The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Unlocking the Kanu logjam

    Unlocking the Kanu logjam

    •Apparently, legal justice is not enough to restore peace to the South East

    Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, now a celebrity of sorts, is such a complex personality. Among the Igbo people of the South East region, he is either a hero (to his followers and friends) or a villain to the millions who have suffered the loss of limbs and property. Others are so bitter about him that a mention of the ñame could make those who have lost family or relations throw up.

    When Justice Kolawole Omotoso of the Federal High Çourt, Abuja finally delivered the judgment in the seven count charge preferred against him by the Department of State Services, the matter further divided the country. Beyond his kith and kin in the East, most people in other parts of the country where he had courted enemies by his caustic broadcasts on the illegal Radio Biafra channel were predominantly pleased that he got what he deserved. Some even, as the prosecution led by Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, canvassed, felt he deserved the ultimate senence-death.

    However, the case against Kanu, leader of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra, is not that straightforward. Yes, on November 20 he had his day before the Court of Justice, it is obvious that what he got was just legal justice, which no one could fault, but the broader matter of social and political justice is still hanging, waiting for resolution.

    Ideological and philosophical matters are hardly settled and not simply determined using the law of the land. In countries like the United Kingdom where the Irish Republican Army raged for decades and thousands were killed, the conflict could not be resolved by the many convictions of the zealots secured in the law courts.

    In South Africa where the white supremacists had imposed the apartheid system, peace could not be restored until both sides, the blacks and whites negotiated the way forward. It is obvious that more than five decades after the civil war was lost and won, the people of the region continue to nurse a breakaway impulse for the region from Nigeria, and irrespective of whatever a figure like Kanu could have done to hurt the people, many of them still blame it on the Nigerian state. More than other parts of the country, words like marginalisation are thrown around more among Ndigbo. According to the law of the land, Kanu still has the opportunity of appealing the Omotoso verdict, but legal minds have argued that he stands little chance of being freed in the higher courts. One, because evidence adduced against him was so weighty that hardly could any judge have found him a lacuna for freedom.

    Second, because he muddled up his case by his mannerism in court that is so documented by the trial judge, and his dismissal of his lawyers, including such members of the inner bar like Kanu Agabi, SAN, a former Attorney General of the Federation and the respected Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN. The shabby treatment he gave his counsel right in court tended to support the charges against him as it suggests he is a violent man. He literally refused to submit to the authority of the court trying him. Third, some of those who could have pleaded his cause have been pushed away.

    The question that should bother all is: what is the way forward? There is no doubt that men of the uniform are hurt, deeply hurt. They lost so many men, equipment and limbs. The social schism in the country has become deeper by the activities of IPOB and Eastern Security Network, its violent wing, both established and run by Kanu’s men. Certainly no government would easily gloss over the feeling of the armed forces and other security forces. Yet, the logjam must be broken, somehow.

    Nnamdi Kanu is locked away in the Sokoto correctional centre, the heart of the caliphate that he had so vigorously campaigned against, and on which he chose to hang the travails of his people. A lot would depend on President Bola Tinubu to find political solution that would assuage the feelings of all involved. The first step to finding an out-of-court settlement to the conflict is for Nnamdi Kanu to be willing to make critical concessions. So far, he is yet to display remorse or convince the state that he would be willing to embrace peaceful conduct. To be released and bring an end to the apartheid regime, the venerable Nelson Mandela agreed to drop violent protest and lead the African National Congress into cooperating with the state, even after he had been in jail for 27 years.

    The Igbo leaders must be involved and ensure that a more moderate leader emerges. It does not appear that Nnamdi Kanu has the temperament to drive the process. How could he be persuaded to step aside or assume a less prominent position? How would they all accept the minimum conditions put forward by the government? What concessions would the federal government come up with? What role would leaders of the other regions play in resolving the conflict?

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    The international community may have to play some part in the same way that organisations like the Red Cross and the United Nations played in similar situations in other countries. If Israel and Hamas could negotiate through third parties, Nigeria would have to explore means of finding peace. At a time when the Northern parts of the country are boiling, we have to ensure that we secure the whole of the South. There is no doubt that bringing the East on board could be more difficult than the procedure adopted to bringing peace to the Niger Delta under the Jonathan administration. The Biafran Spirit has been on for so many decades and even children who were yet unborn by 1970 when the war ended have imbibed the ideology. This would therefore necessitate getting the diplomatic expertise of persons who had participated in such negotiations to drive the process.

    The ball is in the court of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. He has to show that he is willing to cooperate with the governors of the East for whom he had little respect, and the leadership of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Nigeria must move forward. To develop, the tempest in the various parts of the country has to subside. In the East, freedom for Kanu has become necessary, but it has to be at a cost. The haemorrhage must stop. This includes economic haemorrhage that came from the shutdown on Mondays. The Igbo people are industrious traders and businessmen and should be free to transact their businesses in accordance with the laws of the land.

    Truly, all hands must be on deck.

