As a Patriot and Political Leader in Delta State, I here wish to fully express support for my dear Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, if indeed he seeks to move from PDP to APC or any registered Political Party in Nigeria, as long as any such move helps him to fully actualise his Patriotic Vision and Mission for the good people of Delta State. After all, Delta State with over four million people is made up of people who freely belong to PDP, APC, LP, PRP and other registered Political Parties; moreover, many of the founding leaders of PDP in the State have since moved on to join other Political Parties which have brought more Dividends to our State and People.

What is of paramount interest and importance to the good people of Delta State is the very urgent provision of massive Infrastructural Revolution in terms of Roads, Bridges, Flyovers, Underpasses, Hospitals, Schools and other important Public Buildings, all of international standards like the ongoing flyovers being constructed by Julius Berger in the State under the leadership of the Governor.

In addition, I must remind Deltans that all registered Political Parties in Nigeria today do not have distinct Ideologies but only serve as platforms for States or individual in Politics to maximise what can be got from a Centralized Federal Government of Nigeria. The secret of Lagos State getting all the benefits it attracts from the Centralised Federal Government is the fact that its Political Leader, now President Tinubu, understood very clearly the need to politically align and realign with the Power at the Centre in order to actualise the Vision he set out for Lagos State. 

As a result, today, Lagos State has grown and developed to be the forth largest Economy in Africa and boasts of Annual Budget of over three trillion naira. Let it be made clear also that Lagos State never at any time since May 29, 1999, played a blind and unwise Opposition Politics, contrary to what many are misled to believe.

The case of my Delta State has been a very sad story of steady retrogression despite being the leading Petroleum Producing State of Nigeria. The International Oil Companies (IOCs) that were once based in the Oil Cities of Warri and Effurun, have all relocated to Lagos State that is a non-Petroleum Producing State, taking along with them, huge Revenues from Taxes that belonged to Delta State. Thousands of our people employed by these IOCs lost their jobs as a result of the relocation to Lagos.

This sad situation happened because political leaders of Delta State failed to understand the importance of politically aligning and realigning with the Centralised Power at Abuja in order to protect and advance the general interests of our people of Delta State.

In conclusion, I stand firmly with Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, if he decides to align with the current Federal Government at the Centre for the overriding interest and good of the people of Delta State.

Comrade (Engr) Igbini Odafe Emmanuel

Former three times Governorship Candidate of Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, Delta State (2007 - 2012)

China said on Friday its population fell for the third year running in 2024, extending a downward streak after more than six decades of growth as the country faces a rapidly ageing population and persistently low birth rates.

Once the world’s most populous country, China was overtaken by India in 2023, with Beijing seeking to boost falling birth rates through subsidies and pro-fertility propaganda.

The population stood at 1.408 billion by the end of the year, Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics said, down from 1.410 billion in 2023.

The decline was less sharp than the previous year, when it was more than double the fall reported for 2022, data showed.

China ended its strict “one-child policy”, imposed in the 1980s over overpopulation fears, in 2016 and started letting couples have three children in 2021.

But that has failed to reverse the demographic decline for a country that has long relied on its vast workforce as a driver of economic growth.

Many say falling birth rates are due to the soaring cost of living, as well as the growing number of women going into the workforce and seeking higher education.

Population decline is likely to continue due to gloomy economic prospects for young people and as Chinese women “confront entrenched labour market gender discriminations”, Yun Zhou, a sociologist at the University of Michigan, told AFP.

People over 60 are expected to make up nearly a third of China’s population by 2035, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research group.

– ‘Trend won’t change’ –

Data released on Friday showed that the population aged 60 and overreached 310.31 million — just a few percentage points short of a quarter of the country and an increase from nearly 297 million recorded in 2023.

However, the data also showed China’s birth rate — among the lowest in the world — ticked up slightly from the previous year to 6.77 per 1,000 people.

“This uptick is unlikely to last, as the population of childbearing-age women is projected to decline sharply in the coming decades,” said Zhao Litao, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute.

“In the long term, the trends of declining births, overall population contraction, and rapid ageing remain unchanged.”

He Yafu, an independent demographer in China, put the uptick in births down to women who deferred having children during the Covid-19 pandemic giving birth. There was also an increase in marriages in 2023 and 2024, the auspicious Year of the Dragon.

However, “the general trend of total population decline won’t change”, He told AFP.

“Unless strong policies to encourage childbirth are introduced… the proportion of the elderly population will continue to rise.”

Officials said in September they would gradually raise the statutory retirement age, which was set at 60 and among the lowest in the world. It had not been raised for decades.

The rules took effect from January 1.

China’s previous retirement age was set at a time of widespread scarcity and impoverishment before market reforms brought comparative wealth and rapid improvements in nutrition, health, and living conditions.

The world’s second-largest economy now has to contend with slowing growth, while a fast-greying population and a baby bust have piled pressure on pension and public health systems.

AFP

Chi Lael, the United Nations, UN, World Food Programme, WFP, spokesperson for Nigeria, addressed journalists last week and shared some alarming statistics.

She said that she would normally only speak for her own programme but had decided to make a joint statement on behalf of the WPF and two other UN agencies that also have responsibilities related to food security and nutrition issues because “these are not normal times”.

