The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Multiplying bureaucracies

    Multiplying bureaucracies

    •We can do with fewer development commissions

    It is not surprising that leaders and citizens of the Northwest and Southeast zones, respectively, have been profuse in their approbation of President Bola Tinubu’s signing into law, last week, of the bills establishing the Northwest Development Commission and Southeast Development Commission. There is obviously the belief of the people of these zones that the new commissions will have beneficent developmental impact, thus improving their standards of living.

    While we understand the strong sentiments in favour of the establishment of the commissions in the two regions, as well as President Tinubu taking the necessary executive action to breathe life into the new entities, we can only wait and see if they will have the requisite impact on the transformation of the geopolitical zones as envisaged.

    However, we do not believe that multiplying bureaucracies or throwing money at problems is necessarily the best or most effective way of solving them. If they were, the Niger Delta today would be the cynosure of all eyes in terms of infrastructural development, environmental renewal or delivery of qualitative services to the majority of the people.

    Both the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs were set up to address the widely acknowledged challenges of environmental degradation, displacement of communities, disruption of livelihoods and the menace of disease as a result of the intensive and extensive prospecting for, and drilling of crude oil in the resource-endowed zone.

    Even then, for what has the commission been best known over the years? It certainly is not its positive impact on the lives of the citizenry but rather the allegations of wanton corruption and attendant probe into the activities of successive managements of the agency, with several sordid revelations of deep ethical decay. Incidentally, the organisational forerunner to the NDDC, the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Commission (OMPADEC) also collapsed and was scrapped due to the large scale corruption indulged in by those appointed to run its affairs.

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    In a similar vein, the Northeast Development Commission (NEDC) was established to help that geo-political zone cope with the challenges of widespread displacement of whole communities, erosion of livelihoods, destruction of infrastructure and the impoverishment of large numbers of people as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency which had the Northeast as its epicenter. Here again, it would be difficult to query the decision to set up this agency.

    But should the setting up of specialised zonal agencies now become a fad which all geopolitical zones should benefit from, something akin to the sharing of the proverbial national cake? We don’t think so.

    In the first place, the proliferation of these commissions creates the impression that the states and local government councils are inept and incapable of fulfilling their constitutional mandates. Again, the multiplication of zonal development commissions increases the costs of governance at a time when the Tinubu administration is working towards harmonising and rationalising the number of ministries, departments and agencies to reduce wastage in governance and achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery in line with the Oronsaye report.

    For, each development commission will come with its complement of top management and supporting staff that will require official cars and additional costs of fuelling these in addition to other perquisites. Beyond this, the creation of these development commissions seems to be based on the notion that revenues from oil will continue to be the source of their funding while the emphasis should be getting each geopolitical zone to try as much as possible to tap the resources available to it and be largely financially self-sustaining.

    However, none of this is to say that the new development commissions cannot achieve set developmental targets. Only that it would require rigorous oversight over them by the requisite committees of the National Assembly, the vigilance and alertness of the anti-graft agencies in tracking their financial transactions and the readiness of the leaders and people of the various communities to ensure that funds allocated to them are prudently utilised and projects budgeted for are not only implemented but are of the desired standard.

  • Windfall tax

    Windfall tax

    • Nigerians, and not banks’ shareholders, should reap the profit

    Penultimate week, the Senate gave expeditious passage to President Bola Tinubu’s request to amend the Finance Act to impose a one-time windfall levy on banks’ foreign exchange profits in 2023. Convinced that the president’s proposal of 50 per cent was not deep enough, the senate had, while giving approval, raised it to 70 percent.

    This has, quite naturally, generated disquiet, particularly, in the financial services industry. While the government was eager and robust in the arguments that it needed the fund for capital infrastructure development: education, and healthcare access as well as public welfare initiatives, those opposed to it have adduced arguments ranging from potential double taxation, its somewhat retroactive nature which it is said violates the tenets of taxation, with fears also expressed that the levy could derail the on-going recapitalisation mandated by the apex bank. Others still, have taken the rather extreme position that the levy will send wrong signals to the usual quarters – investors.

