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Tag: caution

  • Caution

    Caution

    • That’s the sane path to tread in assessing the ministers

    One — Works minister, David Umahi — hit the ground running, as that cliche goes.  His stock appears well risen among the populace for his verve as lively czar of the road sector of infrastructure.

    The other — power minister, Adebayo Adelabu — hit the ground stumbling.  Were you to conduct a citizen plebiscite today, it’s doubtful if many would throw their lot with the rather harassed  minister.

    Still, there lies the danger: Adelabu grapples with core systemic problems in the power sector — by the way, another crucial sector on the critical infrastructure “war” front. 

    Whereas Umahi arrived office with far better fundamentals, Adelabu inherited a shambolic power sector and market, buffeted with long-standing sector disequilibrium.

    So, to just move against the minister and discard him, just on the basis of public uproar, might do the polity and the economy, not excluding the man himself, a load of injustice.  That is why caution remains the key word.

    The bulk of the other ministers fall between these two spectacular cases of positive and negative perception.  But that hardly equates the simplistic rush to judgment: that the good ones are not even better than Umahi in quality delivery; or that the bad ones tower above Adelabu, as they grapple with own ministries’ peculiar challenges.

    We just don’t have enough facts.  After nine months — most of the ministers have been in office for nine months — it’s just too early to make a sound and credible judgment of performance. 

    The best that can happen now is a sweeping stand, powered by perception.  This is where perception alone is clearly ultra-dangerous for the polity.

    Another point: the Citizens’ Delivery Tracker (CDT), one of the key indices to assess the ministers, just came on stream mid-April.  That was eight months into the ministers’ tenure.  Were the ministers to be adjudged now, the CDT — citizens’ inputs into the assessment — would only cover one month.  Again, that is far too short to be of any useful or quality value.

    Still, the CDT is only one index, to complement the long-standing administration pillars, for which every minister signed a performance bond, viz: reforming the economy to deliver sustained and inclusive growth, strengthening national security for peace and prosperity, boosting agriculture to achieve food security.

    The other pillars: unlocking energy and natural resources for sustainable development, accelerating diversification through industrialisation, digitisation, creative arts, manufacturing and innovation, and improving governance for effective service delivery.

    All the six pillars are interwoven, so much so that a laggard ministry could badly pull back others; and retard the overall pace of the administration.  That ironically makes a case for quick and clinical interventions to “recharge the battery” by getting rid of dead woods. 

    But again, caution is the word.  Nine months is just too brief a time to make serious and definitive decisions, without appearing to be rash.  Rashness is rushing to judgment, getting rid of a particular minister, only to find out his replacement isn’t the magic worker everyone craves. 

    Indeed, there’s no magic to acute structural challenges. The only cure is rigorous thinking, followed by deliberate actions.  That takes time and patience. 

    To make the right decisions on ministers, therefore, the  administration will have to strike a balance between speed and introspection.  Such balancing isn’t always the most popular — at least, not with the impatient and boisterous populace; or even the sensational media.  But it’s almost, always the most productive.

    As a bloc, however, one year down the line, the administration has spawn fulsome policy initiatives, perhaps much more than any government at the centre since 1999.  If the mood in 1999 was a president preening in imperial powers, the mood from 2023 has been a president doing a dash against time.  Just as well then —  for it is difficult times and there is so much to do.

    All that can be adduced to not the President alone but also the entire cabinet at the centre, trying to keep to that urgent pace.  So, for policy initiatives alone, it has been something to cheer — and the entire cabinet can earn group credit.

    Read Also: ‘Approach minimum wage with caution’

    But there is little joy in hard planting without a bumper harvest.  That harvest would be when those policies begin to translate into noticeable and verifiable gains; with big smiles in the streets — happy streets full of proud and preening citizens.

    It is towards this next step, really, that the government should look for adequate replacements — if it finds it necessary — when the time dawns.  For now, the Central Coordination Delivery Unit (CCDU), under Hadiza Bala-Usman, the special adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, should clinically track the ministers by the already laid down performance indicators.

    If that is well done and the results are grafted with the CDT a few months down the line, we should get a fair assessment of all the ministers.  The key word here is fair.

    The President can then act in the interest of the good of all — to the glory of his administration, and the greatest happiness of the greatest number, to echo Jeremy Bentham.

  • MAN urges caution in ratifying free trade pact

    The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has urged the Federal Government to be cautious in ratifying the proposed African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) agreement.

