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

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

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

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

N2 trillion spent

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

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

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

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

Question

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brick wall

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

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

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

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

Bogus salaries, allowances

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Obasanjo, Buhari, Jonathan take positions

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

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

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

N500m vs. N75m

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Duplication

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

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

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

Children

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Projects cited on personal properties

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the eye of the storm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interest

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

This, perhaps, partly explains the interest it generated.

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

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

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

Session

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sentiments

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

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

Ningi was suspended for three months.

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

Coup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Vanguard]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[TheCable]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

NAILING NINGI

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

DIE ANOTHER DAY

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

TECHNICAL KNOCK-OUT

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

NO COMMENT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My birthday anniversary is today, the 17th of March. But I prefer to sing the blues this time because I feel blue.

Folks around me know that I don't spare any moment that calls for gathering friends for a time to enjoy culinary delights, assorted drinks and pleasant music. And on each birthday anniversary since my liberation, I usually use the day to drink the joy of being alive; hence, I live out my fancies. So, I have had several significant birthday anniversary celebrations in recent years.

On my birthday, I once travelled to Stockholm, Sweden, to enjoy singing along at the Abba Museum. It was like a dream come true after Assad Hassan Alvi of blessed memory first played Abba music to my hearing in 1982.

In 2022, Toyin Dawodu and a few friends helped me organise a big event at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, to mark my birthday and launch LawTimes.Ng. The ambience of that evening was electric. The food setting was otherworldly, and the conviviality among friends that night was surreal. The Distinguished Senator Ita Enang and Otunba Gbenga Onayiga led the 'big boys' in a show of massive solidarity. And some of the many beautiful women who have supported me so far were there. I was simply creating memories.

In 2023, I got the most significant exposure ever on global television when the dream maker, Prince Nduka Obaigbena, flew me on his private jet to Warri to host the Delta State Governorship debates, which aired live on the Arise News channel. I had to contend in the spirit, the night after successfully co-hosting the debates, whether the prophetic was correct to have declared that I had a brighter future in the media than practising law. I fought principalities and powers so viciously to graduate from UNIBEN and to be called to the Nigerian Bar, I am called to be in the media but law, I must practise. I do appear to be at rest from such kind of spiritual warfare, but I trust the Almighty God to see me through life's battles, present and coming phases.

After 50 years, it seems life is just about to start because so many things are yet to be done. Hence, I pray that I don't die before my time. Not because I like this life so much. There isn't really much in it, after all. But I am fixated on completing my task here on earth. Some legacies must be built, and children must be parented to fulfil their destiny; hence, there is no more time to waste. So the prayer is that our days here on earth be complete before being transported to the other side.

As I mark my birthday anniversary this year today, I will not celebrate as usual because my heart is aching about the state of affairs in our country.

Today, across the country, in Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto and many other parts of the country, there are mourning families whose loved ones are currently in captivity in kidnappers' dens, yet life appears to be normal as constituency projects of Senators and allegations of budget padding are dominating the headlines. Sadly, the government appears to be at its wits end in tackling Nigeria's present security and economic crises.

I will not celebrate, yet I am thankful for Paul the Apostle admonished in his letter to the Thessalonians, that we should give thanks in connection with everything (in any situation).

I will not celebrate like I would have wanted. Instead, I will be praying that the Almighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, visit our country and deliver us from this present political and economic quagmire

That is why I will not celebrate; rather, I'll be singing the blues because I feel blue of the situation in Nigeria.

I will sing the blues like African slaves in history working on American slave farms. So anyone who cares for a time of musical contemplation with a bit of cheer can join me this afternoon for some sombre yet cheerful karaoke and sing-a-long sessions. It is my birthday!

Frank Tietie
Lawyer, Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy for Social Economic Rights (CASER) and
Arise News (Legal) Analyst, writes from Abuja

At the LEADERSHIP Conference and Awards 2023 which held recently in Abuja, Professor Kingsley Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), delivered an adrenalin-pumping keynote which ruffled not a few feathers, even as the appreciative audience applauded his brilliant and thought-provoking presentation.

But what exactly should anyone expect from such a great mind, public intellectual and authority on political economy? Going by his antecedents, Prof Moghalu shoots straight and does not like beating about the bush. He delivered an excellent Masterclass which will resonate in the public and private sectors for a long time to come.

