Last Wednesday, Nigeria’s upper parliament became a grammar class where semantics, syntax and structure are examined. His Excellency, the Senate President of Nigeria, Godswill Obot Akpabio, suddenly became an emergency interpreter and lexicographer. Akpabio’s interpreter’s dilemma reminds me of Field Marshal Gerald Templer. A senior British Army officer, Templer was best known for the implementation of strategies that heavily contributed to the defeat of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) during the Malayan Emergency of 1949 to 1960. On the instruction of Prime Minister Winston Churchill to temper communist insurgency among the Malays, Templer arrived a Malayan village where some communist guerillas were getting assistance from villagers. In anger, Templer burst out, “You are a lot of bastards!” His interpreter reported this to the people in Malay as, “His Excellency informs you that he knows that none of your mothers and fathers were married when you were born.” Templer, still fuming like an angry python, shot another arrow, “You may be bastards but you’ll find out I’m a bigger one!” Missing the point of Templer’s vituperations completely, the interpreter announced to the bemused villagers, “His Excellency does admit however that his father was not married to his mother when he was born”!

In his language surgeon role last week, Akpabio acted like Templer’s interpreter. Cyril Fasuyi, senator representing Ekiti North in the senate, had stirred the hornet’s nest. In the process, he played the role of the wife of Odogo. The whole village had been in turmoil over the theft of a villager’s goat. It necessitated a house-to-house search. When the search party got to Odogo’s house, he was absent. Asked if the family had seen the missing goat, Odogo’s wife told the party to wait for her husband’s arrival; perhaps he might know where the goat was kept? When someone is trying to be clever by half like Fasuyi and in the process causes the escalation of a notorious fact, Yoruba compare such persons to “Adasi’ni l’orun aya Odogo.”

While raising a point of order, Fasuyi alleged that the petrel of the parliament, the voluble Senator Ali Ndume, breached his privilege in a recent comment while granting a Lagos television station an interview. At the interview session, Ndume alleged that the Bola Tinubu government had made life miserable for Nigerians and was, more or less, a Kleptocrats’ Republic. “It happened over the weekend, on the allegation, blanket allegation, by Senator Ali Ndume that everyone of us are (sic) thieves. That is a very blanket statement. I need a lot of explanation to my children and my loved ones. They want an explanation on the inference of what Senator Ali Ndume said about all of us in government… This statement has put me under public ridicule in my constituency,” Fasuyi said.

But Akpabio, the Templer interpreter, worsened the take even more. “He did not say you are a thief, he said all of you in government are kleptocrats. A thief is different,” Akpabio had explained to Fasuyi. This makes one wonder whether the Senate president goes to the parliament with his butler. Or he was plain ignorant of the grammatical connotations of kleptocracy? Akpabio’s persistent Freudian slips may speak to a certain limitation or deeper issue that we may want to look up. Same week, he chided a fellow senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan with a sexist comment. He reminded her that the senate was not a nightclub. Only narrow-minded chauvinists who believe that every beautiful woman must be a slut who frequents pubs make such remarks. Same Akpabio, during a visit to the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies in Abuja in June, had made the scientifically disjunctive statement that the reintroduced national anthem – “Nigeria, We Hail Thee” – could have prevented banditry if Nigeria had not changed it in 1978. How many of such slips can one remember?

Oh, so Fasuyi was just hearing the allegation for the first time that the parliament of which he is a member, the Nigerian presidency and the Nigerian political class in general, are one colony of rogues and thieves? Wonderful! If Nigerian Senators’ children, like Fasuyi’s, and their said constituencies, compare their financial statuses before they became senators, with their stupendous wealth now, none of them will disagree that they are indeed kleptocrats. Only kleptocracy could make one transform into such stupendous material majesty. Ndume merely stated the obvious that the APC, which currently represents the Nigerian political class, is indeed a republic of kleptocrats. It however doesn’t mean that the PDP, its progenitor in government, and even Labour Party, if it ever gets into office, wouldn’t be one, too. Kleptocracy runs in the gene of the Nigerian political class. The truth of Ndume’s statement is not lost on Nigerians.

We all know that Ndume, being part of the gang of kleptocrats himself, knows the modus operandi of this kleptocracy. He is obviously shackled from revealing the specifics of his allegation by the Nigerian law of defamation. However, as my people say, we may be ignorant of all we do not know but we are certain that three people cannot stand in twos. Statistics has shown that the Nigerian political class has stolen, at a conservative estimate, over 90% of Nigeria’s resources since independence. And it is not about to stop. The pervasiveness of corruption in Nigeria, especially among the political class who occupy governmental positions, has led many to suggest that, perhaps we should stop troubling this troublous genie called corruption, welcome it with open hands as a major component of our blood corpuscles and create a hallowed space for it in our national development.

Two Thursdays ago was the United Nation’s Anti-corruption day. It is a day set aside to campaign against this lumberjack that has cut the plummest of the wealth of developing countries of the world. Chief among these lumberjacks is the political class. About this time, a report was published on the website of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). It showed that, a total of N721 billion ($1.26 billion) was paid as bribes to public officials in 2023, the bulk of whom, I am sure, were members of the political class. The dramatic irony in this is that, Abdullahi Ganduje, the man who wrote the senate for the removal of Ndume from his position as Senate Chief Whip and Deputy Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, is currently embroiled in a kleptocracy allegation, theft of stupendous public fund. The N721 billion theft report came from findings by an NBS partnership with the United Nations office on Drugs and Crimes. In August last year, after concluding ministerial screening, Akpabio allowed slip a tiny speck of how the National Assembly is a major kleptocracy hub. While addressing senators, Akpabio said, “In order to enable all of us to enjoy our holidays, a token has been sent to our various accounts by the clerk of the national assembly.” That token is a euphemism for bribe, details of which can never be found in any books. It will be subsumed under an opaque graft heading.

So, when Fasuyi, like a harlot feigning prudery, claims his children and constituents were shocked that his party had been called kleptocrats, Nigerians must have smothered a rude giggle. The Distinguished kleptocracy-denouncing Senator will first have to prove, as it is said in law, that the Nigerian political class has honour, ab-initio.

More telling in this kleptocratic discourse is a growing atmosphere of despotism and impatience for opposing view in Nigeria’s parliament. When former Senate president Ahmad Lawan made that noxious statement that every bill brought by the Buhari government would be passed in the Green Chambers, Nigerians thought his’ was the height of legislative groveling. Today, we witness a senate that confidently and unashamedly weaves a groveling before the executive with legislative tyranny. The result is a disgraceful national coat-of-many-colours. For saying the obvious, Abdul Ningi was suspended by this same senate and nothing happened.

Similar fate befell Ndume last week for saying what every Nigerian knows about this government. Fasuyi even set up a Ningi-type crucifix for Ndume so that he could be similarly hanged. In the executive last week, a bill seeking the establishment of a Local Government Election Commission found its way into the senate. Perhaps, what will follow is Alpha Beta collecting taxes in councils and all LG funds paid into the Treasury Single Account (TSA). The federal government is already a behemoth controlling 52.68% revenue. States and local governments are left with 26.72% and 20.60% to share. The question then is, who peers searchlight into what FG does with its own money? It is why we periodically throw up the Diezani Maduekes, Godwin Emefieles (who knows who the corruption poster-boy of this government will be). It is also why the humongous corruption at the Humanitarian Affairs ministry will not abate; why a minister could fuel her car from Abuja to Anambra state with a whopping N1.5million and yet arrogantly ask, “what is the big deal?”

All these remind me of Late Chief Adebayo Faleti’s “Òrò yìí ó mà l’éyìn” warning in the famed Yoruba movie, Saworoide. “Òrò yìí ó mà l’éyìn”, literally translated, means, there sure is a repercussion or eventuality to any action. Nigeria has already established the trinity of a kow-towing, lapdog and tyrannical senate. An executive of doubtful probity and accountability pedigree, but with humongous resources, is also a done deal. When mixed with a captive judiciary inside the presidential pouch, we may just be walking down the alley of a scenario predicted by Anthony Enahoro on the floor of the House of Representatives in 1962. Looking into his divinity board, I presume, Enahoro proclaimed that Nigeria was embarking on a journey the end of which no one knew. That end happened four years after. With a Nigerian public whose capacity to dispassionately interrogate the honesty of thoughts of their leaders is yielding space, we are already in trouble. Add this to a Hallelujah chorus group that grows everyday, in spite of the overwhelming hunger in the land, the trouble quadruples. Together, they are leading us to how Germans and Italians clapped on their leaders while busy fiddling with trivialities. Gradually, Hitler and Mussolini cobbled together the wools of dictatorship.

