Victor Osimhen’s transfer to Galatasaray has ignited a significant surge in the Turkish club’s social media following. The reigning African Footballer of the Year officially joined Galatasaray on a season-long loan from Napoli for the 2024/25 season on Wednesday, after the Italian club agreed to a loan move.

Osimhen‘s arrival has not only bolstered Galatasaray’s presence in European football but has also significantly boosted the club’s social media profile.

Since the announcement, Galatasaray’s X account (formerly Twitter) has gained over 100,000 new followers, surpassing the one million mark from its initial 920,000 followers.

This rapid growth underscores Osimhen’s influence as one of Africa’s most prominent footballers and highlights the excitement surrounding his move to Turkey.

The Nigerian striker received a hero’s welcome in Istanbul on Monday night, with thousands of passionate Galatasaray fans gathering at the airport to greet him with cheers and chants, creating a memorable moment that set the tone for his loan spell.

The 25-year-old’s move to Galatasaray followed a dramatic transfer saga that saw a potential move to Chelsea collapse on deadline day. Despite a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabian club Al Ahli, who were willing to pay Osimhen a staggering €30 million per year for four years, the Nigerian star chose to continue his career in Europe, leading to his loan move to the Turkish club.

Osimhen’s presence in Turkey has already begun to make waves both on and off the pitch, bringing excitement to Galatasaray and their fervent supporters.

[BusinessDay]

The latest hike in the price of petrol has pushed up transport fares by over 50 percent in major cities across Nigeria, findings by Daily Trust have revealed.

The newest price hikes, implemented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company’s (NNPCL) Retail Management, range from N855 to N897 per litre, depending on the location, from the previous N568-N617.

Independent marketers have adjusted their prices to between N930 and N1,200 per litre of petrol.

The price hike has had a widespread impact, with some Nigerians resorting to long-distance trekking and others missing work due to the higher transportation costs.

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday joined the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in demanding reversal of the increase in the petrol pump price.

This is even as the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) warned that the price hike could lead to higher inflation.

Also yesterday, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) announced plans to protest and shut down major cities from 15th of this month.

Abuja, Lagos commuters express frustration

Commuters in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and other states yesterday expressed frustration over the hike in the price of petrol which, according to them, has constrained their living conditions.

Many of them, who spoke to our correspondents, said the unaffordability of transportation cost had forced them to trek to work.

Adeolu Segun, a civil servant residing in Zuba, Abuja, said the fare from his area to Berger had risen from N1,000 to N1,500.

Mrs. Zainab Ibrahim, a mother of six living in Kubwa, said she paid N1,000 as fare as against the previous N500 for the same route.

Ismaila Danjuma, the Secretary of the Zuba branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), explained that the rise in transport fares was due to the fuel price hike.

A passenger, Murjanatu Shehu, who was travelling to Kano from Abuja, said the fare rose from N8,000 to N11,000.

Haruna Yakubu, a driver on the Abuja-Lokoja route, confirmed fare increase from N4, 500 to N6,000; and Abuja-Okene routes fare rose from N6,500-N10,000.

Lagos bus drivers, Ojo Jamiu and Chukwuka Ogwu, said they now charge more than double as fares.

Kano, Rivers residents trek

In Kano and Port Harcourt, residents resorted to trekking.

Yakubu Isa, who said he used to pay N200 to go to Kano Guest Inn from Kwana Hudu, could not afford the new N400 fare, but had to trek. A teacher in Kano, Maikudi Haliru, also said he trekked to school to avoid the higher tricycle fares.

Our correspondent observed a low turnout of passengers at the Kano Line Motor Park yesterday as fares for the Kano-Kaduna and Kano-Abuja routes had risen to N6,000 and N12,000 respectively.

Some residents of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, also said the latest increase in transport fares had forced them to trek.

In Ondo State where transport fares have also doubled, residents said it would be better to trek a few distances to their workplaces.

In Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, tricycle fares have been increased by 50 percent; while same rose in Borno and Yobe states by 30 per cent.

Inflation figures may go up – MAN

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said that the new price of petrol might push inflation figures high, impacting household budgets.  It also said Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs), which often operate on thin margins, could be hard hit by the development.

The MAN, in a statement by its Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir yesterday, enumerated the impacts of the petrol price hike.

“So, in terms of what the impact might be and judging from what we have witnessed in the past, the cost of transportation may increase, and so would the prices of goods and services. As the cost of petrol rises, consumers will spend more on transportation and energy, leaving them with less disposable income.

“This decrease in purchasing power may lead to reduced demand for non-essential goods and services, affecting businesses across various sectors. These are pointers to the high possibility of a rise in inflation figures, impacting household budgets,” the DG said.

We’ll shut down major cities – Students

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has announced plans for a “large-scale” shutdown of all major cities in Nigeria over the fuel price hike, starting from September 15, 2024.

In a notification sent to students yesterday, Okunomo Henry Adewumi, President of the NANS’ Senate, demanded immediate reversal of the fuel price hike and the removal of Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL.

The statement said that the protest will be conducted peacefully and in accordance with the law.

Meanwhile, another faction of the NAN yesterday debunked the claim that the student union was planning a nationwide shutdown of major cities.

Akinteye Babatunde, the association’s factional Senate President, in a statement, said NANS did not announce nor endorse any such protest, describing the claim as baseless.

Afenifere, PDP demand pump price hike reversal

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, yesterday urged the federal government to direct the NNPCL to reverse the increase in fuel pump price.

Afenifere asked the government to stick to the claim by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri, that it did not instruct the increase.

In a statement signed by Jare Ajayi, the spokesman of the Afenifere’s faction loyal to Pa Reuben Fasoranti, the group, said that Nigerians are currently going through a lot of challenges as a result of biting socio-economic crunch and the attendant hardships.

“It is therefore a wrong time to come up with any policy that will increase the undesirable challenges Nigerians are going through presently. Failure by the NNPCL to reverse the latest increment in fuel price will rub off negatively on some policies of Tinubu administration to ease things for the citizens. Policies such as the Students Loan Scheme and Consumer Credit Scheme that are just taking off”, it said.

Afenifere said with the latest increase in petrol price, the cost of fuel in Nigeria had risen by 460 per cent in 15 months.

It was curious that an organisation that declared a profit running into trillions of Naira could, almost in the same breath, claim indebtedness to the tune of nearly $7 billion. “Why not pay off the debt from the available fund before declaring it as profit?

“It is a common knowledge that the cost and availability of energy such as petrol, gas, electricity, diesel and kerosine are major factors not only in production and services but also on the quality of well-being that Nigerians can enjoy. Hikes in prices of these energy sources have astronomically increased the costs of services and commodities, reduced the disposal incomes of average Nigerians and heighten their health risk. The combination of all these are making a daily living an onerous task for the majority of the citizens. Considering the fact that millions of the Nigerians had been described as being ‘multi-dimensionally poor’, the recent hike in costs of fuel and electricity are uploading the number of people in that category phenomenally”, it said.

Similarly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday condemned the hike in fuel price, alleging that it was a “brutal assault” on Nigerians by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The PDP said the increase is a “recipe for crisis,” particularly during a time of severe economic hardship under President Tinubu’s administration.

Debo Ologunagba, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, in a statement, urged President Tinubu to reverse the fuel price increase and reconsider other policies negatively impacting the nation.

He said with proper management, petrol should not cost more than N250 per litre.

He said the continuous rise in fuel prices, without consideration for the people’s welfare, was exacerbating the already dire economic situation, pushing millions of Nigerians further into poverty.

