The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Averting disasters  

    Averting disasters  

    • The epidemic of gas disasters in the country must be halted.

    Gas explosions are attended by deaths and devastations. In recent times, there have been an epidemic of such explosions in various parts of the country, necessitating the call for clear policy guidelines on who may be a retailer of the highly combustible fuel, where it may be stored, how it could be transported and to whom it may be sold. All these must be clearly stated and advertised. Then, the authorities must be alive to their duties to save lives and property.

    On April 27, an explosion tore through an otherwise serene Abeokuta city, Ogun State, leaving one dead, and four injured. Two shops and four cars were consequently razed by the inferno. The driver of the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) truck from Gasko Marine Limited was said to have lost control when it had a brake failure. It then crashed to a road embankment before bursting into flames.

    Preliminary report on the Ogun State explosion still being investigated, according to one of the governor’s aides, Mr. Farouk Akintunde, has blamed the unfortunate incident on negligence. We expect that the state government will pursue the matter to its logical conclusion, thus giving justice to families of the dead and injured, and more importantly, helping to prevent a recurrence.

    It has not been limited to Ogun State. In many parts of the country, gas explosions are not rare. When it is not in a small shop in a residential area, it is about trucks in poor condition as was the case in Abeokuta. Lagos has borne more than a fair share of such explosions. Four days after the Ogun incident, the former federal capital city was equally rocked by explosion caused by a leaking gas cylinder. The resultant fire in the heavily populated Alayabiagba area of Ajegunle was said to have caused a high tension cable to snap. By the time it was put out by a combined team of the Lagos and federal fire services, a pregnant woman and eight others, including children, had sustained various degrees of injury. Shops and a house had also been lost to the disaster. As on previous occasions, all that was left in the trail were tears, blood and sorrow, as well as promises to get to the root of the matter. In most cases, the public hears nothing more of the case and neither is anyone charged to court. This should not be allowed in this case.

    Where trucks are involved and conclusively implicated as the cause of the devastating inferno, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) must be alive to its responsibility. Accidents involving articulated vehicles; be they those conveying commodities, petrol or gas, have become too frequent in the country. When the vehicles are laden with containers from the ports, they are insecurely attached and are known to have usually fallen on smaller vehicles, crushing them and their passengers. Where it is a petrol truck, being highly inflammable, any accident triggers fire outbreak, sometimes consuming scores of vehicles and their passengers.

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    The Abeokuta explosion is an eye opener as to the devastation that could be wreaked by gas in the wake of our new-found love for CNG. Federal and state agencies responsible for maintenance of sanity on the roads, as well as safety and security of lives and property should pay special attention to transportation of gas intra and inter cities.

    Nigeria is not the only country making a transition from the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to more environmentally friendly energy sources. It has an abundance of gas that should be exploited for the people, but it must not be allowed to visit untimely deaths and agony on them.

    The Federal Government has promised to unveil and commission thousands of buses using CNG later this month, and more later in the year. So have some states, including Ogun and Lagos. Facilities to help cars convert their petrol cars to accommodate gas use are also said to be on the way. If the regulatory authorities do not prepare well ahead, what should bring joy by easing the financial pressures on the people could become the harbinger of sorrow. Relevant committees of the National Assembly should swing into action to avert possible disasters on our roads and homes by carrying out effective oversight of the relevant ministries, departments and agencies of government now.

  • Regulatory mess

    Regulatory mess

    • If NMDPRA accepts that we have enough supply, it should take the blame for the fuel queues

    It is amazing that we should experience long queues in fuel stations across the country. This has been the case in the past few weeks, subjecting Nigerians in all walks of life to the tardy regime of frustrated day.

    The last time we suffered it was during the 2023 election season when it was weaponised by the forces of government against palpable foes on the other camp. Now that we are in the throes of governance, fuel scarcity and its woes have sprung up on us. Few expected it.

    It was believed that long lines at fuel stations would be the last thing to expect in this new season of the removal of fuel subsidies with its implications for deregulation along all the tiers of fuel management.

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) reported that it had a logistic issue and that it had been resolved. This was consequent upon a vessel that had a movement problem, and so it created a lag in the supply chain. Nonetheless, as at April 28, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency (NMDPRA) stock report had it that 1.547 billion litres had been released to the country. That volume was enough to sustain demand for 30 days.