For Olatunji Dare at 80

I have, on countless occasions, told the story of how then 1990 killing of journalists, Kris Imodibie of The Guardian and Tayo Awotunsin of the Champion newspapers by Charles Taylor in the Liberian war tilled the land of my path to journalism. As a retelling, I had been downcast as a student of Philosophy at the University of Lagos on the prospect of a job upon graduation. Yet a sophomore, one day, as I read Imodibie’s profile in the Daily Times inside the library of Unilag, I found out that he graduated from my department in 1984. I was super-excited and told myself that I could be a journalist, too. Beginning from then, I spent every penny of allowances given me by my father on typing articles which I subsequently sent to virtually all Nigerian newspapers. One of those newspapers was The Guardian.

One day, I walked into Rutam House. I had a typed copy of an opinion article I wrote. Directed to the office of the chairman of the editorial board, I met the chair’s secretary who casually waved me into the chair’s office. There sat a man I had idolized over the years in the calmest of miens I had ever seen. Olatunji Dare. Even as a student, his serpentine weave of language and mesmerizing satire stood him out among writers of the time. That unexampled craft, especially his satire, has been aped unsuccessfully, indeed fatally, by many who attempted to patent it.

Dare looked up the young boy before him that day as I thrust a copy of the article in his hands. He apparently read the first paragraph. “Young man, are you sure you wrote the piece?” he asked me. I assured him I did. He then thanked me as I left his office. A few days after, the piece was published. I nearly set my room on fire that day. To be published by the Guardian! I hadn’t finished celebrating meeting my writing idol when the joy of being published in the Guardian came.

I didn’t get to converse with one of Nigeria’s greatest essayists and columnists until many years after. I had been guest of Professor Wale Adebanwi, then of the University of California, Davis, in his house in Sacramento when he engaged in a phone conversation with Prof Dare. He promptly told him I was his guest and Prof sought to speak with me. He wondered why I declined to partake in a festschcrift in his honour and I apologized that a communication breakdown must have been responsible.

Prof Dare has over the years earned his badge as one of Nigeria’s major public sphere assets. On his 80^th birthday, we can only wish him many more fruitful years. And the grace to witness the maturation of the Eldorado he wishfully penned for Nigeria.

Three Gbosas for the god of the gut

Perhaps the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) didn’t know: Since the days of Paschal Bafyau, Nigerians have had a huge trust deficit for so-called labour activists who sell their people at the drop of a hat. So, when on Thursday last week, officials of the NLC walked to the Aso Rock Villa, singing a mimed “three Gbosas” song like kindergarten children just given a pack of noodles, the people suspected that the ancient alimentary consideration had interfered with a laudable activism.

How did the wage construct of N650,000 that the NLC built suddenly collapse to N70,000? If the NLC knew it was heading towards that miserable sum in the face of the daunting existential crises that Nigerian workers face, why shoot up the people’s adrenaline this high? The truth is that the union’s sincerity exemplified by the likes of Michael Imoudu, Wahab Goodluck, Hassan Sunmonu and Ali Chiroma is gone forever. Who will take labour seriously any longer? The NLC wasted the time of Nigerians and took the people for granted.

THE Supreme Court decision that federally-allocated funds be paid directly to the local governments (LGs) has raised serious concerns about whether we are actually practising Federalism and, if we are, what variant of Federalism. The apex court’s decision was at the instance of the Federal Government (FG) that dragged the 36 state governments to court. LG funds coming from the Federation Account used to go directly to the LGs but because the LGs were embezzling and or mismanaging the funds, so much so that many of them could no longer pay the salaries of primary school teachers and other LG workers, the State and Local Government Joint Account was created.

Now, we have forgotten about that and are going back to the discredited system. What is the assurance that history will not repeat itself? As usual, we shied away from punishing the culprits and making them object lessons to serve as a deterrent to others. We soon found out, to our chagrin, that the new arrangement we ran to for succour was so opaque that it allowed the states to corner and dispense LG funds at their whims and caprices. That way, the States have been accused of starving the LGs of funds. This starvation is, in turn, given as the reason why the LGs, touted as the nearest semblance of government to the people at the grassroots, have been unable to perform their obligations.

Rather than call out the erring governors, name and shame them and bring them to book, we are again running away from confronting the problem headon. It is expected, therefore, that with the decision to send funds to the LGs over and above the head of state governors, the third tier of government will now be able to discharge its obligations and if they fail, they will now have no excuse for not measuring up. Better still, the governors will no longer be the touted reason why the LGs are unable to deliver. But I am sure you know that failures will always manufacture excuses. Awijare kii tan l’enu nwon!

The FG’s decision to go to court, the Supreme Court’s judgment and many of the comments that have trailed the apex court’s decision show that many of us, in government and outside of it, do not have a clear understanding of what Federalism is; hence, we injure our long-term interests with some of the half-baked, hare-brained decisions we take, this one especially. In our characteristic manner, which is often referred to as the Nigerian factor, the Nigerian system or the typical Nigerian way of doing things, we run away from problems rather than confront them.

And, in doing so, we jump from the frying pan right into the fire. When we are not doing that, we are throwing money at problems. We cut corners and prefer the fire brigade approach to going after real, long-lasting  solutions. The Tinubu administration is already one year old. If it had declared an agrarian revolution immediately it assumed office and had started planting yams, cassava, maize, pepper, tomatoes, onion, etc.; by now our barns and silos would be full of farm produce instead of  the knee-jerk decision of throwing our doors open to all manner of importation of food items. The strain on the already comatose Naira is one thing; the disincentive to our local farmers is another. But that is the already established Nigerian way of doing things!

It is said that he who pays the piper dictates or calls the tune. Now that the FG will pay LGs directly, it is wrong to describe it as autonomy. It is merely an exchange of one master for another. Only time will tell which of the two masters – State or Federal –  will be  a worse task master. Elders say until a troublesome wife tastes two husbands, she is unable to realize which of the two is saner. That was what the children of biblical Israel discovered in 1 Kings 12: 4 (KJV) when they told Rehoboam to lessen their burden but their new king told them: “My father (Solomon) made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions”!

Let us, therefore, hope that those celebrating the so-called autonomy granted the LGs by the Supreme Court are not celebrating too early. Again, elders say when the devil gifts someone a cap, he demands for the person’s head in return! So, it is “Not Yet Uhuru” for LGs; they cannot yet shout “Euruka” and we cannot yet tell them “Bravo”! Between the State governors and the FG, which will be Solomon and which will be Rehoboam? Time , as they say, will tell!

Let us consider two comments on this issue from Omoyele Sowore, political activist, and Prince Doyin Okupe, medical doctor-turned-politician. Sowore was reported as saying that the Supreme Court judgment would make no difference: “As long as Nigerian state governors control the State Electoral machinery, ruthlessly rig LG elections and install their minions, the Supreme Court ruling would remain ineffective” Sowore is correct! Didn’t you see how the party in power in any state always wins any LG elections conducted by the State Electoral Commission 100%, as if other political parties do not exist in the state?

The new law will even make them more desperate to keep it all within the house. Many of our governors demand and are treated like tin-gods. Even if you send funds directly to LG accounts, the LG chairpersons will withdraw the money themselves, if so directed by His Excellency, and cart it to the governor with trembling hands and on bent knees!

Now, what solution did Sowore proffer? He said the Federal Government-controlled INEC should conduct LG elections! More centralization; less federalism! Running away from a problem against the advice of the oracle, Olawale, in Ola Rotimi’s “The gods are not to blame”, quickly met his nemesis. A similar bind is what we are getting ourselves into here. When the FG is the piper that dictates the tune to all 774 LGs and is also the controller of INEC, the electoral umpire that is being asked to conduct LG elections, what dictatorship is more vicious and complete? We all witnessed how President Olusegun Obasanjo used “Federal might” to seize Lagos LG funds during, interestingly, the tenure of Tinubu as the Lagos State governor.

