No doubt, PDP has a Nyesom Wike problem. Forget his raucous and rambling messaging, he is adamant on a southerner in the villa till 2031 and his “party” still appears not committed to his conviction, the same way it wasn’t in 2023. Despite his perceived chummy-chummy with the acting National chairman of his “party” Iliya Damagum, Wike has a recent history to teach him that the “needful” would still be done at the last minute for an average Northern political establishment royalty to give the North what it wants. Political North wants to beat Bola Tinubu badly in 2027 and Damagum can’t be seen standing in the way of a bigger picture. It’s possibly why he is seen going out of the rule book to hand Rivers PDP to Wike as compensation for the national platform the FCT Minister would not be allowed to fully have as long as North wants to make Atiku Abubakar president. Wike appears to know this as he shifts gear calling for an elected national chairman and other exco members. Politicians will sort themselves out, and thankfully it’s the judiciary they now use mostly as well as state power of coercion. Rampant political assassinations that heralded this republic have thankfully receded to a blurry yesterday though almost none was resolved by security agencies. Top political figures now secure themselves more, at least as humanly possible, with men and technology, while some are practically putting their security in their own hands, by openly slugging rifles to public events, as seen in a recent viral video somewhere in the East.

Yoruba will describe what Wike is doing in and with PDP as kaka keku ma je sese a fi se awa danu (it will be useful to no one if I won’t have it). Such a mindset has led to the demise of many two-timing men, where none of the “sharing” women, is ready to let go, including the party that has no need for the two-timer. Wike is obviously not running for president in 2027 even if PDP yields the platform to him, to fail once and for all, and to forever quieten him, just like it did with Dino Melaye in Kogi, when it was obvious that even his Ijumu people would desire a better representation.

The FCT Minister is Tinubu’s wingman who is content with being a bogeyman in PDP and would have enjoyed these dual identities for as long as his relevance would carry him, only that the North is desperate again and like in 2014 when it looked West-ward to smile again, it would only need to look East-ward this time to smile again in 2027. And unlike 2023, the deprivation desperation across the land would easily persuade seemingly impossible alliances that even dreams would not have hitherto conjured. Like I said in past writings, Tinubu isn’t only vulnerable but very very beatable in 2027 even in a very tainted and uneven contest, regardless of what becomes of the economy in the next two years, which only a miracle now, can turn into a thing of joy for Nigerians. His presidential record and ability are already cast. Yoruba always wonder about a man who spends two decades laying foundation for madness; how long is he going to be mad for? Yes, the foundation of a structure that will endure vicissitudes must be firmly planted and could take a while, but you don’t contour out the landscape further with meaningless burrowing, all in the name of starting afresh. The part of the building that most thoughtfulness should go into, remains the foundation. You can’t do a flight of fancy with it, because some spirit possessed you on your very first day at work. The foundation of the economy appears damaged and Psalm 11:3 is rhetorically asking “if the foundations are being destroyed what can the righteous do? The Bible has answers. Desperate Nigerians should ask God through His Word the ways out of the dolorous season.

No politician has the magic wand and Nigerians’ eyes should be wide to that by now, at least not after the one called idan (magical) himself has worked more misfortune into the lives of both his haters and hailers. But politicians won’t stop baying for power which is fast becoming a couture for self-aggrandizement for most of them worldwide and a spectacle is looming in the tragicomical tryst expected to feature Wike/Tinubu, PDP and the Judiciary, for the soul of the nation ahead of 2027.

Under Ariwoola as CJN, Wike walked unhindered into the heart of the Judiciary using patronage. As he was building for judiciary in Abuja, his wife was being built into the penultimate court in the land. Yoruba will say “gbafun Gbada nile, ni gbafun Gbada loko (rubbing backs).

Wike has repeatedly said he would not seek the presidency as long as Tinubu is on the ballot. No matter what, as they say, the president is expected to be on the ballot, God sparing his life. But nothing is given. At least the Biden bounce and thud is a lesson in assuming nothing. The supposed most powerful man on the earth had locked the nomination of his Democratic party and the leverage of incumbency was counting for him in the photo-finish he was doing with Republican Trump in battleground states and national polling. Then he dared God to come down and get him off the ballot and God proved His Omnipotence to him using his closest allies like ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to turn on him. The rest is history with his three-day COVID excuse.

Even if God is stopping Tinubu in 2027, APC is never likely to field Wike. South West would want to retain the ticket and for a leader without a visible and known successor after falling out with Rauf Aregbesola, a likely free-for-all, won’t still favour Wike, with the one leg in, one leg out, he is doing with APC. The absence of Tinubu on the 2027 ballot won’t also open the PDP presidential ticket to him, though the opposition party is believed to run more on filthy lucre than principle and constitutional integrity, even if Damagum is properly elected by Wike’s billions and ready to do the bidding of the payer of the piper. As currently constituted South and its leaders are dsadvantaged in PDP, despite the recent ruckus raked by Bode George against Atiku Abubakar, arguably the opposition leader in the country, though Peter Obi is hard on his heels and the younger man, is more nationally regarded in the public opinion court.

So if Wike currently has no presidential path in PDP, why is he fighting to finish? Why not in APC where he is better acknowledged, at least by Tinubu, the official leader of the ruling party? Definitely, the Ikwerre fellow would have self-convincing reason(s) to continue playing what is widely seen as a spoiler role in the party he professes its front-row membership. Maybe it has to do with the personal war he declared on Atiku leading to the victory he cost the PDP candidate in the 2023 poll and his desire to reinflict the same electoral pain in 2027, considering the cold reality Turaki is on his way to another nomination by PDP. But what happens after another Turaki loss, if indeed he would lose this time to Tinubu, though I personally believe only a Southern candidate on another platform with a semblance of national acceptability, backed majorly by the North, stands the chance of sending Tinubu back to Bourdillion in 2027 and there is no chance in heaven Wike is that candidate. So, why doing what Yoruba will call atoko wa ba ile je (the one who comes from the village to scatter the city). Yoruba will accuse such a fellow to be mon daru (one who relishes confusion).

Another atoko wa ba ile je, Ekiti’s Ayo Fayose who claims to lead PDP in the state but endorsing APC’s incumbent Governor Abiodun Oyebanji, was seen in a viral video warning Governor Siminalayi “sim” Fubara of Rivers of Wike’s capacity for unending hideous acrimony once he starts, during the state dinner “washing” Fubara’s election, with Wike beaming beside his now-estranged political son. How can one glory in Yoruba describing him as ala jai gbila (the one who can’t be persuaded to embrace peace once in a fight). When someone won’t let when he should give peace a chance, Yoruba have a way of predicting a shameful end with “alaseju pere ni te (the unrelenting will soon tank). Even for those who are hailing his supposed heroism in ensuring a Southern president which was a correct equity call to make in 2023, the spirit of aja i gbila (scattering everything without peace allowance) would soon make this unlikely hero of Southern Nigeria a villain back home. Wike is already a marked man in the North, he should position his politics to reflect his growing image as a leader from the South. Nothing says he must beTinubu’s night soil-man in 2027 to remain relevant. And he doesn’t have to destroy platforms where credible alternatives to the president can emerge. The time to reset is now.

