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Tag: rage

  • Thinking ahead of the next rage

    Thinking ahead of the next rage

    Anyone who thinks that the obvious failure of the planners of the lapsed ’10 days of rage’ to achieve their real objective – descent into absolute anarchy and consequent regime change – means that there will be no further attempts at national destabilization is utterly deluded. Head or tail President Bola Tinubu’s administration cannot win with its sworn adversaries. Many leading columnists, television and radio show anchors and public intellectuals contend that the President’s speech did not address the demands of the protesters adequately. Yet, there was no corresponding rigorous analysis of the content of the largely farcical demands. What was the President supposed to make, for instance, of the demand for the abrogation of the 1999 Constitution, fuel price of N100 per litre or a minimum wage of N300,000?

    True, there is intense hunger in the land. The inflationary spirals particularly in fuel, transportation, food and healthcare costs stem essentially from the administration’s painful but inevitable reform policies. But far from being actuated by sympathy for the hungry and suffering masses and finding concrete solutions to their plight, the planners of the protest sought to exploit the current pains to provoke rage, rampage and regime change. They thus deliberately drew up a list of demands that were utterly impossible to meet so as to manufacture the conditions for the realization of their anarchical designs. It can be said that they succeeded in large swathes of the North while failing abysmally in most parts of the South where there was no destruction of lives and property despite protests against hunger in a few states that lasted one or two days.

    In the North, the destructive rage was on display in Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Jigawa, Gombe, and Borno among other states. Public buildings were gutted, critical assets destroyed and private businesses ravaged. The raising of the Russian flag in a number of the states and open calls for soldiers to dislodge democracy indicated that the rage was less against hunger than a desire for the termination of the Tinubu administration and by implication of democratic governance. For, the states and local governments which, apart from the soaring of their allocations since the removal of the fuel subsidy, have received humongous amounts from the federal government to cushion the pains of their people, have more questions to answer for the perpetuation of hunger than the centre.

    The unreasoning scourge of destruction in the North and the waving of Russian flags in an undisguised solicitation in Nigeria of the kind of coups that country is believed to have instigated in Mali, Niger, and Bourkina Faso is reflective of the high level of illiteracy, poor political education and the menace of thousands of out of school children in the region. Most of those who perpetrated the violence and waved Russian flags were underaged children. Interestingly, in Kano State, for instance, where governor Abba Kabir Yusuf openly encouraged the protesters, he ultimately had to take desperate steps to prevent the government house from being consumed in the conflagration and stem the tide of destruction from continuing on its ruinous path for the state. The lesson here is that an irresponsible political elite that seeks to weaponize illiteracy and hunger – consequences of its incompetence and venality – for partisan political ends can easily be consumed by unanticipated fallouts of its mischievous machinations.

    But then, despite the tame and measured nature of the protests in those parts of the South where they took place, the horrendous #EndSars violence that rocked the region in 2020 indicates that there are also hordes of disoriented, disillusioned, distracted, and idle youths there who constitute a ticking time bomb for social explosion. What we have on our hands is thus the utter failure of a decadent political class across ethnic, regional, religious, and party boundaries to utilize the abundant resources of the country to empower the vast majority of her people with jobs, food availability, healthcare affordability and other necessities of life more abundant. Rather, a microscopic minority has utilized state power to accumulate humongous wealth thereby compounding the challenges of poverty and inequality that were the focus of this column last week.

    Read Also: Ogun to encourage wet, dry season food production

    Professional anarchists and opportunistic activists who do not necessarily operate on a higher moral pedestal than those they criticize in government will always seek to exploit these conditions of poverty and inequality as opportunities for self-promotion and projection through inciting agitations rather than sitting down to do the hard thinking necessary to finding realistic and enduring solutions to identified problems. It is much easier to plan and mobilize for mass violence and mindless rage than to do the hard, back-breaking work of organizing serious and efficient political parties to seek to attain power and offer alternative well thought out policies through the ballot box. The attempt to fuel ten days of destructive and destabilizing rage nationwide has failed this time around but it will only spur more meticulously planned attempts in future. And the security agencies must be as alert and vigilant as ever as the next attempt will most likely be spontaneously instigated without notice.

    As amply demonstrated in the President’s speech, the administration has conceptualized and set in motion policies to curb food inflation in the short, medium and long terms as well as stimulate micro, small and medium enterprises to boost profitability and employment. It will take time for these to begin to bear fruit. It is impossible for the President to magically conjure stones into bread to assuage current hunger. But the administration must treat with greater urgency the need for the requisite security re-engineering to make our communities safer and get thousands of farmers back to the farms.

    The current mechanism for getting food and other palliatives to vulnerable segments of the population must be overhauled for better effectiveness and efficiency. Above all, the federal government must set the pace and show the example in terms of substantial and visible cuts to the cost of governance so that other levels of government can be compelled to fall in line. The government has a responsibility to govern in such a way that those who will inevitably seek to stir up future rage will struggle to find credible reasons to indict the administration and arouse mobs to madness.

    Once it curbs excess costs in governance and adopts a zero-tolerance stance towards corruption with a demonstrated commitment to retrieving humongous amounts of stolen funds in private hands, the government must more boldly tackle those who have hardly disguised their determination to destabilize the polity and derail democracy. Perhaps because of the highly competitive and contentious nature of the elections from which it emerged, the Tinubu administration has treated with kid gloves those whose actions and utterances are difficult to distinguish from the treasonable.

    Open calls for coups, threats against judges, and denigrations of its legitimacy have all gone without requisite legal sanctions. This has emboldened those perpetrating these atrocities to ever-increasing acts of anti-government audacity. The sewing and waving of Russian flags in Kano and Katsina states, for instance, cannot be the brainchild of hardly literate tailors and ignorant street urchins. It is the responsibility of the security agencies to fish out, expose and prosecute their influential sponsors.

  • After the rage

    After the rage

    When the dusts finally settle, Nigerians, it must be acknowledged still owe the security agencies a debt of gratitude for their rather measured response in the wake of the so-called hunger protests. For while it is regrettable that some lives were still lost to the mayhem in parts of Kaduna, Kano and Niger states, over all, there have been largely no credible reports of excessive use of force by the security agencies even when some of the actions of the protesters amounted to a death wish. This must have constituted terrible embarrassment for our hordes of fledging conflict-preneurs and their mercy-industrial complex for whom an alternative outcome would have meant more donor funds pouring in! 