The economic challenges that we face today, Prof. Moghalu pointed out, are the result of continuous mismanagement over the years, yet those responsible always go scot-free. “The past 10 years have been particularly ruinous,” he said. Moghalu spoke from his heart as an economist, professional, technocrat, and patriot – not as a politician.

Clearly, he was not interested in any blame game; his aim was to proffer solutions to our seemingly intractable economic problems. The best way to solve a problem, he said, is to know what caused it.

Speaking on the topic, “Nigeria’s distressed economy: Which way forward?” the keynote speaker explained that every choice we make has consequences, but we have no choice over the combined consequences of the choices that we have made.

When a country like Nigeria that is so blessed with human and natural endowments refuses to achieve its full potential, it shouldn’t be a surprise. Our GDP per capital, as Prof. Moghalu told his attentive and bewildered audience, is only $2,000 in more than 60 years of nationhood which he described as a “testament of failure.”

That kind of report is shocking and deeply troubling, and it calls for serious interrogation of our economic fundamentals if we truly want to join the league of developed nations.

How do we undo the period of the locusts? The issues that Moghalu raised in his presentation are not exactly new, but he wondered why rising unemployment, extreme poverty, debt distress and revenue challenge have refused to go away.

If we add the illegal ways and means lending of N30 trillion, unprecedented corruption, hyperinflation and the hunger in the land which the keynote speaker also listed in his paper as problems we must address urgently, it means all hands must be on deck, no matter our political persuasion or where we come from.

If we know what are economic problems are, why can’t we fix them? What is holding us back? When we have experts like Prof. Moghalu pointing the way forward, why has it been difficult to act on their recommendations?

The answers are not far-fetched. One, we politicise the best ideas and actionable plans; two, we weaponise tribe, region and religion, and three, corruption - the big elephant in the room – has remained a major albatross.

Moghalu explained that “ideas rule the world,” but he also knows that we have never lacked good ideas or policies; the other elephant in the room has been poor implementation of policies by the enemies of Nigeria. They know themselves.

Having situated what the problems are, Moghalu went on to make recommendations on how we can navigate our way out of the crisis. But he provided a caveat: the crisis and its effects will last for three to five years.

If we are truly serious about fixing the myriad of economic problems, five years is not a long time, but the political leadership under President Bola Tinubu must come up with a winning strategy as we have seen in the USA, UK, Germany, UAE, Singapore, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, etc.

In the case of UAE, Moghalu provided data to explain how the country’s economy was transformed. By 1971, 90 percent of UAE’s GDP depended on oil but it is now less than 30 percent arising from a deliberate strategy of development away from oil. He also said that UAE’s GDP grew more than 247 times in 50 years – a remarkable economic growth index indeed.

It would appear that the unprecedented assault on the CBN is giving Prof. Moghalu sleepless nights and grief, and he said it must stop. How did we get here? Having played an active role at the CBN as a deputy governor for financial system stability, he is obviously disappointed and pained at what the CBN has turned into.

It is evident that the unbridled political assault on the independence of the Central Bank since 2014 is at the heart of most of our economic problems today. How will Godwin Emefiele defend his tenure as CBN governor? It will be nice to hear his own side of the story – that is if he chooses to write his memoirs or grant media interviews.

Moghalu praised President Tinubu’s decision to remove petrol and forex subsidies, describing the decision as “bold and correct.” He said that we could no longer afford to pay petrol subsidy or defend the naira artificially – the double whammy and hydra headed problems that eroded our foreign reserves.

He also said Yemi Cardoso, CBN governor, acted well by raising MPR (monetary policy rate).by 400 basis points to 22.75 percent on February 27 – a new record high since 2007, and above forecasts of 21 percent. The aim is to tighten rates and money supply to rein in inflation. Well done, Yemo.

However, Prof. Moghalu went on to identify three “strategic errors,” or, if you like, blunders, that the Tinubu administration made. He said it loud and clear that he was not attacking the government with his comments, but he believes that there are lessons to be learned by everyone, except, of course, those who earn their daily bread sabotaging the economy and de-marketing Nigeria.

In fact, he said that we must not waste the current economic crisis as it presents an opportunity to re-build the country. The three mistakes, he noted, were: 1.) the precipitate nature of the reform policies; 2.) the exchange rate unification that occurred in a loose monetary environment which contributed to the naira’s race to the bottom, and 3.) it took too long for the cabinet to be formed, and it was predominantly political.

