The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Trapped

  • Trapped

    Trapped

    • SEC must take urgent steps to free N130bn investors’ funds from delisted firms

    Where is the N130 billion investors’ trove: with stock registrars?  Or with the industry regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)? 

    If SEC has it, what is the supervising Federal Ministry of Finance doing to stop it from dithering with the cash and right away pay the shareholders — the rightful owners, to do as they wish with their capital, more so when banks are now in the market to meet new capitalisation thresholds?

    That would appear the question agitating the stock market, in a season when bank recapitalisation should be giving it a boon and a boom.

    The trapped pool involves the delisting of three companies: Dangote Flour, First Aluminium (both in 2019) and Coronation Insurance (2023).  Gross defray liability differs from firm to firm, with the bulk coming from Dangote Flour: N120 billion; First Aluminium: N284.5 million; and Coronation Insurance: N4.53 billion. 

    Mostly hit, by this lack of prompt refund, are the pool of minority shareholders, being allegedly held to ransom by alleged sharp practices by majority shareholders — the few bulk investors, according to a report in ‘The Guardian’ of June 25.

    Of the trio, though Dangote Flour had the heaviest liability at N120 billion, the report showed that it had indeed cleared the liabilities from its end.  Many of its minority shareholders had been paid.  But, for a lack of clear and detailed identification,  a chunk of the fund is still trapped between the SEC and stock registrars, who keep the transaction records; and are the organic link between SEC, the regulators, and the shareholding investor public. 

    The registrars cannot act unless as SEC directs, since often there are allegations of sharp practices. 

    Take the case of Coronation Insurance. It traded as high as 92 kobo but offered to pay its minority shareholders 67 kobo, contrary to Exchange regulations that a voluntarily delisting firm should pay the highest price of its stocks on the trading floor, within six months preceding the delisting. 

    Read Also: Heavy rains compound plight of 14 miners trapped in collapsed Niger mining pit

    Had that deal been allowed, the company would have short-paid its exiting investors by 25 kobo per share.  That would have been an abuse.  So, SEC acted rightly to deny approval.

    First Aluminum too, though it delisted in 2019, has reportedly not paid any of its minority shareholders a dime.  That is because SEC has not approved what it offers.  But the SEC demur could have been a result of investor grumbling over the firm’s exit procedures, which not a few insist should have been more open. 

    Whatever the differences among the three firms, SEC should move fast to sort out the problems.  It should regularise the details of former shareholders of Dangote Flour, so that they can access their funds.  The new Board of SEC should walk its talk by, post-haste, resolving this problem — also push the two other companies to pay up.

    Still, all the noise about trapped capital is the symptom.  The real disease is poor corporate governance, the bane of Nigerian business universe.  That is why the few majority shareholders throw their weight to squeeze the multitude that pass for minority shareholders.  SEC must ensure that stops, though it might not be easy because it’s fast morphing into a systemic problem.

    Yet, such practices can only result in low confidence level in the bourse, which is very bad for the economy.  That gradual loss of confidence is already affecting the volume of deals.

    For instance, trading at the Exchange dipped by 35 per cent from N538 billion on March 5, to N346.23 million on April 6.  If you think this was just a dip in the peak-and-trough pattern of trading, long term stats between 2007 and 2023 followed the same pattern: domestic transactions fell from N3.6 trillion in 2007 to N3.2 million in 2023; while foreign deals fell from N616 billion in 2007 to NN411 billion in 2023. 

    If you factor in the current inflationary

    pull, you can imagine the weight the bourse has shed in real terms.

    While it’s true a bullish or bearish bourse is a function of many factors — the general economic policy and its perception — SEC has the onerous duty to tweak corporate governance at the stock sub-sector to the highest ethical standard possible.  That way, the Stock Exchange can effectively mop up investible funds for the good of the economy.

  • Woman trapped in mud rescued

    Officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) at the weekend rescued a woman who got trapped in the mud by the lagoon near the Third Mainland Bridge.

    The latest rescue brought to three, the number of women rescued from the muddy parts of the lagoon this month.

