I was filled with regrets after watching a documentary by the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) titled ‘Fuel Subsidy: Lifting a Nation’s Burden’. I started ruminating over what might have been. In the opening, Dame Winifred Akpani, founder and CEO of NorthWest Petroleum and Gas Company, reminds us of how fuel subsidy came into being. It was in the mid-1970s when oil boom made us believe we were so rich we could buy the entire world. It probably made sense at the time that as Nigeria was raking in billions of dollars from oil export, some of the benefits should be passed to Nigerians via cheap/fixed prices of petroleum products.

Akpani recalls how the military government added petroleum products to the price control list in 1977, officially introducing fuel subsidy in Nigeria. I am looking back today and thinking: if we knew the inter-generational quagmire we were getting ourselves into, we probably would have done things differently. If we sit down to calculate the billions of dollars we have sunk into fuel subsidy since 1977 and how this could have developed the critical infrastructure necessary for Nigeria’s development, we cannot but wonder what might have been. But rather than get stuck with lamenting about the past and what might have been, we should be learning from our mistakes as we head into the future.

Let me state this clearly: I am not against subsidies. The US, the global flag bearer of market economy, heavily subsidises its domestic agriculture, and some aspects of energy, housing, and car manufacturing — all geared towards increasing investment in those sectors. The UK, which is also a market economy, subsidises areas identified as key to economic growth, notably the automotive sector, aerospace and clean energy. Public transport fares are capped and government pays part of the difference, which runs into billions of pounds yearly. But government shares the subsidy burden with commuters through yearly adjustments in the fares charged by the transport companies.

The problem with Nigeria is that we subsidise the wrong points in the production and consumption chain. This is because we probably asked the wrong questions or came up with the wrong answers while designing the policies. The questions should be: why are we subsiding? Can we afford it? How are we going to fund it? How long will the subsidy be in place? What happens when the funds are not flowing like rivers again? Should we be responsible for 100 percent of the subsidy or should we stick to a percentage and pass the rest to Nigerians so that regular adjustments can be made? We went for a blanket, no-questions-asked subsidy policy and Nigerians became infinitely entitled.

This was a major negative outcome of the oil boom. Rather than see the boom as a boon and deftly utilise it to develop other critical sectors and build a robust economic base for Nigeria, we thought the petrodollars would continue to flow without let or hinderance till the end of the world. We plunged into a spending spree, flooding the country with an unsustainable expenditure profile. Isn’t it remarkable that the era we still celebrate as the best in Nigeria’s economic development — the 1950s and 1960s — was when there were neither fuel nor electricity subsidies? Public funds were concentrated on education and building infrastructure by the federal and regional governments.

Today, we lament that some Asian countries that were at par with us in the 1960s have overtaken us and become world beaters. I have never disguised my belief that oil booms have done more harm than good to us. Not just to the economy, but also to politics, security and public morality. Nigeria was not a perfect country before the oil boom — after all, there were several cases of corruption and abuse of office before and after Independence — but the impunity that came with oil wealth is beyond compare. We moved from an era of “10 percent” corruption to the age of phantom contracts. Insane impunity! We have moved from robbing revenues to looting loans. Insane!

Let me be fair. By introducing energy and meal subsidies in the 1970s, the military governments obviously meant well, even if their economics was questionable. With high crude oil prices, petroleum products also became more expensive. Our leaders were probably asking themselves: why should Nigerians pay more for petrol? Shouldn’t cheap products be a fringe benefit of being oil producers? We also needed to encourage more Nigerians to have university education by introducing a number of incentives. You can fault their choices but you cannot fault their desire to make life more comfortable for Nigerians. Rather than cry over spilt milk, we should be thinking about the lessons.

Lesson No 1: never introduce a privilege that you cannot sustain. Withdrawing what has come to be seen as an entitlement is akin to courting war. Gen Olusegun Obasanjo discovered as much when he tried to reduce or remove subsidies when oil prices began to fall. While the boom was a feast for us, it was a funeral for industrialised countries. They began taking measures to reduce fuel consumption: manufacturing fuel-efficient cars and introducing the “pool car” system in offices to encourage sharing, among others. The US — the world’s biggest consumer of petroleum products at the time (and till today) — also started oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. You see, they did not go to sleep.

The biggest implication of these initiatives was that oil demand started dropping and prices began to fall. Obasanjo, on becoming head of state in 1976 following the assassination of Gen Murtala Muhammed, had started preaching the gospel of agriculture, launching Operation Feed the Nation to encourage Nigerians to be individually and collectively self-sufficient in food production. In 1978, he increased fees payable in the universities — although tuition remained free — and reduced the meal subsidy, raising the cost from N1.50 to N2 per ticket. Hostel accommodation fee tripled from N30 per session to N90. (Ironically, it was still N90 in 1989 when I enrolled at the University of Lagos).

Like I said, never introduce a privilege that you cannot sustain. Be ready for war if you want to withdraw it. University students, under the auspices of the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS), rejected the reduction of these subsidies and embarked on a nationwide protest, unforgettably tagged “Ali Must Go” (or, comically, “Ali Mungo”). The students demanded the resignation of Col Ahmadu Ali, then minister of education, because of the astronomical fee increases. At the end of the protests, which the military and police tried to suppress, there were at least eight dead bodies. That did not change anything as Obasanjo insisted the increases were necessary.

Lesson No 2: adjustment is no child’s play. As most Nigerian leaders have discovered in the last 50 years, it is easier to maintain the status quo than to disrupt it. Most African countries do not subsidise energy consumption. As soon as oil and gas prices change in the international market, citizens expect adjustments in energy prices: petrol, diesel, electricity and all. There is nothing to debate. Ghanaians and Togolese are not poorer than Nigerians yet they pay the market prices for energy. The difference is that Nigerians have successfully given petrol a political status. We buy yams, beans and tomatoes at market prices but treat petrol as a political entitlement. Yes, since 1977.

