Story Highlights  

• African Union ministers have endorsed a Continental Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy for digital transformation across Africa. 
• The strategy aims to promote Africa’s AI capabilities and ensure inclusive development. 
• This initiative aligns with AU Agenda 2063 and will be submitted for final adoption by the AU Executive Council in July 2024. 

African ICT and Communications Ministers of the African Union (AU) said they have unanimously endorsed a “Continental Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy” and “African Digital Compact” to accelerate “Africa’s digital transformation” by unlocking the potential of the new digital technologies in Nigeria and other African countries. 

This was disclosed in a statement published on AU’s official website on Monday, June 17, 2024. 

Over 130 African ministers and experts virtually convened between June 11 to 13, 2024 for the AU 2nd Extraordinary session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and ICT. 

The meeting aimed at igniting digital transformation across the continent amidst rapid evolutions in the sector fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) technology and applications. 

Continental Strategy 

According to the statement, the Continental AI Strategy guides for African countries to harness artificial intelligence to meet the continent’s development aspirations and the well-being of its people. 

It seeks to promote AI’s ethical use, minimizing potential risks, leveraging opportunities and particularly canvassing for African content and context to be featured in the AI governance structures. 

“Identifying key priorities and actions to ensure that Africa fully benefits from the huge opportunities AI offers, the strategy calls for Africa-owned, people-centered, development-oriented, and inclusive approach to accelerate African countries’ AI capabilities in infrastructure, talent, datasets, innovation, and partnerships while also ensuring adequate safeguards and protection from threats. 

“The Strategy sets the roadmap for African countries to harness the potential of AI to achieve developmental aspirations to education and skills, health, agriculture, infrastructure, peace and security and good governance by developing human capital, strengthening research and innovation ecosystems, and building an AI-ready institutional and regulatory environment to ensure AI works for African people.” 

Africa’s success in the global AI arena 

At the ministerial session, the African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy,  Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid explained that in other to guarantee Africa’s success in the global AI arena, African countries should  invest in its youths, innovators, computer scientists, data experts, and AI researchers. 

The Commissioner commended the endorsement of the strategy, stating if followed by relevant stakeholders, Africa’s diversity would be captured in AI systems. 

“Adapting AI to African realities is critical. AI systems should be able to reflect our diversity, languages, culture, history, and geographical contexts. As we aim to create an inclusive AI ecosystem and a competitive African AI market that is adapted to our realities and meets our ambitions, we believe examining and approving this strategy will provide a common vision and path to accelerate responsible AI innovation and adoption in Africa”.   

“For us Africans, Artificial Intelligence presents tremendous opportunities. It is a driving force for positive transformational positive change as well as economic growth and social progress,” Dr. Abou-Zeid said as quoted in the statement. 

Lending his voice, the Minister of Information, Communications, Science Technology, and Innovation of the Kingdom of Lesotho, and Chair of the Bureau of the technical committee, Ms. Nthati Moorsi emphasised the huge opportunities that stem from the adoption of AI-enabled systems to promote homegrown solutions. 

The minister was of the view that the AI strategy would stimulate economic growth and sustainable development towards achieving the priorities outlined in the AU Agenda 2063 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

What you should know 

 The meeting  is a follow-up on the AU’s call for developing countries to have increased representation and influence within global Artificial Intelligence(AI) governance structures. 

Nairametrics previously reported that the AU Mission to the United Nations (UN), had disclosed this during a Special meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a month ago. 

This endorsed strategy is expected to constitute Africa’s contribution to the Global Digital Compact and the United Nations Summit of the Future in September 2024.  

The committee will submit the strategy to the African Union Executive Council in July 2024, for consideration and final adoption in line with AU rules and regulations. 

The development is coming after a pan-African telecom company, MTN Group, and Huawei Technologies collaborated to build a technology innovation lab aimed at accelerating digital transformation and sustainable development across Africa. 

The Nigerian government is also looking forward to digital transformation across the nation 

Some months back, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, visited SecureID Limited state-of-the-art facilities, commending the firm’s role in Nigeria’s digital transformation. 

[Nairametrics]

The University of Ibadan is 75 years old. Chief Bisi Akande celebrated his 85th birthday on January 16 this year. He was made Secretary to Oyo State Government 45 years ago at the age of 40. He was Deputy Governor of Oyo State 42 years ago. He was elected Osun State Governor in 1999 – 25 years ago. He left the office of governor 21 years ago. Last Friday, the 85-year-old man was appointed by President Bola Tinubu to serve the University of Ibadan as its pro-chancellor and chairman of council. When you heard Chief Akande’s name as the appointee, you were almost as sure as I was that the old warrior would reject it in a jiffy. I told myself that he would tell his friend, the president, that his choice for UI’s top job must be an error; that only today’s hound can successfully chase today’s hare. But today is Monday – four days after, Chief Bisi Akande has not rejected the ‘juicy’ job. We have no business rejecting it for him.

An elephant chooses how he wants the forest to address him. If you schooled at the same time as I did, you must have read the poem ‘Salute to the Elephant’. It is there that you meet Elephant – “possessor of a savings-basket full of money” who is “huge as a hill, even in a crouching posture.” The Elephant is that mighty one “who carries mortar and yet walks with a swaggering gait…, animal treading ponderously.” The Elephant, more importantly, is that “mountainous animal, (the) huge beast who tears a man like a garment and hangs him up on a tree.” The sight of the Elephant, the chanter-hunter says, “causes people to stampede towards a hill of safety.” Now, imagine that elephant coming down from the height of his high reputation to mingle with deers in a scavenge-rush for forbs. An elephant would do that if it does not see itself as an elephant. It is his choice. I am not qualified to tell this chief’s elephant not to eat what common goats eat. But if I were his son, I would beg him to say “no, thank you.”