The recently concluded maiden annual distinguished public lecture of the Association of Retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries of Oyo and Osun State (ARHESPSOOS) held at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, provided another opportunity to brainstorm on the present challenges and future possibilities of the civil service system in Nigeria. The occasion is a significant one for the fundamental reason that it pools the administrative experiences of retired heads of service and permanent secretaries who in their own rights constitute a legitimate institutional memory that ought to be harness in all the conversations that reflect on and rethink the capability of the civil service in Nigeria.

For those familiar with my public commentaries on the civil service and its institutional reform, my preferred methodological approach is to deploy a mix of historical and analytical methodology to outline a trajectory of administrative development, philosophies, and management design thinking to interrogate the current state of the civil service in Nigeria, as basis for our reflection on the future of public administration in Nigeria. This method not only allows us to make critical deductions from the narrative about administrative history and praxis in Nigeria and how they have influenced and affected the series of reform strategies and programmes that have been put in place to redirect the civil service system. Further than this, these deductions allow us to explore extrapolations and scenarios for future reform possibilities, with the objective of excavating a number of recommendations that could possibly feed into the policy intelligence of the political and administrative leadership in Nigeria in their spirited efforts to transform the institutional capability requirements of the civil service necessary for achieving democratic service delivery, infrastructural development and ultimately, national socio-economic transformation.

Public administration has come a long way in historical reckoning. From the ancient pharaonic society to the height of Roman sociopolitical requirement, public administration was a phenomenon whose necessity has increased in complexity today. The ancient Pharaohs needed to dam the River Nile and build the mathematically complex pyramids. The ancient Romans needed to efficiently win many complex wars and ingeniously build many engineering feats. From the scribal authority of the ancient pharaohs to the tenured and salaried profession that public administration demanded in the Roman Empire, public administration eventually evolved into a noble vocation that mirrored the Levitical spiritual order of the Hebrews. With Max Weber, the bureaucracy was modelled into a legal-rational command-and-control structure that reflects the Prussian military governance system.

This is the origin of the “I-am-directed” Weberian administrative tradition that Nigeria, as well as most countries of the world, inherited. This tradition conceives of the bureaucracy as a neutral, hierarchically organised, efficient organisation, which demands precision, continuity, discipline, strictness and reliability. The framework of the legal-rational authority privileges written rules and procedures. Each position in the bureaucracy has its duties and rights, which are clearly defined; rules and procedures are laid down to determine how the given authority is to be exercised. Bureaucracy therefore promises a stable organisation, despite the fact that its incumbents come and go. How did the bureaucracy then earn its bad reputation? A better question is: What is it about the bureaucratic system that makes it so powerful as to threaten its very own essence as well as the service it is supposed to carry out on behalf of government? The short answer is that as the locus of governmental power, the bureaucracy is saddled with the coordination of complex administrative that raises the possibility that street-level and front-line bureaucrats follow rules for their own sake.

This is the origin of the bureau pathologies of the civil service system, a pathological predicament that is aggravated in a postcolonial context like Nigeria. Douglas McGregor characterized that tradition as Theory X, a transactional model that conceives of the administrator as a thermostat regulating an organization founded on a bleak picture of employees. Theory X is undergirded by the perception of human nature as indolent, lacking motivation, naturally egoistic and resistant to change. This is why it became necessary to impose a legal-rational framework. The General Order (GO) represents the codified operating standard for this administrative model.

By 1968, the Fulton Report had already been submitted as Britain’s concession to the new managerial revolution of that time, and the urgency of reforming the British civil service that had become a great rock in the tideline. By 1974, the Udoji Commission Report had taken the challenge of reorienting Nigeria’s civil service system away from the Weberian tradition towards managerialism. The Report’s assessment of the system is its administrative inflexibility which makes it difficult to anticipate and respond to governance and administrative challenges and positive institutional transformation. This particularly concerned, for example, the generalist-professionals rivalry, and the need to inject the system with new blood working within a result-oriented performance management model. Since this Report, and the failure to ground its fundamental recommendation that would have strategically transformed the civil service system, Nigeria has been swinging between moving away from the Weberian tradition (as in the Dotun Phillip Report of 1984 that would have managerialism as the foundation of the civil service) and the Allison Ayida administrative revisionism that reconstituted the system along the Weberian order based on the conception-reality gap it detected in the Philip Report.

And yet, since the 1999 commencement of Nigeria’s democratic experiment, the civil service system has witnessed a series of institutional reforms that keep pushing the system towards the goal of being a world class institution. These reforms include the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), SERVICOM, pension and pay reforms, the professionalisation of the FOS/NBS, FIRS/NEITI, the price intelligence and procurement reform, fiscal responsibility plus MTSS/MTEF, to name just a few. But these achievements are too small and far in-between to short-circuit the already distorted trajectory of organizational development through the five-stage life-cycle: birth-adolescence-maturity-institutionalisation-reformulation. We have majorly the military intervention in Nigeria’s political development to ‘thank’ for this.

An engineering metaphor helps make the point of reform very clearly: Whereas the Nigerian state urgently needs an administrative backend that is efficiently propelled by a jet engine, what the many years of administrative hiccups, institutional disruptions, reform misconceptions and fortuitous breakthroughs have equipped the bureaucracy with is the capacity inherent in the engine of a Beatle car. Essentially, the service workforce structure can be characterized by a situation where there are too many doing nothing, too many doing too little, and too few people doing too much. It is not surprising therefore that a key part of diagnosis of the system’s dysfunction is the execution trap derivable from the system’s inability to achieve capability readiness for democratic service delivery. And so, in a 2005 study, a World Bank review reported the finding that: 29% of development programmes ever got completed, 45% of on-going projects are rated satisfactory, and 26% of such projects usually get cancelled.

How then can we move from institutional debilitation to bureaucratic reform? Institutional reforms underscore the possibility of creatively evolving a developmental democratic state in Nigeria. Such a state, in global discourse, is backstopped by a functional, effective, efficient and optimal civil service system. And so, the reform of the public service is the first condition towards such objective. This means that the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs)—the engine rooms of the public service system and therefore of governance—must be adequately capacitated to become effective and efficient as the formidable institutional framework that would be ready at all times to meet the challenge of nation building, good governance and national development. This requires a change management framework that is anchored around three critical frameworks of significantly reprofiling:

1. the quality of bureaucratic efficiency;
2. the quality of service delivery and performance accountability within a democracy; and

c. the professionalism of the public servants

These critical frameworks focus the objective of institutional reform: the public bureaucracies must be transformed to become:

* Fast moving, intelligent, professional, information-rich, flexible, adaptable and entrepreneurial;

* Less employee-focused and rule-driven, deliver quality service;

* Performance-focused, accountable and productive—defined objectives and measurable results, outputs and outcomes;

* Capable of creating the policy climate that will unlock the energy of the private sector and other sectors and to install a new productivity paradigm in the national economy;

* Operated by multidisciplinary team of new generation public managers and project teams signed on to performance agreements or contracts within carefully crafted ministerial scorecards to which everyone is held accountable;

*Bound within a framework of social compact stewardship that sees citizens as clients deserving of effective and efficient services

To achieve such a new public service demands several systemic and structural imperatives in change management that go straight to the heart of the old Weberian administrative tradition, and its business model and procedures. The first is that a developmental state demands neo-Weberian administrative framework. The idea of the neo-Weberian is useful for two reasons. One, the managerial revolution in most Western countries was not an attempt to entirely jettison the Weberian model. Rather, the reform efforts were an incremental attempt to recalibrate its efficiency and effectiveness. Two, the Weberian bureaucratic framework has not outlived its utility, especially when considering the African context. The implication of this is that the new public management has to be brought into conversation with the Weberian tradition to be able to achieve the effectiveness and efficiency of the new public service envisioned in Nigeria.