The PDP also alleged that over 150 million Nigerians had fallen below the poverty line, with businesses collapsing due to the high cost of living, a weakened naira and rising unemployment.

Tricycle riders protest fuel price hike in Delta

Tricycle riders in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State yesterday protested the petrol price hike, disrupting business activities and vehicular movements.

They blocked the Deco Road Junction, the First-Marine Gate Junction and the popular Hausa Quarters, Igbudu.

TUC asks govt to rescind decision

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) on Wednesday criticized the federal government for the recent hike in the pump price of petrol, demanding its immediate reversal.

TUC President Festus Osifo, in a statement, said the union expressed deep concern that the sudden increase in fuel and electricity costs would exacerbate poverty levels, worsen the suffering of citizens and potentially lead to social unrest.

Osifo criticized the government for implementing the price increase without consulting key stakeholders, calling it a blatant disregard for the welfare of the Nigerian people, particularly the working class who are most affected by such decisions.

“The news of the PMS price hike has sent a wave of apprehension and depression across the nation, especially as it comes on top of existing hardships faced by citizens,” he said.

He said the TUC was also concerned about the recent 250% increase in electricity tariffs, labelling it as an additional burden on the poorest in society and a sign of the government’s lack of empathy for ordinary Nigerians.

Tinubu didn’t bargain fuel price for minimum wage-Presidency

The Senior Special Assistant to the President of Media (Print), Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, Wednesday on his X, said Tinubu never bargained with the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) not to increase the price of petrol before arriving at N70,000 as the new minimum wage.

He was reacting to the allegation by the NLC’s president, Joe Ajaero, that Tinubu asked them to accept N70,000 as minimum wage for the petrol price to remain N617/litre.

Abdulaziz said: “I sat through the two meetings President @officialABAT had with labour leaders on minimum wage. At neither of the meetings was an offer made in exchange for a fuel price hike. Ajaero is once again playing his dirty politics with the emotions of Nigerians.”

In his reaction yesterday, Ajaero, through the NLC’s spokesman, Benson Upah, said, “As for Abdulaziz’s side-dig, he should stop insulting the intelligence of Nigerians as they do not need Comrade Joe Ajaero to know they have been taken for a ride and that life has never been this mean, all due to the policies of government.”

[DailyTrust]

Thirty years ago, Nigeria was in severe crisis. In the wake of the previous year’s elections that was annulled and the attendant protests, 1994 was an unpleasant time. General Sani Abacha had rigged his way into power through a coup and was setting the country on edge. Media houses had been shut, and journalists serially harassed and detained. Acclaimed winner of the 1993 presidential election, Moshood Abiola, was in prison along with scores of activists who had protested either the fuel prices inflation or the election annulment. Ken Saro-Wiwa too was in prison. The Niger-Delta region was restless due to the state-induced violence racking the region.

NADECO members were arrested and charged with treason for their audacity to challenge Abacha. Government critics had their homes raided, and some were attacked. That was the year Prof. Wole Soyinka went into exile. Decree after decree expanded the government’s power to punish. They could detain—without charge or trial—anyone suspected of subversive activities. The Senate that had been inaugurated the previous year was disbanded. Six of the lawmakers who had taken a stand against the government were arrested and charged with “treasonable felony and conspiracy.” They were initially granted bail, and five of them re-arrested months later. The sixth person? That was Bola Tinubu.

By now, I am sure you already see where I am going. As you would have read, this week the police arrested and charged 10 people who allegedly participated in the #EndBadGovernance protests last month for the same crime Abacha’s government had once arrested Tinubu: treason. Those 10 people, along with another 700 police said they also arrested, were some of the thousands who responded to the strangulating economic and political conditions the same way Tinubu and his fellow travellers did in 1994.

Tinubu is either forgetful of history or, since he once confessed that he took a major economic policy while under the influence of a “spirit,” has been fully possessed by Abacha’s ghost. It does not matter which is true; the shame is that a severe charge like treason is being trivialised by a government that cannot brook citizens towing the same path that brought him into power. I want to believe that Tinubu’s fellow pro-democracy activists, some of whom were imprisoned on frivolous charges during the dark days of Abacha’s rule, are looking at the unfolding chain of events and terrified at the uncanny repetition of history.

Wherever he is now, Abacha must be exultant. He should rejoice; he is not the only tyrant whose ignominious history would be tossed into the sewers of our national history. By the time their time passes, Tinubu and company would have personified the Orwellian pigs who became indistinguishable from the “man” they kicked out of the animal farm. When we find the mouth with which to tell the story, we will understand how we sought statesmen but were rewarded with executioners.

After reading the police’s press release issued by a fellow called Olumuyiwa Adejobi, I still fail to see how the protests are treasonable. Which “foreign sources” gave “substantial backing” to the #EndBadGovernance protesters? Or was it just that one Briton, Andrew Wynne, who constituted the so-called “foreign sources”? Given that last month, the Department of State Services also arrested about eight Polish nationals who were on an education tour in Kano State while the protests were ongoing, this might just be a case of using white Europeans to create a sensation. DSS spokesperson Peter Afunanya said those Polish nationals were arrested “because of where they were found during the protests and for displaying foreign flags.” I am yet to understand the method to the madness of this “foreign-phobia” among our security agencies.

There are several wild accusations in Adejobi’s document that need substantiating. I am not saying Adejobi plagiarised Abacha’s playbook, but the allegations are a frightful recrudescence of the military era. He says, “preliminary findings suggest they orchestrated and funded violent protests…to create anarchy and justify their illegal plot to overthrow…government.” But what is the pedigree of these individuals that they could organise what is tantamount to a coup? How would their supposed plan to overthrow the government through protests have led them to Aso Rock? Did they have an armoury, or the weapons of their supposed warfare were just placards? What were their plans to take over the National Assembly, for instance?

Adejobi also says they are investigating how these people planned to “orchestrate violence across the country”? I am genuinely curious how this bunch of individuals (including a shop attendant) can have the means to organise the violence that will disrupt the entirety of a complex country like Nigeria. Meanwhile, hear Adejobi on how they established Wynne’s guilt: We went to invade (Wynne’s) bookshop. As we asked questions, he came out. If you have a genuine business, are you not going to ask the police what we went to do in his shop or his office? You read that and you wonder at the quality of investigation that sort of rudimentary extrapolation of evidence can possibly produce. Meanwhile, let us not forget that the “comprehensive investigation” on which they planked their whole case took place in less than a month. If they are that efficient, how come they find it hard to solve kidnapping problems?

Whether they like it or not, protests are a democratic right. You can charge people who committed crimes of looting or violence during protests, but you cannot stifle the right to protest. I never thought the day would come that I would look back and compare Muhammadu Buhari’s government favourably with anyone, but looking wistfully from inside the fire of Tinubu’s government, I am beginning to think we were better off inside Buhari’s frying pan. Even in all his pathological madness, Buhari did not go to the extent of charging the #EndSARS protesters for treason. He did accuse them of trying to topple him, but the ghost of Abacha that had been haunting Aso Rock did not possess him fully. The ghost waited until the perfect person usurped his path into power before completing Abacha’s historic mission of perpetuating himself in power using democratic means.

You listen to the families of those arrested and you realise these people have no new game; they are stuck in historical time. Unfortunately, we are trapped along with them. The Nigeria of 2024 is not that different from that of 1994. There is hardship in the land. Prices of goods and services are skyrocketing; purchasing power is dwindling, and it is getting harder and harder to get by. The marriage of Asiwaju and Shettima of last year has become Àşetì 2023. Nobody’s hope has been renewed, and people are more combustible than the fuel they are expending hours on their lives on extended queues just to purchase. The days ahead are likely to be filled with protests, and the government is preemptively charging protestors with arrests to intimidate.

