier booked by another male student, Adebayo Happiness, in the hope of getting paid N15, 000 to act as his one-night girlfriend to a party.

    She had reportedly informed her roommate that she was feeling very uneasy at the hotel. Her body was later found at a refuse dump and the Kwara State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) DSP Toun Ejire-Adeyemi, announced their discovery to the public.

    Curiously though, reports indicate that even though the ‘contractual’ agreement was that an inter-university students’ party was scheduled to hold between the students of Summit University and Al-Hikman University, no party held at the alleged venue.

    Even though suspects have been arrested, we are saddened by this unfortunate incident.

    Without pre-empting police investigations, we see this incident as one of the series of gender-based violence being perpetrated in the country. While we condemn the girls for commercialising what ought to be sincere friendship if they want to engage as adults, we regret that the loss of values in the society is hurting our children.

    All those involved so far, given the police report, are all above 18 and as such must be held accountable for their choices. While we mourn the dead and await thorough investigations into this tragic case, this might just re-awaken the nation’s consciousness about our core values. The students are products of the society.

    The male student must have observed how patriarchal obstinacy helps perpetrate gender-based violence that stem from the lack of respect for women. It does seem that only Lagos State has a committed agency that handles gender-based and other domestic violence cases. Deterrence comes from citizens seeing that crimes are well investigated, prosecuted and justice served both to the living and the dead.

    Gender-based and other domestic violence cases rarely get the justice that deters other intending criminals. All the young people involved in the crime are from different homes. The whole story epitomises the loss of family and cultural values evident in the society, even amongst most adults that ought to act as beacons and mentors to the younger ones. If the allegation that the killing was somehow linked to ritual killing is confirmed, then the chicken seems to have come home to roost.

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    The veneration and worship of ill-gotten wealth in the society is so evident. Parental negligence and avarice often manifest in the behaviour of their children. There is a failure of parenting in most homes, either through direct examples by such parents or in their failure to, like most holy books direct, raise their children with noble cultural values and the fear of God.

    The lure of excessive wealth people don’t even need has pushed the bar of desperation to be rich. Young people now feel that respect only comes with being rich and extravagantly so. The young boys get into all forms of crime to make it and live large. The story of the jailed social media influencer, Hush Puppie, spoke loudly of the attraction to wealth no matter how badly acquired. He lived an overtly obscene public life but had millions of young followers that cared less how he made the money he was spending.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been battling the increase in cybercrimes, especially by young boys notoriously referred to as Yahoo-Yahoo boys, a social euphemism for cybercriminals. Some young ladies on the other hand seem to have become more desperate to be associated with victimising themselves by sexualising in the new social fad referred to as hook-ups, again, a euphemism for prostitution. They now believe that it is more lucrative to sell their bodies than to do some honest work for a decent wage.

    Sad as this case is, we wonder why a young lady can be persuaded to act as a girlfriend for a night to be paid N15, 000. That is a sure sign of self-disrespect. Friendship is more valuable when it is not commercialised. The issue is, how many parents are teaching the noble values of self-respect and contentment? These two values are evidently lacking in this tragic saga. Even though the parents of the alleged suspect and a few others have reportedly been arrested, we expect a thorough investigation and prosecution of the suspects as a deterrent to other criminals.

  • Telecoms vandals beware

    Telecoms vandals beware

    • It is now a serious crime to vandalise these facilities

    Twenty-three years after the telecoms revolution in Nigeria, telecoms operators can now heave a sigh of relief as the Federal Government has, at last, heeded calls to criminalise vandalisation of telecoms cables. Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, disclosed the good news in a thank-you message to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the release of the official gazette: ’’Designation and Protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure Order, 2024’’.

    The new law criminalises vandalisation of telecoms facilities like towers and base stations, switch stations, transmission equipment, submarine and fibre optic cables, data centres, satellite infrastructure, e-government platforms and databases, etc.

    These facilities are now regarded as part of our Critical National Infrastructure (CNII) because of the important role they play in our lives, from security to information technology, communication and other essential services.

    “The security and protection of these Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) is a priority for this administration and will help improve the quality of telecoms services, which has very often been affected by disruption and intentional damage”, the minister said.

    This is good news not only for the telecoms operators but all other stakeholders in the industry.

     Vandalism in the telecoms sector, like pipeline and electrical cable vandalism, etc. has become a common phenomenon in the country. Criminals descend on these facilities without bothering about the consequences.

