A playboy can play the field forever or till his penis drops off, or whichever one comes first. A play-girl? No she must retire quickly, indeed, before everyone notices what she does for a living.

A playgirl, a runs-girl, a courtesan or a high class call girl must know when to stop. Only dumb girls play the field endlessly. Is any playgirl reading this? Or is someone reading this who knows a playgirl? Pull her ears and tell her to pull back. A girl is expecting to be cool and good. This society, indeed, the African society does not take kindly to bad girls, even when it is the society that made them bad. Girls are not just expected to become playgirls just because life is tough. We are supposed to be as strong if not stronger than our mothers. It does not matter that the societyook the other way when it pats men on the back for being able to pay for thei 'playthings' , women still get blamed for the badness of everybody involved. And there are many people involved in the making of a playgirl or runs-girl. Yeah, like her parents who accept food items and gifts from their unemployed 18-year-old daughter.

So, is today about call girls and play things? Well, not totally. But it is about when to stop doing what is bad because it is time to try a good one. That a path is familiar and easy ride does not mean it will take you to a beautiful destination. Living a soft life is nice and cozy but it does not mean it is a good thing. Actually, soft life doesn’t last forever for girls. Comfort zone won’t always be comfortable. All soft girls with no vision and plans for tomorrow will eventually land hard on their backside because they bought no cushion for their future.

Little girl, so your breasts are firm and pointy now and your sugar daddies are sucking and complimenting you, you think that’s gonna last forever? How dumb can you be? Sugar daddies are wired that way. They are designed to suck and suck and compliment soft girls for their soft bosoms so they can suck some more. They are paying for the firm pointy thingies but because they want firm things, they do not stick around once what they are holding is no longer firm and succulent. Never mind that they contributed to the loss of succulence, many men just don’t want saggy ‘droopy’ stuff.

Yes, that’s why they left Madam at home. Because the once-upon-a-time firm twin peaks are no longer standing right. They are now looking at Madam’s toes.

Little lady, your cleavages won’t always be that tight and your tummy won’t always be firm. Your life won’t always be soft. You have predecessors and your successors are already lined up. You have a tenure and trust me, your impeachment will not be announced or debated. A soft girl’s tenure on the soft lane usually ends abruptly.

A more beautiful, better stacked girl will come on the scene. Her skin will be spotless, her legs straight and smooth disappearing into very voluptuous hips that leave a righteous man thinking unrighteousness things. In case you still don’t understand, picture this: one day, Chief is all over you, and the next you can’t reach all his lines.

That’s it. He has sworn-in your successor. It is what it is. No matter how delicious roasted corn is, nobody keeps the corn cobs. No matter how sweet an orange is, once the juice has been sucked and the fruit is flat, the dustbin or trash can is its next destination.

I confess that this piece was inspired by this young lady who used to flaunt her latest iPhone. I used to see her on my street. I was attracted to her attractiveness. Last week, she greeted me and what she holding was a small, really small phone. Yes, the #15,000 one. Her iPhone was stolen at a party and the torchlight phone was all she could afford. I later learnt that her ‘yahoo’ boyfriend has moved on to a more succulent orange and sisi is generally broke.

See? She’s been impeached without notice and given no opportunity to defend herself. That’s the way the cookies crumble.

Bone-straight wigs in all lenght, latest iPhones and skimpy dresses are the worst items a runs-girl can focus on. They are transient fashion. What we are wearing now, what’s in vogue now will be out next season. That you can tell a man to jump and he asked how high does not mean he will always be that attentive. As soon as your breasts start bowing before their maker and he’s bored with your wheel barrow position, access to his money may dry up . Omoge, buy yourself a plot of land instead of a dozen lace-front wigs. Start a business instead of investing only in phones. Improve yourself, take online courses and get out of the whore-zone.

Tell yourself, you are better than being any man’s plaything, because you are. Channel your skill-to-charm into acquiring further marketing skills. Don’t just sit on your pretty backside and wait to be thrown out of an apartment one man rented for you. Save yourself some water before the well dries up, because it will.

Convincing yourself or letting your fellow lazy bones friends convince you that this soft life is forever is one of the greatest disservice you can do to yourself. Your assets are depreciating. Your shares will loose value and you will eventually find out that a full bottle of foundation and concealer will not be able to conceal your age. Life will retire you and whether you hand over the baton in this relay race or not, you will be done one day, totally done.

Madam Kept-Woman, your High Chief keeper is most likely a lover passing by. He’s spoiling you now but don’t let it get into your head. You are already in your 40s. Shine you eyes. Owambe every Saturday shouldn’t be your priority. Aso-ebi every month means you are not as smart as you look. How much have you spent on Ankara, lace, Gele, Aso-Oke and Damask in the last six months. Do the math and ask yourself where you are wearing those ‘uniforms’ to in the next six months. That High Chief is generous this year doesn’t mean he’ll be next year. As an older woman, you should be smarter, not fritter away this benevolence. You won’t always be this desireable. Your sweet thing will not always be this sweet either.

Seriously, apart the terminal date of a woman’s sweetness and firmness, why will a runs-girl want to be a runs-girl forever? Only lazy dumb ones think that milk has no expiry date.

Me, I have seen bad girls become great wives and mothers because they knew when to stop. They took what they acquired and put it into what can last. They invested their knowledge and charm into making their marriages work. That is why you hear such questions as: Why do bad girls end up with the good guys? It is because some bad girls know when the evening market is over. They go home when they can still locate their wares. They invest wisely instead of paying for acquired bums and breasts. They invest their charms in their men and homes. They retire before they are retired.

In light of his planned astronomical hike in petrol prices euphemistically called “subsidy removal” in 2023, which his opponents also promised to implement and caused Nigerians embrace as inevitable and desirable, I foretold the imminent social convulsion that is gathering momentum across Nigeria now.

 “I can assure Tinubu that if petrol price hikes deepen people’s misery, he’ll have a tough time governing,” I wrote in my April 29, 2023, column. I followed this up with more than half a dozen columns on the same theme.

When you remove subsidies from an all-important product like petrol that literally regulates every facet of life in a country like Nigeria, which also has the dubious honor of being in perpetual competition with India for the status of the world's poverty capital, and then follow it up with a massive devaluation of the national currency even when the country is hopelessly import-dependent, you unleash existential demons that compel vast swaths of people to choose between life and death. 

False assurances that the mass agony in the country is only temporary, or that the pains people are grappling with are mere precursors to future gains, or even that there is light at the end of the tunnel only aggravate people’s angst. There are two reasons for this.

One, most people know that based on past experiences in Nigeria (notably during IBB’s ruinous SAP, which Tinubu merely repurposed and renamed) and elsewhere in the developing world where the IMF and the World Bank dictate economic policies, there has never been a single example of these sorts of pains ever transforming into gains for the masses of the people.

Second, people outside the circles of power and privilege realize that the pains are being borne only by the poor. Tinubu, for example, bought a new presidential jet worth millions of dollars even before the spineless National Assembly had a chance to rubber-stamp it, as is now their wont, among other profligate expenditures amid a biting economic downturn. 

 People who are visiting darkness on the poor in the name of a deferred light at the end of the tunnel are glowing in incandescent bulbs of illumination. And the people are intelligent enough to know that what awaits them at the end of this disconsolate tunnel isn’t light. It’s an inferno. It’s a dreary snake pit of doom and gloom.

When people come to this realization, no one needs to “sponsor” them to protest. The pangs of hunger they feel is sufficient to sponsor them to protest. The sensation of hopelessness that overcomes them is a bigger motive force for protest than the political machinations of any politician.

But even if it’s true that opposition politicians are taking advantage of the mass discontent in the country to cripple the government and delegitimize it for their self-interest, that’s not illegal. It’s an intrinsic element of democracies for opposition parties to seize on the missteps of incumbents to displace them.

President Tinubu is in power today precisely because he mastered the art of instrumentalizing the missteps of incumbents to advance his political aspirations. As recently as 2012, he “sponsored” a disruptive protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan that led to the deaths of protesters—for precisely what he is doing to Nigerians now. 

No amount of persuasion or financial inducement of traditional rulers, religious clerics, union leaders, or activists will get people to make peace with needless suffering occasioned by a self-centered, hard-hearted implementation of vicious economic policies that snuff the life out of the people. Even if the planned protests are aborted, the predictable is only being postponed.