But to think that this Supreme Court judgment has been triggered by a president who, as governor, fought and won many landmark battles against the centrist presidency of Obasanjo in the name of democracy and defence of the principles of Federalism beggars belief! Tinubu as governor was unequivocal that the creation, administration and control of LGs under our Federalism MUST BE within the purview of States and NEVER of the FG. What has changed other than that Tinubu has moved up from being governor to being the president? Did Tinubu himself not manage LG funds at his whims and caprices when he was the governor of Lagos State? True, then, is the saying that until the shoe is on the other foot, you never can tell!

With the same breath that the Supreme Court in December 2004 declared Obasanjo’s seizure of Lagos State LG funds as illegal, it also declared the 37 additional LGs created by Tinubu inchoate; meaning that they were yet to fully fulfill all the conditions that would qualify them as LGs that can be recognized under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). What Tinubu then did, rather than kowtow, was to change the nomenclature of the additional LGs that he created to “Local Council Development Areas (LCDA)” subsumed under the constitutionally-recognized LGs out of which they were excised. Federal allocations sent in the name of the LGs recognized by the Constitution are now shared between the LGs and LCDAs created out of them on a formula dictated by whoever.

With the 2024 Supreme Court ruling, will the “mother” LG still continue to feed the parasitic “babies” called LCDA? What happens if the “mother” LG decides otherwise, especially if they happen to belong to different political parties?  Other States (Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo states, for instance) have followed the Tinubu example of creating LCDAs. Those created by the late governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, were recently declared illegal by the court.

Can this, then, be the “political confusion” that Okupe referred to in his own submission? The prince said: “The Supreme Court has declared in a landmark constitutional judgement that it is unconstitutional for state governments to hold on to LGA funds. It also went ahead to direct the FG to pay the 774 LGAs directly. On the surface and judging by our recent history, this political judgement sounds good and it is a great relief to the LGAs who have hitherto been financially emasculated and starved of their lawful revenues by state governors, thereby preventing them from being administratively and developmentally functional at the grassroots levels. Many of those who have erroneously clamored for LGA autonomy, including the FG who is the plaintiff in this case, must feel victorious and justified. However, I see it differently. I see a major constitutional aberration and political confusion here. I insist that the LGAs are not part of the federating units under our federalism, which unequivocally is the union between the Central government (FG) and the sub-nationalities (States) only.”

I concur with Okupe that LGs are not federating units. Going forward, I make bold to say that even the 36 States as presently constituted are not federating units but military imposition beginning with the creation of 12 states  on 5 May, 1967 by the then military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon. The authentic federating units were those agreed upon over many constitutional conferences, meetings and negotiations here in Nigeria and in London, consequent upon which we gave ourselves the 1960 Independence Constitution and the political structure that it gave birth to.

Even the 1963 so-called Republican constitution does not, in my opinion, qualify because it was a “diktat” imposed on the Western Region through the collaboration and conspiracy of the two other regions – the North and the East – to whittle down the strength of the West, frustrate, emasculate and capture it – which they eventually succeeded in achieving. As a confirmation of their bad intentions, demands for a similar creation of regions out of the North and East were ignored.

Former governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose, says no one can emerge as LG chairman without the endorsement and support of Mr. Governor. I dare to say that there have been exceptions but Fayose’s position is, unfortunately, the general rule in the country today. In his characteristic manner of speech, Fayose declared that it is impossible to take the “baby” (LGs) away from the “mother” (State government)!  Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde, said the governors will continue to do what is in the best interest of their people. The governor of Kwara State and chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, described the apex court’s ruling as a big relief for state governors now discharged from the obligation of carrying the can for the LGs.

For eight years, the Muhammadu Buhari administration destroyed our economy; we did nothing. Today, we are facing the consequences. If we similarly keep quiet now – or even applaud – when what remains of our federalism is being taken away with more powers being concentrated at the Centre, we will also confront the consequence in future. And it will be dire! In the hands of a dictator, this new law may spell doom for our democracy.

For your information, corruption is no less rampant at the LG level than at State and Federal levels. What the Supreme Court judgment may achieve, therefore, is the democratization of corruption by making more funds available for the third tier of government to play monkey games with! Mark my words: Competition to become LG chairman will become more cut-throat and do-or-die with this Supreme Court judgement!

Having said that, the positives in that judgment must also be acknowledged if we do not seek to throw away the baby with the bath water: Outlawing LG caretaker committees and preventing state governors from whimsically removing LG chairpersons must be applauded as the right step in the right direction.

But, borrow me sense, as they say: will the 774 LGs also throng Abuja every month with begging bowls in their hands, like their big brother, the State Governments, each time the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission shares money to the three tiers of government from the Federation Account? Are we reducing or makng worse the already suffocating cost of governance that citizens complain about?

No one can fairly accuse President Bola Tinubu of inaction or inactivity. On the job that he was elected to do, the man has been quite busy. On a daily basis, his office keeps rolling out innumerable appointments, setting up committees on nearly every subject and generally acting in response to changing national situations.  If an inventory of executive  actions and initiatives were the sole measure of an effective presidency, Mr. Tinubu would score highly on the scale of  presidential effectiveness. But something seems to be wrong somewhere with the strategy of governance on display. 

So far, there is a worrying disconnect between Mr. Tinubu’s copious exertions and any perceivable improvements  or tangible results in the situation of the country and the living conditions of the citizens. The more appointments and measures that tumble out of  the Aso Rock assembly line, the more desperate the conditions in the country get. Bandits and criminals are killing more people. The cry of anguish over hunger keeps increasing. The unemployment queues keep growing remain unaddressed as more and more multi national exist Nigeria. In general, there is a sense in which there is now an inverse relation between sporadic presidential actions and the positive outcomes that the people can feel.

As a consequence, a little over one year after its inception, the Tinubu presidency has struck an unusual consensus among Nigerians. Both the elite and the street people are united in a tentative verdict to the defining character of the administration. This presidency is sporadic and eclectic. It lacks a definite direction. It lacks a defining ideological complexion or character. A government that should be progressive by party identity is neither conservative nor populist social democratic. Given the ultra right wing identity of its key drivers, It is even subverting the interests if its supporting oligarchs. There is no coherent populist agenda either for a president who desperately craves populist accolades. The people cannot see where all this presidential activism is likely to lead the nation. Instead, they behold the lavish style of consumption of key government drivers and wonder what manner of democracy the nation has in place.

Yet there are certain features that cannot be denied. The president has been busy. On a daily basis, we learn of fresh initiatives. New policies are rolled out, fresh policies are churned out without any follow up executive  templates for effective implementation. A torrent of discordant actions, policies and knee jerk responses to critical national problems has begun to confuse keen observers. While Aso Rock panics, dithers and serially fumbles, the nation’s crises keep multiplying and the citizenry get more desperate and frustrated. Cumulatively, the disconnect has produced more political uncertainty and disquiet. We can see the looming political consequences are beginning to show up in the erosion of unity even among legislators of the ruling APC in the National Assembly.

In an apparent show of responsiveness to a self -inflicted economic crisis, the President has set up a series of committees. The first was filled with oligarchs of all hues ranging from manufacturers to banking moguls and sundry wheeler dealers. No one knows whether the committee ever met or came up with any concrete suggestions. A committee of state governors has been convened both under the aegis of the National Economic Council and other ad hoc platforms. When the administration discovered that oligarchs like Aliko Dangote were becoming critical of the policies of the Central Bank on interest rates, the President re-energized the dead committee of oligarchs as if they would lend government the secrets of their humongous wealth!

The Central Bank has in turn been busy churning out any number of circulars on nearly every  money related issue. A foreign exchange intervention regime has oscillated from distributing dollars among bureau de changes to starving the system of forex supplies. A task force has used EFCC, DSS, police and other goons to raid urban foreign exchange open markets to no avail.

On the matter of increasing and worsening poverty among the many, there have also been a number of knee jerk responses.  Figures of cash transfers and handouts to the most vulnerable have varied in the number of beneficiaries and target amounts. In between, a minister appointed to alleviate poverty through cash transfers has since been suspended for pocketing a chunk of the money meant for the poor and vulnerable. A slew of conflicting propositions on how many households to support and what amount of cash to transfer to these households. No one has demonstrated a credible basis for arriving at the statistics for these poverty alleviation cash transfers.

This presidency has ordered a distribution of food grains from the national strategic grains reserve  but hardly anyone seems to have seen the grains or located where the silos  are located and what they contain. An earlier initiative had casually doled out N5 billion to each of the states and the FCT for the provision of palliatives to vulnerable citizens. Some of that money went into the procurement of rice for distribution to poor citizens. Some of the rice has been sighted at riotous distribution centres. Scrambles for affordable rice at some of the centres has led to fatalities and injuries among the scrambling citizens.