    Unfortunately, logical as some of the arguments, particularly the latter appear to sound, we are far from persuaded of their merit. In fact, we consider them as utterly specious if not entirely spurious. To be sure, a windfall tax is precisely what it is – a levy by the government on sectors or businesses that have disproportionately benefited from favourable market conditions.

    This is where those pushing against the levy miss the premise, which is the responsibility of the government to maintain a modicum of social justice and equity at a time of national distress.

    The point is that these are not the usual profits derived from banks’ normal right-through-the-mill operations. Rather, these were enabled by government’s policy of the floating of the naira as a result of which they literally made a ‘kill’.

    The other part is that the Central Bank of Nigeria had long recognised and had thus served advance notice that the funds were not freebies to be deployed as the banks pleased. Noteworthy here is the CBN circular of September 2023 barring commercial banks from utilising the gains for dividends and operational expenditures. This was restated in March, with a reminder to the banks to exercise “utmost prudence and set aside (foreign currency incomes) FCY revaluation gains as a counter-cyclical buffer to cushion any adverse movements in the FX rate”. The directive was unequivocal: “… banks shall not utilise such FX revaluation gains to pay dividends or meet operating expenses.”

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    Flowing from the above is the third part which is whether the banks should have, in the circumstance, been allowed to privatise the windfall, given that the reverse could also have spelt doom for their sector. The position, clearly disingenuous, holds no water. After all, there have been countless instances in the past when banks, facing dire stress situations, had to be bailed out by the government, even when no similar records exist of the banks opting to sacrifice their profits for the public good. In other words, whereas governments in the past have had to step in to ‘socialise’ the profligacy of banks’ executives and the losses that attenuate them, we have not read of similar mechanisms to ‘socialise’ if only a portion of their bumper profits out of generosity.

    More importantly is that other economic players in the manufacturing and the real sectors actually posted unprecedented losses from the same measures. In the circumstance, it only stands to reason that government could not be expected to allow one sector to cash out not so much because they put in the hard work, but because fortune smiled on them. And certainly not when the government already had its hands full clearing the mess it inherited, as indeed the fallouts of its own corrective policies.

    Most certainly, there is nothing in the new Finance Act just passed that the banks can point to as not to have been forewarned about. What the act has merely done is align the intention of the monetary side with the explicit wishes of the fiscal side as spelt out in the act; the only notable exception being the proportion of the sacrifice to be borne by the banks.

    How much are we talking about by the way?

    Estimates have put the windfall at approximately N1.3 trillion. That the government in its wisdom, considers the Nigerian people as by far more deserving of the windfall since they ultimately bore the pains, as against the shareholders of the banks, is hard to fault. It is not something the banks or anyone for that matter should squabble over; certainly not at this time.

  • Sheathe your sword

    Sheathe your sword

    • Organisers of #Endbadgovernance and government need to jaw-jaw

    Protests are usually a private or public expression of disapproval or objection to certain policies or decisions, especially those of governments, which make most public protests political. They are often used to call the attention of governments to certain programmes that the protesting groups consider inimical to their interests, with a view to exerting changes.

    However, protests can also be organised by an individual, like Rosa Parks, interest groups like students, Labour unions or professional bodies.

    History has recorded various protests across the world, especially for abolition of slavery, independence, civil rights and gender rights.

    In Nigeria, there was the ‘Ali-Must-Go students’ protest in the early 1970s, the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) protests of the mid-‘80s. We also had the June 12, 1993, post-election protests, the subsidy protest of 2012 and the #ENDSARS of 2020. All of these were organised by registered and known groups. This time, the real organisers are playing shy of announcing their identity. This is ominous and smacks of cravenness.

    Generally, most of the protests in Nigeria ended in tragedies as lives and properties were often lost.