Chief Akande is not alone on that geriatric podium of self-diminution. With him is General Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu (Rtd) who was made chairman of the University of Nigeria governing council. The University of Nigeria is 69 years old. It was founded in 1955 but formally opened on October 7, 1960. General Nwachukwu will be 84 years old on September 1, this year. He has been everything anyone would ever want to be in Nigeria. As a soldier, he rose to be Major-General and General Officer Commanding. He was governor of Imo State 40 years ago. He was Minister of Labour 39 years ago. He was Foreign Affairs Minister 34 years ago. He was elected senator 25 years ago. He is back from the bench in this season of renewed past.

Must it be them? Don’t they have around them, in their political party, sleek-headed younger people with knowledge and ideas who can handle these assignments? They have them, but those ones are useful only as aides and as bag carriers.

Writing in May last year for US’ satire newspaper, The Onion, grand old Dianne Feinstein satirized America as “an out-of-touch gerontocracy” where “the average age of a senator is 65” – and the president eighty-something years old. She said she was “glad” not to live and get stuck in that country of “dementia-addled” leaders “who keep a stranglehold on power” and “who prioritise their own careers and bank accounts over the common good.” Then she wondered, angrily “how selfish you’d have to be to cling to power when you’ve long since ceased to understand the needs of ordinary people.” I will be shocked if I am the only one who thinks strongly that Feinstein wrote about Nigeria of today.

I read a sonnet of William Shakespeare where he deplores “age” staying “too long.” In his ‘The Passionate Pilgrim’, Shakespeare explains why “crabbed age and youth cannot live together.” Shakespeare sings of “Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.” He says “Youth is full of sport, age’s breath is short; Youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and age is tame…” Yet, our country’s vote is for the old and cold; the lame, the tame.

We have more of them. Our universities are now a rest home for the ancient. There is also 72-year-old Alhaji Yayale Ahmed who was announced as the chairman of 62-year-old Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was appointed Head of Service of the Federation in the year 2000 – 24 years ago. He occupied that post for seven years, retiring in 2007 to be appointed as the Minister of Defence. He left the office of minister in September 2008 to be appointed as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. He held sway there till May 2011. He left thirteen years ago. He is back from retirement to preside over ABU’s highest governing body.

These king-size men and others on that long list will be interfacing with a 70-year-old minister. Professor Tahir Mamman is our minister of education. If he had remained in the university system, he would be due for retirement in three weeks’ time. The minister reports to a president who is officially 72 years old. Essentially, these 20th century men are the drivers of the 21st century vision of Nigeria’s knowledge industry. That is the way we roll. The National Universities Commission (NUC) regulates Nigeria’s university system. Who is NUC’s substantive executive secretary? Check if it has. And, who presides over its board? As I write this today, Sunday, 16 June, 2024, the commission in charge of our universities has on its website, Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo as the chairman of its board. Baba Professor Banjo died last month – he was 90 years old. NUC has not remembered to update its website to reflect that fact – or it is reluctant to let go of the late Professor Banjo.

Beyond the dead, shall we ask the new octogenarian appointees where they hope to start from in this digital age? With their appointments, Nigeria is asking its Gen Z students to use fatigued eyes of tired men to prepare their journey into the future. May God help them.

A leader must know when to say enough to seeking power. Someone (I can’t get their name) said knowing when to walk away is wisdom. He also said being able to walk away is courage. Yet, there is a third line: walking away with your head held high is dignity. Why would an eighty-something-year-old man want to be a baggage carrier – porter – to the youth of his land? Someone said it is the love of service. I replied that it is simply a case of an Egungun, because of perks, dancing itself into irrelevance.

Apart from them being his friends, are there patriotic reasons why the president posted these men to those schools? We may not know the real reason why our president made those geriatric choices – unless he tells us. Raul Magni Berton and Sophie Panel in 2017 did a paper on why non-democratic systems produce older leaders. They postulate that leaders’ “ruling styles” are “partly shaped by the rules that brought them to power.” They ask why anyone, even the old, would want to be ruled by aged people. They dissect types and motives of gerontocratic rule. They say “the selection of aging leaders based on premeditated considerations” is the definition of strategic gerontocracy. They contrast this with what they call ‘taste’ gerontocracy “which is based on genuine preference for old leaders”. They speak on ‘skills’ gerontocracy which assumes that the chosen had “specific skills acquired with age.” What special skills do our eighty-something-year-old ‘chairmen’ have that recommended them for our universities as pro-chancellors? Tinubu is not known to be a wine connoisseur who flaunts the old as the better. So, I wonder why the president loves old stuff – old, fossilized national anthem and aged administrators.

This government’s choice of yesterday’s men for today’s work has natural consequences. You know menopause, its complications and implications. That is what the University of Ibadan, UNN and ABU and some others in their geriatric shoes are now married to. Escaping the schools’ climacteric suitors and their creaky beds looks futile. When Humphrey Hawksley wrote his 2009 book, ‘Democracy Kills’, he probably had our case in mind. There is hardly anything which today’s democracy inherited that it has not fed to the dogs. While we fantasised on what the textbook says democracy is, the leaders have unitised the benefits in it; they’ve warehoused the gains in their family silos – for the comfort of their generations and for their friends’.

I am wasting my time writing this. The same applies to you raising complaints about how our planes are being run aground. The government does not care about the public and its opinion. You can’t blame it. There is a problem with winning all bouts all the time. It intoxicates the winner, making them look down on the street and disdainful of even their fans. “At being humble, I’m the greatest”. A Minnesota, United States mother in about 1970, was horrified to hear her young wrestler-son say this as he recorded wins after wins. The woman described that statement of her son as “silly” – but that was hubris at work. We read such ‘humility’ in the insults the Nigerian leadership rolls out almost daily. Everything points at the end of sanity in the conduct of our affairs. Yet, long before this present darkness, there had been eras of rationality and hope. There had been an age when leaders insulted not the people’s sensitivities and the people bowed in respect of fair leadership. We had a past of values which even those who colonised us acknowledged in their own moments of sobriety.