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    Yet, over a week after, the queues are still biting, and Nigerians are left to wonder why they have to suffer if they had such a plenitude of fuel in the market. If the supplier claims it has supplied and the regulatory authority, that is the NMDPRA, confirmed its report, it means there is a gap in communication between the regulatory authority and the motorist.

    The NNPCL is a major supplier, but it is not the only one. It works in tandem with the NMDPRA. If both of them agree on supply, the problem therefore lies in what the downstream distributors are doing with the supplies. The industry view, especially from the NNPCL perspective, is that arbitrage has taken over.

    Unscrupulous marketers are believed to be gaming the system by taking advantage of the initial lag in supply to foment artificial scarcity. It is obvious that the parallel market is booming with desperate motorists buying fuel at higher costs.

    The consequence is more inflation in a country at odds with prices after the removal of subsidies and the collapsing of the two windows of currency exchange rates. Adding new costs is asking too much of our citizens. For anyone in the name of new profits to exploit the situation is callous. This should not be if a proper enforcement and monitoring is in effect. That is why we call on the chief executive officer of the NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, to take charge of the situation and stop Nigerians who are exploiting the miseries of fellow citizens from thriving in evil.

    There have been reports of fuel stations surreptitiously opening their stations to customers who were ready to pay higher prices. The NMDPRA has the constitutional powers, infrastructure and reach to fish out the culprits. We therefore call on Ahmed to rise to his responsibility to the country and deploy staff and law to identify those who would not sell unless they profiteer. They should be exposed and prosecuted for economic crimes.

    It is a case of riches without happiness if we have as much as 30 days supply. It should embarrass the NMDPRA boss that we should be groaning amidst a profusion of supply.

    The long lines must not be allowed to linger for long. An economy in need of infusion of confidence does not need an encumbrance

  • At last, pay rise

    At last, pay rise

    • Federal Government approves new salary for workers

    This year’s International Workers’ Day, otherwise  known as Labour Day or May Day in some countries came with some good news for Nigerian workers. The

    Federal Government announced the approval of the consolidated salary structure increase of between 25 per cent and 35 per cent for civil servants on the remaining six consolidated salary structures.

    This is a welcome development given the impact of the removal of oil subsidy and the weak naira.

    The salary structures are the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS), Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS), Consolidated Police Salary Structure (CONPOSS), Consolidated Para-military Salary Structure (CONPASS), Consolidated Intelligence Community Salary Structure (CONICCS) and Consolidated Armed Forces Salary Structure (CONAFSS).  The increases are to take effect from April 1, 2024, according to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.

    The tertiary education and health sectors had earlier received their increases through the Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CONUASS and the CONTISS, CONPCASS and CONTEDISS) for universities, polytechnics, colleges of education. The health sector also benefitted through the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and Consolidated Health Sector Salary Structure (CONHESS).

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    We commend the Federal Government for the announcement, given the level of inflation and food insecurity that have impacted workers’ previous minimum wage and all Nigerians negatively, but we are cautious of shouting ‘Uhuru’ yet because some state governments have not been able to pay the extant N30,000 minimum wage. We want serious measures to be put in place so that the announcement can become a reality given the fact that allocations to states have increased. We expect that the workers should benefit from the increased federal allocations to states.

    While we also commend the Edo State government for increasing the state minimum wage to N70,000, we await the actual implementation in the long run to possibly put a lie to the allegations by some analysts who allege that the increase was politically motivated given that the state’s governorship election is a few months away. Many are querying why Governor Godwin Obaseki  had to wait until a few months to the elections to make that announcement. He has so far spent more than half of his second term tenure in office. However, the increase in the minimum wage, given the exchange rate and inflation still appears very small and inadequate.

    We urge the states to emulate the Federal Government because there cannot be development without human capital and, as such, good remuneration for workers is an incentive for increased productivity. Every state in Nigeria with better strategic planning and prudent management of resources can afford to pay living wage to its workers. The only problem seems to be the profligacy and lack of a realistic application of scale of preference in the handling of affairs in the states.