    This is why we urge the organisers of the August 1 #Endbadgovernance protest across Nigeria to be cautious. We should draw some lessons from the recent Kenyan protests that claimed dozens of lives along with loss of properties. While we believe that protest is a significant part of democracy, we advise that, given the casualty records of past general protests, dialogue seems a better option because protest is an ill-wind that blows no one any good. The scars of the #ENDSARS protest, for instance, are still visible.

    We also appeal that governments at all levels must explore all peaceful options through strategic communication with the angry youths. Governments must continue to use all channels to reach out for a peaceful resolution. Dialogue and diplomacy exist for a time like this. This is not a time to use the security agencies to come down hard on the protesters who have a right to peaceful protest. This is the time to use the most globally accepted methods to quell any form of violence.

    The security agencies must show that lessons have been learnt from the tragedies of the past. The organisers too must know that there are miscreants on standby ready to cause chaos in this socio-economic hard time. Protests happen in other countries and the security agencies act professionally by using minimal force and being vigilant, especially in areas of higher risks.

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    Already, there is a trust deficit between the government and the people, so the security agencies must, as agents of the state, be as professional and as calm as possible.

    We believe that the seeming long notice by organisers of the protest should have given the police enough time to prepare for a professional job.

    We also appeal to the organisers to  remember the African proverb, “when you throw a stone into any crowd, chances are your relation might be a victim”. It is not beneficial to the protesters to inflict more hardship on each other through wanton destruction of properties.

    Politicians on their own must be measured in their utterances so as not to cause more discontent in an already tense situation. It is also instructive to politicians to curb their excesses. There is too much flaunting of luxury amidst the poverty in the land. There is nothing more annoying than this, especially in a country where starvation and hunger stare the majority of the people in the face. If there is economic crisis, it must cut across the board.

    This is a time for introspection, not violence. To paraphrase British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, it is better to jaw jaw than to war war.

  • Dormant accounts

    Dormant accounts

    •CBN’s new rule is welcome but money should be available as soon as owners request for it

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed banks to transfer balances in their dormant accounts to the Unclaimed Balances Trust Fund (UBTF), domiciled in the apex bank, and that should yield nearly N20 trillion, which is about 60 per cent of the amended 2024 national budget. The apex bank issued that directive tagged “Management of Dormant Accounts, Unclaimed Balances and Other Financial Assets in Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria”, to operationalise Section 72 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.

    The apex bank will open and maintain a dedicated ‘UBTF Pool Account’ to manage these funds and has promised to transparently keep records of the owners of the dormant account and the balance due to them in the UBTF Pool Account. The apex bank said it will invest the monies in Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTBs) and other securities that is approved by the management committee for unclaimed balances.

     To ensure transparency and prompt access to funds, the CBN maintained that refunds of principal and any accrued interest shall be made to owners within 10 working days of receiving a request.

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    The apex bank, in the release signed by the Ag. Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, John Onojah, said the directive: “is sequel to the conclusion of the review of the Guidelines on the Management of Dormant Accounts and Other Unclaimed Funds by Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria issued in October 2015”. It further said: “The revised guidelines, which operationalise Section 72 of the BOFIA 2020, followed engagement and consultations with relevant stakeholders, whose comments and recommendations were considered in the review process.”

    No doubt, the N20 trillion is a huge sum, which has been lying idle in the coffers of the commercial banks that don’t engage in long term lending for the growth of the national economy. Again, with such huge sums in their coffers, the true financial health of the banks may not be known, and where you have unscrupulous management, they may be using the funds for unethical lending and sundry unwholesome practices.

    We however, urge the apex bank not to behave in similar manner when the funds are warehoused in its custody.

    Such a humongous sum, if properly managed, should reflate the economy and provide funds for infrastructural development, at minimal interest rates. Even the much needed mortgage funds could come from such a dormant

    financial hegemon, depending on what is allowable by the act. What should be the watchword is transparency and fidelity to the rules and regulations establishing the UBTF Pool Account. It will be unacceptable to mismanage the funds, so that should the owners show up, their monies would be paid back without stress to the national treasury.

