The UK higher education sector is grappling with a significant downturn in international student numbers, a situation that is compelling universities across the nation to consider drastic measures, including the termination of academic programs and staff layoffs.

Naija News reports that this alarming trend was highlighted in a recent report by The Times, which revealed the potential financial peril that educational institutions are facing.

University leaders have voiced their concerns, indicating that the decline in enrollment could lead to severe financial constraints.

According to The Times, the drop in foreign student attendance, particularly from countries like Nigeria and India, has been so precipitous that some universities might see themselves forced into making “really difficult” decisions to remain solvent.

The Executive Secretary of the University Chairs Committee, John Rushforth, shared his unprecedented concern for the sector, stating, “I have been in higher education for 30 years, and senior leaders are more concerned than ever.”

He elaborated on the gravity of the situation by mentioning that “bankruptcy is a realistic possibility” for some institutions, with one in ten universities already resorting to staff cuts this year.

The decline in international student numbers has been partly attributed to the economic challenges in their home countries, such as the significant devaluation of the Nigerian naira against the British pound.

Moreover, policy changes by the UK government, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement to restrict international graduate students from bringing dependents to the UK, have exacerbated concerns regarding future enrollment numbers.

Rushforth highlighted the dire need for universities to reassess their priorities and make tough decisions to safeguard their core functions.

“Universities have to think carefully about what they want to protect and make decisions about how to divest things that are not core to the institution,” he stated.

The implications for students could be profound, with fewer academic options and potentially compromised quality due to budgetary constraints.

In January, the Financial Times reported a significant decline in enrollment from key countries, underscoring the challenges UK universities face in attracting international talent. The tightening of immigration policies for students, including the review of the “graduate route” that allows them to work in the UK post-graduation, adds another layer of uncertainty for prospective students and the universities vying to attract them.

[NaiajNews]

Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, has condemned the unprovoked killing of officers and soldiers attached to 63 Brigade at Okuama community, Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state.

This is even as he said that his government will take all measures necessary to fish out all those behind the dastardly act and ensure they are made to face the full wrath of the law.

The Governor also condoled with the military and the families of officers and soldiers who died in the attack.

Oborevwori made this known in a statement by his chief press secretary, Festus Ahon, describing the act as alien to the culture of Deltans.

“The government of Delta State is gravely disturbed by the violence and unprovoked killing of the officers and soldiers, which he described as alien to the culture of Deltans.

“This incident is despicable and not in sync with the culture and tradition of Deltans. It runs contrary to the values and path of peace that the State Government is promoting as I have always emphasized in our MORE agenda to enhance peace and security.

“On behalf of the Government and good people of Delta State, I wish to condole, in particular, the families of the killed gallant officers and soldiers, the Nigerian Army and the Armed Forces of Nigeria in general, over this sad occurrence.

“The State Government shall take all measures necessary to fish out all those behind this dastardly act and ensure they are made to face the full wrath of the law.

“Delta State is governed within the tenets of the rule of law and human decency. Acts such as this incident cannot and will not be tolerated.

“Meanwhile, all citizens and residents of the state are enjoined to remain law- abiding and the State Government shall continue to take all measures to protect lives and property in Delta State.”

[DailyPost]

• CP talks tough, rallies vigilance groups, hunters
• PDP demands immediate release

Ahead of the April 24 date set for the commencement of Edo State governorship election campaigns, the state’s Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, has been kidnapped.

The election is scheduled for September 21.

Aziegbemi, a political ally of Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, was abducted by gunmen on Osaro Street in the Government Reservation Area (GRA) of Benin, the state capital, at about 11 pm on Friday.

He was said to have been abducted at a section of Osaro Street where there were speed breakers

The Edo PDP chairman had earlier on Friday evening attended a meeting at the Government House in GRA.

His driver, Joseph Impete, who narrated the events that culminated in the incident, said: “When we left Government House, Benin around 11 pm on Friday, and headed for the private residence of my boss, I observed that two cars were trailing us, so I decided to divert.

“We never knew that they were kidnappers.

“Some minutes later, the same cars appeared behind us at a section where there are speed-breakers, and their vehicles were suddenly used to block the SUV of my boss in the front.

“The men then pointed guns at us, ordered him to enter one of their cars and drove away.

“The gunmen abandoned my boss’ car on Sapele Road, Benin.”

The whereabouts of the Edo State PDP chairman remained unknown at press time while no demand for ransom had been made by his abductors.

CP talks tough, rallies vigilance groups, hunters

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Edo State Police Command, Chidi Nwabuzor, a Superintendent of Police (SP), confirmed the incident, saying that Edo State Commissioner of Police, Funsho Adegboye, had given a marching order to the tactical teams of the command to rescue Aziegbemi unhurt while his abductors should also be apprehended and prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to other criminals.

In a press statement he issued yesterday, Nwabuzor quoted Adegboye as having directed the command’s tactical team leaders to conduct a rescue party for Aziegbemi in collaboration with the vigilance groups and hunters in the state.

Adegboye said: “The command wishes to inform the general public that it is aware of the kidnap of Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, the state’s Chairman of PDP on Friday, 15/03/2024, at about 2345hrs. The information of his kidnap was received from his driver, Joseph Impete, who reported the incident at the New Etete Division, Benin City.

“The driver, who is an eyewitness to the horrible incident, reported that on 15/03/2024, the victim of kidnap, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, attended a meeting at the Edo State Government House, Benin City, and on their way returning home from the meeting, close to his house, six armed men in a convoy of two white Toyota Corolla saloon car, registration number unknown, accosted them along Bishop (Dr.) J.O.E. Edokpolor Boulevard Junction, off Country Home Road, GRA, Benin City, and immediately, Dr. Aziegbemi jumped out of his ash Toyota Prado Jeep for the safety of his dear life while the driver also ran out of the vehicle and lay on the ground, but the hoodlums chased Dr. Aziegbemi and threatened to shoot him if he refused to stop.

“So, he stopped, and they seized him, threw him inside his Toyota Prado Jeep, and took him away to an unknown destination.”

Adegboye also said he received the report of the kidnap incident with shock, prompting him to immediately issue a marching order.

He solicited the cooperation of law-abiding citizens of the state, urging them to give useful and timely information that would lead to the arrest of the perpetrators of Aziegbemi’s kidnap as well as his quick rescue.

PDP demands Aziegbemi’s release

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday urged government to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Aziegbemi.

In a press statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Debo Ologunagba, the party also demanded the release of all other abducted citizens, blaming the nation’s security challenges on the ruling All Progressives’ Congress (APC).

The statement reads in part: “The PDP expresses serious concerns over Dr. Aziegbemi’s abduction, which further points to the alarming failure of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled Federal Government in its primary duty to ensure the security and welfare of Nigerians as provided under Section 14 (2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).

“Our Party is distressed by the alarming spate of abduction of helpless Nigerians in various parts of the country, particularly the recent kidnap of about 286 school children in Kaduna State and others in Sokoto State, who are still being held in horrifying and traumatising conditions in their abductors’ den.

“It is heartrending that the APC administration continues to give false assurances while Nigerians are left at the mercies of kidnappers, bandits, terrorists and marauders without corresponding concrete effort to check the ugly occurrences.

“Our Party calls on the Federal Government to end its laidback attitude to security by immediately rejigging our national security architecture, especially in the areas of intelligence gathering, security command and control coordination in a manner that not only proactively ensure the safety of citizens, but also guarantees rapid response and effective rescue operations.

“The PDP commends our gallant security personnel in their patriotic effort to secure our nation and urges them not to relent despite the daunting challenges.

“While calling on Nigerians to be prayerful, alert and continue to support our security agencies, the PDP charges the Security high command to take urgent steps to secure the release of Dr. Aziegbemi and all other Nigerians trapped in abductors’ camps in various parts of the country.”

Edo govt on top of incident, says commissioner

Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, stated yesterday that the Godwin Obaseki administration was on top of the “unfortunate” kidnap of Edo State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Tony Aziegbemi.

He said the government was working closely with security agencies to ensure his safe release and quick return to his family.

In an online statement, Nehikhare revealed that the state government had increased surveillance and beefed up security measures across the state in order to ensure that criminal activities were reduced to the barest minimum and the culprits were brought to book.

He said: “We encourage Edo State’s residents to go about their lawful businesses without fear, and urge them to call the state’s emergency numbers: 112 or 739, to report all suspicious persons or activities in their environs.

“Edo State Government reassures that it is committed to protecting the lives and property of Edo residents, and will spare no resources in ensuring that the perpetrators of the dastardly act are apprehended, and made to face the full wrath of the law.”

[TheNation]

Many residents of the Okuama in the Ughelli South Local Government Area and Okolaba in the Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State, on Friday, fled the communities as soldiers took over the area and reportedly set some houses ablaze in reaction to the killing of 16 soldiers, including senior officers.