The second imperative is the urgency of rethinking the intellectual foundations of public administration as the vehicle for the administrative reconstruction of the Nigerian state and the quest for good governance. This will involve several developments. There is first the need to reflect on a non-adversarial and cooperative relationship between politicians and administrators. Secondly, the system demands a firm and meritocratic gatekeeping measure that is founded on the principles of public-spiritedness and professionalism. And thirdly, the necessity of keying into global and regional best practices in terms of competency and human resource framework for doing government business and articulating efficiency in the workplace.

The next imperative is correlative. The new foundation on which the public service must be based needs a new generation and cohort of public managers who are capacitated with the requisite values and competences to manage the demands of the new public service that the developmental state in Nigeria needs to make an appearance in the fourth industrial revolution. This will necessarily serve as the first condition for the possibility of instituting a new performance management system and HRM framework that could transform the workplace efficiency and productivity, especially in the face of the new normal that COVID-19 has imposed on the world, and the flexibility demanded by the Gen Z. This is the move that transforms the service IQ in the form of a strategic leadership intelligence through the creation of a multidisciplinary talents-reinforced senior executive service (SES) guided by a new ethical professionalism.

Next, the new public service must deal with the demand of facilitating public-private partnership dynamics, and moving them to a higher level that allows good corporate governance principles to drive the frameworks for democratic governance. This enables, as part of the HR function transformation, the possibility of incorporating commercial skills as part of the HRM capacitation of the public managers. Lastly, none of these reform imperatives would make any sense if the public service does not facilitate a paradigmatic shift away from an adversarial to developmental industrial relations that makes it possible for the workplace to generate the level of performance and productivity commensurate with the reform inputs.

Transforming the civil service system is not an issue to be politicized. And the simple but fundamental reason is that it is the fulcrum for achieving sustainable development that constitutes the most significant objective of the developmental state. That, in overall analysis, is where the Nigerian state should be headed.

(Being a Distinguished Public Lecture Delivered by Prof. Tunji Olaopa, professor of public administration and Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, at the Maiden Annual Association of Retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries of Oyo and Osun State – ARHESPSOOS – held at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, on Wednesday, 21st of August, 2024)

The drafters of the Nigerian constitution also known as the wise men had two posers, they were not immediately able to solve. The first was what to do with the lofty objectives in chapter two of the constitution titled ‘Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.’ The thrust of what the chapter required government to do was to implement ideals such as free education and free health for all etc.

It was obvious that in reality, those objectives were rather unattainable in the first few years of government in a developing society. So, it was agreed that the objectives be captioned‘non-justiciable’ meaning they cannot be enforced by the courts. Put differently, nobody would be allowed to go to court on the subject because as ideal objectives, government should be given the discretion to determine which objective to deal with and to what extent at a given point in time.

The second poser was what to do with any government that abuses the discretion by totally ignoring the objectives which could impede societal growth and development. This was what gave birth to Section 22 of the constitution which mandated the media to hold government accountable to the people. It was expected that the media which harassed the colonial master in favour of Nigerians would similarly be able to use their powerful organs of mass communication to push government to be pragmatic about attaining many of the fundamental objectives. No one expected that Nigerian politicians would design and legalize strategies to completely neutralize the nation’s journalists from meeting the clear mandate given to them by the constitution. One of the things our politicians did was to introduce the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention Etc)Act 2015.

Although the Act had in mind serious crimes concerning digital electronic messaging that could undermine national security, politicians at state level immediately domesticated the Act to make it impossible for the state government and its official to be made subject of any media investigation. They assumed that since the world had progressed to the digital age of technology any journalist could be held under the Act because everyone now uses computers. Ebonyi State was one of those that introduced its own Cybercrimes Law under which any political opponent who criticized government was immediately arrested as having breached the law. In 2022 however, the federal high court in Abakaliki quashed the law when it became obvious that it was enacted in secret without public knowledge and quickly accented to by the governor merely to criminalize political dissent.

The most unfortunate part of the law was that those arrested were not given an opportunity to open up on the grave allegations concerning corrupt practices by officials of government especially governors and their relations. In Cross River State, a journalist Agba Jalingo was detained for accusing former Governor Ben Ayade of diverting N500 million from the state treasury. Rather than give the journalist an opportunity to prove his allegation for the good of society, he was charged with treasonable felony, terrorism, cultism and disturbance of public peace. Within a month, Joseph Odok, another journalist and critic of the same governor was arrested over an allegation of terrorism. It became obvious that the charges of terrorism were made by the police to justify the detention of the critics while the facts of the criticisms were covered up.The practice is yet to end.

Only last week,Shafi’u Umar Tureta, a social media critic was hastily sent to prison in Sokoto for posting a viral video featuring a lavish birthday party hosted by the wife of the state governor. The video also allegedly showed the celebrant virtually abusing the naira by spreading money on the ground during the party. Another media report said the social critic also allegedly shared a video of the governor struggling to construct a sentence in English. He was also alleged to have posted the governor’s senior secondary leaving certificate which stated that the governor failed the examination and also earned F9 in English suggesting that the governor was incapable of speaking the language fluently. This case no doubt opens up several issues worth considering starting with the supposed birthday celebrant.

To start with, was there such a birthday party? If yes,nothing is wrong with holding a party. Many people do that often and the fact that a lady is married to a governor should not bar her from holding a birthday party. Second, did the governor’s wife spread money on the ground during the party? If yes, it means the report is correct but she probably would not be asked to account for abusing the naira because of her status. But if the story is only an imagination of the accused, then he could be described as mischievous. In the case of the governor, if the school result reportedly shared was correct, then it is a valid report. Again, did he score F9 in English and did the video show him struggling to construct a sentence in English? All these must be false before the critic can be said to have a case to answer.  Even at that,is imprisonment the first step to take? In fact, who authorised the police to imprison the accused before charging him to court?

It was also reported that Fatima Hassan, the Magistrate before whom the accused was arraigned barred reporters from covering the court proceedings. What was the reason for such a decision on a matter of public interest? Here, we need to return to S22 of our constitution which mandates the media to hold government accountable to the people. If the judiciary is the third arm of government, is Magistrate Hassan not part of government? If she is, how will the media hold her accountable to the people where her court holds secret sessions? This is probably a political case in which everyone is wrongly answerable to those in power. Some two years ago, the situation would have been different because the accused in this case is said to be a passionate follower of the former governor of the state, Aminu Tambuwal now a senator. It is perhaps the different political camps to which the parties belong that seems to explain the importance of the case.