    We equally acknowledge that not all states are buoyant enough for a uniform implementation of recurrent expenditures. But we notice however that almost all the governors have the same level of lifestyle of luxury for themselves and their cronies and family. If the number of ex-governors being alleged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to have misappropriated or laundered their state resources is anything to go by, then if the governors can better manage their resources, may be the issue of minimum wage and incessant labour strikes can become a thing of the past and the workers would be better motivated to be more dedicated and productive.

    On the part of the Federal Government, we believe that there are numerous factors that contribute to high productivity of workers and even those in the private sector. Good governance that can be seen in the provision of functional infrastructure, security and other facilitators of economic activities work better than mere increase in wages. Stable socio-economic environment, strong currency, balance of trade, low inflation, etc. are sine qua non to a viable economy. Increasing wages would be ineffective if other economic and social variables are either weak, unstable or non-existent.

    The onus is therefore on the Federal Government to back up its announcement with solid and viable actions, including nudging governors to be more prudent and resourceful in generating revenue and improving infrastructure.

    We keep watching to see how effectively these can be handled while looking forward to the actual implementation of the new consolidated wages across the named sectors.   

  • Right push

    Right push

    • America should return Nigeria’s stolen funds in its banks. But Nigeria too must graft every kobo of that into providing infrastructure

    It must have been humiliating for Nigeria’s foreign minister to beg the United States to help repatriate funds that fellow Nigerians stole, but are stashed in US vaults. 

    It is even more humiliating for Nigeria to receive fixed terms, before it can repatriate own stolen money — or else, forfeit it all!

    Yet, that was the situation Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s foreign minister, found himself at the 6th session of the Nigeria-US Bi-National Commission, at Abuja, the federal capital. Represented by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Adamu Lamuwa, the minister appealed to the United States to help return Nigeria’s stolen funds in its banks.

    Benchmarking the latest request on an earlier deal, in which an agreement among Nigeria, United States and Jersey endorsed the return loot worth US$ 308 million, the minister pressed for more — arguing that Nigeria deserves to have back every cent of its stolen money. He therefore appealed to Nigeria’s partners, in the Bi-National Commission, to make it happen.

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    This is a right call; and the Nigerian government should use every legitimate method to forcefully push it. Friends in the United States too, using as basis the February 2020 agreement on the US$ 308 million, should start a forceful internal lobby to achieve that goal. It is crunch time here, and Nigeria needs every kobo it can retrieve to help in building long-neglected rail tracks, roads, hospitals and schools.

    Which is why it was so reassuring that Nigeria has re-pledged itself to committing the returned funds to roads, schools, hospitals, and general public works that will improve the lives of its citizens, raped by unscrupulous compatriots, who earlier looted the funds and set the country back.

    This is reassuring for such pledges formed the basis for earlier repatriations, secured by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, to augment funding for critical public works, in the face of dwindling revenue and heavy interests on loans. 

    Indeed, aside from Sukuk — the Islamic non-interest loan — returned loots formed a decent part of the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF). PIDF signboards proudly stand on critical national road arteries as the Abuja-Kano road, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and the 2nd Niger Bridge, showing how stolen funds have helped to power back critical and new infrastructure.

    Since the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) manages the PIDF, it might not be a bad idea — if that is not already the operational procedure — for the NSIA to be at the centre of these repatriation deals, showing exactly which projects and where, the recovered loot would be spent, for the glory of all.

    Indeed, the more these funds are recovered and the more they are pumped into these critical public works, the better the chances that Nigeria will win its infrastructure race against time.

    Besides, committing such retrieved funds to roads, schools, bridges, hospitals and rail tracks create short-term direct and indirect jobs. That goes a long way in reducing the poverty level and hunger in the land.

    Still, the ultimate strategy would be a fraud-proof system in the public sector, such that incidence of stolen money is reduced to the barest minimum, if at all. President Bola Tinubu is already talking of technology as the “enemy” of fraud and sleaze. It’s time to put such in place.

    That way, Nigeria can retain its legitimate revenue and incomes, and deploy them to critical areas nationwide as its governments find necessary, not subject to any appeals to the conscience of another country.

  • Time for review 

    Time for review 

    •Non-retention policy must go to enable varsities recruit best brains to teach

    In its efforts to stop the increase in the size of its workforce, and the consequent ballooning of its wage bill, the Federal Government in 2020 placed an embargo on recruitments in the federal civil service and the universities. This policy effectively checkmated university management’s ability to retain their best students as was hitherto the practice.