In a nutshell, if we had a tight monetary policy, the demand pressure on the dollar would have reduced. It goes without saying that when you prioritise politicians over technocrats, there’s no way we will not pay the price.

Based on his research and findings, Moghalu went on to present a dashboard of seven problematic areas which he believes caused our present predicament.

They are: 1.) absence of nationhood, 2.) bad governance in Nigeria’s national life, 3.) adhoc-ism and lack of strategy, 4.) absence of philosophy and knowledge, 5.) financialisation and de-industrialisation, 6.) irregular power supply (let there be light!) and 7.) population crisis.

In order to craft the right strategy to overcome our economic challenges, we must first know whether we are operating a capitalist, socialist or a mixed economy.

Moghalu said in our free market type of economy with capitalist orientation, the economic system must guarantee property rights, unleash innovation and that access to capital is non-negotiable. An economy built on innovation, he explained, is the secret of the rise of great nations.

Rich people, he continued, have access to capital but how many of them re-pay their loans when they are due? For Nigeria to develop its productive base, Moghalu prescribed that SMEs – they constitute the engine of the economy – must have access to capital.

Since liquidity is critical, the political economist recommended that the federal government should raise a N20 trillion bond to develop three strategic sectors in three years: railways, housing and agriculture. He described the proposal as Project 3-in-3 which is capable of putting about five million Nigerians to work.

Moghalu also listed the following prescriptions: a vibrant fiscal policy, end oil theft and corruption, cut the cost of governance that is bleeding the economy, CBN must continue its monetary tightening, and Nigeria should carefully consider borrowing between $20 billion and $30 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that would serve as a stabilisation fund and life line.

The corruption-laden palliative economy, he said, must be abolished immediately. He also did not mince words when he said that our national and subnational budgets legalise corruption because between 40 percent and 50 percent of the budgets are usually not accounted for; they simply disappear like the morning dew.

He believes that the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) should sell some of our assets to raise additional funds to reflate the economy.

Moghalu also strongly recommended that President Tinubu should create a full time Economic Advisory Council (EAC) made up of seven wise men and women. The idea behind the EAC is to build an economy that can function, adding that fixing the economy cannot be a part-time job.

He was very clear about the composition of the council: they must be experts with established credentials in agricultural economics, business economics, fiscal policy, industrial policy, trade policy, industrial policy and development economics.

How well are some of the ministers performing? Probably not good enough and we should not be surprised to see a cabinet shake-up by May 29 which Moghalu also recommended. Such a moved, he believes, will boost investor-confidence.

The keynote speaker accused banks of hoarding US dollars. He asked the CBN to go hard on bank CEOs and take action against erring banks. Why should they become part of a criminal enterprise sabotaging the economy?

Another strategic policy prescription is that the government should work towards achieving 20 megawatts of electricity within three years which should be tied to our productive base to enhance industrialisation.

Finally, Moghalu is confident that we can beat the crisis, but President Tinubu must have the political will to insulate our institutions from politics, and avoid knee-jerk reactions because of policies that are not well thought out. It is common practice for our political leaders to mix politics and governance which is clearly a recipe for disaster.

After all said and done, only Nigerians can make Nigeria a productive economy and better place. Moghalu is of the view that Nigeria is too important to fail. If Nigeria fails, he said, then we have all failed.

To avoid failure, Moghalu said we must do away with corruption, nepotism, tribalism, cronyism and mediocrity. Let us have a new resolve to replace these unproductive adjectives with meritocracy, strategy, discipline, competence, and integrity in governance.

Thank you Professor Kingsley Moghalu for the deep insights on, and critical analysis of, the Nigerian economy and your bold recommendations which, by the way, some consultants get paid for. You truly earned the standing ovation that you received for your honesty and scholarship.

Braimah is a global public relations and marketing strategist. He is also the publisher/editor-in-chief of Naija Times (https://ntm.ng) and Lagos Post (https://lagospost.ng), and can be reached via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  

Emem woke up suddenly. She didn’t know what startled her out of sleep. She sat up and could hear movements. Was there a rat in the house? Then she listened again. It was water falling on a hard surface. But it was not raining. She pushed aside the window blind and saw the most traumatic, strange and confusing sight of her life. Her husband of 20 years, the father of her twins boys who were undergraduates, was there bathing naked, chanting something. Incarnations? Prayers? Well, the covered calabash he was scooping soap, black soap, from told the rest of the story.

