The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Promise of textiles

    Promise of textiles

    • Will this promise hold this time or fizzle out as the many in the past?

    The news is tempting: the Federal Government is resuscitating the Nigerian textile industry, with a partnership with the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC). 

    If things work out well, that should create 1.4 million jobs yearly, from the whole gamut of the cotton value chain, from planting to manufacturing: cultivation, weaving and ginning, in a bold re-industrialisation move, which links the farm to industrial processing; provides new skills and delivers jobs along the entire value chain.

    In meeting the ICAC led by Eric Trachtenberg, its executive director, Vice President Kashim Shettima praised the delegation for both ICAC’s commitment to developing the cotton/textiles value chain in Africa, and for boasting diverse backgrounds that indeed understand the “complexities and opportunities in the cotton value chain.”

    That indeed is reassuring, for this would not be the first attempted revamp of the textile industry.  Those past attempts have not exactly delivered the goods.  So, is the ICAC really at home with the peculiar(?) “complexities and opportunities” of cotton processing in Nigeria?

    That is legitimate question, given the following:

    President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007) put in place a N79 billion Textile Development Fund.  The Umaru Musa Yar’Adua-Goodluck Jonathan administration (2007-2015) launched another N100 billion Cotton, Textile and Garment Fund. That was during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) era.

    In this current All Progressives Congress (APC) era, President Muhammadu Buhari (2015-2023), who gave a specific pledge to fix the textile industry to provide mass jobs since it is labour-intensive, launched another chain of initiatives: N225 billion fund, a N50 billion revival fund and another N19 billion cotton fund.  This revival fund targeted nine ginneries, as a pin-point effort to improve cotton and textile production. 

    All of these funds, administered by the Bank of Industry, were to be accessed with single-digit interest rates, as low as 4.5 per cent, using long-term financing to acquire plants and machinery, and also to access working capital

    Now, the Tinubu administration just announced this latest partnership with the ICAC, with the rather ambitious goal of churning out 1.4 jobs yearly.

    What really will this government do differently from the old ones?  Perhaps the government needs to share its strategies with the public, for a buy-in and for a cross-fertilisation of ideas.

    Before that, however, there are structural challenges that the new plan must scale, if it must deliver.

    Read Also: Alia promises justice for slain activist

    The first and very obvious challenge is power — its inconstancy leaving factories to run  costly diesel-fired generators, with the high cost profiles.  Were the public power source more efficient, that would have been needless.  That makes local textiles uncompetitive, compared with imported ones.

    Even when relatively available — with the current premium charging Band A tariffs — it is doubtful if that rather high band rate is appropriate for industrial clusters, competing with foreign brands, with far more favourable economy of scale. Perhaps the government should work towards guaranteed power for industrial clusters, even if a bit subsidised, as strategic investment to keep factories open and jobs guaranteed?

    Then, the all-important matter of outdated plants and machinery, with fast changing industrial processes.  Does the ICAC intervention include retooling outdated machinery in textile mills?  Again, this conscious and deliberate upgrade is very crucial — if local textiles must be competitive.

    Now that the country is moving gradually, if slowly, towards local refining of petroleum products, the textile industry should be positioned to maximally utilise synthetic materials from petrochemicals, now worked into the latest processes in textile manufacturing.  Again, it all boils down to competitiveness.

    The all-vital question of protecting the local textile/garment industry from the dumping of smuggled foreign products.  The fiscal authorities should work out fitting tariffs.  The first step to making that succeed, however, is to massively bring down factory production costs.

    Of course, the security forces should also give sundry uniforms to Nigerian textile mills to manufacture.  That bulk order is sure to keep the mills churning; and millions of youths employed all-year round.  Indeed, were the famous northern textile mills still functional, it is doubtful if the army of jobless teens that trooped out with stones and cudgels, during the last protests, would have been available for anyone’s dirty job.

    It is good that governors from different states — Lagos, Imo and others — have already plugged into the new cotton/textiles initiative, excited by a new promise of jobs for their youths.  That is good.  But if the right steps are not taken, it might well be another hope dashed.  That would be a miss too many.