Adjusting prices and fees has become a perennial problem for both the government and the citizens. The government is always reluctant, or even scared, to make changes because they know the street can catch fire. The default response of the citizens, who are perpetually under economic pressure, is to resist any attempt to adjust prices and fees. The fact is that we are not used to it. It is not in our culture. Nigerians who migrated abroad are seeing the realities of price adjustments, although they console themselves with the fact that “we can see what the government is doing with the money”. Very well. People-led accountability is a democratic culture we also have to imbibe as Nigerians.

Lesson No 3: delayed adjustment comes with even more pains. When President Muhammadu Buhari came to office in 2015, two things were begging for attention: the exchange rate — which had become glaringly unsustainable with falling oil income — and petrol subsidy (please note that government stopped subsiding other fuels ages ago). The exchange rate was N197/$ while petrol was N87/litre. Buhari was reluctant to move the needle for one reason: the inflationary impact on millions of poor Nigerians. While that was considered socio-politically expedient, the economy was the worse for it. Some of the adjustments came rather late in the day and then stalled at some point.

By the time President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, he was faced with three tough options. One, retain the suicidal status quo and risk a return to the 1984-scale crisis when we started queuing up to buy rice and milk because of FX crunch and falling revenue. Two, adjust gradually, although there is a risk of getting mixed results. Three, go full blast, with the attendant short-term pains and long-term gains. Tinubu gave us the impression that he went full blast, but all I can see around me is chaos. It is glaring that there was no plan and his government is just making things up per time. The PR machine is doing very well — I give them credit for that — but I think we are stuck.

Nevertheless, the basis of my argument today — after watching that beautiful documentary produced by Ademola Adedoyin and Zik Zulu Okafor — is that the introduction of fuel subsidy in 1977 has hurt us more than we think. We created a culture of privilege that will be extremely hard to discard. Also, our failures to adjust to new realities in several areas of public expenditure since the oil boom era will continue to hurt us if we don’t change course. If we were adjusting where and when necessary all along, we would not need to be facing sudden killer shocks all the time. We have gone too deep into the abyss. We need a miraculous reorientation to be able to change our ways.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

EFCC VS BELLO

The American International School Abuja (AISA) has refunded the fees paid for the children of Mr Yahaya Bello, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Bello, the former governor of Kogi state who is engaged in a running media drama with the commission, allegedly paid $760,910 in advance as fees for five of his children from the coffers of Kogi state. However, by a previous court ruling in the case of Chief James Ibori, the ex-governor of Delta state, the money will now have to be returned to Kogi state. And the current governor of Kogi state is Mr Usman Ododo, who was handpicked and installed by Bello. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Rebound.

MEDIA MENTOR

When I was studying mass communication at the University of Lagos, the common joke at the department was that those who wanted to specialise in journalism would die poor and those who wanted to make money should go into PR and advertising (PRAD). Mr Azu Ishiekwene, who has seen it all as a reporter, writer, editor and publisher, has a better story to tell the current and future generations in his book, ‘Writing for Media and Monetising It’, published by Premium Times Books and due for release anytime soon. It is the basics of journalism and media entrepreneurship. I have received an advance copy and I am currently unlearning and relearning journalism. Reinvention.

GOOD NIGHT, MALLAM

Mallam Abdul Ndubuisi Okwechime, the journalist who came into limelight in 1986 for daring the devil to interview Lawrence Anini, then Nigeria’s most wanted armed robber, abruptly drew his last breath on April 19, 2024. He was my friend despite being my senior in age. We met in 1998 when he spearheaded the media campaign of the late Alhaji MD Yusufu, who was a presidential aspirant. I was recently on the phone with Mallam Abdul, who had suddenly fallen ill. He encouraged me to always call rather than send texts because he was finding it difficult recognising alphabets. I was devastated. I didn’t know the worst was still coming. May God comfort his loved ones. Painful.

NO COMMENT

Trust Nigeria to always provide premium content. On Wednesday, 118 inmates escaped from the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Suleja, Niger state. According to the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), a rainfall ravaged parts of the prison and brought down the walls. The NCoS used the opportunity to cry out that the prison walls are generally weak because they were built — now you won’t want to believe this — during the colonial era. Nigeria gained independence from colonial rule 63 years ago and, in fact, we are still making use of a facility that was probably built 70 years ago without improving the structure. Is it because powerful people are not in that jail? Wonderful.

On many fronts, America is showcasing the many burdens and benefits of democracy. Most Washington politicians are united in their support for Israel. But out  on the streets, many Americans are opposed to  Israel’s raging genocidal onslaught on Gaza and other Palestinian enclaves.  While Congress had little trouble approving a further $20 billion in military aid to Israel, there is anger on the streets and mostly on university campuses. Opposition to the naked aggression against Palestinians has united the American streets and campuses against political Washington. A gale of anti-semitic  protests has recently endangered lives and interests associated with Israel. This has now been followed by a whirlwind of campus protests all over America and even beyond.

In American courts, Donald Trump has kept the judiciary busy with legal arguments which now sound more like staged one-man campaign talk shows. The court appearances for Trump’s multitude of criminal and civil transgressions have become opportunities for a rehash of his boring campaign messaging. In a sense, Trump and his advisers are testing the legal limits of liberal democracy. It is all about trying to justify the right of an authoritarian demagogue to impose his private ambition on America’s long established democratic institutions and traditions. Simply put, a political deviant  and serial transgressor wants to return as president. Twice impeached, severally accused of infractions ranging from campaign fund malfeasance to dubious business records and dodgy book keeping, Mr. Trump insists on his entitlement to the throne.  Whichever way the legal outcomes go, a lot of issues in American democracy  are likely to come under severe test with each verdict in Trump’s litany of court cases.

By far the more concerning  issue in the United States now is the series of pro-Palestinian protests and demonstrations now sweeping through the campuses of American universities. These are not just ordinary universities.  They are mostly Ivy League universities. From Colombia to Yale, from Harvard to New York University,  UCLA, University of Southern California to University of Pennsylvania, and Emory University, large groups of students of diverse nationalities have trooped out daily to protest against Israel’s violation of the rights of the Palestinian people in its prolonged war on Gaza and other Palestinian enclaves. 

So far, the protests have disrupted normal academic and other activities on the various campuses. The police have made numerous arrests of the protesters in a bid to restore normalcy. Some of the universities have opted for closure and discontinuation of academic activities to avoid the protests degenerating into violent encounters and disruptions.