    According to a source, the woman, who was seen around 8pm, had three white papers on her hands.

    She said the woman appeared to be mentally unstable and was muttering strange words like someone who was doing incantations.

    The source said: “I think something strange is happening at that portion of the water. This woman was the third person that LASEMA had rescued from the muddy waters this month. It’s either they are mentally deranged or witches. Her hands were up and she had white papers on it. But her body was submerged in the swamp. When rescue team went for her, the woman suddenly jumped off and started running.

    “She hides behind the vehicles the dredgers but the rescuers split into groups and surrounded her. The woman was then taken to Alausa. Then, she was searched and a hospital card was found on her but when the hospital was contacted, it turned out the card belonged to someone else. The card owner said she did not know her. She was surprised to know that her hospital card was found with a total stranger.

    “Since the woman did not say anything about her and had no means of identification, she was taken to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) for examination.

    “But something interesting happened when we got to LASUTH with her. The woman started shouting that the twins must die. She was calling someone’s name and saying the twins have to die. They had to inject her to sleep and I think a psychiatrist will examine her.”

     

  • 10,000 vehicles trapped as ban takes effect

    • Senate kicks against implementation

    Within 10 days of the enforcement of ban on importation of vehicles through land boarders by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), about 10,000 vehicles are already trapped at the borders.

    The NCS, in a  statement yesterday, said vehicles properly imported through the same route between January 2014 and December last year were 209,691 with N38,551,569,751.00 paid as duty.

    Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday resolved to ask the NCS to suspend further action on the policy.

    The resolution followed a motion by Senator Barau Jibrin (Kano North) and five others.

    Jibrin in his lead debate drew the attention of the Senate to the policy of the Federal Government to stop the importation of vehicles into the country through the nation’s land borders.

    He noted that it was reported that the ban would lead to the loss of about 500,000 jobs by the people engaged in the business of vehicles importation and handling services in the border areas and around the country.

    Jibrin said he believed that the economy of border villages and towns that depended on the activities of vehicles importation shall be adversely affected to the detriment of the country

    But the NCS, in a statement explained that it seized 5,998 smuggled vehicles within the  period with duty value of N10,271,734,415.36.

    The statement which was endorsed by Ag. Public Relations, Mr. Joseph Attah on behlaf of Customs Comptroller-General, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), reads: “Curiously, Nigerians are being told that over 10,000 vehicles are already trapped 10 days into the enforcement of the policy when statistics shows vehicles properly imported through the land borders from January 2014 – 31 December 2016 was only 209,691 with N38,551,569,751.00 paid as duty. Smuggled vehicles seized within the same period was 5,998 with duty paid value of N10,271,734,415.36.”

  • Concern over airlines’ trapped funds

    The effects of unstable crude oil prices have hit the airline industry as many carriers are reworking their operations.

    The reworking by some of the affected carriers, is predicated on their inability to repatriate revenue accruing from ticket sales because of new policies designed to protect foreign reserves.

    According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), this trend has occasioned global concerns on the future of air transportation in the affected countries.

    At the IATA meeting in Dublin, aviation players expressed worry over the effects of trapped funds to global carriers.

    Investigations revealed that foreign airlines’ trapped funds in Nigeria have risen to $591million.

    The clearing house for over 250 airlines also listed other countries where airlines are having difficulties repatriating their funds.

    The countries include Venezuela which topped the list with $3.7billion in the last 16 months. In the last four months, Sudan’s rose to $360million, while Egypt’s figure rose to $291 million in the last four months. Angola’s trapped funds hit $237 million in the last seven months.

  • Trapped in bonded warehouses

    Trapped in bonded warehouses

    For over two years, over 5,000 seized vehicles and containers have been kept in bonded warehouses in Lagos, Seme and Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. Importers are blaming bureaucracy for the delay in releasing the goods. They are asking the government to intervene in the matter. Maritime Correspondent OLUWAKEMI DAUDA writes.