  • Still on fuel scarcity

    Still on fuel scarcity

    • It’s high time we found a lasting solution to the problem

    Perhaps nothing highlights the imperative of Nigeria refining its crude oil than the scarcity of petrol that seems to be assuming a monthly dimension in the country in recent times. Since April this year, Nigerians have suffered petrol scarcity almost on a monthly basis.

    The present scarcity began on July 26 and was yet to abate as at last weekend. This was despite the fact that petrol vessels birthed at Lagos and other ports in the country. Queues persisted in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of the country as the tanks ran dry in filling stations.

    Dealers said depot owners now supply fuel to their filling stations only because of low supply. “The depots are not wet yet. We are still doing epileptic loading. No product for third parties. That is, the depots are prioritising their own stations. That is always the case for depot operators. They will prefer to keep their stations wet to promote customer loyalty. Independent marketers will be left in the cold,” a dealer said.

    Another source reportedly added: “It’s not that vessels are not berthing, but the rate cannot meet the expected loading to reduce queues. We need to double up. Apapa Jetty alone needs at least two vessels discharging simultaneously, but the vessels are coming one after the other and that cannot solve the pending problem”.

    In April, Nigerians still struggled with fuel scarcity despite assurance by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that the logistic issues causing fuel scarcity had been addressed. For whatever reason the company said Abuja should be given priority attention in fuel availability then.

    June did not go without fuel hiccups.

    Then July, which NNPCL attributed the then scarcity to disruptions in the movement of products caused by inclement weather conditions like thunderstorms and lightning.

    NNPCL’s chief corporate communications officer, Olufemi Soneye, said thunderstorm had disrupted ship-to-ship transfer of petrol between mother vessels and daughter vessels. No one can be blamed for nature’s disruption.

    There was never a time when the nation was not presented an explanation for the scarcity.

    Read Also: Fuel Scarcity: Hitch in discharge operations of vessels responsible – NNPC Ltd.

    But the issue of fuel scarcity should have been an aberration in a major crude producing nation like Nigeria if successive governments had done the rightful.

    Mercifully, the present Federal Government seems to have realised the need to fix the country’s ailing refineries, beginning with the Port Harcourt refinery. Although the deadlines set for the refinery to resume production had failed thrice, the government should ensure it does not fail this time around, even as it should ensure that the three others come on stream as soon as possible.

    Although even if all the four public refineries are working, they cannot meet the country’s demand. But there is also the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery as well as others to produce fuel in the country, although his refinery does not have full capacity as yet.

    Government should do everything humanly possible to encourage those involved to clear the hurdles on the way of local production of fuel. We spend 40 per cent of our foreign exchange on fuel importation. This is significant. The country has a lot of savings to make if we can at least reduce the level of fuel import.

    Focus should also be on repairing the facilities to pump fuel in order to reduce cost of road transportation of fuel all over the country.

    Nigeria is blessed with substantial crude, it should be a blessing and not a curse.

  • Oil for cash deal

    Oil for cash deal

    •Though it has a point, House of Reps joint committee should exercise restraint over why NNPCL should take action on further deals

    Last week, the House of Representatives Special Joint Committee on Petroleum directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to halt what it called the mortgage of Nigeria’s future crude oil until it concludes its assignment. This is amidst reports that the company was planning to borrow an additional $2bn in crude oil-backed loans from international creditors to boost its financial inflow. One report quoted the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, as saying that the company was already in discussions with international lenders to raise an oil-backed credit facility.

    While urging the NNPCL not to undermine the forensic investigation being conducted by it, the committee warned that the deal, if allowed, would further worsen the situation of things, starve the refineries of feed-stock, weaken revenue generation and create room for waste of future revenue. The committee also fears that the deal will go against the grain of the recent directive by the Federal Government on the need to protect local refineries.

    But given the structure of the company, it is obvious that it is not NNPC per se that needs the money but the federal government. On the surface,  the fears of the committee are not entirely without basis. Indeed, nothing in the committee’s directive could be said to be extraordinary in the current circumstances. This is even more so that the Federal Government had, vide an earlier deal in August 2023, secured, through the same NNPCL, a $3.3bn loan from Afreximbank to boost the nation’s foreign reserves, for which the country is already obligated to supply about 90,000 barrels of daily crude production. When this is added to the signals emanating from the company of its inability to meet the crude requirements of the local refineries, the committee’s fears will certainly be hard to dismiss. Indeed, what the national interest calls for at this time is for the process to be fully audited to ensure that the country gets full value from it.

