The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • A timely intervention

    A timely intervention

    • NCC’s directive to telcos to unblock subscribers’ lines over NIN is commendable

    It was good that the Nigerian Communications Commission ( NCC) ordered telcos in the country to immediately restore all phone lines blocked due to non-linkage of National Identification Numbers (NIN), to SIM cards on July 29.

    The commission had set July 31, 2024, as deadline for the conclusion of the exercise but some telcos, for whatever reasons, decided to block the lines on July 28. We commend its promptness, given the mood of the nation, and against the backdrop of claims by some telephone subscribers that they had linked their SIMs with their telephone lines and their lines ought not to have been blocked.

    The registration exercise started in December 2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadline had been reviewed several times, with April 15 set as final deadline for compliance before it was shifted again to July 31.

    Reuben Muoka, the NCC’s Director of Media and Public Affairs who made the shift in the date public said in a statement on July 29 that “Despite these extensions, many phone lines have yet to be linked with verified NINs’’.

    Without doubt, the reasons for the linkage are reasonable and noble, especially in a country where all manner of criminals have been exploiting the lack of an appropriate data base of telecoms subscribers to commit crimes. Until the NCC ‘s order for telephone lines to be linked with subscribers’ NIN, it was virtually possible for anyone in the country to buy as many SIM cards as possible, use and discard them at will and yet remain on the networks. This did not augur well for national security, hence, the NCC’s directive.

    Telephone subscribers should be identifiable as this helps in crime detection. We have had situations where kidnappers used telephone lines to demand for ransom, with security agents not being able to pin down the lines to particular faces.

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    So, the directive is unassailable as it indeed is the global best practice.

    But, we have always had issues with some of the NINs, probably as a result of the hiccups that characterised the registration exercise, especially at some point in the process.

    Some Nigerians have the digital version whereby they have not just the NIN but the ID card itself. This is against the backdrop of million others with only the NIN and some biometrics on sheets of paper, despite completing the process several years ago. The digital card is the recent version of the document.

    While we do not understand the basis for barring the lines ahead of the deadline in the first place, it was heartwarming that the NCC came out promptly to direct the telcos to unblock the lines. This was the appropriate thing to do, especially as the August 1, 2024, date picked by the amorphous organisers of the #Endbadgovernance protests in the country was only a few days away. The action of telcos barring the lines could have been misread by people, particularly the IT-savvy youths who dominate the movement. In an already charged environment of economic hardship, people would naturally frown at anything they see as an action to check their freedom of communication at a time like this, and this could aggravate matters; all the angels in heaven would not be able to convince anyone that the blocking of the lines was not part of government’s agenda to frustrate communication by the protest organisers. .

    The NCC would do well to probe into why the lines were blocked ahead of the deadline.

    Meanwhile, we urge telephone subscribers who are yet to link their NIN with their phone lines to do so immediately in their own interest and in the national interest. We also urge the NCC, the telcos and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to do the rightful in the case of Nigerians with genuine issues with their NIN. They should not be punished or stressed for no fault of theirs.

  • Silver notes

    Silver notes

    • Is that INTERPOL’s silver bullet to contain Nigeria’s leaking, laundered dollars?

    The International Police Organization (INTERPOL) let out a disturbing piece of information on July 29: “hundreds of thousands of dollars” are taken out of Nigeria and laundered abroad “every hour”. 

    “Abroad” here include the immediate West African region, the African continent and the rest of the world: illicit market like some happy-go-merry gravy, with sweetheart deals, with perhaps border agencies, that should check such illicit juice, on the take.

    Pray, is the “every hour” bit of it a hyperbole — to decry the unusually heavy bleeding — or a literal sense that portrays the actual but fearsome draining?  Either way, the impact on the economy, with the low parity worth of the Naira, is severe.

    Now, whodunnit?  And would INTERPOL’s newly launched “Silver Notes Against Money Laundering” protocol prove a swift curb for the menace?

    Garba Baba Umar, INTERPOL Vice President for Africa, let out the massive dollar drain at the EFCC Academy, Abuja, at the opening of a four-day workshop for Nigerian law enforcement agencies, where he also disclosed that INTERPOL had come up with the Silver Notes to stanch the dollar smuggling and laundering crisis.