The two other agencies are the Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, and the International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF.

Ms Lael added that the NGO Forum for Nigeria and various development partners stand by the main points in her statement, being that record inflation, triple digit increases in food prices, climate shocks and ongoing conflicts are projected to push the number of food insecure Nigerians to 33 million in 2025, a sharp increase from the 25 million who need assistance today.

There are 5.4 million children and 800,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women at risk of acute malnutrition. According to Ms Lael, never before have there been so many hungry people in Nigeria.

She also blamed the aftermath of devastating floods and 15 years of insurgency in the North-East for stretching families to the limit and named the most affected states: Borno, Adamawa and Yobe where five million people are facing acute food insecurity.

Zamfara, Katsina and Sokoto are not far behind and Ms Lael said that what worried her and her deeply concerned partners most was: the speed of deterioration over the past year,

the scale – in terms of number of people at risk, the geographic scope of food insecurity and

the very real risk of a significant worsening in the coming months.

“Our collective response,” she said, “must be immediate and massive in scale. It must span prevention, mitigation, and life-saving assistance. Preventative action in rural areas can halt the growth of hunger, providing the most vulnerable farmers with cash, seeds and fertiliser. Mitigation will reduce the scale of further crises.

“Urgent support in nutrition, health support, food supply and WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) will reduce the depth of the crisis. And vital life-saving support will keep those facing acute food insecurity alive…government at state and federal levels must work together to avert the risk of famine. WFP, FAO and UNICEF, along with many other key partners, are already in full scale-up mode, reprogramming existing resources and preparing for a huge operational step-up.

“We have it within our grasp to stem this crisis and avert catastrophe in Nigeria. If we respond now…it can be done.”

I am less diplomatic than the admirable Ms Lael, so let me express the view that this appalling situation is primarily the fault of the Federal Government and the Northern elite.

Sure, Tinubu’s administration and Northern grandees cannot be blamed for everything that has gone wrong in that part of the country. Some humanitarian disasters are simply caused by acts of God, climate change, etc, that are beyond the authorities’ control.

It is also worth noting that Southern Nigerians are also going through hell because of hyperinflation, insecurity and other ills.

However, there is no denying that there is much more suffering in the North and that the Northern masses are at breaking point, thanks to the chronic negligence that has been inflicted on them by their particularly selfish, shameless and predatory leaders.

Africa is full of sad, bad stories like this. Some of these tragic scenarios are the result of corruption, violence and state capture, while others boil down to incompetence. And I don’t think anyone reasonable will argue with me when I say that the continent needs a governance revolution to extricate itself from the quagmire.

Professor Kingsley Moghalu, who heads a new African School of Governance, ASG, that was launched on Tuesday in Kigali, hopes to turn the tide by educating a new generation of young upcoming leaders to avoid the mistakes that have been made by their elders.

Moghalu is determined to make a difference and says that “the ASG envisions a prosperous and peaceful Africa where purposeful leaders drive sustainable development. Its mission is to empower Africa’s leaders through innovative public policy education and research that fosters transformative governance…Its curriculum will provide educational opportunities that are filtered through an African lens and anchored on realities that are unique to the African continent and the needs of its leaders and inhabitants”.

ASG’s programmes will target a diverse group of current and future leaders, including early and mid-career professionals, as well as established figures in the governance sphere.

ASG is hoping to attract students from as many African nations as possible. One can only pray that several Nigerians sign up for its short executive programmes and longer courses in droves…

…and that ASG alumni become a special visionary breed that will not only drag Africa into the 21st century and transform it into an oasis we can all be proud of but put an end to hunger and the brain drain.

If you want more information about ASG, Google will deliver.

The United States of America, USA is to present to the world next  Monday, January 20, 2025, its two faces. It will mark the Martin Luther King Jnr, MLK Day. The federal holiday which would be holding for the 39th year, is the American face of non-violence, civil and human rights. It is a day that propagates the basic philosophy and principles of equality, justice, and peace which MLK symbolized.

Ironically, it will also be the day its  new,  President Donald Trump whose philosophy stands in sharp contrast to MLK, would be sworn in for a second time.  Where the latter stood for non-violence, Trump is  inclined to violence. He also  has no care for civil or human rights including those of women. Where MLK is for peace, Trump is a leading advocate of furthering the USA  war economy. Where the former  is rational  and predictable, the latter  can be irrational and unpredictable.

In some cases, the fear of Trump may  be  the beginning of wisdom. For instance, Israel and Palestine, after fifteen months war with nearly 47,000 killed, have suddenly reached a peace deal. It is one in which both sides will  release political prisoners or prisoners of war, POW. Israel would pull back to Gaza’s perimeters and allow humanitarian aid flow into Palestine.  This is a task, out-going President Joe Biden  has been most reluctant to undertake. Rather, he concentrated on pouring  more weapons  into Israel and  seemed comfortable being  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unofficial spokesman. When there were cries about  Palestinian children being wiped out by the Israeli military, Biden’s response was that the numbers of those killed were exaggerated.

Biden may have a hand in the latest peace deal, but Trump has been taking credit.  He boasted about the Wednesday Peace Agreement: “The EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signalled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies.” 