    It is also possible that some owners of the monies may never show up, where they are afraid to explain the sources of the funds lying dormant in their names or pseudo names. But that should not be the preconception in managing the money. It should be treated as if the owners would show up the next minute. Of course, some of the dormant accounts may be owned by those who have other accounts, or are economically challenged, and may have abandoned the concerned accounts for some time.

    The 10-year period to declare an account dormant is also reasonable. If for any reason an account has been dormant for that length of time, the state, through the CBN, can put it to use, but should be ever ready to return the money to the owner, once called upon. Nigeria has remained potentially rich because of unimaginative leadership. We urge the present leadership to continually think outside the box, and seek new ways to transform the nation’s economy.

  • Good roads

    Good roads

    •Innovative funding to build new ones and maintain old ones

    Back at the first term of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the then works and housing minister, the late Chief Tony Anenih, was in a lecture, if not outright combative, mood at a parliamentary over-sight function.

    Asked by the the National Assembly-in-session why X amount was budgeted but near-zero improvement was noticed on our roads, the sagacious Anenih lectured: “One thing is budget provisions; another thing is cash-backing” — end of story, as the street lingo goes!

    If many of the federal roads are bad, making them near-death traps for travellers, the reason is clear. All through the years, there had not been enough “cash backing” from the yearly budgets to funnel cash to maintain those roads. There is simply no magic to it. As it was in the beginning (to borrow that Bible-speak), so it is now and so might it ever shall be — except, of course, we think out of the box.

    Already, the roll call of bad roads nationwide is staggering: Enugu-Port Harcourt road, East-West road, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Abuja-Lokoja Road, Makurdi-Nsukka 9th Mile Road, Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, Calabar-Ogoja Road, Sagamu-Benin Road — and this list is by no means exhaustive.

    Sadly too, with Nigerians’ trademark bad driving and general reckless road culture, even some gleaming road today posthaste becomes a sinking hole tomorrow. Many just over-speed, and ram into ramps. Others, even among truckers, no thanks to a bad maintenance culture, lose the covering tyres, with the naked rim slicing through the tar; and shortening the roads’ normal lifespan.

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    Aside, the story of many — if not most — of those roads is naked corruption, with supervising government officials colluding with contractors to use substandard materials and skewed methods in road construction. The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has been shouting himself hoarse over these base practices, while spreading his “gospel” of concrete roads.

    Now, the idea is not “either-or” — that is: the government fixing the old roads before embarking on new ones, or vice versa. It is rather to nail down innovation funding that can generate enough cash, aside ones flowing from yearly budgets, to take care of these roads.

    From “no cash-backing” of Anenih, Babatunde Fashola, works minister under President Muhammadu Buhari, opted for the road infrastructure tax credit scheme to encourage corporates to build new roads or fix old ones. They would then use the project cost as a tax credit against their company income tax (CIT) liabilities until the entire sum is defrayed.

    Though the government forfeits part of its immediate CIT earnings, this scheme gives the corporates the chance to spend on road infrastructure that could enhance their bottom lines. 

    Which was why it made sense for Dangote Industries to pour the cement it produces into reconstructing the Apapa-Oshodi-Gbagada Expressway in Lagos: a corridor on which its trucks are quite visible and busy. Other corporates as NNPC Ltd and Glo also bought into the scheme. The government should further streamline this funding innovation to make it more transparent, efficient and effective.

    Another is Sukuk bond which, again, the Federal Government, under President Buhari, used to fix sections of its roads, after Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, as governor of Osun State, had tapped into Sukuk for a massive classroom expansion project in his state. 

    Umahi, in the ongoing Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, is adopting the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Financing (EPC+F) model, a Public-Private-Participation (PPP) device, in which the government pays a little counterpart funding, contrasted to the private investor’s huge investment. For his pains, however, the investor secures the right to toll and recoup his money for a pre-agreed number of years.