Meanwhile, this same government faces a million other challenges. There is economic insecurity, a serious threat to the lives and livelihood of Nigerians. Shouts of “ebi ń pa wá” have replaced the “on your mandate we shall stand” anthem in many mouths; hunger is resetting the political loyalties of those whose heads were climbed into power but have now been forgotten. The government appears confused by the complexity of the situation; they have undone several economic knots, and they know not how to re-tie them. Then there is the issue of kidnapping that has become a national epidemic and revealed the police as impotent. Let us not even talk about banditry, plus the one million problems of poor infrastructure that bedevil the country.

Rather than the Tinubu administration concentrating on what it can solve, it compounds its own problems by investing administrative time and energy hounding people for treason. Like the Yoruba door that eventually gets unhinged when endlessly swung back and forth, the Tinubu regime too has found the wàhálà that will wear it down. I almost feel sorry for them.

Our movement was fairly routine. We would fly into Katsina Airport from Abuja and drive straight to the presidential lodge. But on this occasion, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua changed the protocol. “Please drive straight to my mother’s place. I came purposely to see her.” Prior to that day, only the ADC, Mustapha Onoyiveta, CSO, Yusuf Tilde, SA Domestic, Hamza Nadada, PLO, Habu Habib, Chief Physician, Salisu Banye and Alhaji Inuwa Baba (the only ‘Senator’ with a global constituency) went with the president whenever he visited his mother. That occasion provided the first opportunity to meet Hajiya Dada, and I noticed something as we took turns to greet her. Though there were a few chairs in the room for visitors, the late president took his seat on the floor beside her mattress. Before we left them alone, I witnessed how the power dynamics in Nigeria had changed as Yar’Adua attended to his mother in awe. When he eventually came out of the room, he held a jug I was told contained fura da nono, a special delicacy she always made for him.

I arrived back to Abuja on Monday from China and was not feeling too well when the news broke that Hajiya Dada had passed. But I was determined to pay her my last respects by attending the burial slated for 1.30PM on Tuesday. I must therefore express my appreciation to the former Governor of Gombe State, Senator Danjuma Goje who provided a space for me on the aircraft that took him, his former Kebbi counterpart, Senator Adamu Aliero and Professor Modibbo Ahmed to Katsina. And I was impressed that Vice President Kashim Shettima, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party presidential candidate in the last election, Mr Peter Obi, as well as former Senate President Ahmad Lawan, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe and many other important dignitaries defied the slight rain to attend the prayers on the football field of Katsina Township stadium.

In every sense, the late Hajiya Dada bore similarities to the late Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy of the United States. Mrs Kennedy died in 1995 at age 104. Hajiya Dada died at age 102. Mrs Kennedy was married to a top politician who chaired the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was US Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Hajiya Dada’s husband was also a politician, administrator and Minister of Lagos Affairs during Nigeria’s First Republic. Mrs Kennedy had nine children, including a US President who died in office and two senators who also died in office, all during her lifetime. Hajiya Dada also had nine children, among them a former number two man in Nigeria, Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and his younger brother, Umaru who died as president—both in her lifetime. Perhaps because of their longevity, both Mrs Kennedy and Hajia Dada also lost other children while alive. Fortunately for Hajiya Dada, she left behind Hajiya Habi, Malam Sule, Hajiya Hafisatu and Senator Audu Musa Yar’Adua (Audu Soja, as he is fondly called within the family being a retired Lt Colonel). And of course, she is also survived by Murtala Shehu Yar’Adua, a former Minister of State for Defence, among many grandchildren.

But the essential similarity between Mrs Kennedy and Hajiya Dada is that they raised extraordinarily successful children and suffered more than their share of tragedy. Even though both families were privileged, one could see the critical roles played by the matriarchs. This much was captured by Mrs Kennedy in her 1974 autobiography, ‘Times to Remember’, where she explained her role in bringing up her children to be who they were. “I looked on child rearing not only as a work of love and duty but as a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world and one that demanded the best I could bring to it,” she wrote as a testimony to her influence in how the children had turned out. “What greater aspiration and challenge are there for a mother than the hope of raising a great son or daughter?”

Hajiya Dada was noted by many as an exceedingly spiritual woman whose guidance was sought by her sons throughout their lives. But she was also known for her uncommon special attention to detail, especially regarding them. The Director General of the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Ms Jacquline Farris once shared a story with me. “When Umaru (the late president) took me to condole with Hajia Dada after Shehu died in December 1997, she went into her room and brought out his school uniform after hearing about my plan for the exhibition hall,” she said. “That she had kept it in her room all those years and knew exactly where she kept it amazed me.” And on the day that Hajia Dada visited the Centre, many people panicked when they couldn’t locate her whereabouts. “We later found her at the exhibition hall, alone”, evidently absorbing the environment while reliving the memories of her departed son.

Hajiya Dada left no memoir, but I believe she could say the same thing about her efforts in raising her children to who they were in Nigeria, just as Mrs Kennedy did. And there could have been no greater testimony than the number of people who gathered in Katsina on Tuesday for her burial. Most of them may never have met Hajiya Dada in person. Even some of us who had met her could not boast of any special relationship with her. We were there in Katsina simply to honour her illustrious children—a worthy legacy to her life.

May God grant her eternal rest.

But Where We Wan Go?

It is not the kind of argument a government official should be making but we live in a country where people say all kinds of things. “If NNPC imports PMS and sells to marketers at perhaps N600 or below, there’s no way that smuggling can stop,” theMinister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri said last week while arguing that the only antidote to fuel smuggling across Nigerian borders is to sell the commodity above the landing cost in a tacit admission of failure of critical institutions. “When smugglers are taking the products outside the country, even if you put all the policemen on the road, they are Nigerians; you and I know the answer.”

When the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) responded on Tuesday by jerking up the pump prices of fuel by about 50 percent, Lokpobiri became angry that Nigerians would hold the federal government to account on the issue. He would not even take responsibility for his own declaration a few days earlier. “We categorically condemn these claims as baseless, malicious, and a deliberate attempt to incite public discontent,” he said in response to reports on the pump price. “Such a claim is entirely devoid of truth and should be recognised as an intentional effort to mislead the public. It must be stressed that NNPCL operates as an independent entity under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, with a fully empowered Board of Directors.”

It is not only Lokpobiri who takes Nigerians for fools on this matter of subsidy.  Several other operatives of the current administration have also decided to adopt the same lie: The federal government has nothing to do with the pump price, it is the NNPCL. But Lokpobiri is adding insult to injury with his CAMA tales. Meanwhile, it is not a secret that I endorse removal of fuel subsidy. It is an argument I have canvassed for more than two decades and my position on it has not changed. But implementing fuel subsidy removal at the same time as floating the Naira has proved to be a dangerous combination for the economy. Now things have gone haywire.

I have read people who blame the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for our woes. The usual argument is that the government is taking their usual pills. But that’s not my reading of the situation in Nigeria today. When Witold Henisz, currently theVice Dean and Faculty Director, ESG Initiative; Deloitte & Touche Professor of Management at the University of Pennsylvania, joined other leading academics to conduct research on market reforms in dozens of Third World countries, they were said to be looking for a link between failed or troubled reform efforts and the presence of the World Bank or the IMF. At the end, they reportedly found one interesting link. “If you see the IMF and World Bank influencing reforms in a country,” says Henisz, “It’s not a seal of approval. It’s a warning flag!”