When we say or hear that a wife should step back from a marriage that has become life-threatening, what most of us think is that it is about physical abuse, wife battering or husband battering. Well, there are more things than kicking in the teeth of a spouse that can be life-threatening. One of them is resort to diabolical or fetish ways to manipulate or even eliminate your spouse, for whatever reasons.

Like Emem found out to her shock and dismay that night. She was too scared to confront Emeka when he finished his ‘black bath’. Indeed, she dived right back under the duvet and pretended to be fast asleep. Of course, she didn’t sleep a wink the rest of the night. Who would? She didn’t know if the sight she just beheld would be followed by beheading. She didn’t know if her husband was going to continue the diabolical session in some other way in their room.

Emem couldn’t look at the husband in the eyes the following morning. She became afraid generally around Emeka. She couldn’t eat if the food was bought by Emeka. The usual suya and barbecue chicken he bought every Friday on his way home suddenly became suspicious, dreaded and some sort of sacrifice in her imagination, even without tasting it. She simply couldn’t leave her drink with Emeka.

‘I became extremely cautious around him. I searched through his wardrobe and found a lot of fetish stuff. I noticed he had fresh incisions just above his buttocks. I started paying more attention to his conversations, movements and habits.

‘I found out a lot of things I never thought possible in my marriage. But the camel’s back broke the day I saw him shaking hands with two of his friends with his left hand. I was born and bred in Ibadan and I know what that meant. They didn’t know I saw them and I pretended all was well, but after that I knew my marriage was in trouble. The children were in school most of the times, leaving me alone with the domestic staff. I was afraid to let my husband make love to me. What if he has incisions on his dick? I was afraid in my own bed, in my kitchen, everywhere. The only place I felt safe at was in my office.

‘Emeka started making strange demands that coincided with the few times we had sex. Right after, he would ask me for huge sums of money or to see my will or to be made Chairman of my company. If I refused, I fell ill, got hospitalized.’

Emem described a very evil pattern that left her without much choice but to step back.

‘I kept asking myself why it was only Lagos that I fell ill. Never in Abuja or Port-Harcourt.’

So, was Emeka trying to harm or even kill his wife to take over her wealth and business? Do men do it too? Of course, women adapt to things like that. We are witches, wealth grabbers, gold diggers who marry for money, trade sex for money, kill our husbands to inherit their wealth. Which is why there are more widows than widowers. Isn’t that the evil brush the society and little-minded people use to tag women? Or have you heard of widowers being subjected to head-shaving and drinking water used to bathe their wives’ corpses? Do you hear of widowers being thrown out of their homes so their late wives’ families could strip and pillage and generally make the widower miserable?

If you do not have at least 10 examples of husbands who are wizards or widowers as victims, begin to believe when I say men, still just a handful of them, do juju to inherit or to dispossess their wives. They connive and conjure. They charm and chant. They consult evil diviners to harm and disarm their wives so they can take over their wealth and lives. These few evil men put things on their tongues to command their wives to hand over their hard earned money or businesses to them. They blow ‘dark powder’ over their sleeping wives to turn her into ‘mumu’.

You don’t believe me? Well, may it never happen to your daughter. You think I’m exaggerating? Ask victims! And in any case would you still believe me if your sister has three cars but hops on okada to work so her husband could pick and choose which of the cars to drive to work and return to take which one to take to the club to hang out with his friends? Yet, he has no business address.

My point? Marriage does not just become life-threatening when a man starts slapping his wife around and beating her till she goes into premature labour. Marriage does not only become life-threatening when a husband verbally abuses his wife until she does not know whether she’s going or coming, lazy or hard working and loses herself, her self-esteem and self-confidence.

There is physical abuse, emotional abuse and spiritual abuse. The last one, if not acted upon quickly, is usually fatal and irreversible if the victim and her family realise it too late or explain it away with stuff like ‘juju is not real’. ‘juju is bullshit,’ and ‘I don’t believe in such rubbish’. This is a different clime, and as one of my friends, an ambassador’s wife would say, ‘our spiritual environment can be very toxic.’