The pro-Palestinian protests have multiple implications for America’s democratic culture. The right to freedom of association and expression remains inviolable. But the responsibility of the political  leadership to pursue foreign and domestic policies in line with the national interest are sacrosanct. The students have a right to protest actions and policies of government that run counter to their convictions. Normal civility demands that such protests should not be violent or infringe on the rights of those who do not share these convictions to go about their business.

In the affected campuses, however,  the groundswell of these protests have been so huge that no normal academic and social activities can proceed on these campuses. While police and law enforcement have a responsibility to maintain law and order and protect the rights of students who may not share the beliefs and convictions of the protesters or want to join the protests, the scope and spread of the protests indicate a clear political line on the part of the student population. While no one expects the protesters to have carry the day, it is also true that no responsible political establishment can ride rough shod on the feelings of such a large body of protesters.

Throughout American history, the university campuses have served as theatres for the expression of political views and beliefs that often run counter to the political temper of Washington. On the Vietnam war, on Civil rights, on Black Lives Matter, on police brutality and systemic racism and variety of other sensitive public issues, the University campuses in the United states have consistently indicated an independent line of thinking that often runs counter to the main current of official Washington. Through these protests and demonstrations, the university campuses have been able, over time , to pressure politicians in Washington to at least listen to contrary views. At critical moments, such protests have succeeded in getting the government to reconsider aspects of foreign and domestic policy.

Already, some key politicians from Washington have visited a number of protesting campuses to appeal for calm and press home their perspective. The students have however stood their grounds, just as the  pro-Israeli politicians have pressed their arguments. It is not likely that any argument will be strong enough to justify the long standing oppression of the Palestinians especially the blockage of their right to a free and independent homeland.

The present scene on America’s university campuses is reminiscent of happier days on Nigeria’s university campuses. There was a time from the immediate post independence days to the days of military rule when Nigerian university campuses served as the catalyst of social and political ideas for national unity and progress. For instance, it was Nigerian students at the University of Ibadan who staged massive protests  to compel the newly independent Nigerian government  against signing a defence pact with the departing British colonial government.

In the days of military dictatorship,  Nigerian university students served as the remaining voice of democratic instincts. Students campaigned for the rights of common people, against authoritarian impositions and the habitual arbitrariness of military rule. Students protested against frequent petroleum price increases, against unlawful detentions of opposition figures. When in 1978 General Obasanjo’s education minister, Colonel Ahmadu Ali, tried to increase university tuition frees, in Nigerian universities, students rose in unison during the “Ali Must Go” demonstrations and pressed for his removal from office.

From the 1960s to early 1990s, the Nigerian university campus remained a litmus ground for testing public policies. Political and military leaders sought a certain degree of acceptability among university students and their lecturers. Understandably the Nigerian university campus also became the hotbed of radical ideas. During the ideological polarization of the Cold War era, our universities became a friendly terrain for radical  progressive anti bourgeois ideas. This led to an understandable radicalization of student union politics and even the politics of organized unionism among academics. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) became an arrowhead of radical student unionism. These were the origins of ASUU’s aggressive trade unionism which has largely survived to recent times.

There was consequently a certain unanimity of perspectives on national issues among students in campuses all over the country. From Ife to Nsukka, from University of Ibadan to Ahmadu Bello University, from Port Harcourt to Calabar and Ilorin, Nigerian students and academics were united in their perspectives on military rule, corruption, the plight of the poor and  the commonality of poverty among underprivileged Nigerians.

As undergraduates then, we shared a common ideal of a better nation. We trooped out to protest unkind policies. We faced police truncheons and tear gas and even military jackboots and live bullets. We did not habour these silly divisions along ethnicity, religion and region. We did not despise the poor but fought for the smashing of the chains of poverty. We thought our youth and idealism was enough to transform the country into a happy place for all. For us then, the Nigerian revolution was an achievable and imminent possibility.  Our idealism contrasted with whatever ideas were fueling the policies of politicians and military leaders in Lagos and later Abuja. We held strong views on contemporary issues and most times embraced alternative truths to those of governments of the day.

We took a stand on most domestic and foreign policy issues that were burning central at different times. We took a stand on Southern Africa; on independence for Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. We vehemently stood shoulder to shoulder with the Murtala and Obasanjo governments on Apartheid. We stood with the world on the Palestinian struggle and the heroic stance of the then Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) of Yasser Arafat.

Key politicians understood the crucial place of the campus as a vital platform  for the galvanization and aggregation of ideas for national development. Key politicians therefore often chose to deliver the annual Convocation lectures of the various key universities as a way of generating novel ideas for the development of the nation. Such strategic lectures also served as means of bridging the distance between town and gown and as praxis in the struggle for a better society.

It would be recalled that at the height of the debate of how best to accommodate the military in future power arrangements, Nigeria’s first President Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe used the opportunity of the convocation lecture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka,  to advocate the theory of Diarchy as a power sharing arrangement between civilian politicians and military leaders. Similarly, Chief Obafemi Awolowo used one of the convocation lectures at Ife to question the efficacy of fruitless probes of past governments as an anti corruption tool. Those were the glorious days of the Nigerian university campus. Then they were universities. There were scholars, patriotic students and as Achebe lamented, there was once a nation.

In today’s Nigeria, the campus is virtually dead either as a centre of national consciousness or an incubator of new ideas. The universities have died as cultural laboratories or as the breeding ground of a responsible national elite. The Nigerian university campus has died as a centre of serious positive thinking or purposive national action for progress. In place of fiery nationalism and idealism, we now have a student unionism that apes and imitates the decadent  culture of our nasty politics.

Contest for NANS leadership has become a sad replica of the politics of ‘stomach infrastructure’ and  money bazaars. When elected into office, the leadership of our students unions want to drive huge SUVs like Abuja politicians. They  appoint innumerable personal aides with nomenclatures borrowed from our wasteful national political culture and idiom. The broad mass of our students are now united by cultism, cyber crimes, bloody rituals and killer squads in a hunt for human body parts for ritual.