That remains true of Nigeria today. We are in a serious economic crisis. The situation may have been exacerbated by the arrogance and thoughtlessness with which the Tinubu administration handled critical issues, but the problems preceded them. The challenge is that to get out of the mess, we require short-term, medium-term and long-term solutions. Part of the long-term solutions must include how to tackle the menace of a growing but largely unproductive population. I am aware that some don’t like to hear this but it’s an issue we must deal with. In 1960, the United Kingdom from where we secured our independence had a population of 52.2 million people whereas Nigeria was then inhabited by 45.14 million people. Today, the UK is 69 million, an increase of about 14 percent over a period of 64 years. Meanwhile, the population of Nigeria today is put at 229 million, an increase of about 500 percent! And we are talking of people with little or no access to education, healthcare and other basics of life.

However, that is not the issue for today as we seek to tackle the current challenge. In his 1923 work, ‘The Tract on Monetary Reform’, English economist and philosopher, John Maynard Keynes, made a profound statement though not often referenced in full.“The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead,” Keynes wrote but most people often leave out the next lines. “Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again.”

It is not that Keynes could not appreciate the benefits of long-term planning. On the contrary, his thesis actually supports that. What he is saying is that you must survive today before you can envision tomorrow. That is a message for those who are formulating policies for this administration. Yesterday, I was listening to a radio call-in programme in the vehicle and many callers were expressing their frustration about the high cost of living which would be compounded by the hike in fuel price. The picture of deprivation painted by many was just too harrowing. One caller summed it up by repeatedly chanting, “Where we wan go? Where we wan go? Where we wan go?”

Most Nigerians are now at their tethers end. And they need solutions to their pressing challenges. Deploying the Sani Abacha tactics of intimidation, coercion and other forms of repression provide no solution. Beyond mismanaging expectations, I hope those in power today are not also poor students of history.

Super Eagles and Atalanta forward Ademola Lookman has been nominated for the 2024 Ballon d’Or award.

Lookman made the award nomination list after his heroics in the Europa League final where he scored a hat-trick as Atalanta defeated Bayer Leverkusen.

Other nominees in the men’s player of the year nomination list includes Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr, Man City’s midfielder Rodri and Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal.

Ademola Lookman only African in full list of Ballon d’Or contenders

Antonio Rudiger – Real Madrid

Kylian Mbappe – Real Madrid

Lautaro Martinez – Inter

Ademola Lookman – Atalanta

Alejandro Grimaldo – Bayer Leverkusen

Dani Carvajal – Real Madrid

William Saliba – Arsenal

Lamine Yamal – Barcelona

Bukayo Saka – Arsenal

Hakan Calhanoglu – Inter

Rodri – Man City

Declan Rice- Arsenal

Harry Kane – Bayern Munich

Cole Palmer – Chelsea

Vitinha – PSG

Vinicius Jr – Real Madrid

Martin Odegaard – Arsenal

Dani Olmo – Barcelona

Florian Wirtz – Bayer Leverkusen

Mats Hummels – Roma

Erling Haaland – Man City

Nicolas Williams – Athletic Bilbao

Granit Xhaka – Bayer Leverkusen

Artem Dovbik – Roma

Toni Kroos – Real Madrid

Jude Bellingham – Real Madrid

Phil Foden – Man City

Ruben Dias – Man City

Federico Valverde – Real Madrid

Emiliano Martinez – Aston VIlla

Date of ceremony, awards up for grabs

The main award is set to hold on 28 October at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

The following awards will be up for grabs:

The Ballon d’Or – awarded to the best male player

The Ballon d’Or Feminin – awarded to the best female player

The Yashin Trophy – awarded to the best male goalkeeper

The Kopa Trophy – awarded to the best male player under the age of 21

The Gerd Muller Trophy – awarded to the best male striker

The Socrates Award – awarded to one player for their humanitarian work

Men’s club of the year award

Women’s club of the year award

Men’s coach of the year award

Women’s coach of the year award

Vanguard News

Callistus Okafor, factional national chair of Labour Party (LP), says the Nenadi Usman-led caretaker committee is illegal.

Okafor said this on Wednesday in reaction to the announcement of Usman, a former senator, as chair of a 29-member committee.

The committee was set up following a stakeholders meeting of the party convened by Alex Otti, governor of Abia and the most senior elected government official of the party.

In a statement, Okafor said Otti should provide a letter from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that acknowledged the meeting he convened in Abia.

“Article 11 of the 2009 Constitution which is the only constitution known to the party according to the consent judgment delivered by Hon. Justice G. O Kolawole on the 20th March, 2018 categorically stated the four (4) organizations of the party; ward, local government area, state and national,” he said.

“Both Dr. Alex Otti and Mr. Peter Obi do not have the constitutional authority to convene any meeting of the party.

“We challenge Dr. Alex Otti to produce the official letter addressed to him from the Independent Electoral Commission on the aforementioned subject matter.

“Therefore, the outcome of the Umuahia gathering remains NULL AND VOID.

“We are committed to reconciling all members and groups, mobilize and conduct all inclusive and expansive congresses in wards, local government areas, states and the national convention that will achieve a unified, focused labour party that will redefine: political leadership in Nigeria.”

Julius Abure and Okafor, factional chairs of the party, had rejected calls for the stakeholders meeting, declaring it illegal.

[TheCable]

On Monday, the Brazilian Supreme Court was reported to have approved the ruling of a judge in Brazil banning Brazilians from making use of the Elon Musk’s microblog site, X. Elon Musk has been in running battle with Brazilian authorities over the latter’s allegation that the former has used his online platform to spread falsehoods against the government. In the past, falsehood used to be countered with truth. Today, views and opinions adjudged to be false by authorities in liberal democracies are not countered, they are criminally indicted. It is a matter of poetic irony that on the same day that the Brazilian Supreme Court reportedly issued the order criminalizing inconvenient speech, the Nigerian government arraigned 10 citizens who participated in the ‘end bad governance’ protests on a charge of treason. Treason carries a death penalty. So, the Nigerian government’s response to a politically inconvenient protest is to seek the court’s order to hang the protesters. Some in the Brazilian government are bracing up to arrest and prosecute Elon Musk for providing a platform that is adjudged to enable false information. Now, be careful. False information could mean any statement that does not agree with the official information.

It is also interesting that the US government, that self-acclaimed undertaker of democratization, has not made any statement condemning the threatened prosecution of an American for free speech or the Nigeria’s government prosecution of protesters. The administration in Washington has even expressed its delight to have the microblog X scrambled and Elon Musk prosecuted. It is not because it is busy that the Biden-Kamala administration has not bothered to react to many of these threats against free speech. It is a principled and strategic silence.

The Biden-Harris administration seems to have some problems with free speech. Many high officials of that administration have called for the arrest and prosecution of Elon Musk. Although, they continue to use X to promote their views about social and economic affairs, they do not hide their dislike of Elon Musk for buying the microblog site and the removing the restrictions against dangerous and false information. Before Musk, President Trump was yanked off the site for posts unaccepted to the influential liberals who controlled the site. The reality of the most powerful man in history having his voice suppressed alarmed many conservatives who had complained that many conservatives were blocked from expressing their views on the excuse of extremism. Elon Musk removed that ideological filter. This is why he now represents a threat to society. Kamara Harris, the Vice President and the Democratic Party’s candidate for the November presidential election has not hidden her opposition to Elon Musk and his X. Professor Robert Reich, a leading liberal and former Clinton Secretary of Commerce, notably called for the arrest of Elon Musk for promoting views that he considers dangerous and enable extremist opinion on his microblog.