The latest initiative on the worsening hunger situation is the proposal to embark on a short term food importation  measure. The estimate is that the importation of food items like rice, beans and wheat at concessionary duty rates over a six month period would lower the prices of these basic food items while increased efforts in agricultural production begin to fill the gap. Yet there are enough conflicting measures in the existing policy environment that may cancel out the benefits of the food importation strategy. High gasoline prices continue to wreak havoc on transportation costs. High costs of energy and other services are likely to impact the market prices of food items either homegrown or imported.  Even the cost of the imported food will be subject to the current fluctuations in the exchange rate regime.

The expanding epidemic of insecurity around the country has similarly produced a staccato of presidential initiatives. Predictably, each new incident of loss of lives or bandit attacks has been greeted by the usual presidential bluff about “bringing the culprits to book”. Hardly any arrests have been made anywhere in the country let alone prosecution. A hasty assembly of governors and security chiefs has decided to institute a much discussed State Police system. The initiative seems to be embroiled in controversy and political ping pong to a point of death.

Estimations of matters considered urgent and important by this presidency has varied as well. Even more dismal has been the sense of prioritization on matters deserving immediate attention. At some point it was the reversion to the old 1960s National Anthem which the National Assembly rushed through a legislative microwave oven.

Multiple emergency supplementary budget proposals have been similarly rushed through a rubber stamp legislature leading to the present situation where the nation is literally operating an unparalleled four budgets in the same financial year. This fiscal cacophony has enabled the administration to pick and choose from a supermarket of unnecessary luxury expenditures ranging from SUVs to yachts, luxury jets and official residential villas.

Beneath the barrage of often confusing initiatives, one perceives a certain  desperation on the part of the president to court a populist appeal. A few measures are fuelled by a desperation for popularity among key segments of the populace. For instance, a students loan scheme has been put in place more to court the acceptance of students and youth with scant attention to how the loans would be recovered or how the beneficiaries would find employment on graduation.  Little or no thought seems to have gone into the sustainability of the programme.

Tinubu happens to be the type of politician who wants to be admired and even loved by the masses. With an unmistakable imperial disposition, he probably wants to be worshipped hence his intolerance of opposing voices in the National Assembly. He probably wants to be loved by a mass audience of clapping and hailing appreciative fellow citizens and devotees. But somehow, hardly anyone outside his family and the circle of his political devotees is truly deeply in love with Tinubu. Because his policies and actions have deepened the misery and desperation among the people, the sentiments that attend the president’s name are currently mostly those of dislike,  utter disdain and even open revulsion laced with unprintable side jabs about dodgy certificates, questionable origins and doubtful wealth.

In all fairness, it is always a tricky walk for a leader to insist on unpopular but necessary policy measures and also crave popular admiration and accolade at the same time. Both hardly go together. But if the unpopular and bitter policy shocks lead to an improvement in the living conditions for the people, the leader could earn healthy recognition and appreciation. Also, if the shock therapy is directed at a clearly defined positive goal, people could be patient for a while. But if the misery deepens and hardship spreads, the victorious leader could turn into a virtual villain, a monster in the public square. From a random sampling of public perceptions of Mr. Tinubu and his presidency both on the streets, in homes and especially on the social media, the honeymoon seems to be over for him. The season of harsh judgment has since begun and could be politically costly for him by the time he approaches mid term.

President Tinubu’s present style of episodic and disjointed governance is beset with many liabilities. There could be some bright spots along the way but too many ill -advised measures could send the economy into a tailspin. We could hobble through to four years without knowing exactly where we set out to go.  Some of the hasty, isolated and uncoordinated policies could cancel each other out and create more complex problems than the administration set out to solve. In the end, it is in Tinubu’s best political self -interest to course correct now before it is too late. It is time to rejig his team and introduce method and direction to the present madness.

One of the most difficult tasks I have handled in recent times is to write a short piece as part of the celebration of the life and times of my mother, Mrs. Morenike Florence Saraki (née Ibidapo). It is like being compelled to write a summary note on a subject one has studied for 61 years. This task brought to my mind the question: How does one write a short piece about somebody who never saw anything wrong in you in 61 years, somebody who in her eyes and judgment, you were never at fault, someone whose face lightened up whenever you were in her presence?

Even in her last weeks and months, when her eyes were shut and she was not ready to open them, all it took the nurses and others around her to get her to open her eyes was for them to say: ‘Grandma, Uncle Buki is here’. It was as if hearing the name of her first fruit, her first born, invoked a magic wand. She would open her eyes and smile. So, I am not in doubt that writing this piece will be a difficult assignment. However, I will do my best to pay tribute to the incredible woman that my mother was.

There was a strong bond of love between my mum and I. My mother was my Rock of Gibraltar, a strong pillar, a wise counsellor, a stabilising force, and most importantly, my prayer warrior. I know she must be resting peacefully with the angels in the bosom of her Lord and creator. 

This is because she lived a selfless life, a life of devotion and dedication to not only her husband and children but also to her brothers, sisters, and other members of our extended family on both her husband’s and her sides, including others who came her way. She was always willing to help. There is no impartiality in the way she spread the goodwill among the various families.

She created a strong, impenetrable, and impregnable family bond. These were the reasons everybody in our immediate and extended family believed she grew over time from the roles of wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother to become a matriarch before she died. She was the symbol of stability, an impactful, impartial, and respected mediator in my family for as long as I knew her. She was a blessing to the Saraki household.

She was also a source of strong humanitarian support and mentorship for many outside the family. My mum sponsored a lot of philanthropic initiatives without making any noise about them. She had a lot of people who she had helped to fund their education at home and abroad. It was the reason why, at every point, she knew how much the JAMB form costs or what the fees for WAEC or GCE are. She would quote figures during our discussions while she urged those of us in government to ensure the fees do not continue to increase.

It was later I realised she was current about those figures because she paid on behalf of some students. One would always find files containing photocopies of certificates and CVs of fresh graduates looking for their first jobs by the side of her regular seat in the living room. In most phone conversations she had with me, she would always make requests concerning the people she was helping to find jobs in the public and private sectors.

She did all this without allowing people to know about it. I am happy my mother acted in compliance with the provisions of the Quran and the Bible that emphasized the fact that such good deeds done to the right hand without the knowledge of the left hand commanded more acceptance and endorsement from the Almighty God.

She was an organised person. Most of the time, when she took charge of arrangements for the numerous gifts that my father gave to his supporters and associates, you would see the high sense of responsibility. She would have all the numbers and direct the logistics such that everything would go on smoothly. I always marvelled at her organizational skills.

Even though she was not openly political, she was perhaps better than the three politicians the family produced. I made this conclusion because, gifted with uncommon discernment, she was a good judge of persons. All the people she warned us to watch out for because she believed they would later betray our political family ended up behaving true to type.

However, even though her husband and two children occupied influential public positions, she chose to be in the background. My mother intentionally eschewed the hustle and bustle, the perks and highlights of public office. When I was Governor of Kwara State, it was a struggle getting her to attend government functions. Most times, she would fly into Ilorin but preferred staying at home, tending to the humanitarian needs of the family care of the aged, Ile Arugbo Initiative. She would stay out of the limelight, just there to support me.

She was everything to me. Everything that I became, I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for her positive impact in making them possible and helping my successes. She was always a big player in my career choices and progression. She made a strong impact on me and made big contributions to shaping my life.

For instance, my mum was the reason I attended Kings College, Lagos. My late father, Dr. Olusola Abubakar Saraki – Oloye – preferred Barewa College, where I also had secured admission. I was set to go and resume in Zaria when Mum insisted her son should just take the nearby KC option.

When I returned to Nigeria and started working in the bank and also began my commodity trading business, my mum was my biggest supporter, closet adviser, distributor, and chief accountant. We would sit down together in one of her private living rooms and do the calculation on the various consignments, whether it was rice or sugar. Most of the time, she would take about 10 or 15 trailers to distribute herself.

Also, she would coordinate the distribution of other consignments. Sometimes, my father would bump into us and joke about how much salary she got paid to be so devoted to keeping records and working on the business details with me. She would respond “That is a mother and son secret” and we would all laugh about it.