    “Evidence has shown that every hour, hundreds of thousands of dollars are flowing out of Nigeria to the region and across the world,” he said, “laundered before it reaches the pockets of criminals to enjoy the profits of their crimes, while the hardworking and honest Nigerians pay the price of crime.”

    Umar’s linkage of laundered money to the twin headache of arms and drugs, which powers terrorism, banditry and allied insecurity, must be an eye-opener — if ever the eyes of the border agencies, that should have shut out this rampaging crime, were closed.

    But again, whodunnit?  The high-profile business class that own, run or fly private jets for the endless business shuttles abroad?  The politically exposed class that fly private jets from private hangars too?  Unconscionable foreign “investors”?

    Or others, of whatever demographics, that enjoy too chummy a relationship with these border agencies; and thus take illicit advantage of such to salt away the said dollars and allied forex?

    It’s standard practice that a traveller may not have more than US$ 10, 000 on him or her, beyond which (s)he must use bank transfers.  So, why this tale of hourly vanishing of “hundreds of thousands of dollars, every hour” with no one the wiser? 

    Even if these monies exit Nigeria, how do they penetrate the destination countries?  Are the border agencies over there equally slack?  Or there are target countries, where greedy border cops take own cuts and after, look away?

    All of these queries point to the imperative of all buying into INTERPOL’s new anti-money laundering protocol, to always be a step ahead of fraudsters, since the crime has attained a global reach.

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    At the Nigerian end, close agency collaboration could not be clearer, as Ola Olukoyede, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) executive chairman, stressed during the workshop’s opening.  The day these agencies — Customs, Immigration, INTERPOL and others — see themselves as rival agencies should be over, with this money laundering challenge.

    The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) too should play an active role in getting cracking to coordinate such agency cooperation, and operational grafting.  More than any state official, the NSA clearly knows the peril of money laundering.  It funds the smuggling into the country of arms and drugs: the twin-driver of banditry and terrorism (which ravage the North) and kidnapping (which is a stubborn national nightmare).

    Furthermore, these violent crimes account for acute food insecurity, as Boko Haram terrorists have not only dislodged many farmers from their homesteads, bandits in the North West and a part of North Central have scared many farmers from their farms.  Aside high transport costs, such illicit banishments have reduced the quantum of farm stocks, thus contributing to high food inflation, which drives acute hunger in the land.

    Large-scale dollar smuggling and the concomitant money laundering are existential threats that must be faced down.  The time to buy into INTERPOL’s Silver Notes is now.  Even if it doesn’t prove the ultimate silver bullet, it’s a re-start worth embracing.

  • A commendable step

    A commendable step

    • It is good that govt has resumed trial of terrorism suspects

    The resumption of trial of the 300 terrorism suspects in Federal Government detention facilities is a welcome development. The lull in their trial, despite several promises by the immediate past Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, had ignited speculations in certain quarters on the sincerity of the Federal Government to bring the suspects to account for their deeds. The trial is reportedly coordinated by the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) Office of the National Security Adviser and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.

    According to the Head of Strategic Communication, NCTC-ONSA, Abu Michael, the trial of suspected Boko Haram members would be conducted in line with the international criminal justice system. Last December, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, said the Federal Government secured a total of 366 convictions in the trial of Boko Haram terrorists in 2017. He also said 896 suspects were discharged for lack of evidence. Furthermore, in December 2023, the Federal Government secured the conviction of four Boko Haram financiers.

    We are hopeful that the 300 suspects would undergo their trial so that justice will be served. To allow their trial to be in limbo is to do grave injustice to their victims and the nation, considering that terrorism has become a multi-dimensional challenge for Nigeria in the past decade and half. Apart from the mayhem on citizens, they prevent economic activities, especially farming from taking place. Also, children are lured into their despicable acts. So, the trial of suspects should be the minimum deterrent by the state.

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    According to Mr Abu, “The ongoing trial, which is in line with the International Criminal Justice system is being administered by the Federal High Court of Nigeria with the Complex Casework Group of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, in collaboration with other critical stakeholders under the coordination and supervision of the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Office of the National Security Adviser.” He reported that the Federal Government appointed five judges to resume the trial of the suspects, “in pursuance of its commitment to promoting social justice by entrenching a transparent administrative system.”