It is however worrisome that a case such as the one before us whose facts are clearly verifiable is sufficiently remarkable enough to warrant what the accused has gone through. Let us assume that some of the allegations if not all are wrong, why order an accused to be held in a correctional centre for as long as September 6 as the magistrate directed? Is that not more than enough punishment before the case starts? From history, we know that the case will end up with nothing to write home about because as usual the authority offended may not be anxious to follow the case to its logical end; the goal in essence,is just to punish the accused. The case would however join other notorious ones that continually dissuade anyone from exposing the misapplication of public funds. While the police ought to obey those in authority, they should also have an idea of what the law says about an offence. If the governor and his wife thought their image was damaged, the accused would still be free to establish his innocence because in a case of defamation, truth is critical in favour of the accused

The point that must be made is that whether it is Cybercrimes Act or any other issue that those in authority hope to hide under, we cannot develop if our leaders are allowed to use other strategies to overwhelm the constitution. Any person who decides to hold public office must recognise that he has opted to be the servant of the people. In other words, it is wrong for a governor who has chosen to be a servant to seek to lord it over the same people that are his masters. No person in government should seek to use his office to punish a journalist that the constitution has mandated to make him answerable to the people. This is because on the authority of S22 of our constitution, the media can compel those in authority to fall in line since governance objectives in Chapter 2 of our constitution cannot be taken to court.

Erling Haaland scored a hattrick as Manchester City defeated West Ham United 3-1 in their English Premier League (EPL) clash at the London stadium on Saturday.

The late kick-off saw Haaland continue his scintillating start to the season, scoring all three goals against an attacking side that troubled the EPL champions but could not make the most of their impressive performance.

Haaland put City ahead in the 10th minute when he slid in to convert Bernardo Silva’s pass but West Ham responded with the equalizer nine minutes later, Ruben Dias scoring an own goal.

The Norwegian striker restored City’s lead with a fierce shot that flew into the roof of the net in the 30th minute before putting the game to bed seven minutes from time with another well-taken goal.

The hattrick is Haaland’s 11th of his Man City career — eighth in the EPL. He has scored seven goals in the opening three matches of the season as Pep Guardiola’s side continues their 100% start to the season.

In earlier matches, Brighton held ten-man Arsenal to a 1-1 draw in a match Declan Rice was dismissed for a second yellow card for time wastage.

Everton, however, surrendered a two-goal lead with three minutes of regulation time remaining and lost 3-2 to Bournemouth at Goodison Park.

However, Aston Villa held on to win 2-1 at Leicester City.

RESULTS
Arsenal 1-1 Brighton & Hove Albion
Ipswich Town 1-1 Fulham
Leicester City 1-2 Aston Villa
Everton 2-3 Bournemouth
Brentford 3-1 Southampton
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
West Ham United 1-3 Manchester City

[TheCable]

The Nigerian politician is a most futuristic animal. He is above all else a most distractive creature, forever creating political outlets and ventilations. While our civil society remains reactive, our political class is eternally ahead in terms of setting an agenda for distracting the attention of the polity for purposes of keeping itself busy in terms of the direction of what happens next politically. Check: 2027 is literally four years away. Check: the Tinubu presidency is a little over a year old. Check: all the calamities that  hell holds in stock for bad places on earth has converged on Nigeria. The possibility that Mr. Tinubu and his rabble assembly of a government is likely to solve any of our serious crises remains an illusion. Yet, politicians must remain active and relevant.

Four years to the end of the Tinubu tenure, some politicians are gearing up for what happens in the next election, in 2027. Overwhelmed by the present realties of a state that is literally at a halt, some politicians would rather overlook the present so that public attention can skip present difficulties and focus on 2027.

Creative and futuristic as always, our politicians have found a way to keep busy and get the people politically engaged. The specter of 2027 has been fast -forwarded. It is as though the next election is next year. No need to worry about bandits and the endless flow of blood all over the land. No need to worry about the elongating unemployment queues. No need to worry about how many baskets of useless Naira notes you need to buy a miserable US dollar.  Forget what the market women are telling you about high prices of food items. They are all killjoys who are hell bent on spoiling the party of the Tinubu renewed hope mandate party. Just listen to the new song from the politicians or better chant the new old national anthem.

Mr. Bode George, a constant gadly and overgrown child of South-west political rabble rousing, has been busing engaging Atiku Abubakar in recent times.  He has advised Mr. Abubakar who aspired to be the next president to prepare instead for the 2031 presidential elections instead of even the 2027.

Worse still, several groups of serious politicians from the northern hemisphere of the nation have lately been meeting. There is no secret about their agenda. They are prepping for the 2027 presidential election. Their agenda is simple and straightforward. They are united by two things. They got left behind by the Tinubu gravy train and now  all crave for the centre stage next time around. They cannot wait. More importantly, they have nothing tangible to keep them busy between now and 2027.  For now, they are united by a curious consensus to recruit ex- President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2027 presidential election to ensure that Mr. Tinubu does not have the chance of a second term in the Villa. By this rough script, the political North wants to snatch the presidency from Mr. Tinubu who has not shown good faith or sufficient gratitude to the region in spite of his Muslim-Muslim ticket and inheritance of the former Buhari throng of voters.

The strong argument is that the Northern hemisphere of our political space in the APC supported his emergence of Mr. Tinubu in the Presidential Villa in compensation for the clueless Buhari whose most important object was political recompense to Mr. Tinubu. The aftermath of the Tinubu victory is looking more skewed to the northern political mind.  It is not just the sharing of pork that is at issue. The region is in a poor shape, perhaps worse than since the creation of Nigeria.

Security in the north is nasty,  brutish and almost non existent. The distribution of the gravy content of ‘renewed hope’ in the region is not quite as generous as was expected. The handouts to interest groups in the region do not seem as generous as it was even under the xenophobic Mr. Buhari. Bandits are helping themselves to the spoils of war instead of waiting to be served by willing political actors. So, what to do? Support the apparently harmless Mr. Jonathan to complete his entitled one term  so that presidential power can return effortlessly to the north.

The quest for the return of Jonathan is strictly not about better governance for Nigeria or indeed the beleaguered northern hemisphere. The power arithmetic is not about the quality of governance or what could make Nigeria a more manageable federation away from its present dilapidated state. The gathering political distraction is not about how to understand the dynamics of power and the current social and economic forces that have made the north such a dangerous place or even made the whole of Nigeria a bad place. It is a rehash of the same old North-South nonsense that has left Nigeria damaged and destroyed. The impending distraction is just another chapter in the bad chapter of Nigeria’s unending tragic tale of disastrous governance. We are still waiting for the political class that sees beyond region, religion and axis on the national compass.

In the renewed distraction, there is hardly any thought about imparting skills that will work for Nigeria as a whole. There is no discussion about functional education, economic empowerment, population control, urgent modernization and investment in education, agriculture and a different work ethics that prioritizes entrepreneurship, grueling hard work and productivity for better self actualization and overall national development. It is all about North-South, Muslim-Christian balancing. It is all about feeding the same old insatiable and unproductive political elite that has left the majority of the people stranded and abandoned. It is the feathering of the nest of the same runaway elite that has abandoned the people and relocated to villas in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Abuja, Lagos and Cairo.