    In all of these, the road is the subject. But really, it is only a front to further deepen the economy: the Sukuk bond for privates (household, cooperatives and corporates) that have investable money; the tax credits for companies to invest in infrastructure that can boost their operation aside the public use of the road, and EPC+F for corporates that can invest long-term and recoup long-term.

    If the government explores more of these funding methods — but make them open and transparent — the odds are there would be a bigger pool of funds to build new roads and routinely repair old ones. That would have the added bonus of improving Nigeria’s very poor maintenance culture.

    But aside roads qua roads, an integrated part of investments in roads should be rail. A modernised and expanded rail network would lengthen the lifespan of our roads by pushing the heavy cargoes — dry or wet — to the railways.

  • Tarry awhile

    Tarry awhile

    Senators should consult widely before taking final decision on council electoral commission

    Following the Supreme Court’s decision on funding only democratically constituted local government councils, the Senate is considering the establishment of an independent electoral commission for the last tier of government. The reason given by Senator Sani Musa who introduced the bill on the issue appeared compelling. He felt that the gains from the judgment by the apex court would be useless unless political independence, too, could be guaranteed for the local councils.

    The rationale behind the bill is unassailable because, as long as the governors are in charge of party primaries and the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) are controlled by the states’ chief executives, it will be difficult to guarantee credible polls at that level.

    Since 1999 when the SIECs have been conducting the elections, the ruling parties have been returning almost 100 per cent success, irrespective of the results from the elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    There is no doubt that something has to be done about the situation if the place of the electorate as kings is to be preserved. Councils are too important to be unduly toyed with. That level is meant to be a training point for leaders for other tiers. It is also expected to galvanise the people as support base for development. We have lost these opportunities over the years because governors have treated chairmen and councillors as low-level appointees. It is good that the Supreme Court has now ruled that money from the Federation Account should be disbursed to only democratically elected councils.

    It would appear though that the judgment merely introduced another controversy and conflict between the governments at the federal and state levels. If the hands of the Federal Government are strengthened in terms of funding, and then conducting the elections, that would be thwarting the principle of federalism, tilting the system closer to unitarism.

    There are already suggestions that the governors should approach the Supreme Court to nullify whatever law may come out of the National Assembly that may be at variance with the clear provision of the Constitution giving power to conduct local elections to the SIECs. And, if the federal lawmakers decide to amend the relevant section of the Constitution, it will still require validation by two-thirds of the state assemblies to become effective. That would be a tall order without the support of the governors.

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    Administration of the councils appears to be a conundrum now. This suggests that both chambers of the National Assembly should consult all stakeholders. Politicians of all hues, lawyers, retired judges, statesmen, scholars and former lawmakers should be invited to address the relevant committees of the National Assembly to address the knotty matters. It should yet be noted that the future of the country depends on how we handle governance at that level. If we want to cure the nation of the pervasive trust deficit, democratic institutions at the lowest level must be strengthened.

    There is a limit to what could be left to the judiciary. Unless political leaders realise that the structure has been warped for to long and must be straightened, it will be difficult to lift a country meant to be the giant of Africa. For too long, the resources of the country have been corralled by a few, thus consigning the majority to the dunghill to fend for themselves. Most local officials have been too used to coming together only to share the little released to them from the Joint State Local Government Accounts.

    Financial autonomy is not enough. Even political autonomy cannot be guaranteed in a setting where the politicians have fouled the atmosphere. The people should show greater interest in what happens in their environment. Professionals, the media, civil society organisations and others who have hitherto shown no interest in governance at all levels should begin to ensure that people’s interests prevail at all times. It is not enough to grumble and murmur as no one surrenders privileges unless compelled to do so.

    In all this, we should not be oblivious of the international best practice. Nigeria has come a long way, about 64 years after independence, and 25 years into the Fourth Republic. We have been stagnant for too long. It is time to wake up.

  • Welcome news, but…

    Welcome news, but…

    •That global banks are set to invest in Nigeria’s power sector is good news. But we must avoid past slip-ups

    Good news!  The World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) are soon to invest US$ 30 billion in electricity infrastructure in Africa, according to Bayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power.