    MAN President Mansur Ahmed said the Federal Government should not only consult, but study and understand the implications of the free trade agreement before ratification.

    He made this known in Lagos  when he received the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello, who paid him a courtesy visit.

    AfCFTA was designed to create a continental trade bloc of 1.2 billion Africans, with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about $3 trillion.

    The agreement commits African countries to phasing out tariffs on 90 per cent of goods, with 10 per cent of “sensitive items” to be phased out incrementally. It will also liberalise trade in services, while also signaling a step towards building strong regional value chains.

    The agreement is seen as an important milestone in promoting Africa’s regional integration and helping to increase intra-African trade by more than 52 per cent, worth about $35 billion per year.

    But, Ahmed said with Nigeria’s experience in exporting goods to other West African countries, under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), the continental free trade agreement may not be any better.

    “The position of MAN on AFCFTA has been very clear from the beginning. Nigeria is the largest economy in West Africa and the largest population. The impact of any major agreement to do with trade clearly will have greater impact on Nigeria than any other country.

    “So, we owe it to ourselves and to our economy that we should be very conscious of the potentials of not only the opportunities, but also the risks to our economy.

    “We need to study this very carefully to anticipate where there is likely to be risk to the economy or to the welfare of the people and to make sure that we agree on mitigating actions that will minimize these risks,” he said.

    Ahmed noted that the ETLS has not been effective as it should be and up till today, exporters are having tremendous problem exporting even from Nigeria to Ghana.

    “If therefore, this is our experience within the West African sub region, we cannot take it for granted that the AFCFTA will be any better.

    “So, we want to make sure that we consult, study and understand how it is going to affect us and we take measures up front to make sure that we mitigate the risks and maximise the opportunities for our economy,” he stated.

    Ahmed said the economy is presently going through challenging times hence, there could be no better time than now to fully diversify the economy.

    MAN’s latest warning came on the heels of the recent constitution of a committee for Impact and Readiness Assessment of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area by President Muhammadu Buhari to address risks associated with signing the AFCFTA agreement.

    Earlier, Bello said the NSC’s visit was to solicit the buy-in of MAN to jointly agree on framework for collaboration in addressing some of the challenges in the port sector.

    He said the council has been supporting programmes geared towards improving port efficiency and reducing cost as well as simplifying procedures and processes for the clearance of goods at the ports.

    Bello, who reiterated the need for diversification of the economy, also noted that exports procedures need to be streamlined.

    “For long, we have been talking about the fact that the economy needs to come out from being import dependent to an economy that can manufacture, export and process agricultural produce and make sure we earn the foreign exchange.

    “So, in line with the Federal Government’s effort, NSC has keyed into this project by ensuring that the export procedures are streamlined and reduced to the barest minimum,” he said.

    MAN and the NSC have agreed to set up a joint committee with focus on reducing cost to make the nation’s port more competitive, promote ease of doing business, review some trade policies at the port as well as improve port infrastructure.

     

  • Caution is the word

    •There is little to cheer in IMF’s economic outlook for Nigeria

    MUCH as the latest forecast on the economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gives some room for cheers, one inescapable conclusion is that the economy is still powered largely by the same element that has been its Achilles heel. According to the latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecast, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to grow by 2.3 percent in 2019 – that is some 0.4 percent higher than the figure of 1.9 percent announced by the fund in April.

    Nigeria’s growth, says the IMF forecast “is set to increase from 0.8 percent in 2017 to 2.1 percent in 2018 and 2.3 percent in 2019 (0.4 percentage point higher than in the April WEO for 2019) on the back of an improved outlook for oil prices”.

    The fund’s projection for sub-Saharan Africa, by contrast, would appear even more upbeat: 3.8 percent, from 3.7 percent it announced in April. Says the IMF: “The recovery in Sub-Saharan Africa is set to continue, supported by the rise in commodity prices. For the region, growth is expected to increase from 2.8 percent in 2017 to 3.4 percent this year, rising further to 3.8 percent in 2019 (0.1 percentage point higher for 2019 than forecast in the April WEO)”.

    The upgraded forecast, it says, “reflects improved prospects for Nigeria’s economy” understandably because the continent’s other economic powerhouse and its most-industrialised economy, South Africa, with which it accounts for 50 percent of the continent’s GDP, hasn’t grown at more than two percent a year since 2013.