Why is the US government less concerned about assaults against free speech across the world? This is unlike it. The US government is notorious for its propensity to intervene across the world in purported defense of democratic right. Is free speech no longer a fundamental democratic right? Or is democracy no longer that important? Why is the government not bothered about threats by political authorities in notable western democracies against free speech? My view is that this change is evidence that the US government is in pursuit of something more important than freedom of speech. For instance, the US government’s official communication shows that protecting transgenders, and promoting gender transition are more important concerns than protecting free speech. It has taken drastic actions against countries that are reported to criminalize homosexual relations or are denying official recognition to transgender interests. It looks like many in western government consider free speech the real enemy to fight.

The irony is that free speech, together with the right to life and the right to freedom of opinion, is the most basic democratic right. So, the demise of free speech is in many ways the demise of democracy. This knowledge is basic in public understanding of democracy. If the US government do not care about it, it suggests that something is going on. We need to know what it is. Is democracy no longer important? Are we now in a post-democracy era in human history?

After the first tenure of Mr. Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America, there arose a cottage industry of democracy pessimism. Many political scientists wrote books about the end of democracy. The three most notable of the books of this new genre are ‘How Democracy Ends’ by David Runciman,  ‘How Democracies Die: What History Reveal About Our Future’ by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, and Crises of Democracy by Adam Przeworski. There was so much glib talk about how democracy ends and the such. In 2020 Biden defeated Trump and we did not see any such frenzy again. It looked like the threat to democracy was no more. Trump was that singular threat that provoked the rise of the literature of the end of democracy. But was Trump really a threat to democracy? Or was a narrative crafted by resentment and hatred for Mr. Trump and what he represents?

Just a little point about the literature of the ‘How Democracy Dies’ epidemics. In Runciman’s view, three events announce the end of democracy. Democracy ends when a coup uproots the foundations of a democratic regime. It is usually quick, violent and unannounced. In the past, coups against democracy involved “tanks surrounded the city overnight and soldiers were sent to seize communication points, including the radio and television stations and post office”. Anyone in Africa who is above 30 years is familiar with these situations. Today, coup don’t come unannounced and quick. They creep in through multiple ways unnoticed when strong leaders erode the guardrails. As Runciman wisely puts it, “some coups need to make clear that democracy is over to succeed, and some coups need to pretend that democracy is still intact”. 

Another way democracy comes to an end is through a catastrophic event. Catastrophe drains us of civic energy and imposes an urgency that may lead to the dismantling of the democratic state. Runciman quotes Eliane Scarry in her book, Thermo-nuclear Monarchy: Choosing between Democracy and Doom, that “Nuclear weapons undo governments and undo anything that could be meant by democracy”. He references Hannah Arendt’s powerful insight that modern democracy entrenches mindlessness which often leads to failure to preempt disasters. So democracy can end when it confronts a disaster that requires more than democratic habits. To choose to avoid either doom or democracy, many people will choose democracy.

Technology can also upend democracy. It does so when it drains democratic politics of its civic character and the moral authenticity and replaces it with plastic machination. Runciman quotes Ghandi to argue that “Representative democracy was wholly artificial. It had become a thrall to machines. It operated through the party machine, the bureaucratic machine, the money machine. Citizens were passive consumers of their own political destiny. We press a button and we expect government to respond. It is no surprise that we are disappointed. What we get instead is cheap promises and outright lies”. The implication of ‘technological takeover’ of politics is that politics become boring and boorish. It has no truth, soul or authenticity. Network replaces neighborhood; and majority rule is replaced by the rule of the few who are technological adroit.

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt write about the lessons of history about how democracy dies. Their main thesis is that democracy dies when elected officials turn around and undermine democracy. “Blatant dictatorship- in the form of fascism, communism or military rule- has disappeared across the world. Military coups and other violent seizures of power are rare. Most countries hold regular elections. Democracy still dies but by a different means”. Adam Przeworski sees the crisis of democracy as sign that democracy would “gradually and scrumptiously deteriorate”. The key point is that deterioration is usually seen as the handiwork of rightwing conservatives, extremists who would destroy freedom. But is that really how it is turning out?

These books on how democracy ends or dies always use Trump as the signal figure who prefigures these threats. The COVID 19 pandemic further etched in black on white canvas the ‘evil’ that Trump posed to democracy. Trump seemed to have doubted the efficacy of modern science. He allegedly assembled and platformed assorted pseudo-scientists and extremists who questioned venerable personages like Dr. Fauci and the bureaucrats at the World Health Organization (WHO) and disputed their prescribed modalities and vaccines for the virus. Let us forget for a moment that Dr. Fauci and his venerable colleagues have walked back on tens of what they said were scientifically proven about the virus. Today, some of the so-called conspiracies from Trump-like scientists have now being accepted by mainstream scientific sources as authentic.

Now that Trump is back to fight for the presidency with a message that challenges the liberal global coalition that calls the shot in international public policy, the noble men and women of Davos, the real undertakers of whatever remains of the ‘Washington Consensus’, are once again, chanting ‘Trump is a threat to democracy’. The way the anti-Trump elites paint a scary picture of the end of democracy if Trump gets a second term as US President, you would assume we never had a Trump first term. Trump definitely threatened to end many things important to the global elites , like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and cozied up to dictators like Putin and Kim Jong of North Korea. But he did not throw political opponents into prison. He did not abolish any of the constitutional rights of the US citizens? He did not use state power to expel elected representatives from Congress. He did not enact decrees in place of laws passed by Congress. He did none of these. Yet Trump represents the most credible threat against democracy.

Anyone who studies American constitutional law would argue that, arguably, President Obama, the posterchild of democracy, issued more executive orders that threatened liberties of American citizens than President Trump. Some of these executive actions were successfully challenged at the Supreme Court. Obama’s regulatory state was more incursive than Trump’s in many ways. Yet, Trump continues to represent the archetypical threat to democracy. Maybe he is. But that would be construing democracy in a tendentious manner. 

Trump may be odd and weird as democrats claim. But Trump is not the President of Brazil where a judge has banned Brazilians from expressing themselves through the X platform. A few weeks ago, the founder of Telegram was arrested in Paris and is undergoing criminal prosecution for what appears to be trumped up charge that belies the truth that government officials are angry at the platform for not censoring what they consider misinformation and disinformation. A few weeks ago, a top official of the EU fired a warning against Elon Musk to stop his proposed interview with President Trump on his X platform to avoid serious consequences. This was a barely concealed attempt to censor a political viewpoint from a man running for the US Presidency. Apart from constituting a veiled election interference, the threat betrays a mindset that is poised against some perspectives considered as ‘dangerous’ to society. What makes these perspectives dangerous in the mind of the ruling elites in the west is that they are frontally opposed to some dominant liberal projects. Think about the war in Ukraine. It is reasonable to think that the west should support Ukraine to defeat Russia. It is also reasonable to argue against continuing the war against Russia. None of these views constitutes a real threat to democracy.

The global liberal elites have constructed democracy to mean some important agenda that override the basic rights and freedoms that are traditionally associated with the democracy. Some political theorists are wondering whether democracies needs to accord tolerance to those who oppose the ‘democratic’ life. This has always been an issue in establishing the coherence of liberal theory. But it is now being implemented as a programmatic shutting down of ideas and viewpoints that contradict the ideas and viewpoints of dominant liberals. Take for example, views about homosexuality or transgender. Some western countries have enacted laws that  criminalize failure to address transgenders by their preferred pronouns. The renowned writer, J.K. Rowling, is threatened with criminal prosecution by Scottish authorities for refusing to accept that transwomen are women. The Vice President of Google startled many when he defended the IT company’s overt manipulation of its algorithm to block certain facts from public search by saying that accuracy is not as important as the project.