    When will the over 5,000 seized vehicles and containers kept in bonded warehouses in Lagos, Seme and Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, be auctioned? The N3 billion goods were seized over two years ago by Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) operatives. The importers are seeking the help of the Minister of Finance Mrs Kemi Adeosun and the Customs Comptroller-General (CCG) Col. Hameed Ali to get the goods released or auctioned.

    The importers believe that there is no better time than now to auction the goods. This, to them, is the surest way to fight corruption, and also do justice. They argue that the auction proceeds could be used for development.

    Over 2,000 of the container-laden trucks are in bonded warehouses in Ikeja, 1,500 others are in Seme.

    Among the seized items are trailers, Toyota Camry, Avensis, Corolla, Highlander Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV), Audi, Lexus SUVs, Altima, Jetta, Mazda, Primera, Peugeot, Hummer SUV, buses. Other are containers with various types of goods including teak wood.

    It was discovered that some of the vehicles were seized from smugglers, others were impounded from their owners on the road because the importers alleged failure to pay Customs duty.

    A senior Customs officer who asked not to be named, told The Nation   that some of the vehicles have been in the warehouses for over two years.

    Huge money, the official said, would have been realised if the public was allowed to buy them.

    Sources said the goods may not be auctioned soon because the Customs’ commands are not making such request.

    Other items in the containers, the source said, are lace fabric, used clothes, second-hand shoes, bags, truck heads, iron rods, angle bar, wood, pipes, gas trucks, rice, furniture, light and other household items.

    Some of the goods, the source said, were cleared from the ports but were seized by men of the Federal Operation Unit (FOU), Zone ‘A’ for false declaration, undeclaration and evasion of duty.

    Most of the exotic cars, the source said, were seized because the owners bought them from smugglers or importers who evaded duty.

    But some of the car owners are accusing the FOU operatives of harassing them on the highway for no just reason.

    They alleged that men of the unit intercepted their vehicles on the Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan express roads after being released by other Customs units under the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), at the ports.

    Some of the officers, they claimed, demanded gratifications of between N200,000 and N400,000 and sometimes more, to get the vehicles released.

    But, FOU’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Mr Uche Ejesieme, described the allegations as baseless and fabricated.

    The owners are appealing to Mrs. Adeosun and Ali, to sell the vehicles to them.

    An affected importer, Mr Felix Raji, alleged that his Toyota Camry was seized by the FOU officers on Lagos/Shagamu/Ijebu-Ode Expressway, adding that efforts to get the car back have been fruitless.

    “I was going to Ijebu-Aiyepe when the vehicle was seized from around Shagamu. I bought the vehicle for N1.2 million from the importer who cleared the vehicle through the Tin-Can Port, Lagos.

    “When the Customs officers from Ikeja impounded the vehicle last year, they confirmed to me that the car arrived the country through the Lagos port but that the importer did not pay the appropriate duty and invited me to their office.

    “The vehicle was seized on a Thursday, but when I got to their office on the following Tuesday, the report I got from them was that my vehicle had entered seizure and that I should go and wait till the time when the car would be auctioned. Till date, I am still waiting for the advert or letter that will invite me for the auctioning,” he lamented.

    He added: “This is a vehicle that was released by Customs officers working at the port. If there is a problem with the amount that was paid as duty by the importer before the vehicle was released, who do we blame? Who is responsible for the release of my vehicle from the port? Is it not Customs? Is it not because of their own high level of corruption and inefficiency that many innocent and law-abiding Nigerians would not be able to buy vehicles that were genuinely purchased, imported through our seaports and drive it on the road? he queried.

    “These are officers the nation expects to go into the bush and creeks to combat smuggling, harassing innocent and law-abiding importers on the road based on their negligence corrupt practices,” he said.

    The President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu, blamed some corrupt Customs officials, importers and some clearing agents for the woes.

    “It takes two to tangle. Let us agree that an importer or a clearing agent wanted to defraud the government, why must an officer, saddled with the responsibility to block revenue loopholes allow that to happen?