    To start with, the outlook for Nigeria projects nothing that could be deemed extraordinary in the circumstance that oil prices have remained at the heart of the projection. With pretty little to show of the factors underlying the so-called positive outlook as anything other than the stability and sustained rise in commodity prices, there is a sense in which the rosy outlook could be deemed, if not as somewhat exaggerated but as having the potential to lull Nigeria into an illusion of comfortability. Caution should be the word.

    Secondly, after a terrible contraction–the worst in 25 years – caused by lower oil prices and output and crippling shortages of foreign exchange to import basic raw materials, the more pertinent question at this time ought to be whether anything of the structure of the Nigerian economy has changed in any fundamental sense as to warrant boundless optimism from any quarters. The reality of course is that the economy remains highly vulnerable – so much so that a mere threat from the Saudis to turn on the oil taps is already creating ripples on the global energy price landscape at a time the country can do with every petrodollar. The current ruckus at the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting and which has left the finances of most states in precarious situation obviously brings the vulnerability closer home.

    Third is the million dollar question of whether an economy whose population growth rate currently stands at 2.6 percent can afford to luxuriate in the illusion of such modest growth.

    We therefore take the projections with a pinch of salt. Far from doubting the potential of the Nigerian economy, the issue is whether those managing the economy have the vision, energy and discipline to chart a future that is truly less dependent on oil. Such vision obviously calls for bold measures to address the huge infrastructure gap which Financial Derivatives Company, an economic and financial research firm, once says would require $15bn (N4.59tn) annually for the next 15 years to bridge. It also calls for bold reforms in the educational sector to address the composite issues of youth unemployment and skills acquisition.

     

  • Opposition parties greet, caution new President

    Opposition parties greet, caution new President

    Opposition parties yesterday congratulated Cyril Ramaphosa on his election in the National Assembly as South African President, but did not give him a free pass.

    “President Ramaphosa, I want to on behalf of the DA congratulate you, wish you well and I want you to know, if you act in interests of the people of South Africa, we will cooperate as best we can”, said Mmusi Maimane, leader of the biggest opposition party, Democratic Alliance, shortly after Ramaphosa’s election.

    Maimane warned that since Ramaphosa’s predecessor, Jacob Zuma, who resigned on Wednesday night under pressure from his own governing African National Congress (ANC), party, was defended time and again by the very same people who recalled him, meant the problem did not lie with the man.

    “We don’t have a Jacob Zuma problem, we have an ANC problem”, said Maimane, adding that the best way forward was to dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections.

    “This is a moment in our country where we must move section 50 of the Constitution and go back to the people of SA and ask them for a fresh mandate.”

    The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) left the sitting early, protesting Speaker Baleka Mbete’s refusal to immediately hear a motion to dissolve Parliament.

    United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa reminded Ramaphosa that his rise to power was not due to just his party.

    “Mr. President, your abrupt rise to the highest office in the land is the collective efforts of the relentless struggles of people of South Africa from all walks of life against the then ANC deployed corrupt leader (Zuma),” said Holomisa.

    African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) leader Kenneth Meshoe said Ramaphosa needed “the courage to use the broom to sweep clean”, referring to corruption in state institutions.

    “Let the fear of God guide you, Mr. President…hope is dawning and may the people who are hopeful out there not be disappointed by the honourable Cyril Ramaphosa,” Meshoe said.

  • Caution as fuel queues reduce in Lagos, Ibadan

    Caution as fuel queues reduce in Lagos, Ibadan

    Marketers: our depots empty

    Scarcity persists in Ilorin, Abuja, Aba, others

    Fuel marketers raised the alarm On Tuesday – depots are empty.

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has promised to flood depots with petrol but the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) said the corporation was yet  to send petrol to its members’ depots.

    The scarcity subsided yesterday in Lagos and Ibadan, with more filling stations selling petrol at the officials N145 per litre.

    In Abuja, NNPC was battling hoarders, shutting down filling stations.

    The situation was critical in Kaduna, Ilorin and many other cities.

    DAPPMA’s Executive Secretary Olufemi Adewole, in a statement in Lagos, urged the NNPC to help the association so as to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians.

    “Our members’ depots are empty. However, if the PPMC/NNPC can provide us with petrol, we are ready to do 24-hour loading to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians and for the fuel queues to be totally eliminated.