Our student population has degenerated into conclaves of cults, cyber crimes and a descent into the dark precincts of  occultism , witchcraft and ritual. Places established to pursue enlightenment and modernism have now become covens of modern day witches and ritual murderers. At other times, the only language that flies around our campuses is that of quick mega cash fuelled by the hunger for designer clothing, outrageous automobiles and luxury mansions. Every undergraduate aspires to become an internet ‘influencer’, stage musician, naked model or narcotics courier irrespective of the courses they are registered to study.

Among the academics themselves, we now have serial racketeering for contracts, a thriving trade of blackmail of ‘sex for marks’. Professors are now standing trial for openly blackmailing their female students into sexual rumps sometimes in open offices. The deployment of juju and cultism for promotions and appointments have replaced the previous dedication to merit, national good and the pursuit of academic excellence.

As America’s university campuses continue to witness a wave of protests of universal moral condemnation of America’s support for Israel’s systematic genocide in Palestine, we need to look again at what has killed the Nigerian university. 

Three ugly forces have invaded our university campuses: dark money, bad politics and godless religion. To rescue our universities and redirect them back to being factors of national unity, progress and progressive development, we require a political leadership with the will to chase away and neutralize this trinity of negativity.

I prefer celebrating people while alive. I have done this for decades. I will continue to celebrate the living. The dead hears no tributes or eulogies. Where death however steals a match on us, clanging its filthy manacles as a hideous monster, we must conquer and mock it by remembering our dead heroes. Dr. Christopher Ogbonnaya Onu was such an hero. I mourn him. He was a distinguished Statesman of rare breed who espoused the ideals of democracy in his private and public life.

News of the transition of Dr Onu, the first civilian Governor of old Abia State, Dr. Christopher Ogbonnaya Onu, came as a rude shock to millions of ordinary Nigerians. It was just his political associates, friends and family that were shocked; I was one of them. And with good reason too. Dr. Onu was an uncommon sagacious politician with a difference. He was an advocate of politics without bitterness – in the mould of one of the most principled leaders of the 2^nd Republic, the late Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri, the erstwhile presidential candidate of the defunct Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP). To that extent, the late Dr. Onu was exceptional, as there has been few of his kind in the violence-prone political landscape of Nigeria. Not for him the cut-throat methods and win-at-all-costs mentality of the average Nigerian politician, especially at his level. No. By all accounts (from the deluge of encomiums showered on him), Dr. Onu was a gentleman par excellence who loved people and humanity. He played by the rules of the game of life with love towards all and malice towards none.

I have never heard anyone speak evil or any unkind word about this renowned engineer and man of Spartan-like discipline and high rectitude. He was an exemplar of a human being; an excellent role model and indeed, something of an avatar. Debonaire, suave and graceful, with a smile perpetually planted on his feminine face, Onu meant many positive things to different people. Beyond all that, Dr. Onu was a very brilliant mind and an outstanding academic, researcher and scholar. This was amply demonstrated when he graduated with a first-class degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos in 1976. He followed this four years with a doctorate degree in the same field from the famous University of California, at Berkeley, USA. Upon his return to Nigeria, Dr. Onu lectured at the University of Port Harcourt, where he became the pioneer head of that institution’s Department of Chemical Engineering. He subsequently acted as the Dean of the University’s Engineering Faculty.

But, it was outside academics – in politics – that Dr. Onu spectacularly made his mark and excelled. He emerged as the pioneer Governor of the old Abia State in 1992. On the return to civil rule under the present dispensation, Dr. Onu was elected the Presidential candidate of the erstwhile All Peoples Party (APP); but he calmly conceded it to the party’s eventual flag bearer in the election, Dr. Olu Falae. This was sequel to the horse trading between the then APP and the Alliance for Democracy (AD). Onu was not embittered. He was not the type to flex muscles over a mere political office.

Throughout his exemplary career, Dr. Onu was known for his deep love for equity, fairness, justice, national unity, cohesion, peace and progress. He also believed in youth empowerment and in nurturing another generation of leaders (the “Generation-Next”).

The handsome and calm, red-cap wearing politician was a technocrat in government. But, he never forgot nor forsook his friends. He demonstrated this to me in 2016. I had launched one of my books – “Zoning to Unzone: The Politics of Power and the Power of Politics in Nigeria”. He attended my book launch at the Yar’ Adua Centre, Abuja. He stayed on throughout the duration of the over 6-hour book presentation. Many of my supposed friends in the then Buhari government shunned the event. They did not want to associate with me – a die-hard critic of their Emperor-President Muhammadu Buhari government and its failing, wobbly, fumbling and dawdling style. Many of them were scared associating with me, lest they be upbraided and witch-hunted by the array of hovering hawks in the government. But not for Dr. Ogbonnaya. He stayed on. He showed undiluted friendship and brotherhood as a principled detribalized Nigerian, irrespective of possible adverse consequences to his office. Where are those dodgy bootlickers; fawners and ego masseurs who polluted the Buhari government today? They are gone with the wind and into historical oblivion. Ha! The ephemerality of power (Read Ozekhome –https://penpushers.com.ng /amp/nigerian-leaders-and-the-ephemerality-of-power/; June 6, 2023; https://realnewsmagazine.net/nigerian-leaders-and-the-ephemerality-of-power-part-2/July -31, 2023; https://www.tell.ng/magu-the-ephemerality-of-power-mike-ozekhome-san/?amp, July 8, 2020. 

Dr Onu’s hard work, dedication, commitment and patriotism did not go unrecognized as he was appointed by President Muhammed Buhari in 2015 as the Minister of Science and Technology. He held this position until 2022, when he resigned to contest the ruling party’s presidential ticket. He lost to the eventual winner of the election, current President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In leaving his comfort zone to stake that presidential claim, Dr. Onu was motivated not by personal aggrandizement, but by the desire to serve his people – to ensure that his highly marginalized ethnic group – the Igbos – were given a fair chance to seek the Presidency of this country. This is something that has all along eluded the Igbos. His sadness when he lost out prompted the emotion– tinged rhetorical question he asked on announcement of the results of the party’s primary election: “Where is the justice?” Let me join Onu in asking this all-important question: where is the justice in our electoral system today? Where is the justice in Nigeria?.