Between the last days of 1927 and the early weeks of 1928, a group of United Kingdom’s Members of Parliament visited Nigeria. They moved from the coasts in Lagos through the hinterland forests to the grasslands of the North. They thoroughly toured the East of Nigeria and the creeks of the Niger Delta – then went back to London through Lagos. At a dinner of the African Society in London on 13 March, 1928, leader of the delegation, Major Walter Eliot, presented his team’s report. In that report, Major Eliot said while in Nigeria, his team saw an “honest attempt” by the black man to build “a house” for his soul; a house “where the black man could find a shelter” against the impact of a strange alien culture; a house “from which in years to come, he may take his own share as a partner in the progress of the world – not as an inferior and certainly not as a serf…” Eliot’s optimism – expressed in that report 96 years ago – was hasty and misplaced. If the Briton visits Nigeria of today, he will meet 200 million people shuffling and struggling (not) to be serfs of power.

That is not all from Eliot. Everywhere they went, his team said they saw a people who had very high regard for their leaders and who had their leaders’ respect. He disclosed that his team members were surprised (and impressed) and were of the conviction that “the black man should look to the black ruler as the keystone in the arch of rule; that the white man should not be the keystone…that the rule should be of the black man by the black man and – as far as we can devise it – for the black man.”

They are long dead, those proud, upright people who were met in Nigeria by the British in 1927. About a hundred years after the Eliot team experience and the positive testimony from London, and 64 years after foreign rule, a virulent strain of disdain for the ruled – and disgust for the ruler – reigns. Our democracy is a despicable bazaar; the classic “every man for himself and God for us all.” What the 1927/28 visitors envisioned as the rule “of the black man by the black man” has turned out not “for the black man.” The rule serves the strongman and his clan whose ways are decidedly not necessarily the ways of their people.

They take the benefits; their children take. Their concubines and mistresses also pick theirs while your own portion is tucked away in their pouch. It is the reason they can’t reason with us when we say Nigeria cannot survive as a unitary presidentialism. They take our call for federalist sanity as a threat to the advantages they enjoy. They think a truly federal Nigeria would be too tight to structurise into personal fiefdoms. They work that federalism won’t happen. Not now, not tomorrow. And they are winning. They spring on us federal surprises everywhere. They set up institutions and make appointments that are designed to unitarise our lives under Big Brother. Because they are smart, they easily know that they can’t compete and feed their greed in a Nigeria that is properly structured. The result of their knowing is that we can’t breathe without their permission.

A restructured Nigeria has the prospect of not surrendering to Comrade Napoleon’s unitary dictatorship in the Animal farm. Less than one week into this democracy, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, in the Friday, 4 June, 1999 edition of the Nigerian Tribune, warned that Nigeria was on the way to a most destructive form of unitarism. “The road to the hell of unitarism is paved with good intentions. They should be careful…”, he warned the inheritors of the gains of the struggle for this democracy. They ignored him. We were too hopeful to hear him. But, words of elders, if they don’t come true in the morning, they will in the evening. The evening of Nigeria is here.

Speaking through his spokesman, Sunusi Bature, the Governor said he called for Bayero‘s arrest because he (Bayero) returned into two days after his dethronement to reclaim the palace, creating unrest in the state.

Bature was reacting to an article: ‘A Rendezvous with Recklessness and Executive Rascality,’ by Bala Ibrahim who accused Governor Yusuf of rascality and recklessness in power.

The Federal High Court in Kano recently ordered the state government to pay Bayero the sum of N10 million for breaching his fundamental rights, personal liberty and freedom of movement.

Citing Sections 35(1) and 41(1) of the 1999 Constitution, the court, presided by Justice Simon Amobeda, held that it was wrong for Yusuf to order Bayero’s arrest without lawful justification, which he said forced the applicant into house arrest for fear of been arrested.

Bala Ibrahim had used the ruling to mock and criticise the governor of being power drunk and taking reckless decisions, including demolition of buildings and the order to arrest Bayero in which the court granted compensations to all the applicants.

But Bature said: “Does Bala Ibrahim actually understand the workings of government and governance?

“I do not want to go into judicial pronouncements, but the point I want to make clear is that the issue of Kano Emirship is straightforward with the repeal of the Kano Emirate Law (2019) and enactment of Kano Emirate Law (2024), which gave Governor Yusuf the power to abolish the five emirates and return Kano to its glorious and historic position of one emirate.

“This is the wish of the people of Kano state.

“The reappointment of Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II did not also come to anyone as a surprise, because his dethronement and consequent banishment by Abdullahi Ganduje and his co-travellers was done out of malice.

“Now, calling for the arrest of dethroned Emir Aminu Bayero was only done for public good as his entrance into Kano, shortly after his dethronement posed a serious security threat which is being managed up till today.

“Governor Abba Yusuf remains the Chief Security Officer of Kano state, and no sane leader would fold his arms and watch Kano snowballs into a state of anarchy without taking action.”

On demolition, the governor said: “Again, the demolition of buildings and structures illegally acquired by former governor Ganduje, his family and friends, was an exercise carried out in good faith.

“It was an exercise pegged on the efforts to recover public property from the hands of very few individuals who believed they could pocket public funds, structures and resources and get away with them without giving a wink.

“We will not be deterred by propagandists like Bala Ibrahim doing the bidding of their paymasters, at the detriment of the welfare of the good people of Kano state and the socio-economic development of our dear state.”