The only way Tinubu can retain legitimacy and earn the trust of the people is to reverse the deep, stinging hurt his policies have caused to the vast majority of our people. People are no longer interested in progress or the renewal of hope. They just want Tinubu to take them back to where he met them, which was not an enviable state. And that’s not too much to ask.

In a February 10, 2024, column titled “Hunger Protests: Why Tinubu Can’t Govern Like Buhari,” I said the spontaneous, hunger-induced eruption of seething communal anger in Minna, Suleja, Kano, and Osogbo were “a warning sign” that Tinubu couldn’t afford to ignore. He ignored it. 

He is probably following the Buhari template of enacting unpopular policies and relying on the blind support of his worshipers to shield him from the consequences of his actions. But Tinubu has no such following, and I am glad he doesn’t, which is why I would hate for someone like Peter Obi or Rabiu Kwankwaso to be president.

 They are political cult leaders with unthinking, fanatical followers who lose their damned minds if you as much utter the mildest critical remark about their gods, however factual it may be. Like Buharists, they have abdicated their senses to their political gods.

 I reproduce here a portion of the column to remind Tinubu why he can’t benefit from the kind of immunity Buhari enjoyed:

 “Had the current president been Muhammadu Buhari and not Bola Ahmed Tinubu, chances are that the worst that would happen amid the adversity people are going through now would be suppressed, barely audible murmurs. It’s because Buhari is a political cult leader with a firm grip on his followers who worship him and surrender responsibility for their lives over to him. Tinubu has no such appeal.

“A psychologist by the name of Steve Taylor came up with a concept he called ‘abdication syndrome,’ which he said disposes people to invest total, child-like trust in a political figure, a cult leader, an opinion molder, etc. in ways that mimic how children idealize and idolize their parents as unblemished paragons of perfection. 

“According to Taylor, ‘abdication syndrome stems from the unconscious desire of some people to return to a state of early childhood, when their parents were infallible, omnipotent figures who controlled their lives and protected them from the world. They’re trying to rekindle that childhood state of unconditional devotion and irresponsibility.’

“Buhari is lucky to benefit from abdication syndrome in Muslim northern Nigeria, broadly conceived, which explains why he got away with murder for eight years. When he increased petrol prices by a steep margin in 2016, for instance, there were protests in Kano, Bauchi, and other places in SUPPORT of the increase and AGAINST people who planned to protest the increase. Nigeria had never seen anything like that before.

“Even protests against the unabating descent of northern Nigeria into a theater of bloodshed and abduction on Buhari’s watch provoked counter protests from people who have abdicated the use of their brains in the service of Buhari.

“Tinubu not only does not have the benefit of abdication syndrome anywhere in Nigeria, but he also has the misfortune of having to contend with a peculiar character of Muslim northern Nigeria: we feel the pain of, and react violently to, bad policies only when the policies are hatched and executed by people who have no filiation with our natal region.

“It’s no surprise that the hunger protests against the Tinubu administration started from and spread in the North.

“A powerful indication of Tinubu’s lack of firm emotional support base emerged when Osun, his state of birth where he lost the last presidential election to PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, became the first southern state to join the hunger protests. Should the resistance to his punishingly heartless neoliberal economic policies ignite a nationwide convulsion, the Southwest is unlikely to constitute itself as his bulwark.

“In fact, I hazard a guess that should Tinubu’s unfeeling policies activate the sort of destabilizing national upheaval that we saw in 2012 during Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, the Southwest won’t be aloof. It is likely to join in.

“And, of course, Tinubu is deeply unpopular in the Southeast, the South-south, and Christian northern Nigeria. In other words, Tinubu is essentially floundering into the most treacherous of social quicksands.

“His only fortification against danger is not just good governance but compassionate governance. The release of thousands of metric tons of grains is a good first step, but it’s not nearly enough to stem the tide of mass rebellion that is brewing in the country. At best, it will only delay the inevitable.

“The truth is that Nigeria can’t survive a total withdrawal of petroleum subsidies without an adequate, systematic, well-planned public transportation system. To do away with petrol subsidies, the government must first create conditions where car ownership and patronage of commercial transportation are a luxury.”

Our people say that a man who pays a native doctor to give him a talisman to protect him from the machinations of his enemies has no guarantee that he would be alive within the next twenty-four hours. Reason? He may be struck down by a falling tree, a bolt of lightening not sent by anyone, or he may just stumble over a stump and, hit his head on a rock and die due to his own carelessness.

Thus, the average talisman seeker is urged to note that his failure to also ask the native doctor to give him a talisman to protect him from himself, or from any natural and perfectly unforeseen, misfortunes in future is a permanent Achilles Hill. He just might drop dead even as he is on his way home from his visit to the native doctor.

The foregoing should be food for thought for our governors who, in reaction to the Supreme Court judgement on local government finances and general autonomy are prancing about and doing their level best to see what they can still pull off a the las minute. The next phase of the battle for the soul that tier of government lies in the matter of who can become a local government chairman; and how.

It is by certainly elections of course that anyone will become a local government boss! But who will conduct that the elections? Certainly not me! By our current laws, it has to be the state electoral bodies. But a number of sitting governors are warming up to simply railroad whoever they want to be their local government lackeys into the local government headquarters of their respective states. Not so fast, perhaps!

First, the National Assembly is in the process quickly rolling out a legislation that will put paid to the planned antics of now-very-worried governors. Second, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it has the capacity to conduct elections into the 774 local government area councils across the country.

Coming on the heels of the speedy engagement of the National Assembly on LG elections, the statement of the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, two days ago, before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Electoral Matters would seem to be announcing the burial ceremony of the aspirations of the governors – going forward.

The INEC Chairman had gone to brief the lawmakers on the Commission’s
preparations for the upcoming Edo and Ondo State governorship elections and its relationship with the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) in relation to various court judgements. The Supreme Judgement of has strongly fuelled the view that SIECs should be scrapped to allow INEC to conduct local government elections in order to rescue the third tier of government from the control of State governors.

However, the INEC chairman told lawmakers that the commission can conduct elections at the third tier of government in the 36 states if the National Assembly amend the 1999 Constitution and transferred the responsibility to it to conduct the exercise. He said to them: “The same Constitution that creates INEC also creates the State Electoral Commissions. So, it is up to the National Assembly to amend the law to transfer that responsibility to the INEC. If the responsibility for the conduct of local government election is transferred to INEC, can INEC cope? The answer is yes! INEC can cope. What are we? By definition, INEC is the Independent National Electoral Commission but right now we do national elections, we can do state elections, we do local

Not quite done, and determined to leave no one in doubt about his Commission’s Yakubu continued thus: “A national electoral commission may be expected to handle only the Presidential and National Assembly elections but we also do governorship election, we do State Assembly elections and do the Area Council Elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the only part of the country where INEC conducts local government elections. Broadly speaking, if you ask us, can we handle local government elections, yes we can handle the local government elections. When is it going to happen? When you amend the law and empower the commission to do so”.

He pointed that the commission has demonstrated by its track record that it can conduct local government elections; as can be inferred from FCT Area Council polls, which INEC undertakes periodically. The FCT six Area Councils, six chairmen and 62 wards. Each Ward is a constituency for the election of Councilors, which is one part of the country that INEC has conducted local government elections. It is one part of the country where local government elections are held regularly as at when due, because there has never been a Caretaker Committee for any Area Council in the FCT.

In addition, no single political party has ever won elections in all the constituencies in the FCT; pointing to the likely conclusion that whoever has been conducting the elections has not been “working” for any particular political party. Out of the six chairmen of the FCT today, APC has three Area Councils, PDP has three Area Councils. Concerning the Councillorship elections, the APC got 19 out of the 62 Councilorship seats, while the PDP won in 43 constituencies.

The inference from the foregoing, right or wrong, is that the NIEC Chairman has a point in saying that the same thing will be replicated if the local government elections are tucked under the belt of his commission. Hear him again: “In any case, if you transfer local government elections to INEC, what it means is that you are going to transfer almost 10,000 Constituencies to INEC. We have 8,809 wards, each ward is a councillorship constituency. We have 774 local government areas and each local government has a chairman. So, if you add this to the existing 1,591 constituencies where INEC conducts elections, it is well over 11,000 constituencies but the elections may not be held all in one day.