  • The Sahel crisis

    The Sahel crisis

    • ECOWAS needs to engage the world for an urgent solution to bandits and ISWAP

    Danger is not looming in the Sahel and the West African region. It is not news that it is intractable now. The real fear is that it may rise to a catastrophic dimension such that the world may scramble in vain to stop it; and it may be a difficult task to do so in short order. Meanwhile, deaths, destruction and displacement may become routine.

    The warning has been in the airwaves in the past few years, especially after the French pulled out their forces from former colonies at the behest and hectoring of the locals. But the immediate alarm came from the world’s top civil servant and the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guiterres.

    “The security situation in West Africa and the Sahel is growing more critical by the day,” Guterres said as he virtually addressed a Security Council session on peace consolidation in West Africa. For emphasis, he pointed to the emergencies in one of the countries in question. He said “developments in Mali are a clear reminder of what is at stake.”

    It is important to state that most of the Sahel countries were French colonies, and they include Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Gambia, which speaks English, is the exception.

    On Mali, the world’s top scribe said, “In the last month, terrorists have continued to attack military-escorted convoys, killing and kidnapping both soldiers and civilians.”

    He added that the Sahel “is not only a regional dramatic reality,” and warned that the Sahel has growing links across Africa and beyond, and so the dire situation could balloon into a “global threat.”

    He did not raise the alarm in a vacuum. He matched it with data. He said that “about 4 million people are now displaced across Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and neighbouring countries,” while 14,800 schools and more than 900 health facilities have shut down.

     His solutions are a unified regional security response, fully funded humanitarian appeals, and a coherent development strategy to address the underlying drivers of extremism.

    “Terrorists thrive where the social contract is broken, when families are plunged into poverty and young people don’t have employment, don’t go to school,” he stressed.

    While the UN scribe was right about concerns like poverty, weak institutions and climate change as some of the causes of this growing emergency, we need to go back in time to trace why it has become not just an African cross but the world’s burden.

    During the presidency of Barack Obama, the United States was unhappy with the ways of the Libyan leader and dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi had an internal crisis and NATO countries backed rebels who ambushed and killed their president. NATO, led by the U.S. Airforce sandwiched Gaddafi in the capital and immobilised his forces with a no-fly-zone policy. They reinforced the momentum of the rebels who had exploited the Arab Spring to dare their despot.

    Eventually, the rebels took over, and they became a Frankenstein monster that even morphed into a domestic political crisis in the United States when goons stormed the U.S. embassy and killed their ambassador, Chris Stevens, in 2012 in Benghazi.

    It was obvious that the West got more than they bargained for. Rather than get rid of a dictator, they unleashed a generation of unrest in Africa.

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    Libya became a fountainhead of rebels and militants. Rings of hoodlums did not only move like wanton flies in the Sahel, they inspired never-do-wells and opportunists, especially of the religious stripe.

    This factor immobilised the West, who left Africa to its devices. But it has gotten worse as climate change affected the prosperity of the herders who could not find grazing routes without colliding with land rights and farmers. They crossed borders and felt a sense of entitlement.

    With arms flowing from Sudan, a ring of Islamic terror found a fertile ground.

    Other factors followed. Youths who have lost faith in West African countries also saw the routes as passageways out of their countries and continent. Miscreants in Libya are making business and committing crimes from kidnapping to human trafficking to slave labour to rape.

    If there was an Arab Spring in the Middle East and Maghreb, there was impatience with French troops in the Sahel and West Africa. In Niger, for instance, there was an outcry of nationalism. It was trumpeted by its military junta spearheaded by its head of state, General Abdourahamane Tchiani. He exploited the presence of foreign troops, including the French, Americans and British, as a colonial presence in the face of his people’s dignity.

    The same happened in other states, including Burkina Faso, where its military junta led by Ibrahim Traore, has whipped up a nativist hubris. Yet all these countries are not strong enough to fend off the insurgencies, especially of Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP).

    As Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, who is now Minister of Defence in Nigeria, had attributed the resilience of the ISWAP and bandits in Nigeria to the free flow of weapons to the elements. He has asked the international communities who have their pulses on the arteries of international finance to identify and stop their white-collared militants in air-conditioned lofts feeding the bloodshed and slaughter in lush and arboreal quiets in the region.

    If some of these countries are sitting on edge as the insurgents acquire territory after territory and edge further to the state houses, it is because they have weaponry, resources and an intangible artillery: faith.

    They combine resource and belief, two assets that beat their foes. This makes it important for the rest of the world to take the tasks urgently. The same Sahel countries that have driven the Western military out cannot overcome their foes without the forces they booed out of their lands.

    Is it a time for them to eat humble pie, and ask the forces back? Or shall they latch on to national dignity and die a slow, inevitable humiliation. We cannot call for force since it intercepts sovereignty rights. We can only ask them to look for a diplomatic route out of this situation.

    The consequence of inaction is a looming Afghanistan, and that would imply that there would not be a resistance, and resistance would be a call back to the melee in Bosnia in the 1990s. Libya just gave us a brutal prototype of such a scenario.