He has made a similar boast on the Russo-Ukrainian War.  The recent intensification of that conflict might be attempts by both sides to gain more territory before Trump is sworn in.  Russia, before the war, had pushed for peace deals under the MINSK I &II Agreements, and continues to call for a negotiated settlement. Ukraine on the other hand, after rejecting   the  MINSK Agreements, has been pushing for an outright military victory over Russia. Save for countries like Hungary and Germany that are not convinced victory would come on the battlefield, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO supporters of Ukraine  have, like motivational speakers, convinced Zelensky that he can militarily defeat Russia. But Trump does not have such beliefs and with him in the White House, neither Ukraine nor NATO can be sure of the maverick’s position.

Trump in the campaigns and shortly after his electoral victory had promised to negotiate the Ukrainian War with Russian President Vladmir Putin, end Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO  and impose a 10-20 per-cent tariff on America’s $1.3 trillion trade with Europe.  He  also threatened to impose similar tariff on China, BRICS Members and on America’s neigbours; Mexico and Canada.  

It is not only foreigners  warning  about a renewed Trump Presidency. Even Biden, whose under-performance and lack of principles, handed Trump  victory at the November 2024 polls over Vice President Kamala Harris, is also wailing.

In his Wednesday, January 15 Farewell Speech in the White House, he warned of a developing oligarchy and   the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people. This was an obvious reference to Trump and his close friends like  Ellon Musk and paypall co-founder, Ken Howery.  Biden lamented: “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

Also, in a little veiled reference to Trump who in his ‘alternative facts’  makes no distinction between the truth and falsehood, Biden cried: “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling, editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.”

But  Trumpism  may be  much more dangerous than Old Biden portrays.  Trump imagines himself a Superman, a neo- Tarzanist  swinging across the world; a cowboy with a badge, plucking down people. He sees himself as the world policeman beating everyone into line.  Trump  is a sword threatening to cut both ways,  sparing neither his assumed Chinese foes nor Western European allies, not even neigbours across the borders in Mexico and  Canada. As for us in the underdeveloped world, we are nothing more than a “shithole”

More dangerously, he wants to extend the frontiers of the US to new colonies. For instance, on Sunday, January 12, 2025 he indicated that the USA  wants to take over  Greenland. He wrote: “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

He was more direct on the Panama Canal which he threatened to seize because he claims that the fees being charged by the Panamanian Government for ships passing through it were too high. Referring to the  USA control over the canal until 1977,  Trump said he would demand that the: “Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, quickly and without question” When Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino responded that: “Every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belong to PANAMA, and will continue to be.” Trump retorted: “We’ll see about that.”  He then  posted a photo of the American flag  over the canal with the caption: “Welcome to the United States Canal!”

He may also,  with the assistance of allies like  Elon Musk, want to colonise the  outer space.

Trump is like a reflated ego making a second grand entrance on the world stage. He first came as a phenomenon; his second appearance might be no more than a caricature. What is roaring like a lion and rumbling in the  jungle? Is it the same Trump that four years ago was trampling on grass and uprooting trees like a frightened     elephant? The next few years would reveal if we are dealing with the same being or one that has undergone some transformation or transmutation. Whatever it is, even this, shall come to pass.

Joan Okorodudu is a prominent Nigerian fashion entrepreneur, model scout, skincare technician, and former Nigerian beauty queen.

Okorodudu received the prestigious Lifetime Presidential Award on October 7, 2024, as a result of her steadfast devotion to promoting African artists, culture, and fashion as well as her support of the Kakuma Refugees camp and young women.

Mrs. Joan Okorodudu was born in 1958 in Auchi, Nigeria, and attended a local government primary school, Ebu Lokoja Kogi State, and Itohan Girls Grammar School in Benin City, where she actively participated in athletics, which earned her a scholarship to Boston University in Massachusetts, where she earned a degree in political science.

During her NYSC, she applied for Miss Nigeria (Kaduna Zone) and won, which got her to the final in Lagos, where she won a car as the first runner-up.

During her early age, she was politically active as a member of the United Party Nigeria’s youth section. Also, she was active in American politics during Bill Clinton’s administration and she met President Biden when he visited the area for his campaigns and campaigned locally for Clinton in Wilmington, Delaware.

Her journey to the fashion world started at age 5 when she posses to take photographs like a model.

Later, during a trip to South Africa in 2007, Joan and her colleague Juliet Morgan now Mrs. Eke found themselves making an unplanned decision that gave birth to Isis Models Africa, a leading modeling agency in Africa after the South Africa Fashion Week and has regularly produces talented models that walk the most sought-after runways in Paris, Milan, New York, and other cities.

She is also the founder of an NGO dedicated to empowering young African talent, Runways to Freedom as well as Nigeria’s Next Super Model, a platform that has produced talents featured in international fashion events in Madrid, Paris, Milan, and other fashion capitals.

She is married to retired air vice-marshal and two-star Air Force General of the Nigerian Air Force Terry Omatsola Okorodudu, whom she met on the same flight. The couple have a son Bidemi Okorodudu.