Channels Television reported late on Saturday that 15 bodies of the soldiers were recovered by soldiers of the Joint Task Force under the supervision of the General Officer Commanding 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Major General Jamal Abdussalam, at the Okuama community.

Some of the recovered corpses had their heads severed off, while the stomachs of others were ripped off with some of the vital organs missing.

At the NDDC jetty in the community, the bodies of the commanding officer and two Majors were seen floating by the river bank as others were separated on land.

Meanwhile, the entire communities in the Bomadi and Ughelli South local government areas were cordoned off by troops of the 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, who also oversees the 63 brigade in Asaba.

The neighbouring communities have been engaged in a communal land dispute since January 27, 2024 when some youths from Okoloba were said to have ambushed and killed three Okuama youths, Igho Meshack, Godspower Awusa and Okiemute Agbabuleke, over an age-long land dispute in the area as they were returning from Okwagbe.

The corpses of the deceased were said to have been hidden by the assailants.

Some Okuama youths on Wednesday reportedly ambushed one Mr Anthony Aboh, an indigene of Okoloba, and held him hostage.

The Chairman of the Okoloba community alerted the Divisional Police Officer, Bomadi Police Division, the Joint Task Force, the Department of State Service, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

It was learnt that the JTF swiftly swung into action and moved to Okuama to rescue the hostage.

However, the aggrieved youths of Okuama, on sighting the JTF personnel, allegedly opened fire on them at the waterfront and killed two soldiers with some others missing.

The situation degenerated to a gun duel between the youths and the military, leading to some soldiers sustaining severe bullet wounds.

In the ensuing melee, some of the soldiers reportedly managed to escape with the two wounded soldiers, who are said to be presently recuperating in an undisclosed hospital in Bomadi.

The Commanding Officer of 3 Battalion, Effurun, and Commanding Officer, 181 Amphibious Battalion, Agbor, could not be reached for comments as of the time of filing this report.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Bright Edafe, stated, “The Delta State Police Command is not aware of the incident.”

However, the Nigerian Army confirmed the killing of its officers and men, whom it noted were on a peace mission in the Okuama community.

In a statement by the acting Director, Defence Information, Brigadier General Tukur Gusau, the Army said the commanding officer of the 181 Amphibious Batallion, two Majors, one Captain and 12 soldiers lost their lives.

The statement read in part, “The troops of the 181 Amphibious Batallion, Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State, while on peace mission to Okuama community in the Bomadi LGA of Delta State, were surrounded by some community youths and killed on Thursday, March 14, 2024. The unfortunate incident occurred when the troops responded to a distress call regarding the communal crisis between the Okuama and Okoloba communities, both in Delta State.

“The reinforcement team led by the commanding officer was also attacked, leading to the death of the commanding officer, two Majors, one Captain and 12 soldiers.

“The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, has directed the immediate investigation and arrest of those involved in the heinous crime. The occurrence has been reported to the Delta State Government.”

 Gusau added that the military remained focused and committed to its mandate of maintaining peace and security in the country, adding that some arrests had been made, while steps were being taken to unravel the motive behind the attack.

Community under siege

Sunday PUNCH gathered that troops had placed the Okuama community under siege as soldiers were said to have set fire on houses during which no fewer than three young men lost their lives.

One of our correspondents gathered that several residents of the community suffered life-threatening injuries, many of the women and children displaced in the ensuing melee had yet to be accounted for as of the time of filing this report.

When Sunday PUNCH correspondent attempted to visit the warring communities, he was turned back by stern looking and heavily armed soldiers, who had taken over the roads.

‘Soldiers carrying out genocide’

Speaking to journalists from his hideout, the Vice President-General of Okuama Community, Mr David Akata, expressed displeasure with “the lackadaisical approach of the state government and security operatives to quell the crisis between the two communities initially.”

“We entered into a peace accord with the state government and security operative in the state, and we stand by that accord, but often times the Okoloba people harass and assault our people. Our pleas to the state government to expedite action and caution the Okoloba leaders fell on deaf ears. Rather, they aided the Okoloba community and used their mercenaries to attack and kill our people,” he stated.

Akata also called on President Bola Tinubu; Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori; the National Assembly, Amnesty International and the United Nations to urgently intervene and reprimand the military personnel, whom he accused of carrying out acts of genocide, from annihilating the people.

He said, “Some armed men in military uniform invaded the community in the early hours of March 14, 2024, with a gunboat.

“The gunmen arrived in the community around 8am and started shooting at anyone in sight, thus leaving three killed while several victims injured are currently receiving treatment in a hospital in the state.

“Troops suspected to be men of the Nigerian Army on Friday, March 15, 2024, while chanting war songs, carried out what could be termed genocide on the innocent citizens of the community by setting their buildings ablaze.”

Another youth from Okuama, who did not want his name in print said, “Our people woke up on Wednesday to see our community surrounded by men in military uniform numbering over 60, and without provocation, they started shooting and caused the death of three promising youths of the community with several others sustaining gunshot injuries.

“The same military men repeated their genocide actions on innocent and law-abiding citizens of the Okuama community on Friday, March 15, 2024, bringing many buildings to rubble. As I speak, the number of persons who died in the barbaric attack cannot be ascertained as many aged men, women and youths fled into the nearby bushes and we suspect that some women and children might have drowned, because many ran into the river out of panic.”

A leader of the Okoloba, who begged to remain anonymous because of the tense situation, accused the Okuama people of being the aggressor and called on the federal and state governments as well as security agencies to beef up security in the communities to prevent an escalation of the crisis.

He also confirmed that many residents of Okolaba had fled the community for fear of reprisal from the military and the Okuama youths, adding that he was speaking from his hideout.

When contacted for a reaction, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, acknowledged the severity of the incident. However, he declined to comment, saying the Presidency would issue an official statement on the incident soon.

Similarly, the Chief Press Secretary to the Delta State Governor, Mr Festus Ahon, directed our correspondent to the Commissioner for Information, Dr Ifeanyi Osuoza. However, the commissioner did not his calls and had yet to reply a message sent to his mobile telephone as of the time of filing this report.

Senators call for calm

The senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Ede Dafinone, has called on those involved in the ongoing carnage at to “sheath their swords for the sake of humanity.”

He also called on the federal and state governments “to urgently intervene to de-escalate the crisis.”

The call was contained in a statement issued by Dafinone in Warri on Saturday.

Dafinone while reacting to reports of the death of the soldiers, three Okuama community youths and the alleged burning of properties in Okuama, described the incidents as “very unfortunate.”

While sympathising with the military over the loss of its officers and men, he called on the Army to “observe the military rules of engagement while dealing with civilians.”

He also called on the leaders and the people of Okuama to remain calm and urged the government to “expedite action to arrest the ugly situation from degenerating into another humanitarian crisis”.

The statement read in part, “I want to appeal for calm by the warring factions in the unfortunate incident that occurred in the Okuama community in the Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State on Thursday and Friday, leading to the needless death of about 18 persons including soldiers.

“The Federal Government must, as a matter of urgency, set up a high-powered independent panel to investigate the remote causes of this crisis in order to bring whoever that may be involved in the killing of Nigerian civilians and soldiers to book.

“I wish to appeal to the authority of the Nigerian Army to act discreetly in this situation; they should not allow their emotions take better part of their professional judgment by toning down their operations and observe the rules of engagement while dealing with civilians at Okuama.

“I also wish to call on our people in Okuama to shun any act of violence that could further escalate this crisis, which could have been avoided if both parties allowed reason to prevail.”

Similarly, the senator representing the Delta North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Ned Nwoko, condemned the loss of lives on the part of the military and the communities, and appealed to the military not to use the tragedy to descend on the communities and inflict pain on innocent people.

He told one of our correspondents on the telephone on Saturday, “The military should identify the culprits after a thorough investigation. They should not descend on the entire communities and molest innocent citizens. They should not invade the state or the communities. I want to particularly beg them not to treat anyone like criminals, but they should be circumspect.

“It is a tragedy and a national one for that matter. The killings should be condemned. Killings in Nigeria are unbearable. Just two weeks ago, some policemen were abducted in the same state and five bodies were recovered. What is happening is not something we should gloss over. It is sad that killings in Katsina, Zamfara and Plateau states are now spreading to the southern part of the country.”

Attempts to get the reaction of the member representing the Bomadi/Patani Federal Constituency of Delta State in the House of Representatives, Nicholas Ebomo, were unsuccessful. Calls to his mobile telephone were unanswered while messages sent to him via WhatsApp were not acknowledged.