[TheNation]

Following the expiration of the tenure of the local government chairmen in Rivers State, some youths in the Degema Local Government Area of the state on Monday took over the council headquarters.

This came as LG chairmen in the state under the aegis of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria have vowed to remain in office, citing the Local Government Amendment Law by the Martin Amaewhule-led 27 House of Assembly members empowering them to extend their tenure by six months.

The state ALGON Chairman, Allwell Ihunda, who is the Chairman of Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, insisted that the law by the House of Assembly empowers them to remain in office.

Recall that the law by the lawmakers loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, empowers the council chairmen to remain in office over the alleged failure of Governor Siminalayi Fubara to conduct local government elections.

Fubara, at an event in Port Harcourt, the state capital, warned the LG chairmen not to do anything that would truncate the peace of the state, saying they had a few days to leave office.

Amaewhule, at a news briefing last week, warned the governor against setting up caretaker committees to fill vacant positions in the 23 LGs of the state, saying the lawmakers would not accept such a move.

The council chairmen who were elected during the tenure of Wike as governor have been having a running battle with Fubara following the disagreement between the two political leaders.

Meanwhile, it was gathered that youths in Degema occupied the council secretariat early on Monday and locked the entrance.

The youth who were seen singing war songs appeared battle-ready as they insisted that they would not allow the LG chairmen to remain in office after serving out their tenure, saying they would remain there to ensure the outgoing LG chairman does not return to the council.

The same scenario is playing out in the Asari-Toru Local Government Area, where youths stormed the council headquarters in Degema and occupied the facility.

Many of the youth were seen in different groups in front of the secretariat and the entire stretch of the road leading to the entrance, even as some could be heard saying, ‘Asawana’ a popular slang among the Ijaws which signifies solidarity, even as others arrive the scene in droves.

The youth said they would remain until Wednesday when work resumes and dared the council chairmen to come to the secretariat.

However, there is a huge security presence in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area and Obio/Akpor LG to prevent security breaches.

Our correspondent spotted over six police patrol vans in front of the secretariat’s closed entrance on Monday morning.

The patrol vans were manned by fierce-looking security operatives, although the movements of people were not restricted.

Meanwhile, the outgoing chairman of Eleme LG, Obarilomate Ollor, has warned those eager to throw him out of office not to come close to the council, saying they will be resisted.

Ollor, addressing stakeholders at the first Annual General Meeting of the Aleto Clan Association held in Port Harcourt, said he had gotten wind of plans to invade the council on June 17.

He urged those who do not have legitimate businesses at the council headquarters not to come close, pointing out that the LG council is neither a community town hall nor a students’ union facility.

Ollor stated, “Some people are ganging up, they want to use force to enter into the local government. Let me tell you, the local government is not a community town hall or students union secretariat.

“That is a government facility. So stay away from there, except the law permits you to go there. If you go there against the law, what you will see, you will not believe it. You will see your forefathers’ earlier than you expected.

“So don’t go there if you are not meant to go there. You can stay in a hotel and make noise, but don’t go there.”

Our correspondent, who is monitoring the situation, reports that the occupation of some LG secretariats is already creating tension in the state as it is likely to spread to other LG.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the state police command, Grace Iringe-Koko, said the police are on top of the situation, saying, “Our men were on a show of strength this morning. We are still monitoring the situation, and we want to urge everyone to maintain peace in the state.”

[Punch]

 Says I’ve been fighting battle all my life, I’m not scared of anything

. Explains how Africa Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA agreement can work. ‘PMS will flow from refinery by the third week of July’

Size

For context, it is a 650,000 barrel refinery, the biggest in the world.  It started in 2016.

Inside the plant itself, Aliko Dangote constructed about 126 km of road. There are 54,000 storm columns built for protection.  On-site, there are over 200 buildings.  Located in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, covering a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares (seven times the size of Victoria Island, Lagos), it is the world’s Largest Single-Train 650,000 barrels per day Petroleum Refinery with 900,000 tonnes Polypropylene Plant.  At the peak of construction, there were over 70,000 workers on site.

In the course of the civil works, some 700 piles were drilled daily, and the total number of piles came to 250,000.   It has 177 tanks of 4.742 billion litre capacity – you can imagine that volume.   He has bought over 2,262 units of various high-duty equipment to enhance the local capacity for site works since even the biggest local civil contractors are unable to handle “even small portions of our construction requirement.”   He has also bought 308 cranes to build up equipment installation capacity since the current capacity in Nigeria is extremely poor.  What do you do when the biggest crane in the country is 650 tons, whereas you need a 5000-ton capacity crane?  Worse, there were only two such 5000-ton capacity cranes in the world, and they were in use.  So, instead of hiring a crane for $300,000 a day, what do you do?  Dangote bought his cranes.  65 Million Cubic Metres of Sand were dredged costing approximately 300 Million Euros, using the world’s largest, the second largest and the tenth largest dredgers to elevate the height by 1.5/1.75 metres, to insure against any potential impact of increase in mean sea level due to global warming.

That is not all.

The refinery has a 435 MW Power Plant, which can meet the total power requirement of Ibadan DisCo of 860,316 MWh covering five states, including Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara and Ekiti.  Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100% of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products (Gasoline, 53 million litres per day; Diesel, 34 million litres per day; Kerosene, 10 million litres per day and Aviation Jet A1, 2 million litres per day) and also have surplus of each of these products for export.

Aliko Dangote On CNN

So, if Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, and Africa’s richest man,  says, in retrospect, that had he known the grand scope of what he was getting involved in, he wouldn’t have tried it, you would understand.