    “We, petroleum products marketers, do empathise with all Nigerians who are going through difficulties at this time by spending hours on fuel queues because of the current fuel scarcity due to no fault of theirs.

    ”DAPPMA members import about 65 per cent of the nation’s total fuel consumption, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) imports about 15 per cent and PPMC/NNPC import the balance of 20 per cent.

    “However, this scenario changed drastically due to several challenges faced by marketers.’’

    The DAPPMA official claimed that its members paid PPMC/NNPC in advance for petroleum products.

    He said fully paid-up petrol orders, which have neither been programmed nor loaded, exceeded 500,000MT (about 800,000,000 litres).

    “As at today, there is enough petrol to meet the nation’s needs for 19 days at a daily estimated consumption of 35,000,000 litres. Sadly, some people have blamed marketers for hoarding products. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth.

    ”Hoarding is regarded as economic sabotage and we assure all Nigerians that our members are not involved in such illicit act.

    “While all kinds of allegations have been made in the media, it is important to set the records straight, as Nigerians first and as responsible business men and women who employ Nigerians.

    ”As it stands today, NNPC has been the sole importer of PMS into the country since October,’’ Adewole said.

    He said the current import price of petrol is about N170 per litre, with NNPC, which absorbs the subsidy on behalf of the Federal Government, as the importer of last resort.

    ”The international price of petrol went up during the period of Hurricane Katrina and it has not dropped below USD$600/MT since then.”

    Adewole said the exchange rate of the dollar to the Naira is N306 for petrol imports and the interest rate banks charge is above 25 per cent.

    ”Landing cost of PMS in Nigeria is above N145 per litre, which means any of our members that import will have to resort to subsidy claims, a policy already jettisoned by the government.

    ”It is on record that any time NNPC assumes the role of sole importer; there are issues of distribution, because it is marketers who own 80 per cent of the functional receptive facilities and retail outlets in Nigeria.

    ”While we cannot confirm or dispute NNPC’s claim of having sufficient product stock, we can confirm that the products are not in our tanks and, as such, cannot be distributed.

    ”If the products are offshore, then surely it cannot be considered to be available to Nigerians,’’ he said.

    An oil and gas merchant, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho has attributed the persistent scarcity of petrol to NNPC’s monopoly.

    Iheanacho, a former Minister of Interior in the Goodluck Jonathan administration, who is the Chairman of Integrated Oil and Gas Ltd., told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos yesterday that inability of the NNPC to create a window for private importers to import petrol also contributed to the scarcity.

    He said the shortage was caused by the landing cost margin of N171 per litre and the selling cost pegged at N 145 per litre.

    ”The selling of the product at N145 per litre is no longer feasible with the current exchange rate.

    ”Shortage of foreign exchange and increase in crude prices have made it unprofitable to import petrol and sell same at N145 per litre.

    ”The problem is that importation of petrol is being handled, almost 100 per cent, by NNPC, while private importers backed out because the increase in crude price has made the landing cost high,’’ he said.

    Iheanacho said the marketers’ huge debts of over N800 billion had also contributed to the inability to import petrol.

    He said most independent marketers had closed their companies due to inability to pay their workers. Iheanacho urged the Federal Government to settle all the outstanding debts owed marketers since 2015.

    Loading of petrol has begun in Apapa, Lagos.

    Hundreds of trucks were on queue yesterday, waiting to load petrol at Total, Forte Oil, Oando Plc, MRS, NIPCO and other private depots.

    In the city, long queues of motorists persist in many filling stations in the metropolis.

    In Ikorodu, Epe, Ibeju-Lekki, Oshodi, Ajegunle, Ikotun, Bariga and Sango-Ota, some stations were selling petrol for between N180 and N200 per litre.

    In Ikorodu many filling stations were selling at N200 per litre. Only a few were selling at the official N145 per litre.

    Commercial buses increased their fares by more than 100 per cent, claiming that they bought petrol above the official price.

    A NAN report said that the fare from Ikorodu Garage to CMS increased from N300 to N350 before the scarcity to N1000.

    From Epe to Ketu, passengers were being charged N1, 500 as against N700 they were paying before the scarcity. The fare from Ketu to Costain was between N300 and N500.

     

  • Nigeria must apply caution on oil revenue spending, says NEITI

    Nigeria must apply caution on oil revenue spending, says NEITI

    The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has advised Nigeria to apply restraint in spending oil revenues, in view of the experience from economic recession and instability in the oil market.