Ex-soldiers, others react

Reacting to the development, a security consultant and defence strategist, Col. Hassan Stan-Labo (retd.), said there was a need for the military to investigate the incident to ascertain what happened.

He added that although the military had become civilised compared to past years when retaliations would be carried out on the communities, the perpetrators would in no time be brought to justice.

He said, “There was a communal clash and of course the military was called upon and they were responding before the unfortunate incident that happened. The military will now have to investigate it to ascertain the actual position of things and that will show the way forward as to what line of action to take.  We don’t foresee any retaliation on the part of the military. That was in the past and today we don’t do that.

 “The military is more civilised today and it’s just that the youth involved definitely will pay for it. There are no two ways about it. Community leaders who took sides, engineered, and in one way or the other contributed, provoked or assisted it in any form or shape will pay for it.”

The Chairman, Rivers State Coalition of Civil Society Organisations, Enefaa Georgewill, said, “The underlining factor should be understudied. Some have linked the attack to IPOB while some others have linked it to criminal gangs. But most of these crises are fallouts of the issues in the country. The government should wake up and begin to answer the fundamental questions of poverty, educational, economic, and food crises, among several others.

“My plea to the civilians is that we must know that soldiers are part of us. They are human beings like us. These soldiers have parents and children. We will call for calm and the military should act professionally and not allow the situation to degenerate to a killing spree.

The National Publicity Secretary of the Ijaw National Congress, Ezonebi Oyakemeagbegha, said, “It’s very unfortunate that civilians will kill military personnel. It is such a sad story but we are appealing to the soldiers to act professionally. As much as we condemn the killing of soldiers, we appeal that they should handle the situation professionally.”

[Punch]

Federal legislators  in Nigeria especially senators imagine that they are the smartest people in Africa, South of the Sahara and even North of the Equator. Perhaps they are actually smart considering the ease with which they get away with a legion of transparently repulsive allegations. Indeed, no one has been able to hold our senators down to the undesirable financial transactions that people know and see about them as a group.

When analysts raised the alarm many years back that Nigerian legislators were the highest paid in the world, they published their basic salaries which were not excessive but successfully hid their several secret allowances from sundry sources. They allegedly got paid for ghost legislative aides but  no one could prove it beyond reasonable doubt; just as they virtually hypnotised public officers from going public with their dirty oversight functions.  

 Today, this column seeks to admonish them to watch their backs because as the saying goes, ‘every day for the thief; one day for the owner of the house.’ Many people who have followed the incredible modus operandi of our lawmakers are busy convincing many others  that our legislators are a distraction to Nigeria’s development and that the day of the owner of the house is quite near. It is therefore time for our lawmakers to play down on their lucrative but expensive hobby which some of their members quietly deprecate. In fact, we need no soothsayers to perceive the impending doom which their albatross – budget padding, may sooner than they expect unleash on some of them. A review of the nature of their handling of budget matters can easily confirm the point.

 Although the ongoing controversies surrounding this year’s budget are quite curious, budgets for previous years were no less contentious. The only difference now is that the nation’s poor economy is thoroughly illuminating the trend of budget manipulations in Nigeria. There is hardly  any year in which duplicated projects have not been exposed by professional analysts such as BudgIT- a foremost civic-tech organization engaged in the advocacy for fiscal transparency and public accountability in Nigeria. In 2021, there were reports of as many as 316 duplicated projects inserted into the budget by the National Assembly. In 2022, BudgIT reported 460 duplicated items amounting to N378.9 billion. When these reports are put beside the trending derogatory 2017 remarks on legislators by former President Olusegun Obasanjo one cannot but fear for the lawmakers.

If Obasanjo is known to be hostile to legislators, what of former President Muhammadu Buhari a supposed friend of the National Assembly who last year had to publicly condemn what he called “worrisome changes” to the budget by the lawmakers amounting to 6,576 new items not previously discussed behind closed doors by the two arms. The argument that legislators have a right to review a budget before approving it becomes puerile when the power to review is abused by distorting the document with new incoherent items in which several projects are inexplicably lumped into the budgets of agencies that have no responsibility for such projects. For example, the National Agency for Great green Wall set up to prevent land degradation and desertification afflicting parts of the country suddenly found within its budget, N1.3 billion for purchasing motorcycles, street lights and other projects outside its mandate.

 If budgeting is not appropriately directed to its proper target, it can be assumed that such distortion is a veiled attempt to budget for nebulous items that would in the end be diverted to private pockets. What was the rationale for crediting as much as N67.8 million to the Ministry of Environment for the construction of Gun Armouries when the Ministry is not a security agency? Bearing in mind that such anomalies were discovered in the past, why in 2024, are there fresh reports on the repeated trend of budgeting for boreholes and solar panels (at forex rates) when such items are in essence not federal projects? Can such insertions be justified with the argument that legislators had during campaigns promised their constituents of bringing goodies back home? How sincere is a legislator who promises goodies outside law-making?

 The recent allegations by Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central) that certain items in this year’s budget were not clearly located and that some constituencies had more projects than others have summarily earned him a-3month suspension by the Senate. Here, a number of issues are thrown-up. Many legislators including hitherto non-conformist Ali Ndume (Borno South) have supported the suspension, some quite aggressively and others purporting to be persuasive. Yet, they all ignored the essence of process. Ningi’s allegations are too weighty to be concluded without a thorough investigation. Why were such huge allegations not first sent to the relevant committee for deliberation beforè positioning the Senate as a whole to make informed decisions? The agility of the senate this time around is a  sign that when an allegation is troubling, the tendency is to face it with troubling posture.

 In other words, the best way to know if the senators nurse some guilt about any allegation is to watch their body language and not necessarily their words. Under such circumstance it is very easy to see everyone falling on one another to quickly dispense with the allegation. As a result, due process is always sacrificed. This is most visible when the allegation concerns corrupt practices. In 2003 when Nasir el Rufai exposed two senators who demanded bribe to facilitate his clearance as Minister, the senate hurriedly met to say the story was false; yet quickly cleared el Rufai. The handling of the Ningi case got a good dosage of how the House of Representatives descended on one of their own, Abdulmumini Jibrin who accused the leadership of the House of budget padding in 2016. It did not occur to the members that Jibrin being the then chairman of the appropriation committee of the House stood as the most credible source on the subject. His reading of the posture of the House leadership could hardly be challenged.

 Once legislators have a feeling that one of them is  exposing a guarded secret, the member must be quickly silenced. Whether or not the verdict is harsh is not considered. As former Senator Shehu Sani has confirmed, that is why many dissatisfied legislators remain mute. Also discarded, is the almighty subject of the rule of law. Almost every year our legislators find cause to suspend one of their members without remembering that each of such suspensions has always been quashed by the courts. Are our legislators suggesting that court orders are not binding on them? The suspension of Dino Melaye and others by the House of Representatives in 2010  was quashed by the court; the same thing happened with the case of Jibrin 2016 as well as the suspension of Ali Ndume by the senate in 2017.  Does the National Assembly relish the  disobedience of court orders?

 The number of times the courts have held that the National Assembly cannot suspend their members and  the fact that the latter continues to disobey the judgment seems to confirm the hypothesis that such suspensions are merely face-saving as well as a device to punish all members who divulge secrets from which the group hugely gains materially. Painfully, it is a subject on which the few courageous members follow the dictates of their hearts irrespective of the anticipated illegal verdicts. As we have seen in the Ningi case, Agom Jarigbe (Cross River, North) insists that although he is a ranking senator he did not get constituency projects worth N500 million which some senior senators secretly got. Tony Nwoye (Anambra North) says the value of the allocation he got was N250 million. Thus, that the senate placed certain constituencies above others shows that allocations were not for senatorial districts but for persons who  are for the time being presiding.

As for the alleged plan to impeach the senate president, there is nothing special or new about that. The emotional outburst is irrelevant because it is senators that elected him and they too are empowered to remove or keep him there as they desire. It is neither a public matter nor does it justify discrimination in resource allocations. The Senate should find more befitting punishment for the legislators they wish to witch-hunt instead of suspending such persons thereby hurting an innocent constituency.

•Programme gulps N2trn in 21 years
•Inside the ICPC damning report

21 years after senators and members of the House of Representatives forced the Executive to insert Special Intervention Projects (SIP), known as constituency projects, into the budget, it has been one problem after the other every year.

Constituency projects, which have a yearly budget of N100 billion, were established by the Obasanjo administration with the hope of bringing government closer to the people, especially those in the rural areas, just as it was not designed for lawmakers to determine directly what projects should go to their constituents or to be the ones who should provide contractors.

With this in mind, it was agreed that the Federal Government should set aside the huge sum of money to finance constituency projects and to ensure implementation through the Office of the Special Adviser on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in agreement with lawmakers.