To make it legally operational, here is Mahmoud’s submission: “There are certain consequential amendments that have to be done for us to be handle those additional responsibilities. For instance, who is going to fund the 10,000 new Constituencies that INEC will be saddled with? There is need for a discussion to determine who is going to fund it. Or will the Federal government continue to fund for the states? You have to do something about the bye-elections if INEC is saddled with additional 10,000 Constituencies, we will probably be doing bye-elections every week,” the Professor of History said.

That said, and with some elections in the horizon as I write, let us rest the matter of LG elections and watch the unfolding drama;

Enter Another Off-cycle Election

Let me also invite our attention to a submission that was made on this page in the last week of November, 2019, wherein I said as follows concerning off-cycle elections: “There is often the assumption, mistaken in my view, that there should be far less security and other challenges any time elections are taking place in only one or two states of the federation. It is easy to argue that we need not deployment tens of thousands of police and other security personnel on such occasions. But is that correct? Are we right in inferring that the extra security on such occasions is unnecessary”?

We went on: “This argument, plausible it may seem apparent strength from a failure to distinguish between the actual needs of any electoral environment and the failure of those who should secure the environment for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to perform its duties. Security is needed but it is not the duty of INEC to own an army, or command same, in the process of preparing for, conducting or managing elections. That is the job of the police and other security agencies. It is only by collaboration and synergy that things can go smoothly. This is without prejudice to the activities of political mischief makers, as well as the possibility of having compromised security personnel during some elections.

It is against the background of the foregoing that one cannot reasonably deny the compelling need to beef up security, far beyond what would ordinarily be needed during any election, if such elections are taking place in only one or two states of the federation. It is also against the background of the foregoing that a blanket condemnation of either INEC, or the national security establishment, for whatever happens during elections can be said to rest on a fundamental misunderstanding.

While the misuse of the national security apparatus must be seen for the crime that it is, we must pay close attention to the fact that the travesty occurs at the higher levels of political leadership. That is where the threat of sack for non-compliance that hangs over most public office holders, military or not, comes from. The godfathers are still calling for the common till”.

That article also submitted that “Our political parties, to the extent that we insist on calling them that, are a far cry from what they should be. They make no investment in the political education of their presumed members. There manner of proceeding has put paid to the question of whether they have any interest in the people at all. All they plan for in the bid to get power is or “win” elections is (1) compromise whoever is available to be compromised, (2) take over the space where an electoral contest is to take place, if they can, (3) terrorize or subdue INEC officials, if that is the only way to determine final election outcomes, and (4) try any other thing they think they can get away.

INEC does not command an army. It is just another institution of state that can only function effectively and efficiently in collaborative endeavours with security agencies. It cannot perform the role of high priest in a room full of drunkards. It is an electoral body saddled with the unenviable task to teaching table manners in an unruly environment. But it has a job to do and has something to show for its performance in Abuja municipal, or LG elections.

As Was said back then, “At another level, there are those who would like to prevent it from performing its lawful duty, even when it is determined to be objective, impartial and committed to its assigned role as neutral umpire. That is why it is always in the line of fire for both foreseen, unforeseen and even unforeseeable events; including even bad weather in Sao Tome. It comes with the job, I guess. Challenges”.

As for the “Consequential Issues” arising from the Supreme Court judgment, the national Assembly should transfer the serious business of local government elections to INEC. For the record, yes, the INEC Chairman has a point!

QUOTE

As for the “Consequential Issues” arising from the Supreme Court judgment, the national Assembly should transfer the serious business of local government elections to INEC. For the record, yes, the INEC Chairman has a point!

My President,

On July 10, 2024, I gave a Keynote Address to the students of the Political Science Department at Chrisland University in Abeokuta. My Keynote Address, titled "Developments in Kenya: Lessons for Nigeria," focused on a critical issue: the remarkable achievements of Kenya's Gen-Zs. These young people are actively stepping up and demonstrating that they are the leaders of today, ready to move their parents aside.

This address had since been published in its entirety by Premium Times, which could be a useful read that your Assistants/Advisers could summarise into a few paragraphs. I not only told stories about Kenya but also drew some lessons for Nigeria.

The problem in Kenya started with the 2024 Finance Bill that had been submitted to the Kenyan parliament by President William Ruto’s government in May 2024. On June 18, 2024, thousands of young Kenyans took to the streets to oppose the proposed tax reforms in the Bill, marking a significant shift in the landscape of youth activism and advocacy in Africa.
Previously perceived as apathetic and confined to social media, the generation born between 1995 and 2010 is changing. African youths, despite being the largest in the world, have historically shown low voter turnout. However, they are now ready to yank the feet of oppressive governance off their necks as they are now driven by a new fear: the bleakness of their future. They are determined to remove oppressive governance and no longer feel held down by the old order. It is this fear that makes them prepared for death and conclude in pidgin that “All Die Na Die”
The face of advocacy may have changed for good, at least in Kenya. Unlike traditional demonstrations of the past marred by violence and chaos, the new-age protest embodies a peaceful and organized approach. The protest also showcased a decentralised structure, devoid of traditional hierarchical leadership a political figure on the frontline of mobilisation. This seeming leader-less approach which we all had a feel of during the 2020 #EndSARS Protest may deviate from the conventional protest, whose anatomy you must be very well conversant with, as a frontline participant of a number of many historical protestations.

On 26, June 2004, President Ruto withdrew the Finance Bill, 2024. But this development, rather than douse tension saw the crowd of youth shift focus to cries of “Ruto Must Go”. By this time, an estimated 41 (the number keeps growing), youths had been killed with a number kidnapped allegedly by the police, but the high-handedness did not stop the surging crowds.
On Friday, July 5, 2024, in a State-House Statement, President Ruto proposed spending cuts, reduced the level of additional borrowing as he rolled out austerity measures as well as abrogated planned tax hikes. Among others, he agreed to expenditures to benefit ordinary Kenyans like farmers and provide additional funding for the higher education. He dissolved 47 state corporations just gulping funds with little value-added, cut advisory posts in half and suspended non-essential travel by public officials.
Curbing the personalized looting of government resources by unelected wives, Ruto reduced allocations not only to his office, but removed budget lines for his wife a.k.a, First Lady, as well as for Second and Third Ladies. He fired most of the members of his cabinet, though he rehired about half of the fired ones. He took to X platform for a town-hall and has continued to show remorse, including on July 24, 2024 when he gave the strongest indications that he would fight corruption in Kenya. I doubt if Ruto, like your good self, can sincerely fight corruption, I wish him success. Lack of accountability is a bane of governance in Africa.

It is widespread in the media that some Nigerians have indicated a desire to demonstrate against your leadership and management of Nigeria in August. They are pointing to the economic hardships we have all been facing since your announcement of a phantom oil subsidy removal as well as merging the exchange rates. Those calling for protests are pointing to your government’s do as I say but not as I do style. While you preach tightening of our belts, patience as we make sacrifices, the profligacy in Nigeria’s governance has continued even with heightened rascality under your watch. In my assessment from an academic survey of 1,500+ Nigerians, corruption has also flourished as your body language is suggesting that corruption is alright.
The media has been awash with ethnicised efforts to stop any protests against your administration. I do not expect that you will roll over and allow protesters to take charge. Some organisations like those of students and labour that recently settled for 70,000 naira as minimum wage without deep thoughts on productivity have backed out of any protests.
In a subterfuge, the National Assembly, has offered to slash their monthly salaries by half for six months. But they knew this offer was merely to play on our intelligence. It would have addressed a portion of profligacy and outright thefts if they had decided to half their overall budget, in which case there would be reduction in all sorts of allowances, including constituency projects that the ICPC, under Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye had documented as avenue for looting from national patrimony.

A number of my friends spend time reminding that you inherited a very bad economy. I do not want to waste time with a retort in reaction to this argument by suggesting you are a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The fact was clear. President Buhari marginalised you and actually did all he could to prevent you from becoming the current president of Nigeria. You were well prepared and matched him in the spirit of Arthur Nzeribe’s “oporoko for oporoko”.
If you stopped President Buhari dead in his tracks, my question is why you wanted the office so badly and appear to be floundering after 14 months. You saw the Nigerian problem and decided you were the best to solve it. We have come to learn though that all the claim of having experts to turn our lots around has, so far, not worked. It is clear to all that running a complex Nigeria is not like running the politics of Lagos. I understand from some of my friends, however, that Yemi Cardoso is trying to pull his weight even though he upsets me whenever he boldly says he is stabilising the naira. How can he say that: you collapsed 450 and 750 naira to the dollar to escalate to 1,980 which receded to about 1,500 naira to the dollar and you expect us to look for popular Lagbaja, Burna Boy or Kiz Daniel to sing for us to dance?