    The agency said the time had come for the country to embrace a robust saving culture, irrespective of whether oil prices are low or high, noting the importance of healthy savings as one of the tools for tackling resource curse.

    It recommended that the federating units, especially the federal and state governments seek the speedy resolution of pending cases at the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of remittances to the Excess Crude Account, and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.

    It also said there is urgent need for the government to amend Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution, drawing on the political consensus that led to the creation of the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). NEITI noted that oil revenue savings in the ECA and Stabilisation Fund should be consolidated into the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority. “We are persuaded by the recent 9 out 10 score ranking of NSIA by the global sovereign wealth institute transparency index, the highest by an African Sovereign Wealth Fund,” it said.

    NEITI Director of Communications Ogbonnaya Orji noted that the NSIA was the only one of the three funds that has recorded profit, adding that NSIA should be strengthened with appropriate guarantees on transparent and accountable governance to reassure stakeholders.

    Orji, who spoke with The Nation on phone, said the time to separate government expenditure from oil revenues and pursue prudent macro-economic policies was now. He said these measures were critical success factors that would rescue the country from resource curse syndrome.

    There are predictions the Nigerian oil reserves would likely dry up in the next 38 years, development economic analysts have said. If the proceeds from oil are not diversified into the non-oil sector, the country may be in for more problems

    NEITI noted that resource-rich countries, including Nigeria, that depend on revenues from natural resources to finance annual budgets, plan early to insulate themselves from  price volatility in the international market and eventual depletion of the resources.

    He said many countries set up stabilisation funds for the rainy day and for the future of the next generation.  This, he said, requires a deliberate policy by the government to set aside money earned from natural resources, especially during periods of high prices to help sustain expenditure when prices fall.

    The stabilisation funds, he added, protect countries against total dependence on natural resources’ revenue and create incentives to look in wards, he restated.

    Furthermore, Orji recalled that saving a portion of oil and gas revenues began in Nigeria in 1989, when the Stabilisation Fund was set up.  The objective was to set aside 0.5 per cent of the Federation Account to support any state that suffers absolute decline in its revenues as a result of circumstances beyond its control.

  • Nigeria: Caution! Caution!!

    Thoughtful Nigerians are raising alarms about the escalating threat of massive disorder in our country. Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, eminent elder statesmen like Edwin Clark and Ayo Adebanjo and others, traditional rulers, top religious leaders (Christian and Muslim alike) – all are shouting for a change of direction. One of the latest to do so, our former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, in response to the terroristic threats flying all over our land, warned that “an eye for an eye will leave Nigeria blind”.

    More and more nations among the hundreds of nations of our country are saying more and more loudly that they do not want to continue to live in the horrific fears that Nigeria now represents – in the threat to their existence as peoples – in the poverty – in the marginalization – in the culture of violence and mass murders – in the crookedness, impunity and failure. Some are also saying that they do not want to continue to share in Nigeria’s burden of guilt for its crowded crimes against humanity. Thus, secessionist agitations have escalated in the Igbo South-east (where, apparently, most citizens now support the demand for a separate country of Biafra), and in the South-south (where various youth groups are blowing up oil installations and demanding a separate Delta country). In the South-west, many self-determination youth groups have come together to issue a very impressive demand for a separate Oodua country. Self-determination movements are becoming active even in the Middle Belt. In the predominantly Kanuri North-east, Boko Haram, apart from its Islamic fundamentalist agenda, is increasingly manifesting as, and gaining support from, Kanuri nationalism and separatism – and obviously reviving its murderous and destructive capabilities. In an obverse development, many strong Hausa-Fulani youth groups have joined hands and announced that they do not want their Hausa-Fulani nation to continue to live with the Igbo nation in the same country, have issued an ultimatum to all Igbo to leave the North, have advised all northerners resident in the South to return to the North, and have demanded the dissolution of Nigeria. From some of these Arewa youth sources, hate songs and terroristic threats are being circulated against the Igbo as a people.