     In the last five years alone, over 50,000 cases of major damage to telecom infrastructure and facilities had been reported across the country. 

    Indeed, a worried Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently decried the willful damage to these facilities and the effect on service delivery. “The impact of vandalism of infrastructure is felt by all in the quality of services rendered as it results in increasing drop calls, data and internet connectivity disruptions, aborted and undelivered short messaging services (SMS), as well as countless failed calls,” the NCC executive vice chairman/chief executive officer, Dr. Aminu Maida, lamented.

    We join the telecoms firms and other stakeholders in commending the Tinubu administration for making the new law. Of course, it is not that telecoms cable vandals are not being punished under the existing laws, it is just that the law as is is not stringent enough to deter criminals that have made such vandalism a pastime. For instance, some years back, a Federal High Court sentenced some criminals to three years imprisonment for vandalising the cables of the (now) defunct Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL) or pay a fine of N7,000.

    This cannot deter anyone from carrying on with such a crime.

    Although we do not know yet what the new law provides as punishment for the vandals because the minister said the official copy of the gazette has not been released, there is no doubt that it would have taken into consideration the developments in the sector, especially since the advent of the global system for mobile communication (GSM) in the country in 2001.

    A fine of N7,000 in the criminal code is not enough punishment for such crimes these days. The money cannot even buy a small telephone!

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    But law is not enough to protect the facilities. They must be enforced. There should also be regular enlightenment programmes to let the people know not just the consequences of the crime but also its impact on service delivery.

    For instance, in September 2012, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek and the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), hosted a public workshop to sensitise the public, government and security agencies on the need to accord telecom infrastructure as CNII. This was sequel to increased cases of vandalisation of equipment and killing of workers in the sector.

    We need more of such workshops and enlightenment.

    The problem with many Nigerians is that they do not want to say something when they see something, especially if what is involved is public property. This is not good because it is not only the telecoms firms that suffer the consequences of cable vandalisation; telecoms subscribers too do because, ultimately, the cost of fixing the vandalised equipment would be passed on to them.

  • Humongous!

    Humongous!

    •Nigeria’s highest crude production cost deserves to be interrogated

    It is certainly not for nothing that public attention has over the years been focused on the menace of crude theft in the Niger Delta; the tell-tale evidence of the deleterious impact on the environment and national revenue are there for all to see. Unfortunately, an aspect of the business which has tended to be glossed over, and which has received far less than its due attention is the disproportionately high cost of producing Nigeria’s oil, generally believed to be the highest in the world.

    Clearly, if Nigerians had thought they knew enough about the unconscionably shady practices in the sector, last Tuesday’s meeting between the House of Representatives Committee on Finance and the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has merely re-opened a rather old but troubling chapter of the mess that has defined the country’s oil industry.

    The facts, as presented by the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Finance, James Faleke, cannot be more telling.  Whereas Nigeria produces its own barrel of crude at $48, it costs fellow producers Saudi Arabia $9, Norway $21 and the United States of America $24.

    In war-torn Libya, it costs approximately $1, Angola $20 and Brazil $35 – down from the 2014 all-time high of $70. And we are here talking of a tumultuous global environment where issues of product prices and output are set – exogenously – by forces beyond the oil producer’s control.

    What this means in simple terms is that the country is left with barely $32 on the ruling price of $80 – to be shared between the government and the oil companies. Indeed, for the first half of the year during which the entire revenue stood at $19.5 billion, the total costs came to $11.4 billion, which is 58.5 percent of the entire revenue.  That troubling revelation, as indeed the trend which has seen the costs spiral from barely $30 in 2014 to the current high of $48 should be troubling enough.

    That point – unfortunately – is where the country is today. From the dangerous creeks to the corporate suites, or better still, from an operational landscape best defined as chaotic, to a governance system that is at best ineffectual; the view of an industry being assailed from multiple points by disparate actors cannot be more complete.

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    To quote Faleke on the current matter: “From 2014 to 2024, our costs have increased by about $18m per day or $6.6 billion per annum over 10 years; and this has not led to an increase in either reserves or production. This further implies that for a production of one million barrels per day, we are incurring costs of $48m per day or $17.5 billion per annum”.

    “The committee has been given a total costs figure of $48.71 per barrel by the FIRS for calculation of Petroleum Profits Tax and Hydrocarbon Tax and this will also be used for profit calculations. We need a detailed analysis of how this value was attained”, he had also announced at the meeting.

