Category: Special Edition 2021

Naira’s fall in the last 12 months has left deafening sound in the ears of local, foreign businesses and investors.  Many businesses and investors expecting the local currency’s speedy recovery to pre-pandemic era  were disappointed at how low it nosedived in the course of the year, hitting N485/$ at the parallel market in mid-July from around N465/$ at the beginning to the year.

At the Investors & Exporters  window, (the official market),  the naira depreciated by 7.7 per cent from N380/$ to N410/$.

The misfortune of the naira came from diverse occurrences,   with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) fighting back with policies, including naira-for-dollar incentives for diaspora remittances beneficiaries.

For instance, in a similar fashion to the January 2016 episode, the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele,  at the end of the July 2021 Monetary Policy Committee meeting placed a ban on forex sales to Bureaux De Change (BDCs) and suspended the issuance of new BDC licenses over allegations of forex  racketeering.

The bank were directed by the CBN to set up an forex teller desk in all branches to meet retail-end forex demand.

In the last 20 months, the CBN had expanded its list of banned items from accessing forex to 45 (maize, fertilizer, milk, and sugar being the new additions), while foreign capital inflow declined 61.1 per cent year-on-year in first half of 2021 to N2.9 trillion.

With sustained dollar scarcity,  banks came under  under pressure in meeting their clients’ demands in funding dollar-based transactions.  Currently, banks are rejecting dollar-related transactions while businesses and consumers are in search of alternatives that would enable them replace imported raw materials and products with homegrown substitutes.

Deputy Managing Director, Afrinvest West Africa, Victor Ndukauba explained that these and many other measures helped to put the local currency on the recovery path.

The naira now exchanges at N565/$ at the parallel market and N410/$ at the official market while the foreign reserves stood at $40.97 billion last week.

Looking ahead, market dealers have given insight on the future of the local currency.

Trading Desk Manager, AZA, global forex dealers, Murega Mungai, projected that the naira is likely to regain more lost ground in the coming weeks on the back of increased remittances during the festive season and a slowdown in business imports as the year closes.

The naira crisis had worsened following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic leading to significant reduction in the demand for, and price of crude oil, Nigeria’s main source of forex receipts and fiscal revenue.

The price of crude oil fell by more than 70 per cent from a high of $68 per barrel in January 2020 to $24 per Barrel in April 2020.

As of April 20, 2020, the price of some streams of crude oil fell below zero dollars per barrel, as producers were forced to pay buyers for overwhelmed storage facilities.

The global travel and tourism sector lost about $4.5 trillion from the effects of the travel restriction, quarantines and other related measures.

The global financial conditions also tightened as investors withdrew over $120 billion in portfolio flows from emerging and frontier market countries in the first half of 2020, leading to revenue drop for Nigeria.

Supply was also affected by massive outflow of foreign portfolio investments from emerging and frontier Markets including Nigeria in 2020.

Emefiele said these occurrences had adverse implications on the supply of forex into Nigeria, as well as on government revenues.

“While flows began to recover in the early part of 2021, financial flows to emerging markets like Nigeria, are constrained by expected tapering by the Federal Reserve Bank in 2022, which is likely to affect global financial conditions,” Emefiele told bankers at the 2021 Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) dinner and awards night held in Lagos.

The resulting outflow has further heightened pressures on the currencies of major emerging market countries like Nigeria, leading to the adjustments of the naira exchange rate.

Go and kill (joro, jara, joro)

Go and die (joro, jara, joro)

Go and quench (joro, jara, joro)

Put ’em for reverse (joro, jara, joro)

– Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Zombie.

Soja Idumota (erected 1935), at its Idumota commercial hub cenotaph, was a culture icon, much revered by the scurry-dart-and-dash Lagosians. With immense pride, even those hurried denizens gawked at Lagos own that perished, far-away at the European wars, tagged World War 1 & 2.

That pair of foot soldiers – Soja Idumota – was never more iconic: in them, Lagos was well pleased; and called foreign tourists and domestic travellers to share their thrill!

In 1978, Head of State, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, shunted the beloved Soja, with storied heroism from India and Burma, from their Idumota home, to the former Race Course, Lagos.  In 1990, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida would move them to Abuja, the new federal capital – a move not a few Lagosians still resent.

However, a new sole figure, symbolizing Nigeria’s composite blues at World War 1 (1914-1918), World War 2 (1939-1945) and the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970), found a new home at the Remembrance Arcade, Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Lagos.

The vast TBS grounds, built in 1972, complete with a 50, 000-capacity stand, office suites and shops, a cricket mini-stadium, aside from the Remembrance Arcade, stood on the former Race Course – colonial Lagos’ national high shrine for horse jockeys and horse races.