    Yes, we have been reminded over and over again in the last few days that the rights of the citizens to protest are absolute and inviolate; and that the best the government is expected to do in the face of the advertised protest is to sit back and watch in the vain hope that things would by itself calm down!

    Government’s appeal, as indeed those of traditional, religious and other leaders in the civil society, urging restraint was not supposed to matter a jot. After all, the protesters, in their righteous indignation and, if you like, mindless rage, having long made up their minds that nothing short of capitulation by a government that is barely 15 months in office would be acceptable, still nonetheless deserve their day!

    As for the police, head or tail, they could not be seen to win the battle. Ironically, while insisting on their rights to police protection while their rage lasted, the same protest leaders, when asked to offer their own counter guarantees that things would not go awry simply retorted without scruples that it is not theirs but the police to give!

    So much for their craving for power without responsibility; for amorphous groups that prefer to see themselves as leaderless and whose point of departure is to draw attention of the government to the hunger ravaging the land, does it matter that their preference was for crude threats not least the pointless hyping of rage to press their cases? It was for them the time for elected leaders at every level to be routinely insulted and called names. Dignitaries, including faith leaders, pleading for restraint, were mercilessly mauled by the mob. In some cases, names, telephone numbers and addresses of public figures said to be government officials and their sympathisers were gleefully splashed on X (twitter) with accompanying calls on members of the protest movement to bombard them with unsolicited, hate messages!

    Should it therefore surprise anyone that their hateful messages somewhat robbed negatively on more discerning Nigerians? We saw the carnage in Niger, Kaduna, Kano, Yobe and Borno where the earth shook with the mindless mob unleashed on a hapless people accompanied by massive looting; has the fears of the everyday Nigerian about the possible descent to anarchy not been borne out?

    So much for the subsidy issue said to be at the heart of the crisis; if one had thought that the issue of the had long been settled or that Nigerians were, more than a year after, in better understanding of why it had to go, it seems to me the height of mischief that some so-called activists could still convince themselves and their supporters to see its return as the elixir at this point in time.

    Read Also: Protest: Keep faith with Tinubu – Mba, Umahi urge southeast

    After all, this was an item that presidential contenders in the 2023 elections had all staked their honour as having no place in their political lexicon. More than that, this administration in particular, is not known to have minced words about how the old iniquitous foreign exchange regime encouraged rent, arbitrage and hence corruption, and so had to be jettisoned. Mercifully, the administration has since passed a new national minimum wage of N70,000 which the organised labour, despite initial objections has since accepted as pragmatic in the current circumstances. Noteworthy is that the same opposition elements have somewhat convinced their ranks – not Labour – that nothing short of N300,000 was acceptable – a case of their crying more than the bereaved!

    Yes, it is also to the administration’s credit that it admitted that the reforms would occasion a huge dose of discomfort particularly in a country with an ignoble record of import dependency. In fact, it never at any time fought shy of admitting that there could be no such a thing as anyone waving the magic wand for the problems to dissolve overnight. What the administration is on record to have promised is that things would certainly get better with time and this with a plea for understanding and patience while waiting for the fruits of the reforms to cascade.

    As to the question of whether or not the administration could have done things differently, particularly in mitigating the pains of its reforms, again, this is open to debate. What is intolerable is that the elements, massing under the umbrella of their right to protest think little of holding the gun to the head of the administration while scuppering the rights of the silent majority in the process.

    By the way, the protesters also demanded that the president speaks directly to them.  Well, he did on Sunday. He regretted that lives were needless lost; deplored the looting that attenuated the protests, and then went on to enumerate some of the measures his administration had taken to address the problems – fundamentally. As if to tell the folks that this is no time for placebos, he called for patience and understanding, while assuring citizens that the country has since turned the corner.

    Expectedly, none of the measures he enumerated seems to have impressed his implacable foes; not even those policies designed precisely to address the supposed agitations at the roots. Those among them who heard the president pretended to be tone deaf while those saw the text claim they couldn’t make sense of them. To some others still, it would have been in order had the president chosen not to speak at all!  In other words, the battle isn’t one that this presidency can win!

    Let me end this piece with a words for those said to be craving for good governance. It seems to me that good governance and good citizenship are the obverse sides of the same coin. You simply cannot have one without the other! It is hypocritical to mouth Endbadgovernance while exhibiting the most heinous forms of political delinquency! How about a matching campaign for EndBadCitizens?

    Yes, the government, as the ultimate guarantor of public should be able to know when to draw the line beyond which wayward citizens could only cross at the pain of retribution. This is what the ongoing riots in the United Kingdom clearly instruct. 

  • Before we say a prayer to rage (2)

    Before we say a prayer to rage (2)

    In his viral post, a certain Dauda Lateef Olanrewaju analyses part of the reasons for Nigeria’s currency devaluation and economic hardship thus: “You have N200,000 to buy a TV, but instead you invest the N200,000 in buying dollars for hoarding. After some months, your N200,000 investment has yielded a profit of 200% which means you now have N600,000.

    “You are happy you made N400,000 profit. Now, you want to buy that same TV, you get there and you were told the TV is now N600,000 due to dollar increase; now you are angry, cursing and blaming the government for what you used your hands to cause. You think you can eat your cake and have it. Hell NO! It’s just unfortunate, that those who didn’t partake in this self-destruction are also suffering from it. Nigerians we think we are smart, but in actual fact, we be mugu.”

    While economic eggheads debate the logic and premise of Olanrewaju’s argument, it needn’t be too hard to distill its inherent wisdom.

    Together, we embarked on this Nigerian journey into savage nature, trading vistas of hope for caskets of greed. Together, we railroaded Nigeria to self-destruct. And collectively, we must salvage what’s left of it.

    But we mistake the path we must take as shown by our resort to rant and rave. We cannot speak angst to misgovernance while we nurse barbarism within us. Solution isn’t speaking rage to pain either but healing through our pains and living it out.