    Most of the endangered countries are under the military, and the soldiers have acquitted themselves without statesmanlike virtues. They have hectoring brutes in uniforms, appealing to thankless African pride while their people are displaced, killed, their women raped and taken to wife by force. Their routine lives have been taken away from them.

    Four million people in the sub-region will be a child’s play as refugees if they are allowed to surge ahead. More territories won, more refugees, more miseries. Europe is angry over the many Africans ferrying to their countries but are not willing to tackle the fundamental problem pouring them into their waters and their borders.

    It is this context that has created a problem for Nigeria. Of the about 2000 entry points through our borders, only about 84 are manned. Is it a wonder that Nigeria is a target of bandits, with our forests as nests, while they invade, kidnap for ransom, and cart away schoolchildren?

    The United Nations needs to galvanise the world for the region, and the regional leaders under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also need to cry in one voice and take the lead in a quest for help and set a cooperative template for how to flush out the bandits and Islamists. This will not work if they do not first stop the money flow. The situation is very urgent today. It will be even more so in the next 24 hours.

  • Basic right

    Basic right

    • The authorities must heed court ruling that free basic education is non-negotiable

    The Federal High Court, Lagos, ruled that the government, at all levels nationwide, is legally bound to provide free, compulsory and universal basic education to children of primary and junior secondary school age. Justice Daniel Osiagor held that under Section 11(2) of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act, all three tiers of government have a binding statutory duty to ensure basic education nationwide.

    According to the judge, the right to basic education conferred by the referenced statute is one that can be pressed for in the courts. He delivered his verdict in a suit filed by eminent human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate on Nigeria (SAN) Femi Falana, and rights activist Hauwa Mustapha, on behalf of a civil society coalition, Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB).

    The matter was filed on January 19, 2024, and the judge gave judgment on October 9, this year. A certified true copy of the verdict dated November 14 was, however, not circulated in the media until the closing days of November. Respondents include the Attorney-General of the Federation, Attorneys-General of all the 36 states, the Minister of Education and his FCT counterpart, and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

    Issues raised by the plaintiffs for the court to determine included whether the respondents were not under legal obligation to provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every Nigerian child of primary and junior secondary school age; whether refusal or failure by the respondents to contribute not less than 50 percent of total cost as commitment to execution of free and compulsory basic education for every Nigerian child was not illegal and a violation of Section 11(2) of the UBE Act 2004; and whether the refusal or failure of the respondents to access the sum of N68bn available for universal basic education isn’t illegal.

    Among reliefs sought was an order directing attorneys-general of the 36 states and the FCT Minister to pay their counterpart funding to access the N68bn matching grant in the account of the Universal Basic Education Fund, and to report compliance within 30 days of the judgment of the court.

    In his verdict, Justice Osiagor held that all levels of government are legally required under Section 2(1) of the UBE Act to provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age. The referenced provision stipulates: “Every Government in Nigeria shall provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age.”

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    He, however, said while, by virtue of Section 11(2) of the UBE Act, governments at federal and state levels, including the FCT, are under obligation to provide free and compulsory basic education within their territories, the decision to access the federal matching grant or not remains discretionary. He also excused states from legal liability to provide 50 percent counterpart funding to access federal block grants. Failure to do so, according to him, did not automatically constitute a violation of the law. “I hold that Section 11(2) is directory and conditional, not mandatory, and that failure to access the federal block grant does not per se amount to illegality,” he said.

    The court further clarified that while governments are legally required to provide free basic education, states are not bound to access UBEC matching grants to do so. “The word ‘assistance’ connotes aid that a recipient may lawfully decline. States that choose not to access the federal grant are not in direct violation of Section 11(2), provided they independently fulfil their statutory obligation to provide basic education,” he stated. Still, he frowned on states leaving education funds unclaimed, noting that such practice undermines efforts to reduce Nigeria’s estimated 20 million out-of-school children.

    Addressing arguments by some states that the right to education as prescribed in Chapter II of the 1999 Federal Constitution (as amended) is a non-justiciable directive principle, the judge held that the right to basic education under the UBE Act is enforceable and justiciable. According to him, once parliament enacts a law imposing obligations, those obligations become legally binding regardless of general constitutional directives.

    Justice Osiagor gave his verdict against the backdrop of statistics showing that Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently reported that the figure for the country now stands at 18.3million children. “This places Nigeria at the top globally for the highest number of out-of-school children,” head of UNICEF’s Bauchi field office, Tushar Rane, was reported saying at a two-day regional stakeholders’ engagement on out-of-school children in Gombe. “Accordingly, while the court strongly deprecates the refusal of states to access available education funds, such refusal does not constitute a breach of law, unless it can be shown that the state has altogether failed to provide basic education, contrary to Section 2(1) of the Act and the Child’s Rights laws enacted in each state,” the judge said.

    The verdict is a welcome clarification of the obligation of the government, at all levels, for basic education of the Nigerian child. For too long, there has been utter neglect of this responsibility, with some government representatives arguing that the constitutional prescription is more of a moral responsibility that isn’t legally enforceable.

    Justice Osiagor’s verdict makes clear that there are grounds for legal enforcement. Relevant authorities should, therefore, know that their responsibility to provide free, compulsory, universal and quality education to the Nigerian child is far more binding than hitherto assumed.