Even though she chose to be in the background as it concerns politics and public offices, when I was contesting to be governor in 2003 and the contest was violent, she was always concerned about my safety and success. As governor in Ilorin, she was not for a day impressed about the influence conferred on her as the Governor’s mother. She just wanted me to be safe and successful and deliver on my mandate as a holder of public trust.

However, anytime during that period that I came under serious pressure and needed to calm my nerves, I would visit my mum and engage her in a general talk. Each time I left her presence, I always felt regenerated, energized, and refreshed. I drew inspiration from her usual calmness and positive approach to life. She was my biggest supporter who showed me unwavering love and dedication. I will forever be grateful for her labour of love.

During the turbulent period that followed my emergence as Senate President, many wondered how I was able to remain calm and unfazed as I shuttled between the Senate chambers and the tribunal. My calmness, strength of character,  determination, and dedication to duty are some of the attributes I got from my mum.

While the Code of Conduct (CCT) trial was ongoing, one day, my mum paid me a surprise visit in Abuja with one of my uncles. She came to plead with me to just “leave the post for them”. My mother’s visit and request had been instigated by a delegation she received in her Lagos home. Some politicians in the delegation threatened that they “would go to any length to jail, unseat and ruin me”. They told her to persuade me to step down and that if I did, I would be left off the hook set by opponents to my emergence as SP. She pleaded that I should just leave the post because she did not want any danger to befall me and my young family.

I explained to her that their promise was just a bait and should be disregarded. I told her that resignation would be tantamount to admitting the vicious allegations they falsely leveled against me at the Tribunal and that I needed to clear my name and that of the family. I made it clear that if Oloye were to be alive, he would want me to clear the family name. That meeting was an emotional one for the three of us there. We all cried. I remember her words as she said: “I don’t know anybody in Abuja that I could go to and lobby for you, but my God will not put us to shame. I will go back and pray for you”. I believe that her prayers were a major contribution to my success and survival during those trying times.

Having written all the above, there is still one particular incident that made my mum earn my greatest respect and honour. It was during my father’s illness, and they were regularly traveling to the United States for his medical treatment. While there, even though we had employed many aides – nurses, housemaids, cooks, and others – to make their stay very comfortable and pleasant, my mum would take it upon herself to personally attend to her husband’s needs. 

She nursed and cared for Oloye herself, so much so that most times, she made the nurses redundant., There was this particular evening I visited them. While my mum was out of the room, Oloye beckoned on me, and when I moved closer to him, he said to me: “Your mother is a very good woman. Please, take good care of her for me”. Those words have continued to ring in my head from that day, over the last twelve years, till the day my mum died.

These last few weeks following her demise have been difficult for me, even though her funeral was a celebration of life. I have found it difficult to live with the reality that my mum is no more.

I am indeed happy and appreciative of the way the entire nation has risen, in an unprecedented manner, to help us celebrate the life and times of my mother. From across the country and the political divides, the leadership of our country at the national and state levels, starting with no other but the President, HE Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who not only issued a press statement to commiserate with us but also sent a powerful delegation led by the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio to the church service and reception. Also, his dear wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu paid a condolence visit in her capacity as the First Lady of Nigeria. This is a task she needed not undertake, except that she wanted to demonstrate love to our family, as the mother of the nation.

Many captains of industry, people representing different social strata, leaders of traditional and religious groups, and youth groups also paid condolence visits. From Kwara State, market women, artisans, traditional rulers, students and other individuals came to Lagos to commiserate with us. The ones that touched my heart even more, was the physically challenged people who came from ilorin and visited us in Lagos to commiserate with us. The condolence visits and show of love transcended politics and religion. Muslim and Christian leaders came to commiserate with our family. It was a good mixture of faiths. Leaders of political parties in opposition to my own joined us to mourn and celebrate my mum. I thank all who have contributed to making her departure a less painful one for the family. The support is an acknowledgment of her kindness, good nature, selflessness, and unpretentious connection to the people.

The way the entire nation has united in bidding my mother a befitting goodbye has humbled and surprised me. One was humbled and touched to see people who after their early morning prayers on Friday left Ilorin to embark on a four-hour journey to Lagos to be part of the funeral programme and another four-hour journey back to their base by 8 pm that day. Throughout the evening, my heart was in my mouth until I got confirmation that our people from Kwara State had returned home safely.

The calibre of people who paid condolence visits and supported us in one way or the other provided me with a humbling experience. If one were to be an incumbent holder of a top political office like when I was governor or Senate President, it would appear all the support was because people needed contracts, appointments, and other benefits. It is obvious that we owe the goodwill we have enjoyed as a testimony of our mother’s love of humanity.

The solidarity and support we have enjoyed on the celebration of the life and times of my dear mum, has further encouraged me that selfless, good, and committed work in public service does not go unnoticed. It is also clear that we will all get our reward for our good deeds in this world and hereafter. I believe my mum truly did this during her lifetime. It was also a value that my late father, Oloye, held dear. He would probably be proud of the way Nigerians got together to celebrate his late wife, even in his absence.

On behalf of the Saraki, Ibidapo, Ojomo, and Okunrinboye families, I cannot but thank all and sundry for this honest support. It is a positive gesture that one can not take for granted. The outpouring of goodwill has helped in reducing the pains of losing such a gem as my mum represented to me. May God bless all those who have done one thing or the other to support us during this difficult period.

• Dr. Saraki, Waziri of Ilorin, former Senate President, former Kwara State Governor, writes from Abuja.

“Hunger is not my portion”, a Nigerian would quickly interject if you as much as suggest to him that the current food crisis in many parts of Africa, including Nigeria, will, if unchecked, lead to mass hunger and economic dislocation.

Bishop Hassan Kukah has famously warned us to be careful with people who believe that good ‘portions’ fall from the sky and that even if the world around them was collapsing, they would somehow be shielded by Providence without lifting a finger.

A deus-ex-machina device is supposed to inoculate the ‘anointed’ against food inflation and other economic woes. But what’s the reality? According to the World Bank’s Food Security Update, 2024, certain African nations continue to experience exceptionally high food inflation:

“Domestic food price inflation remains high in many low- and middle-income countries. Inflation higher than 5 per cent is experienced in 59.1 per cent of low-income countries (no change since the last update on May 30, 2024), 63 per cent of lower-middle-income countries (no change), 36 per cent of upper-middle-income countries (5.0 percentage points higher), and 10.9 percent of high-income countries (3.6 percentage points lower),” says the World Bank.

To taste the glory of food sufficiency, the hard work of agricultural production has to be done. It is far better to be cash-poor, housing-poor, clothing-poor and dirt-poor than to be food-poor.  Woe to the land that cannot feed its people. It will be a wretched supplicant at the mercy of its inferiors! It will never be respected in the comity of nations.

Rising food costs increase the risks of hunger and malnutrition, especially for vulnerable populations including children, the elderly, and those residing in rural regions. There is also the added risk of societal unrest resulting from rallies, strikes, and even riots organised by local groups as we have seen ever so often.

“Ebi Npa Wa!”

The cry of “Ebi npa wa!”, with which Lagosians greeted President Tinubu during his first post-inauguration visit to Lagos could easily have been dismissed as orchestrated if not that the pandemic of rumbling stomachs was a national emergency which confronted government officials wherever they went. The president has since acknowledged that there was a serious shortage of grains and other essential food items in the country and has therefore approved the removal of taxes on various food imports as an emergency measure to prevent escalation of the present problem.

How Can Nigeria Navigate Its Way Out Of This Bind?

First, we don’t need to remind ourselves that the Buhari administration economically denuded the country before exiting. Only a comprehensive forensic audit can reveal the true extent of damage done by that administration. Having said that, Tinubu is not going to be assessed on the basis of his inheritance but on his legacy. It is what you do with what you inherited that matters.

And that, as always, is my focus — lighting a candle instead of cursing the darkness. We are lucky to have some of the best brains in agricultural policy and production in the world. We cannot get out of this hunger trap without deploying our best intellectual assets to tackle the problem. And one voice we must heed, indeed cultivate, is that of the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, who, like many of us, is scandalised that Nigeria has regressed so low as to be frantically importing food into the country.

One of the transformative High 5 priorities of the AfDB is  “Feed Africa”. The programme is designed to strengthen food security for Africa through a transformation of African agriculture with the hope that by the end of the 10-year strategy, Africa’s farmers, the majority of whom are smallholders, will be feeding the continent and supplying vibrant agro-processing industries.