    As the economic crisis bites harder, President Bola Tinubu has come under intense scrutiny to fulfil his campaign promises nine months after assuming office. Since May last year, the subsidy removal, naira devaluation, and the implementation of a value-added tax on diesel imports have led to spikes in the prices of food items and material goods in the country.

    Despite declaring a state of emergency on food security and unveiling an immediate, short and long-term plan for the sector, average food prices of key staples across major cities in the country have surged by almost 100 percent.

    But while we rue the skyrocketing inflation and a sustained decline in Nigerians’ spending power, Nigerians must equally acknowledge certain impediments to successful realisation of the government’s policy objectives.

    Just recently, Vice President Kashim Shettima revealed that certain forces were “hell-bent on plunging this country into a state of anarchy…Instead of waiting for 2027, they are so desperate; that this country can fall apart as far as they are concerned. But we are going to visit them,” he said.

    Shettima also revealed that “Just a few nights ago, 45 trucks of maize were caught being transported into a neighbouring country. There are 32 illegal routes in that axis. At the moment when they were intercepted, the price of maize fell by N10,000, from N60,000 to N50,000. So, there are forces that are hell-bent on undermining our nation but this is the time for us to come together.”

    While many would scoff at VP Shettima’s claims, it is necessary to address the evils posed by saboteurs hidden in plain sight. To this end, a joint effort was reportedly launched by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligent Unit (NFIU) to combat economic saboteurs manipulating dollar/naira exchange rate.

    Against the backdrop of the situation, Nigeria’s inflation rate climbed to 29.90 per cent in January 2024 from 28.92 per cent recorded in the previous month according to data from the NBS.

    Consequently, President Tinubu’s economic policies have been heavily criticised as Nigerians, led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) trooped to the streets to vent their anger and frustration.

    In his response, President Tinubu has assured that there is hope for the nation’s financial and economic prospects, citing efforts currently being made by the administration in all sectors. Speaking on Tuesday during the unveiling and launch of the Expatriate Employment Levy (EEL), at the State House, Abuja, Tinubu assured of the positive outlook of the nation’s finances and the economy in general, saying that though things appear harsh currently, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

    He said, “We might be going through difficult periods now, but when you look at the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and people manning the ship of this country, including Central Bank of Nigeria, they have collaborated and in the spirit of development and progress, we are glad that good effort is being made to retool, reengineer the finances of the country and make growth our hallmark.”

    As we all await the promised dividends of his administration’s policies, shall we desist from measures that may inflame the polity? Already, the social space thrives as a repository of venom and virulent dissent, as viral videos of agitated and confused citizens protesting the soaring prices of goods and services flood the internet.

    Against the backdrop of the crisis, the possibility of the citizenry’s resort to anarchy remains the most frightful imagery. Too many social actors intensely replicate our primitive experience. But they have done nothing but reenact the vast facets of evil that we groomed them to personify.

    It hardly matters whether we publicly denounce them, Nigeria would never be rid of them until we set our grief’s needlepoint astride the prick of pain.

    Read Also: Oyo govt cautions against violence at parks, garages

    We shall never attain true freedom from their affliction until we treat ourselves as the pathogens breeding the plague. Our homes, families, worship houses, schools, communities, to mention a few, produce and sustain our affliction by corrupt leadership and citizenship. We must surgically excise from within our penchant for corruption and yearning to self-destruct.

    At the moment, the average Nigerian manifests the citizenry’s detachment from patriotic experience. Most guilty is the Nigerian in his youth. He samples dissent but will not commit to progressive intent. Rustling ‘wokeness’ out of tired bromides, his sterile passion stifles patriotic fervor even as he professes love for the country.

    How does one love or hate this country? To this, every likely answer may spiral into a fog or eclipse in a vapor of hanging participles. The ripostes may spatter and splay like a treacherous sandstorm but it’s about time we braved its tumult.

    It’s about time we addressed our innate demons. Call it our stratagem of healing or therapy of closure from our national trauma. Too many Nigerians drift through each day with a siege mentality – each individual treating the nation as a savage space.

    From the northeast’s terror cells, bandit groves of the northwest, unknown gunmen of the southeast to the teen gangs and kidnappers of the southwest, Nigeria unfurls as scorched, bloodied earth.

    Cut to a hodgepodge of civil servants and public officers jointly looting public funds and the industry of courtiers – comprising religious leaders, social influencers and journalists – vigorously rationalising such institutionalised and systemic corruption, and you have a clearer picture of the Nigerian conundrum.

    Thus, no one must be singled out as the cause of our predicament. The government and the governed jointly manifest as the cause of our travails. But we all assume the pose of the proverbial foresters earnestly burning off our infested boughs. What if the foresters are the disease?

  • Rage over surcharges by transport companies

    With air transport fares soaring high, majority of passengers use road transport to commute from one part of the country to the other. The sore point however is that these days some road transport companies are fleecing some of their travelling passengers.

    Consumer Watch was inundated with complaints from affected victims, who shared their bitter experiences thus far.

    One of such victims, Kingsley Duru [not real names], recalled that last August, he had boarded a Sienna sedan vehicle ‘Regular’ from the Autor Star Travels and Tourism office at Ogui road Enugu. His destination was Lagos. He paid N11,500 for a seat, though travelling with  company, he paid N23,000 for two seats.

    After a relatively good trip, as they were approaching Lagos State, he informed the driver, [whom I will refrain to mention his name for now], that he and his companion will be alighting at the major Ojota Bus stop.

    The driver informed him that he would not be making a stop at the bus stop unless the passenger paid money to the park officials. The said passenger complained that it was not fair as he had already paid for his ticket. At this, the driver said he was not going to make any stops except at Anthony Bus stop and their office at Jibowu, Yaba.

    By this action, passengers in the vehicle who were going to Kosofe LGA, Ikeja LGA, Onigbongbo LGA will be forced to go past their destinations and alight at Anthony or the company’s office at Jibowu.

    According to Duru, it was not the first time he was getting such a treatment at the hands of Autor Star drivers. He was a regular traveller. “In this year alone, I have made eight trips to Enugu on Autor star vehicle and each time I am forced to pay extra money to alight at Ojota.