N2 trillion spent

Records have it that at least N2 trillion has been spent on constituency projects from 2003 to date, even as Sunday Vanguard gathered that N95 billion and N100 billion had been allocated to the projects every year and shared among the 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives.

In sharing the funds, however, they consider ranking like in the Senate where there are two presiding officers, the President of the Senate and the Deputy Senate President, and eight principal officers: Majority Leader; Deputy Leader; Chief Whip and Deputy Whip.

Others are Minority Leader; Deputy Minority Leader; Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip. All these get higher share than ordinary members. It could be N500 million multiplied by eight while presiding officers get higher than principal officers.

As gathered, while presiding and principal officers could get N500 million and above, no senator gets less than N200 million, especially those who have been around and not principal officers.

Question

Must senators be treated differently against the backdrop that they were all elected each to represent a senatorial district?

First, constituency project is not part of the roles assigned to lawmakers by the nation’s Constitution.

The constitutional mandate of the lawmaker is espoused around lawmaking, representation and oversight functions.
By way of expansion, other ancillary duties may be added but not constitutional.

Consequently, the lawmaker has no business engaging in project award or execution.
It’s the job of the Executive.

National Assembly members are constitutionally empowered to make laws for the country and to act as checks and balances on the Executive and not to execute constituency project.

One can assume that constituency project is a new convention but many have argued in this circumstance that it is organized fraud.

“Otherwise, how do you explain the disparities in the allocation of constituency projects?” a critic said.

Brick wall

Moves by the Senate to legalise constituency projects last year and to increase the vote from N100 billion yearly were jettisoned on the grounds that such venture will interfere with the provisions of Section 80 of the 1999 Constitution as Amended which vest the power of appropriations in the Legislature.

The contentious Bill, sponsored by Senator Babangida Hussaini (APC,Jigawa North-West), was stopped at plenary as it failed to move to second reading.

Hussaini had explained that constituency project is not peculiar to Nigeria as, according to him, it was an effective way of ensuring equitable distribution of development across the country.

He added that it helps to draw governance and dividends of democracy closer to the grassroots.

Bogus salaries, allowances

Recall that Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate, had, in March 2018, spoken about alleged bogus salaries and allowances of lawmakers when he revealed that every senator gets N13.5 million monthly as running costs and about N200 million as constituency vote.

According to him, implementation of constituency project is an avenue “for theft and corruption employed by lawmakers”.

Sani had said at that time: “I think what we can say is that the running cost of a senator is N13.5 million every month”.

According to him, while there is no specific instruction on what the fund should be used for, lawmakers must provide receipts to back up their expenses from the running cost.

He added that the running cost is in addition to funds earmarked for each senator for constituency project.
“But what I am saying is that the money (N13.5 million per month) must be receipted for what you do with it. But what you are given to go and spend without accountability is N750, 000”, the senator said.

“The constituency project itself is given on a zonal basis and almost every senator will go with a constituency fund of about N200 million, but it is not the cash that is given to you.

“You will be told that you have N200 million with an agency of government for which you will now submit projects equivalent to that amount. And it is that agency of government that will go and do those projects for you.

“Now, corruption comes when the projects are not done and the money is taken. But right now, it is difficult to do that because NGOs and transparency groups have come into it. They track every allocation made to you and where they are being used.

“So, it’s becoming difficult for what used to happen in the past to happen now. But I can tell you that I would love a situation where we do away with running cost, constituency projects and leave senators and members of House of Reps with salaries”.

Obasanjo, Buhari, Jonathan take positions

Obasanjo himself who started constituency project in 2023 once described it as nothing but corruption, saying, “You and I know what constituency project means, it is simply corruption.”

Former President Muhammadu Buhari echoed similar claim in 2019 when he said the impact of the trillions of Naira voted for constituency projects could hardly be seen in the lives of ordinary Nigerians.

On his part, former President Goodluck Jonathan had said “don’t put the goat where yam is because the goat will eat the yam” in apparent reference to corrupt acts dogging constituency projects.

N500m vs. N75m

On Tuesday on the floor of the Senate, Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe (PDP, Cross River North) alleged that senior senators got N500 million each in the 2024 Budget for constituency projects while other senators got only N75 million.

Jarigbe’s claim was made during a session on the allegation made by another senator, Abubakar Ningi, that the 2024 Budget had been padded to the tune of N3.7 trillion.

Speaking during the rowdy session, Jarigbe said, “I thought that when the Chairman of Appropriations spoke, it was as clear as crystals that there was a misunderstanding of the figures.

“When he came up with the GOEs and all the agencies on first line charge, there is no difference between the figure he reeled out and the figure purported to be padded.

“I thought with that, the allegation would have been rested by Senator Ningi saying that this N3.7 trillion was not part of the budgetary provisions printed out for us. That would have settled this matter.

“We are going forth and back on these issues and coming up with the issues of budget and individual issues concerning what came to our various constituencies.

“If we want to go into those issues, all of us are culpable. Some senators here, so-called senior senators, got N500 million each. I am a ranking senator, I didn’t get. Did I go to the press? Most of you got.”

Report

To buttress the claim that constituency projects for lawmakers were enmeshed in corruption, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, in April 2022, issued a report on how National Assembly members were diverting funds for constituency projects.

The ICPC alleged that senators diverted money meant for their senatorial districts to non-existing projects, thereby denying their constituents from reaping dividends of democracy.

The anti-graft agency said it uncovered how the National Assembly illegally added N20 billion to N100 billion annual constituency projects.

The ICPC, in its ‘interim constituency and executive projects tracking report’, revealed how the National Assembly embedded additional projects into the 2021 mandate budget of MDAs, which, in a long way, affected budget performance, as well as distorted developmental planning and implementation of the 2021 fiscal year.

In the report, the ICPC cited other areas of infractions where lawmakers allegedly awarded contracts to themselves, children or to proxy companies.

The report read: “Budget insertion remains one of the egregious, yet illegally acceptable phenomenon that has distorted the nation’s developmental planning and implementation of developmental programmes.

“In addition to the N100 billion appropriated annually for constituency projects, the National Assembly embedded additional projects into mandate budgets of MDAs. This is done to increase the project portfolios of concerned legislators and their influence on MDAs. The value of the insertion was in billions.

Duplication

“Analysing the 2021 National Budget alone across key sectors of education, water resources, health, power, science and technology, environment, works and agriculture, we found duplication to the tune of over N20 billion.”
The report pointed out that the “contract for the construction and renovation of blocks of the classroom at a University Staff School in Taraba executed by a company owned and operated directly by a lawmaker”, a project ICPC alleged was “haphazardly nominated, appropriated and executed in locations that have no need for such projects.”
In another development, ICPC alleged another contract infraction in the supplies of water rigs by a particular company to be executed in Taraba.

The commission alleged that “just two days after the award of the contract, ‘the said company’, wrote to the executing agency, Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority, informing it that it was involved in some sort of arrangements with its sister company in respect of the execution and requested that the contract sum should be paid into the bank account of the company owned by the sponsoring legislator.

“Funding was, therefore, made to the said company owned by the sponsoring legislator.”

Children

In the report, the ICPC revealed that it was able to track a contract for the supplies of 686 water pumping machines to Kebbi awarded to a particular company owned by the children of a lawmaker.

The report read: “Various other projects were awarded and executed in Kebbi by three other companies owned and operated by the biological children of the sponsor.”

Similarly, the ICPC said that it was able to track the project for the supplies of 19 units of 500KVA transformer to Delta State, two of which “were stolen and sold by an aide of the sponsoring lawmaker, while one was found kept in a private house since 2018.

ICPC stated: “While the culprit is on the run, the lawmaker has agreed to an undertaking to purchase and deliver to the commission the two transformers”.

The commission also cited the project valued at N149m for the training and empowerment of women and youths in Abaji allegedly awarded to a relative of the sponsoring legislator.

It was also replicated in Katsina where the sponsor single-handedly executed the contract after which the project said to have been valued at N49m was changed from its form and devalued by the lawmaker.

In another case, the supply of tricycles to Rivers State was an empowerment project where the sponsor allegedly used one of her cronies as the contractor.

ICPC alleged that “while the contract was never performed, the sum (N30m) was fully paid and shared”.

Projects cited on personal properties

The agency also revealed that some sponsoring legislators sometimes site projects on personal properties, which technically vests legal possession and ownership to them.

An example was cited of the diversion of funds for an agricultural empowerment project in Osun State to a training programme on cattle rearing and the actual supply of cattle.

The Bill of Quantities, BOQ, according to the ICPC report, indicated procurement and distribution of 250 cattle to beneficiaries.

The report said: “While the intended beneficiaries were trained, no cattle were given to them; instead the lawmaker established a private ranch using the cattle procured with government’s fund.”