With that new home came a new name: Lone Soldier.  But with that new name came less love and awe:  long years of military rule had filled the military class with hubris. That blinded them to the disdain the Nigerian on the streets held the prancing men in khaki and jackboot.

The military’s fashionable impunity found the generals looting the nation’s till with patriotic relish; and the foot soldiers preying on “bloody civilians” – their street game – with patriotic gusto.

Those street ruffians came in many forms: “staff” to many commercial shuttle operators who must transport them free because of their khaki and jackboots; a riotous mob in uniform that reserved the right to storm any place at the slightest excuse; and unruly rascals, dishing out spicy slaps – or worse.

Indeed, in his book Honour for Sale, Debo Basorun, a retired Major of the Nigerian Army, relived being a victim one of such soldiers’ invasion of an Idi-Oro, Lagos hotel, and the imperious snatching of civilians’ fun-catching girlfriends.  That made him to virtually hop into the Army during the Civil War, just to call the bluff of those rampaging rascals.

By the time Fela released Zombie in 1976, the soldier in the street had become a near-scum.  Fela himself bore the scars of the so-called “Unknown Soldier” that tossed his old mother, the venerable Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, from the first floor of his Idi-Oro “Kalakuta Republic” home, burned the place and sacked his band.

So, a vigorous dance to the electrifying Zombie was merry contempt for the foot soldier; and even more caustic scorn for the corrupt officer corps, who the colourful Chuba Okadigbo once dismissed as “coup heroes” – opportunistic, cant-spewing parasites that grabbed public arms, to corral public office, for ultra-selfish goals.

The old Soja Idumota had turned full circle – from hero to zero, in that catchy street lingo.  Popular imagination, which it once fired, had turned popular indignation, which it had now earned!

Yet, in Nigeria’s long-running terror war, these same foot soldiers are making a huge difference in uncommon bravery, rare gallantry and supreme sacrifice.

Major Debo Basorun confessed he self-blundered into the Civil War: untrained and unarmed; and with virtual bare arms to war with the Biafra rebel forces.

On the contrary, these foot soldiers were not without training.  Yet, they were once near-canon fodders to the rampaging Boko Haram Islamists, in the slaughtering fields of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

Under President Goodluck Jonathan, there were allegations that the velvet ranks just tossed these expendables into battle with little or no fitting armour.  Yet, they held firm; with not a few, nameless and thankless, prematurely dispatched to their maker, in the cause of motherland.

Indeed, since the Boko Haram Islamist resurrection started on 26 July 2009; to 2013/2014 when it ramped up its murderous blitz, seizing territories and planting flags; to the present ebbing fortunes, of rare military ambushes and cowardly hits on soft targets, the foot soldier has borne much of the brunt.  Yet, he appears fated to being nameless; and even much less appreciated.

All-night on December 3, Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists, the latest Islamist strain after the death of Boko Haram leader, Ibrahim Shekau, rained mortar thunder on Maiduguri, the Borno capital.

But the actual battle ground was Kala Balge town, from where ISWAP had hoped to steal into Maiduguri.  The troops, though suffering seven fatal casualties – two officers, five men – pegged back the terrorists, dispatching no less than 26; and having many more scamper off with bullet wounds.

“In the fierce battle for Kala Balge, troops defended the town and neutralized 26 BH/ISWAP terrorists,” Brig-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, director of Army Public Relations gushed. “The gallant troops also captured terrorists’ combat vehicles, 18 AK 47 rifles and one M-21 rifle, with large quantity of ammunition.”

But beyond the Army Headquarters’ general serenading of “troops”, the fallen five foot soldiers and the tens of others that triumphed were destined to be known-less.

Three weeks earlier, the ill-fated Brig-Gen. Dzarma Zirkusu and his three soldiers snared in an ISWAP ambush, while racing to reinforcement duties in Borno’s Uskira Uba local government area, also fell.  Of the lot, only the brigadier-general made the headlines.

The foot soldier, a study in stoic heroism, has been the game-changer in this anti-terror war.  Yet he is seldom celebrated; and his welfare near-military apostasy.

That is why he has breasted the tape as second runner-up in The Nation Person of the Year 2021 – who, irony of ironies, is Nobody!

It is sad that this is our First Runner-Up, but it only mirrors the Nigerian society

Until November 25 when a Federal High Court in Abuja declared the activities of Yan Bindiga and Yan Ta’adda bandit groups as acts of terrorism, Nigeria, more specifically the Federal Government, had been treating the two groups as ‘mere bandits’. It was therefore treating them with kid gloves. Many Nigerians cried foul, and asking that the Federal Government apply the big stick against these so-called bandits as it has been doing to Nnamdi Kanu and members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and Sunday Igboho, the protagonist of the Yoruba self-rule agitation movement. After all, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

This official dichotomy between ‘bandits’ and ‘terrorists’ did not help the cause of the war on terror. Even the military took a cue from the body language at the top and refrained from dealing severely with the bandits. The Federal Government however shocked Nigerians when it instituted a suit against the two bandit groups, and, by extension, others like them that have been the source of sleepless nights to law-abiding citizens, particularly in the northeast, northwest and north central parts of the country.