    “Knowing that I will not make any headway arguing with the driver and not risking following the vehicle to Anthony or Jibowu as my destination was Oregun, I had no other option than to give the driver N100 to settle the motor park officials though seething with anger.

    “Yes, seething with anger. Not because I do not have N100 but because I know it is a great injustice and an abuse of customer rights. I have already paid for the company to transport me to Lagos and whatever dues they have to pay at the motor parks concerns the company and not the passengers.”

    On getting home, narrated Duru,”I sent a text to the company in response to the one they usually send to their customer requesting their experience. This they do, through 07034511404 or 08059548157.” Responding to the text through the first number, Duru stated, “The driver was excellent in all ways but I have an issue with the management. If you check on your system, since the inception I have been using your transport. Please it is not right for passengers to be paying at major bus stops if they want to alight at Ojota and Berger.”

    Continuing the text message, “These are major bus stops so the management should provide the funds for the driver. It is not more than N400. Paying at Ojota park each time I want to come down after a wonderful trip takes away the novelty of the trip, thanks.’’

    Obviously, he complaints fell on deaf ears as the company did not even acknowledge it neither did they mend their ways. This is what their passengers who alight at legally designated major bus stops like Ojota and Berger go through every day.

    Exactly on the 12th of this month, another passenger, who dared to complain, said she boarded the first Sienna from Enugu to Lagos. Again, I will refrain to mention the driver’s name.

    According to this lady, who paid N23,000 for two seats, she informed the driver politely that she would be dismounting at the major bus stop at Berger. The driver drove into the motor park and demanded N200 from the lady in order to settle the park officials.

    The lady passenger who narrated to the reporter that being a regular Autor Star passenger, in the past she has been forced on several occasions to give money to their drivers for such issues each time she alighted at Ojota or Berger bus stops.

    However, she said that this time around she got so infuriated and refused to oblige the driver. “Why should I be the one to pay their motor park charges? Other transporters do not harass their passengers with such issues and Autor Star even charges their passengers more than the others.”

    The driver threatened not to allow her to dismount but insisted that he would drive her to Anthony or Jibowu Bus stops unless she pays the N200. As they were arguing, the passenger called the company’s Lagos office but the calls were not picked.

    “At this point, the motor park officials told the driver to move his vehicle which was obstructing other vehicles. Seeing how adamant I was, he had to settle the motor park officials and opened the door to let me out. It was indeed a haranguing experience but we must put a stop to this harassment from the company.”

    Many passengers of this company have complained severally of this kind of ugly experience and many more. There was a story we published on this page about an incident where passengers from Enugu to Lagos on getting close to Ogun State had to contribute money for fuel because the driver said he was running short of fuel and had no money on him. We called the Lagos office and shamelessly the lady official that spoke to us said it was possible. Meanwhile, passengers had already paid fully for their tickets. The money they contributed for the fuel was not given back to them.

    A trip to other transporters and even the motor parks revealed that such levies are charged but it is the transporters who pay them and not the passengers as the transporters have already built it into the fares.

    At the Iyana-Ipaja office of G. Agofure Motors, a popular transporter, the manager of the branch, Mr. Kolawale Ajiboye, surprised that any driver would ask passengers to pay, said that “such money is among road expenses which the company gives the driver. It does not concern passengers. They have paid for their trip and whatever levies transporters are paying does not concern them.”

    At the God is Good [GIG] Motors Jibowu, a driver who simply identified himself as Clement said that every driver pays N200 at Berger bus stop, N100 at Ojota, N100 at Sagamu and N100 at Cele bus stops once he drops a passenger. “Passengers do not pay the money but the transporters pay through the drivers and if a driver refuses to pay the motor park officials will not allow them to drop their passengers.”

    Mr. Philip Okoro of Libra Transporters also corroborated with what the other drivers said. Displaying his receipt of payment on the 19th of this month at the Berger Bus stop, he said part of the money from such levies is remitted to the state government.

    However, on speaking with an Autor Star official, Ebere Igwe, after fruitless efforts to speak with their top manager, Dorothy, or one of their management staff, Igwe stressed that any of their passengers that want to alight at Berger or Ojota Bus stops will have to pay the required levy to the motor park officials.

    “The levy at the motor park has nothing to do with our company. It is Lagos State that is demanding it. Our drivers have complained about it and management has advised them to stop passengers where they are not levied like Anthony or our office at Jibowu. If you are a passenger and do not want to pay the money then remain in the vehicle till you get to Anthony or Jibowu,” adding that it is not the responsibility of Autor Star to pay the money.

    Not satisfied with her response which sounded unprofessional, the reporter implored her to call her back or to get a management staff to call as she was open to more chats with them. The reporter now put another call to their Enugu office and again she was promised that someone will call her but till going to the press, she did not receive any call.

    Nigerian consumers go through one form of abuse or another every day. We do not blame the drivers but the management. They cannot claim of ignorance of this. Many passengers have registered their complaint just like Duru. Their staff admitted drivers have complained but said it is not the responsibility of the company but passengers that had already paid for their trip.

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  • Rage of senior citizens

    Rage of senior citizens

    Pensioners are unhappy with the Federal Government. They are not paid promptly by the National Pension Commission (PenCom); interest is not paid on accrued rights held at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) since the commencement of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS); and calculation of pension entitlement is opaque, among others, Omobola Tolu-Kusimo reports.

    Thousands of pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) have berated the Federal Government through the National Pension Commission (PenCom) for delayed payment, short payment and non payment of interest in accrued rights.

    They are also worried that the calculation of their pension is shrouded in secrecy (covering the scale of pension payment) and there is lack of care for the senior citizens.

    They also accused PenCom of non payment of interest on their accrued rights held at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) since the commencement of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

    The angry pensioners said the Federal Government has failed them despite serving the country meritoriously in their active years.

    Chairman, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Association of Contributory Pensioners, Alhaji Gbadebo Olatokunbo in a statement titled, “Pencom is on Sabbatical while Contributory Pensioners Suffers” accused PenCom of lack of communication.

    He appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun to release funds so they can receive their pension entitlements, noting that pensioners who retired in 2017 are yet to be paid.

    He further appealed to the National Assembly to extend their oversight functions to the welfare of contributory pensioners by looking into the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004 as repealed by PRA 2014 and make necessary amendment to the Act on all the shortcomings observed.