Nigeria In Bad Company

So, if wishes were horses, Nigeria wouldn’t be spending scarce foreign exchange to bring in food that it could otherwise be producing in such quantities as to have surplus for export. As it is, unfortunately, the continental statistics are frightening as detailed in the Food inflation figures from the World Bank’s Food security report. The 10 African countries with the highest food inflation are listed as follows: Malawi. 40.7; Nigeria. 40.7; Sierra Leone. 32.4; Egypt. 31.0; Ethiopia. 25.5; Ghana. 22.6; Angola. 18.5; Zambia. 16.2; Tunisia, 9.6; Côte d’Ivoire, 8.6

Nigeria is in bad company. A country sitting on many rivers should not be washing its face with spittle. Not when it has the human and material resources to solve the problem. In Africa, we don’t pack faecal matter with our hands when we have a hoe. Nigeria is blessed more than any African country with the required experts.

The Nigerian-born President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, was the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate. He was the fifth African to win the coveted honours that recognises individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. Such a man should be among those manning our corner before we make key policy decisions on agricultural production.

Glory Years

As Minister of Agriculture in the Jonathan administration, Dr. Adesina introduced many novel schemes which made access to agricultural inputs unbelievably stress-free. To reduce the quantity of wheat flour needed for making bread, he introduced the cassava bread which was a mix of a recommended percentage of cassava flour with wheat flour in the bread making process. As a sensitive consumer, this writer could hardly tell the difference at the time. The Buhari administration reversed all the gains and the nation began its backward spiral into corruption, brokerage by middlemen and reduced food production,

In the wake of the crisis and the announcement of the Nigerian government’s initiative to embark on massive food importation with a generous suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of maize, husked brown rice, wheat and cowpeas through the country’s land and sea borders for 150 days, Dr Adesina warned that Nigeria’s reliance on food imports could undermine the country’s agricultural sector and food security.

Speaking on the theme ‘Food security and financial sustainability in Africa: The role of the Church’, Adesina said, Africa “must feed itself with pride,” warning that, “a nation that depends on others to feed itself, is independent only in name.”

Dr. Adesina is convinced that, “Nigeria should be producing more food to stabilise food prices, while creating jobs and reducing foreign exchange spending, that will further help stabilise the Naira… Nigeria cannot import its way out of food insecurity. Nigeria must not be turned into a food import-dependent nation,”

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), has declared that Nigeria tops the global list of countries with the highest number of people in acute food insecurity, with 31.8 million individuals affected. Africa also accounts for nearly a third of the more than 780 million people worldwide who are hungry.

This kind of bad news is being generated in a continent with 65 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, and the potential to feed 9.5 billion people by 2050! The frustration of the multiple award-winning technocrat is therefore understandable as he declares that, “Unless we transform agriculture, Africa cannot eliminate poverty.”

And then the clincher from Adesina: What Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world. If we get our acts together as we ought to, we should be feeding the world!

MR PRESIDENT’S TASK

If I were President Tinubu, I would organise a private retreat with AfDB’s Adesina, Afreximbank’s Benedict Oramah and other technocrats and experts in allied specialities to help chart an escape route for the ship of state away from this food importation iceberg.

Despite being touted as the food basket of Africa, Nigeria has spent over N7.8 trillion in the past six years on food import. Yet we are unable to assure our people of their daily bread.

Let’s call in the experts. Urgently.

It is difficult to marshal a credible and persuasive argument against local government areas (LGAs) getting all the federation allocations due to them. In fact, it can be argued that the LGAs should receive additional support and grants from the Federal Government and the state governments to enhance their financial viability, increase their capacity to discharge the critical responsibilities assigned to them, and reimburse them for acting as agents of the other two tiers of government. But it was never envisaged, and is simply indefensible and reprehensible, that LGAs would receive less than their statutory entitlements.

This is why the July 11^th ruling by the Supreme Court on direct federation allocations to the LGAs is right on the money. This is also why the state governors, who in most cases have not covered themselves in glory concerning LGAs’ allocations, have found it difficult to openly and coherently express their displeasure about the ruling. Good for them. But granting what has been excitedly termed financial autonomy to the LGAs is at best a good starting point. It is not enough. If the goal is to ensure good governance where it matters the most, the rest of us need to do much, much more.  

All Nigerians belong to, and live and work within, local government areas—be it villages, towns or municipalities. We are all citizens and residents of LGAs first before being same in states and the country. Being the first and closest level of government to all of us, the LGA is where we should feel the presence and the essence of government the most. Sadly, however, the local level is where governance deficit—alongside citizens’ disengagement—is the most pronounced in Nigeria. As I have argued on this page and in other platforms for more than 15 years, local governance is miserably broken in our country. And as desirable as it is, direct allocation to LGAs is not the cure-all that will bring local governance to good health in Nigeria. In actual fact, we should dispense with the thought of magic bullets.

Those who think financial autonomy will work the magic probably assume that our LGAs are underperforming simply because they are not getting all the money due to them or not getting the money directly. At best, this may be one of the reasons, but definitely not the sole reason. It has also been argued that once LGAs get their money directly and fully, they would be denied of any legitimate excuse for underperformance and that local accountability actors would spring up and be more active. Embedded in this view are two related assumptions: one, there is a link between full (as opposed to partial) receipt of federation allocations by the LGAs and optimal performance by the LGAs; and two, the reason why local accountability is constrained is because of partial disbursement of LGAs’ funds. The logic behind these assumptions is light.

Direct allocations to LGAs can actually produce the opposite of the desired effect. The money directly disbursed can be pilfered or thoughtlessly squandered or can be routed back to their political lords, the governors. Another possibility is that the well-resourced and unhindered LGA chairpersons can transform into mini-governors with their own well-oiled patronage networks and election war-chests, which can have grave implications not only for vote buying but also for social and political order. Talk about possible unintended consequences. These possibilities have led some to take the position that the Supreme Court ruling will change nothing, and may even make things worse. This is a cynical view. But cynicism is easy, and solves little.

The highest court in the land has ruled almost unanimously (6-1) to compel direct federation allocation to LGAs. The court also made consequential pronouncements on illegalities undertaken with impunity by states on local government matters. While it is important to acknowledge that even faithful implementation of the verdict will not automatically change things, the next order of work for those interested in changing the status quo is to identify, based on proper diagnosis, what else needs to happen to enthrone good governance at the local level in our country. In this piece, I will highlight three critical areas.

The first is that financial autonomy for LGAs must be accompanied with strengthening of the mechanisms for holding local officials to account. At the moment, accountability systems and structures are weakest at the local level. The checks and balances within government, provided through legislative and judicial oversights, through the presence of opposition parties, and through operational controls and procedures such as financial audits and restraining institutions, are hardly present at the local level. Local citizens are largely uninvolved or uninterested in local affairs. The press and civil society, which beam the searchlight on exercise of power and amplify citizens’ concerns, are more present and more active at the federal level.

The three forms of political accountability—horizontal, vertical and diagonal—are thus in short supply at the local level. Yet accountability is critical to good governance. Accountability doesn’t depend on the good nature of those in power. It has to be demanded—otherwise, it will not be supplied. Let’s be clear: the deficit in the demand and supply of accountability at our local level will not automatically be reversed simply because we are changing how money is disbursed. Following the Supreme Court ruling, there have been increased calls for citizens to hold their local officials to account. These calls are clearly well-intentioned. But the implicit assumption behind the calls is that local citizens were not holding their local officials to account because no one urged them to. It is a bit complicated, but the evidence suggests that incentive may be at issue.

The task then is to provide the incentives and the tools for citizens to exercise their agency as accountability actors, to fashion new accountability mechanisms for the local level and to strengthen existing ones. In furtherance of this, Agora Policy (which I lead) is co-hosting a solution-oriented dialogue on this issue with BudgIT, Yiaga Africa, Premium Times, Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch, and The Cable. Themed “Enthroning Accountability in Local Governance in Nigeria” and kindly supported by MacArthur Foundation, the timely policy conversation will hold on August 5^th in Abuja.

The second thing that needs to happen is that we have to improve the quality and content of democracy at the local level. Politics and decision-making at that scale should approximate the Athenian form of democracy. Local citizens should be able co-govern and should be able to decide the priorities of government at that level. The saying ‘all politics is local’ should have special resonance at the local level. Also, local politics is expected to serve as a school of democracy. But avenues for participation and learning and for enriching democratic practice are hardly present or used. The only option left is electoral democracy, and our local elections are clearly a total sham. No matter the diversity of political persuasions in a state, the party in power always records 100% success rate in local elections (except in FCT).