Of course, you changed our national anthem back into 1959 and some say it is progress. I had said my own on that.
You have received the Supreme Court’s interpretation of our Constitution to the effect that rapacious Governors will no longer control local government funds. The jury is out on the three levels of government for our federation arrangement that my late mentor, Oyeleye Oyediran, had struggled for. He had seen this as the answer to our thieving Governors. Definitively, we are not bound to follow any other federation in spite of the argument of the Afenifere and others that the decision undermines the states. My major worry, is that if you do not put structures in place, we may have decentralised the stealing of federal allocations. It is well documented that most local government Chairmen looted the sums they collected. Some of them went to jail for that.
My President, I do have some recommendations for your consideration:

We have 10 planes in the presidential fleet to ferry you, your family, the Vice-President, and his family around. Many of the countries we are owing do not have a single plane for their servant-leaders. They charter planes on as needed basis from national and/or private providers. You have your own private jet(s). I wonder why you had to reportedly borrow from Chagoury to attend Cyril Ramaphosa’s inauguration. Talking about Chagoury, I do not want to dabble into the opaque nature of the award of the much-needed Lagos-Calabar Coastal road to HITECH since it is before a court of law. However, that deal smells.

Your travels that have followed the Buhari pattern in disappearing without any information as expected about our President should stop. When General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) disappeared as military President into France for surgery to address his radiculopathy in the 1980s, many Nigerians condemned this and argued that IBB could have imported all the needs for a sophisticated hospital, at the time. I am almost sure that your activist self of those days probably joined in condemning IBB, the self-styled President, at that time. I do not feel comfortable about discussing our national interests and those of France in an open letter. A private person can go to where he wants. You, as our President, should not. There are many implications far beyond parking and maintenance costs for our planes.
Mr. President, I would like to believe that you stumbled on Femi Falana, S.A.N’s compendium on low hanging fruits you can handle for the boosting of our foreign reserves which will in effect improve our forex rates. To do this is to bring down costs for Nigerians. Our Attorney-General of the Federation knows you can issue Executive Orders. Please don’t wait for protests and several deaths before acting. By so doing, you will reduce the quantum of our local and international indebtedness and thereby free money for infrastructural developments, including improved energy availability.
Your body language on corruption should speedily change if you want to ensure there are no Gen-Z led protests. Public, private and social sector corruptions are continuing strongly under your watch. Some of the allegations include:

Lawmakers have been accused of pocketing large sums as palliatives, with Senator Ningi alleging that the Senate passed two padded Appropriation Bills for 2024, inflating the budget by N3.7 trillion. Reports also indicate that luxury SUVs for lawmakers will cost taxpayers N57.6 billion, with each lawmaker receiving a Toyota Prado SUV worth N130 million to N160 million. Additionally, Senate President Godswill Akpabio reportedly ordered four specialized Lexus SUVs valued at N1 billion, as reported by Punch News on October 30, 2023. Furthermore, allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, and large sums allocated for pilgrimages, also highlight the issue.
The EFCC leader you appointed is saying the right things. However, he should stop talking and just “Do It”. Investigations are becoming a ruse to obfuscate. The Jim Obazee report need to be out of the coolers for all to read and clear many being insinuated as having been involved in ruining our economy.
Key Recommendations

Learning from the experience of Ruto, you could choose to start putting in place solutions to avoid damages. It would only demand from you the pain of denying your political class and cronies the chances of continued corruption. You could become the people’s hero by dealing differently with members of the elites, yourself inclusive. These recommendations in summary are simply saying focus on serving the interests of the vast Nigerian people, the people whose mandate you are riding on. If you do these very well, there wouldn’t be the talk of protests.
1. Inclusive Governance: Engage stakeholders early in the policy-making process to ensure transparency and public acceptance of reforms.
2. Economic Prudence and real cut down of the cost of governance: Conduct thorough impact assessments to balance revenue generation with socio-economic equity and avoid burdening vulnerable populations.
3. Combat Corruption: Implement stringent measures to tackle corruption within public, private and social institutions and ensure accountability of political leaders.
4. Civic Engagement: Foster a culture of civic activism to hold governments accountable and drive policy changes.
5. Youth Empowerment: Address systemic issues such as youth unemployment and economic inequality to rebuild public trust and promote sustainable development.
6. Effective management of Communication and public engagement: Possibly do a Heart-to-Heart off the scripts, less political talk with your people. Come down from that high horse and defy the barriers the sycophants around you have built to cut you off from the realities as they continue to sing your praise. Some of your spokesperson may be doing more harm than good. You need to call them to order.

They need to do better in bridling their tongues. The Nigerians of today are far too intelligent than the people in your government think. We can do without the lies one of them tend to feed us with.
My President, as you probably know, I am an academic political economist without time for the Nigerian politicians of all ilk. I am not a group protester and definitely a non-violent Nigerian. Nonetheless, I spend time ruminating, analysing and articulating on how I see our polity and undertake comparative analysis over time and space to assist policy and decision-makers on their task. It is from my experience that I conclude that you are not able to address leadership deficit in Nigeria. I also think you are no match for the external dynamics Nigeria has been subjected to since flag independence.

I am, however, convinced you can take some baby steps by prioritising transparency, accountability, and stakeholder engagement to navigate complex economic landscapes and foster inclusive growth. By learning from Kenya’s experience, you can steer Nigerian policymakers to chart a path towards a resilient economy and an equitable society. In this regard, your campaign slogan of “renewed hope” can genuinely lead Nigerians towards utmost freedom – the summation of the rights granted under the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. To uphold renewed hope for utmost freedom is to make those wanting to protest irrelevant today, tomorrow, or at anytime during and beyond your term(s) in office. My President change history and be a peoples’ president for all Nigerians.

Babafemi A. Badejo, author of a best-seller on politics in Kenya, was a former Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia, and currently a Legal Practitioner and Professor of Political Science & International Relations, Chrisland University, Abeokuta. Nigeria.

The name Aliko Dangote does not require a key, either smart or analogue, to open the doors to most of the 54 African countries.

The industrialist, who has been Africa’s richest man for years, has ventured into various sectors over the past three decades before finally taking the challenge of building an oil refinery.

Nigeria, despite being a major exporter of crude oil in Africa, does not have a functional refinery to hone its crude. This has caused the country to continue to spend billions of dollars on importation of refined petroleum products.

Aliko Dangote has before now, been into the manufacturing of cement, sugar, noodles, and fertilisers, among other valuable products.

Over time, he has been accused of exhibiting monopolistic tendencies. He is seen to be taking advantage of his closeness to “his friends in power” to corner various privileges like waivers to enhance profits for his various businesses. However, the recent controversy over the operations of the Dangote Refinery has opened a new vista. A lot of Nigerians believe that though he is human and therefore imperfect, the aggressive tactic of the regulators in the oil and gas industry in handling some issues of disagreement between the government and the Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), reeks of subtle push to promote some “vested interests”.

This development happened at a time when a video of the current British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, went viral. In the video, Mr Starmer is seen expressing regrets at the way corruption, as well as certain actions and inactions of some vested interests have stymied the growth and development of Nigeria, a country  he said, has the greatest potential to not only be the leader in Africa, but also one of the leading nations in the world.

The story of Nigeria’s many battles to sustain local refining is all too known by the average Nigerian. Successive governments have pumped in billions of Naira with no tangible results to show for those expenditures.

The absence of a fitting refinery has seen the country also fritter resources under the guise of fuel importation, fuel subsidy and crude swap.

Absence of petroleum refinery and attendant costs to Nigeria

Nearly 70 years after the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities, Nigeria’s oil and gas downstream sector is yet to develop to expected levels.

The federal government spent N12.05 trillion on maintenance and rehabilitation of refineries, as well as fuel subsidy under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, more than enough to build a brand new 650,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd) refinery, the like that Aliko Dangote has built.   