    He said: “As at today, no government ministries, agencies or we the contributory pensioners know how PenCom arrived at the amount of accrued pension rights paid to the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) on our behalf. Whenever we made enquires on the formula used, we were told by PenCom that they worked on the information provided by our employers, but we were never told how they arrived at our entitlements. Why should the almighty PenCom not be bothered on the mode of operations?

    “There is also the issue of none actualisation of 33 per cent payment and accrued 15 per cent upward review of payment to contributory pensioners, despite the fact that the old pension scheme from which retirees who retired on or before June 30,2007 were enjoying all the benefits. This is in spite of the fact that no law, rules or regulations says that contributory pensioners should not enjoy same. In the same vein, Section 173 (3) of our constitution states that pensioners shall be reviewed every 5 years or together with any federal civil service salary review, whichever is earlier. The upward review of contributory pensioners payment is still a dream since the commencement and implementation in year 2004 while several of the would-be pensioners had died.

    “PenCom has also been short changing us on payment of entitlement. While some ministries, agencies and departments had discovered wrong presentations to PenCom and had acknowledged the mistakes and made corrections themselves, yet Pencom refused to act on such corrections; while we continue to lament on wrong entitlement-payments. There is lack of pro-activeness nor care on our complaints and observations on the shortcomings in the system and total lack of interest in our affairs. As at today, several pensioners are yet to receive their entitlements almost a year after retirement from service.”

    Appealing to Buhari and Mrs Adeosun, the pensioners said: “We seriously appeal to the Federal Government of Nigeria to recall PenCom from its sabbatical on the affairs of contributory pensioners as the welfare of all retired civil servants were one of the major responsibility of the Government. We also appeal to NASS to extend their over-site functions to our welfare since 2004.

    “It is our hope that PenCom shall be alive to her responsibilities on the affairs and our welfare since the job had been lifted from each Federal Government employers of labour to them and thereby resolved to work in harmony with the contributory pensioners associations. We call on the Commission to return from its sabbatical as many of pensioners die daily without the privilege to enjoy the benefit of their labour. We call on all the good citizens to rise against the injustice on pensioners in Nigeria.

    “The nonchalant attitude of PenCom to its mandate its refusal to take any positive step in resolving the problems, while the officials held themselves incommunicado, since no ministry, department or agencies has the right to ask PenCom on its responsibilities towards their former employers,” he said.

    He recalled that the Association of Contributory Pensioners of Nigeria held its first national symposium at Press Centre, Radio House, Garki, Abuja and NTA Association of Contributory Pensioners (NTA-ACPEN) mobilised its members and travelled from Lagos as delegates to be able to meet ‘Almighty PenCom’, which was given prominent position at the forum., He regretted that of all the MDAs invited, only PenCom turned her back on the contributory pensioners in the country.

    President, Interim Association of Contributory Pension Scheme Pensioners

    Comrade Matthew Shittu on his part said the latest problem facing retirees under the CPS are not only about the non payment of their retirement benefits as and when due, but about secrecy surrounding what were eventually paid to retirees.

    “PENCOM has decided to pay whatever amount the fund could pay to retirees and not what were due to retirees. This is because of scarcity of funds, as shown in the release of N18 Billion out of N50Billion appropriated to pay the balance of 2015 and 2016 retirees,

    “Before now, retirees were paid their final benefits under the Contributions Pension Scheme from 3 three clear sources which include the contributions with PFAs, accrued rights that were actuarially determined in 2004 and kept as bonds in the Central Bank of Nigeria; and acrued interests on the accrued rights since 2004 till the time of retirement. This is suppose to boost the total money payable to retirees to reduce the effect of inflation on the accrued rights.

    “Today, PenCom is only paying the contribution to PFA and the accrued rights kept in Central Bank of Nigeria since 2004 without the accrued interests since 2004. It is even a crime for PenCom to be silent over it as if pensioners had been paid in full. We are forwarding this clarification to you believing that PenCom officials may not positively respond to you as it is the norms today in Nigeria. But we may eventually drag PenCom to Court to address this illegality and act of inhumanity to man”, he added.

  • Snake rage and aviation fuel snafu

    It is often said that we should be careful what we wish for. But Hardball says, be careful what you invoke. When the Nigerian military in their brief moment of exuberance began to name their ‘routine’ military exercises after animals, no one would have thought of a possibility of a backlash. But superstitious heads have begun to suggest that the rage of snakes in some states of the country may not be unconnected to those terms as ‘Python Dance’ and ‘crocodile smile’.

    In the past couple of months, about 250 deaths have been reported across the snake belt states like Plateau, Gombe and Katsina. Hear it from the managing director of EchiTAb Study Group, the anti-snake venom producing firm: “Moreover, we were not used to this large request. All of a sudden, people go to their farms and meet snakes in large numbers…”

    But as you may know dear reader, Hardball is not given to superstition. As oriental sages long conjectured, something made the cocoyam to begin to squeak. The requisite authorities simply are not prepared for this snake season. It’s the period of the year; after the rains when snakes come out of semi-hibernation and are on the prowl.

    For a perennial problem that has plagued a large swathe of the country for ages, our response has lacked method or rationality. First why are anti-venom drugs still being imported by Nigeria? Second, how could the drug be scarce at the most critical time when it is needed most? If the appropriate quarters were alive to their duties, the treatment centres would be well stocked at this time.

    When a female student died of snake bite poison recently in a higher institution in Katsina State, the school was at its wits end for the control of the pest that it had to deploy snake charmers! A tertiary institution in 2017 world!

    Today, it is bad enough that we cannot produce this essential drug locally; it is worse that we had to run out of stock but what is to be said of the fact that supply of the drug has been hampered for about ten days because of shortage of aviation fuel in Nigeria?

    It is said that planes coming into Nigeria to supply stock have to haul return journey aviation fuel. Again, in 2017; to think that Nigeria is a major oil producing country.

    And what’s to be done? The House of Representative calls on the federal government to declare a state of emergency on the snake bite crisis. Brilliant guffaw!

    And Hardball calls out: MAY DAY, MAY DAY! Anyone out there!

  • Why do haters rage?