    But as the president said in his public broadcast, crude outflow in Nigeria has doubled to 1.6. Million barrels per day and that gives the country more leverage for such deals.

    Read Also: Hunger protest: North tolerated too much poverty, corruption – Shettima

    For, while it is hard to see the broad economic stabilisation measures being undertaken by the Federal Government succeeding without the state oil company being pressed into action as in the present case, that pivotal role itself imposes the additional burden of ensuring – at the very minimum – that the activities it engages in not only align with the demands for utmost transparency but is also perfectly in accord with the strict dictates of the law.

    Asking the company to put a brake on the process until the committee’s investigations are concluded does not appear to us as either an unbridled interference or unreasonable so long as it does not last too long for a country in dire need of cash. If anything, it seems only a part of the inescapable duty of oversight imposed on the legislature by the constitution. Although the initial expectation was that the company would have begun to operate as a limited company governed by the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), still undeniable is that the company has remained an entity in transition. From a board made exclusively of government appointees to the 100 percent ownership of its shares, it could safely be said that little really has changed in the aftermath of the so-called transition.

    The expectation is that the committee will act with speed and thoroughness in the assignment just as we expect that the findings from the investigation will be made public.

    As for the government, now seems the best time ever to kick off the process to ensure the fiscal and operational autonomy of the company as envisaged by the Act. That process, we daresay, shouldn’t take eternity. After all, that transition has long been advertised as holding the key making it a world-class operator which the former corporation is certainly not. 

  • When silence is not golden

    When silence is not golden

    Agric minister should respond to claims by some states that they never got 20 trucks of food items

    The controversy trailing the distribution of the food items allocated by the Federal Government to states is a disservice to the efforts by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government to ameliorate the impact of food inflation on the citizens. Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri who was supportive of the #Endbadgovernance protests, and a few other governors denied receiving the food items earmarked for their states by the Federal Government. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Muhammad Mahmood Abubakar, had announced in July that each state received 20 trucks of rice for distribution to the most vulnerable.

    Considering that Governor Fintiri belongs to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), many thought that he was playing politics against the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government with such a serious issue. 

    At a press briefing, Iliya James, the state commissioner for information and strategy, while acknowledging the receipt of fertiliser from the Federal Government, denied receiving the food items. He said that what the state was sharing came from the state government. So, what happened to the state’s 20 trucks of food?

    Surprisingly, his claim has not been refuted by the Minister of Agriculture or the Minister of Information or even the spokespersons of the Federal Government. We are surprised that the Minister of Agriculture, who made the announcement, and who has the responsibility to distribute the food items, has kept quiet since the claim. Considering the crisis afflicting the polity in the past few days, over the so- called #Endbadgovernance protests, the minister’s quietness is not golden.

    If the food trucks have not been sent, or had not reached the state, he should say so. If they had been sent, he owes the nation an explanation on where the food trucks are, and who received them. Twenty trucks of food is an enormous intervention in the midst of the crisis and hardship that the citizens are facing, and they cannot disappear into the thin air. Indeed, the Ministry of Information is supposed to have video footages of the trucks arriving each state, and same should be publicised across the media.

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    As the trucks depart to the states, the media should be briefed, and when they arrive their destination, a similar briefing should take place, so that those for whom the items are meant can track the efforts being made to alleviate their sufferings. We dare say that if the food items were properly distributed, some of those who joined the recent protests and riots could have been more circumspect. 

    Sadly, only a few of the states that had received the food items have owned up, but they have not shared information on how the items were shared.

    The Borno State government, for one consistently advertise its effort to ameliorate the food challenges facing its people, and has acknowledged receipt of the foods. Imo State government also acknowledged receipt of the food trucks. In Edo State, it is alleged that the state government received the items, but did not distribute them and there are video footages of rioters helping themselves to bags of rice from the consignment. We have argued that the food crisis facing the country is not the business of the Federal Government alone.

    States and even local governments, which have all received enhanced monthly allocations from the federation account should stand to be counted. The removal of subsidy which has been lauded by many people, and which has dealt with the distortion caused by fuel subsidy, must not return because of the delinquency in managing the extra incomes. The Federal Government must robustly blow its own trumpet, and ensure that Nigerians are aware of its programmes to alleviate the economic hardship they currently face.