    The policy, like most other policies might have served its purpose in the area of checking the government’s ballooning wage structure but it is now becoming counterproductive, especially in the universities.

    There are at least 5,032 first class graduates from eight federal universities that have joined the unemployment queues in the last three years, despite the shortage of manpower on the university campuses occasioned by the exodus of university teachers.

    First class degree holders are the best among their peers, with an average of 70 per cent or more overall. They are seen as potential scholars with interest in pursuing further academic studies. They used to be recruited into the university system as graduate assistants.

    Unfortunately, many of them are denied the opportunity now because of the Federal Government’s non-retention policy.

    Indeed, none of the eight federal universities has been able to retain their eggheads in the last three years. And it is not that the universities do not have any need for lecturers. According to ‘The Guardian’ report, the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, has at least 500 vacancies for lecturers, Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara State, needs about 600 lecturers, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, (FUNAAB) requires more than 350 lecturers while the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, University of Lagos (UNILAG), and University of Benin (UNIBEN), among them need about 1,000 lecturers.

    These are for some of the federal universities alone. The situation is not different in other federal and even state universities.

    Although some universities managed to retain some of these brilliant students, many could not do so because of inadequate funds.

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    There are also concerns in some quarters regarding the quality of some of the first class graduates, but this has been countered by the argument that information technology has made learning learner-focused than teacher-centred; so conscientious students can explore and research widely on their own.

    Whatever is the case, what cannot be denied is the fact that the universities are in dire need of lecturers.

    True, policies are necessary in the running of government to achieve certain objectives. But then, they should be reviewed periodically to see whether they are still relevant or they need tinkering with in view of contemporary realities. The Federal Government’s non-retention policy that stopped universities from automatically retaining their best brains may have served a good purpose initially, but it has become dysfunctional. It needs to be reviewed, at least with regard to its application in the universities. The country cannot have over 5,000 of its best brains roaming the streets when they could have been profitably engaged by the universities that produced them, thereby helping in grooming others for national development.

    We therefore urge the Federal Government to immediately review the policy for the universities in particular. The exodus of qualified and experienced lecturers from the country in search of greener pastures abroad has further exacerbated the manpower crisis in the universities.

     In the first place the assurance of automatic jobs after graduation gives the first class materials the choice of first refusal to accept jobs that they are entitled to by merit, thus serving as a buffer against their being unemployed. Of course, some of them may also secure jobs outside of the university system, but that should be by choice. The way things are, it is a disincentive for students who might have otherwise studied hard to qualify for automatic jobs, since the hope of this has been dashed by the non-retention policy.

    No graduate, and indeed no one with skills should be unemployed. But it is worse when the country’s best brains are also languishing in the job market. We see disheartening stories of some first class materials riding commercial motorcycles or doing other menial jobs. The government must check this unsavoury trend. It is the country that suffers the consequences in the long run.

  • Haste to waste

    Haste to waste

    Rush by parents to get children into varsities does more harm than good

    Education minister Tahir Mamman recently decried the phenomenon of underaged persons seeking university admission, saying government would henceforth enforce 18 years as minimum age for entry into tertiary institutions.

    Speaking while monitoring in the Federal Capital Territory the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted nationwide by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the minister noted that there were many underaged candidates participating in the exam and criticised parents for pressuring their children who were not yet mature to seek admission into tertiary schools. He said the 18-year benchmark was in line with the 6-3-3-4 system of education, and that underage students were responsible for some of the problems being encountered in higher institutions.

    JAMB had disclosed that nearly two million candidates were sitting the 2024 UTME that began April 19 and ended April 29.

    Mamman told journalists: “The other thing we notice is the age of those who have applied to go to the university. Some of them are too young. The minimum age of entry into the university is 18, but we have seen students who are 15, 16 years going in for the entrance examination.” He described the trend as unwholesome. “Parents should be advised not to push their wards too hard. Mostly, it is the pressure of parents that is causing this. We are going to look at this development, because the candidates are too young to understand what university education is all about. This is the stage when children migrate from controlled to uncontrolled environment where they’re in charge of their own affairs. But if they are too young, they won’t be able to manage it properly. That accounts for some of the problems we are seeing in the universities,” the minister said.