According to Dangote, during an interview on a CNN programme, Connecting Africa, “People don’t really understand what we undertook to build the refinery. In fact, we didn’t know what we were getting into. If we knew, we would have run away. We wouldn’t have tried it.  It was very, very, very tough.  We are sitting on a land that is more than 4000 standard football fields.  The significance of this project is that we will be self-sufficient, not just in Nigeria but in West and Central Africa.  I feel proud as an African that I’ve been able to prove that it can be done and we have done it.”

$19 billion cost

Speaking on what it has taken to put up the edifice, he said “we spent about $19 billion. It is going to change the game in terms of improvement. If we take in all the crude from Nigeria, it means that we will be taking about 21 million barrels per month. That would also help in terms of reducing the Co2 initiative, rather than ships coming all the way from Europe to bring in products.  All the ships going out of Nigeria every month, then you have the products coming into Nigeria. In totality, when you calculate, you are talking about 480 ships of 1 million barrels.  That actually will save the environment almost 1.5 to 2 million tonnes of Co2 emissions.”

Asked whether he has started making money from the project, he said: “We will start making money soon. It is not just all about making money, but it also gives us great satisfaction that we are making Africa great. We are making Africa proud.”

AfCFTA & Overcoming challenges

There has always been the issue of crude supply, and this was discussed during the interview.  In his view, he agreed “that there are challenges here and there. That is the truth. We have to be very open too.

NNPC has been very, very helpful. They do their own bit. Some of the IOCs are struggling to give us crude oil.  Because everybody is used to exporting, and nobody wants to stop exporting”. 

Even Aliko Dangote himself asked Eleni Giokos, the CNN anchor, “Why do you think Africa is not growing as it should?”  

Dangote answered the question himself: “It is because we export raw materials and import finished goods. It doesn’t matter what it is, whether it is gold or whatever. A  raw material is always at a ridiculously priced amount compared to the finished goods.”

Asked how he hopes to battle this legacy system that profits from the ripoff of focusing on Africa’s raw materials instead of building capacity for processing on the continent, Dangote said “I have been fighting battles all my life, so I don’t get scared of anything.” 

On the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, Dangote believes it will be beneficial:  “The AfCFTA will be very, very beneficial. If you are talking about benefits, our company will almost be one of the top five in terms of benefitting from the free trade agreement.  But I have not seen any improvement.  We have 3 million tonnes of Urea we export to African countries, and we have petroleum products to export. We have cement to export.  We have too many things to export. What makes sense is to have the free trade agreement work. The trade between Africans is only about 16 per cent, which is too low. We have to make sure that all the regional markets have to remove these requirements of visas. We have to allow free movement of people, free movement of goods and services, and the Afcta will work. Without that, it is almost impossible.”

Intra-Africa trade issues

Dangote then shared an experience: “I am going to Egypt tomorrow, but I need a visa. They are saying that they will give me a visa on arrival if I have an American visa. But I am an African, and Egypt is part and parcel of AfCFTA. But they are saying that no, if you have an American visa, we will give you. So, they are discounting me, being an African.  So, how do we trade if you’re not allowing me into their country?  What I would love to see is a South African come into Nigeria to get a job without hassle. If you don’t integrate, we will never see what we call prosperity. Integration is very important. If you remember, most countries used to have what we call the Ministry of Integration, but I don’t know what happened. Some of the countries have dropped this, and it doesn’t make sense.”

Aliko Dangote has his eyes set on the future with the succession plan of the group well laid.  According to him, “by the end of the year, he expects that the group’s revenue should be around $ 30 billion, thereby placing the company among the best 120 companies in the world.”

PMS delivery date

Last week, during a visit by the leadership of the senate, led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, to the premises of Dangote Refinery, some of the legislators who had not visited the site were left to marvel at the size of the complex.  The question always asked by Nigerians about the refinery is focused mainly on the delivery day when Premium Motor Spirit, PMS (otherwise known as petrol) would flow.  Yes, they should be concerned, not with the price of petrol hovering around N600 and 800 per litre, depending on which part of the country you reside or you are to buy from.  

In responding to the question, Dangote explained: “It is good for us to test all the types of crudes that we are receiving. You know sometimes you can buy crude and people can give you the one that has a lot of metal or a lot of sulphur.  But the most important thing is that we know West Africa is a home for dumped bad fuel and bad Petroleum products.  This lab that we have here you can not even find it in Saudi Aramco because we have the latest and we can test anything be it aviation fuel, diesel, gasoline and kerosene and it will give you the actual result.  The longest time a test will take here is 30 mins.  As for PMS, it will start coming out by 10/15 of July.  We want to keep it in the tank to make sure that it settles, and by the third week in July, we want to be able to take it into the market.”

Revelations from Afreximbank meeting in Bahamas

Last week, Dangote made some disclosures at the Afreximbank Annual Meetings, Dangote likened the oil cartels to a mafia stronger than the drug mafia hell-bent on maintaining their grip on the industry.

He said:  “Well, I knew that there would be a fight. But I didn’t know that the mafia in oil, they are stronger than the mafia in drugs. I can tell you that. Yes, it’s a fact.   But I’m a person who has been fighting all my life. You know, so I think it’s part of my life to fight.  As a matter of fact, during the COVID period, some of the international banks really were looking forward to making sure that they pushed us into the default of our loans so that the project would just be dead. And that didn’t happen with the help of banks like Afreximbank.”

Dangote also disclosed that he has paid off $2.4bn of the $5.5bn borrowed for the Lagos-based refinery.

[Vanguard]

The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) says Hauwa’u Abdulkarim, provost of the Federal College of Education (Technical) in Gusau, Zamfara state, has refused to vacate office despite the forgery allegation against her.

Smart Olugbeko, the president of COEASU, also alleged that Abdulkarim forged the promotion documents that qualified her to be appointed as the provost of the college by the federal government.

In a statement sent to TheCable, Olugbeko said the education ministry has failed to enforce Abdulkarim’s resignation for over six months since the allegation came to the fore.