    The pursuit of free and compulsory basic education as state policy in Nigeria dates back to the initiative in the Western Region in 1955 led by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, that led to massive increase in school enrollment – from 456,600 children in 1954 to 811,432 in 1955. The initiative at the national level includes the Universal Primary Education (UPE) of 1976 and the Universal Basic Education (UBE) of 1999, though both fell far short of the education boom of the Awolowo years. In contemporary times, the policy has been a very lame provision of law and the Osiagor verdict may just help in giving it some teeth.

  • Jimmy Cliff (1944-2025)

    Jimmy Cliff (1944-2025)

    •A musical genius and major cultural pillar

    For Jimmy Cliff and his country, The Harder They Come, Jamaica’s first major commercial film (1972), was the game-changer.  Cliff, the film’s lead actor, also released its soundtrack of the same name: first on Island Records (UK) in July 1972; and then on Mango Records (USA) in February 1973.

    Aside from Cliff’s four songs: The Harder They Come, You Can Get It If You Really Want, Many Rivers To Cross, Sitting in Limbo — all which became evergreen classics — the 39:55-minute, Rocksteady-Ska-Reggae album had other tracks from Jamaica’s reggae groups: Scotty, The Melodians, Toots and the Maytals, The Slickers, and the singer, Desmond Dekker.

    In the immediate post-colonial era, and its clash of cultures, with metropolitan music bossing the global airwaves, The Harder They Come gave Jamaica and its Caribbean cousins a cultural voice.  Reggae broke into the global plain, so much so that Johnny Nash, a Black American, would later fancy his own share of the global reggae market.

    Reggae, as implacable militant music against general racism and sundry global vices — with the Jamaican Rastafari (and Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Salasie as godhead) — reached its zenith under the ever-iconoclastic Bob Marley — a meteor that took global music by storm but vanished, as suddenly, in a blaze of glory! 

    Cliff, who broke the global ice, was the diametric opposite.  Before his death on November 24, aged 81, he was the most durable of them all. Over 64 years, he churned out hits after hits.  A discography from Hard Road To Travel (1967) to Refugees (2022) was indeed one artiste, but different generations, straddling two centuries!

    He was born James Chambers on 30 July 1944 at St. James, Colony of Jamaica, into a dirt-poor family. Set on a music career, even from his very early teen years, he rebranded himself Jimmy Cliff — to envision the musical heights he would attain. 

    He reached those heights. The unknown James Chambers of 1944 had become the global star, Jimmy Cliff, at his death in 2025 — all by hard work that honed his natural talent.  His adaptation of, and fusion with, other musical genres also aided the dance hall acceptability of his very fecund releases.

    Cliff was a multi-instrumentalist — guitar (acoustic and electric), piano, conga, keyboards — as he was a multi-genre artiste: ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul.  He was not only a songwriter; he was also a singer and performer — a complete musician, if you like.  His voice and vocals were unique, with a range almost beyond comparison.

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    His multi-genre endeavour helped him to tap into many musical cultures; and thus, a broader global audience.  That wide appeal fetched him a seat in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010 — the only Jamaican, aside from Bob Marley, to attain that distinction.

    But his multi-genre talent was as much a strength as it was a weakness.  While Marley jazzed up reggae-qua-reggae as a potent protest music, sending jitters into the then metropolitan powers, Cliff maintained a ska-rocksteady-reggae-soul medley.

    Of course, ska-to-rocksteady climaxed in reggae in the Caribbean.  So, by retaining these tri-genres, Cliff stayed true to his roots, while he hugged global stardom.  With that, he pushed societal norms and mores, without necessarily going over-board.

    Cliff released some telling protest numbers: “Vietnam” (against the US Army bloodshed in Vietnam); “Suffering In The Land” (which decried global hunger and the arms race); “The Power and the Glory” (capitalist America vs communist Soviet Russia).

    On human experience, “The News” was a bitter-sweet recall of his 1976 Nigeria tour — his very first to Africa.  A hoax of a contract dispute landed him in jail where, he sang, he had a hell of a time getting bail! Yet, much later, he said he never hated Nigeria, as he was happiest when in Africa.  Before that nasty experience, he had tasted fan adoration: waving fans, in Lagos, bordered the route from the airport to his hotel.

    The unknown James Chambers, and aspiring Jimmy Cliff at 17 in 1961, rose to The Honourable Jimmy Cliff, Order of Merit (OM), Jamaica’s highest honour in the arts and sciences, aside from two Grammy awards, from seven nominations. 

  • Police presence

    Police presence

    •This goal must be pursued wholistically

    Prompted by an intensified national security crisis, President Bola Tinubu’s recent order to withdraw about 100,000 police officers from VIP protection so they can “concentrate on their core police duties” was an appropriate response.

    The President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement, said: “In view of the current security challenges facing the country, President Tinubu is desirous of boosting police presence in all communities.’’ VIPs requiring protection will now be assigned armed operatives from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps instead of police officers, Onanuga added. 