Meanwhile, the hapless Mr. Jonathan is busy attending every available social event around the country in an unstated gathering campaign for what he does not quite fully understand. Himself a prime beneficiary of Nigeria’s politics of entitlement and allocation, Mr. Jonathan may have garnered quite some experience and exposure after office in his countless international democratic engagements. It is also quite possible that he has had time to reflect on his work experience as president to be better equipped for a retrial run. But the Jonathan proposition is a politically convenient distraction from the crushing  urgency of the tasks that call us all fiercely.

On his part, Mr. Tinubu who understands mostly the language of political survival has responded to the hints of his eventual ouster. In response to the imminent distraction, the Tinubu incumbency has found both a convenient political distraction and  veritable challenge. It is urgent. Mr. Tinubu has just settled into a cozy world of luxury jets, lush villas, endless motorcades, sweetheart contracts and endless junkets to all ends of the universe.

Tinubu is first and foremost a power monger and political entrepreneur.  His is an ultimate political entrepreneur, a merchant of power in the mot Machiavellian sense. Every power has a price tag and nearly every political outcome is a transactional.  Political survival is his foremost prerogative. He clutches to no ideal, rules by no principles or set of ideas. His prime objective is to be president of Nigeria by all means, which he has achieved. The other two entitlements are to hold the oil and gas cheque books and the key to the Central Bank. He has all these imperial booties in his clutch plus endless air miles on a fleet of luxury presidential jets.

All these would mean little if indeed Nigerians could see a clear purposive governance in place or in progress. Not quite sure. A gravy train is on the rail, coasting down  a sloppery slope almost unstoppable gradient. Now comes a bunch of killjoys who have declared their intent to stop Tinubu midstream. And he is not likely to turn a blind eye to this distraction.

Yet for whatever it is worth, the protection of his incumbency and its possible  tenure elongation into a second term is an urgent political  challenge which no incumbent president can leave unattended. In response to the PDP- based maneuvres on the Jonathan proposition, the Tinubu political machinery has reportedly swung into action to counter what may be its most consequential political threat. Counter groups have been mobilized. Internal APC  work groups have set up with a mandate to thwart the moves of the derailers. What lies ahead is therefore a battle royale. The political back and forth between the two sets of political forces is likely to  be the grand distraction of the season. 

The grand historic question is whether the Tinubu presidency will consign the urgent task of national salvation to the counter force of the battle for supremacy in 2027. The possibilities are ominous and frightening. The forces poised against national survival as themselves gruesome and determined. The forces of anarchy fuelling banditry, serial kidnapping, senseless murders in high places and sheer lawlessness are mindless and unhinged. No one is certain that the Nigerian state in its present state of disrepair will prevail over its traducers.

Yet we are at the moment of decision and prioritization. National survival must precede and supersede the survival of any individual power regime or calculus. The guarantee of a second presidential term sounds like a political expediency. In the nature of nations. Existence precedes essence. No matter how fanciful its format may be, a nation must exist before it manifests its goodness. The very survival of the Nigerian nation is the more pressing urgency. Without a nation to call home, there will be neither a presidency nor a tenure to elongate or argue about. It is only by reinforcing the pillars of national existence and ensuring good governance and a fair society that tenure elongation can be placed on the table. The basic ingredients of national prevalence are the same basic existential issues that today haunt the entire Nigeria: food, shelter, poverty, costs of living in the open market and some hope that basic safety of lives and property can be guaranteed by the state.

First, credit where it is due. NNPC Limited (NNPCL) deserves commendation for releasing its 2023 audited financial statement on time and for continuing the recent tradition of opening itself to public scrutiny. The first time the company publicly disclosed its audited accounts was in 2020. That was 43 years after the organisation came into being. Within four years, NNPCL has released its audited accounts for 2018 to 2023. That’s six financial years already. Though the 2022 financial statement was released late (in January 2024), the company’s commitment to transparency in this wise is worthy of praise. Mr. Mele Kyari, NNPCL’s group CEO, and his colleagues have earned their stripes for starting and sustaining this desirable tradition.

However, the regularity of the disclosure should be matched by its comprehensiveness. While NNPCL scores high marks on the former, it has started falling short on the latter. The 2023 audited account that NNPCL released on its website on 20 August 2024 is quite bulky at 120 pages. But bulkiness is not exactly the same as exhaustiveness. Four of the six audited statements released by NNPCL so far included separate accounts for the group and its subsidiaries. For the 2021 financial year, for example, the company released 21 different reports. But for the 2022 financial year, NNPCL released only one report, a practice that it has carried into 2023. This is not good enough.

Without stand-alone audited reports on the subsidiaries, it will be difficult to have a full view of how the different components of the company are faring or know the value they add to their shareholders (who, in this case, are all Nigerians). This is more so because NNPCL has stopped publishing the monthly financial and operations reports that Dr. Ibe Kachikwu started in 2016 when he became the GMD of the organisation. The last NNPC monthly financial and operations report released was for August 2021. No reason was given for discontinuing this granular and useful report. Unlike its peers, NNPCL does not accompany its audited financial statements with comprehensive operational reports that lay its operations bare to all in a comprehensible and well-visualised manner. It is difficult to make a compelling case for why the corporation that transformed into a company will opt for less disclosure instead of more.

But there are even more fundamental issues and questions arising from the 2023 audited accounts. It is important to state upfront that these questions do not necessarily suggest wrongdoing or coverup on the part of the management of the company or its auditors. Between the numbers and the notes, audited financial statements should be self-explanatory and should provide a good window into the operations of the entity. Where there are questions without obvious or adequate answers, then someone has dropped the ball. Whether accidental or deliberate, such gaps or inadequacies invite doubt and distrust. This is not good for any organisation, especially one with a rich, dark history.

The first set of questions is about the ballooning of the total assets of the company. NNPCL claims that its total assets increased from N58.49 trillion in 2022 to N246.82 trillion in 2023. This is an exceptional growth of 322% from a year to the other. The natural question to ask is: what explains a four-fold expansion in total assets between two consecutive years? As provided for in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), joint venture oil and gas assets belonging to the Federation were transferred to NNPCL in return for dividends. So, it is understandable that the company’s assets grew from N16.27 trillion in 2021 to N58.49 trillion in 2022. But what was the exceptional event that occurred in 2023 that led to increase in total assets by more than 300%? Were newer assets transferred to NNPCL? This is doubtful. The massive increase cannot be explained by exchange rate gains alone, as the difference between the rates used by the company to calculate its assets in the two years—N907.11/$ in 2023 and N448.55/$ in 2022—does not fully capture such significant disparity. Something doesn’t appear to add up here.    

The relationship between the current and non-current assets of the company in 2022 and 2023 invites a question of its own. In 2022, NNPCL’s non-current assets amounted to N36.89 trillion while current assets were N21.39 trillion. But in 2023, non-current assets at N74.18 trillion were completely dwarfed by current assets at N172.64 trillion. The logical question to ask is what happened or what is going on here? But it gets more interesting. Under non-current assets, Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) shrank from 54% of total assets in 2022 to 27% of total assets in 2023. As a capital-intensive company, NNPCL’s assets should tilt more towards non-current assets, especially its PPE. So, what explains the shrinking of both the PPE and the non-current assets in 2023? For context, PPE normally constitutes more than 50% of the total assets of global oil companies, private and public. So, what is going on with NNPCL?