    Ethnicists among us in recent weeks rollercoastered on a heady journey that should be obvious leads nowhere but to misery land. At the last count, national conversation seems hardly possible without a tinge or outright glut of ethnic intolerance; and that, even among long standing friends. One indication of this is what you find these days in the social media where the traffic is way out heavy with hate discourses. This pervasive temperament apparently took from the public space where separatist passion had hit critical intensities these past weeks, with jingoists digging into ethnic trenches to serve mutual quit notices on Nigerians of other nationalities in their part of the country.

    The latest fodder for separatist fire was a declaration by self-professed Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY), which on the 6th of June made a so-called ‘Kaduna Declaration’ that gave Nigerians of South-east origin resident in the North three months to leave. It also advised Northerners resident in the South-east to reciprocally return home. The group cited the motivation for its brash pronouncement to be the May 30th sit-at-home order by separatist Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), which had shut down much of the South-east in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of ill-fated Biafra Republic that agitators in that region now insist they want actualised.

    Consequent to the ‘Kaduna Declaration,’ ethnic actors in other regions of this country issued their own notices of eviction to nationalities that are not their own, while mutually inviting their kindred in the other regions to return home. We really shouldn’t dignify those pronouncements by rehashing them here. But the scenario eerily evoked the now proverbial secessionist declaration, ‘To your tents, O Israel!,’ under King Rehoboam in the Christian scripture; except that those recent declarations were mere words without practical effect as was the case in the Biblical narrative.

    It is significant that the recent pronouncements were all made by youth groups purporting to be speaking for their regions. From indications, they spoke without pre-consultation with the elders and other stakeholder constituents. But that by no means made them any less potentially harmful. Hate speech typically begets acts of rage, much of the time by unthinking youthful mobs that while on  rampage are utterly beyond restraint by contemplative elders. But while elders and leaders in other zones across this country seemed unable to find their voice in swift censure of the evidently misguided exuberance of the youth groups – and big shame to them for that failing, those in the North rose as one to disavow the eviction notice served on Igbo residents. The notable exception is reputedly outspoken irredentist and retired academic, Professor Ango Abdullahi, who openly rooted for the Arewa youth coalition. Even then, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) he was presumed to have spoken for came up to disown his comment.

    I previously made the point and it bears restating here that it was helpful that leaders of the North took a swift stand against the youth coalition’s rant. But if you expected those youths to dial back on their bluster, they rather doubled down, with one of their leaders going on broadcast airwaves during the week to defy threats of his and co-travellers’ arrest by security agents. Not that the threatened arrest was the perfect remedy for the outrage, if you asked me.

    It was also very helpful that the Presidency did not take the ruckus lying low. Acting President Yemi Osinbajo last week kick-started a series of consultations with elders and opinion leaders of the ethnic blocs where he restated government’s intolerance of hate speech, and as well its determination to protect every Nigerian wherever they reside in this country. “One thing is clear: violence and war are not going to do anyone any good. They are terrible and they mean no good. They are easy to start, but near-impossible to end. It is also clear that wars sometimes start, not with bullets, but with words…Knowing this, under no conditions whatsoever should we tolerate, or excuse, or justify hate speech or hateful conduct of any kind, especially where such is illegal,” he was reported telling the South-east delegation to Aso Rock on Wednesday.

    But the Acting President’s diagnosis of the separatist fervour is another matter, as he reportedly told the elders: “Let me acknowledge that as part of our living together in this space called Nigeria, misunderstandings and frustrations are inevitable. Because resources are limited, there will always be a striving to get what is perceived as the best seat at the table. All of that is normal and expected, especially in a democracy like ours. A healthy democracy ought to be a theatre of energetic striving by all parties and stakeholders. But things should never descend to a level where mutual suspicions override the desire to live together in peace and harmony.”

    The stated expectation of competing interests in our diversity is well taken. But if the national question is all about getting the best seat at the resource table, it is curious the elders are not heading up the quest. This latest umbrage was fired up and powered by youths,  and it must be that there is something more to their motivation.

    You don’t have to be a fan of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to admit that he rightly seized the bully pulpit of a clairvoyant recently. Speaking at a Youth Governance Dialogue at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, he warned that vanishing opportunities for today’s youths posed a trigger point for looming youth anger. The ex-President noted that while his generation had “limitless opportunities, but no facilities,” contemporary youth “have facilities, but little or no opportunities.” He added: “Whenever I go, they always ask me my fear for Nigeria and Africa. And I say my greatest fear is youth anger, frustrations and youth explosion, which will have no bound. We have the Boko Haram in the North, the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South-east, militants in the Niger Delta and the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) in the South-west. All of these are expressions of anger and frustration.”

    It seems to me that the ex-President hit closer home than Acting President Osinbajo. The challenge he fingered though is a result of Nigeria’s historical burden of bad leadership, in which Obasanjo himself is substantially complicit. But it is also a challenge that visionary and good governance can shortly redress. And the immediate responsibility for that lies squarely with political leaders currently in the saddle.

    Meanwhile, there is a crying need to downplay ethnic consciousness in our national life. The Federal Character factor is a constitutional prescription that has ended up fuelling this consciousness – and that, at the expense of merit. But the catch is: if we can’t do much to displace that factor immediately, can we not begin with tokens, like discarding ‘state / local government of origin’ and ‘religion’ clauses in routine records of our national life? Just wondering here.

  • Rage of natives

    In the past few days, South Africans’ resurgent violent attacks on foreigners, particularly Nigerians, have been a major news item in the Nigerian media and threatening Nigeria-South Africa relations. Nigerian youths, who have been largely docile on the many pains inflicted on the Nigerian people by capricious elite, suddenly got their adrenalin worked up enough to demonstrate in Abuja against South African business interests in the country, targeting its most visible asset – MTN, the telecom giant.

    Xenophobic attack is an extreme, violent manifestation of nativity angst about foreigners when institutions of state fail to proactively address fears of indigenes. Xenophobia is generally not spontaneous, but rather a product of simmering resentment. So, what are the lingering resentments of South Africans which find expression in repeated violence against foreigners?