Daily Trust had reported that a December 2023 letter from the education ministry pointed out that one of the “cardinal eligibility criteria” for being appointed as a provost is that an academic must have served as a college “chief lecturer” for a cumulative period of five years.

The letter was quoted to have stated that Abdulkarim had not served the stipulated period at the time of her application for the post.

“FME investigative committee’s finding that you only got your promotion to the post of chief lecturer in 2023, contrary to your representation to the college’s council selection board that you got the said promotion in 2017,” the letter partly read.

“This fact/finding was equally corroborated by your (former) employer, Shehu Shagari College of Education vide your records of service made available to the committee.”

Olugbeko said Abdulkarim has refused to vacate office as provost despite the misrepresentation alleged by the education ministry.

The COEASU president said the ministry has “condoned” her continued stay in office “in defiance of the resignation order” of 2023.

“The ministry’s directive for her resignation was on the premise that she forged her letter of promotion for her to be qualified to be appointed the provost,” Olugbeko said.

“Six months after the directive, she has neither resigned nor vacated her office. She continued to superintend over the institution, taking critical decisions as provost.

“The union is worried that the ministry’s obvious inaction on the matter, which has emboldened the woman to hang on to office, portends grave implications on not only the education of the students but also their ethical training.”

Olugbeko called on Tahir Mamman, the minister of education, to intervene.

“It is imperative that appointments within our educational institutions are based on merit, competency, and adherence to established qualifications criteria,” he added.

“We trust that the honourable minister will act swiftly and decisively to rectify this situation and uphold the integrity of the college of education system.”

[TheCable]

The unfortunate misstep and subsequent fall of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during this year's Democracy Day celebrations ( which he has since humorously dismissed as a form of Yoruba "dobale" -genuflection )-quickly swirled around and became the stuff of internet gossip and street-corner small-talk. Reactions varied widely but, many tended to make light of it, while others (the usual suspects?) saw it as evidence of the President’s physical incapacity to cope with the tedious demands of his office. Political opportunism also set in, with yet others seeing the mishap as an “I-told you-so moment”, openly voicing their belief that the President's main opponents in the last election - Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi (particularly the latter) – would not have suffered that fate, given their presumed better physical fitness. 

Some of these remarks were, undoubtedly, uncharitable – especially in the lead-up to the Muslim festival of Id-el-Adha (or Sallah) just a few days away. President Tinubu is, of course, a Muslim. As a fellow human being, he deserves our sympathy and prayers for sound health – an indispensable requirement for the rigours of that job, popularly believed to be one of the most demanding and powerful in the world. With power surely comes huge responsibility and citizens' expectations for performance. Whether the President scores a pass mark or not in terms of job approval rating is for history (or posterity) to judge. One year is certainly too short to make the conclusion that he has failed. So, let us collectively hold our fire and bid our time. But even at that, no one can deny the fact that Nigerians are in theirs worst years, dying of hunger,squalor and wretchedness. The middle class has been wiped out with less than one percent of state captors enjoying national largesse.Perhaps, the second year in office would be a more appropriate time to asseess him to determine whether the IMF and World Bank-induced economic policies will boost production, create jobs,bring down prices and alleviate the suffering of the Nigerian masses. Suffice it to say that to me,it is yet still early in the day and the jury is still outl.

This is all the more so, in my opinion, because, history is replete with world leaders who put a physical foot (or both feet) wrong (some more than once) and got up, dusted themselves and forged ahead, stamping their feet (pun intended!) on the sands of time, leaving indelible footprints and track records of achievement and performance on the job and in history.The following are a few examples: 

I. President Joe Biden: He has famously stumbled on the steps of Air-Force One on at least three occasions, getting back on his feet each time, unassisted and moving on. He is 81 and warming up to run for a second term against maverick Donald Trump.

II. Former President Gerald Ford: One of the most accident-prone world leaders ever , dead or alive,was former US President Gerald Ford. His catalogue of falls spanned virtually every surface, including aircraft steps (again!) while on a visit to Austria in 1975 when his bum knee gave way. He even fell on the stairs of the White House. Though the official reason for this was a bad knee gave way, this did not stop cynics from tagging him as something of a bumbling klutz! Yet, Ford is remembered for managing the worst economy in the four decades after the great depression augmented by spiralling inflation and recession.

III. Ronald Reagan: Yet another former American President, he also endured a similar indignity in 1984 in Seattle, Washington. Luckily for him, it was not captured on video and only still images thereof exist of his so-called pratfall. But he went on to impact on America with his Reaganomics,overhauling the income tax code exempted millions of low income earners.His charm, eloquence and courage after the assassination attempt on him remarkably revived America's pride in the presidency and the nation. 

IV. Barack Obama: This first black American President whose grandfather was a Kenyan cattle rearer also came a-cropper when, sometime in 2015, his trademark sprightly confident jaunt failed him while disembarking from Air Force One. He ended up in a heap, needing no less than 12 stitches to his hip.

V. Hillary Clinton: While the husband of the former First Lady was dodged more by salacious ex-marital stories than physical falls, his wife probably took ‘the Fall’ (pun intended!) when, as Secretary of State to former President Obama, she stumbled while on her way to her car at the State Department, fracturing her elbow in the process.

VI. Robert Mugabe: Sometime in 2015, the former Zimbabwean President Mugabe was famously captured prostrate on a red carpet following a fall at a public event.

VII. Margaret Thatcher: Britain’s first female Prime Minister ( "iron lady" ) also came ‘crashing down’ sometime in 1982 while on a trip to China, as she made her way out of a Town Hall (no pun intended!).

VIII. Thorning-Schmidt: Also in 2015, the then Prime Minister of Denmark (also female) lost her footing and landed on her knees as she disembarked the stairs of the Elysee Palace in Paris, France. 