    We urge the security agencies to ensure the safety of the judges and the prosecution team. It will be double tragedy if those helping to bring sanity to the country are sacrificed through the inefficiency of the security agencies. Also, those on trial must be secured by the state, through well thought-out preemptive actions. Those in charge must ensure there are no prison-breaks in the correction centres where the suspects are kept. Considering the deadliness of Boko Haram and other terrorist groups fighting to destabilise Nigeria, the suspects must be kept in impregnable security facilities.

    There is no gainsaying that the North Eastern states would not regain their

    old agricultural cluster until terrorism is defeated in the region. And, without the return of farmers to their farmland, terrorism would continue to fester, as idle youths would continue to feed the terrorist mill. Again, where justice is not a just desert to those who take to terrorism, those resisting the allure of the ill-gotten benefits of the crime may be tempted to rethink their position.

    So, the Federal Government, through the office of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, Office of the National Security Adviser and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation should vigorously pursue the trial of the terrorism suspects to a logical conclusion.

    While pursing the trial of the suspects, the states in the region and the Federal Government must also pursue non-kinetic methods to defeat terrorism. The debilitating impact of terrorism is a contributor to the food crisis fuelling protests across the country.

  • Tinubu speaks

    Tinubu speaks

    • The country needs to reboot as dialogue rather fulminations will help the country

    The president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, addressed the nation against the background of protests that were tagged #Endbadgovernance. The president’s address was at once a plea for understanding and notice to mischief makers. But for the most part, the nation’s chief executive explained the vision and thrust of his administration.

    The protests, as we penned this editorial, had virtually ebbed after a fatal flow. The organisers insisted, against fears widely expressed, that it would pass without any violent incident. Some civil society groups, politicians of the opposition and even elements in the mass media extolled the virtue of free expression as pillars of democracy. The presidency tried to restrain the organisers and projected its preference for dialogue.

    On August 1, it happened, and at the end of the day, it turned out that the organisers were not able to restrain mischief in their midst. It had careened out of control. Protests were capped with and IED explosion in Borno State, clashes with security personnel led to six deaths in Niger State, one died in Kaduna. In Kano State where the governor encouraged the state’s youths to protest, the streets turned into a bedlam with protests turning into plunder and robbery.

    The organisers either gloated silently or regretted their naivety, but one thing is clear. No one can get back the lives of those lost, and the state that is rationing scarce resources will have to spend money to restore, as the president noted in his broadcast, those places like the innovation centre in Kano.

    That most of the outrage happened in the north should concern us all, not least the government. The president hinted that some of the protesters were inspired by tendentious foes of democracy and his administration. This was first stated by Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, when he explained that some persons who are disgruntled because they feel alienated by the Tinubu administration were behind them. President Tinubu called them smugglers and rent seekers.

    “For those who have taken undue advantage of this situation to threaten any section of this country, be warned: the Law will catch up with you. There is no place for ethnic bigotry or such threats in the Nigeria we seek to build,” stated the president.

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    It is perhaps the most ominous signal of the president to those who might be seen to exploit the protests for sectional and personal gains. The protesters turned out to be teenage boys who cannot read or write, as Governor Sani dilated, which meant that they were carrying out the orders of powerful gamesmen in the shadows. For instance, in Katsina, how does a boy under 16 years of age call for the return of the army when he was not even born during the years of military rule?

    There is no doubt that the policies of the Tinubu administration have come with a bitter pill. Hardship abounds in the land with runaway inflation in the cost of foodstuff and other essentials. The president explained that the economy he met was not sustainable, especially with 97 percent of all revenues spent on debt servicing. That has been reduced to 68 percent. He also reeled out a bouquet of policies that spanned humanitarian to hardcore economic measures, like the student loan, credit scheme, removal of tariffs on food import, CNG initiative and infrastructure measures.

    No doubt, they are good measures, but the Federal Government needs to embark on systematic communication as these policies develop, as most of these measures are known only to few citizens and those who know them know too little.

    Now that the protests are petering out, the country needs to reboot and start off on a clean note with an administration that needs cooperation and dialogue rather than malice and cynicism.

  • Progress at last?

    Progress at last?

    • Approval by govt to allow local refineries pay for crude in Naira is most welcome

    Most Nigerians must have heaved a sigh of relief after Tuesday’s approval by the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Executive Council, FEC, for local refineries to pay for their crude in naira, and for the refineries to accept the payment for products meant for the local market in naira. Coming in the aftermath of the needless tiff between the regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and Dangote Refinery, we consider it a major step forward in the effort to clear the pervading fog of confusion and to reset the sector now in transition.