    He also stated that Tinubu has approved the recruitment of 30,000 additional police personnel and that the Federal Government is working with states to upgrade police training facilities nationwide.

    Later, the President, while declaring a security emergency, said the police “will recruit an additional 20,000 officers, bringing the total to 50,000.” He also called on the National Assembly “to begin reviewing our laws to allow states that require state police to establish them.” 

    It is widely known that Nigeria is seriously underpoliced, which is a critical factor undermining security across the country. The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has an estimated strength of 371,800 officers, serving a population put at 236.7 million people in 2024.

    According to a November 2025 report published by the European Union Agency for Asylum, “more than 100,000 police officers were assigned to the protection of politicians and VIPs, rather than to tasks serving the general population,” thus compounding insecurity.

    The deployment of a disproportionate number of police officers to politicians and VIPs across the country has long been an issue of public concern. It continued despite directives aimed at redressing the situation, issued by the police leadership at different times in the past.

    Following the President’s intervention, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun ordered the IGP Monitoring Unit and Commissioners of Police X-Squads to ensure strict monitoring and compliance. They are to arrest any officer found escorting VIPs. Egbetokun said over 11, 566 officers will return to “frontline duties” as a result of the presidential directive, adding that “policing capacity will improve.”

    There is no question that the enforcement of Tinubu’s directive is crucial. The challenge of implementation demands political will and professional resolve.  

    Notably, a retired deputy inspector general of police, Zanna Mohammed Ibrahim, argued that the police force needs urgent reforms for the successful implementation of the President’s directive. He stated that some IGPs had issued the same order in the past but lacked the structural support to enforce it.

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    Ibrahim further noted that VIP protection “has become an economy” in the force, describing it as a “cash cow” that generates revenue streams for officers, making the structure extremely resistant to reform. He listed the beneficiaries of such protection, including politicians, businessmen, entertainers, expatriates, religious figures, malls, banks and private individuals “seeking status.”

    His deep insider knowledge of police operations makes his observations and recommendations noteworthy and useful. Apart from the necessary political will, he suggested steps for the success of the policy. He advised the authorities to: Publish a list of withdrawn officers; Deploy them to stations, patrols and intelligence units; Establish an NSCDC-based VIP Protection Service; Ban direct escort requests to the IGP or Commissioners of Police; Digitise all VIP security requests.

    Other suggestions are: Introduce penalties for illegal escorts; Reward officers returning to active policing; Conduct surprise audits of formations; Launch a national policing-reform communication campaign; Use community policing to fill temporary gaps.

    These call for a thoroughgoing institutional overhaul: dismantling the old system; building the new system; and sustaining the change.

    It is important to ensure the implementation of the presidential order. But, more importantly, it is necessary to envision and emplace a reformed police force.

  • Soul-searching milestone

    Soul-searching milestone

    • At 25, ACF needs to reimagine itself

    The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), a northern socio-cultural group, stands as a regional equivalent of the southwestern Afenifere and southeastern Oha N’Eze Ndigbo. It was formed in the year 2000 with its main goal being to represent the interests of Northern Nigeria, often associated with the Hausa-Fulani.  It was established to push for regional growth and development in all ramifications, but often veers off to advocate for national interests which invariably equally benefits the North.

     ACF celebrated its silver jubilee in November 2025.  While we commend the ACF for what it represents, we agree with notable voices during the three-day event in Kaduna, who called for bold solutions to long-standing insecurity and development challenges across the region.

    ACF’s Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, said: “It is time to look for further, better, more effective means of curtailing insecurity.” He also said: “We must begin in earnest to plunge into modern developmental efforts.”

    A former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd.), described the milestone as a moment to reflect on the past and the future.  He described Northern Nigeria as “a microcosm of the nation,” adding, “When one part of the country develops, that progress translates to others.”

    The host and Kaduna State governor Senator Uba Sani stressed that open borders, drugs and arms flows were central to festering banditry.

    Also, representatives of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, and Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni, stressed the need for national unity and strategic approaches to security and community development.

    The northern region is beset with many developmental issues:  poverty, illiteracy, out-of-school children, almajiris, insecurity, child-malnutrition, IDPs, insurgency, unemployment, child-marriages, porous borders etc.

    ACF has been campaigning for good governance in their region as well as within the country.  It has often spoken up about the increasing insecurity in the region as a major destabilising factor.

    One of the major achievements of ACF since its establishment is the seeming monolithic voice it has given to the region. The group has been very protective of the political and economic interests of the North. They understand the value of maximising areas of comparative advantage like political power and promotion of regional agricultural opportunities.

    Highlights of the silver jubilee included the launch of the ACF Endowment Fund, aimed at moving the Forum beyond mere advocacy to the implementation of tangible, community-based projects focused on socio-economic development, skill acquisition, and adult education in the region.

    Also, security dominated the discussions, which stressed the need for a unified front and collective commitment to end banditry and terrorism, described as one of the gravest tests in the North’s history.

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    Notably, major criticisms levelled against the ACF include: elite club syndrome, failure to effectively address core northern problems, ethnic/religious bias and parochialism, and inconsistent messaging and internal conflicts.