There is no doubt that the left in the west have problem with the traditional concept of democracy to include the necessity for freedom of opinion and expression. They have problem with constitutional democracy if it means that the people may elect those who do not accept their comprehensive moral doctrines. This century’s leading political philosopher, John Rawls, propounded a theory of justice that is based on the liberal faith that civil society can have reasoned coexistence with those who reject the liberal canons. He argued that this is feasible though the overlapping consensus in which liberal and non-liberals can bracket their comprehensive moral doctrines and engage contractarian views on the basis of public reason. In his book, The Law of the Peoples, he showed how to build a just and peaceful social order through such epistemic abstinence.

The possibility of an overlapping consensus has been one of the core faiths of modern political liberalism. It is not based on forceful repressing of a viewpoint considered wrong or false, but the construction of a public good accessible from all divergent reasonable comprehensive doctrines. This means that a platform like X should allow divergent, even incommensurable, perspectives without suppressing any. But modern left liberals do not believe this anymore. They are clamoring for stronger censorship for fear of the presumed damage that unregulated free speech could cause. But the lesson of history is clear: on the whole there is more harm with suppression of speech and control of channels of expression by a person or group of persons than by expression or falsehood or hate speech. Yes, some speeches could be dangerous. But freedom of speech should be continually protected. Democracy, properly understood prioritizes self-determination over safety, of the city or of the ideology. It we no longer believe in this prioritization, then we should become China.

It is evident that many of the new liberal lefts have abandoned this naive faith in the priority of democracy in pursuit of the project of establishing a social order that protect their substantive vision of the good. To implement this, the need to take out those who oppose their project. They are willing to abandon democracy to protect the emerging woke and radical agenda. This is like the former communists who railed against democracy because the freedom that liberal democracy offers are superficial. As some of them argued, the right of man in a bourgeois society is just an illusory right. Today’s ‘neo-Marxist’ in the guise of the liberal extreme left argue that freedom of speech undermines real freedoms. For these extreme left ideologues, democracy is not as important as the project. Just as the Google exec put it, ‘The project is more important than accuracy”.

Free speech and freedom of expression are cornerstones of democracy. They are the engine of innovation. There are obvious dangers that ignorant and provocative speeches pose to society. These dangers are preventable and manageable through legal and social measures that do not require the suppression of speech. The presumption is that the most potent threat to democracy comes from the extreme right who resents the democratic way and values. These fascists elements are the killers of democracy. So reads the literature of ‘how democracy ends’. But the true situation is different. Trump and his right-wingers may not be the most potent threat to democracy. That dishonor now belongs to the radical left.

Today, democracy is dying in the West. Surprisingly, it is dying at the hands of the radical left. This truth is not captured in the literature of How Democracy Dies. That literature needs an update. It is the extreme left (not the extreme right) that is (really) killing democracy.

THE story of the Canada-based Nigerian woman who took hate to a supersonic level by threatening to poison the Yoruba and Bini people trended last week. The woman, speaking in pidgin English, said: “It is time to start poisoning the Yorubas and the Benin. Put poison in all your foods at work. Put poison in all your water so that you all will begin dying one after the other…. I will put them in all your foods. If I go to work tomorrow, I will put it (poison) in Yoruba people’s food. Go and tell the government that I’m in Canada, I’m in Ontario. Hurry up, go fast.”

Though there have been claims that the name might have been an impersonation, so far no one has come forward to disclaim the name and photo so it is fair to believe that the identity of the villain is as published.

The dispatch with which the identity of the woman was unmasked is commendable. It is also commendable that Nigerians across ethnicities and fault lines closed ranks to condemn the heinous statement in no unmistakable terms. That is one of the surest ways of ensuring that such fringe beliefs are never mainstreamed. We sure have our differences and grievances, but going to the extent of threatening to poison anyone, not to talk of a group of people, is heinous.

One of the dangers of stereotyping is that all members of the targeted group are presumed to be guilty by association. These include those who may actually be soldiering against various forms of injustice and xenophobia within the targeted in-group and those possibly solidarising with Ms. Suunberger’s grievances or married from her ethnic stock. Ms Sunnberger said Igbophobia by the said groups was what animated her hate.  

It is true that we all indulge in stereotyping others in various degrees – even among family members. This often stems from a basic cognitive need to categorise, simplify, and process the complex world around us. However, when it is weaponised as Ms Sunnberger did and (others like her also do across the country), it becomes a basis for social bias, prejudice, discrimination and in its extreme form a call for genocide. One of the dangers of this extreme form of response to perceived persecution is that it unwittingly provides a justification for the actions of the bigoted souls in the in-groups she inveighed against. 

The outburst from Ms Sunnberger, as condemnable as it is, however merely masks a more fundamental problem:

On February 2, 2012, the late Professor Abdul Rauf Mustapha (then of Oxford University) and I were invited by the Institute of Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa, to be guest speakers on the theme, “The Threat of Boko Haram and the Challenges to Peace, Security and Unity of Nigeria”. Boko Haram, which got radicalised in 2009, had upped its terroristic activity when its suicide bomber attacked the United Nations headquarters in Abuja on August 26, 2011, killing at least 21 people and wounding scores. It was a hot topic across the world at that time. In Nigeria at that time, the mere mention of the group’s name instilled fears in the minds of most people such that the name of the group was mentioned mostly in hush-hush. Professor Mustapha was asked to provide the historical explanation for the emergence of the group, while I was asked to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the group and what it represented.

In my paper, I reviewed the various theories used at that time to explain the Boko Haram phenomenon – the poverty argument, the poor governance explanation, the frustration-aggression hypothesis (among others) as well as the various conspiracy theories about the group. I argued that each was incapable of offering a comprehensive explanation of the Boko Haram phenomenon. My contention was that a more comprehensive explanation was the crisis in our nation-building, which I argued, feeds into the crisis of underdevelopment to create an existential crisis for many Nigerians and groups within the country.  I further argued: “For many young people, a way of resolving the consequent sense of alienation is to retreat from the Nigeria project and construct meanings in chosen primordial identities – often with the Nigerian state as the enemy. In this sense, actions we rightly see as heinous are normal, even heroic, to them. The fact that many communities in which such people live know them but are not giving them away to the authorities could mean that the de-Nigerianisation process is perhaps more pervasive than we think.” 

I concluded by arguing that unless the crisis in the country’s nation building process is effectively resolved, any solution thrown to the country’s myriad problems would quickly become part of the problems. This part of my thesis seemed vindicated when many netizens took on Abike Dabiri Erewa, the CEO of the Nigerians in Diapora Commission, NIDCOM, who was able to unveil the identity of the woman in the genocidal video within a few hours of its going viral. They asked her why she did not show a similar promptness of action with those who weaponised ethnicity in Lagos or led the #IgboMustGo on X (formerly Twitter). The truth is that even if these set of people were apprehended with the same speed she displayed in unmasking Ms. Sunnberger, there would still be groups who would complain that people from other out-groups had done similar or worse things and were let to go scot free or given a mere slap on the wrist. This is one of the reasons our problems are rarely comprehensively resolved. They merely mutate. 

The point is that the process of individuals and groups de-linking from the Nigerian state (what I called de-Nigerianisation) has been ongoing and predated the APC-led Federal Government that started in 2015. The tragedy is that the crisis in our nation-building process and the consequent de-Nigerianisation seem to have become accelerated under them.

