The Belgium government has sounded a warning that it is not easy to survive in Belgium, albeit Europe without a decent job.

Belgium also expressed concern over the spike in some asylum seekers from Nigeria in the post-COVID era, saying it has increased from 50 to 380 in 2023.

Freddy Roosemont, Director General, Office of Foreigners, Belgium barked out the warning while addressing journalists in Abuja on Friday.

Roosemont said right now there is no space for people to migrate to in his country, as lots of irregular migrants end up on the streets.

He therefore stressed that most dreams of a better life in Europe are nothing but eldorado; adding that it’s a dream and not a reality.

He said: “First of all, informing the people correctly, because that they often leave with a dream. If I say to the investor, you’re gonna win the lottery next week and it’s going to bring you a million euros and he believes me it will be a dream, is that dream realistic? Not at all.

“So first of all, you have to take away the dream. The dream is not real. That’s why I’m telling you and I hope that through you, the public is aware that dream is not real.

“It’s not easy to survive in Europe, without a decent job and without sort of being an employer or by a university. The dream is fake.

“The second thing is, of course, we have legal migration, but legal migration will not be for 10,000 for 5000 people. It will be for some people who have gone through some conditions. Somebody who wants to study in Belgium is very welcome. But he first has to show to the university that he will be capable of following the studies there in English, that if he’s studying medicine he has a sort of basics to study medicine, and if he wants to become an engineer, that he has a technical knowledge that he is good in maths and so on. So there it’s the division University is going to select who they let it was not only from Nigeria, it’s from everywhere in the world like that.

“The work possibilities are there, but it will be a Belgium employer who is looking for somebody who can fill a position in his company, and he has connections, he knows that you’re capable of doing so that he asks at the Belgium service of labour if he can contact you give you a contract and get you over family reunification is easy to do.

“So you need a family you need a wife and your children. But those three are the three main levels of legal migration.”

He also warned that coming to Belgium to seek asylum would not work, as there is a low chance of obtaining a residence permit.

“So at that moment, we have to limit the reception of asylum seekers only to people who are vulnerable and that means families, women with children. No man alone, not in that group.

“So for the moment there are lots of these asylum seekers living in Brussels on the street, and I can assure you the temperature in Brussels is not what it is here in Abuja. It got to minus seven, minus five. Now it’s around zero Celsius.

“So it’s really not easy to survive in Brussels without help without assistance.

“We are by law obliged to give that assistance but we simply can’t do it because places are filled up or simply filled up. It’s a very painful situation for Belgium, but it’s like that if you look at the newspapers, if you look at the journals, if you walk in the streets in Brussels, you’re going to see everywhere, people sleeping on the streets and people trying to survive without any help.

“Secondly, we also see that a lot of people, especially girls are forced into prostitution in the big cities.

 “If we find girls like that, we try to help them we try to help them to come to come them the people come keep guilty of that.”

He also added that certain procedures in the Belgium Justice Department would help girls who want to leave the profession. So we get quite good information about what they have to do and what they earn. And they earn nothing, their passport will be taken away from them. Their humanity will be taken away from them and they will end up there and that’s why you have to inform your public, the people of Nigeria, the youth of Nigeria that things like that are still going on in Europe and Belgium.

Roosemont pleaded with the media to help educate the people, saying “Notifying the youth that it’s not the dream to go to Europe to go to Belgium is not realistic and it’s very dangerous. So that’s why I making that brief. That’s also the reason why we were here in Nigeria the last week to try to inform the youth directly or indirectly, that the thing that they hope is not realistic. It’s a very dangerous thing.”

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday dismissed a preliminary objection challenging the competence of the Inspector General of  Police to prosecute them on terrorism-related offences.

The defendants Chime Eguma Ezebalike, Prince Lukman Oladele, Kenneth Goodluck Kpasa, Osiga Donald, and Ochueja Thankgod, who are loyalists of the Rivers state governor, Simialayi Fubara, are standing trial on terrorism-related charges and alleged murder.

The IGP had instituted the charges against them following their alleged role in the bombing of the Rivers State House of Assembly in October 2023.