Vanguard News

Gerry Nolan, writing on a Russian-backed news platform called Pravda has issued a dire warning on the fate of the euro and dollar, in a widely-publicised article titled ‘The Euro’s Imminent Collapse and the Greenback’s Last Illusion’. The kernel of his writeup is that because the European Union seems to have ceded monetary policy sovereignty to the US by going along with the US agenda to seize $300 billion worth of sovereign investment belonging to Russia as a consequence of the Ukraine-Russia war, it was just a matter of time before the euro collapsed as the world has been signalled as to the risk of investment in western nations. Nolan believes that whereas the Euro will be the first victim, the US dollar too will soon tumble after.

The writer brings attention to the power of trust in the value and future of the world’s major currencies. There is also the substitution effect to consider. Gold prices have skyrocketed to an all-time high of above $2,600, and as Nolan posited, it may skyrocket some more for this reason as people make a dash for other alternative stores of value. Nolan mentions the $36 trillion debt underpinning the euro as a currency, another $200 trillion unfunded liabilities, recent declines in the value of that currency, as well as the low to no economic growth prospects in the union as problems that will have real consequences.

But whether we believe in Nolan or not is not the issue. Though we shall come back to consider the matter of currency values and how they impact the equity markets and the viability/vibrancy of stock exchanges, I have had cause to consider the fate of stock markets around the world, with some serious questions in mind. Many stock exchanges have been complaining bitterly about delistings and relatively low liquidity lately. Stock delisting is a scenario where existing listed stocks choose to remove themselves by management decision, from being publicly traded, or are forced to do so because they are not meeting the requirements to stay listed. It used to be a great ambition for many companies back in the day, to get listed as a sign of success and maturity.

Today, it looks like the sentiment is the opposite. It is a major struggle to find new listings on many exchanges – and this is an international issue. The essence of this article is to find out what is happening, why it may be happening, and what countries like Nigeria can do to stem the tide and fight against this decline.

On the 6th of January 2025, the London Stock Exchange – one of the oldest in the world – saw the record delisting of 88 stocks. Many others in the world have seen such lethargy, with the US (New York) stock markets being a beneficiary in many instances. Yet many other companies have voluntarily delisted simply to remain as private companies. And what is more? I believe that even the successful exchanges today have reason to worry about the imminent future, which is packed with surprises.

The London Stock Exchange is not alone in its predicament. An article titled “The global supply of equities is shrinking – here’s what you need to know” published on the 24th of April 2024 by the World Economic Forum’s Emma Charlton states inter alia: “There has been a drop of nearly 75% of companies listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange between the 1960s and the end of 2022… Similar data for public companies in Germany shows a drop of more than 40% since 2007, and in the US, there’s been around a 40% drop since 1996… London’s stock market has lost 25% of its companies in the past decade, according to Bloomberg, citing data from the London Stock Exchange that includes the main and junior markets”

Now, my wager. Could the following conjectures be true?

That there is a generational shift away from ‘slow’ investments such as equities (which are supposed to be naturally held long term as bet on the management of companies and the viability/competitiveness of their products or services which results in profits, dividends, rights issues and such like)? JPMorgan’s Nikolas Panigirtzoglou explains in the referenced article that ‘the alternative investments market, that includes hedge funds, real estate, digital assets, private credit and private equity, grew to $26.1 trillion in the first quarter of 2023, up from $25.5 trillion at the end of 2022. This means equity investments face lethal competition. Those numbers have grown in the last two years. The options open to a young, tech-savvy investor among Gen Zs and Generation Beta (born 2012 and later) has certainly ballooned out, with many of those options being rather unconventional.

That since there is a strong relationship between the confidence that investors repose in the underlying currency underpinning equities investment, and the investment itself, the mass movement to, and consolidation of the US stock market is a result of investors expressing confidence in the US dollar as a dominant global currency. However, the US dollar also has its own fair share of problems if we are to believe analysts like Greg Nolan.

Who is safe?

Well, I personally believe both opinions expressed above are true, going by observations of the market. Generation X and Z, and Beta folks (who are 40 years and below), and who were not around in the golden days of material (physical) share certificates may not be attuned to such ‘slow’ investments. We now live in the age of digitalised assets such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. Some young folks even trade on foreign exchange, betting for example against the euro for the US dollar. These kinds of ventures are very risky and many have lost everything they have on them.

There was a recent revelation from a Nigerian comedian who lost a whopping $3.7 million (N6 billion) to so-called FX trading. The trouble with FX trading is that there are big hitters who trade using highly sophisticated robots and computers which are so fast that traders in a country like ours could never measure up. And indeed, many of these newfangled ‘investment’ types are no different from simple gambling, or worse. No wonder that at this point, sports betting has become an epidemic in Nigeria and other African countries, pulling in over N500 billion daily, according to reports – drawing in volumes that will make a decent stock exchange green with envy.

OPTIONS FOR NIGERIA

What are the options open to Nigeria as well as other fledgling exchanges?

HOME BIAS: It is evident that the stronger exchanges around the world are the ones that emphasise their own home advantage and have been able to create activity and demand for stocks listed on them, from within. USA, India, the Middle East exchanges (where their currency is pegged to the US dollar), and a few more, are examples. Therefore, the more we deepen the involvement of our own people in our exchange and create more confidence amongst our people in the local economy, the more successful those exchanges will be. For now, there is way too much unfounded pessimism, especially among our financial sector players than is good for that sector.