    That the benefits are self-evident is merely stating the obvious. After all, the expectation all along, is that the country will, at the coming on stream of the new refineries, be relieved of the needless but self-imposed burden under which an estimated 40 percent of her entire foreign exchange earnings are deployed to import refined fuel. It also stands to reason that the domestic energy prices and supplies will, in its wake, be stabilised just as the inflationary pressures associated with the vagaries of the fuel import cycles are expected to decelerate in the coming months.

    In all, the expectation of Nigerians, going forward, is to see her begin to harness every benefit of being an oil producing nation.

    Yet, if there are any lessons to learn from the past, things are not always as they seem. In other words, nothing at this point, can be said to be guaranteed. For, much as the approval signals a new direction and impetus, it is not hard to see the innumerable hurdles still lying ahead. Topmost is the urgent imperative to transition the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) itself to a functional, commercial entity that is worthy of its name.

    For instance, what is the current state of crude supply for domestic consumption; and is the NNPCL in a position to guarantee seamless supply of crude to the new refineries as indeed its own at this point in time? It seems clear that without such guarantees, the approval by the government would come to naught.

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    It comes to the fundamental question – what is the current state of infrastructure on which the policy is anchored? Are there capacity constraints that could severely limit its operability? What is the government doing about them? Beyond the giving of mere approval, we expect the government to follow through to ensure that things work as they should.

    Second is the regulatory environment. Needless to state that the overall success of the policy will depend on the dexterity of the regulator. It may well be that the country has moved into a phase that could best be described as uncharted. Yet, the times are such that demand that the regulator be up to its game without which the noble intentions of government are unlikely to be realised.

    In an environment riven with rent-seeking, anti-competition and oligopolistic behaviours; are citizens prepared to give the regulator the benefit of the doubt when issues arise? Is the government prepared to stand firm behind the regulator to resist the subtle attempts to bully and perhaps intimidate that important institution, when the situation demands so? And is the latter itself fully equipped – in terms of manpower and hardware – to take on the challenge? And the players; are they prepared to play by the rules?

    We say this mindful of the fact that the larger interests of the country as against those of the narrow segment of players are at stake. To the extent that none of the players could have reached this point without the active support of the government, the government, we must emphasise, bears equal responsibility to ensure that the benefits of those incentives are made to trickle down. It may well be that the atmosphere of unfettered competition does not currently exist; nonetheless, the regulator owes Nigerians the duty of ensuring that no single player is allowed such powers as to determine what happens in the market, and that industry standards are strictly enforced at all times. Those to us are the challenges, going forward.

  • Fair is fair

    Fair is fair

    • It is gratifying that the Fed. Govt. agreed to allow 16-year-olds gain admission into tertiary institutions for 2024/25 session

    Minister of Education Professor Tahir Mamman stirred the hornet’s nest at the 2024 Policy Meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in Abuja on July 18, when he said that the 18 years minimum age for admission into our universities would be enforced from this year.

    The matter had remained contentious for some time.

    The National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), among others, do not agree with the 18 years minimum age requirement. NAPTAN believes that many of those trying to impose the policy on Nigerians send their own children abroad at 16 or even below. ASUU wants the government to leave the issue of admission in the hands of the universities and focus more on the problems bedeviling our universities.

    But Mamman has always frowned at the idea of some parents, who, he said pressure their underage wards to get admission into tertiary institutions. He has always maintained that children under 18 are not mature enough for university education.

    But the matter would ever remain contentious so long as the various tendencies involved have no rule guiding the process. After all, even as we speak, some universities would not admit students under 18.

    Indeed, the issue got to a head in May, when the Senate had to assure Nigerians that 16-year-old candidates seeking admission into tertiary institutions in the country would still be accommodated.

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, made it categorically clear that “comment on the minimum age requirement for admission is not a law. So it is just an opinion. It’s not a law. By the time the Senate resumes, whoever wants to bring that one out to make it a law, will now bring it and then the procedures will take place.”

    He added that “We will sit down and talk. Even if they say that the minimum age should be 30 or 12, we will all discuss it at an open forum. So, it’s still a comment which cannot be taken to be the law.”

    This would appear to be the position of the National Assembly members until Prof Mamman declared at the Policy Meeting that the Federal Government had already bought the idea of pegging the age requirement at 18, and that it would take effect from the 2024/25 academic session.