There is a partial hint in what happens to be the major component of the current assets for the financial year under review. Trade and Other Receivables (what NNPCL was owed) grew from N17.7 trillion in 2022 to N162.96 trillion in 2023, an increase of 820%. Again: what explains this significant jump in two consecutive years? Also, Trade and Other Receivables rose from 30% to 66% of total assets from one year to the other. This suggests that in 2023, NNPCL looked more like a trading company than an oil production company if two-thirds of its total assets are in what it was owed as opposed to what it owned.  

Notes 24 on page 80 has a breakdown of the Trade and Other Receivables. This shows that Other Receivables alone amounted to N108.44 trillion. Note 24.3, also on page 80, has a disaggregation of the Other Receivables, and this indicates that Sundry Receivables accounted for N108.15 trillion or 99.7% of Other Receivables. Then, Note 24.3.1 on page 81 defines Sundry Receivables as: “mainly recovered but yet to be settled debt, receivables from defunct bank and deposits for letters of credit, joint venture receivables and strategic alliance receivables.”  That was all the explanation offered for assets worth about $120 billion (based on the N907.11/$ conversion rate used by the company for its assets). By all standards, $120 billion is a significant sum that deserves fuller explanation.

This scanty level of disclosure is duly replicated on the liability side, in a more perfunctory manner.  According to NNPCL, its Trade and Other Payables (basically what it owed others) increased from N25.03 trillion in 2022 to N163.73 trillion in 2023. This means that Trade and Other Payables increased by 554% from one year to the other. Trade and Other Payables also constituted 66% of the Total Equity and Liabilities of the company for the year as against 43% of the previous year. The natural question to ask again is: what is going on here or why is this so?

But this is not the catch. Note 38 on page 96 has a disaggregation of the Trade and Other Payables. This reveals that Other Payables alone accounted for N112.58 trillion. This is further broken down in Note 38.3, on the same page, which shows that Accrued Expenses alone amounted to N104.13 trillion. In 2022, Accrued Expenses amounted to N442.58 billion in 2022. This means that there was a whopping increase of 23,427% in Accrued Expenses from one year to another. Is that not amazing? Again, it is logical to ask: what’s going on here?

Note 38.3.2 on page 97 simply explains Accrued Expenses as consisting of “retention fees, legal fees accruals and audit fees accruals.” That’s all the explanation for N104.13 trillion or $115 billion (based on the N907.11/$ conversion rate that the company used for its assets). That is it? NNPCL and its auditors (PWC, SIAO, and Muhtari Dangana & Co. and their partners that signed the statement) can surely do better than just state, in a rather flippant manner, that the company had accrued expenses of $115 billion in just 2023. The scanty way that $120 billion and $115 billion were treated as Sundry Receivables and Accrued Expenses seems to suggest a deliberate design and betrays a grave lack of respect for Nigerians. The treatment clearly doesn’t meet the significance threshold. The quality of disclosure here should clearly be of interest to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria.

According to the audited financial statement, NNPCL’s total assets was N246.82 trillion in 2023. This news should gladden the hearts of all Nigerians. Assuming this represented a true reflection of the total assets of the company, this should make the current administration deliriously joyous. Using NNPCL’s conversion rate for assets for the year, this means that the company had total assets of $272 billion as at 31^st December 2023 (a magical increase from $129 billion of 2022 when the company used N448.55/$ as the conversion rate for its assets).

Total assets of $272 billion in 2023 put NNPCL in the league of the biggest oil companies in the world by assets. In 2023, NNPCL had assets bigger than those of national oil companies and global international oil companies such as PEMEX ($136 billion), Equinor ($143 billion), Petronas ($179 billion), Petrobras ($217 billion) and Chevron ($261 billion). NNPCL’s assets in 2023 amounted to 72% of ExxonMobil’s ($376 billion), 67% of Shell’s ($406 billion) and 41% of Saudi Aramco’s ($660 billion). Is that not amazing?

This is more fantastic news than NNPCL’s ‘gravity defying’ profit and other pretty spins it has put on its 2023 financials. With such supposed assets, NNPCL can be more useful in addressing the forex liquidity challenge that has led to the serious undervaluation of the Naira after the free float compounded by the drying up of the forex from crude oil that accounts for more than 80% of Nigeria’s exports. If NNPCL’s assets are as disclosed, the company can easily attract a valuation above $100 billion. Listing 20% of the company on a foreign stock exchange will bring greater relief to the country than the recent habit of pledging future crude oil for some paltry loans. It will thus be important to fast-track the promised Initial Public Offering (IPO) on major stock exchanges. Let’s just hope the total assets are really as stated.  

There many other things that should get eyebrows raised in NNPCL’s 2023 financials. Some of these include: the value that the company provided to the country for the N669 billion it got as management fee from 30% of profit oil alone and whether that portion of the PIA should not be looked at again; whether the company is adequately flogging its assets and deriving enough profit from its revenue, when compared to its peers.

Other issues include: the size of and the increase in related-parties loans between NNPCL and its subsidiaries and the sundry things such loans are used for; the logic of declaring profit of N3.3 trillion while carrying liabilities of N8.7 trillion in taxes and royalties; and the rationale for the multitude of Funding and Technical Service Agreements (FTSAs) entered into by NNPC Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL), which not only constrain the crude oil available to the company and the country, but also raise questions about the technical and financial capacity of the E&P subsidiary of the company and the need for independent assessment of the worth of such agreements to the country, and evoke the spectre of the discredited Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs). There are other questions and concerns depending on how you look at the report and where you look.

While some of these questions arise because of the woolly nature of some of the disclosures, others are based on the need for better and more accountable stewardship of a national patrimony.  It is worth restating that these questions do not impute or establish wrongdoing yet. A company that received more than half a trillion Naira from just managing Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) alone can sure do better with the quality and depth of its disclosures. It should also be held to, and should expect, a higher level of scrutiny. Disclosure seemingly for the sake of it, or just to appear to fulfil all righteousness, will not suffice. It will not pass muster.

A few days ago, a new coach was hired for the Super Eagles, the national football team of Nigeria.

Under normal circumstances, it would be considered too soon to start any controversial discourse on the man. However, the shrouded process of the appointment, the timing of it, and the calibre of the person engaged following one of the worst periods in Nigeria’s football history, have raised a lot of eyebrows. To be silent would be tantamount to lazy journalism.

He is foreign, a German. His name is Bruno.

The only famous Bruno in sports that I know of are Fernandez of Manchester United FC, and the British boxer. In coaching, not any of the known names in international football that would have silenced critics and sceptics avers to hiring any more foreign coaches in Africa in 2024 after all the previous failures.

So, Bruno who?