According to the government, the groups, based on security reports, are responsible for the growing cases of “banditry, incessant kidnappings for ransom, kidnapping for marriage, mass abductions of school children and other citizens, cattle rustling, enslavement, imprisonment, severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture, rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, other forms of sexual violence, attacks and killings in communities and commuters and wanton destruction of lives and properties in Nigeria, particularly in the Northwest and Northcentral states in Nigeria are being carried out by Yan Bindiga and Yan Ta’adda groups and other groups associated with or engaged in the same or similar activities as Yan Bindiga and Yan

Ta’adda groups in Nigeria.”

“The activities of Yan Bindiga and Yan Ta’adda groups and other similar groups constitute acts of terrorism that can lead to a breakdown of public order and safety and is a threat to national security and the corporate existence of Nigeria,” the government added.

But why this volte face on the party of the Federal Government? Could it be that the bandits at a point stole too much for the owner to notice? Did the government change its mind on redefining the bandits due to widespread criticisms that it was being lenient with them because of the part of the country they hail from? As a matter of fact, some speculated that the government changed its mind and eventually took the matter to court to get judicial imprimatur for its planned onslaught against them as terrorists. The speculation is that the Federal Government sorely needed this judicial pronouncement in view of its agreement with the United States which sold some Super Tucano military jets to the Nigerian Armed Forces not to deploy the jets arbitrarily.

Whatever the case, the court agreed with the government that the groups are terrorist organisations, proscribed them as well as similar organisations, and restrained people from participating in their activities.

The court message sank. Even Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, who used to serve as

intermediary between the bandits and government has said he would stop his self-appointed role. Since the court judgment, he has been less visible in making a case for the criminals or disclosing publicly that he met with them in the jungle, intimating us with what .he often referred to as their demands from the Federal Government.

Perhaps the redefining of bandits began to gain more currency when groups that have been otherwise described as ordinary bandits brought down a military jet. Even Nigerians who had previously taken casual interest in their activities began to reflect more deeply on the needless dichotomy between terrorists and the bandits when, on July 18, 2021, a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jet was brought down by the so-called bandits on its returning from a successful air interdiction mission between the boundaries of Zamfara and Kaduna states. Although this was the fourth military jet to come down in about seven months in the course of prosecuting the insurgency war, it was the first that the military admitted was actually brought down by bandits.

However, beyond this, the judgment is significant in that it has brought into bold relief the fact that there is hardly any difference between both bandits and terrorists. After all, what do terrorists do that bandits do not do? All of the allegations used by the Federal Government to secure the judgment against the bandits are true of both categories. Bandits and terrorists have something in common: they come to rape, to kidnap, to steal, to kill and to destroy.

Their activities almost made nonsense of food security in the country.

So far, bandits’ known in local  parlance as armed gangs had kidnapped more than 1,000 students and school children between December 2020 and July 2021, alone. Some of them never returned alive while ransom had to be paid to secure the release of many others. As a matter of fact, payment of ransom to guarantee the release of abductees alive would appear to be the mildest of the punishments by the bandits. Their criminal activities have led to many being displaced from their homes, many maimed and many more cruelly separated from their loved ones in what could pass for some of the worst social dislocations of our time. Even at the definition of bandits as “a  robber or outlaw belonging to a gang and typically operating in an isolated or lawless area.”, would someone who wants to steal others’ property mind if the owner dies in the process? So, wherein lies the difference between them (bandits) and the terrorists?

Now that the Federal Government has got the court’s nod to deal with the so-called bandits as terrorists, there is no excuse not to be ruthless with them, at least within permissible limits in fighting such insurgency. The court’s declaration would be meaningless if there is no significant reduction in their capacity to wreak havoc.

All said, it is better for the Federal Government and particularly the governments in the northern part of the country to address the underlying causes of banditry. Here, we are talking about ignorance, poverty and illiteracy. Some of the ancient practices in the region, like the concept of Almajiris have to be re-tweaked to reflect modern trends.

It is regrettable that the bandit has been named as first runner-up in our Person of the Year categories. But it is a reflection of the Nigerian reality. And the earlier the Federal Government in particular realised this all importent raison d’etre of government, the better.

This country has lost too much  to banditry (insecurity). It is time to stop the hemorrhage.