    Talk of the strange ways of the sector. Nigerians may wish to recall that the NNPCL had, three years ago, vowed to bring the cost down to $10. More than 36 months after, the situation has not only grown worse, no explanations are being demanded.

    Nigerians, by now, have grown familiar, if not weary with the torrents of factors routinely touted as being behind the situation.  While vandalisation and oil theft and its other derivatives of production shut ins, lack of new investments, reduction in output from older wells, etc.) have somewhat emerged tops, Nigerians have only recently become aware of other factors like the pledged production volumes to offset loans and repayment arrangements taken by the NNPCL and the multiple regulations in the industry being added to the complex mix.

    The truth of the matter is that the country has never really been in charge of its oil industry. Not in exploration and production where the international oil companies (IOCs) act as Joint Venture Partners and so determine what is deemed to be capital expenditures (CAPEX) or even Operating Expenditures (OPEX). Not even in the so-called regulatory segment where agencies are prone to play the lamb even when serious regulatory issues are called up.

    Can the regulatory agencies claim, in good conscience, to know how much of our crude is being produced, let alone exported daily?  We are referring here to an operating landscape where all manners of non-state actors operate in broad daylight in brazen defiance of the law. Or, shall we talk of the downstream sector where no one even pretends to be in charge and where impunity has nearly become the order of the day?

    To return to Faleke’s rhetorical questions: “Why does each oil field operator have different OPEX & CAPEX? Why are costs increasing and production reducing? Is topography the only variable causing these higher costs, or are there other factors?

    “What are the production costs of PSCs and other partnership arrangements or do they form part of the $48.71 given by the Federal Inland Revenue Service? What is the historical cost of production computations from 2014 till date and what is the status of the $3.30bn forward contract executed by NNPCL?

    The issues, although pertinent, are certainly not exhaustive. Nonetheless, they are such that answers are urgently demanded. The fact is that Nigeria and Nigerians have never at any time enjoyed a fair deal from the industry’s operatives.  While with a fair chance, Faleke and his investigating team may help unravel Nigeria’s intriguing puzzle of unconscionable spikes in costs, the main challenge, as far as we can see, is for Nigeria and Nigerians to fully take charge of their oil industry. It is the least they can do after more than seven decades of being a major crude producer.

  • Bad vibes

    Bad vibes

    New Eagles boss, Labbadia, needs advice on how best to face his job, not a nabob of negativity about his past

    A point well taken: the penchant of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to not invest in world-class coaches to nurture the Super Eagles. NFF often whines that it has no money to pay such — which might well be true.

    That tendency has again burst forth, with NFF just naming the German, Bruno Labbadia, as the Eagles new boss.

    Still, the real cause of NFF’s troubles, if you look beyond the surface, is the constant disorganisation that often plagues our sports. On that front, the abnormal seems to have become sickening new norms. 

    How, for God’s sake, does a country boast a Victor Osimhen, African Footballer of the Year and one of the hottest strikers in global football right now; yet can’t think out a befitting marketing plan, to generate the cash to pay a world-class gaffer, and turn the Eagles into a world-class gang, feared by all? 

    Osimhen, remember, is no product of some foreign academy. He burst through right here, flaunting a 2015 U-17 World Cup, where he emerged both winner and highest goal scorer — 10 goals in seven matches. Why can’t Nigeria match such a feat at full international level?

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    So, it’s no surprise that the sporting press are tearing into Labbadia. “Over the course of 487 matches across eight different clubs,” a report in ‘The Punch’ stated, “Labbadia has an overall win rate of 44 per cent, with 214 wins, 103 draws and 170 losses.”

    Besides, as per that report, Labbadia jaunts from club to club, logging three years as his longest ever in any — Darmstadt 98 — and gliding through Greuther Furth, Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburger SV (twice), VfL Wolfsburg — incidentally Osimhen’s first European club where he nearly turned a flop — Hertha BSC and Stuttgart (twice), where he had one-year stints. From this reportorial crystal ball: his Eagles tour could be short!

    But the shrillest screed over Labbadia and Nigeria: the German has no coaching experience with a national team and — horrors of horrors — has never coached in Africa before! These are worthy — or even worrying — statistics to note.