Thinks about these things.

French political philosopher, Baron de Montesquieu, in his seminal work, The Spirit of Laws, 1748, posited that the executive, legislative and judicial functions of government should be allocated to separate and independent bodies, with none of them superior or more powerful than the other; so, they can act as checks and balances on one another. In one word, they are co-terminus and equal in powers.

 John Locke had earlier argued that where legislative and executive powers belong to separate hands, then, the protection of all members of society can be as high as possible. This is what is called the principle or theory of separation of powers and its aim is to prevent too much power in one branch of government and allow for checks and balances.

 Remember that Lord Acton had said that “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority”

It is that “tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority” that is at the bottom of the constituency projects or padding of the 2024 budget that has ensnared the National Assembly. Constituency projects are an aberration; it is corruption of the functions and duties of the Legislature.

 Law makers have two functions: To make laws and to have oversight functions on the Executive; that is, to act as checks on the Executive. They are not to begin to hijack and exercise executive functions or powers. They are not to even share executive functions or powers with the Executive, in the same way the Executive is not supposed to dictate to the law makers as regards their legislative and oversight functions.

Our legislators have fished in trouble waters since the Fourth Republic. Like the angels who abandoned their estate in heaven to eat the forbidden fruit among the daughters of men, the National Assembly members who took money for constituency projects have abandoned their own duty post to hanker after filthy lucre. There is no argument that can wash them clean of corruption.

The argument that they want to ensure fair and equitable distribution of projects all over the country does not wash. Without becoming contractors, they can ensure equity before passing the budget. And from what we have seen, constituency projects are a huge scam and corruption personified. 

The constituencies seldom get value for money. Carcasses of constituency projects litter the landscape of Nigeria. The system employed is opaque and not transparent. Who determines what? Who handpicks the contractors? Who supervises? Who dispenses funds? Who ascertains that quality job is done? Who holds the law makers to account? Constituency projects are sleaze money, no more! 

Any law maker who defends constituency project is a thief, pure and simple. Those who collect hundreds of millions of Naira for constituency projects should not only desist but should also return the money so collected to the national coffers without delay!   

FEEDBACK

The rumour of coup d'etat is the hand work of those who thought they can prevent Tinubu from being the president. Perhaps, this is their last joker! Tinubu’s decision on removal of petroleum subsidy is the best. Waiting a minute later, he would not have been able to do it. What we need at this time is to cooperate with the president in rebuilding the country. The governors should come to terms with the reality that they have a great role to play in securing their respective state. - Kola Oloye.

No coup is coming up in Nigeria; the military is already as corrupt as the politicians. I think they enjoy sharing the national cake quietly without the burden of governability. Anyone planning a coup will be silenced within. What Nigerians need is re-orientation, to be truthful and to worship God in truth. Everyone cannot, and should not, own or build a house, for example. The quest for material things by everyone and the unnecessary outdoing of every other person in a negative competitive environment is what is adversely killing the country. - Dr. Demola Sodeinde.

Nigerians are optimistic that Nigeria will come out of the numerous difficulties and challenges created by ourselves. This recovery will only manifest when corruption and fraudulent activities by all of us are tackled headlong. The government should listen to the people, and their policies should have a human face. You will not expect the economy to grow when businesses are folding up and relocating to neighbouring countries. The struggle by the government to woo investors is a mirage because the cost of doing business in Nigeria is on the high side. Look at insecurity everywhere! The cost of diesel and PMS rises daily. What of electricity supply? Will investors bring in an enabling environment to do their business here in Nigeria? No! Some of the people in the leadership boat of Nigeria’s recovery have a record of "the good, the bad and the ugly." How will such people perform? The judiciary, all arms of government, must rise up to save the country from total collapse. Politicians who have failed Nigerians are not ready to quit the stage for genuine politicians to come on board. Some of the politicians who milked their state dry are still occupying various elective and appointive positions. Some of them are now law makers while others are to execute the policies of government. The judiciary has a big role to play in salvaging the economy. Politicians who have skeletons in their cupboards should not run to the judiciary to shield their evil. The judiciary should let erring politicians face the music. I am not an advocate of military take-over but let us ask ourselves what military rule vis-a-vis civilian rule has achieved in Nigeria. The military have ruled for much longer, their achievements towards national unity, economic emancipation, and security are glaring for all to see and judge. The military single-handedly built the federal capital territory and some notable infrastructure in Lagos. The civilian rule that we refer to as democracy is a demonstration of craze, according to one songs-writer (musician). The only achievement of civilian rule is the GSM. Considering the fact that some Nigerians who are highly-placed are not interested in the unity of the country, then, Prof. Banji Akintoye’s suggestion for a peaceful dissolution becomes sellable. The attitude of some Nigerians for self, region or tribe alone must change. There is strength in diversity, and on the unity of Nigeria I stand! - Dr. Eclarke.