    A quarter of that sum — US$ 7.5 billion — will likely come to Nigeria, the minister added.  Both banks would spend the money to extend electricity to 300 million more Africans, in the next five years.

    The additional boon for Nigeria is that the new investment will mostly focus on its age-long weak transmission facilities — clearly the sick component of the country’s prostrate power market.  Transmission investments have fallen back for decades.

    These investments, when they come, would boost transmission capacity, which synchs with the Siemens project.  Siemens seeks to construct additional transmission lines in their thousands; and also add tens of other transmission stations, with injection power sub-stations.

    The minister, at a function at Splendor Electric Nigeria Limited, a firm that produces porcelain insulators near Odogbolu in Ogun State, announced that the pilot of the Siemens project — a Germany-Nigeria, government-to-government special power programme, which Siemens executes — had been completed.  Phase 1 of the proper project will soon roll out.

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    Indeed, transmission is critical.  Even if generating plants produce power, wheeling it, particularly over a long distance from the national grid, remains a hefty challenge. Proof?  Don’t wander too far: between 2017 and 2023, the national power grid collapsed 46 times.

    Though the last but one collapse was by a union strike, too many had to do with a lack of robust transmission capacity.  The minister’s feedback on the Siemens project is, therefore, cheery.  We can only ask the Federal Ministry of Power, Siemens and everyone involved to stay focused and not drop the ball.

    If the Bola Tinubu administration fixes just power, delivering 24-hour service at reasonable pricing, it would have attained a legacy which generations unborn would hail.  So, power is critical — nay, existential — to fixing the Nigerian economy; and to make it to cruise at that high production level that not only delivers development, but also prosperity, thus lifting millions out of poverty.

    Still, we have our fears.  The last time Siemens made a showing here, under the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, it exited in a cloud of infamy, with allegations that it paid hefty bribes to some Nigerian officials. 

    But that has not stopped the Federal Government, both under President Muhammadu Buhari and now under President Tinubu, to go back seeking the company’s help to crack Nigeria’s age-long transmission conundrum — a logical result of years (decades even) of non-investment in this critical corridor. 

    Not a shred of doubt about Siemens’ technical competence.  But this encore must pass the integrity test to ensure whatever is invested is money well spent; and one that would deliver sustainable result.  The same should go for the coming World Bank and AfDB investments.

    Indeed, the latest Siemens deal is a continuation of the Buhari-era effort — a praise-worthy move in positive continuity in critical programmes.  Which is why the minister and others driving it must spur it such that it achieves a timely delivery, which results in a clear power quantum leap.  But again, openness and transparency are crucial.

    The PDP era, spanning Presidents Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, blew a cumulative N2.7 trillion on the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP), otherwise laudable, had it delivered the goods. 

    But the reverse has been the case, leaving the sorry impression of a fool soon rid of his cash! Indeed, many of the Obasanjo-era machinery rusted away at the Apapa ports for sundry reasons.

    Such chaos in planning, after spending so much money, must be history, if the current power efforts must bear the right fruits.  It’s a race against time!

  • Edo shooting

    Edo shooting

    •The state police command must apprehend and bring perpetrators to book

    It has been one disturbing incident after another as the Edo State governorship election, scheduled for September 21, approaches. The latest in a chain of alarming politics-related developments was the gun attack on the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Monday Okpebholo, and the judicially reinstated deputy governor of the state, Philip

    Shaibu, who has broken ranks with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

    Both men escaped death by a whisker. The two leading parties blamed each other for the July 18 incident, on Airport Road, Benin, in which a police officer was killed, and others were injured. 

    The police, in a statement, said the perpetrators were suspected political thugs. Shaibu and Okpebholo had arrived at the Benin Airport from Abuja, they said, and as their supporters welcomed them, the gunmen emerged from nowhere and began shooting sporadically. “In the process, bullets hit a police inspector, Onuh Akoh… attached to Sen. Monday Okpebholo,” who died on the way to hospital, the statement added.