    We believe it is time for serious introspection. They seem to be all talk and seemingly little action. For instance, they have not been very effective in pushing for accountability from politicians in the region.  The poverty index in the region has not shifted significantly in decades. Out-of-school children in the North account for 80 per cent of about 20 million in the country that has the global highest number of out-of-school children.

    Insecurity in the region, which is impactful nationally, is fuelled by poverty, religious extremism, lack of accountability and general unemployment. The 19 states that make up the North have been plagued for so long by religious fanaticism, bigotry and herder intransigence. ACF seems ineffectual in addressing these issues, despite its influence in the region.

    The region’s main economic power – agriculture – has been badly impacted by insecurity as bandits continually sack communities and herders force their cows into agricultural fields. ACF has not shown, through actions, that it understands the long-term impact of insecurity in the region.

    Nineteen states out of 36 is a huge number. Insecurity in the region discourages economic investments by Nigerians and foreigners.  ACF has seemed unable to act in non-partisan ways to open up the region for tourism and other forms of economic engagement. We would have thought that the northern body would at least put their house in order by holding leaders in the region to account. There are low-hanging fruits that are achievable just with political will: basic education is handled by the local and state governments.

    We expect the group to pressure state governments in the region to address illiteracy. Education in the 21st century continues to be the key to development. Not focusing on education in the region continues to multiply the problems of the North in a world driven by ideas and technology.

    Focusing on Islamic education alone falls flat in the face of reason and modern global economics. The Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have keyed into the global economic developmental agenda while maintaining the sanctity of their socio-religious practices. ACF can tap from their strategies if the North wants to join the global developmental train.

    Insecurity in the Northern region should be on the front burner. Insurgency, banditry, kidnappings and school abductions have received mere rhetorical attention with little effort to actively address the core causes, despite the national impact. 

    The causes of the social problems in the region are all human issues that can be addressed with the right political will. ACF has not shown enough zeal in making the leaders in the region do what is necessary to, at least, reduce some of the problems.

    Many have criticised the ACF as being basically an elitist association where the majority of the members merely peddle influence for personal political and economic gains without giving much thought to the larger population. The critics argue that their impact in the last 25 years has not changed the circumstances of the people.  Poverty and illiteracy continue to be the albatross of the northern economies in particular, and the nation in general.

    While we don’t expect ACF to be the magic wand for solving all the region’s problems, we expect that its 25 years of existence ought to have recorded more successes than what it has represented. The northern region is bedevilled by so many issues, and as a group made up of the region’s elites, more action and louder voices must come from the group.

    The ACF must understand that charity begins at home. They seem to shout loudest when they are making demands on the government at the centre but seem indifferent when it comes to holding leaders in their region accountable to the people. They give a misleading impression of a beggar region when they are not a querulous one.

    They have 19 governors, top statesmen, ministers, resources. What they lack is the political will and it begins with acute introspection. Not just on rhetoric but action. The plague of insecurity is the urgent one on their table to be tackled here and now.

    The socio-economic problems in the region must be addressed with urgency and ACF can facilitate that. The next 25 years of the group must be a great departure from the last 25 years. ACF must learn from its mistakes.

  • Remarkable growth

    Remarkable growth

    •Capital market record turnover signals investor confidence

    There is a lot to be said about activities of the Nigerian bourse in the last 10 months as ordinarily deserving of celebration. According to the trading data released last week by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), total transactions at the exchange have doubled to reach an all-time high of N9.57 trillion within the first 10 months of trading. This represents an increase of 114.1 per cent over N4.47 trillion recorded in the comparable period of 2024.

    The other part, equally notable, is that these were substantially driven by rising foreign transactions, with foreign investors accounting for more than one-fifth of activities at the market. Indeed, this newspaper reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) actually account for 21.2 per cent of total transactions as against 16.7 per cent in the comparable period of the past year. In all, total foreign transactions have nearly tripled in the current year, totalling N2.03 trillion by October; 172.45 per cent above N744.3 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.

    Overall, total FPI inflows stood at N1.118 trillion by October, an increase of 225 per cent above N344 billion recorded by October 2024 just as FPI outflows doubled by 127.3 per cent from N400 billion in 2024 to N909.6 billion in 2025. As against the trading situation in 2024 when the country had an FPI deficit of N56 billion, FPI surplus stood at N209 billion in 2025, underlining the comparatively higher inflows against outflows.

    As for domestic investors, transactions during the 10-month period reportedly increased to N7.54 trillion in 2025 as against N3.73 trillion recorded in 2024 – an increase said to be due to an upsurge in activities by retail and institutional investors.

    Without question, what the signs suggest is that the bold macro-economic reforms undertaken since the inception of the Tinubu administration have begun to deliver concrete results. We are referring to a quantum growth of 114.1 per cent over a 10-month period. While that is itself remarkable by any standard, there is perhaps more to be said of the high degree of coordination between the fiscal and monetary authorities that have delivered both the stability and growth as equally deserving of commendation.