CONCLUSION

Dr. Onu has gone. But he would be remembered by Nigerians for being more than the sum of his parts. He was an uncommon human being who believed and espoused the nobility of man: a belief that we can transcend our differences and not be defined by them; that we can disagree without being disagreeable; that we are at our best when we sheath our swords – and, indeed, turn them into ploughshares; that there must be a handshake across the Niger and Benue rivers. Nigerians and Nigeria will miss his Nationalist. Let me bid Onu farewell till we meet again on resurrection day with the following quote authored by William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar (Act 5 Scene 5): “His life was gentle; and the elements so mixed in him, that nature might stand up And say to all the world, This was a man”. Fare thee well, my dear friend and brother. Sleep in the Lord’s warm bossom till we meet again to part no more. Amen.  

Responding to former Senate President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Senator Adolphus Wabara’s vow that any attempt by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to turn Nigeria into a one-party state, would be vigorously resisted.

In response, Mr Osita Okechukwu foundation member of APC, stated unequivocally that the blame game dished out to APC by Distinguished Senator Adolphus Wabara and Co who dug the grave of the PDP is misplaced in all materials particular.

He maintained that as long as the nemesis of Wabara and Co’s deliberate crass breach of presidential rotation convention between north and south, albeit PDP’s Constitution; namely Obi’s Labour Party, Kwankwaso’s NNPP and Wike’s Masquerade are alive and breathing, with open arms admitting defector-exits from PDP, there is no valid fear of one party state in Nigeria.

Wabara’s statement is coming as a former Governor of Imo State, Rt.Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Chuka Odom, and myriads of others resigned their membership from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Okechukwu maintained that blame game from BOT Chairman is no solution provider, therefore PDP should earnestly introspect on how best to pick the pieces of the party that is dangerously sinking.

He said that instead of careful introspection of its bleeding ailments and how to fix Obi and Kwankwaso’s exit and its troubled Wike’s Masquerade, plus imbibing the best tenets of internal democracy devoid of breach of the zoning convention, extant laws, planlessness and squandermania; the PDP most times arrogantly hauled unnecessary blame game on the APC.

“My understanding from our elder statesman’s vituperation is that PDP may not even recover in August after the ward, LGA, and State congresses and national convention; when they failed abinitio to embark on careful introspection to examine the root causes of Obi and Kwankwaso’s exit, especially Wike’s Masquerade which led a party that boasted of 60 years uninterrupted reign to woeful failure in 2023 presidential election. Truly PDP needs soul searching to make amends, rather than sweeping its troubled faction under the carpet.” Okechukwu quipped.

It could be recalled that the PDP after its much publicised NWC, National Caucus, BOT, Governors Forum and National Executive Council meetings at Abuja on Wednesday, 18 April, 2024, issued a blank communiqué and had been lambasting the APC.

The decision of President Bola Tinubu to inflict a census on the Nigerian school system is a welcome one. Education planning and development of a nation’s human capital industry without reliable data is like heading into battle armed with guesswork about your enemy’s military capabilities. Until a few years ago, the nation paraded the claim that Nigeria had 10 million children out of school. Development partners, the National Assembly, education planners and the Federal Ministry of Education swore by this data.

Then, without any basis in logic, study of demographic trends, or commonsense whatsoever, a new figure of 13 million out of school children was announced by everyone – and by no one in particular. Just like that! And that was after bandying around the 10 million out of school children figure for about 11 years. Pathetic, is it not?

Let us do a little math and, perhaps up-end the spurious statistics about out-of-school children in Nigeria, generally. Let us suppose that 19 states of the North each has one million children out of school. Let us also suppose that 17 southern states each has half a million children out of school. That will give you nearly 30 million out of school children in Nigeria. If you, however, decide to move from guesswork to actual calculations, knowing the contribution of states like Kano, Sokoto and a few others to the number of out of school children, then you must conclude that we have been cheerfully kidding ourselves; perhaps for too long, about statistics, national planning and national development.

That is why the presidential directive, calling for a census that would provide reliable and real-time data for meaningful planning, is a development that would enable the detection and better understanding and management of the number and specific needs of all schools in Nigeria, from primary to tertiary level. This is really more of an audit, to determine their present conditions and live-in facilities, their proximity to each other, and their infrastructural needs.

Beyond the foregoing, part of the expected outcomes includes reliable data on the number of teachers in the country, their qualifications, training support received, the self-development initiatives they can explore, as well as the number of pupils and students in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. Not to be left out in the gamut of data to be gathered are the gender, academic performance and other indices that would give a holistic picture for meaningful interventions in the sector.

Looking at the government’s Data Repository, Out-of-School Children Education, Teacher Training and Development, and Skill Development and Acquisition (DOTS) policy initiative, the only conclusion one can draw is that the aim is to completely and comprehensively transform the education sector and upgrade overall human capital development. This would mean bringing about different, and improved, learning outcomes, skill acquisition and overall academic security of the nation’s learning demographics.

Because the information to be derived will aid federal and state interventions in teacher training, provision of teaching aids, etc., it is expected that the resulting data on gender-specific learning at various levels of the educational system, drop-out rates, indigency, and more will be monitored through dedicated portals/dashboards in the Federal Ministry of Education, offices of state governors, and local government chairpersons.

At least that is the idea and intendment. The hope is that the implied gain that is presupposed by this drive, which should help the government track the progress of students and use evidence-based, data-driven machinery to guide its interventions are realized. This should be very useful when you consider the problem of planning for out-of-school children, the girl child and others with specific learning disabilities.

In contrast to the foregoing, there was a lot of idle pretensions about educational development under the immediate past President, Muhhamadu Buhari. He left on a rather questionable note on education matters. Recall that his last Federal Executive Council (FEC) proved the sum of 4.7 billion for the construction of seven Model Schools in the six geo-political zones of the country, and Abuja. That decision prompted an article on this page on May 31, 2019, titled “Objection Mr. President”.