Military rule is an aberration. 1966 to 1979: Thirteen years of uninterrupted military misrule. 1983 to 1999, another sixteen years of military misrule. 1999 to 2007 witnessed eight years of our Number One citizen being the military exchanging uniforms for “agbada”. Number 2 citizen was a controversial Customs officer and the Number 3, (Senate president) was also a retired military officer. Many of the senators and House of Representatives members were ex-military officers. 2007 to 2015 was a period of confusion when the elected president died in office and a cabal refused to allow the acting president to assume office as president. 2015 to 2023 witnessed another military man becoming the president of Nigeria. 29 years of straight military rule plus 16 years of military presidency, that's a whopping 45 years of military misrule in a young country like Nigeria, compared with just about 13 years of civil rule. The five years of the First Republic witnessed far-reaching development in some parts of the country. The long years of military misrule have done so much havoc to the development of this country. The way to go is not to bring in another military intervention. Let's allow the military perform the functions for which they are recruited and trained: to defend the territorial integrity of the nation! Pa EK Odeleye.

I do not support military dictatorship but, perhaps, it is needed to reset our country! - Azuka Jebose.

President Tinubu needs to focus on policies that safeguard the future of Nigeria from potential threats posed by the Fulani tribe. Given rotational presidency, power will eventually shift to the North after eight years. It is crucial to prevent a Fulani man from becoming the next president because that will definitely reverse every progressive policy being put in place now. The current government should prioritize policies that will empower the Hausa community and liberate them from Fulani dominance. We need to ensure that when power rotates back to the North, it goes to a Hausa president, not a Fulani. History has shown that Fulani-led governments tend to hinder Nigeria's progress and even damage its economy, as seen in past administrations. We must learn from these experiences and enact measures to break free from Fulani hegemony, allowing Nigeria to thrive and ensuring a brighter future for the nation. If we can achieve this, then, the battle for the progress of Nigeria is half-won. - Idowu Faleye.

If we are not to play any ostrich and deceive ourselves, the best that should happen now is military termination of the current democracy because the governance Nigerians have got from the political actors since 1999 has been mediocre and punitive. We have only always bred a new band of thieves in governance that are increasingly decapitating the life of ordinary Nigerians through rapacious stealing of state resources and intolerable inflation on the honest labour of the average Nigerian. A military government will clear all the imbeciles murdering Nigerians and kidnapping for money on a daily basis, set up a new constituent assembly to redraft the Constitution and adopt a new model of government recommended by the assembly before the country returns again to elections. This is the desirable break that the country needs. Nigerians have justifiably lost interest in these thieving politicians. They are crooks basically and a crooked man or gang cannot lead any nation anywhere other than Armageddon. - Bashiru Wahhab.

May God give us good leaders! - Gbenga Osinaike.

It has always been said that the worst civilian regime is better than the best military administration. But then, the question is: Are we actually having true civilian rule in Nigeria based on free and fair elections? This is because there is no true democracy in Nigeria. What we are having is riggo-cracy. That is, most of the elections in Nigeria that would have brought about true democracy have been based on election rigging. Therefore, any civilian rule derived through the rigging of election should be seen as an aberration, just like a military coup. The civilians who found themselves in office through election manipulation should be treated as 'civilian coup plotters'. I quite disagree that past military regimes have not contributed to the economic growth of Nigeria. Many of Nigeria’s major roads, especially, rural-urban roads, were built by past military regimes. Bad governance would always invite military rule. - Dr. JF Olukotun.

 Former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of THE WESTERNER newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD'S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.