When the charges were read to the defendants, they all pleaded not guilty.

In a preliminary objection filed through their counsel,  the defendants urged the court to stop the trial of the terrorism-related offence preferred against them as only the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice could try them on such an offence.

Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon, in a ruling on their preliminary objections on Friday, held that the defendants were wrong in their claims that only the AGF can put them on trial.

Justice Olajuwon said that the law, especially sections 3, 63, and 74 of the Terrorism Prevention Act, were clear to the effect that the AGF is Constitutional. Power to strengthen the terrorism prevention law, the same sections did not confer the exclusive rights to prosecute on the AGF.

The Judge said that while section 5 of the Terrorism Prevention Act confers the responsibility of gathering intelligence and investigation on police, the same section donated rights to Police to initiate criminal charges in a competent court of jurisdiction.

Specifically, Justice Olajuwon held that while the AGF, under section 174 of the 1999 Constitution, can lawfully take over, continue, or terminate any initiated criminal charges, such right did not make trial an exclusive right of the AGF.

“From the cursory look at all the authorities cited by lawyers for and against the IGP rights to initiate the instant criminal proceedings, one thing is clear too, that police can rightly initiate criminal charges including terrorism charges”.

The Judge said that the preliminary objections to the trial by the defendants were incompetent and lacking in merit.

Olajuwon subsequently dismissed their objections.

After the ruling, the counsel for the first and second defendants, Lukman Fagbemi (SAN), urged the court to grant bail to his clients.

But the counsel for the prosecution, Simon Lough (SAN), opposed the application.

Justice Olajuwon, however, fixed Monday, February 5, for ruling on their respective bail applications.

Justice Olajuwon ordered that the five defendants be returned to Kuje Prison in Abuja pending the decision of the Court on whether to allow them on bail or not.

[Punch]

. . . fourth time is less than 14 months

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has approved an increase in the import duty rate by 43 percent.

Importers and stakeholders in trading woke up on Friday to find the increase in the exchange rate, which before now was set at N951.842 per $1 as of December 2024, taken up to N1356.42.

Reacting to the development, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprises, CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, expressed shock at the development, saying that the increase will further worsen the already bad economic situation.

Yusuf wondered if anybody was advising the Governor of the CBN on the implications of these actions.

He said, “I am shocked at the development, I mean with all these suffering, with all these costs, we have not recovered from the unification of the exchange rate they just did, now another increase in duty.

“This increase will definitely affect every area of our economic life, already; we recorded a drop in the volume of import last year, so you imagine what will happen with this increment.

“The sharp depreciation and the increment of import duty will no doubt affect the volume of trade because the cost of import is going to increase significantly and this will affect practically all the key components of cost.

“That is the cost of transportation, the cost of shipment, the cost of clearing and this will slow down the velocity and the tempo of activities in the maritime sector. And that tempo has already reduced anyway and it further reduces.”

He warned against the upward review of the exchange rate for the computation of import duty, adding that it would be devastating for both the economy and the citizens.

Speaking in a similar vein, former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Mr. Hassan Bello, said that the velocity of the exchange rate is affecting every sector of the economy, adding that the country needs to export more than import.

He said, “As the Naira further depreciates against the Dollar, we will have less importation.”

[Vanguard]

I WILL be surprised if truthfully, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, is surprised by the exit of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic from the organisation.

The countries had in a joint statement on Sunday, January 29, 2024 announced on their state television stations, an immediate withdrawal, alleging that ECOWAS had “moved away from the ideals of its founding fathers and pan-Africanism.”

In an obvious reference to an initial threat by ECOWAS to militarily invade Niger and restore civilian rule, the troika claimed: “Furthermore, ECOWAS, under the influence of foreign powers, betraying its founding principles, has become a threat to its member states and its populations whose happiness it is supposed to ensure.”

They claimed that while pursuing punitive sanctions against them, ECOWAS “… notably failed to assist these states in their existential fight against terrorism and insecurity.”