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    The education minister was not alone in red-flagging the prematurity of admission quest by a good number of UTME candidates. The examination board itself had severally bemoaned meddlesomeness by some parents when their children sat its exams, obviously because those children were too young and parents could not leave them on their own. Just ahead of the UTME exams, JAMB Registrar Professor Is’haq Oloyede directed Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres to effect the arrest of parents who get near examination halls when tests are being conducted. And that wasn’t the first time he was deploring suffocating presence of parents around examination centres owing to immaturity of candidates. In the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, which dictated social distancing, he had to order parents out of examination halls and advised them to stop pushing the education of their children faster than necessary. “A 14 or 15-year-old is not mature enough to undergo the process of registration and university pressure, and are vulnerable to exploitation by scammers out there,” a statement by the board cited him saying, as he enjoined state education ministries and other organs involved in enrolling pupils into secondary schools to always ascertain their true age before admitting them.

    The crusade by JAMB, now taken up by the Federal Government, is warranted when you consider the state of Nigerian education where underage studentship has become a blight on the system. Early education syndrome has seen secondary schools populated by pupils barely above kindergarten age and universities by mid-teenagers, with all the tendencies associated with immaturity and childhood naivety characterising those systems. Candidates are so young they can’t be left to handle JAMB registration and examination processes by themselves without parents hovering by; and many universities now have parents’ fora  similar in operation to parents-teachers associations in secondary schools. It’s much unlike the time in our history when admission into elementary school was based on maturity being demonstrated, like asking an intending pupil to reach over his head and touch the other ear. Even as we speak, there are countries that block kid geniuses from university education just for being underage – meaning they do not get admitted, no matter their intellectual endowment, until they attain a minimum age and level of maturity. Psychologists would confirm there is a connection between cognitive level and behavioural tendencies like capacity to withstand peer pressure, respond to task pressure and cope with unforeseen challenges, among other things that characterise life of relative independence that university education involves. There might, indeed, be a link between underage studentship and the generally poor standard of education in Nigeria today. Mamman’s argument from the 6-3-3-4 system of education presupposes that children get into primary education at the age of six, but reality is that many parents force their children to school at much earlier age.

    Not that there are no socio-cultural factors driving some parents to pressure their children into early schooling. Nigeria has become a country where the first degree alone is no longer sufficient for the job market and some parents apparently are making room for years of quest for additional qualifications and career pursuits before their children attain to age of full responsibility – for instance, female children who society would expect to get married within a certain age range. But also, there’s the factor of sheer ego trip by parents who exult in

    the prematurity of their children getting through school, without consideration for adverse psychological effects of denying those children their playful childhood.

    This trend often leads into a scenario where there are young and immature students in tertiary schools who rarely take part in socio-developmental activities and are vulnerable to negative influences like recruitment into cults. Such students are highly impressionable by unregulated forces of their new environment and could, indeed, spin out of parental guidance by remote oversight, which is what their going into tertiary institution entails. Meanwhile, neither can they handle psychological pressures associated with the tertiary environment and could break down, incurring damage to their lives if there are no upbuilding influences on hand to assist them. Ironically, many of the children forced onto early university education by parents are not necessarily kid geniuses: they are average students privileged to be born to well-to-do parents who could pay their way and give whatever it takes – including by crooked means – to see them through school. Children as these tend to maladjust in the tertiary environment and create problems for the education system.

     These are reasons why the initiative by government to enforce 18 years as minimum age criterion for entry into tertiary institutions makes good sense and deserves understanding and support by parents.

    But a case must as well be made for child prodigies who propel through the cadres by virtue of their natural giftedness to arrive at the gates of tertiary education prematurely. In the United Kingdom from where Nigeria took its education model, the standard age range for entry into university is 17 to 18 years. A special arrangement is, however, made for gifted children by way of the Sixth Form, which is a bridge between college and university.

    Such arrangement could be considered for Nigerian kid geniuses, or they could be made to school from home under close oversight of their parents. But by all means, they should be spared premature exposure to environmental conditions that could end up hazarding their young age.