  • Protest post-mortem

    Protest post-mortem

    • It’s time for us to bind our wounds and heal a broken nation

    A lot of the damages and fiery rhetoric after, the nation settles back to its routine. The post-mortem is unsavoury, but we shall, as a people, look at where things went awry and what lessons we can glean from a week of turmoil in which citizens called for a peaceful protest but our tongues ran sour from a harvest of deaths, rapine and moments of subversion.

    One of the key organisers and lawyer Olu Adegboruwa had a buyer’s remorse, and strove with little success to restrain the rabble. At the same time, another organiser and faint-hearted Omoyele Sowore, nestled in faraway United States while stoking the flames in his homeland.

    The violence that confirmed fears of doves sparked its first ember in Kano city. Boys not old enough to know the issues at hand went on the rampage, ransacked shops, stole from the sweats of the innocent and destroyed what the city and country saw as a potential treasure: a technological innovation centre. They raided a library but left books intact, only books. The governor of the state, Abba Yusuf, who had encouraged them to the street was either naïve or tendentious. But it turned out to bite him when the mob breached the state house grounds and compelled him to declare a curfew. He was a leader who did not understand his fellow citizens.

    But it quickly moved to neighbouring Kaduna, but the quality of contagion played out the script of puppeteers. There were official downsides like the unleashing of live bullets in Niger State against the protesters that led to fatalities. Yet, it must not blind us to the lack of finesse in parts of the country.

    Nothing portended more threat to the state than the vision of boys calling for the return of the army and the hoisting of the Russian flags. The boys do not know Russia, nor the colour of their flags. They cannot read and write, and have little understanding of the world they live in outside the community confines where they breathe and have their beings. Those calling for the army are teenage boys who were neither born during the savageries of army rule nor knew what it meant.

    Read Also: Protests: Ondo indigenes in US hail Aiyedatiwa over social intervention

    When the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, spoke about that in his speech, he attracted criticism but we need to address how those who know nothing about a thing invoked it to menace the stability of our society. In Kaduna, Governor Uba Sani hinted that the protesters were ominous puppets. Security forces arrested over 800 persons, and quite a number of them were tailors who supplied the uprising with Russian flags. Who were these people, and who contracted them?

    The president needs to get to the bottom of the matter and whoever did it should face the furious dignity of the law. We cannot deny that since the president mounted his chair in Abuja as the country’s leader, he has been under malicious siege as the opposition forces, still smarting from an election loss, have sought to delegitimise his victory at the polls and challenged him in courts, both at home and abroad. The fact that they came up short has deepened their reptilian umbrage rather than ennobled them into sportsmen. The bitterness has not abated after that. The protests were therefore exploited by the opponents, and this has challenged our capacity to distinguish, in some cases, those who are genuinely aggrieved and those who saw an opportunity to settle political scores.

    But the president had said that he heard the cry on the streets, and would respond. He reeled out the measures he has taken, and he believes they will redound to our success and prosperity in due course.

    The two issues that have triggered inflation and suffering among large swathes of citizenry were the removal of fuel subsidy and the collapsing of the exchange rates. The assault from the opposition on these policies tends to mask the promise by the presidential candidates of both the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party, Peter Obi, that the

    purulence of subsidies will go. The pharisaic denial by silence shows how the quest for power can mutate into political brinkmanship.

    One of the denials of the protesters is that, owing to the proceeds from the oil subsidies, the Federal Government has increased monthly allocation to states, some of them like Nasarawa State, raking in double. Yet, the states and their governors get away with their lack of sensitivity to the sufferings of the people and watch the blame go to the centre. So pampered are the state governors by public opinion that even when the Federal Government conveys palliatives to indigent Nigerians through them, questions still persist about whether they reach the citizens. In Edo State, for instance, some residents raided a storehouse of palliative rice bags that they believe the government had hoarded for their cronies.

    As things calm down, the president ought to put things in place to ensure that such riotous devastations are avoided, and more engagement with the people becomes a priority. Appreciating his policies must entail his lieutenants working as his salesmen.