 The Commission’s unserious response was that it is “… yet to receive any direct formal notification from the three member states about their intention to withdraw from the Community”.

The withdrawal is not an “intention” as ECOWAS claims, but a done deal as the three countries made public and formal statements withdrawing from ECOWAS. It is another matter if they decide not to bother sending a formal withdrawal notification to ECOWAS. I am not sure there is any court or power that can force the countries to give the mandatory one year notice of withdrawal.

Also, ECOWAS seeks to give the impression that it was caught off guard by the decision of the troika. This is not good for the image of the Commission because the three countries had in the past four months clearly shown by their deeds and utterances, that they are leaving ECOWAS.

For instance, on September 16, 2023, they announced the formation of what was essentially a parallel commission called the Alliance of Sahel States, ASS (French: l’Alliance des États du Sahel, AES).

The announced objectives of the ASS include mutual defense, economic and monetary union and a common currency called Sahel. These three objectives are in fact, more concrete than those of ECOWAS which after 49 years of existence, has no defence pact, is still far from being an effective economic union, and whose common currency, the ECO, is virtually stillbirth. So, with the ASS in place, how can ECOWAS be surprised by the formal exit of those countries?

Three days before the announced withdrawal, an ECOWAS Ministerial Mission to Niamey, Niger Republic, to discuss the future of the country with the ruling junta did not show up. ECOWAS blamed this on technical issues with the aircraft it had chartered. It speaks volumes about the competence of ECOWAS that there was no alternative arrangement for such an important delegation after the Ministers might have flown to Abuja from their various countries.

The withdrawal of the three countries, whose size constitutes 54 per cent of the total ECOWAS landmass, should call for a state of emergency, including an Extraordinary Summit of the Heads of State.

So, even if the reasons the countries have given for the withdrawal are self-serving, ECOWAS ought to look into them, respond accordingly and take immediate steps to mend the cracks. The Commission folding its hands, waiting for the mandatory one-year withdrawal notice, is not a viable option. This is more so, when there is a high probability of Guinea, another member country under military rule, joining the new alliance.

If the ASS thrives, the possibility of more countries in the region joining it is high. If that were to be the case, ECOWAS would split into two and some countries may have one leg each in the two regional bodies.

In truth, ECOWAS suffers from lack of focus, vision and strategic thinking. In 2017, it bogged itself down with the completely unnecessary intrigues of whether or not Morocco, a country in North Africa, should be admitted into its fold.

ECOWAS sanctions against regimes ought to be handled in such a way that it would not adversely affect the collective fight against terrorism which envelops countries like Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad. Simply shutting in Niger, isolating it, imposing punitive sanctions, including food and electricity, and wanting to invade it, was not a wise decision.

Also, ECOWAS has failed to even discuss, not to talk of addressing the fundamental issues of France imposing its will on French-speaking ECOWAS countries, nakedly exploiting them, compelling them to under- sell their commodities, and forcing a currency regime on them.

Again ECOWAS seems to have a very narrow view of democracy as an electoral process to the exclusion of good governance and service delivery, as well as the welfare and security of the people.

Even its view of constitutional rule is parochial, as it does not take on board elected political leaders who rape the constitution. For instance, Cote d’Ivoire President, Alassane Ouattara, is on an illegal third term in office. His fellow pro-France friend, President Macky Sall of Senegal, tried to run for an unconstitutional third term which threw the country into chaos. Only an uprising stopped Blaise Campore from a third term in Burkina Faso, while the Guinean President Alpha Conde was ousted from office in September 2021, after he forced an unconstitutional third term on the populace.

Today, there are protests in Guinea Bissau against the government shutting down the National Peoples Assembly. As usual, ECOWAS has turned a blind eye, would not discuss such unconstitutional steps, and is unlikely to call the government to order.

So, there is an urgent need for ECOWAS to look inwards, refocus, rebuild and set goals, including greater trade amongst members, monetary and economic integration, common currency, and a defence pact. It also needs to aggregate the interests of the region and defend them against external interests. Most importantly, it needs to move from the Assembly of Heads of State with a tokenistic parliament and a court whose decisions are hardly respected to a union of peoples with sovereignty over all powers in the region.