    Perhaps, we need to start with definition of terms to put matters in contextual balance. To citizens of host countries, calling non- citizens ‘foreigners’ is a generic, cosmetic flavouring of a stark reality – the reality that such non-citizens who are generally engaged in informal trade and small businesses are simply economic refugees or economic irritants.  Who can be expected to be accommodating of irritants? Such perception shapes relationships. The issue is: What will make someone leave what normally should be his/her natural comfort zone – the native homeland – in search of greener pastures if not for economic deprivations and unfulfilled aspirations at home?

    In the recurring episodes of xenophobic attacks by South Africans against foreigners, and particularly those from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, DR Congo, Pakistan, two charges have endured – economic ascendancy and drug trade/prostitution by the foreigners.

    While many of the commentaries in the media by Nigerians on the xenophobic attacks have a nationalist fervor against so-called ingrate South Africans ignoring Nigeria’s sacrifices in liberating them from the shackles of the racist Apartheid regime, two critical areas have been largely ignored or glossed over. One is the failure of public governance in both Nigeria and South Africa that has left masses of their people marooned in poverty. For instance, given the economic endowments of Nigeria, Nigerians should not be economic refugees in other lands but for the mindless looting of its public treasury by unconscionable elite, which has led to stunted economic growth thereby forcing thousands of its citizens to flee the land in search of economic refuge abroad. For the South African government, making scapegoats of foreigners by its citizens for their economic woes is convenient as it diverts attention from its failure to deliver on the good life promise of Black majority rule.

    The other xenophobic trigger is the seeming lack of humility by prospering foreigners seen as putting on airs and being denigrating in relating with their hosts. A mix of aggressive, rich foreigners and pauperized indigenes is a recipe for violent eruptions by the natives. Xenophobia, the South African brand, is also a repudiation of globalization that preaches tolerance of migration/mobility of labour, capital and innovation to any part of the world to generate maximum returns. The natives are demanding localization – South Africa for South Africans – and telling the strutting foreigners to let charity begin in their home countries! That is the crux of the matter.

    The victory of Donald Trump as American president in the November 8, 2016 general election is seen as Xenophobia by Ballot!  Isn’t it ironical that such virulent anti-foreigner sentiment should be exhibited in a country of immigrants and a leading proponent of globalization?  It indicates times are changing, with an undercurrent to reverse globalization and the return of nationalist sentiments.

    Another sticking point is the association of foreigners with escalating crime in South Africa. Foreigners have been accused of importing violent crime, drugs and prostitution into South Africa, with many fingers pointing at Nigerians. This perhaps explains why South African President Jacob Zuma described the violent attacks as anti-crime protests and not anti-foreigners’ xenophobia. If crime surge seems to accompany immigrants’ influx, can South Africans be honestly blamed if they linked the two developments?

    There could also be the sense of entitlement among Nigerians in South Africa given the huge sacrifices Nigeria made in the struggle to dismantle the racist Apartheid regime. Even an intellectual, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, a professor of International Relations, could not resist the notion of Nigerians deserving special treatment by South Africans. In his Sunday, February 26, 2017 column in THISDAY newspaper he declared :  ”South Africans can be hostile to foreigners but Nigerians ought to be an exception…South Africans, no matter their grievances , cannot have any legitimate animosity vis-à-vis Nigeria and its people who did what was humanly , financially, educationally, materially, diplomatically and culturally possible to support the liberation of black South Africans from the shackles of domination of segregationist white South Africans.”

    The danger here is that such attitude could unwittingly induce arrogance among Nigerians in South Africa which can be offensive to the sensitivities of indigenes. When such perceived arrogant foreigners are linked with crimes, it creates a volatile situation. Prof. Akinterinwa pointed out that even where allegations of drug peddling and prostitution are levelled against Nigerians; it is for the police to tackle. That was the point made by South African High Commissioner to Nigeria Lulu Mngulu that police ineptitude in handling the allegations led the people to engage in self help.

    The reality of Nigeria-South Africa economic relations is that Nigeria cannot flex the muscle of reciprocity – reprisal against South African companies here will create job losses for Nigerians and as such counter-productive. Rationality, not emotion, should guide Nigeria’s reaction to South Africans’ xenophobia. We need to educate our people on proper conduct in foreign lands and have our embassies document allegations against and convictions of Nigerians in the Diaspora to empirically establish the justification or otherwise of their criminal tag. That Nigerians abroad don’t want to return home, in spite of the attacks they suffer, is the shame of a nation.

     

    • Dr. Olawunmi is Senior Lecturer, Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State
  • 2Face: Why they rage

    2Face: Why they rage

    “Dear Nigerians, after due consultations, it has become clear that the #OneVoiceNigeria protest scheduled to hold in Lagos and Abuja on Monday the 6th of February is under serious threat of hijack by interests not aligned with our ideals. The point I am intent on making is that is (sic) not worth the life of any Nigerian. It is in fact motivated by the need to negotiate a better deal for the ordinary Nigerian. I therefore announce the cancellation of the planned protest. We would share further information in due course. We appreciate the massive support. I am convinced that our voices have been heard… ”

    That was Innocent Tuface Idibia, in a short video to announce the cancellation of his highly publicised march on Saturday night. Yours truly obviously saw it coming. It takes an appreciation of the massive psychological operation (psych-ops) deployed against the leading light of the march in the past week alone to see why the event stood to chance of being held. Indeed, it is a miracle that the man still had the presence of mind to prepare what is evidently a hastily prepared visual to the public.

    As for the trophy for the abortion of the legitimate protest, that deservedly goes to Fatai Owoseni – the Lagos top cop who insisted that the constitution and the law counted for little when it comes to his idea of law and order. To him, what the constitution and the law guarantee are only as far as the old discredited colonial-style law enforcement template would allow.

    To him, it was sufficient that no official request came from the protesters notifying security agencies of their plan; moreover, he would add that intelligence report indicated that criminals might hijack the process to foment trouble. And so in Owoseni’s book, individuals or group of persons who may wish to embark on civil demonstration should inform the police until adequate security can be arranged for them!

    To imagine that this is the individual in charge of policing the home of dissent – the acclaimed Centre of Excellence, a fast transforming mega-city; not only does it leave little imagination about his suitability for the challenge but raises serious questions about his understanding of role of the police institution in a modern, democratic state!