In Bayelsa, the commission alleged that the investigation led it to another youth empowerment scam carried out by the sponsoring lawmaker.

It alleged that some of the beneficiaries found in the list were randomly contacted, even as none of them acknowledged ever receiving any grant.

Rumble in the Senate over ‘N3. 7 trillion budget padding’

John Alechenu takes a look at what transpired during Tuesday’s plenary following the allegation that N3 trillion was inserted into the 2024 Appropriation Act.

“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it” – George Santayana.

In the eye of the storm

The 10th Senate under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio was in the eye of the storm last week following allegation of impropriety surrounding the passage of the 2024 Appropriation Act.

The allegation was made by the erstwhile Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi South).

In an interview with the Hausa Service of the BBC, Ningi, among other things, alleged that two versions of the 2024 Budget were in operation and that a whopping N3.7 trillion could not be traced to any line item.

As is to be expected, the media and the general public feasted on the interview and fingers pointed in the direction of Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

Senators who felt the integrity of the Senate in particular and the National Assembly in general had been called to question plotted their revenge and prepared for a collective response.

Many Nigerians were expecting Ningi to produce evidence to pull the plug on Akpabio and his fellow principal officers when plenary resumed on Tuesday.

The Senate President and his backers equally waited for the opportunity to put Ningi in his place after establishing the previous night that he acted alone.

This is not the first time allegations of budget padding were leveled against the leadership of the National Assembly.

Recall, in 2006, during the 8thNational Assembly, then-Chairman of the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, Abdulmumuni Jibrin, after falling out with then-Speaker Yakubu Dogara, accused the House leadership of padding then-budget to the tune of N40billion.

Jibrin was referred to the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges; he refused to make an appearance. He was tried and convicted in absentia.

He was subsequently suspended from legislative duties for 180 days but was later pardoned and recalled before the expiration of 180 days.

Interest

Ningi’s allegation is the first of its kind in the Senate.

This, perhaps, partly explains the interest it generated.

The lawmaker, who is a ranking member as well as a leading member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), spiced his allegation with regional flavour when he also alleged that the 2024 Budget was skewed against the North.

Undeterred by a rebuttal issued by a presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, Ningi addressed the Senate Press Corps and insisted he had facts and figures to back his claim, adding for effect that threats of suspension do not scare him.

The stage was thus set for what many considered a testy moment for the Akpabio Senate presidency.

Session

Despite pressures from some of his colleagues for an executive session, convinced that he had nothing to hide, the Senate President opted for an open session which was beamed live on television.

One thing was missing, Akpabio’s trademark banter with colleagues. It was no time for jibes, a lot was at stake. Tuesday’s proceedings were watched across the globe.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Solomon Olamilekan, was recognised to present his motion under matters of privilege, and the motion was duly seconded, several senators were given room to speak for and against.

The provocateur, Ningi, was given ample opportunity to defend himself, substantiate his claims, and even level more if he had.

It was an anti-climax when he stood and recanted some of the things he was quoted to have said in the contentious interview.

He went on to say only he had details of the findings of the consultants hired by the Northern Senators Forum to review the budget.

After dramatizing and displaying a horde of files and documents, Ningi could not substantiate his allegation of padding or infraction in the budget; instead, he digressed and started talking about the number of aides appointed by the Senate President and his take-home pay. However, another matter stirred public debate.

Senator Agom Jaribe (PDP, Cross River), while contributing during the debate, alleged that some ranking senators received N500 million each for constituency projects while others were discriminated against.

The Senate descended into near chaos for almost 30 minutes before calm was restored.

Sentiments

One thing was however clear: Different sentiments were whipped into the debate on the allegations but the Senate was united in doing what it felt was the right thing in accordance with its Standing Order.

Hence, the prayers of Olamilekan’s motion were amended and subsequently passed.

Ningi was suspended for three months.

The emptiness of Ningi’s allegations and the prompt response of the Senate to tame the misinformation have spared Akpabio from public ridicule because, since the National Assembly is becoming synonymous with budget padding, many people were expecting the Senate President’s political career to be nailed based on his colleague’s allegations.
But Akpabio scaled the hurdle and this has once more amplified the confidence of his colleagues in his ability to paddle the canoe of leadership in the Red Chamber.The submission by the Senate that Ningi had no case and was clearly on another mission was enunciated by the Senate Leader, Senator Michael Bamidele, who was blunt in his presentation.

Coup

Bamidele likened Ningi’s allegations to a failed civilian equivalent of a military coup.
He expressed the view that some senators were yet to put behind their electoral defeat in the race for top leadership positions hence the scheming to truncate Akpabio’s tenure.

To his credit, the Senate President didn’t betray emotions as he allowed his colleagues express themselves during the session. Even when the session temporarily became rowdy, a practice which is common with democracies across the globe especially in the developing world, Akpabio stood up, cited Order 6. 3 of ‘The Senate Standing Orders 2015 (As Amended)’, which reads: “Whenever the President of the Senate or the Chairman rises during a debate, any Senator then speaking or offering to speak shall sit down, and the Senate or the Committee shall be silent so that the President of the Senate or the Chairman may be heard without interruption.”

The rule also empowers the Senate President to order the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort a senator out of the chamber if he/she chooses to be disruptive after this intervention.

It is worthy of note that Senator David Mark, as Senate President, invoked this rule only once in his eight years on the exalted chair.

Akpabio’s handling of the allegations of budget padding sent a message to watchers of the Senate that the era of using trumped-up charges to commence impeachment proceedings against presiding officers better known as the era of the infamous “banana peels” has been confined to the dustbin of history.

As a trained lawyer and firm believer in the rule of law, Akpabio allowed the Senate Rules to take their course in attending to Ningi’s allegations, which were ab initio dead on arrival.

A former senator who represented Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, recalled how he was almost suspended during the 8th Senate for revealing his earnings and that of his fellow senators.

While reacting to Ningi’s suspension, he said all senators are equal in the eyes of the law but that this was not the case in reality. He told Sunday Vanguard there are written and unwritten laws and conventions senators are expected to abide by. He described suspension as a not too pleasant experience because it literally means “being shut out of the National Assembly and your legislative functions and denied your emoluments, rights and privileges for the period of the suspension”. He noted that, as a nation, we need to set out priorities right in order to move forward.

Akpabio as presiding officer of the 10th Senate didn’t mince words when he described the incalculable damage being done to the National Assembly as an institution each time allegations, which lack basis in fact, are made especially by fellow lawmakers whom he believes ought to know better. Nigerians are hoping that the 10thNational Assembly will grow beyond petty politics and settle down to making laws that will improve the security and welfare of citizens.

[Vanguard]

Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, has condemned the financial management workshop held in London by the office of the accountant-general of the federation (OAGF).

The workshop was held from March 4 to March 9 at the Copthorne Tara Hotel, Kensington, in London.

Speaking on the development, Obi said the “function abroad amounts to insensitivity on the part of the government.”

He said government officials should not be indulging in luxury and extravagance at the expense of the common citizen amid the economic hardship in the country.

The former Anambra governor said the initiative by the OAGF entrenches a culture of elitism and detachment from the realities faced by ordinary Nigerians.

“Given the prevailing hardship in the country and the pitiable state of our national currency, any public function abroad amounts to insensitivity on the part of the government and any agency or individuals involved,” he said.

“First and foremost, it represents a blatant disregard for fiscal responsibility and prudent expenditure of public funds. At a time when Nigeria is grappling with economic challenges, including inflation, currency devaluation, and a widening budget deficit, it is utterly irresponsible to squander taxpayer money on extravagant overseas workshops.

“The resources allocated for such purposes should be directed towards addressing pressing domestic needs, such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, and poverty alleviation.

“Furthermore, holding a workshop in London sends the wrong message to the Nigerian people and the international community. It perpetuates the perception of government officials indulging in luxury and extravagance at the expense of the common citizen.

“It fosters a culture of elitism and detachment from the realities faced by ordinary Nigerians, who struggle daily to make ends meet amidst rising living costs and limited access to essential services.

“Additionally, holding a workshop in London raises concerns about transparency and accountability in government procurement processes.”

The politician said there must be full disclosure and justification for why London was chosen as the venue, as well as how the selection of vendors and contractors was made.

Obi said any hint of impropriety or favouritism in awarding contracts for such events “must be thoroughly investigated and addressed”.

[TheCable]

For decades, the Nigerian government has regularly rolled out obnoxious policies to make life difficult for individuals and businesses. The expatriates employment levy (EEL) must rank among the top five. It is as silly as silly gets. Although it has now been suspended by the same Bola Tinubu administration that launched the ghastly policy, it should still not escape intense scrutiny because it was deceptively packaged as a patriotic policy to save Nigerian jobs, whereas it was all about money, money and more money. While the government definitely needs as much money as it can get in this dire situation, we seem hell-bent on shooting ourselves in the foot because of narrow thinking.