Such a new refinery would have been bigger than the three moribund refineries built many years ago by the Nigerian government. Over time, the refineries had guzzled billions of naira in the name of “upkeep”, yet cannot produce enough refined oil to meet the country’s domestic consumption needs.

The four refineries have a combined 445,000bpsd capacity. Port Harcourt refinery complex (old and new site) has 210,000bpsd, Warri has 125,000bpsd and Kaduna has 110,000bpsd capacity.

The collective failure of the refineries has forced the oil-rich Nigeria to depend on importation of refined petroleum products after exporting the crude.

Sadly, a large chunk of dollars accruing to Nigeria is being used to import the refined oil for domestic use, obstructing channelling of the funds to social and economic development of the country, the largest on the continent in terms of population. Nigeria is projected to have over 220 million people.

According to the 2023 full-year foreign trade data, Nigeria incurred about N7.5 trillion in fuel import costs throughout 2023, compared to N7.7 trillion in the previous year. Using the 2023 exchange rate, the country spent approximately $7.7 billion on fuel importation in that year.

The importation of motor spirit, also known as petrol, has cost Nigeria a staggering N23.5 trillion over the last five years. Fuel importation proved particularly costly for Nigeria in 2022 and 2023, with a combined expenditure of N15.2 trillion—more than half of the total cost incurred in the last five years.

Shining examples from far and near 

There are 18 oil-producing countries in Africa, based on March 2022 data by Trading Economics, a global market website. Nigeria is the largest of them with 1,238 million bpsd oil production, overtaking Libya (1,220mbpsd). Angola is the third, Algeria is fourth and Egypt is fifth (562mbpsd).

The rest, comprising Congo DR, Gabon, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Chad, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Congo Brazzaville and Niger Republic, have less than 500,000bpsd oil production each. According to a McKinsey Refinery Capacity Database Report of 2020, there were over 600 operating refineries around the world as at the beginning of 2017. As of 2020, 20 African countries had refineries, with some having more than one. 

The McKinsey data revealed that Antwerp city in Belgium hosts the three refineries with 767,000bpsd that Nigeria patronises. These Belgian based refineries are owned by ExxonMobil (307,000bpsd), Total (350,000bpsd) and Gunvor (110,000bpsd), and both Mobil and Total are International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria in a joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC Ltd). 

In Africa, Morocco does not produce oil, but has a 200,000bpsd refinery; same with Zambia with no oil, but has a 12,000bpsd refinery.

Although Egypt is the fifth oil producer, it has nine refineries with 800,000bpsd, being the largest refining capacity on the continent. Algeria, the fourth largest African oil producer has five refineries, refining 671,000bpsd. Libya, the second producer also has five refineries with 380,000bpsd. Angola, the third largest African oil producer has one with refinery capacity of 65,000bpsd.

Niger Republic, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Liberia’s combined oil-producing capacity is less than half of Nigeria’s oil-producing capacity, yet they each have at least an operational refinery.

Dangote’s ‘monopoly’

The accusation often touted by some Nigerians and government officials about Dangote’s monopoly in all his areas of business is not supported by data. In the cement industry, for instance, before the coming on stream of the Dangote Cement, there was Lafarge Holcim.

Lafarge was incorporated on 24th February, 1959, and listed as a publicly quoted company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on the 17th of February, 1979.

There were also Sokoto Cement, Benue Cement Company (BCC) and Ashaka Cement in Gombe State. All three became moribound at some point and were acquired by BUA, Dangote and Lafarge respectively.

The cement manufacturing sub-sector today has three major players: Dangote Cement, which started manufacturing in 2007, has three fully integrated cement plants of 32.3 metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) located in Obajana, Ibese and Gboko.

BUA Cement is Nigeria’s second-largest cement producer with a current installed capacity of 11 million mtpa.
With plants in Ewekoro and Sagamu in the South-west, Mfamosing in the South-south and Ashaka in the North-east of Nigeria, Lafarge Africa Plc currently has an installed cement production capacity of 10.5mtpa.

Sugar

The data available in the Sugar space also show that there are three major players namely the Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, owners of Sunti Golden Sugar, BUA Sugar Company, Lafiagi, Kwara State and the Dangote Industries Limited, owners of the Savannah Sugar Company, Numan, Adamawa State.

The Dangote refinery conundrum

The commissioning of the Dangote Refinery by the Buhari administration was greeted with a sigh of relief for most Nigerians, especially given that the government-owned refineries have refused to rise from the dead. The wait for the completion has been “forever” for many Nigerians, in view of the desperate desire to have a solution to the punishing fuel queues that often suffocate the economy, causing untold hardship to citizens, as well as the frequent increases in petrol pump price. The refinery project was first announced in 2013 at an estimated cost of $9 billion. By the time major structural construction began in 2017, the cost had ballooned to about $19.5 billion.

The anxiety shown by Nigerians towards the completion of the refinery was understandable. Analysis by experts suggested that the refinery was more than able to meet all of Nigeria’s domestic fuel consumption, which is about 450,000 barrels per day, while the excess production would be available for export.

Reports indicate that the Dangote refinery could earn Nigeria foreign exchange savings of between $25 billion to $30 billion yearly. The impact of such savings would be directly reflected in Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves by reducing the pressure on the country’s balance of payments.

According to former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, under the current Bola Tinubu administration, Nigeria will cease importation of petroleum products, fertiliser and petrochemicals that drained the country of over $26 billion in 2022, once the Dangote refinery fully comes on stream. He opined further that the refinery will have an enormous impact on job creation by generating thousands of direct jobs, and millions of indirect ones, with over 135,000 permanent jobs for Nigerians. He also stated that the project will generate up to 12,000MW of electricity.

Thus, Nigeria is on the verge of once again being described as a net exporter of refined petroleum products, courtesy of one individual.

Enters the twist

Ahead of the commencement of refining, on December 8, 2023, Aliko Dangote announced receipt of its inaugural one million barrels of Agbami crude grade from the Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited (STASCO). The refinery also received four shipments of one million barrels of bonny light crude supplied by the NNPCL.

Not long after, news broke that Dangote had resorted to importing crude from as far as Brazil and the United States, and is also looking to other African countries to source for more feedstock.

The Dangote refinery, according to one of its senior executives, was in talks with Libya to secure crude for the 650,000 barrels per day plant, and was also seeking Angolan oil, to overcome problems with domestic supplies.

That clearly hinted of a major impediment to the operations of the refinery, part of which is largely attributed to suspected sabotage by certain vested interests within the regulatory arm of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Since Dangote began operations in January, Weekend Trust gathered that it has been unable to get adequate crude supplies in Nigeria.

In May, the company put out a tender for two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude every month for a year starting in July.

Speaking at the Africa CEO Forum 2024, Dangote outlined his strategy, saying the refinery would purchase 24 million barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, despite ongoing domestic supply. “Twenty-four million barrels is nothing,” Dangote said in an interview with The Africa Report. “It’s roughly about two cargoes [deliveries] in a month, which is about 10% of our demand at full capacity”, he added.

The reliance on imported oil, particularly WTI, is economically prudent for the refinery at present, Dangote explained. “It also makes economic sense for us to tender for crude. If [we could source] 100% Nigerian crude, then fine, but we can’t wait.”

But trouble started when Dangote publicly alleged a conspiracy by the IOCs to deliberately frustrate the refinery’s ability to buy local crude oil by manipulating and increasing the premium price above the market price.

Feelers from behind the scenes

A senior management source from the refinery who prefers to be anonymous said the major impediment is around crude supply, pricing of the crude and lack of institutional support from the regulatory body to compel the IOCs to meet its obligation as required by law. The source also raised concern about the conspiracy theories about who Aliko Dangote supported or did not support during the 2023 presidential elections. “You all reported how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stormed the headquarters of Dangote Industries Limited in Ikoyi, Lagos, earlier in the year in relations to the ongoing investigation into the alleged abuse of the foreign exchange allocations by the immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

How do you explain the ‘gestapo’ 

invasion and the disruption of the business operations of the company where there was no prior resistance?”, the source queried.

The source also said the refinery has substantially met all globally accepted standards and has commenced exportation to highly regulated regions of the world. “So, how can the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) say we are not ready?