Nigeria, whose population constitutes about half the 420 million people in West Africa and accounts for 77 per cent of its trade, is best placed to lead the ECOWAS reforms. However, it must first think clearly beyond its illusionary beliefs in so-called market forces, make governance people-driven than elite-centred, and be governed by monetary politics. It also needs to be independent of all countries no matter how powerful, rich or seemingly benevolent.

If Nigeria gets it right, West Africa is likely to get it right; if Nigeria is not shamed, ECOWAS will not be shamed. The cracks in ECOWAS need to be mended, not widened.

“The fraught debate on slavery is largely absent in Africa, even though Africans were deeply involved in the slave trade. Africans raided for slaves often in connivance with local chiefs and then acted as middlemen with European and Arab purchasers”. 

In sheer exasperation at the tragic enormity of it all, this subject matter grew out of a conversation I recently had with some friends. We wondered aloud why Nigeria and Africa appear stuck in the mud of underdevelopment with no discernable prospects of a silver lining in the dark horizon. Yet it is not the case that Nigeria has never experienced capacity for sustained development. The trio of Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ahmadu Bello were, without any equivocation, an advertisement for development oriented and utilitarian leadership. 

To put it in the horse’s mouth, here was Awolowo at his frank and assertive best (in 1955) “the British did not have the true interests of the country at heart. In fourteen months, under the present government, we have done more for Nigeria than the British did in 120 years.” In the defunct Eastern region, “after the implementation of Arthur D Little’s recommended growth plan, the East’s economy grew at more than 9.2%, starting from 1958 till 1967 when the war tragically interrupted the sterling momentum…At over 9%, the Eastern Region in this period, had the fastest growing economy on earth consistently for 9 years”.

Yet, here we are, several decades along, wondering whether the Hamitic hypothesis of the congenital servitude of the black race was true after all. How do we account for the prevalent vicious cycle of the comprehensive development failure of Nigeria and Africa from which there seems to be no way out?. What follows (essentially speculative) is an attempt to reexamine the nexus between this failure and the phenomenon of slavery from an entirely new perspective.

It is a metatheoretical  perspective that borrows from the philosophy of post modernism which rejects ‘concepts of rationality, objectivity, and universal truth and emphasizes the diversity of human experience and multiplicity of perspectives’. At the convocation ceremony of the University of Lagos Professor Toyin Falola demonstrated an aptitude for this tradition with his advocacy ‘that the Yoruba knowledge and divination system, Ifa, as well as witchcraft be more vigorously studied in Nigerian universities, taking better advantage of systems of knowledge developed by Africans’.

Integral to the unholy trinity of slavery, imperialism and racism, it is trite to restate the truism that the injury dealt to Africa by slavery is monumental, colossal and unparalleled. To bring back the subject matter to focus, we will do well to refresh our memory with the recall of a number of apt iconic recollections. 

In a recent review of Walter Rodney’s classic “how Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, George Apata restated Rodney’s position on slavery: “Slavery was not only one of the greatest forced migrations of people in human history, but it was also possibly the greatest evacuation of manpower from one part of the world to another. The estimated 10-12 million Africans that were removed from the continent over a period of five centuries had a great impact on African underdevelopment. The consequence of this forced migration not only depleted but deprived Africa of its ablest young men and women, the very manpower that was required for development”. 

Peter Ekeh had this to say “African states in the pre-slave trade era decidedly attained greater cultural heights than the states operating  under the aegis of the violence of the slave trade. In this respect, a condition of cultural creativity .. . is most unlikely to belong to the kind of state that owes its existence or its greatness to slavery or the slave trade. [It is remarkable] that the acknowledged masterpieces of the Benin and Ife artists were produced before the end of the seventeenth century and that aesthetic decadence set in precisely when the slave trade was becoming the dominant mode of economic and social life”

Less said is the culpability of Africans in this historic injury. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani pointedly drew attention to this lapse in the observation that “the fraught debate on slavery is largely absent in Africa, even though Africans were deeply involved in the slave trade. Africans raided for slaves often in connivance with local chiefs and then acted as middlemen with European and Arab purchasers. She recounts stories of the ambivalence of at least some Africans about the role of their ancestors in the slave trade. She reports that Donald Duke, former governor of Cross river state and a good-government presidential candidate in the 2019 Nigerian elections, acknowledges that his ancestors participated in the slave trade. However, Duke says “I’m not ashamed of it because I personally wasn’t directly involved.”