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    Equally notable is that the relative stability that attenuated those painful reforms did not go unnoticed by the global investment community. In other words, while the debate among Nigerians raged back and forth on the desirability of the reforms, foreign investors apparently saw in them the tonic needed to catalyse action on their part. The quantum leap by 225 per cent in FPI, (the first 10 months of the year recorded a FPI of N1.118 trillion as against the N344 billion recorded for the corresponding period in October 2024), would seem proof enough that the government had its heart in the right place.

    The same could be said of the local investors who continue to show muscle, going as far as doubling their share of transactions over the corresponding period.

    However, while we commend the government for fostering the atmosphere which has delivered such performance, the point must be made that the road ahead is still long.

    One major criticism of the Tinubu administration which must be noted is that the gap between what the government touts as macro-economic achievement and its deliverable at the level of micro-economy is actually widening.

    It is time the government paid closer attention to this. An effective way to narrow the gap is to ensure that the rural economy, currently in the throes of banditry and terrorism, is recovered and energised.

  • A new berth

    A new berth

    •The agreement between Nigeria and the U.S. should retool the fight against terror

    The optics from the designation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” were unsavoury but the atmosphere has calmed somewhat both in rhetoric and attitude of the United States President, Donald Trump.

    The designation had created a potential row when President Trump said he planned to send the U.S. military with guns blazing to this country. It was because he laid a charge without evidence of Christian genocide in Nigeria.

    It led first to panic in Nigeria, especially among citizens, and even palpable tension following a series of attacks from the bushes with targets ranging from fragile young schoolgirls in Kebbi to church worshippers in Eruku.

    More importantly though, the President, Bola Tinubu, engaged the United States government by sending a team of emissaries led by National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu. Against that background was a series of U.S. congressional hearings on the matter. 

    It combined a moment of tension and hope. Eventually, the Nigerian team met with U.S. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth. The Nigerian team was high-powered and it included Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi, Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun, Chief of Defence Staff General Olufemi Oloyede, Chief of Defence Intelligence Emmanuel Parker Undiadeye, Special Adviser to the NSA Idayat Hassan, and Director of Foreign Relations in the office of the NSA Ibrahim Babani.

    The agreement gives reasons for a new berth in the relations between the world’s number one military and Nigeria. Here, in a nutshell, is the deal as spelt out by Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Media.

    “Following these engagements, the United States Government affirmed its readiness to deepen security cooperation with Nigeria. This includes enhanced intelligence support, expedited processing of defence equipment requests, and the potential provision of excess defence articles—subject to availability—to reinforce ongoing operations against terrorists and violent extremist groups,” the statement reads.

    The U.S., according to Onanuga, also expressed its willingness to extend complementary support, including humanitarian assistance, to affected populations in the Middle Belt and technical support to strengthen early-warning mechanisms.

     He revealed further that both countries agreed to implement immediately a non-binding cooperation framework and to establish a Joint Working Group to ensure a unified and coordinated approach to the agreed areas of cooperation.

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    One of the upshots of the tie-up is that both have agreed, if tacitly, that cooperation trumps hostility between Nigeria and the U.S. It therefore douses any tension of invasion. And invasion will not only undermine sovereignty; it will engender an unhappy citizenry.

    It also assures Nigeria that a much-wanted dialogue about military assistance, since put on hold, will resume in earnest. One of the sticking points is the Leahy Act, which forbids countries that receive the Tucano planes from deploying it for battles that undermine humanitarian concerns. Because of that, Nigerians are not permitted to use the planes in the Northwest and Middlebelt where banditry festers. Our military has been worried over its impotence in strafing the forests and hideouts. We hope, as part of its non-binding agreements, that some form of accommodation will be reached for utilising the aircraft.

    The part about giving humanitarian assistance to needy areas, including the Middlebelt, is significant. As it was revealed during the congressional hearings, the stop of the USAID discontinued the funding for inter-ethnic and interfaith relations in places like Benue and Plateau states. We hope that some form of revival of those committees will result from this new engagement.

    Another highlight is access to “excess defence articles,” which refers to aircraft, munitions, etc. that may be regarded as of little urgency in the American armoury. It will, to a great extent, help.

    In all, we expect the agreement to bring a new tone to the war against banditry and terrorism.

  • Strange resolution

    Strange resolution

    • Judges’ pursuit of exclusion from pre-election matters unjustifiable 

    The call by judges that pre-election matters should be non-justiciable rings a bell about their frustration with the antics of politicians. That strange call formed part of the resolution made at the 2025 All Nigerian Judges’ Conference (ANJC) of the Superior Courts, held at the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Abuja, between November 17 to 21.  The theme was: “Building a Confident Judiciary.”

    We wonder whether that resolution did not indicate the lack of confidence of the judges in themselves. They argued that pre-election matters should be non-justiciable and should be addressed internally by political parties, noting that pre-election litigation is among the challenges currently burdening the Nigerian judiciary, contributing significantly to the backlog of cases before the courts.

    The ANJC is a biennial conference during which judges of superior courts meet, in recent years within the premises of the NJI, to brainstorm on their challenges and articulate and proffer common solutions. It provides an opportunity to network and share ideas amongst the judges.