IX. Xi Jinping: the incumbent President of China, came close to falling down during the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg in Russia in 2019, but for eagle-eyed aides who stepped in at the last moment. 

X. Boris Johnson: Another former British Prime Minister, he also lost his balance when he tripped and fell during a military commemorative event in 2015.

XI. Vladimir Putin: Russia’s long-reigning president also fell during a game of ice hockey in Moscow in 2019 when he (ironically) tried to applaud spectators.

Even former Vice President Mike Pence tripped while running up the steps of Airforce One in a remarkably similar circumstances as President Joe Biden. In July, 2023,Fiji Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka,was forced to cancel an official visit to China after falling and hurting his head.

The foregoing shows that President Tinubu is in good company when it comes to presidential falls and that, as stated by a famous sage, it is not falling that matters, but rising each time you fall. However, beyond merely getting up and forging ahead, it is the kind of legacy one lives behind - what one will be remembered for-that counts. Therefore, let us all collectively and individually join hands in the spirit of goodwill echoed by the words of our old (now new) national anthem, in wishing the President a successful (and accident-free!) tenure. We cannot afford for him to fall and fail because we shall be the worse for it and bear the brunt together. The circumstances of his fall, are, however, reminders of the labors of our heroes past (a verse from our now discarded national anthem!) – this time the presumed winner of the June 1993 President, Chief M.K.O. Abiola,who was matyred in redemptive messiahnism.

In this connection, I commend former President Muhammadu Buhari ( as I did in 2018,even though he was not my idea of a good president) for ensuring that the National Assembly passed the requisite law, by which June 12 of every year ( rather than May 29) is marked as a public holiday. I recall my remarks on this issue 6 years ago, on the passage of that law, when I observed as follows;  

“On June 12, 2014, I moved a motion at the National Conference that, not only should June 12 be declared a national holiday and the real Democracy day, but that Chief M.K.O. Abiola and all the souls of the faithful departed of those who gallantly lost their lives fighting for the realization of June 12, be remembered and immortalized. I demanded for one minute's silence for those heroes. The leadership of the Conference led by Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi agreed with me and a minute silence was accordingly observed. To me, it is not the right argument that PMB, did it for political reasons. Yes, he may very well have done it to shore up his battered political image and fast dwindling democratic credentials. But, the inescapable fact is that he has done the right thing for which history will remember him. This is the more reason, I believe the argument should now go, why he should retire quietly to his Daura home, having done one great thing for which he would be remembered.” ( see https//:diplomaticwatch.com,june-12-as-nigeria's-democracy-day-president-buhari-has-done-the-right-thing-for-which-hhistory-will-rremember-him-ozekhomee-san , june 8,2012).

Lessons of June 2012

I believe that the best way President Tinubu can demonstrate that he has learned the lesson of the tragic events in our national history which that day represents is captured in my advice a year ago. As they it still very pertinent, I would like to reiterate it here: 

“What this present government led by President Bola Tinubu should borrow from the June 12 lesson, is good governance of peoples’ policy and not anti-people's that will further impoverish the already beleaguered people, who are already prostrate on their bellies. Policies that will make life better for the people. But, most importantly, Tinubu must listen to this, even if it is few things he can do. He must take steps to give Nigerians, a peoples’ Constitution, people-driven Constitution made by the people themselves, subjected to a referendum. You cannot amend the present Constitution which is a schedule actually attached to Decree 24 of 1999. It’s a militarily imposed Constitution. No amount of amendment can cure it of its original sin for being made by the military and not by Nigerian people. Even the preamble that says we the peoples of Nigeria do hereby give to ourselves the following Constitutions tells a lie about itself. Therefore, Tinubu must take deliberate steps, to ensure that the Constitution drafting committee, through a constituent assembly of the people, is established and the product that will emerge from it will give Nigeria a true federal system, not the present unitary system where the Federal government controls 67 items on the exclusive legislative list up to how you conduct your marriage through the marriage Act. Until he (Tinubu) makes a people's Constitution subjected to referendum which will enjoy peoples’ legitimacy as was done in Iraq, Iran, Eritrea, South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia, Kenya,until he takes that deliberate step, Nigeria will continue to suffer of perpetual motion on its axis without progress.” ( see https://www.naijanews.com/2023/06/12/democracy-day-what-tinubu-govt-should-borrow-from-june-12-lesson-ozekhome,12th June,2023). It is clear to me therefore that there is no nexus between the falling of a President and his failure or success. We have all,at one point in time or the other tripped and fallen. It has nothing to do with age-whether old or young. It is just a natural phenomenon to lose balance and fall. Isaac Newton's Law of Motion regarding gravitational force teaches us that much. It is therefore unhelpful to make a big issue of Tinubu 's misstep and fall on June 12,Democracy Day. Given the excruciatingly difficult times we are in,we appear to have completely lost our decency, humanity and sense of empathy,care and affection one for the other.It does not matter whether it is the President or the common man.We must desist from this ungodly trajectory and allow our religious teachings temper our political cravings for blood and vendetta with Godliness.God bless Nigeria.

IN 1987, the then Federal Military Government led by President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida IBB set up an electoral body – the National Electoral Commission NEC to midwife a robust transition to civil rule political programme. This columnist was deployed from the Nigerian Television Authority NTA, to serve as the pioneer Director of Public Affairs of the Commission.

This positioned me to observe a number of things about politics and elections in Nigeria. I once came across a pamphlet titled ‘future heroes of Nigeria’s democracy’ compiled by a non-governmental organization identifying some well-known politicians that would likely succeed the military. But from my interactions with several politicians, I had huge doubts that many of the listed political leaders would readily choose to undergo danger and pain for the sake of democracy.