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    “Our laws require students to be in school from six years —Yes, there are those who do that from five—, and remain in primary school for six years, basic education for three years, and secondary school for three years… It doesn’t require a statement of the minister… we are only restating what is in the law”, Mamman had said.

    The occasion where the minister made what he said was the Federal Government’s position on the matter known was auspicious: JAMB’s 2024 Policy Meeting. That is where vital decisions on matters relating to admissions into the various tertiary institutions are taken by all the relevant stakeholders, including vice-chancellors, registrars, rectors, provosts and heads of other higher institutions. Other stakeholders at the meeting were heads of regulatory agencies such as the National Universities Commission (NUC), the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and the National Council for Colleges of Education (NCCE).

    It is however gratifying that the minister eventually bowed to reason when it was pointed out at the forum that insisting on 18 years for this year’s admissions would be unfair to candidates below 18 that had already taken the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) because they were not aware that would be the position when they took the examination. As they say, where there is no law, there is no sin.

    We do not have any problem with the enforcement of the 18-year minimum age requirement, especially as it is now to take effect from next year.

    Our concern however is how the system would accommodate geniuses in the country, just like elsewhere. Their fate should not be hampered by any general rule.

  • Onyeka Onwenu (1952 – 2024)

    Onyeka Onwenu (1952 – 2024)

    • A multi-talented star who was an ‘Elegant Stallion’ to the end

    In a sense, she died the way she lived: in the spotlight. Her final act was her performance at a friend’s birthday party in Lagos, on July 30. According to an eye-witness account, she had “performed a couple of her songs ending up with her famous song, ‘One Love Keep Us Together’… Just about a few minutes after her performance, she sat down and drank some water and immediately collapsed, and was rushed to the hospital.” It was the end of her earthly journey. She was 72.

    Onyeka Onwenu described herself as a journalist and an entertainer. She started her professional life as a newsreader and reporter at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Lagos. At the height of her journalism practice, in 1984, she did a striking documentary on corruption and environmental degradation in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, titled ‘Nigeria: A Squandering of Riches.’ “Journalism is an honourable profession,” she said in a published interview. “We are very important to the society because we draw attention to the real issues in the society, which is how to move this country forward.”

     She had a first degree in International Relations and Communication from Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA, and a master’s degree in Media Studies from The New School for Social Research, New York, USA.

    She made a name for herself as a journalist, but was better known as a singer and songwriter. The high points of her musical career included her 1986 album, ‘One Love,’ and her collaboration with Juju maestro Sunny Ade, which produced the song ‘Madawonlohun’ (Let Them Say), as well as two other songs, ‘Choices’ and ‘Wait for Me,’ which focused on family planning and were endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria. 

    Interestingly, she switched from secular music to Christian/gospel music in the 1990s. Her latest work, ‘Inspiration for Change,’ advocates attitudinal change in Nigeria. La Cave Musik plans to release a collection of her works, titled ‘Rebirth of a Legend.’ She earned recognition for her contribution to music and arts in Nigeria. 

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    She made the headlines, in 2000, following her protest over NTA’s refusal to pay royalties for her songs. The station had used ‘Iyogogo,’ a track from the ‘Onyeka!’ album, without her permission. She went on hunger strike outside the station’s premises, and stopped after six days when both parties reached an agreement.

    Her appearances in many Nollywood movies further demonstrated her artistic talent. In 2006, she won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in the movie ‘Widow’s Cot’; and was also nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role in the movie ‘Rising Moon.’ She was in the movie ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ in 2014, and ‘Lion Heart’ (2018).

    It was a testimony to her development consciousness that she entered politics, and unsuccessfully contested the position of local council chairman twice in Ideato North Local Government Area (LGA), Imo State. She was from Arondizuogu in the LGA. “Get it right at that level and you would have solved more than 60 percent of the problems in this country,” she said.

     A former chairperson of Imo State Council for Arts and Culture, she became executive director/chief executive officer of the National Centre for Women Development, in 2013, under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.

    She was a recipient of two Nigerian national honours, Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) for her contributions to the Nigerian entertainment industry, and Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR), in 2011.

    Known as ‘Elegant Stallion,’ an appellation she said was given to her by a Nigerian journalist, Onwenu explained, “It has to do, I think, with the way I walk and present myself.” It perhaps captured her productive and impactful life. 