INNOVATION: The bond market was relatively boring pre-Paul Volcker years. A few young chaps in Morgan Stanley investment banking unit in the late 1990s revolutionised what used to be seen as a mere fixed income investment good only for pensioners, by creating innovative instruments that were more tradeable. I believe the equities market now needs to pull all the stops and ensure that every trick in the book being used by some of these other markets which are currently trending, is adopted and modified to fit. There’s a saying I find myself using quite often lately and it goes that ‘any entity whose rate of learning is less than or equal to the rate of change in its environment is fast becoming a dinosaur’. Extinct. Are we learning fast enough? In spite of the general slowness of equities investing around the world, it has become easier for young Africans to invest in foreign stock exchanges than in the one next door to them.

BACK TO BASICS: The fundamental essence of the capital market is to raise longer-term capital from the public, for companies to expand and stabilise. The stock market is there fundamentally to guarantee a secondary market for original owners of shares in companies to sell part or whole of their holdings when they desire, and for any other players to be able to buy off them in a dynamic process that brings interest and excitement to the market. Beyond the technical analysis of a share’s trajectory therefore, investment in the stock of a company is an investment in the fundamentals. It is about how good potential investors – big or small – find the company’s prospects and how viable and competitive its products and services are. It is also a call on the quality of management. These considerations are sacrosanct. Stakeholders in the capital market should bring back attention to these issues and ensure that investments are rooted in the fundamentals. We must continue to remind ourselves of the raison d’etre – investing local money in local industries to impact the general economy.

PSYCHOLOGY: The dematerialization of share certificates has brought many advantages viz to digitalize as much as possible, and to bring much-needed transparency. With digitalisation comes better tracking and less strandedness of investors’ holdings and dividends. However, dematerialisation also creates a psychological effect, whereby holding the shares of companies is no longer popular among less savvy investors. In the past, stocks were purchased by parents as gifts for their children… and held forever. The well-designed certificates had a tantalizing and emotional effect on holders. Now, that is gone, and with it, the ‘bottom’ of many markets – meaning that whatever is poured in simply fritters away as savvy investors constantly take profit. Is there a chance that some serious psychological research is conducted on this matter, to see what innovations can be brought in so that the now rather ‘lifeless’ idea of depending fully on online platforms and computers is somehow rejigged for something a little more exciting? In Nigeria, the traditional long-term equity holders are dying out. Who do we replace them with?

I may not have the right ideas, but my conclusion is that we do have a serious problem on our hands that requires us to brainstorm over the ways forward. It is also certain that the strength and prospects of underlying currencies are a consideration for the vibrancy of a stock exchange, but countries that have done a good job with building local resilience, domestic investment (keeping the money and the focus within the company) seem to be doing a lot better and are likely to maintain their stock markets – and by extension investments in their local industries – into the future. The US is one country where the financial markets are central to overall performance. The country will do everything to protect its financial markets. How far are other major countries ready to go? There are definitely lessons for Nigeria.

The clamour for the separation of the ‘Office of the Attorney General of the Federation’ from that of the ‘Minister of Justice’ which is largely attributable, rightly or wrongly, to the perceived politicisation of the office of the AGF has been raging for quite some time. It, however, gained momentum based on the experiences of Nigerians in the 4th Republic. They question the fidelity of such an appointee of the president to the Constitution under a partisan system. Can he/she consciously discern that his/her functions of the AGF are not subject to the dictates of the President, unlike his/her functions of the Minister of Justice?

While the AGF is the Chief Law Officer of the Federation and is charged with protecting the public interest by ensuring the proper implementation of the laws, the Minister of Justice deals with the implementation of the policies of the government in the justice sector and is subject to the direction of the President in whom the Constitution vests all the executive powers of the federation. Nigerians who hold the view that the offices should be separated believe that one must be a saint to be able to navigate the delicate balance or the rather thin line that separates the appointee when acting as the Attorney General of the Federation from when he is discharging the duties of the Minister of Justice. Since we are all subject to human frailty, it would amount to burying one’s head in the sand to fail to acknowledge that such an appointee may sometimes consciously or unconsciously become susceptible to the political influence of the appointor (the President) or the political party. Where this happens, the appointee may lose the requisite objectivity required to discharge the functions of his/her office equitably, fairly and in accordance with the dictates of the law and conscience.

Given Nigeria’s experience with the holders of the office under a partisan political system, there are palpable fears that an Attorney General who is lacking the requisite integrity, diligence and independence, will unwittingly become a tool in the hands of a powerful president enabling him/her to ride roughshod over the rights of the people. Thus, instead of insisting on his fidelity to the constitution and serving as a check on the excesses of executive power, the appointee may feel obligated to his/her appointer and may be moved to descend into the political arena and have his/her vision beclouded by the murky waters of politics to the detriment of the people.