    Still the Dutch, Clemens Westerhoff, is by far the most successful Nigerian manager — local or foreign. But before his Nigeria tour, he never had African experience nor coached a national team. Indeed, aside stints with Vitesse Arnhem (1976) and Feyenoord (1980), his coaching CV rippled with one-year tenures too: MVV (1983-1984), Vitesse Arnhem — second stint — (1984-1985). 

    Yet, he made a thundering success with Nigeria in five years (1989-1994) — and with all due respect to the Dutch Eredivisie, it holds no candle to the German Bundesliga. That Labbadia gets shuffled among many Bundesliga all-time famous names — no matter how brief — must count for something, regarding his basic tactical nous.

    Another thing: before Nigeria, Westerhoff was practically nothing. After Nigeria, he became nothing too. 

    He couldn’t tie down decent jobs as Zimbabwe manager (1998-2000), Mamelodi Sundowns, South Africa (2000), Dynamos Harare (2001), Bush Bucks, South Africa (2004). But even while here, a section of the media floated the whispering campaign that Westerhoff was “useless” without his “brain box”, Bonfrere Jo, who would go ahead to win Nigeria Africa’s first gold medal in football at the Atlanta ‘96 Olympics!

    But why this rather deep dip into Nigeria’s contemporary sporting history? At every critical juncture, with the future looking very uncertain, the sporting media — as the mainstream media — lurch into a “nabob of negativism”: to borrow the immortal phrase of US Vice President Spiro Agnew, irritated by the US media’s overwhelming dark views over the Vietnam War.

    Each time a new coach comes in, our sporting media get betide selves in negative projections, in which they always brag over what would happen. That same mentality is greeting the Labbadia entry. But as the Westerhoff story has shown, not all stories end as self-fulfilling prophesies. 

    Westerhoff bucked that trend, even if he did not do much more before or after. Even Gernot Rohr, the German-French that — permanently(?) — upturned the near- permanent Cameroon stain, by drubbing the Indomitable Lions 4-0 in a crucial World Cup qualifier, never got the respect he deserved, before he crossed over to Benin Republic to teach Nigeria a stern lesson. Why, even the “clueless” Jose Peserio sustained that Rohr-era superiority over Cameroon at the last AFCON in Côte d’lvoire.

    Preening negativity is no virtue. It often hides that ability to think through problems, offer new perspectives and thus presents failure as inevitable. It is not. 

    Let those with fresh ideas aid Labbadia at his Africa debut with Nigeria. It’s a critical juncture that can do with far less bad vibes.

  • Nojim Maiyegun (1941- 2024)

    Nojim Maiyegun (1941- 2024)

    •It is ironical that the first Nigerian to win Olympic medal died after an Olympics in which the country won none

    “I was too excited to realise I was the first Nigerian to win an Olympic medal; all I was thinking was that I had a chance to fulfil my dream of being the world’s best,” Nojim Maiyegun recalled in an interview. That was the high point of his boxing career. He was 23 when he won a bronze medal in the light-middleweight boxing category at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, in 1964. Nigeria’s participation in three previous Olympics — Helsinki 1952, Melbourne 1956, and Rome 1960 — had brought no glory.

    His death on August 26, at the age of 83, in Vienna, Austria, two weeks after the end of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France, where Nigeria failed to win a medal, spoke volumes about his feat 60 years ago.

    Minister of Sports Development John Enoh said the country “must do everything to prevent future occurrence of the Paris disaster.” More than 80 athletes represented Nigeria in Paris but failed to win an Olympic medal, for the first time since 2012. The country has won 27 medals across 10 Olympic Games, which are held every four years.

    Two years after his glorious performance in Tokyo, Maiyegun won another bronze medal in boxing at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, proving that his Olympic medal was no fluke. In a tribute, Enoh described him as “a pioneer of Nigerian sports excellence,” adding, “His monumental contribution to Nigerian sports… was not just a win for himself but a victory for all Nigerians.”

    Nicknamed ‘Omo Oloja’ because of his prowess as a fighter, he was born in Lagos and learned to box in his teens so that he could stand up to a bully in his neighbourhood. After learning boxing secretly for six months, he took to the sport and acquired a reputation as a formidable fighter. “It wasn’t long before I began to see my name in the newspapers as the next big thing in Nigerian boxing,” he said. “I was excited, and that was when my parents reduced the criticism of the sport. They never really liked boxing because they believed it was for hooligans.”