  • Powering public varsities

    Powering public varsities

    • Time for relevant stakeholders to think out of the box

    Public universities in the country were one of the worst hit sectors by the recent near 300 per cent hike in cost of electricity supply to certain categories of energy consumers. The National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), in April, announced an increase in electricity bills paid by Band A customers from N68/kWh to N225/kWh. Band A customers enjoy electricity supply for at least 20 hours per day.

    This immediately had dire consequences for the finances of universities, which, understandably belong to this category, given the critical services they offer in the education sector and the fact that they operate from vast campuses with huge populations and need electricity for critical facilities like laboratories, libraries, hostels, internet installations, among others.

    Electricity is equally critical in these institutions at night for security and to help curb and prevent criminal activities such as cultism, bullying, drug peddling and consumption or sexual harassment and assault.

    With the hike in charges, most public universities are now charged over N200 million monthly for electricity whereas they were paying an average of N61 million monthly before the new tariff regime. Of course, there are differentials in charges among the universities depending on size, population and extensiveness of facilities.

    Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and University of Benin, Benin City, for instance, are to pay N3.65 billion electricity bills annually, which comes to an average of at least N300 million per month. A private institution, Babcock University, paid N300 million in May for its power consumption. Running a generator for four hours daily costs the University of Benin about N60 million monthly. These examples give an indication of the power supply conundrum currently confronting the universities. From about N1 billion annually paid by the universities for power, they are now to pay approximately N4 billion per annum.

    While private universities have the latitude to adjust their fees to take account of costs such as electricity, public universities at federal and state levels are constrained by law as regards fees paid by their students. Given the unsavoury situation they have to contend with as regards surge in electricity bills, it is understandable that some of them are contemplating charging their students up to N80,000 or more to cover the high electricity bills. This will not only constitute a severe burden on parents and guardians in a period of already extremely harsh economic conditions, it will most certainly trigger students’ unrest across campuses that will compound the existing fragile security situation.

    It has therefore become imperative for the Federal Government to intervene to provide some fiscal cushion to federal universities to mitigate the impact of the new electricity tariffs, even if for a transitional period. The same will also apply to other federal as well as states’ tertiary institutions.

    We call on the respective authorities to come up with creative policies that will provide some sort of strategic electricity subsidies to these institutions, even as the latter plan for more self-sustaining electricity supply measures in the long run.

    Read Also: TUC demands investigation into alleged invasion of NLC Headquarters

    It is important that the institutions take decisive steps to curb and drastically cut waste in the consumption of electricity. There is also need for thorough auditing of their electricity bills to ensure that these are not inflated for purposes of corrupt enrichment by unscrupulous staff of both the universities and power supply entities working in collusion.

    Given the high caliber expertise available to them in diverse fields, the institutions also have a responsibility to come up with creative solutions to their power supply problems. It has been reported that one or two universities, for instance, have dammed water flowing in their vicinity to generate power domestically. The various departments of science, technology, engineering, etc. have a critical role to play in this regard.

    No doubt this would require substantial funding. This is where the issue of autonomy for public universities comes in. If they have the autonomy to constitute their governing boards, they will most likely go for individuals with the requisite experience, acumen, capacity and influence to run as more successful entities financially rather than those positions being opportunities for political patronage.

  • Olaniyonu’s ordeal

    Olaniyonu’s ordeal

    • A case study of the decay in our highbrow public hospitals

    In an attention-grabbing and touching narrative that went viral, titled ‘At 58, God has given me a second chance,’ Yusuph Olaniyonu further exposed the inadequacies of Nigeria’s healthcare system. He is an Abuja-based communications strategist, journalist, lawyer, public affairs analyst and former information commissioner in Ogun State.

    His story raised several issues regarding the country’s health system, including the standard of medical education, the level of professional expertise, ethical practice, the cost of healthcare delivery, medical tourism and medical brain drain.

    “Perhaps I should not be alive,” he wrote in the article published on his birthday, July 30, telling the story of serious health challenges he faced from February 19 “when I drove myself into a government hospital in Abuja for an elective surgery.” A urologist had recommended surgery as a solution to his enlarged prostate to prevent it from affecting his kidney.