The article under reference, in objecting to the initiative, said: “The federal government can choose one Unity School from each of the geo-political zones and upgrade it to a Model School, or school of reference of some sort, instead of starting fresh school projects. A simple costs-benefits analysis shows that 4.7 billion Naira will go a very long way in rescuing the schools. To build new model schools is to award building contracts to “reliable” contractors. Construction of the schools will probably take some two years, or more, to be followed by the provision of state-of-the-art amenities; which essentially boils down to a series of procurement contracts”.

The article continued: “The seven Model Schools will not make any impact whatsoever on human capital development, or contribute to the growth of education, one way or another in Nigeria in the next five years. But upgrading some Unity School will do just that within the same timeframe. So, the proposed new schools will be nothing but a major capital project, resting on the mistaken assumption that the provision of learning infrastructure is the same thing as sustainable investment in education”.

On the matter of the unwisdom of  the move, the article continued thus: “It is not right that we should have a huge budgetary provision that will go down on record as proof of government commitment to education when it is not. We should not be content to celebrate cash evidence of massive government investment in education, when in fact the name of the Nigerian child is being taken in vain by contractors and government jobbers. Who builds models schools without simultaneously training Models Teachers? Should part of this freshly budgeted sum of 4.7 billion not perhaps go into strengthening the National Teachers Institute (NTI), the Teachers Registration Council (TRC) and probably reinvigorating the academic content and quality of various faculties of education nationwide/ do our teacher-producing facilities not need specialized short courses on contemporary teaching and learning paradigms and much more?

My take today, regarding the current move of the Tinubu government on school census, is that the Presidency must note and emphasize the difference between investment in physical infrastructure for education, and/ or learning environment, and investment in learning, teacher education, teacher knowledge upgrade, up-scaling of learning outcomes and other measures that would impact the quality of the products of our school system.

That article pointed out that “The expenditure of most states of the federation on education over the last twenty years of our democracy shows huge budgetary allocations to education, at the same time that we also show a precipitous decline in educational standards and learning outcomes. Some states with very high records of expenditure for classroom rehabilitation, the supply of desks, books, etc., also have the worst teacher training, school enrolment and retention records. Check the investment of the federal and state governments on the training of teachers, provision of teaching aids and more in the last 20 years. So, let us pull the blinkers off our eyes and get real”.

Besides the above objectionable intervention of FEC under Buhari, referenced above, this column had also cause to pick on the government of Kebbi State, on June 14, 2021; for the same blunder of mistaking investment in physical infrastructure for realistic investment in education. That was after the state government pulled the sum of N4.5billion for the construction and renovation of schools; with other reports suggesting that the state government was also to build brand new schools in every local government of the state.

Though the case of Kebbi was almost made less offensive by the fact that no fewer than 758 primary school teachers were said to be undergoing training on methodologies to impart more knowledge on students at the same time that the construction work was going on makes, the following questions were still addressed to the Kebbi State Government by the article, at the time: “(1) Is there a difference between expenditure on education infrastructure and actual investment in education and human capital development? (2) How many candidates enrolled for SSCE and related examinations in the last 10 years, and why? (3) Are your secondary teachers so versed in their respective teaching subjects that what they need now is “methodologies to impact more knowledge on students.” (4) Can you say, in all good conscience, that less than seventy per cent of your state’s education budget of the last 20 years have not been more of procurement contracts? And (5) Has there been an improvement in enrolment, retention and education outcomes?

As the Tinubu government zooms off with a commendable data-sensitive focus in education, for better planning, let us all bear in mind that this must not turn into another case of investment in education census for the records, as distinct from census for better national human resource development. The results should help the nation with measurable, and sustainable, outcomes.

If the expenditure of most states of the federation on education over the last twenty years of our democracy shows huge budgetary allocations to education, but with very embarrassing decline in educational standards and learning outcomes, it means that the problem of education in Nigeria goes beyond mere funding. Several states with recorded high expenditure in classroom rehabilitation, procurement of desks and supply of books, do not have wonderful teacher training, school enrolment and retention records. What is the level of the investment in the training of teachers in moder teaching methods in the last 20 years, nationwide?

All states of the federation need more schools, better equipped schools, better qualified, teachers and verifiable statistics for sustainable planning and development. More than that, they need authentic data, for meaningful planning. The planned school census is better late than never; and should leverage  new era of education administration in Nigeria – if properly carried out and its deliverables fully implemented.

In the last six months of 2023, the Federal Government of Nigeria received an additional N3.8 trillion in what appeared to be a fresh Ways and Means borrowing, according to a provisional data published in the latest statistics bulletin for the fourth quarter of the year recently released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This is despite claims by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, that the President Bola Tinubu government had not borrowed money from the CBN. 

The CBN’s provisional data showed that the total figure rose from N4.4 trillion at the end of June 2023, meaning that the cumulative Ways and Means balances due by the government grew to N8.2 trillion as at December 2023. 

Total Ways and Means balances as at May 2023 when the Tinubu administration took over was N26.95 trillion. However, the balances were securitised as included as part of the federal government’s domestic debt profile. 

A breakdown of the data shows that the balance at the end of June 2023 was N4.36 trillion, indicating that the prior month balances may have been moved to the Debt Management Office.  

However, from July 2023, the balances increase every month, first to N4.5 trillion in July, then N5.1 trillion in August, crossing the N5.1 trillion mark for the first time.  

By September, the total was N6.4 trillion, representing the single largest additional borrowing for a month with about N1.3 trillion. It then climbed to N7.2 trillion in October before rising marginally to N7.6 trillion in November. 

At the end of the year, in December, the total hit N8.21 trillion, suggesting that Ways and Means increased by 88 per cent in six months. 

[DailyTrust]

The United States President, Joe Biden, has disclosed that he contemplated suicide after the death of his first wife and 13-month-old daughter in a car accident.

Biden disclosed this during an interview with radio journalist Howard Stern on Stern’s SiriusXM show.

The president’s first wife, Nelia, and one-year-old daughter, Naomi, died in a car crash in Delaware on December 18, 1972.

Recounting the pains of the past, Biden told Stern: ‘’You don’t have to be crazy to commit suicide if you’ve been to the top of the mountain and you think you’ll never be there again.