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    He became a professional boxer after he moved to Austria, in 1971, and continued to attract attention. He had a devastating left hand. He became partially blind about two years later, which doctors attributed to punches he had received on the head. 

    Despite his condition, he fought a World Championship bout in December 1973 and lost on points. “I lost the fight by decision, but it is on record that I am the first blind boxer to fight for a title. I could see with one eye then,” he said. He fought 16 bouts and won 12, 10 of them by knockouts.

    Forced to retire prematurely from boxing as a result of vision impairment, he did cleaning jobs in Austria to survive. It was a measure of his toughness that he was reported to have engaged in mountain climbing and climbed to the summit of a mountain 1,700 metres high in Austria, and jumped with a parachute in spite of his blindness.

    Tributes from several authority figures following his death stressed his sporting influence and legacy, including inspiring generations of Nigerian boxers to reach for the sky. For instance, at the Olympics, Nigeria won a bronze medal in boxing in Munich, in 1972; a silver medal in boxing (Los Angeles, 1984); two silver medals in boxing (Barcelona, 1992); and a bronze medal in boxing (Atlanta, 1996).

    However, according to him, “I don’t recall getting anything special as a reward when I won the medal at the Olympics.” Curiously, he said former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida “gave me an award in 1989,” which was “eventually retrieved by the sports ministry the following year for no reason at all.”

    His treasured medals, he also said, “were stolen while I was in Nigeria. But I believe a good name is better than gold or silver, so I’m not worried.” Indeed, Maiyegun stands immortalised as a Nigerian sporting hero.  

  • Déjà vu?

    Déjà vu?

    •Service scheme for NCE graduates is a good idea, but how sustainable?

    Graduates of the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) are to shortly face a draft for mandatory national service upon concluding their studies, going by plans the Federal Government says it is contemplating. The Ministry of Youth Development says it is working on introducing a leadership training scheme equivalent to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for NCE gradates to equip them with citizenship and leadership training intended to keep them away from social vices.

    Minister of State for Youth Development, Mr. Olawande Wisdom, made known that his ministry plans collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Education to implement training reforms that would include a programme in the mould of the NYSC scheme for NCE graduates. Speaking at the opening of BEMORE OYO 2024 Summer Bootcamp – a programme facilitated by the widow of former Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, Dr. Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu – in Ibadan, early this week, he noted that while the NYSC serves university graduates, there is no equivalent for NCE holders and allied certifications.

    “A major priority of the ministry is citizenship and leadership training, and we are bringing them back,” he was reported saying, adding: “We have the NYSC for those who finished from universities, but what of those who finished from NCE and others?”

    The minister stressed the imperative of tackling social issues and applauded the positive impact of organisations like the Boys’ Brigade and Girls’ Guide in diverting young ones away from negative influences. He added that the youth ministry is focused on pursuing citizenship and leadership training with the goal of inculcating these values through the proposed programme.

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    He made clear though that unlike NYSC, the scheme being contemplated would not involve the new graduates travelling to areas of the country other than theirs to participate. “We want to set up a training such that you don’t need to go to other states to have it – you can have it in your state and the camp. A lot of reforms are going on and we are trying as much as possible to bring a renewed hope to people: to the girls and boys,” he said.

    We totally agree with the minister that it should be a matter of priority for this country to explore all possible avenues of positively engaging the youths, considering their predominance in the overall population size. Recent studies showed that Nigeria has the largest youth population in the world, with no fewer than 70 percent under age 30 out of the country’s total population estimated at more than 220 million people. Such demographic is a great asset in regard of future prospects of this country, but it can also be hazardous if wrongly channelled. That perhaps is why social upheavals in recent history like the #EndSARS protests in 2020 and the #EndBadGovernance protests early this August were principally youth driven. So, we believe the minister is right about need for positive engagement of different segments of the youth population.

    The question, however, is about viability and sustainability of the proposed programme.

    At the inception of the NYSC scheme, NCE graduates as well as Ordinary National Diploma (OND) holders from polytechnics were enlisted alongside university graduates and Higher National Diploma (HND) holders to undertake the one-year mandatory national service. But OND holders were kicked out in 1981 and NCE graduates in 1984 due to the high number of enrollees in the scheme. In the ‘90s, an age cap of 30 years was imposed to streamline participation in the NYSC scheme, yet the scheme has struggled with required funding such that allowances of corps members are frozen over many years in the face of inflationary trends that make such level of remuneration unrealistic.The question, however, is about viability and sustainability of the proposed programme.