How do we deal with characters like Amaka Sunnberger and her likes? Here I would make a distinction between hate speech and genocidal speech or what Americans would call ‘fighting words’ – words that, when uttered, could inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. In the latter case, it is important that the law should take its course to protect all groups within the society. Given the general distrust of government, it is crucial that a taxonomy of what constitutes genocidal speech is developed and the appropriate punishment to be meted to offenders clearly spelt out. This must not only be implemented irrespective of who is involved but also seen to be so done. 

Once anyone falls foul of such and goes free or is given a mere slap on the wrist, it becomes more difficult for the government to enforce such laws in other instances without undermining its own legitimacy in the process.  

It is with government’s efforts to control hate-speech – speeches that merely provoke and insult others- that the government is more vulnerable. This is in large part because of the morbid distrust of governments across the world but especially in our types of societies.  It will not only be suspected of bias but also of harbouring a hidden agenda of using such as a pretext to muzzle free speech. While there is unanimity in condemning Ms. Sunnberger’s genocidal speech (several Igbo groups also distanced themselves from her speech and none has so far come to her defence), it would have been different if she merely used insulting words. In many jurisdictions, hate speech remains protected speech, even if they are called low speech. One of the problems in Nigerian government’s efforts to control hate speech is the tendency to conflate this with genocidal speeches (fighting words). Different strategies are often needed in fighting the two speech forms.

A related question raised by the ‘Ms. Sunnberger affair’ is how do we win back Nigerians who have de-linked or are de-linking from the Nigerian state – whether they are #EndSars protesters, #EndBadGovernance agitators or avowed separatists?  There are no magic bullets for this. But the government being conscious of the fact that nation-building is the DELIBERATE use of state instruments to create a sense of oneness and loyalty to the state by the diverse groups that make up the nation-state, is one bold step.

Quite often the use of intimidation and strong arm tactics to silence such groups not only make heroes and heroines of their leaders but also exacerbates the sense of alienation from the state by their members. The government should prioritise resolving the crisis in the country’s nation-building process and winning the minds and hearts of as many of the ‘de-Nigerianising Nigerians’ as possible. Without this, any solution thrown at any of the country’s numerous problems, (no matter how well-intentioned), will quickly become part of the problems.

*Jideofor Adibe is Professor of Political Science at Nasarawa State University, Keffi.

I spent the last weekend of August in Kano on a film project, and thankfully, there was enough time left to tour the sprawling metropolis. This was my fourth and most intensive visit. I first went in 1995; but it was a transit stop as I headed out to Katsina as soon as I landed at the airport. I returned in 2001 and 2006 to organise public events for the banks I worked for then, but there was no time for sightseeing. This time, I was eager to see the city.

We arrived around 7pm on Thursday from Abuja on Rano Air, a regional airline founded three years ago by the petroleum and cooking gas magnate, Alhaji A. A. Rano, a Kano indigene. The following day, Friday, August 30, started with a visit to a hospital built and donated by another prominent indigene and former minister of finance, Shamsuddeen Usman, to the people. It was a humbling experience.

Established in 2010 as a community health centre, the facility has since grown into a major health provider, offering an assortment of services, especially to women and children. Aminu Sudawa, the health centre’s management committee chairperson and Magdalene Madaki, the midwife supervisor, gave us detailed briefings on how helpful this facility has been to the poor, as we toured the complex. About 250 to 300 deliveries are recorded every month in addition to over 50 outpatients that come in every day for treatment. Known as Gidauniyar Alheri Community Health Centre, it is located in Garangamawa Ward, Gwale LGA of Kano. All its services to the people are provided free.

Three years ago, the hospital went into partnership and collaboration with the French charity, Medicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders), and this has helped to boost the medical treatment of women and children, with great benefits, including addressing the challenge of maternal and neonatal mortality in Kano. Madaki is actually a staff of MSF on secondment to the facility. The collaboration with Doctors Without Borders has also assisted in offering family planning services, care of the newborn and capacity building to the staff of the hospital. Not far away from the health facility is the Gidauniyar Alheri Microfinance Bank, also established by the former minister, to provide banking services to the people and help expand financial inclusion and entrepreneurship in the community.

Philanthropy is increasingly playing an important role in filling the gaps left by the failure of the state to fulfil its obligations to the people. In the last few years, I have written extensively on the good works of philanthropic organisations like Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation; The HOW Foundation and Inoyo-Toro Foundation. The newest among them, the Shamsudeen Usman Foundation (SUF), to be formally launched on September 26 in Abuja, was established by Usman’s children as a tribute and honour to their father. It will focus on education with specific offerings on AI and its deployment in the classroom. SUF will complement the works of the Gidauniyar Alheri Foundation whose main focus is health, education and enterprise.

Kano is a massive commercial centre with a huge population (18 million-20 million); over 100 markets and malls; hundreds of mosques and many wealthy men. We visited Kano Central Mosque, a prominent landmark and worship place that can accommodate up to 50,000 worshippers. It is situated in the city centre near the emir’s palace and features a blend of traditional and modern Islamic architecture. It was built in the 15th century but has undergone several expansions and renovations.

The three markets we visited were the GSM market where telephones and phone accessories are sold; Kantin Kwari market, renowned as one of the nation’s biggest textile depots and Kurmi market, established around the 15th century; it is the oldest in the state and is a go-to place for books and traditional medicines. Kano state has 44 LGAs, the highest in the country, but it appears to be a one-city state, just like Rivers and Lagos. You rarely hear of any other town in this state apart from Kano.

Kano is made up of the city, which is the original and ancient town that has been around for centuries and was once surrounded by high walls; and several settlements such as Fagge, Tarauni, Sharada, Sabongari, Bompai, etc. Inside the city are old traditional buildings and narrow winding roads, many of them going back for centuries.

Since the mode of transportation in those days was horses, camels and donkeys, there was no need for wide roads. Sabon Gari was initially created for non-indigenes but has since become a cosmopolitan area with wide, tree-lined roads and modern buildings. That’s where we had lunch Saturday afternoon at a nice restaurant called Igwe’s Palace. What a name!

My most memorable outing was the visit to the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, and one of the city’s business tycoons, 96-year-old Dr. Aminu Dantata. We also visited the Kano Museum which is rich in history and culture. Known as Gidan Makama Museum, it was built in the 15th century as the emir’s palace. The museum contains artefacts and exhibits on Kano’s history and culture. Many thanks to Nura Aminu, the museum’s tour guide, for showing us around. A jolly good fellow!

The current palace is a massive compound, a small city on its own, with schools and a hospital inside. I first visited the palace in 2001 as part of the management team of a bank. Alhaji Ado Bayero (1930-2014) was on the throne. Today, his nephew, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, with the regnal name, Muhammad Sanusi II, is the emir. We were led to the palace by Dr Usman who, incidentally, had taught the emir microeconomics in his final year at ABU in 1981.

Since then, the two men have enjoyed each other’s affection immensely, and the emir seems to have followed in Dr Usman’s footsteps in his professional journey. Dr Usman was an executive director at Union Bank and UBA, and later the chief executive of NAL Merchant Bank (now Sterling Bank) before he was appointed a deputy governor of the CBN in 1999. Sanusi was general manager at UBA; executive director and later chief executive of First Bank, before he was appointed CBN governor in 2009. Both men were also students of Kings College, Lagos, at different times.

The emir holds Dr Usman in high esteem and spoke glowingly of his attributes as a man of character, integrity and uprightness. ‘’In the 43 years that I have known Dr Usman since 1981 when he returned from the London School of Economics and Politics to take up a faculty position in the department of economics at ABU, and taught me in my final year, till today, I have never heard his name being associated with a whiff of scandal or corrupt activities. He has never been invited to the EFCC or police station for interrogation or anything,” the emir told me Saturday evening.