    “What Customs told us was that the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) was introduced to make cargo clearance easy from the port, but what Nigerians are experiencing and seeing on this road daily is not what we expected from the scheme. We had hoped that since Customs has taken over all aspects of cargo clearance, the issues of evasion of duty, falsified documents, under declaration, over invoicing and other import related problems, would be resolved before goods and vehicles are allowed to move out of the ports. And that is why ANLCA has insisted that the CGC must curb the excesses of his men and ensure the adoption of a duty benchmark on fairly used vehicles, (Tokunbo).

    For years, Shittu said, Customs has operated without a benchmark for used vehicles. The agency, according to him, fixes duty at will, depending on who is importing.

    It was learnt that Nigeria loses cargoes to ports of neighbouring countries because many importers don’t know the actual duty on used vehicles. Findings also revealed that some officers are also exploiting the absence of a clear cut policy on benchmark to extort importers and their agents despite CGS’s warnings against corruption.

    “It takes two to tangle. Customs officers are paid and remunerated to ensure that nobody short-change the system, but there are people who also offer them opportunities to short change the government and you find them among Customs officers, importers and some clearing agents.

    “There are immediate steps the CG needs to take now to nip corruption in the bud. One of the first things he needs to do is to ensure that there is a bench mark on used vehicles. The bench mark being used by Customs gives room for corruption because it is not publicised. For instance, if you want to buy a vehicle from abroad and you already know how much you are paying, it is better  you pay everything to government without giving anybody bribe to get the vehicle out of the ports,” Shittu said.

    He added: “Despite the age limit imposed on imported Tokunbo vehicles, it is sad that no Nigerian bringing any type of the approved vehicle into the country knows the actual amount he or she is going to pay as Customs duty.

    “Other ports are now using online system to submit clearance documentation, which has resulted in significant reduction in corruption,” he said.

    Findings also revealed some fraud starts are using the huge number of vehicles at the government warehouse to defraud and milk innocent Nigerians.

    Some of the fraud gang, it was learnt, works in connivance with some corrupt Customs officers, serving and retired.

    For instance, there are millions of text messages and thousands of fake emails being sent to innocent Nigerians on the purported plan by the Federal Government to auction these vehicles at ridiculous prices on daily basis.

    The more Customs tries to deny the auction plan, the more Nigerians fall prey because the issue keep coming on the social media and the vehicles are there in the various government warehouse to see.

    One the fake messages posted on the social media to deceive and milk innocent Nigerians reads as follow: “This action is in line with the Directives of The Federal Government of Nigeria Custom Service on going 2015/2016 (Batch A) Vehicles Auctioning.

    “These vehicles are First Class Grades and has (sic) never been used in Nigeria. These vehicles are currently in the Custom Warehouse at Same Border ports awaiting removal by clearance. Interested persons must be above 18 years old with 1:Active Drivers license or National ID card.”

    Ejesieme said the unit’s operation was more of intelligence, adding that its operatives impound suspicious containers and vehicles that were wrongly released from the ports.

    FOU officers, he said, have the power to intercept any container or vehicle that is against the Federal Government’s fiscal policy.

    “If they were given information that there was a manipulation in the document presented for the release of the vehicle from the port, our officers would go there and intercept the item and the release officer would be asked to report to FOU and subsequently to the Customs Headquarters in Abuja,” he said.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    He appealed to Nigerians to give the unit information that could lead to the arrest of fraudulent importers.

    When The Nation visited the government warehouses at Seme and Ikeja few days ago, findings revealed that the environment where the vehicles are kept is not conducive.

    Weeds have taken over some of the places where the vehicles were packed and rodents moving freely in the bushy area of the compound.

    Some of the grades ‘A’ vehicles that can be sold for millions of naira each are already rotten away because of their long kept in the sun and rain and nobody is taking care of them.

    “We all know that some of the vehicles were very good when they were seized. Snakes and rats are now using them as place of abode. This is happening because they belong to the government and nobody cares for them as if it is not money. If auctioned, the vehicles would give the government billions of naira that can be used to provide employment or social infrastructure for Nigerians,” said one of the security officials stationed at the gate one of the warehouses.