The appointment of a Bruno Labbadia, therefore, came as a complete surprise to everyone (except, of course,those that must have been behind the deal). There must be some kind of deal in this new arrangement. That’s the only way to understand the rationale for a football administration to dare at this time to present to Nigerians a totally unknown coach, straight from the blue, completely outside the radar of even the most ardent football followers.

Bruno’s choice immediately attracts interest. The current relatively subdued debates on the issue are a result of the ‘shock’ of the audacity of the NFF administration to present, without clear reasons and motivation, a low-level foreign coach without international recognition or solid credentials after the unconvincing performances by several foreign coaches with better credentials, including Jose Paseiro, to Nigerians.

This is not even good to stick to the doctrine of a foreign coach given the outcry over previous dismal failures marked by a desert of trophies. The impression most Nigerians had after Paseiro’s ouster is that any new appointment would pass through microscopic lenses and scrutiny. For any foreign coach to be hired would as difficult as a ‘camel passing through the eye of a needle’. I had assumed that an unknown foreign coach would never again be unleashed on Nigerians. I now humbly concede naivety.

There are too many boxes that any prospective new coach would have to tick.

The person must be renowned internationally; must have clear and solid records of achievements to show in football; must be grounded in African football and footballers, either as a coach or even as a player; must have the reputation as a former player or as a coach to earn the immediate respect of the big superstars in the Eaglesand the critical Nigerian public.

Does Bruno Labbadia tick any of the boxes?

The Super Eagles are a very troubled team.

The team has not done well for several years in all competitions. The last AFCON in January/February this year was a punctuation mark with performances, since then, that make their commendable achievement look like a fluke. At AFCON 2023, they defied all the odds, rode on the back of some decent performances and got to the finals of the African Championship.

Since then, however, there has been a huge slump in performance, disturbing to the extent that the coach of the team, even after being lavishly celebrated and rewarded (prematurely it now seems), was sent ‘packing’ with the refusal to renew his contract.

The Super Eagles now face many challenges. The most glaring is that the team lacks depth in quality of players that can lift it above the present plateau where the team has remained for well over a decade, unable to win any major trophies, and not convincing anyone of its once-undisputed status as a giant in African football. Smaller countries that the Super Eagles used to devour for ‘breakfast’ have suddenly become their Nemesis. Some have even defeated the Super Eagles on their home turf, something that was once considered ‘impossible’!

With this new appointment of Bruno, my feeling is that the NFF has taken on a big gamble.

The expectation was that any new coach must start to win from Day One, and that there will be no excuses or time for a honeymoon. Nigerian coaches were not given any such luxury.

As Bruno Labbadia resumes and takes charge, his previous ‘record’ of never winning any trophy in his almost 30 years career as a coach, amounts to nothing. It will not serve as an acceptable excuse should he fail to deliver by defeating the Cheetahs of Benin Republic next week in a 2025 AFCON-qualifying match to be played in Uyo, Nigeria. The match has tension and grudge written all over it.

Gernot Rohr, the last German coach that was sacked by Nigeria some years ago, now leads the Cheetahs for this sequel against the Super Eagles.

He came a few months ago and inflicted the defeat on the Super Eagles that fast-tracked Jose Paseiro’s exit from Nigeria. That defeat was one of the worst and most humiliating in Nigerian football history. It must not happen again!

Unfortunately, even as the team list for the match was released during the week, it showed that Bruno would still be working with most of the same set of players that could not lift Nigerian football higher in the past decade. Is there some ‘magic’ that he would perform with the players within the one week that he has before the match?

There is also a second match within days against Rwanda in Kigali, another mountain that the new coach will have to climb to clear the cloud before the eyes of Nigerians about a certain coach from ‘nowhere’ leading their prized Super Eagles.

These two matches are critical for Bruno’s survival as the coach of the national team, and for the NFF itself as a board. Nigerians are waiting and watching.

Meanwhile, for academic reasons only, it will be interesting to know the value of Bruno’s contract, the duration of the contract, the target(s) set for him, who pays his wages between the sports ministry and the federation, foreign assistants (will he make use of local coaches), and so on.

The more I look at all this matter of Bruno Labbadia, the more I see it as one huge gamble by the NFF.

Anytime I hear or read about the fluidity with which people get into and dash out of marriage, I wonder where they ever got the idea that marriage was a bed of roses. Like everything in life, marriage is a roller-coaster of experiences, which is why anyone interested in the institution must attain a level of psychological and emotional maturity that can sustain them in the turbulence that they are most certainly going to experience.

Even the holy book says that he who must marry would have troubles, and in my few years of marriage, and from conversations with family and friends, every marriage has their peculiar challenges and most of the time, what we need are the requite skills to deal with issues as they emerge as well as a constant assessment of the relationship and the readiness to make amend and nurture the marriage. It is a transition that I have been through and can speak to competently. Let me share a bit of my experience with you.

It was love at first sight between me and my husband. We met at a birthday party of his friend that I gate-crashed with my flatmates during our university days. Nine months later, he proposed, and the young, naïve me had no clue why I wanted to get married, but I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man. I loved the idea of “I’m getting married.” After all, my parents had been married for many years and were still together. I believed that once you graduate, you’re supposed to get married. That was my understanding then. However, over the years, that love at first sight, those moments of laughter and good conversation, turned into moments of tears, no communication, resentment, and thoughts of “Why did I get married? Did I marry too early? Should I have waited a bit?” So, how did we get there? How did we move from that place of unquestioning love and passion into a place of near hatred for one another. With hindsight, our relations travelled the following trajectory. 

The Honeymoon Phase

We got married with dreams in our eyes, believing that we were made for each other and that nothing could shake or break us. Our first year together – the honeymoon phase – was supposed to be where we enjoyed fresh love, believing that our love could conquer anything. However, this wasn’t a sweet honeymoon phase for us. We argued a lot over silly things like, “Why didn’t you tell me you were going out after work?”

The First Cracks

As time went on, the initial bliss started to fade. We had our first child! What a beautiful moment; our family was growing! They say the birth of a child brings connection, but for us, we were drifting apart. I was focused on the baby, my emotions (I wasn’t very happy with my body; breastfeeding was painful; first-time mum confusion). He did his thing; I did mine. We were both happy for the birth of our first child, and we did things together for our child but not for us.

The Shift in Dynamics

One of the major turning points in our relationship was the shift in our roles and responsibilities. We had our second child, and gradually, I found myself shouldering more of the role of a mother and a wife. My husband, who once was so supportive, started to take my efforts for granted. His lack of appreciation and involvement made me feel undervalued and alone. During this period, I had to learn to create my own happiness and not rely on him; I had to give myself some self-love.

Communication Breakdown (Resentment Year)

Effective communication is the cornerstone of any healthy relationship. Unfortunately, our ability to communicate deteriorated over time. Conversations turned into arguments, and silence became our default mode of interaction. The emotional connection we once had was replaced by a growing distance. Every attempt to address our issues seemed to fall on deaf ears, further deepening my resentment. I would often look at him and ask myself, “Why did I get married?”

Emotional Disconnect

One of the most painful aspects of our journey was the emotional disconnect that developed between us. The intimacy and affection that once defined our relationship were replaced by a cold and distant coexistence. I longed for the emotional support and companionship we once had, but it felt like we were living in separate worlds. The person who was once my closest ally had become a stranger.