  • Ondo APC primary

    Ondo APC primary

    •The difference is not clear between ruling party and other parties

    Ondo State is known as the ‘Sunshine State’, and the sun shines after the cloud has been dispersed, bringing brightness, energy and hope. However, after the primary elections held in all 203 wards of the state by the All Progressives Congress (APC) on April 20, the grumbling in the ruling party has  been very loud.

    Electoral democracy starts with established processes and systems within each participating party. When things  are awkward at that level, it becomes a mere wishful thinking to expect free and fair election, and consequently good governance.

    Except Governor Lucky Ayedatiwa who was declared winner of the “primary election” by the Usman Ododo  panel sent from the party’s national secretariat, no one accepted its validity. All, including Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, former commissioner for finance, Wale

     Akinterinwa, Mr Olusola Oke, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a former lawmaker, Mr Olugbenga Edema, have declared the published result, “a sham”.

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    It remains to be seen what shall follow, but when will the political parties be free from the shackles of hawks masquerading as public officers? Following closely the primaries conducted in Edo State, many had expected that  there would be an improvement in Ondo with a transparent and open process that would not be subject to disputes.

     First, it was said that while the secretary of the electoral committee, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, had reviewed the processes with aspirants the previous day, Kogi State Governor Ododo was reported to have upturned the procedure on the D-Day such that no one even knew what to expect. Contestants alleged that no one knew when materials were sent to the field, and that officials did not show up where the elections were reportedly conducted.

    As was the case in Edo where the first primaries conducted ended up with three results, the Ondo election was roundly rejected by the aspirants and their agents. But unlike Edo, the result has been ratified by the national working committee that has rather, curiously, resorted to appealing to those declared losers.

     In Edo it was Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma, and in Ondo, it was Governor Ododo. We had expected that the governors would bring forth a redeeming grace and restore confidence of party members in them. No, they seemed to be rather perfecting the art of producing results outside the field.

    What informed the choice of Governor Ododo, an apparent greenhorn for the

     sensitive assignment?

    Many observers still remember that the fire that engulfed and burnt down the Second Republic started in Ondo State.

    Also, declaration of the late Olusegun Agagu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as governor was stiffly resisted by the electorate who said they had rejected him. Electoral commission’s officials had to move to the military barracks to release the result. Eventually, he lost in court.

    The other APC aspirants have threatened to take the matter to court if the internal mechanism fails. As the ruling party, the APC has a huge responsibility to sanitise the political process. If it cannot produce a transparent primary process, how can others trust the conduct of the governorship and national elections to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under its watch? It holds it a duty to search out credible individuals who are not beholden to any faction to conduct all party electoral processes, including sitting on appeals from aggrieved aspirants.

    It is not too late to redeem the process, even though national chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, is relying on sentiments to pacify the grieving aspirants rather than subject the entire situation to a forensic analysis.

    This is not just about Ondo State, or even APC. It is about Nigeria. As it is in the ruling party so it is in the opposition parties in states where they believe they stand a chance of winning, as shown in the primaries of the PDP and Labour Party in Edo State.

    About 64 years after independence, and 25 years into the Fourth Republic, we can do better.

  • ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ schools

    ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ schools

    •It’s high time the government paid serious attention to cybercrime

    Alarmingly, internet fraud, known as ‘Yahoo-Yahoo,’ is prospering in Nigeria in ways that were perhaps previously unimaginable. Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ola Olukoyede recently provided insight into the scale of its growth. Quoting the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), he said: “Nigeria’s yearly loss to internet fraud amounted to over $500 million. In one year!”

    He added that more than 71 percent of Nigerian businesses fell victim to cybercriminals in 2022 alone, and Nigerian banks lost over N8bn to electronic transfer fraud in the first nine months of 2022.

    He supplied more stunning information, telling journalists that the agency had discovered that “in almost all the states of Nigeria, all the sub-nationals, we have what we call ‘419 training schools’ where they harvest our children from primary schools.”

     It is noteworthy that ‘419’ refers to Section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code, which criminalises obtaining money from people by pretence or impersonation, cheating, falsification, counterfeiting, forgery and fraudulent representation of facts. ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ is considered an offshoot of the so-called ‘419’ business of the 1980s and 1990s.