One sign that my fears were real was how the political class managed the emergence of political associations that would later be registered as political parties. The anti-democratic practices by which our leading politicians implemented the subject were disheartening. For example, to establish a huge followership, the 13 associations presented several large boxes containing membership lists as part of the requirements for registration as political parties. 

During the verification of samples of the lists, the electoral commission found bogus submissions populated by fake and ghost names. Even when two of the 13 political associations – the National Republican Convention NRC and the Social Democratic Party SDP were eventually registered as political parties, there was no evidence that our politicians were prepared to play the game of politics by its rules.

While there was a point in the criticism that the military’s transition programme was circuitous, I saw clearly that the political class largely abetted the meandering nature of the programme. For instance, the first of the party primaries held by the NRC and SDP which were won by Adamu Ciroma and General Shehu Yar’Adua respectively were cancelled by government only because on a daily basis, party members and defeated candidates came forward with reports of a plethora of unwholesome practices which they claimed aided the winners. Why did democrats introduce anti-democratic practices into party prima- ries which they themselves conducted?

The annulment of the famous June 12 1993 presidential election was no doubt an error by the military, but several so-called democrats were also active participants in the conspiracy. During the collation of election results, representatives of the NRC- the party that lost the election – were fully aware that Moshood Abiola, the candidate of the SDP was the clear winner of the election. Yet, many of their members colluded with ambitious soldiers to scuttle the election. In addition, signs that the annulment could happen were already clear to the politicians some 48 hours earlier when the electoral commission was stopped from further posting election results on the big score boards installed by its premises for public viewing. Painfully, the expectation that the political class would close ranks and thereby dissuade the military from annulling an election recognized internationally as Nigeria’s best, simply evaporated.

Instead, unlike principled democrats, they exploited the stalemate to pollute the environment with false allegations. Indeed, officials of the SDP, the victorious party, were themselves too scared to claim their own victory. It is thus quite laughable to see some of such officials claiming today to be heroes of democracy when they did not put up any opposition to the emergence of an unelected interim government led by Chief Earnest Shonekan. In other climes, true democrats would have unanimously and unequivocally denounced all the undemocratic activities especially the mandate of the convoluted interim government to arrange for the conduct of fresh elections.

A few months later, the military, in line with their own script, returned to government under the leadership of General Sani Abacha. Again, officials of the NRC and SDP accepted to serve as Ministers of such an anti- democratic government amidst the continued efforts by MKO Abiola to pursue his mandate fully given by the electorate. The arguments of such opportunistic appointees that they were advised to join the government so as to fight for democracy from within or that Abiola gave them his consent were ludicrous especially when compared with the upright stance of the irrepressible human rights activist, Gani Fawehinmi against continued military rule. In fact, Gani publicly revealed that he turned down General Abacha’s offer for him to serve as Attorney- General and Minister of Justice adding that he told the General to hand over power to MKO Abiola if he wanted history to be kind to him.

With many so-called democrats as willing partners, General Abacha stabilized as the new head of state of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. He even organized a transition programme designed to succeed himself using many politicians as fronts and agents. Indeed, all the five registered political parties at the time agreed to nominate Abacha as the flag-bearer of each of them! If General Abacha had outlived his self-succession programme, Nigerian politicians would have happily crowned him the first elected civilian president after military rule. The point must however be made that as military head of state, Abacha ruled the country with iron fist. He arrested and detained MKO Abiola who eventually died in detention and harassed into exile, every politician who refused to support his transition programme just as the few who remained at home were greatly traumatized.

It is from this latter group that we can find heroes of democracy led by Abiola. But there is doubt if such heroes are as many as people claim or that many of them were actually altruistic. I am unable to accept, for example, that anyone who served in Abacha’s military government can be counted among heroes of democracy. It is similarly unfair to recognize as heroes, those who went into trenches to fight military rule but returned later only to become enmeshed in undemocratic practices. Such persons readily belong to a group that only struggled to get into government to garner materialism and other perquisites of office. It would amount to a substantial derogation of democratic heroism to by whatever imagination elevate such pseudo democrats to the position of heroes of democracy.

The first feature of democracy is the sovereignty of the people. Everything done in a democracy is expected to be done on behalf of the people to whom all power belongs. In a democracy, the people are the subject and never the objects of governance. Can Nigeria, where the people’s representatives live in affluence at the expense of the toiling masses be described as a democratic society? The rule of law, a second feature of democracy which presupposes the equality of everyone before the law has never happened in Nigeria. Instead, office-holders often criminalize political dissent using a variant of the obsolete colonial law of sedition to arrest and detain anyone who seeks to hold them accountable. On their part, those who lose elections that should energize democracy through robust opposition, merely decamp to the ruling party for appointments.

Free and fair elections which constitute another feature of democracy have remained unattainable in Nigeria. To start with, each ruling party always assaults the independence of our electoral body by including politicians in the body which is legally expected to be an impartial umpire in the game of elections. Why must huge sums of money that would have been better deployed towards societal development be unnecessarily squandered on phoney elections especially at local government level? Although the judiciary had held in 2014 that the military should not be part of elections, the situation is yet to change just as our police have continued to wrongly disallow pub- lic protests which are an integral part of democracy.

For putting a blind eye to legislators’ inexplicable sal- aries/allowances, fake constituency projects and budget padding, our executive branch is left unchecked by the legislature contrary to what obtains elsewhere. Even loans to be repaid by future generations are hardly scrutinized to identify their probative value before approval. In the Judiciary, many judges are entangled in conflicting judgments that put them far away from their traditional rating as bastion of democracy. Searching for true heroes of democracy in Nigeria is thus a herculean task. Those involved in the search must strategically apply empirical criteria so as to avoid the likely possibili- ty of an inadvertent mix-up of political gladiators with true heroes.