    The Hausa-Fulani youth agitators in the North-west, in spite of their pungent and persistent threats against the Igbo people, seem to enjoy a privileged status that protects them from any kind of sanctions by Nigerian authorities. In contrast, in response to the agitations in the Igbo South-east, the Delta South-south, the Yoruba South-west, and the Middle Belt, the federal government is hurrying to beef up Nigeria’s military muscle. The police and military have been constantly active in the South-east against pro-Biafra agitators, with serious consequences in human fatalities and injuries. The military are also busy against the agitators in the South-south, and threatening much more massive operations there. To maximize power for these ends, the Buhari administration is busy shopping for arms around the world – and reportedly committing enormous amounts of money in spite of the depressed conditions of the Nigerian economy. Nigeria is reportedly negotiating for purchases of advanced weapons from some leading Western countries. The Buhari administration has also recently announced that Nigeria has reached agreements with Sudan and Pakistan for joint development and production of weapons, and has effected actual purchases of military aircraft from Pakistan. These are very ominous developments since Sudan has been the conduit pipe for most funds funnelled from the Arab world to Nigeria for jihadist purposes; and Pakistan has been the place where many Nigerian youths have been trained in Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.

    Meanwhile, the Fulani herdsmen terrorists are observed to be upgrading their attacks in many Southern and Middle Belt states. Terrorist attacks by herdsmen bringing hundreds of cows are, for the first time, being directed against school premises in some states, chasing young students out of their classrooms, and occupying the classrooms with cows. Also, herdsmen’s settlements are observed to be springing up in hundreds of locations in the Middle Belt and the South.

    Informed Nigerians believe that this intense new phase in the herdsmen’s terror campaigns, coupled with the military preparations at high levels of Nigeria’s government, is a sign that some well-prepared horror is about to burst across the length and breadth of the Nigerian South and Middle Belt. Some others believe that it is all part of preparations by the controllers of federal power to enforce their will more brutally and more irresistibly.

    Fear and resolve to resist are growing exponentially. The leadership of the elders of the Yoruba nation of the South-west, while intensifying their demands for the restructuring of the Nigerian federation, are, for the first time ever, warning that any genocidal attacks on the Igbo people this time around would be responded to by the Yoruba as an attack on the Yoruba. The leadership of the elders of the Delta have risen to work with the Yoruba and Igbo elders. Also, many significant elder citizens of the Middle Belt have stepped forth to collaborate with the growing southern resistance. From the Arewa North, various youth groups are issuing more and more terroristic threats against the Igbo. And from all parts of the South and, to some extent   the Middle Belt, youth groups are responding with intensified demands for secession and with terroristic threats against Hausa-Fulani folks.

    In the background to all these, poverty, deprivation and hardship are wracking the lives of most Nigerians and setting the stage for massive civic troubles. According to Nigeria’s Bureau of Statistics, by 2014 about 60.9% of all Nigerians lived in “absolute poverty”, and by 2016, the number had risen to 67% and was still rising. Today, starvation and destitution are massively and painfully visible across the face of Nigeria. Among all classes of Nigerians, desperation, moral collapse, crookedness, brigandage, violent crimes, and suicides are rampant. Various international agencies classify Nigerians among the world’s poorest in access to electricity, potable water, safe transportation, quality healthcare delivery, dependable public administrative services, public security, etc. Violent crimes have turned Nigeria into one of the most unsafe places in peace time in the world. Drastically poor support for education is resulting in teachers not getting their salaries paid for months in most states, and in poor conditions of learning in schools and in colleges and universities. By 2015, virtually all of Nigeria’s states were heavily burdened with debts and near bankruptcy, and not less than 27 state governments are still unable to pay the salaries of public employees and public school teachers when due. Huge numbers of Nigeria’s unemployed educated youths are regularly finding ways to flee to other countries from Nigeria’s crushing poverty and hopelessness. Businesses and investments are failing or are relocating away from Nigeria. A recent United Nations report describes Nigeria as “one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the world”.

    Thus, today, the dark clouds hanging over Nigeria are growing frighteningly darker. If the pressure on the peoples who are poised to resist coercion or terrorism should be stepped up with all the accumulated capacity of federal coercive power, plus the aggression of the armed Fulani herdsmen who have heavily infiltrated the Middle Belt and the South, destruction of life, of property and of means of livelihood, as well as human rights brutalities, already widespread in Nigeria, could quickly reach earth-shaking proportions.

    It is therefore time to defer to the many Nigerians who are pleading for caution. Those who are threatening others and bristling for violent action need to think again. Those in charge of public policy need to turn around and choose ways and means that will ensure the   sustenance of Nigeria on the basis of mutual love and mutual respect. This country cannot be built by threatening or intimidating. We live in times when it is impossible for any group or agency to command a monopoly of violence. Sure, we Nigerians disagree over a whole lot of important things. But it is not true that crushing or subduing opponents is the only way to settle matters. Learning to settle matters on the basis of fairness and long-term interest of Nigeria is a better way. What Winston Churchill said is true for us today – it is “better to jaw-jaw than to war-war”.