    Shaibu, who was impeached in April by the Edo State House of Assembly, was returning to the state after the Federal High Court, Abuja, had reinstated him. The lawmakers said they found Shaibu guilty of disclosure of government secrets. But his impeachment appeared stage-managed, following his conflict with the state governor, who was opposed to his ambition to succeed him. The governor backed businessman Asue Ighodalo, who was eventually picked as the PDP governorship candidate.

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    Justice James Omotosho, in a judgement on July 17, declared Shaibu’s impeachment illegal, unconstitutional, null and void. The court issued an order restraining Governor Godwin Obaseki and the Edo State House of Assembly from stopping Shaibu from performing the functions of his office.

    The Edo State House of Assembly has appealed the judgement, and filed a motion for a stay of execution pending appeal. Obaseki has replaced Shaibu with Omobayo Godwins.

    This is the context of the shocking shooting. Oddly, despite the court judgement in favour of Shaibu, the Edo State government, in a statement, maintained that “Omobayo Marvellous Godwins remains the Deputy Governor of Edo State and the public is enjoined to disregard the shenanigans orchestrated by Shaibu.”

    The Obaseki administration, by this posture, exposed its lawlessness.  It also demonstrated an imperious character at odds with democracy. Clearly, seeking a stay of execution order from the court is not the same thing as getting the order. “If you bring a stay, I will obey. I’m not a lawless person like them,” Shaibu was reported saying, in response to the state government’s claim that it had obtained such an order.

    Since there is no court order staying execution of the judgement reinstating him, he is the deputy governor, contrary to the government’s baseless claim.  Indeed, it is ironic that the state government elected to uphold the rule of law is conducting itself in a way that suggests a disdain for law. 

    It is commendable that Okpebholo visited the family of the police officer who was killed in the course of his work protecting the senator, and promised continuous support for the family, including sponsoring the education of his children.

    The police must ensure that those responsible for the attack are caught and brought to justice. It is important to send a strong signal that political violence is unlawful and punishable.

    This shocking incident should put the security agencies on their toes. They must be ready to enforce law and order before and during the coming governorship election in the state. 

    It is condemnable that political forces in the state introduced violence towards settling a contest for power. The leaders of the parties seeking power must eschew violence and discourage their followers from taking that path. Politics should not be a game of death.

  • Noble act

    Noble act

    •President Biden’s withdrawal from the race is a step for democracy

    This time every four years concentrates the world’s mind on the United States. Just a week ago, after the Republican Party’s convention, many pundits and a frothy partisans were projecting a landslide victory for candidate Donald Trump.

    But that was before President Joseph Biden bowed to pressure to part ways with his dreams to run for a second term. A recent debate between him and Trump began a flurry of calls and worries over the president’s capacity as an octogenarian to defeat the Republican nominee.

    The paradox was that Trump laced his deliveries with lies and bluster, yet his party and many Americans, including Democrats, thought Biden was too fragile to run. President Biden resisted the calls, even when it was obvious that the top party elders had in private and public asked him to step down for somebody younger.

    Meanwhile, the Republicans gloated and hoped, expecting an intransigent Biden to survive the pressure and formalise his candidacy. But that was not to be. He eventually announced on X that he was stepping down. Not much later, he endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to be his successor, as  he yielded to the voices of the party bigwigs, who may be described as the eminence grises, the soft power of political party.

    That decision was instructive. From seeming like sit-tight despot from the developing world, he re-energised hope in what many see as the model democracy. All the worries and calls alchemized into a berth for the Democrats who now feel that they have a good chance to edge out the insurgent Trump in November.

    We must learn from the fortitude of Mr.

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    Biden who redeemed the dignity of leadership of the most powerful office on earth; this contrasts with some in the developing world, including in Africa, who would rather rig the polls and weave a web around themselves and install their names as cults in the power elite.

    Donald Trump represents what has become in the past decade a surge in populism, especially of the right-wing ideology. Most of it emphasises individual over process, tribe or group as values over the rest of the country, canonises violence, uncivil rhetoric and mob conscience.