Everything about the EEL is absurd — the concept, the levy, the timing, everything. It was sugar-coated with a claim of “discouraging” companies from hiring expatriates for jobs Nigerians “can do”. It is a fee of between $10,000 and $15,000 per head. If you really want to protect Nigerian jobs, the right thing to do, in my opinion, is to place visa restrictions on certain jobs or sectors. In countries like Canada, the UK, and the US, jobs in which locals have competence and there is no shortage of workers are not eligible for work visas. We are just being half clever by the “job protection” claim. I reckon that restrictions can be subverted, but at least we should be clear in our minds what we want.

If our interest is to “discourage” companies from hiring expatriates for jobs Nigerians “can do”, why is there no exception to the EEL? Why is the levy to be applied on all expatriates, including those doing the jobs Nigerians cannot do? In a society where there is rigour in public policy process, that is a question that would have been asked, dissected and answered before the fanfare of the launch. The EEL contractor is a company owned by foreigners who, you won’t believe this, are also trying to do the job Nigerians can do. We may be deficient in many things, but it is not too much for us to build an IT system. In fact, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has the IT infrastructure in place.

But you know what? The contractors are charging us $95 million to “build” the IT infrastructure in a country that has captured the similar data multiple times through BVN, NIN, driving licence, population census, passport processing, visa applications, work permit issuance, etc. There is hardly information needed on expatriates in Nigeria that is not already in the custody of NIS: biometrics, date of birth, place of birth, nationality, name of employer, office address, home address, etc. Trust me, the NIS system will be core to this “new” thing. But trust some smart guys to think up another scheme for yet another company to collect similar data once again — for a fee of $95 million.

The most tragic aspect of the EEL is that at a time we are desperately crying for foreign investors to flood Nigeria with dollars to help save the naira and create jobs, we are telling them there will be a levy of $15,000 on every expatriate they bring. Imagine a Dutch investor coming to Nigeria to set up a dairy factory that will employ 2,000 Nigerians, but we are telling him that in addition to all his expenses on diesel, bitumen, water treatment, equipment, police, and so on, he will have to fork out an additional $1.5 million for bringing 100 expatriates, whereas he will not incur such costs going to Ghana, Benin or Rwanda. This is aside the $2,000 level per dependent that we are already charging.

I think there is a bit of arrogance that goes into policy making in this country. I can easily claim that the government is deliberately making life hard for individuals and businesses. I can also easily claim that the policy making process is devoid of rigour. But the truth is that we also have this arrogance about us: that Nigeria is the biggest market in Africa, that investors would always rush down here no matter how sickening our policies are. Apparently, our policymakers do not take stock of how our tragic policies have either been chasing away investors or discouraging them from coming here. We need to get the data and take a critical look at the ins and outs in the last decade. It is not pretty.

Nigeria is not the only country in the world (in case we don’t know). Investors have options. Those behind the EEL idea project that Nigeria will rake $13.39 billion from it. Let me even concede some ground by saying that maybe this revenue motive tempted the government to approve the levy, but is the $13.39 billion revenue even guaranteed? You want to “discourage” expatriates and at the same time raise $13.39 billion from “discouraging” them! You impose $15,000 levy to stop them from coming here and still expect to raise $13.39 billion from the same people who have stayed away? That is why I said I would like to be a fly on the wall when these daft policies are being considered.

Nevertheless, my position is not a blanket endorsement of the practices by some companies who abuse our immigration system by flooding Nigeria with low-skilled workers under the pretext of “expatriates”. The right thing to do is crack down on them by developing a robust system of checks. The problem is the collusion by immigration officials, but our ingenious way of addressing this is to place a $15,000 levy — or a levy of any kind — on ALL expatriates. In a battered economy that wants to attract the best of brains and the biggest of investments! I recall the Yoruba proverb about blocking your nose to patronise a dirty pap seller — only for him to start charging premium prices.

The fact that the Tinubu administration suspended the EEL after consulting with the critical stakeholders in commerce and industry confirms yet again another malaise with public policy process in Nigeria: lack of proper homework and prior consultation. Those behind the EEL had been peddling the idea for years. It was resisted by the Buhari administration. But they found willing tools in the Tinubu administration who helped them fast-track it and then unleashed it on the economy. Thank God the damage had not been done before Tinubu suspended it, unlike in the cases of petrol subsidy and exchange rate when the government only started asking questions after hastily firing its guns.

The EEL apart, we generally live with many contradictions. We want the economy to grow, to tackle poverty, and to reduce crimes by creating jobs. We want businesses to boom. Yet, we subject them to the harshest environment with all kinds of levies and using thugs in uniform to extract taxes from them — as if it is not bad enough that they are buying diesel at N1,600/litre to power their offices and factories. We chase street vendors off the road without providing an alternative, like an organised location for them to do business and feed themselves and their families. We treat them as mosquitoes and cockroaches. We destroy shanties and provide no accommodation for the homeless.

In my previous article, I focused on the hardship the government has been inflicting on Nigerians since 2010 over biometric captures for SIM registration, BVN and NIN. My conclusion was that some of the stress Nigerians are routinely subjected to — in the name of “linking” BVN to bank accounts or NIN to phone lines — could have been better managed through the use of smart phones or portals on the websites of banks and telcos. But there seems to be this almost sadistic satisfaction some people in government enjoy from seeing Nigerians queueing up in the sun and under the rain and getting extorted as a result of directives and policies that are clearly not well thought through.

In the past, I wrote a series of articles on the traumatic processes Nigerians go through in trying to get a passport. I am glad that the stress is being reduced, although there is a lot of exaggeration and social media buzz on how easy it is to apply for a passport from your laptop. In reality, it is still hellish, just that if you know how to play the game, you will experience less pains. For the passport officials, the worst crime you can commit is to pay online. You will be properly humiliated at their offices. My niece who committed the offence said all who paid online were asked step aside at the Ikeja office for trying to be “wise”; only those who came with cash were attended to, and promptly.

I have a friend who has been trying to change one data error in her passport. It was not her fault that the wrong name was inputted, but she was ready to make amends all the same. After paying the official rate of N67,000 online without seeing result, she was asked to pay an additional N250,000 to get the correction done. In addition, she will have to travel to Abuja, even though on social media, the official line is that you can correct passport data from the comfort of your kitchen. Another official of the passport office said he can help her get it done in Lagos but blamed her for paying online. “The money has gone into TSA,” he told her, while asking for N200,000 to start all over again.

Having reflected extensively on our oppressive system and how it is impacting negatively on Nigeria and Nigerians, I am forced to conclude that we don’t know what we are doing — even though we speak highfalutin jargons, wear designer attires and play the part. There is no sincerity of purpose in many policies and actions by the government — and this is not just at the federal level, as we are wont to lament. There is no genuine intention to solve problems in many cases. There is no rigour in the policy process in several instances. A lot of public policies are motivated by what Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the former youth and sports minister, calls “carica-chop” — a caricature of caricature.

I will close today by throwing this challenge at our policymakers at all levels: take time to think through what you conceive as policies. There may be hidden costs — financial and human — to which you are blindsided. Consult widely to know the impact on the stakeholders, the economy and, most importantly, the people. Research and run the numbers. Test the ideas. Get yourselves organised to avoid duplications. Government needs money, no doubt about that, but do the benefits outweigh the costs? Should the people’s misery be aggravated all the time? Must they make our world so hard that every day we have to keep on struggling and fighting and panting to survive?

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

NAILING NINGI

The senate on Tuesday suspended Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) for alleging that the 2024 budget was padded by N3.7 trillion — although he tried to clarify by saying he was only questioning the details. I knew he was not going to get away with the allegation as his colleagues would viciously go after him — not when he too couldn’t prove his claim. However, I do not, for the life of me, believe that the whole fiasco is about accountability. When legislators fight like this, it is usually about money — who got and who didn’t get. Those who understand the shenanigans and intrigues in the corridors of power will not applaud either Ningi or his colleagues. Sameness.

DIE ANOTHER DAY

There are moves to de-criminalise attempted suicide in Nigeria. It is currently punishable by one-year imprisonment. Hon Francis Waive, a member of the house of reps, is sponsoring a bill that will remove the imprisonment. On the good side, he wants therapy. On the bad side, he prescribes compulsory community service for at least six months. Even if we know nothing about mental health issues such as depression and panic attacks, do we think any human being, under normal circumstances, would want to commit suicide? I hope mental health practitioners and campaigners will not miss this. It speaks again to the way we make laws and policies in this country. Antithetical. 