In the rise and fall of transatlantic slave trade, no figure looms larger than the celebrated American president, Abraham Lincoln. Highly reputed for his eloquence and deep insight into the dilemma of mankind, he adjudged slavery as a sin that inherently invites retribution. Noted Lincoln “One eighth of the whole population (of the United States) were coloured slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localised in the Southern part of it. 

These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the civil war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it”. 

“Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces;  Fondly do we hope–fervently do we pray–that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”

The related theme of the”Hamitic hypothesis”, originally referred to the peoples said to be descended from Ham, one of the sons of Noah. According to the Book of Genesis, after Noah became drunk and Ham dishonoured his father, upon awakening Noah pronounced a curse on Ham’s youngest son, Canaan, stating that his offspring would be the “servants of servants”. Of Ham’s four sons, Canaan fathered the Canaanites, while Mizraim fathered the Egyptians, Cush the Cushites, and Phut the Libyans. According to the Hamitic theory, this “Hamitic race” was superior to or more advanced than the “Negroid” populations of Sub-Saharan Africa”.

Beyond being totally discredited, my difficulties with the Hamitic theory centre on the fact that it is scriptural rather than factual. We have no way of finding out whether indeed there was a Noah who begot the children attributed as his progeny. Second is that, if indeed there was such a parentage and bloodline, the sin of stealing a glance at a father’s nakedness is incomparable to selling off a sibling. If we accept the Hamitic hypothesis, then there will be no further need to seek explanation for slavery. 

My speculation is that beyond the manifest, material and historic devastation and arrested development wrought on Africa by slavery, there is the sin of the spiritual culpability of Africans themselves in enslaving and casting away their own into the cauldron and oblivion of sub-human existence. Quite reminiscent of the wickedness of the older children of Jacob, who sold their junior brother, Joseph, into slavery. We were similarly informed in Genesis, that ‘Abel, a shepherd, offered the Lord the firstborn of his flock. The Lord respected Abel’s sacrifice but did not respect that offered by Cain. In a jealous rage, Cain murdered Abel. Cain then became a fugitive because his brother’s innocent blood put a curse on him’. 

In my imagination, so, likewise, has Africa invited a curse on itself for its unforgivable dealership in the beastly market of the slave trade. Of great consequence were the silent invocation of damnation of those condemned to eternal servitude by their kit and kin- as they were herded onto the decks of the evil carriers taking them on a voyage of no return.. Between the African partakers and their Euro/American counterparts, the balance of sinning more than being sinned against falls on the former. It may amount to double jeopardy, yet if there should be a divine retribution, it should fall more heavily on those who connived with foreigners to dehumanise their brethren. 

But what about the other party to the tragedy?. It appears that a specific and adequate retribution was provided by the American civil war in which brothers spilled one another’s blood over the institution of slavery. As eloquently stated by Lincoln “if God wills that the civil war should continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”. 

Why, then, for instance, was the United Kingdom, UK, spared a similar slavery- specific retributive justice? I do not have an answer to this poser beyond being granted a providential reprieve on account of the proactive role of the British in the abolition of slave trade. And Europe as a whole? Again, I cannot stretch my imagination beyond the tenuous interpretation of the visitation of the two world wars as retribution. . 

What about Donald Duke and the scriptural penalty of visiting the sin of the fathers on the offspring? Well, God asked me to tell him to set his mind at rest. In the book of Romans: “The apostle Paul argues that, from a certain point of view, human sin and death are a corporate problem rather than an individual one. 