  • Idiagbon’s N30m trapped in Savannah Bank

    Idiagbon’s N30m trapped in Savannah Bank

    •Family stranded

    About N30million savings of a former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, the late Gen. Tunde Idiagbon are trapped in the defunct Savannah Bank for the 13th year running, according to an investigation.

    All attempts by the family to get the cash over the years have failed.

    It is understood that the family only got N10million as compensation from the Kwara State Government for the deceased’s farmland at  Malete which was worth N100million.

    Idiagbon, deputy to General Muhammadu Buhari when he served as military head of state between January 1, 1984 and August 1985, died on March 24, 1999.

    The Idiagbon family, it was gathered, had intimated former President Goodluck Jonathan of their predicament in a letter to him towards the end of his tenure.

    The family which is said to have been left stranded on the strength of the unavailability of the funds is now seeking justice to get its trapped funds from the owners of Savannah Bank.

    A highly-placed source said: “The family wrote ex-President Jonathan on the trapped funds. The records are there in the presidency. As it is now, there is no hope of getting the N30million for the family unless there is an intervention by the presidency.

    “This Nigerian served his country diligently and his life-savings should not be allowed to be lost like that. I think the intervention will also enable the presidency to look into the case of other depositors of Savannah Bank.

    “Another issue which came up in the letter had to do with payment of N10million compensation to the family by the Kwara State Government for Idiagbon’s farmland in Malete which the family said was worth N100million.

    “The family is however not joining issues with the state government other than to set the records straight and put all issues in perspective. Ordinarily, this is a family that should not suffer because its patriarch did not embezzle public funds.”

    It was unclear if Idiagbon’s final entitlements were paid by the military regime of ex-President Ibrahim Babangida, but the family is after redress for the N30million trapped in Savannah Bank.

    The operating license of Savannah Bank was revoked in February 2002 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). But the owners of the bank went to court to challenge the revocation.

    They asked the court to stop the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) from taking over the assets of the bank

    Reprieve came for the owners on October 20, 2006, when an Abuja High Court declared the CBN’s action as illegal.

    The CBN also failed at the Court of Appeal when the appellate court ordered the re-opening of Savannah Bank.

    It asked the CBN and NDIC to pay N100 million to the bank as damages.

    After the judgment of the Court of Appeal, a former Chairman of the Bank, Chief Jim Nwobodo said: “The process of re-launching the new Savannah Bank will be handled in a very deliberate manner in order to ensure that we build a world-class institution that can compete favourably with other banks in Nigeria and indeed globally.

    “In line with this, the bank has put together a very strong team of advisers in virtually all business and technical areas to assist in managing the takeover process as well as the business-planning activities preparatory to the formal re-launch of the new bank.”

  • Two dead, six trapped in Lagos building collapse

    Two dead, six trapped in Lagos building collapse

    Tragedy struck in the Ojodu Berger area of Lagos yesterday. A two-storey building under construction caved in, killing two builders. The second victim was brought out at 9.30 pm, while the fate of six others, including a pastor said to be living on the ground floor, is yet to be ascertained as they remain trapped in the rubble.

    As at press time, frantic efforts were still in progress to excavate the trapped victims of the ill-fated structure located at19, Bashiru Street.

    It was gathered that the building collapsed around 4:45pm while the construction workers were still on duty. Some of them were also trapped. The Nation also gathered that four of the workers were rescued alive.

    The General Manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Dr.Femi Oke-Osanyintolu told reporters that the agency’s quick response and efforts of other security agencies facilitated the rescue operation.

    The official said it was too early to conclude on what must have caused the collapse of the building, which approval was allegedly granted by the Federal Ministry of Housing.

    An eye witness said he was in an adjourning building when the building collapsed, saying: “I heard a large bang and the next thing we saw was that the building undergoing construction just collapsed.

    “Immediately after, we saw a little boy crying, saying that the construction workers, numbering about seven, had sent him to buy water for them, only for him to return to discover that the building which they were working on, had collapsed.”

    NEMA’s South West Information Officer, Ibrahim Farinloye, who also confirmed the story, said efforts were being made to save one of the victims crying for help, adding that the agency would work overnight.