  • Part-time lawmakers

    Part-time lawmakers

    It is worthwhile idea, but are our lawmakers ready?

    The idea is nothing new. But because of the nation’s cash crunch and cost of governance, the call has been resonant for Nigeria to rethink its present pattern of government and prune activities and personnel to make governance lean and mean.

    The latest of such calls came from a former governor of Abia State and present senator, Orji Uzor Kalu. He broadcast on social media that the legislative houses in the centre and the states should adopt a part-time system and meet when necessary.

    “I think it will be a very good idea if my colleagues and other members of the houses of assembly will agree that we can sit for three months and do constitutional amendment first,” the senator said.

    “So we can sit four times a year and if there’s any emergency, there will be emergency sitting.”

    We must note that such assertions reflect a desperation on the part of Nigerians who wish to make governance lighter and in touch with the greater majority of our citizens.

    Such calls believe that the legislature will spend less on salaries and allowances and lower the cost of maintaining the offices and staff as well as the bureaucracy of the legislature. Such costs actually have infuriated many citizens. For instance, a senator’s salary may be a comparatively modest N2 million a month. But the allowances rack up to N13.5 million, and that amounts to over N14 million a month, and the full year pay is about N170 million per year. For a four-year term, a senator goes home with over N600 million.

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    The president just approved a minimum wage of N70,000. This is a wide gulf from what their lawmakers make. So, it goes without saying that the lawmakers will save Nigerians a lot of money if the government pares the lawmakers pay. But we must note that it will take the lawmakers to overturn their own prosperity.

    Senator Kalu has exhibited courage to call for this chastening of their happy days. But he is just a lone voice. Again, it has also been a source of fury in the land that the lawmakers paid N150 million for sports utility vehicle for each of their members and this ran into billions that the average citizen could not fathom.

    Lawmakers of all political parties embraced this, and it was a marker that our current crop of politicians are not averse to a wanton life.

    The mistake of such calls for pruning the legislature is the assumption that the problem with Nigeria is system. The system, whether presidential or parliamentarian, is a child of culture. We have not grown above the showy decadence of one politician going to his village, filching their votes and then returning to build a palace in the same village. The same villagers would line up to feast with the local hero in that palace, and beg for money for school fees and casava processors. When they get the cynical requests, they hail the local hero again and fight and even die to return him to his life of contemptuous languor.

    We should recall that this call for a smaller legislature and with a spare schedule is not only not new in rhetoric, but we have had it before in the First Republic. It was then that we began the so-called 10 percenters and the lawmakers were no different in lifestyle from what we have today, except that they have become more daring and increasingly morally footloose.

    In spite of these drawbacks, we still believe that the idea of a new schedule for lawmakers and smaller pay is worth the try. But the campaign, like Kalu suggested, must start in the  people’s assemblies, and the people must insist that they will only vote for persons who would oblige.

  • Trump shooting

    Trump shooting

    •Nigeria has a lot to learn from its aftermath

    Investigation into the failed attempt to assassinate former US president and Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump, on July 13, during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, remains inconclusive. However, Kim Cheatle resigned as US Secret Service director following pressure from federal lawmakers who probed the incident. She was appointed to the position in 2022, after serving 27 years at the agency in various roles.

    She called the shooting “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades,” and took “full responsibility for the security lapse.” The Secret Service oversees the protection of current and former US presidents and other officials.

    In a shocking security breach, a 20-year-old kitchen worker in a nursing home, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was perched on a roof and armed with an AR-style rifle, had opened fire at the former president while he was addressing a crowd. One person was killed and two others were wounded.   Trump said a bullet “pierced the upper part of my right ear.” Protection officers had rushed him away with a bloodied ear. The shooter was shot dead at the scene by a Secret Service sniper.

    Investigators are still trying to answer the inevitable questions, particularly concerning the shooter’s motivation and security preparations ahead of the campaign rally.

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    Crooks had an associate degree in engineering science, was a registered Republican and also a member of a local shooting club. The representative of the shooting club was reported saying it “fully admonishes the senseless act of violence.” The gun used in the incident was said to have been purchased by the shooter’s father. The attacker was reported to have purchased a box of ammunition containing 50 rounds on the day of the rally. 

    Yet again, this shooting raises serious questions about American gun culture. Easy access to guns continues to be an issue in the US; and the high rate of shootings, including mass shootings, in the country ought to encourage stricter gun control. Gun ownership is legally protected by the country’s constitution for self-defence, hunting and recreation purposes.