Prices of imported goods and services will increase, thereby, fuelling inflation as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), adjusted the exchange rate from N951.941/$1 to N1,356.883/$1.

LEADERSHIP reports that financial experts have said until the exchange rate stabilises, inflation will not stabilise and will continue to soar in Nigeria.

Our Correspondent, however, gathered that the adjustment was made midnight by the CBN, meaning the cost of clearing cargoes in the nation’s seaports will automatically go up

It could be recalled that the CBN on June 24, 2023 adjusted the exchange rate from N422.30/$1 to N589/$1 and on July 6, 2023 it was adjusted to N770.88/$1, on November 14, 2023, it was adjusted to N783.174/$1, December 7, 2023, it was adjusted to N951.941/$1 and currently, it is N1,356.883/$1.

Clearing agents, however, stated that with N 404.942 increment, cargoes will be abandoned at the nation’s seaports while prices of goods will go up.

Confirming the development, a clearing agent, Chukwu Ikemefuna, said the CBN effected the increase on Trader Portal for Single Window by midnight.

Ikemefuna rued the increment, saying importers will now pay more for cargo clearance at the various seaports.

He stated that a lot of cargoes would be abandoned at the seaports because the differential was too wide for importers to bear.

“The federal government has increased the Dollar exchange rate, from N422.30 to N589.45 then to N770.88, in November, it was moved to N783.174, December 2023, we are at N951.941 to a dollar now, we N1,356.883/$1, this is too much,” Ikemefuna, a frontline clearing agent stated.

He continued, “What it implies in simple terms is that, if clearing agents have a Debit Note that has not been paid on the system or Pre-Arrival Assessment Results (PAAR) or they have given you the value and you have not captured, it has affected you directly.”

“We just believe that maybe with time, we will see low exchange rate and it will become beneficial to the importers as well because once there is a change in the portal, there is nothing anybody can do about it. But if you have captured or accessed your work, you are good to go and your consignment would be released for you if you don’t have any infraction.”

“Whether you have collected your value, whether you have a PAAR, if you have not done your assessment as of now, you can’t capture it with that old rate. Especially for the Roll On Roll Off (RORO) or those that are doing PAAR door to door. It’s a Federal government policy. We stakeholders can’t do anything for now, but it’s the prerogative of the FG to intervene and stabilise the foreign exchange market,” he stated.

There is an ongoing uproar on social media against organizations (both private and public) that hire the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members as associates and do not pay them at all or do not pay them well. There is a strong demand that such organizations should at least pay the corp members in their employ the minimum wage. 

This online protest, I can say started from an X  (twitter) user  posting that his primary place of assignment (PPA) pays him a meagre sum of N2000 as a monthly salary and he shared the receipt of payment for the month of January which was N2000. 

The million-dollar question is, are organizations that hire corp members statutorily obligated to pay them? 

The payment of “corpers” as we all know, does come directly from the government and legally speaking, there is nowhere it is provided in any statute that places Nysc members attached for their “PPA” should pay them at the end of the month.

What the NYSC act (cited as The national youth service corps act cap n84 lfn, 2004) provided in section 18 is that organizations should provide accommodation and means of transportation for the corpers in their employ and if there is no accommodation and means of transportation available, such organization should pay the corper 250 naira as an allowance for accommodation monthly and 150 naira as an allowance for transportation monthly. 

Here are the full provisions of section 18 of the NYSC Act which provided for the statutory requirements of employers to the Nysc associates;

S. 18: “An employer of corps members shall provide the following, that is (a) basic accommodation and where it is not available, pay the minimum sum of N250 per month in lieu of accommodation; 

• all welfare facilities normally provided for the regular staff including Medical Service
• transport or where it is not available, pay the minimum sum of Nl50 per month in lieu of transport”. 

Therefore, by statutory implication, employers are not statutorily obliged to pay their Nysc associates, it is a matter of personal volition that an employer can choose to pay an Nysc associate. No doubt that these laws are long due for amendments as they were passed in the 70s and have been extant till date when N250 cannot buy you a cup of rice. 