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    According to the EFCC boss, “When they leave school, they end up in some of these ‘419’ training schools. They start indoctrinating them. These are facts. They even ask their parents to sign an undertaking. After that, they induct them and some of these fraudsters start paying their school fees and indoctrinate them into cybercrime; as young as they are… Even children of those from wealthy homes are doing it now. It’s a trend!” 

    Indeed, this is a corrupted approach to the concept of ‘catch them young.’ The question must be asked: How did Nigeria get to this point? It indicates a disintegration of the structures of socialisation, including the family unit, educational and religious institutions. It also demonstrates how the country’s youths have been negatively influenced by actors in the structures of power, many of whom flaunt unexplained wealth.

    In a viral video that drove the point home, the EFCC boss recounted the case of a 17-year-old undergraduate student of History who was being investigated for internet fraud. “He’s not doing anything science. The guy sat in my office in Lagos and demonstrated some things to me on my laptop. He asked for my mobile number, through my number he got my BVN (Bank Verification Number). He now mentioned the name of my account number to me and the bank, and I didn’t tell him anything.”

    He said the agency had created a cybercrime research centre where ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ convicts would be trained to use their Information Technology (IT) knowledge and skill positively. This is a commendable intervention. 

    Olukoyede likened thriving internet fraud in the country to “sitting on a keg of gunpowder,” saying the commission could not “close its eyes to that kind of situation.” He described the agency’s focus on cybercrime investigation and prosecution as “rescuing the future of Nigeria.”

    Signs of the undesirable growth of internet fraud were noticeable when, in 2019, the then acting EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, lamented that there was a group in the country called Association of Mothers of Yahoo-Yahoo Boys, formed by the mothers of cyber criminals, who justified their children’s unlawful activities with the argument that they were supporting their families in place of irresponsible, runaway or dead fathers.

    The existence of ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ schools nationwide is a new low formalising fraud. The situation demands greater action from the authorities against cybercrime. Such schools should be located, and shut down; and the operators should be arrested, prosecuted and punished, to serve as a deterrent.

    Thriving cybercrime gives the country a bad image. Law enforcement is crucial in dealing with it. This must happen based on a holistic approach that pays attention to contributory socio-economic factors.

  • Local content, local fraud

    Local content, local fraud

    • FG should take seriously allegations of loans granted illegally

    Fraud and contempt for probity in public office continue to focus attention of the country, and an otherwise “quiet” agency is in the spotlight: The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).

    The Federal Government says it is investigating loans obtained by the NCDMB worth $500 million. According to the oil minister, Heineken Lokpobiri, the loans were taken without proper process. For instance, he referred to $20 million loans for a fertiliser factory. But there is nothing to show for it.

    Here is what the minister says about it. “There is also the Brass Fertiliser, NCDMB also released $20m, empty field. So, NCDMB has made some very bad investments. In this case, NCDMB has disbursed about $19Om in different equity investments, and none of them, apart from the Waltersmith modular refinery, can you say is worth a good investment. But the NCDMB under my leadership will not do a thing like that.”

    Some of the stories present the process of giving the loans into a sort of cynical bazaar. Here him again.

    “It is brilliant for the NCDMB to partner with potential investors to build modular refineries, but there are some cases. I give an example: In Bayelsa, there was the Atlantic Refinery that was supposed to be in Brass, my predecessor’s hometown. $35m was paid out by NCDMB, not even one block is there. Normally if the NCDMB is to make an investment, there is a disbursement threshold, but this $35m was released at once. This is the same town that Simbi, the former NCDMB Executive Secretary also came from. When you go there you see an open field, not even one block.”

    We see an allegation of plain impunity as well.

    “Even when there are documents showing, ‘do not do this refinery of $35m’, it was done against the advice. The money was not paid in installments, it was paid at once. The NCDMB under my leadership is reviewing the entirety of those investments. $190m is almost N200bn, some states don’t have that kind of budget.”

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    His allegations were a direct attack not only on his predecessor, Timipre Sylva, but also the former head and executive secretary of the NCDMB, Simbi Wabote. Lokpobiri intoned, “So, imagine for somebody to make just one bad investment and then wipe away $35m. In the same location we have the Brass Refinery, we have another $20m; we have $50m of investment. The same man – $35m, $20m, and there is another $50m – one man. He should be in jail. If it’s China, they will execute them, but Nigeria is a democratic nation.”