OMoyele Sowore Says no regrets over ‘Revolution Now’

Presidential Candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 General Election, Omoyele Sowore, has said he has no regrets embarking on his aborted protest tagged ‘Revolution Now’ which led to his incarceration by the immediate past administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

In this interview with Saturday Sun, the Publisher of Saharareporters, an online news platform, however said the movement started too late and wished it happened earlier. 

Sowore, who returned to his base in the United States last week after spending close to five years in Nigeria, further said he was happy that he enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime privilege to act amongst change agents in his lifetime, especially in a country seeking courageous and upright men and women to change its course of history. Amongst other issues, Sowore dwelt on the recent move by the Federal Government to implement the Steve Oronsaye Report and concluded that the report is a distraction at this material time. He spoke with AIDOGHIE PAULINUS.

How would you describe your ordeal in the hands of the Federal Government?

I have reached a point in life when I do not romanticise the fact that the system comes after people in my mould and character. I have a revolutionary spirit; it is a package that attracts severe reactions from cowards in power. So, my five-year ordeal is not extremely difficult to understand or explain. In a way, I am one of the lucky few. In the last nine years, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party has made Nigeria hell on earth for Nigerians.

Do you regret embarking on that voyage to incarceration known as Revolution Now?

Absolutely no regrets. I am happy that I enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime privilege to act amongst change agents in my lifetime, especially in a country seeking courageous and upright men and women to change its course of history.

During your ordeal, some said it served you right because you helped the Muhammadu Buhari administration to power. What is your take on this?

It is needless to address those who make such uninformed and outlandish claims. First, there is no truth or substance to it, except it serves those who have done a duty to self-perpetuate a narrative they knew to be false. Ask yourself if the majority of those who were massacred in the South-East through several criminal operations by the Nigerian Army ever supported Buhari’s elections.

Looking back, what would you have done differently regarding Revolution Now regarding the strategy you employed?

We started too late. I wish we had started earlier because Revolution Now emboldened a generation of youths that realized their potent powers to change the course of history. I hate to be self-serving, but I doubt that #ENDSARS would have happened had Revolutionnow not shown to a new generation of youths that they could fight power. 

You were in Nigeria for five years, unable to return to the United States where your family resides. What did you miss most during the five years?

Oh, I missed the solid growth of my kids. I left them both when they were practically toddlers, and I returned to them five years later to meet “adults.” They had grown into a world I am now trying to navigate. My daughter read a poem during my homecoming last Saturday; she was deeply introspective, and she captured my departure and returned in ways I never thought she could.

How would you quantify your financial loss during the period?

It wasn’t about finance; my losses were beyond economic, and it is also fair to say it was a massive economic loss too.

While in Nigeria, you lost loved ones, particularly your brother. How would you describe those moments?

That was a testy moment! I can’t describe it, it was very hard to get over it, and I doubt I will ever get over his death.

Nigeria is experiencing turbulent times. What plans do the civil society organizations in which you have played active roles have to lift Nigeria out of the woods?

I don’t see the solution as something civil society could resolve. By their very nature, “civil society groups” have low bandwidth. They are not social movements, and they are also “limited liability” groups that are largely risk averse. Nigeria’s problems have reached beyond what could be solved by or with civil society activism. 

Based on your political participation experience, will you contest the 2027 presidential election?

I have always stated that my political career is never tied to election cycles. 

What is your opinion about the planned implementation of the Oronsaye Report? Is it too late?

Orosanye’s report is a distraction at this time. 

Tinubu has spoken in favour of state police. Is restructuring gradually being achieved?

No, Tinubu doesn’t even believe in policing in the first place. He’s a lover, sponsor, and supporter of criminal and violent non-state actors. The gimmick he’s putting out about state police is to empower such actors, lawless and brutal non-state actors.

What are your thoughts about the planned constitutional amendment?

How many times could a constitution be amended? There is no way an illegitimate “Constitution” thrown at Nigerians by the military could be amended. The amendment of the Nigerian constitution since 1999 has become a drain pipe on Nigeria’s resources.

A crisis is looming in the National Assembly over alleged N3 trillion budget padding. Your opinion, please?

Nigeria must abolish the bicameral legislative system and engage part-time lawmakers to make laws. The Nigerian Senate is the retirement home of looters and criminals, mostly former state governors.

What message of hope do you have for your fellow compatriots whom you have left behind to return to the United States?

I will be back!