By now, Usman has excused himself from the meeting to catch another appointment, leaving us with the emir alone. Sanusi was resplendent and noble in his robe. His face fresh, he sounded ebullient and happy; relaxed, calm and eloquent as usual. I congratulated him on his return to the throne and reminded him of the few times I have met him in Lagos after he was dethroned in March 2020. I then asked him to speak on his memoir which he’s already written, but not yet published, and his contributions to another book that would be launched in September.

The emir is one of the co-authors of a book edited by Dr Usman that will be publicly presented in Abuja on September 26. Titled, ‘’Public Policy and Agent Interests: Perspectives from the Emerging World’’, the book is a unique publication on both the impetus for and impediments to growth and development in emerging economies. It provides a fascinating and penetrating insight into the workings of government and the boardroom, in terms of policy formulation and implementation, economic management as well as the overall growth paradigm in the developing world, with Nigeria as a case study. In the book, Sanusi provides detailed explanations of the intrigues, power play and scandal that led to his ouster as CBN governor in 2013 and emir of Kano in 2020. The book is simply unputdownable!

With all its commercial activities, Kano requires huge investments in road infrastructure. Its road network is in a pathetically bad shape. With an IGR of N43.3 billion in 2022, Kano is underperforming comparator states like Kaduna (N77.1 billion in 2022), Rivers (N172.8 billion in 2022) and Lagos (N651 billion in 2022). Even Akwa Ibom with very little commercial activities grossed N35 billion that same year. Kano government should do better in revenue generation and invest heavily in revamping roads and creating economic opportunities for the huge number of its young people.

We returned to Abuja Sunday afternoon, filled with both exciting memories of the visit and regrets for the slow death of domestic tourism due to rising insecurity. The 1980s and 1990s were full of fun as we crisscrossed this vast nation, observing the change in weather, vegetation and cultures as we moved from region to region. Those days are now a distant memory as kidnappers, bandits and terrorists now prowl our highways.

President Bola Tinubu and Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Tuesday in Beijing, China, announced the elevation of Nigeria-China ties to that of a comprehensive strategic partnership.

The leaders also agreed to build a high-level Nigeria-China community with a shared future.

This was the outcome of talks between the two leaders during President Tinubu’s official visit to China.

President Tinubu’s official visit precedes his participation in the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, scheduled to hold from September 4-6, 2024.

''This is an important visit for Nigeria and the rest of Africa, as I arrive in my capacity as the Chairman of ECOWAS. I thank you for the high-level of honour accorded to us.

''Relations between China and Nigeria have indeed lasted for over half a century and should be further strengthened to advance our trade and economic development programmes.

''Nigeria holds great potential as the country with the largest population in Africa and is the biggest economy with a very young population that can drive economic growth and cross-sectoral programmes.

''We have upgraded the relationship to more than what is just strategic -- but a comprehensive developmental partnership.

''This comprehensive strategic partnership should result in robust development, stability, and security in the West African sub-region. This is very crucial,” President Tinubu said.

On economic reforms in Nigeria, President Tinubu told his Chinese counterpart that his administration remains committed to sustainable growth through the effective implementation of ongoing economic reforms.

''We believe that President Xi has demonstrably reformed the Chinese economy, and our reform programme in Nigeria is on a similar course. I am a reformer with verifiable antecedents.

''We have recognized the need to reform our economy, and we are doing so diligently across tax and tariff reviews, to various other segments of our nation's economy.

''Trading and investment partners will have easy access to bring in their investments and seamlessly take their resources out,'' the President stated.

In his remarks, President Xi noted the strong mutual understanding between Nigeria and China since the establishment of diplomatic ties over the past 50 years.

''We have found the path of seeking collective strength, through unity, and win-win cooperation.

''China and Nigeria, as major developing countries, strengthening strategic coordination, will inject fresh impetus to China-Africa relations in the new era and spearhead common progress among Global South countries,'' President Xi said.

According to the Chinese leader, the 2024 FOCAC Summit provides an opportunity to reflect on mutual friendships and advance the consolidation of China-Africa relations.

He pledged that China and Nigeria would continue to work closely within the FOCAC framework as a model of cooperation between nations.

During the meeting, both presidents witnessed the signing of several Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) on various areas of mutual interest:

(1) Cooperation plan between Nigeria and China on jointly promoting the Belt and Road Initiative

(2) Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the peaceful application of Nuclear Energy

(3) Memorandum of Understanding on strengthening cooperation on Human Resource Development under the Global Development Initiative

(4) Memorandum of Understanding on Media Exchange and Cooperation

(5) Memorandum of Understanding between China Media Group and the Nigerian Television Authority

Earlier, on Monday in Beijing, President Tinubu visited the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), during which he acknowledged the company's role as a reliable partner in Nigeria's infrastructure development programme, commending its ongoing railway projects in the country.

''It is equally very important that we give assurances to the Nigerian people across our local communities that the Ibadan-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano railway segments will be completed and done to the satisfaction of Nigeria and West Africa at large.

''We will support your investment in solid minerals and other ventures in Nigeria. I am here to assure you that Nigeria is ready to do business with you,'' the President said during a meeting with the Chairman of CRCC, Mr. Dai Hegen, following a tour of the CRCC and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) office in Beijing.

Mr. Hegen informed the President that CRCC has been involved in Nigeria for 43 years, implementing over 300 projects and training over 100,000 local workers.

''The Abuja-Kaduna Railway and Lagos-Ibadan Railway have transported approximately 9 million passengers and 180 tonnes of cargo. The Lagos blue line has transported over 1.6 million passengers,'' he said.

In a separate engagement, President Tinubu visited Huawei Technologies' Beijing Research Centre, where the company announced the launch of DigiTruck, a mobile ICT classroom aimed at enhancing digital literacy in underserved Nigerian communities.

During the President's meeting with Huawei's leadership, led by Mr. Liang Hua, Chairman of the Board of Directors, the company said the initiative would operate in 10 states annually, training at least 3,000 students each year.

Acknowledging the ongoing efforts by Nigeria's Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy to train 3 million technical talents (3MTT) and equip the country's young population with the skills necessary for present and future economic opportunities, Huawei's leadership said the DigiTruck initiative will complement the programme.

Mr. Hua praised the President's Renewed Hope Agenda for identifying digital technology as a critical driver of economic growth.

"This is very encouraging for us. Huawei is fully prepared to offer its ICT expertise and become a reliable partner of the Nigerian government to support the country in achieving its policy objectives and furthering its digital, intelligent, and low-carbon development."

Also speaking, Mr. Chris Lu, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Nigeria, expressed support for Nigeria's National Talent Export Programme (NATEP), an initiative that seeks to position Nigeria as a hub for talent outsourcing in Africa.

"In the future, we hope to continuously develop the NOC and expand its capacity so that it can meet the requirements of more African markets, thus facilitating more Nigerian technology talents in serving more overseas' markets and helping to achieve the goal of NATEP," Mr. Lu said

During the tour of the Huawei Research Centre’s exhibition hall, President Tinubu and his delegation were introduced to Huawei's latest innovations in e-government, smart education, smart grid, and solar power, demonstrating their potential to enhance public services, digital governance, and Nigeria's inclusive development agenda.

As part of the efforts to achieve the aforementioned goals, Huawei also plans to establish a joint PV test lab with Nigeria's Rural Electrification Agency (REA).

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)