    It is strange that judges would ask for disputes between parties to be made non- justiciable. Are the judges encouraging parties to resort to self-help when they disagree over pre-election matters? Where the internal guidelines for the pre-election process set by members of the party are not followed by those in charge of implementing them, what should an aggrieved party do in the circumstance? Do the judges expect the aggrieved party to return to the same executive or officials to determine the rights allegedly abridged?

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    No doubt, political actors have made life miserable for judges. But the answer does not reside in abandoning the sacred responsibility of adjudicating disputes between persons, or between government or authority and to any persons in Nigeria, and to all actions and proceedings relating thereto, for the determination of any question as to the civil rights and obligations of that person, clearly provided for in section 6(6)(b) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).

    We think the answer to the challenges posed by frivolous pre-poll cases which clog the dockets of the courts lies in the hands of the judiciary. Instead of shutting out everyone by making such matters non-justiciable, the judges should separate the grain from the chaff. Those with genuine cases should have their cases expeditiously dealt with, while those who bring frivolous applications should be slammed with heavy penalties. Where the lawyers engage in unethical conducts, they should be referred to the disciplinary committee of the Bar.

    Judges should be the gatekeepers against abuse of process, whether through multiplicity of cases, or other types of abuses to frustrate the opposing party. The judges can also put in place a nearly uniform practice direction, across jurisdictions and federal and state courts, so that every similar case is treated similarly. Should the judges put in place standard and stiff penalties for abuses, the number of frivolous cases will drastically reduce, allowing only those with genuine disputes to approach the courts.

    On their part, politicians must take the communique as a timely warning, as a frustrated judiciary could do severe damage to our fledgling democracy. The abuse of internal process by party officials and elected members of the political parties should stop. Candidates who present forged certificates or other false records deserve not just disqualification from the primaries, but a further prosecution under relevant criminal laws of the country. Allowing them to go free, encourages others to try their luck, which adds to the cases that are taken to court.

    The best answer to the frustration of the judges, as expressed by their call for pre-election cases to be non-justiciable, lies in party discipline. Parties must have ideological beliefs, and should always stick to them, whether in power or out of power.

  •  Justice for all

     Justice for all

    • The President’s call for inclusive accessibility to justice deserves attention 

    President Bola Tinubu’s call on judicial officers to ensure that all Nigerians have access to affordable justice was timely. Describing the judiciary as “an instrument of justice for the people,” he asked, “How do we build a judiciary that truly remains the last hope of the common man?”

    During his address at the 2025 All Nigerian Judges’ Conference of the Superior Courts at the National Judicial Institute, Abuja, Tinubu asked judges to consider a key question regarding reform: “How do we make justice more affordable and accessible to the poor, the weak, and the voiceless?” 

    The President observed that many are locked out of the system since they cannot afford the cost of obtaining justice in the courts. There are many angles to access justice. For instance, are the people educated on their fundamental rights? At the level of the police and the prosecuting authorities in all parts of the country, is torture not still regarded as a legitimate means of extracting confession from suspects? The result is that people who should seek succour from the temple of justice are afraid to do so.

    In Nigeria where various forms of violence and injustice have struck at the foundation of the rule of law that is the bedrock of justice, all concerned citizens have a duty to ensure that the judiciary is well positioned to perform its function.

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    Affordability and access to justice is important for many reasons at this time.  The judicial process in the country is so cumbersome today that justice is only available to the rich and powerful: a matter as simple as a land dispute in a remote part of the country could travel from a magistrate court up to the Supreme Court. This could take up to 10 years to resolve. During the period of constant adjournments and appeals, the litigants continue to pay their lawyers, and in some cases, move witnesses about. This is expensive and could be frustrating.

    Tinubu also spoke about the problem of corruption, saying, “Justice must never be for sale, and the Bench must never become a sanctuary for compromise.”  He added that “Corruption in any arm of government weakens the nation, but corruption in the judiciary destroys it at its core.”

    While the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, has a big role to play in effecting changes since she is chairperson of the National Judicial Council, the Judicial Service Commission and presiding Justice of the Supreme Court, she obviously cannot do it alone. The Nigerian Bar Association, Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, and the Federal Ministry of Justice should hearken to the President’s call now to save the system and the country.

    As the 2027 general election is drawing closer, something fundamental has to be done urgently to rekindle the confidence of Nigerians in the judicial system. One major contributor to the distrust of the courts is the snail speed at which cases travel. Efforts were made at reforming the process in the last days of the Goodluck Jonathan administration when the Administration of Criminal Justice Act was promulgated.

    However, a decade after, the implementation has been haphazard. Besides, it applies only to crimes. What about civil cases?  It is time the three arms of government collaborated to ensure a wholesale reform.

    The Judiciary and Human Rights committees of the two arms of the National Assembly should hold public hearings on this all-important subject in the overriding public interest.

    Also, the President should set up a high-powered panel comprising retired and serving justices of superior courts, experienced lawyers, academics and the civil society to make recommendations on the way forward.