    “The trapped victims are construction workers and their apprentice, who was the only survivor, was sent on an errand. We just got a voice under the rubble and rescue work to get the victim out is ongoing. The person was speaking Hausa language and he said five of them are trapped,” he added.

    As at the time of filing in this report, rescue operations by security operatives and emergency agencies, including Civil Defence Corps, LASEMA, and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) officials, were still ongoing, in effort to rescue the trapped persons from the rubble.

    Meanwhile, the state government has given the owner and occupants of a three-storey building beside the collapse building 24-hour ultimatum to vacate it because it had failed construction “integrity test.” This, it explained, was aimed at forestalling another tragedy.

  • Trapped on a bridge

    Travellers, who were returning from the Southeast to Lagos and other parts of the Southwest last weekend, had tales of woes to recount.

    Their sad experience stemmed from the agonising hours they spent on the Niger Bridge in Onitsha, Anambra State.

    The traffic gridlock on the bridge, especially on the Lagos-bound lane, took over four hours to ease. Vehicles just stood still.

    Parts of the bridge are said to be in a bad shape, leading to a vehicles using only a lane.

    Most of those trapped in the gridlock were returning to the Southwest and other parts in the North after the Yuletide.

    This reporter spent over four hours to across the bridge. There was a long queue of vehicles, which extended to the Upper Iweka Bridge.

    Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) officials on the both ends of the bridge said they needed to ensure that every car took its turn to pass.

    An FRSC officer, who spoke in confidence, explained that the bridge was too weak to handle the huge traffic plying it everyday.

    The bridge was completed in December 1965 at the cost of 5million Pounds.

    Many travellers slept on the road; others spent hours to cross the bridge.

    Military officers ensured there was orderliness.

    Several motorists came down from their vehicles to know what was amiss.

    A man, who did not want his name in print, said: “I left my home town in Mbano at 4.30am to beat traffic I envisaged I would meet here. This is just more than what I bargained for.

    “This year’s traffic gridlock is the height of previous ones. I haven’t gone a quarter of my destination and am already worn out. The full tank of fuel I bought has gone halfway. I’m not even sure I will get a filling station to buy fuel when I eventually cross the bridge.”

    Scores of travellers carried their boxes and bags to across the bridge in a bid to catch the next available bus at the Asaba end of the bridge.

    Motorcyclists made brisk business conveying passengers through the sidewalk of the bridge.

     

  • Trapped in the past

    Trapped in the past

    Kano sure does have them.

    There was Mallam Aminu Kano (1920-1983) of blessed memory, the patron saint of the northern talakawa; and undisputed muse of the Nigerian masses.

    So radically committed to the talakawa cause was Mallam Aminu that Second Republic President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, once said Mallam Aminu was a professional agitator; so much so that were he president, he would bear a placard against himself before being reminded he was president! As an iconoclast and champion of the liberated masses, he was well and truly sublime.

    But there was also the tragi-comic Sabo Bakin Zuwo, of blessed memory. The lexically challenged Bakin Zuwo, who had no formal education but who jokingly declared himself “student” at the “Mallam Aminu Kano Political School, Sudawa, Kano”, sentenced many to wild guffaws when, at the hustings for the 1983 general elections, he said Kano boasted many “minerals” like Coke, Fanta and Mirinda! When after the Second Republic had crumbled and the messianic pair of Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon were handing out jumbo jail terms to errant politicians, Bakin Zuwo released his parting bazooka.

    Accused of warehousing N3.4 million (a mighty sum in those days!) in Government House Kano, the irrepressible Bakin Zuwo gave an apocryphal quip: “Government money in government house – so what the heck!”, or something to that effect. The media screamed Banking Zuwo, a bathetic pun of his name; and the immortal Banking Zuwo was born! He got 300 years in the slammer. Bakin Zuwo was as ludicrous as Aminu Kano was sublime.