“The accusation that we are trying to create a monopoly was the most laughable. What has happened to the existence of Warri, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna refineries, and the array of modular refineries?,” he asked.

How NMDPRA contemplated ban on diesel

Another senior management source at the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said the agency’s chief executive’s remark that the Dangote refinery was not ready was not out of place. The source said: “Remember that the commissioning was done in May, 2023. There are different levels of completion. Some things were at 90 per cent, others were at 50 or even 30 per cent.

“So, the commissioning was rushed because of the push by the immediate past administration. We had to backdate some of the approvals because some of the fabrications were done without approvals. But we have been walking back to do what is expected of us as a regulator because we know what is at stake for the country.

“But we have been receiving attacks from the refinery with unsubstantiated claims. We have been going to the joint committee of the National Assembly on account of the various accusations in the past weeks”, the source said.

Commenting on the allegations about monopoly, the source said: “We have come under intense pressure to ban importation by marketing companies. We have also received threats from the major marketers that they cannot at this stage completely rely on the (Dangote) refinery for supply.

“Let me shock you; we had already written the circular for the ban of diesel importation. We had to revert after listening to the Major Marketers’ argument, and the need to leave all channels open for now”, the source said.                                                                                                                                

Crude swap agreement impedes NNPCL’s feedstock supply to Dangote refinery

Senior sources at the NNPCL said they have shown absolute faith in the refinery in the interest of the nation and more importantly because Dangote has shown considerable faith in Nigeria, and as such must be supported despite all challenges.

On the inability to supply crude to the refinery, the source said: “The truth, which every major player in this space is aware of, is that these Joint Venture agreements reached years before the coming on stream of the (Dangote) refinery, is constraining on our part to meet Dangote’s request.

“On the failure of the IOCs to also meet their demand, we are not in control of whatever the IOCs will do with their own share of crude in the JV”, the source added.

The NNPCL swapped nine million barrels of oil, valued at $755.74 million under its direct sale, direct purchase arrangement (DSDP) in November 2023.

The way out

Investment Banker, Joseph Edgar, in his intervention said: “Dangote refinery is our only real ‘agbado’ on the fire. It is the only investment of its size that we as a nation have attracted ever and in the foreseeable future. As such, all stakeholders must come together to make it come on stream.

“My suggestions to Dangote are to immediately, as he has said, list a certain percentage of its shares on the (stock) market to ensure that Nigerians would also participate. This will push back harsh regulators who, from their utterances, see a personality instead of a bigger picture in all of these.

“It should also seek to sell its shares to a major IOC whose home government will now be pulled into the fray and whose involvement would weaken its supply issues.

“The Dangote Group is one of Nigeria’s largest employers of labour, its biggest private taxpayer, a major player in infrastructural development, and a powerful forex revenue earner among others, and this is why all hands must be put on deck to ensure that these ‘teething’ problems are resolved in a transparent and professional manner”, he added.

A chief executive officer of a leading company in Nigeria, who prefers anonymity said: “We have elevated public officials who lack the spine, industry and perhaps intellect to create sustainable businesses but slither from one government position to another, freeloading and amassing stupendous wealth, to become too important to the extent that their actions and utterances cripple those who spend their lives taking risks, employing people and creating value.

“The refinery is a mere refinery to many. But in truth, it is a national reference point that proves massive projects can indeed be executed in Nigeria. Killing it simply kills the dreams, aspirations and investment opportunities for countless Nigerians.

“$20 billion (N36 trillion) is the amount we spend on total inflow of refined products coming into the country. This is what the government spends, paying foreign companies, to purchase refined goods. So, the loss of that potential revenue to Dangote is what is fuelling this crisis”, the CEO said.

Warts and all, most Nigerians would stick with Aliko Dangote, for what they see as his patriotism, and would wish, if President Tinubu is not backing those behind the  perceived frustration of the business mogul, that the current heads of the NNPCL, the NUPRC and the NMDPRA are sacked swiftly, for their perceived roles in trying to undermine the Dangote refinery.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote is the heir and successor to his great grandfather, Alhaji Alhassan Dantata (1877-1955), the patriarch of the wealthy Alasawa Family in Kano, widely believed to be the richest man in West Africa in his days. Aliko Dangote also rose to become the richest man in Africa, and the richest black man on planet earth. Though he was born two years after the death of his great grandfather, Dangote’s exploits conquered areas the legendary patriarch had not even explored.

His maternal grandfather, Alhaji Sanusi Dantata, father of Hajiya Mariya, Dangote’s mother, was equally a wealthy businessman until his death on April 15,1997, at about 82 years of age.

Sanusi Dantata began business at the age of seven, initially helping his father before he started his own business of buying and selling of groundnuts. He later established a bottling company, and an industry dealing in building materials. Sanusi Dantata played an important role in the upbringing of Aliko Dangote.

His father, Muhammadu Dangote, who lived at Alfindiki quarters in the ancient city of Kano, was an associate of the Dantatas. But the young Dangote spent most of his adolescent years with his maternal relations in Koki Quarters, where the Alasawas lived.

He was sent to Government College, Birnin Kudu, in present day Jigawa State, for his secondary school education. He met and fraternised with school mates like Abba Rilwanu, Abdulkadir Ahmed and Muhammad Sabo Nakudu. Nakudu’s foray into politics saw him elected as member of the House of Representatives and later senator representing Jigawa Central zone. Nakudu, like Dangote, is a businessman and an industrialist.

Sources said Dangote may have inherited the knack for business from his uncle, Alhaji Usman Amaka Dantata, who was very wealthy, even at a young age. Amaka Dantata first introduced Dangote to the cement business and reportedly gave him N500,000 to start trading in commodities, including cement, rice and sugar.

Aliko’s relocation to Lagos from Kano in 1977, in his early 20s, consolidated the Dangote trading business, dealing largely in bagged cement, which easily began to yield dividends and blossomed for him. Thus, the Dangote Group was established, specialising essentially, in trading of commodities. 

While Dangote built his business empire in Lagos, establishing himself as a manufacturing giant from a commodity trader, his great grandfather lost his fortune to thieves in Ebuta-Metta in Lagos, while on transit from Ghana, at some point. The great grandfather recovered from the loss within a short period of time. He was the first to open an account when the Bank of British West Africa came to Kano in 1929.

Unlike his uncle, Amaka Dantata, who maintained a palm beach residence in the United States and many palatial mansions home and abroad, with fleet of private aircraft, Dangote has no house abroad except in Lagos and Kano. He reportedly sold houses he had earlier acquired abroad to invest the money in his manufacturing firms.

Chairman, Kano Eminent Persons Forum (EPF), Ambassador Mukhtar Gashash, described Aliko Dangote as “a quintessential businessman”, who is always ready to explore opportunities that are financially rewarding.

Gashash said Dangote’s philosophy in business revolves around principles such as hard work, perseverance and innovation.

“Dangote believes in the importance of investing in sectors that have a significant impact on the society such as infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing.

“One of Dangote’s key philosophies is focusing on local production that reduces dependence on imports. This approach not only boosts the economy, but also creates job opportunities, and helps in developing local industries”, he said.

He said by prioritising the growth of businesses, Dangote is contributing to the overall development of the country.

The Kano EPF chairman added: “His company, Dangote Cement, has become a leading player in the cement industry, not only in Nigeria, but across Africa. Dangote’s vision and strategic investments have propelled his company to great heights, making it one of the largest cement producers on the continent,” he said.

According to him, Dangote’s diversified business interests in sectors such as sugar, salt, flour and oil refining further solidify his position as a business leader, noting that his exploits demonstrate his ability to identify opportunities, take calculated risks and drive growth in multiple industries.

For him, Aliko Dangote’s business philosophy combined with his strategic exploits cemented his legacy as a visionary entrepreneur.

Similarly, Chairman, Singer Market Traders Association, Alhaji Junaidu Muhammad Zakari, told Weekend Trust that Aliko Dangote has made significant contributions to the growth of businesses in Kano, particularly in Singer Market, having started his business as a trader over 30 years ago.

Traders of flour, sugar, rice, noodles, he said, received support from him individually and collectively.

“He is ever willing to assist traders whenever we approach him because of his patriotic zeal to support Kano traders, besides giving employment opportunities to truck drivers and factory workers in his company,” he said.

He dismissed the accusation of monopolistic tendencies against Dangote, saying: “When Alhaji ventured into flour, he met other competitors”.