    However, he ended up having “six major operations and three minor procedures” in a period of five months before his birthday. At some point, he spent six days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) “surviving on oxygen and relieving myself through catheters.” He also became “totally dependent on others for the performance of even such personal functions as cleaning myself.”

    The first surgery had led to complications after the surgeons ruptured his bladder, abandoned the prostate operation, hurriedly placed a catheter inside his urethra and returned him to the ward.

    After three failed corrective surgeries, he said, a member of the medical team told his family that his “chance of survival was 50-50.” Fearing that her husband would be abandoned, with potentially fatal consequences, his wife, Odunayo, contacted the Chairman of THISDAY and Arise TV, Nduka Obaigbena, to inform him about his condition. Obaigbena called the Minister of Health, “who in turn called the head of the hospital.” Also, former Senate President Bukola Saraki promised to speak with the health minister. Senator Shuaib Afolabi Salis, representing Ogun Central, visited the hospital to meet the chief medical director.

    Olaniyonu said the “calibre of people who came to see me surprised the hospital management.” The interventions of high-profile figures ensured that he was not neglected. He was eventually discharged after a further two weeks.

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    In April, after he noticed that his urine had an unusual colour, he consulted another urologist working in another public hospital, “who after listening to us promptly declared an emergency.” He was forced to go to a private hospital when there was no one to attend to him. “It was at the private hospital that the doctor on duty alerted us that I had a septic infection and that I could go into shock anytime,” he said. He was later hospitalised for nine days at the public hospital where he had previously received treatment.

    Then came what he described as “the biggest storm of all.” He started to “lose control” of his limbs. A test at a private hospital showed that “some bones had ruptured in my neck, which had disorganised the nerve supply system from the brain down to the limbs.” An orthopaedic surgeon recommended surgery. 

    With Saraki’s help, he flew to Egypt where he received treatment at Neuro Espitalia, located in a city called 6th of October. He spent two months in Egypt. He observed that the Egyptian hospital was “replete with stories of Nigerians who come there to correct surgical operations that had been performed in Nigeria, some from glamorous hospitals in Abuja where they charge exorbitantly.”

    It is curious that he left out the name of the public hospital where his ordeal began. He lamented that public hospitals “have become the most expensive and the most inefficient in Nigeria.” He also said: “Public health workers in Nigeria behave as if they would rather be somewhere else, as if they are actually doing the patients a favour.” He asked: “Why would a Nigerian need tonnes of money and powerful friends to stand a chance of surviving a medical challenge in our country?”

    Olaniyonu’s story captures the decay in the country’s health system. The political and professional authorities need to take urgent action to remedy the deterioration.  

  • Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu (1942-2024)

    Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu (1942-2024)

    • An ‘Iroko’ departs in glory

    His towering physical stature and presence was a reflection of the monumental and indelible impact that the late Chief Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Iwuayanwu was to make in diverse spheres of Nigeria’s socioeconomic and political landscape in his sojourn of 81 years this side of eternity.

    Born on  September 4, 1942, in humble circumstances to the family of Pa Bernard and Madam Hulder Iwuanyanwu of Umuahii Atta in Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State, Chief Iwuanyanwu died on July 25, 2024, having established himself as a veritable colossus in business, politics, sports, culture and philanthropy, amongst other spheres of life. He was neither born great and neither did he have greatness thrust on his laps on a platter. Rather, he became a man of no mean reckoning both among the Igbo, his kinsmen, and in Nigeria as a whole by dint of clarity of vision, intuitive brilliance, hard work, commitment and determination.

    Chief Iwuanyanwu had his elementary education at St Patrick School, Nkpokwu, (later renamed Rukpokwu), Port Harcourt, and the Holy Trinity Primary School, Umuapara, from 1948 to 1954. He attended the New Bethel College, Onitsha, Anambra State, from 1955 to 1959 and, in 1960, he was among a select number of brilliant students to be offered admission into the Federal School of Science, Lagos, where he studied Pure and Applied Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.

    As a result of his academic brilliance at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), into which he was admitted to study Civil Engineering in 1963, he was awarded the coveted German Academic Exchange Scholarship covering school fees, boarding, feeding and holiday tickets with all costs borne by the Federal Republic of Germany.