    And now, here is Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. Now, where does Governor Kwankwaso stand in the sublime-ludicrous continuum? He certainly is no Banking Zuwo, some lexically challenged comic and butt of media jokes. But neither is he a sublime defender of the talakawa, as the immaculate and incomparable Mallam Aminu was.

    But he certainly is a doughty defender of his native Kano, with his radical offensive against the creation of more states in the South East; and a straight-shooter when the issue is the North and its political ascendancy or decline. Indeed, Governor Kwankwaso is as radical in his attack of whomever or for whatever reasons bring Kano to ridicule; as he is inconsolable in his lament over what he called the political decline of the North.

    Ike Ekweremadu, deputy president of the Senate and chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee of the National Assembly, stoked the governor’s fury. Senator Ekweremadu used the slicing of old Kano into Kano and Jigawa states; and the seven states in the North West geo-political zone to make a case for the creation of one additional state in the South East; to make it at least at par with the other four geo-political zones of South West, South-South, North Central and North East.

    That would appear fair, on the face of it. If other zones have six states each, why should the South East have just five? Why indeed should the North West have seven states, two more than the South East, and one more than the other zones?

    But an irate Governor Kwankwaso used a welter of statistics (in a lengthy interview with The Nation, Saturday September 29), to remind Senator Ekweremadu (the young man of no more than 50 years!) and his ilk that going by the 2006 census figures, the combined population of South East and South-South is 37 million, just one odd million more than 36 million that the North West alone recorded. So, how dare they question the right of Kano and allied states to have as many states as their land mass and population merited?

    He therefore not only canvassed for more states for Kano but also pushed for the merger of states with an average of two million population, reeling off the likes of Bayelsa, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Taraba, Gombe, Kwara, Abia, Cross River, and even Enugu, Ekweremadu’s state, which peaked at just over three million people!

    And with a seeming Banking Zuwo affliction as regards federalism and its tenets, he queried why these puny states should have equal representation in the Senate with his humongous Kano; forgetting that in a federation the Senate is an electoral equaliser, while the House of Representatives is based on population. The governor signed off with the lament that the insults from the likes of Ekweremadu could emanate simply because the North is now “politically down”! What hubris!

    Governor Kwankwaso’s “facts” are a classical example of card-stacking; in a structurally skewed Nigerian federation. But then, the power elite craving more states, along the present sharing paradigm, handed the governor his ammo. He bombed them so spectacularly!

    But the Kano governor would appear far less formidable, if the paradigm were to change to productive federalism from the present consumptive unitary system, posing as federalism. That way, the people of Kano would sure have the right to carve themselves into as many states as possible. But they have to pay for that luxury: not awaiting some virtual freebies from a bloated and unfocused centre!

    Everybody earning his keep would clearly teach the governor that he would need quality and not quantity population to create and run a state. That should wean him from the wastefulness and needlessness of creating states (and local governments) as political tool to corner national resources, as against mobilising scarce local resources to forge a lean and efficient administrative infrastructure to push scarce resources to gain sustainable development and prosperity.

    Governor Kwankwaso would probably fall into a swoon, were the South West to demand more states for the old Western Region, after all, numbers don’t lie! Look at the stats: old Western Region, now South West: six states; old Eastern Region, now South East and South-South: 11 states; old Northern Region, now North Central, North East and North West: 19 states.

    But the regnant political school in the South West realises that pushing for more states, under a moribund corrupt and sharing system, is akin to the Biblical wide and merry way that leads to perdition. Hence, their angling for regional federalism to drive their own business.

    The Igbo elite sure have a right to have their due under the present system. If that means creating one more state for them, so be it. But they must realise their salvation is not in a sinking centre, but in their own hands.

    Governor Kwankwaso is something of a paradox. From his interview with The Nation, he boasts a laudable and futuristic education policy. Yet he himself came off as one whose mind is irredeemably chained to the past, the way he laments the current “weakness” of the North; and bludgeoned the South East for making a reasonable demand.

    The governor’s latest radical campaigns on onshore-offshore dichotomy and opposition to the South East demand for an additional state look steeped in the past. It has little to contribute to a restructured Nigeria, where everybody earns his keep.