The Supreme Court has rightly ruled that LGAs are constitutionally required to be administered by elected officials (not by caretaker committees that governors prefer), that it is illegal for governors to dissolve democratically-elected LGA administrations, and that federation allocations should not go to LGAs without democratically-elected officials. It is in the news that most of the affected states are now rushing to schedule local elections. This is all well and good. But the issue is not about conducting elections just to fulfil all righteousness.

We need to significantly improve the quality of local elections so that those who emerge as elected officials are the real representatives of the local people and are those whose loyalty lies with the people, not solely with the state governor. Good governance has a better chance at the local level when there is a credible chance that non-performing officials can be thrown out at the next election.

In between elections, we also need to create avenues for citizens to have inputs into decision-making through public hearings, townhall/community/ward meetings and participatory budgeting. It is assumed that the closer the government is to the people, the more responsive the government will be to their needs. Periodic elections alone, even when they are clean and credible, will not be enough to make government responsive or to prioritise the needs of the people. In the space between elections, there should be constant opportunities for engagement between the officials and the people. Structured and continuous avenues for citizens’ participation will be key. If there is a space for us to test out forms of participatory democracy, the local level offers the ideal scale.

The last point I want to highlight is that building/improving local capacity will be critical.  Generally, the capacity for getting things done is low in our public sector. But, as with accountability, the state capacity deficit is most magnified at the local level. This shouldn’t surprise us: those really talented and driven will rather work at the federal or state levels, not in LGAs. Simply changing how we disburse money will not address this obvious capacity gap. Improving the capacity of the elected officials and civil servants on planning, budgeting, programme design and execution will thus be critical if our goal is to improve service delivery and overall governance at the local level. But it is not only the officials that need capacity enhancement. The citizens and the community-based associations also need support to enhance their interest and increase their capacity to engage the system at the local level more effectively.

I will end this intervention by repeating what I wrote in a related piece on this page about a month ago (‘Refocussing the Debate on Local Governance in Nigeria’). We need a comprehensive reform of how we approach local governance in this country. The Supreme Court has done what is within its remit. Other arms of government, expectedly, will do their bits. But enthroning effective, accountable and responsive local governance is a task beyond government. We all have roles to play too. And we should do our parts, for our enlightened self-interest. If local governance improves in the country, we should all be better off. 

The two individuals that no longer surprise me at all are Citizens Joe Igbokwe and Bayo Onanuga, however in the present instance I wonder what sycophancy and court-jesting have done to their ability to discern the times and by jove incline their hearts to wisdom, apologies to the Holy Book.

Joe Igbokwe in the service of his master decided perhaps without deep research to do the greatest disservice to the present watch. In threatening the Igbo in Lagos and across the Country, Citizen Joe Igbokwe has forgotten that hunger and poverty are indiscriminate of Region, Religion and ethnicity. He has forgotten that unemployment and want are indiscriminate of Creed and Clan. And he has forgotten that playing the ethnic card ala threatening a Tribe in the face of pain, penury and poverty is but an invitation to anarchy. He has forgotten that he who is down needs fear no fall.

Citizen Bayo Onanuga is himself caught by a disease I would call Obi-neurosis, a fear I would call Obi-Phobia, and a complex that fixates him to everything and anything Peter Obi, and the Obidient Movement. I pity him.

The two citizens here mentioned and their fellow travelers in the path of infamy are obsessed with the spoils of power that they cannot see. They are blinded by filthy lucre that they cannot read the times, and their soul is sold to Mammon such that they cannot perceive the ominous tide that romances our space.

They are without an ounce of equivocation Pseudo-Progressives swimming against a deluge. Joe Igbokwe can threaten the Igbo for all he cares. Bayo Onanuga can accuse Peter Obi and the Obidient Movement for all he cares, one infallible fact is that the clock is ticking, that time is running out, and like Kenyans the Gen Zee generation are tired, and have elected to trounce the tranquilizing drug of gradualism choosing proactive action over siddon look.

The Looming Protest has nothing to do with Ethnicity, Region or Religion, deceive yourself for all you care, the Truth is before us. The Looming Protest has nothing to do with Peter Obi or the Obidient Movement, lie to yourselves for all you care, the Truth is lucid. Continue to make matters worse for Tinubu with your sycophancy, continue to gaslight the gullible, and continue to delude and denude the hapless. Truth is that Nigeria is at the precipice and that our Country is hanging dangerously at the tipping edge.

Rather than advise their Master to work the path of caution, discretion and propriety, they sing his praises and nudge him further down the path to Golgotha. They see no wrong in wanton profligacy and wanderlust. They see no wrong in a Presidency that pours out 100m US Dollars for a new Presidential Jet in the face of harrowing poverty. They see no wrong in the spate of job loss and inflation. They see no wrong in the scarcity of food, the hike in price of Fuel, and the suicidal hunger that confronts the Nigerian hoi polloi. All they do is hail their Master as though he is infallible. All they do is blame Buhari as if their Master didn't promise to continue with Buhari's policies that saw Nigeria going in out of inflation, today Nigeria is enmeshed in the worst inflation in our history. Seeing the glaring comeuppance of failure, seeing that the Young are gearing up to challenge for the soul of our nation, Joe Igbokwe, Bayo Onanuga and their cohorts in the cult of Court-jesting are busy shifting the blame, are busy gaslighting the ignorant, and are busy throwing darts at the innocent, but it won't work.

It was Frantz Fanon who said long time ago that every generation out of relative obscurity discovers it's mission, Fulfills or betrays it. If the Gen Zee across Africa have risen, to ethnicise this rising is like pouring water on the Crocodile, I pray Joe Igbokwe, Bayo Onanuga and Co knows this. If the Gen Zee is planning the Nigerian version of the Kenyan uprising, the right thing to do is to begin quickly to address their grievances and proceed with some immediate Reforms and not to threaten, insult, over-awe, harass and harangue them.

I must close this effort with the ageless lines of John F. Kennedy to wit, those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable. The Truth is that those threatening the Young people hatching and planning a peaceful protest for the soul of Nigeria come August 1st to August 10th, 2024 are the enemies of democracy, enemies of the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, and the enemies of Nigeria QED. And Nigeria shall most definitely outlive them.

I believe in Nigeria. I believe that the Eagle shall yet Soar. And I believe that this period of darkness shall yet pass.

I'm CHUKWUDUMEBI.

Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr.

Convener COUNTRYFIRST MOVT.

There are two very significant, and quite commendable, actions Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has taken so far with regards to Chukwuemeka Odumegwu University (COOU), Igbariam. The appointment of Prof Kate Omenugha as acting Vice Chancellor of the school is one. The appointment of Prof Chidi Odinkalu as the Pro-Chancellor of the University is another. He has thus put together two individuals who have the ‘unfortunate habit’ of handling any assignment they give to them in such a way that nothing is allowed to stand in their way, on the road to fulfilment and success.

I also see Soludo giving them all the needed support, going forward. The governor’s regular attendance, or official representation, at all of the university’s events, and especially the visible encouragement he gives to all the new environment-focused initiatives of the school, point to a subsisting goodwill. That goodwill should be maintained.

In sum, and for the record: Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Your Transformation cometh”! Yes, I see Omenugha working synergistically for the positive, phenomenal, transformation of that institution.

I was in the school last week for the 2024 annual conference of the Faculty of Social Sciences. As the Keynote Speaker, I had to give substance to the theme of the conference: “Leadership, Security and Social Stability in contemporary Nigerian Economy”. It was a gathering put together to x-ray the cocktail of security and other challenges that have come to characterize our chequered existence in the country today.

The conference was well attended. But if there was anyone who came to the conference expecting the usual lamentational excesses that has come to characterize retreats and conferences all over the country these days, that person must have left the event very disappointed. It was a solutions-finding gathering, with the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Prof Anthony Agu, paying meticulous attention to everything that mattered; in the endeavour to make the event more than a passing success story.

Curiously, the office of the Vice Chancellor was also fully involved. Everyone was ‘online’, as if the entire university community was just one large undifferentiated family.  An unsuspecting observer would most probably think that everything was being organized by the VC’s office, with every other faculty as members of the organizing committee. Yet, there was no overbearing presence of anyone, or the dominance of any office at all.