    The US has been criticised for the large number of firearms owned by civilians, largely permissive regulations, and extreme levels of gun violence compared with other developed countries. It is difficult to understand why the country has not introduced harsher gun control measures. 

    Trump has been blamed for promoting violence with his often-inflammatory political rhetoric, and his antagonists see the shooting as a karmic payback. But puzzling aspects of the incident include the finding that the shooter had used his phone to search for images of both Trump and President Joe Biden. It was unclear if he had planned to shoot Biden as well.

    Despite the security failures that exposed Trump to the bullet that hit him, his protectors acted with commendable professionalism by promptly providing cover for him and rushing him to hospital for treatment. 

    Also, Cheatle demonstrated a sense of accountability by yielding to pressure to resign as US Secret Service director. A member of the congressional Oversight Committee that questioned her regarding the incident said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the committee’s hearing resulted in her resignation “and there will be more accountability to come.”

    There are lessons for Nigeria in this incident. The probe of the shooting continues with a determination to get to the bottom of the matter. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and a bipartisan congressional task force are at the centre of the investigations. President Biden spoke about an “independent review to get to the bottom of what happened.” It is noteworthy that the pursuit of clarity concerning the incident is unaffected by political leanings.

    The resignation of the US Secret Service chief is another important lesson. Nigeria’s security crisis continues, with no one held responsible for security failures, and no one taking responsibility for security failures. 

  • Fair is fair

    Fair is fair

    •It is gratifying that the Fed. Govt. finally agreed to allow 16-year olds gain admission into tertiary institutions at least for 2024/25 session

    Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, stirred the hornet’s nest at the 2024 Policy Meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in Abuja on July 18, when he said that the 18 years minimum age for admission into our tertiary institutions would be enforced from this year.

    The matter had remained contentious for some time, as, even as we speak, some universities would not admit students under 18.

    For instance, the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), among others, do not agree with the 18 years minimum requirement. NAPTAN believes that many of those trying to impose the policy on Nigerians send their own children abroad at 16 or even below. ASUU on its part feels that the government should leave the issue of admission in the hands of the institutions and focus more on the problems bedeviling them.

    Mamman has always frowned at the idea of parents, who, he said pressure their underage wards to get admission into tertiary institutions. He has always maintained that children under 18 are not mature enough for university education.

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    The issue got to a head in May, when the Senate had to assure Nigerians that candidates can be admitted into our universities once they are 16 years. That was in reaction to Nigerians’ opposition to the policy seeking to bar under-18 candidates from being admitted into the universities. Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu, made it categorically clear that “comment on the minimum age requirement for admission is not a law. So it is just an opinion. It’s not a law. By the time the Senate resumes, whoever wants to bring that one out to make it a law, will now bring it and then the procedures will take place.”

    He added that “We will sit down and talk. Even if they say that the minimum age should be 30 or 12, we will all discuss it at an open forum. So, it’s still a comment which cannot be taken to be the law.”

    This would appear to be the position of the National Assembly members until Prof Mamman declared at the Policy Meeting that the Federal Government had already bought the idea of pegging the age requirement at 18 and that it would take effect from the 2024/25 academic session.

    “Our laws require students to be in school from six years —Yes, there are those who do that from five—, and remain in primary school for six years, basic education for three years, and secondary school for three years… It doesn’t require a statement of the minister… we are only restating what is in the law”.

    The minister chose an auspicious occasion to make the policy pronouncement: JAMB’s 2024 Policy Meeting. That is where vital decisions on matters relating to admissions into the various tertiary institutions are taken by all the relevant stakeholders, including vice-chancellors, registrars, rectors, provosts, etc. Other stakeholders at the meeting were heads of regulatory agencies such as the National Universities Commission (NUC), the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and the National Council for Colleges of Education (NCCE).

    It is however gratifying that the minister eventually bowed to reason when it was pointed out at the forum that insisting on 18 years for this year’s admissions would be unfair to candidates below 18 that had already taken the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) because they were not aware that would be the position when they took the exam. As they say, where there is no law, there is no sin.

    We do not have any problem with the enforcement of the 18-year minimum age requirement as from next year.

    Our concern, however, is how the system would accommodate the geniuses in the country. Their fate should not be hampered by any general rule.