TECHNICAL KNOCK-OUT

Senator Orji Uzor Kalu was jailed for 12 years in 2019 over allegations of fraud amounting to N7.1 billion when he was governor of Abia state between 1999 and 2007. After spending some nights in prison, he walked free as his conviction was nullified by the Supreme Court on technical grounds — that the trial judge had been elevated to Court of Appeal before he delivered the judgment. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) tried to start the trial afresh, but the Court of Appeal has blocked the move — again on technical grounds, saying the record was not “properly” transmitted in line with court rules, and that it was not stamped or “properly” signed. Nigeria!

NO COMMENT

Maybe I should start something called “Oronsaye Watch” to keep Nigerians updated with the drama surrounding the inevitably doomed reform. Since the directive by President Bola Tinubu that the report — which proposes streamlining dozens of governmental bodies through mergers — should be implemented, I have lost count of the number of new agencies being considered to be established by the National Assembly. On Wednesday, I read that there is a bill to set up a mining bank. The following day, there was another one to set up maritime bank. We play too much in this country. What next? A bill to set up a rat commission and another to establish Isi-ewu Bank? Wonderful.

If I were President Tinubu, I would, without further delay, approve the contracting of search and rescue missions to private security firms. The deliverables would be simple: Track and locate the camps run by terrorists and hostage takers of whatever hue; neutralise the terrorists; and rescue the victims.
If the above measure is taken, the Nigerian armed forces will be freed to pursue their ‘normal’ constitutional duties of safeguarding the territorial integrity of the country and the police can also concentrate on their traditional role of maintaining law and order.

The current challenges predate the Tinubu administration. There is no point splitting hairs over what, before our very eyes, has ballooned to become an industry with its own ecosystem. The way the Gordian knot has metastasised indicates that only a carefully executed programme of calculated ruthlessness will achieve the goal of ridding the country of the vermin.
Right now, terrorists are running rings round the security forces as they have done in the last 10 years. That is because we have been tilling the ground of the anti-terror campaign with the wrong implements. How do you prosecute an asymmetrical war with conventional tactics? Imagine, we have been deploying air force planes and helicopters to trace and bomb locations identified as terrorists’ dens when we could have achieved better results with a targeted, tech-assisted mission by crack professional counter-terror operatives.

The Financial Times recently made the following evaluation of the Nigerian situation:
“Much of Nigeria is in effect ungoverned. Millions of children, especially girls in the North, are out of school and health provision is so dire that life expectancy is 53. In many parts of the country, law and order is non-existent. This month, in Borno State, at least 200 mainly women and children were kidnapped searching for firewood. A few days later, in Kaduna State, less than 300 kilometres from Aso Rock, armed men abducted nearly 300 schoolchildren.
“The incidents will rekindle memories of 2014, when Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in Chibok. Ninety-eight are still missing. Abductions have become hideously common, mostly carried out not by religious zealots, but by criminal gangs who have turned kidnapping into a racket. Last year, almost 4,000 people were abducted. What explains such prolific criminality? Part of the answer is economics. Ordinary people’s incomes have gone backwards for a decade. Former president Muhammadu Buhari oversaw eight years of economic self-harm, with clumsily executed state intervention that fuelled corruption.”

If, for national security concerns, we are reluctant to openly accept help from other nations with more experience in fighting terror, we can at least procure the services of companies specialised in neutralising the monster. Remember, oil theft in the Niger Delta was a free-for-all until the government introduced private security firms who have been making a huge difference.
Outside Nigeria, let’s look at the example of one security company called Executive Outcomes. In March 1995, the company contained an insurrection of guerrillas known as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone, regained control of the diamond fields, and forced a negotiated peace.
According to Wikipedia, “Executive Outcomes was directly involved militarily in Angola and Sierra Leone. The company was notable in its ability to provide all aspects of a highly trained modern army to the less professional government forces of Sierra Leone and Angola. For instance, in Sierra Leone, Executive Outcomes fielded not only professional fighting men, but armour and support aircraft such as one Mi-24 Hind and two Mi-8 Hip helicopters, the BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle and T-72 main battle tank…”
To ensure proper control and coordination, I suggest that the National Security Adviser lead the recruitment, monitoring and periodic evaluation of the activities of such security firms when engaged. But there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that that is the route we should be headed for quick wins at this critical time.

I will urge the government to be wary of self-appointed negotiators and pro-ransom clerics who offer to help negotiate between the authorities and the bandits. Anytime there are mass abductions, they show up at TV stations pontificating on the need to reach out to the terrorists using non-kinetic lollies. We have spent the last 10 years trying to pacify evil. It is time we simply apply the law and bring in competent professionals whose specialty is ridding the earth of these kinds of pests.
I think that President Tinubu has already started well by declaring that the government under his watch will not pay any ransom to criminal gangs. The government should not be shy to declare a state of emergency in any specific area where such a measure will facilitate the interdiction of terrorists. This desperate disease requires a desperate cure.
My greatest fear is that if we don’t staunch this perennial haemorrhage decisively, Nigerians may begin to lose the only thing that has been tethering them to rationality — hope. The whole world knows that Nigerians, more than other Africans, live on a diet of hope. We are incurable optimists. We believe that tomorrow has no option but to be better than today.

So, considering that hope is the greatest thing Nigerians have going for them, it will be nothing short of cataclysmic if anything were to happen to remove hope from the Nigerian equation. The society will simply regress into bottomless depression and medieval brutality. It is not for nothing that politicians have been milking the ‘H’ word for eons, some of the most recent coinages being ‘Hope Assured’ (President Buhari) and the ‘Renewed Hope’ of incumbent President Bola Tinubu.
To hope is to experience that magical mix of positive expectation and deep desire. And hope is necessary to get us through times of difficulty and suffering. Social scientists have asked over the years whether hope is intoxicating but detrimental, like a drug?
As a matter of fact, there is a drug called hope. Hope 0.5 mg Tablet belongs to a class of medicines called benzodiazepines and is used to treat anxiety, stop seizures (fits) or relax tense muscles. This can also help relieve difficulty sleeping (insomnia), and is usually prescribed for a short period of time, if used to treat sleeping problems.

Hope is crucial in times of uncertainty, and in dealing with adversity.
Nigerians have been living on hope since Independence in 1960. We have always exuded the ‘Ogadinma’ spirit — “e go better”. Even when we repeat the same mistakes over and over again, we somehow hope that the outcomes will be different “by the grace of God”, or “insha Allah”. Psychologically attuned to not taking responsibility for our actions and inactions, we are free of any guilt feeling or emotional encumbrances. No wonder we wind up, by global acclaim, as the happiest people on the planet.
Boko Haram, terrorists, bandits, unknown gunmen and all the other criminal gangs terrorising Nigeria should not be allowed to continue dominating the game of coercion. When I was growing up, I was taught that no matter how great a hunter was, he could not be greater than the government because whereas he could only hunt animals, the government was the only hunter permitted to hunt men.

Let the government live up to its name. Outsource the ‘fumigation’ of our ungoverned spaces and restore normalcy so that we can return to relishing our diet of hope. If hope dies, then the people will no longer be able to mobilise for a common purpose; nor will they be in a position to appreciate whatever else the government is doing to make their lives better. It used to be said that when there’s life there’s hope; now we know better: When there’s security there’s hope.

Nigeria’s now perennial insecurity has been damaged by political laziness. Every two- penny politician has developed a habit of weaponizing insecurity as political language. In the process, very little effort or rigour is devoted to the reality of what we are dealing with. Even those who are paid to keep us safe tend to resort to simplistic solutions to what is clearly a complex problem. Everyone seems to be mimicking politicians, talking frequently about insecurity as if the problem will go away the more we talk about it.

National insecurity as we have come to know it has grown in dimension and scope over the last twelve years or so. When factions of jihadist terrorists invade local governments in parts of Borno or Yobe state, we are dealing with threats to Nigeria’s sovereignty by an adversary that may indeed be ‘external’ with inputs from ignorant local zealots. They take and hold territory, convert citizens into dissidents and collect taxes and levies  and in the process extract loyalties that ordinarily belong to a sovereign authority. This level of national insecurity belongs in the realm of external aggression by a concerted foreign adversary. It does not matter whether it recruits and arms our citizens to do its bidding or draws inspiration from an external multinational ideology such as fanatical Islamist fundamentalism. We must call it its real name and design and deploy containment instruments and strategies that befit an external aggression.

With the onset of the Boko Haram insurgency in parts of the North-east, Nigeria can be said to have been involved in a counter insurgency war for the better part of the past twelve years. In the process, Boko Haram has sometimes been degraded, reinforced, splintered or been acquired by ISWAP and other franchises  born and bred in the Middle East and nurtured in the turbulent Sahel. Have we been winning or losing that war? Yes and no. We have at least retaken most of the local governments that the terrorists  initially acquired as part of an evil caliphate in the hot days of  Al Queda and ISIS. But the fact that twelve years after the inauguration of Boko Haram, factions of this movement are still taking huge numbers of hostages and razing buildings is an indictment of whatever effort we have exerted so far.