As I later found out from other sources, this was just me getting a whiff of the sense of community that has come to characterise everything going on in Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, since Omenugha came on the scene. Someone even quipped to me, as I asked question after question: “Prof, you can see what a woman can do within such a short time”?

Harrison from the VC’s office was as involved as the Dean of the Social Sciences. The latter readily intervened whenever and wherever there were issues to be ironed out in any matter relating to the conference. And Prof Sonny Odogwu of the school’s Faculty of Law, who came into the picture because of the IPOB-imposed seat-at-home order, was as much involved. Because the order still subsists in many parts of Enugu and Anambra States, there are no flights to or from the two states on Mondays. But there are flights to and from Asaba, which is less than an hour’s drive to Onitsha, in Anambra State.

The conference was scheduled for a Tuesday, so I had to fly into Asaba on Monday, spend the night there and then leave for Igbariam in Anambra State the next day. That’s how it fell on Prof Sonny Odogwu of Igbariam’s Faculty of Law to play temporary host and chaperon to me in Asaba. And he did a very good job of it. It was with him that I ran into my old friend from the University of Lagos, Big Ben, who is now the Vice Chancellor of the University in Asaba.

It was, “Ah, is that not Okey sitting down here in our own Polo Club”; and from me came, “Wait, Big Ben? O’ boy, where have you been? It was a more than welcome reunion, but back to our concern here for today.

With Odogwu I rode into Anambra the next morning, and into the gates of a university sitting on a massive land layout. Driving out of the school later with Dr Emegha Ndubisi later in the day, the story of the university began to unfold before me, as I one question after another.

It turned out that the now-resplendent university was a colossal eyesore for quite some time, before the then governor Peter Obi began to give it very serious, and well thought out, attention. The school owes its current layout, the impressive physical infrastructure, as well as its overall academic outlook owed on which so much that will last can now be built today, to Peter Obi. 

The former governor began with the production of a master plan for the University. At that time, he had to remind some people who were not too keen on designing a master plan for the institution that even a weaver bird must have an idea of the type or nest, and size of nest, it wants to make, as well as its preferred purpose before it starts weaving. How much more a university, he queried.

Obi said to anyone who cared to listen at the time that there are masterplans all the big institutions, as well as big building, all over the world today. He said that the story was the same even for those who lived in ancient times; since master plans for both the physical infrastructure and the broad framework of ideas a people wish to birth and nurture in an institution must first be conceptualized and designed beforehand.

His approach to the rescue mission he carried out at Igbaraim was holistic, because Obi did not just focus on merely producing masterplan and carrying it about as a trophy to show off with.  He was engaged in  the serious business of constructing and tarring the access roads to the campus, from the Onitsha Enugu Expressway a the same time.

The condition of this access road had been a problem to the school from its inception. But that nightmare ended with Obi’s tenure as governor. And it was also Peter Obi who Fenced the entire university campus.

When some of those who were opposed to the school, whose perimeter runs into several kilometres when measured, raised issues Obi was reported to have said to them: “Even some of you here have mosquito nets to cover your lovely dogs from mosquito bites at night. No one would allow Tsetse flies near his goats.  Yet it seems right to you that we should leave the citadel from which we hope to produce a new generation that will compete in a 21st Century world with open. Biko, I will find the money and make sure that this our university is fenced. He did just that.

Obi also tarred the internal roads within the university and urged the school authorities to maintain an environment that would develop and enhance every student’s innate sense of beauty. This was in addition to building an impressive Law Faculty building for the university. The building is described as impressive in the sense that it houses lecture rooms, a library, staff offices, and moot courts. For the record, the complex is one of the best in the South-East Geopolitical Zone of the country.

It is also to the credit of peter Obi that the school boasts of a Mass Communication Complex, consisting of lecture rooms, radio and TV studios, and staff offices, today. We say nothing about the construction of the Faculty of Arts/Social Science Complex, which houses staff offices and lecture rooms.

It you add the construction of two hostel complexes, the attraction of two more such complexes from the Central Bank through Dr. Kingsley Muoghalu, the construction of the Faculty of Agriculture building, the construction of the Faculty of Management Sciences building and the construction of an Administrative building, the question that may start forming in your head as your tabulate all the foregoing would be this: “What would you have in this place today if you remove everything done for by Peter Obi, as governor of Anambra State”?

To be fair, it is a matter of record that, besides the medical office built by Chief Willie Obiano, it was Obi who started the construction of all abandoned projects within the complex. It is also a matter of record that Obi made available the sum of five billion Naira to the school for its continued improvement, under well spelt out prudential guidelines.

And all of the foregoing does not include what he spent in providing the school with buses and security vehicles for greater institutional efficiency and improved internal security. We have also not said anything here about the academic facilities, other structures and lasting developmental imprints he left at the Uli campus of the University. And we shall not do that here.

Going back to our initial observations about the University’ Pro-chancellor and the acting Vice Chancellor, the university now has the right mix of primary drivers who have the capacity for lasting engagement according to the best global standards. The new VC has made some impressive strides, especially against the background of the rot she met on ground. What the lady has accomplished within a few short months presents a somewhat baffling reality to many observers.

Her lifelong exposure, and also in particular her tenure as a very effective hands-on for commissioner, would seem to have prepared her to do what she is doing at Igbariam today. But a little more of that some other time

From all accounts, Odinkalu’s first visit to the school, after his appointment as Pro-chancellor was an event all by itself. He was reported to have arrived in very simple clothing. The academic community thus unprepared for  a man had come to trek to every nook and cranny of the school, in order to find out for himself what everything looked like and what was to be done about it.

Chidi had to personally see everything for himself, including the ‘as is’ condition of every inch of land and every building within the premises. With that, he could easily relate to the physical space and human capital that would warehouse and service any new broad conceptual frameworks he would like to develop and inflict on the place with his new-found co-workers. I can assure you that all hands must be on deck, for as long as this new COOU duo are on this beat.

The joint labour unions have vowed to enforce the new N70,000 minimum wage in all states, warning that any state that fails to comply will be shut down.

The warning was issued by the Osun Chapter Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Christopher Arapasopo, in an interview in Osogbo.
Arapasopo revealed that the joint labour unions had agreed to accept the N70,000 minimum wage as a sacrifice to prevent a hike in fuel prices.

He explained that during the NEC meeting, all members unanimously agreed to enforce the minimum wage in all states and that any state that failed to pay would face severe consequences.

“The governors were present when this agreement was reached, and they were the ones who initially suggested N70,000 as the minimum wage. We, as labour, had suggested N250,000, but they brought it down to N62,000 before finally settling on N70,000, which we accepted,” Arapasopo said.

According to him, labour unions would not negotiate on this matter.

He said, “For any government or governor that fails to pay, we will shut that state down. It is a must for them to pay. It is a no-go area.”

Arapasopo noted that if the union had insisted on the N250,000 minimum wage, it would have led to an increment in fuel pump prices and inflation.

The Osun NLC chair assured that the N70,000 minimum wage was still a fair deal, as it would be the least salary paid to workers in the lowest cadre. He added that consequential adjustments and benefits attached to the levels would even increase the wage when implemented.

Arapasopo confirmed that the Osun chapter of the union would meet with the state government to discuss some allowances for workers, but reiterated that the minimum wage stands non-negotiable.

[PoliticsNigeria]

Manchester United manager, Erik ten Hag has named a 26-man squad to face Rangers in today’s pre-season friendly tie.

Ten Hag included the likes of Casemiro, Jadon Sancho and Andre Onana in his squad to face Rangers at Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium.

This clash is Man United’s second of the pre-season campaign following Monday’s narrow 1-0 defeat to Rosenborg in Norway.

Man United’s squad against Rangers:

GOALKEEPERS:

Dermot Mee
Andre Onana
Radek Vitek

DEFENDERS:

Sonny Aljofree
Harry Amass
Rhys Bennett
Jonny Evans
Will Fish
Louis Jackson
Sam Murray
Habeeb Ogunneye
Maximillian Oyedele
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Leny Yoro

MIDFIELDERS:

Casemiro
Toby Collyer
Jack Fletcher
Hannibal
Samuel Mather
Mason Mount
James Scanlon

FORWARDS:

Amad
Ethan Ennis
Joe Hugill
Jadon Sancho
Ethan Wheatley