He added that Aliko’s sugar business was not monopolistic as widely claimed. Rather, it helped discourage sugar importation into the country.

Worried by the developments around Dangote and his refinery in Lagos, a project the company invested about $20 billion, the Kano State Chamber of Commerce, Mines, Industry and Agriculture (KACCIMA), to which Dangote is patron, decried what it described as an attempt to frustrate Aliko to shelve his plan to establish a steel development plant in the country.

President of the Chamber, Alhaji Garba Imam, was out of the country as at the time of filing this report, but an official of the chamber who preferred anonymity, told Weekend Trust that KACCIMA had written to Dangote to encourage him to persevere and focus on his business plans, irrespective of what he called the attempted “sabotage”, intended to halt the diversification of the African richest man’s business interests.

The Dangote Group, it was gathered, has been a major financier of the Chamber’s annual trade fairs in Kano in the past 45 years.

A retired permanent secretary and Dangote’s senior at Government College, Birnin Kudu, who pleaded anonymity, also expressed worry that “some elements” were trying to frustrate Dangote, who, he said, has been very good to his friends, associates and to the country.

Shehu Alhaji Musa, a professor of Agricultural Economics and former Vice Chancellor, Kano State University of Science and Technology, later renamed Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology, had the opportunity of working with the business mogul for nine years.

He said the Dangote Group has been doing a lot, not just in the oil sector, but in food and agriculture value chain, particularly in the area of rice production, tomato and sugarcane production. He said subjecting a $20 billion investment to unnecessary criticism may discourage further investments into the country.

“For me, the controversy is uncalled for and the labelling of Dangote as monopolistic is underserving. Even if you argue about the quality, other countries in Europe and Asia did not reach the pinnacle in one day”, the professor said.

Nigeria, he said, must be seen to be protecting its local industries and providing them with the opportunity to flourish. He said the university named after Aliko has benefitted from the magnanimity of Dangote in many areas, including linking the institution to the National Independent Power Project (NIPP), provision of male and female hostels, employment of foreign professors, supply of generator sets, and settlement of electricity bills, in addition to a pledge to build a six-storey Senate building for it.

Aliko Dangote had built a N1.2 billion building in Bayero University, Kano, to serve as an incubation centre for entrepreneurship and business development in the country.

The project was in fulfillment of a promise he made during a convocation ceremony while Professor Attahiru Jega was the vice chancellor.

Aliko’s activities through the Dangote Foundation are reminiscent of his great grandfather’s humanitarian gestures. Dantata had in 1940/41 sent surplus of food stuff to Sokoto, after a drought- induced famine hit residents, forcing Sultan Hassan Dan Mu’azu to seek help from the then Emir of Kano, Abdullahi Bayero. Dantata also sent 10,000 sacks of grains to Katsina to mitigate sufferings from a famine that was known as “Mai Danbuhu”.

I am in London, hopefully on my way, in the next few days, to Paris, the host city of the 2024 Olympiad. I am very excited about visiting Paris again after two previous experiences that are significant chapters in my life. 

48 years ago, my flight to my first Olympic Games experience started in a city people used to say, in those days, was so beautiful and romantic that after seeing Paris, you can die happily!

It happened in the month of June. I was only a few weeks away from graduating from The Polytechnic, Ibadan. Through the Oyo State Sports Council, the National Sports Commission contacted the office of the Rector of The Polytechnic, seeking my release to come to Lagos and proceed immediately to join the national football team, the Green Eagles, that were on tour of Europe preparing for the 1976 Olympic Games. 

Coming completely from the Blue, it may be the most pleasant shock of my life. It was a quantum leap into uncharted frontiers of fate and fame. The Olympics were for gods, yet here was I, from nowhere, about to become one!

I had to submit an incomplete final project to my supervisor in the Mechanical Engineering department with the offer to return and defend the project after the national assignment. It was a most unusual situation for everyone. 

Meanwhile, the list of Nigeria’s contingent was with the International Olympic Committee, IOC, and had been released to the public. A scintillating performance by me in the quarter-final of that year’s Africa Cup Winners Cup for Shooting Stars FC at the National Stadium, Lagos, made Dr. Isaac Akioye, Director of the National Sports Commission, NSC, in charge of Nigerian sports, to send an urgent request to the IOC to replace the name of an already registered player with mine.

That’s how, as in a dramatic scene straight out of Hollywood, I found myself on a flight to Europe for the first time, to join the Green Eagles, already touring, training and playing international friendly matches in Greece, Germany, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in final preparation for the Olympic Games. 

At the end of the tour, some 10 days to the opening ceremony of Montreal ’76, the entire Nigerian contingent of athletes in various sports were assembled in Hotel Ibis, in Paris. 

That was my first ‘taste’ of Paris. That’s where my 1976 Olympic story took off. 

Of course, the rest of that story is now unforgettable history highlighted by the boycott of the Games by 28 African countries led by Nigeria and Tanzania, and several other equally historic consequences birthed through the decades till now. 

I never got to visit Paris again until the France ’98 FIFA World Cup. 

I was present when the Super Eagles put up their best performance at the championship, trouncing Spain by 3-2. Some friends and I spent the entire night walking the streets of Paris on a drinking binge. 

A few days later, on the streets of Paris, I also endured the agony that followed Nigeria’s painful loss to Denmark that ended my short-lived second romance with Paris.

That was 26 years ago. 

I have not been back there since then.

It is now Friday July 26, 2024. I am heading back to Paris to witness a new ‘episode’ of the biggest multi-sports event on the planet. I am excited about the prospects of Nigerian athletes at the Games. The country’s 88-athlete contingent is brimming with talent, confidence, determination and a positive spirit. 

I am eager to embed with them, particularly those in athletics where I think more of Nigeria’s haul of medals will likely come from. 

I look forward to playing an unofficial role as an official Sports Ambassador of Nigeria, and sports diplomat of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA. I intend to add my humble voice to encourage, inspire and motivate the athletes to run faster, jump higher, throw farther and fight harder than they have ever done for their Fatherland. 

Beyond that, I shall feed my journalistic impulses, and share personal experiences with audiences on my different platforms (print, radio, and social media) with unique sights and sounds of Paris 

Once again, I have arrived in London. I love the City. It is, in my humble opinion, one of the best destinations for social and cultural interaction in the world, a melting pot of everything. The city accommodates a little bit of every community on earth. 

Interestingly, I have not visited London in almost 5 years, not since the Covid 19 pandemic struck and disturbed the equilibrium of the world. I became one of its victims. I not only contracted it mildly but also lost my UK residential status when I chose to hibernate in the ‘safe’ environment of the secluded hills of Wasimi, rather than be involved in the long, uncertain, expensive and complicated protocols that traveling to the UK during that period required. 

It has been a nightmare since the end of ‘Covid’ trying to get any kind of respite to re-enter the UK. Even the present visit is possible only by the intervention of the top echelon of the British High Commission. 

So, I am here now, at the banks of River Thames, working out the logistics of entering Paris at this time. The city is filled to the brim with visitors – the almost 20,000-strong army of athletes, technical officials, and the media. Plus, of course, the millions of summer-time tourists and sports fans that are descending right now on the city. 

By the next time you are reading or hearing from me, I would have crossed the English Channel in a ‘bullet train’, the Eurostar, that travels at speeds of over 300 km/h deep through the famous underwater tunnels of the Channel. 

I cannot wait to catch up with Tobi Amusan, Ese Brume, Odunayo Adekuoroye, Aruna Quadri, Esther Onyema, Funke Oshinaike, Opeyori Anuoluwapo, and so on, to share ‘communion’ of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Geometric Power Ltd, Nigeria’s leading electric power integrated group, has described the death yesterday in Abuja of a foremost elder statesman, Chief Emmanuel C. Iwuanyanwu, as unexpected and shocking.

“He was one of our staunchest supporters”, the company said today in a statement quoting its founder and chairman, Professor Bart Nnaji, as saying.

“Iwuanyanwu, 82, and a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), was extremely proud of the work we are doing at Geometric Power Ltd by fellow Nigerian engineers”.

Continued the former Minister of Power who has also been the Minister of Science and Technology:

“Though he planned to attend in person the commissioning last February 26 of the Aba Independent Power Project comprising a 188-megawatt power plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout of Aba and the Aba Power Electric Company by Vice President Kashim Shettima on behalf of President Bola Tinubu, he couldn’t eventually make it due to an unforeseen development.