“For a brief moment I thought maybe I’ll just go to Delaware Memorial Bridge and just jump, but I had two kids.”

The President also said after his wife’s death, he used to take out a bottle of scotch and plan to get drunk, but could never make himself do it.

“I don’t drink, that’s not a virtue. I just never drank. And, I used to sit there and think to myself, I’m just gonna take out a bottle of scotch.

“We always had liquor in the house, and I was gonna just drink it and get drunk, and I can never bring myself to do it,” he said.

Biden has repeatedly talked about his reasons for abstaining from alcohol, once claiming ‘there are enough drunks’ in his family history.

Also, the US President expressed willingness to debate his Republican rival, Donald Trump, saying: ‘’I am, somewhere, I don’t know when, but I am happy to debate him.”

[DailyPost]

A High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has discharged and acquitted a traditional ruler, Kelvin Anugwo, and 42 others standing trial for the murder of the late divisional police officer of the Ahoada East Division, Bako Angbashim.

The accused persons were standing trial on a four-count charge of cultism, armed robbery, murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.

Recall that over 50 persons were arrested and arraigned after SP Angbashim was abducted, killed and his body dismembered by a notorious cult leader, the late David Okpara, and his gang members in the Oduemude community in Ahoada East in September 2023.

When the matter came up in court on Friday, the Director of Public Prosecution, C.F. Amadi, told the court that the accused persons had no prima facie case established against them and therefore had no case to answer.

The trial judge, Justice Sika Aprioku, relying on the advice from the office of the DPP, discharged and acquitted the accused persons.

Speaking with journalists outside the courtroom, counsel to the 37th defendant, Ekashie Emehi, said the ruling shows the accused were innocent and could go about their normal duties, expressing dismay that his client was arrested in the guise of an invitation.

Emehi stated, “He was arrested in the guise of an invitation that the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of operations wanted to see him and he was arrested.

“Now, as far as this matter is concerned, what it means by a prima face case not being established is that the persons are not connected to that case. So on that note, he is free and he has his full liberty to handle his affairs and would no more come back to this matter.”

Also speaking, Anugwo, who is the Eze Ekpeye Logbo III of Ahoada Kingdom, described the ruling as justice for the people of the area.

He said, “All the allegations leveled against us have been thrown out today. So we give God all the glory. Our victory today is hinged on the hands of God, not human beings.

“What it means is that the kingdom should be happy that today God has vindicated us, and as such they can be proud that they have a king that stands by the truth.”

 Okpara, popularly known as 2baba, who was the prime suspect in the murder of the late DPO, was killed during a joint security raid in one of his hideouts in Idu-Ekpeye community in Ahoada East.

The wanted cult leader’s body was later exhumed from a shallow grave in a forest where his gang buried him and was paraded before newsmen at the state police command headquarters along Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, by the Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu, on February 23, 2024.

[Punch]

•Over newly set-up IDP mgt. c’ttee, army

The lead lawyer for Okuama-Ewu community, Ughelli South Local Government Area, Delta State, in the N200 billion suit against the Nigerian Army, Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, has raised 17 posers for the governor of Delta State, Rt. Hon Sheriff Oborevwori.

He posed the puzzles in a statement, “Okuama: Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Management Committee; Before the Jamboree Begins,” yesterday.

The statement read, “Before members of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Management Committee start cashing out and smiling to the bank; Before they start catching the cruise, and before the jamboree begins, it is imperative for the following questions to be answered.”

“Why has the Delta State governor not addressed Deltans, Nigerians, and the International Community on the Nigerian Army invasion, violation of the fundamental rights of the residents of Okuama, and the Nigerian Army’s continued occupation of the Okuama community, which started on March 14, 2024?

“Why did the Delta State government not set up an inquiry to find out what happened in the Okuama community?

“Why did it take the Delta State government over 44 days to inaugurate an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) management committee knowing the plight of residents of the Okuama community since March 14, 2024?

“Why was the Delta State governor, his commissioners, and the commissioner of police of Delta State, unable to enter into Okuama immediately after the Nigerian Army invasion of the Okuama community on March 14 to assess the level of the hideous crime against humanity committed by the Nigerian Army against the residents of the Okuama community until after 40 days?
“Why has the Nigerian Army cordoned off Okuama from the public, the press, and its residents until today?

“Why did the Delta State government fail, refuse, or neglect to act until some residents of the Okuama community went to court to seek redress for the enforcement of their fundamental rights?

“Why has the Delta state government up to date, failed, refused, and neglected to visit the residents of Okuama community in the bushes and forest where they fled to for safety from the Nigerian Army invasion?

“Why has the Delta State government failed and refused to provide food, water, medication, clothes, blankets, and other relief materials to the residents of the Okuama community living in the bushes and forest under inhuman degrading, and excruciating conditions?

“Why did the Delta state government fail and refuse to respond to the Okuama community letter of February 2, 2024, to the governor, asking the government to intervene in the crisis between it and the Okoloba community, which snowballed into the Nigerian Army’s invasion of the Okuama community?

“Who will pay residents of the Okuama community for the damages and losses they suffered because of the illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional Nigerian Army invasion of their community?

“Why has the Delta state government failed to stand up for the residents of the Okuama community?

“Where is the culpability of the Nigerian Army in all these?

“Why must Delta State government pay for the wrongs of the Nigerian Army?

“Why is the Delta state government shielding the Nigerian Army and shying away from ensuring that the Nigerian Army is held accountable for her illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional actions to serve as a deterrent to her?

“What is the faith of the cases filed by the residents of the Okuama community at the Federal High Court, Warri, since the cases are subjudices?

“Is the inauguration of the IDP management committee not prejudicial to the cases filed by the residents of the Okuama community at the Federal High Court, Warri?

“What are the terms of reference of the IDP management committee for the displaced people of the Okuama community?

“It is imperative, in the interest of justice and posterity, that the above questions are answered before politicians turn the IDP management committee for displaced people of the Okuama community to a jamboree and money-making exercise.”

[Vanguard]

A persistent but entirely illogical and factually inaccurate response to my column on former Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello revolves around the notion that his terrible, thuggish, thieving record as a governor somehow delegitimizes youth participation in government and undermines the “Not Too Young to Run” bill.  