In view of the foregoing, Nigerians have been vocal in their clamour that the two offices be separated and held by different persons. They want the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to be insulated from politics through an appointment process and remuneration that guarantees its independence from the Minister of Justice. This view has found expression in the ongoing Constitution Review Exercise by the National Assembly which is considering proposals for the amendment of the constitution to separate the office. The practice around the world and some commonwealth jurisdictions supports separating the office. For instance, in the United Kingdon, the Office of the Attorney General is separate from the Minister of Justice. In India, Kenya and South Africa, to name a few jurisdictions, the offices are separate. This means that the concerns of well-meaning Nigerians advocating for such a separation to depoliticise the office are not misplaced.

To achieve the objective of separating the office, views are divided as to whether a constitutional amendment is required. Reacting to these contending positions, my predecessor in office, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, recently opined that an amendment to the constitution was not necessary to achieve such an outcome. In his view, the provisions of section 150 of the constitution merely provide that there shall be an Attorney General of the Federation who shall be the Chief Law Officer of the Federation. He therefore contends that the president is, therefore, free to appoint a separate Minister of Justice in much the same way as he appoints other ministers not expressly mentioned in the Constitution without any consequential amendment of the constitution.

I am, however, of the respectful view that section 150 of the constitution goes beyond providing for the office of ‘Attorney General of the Federation’ and ‘Chief Law Officer.’ It adds a third ‘portfolio’ of a ‘Minister in the Government of the Federation’ to such an appointee thereby making it mandatory for the Attorney General of the Federation to be made a Minister in the Government of the Federation. For the avoidance of doubt. The section is hereby reproduced in ex tenso: “150 (1) There shall be an Attorney General of the Federation who shall be the Chief Law Officer of the Federation and a Minister of the Government of the Federation” (emphasis supplied). I, therefore, humbly opine that there is need to amend section 150 of the Constitution by deleting “and a Minister of the Government of the Federation” to effectively separate the offices.

I am convinced that to achieve the objective of depoliticising the office, the Attorney General of the Federation should not be a Minister. This is because by virtue of section 148 of the Constitution, ministers are delegates who exercise executive powers of the president. They must therefore be subject to the direction and control of the president while exercising such powers. The Attorney General of the Federation should, therefore, head the Department of Justice akin to the offices of the Accountant General of the Federation, Auditor General of the Federation, and Surveyor General of the Federation, etc., and should be independent. The Attorney General of the Federation should be guided by the dictates of his/her conscience and the overriding public interest, and reporting on the activities of the office at least once in a year to the National Assembly.

Apart from the physical separation of the offices, care must be taken to address issues that are likely to impinge on the independence of the office holder. These include: the appointment process, qualification, tenure and remuneration. For instance, in the United States of America, the Attorney General is appointed by the President on the confirmation of the Senate while in the United Kingdom, the Attorney General is nominated by the Prime Minister and appointed by the Monarch (King) on the advice of the Prime Minister. Similarly, in Kenya, the Attorney General is nominated by the President with approval of the National Assembly and appointed by the President and reforms are being proposed to limit the tenure to 10 years. In India, the Attorney General is appointed by the President at the instance of the Union Cabinet. In South Africa, the Attorney General is appointed by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs after consultation with the Solicitor General and can be removed with the approval of both Houses of Parliament.

In addition to the appointing process, some jurisdictions prescribe qualifications, the most significant one being where the Attorney General is required to have the same qualification as the Chief Justice or Justice of the Supreme Court as is the case in Kenya and India respectively. In the United States, a Bar qualification will suffice while in the United Kingdom, qualification is not specified, but holders of the office have traditionally been Barristers who continue to practise with the Crown as their client. Also, the remuneration for the office is carefully considered to insulate the appointee from influences that may derail him or her. What is important is to ensure that the appointee is well compensated for the onerous duties he or she is discharging and to insulate him from financial pressures as has been done in some jurisdictions.

Given the peculiarities of Nigeria, care should be taken to ensure that the appointment process is clearly specified in the Constitution establishing the Office of Attorney General of the Federation and his counterparts at the state level. I submit that the Attorney General of the Federation should be appointed by the President subject to confirmation by the Senate. The appointee should have the same qualification as the Chief Justice of Nigeria and should be appointed for a fixed, non-renewable tenure of six years only. The appointee should not be removed except for misconduct, violation of the provisions of the enabling law, convictions or inability to discharge the functions of the office due to infirmity of the body or mind. The President should only remove the appointee upon an address supported by two-thirds of the Senate. The remuneration of the appointee should be stated in the Instrument of Appointment and should be reasonable enough to compensate the appointee and insulate him from monetary inducement. The remuneration so specified should be subject to yearly adjustments based on inflation to ensure that the salary is not eroded.