    We argue, therefore, that any new scheme must be thought through to avoid funding challenges like the NYSC scheme has experienced, with associated discomfitures for the young and innocent participants.

  • Good conscience

    Good conscience

    •Laoshe’s gesture should spur NELFUND to ensure that this renewed scheme is not abused as the old

    Lanre Laoshe, a former Deputy Chief  Whip of the House of Representatives, came out from self-purgatory a hero of a sort: he just paid back — and at a huge premium too — a N1, 200 loan he took from the Nigeria Student Loan Board between 1976 and 1979.

    His story, as told by a release by Nasir Ayitogo, Director of Public Communications, Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND): “NELFUND is pleased to announce that Hon. Lanre Laoshe, a former beneficiary of the Federal Government Student Loan Scheme, has graciously repaid his N1, 200 student loan between 1976 and 1979, with the sum of N3, 189, 217.”

    Now, the “purgatory” here is repaying N3, 189, 217 in 2024, for a N1, 200 loan, the last part of which was drawn in 1979 — no thanks to the Naira’s free fall, in exchange for the dollar, over the years!

    So, might this prick the conscience of thousands of other student loan defaulters of his generation to freely pay back, if only to swell the NELFUND purse for the present beneficiaries?  Or should the Federal Government dig up its records to go after the recalcitrant ones, never moved to follow Laoye’s footsteps?

    Neither is a bad idea.  As many as can should follow the Laoshe noble trail.  But reopening the cases might just amount to throwing good money after bad.  Best case scenario: paper trails of old records are notoriously unreliable.  Worst case scenario: paper trails are susceptible to easy sabotage — and deliberate sabotage: missing files, shred documents, etc,  are rather common.

    So, the best is to let the dirty past stay with the past.

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    However, the sweet-sour Laoshe example should act as harsh reminder to NELFUND, on how the present beneficiaries  could tread the wide and merry ways of the old to yet short-circuit this renewed initiative.

    That is why it must tweak its terms and conditions, such that everyone pays back what they owe.  It has a structural advantage in digitalisation.  Though not fool-proof, digital records are much more reliable.  NELFUND should leverage them to bolster its record-keeping.

    Still, the best approach is to build in the mindset of the current recipients honesty, good sense, patriotism and due consideration for others.  Let everyone know that no matter how “rich” the initial capital appears, or how safe, secure or constant its source, student loans are a revolving scheme.  Sustainability depends on every beneficiary paying back, so that others in the future, near or far, can benefit.

    Besides, that most in the Laoshe generation refused to pay back led to the collapse of the old scheme.  That tragic rod waits in the rafters for the new — except the new generation changes from the ruinous behaviour of the old.

    That apart, shirking loan responsibilities was wayward citizenship — the abject and willful squandering of scarce resources — from which the present set of youths must be weaned, if they must secure the future and wellbeing of their children and children’s children, to deliver a good life to all.

    NELFUND is virtually re-setting funding to tertiary institutions.  Patchy funding, resulting in crumbled infrastructure, has all but subverted academic goals. NELFUND’s upfront payment of full school fees, aside a N20, 000 monthly student upkeep allowance, is a fresh and healthy jab in the arm.

    If this is sustained well into the future, it might just be the breaks tertiary education needs to yet flower.  That is why NELFUND must get right its acts — both at prompt disbursement of these loans, and even no less in recovery, when the first set of repayments are due.

    While that goes on, the universities, polytechnics, mono-technics and colleges of education should take the ridiculous parity of the Naira as a fresh — and urgent –challenge: N1, 200 in 1979 equating N3, 189, 217 in 2024!

    This really is a ridiculous exchange.  But only superb manpower that would deepen industry, stabilise power and add value to agriculture, in rich processes that create millions of local jobs, can correct the errant “market forces” that has turned the Naira into a virtual rag.

    Bolstered by cash from NELFUND, that should be a worthy goal for our tertiary institutions.

  • Name them 

    Name them 

    • Nigerians want to know the judges being probed

    Many have praised the National Judicial Council (NJC) for acknowledging that there are petitions against some members of the Bench across board. The highest judicial administrative body announced last week that allegations against 27 unnamed judges were being investigated, but so much about the said allegations, the petitioners, and the judges are shrouded in avoidable secrecy.