Moving Forward

 Acknowledging the resentment I felt towards my husband has been a painful but necessary step. I realised that for my own well-being, I needed to act. Whether it’s seeking counselling or having a candid conversation about our future, it’s crucial to prioritise my own happiness and mental health.

This whole marriage journey has been a learning experience. It has taught me the importance of clear communication, mutual respect, and emotional support in a relationship.

As I move forward, I carry these lessons with me, hoping to find a path that leads to healing and happiness.

My story is a testament to the fact that relationships require continuous effort and commitment from both partners. Without this mutual dedication, even the strongest bonds can unravel, leading to resentment and sorrow. I believe that when the two people in a marriage prioritise communication and remain teachable and ready to adapt to the dynamics in their relationship, they can make it work. Marriages and the homes we create from it are central to the stability of our societies, they are a great foundation for sustainable development, and we must all do our best to contribute to building healthy families.

There were exuberant celebrations at the national secretariat of the NLC in Abuja and at its state offices when the NLC president, Joe Ajaero, returned from the police headquarters after meeting with police chiefs in Abuja. Ajaero was invited for interrogation for allegedly being involved in serious crimes, including money laundering and terrorism financing.

Immediately after the invitation was made public, Nigerians suspected that the allegations were not only spurious but also a camouflage to detain the recalcitrant labour leader for his unstinting struggles for workers’ welfare.

There were apprehensions within the labour unions and their affiliates that the NLC president would be locked away for no clear reason. NLC has also been at war with Labour Party officials, particularly its national chairman, Julius Abure, over the control of the party.

To forestall being detained, Ajaero had briefed a prominent human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, who went to the police headquarters with him, while the NLC issued a statement threatening a nationwide strike should he be kept by the police.

Clearly, the threat saved Ajaero from incarceration; and I must commend the NLC for standing up to and resisting the fascist tendencies of the government. There are indications that the Bola Tinubu administration is increasingly becoming intolerant and irascible. Many journalists have been detained and harassed by the government for doing their jobs, and I have long suspected that labour would be the next victim.

Ajaero’s sin is that he’s been quite unbending in fighting for workers’ minimum wage. By resisting the police, NLC has shown that it is possible to fend off the government’s dictatorial tendencies.

I have been so worried and alarmed by the ease with which security agencies pick up journalists and throw them into jail without a court trial. The NUJ, NGE, BON and other bodies in the media industry must borrow a leaf from the NLC in defending the rights of journalists.

We must remember that the price of our liberty is eternal vigilance. Nigerians must rise up and defend their hard-won democracy.

Renowned Economist and Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), Mr. Bismarck Rewane, has thrown his weight behind the Windfall Tax on financial institutions by the Federal Government, describing the policy as a win-win situation, and one aimed at fostering social good and entrenching equitable distribution of resources for Nigerians.

Windfall taxes are designed to capture extraordinary profits that arise from unexpected economic events. 

In Nigeria’s case, these profits have largely resulted from the recent naira devaluation, which has significantly benefited banks. 

Therefore, a nuanced understanding of this concept is critical to the overall conversations around the policy and its implementation.

He stated this during an on-air interview on the topic: ‘Understanding the Workings of the Windfall Tax Policy in Nigeria’, on ‘Business Nigeria’, a business and economy focused programme on TVC, on Wednesday August 28, 2024.

The Windfall Tax, Rewane said, “would come up with the concept of a joint venture where the government has part of it, and the private taxpayer has part of it. 

“So, in all this model, everybody is in what I call a ‘win-win’ situation.”

The FDC CEO made references from his presentation titled: ‘Windfall Tax: Incentive or Penalty?’ noting that as citizens, the government wants you to have a say in how the tax is spent and administered. 

“So, we want a swap. Rather than pay us cash tax, we give you a road to zero, right? And that road is ours. We build it and people will see it and we get quite a good capital out of it. 

“We get economic capital, and everybody sees it as part of your social responsibility. You would have an asset with benefits for people.”

Rewane pointed out that traditionally, government activities are funded by taxes and other forms of revenue including levies, rates, and others, and “this factor in companies or sectors making extraordinary income. 

“The higher the tax revenue, the greater the ability of the government to fund its goals and its activities for social good.”

According to him, there are four elements that constitute a nation’s GDP, namely: government expenditure, investments, consumer income or aggregate consumption, and net exports. 

In the same way, he said, taxes are subject to four principles. Firstly, a tax must generate revenue. 

Secondly, it must be easy to administer, must be neutral, and must be equitable.

Rewane argued that the Windfall Tax policy buttresses the Robin Hood philosophy of the rich paying more than the poor or the socio-economically vulnerable. 

“Assets provide an impetus for growth. The assets belong to the government. 

“But it is funded on the profits of the taxpayer. But the most interesting alternative is to have the asset belong to the taxpayer”, he said.

Rewane pointed out that the windfall tax is not a Nigeria-specific tax policy, but one that has been adopted by many other nations. 

He cited the examples of countries like the United Kingdom which had a 35% windfall tax on oil and gas companies in 2022, and Portugal which had 13% windfall tax on energy companies and food retailers to reduce inflation and boost renewable energy investment.

Czech Republic on their part used 60% of its Windfall Tax to subsidize energy costs and support social assistance programmes, while Germany channelled 90% of its tax with proceeds to support people by putting a break on energy tariffs.

Rewane explains that Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio is currently 9.4 percent, lower than that of Ghana (12.3 percent) and South Africa (26 percent). 

This discrepancy is partly due to a lack of confidence in the government’s ability to deploy tax revenues effectively. 

He argues that if taxpayers believe their money is being well-spent on public goods and services, they are more likely to comply with tax policies.

According to Rewane, the discussion around the windfall taxes falls within the broader context of Nigeria’s economic goals. 

The government aims to achieve a one trillion-dollar economy by 2028, with an average growth rate of 5 to 6 percent. 

To reach these targets, it is essential to balance revenue generation with investment and consumption, ensuring that all elements of the economy are working together to drive growth.

Rewane urged for more understanding on the part of the citizens and organised private sector, saying that the government, by its mandate, has a major role to play in the economic development of the country and is not oblivious of the fact that some people are making extraordinary gains and that these gains need to be distributed evenly for common social good.

“Our concern here should be: How can we make this more efficient, so it becomes a win-win? The government wins, the people win, and the taxpayer being the public entity that made the primary profit also wins,” he said.

A critical aspect of Rewane’s argument is the importance of trust between the government and taxpayers. 

He asserts that for any tax policy to be effective, there must be a perception that the revenue collected is being used efficiently and transparently. 

This is especially true in Nigeria, where public scepticism about government spending is high.

The revered economist also spoke on the responsibilities and expectations of institutions to taxes, saying, “We have a moral and social responsibility to pay our taxes, but that does not include exploitation or extortion. We don’t want that to happen. 

“The greatest incentive for people to pay taxes is that people can see that the taxes they have paid has turned into material benefits for them. 

“They can see the roads, they can feel the power supply, they can see the water, and they can see it’s for social good. So, that’s the litmus test for getting people to pay tax.”