It is also necessary to clarify the duties of the Attorney General of the Federation as well as that of the Minister of Justice to avoid jurisdictional overlaps. The Attorney General, who must be a seasoned lawyer, should be appointed under section 150 of the Constitution to head the Department of Justice. He will be assisted by professional staff such as the Solicitor General, Director, Public Prosecutions, Director, Civil Litigation, Director, Legal Drafting, Director, Solicitors Dept, and Director of International Law. He will also superintend all the law officers and be responsible for posting them as pool officers to other ministries to deal with legal matters and proffer legal opinions on his behalf. The Attorney General shall not be a Minister but shall attend the Federal Executive Council to render legal advice where required, attend Court as amicus curie even in a matter where the Government is not a Party and attend the National Assembly to render legal advice. The Attorney General shall also superintend the exercise of prosecutorial powers by prosecutorial agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC), the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NATIP) and the national Drug law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). To be effective, all these Agencies as well as the Nigeria Police should report to the Department of Justice. For instance, In the United States of America, the Attorney General is assisted by Deputy Attorneys General, Associate Attorney General, the Solicitor General and heads of Litigating Divisions such as Criminal, Civil, Antitrust, Civil rights, Tax, National Security etc. The Enforcement Divisions include Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), US Marshals Service (USMS), and Interpol Washington.

On the other hand, the Minister of Justice need not be a lawyer and should be appointed under section 148 of the Constitution. However, care should be taken to appoint a person with knowledge of the justice sector. The Minister of Justice will be responsible for implementing Government policies in the justice sector. This will cover issues such as government policies on the administration of justice, access to justice, law reform, research, legal education, law reporting, etc. The Minister will be assisted by the bureaucracy comprising relevant professionals and technocrats such as the Permanent Secretary and relevant Directors. The Minister of Justice shall superintend over parastatals such as the Nigerian Law Reform Commission, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Nigerian Law School, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

Finally, while the above proposals are designed to strengthen the hand of the appointee to do justice to all those who encounter the justice system, there is no guarantee that the separation alone is enough to insulate the office from politics. The occupants of the office must have the requisite moral fibre and strength of character to resist subtle pressures from the powers that be in the discharge of their onerous duties. The search for a suitable attorney general of the federation or his counterparts at the state level should go beyond mere knowledge of the law to x-raying the antecedents of appointees over a fairly long period to determine their suitability.

Adoke was attorney general of the federation and minister of justice from 2010 to 2015.

Abdullahi Sule, governor of Nasarawa state, says northerners were misled into believing that the tax reform bills would result in additional financial burden.

Sule’s comments come on the heels of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) throwing its weight behind the proposed tax legislation before the national assembly.

On Thursday, the NGF in a statement issued after its meeting with the presidential tax reform committee, proposed an “equitable” sharing formula for value-added tax (VAT).

The governors recommended that there should be no terminal clause for TETFUND, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in the sharing of development levies in the bills.

They also supported the continuation of the legislative process at the national assembly that will culminate in the eventual passage of the bills.

Speaking on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television, on Thursday, Sule said the endorsed tax reforms by the NGF aim to eliminate inefficiencies and create a fairer tax system.

Sule also dispelled notions of a divide between the northern governors and the President Bola Tinubu administration.

“Most of the people in the north have been sold the idea that there are going to be additional taxes. Today, by this agreement, there is no additional tax,” the governor said.

“Definitely it will settle the dust. And if you look at most of the debates, people are saying ‘we don’t want additional taxes’. We are saying today that by this, there are no additional taxes.

“And it also puts people who want to put heads between the president and some other people to rest. Now, they can understand that what those other people have done is actually in the interest of Nigeria.”

‘ENACTMENT OF TAX BILLS WILL ATTRACT MORE INVESTMENT’

The Nasarawa governor said if the tax legislation is passed, it will stimulate economic growth and attract investment to the country.

Sule noted that the reforms extend beyond VAT, covering critical areas like stamp duties and royalties to foster a more investment-friendly environment.

“The bigger picture at the end of the day is to get it passed for the interests of Nigeria in order to attract more investment into Nigeria. Part of the reform is actually the attraction of additional investments into Nigeria,” he added.

“That’s why you are eliminating multiple taxations in the first place. You are also going to look at stamp duties. You are also going to look at all the other royalties and the rest of that; and you are addressing them.

“This will encourage some of these companies that are moving away from Nigeria to stay. That’s why I say the tax bills are more than just VAT matters.

“There are so many other issues in it. So if you have not taken time to go through them, you may not understand. So I think this is the first catch that is going to be there for Nigeria.”

The Nasarawa governor said his state is attracting investments in mining and agriculture, making it an ideal destination for investors.

He added that a harmonised tax system will be implemented through coordination between the Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS) and the state’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS), ensuring that taxpayers are given a specific tax amount to avoid double taxation.

BACKGROUND

On October 13, 2024, Tinubu asked the national assembly to consider and pass four tax reform bills.

[TheCable]

I watched with utter shock and disbelief how the father of Salome Adaidu recounted the rushed and nocturnal burial of the dismembered body of his daughter. He looked resigned – it is hard to tell – whether to his own fate or to that of his young girl or to both. In his voice, I sensed a powerlessness beyond description. Meanwhile, right across the front porch of the police station where a journalist interviewed the murder suspect, Timileyin Ajayi exuded the air of a monarch who wielded absolute power over his fiefdom; an iku baba yeye whose decision to execute his errant subject was irreversible. “I took a knife and chopped off her head…. no regrets,” he said quite dismissively. You should have heard him speak with a ring of finality as he batted off an insect buzzing around his left ear. It was a collage of cynicism to watch the victimised father and the boyfriend from hell speak with unruffled disposition about a very sinister incident.