  • Ramadan: Conoil urges caution on roads

    The nation’s foremost petroleum marketing company, Conoil Plc, has wished Nigerians accident-free celebrations, as Muslim faithful celebrate the end of the 30-day fasting period.

    It enjoined motorists as well as passengers to exercise caution on the roads as they travel far and near to join their loved ones in celebration.

    The company urged motorists to keep a rein on their speed, obey traffic rules, wear seat belts, read caution signs and ensure their vehicles are in good condition, electrically and mechanically, before embarking on their trips.

    The oil major also enjoined the citizens to continue with the lessons of love and tolerance learnt during the fasting period to promote peace and unity in the country.

    As a way of moving the country forward, it encouraged Muslims and Nigerians to ensure that they put into practice virtues such as sacrifice, forgiveness, care and love, which are key ingredients to nation-building.

  • Amiesimaka urges caution

    Amiesimaka urges caution

    Nigerian football legend, Chief Adokiye Amiesimaka has warned Rivers United to be prepared for a stiff challenge when they face Rwandan club, Rayon Sports in the second leg of the CAF Confederation Cup playoff tie.
    “First, I want to say congratulations to Rivers United FC of Nigeria for an encouraging performance (on Sunday). A 2-0 (result) is as good a scoreline as any. Only 1-0 may turn out to be safe, just as 4-0 may not be safe,” Amiesimaka told supersport.com.
    “In this game, any margin is as safe or precarious as you make it. It is possible to lose at home, but win away. It is possible to win at home and also win away.
    “It is possible to win at home, but lose away. It is possible to lose, home and away. Each instance has happened before. Any result is possible. To win is simply to make sure you score more goals than you concede,” he said.
    “Know your strengths and build on them. Know your weaknesses and strive to prevent your opponents from capitalising on them. In like manner, know your opponents’ strengths and strive to neutralise them, just as you should identify their weaknesses and work to capitalise on them.
    “That is what the game is, a contest of wits, whether home or away and as long as refereeing is fair, it shouldn’t make much difference to any solid team with the right attitude whether it is playing home or away,” Amiesimaka said.
    The Nigerian club eased to a 2-0 win in the first leg at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, Port Harcourt on Sunday to put themselves in the box seat for qualification for the group stage of the competition.

  • A time for caution

    A friend told me the story of how one of his relatives survived one of the numerous ethnic/religious crises that engulfed Kaduna in the past. The relative was chased by a mob wielding machetes; spears, poisoned arrows and other dangerous weapons. Having nowhere else to run to he jumped into a well and that saved his life. His pursuers didn’t stop there as they contemplated what next to do. Since it would be a “waste” to throw their machete and spears into the well, they ended shooting as many poisoned arrows as possible into the well so as to “finish the job.”

    For some inexplicable reason, it turned out the well was one of those interlocking wells linking two wells, so staying in the middle was what saved his life. He couldn’t explain how he was able to stay in the well for over an hour. In the end, he came out alive! This is one of numerous stories I have heard about people fleeing ethnic/religious conflicts in the country. Last week I wrote about the Ile-Ife clash and will like to remain there because of new developments that I believe call for utmost caution.

    Opinions are divided on how to classify what happened at Ife. The Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd) said: “It is very clear that this issue is not about crisis between the Hausa community and Yoruba community in Ile-Ife. The Hausa community has been living in Ile-Ife for close to 200 years. I understand the first settlers arrived there in 1820. This is about the fourth or fifth generation of the community and they have never experienced this kind of thing until now.

    “So, it is not about ethnic issue. It is about a couple or bunch of people who constitute themselves to a nuisance to carry out this dastardly act and quite a number of them escaped from the community.”

    In the same vein, a group; the Foundation for Peace Professionals said through its President, Ambassador Abdulrazaq O. Hamzat that the public should disregard the ethnic colouration to the crisis. What happened, according to them, was a minor disagreement which was mismanaged, adding it was never a clash between Hausa and Yoruba. The group said any attempt to give it ethnic colouration would be to unnecessarily exaggerate the crisis. It also said none of the accounts in the media was correct.