    This, in itself, is against the principles of justice and openness. When other Nigerians are to be tried in court, they are named and the alleged offences are laid out in the open. Whether by the anti-graft agencies, the police or Department of State Services (DSS), they are named from the point of being invited, to the point of arraignment in court.

    It has been argued that protecting the identities of their lordships amounts to protecting the integrity of the judiciary, the course of justice and the interest of the public. But, what is sauce for the goose should as well be sauce for the gander. That others are named does not mean that they would even be arraigned if no case is established against them. In the same vein, when it applies to judges who preside over matters involving others, some of whom are professionals or former holders of high offices of state, all must be done in the open.

    This needless secrecy is already spreading to some other cases, including cases of high treason and terrorism. For years now, some people said to be financiers and sponsors of terror attacks in the country and said to have been identified by the DSS are yet to be named, let alone brought to Justice.

    We call on Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, as well as the new Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, to step into the matter and assure the public that the judiciary has nothing to hide. As the third arm of government, and one expected to point the way to the other two where politicians preside, judges should show that they are, indeed, above board. There is no better way to demonstrate this than enthroning transparency. The outcome is as good as the process. At every point, we expect that findings would be made public, including how they were arrived at. Who constituted the panels, how did they sit, were the judges represented by counsel and what modes were adopted for presentation of petitions? All these are important in establishing ingredients of fair hearing.

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    It should be noted that the future of the country is at stake. Unless a wholesale reform of the judiciary is carried out and a cynical public is carried along, it is impossible to save the tottering ship of state. The 64-year-old Nigerian state has come a long way since independence in 1960, with its twists and turns. Tagging along has been the judiciary, with the likes of Sir Adetokunbo Ademola, Dr. Taslim Elias and Sir Darnley Alexander presiding over the third branch of government in the first two decades, creditably.

    In recent times, the sail has been turbulent, given the way Justice Ayo Salami was controversially removed as President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Walter Onnoghen dragged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal and eased out of the office of Chief Justice of Nigeria, and the rumours surrounding the unceremonial voluntary retirement of his successor, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad Tanko. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola may have retired at the mandatory age of 70, but the cloud surrounding the Supreme Court and other courts of the land under him has been heavy.

    The system must be deodourised. This is one task before Justice Kekere-Ekun. The “trial” of the 27 judges is the first task, and it would determine if the public should repose their confidence in the judiciary under her watch. The investigation should be done speedily to protect the integrity of the judicial system.

  • Beyond special squad 

    Beyond special squad 

    • •169 more security men not enough to tackle the country’s daunting security challenges

    Nigeria’s newly established 169-man squad to fight kidnapping and banditry further underscored the country’s security crisis, and also demonstrated that the authorities are taking the issue more seriously. However, it remains to be seen how the new security squad will operate, and whether its operations will make a difference.

    The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, on August 19, inaugurated officers of the new Special Intervention Squad, saying it was created “to confront the most formidable challenges that beset our nation today — challenges like kidnapping, banditry, and other violent crimes that have sown discord and fear across various regions.”

    He said the officers had been trained for “advanced tactical operations, intelligence gathering, crisis negotiation, and community engagement,” among others, and described their work as a “critical national assignment.” They were trained for seven weeks in Lagos and the Police Mobile Force Training College, Ende Hills, Nasarawa State.

    The special squad has its work cut out for it. For instance, more than 2,000 people were reported kidnapped across 24 states of the country between January and July 2024, according to SUNDAY PUNCH. The newspaper’s research focused on reports of kidnapping published in four Nigerian newspapers in the period, namely The Nation, The PUNCH, The Guardian, and Vanguard.

     The research showed alarming figures of kidnap victims in the seven-month period: 193 people in January, 101 in February, 543 in March, 112 in April, 977 in May, 97 in June, and 117 in July, totalling 2,140. Among these were 280 pupils and teachers kidnapped by bandits from Government Secondary School and LEA Primary School, Kuriga, Kaduna State, in March; and about 500 people abducted by bandits from 50 villages in Zamfara State, in May.

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    Also, the research showed that the families of 62 kidnap victims paid N389m as ransom to kidnappers for the release of their relatives in the period. The cases of ransom payment included N60m paid to kidnappers for the release of five sisters abducted from their house in Abuja, in January; and N50m paid to kidnappers in May before the paramount ruler of the Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Ogwong Okon Abang, regained his freedom.