    That is why many in the world are nervous about a Trump return to the White House. He has promised to go after his enemies, to pardon those who invaded Capitol Hill on January 6, mass deportation, among other brutish policies. He lies as a habit, insults as a brand and excuses his impunity as a right. In spite of all evidence, he has continued to lead the lie that he won the last presidential election. He sees his new candidacy not only as defiance but his possible victory as a platform for revenge. 

    The candidacy of Kamala Harris is not in itself transformational but has a consequential value for history. If she wins, she will save the world the despot in democratic toga, and continue the normalcy and vision that Biden has imprinted in his country and the world. Again, she will not only be the first woman to lead the world’s top power but the first black woman. Hillary Clinton ran twice and lost, so did Geraldine Ferraro before her. But no one showed greater prowess than Ms. Clinton who won the popular vote but fell short on electoral count.

    When Biden became president, he put the world on notice that cordial and progressive internationalism was replacing the hawkish era of Trump. Trump has used expletives on Africa and believes anyone who is Muslim ought not to breathe on earth. He fills Christian fanatics with a delusion of an apocalypse for others whereas he does not evince pious values.

    We therefore commend Biden for stepping down and giving democracy another chance.

  • Satanic house helps

    Satanic house helps

    •The growing tendency of domestic staff to turn monsters should be checked now

    It is fast becoming a trend in the country that domestic staff put an end to the lives of their employers. In Lagos, Enugu, Abuja and Port Harcourt, among other cities, many maids had been arrested and prosecuted for the murder of their masters-turned-victims.

    In October, last year, an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Dr. Funmilola Adefolalu, met her untimely death in the hands of a disgruntled house help, Joy Afekafe. The 14-year-old had only been engaged for the task of assisting the lecturer in doing household chores three weeks before she turned her murderer.

    In police net, the house help was said to have confessed to the crime, ascribing it to termination of her appointment by her boss for persistent misdeeds. When the teenager turned up and the lecturer let her in after she had been sent packing from  the home, thinking that she had come to show remorse and plead for forgiveness and reinstatement, she got two equally young boys, her classmates, to smash stool on her head, and followed with stabbing with knives until she died.

    The story is not different from many others. They are usually young. When they did not stab, they poisoned, especially when they are as young as eight or nine years old. This has raised a question of immaturity and juvenile delinquency. While sympathising with the victims, it calls to question the trend of exploiting young, poor children contrary to the Child Rights Act and convention of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

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    Governments at the federal and state levels should device means of checking this growing tendency in the interest of the society. Young parents who are in formal employment are won’t to go that route, especially when they are in the cities. In Lagos, for example, young mothers find it difficult to prepare children for school or pick them after school hours as the traffic situation is punishing. Some do not go for outright strangers, but children of relations from the village, believing those could be better managed, but this has even been worse as they tend to tell stories of cruel treatment that are sometimes untrue.

    It is not always that it results in death. Some of the housemaids engage in using the toothbrush of the children entrusted to their care, others rape them, while some others steal jewelry and money from the house and bolt away.

    Early this month, one maid in Abuja was caught on CCTV urinating in the teacup. After such a disgusting practice, she returned the cup to the rack without bothering to wash it. A further review of the camera showed that it was not an isolated practice. She had been stealing food from the refrigerator.

    Experts have counselled that would-be employers should be more diligent in probing into the background of prospective employees. Some insist that it is better to employ the services of recruiting agencies for the purpose. But, it has been said that this is not necessarily a way out since even nieces brought from the village have turned out to be as notorious.

    These incidents point to the need to become more professional as is the case in the developed countries. It is not the way to help indigent relations. In developed countries, housekeeping is serious business. The housekeepers are trained, mature and have the needed references. While going for children may be cheaper, it is too dangerous a road to take. The law enforcement agents should engage psychologists and sociologists in charting a template that would check this crime. There are too many stressors and shocking developments in the society to allow this trend continue.