Is it not bewildering that boyfriends now exercise the powers that even fathers hardly contemplate over their girl-children? The power of life and death over the female gender is a relic of the ancient world where for instance, the father of a Roman household decided at will whether his new-born girl child could join his family as a living member or would be sent back to the great beyond as an unwanted intruder. When the new bride was handed off by her father, the husband inherited that patria potestas, the absolute power which a male family head wielded over all members of his household. Even then, this life and death power was used with some restraint. In Nigeria today, boyfriends from hell have taken it upon themselves to exercise this power over girls whose romantic relationship parents may not even be aware of let alone give their conjugal blessing to.

How do you invest so much in raising your daughter, sending her to school amid pain and struggle for survival only to have her life tossed nonchalantly into an unmarked early grave by a boy whose identity you got to know only when the unthinkable had happened? Yet the Nigerian society looks on without a sense of outrage. Almost day after day, week in, week out, a report breaks on social media of a beheading, dumping into a dry, disused well, a drugging to death, a strangulation or a casting into insanity on the street. And when you check, the majority of the victims of these violent incidents happen to be the female gender, young promising girls under 25 years! Before we had processed what just happened, other comic, musical or half-nude reels arrived to take our fleeting attention away from grieving or seeking a stop to this social malaise. The Nigerian society has become so desensitised to tragic occurrences. Enikan l’omo: only the victim feels the pinch.

Like Cain, we have ceased to be our brothers’ keepers. In this instance, we are even farther from being our sisters’ keepers. The feminine gender has become an endangered species of sorts. We miss the bygone days when the proverbial 200 eyes focused on raising a single child in our communities. While mothers routinely demand that the girl child prepare to be a wife and mother, fathers fail to insist that boys must learn to grow into disciplined and decent husbands and fathers. Hence, the epidemic of boyfriends from hell in Nigeria. Parents who have boys are less apprehensive than those who are “blessed among women” when it comes to the potential for tragic outcomes in romantic relationships. Oftentimes, it is the parents of the girls who must bear the brunt if anything goes south.

What parent of a girl child has peace of mind these days with the spate of wanton killings for ritual or revenge at the hands of boyfriends from hell? Do parents now have to become paranoid when male classmates, male neighbours, male youth corpers, or male co-workers are seen with their young girls? How can parents possibly forbid their girls from getting involved with the male gender as they go on to higher institutions or enter the workplace? In short, how do we protect our girls from boyfriends from hell unless we constantly keep a vigilant eye on the relationship proceedings and encourage our girls to keep the lines of communication open with our parents in the loop? He get reason why as they say in local parlance.

We need a whole of society approach to tackle this social problem that is confronting us daily. As the old saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. Outsourcing parental responsibilities to teachers at school and via private lessons at home ought to be looked at again. Abandoning children’s learning and development to new media (TikTok, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, Facebook etc. have to be reconsidered. The assumption that real moral training of children is taking place at religious institutions must be revisited. The economics of boyfriends from hell is based on the “free rider problem” – the notion that the other person will do the needful; therefore, I don’t need to worry too much about the issue. Parents who have boys think it is the business of those who have girls to protect their girls. Parents who have girls think it is the problem of those who have boys to curb their boys. In the final analysis, neither does what the other expects.

Many of us parents feel that it is too much for us to get involved with our children’s schools. We simply think that our clergymen have the magic wand to turn our children into angels. We also hope that our children are learning only the right things on social media. Should I tell you where mere feeling, thinking and hoping has landed us? A country full of boyfriends from hell. If this does not scare you, Armageddon will mean nothing to you.

As a young boy growing up in the 1980s, I was conscious that all along my route to school were elderly eyes watching and mouth would also wag where hands failed to whack your buttocks if you were late or displayed any unacceptable social behaviour. This moulded you into a fairly responsible adult at least. But nowadays? We adults simply take out our phones and try to make content from out-of-school children that we come by if they pulled a stunt that would make people laugh.

If we insist that the tide of civilization never flows backwards, meaning that it is impossible to re-enact the days when communal parenting was the norm, we must then devise other means to cope with the problem. But what alternative is there to fall back on? Artificial Intelligence? Are we going to programme it to help us reorganize our society morally? What kind of ground rules will machine learning set to help us govern society so that boyfriends from hell are detected early and weeded out from the system? Will the predictive capabilities of algorithms be able to tell us from the moment of in vitro fertilization (IVF) what embryo would grow up to be a boyfriend from hell so that we can label it accordingly and help our daughters avoid him for sure in the future?

As far as I am concerned, there is no alternative to the old-fashioned, painstaking way of being hands-on, rolling up our sleeves collectively as a society and getting our hands dirty in raising our boys and girls on the basis of the fear of God and respect for all mankind. It is not a task that can be outsourced or performed using the Uber or Airbnb business model. There is the talk about garnering “elite consensus” to fix the political and economic problems of Nigeria. But we don’t have to be elites to raise our children right? Change begins with me. It begins with you. The future safety of our girls and the eradication of boyfriends from hell in the Nigerian society depend on it.

Lekan Olayiwola is a peace and conflict researcher and practitioner.