    But the former helmsman of the agency is fighting back.

    Simbi Wabote said, “NCDMB does not interfere in the process you go through to obtain the loan. You go through the BOI because it takes the entire credit risk, and for any loan you take, you have to present a bank guarantee, and if you are not able to perform, BOI calls back the loan. So, the $300m that is given to BOI is the best loan scheme that this country has ever known.”

    That is why the efforts of the Federal Government to get to the bottom of the matter requires detailed work. The concept of the agency is to ensure that Nigerians own their own resources and persons with special skills and investment acumen be empowered to do.

    Bringing fraud into it undermines the dream and confirms the complaints of industry watchers that the oil industry is still under the stranglehold of the foreign experts in spite of the huge resources this country has devoted over the years.

  • Obnoxious discrimination

    Obnoxious discrimination

    • Chinese supermarket must be sanctioned appropriately

    After a viral video recently exposed an Abuja-based Chinese supermarket operating a No-Nigerian-shopper policy, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) discovered other unacceptable practices at the shop.

    An unidentified Nigerian said in the video that he was “denied entry,” adding, “The security officers at the gate said the supermarket was strictly for Chinese people and no Nigerian is allowed to go inside or buy anything.” It is unclear whether the policy also affected non-Nigerians who were not Chinese.

    The agency found out that the supermarket not only discriminated against Nigerians by barring them from shopping there, but also sold products with price tags only in the Chinese currency.

    The acting Executive Vice Chairman of the FCCPC, Adamu Abdullahi, said the agency had “confirmed” the issue of discrimination, and had directed that the shop put up a notice “that says everybody can go into the supermarket and shop.”  He also observed that “all the products were labelled in Yen and that is the only currency they accept,” noting that it was unlawful.  “We don’t sell products in foreign currency. Everything sold in Nigeria should be in its currency,” he stated.

    A security guard at the supermarket, situated on Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Road (Airport Road) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), was reported saying the discriminatory policy was introduced in January, when the management directed that no Nigerian should be allowed to enter the shop.  “We were not informed of any reason for the policy,” he was quoted as saying.

    In a prompt response, the FCCPC had sealed the supermarket after quizzing its Nigerian workers. The agency invited the owner, a Chinese woman named Cindy Liu Bei, to clarify the issue. After questioning her, officials of the agency went with her to the shop.  “She opened it and the discoveries were just enormous,” the FCCPC boss said.

    Officials from the Chinese Embassy and the China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC) were present. The CGCC and the supermarket are located in the Royal Choice Estate, and the Chamber had explained in a statement that the residential area of the estate, where the shop was situated, adhered to “security protocols in granting access to external visitors.”  However, the FCCPC investigation showed that security was not the issue but discrimination.

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    The agency reopened the supermarket, but that was not the end of the matter. Appropriately, it is considering sanctions that would have a deterrent effect. “We would look at our law and find out what those consequences are and apply them,” Abdullahi said. “There is a fine of N10m and then 10 percent of last year’s turnover for the company but we are still looking at the issues.”

    Indeed, there is a need to send a strong message that such discriminatory business practices are unacceptable and punishable. Public outrage condemned the shop’s discriminatory policy. The items sold in the supermarket are said to be strictly Chinese consumables, suggesting that it is not meant to serve Nigerians. However, this does not justify barring Nigerian shoppers who may be interested in such items.

    The Nigerian in the video that drew attention to the supermarket said he had seen it online and decided to visit the shop. A security guard at the shop was reported saying, “we have told them to remove all adverts from the Internet so that people would stop coming.” It is curious that an advertised supermarket  operated a discrimination policy.

    In 2020, the FCCPC shut a Chinese restaurant and supermarket, located at Victoria Island, Lagos, after gathering evidence of discriminatory practices against Nigerian citizens. How the matter was eventually resolved apparently failed to send a sufficiently strong message on its unacceptability.

    Such discriminatory actions are not exclusively connected with Chinese nationals. Other foreigners, especially Indians and Lebanese who run restaurants in the country, allegedly discriminate against Nigerians too. It is high time regulatory authorities put a stop to the absurdity of foreign-owned businesses discriminating against Nigerians in their own country.