    Should one also talk of the chief law officer of the federation who would rather be missing in action where contestations about issues of law and justice crop up? What about the Pontius Pilate presidency that would go on to speak from both sides of the mouth at a time the rights of citizens are being trampled under?

    I perfectly understand the pains of the Buharists for whom the Tuface capitulation merely presented ample occasion to gloat, and settle scores: “A man who did not protest against music Piracy that is affecting his business and did not protest against the massive corruption in his home state did not look to me as a man will balls to lead any other form of protest. He was given the go ahead by the Vice President and the Police but you can’t protest over nothing.”

    That was the message of Anasieze Donatus, in an interview with Premium Times. Tayo Ayano, speaking to the same medium was just as blunt: “Tuface should start from his wife’s state, Akwa Ibom where the ‘uncommon governor’ practically stole his people blind and then move to Delta State where they celebrate thieves and common criminals.”

    To those who insist on Tuface being an unlikely saint and so stand disqualified on the roll of those that could cast the proverbial stone, I would argue that he never sought to cast himself in that role. To the best of my knowledge, what he sought to do was merely galvanise like minds to engage the government on the raging issues of the day; the very issues that define our existence such as being echoed in bars and street corners.

    These are the untamed cost of living that have left most households pauperised; the collapse of industries, of the national currency; the unprecedented below par performance of Buhari’s ministers in the face of the dire emergency, the continuing meltdown in state institutions and the apparent lack of direction all of which have bred despair in the polity.

    The problem, it appears, is that a high flier has chosen to lead the charge in seeking to articulate the very issues that agitate Nigerians daily.

    In aborting the protests, the federal government may have spared itself the embarrassing spectacle of watching the hordes of angry, frustrated Nigerians rant to no end about its supreme incompetence before a global audience in the age of the new media; that no way diminishes the tragedy of that botched outing nor the weight of their undelivered message.

    However, let’s even assume that the government is able to put down the resurgent culture of civil protests – which seems increasing doubtful in the age of the new media – what about the problems of governance created by its own inertia that is at the heart of the distrust and ill-will? Would these also be decreed out of existence?

    Now that the messenger is at least temporarily out of the way, the question is – what becomes of the message? Put it another way: why do the people rage? Why the anger?

    The answer is not hard to hazard: not in our recent history have we seen an administration utterly lacking both in direction and cohesion. But then, that itself is an understatement. How do you describe a government which after bungling the budgetary process shops for alibis? A government that has made such a mess of its Mid-Term Expenditure Framework that the National Assembly could not but sneer at what it described as its sophomoric effort? Imagine an administration laying a $30 billion loan request before parliament with no specific projects attached to the request? How bad can things get? And considering how bad things are, where is the sense of emergency?

    Think of members of the nation’s Economic Management Team – the monetary and fiscal monetary authorities –working at cross purposes with each other. Only in Nigeria can this be contemplated –at a time of dire emergency!

    Where are the strategies to get our industries revving back to life? Where are the strategic plans to wean our industries off their dependence on imported raw materials and hence foreign exchange in the medium term? In short, where are the clear-sighted, forward-looking strategies to get the nation out of the current challenges other than the same old, tired ideas that brought us to this point?

    Left to pick between #IstandwithBuhari and #IstandwithNigeria, the choice should be obvious.

  • Culpable rage

    •Vandalising BRT buses cannot serve as justice for a killed hawker in an auto accident        

    On June 30, bedlam descended on the Maryland, Ikeja, section of Ikorodu Road, Lagos. When the smoke cleared a street hawker, simply called John, lay crushed, while some 47 buses, in the fleet of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), were damaged.

    The trigger for the mayhem was the unfortunate death of John. John, reportedly fleeing from Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) troopers, clearing the expressway of hawkers and street traders, ran into a sports utility vehicle (SUV) that hit him, before a truck, which Lagos State Government said in an official release belonged to a bottling company, crushed him. He died instantly.

    In the bedlam, the pursuing KAI troopers must have disappeared. But somehow, rumours emerged that the late John, who lived in Ikorodu and whose family sources said started street hawking of goggles only in January to eke out a living, was pursued by KAI and crushed by BRT.

    That combustible narrative translated, near-instantly, into a fierce anti-government passion.  The result was a destruction orgy, of the buses in the BRT fleet, many of them brand new.

    But an immediate ripple from the tragedy is the renewed Lagos State government’s bid to enforce the anti-street trading law, which has bred another controversy. The law is the law.

    To start with, the violent loss of life, of a lad barely past boyhood, hustling on Lagos streets, is utterly regretted. We therefore condole with his family for such needless loss. May God console them.

    Inasmuch as we plead with citizens to strictly obey the anti-street trading law (though the economy might bite hard, obedience to laws is not optional), we must also call on law enforcement agencies, particularly KAI, the Lagos environment police involved in this tragic drama, to devise more civil and less hazardous ways of enforcing their briefs.

    It would be spiteful to insist that KAI deliberately pursued Citizen John to his death. But it is an indisputable fact that he died, in panic, while trying to escape arrest. It would have been avoided if he obeyed the law.  Fleeing arrest, for an infraction like street-trading, should never lead to a citizen’s death. Street traders should rethink their activities.

    But tragic and condemnable as John’s death was, it did not justify the orgy of violence on BRT buses. Indeed, such an attack again demonstrates the sheer senselessness of mob actions. Perhaps more than any other policy on transport and traffic, BRT is one celebrated elixir, which has helped to mitigate commuter and traffic hardships. Yet, why a group of misguided citizens (angry or no) would descend on such a useful societal tool defies reason. But then, that is why it is called mob action!

    Which is why everyone connected with the mayhem, no matter how remotely, should be made to fairly face the law. That should serve as ample warning to others who might be tempted by such tragic delusions in the future.

    But beyond crime and punishment is the underlying mass anger, apparently borne out of the economic squeeze. Yes, the government should punish the guilty. But it should also take grim notice of that peculiar anger that unnecessarily scapegoats the government as the enemy.

    That is what the sad narrative of the mob attack on BRT buses is all about —BRT, ironically, the most visible presence of government’s care and compassion, in the Lagos transportation sector!