    Like many other young men in the Southeast at the time, the young Iwuanyanwu’s education at the UNN was disrupted by the Nigerian civil war which broke out in 1967 and ended in 1970. Given his engineering orientation, Iwuanyanwu was drafted into the Biafra Research and Production (R&P) Directorate during the war and served in the Directorate’s Rocket Unit. Working alongside other accomplished scientists such as Professor Gordian Ezekwe, Professor Chukwuka Nwosu and Dr Felix Oragwu, he contributed to producing essential armaments and amenities for Biafra’s war effort at a time when the fledgling republic had limited access to weapons from the outside world.

    At the expiration of the war, Iwuanyanwu completed his studies at the UNN and graduated as an engineer in 1971. He was quick to demonstrate his astuteness as an engineer in his places of employment and became a registered engineer of the Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria (COREN) on 12 April, 1972. In the course of his professional career, he successfully experimented on flexible pavement and parameters for concrete, producing a mixed design of asphaltic concrete which was approved by the Federal Ministry of Works for the construction of airport runways and highways in Nigeria.

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    Combining his professional expertise with an astute business acumen, Iwuanyanwu, in 1976, started a construction company with two Americans, Messrs Harper and Delano. He later acquired the company from his partners and renamed the business Hardel and Eric Construction Company. It is a mark of his versatility and dexterity as a businessman that he grew the business into a conglomerate of over 20 companies spanning advertising, media, insurance, shipping, hotel and hospitality as well as aviation.

    He was an active participant in the political transition programmes of the Babangida and Abacha regimes, respectively, being an active member of parties such as the National Republican Convention (NRC) and United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) in the two dispensations. After the transition to the fourth republic midwifed by General Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1999, Iwuanyanwu eventually found his natural political habitat in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a party with which he remained aligned as a member of its Board of Trustees till his death.

    Iwuanyanwu was a member of the National Political Reform Conference in 2005. He served at various times as Chairman, Raw Materials and Research Development Council (RMRDC); among many others.

    A household name in sports, he founded the Iwuanyanwu Nationale Football Club (now Heartland Football Club of Owerri) which excelled in national and international competitions.

    He also made his mark as one of the country’s most eminent philanthropists. The Iwuanyanwu Foundation, for example, has reportedly offered scholarships to no less than 10,000 indigent students across the country. Until his death, he was President-General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohaneze-Ndigbo. Before his ascension to the position in April 2023, he had served the body in several capacities. Iwuanyanwu holds the national honours of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) and Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR). He was awarded honorary academic degrees by several universities in Nigeria and abroad. In his demise, an ‘Iroko: has departed the Nigerian forest.

  • Youth investment fund

    Youth investment fund

    • If well managed, the scheme would help in calming down the young.

    The decision by the Federal Government to make N110 billion available for young entrepreneurs is laudable. It is indeed a masterstroke for unleashing the energy of the young on the economy, in the medium to long term period. It is expected that the economy would receive a boost, thus promoting inclusivity and calming down a restless section of the society.

    A publication by the National Bureau of Statistics puts the median age in the country at 19 years, and indicates that 70 per cent of Nigerians are under 30 years. They are not just young, vibrant and energetic, but educated, informed, resilient and ready to take up responsibilities. However, they are excluded from leadership and feel let down by a society that has not made room for their employment even after they are through with their education; a development that breeds disillusionment and frustration.

    This informed the establishment of the National Youth Investment Fund that would enable those who have the entrepreneurial spirit to access cheap fund, get them positively engaged and brought into the social net.

    The recent protest by the youth nationwide was not essentially against the current administration at the federal level, but pent-up animosity against a country that they believe neglected their education, health and prosperity, leading many, especially professionals, to flee the country to other lands where they are often treated as second-class residents and consigned to menial jobs. They have thus switched off from government promises and schemes, describing them all as scam.

    The Bola Tinubu administration has a duty to win back the disenchanted youth. One way this could be done is by being transparent. This is the digital age when the people want to be carried along. There should be a portal where details of criteria for disbursement and beneficiaries should be posted regularly to demonstrate that things have changed in the country.

    Effecting a change in the socio-political order cannot be left for the old alone. The younger ones who have usually been described as leaders of tomorrow have to be drafted into the system, not only to participate in political leadership, which the “not too young to run Act” was designed to achieve, but by economic empowerment that would enlist them into the class of the elite.