    This month, the kidnap story of 20 medical students made the headlines. They were kidnapped by gunmen in Benue State, on August 15, on their way to a conference, and freed after more than a week in captivity. The authorities said no ransom was paid for their release.

    The range of kidnap victims indicates that those involved in kidnapping for ransom are no respecter of persons. The gravity of the problem prompted a law in 2021 that controversially prescribed at least a 15-year imprisonment for paying a ransom to free someone who has been kidnapped. The law also made the crime of abduction punishable by death in cases where victims die.

    It is disturbing that kidnappings not only continue in the country but are also on the rise.  More than 3, 600 people were kidnapped in Nigeria last year, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data figures; this was described as “the most ever” recorded. 

    The scale of the country’s security crisis, which includes kidnapping and banditry, demands more than establishing a new ad hoc squad of less than 200 officers. In August 2023, Egbetokun was reported saying, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) “requires an additional 190,000 personnel to be at par with the United Nations (UN) recommendation,” adding that inadequate manpower had resulted in “low police presence.” The UN-recommended ratio is one police officer to about 450 citizens.

    There is no doubt that the country needs to increase its police personnel, particularly in the context of a complicated security crisis. Nigeria is critically under-policed, which is bad for security as well as law and order. The creation of state police, which is looking increasingly attractive to political leaders across the country, should change the reality of under-policing in the country.

    Given the existing situation, beyond the special squad, the country’s security challenges, including kidnapping and banditry, require all hands on deck, meaning the full involvement of all relevant security agencies.

  • New corruption definition

    New corruption definition

    •FCCPC and EFCC set new standard against anti-competitive practices

    Few have realised the connection between the integrity of prices and competition with anti-corruption, until the recent meeting between Mr. Tunji Bello and Olanipekun Olukoyede.

    Bello, as the executive vice chairman and chief executive of Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) paid a visit to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman Olukoyede to begin a cooperation that might set a new standard on how companies make and sell their products in the Nigerian market.

    The FCCPC has a grand responsibility to check the impulse to cheat, and cheating means a lot in a crude capitalistic environment. It does mean price gouging, and we have a lot of that in this society. Product companies and retailers as well as manufacturers fix prices without a decent gap between cost and profit.

    Even the FCCPC head has challenged quite a few companies, including high-tech blue-chip companies, over unfair practices. Such proactive onslaughts will restrain companies from thinking the Nigerian market must yield to their avarice because they can get away with it. They are being put on notice. It is not the big firms alone that must suffer for their greed but supposedly small players who account for everyday necessities like groceries and healthcare products.

    Few know that such attitudes of taking money from the pocket of consumers merely because they can, is also an act of corruption. That explains the meeting of the men of both agencies.

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    Again, it entails monopolistic practices, or anti-trust impulses that pervade moguls who have the resources to make an industry in their own greedy images. We have a few such monopolies in the country, and some industries, whether in the building, pharmaceutical or food-related market that enjoy both monopolistic or oligopolistic privileges.

    The other part of this cooperation is not about prices but quality of products. One of such practices is the evangelism of fake products. In the past two decades, the nation has been overwhelmed with fake products in virtually all aspects of lives. The two main culprits are food and health. Nigerians are compelled to buy food items that are not as advertised, and this subjects their bodies to a variety of health challenges. Some of them are packaged as genuine, and even repackaged ones may be genuine but have expired. We may recall the child food known as ‘My Pikin’ that led to the deaths of many children.

    If this is not corruption, it is hard to define it. We cannot estimate because there are no available credible records of how many people die or are condemned to lifelong afflictions because of a fake product packaged under false advertisements, or that have expired and the innocent buy them under the illusion that they have done a good transaction. The terrible thing is that some of these products are purchased in stores that Nigerians have come to trust over the years. It is a trap, and for a trusting society like ours, the challenge before the FCCPC is more daunting.

    The health products are as daunting. Some Nigerians have come to wager when they buy drugs because they do not know whether the malaria or blood sugar pill is genuine. Some buy because they appear cheaper. We have many chemists and pharmacists, some of them operating without licences. The Lagos State government shut some down recently, and many are still doing business.

    They are exploiting the helplessness of a vulnerable society. Both drug and food drugs have been unearthed by raids in their operating cells from time to time, and that shows how lucrative the business of murdering and maiming the organs of innocent Nigerians have become over the years.

    So, we encourage both Bello and Olukoyede to step up their dialogue, for the challenge is huge.