I for one no longer see the need for this mandatory one-year youth service and I have never failed to call for it to be scrapped whenever I get the opportunity, especially in my previous essays but if the government feel that the youth service corps should still be kept in operation then laws should be amended so that at least the Nysc associates should be paid, not just be paid, but be paid properly or at least paid they should be paid the minimum wage and be treated as workers (properly so called) and every rights and benefits that accrue to a Nigerian worker as provided in the labour act and other relevant statutes should be accruable to Nysc associates including right to fair wages/allowances, right to a paid leave, right to health benefits etc. 

On the other hand, organizations who apply/request for Nysc associates or accept Nysc associates should also be willing and eager to pay them. If you cannot afford to pay them, then you should not request them or accept them. Do not use corpers that you do not pay to boost your staff strength, that is wickedness, to say the least; even the holy book mandated that “a labourer deserves to be paid”.

Stanley Alieke is an Abuja based legal practitioner.

President/Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote has been conferred with the prestigious award of the National Order of the Lion by President Macky Sall of the Republic of Senegal. The National Order of the Lion Award is the highest civilian laurel to be bestowed on any individual in the West African country. The award ceremony will be held, in Senegal on Friday.

This highest recognition and honour was said to be in appreciation for the services Dangote has rendered to the Republic of Senegal as well as a tribute to his business acumen, philanthropy, and developmental projects, which are capable of transforming Africa as a whole. The Dangote Group has a Cement Plant in Pout, Senegal.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sent a congratulatory message to the frontline businessman on the award conferred on Dangote by the Senegalese Government.

In a press statement, signed by the Special Adviser, Media & Publicity to the President, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu applauded the industrialist for his enterprise and ingenuity, creating jobs and opportunities for many in Nigeria and across West Africa, as well as contributing to their economies, which the award further affirms. The President commended Mr. Dangote and wished him the very best in his endeavours.

Recall that, just recently, Dangote was also conferred with the Commander of the Order of Merit of Niger award by the President of the then Republic of Niger, His Excellency Mohamed Bazoum in Niamey. 

In the same vein, Dangote also bagged Nigeria’s second highest national honour, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), after the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) - an award which is only reserved for Nigerian Presidents and Heads of State. Dangote became the first individual outside government to receive this national honor. In the past, the GCON honour has only been awarded to Vice-Presidents, Chief Justices of the country, and Senate Presidents.

The new minimum wage demand rose from N200, 000 a month to N435, 500 because of the economic realities in the country.

The Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, Enugu State, Comrade Ben Asogwa, stated this in Enugu on Thursday in an interview.

Asogwa said the value of naira to a dollar when the N200, 000 was the benchmark had doubled, hence the demand for an increase from the earlier amount requested.

He said, “Let’s face the economic realities. If you look at the present monetary value, and what it was then, you will understand that the increase is in order. We are also trying to make the government understand how bad the economy has become. They should also evaluate what workers in other parts of the world earn compared to Nigeria.

“Nigeria is an importing nation, including importing the finished products of our natural resources exported in raw forms. Those in government have so much bastardised the economy. When we pegged the minimum wage at N200, 000, a dollar was around N700. But today, it is over N1400. The government should realize the injuries it has done to the economy.”

He said the review of the minimum wage was in accordance to the law, adding that, “By law, the minimum wage is reviewed every five years. It was last reviewed in 2019, hence this year is statutorily the year for another review.”

On how the new minimum wage would impact on non-civil servants, C Asogwa said, “The wage is not only for those who are government workers. The committee constituted for the negotiation comprises representatives of federal, state and the private sectors. It is also noteworthy that the economy revolves around workers’ salaries. When workers are paid well, traders sell better and the value chain continues.”

He blamed the dwindling of the nation’s economy to the removal of fuel subsidy without ensuring that Nigeria’s refineries were optimally functional, government’s inability to stabilize the dollars against the naira, and the country’s lack of production capacities.

He, however, admitted that the proposed N435, 500 new minimum wage is not static as it could be reviewed by the committee currently meeting with the federal government on the matter.