First of all, Yahaya Bello became a governor at 41 in 2016. There's no country in the world where 41 is regarded as "youth." He is a full-grown adult. 

The UN defines youth as people between the ages of 15 and 24. In the United States, it’s between 15 and 24 years. In the European Union and the United Kingdom, it encompasses individuals aged 15 to 25.

 The Commonwealth limits it to the ages of 15 through 29. But the African Youth Charter, which has perhaps the most elastic definitional compass of youth in the world, defines it as “any individual between 15-35 years of age.” 

The Nigerian National Youth Policy obviously derives inspirational strength for its conception of youth from the African Youth Charter because it also officially refers to people between the ages of 18 and 35 as belonging to the “youth.”

This is all a giant irony, of course. Nigeria, which has an average life expectancy of 55 years, regards 35 years as “youth” (which means, on average, Nigerians spend only 20 years as “adults”) while industrialized societies with higher average life expectancies (it’s 77 for the United States and 81 for the European Union) have a lower age threshold for youth.

It’s even worse in the general Nigerian population, which regards a 48-year-old man (who has already lived more than half of his life) as a “youth” and uses his indiscretions, ineptitude, infantilism, and larceny as justifications to shut out young people from governance.

Yahaha Bello didn’t need the “Not Too Young to Run” legislation to be a governor. The minimum age required to be a governor in the 1999 constitution—before the "Not Too Young to Run" bill was signed into law on May 31, 2018—was and still is 35. The bill did not change the age requirement for governorship positions.

That was why we had many people who were elected governors in their 30s in 1999. For example, Ibrahim Saminu Turaki was elected governor of Jigawa State at the age of 36. Donald Duke was 38 years old when he was elected governor of Cross River State in 1999. Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia was 39. Ahmad Sani Yerima of Zamfara was 39. Enugu State’s Chimaroke Nnamani was 39. 

With a few exceptions, the rest of the governors in 1999 were in their 40s (Delta State’s James Ibori was exactly 40), which is consistent with Yahaya Bello’s age. Why didn’t critics of youth participation in government invoke the failures of much younger governors than Bello at the incipience of the Fourth Republic to delegitimize “youth” participation in government?

The obsession with the youth of people in government in Nigeria is particularly strange because we have had Yakubu Gowon, a then 31-year-old unmarried man, as Head of State. Olusegun Obasanjo was 38 when he first became the head of state. Muhammadu Buhari and Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi were 41. IBB was 44.

In fact, most of the early leaders we venerate today were elected/appointed into their positions when they were in the same age group as Yahaya Bello. For example, Sir Ahmadu Bello assumed office as the Premier of the Northern Region on October 1, 1954, at the age of 44.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo became the Premier of the Western Region in 1952 at the age of 44. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was 47/48 when he became the Prime Minister of Nigeria in 1960.  Murtala Muhammed was only 36 when he became the Head of State of Nigeria on July 29, 1975. 

The examples are legion, but the point is that there is nothing unusual about someone of Yahaya Bello’s age being a governor. That’s why I find the focus on his age both ignorant and ahistorical.

Of course, more than anything, all that this points to is that people who got into government in their 30s and 40s two or three decades ago are still in power or hanging around the corridors of power, which leaves only a little space for new entrants from that age bracket. 

So, the few people in their 30s and 40s who make it to the circles of political power in contemporary Nigeria come across as novel, as marvels of young people in government, and as generational curiosities whose missteps are exteriorized to all people within their age range who are outside the orbit of power and who might want to get into it.

That’s unfair. Just like the incompetence, callousness, and venality of older politicians shouldn’t be used against all older people, Yahaya Bello’s villainy and corruption should not be used against people in his age bracket— or younger. 

This attitude implies that had Yahaya Bello been a geriatric fuddy-duddy, and not a 48-year-old man, he would not have been the debauched, profligate thug that he is, which is absolute flapdoodle. 

After all, Abdullahi “Gandollar” Ganduje was 69 years old in 2018 when he was secretly filmed stuffing wads of dollars into the morally stained pockets of his babban riga while grinning sheepishly from ear to ear like a clown. His advanced age didn’t insulate him from moral putrefaction. 

Age has no effect on integrity and probity. It is defeatist and evinces low self-worth for young people to beat themselves up because a 48-year-old man who became a governor at 41 turned out to be a rotten, incurable crook who pillaged his state without the slightest tinge of compunction and then installed a slavish, empty-headed puppet as his successor.  

It’s mostly young people—in the peculiar way Nigerians understand young people—who are saying Yahaya Bello’s spectacular incompetence and depravity symbolize the failure of “youth” in governance and that the older generation is justified in its reluctance to share power with young people.

In other words, if a few “youths” in government mess up, all youth should take the blame for it, accept that the failure of one of them is the failure of all of them, and then step back for the older order to continue to misrule exclusively. 

Notice that no one, certainly no older person I know of, says older people shouldn’t be allowed to govern because they’ve been messing up all these years. Only the “youth” are delegitimized on account of their age when they mess up. That is reverse ageism, that is, the idea that only old age, not youth or knowledge, should confer authority or respect on people. 

We are more than our ages. We embody a totality of multiple influences. The fact that Yahaya Bello was a grasping, primitive bandit in government doesn’t mean every 41-year-old who becomes a governor will be like him. That’s ridiculously reductionist. 

In any case, youth or old age are not permanent states. They are in perpetual flux. It is yesterday’s youth that become today’s older people. 

Nigeria is one of the world’s youngest countries with a median age of 16. Yet, when we look at the corridors of power, the vibrancy of youth is conspicuously absent. This gap between our young population and their representation in governance is not just a gap in numbers, but a gap in fresh ideas, innovation, and the spirit of our nation.

Yahaya Bello did not fail because he was young. He failed because he never prepared to succeed, and that wasn’t a function of his “youth.” Donald Duke was the second youngest governor in 1999, and he is credited with making tremendous marks in governing Cross River State.

Yes, age and experience have their place. But so does youth. An Igbo proverb, after all, says “If a child washes his hands, he could eat with Kings.”