“Just before the commissioning, Dr Iwuanyanwu had granted a major interview to a team of journalists where he spoke eloquently, persuasively and passionately on the project's significance”.

It is understood that Iwuanyanwu had in the interview pledged to consult the Geometric Power group and the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) that provides power to the five Southeastern states with a view to working out an arrangement on how to make the area attain constant, reliable and affordable electricity.

 “Though he was the president general of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Iwuanyanwu did not possess a tunnel vision, but rather a national one”, Nnaji declared, adding that the Champion newspaper publisher, a knight of the Anglican Church, had no difficulty giving his daughter to the famous Muslim Aritsekola family of Ibadan in Oyo State because of his broad-mindedness.

Professor Nnaji recalled that Iwuanyanwu was honoured in all parts of the country like “ the late Chief Moshood Abiola with all kinds of titles for his profound contributions to national unity, peace and development, and so justifiably sought to become Nigeria’s president in the Third Republic”.

The former Minister remarked that “Chief Iwuanyanwu excelled in road construction through his Hardel and Enic company, in aviation through his Oriental Airlines, in sports through his Iwuanyanwu Nationale Football Club which won various prestigious competitions, as well as in publishing through the Champion newspapers.

“We are proud that he also excelled in insurance, public relations, property development, philanthropy, and community development.

“No one should forget that Chief Iwuanyanwu was the chairman of the Imo State Airport Committee that raised funds for building Sam Mbakwe Airport, the first airport in Nigeria’s history built by a state government.

“An appreciative nation honoured him with different high national awards, and Nigeria should continue to honour his memory as a foremost nationalist and developer of the Nigerian nation”.

Dr. Nwadiuto Iheakanwa

Group Managing Director

Champion Newspapers

39, Awonoyi Elemo Street,

Ajao Estate

 Lagos

CONDOLENCES

It is with great sadness that we received the news yesterday , of the death of your father, frontline businessman , publisher and an esteemed member of our Association, Chief (Dr.) Emmanuel Iwumanyanwu, the Ahaejiagmba Ndigbo.

He was aged 82.

An engineer by training, Chief Iwunyanwu bestrode the business world leaving an indelible mark in aviation, insurance , road construction, sports and newspapering.

His venture into the newpaper business with the emergence of Champion Newspapers on October 1, 1988, changed the dynamics of newspapering in the country.

The paper pioneered colour printing among Nigerian newspapers and was among the first  to set the stage for simultaneous printing, as the paper rolled out from presses in Lagos and Owerri, giving  readers in the east the experince of reading  same news with their Lagos/western counterparts.

Chief Iwuanyanwu was a sports enthusiast and for a very long time,  his football club Iwuanyanwu Nationale,  rode the crest of competitive  football locally and challenged for thropies on the continent.

A collosus of no mean repute, his passage has created a deep void in the nation's socio-development  landscape.

We are consoled by  the enviable legacies he left as a solid  politician, frontline businessman and a patriot .

On behalf of the Executive Council of our esteemed Association, we commiserate with you  and your  entire family .

We pray that the Almighty God,  will console and uphold each and everyone of you

Once again,  our condolences.

Signed

Kabiru A. Yusuf

President

I was shocked to learn that the Nigerian Senate is planning to establish a federal agency for the conduct of local government elections. The bill, sponsored by Senator Sani Musa (All Progressives Congress, Niger East), is titled, “Local Government Independent Electoral Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024 (SB. 531).” It passed the first reading at the plenary on Thursday, July 18, 2024.

The draft bill read in part, “To establish the National Independent Local Government Electoral Commission responsible for conducting elections to the office of the local government chairman and councillors, and any other matter thereof to do with local government as a third tier of government. The National Independent Local Government Electoral Commission is hereby established as an autonomous body mandated to organise, oversee, and conduct elections for the offices of local government chairman and councillors across all states.”

The proposed legislation listed the functions and powers of NILGEC to include the conduct of free, fair, and transparent elections for local government chairmen and councillors. Other functions are “to prepare and maintain an accurate and up-to-date voter register; to ensure voter education and public awareness regarding the electoral process; to set and enforce electoral guidelines and regulations for local government elections; to recruit and train electoral officers and staff for efficient election management; to monitor and supervise all electoral activities and processes; and to investigate and adjudicate electoral disputes and grievances.”

The bill indicated that NILGEC shall consist of a chairperson and six commissioners, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. It read, “The chairperson and commissioners shall serve for a term of five years, renewable once.” On its independence and autonomy, it stated that “NILGEC shall operate independently, free from external influence and interference. The commission shall have its own budget, approved by the National Assembly, to ensure financial independence.”

On the electoral offences and penalties, it explained that NILGEC should define and enforce penalties for electoral offences, including but not limited to voter fraud, ballot stuffing, and electoral violence. Offenders shall be prosecuted and punished in accordance with the laws of the land. NILGEC shall collaborate with other relevant government agencies, security forces, and civil society organisations to ensure a secure and credible electoral process. This bill is coming barely a week after the Supreme Court granted autonomy to the local governments.

There are several things wrong with this initiative. First, there are existing State Independent Electoral Commissions established by section 197(b) of the 1999 Constitution. Qualification of members of the SIEC is contained in section 200 (1)(a) which states that “no persons shall be qualified for appointment as a member of any of the bodies (i.e. State Executive Bodies) aforesaid if  he is not qualified or if he is disqualified for election as a member of a House of Assembly provided that a member of any of the said bodies shall not be required to belong to a political party and, in the case of the State independent Electoral Commission, he shall not be a member of a political party.” Some of the aforementioned functions listed for the proposed NILGEC are already being performed by SIECs in the last 25 years.

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It is true that there are serious concerns that the quality of elections being conducted by SIECs does not largely reflect the wishes of the people in the LGs who see the polls as mere coronation of the preferred candidates of the governors in the state. Be that as it may, the solution to the challenges of credible elections at the LG level is not to have another centralised body established for the sole purpose of conducting LG elections as currently being proposed by the National Assembly. The antidote lies in strengthening the SIECs the same way the Independent National Electoral Commission was strengthened in the 2010 constitutional amendments and the legislation that birthed the 2010 Electoral Act. What is necessary is for SIECs to be granted administrative and financial autonomy like INEC.

It is important to note that Nigeria is a federation and should not be run like a unitary system which is antithetical to the spirit and letter of federalism. As I submitted on Monday, July 22, 2024, on Law FM 103.9, Lagos; in a federation, power is decentralised and not the other way round. Because of the unpleasant experiences Nigeria had in the First Republic, the framers of the 1979 Constitution decided to centralise political parties and security, among others. Today, many of the national parties will fare better if they limit their operation to the states or LGs. In a similar fashion, having realised our folly of centralising policing and security, we are now reconsidering the establishment of state police. We have the State High Court, State Civil Service Commission, and State Road Traffic Agencies. Even correctional centres have been moved from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list; it does no harm to leave SIECs and just ensure that they have the requisite administrative and financial autonomy.

To my mind, the proposed NILGEC will be a drain on the country’s meagre resources. To be efficient, the new commission will have to run a parallel structure with what INEC currently has. That is, they will have to have offices in the Federal Capital Territory, the 36 states and 768 local government areas. That is if INEC will have to continue to conduct polls to the six Abuja Area Councils; otherwise, this new body will also have to establish a separate Abuja office. All the itemised functions of NILGEC are already being performed by INEC. It would therefore have been more reasonable to propose to scrap SIECs and transfer their functions to INEC. That is what the Justice Muhammadu Uwais Presidential Committee on Electoral Reform of 2008 recommended.

It doesn’t make sense at all to want to implement Steve Oronsaye’s report on the merger of Ministries, Departments and Agencies and at the same time create another huge bureaucracy like NILGEC. It is also for a similar reason that I am against the recent establishment of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development.

If there is no executive interference from the governors and there is administrative and financial autonomy that ensures that SIECs are well resourced, we will start to see a marked improvement in the conduct of local government elections.  NILGEC is a misadventure. The National Assembly should assist SIECs to wrestle their administrative and financial autonomy from the governors by amending the relevant sections of the Nigerian Constitution to effect this.