    Last Monday, the Nigerian Police paraded twenty suspects arrested in connection with the clash in Abuja. The parade however succeeded in raising issues about our delicate fault lines and calls for utmost caution, especially in the delicate period we’re in right now where everything is viewed with ethnic and religious lenses.

    Prior to the parade, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere and the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), have come hard against what they call one-sided arrest of some Ile Ife residents by security operatives.

    In a statement entitled: ‘Ife Crisis: The Hounding After and Yoruba Stand’, Afenifere said: “We are  miffed that security operatives sectionally mobilized have moved to Ife after the incident to carry out one-sided mass arrests of Yoruba people who are mostly notables and could never have participated in any riot. As at the time of making this statement, all of those so indiscriminately arrested have either been taken to either the state police command in Osogbo or Force Headquarters in Abuja.”

    On its part, National Coordinator of the OPC, Otunba Gani Adams called for caution. In a statement by the Publicity Secretary Mr. Yinka Oguntimehin OPC said: “We will not want this hospitality to be mistaken for cowardice. The Yoruba race is not and will never submit to being a conquered nation. We say no, to any treatment that will restrict us to being slaves on our own land. We say no to any measure skewed to favour only a side in a crisis of this nature. We call for the release of all the arrested Ife indigenes while a better amicable way is proffered to settle frayed nerves and settle the crisis permanently.”

    It is not surprising why these two groups issued the statements – all the twenty suspects are Yoruba; again exposing our delicate fault lines. Did someone not foresee the implication of arresting only one group in a clash involving two groups? Even in instances where they’re “guilty” insinuations would continue that one side is favoured above the other. Is it possible that in a conflict involving two communities, no arrest is made in one of the communities? These are salient questions being raised.

    Expectedly, questions are being raised about the number of herdsmen arrested following numerous killings across the country. Questions are also raised about the prompt way in which suspects were apprehended in Ife and none apprehended in a state like Benue that is witnessing these strange killings. I advise those in authority to tread with utmost caution when dealing with issues of this nature. No ethnic group should be seen and treated as a special breed. In this period of economic challenge when peoples’ tolerance levels are stretched beyond limits, there’s need for leaders and security agencies to imbibe added skills on how to manage situation.

    The Nigerian state is culpable because it has failed to address our delicate ethnicity issues. I do not believe that concerted efforts have been made to exploit our ethnic diversity into the advantage it really is. Canada and the United States of America are classic examples of how diversity can be used as a stepping stone toward development

    But here in Nigeria, the state has systematically accentuated the ethnic divide by its policies of divide and rule – mainly for political purposes. It has treated equals unequally and unequal’s equally, thereby perpetrating injustice, creating dissatisfaction and promoting anger among the ethnic groups. The sad part for me is that the citizens can’t see beyond the subterfuges of our so called leaders.

    A colleague told me about how they put a legislator from his area” in his place” recently. The only time they see him is a year before election or when he has personal political challenges where he oftentimes drag the community into. Whenever such happens, he would say: “you see what they’re doing to us?” But with time, the people saw through him and they ensured he never made it back to the parliament. Such leaders are everywhere and they are the real enemies of the people and not their neighbours. They are the ones whipping up ethnic tensions to further their political careers.

    The probe panel setup by the Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Idris, to investigate the communal clash should do a thorough job because of the larger implication to our fault lines. The Nigerian state has allowed her citizens killed for many decades by their fellow citizens without taking any concrete action to punish offenders and make it clear that such will not be condoned. So, whenever the least misunderstanding arises between the ethnic groups, especially between the north and the south, each side is eager to unleash bottled-up emotions on the other. This shouldn’t be the case.

    We should go to Rwanda and understudy how a country that had closed to a million of its citizens murdered in cold blood by fellow citizens was able to bounce back. The Rwanda genocide is a classic case of the dangers of ethnic clashes.

    Paul Kagame – who became the president after leading a successful rebel movement – knew that the first step toward recovery is to de-emphasise the word “tribe” and downplay ethnic sentiments. He placed emphasis on “Rwandans” against “Hutu” or “Tutsi,” the country’s two ethnic groups. He was smart enough to know that the utmost goal of citizens of any nation is peace and prosperity; if these are guaranteed friction would be less likely. He was also smart to know that if the economy of any nation is robust citizens’ care less about which leader or political party is in power.

    Above all, education was effectively used to create positive national awareness. Today, Rwanda is one of the preferred tourist destinations in Africa.