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    It is commendable that the Federal Government has not limited the policy of lifting the youth to this investment fund, but equally introduced the loan scheme that would open the gate to tertiary education to the poor and indigent. It is heartwarming, too, that the government listened to criticisms by the people and amended the original Act even after the president’s assent to the executive bill sent to the National Assembly. In due course, if government continues along this track, the young people are bound to understand that government in a democracy is for the people.

    We call on state governments and even the local governments to follow suit. This is the only way to galvanise the people, the youth and their parents, to join in developing the country. Besides, those in government should realise that there is need to change the philosophy of governance. The current values that have been enthroned for so many decades has not worked and cannot help in mobilising the populace. Corruption in high places has alienated the people as the rich have been getting richer at the expense of the common man. This has been building bitterness that could lead to an eruption soon as was seen during the Arab Spring, and more recently, Bangladesh and Kenya. It is in the interest of all that the elites are called to order before things get out of hand. Nigeria’s wealth should be expended in egalitarian, open and transparent manner.

  • Unlucky Favour!

    Unlucky Favour!

    • For the second time, Nigerian sports officials omitted Favour Ofili’s name from Olympic list

    The Olympic Games is about 3,000 years old and has its roots in ancient Greece from the Olympia games from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. It takes place every four years. Even though there are various stories about the history of the modern Olympic Games, one thing is sure; the game is the greatest sporting competition in the world.

    The Olympics has morphed from a mere competitive event to the most prestigious gathering of countries and even stateless citizens across the world. It has developed to a level that has become much more than a competition to more of a presence. It is therefore a huge community gathering of all continents. Participating in the Olympics is the pride of every nation. Beyond national pride and patriotism, individuals win medals for themselves and break and create records that stand in their names. So, competing in the games goes beyond national pride to personal glories and the joy of participation.

    The number of medals won by most countries during the Olympics is always a direct symbol of the level of development and interest in various sports across the world. It is interesting to see how certain sports when well-coordinated are signature sports of certain countries, given their nature and physiology and practice. Individuals of African descent often show superiority in athletics, the Chinese often excel in swimming, table tennis and precision games, the Scandinavians and Europeans often show strength in hiking, cycling and similar sports. The Americans are often excellent at gymnastics, basketball and swimming. The many games of the Olympics are too numerous but suffice it to say that each country often concentrates on those games with the highest prospects of medal wins.

    It is therefore a national embarrassment for any country’s sports body to mess up the chances of the country or citizens participating in any games they have the highest propensity to qualify for, and possibly win medals. The game and intrinsic value of the Olympics is always participation, with winning as an icing on the cake, literally.

    The Nigerian government, through the sports ministry, has often been one huge contradiction in the development and organisation of sports. Nigeria is one of the most blessed countries with human and material resources, but visionary leadership in all sectors seems to be lacking.

    The participation of Nigeria in the on-going Paris’24 Olympics seems an eloquent validation of the incompetence of the sports ministry. First, it was the very embarrassing miss of the current national anthem of Nigeria after Tobi Amusan mounted the podium to receive her gold medal. That was followed by the sad realisation that Nigeria’s hopeful in the 100 meters race, Favour Ofili’s name had been omitted from the list. This is a second time this had happened; the first being in Tokyo 2020.

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    This painful embarrassment by the Nigerian Athletic Federation for an athlete who had prepared over four years might, like everything Nigerian, not have consequences. No one will be sacked; no queries would be issued, people will return to plan other failures! This is why tackiness by the sports ministry continues to recur in most global games. At some point, the Nigerian Football Federation forgot the jerseys of the players and they had to cut tracksuits for them to play in a global competition. No heads rolled. Favour Ofili dramatically seems to have no favour with the often estacode-chasing officials of the sports ministry and Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC).

    Ofili has luckily qualified for the 200 meters event. Her lamentation in Paris shows the heartbreak of a young lady with potential and hard work, who has for the second time been messed up on a global sporting stage. We can only hope that those who committed this grave error can be punished. This tackiness is a national embarrassment and is the main reason most athletes with dual citizenship often opt to represent and win medals for other countries. A serious country has punishment and reward as a development agenda. We want to see Nigeria adopt a functional process.