In the immediate neighbouring precincts of the insurgency war- Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara- hybrid forms of insurgent insecurity have taken shape. Banditry, quantum abductions and kidnapping for ransom are now recognized forms of national insecurity. Initially, these hybrid forms acted as retail arms of the larger jihadist insurgency. They used to  supply them with hostages, sha ransoms and collected revenue and hide under their ideological umbrella for greater political relevance. Over time, however, the bandits and other downstream criminal gangs have come unto their own. They mostly now operate as independent criminal enterprises with a purely commercial purpose. This form of insecurity has graduated into a criminal enterprise. They carry out daring raids, collect huge ransoms which is reinvested in more arms for further raids. The industry grows. 

In this form, agents of insecurity have sometimes reached for recognition by state governments and agencies of  national security. Some local bandit squads have in the recent past reached understandings with individual state governments and even posed for photo opportunities with them after these meetings. Implicit in such unholy alliances is a certain illicit power sharing arrangement. Under these arrangements, embattled state governments are known to have ceded parts of their territory to bandit squads, allowing them  to collect revenue from locals and to wield authority over some local governments literally unchallenged.

This form of national insecurity is inherently dangerous because it cedes parts of the national sovereign space and authority to non -state actors and in the process accords them space and scope to disturb the peace, make lots of money and whittle down the capacity of security agencies to exercise total control over  the national sovereign space. More dangerously, illicit non -state actors partake of national resources to make the nation even more  ungovernable while also compromising segments and aspects of national  security structures and personnel.

The atmosphere of insecurity created by the proliferation and free reign of bandit squads and roving armed cartels has led to a spread in the supply of small to medium scale arms. Retail editions of trouble makers like armed robbers, small time kidnappers and urban cults have found an atmosphere of general insecurity that is both lucrative and in vogue. An industry of sorts has been born. Herdsmen that were originally engaged in herding and the livestock trade have since found kidnapping, armed robbery and abductions more lucrative than escorting scraggy herds around the nation.

We cannot fail to add to this picture the thriving political industry and its inherent criminal offshoots. Political thugs, licensed state militias and all manner of private armies have in the last twenty four years of democracy  come into being. Political supremacy in most parts of the country has come with the help of armed thugs generously supplied with weapons, narcotics and other dangerous substances. In post election periods, these political agents of violence tend to find work for their hands and use for their weapons in sundry criminal undertakings. In an atmosphere where employment is scarce and easy money quickly runs dry, the political industry has perhaps inadvertently been fueling the atmosphere of national insecurity  which the same politicians return to convert into campaign issues in the next election cycle.

The fierce competition for political vantage placement has also led to the growth of ethnic, regional and other separatist movements. They generally start out by shouting for recognition and relevance in a national space that deliberately ignores extant disquiet. When no one seems to be listening, the rhetoric of separatist agitators assumes an incendiary tone. Soon enough, the more determined ones set up armed militias since the authorities tend to listen more when their monopoly of violence is challenged by an equally fierce contender for power and political space. Armed separatist movements have in the last ten years therefore added their voice and muscle to the spread of violence as a means of political expression in the country. IPOB, ESN and the various Niger Delta militias belong in this sphere.

This is the effective backdrop to the current situation in which governments at nearly every level seem to have been held to ransom by all these forms of insecurity all over the country. The sheer expanse of the insecurity landscape is more vast than the entire security asset base of the country can deal with. Therefore, bandits and all sorts of criminals are fairly certain that the security agencies cannot easily interrupt their operations let alone effectively trail or arrest them.

There is no lack of response from government. Endless meetings have taken place between politicians and service chiefs. The two chambers of the National Assembly have met severally with the service chief. State governors have met repeatedly with the president with the matter of insecurity topping the agenda of every meeting. The Federal government has gone to considerable length to acquire weapons of war  from all corners of the globe to combat what has become a systemic insecurity. It has become systemic because it has become self- regenerating, having become an economic sub sector which requires  self sustainability to drive itself as a series of economic activities.

Last month, however, an emergency meeting of the president and state governors was prompted by an increase in incidents of insecurity in and around the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja. The most consequential decision of that meeting was a decision to begin the implementation of the long canvassed introduction of State Police as a silver bullet to end insecurity in the country.

One of the strongest arguments advanced by advocates of a State Police system is local knowledge and proximity to the community origins of criminality around the country. This argument is not new. Nor are we just being introduced to perspectives about  how to solve insecurity in the country.

Given the picture of the multi dimensional nature of our insecurity,  no single item agenda can deal with the problem. State Police is fraught with many weaknesses. It is likely to be commandeered by ambitious state governors into private political weapons. The operatives could become terror squads who use their new found power and uniforms to torment innocent people. State Police can further divide the country,  terrorize the people they are supposed to protect and reduce the effectiveness of the existing national police force.  Misuse of the powers of the State Police can further divide the country. After all, before the civil war, we had regional police formations. They became part of the divisive forces that had to be neutralized to reunify the country in 1970.

It is undeniable that one of the benefits of over four decades of military rule and the civil war is the emergence of a unified police and military command. That benefit cannot be wiped away by the present anxiety over insecurity. Nothing has so far happened in our national security situation that invalidates or overrides the advantages of national integration in matters of police or military command and national security control. On the contrary, what our situation requires is a serious interrogation of the overall internal security situation in the country to determine why the existing structure has not quite served us well enough.

We are under policed. The police has been overwhelmed for years in terms of personnel and equipment. Equipment and recruitment in the police has not matched our population growth and the rate of sophistication of the criminal enterprise. Similarly, the military has in the post civil war era found itself in roles that have degraded its operational capability and professional advancement. The involvement of the military and entire gamut of national security apparatus in internal security has militated against real professional development of the various services.  Our military is today involved in civil security operations in all of our 36 states and Abuja.

As indicated earlier, the profile of our internal security challenges presents a complex picture that may not have fully dawned on the present state. At the end of the civil war, the enemy was either  an external aggressor or internal criminals. The civil populace wanted to be at peace after the trauma of war. While a war -tested military was adequate for the former role, the police was more than adequate for the latter task of keeping the peace.  The military is defined in its role. Its rules of engagement are self -defining: defend or be conquered. The police is a civil force with rules of engagement circumscribed by democracy and the civil rights of free citizens. 

Towards the end of the Babangida regime, a different internal security picture began to emerge. A different type of civil unrest became more manifest. Inter communal  violence began to feature among groups that had coexisted for years. Between the Jukun and their neighbours, in the Zango Kataf area of Southern Kaduna, in parts of the Niger Delta etc. Sections of the country began to witness problems of ethno national integration. Even within the newly created states, issues of inter communal co -existence began to show up. There was a perception then than the task of nation building was largely uncompleted and still needed to be fine -tuned. A different type of trouble maker was emerging. Armed militants intent on challenging the federal might were in the horizon.

The new forms of violent self -assertion were more than the police could deal with but a little less ferocious than what a full military engagement was required to deal with.  The necessity was therefore for an intermediate force; something not as tame and civil as the police and also not as ferocious and terminal as the military. Thus was born the idea of the National Guard. Unfortunately, this idea came too late in Babangida’s troubled political transition programme. Opposition to the possibility of a Babangida self- perpetuation ploy also became part of the opposition to the idea of a National Guard. For the political class, no good or disinterested idea could come from the beleaguered military administration. Both were thrown away  with the same birth water.

Here we are once again with an insecurity challenge that literally re-writes the challenge that was envisioned by the authors of the National Guard over 30 years ago.  The idea of the National Guard was to have a uniform national organization but with substantial state government control on deployment. It should be a mid intensity force that is civil enough to realize that the criminals and trouble makers in each state are first and foremost Nigerians with full civic rights. It however needs to be taken more seriously than the police at the local government office who separates domestic fights and settles quarrels among siblings.

The National Guard should be under the ultimate control of the president as commander-in-chief without whose endorsement no state governor has the power to deploy the National Guard. But the National Guard needs to be composed of state contingents who are familiar with the local terrain.

In the United States, the National Guard is an offshoot of the army. It is made up of army reservists who are called up for specific tours of duty for specific lengths of time annually. In times of national emergency above the call of the police but less intense than requiring the military, the army can advise the president to call in the National Guard. The desirable Nigerian National Guard should be a variant of this format.

On no account must we establish and equip a separate state police force and place it under the control of our emergent crop of imperial governors. That would be an invitation to quick anarchy